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Some still can't see the wood for the trees in Sino-US ties Updated: 2016-07-22 08:09 By Chen Weihua(China Daily)

Former State councilor Dai Bingguo delivers a speech at China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks on July 5 in Washington. Photo by Ji Tao/China Daily

It's no exaggeration to say China-US relations have in recent times been hijacked by the South China Sea issue, at least in the headlines. Some Chinese and US think tank experts I talked with blamed the media for making the situation worse by portraying a picture very different from reality. Despite being a journalist, I agree with them even though a few think tanks in Washington have also fanned the flames for their ulterior motives. In Washington, many people know exactly which ones I mean.

Indeed, many people fail to see the wood for the trees in the hugely consequential Sino-US relationship. Many aspects of that relationship hardly make headlines, especially in the mainstream US media. It's just like the way they have been covering the 2016 US presidential election.

Last Friday, I attended a breakfast meeting of the US-China Strong Foundation, which re-branded itself just a month ago from the original 100,000 Strong Foundation. After accomplishing its early goal of sending 100,000 US students to China, an initiative taken by US President Barack Obama in 2009 and fully supported by the Chinese government, the foundation is now expanding its mission, which includes the 1 Million Strong-to help increase the number of US K-12 students learning Mandarin to 1 million by 2020 from the present 200,000. This ambitious initiative was also proposed by Obama during President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington last September.

Travis Tanner, president of the foundation, is actually in Beijing now and will be based at its China office. CEO Carola McGiffert and her small team are all amazing people. I had a chat with Morgan Jones, its chief operation officer, in Shanghai dialect. Hannah Kerne, the associate director of programs and communications, spent three years in China, during which she also taught students in rural Yunnan province.

More exciting is their passion for the cause of investing in a new generation of leaders who have the knowledge and skills to engage with China. Such a generation would not be easily misled by sensational headlines and presidential campaign rhetoric when it comes to China-US relations.

On Friday evening, I attended a reception at the Chinese embassy in Washington to mark the 60th anniversary of Sister Cities International, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that was set up under the citizen diplomacy initiative of former US president Dwight Eisenhower. The 400 participants from dozens of countries were enthusiastic about the sister-city relationship.

President Xi is a prominent member of that group, as Mary Kane, president and CEO of SCI, noted that Xi first visited the US in 1985 as part of an agriculture research group to Muscatine, Iowa, under a sister-city relationship between Iowa and Hebei province.

Xi revisited Iowa in 2012 as vice-president and he went to Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington, a sister city of Fuzhou, Southeast China's Fujian province, last September as China's president. Xi worked as Party secretary of Fuzhou in the early 1990s and later as governor of Fujian province.

Chinese cities and provinces have sibling relationships with 258 US cities and states. The China-US relationship at the sub-national level certainly looks healthy and exciting. More US governors and mayors are embarking on regular trips to China, a major trade partner and growing investor form any US cities and states. The 300,000 Chinese students studying in US colleges and universities and the 2.67 million Chinese who visited the US in 2015 thanks to a bilateral visa extension program in late 2014 have injected positive momentum to the relationship.

This is just a one small part of the positive side of the China-US relationship. It is a pity then that many people still can't see the wood for the trees in this relationship.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
What we've seen happen will far outlive any immediate political ups and downs. For me, the decision to leave the EU, which I campaigned for very strongly, has been the most positive development in terms of world politics since the fall of the Berlin wall.
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Kim Kardashian says her daughter North West is slowly adjusting to being a big sister.

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The 35-year-old "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star admitted the 3-year-old "still wants things to be all about her" while discussing North's dynamic with son Saint West in a recent interview.

"She's still getting the concept of having a brother," Kardashian told Elle magazine. "Like, Penelope and Reign [Disick] are her cousins, but Saint is here every day because Saint is her brother."

"I like to bring her in to say 'good morning,'" she shared. "She still wants things to be all about her, because she's three! But planting that seed every morning that the day starts with you and your brother, that's how I've been doing it."

"She's getting so much better," the star said. "I can't wait until they can really start communicating -- although once he's big enough to start grabbing her toys, we'll have to get involved in a different way."

Kardashian shares North and Saint with husband Kanye West , whom she married in Florence, Italy, in 2014.

The reality star had told E! News prior to Saint's birth that North was excited to have a sibling.

"We talk about baby brother all the time," she revealed in November. "[North's] so sweet and yesterday she said, 'Mommy, can I give baby brother a kiss on your tummy?' and she kissed my stomach."

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"She had a hard time when I hold other babies, but she's been getting a little better," the star said. "I'm hoping that with her brother it's a whole new experience."

Kardashian called North her "best friend" in a sweet birthday message to the toddler in June.

The star made headlines this week for releasing a secretly recorded conversation between West and Taylor Swift about the rapper's song "Famous."
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The Hasbro panel featured a stage full of Hasbro and Lucasfilm folks, including Andy Ochiltree, Joe Ninivaggi, and Kenner alum designer Mark Boudreaux. After some introductions, and a wicked Darth Vader impression, they rolled right into their presentation, kicking things off with a rundown of the #HasbroToyPic contest - the top 24 decorating the Hasbro booth on the exhibit hall floor during the show.



The Black Series 6-inch



- Qui-Gon Jinn coming soon (a bit of Prequel love, nice to see for our man D. Martin Myatt...), featuring the usual great detail, a "force" hand accessory, and lightsaber. They noted the hair is separately sculpted, which works well and will happen in the future.



- Rebels leader Hera, also featuring an incredible head sculpt and pistol accessory.



- Tusken Raider, with cloth goods (partial fabric and partial plastic - creating a nice balance for maximum articulation in the legs and arms). Will include a rifle, and three-section gaffi stick so you can swap out the tips.



- Royal Guard, with staff, sidearm pistol, and cloth cape. The armor under the cloth robe is incredible, inspired by Crimson Empire! Just an outstanding addition to the Black Series...



- The silky smooth Lando Calrissian. Another fabulous likeness. Includes a pistol and Cloud City microphone. The plastic cape is stamped with a wonderful interior pattern, direct from the Lucasfilm archives, which is why they went with plastic over cloth. The final effect is most impressive.



- Fan Vote Winner: Jaina Solo! As the results are only just in, they only had art work to display and are looking for suggestions on details to add.



- There was also a review of the SDCC exclusive Obi-Wan Kenobi. Old Ben features the first time they've done a "try me" audio on the Black Series, with Carrie Fisher's actual voice-over distress message.



- SDCC exclusive Kylo Ren, the development of which included a long discussion on how to capture Kylo's rage and anger in figure form. They are looking at injecting more props into these figures, and Kylo is a good example of this with the First Order banner and burnt Vader helmet.



- SDCC exclusive Jyn Erso pre-release. Included in the box are some custom art pieces of the figure on display in various environments, and Erso figure character cards, which will be exclusive to this release.





The Black Series



- Titanium Helmets will be updated with Darth Vader, Rebels Mandalorian Sabine, Boba Fett, and Leia Boussh



- Role Play Return of the Jedi light-up Luke Skywalker lightsaber.





3-3/4-inch Rebels, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One



- Introduced by Mark Boudreaux, who gave a nice run-down of the history of the 3-3/4 line, starting with some Kenner folks going out to California and reading the Star Wars script. They recognized the depth and details that were possible and determined 3-3/4-inch to be the perfect size for the line.



- Grand Admiral Thrawn, now that he's canon (appearing in Rebels).

- Fenn Rau

- Hera's A-Wing vehicle, with graphics from the show, and a 5-POA Hera figure with helmet and clear visor.

- Poe vs Snowtrooper Squad Leader two-pack

- Rogue One AT-ACT Walker (not a typo)! Worked with Lucasfilm to develop this Walker variant from the movie trailer. The Walker not only features lights and sound, but also actually walks! They had one on hand that walked slowly across the panel table. Side-pods insides of chin-guns, and a cargo pod in the center of the body that can be removed to create a little bunker on the ground. You could control the head from the back of the body, and fire missiles as well. You can also control it from your phone! It'll come with three unique figures: a driver, a black astro-mech, and Jyn. Overall, a really, really impressive package.





Questions and Answers



Q: Do you have plans for Black Series 3-3/4 inch?

A: We do! It will continue. Stay tuned for more super-articulated figure.



Q: Tusken Raider Black Series release date?

A: This summer.



Q: How often do you visit the archives to get reference pieces/props?

A: We have folks at Lucasfilm who will go into the archives and pull out props that are requested by Hasbro. Always fun to go out and photograph those pieces.



Q: For Ep VII, will we be able to find major characters at retail easily? Rey, for example.

A: Distribution is a hot topic and they are constantly refining it and adjust quantities with the retailers. You'll see more Rey soon.



Q: Any plans for 6-inch scale vehicles?

A: Yes - you'll see some next year!



Q: Where's Luke? Force Awakens Luke?

A: One of the challenges is the development schedules with product and films are often not in sync. It can create delays. Luke is on his way!



Q: Kaji Club coming?

A: There's some cool stuff coming!
Unusual Suspect

Photos by: Jorge Nunez

Tanto, clip-point, spear-head  we're often asked, What's the best blade shape? To which we reply, It depends on the purpose. Like using a 12-gauge for long-range shooting, picking a knife for the wrong purpose could result in diminished performance at best and catastrophic results at worse. Invariably, the next question is always, Then what's the best blade shape for self-defense? Our first answer is the old saying, The one you have in your hand. Our follow-up answer is a bit more complex, because so many factors can affect a given confrontation (i.e. your training, your skill level, your environment, and the local knife laws, just to name just a few).

But if you ask Michael Janich, the answer is simple: a Wharncliffe. This preeminent combatives instructor, RECOIL contributor, and co-host of TV's The Best Defenseis a huge advocate of this blade profile and has been instrumental in popularizing tactical Wharncliffes over the past decade. To find out why, turn a couple of pages to his feature article Getting It Straight. If you don't already need convincing, take a closer look at the models on these pages. We're certain you'll find at least one, if not several, that could serve as a no-nonsense self-defense tool.

Make:

HK Knives

Model:

Plan D

OAL:

5.65 inches

Blade Length:

2.9 inches

Blade Material:

N680 stainless steel

Weight:

2.37 ounces

MSRP:

$85

URL:

www.benchmade.com

Make:

Pinkerton Knives

Model:

Wharning

OAL:

7 inches

Blade Length:

3.5 inches

Blade Material:

S30V stainless steel

Weight:

4.4 ounces

MSRP:

$225

URL:

www.dirkpinkerton.com

Make:

Boker Plus

Model:

Mosier

OAL:

7.25 inches

Blade Length:

3.25 inches

Blade Material:

440C stainless steel

Weight:

5.5 ounces

MSRP:

$108

URL:

www.boker.de/us

Make:

CRKT

Model:

Swindle

OAL:

7.5 inches

Blade Length:

3.2 inches

Blade Material:

8Cr14Mov stainless steel

Weight:

3.3 ounces

MSRP:

$60

URL:

www.crkt.com

Make:

Spyderco

Model:

Yojimbo2

OAL:

7.55 inches

Blade Length:

3.11 inches

Blade Material:

S30V stainless steel

Weight:

4 ounces

MSRP:

$198

URL:

www.spyderco.com

Make:

BLACKHAWK!

Model:

Be-Wharned

OAL:

7.85 inches

Blade Length:

3.4 inches

Blade Material:

AUS-8 stainless steel

Weight:

4.2 ounces

MSRP:

$102

URL:

www.blackhawk.com

Make:

Emerson Knives

Model:

P-Sark

OAL:

8.2 inches

Blade Length:

3.5 inches

Blade Material:

154CM stainless steel

Weight:

4.1 ounces

MSRP:

$210

URL:

www.emersonknives.com

Interrogating the Unusual Suspects

HK Knives Plan D

411:

As one would come to expect from a collaboration between Benchmade and Heckler & Koch (HK), the Plan D is an outstanding piece of hardware that's well built and quite durable. Available in black or sand colors, the comfortable handle is made of Grivory (a polymer) with signature HK texture. Made in the USA with Austrian steel.

PROS:

A fixed blade means a faster draw and less chance of parts failure.

The N680 blade steel, while not a premium steel, is practically rustproof.

The low-profile sheath is ambidextrous and has a retention feature that prevents assailants from pulling your knife out.

CONS:

Its angled profile diminishes the Wharncliffe's biggest asset, its straight edge. The blade leads with its tip so you'll likely pierce before you slice, limiting it for certain applications. Because of its cant, it'd probably be better off with a different blade shape altogether.

Pinkerton Knives Wharning

411:

The Wharning is Dirk Pinkerton's take on this classic blade profile, and the result is an effective and low-profile self-defense fixed blade. It's made in the USA, comes with a Kydex sheath, and is also available with a slightly shorter 6.5-inch overall length. Pinkerton can also do custom variations; prices will vary.

PROS:

Feels good in the hand, thanks to the G-10 scales and a subtle but smart handle design.

The blade is made of S30V, an exceptional stainless steel.

Jimping on the blade's spine provides good thumb traction without being abrasive.

CONS:

Those with gorilla hands might not find enough purchase on the handle.

Save up your pennies, folks; this one's not cheap at two-and-a-quarter bills. (But you do get what you pay for.)

Boker Plus Mosier

411:

Custom knife-maker David Mosier's namesake features a modified Wharncliffe profile that has a minor upward cutting edge to increase versatility as an everyday-carry (EDC) tool. Its handle is contoured and has a two-tone gray aesthetic to add more flare to your kit. It comes with a Kydex sheath and a belt attachment.

PROS:

Quality construction, through and through.

The G-10 scales on the handle make operating the Mosier quite secure and comfy.

Though it won't bowl over anyone, 440C is a classic and reliable stainless steel that cuts well, sharpens easily, and fends off rust.

CONS:

Aside from looking like wallpaper in a bad acid trip, the two-tone handle won't win over users who prefer low-visibility EDC knives.

The stock belt attachment feels chintzy, causing us to wonder how long it'll last. (A Tek-Lok belt attachment is sold separately, though.)

CRKT Swindle

411:

The Swindle features a frame lock, a flipper tab, and a modified Wharncliffe blade that help keep this folder slim. Designed by famed knife-maker Ken Onion, it has a tension lever on the tail end that acts as a pocket clip. Also available is a low-visibility handle without the intricate groves for those who prefer to run slick.

PROS:

Simple, elegant aesthetics.

The IKBS pivot system makes the opening swift and smooth.

Despite being made in China, the 8Cr14Mov blade cuts decently and helps keep the price down.

Speaking of which, for 60 bucks, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.

CONS:

The IKBS pivot doesn't offer much resistance when closing the knife, so be careful not to let the blade drop on your thumb.

The tension lever is a cool idea, but it also makes the knife sit diagonally rather than flat when clipped to your pants, making a slim frame feel fat in your pocket.

Spyderco Yojimbo2

411:

This is the latest specimen in Janich's evolution of Wharncliffe folders, based on realistic cutting tests, medical research on knife wounds, and refinement of his Martial Blade Concepts system. Made with stellar materials and a compression lock, the Yojimbo2 is among the upper echelon of self-defense knives.

PROS:

It stabs like a spear and slices like a chef's knife.

The contoured thumb ramp is great for those who prefer the Filipino martial arts grip.

Though mildly reminiscent of batwings, the G-10 scales feel secure in hand and ridiculously comfortable.

CONS:

Because of the blade height, it sucks up a lot of pocket real estate.

It's certainly an investment at almost 200 bucks.

BLACKHAWK! Be-Wharned

411:

This was designed by Janich when he worked for BLACKHAWK! some years back, and it still sells well due to its forward-thinking design and fighting effectiveness. It features a liner-lock and ambidextrous thumb-studs. Punny name aside, the Be-Wharned is a serious self-defense tool.

PROS:

The tapered handle helps prevent your hand from slipping onto the blade when stabbing into something sturdy.

The AUS-8 steel cuts beautifully for a mid-level stainless. (It's labeled as AUS-8A, but that's the same thing as AUS-8.)

Smooth opening and closing of the blade.

CONS:

At first glance, it's hard to nitpick the Be-Wharned  until you start comparing it to its younger, sleeker brother from another mother, the Spyderco Yojimbo2. Knife snobs will notice the cheaper materials, as well as the subtle design and construction differences.

Emerson Knives P-Sark

411:

Emerson Knives built its reputation by making hardcore blades for U.S. Navy SEALs, and the P-Sark lives up to that pedigree. Based on the Sark (an emergency tool for Navy rescue teams), the P-Sark has a modified Wharncliffe with an aggressive tip. Made in the USA and available in various configurations.

PROS:

The blade's 154CM is a badass steel: tough, laser sharp, and rust resistant.

Emerson's wave-shaped opening feature allows for a lightning-fast draw becuase it opens the blade as you draw.

Comfortable and durable G-10 scales.

High-quality construction.

CONS:

For the budget-minded, the P-Sark could take a bite out of your wallet at $210.

Despite being lightweight, it's by no means a compact folder; it'll be noticeable in your pocket.
While many students were away during the summer studying abroad, interning or otherwise, a few amendments were made and changes were proposed to state and local law and university policy which could have an affect on students when they return to the University of Georgia campus.
Wasserman Schultz is stepping down amid allegations that she, as well as other members of the DNC, attempted to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary race earlier this year, according to reports from the New York Times.
In order to address issues of campus inclusiveness from the perspective of the administration, the University of Georgia looked to give a voice to students, faculty and staff by conducting the Count Me In Survey in the fall of 2015.
In this Tuesday, July 12, 2016 photo, Irish author Colm Toibin, listens to an audio presentation during a tour of the Susiya archaeological park, adjacent to the West Bank village of Susiya, south of Hebron. Toibin has toured the West Bank to observe Israeli military rule over the Palestinians, collecting material for an essay that will be part of an anthology on 50 years of occupation. The 2017 book includes contributions from two dozen well-known authors who have written about subjects ranging from Israels military courts to a weekend in Gaza. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

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By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press

HEBRON, West Bank (AP)  Notebook in hand, acclaimed Irish author Colm Toibin walks into Hebron to observe Israeli military rule in its rawest form.

In the heart of the West Bank's largest Palestinian city, several hundred combat troops guard an equal number of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers, enforcing a separation system that lets settlers move freely at the expense of Palestinians and has turned a once vibrant market into a ghost district.

Moments after Toibin reaches a small plaza in downtown Hebron, the quiet of largely deserted streets gives way to violence.

Two Israelis sitting at a cafe table spot Toibin's escort, Israeli peace activist Yehuda Shaul, and begin cursing him. Shaul turns and stares at the pair, but says nothing. The two jump up and walk toward him. Suddenly, one of them attacks a videographer in Toibin's group who was filming the scene, breaking the camera with a kick. Israeli troops who witness the assault refuse to detain the attackers, who eventually slip away.

Toibin, 61, stands back and takes notes on what Shaul later describes as routine settler lawlessness in Hebron.

The troubled city is the last stop on Toibin's weeklong visit to Israel and the West Bank. He's collecting material for an essay, his contribution to an anthology on Israeli occupation that will be published at the 50-year mark in June 2017. The book will include essays from 20 international writers, including Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, and six local authors.

Each tackles a different subject, from Israel's military court system to grieving Jewish and Arab families who lost loved ones to violence. The work is based on observations during tours similar to Toibin's.

Toibin, who last visited in 1992, said he was struck most by the elaborate system of Israeli control over Palestinians, including roadblocks and fences, and the energy spent on maintaining it.

"All of us have been surprised by the amount of architecture and engineering required to make sure one side is locked in and the other side is free to move," said Toibin, who has won several literary awards and whose novel "Brooklyn" about an Irish immigrant was adapted into a movie last year.

The anthology is meant to introduce a wider audience to this reality through the power of story-telling, said those involved in the project.

"I want to get to people who would normally avoid at all costs thinking about this issue because it makes them uncomfortable," said Israeli-American writer Ayelet Waldman, one of the book's editors.

Toibin's millions of readers, for example, might not be interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "but they might read an essay by a writer like Colm Toibin and then they might think of the place in a new way," the U.S.-based Waldman said in a phone interview.

The occupation began with Israel's swift capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war  lands the U.N. General Assembly recognized in 2012 as making up a state of Palestine. The international community, including Israel's closest allies, has said a final border should be based on the pre-1967 frontier, with agreed land swaps, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected that as a baseline for negotiations.

Over the past five decades, Israel, citing security needs, established a military bureaucracy that enforces movement restrictions on Palestinians through a complex permit system. Close to 600,000 Israelis, or 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population, now live in settlements on war-won land, often lured by government subsidies. It's a multi-billion-dollar enterprise the international community overwhelmingly considers illegitimate.

Israel has also fragmented the territory of what is meant to be Palestine.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967, withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but then sealed the territory after the 2007 takeover of the territory by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Under interim peace deals reached in the 1990s, it directly controls 62 percent of the West Bank, known as Area C, home to settlers and largely off-limits to Palestinian development. Palestinians led by Hamas' rival, Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, have some autonomy in the rest of the West Bank.

Israel says it has been willing to negotiate an end to occupation, but that Palestinians rejected or responded with violence to generous Israeli offers in 2000 and 2008. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he remains open to talks, but he has shown little faith in Abbas. Talks have been at a standstill since Netanyahu took office in 2009.

Palestinians say a systematic colonization of east Jerusalem and the West Bank belies Israel's claims that it is serious about ending occupation. Many members of Netanyahu's government oppose Palestinian statehood, and several advocate annexing large parts of the West Bank.

The anthology, to be published in English, Hebrew, Arabic and several other languages, was conceived by Shaul and Waldman, who say they are Israeli patriots and want to contribute to ending occupation by helping shift public opinion at home and abroad.

"It is on our shoulders to stop the occupation and save Israel," said Shaul, 32, who spent part of his military service in Hebron and a decade ago founded "Breaking The Silence," a veterans' group that collects soldiers' testimony about abusive practices in the West Bank.

Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment on the book project.

Last week, Shaul accompanied Toibin to the Palestinian hamlet of Susiya, home to several dozen families. The village is flanked by a Jewish settlement and the ruins of a centuries-old Jewish town of the same name.

Palestinians lived in the area of the ruins until it was declared an archaeological site and they were forced to leave in the mid-1980s. Some moved to other Palestinian communities, while others settled a few hundred yards away, on land they say they own.

Israel refused to recognize the community or hook it up to electricity and water grids, while providing such services to the settlement of Susiya and unauthorized Jewish outposts in the area. Israel has also threatened to demolish the Palestinian village of tents and shacks.

In his essay, Toibin said he will tell the story of some of the displaced, including Nasser Nawaja, who now has to pay $7 to visit his birthplace at the archaeological site. Even then, Nawaja said, settlers only let him enter the site when he is accompanied by Israelis or foreigners.

On a hot summer day, Toibin toured the park with Nawaja, including a cave where the 34-year-old Palestinian said he was born and that is now used to screen a short film about ancient Susiya for visitors. The novelist, dressed in a crisp white shirt and gray linen pants, and the villager sat in the dark as they listened to a Jewish version of local history.

In writing about his experience, Toibin said he will avoid words like "occupation" and "''settlements" that he believes convey little meaning. "What I want to use are the smaller words to let people actually see what it is like on the (given) day for people who are humans under the same sky," he said.
Courtesy of Dave Jacobs Professional Guide Service

Guide Dave Jacobs holds a large, 30-plus pound Kenai River king salmon that he caught on a sardine-wrapped plug. While salmon fishing in July has been very good early on the Kenai River in Alaska, the start of the salmon fishing season at Red Bluff and below on the Sacramento River has been slow.

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Sacramento River salmon

The highly anticipated opening day of salmon fishing on the Sacramento River below the Red Bluff Diversion Dam came and went very quietly Saturday. As many private and charter boats hit the Sacramento and Feather rivers Saturday morning in hopes of great salmon fishing, many returned to the docks with no king salmon. There were less than a half-dozen king salmon checked in from Red Bluff downriver through Chico. The Feather River near Oroville didn't fare very well either as less than a half-dozen kings were checked in. The poor salmon fishing has continued this past week, but salmon fishing looks to improve soon as the charters out of the Golden Gate have been doing very well this past week. Salmon fishing should pick up after the Aug. 1 Barge Hole opener near Anderson.

Sacramento River trout

Farther upriver on the Sacramento River, the wild rainbow trout fishing has been going well for most fly anglers from drift boats. The average wild rainbow trout has been 14 to 16 inches long with the best bite early in the mornings and late in the evenings. Best bets have been nymphs, bird's nest, foxes poopah size 14 or 16. Other good bets have been small yellowstone patterns, egg patterns, mayflies and both PMD and blue wing olive pheasant tails. The summer months on the Sacramento River near Redding are very good times to pick your favorite guide and get on the water. Downtown Redding through Red Bluff has been best for trout fly fishing.

This week's Sacramento River salmon fishing report is courtesy of Dave Jacobs Professional Guide Service. This week's Sacramento River fly fishing report is courtesy of fly fishing guide Greg Hector. For more Northern California river fishing information, call Jacobs direct at 530-646-9110 or visit his website at www.sacramentofishing.com.
Photo courtesy of Turtle Bay Exploration Park Turtle Bay Exploration Park will offer Walk on the Wild Side Animal Show 11 a.m. Friday. The educational wildlife show features animals showcasing their natural behaviors. It's free with park admission.

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Animal Show to be held at Turtle Bay

Walk on the Wild Side Animal Show will be offered 11 a.m. Friday at Turtle Bay Exploration Park, 844 Sundial Bridge Drive, Redding.

Marvel as an owl flies inches from your head. See a porcupine up close and personal. Watch a fox use its tail to balance on a narrow edge. Can you dig as fast as a badger? Join this educational wildlife show to see animals showcasing their natural behaviors.

The show is free with park admission. It will be held in the Forest Amphitheater.

Admission is $12-$16.

For more information, call 243-8850.

Shasta College stages 'The Producers'

Shasta College's summer musical comedy "The Producers" will be staged 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Shasta College Theatre.

The story is about two theatre producers who scheme to get rich by producing an unsuccessful musical on Broadway satirizes musical theater and the Golden Age of Broadway. It's based on Mel Brooks' 1968 classic comedy. It's rated PG-13 as some material may not be suitable for children.

Tickets are $12, and $7 for students and seniors.

For more information, call 242-7730 or visit www.shastacollege.edu/theatre.

Riverfront Playhouse brings 'Pride and Prejudice' to Redding

Jane Austen's comedy "Pride and Prejudice" comes to life 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Riverfront Playhouse, 1620 East Cypress Ave., Redding.

In the play, Mrs. Bennett is determined to get her daughters, Jane, Elizabeth and Lydia, married in a period when a woman's one possible career is matrimony. Jane and her Mr. Bingley, and Lydia with her Mr. Wickham, appear to be content with things as they are, but not Elizabeth. She refuses to marry Mr. Collins, whom she openly deplores, and Mr. Darcy whom she secretly adores.

The play is the story of Elizabeth and her pride and Darcy and his prejudice.

Tickets, which are $15 to $20, are available at The Cascade Theatre, 1733 Market St., Redding.

For more information, call 243-8877 or visit www.cascadetheatre.org.

History of Ide Adobe to be shared

Fun Living History Fridays at Ide Adobe will be offered 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday in the historic homestead at William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park, Adobe Road, Red Bluff.

Docents and staff present a variety of activities representing pioneer life in the 1850s. Activities may include cast-iron cooking, a quilting bee, wood working and pioneer games.

All ages are welcome. Events are free.

The parking fee for the park is $6 per vehicle. Attendees welcome to bring a picnic to the park.

Gun show to be held in Red Bluff

Veterans of Tehama County Gun Show will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Red Bluff Elks Lodge, 355 Gilmore Road, Red Bluff.

The show will include dealers and food booths. The Marine Corps League Tehama Detachment is the host, with 75 percent of the proceeds benefitting local veteran organizations and the Wounded Warrior Project.

Admission is $6, $5 with military ID and veterans in uniform receive free admission. Children under 12 will be admitted for free with adult admission.

For more information, call 624-2200.

Summer Mountain Music and Arts Festival opens Saturday

The second annual Summer Mountain Music and Arts Festival opens 10 a.m. Saturday at Cedar Crest Vineyards, 32505 Forward Road, Manton.

Performers include One Button Suit, The Buckhorn Mountain Stompers, Reckoning/DeadGrass, The Old Kennett String Band, California State Old Time Fiddlers and other Bluegrass artists on two stages.

The festival also will feature a live art project, local food and crafts vendors, wines and craft beers.

Tickets are $10. Children ages 12 and younger are admitted for free with a paying adult.

Purchase tickets at The Music Connection and The Brass Reed in Redding, at Manton Corners in Manton and at the door.

For more information, email rootsmusicredding@yahoo.com, call George Fredson at 604-8706 or email george.fredson@yahoo.com.

Summer concert to be staged Sunday

Mount Shasta Summer Concert Series will continue 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Shastice Park, 800 Rockfellow Drive, Mount Shasta.

Performers will include Sundown Poachers, The Brothers Comatose, John Craigie, Tony Furtado, Secret Society Handshake and Hot Buttered Rum.

Admission is free.

Proceeds benefit the 100 Miles of Trail Campaign, which aims to develop 100 miles of multi-use trails surrounding Mount Shasta.

For more information, visit www.mtshastaconcerts.com.

Movie club continues Saturday

Cascade Theatre's Kids' Summer Movie Club gets underway 2 p.m. Saturday with the showing of "Aladdin" at the Cascade Theatre, 1731 Market St., Redding.

In addition to the movie, the club hosts activities, including games, prizes, costumed characters and the chance to win tickets to other Cascade family events.

Admission is free.

Movie Night at Benton Air Center

Benton Air Center Aviation Movie Night will be held 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday in the hangar at Benton Air Center, 2600 Gold St., Redding.

"The High and Mighty" will be shown.

It's open to ages 10 and older. Children 17 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.

The first 12 attendees may sit in first-class airline seats.

Admission is $5.

For more information, call 241-4204.

Summer art exhibit open

Art in the City summer exhibit is open 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Redding City Hall, 777 Cypress Ave., Redding.

It features work by local artists in a variety of mediums.

Artists represented include Andrew Jensen, Viv-Anne Thompson, Bonnie Lampley, Paul Mitchell and student submissions to the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest. There is a special exhibit by Susan Lofthouse-Meade at the Redding Library.

Admission is free.

The exhibit is part of the Art in Public Places program dedicated to creating community through people, parks, and programs.

For more information, visit www.reddingart.org.

Judge's former home open for tours

Behrens-Eaton Museum, once the home to Judge Richard Eaton, will be open 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at 1520 West St., Redding.

The museum reflects a Victorian home of the early 1900s. Four generations of the Behrens-Eaton family lived there from 1898 until Judge Eaton's death in 2003. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted.

For more information, call 241-3454.

Hawaiian dancing to be offered

Hawaiian Dance Club classes will be offered to beginners 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. for advanced dancers Saturday in Cottonwood.

Participants will learn ancient- and modern-style hula, and perform at local events.

Call 347-9472 for a location.

Shingletown museum offering summer exhibits

Shingletown Historical Society Museum's summer exhibits are open for viewing 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 31187 Highway 44, Shingletown.

Four summer exhibits include items and photos that study local lumber mills and mill culture and technology; early schools of the ridge that include antique desks and other items and photos; memorabilia from World War I and World War II; and early Red Cross chapter items, including bandages, documents and other items.

Ongoing exhibits include Native Indian-style pine-needle baskets, and medicine and utility bottles of the pioneers.

For more information, call 474-3291 or visit www.shingletownhistoricalsociety.org.

Exhibit remembers Joy Wiltsee

"Legacy in Trinity County, Remembering Joy Wiltsee" art exhibit is on display at the Highland Art Center, 691 Main St., Weaverville.

The exhibit honors the life and work of the local artist whose watercolors depict Trinity County scenes.

It also features beadwork by jewelry designer Alicia Gunnerson-Starck, whose exhibit intends to honor history in slave beads and other historic stones.

Courses offered to kids

The Bohemian Art Loft offers courses to children on Saturdays.

Meet 12:45 p.m. at The Bohemian Art Loft, 3304B Bechelli Lane, Redding for martial arts and t'ai chi sword.

For for costs and registration, call 229-7818 or visit www.meditativehealingarts.org.

Movie to be shown at library

Children's Cinema will be offered 4 p.m. Friday at the Redding Library, 1100 Parkview Ave., Redding.

The event features a variety of children's films and free popcorn. All ages are welcome.

For more information, call 245-7253 or visit www.shastalibraries.org.

Folk dancers to perform Friday

International Folk Dancing group will meet 7 p.m. Friday at the Redding Ballet Academie, 1726 Market St.

Admission is $3, $6 per family and first-timers are admitted for free. All skill levels are welcome. No dance partner is necessary.

Sessions include 30-minute warm-up dances, then teaching, review and open request dances.

For more information, visit http://reddingfolkdance.blogspot.com.

Seniors Dance Club set for Friday

Redding Seniors Dance Club will be offered 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Senior Citizens Hall, 2290 Benton Drive, Redding.

It's for adults 50 and older.

It will include live music, refreshment potluck, raffles and prizes.

Cost is $6 for non-members and $5 for members. Membership is $20.

For more information, call 246-3042 or visit www.shastacountyseniors.com.

Kayaking program to be offered at Whiskeytown Lake

A kayak program will be offered at 9:30 a.m. Friday at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.

Tandem kayaks will be led through the quiet coves around Whiskeytown Lake as the natural and cultural values of the park are shared.

Children must be at least 7 years old.

Reserve a spot by calling 242-3462.

Contact the visitor center for more information at 246-1225 or check out Whiskeytown's park website at www.nps.gov/whis.





Art exhibit opens at Old City Hall

"Within Reach," art of Andrew Duclos and Paul Zegers, will be open noon to 6 p.m. Friday at Old City Hall, 1313 Market St., Redding.

The exhibit constitutes a collection of oil paintings ranging in size from small plein air studies showing how the process begins, to larger studio paintings.

The concept of the exhibit is to highlight the value of the Northern California area around Redding as a destination for tourism and outdoor recreation.

The title "Within Reach" suggests that all paintings in the show depict scenic areas within a day trip of Redding. The artists also hope to remind locals of the variety of local destinations available to them for recreation.

The artists will travel throughout an area within a day-trip driving distance to paint on location, as well as take reference photos to be used in the studio to create larger works. GPS locations will be included in the titles of the works, so viewers can travel to the actual locations if they wish.

The Zegers and Duclos exhibit will highlight not only the finished works, but also the process of creating the artworks through the inclusion of several plein air studies, as well as a demonstration painting from each artist with notes showing various stages in the development of an oil painting.

Whiskeytown to offer Junior Ranger program

A Junior Ranger program will be offered 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.

Children, along with their parents, can learn about preserving and protecting park resources while making new friends during a special one-hour activity that explores the wonders of Whiskeytown.

Participants will meet at the Oak Bottom Amphitheater.

Contact the visitor center for information at 246-1225 or check out Whiskeytown's park website at www.nps.gov/whis.

Walk In Time to be offered Saturday

Walk in Time will be offered 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.

Participants will discover how pioneers and prospectors Charles Camden and Levi Tower reshaped the landscape to create a home for their families and an oasis for many travelers during and after the California gold rush.

Visitors may tour the Camden house, enjoy a leisurely stroll through the area, and try their hand at panning for gold in the creek.

The group will meet the ranger at the Tower House Historic District parking lot bulletin board.

For more information, contact the visitor center at 246-1225 or check out Whiskeytown's park website at www.nps.gov/whis.

Children invited to Junior Firefighter training

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area will offer its Junior Firefighter program 11 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Participants will join Whiskeytown firefighters to learn how they manage fire to promote forest health and protect lives and property. Children will learn about the role that fire plays in the ecosystems of our national parks during this hands-on activity.

Children who complete the program will earn a Junior Firefighter Badge.

Meet at the Oak Bottom Amphitheater.

For more information, contact the visitor center for information at 246-1225 or check out Whiskeytown's park website at www.nps.gov/whis.
Jim Schultz/Record Searchlight Perry Tyler Snell, accused of robbing the Tri Counties Bank on East Cypress Avenue, pleaded not guilty during his Thursday arraignment.

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By Jim Schultz of the Redding Record Searchlight

A 24-year-old Redding man who reportedly admitted he robbed a Redding bank on Tuesday because he needed money to feed his heroin habit pleaded not guilty Thursday to robbery and other charges during his arraignment in Shasta County Superior Court.

Perry Tyler Snell, who is being represented by the Shasta County Public Defender's Office, is accused of robbing the Tri Counties Bank on East Cypress Avenue.

Police said Snell handed a note to a bank employee that demanded money and warned that he had a detonator for explosives.

After receiving an undisclosed amount of cash, Snell ran away and later made a getaway on a BMX-style bike after he was seen by a Redding police officer.

Traffic officer Eddie Gilmette, who spotted Snell across the street from the bank and said he resembled the robber's description, chased Snell and was able to stop him in the 2800 block of Larkspur Lane.

Under questioning, police said Snell told officers he stole the money from the bank to pay for heroin and was suffering from the drug's withdrawal.

He did not have any explosives or a weapon.

Police also said the majority of the cash stolen was recovered but they did not disclose how much was taken in the robbery.

Snell remains in Shasta County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. He is due to have his preliminary hearing on Aug. 4.
David Ernie Short, Jr.

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A man who allegedly kidnapped his daughter and was last heard from in Redding has been found, according to the Shasta County District Attorney's Office.

David Ernie Short Jr., 39, was arrested by police in Burkburnett, Texas, today, according to the Wichita County Sheriff's Office.

His daughter, Nevaeh Short, 7, will be returned to her mother in Oregon, officials say.

Short is listed as an inmate on the sheriff's website. It says he is facing one charge of depriving a parent of custody rights and one of abducting a child.

He allegedly called Nevaeh's mother from Redding and told her he was keeping the girl, whom he'd picked up two days earlier.

The mother obtained a court order to bring back Nevaeh, but Short fled Shasta County after hearing of it.

Today, the Shaseta County District Attorney's Office published an update that he was in custody in Wichita County, Texas.
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Deputies arrest robbery suspect

A man was arrested Thursday evening on suspicion of trying to rob the Pit Stop store in Big Bend.

Shasta County sheriff's deputies went to the store at 25252 Big Bend Road after receiving reports of the robbery about 7 p.m.

The caller, who identified himself as the store clerk, told dispatchers that a man, about 30 years old, came into the store and said he had a gun, though no firearm was seen.

At one point, the suspect also hit the clerk in the back of the leg with an unknown object, the clerk told dispatchers. Firefighters at the scene said the clerk declined to be taken to the hospital.

People within 3 miles of the store were told to shelter in place by an automated phone system.

Sheriff's deputies found the suspect about 7:45 p.m. as they searched the area of Summit Lake Road.

Half-acre fire burns near park

Firefighters say they contained a half-acre fire that burned south of Lakehead on Thursday evening.

The blaze was reported on a hillside in the 19000 block of Solus Campground Road at the Lake Shasta Pines RV Park & Campground, east of the Interstate 5 offramp to Salt Creek Road, just before 7:30 p.m.

Firefighters said they'd contained it just after 8 p.m.

Driver dies in crash with train

The Tehama County Sheriff's Office identified the person who died early Thursday after a train and vehicle collided as Tonja Anders, 40, of Red Bluff.

Anders was in a 1999 Dodge minivan when an Amtrak train collided with her vehicle south of Red Bluff in the area of Highway 99 West and Alltube Avenue at about 3:41 a.m.

Investigators don't know why Anders' minivan was in the railroad crossing.

Lt. Yvette Borden said Amtrak has video and will be studying it. But it could take up to two weeks before authorities can determine a cause.

Crews put out fire in roadside bush

A person caused a fire that burned a large spot Thursday morning next to a busy south Redding road.

The fire started about 7:40 a.m. between Cedars Road  which is west of the intersection of Highway 273 and South Bonnyview Road  and Olney Creek to the south.

Responding crews said the fire was a large spot burning in blackberry bushes. Initial reports said the fire was spreading quickly.

The fire was contained by 8 a.m. Firefighters said shortly after containing the fire that it was human caused.

Police: Two rob Ramada hotel

Redding police are looking for two men in connection with an early Thursday robbery at the Ramada Limited Hotel on Twin View Boulevard, officers said.

Police at 1:21 a.m. went to the hotel at 1286 Twin View Blvd. from a report by hotel employee Linda Owens, 46, of Redding, who'd called 911 to report two men entered the business, brandished a gun and demanded money, Redding police Cpl. Danny Smetak said.

The pair then walked from the hotel with an undisclosed amount of cash, Owens told police.

Officers learned both men were carrying guns and forced their way behind the front desk to take cash, Smetak said.

Police describe one of the suspects as a white man, 20 to 30 years old, about 5 feet and 8 inches tall, and thin with brown hair. The second is an Asian or Latino man, also 20 to 30 years old, 5 feet and 7 inches tall with a medium build and short, dark hair, Smetak said.

Officers ask anyone with information on the robbery to call 225-4200 or 243-2319 to leave an anonymous tip with Secret Witness of Shasta County.

Charges sought from pot raid

Authorities say they'll seek charges against a man after raiding a marijuana grow on his property at 10128 Salmon Creek Road on Thursday morning.

Carl Allan Burkett, 70, could face felony charges of growing and possessing marijuana for sale, said Lt. Pat Kropholler of the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

He said agents with the Sheriff's Marijuana Investigation Team raided Burkett's home on a search warrant.

There, they found 99 marijuana plants, suspected honey oil and processed marijuana, Kropholler said.

Officers also temporarily detained a woman, though Burkett wasn't home, he said. They later spoke with Burkett, Kropholler said.

"Based upon the evidence collected on scene and his statement, agents will be filing charges of felony cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale," Kropholler said.

Burkett has several previous convictions for marijuana sales, forgery and assault dating back to 1965, he said.

Stabbing injures agency's dog

For a second time in little more than a week, a law enforcement dog has been stabbed while raiding a marijuana grow in remote Trinity County.

The U.S. Forest Service's dog Ice was in "stable" condition after being flown to a Redding animal hospital, said John Heil, spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service.

Ice had gone to the grow site with Forest Service officers and Trinity County sheriff's deputies Wednesday about 7 a.m. It was there the stabbing took place.

Heil did not elaborate on how the stabbing happened or whether anyone was arrested.

Ice and his partner were flown to a Redding animal hospital, where he underwent surgery for a stab wound to his chest and two cuts to his face.

Seven days before, Trinity sheriff's dog Johnny was stabbed while raiding a marijuana grow in a remote part of the county.

Suspect in shooting arrested on highway

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said they have a suspect from a shooting reported Thursday.

The suspect, Kristi McCoy, 39, was arrested on Highway 96. Trinity County Sheriff's Office went to Hoopa to pick him up.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was flown to a hospital in Redding and the shooting is under investigation.

The Trinity County Sheriff's Office is looking for a Jeep Cherokee in connection with the shooting at a home in Burnt Ranch.

The victim was found Thursday at a home at Underwood Mountain at 12:30 p.m. The person was being treated, but their name or their status was not released.

Car crashes into jail fence

A car crashed into the fencing at the Shasta County Jail on Thursday afternoon.

The wreck was reported around 4:30 p.m. at the corner of West and Placer streets. A car jumped the curb and hit some fencing at the jail, though the damaged fence was quickly replaced.

It wasn't clear what caused the car to leave the roadway.

Trial date set in arson case

A Redding man charged with felony arson and other charges for allegedly setting a parked car on fire earlier this month was ordered Thursday by a Shasta County Superior Court judge to stand trial.

Aaron McKeehan Streeter, who was removed from the courtroom after he became disruptive during his preliminary hearing, is accused of setting the car  a Toyota Prius  on fire July 6 as it was parked on Market Street south of Eureka Way.

Streeter, who police said has a significant criminal history in Redding, had discharged from parole on July 1.

He is due back in Superior Court Aug. 4 for the possible setting of his trial date.

Dutch Bros. offers coffee to officers

Dutch Bros. in Anderson will offer free coffee to any member of law enforcement as part of a Back the Blue campaign Friday.

Anderson's mayor, Susie Baugh, will host law enforcement leaders at 9 a.m., while any member of law enforcement can get a free drink for 24 hours starting at 5 a.m. Friday.

The event was organized to support law enforcement and promote communications between officers and the communities they police as distrust in authorities has risen sharply nationwide.

Man suspected of taking daughter

A 39-year-old man is being sought after Shasta County authorities say he kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter and was last heard from in Redding.

David Earnie Short Jr. allegedly told the mother of Nevaeh Rose Short, of Oregon, that he would not return the child after picking her up to visit his parents in Stevenson, Washington, according to the Shasta County District Attorney's Office.

In an alert dated Thursday, officials said he picked her up May 12 for the visit and two days later told the mother over the phone he was in Redding and would not bring Nevaeh back.

The mother immediately got a court order and it was registered May 20 with the Shasta County Superior Court, officials said.

After learning of the order, Short then fled Shasta County, officials said. They say Nevaeh's mother told them Short is bipolar with "anger anxiety" and has not been taking his medications.

He is described as 5 feet and 10 inches tall, with brown eyes and black hair, deputies said.

Anyone with information on the kidnapping is asked to call 225-5483 or SHASCOM at 245-6540 after hours.
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A 14-year-old is facing assault with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery charges after he allegedly beat up a bicyclist on the Sacramento River Trail, Redding police say.

The youth, who isn't identified, allegedly partnered with another juvenile to attack Daniel Bradley, 47, as he rode home from work around 4:30 p.m. July 19.

Both teens ran away when a bystander intervened in the attack, Redding police say.

They later identified both youths and arrested one of them Wednesday. Today, they said they arrested the second youth.

Both were taken to the Shasta County Juvenile Hall. Bradley's injuries were not life-threatening.
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A driver led Redding police on a chase Thursday that ended near North Market Street, where officers arrested the man who also led police on a pursuit in 2010, officers said.

About 3:15 p.m. Thursday, police said Troy Lyons sped off in a two-door Honda car that was partially spray-painted black and missing its rear windshield. An officer had tried to stop him at the corner of Oasis Road and Lake Boulevard, police said.

The pursuit, which reached 70 mph, wound its way to the Keswick area and then into downtown Redding via Iron Mountain Road, said Sgt. Ron Icely. Lyons then allegedly turned down North Market Street and stopped halfway up the hill to Lake Boulevard, where he gave himself up.

Two passengers, Dustin Lloyd, 30, and Angelica Gilchrist, 21, both of Redding, were arrested on warrants and on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine, respectively, Icely said. All three were taken to the Shasta County Jail, Icely said.

Lyons was a fugitive wanted for assault with a deadly weapon and narcotics violations, police said.

Though Lyons alleged assault involved a firearm, police did not find a gun in the car, Icely said.

In that January assault, one person was shot in the buttocks at a Jones Valley home while another was punched in the face, authorities have said.

They did not release a name of the in connection with the shooting.

According to Shasta County Superior Court records, Lyons pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in February.

Lyons has a long history of mostly traffic infractions, including driving on a suspended license. He previously led officers on a chase in 2010 that also ended in the same area as Thursdays pursuit. On Sept. 8, 2010, he fled officers on a motorcycle and eventually crashed near the intersection of Hilltop Drive and Lake Boulevard.

He went on to plead no contest to one charge of fleeing an officer. He was sentenced to eight months in jail.
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By Dylan Darling

A Santa Clara woman died Sunday after a tumbling rock hit her while she was climbing Mt. Shasta.

Kathi Jeanne Ludwig, 56, was climbing with her husband, Michael Ludwig, 57, of Santa Clara, in a group of about eight people and two climbing guides at 6 a.m., said Lt. Randy Bigler, spokesman for the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office. The group, led by guides from Shasta Mountain Guides, was at about 11,000 feet on the 14,179-foot mountain when a watermelon-sized rock rolled down the slope and hit Ludwig in the left torso.

It sent her flying, Bigler said.

The rock knocked Ludwig back about 15 feet, and she rolled three times on the snowy terrain, Bigler said. She suffered broken ribs and other fractures in the fall, he said.

A California Highway Patrol helicopter lifted Ludwig off Mt. Shasta, but she died of a cardiac arrest before she got to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta, Bigler said.

The helicopter arrived at the hospital just before 9 a.m.

Ludwigs group was climbing up the West Face route on Mt. Shasta, which runs from Hidden Valley to the summit, said Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

The route typically sees fewer climbers and less falling rock than Avalanche Gulch route  which runs from Horse Camp to the summit and is the most popular route  said Eric White, a Forest Service lead climbing ranger on Mt. Shasta.

There is always going to be some there (though), he said.

As snow left by a winterlike spring continues to melt off Mt. Shasta, he said there will be more rocks released by the retreating ice and rolling down its slopes.

White was at Lake Helen at about 9,500 feet, where climbers on the Avalanche Gulch route often set up base camps, when he got word of Ludwigs fall, Bigler said. After climbing over a ridge to get to the West Face route, White found her fellow climbers trying to restore Ludwigs breathing. Soon they started cardiopulmonary resuscitation while they waited for the helicopter.

Unable to land on the slope where Ludwig fell, the CHP helicopter hovered over her while rescuers put her in a Bauman Bag  an industrial strength nylon sack that covers a person on a backboard  and hoisted her to the helicopter, said Erin Giglio, CHP spokeswoman.

Ludwigs death is the second on Mt. Shasta this year.

Thomas Bennett Jr., 26, of Oakland, died March 28 of cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain, brought on by high altitude sickness. He and climbing partner Mark Thomas, 26, of Berkeley, became trapped by high winds near the mountains summit after topping the mountain late in the day. Thomas survived the ordeal.

There have been more than 50 climbing fatalities on Mt. Shasta, White has said, including one fatality in November 2008 and one in June 2009.

Climbers on Mt. Shasta have kept the CHP helicopter busy this year with seven flights to rescue eight climbers on the weekend of June 12 alone. Late snow last month caused wintry conditions on the mountain, which is usually prime for climbing in June and July.

White said Mt. Shasta is back to its usual summer shape.

Climbing conditions on the mountain are good, he said.
The main purpose of the modern political convention is to produce four days of televised propaganda. The subsidiary function, now that nominees are invariably chosen in advance, is structural: Unify the party before the final battle. In Cleveland, the Republicans achieved not unity, but only a rough facsimile.

The internal opposition consisted of two factions. The more flamboyant was led by Ted Cruz. Its first operation  an undermanned, underplanned, mini-rebellion over convention rules  was ruthlessly steamrolled on Day 1. Its other operation was Cruz's Wednesday night convention speech in which, against all expectation, he refused to endorse Donald Trump.

It's one thing to do this off-site. It's another thing to do it as a guest at a celebration of the man you are rebuking.

Cruz left the stage to a cascade of boos, having delivered the longest suicide note in American political history. If Cruz fancied himself following Ronald Reagan in 1976, the runner-up who overshadowed the party nominee in a rousing convention speech that propelled him four years later to the nomination, he might reflect on the fact that Reagan endorsed Gerald Ford.

Cruz's rebellion would have a stronger claim to conscience had he not obsequiously accommodated himself to Trump during the first six months of the campaign. Cruz reinforced that impression of political calculation when, addressing the Texas delegation Thursday morning, he said that "I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father." That he should feel so is not surprising. What is surprising is that he said this publicly, thus further undermining his claim to acting on high principle.

The other faction of the anti-Trump opposition was far more subtle. These are the leaders of the party's congressional wing who've offered public allegiance to Trump while remaining privately unreconciled. You could feel the reluctance of these latter-day Marranos in the speeches of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

McConnell's pitch, as always, was practical and direct. We've got things to achieve in the Senate. Obama won't sign. Clinton won't sign. Trump will.

Very specific, very instrumental. Trump will be our enabler, an instrument of the governing (or if you prefer, establishment) wing of the party.

This is mostly fantasy and rationalization, of course. And good manners by a party leader obliged to maintain a common front. The problem is that Trump will not allow himself to be the instrument of anyone else's agenda. Moreover, the Marranos necessarily ignore the most important role of a president, conducting foreign and military policy abroad, which is almost entirely in his hands.

Ryan was a bit more philosophical. He presented the reformicon agenda, dubbed the Better Way, for which he too needs a Republican in the White House. Ryan pointedly kept his genuflections to the outsider-king to a minimum: exactly two references to Trump, to be precise.

Moreover, in defending his conservative philosophy, he noted that at its heart lies "respect and empathy" for "all neighbors and countrymen" because "everyone is equal, everyone has a place" and "no one is written off." Not exactly Trump's Manichaean universe of winners and losers, natives and foreigners (including judges born and bred in Indiana).

Together, McConnell and Ryan made clear that if Trump wins, they are ready to cooperate. And if Trump loses, they are ready to inherit.

The loyalist (i.e., Trumpian) case had its own stars. It was most brilliantly presented by the ever-fluent Newt Gingrich, the best natural orator in either party, whose presentation of Trumpism had a coherence and economy of which Trump is incapable.

Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence gave an affecting, self-deprecating address that managed to bridge his traditional conservatism with Trump's insurgent populism. He managed to make the merger look smooth, even natural.

Rudy Giuliani gave the most energetic loyalist address, a rousing law-and-order manifesto, albeit at an excitement level that surely alarmed his cardiologist.

And Chris Christie's prosecutorial indictment of Hillary Clinton for crimes of competence and character was doing just fine until he went to the audience after each charge for a call-and-response of "guilty or not guilty." The frenzied response was a reminder as to why trials are conducted in a courtroom and not a coliseum.

On a cheerier note, there were the charming preambles at the roll call vote, where each state vies to outboast the other. Connecticut declared itself home to "Pez, nuclear submarines and ... WWE." God bless the United States.

Charles Krauthammer's email address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
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Throughout his second governorship, Jerry Brown has preached fiscal responsibility  being careful about spending, paying down debt and building up reserves.

It has been, in effect, a repudiation of his two immediate predecessors, Democrat Gray Davis and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who squandered revenue windfalls, ran up debt and left their successors with big deficits.

Brown has been, however, reticent about a big deficit that's plagued the state's system of unemployment compensation and left it very vulnerable to a meltdown in the next recession he says is inevitable.

During Davis' ill-starred governorship  he was recalled in 2003  he and legislators couldn't resist tapping a $5.6 billion surplus that had accumulated in the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), financed by payroll taxes on employers.

Rather than keep it intact as a prudent hedge against recession, Davis and legislators succumbed to pressure from labor unions and nearly doubled unemployment benefits to a maximum of $450 a week.

A very deep recession struck the state a few years later, unemployment more than doubled to more than 2 million idle workers and the UIF was drained to pay their benefits, forcing the state to borrow $10 billion from the federal government to keep the checks flowing.

Schwarzenegger was governor by then, but neither he nor the Legislature wanted to deal with the obvious need to increase taxes on employers, reduce benefits or enact some combination of both.

Two years later, with Brown back in the governorship, the feds started charging interest and the state paid it, $1.3 billion so far, in part by borrowing $612 million from the Disability Insurance Fund (DIF), financed by taxes on workers.

The DIF has a $3 billion positive balance, so legislators have also been tapping it for new benefits, such as "paid family leave."

In 2012, the feds began raising federal payroll taxes on California employers to whittle down the UIF debt.

The extra tax bite is now nearly $2 billion a year, and the debt is expected to drop to $1.3 billion by the end of 2017.

However, that may be just in time for the next recession to strike. The Department of Employment Development says in a recent report, "The current financing structure leaves the UI Fund unable to self-correct and achieve a positive fund balance sufficient to withstand an economic downturn."

Although unemployment now is just half of what it was during the depths of the recession, the state is still paying out about $5.5 billion a year in jobless benefits, covered by $5.8 billion in employer taxes, which doesn't leave enough margin to build a much-needed reserve.

No recent governor has been willing to spend political capital to make the UIF truly solvent.

Employers don't like a state payroll tax increase on top of the other recent burdens imposed, such as minimum wage increases.

Unions and their political allies won't entertain any benefit reduction, seeing that as a much-hated "giveback."

Chances are high that when the next recession hits, we'll once again be forced to seek a bailout from Uncle Sam.

Email Dan Walters at dwalters@sacbee.com.
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For reasons which should have been obvious, it was inappropriate for UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to accept a $70,000-a-year appointment to the board of directors of DeVry Education Group, a for-profit school that was under federal investigation for duping students about their job and income prospects. For this and other possible violations of university policy, Katehi is on administrative leave.

But another one of her paid gigs  with the textbook company John Wiley & Sons  has raised questions as well. What is the chancellor of a public university doing working for a company that profits from selling textbooks to students? Doesn't that raise, at the very least, a perception of a conflict of interest that could harm the university's reputation? How does UC Davis benefit from having Katehi on that particular board (for which she earned $420,000 over three years, according to the Sacramento Bee)?

Sitting on the textbook company's board did not violate university policy, but it should have. The UC Board of Regents has a chance to fix this flaw Thursday when it considers adopting stricter rules for top university officials sitting on outside boards.

UC President Janet Napolitano is recommending a revised policy that would reduce the number of allowed compensated board seats from three to two and require an extra layer of approval so that the president or other top university officials would not be blindsided by a chancellor or other top official's extracurricular activities. The official seeking permission to sit on a board, whether paid or not, would also have to explain how doing so would benefit the university.

Napolitano's suggestions are fine, as far as they go, but they don't fully address two big concerns. One is that when a senior UC administrator takes a second job, that takes time away from the important full-time responsibility of running a university. Merely going down from three boards to two may not solve the problem.

The other concern is that board positions may directly conflict with the interests of the public. The rules should explicitly forbid top officials from getting paid to sit on boards of companies that do business with the university. Even if there is no immediate conflict (Katehi, for example, didn't make decisions on the purchase of textbooks), how can the public completely trust the motives of a university official who is receiving a paycheck or stock options from a company that profits from the UCs?

Also, the rules must apply to all senior managers, not just those hired in the future.

Some critics wonder whether UC chancellors or other top university officials ought to sit on compensated boards at all. Their full-time, taxpayer-paid jobs at the university are demanding enough, and they are well paid for them (Katehi, for instance, earned $424,360 per year as chancellor). Do chancellors really need an extra $12,500 or $30,000 or even $100,000 a year? Maybe not, but Napolitano maintains that board positions  paid or not  can benefit the university by helping create relationships with business and professional leaders that can lead to financial support, partnerships and affiliations. Also, she says, the time commitment will be weighed when approval for a outside job is requested.

It is true that there is a potential benefit to the UCs in having its top officials exposed to business leaders and philanthropists. In fact, many UC senior officials are quite accomplished or renowned in their respective fields, and have much knowledge to offer to corporations and nonprofits. It would be foolish to cut them off completely when there's no conflict.

But there must a clear line when it comes to potential  or even perceived  conflict. Without that, a new policy would be little more than window dressing.
"The Bachelorette" contestant Wells Adams gets drunk and gives his commentary on the latest episode. (Wells Adams/Chicago Tribune)

If you've watched any of JoJo's season of "The Bachelorette" so far, you must admit, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Wells Adams is and forever shall be the most adorable contestant to ever attend a rose ceremony.

The 31-year-old radio DJ from Nashville, Tennessee was eliminated in week six after a luke-warm affair with JoJo Fletcher. He didn't even bother to pucker up until the date in which he got eliminated. Regardless of his shortcomings in the smooching department, Adams stole everyone's heart except JoJo's. But that's OK because there's more for us.

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But because Adams is the best contestant in the history of romance reality TV, he's continuing to bless us with drunken Snapchats as he watches "The Bachelorette" from the other side of the fence.

"I'm gonna make fun of all them in this whole night," Adams says while excitedly pointing to his TV, possibly already a beer or two in.

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During Chase's hometown date, Adams was far more interested in his former competitor's dog than the content of JoJo's visit. "I need to know the dog's name, Chase," he insists between sips of his Coors. He also shows off his Chris Harrison impression, repeating "Coming up!" to himself at least 17 times and mocks the feathered hair of the entire Rodgers family. Keep it real, dude.

In more proof that Wells is just as bemused by the current state of "Bachelorette" affairs, he makes the observation that's been made the entire World Wide Web over that all four remaining contestants look like carbon copies of each other. "I got to cut my hair like that," he says. No, we like you just the way you are.

For more of his drunk "Bachelorette" ramblings, head to Adams' Facebook page.

@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
The government has to cover a lot of ground if it wants to achieve the target of generating 10 million new jobs in the sector over the next three years, says Shyamal Majumdar.

IMAGE: India has the worlds second-largest manufacturing capacity in textiles. Photograph: Reuters

Its hardly a surprise that the Rs 6,000-crore package for the textiles sector has been welcomed by everybody, as the incentives relating to tax, production and labour to garment makers are expected to improve the competitiveness of the sector globally.

For instance, the highly seasonal garment manufacturers can now hire workers on fixed-term contracts with double the overtime work limits and greater freedom for women employees, who already form a significant share of the textiles labour force.

India has the worlds second-largest manufacturing capacity in textiles and accounts for 13 per cent of the production of textiles, fibre and yarn.

Besides, the sector is the largest job generator in the country after agriculture, employing more than 32 million people.

Hence, such a package has long been overdue. The government is clearly banking on it to absorb millions more, on the basis that the textiles sector would be able to generate 10 million jobs over the next three years.

The calculations may have been prompted by an Assocham report, which said that employment generated in the economy because of a rise of Re 1 in demand is roughly five times the employment created in the sector.

So far, so good. But the target of 10 million jobs may remain a mirage.

Just a week after the textiles package was announced, industry body Texprocil and EY released a study that shows why the government still has a lot of ground to cover if it has to reach anywhere near that target.

For example, the study says the industry is likely to generate just one-third (or 2.9 million) of the jobs relative to the governments target - that, too, in five years - although the market size is expected to grow by 40 per cent to $142 billion in the next five years.

Thats because the technological advancement leading to increased efficiency has already reduced job opportunities.

Already, the number of workers per Rs 1 crore of sales has declined from a high of 40 workers to just 25 workers.

Also, the spinning, autoconer and auto-splicer divisions have replaced the job of 20 workers with that of only two workers.

The study pointed out two other important issues which, if followed, can play a catalytic role in employment generation.

One, the absence of free trade agreements (FTA) with the European Union, Australia and Canada costs India almost 5.5 million jobs in the sector.

Additional exports would have generated these jobs had FTAs been in place.

Two, there is a clear need to move to a model of hub-and-spoke employment, where hubs are created in small towns, and spokes of manufacturing can be set up in surrounding villages.

This hub-and-spoke model, successfully implemented in countries such as Bangladesh and Cambodia, can improve the labour force participation rate, especially among women in villages and small towns.

Under this model, production sheds of at least 5,000 square feet in area, employing around 500 women per spoke in rural areas, can be leased to manufacturers against verifiable proof of employment, Texprocil has said.

These are interesting suggestions, as the trend of job shrinkage due to automation is likely to gain momentum. Thats the reality.

According to a World Bank report, 69 per cent of jobs in India are at a higher risk of being replaced by automation.

Technological change over the last generation has wiped out many low- and middle-skill jobs.

Just think of the army of secretaries, typists, telephone and computer operators and payroll clerks, who occupied vast office space in earlier years.

Faster, cheaper computers and increasingly clever software are giving machines capabilities that were once thought to be distinctively human  like understanding speech, translating from one language to another and recognising patterns.

So automation is rapidly moving beyond factories to areas that provide most jobs in the economy.

Thus, the government has to move fast on the other areas that the textiles sector needs if it has to realise its target of 10 million fresh jobs in three years.

There is a huge opportunity for India and other South Asian countries, as it has been estimated that even a 10 per cent increase in Chinese apparel prices could generate at least 1.2 million new jobs in the Indian apparel industry.
The growth of tobacco business of ITC was good for its shareholders and there was no point of de-growing it for the benefit of the non-tobacco verticals, ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar said on Friday.

During the April-June quarter, ITC's revenue from cigarettes increased 6.42 per cent to Rs 8,230.60 crore (Rs 82.3 billion) from Rs 7,733.43 crore (Rs 77.33 billion) in the year-ago period.

"Some shareholders are saying that growth of the tobacco business should be less while that of others (non-tobacco) should rise.

"That is not the objective", Deveshwar said at the company's annual general meeting in Kolkata.

Deveshwar, who will step down as executive chairman and preside over as non-executive chairman at the next AGM, said, "We are not competing within the company".

"The growth of the tobacco business will be good for the shareholders of the company," he said.

The tobacco business was increasingly coming under prohibition by various government regulations but continued to be the prime revenue driver of the company.

ITC was in a unique position to explore new opportunities in the area of perishables including fruits and vegetables, he said in the chairman's speech.

In this regard, ITC was exploring the opportunity to invest in state-of-the-art cold chain top cover farm produce including fresh, frozen and dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

Also, there are plans to cultivate medicinal and aromatic plants, he said.

"The company's traditional, new and developing enterprises will help in achieving the Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) FMCG goal by 2030," he said.

Image: A man smokes a cigarette as he sits on a pavement along a road in Srinagar. Photograph: Fayaz Kabli/Reuters
A Bihar court on Friday ordered the police to file a first information report against Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and expelled party leader Dayashankar Singh, who had made abusive remarks against Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati.

Singh had sparked an outrage by his derogatory comments questioning the character of the BSP supremo. He had said that "Mayawati is breaking the dream of Kanshi Ram into pieces. Mayawati is selling tickets like a prostitute.

The chief judicial magistrate in Hajipur has ordered the police to lodge a case against Shah and Singh.



The court's order was in response to a petition filed by local Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Balinder Das,who has filed a petition in the CJM court seeking order to file an FIR against Shah and Singh in connection with a derogatory remarks against Mayawati.



I have approached the court as BJP leaders have hurt millions of Dalits, backwards and the poor by derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati, Das in his petition said.



Meanwhile, raids were conducted by the police overnight to trace Singh even as his family threatened to file an FIR against Mayawati and senior BSP leaders for allegedly using foul language.

"My daughter, who is a minor, is in a state of shock after the incident. I will definitely lodge an FIR against Mayawati and other party leaders and fight a legal battle," Singh's wife Swati told media persons.

"My husband is in politics, but we have no political connection. The manner in which BSP workers acted on Thursday and the language used by them during protest was derogatory," she said.

Swati said that her family was being dragged into the controversy unnecessarily.

"Why Mayawati is not taking action against Nassemuddin Siddiqui. Why he was not expelled from the party. I don't want to imagine what is the state of my 80-year-old mother-in-law," she said.

Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Jha said that raids were conducted on Thursday night but there was no clue about Singh's whereabouts.

There were unconfirmed reports that Singh could surrender in the court in Lucknow.

The SP said that Singh's brother Dharmendra was detained for questioning, but failed to give any information. "All he said was that Singh left for Gorakhpur on July 21 and there was no contact since then," he said.

Jha said that police raided the house of Singh's uncle at Bariya on Thursday night, but nothing was found.

"His mobile is switched off since July 20 night," he said.

With inputs from PTI
Immediately after the attack on July 1, United States Secretary of State John Kerry had called Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and offered her assistance from American law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

The Bangladesh police on Friday handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for testing blood and hair samples of militants who carried out the country's worst terror attack in which 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.

"Hair and blood samples from the five gunmen and their suspected aide have been given to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for testing," said Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman.

Immediately after the attack on July 1, United States Secretary of State John Kerry called Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and offered her assistance from American law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

The counter-terror unit asked for hair and 20 milliliters of blood to be collected from the bodies for a second time, Soheil Mahmud, assistant professor of Forensics Medicine at DhakaMedicalCollege and Hospital said.

Doctors on Wednesday collected hair and blood samples from the bodies of six "terrorists" to ascertain whether they had been under the influence of drugs while "carrying out" the attack on a Gulshan cafe, Dhaka Tribune reported.

The autopsy will check if they were under the influence of amphetamine-based drugs, namely Captagon, that the Islamic state uses to create 'super soldiers', Mahmud said.

A forensic team of DhakaMedicalCollegeHospital collected the samples on request of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The move came amid media reports that militants, especially members of the Islamic State, are popping addictive pills, which help "fuel their fury", before attacking the victims.

The gunmen, mostly in their 20s, seized the upscale cafe, where they shot and slaughtered 22 hostages, including an Indian.

Two police officers also died during the attack, for which the IS claimed responsibility. The government said six attackers were killed by army commandos, who stormed the cafe the next morning.

Among them, five were members of the banned Jama'aatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, according to the police. They maintained that the sixth person, the restaurant's chef, Saiful Chowkider, "was assisting the killers".

The remains of the attackers and their alleged aide were at the mortuary of the CombinedMilitaryHospital in Dhaka.

IMAGE: Policemen inspect a site after gunmen attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Five hardcore Maoists, including a dreaded Maoist couple involved in about 150 cases and carrying a reward of Rs 9 lakh on their head, surrendered before the police in Odishas Malkangiri district on Thursday.

The five ultras have said they decided to surrender in order to return to the social mainstream as they realised that Maoists were unleashing terror on tribals and poor people, said Deputy Inspector General of Police S Saini.

The five who surrendered before the DIG were Sukhdev and his wife Rukmini (both active in Malkangiri and Baipariguda divisions of the Maoists in Odisha) and Raju Sodhi, Deba Beti and Laxman Madkami (active in Darabha division in Chhattisgarh), the police said.

Sukhdev and his wife Rukmini were active for over a decade and decided to give up arms after they realised that the Maoists were harassing tribals and poor people, said Malkangiri Superintendent of Police Mitrabhanu Mohapatra.

Around 150 cases involving that of murder, landmine blasts, abduction and attack on the police were pending against the couple in different police stations, police said.

While the state government had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on the head of Sukhdev, Rukmini was carrying a reward of Rs 4 lakh, Mohapatra said.

Sukhdev, an active Maoist for 15 years, functioned as the commander of Malkangiri division, while Rukmini was engaged in Maoist activities for 12 years and said to be the woman commander of Baipariguda Maoist division, police said.

Similarly, Raju, Deba Beti and Laxman were involved in a number of crimes like landmine blasts and attack on police in Sukma and other areas of Chhattisgarh, they said.

The rebels told the police that they were fed up with Maoist activities after realising that tribals and poor people were being harassed and exploited by the Maoists who, they said, have deviated from their ideology, the police said adding, they would be rehabilitated as per the state governments policy on surrender of Maoists.
An 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman killed nine people in a shooting incident at a busy mall in Munich and then turned the gun on himself.

IMAGE: Special force police officers stand guard at an entrance of the main train station, following a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich. All photographs: Michael Dalder/Reuters

The rampage at the Olympia shopping mall also injured 16 others. This attack makes it the third on civilians in Europe in the last eight days.

Bloodbath in Munich, was the headline on the best-selling Bild newspaper as shockwaves reverberated across the continent.

The killing sent the southern city into lockdown as elite police launched a massive operation to track down what had initially been thought to be up to three assailants.

IMAGE: A woman reacts following a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich.



Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene her security council on Saturday to address the shooting, which came just days after an axe rampage on a train in the same German state of Bavaria and just over a week after a truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice that killed 84 people.

Police chief Hubertus Andrae told a press conference, The perpetrator was an 18-year-old German-Iranian from Munich, adding that he had no criminal record.

The motive or explanation for this crime is completely unclear, he said.

A police spokesman had said earlier that terrorism was suspected, without revealing any immediate indications of an Islamist link.

IMAGE: A police officer secures a road near to the scene of a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, on Friday.



Armed with a handgun, the attacker opened fire at a McDonalds restaurant and continued along the street before entering the mall.

A video posted on social media appeared to show a man in black walking away from a McDonalds while firing repeatedly on people as they fled screaming.

One of the survivors recounting the horror of the attack, said, We entered McDonalds to eat... then there was panic, and people ran out.

Another video appeared to show the gunman on a car park roof exchanging a tirade of insults with a man on a nearby balcony.

Im German, I was born here, the assailant replies after the man fired off a volley of swear words, including an offensive term for foreigners.

IMAGE: Police secure a street near the scene of shooting. Cops have asked people in the urban area of Munich to stay indoors.



Police initially believed there could be up to three assailants.

But Andrae later said two others had absolutely nothing to do with the attack -- and that they were simply fleeing the scene.

The Munich main train station, metro and bus transport was suspended while residents were ordered to stay inside, leaving the streets largely deserted.

We are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany, Merkels chief of staff Peter Altmaier said.

German President Joachim Gauck said he was horrified by the murderous attack, while US President Barack Obama voiced staunch support for Washingtons close ally.

IMAGE: Police halt traffic on a road near Olympia shopping mall, the scene of a shooting rampage in Munich.



The attack comes days after a 17-year-old asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a train on Monday near Wuerzburg, also in Bavaria, injuring five people.

The train attack triggered calls by some politicians to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into Germany, which accepted a record 1.1 million migrants and refugees last year, many through Bavaria.

IMAGE: A police sniper sits in a helicopter above the Olympia shopping mall.



The Munich mall is near the stadium for the 1972 Olympics and the athletes village which was the site of the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September group that ended in a massacre.

Europe has been on high alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks in neighbouring France and Belgium claimed by the Islamic State.

IMAGE: Police vehicles make their way to the scene of the shooting rampage.



The mall shooting occurred just eight days after 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, after a Bastille Day fireworks display in Nice, the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months.

In March, IS claimed suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a city metro station that left 32 people dead.

In May, a mentally unstable 27-year-old man carried out a knife attack on a regional train in Bavaria, killing one person and injuring three others.
Fresh clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in Kashmir after Friday prayers killing one youth, raising the death toll to 45 in the unrest that erupted two weeks ago, even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit the Valley on Saturday.

IMAGE: Youths defy curfew and throw stones on Security forces during clashes in Srinagar on Friday. Photograph: PTI

As the Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party government battles the unrest following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter, Singh will be in Kashmir for two days in a bid to calm down tensions and reach out to people in the first high level visit from the Centre after violence broke out on July 8.

After a brief spell of relative calm, reports of stone pelting were received from many places in the curfew-bound Valley, mostly in Baramulla, Kupwara and Pulwama districts, as clashes continued through the evening.

Curfew remained in force in all 10 districts of the Valley due to apprehension of law and order problems in view of large gatherings for Friday prayers.

A youth identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat sustained severe injuries in the abdomen after being hit by pellets during protests at Chursoo in Awantipora area of Pulwama on Friday afternoon after prayers, a police official said.

He said Bhat was rushed to SMHS hospital but succumbed to injuries.

IMAGE: Nasir, five-year-old, was injured in protests at Kokarnag. Photograph: Umar Ganie/Rediff.com

This was the first death in fresh clashes in the Valley since Monday when three persons were killed in army firing at Qazigund in Anantnag district.

Two other persons were brought to SMHS hospital on Friday with pellet injuries -- one from Kakapora in Pulwama district and other from Sopore town of north Kashmir Baramulla district, the official said.

He said the condition of Asif Ahmad, who was injured during clashes in Kakapora, was critical while Aaqib Ahmad from Sopore was stable.

Earlier in the day, a youth succumbed to his injuries sustained in clashes a few days ago.

Ishtiyaq Ahmad, injured in clashes at Kokernag area of Anantnag district, died at SKIMS hospital, Soura on Friday morning.

IMAGE: People offer funeral prayers for Mushtaq Ahmad, a civilian, who according to local news reports died during clashes with police during a protest in south Kashmir's Pulwama. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters

Although no incident of violence was reported on Thursday, authorities clamped curfew in all 10 districts of Kashmir as a precautionary measure on Friday, a police official said.

Large gatherings are expected during Friday prayers which usually turn into violent protests, the official said.

Authorities had eased curfew in four districts -- Baramulla, Bandipora, Budgam and Ganderbal  on Thursday to facilitate reopening of schools.

However, most of the schools in these districts remained closed as parents chose not to send their wards due to security apprehensions.

IMAGE: Police stand guard in Srinagar during the curfew. Photograph: Umar Ganie/Rediff.com

Mobile telephony and mobile internet services remained suspended for the 14th day on Friday. Normal life remains paralysed for two weeks now due to curfew and a separatist-sponsored strike.

Singh, who will reach Srinagar around 11 am, will first interact with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior officials and review the law and order situation.

After that, he will meet representatives of political parties, social organisations and leading citizens to get their feedback about the Kashmir situation as well as future roadmap, official sources said in Delhi.

Singh will stay at Nehru guest house in Srinagar, where he will meet the public representatives.
Here's a recap of moments captured in India in the past 24 hours.

Security jawans chashing away stone throwing youths during a clash in Srinagar on Thursday. Photograph: S Irfan/ PTI Photo

Newly-appointed UPCC President Raj Babbar leads a maun dharna against Union government over Dalit atrocities, in Lucknow on Thursday. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi visits the Dalit member who consumed poison in protest against assault on Dalit members by cow protectors a few days ago, at a hospital in Rajkot on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo

A girl places offerings on Shivling on the last day of Jaya Parvati Vrat festival at a temple in Ahmedabad. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters.

A flag resembling the national flag of Pakistan seen hoisted at a house of Kharadi locality in Biharsharif town of Nalanda district in Bihar on Thursday. Three people, including a woman, were arrested for hoisting the flag. Photograph: PTI Photo

Kashmiris read newspapers in Srinagar on Thursday morning as a three-day ban on the publication of newspapers imposed during massive protests was lifted. Photograph: PTI Photo

A mother greets her son at the Attestation and Passing Out Parade of Recruits of the Military Police in Bengaluru on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo

Police stop Bahujan Samaj Party activists who were protesting against expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dayashankar Singh for his derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati, in Lucknow on Thursday. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo

Sadhus chant slogans before leaving for Amarnath yatra from the base camp in Jammu on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo

An aerial view of crowded streets during Saheed Diwas rally of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Esplanade in Kolkata on Thursday. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra /PTI Photo
The brother of slain Pakistani social-media sensation Qandeel Baloch has told the police that two other relatives helped him in the honour killing of his 26-year-old model actress sister, officials said on Friday.

Muhammad Waseem, who allegedly drugged and then strangled his sister to death for the honour of the family, underwent a polygraph lie detector test here and told the police that two other men were involved in Qandeels killing.

Waseem said he made the plan to kill Qandeel with the assistance of a relative, Haq Nawaz, who was present when he strangled his sister while another relative Basit waited outside the house in a car, police said.

Wasim said that after killing Qandeel he and Haq Nawaz had fled in Basits car to Dera Ghazi Khan from where he was arrested.

Police are said to be probing at least seven people in the killing of Qandeel who made headlines last month during the month of Ramazan when she posted suggestive videos and pictures of herself with a well known cleric, Mufti Abdul Qavi on her social media accounts.

Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Police said they had also detained two sister-in-laws of the slain model from Dera Ghazi Khan and also recovered her mobile phone from their ancestral home.

The government, through the police, has also instituted state cases against Wasim which bars Qandeels family from forgiving her killer(s) which is the usual practice in honour killing cases in Pakistan.

Qandeels 'honour killing' has sent shockwaves across the country and has led to fresh calls from civil rights and womens rights activists and the media to pass bills to protect women against violence and to classify honour killings as a capital crime.

Belonging to a working-class rural family from southern Punjab, Qandeel was an instant hit on television channels and social media with her provocative posts and sexually suggestive talk.

She faced regular insults and threats on her social media accounts from people, mostly men, offended by her independent assertions online.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she spoke of trying to change the typical orthodox mindset of people in Pakistan.
Tourism in India is economically important and growing rapidly. The ministry of tourism is taking more initiatives like Incredible India to improve its tourism sector.

India is known for its cultural, heritage and natural sites which attract millions of tourists from countries within India and all over the world.

In North from Jammu and Kashmir, which is often dubbed as Paradise on Earth to the south Kanyakumari where the triseas meet and in west from Rajasthan literally meaning Land of the Kings to the north east to the Kaziranga National park at Assam, India is known for its tourist spots.

There are 35 World Heritage sites in India that are recognised by the UNESCO.

The Rediff Labs team analysed the data from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, which explains the number of tourists visiting India from foreign countries and within India to know which state attracts most of the tourists and how tourism in each state has improved from 2014 to 2015.

The above map shows the number of both domestic and foreign tourists visiting each state in 2015 and its growth rate.

The size of the circle represents the number of tourists and the colour represents the growth rate of tourism in that state.

The states, which attract the most foreign tourists are Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh stands at the top three. States which attract the most domestic tourists are Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh.

Lakshadweep has fewer tourists but it has a very high growth rate in terms of tourism.

For more data driven journalism, check out Rediff Labs.
The Dalits were accused of stealing a bike.

M I Khan reports from Patna.

First, Dalits were stripped and beaten mercilessly in Una, Gujarat, by so-called 'cow protectors.'

Now emerges another horrifying tale of two Dalit youth being badly beaten in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. Their ordeal didn't end there.

In a shocking violation of their human rights and in a display of caste violence at its crudest and most disgusting, one attacker then reportedly urinated in the mouths of the Dalit men.

The incident took place in Babutola in Muzaffarpur district on Wednesday, July 20, night after the Dalit youth attended a fair during the ongoing Annapurna-mahayagya.

The mother of one victim, in her complaint lodged at the Paru police station, said her son and his friend were caught by the head of the Utri-Paru village panchayat and his henchmen, locked in a room and thrashed for allegedly stealing a motorcycle.

One henchmen, the mother said in her complaint, then urinated in their mouths to humiliate them.

When her husband went to rescue the young men, she stated in her complaint, he too was attacked and humiliated.

'After my husband returned, he informed the police who freed my son and his friend and got them admitted to a local primary health centre,' the mother stated.

The officer in charge at the Paru police station said investigation has begun. Muzaffarpur Additional Superintendent of Police Vivek Kumar said he has ordered a deputy superintendent of police to investigate the allegations levelled against 11 accused.

Image published only for representational purposes.
Three more Dalit youths allegedly attempted suicide on Friday in Botad district of Gujarat even as the situation in most parts of the state returned to normalcy after witnessing three days of violent protests by community members over beating of Dalits for allegedly skinning a dead cow in Gir Somnath.

At Ranpur village of Botad district, three youths attempted suicide by drinking poisonous substance, to protest the Una incident, police said.

"Villagers informed police that three youths from the same village had tried to commit suicide to protest the Una incident after which they were taken to nearby hospital and then referred to Bhavnagar hospital for treatment," Botad Superintendent of Police, Saroj Kumari said.

As the news of the suicide attempt spread, hundreds of Dalits gathered at the hospital to show solidarity with the cause, Kumari said.

So far, more than 20 youths have attempted suicide during the ongoing protest.

Members of Congress party blocked a national highway in Vadodara by burning tyres that caused traffic jam. Police managed to clear the road and detained five persons in this connection.

Protest rallies were taken out in some parts of Ahmedabad district and Patan, as Dalits in Ahmedabad's Viramgam came out in hundreds and submitted memorandum to local administration demanding justice.

A protest march was carried out in Patan as well. While in Modasa in Arvalli district, markets continued to remain closed for the second day as local businessmen protested damages done to their shops and establishments by Dalits during the ongoing agitation.

Businessmen demanded action against vandals who damaged several shops causing loss of property.

District administration in Gir Somnath -- where Mota Saladhiyala village is located--imposed Section 144, which prohibits gathering of more than four persons, to avoid any untoward incident by preventing gathering of people to protest.

"We imposed Section 144 last evening which will remain effective till July 31, in order to keep the situation under control," Collector Ajay Kumar said.

For at least three days, protests against brutal thrashing of Dalit youths at Una, allegedly by some self-styled cow vigilantes, flared up with incidents of vandalism and arson being reported from several parts of the state.

Nearly half a dozen of state transport buses were damaged while scores of youths attempted suicide. Stone pelting and damages to shops were also reported during these three days.

16 people have been arrested so far in connection with the assault on Dalits, while four policemen have been suspended for dereliction of duty.

Since the time of eruption of protests, 20 Dalit youths have tried to commit suicide in separate incidents across the state.

A head constable in Amreli, Pankaj Amreliya, died after protesters clashed with police.

Image: Dalit community member hold wooden sticks and shout slogans during a protest in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. They were protesting after four men belonging to the Dalit community were beaten up while trying to skin a dead cow in Una town in Gujarat last week.Photograph: PTI Photo
'Trump said the Republicans had 'moved too far toward the extreme right' and that he was capable of capturing more than the 'really staunch-right wacko vote' by reaching middle-of-the-road Americans.'

Michael D'Antonio's interesting insights into the man who may be America's next president.

IMAGE: Donald Trump addresses a gathering in New York. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

While Trump occasionally promoted his views on race and social class, he constantly dwelled on his own success. He would confess that he had struggled in some aspects of his personal life, but would also draw attention to the many beautiful women he had known as proof that he was an impressive man.

In another place or time, this kind of talk would be dismissed as crass and self-defeating. But in Trump's time, self-promotion had become an acceptable if not essential part of everyday life.

Having won the attention of the press and public as a rich and good-looking man, Donald Trump continually sought to keep it. To stay good-looking he battled against middle-age weight gain, wore a uniform of expensive suits, and devoted great effort to keeping his hair.

'The worst thing a man can do is let himself go bald,' he had once told casino executive Mark Estess. 'Never let yourself go bald.'

As he laid this, Trump gave Estess a tube of cream that supposedly stopped the progress of hair loss. The cream was just one part of the Trump campaign against baldness.

In his book, Lost Tycoon, writer Harry Hurt described a surgical procedure that had closed the bald spot on the back of Trump's head.

Trump denied he underwent surgery for hair loss, but beginning around 1990 his coif became the subject of frequent speculation in the press.

Once a helmet of brown, it became an extravagant complex of reddish-gold swirls and parts that included swooping strands that moved from one side of his head to the other, and others that went from back to front.

All this effort led Time magazine to consult a stylist and publish a diagrammed account of how it was done. Presented under the headline 'The Secret to Donald Trump's Hair,' the graphic showed how a man's hair, grown long in the back, could be combed forward, then swept back and fixed with spray.

Captions warned, 'Don't confuse this with a classic side-part comb over,' and referenced the dramatic styles of cartoon character Wilma Flintstone and real-life talk-show host Conan O'Brien, whose unruly, red waves resembled breaking surf.

Trump was a good sport about the hair commentary. On occasion he would invite an interviewer to examine his head to see if it was real.

But the media's fascination with Trump's hair didn't revolve around the question of whether it was real. What was significant was what it said about his audacious vanity.

In his mind, going bald was a greater shame than the confection atop his head. In time, his hair would become such a distinguishing feature that costume makers would sell Trump wigs for Halloween.

IMAGE: Donald Trump with his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

As a man who craved attention, Trump was unable to change his hairstyle because it got him noticed, and there was almost nothing he wouldn't do for attention.

In 1999 he went so far as to renounce his membership in the Republican Party and engage in an extended flirtation with the Reform Party of the United States of America, which was preparing to field a candidate in the 2000 presidential election.

Trump received the same kind of attention after he joined the party in the fall of 1999 and said he was considering a run for the Reform Party nomination.

Trump also expressed some ideas that would have appealed to mainstream Americans but were anathema to many Reform Party stalwarts. For example, Trump said the Republicans had 'moved too far toward the extreme right' and that he was capable of capturing more than the 'really staunch-right wacko vote' by reaching middle-of-the-road Americans.

But the core of the Reform Party was 'staunch right,' and Trump would never win the party's nomination by veering left.

He did make himself more visible with every appearance in the press, where his audience could be rewarded with outrageous statement.

On Cuba: Fidel Castro is 'a killer and should be treated as such.'

On his ideal running mate: Oprah Winfrey because 'she's popular, she's brilliant, she's a wonderful woman.'

On candidates who are proud of their humble backgrounds: 'They're losers. Who the hell wants to have a person like this for president?'

As the Reform Party convention drew near, Trump attacked (then) Governor George W Bush of Texas as inexperienced. He said that he was offering voters a businessman's 'eye for the bottom line,' which was an odd kind of offer, given that his Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts operation was about to post a loss of $34.5 million for the last quarter of 1999.

Trump also derided his most likely opponents, Al Gore and Bush, as 'Ivy League contenders' without a hint of embarrassment about his diploma from Penn, which was an Ivy League school.

He announced that if elected president, he would appoint himself to the post of international trade representative, which would permit him to be addressed as either Mr President or Mr Ambassador or, perhaps, Mr President Ambassador.

Trump stayed in character as a politician until the middle of February, when he went on television to announce that he was ending his campaign because 'the Reform Party is a total mess.'

The other side of the story came from Reform Party stalwarts who complained that his campaign had never been serious. They believed that he ran to get people to buy his books, purchase tickets to hear him speak, and drop their cash at his gambling halls.

'Donald Trump came in, promoted his hotels, he promoted his book, he promoted himself at our expense, and I think he understands fully that we've ended the possibilities for such abuse of our party,' said Patrick Choate, a Reform Party leader.

Excerpted from The Truth About Trump by Michael D';Antonio, Rs 499, with the permission of the publishers, Pan Macmillan India.
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.
UN officials alarmed by closure of access route in eastern Aleppo; call for 'humanitarian truce'

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN officials alarmed by closure of access route in eastern Aleppo; call for 'humanitarian truce', 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57920d8f40b.html [accessed 28 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.

21 July 2016 - The United Nations humanitarian chief today expressed grave alarm over developments in the eastern part of Aleppo city in Syria, where civilian, humanitarian and commercial movements have been effectively cut off following the closure of the last remaining access route in and out of the area.

"Our highest priority is to re-establish access to eastern Aleppo city, through both cross-line convoys and cross-border operations from Turkey, so that we can replenish critical life-saving assistance like food, medical supplies and fuel, and assure the continuation of basic services," said Stephen O'Brien, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, in a statement released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Noting that an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people are at risk of besiegement, Mr. O'Brien said that humanitarians have not been able to reach eastern Aleppo since clashes started on 7 July between the Government of Syria forces and non-state armed groups, which rendered Castello Road impassable.

Hundreds of mortars, missiles and projectiles were launched on both eastern and western Aleppo in the past weeks, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, including several children. Hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have also been affected by the fighting.

On 16 July, for example, a hospital in eastern Aleppo city was reportedly hit, and a number of medical staff injured. It was the third time the facility was hit in the past two months.

Mr. O'Brien - who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator - reiterated that the humanitarian community has repeatedly stressed that medical staff and facilities must not be targeted, as international humanitarian law clearly states.

"I call on all parties to the conflict to immediately enable unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to the millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria," he said, urging them to lift all sieges, respect the safety of medical and humanitarian workers, and ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The Under-Secretary-General added that while the UN and its partners still have some stocks to respond to humanitarian needs, food in east Aleppo is expected to run out by the middle of next month.

In other news today, UN Senior Adviser Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva that while July was the best month ever in terms of permissions granted by the Government of Syria for access to besieged areas, it has been far from what was hoped.

"The fighting is the main reason for why we are not going to all of these places," he said, emphasizing the need to "regain momentum," such as by a humanitarian truce.

"A humanitarian truce could work in the following manner: We get 72-hour notice to go and we get a pause in the fighting for 48 hours. That's what we need, that is what it takes to have a lifeline to places where people are at the brink of starvation," he added.

Emphasizing that the "clock is ticking," Mr. Egeland concurred that there are only a few weeks of supplies remaining.

"The homework we have given as humanitarians to the co-chairs, which are the United States and Russia, and to other members of the ISSG [International Syria Support Group] is the following: give us 48 hours every week to be able to go to eastern Aleppo where there is a quarter of a million civilians and they have no other lifeline than this Castello Road, and that we can get in cross-border, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and UN and cross-line, UN, Red Cross and Red Crescent," he said.
Ban welcomes new agreement with Inter Parliamentary Union; reiterates concern at South Sudan crisis

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Ban welcomes new agreement with Inter Parliamentary Union; reiterates concern at South Sudan crisis, 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57920dce411.html [accessed 28 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.

21 July 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today signed a new partnership agreement with the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) that will further strengthen the collaboration between the two organizations in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

"The Members of Parliament are the ones who really listen to the real voices from the people on the ground and they represent the wishes and views and aspirations of the people," Mr. Ban said at a press encounter at the signing of the agreement.

"Let's work [closely] together [] to meet the expectations and aspirations of the people," said Mr. Ban citing what he referred to as the 5-Ps - people, planet, peace, prosperity and partnership.

In further remarks, the Secretary-General also spoke on the crisis in South Sudan.

Mr. Ban recently travelled to the Rwandan capital Kigali, where he met with several African leaders from International Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). In discussions on the South Sudan crisis, IGAD leaders recommended strengthening the mandate and capacity of the UN Mission in the country (UNMISS).

IGAD is an eight-country trade bloc in Africa comprising Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.

Today, Mr. Ban said that although the actual violence in South Sudan might have stopped for the time being, the threat of reoccurrence remains.

"We have to make sure that there is continuing cessation of the violence," he said, expecting and urging the leaders of South Sudan to, "sit down together and make a firm commitment that they will work as one team, the President and the First Vice-President."

Mr. Ban also voiced serious concerns about sexual violence against women and girls as well as at attacks on UN humanitarian facilities and the looting of a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse by the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army). The warehouse contained humanitarian food assistance for some 220,000 people.

"This is totally unacceptable," he emphasized and called for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

The Secretary General also thanked UNMISS peacekeepers, UN staff, humanitarian workers, non-governmental organizations, and media for continuing their work under very difficult and dangerous circumstances.
As DR Congo polls approach, UN rights chief warns of threats to free speech, public assembly

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, As DR Congo polls approach, UN rights chief warns of threats to free speech, public assembly, 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57920e1940d.html [accessed 28 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.

21 July 2016 - Concluding a four-day mission to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, today commended the country's efforts to strengthen human rights but cautioned that some of these advances may be under threat, especially what he saw as repression against opposition parties in the coming elections.

While noting that important advances relating to impunity for sexual violence are in line with broader progress in the DRC since he had first visited the country, in another capacity, in 2004, he said that as crucial electoral deadlines approach, there is rising tension.

"I receive reports of increasing violations of fundamental civil and political rights by State actors. These notably include violations of freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly - rights anchored in the binding international treaties to which the DRC is party, and enshrined in the Congolese constitution. The public space for the expression of dissent is now clearly under pressure," Mr. Zeid continued.

He said he is also very concerned about reports of increasing harassment of civil society representatives and journalists, as well as the repression of voices which oppose the Government," Mr. Zeid told journalists in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, at a press conference at the end of the mission.

He also briefed the journalists that he noted a number of important commitments made by senior Government officials and stressed that it is vital that they are implemented. The High Commissioner underscored that his Office (OHCHR) is ready to support the Government in strengthening human rights in the country.

During the visit, Mr. Zeid also travelled Panzi Hospital in Bukavu where he met with women survivors of sexual violence, and with Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor who has treated more than 40,000 victims.

The visit coincided with the 20th anniversary of the OHCHR presence in the DRC, the largest OHCHR field presence in the world.

Persisting challenges

While Mr. Zeid noted a number of positive steps, he also spoke of challenges facing the central African country.

On one of the pressing challenges, the forthcoming elections, he said that he supported President Joseph Kabila's call for a national dialogue, which the High Commissioner said must be open and honest.

"[The] dialogue simply cannot take place in an atmosphere which stifles discussion and the airing of all grievances and opinions [and] where independent media and respect for fundamental freedoms are being threatened," he said, and urged that respect for the human rights of all is should be at its core.

Criticism or dissent does not constitute subversion

He called for legal guarantees that would allow people to express their views and work together without fear of retribution by the security forces or judicial authorities.

Emphasizing that there is no threat to the State from people who are simply voicing their opinions, he underscored: "Criticism or dissent does not constitute subversion."

He also called on the police forces to refrain from any use of lethal force during peaceful demonstrations and said that crowd control means should be based on the principles of necessity and proportionality.

Mr. Zeid hailed the youth of the country as its greatest asset and urged that they must be encouraged to contribute to it. He said that those who speak out must not be oppressed for expressing their views.

The High Commissioner further expressed appreciation for the country's reception of over 25,000 refugees from Burundi in recent months.

He said "[The act] is a lesson to many far richer countries who demonstrate less compassion."

"I see this as a pivotal moment," the High Commissioner said of the coming polls, stressing that the DRC is a country with tremendous assets - including, not least, the legendary drive and creative ingenuity of its people.

"If it can build a momentum in terms of human rights protection, democracy and rule of law for all, the DRC has the potential to shape a strong and cohesive society - one which truly benefits all its people. If it stumbles into increasing repression, mistrust and grievance, however, there is also the possibility the current political uncertainty could lead to serious crisis, which could undo many of the gains made by the Congolese people," the High Commissioner warned.
South Sudan: UN human rights expert calls for the release of journalist Alfred Taban

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, South Sudan: UN human rights expert calls for the release of journalist Alfred Taban, 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57920e8540d.html [accessed 28 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.

21 July 2016 - A United Nations human rights expert today urged the Government of South Sudan to immediately release Alfred Taban, a prominent journalist and chief editor of the daily English newspaper, Juba Monitor.

Mr. Taban was arrested on 16 July by National Security Services agents, one day after the publication of an editorial article in which he called for the removal of the South Sudan President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar, criticizing them for their unsuccessful implementation of the August 2015 peace agreement. He is currently being held without charges.

It is crucial for a country seeking to establish peace and stability that it takes active steps to encourage freedom of expression for everyone, said David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, referring to the recently installed transitional Government. Any pressure against journalists based on the content of their reporting represents regressive steps that South Sudan cannot afford to take.

Mr. Taban's opinion piece came as a response to the violent clashes in Juba on 7 July, between government forces loyal to the President Kiir and those loyal to the First Vice-President Machar, leaving hundreds of people killed. The incident was recently described as a clear breach of the peace agreement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani.

The arrest and detention of Mr. Taban are unlawful as they are directly linked to the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression, said Mr. Kaye in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The Special Rapporteur noted that the detention of Mr. Taban is the latest in a series of attacks against journalists and media in South Sudan, which have been on the rise since the beginning of the mid-December 2013 conflict. Several journalists have reportedly been killed or detained without trial, and a number of newspapers have been ordered to shut down.

Mr. Kaye urged South Sudanese authorities to halt the targeting of journalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed to everyone under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

His statement has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst; and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Libya: Lives of captives trapped under fire in Benghazi in danger

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Libya: Lives of captives trapped under fire in Benghazi in danger, 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57920f754.html [accessed 28 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.

Airstrikes by the Libyan National Army are endangering the lives of scores of detainees who are being held captive in Benghazi, said Amnesty International.

The organization raised the alarm as new video evidence emerged showing three men who were among an estimated 130 people abducted by the armed group Ansar al-Sharia from a military prison in Benghazi in October 2014. In the video, the first time they've been seen since they went missing, the men call for an end to the airstrikes which they say have injured several people and are putting lives at risk.

"Scores of people who were abducted and are being held captive in Benghazi are trapped under fire with no way out. Carrying out airstrikes in a manner that ignores their presence violates international humanitarian law. Those carrying out attacks must take all feasible precautions to avoid or at least minimise harm to people who are not directly participating in the fighting," said Magdalena Mughrabi, interim Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

The video has been produced by the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, a coalition of militias and armed groups including Ansar al-Sharia, possibly as an attempt to protect their fighters from attack. Such conduct violates international humanitarian law, and can constitute a war crime.

"No one should be held as a hostage or treated as a human shield. Even if Ansar al-Sharia were intentionally using detainees as human shields, this would not absolve the Libyan National Army of their obligation to take their presence into account and to avoid launching disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks, which may amount to war crimes," said Magdalena Mughrabi.

The three men shown in the video are identified as Mousa Abduljawad al Badri, Mohammed Abdallah Atbaiga and Omar Mohamed Ishkal. Family members of two of the men - Mohamed Abdallah Atbaiga and Omar Mohamed Ishkal - said the only contact they had with them since their abduction was through a handful of brief, monitored phone calls lasting a couple of minutes long. Mohamed Abdallah Atbaiga's relatives said they had not heard from him in eight months before seeing him on the video.

While they were relieved to find out their loved ones were still alive, family members told Amnesty International they desperately feared for their lives given fighting which is ongoing in parts of Benghazi between the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and the Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar.

"All we're asking for is a safe passage for them. It's a call of humanity on the international community. Ever since his [my brother's] arrest, our lives have been at a standstill, destroyed. My father is an old man and can't take more," said Mohammed Abdallah Atbaiga's brother, pleading for his abducted brother to be allowed to leave.

The Libyan National Army has been carrying out repeated airstrikes on areas of Benghazi under the control of the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries including Ganfouda.

The men in the video explain they were moved from one area to another following an airstrike a few months earlier in which several of the abducted men were injured. They also said that they narrowly survived another airstrike in early July in their new location. Activists believe the men were recently moved from the Guwarsha district of Benghazi to the residential area of Ganfouda in south west Benghazi, where they estimate that there are more than 400 families including foreign nationals, lacking basic needs such as food and medical care, who are unable to leave because of the fighting.

There have also been claims that the abducted men were released from captivity but are still trapped in Ganfouda. Amnesty International has not been able to verify these claims but what is crucial is that these men are protected and able to safely leave the area should they want to.

In recent weeks the Libyan National Army has distributed leaflets warning civilians to leave the Ganfouda district which is controlled by Ansar al-Sharia, within 48 hours, promising to provide safe routes out of the area, raising families' fears of further attacks.

"Those being held captive do not have the option to flee an area where they face the risk of deadly airstrikes. Ansar al-Sharia and other armed groups should release all civilians who are held captive and must not prevent civilians from fleeing to safer areas. Captured fighters must be treated humanely and not used as hostages or human shields," said Magdalena Mughrabi.

Amnesty International reported the allegations that some 150 detainees were abducted from the Bouhdima military prison in 2014. The majority were accused of being pro-Gaddafi soldiers or volunteers and had been held without charge or trial since the end of 2011. Since then, activists have told

Amnesty International that the actual number is closer to 130 abducted detainees.

The organization visited Bouhdima military prison in 2012 and also visited a group of the detainees in April 2013 following their temporary transfer to the Kuwafiah military prison in Benghazi. At the time, many were cleared for release by the military prosecution due to the lack of evidence, but continued to be held due to pressure from militias and families of victims of Colonel al-Gaddafi's past human rights abuses.

The Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries have released other videos in recent months showing civilians including children and foreign nationals also demanding an end to airstrikes in areas of Benghazi under their control.

Background

Parts of Benghazi have been reduced to rubble following the launch of a military offensive by forces loyal to the Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar against the coalition of militias and armed groups known as the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries in 2014. Two years later the fighting continues although most is now limited to areas in western Benghazi.

Forces on all sides have committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. They have carried out hundreds of abductions, taken hostages, tortured, ill-treated and summarily killed detainees, and launched indiscriminate attacks on residential areas.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Turkey: State of emergency must not roll back human rights

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Turkey: State of emergency must not roll back human rights, 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57920ff24.html [accessed 28 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 Erdogan's announcement of the imposition of a state of emergency must not pave the way for a roll-back in human rights or be used as a pretext to further clamp down on freedom of expression and protections against arbitrary detention and torture, said Amnesty International today.



Following a meeting of the National Security Council and the Turkish cabinet late Wednesday night, President Erdogan announced that the government will impose a state of emergency for at least three months.



"In the wake of the violence surrounding the attempted coup, taking measures prioritizing public security is understandable. But emergency measures must respect Turkey's obligations under international law, should not discard hard won freedoms and human rights safeguards, and must not become permanent," said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's Turkey researcher.

Emergency measures must respect Turkey's obligations under international law, should not discard hard won freedoms and human rights safeguards, and must not become permanent. Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's Turkey researcher



"In a situation where almost 10,000 people are currently in detention, amidst allegations of ill-treatment in custody, and when government ministries and media institutions are being purged, the enhanced powers afforded by the state of emergency could pave the way for a further roll back on human rights."



In a chilling harbinger of what is to come, the deputy Prime Minister announced today that for the duration of the state of emergency the government will suspend the European Convention on Human Rights.



The state of emergency allows the Prime Minister along with his cabinet the power to rule by decree and bypass Parliament. Amnesty International fears that the move could be used as a pretext for the authorities to extend the period of pre-charge detention which currently stands at four days. Under the current circumstances such an extension could further undermine protections against ill-treatment as well as the right to a fair trial. Emergency measures could also be used to impose arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly, and to deny the right of civil servants to appeal their suspensions and dismissals.



Under international law, emergency measures must be necessary and proportionate in scope and duration and only used to counter genuine security threats to the nation. Critically, they must be carefully monitored, temporary, and employed judiciously, that is, only when absolutely required.



"It is vital that the Turkish government does not use the state of emergency as a pretext to clampdown on peaceful dissent even harder. Even in times of emergency, Turkey's constitution guarantees that its obligations under international law should not be violated," said Andrew Gardner.

It is vital that the Turkish government does not use the state of emergency as a pretext to clampdown on peaceful dissent even harder. Even in times of emergency, Turkey's constitution guarantees that its obligations under international law should not be violated. Andrew Gardner



"Under international law, there are certain rights, like the right to a fair trial and bans on torture and discrimination, which can never be suspended or limited in any way.

"The government has abused existing laws, the state of emergency gives them increased scope to continue on this dangerous path."

Background
Cambodia: Release detained human rights defenders and stop their harassment

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 21 July 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Cambodia: Release detained human rights defenders and stop their harassment, 21 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57921bb84.html [accessed 28 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Cambodian Government must immediately release five prominent human rights defenders who are currently arbitrarily detained based on trumped-up charges that stem solely from their human rights activities, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an FIDH-OMCT partnership) said today. The call was made following a three-day mission conducted by the Observatory in Phnom Penh from July 17 to 19, 2016. The Observatory also calls on the authorities to end threats, intimidation, and harassment against human rights defenders in the country.

On July 18, 2016,Ny Chakrya, former Head of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association's (ADHOC) human rights section and current National Election Committee (NEC) Deputy Secretary-General, stood trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges of defamation brought by the former Deputy Prosecutor and the Investigative Judge at the Siem Reap Provincial Court (see background information). At the trial, Ny Chakrya objected to the continuation of the proceedings without the presence in court of the two plaintiffs. Ny Chakrya's legal team argued that the absence of the two plaintiffs prevented their client from challenging his accusers. When the trial Judge Khy Chhai refused to adjourn the proceedings to allow for the presence of the plaintiffs, Ny Chakrya's attorney requested that he be allowed to file a motion to recuse the judge within 30 days. As a result, Judge Khy Chhai adjourned the trial pending a decision on the request to recuse him. The proceedings lasted less than 20 minutes.

The Observatory recalls that Ny Chakrya has been detained since May 2, 2016, in relation to another case in which he is accused of having been an accomplice in the bribing of a witness, along with ADHOC staff members Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, Yi Soksan, and Lim Mony (see background information).

On June 13, 2016, the Court of Appeals in Phnom Penh denied bail to Ny Chakrya, Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, Yi Soksan, and Lim Mony. The court's refusal to release the five detained human rights defenders on bail is a significant obstacle to the exercise of their basic rights, including the fundamental right to liberty and the right to a fair trial.

Family members of the five expressed concerns over poor detention conditions in the prisons. They noted overcrowded cells, insufficient and poor quality food, and inadequate medical care. In addition, the family members complained that their relatives were not segregated from the general prison population of convicted criminals, including those imprisoned for serious offenses.

The Observatory calls on the Cambodian Government to comply with the country's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Cambodia is a State party. Article 9(3) of the ICCPR prescribes that pre-trial detention should be an exception and should be as short as possible. The refusal to grant bail to the human rights defenders also compromises their right to be presumed innocent (guaranteed by Article 14(2) of the ICCPR). The Observatory also urges the Cambodian authorities to ensure the respect of international human rights standards related to prison conditions. These include the United Nations (UN) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners ('Mandela Rules') and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment.

During the Observatory's mission in addition to the observation of Ny Chakrya's trial and a visit to Ny Chakrya in Phnom Penh's Police Judiciaire prison, Mr. Giorgetta, the mission delegate, also met with activists, human rights defenders, and members of civil society to discuss their human rights concerns, as well as with acting Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) Deputy Leader Kem Sokha and European Union (EU) Ambassador to Cambodia George Edgar.

Background information:

Ny Chakrya is facing charges of "public defamation", "acts of slanderous denunciation", and "publication of commentaries to put pressure on jurisdiction", under Articles 305, 311, and 522 of the Cambodian Criminal Code. If found guilty of all charges, he could face a prison term of up to one-and-a-half years and a fine [1].

In addition to the above, Ny Chakrya has been arbitrarily detained since May 2, 2016, on charges of being an accomplice in the bribing of a witness (Articles 29 and 548 of the Criminal Code) in connection with a separate case. On the same day, ADHOC staff members Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, Yi Soksan, and Lim Mony were detained on charges of bribing a witness (Article 548 of the Criminal Code). If convicted, the five human rights defenders could face from five to ten years' imprisonment [2].

https://www.protectdefenders.eu/en/...

Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, and Yi Soksan are held in Prey Sar's Correctional Center 1 ('CC1'), while Lim Mony is detained in Prey Sar's Correctional Center 2 ('CC2'). Ny Chakrya is detained in Police Judiciaire prison. All three prisons are located in Phnom Penh.

Footnotes

[1] For more information, see Observatory Urgent Appeal KHM 002 / 0715 / OBS 056.3, issued on July 15, 2016.

[2] For more information, see Observatory Urgent Appeal KHM 001/0616/OBS 047, issued on June 14, 2016.
FIDH condemns coup attempt in Turkey and calls for response which respects the rule of law and human rights

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 19 July 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, FIDH condemns coup attempt in Turkey and calls for response which respects the rule of law and human rights , 19 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57921d104.html [accessed 28 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.

FIDH severely condemns the attempt by elements of the Turkish military to overrule the government by force of arms on Friday 15 July. Any such attempt must be condemned and perpetrators must be brought to justice. FIDH urges the authorities to ensure that any response fully respects democratic principles, the rule of law and human rights. Authorities must especially refrain from using the attempted coup as a pretext to justify further restrictions to human rights and fundamental freedoms and further repression against political opponents and human rights defenders in Turkey.

On Friday 15 July, a Turkish military faction declared a coup attempt and martial law, closing Istanbul's bridges, airports, the Turkish parliament and some police stations. Turkish military claimed to have taken power to restore constitutional order, democracy and human rights. In response, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged people to take to the streets to protest against the coup. Parliament was struck by at least one bomb and media reported clashes, surrenders and chaos. 290 people lost their lives and another 1,440 are reported to have been injured across the country. As a reaction to Friday night's attempted coup, the Turkish government began cracking down on those it suspected of being involved. More than 6,000 people, including senior military officials, have been arrested and 2,745 judges and prosecutors have been dismissed for alleged links to the coup. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to "cleanse the virus from all state institutions."

FIDH strongly condemns the attempted coup and expresses its deepest sympathies to the victims, their families and the injured. Responsibility for upholding democratic principles and ensuring respect for the rule of law and human rights lies with the government and any change in government must be sought through democratic, free and fair elections and not by force.

FIDH is deeply concerned though about the Turkish government's violent reaction, which risks further restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms and further breaching democratic rule in Turkey. Claims by Erdogan that he would reintroduce the death penalty and clear all institutions of political opponents are particularly concerning. The virulence of the reaction and its rapidity, leading to the arrest of thousands of people in the space of a few hours, also raises concerns regarding the actual ground for these indictments and appears disproportionate to the aim it intends to achieve.

FIDH also urges the authorities to ensure that all those responsible are hold to account through transparent, impartial and thorough investigations and prosecutions which are carried out in full compliance with international fair trial standards.

It calls on the international community, notably the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations, to keep monitoring the situation closely.
After a three-day seminar on documenting human rights violations held for Ukrainian lawyers and human rights defenders in Kharkiv from 4 to 6 July 2016, our organisations express their concern on the prevalent climate of impunity for crimes committed since the beginning of the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Loopholes in Ukrainian legislation, problems of access to territories that are not controlled by Ukrainian authorities, and a lack of political will to genuinely investigate and prosecute these crimes, contribute to a situation of violence and impunity that should be investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"Perpetrators of the numerous serious human rights violations committed on the territories that are not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities are continuing to act without being properly held accountable. Ukraine does not recognize the existence of an armed conflict, so no appropriate international or national body of law is being applied. Nonetheless, these crimes may amount to war crimes and/or crimes against humanity under the ICC Statute."

Lawlessness reigns in the territories not controlled by the Ukrainian government, constituting a major blow to human rights protection in Ukraine. Local lawyers and human rights activists documenting crimes committed since the outbreak of the conflict expressed numerous problems related to the lack of rule of law.

Of increasing concern is the exchange of captives between both parties to the conflict. This exchange is occurring in a legal void, exacerbating the problem of enforced disappearances on both sides. Approximately 3000 Ukrainian military and civilian captives in the hands of so-called "DNR-LPR forces" are said to have been exchanged for captured separatists since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). [1] Besides not being regulated by any body of law, the circumstances surrounding the exchange are kept secret, including the temporary detention locations used, conditions of captivity and the ultimate fate of those exchanged. This practice has evolved from individual cases to a systematic practice lacking all transparency, and without any legal framework.

The monopolization of the negotiations leading to captives exchange by the Ukrainian Security Service accelerated further since the adoption of the Minsk II agreements in February 2015, which requires both sides of the conflict to "ensure release and exchange of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons, based on the principle all for all." [2] The problem is exacerbated because of the amnesty requirement, which, furthermore, is not clearly formulated in the text of the agreement, which does not define the persons covered by the amnesty, nor the terms and procedure of a possible amnesty.

Since the beginning of the conflict, Ukrainian human rights organisations have reported a significant increase in cases of killings and enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, illegal detention and destruction of property. Cases of sexual and gender-based crimes against both women and men have been reported, even if still largely under-documented. Therefore, the conclusions reached in FIDH's report "Civilians Caught in the Crossfire" [3] on the systematic and widespread nature of crimes committed on the territories out of the Ukrainian govermnents control remains relevant. These problems must be urgently addressed. The armed conflict in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine has generated serious human rights violations, which may amount to international crimes. These incidents must be properly investigated, at the national or international level, and perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity should be identified and prosecuted.
Change of course needed for President Duterte's first 100 days in office

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 18 July 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Change of course needed for President Duterte's first 100 days in office, 18 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/579222004.html [accessed 28 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.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte must urgently change course and address key human rights issues during the first 100 days of his six-year term, FIDH and its member organization Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) said today. Duterte won the 9 May 2016 presidential election and was sworn in as the country's 16th President on 30 June 2016.

From 10 May to 18 July 2016, police officers and vigilantes were responsible for 312 reported cases of extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals, mostly in connection with drug-related offenses. About 85% of the cases occurred after Duterte took office. [1] According to police figures, 39 suspected drug dealers had been killed from the start of the year until the presidential election.

The recent dramatic increase in the number of extrajudicial killings appears to be a direct consequence of Duterte's numerous reckless statements made during his election campaign and after his victory in the 9 May polls.

During his election campaign, Duterte heavily emphasized the use of vigilante justice and pledged to kill up to 100,000 criminals during his first six months in office in order to eradicate crime and corruption. Duterte has been accused of having links to vigilante death squads who were believed to have been responsible for the killing of more than 1,000 people during his time as mayor of Davao.

After Duterte's election victory, his alarming statements escalated. During his first press conference after election day, on 16 May 2016, Duterte vowed to restore the death penalty by hanging for a wide range of crimes with a particular focus on crimes involving drugs. Other crimes for which Duterte said the death penalty would be reinstated include rape, robbery, and kidnapping that resulted in the victims' death. The Philippines abolished capital punishment for all crimes in 2006. Duterte also declared he would give security forces shoot-to-kill orders to neutralize members of organized crime groups and those who violently resist arrest.

In an extremely disturbing development, on 31 May 2016, Duterte suggested corrupt journalists would not be "exempted from assassination." In addition, he repeatedly promised bounties to police officers for killing criminals, including drug dealers.

Just hours after taking his oath as president, Duterte called on ordinary Filipinos to kill drug addicts. The next day, he urged the communist armed group New People's Army to execute drug traffickers.

FIDH and PAHRA urge President Duterte to take concrete steps during his first 100 days in office to address key human rights challenges. The two organizations call on Duterte to:

1. Respect the Philippines' legal obligations under core international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.

2. Begin the process of ratification of other key international human rights instruments, including the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) and ILO Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples.

3. Ensure the protection of human rights defenders, trade unionists, indigenous leaders, and journalists and order thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into all cases of past crimes committed against them.

4. Adequately investigate all past cases of enforced disappearances, in line with the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, and extrajudicial killings, especially those implicating police, military personnel, and armed militias.

5. Ensure that the provisions of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 are implemented and that all torture complaints are investigated in a timely manner, perpetrators are brought to justice, and victims obtain full and effective redress and reparation.

6. Accelerate the adoption of legislation protecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) rights.

7. Implement the recommendations that the Philippines accepted during its latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May 2012, as well as the recommendations made by the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in December 2008, the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) in November 2012, and the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) in May 2016.
Israeli Knesset approves controversial law targeting foreign-government funding for NGOs

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 18 July 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Israeli Knesset approves controversial law targeting foreign-government funding for NGOs, 18 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5792224f4.html [accessed 28 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.

On July 11, 2016, the Knesset approved its so-called "NGO Transparency Law". This law requires NGOs registered in Israel that receive 50% or more of their funding from foreign government entities to report to the NGO registrar and to mention such funding in all their official letters and publications. The fine for violating the law would be up to NIS 29,000 (almost EUR 6,800).

As adopted, the law would in effect discriminatingly target non-governmental organisations (NGOs) critical of government policy and in particular human rights NGOs, which receive a majority of their funding from foreign governments. 25 of the 27 organisations to which the Justice Ministry said the law would apply are human rights NGOs. By specifically applying to donations from foreign governments, the NGO Transparency Law de facto exempts right-wing organisations that receive most of their funding from private (local and international) sources from the obligation of reporting and publicity.

The Observatory fears that the legislation that was passed seeks to undermine and de-legitimize the work of prominent human rights organisations in Israel, which monitor, among other issues, human rights violations against Palestinians.

The legislative move comes amid increased repression of Israeli and Palestinian organisations that denounce the detrimental human rights impact of the occupation of the Palestinian Territory. In particular, the NGO Transparency Law came after unprecedented smear campaigns by right-wing groups and branding Israeli human rights defenders as "foreign agents" and "traitors".

Several groups, including the EU Commission and representatives of foreign States, have criticised the NGO Transparency Law, emphasizing that it contributes to a climate in which human rights organisations are increasingly de-legitimised. UN Special Rapporteurs on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of association, and on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders stated on June 24, 2016 that the proposed law, "has the evident intent of targeting human rights and civil rights organizations, which receive a majority of their funding from foreign government entities, while leaving unaffected other organizations that nonetheless receive a substantial amount of foreign funding from individuals".

Under the pretext of increasing transparency, the NGO Transparency Law seeks to hamper the activities of organisations critical of the government's policies. By complicating the space in which civil society organisations operate, the new law seeks to impose restrictions on freedoms of expression and association in Israel.
Reading, math scores down in 1st test since COVID. How Indiana did.
First there was the Vagabond Pizza truck. Jason and Jessica Adams gave Abilene wood-fired pizza with fresh toppings and ready smiles from an oven with wheels.

These days, the truck's been parked and the pizzas are being served up in a former jewelry store at 1056 N. Second St.

The only thing that remains of the jewelry store is the display case behind the big beautiful bar that occupies the back right corner of the room.

Exposed rafters and exposed brick pay homage to the history of the building and make a great setting for great food.

I've eaten at Vagabond Pizza three times in the past few weeks.

My pizza and salad were delicious every time.

My friend Thom and I went there for my first visit and we both started with the Caprese salad. It had the basic basil, mozzarella, tomato combo, with a Vagabond twist. Fire-roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella with micro basil black garlic and balsamic reduction and olive oil. Genius. It's the best Caprese salad I've ever had.

When it comes to the pizza, I've got to start with the crust. Crisp, chewy, hand-tossed and just enough char to add bite, Vagabond nails it.

I think I'd be happy just eating the crust.

But the toppings add so much. I had the three-cheese pizza with mozzarella, crispy Parmesan and herbed ricotta on tomato sauce. One of the things I love about these pizzas is the deft touch with the tomato sauce. Not only does the sauce actually taste like fresh tomatoes, it's used lightly  to enhance the crust and toppings, not overpower them. I don't remember what pizza Thom ordered. He didn't share, and he devoured it.

I went back with my friend Devin last week, and, if possible, dinner was even better. We both started with the house Vagabond Salad with field greens, fresh mozzarella and fire-roasted tomatoes. It was perfectly dressed  lightly, not drowning  with a balsamic vinaigrette made with Cordell's oil and vinegar, which the restaurant uses exclusively.

It was so good, I wanted to lick the plate. But I showed restraint.

Devin ordered the Bomber, with Calabrese salami and razor-thin slices of jalapeno, on tomato sauce. Great combo. The Calabrese salami is new to me, but I really like it. I'm a fan of Genoa hard salami and it's along those lines, but spicier and richer.

I had the Penelope, which is my new favorite pizza. No tomato sauce on this one, but mozzarella, dry-cured bacon, mushrooms and one of my favorite pizza toppings  artichokes. This California girl loves artichokes just about every way you can eat them. But they are sublime on a pizza.

Dessert was a Strawberry Hand Pie  Jason's version of a strawberry Pop-Tart, but with real pastry. It even included a little packet of strawberry and fresh lime icing that we got to apply ourselves. And the Butterscotch Pot de Creme was magical.

On Tuesday, I met my friend Kelly for lunch. She ordered the Brutus Salad, a Caesar salad served over piquillo pepper puree and I went for the Vagabond Salad again. We split a Bianca pizza  basil, mozzarella and olive oil.

An emergency came up and my meal got boxed up, and even later at home, it still tasted good.

The menu changes every week, so the experience is rarely duplicated.

There are many reasons I'm grateful to have Jason and Jessica Adams and their lovely restaurant right around the corner from the newspaper.

One, the food is amazing; two, they love downtown Abilene and want to be a part of it; and three, they are just good people. They close the restaurant on Sundays and Mondays so their employees get two days off in a row, every week.

Jessica greets the guests with her warm smile and bubbly personality and Jason frequently comes out of the kitchen to check in with the diners. It's truly an experience not to be missed.
In Cisco, you can have your pie and eat it, too. Or three. Or more ...
Incident reports released Thursday by the Abilene Police Department:

Aggravated robbery, 1200 block of Butternut Street, Wednesday

A manager of a business reported a man entered the store and concealed an item in his clothing. When confronted, the manager said, the man displayed a machete and fled the store.

Criminal trespass, 3000 block of Nonesuch Road, Thursday

Police said a woman's boyfriend's ex-girlfriend broke down the locked, front door of her residence. The suspect was reportedly blocked entry by the boyfriend and she fled the scene, police said.

Assault, 900 block of Shelton Street, Wednesday

Police said a woman was kicked in the leg by her boyfriend, who was wearing steel-toed boots. Police said the suspect fled after she called 911.

Assault, 300 block of Reading Avenue, Monday

A 30-year-old man was arrested after police said he grabbed, scratched, punched, kicked and pulled the hair of his ex-girlfriend, causing her pain.

Aggravated assault, driving while intoxicated, 2100 block of North Treadaway Boulevard, Wednesday

A 23-year-old man was arrested after police said a fight broke out with a report of shots fired. Police said the man was contacted after he attempted to drive away from the scene. The fight, police said, resulted after the man struck a vehicle in traffic and then followed the other vehicle to a parking lot. Police said the two argued and a shot was fired by the suspect. The gun was wrestled from his hand, police said, and he was arrested. He also performed poorly on field sobriety tests performed at Taylor County Jail, police said, and a breath test showed the man's blood alcohol content level above the legal limit.
Celebrating the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, community members, local business representatives, and staff and volunteers of Disability in Action gathered at the Abilene Civic Center Thursday.

'The Americans with Disabilities Act changed the way we look at  and treat  the disabled,' said Leah Beltran, executive director of Disability in Action.' ADA opened doors, allowing the disabled to have the same rights as other citizens.'

This was the seventh year for the celebration, which marks the signing of the bill into law by then-President George H.W Bush on July 26, 1990.

'What time has shown since the signing of the ADA is that people are not their disability,' Beltran added. 'People are capable of so much more than the label a doctor placed on them.'

Elizabeth McCormick, an Army veteran and motivational speaker, addressed the crowd by saying, 'Believe in your potential and everything comes after that.'

'We need to be more curious and ask 'why not,' instead of 'why' when someone tells us we can't do something,' said McCormick, who was one of the first 100 female helicopter pilots in the Army. She flew missions over Kosovo in the late 1990s. 'One thing can change everything; when things get hard, how you show up matters, and that's on you.'

'People can't always tell about your disability from the outside,' said McCormick, who was injured while in Kosovo, and has disabled veteran status. 'Disability is about ability and what you can do. It's up to you to bring the attitude. When stuck in a difficult spot, answer the question, 'Do I really want this?' and then get up and press on.'

Abilenian Vicki White said she has attended several of the celebrations over the years, and was particularly impacted by this year's guest speaker.

'I loved Elizabeth's speech,' said White, who receives services from Disability in Action, including help with dental bills, a new pair of glasses, and transportation assistance. 'I've lived in Abilene most of my life, and what Elizabeth said about belief and ability really spoke to me.'

Disability in Action is an Abilene-based non-profit providing information and referral, individual advocacy, independent living skills training, peer support, systems advocacy, and transition assistance.
The Development Corporation of Abilene board unanimously approved its budget for the upcoming fiscal year Thursday afternoon, the request now set to go to the Abilene City Council.

'We're projecting revenues of about $11.7 million (in the 2017 budget),' said Kent Sharp, before the meeting. 'That's sales tax, that's lease income we're getting, that's everything.'

The entity is projecting expenditures of $6.8 million, generating a surplus of $4.9 million. The DCOA's fund balance as of Sept. 30, 2017, is expected to be $17.24 million.

Overall the DCOA is 'expecting a fairly healthy year,' Sharp said, adding that the proposed figures could change substantially over time given new projects.

For example, in the current fiscal year, the DCOA didn't anticipate what ended up being around $75 million in new investment in Abilene, a development Sharp characterized as 'huge.'

Those projects included Prairie Dog Pet Products, estimated to bring around 215 jobs to the area and $30 million in capital investment.

'That was an outlay of $4.5 million in cash,' he said.

The DCOA also agreed to match 10 percent of a projected $32 million expansion investment by Coca-Cola, Sharp said.

'They haven't turned in their final expenses yet, but what was approved was we would match 10 percent of the $32 million they invested, so we put in $3.2 million,' he said.

And Abimar Foods, which produces cookies and crackers in its two Abilene locations, had a $15 million expansion.

'We put in $1.5 million there,' Sharp said.

Changes to the upcoming budget are 'relatively minor,' he said, such as a $30,000 increase in advertising and promotions, putting that figure at $50,000.

'There are initiatives we want to undertake to market some of our properties and just do some general marketing on the DCOA side,' Sharp said in Thursday's meeting.

But while much of the budget is easily predictable, other variables are a bit hazy.

'We know the known expenses  the operations, the salaries, the utilities,' Sharp said earlier in the day. 'The hardest thing to predict is projects, some of them approved five or six years ago, some of them maybe a year or two years ago, that were performance-based.'

Those companies don't get their incentives from the DCOA until they first create jobs or create investment, something Sharp termed a 'moving target,' especially since some deals are structured over 'two, three, four or five years.'

'We're in constant communication with the companies, the (Abilene) Industrial Foundation is in constant contact with those companies,' he said. 'So we're always asking the question: 'Do you know how many employees you're going to create in the next quarter, the next 12 months?' And they give us ballparks and estimates, but until they actually create those jobs and create that investment and turn it in, that's the moving target for us.'

In other business, sales tax for July was down 2.72 percent and 7.26 percent below the projected fiscal year 2016 budget amount.

Of the $30.03 million total rebate, $757,642 was allocated for economic development.

For the period of October through June, sales tax was down 3.7 percent compared to last year, and 4.98 percent below the projected fiscal year 2016 budget amount.

This is the eighth month out of the last 10 that sales tax has been down, said Mike Rains, the city's finance director, Thursday afternoon.

Areas tied heavily to oil such as Midland, Houston, Sugarland, Odessa and San Angelo were significantly down in July, he said. Midland's sales tax was down 21 percent, for example, while San Angelo was down 16 percent.

'I think we're on that periphery, so I think we're getting a little bit of that,' Rains said.

But there was some hope, he said, that the decline might stabilize.

'We're hoping that we're going to start leveling out here as we get closer to the next fiscal year,' Rains said.
Ted Cruz's lack of endorsement disappointing, Abilene delegate says

Ted Cruz's failure to endorse Donald Trump Wednesday night affected delegates to the convention in vastly different ways, said Marcus Anderson, a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Abilene.

'We do have some delegates that say they won't support him in the future, that they've lost confidence in him and things of that sort,' he said. 'I'm not among them.'

Anderson, who attended the convention as a delegate for Cruz, said he had been a supporter of the candidate for a 'long time,' and was disappointed when some delegates began booing the candidate after he failed to endorse Trump.

'I didn't think that was appropriate, I didn't take part in it, and it was disappointing to me,' he said.

Anderson said he'd had great confidence in Cruz and had supported him from the start.

'I am surprised he did not endorse Donald Trump,' he said. 'I think in his speech last night it would have been an ideal time to do that, but he's evidently not supporting him because of his view of his principles, and I think we have to allow people to make their own decisions in their own ways.'

Anderson said that he hopes Cruz does 'come around' and strongly support Trump's campaign.

'We'll just see how that bears out,' Anderson said. 'He said he'll be watching and listening to the candidate before he votes. He said the easier political option would be to immediately pledge his allegiance to the candidate, but he's going in the way that he believes is right.'

Cruz congratulated Trump for winning the nomination and strongly asked conservatives 'not to stay home' on election day but to vote for a candidate 'we trust to defend our principles and defend the Constitution,' Anderson said.

Anderson said he thought the Republican Party overall had been doing a good job in mixing in speakers who had worked with Trump and testified to his fairness, his leadership ability and his attributes as a businessman.

'I was impressed several of the men who ran for president and were not nominated spoke and endorsed Mr. Trump  Scott Walker, Newt Gingrich and our own (former) governor Rick Perry,' he said, adding that he also appreciated hearing from Trump's family.

'They're pretty impressive in what they have to say,' he said.

Anderson said that it had been a 'real pleasure' for him as someone from Abilene to be involved what he called the 'greatest political arena in the world.'

'I've had a great chance to visit with delegates and alternates all over the United States,' he said.

Anderson was awed, he said, by the number of media outlets present and had given interviews to many.

'Sometimes it seems there are more media people than delegates,' he joked.

And while things have not been perfect, he predicted strong party support as the march to November continues.

'We're making the case for Americans to vote Republican, and I think that will continue,' he said. 'We have controversies, and there are controversies every convention. But we plan to pull together.'
State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Marble Falls, said Thursday that he was 'extremely disappointed' in a federal appeals court's ruling that Texas' voter ID law was discriminatory.

Fraser, who represents part of Abilene and much of the Big Country, was the author of the bill passed in 2011 by the Texas Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Perry.

He issued a statement Thursday, saying:

'I am extremely disappointed in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejection of The State of Texas' photo identification law yesterday. Voting is one of our most fundamental rights, central to American democracy. I authored this common-sense legislation in 2011 to ensure that the legitimate votes cast by Texans are not diluted by fraudulent voting practices. Voter turnout is negatively impacted if voters perceive the voting process to be unfair. SB14 gives election workers a tool to eliminate in-person voter fraud, restoring voter confidence in casting a ballot. This legislation is not a radical concept. I am just asking that every voter verify that 'you are who you say you are' before casting his or her vote.'

ORIGINAL STORY:

AUSTIN (AP)  Texas' strict voter ID law discriminates against minorities and the poor and must quickly be scrubbed of those effects before the November election, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling was a striking election-year victory for the administration of President Barack Obama, which had taken the unusual step of bringing the U.S. Justice Department into Texas to help fight the case. It's also a blow to Republican lawmakers whose 2011 law had been enforced in three prior statewide elections.

Voters will still need to show identification at the polls under the decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to attorneys who challenged the law, but a lower court will now also have to devise a way for Texas to accommodate those who cannot.

The 9-6 decision agreed with a lower-court ruling that Texas had violated the federal Voting Rights Act. Elections experts in the long-running legal fight have testified that Hispanics were twice as likely and blacks three times more likely than whites to lack an acceptable ID under the law. They also said lower-income Texas residents were more likely to lack underlying documents to obtain a free state voting ID.

'The law is still in place but it can't be enforced as is,' said Gerry Hebert, a Washington-based attorney who helped challenge the law in court. 'It has to be changed. There has to be some relief afforded.'

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed disappointment and must now work with opponents on putting a Band-Aid on the law with less than four months until Election Day.

'It is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety,' Paxton said in a statement.

The decision could also have even broader ramifications: Aside from fixing the law for now, the court also ordered a later re-evaluation of whether Texas' Republican-controlled Legislature intentionally discriminated against minorities in pursuing the law. If a court ultimately finds that was the case, Texas could be punished and ordered to seek federal approval before changing future voting laws, said Houston attorney Chad Dunn, who also led the challenge to the law.

More than 600,000 Texas voters  or 4.5 percent of all registered voters in Texas  lacked a suitable ID under the law signed by then-Gov. Rick Perry, a lower court found in 2014.

The law required Texas residents to show one of seven forms of approved identification. The state and other supporters say the Texas law prevents fraud, while opponents say there are few cases of voter fraud.

The court decision Wednesday came after a three-judge panel ruled last year that the law violated the Voting Rights Act, and Texas appealed.

Lawyers for Texas have argued that the state makes free IDs easy to obtain. They said any inconveniences or costs involved in getting one do not substantially burden the right to vote, and that the Justice Department and other plaintiffs had failed to prove that the law resulted in denying anyone the right to vote.

Opponents countered that trial testimony indicated various bureaucratic and economic burdens associated with the law  for instance, the difficulty in finding and purchasing a proper birth certificate to obtain an ID. A court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union cited testimony in other voter ID states indicating numerous difficulties faced by people, including burdensome travel and expenses to get required documentation to obtain IDs.

Texas doesn't recognize university IDs from college students as one of the seven forms of acceptable ID, but does accept concealed handgun licenses as proof of identity.
Today in history: On July 22, 1933, it took 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes but aviator Wiley Post flies around the world. He took off July 16 from Floyd Bennett Field in New York and returns there on this date. The American pilot, who wore an eyepatch, first flew to Berlin, then to Russia, Alaska, Canada and across the U.S. to New York  15,596 miles. He already had flown around the northern part of Earth. In August 1935, Post died when his plane crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska. Also dying was humorist Will Rogers.
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Following a UN tribunals recent ruling on the South China Sea, media attention focused mostly on the courts rejection of Chinas vast territorial claims in an area larger than the Mediterranean.

But the courts comments on the disputed regions endangered marine environment also sent a strong message to China.

On July 12, an arbitral tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague found that China had caused severe damage to coral reefs in the South China Sea.

International news reports on the ruling understandably focused on one major aspect of the legal victory by the Philippines in the case it brought against China: the tribunals invalidation of Beijings territorial claims to about 85 percent of the South China Sea.

But environmental experts consider the courts extensive comments on damage caused by China and its fishing vessels to sea life in the South China Sea also to be of great significance.

John McManus, a marine biologist at the University of Miami who has visited the region and provided analysis to the tribunal, says that based on satellite imagery the environmental damage done by Chinese clam poaching and the building of artificial islands has been severe.

According to McManus, the most widespread damage has been done by Chinese giant clam poachers who pull boats back and forth with their propellers spinning to dig up reefs and uncover the clams, which can weigh as much as 500 pounds each.

The sand mixed into the water by these giant clam cutter boats kills everything, McManus said at a conference on the South China Sea held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

A BBC crew that sailed into the South China Sea last December produced one of the most startling images to emerge from the scene in years.

The broadcaster came away with video of Chinese fishermen chopping up a coral reef ecosystem in what appeared to be a routine search for giant clams.

The Reuters news agency reported on June 27 from the town of Tanmen on Chinas Hainan Island that the shells of giant clams have been carved like elephant ivory into intricate ornaments for sale to tourists there.

These luxury items can also be purchased over the internet.

Some Chinese regard the meat from the clams as a rare delicacy and as an aphrodisiac.

Importance of coral reefs

According to evidence cited by the international tribunal, the South China Sea contains highly productive fisheries and extensive coral reef ecosystems, which are among the most biodiverse in the world.

The marine environment around the contested Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands includes fish, corals, mangroves, and sea grasses as well as giant clams and sea turtles, some of them recognized as endangered, according to tribunal findings.

Testimony before the tribunal from Kent Carpenter, a professor of biological sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, describes how the impact of any environmental damage occurring at Scarborough Shoal and in the Spratly Islands can affect the health and viability of ecosystems elsewhere in the South China Sea.

All of this is of great importance to the nations surrounding the South China Sea, because of a growing appetite for fish and the protein they provide even as fish stocks decline in the region.

The coral reefs protect small fish from predators. They also play a role in replenishing depleted fish stocks.

Experts say that in addition to the Chinese cutter boats destruction of coral reefs, further serious damage has been caused by Chinese boats engaged in dredging aimed at gathering sand and gravel to build of Chinas artificial islands in the South China Sea.

The Chinese government has also encouraged Chinese fishing boat incursions deep into the South China Sea by offering subsidies for petrol and free satellite-navigation systems.

A comprehensive report published on June 1 in Time magazine concludes that the Chinese governments support for local fishermen has made venturing into contested areas more economically attractive, exacerbating the overfishing that already plagues the waterway.

Chinas response

Chinese officials have stated on numerous occasions that Chinas island building in the South China Sea has caused no significant damage to coral reefs.

They say that China has conducted rigorous scientific testing and that once the countrys construction projects on contested territory that China claims are completed, environmental protection will be notably enhanced.

But China declined to participate in the proceedings of the international tribunal in The Hague. Beijing also declined to submit any scientific findings, saying repeatedly that it wouldnt accept the ruling of the tribunal even before it was announced.

Chinese state media subsequently denounced the ruling as ill-founded and questioned the tribunals motives, impartiality, and competence.

Chinas top naval officer, Wu Shengli, told the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson on July 25 in a meeting in Beijing that China would not stop building islands in the South China Sea, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

But in a more conciliatory tone, Chinas State Councilor Yang Jiechi said last week that China was willing to work with neighboring countries on the joint development of natural resources in the region.

Most obviously this might include the contested waters surrounding the Scarborough Shoal, where the Hague-based tribunal found that both China and the Philippines have been fishing for many years.

But the Associated Press reported on July 21 that Southeast Asian nations involved in disputes with China over fishing grounds suspect that Beijings calls for negotiations are stalling tactics as China continues to build airstrips and other infrastructure in the South China Sea.

The AP said that Tran Cong Truc, the former head of Vietnams borders committee, had dismissed Chinas overtures.

They wanted to secure a placement in the joint development as a first step and then control all of it, Truc was quoted as saying.There might be some differences in the way they talkbut there is no change in their nature.

It remains unclear what conditions Beijing would impose on such talks.

None of the players are giving much thought to sustainable exploitation of the fish stocks, says David Brown, a retired American diplomat, writer, and analyst who focuses mostly on Vietnam.

But at this point only the Chinese, with the advantage of both numbers and technology, are capable of wiping out those fish stocks, one species after another.

Possible solutions

As a course to calmer waters, John McManus of the University of Miami proposes a freeze on territorial claims along with joint resource management shared by the countries concerned.

This would include fisheries management.

David Brown said it was important that the tribunal recognized that both the Philippines and China have traditionally fished over the Scarborough Shoal. They could conceivably share the fish stocks there, he said.

If there were just a modicum of foresight by these three partiesChina, the Philippines, and Vietnamits possible to imagine their coast guards and fisheries agencies cooperating in joint, sustainable management of fishing stocks in the northern two thirds of the South China Sea.

But bringing the parties together over the joint development of fishing grounds might prove difficult as long as nationalistic passions remain inflamed in all three countries.

This is most evident in Vietnam, where sporadic anti-China protests have been occurring in recent years. In 2014, Vietnamese rioters attacked factories run by owners from both China and Taiwan.

James Borton, a senior fellow at the U.S. Asia Institute in Washington, D.C., recently visited Ly Son Island off Vietnams central coast.

There, he found a community of Vietnamese fishermen imbued with nationalistic feelings and in no mood to back away from clashes with Chinese fishing boats and coast guard vessels.

According to Borton, the Vietnamese government has undertaken a patriotic campaign aimed at encouraging the population to protect their ancestral lands against outside incursions.

Ly Son Island hosts a national exhibition of historical maps from both Vietnam and China under the slogan Paracel and Spratly Islands belong to Vietnamthe legal and historical evidence.

Dan Southerland is RFAs executive editor.
Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have formally arrested the former head of a rebel village government, amid ongoing protests over a bitter land dispute in the coastal village of Wukan.



Lin Zuluan, who was detained amid renewed protests last month, has been formally arrested on suspicion of "accepting bribes," according to an online statement by the Shanwei municipal government, which oversees Wukan but was sidelined by provincial authorities in the resolution of 2011 clashes in the village.



"Lin Zuluan has been formally arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, and investigations continue," the statement said.



Prosecutors have accused Lin of pocketing a large sum of money through contracting village infrastructure projects, and he has "confessed" on local television.



But local people remember earlier clashes in 2011, when Lin directed a series of nonviolent protests over the mass selloff of land by his predecessor Xue Chang, during which protester Xue Jinbo died in police custody, igniting mass displays of public mourning that further kindled public anger.



"Every day, about 5,000 or 6,000 people march through the streets to demand justice for party secretary Lin," a Wukan resident surnamed Zhang told RFA on Friday. "They gather every day at about 5.00 p.m. outside the village government offices."



"Lin was framed," Zhang said. "We will keep doing this until they let him go. All of the villagers are behind him."



He said police hadn't yet tried to stop the protests, but were patrolling the village on a daily basis, watching the proceedings.



Many protesters' phones are now being monitored, he said, making it harder for them to make contact with the outside world.



"They locked us down. The whole area is now under government control," Zhang said. "The internet, the phones, everything is under their control."



"We can't even make calls outside the area," he said.



Lawyers denied access



Two rights lawyers hired by Lin's family to represent him have been denied access to their client, and were warned off taking the case by local authorities, who appointed their own lawyers instead.



An employee who answered the phone at the offices of Lin's government-appointed lawyers said that neither of them was there.



"I don't know [when they're coming back]," the employee said, before taking a message. No response was received by the time of publication.



Hubei-based electoral expert and former independent People's Congress deputy Yao Lifa said the authorities are playing it safe around Wukan, in the hope of avoiding an escalation of the kind that brought it world media attention back in 2011.



"The government is being very clever about this," Yao said. "You may be sure that they have calculated very precisely when to move and when to do nothing."



He called on the government to address the root cause of the proteststhe return of Wukan farmlandas soon as possible.



Calls for release



Wukan residents have been protesting for Lin's release on and off since last month, carrying Chinese national flags and banners, and chanting: "Give us back our land! Give us back our party secretary!" and "Lin Zuluan is innocent!"



In 2011, Wukan's villagers manned barricades to stop police from entering their homes and detaining any more people.



Their cause was eventually taken up by the Guangdong provincial authorities, who overruled local officials in Lufeng, removing Xue Chang from his post on corruption charges and ordering a one-person, one-vote election for his replacement.



However, though Lin was appointed head of the village committee and several of the 2011 protest leaders were elected as a result, very little was done to retrieve Wukan's lost farmland, villagers said.



Then, in July 2014, former protest leaders Hong Ruichao and Yang Semao, who had both served on the newly elected village committee, were jailed for four and two years respectively for "accepting bribes." Relatives said the charges against them were trumped-up by local officials in an act of political revenge.



Villagers last month persuaded Lin to mastermind a new land petition campaign, which he had always insisted must be orderly and respectful of the law.



But his detention pre-empted a planned public meeting, and set renewed street protests in motion.



Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.




Government authorities in North Korea have banned 10 films formerly approved by the state and produced at government expense, fearing that the movies themes may inspire popular discontent with the rule of national leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean sources say.



Many of the films had been in circulation for years, and had already been shown many times in theaters and on television.



Though films produced in North Korea have been banned in the past, this is the first time that so many have banned at one time, a source in North Koreas North Hamgyong province told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.



No explanation was given to the public for the order, RFAs source said.



The now-forbidden films include Unknown Heroes, Nunsokyi of the Spring, Taehongan, High-Ranking Secretary, and The Schoolgirls Diary, among other titles, and all had been produced and previously promoted by North Koreas government at great expense.



Some of the banned films carry historical themes focusing on corruption and political misrule and on the overthrow of incompetent rulers, though, the source in North Hamgyong said.



North Koreans who have watched these movies have been surprised at how well they reflect the reality of life in North Korea, and this may be why they were banned, he said.



Another reason for the ban may be that the male lead in one film, and female lead in another, had been closely related to Kim Jong Uns uncle Jang Song Thaek, who was executed in December 2013 for having attempted to overthrow the state, a second North Hamgyong source said.



North Korean citizens dont watch North Korean movies anymore, even if they are told to, the source said. All you see on television are videos about worshiping Kim Jong Un.



Why would anyone want to look at North Korean movies? he asked.



Reported by Jieun Kim. Translated by Jackie Yoo. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Lao officials have asked a Chinese construction company to destroy a brick wall it illegally erected along a major roadway as part of a dam project in northern Laos Luang Prabang province, a provincial transportation official said.

The wall extends from a bridge across the Nam-Ou River on which the company has built the Nam-ou 1 dam.

The Chinese Nam-Ou Dam Company Ltd. erected the 600-meter (1,970-foot) long, two-meter (6.6-foot) high wall in Pak-Ou district in 2015 much closer to highway Route 13 than the distance stipulated by law, said Fasanan Thammavong, director general of the Public Works and Transport Department in Luang Prabang.

The areas on both sides of national main roads are reserved for possible future expansions and upgrades, and nothing can be built on them, he said.

We informed the Ministry of Energy and Mines to cooperate with the Chinese [company] to strictly implement the law pertaining to national highways by destroying the wall because there must not be any buildings within 25 meters [82 feet] on either side of the roadway, Fasanan told RFAs Lao Service on Wednesday.

The Chinese company that constructed the dam has not respected the rule of law, he said.

Provincial authorities have ordered the company to destroy the wall along the part of the main road which is under the provincial administration of the Luang Prabang Public Works and Transport Department, he said.

The national main road is under the administration of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

The provincial public works and transport department had a meeting and told the company to stop building the wall, but the company still insisted on building it because it said the area is included in its land concession, he said.

A bad example

Th wall violates the law along the national main road and causes barriers for road construction and upgrades, Pheang Douang-ngeun, director general of the national ministrys Road-Bridge Department, said, according to a document obtained by RFA.

Building the wall sets a bad example for other companies working on projects because they will also assume that they can build on the reserved areas along other main roads, Pheang said.

The wall is not only illegal, but also obstructs motorists vision, and sometimes causes accidents, according to local villagers.

A New Zealand man who was touring Laos by motorcycle crashed into the wall on June 13 and was killed instantly, they said.

Route 13 is the most important highway in the country. It begins at the Lao town of Boten at the Chinese border, links the capital Vientiane with Luang Prabang in the north, and roughly follows the Mekong River to the Cambodian border. Although it is a major thoroughfare, it is narrow with some sharp curves, unlit at night, and lacks road markings.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Myanmars United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) is working on the formation of a coordinated platform based on common policies on key issues as it prepares for the governments Panglong Peace Conference in late August, an official involved in the process said Friday.

The members of the group, which consists of a dozen ethnic political parties, will attend an armed ethnic groups summit on July 26 in Mai Ja Yang in northern Myanmars Kachin state, to discuss a federal union, politics, the military and an interpretation of the original Panglong Peace Agreement of 1947.

For help with sorting out a unified policy for the peace conference, the UNA has consulted the Ethnic Nationalities Affairs Center (ENAC), an independent organization created in July 2013 to support Myanmars peace process and the development of democratic institutions in the country by engaging with political stakeholders, civil society, and the international community.

The ENAC has created nine policies, including ones pertaining to education, health care, and natural resources, with different organizations outside Myanmar, Sai Nyunt Lwin, General Secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), a UNA member.

Because we will begin the 21st-Century Panglong Conference soon, we are updating these policies with UNA member groups inside Myanmar for the first time today, he told RFAs Myanmar Service.

The UNA will make any necessary amendments to its policies during the meeting next week, after which the group will discuss the policies with other political parties and civil society organizations, he said.

Every political party has its basic policies, Nyunt Lwin said. If a party is in talks without having a policy, it could be chaotic. But we will not stand only on our policies and will welcome better ideas and other thoughts.

In the meantime, the UNA is trying to settle on an approach for getting concrete policies upon which every group agrees, he said.

When the Panglong Conference begins, we can quickly discuss these policies if we have our draft policies ready, Nyunt Lwin said.

Government peace negotiators, military representatives, and leaders from various political and armed ethnic groups will attend the Panglong Conference organized by Myanmars de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

I think the ethnic groups will have something that they want after the Panglong Conference, but it depends on the willingness and wishes of the military and government as well as all stakeholders goals and goodwill, Nyunt Lwin said.

The UNA also discussed preparations for the peace conference and forming a federal union during a meeting it held on June 30-July 2.

A common goal

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.

Panglong is a town in southern Shan State where the first conference was held.

But Aung Sans assassination in July 1947 prevented the agreements made during the conference from being implemented, and many ethnic groups took up arms against the central government in wars that continued for decades.

When [the first] Panglong Agreement was signed, all ethnic groups shared the goal of fighting together for freedom from the British, and we achieved our goal, Nyunt Lwin said. But we havent achieved a federal union with equality of rights and power yet. We must try to achieve this goal during the 21st-Century Panglong Conference.

Working on peace between previous and current governments is not that different, although the people who are working on peace have changed, he said. We should have hope for peace because goodwill can be changed as people change. It is better to be in peace talks than to be fighting.

Besides the SNLD, UNAs members include 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.

Eight armed groups that signed a nationwide cease-fire agreement with the previous government last October will also attend the Mai Ja Yang summit.

Reported by Myo Zaw Ko for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
A previously unnamed Tibetan woman detained by police last week for staging a solo protest in Sichuans Ngaba county has been identified as Konchok Drolma, a housewife and mother of two young children, Tibetan sources in the region and in exile say.

"She has a seven-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter, a Tibetan man living in Switzerland named Sonam told RFAs Tibetan Service on July 22, citing sources in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county.

She is a stay-at-home mother and an ordinary housewife, Sonam said. Her mothers name is Tamdrin Kyi.

Drolma, who wore a white dress and appeared to be in her 20s, was taken into custody at around 4:00 p.m. on July 14 while walking down a street known locally as Heroes Road in the Ngaba county seat, an area resident told RFAs Tibetan Service in an earlier report.



She was holding up a photo of [exiled Tibetan spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Drolma was quickly overpowered and taken away by Chinese police stationed along Heroes Road, the site of many protests by Tibetans in the past, the source said.



Her current condition and whereabouts are still unknown.



'Inconvenient to speak'



The protest sparked a brief flurry of comments online from area residents, with some saying that Drolma, then still unidentified, had come from Ngaba countys Churle Karma village, where one resident told a reporter on Friday he had not heard about the incident.



Besides, it is inconvenient for me to speak about this on the phone. It is better in particular not to say anything about issues related to Tibetan politics, he said.



Chinese authorities in Tibetan areas closely watch exchanges on the internet and record conversations on the popular social media platform WeChat, routinely detaining and questioning anyone suspected of spreading news about Tibetan protests to outside contacts.

Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijings rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.



A total of 145 Tibetans living in China have set themselves ablaze in self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009, with most protests featuring calls for Tibetan freedom and the Dalai Lamas return from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.



Reported by Sonam Wangdu and Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Russian President Vladimir Putin says the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War II and predicted that the historical period of the West's "undivided dominance over world affairs" is coming to an end.

Speaking on October 27 at a conference of international policy experts in Moscow, Putin said the decade ahead is "probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important...since the end of World War II."

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.

Putin laid the blame for the situation at the feet of Western countries, which he said have cast aside the norms of international affairs in order to maintain dominance and hold down countries they see as "second-class civilizations."

The Russian leader also said he had no regrets about sending troops into Ukraine and sought to explain the conflict as part of the efforts by Western countries to secure their global domination.

Putin claimed in his speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, a think tank, that the West had helped incite the conflict and also seeks to stoke a crisis over Taiwan in an attempt to enforce global dominance.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, triggering the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II and driving relations with Western countries that back Ukraine and its drive to be part of the European Union and NATO to their lowest depths since the Cold War.

Putin cast the conflict in Ukraine as a battle between the West and Russia for the fate of the second-largest Eastern Slav country. It is partly a "civil war," he said, as Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Kyiv has flatly rejected both of those ideas.

The goal of what Russia refers to as a "special military operation" is to take the eastern Donbas region, Putin said, adding that in his view the region would "not have survived" on its own had Russia not intervened militarily in Ukraine.

WATCH: A local official told Russian conscripts "You are not cannon fodder" in a video published online recently. The men responded by angrily shouting that, actually, that's exactly what they are.

But the war has gone far beyond the Donbas region, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, and other nonmilitary structures, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians across the country.

Putin used the speech largely to rail against the West, saying it has nothing to offer to the world "except its own domination," and the goal of globalization "is neocolonialism to dominate the world." He said Russia is only trying to defend its right to exist in the face these Western efforts.

Putin also asserted that more and more nations refuse to follow Washington's demands and Russia will never accept the West's attempts to dominate the world.

Citing gay pride parades and the acceptance of transgender people in Western countries, Putin also defended "traditional values" and said "nobody can dictate to our people how to develop and what society we should build."

He also said Russia has never considered the West an enemy and has many things in common with it but will continue to oppose the diktat of Western neoliberal elites.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Putin's speech presented no new ideas.

"We don't believe that Mr. Putin's strategic goals have changed here. He doesn't want Ukraine to exist as a sovereign, independent nation state," Kirby said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin's speech can be described as "for Freud," referring to psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud.



"The person who invaded a foreign country, annexed its land, and committed genocide accuses others of violating international law and the sovereignty of other countries? One truth: The person who started a wind, will get a storm. The storm is coming," he said on Twitter.

Answering questions from journalists after his speech, Putin reiterated the Kremlin's assertion that Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory. The claim has been dismissed as false by Ukraine and its allies, who say Russia may have raised the matter because it plans to use such a bomb in Ukraine as a pretext for escalation.

"It was me who ordered [Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu to inform by phone all his colleagues about it," Putin said, adding that Russia does not need to use dirty bombs in Ukraine.

Putin also said he supported plans by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Ukraine's nuclear power plants for inspections.

"It must be done as soon and as openly as possible because we know that Kyiv authorities are now working to cover up such [dirty-bomb attack] preparations," Putin said, without giving any exact information proving the claim.

Ukraine invited IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities after the Kremlin made its unsubstantiated claim about the preparation of a dirty bomb -- which would use the explosion of a conventional warhead to spread radioactive material or chemicals over a wide area.

Ukraine said it would welcome inspections because it had "nothing to hide."

According to Putin, Russia has never talked about the use of nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine despite his own promise to defend Russian territory with any means at our disposal" and saying his words were "not a bluff."

"We see no need for [using nuclear weapons in Ukraine]," Putin told reporters. "There is no sense for that, neither political, nor military."
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."
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has appealed his 40-year jail sentence for genocide and accused UN judges of "subjecting him to a political trial."

Karadzic's lawyer, Peter Robinson, said on July 22 at The Hague that his client "was subjected to a political trial that was simply designed to confirm the demonization of him and the Bosnian Serb people."

Karadzic, 71, was sentenced on March 24 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for genocide during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.

He was also found guilty of nine other crimes committed during Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1992-95 war, including the siege of Sarajevo in which some 10,000 civilians died.

But Robinson said Karadzic's trial was unfair and the judges "presumed him guilty and then constructed a judgement to justify its presumption."

Based on reporting by AFP and Tanjug
Police suspended their hunt for suspects in a shooting rampage that left at least nine people dead at a shopping mall in the German city of Munich after concluding that a lone gunmen who later killed himself was responsible.

City authorities early on July 23 ended their state of emergency and gave a "cautious all clear" to panicked Munich residents who had been urged to stay indoors and avoid crowds as 2,300 law enforcement officers swept the city for what they believed were up to three gunmen.

What is now the sole suspect was found dead about 1 kilometer from the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center where the killings occurred, apparently shot in the head by his own hand, police said.

"As part of our manhunt we found a person who had killed himself -- the person is likely to have been the attacker who, according to the current state of the investigation, acted alone," Munich police tweeted.

The man was identified as an 18-year-old German-Iranian from Munich. Authorities said his motive was not known.

Police raised the number of people killed by the gunmen to nine, including one who died of injuries later in a hospital. At least 21 people also were injured in the rampage.

Police said up to 100 people witnessed the attack

Police were investigating a red backpack found near the dead man for explosives.

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. The previous attacks, in the French resort city of Nice and on a train in Bavaria, were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Police initially treated the Munich attack as a terrorist incident.

"I had no idea where to run, no time to think where to go, I just started running with everyone, running on the road, even though there were cars on the road, it was quite chaotic, Fabian Burkhardt, a 31-year-old doctoral student, told RFE/RL.



Burkhardt was at Karlsplatz square in the city center, where he said he saw hundreds of people screaming and running in every direction.



Scared is definitely the right word. I had this sense of panic, but then after several meters, I tried to think about, tried to think that its not the right moment to panic.

German President Joachim Gauck condemned the "murderous attack in Munich," adding that he feels "connected to those who are in the field to protect people and save lives."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with her security council on July 23, her chief of staff Peter Altmaier said, with the country's interior minister cancelling a vacation in New York to return to address the crisis.

"You can only have absolute security in an absolute surveillance state, and nobody wants that, it would be the opposite of our free western European way of life," Altmeier said, but "we are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany."

The White House condemned "in the strongest terms" the attack. "We do know that this heinous act has killed and injured multiple individuals in the heart of one of Europe's most vibrant cities," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.



Munich police spokesman Thomas Baumann told Germanys dpa news agency that the attack began at the McDonald's fast food restaurant near the shopping center shortly before 18:00 local time.



Video from German news agency NonstopNews showed two bodies with sheets draped over them not far from a McDonald's across from the mall.

A video posted online, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds restaurant by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting at people.



The Bild newspaper reported that the gunman ran through the shopping center near the Olympic stadium, firing on people before escaping in the direction of a metro station.



Police closed off a large area around the shopping center after the shooting.



Television images showed dozens of emergency vehicles outside the shopping center.



Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train, and tram line during the search for suspects, but later reopened public transit after concluding the rampage was the act of a lone gunmen.

WATCH: Eyewitness captures shooting

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, AP and AFP
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party has won local elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party won 31 of the region's 41-seat assembly in the vote held July 21.

Sharif on July 22 addressed a crowd of supporters in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir, and promised to deliver a new "era of development."

The win gives the premier a boost after months of pressure from his opponents in Pakistan to step down.

Local elections were largely peaceful on July 21, after a "black day" was observed to protest the killing of dozens of civilians during violent protests in Indian-held Kashmir.

Bloody protests were sparked after Indian forces on July 8 killed Burhan Wani, a popular leader of Kashmir's largest rebel group.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP
Russia's main intelligence service raids its main law-enforcement agency and arrests some of its top officials for links to organized crime.

But it was pretty clear from the get-go that there was more than meets the eye in the FSB's dramatic assault on the Investigative Committee earlier this week.

With Russia enduring an economic crisis, with an election just months away, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking up the security services by creating his own personal Praetorian Guard, these are tense times for Russian cops and spooks.

So is yet another battle of the siloviki on the horizon?

On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, we look at why tensions among Russia's siloviki may be boiling over. Joining me are co-host Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Czech Institute of International Relations, an expert on Russian organized crime and its security services, and author of the blog In Moscow's Shadows and Karina Orlova, a correspondent for Ekho Moskvy and columnist for The American Interest who has reported extensively on Russia's security services.

Enjoy...
Polands lower house of parliament, the Sejm, has voted to declare World War II-era killings committed by Ukrainian nationalists against Polish civilians genocide in a move that could provoke tensions between the two neighbors.

Kyiv, which rejects the genocide label for the crimes, reacted cautiously, with President Petro Poroshenko expressing "regret" over Warsaw's move.

Poroshenko cautioned that the resolution could be used against his country. Ukraine has been embroiled in a conflict with Russia-backed separatists that has claimed more than 9,400 lives since April 2014.

Poroshenko also called for reconciliation and forgiveness between the two nations.

The move by the right-wing-dominated Sejm reverses a 2013 decision led by liberal lawmakers that stopped short of calling the killings of tens of thousands Poles by Ukrainian nationalists a genocide.

The victims of the crimes committed in the 1940s by Ukrainian nationalists were not duly commemorated, and the mass murder was not defined as genocide in accordance with the historical truth," reads the Sejm resolution, which was adopted by a 432-1 vote with one abstention.

Historians say that in 1943-44 members of the paramilitary Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) massacred between 35,000-60,000 Polish civilians, including many children, women, and elderly in the Volyn region of what is now northwest Ukraine, known in Polish as Wolyn.

The UPA's main objective was said to have been to win Ukrainian independence by ousting Nazi and later Soviet occupiers and to clear Poles from territories that were historically Ukrainian land.

The killings provoked bloody reprisals by Polish partisans grouped in the anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet Home Army (AK). They killed an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians.

None of the massacres was officially acknowledged under communism, but they have remained a painful part of Polands national consciousness.

The Sejm resolution also recognizes Polish crimes, saying: "Nor can one dismiss or downplay acts of Polish revenge on Ukrainian villages, during which civilian populations also perished."

"I'm sorry to hear about the decision of the Polish Sejm. I know that many will seek to use it for political speculations, Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

However, we must return to the commandments of [Pope] John Paul II -- forgive and ask for forgiveness. Only by joint steps can we achieve Christian reconciliation and unity. Only together can we clarify all the facts of the tragic pages of our common history."

Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraines ambassador to Poland, also said he regrets that "preference was given to a unilateral assessment of political events, rather than professional or even international Ukrainian-Polish expert research and relevant legal conclusions about what happened."

Poland has been a strong backer of Ukraines independence and democracy, and has been a Western counterbalance to Russias influence.

Warsaw has also supported closer ties between the European Union and Kyiv.

Occasionally, controversies from their shared history have resurfaced between the two neighbors, who share a 500 kilometer border, though without a major impact on bilateral relations.

In 2013, the liberal government adopted a softer version of the resolution to maintain amicable relations with Ukraine, which was moving closer to the European Union.

The 2013 referred to the war-time mass-murders as "ethnic cleansing characterized by signs of genocide.

But Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland's powerful leader of the governing right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), has long pushed for the killings to be labeled genocide.

Kaczynski holds no government post but is widely regarded as Polands real powerbroker.

The PiS gained won a clear victory in Octobers parliamentary elections on an antimigrant populist platform, handing a heavy defeat to the liberal Civic Platform.
Nadia Savchenko, the Ukrainian military officer who became a national hero after spending nearly two years in a Russian prison, called for reconciliation to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, sparking outrage among some lawmakers.

Savchenko, who was elected to parliament while in prison, said in an interview broadcast July 21 on Ukraines Channel Five that Ukrainians must ask for forgiveness. Otherwise, she said, the violence that has gripped the countrys Donbas region since April 2014 would continue.

Her comments infuriated nationalist lawmakers and others, including Anton Herashchenko who also serves as an aide to the Interior Ministry.

You, Nadia, are able to ask for forgiveness of...Russians who came to our lands to kill and rape, but we will never ask forgiveness of the occupiers and terrorists, he wrote on his Facebook page. We will, through clenched teeth, hold on and achieve the emancipation of our lands by any means!

Savchenko, a helicopter navigator, was captured in June 2014, and put on trial in Russia, charged with the killing of two Russian reporters covering the war.

Profile: The Many Faces Of Nadia Savchenko

Freed in May as part of a prisoner swap, she returned to a hero's welcome, and has spoken out regularly, calling for direct peace talks with Russia-backed separatists in the east.

More than 9,400 people have been killed in the fighting, according to United Nations figures.
Tajik officials say the number of Tajik migrant workers who left to Russia and other countries in the first half of 2016 has dropped by nearly 7 percent compared to the same period last year.

Tajik Labor and Migration Minister Sumangul Taghoizoda said on July 22 that the majority had gone to Russia, where there are estimated to be at least 870,000 Tajiks working.

Speaking to reporters in Dushanbe, Taghoizoda said the decline in labor migration is connected to the financial crisis in Russia, the weakening of the country's currency, as well as Russias tough new regulations for migrants.

Taghoizoda also said that 436 Tajik citizens had died in Russia from January to June. The deaths included those killed in workplace and traffic accidents, illnesses, and racist attacks.

Taghoizoda added that more than 6,000 Tajik migrants had gone to Kazakhstan in the first six months of 2016 to seek work.
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Donald Trump has officially accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States, pledging to champion "Americanism, not globalism" if he is elected to the White House and accusing his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness."

Addressing a raucous crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on the final day of the party's presidential nominating convention, the billionaire businessman and former reality TV star said the United States is facing a moment of crisis and vowed that his plan "will put America first."

"'Americanism, not globalism' will be our credo," said Trump, whose rise has jolted the American political system. "As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect -- the respect that we deserve."

He called for an "immediate suspension" of immigration from "any nation compromised by terrorism" until "proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place," he said.

"We don't want them in our country," said Trump, a political outsider who has never held public office, to raucous cheers from the audience.

Trump has embarked on one of the more remarkable U.S. presidential campaigns in modern history, capturing the nomination of one of the two major parties while denouncing what he calls a "rigged political system."

Along the way, he has faced accusations -- both from political opponents and Republicans -- of xenophobia and racism over his controversial comments about immigrants and Muslims while triggering deep divisions within the Republican Party that boiled over during this weeks convention.

The four-day event included a failed bid by anti-Trump delegates for a rule change allowing them to vote for alternative candidates, and a refusal by his main primary rival, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, to endorse him.

The only element that appears to have completely united all the party's disparate factions has been their determination to defeat Clinton, whom he targeted with fierce denunciations in his July 21 speech.

He said that as secretary of state during President Barack Obamas first term, Clinton spearheaded a foreign policy that led to the rise of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group and helped plunge Libya, Egypt, and Syria into chaos.

"After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before," Trump said, though he did not mention that the war in Iraq was started under Obama's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

The final day of the convention was being staged under the motto Make America One Again, a play on Trump's campaign slogan Make America Great Again. Speakers have included an African-American pastor and a Korean-American delegate, both of whom praised Trump as a candidate who will foster equal opportunity for all Americans.

Trump addressed the issues of race and law enforcement in his speech, portraying himself as a staunch law-and-order candidate following a spate of racially charged shootings in several U.S. cities. The shootings included deadly incidents in which African-American men were killed by police, as well as the slaying of six Dallas police officers by a black gunman earlier this month.

He accused Obama, the nations first black president, of stoking racial unrest with rhetoric he called "irresponsible."

He accused the president of using "the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color."

Outside the convention hall, Cleveland's Public Square on July 21 attracted hundreds of demonstrators -- both supporters and opponents of Trump -- amid a sizable police presence.

Trump also repeated his vow to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

"We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities," Trump said.

Trump's speech came a day after he told The New York Times in an interview that as president, he would not automatically come to the aid of fellow NATO members in the Baltics if they were invaded by Russia.

Instead, Trump told the newspaper, he would first review whether such countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" before deciding whether to come to their assistance.

In his July 21 speech, he repeated his criticism that many NATO member countries are not paying their fair share, though he called the military alliances stepped-up counterterrorism efforts a true step in the right direction.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa, and Politico
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Washington has proposed creating a commission to deal with the possible extradition of the U.S.-based cleric whom Ankara blames for last weeks failed coup attempt.

Speaking on July 22, Cavusoglu said Turkey was ready to take part in a commission on the extradition of the exiled founder of the transnational Hizmet social and religious movement, Fethullah Gulen.

Cavusoglu said the United States could carry out the extradition in a short period if it was decisive, but could draw out the process for years if it chose.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the 75-year-old Gulen of masterminding the July 15 coup plot.

Gulen has condemned the coup attempt and denied any involvement -- suggesting instead that it may have been staged by Erdogan as an excuse to crack down on Turkeys opposition and expand the Turkish presidents powers.

Ankara has said it will request Gulens extradition from the United States but has not yet done so, although authorities say they have sent evidence against Gulen to Washington.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said Washington would consider an extradition request, but that there would have to be compelling evidence of Gulen's guilt before he would be extradited.

About 60,000 of Gulens suspected followers in Turkey have already been targeted by a crackdown since the attempted coup collapsed early on July 16.

More than 10,000 have been detained -- including 162 generals in Turkeys armed forces, more than 7,000 other military personnel, 287 police officers, and 2,014 judges and prosecutors.

Another 50,000 people have been suspended from their jobs or face an investigation.

They include police, civil servants, college deans, and teachers.

Turkeys Hurriyet newspaper reported on July 22 that Ankara may set up special courts for trials of the alleged coup plotters.

Meanwhilie, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on July 22 that the danger of more coup-related violence was not over. But he said citizens should relax because the government and other organizations had events under control.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on July 22 expressed concern over Turkey's mass punishments, calling it unacceptable.

The EU also has expressed concern about suggestions that Ankara could suspend parts of the European Convention on Human Rights in order to impose the death penalty against coup plotters.

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its bid to join the EU. Brussels warned on July 22 that the reimposition of the death penalty would mean the end of Turkeys EU membership bid.

Turkeys Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag responded to the EU criticism on July 22 by saying there have been armed Gulenist forces within Turkeys army, universities, media, and judiciary.

Bozdag also said the possible use of the death penalty against coup plotters should be considered from a legal point of view, not on the basis of an EU opinion.

Bozdag said the EU cannot tell us much. It has made Turkey wait at the door of EU membership for decades.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said Gulens followers in Turkey would be treated as another separatist terrorist organization -- a step that puts the movement on par with Turkeys outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

We will do everything necessary to have the highest rate of success...[and do] whatever the law allows or admits, Erdogan said. They are traitors.

Speaking to Reuters on July 21 after declaring a three-month state of emergency, Erdogan also said Turkeys armed forces will be quickly restructured and have fresh blood.

He said a meeting of Turkeys Supreme Military Council scheduled for August 1 may be brought forward to as soon as July 25 in order to oversee the restructuring of the armed forces.

The council -- the top governmental body overseeing Turkeys military -- is headed by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and includes Defense Minister Fikri Isik and Chief of the General Staff General Hulusi Akar.

Restructuring of Turkeys MIT intelligence service also reportedly was being considered.

The state of emergency gives Erdogan and his cabinet special powers to rule by decree.

It allows the government to take speedy measures against coup supporters and to bypass parliament in order to enact new laws or to suspend rights and freedoms as the government sees necessary.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the special emergency powers could last only 45 days, adding that Ankara wants to end the state of emergency as soon as possible.

But Erdogan has said there was nothing to prevent the state of emergency from being extended beyond the initial three months if necessary.

This state of emergency is not a curfew, Erdogan told Reuters. People will still be on the street minding their own business and getting on with daily life.

Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, also repeated Ankaras call on July 22 for Greece to extradite eight alleged coup plotters who flew a helicopter to Greece as the attempted coup was crumbling.

A lawyer for the men said the group was transferred to Athens on July 22. They are scheduled to appear at hearings in Athens next week on their requests for political asylum.

The case threatens to strain ties between the two NATO ally countries, with Ankara labeling the eight suspects as terrorists.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
KYIV -- Thousands of mourners strode in a solemn procession through Kyivs Ukrainian House on July 22 to honor journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in a car bombing that has shaken Ukraines media community and sent shock waves into Russia and Belarus.



Sheremet, a journalist at news website Ukrayinska Pravda, was driving to a radio station to do a morning show two days earlier when the bomb exploded. The Interior Ministry said the explosives were skillfully planted underneath the car and that the blast may have been set off by a remote-controlled or delayed-action detonator.



Surveillance footage showing what media reports said was the placement of a bomb under the car the night before the blast was posted on the Internet, but there was no word on suspects or a specific motive. Colleagues believe Sheremet was targeted for his work as a journalist.



Europol and the FBI are assisting Ukraine in investigating Sheremets slaying.



We never thought something like this would happen, Nataliya Humenyuk, co-founder of the independent Hromadske.tv channel and a friend of Sheremet, told RFE/RL as she stood beneath a giant photograph of him smiling and flashing a peace sign.



Most of those paying their last respects to Sheremet were Ukrainians, but there were also Russian and Belarusian citizens in attendance. The 44-year-old had previously worked in Russia and his native Belarus, where he faced pressure from the authorities for his reporting.

Mourners included family, friends, colleagues, lawmakers, and government officials, among them President Petro Poroshenko. Members of Ukraines military and volunteer battalions set up to fight against Russia-backed separatists in the east also came out to bid him farewell.



Some carried carnations of yellow and blue -- Ukraines national colors. Others brought red and white roses. Mourners brought the flowers in even numbers, as is customary for grieving and funerals, and mounds of them spilled off a table.



Tears flowed as people approached Sheremets open casket. Many stopped momentarily to cross themselves and say a little prayer. Some laid a gentle hand atop the coffin. They choked up as they looked down at the body of the journalist, dressed in a dark suit and tie and resting atop a bed of red and white roses.



Before walking away, mourners embraced Sheremets longtime partner and colleague, Ukrayinska Pravda owner and founding editor Olena Prytula, and whispered their condolences in her ear. Prytula was accompanied by members of Sheremets family and close friends.



Nearby, a candle flickered beside a bunch of golden sunflowers and a black-and-white photograph of Sheremet smiling. A digital screen played a slideshow of scenes from his life: speaking at a protest in Minsk in the 1990s before a poster of a scowling President Alyaksandr Lukashenka; looking over the shoulder of a colleague typing away in one of the many newsrooms he worked in over the years; wearing a wide smile and curly wig at a costume party; strumming a guitar.



Addressing mourners, lawmaker and former journalist Mustafa Nayyem said that Sheremets legacy would live on despite his death.



He will always be with us, he said.

Anatoliy Hrytsenko, an independent member of parliament and former defense minister, recalled Sheremet as a brave and honest man. He said his killing was a terrorist act and the investigation into the crime would be a test for Ukrainian law enforcement and, in particular, Interior Ministry Arsen Avakov.



Because the car Sheremet was driving belonged to Prytula, law enforcement are investigating the possibility that she was the target of the attack, among other theories. She has been provided a security detail for protection.



But the ZN.ua and Ukrayinska Pravda news sites cited an unidentified law-enforcement source as saying, based on a preliminary examination of the evidence, that Sheremet appears to have been the intended target of the bombing.



The source told the news outlets that a surveillance camera near the home of Sheremet and Prytula recorded the moment an unidentified person placed an explosive device under Prytulas car the night before the blast.



A blurry video posted on the Internet later on July 22 shows at least two figures, one possibly female, walking near parked cars with what looks like a suitcase. One figure appears to lean over a car.



Sheremet drove Prytulas car to the Radio Vesti office at the same time each morning five days a week, a routine that was likely known to attackers, the ZN.ua and Ukrayinska Pravda reports cited the source as saying.



The source also said that an examination of the remains of the car, as well as an autopsy of Sheremets body, indicate that the bomb was intended solely to target the driver.



If the blast of the explosion had gone downward, it would have been essentially extinguished in the ground, but it blew upward and to the left, the source was quoted as saying. This was an attack meant exclusively for the victim of the killing.



An autopsy showed that Sheremet suffered injuries incompatible with life, the source said. He died because of a rapid and critical loss of blood in about one to two minutes.



Sheremet's body was to be repatriated to Belarus, where a funeral service will be held in the capital, Minsk, on July 23. Sheremet will be laid to rest beside his father.
WASHINGTON - Seven Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chair of the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press, recently sent a letter to Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, in which they call for the release of RFE/RL Turkmen Service contributor Saparmamed Nepeskuliev.

Rep. Schiff was joined on the letter by Rep. William Keating (D-MA), Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Penn.), and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.).

In their letter, the Members state, "we believe his [Nepeskuliev's] imprisonment is unlawful," noting that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in December 2015 "designated his detention 'arbitrary' and called for his immediate release."

Little is known about the whereabouts and well-being of Nepeskuliev, who, in one of the worlds most closed countries, boldly produced video reports for RFE/RLs Turkmen Service documenting decrepit infrastructure, financial hardship, economic inequality, and depressed schools in the countrys western region. He disappeared on July 7, 2015 in Turkmenistans Caspian Sea resort city of Avaza, and was held incommunicado before a Turkmen court, in a closed session on August 31, 2015, sentenced him to three years in prison on narcotics charges that rights groups believe were fabricated in retaliation for his reporting.

In late June, RFE/RL and twelve other media and human rights organizations signed a joint letter to President Berdymukhammedov calling for an end to [Nepeskulievs] wrongful imprisonment and urging his immediate release.

Turkmenistan is consistently ranked as one of the worst violators of press freedom by numerous media monitoring groups, including Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders.

The text of the letter follows:

July 8, 2016

His Excellency Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

President of The Republic Of Turkmenistan

c/o H.E. Meret Orazov, Ambassador

Embassy of the Republic of Turkmenistan

2207 Massachusetts Ave NW

Washington, DC 20008

Dear President Berdimuhamedow:

July 7, 2016 marks one year since Saparmamed Nepeskuliev, a contributor to RFE/RLs Turkmen Service, was imprisoned in your country. We believe his imprisonment is unlawful and are writing to urge his release.

Mr. Nepeskuliev courageously reported about economic development, infrastructure, social services, and education in Turkmenistans western regions with the aim of informing citizens about challenges facing their communities and helping them improve their lives. He was detained and held incommunicado in July 2015, before being convicted of fabricated narcotics charges and sentenced to three years in prison in closed proceedings in a Turkmenbashi city court on August 31, 2015.

Mr. Nepeskulievs case has been reviewed by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which in 2015 designated his detention arbitrary and called for his immediate release, declaring that the [Turkmen] Government failed to demonstrate that Mr. Nepeskuliev was tried, convicted and sentenced in a due process. Numerous rights groups have protested his detention on humanitarian grounds, citing deteriorating health, his isolation, and lack of any access to family members or lawyers. Indeed, some groups have questioned whether he is alive. We are aware that EU officials raised his case in May 2016, during annual bilateral human rights consultations with Turkmenistan. The OSCE, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders have condemned his detention and demanded his release.

As members of the U.S. Congress, we have vowed to promote and protect the same international conventions and standards guaranteeing international law and human rights that Turkmenistan has pledged to uphold. Our support of RFE/RL, and its journalists around the world, is part of that commitment.

During these days as the United States of America celebrates its own independence, we appeal to you, Mr. President, to release a journalist who has been arbitrarily imprisoned and deserves his freedom.

Sincerely,

Adam B. Schiff

William R. Keating

Doug Lamborn

Daniel Lipinski

James P. McGovern

Joseph R. Pitts

Mark Pocan
A Texas executive who acted as an agent for the Russian government and illegally exported cutting-edge military technology to Russia has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A federal court in New York ordered the jail term for Alexander Fishenko, 50, a Russian-American, on July 21. He pleaded guilty in September to crimes including acting as a Russian agent.

Fishenko owned Houston-based Arc Electronics Inc., which prosecutors say shipped about $50 million worth of sensitive technology goods to Russia between 2002 and 2012.

The court also ordered Fishenko to surrender over $500,000 from the sale of the goods.

Arc's clients included a research unit of the Russian FSB, among several that were authorized by the Russian Ministry of Defense to procure parts for Moscow's military, prosecutors said.

The microelectronics Arc exported are commonly used in missile guidance systems, detonation triggers, and radar systems.

Prosecutors said Arc had portrayed itself as a maker of traffic lights, gave false information to the electronics manufacturers, and disguised shipments to avoid U.S. export controls.

Five other people have pleaded guilty to the scheme. Another three were convicted. Three are at large.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP and AFP


1 Olha has known about her HIV status for almost 20 years. She was a social worker, helping young women in her hometown Donetsk. But after she openly opposed the separatist regime, she was forced to flee, leaving all of her possessions behind. Her apartment is now occupied by separatists and she lives in a temporary shelter in Odesa. Olga admitted to photographer Misha Friedman that she has attempted suicide.
Yahoo Finance is tracking the stocks youre following, based on your Yahoo Finance ticker searches.

American Airlines (AAL)  The companys second-quarter earnings beat on both the top and bottom lines, but its profit fell 44% from one year ago to $950 million. American Airlines reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.77 on revenue of $10.36 billion.

Chipotle (CMG)  The Mexican food chain missed analysts expectations as it struggles to lure back customers following its health scare last year. Chipotle reported earnings per share of 87 cents on revenue of $998.4 million. Its same-store sales plunged 23.6%.

Pandora (P)  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pandora has rejected a $3.4 billion buyout offer from Sirius XM. Pandora also announced its number of listeners dropped to 78.1 million, down from 79.4 million last quarter.

Southwest Airlines (LUV)  Buckingham Research downgraded the stock to neutral from buy and lowered its price target to $40 following the airlines earnings. Credit Suisse also lowered its price target on the stock by $6 to $48.

Whole Foods (WFM)  Jefferies is warning that Whole Foods will miss on comparable-store sales when it reports third-quarter earnings on July 27. Whole Foods posted a 3% drop in comparable sales during its last quarterly report.

J.C. Penney (JCP)  The department store giant has appointed CEO Marvin Ellison as its chairman of the board. Ellison will succeed Mike Ullman.

PayPal (PYPL)  Visa and PayPal have reached an agreement after battling for years. PayPal will now be an option when consumers pay in stores with their smartphones.
The presidents of Virginia State and Norfolk State universities have joined with the leaders of 32 other historically black colleges and universities in a pledge to organize a symposium on gun violence.

Saying they are brokenhearted over the recent shootings in Baton Rouge, La.; suburban St. Paul, Minn.; and Dallas that have shaken our nation to its core, the presidents said they are committed to raising awareness about the debilitating impact of trauma on the lives of those who have been exposed to loss as a result of gun violence.

HBCUs are uniquely suited to address these issues, they said, as the birthplace of the idea that Black lives matter to our country.

Their statement, titled A Call for Peace and Unity, included no details on when or where the first-ever HBCU National Symposium on Gun Violence would be held.

VSUs Makola M. Abdullah and NSUs Eddie N. Moore Jr., presidents of the states two public HBCUs, signed the statement.

Abdullah said Thursday he did not have further details on the plans.

I thought it was important in this time of unprecedented violence that we continue to be a part of the solution to the challenges that impact our communities, Abdullah said in an email. I was concerned what would happen if we did not enter the conversation.

As an HBCU, he said, VSU has been committed to solutions for 134 years. It is great to stand with other institutions of like mission.

Joseph F. Johnson, Virginia Union Universitys acting president, said he supports the effort and will welcome the opportunity to add his institutions voice of support as the initial effort is expanded to include all HBCUs.

We must be reminded, more often (than not) what affects one of us affects all of us in our efforts to propel this country forward, he said in a statement.

The statement from the group of presidents said that HBCUs by virtue of their special place in this nation have always understood the hard work and sacrifices that must be made in order for America to live up to its ideals.

The presidents said their schools always have had a duality of collaboration and protest in their mission and invited all Americans to join their effort.
A leading producer and distributor of premium alcoholic beverages, Brown-Forman Corporation BF.B recently disclosed plans to take its distribution in Spain in-house by Jul 1, 2017. Brown-Formans successful distribution partnership with Importaciones y Exportaciones Varma S.A., one of the major distribution companies in Spain, will end by Jun 30, 2017.



The company owns and has direct control over its distribution channels in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.K. Additionally, the Spanish distribution organization will join the 14 aforementioned markets.



Brown-Forman markets its products in over 135 countries and expects to grow on the back of strong demand for its authentic American whiskey brands worldwide. The company has a strong portfolio of more than 25 premium brands, including Jack Daniels, the flagship spirits brand.



Brown-Forman, the current owner of prominent brands like Woodford Reserve and Finlandia Vodka, cited Spain as Europes third-largest and the worlds ninth-largest whiskey market. Likely, there will be ample scope for the company to market its popular Jack Daniels and other recognized brands. This will help it to strengthen its market share.



The alcoholic-beverage company will add nearly 40 workers to the Spanish distribution unit.

BROWN FORMAN B Price

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A Richmond City Council committee delayed action Thursday on a trio of ordinances that would have dedicated a range of city revenue streams to schools.

The decision was made amid opposition from Mayor Dwight C. Jones administration and reluctance by at least one council member to make major shifts to the school funding formula in an election year that will deliver a new mayor and at least four new council members.

I just would like to see these papers either withdrawn or continued because I dont feel comfortable telling my successor what they have to do for four years. I just dont think thats the right approach, said Councilwoman Kathy C. Graziano, the chairwoman of the finance committee.

Graziano is not running for re-election this year; Novembers election will feature contested races for all nine council seats and a sprawling field of eight candidates looking to replace Jones, who is term-limited.

One of those mayoral candidates is 1st District Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles, who is the patron of all three ordinances. Councilman Parker C. Agelasto is the co-sponsor of one, which would dedicate one-sixth of the nearly $30 million in meals taxes that the city collected in the fiscal year that ended in June to a special reserve fund for the operation of Richmond Public Schools.

The idea behind the ordinance is to allow the schools to have at least four years of stable funding for them to plan how they will operate, Baliles said, noting that much of Jones second term has been marked by public feuds with the school system over how much money it gets from the city. A little more than half of the school systems budget comes from the city, a figure determined first by the budget assembled by the mayors staff and then modified by the council. The balance comes from state and federal sources.

We cant keep battling year after year over schools get this, schools get that, Baliles said. Its not a campaign issue. Its an issue about the health and future of the city. Whether Im successful or not in my campaign, the next mayor and the next council need to make a commitment to the long-term funding of the school system. Thats the only way its going to get better.

One of the other two proposed ordinances would move 75 percent of the citys year-end general fund surplus to a special fund for school operation, and the third would do the same for nearly 61 percent of the real estate taxes the city collects, a figure that was budgeted at nearly $242 million for the recently ended fiscal year. All would last for four years.

If the school system can plan for the medium term, that will help them be successful, Baliles said.

The council will now take up the measures in September, which didnt bother Baliles much.

I was planning on continuing them anyway, he said.

Jay Brown, director of the citys Office of Budget and Strategic Planning, and other city officials said the package of ordinances would yield financing streams that would be subject to year-to-year fluctuations.

It doesnt really give us a consistent source of revenue for Richmond Public Schools, Brown said, noting that the mayors office has put forward a plan to raise the citys debt limit and increase taxes. Jones has asked the council to act on the plan this summer.

Baliles questioned the idea that the debate over dedicating tax revenue to the school system should wait for the next mayor and council but that raising the debt limit and taxes is too urgent to wait.

The disturbing thing about the mayors proposal is that 60 percent goes to the city and 40 percent goes to the schools, Baliles said of the tax increases.
A 57-year old man was arrested in Petersburg in connection with an armed robbery that occurred June 20 at BB&T bank on Oaklawn Boulevard.

Early Friday morning, Prince George County Police arrested Emory Smith at a motel on Wythe Street in Petersburg. Smith is charged with armed robbery, with no bond. He was transported to the Riverside Regional Jail.
Richmonds Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as the leading contender to be Hillary Clintons running mate, The Associated Press reported Thursday night, citing two Democratic sources who cautioned that Clinton had not made a final decision and could yet change direction.

As speculation mounted, multiple media outlets reported that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, is the other leading contender.

Im glad the waiting game is nearly over, Kaine told reporters Thursday after an event in Northern Virginia, deflecting questions about whether he was about to join the ticket.

Kaine will go through with his scheduled Senate fundraiser today in Massachusetts, his spokeswoman said. There was no word about whether he will attend his planned fundraiser there Saturday.

Clinton is expected to appear with her vice presidential selection in Miami on Saturday, but the logistics involved in organizing unveiling of the nominee suggest that Clintons choice could be announced as early as this afternoon. Clintons campaign is expected to make the announcement via text message to supporters who sign up on the Clinton website for updates.

An announcement seems unlikely earlier today, when Clinton will be in Orlando, where last month a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub.

Clinton will then appear at a rally at the state fairgrounds in Tampa this afternoon. On Saturday, she is scheduled to appear in Miami at noon at Florida International University, where the majority of the student body is Hispanic.

Kaine, who took a year off from Harvard law school to volunteer with Catholic missionaries in Honduras, is fluent in Spanish, which would be an asset to Clinton in diverse swing states like Florida and Virginia.

The New York Times cited three unnamed Democrats as saying that former President Bill Clinton has privately expressed his support for Kaine, a former Richmond mayor, lieutenant governor and governor, who served in Virginias Executive Mansion from 2006 to 2010.

Vilsack will be at events in Missouri before returning to Washington early this evening.

Barack Obama, the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee, vetted Kaine before he ultimately chose U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. Kaine, elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, has since burnished his credentials by serving on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.

At events in Northern Virginia on Thursday, Kaine dodged questions about his political future.

I said all along what Im going to say now: Im a happy senator, and Im not looking for another job, Kaine told reporters gathered Thursday at an immigration event in Arlington, according to The Washington Post.

Kaines wife, Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton, also deflected vice presidential speculation when asked during a break in Thursdays meeting of the SOL Innovation Committee in Richmond.

I absolutely have got my focus on education here in Virginia, and Im happy to talk about that, she said.

It was mostly quiet outside Kaines North Side home Thursday evening. His wife arrived at about 6:40 and parked beside a black Volkswagen station wagon that had been there most of the day. There was no sign that Kaine was home.

A short time after getting home, Holton left to take the family dog for a walk and returned about 20 minutes later. At about 7:20, television crews arrived and began to stake out the house, although there was no sign Kaine was there.

The only other discernible movement from inside the house came when Holton opened the front door for a neighborhood friend who stopped by for visit at about 8.

Anyone passing by the home Thursday night would have been hard-pressed to believe that a potential vice presidential candidate lived on the quiet residential street.

Whether or not Clinton introduces Kaine in Florida as her running mate, the Virginia senator will be in Philadelphia next week for the Democratic National Convention.

Kaine will be one of only two Virginia officials who will give speeches, according to party officials. The other will be Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton confidant who, like Kaine, is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

From the RTD archives: Early experiences shaped Kaine's path This profile of Tim Kaine originally ran Oct. 23, 2005 ahead of his election as governor.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth would have loved this weeks Republican National Convention.

Teddy Roosevelts daughter had a throw pillow in her sitting room embroidered with the line: If you cant say something good about someone, sit right here by me.

Republicans in Cleveland richly rewarded viewers who wanted to hear nothing good about Hillary Clinton. She wasnt just the wrong choice for president; shes a criminal, they charged.

Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! delegates at Quicken Loans Arena shouted, leaping to their feet and shaking their fists. And when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, indicted Clintons performance and character in his speech Tuesday night, the crowd bellowed Guilty! after each new charge.

Republicans will see how it feels starting Monday, when the Democratic National Convention opens in Philadelphia and attempts to turn Republican Donald J. Trumps into Public Enemy No. 1.

Character assassination has a long, colorful history in presidential politics. A newspaper editor who supported Thomas Jefferson in the bitter election of 1800 wrote of John Adams that he had a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force nor firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman. But the sustained attacks on Clinton were a new level of mudslinging.

She lied about her emails, she lied about her server, she lied about Benghazi, she lied about sniper fire  why, she even lied about why her parents named her Hillary, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared.

The name claim stems from 1995 when the then-first lady said her mother always told her she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mount Everest. But Clinton was born in 1947; Sir Edmund made the climb in 1953. Her presidential campaign conceded in 2006 it was just a sweet family story.

The GOP convention also showed rare disunity among the party faithful. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former presidential contender, refused to attend, as did other Republican leaders. Some conservative delegates erupted in anger after party leaders stifled a rules change that would have permitted delegates to vote for candidates other than Trump.

On the conventions first day, the chairman of the Virginia delegation and former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Ted Cruz supporter, threw his credentials on the floor and marched out.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who boarded the Trump train late, sounded plaintive as he tried to unify Republicans. Only with Trump and his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence do we have a chance for a better way, he said. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Let the other party go on and on with its constant dividing up of people, always playing one group against the other, as if group identity were everything, said Ryan, the GOPs vice presidential nominee in 2012. In America, arent we all supposed to be and see beyond class, see beyond ethnicity and all those other lines drawn to set us apart and lock us into groups?

Cruz infuriated some delegates when he used his time at the podium Wednesday night not to endorse Trump but to give what sounded like his first presidential campaign speech of 2020. Delegates booed Cruz and shouted, Trump! Trump! Trump! as the presidential nominee walked in.

The most peculiar knock on Clinton came from former GOP presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson, who said one of Clintons heroes in college and the subject of her senior thesis was radical organizer Saul Alinsky. In the forward to one of his later books, Alinsky acknowledged Lucifer as the first radical organizer.

So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer? Carson said. Think about that.

Clinton, perhaps previewing her attacks next week, insisted that Trump has nothing to offer the American people so he had to attack her. Trumps business model is basically fraud and abuse, she said. He talks about America First but his own products are made in a lot of countries that arent named America.

At their convention, Republicans found one thing on which to agree: Hillary Clinton is their enemy. Democrats also agree on something: Trump is theirs.

Even before he endorsed Clinton, rival Bernie Sanders said he would work to defeat Trump. And when he finally did endorse her, Sanders said he wanted to make one thing clear: I intend to do everything I can to make certain she is the next president.
Richmond will be experiencing some hotter weather this weekend, and residents are advised to take precautions.

Looking to Saturday and Sunday, temperatures are expected to reach around 97 degrees. The heat index for Saturday will be close to the temperature, but on Sunday its expected to get into the 104 degree range, said meteorologist Andrew Zimmerman with the National Weather Service in Wakefield.

Theres a 20 percent chance of rain on Sunday, Zimmerman said, and temperatures arent expected to return to the low 90s until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Due to the high temperatures, Richmond has opened two cooling stations for the weekend. City cooling stations are opened when the temperature or heat index is expected to reach or exceed 95 degrees, a media release said.

The cooling station at the Department of Social Services at 900 East Marshall Street will be open Friday, Saturday and Monday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

The cooling station located Southside Community Services Center at 4100 Hull Street Road will be open Friday and Monday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

There will be bottled water, but no food provided at the cooling stations. Pets, other than service animals, are not allowed at the stations.

Here are some precautions to take during the hot weather:

Stay hydrated, (2-4 glasses per hour) and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat during the day.

Stay cool and safe by remaining in an air-conditioned area.

Never leave children or pets in cars. Inside a car can reach more than 150 degrees quickly, resulting in heat stroke and death.

Take a cool shower or bath.

Avoid sunburn and wear light clothing.

Use sunscreen with a high SPF.

Use a hat to keep your head cool.

Schedule or reschedule activities and outdoor work to the coolest parts of the day, before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.

If you must be outside, give your body a break as the high temperatures can be stressful on your body.

Limit physical activity until your body adjusts to the heat.
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LYNCHBURG Holding a mealworm to the mouth of a four-week-old Eastern red bat with tweezers, Bonnie Miles knows the chicken-wing-sized creature she cares for wont ever love her back.

She accepts the nocturnal, flying mammals cant bond with humans, she said, but they help out in the long run eating insects and pests that spread disease, consume crops and bother humans.

I expect these to be flying in about two weeks, and gone, hopefully soon, Miles said. The sooner we get them out and back to the wild the better chance they have foraging, putting on weight so they can survive the winter.

Her efforts to nurture and release injured or orphaned animals into the wild come as North American bats face the spreading scourge of white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus that deteriorates their wings and is decimating the bat population, according to state wildlife experts.

Bats are a natural pesticide in our environment, so the loss of this member of our ecosystem can produce huge problems for people in terms of agriculture and human health, said Jeff Trollinger, deputy director for the Bureau of Wildlife Resources of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The commonwealth has lost more than 90 percent of its little brown bat population since the plague was first identified in 2008, Trollinger said.

He said diminishing bat populations can affect humans negatively because the mammals eat insects  such as Zika virus-carrying mosquitoes  and keep pests from consuming crops.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro used to take in 20 to 40 little browns each year, said Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Dave McRuer.

We have not admitted a little brown bat in probably four or five years now, and they were the most common species for us, McRuer said.

He said about 95 percent of wild animals rehabbed in Virginia are cared for by volunteers, all licensed and regulated by DGIF.

Miles contact information is on the DGIF website as one of the few animal rehabilitators in the Central Virginia area and the only one in Lynchburg. Rehabilitators focus on a range of wildlife, such as birds of prey, bears, deer or rabbits.

People call me for everything  vultures, and owls and every animal you can think of  but I only do bats, Miles said, as she mixed beef and banana baby food to go with goat milk in her kitchen.  When I have newborns, Ill be up all night.

Last year, Miles nurtured 17 baby bats. She said 13 big brown bats survived to release as did two red bats.

Her efforts have been less successful so far this year. One bat that had been found in a swimming pool, likely dropped by a predator, did not survive once admitted to her care. Another had to be euthanized after it bit her  standard procedure because of a rabies threat. The bat that lived in the same container also had to be euthanized for the same reason.

Fear of rabies is one reason there are so few people caring for bats, she said.

I just cried and cried when they took her. She was just the sweetest bat, and she was healthy, and she probably would have been released, Miles said.

She also cared for three Eastern reds found in Madison Heights, then sent them to a friend with a fly cage, a more appropriate atmosphere for the tree dwellers. She bat-sat for the triplets during the past week, but sent them back Tuesday afternoon.

About two-thirds of the animals brought to the wildlife center die or are euthanized because their injuries or illness is too severe, McRuer said. They generally treat only those with potential to be released into the wild.

McRuer said the commonwealth, in particular the Central Virginia area, could use more volunteers for a range of wildlife.

After five years of doing it, people burn out. Its incredibly taxing on your emotions, McRuer said.

As she groomed one the three auburn mammals Tuesday, Miles said she enjoys the work and believes shes making a difference:

Theyre an important species, and certainly worth saving.
Making US-Russia relations great again.

Republicans in Cleveland all seem to know one thing about president Barack Obama: Hes not a national security leader, and US allies dont trust America anymore. Donald Trump will change that.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obamas foreign-policy of leading from behind, moving red lines, feigning resets with Russia, Trumps VP nominee Mike Pence told the audience. We cannot have four more years apologizing to her enemies and abandoning our friends. America needs to be strong for the world to be safe, and on the world stage, Donald Trump will lead from strength.

As Reagan said, trust, but verify.

Trump himself did not seem to get the message. In an interview with the New York Times that occurred minutes before Pences remarks, he told reporters that he would not immediately aid come to the aid of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization if they were attacked by Russia, instead waiting to see if have fulfilled their obligations to us.

Of course, that is not how treaties work, and US commitment to aid NATO allies has been the cornerstone of global security since the end of World War II. National security leaders were aghast at his comments, as were leaders like the president of Estonia, one of the small Baltic countries in question.

We are equally committed to a l l our NATO allies, regardless of who they may be. That's what makes them allies.  toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) July 21, 2016

The only time NATOs mutual-defense provision was invoked was after the 9/11 attacks, when European nations rallied to the US.

Trumps eagerness to blame Americas problems on othersimmigrants, competitive rivalsextends to allies, who he argues are driving up US defense spending. In the past, that had extended to merely promising to review defense agreements, but this is the first time Trump has said he would not follow treaty obligations in the event of an invasion. That obsession may play well with the base, but it doesnt gibe with his arguments that Obama has weakened the US military.

Story continues

The move also does nothing to dispel Trumps coziness with Russia. Trump has repeatedly praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin. His campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is a long-time confidant of Russian-backed strongmen. Last week, the Republican platform was altered at Trumps behest to remove strong language defending Ukraine, which is facing a civil war against Russian-backed separatists.

Ronald Reagan would be ashamed, Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clintons national security adviser, told reporters. Harry Truman would be ashamed. Republicans, Democrats and Independents who help build NATO into the most successful military alliance in history would all come to the same conclusion: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our Commander in Chief.

Read more from Quartz on the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news.

More stories from Quartz:
Virginia is now the first state in the country to offer registration for the federal Transportation Security Administrations PreCheck

program, which provides expedited airport security screening, at state Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

The agency also will process Transportation Worker Identification Credentials, required for truck drivers and others to access ports and vessels.

Once again, we are leading the way, said Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who was at the Richmond DMV Central Customer Service Center on Broad Street on Thursday for the second time in two weeks to announce the program.

This is the greatest agency in all of the commonwealth, the Democratic governor quipped. If I said it, its got to be true.

It follows the rollout earlier this month of electronic voter registration at DMV offices statewide.

Legislation by Del. Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, passed this year allowed the DMV to partner with the TSAs contractor, MorphoTrust, a Boston-based company.

The company will provide the equipment, training and support to process the PreCheck and TWIC applications, which will be done at eight other DMV locations in Virginia in addition to Richmond by the end of the year: Newport News, Roanoke, Tysons Corner, Abingdon, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg and Leesburg and at DMVs motor-carrier service center on Interstate 81 in Stephens City. The DMVs Williamsburg Customer Service Center will be added in 2017.

More and more, DMV is becoming the face of Virginia in dealing with its citizens, said Aubrey Layne, state transportation secretary.

DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb said MorphoTrust already provided driver-testing for the DMV and added that he doesnt expect the addition of the PreCheck and TWIC registration processing to come with an additional cost.

We expect to break even, he said.

PreCheck costs $85 for a five-year period, and the TWIC card costs $128.

Previously the credentials were only available at TSA-authorized locations in Richmond, Hampton, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Alexandria. PreCheck credentials also are available at Richmond International Airport, Reagan National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.

The TSA has pushed PreCheck as a way to reduce long waits at airport security checkpoints during the summer travel season. About 3 million travelers nationwide are registered, DMV officials said.

To register for PreCheck, applicants must provide documentation establishing citizenship status, such as a passport or permanent resident card. If you do not have a passport, you must provide a combination of documents, such as a valid photo identification such as a state drivers license or a birth certificate. The process also includes a background check and fingerprinting.

For more information, go to TSA.gov/precheck or TSA.gov/for-industry/twic.
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is issuing an open call for photography to feature in its upcoming exhibition. Our Valley: A Healthy Place to Live? will document the extraordinary range and depth of everyday factors that influence our populations health, while encouraging us to consider ways in which we can improve health.

Raising awareness of the many and complex influences on health is critical to eliminating barriers between everyday life experiences and scientifically based knowledge. Photography can help to achieve greater awareness and enhance understanding of what affects health through direct portrayal of physical and environmental threats, or more subtle images of social activities and cultural influences.

Curated by David Hungate, staff photographer for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, the exhibition will capture the human condition and document the relationships between society, environment and health, while encouraging viewers to reflect on everyday factors that influence our populations health. Through contemplation of images that document where our patients live, work and play, viewers will be challenged to consider how almost all aspects of life touch on health.

The exhibition, sponsored by the Creativity in Health Education Program at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, will run Aug. 26 to Oct. 28. An opening reception will be held in September. Additional activities, such as artist talks, are being considered and will be announced in the future.

Artists interested in participating should complete an application and submit it to Carrie Knopf, exhibit coordinator, at cfknopf@carilionclinic.org by Friday, Aug. 12, at 5 p.m.

There is no entry fee to participate.

For additional guidelines, go to the Web page at https://static.vtc.vt.edu/media/documents/CALL_FOR_ARTISTS_Our_Valley_-_A_Healthy_Place_to_Live_2_9PX84NL.pdf.

For additional guidelines, go to the Web page at https://static.vtc.vt.edu/media/documents/CALL_FOR_ARTISTS_Our_Valley_-_A_Healthy_Place_to_Live_2_9PX84NL.pdf.

Submitted by Virginia Tech
Indian Air Force personel stand guard outside Tambaram Airforce station in Chennai on July 23, 2016 as a massive search and rescue operation was underway for an Indian Air Force plane that went missing with 29 people on board over the Bay of Bengal (AFP Photo/Arun Sankar)

Chennai (India) (AFP) - India on Saturday stepped up a major search operation for an air force plane that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal the day before with 29 people on board, as the defence minister headed to the region.

The AN-32 military transport plane was on a routine flight from the southern city of Chennai to Port Blair, capital of the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, on Friday morning when it vanished from radar screens.

Twenty-one of the passengers on board were defence personnel, including six crew members, while eight others worked for the military in non-uniform roles, an IAF source told AFP.

On its official Twitter account the Indian navy said 18 navy and coastguard ships were now deployed in the search operation, along with six aircraft and a submarine.

" 18 Naval & ICG ships (+1sm) deployed with various aircraft... to locate missing AN 32" the navy tweeted.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar travelled to Tambaram air base on the outskirts of Chennai on Saturday morning, where he was briefed by military officials before departing for an aerial survey to monitor the ongoing operation.

"It lost contact with the radars approximately 150 nautical miles east of Chennai," IAF Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee told AFP.

Several reports said weather in the Bay of Bengal had been rough owing to the southwest monsoon.

An IAF source said Friday radar data from the missing aircraft showed it making a sharp left turn before rapidly losing altitude.

The Russian-built AN-32, equipped with navigational aids, is the IAF's workhorse aircraft and capable of flying for up to four hours without refuelling.

Experts have warned India's outdated fleet -- some of which dates back to the 1960s -- is a threat to national security, with some aircraft virtually on their last legs.
De Beers boosts Q3 output, maintains production guidance De Beers rough diamond production rose 4% to 9.6 million carats, mainly due to the treatment of higher grade ore at both Orapa in Botswana and South Africa as well as continued strong performance in Namibia, according to its parent company, Anglo...

Hong Kongs major jewellery fairs are set to return in 2023 An announcement from Informa Markets Jewellery indicates that the industrys two biggest B2B sourcing events will be back in action in Hong Kong in 2023 following a three-year forced pandemic break.

Diamcor rakes in $2.1mln from Q2 rough diamond sales Diamcor Mining sold 3,776.33 carats of rough diamonds for the interim period ended September 30, 2022, generating revenue of about $2,1 million, resulting in an average price of $556.08 per carat. It registered a net income of just above $1 million for...

Lucapa boosts Q3 Lulo output as Mothae dips Lucapa Diamond produced 13,022 carats during the quarter that ended 30 September 2022, an increase of 38% compared to 9,444 carats in the corresponding prior year period. It said among the recoveries during the period were 270 carats recovered through...
Israels polished diamond exports slumped in the first half as sentiment weakened among traders, Rapaport reported.

Outbound shipments dropped 14 percent from the previous year to $2.61 billion, government data showed. Exports to the U.S., Israels largest market, fell 15 percent, while to Hong Kong they plunged 26 percent.

Dealers who spoke with Rapaport News reported a tough trading environment this year as global demand continues to decline and Israel struggles to maintain its place in the market.

Polished imports slid 10 percent to $1.62 billion and net polished exports  the excess of exports over imports  slumped 20 percent to $988 million.

Israel rough imports amounted to $1.63 billion, in line with last year, while exports of the raw material increased 2 percent to $1.39 billion. Net rough imports, reflecting the amount of rough staying in the country for manufacturing, fell 11 percent to $232 million.

Israels net diamond account, which is calculated as exports of both polished and rough minus imports to reflect the added value of Indias diamond trade, declined 23 percent to $756 million.




In a further blow to the Zimbabwean diamond industry, the latest figures show that the countrys diamond production declined by 76 percent since the governments acquisition of the Marange fields, according to a report in the Daily News cited by IDEX Online.

Zimbabwes central bank released information that showed diamond output declined to 152,475 carats in the first quarter of the year, compared to 639,377 carats over the same period in the prior year period.

The Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) has received criticism for its perceived mishandling of several aspects of the Zimbabwean diamond production, including the original cancellation of the previous diamond companies licenses.

Mines minister Walter Chidhakwa has also been criticized for suggesting that the ZCDC would be selling approximately 500,000 carats per month or around 6 million carats per year, earning the cash-strapped government an average of around $30 million per month or approximately $360 million per year.




Textron Inc. (TXT), a multi-industry company engaged in aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses, reported Friday that its second-quarter net income increased to $177 million or $0.65 per share from $167 million or $0.60 per share last year.

Income from continuing operations in the latest quarter was $178 million or $0.66 per share, 10 percent higher than last year.

On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.64 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues in the quarter were $3.51 billion, up 8.1 percent from $3.25 billion in the second quarter of 2015. Analysts were looking for revenues of $3.36 billion.

The company noted that revenues were up at Systems, Industrial and Textron Aviation despite a challenging global environment.

Textron segment profit in the quarter was $328 million, up $22 million from the second quarter of 2015.

Looking ahead, the company said its third-quarter results will include an income tax benefit, including reversal of accrued interest, of approximately $315 million, of which approximately $200 million, or $0.74 per share, is attributable to continuing operations. This is related to the approval on July 11 by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Office of Appeals of a final settlement for the company's 1998 to 2008 tax years.

Further, Textron reiterated its 2016 earnings per share from continuing operations guidance of $2.60 to $2.80, not including the estimated impact related to the tax settlement. Analysts expect earnings of $2.72 per share for the year.

The company also confirmed its 2016 manufacturing cash flow before pension contributions guidance of $600 - $700 million.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
In a speech described as both inspiring and divisive, real estate tycoon Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday.

Trump's appearance on the stage at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, culminated the billionaire's unlikely run to become GOP nominee.

On the final day of the Republican National Convention, Trump delivered a lengthy speech that touched on many of the focal points of his campaign, including illegal immigration, trade agreements, and likely general election opponent Hillary Clinton.

Trump also sought to define himself as the "law and order candidate" in what many described as a throwback to Richard Nixon's campaign for president in 1968.

"I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end." Trump said. "Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored."

"The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens," he added. "Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead."

Trump argued that the nation is in crisis, pointing to the fatal shootings of police officers as well as terrorist attacks in cities like San Bernardino and Orlando.

The businessman-turned-politician also spent a considerable amount of time discussing illegal immigration, reiterating his plan to build a "great wall" on the border with Mexico.

Trump described illegal immigrants as "roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens" and told the story of a young girl named Sarah Root who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant.

"I've met Sarah's beautiful family. But to this Administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn't worth protecting," Trump said. "One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders."

Trump also reiterated his pledge to slash taxes, which he claimed would cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into the country.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was also a major of target for Trump, as he argued her time as Secretary of State has made the world less safe.

However, Trump refrained from joining in the "Lock her Up" chant from the convention floor, declaring instead that they should "defeat her in November."

The speech was met with substantial applause from the Republicans delegates but was seen as appealing more to the GOP base rather than the broader electorate.

Trump was also criticized for being short on specific policy proposals that would allow him to achieve his lofty goals.

Some critics also claimed that Trump's comments about law and order and illegal immigration were a veiled effort to divide the country by race.

"Tonight, Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline," said Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. "And his answer - more fear, more division, more anger, more hate - was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President."

"He offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe, just more prejudice and paranoia," Podesta added. "America is better than this. America is better than Donald Trump."

Next week, Democrats will hold their national convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Hillary Clinton will presumably be nominated as the party's presidential candidate.

(Photo: Michael Vadon)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
With the Republican convention wrapping up and the Democratic convention on the horizon, the results of a new WMUR Granite State Poll show Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are statistically tied in New Hampshire.

Thirty-nine percent of likely New Hampshire voters support Clinton, while 37 percent said they would vote for Trump. Another 18 percent of voters prefer another candidate and 6 percent are undecided.

Clinton's two-point advantage is well within the poll's margin of error and compares to the eleven-point lead held by the former Secretary of State in an April poll.

As in other states, the poll showed a substantial gender gap as well as a significant gap by level of education.

While Clinton has an advantage among women and voters with a post-graduate education, Trump leads among men and voters with a high school education or less.

In a four-way matchup including prominent third-party candidates, Clinton and Trump are tied at 37 percent, while 10 percent support Libertarian Gary Johnson and 5 percent prefer Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

The poll showed that the two major party candidates are very unpopular in New Hampshire, as 58 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton and 61 percent view Trump unfavorably.

New Hampshire has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in five of the last six elections but is still seen as a swing state due to the independent nature of Granite State voters.

The survey of 469 likely New Hampshire voters was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center between July 9th and 18th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
President Barack Obama said he did not watch the Republican National Convention on television but still took issue with some of the claims made by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In a news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday, Obama argued that Trump's apocalyptic descriptions of an America on the verge of collapse do not jibe with reality.

Obama took particular issue with Trump's claims regarding violent crime and illegal immigration during his presidency.

While Trump pointed to a jump in homicides in America's fifty largest cities, Obama said the overall rate of violent crime in America is lower than any other time in three to four decades.

The president also dismissed Trump's criticism of his immigration policy, claiming that the rate of illegal migration into the U.S. is lower by two-thirds than when President Ronald Reagan was in office.

Most assessments of Trump's speech have noted the dark tone, with critics arguing that the real estate tycoon was attempting to scare voters into supporting him.

"We're not going to make good decisions on fears that don't have a basis in fact." Obama said. "That is something I hope all Americans pay attention to."

For his part, Pena Nieto declared that U.S.-Mexican relations go beyond the relations between the two governments, noting the close ties between the people of the two countries.

Pena Nieto stressed that Mexico would not get involved in the U.S. election process and said his government would work with whoever is elected in a constructive manner.

The Mexican president has previously compared Trump's rhetoric to that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and shot down the GOP nominee's promise to make Mexico pay for the wall he plans to build on the border.

In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Trump sought to define himself as the "law and order candidate," arguing that the policies of Obama and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have made the country less safe.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Suggesting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other Americans are embracing his ideas, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke announced Friday that he is running for U.S. Senate in Louisiana.

Duke, who served one term as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, said he will run for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. David Vitter, R-La.

In a video announcing his candidacy, Duke pledged to "stop the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America" and called for "fair trade."

"I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues I've championed for years," Duke added. "My slogan remains America first."

Trump made illegal immigration and renegotiating trade deals to benefit America key focal points of his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president on Thursday.

Duke claimed he believes in equal rights for all but said he also demands respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans.

However, the National Republican Senatorial Committee was quick to distance itself from Duke's campaign for Senate.

"Louisiana voters will be able to choose from several Republican Senate candidates who will have a great impact on the Bayou State and the future of our country," said NRSC Executive Director Ward Baker. "David Duke is not one of them. He will not have the support of the NRSC under any circumstance."

Trump drew considerable criticism earlier this year for his apparent reluctance to disavow an endorsement from Duke.

In a post on Twitter on Thursday, Duke praised Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican convention, saying he "couldn't have said it better!"

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
With BS6 emission norms kicking in later this month, many brands have chosen the petrol way

It was in October 2018 that the Supreme Court of India announced the deadline for sale of BS4 cars as 1st April 2020. However, owing to the current state of affairs and the lockdown which followed, the apex court has extended the deadline but on a conditional basis. Still, this will not better things for hundreds of dealerships across the country who are going through a rough phase  read more details.

On the other hand, many automakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Renault and Skoda Auto Volkswagen India have opted for a petrol-only portfolio for the initial periods of BS6 emission norms. In fact, over 40 diesel vehicles from various categories have been discontinued. In no particular order, here are some diesel cars discontinued ahead of the BS6 era:

Tata Hexa

One of the biggest losses due to the implementation of BS6, is the Tata Hexa. The flagship Tata SUV has been officially discontinued. Tata claims that it will be re-launched, at a later date with a BS6 diesel engine. But Tata has not revealed timeline, and with the current lockdown situation, one can probably expect a new Hexa only in 2021.

Tata Safari Storme 2.2 Varicor

Tata Safari Storme, which originally debuted as the Safari back in 1998, has gone through several updates over the years. However, the company is finally pulling the plug on it for the BS6 timeline. The iconic 2.2 Varicor diesel motor, an evolution of the Dicor, will be missed by Indian automotive enthusiasts.

Tata Tiago/Tigor 1.05 Revotorq

With the new BS6 update, Tata Motors has ditched the 1.05-litre diesel variants from its Tiago and Tigor range. The diesel variants were prone to uncomfortable NVH and saw much lesser demand compared to the 1.2-litre petrol variants, ever since their introduction.

Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza 1.3 DDiS

Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza subcompact SUV was launched in 2016 solely with a diesel engine and had seen efficient sales accounting to around 10,000 units per month. At 2020 Auto Expo, it came in a fresh BS6 1.5-litre petrol avatar as a replacement to the proven BS4 1.3-litre diesel unit that served in many other Maruti Suzuki models.

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga 1.3 DDiS

Maruti Suzuki Ertiga is currently offered exclusively with two BS6 engine options: 1.5-litre petrol and a CNG variant based on the same. The latter makes much lesser output but better fuel economy and is aimed for fleet operations.

Renault Duster Diesel 1.5 DCi

Renault Duster was launched in 2013 with both petrol and diesel engine options. The company has updated the 1.5-litre petrol engine to BS6 standards while the 1.5-litre diesel motor has been discontinued. It could make a comeback in BS6 format since the demand is high for diesel vehicles in the category.

Volkswagen Vento 1.5 TDi

Volkswagen Group has also opted a petrol-only portfolio for the initial period of BS6. The 1.5 TDi motor not only powered Volkswagen Vento but also Polo, Ameo and Skoda Rapid. With the launch of BS6 Volkswagen Vento and Polo, a 1.0-litre turbocharged TSi petrol motor made its debut.

Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDi

Volkswagen Tiguan premium five-seater SUV was powered exclusively by a 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine which served in a lot of other VW, Skoda and Audi products. In its place, the company has introduced Tiguan AllSpace seven-seater to rival Toyota Fortuner, Honda CR-V, and Mahindra Alturas G4. It comes with 2.0-litre turbocharged TSI petrol engine.

Toyota Etios 1.4 D

Toyota has announced that sales of Etios, Liva, Etios Cross and Corolla have been stopped in India. This announcement was made following the move towards BS6 emission standards and stringent safety norms. Upgrading the current 1.4-litre diesel engine to BS6 would not be that cost-effective and hence, the company might introduce a new diesel engine in the near future.

Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC

Honda Civic sedan arrived in with petrol and diesel formats but with buyers showing more preference for the former, the company has now pulled out the Civic diesel from its production line. Hence, for the BS6 era, Honda Civic will be offered only with a 1.8-litre petrol motor mated to a CVT automatic.

Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDi

Skoda Octavia has been one of the best-selling products from the Czech-origin brand worldwide. In India, sales were mostly contributed by its 2.0-litre diesel variant. The case is the same for other Skoda models such as Superb and Kodiaq. Hence, Skoda Auto Volkswagen India might introduce BS6 diesel power plants for its entire range of brands and products in the future.
National delegation calls for stopping military escalation in Yemen





KUWAIT, July 22 (Saba)  The national delegation to Kuwait consultations called on the international community to move urgently to stop the military escalation of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.



As we strongly condemn this dangerous escalation, we call on the international community and the United Nations to assume their responsibility and move urgently to stop this escalation, the delegation said in a statement issued Friday.



The national delegation underlined that such escalation comes in light of the UN-sponsored peace consultations in Kuwait, which require creating appropriate conditions by all parties.



 In a risky escalating step, the Saudi-led aggression coalition on Yemen intensified yesterday [Thursday] its military operations in all Yemeni provinces, the statement said.



The statement pointed out that more than 75 air raids targeted different areas in the country and resulted in dozens of dead and wounded among civilians. The raids targeted also Governor of Saada province along with a number of members of the de-escalation committee and caused different injuries to them.



The aggression stepped up its operations and military reinforcements in several fronts, as well as the dangerous practices by its hirelings in some provinces, the last of which was the brutal military cleansing against residents of al-Sarari village in Taiz province after besieging the village more than a year.



The delegation stressed that this military escalation expresses the lack of truthful will by the aggression forces to establish peace in Yemen, adding that those forces seek to foil the peace consultations and to hinder reaching any possible political solutions.



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Jul-21-2016 21:30 TweetFollow @OregonNews US Senators Show No Courage to Investigate Big Pharma and Save Lives My testimony in 2007 in front of US Senator Patrick Leahy's Judiciary Committee.

Senator Leahy at the 20th Women's Economic Opportunity Conference, June 4 2016.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - How many deaths could have been prevented Senator Leahy if you had the courage to initiate an investigation into the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma when I implored you to do so? Would we now be fighting for the lives of our children in a Holocaust of heroin deaths? Testimony

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Evaluating the Propriety and Adequacy of the OxyContin Criminal Settlement

July 31, 2007 Marianne Skolek _________________________________________ My name is Marianne Skolek. I had a beautiful 29 year old daughter named Jill. She had the misfortune of being prescribed OxyContin in January 2002 and was killed on April 29, 2002. Why did a $9 billion privately held pharmaceutical corporation take the life of my precious daughter? My work against Purdue Pharma for the past 5 years initially focused on J. David Haddox, dentist turned psychiatrist and Senior Medical Director of Purdue Pharma. I also focused on Robin Hogen, former Public Relations spokesman for Purdue Pharma. In 1996, the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Pain Society issued a set of guidelines for the use of opiates in the treatment of chronic pain. These guidelines are referred to as a consensus statement. The statement leaning toward a more liberal use of opiates was adopted just as the marketing push for OxyContin began. This consensus statement was produced by a task force, which was headed by J. David Haddox, former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, who was senior medical advisor for Purdue Pharma  the maker of OxyContin. Haddox was quoted as saying that the point was to gather consensus. If you are going to do this, this is how it should be done. There was question as to whether it was ethical for Haddox to be associated with a pharmaceutical manufacturer to guide the formation of a document that would play a key role in promoting the use of products made by the company  Purdue Pharma. When OxyContin was introduced on the market, it was intended for the treatment of cancer patients and they were losing the patent on MS Contin. At one point, in the greed and sheer evil of Purdue Pharma, they intended to market OxyContin to OB/GYN patients. I flooded the country with emails and faxes to Attorney Generals and the media reporting that we had enough devastation in the country without addicting infants to OxyContin. This marketing ploy was terminated by Purdue Pharma. Pain patients from various pain societies will speak of the merits of OxyContin and their quality of life being restored because of the drug. These pain societies throughout the country  are funded by Purdue Pharma. Let the pain patients not a part of any funded pain society of Purdue Pharma speak about the quality of life they have after becoming addicted to OxyContin  and when their physicians refuse to renew prescriptions for the drug  and they go on the street to buy the drug because they cant kick the habit of this less addictive drug. Ask the FDA and the DEA why OxyContin is in such plentiful supply on the streets all over the country. Jill and thousands of victims of an out of control, greedy pharmaceutical company headed by three convicted criminals marketed OxyContin as less likely to be addictive and abused. There are assertions that the only victims in the criminal activities of Purdue Pharma were the physicians who were misled by Purdue Pharmas sales representatives. The physicians, who were used as pawns by Purdue Pharma, were not ingesting a powerful narcotic that was being marketed as less likely to be addictive or abused  the patients were ingesting OxyContin and were becoming addicted and dying. If patients arent victims of Purdue Pharmas criminal activities, tell me what they should be called. The addictions and loss of lives because of OxyContin continue to impact every state in the country every single day. The far reaching consequences of the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma did not end in 2001 or 2002 as they would like it to be believed  no one can turn the clock back. This has been allowed to become a national crisis because there was no conscience in the marketing of OxyContin  there was only greed. We all hear on the news every day about individuals who work for government agencies or private industry who embezzle funds. Purdue Pharma has been found criminally responsible for marketing OxyContin which resulted in death and addiction. Is it justice to have these convicted criminals  these monsters  fined an amount of money that is very well afforded by them, or will the Senate send a message that because of the magnitude of the crime committed, they deserve to be further investigated by the Senate? Anything that is imposed against these convicted criminals will not give us back Jill, but I will guarantee that Purdue Pharma will never forget the name Jill Skolek. When I began my work at exposing these three convicted criminals and Haddox and Hogen, I told Hogen that you messed with the wrong mother  and they did because my work is not over. I want to know why the FDA allowed OxyContin to cause such destruction to the lives of scores of innocent victims. I want to know why 12 warning letters were sent by the FDA to Purdue Pharma about their marketing of OxyContin and to this day, they are not required to put highly addictive or addictive on the label of the drug. I want to know why the FDA deleted without reading so many of my emails about the marketing of OxyContin until this last month. I want to know why Curtis Wright while employed by the FDA played an intricate part in the approval of OxyContin and then was hired by Purdue Pharma. I want to know why Attorney General Blumenthal of Connecticuts Citizen Petition which requests strengthened warnings for OxyContin as a result of information they uncovered in their investigation against Purdue Pharma has been sitting at the FDA  without any action  since January 2004. I want to know how Rudy Guliani could be the big star hired by Purdue Pharma to play down the abuse and diversion of OxyContin and also get paid by the DEA for work performed for them. I want to know why the Sackler family has not been held accountable for their involvement with Purdue Pharma and the mass marketing of OxyContin. Eventually Purdue Pharma will introduce another blockbuster drug similar to OxyContin and as they did with another devastating drug called Palladone. Palladone was removed from the market after a couple of months. I like to think that my faxes and emails all over the country played an intricate part in having it removed. My advice to Purdue Pharma is when you are ready to introduce another drug such as OxyContin or Palladone, look behind you, because I will be right there. I will be working at having Howard Udell disbarred for his criminal activities and Paul Goldenheims medical license revoked for what amounts to white collar drug trafficking. I will be actively working at Friedman, Udell and Goldenheim never being able to work in the pharmaceutical industry again because they are convicted criminals who criminally marketed OxyContin. I will accomplish this  hopefully with the help of Attorney General Blumenthal -- do not doubt me at not being successful at achieving this. Her name was Jill Carol Skolek. She did not deserve to be prescribed OxyContin and die because of the criminal activities of individuals of Purdue Pharma. Please give my family justice and investigate the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma. Thank you Senators for giving me the opportunity to speak for thousands of victims of an out of control pharmaceutical corporation. (Here ends my 2007 testimony in front of US Senator Patrick Leahy's Judiciary Committee.) _________________________________________ Below is Senator Patrick Leahy's most recent statement -- nine years after I delivered testimony in front of him and the US Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Leahy looked at me after I delivered my testimony and informed me there would be no investigation into the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma and their lies in marketing OxyContin. How many tens of thousands of lives could have been spared Senator Leahy, if you and your Judiciary Committee had launched an investigation into Purdue Pharma in 2007? We sure wouldn't be debating the lukewarm Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) and "settling" for passage of it. I call it blood on your hands. _________________________________________ 07.13.16

Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy On Cloture Vote of S.524, the Comprehensive Addiction And Recovery Act Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),

Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee,

On Cloture Vote of S.524, the Comprehensive Addiction And Recovery Act

July 13, 2016 Today, Congress is taking a step forward in how it responds to opioid addiction. By advancing the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), we are leaving behind decades-old misconceptions about how to confront addiction. For too long, Congress relied on punitive measures that only served to push addicts further underground and away from recovery. This legislation treats opioid addiction as an illness, and combats it as we would any other public health issue: through a commitment to evidence based prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Yet our commitment today also falls short. This conference report promises critical programming, but it does not provide the resources necessary to support that programming. Given the lack of funding, I worked to direct CARAs limited resources to benefit communities that have been particularly hard hit by opioid abuse, communities like those in Vermont. But unfortunately CARA lacks sufficient funding to benefit all communities impacted by opioid addiction. As a result, this should be heralded only as a first step. If Congress considers its job done today, we will have failed the countless communities across the country grappling with addiction. And we will have done little to stem the reach of this epidemic. Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts to fund the programs authorized by CARA. When the legislation was first considered on the Senate floor, Republicans opposed Senator Shaheens amendment that would have provided $600 million in new funding through emergency supplemental appropriations. Through the appropriations process in Committee this year, emergency funds to fight this addiction epidemic were denied. Senate Republicans keep assuring us that there will be a time and a place to include real funding. Last weeks Conference meeting was such an opportunity. I, along with other Democratic conferees, identified commonsense and bipartisan offsets that would enable us to dedicate almost $1 billion in new resources to put the programs in CARA to work. We told our Republican counterparts we could not sign the Conference Report unless it included meaningful funding. Republicans again voted against funding CARA, and I did not sign the report. But they also made a new promise: at the Conference meeting, Republicans promised to include $525 million in new funding to combat addiction through the appropriations process. I will continue to pressand the American people should demandthat Congress keeps its promises and provides meaningful funding for CARA without partisan, poison-pill offsets. I will soon again join Senators Murray, Wyden, and Shaheen to introduce legislation to provide $920 million to fund CARA. This new funding could be fully paid for with offsets we proposed to the committee conferees last week, all of which have all received overwhelming bipartisan support. If Congress is serious about combatting the opioid epidemic, there is no excuse to not support this commonsense proposal. If CARA were funded, it could make an important difference in communities across the country. The bill lays the groundwork for expanding prevention efforts and access to treatment and recovery services. It removes arbitrary restrictions on prescribing Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), which will allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants in Vermont to treat addiction just as they treat other illnesses. It authorizes a critical public health program I helped create to expand MAT programs. Some Vermonters struggling with addiction have had to wait nearly a year to receive treatment. At the Chittenden Clinic in South Burlington, Vermont, several have died while waiting. Sadly, this story is not unique. The bill also includes my provision to support our rural communities by increasing access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. Rural locations have the highest death rates in the country from opioid poisoning. Getting this drug into more hands will save lives. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act also recognizes that the over-prescription of opioids is largely responsible for this epidemic, and the legislation includes a provision I strongly support to encourage the National Institutes of Health to intensify research on the effectiveness of opioids in treating chronic pain, and to encourage the development of opioid-alternatives to manage chronic pain. Two weeks ago, on a beautiful Vermont evening, a standing-room-only crowd filled a conference room at the Green Mountain Technical and Career Center for a community meeting on opioid abuse. The event was organized by Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux. He is a former DEA agent who has seen the toll that heroin and opioid abuse has exacted on this rural region of my state. Dr. Betsy Perez, a panelist and longtime practitioner at nearby Copley Hospital, surprised many in the crowd when she addressed the opioid issue from a personal, rather than a medical, perspective. She told the heart-wrenching story of her addicted daughters journey. Despite many efforts at treatment, her daughter repeatedly relapsed, eventually winding up homeless on the streets of Burlington. Her daughter is now two years into recovery and recently became a mother. The cost of her intensive residential treatment was high, and it drained the doctors retirement savings, but she would have it no other way. Many are not so fortunate. Each day, 129 people die from drug overdoses in our country. I suspect that almost every Vermonter knows someone who has been impacted by addiction. This is not the future we want for our children, for our grandchildren, or for our communities. In Vermont we know what it takes to get ahead of addiction. While I appreciate the attention Congress has given this issue, CARA will only work for Vermont and states across the country if Congress is willing to provide the funding that is necessary to fight this epidemic. I was proud to help usher CARA through the Senate, and I will support it today. But I am greatly disappointed that Congress has so far refused to treat this public health crisis as seriously as it did the swine flu or Ebola. As Vermonters know too well, lives are at stake here at home and time is of the essence. It is time for Congress to act like it, and fully fund CARA. _________________________________________

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Jul-21-2016 16:15 TweetFollow @OregonNews Oregon Cannabis Growers Asked to Stop Using 14 Products Fourteen horticultural products ordered detained and removed from sale, growers asked to stop usage.

#Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - The Oregon Department of Agriculture has issued 12 notices of statewide detainment and stop sale and removal orders for horticultural products that contain pesticide active ingredients not listed on the label. The orders call for the product manufacturers to immediately cease all sales, offers of sale, or other distribution in Oregon. In addition, products within Oregon or transported into the state by any type of business transaction or other method are detained. These products are commonly used in horticulture and hydroponics, including cannabis production. The 12 notices cover 14 products sold in Oregon that were also identified by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) in late June as containing undeclared pesticide active ingredients. In an abundance of caution, ODA issued its orders and is currently sampling and testing these products sold in Oregon. ODAs actions affect the following products and their manufacturers: Vita Grow Thunder Boom Marco Industries, Inc. dba American Agriculture, Portland, OR

OG Rapid Flower + Hardener Crop Specific Solutions, Rockingham, Western Australia

Humboldt Roots Humboldt Nutrients LLC, Paso Robles, CA

Safergro Mildew Cure for Powdery Mildew Control JH Biotech, Ventura, CA

Olivias Cloning Gel Olivias Solutions, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA

The Hammer Plantlife Products, Kelowna, BC

Frost Protection Plus Rambridge Wholesale Supply, Calgary, AB

Rock Resinator Heavy Yields Rock Holdings Pty Ltd., Perth, Western Australia

SNS 217C All Natural Spider Mite Control Sierra Natural Science, Inc., Salinas, CA

Root 66 1-1-1 Technaflora Plant Products Ltd., Mission, BC

Optic Foliar AT-AK, Optic Foliar Overgrow, Optic Foliar Switch Tulsi Enterprises Ltd., Surrey, BC

Pyyro K 0-3-7 Van de Uber Marketing and Manufacturing, Port Moody, BC Use of these products could cause growers to experience a loss of marketability and for cannabis to fail Oregon Health Authority (OHA) pesticide testing requirements. ODA has issued pesticide advisories to growers of all crops and retailers advising them to discontinue using or selling the products. For additional information on the advisories and the pesticide active ingredients not listed on the labels, go to oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/Pages/CannabisPesticides.aspx, contact ODA at (503) 986-4635 or email . ODA is working with the Oregon Health Authority to determine any potential human health concerns associated with the use of products treated with these undeclared pesticide active ingredients. ODA will proceed to address violations of Oregons pesticide and fertilizer laws, which include adulteration of a pesticide product and mislabeling of a pesticide or fertilizer product. Source: Oregon Department of Agriculture _________________________________________

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Articles for July 20, 2016 | Articles for July 21, 2016 |
If Dajuan Harris Jr. is underrated, its not by those at Kansas
One of the most encouraging aspects about life today in Samoa is that everyone seems to know their rights.

From the way they are treated by the authorities to what they can and cannot do in relation to law and order, across the board, it appears that most people have gotten quite a good grip of the privileges of having rights.

Which is a fantastic development we should all applaud. Gone are the days where many of us knew little about them and were therefore subjected to the violation of many of our rights.

Dont get me wrong; Im not saying that things are perfect when it comes to the respect accorded to our rights here or anywhere else in the world. Far from it.

We still have many instances where they are violated blatantly right before our eyes. Depending on which rights and where, these violations are a reminder that we live in an imperfect world.

Now during the past few days, this newspaper has observed the debate about the 60 Minutes coverage of the Australian couple who were attacked by escaped convict, Lauititi Tualima, during their holiday in Samoa last year.

The programmes unfavourable coverage of Samoa has understandably earned the wrath of some of our people who have been quick to condemn the portrayal of our beautiful country. They have gone on to criticise the violation of Samoas right to be portrayed appropriately and of course defended the Prime Ministers antics during the now infamous interview.

Fair enough. Its a free world.

To be quite honest, its all been very interesting to follow and were pretty sure we have not heard the last of this fiasco. Surprisingly, there has been one point that has hardly been raised, which is why I want to highlight this today in this piece.

I want to talk about the right of the Australian woman, Angie Jackson, to be protected. She had a right not to be assaulted, sexually violated and raped. She had every right to be in Samoa, enjoy this country without fear, mistreatment and the threats she was subjected to.

We are talking about a very basic human right that was violated right here on our shores. This right seems to have been lost on most people.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the real story. This is the real issue. In the wash up of all this, its unfortunate that tourism, the Prime Minister and a nations credibility has been questioned.

But what do we expect when these things happen?

Here is the thing, before we leap and say anything else about poor journalism, sensationalism on the part 60 Minutes, who was wrong or right and whatever you think is the problem, think about this: Angie Jackson is someones daughter, she is someones sister and she is a human being who was gravely wronged. That is the most important thing about this story.

She is loved by a husband who had to endure what no man should go through and that was to watch on while his wife was raped by someone who should have been kept behind bars. Just as Angies right was violated, her husbands rights were also violated. They are the real victims in this mess.

How would you feel if Angie was your sister? What if she was your daughter? What if she was your wife? How would you feel and what would you have done?

Would the Prime Minister insist on defending Samoas pride and nationalistic ego if that was someone close to him?

To say they were at the wrong place at the wrong time? That is just pathetic. Hogwash.

Lets be reminded here and now that when visitors come to Samoa, wherever they are, they have a right to decent protection  just like we do when we travel to foreign countries. Were not asking for 24-hour security service and CCTV coverage, we are talking about a basic right to protection, least of all from prisoners who should be behind bars. Speaking of which, members of the public in this country have a right to this very basic protection, a right that has been violated over and over again over the years.

Angie Jackson is only one of many women in this country whose basic right to protection and to be spared from rape and other sexual crimes are violated.

To say that Samoa has a sex crime problem is an understatement. We have a crisis on our hands. This is the bigger issue.

Not a week goes by without cases of rape, incest, molestation, sexual assaults being heard by the Court. What does that tell us about our country?

Think about those women whose rights are violated every time this happens. They are daughters of Samoa. They are sisters, daughters, wives, mothers and they deserve better. Angie Jackson did not deserve the treatment she received. And so do all the women in Samoa who have had to endure similar unimaginable pain. They deserve better.

Of course these issues are not confined to Samoa. They are happening elsewhere - including Australia. The difference is that we proudly gloat about this nation being founded upon God. We talk it up as paradise with political stability unrivalled and a safe haven for visitors.

If anything positive should come out of the 60 Minutes programme and the furore it has created, it is that the women of Samoa  or any other woman who visits for that matter  deserve better protection.

How do we go about doing that?

As a nation, we need to begin a proper conversation about how to protect our women and daughters from rape and the violence they are so often subjected to. If we can protect our daughters, chances are visitors like Angie Jackson might be spared. At the moment, we cannot say that.

Indeed, we need to look at addressing this sex crimes crisis we have on our hands. And we need to be honest with ourselves.

Forget that silly pride, we need to sit down and admit we have a serious issue and only then will we begin to find a solution and healing. It is really up to us. The sooner the better.

Have a safe Friday Samoa, God bless!
The indigenous forests of Samoa are one of the most important natural pillars of its culture and traditions  the faa Samoa and an integral element of the livelihood and well being of its people.

It is therefore important that we work to protect these indigenous forest ecosystems, particularly when there is increasing pressure from urban development and population growth.

The most effective way of doing this is to identify critical forested areas, such as the four key biodiversity areas (K.B.A) of the uplands of central Savai'i, the Apia catchment area and two community conservation forests of the villages of Falealupo, Uafato and Tiavea, and work with communities to sustainably manage these.

Every effort that can contribute to the conservation and sustainable management of these areas is warmly welcome by both the government and in particular the village communities who own the land on which the remaining K.B.As are located.

In order to do this, there needs to be regular surveying and monitoring of the health of these areas so as to provide the information and knowledge needed to guide their proper conservation and management.

Last Sunday, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E) in partnership with Conservation International Samoa (C.I) came together to make the final preparations for the Biodiversity Rapid Assessment Programme surveys (B.I.O.R.A.P 2016) that is now underway.

The surveys will run over a three-week period, taking 15 CI staff and scientists, 15 M.N.R.E staff and 60 local community members to four sites across Savaii and Upolu.

These surveys are an integral part of the Samoan governments Strengthening Multi-sectoral Management of Critical Landscape (S.M.S.M.C.L) project, which aims to ensure Samoas productive landscapes are protected and sustainably managed to mitigate land degradation, by integrating Sustainable Land Management principles across multiple sectors as well as mainstreaming S.L.M into planning frameworks and outcomes.

B.I.O.R.A.P 2016 will contribute to this aim, by providing baseline biodiversity data for use in assessing climate impacts on forest ecosystems and species on both Savaii and Upolu. The baseline data will serve as an indicator in determining and prioritizing specific areas for conservation management and areas for sustainable land management practices by the government and the villages in which these areas are located.

The ecological surveys will involve strong engagement with local communities to ensure their understanding of the value of these efforts and to garner their support for the activities and outcomes of the project to protect the nature that they depend upon.

By leveraging government partnership, recruiting a global team of conservation scientists, and involving local community members, the survey will allow for a transfer of knowledge to local communities on survey techniques and skills, with community members participating and being trained in biodiversity survey techniques, said Schannel van Dijken, C.I Samoa Officer in Charge and B.I.O.R.A.P 2016 Team leader.

This multi-sectoral engagement is central to the overall management of these K.B.As, as these critical landscapes and the success and sustainability of the overall S.M.S.M.C.L project will depend on.

The baseline scientific information gathered during the BIORAP 2016 will be used by government and community leaders to generate sustainable management plans that will then be used to ensure the forests can be properly managed into the future and, in doing so, ensure the longevity of local village livelihoods, Seumaloisalafai Afele Faiilagi, M.N.R.E-B.I.O.R.AP Project Manager.

During the two weeks preceding the survey, CI and government representatives met with key village councils to share with them the objectives for the project and to request support from members of the community to accompanying the scientists on the survey.

It is integral to project success that by including local community members, that they can share their local and traditional knowledge, as well as, learn new skills from the scientists in order to carry on the monitoring work that will be required into the future.

The local community is excited to be involved in the project and have been looking forward to hosting the scientists involved in the survey. We couldnt have done this without the community land-owners, who know this land well and who support this effort.

They have been a great help in identifying the best trails, possible campsite locations and accessible lands for scientists to conduct research.
Why the Stock Market Is Rooting for Hillary Clinton to Win

Update: It's official, Hillary Clinton has picked Tim Kaine as her running mate.



Hillary Clinton is preparing to announce her vice presidential pick as early as Friday. While her short list of potential running mates reportedly includes Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the leading contender is Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, according to multiple reports.

Kaine is Clintons safe choice. Hes seen as capable but vanilla, even boring  especially in comparison to liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Perez, who would be the first Hispanic Democratic vice presidential nominee; or Sen. Cory Booker, who would be the first African-American vice presidential nominee.

Still, in an interview with PBSs Charlie Rose on Monday, Clinton said her priorities in a running mate are experience and preparedness. As a former mayor of Richmond, governor of Virginia and now U.S. senator, Kaine meets those criteria, though he himself has said he isnt prepared to be president. Nobody should ever say theyre ready for that responsibility, because it is so, so huge, he said on NBCs Meet the Press last month.

On top of that, Kaine is unlikely to overshadow the candidate, grab the limelight or create turbulence with controversial comments  all valuable traits for a Clinton campaign that cant any afford more scandal.

Related: In Enemy Territory, Top Dem Blasts GOP Over Trump

Plus, Kaines home state of Virginia is also a key battleground, and adding him to the ticket could move it firmly into Clintons column while still keeping the Senate seat in Democratic control.

Here are 12 other things you should know about him:

1. Born Feb. 26, 1958 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Kaine is 58  10 years younger than Clinton.

2. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where his mother was a home economics teacher and his father owned an iron-working shop.

3. Kaine graduated from the University of Missouri in three years with a B.S. in Economics and then received a J.D. from Harvard Law in 1983.

Story continues

4. He took a year off from law school to volunteer with Jesuit missionaries at a vocational school in Honduras. He speaks Spanish fluently, switching between languages in many ads and campaign speeches. In a 2013 address on immigration, he became the first senator to give a speech on the Senate floor in a language other than English.

Related: Trump Reveals His Vision in Grim Speech: Call It Twilight in America

5. Raised Catholic, Kaine has been part of the same predominantly African-American church community in Richmond for years. While personally opposed to both abortion and the death penalty, as a senator he has aligned with the Democratic platform on both issues.

6. His wife, Anne Holton, is currently the Virginia secretary of education. Her father helped integrate Virginias state schools, and Anne formerly worked as a legal aid lawyer and juvenile court judge. They have three children: Nat, Woody and Annella.

Clinton vs. Kaine On The Issues | InsideGov

7. For 17 years, Kaine worked for a law practice in Richmond, focusing on representing people denied housing based on race and disabilities.

8. Kaine was governor of Virginia from 2006 through 2011. To balance the state budget, he cut social welfare programs, and he invested in infrastructure, but partisan disagreements left him unable to produce major legislation.

Related: Right Wing Christian Leader Tony Perkins Calls Trump Vote A Calculated Risk

9. Kaine accepted $160,000 in gifts as governor. The gifts were legal under Virginia law, and he did publicize all accounts, but Republicans may jump on that  trying to prove hes just as corrupt as they think Hillary is.

10. He was the second governor to endorse Barack Obama in his 2008 campaign. Kaine was also one of Obamas top choices for vice president. The White House has endorsed him as Clintons pick.

11. Kaine was elected to the U.S. Senate from Virginia in 2012. He continues to serve on the Armed Services, Budget, Foreign Relations and Aging committees.

12. He is one of 20 Americans to have been a mayor, governor and U.S. senator. As Clinton pointed out, hes never lost an election.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, was ringside at Christchurch last night when Lupesoliai Joseph Parker took on Solomon Haumono on his road to the world heavyweight title.

Speaking during his weekly media programme, Tuilaepa said he attended the right to honour an invitation to be there.

That was the request from the sponsors (of the fight) they wanted me to be there on behalf of the government, said Tuilaepa. It will build courage (for Parker) especially this fight.

Its very important that if he wins, he will have the chance to challenge for the world title. If he doesnt get it his opponent will get that opportunity.

Tuilaepa said it is in the best interest of Samoa for Lupesoliai to win.

I also dont want the win to move away from Samoa, he said.

Another reason why I like his fights is because the national anthem of Samoa and New Zealand are sung on the stage. This boy has pride in his country and I should be there to express the support of our village of Aufaga.

Parker holds the Lupesoliai title from Aufaga.

Meanwhile, Tuilaepa has also assured that he is in the best of health.

On his return from New Zealand last week from his routine checkup, the Prime Minister said it was his leg.

It wasnt because I was overweight, he explained.

It was my leg from when I used to play rugby in those days that was injured but its fine now.

He pointed out that many government officials have passed away because they had not taken care of their health.

During the funeral of Birdie, the C.E.O. of Commerce I had mentioned three other C.E.Os had passed away within 12 months, he said.

I had advised that people should look after their health. You only have one life and you should do checkups every six months. That is how its done and what you are seeing here is just muscles, its not fat.
A twoday workshop to update the Diagnostic Trade Integrated Study at the T.A.T.T.E. Conference Centre was immensely useful for the participants.

Relevant stakeholders were invited by the government and K.V.A Consult to discuss strategies to improve the competitiveness of the countrys economy.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi opened the meeting.

For most of the participants, the two-day meeting was extremely helpful in terms of identifying the economic situation of today, and the progress of the initial Diagnostic Trade Integrated Study launched in 2010.

One of the things we are trying to address is the problem of unstable supply of coconuts and other local products that were processing and exporting, said Natasha Kolose of Samoa Trust Estates Corporation (S.T.E.C.).

The Corporation benefited from the study implemented by K.V.A Consult Ltd before, and this time, the report did support S.T.E.C.s economic strategy again.

It has been helpful for us in so far as it shows us to recognize where we fit in the overall framework of trade, especially within the area of exports. Because it is a well-known fact that Samoa is trying to boost its exports and lessen its deficit.

In terms of challenges the meeting looked into Samoas isolation from other possible business partners.

Because were so far away from the rest of the world, it is hard to determine where Samoas focus should be placed.

Should it now be more on the services side rather than on goods because we have a narrow recourse base, or not? Ms Kolose explained.

Members of the private sector were equally impressed with the content of the meeting. Mona Tiufea Lio, of Apia-based Betham Brothers Enterprises said the meeting was extremely useful.

Early on in the workshop, we realized that we can learn a lot about improving our process of exporting from Apia to overseas, he said.

Were also looking for other techniques to increase the number of our exports apart from our usual commodities. But the study also helped us to get an idea on how the services here in Apia could be improved. For Nadia Meredith-Hunt, the C.E.O of K.V.A, the workshops outcomes were extremely encouraging. Theres been a lot of positive feedback and overall, this was a really good turnout, she said. From our side, we were especially satisfied that all of the key stakeholders have shown up. So hopefully, with the outcome of this years workshop, we will be able to provide a concrete plan of action for the next four or five years.
The Seiuli Lee family visited the Samoa Cancer Society yesterday morning to lend a hand by cleaning the compound.

They also donated money to help the Society.

According to the Chairman of the Committee of the Lee Family, Tuifaasisina Korina Seiuli Lee, they decided to help because of their love for family members who have lost their battles with cancer.

This is the third time we have our family reunion here in Samoa but this is the first time we have decided to have a charitable purpose for our family gathering, she said.

When we were organizing our reunion, we wanted to make ours different from all the other families and to get together and have a purpose of our reunion. It is in appreciation of the work done by the Society because our family actually has a lot of family members we have lost through cancer and ones that are still fighting cancer.

So the whole family agreed that Samoa Cancer Society will be our main focus as far as donating our time cleaning the area.

She went on to say that they want to pave the way for other reunions and families to not only have reunions but to have a purpose.

We would like to pave the way as a way for reunions and hopefully for other families that will make this as a very important and a must for us to help out as the CEO has mentioned the organisation is not fully funded by the government but they rely mostly on donation, she said.

Another family member and Treasurer of the family, Joyita Purcell said that it is also a good opportunity for all of them and their children to experience what the Executive Officer of the Samoa Cancer Society Shelley Burich is actually doing and working on.

We finally understand what this place is all about and all this time we thought that the government fully funds the society but we heard this morning that the society relies heavily on donation from people, she said. We also now can see the hard work that she is doing for the patients and also the country. She is a very hard working person and so we want to help out in any way we can.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has defended his decision to front the 60 Minutes interview where he was questioned about security in Samoa in light of the behavior of the countrys most dangerous criminal, Lautiti Tualima.

Critics of the government in Samoa and overseas believe the Prime Minister should never have fronted such an interview.

They say that someone of a lower ranking should have been delegated by Tuilaepa to be interviewed.

But Tuilaepa disagrees.

In an interview with the state-owned Savali Newspaper released by the Office of the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa said it was important for him to be interviewed.

A leader who does not face the problems head on is no leader at all, he is quoted as saying. It's easy to just ignore and not say anything. But you can't just take the good and ignore the bad. It's life.

I agreed to the interview because it's important for government to share its perspective and provide updates on what we are doing to improve our services.

With these interviews, there is always the hope that reporters will provide a balanced story and report ethically without trying to sway the audiences towards one side or change the context of your answers. But there is no way to control that because we don't control the media.

All we can do is answer the questions and trust that the reporters are responsible and fair.

According to the Prime Minister, his government is not afraid of the bad because in it are lessons for the future.

We can only do better from here, he said.

Tuilaepa said the online responses from overseas have been quite negative.

In any case, the story was not about me, it was supposed to focus on the Australian couple who suffered at the hands of a criminal.

Here is part of the interview:

Savali: A lot of the criticisms leveled against you are because you appear to be unsympathetic to what happened to the couple. Is this true?

Prime Minister: As I told the 60 Minutes people, my heart goes out to the couple from Australia. It was a terrible thing to happen to anyone, and for a guest of this country to be treated like that, it's a very bad way for a visitor to experience what Samoa has to offer. That's not what Samoa is about. This country is built on respect and faith in God. But we all know that there is good and bad in the world, and sometimes the devil gets the better of us.

Savali: Is Samoa safe?

Prime Minister: Yes. You live here. I live here. We all know Samoa is safe. One of the safest destinations to visit and holiday. Every year our tourist numbers go up. What happened to the Australian couple was terrible, but it was the first time something like that has happened and it was as shocking to us here as it was overseas. That kind of thing doesn't happen every day.

Savali: What about the prison? Why don't you build a big fence, like the prison fences overseas?

Prime Minister: We are building a new prison and fence at a new location. The recent budget has allocations for the new prison project. We have started work on it already with clearing the land and other preparations for construction.

Savali: And the Australian government assistance for police and security projects?

Prime Minister: If you talk to the Police and to any of the relevant agencies about that, you'll know that the funding is being utilised for what it has been earmarked for. It's very simplistic to point the finger at a sum of money and then naively demand why it hasn't been used for something it was not meant for.

You have to remember that governments have many priority areas, and there is no government in the world with too much money to spare. We have only just graduated out of Least Developing Country status. Capacity and funding takes time to build and implement. This is the reality of any government, and Samoa is no different.

Savali: What about the fence, why not just use some of that AusAid money to build it?

Prime Minister: Donor funding is spent on projects that have been agreed to by both sides. And there are long, long lists of priority areas that need funding. We had previously requested with one of our donors for assistance to improve prison security but it was denied. This is why we have tried to provide for it ourselves, in our budget this year.

Savali: What will happen to Tafaigata in the meantime?

Prime Minister: We have taken measures to ensure that our most dangerous criminals, like Lauititi Tualima, are kept in maximum security. For the most part, the rest of the prisoners in there are peaceful and respect each other enough to accept that they must serve their punishment and follow the rules.

You can never predict the future, but the Prison services are making the necessary changes and improvements to ensure we do what we can to avoid anything like this happening again.

Savali: So what did you think about the 60 Minutes interview?

Prime Minister: Look, the media is the media. Maybe it was a little disappointing because we talked for more than half an hour, and in the end they decided to use only about two minutes of our conversation in their entire story, but I've come to accept that the media will do what the media wants to do. It's all about business and sales these days.
The evil thug dubbed as Samoas most dangerous criminal, Lauititi Tualima, yesterday apologised for his behaviour.

I apologise for what I have done, he said.

I was wrong, and I am deeply sorry. I will accept whatever punishment the court hands down.

Tualima made the brief apology before Justice Lesatele Rapi Vaai when he appeared for sentencing in relation to the attack on an Australian couple and the rape of an Australian woman who was holidaying in Samoa last year. Justice Lesatele adjourned sentencing until 19 August 2016 to give him time to consider the submission from the Prosecution.

But he revealed that the National Prosecution Office is seeking an additional 20-year-jail sentence for the notorious prison escapee.

Tualima pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, one count of burglary, one count of robbery, a charge of threatening to kill and one of being armed with a dangerous weapon.

All charges are related to the attack of a Tasmanian couple at the Lupesina Treesort on 24 September 2015.

According to the summary of facts, Tualima was accompanied by Prison Wardens at the hospital on 23 September 2015 when he managed to escape. He made his way to Tiavi where he spent the day.

During the early hours of the next day, he broke into the room occupied by the tourists who were due to catch a flight back to Australia that morning.

The summary says that the rape victim, Angie Jackson, was about to shower when she saw the defendant. He held up a pair of scissors and threatened to kill her if she screamed.

Tualima demanded cash and their cell phones and they gave him what he had asked for. But he wasnt satisfied.

He then tied up the couple and raped the woman while her husband looked on.

The lives of the couple were only spared when the Manager of the Treesort checked on them as they were late for their taxi to the airport.

As for Tualima, he managed to escape that night with some of the couples belongings.

On 5 October 2015, Tualima was recaptured.

Asked about the attack, he admitted that it was him, the Police summary said.
Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Miami, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- Founded in 2014 in the city of Doral, the Miss Cuba Queen of The Continents pageant aims to represent the island nation of Cuba and its beauty with respect and wisdom while contributing to social work through various community projects. The pageant includes several events where participants compete to win awards in competitions such as Most Talented, Best Hair, and Best Dress/Costume. The winner will represent Cuba in Miss Queen of the Continents International.



Besides her upcoming pageant competition, Romero will also be attending and representing the firm at the Cuban Revolutionary Party (Autentico) organization's Cuban breakfast on Saturday, July 23, 2016. The organization dedicates itself to fighting for human rights and Cuban civil liberties. The Party emerged in 1933 during Cuba's most democratic period of 1944-1952 and also played a critical role in establishing the 1940 Cuban constitution.



When she isn't attending pageants, Romero remains very involved with Miami's strong Cuban community and its politics.



About Alonso, Perez & Santos LLP

Consisting of attorneys Dalyla Santos and Rafael Alonso, the law firm dedicates itself to representing businesses and individual across South Florida in Bankruptcy, Homeowners' Insurance Disputes, Debt Harassment and Contract Disputes. The firm is passionate about serving its clients as a primary resource and partner in all aspects of their business growth and financial development.



For more information call 305-676-7545 to speak with a Miami bankruptcy lawyer or for a free consultation.
Philadelphia, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- City Tap House in University City is pleased to announce their West Philly Smoke Out BBQ competition that will be held on Sunday, July 31, 2016. The venue is excited to host Terrapin's inaugural West Philly Smoke Out, and invites chefs of all calibers to join in on the fun.



Individuals who are interested in competing have until Saturday, July 23, 2016, to enter, and can do so by getting in touch with Amanda at avirgili@table95.com. The BBQ competition itself while take place from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM, on July 31, and tickets are available for $15. Each ticket will include a Terrapin keepsake Pilsner glass (while supply lasts), complimentary Terrapin beer, tastings of each contestant's dish, and the chance to vote for the best amateur and pro. Individuals who would like to order tickets can do so by clicking this link: https://taphouseucityticketleap.ticketleap.com/west-philly-smoke-out/.



In addition to their West Philly Smoke Out BBQ competition, this acclaimed University City restaurant would also like to let everyone know that they will be having a Sour Saturday event on August 6, 2016. This event will take place from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, and the line-up that day will include a range of styles from American Wild Ales and Lambics to Berliner Weisse and Flemish Reds. A $35 tasting package is available, which includes a Sour Saturday Glass, unlimited tastings, and ten tokens. Lastly, a "pay-as-you-go" option will also be available. Those who are interested in attending this event and reserving their glasses should RSVP to info@citytaphouseucity.com, or dial 215-662-0105.



When looking for a restaurant and bar that offers great food, craft brews, and outdoor seating in Philadelphia, look no further than City Tap House in University City. To learn more about the venue or view their menus, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook.



About City Tap House in University City

Located on The Radian Balcony, just steps from the campuses of University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, City Tap House in University City boasts one of Philadelphia's most extensive draft beer lists- 60 taps, including many rare and sought-after craft brews. Featuring outdoor seating in Philadelphia, guests can enjoy craft beer with food and friends by one of the fire pits, or stay inside to watch the big game in the main bar or dining room.



City Tap House in University City has been voted "Best Bar to Watch a Game" 5 years (2011 to 2015) in a row by Philly Beer Scene Magazine. Visitors of City Tap House in University City will experience a rich blend of unique craft beers and elevated American pub fare, making it a highly recommended restaurant in University City. Guests are invited to stop in any time during the day to see for themselves.



To experience the delicious lunch menu and daily drink specials, visit http://www.citytaphouseucity.com/.
Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- Even with new shootings on the news too frequently and getting seemingly endless press coverage, it's difficult to process the reality of what this young man experienced just over two years ago in Isla Vista best known for the University of California, Santa Barbara.



The murder spree started when 22-year-old Elliot Rodger stabbed three men to death in his apartment. Not stopping there, he drove to a sorority house and shot three girls on their doorstep, killing two of them. Next, he drove to an eatery close by and shot to death a male student who was inside. Obviously crazed, he went on to race across Isla Vista, shooting and wounding several innocent people while ramming pedestrians with his speed car. The madness didn't stop with a police shootout but only when he hit a parked car. Rather than facing capture, he shot himself in the head before the police were on scene.



This really hit home for Elliot Rodgers which, by a twist of fate, shares nearly the identical name of this berserk killer.



What really hit too close to home is that the killer known as Elliot Rodger was born in the same city as Elliot Rodgers; London, England. The similarities don't end there; the late Elliot Rodger also moved to Southern California at a young age just as Mr. Rodgers did and in a coincidence almost impossible to believe, these two men from the same city and roughly the same age with nearly identical names ended up attending the same place for school.



Elliot Rodgers claims to identify with something else he had in common with the deceased Mister Rodger; a perceived sense of loneliness.



"One of the crucial differences between us is that he grew away from the world, stopped taking his anti-psychotic meds, secretly grew bitter and misogynistic, and schemed for five years to kill and torture people for 'revenge' against the people he saw as rejecting him. And I wanted to be an inspiration to family, to friends, and to my UCSB community, preparing for more than 10 years to be an authentic, positive force in the world using creative and artistic work, and my degree in psychology, to the very best of my abilities," Elliot Rodgers states.



This inspired Elliot to dream beyond the nightmare he shared with his UCSB community to open a studio to cultivate young talent allowing them to focus on creativity and joy instead of pain and tragedy. That dream project will be called ONE LIFE Studio. Tapping into his late grandfather's legacy and his "goodbye money" (which is running very low very quickly), Mr. Rodgers seems to paying a homage to Leslie Leopold Rodgers' legacy and greatness while paving the way for future artists to realize their own level of greatness.



One Life Studio will give undiscovered home-based artists the chance to be heard, seen and recognized for their talent which is too often overlooked in a business where record labels too often seek to grind out big money on commercial artists.



In operating from its own home-based space with its own special spirit, cause and purpose, this One Life Studio project will be seeking to master the art of inspiration. The project will be seeking to motivate others to live their lives passionately, creatively, and positively. Elliot has been realizing some of the exciting ideas, such as binaural 3D sound-design, for around 10 years. And other ideas have been motivated by his experience of the displays of unity after the Isla Vista shooting.



Perhaps the best example of that is One Life Studio WEB, which is a planned-app that'll record individual singing voices and transform them into unified song and music (in clean, amazing 3D sound.)



"I just want the chance to show you that this is what I'm meant to do with my life  inspire. You deserve the best and I have much to give you. If you show your belief in my 'something-positive', I'm fully ready to dive into a passionate life and share it with you," Elliot Rodgers affirms.



In a stunning, immersive, and emotional video on his GoFundMe campaign page, you'll find out how Elliot was able to score a "Miracle Deal" on hardware equipment and software from all of his favorite creative companies. Each creative company has given him their full blessing and encouragement. So with your help, Elliot will be able to claim the "Miracle Deal" they made for him, and equip himself with appliances of creative magic in his march toward inspiring many.



Backers of this GoFundMe campaign will receive very generous and exciting perks that will touch your imagination and undoubtedly entertain, engage and ignite people through the quality and variety of the creations, and even more so, through the once-in-a-life experiences on offer.



The Dream Survives Isla Vista Crowdfunding Campaign - http://bit.ly/29KGsM6
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- Global ICT Spends in Energy Sector - Future Perspective to 2019; is an exhaustive research report outlaying future perspectives of ICT project spends globally. The report provides year on year spends value within the Energy markets across 30+ countries; split across BPO Services, Cloud Services, Enterprise Communications Services, IT Hardware, IT Services, and Software categories and further at segment levels for the period 2016 to 2019.



View Full Report at http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/759394



Key Findings



Global ICT Spends in Energy Sector - Future Perspective to 2019; report is a comprehensive outlook built using Kables extensive market research covering the spends across ICT market. The statistics within the report provides a top-level overview and detailed insights into the operating environment of the Technology and Energy sector at individual country level.



Kable has considered buying behavior / ICT spends across hardware, software, services, communications and staff. It acts as an essential tool for companies active across the ICT market and for new players considering entering the market; ensuring right business decision making.



Countries covered within the report include: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States



Synopsis



"Global ICT Spends in Energy Sector - Future Perspective to 2019" provides the readers with potential spends value on ICT within Global Energy sector during the period 2016 through to 2019



In particular, it provides information of potential spends by individual countries for the following categories at segment level:



BPO Services

Cloud Services

Enterprise Communications Services

IT Hardware

IT Services

Software



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Understand the opportunities for ICT market in the Energy sector and how it is set to change in future.



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Enhance your market segmentation with detailed breakdown of opportunities within selected technology categories.



Related Reports



Global ICT Spends In Financial Markets Sector - Future Perspective To 2019:

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Global ICT Spends In Education Sector - Future Perspective To 2019:

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/759393



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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump fretted about the mounting national debt early in his acceptance speech Thursday night in Cleveland and blamed President Obama and other Washington politicians for failing to do anything about it.

President Obama has almost doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing, he told thousands of cheering delegates and party officials on the final night of the four-day GOP national convention, Yet what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in third world condition, and 43 million Americans are on food stamps.

Related: Trump Reveals His Vision in Grim Speech: Call It Twilight in America'

But for the next 74 minutes or so, Trump spun out a hodgepodge of spending and tax cut proposals that cheered many of the convention goers but alarmed fiscal conservatives who warned that Trump could drive the debt much higher if he is elected president in November.

Trump's speech shows that the era of small government is over, said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. He is as much in favor of big spending and big government as Hillary Clinton. And since he has no plans to pay for his spending, he will likely balloon the deficit even more.

It was pretty galling to brag about the biggest tax cut of any candidate at a time we have near-record debt levels, and on top of that, not even have a plan to cut spending, said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan budget watchdog. Trump talks a lot about the $19 trillion debt, but our fiscal challenges need actual solutions.

Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, an anti-deficit group, said during an interview, Trump is setting up impossible goals. And I thought the point was that people were sick of that. Thats whats making everyone so cynical. I really do worry that its an impossible governing agenda, and you have to wonder how much he understands the fiscal challenge.

Story continues

Related: Trump Mum as Anti-Clinton Mood in Cleveland Reaches Outrageous Levels

While making the perfunctory pledge to eliminate government waste, fraud and abuse, Trump spelled out an exhaustive and pricey laundry list of budget-busting initiatives and programs that would add trillions of dollars to the governments long-term obligations.

He said he would completely rebuild our depleted military, which currently costs around $597 billion a year and roughly exceeds the combined defense budgets of the next 14 countries. Trump would pour billions more into strengthening local police departments, help parents send their children to the schools of their choice, and take care of veterans and their health needs like they have never been taken care of before.

Trump doubled down on his plan to build a massive wall along the 1,989-mile U.S.-Mexico border to cut down on illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs into this country. Even though Trump claims that Mexico will pay for the wall, realists put the cost at as much as $25 billion. He vowed to rejuvenate inner cities that he claims have been ignored by the Obama administration, without offering a price tag. He would pump more resources into the CIA, NSA and other spy organizations to create the best intelligence gathering operation in the world.

And he would rejuvenate the economy and help bring jobs back from overseas in part by launching the biggest infrastructure program since the national highway construction program of the mid-1950s. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, airport and railways of tomorrow, he declared.

Related: Cruz Launches His Next Presidential Bid with a Stink Bomb in Cleveland

As for his tax cut proposals, Trump boasted that while Clinton has proposed a massive tax increase to pay for many of her spending plans, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year  Democrat or Republican.

America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world, he said. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country.

Left unsaid was that if Trump were elected president and managed to push through the largest income and corporate tax cut in U.S. history, he would effectively boost the national debt by $11.5 trillion over the coming decade, according to a recent tally by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Similarly, an analysis by the non-partisan Tax Foundation found that Trumps proposed tax cuts, while posing a major drain on future revenues, could produce an 11.5 percent rise in GDP over the coming decade, provided it were accompanied by appropriate offsetting savings or financing. Depending on how much the economy grows over the next 10 years, Trumps plan would cost the Treasury between $10.1 trillion and $11.9 trillion in foregone revenues.

Trump did promise to rein in government spending by identifying redundant and wasteful spending in every federal agency, which could result in significant savings. Growing the economy would also result in additional tax revenue, thus mitigating the deficit over time. But Congress, business, and the country at large would all have to align perfectly to realize that result.

Taken together, Trumps package of spending and tax measures would substantially drive up the long-term debt, absent either major reforms of Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements or an improbable surge in economic growth well beyond current levels.

Related: Fiscal Neglect: Watchdog Hits Trump and Clinton for Ignoring $19 Trillion Debt

Clinton will accept her partys presidential nomination next week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and has proposed at least $1.5 trillion in new spending on health care and other programs over the coming decade. Much of that would be offset by $1.2 trillion of proposed tax increases, which would have to be approved by Congress.

However, that doesnt include new promises she has made in recent weeks that havent been costed out, including expanding Medicare to people 55 and over and providing free public college tuition to students from middle and lower income families.

Both Clinton and Trump have ruled out major entitlement reform, much to the delight of seniors and liberal advocacy groups and to the chagrin of anti-deficit groups and government spending watchdogs.

Trump is counting on the rosy supply-side effects of his proposed tax cuts, an investment in infrastructure, and a lifting of federal environmental restrictions on energy production to generate trillions of dollars worth of economic expansion and new jobs in the coming decade to help offset the loss of revenue through his tax cuts.

Related: Experts Weigh Donald Trumps Tax Plan, and Find It Wanting

For now, however, a huge economic growth spurt seems highly unlikely, even with a major stimulus along the lines of what Trump is advocating. GDP is projected to grow at a modest clip of 2 percent this year -- slightly down from the previous year -- and then remain at 2 percent in 2017 and 2018, according to Federal Reserve Board estimates released in June.

The Congressional Budget Office earlier this month warned that the national debt is surging ahead of previous projections and could reach an historic 141 percent of the overall economy by 2046. That level would exceed the historical peak of 106 percent registered shortly after World War II. Major factors in that surge are higher interest costs and mounting spending to provide retirement and health care benefits to baby boomers.

Id say Trumps speech did not lay out a realistic governing agenda as far as fiscal policy is concerned, Bixby said. He didnt even address the main issues. And to the extent he did get into it, he clearly was just throwing out some platitudes about the debt.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Little Rock, AR -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- Little Rock advertising agency, Kirkpatrick Creative, has hired Tulane University student, Colin Boyd, to help with their summer workload. Boyd is a History and Political Science double-major. In the office, he is helping with client research and lead generation for Kirkpatrick's growing law firm marketing strategy.



"Colin is a great guy, who shows great promise. We're excited to have him here," said Marketing Director Michael Kirkpatrick. "In any business there are lessons you're never going to cover in the classroom. We hope to show Colin the more personal side of the business."



Boyd is learning much more than he bargained for: "I wasn't expecting it to be so objective-driven. The term 'Advertising Firm' usually summons images of Mad Men or Wolf on Wall Street. I've seen that business is business, no matter how expensive your suit is."



Kirkpatrick hopes that Boyd's success will lead to growing their internship program in the future.



About Kirkpatrick Creative

Kirkpatrick Creative was founded by Dan Kirkpatrick in 1978. Their focus on data-driven marketing has generated thousands of leads for law firms over the years. They began applying their system to agricultural equipment sales in 2011. Their client list includes attorneys and small businesses in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Kentucky.



Media Contact:

Company Name: Kirkpatrick Creative

Contact Person: Patrick Laughlin

Phone: 866-864-9425

Address: Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

Website: https://kirkpatrickcreative.com/kirkpatrick-creative-brings-intern-support-growing-business/
Philadelphia, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- Pennsylvania 6 Philly, a bar and restaurant located in the heart of Philadelphia, PA, is pleased to announce that they are continuing to book post-wedding brunches and privates parties this summer. Any couple searching for the ideal spot to enjoy one last delicious meal with their wedding guests this August or September will find Pennsylvania 6 Philly ideal. The venue has a plethora of brunch menu options and libations, and also boasts an inviting and lively atmosphere. To schedule a post-wedding brunch at this Philadelphia venue, please email info@pennsylvania6philly.com, or dial 267-639-5606.



One of the many benefits of choosing Pennsylvania 6 Philly to host a private party or event is the fact that their staff goes above and beyond to ensure that any affair is a complete success. The venue not only offers guests the ability to book a private dining area, but they can also book their gorgeous private party room hidden on the third floor of the restaurant. Furthermore, guests can certainly feel free to customize their private party menus. When it all comes down to it, those who are looking for the best place to host a bachelor/bachelorette party, bridal or baby shower, holiday party, wedding rehearsal dinner, or even a wedding reception, should look no further than Pennsylvania 6 Philly.



Visit Pennsylvania 6 Philly today and see why it has quickly become one of the best restaurants to eat and drink at in Philadelphia. The venue not only hosts private parties and events, but also serves as a great spot for an impromptu family dinner or a couple's first date. Additionally, wine and craft beer connoisseurs can enjoy something off of their extensive wine and craft beer lists. To learn more about the venue or view their menus, please visit them on the web at http://www.pennsylvania6philly.com.



About Pennsylvania 6 Philly

Located just a few short blocks south of Market East Station, Pennsylvania 6 Philly is a contemporary American restaurant that features an extensive craft beer & wine list, along with a raw bar. Owned by Gary Cardi, Pennsylvania 6 is named after the oldest working phone number in NYC, which is the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan. The bar comes complete with white Carrera marble-topped tables, white subway tiles, dark wooden accents and large-scale photos of 1940's-era entertainers. Pennsylvania 6 Philly serves dinner, lunch and weekend brunch.



For more information, please visit http://www.pennsylvania6philly.com/.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/22/2016 -- Wireless communication is the transformation of information over a distance without the aid of wires, cables or any other form of electrical conductors. The distance of transmission can range from few meters to thousands of kilometers. In the healthcare industry, wireless communication is playing a vital role in the transformation of information; however, the technology is still at the nascent and is expected to have massive adoption in the foreseeable future. There is increasing demand in the healthcare industry to retrieve, store, share, and send data in a various format to various devices across a particular healthcare institution. Various consideration is required to be made while implementing wireless communication within a healthcare institutions such as systems capacity for transmitting voice, data, and video information as well as its reliability and coverage. Few of the wireless devices used across the healthcare institutions include laptops, tablets, personal digital assistants, and healthcare smart clothes that monitor heart rate and blood pressure



Applications of Wireless Technologies in Healthcare Industry



Homecare and Telemedicine



Inventory Control



Pharmaceutical Sales Force Management



Medical and Diagnostic Laboratory



Patient Monitoring



An increasing number of the ageing population who requires continuous health monitoring is one of the factors which have triggered the concept of wireless technology driven human body and is the primary factor driving the adoption of wireless communication technologies in the healthcare industry. Examination of a human body can be achieved using a network of intelligent wireless medical devices sensors which may be attached to the body surface or integrated into the tissues. It enables doctors or nurses to predict and diagnose adverse events in advance. However, compatibility and interoperability issues across various healthcare device working on different communication technology are hampering the growth of the wireless communication technologies market.



Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample : http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/9182



Type of wireless communication technology:



Bluetooth:



Bluetooth is the wireless technology used for exchanging data over the short distance using the UHF radio waves. This technology was invented by telecom equipment vendor Ericsson.



Radio Frequency Identification (RFID):



RFID is a wireless communication technology used for data transfer and identification of objects using electromagnetic waves. Healthcare industry is using RFID technology to adopt leaner supply chain practices associated with manufacturing to pare down cost and improve safety.



Ultra Wide Band (UWB)



UWB is a radio technology that uses very low energy level for short range and high bandwidth communication over a large portion of the radio spectrum. Healthcare systems can be significantly improved with the lower coast and higher quality of services by using ultra wideband technology.



WLAN and WWAN:



WLAN and WWAN are two types of wireless area networks that provide connectivity on the go. WLAN stands for wireless local area network, and it typically covers all small areas such as clinics. On the other hand, WWAN stands for wireless wide area networks that covers much larger area that is outside the limits of WLAN



Wi-Fi and Li-Fi



Wi-Fi is a communication technology which is leveraged in a variety of healthcare applications such as infusion pumps, oxygen monitoring devices, and smart beds. In the foreseeable future, Li-Fi might replace Wi-Fi in the healthcare applications as Wi-Fi technology always possess a threat of overlapping of two radio waves with different frequencies which may lead to an improper diagnosis of the patient.



North America region represent largest market opportunity for wireless communication technologies in the healthcare market. The U.S. and Canada are spending a huge amount of money in healthcare IT to address chronic diseases. Smartphone and customized wireless healthcare solutions are acting as a catalyst for healthcare institutions to improve patient care in these countries.



In Asia-Pacific region, healthcare providers are more focused on safe, quality, and equitable healthcare services in a cost-effective manner. In order to provide healthcare services to increasing chronic aging population, healthcare organizations are improving their infrastructure by deploying various wireless communication technology based infrastructure.



The IT spending in healthcare on the rise in the European region. Hospitals are increasingly adopting wireless infrastructure to co-ordinate day-to-day activities, reduce human errors, limit operational costs, and stay ahead in terms of offering customer centric quality service. In healthcare IT technology providers increasingly expanding their business in these regions. Growing private healthcare infrastructure and increasing government investments is driving the adoption of wireless infrastructure in the healthcare sector of Latin America and the Middle East and Africa regions.



Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/9182



Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., Extreme Networks Inc., Cerner Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., and GE Healthcare are some of the leading player dealing with global wireless communication technologies in the healthcare industry.
Archaeologists excavating a cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany have found what they believe is a rope-making tool nearly 40,000 years old.

The rope-making tool is a carefully carved and well-preserved piece of mammoth ivory.

It was found in August 2015 in Hohle Fels Cave by Prof. Nicholas Conard of the University of Tubingen and his colleagues from Germany and Belgium.

The find is 8 inches (20.4 cm) long and has four holes 0.27-0.35 inches (7-9 mm) in diameter. Each of the holes is lined with deep and precisely cut spiral incisions.

These elaborate carvings are technological features of rope-making equipment rather than just decoration, the scientists said.

Similar finds in the past have usually been interpreted as shaft-straighteners, decorated artworks or even musical instruments.

Thanks to the exceptional preservation of the Hohle Fels tool, the archaeologists have demonstrated that the artifact was used for making rope out of plant fibers available near the cave.

This tool answers the question of how rope was made in the Paleolithic  a question that has puzzled scientists for decades, said Dr. Veerle Rots from the University of Liege, Belgium.

Like the famous female figurines and flutes recovered from Hohle Fels, the rope-making tool dates to about 40,000 years ago, the time when anatomically modern humans arrived in Europe.

The scientists found the tool in the archaeological horizon Va, near the base of the Aurignacian deposits.

The discovery underlines the importance of fiber technology and the importance of rope and string for mobile hunter-gatherers trying to cope with challenges of life in the Ice Age, they said.

A paper detailing the discovery was published by the journal Archaologische Ausgrabungen Baden-Wurttemberg today, July 22, 2016.

_____

Nicholas J. Conard & Maria Malina. Auergewohnliche neue Funde aus den aurignacienzeitlichen Schichten vom Hohle Fels bei Schelklingen. Archaologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Wurttemberg 2016, pp. 61-66
It has been one year since the released of the spectacular view of Earth as seen a million miles away on July 6, 2015. This was taken by NOAA's DSCOVR satellite's EPIC camera. After a year, DSCOVR highlighted images of the planet Earth that could be seen in the video.

.@dscovr_epic takes a new picture every 2 hours, capturing clouds and weather and the fixed features of Earth. pic.twitter.com/VTGzyG4yFd  NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) July 20, 2016

The time-lapse video was published last Wednesday. It was made possible by the satellite's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). NASA utilized more than 3,000 EPIC images to assemble the footage to show a year in the life of the planet. This also shows the planet Earth twirling around against the dark of space, according to CNet.

23:45 on Saturday July 16th, over the North Pacific Ocean pic.twitter.com/QaygOReVih  DSCOVR:EPIC (@dscovr_epic) July 22, 2016

18:17 on Saturday July 9th, over the Caribbean Sea pic.twitter.com/BUZVzT4oFM  DSCOVR:EPIC (@dscovr_epic) July 12, 2016

Some of these images include the moon's shadow being cast on Earth during a solar eclipse and two lunar "photobombs," the swirling clouds and brown and green land masses of the Blue Marble.

NASA stated that the space camera allows the scientists to monitor ozone and aerosol levels in the Earth's atmosphere, the ultraviolet reflectivity of Earth, vegetation properties and the cloud height. The EPIC takes at least one photo for every two hours and it records each set in 10 different wavelengths.

It also tracks the movement of the clouds, which covered about two-thirds of the planet Earth. EPIC is an Earth science instrument aboard the DSCOVR satellite on February 2015. The Deep Space Climate Observatory or DSCOVR is a space weather satellite and a NOAA Earth observation that was launched by Space X with Falcon 9 in 2015 from Cape Canaveral. When the spacecraft arrived on the site and entered the operational phase, NASA started releasing images of Earth through the EPIC instrument's website.
The US National Weather Service collaborates with local offices to determine their weather outlook for a week so residences can prepare. The US National Weather Service found out that people residing in Florida are much more prepared for excessive heat rather than those living in Alaska.

The US National Weather Service stated that this week's heat wave will be the worst that is ever recorded to hit this year due to a heat dome that traps heat near the Earth's surface. US National Weather Service stated that the excessive heat conditions could cover Southern California up to Northeast region.

The US National Weather Service stated that the US President Obama also informed citizens in the 15 states to be affected to prepare themselves for the worst heat scenario, Time reported.

The US National Weather Service released color coded warnings which reminded people how to be prepared for changes in weather. The US National Weather Service released three colored warnings which should be memorized by citizens in the US.

US National Weather Service Pink Warning

The US National Weather Service made the excessive heat warning color pink so people can immediately identify that within 12 hours an increased rise in temperature will happen due to extremely hot weather conditions. The US National Weather Service releases this warning when the expected temperature is 105 degrees or above for at least two consecutive days.

The agency US National Weather Service did note that this criteria varies across the US regions and warns people that they need to be cautious during this warning because it may lead to death.

US National Weather Service Dark Red/Brown Warning

The US National Weather Service's heat advisory is color coded in dark red to brown to inform citizens to take action. The US National Weather Service releases this warning when the maximum heat index temperature increases to 100 degrees for two consecutive days. The US National Weather Service informs people to be prepared and take mandatory precautions to protect themselves from heat stroke, Star Tribune reported.

US National Weather Service Orange Warning

The US National Weather Service alarms people with an orange code for weather that may have possible excessive heat index in the next three to seven days. The US National Weather Service provides an advanced outlook to those who are in danger of harsh weather.
Cerebral cortex is the part of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions like abstract thought, language and memory. Neuroscientists recently came up with the most detailed map of the cerebral cortex ever based on a variety of brain scans. The map shaped the cortex into 180 different sections, and 97 of those are new.

According to BBC News, the brain's crumpled outer layer is responsible for advanced cognition, perception and movement. It has already been mapped in several different ways for years, but this new effort is a groundbreaking attempt to a more defined, and modern outline for neuroscientists.

Researchers of the study said that the map could help in the study of brain illnesses like autism, schizophrenia, dementia and epilepsy, and also tackle the differences between brains of people with mental conditions and those who are healthy, Yahoo reported.

Neuroscientist Matthew Glasser of Washington University in St. Louis, lead author of the study, explained that the map may also be useful in neurosurgery helping surgeons avoid damaging important brain areas involved in speech or movement.

"The cerebral cortex underlies most of human cognition, providing such functions as speech production and understanding, ability to use tools, ability to make decisions, et cetera," Glasser said. "Indeed, it is responsible for the stuff that makes us human, and the cortex has expanded dramatically in humans relative to our closest living relatives, the apes."

Researchers used a combination of algorithms and human interpretation to study the data from 210 healthy young adults. The team divided the brain into 180 regions according to hemisphere. Eighty-three of the total regions had already been included in the literature, but researchers were able to find 97 new ones.

The Scientist reported that in the process of making the map, Glasser and his team used MRI data from the joint project. The researchers analyzed brain architecture based on the MRI data of cortical myelin content, as well as thickness, cortical function measured by functional MRI scans of participants while completing a number of tasks from listening comprehension to math problems; and functional connectivity and topography, as measured with resting-state fMRI.

"It's particularly important to find places where you have multiple independent measures changing in the same location," Glasser said. "Up until this point, people were looking at only single modalities."

Meanwhile, Washington University neuroscientist David Van Essen said that the generation of this map is considered to be the most accurate and detailed map of human cerebral cortex published to date.

In the past, German neurologist Korbinian Brodmann published the first cerebral cortex map in 1909, and according to Glasser, the new map will not be the last of the subject.

"Think of this as version 1.0 of the brain map. It is very likely that better data or more eyes on the problem will identify improvements, perhaps for a version 2.0 in the future," Glasser said.
For three years, scientists have been looking for dark matter, which, despite being invisible, is said to make up over four-fifths of the matter in the universe. Unfortunately, their efforts have come up empty-handed.

On Thursday, scientists announced at a conference that they did not find the elusive matter that they have been searching for despite the presence of sensitive equipment that exceeded technological goals in a $10-million project.

University of California Berkely physicist Daniel McKinsey said, "We're sort of proud that it worked so well and also disappointed that we didn't see anything."

The mine project, which is called the Large Underground Xenon experiment (LUX) was one of three places where teams were looking for dark matter. Another on the International Space Station, while the last one is at the Large Hadron Collider, which is run by the European consortium, and has found the Higgs Boson particle.

The site in South Dakota, however, dug up more than 4,800 feet of earth to screen out background radiation, to no avail. Using a large vat of liquid xenon, they hoped they would produce a flash of light in the event that they interact with weakly interacting particles (WIMPS) when these bounce off super-cooled liquid.

Being unable to find WIMPS may drive physicists to think about other ways to find dark matter, despite the fact that the WIMPS are still the most viable option, said Neal Weiner, the director of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at New York University.

The Daily Mail noted that Scientists are already revamping the South Dakota mine site for a $50 million larger, higher-tech version of the LUX, called LZ - which will be 70 times more sensitive than the previous model and should begin operations by 2020.

Dark matter is everywhere - scientists think that hundreds and millions of dark matter particles pass through the earth every second - but they problem is that they are "crazy week" and they zip through the planet as if they barely exist.
Patients with cancer and seizure can now breathe a sigh of relief. The very first medical marijuana store is set to open in Tallahassee next week after receiving authorization from the Florida Department of Health (DOH).

Tech Times reported that the first medical marijuana store will be named, Trulieve. The company's CEO Kim Rivers expressed her happiness and announced that Trulieve has passed all inspection from growing, processing and dispensing medical cannabis. There have already been a total of 6 companies who have received a green light to cultivate marijuana for future distribution.

"We are most excited to get this much anticipated medicine to the patients of Florida," added Rivers. Trulieve is the very first provider of medical marijuana in Florida to receive all the required formal authorizations.

The Florida Health Department has given Trulieve the approval to set up a shop in Tallahassee which will enable them to deliver cannabis in the entire state of Florida. This means that when it finally starts to operate Tuesday next week, patients with cancer and seizure can finally get their hands on strains of medical marijuana that is low in THC.

According to hngn.com, the Florida DOH stated that this is only the beginning since there will be an 5 additional nurseries that are cultivating and extracting oil from cannabis who may also join Trulieve deliver medically approved marijuana.

Trulieve's Kim Rivers has also said that patients can order the drug too and it will be delivered to them within a week. In August, the company will start selling cannabis products with higher THC, which are meant for patients who have terminal illnesses, based on Florida law.

Surterra Therapeutics is the first company in Florida to receive an authorization to harvest medical marijuana. According to reports, the company keeps their cannabis in freezers outside Tallahassee. There are horticulturalists in charge to make sure that the facility is well maintained, and armed guards are protecting the said containers.

Surterra's medical director, Dr. Joseph Dorn described Florida's medical field as a "very exciting place" right now. The excitement is not just because of a new medication, but also the transformation of people's mindsets toward patient treatments.

While the state has a very large support for medical marijuana, not all of Florida's top policymakers supported its legalization. One of them is Governor Rick Scott who has been vocal about his opposition to legalize the use of medical marijuana, which he compared to other vices such as alcohol.

Meanwhile, for parents like Donna Perez from Sebring, the news comes with a sigh of relief. Perez' son Noah suffers from intractable epilepsy and severe seizures.

She spends all day taking care of Noah and making sure he takes his six medications every day. Unfortunately, Noah still suffers from seizures and it breaks his mother's heart to say that he can hardly smile anymore, Miami Herald reported.

"Maybe he can function for a day or not have seizures for a day or not choke," she said. "Even if it doesn't work it would be worth a try."

Many patients, mostly children, have been waiting for this day in what seems like forever. There have been legal challenges and the drafting of state regulations which caused the delayed release of the drug.
Personal finance addresses the ways in which individuals or families budget, save and spend their money. Although this is a topic that everyone should be educated on, there are only 17 states in America that require their high school students to take a course in personal finance. This means theres a large population of adults who lack some measure of financial understanding.

In an effort to educate the public, one of Visas financial literacy programs, Practical Money Skills for Life, focuses their efforts on creating quality, engaging and innovative materials that can bring interest and fun into financial education.

Its important to start financial literacy at an early age and to continue often if we actually want to end up with adults who have good money management skills, says Hugh Norton, head of US Financial Education at Visa.

The idea of a personal finance comic book originated in 2012 when Visa partnered with Marvel Custom Solutions for the very first time. It really just seemed like a natural winning combination to put together our financial literacy expertise and their iconic characters, says Norton.

Marvel Custom Solutions, Marvels in-house creative agency, is often approached to take on educational projects. Editor and project manager at Custom Solutions, Darren Sanchez, says educational comic books are a great way to teach kids important lessons while still keeping them entertained.

With about half a million copies distributed in eight different languages in 42 countries, the first comic, Avengers: Saving the Day, was nothing short of a success.

Now, after four years, these big name companies worked together to create their latest comic, Guardians of the Galaxy: Rockets Powerful Plan. Superhero characters from both Avengers and Guardians comic series appeared in blockbuster movies, the most recent being Guardians of the Galaxy 2 scheduled for release in 2017.

The months it took to create Guardians of the Galaxy: Rockets powerful plan included endless approvals and a team of talented writers and artists. But the challenge with these types of educational comics, says Sanchez, is making sure the comic incorporates Visas main teaching points, includes all of the characters and making sure kids engage with its message.

Story continues

For this issue, Visa wanted to teach their readers about saving up for an emergency and how to save up for big-ticket items that they need but cant normally buy.

Rocket and Groot are the stars of the comic. Its called Rockets Powerful Plan and hes the one thats saving money, says Sanchez. Hes the mastermind behind all of it. And Groot is the irresponsible side to show what not to do.

The colorful 20-page issue is filled with action-packed fight scenes and finds a way to seamlessly integrate the story with financial terms like investment, exchange rate, live within your means, savings account and emergency fund.

Weve rationed out money for living expenses, says Rocket in the comic, squirreled away cash for emergencies and now after all that time we finally have enough for our new toy! The newest in stark tech.

In an effort to be more aggressive in spreading financial literacy, this time around, Visa also partnered with the Public Library Association.

Norton tells Yahoo Finance that they didnt want to just hand the comic book over to people in hopes they would use it. We wanted to to be able to put real learning materials in peoples hands and partnering with the public library association allows us to put that comic into communities across America in a much more accessible way than if it was only available through our site.

The initial launch of Guardians of the Galaxy: Rockets Powerful Plan, was translated into eight languages. But the May release was so successful that it is now being translated into an additional eight languages, including Turkish and Fijian.

Its a myth that an ill-informed consumer is somehow better for business, says Norton. In the long term an informed and educated consumer who knows how to deal with their own finances is better for everyone. Its the right thing to do and we need to start financial education early.

Read more

6 ways to teach your kids the most important lessons about money

Add to your travel fund with these money-saving tips

Your daily coffee habit is costing you in more ways than you know
Honeyguide, an African wild bird, helps the human honey hunters, who are in search of honey. It guides and leads them to honey, according to a study.

Claire Spottiswoode of the University of Cambridge in the UK said that these wild birds are definitely not domesticated and they are in no way coerced. She further said that they are not taught in any conventional way as well. She added that humans are not deliberately going up there and training honeyguides, as noted by NPR.

Spottiswoode also said that by following honeyguides, human honey hunters can really augment their rate of finding bees nests. A study in 1989, which was published in the journal Science, showed that the honeyguides could really lead you to honey. The African birds will flutter in front of people, tweet and fly from tree to another tree to lead hunters to bees' nests that are hidden inside the trunks of the hollow trees.

Honeyguides belong in the species of the order Piciformes. They are also referred to as honey birds or indicator birds. They are known for their interaction and communication with humans. They would directly lead humans to bee colonies. They are dull-colored yet some of them have bright yellow coloring in the plumage. They have light outer tail feathers.

Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist at Harvard University said that in their new study the honeyguides pay careful attention not just to sounds made by humans, but particularly to the sounds that are designed by humans to fascinate honeyguides. He further said that this is really an extraordinary relationship. He also thought that this collaboration might go back over than a million years, wherein the birds may have developed an innate desire to guide people to honey.

Spottiswoode was having tremendously good fun when she talked to a little wild bird that listened and led her to the trees.

"I don't think I've ever had as much fun in my life," said Spottiswoode.
FLORENCE, S.C. -- Florence-Darlington Technical College will play host to the annual Back 2 School Bash, along with the inaugural Full Throttle for Education Car Show on July 30 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission to the event is free.

The Back 2 School Bash will encompass the front of the main campus with the mission to collect donated school supplies for students in the community. A limited number of school supplies will be given away at the event; however, the college will raise more donated items during the Back 2 School Bash that will be given away at a later date.

The Back 2 School Bash is an opportunity for Florence-Darlington Technical College to give back to our community and bring everyone together to celebrate the education of all ages in a fun-filled day, said Assistant Director of Admissions, Recruitment and Community Outreach Delores Dingle.

At the Back 2 School Bash, fun and music will be provided throughout the day by local DJ and radio personality of At the Beach road show, Dan E. Lockemy. Florences iHeartRadio, Inc. station, WJMX-FM 103X, will broadcast live at the college from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. A variety of vendors will display products that will be available to purchase as well.

The event offers a great opportunity for families to come out to the college and enjoy great food and local talent, said recruiter/transfer counselor, Christina Brown. The colleges staff will be on hand as well to answer any questions regarding the upcoming fall semester.

A Kids Zone will be set up in front of the 400 Building that will include inflatables, face paintings, balloons and a variety of games. Individuals, who attend the event will get an up close and personal look at the Florence County Sheriff Offices vehicles and one of their helicopters. The Florence Police Department, West Florence Fire Department and Florence County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) will have their vehicles on display too.

There are going to be a variety of fun activities for families to enjoy, said Director of K12 Maggie Gause. Kids will be able to dance to the music, draw on the pavement and jump around in the inflatables.

The Full Throttle for Education Car Show is set to feature an array of car clubs, including the Eastern South Carolina Mustang Club. The community is encouraged to participate and display their exotic cars as well. Individuals, who plan on taking part in the car show, will need to arrive at the college by 10 a.m. There will be three car show awards presented at 12:30 p.m. The awards include the Presidents Choice Award, FDTC Educational Foundations Choice Award and the Judges Choice Award.

For more information on the Back 2 School Bash, please contact Ivy Ingram, director of admissions, recruitment and community outreach, at (843) 676-8562, or you can email her at ivy.ingram@fdtc.edu. If youre wanting to participate in the Full Throttle for Education Car Show, please call Hunter Thomas, PR/marketing specialist, at (843) 661-8391 or email him at hunter.thomas@fdtc.edu.
An extra episode on her way to the RNC.

Late-night TV host Samantha Bee offered a special Full Frontal episode Wednesday night in honor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

As Bee and her staff are making their way from New York to the RNC (on a bus, the failed 2012 Republican candidate Herman Cains bus, to be exact), this episode focused on stops in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Scandal's Tony Goldwyn (who plays the president) drove the bus and was on hand to give Bee a pep talk.

After stopping in Altoona, Penn. at an establishment that claims to be Americas oldest gas station, Bee talked to one man who noted the states political divide while pointing out that there are Hillary Clinton supporters in that area. You are a battleground state for the first time since Gettysburg. You are the belle of the ball. Let me spin you! Bee told the young man, enthusiastically, before taking his hand and twirling him around.

At a county fair near the Mason-Dixon line though, a Full Frontal correspondent seemed to be overwhelmed by Donald Trump supporters, as interviewee after interviewee pledged their support for the GOP nominee over Clinton.

READ: Watch Samantha Bee Mock Pretty Much Everything about the RNC

One man who said he is voting for Trump said: I dont really see him as a racist, in my point of view, just because of people I know that consider themselves racist. Even the one Democrat the show spoke to at the fair (an older woman whose husband said he votes Republican) said she refuses to vote for Clinton.

Meanwhile, some people at the fair took issue with the fact that Clinton is a woman. One man told Full Frontal that he didnt think it would be a good idea to have a woman in the White House, and his female companion actually agreed with him wholeheartedly. The woman, who said she regularly faces misogyny in her job as a professional truck mechanic, still did not support the idea that a woman could hold her own in the White House.

Story continues

We dont need a woman as the president, she told Full Frontal. We really dont. Were too dramatic!

As the show neared Cleveland, Bee stopped in Beaver County, Penn. to talk to a local Republican politician about his reluctant support for Trump. State Representative Jim Christiana told Bee that, while he prefers a bipartisan approach to politics, he has to listen to his constituents and support Trumps bid. She asked him o say Donald Trumps name out loud without looking sad. It took him a few tries.

So, were stuck with this st sandwich, lets eat it, Bee said, offering her own summary of Christianas comments.

I think thats a fair characterization, he said.

Watch:

The next episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will air on TBS on Monday, July 25--the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
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The new TP12 service will sail from Asia via the Pacific and transit the expanded Panama Canal calling east coast US ports before returning to Asia via the Suez Canal.

Maersk will deploy eleven 8,500 teu vessels on the new TP12 service, which would have been too large to transit the old Panama Canal.

We are changing our TP12 service to provide a better product to shippers in Korea, Northern and Eastern China. By transiting the expanded Panama Canal, we will significantly reduce transit times into key ports on the US East Coast, said Klaus Rud Sejling, head of east  west network, Maersk Line.

At the same time, we will reduce our CO2 and exhaust gas emissions due to the shorter distance.
MOL subsidiary Lakler signed the contract with Gas Sayago, a joint venture between Uruguay's state oil company ANCAP and state power company UTE, for the charter of the FSRU from the first half of 2018. The contract is subject to Uruguay government approval which is expected by the end of the year.

The FSRU, currently under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, will feature a 263,000 cu m storage tank, largest on any FSRU in the world.

The FSRU is equipped with the capability of re-loading LNG cargo to shuttle tankers as well as sending gas through pipelines. This will allow re-export services and LNG bunkering.
He said sea security operations for trading vessels is regulated by the IMO, and under current rules, there are articles that prohibit the placement of military personnel on merchant vessels, although some countries allowed the use of weapons on board.

Actually, the security of merchant vessels sailing on the sea is stipulated in IMO regulations. Several rules dont allow the presence of military personnel on board, although several countries provide security through the equipping of weapons [for crew members] on board, Ade was quoted as saying.

Citing the IMO, Ade further said, it was only armed civilian security personnel that were allowed to provide security on merchant vessels. The number of armed security personnel was also limited and monitored tightly, he noted.

Involving military personnel in providing security on merchant vessels would only lead to unhealthy competition among shipping companies. He said one option the government could take to protect Indonesian trading vessels against piracy was to allow the Navy to escort vessels as far as the sea boarder of their destination country, from where an escort from the destination country could be arranged.

Coal boats and other merchant vessels should also take a safe route decided by authorities to avoid acts of piracy, such as ones recently perpetrated by Abu Sayyaf militants on Indonesian vessels in southern Philippine waters.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu had previously said the government would enrol the military in providing sea marshals to provide security on coal ships sailing to the Philippines. The Navy would work together with its Philippine counterpart to escort the vessels. He claimed the Philippine government had agreed to allow the Indonesian Military to enter its territory for escort purposes.
The Lion Citys rapid rise as an international shipping centre has been well documented and it could benefit from the UKs move to the EU combined with its own long-term relationship with Britain, which includes a largely English law-based legal system.

It can be argued that Brexit means good news for Singapore regardless of the permutations ahead, which remain largely unknown, said Bill Ricquier, md of Incisive Law

Looking at Brexit with the glass half-empty from a UK perspective, Singapore is well-positioned to benefit from any decline in Londons status as a maritime centre, given the low barriers to doing business in Singapore, its legal, cultural and services-focused synergies with the UK, particularly when it comes to meeting the needs of shipping interests, as well as its vital geo-strategic position in the worlds fastest growing maritime region.

On an opposite scenario of glass half empty for Singapore, it could benefit from the UK looking beyond the EU more in terms of trade treaties.

It would be encouraging to see Singapore near the front of the queue when bilateral trade negotiations open, particularly given the historic ties between the two nations and the status of both as key global financial centres, Ricquier said.

The bid by the Singapore Exchange for the Baltic Exchange was also flagged as example of growing ties between the two maritime centres regardless of Brexit.

Indeed, increased ties between London and Singapore, as illustrated by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) proposed acquisition of the Baltic Exchange, appear to be inevitable and sensible, whatever the long-term consequences of Brexit for London and the UK as a maritime hub, he said.
WATCH VIDEO: How The Taliban Is Trying To Regain Power In Afghanistan

When deployed, a 3-D mapping system scans the section that needs to be demined. Secondly, the mapped area is meticulously swept by the drones carrying a metal detector on a preprogrammed path.

Massoud explains that the drone works in three stages: mapping, detecting and destroying.

The on-board GPS allows it to plot its course via computer.

A robotic arm slung underneath is fitted with pincers that can remotely be opened and closed. The pincers can carry a metal detector or a small explosive charge, which the brothers say can be used to destroy a landmine.

Hinged on six arms with rotors that creates lift, the 4.5 kilo (10-pound) drone consists of a blue hard plastic casing that contains batteries, computer hardware and software and a global positioning system.

Now their latest mine-hunting device combines drone technology, 3-D printing and robotics with a metal detector to find and ultimately destroy landmines.

Inspired by their childhood toys, the kafon - short for "kafondan" which in the Hassanis' native Dari language means "something that explodes" - drew high praise from anti-landmine organizations.

In 2013, they won worldwide acclaim for the "mine kafon" - a giant ball shaped like a dandelion-seed head that rolls around with the wind, its plastic stalks tripping landmines in the process.

Now the Afghan brothers are back with their latest creation: a low-cost drone to detect and destroy mines, which each year claim thousands of lives. Ridding the world of their childhood horror has become the life work of the Hassanis, who now live in the Netherlands.

Former refugees Massoud and Mahmud Hassani stunned the world three years ago with an invention like a dandelion puffball that sought to rid the world of landmines.

"This way the mine field in question can be scanned inch-by-inch," Massoud told AFP at his workshop in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven.

Finally, the plan is to destroy the mines by using the drone to place a small charge on every mine to detonate it.

"We believe this way mines can be cleared almost 20 times faster than what they are now," Massoud said.

So far the duo have built three working prototypes, and have carried out demonstrations before the Dutch military, who say they are willing to help with further testing.

"Clearing minefields is an incredibly time-consuming process," Major Fred de Vries of the Dutch army's explosives ordnance disposal unit told AFP.

RELATED: Giant 'Dandelion' Is An Anti-Mine Device

"We see many possibilities to use drones" to save time to map and detect landmines in a given area, De Vries said.

The key phase will be to carry out field tests in Afghanistan, which the brothers hope to finance by crowd-funding. If all goes well, the pair believe the drone can be made for as little as 1,000 euros ($1,100) each.

Other opinions are guarded. One of them is the Halo Trust, the world's largest humanitarian mine clearing organisation.

It said despite having carried out some "small-scale trials with aerial mapping drones" it did not believe "drones will contribute significantly to the future of mine clearance."

Drones are of limited use in areas covered with vegetation and in poor weather conditions, the trust said.

And even if the drone did find a landmine "a trained human being will still be required to excavate and destroy it," the trust said in a statement.

RELATED: Cyborg Locusts to Sniff Out Bombs

The brothers are using the Kickstarter online crowd funding platform in the hope of raising 90,000 euros ($100,000) for the final tests. They want to take it to Afghanistan for testing within the next two months, the first time the brothers will be back in their native country since fleeing the Taliban-ruled Kabul in the late 1990s.

Three years ago a plan to return to Afghanistan to test the original kafon failed. The "puffball" idea, while praised for its low technology and cheapness, meant the device was at the mercy of the winds and could not cover a minefield systematically to guarantee it was cleared, as humans would.

"The mine kafon invention did a lot to create awareness of landmines," Massoud Hassani said.

"We felt that it was now time to do something even more concrete to destroy landmines," he said.

RELATED: Giant Rats Trained to Sniff for Landmines in Cambodia

Massoud, 32, fled Afghanistan in 1998, followed two years later by Mahmud, 30. After arduous treks through Pakistan and Uzbekistan the brothers finally made their way to the Netherlands and today hold Dutch citizenship.

Landmines are scattered in 78 countries, and each year kill between 15,000 and 20,000 people and maim countless more, according to UN figures.

Despite huge progress in mine-clearing, Afghanistan remains one of the most-mined countries in the world.

Since 1989, around 703,000 anti-personnel mines, 29,000 anti-tank mines and more than 18 million other pieces of unexploded ordnance have been collected, according to the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA).

There were at least 1,296 Afghan casualties in 2014 resulting from mines, victim-triggered improvised explosive devises and other ordnance left over from the Afghan war, the Geneva-based Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor research group said.

"Our whole life is dedicated to the fight against landmines. As children we saw our friends lose limbs and die," said Massoud.

"It will be great to go back to our country bearing this gift."
Photo: The Fertile Crescent and the Middle East, seen from space. Credit: NASA The reason that you're able to sit in a comfortable chair in your home and read this article on your tablet or laptop is that many thousands of years ago, humans shifted from being nomadic hunter-gatherers to raising their own food crops and domesticating animals. That breakthrough enabled our species to stay in one place long enough to build villages, towns and cities, and to start developing the technologies that eventually led to the advanced civilization we have today.

But who actually was the first to invent farming? A new genetic study suggests that two different groups of people in the Middle East independently developed agriculture, and then gradually spread their practices to Europe, Africa and Asia.

RELATED: Trace Your Ancient Ancestry with This New Map

In the study, which recently was published online at Biorxiv.org, researchers looked at the genomes of 44 individuals who lived between 3,500 and 14,000 years ago in present-day Armenia, Turkey, Israel, Jordan and Iran. The difficult-to-obtain ancient DNA was extracted from a tiny ear bone -- called the petrous -- by a team led by Losif Lazaridis and David Reich, two population geneticists at Harvard Medical school.

The team found stark differences between the genomes of ancient people on the southern side of the region in Israel and Jordan, and those on the other side of the Zagros mountains in western Iran. That pattern is consistent with existing evidence that the two groups didn't mingle, and separately developed the ability to grow crops.

"There has been a school of thought arguing that everything happens first in the southern Levant and everyone learns how to be farmers from this initial dispersal," Roger Matthews, an archaeologist at the University of Reading, U.K., who co-directs the Central Zagros Archaeological Project in Iran, explained in a Nature.com article. "But the archaeological evidence shows very strong local traditions that are clearly not in communication with each other, persisting for centuries if not millennia."

RELATED: Ancient Cities in Cambodia Revealed by Lasers

Agriculture seems to have developed about 11,000 years ago in those places. The two groups also focused on different agricultural products, with the southern farmers domesticating goats and growing cereals such as emmer, while the western group cultivated barley and wheat.

About 9,500 years ago, the two populations of farmers finally may have mixed in eastern Turkey, where they probably were searching for sources of obsidian, which they needed to make tools. By the time farmers from Turkey began migrating to Europe, they had what the researchers call a "Neolithic Toolkit," which included crops, animals and tools from both farming traditions.

WATCH VIDEO: Can We Grow Plants on Mars?
Antarctica is the most unique of the seven continents for many reasons. Not only is the landscape breathtakingly beautiful and the year round temperature a consistent cold and colder, but Antarctica is also the only continent on earth that has no permanent inhabitants and no government. However, with the plethora of natural resources here, it's very likely this territory won't remain ungoverned forever.

Natacha Pisarenko is an Associated Press photographer who documents scientists doing research in Antarctica. Although the researchers here come from different countries and have varied backgrounds, Pisarenko has frequently observed them all working together peacefully. A big reason for that is The Antarctic Treaty.

RELATED: Why Do We Go to Antarctica?

The Antarctic Treaty was established back in 1959 during the Cold War in an effort to encourage cooperative scientific research. The treaty states: "Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available." This also supports the idea that no one owns Antarctica. Various nations have tried to claim it over the years but no claims have been globally recognized.

Today there are 75 research stations in Antarctica with scientists from all over the world studying a number of subjects. Measuring air quality here is ideal because Antarctica's air is virtually pollution-free. Astronomers are drawn to the area because it stays dark outside for 24 hours during winter months, giving ample time for studying the night sky.

RELATED: Who Owns Antarctica?

Pisarenko says she worries the peace that currently exists here will soon be broken by those who come to take advantage of Antarctica's valuable resources. "...many fear that countries will rush to explore its mineral resources and oil. For now, countries are banned from drilling or having military bases, but several nations keep research stations as a way to claim territory," she told Seeker.

It's a valid concern considering there could be as much as 200 billion barrels of oil here. However, we likely won't see change to the continent in the near future. The next time the treaty will be reviewed is 2048. Until then, we can still think of Antarctica as a sort of utopia. It's the only continent in the world where there has never been any nuclear testing, wars, or military activity of any kind.

As Pisarenko puts it, "...it's a beautiful world, there are no borders, and people rely on generosity and kindness to survive." We can only hope it will stay that way for many centuries to come.

-- Molly Fosco

See more of Natacha Pisarenko's work.

Read More:

South Pole 1911-2011: Did You Know That Many Countries Have Research Stations in Antarctica?

BBC: Why Do So Many Nations Want A Piece Of Antarctica?

Discovering Antarctica: Future Of Antarctica
And the man in the tomb was buried with his ax alone. "He didn't have anything else buried with him, so I think you can say he identified himself as a warrior above anything else," Nielsen said.

The simplicity of the mighty ax, without any decorations or inscriptions, suggests this fearsome weapon was not just for show. "It's not very luxurious," she said.

"It's a bit extraordinary - it's much bigger and heavier than the other axes. It would have had a very long handle, and it took both hands to use it," Nielsen told Live Science. [ See Photos of the 10th-Century Viking Tomb ]

Kirsten Nellemann Nielsen, an archaeologist at the Silkeborg Museum who is leading excavations at the site near the town of Haarup, said Danish axes like the one found in the tomb were the most feared weapons of the Viking Age .

Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest Viking axes ever found, in the tomb of a 10th-century "power couple" in Denmark.

The ax was one of the artifacts recovered from the Haarup Viking tomb, or ddehus, which means "death house" in Danish. The tomb consisted of a wooden palisade or roofed structure, about 13 feet (4 meters) wide and 43 feet (13 m) long, which was constructed around the two graves.

The tomb was built around A.D. 950 for the burial of a man and a woman of evident distinction, Nielsen said. The individuals were identified by their clothing and belongings, and the only human remains that survived the centuries was a single black human hair found in the woman's clothing.

The woman was buried lying in a wooden wagon, which was a tradition for women of noble birth at the time, and a pair of keys found in the tomb indicated that she was one of the leading people in the community, according to the archaeologists.

RELATED: Viking 'Hammer of Thor' Unearthed



Keys were a symbol of authority and distinction for women in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe in the Middle Ages, and the tradition likely dated back to an earlier time, Nielsen said. "If you are an important woman, with a lot of fine artifacts with you in the grave, then you also have a key," she said.

One of the keys was for a small wooden casket, bound with iron brackets, that was buried beside her.

"She also had gold and silver threads woven into her clothing, so this is quite fine," Nielsen said.

Nielsen said the man and woman in the tomb may not have been husband and wife, but they were clearly the local "power couple." [Fierce Fighters: 7 Secrets of Viking Seamen]

"The special thing about this tomb is that these two people, each in their own grave, are put inside the same structure," she said. "I can't say it isn't a brother and sister, or it could be [a] husband and wife relationship. But definitely, these two were the ones in charge, the noblest people of the local area."

RELATED: 'For Allah' Inscription Found on Viking Era Ring

At some point in time, after the first man and woman were buried, a second man was buried in a grave inside a wooden structure that was added to the original tomb. This man was also buried with his ax, although it was not as large as the ax from the original burial, the researchers said.

Nielsen thinks the second man could have been a relative or successor of the first man. "He was definitely a warrior," she said. "Both men had Dane axes made for fighting, and both were definitely warriors."

The tomb at Haarup was unlike any other Viking tomb in Denmark and the other Viking burials uncovered at the same site, she said.

"This is unique - the only one of its kind that I know of," Nielsen said. "It's a special place."

International connections

Other finds from the tomb, and other sites in Haarup, show that the local Vikings likely had some international connections, whether through trade or travel, the archaeologists said. [In Photos: Viking Voyage Discovered]

RELATED: Viking Site in Canada Hinted by Satellite Data

The woman in the tomb was buried with a decorated ceramic cup that originated in the Baltic region, Nielsen said. Two silver coins of a Middle Eastern type called "dirhams," thought to be from an area that is now in Afghanistan, were found in the grave of another Viking woman buried nearby.

Nielsen has been working at Haarup since the site was unearthed during the construction of a motorway in 2012. As more construction goes on in the area, more archaeological discoveries are being made, including artifacts from the Iron Age and Danish medieval periods, as well as the Viking 10th century.

"From the Vikings, we have only found their burials - we haven't found their houses yet, so we know them only from their graves," Nielsen said. "They most definitely lived there, but we just haven't found the place yet."

Future archaeological research from Haarup will focus on the four different types of woven cloth found in the graves, the construction of the small casket in the leading woman's grave, and the single black hair found in her clothing - the only human remains that have survived, and potentially a source of DNA that could provide more clues about its owner, Nielsen said.

A report on the discoveries at Haarup, titled "Dead and Buried in the Viking Age," can be read online (in Danish) at Academia.edu.

Original article on Live Science.

More From LiveScience:

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Sean MacCormac chased the thunderstorm right through the clouds. Board strapped to his feet, the pro skydiver jumped into a classic summertime thunderstorm boiling over central Florida.

Although it looked akin to a death wish, this dive was 25 years in the making.

RELATED: Hollywood Top Ten: High-Altitude Sky Dives

Last week, MacCormac jumped out of an aircraft 10,000 feet above a central Florida and proceeded to "surf" the clouds. Lightning flashed around him as he sped toward the ground at speeds between 120 and 130 mph. One bolt was about a quarter mile away, he explained online.

His previous storm jump happened in the mid-1990s, when MacCormac was a young maverick who challenged a former Vietnam War pilot to drop him on the edge of one. Now 41, the medal-winning pro and Red Bull Air Force member has racked up more than 20,000 jumps in calmer weather.

RELATED: Wingsuit Flier Soars Over Active Volcano

The project in Florida involved careful planning. An experienced pilot flew the single-engine Cessna Caravan plane and fellow Red Bull Air Force member Jon DeVore captured images. For safety, the team relied on meteorological data from weather service provider UBIMET, according to project sponsor Red Bull.

"I think getting hit by lightning is random," MacCormac said online. "It is not as intense as your fear would have you believe." Duly noted.

RELATED: Killer Lightning Strikes Thwarted by 'Bolt' Tent

Getting struck by lightning is actually near the top of my own personal fear list. This summer it almost happened, too. Fortunately an enormous tree outside took the hit instead. You'd think I'd be feeling protected now, but seeing the damage up close only made me more aware of the danger.

After all the prep, MacCormac's jump was still a leap of faith. He compared it to heading into a minefield that could pop off at any time. Check out his incredible storm skysurfing here:
Yesterday at an MIT Media Lab event called Forbidden Research, exiled NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and American hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang announced a new technology to counter lawful abuses of digital surveillance.

The tech, which at the moment is a prototype iPhone 6 case, uses the phone's antenna system to alert the user if any unusual radio signals are being received or sent.

RELATED: Stealth Clothing Averts Government Snoopers

Speaking to the audience live from a remote location, Snowden, who is now the director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, defined a "lawful abuse" as "...an immoral or improper activity perpetuated or justified under a shelter of law."

Some examples include large-scale secret attempts at mass surveillance, torture, indefinite detention, extrajudicial killing (i.e. assassination), segregation, slavery, genocide. The list goes on.

To wrap the digital surveillance variable into the lawful abuse equation, one has to consider the cell phone, which by the very nature of how it works, makes it vulnerable to being spied upon.

RELATED: 5 Ways to Catch the NSA's Attention

Cellphones transmit radio signals that contain a unique identifier, which helps validate you to the phone company. But it can also be observed and monitored by dangerous third parties.

Dangerous, as in, people who might want to kill you.

Since 2005, more than 1,070 people working the media have been killed or gone missing. Snowden pointed out that the overwhelming majority of these deaths were murders and that the journalists themselves were mostly covering politics or political unrest.

RELATED: Does Giving Up Privacy Keep Us Safe from Terrorism?

Snowden told the story of Marie Colvin, who was reporting live from Homs, Syria, in 2012 for the British newspaper The Sunday Times when the building she was reporting from was bombed repeatedly. She and a French filmmaker were killed.

Later, it was discovered that the radio frequency signals from her phone were intercepted by the Syrian army and used to pinpoint her exact location.

Snowden and Huang want to develop technology that prevents a person's phone from being used as a tracking device, even if it's in airplane mode, even if the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and NFC (for Apple Pay) are supposedly turned off.
Just before this week's Republican National Convention, Indiana governor Mike Pence officially became the vice presidential nominee on the 2016 GOP ticket. In the run-up to an election, the VP pick can make or break a campaign. But what do vice presidents actually do once they're in office?

Reporting from the RNC in Cleveland, Ohio, Jules Suzdaltsev explains in today's Seeker Daily report.

The primary function of the vice president, of course, is to take the reins should the president die, resign or be removed from office. This has occurred nine times in the history of the United States -- four presidents have been assassinated, four have died of natural causes and one rather infamously resigned.

The vice president also presides over the Senate and casts any tie-breaker votes required by that august body. Such votes are rare, however. Current vice president Joe Biden is one of 12 VPs who have never cast such a vote at all. If you're keeping score at home, America's first VP, John Adams, still holds the record with 29 tie-breaking votes cast while in office.

RELATED: How Politicians Became The New American Celebrities

The vice president has several unofficial duties, however. For instance, the VP is expected to organize the annual executive branch wiffle ball game on the South Lawn and mix drinks for the press corps during -- oops, wait a second. Wrong notes. Aha, here we go....

Basically, the VP acts as a kind of unofficial spokesperson for the administration, explaining policy positions, dealing with the press, or serving as an A-list diplomat for important international visits. VPs typically keep a relatively low profile overall, though, so as not to divert focus from the president.

But sometimes the VP and president have a closer relationship. Walter Mondale was known to be an intimate confidant to president Jimmy Carter and an active participant in day-to-day affairs. Al Gore and Bill Clinton worked together closely on matters of foreign policy and the environment.

But before any of that can happen, the VP has to help the president win the election. To that end, presidential candidates look for a running mate who can help balance the ticket and appeal to a wide range of voters. That's Pence's job in the coming months, and he's sure to be a highly visible presence at this year's convention.

-- Glenn McDonald

Learn More:

NPR: The Evolving Role Of The Vice President

Smithsonian Magazine: How the Office of the Vice Presidency Evolved from Nothing to Something

The Progressive Professor: Presidential-Vice Presidential Relationships Rarely Warm

ABC: Mike Pence: Everything You Need to Know


An anonymous man called the San Francisco Police Department twice over two days, offering a $15,000 reward to anyone who kills a police officer, authorities said Thursday.

The first call was made to Ingleside Station around 9:45 p.m Wednesday, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a Police Department spokeswoman.

A male voice said he would give $15,000 to whoever killed an officer. He did not mention a motive or give any information about himself, Talkoff said.

Thursday, a police dispatcher received a call around 5:30 a.m. offering the same amount to the first person to kill an officer. Police believe the caller was the same man, Talkoff said.

Investigators were working to trace the call.

Thursday morning, Ingleside Station hosted a scheduled Coffee With a Cop event at the Starbucks at 675 Portola Drive. Officers were advised to be aware of their surroundings, but the gathering went off without a hitch, Talkoff said.

We periodically get threats, so its nothing new to us, she said. We just think, in light of the current situation around the country and around the world, its brought it a little bit more to the forefront.

Earlier this week, a man was arrested after making a racist threat against acting San Francisco Police Chief Toney Chaplin on Twitter.

Donald Eric Hoganson, 60, was booked into San Francisco County Jail on Wednesday on charges of resistance to an executive officer and a hate crime, according to jail records.

Hoganson was suspected of running the @BethesdaSavior Twitter account, which tweeted a photo of Chaplin beside a guillotine and a sign that read, White Trade Only. The tweet included the message, Let us behead this black man, please!

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.

The account, named LambofGod, also posts images of swastikas and lynchings. Hoganson is reportedly schizophrenic, and was indicted in 2002 after allegedly threatening to kill an FBI agent outside the Sacramento office, according to court records. The charges were later dismissed.

Authorities detained Hoganson at his home on the 2600 block of Ortega Street on Monday, police said. He was being held on $90,000 bail.

In Santa Cruz, City Councilwoman Richelle Noroyan reported Tuesday that threatening graffiti that read, Kill Cops Not Trees, was circulating around the city.

Chronicle staff writer Vivian Ho contributed to this report.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno
Warriors star Draymond Green agreed to a plea deal in a Michigan assault case, dodging a jail sentence but receiving a $500 fine for allegedly slapping a man during a confrontation this month outside a bar.

Prosecutors in East Lansing, Mich., agreed to reduce the misdemeanor assault charge against Green, 26, to a noise violation, which is a civil infraction, David Meyers, an assistant city attorney in East Lansing, said Friday.

In addition to the $500 fine, Green, a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, will pay a $60 jail restitution fee.

As part of the deal, Green will not have to plead guilty or enter a no contest plea, prosecutors said.

The plea agreement reached with Mr. Green is in accordance with our normal plea bargain procedures and guidelines for a case with similar circumstances, evidence and witness statements, Meyers said in a statement. We simply treated Mr. Green no differently than any other defendant that we prosecute.

Green, a former Michigan State All-America basketball player, was arrested July 10 outside an East Lansing bar on suspicion of slapping former MSU football player Jermaine Edmondson, 22, during an early morning altercation.

The beef between Green and Edmondson began July 8 when the Warriors forward bumped into Edmondson at Ricks, a popular bar, according to the police report. After being bumped, Edmonson, a 6-foot, 183-pound defensive back, spun around and told Green to watch where he was going, to which Green replied, Do you know who I am? Sgt. Chad Pride wrote in his report. Thats when an unknown person at the bar grabbed Edmondson by the throat, according to police.

Edmonson and his friends returned to the bar Saturday night. Around 2:30 the next morning, after the bars let out, Edmondson told police Green walked up to him outside Conrads Grill, next door to Ricks, and put his hand on him and started to talk to him.

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.

Edmondson stated that they started to verbally argue and at that time, Draymond Green punched Edmondson with his right hand on the left side of his cheek, Pride wrote.

Police at the scene witnessed part of the encounter. Officer Jeff Horn, who was standing nearby, said he saw a taller man wearing a white T-shirt openhandedly slap another man across the face.

If Mr. Green can abide by the conditions of the plea agreement, it will remain a civil infraction, Meyers told The Chronicle. If he were to violate a condition, the original criminal charge (assault and battery) would be reinstated by the court and we would prosecute the matter accordingly.

Bill Hutchinson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bhutchinson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @bill_hutchinson
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San Francisco supervisors decision to deem Friday an official day of remembrance for Mario Woods, the stabbing suspect shot to death in December by police officers in the Bayview, has generated a backlash from the San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland police unions, as well as the International Association of Fire Fighters.

The four groups paid $15,000 for a full-page advertisement in Fridays Chronicle that is a thinly veiled rebuke of Mario Woods Remembrance Day. The ad appends a layer of hostility to the day, which is purely symbolic but has also become a proxy in the debate over police reform and officer safety.

Beneath a picture of dozens of officers saluting, the ad states: July 22, 2016, is a day to acknowledge San Franciscos local heroes. It is a day to honor all of the brave men and women  as well as all public safety workers in California and this nation  who have made the ultimate sacrifice. On this day, pause and reflect on those selfless, dedicated individuals. It is they who are deserving of special civic remembrance.

Representatives from the organizations could not be reached for comment.

The San Francisco police union has also organized a day of remembrance ceremony at the Golden Gate Yacht Club on Friday morning. Neither the advertisement nor the advisory for the event mention Woods.

The San Francisco Police Officers Association was furious when, in January, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved July 22 as a day of remembrance for Woods. The resolution also offered Woods mother sincere condolences for the loss of her son and apologies for the way in which she has been treated since her sons death.

Police fatally shot Woods, a stabbing suspect, more than 20 times on a Bayview sidewalk on Dec. 2. Former Police Chief Greg Suhr initially said Woods had raised a knife in a threatening manner, but video indicates Woods raised his arm after the first shot was fired. The shooting is still under investigation.

Supervisors, POA clash

While several supervisors were wary of the resolution, they resented what they described as the unions bullying behavior toward the supervisors after Woods shooting. Board President London Breed said during the vote that she wouldnt be intimidated by the POA. The union responded by calling the resolution completely inappropriate.

The city is not doing anything to honor Woods on the remembrance day.

Supervisor David Campos, who cosponsored the measure in January, said the day is not about the specifics of Mario Woods but what that case represents, which is the recognition that there needs to be police reform.

Campos said he planned to attend a vigil for Woods Friday evening at the Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church in the Bayview. The Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition also has planned a memorial Saturday at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, also in the Bayview.

As long as were working toward police reform, were remembering Mario Woods, said Supervisor John Avalos, the resolutions other co-sponsor.

But even the supervisors are at odds about what it means to push for police reform.

Earlier this week, moderate Supervisor Malia Cohen accused the boards progressive bloc, which includes Avalos and Campos, of paying lip service to police reform when they refused to put a proposed police accountability initiative on the ballot as a stand-alone measure, and instead sought to fold it into a ballot measure to create an office of public advocate.

Avalos countered that he was making the measure stronger by making it completely independent of the mayor.

Use-of-force policy

And in a 6-5 vote, the supervisors rejected Avalos proposal to place on reserve $30 million of the Police Departments budget. The proposal, had it passed, would have released the money only if the department made changes such as implementing a use-of-force policy requiring officers to use minimal force instead of reasonable force.

The vote came after a contentious back-and-forth between Campos and interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin, with Campos questioning Chaplins commitment to reform and Chaplin retorting that holding back the departments funding was anti-progress and sends the wrong message.

Woods shooting sparked ongoing protests and calls for Suhrs resignation. It occurred in the context of national soul-searching over the fatal police shootings of minorities. It also followed the controversial fatal police shootings of two Latino men in the Mission and Bernal Heights in 2014 and 2015. Since Woods shooting, San Francisco police shot and killed a Latino man and an African American woman. None of the victims was carrying a gun.

After the last police shooting  the African American woman, Jessica Williams, in southeast San Francisco in May  Suhr was forced to resign, and Chaplin was tapped as his interim replacement.

Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emilytgreen
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Travelers and workers who plan to rely on BART to get them to or from San Francisco International Airport on weekends over the next three months will find a more challenging and lengthier journey than they might expect.

Over seven weekends through mid-October, BART will halt service in both directions along a half-mile stretch between the Daly City Station and San Franciscos Glen Park Station. BART will also close Balboa Park Station in between. The shutdowns are part of BARTs effort to replace critical but crumbling stretches of track.

The Daly City to Glen Park closures begin the weekend of July 30-31 and continue through Oct. 16. They include Labor Day weekend in September, one of the years busiest travel weekends and a time when many travelers take BART to and from SFO.

Four of our five lines run through this stretch, and Balboa Park is one of our busiest stations. In addition, it carries people going to and from the airport, said BART spokesman Jim Allison. This affects a lot of people.

BART typically carries 23,000 passengers along the stretch on Saturdays and 18,000 on Sundays.

The closures will mark the continuation of BARTs strategy to get critical work done more quickly. In the past, BART confined most maintenance work to the early morning hours when the system is closed. But that allowed only about two hours of work per night, which meant the work either took a long time to complete  or was simply patched up and put off.

But starting last year, BART opted to try the weekend shutdowns.

This isnt the first shutdown and it wont be the last, Allison said. This is the new reality for BART given the age were at and the condition of our infrastructure. There are a lot of things we cant just keep patching. We need to tear them up and replace them.

To help its riders get through the Daly City to Glen Park closures, BART has contracted with Muni and SamTrans to run shuttle buses on two routes during the closures  one that goes directly from Glen Park Station to Daly City Station, the other stopping at Balboa Park Station en route. BART officials estimate the direct bus ride should take about 15 to 20 minutes, but they warn passengers  especially those bound for SFO  to allow an extra hour in case large crowds of riders or heavy traffic cause delays.

We know how stressful it is for people rushing to catch a flight, Allison said. Thats why were being so cautious.

BART is working with SFO to get the word out to travelers, airlines and people who work at the airport. But Thursday, airport employees and passengers seemed unaware of the impending shutdown, a bit distressed by the threat of a longer and less reliable ride and unsure of how theyll navigate the inconvenience.

I live in the East Bay and its going to take another half hour of commute time, said Jam Malingin, 21, a passenger service agent for Air France.

Josephine Guevarra, 36, a cashier at Sushi Machi in the international terminal, takes BART to get from her downtown San Francisco home to work. She said shell probably give the shuttle bus a try first, but said it might end up being more reliable to take a SamTrans bus instead.

But I have wake up a half hour earlier if I do that, she said.

Aboard BART at the SFO Station, Wendy Beck, of Cole Valley, said she just heard of the planned closures after getting off her flight. She worried that tourists or locals returning home might not be aware of the shutdown and find the ride longer and more confusing than expected.

If it were happening today, I wouldnt have known until I got on the train, she said. If youre away for a while, and havent been reading the news, you might now know.

Allison said BART plans to assign ambassadors at the affected stations to point the way and offer maps. He hopes it goes as smoothly as last years big shutdown of the Transbay Tube and the West Oakland Station, which took place over a couple of weekends, including Labor Day. BART has also completed track replacement during weekend shutdowns near the Coliseum Station in Oakland and in Hayward.

Most of the shutdowns have been done to allow construction crews to replace what are known as interlockings or crossover tracks  a stretch of rails that allows trains to reverse directions or steer around disabled trains. The crossovers are considered critical to keeping the system running smoothly, especially as breakdowns and delays on the aging system become increasingly common.

While the stretch is shut down, BART also plans to install noise dampers on a particularly screechy stretch of track.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
Federal prosecutors rested their case against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Thursday after five weeks of testimony in the companys criminal trial alleging pipeline-safety violations.

The prosecutions final witness testified under cross-examination Thursday that PG&E breached the investigation of the September 2010 pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes by pre-interviewing witnesses in at least two instances. It was behavior that made him consider eliminating PG&E as a party to the investigation altogether, said Ravi Chhatre, the National Transportation Safety Boards lead investigator in the San Bruno case.

Chhatre, who repeatedly called the companys actions a no-no, said he asked for the removal of Robert Fassett, PG&Es liaison to the investigation, after the utilitys attorneys interviewed a retired worker just before the employee was scheduled to speak with investigators. The worker had helped to install the failed portion of the San Bruno pipeline years before.

Misconduct continued

Although Fassett was promptly replaced, the misconduct continued, Chhatre told the jury.

The investigator said Thursday that the companys attorneys also spoke to employees and former employees with knowledge of a 1988 leak on the San Bruno pipeline before scheduled interviews with the NTSB. After that, he said he decided not to interview any other witnesses.

PG&E went and talked to these people before I did, Chhatre said. So we decided that once PG&E ... contaminated the witnesses, there was no time for me to divert from my work and go talk to those people.

PG&E is on trial, charged with 12 counts of violating pipeline-safety laws and with obstructing an investigation into the San Bruno explosion.

Countering Chhatres testimony, a defense attorney suggested that PG&E had spoken to the witnesses only to coordinate with them for the investigation and to ensure investigators werent overwhelmed with unnecessary information.

April 2011 letter

Defense attorney Margaret Tough also challenged Chhatres earlier testimony, which focused on an April 2011 letter in which PG&E disowns a memo the utility had provided to investigators describing a policy of testing older lines for welding problems only when gas pressure exceeded the federal maximum by 10 percent.

The letter said that the 10 percent policy was a draft and that PG&E had never approved the policy nor carried it out.

Chhatre said Wednesday that he did not believe the efficacy of the letter, and Tough asked him why he had not immediately followed up about the letter if he found it to be concerning.

The investigator responded that he had not had time to look into the letter immediately because he was busy conducting the investigation. He eventually issued a memo about the letter in September 2011, court documents show.

I had a concern about what I was told, Chhatre said. I just wanted to document that concern so nobody would think that I ignored that particular issue.

Information too late

Chhatre also testified that PG&E was not forthcoming in providing critical information to investigators. He said he could have identified a root cause of the San Bruno explosion as corporate culture, but didnt get the chance because important information and evidence came too late in his investigation.

The company took eight months to provide investigators with evidence of a 1988 gas leak on the San Bruno pipeline, according to court documents. They sent a failure report on the leak nearly a year later.

Chhatre also said PG&E was not open about its practice of spiking pipe pressures above federal limits. PG&E provided data in November 2010 and January 2011 showing that the San Bruno pipe had been over-pressurized, according to court documents.

However, Chhatre said no one ever told him directly about PG&E exceeding pressure limits during the investigation.

Libby Rainey is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lrainey@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rainey_l
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July 22, 1916 was hot.

As members of the Grand Army of the Republic assembled at the Ferry Building, awaiting the start of San Francisco's lavish Preparedness Day parade, one elderly veteran fainted. Just as an ambulance reached the fallen man, a explosion shook Market Street.

When the dust settled, a bloody scene painted the street. The sidewalks ran red and "all around the bodies of men and women, almost stripped of their clothes, lay in horrible grotesque heaps," wrote the Chronicle. Windows blocks away were shattered. Ten were dead, including one child, and another 40 injured.

It remains the only terrorist attack in San Francisco history.

The day began as a great celebration, but it was not without controversy. The parade, the biggest in city history at over 51,000 marchers, was meant to celebrate the city's preparedness for World War I. The city was already at war with itself, however. Labor unions were locked in an all-out fight with business owners. Anarchists and anti-war demonstrators joined the voices against World War I and the nationalistic Preparedness Day parade.

Days before the parade, hundreds of businesses and individuals received a strange postcard in the mail. It was written in pencil with many of the words underscored boldly.

"Our protests have been in vain in regards to this preparedness propaganda, so we are going to use a little direct action on the 22d, which will echo around the earth and show that Frisco really knows how and that militarism cannot be forced on us and our children without a violent protest," it read.

"Things are going to happen to show that we will go to any extreme, the same as the controlling class, to preserve what little democracy we still have. Don't take this as a joke, or you will be rudely awakened."

The postcards were ignored.

Despite the shocking blast, the parade went on as scheduled. Bodies were still on the street when the parade continued on over the broken, bloody ground. Among the rubble, police found the bomb on Steuart and Market: a suitcase packed with bullets and shrapnel and set off with a timed explosion. Without a scrap of evidence, they knew who to blame.

"A man who would commit so dastardly and cowardly an outrage must be a man with anarchistic principles," San Francisco police chief D.A. White said.

When district attorney Charles Flickert arrived at the scene, he told reporters, "You know, men, I already think I know who did this."

Five days later, police arrested Warren K. Billings, 22, and Thomas J. Mooney, 33, without warrants. Billings, a shoe cutter from New York, was already well-known to police. He'd been arrested for the assault of the foreman at a shoe company in 1913 and had recently been found carrying explosives on a street car in Sacramento. But he was just the lackey, prosecutors argued. Mooney was the true mastermind.

Mooney had been on the police radar for years despite having no criminal record. He was one of the city's foremost radical leaders, a well-known socialist in the labor community. With the country roiling in anti-socialist sentiment, it's perhaps no surprise Billings and Mooney were singled out.

And the willing public had no qualms playing along, despite a complete lack of evidence. On July 27, Miss Estelle Smith was brought down to the City Prison to identify Billings as the bomber.

"You had better be careful, lady, I am not the man you saw," Billings said.

"I am careful," Miss Smith replied. "And you certainly are the man."

Another witness said the man who put the suitcase on Steuart Street "had on a dark suit and a broad-brimmed sombrero. There is little doubt he was a Mexican." A waiter near the blast couldn't keep his story straight, but he was sure he saw Billings and Mooney that day. One woman claimed to see them both instantaneously in different places on Market, a feat she accomplished with her "astral self."

But the most credible witness was the "honest cattleman" Frank Oxman. The rancher swore under oath he had seen the pair plant the suitcase bomb. But he wasn't in San Francisco at all that day; he was in Woodland buying cattle.

On Oct. 7, 1916, Billings was sentenced to life in prison. On Feb. 9, 1917, less than an hour after returning from dinner at the Washington Hotel, the jury came back with a guilty verdict for Mooney too. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

"The verdict does not make me guilty," Mooney declared as he was led away. "I am not guilty."

In the years that followed, it became clear that Billings and Mooney were hurriedly blamed to give DA Flickert a big political victory over labor activists. The waiter recanted his testimony. The honest cattleman's lie was revealed (and he was tried for perjury).

Meanwhile, a federal government investigation into the district attorney found even more damning evidence. They bugged Flickert's office and caught him admitting to orchestrating the frame-job of Mooney and Billings.

In light of the overwhelming evidence, Mooney's death sentence was reduced to life in prison by President Woodrow Wilson.

But still, the years went by. Finally, 22 years after being imprisoned, California Governor Culbert Olson signed a "full and unconditional" pardon for Mooney, then-called the most famous prisoner in the world. Billings, who had a prior felony conviction, would need a court recommendation to receive his freedom.

That night, Gov. Olson received a call from a superior court judge who admitted that he knew private detectives and San Francisco police had trailed Billings "every minute" the day of the parade. He could not have been the bomber.

Billings was officially pardoned and freed on Oct. 17, 1939.

The day Mooney was freed, he addressed 1,000 witnesses in the State Assembly chambers and, at times wracked by sobs, gave a speech that was broadcast around the country.

"I am not unmindful of the tremendous significance of this occasion," he said. "... We must establish real social order wherein the people will benefit one another and not profit at the expense of one another."

Mooney went on the speaking circuit for some time, but his health was irrevocably broken by years in prison. He died three years later; his funeral was held at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (today's Bill Graham Auditorium).

Billings lived in relative anonymity until 1972, when he died after decades of quiet life as a watchmaker in San Francisco.

The real Preparedness Day bomber has never been found.
A warm and sunny weekend is on tap for the Bay Area and some inland areas could potentially see temperatures hit the century mark, forecasters said Friday.

The warming pattern comes after a period of prolonged cool weather in the region and will leave some spots with temperatures 10 degrees above normal for this time of year, said Drew Peterson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
Watch out, Apple

The Apple Watch has taken a licking; can it keep on ticking? International Data Corp. reports that in the second quarter, the worlds smart watch market had an unprecedented 32 percent decline from the same period last year, mostly because Apple Watch sales plummeted 55 percent. IDC points out that Apple is still by far the market leader with a 47 percent share, and the comparison is with the first quarter that Apple Watches became available  and were hot sellers. But Apple was the only vendor in the top five to have sales decline.

Pandora jumps  briefly

Shares of Oaklands Pandora Media rose as much as 10 percent Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Liberty Media floated an offer to buy Pandora for roughly $15 per share, citing anonymous sources, and that Pandora rejected the bid. But then Pandora reported its earnings, saying that active listeners fell. The stock ended up down 3 percent for the day, then fell more in after-hours trading.

Tesla investors yawn

Elon Musks master plan for Tesla Motors, which includes self-driving buses and huge trucks, didnt even leave investors semi-impressed Thursday. The Palo Alto companys stock fell more than 3 percent Thursday, the day after Musk announced his plan, which also includes the idea of helping owners rent out their Teslas, as well as operating a fleet of self-driving cars that could be hailed for rides.

The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing
Airbnb has hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as an adviser to help create the companys new antidiscrimination policy, adding a big name to its battle to prevent people on its service from refusing minority and transgender customers.

CEO Brian Chesky said in a blog post that the fight against bigotry is the greatest challenge we face as a company.

He added, While we have a policy that prohibits discrimination, we want this policy to be stronger.

Holder said in a statement, Airbnb is committed to building a community where everyone can belong. Im eager to help them craft policies that will be the model for companies who share Airbnbs commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The San Francisco company has been grappling with a discrimination controversy since December, when Harvard researchers said it was harder for guests with African-American-sounding names to rent rooms.

That led to a spate of bad publicity for the company, including reports that some Airbnb hosts had rejected African American and transgender travelers.

The company has since removed some hosts for discriminatory behavior.

Payments

Deal between

Visa, PayPal

PayPal Holdings and Visa agreed Thursday that PayPal will stop discouraging customers from linking accounts to Visa cards and share more data with the card network in exchange for long-term Visa fee certainty and other incentives.

For Visa, the deal stems the loss of transaction fees when PayPal users link their digital wallets to their bank accounts. For PayPal, it removes the threat of new fees from Visa.

Encouraging Visa cardholders to link PayPal with a bank account, known as steering, had drawn ire from Visa executives because it allowed PayPal to process those payments on the cheaper, bank-owned ACH network, cutting Visa out of transactions.

PayPal also agreed to provide better data about its transactions to the banks that issue Visa cards to its customers. Payment networks had complained that PayPal wasnt providing enough transparency about the purchases, making it difficult to fight fraud and properly apply rewards.

Medicine

Theranos

adds execs

Theranos Inc. named a vice president in charge of regulatory issues and a chief compliance officer weeks after federal regulators banned the companys founder and CEO from owning or running a medical laboratory for two years.

The ban followed months of investigation by government testing regulators where they found a number of violations of federal testing standards at the Palo Alto blood-test companys site. Theranos named Dave Wurtz vice president of regulatory and quality and it named Daniel Guggenheim its chief compliance officer.

Chronicle News Services
A discussion group on Facebook called Texas Pew Pew Pew Show & Tell warned its users that it was intended to host conversations about anything that goes pew pew pew, but not to facilitate the sale or trade of firearms.

The same note asked participants to be smart and to take it to PM, a reference to private messages. If you dont get the hint, I cant help stupid, the note said.

Though the message did not explicitly tell users to talk about the sale of guns only on a private channel, those who monitor such posts said it was one of many ways that users of Facebook, the worlds largest social network, have tried to circumvent its ban on private gun sales announced in January.

Mike Monteiro, a Web designer in San Francisco, helped start a campaign to monitor Facebook and report violations to get gun sales removed. Monteiro, 48, said he felt compelled to act after a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando in June in the countrys worst mass shooting.

I just started to search for gun sales, and sure enough, Facebook was full of them, he said.

Some users have tried to skirt the ban by advertising other products for sale, such as baby powder or Hawaiian Punch, next to rifles.

Code words

Other users did little to hide their intentions. A post pinned on a military memorabilia and firearms Facebook page recommended that those who wanted to sell guns or ammunition write the caliber and model numbers using code words, rely on external sites to share photos and make deals through private messages. The groups moderator did not respond to a message on Facebook.

Monteiro said that in the past month, he reported about 500 posts or groups. Facebook took down about two-thirds of them, but sometimes only after follow-up complaints. Some of Monteiros social media followers joined in the effort. If even you report 10 and one gets knocked down, thats one less gun sale, he said.

Monteiro is not alone in his effort. John Sibley, 41, of the Bronx, spends an average of 30 to 45 minutes a day reporting violations. He said he has been a longtime supporter of groups that seek greater gun control but felt that their approach focused mostly on raising money and seeking changes legislatively.

If you want to do something practical, they dont have much to offer you there, he said. This is an action I can take. Every time I foil a gun sale, I get a little satisfaction.

Not everyone feels the same way. Sibley said he gets a fair amount of harassment on Facebook. Monteiro said a photo posted online showed a rifle pointing at a computer screen that displayed his Twitter profile.

Posts removed

Sibley said he has succeeded in getting 1,288 groups or posts removed in a month. He takes a screenshot of every confirmed removal notice. He also developed a detailed guide to identifying gun sales on Facebook.

Groups that operate in the open (ones with buy guns in their names, for instance) have been taken down, and what remain are closed, coded or secret, he said. Were starting to shut down the marketplace, he said.

But Monteiro and Sibley described Facebooks reporting process as a cumbersome multistep procedure that can change from day to day.

They suggested that Facebook has sophisticated software developers who could easily make the process of eliminating gun sales as automated and effective as it does in rooting out images of child pornography.

When you want to change something, you can change it, Monteiro said. What all this boils down to is if Facebook did not want guns on the site, the guns would be gone tomorrow. They have the technology to do this.

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement that she is grateful for Facebooks response to the groups campaign to ban private gun sales, but that it needs to take responsibility for enforcing its own policy.

Part of being a good corporate actor is taking ownership  lives are on the line, and its vital that Facebook figures this out quickly, she said.

Facebook said any content that violates its prohibition would be removed. We rely on our community of 1.6 billion people to help us enforce this policy by making it possible for anyone to report any piece of content including posts, photos, videos and messages, it said.

The Facebook group Barter Junkies, which has more than 166,000 members, lost about 17,000 members after the gun sales ban went into effect, said Christopher Sullivan, the groups primary moderator. The group facilitates the purchase, sale and barter of goods that include, among other things, cars, real estate and car parts. Sullivan said he regularly gets complaints and threats about enforcing the ban or when gun sales are removed. When he recently posted a note reminding users about the ban, the group lost 4,000 followers in four days.

Online petition

Gun enthusiasts are also turning to activism. An online petition that has drawn 40 of the 100 supporters it seeks urges Facebook to lift its ban. Douglas Brooks, 23, of Jacksonville, Fla., said he started the petition after a group he moderated on Facebook, Jacksonville Gun Traders, was shut down because it allowed members to buy, trade and sell guns.

We were just mad because they shut us down without warning, he said, calling the ban kind of ridiculous.

A secret group with a slightly different name was permitted by Facebook after it pledged to only discuss guns, he said. Still, Brooks said, he could not understand why Facebook would bar users who could legitimately own guns from buying and selling them on its site. I would say its stepping on your rights, he said.
A prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose work centered on scientific and technological advances died on an Oregon river after being thrown from a kayak and getting trapped underwater, officials said Friday.

Mark R. Templeton, 57, of Los Altos, a managing director of the venture capital firm Scientific Ventures and co-founder and former president of Artisan Components, drowned Sunday after his inflatable kayak overturned on the Rogue Rivers Class 3 Wildcat Rapids, according to the Josephine County Sheriffs Office.

Templeton, who was traveling with a group of friends as a part of a guided tour, was on a single-person raft that overturned, throwing him into the water. He did not resurface.

Emergency mission

Members of the kayaking tour notified emergency personnel of the incident after making it farther down the river.

Rescue crews attempted a recovery mission by floating down from the Grave Creek boat landing, about 5 miles upriver from the rapids, and found Templeton lodged about 2 feet down in the water. Templetons body remained trapped in the water through the week, with the crews finally able to retrieve it Thursday evening.

Templeton is survived by his wife, Betsy; a son, Andrew; and a daughter, Lisa.

Templeton had worked for eight years at Scientific Ventures, an investment and advisory firm specializing in the application of science and technology toward new business concepts and models.

Company co-founder

Templeton may best be known for his role in co-founding Artisan Components in 1991. His company provided building blocks for the design and manufacture of integrated circuits, leading EE Times to name him to that publications Hot 25 list in 1999. Artisan was bought by ARM Holdings, the worlds leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier, in 2004 for just under $1 billion. ARM is now in the process of being bought by Japans SoftBank Holdings for $32 billion.

Templeton also served as a board member for numerous tech companies and other Bay Area organizations.

Templeton, a family spokesman said, was an avid kayaker who had crossed many rivers and lakes, including those as close as the Russian River and as far away as the Pacuare River in Costa Rica.

Templetons family is expected to hold a memorial service in his honor at a later date.

Kevin Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kevinedschultz
This article was first published on NerdWallet.com.

Death may come suddenly or after a long illness. But whenever it arrives, theres a financial impact, and millions of families may have little or no assets to draw on for lost wages and funeral costs when they lose a loved one.

According to a NerdWallet analysis of four large online donation platforms, Americans are increasingly turning to crowdfunding for help at a time when funeral costs are high, savings are low and traditional safeguards such as life insurance arent part of the picture.

Unexpected deaths

People tend to plan for these expenses when theyre older or if they have a terminal illness, but these campaigns often involve unexpected deaths and, unfortunately, younger people, says Josh Chapman, CEO of GiveForward. The need for help arises because people dont, or simply cant, plan for these tragedies, he says.

Crowdfunding after a death in a high-profile incident draws attention and donations. Recently, a campaign on GoFundMe for Brenda Marquez McCool, who was killed in Junes mass shooting in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, raised over $70,000 in less than two weeks.

Campaigns for people whove died suddenly in other circumstances are also becoming more common. Ellyn Koelsch, of Providence, Rhode Island, was killed in a car accident in May 2016. Her memorial fund on YouCaring has raised nearly $50,000 for the family she left behind.

Funeral campaigns increasingly popular

GiveForward, GoFundMe, Plumfund and YouCaring all report that funeral and memorial crowdfunding is growing quickly  twice as fast as other campaign categories on GiveForward, according to Chapman  and often bringing in more money than other kinds of fundraisers.

The Funerals, Memorials & Tributes category is among our largest, says Kelsea Little, GoFundMes spokesperson. GoFundMe is the largest crowdfunding platform in terms of money raised on a site. Since our launch in May of 2010, more than $340 million has been raised in this category across over 113,000 campaigns.

Thats about an average of $3,000 per campaign. GiveForward told NerdWallet that its memorial campaigns earn an average of $2,400, on par with the $2,358 average reported by Plumfund.

Memorial campaigns bring in more money

A few thousand dollars is significant help: The median funeral cost $7,180 in 2014, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. Its also more money than other campaigns raise  10% more than the average campaign at GiveForward, 12% more than an average Plumfund fundraiser and twice the average campaign at YouCaring.

This boom in memorial crowdfunding comes as the nations personal savings rate has fallen over the past several decades, from 13% in 1975 to 5.1% in 2015, according to federal data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Meanwhile, sales of life insurance policies, which help many Americans cover death-related expenses, fell 32% from 2001 to 2014.

The fact that fewer policies are being sold is an indication that many consumers are unfortunately not taking advantage of lower rates, says Whit Cornman spokesperson for the American Council of Life Insurers. Tough economic times often discourage people from planning for the long term.

Elizabeth Renter is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: elizabeth@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @ElizabethRenter.

The article Unprepared Families Increasingly Turn to Funeral Crowdfunding originally appeared on NerdWallet.
Michael Macor/The Chronicle

A San Francisco man who crashed a truck onto BART tracks in West Oakland and shut down transbay service Wednesday night was arrested after the incident on suspicion of drunken driving, officials said.

Opara Maurice Green, 37, was arrested on DUI charges with a suspected blood alcohol level of 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit, said BART police Lt. Randy Gregson.
Noise Pop Festival is turning 25 next year and is choosing to commemorate the occasion the only way it knows how: with a bunch of parties.

Festival producers recently announced that in the months leading up to the Noise Pops quarter-century anniversary, set for Feb. 17-26, theyll be hosting 25 music and film events around Oakland and San Francisco as part of Noise Pops 25 to 25 series. The events will run through November, when Noise Pop Festivals lineup is revealed.
Andy Warhols New York loft on East 47th Street in Midtown, called the Silver Factory because every surface was embellished with aluminum foil and silver paint, was to the social life of postwar art what Gertrude Steins Rue de Fleurus apartment in Paris or the Royal Academy of Arts drawing rooms in London were to previous eras.

But the Silver Factory wouldnt have been the hallowed salon it was had Warhol, in 1959, not run into a handsome, brooding waiter named William Linich Jr., a refugee from the middle-class straits of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who had moved to the city and plunged into its ferment as the Beat years gave way to the counterculture.

Obsession with silver

When Warhol later went to get a haircut at his apartment, he was so wowed by its obsessive reflective decor (I even painted the silverware silver, Mr. Name once recalled) that he invited him uptown to decorate the loft the same way  an act that came to symbolize an entire Pop worldview that Warhol would invent.

Why he loved silver so much I dont know, Warhol wrote of the man who later rechristened himself Billy Name. But it was great. It was the perfect time to think silver. It was the future, he said, the Space Age, and also the past, the silver screen and old Hollywood. Maybe more than anything, he added, silver was narcissism  mirrors were backed with silver.

Decade in S.F.

Mr. Name, who became Warhols lover, muse and court photographer, leaving behind a monumental visual record of the 1960s art world in and around the Silver Factory, died Monday at 76. His agent and executor, Dagon James, said the cause was heart failure. He said Mr. Name had died in upstate New York but would not specify where.

After leaving Warhols orbit in 1970, Mr. Name spent a decade in San Francisco before moving back to Poughkeepsie.

His photographs  he took thousands, in a moody, high-contrast black and white  did more than just capture Warhols retinue, his superstars: Edie Sedgwick, Brigid Berlin, Gerard Malanga, Mario Montez, Mary Woronov, Ondine and Bibbe Hansen. They also documented the larger scene around the Factory, including fellow artists Ray Johnson, Jasper Johns and John Cage; members of the Velvet Underground; filmmaker Barbara Rubin; and admirers such as Bob Dylan and Salvador Dali.

Its odd when the past looks so much like the future, Glenn OBrien, a Factory denizen, wrote about the images in Billy Name: The Silver Age, a collection of Mr. Names work published in 2014. Warhol, he added, never looked better than he did in these silver pictures, surrounded by all the beauties  shining like a full moon in their reflected light. I dont suppose the night ever looked better than it did right then.

He. was born in Poughkeepsie on Feb. 22, 1940, the son of Carleton Linich, a barber, and the former Mary Gusmano. He moved to Manhattan in 1958 and, besides waiting tables and cutting hair, worked as a lighting designer for the Judson Dance Theater and other theater spaces.

Spartan environment

Information about survivors was not immediately available. Mr. Name was estranged from his family.

The Factory, whose name he helped invent, became his workplace and spartan home not long after Warhol gave him a 35mm Pentax camera. He refashioned a bathroom into a darkroom and bunked near it, with hangers for his few clothes, a turntable and a collection of opera records. Introverted and practical, he was in many ways Warhols alter ego, and he served as the Factorys unofficial foreman and manager.

He was quiet, things were always very proper with him, and you felt like you could trust him to keep everything in line, including all his strange friends, Warhol wrote, adding: If Billy said, Can I help you? in a certain way, people would start to actually back out. He was a perfect custodian, literally.

Out of his mind

But Mr. Names stability was always fragile. Under the strain of amphetamines and other drugs, it began to shatter not long after Warhol was shot in 1968 by the radical writer Valerie Solanas, in a new Factory iteration on Union Square.

Mr. Name spent months afterward in hermetic solitude, rarely emerging from his room during the daytime. In 1970 he moved out of the Factory for good, leaving a note that said only: Andy  I am not here anymore but I am fine.

But he wasnt fine. Poet Diane di Prima, with whom he stayed in Los Angeles after leaving New York, said: He was completely out of his mind. He read the same page of the same book for several months: Page 37 of Esoteric Astrology by Alice Bailey. He would see things in the air and he would catch them. This went on for months and months.

In San Francisco he spent most of his time studying Buddhism and writing concrete poetry. He never reaped any financial rewards from his days at the Factory.

Negatives vanish

A large archive of Mr. Names 1960s negatives disappeared several years ago and has still not been recovered. He said that Warhol gave him paintings, including a triptych of silk-screened images of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, works that probably would have come to be worth tens of millions of dollars. When Mr. Name left New York, he gave his things to curator Henry Geldzahler for safekeeping; Geldzahler later told him that the Warhol superstar Paul America, in need of money for drugs, broke into his apartment and stole the paintings.

But Mr. Name, who seemed to live on a slightly different plane than those around him, never cared much about worldly possessions. We all loved Billy, John Cale, a founder of the Velvet Underground, once wrote. We all missed him those times hed retreat but said little, thinking he was due the deference to work out whatever demons were invading his head.
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BATON ROUGE, La.  A written tribute from the wife of Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald was distributed Friday before his funeral, expressing hope that his memory will bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for.

My blue-eyed rock was a hero, wrote Dechia Gerald, now a widow with two young girls. The only thing stronger than his love for the red, white and blue was his love for us.

Among the hundreds of mourners were Sheriffs Capt. Tom Cox from Knox County, Tenn., who said he had just traveled to Dallas to attend all five funerals for the officers killed there by a sniper.

Its numbing, with this many in such a short period of time, Cox said. We hope this isnt some trend.

Gerald, a military veteran, was one of three officers killed by a lone gunman in Baton Rouge on July 17. Funerals for sheriffs deputy Brad Garafola and police officer Montrell Jackson are set for Saturday and Monday.

They were slain by another military veteran, a black man whose rambling Internet videos urged violent responses to what he considered oppression. After killing three officers and wounding three more, Gavin Long was killed with a long-distance shot by a SWAT team officer.

Police leaders said Longs ambush was at odds with how little violence there had been in Baton Rouge, despite days of heightened racial tension following the police shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man whose death was recorded and posted online.

The two officers involved in Sterlings death were put on administrative leave and the U.S. Justice Department is investigating, but thousands protested in Louisianas capital nonetheless, demanding changes to end what they feel are unjustified police shootings of black men.

Gerald joined the Baton Rouge force less than a year ago, an enthusiastic rookie at age 41, after serving four years in the Marines and seven years in the Army, including three tours in Iraq.

His partner on the force was Cpl. Lester Mitchell. The two officers, black and white, began riding together on July 1. Gerald, Mitchell said, was a protector. It was just in his DNA.
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More than two hundred Black Lives Matter protesters, led by young children from a summer camp, marched peacefully through downtown Oakland on Thursday, unfurled a pair of banners at City Hall and renewed their demand that Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf step down.

The small crowd stood in Frank Ogawa Plaza beside a small candle-lit memorial to people recently killed in police-related shootings.

Some people think this movement is about hatred, said Nanci Armstrong-Temple of the Anti Police Terror Project, addressing the crowd. If it is, I think we have a right to hate the people who are murdering us.

She was followed by Tur-ha Ak, a co-founder of the group, who said, Its critical that we be critical about whats happening.

We talk a lot  we have to do a lot, Ak said.

Others in the group distributed to the crowd facsimile forms of a lawsuit between black people and Bay Area mayors. The ersatz lawsuit said the mayors were guilty of excessive force and false arrest.

The protest against recent fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota began at Oakland police headquarter shortly before 5 p.m. and lasted about 90 minutes. The large banners read , Bye Libby and Honoring Black Lives Stolen By OPD. At the head of the march were a dozen kids from the Oakland-based Sama Sama day camp for elementary school-age children.

Im black and Im here to stand in solidarity with black people who are not being represented, said Morgan Booker, 23, formerly of Oakland.

Mack McGhee, 20, of Oakland, carried a sign that said, Am I Next?

Im here because I believe the police are like the sword of white supremacy, he said. I dont think people realize how deep this change has to go.

Ak told the crowd that police brutality is not a new phenomenon.

The only thing thats new are cell phone cameras, Ak said.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com
Kimberly Veklerov

A former San Francisco high school teacher was arraigned Thursday on child pornography charges, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Christian Lancaster, a longtime teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in the Bayview, was charged in Oakland with possessing or accessing one or more images of prepubescent minors engaging in sexual conduct. Lancaster left the San Francisco school district in January. It was not immediately known how long he had been at Marshall.
MONTECITO, Santa Barbara County  Even as she mourned the death of her 29-year-old husband from a rare genetic disorder, Sarah Robertson was comforted by knowing that six vials of his sperm were safely stored at the Reproductive Fertility Center  in Tank B, Canister 5, Cane G, Position 6, Color Blue  waiting until she was ready to have the baby they had both longed for.

But 10 years later, when she was ready to use the sperm from her husband, Aaron, she got devastating news. All six vials were missing.

Id been completely focused on having something of Aarons live on, and now there was nothing, Robertson said in an interview at her in-laws home in Montecito.

Suing for negligence

Now she and her in-laws are suing the Los Angeles clinic, and its owner, Dr. Peyman Saadat, accusing them of negligence, fraud, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit, filed in May, also says the clinic misappropriated Robertsons sperm  which had a 50 percent chance of carrying Marfan syndrome, the disorder that killed him  and used it to supply other patients who would not know to undergo testing to ensure their babies did not inherit the disorder.

The Robertsons case is part of a new wave of lawsuits against sperm banks, highlighting claims of deception and negligence, and adding an array of challenges beyond the longstanding issue of undetected genetic problems.

Saadat declined to be interviewed, but denied the accusations in a statement.

Frozen sperm has become a major industry, dominated by a few large sperm banks, but with smaller stocks of sperm maintained at hundreds of assisted-reproduction centers nationwide. The Food and Drug Administration requires that donor sperm be tested for infectious diseases. Beyond that, sperm banks are lightly regulated. Several states require health department licensing of the labs, but only New York conducts routine inspections.

19th century grocery

Some of the new cases accuse sperm banks of careless record-keeping, or mishandling or misappropriation of sperm banked for a clients personal use. Others say the banks use hyped, misleading descriptions to market their donors.

Several cases accuse a Georgia facility of marketing sperm as belonging to a neuroscientist with a genius-level IQ who turned out to be a schizophrenic felon, and who has fathered at least 36 children.

Even in New York, when they inspect, theyre looking at hygienic conditions not record-keeping, said Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at New York University. Nobody confirms that you have what you say you have.

Its absurd that we have these materials so valuable that people pay to store them, but we run it like a 19th century grocery. he continued. Cryopreservation has historically operated in a casual laissez-faire environment, where people were just supposed to trust.

Sperm banks are not required to verify the information provided by donors, and lawyers familiar with the industry say many do not. They set their own limits on how many children a donor can sire, but unless the mothers voluntarily report the births, they may not know how many half-siblings are out there. Some, including the two largest, California Cryobank in Los Angeles and Fairfax Cryobank, headquartered in Virginia, test for many genetic conditions, while others test for very few.

So it is buyer beware  for people banking their own sperm for personal use after cancer treatment, and for those relying on a sperm banks description of an anonymous donor.

Sean Tipton, a spokesman for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, said his group does not see a need for further regulation and believes the industry is generally reliable.

New type of buyers

All indications are that sperm donation has been a terrific way to help people start a family even if, as with anything that involves humans, there are mistakes and some less-than-perfect actors, he said.

In the past, few problems with sperm came to light, because most families were unwilling to discuss such an intimate matter in public. But that is changing, with a demographic shift in sperm buyers.

Once, sperm banks served mostly heterosexual married couples in which the husband had a fertility problem, but today about two-thirds of the buyers are either lesbian couples and single women, who are more open about their childrens origins. With genetic testing widely available and relatively cheap, the concept of donor anonymity is increasingly open to question.

I can personally attest that there are more cases than you ever hear about, but almost all settle before they get to court, said Andrew Vorzimer, a California fertility lawyer representing the Robertsons.

Wendy Kramer, co-founder of the Donor Sibling Registry, which helps families connect with others who used the same donor, said she hears a steady stream of problems, including lost records and genetic issues reported to the sperm bank but never shared with all the donors offspring.

People think its a medical industry, it must be regulated and trustworthy, but its just sperm sellers, said Kramer, whose registry, founded in 2000, has more than 50,000 members, and has connected more than 13,000 relatives. They can say whatever they want.

Falling short of genius

In Florida, California, Canada and England, lawsuits are pending against Xytex, the Georgia facility that sold sperm from Donor 9623, James Christian Aggeles. The lawsuit says the sperm bank described Aggeles as a genius-level neuroscientist with bachelors and masters degrees who was pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience engineering. Instead, according to court papers, Aggeles did not have a college degree, had a history of psychiatric hospitalizations and had an arrest record that included burglary.

Internet sleuthing

Many of the families that used Aggeles sperm had found each other before Xytex sent an email that accidentally included his email address, prompting intense Internet sleuthing by the mothers to discover his identity.

We found out a lot of things about him from public information, said Angie Collins, an Ontario woman with a 9-year-old son fathered by Aggeles. Xytex could have done that, too, if theyd wanted to. I think sperm banks should be required to get the donors medical records, and run a criminal-background check.

Xytex would not discuss the case, but Ted Lavender, a lawyer for the company, said in a statement that Xytex complies with all industry standards.

Jennifer Cramblett, a white Ohio mother who mistakenly got sperm from a black donor, is suing the Midwest Sperm Bank in Downers Grove, Ill., on the grounds of negligence. She and her partner had been sent vials from Donor 330, an African American donor, rather than Donor 380, the white donor they had chosen, according to her lawsuit.

No one at the Midwest Sperm Bank would discuss the case.

Saadat, who was sued by Sarah Robertson, also faces a suit by Justin Hollman, a California man who froze five vials of his sperm before undergoing chemotherapy for testicular cancer at age 20. Years later, Hollman wanted his sperm transferred to his wifes fertility doctor. When he was presented with paperwork, his lawsuit says, he noticed that it authorized the destruction of his sperm instead of the transfer.

Human error

After refusing to sign, the court papers say, Hollman got a call from Saadat later that day telling him the samples had been destroyed as a result of human error.

Hollman declined to discuss the case, and repeated calls to Saadats center and to his lawyers were not returned.

The Robertsons lawsuit also claims there was deception by the center, which on different occasions said the sperm either had never been stored there or had been destroyed in a fire. When Sarah Robertson initially asked for the sperm, according to court papers, the center told her that five of the six vials were missing. The complaint went on to say that Saadat urged her to try to get pregnant with the sixth vial, but the clinics manager later emailed that the sixth vial, too, was gone.

When I got that email, I stood up and screamed, said Robertson, who is a nurse practitioner.

The Robertsons still wonder what sperm Saadat would have used if Sarah Robertson had agreed to use the purported last vial to get pregnant.

Was he just going to take someones sample at random? Robertson asked. Its terrifying to imagine a health care business being operated so recklessly.
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Donald Trump, a rich businessman who has never been poor, recast himself as a populist when he accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night  a populist with enough self-confidence to believe he is the only person who can fix an America he portrayed as on the verge of collapse.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves, Trump said in a speech that lasted 1 hour and 16 minutes. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

Several times, the son of a millionaire New York landlord said, I am your voice.

Expanding on the dark, foreboding and negative tone that has permeated the Republican National Convention this week, Trump painted a dystopian portrait of a crumbling America where attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. He warned of undocumented immigrants with criminal records who were roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.

Just as Richard Nixon almost 50 years ago, Trump promised to be the law-and-order candidate.

The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon  and I mean very soon  come to an end, Trump said. Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored.

But he offered few specific plans about how he would repair the United States, keep it citizens safe or grow its economy. The speech was largely filled with platitudes and saber-rattling, although Trump was far more focused than in previous outings, sticking mostly to the script released in advance to media.

He mocked presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as a corrupt puppet of the establishment, not mentioning that he donated to her New York Senate and 2008 presidential campaigns. He never invoked his Crooked Hillary, sobriquet, but did accuse her of having a legacy of death, destruction and weakness.

Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place, Trump said. It was a speech that held no surprises. Its goal was to set out themes that the Republican Party can ride through the fall campaign, and to sew up some political goals that Trump had to achieve this week.

His success varied:

Unite the party: The unity headlines were bad all week  hundreds of empty seats in the Quicken Loans Arena each night except for the finale told that story  and got really bad when Trumps chief primary rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, was booed off the stage Wednesday for failing to endorse him.

I think the convention was a reflection of a relatively unified group of delegates, but not necessarily of unity in the party more broadly, said Lanhee Chen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former chief policy adviser to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

Seemingly the only thing the conventioneers could agree on: How horrible a person Hillary Clinton is and how horrible a president she would be. Inside the arena they chanted, Lock her up! at every mention of her email server or the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Outside, vendors sold misogynistic souvenirs.

Focusing on the delegates shared loathing of Clinton helped unite many under a common purpose  electing Trump, but to say the party is completely unified would be an overstatement. One need only look to the Ted Cruz speech last night for evidence of division, Chen said.

But David Carter, a delegate for failed candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich from suburban Cleveland, said the party is as unified as it can be at this point.

Its politics! Carter said. Romney wasnt my candidate. McCain wasnt my candidate. But what people forget is that no one person is the party.

Yet for all the fury about unity  or lack of it  this week in Cleveland, polls say Trump has secured roughly the same amount of the Republican support votes that most previous GOP nominees have at this point in the campaign.

Dont say anything crazy: Trump was largely restrained during the convention. But outside the convention, he stumbled.

He told the New York Times that under his administration the U.S. wouldnt automatically defend its NATO allies unless they had fulfilled their obligations to us. He was talking about allies paying their bills. It was the first time a major-party U.S. presidential nominee put conditions on supporting allies.

Trumps comments on NATO and failing to honor our obligations to our allies in Europe certainly qualifies as crazy, Chen said.

The entire campaign stumbled when it continued to deny that parts of Melania Trumps speech Monday night were plagiarized from Michelle Obamas 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention. Instead of snuffing out a bad story by quickly admitting the mistake, the campaign raised questions about its competency.

Denying the Melania thing  that was crazy, Michael Cornfield, a professor of political management at George Washington University, said.

Start talking about policy: Each day of the convention had a theme, but like any Trump production, the script was only a suggestion. While Tuesday was Make America Work Again, there was little explanation of how he would be bringing back the jobs.

On Thursday, he was most specific on trade policy, which appeals to blue-collar workers in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania who have seen their jobs go overseas: No longer will we enter into these massive transactions, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long  and which no one from our country even reads or understands.

Often, as he has throughout the campaign, he spoke in the broadest generalities: We we are going to fix the system so it works fairly, and justly, for each and every American. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice. We are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS.

Hug it out with former rivals: This was a disaster, to use one of Trumps favorite words. Before the convention, analysts said it would show leadership if Trump reached out to his vanquished primary opponents. Didnt happen.

There was a parade to the podium of Trumps former rivals  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio via video, but they barely mentioned Trump in their remarks. It felt as if they were doing their Republican duty, not standing up for the partys nominee. Kasich didnt even show up at the convention, held in his home state.

The best outreach Trump did was in his speech Thursday to supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, bested in the primaries by Clinton.

I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders  he never had a chance. ...  Trump said. Millions of Democrats will join our movement, because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans.

Irony of ironies, Cornfield said. The only people he has reached out to are Bernie Sanders supporters.
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Peter Thiel, a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist, is a different type of Republican, as delegates to the Republican National Convention found out Thursday night. But that didnt keep them from giving the gay co-founder of PayPal a shockingly warm response.

Im proud to be gay, Im proud to be a Republican, but most of all Im proud to be an American, Thiel said to a thunderous standing ovation from members of a party officially opposed to gay rights, same-sex marriage and LGBT parenting.

The loud applause was also a major shift from the 2000 convention, when then-Rep. Jim Kolbe, an openly gay Arizona congressman, spoke briefly without even mentioning his sexuality. When he began talking, the Texas delegation took off their cowboy hats and began praying.

Thiel also took on the type of social questions that have ravaged the GOP and destroyed its standing among Millennial voters.

Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom, he said. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

Thiel is about the only Silicon Valley leader within miles of the GOP convention. Donald Trumps opposition to the H-1B visas that tech companies use to bring foreign workers into the country is just one of the areas where there is disagreement.

But Thiel, a libertarian with little love for big government  or even small government  delights in being a contrarian.

I build companies and support people who build new things, from social networks to rocket ships, said Thiel, who was an early investor in Facebook. Donald Trump is a builder and its time to rebuild America.

Thiel already is a major talking point in a South Bay congressional race. San Jose Rep. Mike Honda is hammering fellow Democrat and opponent Ro Khanna of Fremont over donations Khanna has accepted from Thiel.

A Trump presidency would tear down the middle class, divide our country and undo decades of progress, Honda said in a statement. It is hypocritical of Ro to say hell stand up for working families and women and then take money from those helping to get Donald Trump elected.

The blowup following Trumps suggestion that the U.S. might not intervene if one of its NATO allies is attacked shows why the successful effort to hold a no-policy-details-needed GOP convention might not have been a bad thing for Republicans.

For most of Clevelands four-day celebration of all things Republican, Lets Make America Great Again has been the closest Team Trump has come to a detailed policy statement. But that purposeful caution was thrown to the winds Thursday when the New York Times published an interview in which Trump refused to guarantee that he would send help to NATO members like Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania unless they have fulfilled their obligation to us by paying the bills for their protection.

Now its one thing when Democratic President Obama complains, with spokesman Josh Earnest saying that, the cornerstone of that (NATO) alliance is the pledge that all the allies have made to mutual self-defense.

But when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says in an online Facebook interview with the Times that Trump said something that was not accurate and that he was willing to kind of chalk that up to a rookie mistake by the newly minted Republican presidential nominee, theres a real problem.

Trumps words brought an immediate response from Europe, with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka saying, We expect that regardless of who wins the presidential elections, the U.S. will remain a firm and reliable partner within NATO.

But Trump isnt alone in what he calls his America First plan for the future.

NATO countries ought to worry about our commitment, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a Thursday interview on CBS This Morning. They ought to worry about commitment under any circumstances, since countries that arent doing their fair share are a source of weakness, not of strength.

The complaints and concerns, however, seemed to do little to shake Trumps position. While he said in his acceptance speech that new NATO antiterrorism efforts were a step in the right direction, he said once again that the countries we are protecting, at a massive cost to us, will be asked to pay their fair share.

While hundreds of demonstrators marched outside the convention Thursday night, almost none of the troubles predicted for the four-day Cleveland event came to pass.

Through the first three nights of the convention, only 23 people were arrested for protest-related activities, with 17 of them coming Wednesday night when a melee broke out as anti-Trump protesters tried to burn a flag outside the Quicken Loans Arena.

Two of the arrests Wednesday were for felony assault on a police officer, with the others being charged for a variety of misdemeanors.

Despite the larger crowds that showed up to protest on the night Trump closed the convention with his acceptance speech, the Associated Press described the early evening scene as almost carnival like, with state troopers playing pingpong with people in Clevelands public square as abortion rights activists, anarchists and religious conservatives all made their statements.

John Wildermuth and Joe Garofoli are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth @joegarofoli
After a busy day in Vienna, I like to retreat to a striped velvet couch at the renowned Cafe Hawelka. The decor here is circa 1900, with smoke- and coffee-stained furniture, walls adorned with paintings by struggling artists (who couldnt pay for coffee), and a phone that rings for regulars. This creaky Viennese institution, where intellectuals like Leon Trotsky once stewed, has become my local living room in Austria.

All over Europe, I seek out cozy establishments like this to relax, nurse a drink, and strike up a conversation. Delving into the cafe culture and historic pubs of the worlds most elegant cities is an enriching way to get some distance from the sightseeing crowds, lighten up a museum-heavy itinerary, reflect on my travels and alleviate homesickness.

Viennas Cafe Hawelka is a creative center for artists, poets and revolutionaries. Old man Hawelka himself may have served a melange (as they would have called their cappuccino) to Trotsky, Stalin, Klimt or Freud  all of whom were rattling around Vienna in the early 1900s. In the last days of Europes family-run empires (essentially all of which died with the end of World War I), Vienna was a place of intellectual tumult  and coffeehouses like this were the social backdrop.

Across town in Vienna, the iconic Cafe Sperl dates from 1880 and is still furnished identically as the day it opened  from the coat tree to the gold chandeliers to the ornately upholstered chairs. An afternoon in this cultural treasure feels like an afternoon among the citys 19th century creative minds and military elite.

With a wide selection of newspapers, and take-all-the-time-you-want charm (despite the famously grumpy waiters), every Viennese coffeehouse offers its own individual character and a welcoming space oozing with history.

In Venice, the venerable Caffe Florian  one of the first places in Europe to serve coffee  is perfect for a sightseeing break. Sitting elegantly on St. Marks Square, Caffe Florian has been a popular spot for a discreet rendezvous since 1720, and everyone from Lord Byron to Woody Allen has paid too much for a drink here.

Tourists stake out tables on the square to people-watch and enjoy the Caffe Florian orchestra, which performs each hour with a repertoire including classical, jazz, operetta and Venetian. But for elegance and ambience, romantics sit inside to appreciate richly decorated rooms, each with a historic or artistic theme, such as the Room of the Illustrious Men, which features portraits of great Venetians from Marco Polo to Titian.

Youll find more cozy comfort in Amsterdams bruin (brown) cafes. These after-hours hangouts get their name from their dark hardwood interiors and nicotine-stained walls, embracing the gezellig (cozy) quality that the Dutch hold dear. Dont confuse these with coffeeshops, where the Dutch gather to buy and smoke marijuana (coffee shop windows display plants and Rastafarian colors).

Brown cafes project a more elegant atmosphere and usually specialize in beer, while others focus on Dutch gin (jenever); most also serve wine and coffee. Drop in, linger over a drink and see if you can pick out the regulars. Whether in a brown cafe jammed with noisy patrons or one thats sleepy and mellow, youll find a convivial living room.

In London, the pub is the heart of the peoples England, where all manner of folks have, for generations, found a home away from home. In class-conscious Victorian times, traditional pubs were divided into sections by elaborate screens (now mostly gone), allowing the wealthy to drink in a more refined setting, while commoners congregated on the pubs rougher side.

These public houses became comfortable places for groups and clubs to meet, friends and lovers to rendezvous, and families to get out of the house at night. In London, my favorite pub scene is at South Kensingtons Anglesea Arms. Set in a beautiful Georgian building lined with flower boxes spilling color around communal picnic tables, the place is filled with musty paintings and old-timers, dogs wearing Union Jack vests, and a long line of tempting tap handles. Today, timeworn taverns such as the Anglesea Arms are national treasures that still make a cheery refuge from the daily grind or a brief escape for a tired traveler.

After taking in the sights of Europes magnificent cities, look for an inviting cafe or pub where you can soak in the locals enthusiasm for their national heritage and traditions. Slow down and experience a good cup of coffee or local beer  and make yourself at home. Youll return with a broader perspective, some interesting stories and maybe even a new friend or two.

Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email: travel@sfchronicle.com
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RIO DE JANEIRO  Not far from Rios posh Ipanema and Copacabana districts, narrow pathways lead to grim slums where poverty, drug gangs and young men with assault rifles dominate life for hundreds of thousands of residents.

Bullet-riddled bodies lie in pools of blood, and gun-toting teens in flip-flops navigate the maze of alleys working as guards, lookouts and distributors for drug lords operating just a few miles from where hundreds of thousands and tourists and athletes will be for the Aug. 5-21 Olympic Games.

In these communities you can see what real life is like. This is our reality, said a drug trafficker who spoke on the condition that his identity and location not be revealed.

Holding an AK-47, the masked drug boss said dealers win the hearts and minds of locals by paying for food and medicine, providing a lifeline for many living in crushing poverty.

Gruesome scenes of death and impunity play out daily in Rios hundreds of shantytowns, known as favelas.

Law enforcement experts say Brazil's worst recession since the 1930s is at the heart of the surge in violence in Rio. A financial crunch in the oil-producing state has put thousands of government workers salaries and pensions on hold, police budgets have been slashed, and daily announcements of layoffs have added to the angst.

Rights groups additionally blame a culture of combat still at the core of much of Rio's law enforcement, instincts more likely to emerge when officers feel under attack.

On the roof of a cable car station, a half dozen police officers with assault weapons hunkered down behind low concrete walls to shoot it out with suspected drug traffickers in broad daylight in a sprawling cluster of slums known as Complexo do Alemao. When the gunfire stopped, schoolchildren casually walked by as officers frisked drivers.

Elsewhere, a man was dragged from his house and shot dead, his bloody body left at the front door. A teenage boy was executed with his hands bound on a street that divides the territories of two rival gangs. A woman who was a candidate for a local council seat was shot to death at a bar near her house.

Some residents do what they can to show a different way. Pastor Nilton, a preacher who was once a former drug trafficker, holds prayer services in gang-ruled slums.

Nilton tries to persuade teenage boys to give up the gang life. Youths sometimes put their weapons down  but usually its only long enough to receive his blessing.
WASHINGTON President Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Mexico relationship Friday, promoting the benefits of trade and friendship in an election year that has sometimes stressed that alliance.

In a news conference with Pena Nieto at the White House, Obama said trade with Mexico brings important investment and jobs to the U.S. He said the United States sells more to Mexico than to China, India and Russia combined.

Obama said he has worked to deepen the relationship during his presidency.

Were not just strategic and economic partners, were also neighbors and were friends, Obama said.

The news conference came the morning after the closing of the Republican National Convention and a speech by GOP nominee Donald Trump, whose demands that Mexico pay for a U.S. border wall and descriptions of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists has offended the neighboring country.

Pena Nieto said a good relationship with the United States is essential for his country and said he looks forward to a frank, open dialogue with whomever is elected. Pena Nieto avoided questions about the wall, but has previously said that Mexico will not pay for the wall Trump proposes.

The two men also endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that both countries have signed on to, saying it would make the relationship between their countries even stronger. They said they have learned from the two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has heavily criticized.

Obama said the global economy is a fact, and were not going to be able to build a wall around that.

The visit comes less than a month after Pena Nieto and Obama met in Canada during a summit of North Americas leaders. Obamas meetings with visiting foreign leaders are usually announced weeks in advance, but this visit was announced just last week.

The White House shrugged off suggestions that the visit was timed to highlight differences between Democrats and Republicans, particularly on attitudes toward Latinos.

I think its fair to say that almost anything that President Obama did on Friday would be viewed as a sharp contrast to the agenda thats being put forward by the other side, said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. But in this case, its been a while since the president has hosted the president of Mexico here at the White House.
MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images

HONG KONG  The countries leading the effort to find Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared two years ago with 239 people aboard, said Friday that they would suspend but not end the search if the missing plane was not found in the rapidly shrinking target area.

Representatives of Australia, China and Malaysia said the search could be revived if credible new information emerged about the location of the airliner.
Trump Applauds Himself

Donald Trump used his acceptance speech Thursday night to fire up delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. That came just two hours after

, head of Korean Americans for Trump, took the stage at Quicken Loans Arena. The Los Alamos eye doctor told the crowd she believes that presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is a "direct threat to the American dream."

Lujan Grisham to Speak at DNC

It looks like

is the only New Mexican currently scheduled to speak at next weeks Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Matthew Reichbach reports its still not clear what role Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will have at the convention.

Black Lives Matter Rally Attracts Dozens in Santa Fe

About

in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The purpose of the action is to call upon Santa Fe residents to see and confront the many manifestations of state violence against Black communities whether in racial discrimination in policing and the courts, the lack of jobs and affordable housing, or the biases rampant in K-12 education, organizers said in a news release.

Fish and Wildlife Refutes Wolf Program Criticism

Officials at the US Fish and Wildlife Service are

the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program in New Mexico.

Residents interviewed for the report, including livestock owners in the area, said the service had failed to effectively communicate with the community about the presence or threat posed by wolves in the area, failed to fully compensate ranchers for livestock losses as a result of predatory wolves and did not record or effectively respond to nuisance complaints filed about wolves. Residents also alleged that the service had deliberately disposed of slaughtered livestock without alerting the ranchers.

US Rep. Steve Pearce, R-NM, called the report damning.



Geothermal Exploration Study Delayed

US Forest Service

before they launch a study to determine if land around the Valles Caldera National Preserve would be suitable for geothermal energy exploration and development.

APS Short Hundreds of Teachers

Less than a month before the start of the new school year, officials in the states largest school district are still

teachers.

Morales Urges District Attorney to Resign

State Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City,

after a lapel camera video appeared to show her intoxicated during a traffic stop, according to a KRQE report. Morales

to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, asking him to investigate why police officers let her drive away.





THC Found in Colorado Water Well

If youre headed to Colorado this weekend, you may want to bring some bottled water. Lincoln County officials say theyve

, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, in the town of Hugos water supply. That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and if you see Gwyneth Doland out and about buy her a beer margarita (ed.)

for getting up early to copy edit the Morning Word.

Santa Fe Reporter
It's been hot. On Monday, temperature records were broken or tied in Capulin, Roswell, Clayton, Clines Corners, Santa Fe, and Tucumcari.

Cue the small talk and the paper fans, because there's not much more to say about New Mexico's weather lately.

At least that's what you'd think when turning on television news or picking up most of the state's newspapers.

In a Portales News-Tribune story reprinted by the Albuquerque Journal this week, there was coverage of how the hot, dry weather is affecting farmers: "(Z-7 Farms Owner Rick) Ledbetter said he anticipates more crop failures if there is no rain or moisture, leading to the reliance on insurance money in the coming months."

That's a big news story.

Farmers in eastern New Mexico already rely heavily on dwindling groundwatersuppliesand are still suffering economic blows from the last drought. And while the reporter mentions insurance money, it's also worth noting that farmers have to rely on federal subsidies, too.

Already, it's tough to make a living as a farmer. In Roosevelt County, where per capita income is $18,086, the amount of irrigated acreage decreased by 34 percent between 2007 and 2014. According to the region's draft water plan, the number of dairies has dropped, too, and there's no demand from dairy farmers for loans. The plan also notes that hay for livestock is trucked from Colorado because it's too expensive to grow in eastern New Mexico.

In that recent news story, the reporter quoted Roosevelt County Extension Agent Patrick Kircher saying, "It certainly is a challenge with the current climate conditions. It's not the easiest time to be in agriculture."

A lot more could be said about New Mexico's current climate conditions. Like, about how warming temperatures will continue to affect snowpack and surface water flows. Or about how groundwater levels are dropping in places throughout the state. Farmers need to worry not only about water supplies, but also pest control and a growing season that's longer than it was just a few decades ago. Continued warmer temperatures also affect air quality and public health, as well as the healthand flammabilityof the state's grasslands and forests.

Whether these are rural newspapers, the daily weather report on television, or the state's largest paper, not giving readers information about climate change  and what scientists say will occur in New Mexico as the region continues warming  does a great disservice to the public.

To serve the needs of all New Mexicans, editors and publishers should be encouraging their reporters and newscasters to incorporate data about climate change into stories about the economy, planning, infrastructure projects, workforce issues, tourism, and the myriad of issues reporters cover in their communities. Warming even affects sports and recreation.

Just this week, NASA reported that June 2016 was 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. That breaks last year's record for the warmest June on record. So far this year, the average global temperature is 1.89 degrees above the 20th century average. That shatters last year's record of 0.36 degrees higher than average.

There was a time when television managers, newspaper editors, and publishers could hide behind the faux debate over whether climate change was real or not. That time is long gone. And by ignoring one of the state's most pressing issues, editors and newscasters are blowing a big story.

Laura Paskus is an independent journalist.This report is part of the New Mexico In Depth project called "At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate."

Santa Fe Reporter
Australian businessman Stephen Copulos said getting shares in listed Restaurant Brands, in which he is now the second largest shareholder, was a key part of the fast food brands company acquiring his familys KFC franchise in New South Wales.

Restaurant Brands, which operates fast food chains KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Carls Jr, paid A$82.4 million in April to purchase QSR, the largest KFC franchisee in New South Wales with 42 stores. It is the companys first foray into Australia since its disastrous attempt to expand through Pizza Hut in the state of Victoria which it exited nearly a decade ago.

The acquisition was settled by issuing Copuloss family interests five million shares at market price and the rest in cash, which Restaurant Brands funded through debt. Copulos, who was one of three directors re-elected to the Restaurant Brands board today at the annual meeting in Auckland, has since acquired a further two and half million shares.

Copulos said he had no ambition to further boost his stake at this stage and wouldnt speculate on any ambition to become the largest shareholder in the company.

Im very happy with the investment Ive made and the position the company is in, he said. Ive been involved with the fried chicken business for a number of years  its in my blood.

His family interests have a wide range of business investments from fast food and hospitality to manufacturing, property development and mining spread across a number of countries. This is its first investment in New Zealand.

The Restaurant Brands board today reiterated its forecast net profit after tax for the current financial year at $28 to $30 million. The Australian business was making A$100 million in revenue and A$15 million in profit when acquired, but chief executive Russel Creedy said this current year's results will be impacted by the acquisition although it is already earnings accretive.

KFC is the big money-spinner for the company, accounting for $282.5 million of its total $387.6 million sales in the year ending February 2016 and for $57.2 million of total $67 million earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Chairman Ted van Arkel said KFC margins are expected to be maintained this financial year with sales momentum continuing, though it will be a little more measured.

Creedy said the only way to achieve the target set by the board of $1 billion in turnover within five years was to expand into Australia but he was keen to avoid the mistakes made with the Pizza Hut foray where under-performing stores, including ones in receivership, were bought which they then struggled to turn around. His first job as CEO nine and a half years ago was to exit that investment.

The company is keen on further acquisitions at the right price of independent KFC franchises in Australia ranging from the single store to small corporates, he said. Australia has 600 KFC stores, of which 150 are owned by franchisor Yum International and the rest by independent franchisees.

Other options for growth in KFC in Australia was to build more stores, refurbish existing stores, and get more out of the stores it owns, he said. The company has headroom for smaller acquisitions with around $35 million available in existing borrowing facilities, although it couldnt handle another one the size of QSR without seeking more capital from the market or extending its borrowing facilities.

Creedy said new management at Carls Jr, now its third largest brand, had turned around a slump in first quarter sales. Although establishing the brand has taken longer than hoped for, Creedy said they plan to open a further two stores this financial year after already adding two in Christchurch, and has a target of $40,000 in weekly sales by years end.

Shareholders approved an increase in the pool for directors fees which will see individual director's pay rise to $65,000 a year from $60,000, while the chairs pay will increase by $25,000 to $125,000.

Creedy was also paid $1 million this year under a long-term incentive plan that saw the bonus paid once the companys share price had been above $4.00 for a two-year period. The share price was under $3 when it was negotiated, he said. There is no replacement long-term incentive plan yet in place though Creedy said he'd be "happy" for the board to consider doing so.

The shares recently traded at $5.41, down 0.7 percent.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Silver Fern Farms has got Grant Samuel to back its proposal to sell half its meat processing assets to China's Shanghai Maling Aquarius ahead of a second shareholder vote, which the board will ignore if support for the deal evaporates.

In the notice to shareholders of the Aug. 12 meeting in Dunedin, Grant Samuel again said the terms of the transaction were "fair and reasonable" to shareholders, with the meat company still "undercapitalised and a financial restructuring is critical to its future." The transaction was supported by shareholders at a meeting last year, but 80 dissident investors led by John Shrimpton and Blair Gallagher forced a second vote, claiming it wasn't in the best interests of the company.

Among those objections was that the earlier vote didn't classify the deal as a major transaction under company law, which is an agreement involving assets totalling half the value of a company. Grant Samuel said the Shanghai Maling deal didn't constitute a major transaction because "the aggregate market value of the gross assets transferred from SFF Co-Op to its subsidiary companies falls within the range of $200 million to $215 million," which is less than half the independent adviser's assessment of the meat processor's market value.

The deal would see the meat processor's assets poured into a new company half-owned by the Chinese firm in return for $261 million of cash to repay bank debt, a special dividend, and funds to bankroll the cooperative for seven years.

"We are frustrated and disappointed that Messrs Shrimpton and Gallagher have encouraged a small group of shareholders to question the approval obtained last year, that they have required the cooperative to hold this further special meeting, and that they are continuing to agitate for the transaction to fail," chairman Rob Hewett said in a statement. "Subject to Overseas Investment Office approval, Silver Fern Farms is bound to complete the transaction with Shanghai Maling. This meeting  whether the resolution is passed or not  cannot change that."

The special meeting was pushed out a month after delays to OIO approval raised speculation Shanghai Maling would walk away, rumours which were later allayed when the Chinese firm agreed to a three-month extension on the deadlines for certain conditions. The meeting will now take place before a potential OIO decision.

Silver Fern Farms this week said it would only breakeven in the current financial year, having previously warned profit would "materially below" the pre-tax earnings of $27.2 million in 2015.

Hewett said the company's "disappointing financial performance this year illustrates again the volatility of the industry and the risks associated with our current capital structure" and that the status quo wasn't tenable.

"The board believes Messrs Shrimpton and Gallagher do not appreciate, and so are not fairly or accurately representing, the prospects and risks of any refinancing and restructuring the cooperative would need to undertake should the Shanghai Maling investment not proceed," he said.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Taipei, July 22 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () said that she has done her best to narrow her government's differences with China and rejected a supposed deadline for Taiwan to accept a precondition laid out by Beijing for the continuation of relatively warm ties across the Taiwan Strait.
NEW DELHI: China is slated to develop New Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Baiyappanahalli (Bengaluru) railway stations, while Mumbai Central, Jammu, Jaipur and Varanasi stations will be modernised matching airport-like amenities with Belgium's help.



Putting the redevelopment of stations project on the fast track, Railways has finalised the blue print to involve foreign countries and also to take help of the World Bank for changing the skyline in a significant way.



Talks with countries like China, Belgium, France and Germany are in final stages for potential station redevelopment projects under the proposed Foreign Rail Technology Cooperation Scheme (FRTCS), said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.



Besides the foreign countries, state governments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) will also be roped in for modernisation of about 400 stations across the country.



As per the firmed-up plan, Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) along with China Railway Construction Engineering Group will be developing New Bhubaneshwar and Baiyappanahalli stations.



Railways is also planning station development through Valorisation route (Land/air space commercial development) by formation of joint venture with Belgium Railways entity, which could be assigned Mumbai Central, Jammu, Jaipur and Varanasi stations.



According to the agreed action plan, redevelopment of two stations -- Ludhiana and Ambala -- would be undertaken in association with France.



Similarly, with Germany, projects relating development of Nagpur, Secunderabad or as mutually decided will be undertaken.



Railways is also planning to redevelop three more railway stations in association with government of India PSUs.



Recently, IRSDC had issued the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the selected bidder to develop Habibganj railway station along with seven other railway stations, including Chandigarh, Shivaji Nagar (Pune), Bijwasan (New Delhi), Anand Vihar (New Delhi), Surat (Gujarat), SAS Nagar (Mohali) and Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat).



The Habibganj railway station is the first station to be redeveloped through PPP route -- at a cost of Rs 450 crore, with a dual aim of providing world-class amenities for passengers and generating revenue for the public transporter.



The IRSDC issued the LoA to the selected bidder-- who have been entrusted to complete the development project by 2019.

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NEW DELHI: India's membership continues to be under consideration of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and government was engaging with all members of the 48-nation grouping for an early decision on country's application, the Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said on Thursday.

Noting that the recent NSG Plenary meeting in Seoul (June 23-24) concluded without a decision on India's membership, Singh said the broad sentiment within the NSG was to take this matter forward.

At the Plenary, China and some other countries had opposed entry of a non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty signatory into the NSG.

Replying to a written question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister also said that engagement was stepped up with China before the Seoul NSG Plenary.

"India's membership continues to be under consideration of the NSG. The merits of India's candidature have been recognised by a majority of the NSG members, including in formal bilateral Joint Statements. It is for the NSG to judge the merits of other candidates," Singh said.

He said government continues its engagement with the NSG participating government including China on the issue of India's membership of the NSG.

"India's membership has been supported by a large and diverse number of NSG members, including the US, France, UK, Russia, Canada, Australia, Germany, Netherlands and Japan. It is natural for India to move ahead on this issue by working with as broad a group of supporters as possible," Singh added.

Department of Atomic Energy has been actively associated with government's efforts on India's membership bid, he said.

Membership of the NSG would enable India to have enhanced and uninterrupted access to nuclear technology, fuel and materials required for its expanding civil nuclear programme, Singh added.

He said it would create a predictable environment for the large investments required for setting up nuclear power plants in India to meet the India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution pledge of 40% of its power capacity coming from non-fossil sources by 2030.

Singh also asserted that India has a well developed and diversified indigenous nuclear power programme.

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From a health perspective this is concerning, as it is an unregulated market. This means that these women have probably not undergone any health inspections that are mandatory in the adult entertaining industries mentioned Minister Lee.

In addition, the lack of security protocols can create a safety risk for both the person offering the services, as well as the client.

I caution everyone to be careful with this unregulated industry that seems to be developing outside the clubs said Minister Lee





Press Release-The Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor Emil Lee, would like to bring to the attention of the public, that there is a growing informal sex industry outside of the clubs, where women in nightclubs and bars are offering their services outside of the club environment.
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During Wednesdays Council Of Ministers Press briefing, Minister Lee stated that the Ministry of VSA, along with SZV , and SMMC received 3 completed bids for the New St.Maarten Medical Center on Monday July 18 by 2 PM.

12 original interested bidders were narrowed down by preselection criteria to a total of 5 bidders and of those 5, 3 submitted their bids by the cut off time.

In order to guarantee transparency, the bids were received at the Tjon A Jong Civil Law Notary office located on Frontstreet, and was received in the presence of the awarding team consisting of representatives of the Ministry of VSA, SZV, SMMC, KPMG (projectleader), and Royal HaskoningDHV who is an engineering consultant. I would like to thank everyone who put in so much effort into this bidding process, especially to the bidders that have invested a lot of time and energy to prepare their bids said Minister Lee. Besides the Minister of VSA , Prime Minister William Marlin, and Chairlady of Parliament Sarah Wescott Williams also attended the receipt of the bids.

Prime Minister William Marlin congratulated Minister Lee, the Ministry & SZV for bringing transparency, speed, and efficiency to the realization of the new medical center. He also thanked everyone who participated in the process, and wished the Ministry, SZV and all others involved, a continuous pleasant and positive journey.

The hospital project includes sufficient parking, medical equipment, furniture, related IT, the maintenance of the New Hospital and the demolition of the existing hospital building.

Now that the Ministry has received 3 completed bids, the next process would be for the awarding team to evaluate the bids following a professional and transparent process guided by independent parties. It is expected that the contract will be awarded per the end of August 2016.

It is also important to mention that the original set of the bids were given to the notary in order to avoid any possible future discrepancies. The notary was responsible for verifying that all the submissions were done according to what was required by the Terms of Reference (TOR), and to ensure

that the bids were received in a timely manner. The original version of the bids will be held at the notary to ensure that the integrity of the bids remain uncompromised.

Minister Lee stated I am very optimistic and confident that we are on the right track to delivering the people a state of the art hospital that can provide quality healthcare at affordable rates.





St.Maarten is one step closer towards the realization for the construction of the New St.Maarten Hospital. As the Ministry of VSA, we continue working towards providing a high quality medical system that is affordable and easily accessible for the people said Minister of VSA Emil Lee.
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The Verbatim Project. Directed by Katie Cawthorne. Canberra Youth Theatre. Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre. July 21 -23 at 7pm, July 23 and July 24 at 2pm. Bookings 62485057 or cytc.net.

Young performers from Canberra Youth Theatre have collaborated with some of Canberra Dance Theatre's older dancers from the GOLD group to come up with gently amusing and insightful looks at human experience. Their script comes from the cast's own reflections upon their lives. The words are displayed on screen, spoken as disembodied voice overs, or live on stage.

Kate Sherren, left and Merilyn Jenkins. Credit:Jacob Creech

Apart from a splendid set of yellow chairs and some striking lighting from Brynn Sommerville, the stage is a black box. In it the chairs are arranged and rearranged and sometimes sat upon in unconventional ways as about 16 performers challenge assumptions about youth and age.

The teenagers muse about expectations, about the pressures of being expected to know what they want to do in life. The older people perhaps talk more about what their lives have been but the younger ones occasionally show surprise that the older ones are still finding ongoing challenges.
SHL Developments, which paid $47 million for the inner city block in February, says the project will include social, cultural, retail and commercial spaces.

SHL Developments is redeveloping the Currong and Allawah housing site in Braddon, near the Canberra Centre, and plans more than 500 new apartments. Demolition began in May and should be completed by late November 2016.

Buildings in Currong are being demolished, with a new apartment development to go up in their place. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Canberra's rising population and downsizing Baby Boomers will absorb new apartments coming on line in Canberra, and avoid an over-supply, says a major property developer.

Development manager Michael Prendergast said new buildings would range from three to 12 storeys and would be designed to create flow and synergy between existing retail and dining precincts in and around the Canberra Centre and Braddon.

Planning and design is underway for the first stage and construction will start in 2017, creating hundreds of jobs over the next three to four years.

Mr Prendergast said Canberra's population was growing. "Unlike in previous decades where retirees would opt for a tree- or sea-change, there are a growing number of people who are choosing to stay in Canberra after they retire," he said.

"Baby Boomers are increasingly opting to downsize into well-appointed apartments in medium-to-high density precincts.

"This has been our experience in 'Campbell 5' with a significant number of purchasers looking to live somewhere with greater amenity. They want to be closer to the city and the lake so that they can enjoy the type of lifestyle that proximity affords them.
'Fair trade' is an oxymoron.Let's take Mexico for instane. In free trade, we open our borders, resulting in many labour-intensive businesses moving to Mexico. This in turn makes Mexico wealthier and so wages slowly rise.In 'fair trade,' we would never have allowed Mexican companies to trade freely with Canada until they double, triple, or quadruple wages overnight. This puts them in a catch-22. They need free trade to raise wages gradually over time, but they need to raise the wages sky high by their reality before they can have free trade.Result, in free trade Mexico can gradually catch up, while in 'fair' trade it's placed in a catch-22.I say free trade is fair trade.'Fair' trade is about Canadian unionists wanting to screw Mexican workers but clutch it in self-righteous words and phrases for the gullible masses. 1984 new speak. Call unfair trade fair trade and suddenly it seems fair.
Man-about-town Jeremy Lasek has left his role as chief executive officer of the National Australia Day Council to head up media and communications for the Australian Federal Police.

He will be replaced at the National Australia Day Council by Chris Kirby, who has been prominent in the Indigenous sector.

Jeremy Lasek has a new job. Credit:Jeffrey Chan

Kirby is a former CEO of Supply Nation, connecting Indigenous businesses with corporate and government buyers, and also a former deputy chief executive officer of Reconciliation Australia.

Lasek brings plenty of media relations experience to his new role with the AFP, working from its national headquarters in Canberra.
Keep Canberra Open organisers have hit back at Chief Minister Andrew Barr for accusing them of misleading the public as they prepare for an expected 2000-strong turnout to their rally next weekend.

Speaking on ABC Radio on Friday morning, Mr Barr said the campaign was "losing friends" by claiming the ACT Government's 3am last drinks proposal was "lock out laws in disguise".

Thousands of Canberrans are expected to hit the streets on July 30 to protest against proposed changed to liquor licensing months after Sydney protesters marched to "unlock Sydney". Credit:Michele Mossop

But Ryan Sabet, partner at Academy and Mr Wolf and a spokesman for Keep Canberra Open, said his thousands of supporters understood the proposal would have the same detrimental impact to Canberra's nightlife as lock-out laws, regardless of Mr Barr's language.

He said more than 7000 people had signed a petition against the government's proposal, which organisers will present to Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson after the rally on Saturday July 30.
A man armed with a knife attempted to rob a service station in Kaleen, but he got away empty handed after being thwarted by a locked door.

ACT Policing said the man tried to gain access to the Caltex Star Mart Service station on Maribyrnong Avenue about 10pm Thursday night.

A man armed with a knife attempted to rob a service station in Kaleen, but was thwarted by a locked door.

He ran towards the front sliding door, but it was locked and an alarm sounded.

Another man was waiting behind the wheel of a 1993 Nissan Skyline parked out the front and the pair fled.
Then there was the time he was doing his medical training in London, a time when his "countrymen were busy trying to blow up London". "London in the 1980s and 1990s was a hairy place to be for many," he said. There were three times he was confronted with patients whose limbs were mangled and destroyed by a bomb blast. Their faces are still etched in his memory. In the bloody aftermath of terror attacks, first responders  police, paramedics, firefighters  have to act now, think later. "If you have actually had to treat people who have been subjected to blast injuries, bullet injuries, it's not at all beyond the bounds of possibilities that it would have quite a significant emotional impact," Dr Caldicott said.

"I think most of us try very hard to get on with the problem at hand, to intellectualise it, remove the emotion and then to bottle it up later. "The big problems occur for medical staff afterwards ... certainly emotionally, people who respond to this sort of environment, particularly where there are children involved, there is great potential for psychological harm in this space and people can be affected for decades after an event like that." Now an emergency doctor at Canberra's Calvary Hospital and a senior clinical lecturer of medicine at the Australian National University, Dr Caldicott is the co-founder of a course aimed at first responders which deals with the clinical management of casualties following terrorism events. For Dr Caldicott, the Nice terror attack, in which 84 people were killed and 202 were injured, is a brutal reminder of the time in which we now live  a "terrorist era" and one that is constantly evolving, he says. "Any device, or physical entity, that can cause harm to multiple civilians, regardless of its original purpose can be adapted and redeployed to terrorist effect," he said.

"Responding to mass casualty events inevitably takes its psychological toll on the most hardened of professionals, that toll is accentuated when it becomes apparent that the source of the disaster has been a fellow human being and the action has been deliberate." Dr Caldicott said France's medical system was well-equipped to deal with atrocities like Nice and there had been an "extraordinarily efficient response" to the 2015 Paris attacks. He said it was unlikely an incident like Nice had been anticipated. Dr Caldicott said events like the Nice attack, and especially those involving large numbers of child casualties, would likely have a profound effect on first responders. "What has changed profoundly in the global scale now with religious fundamentalist terrorism, is that we're seeing the worst atrocity is the best outcome for [the] terrorist group involved," he said.

He said the changing face of terrorism had also meant the medical professionals were also now often targeted in attacks. "That very much changes the way first responders react in this environment or at least it should do," he said. He said although the chances of an attack like Nice happening in Australia may be "close to zero", the consequences of such an attack would be "catastrophic, indescribable, terrible". "If you plot these things into a risk matrix, if you have a zero infinity problem, you should probably plan for it," he said. Dr Caldicott said Australia had to be careful not to alienate religious communities because of global terror attacks, warning it could do irreparable damage.
The ACT government has ditched its proposal to prevent bikies from consorting, saying it has struggled to draft laws that satisfy police while respecting human rights.

Attorney-General Simon Corbell, who will not recontest his seat at the October election, said he had too little time left as minister to strike a satisfactory balance between the competing priorities.

A bikie outside Parliament House in 2014 protesting against anti-consorting laws Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

However, he said the government would revisit the issue if it was re-elected and he would announce new funding soon to help police crack down on outlaw gangs.
A group of men who were involved in a violent mid-air brawl on a Phuket-bound Jetstar flight have arrived back in Melbourne.

Ricky Longmuir, Mark Rossiter and Michael Matthews arrived at Melbourne Airport at 10.10pm on Friday but were detained in customs for more than two hours.

The group have been left facing the possibility of thousands of dollars in fines for their sky-high ruckus, which forced Jetstar to divert a Phuket-bound flight to Bali on Wednesday.

The men were detained at Denpasar International Airport before their return to Australia, accompanied by two security guards.
If you thought the shenanigans at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland were the weirdest thing happening in America this week, you would be wrong.

Mind-boggling and frightening as it is, the Trump circus is almost being outplayed by a high-powered drama that will have equally potent ramifications for conservative politics in the US.

Roger Ailes, the ultra powerful and previously untouchable chairman of Fox News and the creator of the modern Republican Party, resigned after there was talk of his facing the sack for alleged sexual harassment of former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson. (She was demoted then fired, allegedly for refusing to sleep with him.) It's a harbinger of potentially far-reaching changes  for the direction of Fox News, and thereby the promotion of conservative politics in the US. And it's also thrown up some surprising and frankly disheartening developments.

Ailes' sexually predatory and sexist management "style"  if that is indeed the word  was totally off the Richter scale in scope and in sleaziness. Not even Fox's biggest female star Megyn Kelly escaped.
People living in apartments will not be able to stop other landlords renting their properties on Airbnb to short term tenants, a landmark Supreme Court decision has found.

In a decision that clears the way for Airbnb and other short-term leasing sites to freely operate in Melbourne's apartment buildings, the Victorian Supreme Court found owners corporations could not make rules to ban short stay operators.

The decision is likely to cause further friction among the rising number of people choosing to live in apartments who say their properties are over-run by 'partying' short-stay tenants intent on living it up.

Residents complain such tenants leasing through US-based websites like Airbnb and Couchsurfing are noisy and cause damage to common property like lifts and corridors that are not designed to cope with large numbers of visitors.
An enormous island site opposite the North Melbourne train station  which is actually in West Melbourne  is selling to a local residential developer for a speculated price of more than $24 million.

The 4795 square metre trapezium-shaped block is bound by Abbotsford, Adderley, Dryburgh and Ireland streets and includes a collection of older-style warehouses. Most of these factories will make way for numerous apartment buildings atop lower-level retail space, possibly a shopping centre.

Adelaide-based syndicate Harmony Corporation has paid $7.1 million for a new office building abutting the train line at 1180 Toorak Road, Camberwell.

Marketed as 79 Ireland Street, the property is within a low-rise pocket of the city fringe controversially making way for major apartment skyscrapers.

Across the road, at 9-19 Dryburgh Street, Cbus Property recently won approval to replace a double-storey glass office with a 10-level, 154-unit complex, being marketed as Volaire.
When Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos, a tech editor for the conservative news website Breitbart.com who used the Twitter handle @Nero, Yiannopoulos reacted with characteristic modesty. He told the New York Times the ban launched the beginning of the end for Twitter.Oddly, Yiannopoulos may be right. In February, the social media platform announced its Trust and Safety Committee. With Orwellian overtones, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted , Twitter stands for freedom of expression, speaking truth to power, and empowering dialogue. That starts with safety. The San Francisco startup invites all comers to post their thoughts by name or anonymously. The more outrageous the tweets, the more attention they attract. Unbowed, Twitter HQ gets all sanctimonious when trolls get nasty. Like, who knew that would happen?Conservatives knew that the Twitter panel, comprised of left-leaning organizations, would target the right. Their suspicions were confirmed when Twitter promptly shuttered the account of Robert Stacy McCain , an antifeminist blogger. Twitter would not disclose which tweets led to McCains ostracism. Likewise, Twitter wont stipulate which tweets were the reason @Nero had to go on Tuesday.In the brave new world of social media, no one talks on the record. No social media platform discloses which actions specifically led to a users banishment. They give lip service to transparency, then hide behind their platforms and their doublespeak.So when I asked Twitter why it exiled @Nero, I got a vanilla statement emailed by a spokesperson who told me nothing and did not want to be named. I have to assume that Twitter talked to Buzzfeed, which reported @Nero was banned because he had incited his followers to bombard Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with racist and demeaning tweets . The nasty racism unleashed in those tweets drove Jones off Twitter.As a private company, Twitter has the right to refuse service to unwanted individuals and set standards of acceptable discourse. Its prohibition on hateful conduct reads: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.Yiannopoulos is a provocateur, a gay, alternative-right conservative who lives to push others buttons. When a lefty group gets his Most Dangerous Faggot Tour banned from campus , its like throwing him a steak. A shameless self-promoter, he flogs their intolerance, because, well, they are extremely intolerant.The proof is in the Twitter lifetime @Nero ban. Note that Twitter did not exile Yiannapoulos for anything he wrote, but for what his fans wrote. As the website Recode reported , Twitter booted Yiannopoulos because he was one of the main instigators. He tweeted that Jones was barely literate and also referred to her as a man. The barely literate was in response to a grammatical error in a Jones tweet. (Who among us is without sin?) Jones is tall and strong, hence the dig at her feminity. I dont defend those remarks. I endure worse on a regular basis. So if Twitter wants to ban users for relatively tame criticism, its going to become a lonely site fast.If Twitter can derail someone for what his or her followers do, then why not eject Black Lives Matter leaders for inciting the rogue Baton Rouge cop killer? Thats where guilt by association leads.We all know that wont happen. This is left versus right. This is liberals deciding what conservatives should be allowed to say. More conservatives will leave Twitter, and more liberals will think that everyone agrees with them because their views are reinforced on the Twitter loop. Its easy to tout civil discourse when youve muzzled your opponents. My guess is many liberals will nod in agreement with this column, but they wont do anything about it because theyll think Yiannopoulos deserved to be banned. And thats the end of Twitter.related:
SABMiller owns Carlton & United Breweries (CUB). Its biggest local brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton and Crown Lager.

The country's second-largest beer supplier says increased sales and and higher prices have helped it report "good growth" in Australia.

Increased beer sales and and higher prices have helped the brewer report "good growth" in Australia. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

Australians appear to have fallen back in love with beer, at least with premium brew, with local sales and revenue picking up for global beer giant SABMiller.

SABMiller owns brands such as VB, Carlton and Crown. Credit:Robert Cianflone

Australian sales volumes grew by 4 per cent in the three months to June 30, SABMiller said overnight.

Net producer revenue (NPR) in Australia rose 7 per cent from a year earlier, compared with global NPR growth of 2 per cent.

The market represented a bright spot in SABMiller's overall Asia Pacific business, which saw declining sales for the quarter.

"Europe, South Africa, Colombia, Peru and Australia delivered good growth," the company said in a presentation.
Australia's biggest retailer, Woolworths, might launch a capital raising or start closing down supermarkets after opening too many in the past decade.

That's the view of broker Macquarie, which says a $2 billion capital raising would help refurbish Woolworths' tired-looking stores and shore up its balance sheet.

Analysts Andrew McLennan and Elijah Mayr said Woolies was at risk of further credit downgrades once its hotly anticipated full-year results are released next month.

"Should the result be worse than anticipated, or should any stabilisation/recovery be pushed out beyond the 2017 financial year, Woolworths could be in a position where its investment grade is threatened," the pair told clients.
As the receivers, administrators and Australian Securities and Investments Commission work through the wreckage of Dick Smith's collapse, it is increasingly clear the accounting profession has questions to confront.

In its administrator's report, McGrathNicol sets out its opinion on the reasons for the business failing.

The role of rebates from suppliers, their influence on management purchasing decisions and their ability to mask the reality of earnings figures is clear. In 2014-15, $72 million was reported as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. With rebates and advertising subsidies excluded, this figure would be adjusted to a $119 million EBITDA loss.

The auditors signed off on Dick Smith's accounts in August 2015. Voluntary administrators were appointed on January 4. The consequences of the accounting treatment of rebates is part of the story of Dick Smith's collapse and will undoubtedly be a focus of further questioning. It's not the only instance where rebates have been an issue.
'Black money' -- the colloquial name for a vast network of off-the-book cash transactions and unbanked savings -- is one of India's biggest scourges. Amounting to as much as $US460 billion a year ($613 billion), bigger than the GDP of Argentina, all that money lies beyond the reach of the tax authorities, creditors and anti-corruption investigators.

Efforts to bring it into the open have struggled. Ironically, though, they may be setting up India to leapfrog past other, far more advanced economies into a future without any cash at all.

The best way to get rid of 'black money' could be to get rid of the money itself. Credit:Dhiraj Singh

Big 'black money' pile

India's black money pile is unusually large for several reasons. First and foremost, about half the country's output comes from the small, informal sector, where cash transactions are the norm. Meanwhile, taxes are cumbersome to pay and easy to avoid. To collect revenue, India's government has to rely on indirect levies such as sales and excise taxes, which are distortionary and regressive, rather than on income tax. Direct taxes contribute only 35 per cent of the take in India, compared to the OECD ideal of two-thirds.
In the words of our PM we cannot "arrest our way to success". We need to turn the "black market" into a "white market". We should do this by treating psychoactive drug use as primarily a health and social issue and beginning to develop government legalisation and regulation of the drugs themselves. Bob Douglas, Aranda Silence deafening on donations NSW has outlawed donations to political parties by property developers. This is not the case in the ACT. The silence of the ACT Labor and Liberal parties on this issue has been deafening. Because of the potential for such donations to impact on the integrity and transparency of planning processes, the Giralang Residents' Action Group strongly advocates that the ACT should follow the lead of NSW in the interests of public confidence in the quality and integrity of ACT planning decisions.

Ross Calvert, Giralang Residents' Action Group Light rail rethink needed The basic premise for Canberra light rail is based upon employment and population growth. According to the ABS, in 2010 98,500 government employees, federal and local were employed in Canberra, declining to 98,400 in mid-2015. Even more compelling, there are 10,000 fewer employed than three years ago.

Over the same period, ACT population has grown annually by 1.5 per cent. With an ongoing worldwide trend of smaller government, combined with one of the world's least congested road networks offering few incentives for Canberra commuters to change travel habits, Canberra is building one of Australia's major transport infrastructure projects for a need that does not exist now or into the future. Perhaps time for a rethink of why Canberra is embarking on this project? Peter Moore, Long Beach, NSW Extension welcome While I personally don't normally vote Labor, I would like to applaud Labor's announcement of possible light rail extensions in the next term of government. The proposed second stages (in particular the one to Woden) has restored my hope that we will have a great public transport system as our city continues to expand. I look forward to this being extended out towards Tuggeranong one day! Genuinely excited.

Leigh Cox, Phillip Barr not the villain Delightful as it might be to pile on Andrew Barr over the shortage of home-care workers (Letters, July 20) a sense of fairness urges me to point out that the community agencies in the ACT which provide personal care and domestic assistance are wholly dependent on the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care for their funding (MyAgedCare is the program). Yes, there are clearly (undesirable) delays in the provision of a range of in-home care and other domiciliary services. Yes, elder abuse is a problem in our society. Restricted access to these services is not a case of elder abuse by the ACT Chief Minister. The relevant Commonwealth minister sets the subsidy level for daily service costs, which in turn determines the wages/hourly rates paid to the carers by the community agencies that employ them. Local industrial awards will not be the predominant factor in wages structure, although higher minimum wages could have the effect of creating a bigger gap for the caree to self finance beyond the Commonwealth subsidy.

Ken Wyatt is the assistant minister to whom appeals about funds available to attract sufficient workers should be directed. I feel sure Mr Barr is a dutiful son who would wish to do the best for his mother beyond any Commonwealth-funded provision. Marie Coleman, Watson A fuss about nothing John XXIII College head Geoff Johnston has clearly led a sheltered existence. Only in March did he discover that young men take a deplorable interest in women's breasts ("ANU college expels students", July 21, p1). The photographs taken appear to have been of body parts that were, presumably deliberately, already on display. Very possibly, if consent had been sought, some of the subjects would have been happy to comply.

"Canberra commentator" Ms Melinda Tankard Reist said the incident was the "equivalent of upskirting"; an exceedingly curious remark. What a very silly fuss about nothing. Alan N. Cowan, Yarralumla Smyth move raises questions The manner in which the Barr government removed Brendan Smyth from the opposition benches, and perhaps the real motive for that move ("Ex-Labor minister blasts Smyth appointment", canberratimes. com.au, July 20) mirrors the Greiner government's appointment of Terry Metherell to a position in the NSW public service. The Greiner government wanted to secure Metherell's resignation from the NSW Legislative Assembly to shore up its minority position in the Assembly. The major difference is that the Metherell affair attracted the attention of NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption. If the ACT had such a body, the Smyth appointment might never have happened.

Tony Harris, Narrabundah Grubby politics on show Your editorial "Opportunism calculated but clever" (July 19, p16) talks about "clever" politics by Barr in the appointment of Smyth to a well-paid job at taxpayers' expense. It is nothing of the sort. It is grubby politics shortly ahead of an election (like signing contracts on light rail) and reflects badly on both of them. I hope Jeremy Hanson abolishes the position if he is voted into power. Ric Hingee, Duffy

Dob in your colleagues? Just what are our leaders trying to hide? Regulations that prohibited public comment by public servants appeared in the NSW service no later than 1904, and were taken up by the Commonwealth service as it emerged. So they are not new, and, even in their initial form, were wide enough to prevent comment on social media had it then existed. They were, in part, a manifestation of the implicit trade-off whereby the worker, having excellent job security, must leave all comment to the minister, who did not. That rationale may have weakened in more recent times. In addition, there is now a constitutional freedom of comment on political matters, so restrictions could not be applied in respect of matters falling within the constitutional protection. However, the proposed "dob in" requirements ("Dob in your colleagues", July 21, p1) are something else, and seem to have no precedent here.

Greg McCarry, Epping, NSW The proposed legislation to stop ACT public servants from criticising the government ("Dob in your colleagues", July 21, p1) is more what you'd expect in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War than in a liberal democracy like ours. The date of effect, just before the forthcoming election, cannot be coincidental. It follows a string of attempts by the current government to stop the public getting hold of information on its more crazy projects, eg, the use of the call-in powers to stop a proper review of the tram project, the refusal to release full financial information on the various options for the city to lake project and others. A government that is so terrified of the public getting to know the facts about what it is up to deserves the boot Stan Marks, Hawker

Mass hysteria a worry The mood generated by New Jersey governor Chris Christie at the Republican convention in Cleveland was reminiscent of that of the Salem witch trials. Governor Christie put Hillary Clinton on 'trial' before 'a jury' formed by the enormous crowd. As he worked the delegates into a frenzy, deafening shouts of "guilty" and "lock her up" created a storm. Whatever the strengths of Christie's accusations, such ranting, almost mass hysteria, is frightening in a party that aims to make "America Great Again". Jill Waterhouse, Reid Cynicism off-putting On the one hand, we hear that greyhound racing generally is a tough, competitive industry whose operators are lean. On the other, each individual operator is supposedly a dog-loving fool who puts caring above winning. Who do they think they're kidding?

I don't hold candles for racing, gambling or dogs, and I don't particularly care whether the industry survives or dies. But I must say that the depth of cynicism behind the bullshit coming from industry voices is off-putting, to put it mildly. S.W. Davey, Torrens Ticking the boxes Next month, Australians will again be confronted by the national census. I understand that in the optional religion question there will be a column of alternative boxes to tick. For the first time the list will begin with "no religion". It has been suggested that this change will increase the number of people choosing the "no religion" option. The Latin word "census" should remind Christians that even the parents of Jesus Christ were forced to return to Bethlehem by a Roman census, as the Gospels tell us. If the 2016 census gives a more realistic number of practising Christians, and other religions, in our society, then it will be a good thing. It will challenge Christians to expose and overcome abuse in church-run institutions, and to be ready to justify our faith in a more sceptical world.

Robert Willson, Deakin Editorial flawed Your editorial "Sunny days turn cloudy for renewables" (July 20, p14) seeks to blame renewable energy for higher electricity prices in South Australia. It goes on to claim the ACT may experience a similar result due to our 100 per cent renewable energy target. Nothing could be further from the case. South Australia's recent high wholesale electricity prices were largely driven by higher gas pricing following the closure of its coal-fired Northern Power Station and curtailed electricity import capacity from Victoria. The high prices actually mean lower feed-in tariff payments by the ACT  that is, if the wholesale price exceeds the feed-in tariff price, the generator pays the ACT. Just last week, consultants pitt&sherry and the Australia Institute reported the ACT is "protected from having to pay for extremely high wholesale prices because of the hedging provided by the renewable electricity contracts". For example, high wholesale prices in Victoria in June, should result in payments being made by the Coonooer Bridge Wind Farm to the territory. This means the ACT electricity consumer has effectively received this renewable electricity for free. Major reforms of the National Energy Market are required as more renewable energy enters the grid. This is why, in 2015, the ACT led the COAG Energy Council to commission a review of carbon reduction policies and interaction with National Electricity Market rules. This will ensure market systems are able to deliver affordable, reliable supply while the market shifts to renewable energy.

The most retrograde position is to deny the need to transition to renewable energy. The reform of energy laws should ensure affordable, reliable and low-carbon electricity supply for consumers. Simon Corbell, ACT Minister for the Environment and Climate Change Your editorial ended with a welcome hint of reality, saying that it's vital the ACT "government's occasionally blithe thinking on renewables be tempered by economic realities such as those which have touched SA". It is not just economic realities, that is costs, which have given clean, green SA a slap on the back of the head. It is peak loading. A mothballed gas turbine at Pelican Point was brought back into production to avoid blackouts. The description of our town council's power planning as "occasionally blithe thinking" elevated moderation to an artform. Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor

TO THE POINT DISAPPEARING ACT So the world's best environment minister declares "his job is done". Yes, a great achievement; Greg Hunt has succeeded in making the Department of the Environment disappear. Robert Bruce, Fadden

WORK OF THE DEVIL That young men would even think about women's breasts is an outrage ("ANU college expels students", July 21, p1). What next? Young women telling some bloke he has a nice butt, nice abs or, heaven forbid, is well hung. The work of the devil, no less. H. Ronald, Jerrabomberra, NSW IS IT ANY WONDER

Just one week after declaring victory, Malcolm Turnbull has just authorised more Australians to go to Iraq. Is it any wonder Australians are disillusioned and cynical with politicians of both parties. Why were voters not informed of this plan before the general election? Johanna Owens, Kingston A RIGHT TO KNOW How dare Barnaby Joyce and Malcolm Turnbull have a "private" arrangement over the Coalition agreement! They are not running a private company. We, the voting public, have a right to know the arrangements between political parties, especially about those in government. E.R. Moffat, Weston
I knew the phone had been taken about five minutes later when I reached for it to take advantage of the bus Wi-Fi.

The Barcelona pick was done quite cleverly. I was waiting for the last hop-on sightseeing bus at Port Olimpic and, when it arrived, there was a surge to get on. I felt someone touch my leg. When I looked down I saw what I thought was another tourist rummaging in his rucksack. I did not realise there was a hole in the bottom of the rucksack that the thief could put his hand through.

The "find my phone" app is only useful if you misplace the phone or are dealing with an inexperienced thief. Credit:Bloomberg

When I was working overseas a few years ago, my ASIO colleague had his wallet stolen by a pickpocket in Rio and was of course subjected to much ribbing by his friends at our embassy. Now I know how embarrassed he must have felt.

To my embarrassment  given that I am supposed to be a security expert  I had my Apple iPhone 6 pickpocketed from the leg pocket of my cargo trousers in Barcelona late in the afternoon on June 12.

Our daughter sent a text to my phone offering a substantial reward for its recovery at the place where we got on the bus. (A text message appears on the screen even when the phone is locked.) When we went back to the Port Olimpic stop, there was no one there. We waited half an hour and nobody came. It is probable the thief could not read English, but it was worth a try.

Whoever took my phone soon turned it off. Although we used the "find my phone" app, it did not work. I don't know if that was because it had never been activated properly or because the phone was being shielded to prevent it from being tracked. There are simple ways to block iPhone tracking. The "find my phone" app is only useful if you misplace the phone or are dealing with an inexperienced thief.

I then went to the Barcelona central police station where there was a lengthy delay to fill in forms, made more complicated by the need for an interpreter. About two hours later we had completed the paperwork. It was really just a process to support an insurance claim, because the police held little hope of recovering the phone or making an arrest.

I later discovered that in Spain and France, even though there is a highly visible police presence on the streets, police put minimal effort into investigating street crime. Many local people I spoke to in Barcelona and Paris had been victims of street crimes. The police showed little interest in following them up or in trying to arrest the gangs involved.

Despite the FBI's well-known difficulties in breaking into an iPhone, I was concerned that European phone fences might be a bit more knowledgeable and there might be emails on the phone that could be used to access my accounts.
I have had to explain to my four-year-old daughter with tears down my face, to not approach the other children at the playground to play, because they don't want to play with her. Before the parents of the other children knew I was her mother, they were playing with my child.

As a result of these attitudes I have seen people abused physically and verbally from all corners of our Australian society. I have seen and heard of children abused and excluded when they aren't even of an age or developmental age to understand why.

Sonia, views like yours have already infiltrated the fabric of our lives in a pervasive manner. I've seen discussion and debate around excluding Muslims from practising their faith, such as being able to eat halal food, to the choice we women have to dress as Muslims.

Therefore I wouldn't be at the brunt of criticism from people who hated me for being brown. Fast forward into adulthood, I now recognise and identify the same hatred flung at me and others who look and think like me. It results in a loss of job opportunities, it results in friends and their families having their hijab torn off, it results in my friends' cars run off the road by racists. It can also potentially result in the loss of life.

At the age of five, attending an almost exclusively white school, I was excluded on the basis of my colour. I was bullied and excluded due to the colour of my skin. Unfortunately I have become used to prejudice. At an age when I could not understand why I was being hurt and abused, I used to linger in the bath in the evenings, rubbing my skin hard with soap, convinced it would whiten my skin.

After my child ran to me, to check in on me as children do and ran back to the slide, the other parents' expressions changed from friendly to hostile and they went over and whispered something in their children's ears. After this, no matter how many times my child approached their children, they would ignore her. I wonder if you would know how this feels. As a mother, to be the cause of your own child's suffering. All because you choose to follow a faith that is now becoming all but illegal.

There is beauty and dignity in my faith. Islam does not encourage blind faith, it encourages you to use your thought, to examine and analyse and to reflect. It's because of my faith that I am who I am. I constantly think about what I want my life to be and what my impact on this land and on this earth will be.

For that reason I have become a teacher. Because of my faith, I choose to work at a school where I offer my expertise, my passion and hard work for any young person, regardless of their personal characteristics or persuasion. My school and my community is an island away from the rest of Australia, where generally we live in peace and appreciation of difference. My colleagues and students can see past my packaging to my heart and soul.

I wish you could see the same of Muslims. I have chosen to be this way due to the example of my faith and my father. He is an architect who has designed mosques in Australia and he has also designed the church which stands side by side our local mosque.

Sonia, please go out and find out for yourself the truth of Islam and not just work from a place of fear. I ask you to not limit your love, compassion and understanding to only people who look like you. I also ask you to understand and reflect upon the consequences of your words. If you would like to, I offer to meet you and talk with you further. Let's move from fear to a place of love. I will, it's what I've always done and always will. It's what my faith teaches me.
But here's the rub: while those admissions include some that should indeed be preventable  admissions for measles are an example  in others preventability is not so clear cut. For example, an admission for a chronic disease that has worsened significantly and that leads to a length of stay of 10 to 15 days may not have been preventable, even with the best primary care in the previous few months.

It would be nice to think that money could be easily saved in the health system by reducing those admissions to hospital that are due to potentially preventable causes. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics show up to 6 per cent of all admissions can be labelled potentially preventable.

When people end up in hospital for diabetes, tooth decay, or other conditions that should be treatable or manageable out of hospital, it's a warning sign of system failure. Parts of Australia have had appalling rates of potentially preventable hospital admissions for at least a decade. Addressing the problem is devilishly difficult but it can be done. The Grattan Institute's new report, Perils of Place, suggests a way.

Perils of Place looks at whether it is possible to identify areas with high rates of these admissions, and if so, what can be done to bring them back to average or better. Using data from Queensland and Victoria, the report shows only half of those areas with high rates of admission in a year still have high rates in the next year. There is thus considerable noise in these data, making designing interventions that much harder.

To top it off, there is only limited evidence on what interventions actually work to reduce potentially preventable hospitalisations. This is not a policy field into which we should be leaping blindly. Setting simplistic policy goals to eliminate potentially preventable admissions, with accompanying unrealistic targets, does not make good policy.

Because the causes of the problem vary significantly nationwide, the reasons for high rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations in Mount Isa in Queensland are unlikely to be the same as for Ferntree Gully or Broadmeadows in suburban Melbourne. In our data we found that rates in some areas were caused mainly by readmissions (a small number of people frequently returning to hospital), while readmissions were not a factor in others. Centrally designed programs therefore won't work, but centrally designed evaluations are essential, so that lessons from locally designed interventions can be shared nationally.

The report's title, Perils of Place, has a double meaning. We identified some places in Queensland and Victoria that are indeed perilous for health and must not be ignored. These places had high rates of admissions for potentially preventable hospitalisations for 10 years in a row. We were conservative in our definition of "high rates", setting the threshold at 50 per cent above the state average. These are the places where health inequalities are already entrenched and, without intervention, are most likely to endure.

But place-based strategies can be perilous, too. Our analysis shows how easy it is to focus on the wrong places and spend wastefully if one relies on just a year of data. We support locally designed trials and interventions, preferably led by the Primary Health Networks working with local health authorities and communities. In one place, a focus on people who return frequently to hospital might be appropriate; in another, it might be the implementation of a program known to reduce rates of a particular illness, tailored to the needs of a particular community.
It is time to talk about saving TAFE: about the need to reaffirm the benefits of a publicly funded, high quality institution playing a central role in our national vocational education and training (VET) system.

Until recently, TAFE has played that role, adjusting to new learning environments, responding to new industry skill needs and providing its array of students with courses and services appropriate to their needs.

Now, however, it is under threat from the growing dysfunction of the VET sector in which inadequate regulation allows increasing numbers of private providers to openly abuse current government funding provision in substandard learning environments.

TAFE has a 100-year history, the first colleges being in Sydney and the Illawarra. In those days, TAFE was "the tech"  colleges where you learnt strictly "technical" skills. Horizons broadened in the 1970s when, with strong federal government support, some inspired leadership and great personal commitment of teachers and staff, Technical and Further Education was born. The inclusion of "further" education in the new title was symbolic of the recognition that training and education for work must incorporate the development of generic employability skills. Skills such as interpersonal and written communication; computer competence; teamwork and problem solving  skills that applied to all work and included cultural awareness and occupational health and safety. Employers at all levels endorsed these additions, assuring curriculum developers that these were the skills and attributes they were looking for. Now, in the 21st century, they are critical.
Welcome aboard everyone, and thanks for joining us on today's Big Bus Tour of Sydney's Most Over-Hyped and Over-Rated. Please, take your seats and settle in with your complimentary glass half empty of overpriced tap water.

To ease the journey, we'll be playing a collection of Beatles and Rolling Stones songs.

Now, if that doesn't get you in the mood for a day of disappointing let downs, what will?

Folks, our first port of call is that squalid little settlement known as Bondi Beach  without doubt, the finest example of this city having a lend of tourists and excelling at pulling the wool over the eyes of the rest of the world. Well, with the exception of the Vivid festival. But you'll have to come back in the middle of next winter for that.
Yeah, especially the soccer Euro 2016. I'm worried there'll be a lot of terrorist shootings there. And the Olympics! I bet at least 90% of the 800,000 refugees in Germany'll be there, seeing as how it's so close to Germany. Too bad Trump isn't already president. He'd stop 'em.



No, MUSLIM terrorist attacks. The only ones you pretend to care about. Focus.



The Daily Mail is reporting that one of the gunmen yelled "I'm German" and "f*ck foreigners." So maybe it's nothing to care about at all.
Pauline Hanson scored her greatest support in Sydney from voters in the western urban electorate of Lindsay.

Latest Senate voting figures from the Australian Electoral Commission show more Lindsay residents voted for Pauline Hanson's One Nation than anywhere else in Sydney.

Senator Pauline Hanson has warned Treasurer Scott Morrison about asset sales to foreign interests. Credit:SBS Publicity

The electorate has become a battleground over terrorism, migration and refugees since 2007 when the husband of the sitting Liberal was caught distributing bogus racist material during the federal election campaign that featured "The Islamic Australia Federation" thanking Labor for supporting terrorists involved with the 2002 Bali bombings.

While 5599 or roughly five per cent of Lindsay electors voted for Pauline Hanson's One Nation, she also secured heavy support from voters in other western and south-east fringe electorates like Macarthur (5130 or 4.9 per cent), Chifley (3985 or 3.8 per cent), Hughes (3204 or 3.1 per cent)and Werriwa (3068 or 2.8 per cent).
A former foreign minister in a conservative Canadian government is backing former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd to be the next United Nations chief.

John Baird - who resigned from his Canadian cabinet post last year and describes himself as an unabashed fan of Australia's John Howard - told Fairfax Media from Toronto he thought Mr Rudd was the person best qualified to lead the UN.

"I'm a conservative from Canada, so I was quite surprised at how much I came to admire Kevin as a colleague," Mr Baird said.

He said Mr Rudd was "idealistic but pragmatic", keenly aware of Asia, development and environment challenges and "very good at bringing people together" - comments at odds with often stinging assessments of Mr Rudd's record in local politics.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has stepped in to save the frontbench career of Kim Carr while David Feeney's gaffe-blighted election campaign has cost him a spot in a shadow ministry that includes five new faces.

The expanded 32-member line up will include the first female indigenous MP, Linda Burney, and the first two Muslim shadow ministers in Ed Husic and Sam Dastyari.

After a week of upheaval in the Left that included the creation of a breakaway Left faction around Senator Carr, the veteran Victorian was protected from the chop by Mr Shorten and the Right.
Another Lazarus-like return from the political dead is under way in Tasmania.

Days after it became clear Labor's Lisa Singh had defied her relegation by factional bosses to survive as a senator, powered by below-the-line votes of supporters, Liberal Richard Colbeck appears to be on track to do the same.

Senator Richard Colbeck looked to have been written off early in the week when he was left out of the ministerial reshuffle. Credit:Andrew Meares

Senator Colbeck, the tourism minister in the last Parliament, looked to be written off earlier in the week when he was left out of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's reshuffle.

But after the latest counting in Tasmania, his chances of re-election have improved markedly.
Malcolm Turnbull has flagged a rethink by security agencies of the design and protections in place at large public gatherings in the wake of last week's terror attack in Nice.

The government's counter-terrorism co-ordinator Greg Moriarty has been tasked with considering lessons for Australian security from the deaths of more than 80 people in France and preparing strategies to prevent lone wolf attacks here.

The Prime Minister told Melbourne radio 3AW security arrangements at large public events will be considered. "We'll certainly have to rethink the way we design and protect places where large numbers of Australians gather," Mr Turnbull said.

"We already have security measures in place, but the example of Nice ... if there are going to be large numbers of people in a place which is accessible by vehicles, then we have to think about what we do physically to prevent a vehicle getting access as this truck did for over 2 kilometres.
Support is growing for controversial changes to the repayment of university loans, with an influential group of universities throwing its support behind the collection of HECS debts from deceased estates.

The Regional Universities Network (RUN) also backs the introduction of a new household income test for HECS debts in a submission to the government on higher education reform.

The change, described by the respected Grattan Institute as "radical", would see part-time workers or graduates who take time out of the workforce forced to pay back their loans if they have a wealthy partner.

The Turnbull government has called for submissions on the future of Australia's higher education system after releasing a policy options paper alongside the May budget. It went to the election without a set higher education policy, but has ruled out fully deregulating fees.
Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek is returning to the domestic political fray, taking on the role of shadow education minister in a reshaped Labor shadow ministry that Opposition Leader Bill Shorten hopes will help oust the Coalition from government.

Ms Plibersek has agreed to step away from foreign affairs to take on one of the key election-determining portfolios in an expanded role that will see her steering Labor's policies on schools and universities.

Kate Ellis, who had been in the shadow education role, will remain in shadow cabinet with responsibility for early childhood education, TAFE and vocational education.

Mr Shorten is due to announce the full shadow ministry in Canberra on Saturday, with Labor sources saying his will be a bigger reshuffle than Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's wider-than-expected rejig this week.
When she was starting her career in Nashville, Swift was more open, as she called out crushes such as "Drew" in Teardrops on My Guitar, and "Stephen" in Hey Stephen, revealed to be Stephen Barker Liles of country duo Love & Theft when the liner notes hint was "LOVE AND THEFT". After her first two albums, the codes got a bit harder. For example, The Story of Us code was just "CMT AWARDS", and ex-boyfriend John Mayer performed at the awards show. The All Too Well clue was "MAPLE LATTES", which Swift detectives realised was probably Jake Gyllenhaal because they were often photographed carrying coffee.

The key difference is while West explicitly said "Taylor", Swift has made it a rule to rarely reveal the subjects of her songs. However, Swift critics don't think that distinction matters, because she strongly implies their real identities to the point where there's no question about who she's writing about. Not only does she give clues in interviews, but Swift famously leaves hidden messages in her liner notes for fans to decode, keeping some letters in the lyrics in all-caps to spell out a phrase.

This week, Swift's "character assassination" cry is rankling those who remember the album track Better Than Revenge, widely thought to be about actress Camilla Belle, who dated Joe Jonas after he dumped Swift. In the song, Swift sings: "She's not a saint and she's not what you think, she's an actress/ She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress." While the song still only remains "allegedly" about Belle, the actress clearly has no love lost toward Swift; after Kardashian's Snapchat bomb, Belle Instagrammed a smug quote about karma starting with the phrase, "No need for revenge".

Plus, Jonas spent years being asked about Swift on talk shows. Swift was unusually candid about that break-up in 2008, telling Ellen DeGeneres she wrote Forever and Always about Jonas after he dumped her in a 25-second phone call. Swift also mocked him in a video, holding up a Joe Jonas doll and saying: "This one even comes with a phone, see, so he can break up with other dolls."

Other songs include the scathing Dear John, which left Mayer "humiliated" after people assumed he was the John who shattered Swift's heart when she was only 19 years old; The Moment I Knew, apparently about Gyllenhaal failing to show up to her 21st birthday party; Style, covering the pitfalls of dating One Direction star Harry Styles; and the infamous Bad Blood, which centres on a female artist who tried to "sabotage" her arena tour, as Swift told Rolling Stone. Immediately, online detectives deduced she was talking about Katy Perry, who hired some backup dancers away from Swift. The song was followed up by a celebrity-packed music video taking down an enemy. (Obviously, Perry can barely contain her glee as Swift's reputation has taken a hit this week.)

Many would argue West is doing the same thing as Swift  singing about someone who has had an impact on his life  but he actually asked her about it first. Swift doesn't see it that way, especially considering the content of the lyrics, and something tells us her legion of devoted fans don't either.
The family of a boy who was allegedly molested by a staff member at a Catholic school in Sydney's south-west was asked to pay thousands of dollars in school fees after the child left the institution, according to evidence before a royal commission.

The inquiry heard the alleged perpetrator was allowed to resign from the Mater Dei School for children with intellectual disabilities, despite being suspected of sexually abusing two other students in his care.

Evidence before the commission is that the staff member, given the pseudonym CID, raped a 14-year-old girl, shared his bed with a teenage boy and sexually molested an eight-year-old boy with Down syndrome.

All the students were boarding at the college in 1990s, according to evidence before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

A letter tendered in evidence shows debt collectors employed by Mater Dei School approached the foster mother of the child with Down syndrome with a demand for $7434.84 in unpaid school fees and associated legal costs.
Australia's largest private vocational education network, Careers Australia, is buying data from job ad websites to target job seekers as it rapidly expands its call centre operations after a government crackdown on face-to-face sales.

In July, Brisbane teenager Troy Hatrick told the ABC he was inadvertently signed up to a $20,000 a year course in leadership and management after he had been called by Careers Australia.

He was looking for a job when he put his details into Jobify, a job search website that when Fairfax Media visited multiple times last week contained no contact numbers for employers and had no job links that worked.

Users are prompted to sign up and enter their details through a wizard that tells them in the fine print they are agreeing to be contacted by education providers.
The idea began with breakfast.

About a week ago, Lloyd Schulz was thinking about how he and other members at The Presbyterian Church of Fremont might show support for local law enforcement.

So he contacted fellow congregant Brian Maschmeier, who invited Fremont Police officers to a breakfast at the church on Sunday. Other congregants didnt know the police were coming for breakfast, but greeted them warmly.

They were so pleased to see them there, Maschmeier said. Almost everyone told them, thanks and hello and be careful out there.

It was a warning, perhaps made even more poignant by the events of that morning  when three police officers from Baton Rouge, La., were killed by a gunman.

Maschmeier believes its important for area residents to show support to local law enforcement.

I think given the fact of where we live, in small-town bread basket USA, we recognize that these guys are there for us when we need them, Maschmeier said. And even though the horrible homicides happen 1,000 miles away, it still affects these guys, because theyre officers.

Schulz, whos on the churchs security team, was thinking about ways to show support when he got the breakfast idea.

Every third Sunday of the month, the church has a full breakfast. It has a continental breakfast between 8-9 a.m. the other Sundays.

I was sitting there on a Friday night, thinking about all this stuff going on with police departments in the country, Schulz said.

The nation was stunned after a sniper killed five police officers in Dallas and wounded nine others on July 7.

Schulz wanted to do something for local officers.

I thought since this was our third Sunday of the month, it would be nice if we would invite our police department for breakfast, Schulz said.

So Schulz called Maschmeier, a kitchen crew member, and asked him about the idea.

Maschmeier thought it was a good idea and contacted the Fremont Police Department.

On Sunday morning, four officers came for a communion of sorts  not to break bread  but to share breakfast fare that included pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, coffee and juice.

It was really short notice. I think I invited them Saturday night. We were really glad they showed up, Maschmeier said.

The officers: Andrew Hilscher, Roger Donscheski, Chris Achey and Jim Butts, even posed for a photograph in front of the kitchen.

Officers seemed to appreciate the breakfast.

They were real responsive, real appreciative, Schulz said.

Congregants also expressed their gratitude to the police.

All I heard people say to the officers was how much they appreciated what they were doing, Maschmeier said.

Now, Schulz and Maschmeier said the church also plans to invite other first responders each month for the full breakfasts, including: the Dodge County Sheriffs Department, Nebraska State Patrol officers in the area, Fremont fire and rescue personnel along with police officers.
The federal government was warned as early as 2012 that unscrupulous providers were rorting the vocational education loans scheme and that there were no safeguards to protect against the abuse of vulnerable students, blowing the scheme out from $325 million to $3 billion in less than three years.

It was not until 2015 that the government took emergency action, freezing payments to the sector. Now, new evidence is emerging of education operators engineering alternative ways to boost lucrative student dollars, as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission pursues several colleges for the return of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.

In a 2012 departmental warning, the Gillard government was told specifically that people with disability had been targeted and gifts had been offered as inducements to enrol in courses where student loans under the VET FEE-HELP scheme were available. The government was also told that it had no power under the law as it stood to take action against such practices.

The warning was also ignored under the Abbott government, until several vocational college rorts were exposed in the media and investigations instigated by ACCC and the AFP in 2015. Education minister Simon Birmingham then froze payments to all private providers at 2015 levels and in April 2016 released a discussion paper on redesigning the scheme.
Bruno Comelli died of a broken heart, says his adoring wife Edda. He'd survived Nazis and post-war poverty in Italy before arriving in Melbourne. There he worked seven days a week as a fruiterer and concreter to give his children the education he never had.

In his late 70s Bruno was fit, strong, and savouring the life he had made for his family in his beloved Australia. Then, after all he'd been through and fought for, he was cut down by the deadly lung cancer, mesothelioma, a result of exposure to stray asbestos fibres decades previously.

Bruno hadn't worked with asbestos. Like many poor migrants he had lived in Melbourne's west when it was the city's smelly, industrial engine room. His home was just down the road from James Hardie's Brooklyn asbestos plant. Twice a week he'd take his greengrocer's rubbish to local tips and throw it into pits through clouds of white dust. "He used to say it was horrible down there," says Edda. "Especially on a windy day".

Decades after the Hardie factory closed, Bruno died in 2012 aged 80, a likely victim of environmental exposure to waste asbestos.
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be suspended if the plane is not found in the current search area by the end of the year, Malaysia's transport minister has announced.

In a joint press conference in Kuala Lumpur following a meeting with his Australian counterpart Darren Chester and Chinese counterpart Yang Chuantang, Malaysian minister Liow Tiong Lai said the search had been "severely impacted" by poor weather and damaged equipment.

It had covered a search area of around 110,000 square kilometres, and had another 10,000 square kilometres to go, with the remaining search lasting until October or possibly December.

At this time, the search would be called off.



"Today in our meeting, and in the absence of credible new evidence, Australia, China and Malaysia have collectively decided to suspend the search upon the completion of the 120,000 kilometre search area," Mr Liow said.
Sydneysiders will have naming rights over a new fleet of city ferries after the NSW government embraced popular and online democracy on Friday - but within limits.

The "Name Your Ferry" competition comes just two months after the British government retreated red-faced from a similar naming competition.

"This is an Australian first, we're opening up naming suggestions to the public and six of those names will take a place in Sydney's history forever," Transport Minister Andrew Constance said.

The six ferries are currently being built in Tasmania, with the first of fleet due to hit the Sydney Harbour circuit this summer.
Three into one won't go. A radical reorganisation plan for Sydney's tertiary art education institutions has readied the nation's oldest art school to be gobbled up by the University of NSW.

The Baird government is washing its hands of the small but beautiful National Art School in the historic Darlinghurst jail initially designed by the convict architect Francis Greenway.

The National Art School in the historic Darlinghurst jail. Credit:Ben Rushton

As part of the deal, the University of Sydney has all but surrendered $7 million worth of students at the Sydney College of Arts at Callan Park (the buildings are also Greenway work) to the UNSW School of Art & Design at Paddington.

While the fate of the National Art School dangles in the wind, the university merger is scheduled to take effect from the start of next year but on Thursday the mooted changes unleashed a perfect storm of protest.
The CFMEU has lost the fight to get back thousands of emails and documents seized by federal police from its Brisbane headquarters last year.

Dozens of officers from the trade union royal commission's special taskforce were reportedly looking for evidence of document destruction when they raided the Bowen Hills office in November.

Federal police raided the CFMEU's Bowen Hills offices in November 2015. Credit:Peter Braig

The AFP were unable to inspect the seized material after the CFMEU obtained a Federal Court injunction after arguing the raid was unlawful.

On Friday, Justice John Reeves ruled the raid was legal but kept the injunction in place until documents, protected by legal privilege, were removed.
A Queensland teenager horrifically burnt when a boy poured accelerant on a fire at a party is suing a mother for $11.8 million, alleging she failed to properly supervise the gathering.

Paris Turkington, then 16, suffered third-degree burns to 42 per cent of her body when she was engulfed by a sheet of flame during the party at a Toowoomba house in August 2013.

A teenager suffered third-degree burns to 42 per cent of her body after an accident at a house party. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

She has extreme facial scarring and still wears a whole body pressure garment for 23 hours a day.

Ms Turkington, now 19, is suing the woman whose son invited her to the party alleging she failed to supervise, or adequately supervise, the gathering where most attendees were 15 or 16 years old.
Police Commissioner Ian Stewart was asked to tally up how much was spent investigating government MPs. The answer to the LNP query will be tabled next week. The exchange: MANDER: My question is directed to the Police Commissioner. Can the commissioner advise the committee on how many hours of police time was spent on the investigation into allegations against the former Labor MP Billy Gordon? STEWART: Thank you for that question. No, I do not have that readily available to me. Obviously, we receive complaints of various natures. Some are politically sensitive and we investigate them thoroughly and rigorously, as we do every complaint that is given to us.

MANDER: Is it possible to get that figure? STEWART: We could certainly get an estimate of that. It might take a small amount of time. Could I just clarify? Are you talking about complaints made against the member, Mr Gordon, not activities that the police have taken on their own bat, for instance, the fact that he was charged with traffic offences recently? MANDER: The allegations, not the convictions  the allegations made by members of the public. Commissioner Stewart: Certainly. Thank you. I am happy to take that on notice. BYRNE: I am a little uncomfortable. Allegations are made. CHAIR: So am I.

BYRNE: Hoovering up particular amounts of money for the Queensland Police Service to undertake its duties, these are operational MANDER:You are accountable and transparent. BYRNE: There is an allegation made and an investigation is undertaken. That investigation goes as long and as hard as it needs to go. MANDER: That is true. BYRNE: Under the guidance of the Police Commissioner.

MANDER: I just simply want to know. BYRNE: It is not something where you sit down and do a dollar attribution of every investigation. MANDER: I have asked the commissioner and he said that it is possible. BYRNE: So you want the Queensland Police Service to waste time and money? Do you want us to give you price of what that inquiry cost? MANDER: I am not talking about wasting time and money. I have a similar question to the Police Commissioner about the number of hours of police time that was spent in investigation against the allegations against the former minister for police, the member for Bundamba, Jo-Ann Miller. I have a similar question on how many hours of police time was spent on the investigation into allegations against the Labor member for Pumicestone, Rick Williams. I have a similar question to the commissioner about how many hours of police time was spent on the investigation into allegations against you, Police Minister, the member for Rockhampton. I believe that the public deserves to know how much police resources are being devoted to allegations against members and former members of your government.

BYRNE: I will put it to you this way. The Police Service undertakes investigations as it needs to under the law. The only reason you are asking this question is politics. What I might say ... MANDER: I am asking you because ... BYRNE : No, there is no public interest test whatsoever. MANDER: Of course there is. BYRNE: I will give you the price for what the investigation into your question is. How about that? How much Queensland Police Service time do you want to waste running around telling you how much an inquiry cost that you called for. The Liberal National Party calls for the inquiry and then you want to know how much it cost. If you do not want to spend the money, do not make the allegation.
A woman who attacked a Fraser Island paramedic trying to treat her remains on the run, as her victim recovers in a Brisbane hospital.

Police said the woman came to the Queensland Ambulance Centre at Happy Valley about 3.30pm on Friday requesting assistance, and when the paramedic escorted her to the examination room she produced a box knife and demanded medication.

Ambulance Services Minister Cameron Dick and Queensland Ambulance Service Commissioner Russell Bowles visit the injured Fraser Island paramedic in hospital on Saturday. Credit:Queensland Ambulance Service Fac

During a struggle, the paramedic received a cut to his arm, a stab wound to his abdomen and injuries to his wrist and ankle before being rendered unconscious.

When the paramedic, 56, came to, he rang triple zero and two helicopters were sent while the local police, rural fire wardens and members of the public came to help.
Tammi Smith Hartsfield was never a bookworm growing up. She read here and there, but never truly gravitated toward flipping page after page of a novel.

That all changed when she entered seventh-grade and her friend saw a flier imploring people to volunteer a little bit of their time at Keene Memorial Library.

When my friend saw it she really wanted to do the after-school program to help out as a volunteer library aid, said Hartsfield, a 1987 graduate of Fremont High School. But she didnt want to do it alone, so I went with her. Eventually she wanted to quit, but I told her that I wanted to keep doing it because it gave me something positive to do afterschool.

She fell in love with it, and under the guidance of the late Mary Scheele, a childrens librarian, she started learning the ins-and-outs of the day-to-day operations of the library.

So she kept at it, volunteering through her freshman year in high school, and the week before her 16th birthday Scheele hired her as an aid in the childrens department.

I worked all the way through high school there, and I started thinking I could do this the rest of my life, she said.

So Scheele, who arguably was one of the biggest influences in Hartsfields life, told her she needed to go to library school. Thats right, theres a whole lot more to running a library than simply stacking books in shelves and helping people check them out.

After receiving her associates degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University, she received a bachelors degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before completing her masters degree in Library Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

People never seem to understand that there is an education component behind it, she said. And you had to watch what program you got into because the American Library Association only accredits certain programs, and if you werent in a program accredited by them it is really hard to get a job.

Through the course of her education, Scheele always was available to talk with Hartsfield and guide her in the right direction, even after retiring and moving to Lincoln.

Three years ago, Scheele died, which was a very difficult time for Hartsfield.

It hurt so bad, because without her I wouldnt be here today, she said.

But now she knows she is making her mentor proud.

After 17  years of being a kindergarten through eighth-grade in Arkansas and Tennessee, Hartsfield landed her dream job of being a library director of the Caldwell Parish Library in Columbia, Louisiana, a town comprised of 500 people in the 11,000-person parish  a parish is equivalent to what is a county in Nebraska.

Overseeing 1,000 library members and three full-time librarians, Hartsfield works hard day-in and day-out to provide people with an assortment of reading opportunities and several other valuable outlets.

When I came the previous director was old-school and had been there 37 years, she said. Not big on technology and stuff like that, so my biggest goal has been to incorporate technology into what we do. I created a website and Facebook page so I can get to know the community and know what they want.

And while she is far away from her hometown of Fremont, shes never forgotten where shes from, where her roots were planted and her library passion was instilled.

I will always consider Nebraska and Fremont my home state and home town, she said. This was the place where everything started for me and Ill always be grateful for that.
As millions of Australian homes wait for the NBN to reach their door, Lightning Broadband is deploying a wireless network promising fibre-like download speeds to suburban users.

Starting in Melbourne's inner suburbs with plans to extend to other state capitals, Lightning Broadband is connecting homes and businesses via 5.8 GHz microwave links capable of delivering 100 Mbps download speeds. The links also support 100 Mbps upload speeds, outpacing uploads on the National Broadband Network's fibre connections.

The service has already signed up its first customers in Melbourne's inner east and the rollout will be guided by demand, with the telco accepting registrations of interest online from potential customers, says Lightning Broadband's Australian founder Jeremy Rich.

"There's huge interest in high speed broadband but the NBN was announced back in 2007 and we got sick of waiting for it to arrive," Rich says. "I think a lot of people are disappointed by the NBN, not just with the speed of the rollout but also the performance  some people get very high speeds because they're close to the nodes but other people are very disappointed."
New Zealand: Tourists are flocking to the world's steepest street in the coolest little city of the south, Dunedin.

The Edinburgh of the south's star seems to be rising, there are increasing numbers of tourists heading to Otago and the city scene has hit a chord with its street art, photography and all-round understated cool.

Baldwin Street in Dunedin.

It seems New Zealand's first city is making something of a comeback.

Baldwin Street in Dunedin is officially the steepest street in the world and has its place in the Guinness Book of Records.
The Australian Institute of Criminology and the Scarlet Alliance (Australian Sex Workers Association) surveyed 594 sex workers across Australia, 412 of whom were migrants. Most were female, with only 17 male and eight transgender respondents.

Despite growing fears about human trafficking, the largest study of migrant sex workers in Australia has found the vast majority are content to be working in massage parlours and brothels for a satisfactory income, and that there is little evidence of widespread sex slavery.

Most migrant sex workers are satisfied with their working conditions in Australia, but some feel isolated and are working off debts incurred to travel here, research has revealed.

The migrant workers from Thailand, China, South Korea and New Zealand were a diverse group. One in five were married; one in three were parents; and while a small number had little to no education, the majority were highly educated. About one third said they did not speak English well.

Jules Kim, CEO of the Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association. Credit:Julia Medew

The research, presented at the AIDS 2016 conference in Durban, said the majority were seeing 10 to 30 clients over three to four days per week. While migrants were more likely to have a contract arrangement with their workplaces and were less likely to be paid shift fees, most were receiving more than half of the fee paid by each of their clients  a similar cut to their Australian colleagues.

Most migrants said they were satisfied with their conditions and that they intended to stay long term, but some reported isolation and bad experiences.

"I really hate it," one South Korean woman said. Others said that it was dangerous and wrote: "In here I stay alone" and "Wanting to be with family".
New rebates of up to $1200 will be available for Victorian farmers, in a bid to cut the worrying toll of deaths and injuries from quad bike crashes.

The rebates were a powerful investment that would "save lives", Premier Daniel Andrews said, announcing the scheme at the 2016 Victorian Farmers Federation conference on Friday.

Farmer Ian Feldtmann pictured, with helmet, on a quad bike. Credit:Justin McManus

"Just in the last few months we've had two farmers die. There's been so many lives lost, so many families touched by this. It's something we can do a meaningful thing about," he said.

"Too many Victorians have died or have been seriously injured using quad bikes and that's why the Labor Government is taking action to protect our farmers," he said.
A pedestrian has been struck by an out-of-control car in Melbourne's west.

A Victoria Police spokesman said the car lost control and mounted the kerb at a bus stop on Boardwalk Boulevard in Point Cook about 3.50pm on Friday.

A pedestrian has been struck by an out-of-control car in Point Cook. Credit:Seven News

The black Mercedes sedan struck the pedestrian before crashing into a tree.

A 71-year-old man has been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
A 10-year-old boy who called triple zero as his mum went into labour says he wasn't scared, even as "the baby came out of her tummy" before an ambulance arrived.

Two police officers were the first to arrive at the family's Craigieburn home in Melbourne's north about 2.45am on Friday after Chris Tamate phoned triple zero.

Chris said he called triple zero after his mother fell to the ground.

"She said that the baby was going to come, then the baby just came out of her tummy, and I called triple zero," he told radio station 3AW.
A Kalgoorlie high school that employed security guards after a teacher was bashed has been sharply criticised in a government report suggesting a crisis of confidence and the need for dramatic intervention.

Poor leadership, unprofessional educational standards from teachers and a loss of trust with the community were highlighted.

The school suspended 83 students in the first term alone. Credit:Janie Barrett

Morale was so bad, teachers were doing little beyond the bare minimum.

The education department sent experts to Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School in late March to investigate and get its behavioural problems, including violence, under control after 83 students were suspended in the first term.
A man who allegedly left his mobile phone in a Perth court last month filled with child porn has been charged by police.

Police allege a staffer at the district court contacted police after finding disturbing images on a mobile phone found in the courtroom on June 22.

A man has been charged by police after child porn was found on a phone he left in a Perth court. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The Joint Anti Child Exploitation team then searched a 47-year-old Maylands man's home and seized documents and electronic storage devices.

Police allege analysis of the devices and inspection of the documents identified about 50 sexually suggestive images of boys.
A man has been found dead three days after he reportedly overdosed in the toilets of a Hungry Jack's store north of Perth.

It is understood the man had been in the toilets of the Balga Hungry Jack's since Friday before his body was discovered on Monday morning.

Hungry Jack's says it recognises animal welfare and ethical sourcing is an important community demand.

WA police confirmed officers were called to the food outlet on Wanneroo Road regarding a deceased male about 9am.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious and are preparing a report for the coroner.
The Anglican Bishop of Perth, Roger Herft, did not report a child abuse complaint he received against a priest labelled the "king pin" of a paedophile ring to police, according to an Anglican Church insider.

ABC's 7.30 program claimed it had obtained a confidential note showing Archbishop Herft had received a complaint about Father Peter Rushton molesting a boy when they worked together in New South Wales in 2002.

The Anglican Bishop of Perth, Roger Herft, has been accused of not reporting child sex abuse against a priest. Credit:Paul Kane

According to ABC News, in the note, the Archbishop wrote the complaint "left me in an unenviable position" because "Father Peter had my licence [to be a priest] and if he re-offended I would be held liable as I now had prior knowledge of his alleged behaviour".

He goes on to explain he had been informed by a man that Rushton had molested his son 15 to 20 years ago, after the father welcomed the priest into his home to "spend some days off".
Two Perth men who allegedly tried to hold up a pharmacy in Perth's south accidentally foiled their own plans after one squirted himself in the face with pepper spray and the other cut himself with a knife he was threatening staff with.

The Dumb & Dumber pair allegedly escaped the Shoalwater scene stealing only sleep apnoea masks after a confrontation with staff spilled into the pharmacy carpark.

The robbery skills of the pair left little to be desired, with police claiming one of the men sprayed himself in the face with pepper spray while trying to spray the pharmacist.

"The canister was facing the wrong way and man sprayed himself," a police spokeswoman said.
Cleveland: Donald Trump's campaign chief has backpedalled over the Republican presidential nominee's comments on whether he would commit to defending NATO allies if Russia attacks them.

Asked whether Trump was suggesting in comments to The New York Times that there should be a new standard for whether the US would defend NATO allies, campaign chairman Paul Manafort told reporters: "No. What Mr Trump has said consistently is that he thinks NATO needs to be modernised" to fight terrorist threats.

But when Trump was asked in the Times interview whether small Baltic nations and other NATO allies could count on the US to stand by its treaty obligations to defend them if Russia attacks, Trump responded: "Have they fulfilled their obligations to us? If they fulfil their obligations to us, the answer is yes."

Like President Barack Obama, Trump has called on members of the alliance to increase the amount of money they pay for US military protection.
And here we need to insert a caveat that hangs over this entire campaign  because we live in strange and stressed times, this is not your father's election and reporters and analysts are confronted constantly by a sense that old verities have become meaningless. Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, air kisses his running mate Mike Pence after Pence's acceptance speech on Wednesday. Credit:AP Here's what I mean. Hours before the Cruz meltdown on Wednesday, Trump did an interview with The New York Times, in which he was asked a straight up-and-down question that any reporter would ask any nominee at that point in any convention. NYT: "What do you think people will take away from this convention? What are you hoping [for]?" Senator Ted Cruz addresses the delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. Credit:AP

TRUMP: "From the convention, the fact that I'm very well liked. Look, I got more votes than anybody in the history of the Republican Party  almost 14 million votes. I got 37 states. [Ohio Governor John] Kasich has one. As an example, Ted [Cruz] had, you know, not many  And when you are in that hall and you see those people, like yesterday, my daughter called up, she said, 'Dad, I've never seen it - it's total love'." Me, me, me  The question was a no-brainer, but Trump couldn't even get to hoping that voters might hear that indeed he could make America great again. A delegate wears a hat with a campaign sticker for Donald Trump. Credit:Bloomberg That's authoritarian, and it's really, really scary. Charles Murray, Conservative scholar, American Enterprise Institute Seemingly lost on the candidate was that in just a few days, the Democratic Party would be cranking up its convention machine; that he might have expressed views on the strength or weakness, and/or the acceptance or rejection of policies; ditto party unity; or, which was utterly missing in his answer to the Times, an acknowledgement that the primaries, an intra-party beauty contest, were over and that he now faced a gruelling, three-month-long campaign that might require more than a dozen tweets a day. (Note to readers: See caveat above.)

Casting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as Lucifer, obsessive chants of "Lock her up!"; that she should be "left hanging from a tree"; or, as suggested by one of Trump's advisers, that Clinton be put before a firing squad, might appeal to the party base, which already is onside. But it will be a few days before the first post-convention polls shed any light on the reaction of undecided voters. A delegate wears a Trump cape on the third day of the convention. Credit:Bloomberg On average, GOP candidates get a post-convention polls bounce of about five per cent  in 2012, the much-maligned Mitt Romney got nothing. Conservative commentator Philip Klein tweeted his frustration as the convention unfolded: "If the point of a convention is to unify the party and reach out to broader electorate, [this convention has] been an unmitigated disaster so far." As the convention got under way on Thursday, there was much head scratching among pundits because:

Cruz has shredded all that remained of a sense of party unity, particularly given that many of the GOP's establishment grandees had decided to pass, as a protest against Trump as nominee;

The messaging was messy;

A Keystone Cops response by campaign officials to the disclosure that sections of first lady Michelle Obama's speech to the 2008 Democratic convention had been included in the speech given in Cleveland by Trump's wife Melania, revealed an inability to shut down a crisis. First the plagiarism was denied and then defended before it was admitted. Instead of being shut down in a single news cycle, it was allowed to play out for three cycles. (Again see caveat above.) In talking to the Times, Trump surely was across what his vice-presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, would say in his acceptance speech to the convention later in the evening  a good speech that was robbed of media oxygen by Cruz's antics. But Trump cut the ground from under him. Doing the shepherding required of a veep, Pence sold Trump's commitment to foreign policy: "We cannot have four more years of apologising to our enemies and abandoning our friends. America needs to be strong for the world to be safe. On the world stage, Donald Trump will lead from strength. Donald Trump will rebuild our military and stand with our allies." Ahem, not so fast.

In talking to the Times, Trump seemed ready to throw long-standing allies under the bus. Washington's security guarantees to NATO allies might not be renewed automatically, he said. Throwing much of Europe into a spin, Trump added that if Russia did attack any of the Baltic states, as president he would consider if those nations "have fulfilled their obligations to us", before deciding whether to defend them. Memories are short. Lost on a good many Americans is the fact that they have been here before and in the end the protagonists have made little headway. Publisher Randolph Hearst, general Douglas McArthur and businessman Ross Perot paved the way for Trump  playing with or stirring up voter insecurity on identity and sovereignty; and to varying degrees, offering themselves as hard-talking, truth-telling patriots who would teach foreign countries a lesson about American power and teach Americans how to respect law and order. Perhaps because he's old enough to remember, 88-year-old former Democratic vice-president Walter Mondale sees Trump as today's iteration of a tradition of isolationism and cultural paranoia that he says has been a "recurrent theme" in American politics, calling for the US to "withdraw from the world, that we have only threats coming from abroad". Trump is an amalgam of southern segregationist (think George Wallace), protectionist businessman (think Ross Perot) and more. Princeton historian Kevin Kruse is surprised only in part: "We've seen everything in Trump before, but we've never seen it all together at once."

Kruse might have added too, that we've never seen it all so turbo-charged by social media. Trump might have run just as easily as a Democratic candidate. He demolished GOP orthodoxy and at times he comes at Clinton from the left, not the right; and in a speech in May, he observed of himself: "I'm a conservative, but at this point, who cares?" Speaking of Trump's seeming admiration for autocrats and dictators, Charles Murray, a conservative scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that Trump's autocratic tendencies place him well outside the conservative intellectual mainstream. "The word fascist is simply thrown around too easily, and so I don't want to use that word. But part of Trumpism is the man on the white horse," Murray told the Times. "That's neither left nor right. That's authoritarian, and it's really, really scary." Trump's own Republican colleagues diverge  for former House speaker Newt Gingrich, the candidate is Thatcher reborn; Meg Whitman, of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is reminded of Mussolini and Hitler.

This is a context in which a Trump relationship that has garnered little attention becomes intriguing  the biggest business name to speak at the convention was multibillionaire venture capitalist and Silicon Valley dynamo Peter Thiel, allocated a prime spot on Thursday night. An analysis in The Guardian turns to a 2009 essay called The Education of a Libertarian, in which Thiel declares that capitalism and democracy had become incompatible, arguing that since 1920, the creation of the welfare state and "the extension of the franchise to women" had made the American political system more responsive to more people  and therefore more hostile to capitalism. In Trump, the analysis argues, Thiel has found a politician who is a disruptor-in-chief, capable of destroying the existing system to build what he believes would be a better system  one that would get beyond the sheet-anchor force of democracy and its voice for the masses. As the GOP convention got under way on Monday, two of Washington's more respected scholars, Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, couldn't resist a we-told-you-so lecture for the establishment: Trumpism might have its parallels in populist, nativist movements abroad; but for them, it was also the culmination of a proud political party's steady descent into a "deeply destructive and dysfunctional state", they wrote at Vox. "It gives us little pleasure to say we foresaw that the Republican Party was on a destructive course that could lead to such a situation.

"In April 2012, we created a major stir in the political world with a long piece in The Washington Post, called "Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem". "This was our money quote: The Republican Party has become an insurgent outlier in American politics - ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition." But it's more chaotic than that. Trump and Thiel might prove to be fellow travellers, but the policy gaps between Trump and his handpicked running mate Pence are so startling that it seems they hardly know each other. When Trump said he wanted to ban all Muslims entering the US, Pence described the move as "offensive and unconstitutional", and when Trump declared there ought to be "some form of punishment" for women who have an abortion, Pence's office said: "[Pence] does not agree." When Trump attacked US-born federal judge Gonzalo Curiel on the grounds that he was biased in his job because "he's a Mexican", Pence countered: "Every American is entitled to a fair trial and an impartial judge, but of course I think those comments were inappropriate."

Remember when Trump sang the praises of Saddam Hussein? Pence has a very different view. "Saddam Hussein was a nightmare for the Iraqi people and his execution marks the end of an era when violence against innocent men, women and children was a means to wealth and power," he said in 2006. Trump on trade with China: "We can't continue to allow China to rape our country." Pence on trade with China: He would soon be heading a "jobs mission to China, Indiana's [fifth] largest export partner." Trump on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): "Another disaster ... it's a rape of our country." Pence on the TPP: "Trade means jobs, but trade also means security. The time has come for all of us to urge the swift adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership."

Trump as a champion of the birther movement, which claimed incorrectly that US President Barack Obama was born in Kenya: "I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding." Pence: "On that issue, I'm pretty distinctive that the President is from Hawaii." Ordinarily it would be a stretch to believe some of the stories that these days are told straight-faced  but these are not ordinary times. The following has been attributed to an unnamed aide to Kasich, who like Cruz fell under the Trump assault on the citadel of US politics. Trump apparently saw something in Kasich and detente ensued  the Kasich aide took a call from Donald Trump Jnr, in which the son of the GOP nominee asked if Kasich would be interested in becoming the most powerful vice-president in history.
Man in custody responsible for defacing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Sunset Avenue in Venice

LAPD have apprehended the man responsible for defacing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Sunset Avenue in Venice

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office believes they have apprehended the man responsible for defacing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Sunset Avenue in Venice.

Before the Memorial Day weekend, graffiti appeared on the wall, which has become an icon for the Venice and West Los Angeles neighborhoods regarding the service and sacrifice given to the United States by those in the armed services. The mural bears the title "You Are Not Forgotten" and lists the names of 2,273 soldiers who are counted as either prisoners of war or missing in action from the Vietnam War. It was painted in 1992 by artist Peter Stewart, who was inspired by a welcoming parade for Operation Desert Storm veterans.

The graffiti damage to the memorial mural stretched about 100 feet. "We were initially hopeful that the graffiti could be removed without damaging the memorial, but Metro's contractor says the damage is too extensive," reported Metro CEO Phil Washington. The mural is painted on the side of a Metro building. Washington's statement went to explain that the transit authority would "work with the community to gather historical photos so the wall can be restored."

The suspected tagger, Angel Castro, 24, was arrested on July 13. He's plead not guilty to one felony count of vandalism over $400. Castro has previously been convicted of robbery in 2015. Prosecutors will ask that bail be set at $85,000.

If convicted as charged, Castro could face up to six years in prison.

Volunteers helped cleanup the Vietnam War memorial wall in Venice after it was vandalized with graffiti.

If convicted as charged, Castro could face up to six years in prison.

The memorial, located on a black wall along Pacific Avenue, was painted by a Vietnam veteran in 1992 and has 2,273 names on it. It declares "You are not forgotten," which was covered up by the graffiti. Citizens all the way from Lancaster and other areas came together to repaint the phrase over the markings and cleanup the graffiti.

Venice is a residential, commercial and recreational beachfront neighborhood on the Westside of the city of Los Angeles.

Venice was founded in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it merged with Los Angeles. Today, Venice is known for its canals, beaches, and the circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-half-mile pedestrian-only promenade that features performers, mystics, artists and vendors.
Historic building in downtown LaPorte collapses, investigation ongoing

The owner was doing renovations, but investigators say the work was cosmetic and not structural.
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Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city.

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The sunlight side of Mercury, photographed on Oct. 2, 2013 by the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.

A rare type of meteorite found on Earth may have been a critical ingredient in the geologic recipe that shaped the surface of Mercury, new research shows.

An amazing variety of features cover the surface of Mercury, which likely formed when material in the planet's mantle (the layer just below the surface crust) melted and came to the surface through volcanoes. But Mercury's mantle is shallow compared with other rocky planets, and the authors of the new research say that creates a puzzle as to why the surface looks the way it does.

New experiments on a type of meteorite known as enstatite chondrites show that with heat and pressure, these space rocks could be responsible for the plethora of surface features observed on Mercury today, according to the research presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Yokohama, Japan, in June. [Photos of Mercury from NASA's Messenger Spacecraft]

Mercury is somewhat unique among the rocky planets in our solar system because it has a massive, concentrated iron core that represents 70 percent of the planet's mass  whereas Earth's core makes up only 30 percent of its mass, according to a statement from the Goldschmidt conference.

Mercury's prominent core is a product of the conditions under which it formed, Asmaa Boujibar, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Johnson Space Center and lead author on the new research, told Space.com. Specifically, the material that formed Mercury had a very low abundance of oxygen, which caused nearly all of the iron that was present to sink into the core, Boujibar said. The boundary between Mercury's mantle and its core is only about 248 miles (400 kilometers) below the planet's surface.

When viewed in different wavelengths of light that reveal chemical composition, the surface of Mercury is shown to have a varied landscape. This image uses data from the Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, overlain on the monochrome mosaic from the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

There is a region on the surface of Mercury about the size of Canada that is extremely rich in magnesium  with such a shallow mantle, a concentration like this might suggest that the mantle itself was extremely varied, and contained sections of concentrated elements like magnesium.

Boujibar and colleagues wanted to see if one type of composition spread out through the entire mantle could explain the features on the surface, so first they looked to the class of meteorites called chondrites.

"Chondrites are primitive meteorites that contain all material we can find in cores, mantles and crusts," Boujibar told Space.com an email. "They represent the material of the solar system before the formation and differentiation of terrestrial planets."

Enstatite chondrites are high in sulfur, and contain relatively little oxygen, and therefore "may be a good proxy to the chemical building blocks"that created Mercury, according to the statement from the Goldschmidt conference.

"We took a powdered chemical mix similar in composition to enstatite chondrites  and subjected it to high pressures and temperatures," Boujibar said in the statement. "The pressures were high, up to 5 gigapascals (50,000 times the Earths atmospheric pressure), which is the sort of pressure where you can form diamonds. This is the pressure of Mercurys core-mantle boundary."

The researchers found that by varying pressure and temperature on the enstatite chondrites, they could produce the elemental concentrations seen on Mercury's surface. Their results also match previous observations suggesting that Mercury's surface features can generally be divided into two groups  one consisting of older surfaces, and the other of newer surfaces, including the Northern Volcanic Plains.

"These findings indicate that the older terrains are formed by material melting at higher pressures up to the core-mantle boundary, while the younger terrains are formed closer to the surface," Boujibar said in the statement.

The sulfur content of the enstatite chondrites seems to be a key factor in the concentration of magnesium and calcium, in particular, Boujibar told Space.com.

"The role of sulfur on magma composition was difficult to predict as Mercury is the only terrestrial planet with such high sulfur concentrations," Boujibar said in the statement. "Both effects of pressure and sulfur explain the overall heterogeneous surface composition of Mercury."

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
The Space Potatoes, a rocketry team from Odle Middle School in Bellvue, Washington, took first place at the International Rocketry Competition in London on July 15, 2016.

Space Potatoes win! The Bellvue, Washington-based Odle Middle School rocketry team took first place in the International Rocketry Challenge July 15, precisely launching a rocket and landing its precious cargo: two raw eggs.

The team defeated 789 U.S. teams over the course of the 2016 Team America Rocketry Challenge, and defeated one team each from the United Kingdom, France and Japan to take the international title, which is open to 7th through 12th graders  the Space Potatoes are in eighth grade. This is the second year in a row that a U.S. team has won.

"Representing the entire country was really intimidating," Mikaela Ikeda, the Space Potatoes' 12-year-old team captain, said in a statement. "Luckily, we had each other for support and everyone did their jobs perfectly!"

: Liftoff! The Space Potatoes rocket takes flight at the Farnborough International Airshow. The Bellvue, Washington, team took first place at the 2016 International Rocketry Challenge July 15. (Image credit: Raytheon)

The team's rocket had to reach an altitude of exactly 850 feet and return the two raw eggs, placed perpendicularly to each other, to the ground unharmed, flying for 44 to 46 seconds. They also had to present for a panel of expert judges and "defend their knowledge of rocketry physics and explain their decision-making process for this year's competition," Team America Rocketry Challenge said in a Facebook post. That portion was worth 40 percent of their score.

"London is a new place and [we had] never flown in their conditions," team member Larry Jing, age 13, said in the statement. "But we haven't broken a single egg in any of our rocket launches."

The contest was hosted at the site of the 2016 Farnborough International Airshow, and the team's trip from the U.S. to the global competition was sponsored by Raytheon. The middle schoolers named their team in honor of the novel "The Martian," that was recently made into a movie, where the protagonist survives being stranded on the Red Planet by growing potatoes.

The 2016 International Rocketry Challenge winning team poses with British astronaut Tim Peake. In the photo, L to R: John Hochheimer (National Association of Rocketry), Tim Peake, Mikaela Ikeda, Stephanie Han, Karl Deerkop, Larry Jing, Srivatshan (Sri) Sakthinarayanan, HRM Prince Michael of Kent (Image credit: Aerospace Industries Association)

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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People wave Turkish flags in front of an electronic billboard displaying the face of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a rally in Ankara on July 17 after the failed coup. For the first time in almost 36 years, members of the Turkish military sought to topple the government last Friday. They occupied parts of Istanbul and Ankara and bombed the parliament building. Up to 300 people lost their lives and at least 1,400 were injured, including civilians.
While most (but not enough) Americans consider their choice for a president who will have the power to dramatically shift the direction of U.S. policy, Fairfield University has a unique opportunity for change as well.

The Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, who has headed the university for 12 years, is leaving for a new assignment. His supporters credit him with bolstering the schools endowment through the financial crisis. The incoming Class of 2020, meanwhile, will be the largest in school history.

This is an opportunity, though, to mark the schools 75th anniversary in 2017 with a historic change.

Frank Carroll of Greenwich, chairman of the board of trustees, left open the possibility that the schools ninth president could be the first who is not a Jesuit priest, saying The reality is that there are only so many candidates available. We want to get the right person for the role.

The right person might indeed be a Jesuit priest who could further the mission of the Catholic order and the university. But Fairfield also needs to be more progressive about addressing issues with diversity, which reached a tipping point earlier this year when students held a ghetto-themed party off campus.

The school not only needs to widen its net, it needs to do a better job of integrating minority students into campus culture. It can start by offering free room and board to more of the minority students it recruits from Connecticut, many of whom are sought out to increase the economic and racial diversity of the student body. Doing so would help to bridge the divide some students say has created two distinct cultures on campus.

We wish von Arx success in what has been characterized as an exciting new assignment, but we also hope Fairfield will consider a diverse pool of candidates with the vision and tools to reimagine the campus culture.
C hinese tourists are flocking to London to take advantage of the plummeting pound with post-Brexit luxury shopping sprees, retail experts have told the Evening Standard.

Philip Guarino, Europe director at consultant China Luxury Advisors, said tourist trips were selling out.

Buyers are attracted particularly to destination stores such as Oxford Streets Selfridges, to splurge on designer watches, handbags and shoes under one roof.

Guarino said: There has been a significant jump in demand for travel to the UK reported by leading Chinese tour operators, with some I have heard about completely selling all availability.

Visitors want to buy luxury products for a better price while the pound is weak, he added.

Selfridges said it had seen a marked increase in international visitors since the referendum.

VisitBritain director Patricia Yates said that China based CAISSA Touristic has seen a 20% increase in either enquiries or bookings about travel to the UK during last two months, compared to the same period last year.

Yates added: "We will be working with our partners in China to drive bookings and growth from tourism across all our nations and regions."

This will help ease worries that Brexit could weaken the UKs image as a destination for tourists.
B RITAINS success in leaving the EU hinges on a new runway at Heathrow to bolster ties with countries outside the trading bloc, the airports boss said today.

Chief executive John Holland-Kaye backed the new Tory government to allow the much-delayed 16 billion proposal but warned the UK will become a second-class economy lagging France and Germany if Heathrow misses out on Britains new runway.

Brexiteers have promised to bolster non-EU trade after UK leaves but Holland-Kaye insisted their plan will only succeed with more capacity at Heathrow.

We have good support in the Cabinet and theres a real sense of urgency now within government to make a decision, he said. The world has changed and its more vital than ever that we have more routes to emerging markets.

If the government continues to do nothing we will be choosing a future as a second-class economy and choosing to fall behind competitors.

The new runway is a cornerstone of the UKs economic plan, if were not pinning our future on the EU.

Holland-Kaye said International Trade Secretary Liam Fox supported a Heathrow runway as did local government secretary Sajid Javid. The former Taylor Wimpey man expects the government to decide in September or at the Autumn Statement whether to give the thumbs-up to the Heathrow runway.

The issue has been a long-running sore for the airport and government since an official commission led by Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Howard Davies recommended a third runway at Heathrow last summer.

Davies found Heathrow was the best option for the UK over Gatwick but the rival airport still insists it should get the new runway, a plan supported by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Some have questioned whether new Prime Minister Theresa May and chancellor Philip Hammond will throw their weight behind Heathrow given staunch opposition to a third runway by foreign secretary and Brexit winner Boris Johnson.

Holland-Kaye downplayed Johnsons influence, given Heathrow is not part of his portfolio.

Hes a local MP so he will see the benefit of more jobs for his constituents and as foreign secretary he will be one of our frequent travellers, he added.

Heathrow, the 11th-biggest privately owned company in the UK, eked out a 1% rise in revenue to 1.3 billion for the six months ending June.

Pre-tax profits rose by a larger 8.7% to 75 million after the company slashed costs by 3.6% by doing things like cutting down on energy bills.
Fast becoming one of Hollywood's most popular actresses, it would be easy to forget Aussie Margot Robbie began as a soap star.

Appearing in Australian soap opera Neighbours from 2008-2011, Robbie earned herself two Logie Award nominations before packing her bags and moving to the US.

She made her big screen debut in 2013 alongside Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy in Richard Curtis's romantic comedy film 'About Time', before going on to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's biographical drama 'The Wolf of Wall Street'.

She went on to star alongside Will Smith in 'Focus', and also landed roles in 'Suite Francaise', 'Z for Zachariah' and 'The Big Short'.

In 2016 she landed big roles in 'The Legend of Tarzan' and superhero film 'Suicide Squad.'

2017 was a big year for the 27-year-old. In addition to starring as Daphne de Selincourt, wife of A.A. Milne in Goodbye Christopher Robin, she also produced her first film, 'I, Tonya.' Robbie was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the protagonist, American figure skater Tonya Harding.

This year she is set to co-produce her second film, 'Dreamland', as well as star as Queen Elizabeth I in an upcoming film, 'Mary Queen of Scots'.

Margot Robbie - style file 1 /81 Margot Robbie - style file Click through our gallery to see Margot Robbie's style evolution AFP/Getty Images May 3, 2009 At the 51st TV Week Logie Awards at the Crown Towers Hotel and Casino Lucas Dawson/Getty Images September 17, 2009 At the 'Screen Worlds: The story of film, television and digital culture' exhibition Scott Barbour/Getty Images October 8, 2009 At The Black Eyed Peas Wrap Party at the Palms at Crown Robert Prezioso/Getty Images November 13, 2009 At the Australian Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Cameron Spencer/Getty Images May 2, 2010 At the 52nd TV Week Logie Awards Scott Barbour/Getty Images August 11, 2010 At the 'Tomorrow When the War Began' premiere in Melbourne Robert Prezioso/Getty Images June 7, 2011 At Australians in Films 2011 Breakthrough Awards Michael Buckner/Getty Images August 7, 2011 At the Disney ABC Television Group's 'TCA 2001 Summer Press Tour' Michael Buckner/Getty Images August 8, 2013 At the 'About Time' world premiere at Somerset House Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images December 17, 2013 At the 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' premiere in New York Michael Loccisano/Getty Images December 18, 2013 At the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Official Academy Members screening of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' Cindy Ord/Getty Images January 7, 2014 At an Australians In Film Screening Of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' Frazer Harrison/Getty Images January 12, 2014 At the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards Jason Merritt/Getty Images January 16, 2014 At the 19th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards Ethan Miller/Getty Images March 2, 2014 At the Oscars Frazer Harrison/Getty Images March 5, 2014 At the Miu Miu show during Paris Fashion Week AW14 Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images March 30, 2014 At the Jameson Empire Awards 2014 at the Grosvenor House Hotel Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images May 5, 2014 At the 'Charles James: Beyond Fashion' Met Gala Larry Busacca/Getty Images May 7, 2014 At the Christian Dior Cruise 2015 Show Bryan Bedder/Getty Images May 13, 2014 At a dinner to celebrate the work of The Royal Marsden hosted by the Duke of Cambridge Chris Jackson/Getty Images June 15, 2014 At the One For The Boys charity ball during the London Collections: Men SS15 Karwai Tang/Getty Images November 8, 2014 At the Swisse Marquee on Stakes Day at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne Scott Barbour/Getty Images January 24, 2015 At the 'Z for Zachariah' Dinner at The Acura Studio Neilson Barnard/Getty Images February 7, 2015 At the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences' Scientific And Technical Awards Ceremony Valerie Macon/Getty Images February 22, 2015 At the Oscars Jason Merritt/Getty Images February 24, 2015 At the Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Focus' premiere at TCL Chinese Theatre Jason Merritt/Getty Images July 11, 2015 At the Warner Bros. 'Suicide Squad' presentation during Comic-Con International Kevin Winter/Getty Images September 11, 2015 At the Annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Kris Connor/Getty Images September 11, 2015 At the Givenchy show during New York Fashion Week SS16 Larry Busacca/Getty Images February 18, 2016 At the Calvin Klein show during New York Fashion Week AW16 Michael Loccisano/Getty Images February 28, 2016 At the Oscars Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images March 1, 2016 At the 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot' world premiere in New York Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images May 2, 2016 At the 'Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology' Met Gala Larry Busacca/Getty Images June 27, 2016 At the world premiere of 'The Legend of Tarzan' in Hollywood Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images July 5, 2016 At the European premiere of 'The Legend Of Tarzan' at Odeon Leicester Square Jeff Spicer/Getty Images July 23, 2016 At Comic-Con Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images July 25, 2016 On the set of Univisions 'Despierta America' Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images July 28, 2016 Heading to film 'Live with Kelly' MediaPunch/Rex August 1, 2016 At the 'Suicide Squad' world premiere in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images August 3, 2016 At the European Premiere of 'Suicide Squad' in London Chris Jackson/Getty Images November 28, 2016 At the Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York Neilson Barnard/Getty Images April 25, 2017 At the 2017 Time 100 Gala in New York Getty Images September 8, 2017 At the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Getty Images for IMDb September 8, 2017 At the "I, Tonya" premiere in Toronto Getty Images September 9, 2017 At the InStyle annual celebration of 2017 Toronto International Film Featival Getty Images September 20, 2017 At the 'Goodbye Christopher Robin' World Premiere in London John Phillips/Getty Images October 8, 2017 At the Hamptons International Film Festival 2017, New York Getty Images for Hamptons International Film Festival October 11, 2017 At the "Goodbye Christopher Robin" Special Screening in New York AFP/Getty Images October 16, 2017 At ELLE's 24th Annual Women in Hollywood Celebration Getty Images for ELLE November 5, 2017 At the 21st Annual Hollywood Film Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel Getty Images November 11, 2017 At the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 9th Annual Governors Awards Getty Images November 12, 2017 At the "Indie Contenders Roundtable" at AFI FEST in Hollywood Getty Images for AFI November 27, 2017 At the 2017 Gotham Awards Getty Images for Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau November 28, 2017 At the New York premiere of 'I, Tonya' Getty Images December 5, 2017 At the Los Angeles Premiere of "I, Tonya" Getty Images December 6, 2017 At a Refinery29 event in Los Angeles Getty Images for Refinery29 December 7, 2017 At the Australians In Film screening of "I, Tonya" in Beverly HIlls Getty Images January 7, 2018 At The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel Getty Images January 11, 2018 At The 23rd Annual Critics' Choice Awards Getty Images January 20, 2018 At the 29th Annual Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills Getty Images

And with such a number of impressive previous and upcoming roles, the inevitable influx of red carpet appearances seem not to have fazed Robbie.

Recent stand out red carpet looks include an off-the-shoulder black satin Louis Vuitton gown worn to The 29th Annual Producers Guild Awards, as well as the archival Versace dress she chose for the New York Premiere of 'Goodbye Christopher Robin.'

Follow Lifestyle on Facebook and on Twitter @ESLifeandStyle
Fracking, a decades old practice in the oil and gas industry that was once featured on an episode of The Simpsons, is back in the news in Nebraska. A controversial decision by the Nebraska Oil and Gas Commission last year to allow a Colorado company to dispose of salty groundwater and chemical-laden wastewater in a well north of Mitchell has been overturned by a judge in Sidney.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of injecting fluid  mostly water and sand, but with additional chemicals  into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rocks and to release crude oil and natural gas inside. Its a process that has been in use in Nebraska for more than 65 years. Environmentalists have challenged the practice as a matter of public health.

Cheyenne County Judge Derek Weimer ruled recently that the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission exceeded its authority in April 2015 when it approved the request by Terex Energy Corp. to dispose of the water. That approval, made after a lengthy and sometimes acrimonious public hearing, led to legislative attempts to abolish the commission or at least more closely regulate its activities.

During that hearing, farmer James Osborne challenged commission members to drink glasses of water tainted by fracking. He said it was a visual explanation of what fracking waste can do to the water table. The group BoldNebraska has circulated video copies of Osbornes challenge.

Apparently unmoved by the demonstration, the commission signed off on Terex Energy Corp.s proposal to convert an inactive oil well into a commercial fracking wastewater disposal site. The approval rejected objections from local officials, landowners and environmentalists and allowed the company to inject 5,000 barrels of oil field production water a day in the Sioux County well.

In March, 2016, the governor signed a bill creating a monitoring system for fracking wastewater transportation and requiring annual sampling of fracking fluids. The measure also adjusted the Nebraska Oil and Gas Commissions mission to focus on promoting health, safety and protection of natural resources. LB1082 also requires public forums for injection well permit applications.

In the case before Judge Weimer, landowners, Jane Grove and Hughson Flying A Ranch Inc., asked for a review of the commissions authority. They contended there is no Nebraska statute that gives the commission authority to authorize disposal of the wastewater from other states. The judge agreed.

In the Simpsons episode, Opposites A-Frack, Marges twin sisters Patty and Selma start a fire when the tap water in a downstairs bathroom ignites as they are trying to smoke cigarettes. Lisa Simpson informs her mother, Marge, that this is possibly a result of fracking, which she discovers is happening at a local factory. Marge successfully calls on Assemblywoman Maxine Lombard to stop the fracking.

Back in the real world, opponents of fracking argue that negative environmental and human health impacts could be significant. Although wells have been fracked for over 65 years in the United States, concerns have been raised about whether federal, state, and local regulatory agencies can keep up with the recent rapid increase in fracking activity and adequately protect the environment and human health.

Nebraskas new law is a step in that direction. Its unclear at this writing whether the Colorado company will challenge the judges ruling or what, if any, action the Oil and Gas Commission might take.

One thing is certain, the industry that generates the waste and the folks who are responsible for monitoring that activity should be aware that Nebraskans are watching.
Review at a glance









C ritics who say this is a faithful adaptation of Roald Dahls classic tale are swizzfigglers. In other words, they aint read the book. Steven Spielberg, along with ET scriptwriter Melissa Mathison, have turned the story of a Big Friendly Giant into a Blatant Freudian Guilt-trip. Nice move.

In the novel, a vegetarian giant who blows sweet dreams into childrens brains snatches a girl called Sophie from an orphanage because she catches him at work, thus endangering the safety of him and his fellow giants (a bunch of flesh-eating bullies who he loathes, yet is loyal to).

Having taken Sophie to Giant Country and Dreamland, he warms to the child and decides to punish the giants (with the help of the Queen of England). When thats accomplished he and Sophie settle down in neighbouring houses.

Having it large: Mark Rylance as the computer-generated Big Friendly Giant

The films giant (an elegantly frazzled-looking Mark Rylance, his body stretched and sculpted by motion-capture magic) is infinitely more complicated. In Giant Country he tells Sophie (idiosyncratic newcomer Ruby Barnhill) that dreams are wishes in disguise and always involve a dribble of despair. He then takes her back to the orphanage, confessing that, years ago, he kidnapped a boy in a red jacket, who wound up being crunched by the other giants.

The BFG realises that loyalty to his own kind is putting another childs life in danger, though lonely Sophie clings on. In the films most moving scene she asks Was the boy scared, when he died? She then hurls herself from the orphanage balcony to prove that the giant, though he failed to protect the little boy, is worthy of trust.

BFG: Mark and Ruby

Gulp. As any fool can see, the BFG is Oskar Schindler all over again, a sinner offered the chance to atone for the crime of collaboration. Will he redeem himself? At the end, the BFG is consigned to solitude. Its as though Spielberg can forgive the giant but never forget.

Some of you may be wondering what Dahl, an infamous anti-Semite, would think of this Holocaust-inflected psychodrama. Tee hee  hed probably hate it.

Make sure you see The BFG in 3D, by the way: you dont need goggles to appreciate the giants laceration of the English language or the hilarious, flatulent effect of his favourite drink (having swallowed it, the Queen and her corgis cut the cheese, big time) but its a different story with the SFX.

Thanks to 3D specs a night-time trip to Dreamland becomes as precisely ethereal as anything in Jean Cocteaus Beauty and the Beast. The dreams that Sophie learns to catch resemble wayward sprites.

Having recently discovered Pokemon Go I found it especially enchanting to watch the little girl go ahunting. As she traps a Trogglehumper in her hands my own fingers started to tingle.

Dont be put off by the fact that The BFG flopped in the US. So did The Witches and Fantastic Mr Fox. Though far from perfect this harrowing caper is a one-off. British kids, if they know whats good for them, will guzzle it up.

Cert PG, 117 mins

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I t might only serve 25 stations, but the Bakerloo line is one of the most important routes on the London Underground system - carrying more than 111 million passengers annually.

The line, which is coloured brown on the Tube map, opened between 1906 and 1915, and to this day many of its stations retain elements of their original Edwardian design.

Take a stroll around the stations below ground and youll spot many examples of the Art Nouveau decorative tiling designed by architect Leslie Green at the turn of the century.

Many of the above-ground stations also still retain Greens distinctive ox-blood, red brick facade with their tell-tale semicircular first-floor windows. The most popular of these, of course, being Oxford Circus.

Unlike many other lines, the Bakerloo line has not had its route changed or extended since the 1930s - meaning the line terminates on the Southern branch at the relatively central Elephant and Castle.

You probably take this line to travel to Regent's Park for Sunday strolls, Waterloo to catch a train out of London and Lambeth North to go to the Imperial War Museum. But how much do you really know about the network that ferries millions of people around the capital?

Click through our gallery above to discover ten interesting facts about London's Bakerloo line.

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I ts a terrible but familiar feeling. We see a painting or view and our immediate thought is that we must photograph and share it. And I mean share in the social-media rather than the social sense. Even lunch must be filtered, hashtagged and sent into the virtual word that is fast replacing the real one. We have two meals  one real and one for Instagram; the two rarely match exactly.

The term addicted as applied to Game of Thrones and ice cream is overused. However, as a recovering addict, I can see many parallels between legitimate, addictive process and dependence and our increasing reliance on, and fixation with, the pixilated world. Pokemon Go is the just the latest digital crack on which we spend time and money, and use as a means of escape. Many of these platforms are sold to us with a dealers flair for marketing. Free at first, then you pay for upgrades. More likes, more matches, more monsters  the dopamine hit they deliver mirrors those delivered by nicotine, cocaine and sex, although at lower levels.

The single most pertinent daily reminder that Im a recovering alcoholic and addict, apart from pangs of guilt that come and go like bad weather and my inability to dance sober, is my relationship with my phone. Im nearly always on it, just as formerly I was often on something. The alcoholic sees things through a veil  colours brighter, music louder. Things are similarly filtered for me now through technology. These devices demand attention with the same urgency as drugs. Clearly, a Pokemon rock bottom is far preferable to the very serious consequences of substance abuse, and Id rather have Instagram than grams, but there are similarities.

Explainer: The Pokemon Go craze

Though we may be messaging and double-tapping other people, we use these phones alone. However they may connect us they also isolate us, and isolation is the hallmark of addiction. Tinder is more about the idea of sex than the real thing, its a game of texting and swiping that is more pornographic than romantic. That it is solely a portal to real sex and not something largely virtual is a myth. Too much time on Instagram leaves me feeling spent, bleary-eyed and envious of the filtered lives others seem to live. But the next day  despite in some cases deleting it from my phone  Im back on it. Looking for what exactly? It can create a dependence on others for self-esteem. This process, for all its photogenic, emojied frivolity, erodes some part of legitimate self-belief.

For me, what these apps have in common with addictive substances is that their use necessitates further use. Our peers on Instagram require, we tell ourselves, another selfie or food shot from us. Im alive these posts say, with the subtext of love me. The addict is forever telling himself one more or Ill stop tomorrow, and these platitudes can be applied to apps. When I get 1,000 followers Ill be happy; when I capture a sufficient number of Japanese monsters all will be well. For addicts of any sort, no drug, drink, anime character or friend request will ever be enough.

Many people can relate to a technical overload, a smartphone hangover. Its all too much and we long for a simpler time when people had more real relationships and conversations and games were played with dice. Ive done phone detoxes and am always amazed how much work gets done. Paintings seen, again become a private pleasure. Theres always withdrawal, though. That panicked grab at your pocket for the phone which you then remember has run out of battery. At a cafe without a prop, alone at a table, we dont know what to do with our hands. Its awkward. Our dexterity is being gradually being trained through every manoeuvre across a screen and every swipe.

The best apps for Londoners 1 /16 The best apps for Londoners Zip car Join, reserve, unlock and drive  it really is that simple. The capitals preferred car clubs app gives 24/7 access to cars and vans in your neighbourhood and lets you extend or cancel reservations on the go. Free Uncover Sick of being stuck on waiting lists? You need Uncover, which redistributes cancelled reservations at some of the capitals top restaurants, including The River Cafe and Nobu. Not for planning freaks, though  tables typically become free at 40 minutes notice. Free Uber So popular its become a verb, this private driver service has revolutionised travel in the capital. Its speedy and affordable, making it a welcome alternative to the night bus. Free Santander Cycles Launched this summer, the official app for Boris fifth child can be used to search for nearby docking stations and check bike availability. Theres also a journey planner featuring easy, moderate and fast routes to satisfy all cycling tribes. Free Plume Air Report This new app has been downloaded by 3,000 Londoners. Sensors gathering air pollution data submit updates every hour, resulting in a scale that ranges from fresh to extremely polluted. Free Nightcapp Heres an app that will have booze hounds raising their glasses. NightCapp is a map that pinpoints more than 1,500 London watering holes that stay open past 11.30pm. It also shows users when a bar is about to close by highlighting it in orange. Better get moving. Free Money Dashboard An award-winning budget planner, this helps you keep track of personal spending across multiple accounts, pay off credit cards and even makes suggestions on how to manage your finances better. Free Her Promising to introduce women to a lesbian that hasnt slept with any of your friends, this revamped dating app includes queer-themed news and blogs, upcoming event notices and an improved algorithm-matching system. Free FoodMood This new startup, which reckons its Tinder for food, pledges to narrow down your choice of lunchbreak destinations. Hit yum or yuk on photos of dishes in your area. Juvenile, but strangely addictive. Free Daily Yoga This offers more than 50 yoga sessions, as well as a database of 500 yoga poses. Suitable for all levels, programmes include yoga aimed at specific areas of the body and weight loss. Namaste to that. Free Coffee Meets Bagel Billed as the anti-Tinder, this new kid on the block delivers just a single match to users once a day. Coffee Meets Bagel uses Facebook profile information to recommend suitors based on friends of friends. Neither coffee nor bagels are included. Free. Bristlr Do you have a beard? Perhaps youd like to stroke one on a regular basis? This can be arranged. Unlike other dating apps, Bristlr is unashamedly all about hooking up the hairy with the hairless. Theres even a beard-rating option for aficionados. Free

This is all surely affecting out brains in a more permanent way. The child who draws their thumb and forefinger across the pages of a book attempting to zoom in is an ominous portent of the future. Developers will continue to make monsters but perhaps the monster is the phone itself. Or the zombie staring into it, mistaking a virtual reality for the real thing.

Before he discovered Instagram Oscar Humphries was the editor of the art magazine Apollo
I n a city where history meets style you will find it hard to better the Marktgasse, tucked away on a cobbled street corner just a stones throw from the beautiful and bustling bank of the citys Limmat River.

Where is it? Slap bang in the middle of Zurich, a ten-minute stroll from the station which, in turn, is just a ten minute train hop from the airport.

Style: Boutique with a dash of industrial minimalism. Formerly one of Zurichs oldest inns, two listed buildings dating back to the late 13th century have been sensitively restored into a chic yet comfortably relaxed hotel that opened at the end of 2015. Many of the original features have been preserved but still look at ease alongside their contemporary neighbours.

Practical lives alongside quirky  open spaces for business meetings, landings featuring water stations with jugs and glasses, and the reception (found on the first floor) has a wall devoted to 24/7 tea and coffee facilities that even George Clooney would use.

Facilities: The hotel has a salon and library boasting a large collection of books on art, culture cuisine and travel. For those in search of pampering, the Fitnesspark Hamam Munstergasse is but a two minute stroll away and affords Marktgasse guests the full spectrum of personal training, yoga, pilates and spa treatments.

The exterior of the hotel with its al fresco seating

Extra-curricular: Be careful of the trams, theyre everywhere including one which houses a Chinese restaurant - ideal for chopstick commuting. And talking of everywhere, try counting the number of jewellery (watches, obviously) and chocolate shops. It runs to hundreds. Elsewhere the city is awash with restaurants and bars, either gracing the banks of the river, or skulking in the maize of cobbled alleyways and squares.

Dishes on offer at the Baltho restaurant

Food & Drink: The two ends of the day couldnt be more different. Breakfast is a kid in a sweet store experience in Delish, a bright and buzzy deli type cafe in a street corner location with displays of sumptuous food that shout out come in and eat me. From fruits and yoghurts, to pastries and cakes, cheeses and hams, bacon and eggs, you could start at one end of the display and just keep going. At night, the mood changes to the Baltho Bar  dark, wooden and intimate. There are cocktails a-plenty, light Swiss beers and wines to tempt most palates. Here you can study the menu for the adjoining restaurant. Modern with an open kitchen, it boasts a deliberately pared down menu. For that read limited, but nevertheless top quality.

Which room? There are several room types, from suites (one with a rooftop terrace affording stunning views across the city) to generous, cosy and single. The fabulous Art Deco bathroom with twin sinks, a perfect shower and luxurious bed ticked all the boxes - the slanting floor a quirk to get used to. Strangely, after an evening in the bar, it seemed to be levelling out.

The Junior Suite's enviable rooftop terrace

Best for: City lovers  it's in the heart of beautiful, buzzy Zurich and so easy to get to.

Any downsides? Its not cheap, but hey, this is Switzerland, it doesnt do cheap.

When to go: Whenever you can. If the suns out a walk by the river to Lake Zurich is unbeatable. In the rain? Theres always a watch or some chocolate to buy.

Beautiful: Zurich / Zurich Tourist Board

Price: from CHF 274 for a double room

Details: Marktgasse 17, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland; marktgassehotel.ch

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A s a proud MacLeod, I always assumed Id one day make the pilgrimage to the Isle of Skye, ancestral homeland of the MacLeod clan. My suburban English childhood was sustained by a fantasy of a mist-wreathed castle - the family home  waiting patiently for its errant clanswoman, temporarily exiled to lowland Ipswich but ready to leap into action in the event of any new skirmish with the Macdonalds.

When I finally decided to make the trip, it wasnt a clan gathering that drew me home (as I like to think of it), but an episode of Grand Designs. Entranced by the programmes depiction not just of the glorious variety of the landscape, but of the islands craft-based creative resurgence, I resolved to speed to Skye.

Our itinerary for a three-generation, four-day visit is weighted heavily in favour of restaurants and cafes, rather than mountains and moorland. The road bridge which connected Skye to the mainland in 1995 has brought in a galvanising mix of white settlers whove set up artisan food businesses, joining younger islanders who increasingly opt to stay and do interesting things with Skyes bounteous local ingredients.

Sweeping across the road bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh is a spectacular way to arrive, although the kids are more excited by their night aboard the Caledonian Sleeper, which turns the Euston to Fort William leg of the journey into a real adventure. The 75-mile drive from Fort William to the Skye Bridge is dramatic, but nothing in my fantasies has prepared me for the breathtaking beauty of Skye. A vague expectation, drawn largely from watching Balamory, of a colourful town with a pretty bit of countryside attached is confounded by a landscape rugged on an epic scale. Here are proper mountains: the Cuillins, which loom over us as we head south towards our first base, Kinloch Lodge.

Are we going to McDonalds?, the kids wanted to know when they first overheard our plans. And yes, we are: Kinloch Lodge is Ground Zero of the Macdonalds, the family home of clan leader Godfrey Macdonald of Macdonald and his food writer wife Claire. The MacLeods and Macdonalds are ancient enemies, but who wouldnt put aside a few centuries of blood-soaked warfare for the chance to stay in Skyes swankiest hotel?

Once the familys shooting lodge, Kinloch is magically positioned against a backdrop of wooded hills at the head of a sea loch which puts on a sparkling light show in the low autumn sun. The main house still feels cosily domestic, if your idea of home is the former hunting lodge of a venerable clan (and obviously, mine is). The tartan-and-trophies decor is more muted in the new loch-side building we are billeted in, though the lounge bristles with family photos, portraits and other Macdonaldiana, and our bed is accessorised with so many tartan bolsters, bedtime feels like a romp with Ronnie Corbett.

As an introduction to Skyes food culture, Kinloch Lodge sets the bar high. Scottish-Brazilian chef Marcello Tully makes creative use of local ingredients in his multi-course tasting menus. Isabella, who has taken over the running of the hotel from her parents, is warm and welcoming, and comes to the rescue when I relise that Dunvegan Castle, home of the Clan MacLeod, has just closed for the winter, along with many of the islands restaurants and visitor attractions.

Attention to detail: Calum Munro at Scorrybreac

With one quick call she manages to arrange a private tour with Dunvegans custodian. Its good to know that in some small way, weve been able to help repair the skirmishes of the last few centuries.

I read up about the castle in one of the hotels many books on local history and discover that according to legend, Dunvegan originally belonged to the Macdonalds, but the nasty MacLeods got their hands on it after bumping off the rightful heir in a boating accident. Hang on  so were the baddies?

As we drive towards Dunvegan on the single track road that loops vertiginously round the southern part of the island, all eyes are peeled for that misty castle, home of the MacLeods for 800 years. But it cant be seen from the road, and, on a dreich day, the reality is less than romantic, an agglomeration of buildings from various eras that seem to have been crudely cemented together and pebble-dashed  did I authorise that? The clan leader still lives here, but an invitation to pop upstairs for tea is not forthcoming, so we confine ourselves to the lower floors, which are stuffed with ancestral treasures, with a distinct emphasis on weaponry.

Kinloch Lodge / Alamy

Only looking at the visitors book, signed by hundreds of MacLeods each day from every corner of the globe, does the meaninglessness of my MacLeod connection really strike me. I leave feeling distinctly less special than when I arrived. The next couple of days are spent looping around the island, drinking in the dazzling collision of mountains, moors and sheer cliffs slashed with foaming waterfalls. We stick to the coastal roads after a 10-mile bounce over the mountainous middle of the island from Bracadale to Portree, made even livelier by the real and present danger of running out of petrol. Sheep wander out in front of the car and once we find ourselves marooned in an ambling herd of cows.

Pubs and cafes seem to be outnumbered by craft studios and churches, but interesting places to eat pop up in the most unexpected places. Driving north from Portree around the Trotternish peninsula, past the Old Man of Storr, we find the Glenview Inn, a squat whitewashed hotel which houses a fantastical dining room straight out of Alices tea party, with teacups strung from the ceiling and baskets heaped with balls of wool and needles, should the impulse to knit strike. The Skye Pie Cafe opened last year with an almost entirely pie-based menu. Pulled Skye mutton with apricots and harissa, Highland beef in gravy, West coast fish and mussels with chilli - these are the work of a pie perfectionist, made with two types of pastry (shortcrust for the base, puff for the lid) and served with potato wedges as stout and crisp as roasties. Australian chef-proprietor Simon (The Pie Man), even makes his own ketchup and baked beans. Thats what happens when theres no prospect of an Ocado delivery.

Tempting: Scorrybreac's Chocolate & Basil Fondant

Further north on the same stretch of coastal road at Kilmaluag and even more remotely positioned is the house I saw on on Grand Designs, its smaller gallery now home to the Single Track Cafe, presumably to cater to pilgrims drawn here by the programme. The grass-roofed larch-clad buildings have settled into the landscape, and the cafe-cum-gallery offers spectacular ocean views, as well as great cakes and coffee - the artist owners were missing a good cappuccino, so they crowdfunded their own espresso machine.

Back at the islands hub, Portree, the only town of any size on Skye, we have dinner at Scorrybreac, a tiny restaurant that grew from a supper club in the family kitchen of Skye native Calum Munro, and got a nod from Michelin within months of opening. Its a magical, convivial little spot humming with good taste and good vibes.

A few doors down is Dulse & Brose, a stylish brasserie in the towns best hotel, the Bosville, where we eat double-dived scallops and triple-cooked chips in a long room hung with Skye tweed, woven locally on a loom converted from a bike. The young chef is a graduate of Skyes most famous restaurant, The Three Chimneys, which looms large over the islands food scene. We encounter several former employees in different guises, including Rick, our host at Canowindra, a terrific modern B&B near Portree, where we stay for the second part of our trip.

The Three Chimneys / Alamy

Realising that we should make the most of this savage natural beauty, we take the boys out for a yomp with Mitch Partridge, the self-styled Skye Ghillie. A professional outdoorsman and guide, he puts together tailor-made adventures for every degree of bravado, from bivouacking and hunting to fishing and foraging. I suspect our package is basic townie wimp: a bit of bird-watching, an amble over moorlands to look at the ruins of a settlement abandoned since the Clearances, and some gentle foraging.

After a short while, Mitch screeches off the road and whips out his binoculars as two white-tailed eagles, each with a two-metre wing span, wheel above us. At the start of our hike, he trusses us all up in protective waterproofs and overshoes, which seems mad in the warm sunshine. But 20 minutes later were all cowering under a tree as horizontal rain lashes us, gratefully nibbling on the nettles, yarrow, wood sorrel and pineapple weed Mitch magics up from nearby bushes.

After an hour-long scramble, we end up at the mouth of Loch Snizort, famed for its mussels. Lifting sheets of kelp, Mitch encourages us to pluck them from the rocks, while he boils up salt water in a storm kettle. Ill just add white wine and cream, he says, and I perk up, but of course, hes taking the micky. Even au naturel, they are fabulously sweet and rich.

Brexit holiday destinations in the UK 1 /10 Brexit holiday destinations in the UK Whistable and Faversham The Saxon Shore Way between Whistable and Faversham is dotted with historic villages, Iron Age hill forts, martello towers and ancient castles, and is ideal for summer walks. The Old Neptune pub in Whistable is the perfect place to sink a pint, before sampling the seafood at Wheelers Oyster Bar. Stay at Shepherd House in Faversham a Georgian townhouse thats been converted into one of the South East coasts most stylish stays. For foodies, theres also the brilliant Seasalter pub, which was just voted best gastro pub in UK  but be warned, youll need to book your table at least three months in advance. Alamy Stock Photo Osea Island Located in the middle of Essexs Blackwater Estuary, this private island  which is only accessible by boat, helicopter or car at low tide  boasts four and a half miles of its own beaches and coastline. Saltwater swimming pools and isolated fishing spots allow visitors to reconnect with nature during their stay, while there are acres of sandy shores and countryside for visitors to catch a breath of country air. Theres cluster of luxurious coastal boltholes on offer, that sleep up to 20 and are perched high above sea level with many with beautiful views across the Blackwater River. Alamy Stock Photo The Jurrasic Coast The Jurassic Coast in the South West covers 95 miles of truly stunning coastline from East Devon to Dorset, with rocks recording 185 million years of the Earth's history. The different rocks along the Jurassic Coast have been carved by the sea into bays, beaches, cliffs, stacks, arches and landslides. This marvellous variety in the landscape makes this coast one of the most beautiful in the UK. Make sure to stay in The Pig - a beautifully restored country bolthole with views along the sandy coastline and a fantastic restaurant. Alamy Stock Photo Isle of White The Isle of Wight has one of the UKs most spectacular and diverse coastlines, and along its length youll find a wealth of fascinating wildlife, natural beauty and places to explore. The West Wight remains rugged and unspoilt and is a favourite with fossil hunters searching for links with the Islands rich prehistoric past. East Wight is best known for its miles of sandy beaches and seaside attractions, and is perfect for family holidays where sun, sea and sand are on the agenda. The Hambrough Hotel is the jewel of Vetnor, an elegant 7-room boutique B&B and destination restaurant with unspoilt views across the coast. Alamy Stock Photo The Lake District Every year, some 15 million people pitch up to explore this national parks fells and countryside, and it's not hard to see why. Incredible scenery, green countryside and grand views cover a total area of just over 885 square miles. Its picturesque body of lakes, valleys, woodlands and fells make it an ideal place to reconnect with nature, whether hitting the hills on a mountain bike or taking a long hike. A stonesthrow from the beautiful lake Windermere is the Cedar Manor Hotel, a Victorian country house to rest up after a long day of walking. Alamy Stock Photo Bruton Scandi design shop Caro, brunch options and a world-renowned art gallery - there's plenty more to Bruton than stunning Somerset countryside. The recent arrival of Hauser & Wirth in the Somerset countryside has brought new glamour to Bruton and put it on the map for visitors from all over the world. Stay at Caro's one bed B&B or At The Chapel, both in the centre of this charming town. Alamy Stock Photo Antrim Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of Ireland. This green, rugged and awe-inspiring land is home to the Giants Causeway, an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The causeway coast is also one of the most picturesque walks  or runs - youll do in Ireland, with historic ruined castles and the world's oldest whiskey distillery to discover. Check into the super cosy Bushmills Inn  a cosy bolthole with roaring peat fires, nooks and crannies to get lost in and a secret library. Alamy Stock Photo Snowdonia and Angelsey Home to the Snowdonia National Park and the biggest mountain in Wales and England, Snowdon at 3,560ft, this nature-filled part of North Wales has plenty on offer for adventurous staycationers. As well as hiking the mountain, theres also a long coastline of sandy beaches, spectacular cliffs and glorious estuaries. Make the short drive to Anglesey and breathe in some fresh sea air along the bracing coastal path. Stay at the beautiful Chateau Rhianfa, a magnificent French gothic-styled chateau hotel with incredible views of the Menai Strait and the towering peaks of Snowdonia. Alamy

We began our eating adventure on Skye in Michelin-starred Kinloch Lodge, where local mussels come with caper and pistachio pesto. We end it eating the same mussels crouched round a billy can at the mouth of a loch, on the lookout for otters and seals. Skye may not be the home Ive dreamed of, but its certainly a very long way from Ipswich.

Details: Skye

Caledonian Sleeper (0330 060 0500; sleeper.scot). Standard berths from Euston to Fort William start at 85.

Kinloch Lodge (01471 833333; kinloch-lodge.co.uk). Rooms from 170 per person, May-October (from 120, November-March) including a five-course dinner, bed and breakfast.

Canowindra (01478 613 640; canowindraskye.co.uk). B&B doubles from 158.

Skye Ghillie (01470 532 690; skyeghillie.co.uk). One-day wilderness adventure for a family of four from 170.

visitscotland.com
A man was today fighting for life in hospital after he was shot multiple times in south London in the early hours of this morning.

Residents of the Brandon Estate in Camberwell called police after hearing gunfire ringing out at around 1am.

Moments later, another 999 call was made reporting a man had been shot in Camberwell New Road.

When officers arrived, they found the man, believed to be aged in his 20s, suffering from several gunshot wounds.

He was rushed to hospital where his condition is thought to be life-threatening.

Police believe the initial shooting may have taken place in nearby John Ruskin Street.

Officers have stepped up their patrols in the area but there have been no arrests so far.

The shooting is the third violent incident in Camberwell this week, following the stabbing of two teenagers at a mass water fight in Burgess Park.
A four-year-old boy is fighting for life after he was knocked down by a Mercedes in a hit-and-run in north London.

The boy was rushed to hospital after he was struck by the silver Mercedes E Class in Green Lanes at 6.15pm today.

Police said the driver failed to stop at the scene and sped off towards Winchmore Hill.

The child was taken to hospital by Londons Air Ambulance.

He remained in a critical condition this evening, police said.

Officers said it is not known how many people were travelling inside the vehicle which it hit the boy.

Anyone who witnessed the collision or who has information should call Enfield police via 101 or to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
C hildren fled in terror as a man was stabbed to death in a London park packed with families.

Bradley Quaresma, 20, is believed to have been slashed across the neck during an row in West Ham Lane Recreation Ground in Stratford yesterday afternoon.

Paramedics from Londons Air Ambulance battled to save his life before he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses told how the park was busy with families when the attack took place at about 3.15pm.

Police at the scene of the Stratford Park stabbing

A forensic police officer at work at the scene in the park in Stratford / Nigel Howard

A woman who lives near the scene said: The park was full of families and children just coming home from school.

I saw police interviewing people and there was a little boy there holding a ball who looked traumatised. He was about 11 or 12.

Tony Cook, 29, who was walking past on the school run, said: I could see the air ambulance above me looking to land. There were loads of police officers patrolling the park and escorting people out safely.

Police near the gates to the park in Stratford where the man was stabbed / Nigel Howard

Another neighbour said: I could hear shouting and people looking over. This is my home and I dont want to see that. I just feel sad really.

Witnesses said a blue tent was erected over the victims body in front of horrified youngsters.

Friends of Mr Quaresma, originally from Portugal, today told of their heartbreak.

Yuu Costa wrote on Facebook: I cant believe what Im reading, a kid that I met at six years old and now all of a sudden hes left this world?

Officers guarding the park / Jac Lockwood

He still had much to live for and to celebrate in this life. Ill remember him always with a smile on his face, fun-loving, cheeky and full of life.

Omar Semado wrote: I still cant believe it. You were a kid loved by all. God rest your soul in peace and I want you to know that we all love you.

Nellio Galvao added: Rest in peace my kid. Its hard to believe  theres no words for this. A lot of strength and courage to his family.

Two male teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were arrested nearby. They were today being questioned by detectives from the Mets Homicide and Major Crime Command.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Holmes said: It was a busy time of day when this violent incident has occurred and I am appealing to anyone who was in an around the area, and who may have witnessed the incident to contact us.

Anyone who can assist detectives is urged to call 020 8345 1570 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org.
J unior doctors granted a lifeline by the High Court to continue their fight against Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt if they raised 130,000 to cover his legal costs were today set to hit the target.

A huge response within hours of yesterdays ruling saw more than 3,500 donations take the Justice for Health campaigners to within 20,000 of the target this morning. This is on top of the 180,000 already raised via crowdfunding to bring the case to court.

Labour Tooting MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a former A&E junior doctor at St Georges hospital, yesterday said Mr Hunt had tried to silence junior doctors by requiring them to pick up the Governments legal bill if they lost the case. The junior doctors dispute will not be brushed under the carpet, she told the Commons. I will make the facts known again and again. On Wednesday, Tamal Ray, the junior doctor who starred in the most recent series of The Great British Bake Off, tweeted: Please please, donate anything you can spare to help us with the court battle.

At an interim hearing yesterday, Mr Justice Green said there was public interest in hearing the case and allowed the application for judicial review to proceed. A three-day hearing is expected in September.

Justice for Health claims Mr Hunt is acting illegally by seeking to impose the new contracts from October 1. The judge rejected Mr Hunts demand for a 150,000 surety within seven days, giving the doctors until August 16 to raise the reduced amount.

Dr Francesca Silman, a GP trainee in Kentish Town and one of the Justice for Health leaders, told the Standard: We will do everything we can to raise the money. Over the last nine months, people have grown to recognise that junior doctors are genuinely concerned about the safety of imposed contracts.

To donate, visit crowdjustice.co.uk/case/nhs
O utraged parents have lashed out at council bosses after children were turned away from a south London library when it was closed a day early.

Youngsters reportedly made their way to Waterloo Library in Lower Marsh for a summer reading event to find shelves being cleared before the doors were locked.

The library was due to shut on Saturday before reopening at a new location next week but was closed by Lambeth Council a day early to ensure a smooth transition between moving buildings.

A council spokesman said: Waterloo Library will re-open at the Oasis Centre on Monday as planned.

To help make sure transition goes smoothly and to ensure the new library will be open in time for the start of the school summer holidays the old location has now closed.

We thank residents for their understanding.

However, the move has angered parents and library campaigners who said children were disappointed to find the event had been cancelled.

A message on Save Our Libraries  Lambeth Facebook page read: We've just heard that a nursery school arrived at Waterloo Library this morning to be turned away as storytime is cancelled and the library is shut forever.

Today was supposed to be the launch of the Big Friendly Read, summer reading challenge and the Waterloo toddler's last storytime.

To cancel them is vindictive and disrespectful on top of the damage Lambeth Council are doing by closing local Libraries.

Writer and poet Michael Rosen tweeted: Toddlers turn up at Waterloo Library, Lambeth for story time, discover that library closed - forever. Contact Lambeth Council urgently.

While Anita Hall posted: Oh no! Children & families coming to launch party for Summer Reading Challenge at Waterloo #library today will be turned away #Defendtheten.

And Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey wrote: "Why has @WaterlooLibrary closed today with lots of activities cancelled?"

The Lambeth branch of Unison said it was planning to stage a protest outside the library against the closure.
The song bellowing through the convention hall of the Republican National Convention as he took center stage should have been Que Sera, Sera.

For Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the whatever will be, will be question is whether he will seek re-election in 2018 or make another run for the White House in 2020.

The futures not ours to see, so the song goes, but heres hoping for the latter.

Walker took to the podium in Cleveland on Wednesday night to support the candidacy of Donald Trump and reinforce the calculus that a vote for anyone else would be a vote for Hillary Clinton. Walker stepped back into the national spotlight after dropping out of the Republican presidential race in September. Since then, he has been in his home state trying to re-engage with the voters he neglected during his presidential ambition tour.

Walker is no showboater. Hes the opposite  a dull guy overseeing a state with more people employed today than in Wisconsins history. That boring Walker cut taxes by nearly $5 billion and has insisted upon a fully funded pension system. The states rainy day fund is roughly 150 times more bountiful than when the oh-so-monotonous Walker assumed office in 2011. Need-based financial aid for college students is on the rise. The states high school graduation rate ranks in the top five of states nationally. And the plain-spoken, tedious Walker has directed more money toward mental health services than any governor in the country.

Remind me again. Whats wrong with boring?

Walkers bland personality contributed to the death spiral of his presidential campaign after he, at first, soared to the top of the list of those expected to win the Iowa caucuses.

How wrong political pundits were, myself included, to think that GOP primary voters wanted dull. That they wanted substance. That they wanted a candidate with specific plans to pay down the national debt, curb deficit spending, lead on health-care reform and shrink government. How certain we were, instead, that Trumps pizazz would eventually fizzle and that the debates during the primary election would expose the hollow rhetoric of the guy with the crazy hair.

Walker  one of the countrys most tested elected officials  survived a recall election and beat back organized labor. But he got crushed by the steamrolling Trump.

Turns out, voters were tired of tightly messaged, politically correct leadership. They craved the crazy. They wanted the gaudy. Trump has not disappointed at the convention in Cleveland. His entrance onto the stage Monday night to introduce his wife included a smoke machine, a slow saunter to center stage and music roaring through the room.

I have seen that routine before, but usually at bachelorette parties. This time it was to honor the Republican nominee for president.

Walker has been making the rounds in Cleveland, including speaking to and reacquainting himself with the Iowa delegation. He doesnt want to be forgotten. Running for president in 2020 has already started, and his swing through the breakfast gatherings of important early primary states shows he is at least considering the possibility. Lets hope.

At this moment in time, Trump has tapped into the deep frustration of an electorate demanding radical, even unhinged, leadership.

Four years from now, we might be begging for boring.
A developer who tore down three Victorian homes which survived The Blitz could be forced to rebuild them brick by brick.

The properties in East Ferry Road, on the Isle of Dogs, were demolished without planning permission or consideration for the impact on the local conservation area.

German bombing raids destroyed most of the other homes in the road during the Second World War. Ten bombs fell on the immediate area between October 1940 and the following June but the three properties remained undamaged.

Bulldozers have now reduced them to rubble within the past month.

Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs today warned the owners that they could face legal action and should be made to rebuild the properties.

After: the site after the developer tore the houses down

Mr Biggs said: I am outraged by this unwarranted demolition.

The council is looking at its legal options, but in my view the owners should be made to replace these properties like for like, brick by brick.

This action is unprecedented in our borough. I can assure those who have been understandably distressed by this that the council takes protection of heritage assets seriously and we will thoroughly explore all the options and seek to take the strongest legal remedy possible.

The three buildings were not listed but were within the Coldharbour Conservation Area, which grants protection to older buildings and often means even moderate changes need planning permission. No one was living in the properties in the run up to them being demolished and the developer also served notice on Harrys Cafe next door, which has now permanently closed.

Council officers inspected the properties two years ago amid concerns they were structurally unsound. But a detailed check showed they were safe and a dangerous structure notice was not served.

Tory councillor Peter Golds called the demolition absolutely shocking and said he had been asking the council about the site for over a year.

He said he noticed windows disappearing from the rear of the buildings in April and added: The developer needs to rebuild them. If they paid compensation we would still lose something weve had for over a century for whats approaching another carbuncle.

They survived the first night of the Blitz and survived the Docklands Development Corporation, then someone comes along and takes away something precious to a lot of people here. They should be forced to rebuild.

All three properties date back to the 19th century but were separately converted to housing during the early Eighties, according to council records.

The town hall today said it could pursue legal action against the owners and was taking advice.

A council spokesman said: It is an offence to demolish buildings in conservation areas without permission and the council is considering initiating legal proceedings.
A woman has been rushed to hospital after being hit by a motorbike in central London.

Fleet Street was shut both ways at Ludgate Circus following the crash, which happened just before 11am today.

The pedestrian has been taken to hospital in east London with head injuries.

A spokesman for City of London Police said: Officers are currently in attendance at Fleet Street following a road traffic collision which occurred shortly before 11am.

The incident is believed to involve a motorcyclist in collision with a female pedestrian, who has been taken to hospital with injuries to her head.

Roads have been closed Eastbound and Westbound to traffic at Ludgate Junction.

Officers are investigating the full circumstances surrounding the incident.
G rass snakes are thriving on Hampstead Heath, say wildlife experts.

The City of London Corporation, which runs a volunteer grass-snake monitoring programme on the heath, said there had been a marked increase in sightings around the bird sanctuary pond since it began the programme in 2009.

Adrian Brooker, ecologist for the corporation, said: Hampstead Heath is the closest green space to central London with a breeding population of grass snakes.

It is a good indicator of a flourishing aquatic habitat because they need a healthy population of amphibians like frogs, toads and newts on which to survive.

"We are creating small ponds and winter refuges to encourage growth in their population.

Haven: Hampstead Heath in north London (Getty Images) / ANDREW COWIE/AFP/Getty Images

The grass snake, which is Britains largest terrestrial reptile, is non-venomous and eats frogs, toads and newts, although they sometimes go for small mammals and young birds.

The City of London Corporation protects and conserves 18 major green spaces in London and the South-East, including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest and more than 200 smaller ones in the Square Mile.
B usiness leaders today issued a rallying call for London to seize the opportunities created by Britain leaving the European Union.

Senior executives, many of whom supported staying in the EU, said now was the time for the capital to stand up in the world.

A dozen business chiefs, from sectors including banking, property and tourism, warned against too much doom and gloom about Brexit, saying there was a danger it could lead to a downward spiral, and Londoners should focus on positive possibilities instead.

At an event hosted by the Standard, they drew up a 10-point manifesto to create a better city for all. The effort would be led by a taskforce made up of plumbers and poets and business and media from all sections of society.

Ashok Vaswani, UK chief executive of Barclays, said: If we all collectively knock down the country then obviously it gets into a negative spiral. If we can maintain a kind of evenness I think we should generally speaking be okay.

This is an opportunity to really step out and say, hey, we are bigger than how we feel. There is a real opportunity to break through a psychological barrier and say we want to stand up in the world. I would say Im cautious  obviously weve got to step up  but its definitely not all doom and gloom.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money, said: I was a strong supporter of Remain, but given where we are Ive definitely got to a place four weeks on where weve got to talk about the positives. Its not going to go away.

I worry that we create a self-fulfilling circle of negativity unless we work out together how to get something good.

Rhydian Lewis, chief of financial technology company RateSetter, said Brexit was worrying, but its stimulating too, while Leon restaurants founder John Vincent added: This is really exciting, I think we needed a kick up the arse.

There were still concerns. Toby Courtauld, chief executive of Great Portland Estates, said: We need to find the positives in a difficult situation but we shouldnt kid ourselves, were going to have a pretty interesting few years.

Key demands included a global advertising campaign, funded by business, to highlight positive opportunities post-Brexit. It could run alongside Sadiq Khans #Londonisopen drive to encourage investors and visitors to the city.

The panel wants more support for the Mayor in his role as the capitals ambassador. Promotional agency London & Partners gets less public cash than eq-uivalents in New York, Paris or Berlin.

With EU nationals making up a large share of the workforce, a key issue was freedom of movement. Deloitte chief executive David Sprou said: If we find ourselves not being able to get people, thats a massive long-term problem.

The panel called for more investment in infrastructure, affordable housing, the arts and broadband technology.
L abour leadership challenger Owen Smith today warned the party risked being consigned to history unless it stops lurching towards a disastrous split.

The Pontypridd MP called on Labour to pull back from the brink and end the bitter divisions tearing it apart.

He spoke out after Jeremy Corbyn angered MPs, who have called on him to stand down, by suggesting that they could be ousted in 2018. He stressed all Labour MPs would have to apply for reselection for their seats after a constituency boundary review expected to be completed in two years time.

Speaking in Manchester on his first campaign visit today, Mr Smith was set to say: The Labour Party is Britains greatest force for social justice, but we could be consigned to history if we continue along this path to a disastrous split.

If we dont pull ourselves back from the brink, unite and start acting like a team we are at risk of falling apart.

Mr Corbyn insisted yesterday that he is a Prime Minister in waiting but Labour MPs have voted by 172-40 in a motion of no confidence in him. Many of them believe that he is a decent man but a poor leader.

Mr Smith has also accused Mr Corbyn of sloganising and of being good at identifying problems but not solutions.

Promising radical new policies, former shadow work and pensions secretary Mr Smith was due to add: A key part of that vision for Labours future must be to show that we not only understand the struggles people face, but have the passion, energy and ideas to give them hope for the future.

I dont want us to be defined by our history, I want us to make history.

He has already proposed rewriting Labours Clause 4 to tackle inequality and a War Powers Act for Parliament to scrutinise governments before military action.

Islington North MP Mr Corbyn has also pledged a string of new policies but the party is deeply divided, with talk of it splitting to create a new one or an alliance.

Former deputy leader Harriet Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham, accused Mr Corbyn of driving a further wedge between rival Labour factions by raising the prospect of MPs having to face reselection.

It is very unfortunate and another example of why really we need a new leadership rather than Jeremy Corbyn, she said.

One of the responsibilities of leadership is actually to bring people together, not to set people against each other.

Mr Corbyn is still seen by many MPs as favourite to win the contest if the vote was held today.

But Mr Owen will have the summer to persuade many of the 500,000 Labour members, as well as the 183,000 people who signed up this week as registered supporters and affiliated supporters in the unions, that the party would fare better under his leadership.
U K shoppers throw away 160m bananas each year, according to a study.

Research showed one in three people bin bananas if there is a single bruise or mark on the skin.

All the wasted bananas in Britain would stretch from the UK to New Zealand if laid out on the floor, according to the findings from Sainsbury's.

Sainsburys head of sustainability Paul Crewe has urged shoppers to "give bruised bananas a chance."

He said: We want to encourage shoppers to give bruised bananas a chance. Avoidable food waste is a growing problem in the UK, and we can all do our bit to make a difference.

So if the thought of eating a banana that is slightly bruised really puts you off, throw it into a smoothie or banana bread mix instead of the bin."

Bananas are the countrys favourite snack, with Brits eating on average three a week and one in five eating one every day.

Sainsburys is trialling measures to reduce its food waste, including making banana bread with fruit on or past its sell by date.

Mr Crewe added: From this week, we'll be trialling loaves of banana bread baked fresh in store, using fruit at or after its sell-by date.

The bread will be available at selected in-store bakeries, and we estimate that this trial alone will save more than 1,000 bananas.

"It's a really great way of using up food that could otherwise be thrown away simply because it is deemed 'imperfect'."
P rince George turns three today  and his parents celebrated by releasing these adorable photos of the future king.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said they were delighted to share four new pictures of their son to mark his birthday, including one with the family dog Lupo.

All were taken at the Cambridges country home Anmer Hall, Norfolk, in the middle of this month by photographer Matt Porteous.

A spokesman for Kensington Palace said: The Duke and Duchess hope that people will enjoy seeing these new photographs. They would like to thank everyone for all the lovely messages they have received as Prince George celebrates his third birthday.

The young Prince plays on a swing engraved with his parents' names / @KensingtonRoyal/Matt Porteous

Mr Porteous said: I really enjoyed the opportunity to take these photographs. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.

Prince George's biggest life moments so far

"Im honoured that Prince Georges parents have decided to share these images with the public to mark his third birthday.

George is likely to mark the milestone with a party hosted by proud parents William and Kate.

Prince George is celebrating his third birthday today ( Matt Porteous) / Matt Porteous

The prince is known for his boundless energy and inquisitive mind, with his mother describing her eldest child as a really lovely little boy.

The Duke and Duchess said they were delighted to share the pictures (@KensingtonRoyal ) / @KensingtonRoyal

He was born in London at the private maternity unit of St Marys Hospital, the Lindo Wing, at 4.24pm on this day in 2013, weighing 8lb 6oz.

He made his public debut in front of the worlds media on the hospital steps the next day, wrapped in a white merino wool shawland cradled in his parents arms.

Prince George - In pictures 1 /10 Prince George - In pictures Having a ball Prince George makes little friends on tour Playtime Prince George mixes with the baby masses Family portrait The Cambridges are snapped in an informal setting Standing tall An adoring Kate helps Prince George get up on his own two feet Touchdown The Duchess of Cambridge is a hands-on mother William in 1983 Charles and Diana were surrounded by staff Going solo Prince William keeping himself occupied during the royal tour in 1983 William in 1983 Prince William was often in the arms of his nanny

In another of the now pictures he is pictured standing on a swing inscribed with the names of his parents, William & Catherine, believed to be a wedding present.

George is current enrolled at the Westacre Montessori nursery school in Norfolk for a few days a week.

He is due to start full-time school in September 2017, with the Duke recently revealing they are trying to decide where to send him.

Last year George marked his second birthday at home, Anmer Hall, where he was joined by friends and family, including his parents, younger sister Princess Charlotte, grandmother Carole Middleton, nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo and great-grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh.

It is another celebration for the Middleton family after this week it emerged that Georges aunt Pippa has got engaged to boyfriend James Matthews. George is expected to be a pageboy at the wedding next year.
T he body of an 11-year-old boy has been pulled from a canal in south Yorkshire.

Specialist police teams recovered the body of the youngster in Rotherham Canal late last night.

A search operation began yesterday evening after officers received a report that a boy had entered the water at about 7pm but quickly disappeared.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: Specialist resources attended the scene, including South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and the Ambulance Service.

The body of the 11-year-old was found in the water at around 11pm.

His family has been informed and are being supported by officers.

The circumstances are under investigation.

The incident comes days after three Londoners drowned in just 24 hours on the hottest day of the year.

Leon Wilson, 21, fell into Lammas Lake near Staines in west London at 5.50pm on Tuesday as he walked with friends to the nearby Lammas waterpark.

The tragic accident happened around two hours before a 44-year-old man from south-west London drowned off Brighton beach.

The third fatality happened at lunchtime on Wednesday when a 29-year-old man enjoying the sunshine with two friends drowned in Shadwell Basin, Wapping.

Other deaths in the heatwave include 16-year-old Jack Pullen drowned on Tuesday having got into trouble while swimming with friends in a river in Broadbottom, near Hyde in Greater Manchester.

While on Monday night a man aged 46 drowned after jumping into the River Trent in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.
B ritain's vote to leave the EU has sparked the biggest plunge in economic activity since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, market data shows.

Figures from the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) show the economy has suffered a dramatic deterioration this month, dropping at the fastest rate since the fallout from the 2008 recession.

The PMI surveys more than 650 companies from sectors including transport, business services, computing and restaurants.

Output and new orders in both the manufacturing and service sectors has dropped for the first time since 2012.

A number of firms have linked this to ongoing uncertainty during and after the referendum.

What will Brexit mean for the economy?

IHS Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said the drop has been attributed in one way or another to Brexit and warned there could be worse to come.

He said: "The only other times we have seen this index fall to these low levels, was the global financial crisis in 2008/9, the bursting of the dot com bubble, and the 1998 Asian financial crisis," he told the BBC.

"The difference this time is that it is entirely home-grown, which suggest the impact could be greater on the UK economy than before."

"This is exactly what most economists were saying would happen."

The IHS Markit PMI is the first set of data showing business reaction to the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union.

Samuel Tombs, who is chief UK economist at research consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the figures represent the "first major evidence that the UK is entering a sharp downturn".

But he did suggest that the "confidence shock from the Leave vote might wear off over the coming months".

Responding to the figures, new Chancellor Philip Hammond said: "Let's be clear, the PMI data is a measure of sentiment, it's not a measure of any hard activity in the economy.

"What it tells us is businesses confidence has been dented, they're not sure, they're in a period of uncertainty now."
T he families and friends of Britons seized by terrorists will not be exempt from prosecution if they make ransom payments, the Government has said.

New Home Office guidance warns that paying a ransom is not permissible because it amounts to financing terrorism and that any person who does so will be committing a crime. It also makes clear that employers will be breaching counter-terrorism legislation if they make payments to free kidnapped staff and that ransoms cannot be paid via an insurance policy.

The guidance, which also rules out giving an exemption from prosecution to humanitarian staff working in terrorist-controlled territory, reinforces Britains policy of not paying ransoms.

It follows intelligence assessments suggesting that ransom payments have been a major source of income for Islamic State and concern that Britons could be more vulnerable to kidnap if other terror groups believe that they can make money from their capture.

Other countries, such as France and Spain, have a different approach and are thought to have handed over large sums in the past to free citizens held by terrorist organisations. In America, Barack Obama also gave families permission to pay ransoms in a change of policy last year. The President, acting after the deaths of US hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Abdul-Rahman Kassig at the hands of IS in Syria, said it was totally unacceptable that their families might face prosecution.

In its new guidance, however, the Home Office states no in response to a question asking if ransom payments can be lawfully made. The document adds: Sections 15-18 of the Terrorism Act 2000 create a number of offences related to the financing of terrorism. It is an offence... to provide money, to possess money or to enter into an arrangement whereby money is made available, if you know or have reasonable cause to suspect that it may be used for the purposes of terrorism.

Terrorist finance offences have extra-territorial effect, so an action committed overseas can result in prosecution in the UK. The guidance further warns that the legislation requires any person who has a belief or suspicion that a ransom has been paid to a terror group to report the offence to the police or the National Crime Agency.

The new document also rules out making legal provisions to protect charity and other humanitarian workers who could be in danger of breaking the law if they buy goods from militants, or assist in other ways, while operating in areas controlled by terrorists.

The Home Office says that although the US Treasury has made legislative concessions to assist such staff, the measures would not translate to the UK because of our international obligations and raises the prospect that any exemption could be misused. We assess that introducing a specific exemption for humanitarian and/or conflict resolution work would create a loophole that could be exploited by unscrupulous individuals and leave non-governmental organisations vulnerable to abuse, the document states.

The Home Office adds, however, that the Crown Prosecution Service would have to decide that a criminal charge was in the public interest and that the consent of the Attorney General would also be required in an additional safeguard to prevent unjustified action.

No Briton has ever been prosecuted for making a ransom payment to free a hostage held by a terror group. Money was handed over in March 2012 by the family of social worker Judith Tebbutt, then 56, to secure her freedom after she was kidnapped six months earlier in Kenya in a raid by Somali pirates in which her husband David was killed.

No offence was committed because her kidnappers were criminals and not members of a banned terror group covered by counter-terrorism laws.
A Muslim Channel 4 News reporter and her employer have made official complaints to the press regulator over a Sun newspaper column by Kelvin MacKenzie they say was religious discrimination.

On Monday, the former editor of the tabloid newspaper used an opinion piece to question whether it was right for correspondent Fatima Manji to appear on screen wearing a hijab to present a report on the Nice massacre.

He has since defended his "reasonable" criticism of Channel 4 News in Friday's column, arguing that the hijab was a "religious statement" and questioned whether a Christian would be able to wear a cross prominently on television.

In response, Ben de Pear, editor of Channel 4 News, said Ms Manji had been the victim of "religious discrimination" and revealed that complaints have been made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie / Getty Images

He said: "Yesterday Channel 4 News correspondent Fatima Manji made an official complaint to Ipso following Kelvin MacKenzie's column published in The Sun on Monday.

"ITN believes the article was in breach of a number of provisions of the Editors' Code, in particular discrimination, harassment by intimidation and inaccuracy.

"A further complaint was also made by ITN CEO John Hardie, which fully supports and endorses the grounds and reasoning of Fatima's complaint.

"ITN accepts and understands that our reporters and presenters are in the public eye and can expect criticism and comment from many quarters, including newspaper columnists. What it cannot accept is an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion.

"We are not going to simply stand by when an employee is subject to an act of religious discrimination."

Monday's column by Mr Mackenzie sparked more than 1,700 complaints to Ipso and drew scorn from MPs in the House of Commons.

In his column he claimed "I could hardly believe my eyes", and asked: "Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim?"

At the time Channel 4 described his comments as "offensive, completely unacceptable, and arguably tantamount to inciting religious and even racial hatred".

Additional reporting by PA
T he family of a City worker feared drowned after going overboard on a stag party river cruise in Portugal are praying for a miracle, a friend said today.

Nishanthan Gnanathas, 32, a risk manager for Mayfair-based hedge fund Millennium Partners, fell from a chartered sailing boat into the Tagus in Lisbon at noon on Saturday.

Mr Gnanathas, from Sutton, is believed to have hit his head after being pushed in as a prank.

He plunged into the water unconscious and without a life jacket. A six-day search is expected to be called off tonight.

A 32-year-old Briton has been questioned as a suspect and could face a manslaughter charge, but the family are understood to have been told it was an accident and no-one will be charged.

A friend of Mr Gnanathass family told the Standard: His parents and sister are inconsolable.

"They fear the worst but like all of us they are praying for a miracle that he will be found alive.

He is a brilliant young man. He made his parents immensely proud.

Lisbon-based Maritime Police chief Malaquais Dominguez said they had determined that the incident was the result of a prank gone wrong.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was providing consular support.
T his sleepy residential street in New Zealand has left people scratching their heads as they try to figure out a bizarre optical illusion.

The houses on Baldwin Street in Dunedin on the nations South Island all appear to be built askew.

But the strange visual trick has a logical explanation: it is the world's steepest street.

The short stretch of suburban homes is just 350 metres long but rises about 120m in height from bottom to top.

It runs at a gradient of 1:2.86m, meaning for every 2.86m horizontally, elevation changes by one metre.

Baldwin Street has an elevation ration of 1:2.86

The streets oddly precipitous nature is the unintentional product of the citys grid system, which was planned in the 19th century without regard for landscape.

It gained unwanted notoriety in March 2001 when a student at the University of Otago was killed after trying to race down the street in a wheelie bin.

It is also known for an annual charity event held in July which involves rolling 30,000 Jaffa Cakes down the hill.
T he grieving father of a Pakistani social media star has said his son, who confessed to her murder, should be shot on sight.

Qandeel Baloch, 26, often described as Pakistans Kim Kardashian, was drugged and strangled to death last Friday. Her brother, Waseem, has confessed to killing her for what he called dishonouring the Baloch name.

After being arrested, her brother told a news conference he was incensed by her often risque photographs, comments and videos on social media.

She was unapologetic in the face of opposition she faced in the conservative Muslim country.

Ms Balochs father, Muhammad Azeem, said her brother had murdered his best friend and had also drugged both parents at the family home in the Punjab city of Multan.

He told BBC Urdu: I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one.

We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us.

Ms Balochs mother, Anwar Azeem, said: In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast...but she didnt get up.

Her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips was black.

We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets.

More than 500 people, almost all women, die in Pakistan every year at the hands of relatives over perceived shame brought on their family.

On Wednesday, prime minister Nawaz Sharifs daughter, Maryam, said Pakistans ruling party hoped within weeks to pass long-delayed legislation against honour killings.

The law would remove a loophole that allows other family members to pardon a killer.
A man held an 81-year-old Marine Corps veteran hostage in a squalid motel room for at least four years in order to steal his benefits, it has emerged.

Perry Coniglio, 43, was arrested on Tuesday in a hotel room adjoining his victims in a New York state motel, American authorities said yesterday.

He used intimidation and force to control his victim, who suffers from dementia, police confirmed.

Police chief Jack Quinn said the veteran, who has not been named by police, received a tremendous amount of money every month in social security benefits, pension checks and food stamps. The exact total was not confirmed.

Coniglio was arrested after neighbours handed police video footage allegedly showing the elderly man being physically abused.

Footage taken during a raid at the motel, captured by WABC-TV, showed police taking Coniglio into custody at gunpoint while the bearded veteran sits on a bed in his cluttered room.

Coniglio was held in the Orange County jail last night, on $15,000 bail, over charges including grand larceny and unlawful imprisonment.

The US Academy Motel is situated next to the areas police station. Officials were unable to say why the alleged abuse continued for so long.
T he Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Britons visiting Germany in the wake of the shootings in Munich.

British officials said they are investigating the attacks in which several people have been killed after shots were fired at a Bavarian shopping centre, near Munichs Olympic stadium.

Munich police said they believe they were dealing with a "shooting rampage" amid reports of at least three different gunmen and shots fired elsewhere in the city.

An update on the Foreign Office website reads: There are reports of a security incident at the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre.

There are uncorroborated reports of other incidents elsewhere in the city.

The Munich underground system and other public transport has reportedly been shut down.

If you are in an affected area, you are advised to stay indoors where possible and follow the advice of local authorities who are advising people to avoid crowded places across the city.

There is a high threat from terrorism.

The German government has announced that increased security has been put in place as a precaution at public buildings, major events, transport hubs and large public gatherings."

The shootings come just days after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker armed with an axe and a knife attacked five people on a train in Wurzburg, also in Bavaria.
A witness today described how people ran for their lives after a gunman opened fire at a packed shopping centre in Munich.

US college student Thamina Stoll, 22, who is in Germany on a summer internship, captured video footage of terrified crowds as they fled the attack from her grandmothers apartment.

At least nine people have been confirmed dead and others are seriously wounded after shots were fired at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum centre.

Ms Stoll, of Durham, North Carolina, visited the shopping centre with her grandma and cousin earlier in the day and was due to return with more relatives when the shooting began.

Police officers escort people from inside the shopping centre in Munich / Joerg Koch/Getty Images

She told ITV News: There was a family approaching us, they had just run away from the shopping mall and they told us that they had heard gunshots inside the shopping mall.

They were screaming and crying. They were in panic. So, we couldnt believe it at first. We just decided to go back upstairs to my grandmas apartment.

We took them in and then we went on my grandmas balcony and from there we could witness how about 50 people were running towards out house seeking shelter.

Soon after, sirens started blowing up. We heard a helicopter overhead. There were a lot of people on the street.

Everyone was really scared and confused. No-one really knew what was going on.
A chilling audio message recorded by Bastille Day killer Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel suggests a second atrocity was being planned for August, French prosecutors fear.

The revelation came as five alleged accomplices of the man who used a 19-tonne lorry to murder 84 people appeared in court today charged with terrorist offences.

At 5pm on July 14 - the day of the attack on crowds watching a firework display in Nice - Lahouaiej-Bouhlel recorded a message saying: Chokri and his friends are ready for next month, they are currently with Walid, according to Le Monde.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by police and all of the names mentioned in phone messages recovered by investigators are covered by the four men  including Tunisian Chokri C  and one women who have been charged. However, prosecutors fear there could be other accomplices who are still at large and ready to strike.

Killer: Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel / AP

At 10.27pm, minutes before the attack started, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel send his last text message, to Ramzi A. It read: I wanted to tell you that the pistol that you got me yesterday it very good, so I want five from your girlfriend. Theyre for Chokri and his friends.

Ramzi A, a Franco-Tunisian, has been charged with arms offences in relation to a terrorist enterprise.

Two Albanians - Artan H, 38, and a woman referred to as asEnkeledgia Z, 42 - are accused of supplying the gun which the killer used to shoot at police officers on July 14.

According to Le Monde, Ramzi A has told investigators that a stash of Kalashnikovs is being referred to in several messages.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said analysis of Lahouaiej-Bouhlels phone showed he was in contact with Mohamed Walid G - who has been charged as an accomplice - for 15 years. The men, both Franco-Tunisians, shared a sympathy with the jihadi cause, said Mr Molins.

People close to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel claimed he had shown no signs of radicalisation until very recently. But Mr Molins said information from his phone suggested he could have been preparing an attack as far back as May last year.

Crowd gather to remember the victims of the Nice attack

One photo in his phone, taken on May 25 last year, was an article on Captagon, a drug said to be used by some jihadis before attacks. Islamic State has claimed the killer was one of its soldiers, though the French authorities say they have not found any direct links to the terrorist group.

However, Mr Molins said the investigation had confirmed that the attack was premeditated. Telephone records were used to link the five suspects to the killer, and allegedly to support roles in the carnage.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel and a 30-year-old French-Tunisian with no previous convictions had phoned each other 1,278 times in a year, Mr Molins added.

He said a text message from the man found on a phone at Lahouaiej-Bouhlels home read: Im not Charlie; Im happy. They have brought in the soldiers of Allah to finish the job.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had been portrayed as a misfit with no interest in religion who became obsessed with terrorism and continually looked at atrocities on the internet.
S ocial media users have expressed sadness and outrage after eight people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a shopping centre in Munich.

At least three gunmen are believed to be on the run after shots were fired outside a McDonald's restaurant on Hanauer Street before the attack moved to the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre near the city's Olympic Stadium on Friday evening.

Twitter and Instagram users have taken to social media in solidarity with the victims using the hashtag #PrayForMunich.

Other hashtags used to convey support include #PrayForGermany and #PrayForTheWorld as some used illustrations as well as words in their touching messages.

British politicians also took to Twitter to condemn the attacks, which come just days after a 17-year-old asylum seeker attacked train passengers with an axe and a knife in an Islamic-state inspired attack.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: "I am shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich, and the loss of life.

"My thoughts are with those injured and the families of those killed. We stand ready to assist our friends in Germany.

"Our travel advice to UK nationals in the area tonight is to stay indoors and follow the advice of the local authorities."

Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: "Shocking news from Munich - my thoughts are with the people of the city at this time."
T his is the moment a man sets himself on fire inside a car outside a police station in Sydney.

The video taken yesterday evening shows a huge blast inside the car, which was stationary in the driveway of the Merrylands Police Station.

Police officers can then be seen rushing out of the station to help.

Police allege the occupant, identified as Czech national Peter Zhurawel, 61, set the car alight, he then drove it down the driveway and hit the roller shutter door underneath the station.

Car blast: the moment of the explosion in Sydney

Mr Zhurawel was unconscious as police extinguished the flames and pulled him from the car. He was under guard in hospital with serious burns.

Police officers flee the station

An opened gas bottle was allegedly found inside the vehicle.

Detectives today raided Mr Zhurawels house and removed two gas bottles and boxes of paper work.

Authorities say the man has a history of mental health problems and ruled out links to terrorism.
Geekologie has shut down.

Thank you to everybody.

Now go be happy.
A t just three years old, Prince George is already a trendsetter  much like his effortlessly chic mother, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Here's a roundup of adorable clothing pieces inspired by some of the stylish tots best outfits, so your own little royal can be best-dressed at his next play date.

1. Petit Bateau Baby Boy's Striped Dungarees

Easy to wear and super comfy, these short dungarees - crafted from striped cotton cloth  are almost identical to those worn by the little Prince on his first birthday. Team with a t-shirt for a casual look (like young George, pictured) or smarten them up with a crisp shirt.

AFP/Getty

From 36.50, Petit Bateau, Buy it now

2. Petit Bateau Baby Cardigan in Peps Red

Tiny tots up can steal Georges style with this essential red knit from French childrens wear brand, Petit Bateau. With seamless shoulders, the cardi is perfectly tailored to babys shape and is ideal for keeping the spring chill off. Its made from 100 per cent cotton and is finished with 3 little buttons.

Getty Images/Chris Jackson

36, Petit Bateau, Buy it now

3. Rachel Riley Sailboat Smocked Dungarees

Once this picture of the young royal wearing Rachel Rileys super-cute dungarees was released, the outfit sold out within a matter of hours. The classically-tailored overalls are currently available to purchase online  so snap them up for your own tot while you still can.

Getty Images/James Whatling-Pool

75, Rachel Riley, Buy it now



4. Early days Navy Classic T-bar Pram Shoe Alex

These traditional pram shoes for boys, similar to a pair worn by the royal toddler, are just the thing for special occasions and are specially crafted with soft materials. This pair features a classic T-bar design and is finished with Italian leather uppers.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge/PA Wire/Getty

From 24.50, Audrey Mansell, Buy it now

5. Rachel Riley Traditional Smocked Set

Prince George's retro style simply rules. On the christening of his little sister Charlotte, he charmed the nation in this adorable white-and-red smock  which is an almost an exact replica of an outfit his dad Prince William wore in 1984. The same 2-piece set is still available to buy from Rachel Riley.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

85, Rachel Riley, Buy it now

6. Rachel Riley Cord Short and Shirt Set

Young George posed with his little sister, Princess Charlotte, for her very first portrait in 2015 wearing this classic white-and-blue shirt. This set comes complete with matching babycord turn-up shorts.

Duchess of Cambridge/PA Wire

59, Rachel Riley, Buy it now

7. Olivier Baby Cashmere Boys Cardigan with Small Star

Who could forget how handsome the royal looked playing with his mother at the Gigaset Charity Polo Match last year in June. Little lads can copy his outfit with this pure cashmere V-neck, which features a subtle star on the back.

Getty Images/Chris Jackson

From 64, Olivier Baby, Buy it now

8. Kids Crocband in Navy

Complete the look with these water-friendly Crocs, which are the exact pair Prince George wore at the Polo. A convertible heel strap ensures a secure fit, while the lightweight yet durable material will support whatever adventure your little one has in store.

Getty Images/Chris Jackson

26.99, Crocs, Buy it now

9. My 1st Years Baby Personalised Prince Gingham Robe

Pictured meeting former US president, Barack Obama, Prince George knows how to wear pyjamas with style. This embroidered bathrobe, crafted from luxe cotton towelling, is the exact design the royal tot wore for the occasion and can be personalised with your childs name.

27, John Lewis, Buy it now

Follow us on Twitter @ESLifeandStyle and Facebook
T he first pictures of Leona Lewis in character as Grizabella in Cats have been unveiled.

Ahead of her debut on Broadway, fans have been given a quick glimpse of the British pop star on stage as the iconic glamour cat.

In full costume and make-up, the 31-year-old looks every inch the Broadway star having stepped in to replace Nicole Scherzinger just a few months ago.

Lewis recently told People Magazine: The classic Cats, which I saw when I was 9, was just so breath-taking and mesmerising, so it's staying true to the original, but they're injecting a bit of freshness into it, which I'm really excited about.

Even in rehearsals, I'll sit and watch what's going on and get really, really excited about it."

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who admitted to being disappointed when Scherzinger pulled out to re-join the UK X Factor, said:

Leona has one of the greatest voices of her generation. We are all hugely excited about working with her.

Lewis added: It is an incredible honour be asked by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber to join the CATS family.

I will never forget seeing the show as a little girl and how blown away I was by the magical experience of it.

Matthew Murphy

I am beyond thrilled for my Broadway debut to be in such an iconic show. To work with a team as legendary as those on CATS is an experience I will cherish every moment of.

Lloyd Webber recently admitted that hes had to fight to get Scherzinger the role in the musical.

He told The Sun: I had to fight to get her into the Broadway production. The American producers had not seen what she could do.

I hope she will get another opportunity, but the chances are not great, because its a very small world there.

The former Pussycat Doll has since revealed that the pair have made up, telling the Standard:

I just did a show with Andrew in Austria. I learned a new song for him. Buenos Aires from Evita. So weve kissed and made up.
U S actress Leslie Jones has returned to Twitter days after quitting "in tears" over racist abuse.

Jones, 48, was living in "personal hell" after her account was inundated with offensive messages following the release of Ghostbusters.

But the actress has returned, and was greeted with supportive messages from fans.

Jones tweeted: "Welp...a b**** thought she could stay away. But who else is gonna live tweet Game of Thrones!!"

She added: "Thanks for the love and support I received! Made me feel real special. See you later on @sethmeyers #LoveForLeslieJ (sic)."

Jones announced on Tuesday that she was quitting the micro blogging site after trolls compared her to Harambe, the gorilla that was shot at Cincinnati Zoo earlier this year.

She told fans: I feel like I'm in a personal hell. I didn't do anything to deserve this. It's just too much. It shouldn't be like this. So hurt right now.

I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the s*** I got today...wrong.

Prior to signing out, Jones encouraged fans to dismiss calls to simply ignore abusive comments and called for Twitter to clamp down on trolls.

Ghostbusters stars dismiss criticism at the film's world premiere

Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos has been permanently banned from the site after he was accused of getting some of his 338,000 followers to join in the abuse.

Ghostbusters director Paul Feig hit back at the trolls, tweeting: "Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know. Any personal attacks against her are attacks against us all. #LoveForLeslieJ."

Graham Norton: the Ghostbusters cast and Charlie Sheen (June 17) 1 /8 Graham Norton: the Ghostbusters cast and Charlie Sheen (June 17) The Ghostbusters cast Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and singer Christine & The Queens PA / So TV Charlie Sheen The actor opened up about his public meltdown PA / So TV Ghostbusters The cast spoke about the reaction to the latest trailers PA / So TV Melissa McCarthy stars as Abby Yates in Ghostbusters PA / So TV Kate McKinnon stars as Jillian Holtzmann in Ghostbusters PA / So TV Christine & The Queens aka Heloise Letissier PA / So TV

Follow @StandardShowbiz for more news.
A roundup of news items from the 2016 Republican National Convention this week in Cleveland:

ROCK ON: Iowa delegates got a look at Clevelands Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Thursday, in particular an exhibit that traced musics relationship with politics.

On display were the censored T-shirt and sleeveless denim jacket worn by Twisted Sisters Dee Snider when he was called before the Senate Commerce Committee in 1985 investigating rock lyrics.

A number of displays showed politicians with musicians: George W. Bush and Bono, Barack Obama and Beyonce, Dwight Eisenhower and Mahalia Jackson.

A 10-minute video also included the history of rock musicians trying to stop politicians from using their music on the campaign trail. (The list linked to the McCain-Palin 2008 presidential ticket was lengthy enough to require a scroll.)

Delegate Randy Feenstra, a state senator from Hull, confided he sported a mullet and liked metal bands like Motley Crew and Guns N Roses during his youth back in the day. Former Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz of Truro liked U2; U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Sen. Jake Chapman of Adel all professed to be Elvis fans.Delegate Bill Anderson, a state senator from Pierson, said seeing the Michael Jackson exhibit was a highlight.

I grew up in the 80s, so that was pretty cool to see the glove and some of the costumes that he wore, Anderson said.

Gov. Terry Branstad took a tour through the museum. The governor recalled a Buffalo Center musical family who did a song for his first campaign in 1982. And while he couldt recall the name of the tune, he did remember a song that became the campaign theme for Iowa Gov. Bob Ray called Step to the Rear (and Let a Winner Lead the Way).

They used it again and again and again, even in his fifth term when I was running for lieutenant governor I think they still brought Marilyn Maye back for the inauguration, he said. If you talk to older people in Iowa, theyll remember it.

FAREWELL PEP RALLY: Gov. Terry Branstad used the last day of this weeks GOP national convention to turn the focus of Iowas delegates to the work that awaits them at home with the kickoff of the 2016 general election campaign.

We need to motivate the grassroots, Branstad told the 30 delegates and convention alternates at a breakfast meeting-turned-pep rally.

The six-term governor called on Republicans to support Donald Trump and Mike Pence at the top of the ticket, and work to get U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Iowas three GOP congressmen re-elected, retain control of the Iowa House and win a majority in the Iowa Senate for the first time in a decade.

Usually the difference between winning and losing is hard work, Branstad said.

That meeting also featured Republican pollster and consultant Frank Luntz, who told Iowa delegates Thursday that if the election were held today, Democrat Hillary Clinton would win.

You have to understand that, Luntz said. Im not telling you shes going to win. Im telling you shes in the lead.

According to his analysis, Luntz contends only about 11 percent of voters nationally are up for grabs, 4 percent undecided and 7 percent who dont support Clinton or Republican nominee Trump. Republicans have spent much of the convention criticizing Clinton, but Luntz said the GOP needs to do more to sell Trump.

If you really want to win this election, its about why Donald Trump is qualified, Luntz said.

Apprehensive voters are ripe for a change message, he said. Forty-four percent of those Luntz surveyed believe the nations best days are behind it, and more than half think their childrens generation will be worse off.

Were really afraid of whats going on, Luntz said. This is whats justifying the call for change.

CONVENTION CASUALTY: Its no secret unity has been elusive at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Another sign Thursday: An Iowa delegate who has been at the forefront of an effort to find somebody other than Donald Trump to be the GOP presidential nominee is leaving the party.

Cecil Stinemetz, of Urbandale, sent an email entitled: Why I walked out and leaving the Republican Party.

Stinemetz accused the party of thuggery in connection with Mondays floor fight over whether to have a vote on the conventions rules. At first there appeared a sufficient number of states asking for a vote for one to proceed. But a handful of those states withdrew their request, prompting a demonstration.

The threats and intimidation from those who want to keep a tight grip on power so that only a few can tell everyone else what to do and what to think and how to vote, he wrote.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Tammy Wawro is going to the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia to see history and make history.

The Cedar Rapids fifth-grader teacher is part of the 60-member Iowa Democratic Party delegation that will join more than 4,500 other delegates July 25 to 28 to make Hillary Clinton the first female nominee of a major American political party.

It seems appropriate it should happen in Philadelphia, the birthplace of our democracy, said Andy McGuire Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman.

As someone who has fought my entire life against the discrimination against women and the glass ceilings and barriers Ive hit, that will be a historic moment, she said. The fact that weve come this far, finally, will be very historic.

For Iowa delegates, Clintons nomination will be the culmination of a long journey. Even before she formally entered the race in June 2015, Clinton went on a listening tour of Iowa that included a stop in Dean Genths Mason City living room.

During the convention, Genth will build on that early meeting with Clinton to put forth a message of unity and organized effort to win races from our house to the White House.

Unity is the overarching theme in delegates expectations.

On Caucus Night back on Feb. 1, Iowa Democrats were extremely split  49.9 percent for Clinton and 49.6 percent for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Some people who are still having trouble, McGuire said, but I think the differences between what we stand for as Democrats whether we were for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sander and what the Republicans say they stand for are so different that I think we will have unity.

Sen. Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids, a first-time delegate, who was neutral in the Clinton-Sanders race, hopes to see the Vermont independents supporters, like Sen. Sanders himself has done, rallying around Hillary Clinton.

The hard-fought campaign may lead to some roll call drama when state delegations cast their ballots, Hogg said. Thats the way the process works.

Not all of the excitement will be in the convention hall.

I know my daughter was very excited when I told her Lady Gaga was going to be performing at a concert, said Hogg, who will be taking his two college-age children with him.

In addition to the official business of the convention, delegates will engage in a variety of issue-related meetings and activities. For example, Wawro, president of the Iowa State Education Association, will be meeting with other educators to develop an education agenda. Having a quality educator and a great school for every kid is our bottom line.

Genth, who along with his husband, Gary Swenson, were among the first legally married same-sex couples in Iowa, hopes to serve as a voice for, and an example of a gay, same-sex married male who owes my current freedom and rights  to the values and successes of fair-minded Democratic candidates.

Wahls, 25, the author of My Two Moms, plans to attend LGBT caucus meetings and participate in service projects. It will be his first DNC as a delegate. He spoke at 2012 DNC before flying to Minnesota where he was working on a same-sex marriage referendum.

Wahls also will be promoting The Woman Cards, a 54-card deck of playing card featuring hand-drawn portraits of American women who changed the world even though the deck was stacked against them. He and his sister, Zebby, developed the cards. Sales of the 12,500 decks theyve had printed will help cover his convention costs.

Delegate Christina Blackcloud of Tama is looking forward to networking with other Native American delegates. The director of senior services for the Meskwaki Nation plans to attend Native American caucus meetings on seniors and womens issues.

I want to learn more about what other people are doing in the different areas that Im passionate about, she said. I want to push all the different agendas that I would like to see happen and broaden my horizons.

Blackcloud expects to educate delegates with questions about tribal history, law and policy as well as upholding the governments trust obligations to Native Americans.

One thing McGuire doesnt anticipate being up for discussion is Iowas first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses.

I havent heard of any attempt to change it, she said. The party understands how seriously Iowa Democrats take their lead-off status and in this Citizens United era they know the importance of looking the candidates in the eye.
MANCHESTER | Patty Judge knew challenging a six-term Republican U.S. senator would be no easy task.

But deciding who to vote for shouldnt be hard, the former Democratic lawmaker and Iowa secretary of agriculture said in Manchester Friday.

This is not a race -- the presidential race and the U.S. Senate race -- are not races where the people of Iowa are going to have to say Gee, theres just no difference between these two people. I guess Ill just have to flip a coin, she told about 10 people who gathered at the Bread Basket restaurant over the lunch hour.

Uh, uh. Clearly, the philosophical differences between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and between me and Chuck Grassley are deep and it really comes down to what is your vision and where you stand, Judge said.

Judge, who served as Gov. Chet Culvers lieutenant governor from 2007-11, likes where she stands 108 days before the Nov. 8 election

Poll results that range from showing the race to be a virtual tie to Grassley leading by as much as 8 percentage point are very encouraging.

The good news is that no one has ever been that close to him before. He usually wins his re-elects by more than 20 percent, Judge said. So the fact that we are in single digits and still got a large block of undecided votes to look at is encouraging. If they havent decided after 36 years whether they ought to vote for him, the chances are that if I can get a chance to get my message to them, those voters will choose me.

It wont be easy because Grassley has had 36 years in the Senate to win the support of Washington organizations, Judge said. However, shes very pleased to have the endorsements of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood and the list goes on. She didnt mention the endorsement by President Barack Obama.

All of that helps. It creates a very strong network for us, she said.

It also will help her that Grassley has absolutely failed his responsibility regarding the vacancy on the Supreme Court. She suggested that if he doesnt want to hold a hearing on President Barack Obamas nominee, Grassley could use that time to address the growing college debt crisis, making improvements to the Affordable Care Act to allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices And raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour over four to six years.

Dont be cowardly about it, she said.

Judge rejected the absolute darkness projected by the just-completed Republican National Convention.

We do have problems, very severe problems  problems that Chuck Grassley has not been addressing, Judge said. But there is hope. I do believe there is hope. We do have an opportunity to do things right and get the country going on track.
MASON CITY | Additional drug charges have been filed against a Mason City man jailed for suspicion of possessing methamphetamine.

Martin Pedelty, 40, now faces one count of felony possession of meth, two counts of felony failure to affix a drug tax stamp and two counts of felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

The meth arrest was a result of search warrants served Thursday in Mason City at Pedelty's residence on Sixth Street Northeast and a residence he frequents on 28th Street Southwest, said Cerro Gordo County Chief Deputy Dave Hepperly.

Pedelty had more than five grams of meth in his possession when he was arrested at his home, according to court documents.

The additional three felony charges were filed Friday.

He remained jailed Friday on $100,000 bond.

Pedelty will appear before a judge on the new charges on Saturday.

Deputies executed the warrants with the help of the North Central Iowa Narcotics Task Force, Mason City police and Franklin County sheriff's deputies.

 Molly Montag
MASON CITY  A Mason City man convicted of shooting a man to death during a home robbery when he was a juvenile will have a chance at parole.

District Court Judge James Drew signed an order Thursday amending Damion Seats sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Seats original sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole, but that sentence has been ruled unconstitutional for juveniles, Drew wrote in his order.

Seats, now 25, received his sentence after being found guilty by a Cerro Gordo County jury in 2009 of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. Iowa law required judges to sentence those convicted of Class A felonies to life in prison without parole.

Seats shot Isidoro Erreguin to death at a residence on North Adams Avenue in Mason City in 2008. Seats was 17 at the time.

In 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that requiring life sentences without the possibility of parole for juveniles was cruel and unusual punishment.

After that ruling Gov. Terry Branstad commuted the sentences for Iowans previously sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for crimes committed while they were juveniles  including Seats  to a minimum term of 60 years.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that commutation was unconstitutional, Drews order stated.

Both the state and the defense agreed no re-sentencing hearing is necessary and Seats sentence must be amended, according to the order.

Seats was to have a re-sentencing hearing on May 31 in Cerro Gordo County District Court but it was postponed.

Part of the reason for the delay was an anticipated Iowa Supreme Court ruling in another case involving a juvenile.

Drew told the Globe Gazette in May that the anticipated decision he was referring to was in the case of Isaiah Sweet, who was 17 when he killed his custodial grandparents at their home in Manchester in 2012 and received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On May 27 the Iowa Supreme Court made a 4-3 ruling in the Sweet case banning judges from imposing that sentence for juveniles conducted of first-degree murder.

That ruling stated it should be up to parole boards, not judges, if those who committed crimes as juveniles are beyond rehabilitation and should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
When politicians and political candidates raise the issue of immigration and talk about building walls, or improving the path to citizenship, what does that mean to a person in this country trying to become a citizen?

How hard is it to do it legally?

Im finding out firsthand.

Before I moved back to the United States in 2013, I had been with my South Korean then-girlfriend, now-wife for a year. We were married in Seoul the summer before I took this job, and she joined me here in November.

Today, shes still not considered a permanent resident. According to the government, her permanent residence status is conditional if it is based on a marriage that was less than 2 years old on the day she was given permanent residence.

Prior to her moving here, we had documents translated, sealed, stamped, signed and handed over to the U.S. Embassy. That first round cost us $425 in filing fees plus at least $100 for the translations.

Then we had to prove that she was healthy, not a criminal, and that I could support her financially if she didnt work once here. When we had the necessary paperwork and sent in another $177, my wife was interviewed.

Of course, there was the usual bureaucratic nightmares involved.

To wit, I had filled out all of my necessary paperwork and she had taken it to the U.S. Embassy, only to find that in the meantime the government had changed the forms they used and everything had to be resubmitted.

We were married in June of that year and it took until Thanksgiving until she was cleared to come to the U.S.

At this point, we were in to Uncle Sam for $802.

A few months later my wife got a full-time job and has been living and working here ever since. She has a bank account, a car that she pays insurance on, all the typical bills, and she pays her taxes. We file jointly.

But thats not enough for the government. For my wife to obtain her permanent residency, which would allow her to legally stay in the country for 10 years and have nearly all the privileges of a U.S. citizen except to vote, she has to submit another round of paperwork to remove the conditional status.

Basically its on us to prove that we did not get married to evade the immigration laws of the United States.

The filing fee for this form is $505, plus another $85 we paid when we drove three hours to Casper, Wyoming, in a howling wind storm, just to have her fingerprinted.

That puts us at $1,392 at this stage.

So we compiled a packet of material to prove that we actually love each other and arent just trying to scam the United States into letting my wife in. We provided all the pieces of paper we could find that have both of our names on them  insurance forms, bills, tax forms, marriage license  and testimonials from friends of family and sent them to an office in California.

A few weeks later, we received a letter that read:

You have not established that the marriage upon which you were granted conditional status was entered into in good faith. You provided some marital bona fides. However, the documentation submitted is insufficient because it does not reflect that the conditional permanent resident and the U.S. citizen spouse comingled assets or maintained common residence.

In the eyes of the U.S. government, you dont love each other unless you comingle assets.

Thats what consummates a marriage in the estimation of an office worker somewhere 1,200 miles from here.

Were fortunate enough to have legal support that helped put my wifes name on the deed of our house, so the comingling will be complete, for a $10 filing fee.

That puts us over $1,400.

Our next step is to build another packet with more documents, more photos, and send them off again. If we have success, shell be able to stay for 10 years without renewing. If she wants to become a citizen, well have to go through an entirely separate round of paperwork and tests.

How much to file that paperwork? $595, plus another $85 for fingerprints.

It will cost my wife more than $2,000 to become a citizen of the United States, and thats if we have enough bona fides to pass this stage.

With the amount of resources, time and effort it requires to do things right here, does it surprise anyone that we have people living in this country illegally? Can you imagine what it would require of someone coming from a Third World country to come up with the resources to become a citizen?

Our immigration system is broken. We need more than a wall or a path to fix it.
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Bonnie Estes, a French teacher at South Iredell High School, has received the Dorothy Ludwig Award for Excellence in French at the Secondary Level, awarded by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). The award recognizes teachers who have demonstrated excellence and commitment to the teaching of the French language, and French and francophone culture and literature.

Estes has taught French for 25 years, the last 12 being at South Iredell High School. During her years of teaching, Estes has made several impactful changes at the high school. In 2007, Estes joined the AATF so that she could start a French National Honor Society at South Iredell. Each November, Estes and her students celebrate National French Week while she additionally encourages her students to partake in the Grand Concours, or National French Exam. Every spring, Estes takes her students to the Foreign Language Festival held at Lenoir -Rhyne University. Estes has also organized a program called French Camp for Iredell-Statesville Schools. Rising sixth- through ninth-grade students from all over the county experience a few days of French language and culture.

In addition to student-related activities, Estes is heavily involved in her professional career. She has published three articles in the National Bulletin, a production of the AATF which is distributed to French teachers nationwide, in which she wrote about French Camp, the Lenoir-Rhyne Festival, and National French Week. She has presented twice at the Innovation Showcase for local high school teachers in the district and she will be presenting for the second time at the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina state conference this Fall. Estes has also presented at the Southern Conference on Language Teaching in 2014 after she was presented with a scholarship to study at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, Canada for two weeks.

Estes said she is thrilled and honored to receive the Dorothy Ludwig Award. She acknowledges that it is the highlight of her teaching career  a feather in her cap, or as the French would say, "a cherry on the cake."

Mooresville natives earn degrees

 Jacob Beaver and Courtney Reilly, both of Mooresville, recently received their bachelor's degrees from the University of South Carolina Upstate.

 Patricia Alsina of Mooresville received an MBA in business administration-online executive from Rochester Institute of Technologys Saunders College of Business.

 Shalin Mankodi of Mooresville received an ME in industrial and systems engineering from Rochester Institute of Technologys Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

 Anthony Schrader of Mooresville was named to the Washington University Deans List for the spring semester.

Mack Molding to host golf tourney for Purple Heart Homes

Mack Molding Company of Statesville will host a golf tournament fundraiser for the Purple Heart Homes in Statesville.

The tournament will be held Saturday at Twin Oaks golf course, 320 Twin Oaks Road, Statesville. Players are expected to be at the course at 8:15 a.m.

The format will be two-person teams, captain's choice and the cost is $50 per player. There will be awards for longest drive and closest to the pin. Anyone looking to sponsor a hole(s) on the course, or for more information, is asked to call Robert Daye at 704-657-3495 or 704-878-9641 ext. 4474.

7-22 Steelman

Late artist's work available for purchase

Rachel York Steelman, a life-long resident of Harmony and unofficial town artist, died Dec. 30, 2015, at the age of 97, but she is remembered through her legacy of more than 100 paintings.

A housewife with some art training, she painted throughout her life. Her favorite subject for realistic paintings was North Carolina scenery, primarily in the areas around Harmony and the Brushy Mountains. She saw beauty in local old houses, tobacco barns, mills and seasonal leaf changes. Her still-lifes usually incorporated local wildflowers and fruits arranged in old pottery and baskets. Steelman taught oil painting through Mitchell Community College and participated in art exhibits in Harmony and Statesville. She often won show favorite and purchase awards at the Hunt Art shows.

Because of Steelmans love of portraying local scenes, her artwork will be available to local residents for viewing and purchase during the Historic US Highway 21 Yard Sale. During the three-day event, July 29-31, Steelmans artwork will be displayed at the Korner Deli, 3387 Harmony Highway, Harmony.

North Iredell grad completes basic training

U.S. Air Force Airman Garrett M. Harshbarger recently graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio.

Harshbarger is the son of Thomas M. Harshbarger of Statesville, and Jamey L. Harlow of Monroe, and step-son of Rana D. Harshbarger of Statesville. He is a 2014 graduate of North Iredell High School.

Statesville Duplicate Bridge Club results

Results for the July 19 match were as follows: First place, Ann McLain and Pat Inman; second place, Peter Gerrard and Michael McConochie; third place, Barbara Helton and Nancy Wilson; fourth place, Carolyn Sharp and Nancy Shanks.

The Statesville Bridge club plays at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at the Iredell County Senior Center, 344 E. Front St., Statesville.
FOREST CITY  The wall was lifted off the sawhorses and put into place inside the shed. A volunteer grabbed a drill and screwed in one side of the wall.

The shed was being built by WIT volunteers and RV Care-A-Vanners Friday morning on the Grand National Rally grounds. It will be moved to a Habitat for Humanity house in Mason City.

The RV Care-A-Vanners are an all-volunteer group with Habitat for Humanity International. Habitat for Humanity North Central Iowa sponsored the group at the WIT rally.

This was the second year the group attended the rally and the first year they sponsored a build.

We want to share the Habitat mission and it gives them another way to RV, organizer Mary Vandeveld said of the WIT volunteers.

The RV Care-A-Vanners group travels across the U.S. building houses as part of Habitat for Humanity. Many members of the group travel in Winnebago recreation vehicles.

Our slogan is we travel with a purpose, Vandeveld said.

That purpose included building around 300 homes during the last year. Those homes were built all over the U.S., Vandeveld said, from Florida to Maine.

The Care-A-Vanners group typically helps build homes in smaller, rural areas. Affiliates like Habitat for Humanity North Central Iowa call the group when they need help with a project.

The Care-A-Vanners then send a team to help for two weeks. Some teams only build one home a year, while others build throughout the year.

Vandeveld helped supervise three builds last year with her husband. The pair have worked with the RV Care-A-Vanners for the past 15 years.

We retired and hit every museum we could see. Then we looked at each other and asked, Whats next? Vandeveld said.

What was next was traveling in their Winnebago RV while building homes across the country.

It was something we could do together as a couple, Vandeveld said.

She now oversees the entire program, which means she doesnt often help on builds.

Vandeveld was in Forest City supervising the shed project. She would like to see the group come back next year and build something even bigger  maybe even a house.

WIT volunteer Rita Sax would likely sign up to help.

Oh, absolutely, she said after finishing a shift on the shed project.

Especially, she said, as the project will benefit a family in need.

I feel very fortunate to have what we have. I would like to spread it around, if I can, Sax said.

Vandeveld said many of the volunteers, herself included, get more out of the experience than they give.

Youre stiff and sore and you may have a blister from hammering nails, she said.

But, she added, working side-by-side with homeowners makes it worth every ache and pain.

It makes you feel good, Sax said.

Allison Ullmann is a reporter for the Forest City Summit, another Lee Enterprises newspaper.
In the first five months of the current year, Colombia exported 54,172 mt of ferronickel, up 3.7 percent, with a value of $124.9 million, decreasing by 39.8 percent, both year on year, as announced by the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE). In May this year, the country's ferronickel exports amounted to 12,989 mt, rising by 56.1 percent, while the revenue from these exports was $31.07 million, up seven percent, both compared to May last year.
In the first half of the current year, Georgia 's total external trade turnover with Turkey, which is the second biggest trading partner of the country, amounted to $777.9 million, including exports worth $105.56 million, down 3.8 percent, and imports worth $672.4 million, increasing 4.9 percent, both on year-on-year basis, according to the data provided by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
Thursday, 21 July 2016 23:30:11 (GMT+3) | San Diego

According to Statistics Canada , spending on new housing construction totaled $4.2 billion in May, up 5.0 percent from the same month a year earlier.





The increase at the national level came mainly from higher investment in apartment and apartment-condominium building construction , up 17.2 percent year over year to $1.5 billion. Spending on row house construction also contributed to the advance, up 13.4 percent to $454 million.




Friday, 22 July 2016 16:06:17 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

Italian flat steel and tube producer Arvedi Group has announced its financial results for the full year of 2015, showing a reduced profit but an increased steel output.





In 2015, the company registered a turnover of 2.07 billion compared to the turnover of 2.09 billion in 2014, while it recorded a net profit of 11.8 million. In the same year, Arvedis steel production increased by 22 percent year on year to 4 million mt, while its export sales rose by more than 50 percent from the previous year.





During 2015, the companys investments amounted to 153.5 million. Meanwhile, in the current year Arvedi plans to close its investment cycle and focus its attention on debt reduction.
Friday, 22 July 2016 10:48:25 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

China s state-owned credit rating agency China Lianhe Credit Rating Co., Ltd (Lianhe Credit Rating) has announced that it has maintained the credit rating of Inner Mongolia-based Chinese steelmaker Baotou Iron and Steel (Baogang) unchanged at AA+, while the companys credit rating outlook has been downgraded to negative from stable.





Baogang recorded an overall net loss of RMB 4.354 billion ($0.65 billion) for 2015. At present, Baogangs short-term debt solvency is on the weak side, indicating the strong pressure the company is under from repayment of debts.
Thursday, 21 July 2016 23:29:11 (GMT+3) | San Diego

Nucor Corporation announced today consolidated net earnings of $233.8 million for the second quarter of 2016. By comparison, Nucor reported net earnings of $70.8 million for the first quarter of 2016 and net earnings of $124.8 million for the second quarter of 2015.





Nucor 's consolidated net sales increased 14 percent to $4.25 billion in the second quarter of 2016 from $3.72 billion in the first quarter of 2016 and decreased 3 percent compared with $4.36 billion in the second quarter of 2015.





Total tons shipped to outside customers were 6,457,000 tons in the second quarter of 2016, a 5 percent increase from the first quarter of 2016 and a 7 percent increase from the second quarter of 2015. Total second quarter steel mill shipments increased 5 percent from the first quarter of 2016 and increased 11 percent from the second quarter of 2015. Second quarter downstream steel products shipments to outside customers increased 11 percent from the first quarter of 2016 and decreased 2 percent from the second quarter of 2015.





Overall operating rates at Nucor s steel mills increased to 83 percent in the second quarter of 2016 as compared to 74 percent in the first quarter of 2016 and 73 percent in the second quarter of 2015. Operating rates for the first half of 2016 increased to 79 percent as compared to 69 percent for the first half of 2015.




According to the statistics released by the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs, in June this year Taiwan 's basic metal and basic metal product export orders amounted to $1.99 billion, down 2.7 percent compared to June last year and rising by 2.8 percent compared to the previous month. In May, Taiwan s basic metal and basic metal product orders had recorded a 2.6 percent rise month on month.
According to Vale iron ore production in Q2 rose 12 percent, quarter-on-quarter, thanks to a better performance at its North System.

Ferroalloys production in Q2 was 28,630 mt, 8 percent down, year-on-year, but 15.3 percent up, quarter-on-quarter, thanks to the restart of the Barbacena plant in February this year, Vale said, adding exports of the product became feasible due to lower electricity costs, which were 8 percent down compared to the same quarter of the year prior.
Friday, 22 July 2016 20:49:45 (GMT+3) | San Diego

According to the most recent data from the US Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance, in the month of June, the US imported 253,892 mt (license data) of hot rolled coil ( HRC ) from global suppliers, which reflects at 72,674 mt dip from June 2015, when the US imported 307,566 mt (census data.)





At current, US market players continue to look to August 5, when the final determinations in the antidumping/countervailing duty case will be announced.





Trader sources say they continue report that the US sales price for import HRC from Turkey, Korea and Argentina is trending at approximately $26-$28 cwt. ($573-$617/mt or $520-$560/nt); domestic spot market prices are unchanged in the past week and continue to trend in the approximate range of $31.00-$31.25 cwt. ($683-$689/mt or $625-$630/nt), ex-Midwest mill. As with last week, sources continue to report that there are still some quiet deals happening at the $30 level.








Chinese billet export offers to Italy

Friday, 22 July 2016 18:02:18 (GMT+3) | Brescia



SteelOrbis has learned that the latest Chinese billets export offers for the Italian market stand at $330/mt CIF.

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Udit Batra was in awe of Sigma-Aldrichs research and e-commerce capabilities when he was competing with it. Hes even more impressed now that hes running the company.

German company Merck KgaA bought Sigma-Aldrich in November and combined it with EMD Millipore, the research chemicals and supplies business that Batra runs from Billerica, Mass. He was in St. Louis this week to visit the former Sigma-Aldrich headquarters and get an update on post-merger integration.

The combined business, now called MilliporeSigma, is a powerhouse supplier to the worlds leading academic and corporate research labs. Its $6 billion in annual sales represents about 40 percent of Mercks total.

St. Louis is MilliporeSigmas largest employment base, with about 2,000 people. We have no intention of changing St. Louis as an epicenter for this business, Batra said.

Employment here is roughly the same as before the merger, he said. A Millipore research and sales team in St. Charles County was moved to Sigmas offices in St. Louis, and a few top-level headquarters jobs no longer exist. A handful of Sigma-Aldrich officers, however, took similar titles at MilliporeSigma and have remained here.

Batra, who says he visits St. Louis every four to six weeks, is pleased with the way the merger has gone. The first measure of integration is how well you are able to sustain the momentum the organizations had, he said. If anything, its gotten better.

Mercks life sciences sales grew 8.9 percent in the first quarter, with former Sigma products contributing double-digit growth, and profit margins expanded. The business clearly is doing well, and Batra doesnt want to mess with success.

We said we would not touch plants, customer service or sales representatives, he said. If there is efficiency to be had in those areas, we will do things over time, but not right away.

Batra is emphasizing that legacy blue (the color of Millipores logo) doesnt outrank legacy red (Sigma) and that integration decisions are made on merit. Biologics sales teams, for example, evaluated their relationships with 15 large worldwide customers and decided that legacy blue should take the lead on eight, legacy red on seven.

Sigmas e-commerce site, one of the assets Batra envied when he competed with the St. Louis company, is contributing to the rapid sales gains as it adds Millipore products.

After several visits to St. Louis, Batra has decided this is an excellent place to run a life-science business.

Thats music to the ears of Donn Rubin, president of BioSTL. After the Merck-Sigma deal was announced, he and Mayor Francis Slay traveled to Darmstadt, Germany, to meet with senior Merck executives. They said positive things about St. Louis at that time but you never quite really know, Rubin said.

After watching the combined company operate for eight months, he believes Merck meant what it said: that it sees the former Sigma as a growth platform, not just as somewhere it can cut costs. Its tremendously important to St. Louis, Rubin said. It is a large number of very talented scientists and business people.

Batra praises the disproportionate attention MilliporeSigma has gotten from local officials, and the way local institutions work together to promote biotechnology. He has just one complaint: St. Louis is hard to get to.

Add more direct flights to places like Boston, and even to international destinations like Frankfurt, he said, and St. Louis would be much more attractive to global businesses like Merck.

Were with you on that one, Mr. Batra.
AWARDS

Carl Bolm, owner of BSR Services, won the Philanthropic Leadership award from the Snow and Ice Management Association.

The alumni association of Park University in Parkville, Mo., named Peter deSilva, president of Scottrade Inc. and Scottrade Investment Management, as its Torchlighter Award winner.

Haberberger Inc. was honored by the Mechanical Contractors Association of Eastern Missouri with three Outstanding Mechanical Installation Awards for work on projects for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District and Mallinckrodt.

HELPING OUT

The Cuivre River Electric Community Trust gave a $4,000 Operation Round Up grant to United Services for Children to support the expansion of the agencys Uncommon Grace Pediatric Therapy outpatient program.

GCS Credit Union employees raised $795 for TWIGS for Kids, an organization aimed at fighting childhood hunger.

St. Johns Bank employees donated $500 to St. Louis Crisis Nursery.

Boys Hope Girls Hope of St. Louis announced the following appointments to its governing board: Candace Grasse, a principal and chief operating officer for Clinical Research Professionals; Guy Litteken, general manager for the St. Louis division of ASP Enterprises; Ron Steinkamp, a partner at Brown Smith Wallace LLP; and Mike Wylie, chief financial officer of Contegix.

MILESTONES

Holland Construction Services marked its 30th anniversary.

NEW BUSINESS

Midwest BankCentre Inc. launched Midwest BankCentre Insurance Agency.

PROJECTS

The Korte Co. has begun a design-build project for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Lake Charles, La. The 32,000-square-foot outpatient facility is expected to be completed next spring.

RECOGNITION

Maritz Motivation Solutions President John McArthur was honored at the Employee Engagement Awards and Summit in the Unsung Hero category.

Polsinelli was named to BTI Consultings 2016 Most Recommended Law Firms, Brand Elite and Client Service A-Team lists. It also was listed in the top 10 percent overall for best client relationships, with recognition in the health care, chemicals, high tech and telecommunications industries.

Nix Conference & Meeting Management was honored by ECPAT-USA for its work to end sex trafficking in hotels.
Updated at 4:23 p.m. with more recent number on cancellations, delays on Southwest flights to and from Lambert.

Southwest Airlines, the dominant carrier at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, canceled about 300 flights nationwide Friday in addition to the 1,200 flights that were delayed following a computer outage earlier this week.

As of late Friday afternoon at Lambert, three departing Southwest flight on Southwest were canceled and another 11 delayed, according to Lambert.

Three Southwest arrivals had been canceled and another 19 delayed.

Click here for information on flight arrivals and departures at Lambert.

Southwest canceled nearly 1,500 flights and 4,500 others were delayed Wednesday and Thursday.

The company said in a statement Friday that much of the lingering problems were caused by displaced flight crews, and that its technology systems had been fully restored.

The timing of the breakdown  in the middle of the summer travel season  made rebooking stranded customers more difficult because planes were already nearly full.

Southwest recommended that passengers delay travel until after the weekend. It said that customers with tickets for travel from Wednesday through next Tuesday would get two weeks to rebook without paying a higher fare.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More
ST. LOUIS  When the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency opens its new facility on the citys North Side early next decade, it doesnt want to be an obscure federal agency tucked away in an industrial corridor anymore.

Instead, NGA Director Robert Cardillo on Thursday signaled a profound shift in how he envisions its new western headquarters  and the agency as a whole  interacting with the community around it.

The new 100-acre campus for the mapping agency that helped plan the raid that killed Osama bin Laden could include green space, a community education center and even shared offices for another government agency or private companies working with the NGA.

I have no interest in creating a moat and big walls, Cardillo said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch at the spy agencys existing 23-acre campus on Second Street near the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.

Cardillo said he wants to hear ideas from the community about how to develop the site. Already, the agency plans to foster more and better partnerships and interactions with St. Louis schools close to the new facility to get children interested in science and technology careers. Ultimately, that helps with recruitment, he said, one of his primary goals and a reason he decided to keep NGA in the city.

The physical presence of the campus itself will have to change, too, Cardillo said. He imagines a piece of art  maybe a globe  visible from the road as people walk or drive by.

Id like people to be proud of it, he said of the headquarters, planned to open around 2023.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said Cardillo has assured him the facility wont be a fortress or an island.

I was really pleased to see they recognized the importance of being part of the community and they didnt want to be just a federal agency with a lot of jobs, Slay said in an interview.

The citys primary focus now is readying the site for development to hand over to NGA in about a year. But Slay said there is an ongoing effort to solicit public ideas about what to do around the site, pointing out that the city owns a fair amount of land adjacent to it.

We need to make sure that were working with the neighborhood, so we are having meetings and were doing public engagement, talking about, OK, what do people living in the neighborhood want to see there?

The city hopes to see the NGA spur the redevelopment of a swath of St. Louis that has suffered from decades of disinvestment and decay. Paul McKee has plans for hundreds of housing units just to the east, but his proposals for a major redevelopment of the North Side have been stalled for years.

If NGA doesnt spark new investment in housing and services that attracts the young tech workers Cardillo hopes to hire, he admits the opportunity does go down. But simply staying in St. Louis, near the talent and new technology startups it is fostering, is a benefit by itself, he said.

Cardillo emphasized that the nature of his agencys work is changing and that its new facility will have a public-facing piece. Keeping as low a profile as it has in the past wont help it recruit the best and brightest or collaborate with the companies inventing the new data analysis and imaging technologies that will be NGAs future tools.

Cardillo has specifically cited the Cortex technology district in the Central West End as one of the reasons the NGA chose to keep its western headquarters in St. Louis rather than move to a greenfield site next to Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County.

The advances now in our profession are happening in basements, garages, Cortex, he said.

The NGA already has some employees working around the Cortex area, and Cortex CEO Dennis Lower said there are already cybersecurity companies with employees and services that are in the same space as NGA. New companies and out-of-state companies that want to do business with the agency can use Cortex or incubators downtown as soft landing space in order to move closer to the NGA, Lower added.

NGA is sort of off the map at its current location, Lower said, and its new direction should lead to more interactions among private companies and the agencys employees. Ultimately, it should boost St. Louis profile as a place with plenty of tech talent.

NGA is really a technology company and its a large technology company and its an expanding technology company, Lower said.

Might Cortex someday use some of that shared space on NGAs campus that Cardillo alluded to?

We are exploring collaborations that might occur, but at this point its very early in the process, Lower said.

No matter what happens, the public wont be able to wander through the new complex without restriction. Some top secret intelligence work is done behind the gates of the old St. Louis Armory, and that kind of work will continue when NGA leaves the south riverfront for north St. Louis.

The new campus, four times the size of its existing location, could even make room for other intelligence agencies to be near the mappers and analysts at NGA. Cardillo said he has invited the FBI to relocate its regional headquarters, currently located at Market and 22nd Streets, to space on the planned NGA campus should it need the room in coming years.

Those discussions are ongoing, Cardillo said, and he wont wait forever before deciding how to use the space. The FBIs St. Louis office said that decision would be made by the U.S. General Services Administration. The GSA said it was too early to know if the FBI will continue using its current space.
Gabby Hinojosa works in fundraising and spends late hours at her office near Washington University. At night, she walks to her car alone and uses SafeTrek, a personal safety app on her smartphone.

When shes in areas she considers dangerous, Hinojosa holds down a blue button image on the app. After safely reaching her car, she releases the button, enters a personal identification number and goes on her way. If, for any reason, she failed to enter the PIN, SafeTrek would verify her status, and alert 911 if theres any question about her safety. Authorities can locate her by using GPS coordinates on her smartphone.

Its a comfort to know that, should anything happen, the police would be notified in a matter of seconds by simply lifting my thumb off the screen, said Hinojosa, 28.

SafeTrek, the app she relies on, was created by a team of students as part of a technology competition at the University of Missouri in 2013.

The engineer who built it, Zach Winkler, 25, is a Chesterfield native who wanted to become an entrepreneur ever since high school. In college, together with two other colleagues in the tech competition, Winkler began researching personal safety issues after hearing reports of campus crime.

We quickly realized how silly it is that you have to pick up a phone, dial 911 and explain the situation in order to get help, especially since you can get your favorite food or a taxi to your exact location without saying a word, said Winkler, CEO of SafeTrek.

After graduating, Winkler moved the startup to San Diego, where he had gotten a job as a software engineer.

SafeTrek recently relocated to St. Louis, aiming at becoming more cost-effective after almost three years of operating in California.

Now the company has partnered with Downtown STL, a public-private organization that promotes the citys downtown, in order to assist residents in the area and contribute to improving safety in the city.

SafeTrek service is regularly priced at $2.99 a month, but Downtown STL is offering a free six-month subscription to 4,000 downtown residents, available first-come, first-served.

Making 911 better

Customers use SafeTrek for domestic violence, robberies and home invasions, as well as for medical emergencies.

When a SafeTrek alert is sent, it doesnt go directly to a 911 center. Instead, alerts are handled at one of three SafeTrek call centers, which are located in Chicago and in Lafayette and Baton Rouge in Louisiana.

The 24/7 centers, which have 70 employees and handle up to 100 calls a day, go through several protocols, including texting with the users, to make sure they are dealing with a real emergency. SafeTrek gives its user up to 60 seconds to respond with more information before it alerts a 911 center. If the user fails to respond, the 911 center is alerted. The company says it uses this process to prevent false alarms, and avoid abusing the 911 system.

Developing the infrastructure to support the app has proven a challenge because SafeTrek had to communicate with a rather incompatible 911 system that wasnt originally designed for the digital world.

We built on top of 911 to make 911 better, Winkler said. We give users the capability to text-message, to use one button anywhere in the U.S. and potentially anywhere in the world, when you dont have to remember any number or know anything about your emergency.

Figuring out the technology wasnt the only challenge. The company also searched for the right price model that would attract subscribers while covering the high cost of maintaining and operating call centers.

In addition to Winkler, the SafeTrek executive team is made up of Brittany Dameron, 30, chief creative officer; Aaron Kunnemann, 26, head of customer happiness; and Nick Droege, 25, business development manager. Theyre all employees and shareholders.

Their competition mainly comprises applications that focus on connecting potential victims with emergency contacts, such as bSafe, Circle of 6, and OnWatchOnCampus. But the market also hosts more mature businesses that have their own tracking system and call centers, as well as partnerships with national cell carriers.

The market is growing because these products are like personal portable home security systems, said Phil Reitnour, founder and chairman of EmergenSee, a real-time personal security system for smartphones that partnered with Verizon.

The reasons for using a personal safety app rather than immediately dialing 911 are related to a seemingly faster and more accurate response from new technologies, as well as to a preference of young people toward automation, Winkler said.

SafeTrek has been downloaded more than 800,000 times and the majority of its users are women ages 13-24.

New technologies

The 911 system is also going through changes. The New Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) system set to function nationally by 2020 is an enhanced 911 service that will allow multimedia communication between callers and dispatchers.

Were trying to ensure that the 911 system keeps up with the rest of the communications industry and the tools consumers use every day to communicate with friends and family, said Patrick Halley, executive director of the NG9-1-1 Institute. Text messaging, photos, videos are far more used by younger people. Many are now wearing things on their body that are measuring information about them. We need a modern 911 system capable of receiving and sharing such data.

The development of a multimedia-enhanced 911 system does not scare Winkler.

Everything that we built is to make people safe and be proactive. If this means that we will not be here anymore in the future, thats what it is. The company will still be here, maybe not the app, he said.
Dear Abby  My husband and his sister had a rough childhood in foster care. Long story short, they lost contact for 10 years  until now. She found us on Facebook and was desperate to know if she had found her brother or not. My husband ignored her. He isnt sure he ever wants to rebuild a relationship with her.

I know thats his decision to make, and if he doesnt want her in his life, thats fine. But I couldnt live with myself if I ignored her, too. I just wanted her to know she could stop looking and wondering if her brother is still alive. So I told her. She was grateful to have some closure and know that he is doing well, and she reassured me that she wouldnt contact him again unless he reaches out to her. Even if they never talk again, I think she deserved to know she had found him.

Now I feel guilty for going behind his back and meddling in things that arent my business. But I cant imagine spending my whole life searching for a family member, when someone could have been honest with me and given me peace of mind. Did I make a terrible mistake, and should I come clean to my husband about what I did?  FEELING GUILTY IN GEORGIA

Dear Feeling Guilty  You failed to mention the reason for your husbands ambivalence about re-establishing a relationship with his sister. Now that she has found you on Facebook, she can follow his whole life, unless you block her. Whether you made a terrible mistake remains to be seen. If the sister contacts your husband again, you will have to tell him what you did. He may have wanted to protect his privacy. As long as she doesnt, I think you should keep your mouth shut.

Dear Abby  My 18-year-old daughter has just finished school. She now wants to take a gap year and work to save enough to travel overseas. The problem is, shes so eager to get away from home that she wants to move to another city to work.

I have advised her that staying home and working will allow her to save more to travel, and she would have to pay for her food, accommodation and transportation, and would have little left over to save to travel. She got upset with me and could not understand why I wouldnt want to pay her rent or support her. Am I being unreasonable?  MOM IN JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

Dear Mom  What you told your daughter makes perfect sense. If she wants independence, she should be prepared to accept the responsibility for living that way.

I would, however, encourage you to continue the dialogue with her so you can understand why she feels the need to live apart from you, on the chance that a compromise might be possible. Im sure it would be enlightening.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, Calif. 90069.
There will come a day when campaign finance sanity comes to Missouri.

It might take a year or two, or 10, but when it happens, remember July 2016 as the month that turned the tide. In terms of the unencumbered flow of corrupting money, the month started with the absurd and quickly advanced to the obscene.

On July 1, the most prolific donor in Missouri history, St. Louis billionaire and chess fanatic Rex Sinquefield, demonstrated the dual problem with the states lax campaign finance laws.

First, he donated $849,995 to his chosen candidate for governor, Republican Catherine Hanaway. Sinquefield had already bought and paid for Hanaways candidacy with more than a million dollars in previous donations. But Sinquefield didnt put his name on the check. Instead he passed the money through two political action committees he runs, Great St. Louis and Missourians for Excellence in Government, as though he or his political minions believe voters are dumb enough to believe that money came from some grass-roots organization.

Sinquefield was just getting started.

The same day he made it clear that his chosen candidate for attorney general, Republican Kurt Schaefer, was also a fully purchased commodity, by depositing $906,630 into his campaign accounts.

Ka-ching!

Later that day, the likely Democratic candidate for governor, current attorney general Chris Koster, received a $100,000 check from the United Auto Workers union in Detroit. How quaint. Remember when $100,000 was a big deal in Missouri politics? Now it barely gets you in the door.

About four days later, Sinquefield did some more laundry, washing about $400,000 from one of his committees to another, just because he can.

Then, not to be outdone by his Republican rival, Joplin roofing magnate David Humphrey got into the action, giving $1 million to Schaefers opponent in the primary, Josh Hawley. Into the ring the billionaires puppets go, duking it out through insidious television advertisements on behalf of their wealthy benefactors.

On July 7, Sinquefield flexed his muscles, writing another $587,979 check to Schaefer, again under the auspices of coming from a committee, this time, Grow Missouri.

Were just getting started.

On July 14, Nevada billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate, wrote a $200,000 check to GOP gubernatorial hopeful Eric Greitens, who has raised the bulk of his money from big out-of-state donors.

The next day Koster took in a $500,000 check from a Washington-based teachers union.

Two days after that, Humphreys and his daughter each wrote $500,000 checks to Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who is also running for governor.

And then Greitens pointed his assault rifle at all the previous campaign finance records and blew them out of the water, posting a $1.9 million check from a federal Super PAC called Seals for Truth that likely wont reveal its donors until after the election, if ever.

The guy claiming to fight the corruption of Jefferson City just posted the largest anonymous campaign donation in the states history. Hes bought and paid for, but we dont know who his master is.

To recall Justice Potter Stewarts phrase: I know obscenity when I see it, and this is it.

The good news is that voters can, some day, do something about it.

Any day now, a ballot initiative that would reinstate campaign finance limits in Missouri to levels more in line with congressional races, about $2,600 per donor, is likely to be certified for the November ballot. The initiative was funded by Republican activist Fred Sauer of St. Louis. It has been praised by Republicans and Democrats alike, including U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

But it might not make it before voters. Not this year, at least.

Thats because a lawsuit is already in the works to knock it off the ballot.

In March, Jefferson City lawyer Chuck Hatfield wrote a confidential memo to members of the Missouri Insurance Coalition outlining the legal strategy for keeping Sauers proposal off the ballot. I obtained the memo from a source.

The initiative is almost certainly unconstitutional, Hatfield wrote.

Part of the problem with Sauers proposal, Hatfield wrote, is that it used identical language from a 2010 ethics bill passed by the Missouri Legislature and tossed by the state Supreme Court. Hatfield filed that lawsuit on behalf of Legends Bank, because the legislation, in attempting to limit the laundering of donations between committees, made it illegal for some types of corporations, such as state-chartered banks, from making political donations.

In an interview, Hatfield confirmed he had written the memo and would probably be filing a lawsuit against Sauers measure. But he said it was not because he was opposed to campaign finance limits.

I would love to see somebody come up with a good campaign finance proposal, Hatfield said. I just dont think Fred did it.

Hatfield is a Democrat who once worked for Gov. Jay Nixon and has helped Kosters campaigns.

Like the man who he will soon face in court, Sauer, he says big checks are corrupting the political system in Missouri.

Handing candidates large sums of money creates at least the appearance of corruption, Hatfield said. Its bad for democracy.

For now, though, big-check corrupting of democracy is the law of the land in Missouri.

The highest bid currently stands at $1.9 million.

Going once 
JEFFERSON CITY  A state senator is calling for the resignation of Missouris top veterans affairs official in the wake of a $2.8 million jury verdict against him in a sexual discrimination and harassment case.

Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, said Missouri Veterans Commission Executive Director Larry Kay should step down after Cole County jurors entered a verdict Thursday of $1.3 million in actual damages and $1.575 million in punitive damages in favor of former veterans commission employee Pat Rowe Kerr, who was dismissed in 2009.

The Missouri Veterans Commission cannot countenance discrimination or harassment. The commissions employees provide vital services to our veterans. They need and deserve a work environment free from the kind of hostility the jury found occurred, Sifton said in a prepared statement.

Sifton is a member of the nine-member commission, which is empowered to hire the executive director. The panel's next meeting is Aug. 9.

The commission consults the governor and the Legislature regarding the oversight of the Missouri Veterans Homes, Missouri State Veteran Cemeteries, Missouri State Veteran Service Organizations and other related Veteran issues. The agency oversees more than 1,300 beds at seven homes.

Kay joined the commission as deputy director in 2006 and was promoted to executive director two years later. He earns $105,300 annually.

Kerr, the commissions former senior adviser of veterans outreach, took Kay to court claiming that she lost her job because Kay has a problem with older, successful women. She was 56 when she was fired.

In the nearly two-week-long trial in Jefferson City, Kerrs lawyers argued that Kay not only showed favoritism to men and younger employees in his role as commission director, but interfered with Kerrs attempts to help veterans after she was fired and showed similar discrimination towards women during his career as a military officer. She also alleged a hostile work environment.

Kay contended that he fired Kerr because of budget cuts after the economic strain of the Great Recession.

As chief of the commission, Kay oversees 1,750 workers and an annual budget of $125 million.

The person heading the Missouri Veterans Commission needs to be fair-minded and focused on the needs of veterans, Sifton added. I do not see how Larry Kay can continue to lead this important agency in light of the jurys decision.

Kay did not immediately return messages Friday.

Commission spokesman Daniel Bell said the agency had "no official comment at this time."
UPDATED at noon Aug. 1 with information on a third large donation to candidate Kim Gardner from George Soros-backed 'super PAC.'

ST. LOUIS  Kimberly Gardner, one of four Democrats running for St. Louis circuit attorney in the Aug. 2 primary, is taking heat for a new political ad paid for with money from a national super PAC that is at least partly funded by liberal billionaire George Soros.

The new internet and cable TV ad was financed by a federally registered campaign committee from Washington called the Safety & Justice Committee. It was established in June and reported $30,000 in initial funds from Soros. No other contributors were listed as of its last public filing June 30.

Last week, Gardners campaign disclosed to the Missouri Ethics Commission a $67,693.23 in-kind contribution from the super PAC. The group apparently took in additional money after June 30, since it donated more to Gardner than it had on hand at that time. But any money donated to the PAC after June 30 wont be made public until its next quarterly report is filed on Oct. 15.

On July 26, Gardner's campaign reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission a $24,548.37 in-kind donation from the same federal campaign committee, a day after reporting a $25,738.86 contribution from that super PAC. Then on July 29, Gardner reported an additional $72,770.27 from Safety & Justice, bringing the Soros-backed super PAC total contribution to Gardner's campaign to at least $190,750.73.

Gardner is running against two assistant circuit attorneys, Mary Pat Carl and Patrick Hamacher, and Steve Harmon, a staff attorney for St. Louis Public Schools and former St. Louis police lieutenant, to replace Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, who is stepping down. No Republican has filed.

Carl, Hamacher and the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which endorsed her, have criticized Gardner for help from an outside political group.

Weve got to solve our problems on a local level, Carl told the Post-Dispatch. We dont need an outside national committee who doesnt know us to come in and buy our election.

Joe Steiger, president of the police union, said he believes that Soros also funded out-of-state activists to escalate protests into riots in Ferguson after the Aug. 9, 2014, police shooting of Michael Brown, 18.

Its pretty insulting, Steiger said Friday of the contribution to Gardner. Its more important for people to realize that calling for black lives matter and blue lives matter is not an opposite proposition.

Hamacher, too, said he was disappointed and noted that his more than $85,000 in campaign donations came from at least 475 contributors.

Gardner said Friday that she has no regrets about assistance from the super PAC. She said the latest donation is paying for the TV and online ad, and that the committees mission aligns with her platform to reform the criminal justice system and restore trust in the community. She said the spot will run until primary day.

The committee reached out and heard my platform and liked what I was saying about building trust, Gardner said. They said theyd like to support me and get my message out.

The Safety & Justice Committees donation more than doubles Gardners campaign cash. She had $63,460.38 as of July 15, according to her last campaign finance report. Carl still has more  with $145,359.45 at the end of last week.

Super PACs are legally allowed to accept unlimited donations, provided that they use money only for independent expenditures such as television commercials on issues, for example. Super PACS cannot legally donate directly to federal candidate, but no law says they cant donate candidates in state and local races.

A similar kind of donation was made this week on a much larger scale when a committee called SEALs for Truth made the single largest donation to a candidate in Missouri history to Eric Greitens, a Republican running for Missouri governor.

Soros, a prominent backer of liberal causes, has supported Democrats in similar district attorney races around the country, including Chicago, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, according to published news reports.

Kevin McDermott of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS  The owners of Lotawata Creek Southern Grill were put on probation for four years Friday in a federal tax-fraud case in which they already have paid $219,183 in restitution.

U.S. Attorney Donald Boyce in East St. Louis said Rodney Archer, 50, and Kenneth Archer, 52, also must pay penalties and interest, yet to be determined, and back taxes to Illinois. U.S. District Judge David Herndon imposed the sentence Friday morning.

The Archer brothers admitted in April they manipulated the cash registers at their restaurant from 2010 to July 2015 to understate taxable receipts, thus lowering their tax bill. The sentence also places their business on probation for five years.

They had pleaded guilty of conspiracy to obstruct the federal government's tax collections.

The brothers continue to own and operate the restaurant at 311 Salem Place. On Friday, Kenneth Archer declined to discuss the court case but said, "We have been in business for 20 years and hope to still be in business another 20."

Boyce said in a statement, "Stealing from the government by failing to pay your fair taxes is stealing from all the citizen of the United States."
Activists supporting the Black Lives Matter movement organized two demonstrations in St. Louis as part of the national Freedom Now protests.

A small group of activists gathered at Ritz Park on South Grand Boulevard on Thursday to advocate for policy changes and criminal justice reform.

While some drivers honked in support of the group, waving out their windows, others honked for protesters to move or yelled back, "All lives matter," on their way past. Activists briefly blocked an intersection.

Police officers eventually appeared to ask activists to move, and the protesters complied.

Dozens of other activists met at the steps of the Old Courthouse downtown a few hours later before temporarily shutting down Market Street. Participants included notable local activists, lawyers and clergy.

The group silently blocked the intersection at Market and Tucker Boulevard for a short time before moving to the steps of City Hall where they proceeded to read a list of demands, including the firing St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson and policies that better serve the poor. Demonstration leaders said they want public accountability from city officials.

One mayoral aide listened to the demands at the gates of City Hall.

Activists and organizers also expressed discontent with the way the city has treated the homeless.

"What we're trying to say is, we always need to fight for the people who live in the margins. A lot of these homeless people in St. Louis are veterans. A lot of them served this country and they are now suffering from PTSD, anxiety and all kinds of other mental issues," said Kayla Reed, a prominent local activist. "And in heat and without resources they are more agitated and those things are more magnified. And what we do not want to happen is that the police, who are listening to the wealthy white folks who live downtown, to push those people out of the parks, for there to be a moment where someone is shot."

She continued, "We are ultimately fighting to preserve life. And as long as people are dying, then there's still work to do."

A little more than 40 other cities scheduled Freedom Now marches across the country according to the The Movement for Black Lives website.
Mother of Christopher Miles says police pursuit began after her son was seen posting pictures of himself on social media holding guns and threatening to kill police officers
Confidently addressing the finale of his party's less-than-smooth national convention, the billionaire businessman declared the nation's problems too staggering to be fixed within the confines of traditional politics.
Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, N.C., last week issued a head-scratcher of a Missouri political poll. The surprise wasnt that the poll found Republican Donald Trump with a 10-point edge over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. It was a little bit of surprise that Republican Sen. Roy Blunt held only a 3-point edge over Democratic challenger Jason Kander, the Missouri secretary of state.

But the real shock came when pollsters asked Missouri voters a series of issue questions. For example, in a state whose GOP-dominated Legislature consistently has rejected expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion has the support of 87 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents and even 48 percent of Republicans. Just 20 percent are opposed.

Other surprising findings:

 Sixty-two percent of those surveyed favor legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.

 The same 62 percent favors passage of the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Legislature has rejected the MONA bill every year for a decade.

 Eighty-four percent support expanding background checks for gun buyers. Eighty-one percent want to bar those on terrorist watch lists from buying firearms. Congressional Republicans have shot down these gun control measures, but Missouri Republicans support them 3-to-1.

 Fifty-nine percent of Missouri voters want the U.S. Senate to hold hearings on Merrick Garland, President Barack Obamas nominee to the Supreme Court.

 How about raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour? The poll found 71 percent of voters in favor.

Public Policy Polling generally polls for Democratic candidates and issues, but did the Missouri poll to raise its profile. We asked its director, Tom Jensen, how voters in a state that went Republican in the last four presidential elections and where Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both houses of the Legislature could possibly hold policy views like these.

In general, you find people dont toe the line with professional politicians, he said. The Republican base is a lot more complicated than its leaders are.

Complicated, yes. And more thoughtful. Sadly, voters arent always driven by policy positions. Or there may be other issues they feel more strongly about. In Missouri and elsewhere, many voters consistently vote against their own financial interests, often without realizing it. GOP strategists long ago learned to exploit wedge issues to make inroads in the old Democratic blue-collar base.

And then theres the power of money. Its the rare state lawmaker wholl buck the partys leaders who divvy up donors money in legislative races. That two-thirds of the state wants Medicaid expansion makes no difference if big donors dont.

If Missouri voters really want policy changes, theyll have to be a lot more engaged in the political process than merely answering calls from a pollster.
Can we be assured that the plant will not pollute our land or water supply so that we are not discovering something decades later like so many areas in Missouri?
MUNICH  An 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire in a crowded Munich shopping mall and a nearby McDonald's Friday night, killing nine people and wounding 16 others before killing himself, the chief of police in the Bavarian capital said Saturday.

Police gave a "cautious all clear" early Saturday morning, more than seven hours after the attack began and brought much of the city to a standstill as all public transit systems were shut down amid a massive manhunt. They said a body found near the scene was that of the shooter and he appeared to have acted alone.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told a news conference the suspect was a dual citizen from Munich and his motive was still "fully unclear." Andrae said the suspect's body was found about 2 hours after the attack and was determined to be the shooter based on witness statements and closed circuit television footage of the attack. The shooter was not previously known to police and there was no evidence of any links to terrorist organizations, Andrae said.

Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, but Andrae said two other people who fled the area quickly were investigated but had "nothing to do with the incident."

The police chief said the nine fatalities included young people and children were among the 16 wounded, three of whom were in critical condition.

After gunfire broke out at the mall, one of Munich's largest, the city sent a smartphone alert declaring an "emergency situation" and telling people to stay indoors, while all rail, subway and trolley service was halted in the city.

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. The previous attacks, in the French resort city of Nice and on a train in Bavaria near the city of Wuerzburg, were claimed by the Islamic State group.

While police initially called the mall shooting an act of terrorism, they said they had "no indication" it involved Islamic extremism and at least one witness said he heard a shooter shout an anti-foreigner slur.

"The question of terrorism or a rampage is tied to motive, and we don't know the motive," Andrae said. "We can't question the suspect so this is all a little more difficult."

The attack started shortly before 6 p.m. at a McDonald's across the street from the mall, which was filled with people doing their weekend shopping. As dozens of shots rang out, terrified shoppers ran from the scene, some carrying babies and pushing strollers.

Video obtained by The Associated Press from German news agency NonstopNews showed two bodies with sheets draped over them not far from the fast food restaurant. Another video posted online showed a gunman emerging from the door of the McDonald's, raising what appeared to be a pistol with both hands and aiming at people on the sidewalk, firing as they fled in terror.

Witness Luan Zequiri said he was in the mall when the shooting began.

He told German broadcaster n-tv that the attacker yelled an anti-foreigner insult and "there was a really loud scream."

He said he saw only one attacker, who was wearing jack boots and a backpack.

"I looked in his direction and he shot two people on the stairs," Zequiri said. He said he hid in a shop, then ran outside when the coast was clear and saw bodies of the dead and wounded on the ground.

Germany's Interior Ministry said Munich police had set up a hotline for concerned citizens. Residents of Munich opened their doors to people seeking shelter using the Twitter hashtag #opendoor.

Germany's interior minister cut short his holiday in the United States to go back to Berlin late Friday to meet with security officials.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was being regularly briefed on the attack, said her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier.

"All that we know and can say right now is that it was a cruel and inhumane attack," he said on German public channel ARD. "We can't rule out that there are terrorist links. We can't confirm them, but we are investigating along those lines too."

Altmaier noted that Friday was the fifth anniversary of the massacre in Oslo, Norway, by a far-right extremist who killed 77 people, 69 of them at a youth summer camp.

"You can only have absolute security in an absolute surveillance state, and nobody wants that, it would be the opposite of our free western European way of life," he said. "But, and this became clear again today, we can't talk down this danger. It's a danger that many countries are exposed, especially in the west, and that's why it's important to give our security agencies the instruments they need."

Police responded in large numbers to the mall in the northern part of Munich, near the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital. In all there were 2,300 officers involved, including the elite GSG9, SWAT teams from other German states and from neighboring Austria.

It was also not far from where Palestinian attackers opened fire in the Olympic Village in 1972, killing 11 Israeli athletes. Five guerrillas and a police officer were also killed. The GSG9 anti-terrorism unit was created after that attack, though the city saw a worse one in 1980, when 13 people were killed and more than 200 injured at the city's annual Oktoberfest in a bombing blamed on a student with ties to a neo-Nazi group.

It was the second attack in Germany in less than a week. On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan wounded four people in an ax-and-knife attack on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, and another woman outside as he fled. All survived, although one man from the train remains in life-threatening condition. The attacker was shot and killed by police.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teen likely acted alone.

Gun attacks in Germany are uncommon. Firearm ownership is widespread but they are strictly regulated, with purchasers first having to take training courses in order to be granted a permit to own one. Many types of firearms are banned.

In the U.S., President Barack Obama pledged to provide Germany with whatever help it might need to investigate the mall shooting.

___

Jordans and Rising reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Ferdinand Ostrop In Berlin and Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
As the dust continues to settle over the Prestage pork plant, one issue remains salient.

Ron Prestage said it was the racists and kooks of our community that derailed his project. It is certainly repulsive and definitely unprofessional for an outside businessman to make such an ugly charge. If Prestage has any evidence of this I would certainly like him to reveal it.

The same is true with our city councilwoman, Janet Solberg. She also made the same claim of racism and told a statewide newspaper that racism was a huge factor. A news agency asked for her emails pertaining to this issue under the Freedom of Information Act but was denied them. However, there is nothing stopping Solberg from providing those emails on her own.

She has an ethical obligation to back up her accusations with evidence and verification to the community. She either has the proof or is an an apparent prevaricator.

Phillip Sanchez, Mason City
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LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Pound ebbs; ECB talks tough on inflation

Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 17:15

London's FTSE 100 nudged cautiously higher on Thursday, as the pound's momentum finally waned, while European equities closed mixed as traders digested a rate hike by the European Central Bank.

The FTSE 100 index, stacked with firms that count their earnings in dollars, closed up 17.62 points, or 0.3% at 7,073.69 on Thursday. The pound was quoted at $1.1573 at the London equities close Thursday, down from $1.1612 at the close on Wednesday. A weaker pound is a tailwind for the FTSE.

The FTSE 250 ended down 23.97 points, or 0.1%, at 18,081.92. The AIM All-Share closed down just 0.21 of a point at 809.46.

The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.4% at 707.04, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.2% at 15,534.37, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.3% at 12,385.01.

In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended up 0.1%.

The European Central Bank on Thursday lifted its benchmark interest rates by 75 basis points, as expected.

The ECB is keen to keep a lid on inflation, which "remains far too high". Inflation will stay above its 2% target for "an extended period", the Frankfurt-based central bank warned.

Thursday's three-quarter point hike takes the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility to 2.00%, 2.25% and 1.50%, respectively.

The ECB said it expects to lift rates further to ensure a "timely" return to an inflation rate in line with its target.

The euro fell back below dollar parity, taking some shine off what has been a decent week so far for the single currency.

The euro stood at $0.9984 at the European equities close Thursday, down against $1.0064 at the same time on Wednesday.

Stocks in New York were mixed at the time of the London equities close, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.0%, the S&P 500 index down 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.0%.

The US economy grew at a faster pace than expected in the third quarter, according to the latest estimate from the US National Bureau of Economic Research on Thursday.

Gross domestic product grew by 2.6% annually in the third quarter of 2022, growth coming in higher than FXStreet-cited consensus of 2.4%. The figure shows the US economy is coping with high interest rates better than the market had expected, and strengthens the case for more US Federal Reserve rate hikes.

Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP145.90 late Thursday, lower compared to JP146.50 late Wednesday.

In the FTSE 100, Shell added 5.2% to close as the best performer on Thursday.

The oil major swung to a net profit in the third quarter of the year, but reported that profit fell behind the second quarter as it warned of volatility in global energy markets.

Net profit totalled $6.74 billion in the third quarter, after oil prices surged, improving from a loss after tax of $447 million the previous year.

The profit was far lower when compared with its second-quarter net profit of $18.04 billion, however. Shell blamed the drop on a slump in refining margins.

In a positive read across, BP and Harbour Energy climbed 3.3% and 2.6%, respectively.

Airtel Africa sank to the bottom of the FTSE 100, plunging 15%. The Africa-focused telecommunications firm said its profit was held back by the devaluation of certain African currencies.

Pretax profit fell 9.1% to $516 million from $567 million, as the firm recognised $358 million in net finance costs, compared to $169 million a year before.

Net finance costs included foreign exchange and derivative losses of $184 million, compared to $24 million a year before.

Anglo American dropped 2.1% after it reported mixed quarterly production performance, with most commodities declining amid a challenging operating conditions.

For the third quarter that ended September 30, rough diamond production increased by 4% and steelmaking coal production rose by 28%.

Copper output, however, was down 6% and nickel production fell by 4%. Production in platinum group metals fell by 6%, hurt by electricity loadshedding in South Africa, infrastructure closures at Amandelbult and lower grade at Mogalakwena.

Mining peers Rio Tinto and Glencore fell 4.0% and 2.5%, respectively, in a negative read-across.

In the FTSE 250, Renishaw fell 3.5% despite saying it was confident of its long-term strategy after seeing revenue growth across all business sectors in its financial first quarter.

Reinshaw is a Gloucestershire, England-based provider of manufacturing technologies, analytical instruments and medical devices.

For the three months ended September 30, the company reported pretax profit of 38.6 million, down 2.0% from 39.3 million a year prior. Total revenue for the period was 179.9 million, up 14% from 157.8 million.

Renishaw noted, however, that general market sentiment was becoming more cautious, as evidenced by a weakening in order intake from the semiconductor and electronics sectors.

Brent oil was quoted at $94.75 a barrel at the London equities close Thursday, up from $93.93 late Wednesday.

Gold was quoted at $1,662.60 an ounce at the London equities close Thursday, lower against $1,665.70 at the close on Wednesday.

In Friday's UK corporate calendar, Glencore and International Consolidated Airlines publish third quarter results.

The economic calendar has GDP readings from Germany at 0900 BST, before the personal consumption expenditures inflationary gauge from the US at 1330 BST. Core PCE is the Fed's preferred inflationary measure.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
I was sitting on a bus one summer, chatting with a man behind me whod worked all over the world in the U.S. foreign service. Like many conversations today, ours turned eventually to the many problems with our country.

Thats when his companion, whod been silent so far, spoke. If things are so bad, he barked at me, why dont you leave the country?

This man espoused a view I find antithetical to true patriotism. It can basically be summed up as America  love it or leave it.

Theres a lot thats great about America, no doubt. But nobody would say were flawless  especially not in a summer wracked by mass shootings and police killings. Nobody would say we cant become better in virtually every respect.

Were a rich country, but wed be better if we reduced poverty until it was no more. Were a democracy, but we could extend our voting rights, reduce gerrymandering or take any number of other measures to ensure each of us has a say in our government.

We have doctors and researchers who contribute so many advancements to medicine, but we can improve access to affordable health care so that nobody has to die because theyre poor or goes bankrupt for getting lifesaving care.

In fact, loving America means finding ways to make it better.

Imagine an America where citizens insisted from the start that you could only be considered patriotic by insisting that were No. 1  and that criticizing the United States at all was akin to being disloyal. Wed be stuck with a pretty troubled country.

At our founding, women couldnt vote, slavery was legal and enslaved people were considered three-fifths of a person. The U.S. government continued a genocidal campaign against Native Americans into the 19th and early 20th centuries.

But some found it possible to be both patriotic and critical. They called for the abolition of slavery and extending the right to vote to all citizens. Later they fought to end Jim Crow, pass civil rights and environmental legislation, and to legalize birth control use  which was once illegal for even married couples.

Each of those milestones required finding fault with our nation. I doubt youll find an American today who doesnt think were better for it.

More recently, weve legalized same-sex marriage, allowed gays and now transgender people to serve openly in the military, and passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women fight for equal pay for equal work.

And yet weve got a ways to go. Women still dont actually earn equal pay for equal work. The U.S. has the highest prison population in the world. Decades after the civil rights movement, blacks are still worse off than whites in many ways. Not least, theyre three times as likely to be killed by police.

Pointing out these flaws with a mind to fixing them is hardly the same as hating America. Its loving America enough to be honest about our shortcomings in order to make us better.
Katie Terry at the controls of a flight simulator at Coventry University. (Submitted photo)

PUPILS from Bishopton Primary School, in Stratford-upon-Avon, visited the Aerospace Laboratory at Coventry University.

During their visit, they saw a working subsonic wind tunnel in action, before they start designing and making their very own wind tunnel for model testing, when they return from summer holidays in September.

The school, in Drayton Avenue, was awarded a 1,500 Royal Society Partnership Grant to carry out the project.

A group of year five and six pupils visited the university to learn how a wind tunnel works, what component parts are needed to make it work and what they need to consider when designing their own.

They also tried out other equipment in the laboratory, including on a Harrier T4 Jump Jet and flight simulators.

After the summer holidays, a weekly after school science club will be held by Dr Caroline Lambert-Farris, who is a senior lecturer in Aerospace at the university.

Caroline, whose six-year-old son Jamie Farris attends the school, is currently on a career break from the university to look after her two-year-old daughter Libby Farris, and is taking the opportunity to volunteer at the school.

She told the Herald: Part of the condition of the grant is that we try and showcase or share the work being done with the school and the work of the Royal Society.

The grant had to have a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (Stem) professional attached to the project to work with the school on a volunteer basis.

Caroline has helped put ideas together for the wind tunnel, along with the schools head of science, Julie Allard.

Caroline added: During the summer I will be sourcing the materials needed and were hoping to start fairly soon after school returns in September.

We will be working with a group of ten ten-year-olds and the idea is to have the tunnel designed by Christmas, and hope to be able to show off the wind tunnel and share the images of the model testing around Easter 2017.
Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) has good basis to defend its position in a suit involving Westinghouse, said analyst Chad Dillard of Deutsche Bank, although the lawsuit could act as an "overhang" on the stock. The dispute involves claims CB&I owes Westinghouse $2 billion for a true-up of working capital related to the sale of two nuclear projects.

"Based on our reading of the complaint and the Purchase Agreement, we see good scope for CBI to defend its position. That said, this type of case tends to take time to resolve and could act as an overhang on the stock," said Dillard.

Discussing background on the case, Dillard said, "In 2008, Stone & Webster (a nuclear business that was acquired by CBI through the Shaw acquisition in 2013) entered into a consortium with Westinghouse to build 2 nuclear projects in Georgia and South Carolina. In 2012, the Consortium entered litigation to reclaim $1.5B of unpaid change orders from the nuclear project sponsors, which continued until CBI sold the nuclear business to Westinghouse (in July 2015 CBI began negotiations to sell to Westinghouse and the deal closed in December 2015). Unbeknownst to CBI, Westinghouse settled the change order claims for $550M with the project sponsors shortly after the agreement to sell the nuclear business."

The analyst continued, "According to CBI, the terms of the purchase agreement for the nuclear business fully released CBI from all liabilities related to the project (past, present, and future). Westinghouse is claiming that CBI significantly underestimated the forecasted cost of the 2 nuclear projects and overestimated the amount that could be recovered from cost overruns, leading Westinghouse to claim that CBI owes it $2B."

Dillard provided further color on background of the dispute, saying "According to CBI, this amount is several multiples above the fair value of the deal and 300% of the change in working capital for these projects during the interim period). Westinghouse is seeking this amount through a stipulation in the purchase agreement that allows for a true-up of any changes in working capital that occurred for these projects between the time of the deal agreement and the close of the deal. Per CBI, Westinghouse had full access to project cost estimates that would enable proper due diligence prior to the agreement. Westinghouse plans to put these claims in front of an auditor. CBI believes this action is a breach of contract and has sued to block this dispute from going to an auditor and instead claims that it is owed $428M in working capital 'true-up'. CBI is requesting a hearing on this matter in court in Delaware on September 22nd."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Chicago Bridge & Iron click here. For more ratings news on Chicago Bridge & Iron click here.

Shares of Chicago Bridge & Iron closed at $38.75 yesterday.
VANCOUVER, BC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: AQS) (OTCQB: AQSZF) ("Aequus" or "Company") today announced Ann Fehr is joining the growing specialty pharmaceutical company as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective July 22, 2016. Ms. Fehr brings to Aequus over 20 years of management experience in corporate finance, treasury, financial planning and analysis, tax, and risk management in a number of rapidly growing entrepreneurial companies.

"We are very fortunate to have Ann join Aequus. Ann's depth of experience in senior financial positions with high growth companies is ideal for Aequus as we continue to expand our commercial efforts in Canada and advance our development programs," said Doug Janzen, Chairman and CEO of Aequus. "Over the past year, we have evolved into a revenue-generating entity and have expanded our internal team through the acquisition of TeOra Health to foster this growth strategy. Ann's diverse background and expertise will further enhance Aequus' current management team as we continue to build value for our shareholders."

Ms. Fehr is the Principal at Fehr & Associates, and has held a number of senior level positions including having served as CFO of Carrus Capital Corporation (formerly BioWest Therapeutic Inc.), Global Minerals Ltd., and other companies listed on the TSX. During the course of her management and consulting career, Ms. Fehr has led a number of companies through significant change and corporate milestones such as public listing applications, mergers and acquisitions, as well as strategic planning and execution. Ms. Fehr is also an active volunteer in the community. Since 2013, she has been Treasurer and a Director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast BC.

"I can't imagine a more exciting time to join Aequus," Ms. Fehr said. "I look forward to working with the Aequus team to ensure we are financially well positioned for success."

The Company also announces that Ms. Christina Yip will no longer be part of Aequus' management team. "We would like to thank Christina for her substantial contributions and dedication during her time at Aequus, particularly for instilling a fiscal discipline that leaves us well positioned for the future," said Mr. Janzen. "We wish Christina all the best in her future endeavours."

Aequus is also pleased to announce it has granted incentive stock options to a consultant and officer of the Company for the right to purchase up to an aggregate of 150,000 common shares of the Company. These stock options are exercisable at a price of $0.34 per share, for a term of eight years, and vest in tranches over a 3 year period. The terms of the stock options granted on July 22, 2016 are in accordance with the Company's Stock Option Plan.

ABOUT AEQUUS PHARMACEUTICALS

Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: AQS) (OTCQB: AQSZF) is a Vancouver-based, specialty pharmaceutical company primarily focused on developing and commercializing high quality, differentiated products. Aequus' development stage pipeline includes several products in neurology and psychiatry with a goal of addressing the need for improved medication adherence through enhanced delivery systems. Aequus intends to commercialize its internal programs in Canada and to establish strategic partnerships to accelerate product development and maximize the reach of its product candidates worldwide. Aequus also has a Canadian commercial platform to build on for the launch of products that are either created internally or brought in through an acquisition or license; remaining focused on highly specialized therapeutic areas. For further information, please visit www.aequuspharma.ca.

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

This release may contain forward-looking statements or forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities legislation that may not be based on historical fact, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believe", "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "potential" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as the factors we believe are appropriate. Forward-looking statements in this release include but are not limited to statements relating to Ms. Fehr's enhancement to Aequus' current management team. Such statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Aequus, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In making the forward-looking statements included in this release, the Company has made various material assumptions, including, but not limited to general business and economic conditions. In evaluating forward-looking statements, current and prospective shareholders should specifically consider various factors set out under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated April 29, 2016, a copy of which is available on Aequus' profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com, and as otherwise disclosed from time to time on Aequus' SEDAR profile. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties, or a risk that is not currently known to us materialize, or should assumptions underlying those forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release and we do not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are inherently uncertain. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

CONTACT INFORMATIONAequus Investor RelationsEmail: [email protected] : 604-336-7906

Source: Aequus Pharmaceuticals
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- July 25 marks the 25th anniversary of the passage of the National Literacy Act, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. This landmark act was inspired in large part by Barbara Bush's passion for literacy. Since its passage in 1991, millions of adults have had a second chance to earn their high school diplomas, and tens of millions more have learned to read, write and speak English.

As this milestone anniversary approaches, President and Mrs. Bush were asked to reflect on the passage of the National Literacy Act and its impact:

"Signing the National Literacy Act at once culminated the efforts of so many advocates from across the country, while also opening a new and more hopeful chapter for millions of Americans of all ages," said President Bush. "I could not be prouder of Barbara for the 35 years she has spent working on this fundamentally important issue, and helping lead the charge for action and results. I am biased, of course, but I truly believe her passion, vision and dedication have helped change millions of lives for the better over these last 25 years."

"The National Literacy Act put into policy my belief that education is a civil right, no matter one's age," said Mrs. Bush. "The needs of adult learners are so often overlooked, yet adult education initiatives have enormous potential to improve the social and economic well-being of families, communities and our nation as a whole. What was true 25 years ago is still true today: everyone deserves a chance to obtain the education they need to provide for their families, set the next generation on a path to success and achieve their dreams."

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the signing, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy has curated a literacy resource centeravailable at www.barbarabush.orgwith media assets regarding the National Literacy Act:

Photo: Signing of the National Literacy Act, 1991

Video: Sen. Lamar Alexander's reflections on the National Literacy Act

Webpage: Sen. Lamar Alexander's remarks from the Barbara Bush Foundation's Conversation on the Future of Adult Literacy as entered into the Congressional Record

Video: National Celebration of Reading at the Library of Congress

The Foundation began celebrating the 25th anniversary of the National Literacy Act earlier this summer, with two events held in Washington, D.C. A day-long symposium gathered select technology leaders, entrepreneurs and policy experts from across the country to discuss visionary, bold and transformational ideas to address America's adult literacy issues for the next 25 years. Senator Lamar Alexander, who served as U.S. Secretary of Education during the passage and implementation of the National Literacy Act in 1991, joined the group to speak about the successes of the law, which include initiation of national workforce demonstration projects, creation of "indicators" of program quality and establishment of literacy programs for incarcerated individuals.

The following evening, the Foundation hosted the inaugural National Celebration of Reading at the Library of Congress. Members of the Bush family and guests enjoyed readings by former First Lady Laura Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, David Baldacci, A.J. Jacobs and Jon Meacham. By hosting these events in Washington, D.C., the Foundation sought both to celebrate achievements in literacy, and to stimulate a broader national dialogue about solutions to the serious challenge of low literacy.

About the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy: The Barbara Bush Foundation is the nation's leading advocate for family literacy. The Foundation was established by Mrs. Barbara Bush in 1989, and today is a public charity which aspires to achieve a vision of fostering the opportunity for every man, woman and child to secure a better life through literacy. To learn more about the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy's commitment to promote family literacy in homes across America, please visit www.barbarabush.org or join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter (@BarbaraBushFdn).

Contact: Lauren Sproull 850.562.5300 [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160721/392019

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/president-george-hw-bush-and-mrs-barbara-bush-mark-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-signing-of-the-national-literacy-act-300302512.html

SOURCE Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
PITTSBURGH, July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), confirmed today's final duty orders by the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) on imports of cold-rolled steel from Brazil, India, South Korea, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

Gerard said: "Today's final duty orders by the Obama Administration expands fairer pricing conditions on cold-rolled steel products from five countries, combined with duties placed earlier this summer on the same steel import products from China and Japan."

He noted the duties by law will remain in effect for five years to address predatory dumping, or selling below cost in order to gain market share and injure domestic producers.

The USW said the cold-rolled steel trade case enforcement action will come as good news to steelworkers among 16 steel making facilities that make the product in the industrial states of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kentucky and the taconite miners on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota.

"We have nearly 19,000 steelworkers and iron ore miners still on extended layoff status since last year as the remaining steel trade case investigations continue to reduce huge inventories of unfairly dumped and subsidized finished steel imports that have been stockpiled before the case was initiated," the USW president emphasized.

Tom Conway, USW International Vice President, who participated in the trade case hearings and leads steel sector bargaining, said: "The year-long investigation and duty orders show our trade laws need a rewrite in today's world of steel overcapacity that's putting American manufacturing workers and miners on layoff in their our own market, while foreign producers keep shipping illegally-subsidized and dumped products."

The cold-rolled petition was filed at the beginning of last July  but industrial workers still face massive imports of other subsidized and dumped products. Pipe and tube producers and workers are suffering severe job losses. China's overcapacity in steel, aluminum, paper and many other products continue to damage world markets, undermining jobs and wages.

"While we will persist in fighting for every job, a comprehensive approach to trade policy is what's really required," Gerard said. "Winning a trade case means we have to 'lose' first. This says we have to experience injury in the form of permanently lost jobs and shuttered facilities to qualify for relief. Unfortunately, many lives and communities are then shattered in the process."

Gerard further declared, "New trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), will only make things worse. The TPP fails to impose disciplines on currency manipulation," he said.

"The proposed trade deal also fails to address overcapacity and would actually allow Vietnam's plans to build substantial new capacity in steel, while protecting from review any state subsidies put in place prior to the agreement's effective date. What's worse, Vietnam was granted 13 years of tariff protection to enable all of this to occur."

According to the U.S. government's determination, antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duties for cold-rolled steel exports by producers in each country are:

Brazil --14.35 to 35.43 percent (AD); 11.09-11.31 percent (CVD).

India -- 7.60 percent (AD); 10.00 percent (CVD).

Russian -- 13.36 percent (AD); and 6.95 percent (CVD).

South Korea  6.32 to 34.33 percent (AD); 3.91 to 58.36 percent (CVD).

United Kingdom -- 5.40 to 25.56 percent (AD).

The American petitioner companies in the cold-rolled steel products case are: ArcelorMittal USA LLC, United States Steel Corp., AK Steel Corp., Nucor Corp., and Steel Dynamics, Inc.

The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service and public sectors. For more information: http://www.usw.org/.

Contact: Gary Hubbard, 202-256-8125; [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080131/DC12982LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/usw-confirms-usdoc-final-duties-on-cold-rolled-steel-300302572.html

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)
Sophia Ahmadinejad, 2-year-old, a refugee from Afghanistan listens as U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an Eid al-Fitr reception at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday praised the contributions of Muslim immigrants to the United States, saying any effort to discriminate against the Islamic faith plays into the hands of terrorists.

"Muslim Americans are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family," Obama said at a White House reception to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

"Whether your family has been here for generations or you're a new arrival, you're an essential part of the fabric of our country," he said.

The Obama administration has faced criticism for its plan to admit as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States this year, with some Republicans warning that violent militants could enter the country posing as refugees.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country after a Muslim American and his wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last year.

While not naming Trump specifically, Obama said that discriminatory policies against Muslims are an affront the "values that already make our nation great."

Trump, who will be giving his official acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, has used "make America great again" as his campaign slogan.

"Singling out Muslim Americans, moreover, feeds the lie of terrorists like ISIL, that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents," Obama said, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. "That's not smart national security."

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
(Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group said on Thursday they are not aware of any peace talks with the government.

"If we are to engage in any peace talk we made it clear that the international community must be part of it," the group's spokesman Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo said on the organizations website. "The President knows our demands. So they should stop deceiving the international oil companies, the general public and the international community."

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said the government is talking to militants in the southern Niger Delta to end a wave of attacks on oil and gas facilities and "to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region".

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru)
VIENNA, Va., July 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded Favor TechConsulting, LLC (FTC), a leading provider of IT solutions to the federal government, its second task order award titled Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO) Action Tracking through the VAs multiple award Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) contract vehicle. EPMO is a key initiative headed by the VAs Office of Information Technology (OI&T) with the purpose of monitoring key information in order to improve and deliver superior outcomes, solutions, and best-practices in project management. In this two-year period of performance, FTC will support the OI&T Enterprise Program at the LEnfant Plaza and the VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. FTC will provide EPMO SharePoint development, maintenance, design, and administration while managing responses to internal and external IT action requests.



FTC is honored to be given this opportunity to support EPMO and help VA realize its mission to provide high quality of care and customer service for our Veterans, said Edward Syms, Senior Vice President of Veterans Affairs at FTC.

About Favor TechConsulting, LLC

FTC is a CMMI-SVC Level 3 appraised, CVE-verified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (EDWOSB), and certified 8(a) small disadvantaged business. FTC currently supports the VA Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Defense (DoD), Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), Intelligence Community (IC), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). FTC takes a customer-centric approach in leveraging industry-recognized best practices in information management and technology to ensure delivery of cost-effective and quality-driven solutions.

For more information about FTC please visit http://www.ftc-llc.com
By Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines, eager to resume development of vital oil and gas reserves off its coast, will likely need to reach an accord with a Chinese government infuriated by last week's ruling that granted Manila a big victory in the South China Sea.

The Philippines relies overwhelmingly on imports to fuel its fast-growing economy. That reliance will grow further in a few years when the main source of domestic natural gas runs out, so the clock is ticking for it to develop offshore fields that China shows no sign of loosening its grip on.

Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that granted the Philippines sovereign rights to access offshore oil and gas fields, including the Reed Bank, a shallow tablemount some 85 nautical miles off its coast.

And as long as things stay that way, the Philippines will have a hard time finding much-needed foreign expertise willing to risk upsetting China, officials and experts say.

According to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford, one concession - SC 72 - contains 2.6-8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That would be as much as triple the amount discovered at the Malampaya project, an offshore field that powers 40 percent of the main island of Luzon, home to the capital Manila.

Malampaya, which was developed by Royal Dutch Shell and began operations in 2001, is approaching the end of its productive life. Its only viable replacements are in waters that China insists it will not cede.

"Malampaya is going to run out of gas in 10 years so there is urgency for us to develop the Reed Bank," said Antonio Carpio, a supreme court associate justice.

Carpio was part of the legal team that made the case in The Hague and said a big factor in the Philippines' decision to pursue arbitration in 2013 was China's obstructions around Reed Bank.

"Every time we send a survey ship there, Chinese coastguard vessels harass our survey ships," he told news channel ANC. "That's why we had to do something."

DEFERRED BY DISPUTES

The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes that beneath the South China Sea could be 11 billion barrels of oil, more than Mexico's reserves, and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Most foreign firms with capital and technology needed to develop those reserves, however, don't want to risk being caught up in spats over jurisdiction and have avoided concessions offered in disputed waters.

Manila's state-run Philex Petroleum (NYSE: PXP) has the controlling stakes in two stalled concessions, the 880,000-hectare SC-72 at the Reed Bank and the 616,000-hectare SC-75 off the island of Palawan.

The court verdict on July 12 sparked a surge in energy stocks the next day, with Philex shares up as much as 21 percent.

Philex says it is seeking a meeting with Philippine energy officials regarding the potential to lift a suspension order on drilling activities in the Reed Bank, in place since December 2014.

"It's a matter of national importance. We don't want to move on our own without guidance from the government," Philex Chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters.

"We will need a partner ... no local company has the expertise that we need."

Department of Energy spokesman Felix William Fuentebella said there were no immediate plans to lift the suspension as the department awaited guidance from new President Rodrigo Duterte.

"The moratorium stays. We are exploring ways to resolve the conflict peacefully and we follow the lead of the President," he said.

Manila and Beijing have both expressed a desire to resume talks, but the Philippines says it could not accept China's pre-condition of not discussing the ruling.

CONCESSION TO SHARE?

Without an agreement between Manila and Beijing, finding development partners would be difficult, said Andrew Harwood, a Southeast Asia upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

"There has to be some softening of Beijing's stance before any companies would be willing to go and drill in any of the disputed areas," he said.

China has involved energy businesses in diplomatic disputes previously.

In May 2014, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) moved its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig into Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone, guarded with a flotilla of coastguard ships. In a tense standoff, Vietnam protested vehemently and sent ships to try to disrupt operations.

Surveying on the disputed Reed Bank concessions began in 2003 under a Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) between Philippine state-owned PNOC Exploration Corp, CNOOC and state-owned PetroVietnam. Manila did not extend the agreement when it lapsed in 2008 after criticism from within the Philippines that the deal compromised its sovereignty.

The pact also caused a diplomatic upset in Southeast Asia as it was seen as undermining regional solidarity against an assertive China.

But some Filipino oil executives think teaming up again with CNOOC could solve problems on both the diplomatic and logistical fronts.

Pangilinan of Philex said he would not close the door on a China JV, while Philex President Daniel Stephen Carlos said a "farm-in" type deal was also being looked at.

Rufino Bomasang, a former Philippines energy ministry undersecretary and current executive chairman of Otto Energy Investments, an oil and gas exploration and production company, said restarting the JMSU with CNOOC should be considered.

"It is something worthwhile resuming," Bomasang told Reuters. "If there's good faith on both sides, why not? And I hope so."

CNOOC did not respond to a request for comment.

China's Foreign Ministry did not directly answer a question submitted by Reuters about whether the government would permit a Chinese firm to join up with Philex, but said in a faxed statement that Reed Bank was Chinese territory.

China wants to resolve the South China Sea issue through talks and is willing to set aside disputes for joint development before a resolution is reached, the ministry added.

"China is willing to have consultations and dialogue with the Philippines about this," it said, without elaborating.

(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE and Aizhu Chen and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING.; Writing by Martin Petty.; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
LONDON (Reuters) - British opposition Labour lawmaker Angela Eagle, who this week dropped out of the race to oust party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has been advised by police not to hold her regular advice session with constituents due to safety risks, her office said on Thursday.

Last month, Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was murdered as she attended her "surgery," one-to-one meetings when members of the public have the opportunity to raise issues with their local lawmaker.

A 52-year-old local man, Thomas Mair, has been charged with Cox's murder and will go on trial in November.

"We have received advice from Merseyside Police that the safety of Angela, her staff and constituents cannot be guaranteed," said a staff member at Eagle's office, which was vandalized last week.

A spokesman for Eagle said Friday's canceled surgery had been due to be an open drop-in session. Future surgery sessions, due to resume in September after a scheduled August break, would now be appointment-based, he said.

Labour is locked in a bitter internal power struggle, with Corbyn refusing to stand down despite most of his policy team resigning and Labour lawmakers overwhelmingly backing a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

Eagle, formerly the party's top business spokeswoman, triggered a leadership contest earlier this month by challenging Corbyn. She withdrew from the race this week after receiving less support from lawmakers than rival Owen Smith.

The staff member said the office in Wallasey near Liverpool in northwest England was still open to members of the public and could also be contacted by phone or email.

On Tuesday, police said a 44-year-old man, who had been arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill after an email was sent to Eagle, had been released on bail pending further enquiries.

Eagle has previously said Corbyn, who has strong support among party grassroots members, "needs to get control of the people who are supporting him". Last week Corbyn said he condemned any violence or threats.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison and Giles Elgood)
The logo of the French bank Societe Generale is seen in front of the bank's headquarters building at La Defense business and financial district in Courbevoie near Paris, France, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

By Claire Milhench

LONDON (Reuters) - A trial date for a lawsuit brought by Libya's $67 billion (51 billion pounds) sovereign wealth fund against French investment bank Societe Generale was pushed back to April 25, 2017, by a judge's ruling in London's High Court.

The case, in which the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is pursuing Societe Generale for some $2.1 billion in relation to disputed trades, was originally scheduled to come to trial in January 2017.

The judge's ruling came in response to a request for an adjournment by lawyers for the French bank, who had cited the volume of work that still needed to be done.

In the three-day hearing in London this week, lawyers for the LIA also applied for further information concerning the meaning of code words allegedly used by SocGen employees.

In court filings seen by Reuters, the LIA says it believes it has worked out the individuals to which some of the code words probably refer.

For example, Mustafa Zarti, the LIA's deputy executive director at the time of the trades, appears to have been referred to as "Zorro", the LIA's court filings allege. Walid Giahmi, a Libyan businessman, appears to have been referred to as "the Doctor".

In court on Wednesday, Societe Generale agreed to provide an explanation for the use of some of the code words, to the best of its ability, by Oct. 7. A spokesman for Societe Generale declined to comment further on this aspect of the case.

In the case, the LIA alleges that the disputed trades were procured through a "fraudulent and corrupt scheme" involving the payment of $58.5 million to a Panamanian-registered company called Lenaida, controlled at the time by Giahmi.

SocGen has said it refutes the allegations and "any claim tending to question the lawfulness of these investments".

Giahmi's representatives have not responded to repeated requests for comment on the case.

The LIA's court filings go on to allege that other code words appear not to refer to individuals but to transactions or other activities, such as "biscuits", "pizza" or "cooking".

The LIA alleges that these code words are used in a context that is "strongly suggestive of fraud or other impropriety".

(Reporting by Claire Milhench, editing by Larry King)
1. Name and Address of Reporting Person * Vayser Alex (Last) (First) (Middle) C/O INVUITY, INC. 444 DE HARO STREET (Street) SAN FRANCISCO CA 94107 (City) (State) (Zip)

2. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol

Invuity, Inc. [ IVTY ]
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 6-K

Report of Foreign Private Issuer

Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16

under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the month of July 2016

Commission File Number 001-34798

SMART TECHNOLOGIES INC.

3636 Research Road N.W.

Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2L 1Y1

(Address of principal executive offices)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.

Form 20-F x Form 40-F 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): 

THIS REPORT ON FORM 6-K SHALL BE DEEMED FILED WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (THE COMMISSION) AND INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-181530) OF SMART TECHNOLOGIES INC. FILED WITH THE COMMISSION, AND TO BE A PART THEREOF FROM THE DATE ON WHICH THIS REPORT IS FURNISHED TO THE COMMISSION, TO THE EXTENT NOT SUPERSEDED BY DOCUMENTS OR REPORTS THE REGISTRANT SUBSEQUENTLY FURNISHES TO OR FILES WITH THE COMMISSION.

DOCUMENTS FURNISHED AS PART OF THIS FORM 6-K

A report that sets out the results of voting on the matter acted upon at the Special Meeting of Shareholders of the registrant held on July 22, 2016.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

SMART TECHNOLOGIES INC. By: /s/ Matt Sudak Name: Matt Sudak Title: Vice President, Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Date: July 22, 2016

Exhibit Index

99.1 Report of Voting Results at the Special Meeting of Shareholders of SMART Technologies Inc. held on July 22, 2016

2

Exhibit 99.1

Special Meeting of Shareholders of SMART Technologies Inc. (Company) held on July 22, 2016.

REPORT OF VOTING RESULTS

National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Obligations  Section 11.3

At the special meeting of shareholders of the Company (Shareholders) on July 22, 2016, the Shareholders passed a special resolution, the full text of which is set out in the management proxy circular dated June 17, 2016, authorizing and approving the proposed arrangement involving the Company, 689522 N.B. Ltd., Foxconn Singapore (Pte). Ltd. and the Shareholders pursuant to a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta), as follows:




As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 22, 2016 Registration No. 333

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

__________________

FORM S-8

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

__________________

MDU RESOURCES GROUP, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware ( State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) No. 41-0423660 (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

1200 West Century Avenue

P.O. Box 5650

Bismarck, North Dakota 58506-5650

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

__________________

MDU RESOURCES GROUP, INC.

401(k) RETIREMENT PLAN

(Full title of the plan)

________________________

David L. Goodin President and Chief Executive Officer MDU Resources Group, Inc. 1200 West Century Avenue Bismarck, North Dakota 58506-5650 (701) 530-1000 Doran N. Schwartz Vice President and Chief Financial Officer MDU Resources Group, Inc. 1200 West Century Avenue Bismarck, North Dakota 58506-5650 (701) 530-1000

Elizabeth W. Powers Duane Morris LLP 1540 Broadway New York, New York 10036 (212) 692-1000



(Name, address and telephone number, including area code, of agents for service)

_____________

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer and smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):



Large accelerated filer x Accelerated filer  Non-accelerated filer  Smaller reporting company 

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

Title of securities

to be registered(1) Amount to be

registered(2) Proposed maximum

offering price

per share(3) Proposed maximum

aggregate offering

price(3) Amount of

registration fee Common Stock,

$1.00 par value 4,500,000 shares $24.23 $109,035,000 $10,979.83 (1) In addition, pursuant to Rule 416(c) under the Securities Act of 1933, this registration statement also covers an indeterminate amount of interests to be offered or sold pursuant to the employee benefit plan described herein.

(2) Pursuant to Rule 416(a) under the Securities Act of 1933, this registration statement also covers any additional securities to be offered or issued in connection with a stock split, stock dividend or similar transaction.

(3) Determined on the basis of the average of the high and low sale price of the common stock as reported in the consolidated reporting system on July 18, 2016, solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(h) under the Securities Act of 1933.











Part II





INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT





Item 3. Incorporation of Documents by Reference.





We incorporate by reference in this registration statement the following documents we or the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934:





1. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed on February 19, 2016 (SEC File No. 1-3480);





2. Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, filed on May 6, 2016 (SEC File No. 1-3480);





3. The MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plans Annual Report on Form 11K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed on June 17, 2016 (SEC File No. 1-3480);





4. Current Reports on Form 8-K dated February 10, 2016 and filed on February 18, 2016, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto filed on April 29, 2016; dated March 2, 2016 and filed on March 8, 2016; dated April 4, 2016 and filed on April 5, 2016; dated April 26, 2016 and filed on April 27, 2016, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto filed on April 29, 2016; and dated June 24, 2016 and filed on June 28, 2016, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto filed on July 21, 2016 (SEC File No. 1-3480); and





5. Description of the common stock contained in the Registration Statement on Form 8A, filed on September 21, 1994 as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto, filed on March 23, 2000, Amendment No. 2 thereto, filed on March 10, 2003, Amendment No. 3 thereto, filed on January 21, 2004, Amendment No. 4 thereto, filed on June 27, 2007, Amendment No. 5 thereto, filed on November 19, 2008, Amendment No. 6 thereto, filed on January 5, 2009, Amendment No. 7 thereto, filed on April 30, 2010, Amendment No. 8 thereto, filed on August 19, 2014, Amendment No. 9 thereto, filed on May 8, 2015, and any further amendment or report filed for the purpose of updating such description (SEC File No. 13480).





In April 2015, the FASB issued guidance on simplifying the presentation of debt issuance costs in the financial statements. This guidance requires entities to present debt issuance costs as a direct deduction to the related debt liability. The amortization of these costs will be reported as interest expense. The guidance was effective for MDU Resources Group, Inc. on January 1, 2016, and is to be applied retrospectively. The guidance required a reclassification of the debt issuance costs on the Consolidated Balance Sheets, but did not impact the Company's results of operations or cash flows. As a result of the retrospective application of this change in accounting principle, the Company reclassified debt issuance costs of $100,000, $100,000 and $100,000 from prepayments and other current assets and $5.5 million, $6.0 million and $5.5 million from other deferred charges and other assets to long-term debt on its Consolidated Balance Sheets at March 31, 2015, and December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.









II-1









All documents that we or the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan subsequently file pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 other than any information we furnish, rather than file, with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to certain items of Form 8-K, prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment which indicates that all securities offered have been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold, shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference in the registration statement and to be part hereof from the date of filing of such documents. Any statement contained herein shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this registration statement to the extent that a statement contained in any subsequently filed document which is or is deemed to be incorporated by reference herein modifies or supersedes such statement. Any statement contained in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference herein shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this registration statement to the extent that a statement contained herein or in any other subsequently filed document which also is or is deemed to be incorporated by reference herein modifies or supersedes such statement. Any such statement so modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this registration statement.





Item 5. Interests of Named Experts and Counsel.





The consolidated financial statements and the related financial statement schedules, incorporated in the registration statement by reference from our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, have been audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their reports, which are incorporated herein by reference. Such consolidated financial statements and financial statement schedules have been so incorporated in reliance upon the reports of such firm given upon their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.





The statements of net assets available for benefits of the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, and the related statement of changes in net assets available for benefits for the year ended December 31, 2015, incorporated in the registration statement by reference from the plans Annual Report on Form 11-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, have been audited by Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report, which is incorporated herein by reference (which report expresses an unqualified opinion on the statements of net assets available for benefits of the plan as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 and the related statement of changes in net assets available for benefits for the year ended December 31, 2015). Such statements of net assets available for benefits of the plan and statement of changes in net assets available for benefits have been so incorporated in reliance upon the report of such firm given upon their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.





The validity of the common stock has been passed upon for us by Daniel S. Kuntz, Esq., our General Counsel, and by Duane Morris LLP, New York, New York. As of July 15, 2016, Mr. Kuntz owned approximately 20,057.375 shares of our common stock.









II-2





Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers.





Our bylaws include the following provision:





7.07 Indemnification of Officers, Directors, Employees and Agents.





(a) Indemnification Granted. The Corporation shall indemnify and hold harmless, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law as it presently exists or may hereafter be amended, any director or former director or officer or former officer of the Corporation (a Director or Officer) who was or is made or is threatened to be made a party or is otherwise involved in any action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative (a Proceeding) by reason of the fact that he or she is or was a director or officer of the Corporation or is or was serving at the request of the Corporation as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation or of a partnership, limited liability company, joint venture, trust, non-profit entity or other enterprise, including service with respect to employee benefit plans, against expenses (including attorneys fees), judgments, fines, penalties, excise taxes and penalties assessed with respect to employee benefit plans, and amounts paid in settlement actually and reasonably incurred by such Director or Officer. The Corporation shall be required to indemnify a Director or Officer in connection with a Proceeding (or part thereof) initiated by such Director or Officer only if the Proceeding (or part thereof) was authorized by the Board of Directors.





(b) Consent to Settlement or Nonadjudicated Disposition. No indemnification pursuant to this Section 7.07 shall be required with respect to any settlement or other nonadjudicated disposition of any threatened or pending Proceeding unless the Corporation has given its prior consent to such settlement or disposition.





(c) Advancement of Expenses. The Corporation shall pay the expenses incurred by a Director or Officer in defending any Proceeding in advance of its final disposition, provided, however, that the payment of such expenses shall be made only upon receipt of an undertaking by the Director or Officer to repay all amounts advanced if it shall ultimately be determined that the Director or Officer is not entitled to be indemnified.





(d) Claims. If a claim for indemnification (following a final full or partial disposition of a Proceeding with respect to which indemnification is sought) or advancement of expenses (including attorneys fees) under this Section 7.07 is not paid in full within sixty (60) days after a written claim therefor has been received by the Corporation, the Director or Officer may file suit to recover the unpaid amount of such claim and, if successful in whole or in part, shall be entitled to be paid the expense of prosecuting such claim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. In any such action, the Corporation shall have the burden of proving that the Director or Officer was not entitled to the requested indemnification or advancement of expenses under this Section 7.07 or applicable law.









II-3





(e) Other Indemnification and Advancement of Expenses. The Corporation may provide indemnification and advancement of expenses (including attorneys fees) to employees and agents to the extent permitted by applicable law.





(f) Non-exclusivity of Rights. The rights conferred on any Director or Officer by this Section 7.07 shall not be exclusive of other rights to which such Director or Officer may have or hereafter acquire under any statute, provision of the Certificate of Incorporation, these Bylaws, agreement, vote of stockholders or disinterested directors or otherwise. Nothing in this Section 7.07 shall limit the power of the Corporation or the Board of Directors to grant indemnification and advancement of expenses, including attorneys fees, to directors, officers, employees and agents otherwise than pursuant to this Section 7.07.





(g) Other Source Indemnification. The Corporations obligation to indemnify any Director or Officer who was or is serving at its request as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation or of a partnership, limited liability company, joint venture, trust, non-profit entity or other enterprise shall be reduced by any amount such Director or Officer may collect as indemnification from such other corporation, partnership, limited liability company, joint venture, trust, non-profit entity or other enterprise.





(h) Repeal or Modification; Legal Representatives. Any repeal or modification of the foregoing provisions of this Section 7.07 shall not adversely affect any right or protection hereunder of any Director or Officer in respect of any act or omission occurring prior to the time of such repeal or modification. The rights provided to any Director or Officer by this Section 7.07 shall inure to the benefit of such Directors or Officers legal representative.





Section 145 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware provides for indemnification of our directors and officers in a variety of circumstances, which may include liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933. We maintain liability insurance protecting us, as well as our directors and certain officers, against liability by reason of their being or having been our directors or officers. In addition, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and officers to provide for indemnification to the fullest extent permitted by applicable Delaware law and in excess of that expressly permitted by statute, but not to the extent prohibited by law.





Item 8. Exhibits.

*4.1 Restated Certificate of Incorporation of MDU Resources Group, Inc., as amended, dated May 13, 2010, filed as Exhibit 3(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, filed on November 3, 2010, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.2 Bylaws of MDU Resources Group, Inc., as amended and restated on April 2, 2015, filed as Exhibit 3 to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.3 Indenture, dated as of December 15, 2003, between MDU Resources Group, Inc. and The Bank of New York, as trustee, filed as Exhibit 4(f) to Form S-8, on January 21, 2004, in Registration No. 333-112035.









II-4





*4.4 First Supplemental Indenture, dated as of November 17, 2009, between MDU Resources Group, Inc. and The Bank of New York Mellon, as trustee, filed as Exhibit 4(c) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, filed on February 17, 2010, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.5 MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, as restated March 1, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, filed on November 4, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.6 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 29, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, filed on May 5, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.7 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 30, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(d) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, filed on August 5, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.8 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 9, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, filed on November 4, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.9 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 29, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(ac) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed on February 24, 2012, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.10 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated May 24, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, filed on August 7, 2012, in File No. 1-3480. *4.11 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated August 29, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, filed on November 7, 2012, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.12 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated August 29, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, filed on November 7, 2012, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.13 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 19, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(z) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, filed on February 28, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.14 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 9, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed on November 7, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.15 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 9, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(c) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed on November 7, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.16 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 23, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(d) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed on November 7, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.17 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 31, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(aa) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, filed on February 21, 2014, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.18 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 13, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, filed on May 7, 2014, in File No. 1-3480.









II-5





*4.19 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 5, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, filed on August 8, 2014, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.20 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated July 7, 2014, filed as Exhibit 4.20 to Form S-8, filed on August 26, 2014, in Registration No. 333-198364.



*4.21 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated August 18, 2014, filed as Exhibit 4.21 to Form S-8, filed on August 26, 2014, in Registration No. 333-198364. *4.22 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 30, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, filed on November 7, 2014, in File No. 1-3480. *4.23 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated November 25, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(ah) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.24 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 11, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(ai) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.25 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 11, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(aj) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.26 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 30, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(ak) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.27 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated February 17, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.28 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 13, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.29 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 30, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, filed on August 4, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.30 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated November 19, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(ap) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed on February 19, 2016, in File No. 1-3480. *4.31 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated January 22, 2016, filed as Exhibit 10(c) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, filed on May 6, 2016, in File No. 1-3480. *4.32 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 10, 2016, filed as Exhibit 10(d) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, filed on May 6, 2016, in File No. 1-3480. 4.33 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 9, 2016.





II-6





5.1 Opinion of Daniel S. Kuntz, Esq., General Counsel to the Company.



5.2 Opinion of Duane Morris LLP, counsel to the Company.



23.1 Consent of Deloitte & Touche LLP.



23.2 Consent of Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP.



23.3 The consents of Daniel S. Kuntz and Duane Morris LLP are contained in their opinions filed as Exhibits 5.1 and 5.2, respectively, hereto.



24 Power of Attorney (see signature pages). _______________________ *Previously filed and incorporated herein by reference.





We will submit or have submitted the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan and any amendment thereto to the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS) in a timely manner and have made or will make all changes required by the IRS in order to qualify the plan, as amended, under Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code.





Item 9. Undertakings.

(a) The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes:

(1) To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this registration statement:

(i) To include any prospectus required by section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933;

(ii) To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the registration statement (or the most recent post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any increase or decrease in volume of securities offered (if the total dollar value of securities offered would not exceed that which was registered) and any deviation from the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering range may be reflected in the form of prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the changes in volume and price represent no more than a 20 percent change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in the Calculation of Registration Fee table in the effective registration statement;

(iii) To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the registration statement or any material change to such information in the registration statement;





II-7





Provided, however , That paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(1)(ii) do not apply if the registration statement is on Form S-8 and the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission by the registrant pursuant to section 13 or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are incorporated by reference in the registration statement.

(2) That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

(3) To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.

(b) The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each filing of the registrants annual report pursuant to section 13(a) or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plans annual report pursuant to section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.





(h) Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.





II-8

















POWER OF ATTORNEY





Each director and/or officer of the registrant whose signature appears below hereby appoints the agents for service named on the cover of this registration statement, and each of them severally, as his/her attorney-in-fact to sign in his/her name and behalf, in any and all capacities stated below, and to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, any and all amendments, including post-effective amendments, to this registration statement, and the registrant hereby also appoints each such agent for service as its attorney-in-fact with like authority to sign and file any such amendment in its name and behalf.





SIGNATURES





The Registrant . Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused this registration statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Bismarck, State of North Dakota, on the 21st day of July, 2016.







MDU RESOURCES GROUP, INC.









By: /s/ David L. Goodin



David L. Goodin



President and



Chief Executive Officer









Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this registration statement has been signed by the following persons in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

Signature Title Date /s/ David L. Goodin Chief Executive Officer and July 21, 2016 David L. Goodin

(President and Chief Executive Officer) Director /s/ Doran N. Schwartz Chief Financial Officer July 21, 2016 Doran N. Schwartz

(Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)









II-9

















Signature Title Date





/s/ Jason L. Vollmer Chief Accounting Officer July 21, 2016 Jason L. Vollmer (Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer)

/s/ Harry J. Pearce Director July 21, 2016 Harry J. Pearce

(Chairman of the Board) /s/ Thomas Everist Director July 21, 2016 Thomas Everist /s/ Karen B. Fagg Director July 21, 2016 Karen B. Fagg /s/ Mark A. Hellerstein Director July 21, 2016 Mark A. Hellerstein /s/ A. Bart Holaday Director July 21, 2016 A. Bart Holaday

/s/ Dennis W. Johnson Director July 21, 2016 Dennis W. Johnson /s/ William E. McCracken Director July 21, 2016 William E. McCracken /s/ Patricia L. Moss Director July 21, 2016 Patricia L. Moss /s/ John K. Wilson Director July 21, 2016 John K. Wilson





II-10













POWER OF ATTORNEY





The MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan hereby appoints the agents for service named on the cover of this registration statement, and each of them severally, as its attorney-in-fact to sign in its name and behalf and to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission any and all amendments including post-effective amendments to this registration statement.





SIGNATURES

The Plan . Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the MDU Resources Group, Inc. Employee Benefits Committee, which functions as the 401(k) Retirement Plan Committee, has duly caused this registration statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Bismarck, State of North Dakota, on the 21st day of July, 2016.

MDU RESOURCES GROUP, INC. 401(k) RETIREMENT PLAN By: /s/ Doran N. Schwartz Doran N. Schwartz, Chairman MDU Resources Group, Inc. Employee Benefits Committee

















II-11





EXHIBIT INDEX

*4.1 Restated Certificate of Incorporation of MDU Resources Group, Inc., as amended, dated May 13, 2010, filed as Exhibit 3(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, filed on November 3, 2010, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.2 Bylaws of MDU Resources Group, Inc., as amended and restated on April 2, 2015, filed as Exhibit 3 to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.3 Indenture, dated as of December 15, 2003, between MDU Resources Group, Inc. and The Bank of New York, as trustee, filed as Exhibit 4(f) to Form S-8, on January 21, 2004, in Registration No. 333-112035.



*4.4 First Supplemental Indenture, dated as of November 17, 2009, between MDU Resources Group, Inc. and The Bank of New York Mellon, as trustee, filed as Exhibit 4(c) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, filed on February 17, 2010, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.5 MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, as restated March 1, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, filed on November 4, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.6 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 29, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, filed on May 5, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.7 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 30, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(d) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, filed on August 5, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.8 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 9, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, filed on November 4, 2011, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.9 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 29, 2011, filed as Exhibit 10(ac) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed on February 24, 2012, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.10 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated May 24, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, filed on August 7, 2012, in File No. 1-3480. *4.11 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated August 29, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, filed on November 7, 2012, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.12 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated August 29, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, filed on November 7, 2012, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.13 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 19, 2012, filed as Exhibit 10(z) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, filed on February 28, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.14 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 9, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed on November 7, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.









II- 12





*4.15 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 9, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(c) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed on November 7, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.16 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 23, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(d) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed on November 7, 2013, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.17 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 31, 2013, filed as Exhibit 10(aa) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, filed on February 21, 2014, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.18 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 13, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, filed on May 7, 2014, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.19 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 5, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, filed on August 8, 2014, in File No. 1-3480.



*4.20 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated July 7, 2014, filed as Exhibit 4.20 to Form S-8, filed on August 26, 2014, in Registration No. 333-198364. *4.21 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated August 18, 2014, filed as Exhibit 4.21 to Form S-8, filed on August 26, 2014, in Registration No. 333-198364. *4.22 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated September 30, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, filed on November 7, 2014, in File No. 1-3480. *4.23 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated November 25, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(ah) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.24 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 11, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(ai) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.25 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 11, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(aj) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.26 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated December 30, 2014, filed as Exhibit 10(ak) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 20, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.27 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated February 17, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.28 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 13, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(b) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, in File No. 1-3480. *4.29 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 30, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(a) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, filed on August 4, 2015, in File No. 1-3480.





II- 13





*4.30 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated November 19, 2015, filed as Exhibit 10(ap) to Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed on February 19, 2016, in File No. 1-3480. *4.31 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated January 22, 2016, filed as Exhibit 10(c) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, filed on May 6, 2016, in File No. 1-3480. *4.32 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated March 10, 2016, filed as Exhibit 10(d) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, filed on May 6, 2016, in File No. 1-3480. 4.33 Instrument of Amendment to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan, dated June 9, 2016. 5.1 Opinion of Daniel S. Kuntz, Esq., General Counsel to the Company.



5.2 Opinion of Duane Morris LLP, counsel to the Company.



23.1 Consent of Deloitte & Touche LLP.



23.2 Consent of Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP.



23.3 The consents of Daniel S. Kuntz and Duane Morris LLP are contained in their opinions filed as Exhibits 5.1 and 5.2, respectively, hereto.



24 Power of Attorney (see signature pages). _____________________ *Previously filed and incorporated herein by reference.













II- 14

















































EXHIBIT 4.33











Exhibit 4.33





INSTRUMENT OF AMENDMENT TO THE

MDU RESOURCES GROUP, INC.

401(k) RETIREMENT PLAN









The MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan (as amended and restated March 1, 2011) (the K-Plan), is hereby further amended, as follows:





1. Effective January 1, 2016, by replacing Section D-1-2 Eligibility to Share in the Profit Sharing Feature of Supplement D-1, Provisions Relating to the Profit Sharing Feature for Certain Participating Affiliates , in its entirety, with the following:





Eligibility to Share in the Profit Sharing Feature. Participation in the Profit Sharing Feature(s) for any Plan Year is limited to employees of the Supplement D-1 Company who satisfy the Plans definition of Eligible Employee (unless otherwise noted below). The current and original effective dates for each Participating Affiliates respective Profit Sharing Feature are listed below.





Participating Affiliate Current Effective Date (Original Effective Date) 2 Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc. January 1, 2016 (July 16, 2007) Anchorage Sand & Gravel Company, Inc. (excluding President) January 1, 1999 Baldwin Contracting Company, Inc. January 1, 1999 Capital Electric Line Builders, Inc. 1 January 1, 2014 Cascade Natural Gas Corporation January 1, 2011 (July 2, 2007) Concrete, Inc. January 1, 2001 Connolly-Pacific Co. January 1, 2007 DSS Company January 1, 2004 (July 8, 1999) E.S.I., Inc. January 1, 2008 (January 1, 2003)





1







Participating Affiliate Current Effective Date (Original Effective Date) 2 Fairbanks Materials, Inc. May 1, 2008 Granite City Ready Mix, Inc. June 1, 2002 Great Plains Natural Gas Co. January 1, 2008 Hawaiian Cement (non-union employees hired after December 31, 2005) January 1, 2009 Intermountain Gas Company January 1, 2011 JTL Group, Inc. 5/6 January 1, 2015 (January 1, 2014) Jebro Incorporated November 1, 2005 Kents Oil Service 4 January 1, 2007 Knife River  North Dakota Division, a Division of Knife River Corporation  North Central January 1, 2016 (January 1, 2007) Knife River Corporation  North Central January 1, 2016 (January 1, 2007) Knife River Corporation  Northwest (the Central Oregon Division, f/k/a HTS) January 1, 2010 (January 1, 1999) Knife River Corporation  Northwest (the Idaho Division) January 1, 2015 Knife River Corporation  Northwest (the Southern Oregon Division) January 1, 2012 Knife River Corporation  Northwest (the Western Oregon Division) January 1, 2012 Knife River Corporation - South (f/k/a Young Contractors, Inc.) January 1, 2008 (January 1, 2007) Knife River Midwest, LLC January 1, 2016 (April 1, 2004)





2







Participating Affiliate Current Effective Date (Original Effective Date) 2 LTM, Incorporated January 1, 2003 Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (including union employees) January 1, 2008 Northstar Materials, Inc. January 1, 2016 (January 1, 2003) On Electric Group, Inc. 3 March 7, 2011 Wagner Industrial Electric, Inc. January 1, 2008 Wagner Smith Equipment Co. January 1, 2008 (July 1, 2000) WBI Energy, Inc. 1/3 May 1, 2012

WBI Energy Midstream, LLC 1/3 July 1, 2012 (January 1, 2001) WBI Energy Transmission, Inc. 1/3 July 1, 2012 (January 1, 2009) WHC, Ltd. September 1, 2001





1/ Eligible employees participating in a management incentive compensation plan or an executive incentive compensation plan are not eligible for a Profit Sharing Contribution. Employees of the WBI Energy Corrosion Services division of WBI Energy Midstream, LLC are excluded from this feature.

2/ In the event a Participating Affiliate adopts a Profit Sharing Feature on a date other than January 1, effective as of the date of participation in the Plan, the amount of any such contribution allocated to a Supplement D1 Participant shall be based upon Compensation, received while in the employ of the Participating Affiliate after the date of acquisition by the Company or any Affiliate.

3/ Requirement to be an Active Employee on the last day of the Plan Year does not apply.

4/ The following participant of Kents Oil Service is granted vesting service for prior years of service with Spirit Road Oils: Jose Padilla.

5/ Eligible JTL Casper hourly employees (both union and nonunion), including those employees who participate in the Operating Engineers Local No. 800 & The Wyoming Contractors Association, Inc. Pension Trust Fund for Wyoming (JTL MEP employees.)

6/ Eligible salaried employees of JTL hired after December 31, 2014 or any other JTL employee who transfers to a salaried position after December 31, 2014.





In order to share in the allocation of any profit sharing contribution made by a Supplement D-1 Company pursuant to Paragraph 3 below for a given Plan Year, Participants employed by a Supplement D-1 Company must be credited with 1,000





3







Hours of Service (prorated for the Plan Year in which the Profit Sharing Feature becomes effective) in that Plan Year, be an Active Employee of the Supplement D-1 Company on the last day of the Plan Year, and must not be covered by a collectively bargained unit to which the Profit Sharing has not been extended.





However, an Eligible Employee of a Knife River Corporation Participating Affiliate who transfers during the Plan Year and remains employed by a Knife River Corporation Participating Affiliate on the last day of the Plan Year will be eligible to receive a prorated profit sharing contribution from each Knife River Corporation Participating Affiliate.





Moreover, effective January 1, 2009, an Eligible Employee of Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., Great Plains Natural Gas Co., Intermountain Gas Company, or Cascade Natural Gas Company (collectively the Utility Group Participating Affiliate) who transfers during the Plan Year and remains employed by a Utility Group Participating Affiliate on the last day of the Plan Year will be eligible to receive a prorated profit sharing contribution from each Utility Group Participating Affiliate noted above which meets its independent profitability targets.





Effective January 1, 2014, it was resolved that Profit Sharing contributions for Eligible Employees of the Utility Group Participating Affiliates would be based upon the Utility Group Participating Affiliates combined profitability targets, and therefore, if the Utility Group Participating Affiliates together attained the required profitability, Eligible Employees of the Utility Group Participating Affiliates would receive a contribution as long as they remained employed by a Utility Group Participating Affiliate on the last day of the Plan Year.

For purposes of this Supplement, an Active Employee means an employee who is still on the payroll, has been temporarily laid off, or who terminated employment due to Disability, death, or after attaining age 60 during such Plan Year, but does not mean an employee whose employment has been terminated effective on or before December 31 of that Plan Year. In addition, for purposes of applying the requirement of completing 1,000 Hours of Service for the Plan Year, such requirement shall not apply to employees terminating after attaining age 60 provided they are not terminated for cause.





Participants who meet the preceding requirements are referred to herein as Supplement D-1 Participant.





Explanation: This amendment recognizes that effective January 1, 2016, Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc., Knife River  North Dakota Division, Knife River Corporation  North Central, Knife River Midwest, LLC and NorthStar Materials, Inc. are removing the deferral requirement for profit sharing contributions. This amendment also recognizes the March 13, 2014 resolution combining Utility Group Participating Affiliate profitability targets and removing the requirement to prorate profit sharing contributions from each Utility Group Participating Affiliate based on its independent profitability targets, effective January 1, 2014.





2. Effective January 1, 2016, by replacing Supplement D-3, Provisions Relating to the Profit Sharing Feature for Certain Participating Affiliates , in its entirety, with the word RESERVED.





Explanation: This supplement is removed as a result of standardizing profit sharing benefits of Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc., Knife River  North Dakota Division, Knife River Corporation  North Central, Knife River Midwest, LLC and NorthStar Materials, Inc., effective January 1, 2016. This amendment also recognizes the resolution dated December 19, 2012 removing Knife River Midwest, LLC (Central Iowa Division) as a Participating Affiliate.





3. Effective June 9, 2016, by replacing the following entry for Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc. on Schedule B to the K-Plan, in its entirety, with the following:





Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc. shall make supplemental contributions on behalf of its Davis-Bacon Employees in such amounts as may be necessary to satisfy the Prevailing Wage Laws required fringe cost to the extent that the sum of the employer Matching and Profit Sharing Contributions, if any, for a period are insufficient to satisfy the Prevailing Wage Laws required fringe cost pursuant to Supplement G. Effective June 9, 2016, Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc. does not have Davis-Bacon employees.





Effective as of May 1, 2010, and amended as of June 9, 2016.





Explanation: This amendment clarifies that effective June 9, 2016; Ames Sand & Gravel, Inc. does not have employees qualified as Davis-Bacon employees.





4. Effective November 19, 2012, by replacing the following entry for Knife River Midwest, LLC, Central Iowa Division (f/k/a Becker Gravel, Inc.) on Schedule B to the K-Plan, in its entirety, with the following:





Knife River Midwest, LLC Central Iowa Division (f/k/a Becker Gravel, Inc.), shall make supplemental contributions on behalf of its DavisBacon Employees in such amounts as may be necessary to satisfy the required Prevailing Wage Law fringe cost to the extent that the sum of the employer Matching and Profit Sharing Contributions, if any, for a period are insufficient to satisfy the required Prevailing Wage Law fringe cost pursuant to Supplement G. Effective November 19, 2012, Knife River Midwest, LLC sold the assets of Knife River Midwest, LLC Central Iowa Division.





Effective as of January 1, 2012, and amended as of November 19, 2012.





Explanation: This amendment clarifies that provisions for Knife River Midwest, LLC Central Iowa Division Davis-Bacon employees ended as of November 19, 2012, as the result of the sale of assets of this division.













4







IN WITNESS WHEREOF, MDU Resources Group, Inc., as Sponsoring Employer of the K-Plan, has caused this amendment to be duly executed by a member of the MDU Resources Group, Inc. Employee Benefits Committee on this 9th day of June, 2016.





MDU RESOURCES GROUP, INC. EMPLOYEE BENEFITS COMMITTEE By: /s/ Doran N. Schwartz Doran N. Schwartz, Chairman









5



























































EXHIBIT 5.1











Exhibit 5.1













[Letterhead of Daniel S. Kuntz]





















July 21, 2016













MDU Resources Group, Inc. 1200 W. Century Avenue P.O. Box 5650 Bismarck, North Dakota 58506-5650





Ladies and Gentlemen:





I am General Counsel and Secretary of MDU Resources Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the Company). This opinion is being furnished in connection with the registration statement on Form S-8 (the Registration Statement) to be filed on or about the date hereof with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) by the Company under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), for the registration of 4,500,000 shares (the Shares) of the Companys common stock, par value $1.00 per share, for offer and sale pursuant to the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan (the Plan).





For purposes of this opinion, I have examined such instruments, certificates, records and documents, and such matters of law, as I have considered necessary or appropriate for the purposes hereof.





Based upon and subject to the foregoing, and subject to the further limitations and qualifications expressed below, I am of the opinion that:





1. The issuance and sale of original issuance Shares in the manner contemplated by the Plan has been duly authorized by the Board of Directors of the Company.





2. When the original issuance Shares shall have been issued, sold and delivered (i) in compliance with the authority contained in the regulatory consents and approvals of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Montana Public Service Commission and the Wyoming Public Service Commission and (ii) in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Plan and for the consideration contemplated thereby, such original issuance Shares will be validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable.









MDU Resources Group, Inc.

July 21, 2016

Page 2









My opinions expressed above are limited to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, except to the extent such opinions involve determinations regarding regulatory consents and approvals required to be obtained by the Company from any state or federal governmental body or bodies in connection with the issuance and sale of the original issuance Shares. As to matters of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, I have relied on the opinion of Duane Morris LLP, counsel to the Company, dated July 21, 2016, which opinion is to be filed as an exhibit to the Registration Statement.





I hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration Statement and to the references to me contained under the heading Interests of Named Experts and Counsel in the Registration Statement and any amendments thereto. In giving such consent, I do not thereby concede that I am within the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Securities Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder.

Very truly yours,

/s/ Daniel S. Kuntz Daniel S. Kuntz General Counsel and Secretary



















2





























































EXHIBIT 5.2



















Exhibit 5.2















[Letterhead of Duane Morris LLP]





July 21, 2016

MDU Resources Group, Inc. 1200 West Century Avenue, P.O. Box 5650 Bismarck, North Dakota 58506-5650

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We are acting as counsel to MDU Resources Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the Company), in connection with the preparation and filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), of the Companys registration statement on Form S-8 (the Registration Statement) for the registration of 4,500,000 shares (the Shares) of common stock, par value $1.00 per share, of the Company to be issued and sold pursuant to the Companys 401(k) Retirement Plan (the Plan).

For purposes of this opinion, we have examined such instruments, certificates, records and documents, and such matters of law, as we have considered necessary or appropriate for the purposes hereof.

Based upon and subject to the foregoing, and subject to the further limitations and qualifications expressed below, we are of the opinion that:

1. The issuance and sale of original issuance Shares in the manner contemplated by the Plan has been duly authorized by the Board of Directors of the Company.

2. When the original issuance Shares shall have been issued, sold and delivered in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Plan and for the consideration contemplated thereby, such original issuance Shares will be validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable.

For purposes of the opinion expressed in paragraph 2 above, we have assumed that (i) the Company has or will have obtained such state or federal regulatory consents and approvals as may be necessary to authorize the issuance and sale of the original issuance Shares pursuant to the Plan, including, but not limited to, regulatory consents and approvals from the Federal











MDU Resources Group, Inc. July 21, 2016 Page 2















Energy Regulatory Commission, the Montana Public Service Commission and the Wyoming Public Service Commission, and (ii) such original issuance Shares will be issued, sold and delivered in compliance with the authority contained in such regulatory consents and approvals.





Our opinions expressed above are limited to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.





We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration Statement and to the references to our firm contained under the heading Interests of Named Experts and Counsel in the Registration Statement and any amendments thereto. In giving such consent, we do not thereby concede that we are within the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Securities Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder.





Very truly yours, /s/ Duane Morris LLP

















































































EXHIBIT 23.1







Exhibit 23.1

























CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM





We consent to the incorporation by reference in this Registration Statement on Form S-8 of our reports dated February 19, 2016 relating to the consolidated financial statements and financial statement schedules of MDU Resources Group, Inc. and subsidiaries, and the effectiveness of MDU Resources Group, Inc. and subsidiaries' internal control over financial reporting appearing in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of MDU Resources Group, Inc. for the year ended December 31, 2015, and to the reference to us under the heading Interests of Named Experts and Counsel in this Registration Statement.





/s/ Deloitte & Touche LLP





Minneapolis, Minnesota

July 21, 2016

































































EXHIBIT 23.2







Exhibit 23.2









[Letterhead of Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP]









CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM





We consent to the incorporation by reference in this Registration Statement of MDU Resources Group, Inc. on Form S-8 of (i) our report dated June 17, 2016 relating to the statements of net assets available for benefits of MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 and the related statement of changes in net assets available for benefits for the year ended December 31, 2015, appearing in the Annual Report on Form 11-K of the MDU Resources Group, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Plan for the year ended December 31, 2015 and (ii) to the reference to us under the heading Interests of Named Experts and Counsel in this Registration Statement.





/s/ Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP





Minneapolis, Minnesota

July 21, 2016












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LONDON and NEW YORK, July 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- INTL FCStone Inc., a Fortune 500 diversified financial services firm, European power company CEZ, and European top energy brokers Griffin, 42FS and Marex Spectron have formally committed to Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger as one of their instant messaging networks.

Thomson Reuters has seen a significant increase in new Eikon Messenger account registrations following the announcement that Yahoo! will discontinue support for its legacy messaging and API service in August 2016. According to a recent survey by petrochemical market information provider ICIS, Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger has emerged as a preferred service provider for energy firms migrating from Yahoo Messenger, which is withdrawing its service on August 5.

"Eikon Messenger provides our clients a valuable tool to access the markets and information required to manage commodity risk via a platform that is compliant with regulations," said John Gretzinger, Head of Energy at INTL FCStone Financial Inc.'s FCM Division.

'Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger gives us all the compliance tools we need to maintain a business that follows all the current regulation," said Rastislav Zivor, CEO, 42FS. "The team at Thomson Reuters are fully on top of ongoing changes in our market and continually enhance their solution to deliver a tool that we can use to communicate internally and with our customers, without worrying about whether we are in breach of any legislation.'

"What we particularly like about Eikon Messenger is that Thomson Reuters is prepared to connect it to other messaging platforms. That, alongside its compliance and audit features, makes it our preferred choice" said Simon Davidson, chief operating officer, Griffin.

"Instant messaging is an incredibly popular and established way of communicating for the commodities trading community. With 30 percent of energy trading professionals already using Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger to communicate, it is an obvious alternative for firms that were using the legacy Yahoo! service," said Lesli Fairchild, head of collaboration services at Thomson Reuters. "Thomson Reuters commitment to providing a compliant and open messaging platform breaks down the barriers to communication in financial markets, and provides customers with confidence that they are making a future-proof choice."

Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger is an established, open and secure instant messaging collaboration tool for the global financial community. Available as part of Thomson Reuters Eikon and as a standalone, free-of-charge application, Eikon Messenger aids regulatory compliance by including bilateral chat controls in conjunction with a suite of active compliance tools, including features for keyword blocking, disclaimers and policy enforcement. It provides users with access to the world's largest open directory of contacts spanning more than 285,000 users across 25,000 firms in 180 countries. Eikon Messenger is also supported on iOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

CONTACTS

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Thomson Reuters

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brian.bertsch@thomsonreuters.com

HUG#2030080
HENDERSON, Nev., July 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oroplata Resources, Inc., (OTCBB:ORRP) is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Michael T. Mason to the Board of Directors.



Mike is a seasoned mining executive with extensive experience worldwide in project due diligence, mine development, strategic planning, metals marketing, risk management and project financing as well as international trade and off-take agreements. He has worked on some of the worlds largest deposits including the Escondida Copper project in Chile, the Olympic Dam project in Australia, La Candelaria in Chile, and the San Cristobal Mine in Bolivia. Mike has also been associated with the commissioning, evaluation and management of large smelting operations across South America, India, Korea, Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

Michael T. Mason holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Arizona and a Master's Degree in Business Administration specializing in Finance, from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Throughout a career that has spanned 50 years, Mike has held numerous senior and executive management positions. He has served as a director of Euromax Resources Ltd; President and COO of Global Gold Corporation; President of MBMI Intl; CEO, President & Director of Metals Concentrates International ; Managing Director, Senior Trader for Marc Rich and Co. (Glencore) as well as others

"We are looking forward to Mr. Masons guidance and oversight as we develop our projects," states Craig Alford, Oroplatas CEO. "He brings both outstanding operational experience and international connections to our team. Mike has a long track record of success and will be a tremendous asset for the Company."

About Oroplata: Oroplata Resources Inc. is focused on becoming a substantial profitable Lithium producer by the rapid development of valuable production-grade Lithium Brine deposits in Nevada and throughout the southwest U.S.

www.oroplataresourcesinc.com

info@oroplataresourcesinc.com

Craig Alford B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc., P.Geo. (CEO/Director):

craig.alford@oroplataresourcesinc.com

IR Contact: Kingston Advisors, +1-212-796-5290

info@kingstonadvisors.com

http://www.kingstonadvisors.com/

Safe Harbor Statements

Certain information contained in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as expects or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, estimates, intends or believes, or that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Companys filings with the SEC. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the ability to locate and acquire suitable interests in alternative medicine manufacturing operations on terms acceptable to the Company, the availability of financing on acceptable terms, accidents, labor disputes, acts of God and other risks of the alternative medicine industry including, without limitation, delays in obtaining governmental approvals or permits, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements included in this news release are reasonable; however, no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct, and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.




CALGARY, Alberta, July 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cortex Business Solutions Inc. (TSXV:CBX), an online business-to-business, network as a service e-invoicing solutions provider, today announces the signing of a long term contract extension with a large Calgary headquartered energy company.



During the previous contract term, the customer benefitted from a higher than industry standard automation rate. This benchmark achievement in e-invoicing aligns to the customers mandate for disciplined financial management internally. The automation rate coupled with the added assurance of moving off the legacy Cortex system to the cloud based platform provides stability moving forward for the customer.

For Cortex this renewed agreement equates to over $1 Million in access and usage fee revenue over 5 years, with additional services revenue gained upon transition to the new platform.

We are extremely pleased to renew our agreement with a company that has been critical to Cortexs success, Joel Leetzow, President and CEO of Cortex commented. We are excited to be moving forward with their transition to our Workbench platform which we are confident will deliver them even greater efficiencies and further strengthen relationships with their suppliers.

For more details the full contract can be viewed on SEDAR.

About Cortex Business Solutions

Cortex Business Solutions Inc. (TSXV:CBX) is a business-to-business network that enables electronic invoicing for buying and supplying organizations. The Cortex network offers flexible connection methods to reduce the time required to process invoices and tools that leverage existing customer technologies and processes. Access to the Cortex Network enhances the exchange of documents allowing companies to connect and interact with each other to grow their businesses. For more information, please visit www.cortex.net.
The co-owner of a Bronx bar is at Jacobi Hospital after being shot twice by an apparently angry customer. The victim's brother and co-owner of the bar says that he was shot because he refused to continuing serving alcohol to the shooter: "He was drunk and because of that, we didn't serve him."

Mario Ramirez, 52, got into an argument with the patron at El Rey De Copas, after "he had been cut off by a waitress." The customer, who was described to be in his 40s, then shot Ramirez in the neck and chest.

NBC New York reports, "Ramirez's brother said that the mana known patron who had been banned from the bar for causing trouble two years agoran off down White Plains Road."

It's believed that shooting was caught on surveillance cameras. Police are continuing to investigate.
Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani tells @katiecouric "Putin, to me, is a murderer, but he's not an insane murderer." pic.twitter.com/lnGUuHIaCY  Yahoo News (@YahooNews) July 21, 2016



Hoo boy has it been a week for former mayor of 9/11 Town Rudy Giuliani. Fresh off his shouty, paranoid performance at Day 1 of the RNC, Giuliani capped things off with one more reason for us to say "Rudy Giuliani? Hmm no, we didn't elect him. It was his cousin, Marvin." When asked by Katie Couric about the Trump campaign getting close with previously hated GOP foe Vladimir Putin, Giuliani suggested it was nbd. Sounding for all the world like a man who's been screaming for a week straight, Giuliani contrasted Putin with "insane murderer" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

"I think what he's trying to say, Vladimir Putin is someone you can negotiate with...Putin to me is a murderer but he's not an insane murderer...Putin is your typical autocrat...I have no doubt he's ordered murders throughout the world but he's also someone you can negotiate with because he's not insane."

So, committing murders in an attempt to hold power indefinitely over your petrodictatorship? Understandable. Doing all that but doing it under a different religious banner? Insane.

What will next week bring for America's mayor? An impassioned defense of shooting Harambe? Hitler had some good ideas outside of the whole genocide thing? A declaration that Domino's is as good as any New York City pizza? Stay tuned.
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strong>Tauranga kayaker Tim Taylor has been rewarded for some extraordinary feats of strength and endurance on water.

Those feats include a world record 209km in 24 hours and a solo circumnavigation of New Zealand.
The slump in dairy prices that has seen farm prices drop to their lowest level since 2012 and down a third from their peak in 2014 will be of concern to farmers, banks and our overall financial stability, Labours Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson says.

Two years of below break-even pay-outs have been tough for dairy farmers, and the impact is now spreading to the value of their farms. Dairy farm prices have dropped to their lowest level since July 2012, and are down 33 per cent from their peak in October 2014.

This situation represents real pressure in the dairy sector. At the moment prices for whole milk powder are nearly US$1000 a metric tonne below what would be break-even figure or that which is factored into the Budget.

While the major banks have adopted a wait and see approach to the dairy decline, these numbers will be cause for concern given the nearly $40 billion of farm debt that has grown under National.

The Reserve Bank will be looking closely again at the impact of this on New Zealands financial stability.

These figures are also further evidence of the need for more urgency to diversify our economy. Labour in government would invest in supporting industries to add value; promote research and development, including through tax credits; and support strong regional development programmes.

New Zealand simply cannot sit by, as National is, and hope for the market to give our economy a boost. Labour will be an active partner with business and workers to create decent work and opportunities right across New Zealand, Grant Robertson said.

SOURCE: Office of Grant Robertson
Foreign Minister Murray McCully travels to Laos next week to attend the ASEAN-NZ Ministerial Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting and the 23rd ASEAN Regional Forum.

New Zealand has long-standing ties with ASEAN and we enjoy close cooperation with member states across a range of regional issues, Mr McCully says.

The East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum play an important role in addressing the political and security challenges we collectively face, such as maritime security, counter-terrorism, and disaster response and preparedness.

SOURCE: Office of Murray McCully
A piece of New Zealand aviation history has been sitting in cardboard box for more than 50 years. And for the first time, Tauranga woman Jan Hoekstra is letting SunLive give the public a chance to see it.

Sadly, July 3, 1963, is a date which will go down in New Zealand aviation infamy  it was the day the countrys worst internal civil aviation accident took place  right here in the Bay of Plenty.
Holders of a 'Malaga Pass' will be entitled to discounts in local shops and entry to 24 museumsand other places of interest in the city

The new card was presented at the Alcazaba this week. :: Sur

Visitors to Malaga city, the capital of the Costa del Sol, can now benefit from a special tourist card which will give them discounts in local shops and easy access to 24 museums and other places of interest, including the Picasso Museum, the Pompidou Centre and the Alcazaba.

With this new card, which is called Malaga Pass, Malaga is at the forefront of innovative tourist services because it can also be used via mobile phones.

The mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, explained the benefits of the card to representatives of the tourism sector at the official presentation at the Alcazaba this week.

The company which is responsible for the cards, Neoturismo, has already begun to arrange for them to be sold in more than 7,000 outlets all over Spain. Manuel Estevez, the companys business director, explained that Malaga Pass not only gives tourists discounts of up to 15 per cent in shops and entry to places of interest, but is also an indispensable tool for those staying in the area because it provides comprehensive information ranging from local traditions to weather forecasts. It is a truly complete tourist guide to Malaga in seven languages, including Chinese and Russian, he said.

The basic price of a Malaga Pass card for one day will be 28 euros; two days will cost 38 euros; three days 46 euros, or a card which is valid for a week costs 62 euros.

The mayor of Malaga told those who attended the presentation that he was absolutely convinced this new service will prove successful. It is a product which is very valuable for the city, because it will help to create wealth and employment, he said.
Mayors from across the Axarquia as well as representatives from organisations such as SOHAwere present to hear the vote

Mayors from the Axarquia town halls with Susana Diaz and members of the Junta de Andalucia. :: EFE Mario Blancke Mayor of Alcaucin I know how awful it has been for the owners of these properties and this change in law is going to change their lives Antonio Moreno Ferrer Mayor of Velez-Malaga The change in law offers judicial security for people who bought their houses in good faith Philip Smalley President, SOHA This is very good news because the uncertainty is over for many families

Last Wednesday the Andalusian Parliament voted to change a law meaning that up to 30,000 homes across Andalucia will be made legal, an estimated 9% of the total number of homes needing legalisation.

This reform to the LOUA (Ley de Ordenacion Urbanistica de Andalucia), or the urban plan, will lead to the regularisation of 10,000 of these homes which are in Malaga province, most of which are in the Axarquia.

Owners of homes that were built on rural land not identified for development more than six years ago will finally be able to add them to the Registro Civil (civil register) as well as contract mains electricity and water, as long as they are not located on areas at high risk of flooding or in special protection areas. These homes can now take on a special legal status - asimilado a fuera de ordenacion (AFO).

Philip Smalley, President of Save our Homes Axarquia (SOHA), said after the vote that he was delighted that many families can now, put an end to the uncertainty that they have had to endure.

Many of the property owners affected are foreigners, of which a high proportion are British people who bought the houses, in good faith,having obtained paperwork from their local town hall.

The new law, which has taken a year to reach this point, also includes three additional points to help owners of illegal properties. The first establishes that the town halls have a period of two years in which to start writing up a plan to identify affected homes and to apply the AFOrule. The second obliges local authorities to reply to residents questions in relation to land rights. The third requires town halls to speed up the process of registering properties on the Registro Civil, so that owners can contract mains water and electricity as soon as possible.

The PSOE, PP and Ciudadanos political parties all voted in favour of the reform with 88 votes to 19 abstentions.

Rodrigo Sanchez from the PSOE said that the change in law was, one more commitment from Susana Diazs government,adding, we have once again showed that the Andalusian institutions are tools to solve our citizens problems.

Patricia Navarro, speaking on behalf of the PP said, this is light years away from what Andalucia needs,and reaffirmed her partys commitment to; continue fighting to legalise the [other illegal] properties.

The Podemos representative at the Andalusian Parliament, Mercedes Barranco, criticised the new law, saying that at mostit will benefit 25,000 homes and create inequalities as well as saying that she didnt believe it goes far enough to solve the wider problem.

Jose Antonio Castro from the IU (Izquierda Unida) left-wing political party justified his groups decision to abstain saying that urban planning needs a much more comprehensive approach and that; with these patch ups we can only achieve a part of what we need to do. He added that announcements like this only seem to happen six months before elections are due to be held.
Antony Poole, Melanie Radford, Richard Mills and Alex Radford during the session. :: J. RHODES Alex Radford highlighted the importance of contacting MPS and reminding the UK government of its residents in EU countries

Representatives from financial and legal fields sat on the panel at a Brexit Q&A session held on Thursday last week at Legends Bar in Torre del Mar.

Legends owners Rachel and Shaun Barnett said that they decided to hold the event because of the wide-ranging opinions and concerns of customers that come into the bar.

Its the talk of the town; everyone has their own views and concerns, said Rachel, before the event.

Around 30 people attended the session aimed at Britons living in Torre del Mar and the surrounding areas, to provide an opportunity to come together for some guidance and to be able to engage with each other and share those concerns, said Rachel.

Panel members - Alex Radford, a lawyer with mylawyerinspain.com; Richard Mills a financial advisor with Blacktower Financial Management (International) Ltd; Melanie Radford from Currencies Direct; and Antony Poole, a financial advisor with Robusto - answered questions ranging from concerns over pensions, to mortgages and currency fluctuations. The recent appointment of Theresa May as prime minister was also discussed as well as the Cabinet reshuffle that was being announced on the same day.

The first comment made was, perhaps inevitably, that the panel wouldnt be able to answer any questions as there is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, and possibly even more so now in the light of UK government resignations and the turmoil that the UK appears to be facing at the moment, politically, socially and financially.

Alex Radford started off by reassuring participants that until Article 50 is invoked by the UK government and negotiations have finished, the UK will still be a full member of the EU and therefore the rights that were in place before the 23 June referendum remain unchanged.

The panel also pointed out that it is the UK governments right to decide when to trigger Article 50, which refers to a clause in the Treaty of Lisbon, giving member states the right to leave the EU.

Although there is a deadline of two years for negotiations once the article is triggered, there is no clear guidance as to how long a member state has to trigger it. In addition to this, the two-year negotiation period may be extended on agreement from the European institutions.

Mr Radford highlighted the importance of contacting MPs and reminding the UK government of its approximately 400,000 citizens who live in Spain who will potentially be directly affected as the result of the negotiations, saying that they are a strong and important voice at risk of being left out of the negotiations.

In terms of transferring money from UK bank accounts to Spanish accounts, Melanie Radford pointed out how the timing of currency transfers is crucial due to the current volatility in exchange rates. She added that established currency transfer companies can help by watching the rates and doing transfers and the right time.

Referring to investments, the message from financial advisors Richard Mills and Antony Poole was not to panic. They reminded the audience that despite the pounds dramatic fall after the referendum and posterior dips in the light of changes to the government, it hasnt dropped to as low as it did in December 2008, when it reached parity with the euro.

In answer to a question about making wills, Alex Radford recommended Spanish wills for Spanish assets and UK wills for UK assets. He reminded people that UK citizens living in Spain have the right to choose to make a will in line with English law. The main difference between the Spanish inheritance tax laws and UK laws is that under Spanish law two thirds of assets must go to a persons children and the will-maker then has the right to decide where they wish the remaining third to go. Under UK law the will-maker may decide how to leave 100 per cent of their money. Therefore it is advisable to ensure you have a Spanish will with an English law provision.

The first comment of the evening was of course quite accurate; it is impossible to answer many questions about the medium to long-term effects of Brexit, both for UK citizens living abroad as well as the UK itself.

However, the session provided a wealth of information about current laws and rights that we enjoy and gave people an opportunity to express their concerns and share information as well as think about what they may need to do to prepare for the eventual outcome.
Boris Johnson with Fabian Picardo. :: sur

Britains newly-appointed foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, met Gibraltars chief minister Fabian Picardo last weekend and promised that he would be unfailingly robust about the matter of sovereignty and that Britain would double its guard about the issue.

Mr Johnson, who describes himself as a fan of Gibraltar, also said he had experienced some of the long border queues for himself, and that he understands the concerns regarding free movement between Gibraltar and Spain.

Later in the week, the foreign secretary met Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo for the first time since being appointed to the post, in Brussels. Sr Margallo, who is calling for joint sovereignty between Spain and Britain, apparently lost no time in raising the subject of Gibraltar, but Mr Johnson reiterated the UK governments position, and insisted that it would continue to defend the right of Gibraltar to remain British for as long as that is the wish of the people. After the meeting, the Spanish foreign minister said that he and Boris Johnson will get on well together.
The Mayor's office has revealed a $300 million plan to move 16 and 17-year-olds out of notoriously violent and emotionally destructive quarters on Rikers Island, into an airier more accessible facility in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. The news comes shy of two years after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office described the conditions for adolescents on the complex as "more inspired by Lord of the Flies than any legitimate philosophy of humane detention."

"Today we're proud to announce we're taking a clear step toward moving these kids off of Rikers," Mayor de Blasio stated this week. "When you're a teenager, it's not too late to get on the right path, and we need to provide the right environment to help get them there."

There are currently close to 200 16 and 17-year-olds on Rikers, compared to about 330 in 2013.

Under the new plan, the city would renovate the Horizon Juvenile Center in Mott Haven, which currently houses 14 and 15-year-olds, into a new jail for the older teens. Advocates with the #CLOSErikers campaign note that Horizon has larger rooms than Rikers, with more light. It's also close to the 2 traina thirty minute commute from Midtownfor easier family visits. It would accommodate therapy and classrooms.

To make room for the older teens, the NY Times reports that current Horizon residents would move to the Crossroads Juvenile Center in Bushwick, which would also undergo renovations. This sort of shuffling can only proceed after a lengthy land use processone the city predicts could take at least four years.

The Department of Correction deferred comment on the proposal to the mayor's office.

"I view this move... as a necessary first step in reevaluating the proper treatment of youth involved in the criminal justice system," stated Glenn E. Martin, president of JustLeadershipUSA, who was incarcerated on Rikers at age 16. "Ultimately, however, Mayor de Blasio must spend the political capital necessary to ensure that Rikers is closed and replaced with a smaller, more humane criminal justice system that aligns with our values as New Yorkers."

DNAInfo has reported on the city's quiet efforts to determine possible alternative jail sites, though the land-use process for multiple new jails across the city would be longer and more complex than the proposal to move teens proposed this week.

And for some advocates, even four years is far too long to wait. It would be more efficient, they argue, for the state to stop incarcerating adolescents altogether.

As it now stands, New York and North Carolina are the only states where 16 and 17-year-olds are automatically charged as adults. Any teenager arrested within NYC who cannot afford bail is sent to Rikers Island, where many stay for months at a time awaiting trial. Despite existing speedy trial laws, a recent lawsuit alleges at least 2,378 misdemeanor cases in the Bronx have been pending for over a year.

"The way to do this the fastest and most efficient way, and appropriate way, is for New York State to raise the age [of incarceration]," New York Civil Liberties Union head Donna Lieberman told us on Friday. "That way juveniles who are now pushed into the system and thrown onto Rikers Island could be placed into juvenile facilities with the Administration for Children's Services."

Kalief Browder of the Bronx, who spent three of his late teen years imprisoned on Rikers awaiting trial for a petty robbery charge that was ultimately dismissed, committed suicide last summer.

"I think if anything this proposal [to move adolescents] will boost efforts to raise the age," Lieberman added. "We as New Yorkers should be ashamed of our legislature's dysfunction on this."
Back when New York City wasn't named the rudest city in America, we had a little scoff at it, because hey who are these putzes to tell us we're not rude? But maybe the people at Travel & Leisure were on to something, judging by the news that an anonymous man found a purse stuffed wth $3,000 cash on the subway and turned it in to police, according to the NY Post. Jeez, we miss the Old New York, when the money would have been pocketed and spent at any number of XXX Times Square storefronts.

Police said at a press conference that an anonymous man noticed tourists Barabara Fieg and Milagros De Vedia leave a bag on the E train as they exited at a Times Square stop on Tuesday night. The do-gooder held on to the bagwhich turned out to contain $3,000 cash, credit cards, a passport and a cell phone belonging to De Vediaall the way to the World Trade Center stop, at which point he brought it to One Police Plaza. From there, police were able to track down the Argentinian tourists the old fashioned way, by blindly calling numbers in the cell phone's contacts until they reached someone who could get in touch with Fieg.

"It gives us hope that there are people like him in this world," De Vedia said at the press conference. We'll probably never know exactly who this man was, but hey, if you're trying to impress someone at a bar or at Panorama this weekend, feel free to tell them it was you. "Yeah, I could have paid rent for like two months with it, but you know, I thought my soul was just worth so much more," you can lie.
UPDATE:

All of the children have reportedly been rescued and everyone is now safe and out of the gorge.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Several kids are reported to be trapped in a cave behind a waterfall in the city of Rochester.

Monroe County Fire Wire reported around 3:36 p.m. Friday that several kids were stuck behind the waterfalls near Seth Green Drive, in the area of Norton's Falls and the Genesee River.

The youths were reported to be trapped on a ledge in a cave by fast-moving water.

Rochester police called for the fire department and any on-duty SCUBA members to respond to the scene. The youths were reportedly safe, but rescuers were waiting for Rochester Gas and Electric to slow the water flow.
Howe, Kevin_horizontal.jpg

Kevin Howe

(Provided photo)

A Syracuse man who police say wrote checks to himself from his employer's account totaling $743,000 said he had a gambling problem and also thought he was owed money for extra work, according to papers filed in Oneida County Court.

Kevin Howe, 54, 359 S. Midler Ave., Syracuse, worked as the in-house accountant and controller for White's Farm Supply, giving him access to the company's funds, according to a felony complaint filed with the court. He had worked since 1986 for the family-owned company, which is based in Lenox and employs about 90 people at five locations.

Howe was charged with second-degree larceny, accused of writing checks to himself over a seven-year period starting in 2009. He said he used a laser printer at the office to print the checks.

Howe told New York State Police investigators that he took the money partly because he has "a gambling problem" and because he felt the company owed him for building its computers on his own time, according to a statement he made to police on July 14.

Howe told police his gambling escalated in 2012, when he began gambling higher amounts at Vernon Downs in Vernon and the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona.

"I realized I had a gambling problem," he told police. "After the Yellow Brick Road Casino opened in Chittenango (June 2015), I really began to spend a lot of money at the casino and issued myself checks more regularly from White's."

Howe also told police he began building personal computers for White's Farm Supply in 2004, often working on the weekends.

Howe told police he felt he should be paid for that extra work, and so decided he deserved $200 for each computer he built. He said he never discussed it with his bosses, just decided to write himself checks.

For a while he kept track of the payments to himself on a spreadsheet until 2012, when the gambling became an issue, he told police.

Howe told police he knows what he did was wrong.

"I'm sorry I've lost the trust of the Whites and caused extra financial burden on the business,'' according to his statement.

The White's company discovered the thefts after a bank employee alerted them to numerous checks written to Howe from the payroll account. The signatures appeared to be forged or had stamped signatures.

In the indictment, the Whites said Howe got a raise in 2013 to $28 an hour. That's an annual salary of $58,240.
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A man is accused of putting containers filled with urine and feces in several locations in the offices of the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany, the New York State Police said.

Clifford S. Davidson, 32, formerly of Albany, was charged with third-degree criminal mischief, a felony. On Thursday investigators based at the state capital arrested Davidson.

In late May "material was discovered" in containers at several spots inside the Department of Environmental Conservation building at 625 Broadway in Albany. Non-essential employees were sent home at the time so troopers could search the building and collect evidence.

The material was determined to be feces and urine, state police said.

Troopers did not say what led them to Davidson during their two-month investigation or if he worked in the building.

Davidson was arraigned in Albany City Court and ordered held in Albany County jail in lieu of $15,000 bail or bail bond. A mug shot was not immediately available.
Director:Choreographer.JPG

Director/Choreographer Parker Esse practices a number with the cast of "Crazy For You," the song-and-dance Gershwin retrospective musical running July 27 through Aug. 17 at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Auburn.

( Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Inc./Samantha Hassell)

"Crazy For You," billed as a new Gershwin musical comedy by writer Ken Ludwig, opens July 27 at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse with a cast of nationally renowned artists and an award winning director, Parker Esse. Sam Lips, who toured in "Pippin" and Katerina Papacostas, who has wrapped up a tour with "The Visitor," both claim to be cast in their dream roles for this singing and dancing spectacular.

"We really need this show right now," says Lips, who plays Bobby Child, a stage-struck 1930s New Yorker who leaves his domineering mother and boss behind to discover true love and artistic fulfillment in Deadrock, Nevada.

Lips auditioned in New York City this spring and was considered for several roles in the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre summer lineup. "I'm so thrilled that I landed the part of Bobby," he says. "He's so much like me in his intense love of theater. All I've wanted to do since I was nine-years old is dance."

Lips recalls a childhood in which he concentrated on gymnastics but was aware of a dance studio in the same location. "Then, when I was seven, I saw "Riverdance," he says. "I couldn't get it out of my mind, and I asked my mom if I could join my sister in dance lessons."

Aiming for the Denver School of the Arts, a magnet public school, Lips took his mentor's advice to try something other than dance, which Lips would pursue outside of school no matter where he went. "I auditioned in acting and was accepted. That's where I discovered my passion for musical comedy."

Papacostas, who goes by Kat, also thinks she shares personal attributes with her stage persona, Polly Baker, the librarian and fix-it girl in Deadrock.

"I see her as a dynamic woman who is the caretaker for her father--who has been mourning the loss of his wife for decades--and many of the other townspeople," Papacostas says. "Polly is a real Gershwin hero. She's ahead of her time."

Having had her eye on the role, Papacostas says she reached out to the director because she had worked with him previously. "Parker Esse is thoroughly professional. It's a joy and a learning experience to collaborate with him again," she says.

Esse won a Helen Hayes award this year for his choreography in "West Side Story" at the Signature Theatre in Washington, D. C. in 2015. He will be working nearby again next summer as the choreographer for Glimmerglass Opera Festival's "Oklahoma!"

"Crazy For You" is staged with today's well-trained dancers in mind. Lips defines the choreography as "very physical, very demanding on the body." He says he'll be on site about an hour before curtain time, stretching and warming up for the show.

Both Lips and Papacostas are making their FLMT debut in "Crazy For You." As the intense, day-long rehearsals lead up to opening night, they say they are building energy for their rolls and finding community with others who are involved in the production.

"The magic of theater is that you are brought together with other performers for a short time with a common purpose," Papacostas explains. "Everyone in the cast and crew puts his or her guard down right away so we can support one another, help one another, and just focus on doing our best."

Lips adds his desire for audience members to take something upbeat and positive away from this light, happy-ending show. "This is really a show full of laughter, love and joy. We will all come away feeling better about the world," he says.



The Details:

Who: Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival

What: "Crazy For You," new show with Gerswhin music

Where: Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Emerson Park, Auburn

When: July 27 through Aug. 17 with a variety of start times, including matinees

Tickets: online at fingerlakesmtf.com or 315-255-1785

Prices: $27 to $57 with discounts for students and senior citizens

Parking: $2, or $1 for senior citizens, at Emerson Park, Auburn, N.Y.
And they're off! The 148th season of thoroughbred racing in Saratoga Springs begins Friday at Saratoga Race Course. Gates open at 11 a.m. and the first race post time scheduled for 1 p.m.

Racing will be held on 40 days through Labor Day, Sept. 5, with the track closed on Tuesdays. From opening day to Travers Day, here's everything you need to know about the 2016 racing season:

Special Events

Opening Day: July 22

The Whitney Stakes: Aug. 6

Alabama Day: Aug. 20

Travers Day: Aug. 27

Woodward Day: Sept. 3

Closing Day: Sept. 5

Opening Day weather

The weather may have a negative impact for opening day, with a cold front approaching. Read the full weather report.

Tickets

Grandstand admission for most races is $5 and clubhouse admission is $8. Tickets for Travers Day are $10 for grandstand and $20 for the clubhouse. Learn more how to attend the races.

What's new this season?

From high-definition video boards to new picnic tables, read the complete list of the new stuff at the track in 2016.

When are the giveaways?

On select days, giveaways are free with paid admission, while supplies last. Here's a schedule of giveaway days at the course.

What's Travers Day?

The Travers Stakes, the 1 1/4-mile race for a $1.25 million purse, is scheduled for Aug. 27. Dating back to 1864, this "Midsummer Derby" for three year olds is the oldest major thoroughbred race in America. It's probably the most-popular day of the racing season. Learn more about attending this year's Travers Day.

What else is there to do in Saratoga Springs?

Lots! From a state park to bustling main street, here's our guide to the best things to do in Saratoga Springs.

Where should I eat?

With so many options, you really can't go wrong when it comes to selecting a good spot to eat, but we will still help you out. Here's our list of best restaurants in Saratoga.

Where can I eat cheap?

Did you lose all your money on the races but still have an empty stomach? There are plenty of places to eat cheap. Here's our budget eating guide for Saratoga.

Where should I stay?

If you're planning a trip to Saratoga for the races, plan ahead. Hotels often book quick, but here are some solid choices of places to stay during racing season.

How can I catch a concert at SPAC?

Like every summer, there's a stacked line up of concerts scheduled for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The SPAC Amphitheatre houses sheltered seats for 5,200 people and a sloping lawn that fits an additional 20,000 people. Here's a guide to attending a show at SPAC.
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A 59-year-old man from Cassville in Oneida County was killed in a motorcycle crash Thursday night in the town of Marcy, Oneida County sheriff's deputies said.

Martin Buss was killed when his motorcycle slid off the road while trying to avoid another vehicle, deputies said. Speed also may have been a factor, according to police.

Deputies said witnesses told them Buss was traveling south in the northbound lane on Route 291 at 9:18 p.m. on his 1987 Harley Davidson motorcycle. As he approached the curve at Fox Road, another vehicle was in that lane. Buss slammed on his brakes to avoid a collision, lost control and hit a guardrail.

Buss was taken by helicopter to Upstate University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Sheriff's deputies were assisted on scene by New York State Police. The investigation is continuing.
2012-07-14-jb-nukes5.JPG

The cooling tower of the Nine Mile Point 2 nuclear reactor looms over the town of Scriba in Oswego County. The state Public Service Commission is weighing a proposal to create subsidies for Upstate nuclear plants.

(John Berry)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- More than 2,200 people have sent comments to the state Public Service Commission on a PSC staff proposal that would create hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies for Upstate nuclear plants.

Today is the final day to comment. The commission is expected to rule on the proposal Aug. 1.

The huge volume of public comments is testimony to the high stakes of the proposal, and to the intensive organizing efforts of both advocates and opponents. Most of the comments have poured in during the past two days.

The commission has been directed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to develop new financial supports for struggling Upstate nuclear plants as part of the state's new "clean energy standard'' to promote renewable energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The nuclear subsidies, or "zero emission credits,'' are intended to compensate nukes for generating carbon-free power for a transition period while the state develops additional renewable power sources such as wind and solar.

While some details of the clean energy standard are still being worked out, the nuclear subsidies have been put on a fast track in response to warnings that several of the Upstate plants are on the verge of closing.

Exelon Corp. said that two of its three Upstate reactors - Nine Mile Point 1 in Oswego County and Ginna in Wayne County - could be forced to retire prematurely if the PSC does not act quickly.

The FitzPatrick plant owned by Entergy Corp. is already scheduled to close in January. Exelon has said it will try to buy the plant and keep it running if the subsidies are approved.

Those three reactors produce about 12 percent of the power generated in New York. (Including the fourth and largest of the Upstate reactors, Nine Mile Point 2, the Upstate nukes account for 20 percent of in-state generation.)

Exelon supports the PSC proposal, which would guarantee revenue of about $56.50 per megawatt-hour of electricity generated by Upstate nukes, an increase of roughly 45 percent above what they now make in the wholesale market, roughly $39.

If wholesale prices don't change, the subsidy could yield an extra $85 million a year for Nine Mile 1 and Ginna, and $129 million for FitzPatrick, based on last year's output. For Nine Mile 2, the subsidy would be an estimated $193 million a year.

The subsidies would be paid through a surcharge on utility ratepayer bills.

The PSC staff proposes 12-year contracts under which the guaranteed revenue would increase every two years, topping out at about $68 per megawatt-hour in the final two years. PSC analysts say they expect wholesale prices to rise even faster during that period. If that happens, the portion of the guaranteed revenue that is subsidy would decrease and possibly disappear.

Critics, however, see the potential for billions of dollars of subsidies. If prices stay as low as they are now, and all four Upstate nukes continue to generate at capacity, the maximum potential subsidy during the 12-year term could be as much as $7.6 billion.

Most comments to the PSC make one of two broad arguments.

Supporters say nuclear power is a reliable source of carbon-free energy that would likely be replaced by fossil fuels if it disappeared, leading to higher greenhouse gas emissions. Many also point out the vital importance nuclear jobs play in the Central New York economy.

Detractors say nuclear power is an outdated technology that grows increasingly unsafe as the plants age, and that state resources should be devoted exclusively to energy efficiency programs and renewable power sources. Many also object to the expedited review by the PSC, saying there should be more time for comments.

It's clear from the boilerplate language of many of the comments reaching the PSC that organizers both for and against the proposal are working to show strength in numbers.

"I urge you reject the proposed subsidy for Exelon Corporation's nuclear power plants,'' begins letter after letter after letter from opponents.

"I support the NYSPSC's Zero Emission Credit for the upstate nuclear power plants,'' say dozens of other letters.

Among the commenters are elected officials. Several Central New York legislators, including state Sens. Patty Ritchie and Michael Nozzolio and Assemblymen Will Barclay and Bob Oaks, have offered full-throated support.

But other politicians have expressed doubts about the rapid timetable for the PSC decision, or outright opposition to the subsidies. Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, of Rockland County, called the PSC proposal "unacceptable.''

Both the PSC and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have expressed concern that diminishing Upstate's nuclear industry would require the use of more fossil fuel energy, increasing carbon emissions at a time when the state is trying to cut down.

The public can comment on the PSC proposal here.

Contact Tim Knauss anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023


Police Shootings-Minnesota

Demonstrators clasp hands in front of the St. Anthony (Minnesota) Police Department Sunday, July 10, 2016, to protest the police shooting of Philando Castile.

(Jeff Wheeler / Star Tribune via AP)

Stephen Kimatian, of Syracuse, is a former television executive and previously was a candidate for mayor. He is a regular guest columnist for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard.

A Rasmussen poll released Tuesday found 60 percent of likely voters believe that race relations are worse since President Barack Obama's election eight years ago. That was up from 42 percent in 2014. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted after five Dallas police officers were shot dead by a sniper found that six in 10 Americans believe race relations are getting worse, compared to 38 percent a year ago. Yet, speaking at the memorial service for the five Dallas police officers, President Obama said: "We are not as divided as we seem." Is he right?

Obama's statement challenges whether we are seeing things clearly or whether we are hostage to faulty perceptions. He is not claiming there is no division, but rather it is not as bad as it seems. Yet, in just the past 23 months, we have seen the public reaction to the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York, Freddie Gray in Baltimore;, the Charleston church killings of nine by a person who said he wanted to start a race war; the Dallas police killings, the vehicle stop interactions that led to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and the ambush killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge.

As divisive as these events are, looking at them through the lens of history, they become part of an ongoing evolution in building the greatest democracy the world. The police who gave their lives in service "shared a commitment to something larger than themselves," Obama said in Dallas. Our nation was born in rebellion. In every century, we have had major struggles for freedom -- the Civil War, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement. We have always progressed, not smoothly, not easily and not without heartbreak, but as Obama said when he first heard about the Dallas shootings, "When we start suggesting that somehow there is this enormous polarization and we are back to the situation in the 1960s -- that's just not true."

A democracy can sometimes give the perception of being divided when it is really only democracy at work. Our Constitution's First Amendment gives the highest protection to speech, especially political speech. Protests, marches, peaceful demonstrations are encouraged. Our laws were built elastic to allow the often combative dialogue that enables the oppressed to have a voice. With few exceptions, we only draw the line when the speech might directly cause violence or harm to others.

Media coverage of news adds to the perception that we seem more divided than we are. The story selection, the headlines and video content are intended to grab the attention of viewers. The most action-packed, incendiary video is played and replayed. With the average person now watching 9.9 hours of television and digital screens, these are the images that become ingrained in our minds and become our perception. Rarely do news reports provide a frame of reference.

It is only since 2012 that the number of smartphones has accounted for over half of cell phones. With the launch of Facebook Live just year ago and a host of other live streaming apps like Periscope, user generated video has become a regular feature of newscasts, particularly when that video is the only video available of the event.

Often these clips capture only a portion of what happened. Viewers end up making judgments on only part of the incident. It is only after further gathering of information from all sources that a more accurate depiction is given of an incident. Yet by then people have made up their minds. The perception is not the reality, but the perception is what is believed.

Police officers operate within the landscape of the whole community and as a result they are faced with a host of social issues, particularly in the poorer communities. As stated by Police Chief David Brown in Dallas: "We're asking cops to do too much in this country." There is poverty, inferior schools, lack of employment, mental disability and dysfunctional families. These social issues pose massive challenges to policing, yet the officer on the beat is expected to deal with every one of them. Even though as a society we have failed to effectively address these issues, the perception is that law enforcement is at fault when something goes wrong.

Returning to President Obama's statement that "we are not as divided as we seem," if we bring perspective to the reasons seeming to make us divided -- by remembering the history of our nation's struggle for rights, understanding how democracy works, knowing we are viewing media coverage without context, and that police are asked to deal with the complex social problems of the community -- if we use these as a frame of reference, then President Obama is right. We are not as divided as we seem.
Bahri launches fund to buy VLCCs

The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) is to launch a $1.5 bill investment fund backed by the Arab Petroleum Investments Corp (Apicorp).

The fund could be used to buy up to 15 VLCCs, the company said. It will comprise $500 mill lots in three tranches, subject to conditions, Bahri said. The company would subscribe to 15% of the funds capital with Apicorp making up the remaining 85%. Apicopr will also act as fund manager and be responsible for arranging finance. Bahri will be the technical and commercial manager for the fleet of tankers owned by the fund. The two parties expect to complete the remaining processes and undertake the first phase of fund raising at the end of the third quarter of this year. Bahri also said it expected the financial effect of the first phase to appear in the first quarter 2017 results.




For decades, Fritz Koenig's iconic sphere sculpture, meant to symbolize world peace through world trade, stood in the center of the World Trade Center plaza, and it miraculously survived the September 11th attacks. Since 2002 it's been re-erected in Battery Park, a few blocks away from its original location, but yesterday the Port Authority announced that the sculpture will finally be returned to the World Trade Center site in Liberty Park, the elevated park that opened to the public just last month.

"The Sphere is a symbol of strength and survival and reflects the Port Authority's continuing commitment to remember those, including 84 agency employees, who were lost 15 years ago and those who survived the terrible attacks at the World Trade Center site," Port Authority Chairman John Degnan said in a statement.

The sphere suffered relatively little damage during 9/11it received some punctures and dents, but remained intactand as such it's come to be a reminder of the deadly attacks and New York City's resilience in their aftermath. Immediately following the attacks it was removed to a storage site near JFK airport, along with other artifacts retrieved from the rubble, but in 2002 it was returned to Manhattan.

But its time in Battery Park wasn't without drama: in 2011 it was announced the sphere would have to be moved again to allow for construction, at which point some families of 9/11 victims threatened to boycott the 10th anniversary of the attacks unless it was returned to the World Trade Center site. It took another two years, but the sphere was indeed moved once morejust 550 feet, and still within Battery Park, to accommodate renovations. At the time, Michael Burke, whose brother died in the attacks and who became the foremost voice calling for the sphere's relocation, argued that "putting the Sphere anywhere else [but the plaza] denies its meaning and betrays the innocents who perished on 9/11."

Talk of bringing the sphere back to its original location surfaced once more this January, when Port Authority officials told the local community board that the move was indeed on the table. Battery Park's management was on board, and in June, at the opening of Liberty Park, Port Authority executive director Pat Foye said that "my own personal view is that the sphere belongs here, not in Battery Park and certainly not in an airport hanger...We're working with the families including Michael Burke to bring it to this site."

At yesterday's meeting of the Port Authority board, Foye officially recommended moving the sphere, and the commissioners unanimously approved the recommendation. An official date for the relocation of the 25-ton sculpture is still pending.

Burke had hoped it would be incorporated into the 9/11 memorial, but told the New York Times yesterday that placing it in Liberty Park, as is currently planned, also seems appropriate, as "it's quieter than the hustle and bustle and Pokemon Go atmosphere of the memorial."


Ocean Signal and AMI in partnership

Communication and safety specialist, Ocean Signal, and marine electronic equipment manufacturer, AMI Marine, have formed a partnership aimed at the large commercial vessel sector.

Combining their specialist knowledge and technical backgrounds, the joint venture allows the incorporation of the latest technology within new solutions to cater for the next generation, mandated equipment, the companies claimed. The new service will be launched later this year and is primarily for commercial vessels of 3,000 gt and over, which are required to meet recent IMO equipment regulations. Targeting supply to OEMs, as well as shipowners and operators, the collaborative project will enable the integration of the technology behind Ocean Signals range of GMDSS and safety equipment with AMI Marines experience in VDR (Voyage Data Recorder) system design. Alan Wrigley, Ocean Signal managing director, said: We are very pleased to announce this exciting new collaboration between Ocean Signal and AMI Marine. The partnership brings together two highly successful British companies which have already established themselves as global marine industry leaders due to their dedication and individual attributes. It provides a unique opportunity to combine a huge amount of different experience, knowledge and technical expertise to develop an innovative, reliable and cost effective solution for commercial OEMs and vessel owners and operators who need to meet the latest IMO mandates. We look forward to launching the new product in the coming months,he said. Martin Cox, AMI Marine sales director, added: It is really great to work with a company of the calibre of Ocean Signal and I am confident that both parties will bring significant skills and benefits to this collaboration. This project is part of AMIs continued evolution as we maintain our focus on developing quality products and further strengthen our ability to adapt and provide bespoke solutions for our customers. The engineering team at Ocean Signal use one of Europes best marine communication research and development facilities at Margate in the UK to design industry-leading safety devices featuring superior operational and battery life, compact size and simple operating controls, for both the commercial and leisure sectors. Ocean Signal recently launched the M100/100X MSLD (maritime survivor locating device) with AIS and 121.5 MHz homing beacon for the marine market, adding to its GMDSS product range including the E100G EPIRB, S100 SART and V100 VHF. Its rescueME portfolio features the MOB1 man overboard device, the PLB1 personal locator beacon and the EPIRB1. Specialising in interfaces, repeaters, VDRs, advanced docking systems and alarm systems, Southampton-based AMI Marine was one of the first companies to move from electro-mechanical to solid state electronics interfacing solutions and eliminated the necessity for moving parts by converting data using microchip technology. In 2000, AMI offered a VDR before the systems were mandated for commercial vessels, and has since worked with manufacturers, such as Kelvin Hughes. AMI and Ocean Signal will be at SMM in Hamburg from 6th to 9th September (Hall B Stand 605).




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FRIDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Friends of the Library Used Book Depot: $1 fiction and biography book sale, 4 for $1. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. July 18-23. 1670 14th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-562-0043.

Fitness Boot Camp: 6 a.m. July 19-Aug. 11. Tues. & Thurs. Sebastian Karate a Fitness & Self Defense Center, 13248 U.S. 1, Sebastian. Ages: 17+. $100. Register: 772-538-1753.

Showbirdz Parrots: 10:30 a.m. July 22. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st St., Vero Beach. 772-538-7558; www.irclibrary.org.

Wanda's Karaoke: 7-11 p.m. July 22. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave, Vero Beach. 772-778-1299; verobeachveterans.com.

FRIDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

CHILDREN/TEENS

Story Time: 1:30 p.m. Brackett Library, 6155 College Lane, Vero Beach. Ages: 2-5 years old. 772-226-3080; www.irclibrary.org.

CLUBS

Indian River Model Sailing Club: Remote control model sailboat racing. 1-3 p.m. Hobart Lake, 77th St., between 58th Ave. and Dixie Highway, Vero Beach. 772-581-8300.

EXERCISE/HEALTH

AM Yoga: Balance, Toning, Flexibility, Focus, Stress Relief, Relaxation, Meditation, Refreshing, Strength-Building. 10:30 a.m. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st St., Vero Beach. Adults 16+. Donation. 772-770-5060 ext. 4121; mgoodman@irclibrary.org.

The Cloudwalker Place: Breathing and Movements to stretch and massage the body. 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. All ages. $10 per class. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

Lymphedema Therapy Consultations: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com.

Massage Therapy Consultation: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Advanced Motion Therapeutic, 2965 20th St., Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-567-8585; Info@amtvero.com.

Senior Strength Training: Group class using basic strength building exercises. 7:30 a.m., 8:40 a.m. Leisure Square, 3705 16th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 50+. $5. Reservation: 772-321-6003; jasfitness.com.

Water Aerobics: Water workout in the pool. Aerobics, resistance and flexibility. 10 a.m. Leisure Square, 3705 16th St., Vero Beach. $5. 772-321-6003; jasfitness.com.

GAMES

Duplicate Bridge: ACBL stratified duplicate bridge games. 1 p.m. First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian, 1405 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. $6. 772-581-0539; jcalley620@comcast.net.

Duplicate Bridge Game: ACBL Sanctioned 0-299 Pairs Game and Student game. 9 a.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $7-$9. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com.

Duplicate Bridge: ACBL Sanctioned Duplicate Bridge Stratified Open game. 1 p.m. Vero Beach Bridge Center, 1520 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $7-$9. 772-562-3008; verobridge.com.

Jackpot Bingo: 11 a.m. Sebastian Eagles Aerie 4067, 9606 Trade Center Drive, Sebastian. Adult. $1 per card. 772-589-6573; empresslp234@gmail.com.

MEALS

Dinner Dance: 6:30 p.m. Italian American Club, 1600 25th St., Vero Beach. Open to the public. $15. Reservation: 772-778-1522; barbara270@bellsouth.net.

Friday Eve with Hamburgers and/or Fish: 6 p.m. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-778-1299; verobeachveterns.com.

NATURE

Adventure Kayaking: Naturalist guided kayak/paddleboard tour on the Indian River Lagoon. 9 a.m.-noon, every day. Round Island Park, South Highway A1A, Vero Beach. $50 adult, $25 child. Reservation: 772-567-0522; paddleflorida.com.

Motorized Kayak Adventures: A relaxing evening on the lagoon in a motorized kayak. 1 hour before sunset, Daily. Round Island Park, 2201 Highway A1A, Vero Beach. All ages. $35. Reservation: 772-380-6815; www.motorizedkayakadventures.com.

Tours through the Mangrove Forests: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Varies based on tides, daily. Stan Blum Boat Launch, 613 North Causeway Drive, Fort Pierce. $48-60; Group discounts offered. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

OTHER

Debbie Brown Murphy: Entertainer. 5-8:30 p.m. C.J. Cannon's, 3414 Cherokee Drive, Vero Beach.

Karaoke with Wanda Johnson: 7-11 p.m. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-778-1299; verobeachveterans.com.

LaPorte Farms: Self guided tours, pony rides. 8 a.m.-2 p.m. daily. LaPorte Farms, 7700 129th St., Sebastian. Donations. 772-633-0813; laportefarms1@aol.com.

Sebastian Eagles Aerie: Live music. 6:30-9 p.m. Sebastian Eagles Aerie 4067, 9606 Trade Center Drive, Sebastian. 772-589-6573.

SATURDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Cat Adoption Event: July 23-Aug. 7. Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 18+. 772-388-3331.

Pink Ribbon Yard and Art Sale: Benefits Ride Beyond Diagnosis for breast cancer survivors. 8 a.m.-noon July 23. 2301 Avalon Ave., Vero Beach. 410-718-2200; www.friendsafterdiagnosis.com.

Brevard Zoo Youth Environmental Summit: Empower youth to become involved with local conservation efforts. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. July 23. Brevard Zoo, 8225 North Wickham Road, Melbourne. Ages: 12-18. $15. Register: Brevardzoo.org/youthsummit.

Christmas in July: Great family event to benefit Shop With A Cop. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 23. Riverview Park, 600 U.S. 1, Sebastian. 772-978-6248; www.sebastianpd.org/christmas-in-july.html.

Vero Beach Veterans Club Dinner: Music by Code Blue featuring "Annie". 5-10 p.m. July 23. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave., Vero Beach. Call for price of dinner. Reservation: 772-778-1299; verobeachveterans.com.

SATURDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

ARTS

KidZ Artshop: Gallery tour with studio art activity. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Vero Beach Museum Of Art, 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach. Ages: 4-11. 772-231-0707; www.verobeachmuseum.org.

CHILDREN/TEENS

Karate and Qigong for Children: Japanese Go-Ju Karate and Chinese Qigong and Kung fu. Noon. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 5-15 years old. $80 per month, Scholarships available. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

EXERCISE/HEALTH

Martial Arts for Executives: Japanese and Chinese internal arts training for therapeutic benefits. Noon. The Cloudwalker Place, 703 17th St., Vero Beach. Ages: 15+. $90 per month. 772-217-2887; www.thecloudwalker.com.

Pickleball University Open Play: 8:30 a.m. Pocahontas Park, 2140 14th Ave, Vero Beach. All ages and Levels. $2/annual membership $24. 772-50-15685; vbpickle@gmail.com Facebook: Pickleball University.

Pilates Reformer Group Class: Reform your body, strengthen your core. Joseph Pilates Techniques. 9 a.m. The Club at Spine and Sport, 1345 36th Street, Vero Beach. Adults. $90 for 6 weeks. Reservation: 772-559-0866; namaste5@yahoo.com.

Qigong Self Healing Class with Joane: Spend one hour practicing highly beneficial health enhancing techniques. 10:30 a.m. The Club at Spine and Sport Institute, 1345 36th St., Vero Beach. All ages. $9-$12. Reservation: 772-559-0866; namaste5@yahoo.com.

GAMES

Triple Play: Noon. Senior Activity Center of Sebastian, 1255 Main St., Sebastian. Ages: 50+. $1. sebastianseniors.org.

NATURE

Adventure Kayaking: Naturalist guided kayak/paddleboard tour on the Indian River Lagoon. 9 a.m.-noon, every day. Round Island Park, South Highway A1A, Vero Beach. $50 adult, $25 child. Reservation: 772-567-0522; paddleflorida.com.

Canoe Trip on the Lagoon: Guided canoe excursion on the Lagoon. 9-11:30 a.m. Environmental Learning Center, 255 Live Oak Drive, Vero Beach. Ages: 8+. $7-$15. Reservation: 772-589-5050; DiscoverELC.org.

Evenings on the Lagoon Motorized Kayak Eco Tours: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Every Day 1 hour before sunset. Round Island Riverside Park, 2200 South Highway A1A, South Vero Beach. One hour before sunset, every evening. $35 per seat. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

Tours through the Mangrove Forests: Motorized Kayak Adventures. Varies based on tides, daily. Stan Blum Boat Launch, 613 North Causeway Drive, Fort Pierce. $48-60; Group discounts offered. Reservation: 772-380-6815; motorizedkayakadventures.com.

OTHER

Bobby and the Blisters: 8-11 p.m. June 11. Osceola Bistro, 2045 13th Ave, Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-569-1299; osceolabistro.com.

Dog Obedience Training: Registration required with instructor Shelly Ferger. 9 a.m. Dogs For Life, Inc. Off-Leash Dog Park, 1230 16th Avenue, Vero Beach. Ages: 7 months+. $120. Reservation: 772-567-8969; dogsforlifevb@bellsouth.net.

LOOKING AHEAD

radKIDS Class: Vero Beach Police radKIDS Personal Empowerment and Safety Education Class. 9-10:30 a.m. ages: 5-7; 2-4 p.m. ages: 8-12, July 25-29. Vero Beach Police Department, 1055 20th St., Vero Beach. Register: 772-978-4649; acarden@vbpd.org.

Friends of the Library Used Book Depot: 4 for $1 fiction sale continues, Christmas in July featured. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. July 25-30. 1670 14th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-562-0043.

Canine Manners: Learn a variety of methods to teach polite leash manners. 5:30 p.m. June 27, July 18, 25. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-571-6409; www.hsvb.org.

Family Dog Manners: Learn to train your dog to be a great companion. 6:30 p.m. July 18, 25, Aug. 1. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-978-7863; www.hsvb.org.

East Coast Swing Group Dance Class: EC Swing group dance class for singles and couples. 7-7:45 p.m. July 18, 25. Royal Ballroom, 713 U.S. 1, Vero Beach. $12. Register: 772-299-5772; royalballroomdance@gmail.com.

Boys in the Boat Documentary: Documentary about the 1936 U.S. men's rowing team. 7 p.m. July 26. Majestic Theater, Vero Beach. www.indianriverrowingclub.com.

Feisty Fido: Instructor approval required to help your socially challenged dog. 5:30 p.m. July 27, Aug. 3, 10, 17, 24. Humane Society of Vero Beach, 6230 77th St., Vero Beach. $75. Register: 772-978-7863; www.bestbehaviordogtraining.org.

iPhone & iPad Basics 102 Course: 3-week course. 5:30-7:30 p.m. July 227. Island Images Studio, 2036 14th Ave., Suite 101, Vero Beach. $127-$150. Register: 772-231-3515; www.refreshfotos.com.

Vero Beach Christian Business Association: Quarterly member networking luncheon. 11:30 a.m. July 28. The Plaza, 884 17th St., Vero Beach. $15-$20. Reservation: lunch@vbcba.org.

Jiggleman: 10:30 a.m. July 28. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org.

School supply drive for Dasie Hope: Bring supplies to Vero Beach Christian Business Association luncheon. 11:30 a.m. July 28. The Plaza, 884 17th St., Vero Beach. www.vbcba.org.

Indian River Photo Club Meeting: Monthly meeting. 6:30 p.m. July 28. Vero Beach Community Center, 2266 14th Ave., Vero Beach.

Caladiums & Cow Pies!: 24th Caladium Festival & lunch at Cow Pies Country Store in Lake Placid. 8 a.m. July 29. IHOP Restaurant, State Road 60 West, Vero Beach. Ages: 12+. $90. Register: 772-569-8372; www.daytrippintours.com.

Paleo Discoveries: 10:30 a.m. July 29. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st Street, Vero Beach. 772-538-7558; www.irclibrary.org.

American Women Love TRUMP: Dinner/film/meeting. To support Donald Trump's Candidacy for President. 6 p.m. July 29. The Plaza, 884 17th St., Vero Beach. $15 per person. Reservation: 772-234-3883; AWLTRUMP@aol.com.

Wanda's Karaije: 7-11 p.m. July 29. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave, Vero Beach. 772-778-1299; verobeachveterans.com.

Vero Beach Pirate Festival: July 29, 30, 31. Among the Oaks at Riverside Park, Vero Beach.

Christian movie Do You Believe: 7 p.m. July 29. First Baptist Church of Wabasso, 4720 86th St., Wabasso. 772-589-5256; firstbaptistwabasso.org.

Saving & Organizing Your iPhone Photos Class: 9:30-11:30 a.m. July 30. Island Images Studio, 2036 14th Ave., Suite 101, Vero Beach. $42-$50. Register: 772-231-3515; www.refreshfotos.com.

Pirate Art Festival: Pirate Art Show. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. July 30. Royal Palm Point, 2 Royal Palm Point, Vero Beach.

Christmas in July at Vero Beach Veterans: 6 p.m. July 30. Vero Beach Veterans Club, 2500 15th Ave., Vero Beach. Adults. Call for price of dinner. Reservation: 772-778-1299; verobeachveterans.com.

Sons of the American Legion Sunday Breakfast: 8-11 a.m. July 31. Post 189, 807 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. $2-$5.

Sunday Breakfast: 8-11 a.m. July 31. American Legion Post, 807 Louisiana Ave., Sebastian. $2-$5. Salsquad189@gmail.com.

AUGUST

Hair Cuttery Back-to-School Share-A-Haircut Program: HC will donate haircuts to a child in need. 9 a.m. Aug. 1-15. All Hair Cuttery locations, 12th St. Plaza, Vero Beach.

Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections  Know Your Rights: Clinics on Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections. 2:30 p.m. Aug. 1, Sept. 6, Oct. 4, Nov. 7, Dec. 5. Indian River Courthouse, Jury Assembly Room, 2000 16th Avenue, Vero Beach. Register: 772-466-4766; www.FRLS.org.

Jim Sawgrass: 10:30 a.m. Aug. 4. North IRC Library, 1001 Sebastian Blvd., Sebastian. 772-589-1355; www.irclibrary.org.

Mulligan's 12 Weeks of Summer: 10% of the evening's proceeds go to Dogs For Life. 5-8 p.m. Aug. 4. Mulligan's Beach House Bar & Grill, 1025 Beachland Blvd., Vero Beach. www.dogsforlifevb.org.

Mr. Harley: 10:30 a.m. Aug. 5. IRC Main Library, 1600 21st Street, Vero Beach. 772-538-7558; www.irclibrary.org.

The Well Armed Women Indian River County Chapter: Grand Opening. 1st Meeting National Organization of The Well Armed Women IRC. 9 a.m. Aug. 6. Indian River County Shooting Range, 10455 102nd Terrace, Sebastian. Ages: 21+. RSVP: 772-473-1800; www.twawshootingchapters.org.

RT Star's Back To School Party: A free community event at Riverside Theatre. 10 a.m. Aug. 6. Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach. 772-231-6990; www.riversidetheatre.com.

Back to School Physicals, Immunizations Backpack Brigade: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 6. Whole Family Health Center, 981 37th Place, Vero Beach. 772-257-5785.

One Pulse Extravaganza: Benefits the One Pulse Fund; live music from Collins and Company, DJ music, a cash bar. 7-11 p.m. Aug. 6. Heritage Center, 2140 14th Ave., Vero Beach. $20. 772-713-5520.

Theatre-Go-Round Dinner Theatre: "From Sea to Shining Sea". 4:30 p.m. Aug. 7, 21, Sept. 18. Quilted Giraffe Restaurant, 500 South U.S. 1, Vero Beach. Reservation: 772-252-9341; theatregorounddinnertheatre.com.

Video Bible Study: Do You Believe. 6 p.m. Aug. 7, 14, 21, 28. First Baptist Church of Wabasso, 4720 86th St., Wabasso. 772-589-5256; firstbaptistwabasso.org.
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FRIDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Sea Turtle Walks: Learn about these endangered reptiles and experience a female Loggerhead Sea Turtle lay eggs. $5. Nighttime walks. July 22. Reservations: 772-546-2067; www.hobesoundnaturecenter.com.

Coffee With A Cop: McDonald's and the Martin County Sheriff's Office are hosting. 8-10 a.m. July 22. McDonald's, 11671 S.E. U.S. 1, Hobe Sound.

Luau Night: Dance Social and Potluck Dinner. 7-10 p.m. July 22. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. $12. 772-444-7003; Gloriana@jensenbeachballroom.com.

Back To School Supply Drive: Helping local families through back to school supply drive. Thru July 22. Florida Living Realty, 8942 S.E. Bridge Road, Hobe Sound. 772-546-7006; www.floridalivingrealty.com.

FRIDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

ART

Alizarin Crimson Art Studio: Over 30 years of Fine Art Instruction Painting Classes-All Levels. 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Cedar Point Plaza, 2611 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. All ages. 772-287-7030; Alizarincrimsonstudio.net. Professional Teaching Staff: Georgia Abood, Kate Wood & Jennifer Pollack.

Art Classes: Impressionism to realism oil painting classes with Kate Wood. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; 1-4 p.m., weekly. Alizarin Crimson Studio, 2611 E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. Adult. $35. Register: 772-287-0835; fineartrestorers.com.

Intuitive Watercolor Class: Express your inner self in watercolor to create beautiful artwork. 1:30-4:30 p.m. Artist Nook, 45 Kindred St., Stuart. $30. Register: 772-692-4733; sferina222@yahoo.com.

Youth Art Classes: Oil painting for young students with instructor Kate Wood. 4:30-6:30 p.m. Alizarin Crimson Studio, 2611 E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. Ages: 12+. $25. Register: 772-287-0835; fineartrestorers.com.

CHILDREN/TEEN

"Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 27-60 months. 9-10 a.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150.

"Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 12-18 months. 10:15-11:15 a.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150.

"Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 19-26 months. 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150.

"Music & Movement": Parent/child classes designed to enhance child's growth and development. Ages: 3-11 months. 12:45-1:45 p.m. Florida Arts & Dance Studio, 938 S.E. Central Parkway, Stuart. 772-288-4150.

DANCE

Adult Summer Dance Camp: Classes and Social Parties for Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country Dance. 4-10 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Ages: 18+. $100 to $300 per month per person. Register: 609-356-2973; gloriana@jensenbeachballroom.com.

Broadway Style Tap Dance Classes: 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Dance Academy of Stuart, 333 Tressler Drive, Stuart. 772-286-9671; rbetteboo@aol.com.

Dance Classes: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country and Club group and private classes. 1-9 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Discounts available. Register: 609-356-2973; www.JensenBeachBallroom.com.

Friday Dance Party: Music mix is Smooth, Latin, Swing and Country. 7-10 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. $12 per person. Reservation: 609-356-2973; www.JensenBeachBallroom.com.

EXERCISE/health

Aerobic Sitting Exercises: 9-10 a.m. MCP& R Log Cabin Senior Center, Langford Park, 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway, Jensen Beach. Ages: 50+. $2. 772-334-2926; zcarter@martin.fl.us.

Zumba Gold: 9-10 a.m. Kane Center, 900 S.E Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $4/$6. 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

OTHER

Food Truck Extravaganza: A gathering of food trucks in Port Salerno. 4-8 p.m. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 5150 Railway Ave., Port Salerno.

Ladies Night with DJ Turn UP and DJ Beatnox: 8 p.m. 360 Tiki Bar and Lounge, 1200 Southeast U.S. 1, Stuart. 772-287-6917; Kathleenickes@gmail.com.

Piano Instruction: Beginners to concert level. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Shirley Heifetz, Jensen Beach. Ages: 8+. Registration: 772-934-6812.

Reggae with the Floridan Band with Steel Drums: 6-9 p.m. Mulligans Beach House, 2019 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. www.thefloridianband.com.

Seniors Vs. Crime: Group to assist senior citizens. 9 a.m.-noon. St. Lucie West Courthouse Annex, 250 Country Club Drive, Port St. Lucie. 772-871-5350; SeniorsVsCrimePSL@gmail.com.

Social Bridge: Very friendly group for rubber bridge. 1 p.m. PSL Community Center, Airoso Blvd. & PSL Blvd., Port St. Lucie. All ages. $2. 772-332-8200; PSLSocialBridge@gmail.com.

SATURDAY'S SPECIAL EVENTS

Salsa Workshop: 6-7:30 p.m. July 23. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Ages: 15+. $12-$15. Register: 772-444-7003; gloriana@jensenbeachballroom.com.

SATURDAY'S RECURRING EVENTS

ARTS

Alizarin Crimson Art Studio: Over 30 years of Fine Art Instruction Painting Classes-All Levels. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Cedar Pointe Plaza, 2611 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. All ages. 772-287-7030; Alizarincrimsonstudio.net. Professional Teaching Staff: Georgia Abood, Kate Wood & Jennifer Pollack.

DANCE

Adult Summer Dance Camp: Classes and Social Parties for Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country Dance. 4-10 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Ages: 18+. $100 to $300 per month per person. Register: 609-356-2973; gloriana@jensenbeachballroom.com.

Dance Classes: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country and Club group and private classes. 1-9 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. Discounts available. Register: 609-356-2973; www.JensenBeachBallroom.com.

Group Dance Lessons: Ballroom, Latin, Swing, Country. 6 p.m. Jensen Beach Ballroom, 881 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. $10 per person. 609-356-2973; jensenbeachballroom.com.

OTHER

Ladies Night with DJ Turn UP and DJ Beatnox: 8 p.m. 360 Tiki Bar and Lounge, 1200 Southeast U.S. 1, Stuart. 772-287-6917; Kathleenickes@gmail.com.

MC Genealogical Society: Research assistance by DAR. 10 a.m.-noon Blake Library, 2351 S.E. Monterey Road, Stuart. Ages: 12+. 772-220-1638; mcgensociety.org.

Port Salerno Green Market Arts & Crafts: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 5150 Railway Ave., Port Salerno. 828-699-1727; communitygreenmarket@gmail.com.

Reggae with the Floridan Band with Steel Drums: 6-9 p.m. Mulligans Beach House, 2019 N.E. Jensen Beach Blvd., Jensen Beach. www.thefloridianband.com.

Vine & Barley Palm City: Live music. 8:30-11:30 p.m. Vine & Barley Palm City, 2951 S.W. High Meadow Ave., Palm City. 772-781-1717; VineAndBarleyPalmCity.com.

LOOKING AHEAD

Make the Most of Your Doctor's Appointment: Make the Most of Your Doctor's Appointment. 10:30 a.m. July 25. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Let's Get Crafty: Coloring for adults, use your own materials or ours. 3 p.m. July 25. Robert Morgade Library, 5851 S.E. Community Drive, Stuart. 772-463-3245; www.library.martin.fl.us.

Citrus Greening & Algae Lecture: 6:30-8:30 p.m. July 25. Ground Floor Farm, 100 S.E. Martin Luther King Blvd., Stuart. 772-485-8558; groundfloorfarm.com.

Stop the Financial Insanity Course: Michael Burleigh, financial expert will teach the course. 6-7:30 p.m. July 26. Indian River State College, Wolf High-tech Center, 2400 Salerno Road, Building C, Room C102, Stuart. Reservation: 888-710-1002; www.peakcapital.fixedincomecounsel.com.

Coffee With A Cop: McDonald's and the Martin County Sheriff's Office are hosting. 8-10 a.m. July 27. Jensen Beach McDonald's, 3546 N.W. U.S. 1, Jensen Beach.

Alzheimer's Association Caregiver Education: 2:30-4 p.m. July 27. Mayes Center Treasure Coast Hospice, 1201 S.E. Indian St., Stuart. 800-272-3900; dtrue@alz.org.

Candidate Forum: Mix & Mingle with Congressional and State Representative Candidates. 5:30-7 p.m. July 27. Location TBA. $10 per person, includes 2 drink tickets and light hors d'oeuvres. RSVP required: www.hobesound.org.

Meet & Greet with Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch: Campaign for Martin County Commissioner. 5:30-7:30 p.m. July 27. Harry and the Natives, 11910 U.S. 1, Hobe Sound. RSVP: 772-287-5272; jordan@fireflyforyou.com.

"Rockin' 4 The Waters": A benefit concert for the organizations working for the betterment of our ocean, our marine life, our beaches, and our people. Special Acoustic Performances by Jasin O'Neil Todd of Shinedown fame. Through music we will add our voices to help carry the message, SAVE OUR WATERWAYS. There will be a silent auction. 9 p.m.-1 a.m. July 27. The Stillery, 2196 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. $7 at the door. Portion of proceeds will be donated to 2 nonprofit organizations working for the waterways.

Coffee With A Cop: McDonald's and the Martin County Sheriff's Office are hosting. 8-10 a.m. July 28. McDonald's, 2900 S.W. Martin Downs Blvd., Palm City.

What's In Our Wetland?: Program exploring the preserve area. 10:30 a.m. July 29. Peter & Julie Cummings Library, 2551 S.W. Matheson Ave., Palm City. 772-288-2551; www.library.martin.fl.us.

The Jiggleman Show: The Jiggleman show is high-energy and fun for all ages. 3 p.m. July 29. Blake Library, 2351 S.E. Monterey Road, Stuart.

Dog Foster/Adoption Showcase: Foster or adopt; dogs of all sizes ready for love. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. July 30. Pet Supermarket, 2595 S.E. U.S. 1, Stuart. 772-203-7485; nalasrescue.org.

Community Dinner: Free dinner, free personal care items, free laundry supplies, worship. 5 p.m. July 30. Trinity United Methodist Church, 2221 N.E. Savannah Road, Jensen Beach. 772-334-3404; www.trinityjb.org

Sensory Friendly Day: 10 a.m.-Noon. July 31. The Children's Museum, 1707 N.E. Indian River Drive, Jensen Beach. 772-225-7575.

AUGUST

Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections  Know Your Rights: Clinics on Bankruptcy and Fair Debt Collections. 6 p.m. Aug. 1, Sept. 6, Oct. 4, Nov. 7, Dec. 5. Port St. Lucie Civic Center, 9221 S.E. Civic Center Place, Port St. Lucie. Register: 772-466-4766; www.FRLS.org.

Line Dancing: 5-6 p.m. Aug. 3. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $30/$36. Register: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Photography Class: Photography Class. Noon-1 p.m. Aug. 4. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 21+. $90-$100. Register: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Writing Artist Statements, Bios and More: Part of Arts Council Summer Series for Artists. 9:30 a.m.-noon Aug. 5. Court House Cultural Center, 80 S.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. $20 for Arts Council members; $25 for nonmembers. Reservation: 772-287-6676; www.martinarts.org.

Dinner/Dance Fundraiser: Dinner/Dance Fundraiser for Adult Day Program. 5-7 p.m. Aug. 5. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. $12. Ticket: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Back to School Bash: The festivities will include video game demos, a dance performance, goody bags with samples and offers, giveaways, and a variety of vendors providing service. Noon-4 p.m. Aug. 6. Treasure Coast Square, J.C. Penney Courtyard, 3174 U.S. 1, Jensen Beach.

Great Back Pack Give Away: Free fully stocked back packs for children K-8. 8-11 a.m. Aug. 6. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 5150 S.E. Railway Ave. Cove Road A1A, Port Salerno.

Back To School Fair: 400 free Backpacks, Lunch, Kid's Haircuts, Eye Exams, Clothing, etc. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 6. Trinity United Methodist Church, 2221 N.E. Savannah Road, Jensen Beach. 772-334-3404; www.trinityjb.org.

Back-to-School Bash: Noon-4 p.m. Aug. 6. Treasure Coast Square, 3174 N.W. U.S. 1, Jensen Beach.

Pup Crawl: Begins at Spoto's and then heads to Sneaki Tiki, Crafted Keg and then ends at Terra Fermata; dogs must remain on lead. 5:30 p.m. Aug. 6. Spoto's Oyster Bar, 131 S.W. Flagler Ave., Stuart. $20. Ages: 21. Benefits the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast. 772- 600-3211.

2nd Annual Pup Crawl: Pup Crawl to benefit HSTC Shelter Pets. 5:30-10 p.m. Aug. 6. Downtown Stuart starting at Spoto's Oyster Bar, 131 S.W. Flagler Ave., Stuart. Ages: 21+. $20 per person. Ticket: 772-600-3211; czanetti@hstc1.org.

Biologist Beach Walk: Public insight into LMC's research department. 6:45-8:30 a.m. Aug. 8.-Sept. 30. Loggerhead Marinelife Center, 14200 U.S. 1 Juno Beach. Ages: 8+. $12. Ticket: 561-627-8280; www.marinelife.org/beachwalk.

Backpack & School Supplies Distribution: Free Backpacks and School Supplies. Noon-2 p.m. Aug. 10. The Salvation Army of Martin County, 821 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Stuart. Grades: K-8. 772-288-1471; Maria.McGowan@uss.salvationarmy.org.

Jazz Dance Class: 1-2 p.m. Aug. 10. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 50+. $30/$35. Register: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Coffee With A Cop: McDonald's and the Martin County Sheriff's Office are hosting. 8-10 a.m. Aug. 11. McDonald's, 3600 S.W. U.S. 1, Wedgewood Commons, Stuart.

Tales from the Archives: Learn historical research & new findings from our Museum's collection. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Aug. 17. Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. RSVP: 561-7478380; www.jupiterlighthouse.org.

Estate & Long-Term Care Planning: Estate & Long-Term Care Planning. 3 p.m. Aug. 18. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Furry Friends Adoption, Clinic & Ranch: Hang 20 Surf Dog Classic Pre-party and fundraiser. 5 p.m. Aug. 18. Guanabanas Waterfront Restaurant, 60 N. Highway A1A, Jupiter. Donation. RSVP: 561-737-5311; www.furryfriendsadoption.org.

Lighthouse Moonrise Tour: View the Full Moon from atop the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. 7:15 p.m. Aug. 18. Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, 500 Captain Armour's Way, Jupiter. Children must be at least 48" to climb tower. $20 or $15 for Members. Reservation: 561-747-8380; www.jupiterlighthouse.org.

Beach 2 Beach 5k: Run/walk to benefit South Fork High's cross country team. 6:45 p.m. Aug. 19. Jensen Sea Turtle Beach, 4191 N.E. Ocean Blvd., Jensen Beach. $18-$25. Register: 772-521-3548; www.active.com/jensen-beach-fl/running/distance-running-races/beach-to-beach-5k-2016? int.

Hearts at Home: Hearts at Home, Congestive Heart Failure-Focused Care. 10:30 a.m. Aug. 22. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.

Hearing Health Event: Get your free hearing checked out by an expert. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 23 & 25. Professional Audiology Associates, 1045 Southeast Ocean Blvd., Ste. #4, Stuart. Reservation: 772-220-8354; www.hearinghealthusa.com/event/free-hearing-health-event-stuart-fl/.

Human Trafficking Coalition of the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee: Guest Speaker: Representative Gayle Harrell. 10-11 a.m. Aug. 23. Martin County Sheriff's Office, 800 S.E. Monterey Road, Stuart.

Brain Boosting Workshop: Four Week Brain Boosting Workshop. 3-4 p.m. Aug. 24. Kane Center, 900 S.E. Salerno Road, Stuart. Ages: 60+. RSVP: 772-223-7800; www.kanecenter.org.
Vero Fashion Outlets (FILE PHOTO)

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By Staff Report

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY  A group of four burglars broke into the Nike store at Vero Fashion Outlets early Thursday, the Indian River County Sheriff's Office said.

The crime happened in the 1800 block of 94th Drive. The alarms were triggered about 2:45 a.m. Thursday.

Video surveillance showed the male suspects, who wore masks and gloves, using a kiosk sign to smash the front door, according to the report. They grabbed several clothing items and fled, the Sheriff's Office said.

The report did not have a description of the clothing taken or the value.

Video of the crime could not be released Friday because the investigation is continuing, the Sheriff's Office said.

Anyone with information about this crime can call Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 800-273-TIPS (8477).
Alpha-PVP, also known as flakka, caused many problems in Indian River County in 2015, but according to the IRCSO, usage has fallen off in 2016. (PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE)

By Will Greenlee of TCPalm

If 2015 was the year of flakka, as at least one Treasure Coast law enforcement agency categorized the drug, then 2016 was its downfall.

Use of the volatile drug has dropped off.

"It was such a huge issue for us," said Lt. Eric Flowers, spokesman for the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. "We were seeing it constantly."

Flakka, or alpha-PVP, is chemically similar to other synthetic drugs referred to as "bath salts," according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It can be snorted, eaten, injected or vaporized and has grabbed headlines for the bizarre, violent behaviors some users have exhibited.

The drug and strange behaviors associated with it also turned up in St. Lucie County, and to a lesser extent in Martin County.

"When somebody is on flakka it is the most extreme, most dangerous reaction you've ever seen because people are completely, completely out of control," said Anne-Judith Lambert, spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Miami field division. "They have a superhuman strength; they can fight off just about anyone who comes near them."

A particularly bizarre case in Indian River County came in December when a 24-year-old man rammed the fence at the Indian River County Jail and became entangled in razor wire when he attempted to scale the fence to get into the jail. Officials said he was high on flakka.

Cases like that were not unusual in 2015.

"In early 2016 we were still seeing flakka remnants," Flowers said. "But it's not been at the volume that we were seeing in 2015 and early 2016."

WHAT CHANGED?

Flowers pointed to a ban by the Chinese government on the production and exportation of the drug as a reason for the downturn.

Lambert said at one point a delegation of law enforcement officials, mostly from Broward County, went to China to discuss with the government the problems flakka was creating.

"South Florida was being ravaged by it for a while," said St. Lucie County sheriff's Sgt. Rob Pettit. "Luckily for us, it never caught on to the epidemic proportion that it had down south."

He reported first encountering flakka in December 2014 outside a nightclub in northwest Fort Pierce.

Since then, Pettit said, the drug turned up "just a little bit here and a little bit there."

Flakka users he's seen have lost control "mentally and physically."

In June 2015, a 41-year-old man died in the custody of the Indian River County Sheriff's Office after he had been "tripping" and "acting crazy" in Gifford. Detectives found flakka, and an autopsy revealed the drug caused the man to go into a delirium he couldn't control, leading to his death.

Pettit said some people he spoke to who used flakka thought they were getting something else, such as Ecstasy.

In Martin County, sheriff's Detective Justin Doyle, who has been in the narcotics unit since February 2014, said he first came across the drug in early 2015.

"All the negative aspects of the drug have really scared a lot of people away from trying it, I believe," he said.

Drug users and informants freely discuss trying opiates, methamphetamine, marijuana or crack cocaine, Doyle said.

"They're very open to tell you they use every drug under the sun except when it comes to flakka," he said. "That's where they seem to draw the line."

Still, Pettit said he believes flakka always will be around to some extent.

"People are people," he said. "They make bad decisions."

OPIATES PLAGUE AREA

Pettit and Doyle noted opiates, such as oxycodone, a prescription pain killer, remain a larger issue locally.

And Doyle said investigators have noticed a "huge increase in heroin use because of the price of pills."

"That would be probably one of our biggest battles right now ... just opiates in general," he said.

In June 2015, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara, Stuart Police Chief David Dyess and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials announced 15 arrests in shutting down what was described as the largest heroin ring in the area in at least a decade.

At the time, Mascara said officials faced an "epidemic" involving OxyContin, a prescription painkiller than can produce heroin-like effects. And with the crackdown on pill mills and rogue doctors, opiate addicts might turn to heroin.

"We do come across flakka from time to time, but it is a rarity," Doyle said.
Algae blankets the water along the St. Lucie River at Rio Nature Park on July 3 in Stuart. (HOBIE HILER/SPECIAL TO TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

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By Kelly Tyko of TCPalm

After 20-plus years fishing on the Indian River Lagoon, Paul Rightnowar III is packing up and moving to Louisiana.

The Treasure Coast native said he is leaving his family and the algae-ridden waters to join 40 local fishermen who left ahead of him.

"I'm trying to get out of here as soon as possible," said Rightnowar, a Port St. Lucie resident. "I'm not going to fish here and get sick over some gross water. I just can't do it anymore."

To help get caught up paying bills, the 36-year-old applied for a federal loan Thursday at the Small Business Disaster Recovery Center.

As of Friday, nearly 40 people have visited the center in Building A of the Martin County Fairgrounds, 2616 S.E. Dixie Highway in Stuart, which opened July 13, said U.S. Small Business Administration spokesman Jack Camp.

Eight loan applications have been accepted, with four Martin County and four Lee County businesses completing applications either in-person or online, Camp said.

One Lee County business secured a $227,000 "Working Capital Loan," also known as an "Economic Injury Disaster Loan," as part of the program, which initially opened up in March for businesses in 20 Florida counties affected by excessive rain, flooding and water discharged from Lake Okeechobee.

Last week, the low-interest loans were extended to businesses impacted by the algae to provide them up to $2 million at 4 percent interest with payments that can be stretched up to 30 years.

The state also started accepting applications last week as part of the state's Emergency Bridge Loan Program, but so far no one has applied for the short-term loan, said Tom Kindred, regional director at the Florida Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College.

"Right now I don't think anybody who is dealing with this crisis sees this as a 90 or 120 day event," Kindred said. "I think that's why the bridge loan doesn't have a lot of appeal right now."

A group of government and local business leaders, including the Business Development Board of Martin County and the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County, met Friday at the Stuart Recovery Center to discuss results from a recent survey and how to reach more local businesses.

The business damage assessment survey, which still can be filled out at www.flvbeoc.org, showed not many businesses were interested in applying.

"People saying they don't want loans is understandable and it's a natural reaction but it doesn't mean that they're not going to eventually take a loan the longer this lasts," Camp said at the meeting. "Down the road they might change their mind."

Bob Miller, who owns the Island Princess tour boat with his wife, Lori, said they are considering applying for a federal loan. He stopped by the Stuart center to get more information Friday.

"We're thinking of it as an insurance policy," Bob Miller said. "We're down 55 percent in revenue for July, but what I'm worried about is the effect on the tourism next year. How many people are going to want to come to this area?"

Rightnowar, who docks his 40-foot cruiser at the Manatee Pocket, worries how long the algae will last and hopes to be able to come back from Louisiana eventually.

He believes others will end up applying for loans, too.

"There's just nothing here when we can't fish in the river and do our normal activities," Rightnowar said. "There's nothing here for me now. There are a lot of people suffering."
What led Fort Pierce to oust animal shelter operator? Money.

Fort Pierce believes it will cost more than $600,000 to run the shelter  more than double what it paid Sunrise Humane Society.
NASA Earth Observatory images of algae bloom on Lake Okeechobee on July 2. Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. (JOSHUA STEVENS/NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY)

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By Conrad Defiebre, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

People who live and work around Lake Okeechobee are accustomed to spring and summer algae blooms on the big fishing mecca west of the Treasure Coast, and most say this year's version, while more extensive than average, has had little or no effect on them.

"The lake is absolutely beautiful right now," said Leif Garrad, a bait shop proprietor in Okeechobee. "Business has been good; a typical summer."

That upbeat perspective was echoed by fishing guides, resort owners, area business leaders and even the one utility that draws drinking water from the lake. Testing at the Okeechobee Utility Authority's intake points on the lake has found concentrations of toxic algae at little more than 3 percent of the level considered hazardous to health.

MORE | Follow our Lake Okeechobee discharge meter for daily updates.

"And by the time it gets through our treatment it's not even detectable," said John Hayford, executive director of the authority, which serves 9,500 customers in Okeechobee and Glades counties.

Only a handful of points on the lake are sampled for toxins. Three of them  all far from most lake access points  registered over the 10 parts per billion threshold of hazard. Two points in the center of the lake, where few people fish, were 2,888 parts per billion June 14 and 382 parts per billion June 15.

However, Port Mayaca Lock and Dam, at 86 parts per billion on July 5, is the gateway for water releases to the St. Lucie River and eventually the Indian River Lagoon and Atlantic Ocean beaches.

Comes and goes

Algae blooms on the 730-square-mile freshwater lake, the second largest completely within the contiguous U.S., have diminished by about half from a reported peak of about 200 square miles. That's normal, said Capt. Scott Martin of Roland Martin Marina and Resort in Clewiston, on the lake's southern shore.

"A bloom doesn't last forever; that's why they call it a bloom," he said. "It's something we deal with every year  in fact, at just about every lake you can think of anywhere, even Lake Champlain way up north in New York. But we've had no reports of dead fish, and our guides haven't been complaining."

Capt. Butch Butler said fishing's been great at the north end of the lake, too. Recently, he said, he went out with publishers of Bass Angler magazine. "We caught 60 bass before 11 o'clock and they were ecstatic," he said. "The lake's just as healthy as can be."

At Slim's Fish Camp, a fixture for 80 years in Belle Glade, "we don't have all the scum they have on the other side," said proprietor Melanie Dean. "Summer is usually slow, but we've still got people fishing every day, catching catfish, bass, crappie, bluegill. There are spots on the lake with a thin green film, but it's not blue-green (algae), and it hasn't really had that much effect on us."

Bad reputation

Chamber of commerce staff on the lake also scoffed at the question whether the algae has posed problems for businesses.

"We don't have the effect of the algae bloom in our lake," said Mariah Parriot at the Okeechobee County chamber.

Tabatha Ralston of the Clewiston chamber said she went fishing on a re-cent Saturday "and we had to wait for a parking spot to get our boat on the lake. We caught some oscar, cichlid and catfish. They tasted just fi-ne, and we still have 10 fingers and 10 toes," she said with a laugh.

No health advisory has been issued for anywhere on the lake. Glades, Hendry and Okeechobee counties, which comprise most of the lake's shoreline, are not included in the emergency declaration covering four algae-plagued counties that receive releases from the lake: Martin, St. Lucie, Palm Beach and Lee.

Widespread media reports of the algae outbreak and emergency declara-tion have taken the worst toll on Lake Okeechobee and its people, several of those interviewed said.

"The media's hurting us real bad," Garrard said. "I'm getting phone calls from up north, people asking, 'Is the water safe?' I tell 'em, 'The water's fine.' "

Staff writer Tyler Treadway contributed to this story.
By Ledyard King, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON  Ticket-splitters could give Democrat Hillary Clinton the bump she needs to capture Florida in November's presidential election.

The former secretary of state wields an important advantage over Republican nominee Donald Trump among Florida voters who generally identify with one party but might cross over, according to a recently released independent analysis.

Statewide, Clinton could peel off as many as 890,071 "reluctant Republicans," compared with 532,779 "disaffected Democrats" who might vote for Trump, according to the study by Deep Root Analytics.

That 357,292-voter gap is larger than the winning margin in three of the past four presidential elections in Florida.

Alex Lundry, Deep Root's chief data scientist, said it's not surprising, given that this election pits the least-popular nominee in Republican history against the least-popular nominee in Democratic history.

The voters who were analyzed in the study identify as either Republican or Democratic and typically vote that way in down-ballot contests, Lundry said. But they sometimes defect at the top off the ticket.

Lundry said "2012 saw the lowest level of split-ticket voting in 90 years. It's out-and-out going to be larger this year because you have two candidates at the top of the ticket who have historically high negative ratings."

The analysis is based on a national survey of 7,394 registered voters conducted via landline, cellphone and mobile web. Deep Root then built a predictive model of how likely each voter in the country is to be a "reluctant Republican" or a "disaffected Democrat." Nationwide, the analysis found 16.2 million "reluctant Republicans" and 14 million "disaffected Democrats."

Trump has had trouble with Hispanic Republicans because of his stances on immigration and inflammatory statements about Mexico. That could lead to large defections in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, where the study identified 198,580 reluctant Republicans compared with only 15,014 disaffected Democrats.

Clinton has her own issues with conservative Democrats in rural areas such as the Panhandle, where Trump likely will do better among ticket-splitters.

GOP activists attending this week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland didn't buy the theory that Clinton has an overall edge among voters likely to defect from their party of preference in the presidential election.

"I think Republicans who are upset with Trump in Florida are going to go to the polls to vote for (U.S. Sen.) Marco Rubio, to vote for their congressmen and (state) senators, and when they're in there they're going to vote for Donald Trump," said Brian Ballard, a delegate from Tallahassee who also serves as Trump's financial chairman in Florida. "They're not going to vote for Hillary Clinton."

Ballard said he'd be much more worried about losing Florida if Rubio hadn't decided last month to run for re-election.

Several activists concede that some Republicans have trouble with Trump. Former Gov. Jeb Bush still won't support the brash billionaire.

But Barbara Davis, who chairs the Brevard County Republican Party, said new voters attracted to Trump will more than make up for GOP defectors in November.

"You're getting people who have never been involved before, they're calling up and saying, 'I want to do something, what can I do?' " she said "People feel so energized by someone who says they're going to do something. They're so unhappy with the way things have gone, this is going to be wonderful for them. They fell like their voice is going to be heard again."

Tony Jackson, an alternate delegate from Tampa, said he knows some Republicans who can't bring themselves to vote for Trump.

"But if they are voting for Hillary, they better not let me know," he said.

Potential ticket-splitters

A new study calculates the number of Republicans and Democrats in Florida who could defect from their usual party preference in voting for president, while voting in line with their preference in down-ballot races. Here's the breakdown of those potential ticket-splitters in major media markets:

WEST PALM BEACH-FORT PIERCE

Republicans: 102,079

Democrats: 35,517

TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG

Republicans: 232,408

Democrats: 154,012

ORLANDO-DAYTONA BEACH

Republicans: 193,142

Democrats: 121,813

MIAMI-FORT LAUDERDALE

Republicans: 198,580

Democrats: 15,014

FORT MYERS-NAPLES

Republicans: 59,673

Democrats: 63,730

JACKSONVILLE

Republicans: 57,904

Democrats: 55,809

MOBILE (ALABAMA)-PENSACOLA

Republicans: 20,401

Democrats: 35,104

PANAMA CITY

Republicans: 6,652

Democrats: 27,215

TALLAHASSEE-THOMASVILLE (GEORGIA)

Republicans: 9,552

Democrats: 14,137

GAINESVILLE

Republicans: 9,577

Democrats: 10,324

Source: Deep Root Analytics
By Ledyard King, USA TODAY

CLEVELAND  A number of Florida delegates at the Republican National Convention were predictably upset with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for failing to endorse GOP nominee Donald Trump during Cruz's prime-time convention speech on Wednesday.

Among the reactions:

"I was hopeful but not surprised. It reminds me of that point in a wedding where the pastor asks, 'Speak now or forevermore hold your peace.' And nobody ever stands up. But of course Cruz has to stand up and say: 'Me. Me! You were supposed to marry me'. It's just Ted."  Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla

"To me, he desperately wants to run for president in four years and that's what he did last night. I think people saw through it. Guys like Marco Rubio and Scott Walker (who got behind Trump) helped themselves. I think Cruz killed himself. I think he's unelectable in an actual election. He will be an also-ran for the rest of his life and just always looked on as a bitter, beaten, pretty mediocre senator."  Brian Ballard, Florida finance chairman for Trump

"I don't think he's ever going to be eligible to be president. He's burned himself, embarrassed himself. He's painted himself into a position where he's not a man of his word. That's not a good thing when you're looking for future office. He had a good following in Florida but I think he just burned all his bridges in FL. He's not welcome in St. Lucie County as long as I'm chairman."  Bill Paterson, chairman of Republican Party of St. Lucie County

"Lost opportunity. Could have given the speech of his political career that set him up to run like Gov. Reagan did in 1964."  Martin Simmons, Santa Rosa County Republican Party

"I am disappointed that Ted Cruz, who claimed to care about our country, could not even bring himself to save our nation from Hillary (Clinton). Throughout the primary process, people questioned Ted Cruz's sincerity. But today we learned his concern was not for his country but only for his own personal political future."  Evan Power, Tallahassee

'disturbed' by NATO stance

John Bolton, the outspoken former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he's "disturbed" by Trump's suggestion that if a NATO country is attacked, it shouldn't necessarily expect help from the U.S. if it hasn't kept up with its financial obligations.

"It's true there are a lot of countries, friends of ours that have not borne their fair share of the burden, and that needs to change," Bolton said Thursday in a speech to about 200 members of Florida's delegation to the RNC in Cleveland. "But let's be equally clear: we're not doing this for them; we're doing it for us. And if we stop doing it, nobody else is going to do it for us."

Most state delegation breakfasts feature rah-rah pep talks explaining why their party's presidential nominee is excellent in every way. So it was a bit jarring to hear Bolton, a former member of George W. Bush's administration, criticize Trump, who accepted the GOP's presidential nomination Thursday night.

Bolton's comments were in response to a New York Times foreign policy interview in which Trump talked about how some NATO countries are not paying their bills.

"They have an obligation to make payments," Trump said. "Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what they're supposed to make. That's a big thing. You can't say forget that."

Asked if a Trump administration would come to the military aid of Baltic States if they were attacked by Russia and had not paid their NATO-related financial obligations, Trump was noncommittal.

"I'm not saying," he said.

Bolton suggested it would be unconscionable to ignore an attack on a NATO ally.

"The whole point of this alliance that the United States leads is to deter aggressive authoritarian regimes like Vladimir Putin's from even thinking about challenging NATO," Bolton told the delegates. "When an American leader says. 'I'll look at what the situation is after the Russians attack,' that is an open invitation to Vladimir Putin, who has already changed borders on the continent of Europe through the use of military force."

Breakfast lineups tell a story

Doubt Florida matters, come November?

Just look at the breakfast speakers who addressed the state's Republican delegates during the week at the Republican National Convention: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, author Dick Morris, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Bolton.

Compare that with New Jersey's delegates, who didn't hear from any high-profile speakers. Instead, they listened to the attorney general from West Virginia talk about how Hillary Clinton would end the coal industry in his state.

New Jersey  where voters haven't picked a Republican for president since 1988  is unlikely to be a win for Trump.

States that matter are used to being courted through gatherings featuring A-list speakers, desirable hotel assignments or choice seating spots on the convention floor.

Delegates from Pennsylvania, another key swing state, had Donald Trump Jr. regale them at their breakfast meeting with stories of his boarding school days in the Keystone State.

Many such visits happen at breakfast, where state leaders discuss the day's events or the logistics of catching a bus to the convention at the Quicken Loans Arena, or listen to a pitch for their party's nominee intended to rally the troops.

After all, delegates are so committed to their party that they competed in primaries or caucuses for the chance to help pick their nominee, or served as volunteers on phone banks and canvasses that keep the wheels of state politics greased.

Frank Luntz, a sought-after speaker who has a following on Fox News with his focus groups, said he hit the Florida breakfast Monday because of its importance.

"Your state's going to determine who wins and who loses this campaign," Luntz told the Florida delegates. "You in this room are going to determine (the winner) and you have the power to make a difference in the future of this country.  I wanted to come here before any other state."

Lonely Rubio delegate

As Alabama's lone Rubio delegate at the convention, Dean Brandon has felt a little lonely.

The Huntsville dentist proudly cast his convention vote for Rubio  as required based on results of the March 1 primary  but he was far outnumbered by the state's 36 Trump delegates.

Brandon said his enthusiasm for Trump is still a work in progress, but he praised the real estate mogul for choosing Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate and for taking advice from Sessions and former presidential candidate Ben Carson.

"These people are conservative, and they are more how I would hope (Trump) would be," Brandon said.
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump arrives on stage to greet Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Gov. Mike Pence, of Indiana, during the third day session of the Republican National Convention on July 20 in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

By Ledyard King, USA TODAY

CLEVELAND  Their party's presidential nominating convention didn't go completely as planned.

They watched as their second-place candidate declined to endorse their nominee on national TV. And they listened as a prominent pollster said that if the election were held today, they'd lose.

But Florida Republicans projected energy and optimism as they left Ohio and returned home to campaign for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in Florida, a state most analysts say he must claim to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"We have to make sure that Donald Trump wins," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla. "There's absolutely no question when it comes down to Election Day, Florida Republicans will be unified."

Florida delegates attending the convention said there's plenty of cause for optimism, such as:

Trump's a different kind of candidate: The real estate mogul projects confidence, an infectious energy and celebrity stage presence. Those qualities resonate with many financially struggling Floridians who believe a "rigged" system has denied them the American dream.

"You're going to have Mr. Trump bring new voters out who traditionally have not voted before," said Blaise Ingoglia, chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "This election is a referendum on the status quo."

Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, is a perfect fit for the ticket: That's because of his evangelical background, even temperament and government experience.

"I think he helps Florida and he helps everywhere," said Brian Ballard, a Tallahassee lobbyist who serves as Trump's Florida finance chairman. "There's nothing Florida-specific to him, but the credibility he brings as a real seasoned guy helps a lot. Lot of folks in Florida like him. Lot of congressmen that we know. The governor (Rick Scott) is a fan."

Ballard said he expects Pence to come to the state for a fundraiser soon.

Clinton is unpopular with many Florida voters: Fifty-three percent of voters in the state have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month. And 50 percent consider Trump more honest and trustworthy, compared to 37 percent who view Clinton that way.

But, as the convention proved, Trump faces his own hurdles, such as:

A fractured GOP: Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi are squarely in Trump's corner, but Florida Sen. Marco Rubio made it clear in giving Trump his endorsement that he disagrees with the nominee on key policy areas such as immigration and foreign affairs.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush and his allies in the state have refused to back Trump, a part-time Palm Beach resident. Party activists say Bush wields diminished clout in the state, but establishment opposition to Trump could cost him in a close race.

Problems with Hispanic voters: Analysts say the GOP nominee must snag about 47 percent of those voters to win Florida.

But it seems hard to imagine Trump approaching even the 40 percent that 2012 nominee Mitt Romney achieved, given his statements and policy positions that polls show repel Hispanics.

An April poll by Associated Industries of Florida found only 10 percent of Hispanics in the state viewed Trump favorably.

Martin Simmons, a delegate from Santa Rosa County, thinks Trump will surprise with Hispanics and other groups that GOP candidates have not traditionally brought into their tent. The reason? Trump connects with voters much better than did either of the past two nominees: Romney and 2008 nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"We have a different candidate," Simmons said. "We lost Florida the last two times because of candidates who didn't do what it took to win. They didn't have the fire in the belly."

Trump is pretty unpopular too: The same Quinnipiac poll that showed most Florida voters viewed Clinton unfavorably indicated 47 percent didn't think much of Trump either.

And a Deep Root Analytics study of Florida voters who generally identify with one party but might cross over in the presidential race suggests there are far more Republicans who might defect to Clinton than there are Democrats who might defect to Trump.

"If the election were held today, Hillary Clinton wins," Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Florida delegates Monday after studying the results of the study.

Tony Jackson, an alternate delegate from Tampa who attended the convention, thinks there's time to keep Republicans in the fold and prevent them from defecting to Clinton.

"I'm hopeful that the next four months they'll come to their senses," he said. "Maybe they'll see some of the (Democratic) convention in Philadelphia and realize the choice that they have and cast a vote for Donald Trump."
There were nearly 14,000 responses to TCPalm's letter writing campaign to Gov. Rick Scott. There still is time to add your name to the list of letter writers by going to TCPalm.com/govletter before they're delivered to Scott. (KELLY ROGERS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

So our letter-writing campaign to Gov. Rick Scott is winding down, and in the next week or so we're looking at getting the missives  which beseech Scott to use the power of his position to push for more water storage south of Lake Okeechobee  up to Tallahassee.

The initial idea was to deliver them to Scott in person, and at first it looked like his office might play ball. Except there was always a hitch. The Governor doesn't have any availability that day. The Governor is going to be out of town then. We'll let you know when he might be available.

My last few emails to his press secretary were completely ignored. So let's just say we're not expecting much.

Still, the campaign generated some 14,000 responses  around 10,000 online and another 4,000 signatures either collected at the "Buy the Land" rally on Stuart Beach July 2, or via letters clipped from the paper and mailed to us.

If you like, there's still time to add your name to the chorus at TCPalm.com/govletter.

We could just stick all the letters in the mail  but that would be kind of anticlimactic, wouldn't it? After all, the goal of the campaign wasn't merely to make a statement. It was an attempt to make a difference.

So we'll physically take them to Tallahassee. I'd love to stride into the Governor's office with a big, algae green-colored mailbag filled with your letters, and set it on the floor with a theatrical THUMP: The Treasure Coast checks in!

I suspect whatever winds up happening will be significantly less dramatic.

Nonetheless, the idea is: These are your constituents, Gov. Scott. They've been harmed by the discharges, by the algae, and these letters detail wrenching, heartfelt, angry stories of natural destruction, of businesses ruined, of health imperiled.

Read them, Governor. Understand what has happened to us  and what we need from you.

Obviously, you'd like to think Scott would read all of them, and have a "light bulb" moment. But given how much money the sugar industry has funneled in his direction, I expect that light bulb to remain dim.

The status quo here in Florida is strong.

Still, these letters represent more pressure on the dike, if you want to think of it in those terms. And here and there, if you look closely  you might see a few hairline cracks.

Last weekend on Twitter there was a little dust-up wherein state Rep. Matt Caldwell of Lee County got his bow tie in a knot over comments I made regarding his characterization of enviro-activist group Bullsugar as "vulgar." Caldwell doubled down, calling the group a "vulgar scam PAC" (political action committee) that "only wants to cause conflict."

Which is ridiculous; as I pointed out, if there was no algae, if the status quo hadn't actively harmed people in Martin County, Caldwell wouldn't have to worry about Bullsugar  because Bullsugar wouldn't have to exist.

But I got the distinct idea that Caldwell does worry about Bullsugar, that Bullsugar has gotten into his head.

I wonder if our activism as a whole isn't beginning to have that effect on others, too.

Marco Rubio actually made a second trip to Martin County this week. Why? Well, he's concerned about the algae, of course! Also, he's running for re-election; and he came specifically to be seen furrowing his brow and taking our concerns seriously.

In other words, the activism has gotten us noticed  if for crass political purposes. But still.

Yet I don't know if even Rubio grasps the real significance of what's happening here. People aren't merely saying they want the algae cleaned up, although they do; they're saying they want these recurring crises to end.

And for that to happen, our political system has to change.

The sugar industry, long Florida's most powerful special interest, is used to getting what it wants  or, as in this case, stymieing what it doesn't want. Now here we are, saying what the industry wants must be subordinate to what we need.

Here we are, saying no  we are absolutely not going to sit down and shut up. We'll stand and shout  and our elected officials will listen. Because if they don't, they can be replaced.

Ambitious. Audacious. Naive? Maybe. Obnoxious? If you're on the receiving end, probably.

Doomed to fail, as it has failed in the past? Possibly. As I said, the status quo is strong.

But those hairline cracks? They're here to stay.

And the greater the pressure  the bigger they get.
SHARE

By Naomi Newton, Your Newsweekly Contributor

The Indian River Rowing Club has been granted permission by the PBS program American Experience to host a special screening of "The Boys of '36," a documentary about the 1936 US men's rowing team and based on the "New York Times" best-seller "The Boys in the Boat." The screening is free, open to the public and will take place on July 26, 7 p.m. at the Majestic Theater. Seating is limited and on a first come first-serve basis. Attendees wanting to secure a seat should plan to arrive early and look for the Boys of '36/Indian River Rowing Club check-in desk at the theater.

Joe Amlong, Vero's own Olympic gold medal winner will be a special guest for the evening and after the movie, will share his own experiences of winning the gold for the US rowing team in Tokyo in 1964 in a Q&A session.

Inspired by the book, the documentary tells the story of nine University of Washington students who took the rowing world by storm when they captured the Gold at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. "The Boys of '36" will show how the team overcame psychological, physical, emotional and economic hardships to beat not only the Ivy League teams but Adolf Hitler's elite German rowers. Their miraculous triumph gave hope to a nation struggling to recover from the Great Depression.

For those unable to attend the screening at the Majestic Theater in Vero Beach, a telecast of the documentary will take place on Aug. 2, on PBS, marking the 80th anniversary of the team's victory.

The Indian River Rowing Club (IRRC) aims to increase awareness of the importance of the sport of rowing and create a rowing culture within the Vero community. Given the enormous success of the club thus far and the community support of this eco-friendly sport as well as the potential for tourism, the City of Vero Beach has granted a 25 year-lease to IRRC for the construction of a state-of-the art boathouse and rowing facility at MacWilliam Park, an area with calm waters and ideal for rowing activities.

For more information on the Indian River Rowing Club, visit IndianRiverRowingClub.com, follow the team on Instagram at @VBHSCrew or email info@indianriverrowingclub.com.
Thank you for reading!

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Updated August 16, 2017 to add our review of the Terk Trinity Xtend indoor TV antenna, which also includes an 802.11n Wi-Fi range extender. We werent impressed. Ditching your cable- or satellite-TV subscription and going to a setup combining a streaming device along with an antenna to pick up over-the-air digital broadcasts is a smart move that will save you some serious cash every month. Theres plenty of free TV to be hadwell, youll passively pay by being exposed to commercialsbut youll need an antenna to pull those signals in. An outdoor model mounted to a tall mast (elevating the antenna at least 30 feet off the ground) will yield the best results, but thats not the most attractive accessory for your home, and its a total no-go if youre a renter or live in an apartment. Indoor antennas can do the job if you dont live too far from your area TV stations broadcast antennas, so now the question becomes which ones best? Having ditched cable nearly five years ago myself, I struggled with getting consistent, quality reception on local TV channels. I recently put four indoor antennas to the test and discovered that spending more on an antenna doesnt always deliver a better overall experience. In fact, the top performing antenna out of this bunch was also the least expensive. Best indoor digital TV antenna: Mohu ReLeaf

Mohu ReLeaf Read our review Best Prices Today:

Tied with the more-expensive FlatWave Amped Antenna for most channels received at 25, the MoHu ReLeaf lacks any sort of amp for boosting signal quality. Its as basic as an antenna gets, with a coax cable and a flat piece of material resembling cardboard making up the housing. Actually, that cardboard-looking material is actually 33-percent recycled cardboard, and the plastic antenna housing is made from crushed cable boxes. Best of all, the ReLeaf is currently priced at just $40. If you dont live close enough to broadcast towers, youll want to choose an amplified antenna, such as our runner-up, the Terk Horizon. Runner-up: RCA Skybar Indoor HDTV Antenna

Skybar Indoor HDTV Antenna Read our review Best Prices Today:
Tinder on Thursday announced the launch of Tinder Social, a new platform that helps users plan group nights out.

The new platform will help users plan double dates or larger group events, creating new opportunities for people to make connections, the company said.

Tinder took the platform for a test drive in Australia and found that users wanted a better way to add friends to their night out in real time. That led to a feature that lets users see who else in the Tinder community is headed out the same night.

Users can invite friends to join their group and match up with other groups that are going out on the same evening. Users need to act fast, though, because the newly created groups and matchups expire by noon on the following day.

Tinder Social has to be unlocked before members can use it. A user who has unlocked the platform can see friends who have unlocked Tinder Social as well.

This is just the first step in building the new social platform, which has launched in the U.S. and some other countries that Tinder did not specify.

Features Tapped

The new platform could have some unintended consequences.

Tinder has been innovating with new social features for a while, as it looks to broaden its appeal and drive engagement among different parts of its audience, said Jack Kent, director of operators and mobile media at IHS Markit.

However, providing these additional platforms next to the core dating platform could risk confusion about the purpose of the new feature, he cautioned.

Tinder has an audience of tens of millions of users, and so it has a strong user base with which to test the appeal of new features, even if they cater to more niche segments of its base, Kent told TechNewsWorld.

Its doubtful the new social tool will do much to grow Tinders overall membership base, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

I dont think its a big enough feature to do that, he told TechNewsWorld. However, it will increase the services utility, potentially making it more useful to its existing customer base.

Tinder earlier this year began testing a feature that allows users to play matchmaker. By tapping a share icon on a profile, users can send a temporary link to a friend, who then will have 72 hours or five clicks to swipe on the shared profile.

No More Stigma

A growing number of Americans are using social media apps to meet people, as online dating has lost much of the stigma that once was associated with it, according to the Pew Research Center.

Since Pew first began to study online dating in 2005, attitudes towards using social media for social life have changed. Fifteen percent of U.S. adult participants in a study released earlier this year said they had used online or mobile dating apps.

The use of online dating sites or mobile apps by young adults has nearly tripled just since 2013, sitting at 27 percent today. Online dating also has surged among older adults, with 12 percent of 55-to 64-year-olds reporting they had used an online or mobile dating app, compared with 5 percent in 2013.

Tinder swipes have reached 1.4 billion per day and matches have reached 26 million per day, according to Tinder. The app is used in 196 countries worldwide.
Officials at the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits in U.S. banks, made false statements to Congress and failed to make timely notification of serious cybersecurity breaches, according to a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technologys interim staff report.

FDIC CIO Lawrence Gross has created a toxic work environment, misled Congress, and retaliated against whistle-blowers, the report claims.

The FDIC deliberately evaded congressional oversight, it also says, further noting that the agency has a history of cybersecurity deficiencies that continue into the present.

The FDIC effectively controls the finances of the country, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Every U.S. company and every U.S. citizen is at risk if the FDIC fails. I dont think theres any possibility of overstating how bad this is, he told the E-Commerce Times.

FDIC Breaches

The FDIC has experienced seven major cybersecurity breaches, starting in 2010, according to the interim report.

FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg in 2013 got a memo from the agencys then inspector general, which included notification of an advanced persistent threat, probably from the Chinese government, compromising an FDIC employees desktop computer in October 2010, according to the committee report. The memo reportedly noted that the same threat had compromised FDIC computers in 2011 and 2013.

FDIC Chairman Gruenberg testified that the FDICs IT department did not fully inform him or other members of the agencys board and senior executives about the breaches in 2010 and 2011.

This kind of thing is far more common in firms and government organizations than most realize, said Enderle noted. Typically, however, the top executive is still held accountable.

Gruenberg earlier this year notified committee Chairman Lamar Smith about a breach that took place in Florida last fall, saying that an employee leaving the FDIC inadvertently had downloaded sensitive information onto a thumb drive  including customer data for over 10,000 individuals  and taken it away.

The committee since has learned that the employee had downloaded more than 100,000 files, impacting more than 40,000 individuals and almost 31,000 banks and other entities.

The FDIC earlier this year notified the committee that an employee had obtained sensitive data of 44,000 individuals before leaving the agency. This spring, it retroactively reported five additional major breaches, including one in which a retiring employee took three portable storage devices containing nearly 50,000 individuals personal data.

In all, sensitive personal information of nearly 160,000 individuals likely was exposed, according to the committee report.

The FDIC decided to offer credit monitoring to the breaches victims this spring, following a hearing by the Oversight Subcommittee.

Holy cow, said Jim MacGregor, a principal analyst at Tirias Research.

The fact that a quasi-government agency let this go on  didnt report breaches, didnt react to them and didnt notify consumers  is terrible, he told the E-Commerce Times.

For an organization that oversees the banking sector to be hacked and react like this is completely unacceptable, MacGregor emphasized.

Who Should Carry the Can

The committees allegations showcase a level of mismanagement that should result in criminal charges for the CIO who put the nation at risk to protect their negligence, suggested Enderle.

This was likely due to the fact that security was underfunded, which put that CIO between a rock and a hard place, but they should have resigned and disclosed the breaches. [Blame] should also flow to Congress, because they have been repeatedly warned that their tendency to underfund security is putting the nation at high risk, he said.

The problem is, we punish the folks who were given an ugly choice but not those that put them there, Enderle added.

Threat Level

Theres always a degree of high drama when these kinds of things are aired in a public forum, but the threat is real, noted Mike Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

The revelations are especially troubling since were on the verge of an Internet of Things, he told the E-Commerce Times. Potentially every system, service and device will be network-connected and potentially vulnerable to attack.
One of Nickelodeon's most popular game shows, Legends of the Hidden Temple, is making a comeback in more than one way.

At San Francisco Comic-Con this week, Nickelodeon unveiled a Legends of the Hidden Temple VR experience that takes players inside the hollowed temple... well, sort of. Instead of recreating the set from the '90s game show, the VR tour utilizes the set of the upcoming Legends of the Hidden Temple TV movie.

Yep, that's apparently a thing.

CNET's Mike Sorrentino recently got to try the VR demo using a Samsung Gear VR headset. The show's former host, Kirk Fogg, serves as the tour guide (he'll also be in the upcoming movie). From there, you meet the show's most popular "character," the stone-faced Olmec (keeper of the temple) who tells you that you must complete a discovery game or be locked inside the temple for eternity.

Jaime Dictenberg, senior vice president of consumer marketing for Nickelodeon, said they created the 360-degree video as a way to maximize the set built for the upcoming TV movie. He said the experience is designed to acclimate new audiences to something they might not know and give seasoned veterans one last temple run.

Nickelodeon plans to release the full VR experience this weekend. In the meantime, the short snippet above will have to hold you over.
Stroke caused by subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs more commonly among smokers than those who do not smoke. The risk, however, appears to be higher in female smokers.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage, or SAH, is characterized by bleeding inside the lining of the brain. Findings of a new research, which was published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke, have found evidence that SAH is up to eight times more common among female smokers who smoke more than a pack of tobacco per day compared with nonsmokers.

Although male smokers are also at risk, the research has revealed that the likelihood of men who smoke the same amount of cigarettes to suffer from this serious type of stroke is only threefold. Even light smoking can triple women's likelihood to suffer from SAH, the researchers have found.

SAH is attributed to about 3 percent of all strokes and often affects younger people. This type of stroke is commonly caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm  a bulging and weak spot in the wall of an artery supplying blood to the brain that can burst anytime, as well as head injury. Of those who suffer from SAH, about one in five dies.

"Smoking has a dose-dependent and cumulative association with SAH risk, and this risk is highest in female heavy smokers. Vulnerability to smoking seems to explain in part the increased SAH risk in women," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published on July 21.

For the research, Joni Valdemar Lindbohm, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and colleagues looked at the data of 65, 521 adults who were followed for 21 years on average.

The researchers found that among light smokers who smoked between one to 10 cigarettes per day, women have three times the risk for SAH and men have twice the risk compared with those who do not smoke.

Among the subjects who smoked between 11 and 20 cigarettes daily, women have fourfold risk and men have double the risk of suffering from SAH.

The research, however, also showed the benefits of quitting smoking. Researchers found that the subjects who quit the habit significantly reduced their likelihood of suffering from subarachnoid hemorrhage. After six months of quitting smoking, the risk of smokers were found to be of the same level as those of nonsmokers.

"Our results suggest that age, sex and lifestyle risk factors play a critical role in predicting which patients are at risk for subarachnoid hemorrhage and emphasize the importance of effective smoking cessation strategies," Lindbohm and colleagues said.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung's Gear VR headset, which famously made Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak "emotional," is locked in competition with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive in the burgeoning virtual reality industry. However, one disadvantage of the Samsung Gear VR is that while the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are standalone headsets, Samsung's offering requires it to be paired with one of the company's compatible smartphones.

Samsung confirmed a few months ago that it is working on a standalone virtual headset, though at the time, there were few details on the project. One piece of information known about the upcoming system was that it would have positional tracking, which is a feature utilized by other standalone virtual reality headsets.

The company still has not revealed any more official information regarding the device, but recent trademark and logo applications made by Samsung supposedly reveal the name of its upcoming standalone headset.

Galaxy Club discovered Samsung's filings for the registration of the Odyssey brand name in its home country of South Korea, along with two logos. While one logo does not reveal anything, the other one is a stylized "VR," which points to the likely possibility that Odyssey will be the name of Samsung's standalone virtual reality headset.

Adding to the proof that Odyssey will indeed be the name of Samsung's standalone virtual reality headset are the short descriptions that came along with the applications. Among the included tags are "virtual reality game headsets," "virtual reality game software" and "computer featuring interactive video games of virtual reality."

The applications were filed over the course of two days, which means they are all likely related. Perhaps the other logo is for the Odyssey brand, as it could be seen as a stylized "O" with a line through its center.

It is thought that Samsung's virtual reality headset will be manufactured by the company itself and is not a product of its partnership with Oculus, which helped Samsung develop the Gear VR and is believed to be assisting the company with the Gear VR 2 as well.

While the evidence is convincing, until Samsung makes an official confirmation or announcement there is always the possibility that Odyssey won't be the name of its upcoming standalone virtual reality headset. We'll just have to wait for the company to unveil the device, though that may still be quite some time from now.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Google is tapping into the superpowers of technology to provide a more seamless experience when reading comics on mobile devices.

Google announced a new feature called Bubble Zoom for its eBook service Google Play Books on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con 2016.

Instead of displaying the entire text of a comic that can be hard to see clearly digitally, Bubble Zoom works by presenting speech bubbles one tap at a time.

Bubble Zoom uses machine learning to recognize speech bubbles and automatically zooms in on and blows them up.

This allows the eye to focus on the text in a specific panel instead of scanning the various text on a full page and getting lost. The reader is able to see what's next when they are reading in the order in which the content was meant to be read.

"We wanted to use our other superpowers, like machine learning, to improve the digital comics experience even further," Greg Hartrell, Head of Product of Google Play Books said. "Machine learning is the technology that makes the digital things in your life more useful, like finding the right image in Google Photos by searching for 'hugs' to 'dogs.' So what happens when we bring our machine learning capabilities to the world of comics?"

The feature makes it even easier to read digital comics on smartphones and tablets by not only enhancing readability, but also allowing for a one-handed experience.

Bubble Zoom is the latest tool Google is using to enhance the digital comics experience on mobile. Google Play previously launched a vertical scrolling experience back in November 2015 that presents the pages in landscape mode when the user flips their device to the side. This mode also allows users to slide and scroll with vertical swipes so that they can more easily follow and enjoy the story clearly and at their own pace.

The new Bubble Zoom feature will begin rolling out today as a preview exclusively for Google Play Books for Android, starting with Marvel and DC collected volumes.

The company has plans to release this feature to all comics and manga available on its platform over time.

To check out the new comic reading feature for supported comic volumes, users just have to update Play Books.

Google Play Books is celebrating the feature by offering 50 percent off select Marvel and DC Comics in the Store from now until July 24 for those who use the Comic-Con code "SDCC2016" at checkout.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Verizon Wireless is preparing to force grandfathered unlimited data customers to choose a limited data plan if they go over their 100 GB monthly limit.

Should these customers refuse to commit to a new plan by Aug. 31, Verizon promises that their connection will simply be axed.

Droid Life reports that the carrier will cease to offer its service for users who churn down significant amounts of data on a monthly basis. But what does the company mean by "extraordinary amounts of data"? Is it 30 GB, 150 GB or 300 GB?

Verizon explains that the targeted users are jumping well over the 100 GB mark. The carrier points out that its largest data plan (100 GB a month) is aimed at households where multiple users are sharing a subscription.

"Each line receiving notification to move to the new Verizon Plan is using well in excess of that on a single device," Verizon says.

Verizon notes that its network is a shared resource and, as such, it wants to make sure that all clients get the best experience possible. That is why the company urges the fraction of clients who use "an extraordinary amount of data" to switch to one of the new Verizon Plans by Aug. 31.

Customers who refuse to conform until the end of summer will see Verizon pulling the plug on their connections, but they will be able to reconnect during a 50-day interval by choosing a limited plan.

Just as a reminder, Verizon's 100 GB plan asks customers to shell out $450 per month. To put it into perspective, subscribers who are holding on to grandfathered unlimited lines only pay a monthly fee of $49.99.

According to the carrier, the number of clients who still use unlimited data plans is below 1 percent, and a vast majority of them pay for the service month to month. That happens because the initial contracts have long since expired.

In the past, Verizon's attempts to limit grandfathered unlimited data customers caused some disputes with the Federal Communications Commission.

In 2014, the company was preparing to throttle 4G LTE speeds at crowded locations for customers who jumped the 4.7 GB of monthly data usage. The Commission asked Verizon to justify the reasoning behind the policy, as it seemed more of a way to expand profits than to do appropriate network management. After a few back and forth movements, Verizon conceded and noted that 4G data will remain untouched.

However, the company kept throttling heavy 3G users, a policy that was in effect until the middle of last year. Verizon put a stop to it as the FCC rolled out the new net neutrality rules, albeit it is still debatable whether or not throttling can be interpreted as a "reasonable network management" exception.

On an interesting side note, rival companies such as T-Mobile and AT&T still throttle their own heavy data users of unlimited data when their networks get overloaded, and the FCC seems fine with it.

Unlimited wireless data plans are starting to wane out, but carriers such as Sprint and T-Mobile still allow new clients to sign up for such contracts.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
When it comes to anime, it's hard to get more iconic than Dragon Ball Z: Akira Toriyama's high-flying sci-fi epic was one of the major reasons anime took off in the West back in the '90s, and it was somehow even more popular back in Japan. Since its syndication, it's become a worldwide phenomenon: save for Pokemon, there's no bigger anime in the world.

The manga (the Japanese equivalent of comic books), wasn't quite as popular with Western audiences, though it served a similar purpose as the anime: introducing an entire generation of fans to the format. On top of that, modern heavy-hitters like Bleach, Naruto and One-Piece owe most of their format to Dragon Ball Z  simply put, were it not for Toriyama's work, the industry would be a very different place today.

Comparing the two different formats usually comes down to arguing over which filler arc is the worst (it's the Fake Namek Saga). For the most part, the show and the manga line up extremely closely  and as one fan demonstrated, they can be nearly identical at some point.

A Reddit user by the name of jumpshot22 put together some amazing comparison GIFs showcasing an iconic moment from the episode "Final Atonement"  and it looks like the animators knew when to stick as close to the original art as they could:

It may sound obvious that an anime would follow its manga counterpart closely, but that's not always the case: the original Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater anime deviated from their mangas, to the point where both versions of both series had entirely different endings. Not only that, but some anime end up changing the visual style of the source material  just look at The Flowers of Evil.

In the case of Dragon Ball Z, the anime largely adapted to Toriyama's art style  and in some ways, surpasses it. Manga artists typically follow an extremely tight schedule, and don't always have time to fully shade their art. The result is a flatter, more simplistic style  and while the original manga still looks great today, the level of detail present in the anime is hard to beat. Even something as simple as a shaded background makes a huge difference in terms of tone and atmosphere:

With any luck, this set of comparison GIFs won't be the last: watching the jump from manga page to animated frames is fascinating, and there are plenty of other series that deserve the GIF treatment. If anything, Dragon Ball Z has more than its fair share of iconic moments worth comparing!

For more of jumpshot22's work, make sure to head on over to the Dragon Ball Z subreddit.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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 an open letter entitled "Letter to the Brazil of tomorrow," former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) promised on Thursday that if elected, he would... | Read More
Emirates now operates one passenger route to Ho Chi Minh City and one cargo-only service to Hanoi. Photo: Patrik Stollarz/AFP

Emirates, the worlds biggest long-haul airline, is asking for a 30 percent discount on the landing fee at Noi Bai International Airport when it begins a daily passenger service next month.

The Dubai-based carrier told the Ministry of Transport that its existing cargo service between Dubai and Hanoi would become a daily one which also carry passengers, and asked for a reduction in the landing and takeoff fees for the first year.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has backed the request, saying the discount would encourage international airlines to fly to Vietnam, the Saigon Times reported.

Vietnam announced a similar incentive in 2013, halving the fees for international carriers flying to five smaller airports, Phu Bai, Cam Ranh, Lien Khuong in the central region, and Can Tho and Phu Quoc in the south, for the first three years.

But only Phu Quoc and Cam Ranh have seen an increase in international activities.

Emirates, which began to fly to Vietnam in 2012, now operates one passenger route to Ho Chi Minh City and one cargo-only service to Hanoi.
Scooters are seen on the assembly line at a Piaggio scooter and motorcycle factory in the northern province of Vinh Phuc in April 2015. Photo credit: Kham/Reuters

The assessment of Vietnams business situation by European companies in the second quarter of this year is positive, with 66.7 percent of the respondents describing it as excellent or good, a survey found.

According to the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), its survey showed that the positive perception of the current business performance amongst the respondents may have spilled over to a positive business outlook perspective, with 9.4 percent assessing it as excellent and 54.2 percent as good.

Asked about the macroeconomic outlook for Vietnam in the next quarter, 56.3 percent indicated stabilization and improvement, 9.4 percent expected a deterioration and 34.4 percent thought it would not change.

Around 49 percent of the respondents expected the number of orders or revenues to increase slightly in the next quarter.

Thus, responses to investment and headcount development plans were also positive: 43.8 percent of respondents said they would increase investment, while 43.7 percent expected an increase in headcount.

A very small number of respondents said they plan to reduce their headcount (4.1 percent), while 50 percent said they would maintain the same level.

EuroChams chairman, Michael Behrens, said in a statement that the results for the second quarter showed positive expectations for the near future and consistent satisfaction with the present situation.

EuroCham members maintain a positive view on the Vietnamese market and their business operations in the country, a result which does not differ from our last survey. This is a good sign for the current implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to strongly enhance European business and investment.

The survey was sent out to 883 European investors in Vietnam before the UK referendum on June 23, meaning the result had no bearing on it.
Vicare, a website providing information about clinics and doctors in Vietnam and online health consultancy, has secured its second funding round from Japan's CyberAgent Ventures and Singapore's Pix Vine Capital.

Pham Anh Duc, director of the startup, refused to reveal details, merely telling news website Saigon Times Online that the funding would help improve database quality, develop mobile applications and expand manpower.

Since its launch in January ViCare has built up a database of more than 19,000 clinics and 20,000 doctors around the country, the website said. It now records 200,000 visits a month and 3,000 comments and 6,000 inquiries.

The website reportedly received the first funding round from private investors in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in March.

Nguyen Manh Dung, investment manager of CyberAgent Ventures in Vietnam and Thailand, was quoted as saying that the healthcare sector has great potential for growth.

Vicare is addressing issues that are facing Vietnam, like a shortage of healthcare services and equipment as well as doctors, he said.

CyberAgent Ventures launched a second fund worth US$50 million for new and existing investments in Southeast Asia at the end of last year. In Vietnam it has reportedly invested in around 20 startups since 2008.
VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co., the Vietnamese carrier known for its bikini-clad flight attendants, may hold its initial public offering as early as the second quarter as it plans to build global routes and become a top budget airline in Asia.

The IPOs exact timing will depend on market developments domestically and globally, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, chief executive officer of Vietnams only privately-owned airline, said in an interview on Friday. The company hasnt finalized how much it wants to raise and could offer as much as a 30 percent stake, the regulatory limit for foreign holdings, she said.

We plan to make VietJet a global airline," Thao said from her Hanoi office. "We look at Emirates, which came from a country with a small population and has become a global airline. We want to make VietJet the Emirates of Asia."

The Dubai-based carrier is the worlds biggest long-haul airline with flights to about 150 destinations, and said last month it plans to add 37 new planes -- worth $14.5 billion at list prices.

Bikini-clad attendants

VietJet, which featured dancing flight attendants clad in bikinis on an inaugural route and bikini models on its airplanes for a desktop calendar, carried 9.3 million passengers in 2015, an increase of 66 percent from 2014. Revenue soared 205 percent last year to 10.9 trillion dong ($488 million) while net income rose to almost 1 trillion dong, according to the company. The airline expects revenue to double this year and passenger capacity to reach 15 million this year.

VietJet will probably surpass national carrier Vietnam Airlines as the nations biggest domestic carrier this year, according to CAPA Centre for Aviation. Vietnam is expected to rank among the worlds 10 fastest-growing aviation markets in the next two decades, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Its an ideal market for low-cost carriers, or LCCs, said Brendan Sobie, Singapore-based chief analyst at CAPA Centre for Aviation. This makes VietJet an attractive scenario for investors. They dont have the risks other LCCs have in terms of over-capacity and competition.

Regional expansion

The low-cost carrier is seeking to expand in a market thats grown 20 percent annually in the last three years, according to the airline. VietJet earlier this month signed a $3.04 billion deal to buy Pratt & Whitney engines to outfit 63 Airbus A320neo and A321neo airplanes it contracted last year. The company plans to add a dozen planes annually to its fleet of 42 planes at year-end, Thao said. It wants to have a fleet of 100 by 2020.

It also plans to expand international routes to cities in South Korea, Malaysia, China and Japan this year, Thao said.

Moving beyond VietJets core low-cost business to long-range international routes will require a lot of investment in larger aircraft and developing an international brand, Sobie said. Its a riskier and harder market to get into. In Vietnam, he added, the carrier has first-mover advantage.

The IPO is also being planned as Bloomberg Asia Pacific Airlines Index slumped 14 percent this year, reversing a 19 percent gain in 2015. Vietnams VN-Index, Southeast Asias best performer last year, has fallen 2.2 percent since the start of 2016.

Still, the stock sale is being planned as frontier-market equity funds from Sweden to Hong Kong are ready to buy more Vietnamese stocks, attracted by cheap valuations and the fastest economic growth in almost a decade. Coeli Asset Management and Asia Frontier Capital say they plan to add to their equity holdings this year as record-high foreign direct investments and the nations free-trade agreements help boost economic growth.

VietJet, founded in 2007 by Thao, competes with national carrier Vietnam Airlines, which owns 70 percent of budget carrier Jetstar Pacific Airlines Aviation JSC , with Qantas Airways Ltd. holding the remaining 30 percent. Vietnam Airlines also owns Vietnam Air Services Co., known as Vasco, which it plans to split off as a commuter service.

"We are ready to go to the next level," said Thao. "Were ready to take the opportunities that the countrys international integration will bring."
South Africas great white sharks could die out due to human interference, ocean pollution and a limited gene pool, a new study released on Wednesday showed.

There are 350-520 great white sharks left off the South African coast, 50 percent fewer than previously thought, according to a six year study carried out mainly in Gansbaai, a shark hotspot 160 kilometres from Cape Town.

"South Africas white sharks faced a rapid decline in the last generation and their numbers might already be too low to ensure their survival, said Sara Andreotti, research leader and marine biologist at the University of Stellenbosch.

Scientists say there are still thousands of great white sharks off the coast of Australia, Canada and the east coast of the United States.

Thousands of tourists travel to South Africa's Western Cape each year to catch a glimpse of the ocean's top predator from underwater cages, but human interaction has made the largest contribution to declining local shark numbers.

Shark nets used to protect swimmers and surfers killed more than 1,000 great whites off the Durban coast in the 30 years up to 2008, while trophy hunting and pollution also killed off large numbers of a species which can trace its lineage back 14 million years.

South African great white sharks also have the lowest genetic diversity of all white shark populations globally, making breeding more problematic and the likelihood of illness higher, the study, which included documenting individual sharks by their dorsal fins, showed.

There are only 333 great whites capable of breeding in South African waters, below the 500 usually needed to prevent "inbreeding depression", the study found.

"We are already in a situation where our number of breeders is below the minimum level required for a population to survive," Andreotti told reporters.

Losing great white sharks, which have no natural predators, would have a knock-on effect on ocean ecology. Common prey, such as the Cape fur seal, could flourish in their absence and reduce fish numbers.

South Africa helped pioneer great white shark conservation and in 1991 became the first in the world to declare the predator a protected species, with other countries including the U.S. and Australia following suit.
A red-shanked douc langur shown in a file photo taken at Son Tra peninsula in the central city of Da Nang. Photo: Hoang Son

Around 75 endangered red-shanked doucs have lost their home in what used to be a prime primate habitat in Da Nang after trees were cut down in the area.

City officials are investigating the illegal logging in the buffer zone of Son Tra peninsula, home to a major primate reserve in Vietnam, after some people posted a video on Facebook.

Preliminary investigations found that the logging has been going on for a month and trees were felled over an area of 1,000 square meters.

The 75 langurs that once lived in the zone are unaccounted for.

Tran Huu Vy, director of the GreenViet biodiversity conservation center in Da Nang, said the buffer zone was an ideal home for the langurs thanks to plentiful food supply and the location, which is shielded from strong winds.

Vy said the 75 missing langurs are nearly a third of the douc population on the 60-square-kilometer peninsula, which is just 10 kilometers from downtown Da Nang.

We have not located them yet, Vy said.

He said humans have been encroaching on the forest area in Son Tra, and this is bound to affect the precious douc population.

The primate reserve on the peninsula has shrunk from its original area of more than 4,400 hectares to less than 2,600 hectares over the past decade.

Studies by GreenViet show that the douc langurs in Son Tra are threatened not only by poachers, who killed two of them last year, but also by construction of roads.

Vy said the roads would separate the primate populations and lead to inbreeding.

The animals also face the risk of becoming road kill, he said.

Just last month a car hit a monkey when it was crossing the road.

Besides, when they are forced to travel on the ground, they are more likely to be trapped, he added.

It is also known that noisy crowds at coffee shops and restaurants on the peninsula stress the monkeys out and affect their reproduction.
Drugs seized at the house of Kieu Thi Tuyet, 28, in Lang Son Province. Photo provided by the police

Police in the northern province of Lang Son have arrested two suspects for allegedly trafficking around 110 kilograms of drugs over the last few months.

Nguyen Tuan Duong, 32, was arrested last Thursday at his house, police said, adding that they also seized 120 methamphetamine pills, two guns and 66 bullets.

His accomplice Kieu Thi Tuyet, 28, was nabbed soon later. Other members in Duongs drug ring are still at large, police said.

Duong, the alleged leader, told police that his ring had trafficked over 30 kilos of heroin and 80 kilos of meth.
Everyone in Bong Lang village in Ha Nam Province wears a face mask on the street to protect themselves from the dust produced by an abundance of factories in their area. Photo: Hoang Long

Thousands of people from Ha Nam Province have sought relief from the thick factory smoke and omnipresent cement dust that's plagued their community for years, but authorities have failed to act.

Official figures from the provinces environmental division show that 11 factories operate in Thanh Liem District and produce between 100,000 and 950,000 tons of cement each, every year.

Three such factories operate in Bong Lang Village in Thanh Nghi Commune for over two years.

The last to arrive was the 950,000-ton Xuan Thanh plant, which joined the Hoang Long and Thanh Thang factories.

The representatives of more than 10,000 villagers have petitioned different agencies, seeking relief from the oppressive pollution.

Frustrated by inaction, the villagers marked New Year's Day by putting up tents outside the Xuan Thanh factory.

The demonstration forced Ha Nam officials to call a meeting between residents and representatives of Hoang Long and Xuan Thanh.

Company leaders apologized and promised to improve the situation, but residents say their words proved hollow.

Instead of cleaning up their acts, they say, the factories just began discharging their emissions in the middle of the night.

When we surrounded their gate, they said that they would fix the pollution as soon as possible, but they did not keep that promise, said Le Hai Du, a resident of Bong Lang village.

In early September, Thanh Nien ran a story about how cement factories had destroyed the lives of residents in Kien Luong Town, the capital of the namesake district in the southern province of Kien Giang.

More than 2,000 kilometers away, the same dark picture persists.

Roughly ten people recently gathered at Dus house to vent their anger to a visiting reporter.

Pham Van Lich said that for more than two years, they've been stuck between factory smoke falling from the sky and cement dust rising from the ground.

Weve suffered from this mess," Lich said. "Dust and smoke interfere with our lives, our meals, our sleep, and everything else.

Dus wife Dinh Thi Tai once measured the pollution herself by measuring the dust accumulated on her front patio in a single night.

She collected nearly a kilogram from the 7.5 square meter area in front of her house before an audience of neighbors.

Tai has covered her house with nearly 100 square meters of canvas and cleans every night before going to bed, like most of her neighbors.

"Weve suffered from this mess. Dust and smoke interfere with our lives, our meals, our sleep, and everything else,

Pham Van Lich said about three cement factories in his village in Ha Nam Province

Run a finger across the furniture or the tray used to serve meals in the kitchen and you'll still find it caked in white powder.

One couple invited a Thanh Nien reporter to spend the night to witness the discharge.

Its started, Du said as the sky began to blur with smoke at 6:15pm.

Thats early. Normally they start emitting from after 11 p.m., he said.

Du went up to his rooftop to watch columns of black and white smoke rising from the factories chimneys.

Fifteen minutes later, the smoke had swallowed the whole village.



Officials: Too busy to check Tran Dang Trinh, who monitors environmental issues at Ha Nams Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the factories have not provided an account of how they have or have not addressed the pollution. Tran Dang Trinh, who monitors environmental issues at Ha Nams Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the factories have not provided an account of how they have or have not addressed the pollution.

Xuan Thanh factory hasn't even reported on the status of several environmental protection measures it pledged to perform while applying for a business license.

They were supposed to complete the measures before going into operation, Trinh said.

He said Xuan Thanhs factory is newer than the other two factories and its technology is still okay."

The others rely on outdated technology, he claimed.

But he said his department's staff hasn't had a chance to go down to the factories to assess their emissions.

Pollution that kills

Bong Lang villagers said many more people have developed respiratory diseases since the Xuan Thanh factory arrived.

In one part of the village, more than ten residents have died of lung cancer since 2012.

Cement factories have cast a pall over several rural communities in Ha Nam Province. Photo: Hoang Long

The claims could not be verified with official statistics.

However, Dr Tran Van Thuan, head of the Research Institute for Cancer Prevention and deputy director of the Hanoi-based K Hospital for cancer patients, said environmental factors including toxic chemicals and air pollution have proven to be the cause of more than 80 percent of cancer cases.

Thuan said more research is needed to identify potentially carcinogenic elements in factory emissions.

He said a survey should be conducted to determine the numbers of cancer patients according to age and ensure that it's normal.

Dr Nguyen Thanh Ha, deputy head of the Environment Management Department at the Health Ministry, said industrial dust has negatively impacted overall health in the village.

But the dust must be analyzed before any action can be taken, Ha said.

The doctor said he and his colleagues acknowledged the dangers of high concentrations of certain elements used in cement production and added that the factories are responsible for testing their emissions and publishing the results.

In principal, a factorys emissions must meet safety standards before it can begin operating, he added.
Cement production has eaten into nearly half of the Hon Chong off southern Vietnam. Photo: Tran Lam

International conservationists are warning that the cement industry in the southern province of Kien Giang is destroying limestone hills and threatening many unique species there.

The Species Survival Commission at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Flora Fauna International (FFI) recently conducted a study on Hon Chong, sometimes referred to as the Ha Long Bay of the south.

The karst limestone hills in the area are described by IUCN a global conservation hotspot. Isolated from each other like islands in the ocean, these hills show very high levels of plant and invertebrate endemism with several species confined to a single hill, according to the union.

A statement on FFI website said that the study found the area contain a larger number of threatened endemic species than any other habitat of similar size on earth.

The area has shrunk from 447 hectares to only 258 hectares as cement companies have destroyed around 42 percent of the limestone hills over the past decades.

At least 31 species in the area are currently threatened, six of which are critically endangered, it said.

One of them is a ghost snail species, Macrochlamys, known only from two Hon Chong caves. According to the researchers, around half of its original population has been lost and the remainder is facing threats.

A ghost snail species that is unique to Hon Chong caves. Photo: Jaap Vermeulen/ FFI



Among the companies responsible are Holcim Vietnam, a member of the Swiss-invested group, and many state-owned firms, FFI said.

Holcim in 2012 completed an action plan to avoid or minimize the impacts of its quarrying activities in the area, but few effective actions have been taken since, according to FFI report.

Tony Whitten, Fauna & Flora Internationals Asia-Pacific Regional Director, said in the report that Kien Giang authorities are considering a nature reserve that would give protection to nine of the 34 hills at Hon Chong, but that would only benefit a quarter of the species in the area.
A photo of Nguyen Kim Hue that her relatives sent to the media after she was missing.

A Danish-Vietnamese woman was found in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday, three days after she reportedly went missing in Da Nang.

It is still unclear why and how Nguyen Kim Hue, 34, managed to travel the 960 km from Da Nang to the southern metro.

In HCMC some people found her walking aimlessly like a person with a mental problem in Thu Duc District and took her to a nearby police station.

The police later contacted Hues relatives after coming to know about her from media reports.

Earlier Hue and her husband had visited her relatives in Da Nang and attended the wedding of her younger sister.

She has not visited Vietnam for several years.

The couple were scheduled to return to Denmark on July 19.

On July 18, she and three younger siblings went to Con Market in the central city when she suddenly went missing.

They said her cell phone rang several times before it was switched off.

We are flying to HCMC; we cant say anything until we get there, an unnamed relative of Hue told the media.
One of the four thieves who broke into the house of a senior official in Kon Tum Province last year

A court in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum sent four thieves to prison last week for stealing over a hundred thousand dollars worth of property from a senior official last year.

Nguyen Manh Quan, 24, and Le Dinh Dat, 22, received 21 and 15 years, respectively.

Nguyen Quoc Nam, 22, got 16 years and eight months while Nguyen Ngoc Thuan, 22, received 12 years.

According to the indictment, at midnight on January 1, 2013, Quan, Dat and Thuan broke into the house of Dang Xuan Tho, director of Kon Tum's Finance Department, in Gia Lai's Pleiku Town.

The thieves made off with more than 2.3 kilograms of gold, jewelry, a laptop, a gaur horn and a stun gun worth around VND2.8 billion (around US$143,000), the indictment said.

Vietnam's annual income per capita is around $1,300.

Tho's wife, Tran Thi Xuan Lan, who is also a senior official at the Gia Lai Tax Department, initially told the local police that the thieves had stolen 150 grams of gold from the house.

After the thieves were arrested, four months later, it turned out they had taken far more than that.

The crime prompted the provincial Party unit to check Tho's yearly declaration of income and assets in order to determine the origin of the stolen property.

The Party Unit has yet to announce the results of its investigation.
Upcoming events

Seniors Commodities available at Food Share

Helena Food Share will distribute Senior Commodities on Wednesday, July 27 and Thursday, July 28. Distribution will take place from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at Helena Food Shares pantry, located at 1616 Lewis St.

Senior Commodities is a program run through Helena Food Share in cooperation with Rocky Mountain Development Council. The program is designed to provide seniors with groceries every other month at no charge. This helps seniors stretch their budgets and makes it possible for them to cover the cost of other necessities such as medications, rent and transportation.

A participant in Senior Commodities must be over 60 years of age, a resident of Montana, and meet a monthly income requirement of $1,275 or less for a single-senior household or $1,726 or less for a household with two seniors. Enrollment in Senior Commodities is rolling, so sign ups can take place during scheduled distribution days.

Questions can be directed to Rocky Mountain Development Council by calling 457-7317; or by calling Helena Food Share at 443-3663.

***

AARP driver safety classes slated

AARP driver safety will hold single daytime classes in Lincoln and Helena in August. Participants receive updates on the rules of the road and learn driving strategies to adapt to the effects of aging and to reduce chances of having a crash. The course was developed for participants age 50-plus, but is open to all ages. The course fee is $20 ($15 with AARP membership card). Auto insurance companies in Montana provide a multi-year discount to participants 55 years of age and older.

Thursday, Aug. 4, at Lincoln Senior Citizens Center, Lincoln from 1 to about 5:30 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 15, at First Interstate Bank-East, 2728 Colonial Drive, Helena from noon to about 4:30 p.m.

To register for a class, call 457-4712.

Announcements

Selfie spot photo contest underway

Montanas first selfie spots were placed in Helena in June 2015. Going into the second summer, the Helena Tourism Alliance presents a Helena selfie spot photo contest. This photo contest was launched at the Symphony Under the Stars event July 16 with hand-held selfie spots. The contest will run until Saturday, July 30.

To participate, users should first locate an official Helena selfie spot, then take a selfie or a group selfie on or near the spot, and share it on Instagram using #HelenaMTselfie, #HelenaMT, and #SelfieSpot. Instagram user account privacy settings must be turned off to participate. Visit www.helenamt.com/content/listingcategory/selfie-spots/ to find the official locations.

There will be one winner per official selfie spot. Winners will be selected by hosting locations and awarded a variety of Helena prizes.

***

Host families sought for exchange students

ASSE International Student Exchange Programs (ASSE), in cooperation with your community high school, is looking for local families to host boys and girls between the ages of 15 to 18 from a variety of countries: Norway, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Japan, to name a few.

The exchange students have pocket money for personal expenses and full health, accident and liability insurance. ASSE students are selected based on academics and personality, and host families can choose their student from a wide variety of backgrounds, countries and personal interests.

To become an ASSE Host Family or to find out how to become involved with ASSE in your community, please call the ASSE Western Regional Office at 1-800-733-2773 or go to www.host.asse.com to begin your host family application.

***

HHS to compete at North American Envirothon

A team of Helena High School students will be heading to Ontario, Canada, to compete at the 2016 North American Envirothon from July 24-29. This year, the competition will focus on the theme of invasive species, an issue that is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in the Canada and the U.S. The event is the culmination of local Envirothon programs, where students compete while studying the science and sustainability of our natural ecosystems.

For over 30 years, the Envirothon has engaged high school students across North America. Every year more than 60,000 students, teachers and volunteers take part in this program, venturing to natural areas to work together and alongside mentors to address local environmental challenges by applying skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

During the NAE students will be led through workshops that focus on the science and sustainable management of soils, wildlife, forests, and aquatic ecosystems. Following workshops, students complete a series of challenges testing their skills in addressing environmental problems. Testing integrates exercises like soil and water analysis, habitat restoration, forest management, and wildlife tracking.

***

CHS class of 1986 reunion on tap

The Capital High class of 1986 invites classmates to the reunion Aug. 5-7. Friday's event will be held at the Rialto at 6 p.m. (52 N. Last Chance Gulch). Saturday includes a tour of CHS at 1 p.m. and a combined event with HHS Class of '86 at the Grubstake at 6 p.m. (1450 Lincoln Road East). On Sunday there will be a Missouri River float trip.

For more information, visit chs.helenaschools.org/about/chs-alumni-connection/ or Facebook (Capital High School Class of 1986) or email Capitalhs86@gmail.com.

Thank yous

Sponsors big part of symphony

My hat's off to Helena Community Credit Union for sponsoring the spirited fireworks show at the Symphony Under the Stars. What a great community event with a fantastic finale! And, please also consider this a tip of the hat to every sponsor who helped make this event another success in our great community.

Mick Karls

Clancy

Motorists lend helping hand

On Saturday, July 2, around noon, my car quit working at the corner of Winne Avenue and Saddle Drive. We called AAA, and it was 25 minutes before they were able to come and help us.

We were amazed at the number of people who stopped and asked if we needed help  practically every car at that busy intersection.

Helena does have a lot of good people and many were there to help us. We want to thank them for what they did, including pushing the car to the curb from where it had been sticking out into the middle of the street.

Elaine LaCroix

Helena
A Ha Tinh court Thursday sentenced a man to eight years in jail for repeatedly stealing money from several senior leaders of the central province by breaking into their offices.

Nguyen Tien Quan, 34, broke into many government offices 13 times between May 2014 and August 2015 and stole money on four occasions.

Among his victims was Vo Kim Cu, chairman of the Peoples Committee and chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance.

On June 21, 2014, he took a bus from his home in Quang Trach District to Ha Tinh town, waited until 7 p.m. before scaling the fence of the Peoples Committee office, and broke into Cus room to steal money.

On October 11, 2014, he broke into his office again to steal more money. He managed to get away with VND100 million (US$4,480) in all.

On August 6 last year he was caught red-handed while trying to steal into Cus office for a third time.
A suspect in a failed ride-by snatching attempt targeting foreigners in Ho Chi Minh City's District 3 has been detained, police said.

Ironically, Tran Quoc Quy, 15, was arrested when he showed up at the police station to claim the motorbike he had left at the crime scene.

According to a police report, on Jul. 19 evening, while riding a motorbike on Dien Bien Phu St., Dist. 3., Quy and an accomplice attempted to snatch a mobile phone of two Russian tourists, Dmitry and Zhukov.

The Russian men, however, managed to grab their motorbike, forcing the two snatchers to flee on foot. The victims then brought the bike to a local police station.

Soon later, Quy came to the police station and asked to have his motorbike back.

He claimed that he had been caught in a traffic collision and was so scared that he had to run away, leaving the vehicle behind.

However, the tourists and some witnesses of the robbery realized Quy and he was arrested immediately.
A South Korean man has been fined VND4 million (US$180) after he was found smoking while on a Korean Air flight from Seoul to Hanoi on Wednesday.

The fine was issued by Vietnams Northern Airports Authority.

Lee Sun Ho, 46, was caught having a cigarette by cabin crew of flight KE679 from Incheon to Noi Bai at 8.15 p.m.

After the plane landed in Noi Bai about an hour later, Lee was handed over to the airport authorities.

Last month, another South Korean passenger was imposed with a similar fine for smoking on a plane.

According to a Vietnam government decree, in-flight smoking is subject to a fine of between VND3 million and VND5 million.
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, July 4, 2016. Picture taken on July 4, 2016.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it sued Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for patent infringements through multiple courts in China, escalating a legal conflict between the smartphone rivals.

The suits mark the latest salvo in a fight between the world's No. 1 and No. 3 smartphone makers, who compete fiercely across the world in an industry that researcher IHS says is worth $332 billion this year.

The South Korean firm sued Huawei in a Beijing court about two weeks ago for allegedly infringing six of its patents, a spokeswoman said. She did not elaborate on the types of patents or the other Chinese courts involved.

"Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property," Samsung told Reuters in a statement.

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies - also one of the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturers - said in a statement it had not received a "formal complaint" but would defend itself as necessary.

"In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve" intellectual property rights disputes, it said.

Huawei sued Samsung in the United States and China in May, accusing its rival of infringement on patents for fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software.

Chinese technology companies have often been on the receiving end of such lawsuits, so Huawei's U.S. litigation marked something of a reversal of roles reflecting its growing clout in the global telecommunications and smartphone markets.

CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon said neither company was likely to be motivated by monetary compensation from the legal battle.

Huawei could be angling to boost its reputation by taking on the top smartphone player, he said, while Samsung's suit might be a maneuver to force Huawei to settle its claims as soon as possible.

"If you look at the patent battle with Apple and Samsung ... it ultimately created a lot of benefits for Samsung in a kind of an advertisement," he said.

"Huawei might also be trying to create some noise marketing for itself," he said, adding he expected the two firms to eventually reach a deal such as a cross-licensing agreement.

Huawei became the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones in a year in 2015 when a 44 percent jump in its shipments defied a market slowdown.
Emirates will launch daily flights between Dubai and Hanoi this August. Photo credit: Emirates' website

The airline of the United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday that it will launch daily flights connecting Dubai and Hanoi this August 3 as part of a plan to expand its network in Southeast Asia.

The new flights will last about 12 hours, including one and half hours in transit at Myanmar's Yangon, according to Emirates' announcement on its website.

Entering Vietnam in 2012, Emirates currently operates one passenger route to Ho Chi Minh City and one cargo-only service to Hanoi.

With the new route, Emirates' network in Southeast Asia will expand to 12 cities in seven countries.
U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump applauds in front of Ivanka Trump after his introduction at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016.

At times, the speech was drowned out by the cheering crowds in the arena of the Republican National Convention. Social media crowned a new political star. Some Republicans said they were seeing the U.S. president they longed for.

It was Ivanka Trumps night.

The eldest daughter of New York businessman-turned-presidential nominee Donald Trump almost stole the show on Thursday night with a speech about her father that roused a packed Cleveland convention hall, broadcast to millions.

On Google, there were more searches for Ivanka Trump than for her father.

The 34-year old businesswoman and former model talked about her father's yearning to improve America, childcare, equal pay for women and other issues close to her heart, with a poise some found befitting of the White House.

Donald Trump stands in the Trump family box with his daughter Ivanka awaiting the arrival onstage of his son Eric at the conclusion of former rival candidate Senator Ted Cruz's address, during the third night at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 20, 2016.

"Okay, why isn't @IvankaTrump running for President?" television actor Anson Mount said in a Twitter post.

"One of the best speeches - if not the best speech - tonight," said Chris Herrod, a 50-year-old delegate from Utah who had worked for Trump's vanquished rival Ted Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas.

One of Trump's five children, Ivanka was chosen to introduce her father, who then officially accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Since Trump announced his intention to run for the White House last year, she has been steadily drawn into her fathers presidential campaign along with her 35-year-old husband Jared Kushner.

The couple both take part in the Trump campaigns family meeting each Monday morning, helping make decisions about spending and strategy, according to a source familiar with the meetings.

Among the children, Ivanka is the one who is often the bridge to women voters and seems to have the mission of selling her father's softer side. When she is not involved in the campaign, she helps to run the family's sprawling business empire from its New York City headquarters.

Ivanka Trump, daughter of Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump, speaks during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016.

This week in Cleveland she has been everywhere, lobbying for her father with delegates and donors, appearing in television interviews and leaving a trail of picture-taking fans in her wake. One man, a Republican delegate in Cleveland, carried a placard all week around the convention that read: Ivanka, 2024. First Female President.

Her star turn in Cleveland was one of the top trending topics on Twitter late on Thursday, with about 121 tweets mentioning her name posted every minute. Overall sentiment on her was more positive than negative by a ratio of 3 to 1, according to analytics firm Zoomph.

Ivanka missed her one chance to date to vote for her father: she had not changed her party registration from Democrat to Republican in time to cast a ballot in the April 19 New York primary election.

She more than compensated on Thursday night, some convention delegates said.

"She gave us enormous insight into him and the kind of man he is," said retiree Fernando C. deBaca, a 78-year-old New Mexico delegate. "She's (an) enormously capable young lady, as is her brother. We're going to see the beginning of a dynasty here."
An Indian air force plane carrying 29 people went missing on Friday on a flight to a remote island chain in the Bay of Bengal, the Defence Ministry said.

The Russian-made AN-32 was on its way to Port Blair, the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, from the southeast city of Chennai when it disappeared from radar.

Military officials said the weather had been rough in the Bay of Bengal for the last two days during the monsoon season.

The aircraft was last detected on radar 151 nautical miles east of Chennai, making a left turn with a rapid loss of height from 23,000 ft, according to a note provided by the air force to the Defence Ministry.

There were 21 military personnel on board including six crew. The other people on board were civilians, some family members of soldiers deployed on the islands.

"It was a routine courier mission to Port Blair, the plane was airborne at 8:30 a.m. and due to land at 11:30," air force spokesman Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said. It had fuel to fly for four hours and 15 minutes.

The plane was overhauled and went through an upgrade in September 2015, according to the note given to the ministry.

The plane had reported three snags this month, according to the note - a pressure leak from the port door, a hydraulic leak and sluggish throttle movement.

The Defence Ministry said four surveillance planes, 12 ships and a submarine were searching for the aircraft in one of India's largest search and rescue operations in recent years.

India has been beefing up its military presence in the Andamans, 750 nautical miles from mainland India, in recent years.

The islands are near the Malacca Straits, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes which link the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and East Asia.

The Defence Ministry said the submarine had been deployed to locate transmissions from an emergency locator beacon on the aircraft. The AN-32 is a workhorse of the air force, chosen for its ability to operate from short runways.

The air force has 101 of the AN-32s that entered service in 1984 and have gone through mid-life upgrades and life extensions since then.
Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim speaks to the media ahead of the verdict in his final appeal against a conviction for sodomy in Kuala Lumpur

Anwar Ibrahim, the imprisoned de-facto leader of Malaysia's opposition alliance, has endorsed a political compact spearheaded by his arch-nemesis Mahathir Mohamad, as ruling party rebels and the opposition join hands to fight against scandal-tainted Prime Minister Najib Razak.

This new coalition could potentially pose the biggest political threat to Najib, who has been facing persistent calls to step down over multi-billion dollar graft allegations tied to the state-owned investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that he oversaw.

On Wednesday, U.S. prosecutors filed five lawsuits to seize more than $1 billion in assets they said were tied to money stolen from 1MDB.

Both Anwar and former premier Mahathir have long been central figures in Malaysian politics. A bitter feud between the two senior leaders spanning nearly two decades has shaped the political landscape.

Anwar, who is one year through a five-year jail term for sodomy - a charge that he and his supporters claim is politically motivated - told Reuters there is "every reason" for the opposition to work with anyone who is committed to an agenda that pushes reforms, democracy and the rights of the people.

"Our position is to collaborate with all progressive forces on a democratic reform agenda and pro-rakyat policies," he told Reuters from prison through an intermediary, using the Malay word for citizen.

Anwar was at a court hearing this week when he provided the comments.

This is the second time Anwar has been sent to prison. He was first jailed by Mahathir on charges of sodomy and graft in the late 1990s, after he was sacked as deputy prime minister by Mahathir.

Anwar, who has since been cleared of his earlier convictions, said he is willing to overlook the decades of bad blood he has had with Mahathir if it means giving power back to the people.

"Contingent upon a policy which is committed to reforms, democratic and pro-citizenry, then there is every reason for the opposition to engage and work together," he said.

Perfect timing

Najib has so far appeared unassailable amid the 1MDB scandal, which is the subject of global money laundering probes in at least six countries.

He has weathered persistent attacks on his premiership from the time the scandal first broke 18 months ago. He culled dissenting voices from within his ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and used draconian laws like the Sedition Act to silence activists and opposition party leaders.

Just last week, Mahathir announced his plan to form a new splinter party made up of rebels from Najib's ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), which will serve as a platform to work with his old foes in the opposition.

Mahathir, who ruled for 22 years, has made no qualms over his main objective, which is to oust Najib over his handling of 1MDB.

It is widely speculated that former deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin - who was sacked by Najib last year - will step up to lead Mahathir's new party, lending influence from the southern UMNO stronghold state of Johor. He could possibly be a candidate for prime minister should the opposition succeed in removing Najib.

Also in the mix is former UMNO vice-president Shafie Apdal, whose resignation from the party sparked a mass exodus of UMNO members from the Semporna parliamentary constituency of his home state of Sabah, another UMNO stronghold.
Officers take the death row inmate of a drug case, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso (C) of the Philippines, to her first judicial review trial in the District Court of Sleman, Yogyakarta, March 3, 2015.

A woman from the Philippines convicted in Indonesia for drug smuggling and sentenced to death will not be among the first round of executions carried out when capital punishment is resumed after a lull, the attorney general said on Friday.

Indonesia imposed a moratorium on executions for five years before resuming them in 2013. It provoked international outrage in April last year with the execution of eight drug traffickers, seven of them foreigners.

After the outcry, authorities said they were postponing executions while the government focused on reviving he economy. But President Joko Widodo's administration has this year pledged to resume executions by firing squad.

A Philippine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, got a last-minute reprieve last year, following a request from Manila after an employment recruiter, whom Veloso had accused of planting drugs in her luggage, gave herself up to police in the Philippines.

"Not yet," Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told reporters when asked about Veloso.

"We are still waiting on the legal process in the Philippines, which we have to respect."

Prasetyo has said 16 prisoners will be executed this year, including nationals from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, but has declined to give a specific time frame. That number will be more than doubled next year, he said.

Indonesia has declared a "drug emergency" and vowed no mercy for drug traffickers.

Authorities have not given a breakdown of the numbers of foreigners on death row but citizens of France, Britain and the Philippines are known to be among them.
U.S. Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016.

People seeking a deeper understanding of Donald Trump's economic policy came up empty-handed this week at the Republican National Convention.

Best known to Americans previously as a reality TV host and having never held public office, the New York businessman on Thursday accepted the party's nomination for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

The party establishment has fretted over some of his plans to curb illegal immigration, renegotiate trade deals and levy tariffs on China. Trump's skepticism about free trade puts him at odds with Republican orthodoxy. Wall Street investors are wary and confused.

In speeches from the main stage and in panel discussions on the sidelines, the four-day convention was notable for a paucity of policy details, the result perhaps of a desire to play down differences among the party faithful.

The lack of specifics was too much for one head of a multinational corporation, who complained at a business forum that he had no idea what to expect from Trump, a New York real estate developer.

We feel anxious, said Michael Thaman, chief executive officer of Owens Corning, which operates in 25 countries. In business, obviously details matter.

Trump offered little insight himself in his convention-ending acceptance speech. He spoke in broad, thematic strokes without much detail, sticking closely to positions he had outlined during 13 months of campaigning.

"Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo," Trump said.

Hillary Clinton the top topic

Speakers in Cleveland placed a greater emphasis on defeating the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, than on what Trump has called the failed economic policies of President Barack Obama.

Donald Trump gestures at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 2016.

On Tuesday night, when the theme was Make America Work Again and the economy was the designated topic, a rough search by Reuters of the prime-time speeches found some 80 mentions of the word Clinton compared to about 15 mentions of economy.

According to transcripts of the speeches delivered at the convention, only Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. mentioned Dodd-Frank, the financial oversight law many Republicans rail against.

Asked on Thursday, before the older Trump's speech, about the shortage of policy specifics, his campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said: "The campaign is pleased with the convention program, the content of which has been diverse and dynamic and we look forward to an exciting conclusion tonight."

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was chief economic policy adviser to Republican presidential nominee John McCain in 2008, was not satisfied with his experience.

He described taking part in a panel discussion on Wednesday with two Trump advisers, television commentator Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore of the conservative Heritage Foundation, that he said was light on details.

'Isnt Mr. Trump bad on trade?' he said someone would ask.

'Yes, but were going to fix it. Dont worry.'

"'Isnt his tax plan a problem that's going to lose $12 trillion?'

"'Yes, but well fix it. Dont worry.'"

Kudlow and Moore also appeared on Tuesday at an event hosted by conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, along with donor Andy Puzder, the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which owns fast-food restaurants Hardees and Carls Jr.

The group discussed trade and immigration policy, with panelists at times shrugging off Trumps lack of specifics. "All you really need to know is the alternative is Hillary Clinton, Puzder said at one point, reinforcing the week's theme.

Unconventional convention

Republicans typically use their nominating conventions to emphasize their candidates' main policy points. Think tanks and lobby groups hold panel discussions. Experts circulate white papers.

Women hold Trump signs at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., July 21 2016.

With Trump, the events were built more around his personality and the need for the party to unite behind him. There were some such gatherings in Cleveland, but fewer than usual, Holtz-Eakin said.

Some advisers to past Republican candidates suspected Trump was not relying on a vast team of policy advisers.

Lanhee Chen, an adviser to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, sorted through convention speeches in 2012 before speakers delivered them because, he said, he wanted to make sure they hewed closely to Romney's positions.

"I imagine the Trump campaign doesn't have that process in place because they don't have a lot of policy to talk about," Chen said. "It just says that policy hasn't been a priority for them. You end up with a situation where the candidate is making pronouncements that don't seem particularly well informed."

Some delegates who spoke to Reuters seemed unconcerned by the policy-light approach to the convention, arguing that it was more important for the gathering to whip up enthusiasm among the delegates and forge unity.

This is more of a party, said Ray Suttle, a 53-year-old lawyer and delegate from Virginia. You dont like people talking shop at a cocktail party, do you?
An 18-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday to five years under the supervision of the Montana Department of Corrections for robbing a Helena store.

Moriah Hadley pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal endangerment as part of an agreement.

The sentence came with a recommendation for Hadley to be placed in a trauma-based treatment program. Hadley may have compromised eligibility for the program by allegedly getting in a fight at the jail this week, according to testimony at Thursday's hearing in district court.

Hadley also was ordered to pay $600 in restitution for robbing B&B Market on New Year's Day.

Surveillance footage shows footage of Hadley as she entered B&B Market, 100 N. Rodney St., through the south doors and then "pops out suddenly with a gun raised in her right hand," according to court documents.
In his speech Thursday night accepting the Republican nomination, Donald Trump stretched the facts on numerous occasions, got them right in other cases and cherry-picked data to make his case for the presidency. The speech was accompanied by 282 footnotes, primarily from mainstream media outlets and government sources, to support his claims.

Below is a look at Trump's statements, and how they compare to the facts.

Crime

TRUMP: "Homicides last year increased by 17% in Americas fifty largest cities. Thats the largest increase in 25 years. In our nations capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60% in nearby Baltimore."

THE FACTS: Trump's figures come from a Jan. 27 Washington Post article analyzing preliminary FBI crime statistics that won't be finalized until the fall. But violent crime remains lower than it was a decade ago and the rate has been falling for roughly 25 years. "When considering 5- and 10-year trends, the 2014 estimated violent crime total was 6.9 percent below the 2010 level and 16.2 percent below the 2005 level" the FBI reports.

TRUMP: "The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year."

THE FACTS: Trump mixes up some numbers here. The footnotes to Trump's speech cite a Newsweek article that uses data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund about the number of firearms related deaths of law enforcement officers. Most of that jump, to 26 so far this year from 18 fatalities at this point last year, is a result of the killing of five Dallas police officers earlier this month. Overall deaths of officers are up 8 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, according to the organization.

Immigration

TRUMP: "The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015."

THE FACTS: Trump's numbers are accurate, but they reflect the number of people stopped at the border. Family unit border apprehensions, a proxy for attempts to illegally enter the country, climbed to 51,147 in the first nine months of the 2016 fiscal year. That's 28 percent higher than the number for the entire 12 months of the 2015 fiscal year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

TRUMP: "My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama."

THE FACTS: Clinton has called for the admission of 65,000 refugees from Syria, from the 10,000 President Barack Obama is seeking to admit in the current fiscal year. The screening process for those refugees takes, on average, one to two years.

Economy

TRUMP: "Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000."

THE FACTS: He is correct in that between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2014, median household incomes were down $4,186. It's also slightly misleadingTrump picked the all-time peak of median household income. Since the peak in 1989, for example, median household income is up, but only by $351 dollars. It would be more accurate, though not much less damning, to say median household income barely went up between 1989 and 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows some improvement in average hourly wages since the end of 2014.

Taxes

TRUMP: "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world."

THE FACTS: This claim is misleading. The grain of truth is that the U.S. corporate tax rate is one of the highest in the world, although deductions and exclusions shrink actual corporate taxes paid to levels below those in many other countries. However, when it comes to overall tax revenue collected as a share of GDP, the U.S. ranks among the lowest of the 34 industrialized nations in the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development, according to data provided by the organization. The low ranking reflects in part corporate profits held offshore that go untaxed in the U.S.

TRUMP: "While Hillary Clinton plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this yearDemocrat or Republican."

THE FACTS: Trump's tax plan, which proposed roughly $10 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, is evolvingand it may not end up containing "the largest tax reduction of any candidate." This week, conservative economists Stephen Moore and Lawrence Kudlow, who are advising his campaign, said a new version that's coming soon would reduce the revenue cuts by about two-thirds.

Iran

TRUMP: "Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons."

THE FACTS: A nonpartisan Congressional Research Service report in March said the Iran nuclear agreement struck last year has "lessened, although not eliminated, U.S. concerns about Irans nuclear program." Under the deal, Iran destroyed the core of its plutonium reactor as part of broader accord to give up or delay its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of U.S.-led sanctions that helped cripple the nations economy. The International Atomic Energy Agency has since determined that Iran has removed more than two-thirds of the centrifuges needed for enrichment of nuclear material and reduced its stockpile of highly-enriched uranium.

TRUMP: The nuclear deal "gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us nothing."

FACTS: The rhetoric is misleading; the money refers to Iranian assets currently frozen due to sanctions. The U.S. estimates that $55 billion in frozen assets are supposed to be released to Iran. Iranian officialswho say they need the money to buy airliners, improve infrastructure and boost a struggling economyargue European and Asian banks are reluctant to deal with them because they fear remaining U.S. sanctions that werent affected by the nuclear accord.

Islamic State

TRUMP: After four years of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, "ISIS has spread across the region, and the world."

THE FACTS: This is misleading. The Islamic State made its most significant gains on the ground in Syria and Iraq after Clinton left office in February 2013 and it is now losing territory. According to the Pentagon and State Department, the group has been pushed from 50 percent of its territory in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria. Nevertheless, the groups ideology has spread online and helped inspire deadly attacks from Europe to the U.S.

Egypt

TRUMP: "Egypt was peaceful," he said. During Clintons time as secretary of state, Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control.

THE FACTS: Egypt had indeed been peaceful during the 30 years Hosni Mubarak ruled the country, but the upheaval had little to do with Hillary Clinton, and was initially hailed as a sign of democratic progress. The Muslim Brotherhoods Mohamed Morsi took over the leadership in 2012 after the Arab Spring paved the way for first free presidential vote in the countrys history. Morsi was ousted in a 2013 military coup, following Clintons departure as secretary of state, prompting the Obama administration to suspend military aid.

Guns

TRUMP: "My opponent wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment."

THE FACTS: This claim is inaccurate. Clinton has spoken out for modest gun control measures that are permissible under Supreme Court precedent, such as background checks and a ban on assault weapons. She opposes a 2008 ruling that expanded gun rights, but hasn't come close to calling for the abolition of the Second Amendment.
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump applauds onstage as his running-mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence concludes his speech during the third night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 20, 2016.

Donald Trump has said a lot of things that, were he a sitting U.S. president instead of a candidate for the job, could be expected to roil financial markets.

If investors were taking the Republican presidential nominee at his word, they would be selling shares of Apple Inc, Mondelez International Inc and Ford Motor Co, and cashing out of Mexican equities - all targets of Trump threats of boycotts, barrier walls or import taxes. Investors betting on a Trump presidency would be buying shares of U.S. companies that dealt exclusively with domestic customers and suppliers.

Yet the Trump trade is not much in evidence on Wall Street, where some market strategists and investors told Reuters they find it difficult to position their portfolios for his possible presidency, in part because many of his proposals are contradictory or lack specific implementation details.

Should Trump win the Nov. 8 election, some investors said, it is not clear how the New York businessman could push through policies that clash with mainstream Republican party views on free trade and low taxes.

"The investment community in particular is having trouble figuring out what (Trump) is about," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland.

"They are not taking individual items as seriously as they would with other candidates," he said.

Traders said they will be watching Trump's speech at the Republican convention on Thursday night for signs of how he would address business and tax issues, though they expect scant detail.

The Trump campaign did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment on how investment strategists viewed his policies.

Breaking up banks

U.S. stock indexes have rallied to new highs as Trump received the nomination of his party on a platform that includes a proposal to reinstate the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that would require a breakup of the largest U.S. banks.

A Trump presidency "would not be good for markets at all," because of the uncertainty among investors about his true priorities, said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies and solutions at Voya Investment Management in New York.

Zemsky, however, said he has not so far been selling securities because of Trump. "It's hard to react to things that are said because of the lack of specificity, and the probability of him being elected is still low so changing your portfolio because of him is not likely to be profitable," he said.

To be sure, Trump has supporters on Wall Street. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, has backed Trump and said he would be good for the economy because he would cut back on business-limiting regulations, such as those governing bank investments and labor policies. He also thinks Trump would bring in tax reform.

Although never elected to public office, Trump defeated 16 Republican rivals to win the nomination. He trails Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 7 percentage points, narrowing the gap from 15 points late last week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

If Trump's stated proposals were carried out, that could leave the economy significantly weaker because they would result in large federal budget deficits and an anti-global stance that could hurt trade, according to a June analysis by Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.

Zandi forecast the loss of 3.5 million jobs during a Trump administration alongside a drop in stock prices and real estate value.

Trump has said he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, build a wall between the United States and Mexico to stop illegal immigrants, and raise a 35 percent tariff on products made in Mexico by Ford and United Technologies Corp's (UTX.N) Carrier Corp.

Yet there has been no selloff of Mexican stocks, which are up 10 percent so far in 2016. That is the best gauge of investment reaction to Trump, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

"For the most part," Ablin said, "that suggests to me the investment community has not considered a Trump presidency a probable scenario at this point."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump points at the gathered media during his walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, U.S., July 21, 2016.

Republican foreign policy veterans and outside experts warned that the suggestion by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that he might abandon NATO's pledge to automatically defend all alliance members could destroy an organization that has helped keep the peace for 66 years and could invite Russian aggression.

"Statements like these make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe," Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump critic who is one of the Republican Party's leading foreign policy voices and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

"I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Baltic states, must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump. I'm 100 percent certain how Russian President Putin feels  he's a very happy man," he said.

Trump's comments in a New York Times interview "would seem to put him on the same page with Mr. Putin," Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Reuters.

In the New York Times interview, Trump, in response to a question about potential Russian aggression toward the Baltic states, said that if Moscow attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations "have fulfilled their obligations to us." He added, "If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes."

"It's the end of NATO," Robert Hunter, a former U.S. ambassador to the alliance under President Bill Clinton, told Reuters. "The essence of NATO, more than any other single factor, is the commitment of the United States of America to the security of the other 27 members."

Asked about Trump's comments, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU knows it needs to "work more on our defense capabilities," but said America needs to keep solidarity with its allies.

"It's very simple to realize that in the world of today, which is quite a complicated one and quite a dangerous one, you need friends," said Mogherini, who spoke in Washington at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

RELATED COVERAGE

 Kerry says U.S. remains committed to NATO alliance, security commitments

"INFLAMMATORY REMARKS"

A letter signed by a bipartisan group of 39 national security experts said Trump's "inflammatory remarks" do not represent the interests of the United States.

"The strength of our alliances is at the core of those interests," said the group, which includes prominent Republicans such as former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former State Department official Eliot Cohen.

The United States must uphold NATO's commitments "to all of our allies, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania," the letter said.

Responding to Trump's suggestion that his decisions would depend in part on whether states that were attacked were meeting their financial commitments to the alliance, former diplomat Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it is important not to see NATO or any alliance solely in budget terms.

"More important is the net benefit the U.S. derives from the stability and security of the country and region affected and the price the U.S. would pay if stability were to be lost or its interests undermined," Haass told Reuters.

Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which created NATO in 1949 and calls an attack on one member an attack on all, has been invoked just once - to help defend the United States after the 9/11 attacks.

Following the attacks, NATO sent AWACS planes to patrol over U.S. skies, with more than 800 crew members from 13 NATO countries flying over 360 sorties. As part of the eight measures approved to support the United States, NATO, about three weeks later, sent elements of its Standing Naval Forces to patrol the Eastern Mediterranean and monitor shipping, expanding that to include the entire Mediterranean several months later.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also noted that the alliance "deployed a third of the troops in Afghanistan for over a decade, where over one thousand soldiers from non-U.S. NATO allies and partners gave their lives.

Still, some experts downplayed Trump's comments, even as they criticized them.

Kurt Volker, who was U.S. ambassador to NATO under both Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama, said it was inadvisable to create doubts in adversaries' minds about the consequences they would face if they invaded a country.

"Putin loves it," Volker said.

But he said the general European attitude was to take Trump's pronouncements with a grain of salt. "Everyone knows it's an election campaign," he said. "It doesn't necessarily tell you what U.S. government policy is going to be."
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump gives two thumbs up as he arrives to speak during the final session at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016.

Donald Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as U.S. secretary of state and vowed to be tough on crime and illegal immigrants in a speech on Thursday accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump's speech was designed to set the tone for the general election campaign against Clinton, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on Nov. 8.

As the crowd chanted: "Lock her up" for her handling of U.S. foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: "Let's defeat her in November." Thousands of supporters who were gathered in the convention hall roared their approval.

The remarks by Trump, 70, closed out a four-day convention that underscored his struggle to heal fissures in the Republican Party over his anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about his temperament. The event was boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents.

Trump stuck to his hardline position on illegal immigrants, saying they were taking away jobs from American citizens and in some cases committing crimes. He accused President Barack Obama of inflaming racial tensions rather than calming them.

His speech was filled with some of the bravado he used to win the Republican nomination over 16 rivals.

"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump said. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

In his speech, Trump offered little in the way of details about his policies but rather portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned.

Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W. Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump said nation-building pursued by Clinton in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse. He blamed her for the rise of Islamic State militants and blasted her willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees.

"After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said.

'Things have to change'

The New York businessman, who has never held elective office, needs a strong performance on Thursday night to improve his chances of getting a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia.

In a contest that pits two politicians viewed as unfavorable by large segments of the American people, Trump also accused Clinton, 68, of being the puppet of big business, elite media and major donors who want to preserve the current political system.

"That is why Hillary Clintons message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change  and they have to change right now," Trump said.

Citing a wave of violence in American cities, Trump vowed to restore law and order, warning that 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records "are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens."

Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump formally accepts the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016.

Trump said he would speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month.

"I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump said. The next president takes office on Jan. 20.

Convention discord

The prevailing narrative at the Cleveland convention has not been about Trump's positions, but dominated instead by the failure of the party's various factions to unite behind Trump.

Trump wants to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, ban Muslims from war-torn Middle Eastern countries and renegotiate international trade agreements. He also says he would force U.S. allies in Europe and Asia to pay more for the U.S. defense umbrella. All those positions go against prevailing Republican beliefs.

A series of distractions has largely thwarted a bid by the Trump campaign to show him as a caring father and magnanimous business leader who would bring greater prosperity and safety to the United States.

Trump's wife, Melania Trump, made the biggest strides toward that goal. But when it was discovered her remarks repeated lines from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, the wife of the Democratic president, the uproar lasted for three days.

On Wednesday night, Trump's last major rival during the bitterly fought Republican primary battle, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, was booed off the stage for refusing to endorse Trump and urging Republicans instead to "vote your conscience."
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The Helena man who set fire to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore will spend time in prison for his crimes.

Daniel Boone Boos received a 20-year sentence to Montana State Prison with 13 years suspended Thursday. District Judge Kathy Seeley also ordered Boos to pay $434,000 in restitution.

"This is a difficult case," Seeley said after hearing testimony Thursday afternoon. "He is a danger to the community."

Lewis and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher said Boos has the tendency to spark fires when he feels helpless.

"This is not something that will go away," Gallagher said.

"He did significant damage to this community," he added.

Gallagher went along with the 20 years in prison with 10 suspended recommendation of the probation officer who conducted the pre-sentence investigation. He noted this was much less than Boos first faced with his initial charges.

Boos was 31 years old when he started the devastating fire last summer. In April, Boos pleaded guilty to a felony charge of arson by common scheme. The charge incorporates the July 16 ReStore fire along with two smaller fires set by Boos.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped three counts of arson and a charge of attempted arson. He had previously pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Brent Flowers, Boos' public defender, reminded the judge his client has been in jail for a year since his initial arrest. Flowers said he didn't see a need for such a lengthy sentence, adding that no particular program at the prison has been recommended. Mental health treatment is key, he added.

"There's no necessary time he needs to be there," Flowers said, while suggesting the judge opt for a completely suspended sentence.

Boos also admitted to starting a grass fire in the Grizzly Gulch area two days prior to the ReStore arson and setting a trash can ablaze near a school.

Authorities responded to the ReStore, which is the Old Salvation Army Building at 1531 National Ave., at about 4 a.m. on July 16. After his arrest, Boos told investigators "he enjoyed starting the fires because it gave him a sense of empowerment."

The ReStore, which takes in donated and used building materials and resells them to fund the organizations' low-income housing projects, moved back into the building last month after an extensive restoration project.
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Sgt. Bruce Simmons said his training immediately kicked in after he and others were shot July 17 in Baton Rouge, allowing him to focus not on 
With the funeral of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald today, a grieving city has begun to bury the fallen lawmen who died in a horrifi
The state will need to be something of a helicopter parent, at least at first, to future sediment diversions along the Mississippi River, monitoring and adjusting how they are operated, according to a report released Thursday.

Operating diversions to maximize land building while minimizing negative impacts on the environment will involve monitoring how much water and sediment are coming down the river as well as studying how the wetlands are responding.

In addition, decisions about how diversions should operate to meet changing river conditions need to be made ahead of time to give people who live and work nearby advance notice, said Natalie Peyronnin, director of science policy with the Environmental Defense Fund.

So no, youre not making a decision on a daily basis, she said.

The diversion expert group of 12 core members and 42 guest experts -- put together by the Environmental Defense Fund in cooperation with the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition partners -- met over the past eight months to study how Louisiana coastal wetlands respond to diversions and to come up with recommendations on how a diversion should be run.

The report outlines the recommendations to build the most land possible with consideration to the fisheries and other environmental concerns

In the last 50 years, Louisiana has lost 20 percent of its wetlands, said LSU professor Andy Nyman, adding that if nothing is done, another 15 to 30 percent could be lost over the next 50 years.

Projects that divert sediment from the Mississippi River to surrounding wetlands in a controlled manner have been part of coastal restoration recommendations since at least the 1970s. The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is currently engineering and designing two such diversions, the most advanced being the Mid-Barataria sediment diversion near Myrtle Grove.

While touted as land builders, the diversions have some fishermen concerned the flow of water and sediment will destroy the estuary that provides their livelihood. The new report acknowledges there will be changes in fisheries, but adds the diversion can be operated to increase the overall productivity of wetlands.

We decided operation should be focused on diversity rather than any one species, Nyman said.

Without defining an exact plan, the expert group laid out how the Mid-Barataria diversion could operate during the winter-to-spring high-water season under a variety of scenarios. The idea is to mimic Mother Nature and get freshwater and sediment into the wetlands that normally would have flooded if the levees werent in place.

Winter operations have the least impact because plants are mostly dormant and there are not many species using the wetlands for nursery or breeding. In addition, cold fronts that push to the coast could help move sediment from bays and into the marsh.

Spring and early summer diversion operations would be more complicated because alligators, blue crab, juvenile brown shrimp and even bottlenose dolphins need to be considered.

In addition to seasonal considerations, diversions must be operated differently in the first five years until gradually opened at full flow. The gradual approach would allow plants, fish and other animals a chance to adapt and allow for channels to develop in the wetlands to disperse the flow, said University of New Orleans professor Alex McCorquodale.

People living and working along the coast also need to be considered, not only with environmental changes caused by diversions, but with how they can be part of operating the structures. While the operation of diversions need to be put together by studies, work must continue to determine how decisions impact people, said Shirley Laska, professor emeritus at the University of New Orleans. The most successful outcome of a sediment diversion will happen if the negative impacts are mitigated or compensated, she said.

Fishermen disagree on whether Mississippi River diversions will improve coastal life in Louisiana Two fishermen with decades of experience between them expressed different expectations to a 

We see there is a continual concern about what will happen when you have such a large diversion, Laska said. We have to be thinking more in advance than we have in the past.
To those people, mostly from out of state, who are wondering whether David Duke has any shot at all of becoming Louisiana's next U.S. Senator,
It's only a newly filed bill, which puts it a long way from becoming law. And the measure sponsored by two Louisiana congressman would, they both admit, only go so far in addressing the conditions that led to Alton Sterling's death at the hands of Baton Rouge police, and informed the community's reaction.

Yet the rare bipartisan proposal by U.S. Reps. Garret Graves, of Baton Rouge, and Cedric Richmond, of New Orleans, aimed at finding ways to de-escalate potentially violent encounters between citizens and police, is a good first step. And it sends an important signal that tragedies like Sterling's death and the subsequent massacre of three police officers don't need to send people to their respective corners.

The two congressmen "come from different worlds," as Richmond put it in an interview this week. Graves is a white Republican who represents relatively prosperous areas of south Baton Rouge. Richmond is a black Democrat whose district encompasses the struggling areas north of Florida Boulevard.

Graves issued a compassionate and balanced statement soon after video of Sterling's deadly encounter hit the airwaves. He called the images "gut-wrenching" and sent prayers to Sterling's family, even as he noted that most cops are "extremely professional, dedicated, courageous and put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities." He also called for full transparency in the investigation and understanding that "harmony between citizens and law enforcement depends just as much on law enforcements integrity as it does on our collective respect for the law."

Graves said in an interview that his initial reaction to the tape focused on Sterling's apparent resistance to police. Had that he complied, Graves thought, "then it's likely this would have turned out very differently. We wouldn't be having a funeral."

But watching the televised community outrage, he said, opened his eyes.

"My initial response was very different from that person on TV, so I tried to say, 'What happens when that's my cousin, son, daughterit helped me look at it all from a different perspective.' "

Richmond said the two really got to talking after Philando Castile  who did seem to be complying  was killed by police in Minnesota during a traffic stop. He said that a widespread perception among African-American people that they often face disparate treatment from police "means that it's their reality."

"That's a hard conversation," he said. "It is not an indictment of our police officers. It's a recognition that there's a disconnect."

The bill itself contains elements that are important to each politician.

Graves' priorities include giving police tools to bring a resistant suspect under control without using deadly force. It calls for research into technology that's more powerful than a taser but short of a gun. Graves also made sure the bill does not create federal mandates, and that the cost of providing aid to local departments is offset elsewhere.

Richmond, who's facing a reelection challenge from outgoing Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden, is more focused on finding money "so that we can look at de-escalation training."

"My beginning is before Garret's," he said. "The interaction once they approached him, was there any alternative to Tasing and tackling? As more video comes out we will be able to see how the initial interaction started."

Richmond noted that funding for community policing has been drastically cut in recent years and said he's all for offsets if they can be found. "But if there's ever been an emergency," he said, "we're in it."

But while the two politicians admit the bill is relatively modest, both said they really wanted to send the message that people need to be talking, and listening.

Richmond said he and Graves wanted to show young people in particular that "Congress was serious, and that we heard them and were willing to engage in a conversation."

As for Graves, he acknowledged that his voting record and Richmond's are "very, very different" and that they'd never agree on some proposed responses. "But I wanted to find something where we can work together."
The first night of the Republican National Convention opened with one Louisianan, Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson, enthusiastically hailing the fellow reality show star at the top of the ticket. The final night, highlighted by Donald Trump's official acceptance of the nomination, was kicked off by another Louisianan, one who had a somewhat different message to deliver.

Tony Perkins, a Louisiana delegate, former state representative and high-profile head of the socially conservative Family Research Council, announced what can only be described as an "oh, well" of an endorsement.

"We have gathered here in Cleveland to select the Republican nominee for president. We have accomplished that mission. Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party," Perkins said. "I will be voting for Donald Trump in November, and I will urge my fellow Americans to do the same.

The underlying story isn't that Perkins and his allies will support Trump, but that their backing for the party's nominee is so backhanded.

Perkins was chosen as a delegate for Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who'd grabbed the previous night's headlines by pointedly withholding an endorsement for Trump. Perkins also pushed for a platform that decries same-sex marriage even though it's now the law of the land. And he boasted in a blog post of fighting off the "very vocal and significantly financed LGBT delegates" who "tried to hijack the platform" by, among other things, having it condemn terrorist atrocities committed against gay and lesbian people in particular as opposed to humanity in general.

This, of course, is in direct contradiction to Trump's condemnation of just such targeted attacks during his speech, a rare nod to diversity in a campaign that's otherwise championed mean-spirited mockery.

Yet there Perkins was, putting all that aside and urging unity behind the only Republican left standing. There was a lot of that going around in Cleveland this week, among not just social conservatives but also free traders, foreign policy sophisticates, small government enthusiasts and any number of longstanding GOP factions.

There's always been some tension between these groups, but they emerged from Cleveland with at least one thing in common: They all have to be wondering, still, how on earth this happened.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she is pressing forward with new garbage collection contracts for about half of New Orleans, improving reliability and restoring curbside recycling even as a federal court order threatens to put a kink in those plans. Read the full storyLaToya Cantrell signs new garbage collecion contracts as New Orleans hauler fights on
If some of these decision makers in Helena have never been out to eastern Montana and enjoyed Fort Peck Lake -- you couldnt find a better time to visit than now. Its a lake that boasts a coastline greater than the coast of California. Its some of the best deer and elk hunting and walleye fishing youre ever gonna find. As I type, the famed Governors Cup Walleye Tournament is about to get underway.

On the north end of the lake, youll find the historic town of Fort Peck. Grab a steak at the Gateway. Catch a show at the Fort Peck Summer Theatre. Camp at Kiwanis Park. Visit the Interpretive Center. Pay your respects to our nations finest at the newly minted Northeast Montana Veterans Memorial.

But for many Montanans, the best way to access Fort Peck Lake is through the Hell Creek State Park and Marina at the south side of the lake. Unfortunately, the current administration under Gov. Steve Bullock is working to take that access away.

In fact, just last fall, Bullocks appointees on the newly created parks board proposed walking away from Hell Creek State Park entirely. And you know what their excuse was? Money. Thats right, the political appointees in state government have no problem throwing nearly $8 million at taking a cattle ranch out of production, but then claim that they have to shut down Hell Creek State Park in eastern Montana because -- money?

The reality is, come hell or high water, Montanans can get the job done and save Hell Creek. We simply need new, innovative leaders in the governors office in Helena that are willing to work with the people to find solutions. For example, administrative costs have apparently become one of the big burdens with Hell Creek State Park from the states perspective. Im told that locals have offered to help FWP manage the site, offering a significant savings to the state of Montana. Instead of walking away from Hell Creek, state officials should be walking to the table with the local community that has offered to help keep Hell Creek open.

Ive heard gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte talk with locals here in Scobey, Glasgow, and elsewhere about bringing a culture of customer service back to state government. Boy is that needed in this situation.

John Brenden is a farmer and Republican state senator from Scobey, who represents a large chunk of northeastern Montana.
Suspect in JPSO deputy shooting may have suffered spinal cord injuries, lawyer says

Suspect in shooting of JPSO deputy may have suffered spinal cord injuries, lawyer says
Video: NOPD chief explains what to do, what not to do during a police stop

Video: NOPD chief explains what to do, what not to do during a police stop
A creative visionary. An astonishing artist. A devoted father. A "jackhammer made of feathers".

These were among the phrases used to describe Robert Foster, the artist, designer and pillar of Canberra's artistic community, who died tragically last week at the age of 53.

Pallbearers carry the bespoke coffin of designer Robert Foster at his funeral at the Fitters Workshop. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Hundreds gathered at the Fitters Workshop in Kingston on Friday to farewell the man whose singular artistic vision not only spawned a range of internationally renowned homewares, but also inspired a generation of makers and artists.

Outside, the rain beat against the windows and wind whistled through the rafters, but you could have heard a pin drop as the bespoke casket  handmade from recycled timber and aluminium by a group of artist friends  made its way to the front of the room.
Jordan Sharma was drunk when he clenched his fist and punched a man to the ground in a matter of seconds in the wake of Canberra's New Year's Eve celebrations.

Now he will spend nine months behind bars for the attack which left his victim, aged in his 20s, unconscious on a Civic footpath with a shattered jaw in the early hours of January 1.

On Friday Sharma, 20, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to two years and three months imprisonment, to be suspended from April next year.

Justice Michael Elkaim said the court faced a difficult task in sentencing Sharma  a young offender with an unblemished background who had committed "a single act of immense stupidity".
The Like Canberra Party, aka the re-invented Bullet Train for Canberra Party, has been nothing but cheeky in its branding.

Its very name  and logo  is if not a direct steal, then at least an appropriation of the Labor Government-funded Like Canberra campaign from a few years back. And let's not ignore the shades of Facebook.

Similarities? The Like Canberra Party logo (top) and the Labor Government-funded 'Like Canberra' campaign logo (bottom) from 2012.

The Like Canberra campaign, which ran in 2012 ahead of the 2013 centenary celebrations, asked Canberrans to list the top 100 things they liked most about the national capital (Floriade came up on top). And it also featured the thumbs-up logo.

Like Canberra Party president Tim Bohm, was unapologetic.
Australia, China and Malaysia are expected to suspend  not cancel  the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 as the likelihood of finding wreckage is fading.

The decision was expected, given the drawn-out search for the aircraft is down to the last 10 per cent of the designated search area.

Malaysian and Australian investigators examine the piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania Credit:ATSB

Rough winter weather has disrupted the search in the southern Indian Ocean.

The $180 million search had been expected to finish by last month and could now finish in spring.
The world's two largest providers of oilfield drilling and fracking services have now declared that the worst may be over in the two-year-old oil market crash.

Schlumberger  a key contractor to BHP  said Thursday that the oil industry appears to have reached the bottom of the cycle, echoing smaller rival Halliburton, which on Wednesday said the North American market reached its lowest point in the second quarter and is poised for modest growth the rest of this year.

The oil surge helped propel the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index up 0.6 per cent for the week. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

"They're the two dominant players in the market, both of whom just called the bottom," James West, an analyst at Evercore-ISI in New York, said on Thursday.

"It's a positive. Calling the bottom in the market sends the right signal and Schlumberger has a ton of credibility."
Lewis and Clark County Coroner M.E. "Mickey" Nelson has met a deadline to complete 51 pending death certificates dating back to 2011, avoiding the threat of court action.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Service entered into the agreement with the county and the coroner on May 31. The agreement gave gave Nelson 45 days to complete the death certificates on which the cause of death was listed as pending, pending investigation or pending toxicity.

A July 14 letter from Nick Domitrovich, legal counsel to the public health and safety division of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, notified the county that the terms of the agreement had been met.

Accordingly, as per the agreement, DPHHS will not file the petition for a writ of (mandamus) that accompanied that document as an exhibit, the letter stated.

Death certificates are essential in closing financial accounts, collecting benefits and settling estates. They are also used to monitor population trends in mortality and morbidity.

Calls to Nelsons office and the offices answering service were not returned in time for this story.

The state has advised the county that there can be a six-month delay between a death and receipt of a toxicology report from the state to determine the cause of death, said Eric Bryson, the countys chief administrative officer.

I have no idea how many, if any, 2016 death certificates are pending, Bryson said.

However, he said he will ask the state Office of Vital Records in August if any death certificates from January are pending, which will allow the state seven months to provide information Nelson may need.

Come September, he will ask whether any are pending from February, he added.

The county commission is still interested in making sure there isnt an unusual delay in issuing death certificates. So well keep track as best as we can, Bryson said.

It shouldnt happen again, he added.

County officials and Nelson cited several reasons that contributed to the previous backlog of death certificates.

Nelson, 71, who is in his 42nd year as the county coroner, said in June that he has been by himself for more than 40 years and the number of people who die each year has increased.

The county commission budgeted for a deputy coroner in fiscal year 2012, which began July 1, 2011, according to an Oct. 13, 2015 letter to Nelson.

However, seeking criteria to use in a hiring process delayed filling the position, Nelson said previously. He also noted that he was trying to keep up with current cases in addition to completing those that were overdue during that time.

Im 24/7, 365, he explained in June. He said hes not complaining, but at the same time it became overwhelming and I just flat couldnt keep up with some of (the duties) which are very important, routine duties of the office.

While Nelson had an administrative assistant until 2012, hes had three people fill that position since then, he had said.

And when he was without this assistance, he handled both jobs.

A deputy coroner joined the office in January of this year but resigned suddenly in late April through a letter that expressed her relief and regret.

A deputy coroner was hired in June, and this fiscal years county budget contains money for another deputy coroner, Bryson said.

The additional deputy coroner hired in June allowed Nelson to get caught up with the backlog, Bryson added.

Cremations, which were formerly far less frequent than now, require a coroners authorization and amount to about 40 percent of Nelson's work.

He noted that he takes authorization for cremations seriously, as this means a body can never be examined later should questions arise regarding the death.

While state law allows physicians and advanced practice registered nurses to complete death certificates, Nelson explained previously that completing a death certificate would be difficult although not impossible if they had not been to the scene where the death occurred.
Australia's biggest retailer, Woolworths, has more problems with its suppliers than rival Coles, the competition regulator and suppliers to the supermarkets say.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims said Woolworths had yet to have "a moment of awakening" on its treatment of suppliers, as Coles had when it admitted to 15 instances of unconscionable conduct against eight suppliers in 2014.

ACCC chair Rod Sims is investigating broadband speed claims made to consumers. Credit:Louie Douvis

"Coles, I think, learned a lesson," Sims told Fairfax Media. "I don't think we've seen that from Woolworths based on the anecdotal stuff we hear.

"We talk to a supplier who has got problems, and mostly it's about Woolworths than about Coles."
Global coffee chain Starbucks reported quarterly sales growth at its cafes that fell short of expectations in all major markets as customers made fewer visits, sending down its shares.

Results from the United States, which contributes the lion's share of sales and profits, missed targets due to the delayed start of a popular Frappuccino Happy Hour promotion and weaker demand that executives attributed to the contentious US presidential election campaign, terrorist attacks and civil unrest.

Sales at Starbucks' cafes, especially in its home US market, have disappointed investors. Credit:Adrian Brown

The world's largest coffee chain reported that global sales at cafes open at least 13 months rose 4 per cent in the fiscal third quarter ended June 26, well short of the 5.6 per cent gain analysts had expected, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.

The US-dominated Americas region posted 4 per cent growth, short of analysts' call for a 6.1 per cent gain, after rising 7 per cent in the second quarter and 9 per cent in the first quarter.
Exxon Mobil Corp's takeover of South Pacific natural gas driller InterOil Corp expands the company's presence in a market where demand for the fuel is set to grow for at least another quarter century.

Despite a worldwide glut of liquefied gas that crushed prices from South Korea to Spain, Exxon struck a deal to pay as much as $US3.6 billion in stock and cash for InterOil, the explorer that discovered the vast Elk-Antelope gas field in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. It's Exxon's biggest acquisition since a 2009-13 buying spree that saw the world's biggest energy producer splurge on multiple North American gas drillers, including the $US35 billion buyout of XTO Energy.

Exxon plans to funnel InterOil's gas through its existing $US19 billion LNG complex on the Papuan coast for export to manufacturers, chemical producers and power generators in East Asia and beyond. Credit:Bloomberg

Exxon plans to funnel InterOil's gas through its existing $US19 billion LNG complex on the Papuan coast for export to manufacturers, chemical producers and power generators in East Asia and beyond. The oil giant is looking past the current glut to its own internal projections that show global demand for gas growing at an average of 1.6 per cent annually through at least 2040. Most of that increase will occur in Asia, according to Exxon.

North-east Asia "is still the big kahuna in the LNG market, and it's a solid, stable market", said Zach Allen, president of Pan Eurasian Enterprises, a North Carolina-based tracker of liquefied natural gas shipments. "The Japanese in particular have a preference for stability and safety of supply, and they'll pay for that."
At least he didn't die. So does that make Charles Kinsey a lucky one?A lucky black man in the US seems like a contradiction in terms right now.

But Charles Kinsey, an unarmed black man, was shot by a police officer in Miami on Thursday  and lived to tell about it. Something most blacks shot by cops in the US these days don't get to do.

Kinsey works as a behaviour therapist. On Thursday, an out of control patient with a toy truck in his hand wandered into the street. He was yelling and shouting at Kinsey, and someone nearby called the police.

When the police arrived, Kinsey lay down on his back with his hands in the air and proceeded to explain to the police what was happening.This was videoed by someone watching nearby.
The odds of a Donald Trump presidency, already long, have probably lengthened after this week's Republican convention in Cleveland. National conventions are nowadays just elaborately choreographed investitures at which party grandees deliver glowing testimonials and presidential nominees make acceptance speeches intended to be as uplifting and as broadly appealing as possible. What unfolded this week, however, was frequently chaotic, disorderly and distracted.

The convention arena video screens played up, Mr Trump's wife delivered a speech that lifted passages from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, and defeated candidate Ted Cruz told delegates to "vote your conscience", a Congressional code phrase meaning "vote against your leaders". Adding to the air of misadventure, The New York Times published a wide-ranging interview with Mr Trump on Wednesday in which he suggested NATO members not "paying their bills"  that is, spending less than 2 per cent of their GDP on defence  should not expect the US to automatically come to their aid.

Mr Trump's acceptance speech was similarly confrontational: The Los Angeles Times described it as "painting a dark portrait of a country besieged at home and threatened abroad". There was little in the way of policy details or insights into how he might handle the presidency. Instead, Mr Trump revisited proposals for a wall along the US border with Mexico, an open-ended ban on immigrants from "any nation that has been compromised by terrorism", and the renegotiation of trade agreements to create new jobs in the US. And he promised delegates that "beginning on January 20, 2017 [inauguration day] safety will be restored".

A presidential candidate running a law and order campaign is an unorthodox strategy, but then nothing about Trump's tilt at office has been conventional. The New York businessman and reality TV star joined the Republican primary contest as the aggrieved outsider (ironically enough) railing at the treachery and unreliability of the country's elites and promising to act on the concerns of ordinary voters regarding immigration, job losses, failed US fiscal and foreign policies and crumbling infrastructure. Mr Trump's utterances were so outlandish and provocative, however, that many commentators predicted a quick exit from the contest. Instead, he saw off 16 other contenders to eventually claim the nomination.
Cyberfraud and cybertheft tend to be under-detected and underpunished in most countries, including Australia, but it is estimated the amount being stolen from corporations worldwide at present totals about $4.9 trillion a year  or close to 5 per cent of global GDP (Australia's GDP in 2015 was $1.62 trillion).

Most fraud and financial crime today is conducted over the internet, which has made it much easier to conduct, cost-free for phishers, less risky for perpetrators, and far more lucrative.

Most fraud and financial crime today is conducted over the internet.

While we are familiar with the daily fraud threat in the form of "419" emails from scammers saying "Your Account Payout $2,815.48 is Pending" or asking us to click on a link so they can download malware, the big money is in targeting corporations. Financial institutions are a prime target but often do not publicly acknowledge losses unless they are too large to hide.

Larger-scale corporate cyberfraud is a group activity  the average successful fraud by an individual is $106,000; for fraud by a group it is $664,000. At present the most sophisticated criminal hacker groups are in eastern Europe. The best Asian hackers are working for Asian governments  but it seems only a matter of time before they start to freelance against the Australian corporations they hacked as government employees.
The atrocity in Nice on Bastille Day felt like the worst of all the recent atrocities. The most heartless, the most demented. Once more, we were in a typhoon of opinions about Islam and its relationship with Western culture and democracy.

I wondered how many people speaking out about Islam actually knew any Muslims, had actually sat and talked to them or experienced their beliefs as they express them in their homes and daily lives. For nearly 250 years in this country, there have been people who have spoken and written confidently about Aboriginal people, often with a pseudo-academic veneer, without actually knowing Aboriginal people. Very little of what they've said and written has stood the test of time precisely because they didn't really know what they were talking about.

Flowers and messages placed along the beach of the Promenade des Anglais in Nice after the Bastille Day truck attack. Credit:Claude Paris/AP

Muslim Australians are Australians and, as such, I stand with them. I do not accept the legalistic argument that you cannot be accused of racism in relation to Islam because it represents a religion and not a race. Racism is wrong because it involves generalisations about a whole group of people that are negative and harmful. The same can be done, and is done, to Muslims as a group.

But I also have to admit to having a fear of Islam  specifically, that people claiming to act in Islam's name are capable of committing unimaginable horrors seemingly without a flicker of conscience. Statements such as the one I just made usually spin off into side arguments  e.g. are the people committing these crimes really to be considered as Muslims? The fact is they consider themselves as such and, to that extent, Islam, whether it be seen as a religion or a political ideology, is somewhere in the causative mix.
Donald Trump's pitch to Americans has homed in on the most successful  and worrying  aspects driving Britain's exit from Europe and Pauline Hanson's revival in Australia.

Mr Trump vows to support those who fear terrorism, immigrants and neighbourhood crime. He promises "a country of law and order" in which the right to bear arms is secure.

Donald Trump may be "remarkably ignorant" but has touched on the problems of the white working class which the political establishment has failed to address. Credit:AP

The Republican presents as an outsider who defies Washington elites who spin the true state of the nation and race relations: "We cannot afford to be so politically correct any more."

He speaks to those who wonder when the benefits of trade deals will trickle down to them.
The gradual transition to renewable energy In South Australia, when the wind didn't blow and Victoria's electricity link was down, they did use gas (a fossil fuel) to produce electricity. But when the wind was blowing, fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide were put into the atmosphere. Also, because South Australia bought electricity sourced from gas, less carbon dioxide was emitted than if it had bought it from coal. Maybe this is an acceptable outcome whilst we are in transition to renewable energy sources. In terms of emissions saved, it is already certainly better than coal-based electricity. Let's look at the bigger picture, please. Jill Dumsday, Ashburton Environment cost of building turbines When wind farms are under discussion, a significant factor is conveniently overlooked  the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases which are produced in manufacturing and installing the wind turbines.

Roy Barclay, Frankston South We love her as she is Well done, Planning Minister Richard Wynne (The Age, 22/7). Lord mayor Robert Doyle listens to neither traders nor customers of the Queen Vic Market, but merely pushes the development barrow. To whose benefit? The sham consultations between Melbourne City Council and the market's stakeholders has been window dressing at best. Rents have been inflated and the configuration of the stalls revamped with the view, it seems, of driving longstanding stall holders out by stealth, thereby paving an easier path to redevelopment. As a weekly food shopper at the Queen Vic for more than 30years, it is evident to me that the council's plan is working  just wander down A-Shed. Any further decimation, and South Melbourne Market will become our shopping destination. George Greenberg, Malvern

The people's market I have been going to the Queen Vic Market since 1961. My late aunt had a stand selling honey for many years. In those days it was twice the size it is now but we had a desperate need for a carpark, so half the sheds were pulled down. Now it is going to be blocks of flats. We desperately need more flats in the city, don't we? Leave the market alone and build the flats somewhere else. Spend the money on hospitals or schools that need funding, not a market that works well. George King, Wheelers Hill A worthless promise? It is interesting that United States Vice-President Joe Biden has pledged "we're not going anywhere" in relation to the US and Australia alliance (The Age, 22/7). That was certainly the case during the first and second world wars. The US sat back and waited, and only came to our aid more than two years after the wars had started and tens of thousands of our troops had been slaughtered. Since then we have gone into various questionable wars with the US  Vietnam, Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan etc. Somewhat of an imbalance, I would suggest. Let us hope the US does come to our aid, rather than waiting for two years, if we are ever attacked.

Rob Cartledge, Melton Appalling behaviour The passengers who were removed from a Phuket-bound Jetstar flight (The Age, 22/7) have brought shame to Australia. Questions need to be asked about their outrageous behaviour. How long had they been drinking at Sydney Airport before departure? How well did bar staff manage the "responsible serving of alcohol"? How well did the Jetstar crew assess their sobriety? Did they serve alcohol to them on the plane? If so, did they consider cutting this off? Too often passengers "load up" at airport bars and then are supplied with more alcohol on planes. The crew and other passengers have to endure disgraceful behaviour, language and abuse. Also, the travel plans of passengers may be thrown into chaos when drunks are offloaded at unscheduled stops. Airport bar staff and cabin crew must more closely monitor passengers' alcohol intake before a major disaster occurs on a flight. Brian Nankervis, Mornington

Try bulk-billing clinics Jane Gilmore ("Kill Medicare? Over my dead body", 22/7) uses the fact that she could not afford the $80 initial outlay to visit her GP as the reason she did not get treated when she first developed symptoms of what turned out to be staphylococcus infection. She needs to find a local bulk-billing clinic. Yes, often they are full of doctors you do not know, you see a different one each visit, and you do not get the same continuity of care as seeing your regular GP. However, I recently switched to our local bulk billing clinic for some situations and have found the doctors to be professional and perfectly capable of treating common ailments. There is Medicare support out there, and we are so lucky to have it. Victoria Fitzgerald, Camberwell The right to health care Thank you, Jane Gilmore. As Nye Bevan, father of Britain's National Health Service said, "no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means".

Richard Ryan, East Trentham Potential for abuse I am shocked by Peter Martin's revelations about the census' encroachment on our privacy (The Age, 22/7). The notion of a government database of our names, incomes, addresses, families and religion is Orwellian stuff. It would be naive to assume that such information does not exist already, spread across various departments. Hopefully it is not shared indiscriminately. What this really reflects is a blatant contempt for our privacy and our valuing of it. In this age of information, the Australian Bureau of Statistics seems to assume our ambivalence towards the government prying into our lives. And, however innocently, this sets up a precedent for increasingly authoritarian and invasive government. Outrageous concepts like Donald Trump's call for a registry of Muslims are merely a fragment of this census' potential for abuse. Thomas Baker, Camberwell

Tell us why, Minister Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's refusal to allow Cambridge-graduate student Ananth SM to take up a PhD scholarship at Melbourne University is not "bizarre" (The Age, 21/7). It is shameful, detrimental to Australia's reputation in both education and science, possibly racist  and not made in my name. Jane Clark, Hawthorn East An exorbitant cost According to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, childcare prices have risen to $65 per week for single parents and $111 per week for couple families ("The real costs of starting a family", 20/7). However, childcare often costs more than this with some providers charging $126 per child per day. For a two-parent family (who are are not defined as low-income earners) a child attending childcare four days a week costs $504 per week. The childcare rebate (which is available to all as it is not means tested) allows families to claim back 50per cent of costs but is capped at $7500 per child per annum. For the two-parent family described above, this cap is reached approximately two thirds into the year meaning that it pays more than $1000 per fortnight for the final third. It total, with all rebates included, this is a staggering $18,708 per annum for each child in care.

Rose Alderman, Reservoir The wrong man for UN Former prime minister Kevin Rudd created, with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, the "PNG Solution" whereby asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat, without a visa, would be held in Manus Island for assessment. If it was determined that they were legitimate refugees, they would be settled in PNG. They would not be allowed to settle in Australia. This policy contravened the rights of asylum seekers under the UN Refugee Convention, to which Australia has long been a signatory. If Mr Rudd is appointed the UN Secretary-General, it will represent a rejection by the UN of its own convention and the UNHCR. Chris Young, Surrey Hills The siege inquest

Within days of Sydney's Lindt Cafe siege, Fairfax journalist Mark Kenny raised queries over the authorities' conduct in resolving it. Now the Coroner's inquiry is showing his perception was right. What a shambles. Des Files, Brunswick Great achievements Your editorial says the "core ideal" of the Olympic Games is "celebrating the very best of human achievement" (The Age, 21/7). Twaddle. I adore sport but have no illusions about its importance. It is dwarfed by human achievements in politics, science, medicine, education, art, warfare and communities. If you wanted a single example from this past week that renders sport trivial, look at the motorcyclist who risked his life trying to stop the truck in Nice. People are awesome and sport is magnificent, but it will never be "the very best of human achievement". Not even close. Shane Bonetti, Heathmont

Grahams fight back Another kick in the guts for Grahams (and Graemes); this time an act of commission, in place of omission. Have you heard of a newly discovered star cluster, the Graham Nebula? A cute new bird species, the Graham tit? Ever heard of Saint Graham? No. A grotesque humanoid monster is created and named "Graham" ("Transport Accident Commission's new road toll weapon", 22/7). We have been patient, but now we are angry. Grahams of the world unite. Graeme Rose, Waldara AND ANOTHER THING

World Considering how dysfunctional the UN is, it seems appropriate to nominate Rudd to be secretary-general. Aaron Govendir, Blaxland, NSW Is it true that Hillary has offered Cruz her vice-presidential spot? Jack Sonnemann, Lucaston, Tas

Trump will make America grate again. And again and again. Richard Opat, Elsternwick The Trumperor has no clothes. Linda Lawrie, North Warrandyte When will the West rescue Aleppo's innocents by defying Assad and Putin and bombing the city with food and medical supplies?

John Walsh, Watsonia Politics The Queen Vic Market ain't broke, Mr Doyle, so don't fix it. Ross Weetman, Elwood Robert Doyle, keep your mitts off our market.

Joan Coxsedge, Balwyn North Any idea what happened to the "ideas boom"? Geoff Charles, Mount Waverley What does the fine print in the Darwin lease say about Chinese war ships entering Darwin Harbour? Keith Robinson, Glen Waverley

Luckily I'll be out of the country on August 8. If I were here, I certainly would not be entering my name into any census data base. Reg Murray, Glen Iris Furthermore Rohan Connolly (21/7), where can we find statistics on goals from free kicks? That could shine light on Hawthorn's magic carpet ride. Matthew Kelly, Upwey
There's been a lot of predictable handwringing over the news that Sydney schoolkids in the area surrounding what's been optimistically designated the Bays Precinct have been given colourful new picture books about the exciting and currently entirely imaginary benefits of the yet-to-be-finalised development, as an opt-in element of their geography syllabus.

And they're real page-turners too, playing into the well-known passion that under-11s have for the establishment of potential satellite university campuses and serviced technology hubs.

And sure, you'd expect lefty whingers to be asking questions like "isn't this blatant propaganda?" and "who authorised this direct corporate interference in primary school education?" and "dear god, is this some sort of elaborate Chaser-style prank highlighting the indistinguishable unity of developers and the NSW government?"

But I for one celebrate this decision, not least because it represents one of the very few remaining sources of funding for the arts.
This is what Duncan Lewis, the head of ASIO, told Fairfax Media late last year about Islamist extremism's connection to the broader faith: "This is not about the religion other than the fact that it is being hijacked by ne'er-do-wells."

And this is what the Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen said on Facebook before the facts of the Merrylands police station attack on Thursday night were even known: "I wonder how quickly some idiot is going to inanely say this has nothing to do with Islam or talk about a religion of peace or blame those who oppose radical Islam or even Australia as a whole for marginalising some 'disaffected youth'."

He continued: "How about for once we talk about the problem at hand: the ideology of radical Islamism and its adherents and what we, as a nation, are going to do about it."

After it became clear the incident had nothing to do with Islamists, Mr Christensen said his point still stood: "We need to discuss the rise of radical Islam within Australia and the threat it poses to national security."
A Chinese serviceman who faked his family history to enlist in World War I is one of the 300,000 Australian soldiers commemorated in a virtual vigil for one of the darkest days in Australia's military history.

Sidney Wah Shang was 24 when he enlisted as part of the 17th reinforcement for the 12th battalion, the unit that fought in the Battle of Fromelles on the Western Front on July 19, 1916.

Mr Shang as an older man. Credit:Suppied

To mark the centenary of the night that saw more than 5000 casualties, ANZAC Centenary Queensland has asked the public to share a virtual candlelight vigil, a video of a flickering candle featuring a soldier's silhouette, across social media to pay tribute to those fallen soldiers.

Mr Shang joined the battalion in September at Somme, France, during one of the coldest European winters in decades after having faked his way into the 17th reinforcement.
The owners of a Gold Coast car wash cafe will face court next week accused of underpaying and exploiting workers.

Ausinko Pty Ltd and its owner Richard Sang Kyun Kim will face action from the Fairwork Ombudsman after a complaint from a staff member led the ombudsman to discover allegedly improper practices involving a further 58 staff.

The owner and manager of Expresso Car Wash Cafe on the Gold Coast will face court next month. Credit:Justin McManus

The company operates two Expresso Carwash Cafe sites on the Gold Coast at Southport and Labrador and the investigation found the company had allegedly underpaid workers a total of $147,362.

The investigation began after an overseas worker, employed as a cook, complained to Fair Work Australia when she was required to pay back more than $21,000 of her wages to her employer.
Despite its $22.5 million signature koala protection policy, the previous LNP government did not buy any land in the sensitive "Koala Coast" region between 2012-15 to protect them, the Labor government says.

A detailed report made public earlier this year shows an 80 per cent decline of koala numbers in Koala Coast regions since 2011.

The LNP did not buy any koala habitat in the Redland's Koala Coast area in its $22.5 million land purchase plan between 2012-15, Labor says. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The Koala Coast includes the Redlands council region, plus smaller eastern sections of Logan and Brisbane council areas, and has been south-east Queensland's most crucial koala protection zone since 2008.

The Liberal National Party did not buy any land in this area.
Queensland TAFEs have shed more than 40,000 students enrolled on campus over the last four years, figures released by the government show.

Responding to a question on notice, Attorney General and minister for training Yvette D'Ath tabled the figures in Thursday's estimate hearings that paint a grim picture for the TAFE sector.

TAFE on-campus enrolments are down. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

The figures show that on-campus enrolments are down in every region with the regional south-west being hit the hardest.

In the year 2012-2013 there were 18,942 students enrolled across the 10 TAFE campuses in the region, which includes areas like Toowoomba, Inala and Roma. By the end of the last financial year, just 8774 students were enrolled, a drop of more than 10,000 enrolments.
A teenage motorcycle passenger is fighting for his life in hospital after the two-wheeler he was riding on crashed into a concrete bollard in the early hours of Friday morning.

The 18-year-old man was riding pillion on the motorbike when it overshot a bend in the road on Canning Street, Avondale Heights.

Two people were injured in Avondale Heights motorcycle smash.

When paramedics arrived at the scene the teen had gone into cardiac arrest and was no longer breathing, an Ambulance Victoria spokesman said.

The man was able to be revived and was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition, having sustained facial injuries in the crash.
A fire causing an estimated $1 million in damage at an auto parts factory in Melbourne's north has been deemed suspicious by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.

The MFB said on Friday the investigation of the Campbellfield fire was now in the hands of police.

Fire at a car parts factory on Sydney Road, Campbellfield. Credit:Channel Seven

The blaze was first reported at Hyon All Parts on Sydney Road in Campbellfield at 8.47pm on Thursday.

It took 55 firefighters more than two hours to bring the fire under control, while gas cylinders exploded inside the factory and the roof of the building partially collapsed.
A man claiming to be missing Victorian mum Karen Ristevski's stepson says he was questioned by police over her disappearance.

Anthony Rickard, 32, has told News Corp he is the son of Mrs Ristevski's husband, Borce, and denies killing his stepmother, despite feeling anger over a family dispute.

Mrs Ristevski, 47, was last seen at her Avondale Heights home, in Melbourne's northwest, about 10am on June 29 after she went for some fresh air after a heated discussion with her husband.

Police have said they hold grave concerns for her welfare as she hasn't used her phone or accessed her bank account since.
New York: Former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres has emerged as the front runner to succeed Ban Ki-moon as United Nations secretary-general.

One of the early favourites, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, was fifth on the shortlist of 12 following the first straw poll conducted by members of the UN Security Council.

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was not considered in the straw poll because he is yet to be nominated. But that doesn't rule him out of the race as there is no deadline for nominations.

Mr Rudd has been lobbying Canberra as well as the key members of the UN Security Council to support his candidacy.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., July 21, 2016 -- The luxurious Genesis G90 flagship, and the mid-luxury Genesis G80 launch with customer programs and an industry-best warranty that exceed anything offered in the luxury market today. From valet service appointments, to complimentary scheduled maintenance and Genesis Connected Services, the Genesis Experience is designed to elevate ownership, demonstrating that time is the ultimate luxury. These exclusive programs, introduced with the G90 and G80, will be applied to all future Genesis models.





Erwin Raphael

"Genesis cars exude confidence, and it has driven us to design an ownership experience that is personalized, convenient and saves time," said, general manager of Genesis in the U.S. market. "Respect and courtesy are the foundation of the Genesis Experience. We will honor our owners' time through streamlined processes that put their needs first."





Vehicle service and maintenance is often a time-consuming chore. Taking this challenge head on, Genesis has completely re-engineered the service experience for its owners by providing complimentary valet service for three years. For their convenience, Genesis owners will have several options for scheduling their vehicle's maintenance and service: a simple online scheduling system, a call to the dedicated Genesis call center, in vehicle through Genesis Connected Services or via the exclusive Genesis mobile app, which is directly connected to the dealer's service scheduling system.

And rather than driving to a dealership for the service appointment, Genesis owners can choose to have their vehicle picked up at an agreed upon location of their choice. A complimentary Genesis loaner car will be dropped off, allowing owners to go about their day without interruption. When the service is completed, the customer again chooses the time and location for the vehicle to be delivered.

Complimentary Maintenance

All 2017 Genesis models include complimentary maintenance, standard for the first three years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. This program covers common factory recommended maintenance items including air filter, engine oil, oil filter and tire rotation.

Genesis Connected Services

By 2020, 90 percent of cars will be connected to the cloud. Genesis vehicles are equipped with Genesis Connected Services to bring seamless connectivity directly into the car with technology like Remote Start with Climate Control, Destination Search powered by Google, Remote Door Lock/Unlock, Car Finder, Enhanced Roadside Assistance, and Stolen Vehicle Recovery. Genesis Connected Services can be easily accessed from the buttons on the rearview mirror and center stack, the Web or via an exclusive Genesis owners' smartphone app.

Genesis Connected Services is complimentary for three years and includes the following three services packages: Connected Care, Remote and Guidance.

Connected Care package :

Automatic Collision Notification (ACN) and Assistance

SOS Emergency Assistance

Enhanced Roadside Assistance

Monthly Vehicle Health Report

Maintenance Alerts

Automated Diagnostic Trouble Code Notification (DTC)

Service Link

Genesis App (smartphone)

(smartphone) On-Demand Diagnostics

Driving Information

Remote package :

Remote Start with Climate Control

Remote Door Lock/Unlock

Remote Horn and Lights

Car Finder via Mobile App

Stolen Vehicle Recovery/Slowdown/Immobilization

Vehicle Safeguard Alerts: Geo-Fence Valet Alert Speed/Curfew Alert



Guidance package :

Destination search powered by Google

Destination Send-to-Car by Google

SiriusXM Traffic and Data Services

SiriusXM Traffic and Data Services are complimentary for three years on all Genesis vehicles. Owners can enjoy real-time SiriusXM Data Services, such as Travel Link, which includes traffic, sports, weather, stocks, fuel prices and movie times providing customers the ultimate luxury of time.

Map Care

Outdated map software in a navigation system can be a real inconvenience. The sophisticated Genesis navigation systems will be kept up-to-date with free downloads to the system's SD card via the MyGenesis website. The complimentary updates will be available for three years.

Best Warranty in the Industry

Every Genesis is covered by an industry-leading warranty with enhanced roadside assistance and concierge services. Genesis Roadside Assistance is dedicated to providing safety, and convenient services for owners in need of repair. The Genesis Enhanced Roadside Assistance program will be able to provide select services remotely, at the vehicle's location or coordinate a loaner vehicle with the assistance of specialized concierge agents.

Remote Services with diagnostics checked through Genesis Connected Services or a phone call to Concierge

Roadside Concierge dispatched to vehicle location to resolve select issues on site such as flat tires, dead batteries, lock out services and more

Complimentary Genesis loaner vehicle dropped off at location while owner's vehicle is repaired at a Genesis brand retailer

This also includes enhanced vehicle towing and trip interruption services. If a Genesis becomes disabled, the owner knows help will be sent 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For additional protection and customer peace of mind, all Genesis vehicles are covered by an unrivaled industry-leading warranty program unsurpassed in the luxury market.
The New BMW 740e and 740Le xDrive







 BMW i technology makes its debut on the new BMW 7 Series models.

 Four-cylinder petrol engine with synchronous electric motor generates a total output of 326hp.

 Providing permanent all-wheel drive even in pure-electric mode using the latest BMW xDrive technology.

LONDON - July 22, 2016: The sixth generation of the BMW 7 Series is a true flagship of the BMW range, blending comfort, style, dynamic ability and cutting edge technology in equal measure to create an inspiring mode of luxury transport. To complete the range, the BMW 7 Series has borrowed technology from the BMW i sub-brand to follow in the footsteps of the BMW X5 eDrive40e, BMW 225xe and the BMW 330e to create the new BMW 740e and 740Le xDrive. The plug-in-hybrid variants of the new BMW 7 Series allow long-distance comfort and luxury to be experienced in combination with all-electric, locally emission-free mobility.

2

Both models sit within the BMW iPerformance range and benefit from BMW eDrive and the Carbon Core body structure with which are rooted in know-how from BMW i. The intelligently controlled interaction between the combustion engine and the electric drive, which together generate a total system output of 326hp, endows the BMW 740e and 740 xDrive with strong acceleration while simultaneously realising a substantial reduction in fuel consumption and emissions.The electric motor is fully integrated into the eight-speed Steptronic transmission. This ensures that pure-electric driving, the dynamics-enhancing electric boost function and the recuperation of braking energy are able to operate efficiently.Working intelligently together, the combustion engine produces an output of 258hp whilst the electric drive system produces112hp, resulting in a combined system output of 326hp and a combined peak torque of 500Nm. The immediate response of the accelerator and sustained delivery of dynamic power allow the BMW 740e to accelerate from zero to 62mph in 5.4 seconds and the BMW 740Le xDrive to complete the same sprint in 5.3 seconds.The high-voltage lithium-ion battery has a gross capacity of 9.2kWh and net capacity of 7.4kWh. It is stored underneath the rear seat bench in a space-saving position that also provides optimum crash safety. In line with the BMW 7 Series models, the BMW 740e and BMW 740Le xDrive also benefit from a level surface in the luggage compartment, which offers a capacity of 420 litres. The stowage volume and practicality of the load area sets the benchmark in the luxury plug-in hybrid sedan segment.The energy flow between the high-voltage battery, electric motor and charger is controlled by power electronics likewise developed specifically for these models. The power electronics also regulate the supply of energy from the high-voltage battery to the 12V on-board electrical system via a voltage transformer.The cars sporty driving characteristics are accompanied by extraordinarily low petrol consumption and emissions. The BMW 740e records a combined fuel consumption of 134.5mpg whilst the 740Le xDrive achieves 117.7mpg. The COemissions associated with petrol consumption are 49g/km and 54g/km respectively. The efficiency of the BMW eDrive technology developed using know-how from BMW i is proven in the all-electric, locally emission-free driving resulting in a range of 29 miles.





BMW 740Le xDrive: permanent all-wheel drive mixed with all-electric driving.

The BMW 740Le xDrive follows in the tyre tracks of the BMW X5 xDrive40e as the brands second model to distribute its power permanently to all four wheels in pure electric driving.



The intelligent all-wheel-drive system ensures supreme traction, optimised directional stability and enhanced agility through all types of corners in all-weather and road conditions. The variable power distribution between the front and rear wheels gives the BMW 740Le xDrive a dynamic accelerative ability, with the journey from rest to 62mph completed in 5.3 seconds.



As with all iPerformance models, the eDrive button allows the driver to change how the plug-in hybrid drive system operates. In the AUTO eDRIVE hybrid function, intelligent energy management ensures the combustion engine and electric motor work together to the dynamically optimised effect. The operating strategy defaults to all-electric mode at low and moderate speeds to utilise the advantages of locally emission-free mobility as widely as possible. The combustion engine is initiated at speeds of approximately 50mph or under heavy throttle applications.



The driver can switch to the MAX eDRIVE pure-electric mode at the touch of a button. In this setting the car is powered exclusively by the electric motor, although the combustion engine can be brought into play at any time by pushing the accelerator into kickdown. In the MAX eDRIVE setting, the BMW iPerformance variants of the new BMW 7 Series have a pure-electric top speed of 87mph. The Battery Control setting allows the charge of the high-voltage battery to be set manually. The driver can input a target value between 30 and 100 per cent of maximum charge, which is then available for pure-electric driving later in the journey.



The plug-in hybrid variants of the new BMW 7 Series are also equipped as standard with the newly designed Driving Experience Control switch on the centre console. At the touch of a button, the driver can activate a vehicle setting that optimises dynamics, comfort or efficiency. The range of characters encompassed by ECO PRO, COMFORT and SPORT modes are even more clearly defined than with conventionally powered vehicles. Beyond this, the Driving Experience Control switch offers the option of selecting ADAPTIVE mode. In this setting, the cars responses adapt noticeably to the drivers style and route profile.





BMW eDrive technology brings together exceptional efficiency and long-distance comfort for both driver and passengers. Individually adjustable dynamics and comfort are the product of advanced chassis technology, which in the BMW iPerformance variants of the new BMW 7 Series likewise includes two-axle air suspension with automatic self-levelling and Dynamic Damper Control. Integral Active Steering, meanwhile, is available as an option.Unbeatable occupant protection is provided by an extremely high-strength passenger cell, generously sized deformation zones and precisely defined load paths to redirect impact energy. In the plug-in hybrid models, the integrated safety concept of the BMW 7 Series also includes the battery management system for the high-voltage unit.Among the other items of standard safety equipment on board are front and side airbags, head/curtain airbags for the front and rear rows of seats, a knee airbag on the drivers side active head restraints, three-point inertia-reel seat belts with belt force limiters and belt tensioners in the front seats, ISOFIX child seat mountings in the rear and the Active Protection system.Bespoke design touches on the exterior clearly identify the 740e and 740Le xDrive. The most noticeable feature is the charging connection for the high-voltage battery located in the left front wing. In addition to this, eDrive badges can be seen on the C-pillars, there are BMW i Blue elements within the kidney grille and the BMW i logo is featured on the front side panels.The high level of standard specification for the BMW 740e and BMW 740Le xDrive includes LED headlights, the BMW Display Key, the ConnectedDrive navigation package, smartphone integration with an inductive charging facility for the phone battery, and an iDrive operating system expanded to include a touchscreen function for the Control Display and the globally unique BMW gesture control feature. Customers can also look forward to auxiliary heating and air conditioning, which allow them to prepare the cars interior temperature in advance.The heating and air conditioning system of the plugin hybrid models is supplied with energy from the high-voltage battery and works almost silently due to the electric operation of the refrigerant compressor and instantaneous water heater. The auxiliary air conditioning function is powered by the mains supply when the cars battery is being charged, while a timer function allows the advance preparation of the interior and charging of the battery to be programmed via the iDrive menu.In addition, the BMW Remote app allows the driver to activate the auxiliary air conditioning function from outside the car via a smartphone. It also supplies information on the charge of the high-voltage battery, the location of public charging stations, the distance covered on electric power alone and the amount of fuel saved as a result.Another item on the list of standard equipment is the Ambient light function, which includes the Welcome Light Carpet and the Ambient highlight in the rear compartment. Among the optional features providing an exceptionally luxurious way to cover the miles are the Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound System and the Ambient Air package.Customers can also specify comfort seats, active seat ventilation, the massage function with Vitality Programme and the Heat Comfort package for both front and rear seats. The Executive Lounge option brings an unbeatable sense of personal wellbeing to the rear of the BMW 740Le and BMW 740Le xDrive while the Sky Lounge Panorama glass roof is also available for these models as an option.The selection of driver assistance systems includes the new-generation BMW Head-Up Display as well as the Parking Assistant, Driving Assistant, Driving Assistant Plus and Surround View systems. The BMW iPerformance variants of the new BMW 7 Series can also be specified as an option with the M Sport package, Pure Excellence exterior design and interior design packages and BMW Individual Design Composition.The BMW 740e and BMW 740Le xDrive are on sale now.
Vehicle Headlights: Aiming for Better Driving Safety

By Dr. John Bullough

Guest Editorial

July 22, 2016; New data reveals that correctly aiming headlights has a significant positive influence on nighttime driving safety. Dr. John Bullough's Guest Editorial, "Vehicle Headlights: Aiming for Better Driving Safety (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502724.2016.1204798)," appeared in LEUKOS (http://ies.tandfonline.com/toc/ulks20/current) Issue 12(4).

Earlier this year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) published results of vehicle headlight evaluations. The results-which showed that very few headlight systems were rated as acceptable or good-were widely reported in the mass media (including USA Today, NPR, Consumer Reports, and dozens of others). The cause of the poor ratings was not addressed in the IIHS report or in the media coverage that followed.

Using the data and protocols provided by the IIHS, Dr. John Bullough, Director of Transportation and Safety Lighting Programs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center, performed some post-hoc analyses of the data. He shows in his editorial that demerit scores tended to be better when headlights were aimed properly and worse when the headlights were aimed either too high or too low. Though not all of the variation in headlight performance can be attributed to aiming, it was a meaningful factor. The number of systems rated as acceptable or good would have doubled if they had been correctly aimed. It may not be obvious to consumers that having their headlights properly aimed on a regular basis can influence nighttime driving safety. Properly aimed headlights influence safety by improving driver visibility and minimizing glare to oncoming vehicles.

This research was published by the IES (Illuminating Engineering Society of North America) (http://www.ies.org/)journal, LEUKOS. The IES is the recognized technical authority on illumination. For over 100 years; its objective has been to communicate information on all aspects of good lighting practice to its members, to the lighting community, and to consumers, through a variety of programs, publications, and services.

* Read the full article online here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502724.2016.1204798

About Taylor & Francis Group: Taylor & Francis Group partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world's leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works our content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Science, and Technology and Medicine. From our network of offices in Oxford, New York, Philadelphia, Boca Raton, Boston, Melbourne, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Stockholm, New Delhi and Johannesburg, Taylor & Francis staff provide local expertise and support to our editors, societies and authors and tailored, efficient customer service to our library colleagues.
Join Auto Lab Live 8-10 AM (EDT) July 23, 2016; Car Comment or Concern? Call 888-692-7234







July 23, 2016

Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234

Auto Lab is a 27 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

AUTO LAB LIVE

8 to 9 am on WMCA Radio

Listen Live on WMCA Radio 9 to 10 am on WNYM Radio

Listen Live on WNYM Radio

New programs air Saturday mornings.

After listening to the first hour on WMCA, you will need to close that window and click the link to listen to the second hour on WNYM.

After listening to the first hour on WMCA, you will need to close that window and click the link to listen to the second hour on WNYM.

Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com.

Listen - Auto Lab Page (Includes Audio-on-Demand Archives, Auto Programs at Community College Database, Guests Pictures

July 23, 2016 - Car Question? Straight Answers From These Auto Lab In-Studio Experts

Harold Bendell- Major Auto

Fred Bordoff-Bronx Community College, CUNY

Libby Demarco-Broadway Sunoco

Howard Lepzelter-Retired Bronx Community College, CUNY

Joan Porcelli, Esq

Michael Porcelli - Central Avenue Auto Repairs & I-CAR

Nicholas Prague- MTA and Rockland Community College, SUNY

Jose Ramirez - Ramirez and Sons AAA Auto Repair

July 23, 2016 - Correspondent Reports: Auto News, Car Reviews, Opinion and Latest Auto World Information

Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent, Suffolk England

ELECTRIC TROLLEYS AND BUSES AND RIGS

Robert Sinclair-AAA Northeast

VEHICLE BREAKDOWNS IN RECORD NUMBER IN SPITE OF TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES

Russ Rader, Vice President Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

KIA SORENTO WITH NEW AUTOBRAKE SYSTEM EARNS TOP SAFETY PICK + AWARD

Sharon Sudol and John Russell Senior Correspondents

CHEVY CRUZE
Honda to Begin Joint Research Project with Softbank in the Area of Artificial Intelligence







Strengthening open innovations of AI technologies

TOKYO, Jul, 21 2016; Honda R&D Co., Ltd., a wholly owned R&D subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., today announced plans to collaborate with SoftBank Corp. and begin a joint research project toward application of the "emotion engine", an artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed by cocoro SB Corp., a SoftBank Group company, for mobility products.

In order to further enhance open innovation in the area of intelligent technologies, Honda has been preparing to start up the Honda R&D Innovation Lab Tokyo, a new operation that will focus on research and development of intelligent technologies, in Akasaka, Tokyo, by around September of this year. This joint research project with SoftBank will be one of the open innovation initiatives Honda will pursue in the area of AI technologies.

Through this joint research project, Honda and SoftBank will strive to enable mobility products to utilize conversations with the driver, together with other information obtained from various sensors and cameras installed on the mobility product, both to perceive the emotions of the driver and to engage in dialogue with the driver based on the vehicle's own emotions. Moreover, by letting mobility products "grow up" while sharing various experiences with their drivers, the project will strive to enable drivers to experience the feeling that their mobility product has become a good partner and thus form a stronger emotional attachment toward it.

With the target to create new relationships between people and mobility products, Honda will remain committed to the development of AI technologies.

(1) The "emotion engine" is a set of AI technologies developed by cocoro SB Corp., which enable machines to artificially generate their own emotions.
Mazda Develops New Technology Based on Hitachi's G-Vectoring Safe Driving Assist Technology

TOKYO, July 2016; Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. announced that Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a new technology based on Hitachi's G-Vectoring vehicle motion control technologies. It will be introduced as an advanced safety feature of the new-generation models introduced in Japan, starting with the updated Mazda Axela, which goes on sale today.

Mazda developed the advanced G-Vectoring Control (GVC) technology by pursuing application-focused development on the basis of Hitachi Automotive Systems' G-Vectoring control algorithm. Its key feature of enabling dynamic coordination in both the car's lateral and longitudinal acceleration forces makes it the world's first control system capable of ensuring smooth and efficient vehicle motion by optimizing the vertical load on the four wheels.

The GVC developed by Mazda is the first step toward the company's new-generation vehicle motion control technologies initiative known as SKYACTIV-VEHICLE DYNAMICS series. It is expected to stimulate future market growth as a new-concept control technology that uses the engine to enhance chassis performance.

Hitachi Automotive Systems is committed to continuing vigorous development of leading-edge automotive equipment systems with the potential to improve car safety and comfort, and to help carmakers build more appealing cars.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.
The Auto Channel's Marc Rauch to Present THE FACTS ABOUT ETHANOL at Australian National Biofuels Symposium Monday August 22,2016







TACH co-founder to deliver feature-length expose to help stimulate the Australian biofuel industry

AUTO CENTRAL - August 20, 2016: With support from Australia's Queensland Government, the Biofuels Association of Australia (BAA) is proud to present the National Biofuels Symposium 2016 in Brisbane on August 22nd and 23rd.

The worldwide biofuels sector is on a cusp of fantastic growth, and no where is the potential greater than in Australia, particularly following major policy changes in Queensland and New South Wales, along with the release of a detailed plan for its bioenergy sector.

These developments make this conference, to be held at Brisbanes premier conference centre, a landmark gathering as the industry develops rapidly. About 300 people are expected to attend the event with a rare mix of speakers, including international experts.







Among the international guest speakers is Marc J. Rauch, executive vice president of The Auto Channel. Marc is an outspoken advocate of all biofuels and alternative energy. His numerous published reports and media appearances have taken on the oil industry's highest paid and most ferocious anti-alternative hit men. Marc's blend of historical facts, humor, incisive industry analysis, and common sense reasoning has leveled all opponents. He has been a frequent participating speaker at industry and media events. Recently, Marc travelled to Taiwan to speak at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and he presented testimony for the second time before a Congressional debriefing on ethanol in Washington, DC.

It has been a David and Goliath battle against Big Oil, but the good guys keep gaining ground and acceptance because we have the ultimate indomitable weapon on our side: truth," said Marc. He then added, "Ethanol is good for car engines, good for the environment, good for the economy, and good for our health. Australia, because of it's available land, climate, growing population, lack of domestic crude oil resources and complete dependence upon foreign oil is a perfect place to develop a huge domestic ethanol industry. Other than the puerile myths and ignorant rumors about ethanol there is no reason why Australia and New Zealand shouldn't be model societies for biofuel production and use. Their success will help all nations chained to petroleum oil fuels understand how they too can break free. This is the message I intend to share with the conference attendees."

Other featured speakers and notable guests to appear at the symposium include:



 Anna Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland

 Dr. Gerard J Ostheimer, Global Lead for the United Nations SE4ALL Program

 Robert Wood, Head of Sustainability, Virgin Australia

 Pramod Chaudhari, Executive Chairman, Praj Industries Limited, India

 Larissa Rose, Chief Executive Officer, Queensland Renewable Fuels Association

 Dr. Ian O'Hara, Principal Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology.

Complete information about the Biofuels Association of Australia, as well as the entire program schedule and registration information is available at http://biofuelsassociation.com.au.

SEE ALSO: The Rise and Fall of General Motors and the Subjugation of the Industrialized World.
MISSOULA -- It looks like Missoulas first round of refugees will be from sub-Saharan Africa, not Syria.

We havent finalized when theyll be coming, so I cant give you specifics, but it will most likely be Congolese to start, Congolese from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Molly Short Carr said Wednesday.

Carr, Missoulas new International Rescue Committee director, arrived in Missoula two weeks ago to start preparations for a resettlement office that was approved earlier this year by the U.S. State Department. A native of Buffalo, New York, she spent most of the past two years as an administrator based in Nairobi, Kenya, working on the other side of the international continuum of refugee resettlement efforts.

Carr said she has been in the three camps the Congolese refugees to Missoula are most likely to come from  Gihembe in Rwanda, Nakivale in Uganda and Nyaragusu Refugee Camp on the coast of Tanzania. She was in Nyaragusa just a month ago.

This year theres been a push to bring certain populations out of Africa, so our resources on the continent were shifted to certain locations, said Carr. Thats why I was with those populations.

Refugee numbers from the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo swelled in the mid- to late 1990s as people tried to escape civil war. An estimated 150,000 people reportedly crossed Lake Tanganyika to escape ethnic and political violence.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced last week that the Obama administration will meet its highly controversial target of settling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. The national IRC office played it close to the vest, but there were indications in recent months that some of those Syrian refugees would be headed for Missoula.

That doesnt appear to be the case, at least not initially, said Carr, who expects the first Congolese to arrive in August or September.

Missoula County commissioners touched off a firestorm when they sent a letter to the U.S. State Department last winter saying theyd welcome the resettlement of 100 refugees a year to deal with the worldwide crisis, which has reached proportions not seen since the aftermath of World War II.

One hundred is roughly the number Carr expects to work with, though Bob Johnson, a senior adviser for the IRC office in Seattle, said the number isnt set in stone.

Its pretty hard to predict because we dont know family size, he said. It could be 100, it could be 125 total people. One hundred within the first 12 months was kind of how we calculated, given that things would start off very slow.

Were not going to put more refugees here than the capacity, Carr said. We have to look at whats available, how many refugees would we be able to support and provide assistance to, and how many would the community be able to support and provide assistance to.

Missoula has a number of advantages, she noted, including the assistance of Soft Landing Missoula, which has built an impressive network of support and volunteers. Its a bike-friendly community which now offers a fare-free Mountain Line bus system.

***

The first arrivals are now in refugee camps in East Africa and should be aware of their destination after up to three years of intensive screening and background checks. The vetting process for Syrian refugees has come under scrutiny but Carr, who has seen the system in action in Africa, insisted it is extremely thorough.

"Were going to make sure that everyone who comes through is exactly who they say they are, doing what they said they were going to do," she said. "Were going to be very risk adverse in this process. The highest priority on the national side is security and the integrity of the program."

As Carr understands it, the IRCs initial intent is to resettle families, though coming from a war-torn nation they aren't likely to be intact.

We may have single moms or dads, we may have older children, younger children. Many of the younger children who come will have lived their entire lives in a refugee camp, she said.

Office space for the IRC has been secured in the Solstice Building on West Broadway, and interviews are ongoing this week to fill the positions of caseworker and a half-time finance manager. The focus is on hiring locally from what Johnson characterized as a deep pool of applicants.

We feel that the local knowledge of the community is going to be invaluable as we bring in the refugees, Carr said.

Those who fled the Congo may speak a variety of languages, including Swahili, Lingala, or Kikongo.

Maybe a little English. There are some English training programs in the camps, but its very minimal," Carr said. "Some of them will have French, because the Congo is a French-speaking country. That will be helpful for learning English, because grammatically theyre very similar.

Missoula has no Congolese community to speak of, but it does offer a strong international component at the University of Montana and an uncommonly large return population of Peace Corps volunteers.

If they were anywhere in East Africa, theyll probably speak Swahili and be able to help us communicate and work with the refugees, Carr said of the latter.

The university will do its part, assistant professor Tobin Miller Shearer, director of the African-American Studies program, said in an email Wednesday

His department "will be very interested in connecting with the families, and finding ways to support them,' Shearer said, "especially in terms of providing any orientation that we could to racial realities in the U.S."
Authorities warn about rainbow fentanyl Victims often arent aware theyre taking it

The Ventura County Office of Education and state health officials have issued a warning to schools and families about rainbow fentanyl, a form of the potentially fatal synthetic opioid that comes in bright colors. Rainbow fentanyl can be found in...

Cancer support community to host remembrance event Cancer Support Community Valley/Ventura/Santa Barbara invites family members and friends of those who have died from cancer to attend the second annual Evening of Remembrance from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thurs., Nov. 3 at Cancer Support Communitys Garden of Hope,...

Grant advances CSUCI research Cal State Channel Islands assistant professor of computer science Scott Feister and assistant professor of mathematics Alona Kryshchenko recently received $112,480 from the National Science Foundation to continue a grant to support their research project, Enhancing Laser Based Ion Sources...

Healthcare agency recommends flu shots The Ventura County Health Care Agency offers options for the community to receive flu shots through its Ambulatory Care Clinic system, public health clinics and pop-up clinics. Although seasonal influenza viruses are detected year-round in the United States, they are...
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An 18-year-old from the RM of Hanover who applauded the killing of three police officers in Baton Rogue, Louisianaand seemed to hint at further deathswas arrested by RCMP on Sunday.

Members of the public informed police of the threat made by Kevin Giesbrecht in the WOW Steinbach Facebook group, police said Friday. Steinbach RCMP issued the release in response to a Winnipeg Sun article that said criminal charges against Giesbrecht were dropped.

He was arrested the same day he made the threats at his parents residence in the RM of Hanover where he lives.

Threats of violence towards any person of the general public or, in this case, the police will not be tolerated and are taken seriously, wrote RCMP in the release.

Giesbrechts Facebook post appeared to laugh at the tragedy. In one segment of the post, according to the Sun, he wrote: Still got 100 of them to go. LMFAO.
July 15-21, 2016

Earrings and brooches stole the show this week. Dont forget to vote for your favorites in our weekly poll!

Photo: Luca V. Teuchmann/Getty Images

10. For the annual summer portrait session at Grasten, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark wore a variety of jewels, including pearl drop earrings and a love bracelet by Cartier. ( See more photos of her jewels from the portraits here .)





Photo: ANTHONY DEHEZ/AFP/Getty Images

9. Thursday was Belgiums National Day, and as usual, Princess Astrid attended the Te Deum service in full military dress. She also snuck in a pair of glittering stud earrings with her uniform, though!

Photo: Arthur Edwards  WPA Pool/Getty Images

8. Charles and Camilla  the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall  made an extended visit to Cornwall and Devon this week. While visiting the set of the television show Doc Martin on Tuesday, Camilla wore pearls, including her single-stranded pearl necklace with the pave-set ball clasp.

Photo: Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images

7. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom wore her Pearl Trefoil Brooch while presenting the insignia of the Order of Merit at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

Photo: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

6. High fashion was in order for Queen Letizia of Spains appearance at the National Fashion Awards in Madrid on Thursday, and she met the challenge head-on with a pair of enormous statement earrings. ( See close-ups of the earrings here!

Photo: Luca Teuchmann/Getty Images

5. Queen Margrethe II of Denmarks jewels at the Grasten portrait session included a pair of floral earrings and a sapphire and diamond anchor brooch. ( See better images of all of her jewels over here .)

Photo: NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP/Getty Images

4. Queen Mathilde of the Belgians wore a lovely pair of diamond earrings at the Te Deum service on National Day.

Photo: KRISTOF VAN ACCOM/AFP/Getty Images

3. For a concert by the Belgian National Orchestra on the eve of National Day, Princess Astrid wore a lovely pair of sparkling tassel earrings.

Photo: KRISTOF VAN ACCOM/AFP/Getty Images

2. And for the same concert, Queen Mathilde also wore diamond tassel earrings! (Think they called each other up and planned to match?) She paired them with a diamond bracelet and her sapphire and diamond ring.

Photo: Jonathan Brady  WPA Pool /Getty Images

1. My top spot of the week goes to the art deco brooch worn by Queen Elizabeth II for Wednesdays audiences at Buckingham Palace. ( See closer photos and read more about its history here!
Donald Trumps speech accepting the Republican nomination at his party's convention Thursday night lasted 75 minutesthe longest since at least 1972as he painted a grim picture of midnight in America, a country beaten down and besieged by terror, crime, murderous immigrants and smarter adversaries across the globe thanks to foolish and feckless leaders here.

Believe me, he repeated again and again, I alone can fix it.

At our convention, there will be no lies, Trump said at the very beginning of his remarks, in which he elaborated on a draft a Republican source leaked to a super-PAC backing Hillary Clinton hours before he spoke. We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else.

That was not true.

Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation, Trump said in a speech that returned to common themes of law and order and national security, and charges that President Obama and Hillary Clinton had made America and the world less safe. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

But the bleak picture he painted often did not line up with the facts, using over-inflated statistics and questionable generalizations when discussing matters of crime, justice, immigration, and national security.

Trump said that homicides increased by 17 percent from last year in the countrys 50 largest cities. He did not say, however, that the national homicide rate hit a four-decade low last year, according to the FBIor that the number of people murdered in the 50 largest cities has declined by half since 1991.

In an interview on CNN ahead of the speech, Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort defended the remarks by casting doubt on the FBIs official crime numbers, which include information gleaned from local police departments.

The FBI is certainly suspect these days after what they just did with Hillary Clinton, Manafort said, referring to FBI Director James Comeys decision to not recommend charges against Clinton over her use of a private email server. But as far as crime in the neighborhoods, people dont feel safe.

According to Politifact, Trumps often-repeated assertion that there is no vetting system for Syrian refugees is not true. That process can take as long as one year or more, and each refugee is interviewed by officials in the Department of Homeland Security and required to attend cultural classes and pass a medical review.

I will work with and appoint the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job done, Trump declared, while not elaborating on how he would do so. In this race for the White House, I am the law-and-order candidate.

In light of the recent shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Trump claimed that the number of officers killed in the line of duty has increased by almost 50 percent year-to-year. The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund says the number has gone up only slightlyfrom 62 officers through July 20 of last year to 67 killed so far this year.

Turning to the worldand ClintonTrump said the U.S. should discontinue its policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. But Trump supported the Libya intervention in 2011, saying at the time: At this point, if you dont get rid of Gaddafi, its a major, major black eye for this country.

Trumps dubious contentions were not limited to law and order issues. The billionaire businessman claimed 14 million people left the workplace entirely. For context, the current workforce has 4.6 million more people than in 2009. He criticized Obama on the national debt, claiming it doubled. It has actually increased from $11.1 trillion to $19.2 trillion.

Trump also suggested that Clinton is responsible for the creation of ISIS in the Middle Easteven though the group did not formally split from al Qaeda until after she left office. He suggested that sanctions on Iran decreased during her tenure in government; in fact, they increased.

Additionally, he incorrectly stated that Egypt was turned over to the Muslim Brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Mohammed Morsi, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, was democratically elected in 2012 and ousted from power by the military one year later.

Correct the Record, the PAC that received the speech beforehand and shared it with the press, said it came from a Republican source who had access to it. David Brock, the groups founder, said the leak is evidence that the Trump campaign is loose and disorganized.
With shocking swiftness, Roger Ailes has been forced to resign effective immediately as chairman and CEO of the Fox News and Fox Business cable channels he built from scratch, just 15 days after fired Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation lawsuit against the 76-year-old Ailes.

A Thursday afternoon press release from parent company 21st Century Fox announced Ailess abrupt resignation as well as executive chairman Rupert Murdochs interim role in Ailess former jobs, which also include the chairmanship of the Fox broadcast television stations, as the company searches for a successor.

Ailes deputies Bill Shine, Jay Wallace, and Mark Kranz will run the channels day to day until a successor is named, the press release announced.

The corporate shakeup represents a win for Rupert Murdochs sons and fellow top 21st Century Fox executives, Lachlan and James, who have clashed with Ailes in the past and have reportedly used Carlsons lawsuit, and ordered up an internal review of her allegations and those of other female employees, as a wedge to drive him out of his powerful perch.

But it also represents a victory of sorts for Ailes, who is stepping down under undisclosed but assuredly generous financial termsa leaked but unsigned term sheet mentioned a figure of $40 millionand with an official company statement that showers him with praise and makes no explicit mention of the controversy that prompted his exit.

There was no mention in the release of whether 21st Century Fox will be underwriting Ailess legal bills.

Especially damaging were reports that Fox News prime-time star Megyn Kelly had told lawyers from Paul, Weiss, the law firm conducting the internal investigation, that Ailes had sexually harassed her a decade ago when she was a cub legal reporter.

Dear Rupert, Ailes wrote in his resignation letter released by Fox News contributor Susan Estrich, one of his attorneys involved in the exit negotiations. With your support, I am proud that we have built Fox News and Fox Business Channels into powerful and lucrative news organizations that inform our audience and reward our shareholders.

Apparently with an eye toward Kellys alleged account to the Paul, Weiss attorneys and Carlsons ongoing lawsuitwhich claims Ailes suggested in September 2015 that having sex with him would help her career at Fox News, and then retaliated by firing her when she rebuffed his unwelcome advancesAiles added: I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and on-air positions. Many of these talented journalists have deservedly become household names known for their intelligence and strength, whether reporting the news, fair and balanced, and offering exciting opinions on our opinion programs.

Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, said in part in his effusive farewell statement: Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our country and to our company. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization, and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years.

Contrary to rumors that Ailes would stay on as a corporate consultant through 2018, a role unmentioned in the 21st Century Fox press release, Ailes wrote in his resignation letter: Having spent 20 years building this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry. Ailes, however, will advise the elder Murdoch, said a corporate source.

Gretchen Carlsons legal team, meanwhile, issued this statement reacting to Thursdays developments:

Within just two weeks of her filing a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, Gretchen Carlsons extraordinary courage has caused a seismic shift in the media world. We hope that all businesses now understand that women will no longer tolerate sexual harassment and reputable companies will no longer shield those who abuse women. We thank all the brave women who spoke out about this issue. We will have more to say in coming days as events unfold.

Team Carlson says the lawsuit will proceed. Lawyers for Ailes are trying to force Carlson into confidential arbitration, while lawyers for Carlson are fighting that maneuver, with the goal of securing a jury triala process that could take many months.

Depending on the terms of his departure from Fox, Ailes might have agreed to a non-compete clause that would sideline him for a period of time from the television business or from joining or launching a rival outlet to Fox News and Fox Business.

If, however, Ailes managed to avoid those golden handcuffs, industry observers said he could very well do just that (although Bloombergs Lucas Shaw reports that Ailes did sign a non-compete provision, an assertion confirmed by The Daily Beast, though details were unclear).

I think he could do whatever he feels like doing, said a media industry executive who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity, so as not to get involved in the ongoing controversy. Hes got a ton of money and a reputation as a gold mine, a builder of empires, and if he decided that he wanted to go off and launch a conservative cable channel to rival Fox News, and he went off to a private equity firm, he could raise as much cash as he needed.

That sanguine view of Ailess future, never mind his current spot of bother, was echoed by an internet and technology maven who suggested that the legendary Republican media strategist-turned-television mogul would have no trouble attracting tens of millions of dollars from any number of Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

This tech expert mentioned Gawker arch enemy Peter Thiel, a self-described libertarian and Donald Trump delegate from California at this weeks Republican convention in Cleveland, as a promising source of cash for Ailes through his wildly successful Founders Fund.

Thielwho secretly financed the Hulk Hogan lawsuit and reportedly other lawsuits that have driven Gawker Media and its founder Nick Denton into bankruptcynot only shares Ailess conservative politics but also his fondness for wreaking revenge and intimidating adversaries.

Hes vindictive, and he would take revenge if he could, the media industry executive said. If theres any way that he could make James and Lachlan look bad, that would be his first choice.

The Murdoch sons, perhaps ironically, issued their own statement heaping praise on Ailes: We join our father in recognizing Rogers remarkable contributions to our company, it began. But they pointedly added: [W]e continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect. We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company.

The media exec, meanwhile, said Ailes could also team up with an existing conservative outlet like Newsmaxwith or without such on-air talent as Bill OReilly, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren, who reportedly are contractually permitted to follow Ailes out the doorin order to try to create a television powerhouse to rival Fox News.

If he went to Newsmax, hed have no troubling attracting the money he would need to hire people, said the exec. Dont forget: He built that channel [Fox News] on no names. He believes in his playbook. He doesnt believe he needs stars. He believes he makes stars. He wouldnt require OReilly and Hannity. Hes going to have a philosophy and hes going to know how to execute.

It would be problematic, however, if Ailes were to join a large publicly traded companysay, if Verizon, succeeded in its quest to acquire Yahoo and needed someone to beef up television and video operationsbecause of Ailess baggage as an accused sexual harasser who is facing damaging litigation.

Beyond the public relations challenges to such a move, employees of the company might rise up against it, said the media industry exec.

Another possibility for Ailess future would be a return to his roots as a Republican political strategist, although he has worked hard since he founded Fox News 20 years ago to shed that identityoccasionally threatening reporters who continued to describe him that way with legal action (as when he was caught sending a memo to then-presidential aide Karl Rove, now a Fox News contributor, advising George W. Bush on how he should respond politically to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001).

At the Republican convention in Cleveland, unsubtantiated rumors in media circles name Ailes, one of the most successful campaign admakers in history, as a possible leader of or consultant to his longtime friend Donald Trumps presidential effort, driving a disciplined message for a frequently anarchic-seeming campaign organization.

Or he could also say, Screw it. Im 76 years old. I dont feel that great, said the media exec. And go home to Garrison, New York, and say Im gonna kick back, take it easy, and write a book. Im sure hes going to want his legacy to be couched in the correct way.
CLEVELAND  Peter Thiel ran to the podium like a dog chasing a truck.

He was about to deliver a line that was new inside the Quicken Loans Arena and ran somewhat counter to a conservative Republican platform. Speaking at a quick clip, frequently licking his lips and flashing a devilish grin, Thiel told the audience: I am proud to be gay.

While he rushed through it, almost as if to rip the Band-Aid off, the crowd was unanimously accepting. They roared as he continued: I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American.

Thiel, who looks like an aspiring villain with a moon laser in a James Bond movie, also pushed back against a persistent debate within the GOP this year about the rights of transgender people to choose the bathroom that fits their gender identity the best.

When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union. And we won, Thiel said. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

In a surprising turn, this also elicited a strongif somewhat more mutedresponse. Thiel was doing well; an anomaly in the room who was working the crowd before the king was crowned.

But the enigma that is Peter Thiel revealed itself in his remarks about the better days of the past. The PayPal CEO and co-founder mused about the time in America where he was a young boy.

Our economy is broken, the billionaire currently backing Hulk Hogans lawsuit against Gawker said. If youre watching me right now, you understand this better than any politician in Washington. And you know this isnt the dream we looked forward to. Back when my parents came to America looking for that dream, they found itright here in Cleveland.

They brought me here as a one-year-old, and this is where I became an American. Opportunity was everywhere.

My Dad studied engineering at Case Western Reserve University, just down the road from where we are now. Because in 1968, the worlds high-tech capital wasnt just one city: all of America was high tech.

But this was dependent on government spending, something that the libertarian Thiel would, in theory, be against. His status as a Trump supporter, and a delegate for the campaign in California, is inherently contradictory in his liberal corner of the world. Yet in the past, Thiel has also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Ted Cruz, a staunch conservative who believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage.

Then theres his head-scratching remark from 2009 in which he suggested that democracy was maligned by giving women the right to vote.

Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to womentwo constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarianshave rendered the notion of capitalist democracy into an oxymoron, Thiel wrote in Cato Unbound.

His financial backing of Hogans bankruptcy-inducing lawsuit against Gakwer reflected the billionaires opinions about the freedom of the press. It could exist so long as it didnt malign himsomething that almost exactly echoes the opinion of the candidate he endorsed, who files lawsuits as often as he brushes his teeth.

Thiel, who once hosted a party with Trump apologist Ann Coulter, claims that he doesnt agree with everything the candidate says. But he cannot support Hillary Clinton for her track record on Iraq and Libya.

Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East, Thiel said. We dont need to see Hillary Clintons deleted emails: Her incompetence is in plain sight. She pushed for a war in Libya, and today its a training ground for ISIS. On this most important issue, Donald Trump is right. Its time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country.

Thiel is a contradiction like Trump is. And on the night that the real estate mogul became the Republican nominee, a fellow contradiction was just enough.
Its tough judging Donald Trump on a historical continuum. Weve never before seen an unsmiling nominee hectoring and fear-mongering for more than an hour. William Jennings Bryan came close as the Democratic nominee in 1896, though at least his Cross of Gold speech was eloquent.

But there are echoes across the generations. Trumps speech was a cross between Richard Nixons law and order code words for race, Pat Buchanans gross distortion of immigration and trade, and Bill Clintons clever effort to shift the focus of the campaign from him (a flawed candidate) to you.

The ugliness at the core of the Trump candidacyperfumed by his attractive childrencame through in his Mussolini delivery and of course when his Banana Republican Hillary-hating audience couldnt resist what for many onlookers became the signature line of the 2016 Republican Convention: Lock Her Up!

But for me, the key line of the convention came not from Trump or his angry mob but from his wife. It was a fraudulent linein more ways than oneand it symbolized everything that has happened to the GOP in this fateful political year.

On the first night of the convention, Melania Trump said that her husband has always believed that you treat people with dignity and respect. This was in the part of the speech that was plagiarized from Michelle Obama, but as long as they were at it, the Trump speechwriters should have stolen the whole Michelle Obama quote, which was: you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you dont know them and even if you dont agree with them.

The active toxic agent in the poison infecting our body politic is lack of basic respect for people outside his family and close friends. Even an incomplete bill of particulars is very long, from Trump telling Larry King on the air in the 1980s that you have bad breath, to offering a reward for Barack Obamas college transcripts to prove that the president wasnt smart, to mocking a disabled reporter, to sliming a fine Latino judge, to suggesting the Republican director of the FBI is corrupt for protecting Hillary Clinton, to insulting a billion Muslims, which is not exactly the best way to improve American intelligence in the Middle East, the only halfway specific policy proposal in Trumps entire acceptance speech.

The sea of vulgarity has numbed us to the truththat the Grand Old Party under Trump has drifted far away from the party of John McCain, who in 2008 admonished a supporter that while Barack Obama was wrong on the issues, he deserved our respect. It has drifted far out of bounds, and flouted the norms of a civilized society. Todays GOP is the Gauche Old Party, sometimes even the Gross Old Party.

At least the old part is consistent. As usual at a Republican convention, the delegates were overwhelmingly white and affluent. But they were also awfully long in the tooth. Only 2 percent of the delegates were under 30. The again in Make America Great Again is all you need to know that Trumps party is a party of the past, not the future.

But is it even really the party of the past? Weve seen surges of xenophobia going back to the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s. And authoritarian demagoguespreaching a narrow Americanismoccasionally catch a wave. William Randolph Hearst, Douglas MacArthur, Ross Perot, and Buchanan were all mentioned as Republican candidates. (Bigots like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace afflicted the Democrats before bolting for independent bids).

But none of these men managed to win a major party nomination.

For most of the postwar era, the GOP has resisted demagogues and helped build a bipartisan structure of civil rights, respectful debate and collective security through global alliances that Trumpif his interview this week in The New York Times is to be believedwould casually cast aside after 70 years of success in preventing another world war.

The GOP has a grander history than many liberals would admit. In 1940, Republicans meeting in Philadelphia rejected isolationist politicians andcontrary to Philip Roths novel, The Plot Against Americawerent tempted by Charles A. Lindbergh and his anti-Semitic America First campaign, the slogan now adopted by Trump. The nominee that year was Wendell Wilkie, a businessman, and thats where the similarities to Trump end. Wilkie was a cultured internationalist who later wrote a book titled One World.

The nominee in 1944 and 1948 was Thomas E. Dewey, a former prosecutor and governor of New York who attacked Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman but left the conspiracy theories and personal nastiness to fringe elements in the party. In the 1950s, Dwight D. Eisenhower set a moderate tone and, belatedly, made sure the party steered clear of demagogues like Sen. Joseph McCarthy. (McCarthys top aide and sleazy doppelgangerRoy Cohnbecame Trumps mentor in New York in the 1970s).

Richard Nixon used Roger Stonethe smash-mouth agitator now at Trumps sideCharles Colson and others for the skullduggery that cost him the presidency. But his public persona, even as a red-hunter, wasnt nearly as nasty and personal as Trumps. (His speechwriter, Ray Price, always strove for a civil tone in his public speeches.) Barry Goldwater embraced extremism in defense of liberty but avoided personal attacks. Ronald Reagan was extremely hard on Jimmy Carter, but it was on issues like the Panama Canal. George H.W. Bush hired Lee Atwater, who convinced him to turn his 1988 opponent, Michael Dukakis, into something vaguely unAmerican.

But when Pat Buchanan gave a Trumpian speech at the 1992 convention, the party recoiled. The consensus, as one pundit famously put it: It probably sounded better in its original German.

All of which means we are in terra incognito a new place where authoritarians (Trump told the Times he doesnt care at all about human rights), grifters (convention speakers who made their fortunes selling nutritional supplements, sketchy real estate deals and extreme fighting), opportunists politicizing tragedy, and conspiracy-mongers have moved from the fringes to the doorstep of huge power.

Lost amid Ted Cruzs politically suicidal gambit was that Cruz had a point. Are we really going to elect a president who peddles the theory that Cruzs father was on the grassy knoll in Dallas in 1963, part of the Kennedy assassination?

In accepting his party's nomination, Trump thought he was moving to the center on LGBT rights, womens rights, and trade.

But he was more palpably moving down, into the murky depths of demagoguery where we have all feared to tread before.
In his big speech Thursday in which he promised to keep us all safe, Donald Trump failed to mention that the NYPD has made the city that he and his family call home the safest big city in America.

He told us from the convention podium that things have never been so bad, but neglected to note that murders in New York City are down 25 per cent this year over last. Murders are down sixfold from when Trump opened the tower that bears his name and where he presently resides.

In 1983 there were 1,958 murders in New York City. The final number for 2015 was 352.

At the RNC, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani took credit in his own speech for the unprecedented decline, declaring that Donald Trump would do for America what he had done for New York.

In truth, the credit belongs to a policing genius named Jack Maple and thousands of cops who never received a proper thank you. Maple remarked before his death from cancer in August of 2001 that the cops had guarded any number of ticker-tape parades up The Canyon of Heroes but had never received one in their honor.

At Maples funeral at Saint Patricks Cathedral just down Fifth Avenue from Trump Tower, Giuliani had the grace to credit Maple with being the only individual ever to singlehandedly transform the city. Giuliani calculated aloud that Maple had saved more lives than the thousands who crammed in for the funeral.

But Giuliani seems to have since lost his way and perhaps never understood the reason why crime declined so sharply. He appears to imagine that it had something to do with vanquishing squeegee men and cracking down on quality of life crimes.

It wasnt broken windows, Maple would say. It was broken balls.

Maples guiding principle was that a crime in a poor neighborhood should be addressed as seriously as a crime in a rich one and that all victims should be treated as if they were your mother.

In other words, that all lives matter.

As a child in a far more modest section of Queens than the wealthy enclave where young Donald Trump grew up, Maple had always envied the kids who had the big box of crayons. He was a grown-up transit police lieutenant when he bought himself one and set to making crime maps he called The Charts of the Future. He used color codes to denote such factors as types of crime and number of perpetrators. He used the up-to-the-minute patterns that emerged to deploy his cops accordingly.

The resulting drop in crime was so remarkable that NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton promoted Maple to Deputy Commissioner for Operations. The Charts of the Future gave way to the computerized crime maps of CompStat but the principle was the same.

Be it with a computer or a crayon, a dot was a dot and equally deserving of immediate action whether it was on the roughest block of Junius Street in Brooklyn or on the most golden stretch of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

During the same period when Maple used his principle to guide life-saving strategies that really did make people safe, Trump followed an opposing philosophy in a prolonged campaign against street peddlers, notably including disabled veterans, who had been receiving special licenses in New York since the aftermath of the Civil War. Trump took the position that such riff-raff had no place on an avenue so grand as the one where his tower stood.

While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses? he wrote in a 1991 letter to the New York state Assembly that was originally reported by the New York Daily News and more recently by The Daily Beast.

He continued, Do we allow Fifth Avenue, one of the worlds finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?

Trump was still pursuing his anti-peddlers campaign three years after Maples death and 9/11. Trumps position remained unchanged even as the disabled vets came to include those who had deployed to Afghanistan in pursuit of the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists who felled the Twin Towers, by his account killing hundreds of his friends, though he has yet to name one.

Whether they are veterans or not, they [the vendors] should not be allowed to sell on this most important and prestigious shopping street, Trump wrote in a 2004 letter to then Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The image of New York City will suffer I hope you can stop this very deplorable situation before it is too late.

Trumps eventual solution was to install huge cement planters that allowed people to pass between the curb and his tower, but were too closely placed for a disabled vet to set up a stand selling hats and gloves. The planters ensured Trump encountered no scruffy vets as he came and went in recent months on campaign jaunts in which he declared himself a champion of veterans.

Most recently, the shocking murders of five police officers in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge led Trump to declare himself the law-and-order candidate. He spoke at the convention as if things had never been worse.

Be more afraid and Im here to save you, a prominent cleric summarized this Mourning in America speech as saying.

When citing the unrelenting carnage in President Obamas hometown of Chicago, Trump failed to mention a significant factor that marked that city different from his own hometown. Chicago has gun laws that are nearly as strict as those in New York, but the minimum penalties are considerably less and firearms pour in from just outside the city line as well as from nearby Indiana, home to Trumps running mate Gov. Mike Pence. More than one in five illegal guns recovered in Chicago come from Indiana. A single store just over the Chicago city line, Chucks Guns, sold some 1,500 of the firearms recovered at crime scenes over a five-year period.

But Trump did not talk of the illegal guns flooding the streets. He also said nothing about the assault weapons that allowed the gunmen in Dallas and Baton Rouge to kill so many cops despite their body armor. One dying Dallas cop desperately tried to remove his pierced bullet-resistant vest so he could treat his wound underneath.

To his credit,Trump told an arena full of conservative Republicans that the Orlando gunman had been beyond wrong in targeting LBGTQ people. Trump said not a word about the assault rifle that enabled the killer to commit such carnage.

Giuliani had been equally silent on the subject even as he bellowed about danger, danger, danger. He had once been vocally in favor of an assault weapons ban, terming the NRAs opposition to it a terrible, terrible mistake.

Meanwhile, at least one of the death loving ones who want us to be even more afraid mounted an attack on Friday at a shopping area in Munich, reportedly killing at least nine and targeting children. More such attacks could easily come in America, where handguns are for the asking and even people on the terrorist watch list can purchase assault rifles and enough bullets to act out the most murderous schemes.

In New York, where Bratton has returned, the counter-terror effort is run by one of Maples closest comrades, Deputy Commissioner John Miller. He applies the same tenets that Maple once inscribed on a nightspot napkin and applied along with the overarching principle that all lives matter: Accurate and timely intelligence; Effective tactics; Rapid deployment; Relentless follow-up and assessment.

Even with the terrorist threat, Trump and Giuliani and their families live in the safest big city in America thanks to the cops who daily place themselves in harms way, as readily on Junius Street as on Fifth Avenue, be it against violent criminals or terrorists.

Nobody can help but be afraid on hearing of the killing of kids in Munich so soon after the killing of kids in Nice. And we are almost certain to witness more attacks here in America, where handguns are everywhere and even people on the terrorist watch list can buy assault rifles.

But do not imagine that the guy who put planters to keep away disabled vets outside his tower is going to make you safe.

Sadly, we also cannot count on the candidate who sat in the front row at Trumps latest wedding and gets her hair done just up Fifth Avenue.

Maybe one of them will be smart and humble enough to embrace the wisdom that made the whole city of New York safer.
Two paramedics from Okaloosa County, Florida, were arrested on Thursday under several felony charges, stemming from a selfie war using patients, many of whom were unconscious, intubated, or sedated. Christopher Wimmer, 33, turned himself in following the arrest of collaborator Kayla Renee Dubois, 24.

Local news channel WJGH reported that Wimmer faces seven felonies and a misdemeanor battery charge, while Dubois is charged with two felonies. Investigators have disclosed that Wimmer and Dubois used their cell phones to take selfies and videos with patients inside ambulances. County officials told WJGH that following the incident, personal cell phones have been banned from ambulances.

It was a sick juvenile game, I dont know any other way to describe it, said Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley. It was a game of: Who can be the most vile? Who can I get a picture with? Its humiliating. Investigators have also found that Wimmer allegedly held open the eyelid of a sedated patient for a selfie and posed with an elderly woman with her breast exposed.

Social media is playing an important role in the abuse of patients. NPR published a report this month detailing how many nursing home nurses and aides have been sharing photos of elderly patients urinating or otherwise exposed.

In Hubbard, Iowa, in March, a certified nursing assistant at the Hubbard Care Center shared a photo online of a nursing home resident with his pants around his ankles, his legs and hand covered in feces. Many of the incidents identified involved Snapchat. The nursing assistant used the app to share the photo, along with the caption shit galore, with six colleagues. He was fired following the incident.

This is only the latest in a series of health care professionals who have violated the tenet to do no harm. In June, a physician in Conway, Arkansas, was arrested alleged rape and sexual assault of his patients. Investigators found that Dr. Robert Rook had a record of complaints with the Arkansas State Medical Board dating back to 1990. After a hearing, the board ultimately decided on an emergency suspension of Rooks medical license.

According to a report published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), these cases are not uncommon. After analyzing over 100,000 disciplinary records from across the United States, they found more than 2,400 physicians who had been sanctioned after sexual misconduct violations that clearly involved patients.

Other physicians identified were disciplined for sexual harassment of employees or for crimes such as child pornography, public indecency or sexual assault. Many of the doctors the AJC identified were repeat offenders, had not had their licenses revoked for sexual offenses or inappropriate conduct, and were charged for a range of illegal and disturbing behavior, including photographing patients, pressing erections against them during exams, and sexually assaulting patients who were sedated. The AJC found records of physician abuse in every state.

It seems that many state medical boards have been turning a blind eye to exploitation and sexual abuse of patients. Perhaps the AJCs report and recent arrests of Wimmer and Dubois will help raise awareness and change a broken system.
Striking down abortion restrictions is a game of whack-a-mole: Courts can declare some of them unconstitutional but, inevitably, more laws will pop up.

Now, in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision in Whole Womans Health, which struck down significant portions of a Texas law, anti-abortion legislators may have found their most creative approach yet: requiring abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal tissue, instead of following the standard protocols for medical waste disposal.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a law including that requirement this year. As The Atlantic reported, lawmakers in Ohio, South Carolina, and Mississippi have recently proposed similar requirements.

And earlier this month, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission released proposed rules requiring the burial or cremation of fetal tissue. The rules were unceremoniously published just days after the Whole Womans Health decision without going through the state legislature. They are now subject to a 30-day public comment period and are predicted to go into effect in September.

Anti-abortion groupslike Americans United for Life (AUL), the driving force behind these burial and cremation requirementssay that this is a matter of protecting human dignity. But abortion-rights advocates note that these measures place yet another burden on womens health providers, potentially raising costs or impacting abortion access.

We are still trying to figure out what the rules look like in practice, Zoey Lichtenheld, communications director for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told The Daily Beast. But generally, measures that restrict embryonic and fetal tissue disposal can be impossible for abortion clinics to comply with and have the potential to block Texans access to abortion.

In the absence of these measures, fetal tissue is treated like any other form of human medical waste. Under the current Texas rules, for example, discarded human body parts and organs can be incinerated and placed in a sanitary landfill or ground and discharged into a sanitary sewer system. Abortion providers generally maintain contracts with third parties who dispose of fetal tissue in this way.

But if these requirements become commonplace, abortion providers would have to jump through additional hoops to dispose of their medical waste. Current Indiana law states that women themselves are responsible for the costs related to the final disposition of the aborted fetus if they choose to use their own funeral home but, otherwise, abortion providers shall provide for the cost.

The proposed Texas rules would apply to all fetal tissue regardless of the period of gestation and would likely require abortion providers to establish relationships with funeral homes and cemeteries instead of following their current practices.

AUL, the anti-abortion law firm that drafted model legislation requiring the burial and cremation of fetal tissue, claims that this issue isnt about inconveniencing abortion clinics but rather respecting fetuses.

Deceased unborn infants deserve the same respect as other human beings, AUL staff attorney Anna Paprocki told The Daily Beast. They should not be disposed of as medical waste when they die before birth, regardless of whether their deaths are spontaneous, accidental, or induced.

Texas officials, meanwhile, have danced around the question of added burial and cremation costs. The proposed disposal rules, as KVUE first reported, cite research conducted by Renee Clack, an official with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), but come to no clear conclusions about the financial effect on abortion providers.

Clack reportedly found that there was a potential fiscal impact for abortion providers but did not have information sufficient to quantify the impact.

The rules do claim that the department has no information to suggest that the cost of implementing the proposed changes would result in any greater cost but this is different from stating that the department has evidence that abortion providers will not be financially impacted.

When asked to clarify this language, DSHS did not respond to The Daily Beast.

They dont care if it burdens clinics or if it burdens Texas women, said Lichtenfeld. This rule was passed as backlash to the recent Supreme Court decision in Texas. At this point, the exact consequences of burial and cremation laws are still uncertain because they are so new. I dont think we know what the impact is going to be, Guttmacher Institute state issues manager Elizabeth Nash told Vox in March with respect to Indianas law. This has never been required before for all fetal tissue.

But there are already hints of inconvenience coming out of the Hoosier State. Patti Stauffer, vice president of policy at Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, told The Atlantic that they have already had trouble contracting funeral homes to do the work.

Its not like we have hundreds of people that are interested in working with us, she said.

In this way, burial and cremation requirements could function like one of the provisions the Supreme Court struck down in Whole Womans Health, which required abortion providers to have formal admitting privileges at a local hospital. Not all hospitals are willing to enter into such an arrangement, and not all funeral homes would be, either.

Although the Whole Womans Health ruling will have far-reaching consequences, it has no immediate impact on this new trend of burial and cremation requirements, as Paprocki told The Daily Beast.

While states cannot unduly burden a womans access to abortion, it remains true after Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt that they can enact laws that acknowledge the humanity of unborn infants who die from abortion, she said.

And whatever their impact, more of these measures could be passed in Republican-controlled state legislaturesand soon.

This continues to be a priority for the next legislative sessions, Paprocki noted
Okay, folks, back to the Democrats now.

Hillarys going to name her vice president maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe Sunday. Its a big deal because the choice will tell us a lot about the work she thinks she needs to do in the next four months, which constituencies she needs to stroke. Does she need to please the Warren/Sanders wing the most, in her mind, or make an overture toward the vast middle that Trump is, ah, unlikely to engage?

And yes of course shell want to choose someone she likes and is comfortable with, but come on. Its about political signal-sending. No one knew this better than her husband, who sent the biggest signal of them all when he totally broke the mold and chose someone who checked off exactly the same boxes as him.

So lets run down the top choices and their pluses and minuses, concluding with the choice who I think, with reservations, is probably her best move.

6. Elizabeth Warren. I spent a long time thinking this was a great idea and first wrote about it way back in March 2015. I still see plenty of upside. Warrens millions of followers would walk over hot coals for her, and even though we saw some Twitterverse Elizabeths a sellout! nonsense when she campaigned with Clinton, I think 90 percent of the Warren/Sanders fan base would go with it happily. It would add something that most veep choices dont: electricity. And I think two women might be a plus on balance, but I might be soooo totally wrong about that, Jackie Kucinich!

However, Ive reluctantly come to conclude, old square that I am, that Warren might be more of a liability. Clinton has a chance this fall to make huge inroads into the business and corporate worlds that are always almost totally locked down for the Republicans. This would be a big deal not just on Nov. 8, but after next Jan. 20it could lead to some key players in corporate America coming out and saying Fine, yes, raise the minimum wage, which would put a lot more pressure on Republicans to act than 50 more liberals saying that would.

If Clinton chooses Warren, those people wont support her. Those people can be very useful cover for getting a few liberal economic measures passed. Theyre worth trying to get in her corneronce. And hey, Warren is a hugely effective senator and will always be. So, shes out.

5. Tom Vilsack. I spent two days last week, or maybe early this one, thinking he was the guy. First and most obviously, hes from Iowa, which I dont think will ultimately be all that close but which is now. And hes popular there, last I knew. That whole solid Midwestern thing. Hed be good out there on her behalf. If were looking at four months of she belongs in prison, which we are, she could do a lot worse than to have a soft-spoken but authoritative Midwestern white man vouching for her integrity.

On the downside, Vilsack is mostly pro free trade. Hes an agriculture guy, so what do you expect. But you and I both know that Bernie is way capable of bashing a Clinton-Vilsack ticket. Id be surprised if she took him for that reason alone. But if she did, I think he could explain away the trade thing, and he brings other attributes.

4. Cory Booker. This is the only short-list person who I think would be kind of a disaster. Booker is, on most issues, a standard-issue Northeast liberal. But on two issues, hes chosen a much more moderate course, and those happen to be the two issues with which hes most identified. Hes anti-teachers union, which may have merit but doesnt play in an election in which the Democrat will need those unions phone banks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and elsewhere. And more than that hes pro Wall Street in a big way. The left-populist wing of the party hates the guy.

And he doesnt really bring any big positives. She doesnt need any help with African American voters; shes going to get 97 percent, or 92 at worst, and with Obama out there stumping for her, black turnout should be fine. Hard to see what Booker would add and easy to see what hed subtract. Not worth the risk.

3. Sherrod Brown. If Ohio had a Democratic governor, hed be my number one choice with three bullets. He fits the zeitgeist. To the extent that Trump is going to try to peddle the argument that hes the true friend of the working man, Brown would neutralize that immediately, with his suits made in Ohio. No one, no one, questions his prole cred.

But choosing him would mean giving up a Senate seat. The Republican governor, that guy named Kasich, would appoint someone to fill his seat, and hed obviously appoint a Republican, and that person would hold the seat until the next regularly scheduled election, meaning 2018, which is of course an off year, and off years favor Republicans, meaning that the appointee would be likely to hold the seat. And thats that. The Democrats cant afford to yield a Senate seat. Theres a mischievous 20 percent of me that says choose him anyway because the upsides are great. But its just 20 percent.

2. Tim Kaine. Why did the Virginia senator choose this week of all weeks to sign those letters seeking more lenient regulation of banks? Thats like spiking the punch with hemlock. Hard to see how that could be explained away.

On the other hand, lefties would be wrong to dismiss him as some kind of sellout. Yes, hes personally pro-life because of his Catholicism, but really, his position is no different from Ted Kennedys. And theres this: Though not a son of the South, when he moved to Richmond after Harvard Law, he joined a firm and the first thing he started doingthe first thing!was housing discrimination suits against blacks. Given that he was a Democratic striving office-holder in Virginia in the early and mid-2000s, when the state was still decidedly red, he took some brave progressive positions on guns and taxes and more. He doesnt deserve anyones contempt, by a long shot, but the first month would be built around explaining away his banking positions.

1. Tom Perez. On balance, Ive concluded that Perez offends the fewest constituencies. As secretary of labor, he checks the progressive box. As a Latino, he surely juices that turnout, and maybe his presence on the ticket locks down Floridaand if Clinton locks down Florida, shes the president, no ifs ands or buts. He supports TPP, but in his context, thats almost an electoral plus. Progressives trust him because hes the labor secretary and hes Latino, and theyll grudgingly grant him the pro-trade position, which might help around the margins with business.

One yuge potential downside: Hes never been campaign-vetted. The only office hes run for is Montgomery County (Md.) councilor. That means two things: 1. He might not be a good campaigner, might make grave rookie mistakes at a level where rookies arent supposed to be playing; 2. More important, he hasnt been through campaigns during which his various peccadilloes have been revealed. With everyone else on this list, weve seen some dirty laundry. With Perez, well be seeing it all for the first time. Im not saying he stole cookies from Girl Scouts, but theres something there with everybody. And itll all be new.

But on balance, he embodies a quality that a good veep choice should: He wouldnt piss anyone off.

The fact that Clinton will announce this in Florida suggests that maybe Perez is the guy. Or maybe Kaine, who speaks fluent Spanish. Who knows? We will soon enough.
The NSAs worst nightmare made his San Diego Comic-Con debut by way of video chat, moments after the first public screening of Oliver Stones Snowden.

The FBI actually gets a copy of this talk because were going through Google Hangouts, which unfortunately has a sort of built-in surveillance capability, joked Edward Snowden, his face peering down on a theater full of critics and journalists. He joined Stone and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley from Moscow, his home for the foreseeable future, livefrom the internet.

Snowden tracks the NSA analyst as he wrestles with the decision to blow the lid off of the U.S. governments top-secret global surveillance program, an act that made him persona non grata in America and changed history. The telling of this historic expose, co-scripted by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald, is authorized by Snowden, who appears as himself in the final coda.

After a dazzling thriller of a finale right out of a spy flick (which, yes, involves a certain Rubiks cube), Stones larger aims materialize. News footage of President Obama, seen earlier labeling Snowden a 29-year-old hacker, is used to pose a questionthe questionseemingly to the president as much as the public at large: Is Edward Snowden a spy or a whistleblower? A traitor or a hero?

Snowden will presumably make its official world premiere in September at the Toronto Film Festival, so bringing a tech-oriented political thriller to a July geekfest filled with superhero fans in spandex cosplay was a curious move. But its official release, timed for a fall Oscar berth, is not slated until Sept. 16. Thursday at Comic-Con, on the same night Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, Stones film highlighted the fact that Obama still has time to pardon Snowden before he leaves office.

The opportunistic move of sneaking Snowden into the annual pop culture convention appearance worked. Stone grabbed plenty of attention for Snowden by likening Pokemon Go to a form of totalitarianism during a panel earlier in the day. But that evening, he told The Daily Beast hes not banking on Obama rescuing Snowden from perma-exile. I asked if the president is likely to even see the film any time soon. I hope so, Stone said. I hope so, but Im holding no hopes on it.

Live from the internet, Snowden explained why he got involved in a major motion picture retelling of his life. When there is enough in the public record you dont really get to decide if a movie gets made, he said. Stone was the right director to bring his story to the screen, he said, because nobody tells Oliver what to do, and thats not the case with a lot of studios. Thats a distinguisher that I hope shows through in the final message.

He decided to appear in the movie after Stone flew out to film him for bonus materials, he said. In the film, he professes his newfound purpose while seated at a laptop bearing a sticker for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending civil liberties in the digital world.

According to Stone, it took nine takes to nail Snowdens scenethe same number of takes it took Trump to film his deleted cameo in Stones Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. I once directed Donald Trump, Stone smiled to the crowd. It was a hard day. The difference between Donald and Edand this is true, I love the man in a weird wayafter every take [Trump] jumped up and said, Wasnt that great?

The confidence is unbelievable, and thats whats allowing him to run, Stone continued. I had to say, Donald, I think its great but you know what? I think we can go a little bit better here.

Stone also revealed that Snowden made a major contribution to the scripting of the films climaxa nail-biter that depicts exactly how Snowden managed to get away with the stolen files he would eventually release to the world. In the movie, Snowden anxiously downloads files upon files of documents and hides the SD card inside a Rubiks cube.

After much suspense, he manages to smuggle the cube out through security, smiling his relief into the open air.

Only thats not how he really did it.

We dont know, Stone admitted. None of us know. Hes the only one who knows and one day he may reveal. It was Eds idea, his suggestion. We responded to it and ran with it. But it was a good idea. Thank you.

Snowden did not divulge how that scene really unfolded, but he confirmed that life as an international fugitive isnt all that terrible. I can confirm that Im not living in a box, he said. I actually live a surprisingly free life.

This was not the most likely outcome, he added. I didnt actually expect to make it out of Hawaii. I thought it was incredibly risky I never thought I would be saved. But I thought the stories might still be able to get out there.

He slammed the U.S. governmentwhich canceled his passport and made traveling impossible in the wake of the leakfor threatening trade sanctions against countries that offered him asylum.

Particularly in the case of Ecuador, they literally got a direct threat, I believe from John Kerry, to revoke trade preferences, he said. Trade preferences were basically the thing keeping their economy aliveliterally, for broccoli farmers and rose farmers. These are impoverished, indigenous farmers, and they were like, Were going to make sure these peoples families cant eat if you defend this guys human rights.

But this is not a criticism about the United States specifically, although thats heinous in terms of foreign policy, he continued. This is truly about the nature of power.

Earlier in the day, Snowden and Andrew Bunnie Huang unveiled plans for a device that would prevent the outside surveillance of cellphones. Were not doing productization, were not doing sales, were not setting up a company or anything like that, Snowden clarified. Just saying anybody who wants to do this, here are our findings.

I love my country. I love the things that we try to do, he declared. I have serious policy disagreements with some agencies of government, particularly senior officials. The working level guys by and large are good people trying to do the best they can. But theyre often ordered more or less to do bad things, for what they believe to be a good reason.

Speaking from exile in Russia, Snowden seemed content given the circumstances. I dont have to worry about that anymore.
The Daily Show went live Thursday night following Donald Trumps lie-filled speech from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. And while it was refreshing to see host Trevor Noah respond so quickly to the nominees remarks, it was a taped piece that ended up stealing the show.

Following his opening segment, Noah introduced a full-on parody of the biographical film that preceded Trumps speech, narrated not by Jon Voight, but instead by the one woman the candidate hates more than Megyn Kelly: Rosie ODonnell. Following a false start marred by technical glitches, the show presented the full film in all its glory.

Donald Trump was born on Flag Day 1946, nine months after the nuking of the Japanese Asians, ODonnell said as archival footage of Trump played on screen. Some say, the radiation gave fetal Trump his Godzilla-sized business acumen and his Godzilla-sized head-to-hand ratio.

In school, young Donald showed great promise as a negotiator, settling a dispute with his music teacher by punching him in the face, she continued, noting that that is something that actually happened.

ODonnell continued to explain how Trump went to New York Military Academy, but somehow never made it to Vietnam, due to a sudden tragic diagnosis of heel spurs, a condition so debilitating it spread to his brain. After showing a clip of Trump calling dating his personal Vietnam, ODonnell said, Someone should pin a Purple Heart on that orange dick.

Eventually, the video arrived at Trumps presidential campaign, when he used Rosie ODonnell as a punchline during his very first debate on Fox News. At that point, the narrator was forced to break character. OK, you fucking piece of shit, she said, going off on a bleep-filled rant that ended with, I swear to Christ, I will step on you.

You can tell she needed to get that out, and thankfully The Daily Show found the perfect way to let her do so.
Donald Trump is married (for the second time) to an immigrant . But you wouldnt have guessed that from his RNC convention speech , which characterized immigrants as violent, murderous predators who come to the U.S. to slaughter young women and steal mens jobs.

As for Republican advocates of comprehensive immigration reform? Theyre horrified.

Trumps team blasted out links to Trumps remarks, including detailed footnotes showing the sources for his factual claims. And, unsurprisingly, many of Trumps arguments are based on data from organizations funded by radical population control environmentalist activists. For instance, he cited a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) to undergird his argument that the federal government enables crime by not deporting more undocumented immigrants.

FAIR was founded by John Tanton, a virulently anti-immigrant nativist who has associated with white supremacists and dabbled in eugenics. He and his allies also fear that human population growthparticularly in the First Worldjeopardizes the environment. Thus, they also back pro-abortion groups. This fact has left many on the right deeply concerned about citing their research or affiliating with their leaders. But not Trump.

Trumps speech also cited the Center for Immigration Studiesanother group Tanton founded and helps fund. His team cited three reports from CIS to support his assertions that immigration hurts American workers and that the federal government isnt deporting enough undocumented immigrants.

Along with NumbersUSA, CIS, and FAIR provide the intellectual and organizational firepower for the immigration restrictionist movement. Their data and scholars are omnipresent in efforts to demonize immigrants, and they were all major presences during the 2013 Gang of 8 comprehensive immigration reform debate. Tanton and his funding link the three together.

Pro-immigration conservatives loathe the Tanton network.

Its utterly unsurprising that a liberal trying to masquerade as a conservative would cite a bunch of lefty, zero-population growth, pro-abortion, forced sterilization wackadoodles and their offshoot organization in making his case for policy that is totally anti-free-market and right in line with policy that was also strongly advocated by hard-left, 20th century labor unions, said Liz Mair, a Republican consultant who favors immigration reform.

In the pre-Trump era, these groups found themselves pushed to the margins of the conservative conversation on immigration. They never fully lost tractionthanks in part to powerful devotees in the talk-radio world and immigration-restrictionist stalwarts like Reps. Steve King and Louie Gohmertbut they had trouble. For several years, CPAC declined to give them airtime.

In the meantime, the Republican National Committee made an explicit effort to change the partys rhetoric on immigration.

If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e., self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence, read the autopsy report it released after Obama handily won his re-election bid in 2012. It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.

That dream is dead. Instead, Trump characterized immigrants as murderous, dangerous, and barbaric. The Obama administration, he said, was happy to sacrifice children on the altar of open borders. A woman murdered by an undocumented was, for the administration, one more American life that wasnt worth protecting in Trumps telling. He didnt say a single good thing about immigration.

In his America, migrants are would-be rapists and definite job-thieves.

It is, in the literal sense, a story of xenophobiaa view of the world predicated on the notion that anyone from a foreign country should be feared.
Ten people are dead and 21 others injuredthree of them in life-threatening conditionsfollowing a shooting at the Olympia shopping center in Munich, Germany, the Bavarian interior ministry confirmed Friday afternoon. Some of the fatalties were adolescents, according to Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae. Children were also among the wounded.

Based on eyewitness accounts, Munich police initially believed that three gunmen armed with long guns were responsible for the carnage. They have now confirmed that there was only one shooteran 18-year-old German national from Iranand that he was only armed with a handgun. The suspect committed suicide. He had no prior criminal record, Andrae told reporters at a 2 a.m. press conference about the atrocity early Saturday morning.

The first reports came at 6 p.m., the shooting apparently began at a McDonalds in the shopping center, a police statement issued this evening read. There are still people in the shopping center. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them.

Via Twitter, Munich police have warned city residents to be careful, avoid the surrounding of the Olympia Mall, stay in your houses, leave the streets.

Videos shared on social media show civilians running from the mall, which, in a grim irony, was built on the former site of the 1972 Summer Olympics, infamously disrupted when Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage before killing them all.

Janek Schmidt, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper, interviewed an eyewitness who had been inside the Olympia shopping center at the time of the shooting. I suddenly saw everyone running past, Cansu Muyan told Schmidt. Then a shopkeeper told us all to leave as quickly as possible so we all started running as well.

The Munich attack comes just four days after 17-year-old Muhammad Riyad, now believed to have been a Pakistan national posing as an Afghan refugee, wielded an axe on board a train in Wurzburg-Heidingsfeld, and injured at least four people before police shot and killed him. A video of Riyad was later released on ISISs Amaq News Agency. Holding a knife, he identified himself as a soldier of the caliphate and told the camera: I want to perform a martyrdom operation in Germany. I will slaughter you with this blade and will cut your throats with an axe.

No terror group has claimed responsibility for the Munich attack. ISIS media channels are silent and in online chat fora, jihadists associated with or loyal to the organization claim to have no idea who the culprit was. By the early morning hours on Saturday, it appeared less and less likely that the terror army was behind the attack, particularly given the Iranian background of the single suspect.

However, Munich police suspect that this is indeed a terrorist attack, even if there is no evidence of Islamist or jihadist motivation.

A video uploaded to Twitter purportedly shows the suspected shooter shouting back and forth on a rooftop with a bystander on a nearby balcony. The bystander calls the shooter fucking Kanacken, a German epithet commonly used to refer to Turkish or Middle Eastern foreigners. The shooter responds: I am a German... born in Germany... in a Hartz IV neighbourhood, referring to the unemployment benefits program in Germany. I was in Giesung, I was in treatment there. Its unclear what the assailant means by treatment, though some have suggested he might have been a psychiatric patient.

Munich police said that they assume that the video is authentic.

with additional reporting by Nadette De Visser
PHILADELPHIA  Its afternoon rush hour on Kensington Avenue and business is about to pick up for the half dozen or so prostitutes who are loitering across the street from the Huntingdon train station eyeing passing cars for potential clients.

Traffic has been light today and a few of the girls are already feeling the pangs of heroin withdrawal.

Ive been out here since morning and only had one trick so far, a frail 30-year-old who would only give her initials, D.C., told The Daily Beast. I barely made enough to get well.
Jim Meehan is a modern bartending legend. Hed honed his craft around New York, including stops at Gramercy Tavern and Pegu Club, before opening his own place in 2007. That bar, PDT (Please Dont Tell) is widely recognized as one of the best in the world, the winner of the 2012 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program and four Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. Its wide-ranging cocktail menu and speakeasy aesthetic (you enter through a fake phone booth in the hot-dog joint next door) have inspired countless imitators around the world.

Two years ago, Meehan shocked the cocktail world by announcing he would be moving from New York to Portland, Oregon. He is still a part-owner of PDT. He runs a consultancy called Mixography, Inc. in his new hometown, is a contributing editor to Food & Wine magazine and is working on a new book, Meehans Manual, which will be released in the fall of 2017.

So where and what does Meehan like to drink in the cocktail-obsessed hipster mecca that is Rip City? Here are three of his favorites you need to try.

Melrose Brown at Jackknife

Located in the historic Sentinel Hotel, Jackknife puts out an astonishing volume of delicious cocktails in a low-key setting. The bubbly Melrose Brown combines Banks 7 Golden Age Rum (a blend of 23 rums from seven different countries that Meehan himself helped create), Monkey Shoulder Blended Scotch Whisky, lemon juice, ginger, and Champagne. Like the bar itself, this Scotch- and rum-based Imperial Fizz smacks of sophistication, but is deliciously approachable to a broad audience, Meehan says.

Bloody Michelada at Teardrop Cocktail Lounge

Without hesitation, Meehan calls Teardrop Cocktail Lounge the best cocktail bar in Portland, and this complex drink is a perfect example of what he calls its culinary high-wire acts. It combines sotola mezcal-like spirit distilled from a desert plant native to northern Mexicowith roasted tomatillos, chiles, garlic, and other Mexican flavors, then tops the whole shebang with some Miller High Life. (No shortage of irony here in Portland, Meehan says.) The result is a cross between a Bloody Mary and a spiced-beer favorite Michelada. A fiery, savory and powerful beverage.

Barrel-Aged Negroni at Clyde Common

Ever ordered a barrel-aged cocktail? You have bartender-cum-drinks-writer Jeffrey Morgenthaler (hes a columnist for Playboy and wrote 2014s The Bar Book) to thank. Morgenthaler invented the technique in 2009 when he first filled an oak cask with Negronis and let them mature for two months. Its a privilege to be able to enjoy a modern classic served by the person who created it, Meehan says. Jeffs barrel-aging technique integrates all the complex botanicals of the gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth into a harmonious blend.

Jason Horn is a freelance writer and Playboy.coms spirits columnist.

Check out our complete Three Drinks travel guide to cocktails
CLEVELAND  It seemed possible that the balloons would never drop.

This was not, after all, the celebration that the Republican Party had waited four years for.

This was a reading of last rites.

The Republican brand is now permanently sullied by the victory of a former reality television star with an adversarial relationship with the truth and a fluorescent rodent adorning his head.

Donald Trump accepted his nomination as the Republican candidate and finished his speech, yet thousands of red, white, and blue balloons briefly remained suspended in the air in patriotic protest.

He lingered onstage, greeting each member of his family and his running mate, Mike Pence. They smiled and waved, but the celebration did not begin on cue.

Confetti began to rain slowly downward.

And then the balloons.

And then You Cant Always Get What You Want started playing.

Subtlety was never the theme of this election, after all.

It had been 401 days since he announced his campaign for the presidency when he arrived onstage here Thursday evening. He emerged to the grandiose tune of the Air Force One theme song to accept his victory and to preside over the memorial for the Republican Party that he killed.

He stood for a moment and looked out at the crowded arena, a sea of white people, white cowboy hats, and Trump campaign paraphernalia.

Trump smiled his triumphant, half-smirk smile.

Thank you, thank you very much, he said.

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans, he said, I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

The Republican Party may eventually revive itself, Jon Snow-like, from Donald Trumps death blow. But it will never be the same. Since January the GOP has watched Trump lure away their base with impossible promises of returning to a time long past. Along the way he threw out crucial Republican tenetssupport of trade deals, antagonism toward dictators, discomfort with debtand stomped on efforts to expand the party beyond its increasingly old, white loyalists. He barely pretended to share the Biblical values of the GOPs evangelical core. He said nicer things about Vladimir Putin than the partys last three nominees. He drove down the percentage of blacks voting Republican to literally zero in some key states. The Latino and womens votes werent all that much better.

No wonder that all week, the convention was a series of miniature wakes at bars and hotel rooms, ballrooms and rented restaurants.

In between breakfasts, meetings, and speeches by a roster of speakers that were more suited for a seminar at Trump University than an event intended to convince the nation to vote Republican (who could forget the avocado farmer?) the conservatives here in town drank.

They confessed, in hushed tones, that they did not support him.

They looked, it was hard not to notice, helpless, like they knew the brand theyd long ago attached themselves to or aligned themselves with was slipping out of their grasp.

From the convention floor up to the top of the stands, Trumps audience cheered. He removed his hands from the side of the lectern and stepped back, as if the force of their applause was moving him.

And then he said, as he often does, what many of us are thinking.

Who wouldve believed that, when we started this journey on June 16th last year we, and I say webecause we are a teamwhat have we seen? he said.

Almost 14 million votes, Trump said, although he received 12 million votes while Hillary Clinton received 14 million, the most in the history of the Republican Party... Who wouldve believed?

It took nearly until tonight for many in the party to believe.

Since June 2015, the pundits and analysts and political scientists who supposedly know what theyre talking about assured the conservative establishment that it just couldnt be, that he wouldnt be nominated, that voters would get serious as they went to the polls and elect someone more measured and reasonable.

But it turns out its easy to be popular with a message defined by a lack of nuance.

Since Day One of his campaign, Trump has offered his supporters a simple world, where issues are black or white, good or evil, right or wrong.

Trumps convention speech was adapted from the same stump speech hes given at dozens of rallies across the countryfrom Manchester to Biloxiin the last 13 months.

It was not a broad appeal to Americans who do not already support him. It was not designed to make him more palatable to those who remain skeptical of him.

It was a convention heavy on fear and short on facts, with no discernable economic, social, or national security message.

Trumps central themes remained: America comes first, he is the law-and-order candidate, immigration is bad and illegal immigrants are worse.

We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities, Trump said.

Some members of the mostly white crowd waved Latinos Para Trump signs.

That was far from the only example of a lack of consistency.

After adopting an anti-gay platform and selecting as his running mate one of the least gay-friendly politicians in the country, Trump extended a large, manly hand to the LGBTQ community, whom he promised he would support.

He acknowledged how remarkable it was that the conservative audience applauded him for that.

Perhaps to avoid the mistake his wife made early in the week, the official transcript sent by the campaign contained 282 footnotes.

After Trump exited the stage, delegates began enthusiastically popping the balloons.

They were righteous and triumphant, but its not clear anyone got what they needed.
DECATUR  The company with plans to begin managing a short-line railroad northeast of Decatur sees an opportunity to attract industrial businesses to the area that are interested in utilizing the rail capabilities.

OmniTRAX is proposing plans to establish an industrial park in the area surrounding the renamed Decatur Central Railroad, running approximately 13 miles between Cisco and Decatur along Illinois 48.

The privately held transportation service company that is an affiliate of The Broe Group announced on Wednesday a joint venture to begin managing later this year the short line railway Topflight Grain Cooperative currently owns. The rail line connects the Topflight facility in Cisco with plants at Archer Daniels Midland Co., Tate & Lyle and other processing companies in and around Macon County.

This was a natural place to look because of the transportation logistics, OmniTRAX CEO Kevin Shuba said Thursday during an interview with the Herald & Review. We think there are a lot of opportunities here for us to create success in this market.

With a large company to anchor the development, Shuba said its suppliers could follow suit and locate nearby, even if those businesses don't need direct access to the rail service. It would be a way of spurring economic development, he said.

They're going to bring jobs, Shuba said. We need to create a magnet and turn up the power to get more here.

OmniTRAX has a customer base of approximately 350 businesses, including 150 Fortune 500 companies, that Shuba said it can talk with about the level of interest in locating operations in the Decatur area. The development will be marketed nationally, he said.

It opens up a lot of marketing opportunities for us, Shuba said. We want them to understand the opportunities and see what they want to try to do next. We want to bring them to our railroad.

Companies with manufacturing plants utilizing rail tend to remain invested in an area, Shuba said.

They're going to be here a long time, Shuba said.

The economic growth could be similar to what has happened with other developments OmniTRAX has been involved with constructing, Shuba said.

He said Decatur would be one of its four master industrial parks and fit geographically in the Midwest to go along with access to the Gulf of Mexico at the Port of Brownsville in Texas, in the Southeast at the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub in Georgia, and the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor, Co.

Our success there helps us believe we'll be successful in other areas, Shuba said.

To make it all work as anticipated in Decatur, Shuba said OmniTRAX is looking to acquire a sufficient amount of land, likely between 200 and 400 acres.

Decatur meets much of the criteria OmniTRAX is seeking when looking for an area to develop, Shuba said. He said it has access to three Class I railroads, not just two like many areas.

In addition, Shuba said it has a highly skilled labor force, welcoming feel and low cost for utilities.

Businesses want to make sure they fit within a community, Shuba said. We want to target areas with a business-friendly climate.

Decatur has previously been able to deliver the work force needs for companies, such as what happened last year when Convey Health Solutions needed more than 300 job openings filled within a few months, said Ryan McCrady, Economic Development Corporation of Decatur and Macon County president.

I'm a true believer Decatur and Macon County can step up to do what is needed, McCrady said.

Interest in Decatur could come from businesses looking to avoid congestion in the Chicago area, which Shuba said is becoming an increasingly significant concern for many companies.

Chicago can be difficult to get around, Shuba said. Because of the congestion in Chicago, a lot of companies are looking for alternatives.

The possibility of the OmniTRAX development is the type of benefit Decatur economic development officials have been trying to highlight through the creation of the Midwest Inland Port. The concept was among the items presented Wednesday during a Business Development Forum the EDC organized at the Decatur Civic Center.

The local stakeholders the proposal has been discussed with are plugged into helping make it happen, said Larry Altenbaumer, executive director of the Midwest Inland Port.

Decatur is showing how it can come together to grow its own success stories, Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe said.

We're expecting great things out of the partnership, Moore Wolfe said. I'm excited to see all the great things to come.

The benefits of the area's transportation capabilities are starting to be realized as Decatur becomes more widely recognized as a freight rail hub, Altenbaumer said. A direct import lane into Decatur has been opened, he said.

We've proven it does work, Altenbaumer said. Limitless opportunities are being created through the Midwest Inland Port.

The focus now shifts toward adding businesses of a significant size to locate in the Decatur area, Altenbaumer said. A unique strategic development team is in place in an effort to make that happen, he said.

Archer Daniels Midland Co., which has opened its intermodal rail facility for other companies to use, sees working with OmniTRAX as creating a new platform for growth, said Dennis Whalen, ADM vice president intermodal transportation.

It will further enhance the success of the Midwest Inland Port, Whalen said. It creates many possibilities for Central Illinois.

The opportunity for the community is bigger than previously imagined since the Midwest Inland Port was introduced in 2013, McCrady said.

Putting the pieces together, it's a much bigger deal that is starting to gain good traction, McCrady said. We have a tremendous potential for the community.

McCrady said more work needs to be done, but progress is being made to move development prospects in the right direction.
STILLWATER, Minn.  David Francis ripped open a bag of cypress blend mulch last month and carefully spread it around the base of a Black Hills spruce in the yard of his Stillwater townhouse.

The tree is one of nine that David and Linda Francis have planted over the past nine years, the Pioneer Press reported. Come October, there will be 10.

The stand of trees  a mix of Black Hills and blue spruce  is a living memorial to their son Jon, who died 10 years ago July 15 while hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. A wilderness searcher found Jon Francis' remains a little more than a year later, on July 24, 2007; he had fallen to his death from the north face of a mountain known as the Grand Mogul.

Each spring, the Francises put a seedling spruce in a pot and leave it at Jon's grave in Rutherford Cemetery, just a few blocks north of their house. Each fall, they replant the tree in their yard.

A small homemade sign nestled among the trees reads: "It's not what we gather, but rather what we scatter that defines our life.  Jon Francis"

"It's from one of his college papers on theology," David Francis said. "I was just amazed at how much he knew about religion. Episcopal, Lutheran and Roman Catholic, he learned a lot. (A friend) wrote a note after he died saying 'Jon had a pastor's heart'  and he did. He had unconditional love and tolerance."

At the time he disappeared, Jon, 24, was working at Luther Heights Bible Camp near Ketchum, Idaho. He also was a youth minister in Ogden, Utah. He majored in religion at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., and had planned to go to Luther Seminary in St. Paul to become a minister.

"He was on his way (to Luther)," David Francis said. "That's a painful loss because he was going to be nearby for three years and would have gotten into an area where he would have just excelled."

Francis walks to the cemetery a couple of times a week to water the tree and visit with Jon. He sits on "his" rock  the pink one, eight in from the north.

"It's become a mantra: 'Jon, I love you. Jon, I miss you. You were just an amazing son,' " he said. "He's constantly in my thoughts. One of the hardest parts is not having the pleasure of his presence. He was just an amazing young man, and I loved spending time with him. .. When you lose a child, you not only lose their presence, but you also lose their future."

Francis wishes more people knew his son's story.

"People find his life inspiring," he said. "I think that's one of the important things we do is tell his stories and bring some good from his loss."

In the past 10 years, David Francis, 72, has emerged as a national advocate for missing adults. He has written a book, "Bringing Jon Home," and founded the Jon Francis Foundation, which provides information and advice to families searching for people missing in the wild.

He was pivotal in the passage of the state's "Brandon's Law," named after 19-year-old Brandon Swanson, who disappeared in southwestern Minnesota in May 2008. The law requires law enforcement agencies to file missing-persons reports and begin investigations when an adult disappears.

The Jon Francis Foundation has provided crisis and grief support to more than 40 families in 14 states and Canada. The latest search, in May in southwestern Colorado, was the best-organized search to date, Francis said.

Joe Keller, 18, of Cleveland, Ohio, went out for a run on the morning of July 23, 2015, in Antonito, Colo., and never returned.

The foundation helped the Keller family by assembling a team of 25 ground searchers and 11 certified search dogs and covered a large area around Keller's last known position, Francis said. The team logged 30 "dog days"  cumulative days of canine search  and more than 20 ground-search days.

Sadly, Francis said, Keller was not found, and his disappearance remains a mystery.

"Every time the foundation helps with a search, it's like peeling off a Band-Aid. . The pain is just as sharp," said Jocelyn Francis Plass, one of Jon's three older sisters and the first executive director of the foundation.

"We were way out of our depth (when Jon disappeared), and it wasn't the result we wanted. But I couldn't handle the not knowing. I'd be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life," she said. "So if we're able to help one family find that resolution, then I feel like we're doing something."

Plass and her husband, Doug, and their two young children moved to Idaho after Jon disappeared to help coordinate the search. They ended up staying in Stanley, where they own a restaurant called The Redd.

Francis is writing a second book. Its working title is "Life After Death," and it's about what he has learned on his "journey of grief and loss  what works, what doesn't," he said.

One chapter  titled "But Did You Enjoy the Play, Mrs. Lincoln?"  deals with the awful things people say after a death, he said.

"They should teach grief in high school," Francis said. "People just don't know what to say. We have heard it all: 'He's in a better place.' 'The good die young.' All those cliches. When we were out West, we were assaulted by 'Jon died in a beautiful place.' 'Jon died where he wanted to be.'

"No, he didn't want to be on the mountain. He was on his way down to go back to camp to continue his ministry."

Anniversary dates, birthdays and holidays continue to be hard, David Francis said. "Like Father's Day," he said. "He didn't call me because he can't or send me one of his homemade cards, which were better than Hallmark."

But the passage of time has helped.

On what would have been Jon's 31st birthday  March 5, 2013  Francis realized the pain wasn't quite as "god awful" as it had been the year before.

"I didn't feel quite as sad," he said. "It's not as raw, it's not as sharp."

And he no longer felt as guilty about feeling some joy in his life.

"One of the things we have learned from parents who have lost a child is about year seven, they started to feel normal again," Francis said. "Joy creeps back into your life, so that happened to us a couple of years ago. Joy started to creep back in, especially because of our grandchildren."

Granddaughter Camille, age 7, and her mother, Robin Francis, live in the Stillwater area; the Francises babysit her about 20 hours a week.

"I've reinvested a lot of my love  that's part of grief, you reinvest a lot of your love," he said. "Camille has been a benefactor of that."

Family and friends will gather in Idaho July 15-17 to mark the 10th anniversary of Jon Francis' death. They will tell stories around the campfire at Luther Heights Bible Camp, hold a barbecue and hike to a lake they call "Lake Jon"  near the bowl of Grand Mogul, where Jon's remains were found.

David Francis says one of his most important missions is to share his son's story  around the campfire, in the media, at the cemetery  so that people won't forget him.

"I came across a Jewish proverb that says when you stop mentioning a loved one's name, they die twice," Francis said. "As long as I have breath, I will mention his name and tell his story and let other people know that he was an amazing young man, and we are continuing his legacy of making a difference in the world."
UK ambassadors encouraged to serve British

To send out a strong message to UK Ambassadors, High Commissioners and senior diplomats to serve British, English wine and British gin producers for the first time sponsored the drinks reception after the annual conference at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

CEO of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, Miles Beale, comments: It is only right that we should encourage the UK Governments representatives around the world to showcase the very best of British.

The UK drinks industry is calling on all parts of government to be bolder than ever in its support for British exports.

Our Embassies and High Commissions across the globe should take the lead from Number 10 and Defra at home and consider serving British at events they host overseas.

The FCO agreed to serve exclusively British drinks at their conference reception. Defra has already committed to supporting British drinks production and Number 10 announced in May it had chosen to make two English Sparkling wine producers official suppliers for Downing Street receptions.

With English wine and British gin now proven as world class products, the WSTA hope these influential guests will spread the word through state receptions across the globe. British gin and English wine sit firmly front and centre within the Great British Food campaign.

More than two thirds of the gin distilled in the UK goes to discerning drinkers overseas. Exports have risen nearly 50% in the past six years, with sales to 139 countries, worth over 2 billion in that period.

English wine goes from strength to strength: there is a record area of land under vine in England, production is set to double over the next 5 years and exports set to increase tenfold in that time.

On offer to the 470 dignitaries attending the reception on Tuesday, July 5th, were eight different English sparkling wines and four different gins.

Some brands were more familiar than others but all have one thing in common in addition to their collective excellence  all the products are looking to expand their export markets.

The WSTA represents an industry worth over 45 billion to the UK and supports over half a million jobs in the UK.

The drinks showcased at the Leadership Conference 2016 were: Berry Bros & Rudd, English Sparkling Wine, Kent; Bolney Bubbly, Sussex; Chapel Down, Blanc de blancs, Kent; Furleigh Estate, Classic Cuvee, Dorset; Hattingley Valley, Classic Cuvee, Hampshire; Hush Heath, Leslies Reserve NV, Kent; Nyetimber, Classic Cuvee, Sussex; Ridgeview, Bloomsbury, South Downs; Beefeater, London Dry Gin; East London Liquor Company, London Dry Gin; Sipsmith, London Dry Gin; Tanqueray, London Dry Gin; Fever-Tree, Tonic Water.

Gin facts

Gin sales in the UK (on and off trade sales combined) are set to break 1 billion for the first time next year.

The gin boom saw a multi-record breaking year in 2015 with 49 new distilleries opening across the country and consumers spending more on gin than ever before. A total of 117 new distilleries have opened in the UK in the last five years.

Almost 140 million bottles of gin made in the UK are now exported every year.

In 2015 1.87bn worth of single G&Ts were sold across the globe (all gin not just British)

English wine facts:

In the last 16 years to 2015 English sparkling wines have won 9 trophies for Best International Sparkling wine and 6 Trophies for Best Sparkling Rose in Global Competitions.

There are now 503 commercial vineyards in the UK which last year produced 5.06m bottles of wine compared to 3.02 bottles in 2011.

In the last ten years hectarage of planted vines has more than doubled and is set to grow 50% by 2020.

Image courtesy of FreeImages.com/Tom Richards

22 July 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor
TAYLORVILLE  A Taylorville police officer was fired Friday, after the police department completed an internal investigation regarding an arrest for domestic battery, which occurred June 22 in a Chicago suburb.

The termination of patrol officer Anthony Telford was announced Friday afternoon by a news release from the Taylorville Police Department.

Telford, who served with the department for seven years, was arrested by Skokie police in the early hours of June 22, after his wife accused him of choking her and punching her in the face in a hotel room, according to a news story by the Springfield State Journal-Register.

That infomation was based on a police report obtained by the newspaper from a Freedom of Information Act request.

The domestic battery charge was dismissed July 11.

Telford was placed on paid administrative leave following his arrest.

Officers were sent to the Holiday Inn in Skokie about 4 a.m. June 22 on a report of a married couple that had been engaged in an altercation. The report noted that Telford and his wife had both been drinking.

The woman told police Telford choked her and punched her in the face in their hotel room. She appeared to be injured, with redness and swelling above her eye and on her cheek, the report said. She told police she did not want to sign a domestic battery complaint against Telford but just wanted him to stay away from her.

She told police the couple argued after she asked for the new password to his cellphone. He jumped on her as she lay on the bed on her back, then put his hands on her throat. She said he then let go of her and punched her in the face with a closed fist. She then ran from the room to the front desk.

A hotel employee escorted her back to the room, as he sat outside the room on a staircase. After she refused to let him into the room, a worker heard him banging on the door and screaming, so the worker called the police.

Telford told police he was a Taylorville officer and that there was a loaded handgun in the hotel room. He said the couple was staying at the hotel after watching a Cubs game that day.

He told police the couple had been arguing, but he did not batter his wife.

Taylorville Police Chief Dave Herpstreith, who was on vacation Friday, was not available for comment.

He previously said that during his 19 years with the department he had not known of any incident in which a Taylorville officer faced charges of this nature.
DECATUR  With rising national anxiety over mass shootings, a local organization hopes to prepare companies and their employees for a worst-case scenario.

The nonprofit corporation known as DART, or domestic active response training, has launched in Decatur with the promise to provide active shooter response training programs that can discourage or contain an active shooter until police arrive.

The plan has been in the works for more than a year as the nation comes to grips with more high-profile mass shootings, said DART founder Bret Mason.

Our world has changed, and sadly it is not for the better, he said.

The program will be open to organizations who are interested to sponsor employees to participate in the 30-hour training program that covers topics such as close-quarter-self-defense, emergency medical treatment and response tactics.

Following the completion of the training, the organization would receive a DART logo decal to display at the entrance of its facility in hopes of discouraging those with malicious intent from entering.

Training for the program will be provided through Midwest SWAT Academy in Mount Zion, and organizations will be asked to provide a $600 contribution per trainee to offset the costs of the program.

Only concealed-carry permit holders will be allowed to undergo training, and an Illinois State Police screening will be done on all prospective trainees.

The idea of creating a nonprofit was to provide a more community-based organization that was not just about one company "looking to make a buck," said Mark Scranton, president of the academy. He said the goal of the company was to create something supported by local law enforcement and businesses.

Officials from the Decatur Police Department, Macon County sheriffs and states attorneys offices have thrown their support behind DART.

Anything we can do to help protect the citizens of this community, well support that, States Attorney Jay Scott said.

Among those from the private sector to throw their support behind the idea of DART was Mark Cheviron, the former director of corporate security at ADM. He noted companies, big and small, share a similar concern for the safety of their employees and customers.

My biggest nightmare was workplace violence - someone shooting up a place and there would be no response, he said. I think this is going to be very good for the community.

Those looking for more information on the program can visit the DART site at http://www.dartraining.com or email Mason at dartraining@comcast.net.
Remember that foreign policy issues are critical to America

Amidst the commotion of the Republican National Convention, the frightful violence greeting all corners of our nation, and the overarching question of "who do you hate more?" the American people are walking a divisive and tricky line. While our domestic issues certainly are important, I would like to bring attention to the importance of our foreign policy.

What's our strategy? The Pentagon's stated national security strategy is defense, diplomacy and development. Yet all we seem to hear about is defense. Attention and awareness of the importance of diplomacy and development needs to increase. Clearly, a defense-only strategy is not sustainable. This is why developing relationships, teaching sustainable business practices and promoting poverty-alleviating initiatives should be advocated.

In the 1980s, after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson of Texas worked to convince Congress to improve conditions for the Afghan people, such as building schools. Wilson understood that allowing millions of young, hopeless people to live in poverty would not result in anything good. Now, hindsight is 20/20 as we have seen extremism spread through Afghanistan and the Taliban take control of the country, creating a safe haven for al-Qaida and planning for the 9/11 attacks.

While we face the coming elections with reluctance and skepticism, keep in mind foreign policy promises. More troops, more walls, more intolerance; all create an environment of hostility. The more we promote positivity and initiatives such as education and economic empowerment, allies and trading partners are able to flourish.

Whoever you vote for though, I encourage you to not leave these important issues to our national leaders. Learn about extreme poverty, understand the intricacies of diplomacy and tell your leader what matters, instead of the other way around.

To learn more about these important issues, I encourage you to check out borgenproject.org.

ELAINE FRENCH

College Station

Will evangelical Christians be happy with their choice?

As a mainstream Protestant, who am I to tell evangelical Christians how their religion applies to politics? But now you have it from one of your own, Ted Cruz: "Vote your conscience," (even if you get booed for it).

Please don't let racism trump Christianity (pun intended). Trump has a special edition 1959 confirmation Bible in mint condition, with a book called Two Corinthians and lacking Matthew chapter 25. I understand that you take the abortion issue seriously. I suspect that Trump does not; his recent "conversion" on the issue is just a vehicle to con people such as you.

Elect him president, and you will be left holding the bag like many of the small businessmen who in good faith sold goods to Trump casinos. There is a reason the Trumps had to borrow character from the Obamas: They have none of their own.

WALTER KAMPHOEFNER

Bryan

Glad we got to the bottom of Melania Trump's speech

Meredith McIver has admitted ghost writing Melania Trump's convention mistake. McIver's "mistake" was not needing to "check Michelle Obama's speeches."

Her mistake was writing down as Melania's words a number of statements virtually word for word as Michelle Obama wrote them and said them and in Michelle Obama's exact same order from her 2008 Democratic convention speech.

McIver knew they were virtually verbatim statements because Melania read them to you over the phone for your dictation directly from Obama's convention speech, as you admitted. Thus, what you are definitely guilty of is "plagiarism." Since you wrote the speech, that is your "mistake."

And Melania also is guilty, either wittingly or unwittingly, depending upon her degree of education. She and McIver both participated in the "plagiarism" of extended remarks -- taking other's words and using them as your own, without attribution.

McIver allowed chief strategist Paul Manafort to deny adamantly there was any "borrowing of language." He said, "The media" manufactured the issue." An Republican National Committee spokesman in denial said, "We all use common phrases." Besides, there were "only three phrases."

I'm glad McIver wasn't fired. I'm glad Melania likes Michelle Obama and her ideas. I wish they could somehow work together to celebrate and "grow" the America they love. Maybe they can.

J. ROLAND COLE

College Station
Political developments in Britain appear more than a little confusing at the moment.

The parliamentary Labour party is in open revolt against a leader recently elected with the biggest mandate in the party's history.

Most Labour MPs call Jeremy Corbyn 'unelectable', even though they have worked tirelessly to undermine him from the moment he became leader, never giving him a chance to prove whether he could win over the wider British public.

Now they are staging a leadership challenge and trying to rig the election by denying hundreds of thousands of Labour members who recently joined the party the chance to vote.

If the MPs fail in the coming election, as seems almost certain, indications are that they will continue their war of attrition against Corbyn, impervious to whether their actions destroy the party they claim to love.

Meanwhile, the Guardian, the house paper of the British left - long the preferred choice of teachers, social workers and Labour activists - has been savaging Corbyn too, all while it haemorrhages readers and sales revenue.

Online, the Guardian's reports and commentaries about the Labour leader - usually little more than character assassination or the reheating of gossip and innuendo - are ridiculed below the line by its own readers. And yet it ploughs on regardless.

The Labour party ignores its members' views, just as the Guardian ignores its readers' views. What is going on?

The Structure of Scientific (and other) Revolutions

Strangely, a way to understand these developments may have been provided by a scientific philosopher named Thomas Kuhn. Back in the 1960s he wrote an influential book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

His argument was that scientific thought did not evolve in a linear fashion, as scientific knowledge increased. Rather, modern human history had been marked by a series of forceful disruptions in scientific thought that he termed "paradigm shifts". One minute a paradigm like Newtonian mechanics dominated, the next an entirely different model, like quantum mechanics, took its place - seemingly arriving as if out of nowhere.

Importantly, a shift, or revolution, was not related to the moment when the previous scientific theory was discredited by the mounting evidence against it. There was a lag, usually a long delay, between the evidence showing the new theory was a better "fit" and the old theory being discarded.

The reason, Kuhn concluded, was because of an emotional and intellectual inertia in the scientific community. Too many people - academics, research institutions, funding bodies, pundits - were invested in the established theory. As students, it was what they had grown up "knowing".

Leading professors in the field had made their reputations advancing and "proving" the theory. Vast sums had been expended in trying to confirm the theory. University departments were set up on the basis that the theory was correct. Too many people had too much to lose to admit they were wrong.
In a statement released earlier this week, London-based mining company Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC) announced its disinvestment from its controversial Xolobeni project on South Africa's 'Wild Coast' to exploit the area's abundant titanium resources.

This was the culmination of a long running campaign calling on British millionaire Graham Edwards - MRCs biggest individual shareholder with 23.6% of the company's shares - to use his weight to make the company divest from Xolobeni.

Not only was the project opposed in the UK, but it was also fiercely opposed by the majority of the Amadiba community indigenous to this stretch of South Africa's Wild Coast, where the mine is planned to span 22 kilometres.

But MRC's decision to disinvest demonstrates much more than the impact of public campaigning. For instance, War on Want's recent report, aptly titled 'The New Colonialism', evidences the extent to which British companies control Africa's mineral resources: it documents 101 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange as having operations in 37 Sub-Saharan African countries.

Together, these companies have control of an unfathomable $1 trillion of Africa's resources. Consequently, in both the report's headlines and MRC's activities we see the necessity of campaigning in Britain made clear too.

But the fight is not over yet!

Worryingly, the move to disinvest potentially depicts the adoption of more sordid antics by MRC to obscure the financial beneficiary chain of the Xolobeni mining project. This way of working is well established in the mining industry and evidenced most famously in the case of Marikana and mining company Lonmin.

For this reason, while the disinvestment campaign run by solidarity groups in the UK is being considered an important win - and one welcomed by the Amadiba community's legal representatives - it won't be celebrated as such until it is clear whether financial interest has been retained behind scenes by Edwards and MRC through a complex sub-contracting chain.

What is clear at present is that MRC has divested its 56% interest in Transworld Energy and Resources (TEM) - the entity which owns the Xolobeni mining project. Instead, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between MRC and its Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partner Keysha.

It is here that the water gets muddied. Legal representatives of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (set up in 2007 to oppose the Xolobeni project), put it this way:

"Keysha was set up by MRC as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Xolobeni Empowerment Company (XolCo), a structure established by MRC. While XolCo has been described by MRC as a 'Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) company representing the Amadiba community at Xolobeni', our clients have never been consulted regarding XolCo and deny that it represents them."
The media are full of stories that EDF is about to announce a 'final investment decision' on Hinkley C nuclear power station.

However the logic of its own press statements suggest that the project is in fact in deep freeze.

Once again, EDF's superb public relations is convincing people that its disastrous Hinkley C power plant project is moving ahead, whilst the reality is that it is announcing that the project will not be started until at least 2019.

And even this date seems to be associated with the commissioning of the terribly delayed sister project at Flamanville: if that's later than promised (and it probably will be) or abandoned altogether (very far from impossible), then expect further delays at Hinkley C.

I have lost count of the number of times that EDF has sparked speculation that it is about to announce a final investment decision for the project. These 'announcements', given through press briefings about which EDF bristles with annoyance if people question their connection with reality, have occurred several times since 2012.

And yet EDF's own press release in effect says the opposite of the 'final investment decision' press stories that EDF have inspired. The document, released by EDF yesterday (July 21st) actually says: "The first concrete of reactor 1 of HPC, scheduled for mid-2019, would coincide with perfect continuity with the start-up of the EPR at Flamanville, scheduled for the end of 2018."

So, what is actually happening is that (as experts familiar with the saga know only too well), EDF is confirming that Hinkley's construction could not possibly begin until the safety issues surrounding the reactor design have been cleared and the working of the Flamanville project has been demonstrated. This is not going to happen for a minimum of three years.

And even that would depend on a huge bailout by the French state

Of course even this possibility defies commercial logic given that the project would bankrupt EDF without massive subsidy from the French state.The UK has agreed in principle to pay EDF (in today's money) around 100 per MWh for 35 years of operation for the project, but even this price would not go close to covering the risk that EDF would take with the project.

Hence the need for a massive handout from the French state to EDF, in the form of buying shares in the company and taking dividends as shares rather than cash - which may well prove to be illegal under EU competition law even after Brexit. The French unions and many financiers and managers inside and outside the company regard the whole thing as a politically motivated piece of industrial suicide.

Even the UK Treasury has long since sidled away from the project, effectively cancelling its offer for guaranteeing the bulk of the loans that EDF would hope to take out for the project - since under the conditions agreed by the EU, Flamanville would have to be up and running by the end of 2020 for the guarantees to take effect.
CLEVELAND  Delegates to the Republican National Convention are divided this week over a crucial question:

Should Hillary Clinton be summarily executed? Or merely imprisoned without trial?

Most favor the latter position, judging from the nightly chants of "Lock her up!" from the convention floor and the regular calls from convention speakers to outfit Clinton in a jumpsuit or stripes and place her behind bars.

But a minority would deal more decisively with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. On Wednesday, word broke in Cleveland that New Hampshire state Representative and Donald Trump delegate Al Baldasaro, who has shared the stage with Trump at campaign events, said in a radio interview that "Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."

The Republican nominee and his advisers themselves are split on the issue. "Hillary Clinton has to go to jail, OK? She has to go to jail," the candidate declared last month. "She's guilty as hell."

But his longtime adviser Roger Stone has long argued for more. "Hillary must be brought to justice  arrested, tried and executed for murder," he tweeted two years ago. Stone suggested anew this week (at a rally also attended by Baldasaro) that Clinton murdered her friend Vince Foster.

In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is imprisoning his foes without trial. In Russia, enemies of Vladimir Putin have been killed. But in America, we usually deal with political opponents in elections.

Those at Quicken Loans Arena have other thoughts.

"Lock her up!" said Michael Flynn, retired general and Trump's national-security adviser, chanting with the delegates. "If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today."

"Lock her up," veteran Jason Beardsley, another convention speaker, concurred.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday night ignited the crowd by saying: "If she were any more on the inside she'd be in prison."

Darryl Glenn, Senate candidate and county commissioner in Colorado, told the convention-goers that "she loves her pantsuits" but "she deserves a bright orange jumpsuit."

Chris Christie, in his Star Chamber presentation to the convention Tuesday night, held a mock trial to "hold Hillary Rodham Clinton accountable."

"Lock her up!" the delegates chanted.

"We're getting there," Christie replied.

He and the audience went on to convict Clinton on numerous charges, including being "an apologist for an al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria, resulting in the capture of innocent young women."

Those surprised by this week's vengeful words probably weren't paying attention earlier.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen last month tweeted the allegation that Clinton "murdered an ambassador." Corey Stewart, chairman of Trump's Virginia campaign, accused Clinton of "essentially encouraging the murder" of police officers. Rocker Ted Nugent, a prominent Trump supporter, said Clinton and President Obama "should be tried for treason and hung."

Trump himself often speaks favorably of violence ("Punch him in the face. ... Knock the crap out of them") and has talked of using presidential powers to torture suspects, target innocent relatives of terrorists, restrict press freedoms, go after a judge presiding over a fraud case against him, and get the Justice Department to investigate opponents.

Is it OK for political figures to talk this way?

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who previously represented Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and other strongmen, doesn't seem to mind.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday morning about "how angry" the convention has been, Manafort replied, "The tone that I saw was of joy." Asked about the "Lock her up" chant, Manafort opined that "it probably reflects the attitude of a lot of people in America."

Reflects? Or encourage those who have violent thoughts of extra-constitutional remedies?

Calls for killing Clinton have been heard before at Trump events. At an event this month, one man repeatedly shouted, "Hang that b----!"

Last week, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Mike Folk, tweeted that Clinton "should be tried for treason, murder" and then "hung on the Mall in Washington."

At the Republican convention here, sales of "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts have been brisk. And the hateful have felt emboldened: Officials shut down the chat function on the convention's live-stream after a barrage of anti-Semitic comments.

Will the cries for blood and vengeance cause a backlash outside this angry convention?

"Hillary Clinton now belongs in prison? C'mon," Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz, a Never Trump holdout, tweeted Tuesday night. "We can make the case that she shouldn't be elected without jumping the shark."

Sorry, Fonzie. This shark was jumped many episodes ago.
The 17th annual Pack the Bus event to collect school supplies for underprivileged children will take place Friday, July 29 at the Rocky Mount Walmart.

The bus will be in the parking lot of Walmart from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Officials with Walmart said that individuals or businesses who wish to contribute school supplies can drop them off at the bus on Friday.

All supplies collected in Rocky Mount will stay in Franklin County and will be distributed to children in county schools.

School officials will handle the distribution of the donated school supplies.

The project has collected more than $525,000 in school supplies over the past 16 years.

Walmart is sponsoring the event this year with help from Pepsi, McDonalds, United Way, Officer Ryan King from the Rocky Mount Police Department and Franklin County public schools central office staff.

Last year, the community donated a total of $10,000 in school supplies for area students in need.
JONES JR. Jesse Noble Jesse Noble Jones Jr., 80, of Boones Mill departed this life on Tuesday, July 19, 2016 ending his long suffering battle with auto-immune encephalitis. He was born in Roanoke on November 30, 1935, to Jesse Noble Sr. and Mary Harris Jones. He graduated from Wm. Byrd High School and received his BA from Bridgewater College. He was an Estimatics Team Manager for State Farm Insurance in the Roanoke Office retiring after 42 years of service. He was a former Lt. Col. in the Virginia Defense Force and a retired Sgt. Major from the United States Marine Corps, with 31 years of service, an accomplishment of which he was extremely proud! He was a member of Bethlehem Church of the Brethren where he served as a Deacon, member of the Finance Committee and Usher. He was a Past Master of Melrose Masonic Lodge #139; an Emeritus Member of the Director's Staff of Kazim Shrine Temple; member of the Roanoke Valley Shrine Club; a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Roanoke Court #59 Royal Order of Jesters. He was preceded in death by his parents; and daughter, Karen Elizabeth Jones. Left to honor and cherish his memory are his wife, Jan; daughters, Donna Jones Hill (Randy), Oak Hill, Va., and Joyce Jones Voorhees (Jay), Lake Mary, Fla.; granddaughter, Hailey Faye Voorhees, Farmville, Va.; grandsons, Jake Thomas Voorhees, Lake Mary, Fla. and Nicholas Jordan Hill, Oak Hill, Va.; sister, Betty Jones Whitescarver (Penn), Stuart, Fla.; brother, Frank C. Jones II (Betty), Stafford, Va.; sister-in-law, Sheila Williams Smith, Portsmouth, Va.; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. Also a special buddy, Harlan Bowman, Boones Mill, Va.. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, July 22, 2016 held at Flora Funeral Service, 665 S. Main Street, Rocky Mount, Va. Masonic Rites will follow at 8 p.m. Services will be at 11 a.m. conducted on Saturday, July 23, 2016 at Bethlehem Church of the Brethren, 4250 Bethlehem Road, Boones Mill, Va. Burial will be in the Bethlehem Church Cemetery, followed by Military Honors by the USMC Honor Guard. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Shriner's Hospitals for Children, 950 W. Faris Rd, Greenville, S.C. 29605, Bethlehem Church of the Brethren, or a charity of your choice.
STANLEY James Lester Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret) James Lester Stanley, 87, of Ferrum, Va. and Jekyll Island, Ga., passed away peacefully Friday, July 15, 2016. He will be remembered for his selfless dedication to family, country and community. Jim was born in Nola, Franklin County Va., of the late Claude Dennis Stanley and Leah Belle Thompson Stanley of Ferrum, Va. Mr. Stanley was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Agnes (Polly) Piper Stanley; his parents and his siblings, Nell Stanley Mullins, Margaret Stanley Touchton, Lane Stanley, Warren Stanley and Charles (Chris) Stanley. Survivors include his children, Col. (Ret) James L. Stanley Jr. and his wife, Terri Parenti Stanley; Marsha Stanley Fay and her husband, Clifford Charles Fay, Brian R. Stanley and his wife, Linda Lee Stanley; six grandchildren; seven great grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. Col. Stanley was raised in Ferrum, Va., graduated from Ferrum High School and Ferrum Junior College. Jim answered the call to serve his country in what would later be regarded as some of the most pivotal and challenging times in our history. Stanley's passion for flight drove him to enlist in the United States Air Force where he trained in flight school as a navigator and bombardier. On October 14, 1950, Air Force Second Lieutenant James Stanley married Army Nurses Corp. Second Lieutenant Agnes Doris Piper at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He was later deployed to Korea where on February 19, 1952, his plane was shot down over the mountains of North Korea. After days' long exposure to frigid, sub-zero temperatures, Stanley was captured by Korean soldiers and held prisoner for the following 19 months. He was freed in 1953 in a prisoner of war exchange. Upon his return home, Stanley earned a bachelor's Degree in Bachelors of Science in Business from Syracuse University. From 1966 to1969, he served as Commander of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at Duke University. At Duke, he also had the opportunity to share his love of flight with students in his role as Professor of Aerospace. Col. Stanley's military service was honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal with the V Devise for valor, the Air Medal, Commendation Medal, the Prisoner of War Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Korean Service Medal, Col Stanley continued to fly with the Strategic Air Command (SAC) until his retirement from the Air Force in 1971. Upon his retirement, he welcomed a new career direction by accepting a position as Chief of the Georgia Bureau of Public Transportation. During this time, he attended Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA where he studied intermodal transportation. His successful career with the bureau spanned 23 years and he retired in 1994. Col. Stanley was honored by his hometown as the recipient of the Rocky Mount Rotary Club's Patriot Award for 2005 and the 2006 Ferrum College Distinguished Alumni Award. As a proud member of the Sons of the American Revolution, he honored his forefathers and their fight for liberty. Active in his community, Jim was a member of St. James United Methodist Church, the Ferrum College Alumni Association, a volunteer fireman, a Rotary and Masonic Lodge member. The family will receive friends from noon to 2:00 p.m., on Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at the Edo Miller and Sons Funeral Home located 3321 Glynn Avenue, Brunswick, Ga. Following visitation, there will be a memorial service at 2 p.m. at the Edo Miller Funeral Home. A memorial service will also be held in Ferrum, Virginia at a later date. Final interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be announced. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to St. James United Methodist Church, 9623 Franklin Street, Ferrum, Va., 24088 designated for expansion of the memorial wall.
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By Gleaner Staff

The Henderson County Schools 2016 Home Visit Blitz will be Aug. 1-5.

Representatives from each school will travel into their communities to visit children before school starts Aug. 10. Below is the blitz schedule for each individual school along with other back-to-school events:

A.B. Chandler: 1-6 p.m. Aug. 3.

Bend Gate: 5:30-7 p.m. Aug. 2 will be Popsicles on the Playground with Kindergarten Round Up at the school. Staff will visit students and parents/guardians who did not attend the earlier event from 1-6 p.m. Wednesday.

Cairo: 1-6 p.m. Aug. 3.

East Heights: noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 3.

Jefferson: noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 3.

Niagara: noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 3 will be parent conversations at the school. Staff will visit homes that families who do not attend that afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m.

South Heights: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 2.

Spottsville: Will host Popsicles on the Playground/parent orientation meetings on Aug. 1 for first grade at 5-5:30 p.m.; third grade at 6-6:30 p.m.; and fifth grade at 7-7:30 p.m. and on Aug. 2 for kindergarten at 4:45-5:30 p.m.; second grade at 6-6:30 p.m.; fourth grade at 7-7:30 p.m. Home visits will be conducted for families unable to attend Popsicles on the Playground after noon Aug. 3.

North Middle: 9-11 a.m. Thursday will be the sixth-grade experience. Schedules will be available for pick up with a completed parent packet. Seventh- and eighth-grade schedules will be available for pick up with a completed parent packet the same day from 1-4 p.m. Blitz will be from 1-6 p.m. Aug. 3.

South Middle: 12:30-3:30 p.m. Aug. 3 will be Bulldog University, sixth grade orientation. South Middle will blitz the seventh- and eighth-grade from 12:30-6:30 p.m. Aug. 3.

Central Academy: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 3.

HCHS schedule is as follows:

Freshmen orientation: 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday for green unit; 5:30-8 p.m. Thursday; and 5:30-8 p.m. Aug. 1 for red unit.

Sophomores through Seniors Colonel Blitz: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 8. PLT teachers will be contacting parents to schedule appointment times to meet at the high school.

Sophomores through Seniors Make up Colonel Blitz: 4-7 p.m. Aug. 8. Teachers will not be available on this day, but office staff will be available to meet with parents at the high school.

Home Visit Blitz: noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 3. Teachers without PLT's will visit homes of students who cannot make the scheduled times to meet and deliver school paperwork to families.
Reloaded Iowa Hawkeye wrestling lineup ready for 2022-23 season

A strategic blend of experienced veterans, some high-powered new faces, and hungry young guys will lead the Iowa wrestling team this season.
SPRINGFIELD  An attorney for David Gill said the Bloomington physician plans to move forward with a lawsuit challenging the number of signatures an independent congressional candidate must collect to get on the ballot in Illinois.

An initial Illinois State Board of Elections review this week determined that Gills supporters only collected 8,593 valid signatures out of the more than 10,000 he needed to earn a spot on the Nov. 8 ballot in the 13th Congressional District.

Gill, a former four-time Democratic candidate, is seeking to run against U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Democratic challenger Mark Wicklund of Decatur. Gill lost to Davis in his last congressional bid in 2012.

The review came after Wicklund and former Macon County Republican Party Chairman Jerry Stocks questioned the validity of some of the petition signatures the Gill campaign collected.

Sam Cahnman, a Springfield attorney representing Gill, said he doesnt plan to challenge the finding by staff of the elections board but will instead take the fight to court.

Cahnman said the number of signatures required for an independent congressional candidate in Illinois is nearly 15 times the number required for major party candidates. Davis and Wicklund, for example, each had to gather fewer than 740 signatures.

Unfortunately, the Illinois State Board Of Elections is about to knock Dr. Gill off the ballot in spite of this overwhelming show of support for him by the voters of the 13th Congressional District through their petition signatures, and certainly far greater than what was shown by either of the other two candidates, Cahnman said in an emailed statement. Dr. Gill views the current signature requirement as patently absurd, egregious and clearly unconstitutional.

Cahnman added in an interview that he hasnt found another state with such an excessive signature requirement.

Independent U.S. Senate candidates in Illinois are required to collect 25,000 petition signatures, only five times the number required for major party candidates. And they dont have to worry about making sure the people signing live in the correct congressional district, Cahnman said.

John Fogarty Jr., an attorney for Stocks, did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Wicklund set aside his challenge to allow the elections board to proceed with Stocks, which involved more signatures and raised other issues as well.

Ken Menzel, the boards general counsel, said its fairly common for independent candidates to sue the state over signature requirements.

The timeline for doing so is tight because the board must certify the ballot by Aug. 26, Menzel said.
Well, you cant have a presidential election without an October surprise or two. And since 2020 is the most bonkers 
Donald Trump's taxes and his net worth are subjects of great mystery and speculation, so why should his income be any different? Again, The Donald does not disappoint when it comes to controversy.

In his financial disclosures with the FEC in 2015, Donald Trump listed $362 million in income for 2014. In a press release in May, Trump claimed $557 million in income from the beginning of 2015 to May 2016. If that is the case, how is Trump able to claim a tax credit aimed at the middle class in New York with an upper income cap of $500,000? It could well be a bureaucratic snafu  or it could be that Trump really does have a low enough income to qualify.

The School Tax Relief Program (STAR) is a New York state property tax relief program that has been in existence since 1997. To qualify, you must own the home and use it as your primary residence, and your family income (you and your spouse combined) cannot exceed $500,000. Crain's New York Business found an interesting trail of STAR credit claims by Trump, according to New York City officials. Trump claimed the credit between 1999 and 2009 on his New York City penthouse on Fifth Avenue, prior to the $500,000 limit (established in 2011 using 2009 tax information as the baseline). From 2009 to 2013, the claim was associated with Trump's Park Avenue residence.

In 2014, Trump did not supply a Social Security number as required to remain eligible for STAR and the Park Avenue address was dropped. However, the Fifth Avenue address was reinstated and continues to receive the tax credit, saving Trump a grand total of $304 on his latest quarterly tax statement.

New York State tax authorities are given a list of those receiving STAR benefits and notify New York City of eligible participants. It is possible that perpetuating bureaucratic errors from one or both entities are to blame and that new scrutiny from the Presidential campaign is bringing it to light, as Trump spokespeople have claimed. However, it's plausible that Trump's income really does qualify.

Fortune magazine reporter Scott Tully analyzed the 2014 financial disclosure and noted that the quoted $362 million in income is not income but revenue. Income equals revenue minus expenses (and as a businessman, Trump must know the difference between the two).

Given Trump's many ventures and real estate interests, it is entirely possible that he has enough expenses to reduce his income to zero while his net worth stays relatively high. Business expenses that are related to maintaining the Trump brand may be deducted, leaving significant latitude on the definition of such expenses. Another potential avenue is accelerated depreciation on his properties, which can easily generate millions in offsetting expenses.

Trump surely employs enough clever tax accountants to find offsetting expenses and losses, and past tax returns verify his expertise. According to the Washington Post, Trump's tax returns for 1978 and 1979, submitted to New Jersey state regulators in order to get a casino license, claimed a combined loss of $3.8 million. A few years prior, Trump claimed a net worth of approximately $200 million (in The New York Times).

Without his tax returns, there is no way to clear up the issue of Trump's STAR credits definitively unless there are any pronouncements from the New York City Department of Finance (DOF). A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio says that the DOF is still reviewing Trump's exemption status.

It seems less likely as time goes on that Trump will release his tax returns and clarify the situation, since he has little to gain and potentially a great deal to lose. Even if his income is legitimately below $500,000 while his net worth remains high, that information could undercut the arguments of his supporters.

However, the more interesting aspect may be why Donald Trump would even trifle over $304 given his net worth. Either he is entitled to the tax credit and is embellishing his net worth, or he is not entitled to it and multiple opportunities to correct the situation have been bypassed. Neither conclusion reflects well on Trump. The real question is: will his supporters care?
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NORWALK  A registered sex offender has been arrested on allegations he lured a family from California and caused severe injuries to a 2-year-old girl.

The girl has lost vision in at least one eye from traumatic injuries, police said. Police said she was starved during time-outs and was infested with lice.

Police said the woman met Pedro Salinas, 31, of Lincoln Avenue, online and he convinced her to move across the country to be with him.

The woman came here with two children, a 2-year-old girl and an older boy. The states sex offender registry states that Salinas was convicted of second-degree sexual assault in October 2005.

Police were called to Norwalk Hospital on June 25 because the girl was there, suffering trauma consistent with physical abuse, police said.

Special Victims Unit Detectives learned that the child had been living with family at Salinass home, police said. The girl was transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital with what police characterized as severe, life-changing, traumatic injuries.

Police said the mother told medical personnel that the girl got hurt by falling head first in the yard the day before and was suffering seizures.

Based on the SVU investigation, a warrant for Salinas arrest was obtained and he was taken into custody Thursday morning at state Superior Court in Norwalk where police say he was appearing on another matter. He was was charged with first-degree assault, and two counts each of cruelty to persons and risk of injury to minors.

Salinas is being held on $300,000 bond. His case has been transferred to state Superior Court in Stamford, which adjudicates serious cases. He was given a court date of Aug. 2.

Cruelty to persons is a charge rarely seen. The statute begins, Any person who intentionally tortures, torments or cruelly or unlawfully punishes another person or intentionally deprives another person of necessary food, clothing, shelter or proper physical care shall be guilty of a class D felony.

Police said Salinas put the girl in multiple time-outs, and that he wouldnt feed her. Police also said the girl had an infestation of head lice that was well developed.

Police said the older boy did not appear injured.

One neighbor on Lincoln Avenue said that he did not know Salinas and other neighbors declined to comment.

In addition to these charges, Salinas was charged on June 29 with violation of probation.

According to court records, Salinas pleaded guilty July 8, 2008, to two counts of failure to register as a sex offender.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Rain showers in the evening with thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 66F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening with thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 66F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
WILTON  Charges are being levied against a Wilton woman for a hit and run incident that occurred at a local school, police said.

On June 9, the Wilton Police Department received a complaint regarding a possible hit and run accident at Cider Mill School. According to police, video surveillance showed a car backing into the complainants Toyota Corolla before taking off out of the parking lots exit.
WASHINGTON  On a national convention stage that includes the kettledrum personalities of Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is more in the snare or bongo category. His speech to the convention on Wednesday night took a quieter, more sophisticated approach to the campaign (at least when compared with the conventions signature refrain of Lock Her Up!). Pence positioned himself as a man of faith, shaped by small-town Hoosier values, doing outreach to blue-collar Democrats whom the Democratic Party has forgotten. That strikes me as a smart maneuver  the expression of some guiding political intelligence that the Trump campaign has generally lacked.

Pence is respected by Indiana politicians whom I respect. And the choice of a generic conservative has been reassuring to other generic conservatives in the party who hope to surround their ideologically unpredictable candidate with good influences. Pence did his part at the convention. He displayed considerable political and rhetorical skill. And he brought great shame on himself and the Republican Party in the process.

There is a Trump effect or syndrome that forces his surrogates to live in a fantasy world. To avoid inner ideological and moral conflict, they must project an image of the nominee as they would wish him to be. And then they must learn to maintain that image by defending the indefensible. Their loyalty requires them to disfigure reality. So, in Pences account, Trump has a colorful style  which includes mocking the disabled and decades of casual misogyny. He can be a little rough with politicians on stage  which includes accusing his Democratic opponent of complicity in murder.

The Trump syndrome was on full display in Pences convention speech. The vice-presidential nominee praised Trump as the natural heir of Ronald Reagan, which, no doubt, Pence wishes Trump to be. Pence said that Trump would stop apologizing to American enemies. He would stand with our allies. He would lead from strength.

But the same day as Pences speech, Trump gave a revealing interview to The New York Times. The candidate who would stop apologizing said: I dont know that we have a right to lecture. ... How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood? The candidate who would stand with our allies raised a cloud of questions about the United States commitment to NATO allies near Russias borders. We might come to their aid, said Trump, if they fulfill their obligations to us. The candidate who would lead from strength proposed a retreat from bases around the world. When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I dont think were a very good messenger, Trump said.

There is a type of isolationism in which the United States is corrupted by engagement in the world, its ideals sullied by the lure of empire. And then there is Trumps type of isolationism, in which the United States is too corrupt to engage in the world. In the mouth of any Democrat, Republicans would describe these words as anti-American. I cannot imagine such thoughts even crossing Reagans mind, much less leaving his lips. I think it is fair to say that if Reagan were alive today, Trumps foreign policy rhetoric would make him puke.

This is not America First. It is Blame America First. And to this unfortunate tendency, Trump adds a consistent, un-Reagan-like defense of despots. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be given great credit ... for being able to turn [the attempted coup] around. In the past, Trump has argued that the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, did not have a firm enough hand. His assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin? At least hes a leader. By repressing the Tiananmen Square uprising, Chinese leaders demonstrated the power of strength. Saddam Hussein was good at killing terrorists even though he throws a little gas. There is no denying that Trump has a soft spot for authoritarians. Whether he has a soft spot for authoritarianism, too, is a matter of serious debate.

There are many radiating effects of having a Republican nominee who is entirely ignorant about U.S. foreign policy but who wants to fundamentally redefine it. One of those effects is to make Pence look like a fool. His description of Trump had no connection to reality, which was demonstrated on the same day. Remember that soon after House Speaker Paul Ryans reluctant endorsement, Trump attacked a Hispanic judge in a manner that Ryan called the textbook definition of a racist comment. Every serious Republican who crosses the event horizon of endorsing Trump is sucked into a black hole of compromise and self-deception. And many of us  still loyal to a humane conservatism  will never be able to think about such leaders in the same way again.

The culminating moment of comedy and tragedy in Pences speech was his mention of the party of Lincoln. How dare he. On the first day of Trumps campaign, he asserted that Mexican migrants are coming to rape American women. His proposal to round up and deport 11 million people still lies on the table. His breakthrough moment during the primaries was his embrace of a ban on Muslims entering the country. Trump has returned nativism to the center of American politics. And when any politician calls Trump the heir to Lincoln, it is not just self-deception; it is deception.

The reputation of any politician close to Trump will eventually be ruined. But it is particularly sad when good and decent people vouch for Trumps character, knowing almost nothing about him. They surely believe that they can guide and shape a political novice in helpful and positive ways. There is no evidence of this  no proof that Trump is willing to internalize good advice. In fact, the best of the Republican Party is being exploited. And such politicians are viewed as weak (see Trumps announcement of Pence) by a candidate with contempt for weakness. The only politician who will be proud of what he did on Wednesday evening is Ted Cruz, who refused to endorse. He may have been booed on the floor, but I imagine he slept well. And he wont be ashamed to recount that night to his children and grandchildren.

In his essay Politics and the English Language, George Orwell said: If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. The construction of an imaginary narrative of virtue and insight around Donald Trump is a form of political corruption, no matter how skilled or well-intentioned the effort. In our time, said Orwell, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. A fitting epitaph for the 2016 Republican convention.
Sharon Leonards friends from the Edwardsville High School Class of 1980 came through for her recently when she desperately needed a boost.

For about six years now, Leonard has been battling Stage 4 colon cancer.

An avid biker who eight years ago churned out 40-mile rides on the local trails, Leonard posted a Facebook video recently to tell friends that she was hanging up her bike to devote all her energies to a new battle. The cancer, she said, had metastasized into her lungs, and was growing.

Classmates Sharon McBride and Susan Coffey sprang into action. They created a Facebook page and urged their classmates, many of whom were in other parts of the country, to donate money for an electric bicycle with the idea that Leonard could ride it even when her chemo sessions had zapped her energy.

Donations were quick to pour in. After a couple of days, they had raised more than $3,000.

Two-and-a-half weeks later - on Friday, July 15 - they gave the bike to her at a surprise party at El Maguey Bar and Grill in Edwardsville.

The black Trek bicycle, sporting an orange bow around the handlebars, was wheeled into the restaurant by an employee from The Cyclery.

Leonard, her mouth agape, teared up. The 50 or so friends and former classmates who were on hand were deeply moved as well.

Most had gotten a long, heart-felt embrace from Leonard a few minutes earlier

I have way, way, way too many reasons to live, she told them. My doctor told me a long time ago that its probably 20 percent medicine and 80 percent attitude.

The group also gave her more than a thousand dollars to go toward the expensive treatment. And with the help of Linda Cassens, they sent her to the Mary Crowley Research Center in Dallas to get more information on how to treat her advanced-staged cancer.

After the party, Todd Shaw, a member of the Allisons Hope Foundation, spoke briefly about the Mary Crowley Institute. It was started 30 years ago by a woman named Mary Crowley. Today, he said, they specialize in investigative gene therapy. They also look at tumors, and develop vaccines for various cancers. The research has allowed them to share what works and what doesnt work with cancer centers across the country.

Allisons Hope also works with Edwardsville Neighbors in Need and with Hospice of Southern Illinois.

The plane tickets have been bought. The medical records have been transferred down to Dallas. She will be leaving for Dallas soon to see what they have to offer. Even during the rough periods of her battle, she said, biking has always given her joy. Leaving biking behind would have been excruciating. A motorized bike extends the joy.
As the school year nears parents are looking for the perfect place for their children to start off their education. The Edwardsville YMCA Preschool has been that choice for over 50 years. The program is held at the Esic Center for children between 2 and 5 years old.

Time for Toddlers is a great opportunity for 2 year olds to develop socially and prepare them for the YMCA 3 year old program. There are 12 children in each class, along with a lead teacher and 2 co-op parents. Children will be able to participate in gross motor activities, fine motor activities, puzzles, games, art, music, and being read to in a loving environment. Mrs. Burns, who is the toddler teacher (with 17 years of experience!), states, I love being with toddlers. Its amazing how much they grow and learn throughout the year. Its fun to see them make friends, play and enjoy the stories and projects we do in class. A former parent drove all 4 of her children 25 minutes for 5 years to the YMCA preschool programs, because she loved the program. She stated that Mrs. Burns creates a nurturing environment for the toddlers. They work on fine motor skills such as cutting, gluing, painting and drawing every day. They work on gross motor skills through outdoor play, playing in the gym, or in the riding room every day. She works with increasing childrens attention span through large group stories and games. She plays the mouse game daily. The mouse hides under different shapes or colors labeled with numbers. The children dont even realize they are learning to discriminate between colors, numbers, and shapes as they are taking turns. They also have sensory play every day, with the sensory table or variations of homemade playdough.
With the ribbon-cutting ceremony coming up on Saturday and its opening day two weeks ago, another donation has been made for Leon Corlew Park. Edwardsville couple Gordon and Holly Broom pledged a donation of $50,000 to help fund the construction and improvements of the family pavilion.

The Broom family has made contributions to the city in the past, and Mayor Hal Patton said it wont go unnoticed.

Just another example of how the community and the residents of the community and the businesses support the city and their efforts. The Broom family has been a major influence on improvements throughout the city, whether it be the street lights on St. Louis Street, or the contributions to local youth and sporting groups, its just a family that continues to show the passion and care about the community. The pavilion that they have made their contribution for has been completed. There will be a plaque that we will have, either on one of the brick columns, or the pillars there or on the concrete, recognizing their contribution. That brings the total for individual and business contributions to close to $150,000 for that park, Patton said.

While the park is currently open, the official ribbon cutting is scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Grand opening events will take place from noon to 3 p.m. that day and a time capsule will be buried at the park.

Leon Corlew Park has several amenities, including a splash pad, a playground, a walking/fitness track, shaded structures, pavilions, and restrooms. The funds that have been deposited into the park are all provided through grants and donations. Patton said there are numerous contributions and each one has made a difference.

Weve had two services organizations: the Junior Service Club, previously had the largest contribution of $40,000, and that was for the dry playground. The Edwardsville Rotary Club has contributed $30,000; First Clover Leaf Bank, now First Mid-Illinois Bank as well. The last one is we see a lot of our parks being used for many of the craft brewing events as well as the different food events. Global Brew Tap House does a lot of those in our City Park and one of their features is they announced they were going to contribute to our Better Place to Play campaign, so they rounded out $8,000. In addition to that were individual donations. The grand total, with the $50,000 comes out to around $150,000. Were also proud of the fact that the general public asked us not to raise taxes to do this, so weve used grant money that Metro East Park and Recreation District has given us a grant of $300,000. The Madison County Park Enhancement Program came to $266,000, Patton said.

In addition to what has already been received, Patton said there is another grant coming from the state. However, due to the limitations of the budget, its on hold.

Were scheduled to receive an OSLAD (Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development) Grant, thats a state of Illinois grant, for $400,000. That grant is currently on hold due to the budget impasse, but were still hopeful that that money will be available as well. For the $1.75 million park improvement, if the State of Illinois grant comes in, that will be close to $1.1 million in grants and donations. Were very proud of that but were very blessed by the participation weve received, Patton said.

The family pavilion will serve many purposes, and Patton said its use will bring more people together.

The family pavilion is going to be a location thats going to host birthday parties, going to host reunions. Youre going to see on a beautiful day, people going out with their children to have a picnic in the pavilion. I think it says a lot about where the Brooms wanted to participate; theyre a very close-knit family between their children and grandchildren, Patton said.

With all of the donations and contributions, there will be improvements made to the park in the future. Patton said there are plans for what could be improved, but for now, the community seems to be pleased with the progress so far.

The transformation that is going to happen to the front of the property, with the new police and fire station, and having the community being able to interact with those professionals that were so proud of, that keep us safe, and represent us so well. We also are going to enhance the fitness trail; there will be several pieces of equipment added in the next month or so that will afford someone the opportunity as a walking or running trail, to stop and do some pull-ups or presses. So well continue to enhance all of the features; the Spray and Play can be expanded with some slide features and the dry-line playground can be expanded with some additional swings and things. We do have future plans for that, but right now we couldnt be happier with the response that weve received. Huge thanks to our donors and our corporate community that continues to support the city, Patton said.

For more information about the facility or future plans, visit www.betterplacetoplay.com.
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Linkedin Julia Suryakusuma (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Lately weve been getting an onslaught of news and articles about Brexit (British exit)  the UK leaving the EU. The reaction is understandable because of the effect it will have not just on the UK, but also on the global economy and politics.



But did you know, Indonesia had its own Brexit? It stands for the Brebes exit, referring to the capital of Brebes regency in the northwestern part of Central Java. It made headlines because of the massive three-day traffic jam stretching 20 kilometers on the Brebes toll road that claimed at least 12 lives.



At the end of the Ramadhan fasting month, its customary for millions to mudik (return home) to their home villages, causing a mass exodus a few days prior and after Idul Fitri in Indonesia.



Despite the struggle, expense, risks and even threat to life, the exodus repeats itself each year. Its the homing instinct  irrational, but primordially strong.



But what about casualties of the UK Brexit? Who knows how many people will faint and even die from the Brexit heat? It could be thousands, possibly millions  certainly more than 12.



Its not just people, but also markets that will must absorb the political, social and economic uncertainties. As soon as the result of the referendum was announced on June 23, the pound sterling slumped, but its hard to predict the political and social maelstrom of Brexit in the long run.



As Brendan Donnelly, the director of the Federal Trust, a research institute on European affairs, wrote after Brexit: The light at the end of the tunnel is several oncoming trains. Boom!



Brexit is ironic, in more ways than one. The key reason Brits voted to leave was a desire to reduce immigration from other EU countries and keep England for the English (as in whites).



Britain has seen its population swell in recent years because of hundreds of thousands of new arrivals from the EU  widely seen as the reason for daily problems.



Its scapegoating of course: blaming immigrants for the economic insecurity that their own policies are responsible for creating. Like Brexit, for example.



Ironically, these policies will only get worse. As The Independent daily pointed out: For the first time, they will have a prime minister who intends to make Brits poorer. How so? Controlling immigration will harm the economy and reduce peoples earnings as a whole. Aha, you didnt think that out, did you?



The desire to Brexit reminds me of the rivers of blood speech by Conservative MP Enoch Powell back in 1968 criticizing the Commonwealth immigration and anti-discrimination legislation that was being proposed.



It led to his controversial dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet, but Powells perspective on race is considered to have been a contributing factor in the Conservative Partys surprise victory in 1970. Obviously it had struck a cord with the majority of the electorate.



And guess what? Powell of the UK of the 1960s and 70s has been reincarnated in todays Donald Trump. Were only too familiar now with The Donalds exhortations to ban Muslims from the US and to build a wall between the US and Mexico. As in the case with Powell, its precisely these racist remarks that make him popular with almost half of the electorate, according to polls.



It made me reflect on the state of democracy today. Not just because of Brexit, but also because of the recent coup attempt in Turkey, the increased incidents of terrorism in France, the rise of populist parties in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland and even Scandinavian countries and also the xenophobic and populist tendencies in my own beloved Indonesia.



As Yascha Mounk, a political science lecturer at Harvard University, says, all of the above cases reflect deep anxieties among many citizens about the functioning of their democracies and the openness of their societies.



What is democracy? Supposedly it is rule by the people, or majority rule, but I reckon now its more like hoi polloi, a Greek expression that means the many but in English has taken on a derogatory or at least ironic meaning to express a distaste for the common people: the great unwashed, the plebeians, riffraff, the herd, etc.



Unfortunately, while the term was coined by those who saw themselves as the elite, maybe they have a point. In the face of the current Eurosclerosis  economic stagnation, high unemployment, rising inequality and poverty, lack of opportunity  the hoi polloi tend to express a mob frenzy fueled by panic, fanaticism, hatred, bloody revenge, lust of gain and just plain frustration with their lot.



Is it a primordial instinct to scapegoat? Perhaps not, but the instinct to survive is primordial. Unfortunately, its expressed in a negative, self-destructive, even suicidal way.



Only too often, the so-called populism of people like Powell (and his present-day compatriots like Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Liam Fox, David Davis and John Redwood), Trump, Erdogan (in Turkey), Marine Le Penn (in France), Frauke Petry (in Germany), Victor Orban (in Hungary) and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands gives rise to a kind of autocratic democracy and democratic dictators which is outright scary as it triggers precisely the things they are against, including terrorism.



Returning to Indonesia, how is it reflected here? Guess what: Amazingly, compared to the above cases, things arent so bad, relatively speaking. Sure, President Joko Jokowi Widodo refuses to abolish the death penalty because this is what Indonesians want; the government too often gives in to Islamic conservatism, but our track record on dealing with terrorism is still good.



Corruption? Its still pretty bad, but no worse than many other countries and now Tito Karnavian, the new police chief, has urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to look into corruption in the police ranks.



Eurosclerosis and the rise of Trump in the US, actually reflect how the interests of ordinary people have been subordinated to those of the elite for too long. Ordinary people have had enough. Unfortunately they are relying on knee-jerk, primordial instincts rather than considered, thoughtful responses.



This is one of the rare moments I heave a sigh of relief that I am Indonesian. Watching the Brexit and Trump saga unfold, I reckon, were doing OK after all.

***

The writer is the author of Julias Jihad.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Qraved (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Visiting a restaurant is not just about the food; sometimes it's also about looking for a fresh ambiance that will make you more comfortable while enjoying your food.

There are many factors that make a restaurant worth your time to visit, including interior design that reflects the style and coziness. If you agree, check out these beautiful restaurants that we think suit the criteria.

Wilshire Restaurant

A photo posted by Laura Swita Wirawan (@lauraswita) on Jul 11, 2016 at 5:22pm PDT

As a sister of the Botega Ristorante, the Wilshire offers a classical romance vibe inside. The name was taken from a street in Los Angeles and the choices of food are great. The walls are full of rose-touched designs to make the Wilshire looks beautiful and classy at the same time.

3RD Avenue

A photo posted by 3rd Avenue Bar (@3rdavenuebar) on Oct 11, 2015 at 10:21pm PDT

If youre looking for another good looking and stylish restaurant in the Senopati area in South Jakarta, consider a visit to 3RD Avenue, which is located just behind the Wilshire. As a bar within the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD), this beautiful place is perfect to visit for a couple of drinks after your busy daily routine.

Luna Negra

A photo posted by Veronica Haha (@veronicahaha) on Jun 11, 2016 at 11:15am PDT

Luna Negra functions really well for different occasions. As a restaurant, this Italian eatery has great food with great taste. As a bar, it is home to a 30-meter-long bar area. Plus, it hosts a wine cellar with an impressive collection. Beautifully designed, you can easily imagine how great this place is as a hang-out joint.

(Read also: 10 restaurants in Jakarta to spice up your next date night)

GIA Restaurant & Bar

A photo posted by Jessica Alexandra (@jejeealexandra) on May 20, 2016 at 9:41am PDT

From the complimentary bread to the Instagrammable structure of a lightbulb installation, there are a lot of things that will impress you at this restaurant. It might be the fanciest creation yet from Ismaya Group. The GIA Restaurant & Bar indeed deserves to be added onto your romantic restaurants list.

Salt Grill Altitude

A photo posted by Luke Mangan-Restaurateur/Chef (@lukewmangan) on Jun 20, 2016 at 4:10pm PDT

Located at The Plaza in the Thamrin area in Central Jakarta, Salt Grill Altitude offers a great view of the capital city and you can also enjoy great food, but thats not the only attraction because its interior is full of beautifully carved wood, giving you a warm sense of calm and elegance -- perfect for a romantic or casual dinner or lunch with your loved ones.

The Prohibition Chophouse & Speakeasy Bar

A photo posted by Wanda Erica (@wandaerica) on Nov 3, 2015 at 5:20am PST

The Prohibition cares about appearance and you can judge it just by looking at its menu design. Full of dark and charming colors, this place in Arcadia Senayan is going to amaze you with its beauty. There is even VIP access for member-only guests. (kes)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Seoul  Fri, July 22, 2016

Samsung Electronics Co. has sued Chinese smartphone maker Huawei for allegedly violating six of its patents.

The South Korean company said on Friday that it chose to take legal action to defend its intellectual property despite trying to resolve the dispute amicably.

Samsung would not say where the lawsuits were filed. South Korea's Yonhap News said Samsung sued Huawei in Beijing for infringing on patents for smartphones worth 80.05 million yuan ($12 million).

Huawei filed lawsuits against Samsung in May in the United States and China, accusing the South Korean company of violating 12 patents for mobile devices and networks.

Samsung and Huawei are two of the largest makers of smartphones based on Google's Android system. Samsung is the world's largest smartphone supplier and Huawei is the third after Apple.

(Read also: Huawei edges close to Apple, Samsung)
Armenians assembled outside the Armenian Embassy in Athens in a sign of solidarity with the Sasna Dzrer armed group that seized a Yerevan police patrol building on Sunday.

The demonstrators, who regard the armed group as dedicated heroes and not terrorists, called their public action I too am a terrorist.

The demonstrators said the Sasna Dzrer group had rebelled against the daily arbitrary actions and illegalities sanctioned in Armenia.

They handed a list of demands to embassy staff before dispersing. Their demands included no land concessions in Karabakh, the release of political prisoners in Armenia and individuals recently detained by the Yerevan police, and establishing the rule of law in Armenia.
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Linkedin Masajeng Rahmiasri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Paintings by Tuscan artist, designer and architect Andrea Ponsi are on display at the Italian Cultural Institute Jakarta until Aug. 22.

The exhibition, entitled Florence: A Map of Perceptions, features Ponsis unique point of view of the Tuscany region through architectural drawings made with watercolor techniques. Collected from different periods, the drawings display various perspectives of landscapes and architectural structures of Tuscany's capital city Florence, including the famous Ponte Vecchio and Santa Trinitia.

You cant compare Florence to Bologna, Genoa or Naples due to its size, but the city has a medieval sense of characteristic, a very strong feel of the 13th to 15th centuries, Ponsi, who was born near Florence, specifically in Viareggio, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

(Read also: 23 Indonesian architects to showcase designs in Venice)

When asked why he chose watercolors as his medium for work, Ponsi said, "Watercolors have a lot of components that you cant control; so you allow the water to be where it wants to be. You just push for a little bit and then you see the result."

I like it because its not so controlling of everything. It is controlled but at the same time you dont know the result. [I like it being that way] because I think life is something that you cant control. You cant control it but you can somehow go with the flow, he added.

In an era when everything is going digital, the artist, who said he drew for his own pleasure, still chose to use hand drawing methods and visit the places of his subjects for direct observation.

To the younger generations, the adjunct professor at Syracuse University and Kent State University advised: Use the technology, potential, possibilities, but dont let the technology [set you aside] from enjoying your surroundings. Go to new places and rediscover the place around you." (kes)
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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang, Ina Parlina and Ati Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

Despite the non-formal International Peoples Tribunal (IPT) ruling that the systematic killing of people affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in 1965 constituted a crime against humanity, the case is likely to go no further, with state officials dismissing the verdict.

The Attorney Generals Office (AGO), which is due to initiate a process into the violence of 1965, said the institution would stick to its own procedures.

AGO spokesperson Muhammad Rum on Thursday shrugged off the findings and conclusion of the Hague-based tribunal, saying it was an unrecognized entity.

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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Fri, July 22, 2016

West Java Police on Thursday arrested four Cirebon councilors they claim they caught gambling in a hotel room during a leadership training session in Bandung.

There were six people in the hotel room, four of whom were gambling while the other two were eating, West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus said, adding that the police had confiscated the playing cards and Rp 5 million (US$381) from the suspects.

The councilors were supposed to be attending a regional meeting aimed at improving the leadership capacity of members of the Cirebon legislative council, Yusri said.

The four suspects were charged with Article 303 of the Criminal Code on gambling, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

While it remains widespread across the country, gambling is illegal in Indonesia. (ary)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

A DNA test result released on Friday confirmed that Indonesia's most wanted terrorist Santoso was one of the people killed by Operation Tinombala task force personnel earlier this week.

"The DNA test result is out already. Yes, [it is] Santoso," National Police chief Tito Karnavian said on Friday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Tito said the body of the leader of the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) and one of his men, Muchtar, who died in the same shootout, would soon be buried. "We leave the burial issues to the Central Sulawesi Police and local authorities," he added.

The two militants were shot dead on Monday evening by members of Alpha 29, an Operation Tinombala task force unit, in Poso, Central Sulawesi. (liz)
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

A drinking-water treatment system (SPAM) project in Umbulan, East Java, has finally begun to move forward after four decades of delay with the signing of a contract on Thursday.



The contract was signed between the East Java administration and private consortium PT Meta Adhya Tirta Umbulan, which is a joint venture between private gas firm Medco Gas Indonesia and private construction firm Bangun Cipta Kontraktor.



The contract has paved the way for Meta Adhya Tirta Umbulan to obtain concession rights for 25 years over the Rp 2.05 trillion (US$156.23 million) project, including the right to design, construct, operate and maintain the facilities and transmission network.



The Umbulan SPAM is the first regional drinking water system to be built under a public private partnership (PPP) scheme.



The consortium and government also signed a contract with state infrastructure financing guarantee firm Penjaminan Infrastruktur Indonesia (PII) to guarantee the project, with state infrastructure financing firm Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (SMI) to assist in preparation of the project.



Deputy Finance Minister Mardiasmo called the project a showcase for PPP and a source of national pride and reaffirmed the Finance Ministrys commitment to support other PPP projects.The Umbulan SPAM will get full support from the government. We have assigned SMI to prepare the project and to provide capital under a VGF [viability gap funding] scheme, he said.



VGF is a form of government subsidy used to partially finance PPP projects. The VGF funds currently amount to Rp 818.1 billion.



The Umbulan SPAM project will begin construction in 2017 and is expected to begin operations in 2019. By the time it operates it will have an approximately 93-kilometer drinking-water pipe network across five cities and regencies in East Java, including Sidoarjo and Surabaya.



As many as 1.3 million people are expected to have access to the drinking water from the Umbulan SPAM. The project itself is listed as one of the national strategic projects, according to Presidential Regulation No. 3/2016.



The Umbulan SPAM was initiated in 1973, but was delayed for 43 years due to coordination problems within the regional administration and a lack of funding.



The government initially sought to completely transfer the project to private investors, but then stepped in after various calculations showed such a transfer would lead to high project costs and fees for water customers.



The government is giving the consortium 12 months to meet all the construction permit requirements and to achieve financial closure, expected in October.



Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said the VGF would ensure affordability of water access for the people.



Meta Adhya Tirta Umbulan president director Yasirin said that it was seeking funding from both domestic lenders  such as Bank Jatim and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI)  and foreign institutions.



A drinking water system is a strategic project because its a utility needed by everybody, he said.



He said the company took comfort in the fact that the government would tackle possible risks that could stem from the procurement of the 15 hectares of land needed for the project.



About 70 percent of the land is located next to toll roads and the company has permits to use that land.

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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Badung, Bali  Fri, July 22 2016

A Jetstar flight from Sydney to Phuket, Thailand, made an emergency landing at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Wednesday night after six passengers were involved in a fight on board. Five Australian men and a New Zealander were taken off the plane at the Bali airport before it continued its journey to Phuket about two hours after landing.

Transportation Ministry Bali and Nusa Tenggara airport authority chief Yusfandri Gona said Jetstar flight JQ 27 asked for emergency landing approval and requested security on arrival on Wednesday night. The flight led by Captain Adrian Luke Cahr landed at Ngurah Rai airport at 7.16 p.m.

The Jetstar flight captain reported that there was a fight between passengers on board. So, we prepared security for their arrival, Yusfandri said.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

After heavy rains hit Jakarta and its upper areas, residences in the Pandok Pinang subdsitrict of South Jakarta were inundated from early Friday with water levels reaching between 50 to 150 centimeters.

Hundreds of houses were inundated.

The water level started to increase at 4 a.m. and by 7 a.m., the water level had reached 120 centimeters. If the rain continues, the water level will increase again, said Supri, a resident of the subdistrict Neighborhood Unit (RT) 16 as reported by beritajakarta.com on Friday.

He said the flooding was caused by the overflow of the Pesanggrahan River.

He said he and other residents had decided not need to leave their homes in the hope that the water would soon recede.

We have started to take various goods to the second floor. We will wait for the water to recede at home or we will go to the neighbors, whose houses are constructed on a higher location, said Supri.

Pondok Pinang subdistrict head Hendi Nopriyadi said the affected houses were located in RT units 10, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

If the weather gets better, the water will recede soon, but we have prepared shelter places for the residents, Hendi added. (bbn)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

The Golkar Party supports an increase in the electoral threshold to 7 to 10 percent from the current 3.5 percent, a party lawmaker says.

A higher would strengthen our democratic system and simplify political decision-making," Tantowi Yahya said in Jakarta on Friday.

Previously, NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh proposed an increase in the threshold to 7 percent.

"If the electoral threshold was 7 percent, hopefully only the most popular parties would be eligible to run in the next election. This carries a consequence, but for a greater good, why must we be afraid?" Surya was quoted as saying on July 20 on the party's website.

According to Law No. 8/2012 on elections, the electoral threshold  the minimum percentage of the vote required to get seats in the House of Representatives -- is at 3.5 percent.

Golkar tried to push up the threshold to 7 to 10 percent in the revision of the law, but the Democratic Party, which was the largest party at that time, rejected the proposal.

In the 2009 election, the Democrats gained 20.85 percent of the vote, which made it the leading party. The Golkar Party followed in second position with 14.45 percent of the vote, while then-opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle was at the third place with 14.03 percent.

The 2014 election, with a 3.5 percent threshold, resulted in 10 political parties with House seats. With only four to five party factions at the House, the decision-making would be easier, Tantowi said. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

The government should take the conclusion of the International Peoples Tribunal on the 1965 crimes against humanity (IPT 1965) into consideration in the efforts to resolve past human rights violations, an expert has said.

"Even though the IPT was a non-formal process and not legally binding, as a process [that was] pushed forward by the victims, it shouldn't be so easily dismissed by the government," Taufik Basari, an advocate who often deals with human rights cases, said on Friday.

The IPT, held in The Hague, ruled on July 20 that the systematic killing of people affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in 1965 by the state of Indonesia constituted crimes against humanity and urged the government to issue an apology, investigate the killings and compensate victims.

Taufik said the IPT ruling and recommendations could be used as additional input to that produced in the national symposium on the 1965 tragedy held by the government earlier this year.

"It can be one in a series of efforts by the government to resolve human rights violations, important and valuable material aside from the symposium results," he said as quoted by kompas.com. (liz)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

The House of Representatives has approved the government's plan to provide an amnesty for 70 Acehnese former rebels, including their leader, Nurdin Ismail aka Din Minimi, who surrendered earlier this year.

A member of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, Bambang Soesatyo, however, said the former rebels should initially be subject to due process of law and obtain legal certainty for their past crimes.

"The House agrees with the Indonesian Military [TNI] and the police that only [former rebels] who have obtained legal status should be eligible for the amnesty," Bambang stated during Thursday's hearing.

Of a total 70 former rebels, 21 have been convicted and are now behind bars, while the other 49 have integrated back into society, Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said earlier.

He stressed that all legal processes to determine the status of the former rebels would continue ahead of the approval of the amnesty, as suggested by the police and TNI during the hearing.

State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Sutiyoso said that granting an amnesty for Din Minimi's group was an important way of building trust between former rebels and the government and forestalling the outbreak of further conflict in the area. (bbn)
The following statement was released by the Association of European Journalists

The Association of European Journalists, an independent professional association of journalists in Europe, expresses its extreme concern that freedom of expression, including the essential freedom of the press, is liable to be severely endangered after the announcement by the Turkish government that it intends temporarily to suspend its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights while maintaining a state of emergency in the aftermath of last weeks failed attempt by elements of the army to take over the government.

We cannot fail to note that the Turkish authorities have arrested and jailed scores of journalists in recent years, including several cases this year, on sweeping or ill-defined charges, including terrorism-related charges, which have been seen as failing to meet international standards of law and judicial procedure. Already this week more than 20 TV and radio stations have been forced off air, some newspapers have been forcibly taken over, and many accredited journalists have had their press cards taken away citing national security reasons. The scale of this attempt to limit the plurality of sources of news and opinion, and to interfere with the normal rights of journalists and others exercising their right to freedom of expression, is deeply disturbing.

The Turkish government authorities have also moved with precipitate speed to arrest detail, dismiss or criminally investigate tens of thousands of members of the armed forces, public bodies and the judiciary, giving rise to fears that the state of emergency may be used by those in power to silence those in many walks of life, including the media and education, who legitimately hold views different from, or critical of, the government in power.

The governments announcement, by deputy prime minister Numus Kurtumlus, reportedly seeks to justify the move as necessary to bring to justice those responsible for mounting the coup attempt and to cleanse the state apparatus of members of the organisation headed by the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the government has branded as a terrorist organisation.

But so far no substantial body of evidence has been presented in public that in the AEJ's view might justify taking such sweeping powers, or suspending the constitutional role of parliament, independent regulatory authorities and the courts.

The Turkish government has compared its taking of emergency powers to the French governments enactment of a state of emergency after last Novembers terrorist attack in Paris and its recent extension of those powes after last weeks mass killings in Nice. It should be noted that the French emergency provisions specifically exclude measures that would control the press and publications.

In order to reassure its own citizens, as well as others in countries that adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights and other international human rights agreements who fear that press freedom and other civil liberties in Turkey are at serious risk, the AEJ urges the Turkish government to restore the full rights and liberties to all those, including journalists who are now  or may in the near future be -- detained, investigated or threatened with reprisals on account of their seech or published opinions.

Article 15 of the European Convention, which Turkey has invoked to suspend a wide range of human rights including freedom of expression, states that in time of war or other public emergencies threatening the life of the nation, a state may take certain measures derogating from its obligations. But in keeping with the spirit of the Convention and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, any suspension of the guarantees of individual rights must be proportionate to the exigencies of the situation and must be consistent with its other obligations under international law.

Turkey has also signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), whose Article 19 guarantees the right of freedom of expression to everyone and which allows that that right may be subject to certain restrictions related in particular to national security or public order.

The most authoritative interpretation of the obligations of states that are party to the ICCPR, by the UN Human Rights Committee, says (General Comment No.34, #6) that a general reservation to the rights of freedom of opinion and expression is not compatible with the object and purpose of the Covenant. In particular, the Committee says, it can never be legitimate for a state to derogate from the obligation to allow freedom of opinion. The UN Human Rights Committee further states (#9) that it is unlawful in international law to criminalize the holding of an opinion.

The AEJ notes that the Turkish government has suggested that the state of emergency may be restricted to within one and a half months and that ordinary civic life will be able to continue during that time without serious disturbance. We ask the government to closely heed the urgent an d deeply-held concerns of those including this journalists' association in favour of restraint, and an immediate return to the rule of law and the safeguards provided by the European Convention, the International Covenant, and other binding international treaties.

Photo: Reuters
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Indonesia still thinks the Philippines government will cooperate to secure the Sulu Sea despite the cancelation of a trilateral defense ministers' meeting that was scheduled for July 21, an official says.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir confirmed on Thursday that the signing of a trilateral maritime cooperation agreement between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines on May 5 to secure the Sulu Sea had cemented the commitment of the three countries toward safeguarding the key trade lanes.

"And a meeting on July 14 in Jakarta had resulted in the signing of the framework arrangement that sets down the results of the agreement in the Yogyakarta Declaration," Arrmanatha told The Jakarta Post, referring to the joint declaration on maritime security from May 5.

He said the framework, as well as the standard of procedure contained within it, has given a green light to initiate steps to coordinate a joint patrol.

"I think this shows a high commitment from the three countries, from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines," Arrmanatha said.

"It is a living document, so it will continue to develop, with changes to be made if there are things that need to be added," he said.

The trilateral meeting was cancelled because the Philippines' Delfin Lorenzana was unable to attend it. "According to the information we have received, one of the ministers, the Philippine minister, was not available because of urgent matters that needed his attention in his home country," Arrmanatha said, denying that it indicated a lack of commitment from the Philippines. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jambi  Fri, July 22 2016

The Jambi City administration has signed an agreement with state-run PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (PT Telkom) to install 106 CCTV units in strategic locations in the city, as part of its efforts to make Jambi a smart city.

We will propose the installation of CCTVs in the revised budget, and will install them this year, said Jambi City Electronic Data Processing Center head Noviardi on Thursday.

The CCTV installation, he added, was aimed at monitoring crime-prone locations in the city and also traffic conditions, volume of waste and other purposes.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Judges at the Central Jakarta District Court told prosecutors in the trial of Jessica Kumala Wongso on Thursday to ensure they presented relevant staff from the Olivier cafe so that their testimony could be cross-checked against that of other employees.

Murder victim Wayan Mirna Salihin drank a coffee tainted with cyanide at the cafe when she met with suspect Jessica and another friend, Juwita Boon, also known as Hani, on Jan. 6. Mirna died on the way to hospital.

We want prosecutors to always present Olivier staff members [during the trial] as we want to find out whether there is criminal responsibility [on the part] of the Olivier cafe management in this case, judge Binsar Gultom said during the hearing on Thursday.

(Read also : Olivier's barista keeps changing answers in the trial)

During the hearing, when Olivier barista Rangga and bartender Yohanes gave evidence, judges repeatedly asked prosecutors whether server Marlon Alex Napitupulu, who testified on Wednesday, was present.

The judges said they wanted to compare the testimony of each witness as some of the evidence was contradictory.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Ardito Muwardi said his side would fulfil the judges request. The judges suggestion is good. Later we will ask all of the witnesses who have testified in the court to appear in the trial as requested by judges, Ardito said.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

In support of judicial reform through the strengthening of its supervisory powers and measures to deter judges from committing ethical and legal violations, the Judicial Commission (KY) has stressed the importance of passing the judiciary bill, which is currently being debated, into law.



Commission chairman Aidul Fitriciada Azhari said that if the House of Representatives passed the bill into law, the commission would be able to more effectively supervise judges.



We would like to call this a shared-responsibility system, Aidul said during a visit to the offices of The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.



He added that if responsibility could be shared between the Supreme Court and the Judicial Commission, then judges misconduct could be mitigated.



Through the future law, the commission expects to gain greater authority to supervise judges recruitment, promotion, transfer and training processes, thus minimizing the chance of corruption.



The formula of corruption is power minus accountability, said Sukma Violetta, the commissions deputy chairwoman, explaining the repeated incidents of graft at the Supreme Court.



Numerous corruption cases have implicated officials of the countrys highest judicial institution recently. In April, Central Jakarta District Court registrar Edy Nasution was arrested for accepting a bribe to influence a case review for a civil dispute concerning Malaysia-based pay TV operator Astro and a member of conglomerate Lippo Group, PT First Media.



The case implicated Nurhadi, the Supreme Courts court secretary, with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) confiscating a large amount of money from his house and office.



The other case involved a mid-ranking Supreme Court official, Andri Tristianto, who reportedly demanded Rp 400 million (US$30,567) from graft convict Ichsan Suaidi through his lawyer for a three-month delay to the verdict at the Mataram District Court in West Nusa Tenggara.



Sukma said that with more authority to supervise the recruitment of judges, the Judicial Commission could monitor and prevent judges from conducting corruption, collusion and nepotism, such as recruiting members of their family as judges or clerks in the same area.



The commission also expects that the expected new regulation will allow deserving judges to be

promoted.



There are now a lot of honest judges who perform well being moved to East Nusa Tenggara or Maluku, she said.



The second important point proposed in the bill aims to allow the commission to take a greater executive role.



Currently, most of the recommendations issued by the commission are rejected by the Supreme Court, Sukma said.



In 2015, the commission advised the court to sanction 105 judges for various ethical and legal violations. However, only 12 recommendations were followed up, and about 60 were not even followed up, she noted.



The commission hopes to see Indonesia learn good practices from other countries, such as Turkey, where the judicial council has a more executive role.



Thats why in Turkey, they were able to immediately fire 6,000 judges, Aidul said.



Separately, Commission III member Arsul Sani of the United Development Party (PPP) acknowledged the importance of passing the judiciary bill into law.



With this law, the authority for supervision between the Judicial Commission and the Supreme Court will become much clearer than it is now, he said.



The law, he added, is crucial, as current laws governing judges are piecemeal and incoherent.



The House is expected to pass the bill into law this year. (win)

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Linkedin Hans David Tampubolon (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

Lifelong hipster: Music producer Leonardo Pavkovic at his office in New York. His recording company MoonJune Records continues to discover and release albums from non-mainstream musicians who deserve more listeners.

New York-based music producer Leonardo Pavkovic is the kind of guy who finds freedom in his niche rather than in the mainstream.

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Linkedin Rita Widiadana (The Jakarta Post) Durban  Fri, July 22 2016

British Prince Harry, rock star Elton John, billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates and actress Charlize Theron are among the famous people using their fame for good causes by joining hands to put an end to AIDS by 2030.

They joined panels at the International AIDS Conferences in Durban, South Africa, which started on Monday and ends on Friday, lending support and funding to finance various HIV/AIDS research and community outreach programs, especially for children and adolescents.

In a panel session titled Ending AIDS with the Voices of Youth on Thursday afternoon, Prince Harry addressed the need to involve youth in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Fri, July 22 2016

It is a matter of basic principle for Indonesia to ensure that the upcoming ASEAN Ministerial Meeeting in Viantine will address the latest developments in the South China Sea because any security threat in the area will directly impact on peace, order and stability of all 10 members of the regional grouping.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi should exhaust every effort and exercise her diplomatic skill and expertise to ensure the South China Sea issue is tabled at the meeting. She should not allow a repeat of the Phnom Penh embarrassment in 2012. Then, for the first time in 45 years, the foreign ministers failed to issue a joint communique because host Cambodia stubbornly rejected the inclusion of anything that would upset China.

As the largest member of ASEAN, Indonesias leadership is critically needed in facing this complex challenge.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) central executive board may assign Surabaya mayor Tri Rismaharini to run as its Jakarta gubernatorial candidate next year if the party believes she is the best candidate, a party politician says.

PDI-P Jakarta gubernatorial candidate recruitment team head Gembong Warsono said on Friday that the party was considering her grassroots support through various groups including Rismas Warriors (Laris), Rismas Troops (Paris), Tanah Merah with Risma (Tameris) and Jakarta Love Risma (Jaklovers).

The case is simple. The party can deliver assignment letters to Risma as a party member if the party believes that she is needed in the capital, Gembong said at City Council on Friday.

He believed Risma would not reject her appointment as a Jakarta gubernatorial candidate although she has said that she still wanted to focus on her duties as Surabaya mayor.

Gembong said that so far no PDI-P member had rejected a party assignment.

The PDI-P has announced that it has whittled its list of potential gubernatorial candidates down to six. However, their names have not been disclosed to the public. Besides Risma, Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat and politician Boy Sadikin are among potential candidates from the largest party in the city. (bbn)
Film Director Aram Shahbazyan says that Yerevan police broke his arm last night when he went to visit a friend who lives opposite the police building seized on Sunday by the armed Sasna Dzrer group.

Shahbazyan says that when he asked police at the security cordon if he could visit his friend, an individual in civilian dress shouted out an order and the police wrestled the director to the ground.

Shahbazyan was scheduled to leave for the Burgas International Film Festival in Bulgaria today for a showing of his film Moskvich, my love.

Photo (middle): Aram Shahbazyan
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Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Bogor/Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

Throughout August, the public can freely enjoy numerous historical paintings that can normally only be viewed by people who have access to the countrys presidential palaces.

As many as 28 paintings that depict the nations struggles during the colonial era and early independence, including the works of maestros like S. Sudjojono, Affandi, Raden Saleh and Dullah, will be showcased in the first-ever exhibition held by the State Palace at the National Gallery.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

Movie producer Sheila Timothy could not hide her disappointment after fellow filmmakers from South Korea and the US recently retracted offers to coproduce projects in Indonesia. Their reason was simple: the country offers no attractive production incentives for potential investors.



They finally retreated as we dont have anything that they want, Sheila, who also serves as Indonesian Film Producers Association (APROFI) chairwoman, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.



Earlier in February, President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration announced the removal of the movie industry from the nations negative investment list (DNI), as part of its 10th economic stimulus package aimed at reviving sluggish growth. The government expects the new policy to allow greater foreign investment in the industry.



The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), meanwhile, estimates that the policy will help the country to meet its incoming investment target of Rp 594.8 trillion (US$45.4 billion) by the end of this year.



However, five months after the removal, legal infrastructure to support the plan is still far from ideal, preventing filmmakers and potential investors from enjoying direct benefits from the policy, including streamlined permit issuance and production incentives.



The Creative Economy Agencys (Bekraf) deputy for institutional and regional relations, Endah Sulistianti, said a convoluted system for managing paperwork, for example, had discouraged foreign investors from producing movies in the country.



Endah said that ideally, all paperwork required to secure investment permits in the industry should be processed by the BKPMs one-stop integrated services (PTSP) agency. In fact, there are still various forms that potential investors must obtain from the government-sanctioned Film Censorship Institute (LSF), despite the absence of legal standing to do so, she added.



Referring to the current progress, the dream to build a well-established movie industry in the country still has a long way to go, Endah, whose division spearheads Bekrafs agenda to support the Indonesian movie industry, said on Thursday at a public discussion.



To help ease the deadlock, Endah said Bekraf had submitted several proposals to the Education and Culture Ministry, which manages policies in the movie industry, including a list of incentives that should be formally offered to attract foreign investment in the industry.



Among the incentives we propose are tax allowances and assistance in market research for foreign investors, she said.



Sheila, who also spoke during the discussion, said the government should take note of what Malaysia had done to develop its movie industry through the introduction of various production incentives.



According to the Malaysian National Film Development Corporations (FINAS) website, the Film in Malaysia Incentive scheme was introduced in 2013 with an aim to encourage movies, television and other screen productions. The program provides additional financial incentives in the form of 30 percent cash rebates for the production of movies and other creative content in Malaysia that meet the required criteria.



Meanwhile, BKPM director for business development Pratito Soeharyo confirmed the board had learned that a number of businesspeople from the US and South Korea had expressed their interest in investing in the countrys movie industry. He said the potential investors, however, had not progressed with the plans due to the absence of incentives.



Currently there are 1,118 cinema screens serving the countrys population of around 250 million people. According to the BKPM, seven provinces are yet to have movie theaters: West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, West Sulawesi, Aceh, North Maluku, North Kalimantan and Bangka-Belitung. (mos)

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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Efforts to resolve the 1965 massacre, which has been called a grave human rights violation, will continue despite differences among the relevant parties, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) says.

Even though the government has rejected the call by the International Peoples Tribunal for the 1965 crimes against humanity (IPT 1965), the rights body remains optimist that the government will eventually resolve the problem, said Komnas HAM deputy chairman Ansori Sinungan on Friday.

"We could first divide the cases into those that could be resolved through the courts, those that cannot be and those for reconciliation [efforts]," Ansori said on Friday.

The most important thing is that the nation is committed to resolving the 1965 communist purge, Ansori said, adding that even though it would be difficult, national reconciliation should be fully achieved no matter what.

The tribunal ruled that Indonesia was responsible for committing acts of genocide with the 1965 mass-killings, during which hundred thousands of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and sympathizers were reportedly killed.

The tribunal also suggested Indonesia should apologize.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has said Indonesia will not bow down to the tribunal's recommendation, adding that Indonesia has its own legal system and no external party could dictate the way the nation solves its problems. (bbn)
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Linkedin Harun Yahya (The Jakarta Post) Istanbul  Fri, July 22 2016

Turkey endured a coup attempt on July 15. The first ugly sign was the blockade of two of Istanbuls bridges by tanks and military trucks.

Subsequently, the headquarters of the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey (MIT) and Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were assaulted and Istanbuls Ataturk Airport entrances were blocked by armored vehicles.

Nobody could tell exactly what it really was until the announcement by Prime Minister Yildirim on TV. He called the series of events an attempt that had been carried out by a minority group embedded in the military.

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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said slammed on Friday state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) for constantly challenging the ministry's policies.

Sudirman's comments came following a series of public spats with PLN president director Sofyan Basir, with the latter complaining that several of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministrys energy policies were not profitable.

"PLN is a utility company whose goal is not just to gain profit, but also to do what's best to help the community," Sudirman explained during a speech at the ministry's Electricity Directorate General.

The minister acknowledged that PLN was not only responsible to his ministry, but also to the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry. However, he insisted PLN must still prioritize its responsibilities to the former because it was the one issuing all technical regulations.

"The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is the mother, we nurture and care for PLN, whereas the SOE Ministry is the father, who asks about your test scores. Stop being a disobedient child to your mother," he said.

Following a series of disagreements about PLN's electricity procurement business plan, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered the company to allow more involvement from the private sector and to develop new and renewable energy sources. (tas)
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Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi  Fri, July 22, 2016

Sympathizers of terrorist Santoso are having a hard time accepting the death of the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) leader, who they have dubbed an "Islamic hero", and have prevented authorities and journalists from approaching his home in Lantojaya village, South Sulawesi, an official confirmed on Friday.

"We are still committed to dealing firmly with anyone who breaks the law," Operation Tinombala task force spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Hari Suprapto told The Jakarta Post on Friday evening in response to the actions of the sympathizers.

Poso Regent Darmin Sigilipu, together with Col. Inf. Saleh Mustafa and the Poso Inter-Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) chair Abdul Ganil Israil, visited Santoso's family home to help the relatives move on after the fugitive was killed in a shootout with security personnel on Monday. "The regent also gave a donation to the family," Mustafa said.

Darmin said the family had accepted Santoso's death and would bury his body. There has yet to be word on the date and place of burial.

On the other hand, Operation Tinombala spokesperson Hari said the sympathizers had threatened to take possession of Santoso's body, which is at the Bhayangkara Hospital in Palu, Central Sulawesi, once it reached the area bordering Poso and Parigi Moutong if the body was to be buried in Lantojaya village. The group of sympathizers have prepared a procession to transport the body and a banner saying "Welcome Islamic Hero, Santoso, aka Abu Wardah", Hari added. (liz)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

The Finance Ministry has issued three regulations specifying the technical issues in the tax amnesty, but some questions remain unanswered.

During a tax amnesty dissemination seminar at the Finance Ministry on Thursday, Rohanna, a member of the audience, said her son had lived abroad since 2009 to study and later work and had taken out a loan to buy an apartment there. She said he would pay off the loan using his salary over there and asked whether he should declare the apartment to the Indonesian tax office.

Taxation Directorate General spokesman Satrio Utomo, the main speaker at the event, replied that Rohanna's son did not have to declare his apartment because his salary was not subject to tax in Indonesia and the apartment was being paid for with his salary abroad.

"To pay tax, you need to meet the subjective and objective requirements. Subjectively the son is Indonesian, but objectively his salary and assets are not," Satrio said.

Another question was posed by Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani.

He pointed out that if a special purpose vehicle (SPV) was located abroad but owned by an Indonesian, the taxpayer did not have to declare it as it would be under the jurisdiction of the foreign government. However, he said that if assets were located in Indonesia, they could be reported using the domestic declaration scheme, which was easier than the repatriation scheme.

"But the question remains of whether the assets of some SPVs are domestically based and some are located abroad, can the domestic declaration scheme be used for all? The government needs to answer that in the technical rules," Hariyadi told thejakartapost.com on Thursday. (bbn)
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22 2016

Top ASEAN diplomats and their dialogue partners will convene over the weekend in Vientiane in what many expect to be the biggest test of unity the regional organization has faced since 2012.

With recent developments, particularly a landmark international tribunal ruling against Chinas claims in the South China Sea, ASEAN must seek a fine balance between respecting international law and ensuring continued peace and stability within the purview of its partners.

After years of criticism of the seemingly waning relevance and centrality of ASEAN, it is up to key players like Indonesia and current bloc chair Laos to step up to the task of regrouping the regional entity while keeping international intervention at a minimum.

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Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jember, East Java  Fri, July 22 2016

Abandoned: A former sugar factory built in Dutch colonial style is seen in poor condition in Kencong district, Jember, East Java.

For university dropout Yohanes Setyo Hadi, saving historical objects is a way to move on from bitter memories.

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Linkedin Li Xueying and Trinna Leong (The Straits Times/ANN) Kuala Lumpur/Hong Kong  Fri, July 22, 2016

Several figures stood out in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit to recover over US$1 billion in assets it says were illegally siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). They are:

Low Taek Jho

The businessman better known as Jho Low is said to be a confidant of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and helped set up a fund that evolved into 1MDB in 2009 when he became prime minister.

The DOJ said he bought luxury homes and a "substantial" stake in EMI, the world's third-largest music publishing company by revenue, from looted 1MDB funds.

Low, 34, also bought works of art by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, which were seized on Thursday by the Swiss authorities.

Low, who for many years ran a business out of Hong Kong, has yet to respond to the lawsuit. When The Straits Times visited his office at the Agricultural Bank of China building in the Central district Thursday, an employee would not say where he was.

It has been said that Low could be in Taiwan or China, neither of which has extradition treaties with the US. Hong Kong signed an extradition pact with the US in 1996.

Riza Aziz

He is the eldest son of Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor, from a previous marriage.

Riza, 34, was a banker in London before moving to the US. He bought expensive homes in the US and London, using $94.3 million in funds that he told investigators were a "gift", the DOJ said. It said he co-founded Red Granite Pictures which funded the movie The Wolf Of Wall Street using 1MDB cash.

Red Granite on Thursday denied that its funds were obtained illegitimately. There has been no response as yet from Riza, who was last seen in public at a Kuala Lumpur charity event in May.

In the civil suit, Riza was named as one of the individuals who gambled in a Las Vegas casino with Low and a Hollywood actor, believed to be Leonardo DiCaprio. They spent over $1.1 million during the visit in July 2012.

Eric Tan Kim Loong

The Malaysian is an associate of Low. He was the stated beneficial owner of several bank accounts into which "misappropriated 1MDB funds were transferred", according to the suit.

'Malaysian Official 1'

The US court document described the person as "a high-ranking official in the Malaysian government who also held a position of authority with 1MDB". He is also listed as a relative of Riza. The DOJ believes an AmBank account that received $681 million in March 2013 belongs to this official.

US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch declined to confirm at a press conference if he was Najib.

Khadem Al Qubaisi

The United Arab Emirates national was managing director of the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), an investment fund owned by Abu Dhabi, and was chairman of Aabar Investments PJS, an IPIC subsidiary.

IPIC and Aabar were involved with 1MDB's bond deals from 2012.

The DOJ said Qubaisi, 44, bought a New York penthouse and Beverly Hills properties with 1MDB funds.

Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny

The 53-year-old US citizen was chief executive of Aabar Investments PJS from 2010 to last year.

Husseiny, the suit said, bought a townhouse in upscale Belgravia in London.
Arguing that violence, weapons and taking hostages isnt the way to resolve issues, the Supreme Body of the ARF in Armenia says that there is an alternative that demands work, conscious organization, and the unity of free citizens.

The statement is a response to the Sunday seizure of a Yerevan police building by an armed opposition group calling itself Sasna Dzrer.

The group, which holds four police officers hostage, has demanded the release of political prisoners and the resignation of the government.

The ARF is currently a member of the coalition government with the ruling Republican Party.

Expletives, enmity, hate, violence and neglecting the just expectations of the people have always divided and destroyed the collective potential of Armenians. The unimaginable unity created as a result of the four-day war is seriously being threatened now, the ARF statement reads.

Saying that the ARF desires a peaceful resolution of the situation, it calls on law enforcement to display professionalism and respect the rights and dignity of law-abiding citizens.

In conclusion the ARF says: We can have and will have a strong, free and prosperous Armenia. To reach this, we must formulate a new type of government. We will walk this road with wide segments of society that follow these values and thinking.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Phnom Penh  Fri, July 22, 2016

China says its financial assistance to Cambodia is in no way dependent on its diplomatic support, including in Beijing's dispute with other Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang was commenting on a recent Associated Press report about a US$600 million aid package provided by Beijing to Cambodia that referenced the close relationship between the countries.

State media quoted Lu on Thursday saying China's aid should not be hyped-up or viewed through "tinted glasses."

Cambodia's prime minister announced last week that the Chinese assistance to his government would go to support the country's election infrastructure, education and health.

Last month, Cambodia deported 39 suspected criminals to China, including 25 Taiwanese, over whom Beijing insists it has jurisdiction despite protests from self-ruled Taipei.
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Jakarta will strive to ensure that mention of the South China Sea issue will be included in a joint communique to be produced at the end of ASEAN's biggest meeting of the year, an official has said.

"It's important that we could address the issue of the South China Sea during this meeting, especially about how to keep the situation peaceful, stable and conducive [to peace and stability]," said the Foreign Ministry's ASEAN dialogue partner and inter-regional cooperation director, Derry Aman.

The upcoming ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), the first ASEAN forum since the issuance of the PCA ruling earlier this month, will be held in Vientiane, Laos, from July 23 to 26.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi would be attending the largest event of the year for the regional organization, which includes 18 official meetings throughout the four days, Derry said.

There would be continued discussion among ASEAN member states on how to formulate the issue of the South china Sea in the document, he added.

Four of the 10 ASEAN member countries are claimants to the disputed region through which approximately US$5 trillion worth of trade passes each year. However, the organization has yet to release a joint statement on the arbitral decision.

"The main thing is to have something on the South China Sea issue in the joint communique," Derry said.

AMM participants include the grouping's dialogue partners, namely Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States. (ary)
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Indonesia wants the upcoming ASEAN meeting in Laos from July 23 to 26 to issue an official statement on how to eliminate illegal fishing, an official has said.

"Indonesia will prioritize an ARF statement on cooperation to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing," Foreign Ministry ASEAN dialogue partner and inter-regional cooperation director, Derry Aman, said on Thursday.

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which involves 26 country participants and the European Union, is part of a series of official meetings at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Laos.

The group was still discussing the statement, Derry said. Indonesia hopes the statement can be ratified and made into a reference for future cooperation within the ARF framework on the eradication of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, he added.

Jakarta under the Joko Jokowi Widodo administration has stepped up the war against illegal fishing by destroying dozens of foreign boats operating in its waters.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi will attend the 49th AMM, which is to hold 18 official meetings throughout its four-day period. Derry pointed to the AMM as the event with the most extensive series of meetings involving ASEAN and its dialogue partners: Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States. (ary)
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Linkedin Trinna Leong (The Straits Times/ANN) Kuala Lumpur  Fri, July 22, 2016

The Malaysian government has brushed aside US lawsuits seeking to seize US$1 billion in assets allegedly linked to money laundered from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) amid renewed calls for Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign over his role in the troubled state fund.

"We have to establish the facts first. This is a civil action, this is not a criminal action. It is limited to the names mentioned in the DOJ [US Department of Justice] report," Najib said, adding that those named in the suits, including his stepson Riza Aziz, have the right to legal process in the US.

His press secretary earlier stressed the Malaysian authorities "have led the way" in investigating 1MDB and investigations "found that no crime was committed".

Attorney-General Apandi Ali pointed out that his US counterpart did not name Najib as a defendant in the civil suits filed in California on Wednesday or allege any criminal wrongdoing against the PM.

"There has been no evidence from any investigation conducted by any law enforcement agencies in various jurisdictions which shows that money has been misappropriated from 1MDB [or] criminal charges preferred against any individuals for the offense," the attorney-general said in a statement.

Media reports in July last year said US$681 million linked to 1MDB had been found in Najib's personal accounts. Early this year,Apandi cleared the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing, declaring the money to be a political donation from the Saudi royal family.

Although the DOJ filing did not name Najib, it referred repeatedly to "Malaysian Official 1", a high- ranking government official who had control over 1MDB and had received US$681 million and is a close relative of Riza.

The DOJ also outlined businessman Low Taek Jho's alleged involvement in siphoning up to US$3.5 billion from 1MDB. Low is known to be a close associate of Riza and his stepfather. Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said a police probe was ongoing and asked for time for investigators to do their job.

Mainstream newspapers controlled by the government ignored the US action, with the New Straits Times running a commentary online accusing US investigators of "taking the easy way out" by filing a civil suit instead of a "criminal indictment if the DOJ had solid evidence of the wrongdoings".

The opposition and former premier Mahathir Mohamad, who has spearheaded a campaign to unseat Najib, claimed their calls for him to step down have been vindicated.

"I believe the Malaysian people want Datuk Seri Najib to go on leave as prime minister so as not to create the perception of abuse of power or process to halt or hinder a full and transparent investigation," opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said in a statement.

Mahathir pushed for an independent tribunal and referendum on Najib's leadership if the latter refused to leave office.

"This is an indictment of the involvement of the prime minister and his government in the mismanagement and, well, stealing... of money that belongs to the people," he said. "The time has come when the nation must demand for the removal of the prime minister."

Despite the latest pressure, Najib's political position in Malaysia is seen as secure. He still has the support of his party while opposition parties are in disarray.
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Linkedin Estrella Torres (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) Manila  Fri, July 22, 2016

Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. will seek a unified stand from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on an international arbitration award that dismissed Chinas nine-dash claim before the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting this weekend in Laos.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Yasay will attend the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting and related meetings from July 23 to 26 where he is expected to raise the issue of the South China Sea disputes and the need for parties to abide by the arbitral tribunal ruling last July 12.

The secretary will share the Philippines perspectives on ASEAN Community building, the developments in the South China Sea and Korean Peninsula and pressing issues of regional concern including violent extremism, trafficking in persons, illegal drugs, and climate change, among others, the DFA said in a statement on Friday.

Earlier, Yasay called on ASEAN to issue a statement supporting the international arbitral decision since four of its membersPhilippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysiaare claimants to waters of the South China Sea. Other ASEAN members include Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Cambodia.

ASEAN members have failed twice to issue a joint communique in a 2012 meeting in Phnom Penh and recently in Kuala Lumpur, due to conflicting stands on sea disputes.

But Yasay said he is confident that after the arbitration award, ASEAN will support the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea.

We already have the full support of the members of international community and we hope ASEAN will come up with a unified statement, I say this, in the context of the fact, that it will be important for ASEAN to have a unified statement, said Yasay in an interview at the DFA on July 13, a day after the arbitration tribunal issued the award.

Yasay will also represent President Rodrigo Duterte in the ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asia Summit and ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference where heads of governments from ASEAN and dialogue partners US, China, India, European Union, India, Canada and Australia will gather.

Issues on the South China Sea disputes, terrorism and denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula are expected to dominate the discussions.

(See also: Indonesia to push for SCS discussion in ASEAN meeting)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Geneva  Fri, July 22, 2016

Swiss authorities have seized three paintings by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh following a US request as part of a probe into the scandal surrounding Malaysian wealth fund 1MDB.

A Federal Office of Justice spokesman said Friday that van Gogh's "La Maison de Vincent a Arles" and "Saint-Georges Majeur" and Monet's "Nympheas avec Reflets de Hautes Herbes" were confiscated on Thursday. He declined to specify the location of the confiscations because the investigation was ongoing.

The US announced Wednesday moves to recover over US$1 billion that officials say was stolen from 1MBD by people close to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

US federal complaints say the diverted funds paid for luxury US properties, a $35 million jet, artworks, and helped finance Hollywood film, "The Wolf of Wall Street."
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Linkedin Natnicha Chuwiruch (Associated Press) Bangkok  Fri, July 22, 2016

Police raided the Bangkok home of a British journalist's wife and questioned her for several hours Friday in connection with his social media posts containing embarrassing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince, the heir apparent to the throne.

Andrew McGregor Marshall said in a statement that his wife, Noppawan "Ploy" Bunluesilp, was visiting Bangkok with their 3-year-old son when both of them were taken by police Friday morning to a police station along with Noppawan's father. Armed with a search warrant, police also took computers and several items from the house.

Noppawan, who is Thai, and her father were released about eight hours later.

Her release "is very encouraging news but I remain very concerned that she has faced this ordeal. She is innocent and plays no part in my journalism," said Marshall in a statement issued from Hong Kong, where he currently is.

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak told reporters that Noppawan had been detained in connection with photos that Marshall had posted on his social media, and which were "deemed inappropriate." Under Thailand's strict "lese majeste" law, criticism of the monarchy is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The photos Marshall tweeted Thursday were published in the German tabloid newspaper Bild and were purportedly of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany. The crown prince spends much of his time in Germany.

The prince's father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, is ailing in a hospital, putting the monarchy under stress as the country considers the prospect of its first royal succession since 1946.

Thitiraj initially said officers had determined that the photos published on Bild's website were doctored, and that Marshall and two Thais, whom he did not name, were responsible for creating and posting fake photos on social media. However, when questioned further by a reporter, he hedged his assertion, saying that "whether or not they were doctored is not important  he should not have posted them in the first place."

Marshall, who used to be based in Bangkok, is a frequent critic of the Thai monarchy and the military government that has ruled since a 2014 coup. Marshall and his wife have not lived in Thailand since 2011, but he continues to write about the country and is banned from entering it.

Speaking to reporters after it was decided to release Noppawan, Thitiraj said police had always believed her "to be innocent of her husband's crimes, but as police, we must follow the evidence." He said Friday's actions gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence.

"She still is Thai and she still respects the Royal institution and she has nothing to do with it," he said.

Marshall said Noppawan, 39, who used to work for Reuters and NBC, was not involved in his journalism.

"If Thai police believe that I have broken Thai law they should seek my extradition to Thailand via legitimate international legal challenges. It is unacceptable to harass an innocent woman simply because she is married to me," Marshall, who also used to work for Reuters, said in his statement.

Lt. Gen. Thitiraj said police won't issue an arrest warrant for Marshall because he is not in Thailand and the matter would have to be discussed with other nations. He said her hoped Marshall would stop his "movement" to criticize the monarchy.

"Andrew is the only foreigner who has consistently criticized the institution for four to five years now, and he hasn't stopped. He is the only one who has consistently attacked the institution."

Noppawan told reporters after her release that said she had asked her husband to stop his activities because they had an impact on his family.
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Linkedin Cho Chung Un (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network)  Fri, July 22, 2016

Incheon International Airport will deploy autonomous robots programmed to clean its facilities and to provide information, before the nation hosts the Winter Olympics in 2018.

Incheon International Airport Corp. and LG Electronics on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding for the robot project and agreed to test run prototype machines from later this year.

The project is a part of the airports smart service strategy, an official said. Robots will be assigned to give directions to passengers at terminals and possibly even clean floors.

An image of a concierge robot for airports.(The Korea Herald/Asia News Network/-)

To deliver such services at the airport, LG Electronics plans to utilize state-of-the-art robotic technology and ICT as well as artificial intelligence software. Robots will be capable of interacting with passengers. Features such as voice services or multilingual translations will be further discussed, the company said.

This is the first time for LG Electronics to make an announcement that the company will begin commercializing its robotic products. Details will be finalized after working with the airport, said Na Ju-young, a PR manager at LG Electronics in Seoul.

If the project is successful, the airport will become the first in the world to adopt robotics technology to improve passenger services. It is a new technological field that other mega-sized airports in advanced countries have been jumping into recently.

(Read also: Govt to speed up Sultan Thaha Airport expansion)

Airport robots are a blue ocean for the aviation industry. We will seek ways to develop both the robotic and aviation industry under the governments direction on promoting the creative economy, said Chung Il-young, the president of IIAC.

LG Electronics also said that the potential of the robotics market is immense and the new field will become a growth engine that could replace its traditional growth strategy based on domestic appliances.

The domestic appliances business has a limit for growth, so LG is looking for new market such as robotics that has greater potential in terms of profitability, Na said, adding that autonomous robotics for commercial use in large buildings are still in the developmental stage.

LG Electronics first introduced robot vacuum cleaners in 2003. Since then the company has been developing sensor systems based on deep learning algorithms, autonomous navigation technology as well as the Internet of Things, she said.
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Linkedin Masajeng Rahmiasri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 22, 2016

Schools may only have been back for a week, but senior high school students are already busy preparing for the year's major goal: enrolling at their preferred universities.

A final-year student at SMA 91 state senior high school, Abiyyu Fakhri, has started to attend learning courses locally known as bimbel or bimbingan belajar starting this week. I need extra time to study outside school hours so that I can explore the school lessons even further. For me, bimbel is a place where I can ask about school lessons whenever I need to, because my teachers cant always, or perhaps can only help me during school hours, said Abiyyu, who hopes to study international relations at the University of Indonesia (UI).

(Read also: ITB and UI, state-owned universities with highest acceptance score average)

Meanwhile, a recent graduate of SMA 3 Depok, Rafydah "Rani" Pendar Hatinurani, said that bimbel was a great help to her studies. Bimbel helps me relearn my lessons from school and if theres anything that I dont understand, I can ask about it during the consultation sessions.

As the national exams and universities' entrance exams consist of multiple choice questions, bimbel students are given lessons, drills and tryouts to familiarize them with the tests. For 12th grade students, the main goal is to be accepted at their preferred public university through invitation, state university entrance exams or independent tests at each university, bimbel coordinator Surkam recently told The Jakarta Post.

(Read also: Islands focus: Minister blames school for students failure)

However, not all students choose to study at bimbel. St. Theresia Jakarta High School student Felicia Sugita, for example, said that she preferred private tutors instead. I don't want to attend bimbel because even if I do, it doesnt 100 percent guarantee that I will be accepted to a public university, she said. Felicia, who wishes to study architecture at UI opts to take two or three tutoring sessions per week in mathematics, chemistry and physics. "The schedule of private tutoring sessions is more flexible and I can understand the subjects better than if I study in a crowded bimbel that is similar to being in a school classroom.

For national-plus school students, the case is quite different. Jaanam Jaswani, for instance, who just graduated from Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School, revealed that she was engaging neither in bimbel in private classes.

(Read also: Indonesian students head abroad due to complicated state university enrollment)

As she studied at a school that uses the International Baccalaurate (IB) curriculum, Jaanam was freed from the obligation to sit national exams. Thus, instead of familiarizing herself with various kind of test questions, she used her time to learn about options available abroad, choosing a university that suited her aspirations and trying to get accepted into one.

I'm not considering a local university. To be honest with you, I dont want to stay here. I've been advised that my career opportunities are limited here. I want to go out there and make it big; I want to work so hard that I dont have to introduce myself, said Jaanam, who wishes to major in English and film and is set to enroll at the University of British Columbia in Canada this year. (kes)
Cops arrested a guy peering into parked cars at the corner of Grand and Ludlow streets with a gun, burglary tools and a crack pipe in his possession. [DNA Info]

Police are looking for a suspect who tried to rape a 21-year-old woman Wednesday near Stanton and Suffolk streets. She was apparently in and out of consciousness during the attack. [New York Post]

City Comptroller Scott Stringer says hell go public with the results of his Rivington House investigation very soon. [Observer]

There are some new details about the new venue opening in the former Nevada Smiths space. Actor Adrian Grenier is apparently a partner. [EV Grieve]

The food media cant get enough of Franco Noriega, Baby Brasas chef/model. [Tasting Table]

Former directors of Lower East Side galleries Louis B. James, On Stellar Rays and Dodge Gallery are opening a new spot on Eldridge Street in September. [Art News]

Holland Cotter reviews the New Museums new exhibition. [New York Times]
Owen Smith is now the only challenger to Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, but it seems hardly anybody knows who he is or what he stands for.

Born in Lancashire but growing up in South Wales, he has been the MP for Pontypridd since the 2010 General Election. He has come to be described as a member of the Taffia  the Welsh media and political establishment by the Guardian.

The 46-year-old Smith began his working life at BBC Wales once he graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in History and French. He began working as a radio producer in 1992.

One of his lowest points at the BBC came when he wanted an interview with the Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police for Radio 4s Today programme. A young Smith decided to dial 999 demanding to speak to the Chief, leading to a formal complaint from the Met Police. He has recently said: It was a foolish mistake made by a young man  a mistake that he would surely condemn had it been Corbyn.

He previously described joining the 1984 Miners strike as his political awakening saying that he was inspired by their sense of community, solidarity and passion for justice. He claims to have always been interested in making a real and lasting difference to peoples lives.

In 2002 he took a job as Special Adviser to the Welsh and later Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy  now Baron Murphy. It is worth remembering that both Miliband and Cameron began their political careers by working as spads.

He came at odds with Murphy over his position on the Iraq War, having also recently said that he would have voted against it. Murphy described Smith as belonging to the soft-left of the party, calling him a bridge between the right and the left. This supports Smiths claims that he believes in the same radical ideas that Corbyn does, but has the leadership skills to win an election.

His decision to work as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer in 2005 has recently come under scrutiny. John McLeod, a senior lobbyist for Weber Shandwick, has defended Smith saying that it is good for a member of government to have experience and understand particular industries.

A particular topic that has been latched onto by Corbyn supporters is Smiths involvement in Pfizers initiative to offer more choice to NHS patients. This particular initiative involved patients directly paying for particular services on the NHS. Some people have said that this shows his desire to further privatise the NHS, however Smith has reiterated his support for a publicly owned NHS and called claims about his desires for privatisation clearly a lie.

The former shadow Work and Pensions Secretary has previously praised Jeremy Corbyn for helping the party to rediscover its radical roots, but later said that Jeremy has become a laughing-stock in a lot of peoples mind.

He began his leadership campaign against both Angela Eagle and Corbyn by saying that new leadership is needed to allow the party to become a serious and credible government  and with the election clock ticking, Labour MPs know as well as anyone that it will be difficult for Corbyn to gain the support of the all-important swing voters. Smith thinks that he has what it takes to win Labour their much needed election victory and tackle inequality.

One of his more radical suggestions, if he was elected leader, would be to amend the notorious article IV of the Labour constitution to include a specific commitment to fighting inequality. This shows that he prefers a labour that proposes policies rather than slogans, like Corbyn has been doing for a number of months.

Smith is well liked by his colleagues in the Commons, which is clear by his 162 nominations received for his leadership bid. The MP Lisa Nandy said Smith has gathered a good and loyal group of MPs around him, who are much more interested in dealing with the pressing problems of 2016 than in fighting old battles.

So, the little-known Welsh man is the only person that will be challenging Corbyn this summer, and I think the Parliamentary Labour Party made a very good choice in choosing him. He speaks to many centrists and left-leaning members of the party, without abandoning the right like Corbyn has done.

He is pro-Trident, but anti-bombing Syria. Against reducing spending on welfare, pro-LGBT rights and also in favour of assisted dying. His voting record shows he is in favour of introducing a bankers bonus tax, against rising tuition fees and academy schools, and wants to increase top-rate tax and mansion tax.

He has made radical policy suggestions such as a 50% top-rate tax and an interesting 200 Billion infrastructure and Council Housing programme. He may even grab (or lose) a few votes for saying he is tempted to call a second EU referendum. His stance on making tackling inequality a binding priority for Labour will also make him an attractive choice for many grassroots activists.
In what Randy Hughes said was one of the proudest moments of my career, the longtime La Crosse brewmaster lifted one of the first cans of the brand-new Old Style Oktoberfest beer to his lips, took a swig and exhaled as he invoked the toast: MAN, thats good. Prost!

Thus Hughes hailed the return of Old Style beer to its birthplace  originally Heileman Brewing Co.  in La Crosse Thursday, as well as the launch of the new brew as a specific homage to the citys Oktoberfest.

Hughes did so in the ballroom of the City Brewery Hospitality Center Banquet Hall, to the cheers and similar toasts from Oktoberfest board members, spouses and friends, along with City Brewery officials and representatives of the Pabst Brewing Co., which owns the Old Style brand.

The roll-out of the new brew and Old Styles homecoming occurred nearly 17 years to the day that its production in La Crosse ceased, said Greg Deuhs, who was assistant brewmaster to Hughes at the time and now is Pabsts brewmaster.

Although only the Oktoberfest blend will be produced at City Brewery initially, this definitely opens the door for potential opportunities between the brand and city to further collaborate down the line, a Pabst spokesman said.

I had long hoped and dreamed this day would come, Hughes said. To get a quality beer and the Heileman shield and La Crosse name on a can  its a great day.  Old Style is back in La Crosse.

With that, the two dozen or so Oktoberfesters  men in lederhosen and women in dirndls  in the ballroom sang Ein Prosit, with a particularly robust emphasis of the songs closing words, Ziggy zaggy, ziggy zaggy, oi oi oi. The song is a traditional German toast to health and well-being.

Although seasoned Oktoberfest fans are prone to breaking out in the song at the drop of a Tyrolean hat, it was especially fitting for this occasion. German malts and hops are among the secrets to Old Style Oktoberfest  the first new Old Style beer in 15 years.

The original Old Style of the 1970s and 80s was more of an American blend, said Hughes, who began working at Heileman in May 1978 and became brewmaster in May 1995.

Hughes and Deuhs collaborated on the recipe for the Marzen-style Old Style Oktoberfest, which will reach store shelves next month and be sold in four-packs of 16-ounce cans.

Deuhs attributed the choice of the 16-ouncers as opposed to the typical 12-ounce cans were because weve gotta have the fest size, while Hughes added some practical, and historical, considerations.

When the craft beer craze created waves in the industry, craft brewers typically eschewed using cans, opting for bottles instead, Hughes said.

Now, many have graduated to 16-ounce cans, he said, adding, Its a hot package even for craft brewers. Its the package of choice, and its a full pint.

The larger can provides a lot of space for graphics and longevity on the shelves, Hughes said.

The design on the Old Style Oktoberfest can showcases its La Crosse connections, including the Heileman label and a statement that it is brewed here. It also will be the official beer sponsor of the Sept. 29-Oct. 2 event and will be in the Golden Keg that is tapped to open the festival.

Duane Moore, the 1997 festmaster, noted that former La Crosse Tribune artist Bob Hess drew the couple on the front of the can for the first Oktoberfest in 1961, and it has continued as a symbol for the festival.

If its tied to Oktoberfest, it had to have those, said Moore, who was among those attending the roll-out of the new beer.

On the back side of the can is a surprisingly detailed rendition of the Oktoberfest grounds, also including the Cass Street Bridge and riverboats and railroads that have been so important in La Crosses development.

Hughes attributed the ability to create Old Style Oktoberfest to the work of the City Brewery upper management and owners and Pabst management. ... I want to thank the people at Pabst for letting us show what we can do here.

After the ceremony, the dignitaries and attendees escorted a case of Oktoberfest, carried in the typical brewery symbol of a horse-drawn beer wagon to City Hall, for delivery to Mayor Tim Kabat.

The mayor wasnt in, having returned Wednesday night from a trade mission to La Crosse sister cities in Epinal, France, and Friedberg, Germany, so the beer will be waiting when he returns to work, possibly today.

Asked whether the return of an Old Style label to La Crosse was unanticipated, 97 Festmaster Moore responded, It isnt surprising.

After a reflective pause, Moore added, You wonder why they didnt do it quicker.
Donald Trump has accepted the Republican nomination for president. As he did so, he declared America to be in crisis and promised to make all Americans safer and richer if he is elected in November.

The billionaire businessman pledged to curb immigration, build a wall along the border with Mexico and save the nation from Hillary Clinton, his most likely opponent whom he claims has a record of death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

The 70-year-old spoke for more than an hour. The address, on the closing night of the party convention, was his highest-profile appearance and marked an opportunity to heal Republican divisions and show voters he is prepared for the presidency.

(AP)

Ever the showman, Trump fed off the energy of the crowd, stepping back to soak in applause and joining the delegates as they chanted: U-S-A.

Trump declared the nations problems too big to be fixed within the confines of traditional politics.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves, he told delegates in Cleveland, Ohio.

As the crowd, fiercely opposed to Clinton, broke out in its usual chant of lock her up, he declared: Lets defeat her in November.

He accused Clinton of terrible, terrible crimes and said her greatest achievement may have been avoiding prison for her use of a private email and personal server as secretary of state.

(Andrew Harnik/AP)

The speech was strikingly dark for a celebratory event, and as many critics pointed out appeared to be almost entirely lacking in specific policy details. Trump shouted throughout as he read off a teleprompter, showing few flashes of humour or even a smile.

In a direct appeal to Americans shaken by a summer of violence at home and around the world, Trump promised that if he takes office in January, safety will be restored.

Trump appears to be sticking to his most controversial proposals during the general election campaign, including building a wall along the entire US-Mexico border and suspending immigration from nations compromised by terrorism.

Trump had earlier sparked questions about his Oval Office readiness by suggesting in an interview that the US might not defend Americas Nato partners with him as president.

The remarks deviate from decades of American policy and seem to reject the 67-year-old alliances bedrock principle of collective defence.

Trump reinforced his position in his speech on the convention stage, saying the US has been picking up the cost of Natos defences for too long.

(Carolyn Kaster/AP)

He promised to describe major, major tax cuts, but his economic proposals were vague, with unspecified plans to create millions of jobs.

He promised a simplified tax system for the middle class and businesses, fewer regulations and the renegotiation of trade deals that he says have put working class Americans at a disadvantage.
For all those lonely Pokemon Go players and trainers out there, there's now an app to ensure you never have to go on a Pokewalk all alone ever again...

That's right,

- the first Pokemon Go inspired dating app - is at hand to find a Pokematch for you.

The app, created by Chicago company Project Fixup, matches compatible Pokemon Go fans so there arent any awkward silences and the dates have something to talk about apart from Pokemon.

All Pokemon Go players have to do is fill in a questionnaire, including things like what they look for in a potential Pokemate.

I wanna go on PokeDates with people to find pokemon around the city.  I Am Everyone (@TholianWeb_) July 17, 2016

Spray your perfume and activate your incense #Pokedate  Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016

Theyll also have to provide a few other details as well, such as where they live and when they're are free. From there on, the app will try to find a Pokemon partner perfect for them.

The first PokeDate is be free, but after that any romantic Pokemon adventures will cost US$20 per date.

However, there is a chance to earn free dates from referrals.

The creators of the app say the idea came about because they didnt want people to find love just by sitting at a computer or swiping on their phone.

At Project Fixup, we believe that dating should be about getting out there, meeting new people, and enjoying the world around, the company states.

Project Fixup is about OFFline dating, and saving you the hours of time you would spend online to end up with the same date.

So for all lovelorn and lonely Pokemon fans, there might just be a perfect Pikachu fan out there.
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Alleged triad boss arrested in Hong Kong after reportedly flying in from Phuket

PHUKET: An alleged triad boss known as Shanghai Boy has been arrested after arriving at Hong Kong airport reportedly from Phuket, months after he hit the headlines for being punched in the face at Hong Kongs most famous luxury hotel.

crimepolice

By AFP

Friday 22 July 2016, 04:09PM

While Hong Kong prides itself on rule of law and being a vital regional financial hub, it has never been able to shake off a darker side to its reputation as a hotbed for organised Chinese criminal networks. Photo: Barnyz/Flickr

Kwok Wing-hung was detained on yesterday night (July 21) for conspiracy to commit criminal intimidation, conspiracy to wound with intent and conspiracy to blackmail, police said in a statement issued today (July 22).

Famed for his ever-present 70s-style sunglasses and swept-forward bowl haircut, Kwok, 58, had dropped off the radar for seven months, according to local media.

He had been put on a police wanted list and was arrested at Hong Kong airport by officers from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, the South China Morning Post reported.

Video from the Oriental Daily showed Kwok, wearing a dark suit, being escorted by officers into a police van at the citys airport after reportedly arriving from Phuket.

Controversial businessman Kwoks public profile rose in 2012 after he was reportedly seen dining with a campaign director for the citys current leader Leung Chun-ying, who was then a candidate for chief executive.

That led to questions over whether Leung and his team were in collusion with the triads.

Kwok was back in the headlines in December after reports that he had been punched in the face by a mystery attacker while having afternoon tea at Hong Kongs Peninsula Hotel.

After treatment at a private hospital, Kwok brushed off the incident, saying that he had bumped into a table corner.

Local media said the attack was related either to a dispute over his mistress, or to financial problems with his Macau business.

Days after the attack, Kwok called a much-anticipated press conference but failed to show up.

While Hong Kong prides itself on rule of law and being a vital regional financial hub, it has never been able to shake off a darker side to its reputation as a hotbed for organised Chinese criminal networks.

That reputation came to the fore once more during 2014s mass pro-democracy protests.

The police and the government were forced to deny allegations that they were working with criminals after masked thugs attacked protesters at a demonstration camp in Mong Kok  a working-class district known for its triad gangs.
Fugitive jet-setting monk Nen Kham arrested in US

BANGKOK: Disgraced ex-monk Wirapol Sukphol, formerly known as Luang Pu Nen Kham, has been arrested by US authorities three years after he fled Thailand with police hot on his heels.

crimepolicereligiontransport

By Bangkok Post

Friday 22 July 2016, 03:36PM

Video footage of Wirapol Sukphol, formerly monk Luang Pu Nen Kham travelling on a private jet carrying an expensive designer bag started a major scandal back in 2013 that eventually led him to fleeing abroad. Photo: Bangkok Post

Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Paisit Wongmuang said today (July 22) that US authorities notified the department this morning that they had arrested the fugitive.

The infamous former monk Luang Pu Nen Kham is wanted by the DSI on charges of breaching the Computer Crimes Act, money laundering, child abduction and raping a girl aged below 15.

The DSI and the Office of the Attorney General had worked closely in seeking his extradition, Col Paisit said.

We will await for the US court to notify us what charges the suspect is facing. He will be allowed to exercise his right to appeal our extradition request and to fight the case before being sent back to Thailand. This process requires a certain period of time, the DSI chief said.

Mr Wirapol, known as the jet-setting monk, gained notoriety in 2013 following the release of video footage showing him travelling aboard a private jet while still a monk. He was carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, wore brand-name sunglasses and was found to own more than 100 luxury cars and numerous large blocks of land.

He fled Thailand that year and was reported to have taken refuge in France before moving to the US. He was expelled from the monkhood in absentia after allegations of his criminal behaviour and high-flying lifestyle became public.

Authorities had seized a total of B380 million from his bank accounts, but he was able to take cash and gold out of the country, reports said.

DSI deputy chief Lt Col Pong-in Intarakhao said later there was a high chance Mr Wirapol would be extradited back to Thailand for trial.

Authorities had already completed extradition procedures and issued the necessary documents, he said.

For now, the matter rests with the US court, Lt Col Pong-in added.

Read original story here.
Outrigger Resorts wins Best Hotel/Resort Group

PHUKET: Outrigger Resorts has been hailed as the Best Hotel/Resort Group in the Australian Federation of Travel Agents National Tourism Industry Awards for Excellence, which took place in Sydney on July 16.

tourism

By The Phuket News

Friday 22 July 2016, 11:00AM

The Outrigger Resorts brand has beaten off strong challenges from some of the world's largest hotel and resort operators to win one of Australia's most prestigious travel industry awards.

Outrigger saw off competition from other finalists such as Accor Hotels, Club Med, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Leading Hotels of the World.

More than 500 travel industry representatives turned out for what is the Australian hospitality industrys night of nights at Darling Harbour in Sydney to recognise and celebrate excellence across a range of categories.

The Hawaiian-based Outrigger Enterprises Group is a privately held, leisure lodging, retail and hospitality company operating in the Asia-Pacific, Oceania and Indian Ocean regions.

Guided by more than 68 years of family leadership, Outrigger runs a multi-branded portfolio of hotels, beachfront resorts, condominiums and vacation resort properties located in Hawaii (Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Hawaii Island); Guam; Fiji (Coral Coast VitiLevu, Castaway Island); Thailand (Phuket, KohSamui); Mauritius; and the Maldives. The portfolio currently has 38 properties with approximately 8,000 rooms.

Representatives from Outriggers Sydney Regional Sales Office, Andrew Gee - Regional Director of Sales & Marketing Australia & New Zealand, Maria Alaveras - Sales Manager- Retail Travel, Wholesale & Industry Partners and Juliet Hudson - Sales Manager Destination Weddings, Groups & M.I.C.E were on hand to accept the award.

I cant begin to say how proud I am of our Australia-based team, particularly Maria Alaveras who has established an excellent relationship with the travel industry community, said Mr Gee.

This really is an outstanding acknowledgement of our hard work and commitment in this market. We sincerely thank the industry for getting behind us to make this award possible. We are a very close team with an enormous passion for our wonderful values-led brand, he said.

Mark Simmons, Vice President Sales & Marketing Asia Pacific for Outrigger said that the award was of major importance.

The Australian outbound market to Outrigger globally is significant and we are fortunate to have a very strong team to generate this business, he said.

Outrigger Resorts has opened five properties in the last three years: in Mauritius, Maldives, Phuket, Koh Samui, and Fiji. The company continues to carefully assess further expansion opportunities in warm water beachfront resort destinations around the world.
Police bust international hacking suspects

BANGKOK: A Russian man and an Uzbek woman were busted by tourist police for their alleged involvement in a transnational hacking scam in which more than 50 people in several countries lost a total of one billion baht, police said.

crimeRussiantechnologypolice

By Bangkok Post

Friday 22 July 2016, 09:01AM

Russian Dmitry Ukrainskiy, 44, (right), and Olga Komova, 25, from Uzbekistan, appear at the Tourist Police Division after they were charged with involvement in a transnational hacking gang. Photo: Pornprom Satrabhaya

Surachet Hakphan, commander of the Tourist Police Division, said police arrested Dmitry Ukrainskiy, a 44-year-old Russian, and Olga Komova, a 25-year-old Uzbekistan national, both of whom were wanted by US authorities for hacking into a personal financial database.

More than 50 people from various countries, including the US, Australia, Japan and Britain, were swindled out of more than one billion baht by the two suspects, he added.

The police, however, declined to say where the suspects were arrested.

Maj Gen Surachet said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had sought assistance from Thai police to track the two suspects belonging to a computer hacking network as authorities believed Ukrainskiy and Komova were hiding out in Thailand.

Since 2014, US authorities found that financial transactions believed to be carried out by the hacking network were made from several countries to Thailand.

A police team was set up to search for the two suspects, Maj Gen Surachet said.

Police found that Ukrainskiy was running a yacht charter business in Pattaya and Komova was working at a hotel in Koh Chang in Trat, he said.

Police said the suspects told investigators they used software that allowed them to gain access to a private computer system and stole the victims financial information.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office had seized more than one billion baht and frozen more than 50 bank accounts from the network, Maj Gen Surachet said.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old Turkish national has been arrested for robbery, police said.

Abdullah Alp Kaya, who was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court on Wednesday (July 20), was caught yesterday (July 21) at a coffee shop in the Terminal 21 shopping mall on Sukhumvit Road, Lumpini police said.

Investigators said people lodged complaints with police that their notebook computers, tablets, and smartphones were stolen when they were spending time at coffee shops at department stores in Bangkok.

Police said Kaya admitted to police that he had stolen notebook computers and other gadgets from unsuspecting customers.

Read original story here.
With structural pillars repaired, Jungceylon aims to re-open Port Area next week

PHUKET: Management at Jungceylon shopping mall in Patong are confident the section closed for repairs where structural pillars crumbled last month will reopen next Wednesday (July 27) after a series of inspections by government engineers.



By Chanida Summast

Friday 22 July 2016, 11:09AM

With repairs to the structural pillars underneath The Port Area nearly complete, management at Jungceylon shopping mall in Patong are confident the closed areas will re-open next Wednesday (July 26). Photo: Slilla Svetsreni

A team of engineers from Patong Municipality inspected the pillars last Friday and again yesterday, Patong Mayor Chalermluk Kebsup told The Phuket News.

Jungceylon management requested us to inspect the repairs to the damaged area to see if Patong Municipality had any recommendations or additional works to carry out, she said.

On July 15, we learned that the damaged columns had been fixed. The only thing (that still) needed to be done was for the outside of the columns to be covered with plaster and decorated.

Our engineers also checked the rest of the columns for damage, she added.

An engineer from Patong Municipality, who asked not to be named, confirmed the repairs were nearly complete.

The work on damaged columns is more than 90 per cent complete and the area is safe. All the other columns were inspected for safety, he said.

We are waiting for a next meeting next Tuesday (July 26) for the conclusion of the inspection and the decision as to whether the area is safe for public use.

Slilla Svetsreni, Senior Public Relations Manager at Jungceylon, said her team was confident the repairs at the malls Port Zone will be ratified and approved in time for the closed section to re-open on Wednesday.

All we need to do is present the structural reports showing that the repairs have been properly carried out and receive permission from provincial officials at the meeting on Tuesday, she said.
Ying Kai hit with fresh B2.8m con allegation

BANGKOK: More complaints have been lodged against Ying Kai by a victim who was conned out of B2.8 million in exchange for a royal insignia and a royally bestowed title of khunying as promised by the woman.

crimecorruptionpolicereligion

By Bangkok Post

Friday 22 July 2016, 09:17AM

The woman known as Ying Kai (Chicken Lady) is booked into a remand prison in this file photo taken on July 7. Photo: Pornprom Satrabhaya

Saiyai Yingpoom, 87, accompanied by lawyer Songkan Atchariyasap, chairman of the Network Against Acts that Destroy the Kingdom, Religion and Monarchy, appeared yesterday (July 21) at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) to file a complaint against Monta Ying Kai Yokrattanakan with CSD deputy chief Chakrit Sawasdee.

Ms Saiyai accused Monta, who falsely claimed to be a khunying, of colluding with a person who claimed to be abbot of Wat Yi Pa in Ayutthaya to dupe her out of B2.8 million in exchange for the royal insignia and the title of khunying.

She later filed a complaint with local police and a petition with Ayutthayas chief monk after realising she had been cheated as Monta failed to keep her promise.

Also yesterday, two others sought legal charges against Monta with police.

They are Waritsara Kaewplang, a Surin National Anti-Corruption Commission official, and Phra Samuchawalitkittimethee, assistant to Wat Tha Sung Thaksinaram in Ayutthayas Tha Sai district.

Phra Samuchawalitkittimethee said he was assigned by the provincial chief monk to close Wat Yi Pa after the provincial monks order found the temple was deserted as no monks were staying there.

The closure came after Ms Saiyai petitioned the monks order complaining she had been defrauded by a person who posed as abbot of that temple.

Phra Samuchawalitkittimethee told police he was threatened by the abbot and Monta, who claimed she had close ties to several high-ranking police officers.

Ms Waritsara, a former restaurant owner in Phitsanulok, said she was charged with extortion and defamation in several cases due to Montas complaints after both had a conflict over a charity school meal in the province during 1993-1997.

Ms Waritsara said Monta failed to pay for the events expenses of about B200,000, as allegedly promised. When Ms Waritsara asked for the payment, Monta filed legal complaints against her.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court approved an arrest warrant yesterday for Monta for allegedly being involved in human trafficking.

The warrant was issued after a police investigation found several Thai and Lao women were tricked into forced labour by Monta from 2008 to 2012.

Acting city police chief Lt Gen Sanit Mahathavorn said Ms Montha lured three female residents of Mae Hong Son province and two Lao women, identified as Kabkaew and Thamma, to work for her.

Lt Gen Sanit said after both Lao women quit their jobs and left Montas house, Monta filed charges against them for allegedly stealing valuables worth B2.9 million.

In addition, an warrant was issued yesterday by the Military Court against Monta on lese majeste charges after she allegedly spoke to a third person in a way that defamed the royal institution.

So far, Monta has been facing a slew of criminal charges including lodging false complaints, human trafficking, defamation and breaching the lese majeste law.

Also, Mr Songkan asked that police press charges against two men and two women connected with Monta as they may be linked to the death of Chawiwan Tangwiriyakul, a millionaire in Udon Thani.

Read original story here.
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South Dakota high school football quarterfinal schedule and scores

The road to the DakotaDome continues tonight with 28 quarterfinal games in seven classes across South Dakota.
Family members of passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing on March 8, 2014 hold up placards after a joint press conference by Malaysia, China and Australia in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Friday, July 22, 2016. Malaysia, Australia and China have agreed to suspend the search for Flight 370 once the current area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
But the tribe has a long way to go
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday targeted Democrat Hillary Clinton for leaving behind a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness" as former US secretary of state and blamed her "bad judgement" for disasters unfolding across the world.

The 70-year-old real estate tycoon said US President Barack Obama must be regretting his decision of putting Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness. America is far less safe and the world is far less stable than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets," Trump said in his acceptance speech here as the Republican presidential candidate.

"Her bad instincts and her bad judgement something pointed out by (Vermont senator) Bernie Sanders are what caused the disasters unfolding today," he said.

Reviewing Clinton's record, Trump said in 2009, ISIS was not even on the map and the situation across the Middle East was stable.

"After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.

"Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before," he said.

Trump said Clinton's legacy does not have to be US legacy.

"The problems we face now poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."

Trump said while Clinton's message was that things will never change, his message is that things have to change. "And they have to change right now," he said amid applause.

When a secretary of state illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so that authorities cannot see her crime, it puts the country at risk, Trump said, adding corruption has reached a level like never before.

"When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was "extremely careless" and "negligent" in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

"In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it especially when others have paid so dearly," he said.

"When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favours to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come," he alleged.
Pakistani social media sensation Qandeel Baloch's father said his son, who killed the model-cum-actress for honour, should be "shot on sight".

"I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one," Baloch's father Anwar Azeem said.

According to the News International report on Friday, Baloch's parents voiced their pain at the murder of their daughter by their younger son Waseem, who killed her for bold posts and pictures on social media sites.

"We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us," Azeem said.

Azeem said that his daughter was his "best friend" but claimed that his son Waseem had been "crazed".

Baloch's mother said she used to share all her secrets with her.

"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me 'Your daughter is working hard, she'll go far'," she said.

Qandeel's mother said she and Azeem were also drugged the night Baloch was first sedated and then strangled to death.

"My husband and I fell deep asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives," she said.

"In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... but she didn't get up."

Her mother, describing Baloch's corpse, said: "Her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips were black."

Baloch was killed on the night of July 14 by Waseem. He confessed to drugging her and then strangling her to death, for family honour.
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy

By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
Dr. Chaim Waxman, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Rutgers University and Chairman of Behavioral Science at Hadassah College, delivered an electrifying presentation at the Center for Kehillah Development in which he revealed new findings that Orthodox drop- out rates are falling and retention rates are rising. Increasingly, Orthodox Jews are choosing to remain Orthodox, he told the crowd of avreichim at the CKD. After a decade of dire alarms over Orthodox drop-outs, trends have changed and Orthodoxy now has the highest retention rate of any denomination, followed by the Reform and then the Conservative.

Describing Orthodoxy as the most vibrant of the movements, Dr. Waxman said that the Orthodox community is going to increase in size dramatically in coming years for many reasons. It is not just that more Orthodox are remaining Orthodox, he explained, It is also that Orthodox birthrates far outpace those of every other Jewish denomination. His research indicates that Chassidishe Jew have 12 times as many children as the non-Orthodox, and even the Modern Orthodox have 4 times the number of children as the non-Orthodox. They are a community on the rise, Dr. Waxman observed.

According to Rabbi Leib Kelemen, founder of the CKD, this sudden growth in Orthodoxy requires urgent action. Read the handwriting on the wall, he said. Unless we help talmidei chochomim who havent yet taken leadership positions increase their knowledge of psak and communal leadership skills, the existing rabbonim could be overwhelmed by their growing communities and the growing number of new communities. Rabbi Kelemen said that some rabbonim already feel challenged to give enough personal attention to every member of their kehillos, and the ongoing Orthodox success-story could make instances like these more common. Rabbi Kelemen also warned that the need for a lot of rabbonim could tempt us to place people with weaker backgrounds into rabbinic positions, while the responsible strategy would be to help the biggest talmidei chochomim get the background and skills they need to assume communal leadership. We have giants in Torah who have tremendous maalos and beautiful middos, Rabbi Kelemen said, and many would be excited to take responsibility for the Klal. This is precisely the mission CKD has accepted  in Rabbi Kelemens words: To give chashuve avreichim the time and training they need to become quality leaders. Rabbi Kelemen said that CKD is currently accepting applications for their five-year learning fellowship, and he encourages qualified talmidei chochomim to apply at www.c4kd.org.

Dr. Waxman also shared data suggesting that the yeshivishe world is not just among the fastest growing, but also in some ways the most spiritually strong. When asked, How important is religion in your life?, 82.8 percent of the Ultra-Orthodox said Very Important compared to 77.4 percent of Modern Orthodox 44.3 percent of the Conservative, and only 17.2 percent of the Reform. When asked How certain are you about your belief in God?, 91.9 percent of the Ultra-Orthodox answered Absolutely Certain, compared to 87.4 percent of the Modern Orthodox, 47.5 percent of the Conservative, and 39.6 percent of the Reform.

In an astounding projection, Dr. Waxman indicated that current data suggest the possibility that the majority of all Jews in the world will live in Israel within less than 20 years. If that were realized it would be the first time this has happened since the destruction of Bayis Sheni. He pointed out that this could have major repercussions in halachah.

Dr. Waxman concluded his talk to the CKD avreichim by encouraging them to remain aware of trends in Jewish sociology: You are going to lead Jewish communities, and in that role you will need to know what is happening both inside and outside the Orthodox community.
Funeral arrangements are set for three Baton Rouge police officers shot to death in an ambush by a lone gunman.

Visitation is set Thursday evening for city police department officer Matthew Gerald, 41, the Army and Marine veteran who had graduated from the police academy earlier this year. Geralds funeral is set for Friday morning.

Visitation and funeral services for East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, follow on Saturday. Garafola was a 24-year veteran of the sheriffs office.

Services for Montrell Jackson, 32, are set for Monday. Jackson had been with the Baton Rouge Police Department for 10 years when he was killed.

All three were fatally shot in what police said was an ambush by Gavin Long, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri. Three other officers were wounded.

Long died in the ensuing gunfight with police.

Longs motive remains unclear. The shootout came as the city was already on edge after protests and arrests following the video-recorded July 5 shooting death of Alton Sterling, a black man, during an altercation with two Baton Rouge police officers.

Long was black, as was one of the slain officers, Jackson. Jackson had written on Facebook days before the shooting about the pressures he faced as a black man and a police officer.

(AP)
A man was arrested after igniting accelerant inside his car and crashing it into the gate of a parking garage at a suburban Sydney police station Thursday, police said. There was no indication the incident had any links to terrorism.

The man, in his 60s, suffered serious burns, but no one else was injured, said New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford.

The man initially parked his car in the driveway of a police station in the western Sydney suburb of Merrylands. An officer approached the car, and the man then ignited an accelerant  possibly gasoline  before driving the vehicle into the roller door of the stations parking garage, Clifford said.

The whole thing happened very quickly, Clifford told reporters.

Police extinguished the fire and removed the unconscious man from the vehicle. He was in serious condition at a hospital, Clifford said.

Police were still trying to determine the mans identity and motivation, Clifford said.

Theres nothing to indicate this is in any way related to terrorism, Clifford said. We just dont know why this person has acted this way.

A bomb squad was inspecting the vehicle, but there was no further threat to anyone, Clifford said.

The police reacted very bravely and its just a miracle that no one else was seriously injured, he said.

(AP)
A night after being booed off the Republican National Convention stage, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remained defiant about Donald Trump Thursday, saying he is not a servile puppy dog and vowing not to support anyone who wages personal attacks against his family.

Speaking to an incensed Texas delegation, Cruz recalled an answer he gave at a Republican debate this year, when he enthusiastically said he would support the partys official nominee.

The day that was abdicated was the day this became personal, Cruz said. Im not going to get into criticizing or attacking Donald Trump, but Ill give you this response: I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.

And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, Im going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and my father, he added.

Cruz tried to link arms with Republicans at the partys national convention Wednesday but was booed lustily by delegates when he ended his speech without offering Trump his endorsement or even saying he would vote for the New York billionaire.

The blatant sign of disunity in prime time angered the Trump campaign, with top adviser Paul Manafort saying Cruz used very bad judgment and was not respectful to the invitation by the convention to come and speak.

Manafort told NBCs Today on Thursday that Cruz understood what the responsibilities are, someone in his position.

Trump repeatedly mocked Cruz throughout the campaign as Lyin Ted. Trump also took jabs at the appearance of Cruzs wife, Goldman Sachs executive Heidi Cruz, and the Texas senator responded that Trump is a sniveling coward. Trump also made suggestions that Cruzs father had indirect links to John F. Kennedys assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

As he appeared on stage Wednesday night, Cruz basked in a minute-long standing ovation. Cruz finished second to Trump in the crowded Republican primary campaign and congratulated the GOP nominee on his victory.

But the closest as Cruz came to saying he wanted Trump to win the White House was when he said: I want to see the principles that our party believes in prevail in November.

Cruz didnt tell the convention crowd that he plans to vote for Trump. Nor did he ask his supporters, hundreds of whom encouraged him to run for president in four years at an event on Wednesday afternoon, to vote for the newly minted Republican nominee.

Interrupted by chants of Trump, Trump, Trump, Cruz paused and said with a smile, I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation.

But as Cruz ended his remarks, and as the crowd of more than 2,000 delegates at the Quicken Loans Arena waited for Cruz to say something  anything  kind about Trump, he demurred.

And to those listening, please, dont stay home in November, Cruz said. Stand and speak, and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, in a tweet, quickly echoed Cruz, saying, Vote your conscience.

The delegates responded with angry boos, and Cruz backer and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli escorted Heidi Cruz off the convention floor as she was heckled by Trump delegates.

But Trump said later on Twitter that Cruzs lack of an endorsement was no big deal! But he said Cruz didnt honor the pledge that Republican primary candidates had made to support the eventual GOP nominee.

Hes a chicken, said Eugene Delgaudio, a delegate from Sterling, Virginia, who clucked like a chicken when asked about Cruzs decision. He needed to toughen up like every other Republican loser of any nomination battle in the last 100 years since Abraham Lincoln and just suck it up, be a man and back the nominee that he was beaten by, fair and square.

If were not going to do that, why do we have elections? Because Ted Cruz has decided that he knows better? Than all of the people who voted in the elections? he said.

(AP)
A bloody rampage by an ax-and-knife wielding Afghan refugee has revived concerns in Germany about the countrys ability to cope with an influx of migrants over the past year, some of whom may harbor violent hatred toward the west.

Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, 17, attacked tourists from Hong Kong while traveling on a commuter train near the Bavarian town of Wuerzburg on Monday night, wounding four on board and a local German dog walker outside as he fled. Two of them remained in critical condition Thursday.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and posted a video in which the teen waved a knife and referred to himself as a soldier of the Islamic State. Authorities, however, have said that the attacker, who was shot and killed after lunging at police with his weapons, likely acted alone after becoming radicalized.

The nationalist Alternative for Germany, a political party that has surged in popularity on an anti-immigration platform, has seized on the train attack, claiming it was proof that Chancellor Angela Merkels policy of opening German borders to refugees had failed.

Georg Pazderski, a member of AfDs national leadership, said the attack showed Germany was sitting on a dangerous time bomb in the shape of thousands of young refugees.

Our borders need to be secured and asylum-seekers inside the country need to be better monitored, Pazderski said. Anything else would be the equivalent of a warm invitation to do the same.

Germanys justice minister cautioned against jumping to hasty conclusions after the attack.

It would be a big mistake to prematurely declare that integration (of migrants) has failed, Heiko Maas told German daily Bild. He noted that most of the recent extremist attacks in Europe were carried out by people born or raised here.

Placing all refugees under general suspicion will only make it harder to integrate them, he said.

Ahmadzai was one of about 60,000 unaccompanied minors who came into Germany last year amid an unprecedented influx of more than 1 million asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorities have been providing special care to these minors, many of whom are traumatized by the conflicts in their homelands and by their journey to Europe.

Officials and people who knew Ahmadzai, including his foster parents in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt, struggled to explain how the apparently well-adjusted teenager might have become radicalized.

He was active on social media, had his page there, but there were no hints of any extremist Islamist thought until a cryptic message about the enemies of Islam posted shortly before the attack, Bavarian criminal police investigator Lothar Koehler said.

Ahmad Mansour, a psychologist and expert on Islamic extremism, said the video published by IS, which was filmed by Ahmadzai in his room in his foster home, suggested that the teenager had held radical beliefs for a long time.

Radicalization is a process that can be partly visible, partly invisible, Mansour said.

Anxiety over Germanys ability to cope with the flood of asylum-seekers surged following a string of sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne during New Year celebrations. The crimes, which prosecutors said were committed largely by foreigners, fueled anti-immigrant sentiment and helped bolster support for AfD in three regional elections.

Concerns have lessened recently, as the number of migrants coming to Germany slowed and warnings of a spike in crime werent realized. But with further regional votes coming in the fall, the train attack in Wuerzburg could give AfD fresh support.

At Berlins Alexanderplatz square, passers-by were divided on how to rate the train attack.

Our country, our rules, said Matthias, a metal worker from the northern city of Stralsund who declined to give his last name for fear of repercussions for talking to a reporter.

Ive got no problem with foreigners, but whoever comes over here has to assimilate, otherwise he should be kicked out. And Ive got no problem voting for AfD if necessary, he said.

Gisela Kohn, who was out shopping with her husband, said she believed the attack was an isolated incident. We cant live in fear and terror all the time, said Kohn.

Lasse Lindahl, a Dane living in Berlin, said the incident would fuel public unease toward migrants from Muslim countries.

For every attack, I personally, and the German public, get a little bit scared, he said.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, the medical director of Wuerzburgs university hospital said the two men wounded in the attack were still in critical but stable condition.

The 62-year-old father from Hong Kong had improved slightly and doctors were able to bring him out of an artificial coma, said Georg Ertl. He said doctors may wait another 7-10 days before doing the same with the younger man  identified by the German news agency dpa as the boyfriend of the mans daughter.

After the attack on the Hong Kong family, which also wounded the familys 58-year-old mother and her daughter, Ahmadzai jumped off the train and wounded a German woman as she walked a dog. She is still being treated but her injuries are no longer considered life-threatening.

(AP)
Turkish lawmakers declared a three-month state of emergency Thursday, overwhelmingly approving President Recep Tayyip Erdogans request for sweeping new powers to expand a government crackdown after last weeks attempt military coup.

Parliament voted 346-115 to approve the national state of emergency, which will give Erdogan the authority to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees that have the force of law without parliamentary approval, among other powers.

Erdogan, who had been accused of autocratic conduct even before this weeks crackdown on alleged opponents, says the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy.

Even without the emergency measures, his government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and the closure of hundreds of schools. Erdogan said the new powers would allow the government to rid the military of the virus of subversion, blaming the coup attempt on a U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The cleric has strong denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.

This is a state of emergency imposed not on the people, but on (the state) itself, declared Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. We will, one by one, cleanse the state of (Gulens followers) and eliminate those who are trying to harm the country.

Turkey immediately said it was partially suspending the European Convention on Human Rights, allowing it more leeway to deal with individual cases, by invoking an article most recently used by France and Ukraine. The Council of Europe said it had been informed of Turkeys decision, and that the convention will still apply, but that individual exceptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Since the July 15 coup attempt, the government has arrested nearly 10,000 people. In addition, over 58,880 civil service employees  including teachers, university deans and police  have been dismissed, suspended, forced to resign or had their licenses revoked, accused of being Gulen followers.

Turkish state media said Thursday that a further 32 judges and two military officers had been detained by authorities.

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party, CHP, slammed the state of emergency move as going too far.

Speaking ahead of the vote, CHP lawmaker Ozgur Ozel said the decision would amount to a civilian coup against Parliament and was a display of ingratitude to all the legislators who had gathered in the assembly Saturday to oppose the coup attempt.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek defended the move, saying he hoped the state of emergency would be short-lived. He said it would be used to go after rogue elements within the state and that there would have been carnage in the streets had the military coup succeeded.

We owe it to our people to go after them, he said. We will have a legal framework for it.

Simsek said that standards of the European Court of Human Rights will be upheld, but didnt elaborate.

There will be no curfews. There will be no restriction of movement other than for the suspects, Simsek said.

Under the Turkish Constitution, the emergency measures allow the government to partially or entirely suspend the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms, so long as that doesnt violate international law obligations. Lawmakers can sanction a state of emergency for a period of up to six months.

A state of emergency has never been declared nationwide although it was declared in Turkeys restive, Kurdish-dominated southeast between 1987 and 2002. There, governors imposed curfews, called in military forces to suppress demonstrations and issued search warrants.

Martial law was imposed across the country for three years following a successful military coup in 1980.

In other developments news, a soldier allegedly linked to the attack on a hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing during the foiled coup was arrested in southwestern Turkey, the state agency Anadolu reported Thursday. The lieutenant was one of about 30 soldiers said to be involved in the hotel attack in the resort of Marmais.

The attackers arrived minutes after Erdogan had left the hotel, according to official reports.

In Greece, a court sentenced eight Turkish military personnel who fled there aboard a helicopter during the coup attempt to two months in prison for entering the country illegally.

Turkey has demanded their return to stand trial for alleged participation in the coup attempt. The eight, who deny involvement, have applied for asylum in Greece, saying they fear for their safety if they are returned.

Countries around the world are keeping a close watch on developments in Turkey, which straddles Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday that the state of emergency should only last as long as its absolutely necessary.

Steinmeier said its important that the rule of law, a sense of proportion and commensurability are preserved and that its in Turkeys interest to keep the state of emergency only for the duration that is absolutely necessary and then immediately end it.

(AP)
New York City will be installing USB ports on Staten Island ferries and terminals after shutting off electrical outlets because passengers were fighting over them.

The Department of Transportation tells the Staten Island Advance that USB ports will be installed at ferry terminals in the fall. After that, theyll be added to vessels.

DOT spokesman Scott Gastel said the agency wants to strike a balance between technology and public safety. A ferry worker was punched during one of the disputes. Police also said gangs were hoarding some terminal outlets.

The Advance said its unclear how the city will stop riders from fighting over the new USB ports.

(AP)
The man who plowed a truck into a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations in the Riviera city of Nice last week  killing at least 84 and injuring hundreds  plotted his attack for months and had accomplices, the Paris prosecutor announced Thursday.

Speaking to reporters in the capital, Francois Molinssaid an analysis of the attackers cellphone revealed both photographs and search histories suggesting that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old Tunisian-born man who drove the truck, had contemplated an attack as early as 2015.

Molins also confirmed that five suspects have been taken into custody and will face preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in the July 14 attack.

A previous announcement by the prosecutors office revealed that Bouhlel had sought information online about other similar attacks, such as the recent shooting at an Orlando nightclub and the killing of Dallas police officers.

His computer was said to have contained pictures of Osama bin Laden, coverage of the attack on the editorial offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, and what Molins earlier this week described as pictures of corpses and pictures related to radical Islam.

In the aftermath of the Nice attack, the Islamic State declared Bouhlel a soldier of the militant groups self-proclaimed caliphate, although French authorities said their investigation has not found any direct links between Bouhlel and the Islamic State.



(c) 2016, The Washington Post  James McAuley
Calvin Williams, the 52-year-old Cleveland police chief, showed up for a Thursday-morning news briefing wearing bike shorts. He normally wears a more formal uniform, with a white shirt and white hat, but on this day he was dressed entirely in black: Black sneakers, black socks, black shorts, and a black short-sleeve uniform shirt reading Cleveland Police on the back.

He carried a water bottle. It was going to be brutally hot, with protests once again likely to break out all over downtown. Williams has been doing much of his job on a bike, one of 300 purchased in advance of the Republican National Convention. And throughout this week, hes been ready to roll.

Last day. Rounding third and heading home. We want to ask everybody to remain vigilant. . . . If you see something, say something, Williams said.

Williams has been the cool head leading this weeks massive police presence in Cleveland. There are thousands of police officers and state troopers here, many from as far away as Florida, Texas and California. They come in every morning and leave every night by the busload. There are also federal law enforcement officials, including the Secret Service, which guards the Quicken Loans Arena and the convention center where the news media are headquartered.

But Williams has a vast area to supervise  the event zone that covers most of downtown. And hes been ubiquitous. At one point Wednesday, he was walking Fourth Street, a narrow, crowded artery leading to the arena, and people kept asking to pose with him for photographs, a request he obliged. But such congenial moments are constantly interrupted by protests  and Williams repeatedly has gone into the center of the scrums.

Hes also tried to talk to protesters and cool down situations. At one point this week, specifically addressing the anarchists who wear masks, he said: Come up and talk to me. You know, black guy in a white hat and a white shirt.

He got slightly roughed up when he helped break up a skirmish Tuesday. The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and fellow patriots became entangled with left-wing protesters in Public Square. Williams and fellow officers separated the two sides and escorted Jones out of the park. When a reporter later asked why he, the chief of police, would get in the middle of a fight, Williams sounded taken aback.

If Im out there and somethings happening, I dont just stand by. Im still a police officer, he said.

A few hours after the Jones incident, Williams again entered the fray when police chased a small cluster of anarchists who had been running through the streets, wearing masks or bandannas over their faces and alarming convention-goers. The chief told the protesters to disperse or face arrest. They retreated.

At a news conference the next day, a reporter asked Williams whether police had been given a workout by the anarchists.

I think they got more of a workout than we did. They were on foot. Our guys were on bikes, Williams said.

Hes been the police chief for two and half years after 30 years on the force. A profile of Williams in 2014 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer described him as pragmatic, cool and collected. He has commanded the SWAT team, worked on the vice squad, been a liaison with the U.S. Marshals, commanded the citys Third District and served as a deputy chief of field operations before taking the top job in February 2014.

The department has a troubled history. On Nov. 22, 2014, two officers shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice while he was playing with a pellet gun in a Cleveland park. The officers were not indicted, but the city reached a $6 million settlement with the Rice family. A subsequent Justice Department investigation found a pattern of excessive force by Cleveland police, and the department is operating under federal supervision.

But this week, the Cleveland police have made a point of holding back for the most part. As of Thursday morning, the department reported only 23 arrests associated with the convention. Of those, 17 happened Wednesday afternoon, when protesters burned an American flag and, according to police, refused to disperse when ordered to do so.

Right in the thick of that chaotic scene was Chief Williams. He personally told protesters to leave, and said theyd be arrested if they didnt. He made good on his word.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Joel Achenbach
In case there was any doubt, Ted Cruz knew exactly what he was doing on Wednesday night when he snubbed Donald Trump and caused an uproar at the Republican National Convention. He just admitted it.

I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father, he said Thursday morning when asked if he planned to honor a pledge to support the GOP nominee, which will officially become Trump on Thursday night. That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander my wife that I am going to come like a servile puppy dog for maligning my wife and maligning my father.

Talk about hard feelings.

This is a man, mind you, who was given a speaking slot in prime time at a GOP convention devoted to promoting Trump. There was some confusion about just how much of a slight his non-endorsement of Trump was intended to be. Cruz did congratulate Trump and later told people to vote your conscience in 2016. But that latter statement caused pro-Trump delegates to quickly turn on him, boo, and loudly implore him to endorse Trump. It was a scene.

Shortly thereafter, Newt Gingrich took to the stage and tried to clean up the mess.

I think you misunderstood one paragraph that Ted Cruz  who is a superb orator  said, Gingrich said. Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who can uphold the Constitution. In this election, there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution. So to paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you protect the Constitution of the United States, the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket.

But thats not what Cruz meant  at all.

Cruz is indeed a superb orator, and despite Gingrichs attempt to smooth things over, its clear the controversy Cruz finds himself in is one he was angling for. As The Washington Posts Chris Cillizza writes, Cruz is also banking on the idea that Trump will lose in such a way that it will cause a post-election reckoning by the Republican party who supported him.

Politicians will often and make up after saying brutal things about one another, but the Trump-Cruz feud was always different. Trump didnt just call him Lyin Ted or attack Cruz personally; he went after Cruzs family  multiple members of it  with nasty attacks full of innuendo and lacking any real substance. Trump insulted the appearance of Cruzs wife, Heidi. He threatened to spill the beans on her (whatever that meant). He played up a tabloid report that Cruzs father, Rafael, kind-of, sort-of might have been wrapped up in that whole Kennedy assassination thing.

Cruz himself had called Trump a sniveling coward in response to the first attack. Cruzs comment Thursday morning is basically sniveling coward 2.0. The servile puppy dog part is particularly brutal. Hes acknowledging that he hasnt forgiven Trump for the sins of the primary. There is no pretense of graciousness or lets just defeat Hillary Clinton. Cruz basically just called Trump a bad person, and hes letting people decide what to do with that.

The comments could be read as Cruz simply reacting to the backlash against his speech; maybe he didnt really mean to stir the pot, but now hes just got to respond in-kind to his critics and to Team Trump. Trump surrogate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday night called it an awful, selfish speech, after all. Trump himself tweeted that Cruz had been booed off the stage.

Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didnt honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!

But the aim of Cruzs speech Wednesday was clear as day. He didnt stray from his prepared remarks. Had he not uttered the conscience comment, things might have blown over, but he put that in there for a reason. He was telling people whom to vote for in November while conspicuously excluding even a brief allusion to voting for Trump or voting against Clinton. And in fact, Cruzs comments Thursday strongly suggest he thinks voting your conscience means not backing someone who attacked his family repeatedly.

Some will read the backlash as the party turning on Cruz  something that might not help him politically going forward. But this was Cruz getting his long-delayed revenge. And at least hes got that.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Aaron Blake
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

Melania Trump was in the news at the beginning of the week for purportedly plagiarizing from Michelle Obamas speech of 2008. Many Republicans are in denial that plagiarism took place, and the odds are that Mrs. Trump herself did not actually commit the plagiarism. The fact that it took place, however, is undeniable to anyone who reads the transcripts from the Republican National Convention.

Melania Trumps speech included this paragraph:

From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond; that you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son and we need to pass those lessons to the many generations that follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

Michelle Obamas speech in 2008 included this paragraph:

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond; that you do what you say youre going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you dont know them and even if you dont agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and to pass them onto the next generation, because we want our childrenand all children in this nationto know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.

Once we are talking about values, it would be a good idea to see what the Torah sources have to say about plagiarizing.

In Tanach

King Solomon tells us (Mishlei 22:22) the following words: Rob not from a poor personfor he is poor. Chazal tell us (Yalkut Shimoni Mishlei 560; Midrash Tanchuma Bamidbar 27) that Shlomo HaMelech is actually referring to plagiarismto reciting a statement without attributing it to its source.

Just as a poor person has no protectorno guardian to right wrongs and injustices, the same is true with intellectual property. An earlier thinker came up with an idea. Just as the poor person has no protector, neither does the thinker have a protector. Shlomo HaMelech is appealing to our consciencedo not steal from a poor personfor he is poor, he has no protector. Do not cheat or plagiarize for they too have no protector.

We skip now to Queen Esther (Megillas Esther 2:22). Two guardsBigsan and Sereshhad plotted a coup detat (shades of Erdogans current ordeal). Mordechai, proficient in 70 languages, overheard and told the queen.

Queen Esther didnt take credit for the information. She told the King that she had actually obtained the information from Mordechai. Esther was amply rewarded. It is for this action that she merited to be the conduit of the salvation of Israel. Because of Esther, it is said, Whoever says something in the name of its originator brings salvation to the world.

What was going on here? Esther certainly was a righteous woman. Cant we assume that if she thought it better for the king to have assumed that the information came from her, then surely she would have been fully justified?

It would seem not. Even though it may have been in the Jewish interest that Esther gain the kings favor, there is something inherently wrong in not attributing the information to the true source. She knew this. Esther could not stoop to do something so low. It was for the realization that we are but mere foot soldiers in a campaign and our primary responsibility is to follow Hashems bidding in what is right and wrong that she was so amply rewarded.

A Means

Of Acquiring Torah

We now move on to Pirkei Avos 6:5naming the original source of the information. Avoiding plagiarism is in a list of one of the 48 ways in which Torah is acquired.

Compared To Kidnapping

The Yalkut Yosef (Kibud Av Veim chapter 9) cites a few more sources. The Shelah in Maseches Shevuos says that it is an enormous sin and should be looked at as if one kidnapped human life. Kidnapping is a serious crime, but it seems that it is the parallel emotion that authors feel when their work has been taken from them without attribution.

An illustration might be in order. A number of years ago, authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh sued Random House claiming that Dan Browns famous book, The Da Vinci Code, was a rip-off of their work, The Holy Blood Holy Grail. They claimed that Brown appropriated the architecture of their book which was previously published in 1982.

Baigent and Leigh said that Mr. Brown had hijacked and exploited their book, which had taken them five years to write. Those words are clearly indicative of the pain of a kidnapping.

A mathematical comparison of the parallels in the two books are revealing and striking. In order to avoid the appearance of plagiarizing, a plagiarist must change the words in the parallel passages. If the changes are so far beyond the boundaries of general usage, then it is clear that a plagiarizing has taken place. The claimants had overwhelming evidence to this effect. The judge, however, inexplicably tossed the lawsuit, leaving the claimants distraught.

The Effect From Beyond

The Yalkut Yosef further cites the Sefer Chassidim (224): Whoever says something in the name of a deceased tzaddik earns his favor and is prayed for by that tzaddik.

Conversely, the Chida writes (Bris Olam) that if one writes a book from Torah that was stolen from others, they curse him and he dies halfway through life.

Nobody Really Reads

How could there be any denial of Michelle Obamas original words? Sadly, perhaps the reason is that most people do not bother to read. To illustrate this point, lets go back 54 years ago to an earlier Republican National Convention. A famous black preacher that was also a civil-rights leader said the following words:

We, Negro Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrims pride! From evry mountainside, Let freedom ring! Thats exactly what we meanfrom every mountainside, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginialet it ring not only for the minorities in the United States; but for . . . the disinherited of all the earth . . . may the Republican Party, under Gd, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

Most people recognize these words, or rather the architecture. The words in this speech led to the entire nation being inspired. They were, however, first said by Archibald Carey Junior. v

The author can be reached at [email protected]
An Onalaska woman convicted of taking nearly $20,000 in union dues is again charged with embezzling from her employer.

According to a criminal complaint, Melissa Roby, 41, was hired as executive director of the Association of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestras in 2014. In the fall of 2015, the nonprofit board discovered discrepancies in ledgers that Roby had been asked repeatedly to provide. She was fired on Oct. 12.

A review of the books showed $1,143.79 was missing, but the groups treasurer said he believed there was more, noting unauthorized cash withdrawals and other spending for non-AWSO purposes, the complaint states. Ten days before Roby met with the board, a $5,000 check from her aunt was deposited in the account.

The AWSO was not aware that Roby had been convicted in 2009 of embezzling from the Holmen Education Support Personnel union while serving as treasurer. She was sentenced to five years probation.

When questioned by investigators, Roby admitted borrowing money from the AWSO account to make house payments and buy food and clothing for her children but said she believed the money had been repaid. Roby told police medical bills had forced her to file for bankruptcy.

She was charged Thursday in La Crosse County Circuit Court with felony theft in a business setting.

As part of her 2009 sentence, Roby was ordered to pay nearly $24,000 in restitution. According to court records, she owed nearly $16,500 on completion of her probation in 2014. The bankruptcy filing indicates Roby owed $15,000 to the teachers union.
Perfect fit: Footwear chain Shoe Zone has appointed Jonathan Fearn as its finance director

Shoe in

Footwear chain Shoe Zone has appointed Jonathan Fearn as its finance director.

He joins from Lloyds Pharmacy, where he worked for 14 years.

He starts next week and will join its board later this year. Shares were flat at 182.5p.

Sensing victory

Defence specialist Chemring has won a research and development contract for the Next Generation Chemical Detection program in the US. This means it will start work at its Sensors & Electronic Systems facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. Shares rose 7.7 per cent, or 9.75p to 136.25p.

Pizza delivery

Meat packing business Hilton Food Group has expanded into supplying pizzas to Sweden and will work with ICA from the end of the year.

The trading update also revealed that although sales were slow in Denmark and Sweden, there was growth in the Netherlands and Australia. Shares fell 1 per cent, or 5.5p at 579.5p.

Money update

Turnover at information and events firm Euromoney dropped 1 per cent in the three months from April.

The company said the Brexit vote had no impact on its trading. It turned over 104.7m in the period.

Shares rose 3.2 per cent, or 30.5p to 994p.

Offshore power

Swedish power company Vattenfall has been given the green light to start Scotlands largest offshore wind test and demonstration facility.

Work on the 300m 11-turbine Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm will begin near Blackdog, Aberdeenshire, later this year and offshore work starts in 2017.

BHS fading

Hopes were fading that a buyer will be found for any of the BHS stores after the administrator said a further 30 shops would close at the end of this month. It takes the total planned closures so far to 50 for the 163-strong chain, which went into administration in April.

Profits hole

Digger maker JCB reported a fall in sales and profits  but chairman Lord Bamford said he remained optimistic for future trade.

The group saw profits fall 27 per cent to 214m. Sales slipped to 2.3bn, down from 2.5bn in the previous year. It said the global market for construction equipment dropped by 14 per cent last year and remained fragile.

Cleaned up

The maker of Dove soap and Knorr soup, Unilever, reported a better than expected second quarter sales rise despite concerns about growth in emerging markets in South America.
The week got off to a turbulent start as Turkey-focused small-caps lined up to reassure investors about the potential impact on their business of the country's failed military coup.

Precious metal group Stratex International, which has a number of projects in Turkey, told investors on Monday the failed attempted coup over the weekend had not affected its operations.

It reassured in a brief statement: 'All personnel are safe and well and that there has been no impact on the company's operations in the country.'

Uncertainty: Turkey's president has declared a state of emergency for three months following Friday night's failed army coup, but AIM listed miners reassured nervy investors that it was business as usual

Reports started to emerge on Friday night of a military presence in the streets in Istanbul and Ankara, before it was announced that an attempt to overthrow the government by a section of the large Turkish army was under way.

President Recep Erdogan urged supporters to stand behind him and after violent clashes, almost 300 dead and 6,000 arrested, the coup faded out.

Ariana Resources had a similar message for the market, saying its operations in the country remained unaffected by the events, which it said were resolved 'swiftly and effectively'.

Ariana made the comments as it started its summer drilling programme at the Kiziltepe gold project.

And on Tuesday, Mariana Resources said it had seen 'no impact as yet' from the attempted coup.

Mariana and Turkish partner Lydia are developing the Hot Maden gold prospect, a project seen as among the most promising being undertaken by an Aim-listed junior.

The company said: 'The recent disturbances in Turkey have not impacted operations at the Hot Maden project in north-east Turkey, where Mariana holds a 30 per cent interest.'

The events took their toll on the market during the week, with mining specialist broker SP Angel reporting on Wednesday that Turkish assets had continued to devalue as the government launched a crackdown on dissidents.

Africa: News of a potentially huge lithium find in Zimbabwe hardened up shares in Premier African Minerals by more than 7 per cent on Thursday

Lira-denominated sovereign bond yields traded around 10 per cent, the Turkish lira hit the lowest level in nearly a year against the US dollar and the local stock index fell past the Monday low, the first day markets traded the failed coup news.

But on Friday mobile phone giant Vodafone demonstrated that Turkish people were still staying in touch with each other by reporting a 19 per cent rise in revenue from its business in the country in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Sirius Petroleum got the week off to a good start for oil & gas small-caps by announcing the green light for drilling in Nigeria.

Sirius said the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Environment had approved an environmental impact assessment survey for the Ororo licence area.

Last week the company renewed Ororo for three years.

On Tuesday, radiation detection company Kromek reported the strongest product sales in the year to date with over 22million of contracts, the largest in value it has ever won.

Sales topped 8.3million for the year to April, up from 8.1miliion reported last year, making up half of total revenues.

It won significant contracts in nuclear detection and medical imaging, two of the largest growth opportunities for the company.

Shares in Benchmark Holdings floated 5 per cent higher after one of the company's aquaculture vaccines targeting the 300million Mediterranean sea bass market entered commercial field trials.

The vaccine aims to protect sea bass from Nodavirus, a disease that impedes growth and causes high production losses, and for which there was previously no effective treatment.

Wednesday brought some good news for South American precious metal miner SolGold.

The company said a reporting error meant the latest assay results for one of its drill holes were better than initially thought.

News of a potentially huge lithium find in Zimbabwe hardened up shares in Premier African Minerals by more than 7 per cent on Thursday.

Premier said it would soon start a new exploration programme at its Zulu site, which is regarded as the largest potential undeveloped lithium pegmatite in the southern African nation.

Meanwhile, Strategic Minerals has finally put an end to its railway claim linked to its Cobre tailings operation in New Mexico, USA - by accepting a settlement of $675,000.

The claim involved a $3million-plus contract with the railway company to upgrade the rail spur to the mine enabling trains to remove 1,500,000 tons of magnetite in two years.
RACINE  A day after he came under fire for controversial posts on social media, Pastor J. Mark Freeman, who serves on Racines Police and Fire Commission, released a statement addressing the controversy.

As a Pastor and Episcopate I am always deeply concerned for the safety and well-being of the parishioners and community I am called to serve, Freeman wrote in the statement.

The posts on social media include an image of a police officer wearing a pointed white hood pointing a gun at a black youth and posts that refer to the United States as AmeriKKKA.

Freeman, the bishop at Second Missionary Baptist Church, 1205 Lathrop Ave., does not plan to resign from his post on the commission, according to the statement.

Mayor John Dickert appointed him to a five-year term in April and his appointment was approved without discussion by the City Council on April 18.

After prayerful reflection, meditation and consultation, I have decided to remain in my post as a Police and Fire Commissioner and to serve out the duration of my commission, Freeman wrote.

The committee dynamic

Dickert said he had not seen the social media posts when he appointed Freeman in April. He said he picked Freeman because he was prominent and respected in the community.

Hes been engaged in the community, Dickert said. Its always good to put people willing to sacrifice their time for the community on city committees.

He also said it was important to replace a black pastor, the Rev. Melvin Hargrove, whose term expired in the spring, with another black pastor. Hargrove ran against Dickert for mayor in 2015 and lost.

With that particular committee, I wanted to make sure that the dynamic stayed the way it was, so I replaced a African American pastor with an African American pastor.

Dickert said he contacted Freeman after seeing the controversial posts.

Freemans PhotoSugar account, a website that aggregates Facebook and Twitter posts, included images of blacks being hung by the American flag. Another post shows the flag and states, The red on the flag stands for the blood of the people split in the claiming of the land. The blue stands for the coldness of the white mans heart. The white stands for white supremacy ...

Dickert said he asked Freeman if he could continue to serve as an unbiased member of the commission, which Freeman feels he can.

I fully intend to discharge the duties of that office with the highest of integrity, fairness and without bias, Freeman said. I am profoundly honored and humbled you identified characteristics in me which gave you the tacit assurance my service would help to continue to build the great city of Racine and its residence. Thank you again Mr. Mayor for a tremendous opportunity to serve.

Dickert has not called for Freeman to resign.

Vocal social advocate

Freeman, a vocal social advocate in Racine, mentioned past tragedies including the 2012 Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooting, in the statement he provided the media.

It was not so long ago colleagues and friends of the Sikh Temple Faith Community were the victims of such hostility and violence, he wrote. Who could forget the nine lives lost after a prayer and bible study gathering, as the result of again, misguided vitriol? Our Nation is in peril, however, there are difficult conversations that must be had and compassionate work to be done in order for genuine healing to occur.

Freeman also said his church petitioned Dickert to host a kickoff event for National Night Out, which takes place Aug. 2, back in June. The event would serve to promote law enforcement appreciation, according to Freeman.

This was not about damage control or any other such narrative, he wrote in an email. Rather and instead, the effort was born out of an authentic desire to affirm and celebrate our first responders.

The released statement does not directly refer to Freemans social media posts. He has apparently taken down his Facebook page and made his Twitter account private, meaning only followers he approves can see his tweets.

Police and Fire Commission President Keith Rogers declined to comment and other commissioners were not immediately available for comment.
Montrell Jackson was 32 and married with a 4-month-old baby. He had been a Baton Rouge police officer for 10 years and was president of his Denham Springs neighborhood association.

Matthew Gerald, 41, had served in the Marines and the Army and did three tours in Iraq without being harmed. He and his wife celebrated their fourth anniversary two weeks ago. He had been a Baton Rouge police officer for less than a year.

At age 45, Brad Garafola was a 24-year veteran of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office. He had four children, ages 7 to 21, and worked a security detail for B-Quik stores around Baton Rouge in his spare time.

These three beloved men died doing their duty Sunday: trying to protect the people of Baton Rouge. Their loss leaves a void not only in their families but across the city.

Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is intact, State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said during a press conference Monday. Our soul has survived an unthinkable crime committed against this community.

Col. Edmonson said the officers were ambushed. According to radio traffic, Baton Rouge police answered a 911 call reporting a man with an assault rifle on Airline Highway Sunday morning. When officers arrived, the gunman opened fire on them near a B-Quik store. In addition to the three officers who were killed, three other officers were wounded.

The shooter, who was killed by a SWAT officer, was a Kansas City, Missouri, resident who had been in Baton Rouge for a few days.

Gavin Long, who had three guns and moved between buildings as he was firing, specifically targeted the police officers, Col. Edmonson said. As investigators sort out this horrific crime, people across Louisiana are in mourning. The pain is worst, of course, in Baton Rouge.

Officer Jackson was the backbone of the family, his uncle Charles Cavallier said. He liked being a police officer, and he always tried to be fair.

The officer wrote a heart-wrenching post on his Facebook page July 8, three days after city police shot and killed Alton Sterling outside the Triple S Food Mart. These are trying times. Please dont let hate infect your heart ... Im working in these streets so protesters, officers, friends, family, or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer. I got you.

Nine days later, he is gone.

Officer Gerald came home from Iraq and still wanted to serve, so he joined the police department, a friend told The Washington Post.

Matt was the kind of guy that you knew immediately when he entered the room, said Ryan D. Cabral, who served with him in Iraq. Whether it was the energy he carried with him or that Cajun accent he had ... maybe it was the Marine in him.

The rookie officer loved spending time with his wife and two daughters and on his bass boat, his friend said.

Brad Garafola, 45, was a 24-year veteran of the sheriffs office. He would give you the shirt off his back, said Ann Lundgren, who manages the B-Quik on Perkins Road. We lost a member of our family, she said Monday. Hes got four beautiful kids. I just dont know. Senseless.

Officer Garafolas wife, Tonja, posted a tribute on Facebook. Brad was such a wonderful husband, father and friend, she wrote. He loved his family to the absolute fullest and we were always his number one. He gave his all in everything he did!!

A statement from the Baton Rouge Police Department said the officers demonstrated what it means to protect and serve. Gov. John Bel Edwards called them heroic and said they ran toward danger Sunday morning.

We owe them a debt of gratitude for sacrificing themselves to keep the rest of us safe.
A Cuba City man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Thursday after being convicted on child pornography charges.

Richard Geasland, 67, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Peterson in federal court in Madison.

Geasland pleaded guilty to charges in March.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Geasland had confided in a neighbor in October that he looked at child pornography on his computer and that he was convicted years ago for sexually assaulting a child.

The neighbor contacted police and a search warrant was executed at Geasland's house, where investigators found over 30,000 images of child pornography on a computer.

The Attorney's Office said Geasland was convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a child in 1984 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Geasland was sentenced to 10 years in prison because that's the mandatory minimum sentence he could get based on the prior conviction, the Attorney's Office said.
On the same day Madison police arrested Genele Laird, whose forcible detention was caught on a viral video, officers had a run-in with another young woman who fought their efforts to take her into custody.

But this time, according to police reports, there were no knee strikes, no punches and no use of Tasers to control her, as there had been for Laird, the black 18-year-old arrested June 21 by two white officers outside East Towne Mall.

Like Laird, Tessali R. Kellogg, 26, of Middleton, reportedly kicked one of her arresting officers several times in the legs. She also disobeyed police orders, attempted to leave before officers were done with their reports and then spit or attempted to spit at them  again, all like Laird allegedly did.

Kellogg resisted as officers tried to detain her for alleged drunken driving, after she drove her moped into the back of an SUV stopped at the eastbound Williamson Street intersection with Paterson Street, at about 7:42 p.m.

Lairds arrest earlier the same evening occurred after she reportedly brandished a knife at employees of a Taco Bell in the mall food court and threatened mall security officers in a dispute over whether someone stole her cellphone.

One difference that some have seized on between the two cases is that Laird is black while Kellogg is white. But the real difference, according to Madison Police Training Officer Chris Masterson, is that officers in Kelloggs case got handcuffs on her almost immediately.

That meant that, unlike in the Laird arrest, most of Kelloggs reportedly unruly behaviors  including screaming and swearing, refusing to sit down and twisting and arching her body to avoid being searched and to confront officers, even when she was partially restrained in a wheelchair at Meriter Hospital before going to jail  occurred after Kellogg had been rendered more controllable.

Once the handcuffs are on, its a total change in how easily a person can be moved around, Masterson said.

For example, when Kellogg reportedly tried to sprint away from the scene after being handcuffed, her balance was compromised enough that she got only a few steps into the intersection before she fell down. That made it easy to catch up to her and walk her back, Masterson said.

Similarly, although Officer Christopher Hagen was unable to avoid being kicked several times in the shins by Kellogg, according to reports, it was easier for officers to lower her to the ground and attach leg restraints to prevent further kicking because her wrists were in cuffs.

In contrast, when Laird was kicking as officers held her to the pavement outside the mall, they were still struggling to get handcuffs on her, Masterson noted.

That made her a bigger potential danger, he said, especially with reports that Laird had displayed a knife inside the mall. The knife later was found inside her backpack, so it wasnt readily accessible as she struggled with police. But officers would have had to proceed with extra caution going in, Masterson said.

And it made Officer Andrew Muirs decision to use a Taser on Lairds leg to try to control her kicking an appropriate response, Masterson said.

Its a threat evaluation, Masterson said. Whats a bigger threat to the officers  someone not in handcuffs (with a possible weapon) or someone who is?

Masterson also said it was very hard to compare police calls and second-guess the level or type of force used in each one, because important circumstances can vary even when some elements seem similar.

One of the big differences is which officers respond to a call, Masterson said. Every officer is different and has different physical capabilities and strengths and weaknesses. One officer may have a lot of extra training at handcuffing or he may be a great athlete and may be able to do things that not every other officer can do.

Police training also typically provides officers with a range of reasonable responses, but whats reasonable for one officer may not be for another, depending on each officers respective training, abilities and limitations.

By happenstance, Muir also was the first officer on the scene at the Kellogg call, according to video, audio and police reports released to the Wisconsin State Journal under the states open records law. But he left within five minutes to continue working on the East Towne Mall case, records show.

The identity of the other officer who responded with Muir to the call involving Laird is not known. Police spokesman Howard Payne said the department has decided to withhold both officers names until an internal review of their use of force is finished, although Muirs involvement with that arrest was disclosed incidentally in the records of the Kellogg arrest.

The three officers more heavily involved in handling Kelloggs arrest were Hagen, Sam Brier and Hector Rivera.

In another link with Laird, the video depicting Kellogg in the back of Riveras squad car shows the officer using an alternate entrance to the jail after the main entrance was blocked by a protest over Lairds arrest hours earlier.

Nine days later, on June 30, Rivera would fatally shoot a man with a history of mental illness at a Near East Side home. Police said that man, Michael William Schumacher, 41, of Fitchburg, had broken into the home and was smashing things before aggressively advancing toward Rivera with a pitchfork. Rivera is on paid leave while the shooting is investigated by an outside agency.

Kellogg, who also has a 2010 misdemeanor conviction for shoplifting, remained in jail for three nights before an initial court appearance June 24, when she was released on a signature bond. She faces one felony charge for battery to a police officer and three misdemeanors for resisting arrest, possession of cocaine and disorderly conduct.

Kellogg also was issued citations for following too closely, first-offense drunken driving and possession of drug paraphernalia. A police report said a glass pipe used for smoking marijuana fell out of her pocket when she ran away while handcuffed, while a glass jar with marijuana residue in it and digital scales were found in her backpack, along with 0.4 grams of cocaine in cellophane packaging and nearly $500 in cash.

Laird spent two nights in jail before she was released by District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who referred her to an alternative restorative justice program, normally reserved for people between 17 and 25 who live on Madisons South Side and whose offense constitutes a misdemeanor. If she fails to complete the program, Ozanne said he would file felony criminal charges against her including discharging bodily fluids at a police officer, battery to a police officer, resisting an officer causing soft-tissue injury, obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct while armed.

Attempts to reach Laird and Kellogg for comment were unsuccessful.
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By Bill Parry

Both U.S. senators from New York state believe the federal Environmental Protection Agency should take the lead role in airplane noise abatement.

Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand introduced new legislation last Friday that empowers the EPA to oversee airplane noise issues across the country, including in the noise-plagued neighborhoods surrounding JFK and LaGuardia airports. While the Federal Aviation Administration currently oversees airplane noise issues, Schumer and Gillibrand explained that the EPA is better fit to address these matters.

Communities in the New York metro area have long struggled with incessant airplane noise caused by the highly trafficked skies and its time we set up an office dedicated to tackling this issue head -on, Schumer said. Airplane noise is a major quality-of-life issue and thats why it makes sense for the EPA to take the lead role in addressing these matters. This legislation will once again set up an Office of Noise Abatement and Control at the EPA so that environmental experts can address airplane noise.

Due to budget cuts in 1981, the EPAs Office of Noise Abatement and Control was dismantled and the FAA was given oversight into all matters involving airplane noise pollution. Schumer and Gillibrands Quiet Communities Act of 2016 would restore the EPAs office and would require the EPA Administrator to conduct a study of airport noise and examine the FAAs selection of noise measurement methodologies, health impact thresholds, and abatement program effectiveness.

This legislation will provide additional tools to assist communities in addressing excessive airplane noise by re-establishing the EPA Office of Noise Abatement and Control, Gillibrand said. The federal government must take more proactive steps to address the concerns of New Yorkers who are affected by airplane noise, and this bill will give the EPA the ability to act.

Under the legislation, the EPA would conduct research on the impacts of noise and provide technical assistance and grants to communities to mitigate noise. The bill was first introduced by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) in the House of Representatives last year.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) has launched an online form where residents can voice their concerns about airplane noise, particularly in Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst, two neighborhoods affected by low-flying aircraft using LaGuardias Runway 22.

It has always been my position that the Port Authority should work to alleviate traffic on Runway 22 during the early morning hours, especially on weekends when residents are at rest, Peralta said. While I understand that weather conditions often come into play and may dictate otherwise, it is important that the Port Authority works to minimize use of Runway 22 at these times because of man-made factors such as construction.

Those seeking to comment online may go to www.nysen ate.gov/ quest ionna ires/ jose- peral ta/ voice -your -conc erns- about -airp lane- noise. Peraltas office will relay the information to the Port Authority.
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By Tom Allon

When I went to Columbia Journalism School in 1985, we were taught that good journalism comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

Sydney Schanberg lifes work embodies that motto.

Schanberg died July 9 and the perilous craft of investigative journalism lost yet another of its finest.

He was best known for his courageous war-zone reporting from Cambodia during the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975 and his chronicling of the savage genocide by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. He won a Pulitzer for that but, more importantly, he showed the world another side of himself through his close relationship with his Cambodian interpreter, Dith Pran.

Schanberg and Pran saved each others lives during this period and forged a bond that was recorded in Schanbergs best-selling book, The Death and Life of Dith Pran.

That book made it to the big screen (The Killing Fields) and the relationship between Schanberg and Dith, played by Sam Waterston and Dr. Haing S. Ngor, was witnessed by millions who learned of this brutal episode in history.

Schanberg was a prickly, hard-bitten journalist who didnt suffer fools. When he returned from Cambodia, he was on the fast track at The New York Times: first as metropolitan editor and then as an op-ed columnist, covering metro matters. A column at The Times is generally akin to an appointment to the Supreme Courtyou either retire or die in that post.

But Sydney Schanberg wasnt your typical columnist and he wasnt your typical Timesman. He always spoke truth to power, going after rapacious developers like Donald Trump and Harry Macklowe, and shining a light on other miscreants in Gotham.

His unrelenting criticism of The Times coverage of Westway, a controversial waterfront road project that will forever be linked to Donald Trump, ultimately led to his demise. He was unceremoniously dumped from the op-ed page and he became a media wanderer for the next few decades.

I got to know Schanberg in 1985 at The Times when I interviewed to be his assistant. We had a candid conversation, he seemed to like me and I walked out feeling good about my prospects. And then a phone call from him came two days later. Im not going to hire you, were the disarmingly candid words he uttered. But Id like you to freelance for me and do research for some of my investigative columns, OK?

Sure, I replied, and we vowed to get together in a few weeks to discuss this potential gig.

It never happened, however, because shortly thereafter his column was discontinued.

Fast forward 15 years later and I was the publisher and co-owner of a group of weekly newspapers in Manhattan. I had an idea to start a political weekly newspaper titled City Hall. I was looking for a high-profile editor. I called Sydney Schanberg. He was available and he liked my idea.

For the next few months we worked together on the paper. He was happy to create a hard-hitting publication that would shine a light on malfeasance in city government. He mocked up a number of front pages and interior sections in pencil, all with creative ideas and biting sensibility. This was in August 2001. We planned a launch date of October that year.

But alas, the Twin Towers came tumbling down a few weeks later and it was not a propitious time to launch a newspaper in Lower Manhattan, where the air still reeked of 9/11.

Sydney Schanberg gracefully told me that he understood our poor timing and that he was going to move on, but to keep in touch if we ever wanted to revisit the City Hall newspaper idea.

I eventually was able to launch that newspaper in 2006, five years later, incorporating some of Sydneys ideas and zeal for covering government.

And now, as I plan the 10th anniversary issue and gala for the publication we first conceived in 2001 (now called City and State), comes word of Sydney Schanbergs death at 82 of a heart attack.

I hope that his passing can be a lesson to all of us who toil in media that we can give in to the better angels of our nature and be more like Sydney Schanberg. His reporting from Cambodia, his extraordinary friendship with Dith Pran, his tough-nosed columns about New Yorks rogues gallery of characters, they all added up to an extraordinary career.
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By Gina Martinez

The U.S. Senate has passed a bipartisan bill named in part for a Queens autistic teen whose disappearance set off a citywide search that lasted months. The bill, known as Kevin and Avontes Law, was unanimously approved July 7. The bill was in honor of Kevin Willis and Avonte Oquendo, two autistic boys who both died after wandering off. Avonte disappeared in October 2013 when he ran out of Riverview High School in Long Island City. His whereabouts were unknown until January 2014, when officials discovered pieces of his body washed up onto the College Point shoreline. Willis, 9, had a similar fate. His body was discovered in the Raccoon River in Iowa in 2008.

The bill, originally proposed by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in March, aims to protect young kids with autism and other mental disabilities by placing a tracking device on the children that alerts teachers or guardians when they wander off. The bill would provide $10 million in funds for training programs to deal with teens with autism and other mental disabilities to prevent any chances of them disappearing.

The voluntary tracking system will be similar to ones used on Alzheimers patients. The devices vary from anklets or bracelets to ones whichcan more subtly be placed on belt loops or shoe laces. If a child disappears, caretakers alert the manufacturers, which then alert first responders.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who collaborated on the

legislation with Schumer, believes this law will make sure fewer families have to face what Kevin and Avontes family went through.

The feeling of dread and helplessness families must feel when a loved one with Alzheimers or autism goes missing is unimaginable, he said But with the Senates approval of Kevin and Avontes Law, we are one important step closer to increasing the chances of a positive ending to many of these nightmares. This bipartisan bill applies proven community alert systems to help locate people with Alzheimers, dementia, autism and related disorders who may be susceptible to wandering away from safety. It also supports training for first responders and other community officials to better prevent and respond to these cases.

According to the Interactive Autism Network, around 49 percent of autistic teens run away. It can be the result of sensory overload and lack of impulse control.

In a statement Avontes family lawyer, David Perecman, expressed gratitude to those who pushed the law to be passed.

We at the Perecman firm are proud to have been a part of the process that has brought Kevin and Avontes Law this far along, he said We want to thank Sen. Schumer and his hardworking staff along with Sen. Grassley. I am sure Vanessa, Avontes mom, is happy that some good comes out of such a dark time in her life.
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Republican nominee Donald Trump, in keeping with the new unorthodoxy, broke the rules at the GOP convention in Cleveland, flouting tradition by turning the political rites into a TV spectacle.

But The Donald, a Queens native and reality TV veteran, is not alone in challenging the rigid way things have been done in the past. He is adept at harnessing the new forces of social media that are transforming the world and has been among the first in the political area to recognize the near limitless power of the new technology.

There is also a revolution afoot in the West unleashed by cell phones, iPads and Facebook, but it might have happened anywayalbeit at a slower placewithout the high-tech boost.

As Trump plastered the campaign trial with his rapid-fire tweets, House Democrats in Washington staged a sit-in to protest the Republicans refusal to bring gun control legislation to a vote. After receiving training sessions from Twitter on how to master social media, the Queens delegation hauled out their cell phones to alert constituents and the media to their protest. They and their colleagues defied the chambers protocol, to the dismay of the old guard Washington establishment.

In an ironic twist, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who dislikes social media and tried to ban Twitter in his country, went on Facebook Live to beat back the military coup that threatened to drive him from power. There was the president using an iPhone to keep his job.

Social media values instant reaction and a sense of familiarity that marks a departure from the more scripted communication of the past.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may have been influenced by the new openness when she publicly criticized Trump and called him a faker, a headline-grabbing shocker since the justices are expected to steer clear of electoral politics.

Circumspect is no longer the case in buttoned-up England, where Boris Johnsonthe top cheerleader for Brexitwas named foreign minister. He is the British version of Trump, known for his undiplomatic pronouncements and character assassinations. But then again he is American-born, so Britain can blame us in part for his gaffes.

Trump may be the standard bearer for a brave new world or just the first guy who exploited the 140-character tweet to savage his political opponents on a grand scale.

Stay tuned. This is one Trump show where we could all learn more about ourselves in Queens and the rest of the country.
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By Patrick Donachie

Jamaica community members learned how to combat an active shooter in a state of last resort during a training session held Saturday at Holy Unity Baptist Church in Jamaica organized by state Sen. James Sanders (D-South Ozone Park) for concerned community residents. Dozens of community members attended, according to Sanders office.

This information that we are bringing to you is not meant to scare you, but to do the opposite  to allow us to live, Sanders said during the four-hour event. We live in an America that is awash with guns. There are more guns than people, and yet with all these guns, we feel less and less safe.

The event, which included a demonstration on how to disarm a gunman during an active shooter situation if necessary. The event came in the wake of a series of public mass shootings, including an attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando by an ISIS sympathizer that killed 50 people, and attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge that left multiple officers dead.

Eldar Ben-Yosef, a senior security consultant with International Security Associates, addressed the crowd at Holy Unity about the need to be consistently cautious and alert to your surroundings.

It doesnt matter what religion you are or what color you are, everyone is a potential target, he said. Its everybodys problem. In movie theaters, shopping malls, churches, synagogues, community centers  something could happen.

Avi Avramcheyiv, the founder and chief instructor at the New York Self Defense Academy, worked with instructors and students from his school to illustrate how to take down a potential attacker armed with an AK-47 or a handgun. Avramcheyiv, who trained with the Israel Defense Force, demonstrated how to take down a shooter pointing a weapon at you from above. Using an instructor as a stand-in, Avramcheyiv mimed a defensive attack on the faux assailant, wrapping his arms around the leg of the attacker and pulling him to the ground to disable him.

Officer Christopher Mazzey of the NYPDs Counterterrorism Division Shield Unit said that active shooter situations could potentially take place in any location, usually last between seven to 11 minutes, and the shooter is male about 97 percent of the time.

Both Mazzey urged attendees to remember that attacking an assailant is only a last resort, and that people in an active shooter situation should make every effort to escape the scene if possible.

Hopefully, this never happens to you, Sanders told the crowd, but if it does, you better have a plan.
Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have perished in the Mediterranean Sea already this year while almost 250,000 have reached Europe, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

The estimated death toll could put 2016 on track to be the deadliest year of the migration crisis. Last year the same landmark was only reached in October, by which time nearly one million people had crossed into Europe.

"This is the earliest that we have seen the 3,000 (deaths) mark, this occurred in September of 2014 and October of 2015," IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a briefing. "So for this to be happening even before the end of July is quite alarming."

Three out of four victims this year died while trying to reach Italy from North Africa, mostly Libya, a longer and more dangerous route. The others drowned between Turkey and Greece before that flow dried up with the March deal on migrants between Turkey and the European Union.

Nearly 2,500 fatalities have occurred since late March, with about 20 migrants dying each day along the route from Libya to Italy, Millman said. Most are from West Africa and the Horn of Africa, although they may include people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco.

"The (Libyan) coast guard has had some luck turning back voyages from Libya. We\ve heard in the last six weeks a number of cases where they have been able to turn boats back.

"They (have also been) recovering bodies at an alarming rate," Millman said.

Some 84,052 migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy so far this year, almost exactly the same number as in the same period a year before, he said.

That indicated departures from Libya were at "maximum capacity" due to a limited number of boats deemed seaworthy.

But there is "a very robust market of used fishing vessels and things coming from Tunisia and Egypt that are finding their way to brokers in Tripoli," Millman said. "And you can actually go to shipyards where people are trying to repair boats as fast as they can to get more migrants on the sea."

Migrants in Libya are often held in detention centers, some run by criminal gangs and militias, he said. IOM officials seek access to detainees and authorization for their repatriation.

"There\s no question that in some of this range of detention (centers) there are people in league with smugglers who are moving people toward the smugglers," Millman said.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Hopewell Community Park remains a 'labor of love' for local community

The lush green park is a product of the combined efforts of the Hopewell Township community and a symbol of decades of conservation efforts in Beaver County.
Christopher OKroley pleaded guilty on Thursday to the February killing of a former grocery store co-worker who complained to management that he had harassed her.

OKroley, 26, shot and killed Caroline Nosal, 24, of Stoughton, in the head and abdomen outside of the Metro Market, 6010 Cottage Grove Road, on Feb. 2, the day after he was fired from the store. OKroley blamed Nosal for losing his job, according to a criminal complaint.

Along with pleading guilty to first-degree intentional homicide, OKroley also pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment Thursday for shooting at Madison Police officer Michele Walker as she tried to arrest him near East Towne Mall the day after he killed Nosal.

In late February, Dane County Circuit Judge William Hanrahan entered a not guilty plea on OKroleys behalf.

OKroley was suspended from the Metro Market two weeks prior to the shooting after Nosal complained that he was harassing her, the criminal complaint said.

Cassidy Lippold, an employee of Metro Market, previously told the Wisconsin State Journal that OKroley and Nosal were very good friends.

OKroley told police that shortly after he was suspended he began planning to kill both Nosal and himself if he was fired.

A former girlfriend previously told the Wisconsin State Journal that OKroley tried to commit suicide in 2014 and that he has been seriously mentally ill for the past decade.

After the shooting, OKroley told police, he realized he couldnt kill himself and planned to hijack a car at gunpoint.

He told authorities that it was easy to kill Nosal and that he killed her out of anger because she ruined my life.

He described himself to police as a sociopath. OKroley told police that he bought the gun he used to shoot Nosal the day before the shooting.

The shooting has prompted calls for the return of a 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases, which the state Legislature abolished last year.

A separate sexual assault charge against OKroley was dismissed on Thursday, although another charge from that case was read at the plea hearing.

According to the criminal complaint in that case, a woman told police she woke up after falling asleep at OKroleys apartment to find that her clothes had been partially removed and there were indications that she had been sexually assaulted.

The maximum sentence OKroley faces for the homicide and reckless endangerment charges is life without parole.
Contributed image "The Happy Couple" by Mary Kimbell

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By Richard Carter, Special to the Times Record News

Art lovers rarely have the opportunity to talk with artists about their work, and when they do, it's usually at a crowded art opening.

Jana Schmader, director of the Kemp at the Forum, came up with the perfect answer for visitors to the Forum's gallery. After visiting a number of Dallas-Fort Worth art galleries, Schmader developed the Palette to Palate program, in which guests dine with the artist in the Galleria and then talk about their art in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Forum's third Palette to Palate program is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday and will feature Wichita Falls artist Mary Kimbell. Up to 34 guests will dine on a four-course meal prepared and served by Bistro Express.

Kimbell's exhibit opened July 15 at the Galleria, and curator Kristine Thueson said she already has received great feedback about Kimbell's art.

"Palette to Palate is in lieu of an opening reception," Schmader said. "We want to be able to provide a cultural experience in our gallery and let the public enjoy a meal and fellowship with our exhibited artist."

The evening's meal features peach crostini, a Bistro Express house salad, fontini- and prosciutto-stuffed pork chops and tiramisu for dessert. Wine also will be served, but guests may bring their own bottle of wine.

The first Palette to Palate sold out, Schmader said, and the second nearly filled up. Both featured Holliday artist Karen Stamper.

"We limit the numbers, because we want it to be intimate. We change the layout every time so diners get a new experience," she said.

The caterer also is invited to speak about the culinary background of the dinner.

"The chef from Gypsy Kit came out and spoke about the food last time," she said.

Bistro Express was the perfect choice for a caterer for Kimbell, Schmader added, as the owners are friends of hers.

"They put a lot of thought into what food would be served. Her work is elegant, and they are matching her work with the dinner."

The next Palette to Palate will likely be Sept. 27 and will feature the art of Kathryn Leitner, who was spotlighted at the 2015 Cowboy True and was recently inducted into the American Quarterhorse Association.

Schmader said Kimbell likely will draw a number of artists to Palette to Palate.

"She's a member of the Pecan Creek artist's group, and the conversations should be very art-oriented. It's a great chance for us (the Forum) to meet new artists for opportunities in the future for our gallery," Thueson said

The event runs about two hours, though guests like to stick around and continue talking with the artist.

Thueson said she believes this is Kimbell's first solo show in the area, though she has displayed her work as part of Pecan Creek.

In her artist statement, Kimbell wrote, "I am a lover of art. I find so much beauty in the world around me and love to study many different artists, from Robert Motherwell to Henri Matisse. I paint because it makes me happy, and I hope that feeling is transferred to the viewer."
A small group of protesters blocked a major Madison intersection for two hours Thursday, forcing police to reroute traffic  including "several ambulances in emergency mode," Madison police said Thursday.

Making matters more difficult: Both protesters and police were subject, first, to stifling heat and humidity, followed by heavy rain and hail, Police Officer Kim Alan said. Ten people were arrested for obstructing traffic and resisting/obstructing officers, Alan said.

The protesters, who called for "community control of the police and to demand accountability for the countless ways police harm communities of color," chained their arms together inside PVC pipes in the intersection of John Nolen Drive and Rimrock Road around 4:30 p.m.

The group was a small subset of a much larger group of protesters who began demonstrating outside the offices of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, 660 John Nolen Drive. After the group moved into the intersection, most members complied with police warnings to clear the roadway, but a small group chained themselves together and sat down in the intersection, Alan said.

While authorities waited for special equipment to remove the pipes and chains, police redirected traffic, causing significant delays, Alan said.

With temperatures in the 90s, water was provided to officers to wearing bullet-proof vests, she said, and also to protesters. Later, strong storms moved in lashing all participants in heavy rain and hail.
SHARE Crouch photo H&V

Nena Grace Crouch went to her Lord and Savior on June 29, 2016 after a long illness.

A memorial service will be held on July 15, 2016 at 4 p.m. at the Hampton Vaughan Funeral Home Chapel with a private family moment at the Crestview Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Grace was born on May 29, 1933 in Lufkin, Texas to Charlie and Bessie Dow Garrison and grew up in Groveton, Texas where she graduated from high school and then on to Houston where she graduated from Southwestern Business School. Grace married Heard Crouch in April 1953 and was a member of First Baptist Church where she was active in Sunday School and Homebound Ministries and taught 1st grade Sunday school. She was a member of their bowling team and active in the Ceramics class. Grace was also President of the CPA Wives Association. Grace enjoyed watching her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids play sports. She attended every school program and loved going with the family to the Lake Kemp homes where she loved to swim and tried to teach all of the family how to float. She was known for her smile and positive attitude and never complained. Her response to any question to her family when she didn't want to say NO was, "Cat Fur to make kitten britches". No one really knows what that means and was also known for her greeting, "Hello, hello, hello", which will be greatly missed.

She is preceded in death by her parents: Bessie Dow Garrison and Charlie Garrison, sister: Bonnie Jo Fails; husband of 61 years, Babe Heard Crouch, and son-in-law: Charles Garland Rasberry.

Grace is survived by her son: Gary Crouch and wife Jan of Wichita Falls; daughter: Kay Rasberry of Wichita Falls and daughter: Gisele Moradi and husband, Ali of Arlington; grandchildren: Jennifer Thomas and Chris Dawson, both of Wichita Falls, Carter Crouch of Kingsville, Clayton Crouch and wife Seanan of Plano; great-grandchildren: Steffen and Jade Thomas of Wichita Falls, Kodi Caitlin, Ella and Paisley Dawson of Wichita Falls.

Condolences may be made at hamptonvaughancrestview.com.
Learn more about local candidates at today's candidate forum.

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By Chicago Tribune

Last summer, when Donald Trump visited with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board at the start of his campaign, we had no idea  nada, none, zippo  we were hosting the future Republican nominee for president. It's been a surprising political cycle, to say the least.

With that in mind, the board met Tuesday with the Libertarian Party candidate for president, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. Could these outsiders climb enough in the polls to earn the right to participate in the fall presidential debates? We won't again underestimate the voters' ability to shock.

Yes, Johnson and Weld appear capable of making waves. Johnson hit 13 percent in a new CNN presidential poll. He likely needs to reach 15 percent in future polls to qualify for the debates. That's doable. Could they go all the way to the White House? Well, that's jumping ahead.

What earns their disarming buddy routine a minute of your time is their intriguing mix of government experience and mad chef political thinking.

Each is a former two-term Republican governor in a Democratic state who got the local economy moving. Governing across party lines means each is comfortable at compromise, a spirit at the heart of their quixotic campaign. Johnson and Weld aren't running as anti-government-free-will Libertarians with a capital L. They are agile, practical-minded thinkers with a few quirks: Conservative on money issues, socially liberal, skeptical of government power and military entanglements. Not so scary, right? "Most people are Libertarian," Johnson told us. "It's just that they don't know it."

That pithy line is a grabber, especially since they come across as decent fellows (with Weld more the orator during our hour together). What makes them worth a serious look? Many voters don't want politics as usual. Republican primary and caucus voters rejected traditional candidates and messaging in favor of Trump. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders, a "democratic socialist," came reasonably close to upsetting Hillary Clinton.

And today? A majority of the electorate (58 percent!) is dissatisfied with the major party candidates for president, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Among registered voters, 47 percent strongly dislike Hillary Clinton; 49 percent strongly dislike Trump.

Now how do a couple of no-nonsense former governors sound?

The history of third-party candidates suggests that Johnson/Weld won't get over the hump. In 1992 Ross Perot caught fire, winning 19 percent of the popular vote, yet didn't claim a single state in the Electoral College. But this year could be more hospitable to a third-party ticket. Trump, with his reckless blather, frightens many voters. Clinton, cited by the head of the FBI as "extremely careless" for mishandling sensitive emails as secretary of state, has, um, a credibility deficit.

Our time with Johnson and Weld only scratched the surface of their views. The federal government is an obstacle to prosperity and an inefficient problem-solver, Johnson posited. He's inclined to shut down or pare back agencies such as education and commerce and direct that money to the states. He wants a balanced budget. To preserve Social Security, he'd raise the retirement age and apply a means test. That's sensible advice, not scary, especially since Johnson says he could compromise with Congress.

The most radical notion Johnson floated isn't so radical: He favors legalizing marijuana, noting that it's happening already. He won't risk alienating voters by calling for the legalization of heroin, for example; he does support ideas like needle exchanges that save lives.

Concerning the war on terror, Johnson sounded cautious, fretting about the "unintended consequences" of trying to save the world. Said Weld about American troops in Afghanistan: "When should they come home  never? We have to leave 8,400 troops there because we decided to do what the British Empire and Russian empire decided to do and failed miserably?" We would disagree, but appreciated the directness of his answer.

There is more polishing for this duo to do if they're to sway many voters. They're at odds on some issues: Do they want to abolish the income tax in favor of a consumption or flat tax? Johnson likes the former, Weld the latter. And Mr. Johnson, if your origin story as a Libertarian involves having been handed a short book as a lad, please do a Google search and determine the title of that worthy tome.

Obviously this is a long-shot candidacy. The most likely scenario that propels Gary Johnson to the presidency is a frankly impossible bank shot: If no candidate claims an Electoral College victory, the deadlocked race would be thrown to the House of Representatives.

Did we say "impossible"? After Trump, maybe nothing is.
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The world premiere of "Star Trek Beyond" blasted off at Comic-Con with an orchestra, fireworks, lasers and tributes to the series' late stars.

The sci-fi sequel premiered Wednesday night to more than 3,500 attendees at a flashy invite-only event held at San Diego's Embarcadero Marina Park just outside the site of the four-day pop-culture convention.

Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and other "Trek" stars introduced the film on stage before the San Diego Symphony performed selections from the score amid a flurry of fireworks and lasers.

The 90-piece orchestra accompanied the film as it was projected on the first-ever outdoor Imax screen. The mammoth screen was erected especially for the event.

Before the extravaganza commenced, the cast and crew memorialized late "Trek" stars Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, who died June 19. Zachary Quinto reflected on original Spock actor Nimoy, while filmmaker J.J. Abrams led a moment of silence in honor of Yelchin, who plays navigator Pavel Chekov in the rebooted "Trek" movies.

"There is something missing tonight," Abrams said. "There is someone missing tonight."

"Trek," which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, will continue to have a massive presence at this week's San Diego Comic-Con International. Several "Trek" sessions are planned inside the San Diego Convention Center, including a Saturday panel featuring actors from each "Trek" installment, such as William Shatner, Michael Dorn and Jeri Ryan

 Associated Press

O'Jays decry use of 'Love Train' at RNC

R&B group The O'Jays are decrying the use of their song "Love Train" during the Republican National Convention, including a version remixed as "Trump Train," without the consent of the band.

Founding members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams said in a statement Thursday that they were asked to appear at the convention in Cleveland, but rejected the offer and said the candidacy of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was "divisive and at odds with the overriding message of their song."

Williams said he didn't appreciate being associated with Trump, while Levert went further and said, "I think he just may be the anti-Christ."

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, however, said they were willing to be a part of the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

 Associated Press

Bergdahl filmmaker seeks court's help

An Oscar-winning filmmaker has asked a judge to prevent the military from forcing him to turn over interviews with Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, adding Hollywood intrigue to the soldier's prosecution on desertion accusations.

Attorneys for screenwriter Mark Boal filed a complaint Wednesday in a California federal court seeking to block a subpoena from North Carolina-based military prosecutors. The complaint says the prosecutors intend to issue their demand on Friday for 25 hours of audio recordings of Boal and Bergdahl.

Boal won two Academy Awards in 2009 as producer and screenwriter for the Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker." He interviewed Bergdahl starting in 2014 as research for a possible film project, and excerpts of their discussions formed the basis for the second season of the "Serial" podcast.

Bergdahl faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and winding up in enemy captivity for five years. The latter charge is relatively rare and carries a punishment of up to life in prison.

Lawyers for Boal argue that the recordings are covered by a legal principle known as the reporter's privilege, a journalist's right to maintain the confidentiality of sources and other information. Boal is a longtime reporter who covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 Associated Press

First lady joins in on 'Carpool Karaoke'

It was a musical joyride for Michelle Obama as she joined James Corden for "Carpool Karaoke."

The video aired Wednesday on the late-night host's CBS show.

The first lady and Corden didn't go far  security demanded that they stick to the driveway on the White House property. But that didn't stop them from singing Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)."

Then it was time for "This Is For My Girls," a "girl power anthem" intended to promote full access to education worldwide. Joining them for it was Missy Elliott in Corden's backseat.

The video was taped last month.

 Associated Press
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More than half a decade into the Brony phenomenon, the grown men who love "My Little Pony" understand that the world remains curious about them. So they kicked off their recent Bronycon gathering in Baltimore with a crash course on dealing with the media, from which a couple helpful pointers emerged:

- Don't use jargon like "OC" or even "original character." Simply explain that the Pony-inspired name you go by in Brony circles is, for example, "Champ Romanhoof," the persona claimed by Chaim Freedman, a 17-year-old Brony from New Jersey.

- Do ask for their credentials. Certain publications of a conservative bent have been quick to smear Bronies. You'll never be able to convince these kind of journalists that Bronyism is an not a weird sex fetish, nor a sad childhood hang-up, but just another earnest, all-American fan community.

- Do talk up the narratives you'd like reporters to work into their stories, such as the money Bronies raise for charity. "The media," emphasizes Jake, the leader of this seminar, "is not the enemy."

Jake is a communications specialist for the Army with a stuffed Pinkie Pie toy perched on his shoulder, which perfectly complements his camo-toned biker vest. Like many people in this room, Jake has gotten his fair share of flak for loving a kids' cartoon inspired by a cheesy plastic toy marketed to little girls during the Reagan administration. (Once, he says, he was quoted in a story that complained of Bronies' body odor.)

But no one's in a defensive crouch here. A Bronycon is the ultimate safe space: When you're in a rainbow wonderland of fellow travelers wearing unicorn horns and technicolor manes, randomly hollering catchphrases like "Fun! Fun! Fun!" and singing fan-written songs with titles like "Mane Squeeze," you can stop worrying about what's normal and what's weird or where you fit in.

Unless it's a point of pride.

"We are the weird kids!" one audience member shouted out during Jake's seminar.

"It's our job to tell the Brony story," says Jake, "and I think the Brony story is worth telling."

---

There are a couple Brony stories, actually.

Forget your 1980s flashbacks. Yes, it's true that indirectly, this all started when the U.S. toy behemoth Hasbro birthed a new trinket - a hard-plastic equine with doe eyes and brushable nylon mane and tail - that became a birthday party sensation and inspired a saccharine Saturday morning cartoon.

Bronyism is not about that "My Little Pony."

Bronyism is specifically about "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic," a cartoon reboot that emerged in 2010, with vague similarities to the classic but an entirely new sensibility. It was launched by Lauren Faust, an animator with solid feminist-hipster credentials, who had grown up loving the original, but clearly wanted to propel it into the new century.

She introduced new characters like Rarity, a prima-donna unicorn with busybody tendencies; wry story lines, such as the one in which a male pony dresses as a female to get more attention; and celebrity cameos ("Weird Al" Yankovic voiced a character named Cheese Sandwich). Even outside the fandom, grown-up critics warmed to the show. Writing for the A.V. Club in 2011, Todd VanDerWerff called it "legitimately entertaining and lots of fun," citing the stylish animation, fresh humor, surprisingly complex story lines and relentlessly cheery vibe.

Still, it was solidly marketed as a kid's cartoon, even if one peppered with more than a few gags for mom, dad and the older siblings.

We may never know who, exactly, was the first Bro to discover the Pony. But early in the show's run, pictures of the show's star, Twilight Sparkle, with her squad, the Mane Sis, started materializing on the message board 4chan. Soon, the images became so plentiful that a separate message board was created for them, according to Jose Castillo, Bronycon's head of social media and press.

Nathan Hall, a 29-year-old Brony from Rockville, Maryland, saw these posts and didn't know what to make of them. But one night, he gave it a shot.

By the early morning, he had galloped through all 10 episodes that had aired thus far.

Later, he forced a friend to watch one episode. As the credits rolled, "the man turns to me and asks, 'Where's the next episode?' " Hall recalls.

It's pretty much the archetypal Brony origin story, which consists of five steps:

Skepticism: When a Brony-to-be first hears of the show, he can't comprehend how it could possibly be worth his time. Still, he's curious to know what the fuss is about.

Exposure: Boredom, drunkenness, a dare or the loss of a bet spurs the pre-Brony to watch an episode or two.

Addiction: Before he knows it, he has watched the entire series. It's something about the writing, the humor, the sophisticated themes. He can't get enough.

Evangelism: He tells his incredulous friends, who pass through the first three stages.

Bronyhood: Next thing he knows, he's calling himself "Boogie Hooves" and wearing fake ears or hooves or a pony onesie (or all of the above) at Brony gatherings all over the world.

---

To the uninitiated, sure, Bronies can seem a little out there. But ultimately, they're a subculture like any other - no weirder than your average Trekkie. Bronycon, with its costumes and games and meet-and-greets with MLP luminaries, simply fills a tighter niche than Comic Con, the San Diego geek gathering that long ago went mainstream.

And yes, Bronies are a bit nerdier. And perhaps a little sweeter.

"These pony characters are more like real people than some real people I know," says Bret Mix.

He's a 45-year-old man who has come to Bronycon with his 39-year-old wife, Amy, a first-timer, and their 11-year-old daughter, Autumn, who is dressed as Luna, the dark-blue reformed antagonist of Season 1. Autumn says watching "My Little Pony" and attending Bronycons have taught her to embrace diversity and make friends with all kinds of people.

In fact, the fratty overtones of the "bro" prefix are misleading. Roughly 20 percent of Bronycon attendees identify as women - they're often called "Pegasisters." The founder of Bronycon is a transwoman, Jessica Blank, who goes by "Purple Tinker" in these circles; the convention offered all-gender restrooms.

And most attendees seemed sincerely devoted to a very deep reading of the conflicts and dynamics lurking within these two-dimensional horses. Ask a fan what "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" is really about, and you'll get a slew of theories - gender identity, social norms, queerness, mental illness.

Ask Cadejo Jones about the character of Luna. He'll tell you that she is an all-too-compelling metaphor for addiction.

And she saved his life.

It was an episode from Season 5, "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" A giant smoke monster called the Tantabus has invaded the ponies' dreams, merging them into one mass nightmare. But as the Tantabus prepares to breach the waking world, a teary-eyed Luna confesses to the Mane Six that she herself created this monster to punish herself for all the harm she previously inflicted upon the land of Equestria. Twilight Sparkle tells Luna to forgive herself - and when she does, the Tantabus disintegrates.

Jones needs a moment to compose himself after showing this clip to a solemn and respectful Bronycon audience. He explains that the episode crystallized everything he needed to realize about getting sober; it pulled him back from the brink of suicide.

But it wasn't just the show that pulled him out of darkness. His fellow Bronies did, too.

"Bronies care," he says.

In another session, sociologist Brian Newby listened with interest as one Brony after another lined up to explain how "My Little Pony" has helped them express their own identities. One says it helped her come to terms with her gender fluidity; another says it helped her accept her own disability.

"How many people feel that in this fandom, you've found your people?" Newby asks. Almost everyone in the room raises their hands.

To wrap up, panelist and blogger Taylor Ramage asks if it's okay to lead the group in song. Music is omnipresent at Bronycon, with songs from the show plus fan-made music playing around every corner.

This song is a little different. She asks the audience if they know the song "This Little Light of Mine." They nod enthusiastically. Ramage explains that their song simply replaces "little light" with the words "cutie mark." In MLP, the ponies receive cutie marks - symbolic representations of the pony's personality - on their flanks in adolescence.

They sing:

This cutie mark of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

This cutie mark of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

This cutie mark of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Washington

Alarm and condemnation erupted Thursday from European capitals, the White House and leaders of Donald Trump's own party after the Republican presidential nominee suggested the United States might abandon its NATO military commitments if he were elected president.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who backed Trump at the party's national convention only two days earlier, said he totally disagreed with the statement but was willing to "chalk it up to a rookie mistake."

McConnell called NATO "the most successful military alliance in the history of the world," in a Facebook interview with The New York Times.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance agreement was crystal clear: "We defend each other."

"I will not interfere in the U.S. election campaign," Stoltenberg said. But he pointedly added, "Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States."

Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed the United States' commitment to NATO.

"This administration, like every single administration, Republican and Democrat alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments under Article 5, which is absolutely bedrock to our membership and to our partnership with NATO."

Indeed, Trump's suggestion, in an interview with the Times, would upend decades of American foreign policy and rock the security structures that have underpinned European and global stability since the end of World War II.

Trump said in the Times interview that he would review allies' financial contributions  in this case, those from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania  before acting under NATO's mutual defense clause, if any of the countries were attacked by Russia.

Various U.S. administrations have complained, often bitterly, that many NATO members do not foot their share of the alliance's bills.

The U.S. accounts for more than 70 percent of all NATO defense spending and only four other allies  Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland  meet the minimum 2 percent of gross domestic product spending on defense that NATO requires.

Sen. Bob Corker, a Trump supporter and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that "many of us are becoming exasperated with the fact that the U.S. is playing such an outsized role in the protection of our NATO allies even though we greatly appreciate and respect the importance of the alliance itself."

But Trump's floating of the idea that the spending target would be a prerequisite for the U.S. to defend a NATO ally was an abrupt break from longstanding American policy.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves tweeted that his country was one of the few to meet the minimum defense expenditure and noted pointedly that Estonia "fought, with no caveats" on behalf of the U.S. in Afghanistan.
Emergency and utility crews worked overnight after powerful storms Thursday night toppled trees and limbs with 60 mph winds, left thousands of residents without power and stranded motorists on flooded roadways.

Madison residents reported no significant injuries as a result of the storm, according to Madison police.

But officers responded to more than 250 calls related to the storm and even had motorists walking up to them while they were responding to other calls to let them know that their cars were stuck.

There were two instances reported of trees falling on top of cars, one on Olin Avenue and one on Piping Rock Road, police said.

Several intersections were impassable, with several cars stalled during ill-advised attempts to get through them, most notably University Avenue at North Midvale Boulevard and South Park Street at the Beltline.

Madisons Southwest and West sides saw the worst of the flooding, including stretches of McKenna Boulevard, Gammon Road and North High Point Road, according to Madison Fire Department spokeswoman Cynthia Schuster.

The fire department also spent Thursday night being inundated with emergency calls  to the tune of 122 between 6 and 11 p.m. Callers reported power lines down, electrical hazards, small fires because of tree branches on power lines and people trapped in stalled vehicles.

At least three houses around the city were reported struck by trees, and there was a small fire on 500 block of South Midvale Boulevard after a condominium was struck by lightning, said officials.

Two fire department vehicles were disabled while responding to storm related incidents, and two police vehicles were damaged as a result of driving through flooded areas.

Police officials said that radio calls were nonstop and that each officer on duty Thursday night responded to at least 20 different emergency situations.

Damage as a result of the storm included washing out a construction zone on McKenna Boulevard and manhole covers popping out from the streets as well as power line and tree damage, police said.

As of Friday evening about 400 Dane County customers of Alliant Energy and Madison Gas and Electric were without power, though most of them were set to have power restored by early Saturday morning.

Madison Streets Superintendent Chris Kelley said city streets were not too bad by Friday morning, with no reported washouts.

Most streets were made passable thanks to the work of the forestry crews.

Although the storm did not surpass the record rainfall from 1881 of 4.32 inches for the Madison area, it did dump 2.79 inches onto the city, according to the National Weather Service.

Officials from the fire department said that the storm can serve as a reminder for residents to stay in a safe place during severe weather and seeking alternate routes or refraining from travel altogether, though inconvenient, can significantly reduce the chance of becoming stranded or hurt.

State Journal reporter Bill Novak contributed to this report.
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz made a memorable speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, and it was mainly because of what he didn't say, instead of what he actually said.

The Houston conservative who clashed with Trump during the GOP primaries, and was often on the receiving end of Trump's insults, didn't endorse the Republican nominee in Cleveland. In fact, he barely mentioned him at all, and instead urged the crowd to "vote your conscience."

RELATED: No endorsement from Cruz; congratulations, but that's all

"Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution," Cruz said, according to the Associated Press.

Near the end of his speech, delegates demanded that Cruz endorse Trump. When they didn't get what they wanted, boos and anger filled the convention floor, and TV viewers could barely hear Cruz's last words.

And it apparently got worse. Reportedly, Cruz faced angry confrontations after leaving the stage, CNN's Dana Bash reported. Cruz's wife, Heidi, had to be escorted out by security during the uproar, CNN and Mashable reported on Thursday night.

His non-endorsement of Trump wasn't the only controversial thing Cruz did. He mentioned the need for equal treatment for all Americans and reminded Republicans about Alton Sterling, the black man killed by police in Baton Rouge, La., earlier this month. The statement drew little applause at the convention.

Several Republicans, including Chris Christie, derided Cruz, calling him "selfish" and accusing him of breaking a promise to support the party's nominee.

Trump entered the convention hall near the end of the speech. After the speech, Trump tweeted:

Months before, he and Cruz were involved in a bitter fight that turned personal as Trump ridiculed Heidi Cruz's looks.

UGLY POLITICS: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump get into Twitter beef over their wives

Cruz tweeted on Thursday night: "To those listening, please don't stay home in November. If you love our country, stand and speak and vote your conscience #RNCinCLE"

The uproar aimed at Cruz spilled onto social media.

But some even gave Cruz a big pat on the back, and even Hillary Clinton, Trump's rival weighed in:

How this will affect Cruz's possible bid for the White House in 2020 remains to be seen.
Williamstown, Mass.

Although science fiction has a much richer tradition in literature and film than it does in theater, the word "robot" was introduced to the world in a play, "Rossum's Universal Robots," by Czech writer Karel Capek. In the drama, first produced in 1921, humanlike robots rebel and threaten mankind's existence.

Nearly a century has passed, but androids still feel like a novelty on the stage. We've seen so many actors play robots, androids and cyborgs in the movies that the performances by Carson Elrod and Sue Jean Kim in "The Chinese Room" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival shouldn't seem as impressive as they do. But they're genuinely artful, nuanced and at times compelling portrayals of androids that illustrate the moral, ethical and practical challenges of creating, and living with, intelligent machines that seem like people.

Receiving its world premiere on the theater festival's Nikos Stage under the direction of James MacDonald, the impressively produced but overlong and only modestly successful "The Chinese Room" is by Irish playwright Michael West. He solves the problem of sci-fi's expected futuristic settings and special effects, so much easier to realize on film than stage, by confining his play to one cluttered room in a house (set design by Dane Laffrey) owned by a married couple who are scientists. The time seems to be the near future, when technology has advanced enough that people can make phone calls or summon online information through a port in their brain, and androids almost seem human.

More Information Review "The Chinese Room" When: 2 p.m. Thursday, July 21 Where: Nikos Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Street, Williamstown, Mass. Running time: 130 minutes; one intermission Continues: 3:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday Tickets: $58 Info: (413) 597-3400; www.wtfestival.org See More Collapse

One of the men responsible for that last fact is Frank (Brian F. O'Byrne, star of the NBC series "Aquarius"), who as the play opens is being forced out of the company he co-founded, a tech firm that develops lifelike androids. He's got one in his house, Susannah (Kim), which he created as a repository for the memories of his dementia-stricken wife, Lily (Laila Robins).

As Frank  already harried by intrusions from the women and his young son (Elliot Trainor)  struggles to maintain access to the firm's network long enough to help his wife one last time and to fix Susannah, whose software is still problematic, trouble arrives in the form of the android Daniel (Elrod).

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Elrod makes the most of Daniel, the play's showiest role, particularly in the second act, when Frank's unseen business partner remotely takes control of Daniel's body and voice. Kim, too, is expert at depicting the borders of human and machine and the moments when the latter begins to think it is the former, enough so to resent Frank's power to reboot her at will.

The ideas about artificial intelligence and the moral implications of an electronically created consciousness, while engaging, have been explored better and more deeply many times.

sbarnes@timesunion.com
Is there any food as perfect as a pierogi?

Think about it: This classic Polish dumpling might be the ultimate comfort food. A dough of flour, egg, butter and sour cream is wrapped around any variety of fillings, like mashed potato and cheese, or a crumbled meat filling or even stewed fruit. Steamed or boiled, then pan-fried, a pierogi is the most beloved example of Polish cuisine for good reason.

Even with this great ambassador for Polish food, the actual cuisine of Poland is hard to identify. The nation's boundaries shifted through history as wars reconfigured Europe's borders. What we know as "Polish" food is really an amalgam of Slavic cuisine as a whole, incorporating flavors of neighboring countries like Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

Polish gastronomy mirrors the patterns of another famous cuisine: Italian. As the seat of the Roman Empire, and then again as center of the Renaissance, Italy developed a national cookbook that was a melting pot of flavors from around the world. The same holds true in Poland. Pierogi in western Poland mimics German cuisine (potato and sauerkraut or served with sausage and braised apples and kale), while pierogi in eastern Poland will allude to Russian flavors (with potato, cheese and sometimes chives. Typically served alone.)

And as with other cultures, the Poles who immigrated to America tended to establish new roots with others from their hometowns and regions. The Capital Region's population has historically been a polychromatic quilt, and those of Polish descent have been a visible piece of that fabric. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Polish ancestry was claimed by 4.3 percent of Albany's residents, the fifth-largest ancestry in the city. (Irish, Italian, German and English round out the top five.) Despite this, there are few restaurants where one can find authentic Polish dishes, meaning that most get their Polish food fix from home-cooked meals or at festivals and church food sales.

"Poland has changed configuration so many times that the food is very regional," says Regina Zembrzuski Pollack, a Clifton Park resident who is of Polish descent. Pollack is active with the annual Polish Fest in Latham, but she and her sister Anntonette Zembrzuski Alberti embrace the flavors year-round with dishes like their mother's recipe for golobki, a version of stuffed cabbage that is baked in tomato sauce.

Polish food is gaining favor among non-Poles, as well. At Euro Deli in Latham, the cold case, deli counter, beer selection, and shelves are distinctively Polish, but the customer base is becoming more diverse.

"At first, people came in and wanted to sample everything. Now, they know just what they want," says Walter Hudak, who runs the Polish deli with daughter Jola.

Golobki (Polish stuffed cabbage)

Makes about 30 cabbage rolls

3 pounds mixture of ground beef, pork and veal

1/2 cup uncooked rice

1 large head of cabbage

1/2 cup (one stick) butter

1 large green pepper, diced small

3 yellow onions, diced small

2 eggs

1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Remove the core from the center of the cabbage then boil the cabbage to loosen the leaves. Once softened (about 5 to 10 minutes), remove the cabbage from the boiling water, allow to cool, and pull the leaves off the head of cabbage to have individual cabbage "wrappers."

Meanwhile, bring 1 cup water to a boil then add the rice. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cover, cooking the rice until the water is absorbed and the rice is soft.

While the rice is cooking, saute the green pepper and onions in the butter over medium heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs together, then using your hands, add the meat, rice, green peppers, onions, salt, pepper, spices and herbs and mix well. Place a large spoonful of this mixture on 1 cabbage leaf and roll the leaf over the filling, like a burrito, being sure to tuck in the loose ends. Continue until only a few cabbage leaves are left. Use these to line the bottom of a roasting pan or 13-inch-by-9-inch baking dish. Put the cabbage rolls into the pan, being sure not to crowd too much (it is OK if they touch). Pour the tomato sauce over the top of the cabbage rolls. Bake the golobki for 2 hours. Serve hot or warm.

Adapted from a recipe from Stella Peplowski Zembrzuski

Polish Pierogi

Makes about 24 pierogi

For the dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 egg

1/2 cup sour cream

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1/4 cup butter, room temperature

For the filling:

1 cup warm mashed potato (from about 2 large potatoes)

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons chives, chopped

Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

For the finish:

1/4 cup butter

2 large shallots (or 1 medium onion), thinly sliced

Sour cream

Applesauce

To make the dough, mix together the flour and salt. Add the egg to the flour and combine. The dough will look kind of clumpy, but that's OK. Work in the sour cream and the soft butter until the dough comes together in a sticky ball. Knead and fold the dough until it becomes less sticky but still stays moist. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 1/2 hour.

To make the filling, combine the mashed potato, cheese, and chives. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Once the dough has rested and chilled, roll half of the dough on a floured surface to 1/8-inch thick. Use a 2-inch-round cutter to cut out circles of dough. Set the circles aside and save scraps. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Combine scraps and roll out again if possible. Gently roll each circle into a slight oval shape -- it will allow you to get the maximum amount of filling in while still being able to seal the pierogi.

Place 2 teaspoons of filling on each dough circle, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Brush the border with a bit of water then gently fold the dough over, forming a pocket around the filling. Pinch the edges of the pierogi to seal, then seal again with the tines of a fork.

You can freeze the pierogi for up to four weeks at this point or cook in a large stock pot of boiling salted water. Do not overcrowd the pierogi while cooking, When they float to the surface of the boiling water (about 10 minutes), they are done.

Meanwhile, saute the shallots (or onion) in the butter until golden. Drain the pierogi, then add to the butter/shallot mixture in the pan and cook until crisped. Serve hot with additional sour cream and/or applesauce.
When Ted Cruz launched his ill-fated coup at the Republican National Convention this week, I sort of missed it. I was listening on the radio, but with no view of the convention hall it wasn't clear that he was being booed. The delegates were just noisy, I figured, maybe because Cruz's long-winded speech was holding them up from the open bars at sponsors' parties.

Once I read reporters' accounts the next morning, and saw video of the raucous crowd, I was reminded that even seeing or hearing something doesn't always yield a true sense of what's happening  that we often need some help to understand what's behind what we witness, or to differentiate what we think we saw and heard from what's real.

We can call that help "journalism." Its goal is to give people a true sense of what lies beyond their own view. That often requires more than just reporting what happened, or even just showing reality.

Take, for example, a video shot around midnight one night last week on Quail Street in Albany that seemed to show a man twice punching into the open window of a parked police cruiser. In an era when encounters between police and citizens are often trigger points, it looked like a tragedy in the making. You half expected to see a bloodied cop emerge from the car, followed by his partner, maybe with a weapon drawn.

More Information Rex Smith is editor of the Times Union. Share your thoughts at http://blog.timesunion.com/editors. See More Collapse

But a different story emerged on this newspaper's front page: Albany police say the man was actually giving the officer a fist bump after the cop comforted him. He had been taunted by people on the street, and he was crying. The man was known by police to be mentally troubled.

Instead of showing violence between a black man and a cop, then, the video seemingly showed a benefit of Albany's approach to community policing.

First impressions are often false ones, revealing more about our own biases than about what's real. We can't always trust our eyes and our ears.

Which is why the emergence of news live-streaming into our laptops, tablets and mobile phones is both encouraging and troubling. We can see more now, but we need more than ever to be cautious not to make quick judgments based upon what we think we've seen.

Some of the biggest news in recent weeks has come to us through channels that have only recently emerged. Diamond Reynolds launched a Facebook Live video seconds after her boyfriend, Philando Castile, had been shot in a car in a Minnesota suburb. Video of the awful shooting of police in Dallas was being shared as it was happening.

In each case, truth was accessible that once would have been hidden. Indeed, many of the recent encounters between police and citizens that have inflamed cities are known only because somebody captured the reality on video and shared it on social media. This citizen reporting is powerful because it carries us to places we wouldn't otherwise see, so we may understand what we couldn't otherwise grasp.

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But the video from Quail Street underscores the fact that we still need honest brokers of information. In fact, the emergence of streaming news makes all the more vital the role of journalists as analysts and curators of information  rather than as just purveyors of facts, a task one of my great mentors referred to as "the basic hack minimum."

We're getting close to the future depicted in the 1980s TV series "Max Headroom," set in a dystopian society in which powerful networks were the real rulers, "off" switches were banned on televisions, and viewers' movements and thoughts could be monitored through their sets. Max Headroom was the computerized consciousness of Edison Carter, a human, one-person TV crew who would send live news feeds into millions of homes whenever he encountered injustice.

Back then, I was a young reporter, unable to imagine a world in which journalists would convey information without any filter  with no time, that is, to think about the consequences of the reporting, the story behind the image, the deeper truths that responsible journalism can reveal.

Now Max and Carter live right around the corner and in our devices. There soon will be almost no recess of society beyond the view of a live video stream. This will affect not only journalism, but also how we react to reality  and not wholly in a healthy way. Consider: During the political convention this week, did you hear a single on-camera analyst say, "You know, I need to consider that, and get more information before I tell people what they should think."

It's good that we can see in real time more of the world beyond what we can touch. That doesn't mean we don't still need to take a moment, and a step back, to recall this: Not everything we see and hear is what it may seem to be. That's where the work of serious journalism begins.
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[July 22, 2016] Arizona Oncology Breaks Ground for State-of-the-Art Treatment Center in the East Valley

Arizona Oncology, one of the largest medical groups in Arizona devoted exclusively to cancer care and a practice in The US Oncology Network, held a groundbreaking ceremony today for its new state-of-the-art cancer treatment center in the East Valley. The new 21,000 square foot facility will be located at Arizona State University Research Park. Scheduled to open in April 2017, it will offer patients in the growing East Valley region convenient access to the very latest cancer treatment services and technologies available. The new treatment center is currently the only center in the East Valley that will provide medical, radiation and gynecologic oncology, and hematology services in one location. This provides patients a new treatment option for comprehensive advanced cancer care and supportive services. "We are excited to break ground on our new center after months of planning," said Paul Brosor, director of Practice Operations-Phoenix Division, Arizona Oncology. "The facility incorporates the very latest design concepts to support patient comfort, serenity and healing while offering leading-edge cancer services. We strive to provide patients comprehensive state-of-the-art care in a convenient, comfortable setting close to home where they have the support of family and friends. This beautiful new facility will play a vital role in meeting that goal for our East Valley patients." The new center will offer access to integrated, high-quality care to diagnose and treat cancer including: hematology services, medical, radiation and gynecologic oncology, advanced diagnostics including PET/CT imaging, as well as supportive care services and clinical trials. The practice will be hiring two new medical oncologists and a new radiation oncologist to serve patients from the new facility. Comprehensive gynecologic oncology services will be provided by Snehal Bhoola, M.D., and Dana Chase, M.D., gynecologic oncologists with the practice who specialize in the treatment of ovarian, uterine, vaginal, cervical, fallopian tube and vulvar cancers. "Our new state-of-the-art treatment center will elevate cancer care in the East Valley by giving patients another treatment option," said Dr. Bhoola. "It also enables us to expand our gynecologic services into the East Valley region, providing women in the area a convenient location to receive specialized gynecologic oncology care." Land acquisition and construction of the facility are being made possible through the practice's affiliation with The US Oncology Network, which supports and enables the nation's foremost cancer treatment and research network with operational expertise and innovative technologies and treatents that advance cancer care.



"Opening this integrated cancer care center in an environment such as ASU Research Park is ideal for patients needing care in the Tempe area. It is a vibrant corporate community with the benefits of a comprehensive research university," said Molly Ryan Carson, vice president of Development at Ryan. "We are honored to be the collaborator that helps bring this building to life." Ryan is providing development, construction and financing services for the project and will own the single-tenant office building once completed. This will be Ryan's ninth build-to-suit project developed and constructed at ASU Research Park.

"ASU Research Park is a premier location for innovation led by leading companies, which benefit from the opportunity to collaborate with ASU intellectual assets," said Morgan R. Olsen, ASU Research Park board president and ASU executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer. "We are thrilled to welcome Arizona Oncology, an organization that is committed to advancing treatment modalities to help defeat this disease in its many forms. Arizona Oncology will also further the contribution of the ASU Research Park community to the Valley's economic development, which currently employs more than 6,000 people and houses more than 50 companies." For more information about Arizona Oncology's physicians and services, please visit www.ArizonaOncology.com or call 888-972-CURE. About Arizona Oncology Arizona Oncology is one of the largest medical groups in Arizona. With more than 75 practicing physicians devoted exclusively to providing comprehensive, compassionate and high-quality cancer care, Arizona Oncology specializes in Medical, Gynecologic, and Radiation Oncology, Hematology, Stem Cell Transplant, Research, Genetic Risk Assessment and patient ancillary programs. The physicians and their staff treat patients in many communities throughout the state including: Chandler, Deer Valley, Estrella, Flagstaff, Glendale, Green Valley, Nogales, Peoria, Phoenix, Prescott Valley, Safford, Scottsdale, Sedona, and Tucson. Arizona Oncology believes it is beneficial to provide cancer therapies in a community setting, close to patients' homes and support systems. The physicians are supported by a talented clinical team sensitive to the needs of cancer patients and their caregivers. For more information, visit ArizonaOncology.com. Arizona Oncology is united in healing with The US Oncology Network, one of the nation's largest networks of integrated community-based oncology practices dedicated to advancing high-quality, evidence-based cancer care. As an affiliate of The US Oncology Network, Arizona Oncology is united with more than 1,000 physicians nationwide. Arizona Oncology participates in clinical trials through US Oncology Research, which has played a role in approximately 60 FDA-approved cancer therapies, nearly one-third of all cancer therapies approved by the FDA to date. For more information, visit www.usoncology.com. About Arizona State University Research Park (ASURP) The ASU Research Park is located on the site of a former experimental farm and was acquired with funds from the Arizona State College Foundation (now ASU Foundation) in 1956. Founded in 1984, the ASU Research Park now represents ASU's commitment to the transfer of technology through university-industry research. Located in the Valley's high technology hub, the park is comprised of 320 acres and offers a strategic location with access to the southeast valley high tech employment pool. About Arizona State University Arizona State University is a New American University - a major public educational institution, a premier research center and a leader in innovation. Our vision is described by our three core principles: excellence in scholarship, access to education, and impact in our global community. As a New American University, ASU is intellectually vibrant, socially conscious and globally engaged. For more information, please visit www.asu.edu. About Ryan Companies US, Inc. Ryan Companies US, Inc. is a 3rd generation, family-owned national developer, designer, capital investment consultant, builder and real estate manager specializing in fully integrated solutions for over 75 years. Key market sectors include: retailers, industrial, healthcare, senior living, and corporate build-to-suit; and product experience includes work on office, retail, mixed use, hospitality, multi-housing, industrial, medical office building, senior living, distribution center, public sector, and mission critical facilities. Ryan serves customers throughout the United States with offices in the North, Midwest, Great Lakes, Southeast, South Central, Southwest and West regions. Ryan was named the 2007 National Developer of the Year by NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. For more information, visit www.ryancompanies.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005130/en/

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[July 22, 2016] Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock Adds to Growing Team

Former Community Health Systems executive Hollie Adams has joined national healthcare communications and engagement firm Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc., officials announced today. Also joining the firm's Brentwood office are Daniela Medina, as an Advisor, and Courtney Williams as an Associate. Graphic designers Chris Robinson and Katie Stephens have joined the firm as well. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005051/en/



Hollie Adams, Vice President Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock. (Photo: Business Wire)

"We are extremely pleased to announce these additions to our team," said David Jarrard, President and CEO of Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc. "We're deepening our bench to meet the increasingly complex needs of our clients. Our new colleagues each bring a different and valued perspective to our organization. We look forward to utilizing their unique skillsets for our clients." Adams, who joins Jarrard Inc. as a Vice President, is a seasoned marketing strategist with more than a decade of experience in consulting, strategic planning and hospital administration. She will be a valuable asset to the firm's clients looking to expand service lines, better engage their employees or reposition themselves. Prior to joining the firm, Adams served as the Senior Director of Strategic Planning and Marketing for Community Health Systems in Franklin, Tenn. There, she oversaw work for 39 hospitals across Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. In addition to managing acquisition and divesture planning, she implemented revenue growth initiatives, and stewarded a multi-million-dollar marketing budget. Joining as an Advisor is Medina, a media relations and community outreach expert. Drawing on her prior work with several non-profit organizations, she will work to support the firm's teams and service clients. She was previously Manager of Public Relations and Community Outreach for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and has worked with the Georgia chapter of March of Dimes as well as the American Cancer Society. In addition, Williams, joining the firm as an Associate, will provide clients insight into complex regulatory and population health issues. Prior to joining Jarrard Inc., she interned with the Officer of Governor Bill Haslam where she interfaced with a number of state agencies, and with the Metro Drug Coalition in Knoxville, where she was involved in policy research and advocacy campaigns surrounding several population health issues. The firm's creative team is also expanding with the addition of Chris Robinson and Katie Stephens as graphic designers. Robinson brings with him expertise in graphic design, branding and motion graphics to shape creative development for clients' communications needs. Stephens will leverage her experience in collateral development to design digital and print materials for clients' campaign projects. About Jarrard Inc. Based in Nashville, Tenn., with an office in Chicago, Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc. is a U.S. top 15 strategic communications and engagement firm for the nation's leading healthcare providers experiencing significant change, challenge or opportunity. Founded in 2006, the firm has worked with more than 300 clients in more than 40 states and served as a communications advisor on more than $32 billion in announced M&A and partnership transaction communications. A proven strategy leader, Jarrard Inc. delivers tightly focused issue management campaigns and long-term transformational initiatives designed to advance healthcare providers' most important goals. As a member of The Advisory Board, the firm is also part of a collaborative effort to elevate performance and solve some of healthcare's most pressing issues. For more information, visit jarrardinc.com or follow us @JarrardInc or @Jarrard_IB. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005051/en/

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[July 22, 2016] Kapsch TrafficCom Congratulates RiverLink Launch Team

Resulting from a strong team effort among the State of Indiana, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Kapsch TrafficCom and other supporting organizations, the RiverLink tolling system officially opened its doors for business on July 21, 2016. RiverLink is the new, all-electronic tolling system for the three bridges also known as the Louisville - Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges. With the new RiverLink system, there are no toll booths, or cash or coin machines, which eliminates the need to stop and pay a cash toll in a traditional tolling plaza to use any of the three bridges crossing the Ohio River between Louisville, KY and Jeffersonville, IN. Drivers can open their personal or commercial RiverLink accounts by phone, online, or at the two new service centers in Louisville and Jeffersonville. Upon opening an account, customers can choose to receive either a RiverLink local transponder free of charge, which can be used on the RiverLink tolled bridges, or a RiverLink E-ZPass transponder that costs $15 and works on toll roads in all 16 E-ZPass member states. The RiverLink local transponders are available now, while drivers who choose a RiverLink E-ZPass transponder will receive it later in 2016, before the RiverLink bridges go into revenue service. Kapsch won the contract to supply toll collection equipment and transponders to the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges in January 2014. Under the contract, Kapsch supplies both E-ZPass-compatible TDM transponders, and ISO 18000 6C sticker transponders, along with the KapschJANUS multi-protocol reader, which reads both kinds of tags. Kapsch also won the $41 million Toll Services Provider contract, which comprises delivery of the entire roadside tolling system, including operational and commercial back office systems, and all commercial operations. As part of its responsibility as Toll Services Provider, Kapsch provides online access, walk-up centers, telephone call center access, and a mobile events van.



"This important project is truly a team effort that spans over 24 months in detailed design, planning and execution," said Chris Murray, President of Kapsch TrafficCom North America. "We look forward to operating this system for the next seven years, and also to providing continuous improvement and optimization for drivers within this busy transportation corridor." The RiverLink system includes the new Abraham Lincoln Bridge in downtown Louisville (I65), the revamped Kennedy Bridge in downtown Louisville (also I65), a new East End Bridge connecting the extension of the Snyder Freeway (I265) with Southern Indiana (state road 265), and the rebuilding of the I-65, I64 and I-71 interchanges.

For more information on RiverLink, visit RiverLink.com Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in the segments of toll collection, traffic management, safety and security, smart urban mobility and connected cars. The end-to-end solutions of Kapsch TrafficCom cover the entire value creation chain of its customers as a one-stop shop, from components and design to the installation and operation of systems. The core business comprises the development, installation and operation of electronic toll collection and traffic management systems. References in 44 countries on all continents have made Kapsch TrafficCom a globally recognized ITS provider. As part of the Kapsch Group, an Austrian family-owned technology group founded in 1892, Kapsch TrafficCom is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries and branches in 30 countries. It has been listed since 2007 on the Vienna Stock Exchange (KTCG) and generated revenues of EUR 526 million in the fiscal year 2015/16 with over 3,700 employees. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert): twitter.com/kapschnet View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005412/en/

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[July 22, 2016] Pennsylvania Governor Wolf Signs Bill Facilitating Patient Access to Interchangeable Biologic Medicines

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and Pennsylvania Bio commend Governor Tom Wolf for signing critical legislation to create a pathway for the substitution of interchangeable biologic medicines, with appropriate communication to patients and physicians. Governor Wolf signed Senate Bill 514 this week, following unanimous passage in both the Pennsylvania Senate and House. The policies outlined in the bill align with BIO's principles on biologic substitution and garnered our support. BIO and Pennsylvania Bio are grateful to the legislature and Governor Wolf for their leadership on this issue. "Senate Bill 514 enjoys the support of physicians across Pennsylvania and the country, patient groups, and both innovator biologic and biosimilar manufacturing companies. This bill includes provisions to ensure appropriate communication on all biologic medicines dispensed, in order to maintain a consistent and complete medical record," said Jim Greenwood, BIO's President and Chief Executive Officer. "By signing this bill into law, Governor Wolf has added Pennsylvania to the list of states that allow retail pharmacies to substitute interchangeable biologic medicines." While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) oversees approval of biologic medicines and designation of interchangeability, policies governing whether one product may be substituted in place of a doctor's prescription and whether a pharmacist must inform patients and doctors are covered by state law. Senate Bill 514 seeks to properly preserve patient access to accurate prescription information, maintain incentives for innovation and promote a competitive market for biologic therapies. BIO supports full communication in the substitution process, as patients and their physicians should know what biologic medicine the patient receives from the pharmacy.



"We're pleased to see Pennsylvania adopting policies that not only support a growing industry in our state, but more important, facilitate patient access to lower-cost, interchangeable therapies once approved as such by the FDA," said Pennsylvania Bio President & CEO Christopher Molineaux. "This important bill will provide patients more opportunities to address their medical needs, particularly severely ill patients who rely on complex biological treatments." While the FDA has approved biosimilar products for sale in the U.S., the agency continues to develop a pathway for the development and approval of safe and effective interchangeable biologic products. There also remains a major role for states to play in ensuring communication of substitution occurs and physicians remain engaged in the process.

"Interchangeable biologics are not generics," said Greenwood. "Unlike conventional generic medicines, two biologics made using different cell lines and differing manufacturing processes will rarely, if ever, be exactly the same. Those suggesting interchangeable biologics and generics are the same and should be treated the same are just plain wrong." Patients and physicians managing chronic conditions are generally aware of which biologic treatments work best in their unique circumstances. Communicating with patients and physicians about product substitution allows everyone involved the opportunity to discuss past treatment experiences, so that any possible unexpected issues can be better understood and properly addressed. "On behalf of the life science researchers, manufacturers, healthcare professionals, and patient partners that work together to make life better for patients and their families across Pennsylvania, we thank Governor Wolf for signing this important bill into law and thank Senator Patricia H. Vance for her leadership in sponsoring Senate Bill 514," said Molineaux. "The hard work of these leaders resulted in unanimous support in both chambers. This is a great example of how we can all work together to do the right thing for the people of Pennsylvania." About BIO BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIO produces BIOtechNOW, an online portal and monthly newsletter chronicling "innovations transforming our world." Subscribe to BIOtechNOW. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005533/en/

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The development company chosen to rehabilitate the historic Garver Feed Mill has asked Madison officials to allow it more time to secure financing, but should the company fail, the delay could jeopardize any project from beginning on the site before late 2018, according to a staff memo Friday.

In January, the citys Board of Estimates set a Dec. 1 deadline for Chicago-based Baum Development to acquire city approvals, secure financing and close on the purchase of the Garver property from the city.

Now, Baum, which beat out proposals from three other companies in April 2015, wants the committee to push back the closing deadline until March 15 to accommodate delays in awarding a newly expanded pot of federal tax credits.

Baums proposal calls for converting Garver and its surrounding 5 acres into an artisan food production facility, complete with microlodging units that would be rented to food producers, artists and retailers who would have access to shared production, warehouse and office spaces.

However, the proposal relies heavily on a hodgepodge of local, state and federal funding sources, including federal New Market Tax Credits, which would finance about a quarter of the $20 million project.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently combined two years of funding authority for the New Market Tax Credits program, rolling the $3.5 billion in 2015 tax credits that would have been released this past spring into a $7 billion two-year allocation that will become available in late October or November.

Though the federal delays were out of the developers control, extending the closing date could limit backup options for the city should Baum not receive the $5 million in tax credits and decide to abandon the project, said Dan Rolfs, community development project manager for Madison.

Rolfs declined to say whether he thought the Board of Estimates should allow the extension or move onto another developer, but said his memo was intended to warn elected officials about the risks associated with shifting the deadline.

When the city chose Baum, it also selected Alternative Continuum of Cares $39.8 million proposal as a backup option. That plan would deliver 148 units of senior housing, event space, day care, a commercial kitchen and other uses, using $7.4 million in Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) tax credits.

Extending Baums deadline would push the project past WHEDAs 2017 application deadline, making it impossible for the alternate plan to secure financing before 2018.

ACC would not be able to move forward without that kind of financing, Rolfs said. If we go with Baum and it doesnt pan out for some reason, the city would have to wait another year before (ACC) could apply for the (WHEDA) tax credits and we dont know if theyd even get them.

If Baum backs out, it could also risk the citys ability to use newly awarded state funding for the Garver site.

The city has committed $1.8 million for the project, but just Wednesday, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. announced Madison would receive an additional $500,000 for Garver under the agencys Idle Industrial Sites Redevelopment Program.

The grant is not tied to a specific project, its terms require the citys requests for reimbursement to be submitted to the state by Sept. 30, 2018.

Baum is also in the process of adding Garver to the National Register of Historic places to make it eligible for about $4 million in state and federal historic tax credits.

It was unclear Friday whether Baum would continue with the project without the federal New Market Tax Credits. Project manager Bryant Moroder did not respond to a request for comment.

So far, Baum has met the Board of Estimates deadlines for design and zoning approvals, and for providing letters of intent for would-be tenants of the microlodging units.

With that in mind, Ald. Marsha Rummel, 6th District, said she would vote for an extension at Mondays Board of Estimates meeting.

I think we should stay the course, said Rummel, who represents the site. Having said that, a lot of the success of this project relies on those New Market Tax Credits. Were willing to give them a certain amount of time after the allocation. Were just pushing that out.

Ald. David Ahrens, who represents the nearby 15th District, is not a member of the Board of Estimates but said its time for Baum to come up with alternative financing or for the city to move on and see if ACC is still interested in the site.

If I bought a house and someone said, When would you like to close? and I said, How about two years from now? they would walk out of the room, Ahrens said. Thats where were at in March.

Ahrens also questioned Baums ability to secure the tax credits because the program is intended to attract private investment into blighted, low-income communities.

These are highly competitive tax credits  They are for blighted areas. Garver is, of course, a blighted site, but the area is not, Ahrens said.

Mayor Paul Soglin said he was not pleased with the delay but added he would support extending Baums deadline. He dismissed Ahrens assertion that Baum has had enough time.

Thats the nature of democracy, especially public processes that we have no control over, Soglin said.
[July 22, 2016] ReferralExchange Partners With Giveback Homes #ForSocialGood

Giveback Homes, the premier real estate platform and community for social good announces today a new partnership with real estate referral network, ReferralExchange. With over 17,000 agent members, ReferralExchange is one of the fastest-growing referral services in real estate. Giveback Homes has seen rapid adoption across real estate brokerages and this new relationship creates another way to expand the work of building homes for people in need. The relationship between Giveback Homes and ReferralExchange began when ReferralExchange contributed to a networking event that raised money for building projects in El Salvador. "We had heard about Giveback Homes from some of our member agents," says Scott Olsen, ReferralExchange CEO. "Once we met Blake and Caroline and the Giveback team we saw the potential to do more. Our first build day will be held in Sacramento." As part of the new partnership, current Giveback Homes member agents will receive a ReferralExchange submit license. ReferralExchange will also donate $100 for every closed agent-to-agent referral, up to $20,000. The goal is to raise enough money to host the build day in Sacramento and build 3 houses internationally. ReferralExchange will also sponsor one-year Giveback Homes memberships for a number of their top performing agents. Memberships provide Giveback Homes members with marketing services, branding, and an easy avenue to funnel donations directly to build projects around the world and in their local communities. Giveback Homes was founded with the goal of bringing a new giving model to the world of real estate. Founded by former employees of Toms, Giveback Homes saw an opportunity to infuse social responsibility into the real estate industry. The company has grown rapidly over the past two years and has built over 60 homes in areas where housing is desperately needed including Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador. /p>



Giveback Homes makes social good personal and individual by sharing the stories of the real people and families who are receiving life-changing homes. Through fun events like build days, network-and-give parties, and fitness classes with SoulCycle, Giveback Homes has been able to raise money and build awareness for the ways that the real estate industry can make a real difference.

Currently, there are 20 Giveback Homes Build Projects in the U.S. and Nicaragua in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, with many more planned for 2016 and beyond. Giveback Homes recently partnered with Union Rescue Mission to help the homeless living on Skid Row in Los Angeles, and New Story Charity to build homes in El Salvador and Haiti. The Giveback Homes membership model includes packages for both individual agents, brokerages, as well as real estate technology and service providers. To learn more about Giveback Homes or sign up please visit www.givebackhomes.com. The ReferralExchange and Giveback Homes Build Day will be held on September 16. The team is raising funds online at: https://fundly.com/referral-exchange-giveback-homes-build-day-referral-exchange-givebackhomes-build-day/ About Giveback Homes Giveback Homes is a community of real estate professionals working together for social good. Inspired by their work at TOMS shoes and founded in 2013, Giveback Homes makes it easy to incorporate giving into the real estate industry. We provide a cause marketing strategy, vet non-profit organizations to donate to, organize fundraising events, and mobilize teams of volunteer homebuilders to help build homes in the U.S and abroad. About ReferralExchange ReferralExchange, the nation's top real estate referral company, is dedicated to creating real estate experiences between real estate professionals and customers. Founded in 2005, ReferralExchange has built an invite-only network of over 17,000 top-performing Realtors. In 2015, the network participated in 8,700 transaction sides. www.referralexchange.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005092/en/

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[July 21, 2016] Top 100 Cyber Security Companies: Ones to Watch in 2016: Leaders in Cloud, Endpoint, Net, App, Data, Security Operations & Identification Management

LONDON, July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Report Details



The latest report from business intelligence provider visiongain offers comprehensive analysis of the top 100 cyber security companies. These are the ones that you need to watch in 2016 as the cyber security market gathers pace.



Now: The cyber security market is going through a period of rapid growth and innovation as industry leaders and policymakers struggle to contain the effects of cyber-attacks and data breaches, hence the high rate of mergers and acquisitions in the sector. The highest valued acquisition in the cyber security sector was announced in October 2015 when Dell announced the takeover of EMC. This is an example of the business critical headline that you need to know about - and more importantly, you need to read visiongain's objective analysis of how this will impact your company and the industry more broadly. How are you and your company reacting to this news? Are you sufficiently informed?



How this report will benefit you

We know that the cyber security market is highly fragmented, very dynamic with high levels of M&A activity and there is much to play for with established incumbents at risk of losing significant business opportunities to aspiring innovators.



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In this brand new report you will receive 137 in-depth tables, charts and graphs PLUS 8 EXCLUSIVE expert interviews  all unavailable elsewhere.



The 356 page report provides clear detailed insight into the top 100 companies in the cyber security market. It reveals the key drivers and challenges affecting the market.



By ordering and reading our brand new report today you will be better informed and ready t act.







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- 8 full transcripts of exclusive visiongain interviews with key opinion-leaders in the market, from the following companies:

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- Analysis of game changing technological trends being employed by the leading cyber security players and how these will shape the industry.

- Who are the leading 100 cyber security companies and what are their prospects over the forecast period? See profiles of the companies operating within the sector with analysis of their prospects

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Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com For more information:

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Website: www.reportbuyer.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-100-cyber-security-companies-ones-to-watch-in-2016-leaders-in-cloud-endpoint-net-app-data-security-operations--identification-management-300302443.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

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[July 21, 2016] SiC Fibers Market Worth 510.28 Million USD by 2021

PUNE, India, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The report "SiC Fibers Market by Type (Continious\Long Fibers, Chopped\Short Fibers and Others) by Application (Aerospace, Power Generation, Nuclear Application and Others), by Region - Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is projected to reach USD 510.28 Million by 2021, registering a CAGR of 2.91% from 2016 to 2021. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 120 market data Tables and 42 Figures spread through 176 Pages and in-depth TOC on "SiC Fibers Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/sic-fiber-market-171928034.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. Technological advancement in the aerospace, nuclear, and power generation industries is driving the global SiC fibers market. Continuous SiC fibers has the major share in the SiC fibers market The continuous SiC fibers, also known as tow, are used as reinforcement materials for ceramic composites materials (CMC) and plastic composite materials (PMC). These fibers possess high strength, heat resistance, corrosion resistance, even in extreme conditions. Through composite reinforcement, SiC fibers provide improved performance opportunities to ceramic, plastic, and metal (CMC, PMC, and MMC) matrices. Aerospace represent the bulk of demand for SiC fibers SiC- and silicon nitride-based ceramic and ceramic composites are promising materials for high-temperature applications in aerospace engines because of their properties such as high strength; excellent creep, oxidation, and corrosion resistance; and low density. SiC ceramics have excellent high-temperature oxidation and creep resistance up to 1,500C. As a result, SiC fibers are becoming increasingly important in aerospace application. Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=171928034 Asia-Pacific to egister the highest CAGR during the forecast period



Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market for SiC fibers, followed by Europe and North America. China, the U.S., and Japan are the largest consumers of SiC fibers. Factors such as evolving environmental & regulatory scenario and pressure from flagship companies to improve environmental performance of their supply chain have led to increasing demand for SiC fibers in Asia-Pacific. In this region, Japan is the major producer and consumer of SiC fibers. Nippon Carbon Co. Ltd. and UBE Industries of Japan are the global leaders in the SiC Fibers Market. The Japanese government is also actively supporting R&D activities on SiC fibers. Key players in the SiC fibers market

The key players in the market include SGL Group- The Carbon Company (Germany), UBE Industries (Japan), NGS Advanced Fibers Co. Ltd. (Japan), COI Ceramics (U.S.), Specialty Materials (U.S.), Nippon Carbon Co. Ltd. (Japan), Saint-Gobain (France), Volzhsky Abrasive Works (Russia), and Washington Mills (U.S.) Browse Related Reports: High Temperature Fiber Market by Fibers Type (Aramid (Para-aramid, Meta-aramid, others), Ceramic (Refractory Ceramic Fibers, Low Bio-persistent and others), and other fibers (Basalt, and others)), by Application (Security & Protection, Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial, Electrical & Electronics, and others) and by Region - Global Trends and Forecasts to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/high-temperature-fibers-market-52310328.html Ceramic Matrix Composites Market by Type (Oxide/Oxide, Silicon Carbide/Silicon Carbide, Carbon/Carbon and Others), by Application (Aerospace, Defense, Energy & Power, Electrical & Electronics and Others) and by Region - Trends & Forecasts to 2019

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ceramic-matrix-composites-market-60146548.html Know More About our Knowledge Store @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Connect with us: MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical

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[July 22, 2016] National University of Juridical Sciences Kolkata Launches Global Online Course; Attracts Students From Middle East and Africa

KOLKATA, India, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kolkata-based National University of Juridical Sciences launched an online course, Masters in Buisness Laws , in line with courses offered by top foreign universities like University of Melbourne, University of Edinburgh, Queen Mary University, Kings College London, University of Southern California etc. to cater to lawyers and businessmen in need of strategic legal education with specializations like M&A, investment banking, institutional finance, cyber laws, intellectual property laws, corporate governance etc. (Course details can be found on the course website: http://mbl.nujs.edu./). Apart from a large number of executive learners from India, many from other Asian and African countries have started learning business law online from the Kolkata-based University. Widely recognized as one of the top 3 National Law Universities in India, NUJS has been a brainchild of Professor Madhava Menon, who before starting NUJS as the first Vice Chancellor, had started National Law School of India University in Bangalore. The provisions of the WBNUJS Act, 1997 envisages that the University will take part in creating legal awareness in the country and engage in creating multidisciplinary courses. NUJS has been a pioneer in launching the first online legal courses in India since 2012. After launching a series of very successful executive education courses, it ventured to offer the first masters course around business laws, and hit success with the first batch itself. The first batch comprises of 110 learners from India and abroad, including CEOs, top executives from MNCs, lawyers with decade plus experience, and a large number of lawyers and executives who find it easier to balance an online course with their professional and personal life compared to a full-time contact course that requires them to travel. The Uiversity also assembled a top notch industry-academia panel, convened by the Vice Chancellor Ishwara Bhatt, with representations from lawyers, academicians from top universities around the world, successful businessmen and investors. Some of them, like Murali Neelakantan, an ex-global general counsel of Cipla, or Siboney Sagar, ex-general counsel of General Electric and British Telecom, have worked in India as well as internationally, heading practice areas in global law firms and legal teams at MNCs, and bring unique global perspective to the course. Ex-bureaucrats like former IRS officer Sunil Agarwal, who now is a partner at AZB & Partners, have also contributed in building the course.



Niloy Biswas, Country Manager (Information Risk), Hewlett Packard, was one of the first few people to enrol in the course. According to Niloy, "I wanted to have a 360 degree view of how different business laws correlate to security front, to make our organisation's interaction with the clients tighter, to not have ambiguity in contracts. This course would take me far into this direction." Similarly, Anoop Krishna has 33 years of experience in corporate and investment banking. He is now the Chief General Manager (Corporate Division, North and West Region) at State Bank of India. An extremely busy professional, he could not have joined a full-time course to learn law or regulatory strategy, even if there was one that suited his requirements. As the course can be studied on the go from a mobile app, it enabled him to venture into taking it up despite a very busy schedule.

Gautam Sarkar, an NRI project manager now working in Qatar, also took up the course to expand his repertoire of skills. "I want to take bigger advisory and strategic roles for legal and regulatory work. Both, me and my friend, decided to take this course to get full exposure to Indian laws and regulations. I got opportunities in India but wasn't confident on taking them up, but now this course will help me," said Gautam. Online courses are a big hit with working women, as it gives them access to world-class education without having to compromise on work or family. Shatarupa Chaki, Human Resources Director at Stryker India and a mother, is very upbeat about the course, and said, "It will enable me to serve better as a strategic board member of the company." As higher education rapidly moves online, massive companies like EdX and Coursera have taken the online learning market by storm by bringing courses from top universities online and millions of Indians have been enrolling into these foreign courses. NUJS tied up with an Indian e-learning course enabler iPleaders to launch these courses. iPleaders provides technology, customer support, online sales and marketing outreach, academic services and even conduct market research to identify unsatisfied demand in the education sector. The course is available on LawSikho.com. Indian universities have the potential to make unique courses relevant to the Indian educational needs and even cater to the global online learning market, but successful or popular online courses are yet to come from them. Success of online courses by NUJS Kolkata and their global appeal is definitely a positive sign from this perspective. About National University of Juridical Sciences: The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS or NUJS) is an autonomous law university offering courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is in Salt Lake City of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. NUJS is considered as one of the top three law schools in India as well as one of the best in the world. Established in the year 1999 by the legal education visionary Dr. Madhava Menon, its supremacy in legal research, academics and training is acclaimed and well recognized in Indian legal as well as corporate circles.

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[July 22, 2016] BioHiTech America Provides Onsite Solutions for Businesses Affected by Recently Enacted New York City Law to Separate Organic Waste

CHESTNUT RIDGE, N.Y., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BioHiTech Global, Inc. (" BioHiTech ") (OTCQB: BHTG), a green technology company that provides innovative data-driven solutions for food waste disposal announced that its subsidiary, BioHiTech America, LLC, is prepared to offer its disruptive waste management technology to New York City businesses required to comply with new regulations. The initiative is part of the city administration's comprehensive OneNYC Plan to send zero waste to landfills by 2030. The New York City Business Organics Rules were enacted on July 19, 2016 and require certain New York City businesses to separate their organic waste. Establishments covered by the Business Organics Rules include all food service establishments in hotels with 150 or more rooms, all food service vendors in arenas and stadiums with seating capacity of at least 15,000 people, food manufacturers with a floor area of at least 25,000 square feet, and food wholesalers with a floor area of at least 20,000 square feet. Businesses covered by this proposal are given the option to arrange for collection by a private carter, transport organic waste themselves, or process the material on site. Suitable processing methods include composting and aerobic/anaerobic digestion. A food waste grinder is not permitted. "With 39 Eco-Safe Digesters already installed primarily in the five boroughs of New York, we have been experiencing strong additional interest as the new regulations come into effect from both current and new potential customers," said Frank E. Celli, CEO of BioHiTech Global. "Our technology driven solution represents the most compelling of the options for these businesses, combining immediate savings on waste disposal costs with data analytics. By year end, we anticipate a significant increase in the number of new Eco-Safe Digesters coming online in the New York metropolitan area. As more cities across the globe adopt zero waste goals, we are confident BioHiTech will continue its growth momentum. Throughout 2016, we anticipate seeing our Eco-Safe Digester footprint expanding across the globe and hope to have approximately 400 toal units by the end of 2016."



BioHiTech America's waste management solution was also recently featured in The New York Post, Crain's New York Business and the New York Business Journal discussing New York City's Business Organics Rules. In the articles, BioHiTech Global CEO Frank E. Celli discusses how eliminating food waste creation is significantly more cost effective than having it carted away. "Every time a customer puts food in, we immediately transmit that data back to the cloud. Our customers in real time can see in each one of their digesters how much waste was generated," stated Mr. Celli. To view a video on how BioHiTech Global is eliminating food waste please click here.

For more information on the New York City Business Organics Rules, please click here. About BioHiTech Global

BioHiTech Global (OTCQB: BHTG), "The Company" headquartered in Chestnut Ridge NY, develops and deploys innovative and disruptive waste management technologies. The combined offerings of BioHiTech Global offer our customers a full suite of technology based disposal options capable of having a significant impact on waste generation while providing a true zero landfill environment. With options for both on and off site biological treatment of waste, BioHiTech Global is a leader in zero waste solutions for businesses and municipalities. For more information, please visit www.biohitechglobal.com. Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this document contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are based on many assumptions and estimates and are not guarantees of future performance. These statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of BioHiTech Global, Inc. to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. BioHiTech Global, Inc. assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Our actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation those set forth as "Risk Factors" in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). There may be other factors not mentioned above or included in the BioHiTech's SEC filings that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. BioHiTech Global, Inc. assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or developments, except as required by securities laws. Media Contact: Rubenstein Public Relations

Contact: Kristie Galvani

Tel: 212-843-9205

[email protected] Investor Relations Contact:

MZ North America

Ted Haberfield

President  MZ North America

Direct: 760-755-2716

Mobile: 858-204-5055

[email protected]

www.mzgroup.us Sales Contact:

BioHiTech Global, Inc.

Lisa Giovannielli

Marketing Director

Direct: 845-262-1081

[email protected]

www.biohitech.com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160429/361790LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biohitech-america-provides-onsite-solutions-for-businesses-affected-by-recently-enacted-new-york-city-law-to-separate-organic-waste-300302578.html SOURCE BioHiTech Global, Inc.

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[July 22, 2016] A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of The Travelers Companies, Inc. and Its Subsidiaries

A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A++ (Superior) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of "aa+" of the property/casualty subsidiaries of The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) (headquartered in New York, NY) [NYSE: TRV], collectively known as Travelers Group (Travelers). In addition, A.M. Best has also affirmed the FSR of A++ (Superior) and the ICR of "aa+" of Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America (TCSA) (Hartford, CT), and TCSA's affiliates, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Europe Limited (TCSCE) (United Kingdom) and Travelers Insurance Company of Canada (TICC) (Ontario). Concurrently, A.M. Best has affirmed the ICR and senior issue ratings of "a+" of TRV and its two wholly owned downstream holding companies, Travelers Property Casualty Corp. and Travelers Insurance Group Holdings Inc. (both headquartered in Hartford, CT). All outstanding securities issued by the two downstream holding companies are guaranteed by TRV. All other issue ratings guaranteed by TRV and TRV's indicative issue ratings have also been affirmed. The outlook for each of the above ratings is stable. A.M. Best also has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the ICR of "a" of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company (Dominion) (Toronto Ontario, Canada). The outlook for each of these ratings is stable. A.M. Best also has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the ICR of "a+" of The Premier Insurance Company of Massachusetts (Premier) (Hartford, CT) and the FSR of A- (Excellent) and the ICR of "a-" of First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Company (First Floridian) (Tampa, FL). The outlook for each of these ratings is stable. (Please see link below for a detailed listing of the companies and ratings.) The rating affirmations reflect Travelers' solid risk-adjusted capitalization, trend of favorable operating and underwriting results, excellent market profile in commercial and personal lines (largely distributed through independent agents) and effective management team. The ratings also acknowledge Travelers' proactive and comprehensive risk management, underwriting and financial discipline, relatively conservative investment portfolio, geographic and product diversification, and enhanced technology and internal information systems, which have improved its underwriting effectiveness and ability to service agents and customers in both commercial and personal lines. In addition, Travelers' superior product breadth, industry leading data and analytics and leading position within its distribution network have enabled it to report a trend of strong earnings that have outperformed the majority of its peers over time. Travelers' ratings also consider the financial flexibility and liquidity provided by TRV. Despite significant share repurchases since 2006, TRV maintained $1.7 billion of cash and marketable securities, and its adjusted debt-to-capital ratio, excluding accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI), remained moderate at 21.1% at March 31, 2016. The ratio of adjusted debt-to-tangible capital (excluding AOCI) ratio was 24.2%, well within A.M. Best's expectation at the current rating level, as was interest coverage.



Offsetting these positive rating factors are the ongoing competitive environment within the property/casualty markets, Travelers' relatively significant exposure to natural and man-made catastrophes and challenges in its personal auto business. Travelers has comprehensive reinsurance and risk management programs in place to manage its spread of risk and limit its overall exposure. Despite reporting an increased level of catastrophe losses in 2011 and 2012, Travelers reported solid returns in those years while maintaining strong liquidity and risk-adjusted capitalization, demonstrating the group's conservative operating philosophy, strong business profile and comprehensive risk management program. More recently, the group produced strong results in the first quarter of 2016, even as catastrophe losses increased substantially from the prior year. Expense reductions and the implementation of the Quantum (News - Alert) 2.0 underwriting system have driven recent growth in personal auto. The ratings of TCSA and its 100% reinsured affiliate, TCSCE, primarily recognize the companies' strong consolidated risk-adjusted capitalization, specialized underwriting expertise, highly favorable underwriting and operating performance and leadership position in the surety, fidelity and management liability segments. These strengths are partially offset by TCSA's limited product diversification, as well as the negative impact that continued competitive property/casualty markets and challenging macroeconomic conditions may have on premium and profitability levels.

The ratings of Travelers Insurance Company of Canada (TICC) reflect its superior risk-adjusted capitalization, favorable underwriting and operating profitability, excellent brand recognition, strong profile as a leading specialty lines writer in the surety and corporate management liability segments, as well as the implicit and explicit support received from its direct parent, TCSA, as well as its ultimate parent, TRV. Partially offsetting these positive rating factors are continued soft market conditions and its relatively elevated expense ratio due, in part, to investments in technology. The ratings of Dominion reflect its solid risk-adjusted capitalization; excellent brand recognition; established nationwide Canadian market presence, with a focus in Ontario; and the implicit and explicit support it receives from its parent, TRV. Partially offsetting these positive rating factors is the company's fluctuating operating performance driven by legacy issues within its Ontario auto business, which pre-date current ownership. An adverse development cover that the company entered into in connection with the Dominion acquisition should mitigate future variability related to those legacy issues. Additional offsetting factors include recent increased competition and continued lower investment yields. The ratings of Premier acknowledge its strong risk-adjusted capitalization, historically favorable operating profitability and the additional operational support and financial flexibility afforded by Travelers and TRV. These positive rating factors are partly offset by Premier's underwriting losses earlier in most recent five-year period and the concentration of its business in a single state and line of business, specifically, Massachusetts private passenger automobile. The ratings of First Floridian recognize its strong risk-adjusted capitalization, trend of highly profitable operating results in recent years, operating efficiencies and local market focus, which enables it to respond effectively to issues associated with Florida's personal lines market, and the additional operational support and financial flexibility afforded by TRV. Partially offsetting these strengths are First Floridian's continued, albeit declining, exposure to catastrophe losses and single state geographic concentration in Florida. Positive rating movement is unlikely in the near term. Factors that could lead to negative rating actions include deterioration in underwriting and operating performance to a level below similarly-rated peers, an erosion of surplus that causes a decline in risk-adjusted capital to a level that is no longer supportive of the current ratings or a deterioration in TRV's overall financial strength or credit quality. For a complete listing of The Travelers Companies, Inc.'s FSRs, ICRs and issue ratings, please visit The Travelers Companies, Inc. This press release relates to rating(s) that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright  2016 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005536/en/

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What you need to know about Colts starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger
Gov. Scott Walker has picked Daniel Kelly  a conservative Waukesha lawyer who has built a lengthy career in commercial litigation  to join the state Supreme Court.

Kelly, who will replace retiring Justice David Prosser when Prosser leaves the bench at the end of July, has been an ally to Walker in the courtroom and faced questions Friday about opinions he published comparing affirmative action to slavery in moral principle and decrying the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Like Prosser and former chief justice Shirley Abrahamson, Kelly comes to the bench without any judicial experience but has an undefeated track record appearing before the Supreme Court, which Walker noted in a press conference touting his appointment.

You have a nice mix of different perspectives and different backgrounds, Walker said of the justices backgrounds. The extensive experience that attorney Kelly has both in the court of appeals process and before the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, as well as work at the federal level, (makes him) very well-positioned.

Kelly represented state Republicans in a federal trial over a lawsuit challenging the 2010 redrawing of legislative districts and has ties to the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which has helped defend Act 10, Walkers legislation that all but eliminated collective bargaining powers for most public employees.

The Wisconsin State Journal first reported Wednesday that Walker was giving serious consideration to Kelly even though many conservatives thought he would pick another finalist, state appeals court judge Mark Gundrum.

Kelly is a more unconventional choice for Walker over the other two finalists who have judicial experience: Gundrum and fellow state appeals court judge Thomas Hruz.

Kellys 18-year career was spent defending clients that were mostly manufacturers, developers, investors, regional/national/worldwide financial institutions, professional services corporations and technology companies, he said in his application for the Supreme Court appointment.

Kelly was the one candidate who requested his name be kept confidential among the 11 applicants for the seat. Kelly was a reference for Walkers most recent Supreme Court selection, Justice Rebecca Bradley, and helped with her recent campaign against state appeals court judge JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Kelly also founded his own law firm in 2014 and was previously vice president and general counsel for the Kern Family Foundation, a conservative philanthropic organization that has donated millions to conservative groups, according to IRS records.

According to campaign finance records, Robert and Patricia Kern  who founded the foundation  also donated $220,000 to Walkers gubernatorial campaign since 2012.

Before starting his own firm, Kelly was a lawyer for 15 years with Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren. He received his bachelors degree in political science and Spanish from Carroll University and his law degree from Regent University in Virginia, the college founded by televangelist Pat Robertson that bills itself as a global center for Christian thought and action.

Kelly, like Bradley, also wrote a column published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2008 that urged candidates for the states highest court not to sign a so-called clean-campaign pledge pushed by the state bar association.

In 2014, Kelly wrote in John Rawls and Christian Social Engagement: Justice as Unfairness that slavery and affirmative action were, under the law, morally the same. He said both institutions spring from the same taproot and that neither can exist without the foundational principle that it is acceptable to force someone into an unwanted economic relationship.

Kelly also has publicly disavowed same-sex marriage.

When questioned by reporters during Walkers press conference, Kelly said it is not appropriate for Supreme Court justices to discuss personal or political opinions and that they have no role in his job as a justice.

The role of the courts is separate and apart from our roles as individuals in our society, Kelly said.

When pressed, Walker would not allow Kelly to personally answer any questions about the writings he cited in his application for the appointment as evidence of his judicial philosophy.

Democrats criticized the pick.

Since his graduation from Pat Robertsons Regent University School of Law, he has had an unremarkable legal career with no judicial experience whatsoever, said Rep. Dana Wachs, D-Eau Claire. What Kelly does have, however, is decades of work advancing conservative and Republican legal causes, and I suspect that is the only qualification that Gov. Walker was looking for.

Wisconsin citizens want a justice they can trust to apply the law equally and without prejudice, he said. Dan Kelly most certainly does not inspire confidence in this regard.

Rick Esenberg, WILLs president and general counsel, praised Kelly.

He is a very bright, capable attorney who believes in a judiciary that interprets the law objectively, fairly, and follows where the law might lead, Esenberg said. His experience unquestioningly qualifies him for the Supreme Court where reason and sophisticated legal analysis guides public policy affecting nearly 6 million Wisconsinites.

Esenberg this week hinted at the appointment of Kelly in a column published on the website Right Wisconsin. He pointed out that longtime Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson also had no judicial experience before she joined the bench.

Prossers retirement is effective July 31, and Kelly will take his place the next day. The appointment does not require legislative approval.
Saddling up to help children What gave rise to the Ventura County Sheriffs Posses latest initiative to help kids with disabilities? Just a man and his horse. Somis resident Russell...

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Long-serving Sydney punk outfit Royal Headache have found a decent amount of success recently with tracks like Another World tearing up the airwaves, but the band were still astonished to find that theyd actually been invited to play the song live on primetime American TV.

Having just appeared on the pretty notable program in NBCs Late Night with Seth Meyers, the band told their fans that the whole thing was ridiculous, expressing disbelief and thanking the program for letting (them) on TV.

Making their TV debut was a pretty nice way to wrap up their US tour  and no doubt a pretty surprising one. They tore through a rendition of their hit track, and it was all over in under two-and-a-half minutes.

While the sound might have been a little bit off, with the vocals hanging very openly at the forefront of the mix, its still great to see another Aussie band getting to do their thing in front of a huge US audience.
In a really disgusting turn of events, approximately 2000 records have been stolen from long-serving community radio announcer Tony Biggs.

Assembled over the course of 40 years in the music business, the collection included rare bootlegs from the Sex Pistols, Bowie and Joy Division, as well as other classics like signed Richard Clapton albums, and a large selection of comedy albums from legends like George Carlin and Don Rickles.

The immense collection of treasured vinyl was being stored in a lock-up garage in Prahran.

Tony has been a mainstay of the Australian music scene throughout much of his career, working on community radio stations 4ZZZ, triple j and 3RRR, and drumming in a host of local outfits.

3RRR implored their fans to keep an eye out for the stolen records.

Its a long-shot we know, but if anyone hears of this sort of collection turning up, please let us know. This is fucked.

That doesnt even begin to describe it, and were feeling gutted for Tony right now. Its truly awful that someone who has dedicated so much of their life to music could have it stolen away from them. If anyone has any information, please contact 3RRR.








"Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman announced the alleged killer of veteran police captain Robert Melton will face capital murder charges.





"Capt. Robert D. Melton was shot to death Tuesday while investigating a drive-by shooting. Police have said they don't believe his death was a planned ambush.





"Two suspects were arrested the same day. Gorman said the two men being held in connection to the fatal shooting are Jamaal Lewis and Daqon Sipple. Police say they are not looking for any other suspects at this time.





"Lewis has been charged with capital murder of a police officer and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is being held on a $10,000,000 bond.





"Sipple, the alleged accomplice, has been charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer. Sipple's bond has been set at $100,000."

In a tragic Kansas City, Kansas killing of a police captain . . . Charges came down fast and furious today.Check the roundup:Deets from KCTV5:##############Developing . . .
Among the Republicans going along with Donald Trumps takeover of their party, the House speaker, Paul Ryan, has made a tortuous art  a zigzag of maybes, yes-buts and oh, I guess sos  of protecting his interests en route to capitulating to the inevitable at the nominating convention.

By supporting the Trump candidacy, Ryan has revealed himself to be a weak opportunist, far from the ideas man and budget wonk he made himself out to be when he secured the vice-presidential nomination four years ago. It probably hasnt been easy to engage in the political casuistry needed to simultaneously reject and embrace Trump.

While condemning Trumps more hateful utterances, Ryan has been careful never, ever to criticize Trump himself. Its not what this country stands for, Ryan said of Trumps outrageous call to ban Muslims from entering the nation, yet he failed to challenge the person who said it.

Ryan denounced Trumps attack on an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage as the textbook definition of a racist comment. He added: Its absolutely unacceptable. But do I believe that Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not. Thus goes his justification for abandoning principles and good sense: The bizarre excesses of Trump  racism, xenophobia, paleo-protectionism  are nothing compared with the prospect of Hillary Clinton winning the White House.

Unlike Ryan, other Republican leaders have backed away from Trump as a candidate gone amok, notably Mitt Romney, the presidential candidate who campaigned alongside Ryan. Even John Kasich, the conventions host governor, has felt obliged to boycott the celebration of Trump. In contrast, Ryan seems to be trying to look just loyal enough to avoid blame for a Clinton victory while positioning himself to pick up the pieces of the party if Trump loses. But he cannot have this both ways. He is tying his future to Trumps ugly campaign.

Even before the credibility challenge presented by the Trump candidacy, Ryans reputation as a congressional thinker and innovator was subject to increasing doubts, as was his leadership of fractious House Republicans in their failure to agree on basic budget resolutions. Their election year agenda, called A Better Way, has been widely criticized for lacking detail in its claims about curtailing poverty. Last month, after years of vowing to come up with a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Ryans caucus finally offered a proposal. Far from being innovative, the plan was built around Ryans longstanding proposals to shift Medicare to a market-based competitor of health care companies.

Under scrutiny, Ryans prescriptions for reforms and savings have proved to be glossy variations on the tired Republican tactic of more tax cuts favoring the rich over the middle class, while his budget-cutting proposals have never added up to his grand promises.

As a conservative policy leader, Ryan should have every reason to oppose Trump. They hold different positions on core issues, including on immigration (Ryan opposes Trumps call for 11 million deportations), trade deals (Ryan supports the Pacific trade deal that Trump has vilified) and international engagement (the speaker favors a stronger NATO and wariness toward Russia, while Trump seems ready to embrace isolationism).

A cynic would say Ryan has nothing to lose: Either he gets the bombastic, unpredictable Trump as the next president or he survives to seek the presidential nomination in 2020. But whatever the outcome, Ryan seems already to be what Trump typically calls a loser  a once promising politician who has lost his way.
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Mega hottiestarts our quick look at some of the most important afternoon links on this sweltering Thursday afternoon...And this is thefor right now . . .
Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Mardas was on Wednesday due to return from Nairobi, where he represented Greece at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 14th ministerial session

Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Mardas was on Wednesday due to return from Nairobi, where he represented Greece at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 14th ministerial session, the theme of which was From Decisions to Actions on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

During the UNCTAD plenary, Mardas expressed Greeces support for reforming the Organizations institutional framework with the aim of simplifying the decision-making process, enhancing effectiveness and increasing the potential for implementing projects through securing the requisite resources.

He also stressed that, in view of the 2030 Agenda, immediate practical solutions must be found to strengthen connectivity between southern and northern states, the effectiveness of governments and, in general, international cooperation. At the same time, he referred to the factors that promote or hinder trade transactions between the north and south, and he proposed ways to improve industrial cooperation between enterprises of industrial and developing states.

Mardas also had a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Kenya, during which the excellent level of bilateral relations was reaffirmed and there was a discussion of ways to further deepen these relations in all sectors.

During his visit to Kenya, the minister was accompanied by Larissa MP and chairman of the Greece-Kenya Friendship Parliamentary Group Nikolaos Papadopoulos and a Greek business mission to Nairobi, where meetings were arranged between Greek entrepreneurs already active in Kenya or interested in becoming active there and representatives of the Kenyan public and private sectors. Accompanied by entrepreneurs, Mardas met with the Minister for East Africa, Labor and Employment, the Physical Planning Minister, the Deputy Tourism Minister, and the Vice President and CEO of Kenyas National Chamber of Commerce.

The 14th UNCTAD Ministerial Session was held in Nairobi on July 17-22.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
The eight officers who escaped after the failed coup are charged with illegally entering the country

The eight Turkish military officers who participated in the failed coup in Turkey and subsequently escaped to Greece will go on trial at noon on Thursday. The Misdemeanors Court of Alexandroupoli is expected to issue a verdict within the day.

According to the case file, all of them are charged with illegally entering the country, while seven of the officers will be charged with inciting illegal flight and the eighth (the pilot) will be charged with carrying out an illegal flight. The police officer who arrested the eight officers will testify as a witness.

During the investigation, the eight putschists told the police that they removed electronic equipment containing coordinates and military maps and threw it in the sea.

The interviews for the asylum applications are expected next week on Wednesday, however it is not yet clear when an initial decision will be issued. Officers from the asylum services have commented that the process for refugees and migrants typically lasts between two to three months.

Tension outside the court

Many journalists and media from Turkey are currently outside the courts to cover trial. Greek Muslims from Thrace are also demonstrating outside the courts in favor of Turkish President Erdogan and accusing the arrested officers of treason.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Recent developments in Turkey, negotiations and security in the region are at the top of the agenda between Greece and Cyprus

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus Yannis Kasoulidis will be in Athens on Friday, where he will meet with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias at 11:30 am.

As expected, the recent developments in Turkey, following the failed coup, will be at the top of the agenda. The two will also discuss security in the broader region as well as the negotiations on the Cypriot dispute.

In his message on the 42nd anniversary of the Turkish invasion, Mr. Kotzias underlined that the constant concern and chief pursuit of Greece's foreign policy is to bring an end the ongoing Turkish occupation of the island.

According to the Greek Minister the abolition of the anachronistic system of guarantees and departure of Turkish occupation forces must be fundamental aspects of any solution.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Donald Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as US secretary of state and vowed to be tough on crime and illegal immigrants in a speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.



Trump's 75-minute speech was designed to set the tone for the general election campaign against Clinton, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on November 8.



As the crowd chanted: "Lock her up" for her handling of US foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: "Let's defeat her in November." Thousands of supporters who were gathered in the convention hall roared their approval.



When it was over, Trump was joined on stage by family members as balloons cascaded from above and confetti blew around the arena.



A CNN snap poll of viewers of the speech said 57 percent had a "very positive reaction" to the address and 18 percent a somewhat positive reaction, while 24 percent said it had a negative effect.



Social media sentiment toward Trump based on tweets that mentioned his name was slightly more negative than positive shortly after his speech.



The acceptance speech by Trump, 70, closed out a four-day convention that underscored his struggle to heal fissures in the Republican Party over his anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about his temperament. The event was boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents.



Trump presented a bleak view of America under siege from illegal immigrants, threatened by Islamic State militants, hindered by crumbling infrastructure and weakened by unfair trade deals and race-related violence.



Accusing illegal immigrants of taking jobs from American citizens and committing crimes, Trump vowed to build a "great border wall" against the border-crossers.



"We will stop it," Trump said.



Trump took positions in conflict with traditional Republican policies. He said he would avoid multinational trade deals but instead pursue agreements with individual countries. He would renegotiate the Nafta trade accord linking the US, Canada and Mexico. He would penalise companies that outsource jobs and then export their foreign-made products back into the US.



"We will never sign bad trade deals," Trump thundered. "America first!"



The New York businessman, who has never held elected office, filled his speech with some of the bravado he used to win the Republican nomination over 16 rivals, punctuating his rhetorical points by waving an index finger.



"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump said. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."



In his speech, Trump portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned.



Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.



Trump said policies pursued by Clinton in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse. He blamed her for the rise of Islamic State militants and blasted her willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees.



"After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said.



Clinton senior adviser John Podesta dismissed the speech as painting "a dark picture of an America in decline" and called it a reminder that Trump "is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States."



John Weaver, a senior adviser to Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, a former presidential rival to Trump, said in a tweet that Trump had delivered the "saddest, darkest, most depressing acceptance speech in modern history."



'THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE'



Trump needed a strong performance on Thursday night to improve his chances of getting a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own, more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia.



In a contest that pits two politicians viewed as unfavourable by large segments of the American people, Trump also accused Clinton, 68, of being the puppet of big business, elite media and major donors who want to preserve the current political system.



"That is why Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change - and they have to change right now," Trump said.



Trump said he would speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month. He vowed to defeat "the barbarians of ISIS," the acronym for Islamic State.



"I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump said. The next president takes office on January 20.



CONVENTION DISCORD



The prevailing narrative at the Cleveland convention has not been about Trump's positions, but dominated instead by the failure of he party's various factions to unite behind Trump.



A series of distractions at the convention largely thwarted a bid by the Trump campaign to show him as a caring father and magnanimous business leader who would bring greater prosperity and safety to the United States.



But in the end, many of these points were made when Ivanka Trump, Trump's daughter, introduced her father.



"I have seen him fight for his family. I have seen him fight for his employees. I have seen him fight for his company and now I am seeing him fight for our country," she said.



Trump's text of his speech, released by his campaign, included extensive footnotes to show where the material originated.



That was perhaps in reaction to the speech given on Monday night by Trump's wife Melania, who was accused of plagiarism when she repeated lines from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, Obama's wife.



A staff writer for the Trump Organization later took responsibility for the misstep. - Reuters
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he might abandon Nato's guarantee of mutual defence and would renegotiate or scrap the Nafta trade deal if he is elected, drawing fire from some senior Republicans and his Democratic rival.



In response to a question about potential Russian aggression against the Baltic states, Trump told the New York Times that Washington would help defend other Nato members only if they had "fulfilled their obligations to us."



All three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are former Soviet republics and now Nato members.



Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort did not dispute the quotes, saying they were consistent with the candidate's desire to modernise the US' international treaties.



But national security officials and some Republicans said abandoning Nato's mutual defence guarantee, enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty, would abandon 66 years of US foreign policy and threaten the world's most powerful military alliance.



Also weighing in was the campaign for Democrat Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Trump's likely opponent in the November 8 election.



"Trump has apparently decided that America lacks the moral authority to advance our interests and values around the world," Clinton's senior foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement.



Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he disagreed "totally" with Trump's comments on Nato.



"It's the most important military alliance in world history. It remains relevant today. Many Americans don't know that the operation in Afghanistan is a Nato operation," McConnell said, adding: "I want to reassure our Nato allies that we will come to the defence of any member that is threatened."



US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a former presidential rival of Trump, said Trump's remarks made the world more dangerous and the US less safe.



Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday he would not interfere in the US election campaign but that allied solidarity was a key value for the group.



"This is good for European security and good for US security," the Nato head said in a statement. "The United States has always stood by its European allies."



Trump previously said he would force allies to shoulder more of the defence costs that the US has borne for decades, cancel long-standing treaties he considers unfavourable, and redefine what it means to be a partner of the US.



Stoltenberg said defence spending among European allies and Canada rose last year for the first time in many years. In 2016, he said, he expected a further 3 percent increase, or $8 billion.



TRADE DISPUTES



Trump has railed against the Nafta trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a US job killer and was quoted as saying in the New York Times interview that he would be prepared to scrap it if he could not negotiate much better terms for the US.



The North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994 during the administration of President Bill Clinton, the husband of Hillary Clinton.



Unlike the Nato treaty, US laws appear to give presidents significant authority to renegotiate foreign trade deals without consulting Congress, trade experts said.



"Trump as president would have an enormous amount of discretion," said Barry Bosworth, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former White House staffer.



If elected, Trump could unilaterally terminate Nafta or any other free trade deal, although a court would likely have to decide if the president had that authority, said Gary Hufbauer, a former deputy assistant secretary for trade at the Treasury Department.



Nafta was enacted by a law passed by Congress, but Article 2205 of the agreement allows any party to withdraw from the deal with six months' notice, and Hufbauer said US courts would likely allow Trump to make that decision.



"The president has a lot more power than is generally recognised," said Hufbauer, currently at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank. - Reuters
Gov. Scott Walker relished his return to the presidential spotlight Wednesday night, rallying Republicans to unify around Donald Trump at the partys national convention in Cleveland.

Walker led delegates in chants of America deserves better! than Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic opponent.

A lot of Americans agree. But they also want someone better than Trump in the White House. Hes even more disliked than the former secretary of state, according to opinion polls. In fact, Trump and Clinton are the least popular major presidential candidates in modern history.

Thats led to speculation over who might run for president in 2020 and beyond. And it was no coincidence Wisconsins governor paid special visits this week in Cleveland to delegates from early caucus and primary states. Hes starting to lay the groundwork for another potential presidential bid.

Walker said Tuesday the only campaign hes thinking about is a third run for governor in 2018, but he wouldnt rule out another national campaign.

I could wait 20 years and still be younger than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the governor quipped.

Age may be on his side. But public opinion in Wisconsin is not. Just 38 percent of registered voters in the latest Marquette Law School poll approve of Walkers job performance. The governors support fell sharply during his failed bid for president last year and hasnt recovered.

So talk of 2020 is presumptuous. The governor has far too many challenges at home, some of which have festered for years.

Wisconsins budget is officially balanced, as required by law. He touted the states finances in his speech Wednesday.

But unlike private business and most units of government, Wisconsin tallies its financial commitments using loose accounting standards that mask risk. Wisconsins economy, though growing, hasnt kept up with other states. And the governors priority has been tax cuts for traditional sectors of the economy, especially manufacturing. Hes shown far less interest in technology companies that hold tremendous potential for adding high-wage jobs.

The governors motto has been Wisconsin is open for business. But another tight state budget wont leave much room for investment in education and research, following a deep cut to the University of Wisconsin System. The state needs to adopt a sustainable source of funding for roads and bridges. Excessive borrowing cant continue for long.

Wisconsin is ripe for prison reform, with top Republican lawmakers championing change. Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate for blacks in the nation. Smarter sentencing, particularly for nonviolent crimes, is needed, with job programs for ex-offenders.

Whatever national ambition or plans the governor has for his future, the key to his political career lies right here at home. Wisconsin needs a governor intently focused on Wisconsins challenges  not Washington politics  who puts the states interests first.
Gunmen went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday, killing many people, police said.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside.

A Munich police spokeswoman said mulitple people were killed or wounded. "We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said.

Germany's Muencher Abendzeitung reported that up to 15 people were killed in a shooting in a shopping mall in the southern city of Munich. TV images showed dozens of emergency vehicles outside the mall.

More than one gunman was believed to be involved and no one had been arrested, she said.

NTV television reported that German police special forces had arrived at the scene.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-weilding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich.

"All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive,"

"We have no further information, we're just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet."

Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

There was, however, no immediate word that the attack was politically motivated.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.-Reuters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and fellow European leaders are pressing the new British government to trigger divorce proceedings with the European Union as soon as possible.



But behind the scenes, senior German officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, say they fear a swift move by London to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty risks creating an impossibly short window for negotiating Britain's departure.



Further complicating the task, EU leaders have rejected the possibility of any negotiations before Britain moves on Article 50, a step which would start a two-year countdown to Brexit.



Behind their stance is a desire to send a message to Britain that it cannot hold the EU hostage by horse trading on the terms of an EU exit before it commits to leave.



But six top officials in Berlin and Brussels described this position as problematic, with one dismissing it as "absurd".



Some believe Europe's hard line on the sequencing of Brexit talks will need to be revised, perhaps as early as October, when new British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to attend her first meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.



The comments reveal the depth of anxiety in Europe's key capitals about how both sides in the Brexit showdown have positioned themselves in the weeks after the shock June 23 vote to leave the bloc.



"It was not wrong to send a tough message after the Brexit vote but I don't think the current stance is sustainable," said one official. "You need to start some sort of process as soon as possible, whether you call it negotiations or not."



A second senior official said: "It's absurd to think that we won't negotiate on anything before Article 50 is invoked."



May, on her first foreign trip since replacing David Cameron as prime minister last week, visited Berlin on Wednesday for talks with Merkel before travelling to Paris on Thursday to discuss Brexit with French President Francois Hollande.



At a news conference in Berlin, she said Britain needed time to agree on its objectives for the talks and would not trigger Article 50 this year. Merkel said it was understandable that Britain would take a few months to figure out its negotiating strategy, but added: "Nobody wants a prolonged period of limbo."



The French have taken a tougher line, pressing Britain to move fast, and launching an open campaign to woo London-based financial firms to Paris.



FAR TOO SHORT



Behind the concern of the German officials is a creeping realisation that the two-year window for negotiating a Brexit, as set out in Article 50, is far too short.



An extension of the period is possible, but it would require the unanimous agreement of the remaining 27 EU member states, and is therefore seen as unlikely, or at best unsure.



Berlin is also sceptical about the possibility of Britain revoking Article 50 once it has been triggered.



This means that something will have to give, German officials say. They spell out two possible scenarios.



Under the first, the EU would revise its position and agree to a prolonged period of negotiations before Article 50 is invoked. That would win both sides extra time before the clock starts ticking, but it would represent a climbdown and probably provoke outrage in some EU capitals, notably Paris.



The second option, in the event May triggers Article 50 early next year, would be for Britain to settle for a very basic framework for its future ties with the EU, based on an existing model similar to that of Norway or Switzerland.



Even then, the deadline of two years is widely viewed as a stretch.



A third senior official said it took the EU three years to seal its divorce from Greenland, a negotiation that was focused almost exclusively on fishing rights.



That official estimated that the EU and Britain, because of the complexity of their relationship, needed at least twice that time -- six years -- to seal their separation, describing two years as "mission impossible".



Adding to the muddle is the heavy election calendar in Europe next year, which officials fear could lead to paralysis.



Germany, France and the Netherlands are all holding elections in 2017, Spain is still struggling to form a government after two inconclusive votes, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he will resign if he loses a referendum on constitutional reform in the autumn.



Leaders in these countries will be focused on their campaigns. If there are changes in power, new governments will need time to settle in.



"Do you really think that Europe will be in a position to focus on Brexit talks next year if its five biggest countries are in the middle of elections or dogged by political uncertainty?" a senior Brussels-based official said.



DOWN TO EARTH



Even if formal negotiations do not start for half a year or more, the official said it was important that Britain and the EU converge on a "corridor of principles" for Brexit talks in the months ahead.



One of the big worries in Berlin and other capitals is that London has unrealistic expectations about what it can secure from the Brexit negotiations, particularly on the tradeoff between access to the EU's single market and respect for the bloc's core principle of free movement.



British diplomats also acknowledge that the team May has put together to steer Brexit talks has a starry-eyed view of what concessions London can win from the EU and say their European counterparts need to deliver this message to them directly.



"A lot of people have 'climbed up trees', people like David Davis and Liam Fox," said one of the German officials, referring to the new Brexit and trade ministers in London. "They need time to climb down."



The problem is not just on the British side. It remains unclear who will take the European lead in negotiations, although officials say the aim is to clear this up by September.



Berlin is reluctant to hand over responsibility to the executive European Commission, its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and his chief of staff Martin Selmayr, out of fear they could take an overly confrontational stance towards Britain.



An alternative would be to let the European Council, led by Poland's Donald Tusk, take the lead, with input from sherpas in European capitals and with the Commission playing a secondary, supportive role.



Either way, agreeing a common negotiating strategy between the remaining 27 EU countries is becoming a huge challenge, especially because Berlin and Paris have different views about how to treat Britain during the process. - Reuters
Exciting range of local and international Fair & Ethical Trade exhibitors come to Edinbiurgh this August



(TRAVPR.COM) UK - July 22nd, 2016 - Once again, the Fair & Ethical Trade on the Fringe will bring together a unique offering to Edinburgh during the international Edinburgh Festivals with a range of fair trade, ethical as well beautiful Scottish hand crafted gifts. Exhibitors from as far Peru, India, Zambia and Kenya give shoppers a truly international shopping experience and where monies are reinvested to help others in communities around the world.

Organizers Hand Up events are running the Fair & Ethical Trade on the Fringe from 7 13August on Castle Street and then 14  27 August on the roof of Waverley Mall next to Waverley Station and looking onto Princes Street and colourful flags will be in place to showcase the event.

Tania Pramschufer, Director Hand Up Events and LocalMotive Markets said: Fair & Ethical Trade onthe Fringe provides a unique opportunity for UK shoppers to buy such a great variety of fair & ethical gifts as well, to meet so many international exhibitors who support their communities through our events that put fair & ethical trade on the best possible high footfall locations. We are delighted to be on Castle Street again this year and for the first time on Waverley Mall.

Tania added: We are feeling excited to meet so many of our great friends again, who come to exhibit from across the world each year alongside many of our creative local Scottish businesses. There are not many fairs that can boast such a truly international appeal as well as having a castle at the end of the street  so a great tourism and shopping location too.

New Fairtrade exhibitor, Elaine Lowe from Blue Llama is attending for the first year from Peru, working with small, family run workshops, thus ensuring Fairtrade standards are met, and at the same time empowering these artisans and their families and added "Fair and Ethical Trade on the Fringe is exactly the sort event I hoped Id be working with when I set up Blue Llama. For us, its the perfect chance to show our sustainably produced alpaca knitwear to customers from all over the world. Im really looking forward to being part of it.

Local student and social entrepreneur Albert Mkony runs Karibu Kilimanjaro - originally from Tanzania, he is presently studying in Edinburgh and teaches Swahili as well as working directly with makers and designers in Tanzania and added: I look forward to exhibiting the talent and creativity of Maasai People from Tanzania at the Fair & Ethical Trade on the Fringe and hopefully in the process empowering them, not just to survive but to thrive and overcome poverty through trade not just aid. I think this event is a great opportunity to engage with people from all around the world who will be in Edinburgh to learn about The Maasai People and Tanzania as whole.

Fair & Ethical Trade on the Fringe has been taking place on Castle Street since 2009 and will be running the following week on the roof of Waverley Mall. It promotes fair and ethically sourced and traded products as well as local arts and crafts. It attracts exhibitors from across the globe, from as far as Zambia, Kenya, India, Chile and Bali and this year space is being offered to Fairtrade organisations, ethical businesses and local makers/designers on a first come basis. Suppliers can sign up by contacting tania@handupevents.co.uk

Tania added: There are some great eating and shopping experiences on Castle Street and Princes Street so we encourage our visitors to make the most of the fair and the shops, cafes, restaurants and businesses nearby.

Ends

Notes to Editors

About our exhibitors @ Fair & Ethical Trade on the Fringe

The back stories.

Elaine Lowe from Blue Llama is attending for the first year from Peru, working with small, family run workshops, thus ensuring Fairtrade standards are met, and at the same time empowering these artisans and their families. Creating sustainable, ethical, beautiful textiles. Their objective is to combine natural materials, such as alpaca, wool, and cotton, using traditional artisan techniques along with creative, contemporary design.

Dorostel International represented by Dorothy Taro from Kenya who has been attending since 2009 with handcrafted woven baskets, original artworks, traditional soap stone animals and bags. Profits and products supporting women within her community who have lost children through HIV.

Sanyo Crafts represented by Sarah Ngechu also from Kenya, a university lecturer who gained her qualifications at Napier many years ago. Sarah provides food and education for 14 children she has adopted but runs a daily rota for them to sleep with locals as her own two-bedroom home not big enough. However, since she has been coming to our events since 2008, some of the income from sales of her products has bought a piece of land back and now she has set her heart on raising more funds to build a warm home for all of them, brick by brick. Sarah brings with her arts and crafts made from sand stone, soap stone, bone, wood, and clay.

Chipo Mutena Mdaitzaida travels from Zambia. Recently, she has gained recognition for her work and promoting Zambia in Edinburgh by the Zambian president as well high commissioner. She sources hand painted batiks, hand woven shawls and scarfs and many other traditionally handcrafted gifts that are mostly sourced from cooperatives support women out of poverty through trade.

Other exhibitors who attending again this year include:

Gecko Galleries- ethically made handcrafted leather journals and bags from India

ACTSA- South African Fairtrade products supporting anti-apartheid. John Nelson who most often runs the stall which is filled with beautiful arts and crafts from South Africa has recently been given the MBE by The Queen for his 40 years of service. ACTSA is the successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) and is a democratic, member led, campaigning organisation.

One World Shop- Fair Trade shop in Edinburgh selling a wide range of Fairtrade products all around the world

Santosa  ethically sourced gifts made in Nepal (Just opened new yoga shop on Leith Walk)

Lumina Fair Trade Jewellery - Picky Saud has attended Fair & Ethical Trade on the Fringe event since the start in 2009, with magnificent gemstone jewellery, selected very specially and made through

ME and You has been trading since 2009 with workers in a small rural village called Tilora in Rajasthan. During this time this small family business has steadily grown to employ 100 workers who in the beginning started off as family and close friends and now trained as professional tailors.

Karibu Kilimanjaro - Edinburgh based Tanzanian Social Enterprise specializing in hand made, fairly traded jewellery and fashion from Maasai of Tanzania

Scottish Exhibitors to name but a few.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust - Engage shoppers with their environmental and conservational projects across Scotland

Fern Glass - beautiful glass window hangings

Calzeat - Celtic throws and scarves

Cabbie Kids - Organic kids clothing company

Jan Milne - Hand crafted jewellery

Ali Furniture Farm - Hand Crafted Farm animal stools

Eclectic Shock - Recycled jewellery

Kylie Campbell - Jewellery

Dragonfly Dichroic

For more event information and photos:

Tania Pramschufer, Event organisers at Hand Up Events; tania@handupevents.co.uk www.handupevents.co.uk 07914 254 334. Our twitter handle is @handupevents and we hope you can join us on twitter for both events.

For further press information contact:

Fiona Stewart, PR Consultant, Interwoven PR;E: fiona@interwovenpr.com M: +44 (0)7940560453

Notes to Editors

Hand Up Events is an Edinburgh based events company that focuses on a positive social impact to everyone involved. Social responsibility means trying to ensure everyone benefits, from our suppliers, our exhibitors, our customers and that our ethos remains at the fore of whatever we do.



We particularly aim to support people through trade, not aid. We are connected with international exhibitors across the globe and seek to continue developing these lifelong relationships.

###
The year 2016 brought with it recognition for Walkers Tours very successful endeavors during the past year. The company has been the proud winner of a number of awards this year for its social media campaigns and online presence from various international awarding bodies solidifying its place as the countrys leading Destination Management Company.



(TRAVPR.COM) SRI LANKA - July 22nd, 2016 - The year 2016 brought with it recognition for Walkers Tours very successful endeavors during the past year. The company has been the proud winner of a number of awards this year for its social media campaigns and online presence from various international awarding bodies solidifying its place as the countrys leading Destination Management Company.

A member of the Walkers Tours Social Media team was adjudged Social Media Professional of the year at the Indo Lanka Customer Engagement Forum and Awards held at the Taj Samudra hotel in Colombo in January. The event which recognized the best customer engagement campaigns, creatives and activities executed for the year, played host to some of the leading companies in Sri Lanka and India.

Since its inception in 2013 the Asia Customer Engagement Forum has celebrated the best campaigns that have delivered the ultimate in Customer Experience which led to improved customer engagement, loyalty and retention.

Walkers Tours also won the Gold award for Most Admired Customer Engaged Website at the Asia Pacific Customer Engagement Forum held in Mumbai India. This years awards saw 410 entries from Brands and Agencies from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and China.

The company then went on to win the Best in Class award for its website (www.walkerstours.com) at the Interactive Media Awards held recently. The site managed to secure an overall score of 492 out of a maximum of 500. The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards. It represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism.

The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement. The list of judges include distinguished professionals from leading companies in the United States.



Walkers Tours was one of 255 entries submitted in the 'Travel/Tourism' category for the awards.

###
Two weeks ago the start of one of the worlds largest and most significant elephant translocations happened in Malawi. Since then 150 elephants have made the 350km journey to their new home, Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve.



(TRAVPR.COM) UK - July 22nd, 2016 - In total, up to 500 elephants are being translocated from Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve, in southern Malawi to their new home not far from the famous Lake in central Malawi. In addition to these elephants, thousands of other animals including sable, waterbuck, zebra, kudu, eland and warthogs are also being translocated all with the goal of repopulating Nkhotakota and restoring it to its former glory and years of neglect and poaching. With anti-poaching measures, fencing and local conservation education as integral parts of African Parks rehabilitation of Nkhotakota, the newly-arrived animals will have a much safer and more secure new home.

The first elephants to enter the Reserve were a family of nine individuals but families of up to 20-25 can be moved at a time. So far all the elephants are doing well and staying within the perimeter fencing. African Parks, who are leading the translocation, plan to collar a total of 35 of these first 250 elephants in order to monitor them in their vast new home. Collars will be attached to 10 bulls and the rest to matriarchs.

The operation has two objectives: to relieve pressure from the elephants surplus in Liwonde and Majete, and to restock Nkhotakota which supported more than 1,500 elephants 20 years ago, but today has fewer than 100. Liwonde and Majete are source populations for elephants and are at or nearing capacity (with populations of 800 and 400 elephants respectively), resulting in habitat degradation and high levels of human-wildlife conflict. As Malawi is a densely-populated, agro-based country, no ecological corridors exist to allow for natural migration. The 500 Elephants initiative is a human-assisted migration providing the best chance of a long-term and sustainable future for these elephants.

This is an extremely hopeful story for conservation, elephants and particularly for Malawi. Journalist Sue Watt, who has been given special access to the project, said I watched the elephants being darted and captured in Liwonde, then was fortunate to see the first group walking into their new home in Nkhotakota the following day. Its a very complex operation and I have been hugely impressed, not just at the professionalism of the team but their compassion and commitment - its such an inspiring project.

The future for Nkhotakota looks bright, the next 12 months will see a repopulated park both with elephants and other game species, a premier elephant sanctuary for Malawi and tourism hotspot for the country in the coming years. Add this to the big 5 Majete Wildlife Reserve and the stunning Liwonde National Park all and Malawi is set to become one of the most complete destinations in Africa - Lake, Landscape, Culture and now Wildlife experiences of the highest quality.

Since 2003 African Parks has, in partnership with the Malawi government, managed Majete Wildlife Reserve, a partnership that has seen the reserve restored and restocked with 2,500 animals including the Big Five. Majete has been a great success and is now one of Malawis premier wildlife sanctuaries, conserving and protecting more than 8,800 animals. With the addition of Liwonde National Park and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in 2015, African Parks now manages three of Malawis nine protected areas and with goals to match all that has been achieved in Majete, African Parks are transforming the wildlife of the country.

###
They may be light on practicality and cargo space, but they're heavy on nostalgia.

When it comes to our choices, they say there's no accounting for taste, and each of us makes our decisions based on our own set of values, standards, and desires, which often aren't easily explained to someone else. For example, some people choose a practical and affordable station wagon with plenty of room, and some prefer a full-size pickup truck, while still others opt for a tiny sports car, and yet another will ride a motorcycle, with each person following their own transportation muse. Each person sees their vehicle as best serving their own purposes, even if making their choice means compromising on one aspect of the equation. A big crewcab F150 with massive tires and lift kit on it, which might make sense on a job where rugged terrain and regular heavy hauling are in order, is just overkill for the majority of the people who drive them, but it's important to those people to have a huge vehicle for the occasional task (and for the cachet of being seen driving one), but the tradeoff is a huge gas bill every week.

Why should e-bike riders be any different? There are as many kinds of cyclists, or potential cyclists, as there are kinds of drivers, and while one person may find an electric cargo bike to be a really good fit for them, for both the carrying capacity and the style of it, others may make their decision based purely on how an e-bike looks, no matter how it stacks up to a more stodgy yet practical model. And that's why in a growing e-bike market, we're seeing lots of entries in every niche, ranging from high-end and high performance bikes to heavy haulers to small batch retro bikes, and I see this breadth of choice as a good thing for the consumer, as they can pick the right e-bike for their own needs, which potentially gets more butts in more saddles and more feet on pedals.

All of that is a very long way of introducing a line of handmade e-bikes from Spain that are probably more retro-looking than they are practical, but which offer a big dose of nostalgia.

 Oto Cycles

Barcelona's Oto Cycles currently offers several models of e-bikes, each of which can be built with the rider's choice of electric motor in the rear hub (ranging from 250 W to 1000 W) and battery capacity to fit their needs, and everything from the frame color to the tires, saddle, and handgrips can be customized to ensure a unique look. The company has been making e-bikes for the last few years, and now has four different designs to choose from.

 Oto Cycles

The following video, while a few years old, offers a good look at a few of the Oto Cycles e-bikes.

The offerings from Oto Cycles include three e-bikes that all bear a strong resemblance to the motorcycles of yesteryear, complete with a faux gas tank, although without the fossil fuel engine. The Oto Racer is a beautiful example of a "new urban legend" e-bike that is sure to cause a fair bit of bike envy, while the OtoR model has a bit more of a laid-back cruiser style to it, and the OtoK model falls somewhere in the middle between the two. The newest e-bike model from Oto Cycles, the CrosS, looks more like a throwback to the bicycles of the 70s, with upright handlebars and a 'sissy bar' on the rear of the seat, room for a passenger, and it also includes built-in Bluetooth speakers for bringing your tunes with you on your ride.

 Oto Cycles

According to the company website, Oto Cycles only sells through certain bike dealers in Europe, Australia, and South Korea, and there's no mention of the prices for any of the models. If the prices of the other similar retro-looking e-bikes are any indication, these models will probably set you back a few thousand dollars, but if you're curious, you can contact the company for more information.

h/t Auto Evolution
An invasive species is a non-native organism that causes ecological harm after being introduced to a new environment. Humans are responsible for the spread of a majority of earth's invasive species, often carrying them to different parts of the world on ships. Once they enter a new ecosystem, invasive species can outcompete native organisms for resources like food, especially if they lack natural predators.

Some invasive species also carry diseases that kill native organisms, and many will consume native plants and animals. Invasive species can ultimately cause the decline or extinction of native species, decreasing biodiversity in an ecosystem.

Damage Caused by Invasive Species

Invasive species have cost humans at least $1.4 trillion dollars globally in damages, approximately five percent of the worlds economy. In the United States alone, invasive plants affect over 100 million acres of land each year, and invasive species have contributed to the population declines of 42% of Americas threatened or endangered species.

How Invasive Species Migrate

While humans are responsible for the introduction of many nonnative species to new habitats, the relocation of organisms is not a recent phenomenon. Species migrations have been affecting ecosystems since life began on earth. Approximately 3 million years ago, the ecosystems of North and South America were forever changed as dozens of genera of animals migrated between the two continents along the newly formed Isthmus of Panama in an event known as the Great American Biotic Interchange. Armadillos, porcupines, and sloths colonized North America, while horses and predators like foxes and bears entered the southern continent. The introduction of these new predators to South America led to the extinction of many mammalian species that lived there, including all 13 native species of ungulates (hoofed mammals).

Still, humans have brought invasive species to new environments in previously unmatched capacities. In 1827, European settlers brought wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) to Australia to remind them of home. The rabbits reproduced quickly and soon began to kill many native shrubs and trees by consuming their seeds and stripping off their bark. By damaging vegetation, rabbits also decreased the number of food sources for many of the small ground-dwelling mammals that lived in Australia, leading to their extinction. To combat the rabbit infestation, Europeans introduced the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) to Australia in the 1850s, hoping that it would kill a large portion of the rabbits. Instead, it ate native rodents and marsupials, causing declines in native animal populations.

Today, many invasive species are still intentionally brought to different parts of the world to serve as pets, and invasive plants like watermilfoil (Myriophyllum) are used as decorations in aquariums.

Most Invasive Species Are Introduced Accidentally

Most invasive species, however, are introduced accidentally. During the 18th and 19th centuries, European explorers unintentionally carried black rats (Rattus rattus) and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) on their ships as they visited new lands, eventually introducing the two species to every continent but Antarctica. When introduced to new regions, the rats fed on native birds, mammals, reptiles, and seeds and spread diseases, hurting native plant and animal populations. Rats still cost humans hundreds of millions of dollars in damages every year.

Today, there are thousands of invasive species worldwide and approximately 4,300 in the United States alone. Kudzu, one of the worst invasive plants in America, covers at least seven million acres of land in the Southeast United States. Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) clog pipes and starve out native fish in the Great Lakes and New England. Asian carp, another invasive species, have been outcompeting native fish for resources in at least 23 states since the 1980s.

How to Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species

The best way to curb the damages of invasive species is to prevent their spread in the first place. Learn to identify the invasive species that affect your community so that you can report them to your local land manager if sighted. Always clean boats before entering new bodies of water, as this will prevent the introduction of invasive species like zebra mussels or watermilfoil to uncontaminated water systems. Avoid purchasing non-native decorative plants, but if you do, never release them into the wild.

For more information on how to prevent the spread of invasive species, check out this video from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
The charming cob castle, Castelul de Lut Valea Zanelor (Clay Castle of the Valley of Fairies) is made of dirt and clay.

In a village 24 miles from the Romanian city of Sibiu is a decidedly quirky fairytale castle called Castelul de Lut Valea Zanelor, which translates to Clay Castle of the Valley of Fairies. Of course! But rather than the many-turreted Disney fairytale citadel we might have in mind (were talking to you, Neuschwanstein Castle), Castelul de Lut is much less Cinderella, way more Bilbo Baggins.

The brainchild of Romanian couple Razvan and Gabriela Vasile, the two sold their home near Bucharest to claim their spot in the Valley of Fairies  a picturesque setting 24 miles (40 kilometers) from the medieval city of Sibiu. The castle is nestled in the Carpathian Mountains, not far from the wildly winding Transfagarasan highway.

The Vasiles worked with eco-architect Ileana Mavrodin to design the 10-room spread  which was built using clay, straw and sand. "The exterior plastering is of lime and sand and the towers are of river stone, built with lime and sand," says Razvan Vasile. "Everything is made with natural materials, and the windows and doors are different, each room having its own separate entrance." The castle was built by craftsmen and workers of Maramures, an equally picture-perfect region in Northern Transylvania that is known for its beautifully crafted old wooden churches.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 22

Impressed with the vision and mission of the AAP, National Convener Arvind Kejriwal and his team, the former Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee Secretary and Tarn Taran Improvement Trust Chairman Prof Gurvinder Singh Mamanke today joined AAP, here today.

Present on the occasion were central observer Romi Bhati and Amritsar Zone In -charge Gurinder Singh Bajwa.

Speaking on the occasion, Romi Bhati said Arvind Kejriwal had decided to weed out the deep-rooted corruption in political and administrative system in a democratic manner by forming a party and now after proving the might of common man in Delhi, its the time for massive change in Punjab.

Prof Mamanke said before the arrival of the AAP on the political map of Punjab, people had to select between more corrupt and less corrupt.  Now Arvind Kejriwal has taken the initiative of waging a war against corruption and going by the voice of my soul, I have decided to contribute my bit in this crusade, he said.

While welcoming Prof Mamanke into the party fold, Gurinder Singh Bajwa said apart from common public, the leaders of traditional parties who were feeling suffocated had been coming out to join the AAP.

He said several leaders from other parties had been showing interest in the AAP but the party would tread cautiously in this regard and the joining of all such leaders would be made effective only after going through a thorough scrutiny process.
Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 21

The designer wardrobe is no more an exclusive thing, rather it has become a must-have thing. Thanks to the online fashion revolution, the market for fashion-conscious buyers has been on the rise. And with awareness came the demand for customised services. Viola, hello homegrown local designer labels!

So, no more a thing of the NRI crowd or the creme la creme, owing a designer dress has become quite approachable. Amritsar itself has emerged as a big market for fashion startups, whether it is designer labels, styling services or lifestyle exhibitions. Gone are the days when a niche crowd, who had the eye for hi-end labels, had to rush to Delhi or Mumbai. Today, fashion has become approachable, with local designers standing out with their quality of fabric and services. This has managed to lure in lot of local clients and sustain them, increasing the market value of these home-grown labels, says fashion curator Binti Kumar.

Kumar works closely with local as well as designers from Delhi and Mumbai. She organises fashion exhibitions for every quarter of the year that brings 50-60 lifestyle fashion brands to the city. My exhibitions get 3,000-5,000 footfall in just two days, out of which, 80 per cent become buyers, she says.

Amritsar boasts of one of the biggest wholesale markets for fabrics and accessories, with local artisans being available for the job. This has managed to support the fashion start-ups that are being run by fashion students, fresh out of institutes. The city sees at least 5-10 new fashion studios or labels being launched every year, out of which, at least 50 per cent manage to reach out to a larger market beyond the city, says Kumar. Another reason, she says, for the local labels to stand out, is that people have become fashion conscious and want to wear a certain type of clothes.

Weddings are no more the only platform to show off a label, birthday parties, cocktails, kitties, get together, formal dinner partiespeople want to step out looking well dressed all the time. This has really brought in more business, a demand for customised designer clothes, says Sargun Seth, designer from The Closet. Their studio launches four collections every season, for weddings and for casual wear. The Closet was the first fashion label from the city to be featured at fashion shows in Switzerland and have presence across Europe. Their new collection is all about re-inventing the shawls, which has a strong market presence in city. We have come up with shawls with traditional hand embroideries, with different cuts and drapes, says Sargun. The collection has been designed by Sahiba Makhani, co-owner of the studio.

They believe that home-grown labels had managed to gain the trust of the clients looking for budget fashion. We have some collections starting from Rs 999, which is reasonable for the young crowd. High-end labels are exclusive and so, local designers have an upper hand in making their collections economically suitable. Also, utility factor has to be kept in mind since no one wants to repeat a dress these days, she says.
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 21

To curb illegal consumption of tobacco, a team of health officials today conducted raids at public places and imposed fine on the violators of Tobacco Act in Mansa.

Health officials imposed fine on about 20 people and collected Rs 930.

Earlier, the Health Department had launched a special fortnight drive from May 16 to May 31.

Last year, the Health Department had imposed fines on about 1,081 people under the COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) 2003 in Bathinda and collected a fine of Rs 78,465.

Earlier, the tobacco team of the Health Department also held workshops to educate people about the harmful effects of its consumption and motivated them to fight against tobacco.

The officials also appealed the educational institutions to remain in contact with them to curb the sale of tobacco around 100 metres of educational institutions.

Tobacco smoking causes a wide-range of diseases that affect nearly every organ of the body.

The smoke from beedis, cigarettes and other such things forms what is called second hand smoke (SHS) that causes serious health problems to those exposed to it.

SHS has more than 7,000 different chemicals, 69 of which are known to be associated with causing cancer.

With an aim to protect people from SHS exposure, the act has provided for prohibition on smoking at any place at which the public has access, whether as of right or not.

It includes places such as auditoriums, hospital buildings, railway station waiting rooms, amusement centres, restaurants, public offices, court buildings, educational institutions, libraries, public conveyances.

Public places shall also include workplaces, shopping malls and cinema halls.

Every owner, manager or in-charge of a public place must ensure the display of No Smoking signage prominently at the entrance, and additionally at every entrance, every floor and other conspicuous places within the public place.

Whosoever contravenes the law shall be punishable with a fine which may extend up to Rs 200.
New Delhi: The countrys leading passenger vehicle maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), on Friday paid tribute to Indias first modern highway network -- The Golden Quadrilateral -- by unveiling a coffee table book titled "The Golden Quadrilateral". Minister of Road Transport and Highways, and Shipping Nitin Gadkari along with RC Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL; and Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, MSIL, launched the book. The book is authored by auto expert Bob Rupani and the foreword is by RC Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL. TNS

Tata Motors wins safety mgmt competition

Chandigarh: Tata Motors Ltd, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, won the CII Northern Region Inter-Industry Competition on Environment, Health and Safety Management-(EHS) held at Gurgaon on Friday. The two-day competition was organised to acknowledge the vision and exemplary commitment of the companies towards environmental responsibility, concern for occupational health and safety of employees and society as a whole. TNS
Chandigarh, July 22

A senior citizen was seriously injured after a few persons entered his house in Sector 15 and attacked him with sharp weapons last evening.

Sources said the victim, Jung Bahadur, a retired Air Force Officer, was alone at home when the assailants attacked him and fled. The victim informed the police, who rushed him to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16. The victim got 55 stitches on his head. The police have registered a DDR (daily diary report) in the matter at the Sector 11 police station. The sources said a case would be registered after recording the statement of the victim, who was not in a condition to do so. The victims family alleged that they had a property dispute and suspected that the attack was due to that dispute. TNS
S Nihal Singh

IS the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) starting a new Cold War? Germanys foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir thinks so. He has accused recent Nato exercises on Russias borders as sabre rattling and war-mongering. And a Nato summit in Warsaw firmed up a battle group of 4,000 new troops in Poland and in each of the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and took command of a US-built nuclear shield in Europe.

Reaction from Moscow to the plan was swift, President Vladimir Putin declaring, Where all this will lead I dont know but I do know that we will be forced to respond. A small ray of hope last week at a rare Russia-Nato meeting was an agreement by Russias Alexander Grushko to have its military jets flying over the Baltic skies switch on their transponders if Western planes did the same. There have been several near misses of adversarial planes after Moscows annexation of Crimea led the US-led alliance to police the Baltic skies.

The sense of foreboding felt in Russia is apparent from the alarm bells rung by Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, accusing Nato of preparing an attack on Russia. He declared, Nato has started preparations for switching from a cold to a hot war. All rhetoric in Warsaw simply clamours for anything but declaring war on Russia. They are only talking of defence but in fact are preparing for offensive actions.

There is little doubt that the new hard line Nato is taking towards Russia is led by Poland, given its tragic history, and the fragile Baltic states, once part of the Soviet Union as was Crimea, gifted to Ukraine by Nikita Khushchev.

In geopolitical terms, Russia is no longer the superpower it was as the Soviet Union. But despite his economic problems exacerbated by Western economic sanctions and the precipitous fall in oil prices, President Putin has kept his countrys end up. There has been a major modernisation of the Russian military and his air military assistance to Syrias beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad has meant that Washington must seek his help in ending the Syrian civil war. US Secretary of State John Kerry did so during his recent Moscow visit.

Nato is not a monolith, with its members holding divergent views on Russia. Italys Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said during the Warsaw meet that it was time to end the stand-off with Russia. And East European negotiators believe that the French attitude is more indulgent to Moscow in private. German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not entirely share her foreign ministers views, but by temperament she follows sober policies and is aware of the high stakes her countrys industries have in the Russian market.

The important point to emerge out of the Warsaw summit is that the US stands solidly behind Poland and the Baltic states in their hard line, even as it somewhat nervously assesses Chinas rising power and treats it with kid gloves. At Warsaw, President Barack Obama brought dissenting views to an end by declaring, We are united that there can be no business as usual with Russia. In good times and in bad, Europe can count on the US. Always.

Contrast these remarks with China defying the adverse ruling by the international tribunal on the South China Sea by breathing fire and brimstone and conducting a military display over the disputed area. The initial American reaction was to calm the roiling seas. Beijing has acquired power and is showing it, and the Washington establishment is duly respectful.

Returning to the European theatre, Mr Grushko made telling comments at the recent meeting with Nato representatives, There is no reason for Nato to do what it is doing...The direction in which Nato is moving in military terms is very bothersome. The next test for Natos hard line will be in January, with a review of anti-Russian economic sanctions. It remains to be seen whether some European countries will break ranks.

Natos justification for war-mongering, as Mr Steinmeier has defined it, is that its response is proportionate to the perceived threat from Russia. But the key to the present stance lies with Washington. In his overarching world view, President Obama outlined over extensive sessions for The Atlantic magazine, Russia appears as the familiar adversary in a weakened state while unusual attention is paid to China.

The US administration is deeply worried whether China, which is well on the way to achieving superpower status, will observe the international norms of diplomacy. And even when its reaction is ill-tempered and defiant as on the South China Sea ruling, Washington shows forbearance while painting Moscow as the truant.

Ukraine remains a major hurdle in improving relations between the US and Russia for two reasons: the foolish idea that despite it sharing long borders with Russia and a largely Russian-speaking population in the eastern region has deep religious affinity with Mother Russia, the country should be hijacked by the West, taking advantage of Moscows perceived weaknesses. Speaking of sacrosanct post-World War II borders, who changed borders to create a new nation state in the Balkans?

The second reason for the impasse is the closing of the US establishments mind on seeking a friendlier Russia. Most US think tanks are so obsessed with examining every tiny move China makes that they have little time left to study new Russian developments, except in hostile terms. In a sense, whatever the Wests future moves on the ground, Americans have already adopted a new Cold War attitude to Moscow.

All is not yet lost. President Putin has reportedly spoken to President Obama, Ms Merkel and President Hollande in recent days. But judging by Mr Gorbachevs rare public intervention on Natos moves, the sense of foreboding in Russia is palpable. Many in the West look up to Chancellor Merkel to find a way out. She is a fluent Russian speaker, having been brought up in the once Communist East Germany.
New Delhi, July 22

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday registered a case against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Associated Journal Limited under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a disproportionate land allotment case.

When Hooda was the Haryana chief minister, he allegedly allocated land to Associated Journal Limited in Panchkula under wrong terms. The land allocation allegedly led to a loss of crores of rupees to the state government revenue.

Hooda is already under the scanner of the CBI for alleged irregularities in the allocation of industrial plots when he was chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). It alleged that 14 plots were allegedly allotted at throwaway prices. Those allotted the plots were allegedly related to politicians, bureaucrats and other influential people, including Hooda. ANI
Shiv Kumar Sharma

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, July 22

The authorities have shifted the nursing and other staff of the trauma centre at Mukand Lal Civil Hospital here after a rape incident.

Sources said besides changing the staff, Officiating Civil Surgeon (OCS) Dr Ramesh Kumar also marked an inquiry into the incident to the Medical Superintendent of the hospital to ascertain the negligence of the staff. A 20-year-old mentally challenged girl was allegedly raped by Vijay Kumar, an outsourced employee, in an emergency room of the trauma centre on July 6.

Sources said the staff nurses were shifted on Wednesday, while Class IV employees were shifted today to other places in the district.

The sources said the Health Department was considering to terminate the contract of the private company which had provided the staff, including alleged rapist Vijay Kumar, to the hospital in May

"No negligence on part of the staff will be tolerated. We have issued a show-cause notice to M/s Oscar Securities and Fire Services which provided the staff," said Kumar.
Melbourne, July 22

Alcohol consumption may cause seven types of cancer, including that of oesophagus, liver, colon and breasts, even in moderate drinkers, a new research has warned.

A review of epidemiological evidence found that alcohol caused about half a million deaths from cancer in 2012, 5.8 per cent of cancer deaths worldwide, researchers said.

The highest risks are associated with the heaviest drinking, but a considerable burden is experienced by drinkers with low to moderate consumption.

The researchers from University of Otago in New Zealand also found the current evidence that moderate drinking provides protection against cardiovascular disease is not strong.

The review showed that alcohol consumption directly causes cancer at seven sites in the body: oropharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, rectum and breasts.

The causal link was supported by evidence for a dose-response relationship, at least partial reversal of risk when alcohol consumption is reduced, statistical adjustment for other factors that might explain the association and specificity of the association with some cancers and not others.

The epidemiological evidence for these conclusions comes from comprehensive reviews undertaken in the last 10 years by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the Global Burden of Disease Alcohol Group, and the most recent comprehensive meta-analysis undertaken by researchers at University of Otago, building on meta-analyses of the effect of alcohol on single cancers.

The research was published in the journal Addiction.  PTI
Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 22

The ball is now in the court of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to start its plants at Kandrori in Kangra district.

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) has accepted the demand for waiving of surcharge for providing power connection for the SAIL plant. Sources here said the HPSEB had written a letter to SAIL accepting its demand for surcharge waiver for providing the power connection.

DC, Kangra, Ritesh Chauhan also admitted that the HPSEB had written to the SAIL authorities for depositing the reduced fee for getting the power connection. They would now take up the issue with the SAIL authorities to start production as it would provide jobs to hundreds of youths.

The biggest bottleneck for Rs 100 crore investment plant was cleared about six months ago. The Army that had been holding no-objection certificate (NOC) for the plant for more than two years on the plea that it was located within the 900-metre radius of the ordnance depot has given permission for operating the SAIL plant.

The steel plant was sanctioned during the stint of Virbhadra Singh as Union Minister for Steel in the UPA government. The commissioning of the plant was completed in 2013. However, the production could not be started as the Army claimed that it was located within a 900-metre radius of their ordnance depot.

The district administration, Kangra, and the state government had been taking up the matter with the Army authorities. Their contention was that furnace of steel plant would generate high temperature posing a threat to the ordnance depot.

Even after spending over Rs 100 crore on the project, SAIL was not in a position to start production in the plant. The initial cost of the project was about Rs 79 crore. However, it has escalated to over Rs 100 crore due to the delay.

As per project report, the plant will have an installed capacity of 1 lakh tonnes per annum. Billets, to be used as input for the Kandrori plant, are to be supplied by Durgapur Steel Plant. It is also the first SAIL plant in the state.
Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 22

Sending a strong signal to both students as well as the teaching community that political indulgence at the cost of studies will not be tolerated, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today asked the Himachal University authorities to deal will all such elements with a firm hand.

Taking serious note of the violent clashes among various students bodies on the campus, the Chief Minister asked the university authorities to deal sternly with all such elements who vitiate the academic atmosphere of the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU). The teachers must also not impose their political or personal ideology on students as they must strictly confine themselves to academic pursuits and guide the students on the right path, said an upset Virbhadra.

Speaking at the 47th Foundation Day celebrations of the HPU here today, Virbhadra expressed his displeasure at the mischief being created by some student outfits. At the start of the new academic session, these bodies pitch their tents and misguide students to achieve their narrow political ends, not realizing that they are running the career of the youth, he remarked. He said the HPU was among one of the best centres of learning and meant for only those who wanted to pursue studies. Enough is enough, and it is high time for the authorities to deal with all such miscreants sternly so that academic atmosphere of the university does not get vitiated, he said.

The Chief Minister said that difference in political ideology did not mean that students should have personal enmity with each other and should try to impose their ideology on other forcefully. Such elements are not students but professional demonstrators who take admission in the university only to vitiate the atmosphere and disturb others. There is no place for such people and they are sadly mistaken that by behaving in this fashion they make an entry into politics, he said.

The Chief Minister also challenged such forces to come out and test their political strength by contesting the Assembly elections so that they got to know their real worth. Staging dharnas, disrupting classes, raising slogans and manhandling their teachers wont be tolerated and the guilty would be dealt with a heavy hand, he warned.
Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 22

The dispute between the CITU-supported workers union and the INTUC-backed union has turned into a prestige battle between Kinnaur legislator and Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi and CPM leader Rakesh Singha. Both want their writ to run among workers employed for the 450 mw Shongtong-Karcham power project that is being guarded by more than 200 policemen.

A fresh blame game has erupted between the two leaders with both parties using all resources at their command to win the battle. The CPM and CITU are trying to spread wings in Kinnaur. But Kinnaurs electorate has shifted allegiance over the years. The people are either with the Congress or the BJP. CITU established its base in the then JP-run 1,000 mw Karhcham-Wangtoo project last year, much to the disappointment of the Congress-run INTUC as well as the Kinnaur legislator.

The Deputy Speaker is now preparing to take CITU and CPM leader Singha head on. He accuses Singha of ruining peace and law and order in Kinnaur.

Ninety-five CITU-backed workers allegedly attacked Patel Engineering Companys bus carrying workers on July 15, resulting in injuries to 14. A case was registered under Section 307 of the IPC. CITU is intimidating workers. The attackers have been shifted to Una and Bilaspur by the judicial officer, said Negi.

Singhas charge that I am protecting the private company because my brother is a sub-contractor is baseless, he claimed. But CITU leaders allege that Negi is using the police to suppress the workers genuine demands.They cite the shifting of two police officers and a labour office from Kinnaur as proof of the same. A majority of workers are on strike and 95 workers have been booked at Negis behest. Workers huts have been demolished by the company at his instance, they claim. Zahur Zaidi, IG, said the law and order situation was under control and no untoward incident had taken place for the past four days.The district administration has imposed Section 144 and it is being ensured that the prohibitory orders are not violated by workers at the project site, he added.
Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 22

It doesnt matter anymore what hour of the day it is in Kashmir as thousands of residents spent another day on Friday under curfew and restrictions with signal to their mobile phones remained turned off on orders of the state government.

In the latest spell of turbulent days in Kashmir, there are no rush hours.

The traffic signals obediently flash green and red to deserted roads. A few traffic policemen sit idly on a pavement in the Lal Chowk, the commercial nerve centre of Srinagar where markets have remained shut for the past 14 days. There is no traffic for them to regulate.

Friday marked the completion of two weeks of unrest in Kashmir that was triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 evening. The protests that erupted in the aftermath of Wanis killing have continued since then with no end in sight to shutdowns and curfews.

The ominous siren of ambulances, which signalled a new casualty or injury somewhere, have fallen silent as fewer incidents of police and paramilitary firing have been reported in the past two days.

It is the third major summer unrest in the Kashmir valley in the past eight years, the first erupting in 2008 and another paralysing agitation hitting the region in 2010. This summer, however, is different.

The number of civilian fatalities and injuries in the first two weeks has been unprecedented with death toll reaching 46. The number of civilians who have been wounded and hospitalised has crossed the 2,000 mark.

During the initial days of the unrest, a general feeling expressed by many residents was that this round of protests and shutdowns will be short-lived. However, with region remaining shut, its many sub-districts under curfew and the communication networks grounded for the 14th day, this feeling has evaporated.

It is going to be long, otherwise it would have opened, a tea stall owner outside the Lambert Lane market in the city said. The observation made by the tea stall owner is becoming a common reply to the question of what next.

An owner of a departmental store in Srinagar said, He hopes that the situation becomes normal soon. But it does not look like anything is going to get restored, he said.

At a posh hotel in the city here, which was teeming with holidaymakers before the unrest began, all rooms are now vacant. Everyone has left. There is only one guest here now, a foreigner who arrived in the morning, the hotel staff said. All bookings for the immediate future, which remains clouded in uncertainty, have been cancelled.

Fridays are potential flashpoint days in Kashmir as thousands attend midday congregational prayers at mosques. Last Friday, two civilians were killed in north Kashmirs Kupwara district and in south Kashmir Kulgam districts. This Friday, a brief lull of two days in civilian casualties ended on another death note.

An injured civilian succumbed during early morning hours and a second civilian was killed in the evening, leading the region towards another uncertain day, like it happened on all previous days.
Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 22

Pre-empting trouble in view of the protest demonstrations after Friday prayers, the authorities have decided to clamp curfew across all districts of Kashmir Valley, while separatists have called for a shutdown till Monday to protest against the killing of civilians.

An all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday had expressed grief over the loss of lives and called for inclusive engagement of all stakeholders to carry out peace and reconciliation process.

Soon after the meeting, Mehbooba reached out to people and consoled the families of some of those killed in the recent violence.

Restrictions will remain in force on Friday, Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Farooq Ahmad Lone told The Tribune. The authorities will review the situation in the evening.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Meanwhile, Ishfaq Ahmad, who was injured during the clashes at Hiller in Kokernag area of Anantnag district, succumbed to his injuries at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical sciences here on Thursday night. Ishfaqs body was taken to his village on Friday morning and the last rites performed. With this the death toll in the violence has gone up to 45.

Meanwhile, the annual Amarnath yatra continued with the movement of pilgrims to the holy cave shrine. At least 1,000 pilgrims had left the Nunwan (Pahalgam) base camp till the reports last came in.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 21

Amid simmering tension in Kashmir, the government today decided to review the use of pellet guns for crowd management, saying it would form a committee of experts to suggest better alternatives.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that the expert committee would be asked to suggest options to pellet guns within two months.

We are keen on alternatives to pellet guns in the category of non-lethal weapons, Rajnath said while replying to a debate on Kashmir in the House today.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The announcement comes as 53 Valley residents have sustained eye injuries due to pellets. The use of pellet guns, Singh said, wasnt new in Kashmir. These guns, he said, had left six dead, 198 injured and five blind when used during the 2010 violence in Kashmir. This years figures are one dead, 53 injured and none blinded.

That apart, the government, dwelling on the causes of the Kashmir violence in the aftermath of militant Burhan Wanis killing, blamed Pakistan for fomenting trouble in the Valley.

Citing Pakistans act of observing a Black Day to mark the Kashmir situation, Rajnath said, Our neighbour has played a principal role in ruining the atmosphere in Kashmir. It continues to interfere in our internal affairs and is trying its level best to intensify the infiltration.

The Minister listed data to suggest that the Valleys law and order situation was today better than in the past.

He was addressing Opposition Congress accusations of increased militant activity in Kashmir under the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.

On demands for an all-party delegation to the Valley, Rajnath said Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had advised for the situation to normalise first. She is coming to Delhi in three days and said she would discuss the issue then. I too wanted to visit Kashmir but she advised me to wait, Rajnath Singh said.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 22

Jammu is miffed at being ignored by parliamentarians and political class while debating the prevailing Kashmir unrest in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and in the all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar yesterday.

Disappointed over statements of members of Parliament (MPs) and other politicians on the Kashmir situation, Jammuites remind the political class that J&K comprises three regions  Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh  and any deliberate attempt to neglect Jammu would make situation more complex in the state.

They argue that any instability in Kashmir has direct impact on tourists and pilgrims footfall and economy of Jammu because an impression goes outside that unrest in the Kashmir valley means trouble in the entire J&K state. They believe that it would be wrong on the part of New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership to take Jammu for granted as it will have serious repercussions in the state.

Hari Om, a noted political analyst and convener of the Jammu For India (JFI), says, Whatever happened in Parliament and all-party meeting in Srinagar has angered the people of Jammu and demoralised the nationalists in J&K as it has given an impression that there is no one in New Delhi and the PDP-BJP government who could speak about them.

He adds, In both the debates at the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, not only Jammu and Ladakh were completely ignored, but also atrocities on Kashmiri Hindus and Amarnath pilgrims were overlooked. New Delhi and the PDP-BJP government have only one-point agenda  lower the morale of nationalists in J&K and strengthen the hands of those who take law of land in their own hands.

Rakesh Gupta, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Jammu, says, New Delhi has always taken the nationalist forces for granted. It has adversely affected the overall development of Jammu and Ladakh regions. We will be meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh tomorrow and will vociferously raise this issue.

Balwant Singh Mankotia, Panthers Party state president, The people of Jammu are outraged by the treacherous surrender of the BJP and the similar situation could erupt with explosion there as well. The simmering anger of the people could become volcanic if their genuine aspirations are not fulfilled. It is the result of complete neglect of Jammu by successive regimes at the Centre and in the state.

Raman Sharma, a Jammu-based activist, says, New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership must remember that Jammu is one of the major stakeholders in the state and if they continue to neglect it in this way, it may force the people of Jammu to think about the future course of action. Jammu, which also bore the brunt of militancy, had accommodated all sections of society  be it Kashmir Pandits, Ladakhi people, Kashmiri Muslims and refugees. It is the duty of our parliamentarians to convey to the world that Srinagar is not the entire J&K and three-four separatist leaders are not the representatives of the people of J&K.
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 22

The BJP ministers in the coalition were taken to the task in the much-publicised meeting which was convened today to review performance of the government. Neither legislators nor workers expressed satisfaction over the style of functioning of partys nominees in the coalition government.

Ram Lal, the all-important national general secretary (organisation), who is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs (RSS) point man in the BJP, sought feedback from workers to legislators during his day-long stay at Jammu to rate performance of the coalition government in general and BJP ministers in particular.

Passing of the controversial pro-separatists Transfer of Property Bill during a Cabinet meeting on July 23 dominated Ram Lals interaction with party leaders because most of them cautioned that the failure of the BJPs Cabinet ministers to oppose the Bill at an initial stage authenticate the allegations that most of them (BJP ministers) are either ill-informed or taking legislative work casually, sources said.

The sources said after getting the feedback from legislators and office-bearers, Ram Lal gave a clear warning to

party ministers to mend their ways.

Get yourselves properly informed. Do your home work properly while taking important policy decisions in the government, the BJPs national general secretary bluntly told party ministers in the coalition.

Without naming any body, Ram Lal observed, Some BJP ministers in the coalition are treating themselves as over-clever. They have to understand that workers are the backbone of the party and ignoring cadre would prove to be disastrous for them and party also.

Earlier in the morning, the BJPs national general secretary held a closed-door two-hour meeting with stalwarts of the RSS at the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh. Shetriya prachark (North Zone head) Prem Kumar, akhil bharatiya sah parchar pramukh Arun Kumar, prant prachark Ramesh Pappa, prant karvawah Parshotam Dedechi and BJP state president Sat Sharma attended the meeting in which all issues pertaining to the functioning of the government and organisation were thoroughly discussed.

The sources said the Deputy Chief Minister and the BJP state president were asked to ensure smooth coordination between the government and the organisation.

The BJP leadership was asked to remain vigilant because the party was running government with the party whose ideology is diametrically opposite to the saffron party.

The sources said BJP leaders were also suggested that party should go on an offensive on the issue of killing militant commanded Burhan Wani.
R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 22



The Supreme Court on Friday reluctantly agreed to hear next week a plea for Governors rule in Jammu and Kashmir in order to protect peoples fundamental rights in the face of the prevailing anarchy and heavy deployment of security forces.

We cannot command the Governor to take over the administration, a Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, FMI Kalifulla and AM Khanwilkar initially told senior counsel Bhim Singh, who argued for the Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party, the petitioner and his party.

The Bench made the remark when Singh mentioned the PIL filed by his party and sought an early hearing. The petitioner, however, pleaded that the apex courts intervention was necessary to restore order in the sensitive border state.

Unconvinced, the Bench advised him to go to the state high court functioning in Jammu and Srinagar. The high court would be in a better position to appreciate his plea as it was aware of the ground realities, it said.

Unmindful of the courts sentiments, Singh persisted with his plea for an early hearing of his PIL. Finally, the Bench said next week.

In the petition, the party said a chaotic condition prevailed in the state as the entire valley was under siege, with no security to life and liberty and access to water, food and medicine. Schools and colleges remained closed for two weeks.

The Supreme Court should direct the Centre to advise the state Governor to take over the administration invoking his power under Section 92 of the state Constitution as the state government had miserably failed to maintain law and order, the petition pleaded.
Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 22

After three days of relative calm, one person was killed and several others injured in fresh clashes in Kashmir today while another youth succumbed to his injuries at a Srinagar hospital, taking the death toll during the past two weeks of violence to 46.

The fresh killing took place at Chursoo in the Awantipora area of Pulwama district in south Kashmir. Mushtaq Ahmad, who was critically injured during action by security forces in Chursoo, was shifted to a Srinagar hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. The police said that the initial investigation hinted that Ahmed was hit by a tear smoke shell.

Earlier, Ishfaq Ahmad succumbed to his injuries at SKIMS on Thursday night after battling for his life for 12 days. Ishfaq was injured during the clashes in the Kokernag area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir on July 9, a day after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

With the death of two persons, the death toll during the clashes during the past two weeks went up to 46, which included a policeman.

There was relative calm for three days from Tuesday. Three persons, including two women, were killed due to firing by security forces at Churath in the Devsar area of Kulgam district of south Kashmir on Monday.

After Friday prayers today, at least two person were injured in the Kakapora area of Pulwama district. One of them, Asif Reshi, was shifted to the SMHS Hospital in Srinagar with critical injuries.

With strict curfew restrictions, Friday congregational prayers were not held at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar

for the second consecutive Friday.

Roads leading to Jamia Masjid were blocked with heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel and barricades to block the roads.

There were reports of protest demonstrations from several localities of Srinagar after Friday prayers though the situation remained peaceful.

There were reports of clashes from Sopore and Bandipora towns of north Kashmir, in which several protesters were injured in clashes.

The police and CRPF resorted to teargas shell firing in the air and use of pellet guns. One of the seriously injured in Sopore was taken to the SMHS Hospital.

In a joint statement, separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik reiterated the call to observe a complete shutdown for three days from Saturday. They said a congregation to pay

tributes to those killed would be held in Anantnag on July 25.
Mona

It was a family union of sorts on Friday noon at Punjab Art Gallery. The venue for press conference to be addressed by Pakistani theatre director Madeeha Gauhar had its share of theatre enthusiasts.

Starting with a rather emotional note by Punjab Art Council chairperson Bibi Harjinder Kaur, theatre personalities Sahib Singh and Kewal Dahilwal, addressed the gathering. Madeeha Gauhar and her partner on personal-professional front Shahid Nadeem, each speaking at length on united power of artistes on both sides of the border.

Madeeha Gauhar is no stranger to this side of the border. For the last decade-and-half, she has staged plays with her group Ajoka Theatre, the leading group of Pakistan, in India and all around the world. Only the time gap is huge this time and makes up for the long absence of 10 years by bringing five plays that have never been staged in Chandigarh.

The theatre veteran talks about 32-year-long journey and how she sees life and society around.

The beginning

From staging the first play in 1984 in the lawn of a house, Ajoka (Aaj ka, of today) has continued to stand true to its grounds. It has not been an easy run. We have fought censorship, lack of funds and hostility. Sure we have evolved aesthetically, technically, but the message has been the same. Making people see their own reality, promoting the message of democracy, equality, harmony, justice and peace.

Serious thoughts

Serious theatre scene has failed to evolve in Pakistan. Yes, there is commercial theatre that serves vulgar comedy. Nothing bad in it, but that is aesthetically poor. While earlier censorship played a major stumbling block, things have changed now. Though called a dictator, Gen Musharraf really eased out the scene. We could stage plays in auditoriums. We staged social issue-based dramas. Except once or twice, like this time in a village they did not let us complete our play Kari that talked of womens right to marriage and divorce, saying you have come to preach our women of talaq. Generally we have been taking our productions to cities and towns and also villages all over Pakistan.

Exchange policy

India is our own. We have taken our productions from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and enjoyed immense love and appreciation. Kewal Dhaliwal and Sahib Singh have been coming and staging plays with us in Pakistan and training our theatre students in both the countries.

Gender issue

Gender equality is one issue that surfaces in our work time and again. There is a way to go about it, for both India and Pakistan. I know Zindagi soaps are popular here but they are not showing all reality. Saying talaq thrice is not how people divorce in Pakistan but yes this true that just like in India, honour killing is rampant. We just had recent case of model Qandeel Baloch being killed by her brother. The problem we face is that the law is very weak. Now some noise is being made and hopefully we will see a change.

Let insaniyat win

We have been asked why we chose to come in such tense times. We have staged our play in Kerela when Mumbai attacks happened and the situation was grimmer. Yes, one of our artistes mother hid his passport, then artistes form here helped us convince her. That time, people from a particular party came to give us memorandum to be given to the Pakistan government for its role in terror attack. We did express our inability and that we are not the government but out of regard Madeeha did go and accept it and invited them to see the play. Later, we saw them in the front row with their families and first ones to congratulate and hug us on the success of the play. Whatever be our political leanings, we are still capable of dosti, pyar aur insaniyat.  Sahhid Nadeem

mona@tribunemail.com
Jasmine Singh

If for some reason you havent been able to catch this weeks Punjabi film release, Needhi Singh, dont worry... you just have to pull out the DVDs of Hindi films Phool Bane Angarey, NH 10, Ek Hasina Thi, Hate Story 1 and 2 and Anjaam, stacked somewhere in your memory. Now, play these in your head, placing actress Kulraj Randhawa at the helm of affairs and you have a brand new Needhi Singh, with of course original additions as well!

Directed by Jaivi Dhanda, Needhi Singh is apparently one of the countable women- centric films of the Punjabi film industry, starring Kulraj Randhawa, Ashish Duggal, Nirmal Rishi and Gurdas Maan. The movie, as the name suggests, revolves around the happy-go-lucky girl Needhi, played by actress Kulraj Randhawa, who is forced to be revengeful because of a twist in circumstances.

Does this sound new to you, by any means? You can ask the writer of the story, Jaivi Dhanda, the director himself! The movie starts with the usual, everything happy, joyful or lets say too joyful, till things begin to go wrong. Do you smell anything new in this? Well, you can again ask the screenplay writers Jaivai Dhanda (yet again) and Gaurav Bhalla. With Needhi Singh reminding you of so many women revenge-centric stories, there are barely any new and fresh moments, except for Kulraj Randhawa herself. This actress has shown some amazing skills in the film; at least Kulraj Randhawa can portray a flush of emotions coming and going in her reel character.

The director hasnt bothered much about shaping up the story; he hasnt even bothered to make Needhi take badla in some new way. So, you have the usual playful girl becoming a zinda laash, and then going on a rampage, taking badla one by one from all her dushmans, pretty much the way you have seen before. Watch Surveen Chawla take her badla after she becomes a zinda laash in Hate Story 2! Youd know what we mean here.

The predictability of events in the film works against it. The been-there-done-that thing coupled with the audience saying, I know what will happen next, leaves nothing as a wow moment in the film.

Actor Ashish Chaudhary is the bad man and we bet you would not find anything new in his character or acting. Seeing Gurdas Maan in a film is definitely a nice change. Kulraj Randhawa has nailed her run-of-the mill written character. A pat on the back for the costume designer of Kulraj Randhawa for keeping her costumes real, and one for the production team for sticking to the continuity in the film!

Needhi Singh could have come out as a fine women- centric Punjabi film had the director thought about giving a new shape to the revenge angle; if not a new shape, then may be a different treatment. The music of the film is in sync with the theme, the item number however is uncalled for. The star belongs to only and only Kulraj Randhawa - the Needhi Singh!
Nonika Singh

If you are a North Indian used to the star charisma of three Khans and occasionally of Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan, you do understand the magnetic pull of personality cult driving cinema. Still the frenzy that surrounds demigod Rajinikanth and his latest Kabali, is inexplicable. For days at a stretch the craze around Kabali has been building into a crescendo and reaching a feverish pitch. The facts are as astounding as the fan-o-mania.

So, succumbing to the hype bordering on hysteria, we too find ourselves in the dubbed version of Kabali giving the more meaningful Madari a miss. Rajinikanth phenomena must be decoded. But can one film that too full on formulaic revenge drama unravel what makes him the sensation that he is?

Not belonging to any of his fan clubs, sparring or otherwise, it's impossible for us to understand what the fuss is all about. Here is an ageing star, nay super duper superstar. That he is playing his age to some extent is a relief. So, for most part of the film he is the grey- haired gangster, old enough to be the father of grown up children. In the film he keeps reminding--had his wife lived, he would have been a father to one. That the daughter is lurking close by is only expected. After all if Kabali is invincible so ought to be his family. Sorry for the giveaway but then in a film peppered with endless fights, actually there is very little room for surprise or credible storyline.

The makers intent is rather ambitious as it takes you into the heart of Malaysia where Indians (read Tamilians) are led by gangster- type leaders. Kabali is one such leader with his heart in the right place. The narrative moves back and forth to establish the inter-gang rivalry with snatches of his past life. All along, there is so much happening that you lose count of the characters which are way too many.

Amidst the melee filters Radhika Apte, looking ravishingly pretty as always. This would certainly not go down as her best performance but her presence is as sunny as her smile. As for Thalaivar Rajini, the trademark mannerisms and the signatures styles are in place. The flick here a gesture there and the trappings of his larger than life persona are endearing enough. He carries off his character, despite the implausibility of it all, rather well. And if you are a Rajini fan and are watching the film in its original language the words you might like to use are aplomb and panache.

Dubbing, rather mediocre at that, does sap the flavour. The punch-lines are reduced to just one bahoot khoob. Can we say the same about the film? Well, the editing that intercuts scenes rather adroitly is top notch. The first half moves at a frenzied pace and leaves you with little time to think or wink. Post interval, the same wanders off and gives you more of the same that you have seen ad-nauseam before. You begin to feel fidgety and two-and-a-half hours length doesnt help. Sure there is craft in this masala, bits of art too, but as you keep chasing the characters zoom from Malaysia to Thailand to Pondicherry, it gets tiring. More so since you know exactly how the film will eventually pan out.

The open-ended finale is a bit unexpected though. Or, perhaps not? The madness around the film does demand a sequel and the window that is left open, does portend one. The big question --should you watch this one?

For Rajni fans, who know no reason, only idol worship, reviews matter not. And if you are on the other side of the fence, well, at best the film throws some light over his magnetic personality if not fully explain what makes him the divine being whose posters too are considered worthy of milk abhishekam.
Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, July 22

More than 12 persons, including Shiv Sena leader Inderjit Karwal, were injured in communal clashes here today.

Members of two communities hurled bricks, stones and bottles at each other in the presence of the police on the local Gaushala Road. The injured persons included Inspector Aman Kumar and Sadar SHOs gunman Binderpal. Four of them were admitted to the Civil Hospital. The uniform of SHO (City) Ramandeep was torn.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Trouble started when Muslim activists submitted a memorandum to SP Arjinder Singh at the local mosque, accusing Shiv Sainiks of stopping Kashmiri truck drivers and writing inflammatory slogans on the walls of their shops.

When the activists came out of the mosque, they had a face-off with Sena men, who were taking out a protest march. Members of the Akal Students Federation, led by Sukhdev Singh, and Dalit activists led by PPCC member Jarnail Nangal and BSP leader Harbhagan Suman came out in support of the Muslims. Cops used mild force to disperse the mob.

The markets on Gaushala Road, Serai Road, Old Railway Road and Kera Masjid remained closed till the evening. SDM Balbir Raj Singh and DSP KS Chahal rushed to the spot. Later, IG LN Angra, DIG Rajinder Singh, SSP Rajinder Singh and Kapurthala DC Jaskiran Singh arrived and police force from neighbouring districts was deployed.

Sena leaders demanded the transfer of the DSP, accusing him of being partisan. Fifty persons have been booked.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22

An Indian Air Force transport plane, AN-32, with 29 people on board was reported missing over the Bay of Bengal this morning. The Navy, IAF and the Coast Guard have launched a massive search operation.

The plane was among the 64 AN-32s in the IAF fleet that were upgraded and re-equipped under a $400 million contract by the parent manufacturer in Ukraine. The plane, based at Sulur (Coimbatore), had developed defects thrice since July 2, sources confirmed.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The remaining 40 planes of the AN-32 fleet are to be upgraded from next year at the IAFs 1 base repair depot Kanpur. As many as 104 AN-32 aircraft were imported from Soviet Union in phases between 1984 and 1991. The upgrade of these planes, between 25 and 32 years old, is being done to extend their life, allowing the last batch to fly till 2035.

The plane had taken off at 8.30 am from the Tambaram air base, Chennai, and was scheduled to land at 11.30 am at the Port Blair naval base in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The plane was on a routine flight, carrying men and material to Port Blair, and all those on board were either service personnel or civilian staff of the services.

The plane last made radio contact with the Chennai Air Traffic Control at 8.46 am, 16 minutes after the take-off. Its radar signal was last seen at 9.12 am. The pilot did not radio the location or sound Mayday (crisis) before it was reported missing.

A submarine, equipped with the system to pick up signals from the locating beacon of the aircraft, has been diverted to look for the plane.

Navys P8-I surveillance aircraft has also been pressed into service along with the Dornier surveillance planes of the Navy and the Coast Guard. These carry powerful sensors and send live imagery to the control room.

Besides, a dozen naval warships and two Coast Guard vessels have set sail.

The IAF has dispatched a C-130-J and an AN-32 for search. The Chennai-Port Blair IAF courier flight flies thrice a week.

Those on board included six crew, 15 personnel from the IAF, Army, Navy and Coast Guard, and eight civilians who were family members of the personnel. One of the passengers was a woman IAF officer married to a Coast Guard officer based in Port Blair.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to visit Tambaram air base on Saturday.

(With agency inputs)
Tribune News Service

Lucknow/New Delhi, July 22

Expelled BJP leader Daya Shankar Singhs family today filed a case against BSP supremo Mayawati and other senior BSP leaders charging them with using foul language against them.

Singhs 78-year old mother Tetra Devi, wife Swati Singh and sister arrived at the Hazratganj police station to lodge a complaint against Mayawati, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Mewa Lal and other BSP leaders for using abusive language against them and not even sparing Singhs minor daughter.

On the basis of the complaint, the police lodged an FIR under IPC Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 153 -A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc) 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 505 (statement creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

The family has also demanded security for Singh and the family alleging they feeled threatened by Mayawati and the BSP.

Talking to mediapersons, Swati Singh, a former university teacher, charged Mayawati and the BSP men with using foul language against her, her aged mother-in-law and not even sparing her minor schoolgoing daughter. None of us have anything to do with politics. Why is our name unnecessary being dragged in this controversy? she said. She claimed the charges had left her daughter, a student of class VII, traumatised.

After the mental harassment, I was left with no option but to lodge an FIR and prepare for a legal battle, said Swati. Taking a cue from Mayawati, Tetra Devi apologised for her sons behaviour before the media.

A defensive BSP supremo had said in Delhi that if the women of Singhs family had distanced themselves from his statement about her the BSP workers would not have reacted in such a manner. Meanwhile, the police are yet to trace Singh who was expected to surrender before the court today.
Seema Kaul

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22

Accusing Congress Rajya Sabha member Renuka Chaudhry and Jairam Ramesh of misbehaving with her in Parliament, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today threatened to move privilege motions against them.

Addressing reporters outside Parliament, the Lok Sabha MP from Bathinda said, I am shocked at the way these Congress MPs spoke to me, they were so rude. I will move a privilege motion against them.

For them, the lives of our jawans, our people hold no value. The video clip (posted by AAPs Bhagwant Mann on social media) could fall in wrong hands. It shows the mindset of the Congress, she said. I have nothing to do with their Bill, she added.

The Congress had issued a whip in the Rajya Sabha as a private members Bill on Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act was to be taken up for consideration and passage.

As the Upper House reconvened for the post-lunch session, BJP MPs started demanding action against Bhagwant Mann. Harsimrat repeatedly tried to speak on the issue. Let me introduce Bills then I will listen to you....Why do you do this? said Deputy Chairperson PJ Kurien as he attempted to restore order in the House.

As the ruling party MPs continued with the protest, the House was adjourned for the day. The Congress accused the BJP of deliberately stalling the Rajya Sabha proceedings on the pretext of the Bhagwant Mann issue to block the passage of the private members Bill on the Andhra Reorganisation Act.

It is just theatrics to divert attention. They are losing Punjab badly. She manipulated the situation to block the private members Bill on Andhra reorganisation. She has done a disservice to the people of Andhra Pradesh. Over 50 ex-MPs, ex-MLAs and other leaders from Andhra Pradesh cutting across party lines had come to Delhi especially for this Bill. Their visit has gone waste, Renuka Chaudhry told The Tribune. The SAD ministers disruption was deliberate. She is most welcome to file a privilege motion, if she wants, she added.

According to procedure, in case a Lok Sabha member wants to move a privilege motion against members of the Rajya Sabha or vice versa, it has to be routed through the office of the respective chambers.

Thats wrong. She is a Lok Sabha MP. She should have raised the issue in the Lok Sabha. Why did she come to the Rajya Sabha? It proves that the SAD is with the BJP in blocking this Bill, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told The Tribune after the House was adjourned for the day.
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 22

An Indian Air Force (IAF) transport plane, AN-32, is missing over the Bay of Bengal with 29 people on board. The plane, a Soviet manufactured one, had taken off around 8.30 am from the Tambaram air base, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and was scheduled to land around 11 am at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The plane was on routine flight to carry men and material to Port Blair and most of the people on board were service personnel.

When the pilot did not radio his approach a search was launched using the assets of the Navy, the IAF and the Coast Guard.

Among the 29 persons on board were four IAF officers, including the two pilots and a navigator of the missing plane. The plane had six crew, including the three officers. A fourth officer was among the passengers.

Also on board were 10 other IAF personnel, two people from the Indian Army and nine from the navy, among them eight from the civilian staff of the force.

A staff member of the Defence Services Corps and one from the Indian Coast Guard were also among those on board.

The Indian Navy has diverted one submarine to look for the missing plane.

The search area is some 200 nautical miles east of Chennai. The Navys P8-I surveillance aircraft has been pressed into service along with the Dornier surveillance planes of the Navy and the Coast Guard. Warships are also involved in the search operation. The plane has been declared overdue to land. This is first step before the plane is declared missing. The plane was carrying fuel for some four hours.

The AN-32 fleet was imported from Soviet Union in the early 1980s.

The plane was last in contact with Chennai Air Traffic Controller at 8.46 am that is 16 minutes after the take-off from Tambaram. The plane is from the Sulur (Coimbatore) IAR base of the IAF. It was on a routine sortie. The Chennai-Port Blair IAF flight is termed as a courier and flies thrice a week. The plane is equipped with a locating beacon that will emit a signal for rescue teams to follow. The IAF have pressed a C-130-J and an AN-32 plane for search.
New Delhi, July 22

The central government is likely to approach Britain soon to get back the famed Kohinoor, one of the world's largest diamonds, which is currently set in a royal crown on display in the Tower of London.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting which was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha among others, sources said on Friday, adding Britain may be approached on the issue next month.

The meeting also discussed possibility of signing a treaty with the UK wherein Britain may be assured that India would not claim other artefacts that are lying in its museums in, they said.

The meeting, which lasted over 45 minutes, was called following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction to take steps to bring back the 108-carat precious gem from the UK, they said.

The Supreme Court is hearing a case to bring back the Kohinoor. The meeting was held to discuss by the central governments stand.

The Supreme Court had asked the government whether it was willing to stake a claim on the gem.

In 2010, then UK Prime Minister David Cameron, during a visit to India, had reportedly said that if Britain agrees to return the diamond: "You suddenly find the British Museum empty".

The sources said the government would discuss how to bring back the diamond.

In April, the government had told the Supreme Court that Kohinoor was neither "forcibly taken nor stolen" by the British, but given as a "gift" to the East India Company by the rulers of Punjab.

Bringing back of the diamond faces legal and technical hurdles as it dates back to pre-Independence period and thus did not fall under the purview of Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.

The government changed its stand to say they would spare no efforts in trying to get back the diamond that is estimated to cost over USD 200 million.

Kohinoor, meaning mountain of light, is a large, colourless diamond that was found in southern India in early 14th century.

In May, Sharma had told Parliament that Ministry of External Affairs is exploring ways and means for obtaining a satisfactory resolution to this issue with the UK government.

The gem is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and has been claimed by at least four countries, including India.  PTI
Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD, July 22

After the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today visited the victims family in Mota Samadhiyala village. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is scheduled to visit the village tomorrow and Dalit leaders like Ramdas Athwale and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati are also expected in the next few days.

Following in the footsteps of Rahul, Kejriwal, too, shared a cup of tea with the Dalit family, called on the flogging victims in the hospitals in Amreli and Rajkot and met the family members of the police head constable Pankaj Amreliya who had succumbed to head injuries during a rally in Amreli on Tuesday. The Delhi CM also sparked off a controversy by meeting the person accused of head constables death.

While most parts of the Saurashtra region experienced relative peace, Dalits took out rallies in Radhanpur, Vadgam, Bhachau, Than, Anand, Mansa, Viramgam and Vadnagar, the home town of PM Narendra Modi. Though there was no bandh call today, most rallies later turned violent. At least nine more persons on Friday attempted self-immolation, including two young girls in Than, demanding the release of Dalit youths arrested for vandalism.
Gujranwala (Pakistan), July 22

Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Toiba leader Hafiz Saeed on Friday said he had received a call from Asiya Andrabi, the founder of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, for his help to resolve what she called crisis on the Indian side of Kashmir.

Addressing a rally here, Saeed said: The way Indian security forces are engaged in bloodshed in Kashmir My sister Asiya Andrabi cried for 15 minutes and told me over phone: My brothers where are you?

I am telling my sister Asiya that my sister, we are coming'. This act of violence will come to end and nobody can stop Kashmir from becoming independent, he said.

Saeed further said that he had also received a call from Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.

Few days before his death, Burhan Wani told me over a phone, 'It was my desire to talk with you. Now my desire has been fulfilled and I am waiting for martyrdom', said Saeed at an event organised to express solidarity with both Andrabi and Wani.

"I want to assure the people of Kashmir that if you are in the field, we are also with you," said the Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader.

He also warned India that this was its last chance to accept separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's four-point formula on Kashmir and to withdraw security forces from the Valley.

We have to give a message to India to stop and withdraw forces and accept Geelani's four-point formula immediately, because, this is the last chance, and hereafter, the matter will be decided in the battlefield, said Saeed during his Kashmir Caravan', a procession he had organised from Lahore to Islamabad.

The caravan, comprising of trucks and buses, stretched for several kilometers, and passed through many cities, including Gujaranwala, Jhelum and Gujarat.

His rallies were attended by federal ministers and religious leaders of various organisations.

Saeed led a call to observe Black Day on July 19 in an apparent bid to draw attention to Kashmir.

The US has designated both the Laskkar e Toiba ( LeT ) and the Jamaat ud Dawa ( JuD) as terrorist organisations.

Saeed has also been listed by the UN Security Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.  ANI
Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 22

A Joint Director in the state Agriculture Department and two Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) were arrested today on the charge of extorting Rs 4.5 lakh from six Bathinda- based pesticide dealers.

Joint Director Sarabjit Kandhari and ADOs Gurdial Singh (cash crop) and Vivek Shankar (plant protection) reached here on Wednesday on an official trip to inspect pesticides in shops and godowns.

It was an official tour but no local official in the department was informed about it, which is against the norms. These officers stayed in a luxury hotel on the Barnala road and began calling the pesticide sellers for money, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Swapan Sharma.

He said the police got a tip-off about the presence of the accused in the hotel and efforts were on to trace the pesticide dealers who had given money to the accused.

Kandhari was earlier booked in a similar case during his stint as Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) in Gidderbaha (Muktsar). ADO Vivek is from Bihar and had joined the department in 2013 after doing his PhD and ADO Gurdial Singh joined in 2000.

This is a deep-rooted conspiracy as being among the seniormost officers, Sarabjit was about to be promoted as Director. He had been warned of such a trap and everyone was asking him to remain alert, said Kandharis father Garib Kandhari, while talking to this correspondent over the phone from Hoshiarpur.

The 85-year-old Das had earlier served in the Army and then worked as physical instructor in a government school.

Sarabjit has two sons. One is settled abroad and the younger one, Amanjot, is doing his Civil Engineering at Chandigarh. Kandharis family resides in Shivjot Enclave at Kharar.

Amanjot claimed that his father was acquitted in the bribery case registered during his stint in Muktsar.

A case under Section 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accused persons at the Civil Line police station.

Agriculture Minister justifies action

Bathinda: Agriculture Minister Tota Singh said, The arrest of such an official is justified. I was not in favour of such corrupt persons but since he was the seniormost official he was given the post. He went against my orders that no official would conduct raids or check any agriculture-related material without taking the Chief Agriculture Officer, Deputy Commissioner or any other senior officer with him.  TNS

Congress wants Tota Singh to quit

chandigarh: The Punjab Congress on Friday demanded the Tota Singhs resignation following the arrest of three officers of his department, including the Joint Director. PPCC chief spokesman Sunil Jakhar alleged that money was being collected from dealers to allow the sale of spurious pesticides. Jakhar said the state was dilly-dallying on filing a challan against former Agriculture Director Mangal Singh Sandhu in the Rs 33-crore pesticide scam. The Abohar MLA sought an inquiry by a sitting Judge or the CBI to probe the role of top officials and politicians in the scam in the Agriculture Department.  TNS
Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Tamkot (Mansa), July 22

Veer Bhan, 23, is a member of a Scheduled Tribe community that is known for its ferocity. He rides a horse in the lush green sorghum fields of Tamkot village of Mansa district, but nobody objects.

Mounted and armed with a heavy stick, Veer Bhan, along with his two aides, is looking for an Amriki sheltering in the nearby fields. The moment he locates it, Veer Bhan will chase the Amriki so ferociously that the animal won't dare to enter the village. He is a rakha for Tamkot residents.

Sitting at the village thaai along with half-a-dozen septuagenarians, Harbans Singh of Thoothianwali village is calculating the amount his village has paid to Satbir Khan, head of another group of rakhas, whose job is to prevent the entry into the village of stray Amriki  progeny of the most popular cow breed Holstein Friesian (HF), selling whose milk Punjabi farmers have earned a fortune for decades.

Today, Amriki is our enemy number one. Every farmer pays Rs 300 per acre per year to rakhas to keep Amrikis at bay, he says, adding, Paying rakhi to rakhas is the only option to protect our property and produce."

Reminiscent of medieval Punjab, the terms rakhi and rakha take you back around 300 years, when the feudal warlords were still evolving into misls, and villagers would pay rakhi to the feudal lord of their area to protect their property and produce from rival warlords.

Three centuries later, the practice of rakhi and character of rakha is back in the rural landscape, especially in southern Punjab, but in a slightly different version.

Today, a poor tribesman, instead of a feudal warlord, is the protector. And the plunderer is not a rival feudal warlord, but an Amriki.

Almost every village of this area is paying lakhs of rupees every six months to persons like Veer Bhan and Satbir Khan to stop stray cattle from entering their fields.

Villagers have no idea where these stray cattle come from. Once they enter our fields, they neither spare fodder, nor cotton, nor wheat. The only option is that we keep vigil in our fields round the year, which is not practically possible. Therefore, every farmer in our village has agreed to hire a group of rakhas. If a farmer spots any Amriki, he informs the rakha, who chases away the animal up to the village boundary," said Harbans Singh of Thoothiawali village.

Crops on the 2,000-acre land of Thoothianwali are protected by such tribesmen. The village farmers are collectively paying them Rs 6 lakh per annum.

Balwinder Sharma, farmer of Malkpur Khiala village, said farmers have organised committees in each village, whose job is to collect rakhi from each landowner every six month. Our village is part of a cluster of three villages  Malkpur Khiala, Khiala Kalan and Khiala Khurd. The total amount of protection money collected in these villages was around Rs 14 lakh last year. Our village alone collected Rs 4.4 lakh, claimed Balwinder.

Mahinder Singh Bhainibagha, a leader of the Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta), said the culture of hiring such tribesman is prevalent in villages located in the vicinity of cities.

However, the situation is no different in Joga village, located around 25 km from Barnala town. The village shot to national headlines in June 2012 when a mob of villagers demolished a bone crushing unit where cows were allegedly being slaughtered. Haunted by the brutal cow slaughter in the factory, the village had set up a small cowshed after the incident. But just four years later, it is not slaughtered cows but stray cattle and Amriki that haunt the villagers.

Gurmeet Singh, the seniormost councillor of the village, said, The village cowshed is too small to accommodate all the stray cattle. Every farmer of our village is contributing Rs 200 per acre per annum to pay to rakhas. There is no other option for us.

The Mansa district administration has set up a large cowshed in 25-acre in Khokhar Kalan village, which, according to farmers, is insufficient to house stray cattle, whose count is increasing each year.

Mahinder Bhainibagha, who has led several protests against stray cattle in this area, said, The culture of rakhi is a new burden on the already debt-ridden peasantry of our area. The only solution to the stray cattle menace is that Amriki should be treated as an equivalent to bull, which is allowed to be culled. This will stop the massive reproduction of cows and lower their count.

Back in Tamkot, Veer Bhan is readying himself for another round of the fields, and womenfolk of his locality pressure him not to get his photo clicked. Till a few years ago, it was tough for us to make ends meet. But the arrival of Amrikis has suddenly increased in the past two years. This has brought fortunes for poor men like me, says Veer Bhan, apparently unmindful of the change of guard in Delhi two years ago.
Ruchika M. Khanna & Deepkamal Kaur

Ropar/Nawanshahr/Jalandhar

Cow protection vigilante groups  mainly headed by right-wing Hindu leaders  seem to have cropped up almost everywhere in Punjab. Having tied up with the staff at the 30-odd information collection centres of the Excise Department and road toll plazas, no consignment of hides, carcasses or tallow is allowed to enter the state without these vigilantes taking them on.

Though these vigilante groups deny seeking goonda tax, the affected parties - industry and dairy farmers  highlight the nuisance and the additional cost in getting the raw material.

On June 30, a truck loaded with tallow (charbi in local parlance) coming from Dera Bassi and headed for Amritsar, the hub of the soap manufacturing business in Punjab, was stopped by a vigilante group in Rahon. Though the bills of the tallow (Rs 4.75 lakh) were presented, the police, acting under pressure from the saviours of the cow, booked the driver and confiscated the goods. This apparently happened because of the refusal of the driver to give protection money.

Incidents of bovine traders and dairy farmers facing police harassment, allegedly at the behest of these bovine protection groups, are also on the rise. Anybody transporting cattle (cows as well as buffaloes) cannot escape the vigilantes unnoticed. They have to either pay the tax to ensure a safe passage or their trucks are seized and the animals sent to the gaushalas, often run by the religious affiliates of these gau rakshaks. Raj Kumar, supervisor at the Gaushala Pinjara Pole in Jalandhar, admits that till a few months back, these vigilantes would leave the animals at the gaushala. However, after we were summoned as a party in a police case registered against the vigilante group by a local court, we have stopped accepting such cows. We have no clue what these groups do with the seized animals now, he says.

A progressive dairy farmer, Sarwan Singh from Heran village near Jalandhar, says that business has been so badly hit that all animal traders from Gujarat, the biggest market for milch bovines from Punjab, have stopped coming. The dairy business in the state is about Rs 2,500 crore per annum. But over the past two years, the agents were harassed, their trucks looted and burnt, animals seized and police cases registered against them, which forced them to abandon all trade ties with Punjab. It is a huge loss to dairy farmers of the state, who would earn an additional Rs 20,000 per animal that was sold in Gujarat, he says, adding that animals are now sold only within the state at anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh per animal.

Most of these incidents largely go unreported mainly because it involves dharam. Without thorough investigation, the cases are registered against anyone dealing with the holy cow. A few months back, Paramjit Singh of Pandori village near Nakodar was booked for hurting religious sentiments on the complaint of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leaders. His offence: he was skinning a dead cow. It was after much politics was played out between the saffron brigade and the Bahujan Samaj Party that came to his defence that the man was finally bailed out.

Amardeep Singh Sandhu, chairman of the Punjab Leather Federation, rues that many leather goods manufacturers are not taking orders of goods made from cow hides and the volume of business is being diverted to Uttar Pradesh.

If cow hides are coming from Saharanpur, each truck encounters an average of two groups on way to Jalandhar (at Ropar and Nawanshahr), which is the hub of leather goods in Punjab. Each group is paid Rs 2,000-5,000 per trip per truck of hide, even though all papers are complete in all respects. Initially when the truckers refused to pay, the hides would be seized and buried in the fields, while the transporters would have to run to save their lives.

The problem is the same in case of goods coming from Rajasthan, with cow vigilantes in Bathinda gunning for the hides and tallow coming in the state. The suppliers have hiked the rate of cow hides by Rs 10,000 per truck load, citing this as additional protection money, he claims.

Its for social cause

"We are protecting the holy cow. The Excise Department says that 1.5 lakh tonnes of tallow had come in Punjab in about two years, but the soap industry has used just 20,000 tonnes. This means the remaining is being used as adulterant fat in food items. We are serving a social cause by fighting this illegal sale of cows and byproducts." Nixon Kumar, gau raksha dal

We dont take money

"We have stopped several consignments of cow hides and tallow from being sold and purchased in Punjab. Our members lay siege at nakas whenever we get information regarding transportation of desi cows. It's not that we want to trouble any section of industry, but we just want to protect the cows. We never demand protection money. Dharam ke kaam mein dhanda nahin karte." Sandeep Aggarwal, bajrang dal
Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21

The Oriental Insurance Corporation, which was given the contract to insure Punjabs employees and pensioners for providing cashless treatment in 350 hospitals, has conveyed to the state Health Department that it may not be able to continue offering services on account of huge losses.

The development has put a question mark on the Punjab Government Employees and Pensioners Health Insurance Scheme (PGEPHIS), that was notified in October last year.

The government had agreed to give an annual premium of Rs 56 crore to the company in four quarterly instalments. It even created a corpus of Rs 25 crore for smooth payment, but sources said so far only two quarterly instalments of Rs 28 crore had been paid.

The empanelled hospitals generated bills claiming Rs 89.59 crore from the insurance company in just six months of the introduction of the scheme. The bills were generated against the treatment offered to around 32,000 employees and pensioners.

Of the Rs 89.59-crore claim, the company has already paid Rs 44 crore to the hospitals. The corpus of Rs 25 crore created by the government was exhausted long back.

The insurance company has refused to enrol new beneficiaries after April 30 though the Cabinet had extended the date of enrolment of leftover cases from April 30 to June 30. There are 3,500 employees and pensioners who have been refused enrolment.

Sources said the insurance company has now even started refusing payment to the hospitals on one pretext or the other and is in dispute with several hospitals.

Husan Lal, Additional Principal Secretary, Health, said they had come to know that claims filed by hospitals were quite high as compared to the premium. Whatever premium they quoted based on their own calculations, we agreed. At some places you earn profit, at some you suffer losses, that is what insurance business is. We have an agreement till the end of the year and we are hopeful the company will continue its services. He said that employees got huge benefit from the scheme.

The OIC refused to comment.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 22

Unemployed BPEd and MPEd degree holders held a demonstration outside the residence of Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani here today. The police arrested the protesters as they created a ruckus at the Ministers residence. The protesters were demanding appointment in government schools.

The unemployed youths under the aegis of BPEd and MPEd Trained Unemployed Association gathered outside the Education Ministers residence at Yamuna Colony. They held a demonstration and shouted slogans against the Congress-led state government. The police arrested them for creating a ruckus and seized black ink from them. They lamented that they had submitted several memorandums to government officials, but to no avail.

Sunder Dhoni, president of the association, said public representatives and government officials had given them false assurances that their demands would be fulfilled soon. The government should immediately issue a notification appointing them in state schools.

Unemployed youth hold rally to Secretariat

Dehradun: Unemployed youths from the reserved category held a rally here on Friday. They urged the state government to fill the backlog of reserved category posts in different departments in the state.

The unemployed youths under the banner of the SC/ST/OBC Backlog Sangarsh Samiti gathered at Parade Ground and marched in a rally to the Secretariat. The rally passed though the Lansdowne Chowk, CMI Chowk, Araghar Chowk, Dharampur Chowk and Haridwar Road.

The protesters were led by former DBS College students union president Kamlesh Bhatt.

Meanwhile, the police and the agitated unemployed youths had a heated argument as the latter were not allowed to hold a protest near the Vidhan Sabha. The police had put up barricades at the Rispana bridge on Haridwar Road. The protesters sat on a dharna.

They said memoranda highlighting their demands had been submitted to government officials several times, but to no avail. The government did not take effective steps to generate employment opportunities for youths of Uttarakhand, they said. They expressed concern over migration of skilled population to neighbouring states.

Lekhraj, Suresh Panwar, Dharamveer Singh, Surveer Sharma, Manohar, Devendra Rawat and Khushi Ram took part in the protest.
Cleveland, July 22

Donald Trump has painted a picture of a dystopian America  and sold himself as the only one who could fix it.

As he accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night, he vowed to be tough on crime and illegal immigrants.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up people who cannot defend themselves, Trump said, adding: Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

Attacks Hillarys legacy

He accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of death, destruction, terrorism and weakness as US secretary of state. His 75-minute speech was designed to set the tone for the general election campaign against Clinton, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on November 8.

As the crowd chanted: Lock her up for her handling of US foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: Lets defeat her in November. Thousands of supporters who were gathered in the convention hall roared their approval.

When it was over, Trump was joined on stage by his family.

Will build a great border wall

Trump presented a bleak view of America under siege from illegal immigrants, threatened by Islamic State militants, hindered by crumbling infrastructure and weakened by unfair trade deals and race-related violence.

Accusing illegal immigrants of taking jobs from American citizens and committing crimes, Trump vowed to build a great border wall against the border-crossers. We will stop it, he said. Trump took positions in conflict with traditional Republican policies. He said he would avoid multinational trade deals but instead pursue agreements with individual countries. He would renegotiate the NAFTA trade accord linking the US, Canada and Mexico. He would penalise companies that outsource jobs and then export their foreign-made products back into the US.

We will never sign bad trade deals, Trump thundered.

Putting America first

Trump portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned.

Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place by George W. Bush. Trump said policies pursued by Clinton in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse.

Things have to change

Trump accused Clinton of being the puppet of big business, elite media and major donors who want to preserve the current political system.

That is why Hillarys message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change  and they have to change right now, he said.  Agencies
Beijing: The Chinese military has unveiled a range of new weapons, including long-range missiles, amid calls by its top officials to be combat-ready following a landmark verdict by a UN-backed tribunal that struck down China's 'historical rights' in the South China Sea. The Southern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army, which looks after the South China Sea front, has unveiled a series of new weapons for sea and air combat during a visit by top military officers. pti

3,000 dead in Mediterranean already this year

Geneva: Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have perished in the Mediterranean Sea already this year while almost 250,000 have reached Europe, the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday. The estimated death toll could put 2016 on track to be the deadliest year of the migration crisis. Last year, the same landmark was only reached in October, by which time nearly one million people had crossed into Europe. Reuters
Paris, July 22

Five suspects have been formally charged over the truck attack in the French Riveria city of Nice that killed 84 people, the Paris prosecutor has said.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who mowed down crowds of people enjoying a Bastille Day fireworks display, had long plotted the carnage, prosecutor Francois Molins said.

The revelations come as the French government continues to be plagued by questions over possible security failings, prompting authorities to launch an investigation into potential oversights.

Molins said photos on Bouhlels phone showed he had likely already staked out the same July 14 event in 2015.

It also emerged that one of the five suspects in custody, a Tunisian named Mohamed Oualid G, had filmed the scene the day after the carnage, as it crawled with paramedics and journalists.

The five were brought before anti-terrorism judges yesterday and charged.

They are 22-year-old Franco-Tunisian Ramzi A, 37-year-old Tunisian Chokri C, 40-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Oualid G, 38-year-old Albanian Artan H, and his wife Enkeledja Z who holds both French and Albanian nationality.

None were known to intelligence services, and only Ramzi A, who was born in Nice, had a criminal record, for robbery and drug offences.

He led police to discover a Kalashnikov and a bag of ammunition yesterday however the purpose of the weapons was unclear.

Ramzi, Chokri and Oualid were charged with being accomplices to murder by a terror group.

Ramzi and the Albanian couple faced a second charge, of breaking the law on firearms in relation to a terrorist crime.

They are accused of providing Bouhlel with the gun he fired at police officers before he was shot dead.

More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the grisly attack last Thursday, the third in France in 18 months, and it was analyses of Bouhlels telephone records that led them to the five suspects.

While the Islamic State group claimed the attack, describing Bouhlel as a soldier, investigators have not found direct proof of his allegiance to the jihadists.

Many people interviewed by investigators described the Tunisian father of three as someone who did not practise the Muslim religion, ate pork, drank alcohol, took drugs and had an unbridled sexual activity, Molins said earlier this week.

However initial details of the investigation revealed Bouhlel had been fascinated with jihad for a while.

In May last year, he took a photo of an article about the drug Captagon, an amphetamine used by jihadists in Syria.

In July 2015, he took photos of the crowd at the Bastille Day fireworks display, as well as another crowd watching a concert on Nices Promenade Des Anglais three days later.  AFP
CAIRO, July 22

A grenade exploded on Friday outside a mosque in Yemen's capital Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-allied Houthi group, residents said, as worshippers were leaving after midday prayers.

There were no injuries or casualties, a Reuters witness said. No group claimed responsibility for the explosion under a parked car by the Bilal mosque in western Sanaa.

Islamist militants have exploited Yemen's 16-month civil war between the Houthis and supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, to strike at both sides.

The Houthis have controlled Sanaa since 2014 when they drove Hadi and his government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Yemeni government forces and allies from the United Arab Emirates control the southern port city of Aden and have pledged to win back control of the capital.

Islamic State said it carried out an attack on a mosque in Sanaa last September that killed 10 worshippers.  Reuters
Planned Parenthood bought full page ads in the Daily Herald and Aurora Beacon News suggesting the Pro-Life Action League had a "well documented history of advocating violence." The ad included a photo of a bombed-out abortion clinic in Michigan.

GENEVA IL - Friday, a Kane County Circuit Court judge denied Planned Parenthood of Illinois and its former head Steve Trombley a motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought against them by the Pro-Life Action League. The suit alleges that Planned Parenthood lied when it tried to tie the Pro-Life Action League to violence in four separate public communications.

The first ad, which ran in the Beacon on September 6, 2007, was followed by a cease and desist letter from the Thomas More Society on behalf their clients. This letter demanded a prompt and public retraction of false, libelous, and malicious statements. Planned Parenthood responded with an ad that was more inflammatory and accusatory than the original.

No one should have to suffer the kind of vicious and false accusations of violence that the Pro-Life Action League has suffered, said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Peter Breen. This ruling means that the Pro-Life Action League will finally have the opportunity to clear its name in court against Planned Parenthoods lies. The League twice beat Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry before the U.S. Supreme Court in a related case, and we look forward to mounting a vigorous prosecution of these defamation claims.

The abortion providers defense cited a jury verdict in the trial court in NOW v. Scheidler, a verdict reversed and vacated in two decisions by the United States Supreme Court. That long running case, brought by abortion clinics and the National Organization for Women against the Pro-Life Action League and its founder Joseph Scheidler, father of current League executive director Eric Scheidler. The suit sought to apply federal racketeering laws, intended to stop organized crime, to the Leagues peaceful pro-life advocacy.

This case had been delayed for years, due to appeals on issues unrelated to the merits of the defamation claims brought by the Pro-Life Action League.
Cleveland, July 22

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday targeted Democrat Hillary Clinton for leaving behind a legacy of death, destruction and weakness as former US secretary of state and blamed her bad judgment for disasters unfolding across the world.

The 70-year-old real estate tycoon said US President Barack Obama must be regretting his decision of putting Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness. America is far less safeand the world is far less stablethan when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets, Trump said in his acceptance speech here as the Republican presidential candidate.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Her bad instincts and her bad judgmentsomething pointed out by (Vermont senator) Bernie Sandersare what caused the disasters unfolding today, he said.

Reviewing Clintons record, Trump said in 2009, ISIS was not even on the map and the situation across the Middle East was stable.

After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.

Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before, he said.

Trump said Clintons legacy did not have to be US legacy.

The problems we face nowpoverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroadwill last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them.

Trump said while Clintons message was that things would never change, his message is that things had to change. And they have to change right now, he said amid applause.

When a secretary of state illegally stored her emails on a private server, deleted 33,000 of them so that authorities could not see her crime, it put the country at risk, Trump said, adding that corruption had reached a level like never before.

When the FBI director says that the Secretary of State was extremely careless and negligent in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with itespecially when others have paid so dearly, he said.

When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favours to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come, he alleged. PTI
Kuala Lumpur, July 22

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if the aircraft is not found in an area now being searched, Malaysia, China and Australia said in a statement on Friday.

The Boeing 777, with 239 aboard, disappeared in March 2014 while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Almost $180 million has been spent since then on an underwater search spanning 120,000 square km in the southern Indian Ocean.

In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 sq-km search, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.

The families of those on board, most of whom were from China, have pressed hard for answers ever since the plane went missing, and they are likely to decry any suggestion the search will end.

Liow said the team was not giving up on the search for MH370 even if the less than 10,000 square kilometres that remains to be searched did not come up with anything.

Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps, the ministers said in the statement. Investigators believe the plane was deliberately flown thousands of miles off course before crashing into the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.

Malaysian investigators said in 2015 there was nothing suspicious in the financial, medical or personal histories of pilots or crew.

While acknowledging the significance of the debris, ministers noted that to date, none of it had provided information that positively identified the precise location of the aircraft, the ministers said.

The search has lasted more than two years but has found no sign of the main wreckage. Searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for MH370 said they believed the plane may have glided down to the sea rather than dived, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean.

That was the first time officials directly involved in the search have lent some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flights final moments.

The glide theory is not supported by the investigating agencies. Liow said there was not enough evidence to confirm a controlled ditching, and added that he was confident the search was in the right place.

He said that all data and information collected from the flight, search and debris of MH370 would be released to the public. It is in a very big volume, so it is going to take some time, Liow added.  Reuters
JUST IN

Munich police says on Facebook and twitter that six people are dead in Munich shooting.

Munich police says: "there are shooters on the run who are dangerous".

Bavarian broadcaster BR says police asking people to leave highways near Munich.

Munich police spokesman says suspicion of "terror attack" based on witness reports.

MUNICH, July 22

At least three gunmen went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday, killing and wounding at least six people.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside.

Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many injured. Numerous highways north of Munich have been sealed off.

A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded.

"We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said, adding it was a suspected terror attack.

"We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 p.m., the shooting apparently began at a McDonald's in the shopping centre. There are still people in the shopping centre. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them."

Police special forces had arrived at the scene, NTV said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich.

"All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive," "We have no further information, we're just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet." Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

There was, however, no immediate word that the attack was politically motivated.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.

Reuters/AFP
Washington: Despite living in exile in Russia, former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden is reportedly working with a researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab to build a device which will protect smartphones from government spies. The device, a plastic case designed to slide over an Apple iPhone 6, will monitor the phone's antennas to detect any incoming or outgoing signals. The sensor-laden case will trigger an alarm if there is a snooping effort.  IANS

Australia to return Buddha statue to India

Canberra: An 1,800-year-old Buddha statue displayed in the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) is being prepared for its return to India, after it was found to have been purchased from an illegal antiquity trafficker. The second-century statue stands at 1.3 metres tall, and was purchased from Asian art specialist Nancy Wiener by billionaire Ros Packer, on behalf of the NGA, in 2007. However, documents revealed that the NGA staff simply accepted Wiener's story of how she came to be in possession of the antiquity, unaware that it was in fact stolen from an archaeological site in Mathura.  ians
Before signing the two bills into law, three Chicago public school teachers read statements indicating their outrage with the governor's email comments, assuring the governor that "we are not illiterate."

"We are going to redo our state funding for education. I'm committed to that," Rauner said. "Unequal funding denies the American dream from too many children in low income neighborhoods."

"I am passionate about education," Rauner said. He said one of the reasons he ran for governor in 2014 because education fund had been cut four times in the prior ten years by previous governors.

"Let me very clear, I apologize for the statement that I made in that email in 2011. The remarks I made were inaccurate and intemperate, and I apologize to the teachers and I regret those comments," Rauner told reporters.

CHICAGO  Amidst a day of controversy over a four year old email discussion released by Mayor Emanuel including comments in which Governor Rauner wrote that half of Chicago Public School teachers were "virtually illiterate," the governor publicly signed a bill affecting schools Friday.

The governor signed House Bill 5901 to increase transparency surrounding school district testing information, and House Bill 6181 to provide teachers more flexibility in earning and keeping professional development hours.

Ive long said that teachers are our states most important resource as they are the ones entrusted with educating the next generation of leaders, said Governor Rauner. These bills will help teachers with that awesome responsibility by removing bureaucratic red tape and encouraging them to continue to seek training and professional development and by addressing concerns that students are being over-tested by requiring school districts to be more transparent about testing information.

House Bill 5901 responds to the increased attention from teachers and parents on standardized tests and potential "over-testing" of students. While experts agree that assessment is an important part of instruction, there are also concerns about excessive testing taking away from instructional time. The bill increases transparency by requiring school districts to report information about many of the assessments used within the district to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Information that will be reported for each test includes: its administration window, which is the time in which the test has to be administered; who requires the test; which grade levels take the test; which subsets of students take the test; the estimated average time to take the test; and how the results of the test will be used.

House Bill 6181 allows educators to earn credit for professional development hours exceeding the required number during the last 3 months of their professional educator license (PEL) renewal cycle. Instead of being lost, these professional development hours can now be rolled over toward the next license renewal cycle. This provision respects and encourages teachers choice to seek out professional development beyond their licensure renewal requirements.

These bills, which had clear bipartisan agreement, will give teachers the flexibility they deserve to schedule high quality, individualized professional development, said Secretary of Education Beth Purvis. They will also provide transparency surrounding assessment and the data required to better address the issue of over-testing.

House Bills 5901 and 6181 are effective immediately.
The American Petroleum Institute is ramping up efforts to educate diesel engine users about the two new diesel engine oil standards it approved earlier this year, API CK-4 and FA-4.

Having two different oil categories is likely to cause confusion among truck owners. And putting the wrong oil in your engine will at the least mean it wont perform like it should and could cause engine damage, according to Kevin Ferrick, senior manager for engine oil licensing at API.

Thats because FA-4 was designed for use in new 2017-model engines that are required to get better fuel economy for lower greenhouse gas emissions. The different viscosity parameters needed in these oils generally wont work well in older engines.

The new oil categories were the results of a years-long process to develop new standards and tests, a process during which the new oils were known as PC-11.

API CK-4 and FA-4 will first appear in the API Service Symbol Donut on Dec 1.

Most truck and engine makers will likely recommend truck owners that are currently using API-licensed CJ-4 engine oils start using licensed API CK-4 oils as soon as they are available. API CK-4 oils have been designed to better protect existing diesel engines.

API FA-4 oils, however, are different. The FA-4 standard describes certain lower viscosity oils specifically formulated for use in diesel engines designed to meet 2017 model year on-highway greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards.

In general, FA-4 oils are not considered backward-compatible. Some engine manufacturers might recommend API FA-4 oils for their previous model-year vehicles, but it is more likely that manufacturers will recommend the oils starting with the 2017 model year engines.

Making things more confusing is the different viscosity standards go beyond the basic 10W-40 or 5W-30 type of nomenclature. In fact, you could have two 10W-30 oils on the shelf, but one would be an FA-4 and one would be a CK-4.

While lower-viscosity oils in general have been shown to improve fuel economy, the FA-4 oils must perform to a more stringent high-temp/high-shear viscosity test to stand up to the more punishing environment in the new engines.

Add to all this the fact that most fleets would prefer to run a single oil, and you have potential for misapplication  using the wrong oil in your engine.

One way the API has come up with to help truck owners identify the right oil is by changing the Service Symbol Donut. For FA-4 oils, the top of the donut has been divided, with FA-4 on the left-hand side. That part of the donut also will be shaded black or red.

In addition, the API, which in the past has typically let oil marketers handle the announcements about new categories, is using everything from interviews with the press to radio and print ads to a website and social media to get the word out under the moniker Diesel Oil Matters. Theres a website, www.dieseloilmatters.com, a Facebook page, and a Twitter feed under @dieselmatters.

Ferrick said hes concerned that some truck owners might believe that all oils are the same, and in this case this is not true. If you have two 10w30s side by side on the shelf, were worried they may mistakenly grab the wrong one.

"The only way we know to mitigate that is to do the two things weve done. We named the oils differently  we called it FA-4 and CK-4, we didnt call it CK-4A and CK-4B  and we put a new API donut on the FA 4 without changing the CK 4 donut. Between those two things, we hope we get enough information out through our campaign to educate consumers, and if not we hope the difference in the donut will give them pause.

For fleets that arent buying oils off the shelf, Ferrick says, the other thing I would say gives me some concern is there are a lot of fleets used to having only one oil. They need to come to grips with the idea that as they get new equipment, they may need to start carrying a second oil.
Correction

This story originally incorrectly stated how long exterior repairs would take. The story has been corrected.

OKLAHOMA CITY  Construction on the outside of the state Capitol will begin early next month, tenants were told Thursday, with interior and exterior renovations taking six years to complete.

Scaffolding has started going up on the north side of the building. The restoration of the outside will begin Aug. 8 and is expected to be complete within three years.

Officials will be repairing, restoring and replacing exterior stone, said Josh Martin, vice president of operations for JE Dunn Construction Co.

Every inch of grout will be replaced, he said, adding that such work is a time-consuming process.

Officials want to ensure that water does not get into the Capitol, he said.

In addition, the windows on the building will be restored and replaced, and a significant amount of work will be done on the roof, Martin said.

Workers will dig up the tunnel that connects the far east parking lot with the Capitol. The tunnel will be repaired to ensure that water no longer leaks into it, Martin said.

Lawmakers have approved two bond issues to repair the building, one for $120 million and a second for $125 million. The facility has electrical, plumbing and structural problems.

The exterior repairs are expected to cost about $52 million, said Trait Thompson, state Capitol project manager.

We are now working in a building that will be under construction for the next six years, Thompson said.

Employees who work in the Capitol can expect to hear tapping, grinding and scraping, Martin said. Employees will also experience odors, dust and temporary entrance closures, he said.
Earlier in the day Dr. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family fame, endorsed Trump and earlier in the evening prominent Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr of Liberty University spoke on Trump's behalf.

An amendment which, by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans.

They have much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.

Trump then focused on an issue evangelicals have conveyed to him as their top issue:

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community because Ill tell you what, the support theyve given me, and Im not sure I totally deserve it, has been so awesome and has had such a big reason for me being here tonight. True, so true.

CLEVELAND - During his acceptance speech Thursday, businessman Donald J. Trump credited Christian evangelicals with helping him obtain him the GOP's 2016 presidential nomination.

I have decided to endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States, not only because of my great concern about Hillary Clinton. I am supporting Mr. Trump primarily because I believe he is the most capable candidate to lead the United States of America in this complicated hour, Dobson said in a statement issued Thursday.

Dobson said he is very enthusiastic about Indiana governor Mike Pence being Trump's his running mate, and he was encouraged by Trump''s promise to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices, preserve religious liberty, rebuild the military, and defend the sanctity of human life.

Nearly 80% of white evangelicals support Trump, according to the Pew Research Center.

Falwell said Donald Trump helped counsel Liberty University when it was going through financial hard times, and believes his management skills will guide America out of its burdensome debt.

He pointed to Trump's commitment to loosening IRS rules to allow churches more leeway in politics without facing fines.

"A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to uphold the Second Amendment right to bear arms," Falwell told the RNC Convention delegates, "A vote to appoint conservative pro-life justices to the Supreme Court."

Trump did not mention the abortion issue in his acceptance speech, but he did specifically reach out to the "LGBTQ" community, whose efforts to expand rights frequently collide with the evangelical's emphasis on maintaining religious liberties.
There is no way other than democracy for Turkey, the head of the country's largest business confederation, Rifat Hisarciklioglu said Tuesday, condemning the failed coup attempt last week.

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, which includes all local chambers of commerce, industry and shipping as well as all the commodity exchanges released a statement to denounce the unsuccessful coup attempt and to show clear support for the democratically elected government.

During the announcement of the statement signed by 365 chambers and bourses in 81 provinces of Turkey, Hisarciklioglu said the business community in Turkey expected that those who took part in the coup be found and judged properly.

We don't favor any management of which the power does not come from democratic elections and the authority from the nation. Also we dont see a choice for our country other than democracy. Hisarciklioglu said.

Regarding the possible rate cut from Moodys following a statement from the credit rating agency that implied there could be a downgrade after the foiled coup attempt, Hisarciklioglu recalled that Turkey had a habit of surprising the agencies with better-than-forecasted economic data.

Those institutes almost every time have been mistaken regarding the resilience of the private sector, the governments economic structure and the strength of its fiscal accounts  Hisarciklioglu said.

Hisarciklioglu said that the Turkish democracy had passed a great test in July 15-16 July.

Actually I believe this agreement on democratic values will have a very positive effect on Turkeys economy and institutions that attempt to assess Turkey's economy will be mistaken, he added.

The credit rating agency Moody's announced Tuesday that it would review Turkeys credit rating to possibly downgrade it one notch due to the potential effects of the recent coup attempt.

Anadolu Agency
A top Turkish official Sunday urged Washington to act as a faithful ally to Turkey by quickly executing the extradition of Fetullah Gulen, the expatriate cleric accused of being behind Fridays failed coup in Turkey.

If we are two allied countries working in coordination politically and militarily, what is expected from this strategic partnership is that the U.S. not remain insensitive anymore to [Gulens] extradition request, Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmus told CNN Turk TV.

Gulen is the number one suspect in investigations following the attempted coup, judicial sources told Anadolu Agency on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking with the media.

This is a new situation, a new phase, Kurtulmus said, accusing the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) of illegally usurping the states weapons and not hesitating to use them against the public.

Kurtulmus said an extradition request would be rapidly prepared by Ankara and that Turkey expects results.

He called on Turkeys American friends to understand what we feel and perform the return as soon as possible.

Fridays attempted takeover is said to have been organized by followers of Gulen, who is accused of pursuing a long-running campaign to overthrow the government through supporters within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming the so-called parallel state.

On Friday night, rogue elements of the military attempted to overthrow Turkeys democratically elected government. Around 160 people were martyred in the ensuing violence.

Some 2,839 military personnel involved in the coup attempt have been arrested, and 20 pro-coup soldiers, including some senior officers, were killed in the attempt to overthrow the government.

Dismissing Gulens public denials that he was behind the coup attempt, Kurtulmus said, That means he is trying to save himself.

That night [of the attempted coup] such things were done that would not even occur to the Devil, Kurtulmus said, adding: God saved the nation, the nation saved itself.

Anadolu Agency
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Mustafa Akinci said on Tuesday that the failure of the July 15 coup in Turkey had relieved the TRNC public.

In a statement to the state-run Bayrak broadcaster Tuesday, Akinci said that the TRNC people had also taken a stand against Friday's coup attempt.

"The path of development goes through democracy," he added.

Akinci said that Turkey plays an important role for the Turkish Cypriots and welcomed the fact that "no community in Turkey  applauded the coup as they have done in the past".

Turkey's government has said the attempted coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through supporters within Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming parallel state.

At least 240 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred in Istanbul and Ankara and nearly 1,500 others wounded as they protested against the coup.

Anadolu Agency
Only days before Jawad Marun was to return to his native Morocco after spending six years in Turkey, he was killed by renegade troops within Turkeys military who attempted to overthrow the elected government last Friday.

Jawad, 32, had first come to Turkey -- a free and politically stable country -- seeking a better future for himself and his family.

During Fridays abortive coup bid by a renegade army faction (linked to the "parallel state", the terrorist organization led by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen), Jawad hit the streets with his Turkish friends in response to calls by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to rally in defense of democracy.

While facing off against the putschists tanks in Istanbuls Taksim Square, however, Jawad -- along with dozens of other demonstrators -- was shot dead by pro-coup soldiers.

Anadolu Agency has since visited the Marun familys home in Moroccos northern city of Tangier and spoken to the slain mans father and pregnant wife.

"Jawad, who had been waiting for his first son, had worked as a street vendor in Turkey," Abdul Salam Marun, Jawads father, told Anadolu Agency.

"But he was unfortunately killed in Taksim Square during last weeks failed coup attempt," he said.

"I was informed of his death on Saturday morning," the grieving father recalled. "His wife told me Jawad had been killed while taking part in the anti-coup demonstrations."

Jawads father still has not heard from Moroccan officials regarding the legal procedures required for retrieving his sons body, saying only that he had been visited by a local official who had requested some information about his late son.

On Friday night, President Erdogan called on the Turkish people to converge on the countrys public squares and airports in defiance of the coup attempt.

His call was met by massive protests in various Turkish cities in support of the countrys democratically-elected government.

Jawad appears to have been the first Moroccan national to be killed during last weeks dramatic events in Turkey.

Anadolu Agency has yet to obtain comment from the Moroccan authorities regarding the number of Moroccans killed or injured during the failed coup bid.

At least 164 people lost their lives while confronting the putschists in capital Ankara and Istanbul, according to preliminary reports.

Meanwhile, 2,839 military personnel allegedly involved in the coup attempt have been arrested, while 20 pro-coup soldiers -- including some senior officers -- were killed during their bid to overthrow the government.

Anadolu Agency
The reintroduction of the death penalty is not currently being considered by the Turkish government, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Tuesday.

However, he left the door open for the sentence to be reintroduced through parliamentary consensus.

Speaking to reporters at Cankaya Palace in the capital Ankara, he said those convicted of involvement in Fridays failed military coup would face the most severe punishment under the current legal system.

Turkey outlawed the death penalty in 2004 but there have been growing calls for its return following the coup attempt, which saw more than 240 people lose their lives.

Democracies cannot disregard the demands of the public, Kurtulmus said. Currently, capital punishment is not on the agenda of our government. However, if the public demands and the negotiations with other parties in parliament really require something like this, it belongs among the next steps.

The government has said the attempted coup was organized by the followers of U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state.

U.S. extraditing Pennsylvania-based preacher, Fetullah Gulen, to Turkey over his alleged involvement in Fridays deadly coup attempt would be the "greatest sign of solidarity", Kurtulmus said.

Kurtulmus responded that "sending Fetullah Gulen to Turkey would be the number one solidarity display".

There are currently 9,322 suspects linked to the failed coup attempt on late Friday and all of them are going through legal procedures, Kurtulmus said.

Kurtulmus said there is "no proof" that any country, including the U.S., was involved in Fridays failed coup attempt, which occurred late on July 15 when rogue elements of the Turkish military tried to overthrow the country's democratically elected government.

At least 208 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred in Istanbul and Ankara and nearly 1,500 others wounded as they protested against the coup.

The government has said the attempted coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through supporters within Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming the so-called parallel state.

Anadolu Agency
The leader of Turkeys main opposition on Tuesday called for unity and the protection of democracy following Friday's failed coup.

Speaking at a parliamentary meeting in Ankara on Tuesday, chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said: Democracy should be our common ground regardless of anyones opinion, faith and lifestyle.

He condemned those responsible for the coup attempt and said problems could only be solved through democratic means.

We are living in the 21st century, Kilicdaroglu said. Why would you stage a coup? We should resolve problems in the parliamentary way. Parliament should reveal its will and sort our troubles.

Democracy cannot be suspended for any reason. The attempted coup targeted the parliamentary democratic system. People who tried to spoil the system have been disappointed.

He added that Turkey deserves first class democracy, not third class democracy.

Anadolu Agency
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the extradition of Fetullah Gulen from the U.S. during a telephone call with President Barack Obama on Tuesday, the White House said.

The president made clear to President Erdogan that the United States doesnt support terrorists and doesnt support individuals who conspired to overthrow a democratically elected government, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

He said Obama reiterated once again the strong commitment of the United States to the democratically elected civilian government of Turkey and commended the Turkish peoples effort in defending the government and repelling the coup last week.

Turkey accuses U.S-based cleric Fetullah Gulen of being behind the coup attempt last Friday and has demanded that he be extradited to face trial.

According to Earnest, the decision to extradite Gulen is not a decision to be made by Obama but a "legal decision" based on the "long-standing treaty" between the two countries.

"That's the process that will follow," he said.

Earnest also praised the strength of the "Turkish people's commitment" to democracy, democratic institutions and the "commitment of political leaders to the notion of democracy even in the face of some profound political disagreements."

Materials related to the extradition of the cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania were submitted to U.S. authorities by the Turkish government in electronic form, according to Earnest.

The Justice Department and other U.S. agencies are now reviewing the documents and will take action in accordance with a decades-long treaty between the two countries with respect to the extradition of criminals, the White House said.

The U.S. said it was "understandable" and "justified" for the Turkish government to detain more than 6,000 soldiers, 1,481 judiciary members and 210 police officers who are linked to the coup attempt.

"We understand the tremendous stress that the government is going through," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

He added it was quite normal that Turkey takes actions "to go after the perpetrators to conduct a thorough investigation into what happened".

Toner stated that they also urged democracy in Turkey to continue while it supports "completely the efforts to bring the perpetrators of the coup to justice."

The Turkish presidential press center said in a statement that Obama condemned the attempt to overthrow Turkeys democratically elected government and made it clear the U.S. supports democracy in the country.

The statement also said Obama told Erdogan the U.S. is ready to cooperate with Turkish institutions investigating the coup attempt.

Erdogan told Obama the proper punishment would be given to those responsible within the framework of justice and the rule of law.

Anadolu Agency
Turkish experts are criticizing the Western media's attitude toward Friday's attempted coup, accusing them of misinforming the public.

After the coup attempt, the Turkish people's democratic and civil reactions were labeled "Islamist and even jihadist" by some Western media institutions, Burhanettin Duran, a political scientist at the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Duran said some Western countries called on Turkey to stick to democracy.

"Turkey doesnt need such calls because it has democracy already. On the contrary, the FETO [terrorist] organization should be removed from Turkey," he said, referring to the followers of U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, accused of infiltrating the state and staging the coup.

He said if the coup had succeeded, the international media would have painted the story as Erdogan being toppled as a dictator. But since Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party did not fall, the Western media began another disinformation campaign.

Duran accused the Western media of not taking a clear stance against the coup attempt, saying that they want to limit Turkey's will as well as hinder its efforts to cleanse Turkey of the coup-plotters.

Turkeys former European Union Minister Beril Dedeoglu also said that the Western media tried to focus attention on the Turkish government rather than the coup plotters.

She also criticized the headlines in Western media.

Dedeoglu characterized the headlines as saying, "Ok, we dont approve of the coup, but actually we dont approve of the things that will be done afterwards either."

Turkey's government has said the attempted coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish state institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming a parallel state.

At least 240 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred during the failed putsch, and over 1,500 others were wounded as they protested it.
I knew his speech. They gave me his speech. I saw exactly what his speech was, because when you go up to speak, you have to give your speech. We dont want surprises. So they gave it. They came to me. They said, Its a boring speech, Mr. Trump. Nothing good, nothing bad. He congratulates you in the victory and heres the speech. Well, he got up and the first two sentences he added a sentence. In other words, he got up and he added a sentence, which couldve been viewed as a nasty thing in terms of what he said because he was implying something which is wrong but thats okay.

Honestly, he may have ruined his political career. I feel so badly. I feel so badly. And you know hell come and endorse over the next little awhile. Hell come and endorse, its because he has no choice. But I dont want his endorsement. What difference does it make. I dont want his endorsement. I dont want his endorsement. Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself. Just a couple of things.

So he took his speech and youre bound by the speech just like youre bound by the pledge. Youre bound by the pledge. So Ted Cruz took his speech that was done, was on the teleprompter, said hello then made a statement that wasnt on the speech and then went back to his speech. See to me, thats dishonorable, to me, not signing a pledge is dishonorable. Its dishonorable. Not a nice thing to do.

Again, Trump tells reporters he really does NOT want Cruz's endorsement now:

I like Ted, hes fine. Again, I dont want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it, just so you understand. If he gives it, I will not accept it, just so you understand. If he gives it I will  I will not accept. It wont matter. Honestly, he shouldve done it because nobody cares and he wouldve been in better shape for four years from now if hes gonna be  I dont think, I dont see him winning anyway, frankly. But if he  if he did I  its fine. Although, maybe Ill set up a Super PAC if he decides to run. Are you allowed to set up a Super PAC, Mike, if you are the president to fight somebody?

Then Trump says he did "start" the back and forth insulting Cruz's wife -

And that it wasn't his fault:

I didnt start anything with the wife. A PAC which hes very friendly with released  released a cover story on my wife who was a tremendously successful and elegant model and she was on the cover of GQ magazine. I think it was GQ, right? GQ Magazine is not exactly Penthouse, but she was on the cover of GQ Magazine. An artsy picture but you know thats why she was a modelThen, when I saw somebody tweeted a picture of Melania and a picture of Heidi who I think I am by the way is a very nice woman and a very beautiful woman, I have to tell you, I think Heidi Cruz is a great person. I think its the best thing hes got going, and his kids, if you want to know the truth. In a certain way, although hes got good intellect but he doesnt know how to use it and he was a good debater but he didnt do well in the debates against me.

And then he revived the JFK assassination conspiracy link about Cruz's father:

Number two, his father. I dont know his father. I met him once. I think hes a lovely guy. I think hes a lovely guy. All I did was point out the fact that on the cover of the Naitonal Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead, he said Donald Trump  I had nothing to do with it. This was a magazine that frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got OJ, they got Edwards, they got this. I mean if that was the New York Times they wouldnt gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting. Ive always said why didnt the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for Edwards and OJ Simpson and all of these things? But anyway, so they have a picture, an old picture having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald. Now, nothing  Im not saying anything. They said, and here show the press takes that story. So this had nothing to do with me except I might have pointed it out but it had nothing to do with me. I have no control over anything. I might have pointed it out. But they never denied, did anybody everDid anybody ever deny that was the father? Theyre not saying, Oh that wasnt really my father. It was a little hard to do. It looked like him. So heres the story. The press takes that and they say, Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories. He went out and said his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald and he assassinated the president. What did I do? So two things. Those were the two points. So on those two points he said about the endorsement and I just had it cleared up. I think Im doing the right thing, Im doing it but I have to do it. Number 1, the Heidi thing you understand. Now, number two, I know nothing about his father. I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald, but there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer, which does have credibility.

Frankly, this whole disaster makes Illinois Review's John DiLeo's theory about what Trump is up to not so hard to believe.

The press conference in its entirety:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last weeks failed coup tried unsuccessfully to make a minority dominate the country's majority.

In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV late Wednesday, Erdogan reiterated that a clique within the Turkish Armed Forces carried out the deadly coup attempt.

"It is clear that they are in the minority. We could not have let minority dominate majority. We have taken all the steps necessary to prevent such an event," he said.

Erdogan said coup plotters failed in their bid to topple the government, adding that they might have some plans for their own fate.

"As long as we join hands and accompany the people, the tanks could do nothing," the president said.

Erdogan stressed that Turkey will remain a democratic parliamentary system, and never step back from it.

However, whatever is necessary for the nations peace and stability will be done, he added.

Turkey announced Wednesday a three-month state of emergency after the failed coup Friday that martyred hundreds of people and injured more than 1,500 others.

The declaration of the state of emergency has the sole purpose of taking the necessary measures, in the face of the terrorist threat that our country is facing, Erdogan told Al Jazeera, citing similar measures taken by France following attacks in Paris last year that are still in place.

Turkey's government said the attempted coup in which rogue elements of the military attacked the parliament, presidential palace and other state institutions, was organized by followers of U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen.

Gulen and his movement are also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the government by infiltrating Turkish state institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary -- forming a parallel state.

The president underlined that there is another superior mind above Fetullah Gulen's FETO terror organization.

Erdogan said Turkey submitted all evidence to the U.S. regarding Gulens extradition and Ankara now awaits a decision from Washington.

A total of 246 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred during the failed putsch.

Erdogan also mentioned the death penalty and said parliament is the body that will decide if the coup plotters would be executed.

"I said I will approve death penalty for coup plotters if parliament approves it," he said.

Regarding claims of a lack of freedom of the press in Turkey, Erdogan said he has never been anti-media but freedom of expression should never be a weapon.

Asked about the downing of a Russian fighter jet, Erdogan said: "Pilots who downed the Russian jet are in custody -- being questioned about Gulenist ties."

Relations between Turkey and Russian quickly soured following the downing of the jet Nov. 24 after it had violated Turkeys air space despite multiple warnings from the Turkish military.

One of the jet's two pilots was killed while the other was rescued by Russian forces.

Erdogan also criticized Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, saying that If he wants a lesson in democracy he can very easily get a lesson in democracy from us, after Ayrault expressed concerns Sunday about purges in Turkey following the failed coup.

Anadolu Agency
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday a nationwide three-month state of emergency after Friday's failed coup that martyred hundreds of people and injured over 1,500 others.

Speaking at presidential complex after back-to-back National Security Council and Cabinet meetings  the first since the coup  Erdogan said the three-month state of emergency was being declared under Article 120 of the Turkish Constitution.

Under Article 120, in the event of serious indications of widespread acts of violence aimed at the destruction of the free democratic order, a state of emergency may be declared in one or more regions or throughout the country for a period not exceeding six months.

"The purpose of the state of emergency is to most effectively and swiftly take steps necessary to eliminate the threat to democracy in our country, the rule of law, and the rights and freedom of our citizens," Erdogan said.

The president said the move aimed at 'eliminating coup-plotter terrorist group' in reference to Fetullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO, which is led by followers of US-based preacher Fetullah Gulen.

Turkey's government has said the attempted coup was organized by Gulen.

At least 246 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred during the failed putsch, and over 1,500 others were wounded as they protested it.

Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish state institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming a parallel state.

Speaking words of reassurance to the Turkish people, the president said: "Never be worried. There is nothing to worry about."

He said "it is out of the question" for the armed forces to seize power. "Quite the reverse, the authority and will of the [civilian] leaders will grow more in this process."

"We never compromise on democracy, and we will not compromise," he added.

Erdogan blasted Standard & Poor's downgrade of Turkey's main sovereign rating in the wake of last weeks failed coup as politically motivated.

Why are you even interested in Turkey? We're not a member of you Don't every try to mess with us, he said.

In 2013, S&P failed to reach a rating agreement with the Turkish Treasury, since which it has only issued an unpaid, unsolicited assessment.

The Treasury has deals with other international rating agencies, Fitch and Moodys, which kept the countrys investment-grade rating in the failed coups wake.

The president said that Turkey is still committed to advancing infrastructure projects and will continue its economic reforms.

Erdogan said that S&Ps assessment does not reflect the realities of the Turkish economy, which grew 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year. The president vowed that Turkey will maintain fiscal discipline.

Turkey will continue its economic reforms without any interruption.There is no liquidity problem, he said.

After declaring the nationwide three-month state of emergency, Erdogan later addressed people assembled in public squares across the country via video conferencing.

Erdogan first addressed crowds in the central Anatolian city of Konya, then connected with the southeastern city of Sanliurfa online from Ankara.

He said the state of emergency is not martial law, adding, This is a movement to clear terror members from state institutions to process democracy better.

The state of emergency law is a process of empowering governors more. The Turkish Armed Forces will serve the governors in provinces, and work with them. There is no any limitation on fundamental rights and freedoms during the state of emergency. We are the guarantors of it," he added.

On his official Twitter social account, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said: "This [state of emergency] decision is not for the daily life of our people, but rather is for the proper and swift functioning of state mechanisms."

Yildirim also reiterated his call to citizens to not leave the streets.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters in Ankara: "The conditions of the state of emergency will only be used for fighting the parallel structure."

Ina ddition, a National Security Council and Cabinet statement said, Our body has once again confirmed its commitment to democracy, fundamental rights and freedoms, and the rule of law. The steps to be taken afterward were also discussed.

The statement added that the state of emergency was declared in order to implement measures to protect citizens' rights and freedoms, our democracy, and the rule of law.

This state of emergency advisory jurisdiction is only for the purpose of eliminating threats to democracy, rights and freedoms, and the rule of law, it added.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on his Twitter account, The state of emergency is definitely not against democracy, the law, or freedoms, but it is aimed at protecting and reinforcing these values.

Separately, Interior Minister Efkan Ala spoke to Anadolu Agency, saying the decision would not cause any negative effects in the lives of Turkeys citizens. "No one need worry about it," he said.

The state of emergency will accelerate Turkey's fight against terrorism, Ala said.

Anadolu Agency
The race is on to create awareness of the fight against Prostate Cancer. It's coming in the form of a Ride for the Cure... the event which is set for Sunday is being put on by CIBC in collaboration with Nicholas Paul's club Central Spokes.
On Monday Four Corners Caro Meldrum-Hanna reveals the truth about the treatment of children in detention, in a report that will shock Australia.

It almost defies belief but right here in Australia there is a prison system that locks up 10 year olds and places children as young as thirteen in solitary confinement.

This is barbarism, this is inhumane, this is child abuse.  Lawyer

Children have been confined to an isolation wing with no access to sunlight or running water.

Those cells were ghoulish, they were something medieval.  Lawyer

Some held for weeks on end, deprived of basic necessities.

We all sort of looked at each other in shock  there were signs of life in there but we didnt know who was in there or what was happening, or how long theyd been there.  Lawyer

Deprived of hope.

Whats going on with children in detention here is a deliberate, punitive, cruel policy.- Lawyer

On Monday night Four Corners reveals the shocking truth about the treatment of children behind bars, where young offenders have been stripped naked, assaulted and tear gassed.

They had absolutely nowhere to runThose children were afraid for their lives.  Childrens Advocate

Held by a system that seems bent on breaking children instead of reforming them.

If I treated my children like that, the authorities would take my children from me quite properly because I would be behaving cruelly to them. Lawyer

Reported by Gold Walkley award-winning reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna.

This confronting investigation will send shockwaves around Australia.

Monday 25th July at 8.30pm on ABC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eun4HcrMIC0&feature=youtu.be

Netflix has released a trailer for Season 2 of Narcos, which premieres on September 2nd.

Narcos chronicles the gripping real-life stories of the infamous drug kingpins of the late 1980s and the corroborative efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. Its gritty storytelling details the many, often-conflicting forces  legal, political, police, military and civilian  that clash in the effort to control cocaine, one of the worlds most valuable commodities.

The series stars Wagner Moura (Elite Squad, Elysium) as Pablo Escobar alongside Boyd Holbrook (Gone Girl) and Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones) as real-life DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Pena.

Jose Padilha (Elite Squad, RoboCop) and Eric Newman (Children of Men) serve as executive producers of the series. Narcos is produced by Gaumont International Television for Netflix .
Former Criminal Minds star Paget Brewster is returning to the US procedural for its upcoming 12th season.

She will reprise her role as SSA Emily Prentiss for a multiple-episode run.

The BAU can use more help this year since theyve got a lot of known and unknown subjects to catch, showrunner Erica Messer revealed at ComicCon.

Brewster was a regular on the drama from seasons two through seven before later guest appearances, most recently as part of the storyline that sees Shemar Moore exit (those episodes are currently underway in Australia).

Source: Hollywood Reporter
SBS 2 will sink its teeth into Vampire Week in early August as part of Olympics-alternative programming.

From Sunday 7th to Saturday, 13 August SBS 2 features primetime movies from around the globe, with everything from cult Aussie flick Thirst to 2013s Only Lovers Left Alive.

The films include such actors as Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska, Chris Sarandon, Gemma Arterton and Chantal Contouri.

The late Anton Yelchin also appears in Only Lovers Left Alive.

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013 UK)

Sunday, 7 August at 8.30pm

Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangiers, an underground musician, Adam (Tom Hiddleston), deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover, Eve (Tilda Swinton). Their love story has already endured several centuries, but their debauched idyll is soon disrupted by Eves wild and uncontrollable sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska).

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014 USA)

Monday, 8 August at 8.30pm

In one of the most stunning and stylish films to come out in 2014, Sheila Vand stars as The Girl, a sassy loner who roams the streets on a stolen skateboard, in Ana Lily Amirpours stunningly crafted black-and-white world.

Thirst (1979 Australia)

Monday, 8 August at 10.20pm

Kate (Chantal Contouri) is tracked down by the secret society members known as The Brotherhood, a society of vampires who believe that Kate is descended from an illustrious, aristocratic, Austrian vampire family of the 18th century.

We Are The Night (2010 Germany)

Tuesday, 9 August at 8.30pm

Bitten by a vampire, a young woman (Karoline Herfurth) tries to leave her band of bloodsucking cohorts.

Night Watch (2004 Russia)

Wednesday, 10 August at 8.30pm

Set in contemporary Moscow, Night Watch uncovers the other-world battle that upholds a 1000-year-old truce between the forces of light and darkness.



Day Watch (2006 Russia)

Wednesday, 10 August at 10.35pm

A dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects, amazing action sequences, and nail-biting horror set in contemporary Moscow, this film revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness  the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides.

Fright Night (1985 USA)

Friday, 12 August at 8.30pm

Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is pretty sure his neighbour Jerry (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. Of course, no one believes him, so Charley sets out to destroy Jerry himself.



Byzantium (2012 UK)

Saturday, 13 August at 8.30pm

Mayhem follows when two female vampires (Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan), on the run from a kindred group, take refuge at a seaside British community.
The second civilian was injured during night shelling by the militants in the front-line town. A 63-year-old civilian was injured by projectile fragments in his arm, police department in the Donetsk region has reported.

"The police have determined that the man was injured in his own yard yesterday at around 20.00 during a mortar attack," the report has said.

Police are patrolling the area thaw was under attack. Information about the victims and the destruction is being clarified.

Earlier, a woman was in injured in Avdiyivka as a result of the night shelling too.

tl
One Ukrainian soldier was killed, two servicemen were wounded in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Donbas in the past twenty-four hours.

Presidential Administration Spokesman for ATO Issues Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

One Ukrainian serviceman was killed, two were wounded as a result of military actions over the past day. The Ukrainian troops sustained losses in a military clash near Mariynka. We express our condolences to the family and friends of the killed warrior, Lysenko said.

iy
Fire devastated a shopping mall in Berdyansk, seaport and resort city in southeastern Zaporizhzhia Region, last night. One of the firefighters who extinguished the fire that engulfed 700 square meters premises suffered a light injury, the press service of the State Emergencies Service of Ukraine in the Zaporizhzhia region has reported.

"On July 20 at 20.39 in the rescue service has received a call about a large-scale fire in a shopping center in Berdyansk. The rescuers found at the scene that the fire engulfed about 700 square meters of the buildings 1,600 square meters total area," the report has noted.

Firefighters from adjoining districts were involved in putting off fire mobilizing a total of four vehicles and 18 firefighters.

tl
Having ratified the Paris Agreement, Ukraine has primarily got a good opportunity for development of the renewable energy sector.

Ukrainian Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Ostap Semerak said this during a meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy, the Government portal reports.

"The Paris Agreement should actually become a new stage of development of the renewable energy. Ukraine has confirmed that the national economy will be oriented towards low-carbon model of further development," the Minister said.

In his opinion, Ukrainians are ready to accept and implement new energy-saving technologies.

"Our priorities include energy efficiency, development of renewable energy and reduction in environmental pollution. In addition, the active use of renewable energy sources may become a key to solving the problem of Ukraine's dependence on fossil and nuclear fuels, imported, particularly from the Russian Federation," the Minister concluded.

ol
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and the progress of implementation of the Minsk agreements at the meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Washington on Thursday.

The U.S. Secretary of State said this during a joint press conference after the meeting, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We are working very closely on full implementation of the Minsk agreements, where Germany and France are our leading delegations at the talks," Kerry informed about the content of talks with German colleague.

John Kerry stressed that the countries were trying to work closely together in order to fully achieve the purpose of restoration of the sovereignty of Ukraine, "which it deserves and needs."

ol
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko has held a meeting with the newly appointed Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Brazil to Ukraine Oswaldo Biato on the occasion of presentation of copies of credentials.

According to a report on the Foreign Ministrys website, during the meeting the sides agreed on the need to intensify a bilateral political dialogue in the near future and discussed practical steps in this direction.

Special attention was paid to the situation that occurred following a decision by the previous leadership of Brazil to close the Ukrainian-Brazilian space project and the unilateral termination by Brazil of a corresponding Agreement. It was agreed to continue consultations on this issue.

iy
Thousands of people continue to flee uncertainty and fighting in South Sudan. Since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Kiir and First Vice President Machar, 26,468 people have crossed into Ugandas northern region, including 24,321 in the previous six days alone. The influx continues to be characterised by a high proportion of women and children (more than 90%).

Yesterday, an estimated 8,337 refugees crossed in to Uganda from South Sudan, a new record high since the influx began and in 2016. An estimated 6,500 crossed in Elegu, 659 in Moyo, 156 in Lamwo and 642 in Oraba while 380 arrived in Kiryandongo Reception Centre.

The influx is severely stretching the capacity of collection points, transit centres and reception centres. Elegu collection point is full to the extent that it is not possible conduct a head count. New arrivals figures in Elegu are based on an analysis of trends throughout the day. On Wednesday night, more than 7,000 people slept at Elegu collection point, significantly beyond its 1,000-person capacity. Similarly, Kuluba collection point is hosting 1,099 refugees, compared to its 300-person capacity. Torrential rains are further hampering registration efforts.

New arrivals in Adjumani report continued fighting between forces loyal to President Kiir and those loyal to First Vice-President Machar. There are reports that armed gunmen continue to loot properties, forcibly recruit boys and young men, and murder civilians in Magwi.

Another Uganda Peoples Defense Force convoy evacuating Ugandan nationals from South Sudan is expected today. On previous occasions, a large number of refugees have taken the opportunity to flee the country by accompanying the convoy.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
As part of a community-led project, Iranians and Afghan refugees clean up their Saadi neighbourhood in Shiraz, Iran.  UNHCR

SAADI, Iran  Until recently, discriminating graffiti and widespread rubbish problems fuelled social tensions between Iranians and Afghans in the Saadi neighbourhood of Shiraz, Iran. Now, thanks to UNHCR and the Government of Iran, refugees and the local community have come together to transform the area with colourful works of art.

Like much of Iran, the Saadi neighbourhood in Shiraz is home to a large population of Afghan refugees. Public health and hygiene hazards divided its community before the clean-up project began. "It had become custom for Afghans and Iranians to blame each other  verbally and through graffiti and hate slogans  for the problems they saw around them," recalls Alex Kishara, Head of UNHCRs Sub-Office in Shiraz.

Hoping to empower residents, UNHCR and the Government of Iran brought together local artists and over 60 community volunteers to design and implement a clean-up and paint-up project.

"It had become custom for Afghans and Iranians to blame each other for the problems they saw around them."

The community set to work litter-picking and transforming the hate slogan-ridden walls into striking, colourful murals of art. Two artists  one Iranian, one Afghan  and five art students worked with the children to design and apply the patterns, offering artistic guidance during a week of painting.

Hate slogans and graffiti were soon replaced by skilfully decorated murals of Iranian and Afghan carpets, as well as other motifs symbolizing shared harmony. One participant, 13-year-old Alireza, painted his favourite mural, portraying a large tree with splayed branches next to a text in Farsi that read: The sons of Adam are limbs of each other, having been created from one essence.

Public health and hygiene hazards divided the Saadi community before the clean-up project began.  UNHCR

Hate slogans and graffiti are replaced by skilfully-decorated murals.  UNHCR

Paint pots line the streets of Saadi.  UNHCR

The Saadi neighbourhood is home to a large population of Afghan refugees.  UNHCR

Beautiful murals now adorn the walls of the Saadi community.  UNHCR

An Iranian volunteer also offered face-painting and free medical check-ups were provided by an Afghan physician.

While some community members initially showed scepticism and criticised the project as doomed to fail or a waste of time and money, the murals elicited so much interest that soon many people joined in. More painting equipment had to be purchased, as many of the initially hesitant residents and landlords were soon keen to participate and see their own walls painted," says Mr Sharifi, an Afghan artist and designer.

The project instilled a new sense of community between Afghans and Iranians. Those who didnt participate directly in the painting came to the streets to offer refreshments and food to the volunteers. "What is a good city?" said Alireza, during one of the focus group discussions that took place with children during the week. "A good city is made of good citizens.

"What is a good city? A good city is made of good citizens.

The project also alleviated some protection concerns. One recently orphaned Afghan, a 13-year-old boy named Mohammad, who had returned to Saadi after falling out with his siblings, became involved in the project thanks to the support of a youth initiative and UNHCR assistance. Mohammed showed such creative talent that his skills were noted by Mr Sharifi and he has now been granted free enrolment at the Sepid Institute of Art.

Iran has shown great generosity in hosting almost 1 million refugees during a protracted refugee situation of almost 40 years. With the support of its government and UNHCR, community-led projects like this one will continue to lead the way.
There will be five aerospace companies, chosen by NASA, studying potential Mars orbiter mission in four months.

Many commercial aerospace companies want to be recognized by NASA and now the space agency officially announced the five companies to develop concepts for the future Mars orbiter mission, Reuters reported. After decades of studies, NASA's plan to send humans to Mars seems to be a step closer to its goal.

NASA had commissioned these five aerospace companies:

- The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, California

- Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia

- Space Systems / Loral in Palo Alto, California.

- Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver

- Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California

Mars orbiter mission: the concept study

Mars orbiter mission study will provide advanced communication capabilities and Mars images in high resolution. For the record, NASA has MAVEN orbiter on standby mode that functions as a relay in an emergency situation. However, the agency felt the need of new spacecraft that will be able to use solar electric propulsion and providing scientific information from advanced imaging and communication technology, Geek Wire reported. This study will be benefit for the manned mission in 2030.

The new satellites will be fuel-efficient and able to fly closer to surface. As a part of NASA's Journey to Mars, the space agency will send manned mission in 2030. Mars orbiter mission includes the 2020's rover set to land on Mars in 2021. It will search for any sign of life in the past, collect rocks and samples before returning to Earth.

NASA Headquarters spokesperson, William Steinmeier said, "NASA's strategy connects near-term activities and capability development to the journey to Mars and a future with a sustainable human presence in deep space."

Previously, NASA has also announced plan to land InSight to the Red Planet in 2018 to study the deep interior.
STEM funding was released recently to Kentucky State University to help the college aid the black students to pursue their senior high school.

Apparently, Kentucky State University received $400,000 from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, a North Carolina-based foundation for The Campaign for Black Male Achievement. This is to provide for their efforts in recruiting more STEM black male student enrollees.

The university aims to make students include STEM-science, technology, engineering and mathematics in their top choices. Dr. Ron Chi, chief academic officer of the program, said that the program wants students to have something uniquely theirs that is credentialed as well.

This is because the sad truth remains that it is not easy for African Americans to find jobs even those with STEM degrees. Wider job opportunities are given to white graduates.

As per the data gathered by the Kentucky State Data Center, out of the 77,000 STEM field-workers in the whole of Kentucky, only 2.7% are black. Out of the wider range of 214,000 jobs in Kentucky, including in the healthcare field, 6.7% are known to be from the African Americans.

However, he clarified that although the university was known to be historically a black university and the program mainly intended for black male students, STEM funding release will not only for the black students but the program is to benefit students of all colors, News One reported.

Educators believe that equipping the students through this STEM fund release is a way to decrease the unemployment rate and increase the average income.

Chris Bollinger, University of Kentucky economics professor understands that a college degree is important to attract high-tech companies. The graduates must be ready to keep pace with the vast development of technology.

He believes that workers with college degrees tend to adapt easily and upgrade themselves as the demand for changes in the nature of workforce come, WFPL News reported.

Here is a quick preview of what is STEM education.
The most awaited part of the last day of the Republican National Convention is the acceptance speech of the party's Presidential Nominee Mr. Donald Trump. Everyone was curious on the content of his speech and how he would deliver it - will he read a prepared text on a teleprompter? The cheers from the crowd of supporters signified one thing -- the Presidential nominee has laid down good points during his two-hour speaking slot.

On the issue of law and order, in his speech, he said, "In this race for the Whitehouse, I am your Law and Order candidate". He cited the current administration's failure to protect its inner cities such as the 2,000 shooting incidents occurred in the hometown of President Obama in Chicago. He also emphasized his disgust over oppression thrown to the LGBTQ community and condemned the mass shooting in Orlando that claimed 49 lives.

He addressed the economic concerns through presenting his agenda to fight against poverty, "I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America." He added, "A number of this reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation's most powerful special interests." He cited big businesses, elite media and major donors who are behind the demolition job against him. To the poor, he assured that he is their voice.

The issue of Islamic radicalism that led to terrorism was also addressed in three things. According to Trump, "We must have the best intelligence-gathering operation in the world, suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism and build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration."

The business-minded presidential candidate is serious in making America great again by saying, "I have made billions of dollars in business making deals - now I'm going to make our country rich again."

He ended his speech by thanking his family and honoring the memory of his father whom he considered as his mentor. "I'm with you - the American People," was his pledge to his supporters.
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UW Programs Receive Competitive Grant for States Small Businesses

Innovative, research-oriented small businesses in Wyoming will benefit from a $125,000 FAST grant to the University of Wyoming from the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Federal and State Technology (FAST) partnership program.

Partnered with the Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative (WSSI), the UW Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was among 21 grant recipients nationwide that will receive support for research and development and small business innovation. SBA received applications from all 50 states.

The FAST partnership program is a grant sponsored by the SBA, and its primary purpose is to improve the participation rate of small businesses in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, says Jill Kline, SBDC state director.

The FAST grant couldnt come at a better time. With the recent budget cuts to our programs, these federal dollars will help with the shortfall. We leveraged our current WSSI funding as a match, and thats what permitted us to apply for the $125,000 from SBA, Kline says.

She adds that the grant will allow us to complement the WSSI program by providing key SBIR training and outreach opportunities for Wyoming small businesses.

SBIR is one funding tool that appropriate Wyoming businesses can tap into to help build high-tech companies and help diversify our states economy, Kline says.

The FAST program is a competitive grant program designed to strengthen the technological competitiveness of small businesses. Its purpose is to improve the participation of small technology firms in the innovation and commercialization of new technology to help keep the U.S. on the cutting edge of research and development in science and technology.

We want to make sure that every company that is interested is able to compete for the more than $2.5 billion in federal funding available every year. This grant will go a long way to help us make that happen, Kline says.

The SBDC is a partnership among UW, the Wyoming Business Council and the SBA. The SBDC focuses on educating and training small-business owners and potential owners on how to successfully start and operate small businesses. The SBDCs state office is located at UW, with offices across the state.

The SBIR and STTR programs are contract- and grant-funding competitions specifically targeted to the nation's for-profit small business sector. The WSSI is funded by the Wyoming Business Council and administered by UW through the SBDC. The initiative helps qualified Wyoming small businesses and individuals to access federal funds that support the development of new, cutting-edge technologies.

For more information, contact Kline at (307) 766-3405 or jkline@uwyo.edu.

For more information about the FAST program, visit the website at www.sbir.gov/about-fast.
Photo courtesy of Roc Perry Marlon Wayans will open Levity Live Comedy Club & Dinner Theatre in Oxnard on July 29-31.

SHARE NBC Marlon Wayans will open Levity Live Comedy Club & Dinner Theatre in Oxnard July 29-31.

By Karen Lindell, Special to The Star

On IMDb (the Internet Movie Database), the Wayans family lineage looks like a passage from the Old Testament. Marlon Wayans, for example, is described as:

"Son of Howell and Elvira Wayans. Brother of Dwayne Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans, Kim Wayans, Nadia Wayans and Shawn Wayans. Also has sisters Elvira, Diedre and Vonnie."

In case you lost count, that's 10 kids (and no Kardashians). They're all funny, and some are famous. Marlon, the youngest, is both. But his name and talent stand on their own, and this month he was part of the record-breaking number (683) of actors, filmmakers and others invited to be members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. TheWrap.com called his invitation a "pleasant surprise."

Wayans (from now on we're just talking about Marlon) is a many-hyphenated talent: actor-producer-comedian-writer-director. He'll play the middle role when he performs five live stand-up comedy shows July 29-31 in Oxnard to open the new Levity Live Comedy Club & Dinner Theatre at The Collection at RiverPark.

He's part of the new comedy spot's star-studded opening-months lineup. Wayans will be followed by Iranian-American actor-writer-producer Maz Jobrani (Aug. 4-6), actress Janeane Garofalo (Aug. 9), "Last Comic Standing" winner John Heffron (Aug. 11-14), "Chelsea Lately" regular Jo Koy (Aug. 18-20), rapper-actor-comedian Chingo Bling (Aug. 24) and "Your Mom's Podcast" co-host Tom Segura (Aug. 25-27).

The Copper Blues Rock Pub & Kitchen, opening Aug. 5 adjacent to Levity Live, will feature live music, beer and food.

"We know comedy," said Levity Live owner Robert Hartmann. Levity Live, part of a 35-venue network, will offer "video wall technology" and "upscale gastropub cuisine," Hartmann said, starting with shows from Wednesdays though Sundays and eventually expanding to seven days a week.

Wayans, Hartmann said, "is an immensely intelligent comedian with impeccable timing and an innate ability for captivating a room through his animated storytelling. He sells out venues nationally, resonating with audiences across generations, cultures and ethnicities."

Wayans, who grew up in New York City, attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, then Howard University.

You probably know him best from his star turns in spoof movies, including "A Haunted House" and its sequel (parodies of found-footage films like "Paranormal Activity"); "Scary Movie" and its many sequels (parodies of horror films); and most recently, "Fifty Shades of Black," a parody of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" books/film, in which he plays Christian Black. He also wrote and produced the film, which came out in January.

Other funny films he's starred or co-starred in, often with one or more of his brothers acting or directing as well, include "White Chicks," "Norbit," "Mo' Money," "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood" and "Little Man."

He's also taken on more "serious" roles, including Ripcord in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and a drug addict in "Requiem for a Dream."

On the small screen, he appeared on Fox TV's "In Living Color," The WB's "The Wayans Bros." and other shows. You'll see him in the coming year in the NBC sitcom "Marlon." Described as "loosely based on his life," the show will feature Marlon as a "loving (but immature) father committed to co-parenting his two kids with his very-together ex-wife," played by Essence Atkins.

Wayans, 44, indeed has two kids, who are both teenagers. He agrees with the "immature" dad description.

"I am totally inappropriate as a father," he said. "I'm the biggest kid in the house. My kids are often telling me, 'Hey dad, get down from there.' 'Hey dad, don't eat like that.' "

On the day he spoke with The Star, he was unfortunately in the waiting room of a children's hospital, where his son had been for several days (Wayans didn't go into details about the illness, but posted several pictures on Instagram at his son's bedside).

Still, Wayans found time to be humorous.

When asked how his son was doing, Wayans replied, "It's easy. He's on good drugs right now; I'm actually kind of jealous."

He also talked about the woes of being the youngest in a comedic family. "I learned to take a joke really quick, because I was the butt of them all," he said. "So it teaches you not to be too sensitive. I think all clowns should have some pie on their face."

Wayans' comedy is raucous, sometimes raunchy and studded thickly with the F- and N-words, so his show isn't a family affair, but it's energetic and brutally truthful in a jarring, shocking way.

"Everything is fair game in comedy," Wayans said. "What happens with shock is (that) you're at least feeling some kind of way."

When a comedy crowd gets a little tough to entertain, he said, "you challenge them more. You tell a dark joke, then go a little darker."

He's looking forward to the audience at Levity Live. "I'm pretty sure the crowds will be incredible," he said. "Any time you're out of Los Angeles, in the outskirts, when people laugh, they laugh hard. Out-of-L.A. people are cool." .

If you go

Who: Marlon Wayans

What: The comedian will open the new Levity Live Comedy Club & Dinner Theatre.

Where: The Collection at RiverPark, Oxnard

When: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. July 29-30, 5 p.m. July 31

Tickets: $30-$40

Coming soon: Opening Aug. 5, the Copper Blues Rock Pub & Kitchen adjacent to Levity Live will feature live music, beer and food

More information: Oxnard.levitylive.com
SHARE Hoyt

By Maureen Hoyt

Special to The Star

Socrates said, "The secret of change is to focus all of (our) energy, not on changing the old, but on building the new."

In the Religious Science tradition, Dr. Ernest Holmes, the founder, dedicated his life to finding ways to inspire independence and self-reliance in his students and followers. He wanted us to know that we can have life and have it more abundantly, as Jesus said in the Bible, by making choices that are not only for our highest good, but choices which are for the good of all.

We cannot go back and change the past, but we can begin today to have a new ending. The creative process, which goes from idea to form through the subconscious mind, is part and parcel of our everyday choosing.

If, for instance, I have an idea of world peace, but my personal world is fraught with anger, frustration and resentment, how can I expect to have world peace?

The change begins with me, and when my view of life or what I think about life changes, everything at the level of effect changes accordingly. It is as simple as having a new thought about something.

There may be some people who read this and see it as too simplistic. How is it even possible to change one's thinking and have it change one's life?

It isn't a random change in thought, and it isn't one change in thought. It is a change of thought with repetition and emotion declared over and over again until it makes its way into and is acted upon by the subconscious mind.

As we begin building a new structure of knowing, the old belief system is dismantled and a new one begins to take form. The key to this change, though, is to know first that I have a structure of knowing which no longer serves me!

Sometimes, until some well-meaning friend points it out to us, we aren't aware of closely held beliefs that were foisted upon us as 5-year-olds or 20-year-olds or even at age 40.

If I have had fear of the "other" as a part of my upbringing, what is happening on the news in Orlando or Dallas or Baton Rouge or Tel Aviv is going to influence and perpetuate the gathering of evidence to support the conclusion that I should, indeed, be afraid.

Compared to many parts of the world, our lives in the Conejo Valley are insulated, and we don't fear for our personal safety when we go out jogging in the evening.

And yet, if even one person in the world is afraid, then I probably have that latent fear inside me, too, if it is true that we are all one.

All of the unrest in the United States and in the rest of the world is again a call to prayer. We might need to pray first for ourselves that we can see life differently, and then we pray for those who have been hurt or killed because of someone else's inability to realize impulse control.

Life and death are not opposites. Birth and death are, and what happens in between is life.

Our charge today is to build a new idea in which we hold all of life sacred regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation or ethnic origin. When there is no "other," there will be peace on Earth, and it will have begun with me.

The Rev. Dr. Maureen Hoyt is a member of the Conejo Valley Interfaith Association, which meets monthly and welcomes clergy and representatives of all religious faiths. To contact her, email drmaureenhoyt@gmail.com.
SHARE DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Keith Millhouse, the second vice-chair of Metrolink hosts the Metrolink press conference, Monday, Sept. 14, 2015 during a Metrolink press conference to highlight efforts to construct new sealed corridor safety enhancements at rail crossings in Moorpark and Simi Valley, in Moorpark. 9/14/15 MOORPARK, CA.

By Michele Willer-Allred, Special to The Star

Councilman Keith Millhouse announced at Wednesday's Moorpark council meeting that he won't be seeking re-election in November after 16 years in the position.

"At this time, my life is taking me in a new direction, so with a great level of sadness, I am announcing tonight that I'm not running for re-election in November," said Millhouse during council comments.

Millhouse and Councilwoman Roseann Mikos are both up for re-election in November, along with Mayor Janice Parvin, who will be seeking her fifth, two-year term as mayor.

Mikos said on Wednesday she plans on running again and will be filing papers for another four-year council term.

Parvin, who has been unopposed in every election, said she too will be filing papers.

Since Millhouse is not running, the nomination for council candidates in Moorpark ends Aug. 17.

Ken Simons, a commercial real estate broker, who received 29 percent of the vote in the last election two years ago against incumbents, also announced this week he will be running again in November for a council seat.

After so many years on the council, Millhouse said he's "excited about taking my efforts and focusing on service to others through my church, spending more time on my law practice and transportation work and generally seeking what God has in store for me next."

Millhouse thanked the community and fellow council members and city staff for the "honor and privilege for the past 16 years to represent the citizens of Moorpark."

He also serves as chairman of the county's transportation commission and for the past 11 years on the Southern California Association of Governments.

Last month, Millhouse announced he would be stepping down as Ventura County's representative on the Metrolink board, on which he served as chairman from 2009-11.

He said he'll still work hard for the rest of his council term, including toward the passage of a countywide transportation sales tax measure, which he said would benefit the city as well as the rest of the county.

"The residents are blessed to have four great council members who will continue on," Millhouse said.

Parvin said the council was surprised about Millhouse not running again, and that they've respected his work for the city in his various positions.

"He's done an excellent job representing Moorpark," she said.

At Wednesday's meeting, the council approved a $3.6 million contract with Lee Construction Company to build a recreational trail at Arroyo Vista Community Park, which will be paid partially through a $500,000 land and water conservation fund grant. The balance will come from other grants, and the city's traffic, capital improvement and park development funds.

The council also approved about $166,000 in contracts for construction management and other project consultants.

The project will include a pedestrian walkway and separated bike path, more parking and a trail system with a 1-mile fitness loop with several exercise stations.

A previous low bidder for the project did not meet a self-performance requirement for the project and came in almost $400,000 higher than an engineer's estimate of $3.3 million.

Construction is expected to begin in September and take about 120 days to complete.

"I can't wait until it's open. It's been a long time," said Mikos after approval.

In other action, the council:

Approved a conceptual design of the existing Metrolink north parking lot expansion, adding approximately 18,000 square feet to the lot, a raised median walkway that connects the train station to High Street, a second entrance on western end of parking lot, speed bumps, and 29 new parking stalls. Twenty pepper trees will be removed from the area for the project, but 24 new trees will be planted.

Approved $600,000 from the city's traffic mitigation fund to acquire the property at 488 McFadden Ave. Currently, there is a home for sale on the property. The frontage of the property on Poindexter Avenue will be required for the realignment and widening of Moorpark Avenue. The property will be rented out before the project and sold after the completion of Moorpark Avenue.
TROY HARVEY/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Former Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn (left) shakes the hand of Head Consul Roberto Rodriguez after a tour of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard on Friday.

SHARE TROY HARVEY/SPECIAL TO THE STAR From left, Head Consul Roberto Rodriguez greets Oxnard Mayor Tim Flynn and former Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn during a tour of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard on Friday. TROY HARVEY/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Former Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn takes a tour of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard. TROY HARVEY/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Roberto Rodriguez is head consul of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard. TROY HARVEY/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Jonathan Alvarez (right) greets Oxnard Mayor Tim Flynn (left) and former Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn (center) as they arrive at the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard on Friday.

By Amanda Covarrubias, amanda.covarrubias@vcstar.com

The new chief of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard and Mayor Tim Flynn said Friday they would work closely to promote trade between companies in Ventura County's largest city and Mexico.

Flynn toured the recently renovated offices of the consulate near Oxnard Airport, where he met Head Consul Roberto Rodriguez, who assumed the post last week after serving in the Phoenix consulate.

"We want to promote more trade with Mexico, taking advantage of the proximity of the port (Hueneme) to Oxnard and partnership with the different ports of Mexico," Rodriguez said. "And maintain the tranquility and the good atmosphere between the two countries, of course."

Flynn was accompanied by his father, former Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn, who was instrumental in getting the consulate established in Oxnard 29 years ago. It began as just a couple of offices at the transportation center.

"I always knew it would grow," said the elder Flynn. "The need was here."

The visit occurred on the same day Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto met in Washington, D.C., with President Barack Obama to discuss issues affecting the two nations, including immigration, climate change and trade.

Tim Flynn said he was impressed with the consulate staff and looked forward to working with Rodriguez to create trade-related jobs in Oxnard, whose population is 74 percent Latino and primarily of Mexican descent.

He noted that the United States imports avocados and mangos from Latin America, especially Mexico, and two of the largest importers of those products, Mission Produce and Freska Produce, are based on Oxnard.

"That kind of trade is only growing and only getting better, and it's creating a lot of good, high-paying jobs," he said. "As the mayor of the city, I'm interested in creating higher paying jobs."

The consulate serves half a million Mexicans who live in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

About 50,000 people visit the Oxnard office each year to acquire documents, such as passports, birth certificates and federal identification cards and to get answers to questions about health insurance and legal issues, said Jonathan Alvarez, a spokesman for the consulate.

In addition to promoting trade and tourism and encouraging Mexicans to study in U.S. colleges and universities, Rodriguez said it is also his job to encourage Mexicans who plan to stay in the United States to become U.S. citizens. Under Mexico law, Mexicans may maintain dual citizenship.

"They might become citizens of the United States in order to participate actively in politics, in the economy and so their children might be well-inserted into this society here," he said. "Directly or indirectly, they are going to be helping the Mexican economy."
SHARE

Re: Paul Baskins letter July 20, Lack of knowledge:

Just to be clear, I am not against pain control. We already have the right and the means to do just that. What concerns me is the consistent devaluing of human life expressed in our laws.

When its cheaper to kill the patient than to kill the pain, there is a serious conflict of interest involved for the insurance industry.

Mr. Baskin was correct in that the media did cover this subject when it was first put up for a vote in the California Legislature, in the time-honored fashion. It did not pass that vote.

The people who were determined to get assisted suicide legal then reconstituted the panel, replacing those who disagreed with them with people who did agree. Then, they submitted a tweaked version through another process requiring less support and got it passed. The media coverage of this second vote was after the fact, and the governor as well as the media commented on the deviousness of the process.

I think we deserve better.

Dorothy Hage, Newbury Park
SHARE

I watched the opening session of the Republican Convention. I was saddened that in the absence of the partys stalwarts, 93-year-old Bob Dole was asked to appear in their stead. The senator was frail and unable to either stand or sit on his own.

I heard the parent who lost a child as a result of the drunken driving of an illegal immigrant. One suspects that the point to be made was that the act of a single person is somehow a compelling argument against all those of the same ethnic group. We all know about the epidemic sexual abuses of the Catholic Church and its deliberate attempts at a coverup. Wisely, no one has adopted the RNCs logic and padlocked all its sanctuaries.

Vice President Spiro Agnew was removed from office and sent to jail for accepting bribes while he was governor of Maryland. President Nixon resigned from office for having orchestrated a criminal break-in. Similarly, people second in line for the presidency  Dennis Hastert, Newt Gingrich and Jim Wright  were forced from office as speaker of the House because of ethical violations. Does the RNC seriously maintain that because of the wrongdoing of a few high-ranking officers, we should deport all those holding elected office?

I was disappointed that the particulars of Mr. Trumps wall were not explained. I am puzzled by how many miles of Mexicos border with California, Arizona and Texas it would cover; how tall, thick and deep it would be to prevent a breach; and who is going to pay for it?

Be careful, folks. The ox being gored may turn out to be yours. The first night of the convention was quite a show, but frankly I would have preferred Barnum & Bailey.

Richard S. Diamond, Camarillo
Photo: VGP

Under the resolution, which was supported by 96.15% of NA deputies, the 14th NA Standing Committee will have 18 members, comprising the NA Chair, four Vice Chairs and 13 members.

Following the vote, the 13th NA Standing Committee submitted to the NA a list of candidates for the positions of NA Chair, Vice Chairs and members of the NA Standing Committee, the 14th tenure.

Accordingly, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Chairwoman of the 13th legislature, was introduced as head of the 14 th NA.

The four candidates for the Vice Chair position are Phung Quoc Hien, Uong Chu Luu, Tong Thi Phong, and General Do Ba Ty, who were all Vice Chairmen of the 13th NA.

A list of 13 candidates for the position of the NA Standing Committee member was also presented during the morning session.

The law-makers then discussed in groups the personnel proposals. In the afternoon, they will cast secrete ballots to elect the above-mentioned posts.

During its first session, the 14th NA is also scheduled to elect the Chair of the NA Ethnic Council, the heads of NA committees, and the NA Secretary General.

The lawmakers will also elect the President and Vice President of the State, the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Peoples Court and the State Auditor General.

They will also decide on the apparatus of the government, approve the appointment of Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and other government members, Vice Chairs and members of the National Defence and Security Council.

The remaining days will be spent deciding on the countrys key issues, including the governments report on socio-economic development and State budget for the first half of this year, solutions to the socio-economic development and State budget for the second half of this year, approval of the 2014 State budget estimate and the NAs resolutions on the programme on building laws and ordinances, the NAs supervision program for 2017 and the establishment of specialized inspection groups.
The plant will be located in an industrial park in the outskirts of Hanoi and is expected to start operation in 2018, with an annual capacity of 500,000 units. The figure will increase to one million by 2020, depending on the demand.

The reason for constructing the plant in Vietnam is that almost all Daikin air conditioners in Vietnam are imported from Thailand, while its Thai production facilities have been operating at full capacity since the third quarter of 2015, yet still falling short to meet the increasing demand in Vietnam market and other countries.

In addition, Daikin is facing market saturation in Japan and other developed countries. Furthermore, the company has to compete with large brands, namely Chinese Gree Electric Appliances and American United Technologies, which are boosting investment in their Southeast Asian markets.

In Vietnam, Daikin is expanding its speciality outlets. The company will also double the number of service centres to 30 by the fiscal year of 2020.

Vietnam has a population of about 93 million with steadily increasing income, who consume about two million air conditioning units per year. The figure has increased by an average of 30 per cent annually.

Thus, Vietnam is considered a desirable market by numerous air conditioner producers, namely Panasonic, Samsung, Hitachi, Toshiba, Nagakawa, Mitsubishi, and Carrier, among others, a number of whom established air conditioner assembly facilities in Vietnam, including, Panasonic, Hitachi.

Regarding Carrier, the group opened representative offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 1991. In March 1997, the company was licensed to establish Carrier Vietnam Air Conditioner Co., Ltd., which specialises in assembling, manufacturing, and distributing air conditioners.

In April 2011, Japanese air conditioner Nagakawa was licensed to build a plant in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, with a capacity of 250,000 products per year. However, in July 2011, the company submitted a document to the Vinh Phuc Peoples Committee to withdraw from the project due to difficulties in land clearance.

In 2015, Samsung released plans to develop a plant in Vietnam in 2016, however, as of now, there has been no further movement on it.
However, the contacted representative of ViCare did not disclose the capital supplied by the two funds.

According to Nguyen Manh Dung, chief representative cum investment director of CyberAgent Ventures in Vietnam and Thailand, the Vietnamese healthcare sector has great potential to develop because hospitals and healthcare facilities have been operating at full capacity due to a lack of infrastructure and doctors. Thus, we are looking for start-ups that have solutions to deal with over-crowded waiting rooms, and ViCare shows great promise.

Starting operation in January 2016, ViCare is a website specialising in supplying information about healthcare facilities, spas, and test facilities across the country, giving advice on healthcare services and answering questions.

After six months of operation, ViCare currently has data on over 19,000 health facilities and 20,000 doctors throughout the country. These figures have been increasing.

ViCares website receives 200,000 visitors, with 3,000 leaving comments and 6,000 questions per months.

CyberAgent Ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in Tokyo. The company specialises in internet businesses and providing support for start-up companies that could have a substantial impact on the world. The firm is present in South Korea, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In April, Vietnam-based e-learning platform Kyna.vn raised a disclosed seven-digit seed funding from CyberAgent Ventures. The capital came from CyberAgent Ventures second fund reserved for Southeast Asian partners, valued at $50 million.

Pix Vine Capital (PixVC) is a Singapore-based investment house providing early-stage venture capital for start-ups aspiring to commercialise innovative solutions in the areas of Info-Tech, Med-Tech, and Fin-Tech.

PixVC has invested in 40 plus promising, high technology ventures across Israel, Singapore, China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand.
A police officer stands guard as the truck that was driven by a man through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day is towed away by a breakdown lorry on Jul 15, 2016 in the French Riviera city of Nice. (AFP/Boris Horvat)

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who mowed down crowds of people enjoying a Bastille Day fireworks display, had long plotted the carnage, prosecutor Francois Molins said.

The revelations come as the French government continues to be plagued by questions over possible security failings, prompting authorities to launch an investigation into potential oversights.

Molins said photos on Bouhlel's phone showed he had likely already staked out the same July 14 event in 2015.

It also emerged that one of the five suspects in custody, a Tunisian named Mohamed Oualid G., had filmed the scene the day after the carnage, as it crawled with paramedics and journalists.

The five were brought before anti-terrorism judges late Thursday and charged.

They are 22-year-old Franco-Tunisian Ramzi A., 37-year-old Tunisian Chokri C., 40-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Oualid G., 38-year-old Albanian Artan H., and his wife Enkeledja Z. who holds both French and Albanian nationality.

None were known to intelligence services, and only Ramzi A., who was born in Nice, had a criminal record, for robbery and drug offences.

He led police to discover a Kalashnikov and a bag of ammunition on Thursday, however the purpose of the weapons was unclear.

Ramzi, Chokri and Oualid were charged with being accomplices to murder by a terror group.

Ramzi and the Albanian couple faced a second charge, of breaking the law on firearms in relation to a terrorist crime. They are accused of providing Bouhlel with the gun he fired at police officers before he was shot dead.

More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the grisly attack last Thursday, the third in France in 18 months, and it was analyses of Bouhlel's telephone records that led them to the five suspects.

While the Islamic State group claimed the attack, describing Bouhlel as a "soldier", investigators have not found direct proof of his allegiance to the jihadists.

Many people interviewed by investigators described the Tunisian father of three as "someone who did not practise the Muslim religion, ate pork, drank alcohol, took drugs and had an unbridled sexual activity", Molins said earlier this week.

However initial details of the investigation revealed Bouhlel had been fascinated with jihad for a while.

In May last year, he took a photo of an article about the drug Captagon, an amphetamine used by jihadists in Syria.

'I AM NOT CHARLIE'

In July 2015 he took photos of the crowd at the Bastille Day fireworks display, as well as another crowd watching a concert on Nice's Promenade Des Anglais three days later.

In April this year, Chokri C. sent Bouhlel a Facebook message reading: "Load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron... release the brakes my friend and I will watch."

Investigators also found a text message in Bouhlel's phone from Mohamed Oualid in January 2015 - roughly a year after attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly which spawned the hashtag "I am Charlie" in support of those killed.

The message read: "I am not Charlie... I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job."

Analyses of Bouhlel's computer and cellphone showed a wide range of images and internet searches showing a fascination with violence and jihadist movements such as Al-Qaeda and IS.

His family and friends have described him as violent and possibly suffering from mental illness.

Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole said the majority of his reported character traits are "only seen collectively in someone who is psychopathic".

"This is probably one of the most callous crimes you and I have ever heard of, it's very cold-blooded and it's predatory," she told AFP.

STATE OF EMERGENCY EXTENDED

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday promised "truth and transparency" from an inquiry into allegations of lax security.

"When there is a tragedy, or in this case an attack with many dead... there will naturally be questions," Hollande said during a visit to Dublin, adding that the conclusions of the police probe would be announced next week.

On Thursday, parliament finalised the adoption of a bill extending the emergency laws for a fourth time, after it was toughened up by the rightwing-dominated Senate.

The final version bans gatherings where sufficient security cannot be provided and makes it easier to shut places of worship where preachers incite hate or violence.

Since November the authorities have had emergency powers to carry out searches by day or night and place people under house arrest.
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan takes the oath of office, July 22, 2016 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Ngan, 62, has become the first Vietnamese woman to lead the countrys legislature, with 483 (97.77 per cent) out of 490 deputies voting in her favour.

After the ballot, Ngan took the oath of office, vowing to be absolutely faithful to the country, the people, and the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. I will do my utmost to accomplish all tasks assigned by the Party, the state, and the people.

The legislature has also re-elected its incumbent vice chairpersons, including Phung Quoc Hien, Uong Chu Luu, Tong Thi Phong, and Do Ba Ty.

The leadership will remain in office until 2020.

This is the second time in 2016 that the National Assembly elects new key cabinet personnel. After the 12th National Party Congress in January, this year with Nguyen PhuTrong re-elected as Communist Party General Secretary for the second term, Vietnam saw vacancy in some key leadership positions. Thus, in April, the legislature ratified changes in top personnel, with Ngan as National Assembly Chairwoman.

However, under to the Law on National Assembly Organisation, the first session of any five-year National Assembly term must conduct the election of the new leadership of the National Assembly and the government.

Over the past few years, Ngan has drawn the attention of the National Assembly by headlining in the mass media thanks to her numerous achievements.

Specifically, at the April election, 472 (95.5 per cent) out of 484 deputies voted in Ngans favour. Earlier, at the legislatures November 2014 vote of confidence for officials with positions either elected or approved by the National Assembly, Ngan ranked first among 50 officials, with 390 votes in her favour, or 78.47 per cent of the total National Assembly members.

At a previous National Assembly vote of confidence in June 2013, Ngan also ranked first from 47 officials, with 372 votes in favour, fetching a backing by 74.7 per cent of all National Assembly members.

Notably, in early March 2016, Forbes Magazine listed Ngan as the most influential woman in Vietnam.

According to Forbes, Ngan is a woman of great talent who was first elected member of the Politburo in 2013 and was re-elected by the Party Central Committee at the 12th National Congress.

Before 2013, Ngan experienced the responsibilities of leadership from the grassroots to the central level, across many sectors, including economics, finance, commerce, labour, and social administration.

With her great experience and manifold contributions to society, Ngan is the most influential woman in Vietnam right now, Forbes said.

- Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan was born on April 12, 1954 in the province of Ben Tres Giong Tom district, in the southern Mekong Delta region. Before 2006, she was the director of Ben Tres Financial Department, then the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Party Committee Secretary in the northern province of Hai Duong. She was also a member of the ninth Central Party Committee. - In 2006, she served as the Deputy Minister of Commerce (the former name for the current Ministry of Industry and Trade) and was re-elected to the tenth Central Party Committee. - In 2007, she worked as Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. - In July 2011, at the first session of the 13th National Assembly, she was elected as the National Assemblys Vice Chairwoman. - In May 2013, she became a member of the Politburo. In January 2016, at the 12th National Party Congress, she was elected to become a member of the Central Party Committee and the Politburo.
A section of Ha Nois Cat Linh-Ha ong urban railway project that crosses Hoang Cau Lake. - VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung

Under the mechanism, proposed by the Ministry of Transport, the main contractor (China Railway Sixth Group) will be authorised to make decisions, especially on buying equipment, without having to seek time-consuming permission from State authorities. However, the contractor must ensure that prices do not exceed those set out in the signed contract.

The project was supposed to be completed by the end of this year. However, only 74 per cent of the railway project has been completed since it broke ground in September 2010, according to the projects management unit.

The investment in the project increased from a projected US$542 million in 2008 to $892 million in 2014.

Regarding the selection of foreign contractors for safety assessments, the Prime Minister has agreed in principle that contractors will be chosen in accordance with Article 26 of the Law on Bidding, ensuring that selected contractors are qualified, have adequate experience and meet the requirements of the tender package.

On additional loans for the project, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance were urged to promptly work with the Chinese side on reaching agreement on supplement preferential loans for the project.

The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Transport to review the preparation and implementation of the project as a lesson for the next steps of the project and other projects to ensure the efficiency, quality assurance and construction progress.
The Ministry of Public Security was assigned to coordinate with the Ministry of National Defence and authorities of central Quang Nam province to investigate and deal with the issue.



The press coverage reported that on July 9, a local in La Dee commune discovered 280 logs of pomu wood (28 cu.m) hidden nearly 500m from a border guard station belonging to Dac Oc border gate. This area is about 100m from Laos.



On July 16, Nam Giang districts police uncovered 115 logs of pomu wood (8.2 cu.m) hidden in the premise of Nam Giang border gates customs agency. Their origins remain unknown.



In the evening of the same day, the police seized 25 pomu blocks (nearly 1.2 cu.m) in a local home near the area.



In the afternoon of July 17, a further 85 pomu blocks were found in bushes about 50m from a customs station and 500m from a border guard station of Dac Oc border gate.



Later on July 19, Director General of the Vietnam Customs asked the head of Quang Nam provincial customs department to suspend head of Nam Giang border gates customs agency Le Trung Thinh.



Nguyen Hoang, head of the customs control team will take the helm of the agency until the case is made clear.
Antonio Guterres speaks to reporters on the selection of the next UN Secretary-General at the UN headquarters in New York. (AFP/Kena Betancur)

Slovenia's former president Danilo Turk came second in the secret vote by the UN Security Council to choose a successor to Ban Ki-moon.

The 15 ambassadors including those from the powerful permanent five - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - each rated the candidates with ballots marked "encourage," "discourage" or "no opinion."

Guterres won the top score of 12 "encourage" votes with three "no opinion." Turk was close behind with 11 encouragements, two "discourage" votes and three "no opinion," according to diplomats.

Portugal's Foreign Minister Augusto Santo Silva described the result as "extremely positive" and said it confirmed that Guterres is "particularly qualified for the position of secretary-general."

UNESCO chief Irina Bokova of Bulgaria received nine encouragements as did Serbia's ex-foreign minister Vuk Jeremic and Srgjan Kerim, Macedonia's former foreign minister.

New Zealand's Helen Clark, a former prime minister who heads the UN Development Programme, picked up eight encouragements but in a potential blow to her campaign, received five "discourage" votes.

There are currently 12 candidates in the race, six of them women, but diplomats expect some to withdraw based on the result of the first round.

Argentina's Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, who served as Ban's chief of staff, failed to make a strong showing, receiving fewer encouragements than Clark as did Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.

Croatia's former foreign minister Vesna Pusic received 11 discouragements from the council, the lowest score.

Moldova's Natalia Gherman, Montenegro's Igor Luksic and former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica were among the bottom tier.

Council members are expected to meet again, possibly as early as next week, for a second round of straw polls, with a final nominee expected to emerge by October.

THE MAN TO BEAT

The secret vote followed a new, more open process that for the first time in UN history provided for hearings to allow candidates to present their pitch for the top job before the General Assembly.

Fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French, the 67-year-old Guterres impressed UN diplomats when he appeared at the hearings and he has earned praise for his handling of Europe's refugee crisis as high commissioner.

A trained engineer, Guterres led the refugee agency until December last year and served as Portugal's socialist prime minister from 1995 to 2002.

"Guterres is the man to beat," a Security Council diplomat told AFP. "He has done very well."

Slovenia's president from 2007 to 2012, 64-year-old Turk also served as the country's first UN ambassador and as UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs from 2000 to 2005.

Turk tweeted after the vote that he was "grateful for attention, understanding and encouragement of the UN member states and civil society", adding that he now had a "great platform for the next rounds."

Council members are facing calls to pick the first female secretary-general after eight men in the job, and to give preference to a candidate from eastern Europe, the only region that has yet to be represented in the top post.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said "it is high time for a woman" but added that there were "very, very strong men" in the race and that Britain would not use its veto to block a man from winning the post.

For Britain, supporting a candidate from eastern Europe is "the least important criteria here," he said.

US Ambassador Samantha Power said the United States would back a candidate with "great leadership and management skills" and who has a "commitment to fairness and accountability."

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said the world's new number one diplomat must have "leadership, diplomatic skills and multilingualism."

After agreeing on a nominee, the council will ask the General Assembly to endorse the choice. The new secretary-general will begin work on Jan 1.
The Viet Nam Competition Authority (VCA) said it has received an appeal from domestic steel enterprises, demanding imposition of anti-dumping measures on H-shaped Chinese steel products.

The petition aimed to prevent the products from being dumped in Viet Nam, which seriously affected local businesses, the enterprises said.

According to the VCA, under the industry and trade ministry, it received satisfactory legal dossiers of the case on Tuesday, adding that it would evaluate the dossiers within 45 days before submitting it to the industry and trade ministry for a decision whether an anti-dumping probe should be launched.

To aid the investigation, the VCA asked the petitioners to provide their firms' information related to design capacity and the output of H-shaped steel in the past three years and the first half of this year.

Currently, the VCA is carrying out an anti-dumping probe into colour-coated steel sheets imported from China and South Korea.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also decided to impose additional tariffs on imported alloys and non-alloy steel ingots and steel rods to safeguard against cheap imports that were allegedly threatening the domestic industry.
The SSCs decision made Vinamilks shares rise by VND5,000 ($0.22) to VND158,000 ($7.04) per share at the end of the transaction session on July 20, which is the highest since the company was listed on the stock exchange.

SSC required Vinamilk to scrutinise its business activities in the real estate and trucking sectors to ensure compliance with regulations.

Previously, the companys Board of Directors decided to remove the 49 per cent foreign ownership limit after the shareholders meeting on May 21, without requesting the shareholders approval.

At the same time, Vinamilk decreased the criteria for choosing foreign investors to create more favourable conditions in the approaching large government stake divestment.

The scrapping was backed by the two largest shareholders, State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) (45 per cent), a sovereign fund, and F&N Dairy Investment (11 per cent), which is controlled by Thai beer tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.

Vinamilk currently owns 25 subsidiaries and 13 dairy production factories, employing a workforce of over 6,000 people throughout Vietnam. The companys products are present in more than 40 countries over the world. In addition, the company holds a 22.8 per cent stake in Miraka factory in New Zealand, 100 per cent in Driftwood Dairy Holding in the US, and 51 per cent of Angkor Dairy Products Company in Cambodia.


remaining of

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Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi has accepted an invitation from President Barack Obama to visit the United States, the government said on Thursday, in what would be her first trip to America since she won an election in November.

Suu Kyi planned to travel at a "mutually convenient time," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said. Another government source said the trip was likely to coincide with the U.N. General Assembly session in New York in September.

Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, swept to power in a historic election in November after decades of campaigning against military rule.

It took over the running of the country after a transition from semi-civilian rule in April.

"She accepted President Obama's invitation to visit the U.S. before his presidency ends," said Aye Aye Soe, a spokeswoman at the Foreign Ministry, which is run by Suu Kyi.

Visiting U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes delivered Obama's invitation during a meeting with Suu Kyi in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Wednesday.

Suu Kyi, 71, is barred from becoming president by the constitution drafted under the previous regime, because her two sons do not have Myanmar citizenship.

She is instead foreign minister and has also assumed the newly created post of state counselor. She is in overall charge of running the government.

The U.S. Embassy in the city of Yangon did not comment.

Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest during military rule, visited the United States as the leader of the opposition in September 2012.

The U.N. General Assembly session in New York is scheduled from Sept. 13 to Sept. 26. Obama will leave office in January after a November election.
Chinese demolition crews, accompanied by police and government officials, have begun tearing down parts of what is considered the largest Buddhist study institute in the world.

The demolition at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, in Serthar County, Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region, Sichuan province, began Wednesday at 8 a.m., a resident monk told Radio Free Asias Tibetan service on condition of anonymity.

The work started "with those structures that were not already recorded in the governments record of permitted dwellings, RFAs source said. "The work crews are all [Han] Chinese.

According to a previous official notice, which was circulated through Tibetan social media, over 5,000 houses were slated for destruction.

The event took place shortly after abbot Tsultrim Lodue called on the Larung Gar community to restrain itself from opposing the planned razing of the sprawling facility.

'Think for the institute'

He said it might make people feel that everything is finished when so many houses are leveled, but that if people look back in a few years, they might find that it wasn't the worst possible outcome. He urged people against circulating information about the demolition via social media and discouraged any protests.

Please dont mind your house, but think for the institute, he said in an undated audio recording of his speech that was circulated via WeChat. In that speech, he said protesting the central government-mandated demolition would only exacerbate the situation.

Photos of Chinese bulldozers razing the homes circulated via Tibetan social media, along with a slew of angry comments.

If the only way to solve the overpopulation is destroying the houses, then why is the same policy not implemented in the Chinese cities and towns where the population is overcrowded? said one netizen, a self-described Larung Gar student, according to a report by Free Tibet.

The London-based organization condemned the move, calling it part of Beijing's efforts to subvert the influence of Buddhism in Tibet.

They are bringing violence to a place of peace and spirituality, said Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, the group's director. They are making around 5,000 monks and nuns homeless. China likes to talk about religious freedom, but their actions at Larung Gar cannot be justified. [These actions] show us how [Chinese officials] really feel about Tibetan Buddhism.

Faster pace?

Larung Gar is home to at least 10,000 monks, nuns, lay students and elderly people, although some tourism websites put estimates closer to 40,000 people. Human Rights Watch in June reported on Beijings plan to reduce the population to 5,000 by September 2017. Wednesday's demolition indicated the timeline has been accelerated. Chinese President Xi Jinping has even taken a personal interest in the reduction campaign, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

If authorities somehow believe that the Larung Gar facilities are overcrowded, the answer is simple: Allow Tibetans and other Buddhists to build more monasteries, said Sophie Richardson, HRW's China director. The New York-based rights organization has called on Chinese officials to leave the Buddhist institute alone, saying religious freedom entails respecting individual choices.

Since 2008, the number of monks in monasteries across the Tibetan Autonomous Region was drastically reduced, leaving most monasteries with only a handful of monks and Chinese Communist Party members in charge of the facilities. Many monks in the region subsequently decamped to Larung Gar in order to continue their studies. In 2014, however, TAR-based Chinese officials ordered families in Driru County to bring monks back from Larung Gar and other monasteries in Ganze prefecture.

Larung Gar was established in 1980 by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, a highly regarded Tibetan Buddhist master. It houses both Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist students and practitioners.
As activists rally this week and next outside the major political conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia, other groups are promoting their messages in so-called echo events in their local communities.

Thursday night, as Donald Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination in the race for president, Republicans will hold convention watch parties in homes around the country, and trade unionists and activists will operate a phone bank in Las Vegas. They will urge Nevadans not to vote for him.

On Wednesday, Hispanic leaders gathered in Orlando, Florida, to denounce Trump for his statements critical of Mexican immigrants.

In California, six community organizations this week announced a drive called the Million Voters Project, aimed at registering new voters ahead of the November 8 presidential election. It was timed to coincide with the political conventions, said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, standing alongside two dozen student volunteers.

We really thought about what we wanted to do in response to what we see as the vitriol and hate aimed at their communities, she said. "What we wanted to demonstrate is really the gathering of forces.

California voter concerns

Seven million eligible Californians do not vote, said Karla Zombro of voter mobilization group California Calls. She said many are young and unregistered, or people who just don't believe that voting is going to make a difference, and so they choose not to register. And so our job isn't just a technical 'get the piece of paper in front of them.' It's about inspiring people to not let someone else make decisions for us.

WATCH: Voter Drive in California Underway

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, has attended most Democratic national conventions since 1968, most often as a delegate, and she will be a delegate and member of the convention rules committee in Philadelphia. She said people outside and inside the convention hall would be trying to influence the party platform, the statement of principles on which the presidential candidate will run.

Hillary Clinton is expected to accept the Democratic nomination, and Huerta said that with many black and brown faces among the delegates, the Democrats are more diverse than Republicans  though they still can do a better job of embracing minorities.

Community pressure on the delegates is a good thing, said Huerta, since that's the way democracy works.

Security at the two conventions has been heightened following the recent attacks in Dallas, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which left eight police officers dead and a dozen injured. The gunmen in both shootings were African American, and the attacks followed the killings by police of two African-Americans in Baton Rouge and near St. Paul, Minnesota.

Tensions have been high around the country, and activists in Los Angeles have been holding a sit-in at City Hall, demanding that Police Chief Charlie Beck resign over a police shooting last year of an African-American woman. Police said the woman was wielding a knife and that the shooting was justified.

Myriad 'echo events'

Emotions also are running high outside the convention sites. Groups opposed to one another in Cleveland have included the Black Lives Matter movement and the self-described fascists of the Traditionalist Worker Party, which seeks an end to what it calls federal tyranny and anti-Christian degeneracy. That organization was the target of an attack by counterprotesters at a rally last month in Sacramento, California, where 10 people on both sides were injured, two of them critically.

Among the activists in Cleveland is Lynne Tramonte of America's Voice, which seeks a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. She said she was worried about security at both conventions.

There's a lot of concern from people who want to exercise rights to free speech, that there may be people coming out who mean them harm, she said.

Tramonte noted that many Cleveland protesters had been trained by organizers to avoid confrontations and that peacekeepers were dispersed throughout the crowd.

Many of the same groups will rally outside the Democratic convention next week. Tramonte said immigration reform, poverty, police violence ... we haven't gotten enough results out of our leaders yet, so the Democrats, who now hold the presidency, can expect protests.

Laura Steiner, a California Democrat, will attend next week's Democratic convention in Philadelphia as a delegate for candidate Bernie Sanders. She also plans to join rallies on the street against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Pacific Rim trade pact, and fracking, a controversial method of extracting oil and natural gas.

She said there are hotheads in any movement, but that public disturbances would only distract from what she considers important issues.

Superdelegate system

Protests and rallies in Philadelphia will call for an end to the superdelegate system, which sends party leaders and elected officials to the Democratic National Convention as unbound delegates, free to support the candidate of their choice, and  critics say  likely to support establishment candidates.

Other delegates are pledged to specific candidates in a democratic process of primary elections and caucuses. Demonstrations for the reform of gun laws and LGBT rights also will be held under the banner Occupy DNC.

While police are on alert in the two convention cities, security expert Erroll Southers of the University of Southern California worried that a different kind of echo event could spread disturbances from the convention sites to other cities.

He called the conventions a perfect storm of issues involving race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, immigration, sexual orientation. He said social media can promote healthy debate on important topics but can also potentially spread the anger if things go wrong.
To say Ohio is important to Donald Trump is an understatement. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning the Buckeye State. But as Republicans head home after their contentious national convention in Cleveland, some party elders in Ohio and other key swing states are wondering: does Trump have a strategy that will help them win come November?

In interviews on the convention floor, one party leader said he wondered what [Trump's] going to do to overcome the Democratic candidate. Another said he cringed at Trumps style, but added that Trump has the right message, and it has resonated with a lot of people.

While the unorthodox Trump has succeeded in getting unprecedented media attention, helping propel him to the nomination, he has lagged behind in fundraising and in building the type of state-level infrastructure typically seen in other presidential campaigns.

Ohio

I just spoke to his campaign manager [Paul Manafort], who told me theyre continuing to add offices and theyre going to start putting more emphasis on Ohio, said Ohio Senator Rob Portman. Which is good. Portman faces a tough reelection fight and has been reluctant to embrace the nominee though he is hesitant to criticize Trump.

Not so the states governor, John Kasich, a Trump primary opponent who not only refused to endorse him, but did not even attend the convention, instead, holding rival events throughout the week in Cleveland.

With polls showing a tight race between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the senator speaks of Trumps unpredictable personality and penchant for launching fierce personal attacks, resulting in a party divide that was on full display in Cleveland.

Hes going to talk some about [Clinton], and thats fine, said Portman. But I think people are looking for what hes going to do. While conceding that Trump will never be a conventional politician, Portman expressed a desire for the nominee to focus more resources on Ohio.

Florida

Ohio is not the only state where party leaders wonder about Trumps strategy.

No swing state is more important than Florida, which awards 29 Electoral College votes that most experts say Trump must capture if he is to have any chance at defeating Clinton.

I want to see more. Now that hes been nominated, I want to see what hes going to do, said Dean Narang, the head of Broward County Republicans, an influential bloc of voters in southern Florida. Narang wants Trump to expand his campaign presence in the state where the race is considered tight.

Ahead of the convention, the Tampa Bay Times posted a picture of a sign outside the Trump campaigns Florida headquarters that said the office was temporarily closed while staff work to prepare for the national convention.

You just cant do that, says Lisa Spies, a veteran Republican fundraiser. Voters have to be able to go to local offices and get information. And Trump doesnt have those. But unless the campaign does a better job bringing in money, it wont have an adequate staff, says Spies, who worked on the primary election campaign of ex-Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

New era in campaigning?

Traditional campaigning no longer works, says Missouri delegate Mark Anthony Jones, chairman of the Jackson County Republican Committee. This is a new era, and hes showing us how to do it. Jackson is one who argues that Trumps high profile means he doesnt need to spend the same amount of money as Clinton in order to be competitive.

Its hard to deny that Trumps strategy is paying off in Missouri. Polls in the state consistently show him with a significant lead. Trump has nearly an 80 percent chance of taking the states 10 electoral votes, according to the respected FiveThirtyEight projections website.

He has the right message. When you dont have the right message, you need to spend a lot more money, says Jones. But he acknowledges Trump could be doing a better job appealing to undecided voters, saying Trumps demeanor could be more presidential.

Ive cringed watching some debates; Ill be honest with you, Jones says. But it has worked for a lot of people.

However, since wrapping up the nomination, Trump has shown few signs he will pivot to a less confrontational demeanor, suggesting disunity in the party may not be remedied anytime soon.

For some party leaders, thats just fine, as long as Trump delivers results in November.

Whatever it takes, says Rob Gleason, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, another swing state. Were ready to go. Were going to do whatever we need to do to put him over the top.
Police raided the Bangkok home of a British journalist's wife and questioned her for several hours Friday in connection with his social media posts containing embarrassing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince, the heir apparent to the throne.

Andrew McGregor Marshall said in a statement that his wife, Noppawan "Ploy'' Bunluesilp, was visiting Bangkok with their 3-year-old son when both of them were taken by police Friday morning to a police station along with Noppawan's father. Armed with a search warrant, police also took computers and several items from the house.



Noppawan, who is Thai, and her father were released about eight hours later.



Her release "is very encouraging news but I remain very concerned that she has faced this ordeal. She is innocent and plays no part in my journalism,'' said Marshall in a statement issued from Hong Kong, where he currently is.



Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak told reporters that Noppawan had been detained in connection with photos that Marshall had posted on his social media, and which were "deemed inappropriate.'' Under Thailand's strict ``lese majeste'' law, criticism of the monarchy is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.



The photos Marshall tweeted Thursday were published in the German tabloid newspaper Bild and were purportedly of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany. The crown prince spends much of his time in Germany.



The prince's father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, is ailing in a hospital, putting the monarchy under stress as the country considers the prospect of its first royal succession since 1946.



Thitiraj initially said officers had determined that the photos published on Bild's website were doctored, and that Marshall and two Thais, whom he did not name, were responsible for creating and posting fake photos on social media. However, when questioned further by a reporter, he hedged his assertion, saying that "whether or not they were doctored is not important, he should not have posted them in the first place.''



Marshall, who used to be based in Bangkok, is a frequent critic of the Thai monarchy and the military government that has ruled since a 2014 coup. Marshall and his wife have not lived in Thailand since 2011, but he continues to write about the country and is banned from entering it.



Speaking to reporters after it was decided to release Noppawan, Thitiraj said police had always believed her "to be innocent of her husband's crimes, but as police, we must follow the evidence.'' He said Friday's actions gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence.



"She still is Thai and she still respects the Royal institution and she has nothing to do with it,'' he said.



Marshall said Noppawan, 39, who used to work for Reuters and NBC, was not involved in his journalism.



"If Thai police believe that I have broken Thai law they should seek my extradition to Thailand via legitimate international legal challenges. It is unacceptable to harass an innocent woman simply because she is married to me,'' Marshall, who also used to work for Reuters, said in his statement.



Lt. Gen. Thitiraj said police won't issue an arrest warrant for Marshall because he is not in Thailand and the matter would have to be discussed with other nations. He said her hoped Marshall would stop his ``movement'' to criticize the monarchy.



"Andrew is the only foreigner who has consistently criticized the institution for four to five years now, and he hasn't stopped. He is the only one who has consistently attacked the institution.''



Noppawan told reporters after her release that said she had asked her husband to stop his activities because they had an impact on his family.
The estate of former Beatle George Harrison is complaining about the use of his music at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Harrison's family tweeted Friday that the use of the song "Here Comes the Sun" during the introduction of candidate Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka was not authorized, and was "offensive and against the wishes of the George Harrison estate.''

Rocker Paul Rodgers also complained about the use of his "All Right Now" at the climax of Trump's speech.

Earlier in the convention, Brian May of Queen complained about the use of the band's 1977 hit "We Are the Champions" during a Trump convention appearance.
For more than three months, it has been difficult to connect to social media sites in Chad. A few regular Internet users say they have been able to circumvent the restrictions through applications, but many have cried foul over what they see as a government crackdown on freedom of expression.

Critics say the move is a deliberate attempt by the administration of longtime President Idriss Deby to restrict the sharing of information about two key issues: the rape of a young girl that gained international attention and Chads recent elections.



If this isnt connected to politics, tell us clearly what it is, one Internet user in Chad told VOA. In my opinion, the government fears that these networks will be used to mobilize a demonstration against the electoral holdup; it must be linked to politics.



Crackdown on Internet, social media



The Chadian government has not made any statements on the matter. VOA tried to contact the minister of communication for this story, but he declined to comment.



In February, news surfaced that an 18-year-old girl, Zouhoura Ibrahim, was kidnapped and gang raped on camera as she pleaded for help. The incident galvanized public outrage on social media and protesters took to the streets demanding accountability. Some of the alleged rape perpetrators were said to be sons of government officials. Social media access was interrupted, according to reports.



Then, a few days before the inauguration of Deby and following a contentious presidential election held on April 10, 2016, Internet users again complained that they were unable to connect to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp or Viber.



The development angered many Chadians who count on the Internet to stay in touch with relatives and friends around the world.



We cannot understand why, in the 21st century, that Chadians would be the only ones on the planet denied access to knowledge, as is the case with the access to social networks, which allow people to communicate, says Daouda El-Hadj Adam, secretary-general of Chads Association for the Defense of Consumer Rights.



Users want access



El-Hadj Adam also said that if it is not the government blocking access, then it should prosecute the telecommunications companies for not doing their jobs and taking money from customers without providing appropriate services.



Tidjani Mahmat Guinassou, director of communications for the Chadian Internet-Governance Forum, said it is time for the government to clarify the situation and explain what is happening in order to calm rising frustration.



In matters of technology, you can always put in place measures and people will find a way to get around them, Guinassou said. I think the best policy is to use technology against opponents and not to prevent certain people from accessing it, he said.

Internet users in the country are running out of patience. In a country that calls itself a country of rights, you cant violate the rights of an individual. You must open the social networks to allow young Chadians to communicate with young people all over the world, a young Chadian told VOA.
Last week, days after The Hagues Permanent Court of Arbitration awarded the Philippines a victory in its case against China in the dispute over rights to the South China Sea, Beijing began a massive public relations campaign to press its position.

Part of Chinas campaign includes shoring up international support to denounce the ruling and approaching other nations to voice their backing for Beijing. Cambodia, which receives significant aid from Beijing, was one of the first to do so.

So what can be made of Chinas use of what some call checkbook diplomacy?

I think China, just like every other country in the world, through its development assistance, through its diplomacy, through its soft power is really trying to advance, understandably, its own national interests, said Curtis S. Chin, Asia Fellow with the Milken Institute. So very clearly, when you look at Southeast Asia, China is very much a player for better and for worse. We see it in the trade connections between China and the Southeast Asian nations. 

But really, all around Asia, China is increasingly a trade partner, and so what China is doing with its checkbook, with its diplomacy, is really trying to create friends and partners through its investments, he said.

Strengthening influence

Scott Harold, associate director for the RAND Corp.s Center for Asia Pacific Policy, said the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regard ASEAN as a way for those weaker, smaller Southeast Asia nations to have greater influence.

However, Harold said, participation in ASEAN is only a portion of each member states foreign policy calculation.

Member states that have disputes with China, for example, try to mobilize their Southeast Asian neighbors to craft a joint statement, he said.

At times, Harold noted, member states may try to act in unison and address issues like the South China Sea. But when China makes it clear for some weaker, smaller, poorer, more corrupt states that it is going to make them pay costs in their relations with China, then you see countries like Cambodia and Laos backing out, he said.

Advancing interests

Chin said Chinas aid to Phnom Penh, including a recent pledge of $600 million, is in line with Beijings practices because for Cambodia, China is its most significant partner. Each nation is seeking to advance their own interests [and] Cambodia is getting tremendous amounts money from China.

Chin doesnt believe the aid was in the form of a quid pro quo, but China is certainly getting an ally in Chinas own efforts to advance its opinions in the region, he said.

RANDs Harold said there is some resentment toward China when it employs such tactics because "when Beijing says jump and your only right is to ask how high," he said, is not very well appreciated ... and I think it may very well be a reality that small states are takers in the international system. But its not something they like.

Looking to ASEANs future, Chin notes that for the past few years, the groups foreign and finance ministers havent been able to speak with a single voice when it comes to China. So if China can peel off a member through diplomacy or money or some mix of the two, clearly ASEAN suffers.

Chinas influence within ASEAN notwithstanding, Harold said a more troubling issue is the ineffective leadership from some of the organizations large and/or strategic member states.

Thats not to say Chinas involvement at certain times doesnt have the effect of disrupting ASEANs unity. However, Harold said, Beijing doesnt appear to have a long-term interest in driving wedges between members because, frankly, ASEAN is riven with a number of disputes.
Chinese government workers are dismantling buildings and evicting residents at Larung Gar, one of the world's largest centers of Tibetan Buddhist learning, according to overseas-based Tibetan groups, though a local official said the site was being renovated.

London-based Free Tibet said government workers began removing residential buildings and evicting people who live at the academy in western Sichuan province on Thursday morning. Several exile Tibetan groups have said local authorities distributed an order in June to reduce the number of monks and nuns living there by half to 5,000, citing overcrowding concerns.



The order also sought a clear separation between genuine monks and nuns studying at the site and lay people residing there, according to pro-Tibetan groups, which have characterized the government move as an attempt to better manage religious activity in the area.



A Sertar County government official said by telephone Thursday that police were not demolishing buildings but rather renovating them, but gave no further details. The official gave only her surname, Zhang, because she was not authorized to speak to the media. The county's press office was "not reachable'' on its telephone line on Friday, according to a recorded message.



Founded in 1980, the academy attracts Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns for short- and long-term study in the religion's more esoteric aspects. They typically stay in a sprawling mountainside settlement made of thousands of log cabins.



Government teams previously evicted thousands of monks in 2001, but the site has swelled significantly in the years since.



Tsering Tsomo, director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala, India, said monastery leaders including the abbot Tsultrim Lodroe have opted to keep a low media profile while appealing for "restraint and sobriety'' among their followers for fear of escalating tensions with authorities.



"The gist of what they [monastery leaders] are calling for is to let the authorities proceed with the partial demolition, as it would only cause loss to some practitioners and their dwellings,'' Tsering said. "Because the continued survival of the Larung Gar itself is more important.''



The expulsions came on the day that China's hand-picked Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, presided over a four-day Buddhist ritual called the Kalachakra initiation at his home monastery in southwestern Tibet. It was the first time the ritual was carried out in Tibet in 50 years and attracted 50,000 Buddhists, according to the official Xinhua news agency.



Tibetan groups this week condemned the ceremony as a sham orchestrated by Beijing to assert its authority. China picked its own Panchen Lama in 1995, rejecting a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest ranking figure, who lives in exile in India and is regarded by Beijing as a separatist.
Roger Ailes, the founder and long-time boss of Fox News Channel, has resigned after a number of female employees accused him of sexual harassment.

Ailes' resignation, effective immediately, was announced by the network's parent company, 21st Century Fox. Two weeks ago, Ailes was sued for sexual harassment by Gretchen Carlson, a former host of Fox & Friends, who left the company last month when her contract wasn't renewed.

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the company's executive chairman, will run Fox News and its sister Fox Business Network, which Ailes also led, until a successor can be found.

The company statement made no mention of the lawsuit or its review of the allegations.

In her lawsuit, Carlson said her career was sabotaged after she refused Ailes' sexual advances. Ailes has denied all accusations.

A former consultant to Republican presidents, Ailes, 76, had been a key figure in the media empire and a longtime Murdoch ally.

Under his leadership, Fox became home to key conservative political commentators, drawing an audience distinct from rivals CNN and MSNBC.
French President Francois Hollande announced a new supply of heavy weapons is being sent to Iraq next month as part of military assistance in fighting Islamic State, but ruled out any deployment of ground forces there and in Syria.

Speaking to reporters after an emergency security meeting Friday, Hollande stressed the international nature of the fight against IS, saying that even if it was France that was attacked on July 14, it was the world that was targeted.

Hollande also outlined plans to increase domestic security forces by 10,000 troops to "protect public gatherings and festivities" in France.

"I have decided with the government of Manuel Valls to increase during the summer time the number of military forces to 10,000 (troops) to protect our public gatherings and festivities during this holiday period, popular events, recreational parks, in short, everywhere French people and foreign tourists, that we must welcome, will be this summer."

Hollande vowed that investigators would find the truth about the circumstances and the causes of the terror attack that took place during the Bastille Day celebration in Nice and the eventual networks of the terrorist.

Nice City Hall has displayed names of all 84 people killed in the attack, written on two black banners.

The victims were of 18 nationalities. More than 300 people were wounded, and Hollande said that 12 are fighting for their lives.



The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said Thursday that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the city of Nice on the French Riviera before police killed him, had accomplices and it seemed he had been plotting the attack for months.

Molins cited text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five suspects who are in custody and facing terrorism charges.

Molins identified the suspects as two Franco-Tunisians, a Tunisian and an Albanian, and one woman of dual French-Albanian nationality.

The 31-year-old driver of the truck was a Tunisian man who had been living in Nice for several years.
An international human rights umbrella says the Southeast Asian region faces the threat of growing conflicts over land between investors and local people unless legal and institutional reforms are put in place.

The warning from the 180-member International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) comes against a backdrop of significant economic gains and growth across Asia supported by foreign and domestic investment.

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is looking to spur growth through the ASEAN Economic Cooperation (AEC) and foreign investment alone reached $136.3 billion in 2014.

But the opening to investors seeking land to develop for factories and plantations has triggered conflict with local communities, especially where laws governing land registration and title are weak.

These land disputes, forced evictions and violence have risen as the regional drive for economic growth has accelerated.

FIDH Secretary General Debbie Stothard predicts increasing conflicts between local communities, government and investors unless reforms are implemented.

What we are going to see in situations in Asia where, as wars and official armed conflicts wind down, were going to actually see another type of conflict that also displaces people and also linked to violence and that would be conflict around land grabbing, Stothard told VOA.

Cambodia

In Cambodia, the FIDH says more than 800,000 people have been affected by land grabbing since 2000.

In 2015, FIDH filed a case with the International Criminal Court asserting that land grabbing in Cambodia had been so systematic and widespread it represented a serious international crime.

The sugar industry in Cambodia, with strong links to major international buyers in the food industry, has been under the spotlight, with plantations leading to the displacement of as many as 16,000 people, rights groups said.

In 2008, Thai sugar producer Mitr Phol was granted access to 200 square kilometers of land under a government Economic Land Concession (ELC), offering long term leases. But the land, in Oddor Meanchey province, was already occupied by 2,000 families.

Villager Neoy Ta Am was forced to flee to Thailand when the community was forcibly evicted by government troops in 2008. When the soldiers came I had already escaped, but I heard from a landlord later they had burnt all the houses, Neoy Ta Am told VOA through a translator.

Cambodias sugar exports accelerated under a European Union (EU) preferential trade program, reaching 65,000 tons in 2013. But allegations over rights abuses and land grabbing have triggered international investigations, with sugar exports to the EU slumping badly last year.

Sugar buyers

The global aid group Oxfam International targeted leading sugar buyers, while the U.S.-based Coca-Cola Company launched a social and environmental audit of key sugar suppliers, including Mitr Phol. PepsiCo also undertook a similar program, with a zero tolerance policy for land grabs globally.

Thailands National Human Rights Commission accused the Thai producer, Mitr Phol, for the collapse of the community, with the Thai company quitting the concession in 2015.

The campaign succeeded in highlighting the villagers plight, said Eang Vuthy, executive director of rights group Equitable Cambodia.

This is probably not the first time but its very rare that the foreign investor after many years of investing in Cambodia, now they have to leave the country because of the pressure from the buyers and people on the ground, Vuthy said.

Premrudee Daoroung, director of advocacy for Project SEVANA Southeast Asia, said large scale development projects across South East Asia are adversely affecting an increasing number of people in the ASEAN region.

The expansion, the rapid expansion, of the large scale investment across the border which many people think is supporting ASEAN by the gathering of ASEAN and make the flow of investment possible. But the trend that I pointed out is that you have the people who are suffering from the large scale projects, Premrudee told VOA.

Myanmar

In Myanmar, a government committee  the Central Committee on Confiscated Farmlands and Other Lands  said in early July it planned to settle a wrath of land grabbing cases within six months.

Land grabbing cases in Myanmar, including victims under the former military government, gained attention under the reformist administration of former President Thein Sein after he came to power in 2011.

A Farmland Investigation Commission in 2012 was set up to investigate the cases. Government reports said as much as 809,000 hectares (two million acres) of land across the country was considered confiscated.

The new government led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has made settling land dispute issues a priority.

Activists say moves to settle land conflicts will be an important test for the government, especially in cases involving the military and business elites with close ties to the former military, which still holds sway in Myanmar.

But FIDHs Stothard said the plan by the parliament committee to clear all land cases in Myanmar is ambitious, but to succeed requires wide-ranging reforms.

Its not really going to work if there are no changes to the laws and to the policies and procedures of the various government departments involved in land acquisition and land leasing, she said.

Stothard said too often people being arrested and facing trial for illegal assembly are actually farmers protesting the loss of land and homes and forcibly displaced because of inadequate land laws and legal procedures.
The state of emergency that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared this week is giving him even more power to expand a purge that has seen an estimated 60,000 people either arrested or suspended from their jobs. Much of that purge has targeted members of a massive, wealthy and influential spiritual movement led by Fethullah Gulen, an former imam living in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

Gulen has not set foot on Turkish soil in 17 years, but his name evokes strong emotions among Erdogan supporters.

We are here to care for Tayyip Erdogan. Let the angels take him under their wings, and Fethullah Gulen be damned, said Songul Yildirim, a housewife attending a rally in support of the Turkish president in Istanbul.

The Turkish leader accuses Gulen of trying to set up a parallel state, and of being the force behind the failed coup.

Erdogan and Gulen were once allies, sharing what analysts say is a vision of soft Islamism to eventually replace Turkeys secular state.

Erdogan is a more traditionalist Islamist, whereas Gulen is more of the Suffi tradition, said Claire Berlinski, an author who lived in Turkey and has written about Gulen and his movement. They both shared the objective of wanting to replace the old guard with their own cadre of pious Anatolian civil servants, and then the falling out seems to have been a classic power confrontation.

Hizmet power

As members of Gulens movement, also known as the Hizmet, or service movement, took posts in key sectors of education, military, intelligence, the judiciary, and especially the media, their power grew.

That power in time caused these two partners a disagreement because Erdogan is not someone who likes to share his power with anyone, said Nedim Sener, a writer in Istanbul who has researched the Gulenist movement for 16 years.

Penetrating the education sector was the key of Gulens strategy for more than four decades. His movement operates hundreds of schools in Turkey and overseas, many of them in the United States.

Fethullah Gulen is a dangerous movement that takes a child from primary school and according to the childs potential, determines whether he will be a soldier, an intelligence officer, a judge, all completely through the educational system that he has formed himself, said Sener. They act as if they are secular, as if they have nothing to do with this movement, while at the same time forming a sleeper cell, he said.

That opinion is shared by Erdogan supporters and others in Turkey who have for years believed Gulen to be a dark force in their countrys politics.

The image is contrary to the perception of him in the United States, where newspaper op-eds have lauded him as a peacemaker. Some have compared him to the late American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are no official figures of how many people belong to Gulens movement, but analysts estimate he has between 3 million and 6 million followers. They contribute between 10 and 20 percent of their monthly income. The movement is estimated to hold up to $50 billion in assets  virtually none of them in Gulens name.

Gulen in US

Why did he go? It has nothing to do with his business activities, said Sener, who was once jailed by a judge who was a follower of the Gulen movement. Fethullah Gulen is like this. He sits very humbly on a couch, but wants the whole country under his feet, he said.

Gulen left Turkey in 1999 saying he was seeking treatment for diabetes.

However, the U.S. decision to allow him to live on American soil has fueled speculation about alleged involvement in U.S. government activities. Newspapers in Turkey have for years played up reports that Gulen presented letters of reference from former CIA officials as part of his application for U.S. residency.

In Turkey, those in Gulens movement are reluctant to talk these days.

Erdogans crackdown has focused on institutions where Gulen is believed to exert influence through his followers, who tend to be highly educated and Western-savvy.

His brand of Islamism is attractive to many who want to live their Islamic faith in the modern world. Gulens principles, such as respect for cultures, dialogue between religions, peace, education, health, humanitarian aid, volunteerism, that is the message, said a Gulen follower who asked to remain anonymous. At the end of the day, he is a man of religion. There is always a reference to religion in these messages, the follower said.

The follower is a former journalist who worked for Zaman, one of the Gulen movements main newspapers that was seized by Erdogans security forces in March.

Like many in Turkey, he worries about the future.

The main target of the state of emergency is the movement, said the follower. Im afraid for all the opposition in Turkey. We are going into a very painful stage. From now on, those opponents, they will be devoid of their basic rights and freedom and they will be in danger for their lives and for their properties, he said.
The International Organization for Migration reports nearly 3,000 refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe have died so far this year. Most of these deaths have occurred along the dangerous route from North Africa to Italy.



This is the earliest that reported deaths on the Mediterranean have reached 3,000 since the migration crisis hit Europe four years ago. In 2014, reported fatalities reached the 3,000 person mark in September. Last year, it was in October.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said having such a large number of migrants perish before the end of July this year is alarming. It is also very important to note that we are approaching the 250,000 arrival markLast year, we did not hit 3,000 until almost a million people had come. So, to have 3,000 with a quarter that number is an indicator of how lethal this passage has been, he said.



Millman said refugee and migrant flows from Turkey to Greece have almost disappeared. So, he noted most of the sea traffic and fatalities are now occurring among sub-Saharan Africans making the perilous journey from North Africa to Italy.



He told VOA about 20 migrants are dying every day in the Mediterranean Sea. He said IOM staff is talking to the Libyan coast guard about the dangers facing people who board smugglers boats. The coast guard has had some luck turning back voyages from Libya. We have heard in the last six weeks a number of cases where they have been able to turn boats back. They are also recovering bodies at an alarming rate as well. So, wehave mixed feelings calling that a success, he stated.



IOM runs an assisted voluntary return and reintegration program for migrants in Libya. Millman said the agency has succeeded in repatriating thousands of stranded migrants to their homes in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ivanka Trump is set to introduce her father, Donald Trump, Thursday before he accepts the Republican nomination for president, in a move that is aimed at increasing his appeal to women.

Ivanka Trump, 34, is a businesswoman who both works in her father's company and runs her own fashion line. She has been a business associate of her father for nearly a decade.

Trump, named for her Czech mother Ivana (Ivanka is the diminutive form of the name) was educated in top-tier private schools in the United States. She has a degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business, where her father also is an alum.

Ivanka Trump has said she has counseled her father on his public image and does not always agree with his choices. She told CNN on Wednesday that she and her father "have such a good relationship because he respects me, and because I'm candid in my opinions, and I share them, solicited or otherwise."

She said he does not always listen.

Her speech Thursday is expected to target women, a weak spot in Donald Trump's support base. Only 34 percent of women support Trump in the election, according to a recent poll by ABC News and the Washington Post.

But Ivanka Trump, with her polished persona as a former model, businesswoman, wife and mother of three young children, will try to convince female voters that her father does not deserve to be called a racist or bigot, as his critics have charged. She says that, as she was growing up, her father took delight in his family and took pains to stay in touch with them.

"He wasn't always physically present, but he was always available," by telephone in particular, she said.

She also said she has learned from him that she must love her work to be a success at it. Her recent work includes managing a line of mid-priced shoes and handbags, appearing as a guest on her father's former show The Apprentice, and publishing a book of professional advice.

Ivanka Trump also has a history with Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. Ivanka and Chelsea have been seen together at social events in New York City, and socializing as a foursome with their husbands. Some reports say the two women have cooled their friendship for the moment, as their parents compete for the most powerful office in the nation.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Friday that his countrys planned departure from the European Union did not mean it was following an isolationist path.

I would draw a very, very strong contrast between Brexit and any kind of isolationism, Johnson said in response to a question. Brexit means us being more outward-looking, more engaged, more energetic, more enthusiastic and committed on the world stage than ever before.

The former mayor of London and public face of the Brexit movement, now Britains top diplomat, made his debut Friday at the United Nations. He was in New York to meet with business leaders and then see U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other diplomats at the world bodys headquarters.

He said he and the U.N. chief discussed pressing global issues, including the wars in Syria and Yemen.

While he was at the United Nations, news came of the shooting attack at a shopping mall in Munich, Germany.

If it seems very likely this that is another terrorist incident, then I think it proves once again that we have a global phenomenon now and a global sickness that we have to tackle both at source in the areas where the cancer is being incubated in the Middle East, but also, of course, around the world, he said.

He said nations must deal with the symptoms and process of radicalization.

Johnson also briefly appeared at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Libya and took part in a vote on a resolution to remove that countrys chemical weapons stockpiles and send them to third-party countries for destruction.

What we have done today is a good example of the role of the U.N. in tackling global challenges, he told the council after casting Britains vote. It is also an example of the United Kingdoms continued determination to play a leading role through the U.N., together with you, our partners in the Security Council.
In a warm conference center with air conditioning barely chilling the air, ministers and high-level participants from the Montreal Protocol parties gathered Friday in Vienna to try to make progress scaling back the use of a class of chemical compounds that contribute to global warming.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that climate change is as dangerous as, if not more than, the threat posed by violent extremism. Efforts to phase down greenhouse gases, he said, could literally save life on the planet itself."

Kerry is backing an amendment to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that is expected to be adopted later this year.

In Paris, the world set the goal of limiting the Earths warming to well below two degrees Celsius, Kerry said Friday. "Amending the Montreal Protocol to cut HFC use could help us avoid a full half-degree. The magnitude of this single action is difficult to overstate."

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are used primarily in air conditioning and refrigeration, and are considered to be potent greenhouse gases that play a major role in driving global climate change. An agreement to phase down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol would significantly reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions that enter the atmosphere over the next several decades.

A senior State Department official said the targeted reduction amount is equivalent to the emissions of about 300 coal-fired power plants annually.

According to estimates by the Climate Action Network, an environmental advocacy network of more than 1,100 non-governmental organizations, it also could prevent up to half a degree Celsius of global warming by the end of this century.

Experts are urging that the talks in Vienna set the stage for an ambitious phase-down scheduled for both developed and developing countries.

Developing countries could get financial assistance from the Multilateral Fund, established under the Montreal Protocol framework, to aid the implementation of phase-outs of ozone-depleting chemicals over time.

Additional funding for countries that need it through the Multilateral Fund  all of which will help promote energy efficient technologies that use climate-friendly alternatives to HFCs, said Kerry.

Nations that previously have blocked progress, such as Saudi Arabia, are showing signs of cooperation.

A senior State Department official told reporters there is momentum and most parties have come here [Vienna] to work constructively toward an amendment.

A June 2016 study in the journal Science credited the Montreal Protocol with helping to close the hole in the ozone layer, and the Montreal Protocols scientific assessment panel estimates that follow-through on the protocol may enable the ozone layer to return to its pre-industrial level by sometime between 2060 and 2075.
New research links alcohol with seven types of cancer.

Writing in the journal Addiction, researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand say alcohol has a causal association with cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum and female breast.

While there has been evidence of an association between alcohol and cancer, the study claims it is causal, meaning it directly causes cancer.

The study was large, taking into account 10 years of global data collected by groups such as the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The risk of cancer from alcohol is largest among heavy drinkers, but affects both light and moderate drinkers as well.

According to the study, alcohol was responsible for 5.8 percent of all cancer deaths in 2012.

"We know that nine in 10 people aren't aware of the link between alcohol and cancer," Jana Witt of Cancer Research UK, who did not contribute to the study, told The Guardian newspaper. "And this review is a stark reminder that there's strong evidence linking the two."

And if youre thinking that a little wine may help fight cardiovascular disease, this new study finds that the evidence that moderate drinking provides protection against cardiovascular disease is not strong.
Despite what many have called "hateful" rhetoric of Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump, many minorities attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week to show their support for the New York businessman.

One of Trump's more famous proposals is to build a wall along the American border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants.

Olga Farnam, a self-described "full-blooded Hispanic" works for the Washington State Republican Party and told VOA she supports Trump, not in spite of his plan to build the wall, but because of it.

"Donald Trump, my number one thing for him is that hes going to build a wall. And immigration has been a problem in this country for years. I used to live in a border city in El Paso, Texas and I first handedly watched what immigration did to that city," said Farnam, whose grandparents are all from Mexico.

She recounted personal stories of women who came to El Paso to give birth and then return to Mexico where they continued to claim welfare money from the U.S.

Law and order was another issue that was high on Trump's speech agenda as he addressed the convention and officially accepted the nomination.

David Clarke, an African-American sheriff in Wisconsin said he is voting for Trump because safety is his priority.

"Everything rises and falls on safety - everyone wants to be safe. This is an issue that transcends race, ethnicity, gender, religion, lifestyle, age  everybody wants a safe environment," he said. "What Donald Trump has done  he has made it clear from the beginning that he would be a law and order candidate; that he would support the police - it starts there. Donald Trump knows the importance of the protection of the rule of law."

"Thats got to stop. We need to take care of our own  there are so many homeless people here, so many people without because were worried about taking care of the people that are not citizens."

Farnam's colleague in Washington state, Hossein Khorram, is an Iranian-American voting for Trump because Khorram believes Trump will fight for the Kurdish minority in the Middle East and Turkey.

Were going to vote for Donald Trump because Trump is going to rescue the Kurds from ISIS and Daesh," Khorram said. "Obamas policies have failed; the Kurdish women are getting stolen and tortured and raped by the ISIS and the Islamists and the time has come to stop this. Anybody voting for Hillary Clinton would be a continuation of the failed Obama policies which is gonna lead to more rape, more torture, more suicide bombing. So to my fellow friends in Kurdistan  victory is near. If Trump wins youll be liberated  I will promise you this."

Trump has had questionable popularity with Muslims after calling for a ban on Muslims from entering the country, as well as putting mosques under surveillance. But a number of Muslims showed their support for Trump at the convention this week.

Vakas Khan, a physician and a donor to Trumps campaign, said that though he understands Muslims are wary of Trump's rhetoric, he says addressing immigration is key, and he thinks many Muslims have a "huge misunderstanding" of the true meaning of Trump's statements.

"Theres a lack of communication between both sides," he said. "We are here to build the bridges not burn them. And for that reason you can see Mr. Trump's statements about Muslims are being softened on an everyday basis and Im hoping that very soon he will be able to differentiate between a radical Muslim and a peace-loving, America-loving Muslim."

Dr. Nassar, a Pakistani-American from Michigan attending the convention agreed with Khan, saying that while he understood many Americans are put off by Trump's often harsh comments, he is the best candidate to keep everyone safe.

"The thing is we've come so far - this is our home now. We have to protect it, right?"
President Barack Obama has lauded Muslim Americans as patriots and heroes, and decried discrimination and violence against Muslims in the U.S.

This is a difficult time for Muslim Americans, Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month, in which observers fast from sunrise to sunset.

The president said Muslim Americans "are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family," and he extolled the contributions of Muslim doctors, entrepreneurs, artists, activists, athletes, police officers, firefighters and soldiers.

In a pointed jab at the anti-Muslim rhetoric by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Obama said, "Singling out Muslim Americans feeds the lie of terrorists like ISIL that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents. Thats not smart national security."

Trump has called for a ban on Muslims from entering the country, as well as putting mosques under surveillance.

This is a difficult time for Muslim Americans." Obama said, "Like all Americans, you worry about the threat of terrorism. But on top of that, you fear that your entire community will be blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent your faith." The statement prompted chants of "Four more years," from the 100 guests. No, no, he said. Michelles going to come down and scold you.

There were about 3.3 million Muslim Americans living in the United States in 2015, according to Pew Research Center estimates, making up about 1 percent of the total U.S. population.
U.S. President Barack Obama says the U.S. had no knowledge of, or involvement in, last week's coup attempt in Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen or his followers of being behind the failed bid to take over the Turkish government July 15.

Obama said Friday that any reports that the United States was involved in the planning for the attack are "unequivocally false." He said he told President Erdogan that, earlier this week in a telephone conversation.

Obama also said the U.S. government hopes that as details become clear, "there is not an overreaction that could in some fashion lead to curtailment of civil liberties" or a crackdown on the political opposition or on journalists voicing concerns about the government.

He also said that Turkey's request for the cleric's extradition from his home-in-exile, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, must go through the U.S. legal process and would only be granted if Ankara can prove Gulen was behind the coup.

During a Washington press conference Friday, Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Klc, said his country is working with the U.S. Justice Department to finalize his nation's request for Gulen's extradition "in a way commensurate with the time-tested alliance relationship between the two countries.



Klc said much of the documentation Ankara has provided comes from tens of thousands of pages of evidence developed in an investigation initiated by the Turkish government in 2013.



He also pointed to U.S. diplomatic cables leaked on WikiLeaks to show that U.S. officials should have been well aware of the extent to which Gulenists had infiltrated the Turkish government.



We are trying to communicate to our partners and allies the threat posed by this terrorist organization to the Turkish state structure and the Turkish democracy," he said. It should have been listened to more closely.



Anti-American sentiment has been running high in Turkey since the coup attempt amid widespread suggestions that the United States had a hand in the coup. A VOA reporter in Istanbul has had, on at least two occasions, to retreat from an angry crowd.

More arrests?



Turkish officials say they have now detained 10,400 people in connection with the attempted coup, including 6,000 military personnel, and that 4,060 have been arrested. By some estimates, almost 50,000 public officials, including judges and academics, have been suspended or ordered to resign.

The Turkish officials said some of those arrested have already confessed the plot was orchestrated by Gulen himself.



Turkeys ambassador to the U.S. also said it was possible more arrests could be forthcoming as a result of the current purge.



It should go to the extent possible until the point where we will ensure that no attempt will again be orchestrated against the Turkish democracy, Klc said during the briefing at the Turkish Embassy.



The figures are not massive for the time being, he said. If 10,000 people confess that they have some relationship with the terrorist organization or took part in the military coup, then the numbers will be higher.

State of emergency

On Thursday, Turkey said it would suspend the European Convention on Human Rights during the three-month state of emergency it declared to purge perpetrators of last week's failed coup.

Human Right Watch sounded alarm Friday about the state of emergency, saying, There are clear signs that the government is ready to crack down more broadly  combined with far more scope for unchecked executive action. The groups director for Turkey, Emma Sinclair-Webb, called that "an alarming prospect.



It risks further undermining democracy by providing a legal  if not justifiable  basis for a crackdown on rights, said Sinclair-Webb. It gives the government the means to intensify its campaign against its critics.

Turkish authorities are erasing the distinction between criminal activity and sympathies for a religious movement the government accuses of orchestrating the coup, HRW said.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmas said Turkey would take steps "like France has done under Article 15 of the convention" that allow signatories to abrogate from its obligations during times of war or public emergencies.

"The state of emergency will give the government a good opportunity to fight against coup plotters and clean the state coffers fully of members of the Gulenist organization," Kurtulmas was quotes as saying by the Hurriyet news agency.

Turkish lawmakers are expected to approve President Erdogan's call for a three-month state of emergency in a move that paves the way for further purging of his opponents, following Friday's failed attempt to topple him and his government.

Erdogan announced the state of emergency in a televised address late Wednesday, following meetings with his national security council and Cabinet.

Erdogan said the state of emergencys purpose is to be able to take the most efficient steps to return to democracy and rule of law. The Turkish leader said the armed forces would not take control of the country during this time.

Crackdown expands

Hundreds of Erdogan supporters filled public venues across Turkey, including Istanbuls Taksim Square, where his statement was carried live on big screens. The announcement of the state of emergency drew applause from the crowd.

The declaration allows Erdogan to expand an already massive crackdown that observers say primarily targets members of a spiritual movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a former imam who has been living in the United States for the past 17 years.

Turkish state media reports the government has banned all academics from traveling out of Turkey. More than 21,000 employees of the Education Ministry, including more than 1,500 university deans, were suspended Tuesday.

The lynching has started, said Beyza Ustun, an official of the Kurdish-dominated, left-wing Peoples Democratic Party, reflecting the concern members of Turkeys minorities have expressed at what they see as a growing threat to their rights.
Many outside of Pakistan probably never heard of Qandeel Baloch before this week. She was a young woman in the South Asian country who rose to fame on social media after being featured in a 2014 video that went viral. In it, she asked a man, "How am I looking?"

The social media star, who was in her 20s, called herself the Pakistani Kim Kardashian, a modern feminist. Her real name was Fauzia Azeem. Her outspoken views and sexually suggestive videos posted online provoked controversy in an Islamic state that is not comfortable with Western feminism  something that earned Baloch praise from many young people and condemnation from the more traditional elements of society.

Muhammad Waseem, Balochs brother, killed her on July 15 while the family was visiting the central Punjab village of Muzzafarabad for the recent Eid holiday. He confessed the next day, saying at a news conference that hed given his sister a tablet to subdue her and then strangled her. Waseem said he had no regrets and did it to preserve the familys honor.

Balochs parents claimed to have also been sedated the night of the murder, saying they had fallen deeply asleep in an interview with the BBC Urdu service. In the interview, Qandeels mother said the deceased social media stars brothers always had hatred in their hearts. Muhammad Azeem, Qandeel Balochs father, is quoted has telling the service Waseem should be shot on sight.

Rights violations common

Human Rights Watchs Pakistan researcher Saroop Ijaz calls honor killings a violation of multiple human rights and a problem that is pervasive there, adding that throughout Pakistani society there are expressions of misogyny. He notes an increase in anti-woman rhetoric and violence and calls the state of human rights for women in the country grave.

Salman Abid, a political analyst with Express Law in Pakistan, says one factor contributing to violence toward women is that tribal and local traditions are relatively strong when compared to the law, creating instances where the local practice dominates the law. This means that even if there are laws to prohibit violence or certain practices, there are sometimes no effective ways to implement them.

In Ijazs opinion, Pakistan may not be on the right track in curtailing violence against women, but at least those crimes are being better reported. He says Qandeels murder has served to further the conversation about honor killings, because she had such a high profile.

An apparent loophole of the honor killing law is that family members can forgive the murderer. In that instance, the killer tends to go unpunished.

In a rare move, authorities in Pakistan have prohibited Balochs family from forgiving her brother.

A good beginning

Ijaz calls that a very good and much-needed first step, but says its time for the government to enact laws that would eliminate forgiveness as a possibility. He says prohibiting the family from forgiving Waseem for his sisters murder might indicate that the government recognizes a problem exists with the current system that allows for such actions.

Abid points out that over the years Pakistans parliament has taken up many initiatives to better protect women but that two problems persist.

One is that even with laws on the books, Abid says many times they arent implemented, so any new protections for women are not enforced. Then, he says, male parliamentarians may not pass new legislation because it would anger the conservative, rural, tribal base that helped them get elected.

Ijaz notes that its not only a matter of changing laws, but of having a larger conversation about rights, violence toward women and making changes.
A pro-government Taureg militia group was reported Thursday to be taking control of Mali's northern city of Kidal, after fighting broke out between the militia and a coalition chiefly made up of former Taureg rebels.

A witness told VOA's French-to-Africa service that Gatia militia fighters were combing the town to weed out any rebels who might still be hiding. But the situation in Kidal remained generally confused and unsettled, and it was unclear whether there are any casualties.

Ambeyri Ag Rissa, a leader of the Taureg coalition, the Coordination of Azawad Movements, told VOA that officials had just finished meeting on a truce signed Sunday that called for sharing control of the city when gunfire broke out. Machine guns could be heard in the background as he spoke.

The situation in Kidal had remained on edge even after the truce was signed, and each side blamed the other for the outbreak of fighting.

The coalition said a Gatia militia car tried to illegally cross a checkpoint, while the militia accused the coalition of deliberately blocking main roads and firing at close range.

Taureg separatists briefly took control of northern Mali in 2012 before al-Qaida-linked militants drove them out.

A French force took back the region from the Islamists, and thousands of U.N. peacekeepers and Malian soldiers have been overseeing a very shaky peace agreement while they try to stop Islamic extremists from taking advantage of the situation.
A federal court in New York on Thursday sentenced an admitted agent of the Russian government to 10 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $500,000 in profit he'd gained from his criminal activity, which focused on acquiring and secretly shipping abroad high-tech microelectronics for Russian military equipment.

Alexander Fishenko pleaded guilty to all 19 charges brought by the Department of Justice. U.S. officials said a company that Fishenko had founded shipped $50 million worth of electronic products to Russia between 2002 and 2012, all in defiance of a government licensing system meant to control such exports.

"These commodities have applications and are frequently used in a wide range of military systems," U.S. officials said, "including radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and detonation triggers."

Charges against Fishenko, who has both American and Russian citizenship, included conspiracy, illegally exporting controlled products, conspiring to launder money and obstruction of justice. He was indicted in October 2012, along with 10 other individuals and two corporations, both of which Fishenko controlled. Three of the people remain at large, but the others either have pleaded guilty or been convicted in court.

To evade export controls on high-tech products manufactured in the United States, officials said, Fishenko and his co-conspirators gave false information about who was buying the electronic components, concealed the fact they were exporters and falsely described the devices on records submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Ultimate recipients of the electronic components acquired by Fishenko's companies, known as ARC and Apex, included a research unit for the Russian internal security agency FSB, a Russian entity that builds air and missile defense systems, and another that produces electronic warfare systems for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said prosecuting those who violate U.S. export laws is "an important part of our national security framework ... protecting national assets from ending up in the hands of our potential adversaries."
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared more than two years ago, is coming to an end.

The transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China have agreed the three-nation hunt in the Indian Ocean for the missing plane will be suspended after the current search area is totally scoured.

The decision was announced Friday in Malaysia after a meeting of the ministers.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said if any "credible new information" emerges, a new search would be considered.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard. Two-thirds of the plane's passengers were Chinese.

Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said at the time, "we do not know why, we do not know how" the tragedy occurred.

Investigators said in 2014 they were not ruling out anything, including catastrophic mechanical failure, pilot sabotage or terrorism.

Nothing has been learned since then to change that view.

A few plane parts that may have come from the missing jetliner have washed up on Indian Ocean shores since its disappearance.
For Margaret Thatcher, it was handbags. For Theresa May, it's shoes.

The new British prime minister likes to wear boldly patterned kitten heels, and the media is fascinated. May's footwear has been analyzed, photographed and satirized. Photojournalists have captured her shoes in close-up alongside the stilettos of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the wedge heels of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Sun tabloid greeted May's victory in Britain's Conservative leadership race with a front-page image of her leopard-print shoes and the headline "Heel, boys."

Dozens of countries around the world have had women at the helm, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Norway, Denmark, Liberia and Canada. But female leaders are still scrutinized as much for style as for substance, and invariably compared to one another - a sign they are considered exceptions, rather than the rule.

"It's easy to laugh off, but it trivializes the women," said Jessica Smith, a doctoral researcher at Birkbeck, University of London who studies gender and political leadership.

Smith pointed out that May's meeting with Sturgeon after Britain's European Union referendum came at "a crisis point for Scottish-English relations, an incredibly important point, and if we just talk about what shoes the women are wearing, that sort of undermines any sort of message."

May is hardly the only female politician to draw comment for her outfits - think of Hillary Clinton's previous fondness for trouser suits or Merkel's array of brightly colored blazers.

And, in Britain, sooner or later the comparisons get around to Thatcher.

Britain's first female leader stamped her imprint on the country with her free-market policies, and played a global role in the final years of the Cold War. Britain's Conservatives remain in her thrall, 26 years after she left office and three years after her death.

May - the U.K.'s second female prime minister - draws endless Thatcher comparisons. In newspapers, she's "the new Maggie," ''Maggie II" and "Maggie May." The Times of London said May's first appearance at prime minister's question time was "pure, vintage Maggie." Its editorial cartoon showed May clobbering opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn with a Thatcher-esque black handbag.

The Thatcher effect is not limited to the U.K. Both Merkel and U.S. Democrat presidential contender Clinton have been called an "Iron Lady," Thatcher's nickname.

Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, thinks the comparisons are understandable, because "women who make it to the top have similar qualities."

"To be a woman in politics ... you tend to have to be better than average," she said. "You don't get there because you were at school with some bloke. The same network isn't there that's always helped men throughout history. So the women who make it into politics and then go up are generally pretty formidable. And those who make it to the very top are a phenomenal force."

The ascent of forceful politicians like Merkel and May shows women can sometimes smash the glass ceiling to a country's highest office. Once there, though, some think they still face a double standard.

Many feminists saw sexism at work in the debate over comments by Conservative lawmaker Andrea Leadsom, May's rival for the party leadership, who suggested that being a mother made her a better leader than the childless May because it "means you have a very real stake in the future of our country."

Male politicians' parental status has rarely been an issue in election campaigns.

Others wince at the endless fascination with female politicians' appearance.

The Sun's fashion editor opined on May's first day in office that the prime minister looked "approachable, not stuffy" in a collarless Amanda Wakeley coat, "quirky" shoes and "edgy chain necklace."

Her predecessor David Cameron's blue suits and black brogues did not get the same treatment.

The Metro newspaper made the point neatly by reversing the tables, describing the prime minister's husband in the sort of language often applied to first ladies: "Stepping into the limelight as First Man, Philip May showcased a sexy navy suit with a flourish of pinstripe."

May recently told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that "I have grown used to the focus on my clothes and my shoes." She said she likes to dress soberly and "add a little bit of interest with footwear."

Rosie Campbell, a Birkbeck professor who studies gender and politics, said May is one of a number of female politicians who have used their clothing cleverly, to send subtle signals of authority.

Thatcher became so associated with her no-nonsense handbags that it spawned a verb - to be "handbagged" is to be berated forcefully.

"We always think it's a bit negative when women's clothes are scrutinized - and mostly it can be," Campbell said. "But I also think women use their dress - think about (former U.S. Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright and all her different brooches. Sometimes it can be a way of sending political messages."

She noted that May wore bold, leopard-patterned shoes when she entered 10 Downing St. for the first time. "Did she put those on thinking that she was signaling something: I mean business?"

Unlike Thatcher, who once said "I owe nothing to women's lib" and had few women in her government, May has been photographed in a "This is what a feminist looks like" T-shirt, and has worked hard to increase the number of women in the Conservative Party. She appointed women to senior roles in her Cabinet, including the home secretary, in charge of borders and security.

Women make up about 30 percent of Britain's House of Commons, and about 20 percent of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Some feminist campaigners say the focus on appearance will only change when there are as many women as men at all levels of politics.

"It is about numbers," said Frances Saunders, founder of 50:50 Parliament, a group that seeks a better gender balance in British politics. "The more women we have in there, the less noticeable it would be. I think we'd all get rather bored commenting on their clothes."
Syrians battling Islamic State fighters in Manbij now have control of about half of the city, a spokesman for the anti-IS coalition said Friday.

Colonel Chris Garver, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, told reporters Friday via teleconference from Baghdad that U.S.-backed Syrian Arab Coalition fighters have control of the western half of Manbij and continue to tighten their circle around the city.

Unlike fights for the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, however, where Islamic State fighters fled as defeat appeared imminent, Garver said that as IS fighters become overrun in Manbij, they are falling back and reinforcing their positions, making it tougher to get into the city center.

This is a fight like we havent seen before, said Garver.

On Thursday, the Manbij Military Council, a part of the SAC alliance, issued a statement giving Islamic State jihadists 48 hours to evacuate the city without interference.

The U.S.-led coalition said it has conducted more than 500 strikes in support of the SAC near Manbij, about 85 percent of which is Arab, Pentagon officials have said.

Civilian casualty claims

The military success in Manbij comes as Syrian rights groups claim at least one of those coalition airstrikes killed dozens of civilians Tuesday in the city.

Garver said the Syrian Arab Coalition had observed a convoy of armed Islamic State fighters who appeared to be readying for a counterattack against SAC troops in the area and called in a coalition strike against IS buildings and vehicles. Only after the strike did the U.S.-led coalition receive reports from sources indicating there may have been civilians in the area.

The U.S. military is conducting a credibility assessment that is due less than a week and a half from Friday, Garver added, saying it's aimed at determining whether the civilian casualty claims warrant a formal investigation into the incident.

If a formal investigation is launched, its goal will be to discover whether civilians were accidentally killed and, if so, how the tragedy happened so that troops can prevent a repeat occurrence.

Syrias main opposition leader, Anas al-Abdah, has called for the airstrikes to be halted until a full investigation can be conducted into Tuesdays civilian deaths.
Money is never far away from discussions around AIDS at settings like the International AIDS Conference, held this year in Durban, South Africa.

From international organizations to governments to social activists to pharmaceutical companies to individual patients, everyone agrees: AIDS is expensive, and more money is needed to fight it.

But the math behind the epidemic is often as complicated as the science.

Leena Menghaney, from aid group Doctors without Borders, tried to break down the main issues.

One of the most important, significant things that we are very concerned about are the shortages of funding for the continued scale up of AIDS treatment, she told VOA News. For example, over the next few years people will need over $7 billion to be able to treat everybody who needs treatment. So there are these concerns about funding."

"But in contrast, not only is the money shrinking, what is problematic is the attack on Indian generics. India makes a lot of the medicines that are keeping people alive across the world, including people living with HIV," she added. "And the United States government is hellbent on changing the policies of the Indian government so that the next generation of medicines that we will need are shut down.

But activists say there are unexpected financial needs beyond treatment and prevention.

For example, activists stormed the stage at the conference, drowning out South Africas health minister, to demand free condoms and sanitary pads in South African schools. The latter item might seem counterintuitive -- sanitary pads dont prevent or treat HIV.

But in South Africa alone, studies have shown that 7 million girls miss school each month because they cant afford hygiene items. That, says activist Ntombi-Zodwa Maphosa, has a bearing on the AIDS epidemic for those vulnerable girls.

It definitely makes them vulnerable in society because then they cant advance themselves and they fall prey to sexual predators, to older men, to transactional relationships, so its like a ripple effect, she said. It could seem really simple, but it has like long-term effects. So its also a tool for empowering young women to be educated and to advance in life.

Alex Smith, director of Policy and Advocacy for AIDS Alabama, cited statistics that say that AIDS treatment over a lifetime could cost up to $1 million per patient.

But, he said, failing to treat people will cost society much more than that.

Theres that old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and so I think thats the same with treatment, he said. So if we are able to engage and maintain and retain people in treatment, then the overall cost to the healthcare system is decreased, because as people remain in care and are virally-suppressed, they will not transmit the virus to other people.

And then there are the billions of billions of dollars behind pharmaceutical companies, which are often and repeatedly criticized by activists and aid groups for charging too much for drugs, for unnecessarily prolonging their patents and trying to prevent competition.

Drug companies say their costs are extremely high, that research doesnt always yield results, and that they are ultimately responsible to shareholders to make a profit. The debate continues.

VOA tried to speak to at least six pharmaceutical companies at the conference, but none were available.

VOA also spoke to numerous HIV-positive conference attendees about what the virus costs them, and what they think would ease their burden. Again, the answers were varied and complicated - a Kazakh patient told us she is grateful she gets her medication free through government clinics, but said more services are needed, like integrated mental health and social welfare services.

Several African patients spoke of long queues for free medicine, and travel costs, childcare costs and the loss of income for waiting in line once a month at government clinics. Smith said he is grateful to his employer for providing private health insurance that covers his treatment - but mused that he might not be so lucky if he were to change jobs.

And every single patient pointed out the invisible cost of discrimination and stigma - that costs them professionally and personally.

Its a complicated equation, and one that may defy an elegant solution.

But there is one number that no one can ignore, and which represents the viruss ultimate cost: nearly 37 million lost lives.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice will travel to Beijing and Shanghai next week, ahead of the September G-20 summit in China, the White House said in a statement Friday.

In Beijing, Rice is scheduled to meet with senior government officials, including State Councilor Yang Jiechi, to consult on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues in advance of President Barack Obamas visit to China in September for the summit of the Group of 20 most industrialized economies, the White House said in a statement.

In Shanghai, Rice will meet with business executives to discuss conditions for U.S. businesses operating in China and meet with private Chinese citizens.

Rice will underscore the U.S. commitment to expanding practical cooperation and constructively managing differences with China, the statement said.

Rices July 24-27 trip is the highest-level U.S. visit to the country since a U.N. court rejected Chinas claims to strategic waterways.

Reuters news agency is reporting that Rice is expected to urge China to avoid escalation of tensions in the South China Sea.

In an exclusive interview with the news agency, Rice is quoted as saying that the U.S. military would continue to "sail and fly and operate" in the South China Sea, despite a Chinese warning that such patrols could end "in disaster."

Beijing had reasserted its claims to the South China Sea area after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled on July 12 that there was no legal basis for them.

The sea has become an area for rivalry between the two powers, with Washington in recent months sending naval vessels close to islands and outcrops claimed by China.

Rices trip coincides with visits by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Laos and the Philippines where he is expected to try to reassure Southeast Asian partners of Washington's commitment to the region.
Alarm is being expressed following the 2016 Republican Party presidential nominees latest comments questioning the need to keep nearly 80,000 U.S. military personnel in Northeast Asia.

In an interview with The New York Times, Donald Trump said the presence of American troops in South Korea were no guarantee well have peace on the Korean Peninsula, and he asked what are we getting out of this? by having troops, aircraft, ships and bases in Japan.

The United States has long-standing alliances with Japan and South Korea to provide for their defense if they are attacked, and a key element of the Obama administrations foreign policy has been a strategic pivot to Asia, which Trump apparently desires to reverse.

It scares the hell out of you to hear a major political party nominee saying these things, former Vice President Walter Mondale, a Democrat who served as ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996, told VOA. "Its a stunning moment in American history.

Trump, in the Times interview, also said maybe you would have had a unified Korea if U.S. forces had withdrawn from the peninsula after the 1953 armistice that halted with a stalemate a bloody and devastating three-year war.

'Foolhardy' notion

Its foolhardy to have thought that we could have left there and the country would have unified itself. It would have unified itself by war, and it would have been another satellite of China, said retired Army General John Wickham Jr., who commanded U.S. forces in Korea from 1979 to 1982.

Wickham told VOA that while he was commander in chief on the peninsula at the time of the assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee, North Korea was planning to attack South Korea again. Fortunately, we were able to deter that attack and keep Korea free.

Trumps comments on unification will, however, find a positive reception by most North Koreans and some hard-liner South Koreans who believe their country would never have split if the great powers had not intervened on the peninsula immediately after World War II, which removed the Japanese colonialists, said Balbina Hwang, a visiting professor at Georgetown Universitys Center for Security Studies.

Pyongyang may be expecting short-term opportunities and benefits from a Trump presidency, Hwang told VOA. But she cautioned that the North Korean government certainly thinks hes pretty nutty and believes they can manage whoever comes into office at the White House.

Mistaken analysis

Statesmen, military commanders, high-level government officials and analysts with whom VOA spoke on Thursday all emphasized that Americas military presence overseas cannot be seen merely in stark, strategic terms.

Trump is trying to put a market price on incalculable benefits, which include boosting and supporting democracies and free-market capitalistic societies that directly contribute to Americas national economic wealth, said Hwang, a former senior special adviser on Korean affairs at the State Department.

If American forces are removed from Northeast Asia, we would destroy our economy from a loss of free markets in the region that would come under the control of China and Russia, said Hwang.

Trump, in the newspaper interview, also questioned the efficacy of U.S. missiles to protect Japan and South Korea, saying weve had them there for a long time and now theyre practically obsolete, in all fairness.

The Pentagon recently announced it was enhancing missile defense in South Korea and will deploy two THAAD batteries to the country, a move White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday is meant to protect our allies from a North Korean missile threat. Each unit is estimated to cost about $1.6 billion, according to defense analysts.

'Robust' U.S. presence

The very real security challenges and, frankly, economic opportunities that are resident in that part of the world require a strong, robust U.S. presence, said State Department spokesman John Kirby, emphasizing the Pacific pivot policy of the Obama administration.

Its clear that Trump has not studied and is thus ignorant about American interests, American policies and the history of the American presence in that part of the world, particularly in Japan and Korea, Mondale said.

Trump also questioned whether the United States would automatically defend other NATO allies, the foundation of Americas alliance with Europe since the end of World War II.

Strategic global leadership, Wickham cautioned, requires wisdom, courage, patience and intellect in the White House and a national security team to do that.

The former U.S. army chief of staff said he was reluctant to enter the political fray, but we have to look at history. If foolish people dont look at history, were going to repeat it.
In his first speech Thursday night as the official Republican nominee for U.S. president, Donald Trump struck a tone of urgency regarding recent violent events in the U.S. and billed himself as a truth-teller in saying that under a Trump presidency the country would be one of law and order.

Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country, he said.

In the wide-ranging speech, Trump also hit on his plans to fight Islamic State and other terrorist organizations inside Americas borders and throughout the world. Trump cut against the Republican Party grain in calling for an end to multilateral trade deals, advocating for the rights of the LGBTQ community and espousing a non-interventionist policy when dealing with international crises.

As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things, Trump said.

The three things Trump referred to include having the best intelligence gathering operation in the world, abandoning what he called the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria and suspending immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until a proper vetting mechanism can be put in place.

Watch video report from VOA's Jim Malone:

I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people, he said. Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be.

Illegal immigration

He focused his speech primarily on fighting against illegal immigration and crime in America, comparing the threat level of illegal immigrants to that of Islamic State. According to Trump, there are nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records who should have been deported still living in the U.S.

The first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities, he said. I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country.

Trump listed a number of statistics showing an uptick in crime in several major cities, including Washington nearby and Baltimore, which Trump said have seen a rise in murders of 50 percent and 60 percent, respectively, over the last year.

In the presidents hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office, he said.

With regards to the recent targeted shootings of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas, Trump called them an attack on all Americans, and blamed President Barack Obama for using the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color.

While Trump said several times he would restore law and order in the U.S., he provided very few details about how he plans to achieve that goal. He did say, though, that he is going to work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job done, as well as ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally.

Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child America? Trump said.

Different speech style

Convention nomination speeches are generally seen as a time for candidates to put forth a hopeful and optimistic message, but Trumps speech centered more on the fears of a tense nation facing challenges both at home and abroad.

Trump spoke generally about threats facing the U.S. and promised to defeat the barbarians of ISIS. He also painted a picture of politics in Washington as an insiders game and promised to be a president of the people.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it, he said.

Trumps eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, seemed to take on the role of optimist in introducing Trump, calling him the peoples champion, and telling personal anecdotes to make him an empathetic figure.

She told a story about her father and her playing with building blocks in his office at Trump Tower when she was younger, and said he taught her about work ethic and that everyone has a duty to work for a better world.

She called her father "famous but not well-known," and described him as a charismatic and caring man.

"I have seen him fight for his employees. Now, I am seeing him fight for his country," she said.
Security was very tight Thursday in Jerusalem for the city's annual gay pride parade, after an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a teenage girl to death at last year's march.

About 25,000 people marched this year, a record turnout for the event.

Two men kicked off the parade by getting married under the traditional Jewish wedding canopy, followed by marchers waving rainbow flags, beating drums and hoisting banners with the Star of David.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appear at the march, but sent a message declaring that all people are equal.

"The march today in Jerusalem is not just a march for the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community," he said. "It is not just a march of a specific community. It is not a march 'for' or 'against.' It is a march of all of us. It is a march of together."

But Jerusalem's Orthodox Jewish community called the parade an "abomination," and several rabbis have spent the week speaking out against the march and condemning gays.

Police on Thursday arrested the brother of Yishai Schlissel, the ultra-Orthodox Jew serving life in prison for stabbing a 16-year-old girl to death at last year's parade. Police suspected Schlissel plotted with his brother, Michael, from inside his prison cell to attack this year's march.
If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hoping the U.S. will quickly spirit his archnemesis Fethullah Gulen out of rural Pennsylvania to stand trial in Turkey for plotting last week's failed coup against his government, he'll be sorely disappointed.

Erdogan has accused Gulen, a Turkish cleric and former political ally with whom he had a falling out in 2013, of engineering Friday's coup attempt from his self-imposed exile in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, and trying to have Erdogan assassinated as part of the plot.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday that Turkey had given evidence of Gulen's involvement to the U.S. government after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington wanted hard evidence, not allegations.

But even if the U.S. agrees there is enough evidence to extradite Gulen, the extradition process could take months, if not years  roiling already strained relations between the two long-time NATO allies at a time they're waging a military campaign against the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

"I think what it will really do is to poison the overall atmosphere of the relationship even more than it already has been, and lead to anti-American sentiments about what they'd call in Turkey 'support for terrorism,'" said Aaron Stein, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has closely monitored the situation in Turkey.

1979 treaty

Gulen's extradition request will be adjudicated under a 1979 treaty between the U.S. and Turkey, one of more than 100 the U.S. has signed with other countries.

Among other requirements, the treaty spells out the content of the formal request and the channel through which it is communicated. In the case of Gulen  someone who has been accused of a crime but not convicted  it calls for an arrest warrant; a statement of facts of the case; evidence that the offense, though allegedly committed in Turkey, is prosecutable in the U.S.; and the text of the law under which the accused would be tried.

It remains unclear what documents Turkey has turned over to Washington. But it doesn't appear to be a "provisional arrest or detention" warrant, which would require the U.S. to arrest and detain Gulen for up to 60 days to give Turkey time to prepare a formal extradition request and to keep him in custody until a decision is handed down in his extradition case.

Regardless, once the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Justice formally receive the request and determine that it meets all treaty standards, it moves to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where Gulen has lived as a permanent resident since 1999, according to two international extradition experts who spoke to VOA.

In the U.S. district court, the case will likely be assigned to a magistrate judge, a relatively low-level member of the U.S. judiciary, with the government of Turkey effectively represented by an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Gulen defended by his own lawyers, said Douglas McNabb, an international criminal lawyer who has handled over three dozen extradition cases. This leg of the process alone could potentially take months.

If the magistrate judge turns down the extradition request, Gulen would be set free and allowed to remain in the U.S. If, on the other hand, the judge approves it, Gulen's legal team could attempt to block his immediate deportation by appealing the decision in the U.S. federal court system.

Though extradition cases are almost never taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, McNabb said Gulen's defense team could petition the court to consider the case. Whatever the final court verdict, the extradition would ultimately be decided by the secretary of state.

Political offense exception

The U.S.-Turkey extradition treaty lists 34 categories of "extraditable offenses," crimes ranging from bribery to arson to murder that are prosecutable in both countries and punishable by more than a year in prison. But it also allows for a "political offense exception," a legal concept under which extradition would not be granted if the alleged crime is "political in nature."

The way McNabb reads that language, an "offense committed or attempted against a Head of State or Head of Government" means a plot solely aimed at taking out a foreign leader.

"That's not what occurred here," McNabb said. "What occurred here was an uprising against the government and as part of that, there is an allegation that he tried to have him [Erdogan] assassinated."

The 75-year-old Gulen has dismissed Turkish accusations of leading the coup, which left more than 290 dead and more than 1,400 others wounded, telling Reuters that he'd personally "suffered under multiple coups" in Turkey. He moved to the U.S. after a 1997 soft coup  the fourth military pustch in Turkish history  overthrew the country's then-Islamist leaning government, leading to a period of turmoil in the country.

WATCH: Muslim Cleric Gulen Denies Involvement in Uprising

Gulen signaled Tuesday that he'd likely mount a "political offense exception" defense, calling on the Obama administration to "reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas."

"It is ridiculous, irresponsible and false to suggest I had anything to do with the horrific failed coup," Gulen said in a statement.

"The Turks need to be very careful if they're going to seek his extradition that they don't make out a case for the political offense exception and, therefore, the U.S. doesn't extradite him," McNabb said.

Letting the courts handle it

A Turkish government crackdown on suspected Gulen sympathizers following the coup attempt has stoked Western fears that Erdogan may use the episode to silence critics and consolidate his power over a deeply polarized country. And concern over the Erdogan government's disdain for rule of law could lead the U.S. to dismiss evidence against Gulen as "tainted," and to reject the extradition request.

But, said James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington should not be quick to turn down the request.

"Regardless of the justification, it would be disastrous, I think, if the administration said, 'Ah, this isn't a good enough case; we're not going to let the courts adjudicate it. We're just going to turn it down,'" Jeffrey told an audience Wednesday at the Washington Institute for Near East policy.

Making use of the U.S. court system would help cool tensions with Turkey, Jeffrey said, noting how German Chancellor Angela Merkel defused a crisis in Turkey earlier this year with her decision to allow the prosecution of a German comedian who had drawn threats of a defamation lawsuit from Erdogan over an obscene poem.

Even before Friday's coup attempt, Turkey had asked the U.S. to arrest and extradite Gulen, whom it had designated a terrorist. However, Turkey had never made a formal extradition request. While the U.S. studies the latest Turkey request, analysts in Turkey and the U.S. say Turkey may be blustering, preferring the threat of an extradition to the actual thing.

"What I think is going on is that, for political populist reasons, [Gulen] is far more valuable in the United States under the threat of extradition than he is in Turkey, where he'd be allowed to speak in a trial and be cross examined  where he could reveal potentially damaging things about the government," said Stein of the Atlantic Council.
The United States can join a landmark case on the legality of cross-border data transfers, an Irish court ruled on Tuesday in a move that gives U.S.authorities a platform to defend their surveillance laws before the European Union's top court.

The U.S. authorities had asked the Irish High Court to be a party to the case taken by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems against Facebook, which has its European headquarters in Dublin, over data transfers from the EU to the United States.

The case, which aims to determine whether personal privacy is properly protected from U.S. government surveillance, is expected to be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) following a request by Irish data protection

authorities in May.

"The United States has a significant and bona fide interest in the outcome of these proceedings," Justice Brian McGovern said.

The imposition of restrictions on the transfer of such data would have potentially considerable adverse effects on EU-U.S. commerce and could affect U.S. companies significantly."

The ruling means that U.S. authorities can potentially offer legal opinion or testimony in the case. Revelations three years ago from former U.S. intelligence

contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. surveillance caused political outrage in Europe and stoked mistrust of big U.S. technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

Schrems launched a legal challenge to the Safe Harbour commercial data pact in 2013, ultimately resulting in it being replaced by a new framework that came into force this month.

"The fact that the U.S. government intervenes in this lawsuit, shows that we hit them from a relevant angle," Schrems said in a statement.

"The U.S. can largely ignore the political critique on US mass surveillance, but it cannot ignore the economic relevance of EU-U.S. data flows."
President Barack Obama said Friday that 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's stark warnings about America's fragility do not reflect reality.

"This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesnt really jibe with the experience of most people," the president told reporters during a joint news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Obama said he did not watch Trump deliver his nomination acceptance speech Thursday but did read Trumps remarks painting a grim picture of the nations security and economic state.

The 76-minute speech, which capped a four-day convention, repeatedly accused the Obama administration and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton of plunging America into violence, chaos, terror and lawlessness.

Obama acknowledged that some cities across the country had experienced an increase in killings and violence, but said that's not the whole story.

The fact of the matter is the murder rate today, the violence rate today, is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president and lower than when I took office, Obama said.

Shootings of officers

Trump, who has declared himself the law and order candidate, also blamed Obama for inflamed race relations in America and the recent fatal shootings of police officers in Dallas, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tensions had flared after the release of two videos showing police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota fatally shooting two African-American men.

Trump called Obamas admission that bias remains in America irresponsible rhetoric used to divide us by race and color, and that has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone."

In acknowledging the recent killings, the president said were all heartbroken by that, and were all puzzled by how we could rebuild trust and support law enforcement.

However, he added, the rate of intentional killings of police officers is also significantly lower than when Ronald Reagan was president.

Trump also said that because of the Obama administrations policies, illegal immigrants with criminal records who have been ordered to leave the country continue to stay.

Trump also claimed 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records who have been ordered to leave the country "are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens."

Fears without 'basis in fact'

Obama noted his administration has put unprecedented resources in our courts and said the current rate of illegal immigration is two-thirds lower than it was when Reagan was president. Although Democrats and Republicans are split on how to move the country forward, Obama said, we are not going to make good decisions based on fears that dont have basis in fact.

Pena Nieto, making his first visit to the White House since January, declined to weigh in on the presidential race, instead saying he has the deepest respect for both Trump and Clinton. The Mexican leader has said Trump's comments about Mexicans bringing drugs, crime and rape to the U.S. have hurt relations between the two countries, but he vowed that his country would continue to work in a constructive manner and in good faith with whoever is elected president.

I have respect for this process, Pena Nieto said, adding it is up to Americans to decide who will be the leader their country.

The two leaders spoke after a meeting in which they agreed to deepen cooperation on issues ranging from security to trade to the environment.

Pena Nieto's visit, which was just announced this week, was expected to build on discussions from the North American Leaders' Summit in Ottawa less than a month ago. Obama met with Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to hail the benefits of the 22-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, at a time when international trade deals are being attacked in the United States and Europe.

Together, the three countries account for almost 27 percent of the world's economic output.

Obama said that in light of the heated rhetoric in politics, it is important to recall that Mexico is critically important to the United States.
Opposition parties in Zambia are questioning the choice of a Dubai printing company to supply the ballots for the August 11 general election.

The electoral commission awarded the contract to the Al Ghurair Printing Company to prepare all ballots to be used, and the government says the printing is complete.

But opposition parties, including the United Party for National Development, say the printing of ballots by a company outside the continent is too expensive and could be used by the government to rig the elections. Until this year, ballots for the Zambian elections were printed in South Africa.

Jack Mwiimbu, the UPNDs head of legal affairs, said the decision could undermine the integrity of the presidential, legislative and local elections. He also said the party had documentary proof of some Zambians celebrating after the chairman of the electoral commission, Justice Essau Chulu, officially declared that the Dubai company had won the bidding for the ballot job.

Mwiimbu said that the UPND strongly doubted the polls would be credible and that the electoral commission should rescind the decision to award the contract to Al Ghurair.

Im aware that most of the major political parties in Zambia and other major stakeholders have expressed their disquiet pertaining to the awarding of the tender to a Dubai-based company, said Mwiimbu.

Edith Nawakwi, leader of another opposition party, the Forum for Democracy and Development, said the electoral commissions decision could create tension and chaos.

Officials of the electoral commission said the presence of the representatives of the political parties and other stakeholders to monitor the printing of ballots in Dubai underscored the election bodys commitment to ensuring a transparent process and credible vote.

Packaging, transporting

The electoral body said it was in the process of packaging the ballots and finalizing plans to transport them to the capital, Lusaka, in readiness for the polls.

Silvia Bwalya, deputy spokesperson for the electoral commission, said, "We have completed the signing of everything in terms of the referendum ballots, local government, presidential and national assembly ballot papers  all these we have printed and we are at 100 percent. What we are remaining with is the packing, which is in progress. ... For local government, we only remain with one constituency in terms of packing, and the national assembly packing is well underway."

The representatives of the political parties and other stakeholders are quite impressed with the work that has been done, and whenever they needed clarification, they were able to ask and the commission was able to clarify some of the issues that they raised. And so I can conclusively say that they are very happy with the whole process and how it has gone, and also the commission is very happy with the way we collaborated with the stakeholders that are here.

Party representatives and the stakeholders will witness the packing of the ballot papers to the cargo plane that will be transporting the documents to Lusaka, but will not be allowed to accompany the plane.

Rather, another team comprising party representatives and stakeholders will meet the cargo plane in Lusaka and inspect the packaging before the ballots are distributed, according to the electoral commission.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported the first six months of this year have seen all previous global warming records broken.The WMO said 2016 is on track to be the worlds hottest year on record with more heat on the way.



Record heat, land and water



According to the World Meteorological Organization, the dramatic, sweeping changes in the state of the world climate is alarming. June was the 14th month in a row of record heat for land and oceans. It also marked the 378th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average.

David Carlson, director of the WMOs World Climate Research Program, told VOA global warming is happening faster than predicted.

This year suggests that the planet can warm up faster than we expected on a much shorter time. We would have thought that it would take several years to see a jump like this, he said.



Scientists based their assessment of the rapidly changing climate on three main indicators.The first is the record-setting global temperatures, which, for the first six months of this year, averaged 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial era levels.



They noted the heat has been especially high in the Arctic, resulting in the early and fast melting of the Arctic sea ice, territories in the far Northern Hemisphere, including Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia, are setting heat records, and carbon dioxide emissions, which are driving global warming, have reached new highs.



Emissions, greenhouse gases



The strong 2015-2016 El Nino event, which causes unusually warm ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, is only partially responsible for this accelerated warming trend Carlson said, however, much remains unknown.

If we got this much surprise this year, how many more surprises are ahead of us? The system cannot so far as we know  I mean, ice takes a certain amount of time to melt, the ocean takes a certain amount of time to heat up  it cannot go ballistic the way the movies have it, but this is a serious surprise even from a conservative climate point of view, he stated.



Carlson warned the world is running out of time to cut the emissions of greenhouse gases leading to global warming. He said nations that have signed up to the Paris Climate Change agreement last year must take more aggressive action.
Zimbabwean business mogul, Strive Masiyiwa, and United States president Barack Obama share the same stage in a global development summit in Washington with the two committing themselves to fighting poverty in the world.

President Robert Mugabe is yet to respond to moves by war veterans to dump him after claiming that he is a dictator and does not want to tackle corruption, which they allege has devastated Zimbabwe. They blame the president for allegedly bringing the countrys economy to its knees.

A Zimbabwean family based in New York, USA, recently donated blankets, clothes, groceries and money for transport for Anna Lungisani, a blind Epworth woman living with HIV, whose plight for help was aired on Studio 7. Lungisanis family says it is grateful for the love showed by Veronica and Bernard Domingo, a Zimbabwean couple living in New York.

Republican Donald Trump is the partys candidate for the November presidential election. Will he beat Hillary Clinton who is set to clinch the Democratic Partys ticket to contest the poll?

And we will give you an update on the International AIDS Conference in South Africa.

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 hosts Blessing Zulu and Gibbs Dube will be talking with listeners about war veterans move to dump President Robert Mugabe saying he is a dictator and has devastated most Zimbabweans.

Participate by sending your messages on our WhatsApp number 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.
[WAR VETERANS' COMMUNIQUE ON THE STATE OF ZIMBABWE'S ECONOMY, THE ZANU (PF) PARTY LEADERSHIP AND THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE (UNEDITED)]

There are problematic issues that have caused concern and restlessness to Zimbabwe's War Veterans. As a result, the War Veterans from the country's ten provinces, including all district chairpersons and representatives from all economic and other sectors, decided to meet and deliberate on these issues, on this, the 21st day of July 2016. Following that meeting, it has been unanimously resolved to issue this communique.

1. Recalling the ideals of the National Liberation Struggle in which the blood of the departed heroes was shed in order to address the National question;

2. Reaffirming the Founding Provisions in Chapter 1of the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe, in particular Section 3 thereof, which enunciates the supremacy of the Constitution; the rule of law; the fundamental human rights and freedoms; good governance; as well as the entrenched recognition of, and respect for, the liberation struggle;

3. Remembering the heroic success of the national liberation struggle, culminating in the birth of our Republic, the Republic of Zimbabwe, thereby igniting in our new nation and people, hopes for a better life in the New Zimbabwe;

4. We, the surviving Veterans of the War of Liberation, secure in the historical support that we cultivated selflessly among the broad masses of Zimbabwe, make this statement, to spell out our disappointment, and those of the broad masses and working people of Zimbabwe, at what is clearly ZANU (PF)'s abhorable and poor leadership, and to articulate the wishes of the broad masses, together with the working people of this great country. The ZANU (PF) Party Leadership has dismally failed to use the resounding mandate given to it in the 2013 general election, to address the economic l' problems that have beset our great nation since independence from British rule.

5. We note, with concern, shock and dismay, the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the President and his cohorts, which I" have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle in utter disregardof the Constitution, as demonstrated by the following:

The deliberate neglect and abandonment, by the Party President of the masses, who are the foundation upon which the liberation war was fought and won, and who have, thereby, become the bedrock of the Party. Suddenly, ideologically bankrupt million man marches are being organized in honour of bankrupt leadership! The same leadership has failed to address the bread and butter issues which stick out like a sore thumb.

The systematic decimation of the party political structures through which the militarised and mobilized veterans prosecuted the struggle.

When Mr. Robert Gabriel Mugabe arrived in Mozambique, he walked in to join those of us who were already armed and prosecuting the war as political soldiers. He was not the President of the Party ZANU (PF), but we made him so, thinking he was one of us. Our decision to make him the President of ZANU (PF) was accepted here at home, regionally by the Frontline States, and internationally.

The President forgets that his release from JAIL was not out of sympathy by his jailers, but because of our war effort. That is why, after his release, he joined us. Yet, today, he refers to us as irrelevant! This depicts the President's lifetime character of always manipulating situations, and delineating others from vantage positions for his personal interests.

Examples abound:

None of the President's political colleagues in prison have benefitted from Zimbabwe's independence the way he has, as he has put all his effort in sidelining them;

The President's systematic elimination of those in the struggle's leadership in Mozambique, and his continued outfoxing of colleagues in leadership after independence up to this day, is unmistaken;

The current situation, whereby the Party is fragmented with formations, so-called factions, is clearly the President's project, again to outfox his peers in leadership;

The President has always thrived on divide and rule tactics in order to protect his party presidential position, each time he has felt threatened. Examples go a long way to pre independence. However, recent examples are of interest, where the Gamatox faction was created out of nowhere, its so-called members being charged with all sorts of crimes, including treason. Then followed new creations, the President's own G40 to look after his interests, and some Lacoste, a label of those who might be in positions to challenge the President. Typical of this president, he has mobilized those of his Gamatox nemesis to boost his G40 project, rewarding them with all sorts of gifts, including ministerial posts, despite the charges originally made against them.

After independence, the Partys successes at elections have always been predicated on our political campaigns. To date, the Party still remains strong in the rural areas, yet the Party President thinks wehave no right to challenge his bigoted political views in terms of which we should be restricted to discussing welfare issues when he has turned the party into his personal project where expulsions are the only known agenda.

His persecution, decimation and expulsion of War Veteran members from the Party under his watch are legendary. From the days of the liberation struggle to date, history records that his egocentric approach to party and national politics has led to the demise of many a party member, on flimsy grounds. We say not anymore! Never again shall we allow him such free reign.

As War Veterans, we are dismayed by the President's tendency to indulge, in his usual vitriol against perceived enemies, including peaceful protesters, as well as War Veterans, when the economy is on its knees. He has a lot to answer for the serious plight of the national economy. His distaste and disregard of divergent views is unfathomable and must be stopped. We are dedicated to stop this rot which he has nursed over time, to everyones disgust.

The labeling of peaceful War Veterans as dissidents induces in us a sense of shock, dismay and revulsion in light of the history of the 1980's. It will be recalled that our fellow War Veterans and masses in the western region suffered brutal purges which only the Unity Accord pacified. Particularly worrisome in this context is the fact that, whilst the man has dismissed that sad period as "a moment of madness", such language belies his insincerity in the Unity Accord. He should be extending an honestly remorseful regret over this foul deed, yet he appears to extol this as some macabre virtue. His continued resort to genocidal language should worry every right thinking citizen as to his true nature. This is unacceptable to the memories of those who perished during that time.

We need not remind the Party President and First Secretary that respect for those in leadership should not be equated to fear. We do not subscribe to the idea of unbridled exercise of power without consultation, where threats of genocidal magnitude are made against us. He should be reminded that he remains the major beneficiary of the National War effort at every stage including the Unity Accord. He has used the privilege of leadership to build a patronage system around him, which has turned into a personality cult. It therefore shocks us to the core that, gauging from his recent statements, he now wishes to turn the present young generation against us for his own continued personal aggrandizement.

The Land Reform Programme, which was a historical culmination of the valiant liberation struggle, made more land available to the State. The President and his hangers-on, to our utter dismay, now uses that land as reward for his foot soldiers, who have become his personal mercenaries. These mercenaries, strangely, are getting urban land as reward for destroying the War Veterans' legacy and the Party and, with it, the national heritage. We stand firm and resolute in the defence of that legacy. The tragic consequences for the hare-brain decisions are there for the nation to see.

His leadership has presided over unbridled corruption and down right mismanagement of the economy, leading to national economic ruin for which the effects are now felt throughout the land.

The lack of leadership manifests itself in the following examples: -

The multiple ZESA scandals;

Netone;

ZINARA;

ZISCO;

NRZ;

ZUPCO;

Hwange Colliery;

Chiadzwa diamond fields;

Public management and financial scandals replete in numerous Comptroller and Auditor-Generals Reports;

Proliferation of land barons through systematic land-grabbing by those in positions of authority;

Youth fund;

Housing fund;

Parceling out urban land on partisan grounds, thereby rendering urban authorities irrelevant;

Distribution of national assets at Party rallies thereby depriving deserving development priorities;

Commandeering and frog-marching parastatals' financial resources to fund party political functions to the detriment of the public purse and public welfare.

The above instances demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that the party leader has absolutely no clue as to the difference between public funds earned from taxation of the people, and private individual income. It is our sacred duty as the vanguard of the people to speak out against these instances of maladministration and misrule. This rot needs to be uprooted, and right now.

We noted with regret that when some of us peacefully gathered around Harare, the leadership unashamedly and in humiliating fashion, tear-gassed and water-cannoned us for no reason. Regrettably, the general citizenry has previously been subjected to this inhuman and degrading treatment without a word of disapproval from us. That time has passed. We wish to categorically condemn the brutal oppression of the freedom of expression, whether as exercised by ourselves or by anyone else.

We therefore abhor tances where the instruments of State power have been used brutalise private citizens who share our desire to exercise our constitutionally entrenched rights and freedoms. As the vanguard of the liberation struggle we categorically reject the notion that those expressing views different to those that we hold are agents of foreign powers or agents and therefore enemies of the State. This notion, which to us is a diversionary tactic, contemptuously implies that Zimbabweans lack the capacity to rationalize issues; think through their problems and take decisive action against clear evidence of  misrule.

Instruments of State power in the hands of a responsible administration remain constitutionally bound to defend and uphold the Constitution, the rule of law and defend the sovereignty of the Republic of Zimbabwe. We therefore condemn the use of excessive force by the State against the citizens who were peacefully exercising their right to demonstrate against poor governance. We demand that those who exceeded the call of duty be held accountable in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. We further demand that the State and all its actors respect, promote, protect and uphold our Constitution.

In view of the above, we the veterans of Zimbabwes war of liberation, together with our toiling masses, hereby declare that, henceforth, in any forthcoming elections, will not support such a leader who has presided over untold suffering of the general population for his own personal aggrandizement and that of his cronies.
Some Zimbabweans are known to be tech-savvy and of late they have been using social media in an effort to effect social, political and economic transformation in the country.

Protests staged by citizens like Evan Mawarire of #thisflag movement and Tajamuka-Sesijikile Campaign, which is demanding the immediate resignation of President Robert Mugabe, appear to have been spearheaded through social media like Facebook and Twitter, and the messaging application, WhatsApp.

This appears to have unsettled the government as Zimbabwe's Information Technology Minister, Supa Mandiwanzira, is being quoted by a South African news organization warming the country's social media users that their phones can be tracked if they spread messages that President Mugabe's government deems abusive.

But Mandiwanzira is on record as saying the government wont block social media like in some authoritarian states.

Are social media a tool for effecting political transformation in Zimbabwe? For perspective, Studio 7 reached Nigel Mugamu of 263Chat, an award-winning Zimbabwe media company encouraging dialogue using social media, guest blogs, live events and providing training and social media strategies, and Kholwani Nyathi, editor of the independent Standard newspaper.

Nyathi said social media are playing a critical role in enhancing the necessary transformation in Zimbabwe though at times such media can be destructive.

What has happened in Zimbabwe is that due to the economic situation and the restrictive media laws that we have  we have very few official media channels and because of social media people have found channels outside the mainstream media and social media has a wider reach that the mainstream media.

The difference between social media and mainstream media is that there is that feedback aspect. Its no longer one way ... people can exchange messages and they can generate their own stories that they can debate on social media and this means that information travels much faster. There is a lot of freedom in that space and this is why its easier for activists to push their messages than through traditional media.

But Nyathi noted that social media can also be destructive. There is always danger in an environment where information is restricted. People end up speculating. Like today and the past two days the government hasnt paid civil servants and there are a lot of messages flying around. There were people announcing several pay dates for civil servants and in the end you dont know whats true. When there is a vacuum people come up with all sorts of things to fill the vacuum and that is one of the first challenges about social media.

With the first stay away (in Zimbabwe) there were people who were sending each other messages on how to make bombs and such things and thats when social media has such consequencies that are not intended. Its for a good cause but they can also be dangerous.

Mugamu concurred, noting that social media are having a huge impact on Zimbabwes political processes. I think it is (making an impact) just watching the ruling party and their reaction to what is taking place.

This flag (Evan Mawarires #thisflag movement) initially I remember a month ago it was like  ahh.. this social media thing is not going anywhere and all of a sudden we saw people recording videos from beyond the urban areas  Something caught on and I think our leaders didnt expect #thisflag and this movement to grow and has grown and now there was a funeral this week and the president mentioned Pastor E (Evan Mawarire) by name to say look there is this guy and this is what is going on.

He said such reaction is an indication that social media play a critical role in Zimbabwes democratization process.

That tells you that they (Zimbabwean leaders) are paying attention. I have spoken to a number of people who work for state media who said they often believed that they controlled the media (sphere) by the shere fact that they have control of the TV, a lot of radio (stations) and offer print. I was talking to one gentlemen who told me that they thought they knew how people felt but what social media has shown them is that there is this other side.

Mugamu said Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms have come in handly for Zimbabweans, who dont access state an private media.

He said the social media sphere has a bright future in the country as long as it is not regulated by the government.
Gucci Mane is an Atlanta trap figurehead whose shiftless prolificacy and innovation are matched only by a propensity for trouble. Over the last decade, he balanced sleek major-label studio albums and memorable guest appearances alongside a fertile mixtape career with a deftness that, short of Lil Wayne, has seen few peers. His keen ear for emerging talent bolstered the careers of rappers from Waka Flocka and Young Thug to Nicki Minaj, and made heroes of Atlanta-based producers like Zaytoven and Mike WiLL Made It. Guccis career highs have always been undercut by life-threatening encounters and legal troubles, though, from a rap-related murder charge he miraculously beat in 2006 to a baffling string of 2013 assault and weapons-possession charges that culminated in a three-year stay at an Indiana state penitentiary.

Though a dedicated engineer and a sizable cache of unreleased material would keep Gucci Mane mixtapes coming at the staggering rate of 12 a year during his lockup, the musics quality fluctuated, and the quantity often proved forbidding. Still, anticipation for the rappers release from prison persisted until a quiet afternoon in late May when his model girlfriend Keyshia Kaoir posted a Snapchat video of her hand clasped in a tattooed hand and forearm voracious fans instantly recognized as Guccis. Finally free, Gucci now serves the remainder of his sentence on house arrest, where he has returned triumphantly to the business of excellence in rhyme. A new album was completed within a week of Guccis release with Zaytoven and Mike WiLL overseeing production; Everybody Looking, out today on Atlantic Records, presents the Atlanta rap legend in the finest form hes showcased in years.

The unspoken party line among rap fans is that jail kills a hot streak. Lil Waynes white-hot mixtape fury cooled after a 2010 stint at Rikers Island following a New York City drug arrest, and T.I.s stream of pop-trap radio smashes dried up after federal gun charges earned him a 12-month sentence the same year. Gucci Mane breaks the paradigm on Everybody Looking with an hour of raps that careen from his trademark entrepreneurial cockiness to perfect honesty about his shortcomings, and back. I got the best intentions, but I make rash decisions, album intro No Sleep says of the rappers rocky decade. It turns out his erratic behavior was in part abetted by a crippling promethazine addiction. (Recovering drug addict, I used to drink a pint a day, he sings in the same songs chorus.) Gucci seems revitalized, but not just in the details of his story. Theres a boyish whim in the delivery that was missing from the pre-incarceration material. The rhymes are tighter and punchier. He sounds healthy and happy.

Everybody Looking eschews the mistakes of the last two Gucci albums released by Atlantic. 2009s The State vs. Radric Davis watered down its message, affixing a grip of glossy R&B tracks to an otherwise devilishly dark album of trap bangers, and its follow-up, The Appeal: Georgias Most Wanted splurged disastrously on hitmakers that poorly complemented the rappers style. The new album doesnt reach for radio so much as concentrate on offering up the sharpest iteration of Guccis sound with his closest collaborators. Separately, Zaytoven and Mike WiLL are two of Atlantas most unique production luminaries; the former imbues his beats with a grounding gospel soul through sheer force of emotive piano playing and the latter fixates on woozy, unearthly textures. Working together, especially on cuts like Guwop Home and At Least a M, the two grant Everybody Looking a sentimental musicality and druggy atmosphere that proves to be the ideal setting for Gucci to detail the trek out of his darkest days.

The list of outside guests here is short, and and theyre wholly beholden to Guccis magnetism. Drakes attempt at grit in the chorus for Back on Road is washed out by the lived-in adversity in Guccis verses. (Much is made of his pop smarts, but the Toronto dons star-making gift is image reform; small wonder hes suddenly sniffing around Guwop for a collaborative EP.) Kanye West shows up in full perv mode on Pussy Print and gets out-creeped when Gucci compares his wallet bulge to a womans labia. Young Thugs guttural blues act on Guwop Home is the only guest spot that doesnt feel like magi paying respects to the savior. But now that Gucci Mane is finally selling a major-label studio album that shows off every bit of his worth, Everybody Looking has every right to roll out like a coronation.
In Cleveland on Thursday: Shame. Shame. Photo: Andres Kudacki

This week, New Girl creator Liz Meriwether will be in Cleveland covering the Republican National Convention for Vulture.

I was standing at the Republican Convention having a serious conversation with a man wearing an enormous felt elephant hat with Donald Trump buttons on either ear, and I realized I was having a great time. We werent talking about Trump. We werent talking about the chaotic, macabre, and mostly boring convention. We were talking about television. Specifically, which Game of Thrones character is the most Republican.

I know who Hollywood would pick  that awful boy king who was just the worst guy ever. They would make him a Republican. But in reality, the imp would be the Republican. Maybe Im not saying it the proper way  but he rocks. Hes brilliant. Hes always leading the right way, Mike Lachs, an honorary delegate from New Jersey, told me as he adjusted his elephant hat, which he could never quite keep straight on his head. A guy stopped to take a selfie with him. He was unfazed. I got the sense that it happened to him all the time.

Talking to Mike, I realized that my best way to even come close to understanding what being a Republican means to the people here was going to be through the lens of television characters. In an election year that has made many people question what the Republican Party actually stands for, it was useful to hear Republican delegates explain their party to me in a language I could understand: Game of Thrones.

Mike Hopkins, a delegate from Montana, also thought that Peter Dinklages character, Tyrion Lannister, would be a Republican. But its kind of hard to cast all the Lannisters as one political ideology, he said. The father is obviously quite fascist. And the daughters just kind of bat-shit crazy.

As speakers inside the convention hall shouted about how ISIS was coming to kill us all, Mike from Montana broke down which political party each character would subscribe to. Ned Stark, everyone in Winterfell, and the wildlings would be Libertarians. Those little tree children people are members of the Green Party. Mike saw Olenna Tyrell, the matriarch of the Tyrell family, as Hillary Clinton. You can tell that the woman is very intelligent, if not slightly immoral, and her husband is just dumb as shit. Hillary Clinton was the secretary of State, so you cant say that shes a stupid woman. That was actually the nicest thing Id heard anyone say about Hillary all week. In fact, Mike refused to assign a party to the psychotic King Joffrey, because I dont think you want to say that any political party is necessarily going to take a crossbow and shoot a naked woman to a bedpost 17 times. That would just be rude. Were trying to be respectful in our political discourse.

It was the first time in days that I had heard anyone at the convention say anything respectful or civil about another political party, even though he was basically just conceding that Democrats arent psychotic murderers.

Mike shocked me when he chose the bisexual, dashing prince of Dorne, Oberyn Martell, as the most Republican character on the show. When I told him that I didnt understand why a character who regularly participates in orgies would be a Republican, he defended his choice: Hey, you know, I know quite a few LGBT Republicans and lets just be completely honest: There are probably quite a few that just havent told anyone yet. What made Oberyn a Republican, for Mike, was his commitment to let people live their lives according to however they want to live them. Which is exactly the way I would have described what being a Democrat means.

Jon Snow is Ted Cruz, Greg Neff, a Louisiana delegate and admitted Cruz supporter, explained to me. He was cut down by the leadership within his own organization. He was stabbed in the back by the establishment of the Wall. Then you just have this absolutely insane battle come along and the wildling, Donald Trump, who doesnt have any idea what hes doing on the battlefield comes along and says Hey, Cruz, Im going to go ahead and let you speak  Greg lost the thread for a moment.

Some of the comparisons worked better than others. Mike Hopkins wondered if the people of Dorne really represented his party. If so, then pretty much all thats left is for a whole bunch of women to end up murdering whoever is the top. Oh wait, spoiler alert. He continued, Im sure, inevitably, Ivanka Trump will do the same to her father. So I feel like thats a pretty good fit.

So Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Oberyn Martell all belong to the same party? The guys who chose Jon Snow and Oberyn Martell were from Louisiana and Montana, respectively, and what mattered to them more than anything was the idea of individual freedom. Being a Republican meant being a rugged individualist, Greg explained. I wonder if Greg would be okay with Mike having extended the idea of individual freedom to include LGBTQ orgies.

The delegate from New Jersey, my man in an elephant hat, who described himself as a moderate, had chosen Tyrion Lannister because he was deeply skeptical of any candidate who promised major change. When I asked him why he thought that many producers and creators of television were liberal, he said, I think its the nature of creative people. Republicans are like: Ill take what I know. And sometimes its not the most kindest, gentlest America, but I know what Im getting. When youre creative, its like: Live and let live. Why should it matter? You should be able to do whatever you want. And creative people, they live their life that way. Thats what makes them the people they are, and lets them do all these spectacular things that we all really enjoy. For their life, it works. For most other people, it doesnt. For him, conservatism was about holding onto the status quo and making gradual change over time. Except, I guess, not for the millions of people Trump promises to deport.

In fact, I wasnt sure where Donald Trump fit into any of these delegates visions for the Republican Party. Was he really a wildling, outside of the established bounds of his party but willing to help in a crisis  or, after the grim Winter is coming vision he laid out last night in his speech, was he a White Walker? Greg was already looking forward to the election of 2020, which he saw as Cruzs chance for a resurrection. Just like at the end of season six, Jon Snow becomes King of the North. Youre going to have Ted Cruz become the King of the North.
Beirut is a 5,000-year-old city, or series of cities, each layered over another on the same site, living with the previous eras ghosts. Today, it can feel like a place steadily, and in certain ways, heedlessly devouring itself to meet the various needs of an uneasy and unevenly affluent now, the ancient souks rebuilt as a series of covered outdoor shopping malls  Zaha Hadid designed one  and Miami-style starchitect-luxe condo towers (by the likes of Herzog & de Meuron and Norman Foster) coexisting side by side with pocked concrete high-rise ruins, legacies of when the city was divided between Christian and Muslim sections during the 19751990 civil war, and snipers would nest in the upper floors, keeping watch on the borderline between them. Its a city crowded with Syrian refugees in a nation itself overrun and undergoverned, all within commuting distance to the frontiers of the Islamic State. It has problems with the basics of municipal functionality  the power supply and garbage collection  even as developers extend its borders out into landfill in the Mediterranean. And yet, through this, life goes on: It remains a city of beguilingly romantic cosmopolitan complexity and potential.

Last fall, Aishti by the Sea, a high-gloss luxury mall, was built in an industrial waterfront area of town, a futuristic spaceliner moored between the highway and the sea. It feels a bit like its at a wary valet-parking remove from the city itself, and solidly within what was the Christian zone during the civil war. It was designed by the British architect David Adjaye, who is better known for his museums than his upscale retail, for Tony Salame, a Lebanese retail magnate who wanted to be better known for his collection of contemporary art. And so there is a museum in this mall, too. By bringing an outpost of name-brand art to a place which didnt have much  even if it is in the same building as a place to buy luxury name brands  Salame has tried to elevate his own and his citys position as a outpost for the transnational art elite. Still, its opening last fall ignited a certain amount of knowing eye-rolling in the art press about Salle and Gucci cohabiting.

As Salame points out to me, there is a separate entrance in the building for the Aishti Foundation, which occupies four well-proportioned floors at the end of the building, overlooking the waterfront industrial gas tanks next door. In any case, he didnt invent this hybrid real-estate beast: There are art collections in the Iguatemi shopping centers in Brazil, and Shanghai has its K11 Art Mall. Luxury fashion brands and contemporary art are self-advantageously allied these days: Dont forget the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, or the Fondazione Prada in Milan.

Salame, who comes from a prominent Beiruti family, has been collecting art in a serious way for a decade, after dabbling in collecting stamps and traditional rugs in his youth. I bought randomly this art  I dont want to say bought, that is for the stores. I collected in a way what I liked. I visited many galleries, because I am an impulsive buyer, he says when we meet up in the the restaurant on the ground floor of Aishti, which is decorated with a couple of Doug Aitkens and a pair of Richard Prince Instagram paintings, and protected from the suns glare by a golden scrim over the windows. I went from one painting to another artist to another. But when it came time to open the museum he contracted the New Museums Massimiliano Gioni, whom hed met when the curator was working on a 2014 exhibition of contemporary art from and about the Arab world, to make some sense out of his collection. Salame is an agreeable, solicitous man an impresario, clearly used to holding court amidst these polished surfaces. He shows me the books which accompanied the opening exhibition, and the new one. I realized when I did the books and saw them that the collection made sense; it is in a way a collection.

Salames collection is focused on the West, as if to digest it. In that, hes not unlike a number of collectors in the new global art market, continuing a process of cultural-prestige transfer which harkens back to when American robber barons (see: Henry Clay Frick) bought up the aesthetic trophies of Europe. Hes always liked Pop artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein because, growing up in Lebanon, their references held some talismanic appeal, exalted, mysterious, and familiar all at once. It was a way to mainline the cultural power of the USA, to both read it and in various ways interestingly misread it. (It also faces outward, across the sea to Europe and America, not inward, toward the Lebanese art scene, and for that is criticized locally: One day, wandering down hipsterish Armenia Street, lost trying to find a friends hotel, I stopped into a shop called Zawal, where the woman there was openly dismissive of the idea of Salames foundation as being for a disengaged nouveaux riche.)

And so appropriately enough Aishtis second show ever, which opened last month while I happened to be in Beirut, is titled Good Dreams, Bad Dreams  American Mythologies. Gioni assembled it out of Salames collection of art about the USA  I didnt go shopping, he told me, with his usual knowing half-wink, given that the foundation shares a building with a mall. The invitation (as well as the banner outside of the museum) is a Richard Prince Cowboy  one of the famous rephotographs the artist took of Marlboro advertisements. At the opening, which looked a bit like a July Fourth corporate picnic on the promenade out back of the seaside mall, they served American Dream burgers (hand-pattied with love), Pop Culture corn on the cob, Mythology Merguez Dogs and popcorn, out of a cart. Oh, and lots of Budweiser and Jack Daniels.

Salame says he grew up sympathetic to the United States, or at least some idea of it gleaned through the movies. He remembers watching the American flag being burned during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 and thinking Oh my God, why are they always insulting America? Because maybe we are pro-Western in our country and our school. During the civil war, Lebanon even lacked for Coca-Cola. We knew the myth, even before getting to know the real thing, he says. He finally went to the U.S. when he was 24, in 1991, and stayed for three weeks, visiting New York, L.A. and Dallas.

So it was this dream, I remember, from watching the movies, I remember 9 1/2 Weeks, or Wall Street  what was his name, Gordon Gekko, and youd see all the greed, that American lifestyle, was it too much? he says.

Meanwhile, hed been doing more research on America. I always liked business, and I bought many books, about Ford, Richard Nixon, Dominos Pizza; I bought Trumps first book, The Art of the Deal. He went to Trump Tower first when he arrived in Manhattan (and also Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman.) I had this whole idea of Pop art, around this time, he remembers. This show was maybe born then.

Since Pop Art is a transformative riff on American pop culture, then you at least have some of the context no matter where you are in the world, from movies and advertising. Part of the collection is always related to the business, of fashion, of graphics, he says.

Americans are very good marketers, he says, even to ourselves he remembered, when he first visited, being surprised at how many American flags Americans hang all over America. He gives a nod to the Richard Prince Instagram pictures on the wall, which depict the new technology of self-marketing while being something of an example of that itself.

The Aishti Foundation is a big bright place to look at art (and certainly more flexible than Gionis home base of the New Museum.) Before Salame and I spoke, hed been deep in conversation with one of his art dealers, Massimo De Carlo (Milan/London/Hong Kong), who, along with several other well-regarded gallerists (Stuart Shave, Kathy Grayson, someone from David Kordansky, among others) had flown in to attend the opening of Good Dreams, Bad Dreams. Many hadnt been to Beirut before and were curious as to where all this work he was collecting had ended up.

Hes known De Carlo since around 2008, around the time when he decided that he wanted to create a foundation. Two years before, hed met the dealer and art advisor Jeffrey Deitch at Art Basel, and was inspired by a man Deitch had worked with for years, the Greek collector Dakis Joannou, as well as the American idea of your-name-here philanthropy: Everyone has built a museum or has a room in the museum, with their name on the wall, he says. This encouraged me also to make the museum.

The title of the show comes from a 1996 installation by Allen Ruppersberg listing off, on a series of hand-painted signs, various books he owns, and its idiosyncratic system captures some of the way that that Salames voracious collecting seems to work: Hes trying to capture something. Raymond Pettibon, I always thought he should do every single American icon from Superman to Wonder Woman to the cars to a surfer, he says. He just did some of the new works for me as a commission.

A lot of the work in the show will seem familiar to a New York gallery rat who has seen his share of Longos and Wileys and Uoos and Lowmans and Ligons and Alex Israels and then some. To this hard-to-impress cohort, the show can seem more like a cozy sampler of blue-chip insights or provocations  artworks which grabbed Salame for whatever reason  than what seems like, at least to this American, a more rigorously assembled take on America. Still, it has its satisfactions even on those terms  an enormous 2006 Julian Schnabel of a surfer on a wave, Amanda Ross-Hos Pregnant Again and Again quilt hanging; Duane Hansons droll Man on Mower; Rashid Johnsons BAADASSSSS wall unit; Richard Princes 1987 Buick Grand National covered in a vinyl wrap of seductive ladies; Sam Durants mirror tagged with the words I Dont Believe in Nothing, I Feel Like They Ought to Burn Down the World, Just Let It Burn Down, Baby. Though when you take a step outside of the art-world bubble, what makes it interesting is seeing these works in this particular context, to try to imagine seeing it through a locals eyes, in a city where most of these artists have never been shown before, and where Alex Israel is simply called Alex on the wall text, to avoid needlessly antagonizing the wrong sort of visitor (and, Im told, customs officials.)

Even this show, here, to talk about America, some people would say youre crazy, says Salame. In the whole Middle East, you cant see a show like this: people wouldnt know about this artist or the nudity.

The foundations first show, titled New Skin, focused on abstraction, and, Salame tells me, local visitors liked it but it was maybe a bit, for them, too abstract. This show I think is more their visual aesthetic. Its easier. The relation of love and hate.

Salame is, in his way, an idealist. Yes, these are trophies, but they are something more: As the world becomes more global, and more threatening, its an attempt to gain some sort of understanding. Two summers ago, I couldnt sleep at night, because of ISIS, he says. You see what they did with the minorities, even the Muslims. They were an hour away from here. I couldnt sleep: your kids, your investments, your art, everything. Everyday it was a different kind of nightmare.

For a secular Lebanese  just as for secular Americans, faced with a revanchist Republican party  its not clear that anything is necessarily getting better any time soon. What is going on now is just weird, he says. He recently saw a show of Palestinian artwork in Berlin, and it brought him back to the 70s, when there were artists from Cuba showing in Beirut, and everyone was in miniskirts and nice haircuts and no scarves. It all started with the Iranian revolution. And now everybody is a bit fanatic and closed. Everybody is becoming closed in his own world.
Johnny Carinos rolled into Waco in 1997, converting the former Po Folks restaurant into a haven for Italian food that created lines for years.

But times change and so has Wacos competitive restaurant scene, prompting the owners of Johnny Carinos to shutter the restaurant Wednesday and post a sign thanking the dining public for its patronage.

The closing comes in the wake of a bankruptcy filing by Austin-based Fired Up Inc., the operator of 84 Carinos locations.

In a filing with federal bankruptcy court in Texas, the casual dining chain blamed several factors for its struggles, including the weak casual dining environment, low oil prices that have created layoffs in the oil patch, and higher-than-expected costs associated with the Affordable Care Act.

This is the second bankruptcy filing for Fired Up, which also is the corporate parent for the Rudys Country Store & Bar-B-Q location in Waco that reportedly is doing well.

The companys best-laid plans in its first bankruptcy case have been thwarted largely by the economy and negative change in the casual dining marketplace, said Fired Up chairman and CEO Creed Ford III in the filing.

Carinos has been shuttering locations in recent years, including some it had planned to turn around after its previous bankruptcy. It owns 36 company stores and franchises another 48, according to filings. At its peak in 2006, the chain had 173 company-owned and franchised locations in 30 states.

Ford, who owns a controlling interest in Fired Up, said the company began looking for ways to sell most or all of the companys locations earlier this year and liquidate assets that are not being used to pay off as many of the companys creditors as possible.

Ford wrote that the company has been negotiating with several groups interested in buying some or all of our assets and the filing was done to promote an orderly liquidation with a possible reorganization of a very few locations. The filing does not identify which restaurants may get a second chance.

Fired Up was formed in 1997, when Ford and Norman Abdallah started the company to acquire the Kona Restaurant Group from Brinker International, according to an article in Nations Restaurant News.

After reaching its peak, however, the casual dining decline and the recession led to a steady decline in sales.

The company closed unprofitable stores, but its heavy debt load ultimately led to the first bankruptcy in 2014.

According to the bankruptcy filing, Fired Up had $110 million in revenues and a net loss of $5.6 million in fiscal 2014 and 7 million in guest counts.

By its 2015 fiscal year, ending Dec. 30, revenues had fallen to $86 million, and the company had a net loss of $5.5 million, though guest counts had increased to 7.6 million.

Ford did not return calls seeking comment on why the Waco location closed, but his filing indicated underperforming locations would not survive.

Local restaurateur Sammy Citrano, owner of Georges Restaurant & Catering, said he spoke with his longtime friend about his decision.

Im not really surprised he closed, because this is just the way times are right now in Waco, Citrano said. Its hard to run a restaurant if you dont have a lot of business, and there are a lot of competitors who will take away our staff in lean times. There is always somebody out there doing a little better.

Citrano said Ford is a good businessman and well respected in this industry, so this situation is nothing directed at Creed Ford.

Fired Up has $19 million in secured debt, including nearly $12.6 million to FRG Capital, $5.1 million to Prosperity Bank and a small amount to Independent Bank of Waco, according to the bankruptcy filing. Ford and his family own close to 75 percent of Fired Up and also own FRG Capital.

It was from Ford that Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of the HGTV hit Fixer Upper recently bought the historic Elite Cafe on Wacos traffic circle.

Mary Baris, who owns the quaint Italian restaurant at 904 N. Valley Mills Drive, said her business remains brisk.

Though her evening crowds already pack the house, she said she could see a slight increase in traffic with the closing of Johnny Carinos.
A 5-ton Bowen-McLaughlin-York military cargo truck was transformed into an emergency response vehicle by the Lake Mexia Volunteer Fire Department.

The department stripped its camouflage paint and outfitted it with a 600-gallon tank, stand-alone pump and fresh coats of white and pink paints.

Our department did all the work to convert this vehicle, said Chief Gene Parrish of the Lake Mexia VFD. Our volunteers are ladies and gentlemen, and they each put in about 25 to 30 hours painting the truck and adding the (equipment).

The departments volunteers, almost 30 percent of whom are female, chose the pink-and-white paint scheme to show solidarity within their department as well as to support breast cancer awareness.

The truck has improved the departments capabilities, especially for high and swift-water rescues, the chief said.

We live on a lake and have had six floods since October, Parrish said. We used it then to rescue residents. This type of vehicle can get into areas where other trucks cant.

The DoD Firefighter Property Program, overseen by the USDA Forest Service, provides excess military equipment to fire departments and emergency service providers. Launched in Texas in 2005, this program has released more than 400 retired military trucks to volunteer fire departments across the state.

The Texas A&M Forest Service picks up the vehicle from a military installation, performs necessary repairs and delivers it to the volunteer fire department at no cost.

To learn more about this and other fire department assistance programs offered by Texas A&M Forest Service, visit http://TexasFD.com.

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Lake Mexia VFD firefighters painted a donated military truck pink in honor of breast cancer awareness.

The Lake Mexia Volunteer Fire Department received this military truck from the Texas A&M Forestry Service.
The Texas Water Development Board on Thursday awarded the city of Waco $12 million in financing for a system of automated water meters that will allow customers to monitor their water use in real time.

The financial assistance will allow the city to begin in the next year installing a system with 46,000 meters that can be read remotely, with usage data available to customers online.

The low-interest loan from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas, or SWIFT, should save the city $1.2 million in the 20-year life of the loan, Water Development Board Chairman Bech Bruun said.

In an interview, Bruun said the two-year-old SWIFT program sets aside 20 percent of its funding for conservation, and the Waco project fits in that category.

We believe its a very worthy project for what it will accomplish, both in water savings and what looks like monetary savings, he said.

Two other Texas cities  Keller and Austin  also received financing for automated meter systems Thursday as the board approved $759 million in projects.

The system will connect electronic meters to the central utility office via a new wireless network, allowing instant meter reading 24 hours a day. Users will be able to log in to a website to observe usage and may even be able to set up alerts when their water usage hits a threshold they set.

The biggest deal is that it gives the customers and gives us access to real-time data on water usage, city utilities spokesman Jonathan Echols said. It will allow them to monitor their usage in terms of cost and savings and conservation, and it allows them and us to find leaks more quickly.

The new system would do the work of seven meter readers the city now employs, though staff will still be needed to service the devices.

Other meter readers would be considered for other jobs with the utilities department, city officials have said.

Echols said the project will probably take a couple of years to complete, and it will begin with the construction of the wireless infrastructure in neighborhoods.

The SWIFT program only funds projects identified in the state water plan, which is updated every five years. The most recent version in May shows a marked increase in water conservation projects, giving the water development board a strong slate of proposals.

A big part of that was the 2011 drought, Echols said. People were able to realize very clearly how much can be saved. . . . There was a significant demand for the program this year, and were pleased to see the emphasis on conservation.
McLennan County residents may have to shell out a little less money for property taxes in the upcoming year.

The majority of commissioners Friday agreed to lower the tax rate by 1 cent per $100 property valuation in the fiscal year 2017 budget. If adopted in the final budget, the tax rate would go from 53.5293 cents per $100 valuation to 52.5293 cents. A McLennan County homeowner with a house valued at $100,000 would pay $525 per year in taxes to the county, or $10 less.

Commissioners Kelly Snell and Ben Perry and County Judge Scott Felton supported the reduction in the tax rate. Commissioner Will Jones wanted to lower the tax rate further. Commissioner Lester Gibson did not participate in the discussion about the tax rate and did not return calls for comment.

Nothing is final in the budget until commissioners officially adopt the document. The court plans to vote on the tax rate and file the proposed fiscal year 2017 budget July 29 for residents to review. Commissioners have until Aug. 26 to adopt the budget for fiscal year 2017, which starts Oct. 1.

The countys tax rate of 53.5293 cents per $100 valuation generated $69 million for the fiscal year 2016 budget. If the court kept the same rate, it would have generated nearly $75 million in fiscal year 2017. A 1-cent-lower tax rate will bring in $1.399 million less.

Jones said he wants to do more for county employees and residents than a 1 cent tax reduction. The county in 2013 reduced the amount contributed to employees retirement and its taking longer for them to reach a retirement pay that would be viable for them to retire, he said.

At some point, weve got to help the taxpayers, he said. I wish we could give more to the taxpayers and to the current employees than paying for this past unfunded mandate that the previous courts have strapped us with.

Debt and fund balance

Commissioners also agreed to put $3 million toward the $41 million in debt owed to the Texas County & District Retirement System, which was issued by a previous court and scheduled to be paid off in 20 years.

Snell said it would be great to reduce the tax rate another cent, but the debt also has to be paid.

We have to get that out of the way, he said.

The fiscal year 2017 budget includes $29.04 million in the ending fund balance, or 29.15 percent of its overall budget. The county has had a policy in past years to keep 25 percent of the cost of its overall general fund expenditures in its fund balance in case of emergency.

Felton pushed to increase the amount kept in the countys fund balance before the court settled on 29.15 percent.

I do feel confident that Texas and Waco  McLennan County, specifically  are in good shape. Barring any nationwide economic disaster, we ought to be OK, Felton said. But I think back to just being prepared and having great bond ratings.

Jones said increasing the fund balance doesnt give enough return on investment and he would rather further reduce taxes.

The amount of revenue from property taxes in the budget is based on preliminary appraisal values from the McLennan County Appraisal District. County staff expect to have more reliable numbers Monday.

The first public hearing on the tax rate will be Aug. 11 and the second one will be Aug. 23, three days before the budget is scheduled to be officially adopted.

Merit pay

Commissioners again debated how much of the overall budget should be included in the merit-based raise program they hope to launch in fiscal year 2017. Ultimately, the court landed on 2 percent.

Felton said if the court wanted to increase the merit funding, he would want to decrease the cost-of-living salary adjustment scheduled in the budget.

Unlike the cost-of-living salary adjustment, the merit pay would not be included in the year-to-year salary increases. Elected officials and department heads could receive cost-of-living salary adjustment but not the merit pay. The countys almost 900 employees each would have to score high enough on their performance review to receive the incentive merit pay. Commissioners have already agreed to give employees a 4.35 percent cost-of-living salary adjustment.

Felton led the efforts to create the new program for the county. County staff is working to develop a policy to outline how that money is to be used.

Assistants raise

Also during the meeting, commissioners debated whether to give their administrative assistants a pay increase, an idea Felton said was ridiculous to even think about.

Jones proposed that $2,500 be included in each of the commissioners budget to allocate to their administrative assistants at commissioners discretion.

Its a little bit more than a COLA, Jones said.

Why dont we just stick to the COLA, Felton said, adding he wouldnt support the adjustment.

Felton said other counties, including Bell County, have one administrative assistant for the entire court. The McLennan County commissioners each have their own administrative assistants.

Perry said approving the hike so close to the budgets completion sets a double standard and bad precedent in the county.

Perry said commissioners have met during the past few weeks with department heads and elected officials, who have requested raises in their departments and were denied by the court.

As we speak, theres already elected officials and department officials preparing documents to come back and ask for the same thing, Perry said, adding hed just received a text from one of them. Ive already been texted once. I knew theyd be watching this.

Snell said he included a raise for his administrative assistant at the beginning of budget discussions and the rest of the court turned that request down.

Gibson said the employees are the best thing the county has and said he supported the proposed hike.

The administrative assistant in Precinct 1 makes $49,456; in Precinct 2, the salary is $54,202; in Precinct 3 and Precinct 4, it is $49,455. A 4.35 percent cost-of-living salary adjustment to each position, respectively, would be an extra $2,151, $2,358, $2,151, and $2,151 annually.

Gibson, Jones and Snell supported the increase, while Perry and Felton disagreed. The funding will be included in the fiscal year 2017 budget, pending final approval.

Felton also pulled his request to increase County Administrator Dustin Chapmans salary.

Originally, Felton requested having Chapman go from reporting to him to reporting to the entire court. In the change, he had requested increasing Chapmans salary from $75,000 to $90,000. Chapman ended fiscal year 2015  Sept. 30, 2015  making $66,950. Commissioners approved increasing his workload for the start of fiscal year 2016, changing his job title from the countys legal counsel to county administrator, and bumping his salary from $66,950 to $75,000.
The energy in the convention room as Ted Cruz began to speak Wednesday night was weird, at least from where I was sitting high among the alternate delegates. They seemed as if they had read that people get excited at conventions and were trying to mime the appropriate responses but werent quite able to pull it off.

They roared at lines about abortion, guns and building a wall on the Mexican border but otherwise seemed curiously subdued  clapping, but not as much as Id expect at a speech that basically consisted of Cruz ripping off chunks of raw steak and tossing them to his conservative audience.

It was only at the end of the speech that I understood what I was seeing. As Cruz talked about voting to uphold the conservative principles that hed just spent the past minutes outlining, the crowd around me grew enthusiastic. How odd, I thought. Id have thought theyd be angrier about his refusal to endorse Trump.

Ah, I said to myself, they dont realize it. Cruz has masterfully convinced them, with carefully phrased weasel words, that he is endorsing, even though he has not come even close to doing so.

I was wrong. Both the earlier flatness and the later applause were explained by the same thing: They were waiting for a Cruz endorsement that never came.

I made the cardinal mistake that afflicts all writers from time to time: I forgot that other people dont know everything I know. I walked into the room on the third night of the Republican National Convention certain that Ted Cruz was not going to endorse Donald Trump because that was the consensus of all the news coverage. The delegates, on the other hand, were not refreshing their news feeds with the alacrity of a lab rat pushing one of those levers that dispense cocaine. They took Cruzs presence as a sign that he was going to rally around and endorse Donald Trump for the sake of party unity and of beating Hillary Clinton in the fall.

When it finally became clear that no endorsement would be forthcoming, they turned on Cruz in rage. The boos and demands for endorsement filled the arena with an angry roar. Heidi Cruz was reportedly escorted from the floor by security; her husband would later be accosted by a livid delegate who called him a traitor. Meanwhile, up in my section, outraged alternates said, over and over, that if he couldnt endorse, he shouldnt have come.

The mistake made by the alternates is understandable. The mistake made by Ted Cruz, and especially, Donald Trump, is not. Somehow these two former rivals faced off over the convention floor. Both lost.

Cruzs supporters may view this as a bold and principled stand that will position him well for 2020 as the conscience of the party. Bold and principled it may be, but after hours of reflection, I still cant see how this does anything but hurt him. A whole lot of Republicans  including a whole lot of true-blue base conservatives who are Cruzs natural home in the party  want the party to come together to defeat Clinton.

That clip of Cruz getting booed by his own party convention is now the highest-profile moment of his career. It will play over and over for the next four years, and possibly beyond. Watching it, I couldnt help but think of a story I once heard about a politician who had been captured on film being chased by his own angry constituents. Allegedly, the politician asked a staffer when the media would stop playing the clip; allegedly, the staffer replied, Sir, theyll play it when you die.

Of course, Cruz has built his career on such high-profile moments. But his photogenic stands on the Senate floor were stands against Democrats, and Democratic programs, not against the fellow who won his own partys primary.

I continue to think that the #NeverTrump Republicans are a sizeable group; I dont think that they are, by themselves, sizeable enough to constitute anyones political base. For many other Republicans, this will finally make plausible what the Washington establishment has been saying for months: that Cruz is an opportunist who is willing to badly hurt his own party for the sake of some imagined political advantage. When they make that charge again in 2020, it will have a much more receptive audience.

For somewhat similar reasons, I dont see how this works to Trumps benefit. Its going to be difficult  Im tempted to say impossible  for Trump to play this as yet another example of the hated establishment trying to stop the Trump Train. Cruzs speech was pure red meat, and his base is the tea partiers, not Washington insiders.

The debacle that unfolded in prime time will highlight not how hes overthrowing the establishment but how badly Trump has divided the party he claims to represent. More importantly, this marks yet another convention news cycle when Trump should have been presenting himself to the American people and reaping the poll bump that inevitably follows. Instead, the news is dominated by a negative story about Republicans sniping at one another.

Trumps running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker both gave very effective speeches, which will be drowned out by the story of the Trump-Cruz feud. Its hard to comprehend why Trump allowed Cruz to give a prime-time speech without securing a promise of at least a tepid endorsement.

Media reports are saying that Trump knew this was coming days in advance. Yet the campaign not only allowed the speech to go forward but may even have actively whipped up the boos rather than encouraging followers to smile and pretend there was an endorsement somewhere in Cruzs tangled verbiage.

If true, that means Trumps staff either somehow thought that this debacle would rebound to his benefit or, even worse, that they were more intent upon punishing Cruz over a personal slight than presenting a positive and unified face to American voters.

For reporters, this has been the most exciting convention to cover in decades. For the rest of America, its been a pretty sorry spectacle. Worse still, almost all of its errors have been unforced, the rookie mistakes of a campaign that is inexperienced and understaffed. Conventions are supposed to be coronations. What Trump has instead shown the country is a power vacuum at the center of his party  one that threatens to consume his presidential hopes.

Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist writing on economics, business and public policy.
First came the roll-call vote at Tuesdays session of the Republican National Convention, in which Donald Trump formally won the Republican nomination for president. Near the end of the night was an address from Donald Trump Jr. that was surprisingly ideological, covering conservative priorities such as school vouchers, gun rights and energy drilling with a tone of conviction that suggested he has been the real Republican in the family all along.

And in between was a remarkable show of disregard for the two most senior elected Republicans in the country: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

After Republicans retook the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections, McConnell explained how he would set the stage for Republican ascendance in 2016  by making Congress work again, proving that the GOP is an adult party that can govern the country. Bills would come to the floor. Amendments would be sorted through. An orderly process would lead to visible policy achievements that showed Republicans seriousness.

But thats not the message GOP delegates seem interested in sending this year. Some loudly booed McConnell when he came on stage. He listed bill after bill  a cybersecurity bill, a highway bill  that passed in his Senate. Much of the crowd simply ignored him. Keep the Senate in Republican hands, he said, and we will continue this work. The delegates didnt seem to care if McConnell continued working or not.

When it was Ryans turn, the countrys top Republican officeholder and 2012 vice-presidential nominee was met with mild applause. Similar to McConnell, Ryan promised to bring order and seriousness to Congress when he took the speakers gavel last year, with a particular emphasis on uniting behind a big conservative policy vision rather than simply defining the party in opposition to President Obama and other Democrats. He tried to infuse that spirit into his Tuesday night speech, insisting that the contest between the parties still comes down to a battle of ideas, in which Republicans, he claimed, had the upper hand.

But the GOP delegates seemed to have almost as little interest in Ryans high-mindedness as they did in McConnells legislative record. He received mostly scattered cheers that competed with the din of unrelated conversations occurring on the floor. The only really big cheer the speaker got was near the end of his address, when he asked the crowd, What do you say that we unify this party? Winning was the idea the delegates seemed to care about.

There are reasons to be skeptical of McConnell, who is more responsible than most for stopping up the Senate over the last decade, and of Ryan, who can be particularly sanctimonious. But these considerations are not why the delegates spurned them. The crowd did not want to hear about the activities of the hated Congress or from traditional party elites. They wanted red meat, and many of them desired a Trumpian seasoning on it.

Just a few minutes later, the delegates roared when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., savagely attacked Hillary Clinton, encouraging them to pronounce her guilty of a series of alleged wrongs. They broke out into cheers of Lock her up! Lock her up! Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, tweeted that he was embarrassed for the country: Dictatorships lock up the opposition, not democracies.

In fact, democracies have legislatures run by people like McConnell and Ryan, leaders who must guide fractious groups of representatives toward achievable goals. Democracy, particularly in a pluralistic society, requires openness to compromise, modesty, empathy and a willingness to be satisfied with partial victories. These values are scarce in many partisan contexts. But as the frenzied crowd kept shouting Lock her up! they seemed particularly absent in todays GOP.

Stephen Stromberg is a Post editorial writer. He specializes in domestic policy, including energy, the environment, legal affairs and public health.
To some, this weeks prime-time address at the Republican National Convention by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, tea-party idol, struck a blow for true conservatism and principle. For others, his refusal to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was traitorous. Evidence of both sentiments peppered the senators Facebook page. A sampling:

Marilyn Robertson Scaggs: Im a Texan, but Ill never vote for you again, Ted Cruz, after you raised your right hand and swore to endorse whoever was the candidate, and now you refuse to. What a sore loser. Way to hand it over to Hillary!

Sherry Stroud: Equivalant to lying under oath.

Michael Boyer: Now I know why Cruz is hated in the Senate and the House. He ruined his career. All he had to say in his speech was, Lets support Trump to beat Hillary in November. Was that too much to ask? This guy is a snake.

Nancy Bell: Writing in Cruz, never Trump.

Robert Summers: I never voted for Ted in the past but I will now.

Mike Munn: I had some respect for you, sir. After your sourness at tonights RNC, I have lost all respect for you. Way to jump into Hillarys pocket, jerk.

Lisa Trinemeyer: Trump said that Ted Cruzs father killed JFK. I dont blame Ted for not endorsing Trump. No one would have under those circumstances.

Rita Hartdegen Champagne: So disappointed in you, Ted Cruz! People will not forget your lack of loyalty. You could have influenced many people to do the right thing come November, but instead youve caused more division. Shame on you!

Ted Davis: I have supported Cruz for the entire primary. Cruz gave a great speech tonight. But he has just made a tremendous mistake and lost my (and thousands of others) support, which is not likely to be regained. What Cruz did was nothing other than a back-handed, arrogant slight against the guy who beat him fair and square. And Cruz did this at Trumps convention. See ya, Cruz  and stop sending me requests for more money.

Robert Zimiga: This Christian took an oath to the party. And youre now mad because you wanted him to lie about his feelings toward someone? So the oath to a bunch of people in office is more powerful than an oath to God about lying? Lots of hypocrisy. The man stood by his values. Even though I dont agree with him on many, many issues, I have to admire his strength to do what he did tonight.

Kathy Bowman: Would you endorse someone who insulted your wife, lied about your father and has lied repeatedly to the American people? Oh wait, you must be doing just that. I would have no respect for Cruz if he had endorsed Trump. Sorry you dont have the same principles.

Dianne Romaire Romano: As a Texas resident, I must tell you how disappointed I am with your poor judgment not to endorse the Republican candidate for president of the United States. You, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and others are reasons we will have a liberal president. And even worse, a liberal Supreme Court. Thanks for your petulant, childish attitude.
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ALLETE, Inc. operates as an energy company. The company operates through Regulated Operations, ALLETE Clean Energy, and Corporate and Other segments. It generates electricity from coal-fired, biomass co-fired / natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, and solar. The company provides regulated utility electric services in northwestern Wisconsin to approximately 15,000 electric customers, 13,000 natural gas customers, and 10,000 water customers, as well as regulated utility electric services in northeastern Minnesota to approximately 145,000 retail customers and 15 non-affiliated municipal customers. It also owns and maintains electric transmission assets in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois. In addition, the company focuses on developing, acquiring, and operating clean and renewable energy projects; and owns and operates approximately 1,000 megawatts of wind energy generation facility. Further, it is involved in the coal mining operations in North Dakota; and real estate investment activities in Florida. The company owns and operates 158 substations with a total capacity of 10,066 megavolt amperes. It serves taconite mining, paper, pulp and secondary wood products, pipeline, and other industries. The company was formerly known as Minnesota Power, Inc. and changed its name to ALLETE, Inc. in May 2001. ALLETE, Inc. was incorporated in 1906 and is headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota.
Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, including auto financing, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its advice centers, RBC insurance stores, and mobile advisors; digital, mobile, and social platforms; independent brokers; and travel partners. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset servicing, custody, payments, and treasury services to financial and other investors; and fund and investment administration, shareholder, private capital, performance measurement and compliance monitoring, distribution, transaction banking, cash and liquidity management, foreign exchange, and global securities finance services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, advisory services, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, private equity firms, and governments. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Australia will soon vote in a national plebiscite on marriage equality, possibly in November or more likely March next year.

Yet Labor, the Greens and even Australian Marriage Equality are in denial about this reality. Their continued opposition to a public vote is now a risk to the ultimate success of the "yes" case.

Supporters of same-sex marriage were right to be suspicious when former prime minister Tony Abbott proposed the plebiscite in 2015. There is no doubt a parliamentary vote would be a much better way to resolve the matter.

Why hold a $100 million opinion poll when the matter can be dealt with by the Parliament in the same way it has on other socially important issues such as family law, abortion and adoption?
The order to release 75 documents about the $2 billion Perth Freight Link would reveal that the biggest road infrastructure project in WA's history was politically motivated with little planning.

Former federal Labor MP and state minister Alannah MacTiernan won a two-year battle after the Barnett and federal governments were ordered this week by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to grant her Freedom of Information documents related to the controversial $2 billion project.

Details on how the controversial Perth Freight Link was planned will now come to light. Credit:Brendan Foster

The federal infrastructure and state main roads departments had fought in court for two years to stop the release of information about the heavy haulage route, arguing the documents were too sensitive and would compromise negotiations.

The federal infrastructure and state main roads departments can appeal the decision, which they are considering.
Bangkok: Vietnam security officials say they have broken a drug-smuggling ring linked to Australia after the arrest of three Vietnamese men attempting to send drugs through the parcel post.

Officials say the men attempted to conceal the bricks of heroin in soap packaging and two were arrested by custom officials at a post office in Binh Thanh district in Ho Chi Minh City.

Three vietnamese men have been caught trying the smuggle heroin into Australia via the post.

Vietnam media identified the three as Nguyen Van Toan, 37, Nguyen Hong Van, 37, and Nguyen Hong Sang, 44.

Reports said Toan had met a contact in Australia in 2010, identified in reports only by the initials NL, who later offered to pay Toan $A2500 per brick of heroin. Vietnam Customs officials arrested Sang and Van at the post office.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel cut short her holiday in the Alps to return to Germany.

"Behind the people of Munich is a night of horror," she said in a press conference.

Ms Merkel also extended her condolences to the victims' families.

"We share your grief, we think of you and we are suffering with you," she said.
Patrick Norman Pat Chapman is a 34-year-old, Caucasian male who was last known to be in Piedmont which is near the area of Greenville, Missouri on May 10, 2020.

Pat had stayed the night with a friend and his wife at their home. In the early morning when the friend woke to go to work.

Pat was gone in his own Burgundy color 1995 Ford Escort. That is the last anyone was known to have seen him. The vehicle was later recovered on May 29, 2020 in Mill Spring, Missouri.
WSU to Host Conversation on Race

July 22, 2016

OGDEN, Utah  This summers headlines from Louisiana to Minnesota to Dallas and back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, illustrate a complex topic challenging our country  an issue that has left the nation feeling raw, hurt and distrustful.

Weber State University will host a town hall conversation about race, Saturday, July 30 at 1 p.m. in the Shepherd Union Ballroom. The event will feature panelists including WSU President Charles A. Wight along with elected officials, community leaders and representatives from local law enforcement.

As a community, we have been following the shooting deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana and the ensuing ambush on police during a peaceful protest in Texas, and we are deeply saddened, tired and angry, said event coordinator Adrienne Gillespie Andrews, WSUs chief diversity officer. We wanted to host a larger dialogue on race and help create change in our community.

Event organizers, including Reverend Monica Hall and WSU alumna and local business owner Alicia Washington, hope the event will provide a platform for discussion that will foster healing, understanding and inclusion within the Northern Utah community.

Too often, our separate experiences create what seems like an unbridgeable gap of understanding within our communities, Wight said. While valid points emerge from multiple sides, we must ultimately come together to move toward a better world.

The event is free to the public. Free campus parking will be available for the event.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Search of Mayfield home snares alleged meth trafficker and two others
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By WestKyStar Staff

Jul. 07, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By WestKyStar Staff Jul. 07, 2016 | 09:43 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Friends of McCracken County Library's two day summer used book sale opens today at 9 am.



The sale collection includes more than 20,000 books sorted by subject, a collection of local and special interest books, and hundreds of media titles sorted by format. Once again, Paducah's St Paul Lutheran Church Gym is the site of this annual fundraising event. The sale hours are Friday, July 22, 9 am - 7 pm and Saturday, July 23, 9 am - 1 pm.



Most of the hardback books and trade edition paperback books are offered at $1 each. Most of the other paperback books are sold for 50 cents each. The media materials are individually priced. The special interest and collector titles are offered at prices well below market value. Each book sale collection is new. At the close of each sale, the remaining materials are distributed to other organizations.



Saturday is "Bag Day." The remainder books are sold for $5 per grocery sack which is provided by the Friends. Cash, checks, and now credit cards are accepted for charges of $10.00 or more.



Proceeds from the Friends of the McCracken County Public Library's book sales are donated to the library to enhance the collections and services. Since the first summer book sale twenty-four years ago, the Friends of the Library have contributed more than $300,000 to the library.



For more book sale information, call 270-994-2122.


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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 21, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 21, 2016 | 05:17 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Three fugitives were apprehended Wednesday afternoon at a Paducah motel.



The McCracken County Sheriff's Department says detectives and U.S. Marshals obtained information that 35-year-old John Brown of Murray and 22-year-old Kimberly Ward of Paducah were staying at Motel 6 on Hinkleville Road. Both Brown and Ward were wanted for several felony and misdemeanor offenses out of Marshall, Massac, McCracken and Calloway counties.



Detectives stopped a vehicle leaving the motel at around 6 pm. A passenger in the vehicle, 27-year-old Curtis Roderick of Paducah, was arrested on several outstanding warrants charging him with felony theft, felony shoplifting and traffic offenses. Detectives reportedly found several firearms inside the vehicle and power tools that were allegedly stolen.



Detectives and marshals went to Rodericks hotel room where they arrested Brown and Ward. During a search of the room they seized methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.



All three suspects were arrested and booked into in the McCracken County Regional Jail. Deputies say additional charges are likely.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 21, 2016 | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 21, 2016 | 11:05 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

Five people face drug charges, after deputies searched a Graves County home Thursday afternoon.



Sheriff Dewayne Redmon says investigators were contacted about 10 days ago about alleged illegal activity at a home on State Route 1241, about four miles north of Mayfield.



Deputies responded this past weekend of a complaint of a gun being fired inside a house where a bedroom window had been shot out. When officers arrived, the man who deputies say fired the gun, 29-year-old Anthony Turner had fled the scene.



On Thursday afternoon investigators saw a motorcycle leave the home and recognized 37-year-old James Turner, of Mayfield who had an outstanding warrant for bail jumping. During a search they reportedly found drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine.



Deputies also saw 27-year-old Danielle Miller-Turner leave her home in a vehicle with Charles Derek Alhfield. Deputies stopped Turner, and learned that Alhfield had an active warrant from McCracken County and has orders to stay out of Graves County until 2018.



Deputies later got word that Anthony Turner had left the home and was headed towards them on US 45. Deputies attempted to stop Turner and he reportedly jumped the curb at a gas station and drove recklessly up to where the deputies had Danielle and Alhfield stopped. Anthony Turner was taken into custody and taken to the Graves County Jail.



When detectives arrived at the house to execute the search warrant, they located 32-year-old April Pettigrew-Davis of Mayfield inside the house. While searching the house methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were allegedly found.



Here is a list of charges for all suspects arrested:



James Turner - Possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia, bail jumping, driving without a license



Anthony Turner - Possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia, first-degree wanton endangerment, reckless driving, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct



Danielle Miller-Turner - possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia



Charles Alhfield - possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia, two counts of contempt of court



April Pettigrew-Davis - possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 21, 2016 | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 21, 2016 | 10:44 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

A Graves County man was arrested Thursday on child abuse and drug charges, after dispatchers got an odd call.



Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon says deputies responded shortly before 1:00 pm to a home on Gills Lane, after 37-year-old Adam Jones told dispatchers people were trying to kill him, and that he had his six-year-old daughter with him. He also reportedly told the dispatchers that he had smoked methamphetamine earlier that day.



Deputies said that when deputies arrived at Jones' home he was sitting in the front yard, using his daughter as a shield and told her the deputies were going to kill her. Jones eventually released the child, and he was taken into custody after a struggle.



During their investigation deputies learned that Jones had been walking up and down KY 94 and holding his daughter against her will in a painful way, but she was not significantly injured.



Jones reportedly told deputies that there was a person in a corn field trying to kill him, who changed into someone inside the house with a rifle that was also trying to kill him. He also told them that he had injected and smoked methamphetamine in front of his daughter earlier in the morning.



Jones was taken to Jackson Purchase Medical Center, where he tried to get away several times and reportedly threatened to kill a deputy.



Jones is charged with first-degree wanton endangerment, first-degree unlawful imprisonment fourth-degree assault (child abuse), resisting arrest, public intoxication, falsely reporting an incident, possession of marijuana, Possession of drug paraphernalia, second-degree disorderly conduct, and terroristic threatening.



Department for Families and Children took custody of the child.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 22, 2016 | 06:28 AM | NASHVILLE, TN







Next time you fly out of Nashville International, you may be surprised to see heavily armed police walking around with semi automatic M6 rifles, like airports in other parts of the world.The airports Chief Operating Officer told our friends at Fox 17 in Nashville, that two weeks ago the airport phased in stepped up security on the heels of many attacks in our country and around the globe."I would say for the foreseeable future it will be the new normal, we receive daily intelligence from the FBI, TBI, local law enforcement, and given the threat and terrorism seen around the world this is probably the new normal for all the airports", said, C-O-O Doug Kreulen to Fox 17.Fox 17 reports that passengers were surprised at the highly visible guns. Many western Kentucky residents use Nashville International for their flights.

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Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/07/2016 (2287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Well, I thought I could get all the latest Manitoba brewery news into two neat little columns. Oh, how wrong I was.

Here are updates on almost all of the rest of the new/budding Winnipeg breweries and brew pubs. And I havent forgotten Manitobas three established breweries  Ill have updates on upstarts One Great City as well as Fort Garry, Half Pints and Farmery next week to round things out. And no, I havent forgotten about wine

Little Brown Jug

Brewing Co. 336 William Ave.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kevin Selch, founder of the Little Brown Jug Brewing Company, plans to offer tap-room visitors a chance to witness the brewing process at the William Avenue brewery.

Among the budding breweries, Little Brown Jugs been keeping the lowest profile, keeping its head down and focusing on getting the brewery done. The 20-hectolitre Exchange District brewery will include a tap room that will allow those enjoying a pint or filling a growler to see the brewing process in action. Its really about the grain-to-glass experience, the transparency in manufacturing, says founder Kevin Selch during a tour of the facility.

Selch was an economist with the federal government in Ottawa who had long wanted to return to Winnipeg. He enjoyed Ottawas beer culture and surrounding areas, and saw an opportunity to start something similar in Winnipeg when the provincial government relaxed its laws surrounding breweries and brew pubs.

It was important for me to be downtown, says Selch of the brewery space, a former bus storage facility. I wanted to do urban manufacturing and urban brewing. Part of coming back to Winnipeg was being able to benefit from, and contribute to, all the great things that have been happening downtown.

Little Brown Jug will produce just one beer to start  a Belgian pale ale. The recipe was developed by brewmaster Bernhard Wieland, formerly of Kenoras Lake of the Woods Brewing Co. and Winnipegs Half Pints. Its kind of the Steam Whistle theory, Wieland says, referring to the downtown Toronto brewery that focuses on Steam Whistle pilsner. Do one thing and do it perfectly.

Initial plans are to produce kegs for restaurants and bars, hand-bottle four-packs of the brew and offer growler fills at the brewery before hopefully setting up a canning line.

Selch hopes Little Brown Jug will start brewing in September, and to start selling the beer shortly thereafter.

Stone Angel

Brewing Co.

location TBA

Not much to report on this end as of yet  when asked for an update, the response was Currently deciding between two locations and finalizing finance for purchase of the brewing setup.

Peg Beer Co.

125 Pacific Ave.

The first of the new wave of breweries and brew pubs to open earlier this year, Peg Beer Co. has been featuring a rotating selection of guest beers with their food menu until theyre able to brew  which founder Nicole Barry says should be this coming week.

The initial wave of beers will include an India pale ale, an India session ale, a red rye ale, a saison, a Berliner weisse with a rhubarb syrup and a stout, all of which thirsty Winnipeggers will be able to enjoy on Pegs new patio. Theyll be announcing the names of their brews via social media.

Brazen Hall Kitchen

and Brewery

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Kristjan Kristjansson (left) and Kris Kopansky anticipate Brazen Hall will be brewing beer in the old Round Table space by October.

800 Pembina Hwy.

Owner Kristjan Kristjansson indicates the target opening date is mid-October  that story pretty much synch with the countdown clock on their website (brazenhall.ca). Kristjansson also notes they are waiting for permit approval before starting demolition and construction in three weeks.

Located in the former Round Table/Brogue Gastropub space, equipment for the 10-hectolitre brewery is expected to arrive in mid-August.

La Brasserie Nonsuch

Brewing Co.

location TBA

Matthew Sabourin of Nonsuch checked in by email, noting a downtown location should be announced shortly, with architects and engineers currently in the process of checking out the proposed site.

I really think Manitobans will be surprised and excited about where we will be setting up shop, says Sabourin. It aligns so well with our vision, our tie to the citys history and the message were trying to communicate with our brand. We felt that placing ourselves in the downtown, particularly the Exchange area, was an important piece for Nonsuch, and we feel absolutely privileged to have found a location where we can bring that vision to life.

uncorked@mts.net

Twitter: @bensigurdson
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fast food just got a little faster.

Well, if not faster, then certainly easier to get a hold of.

SkiptheDishes, the Winnipeg-based food delivery service with operations across Canada and the U.S., launched a pilot program Thursday together with Wendys restaurants, offering to bring your Baconator or Frosty right to your front door.

SUPPLIED

The service was up and running by Thursday at 10 a.m., and Winnipeggers are already on board.

Its taken off, its exceeded our expectations for sure, said Tim MacLeod, a Wendys franchise owner, Thursday.

On the very first day we might have expected two or three orders per store, and all of a sudden were getting reports that one store had 21 orders in one day. Its pretty exciting.

To keep the momentum going, SkiptheDishes is offering free delivery from the seven participating Wendys locations for the rest of July.

SkiptheDishes has its head offices in Winnipegs Exchange District, but co-founder Andrew Chau said that wasnt the only reason the pair of companies settled on launching the pilot in the city.

Winnipegs just a great city, he said. Its a great testing ground for testing out success across North America. Its got great diversity across demographics, its got a wide variety of restaurants, its got a great foodie scene.

From our opinion, its representative of North America, and if you can prove success in Winnipeg, you can prove success across North America.

Chau said that if all goes well with the Winnipeg launch, the companies may expand the partnership to other cities as well, although there is currently no timeline for that process.

Much like any pilot program, wed like to expand it on a larger basis, Chau said. And of course, to constitute a successful launch, for us, its really about meeting the customer demand.

Chau couldnt provide specifics on how much customer interest is needed to justify offering the same service elsewhere.

The company has a record for growth. After starting in Saskatchewan in 2013, it quickly grew and moved to Winnipeg. Now its head office in Winnipeg has around 300 employees, and the company has received funding from the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

aidan.geary@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Theres a jazz fest, folk fest, fringe fest and, once again, Igbofest.

The annual event Saturday is the Igbo communitys celebration of unity at the Holy Cross School gym. Members of the ethnic group from eastern Nigeria have a special guest visiting Igbofest this year  Chief Ebuka Onunkwo all the way from Nigeria.

Onunkwo is a Rotarian who took up paying of teachers salaries in his community when the government failed to do so, said event organizer Florence Okwudili with the Umunna Igbo Cultural Association of Manitoba. Onunkwo, who was a small businessman in addition to chief, assisted students with their school fees and set up a manufacturing company in his village to create jobs for young people in the rural area. Okwudili said theyre honoured to have him as a guest at Igbofest Saturday evening at the Holy Cross School gym, and hes a role model for people here.

SUPPLIED Nigerian Chief Ebuka Onunkwo is attending Igbofest.

2016 Igbofest is reminder that, as a people, we have a duty to make Winnipeg a better city, she said. For ticket information contact floxy166@yahoo.ca.

Expats from another African nation are also hosting a celebration Saturday night. Winnipeggers from Liberia are gathering to mark the nations independence day July 26 and help more children in the country ravaged by the Ebola virus attend school. The dinner, fashion show and dance at Maples Collegiate is raising money to send street kids to school in Liberia.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children and available at 204-291-5017.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two days after a tornado tore through Long Plain First Nation, evacuees from the Manitoba reserve learned the destruction is a lot worse than they thought.

Chief Dennis Meeches told the Free Press Friday night the number of evacuees is almost five times higher than originally thought; of the 2,200 residents, 515 had to leave.

The chief initially thought 150 people had to be evacuated.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS John Boyd at his home on the Long Plain First Nation surveying Wednesday night's tornado damage.

The number of homes damaged is also substantially higher, Meeches said.

Some 57 homes were severely damaged and another 150 homes sustained moderate damage.

The latest numbers were disclosed at a meeting late Friday at a Winnipeg hotel where many of the evacuees are staying.

Incredibly, there were no injuries after the F-1 tornado produced wind speeds from 135 to 175 kilometres an hour through the region.

The storm knocked out power to the reserves water-treatment plant and residents were advised to boil water before drinking or cooking with it.

Due to the power outage, the plants chlorine levels may have been compromised, a notice said.

In Winnipeg, the Bear Clan and the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre teamed up to collect bottled water for Long Plain residents.

By early Friday afternoon, one local radio personality had dropped off a truckload of bottled water at the friendship centre on Robinson Street in the North End.

The centre will be open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

The water is to be delivered to the reserve Monday.

We are going to drive out to Long Plain and help out any way we can. The first thing were going to do is take the water out and along with volunteers from the Bear Clan, well help with anything.

There are elders out there and families well help anyway we can, friendship centre executive director Rick Lavallee said.

Together, the two groups expect to take six volunteers out for the day Monday.

The Dakota-Ojibwa First Nation is near Portage la Prairie, about 100 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

The storm hit Long Plain hardest, but there were dozens of reports of damage around southern Manitoba; an apartment block in Winnipeg had its roof torn off, some prototype airships in St. Andrews were totalled and some 50,000 Manitoba Hydro customers lost power.

All but 5,000 in and around Portage and Long Plain had power restored by Friday.

Federal government officials toured the community with Chief Meeches and councillors Thursday and arranged for emergency aid from the Canadian Red Cross.

Afterward, Meeches said it could be three to five months before homes are repaired or rebuilt.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sobbing in the bathroom at an HIV/AIDS conference in Winnipeg turned out to be a lifesaver for one participant  a lesbian from Nigeria, where homosexuality is a crime punishable by a lengthy jail sentence.

On the second day of the May conference, the outreach worker for a Nigerian non-governmental organization discovered shed been outed to her employer, her girlfriend back home was in jail and the police were looking for her.

She said she was crying in the bathroom when another woman attending the Canadian Association for HIV/AIDS Research conference asked if she could help. The concerned stranger told her she is safe from persecution in Canada and likely has a legitimate refugee claim.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A Nigerian woman is photographed at the Rainbow Resource Centre in Winnipeg Thursday.

Instead of using her return ticket to Nigeria May 28, she stayed and asked for Canadas protection. On Aug. 4, she will appear before the Immigration and Refugee Board to make her refugee claim.

The woman, who is in her 30s, asked to be identified only by her initials U.O. in case she is forced to return to Nigeria.

I will be lynched, U.O. said in an interview Wednesday. They will kill me before I get to the police station.

Since January 2014, anyone convicted of homosexual activity in Nigeria faces up to 14 years in prison, the Canadian government warns in its Nigeria travel advisory.

Anyone who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies or organizations or makes a public display of same-sex amorous relationship faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years, it says. Anyone who witnesses or abets any of these acts is liable to a 10-year sentence.

During the conference, U.O. received a message from her cousin in Nigeria warning her she was in trouble. After U.O.s husband sent to police explicit, damning photos and messages he found on her phone, her girlfriend was arrested and forced to confess to their relationship. She remains in jail. Her husband went to U.O.s employer to report their same-sex relationship.

The soft-spoken U.O. says the agony of her life started when she was 16, the day her mother walked in on her and a female friend and suspected them of sexual activity. She slapped her face.

U.O.s father hit her and sent her friend home. He called a family friend  an older Pentecostal church pastor who went to their house. U.O. thought he would protect her from her parents. He took her to his church, locking her in a room for five days of prayers, fasting and deliverance.

She said he raped her during the first three days to show her how sweet men taste.

That was followed by two days of prayers for deliverance. When he took her home, the pastor told her parents she was no longer possessed and was free from admiring women, she said. U.O. didnt tell her parents what happened. They will never believe me.

She kept her attraction to women secret.

In 2002, away from home at university, she fell in love with a woman who was also a student. They hid their love affair. When they graduated in 2007, they moved to different cities for work.

U.O. started having secret flings with women she met at clubs until her parents invited her home for a visit.

There they sprang a trap. They had arranged for her to marry and had already collected a dowry from the mans family. She was forced into the marriage in 2009.

I will be lynched. They will kill me before I get to the police station  refugee claimant U.O., seen below in Winnipeg, if shes forced to return to Nigeria

She continued having secret encounters with women until 2014 when her sister-in-law caught her and told U.O.s husband.

His family and neighbours gossiped about her, and it spread throughout their small city. When she went for a checkup at the local clinic, the nurses wouldnt treat her because, she was told, she is a lesbian and committed an abominable act.

The humiliation was too much to bear so she and her husband moved to Lagos in January 2015, she said. He told her if she had another affair with a woman he would report her to the police.

In November, she ran into her first and only love from university, and they resumed their secret affair. In April, U.O.s husband found photos and texts she and her girlfriend had shared. He didnt say anything to her but had arranged with police to try to catch the lesbians in the act.

The next time U.O. was at her girlfriends place, there was a knock at the door and it was her husband and police outside. U.O. said she slipped out the back door and fled. She went to stay with a cousin, the only person who knew U.O. was gay and didnt judge her. Then she got a bit of good news at work  shed been selected to attend an international HIV/AIDS conference in Winnipeg last May. At the conference, she fell apart when her cousin contacted her with bad news: police were looking for U.O. after making her girlfriend confess to their same-sex relationship, and U.O.s husband had outed her to her employer.

Today, shes staying at a shelter and receiving help from the Rainbow Resource Centre.

It gives me a chance to meet other people like me. I am not hiding who I am. It feels good. It gives me a sense of belonging.

If shes allowed to stay in Canada, shed like to get a job as an outreach worker again.

U.O. dreams of one day being able to bring her girlfriend to Canada. If shes ordered to go back to Nigeria, she said her life will be over. She said there have been calls for the death penalty for those committing homosexual acts, she said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I often close my eyes and am taken back in time to a place I dont really want to be.

Three places, actually.

The first is a Winnipeg street on a hot July night back in 1995. Im fresh out of journalism school, just a few weeks into my career as a crime reporter. Im 20. And Im staring at a dead body for the first time in my life. It belonged to a 13-year-old boy, who has just taken a shotgun blast to the back moments earlier. His name is Joseph Spence. Friends called him Beeper. Ive arrived on scene at pretty much the same time as police and paramedics. Its chaotic: People are crying, screaming and yelling threats. Beeper is motionless on the street. So small and so innocent. It was a senseless crime.

Phoenix Sinclair is shown in a family photo released by the Commission of Inquiry looking into her 2005 death. The second is a Brandon courtroom in June 2003. Im in the public gallery about five metres away from a shackled Robert Sand, a man on trial for murdering a Manitoba RCMP officer, when he suddenly leaps out of the prisoners box and lands on his own lawyer. A razor blade falls out of his hand. Sheriffs officers quickly converge. Sand is out of control, writhing and fighting as the guards try to break his tight grip on his lawyer. Its a terrifying scene. Thankfully, the dropped blade  which Sand had smuggled in from prison through a deep cut he made in his own leg that morning  prevents any bloodshed on this day.

The third is the basement of a home on Fisher River First Nation in March 2006. Weve just learned Phoenix Sinclair, a five-year-old girl, was brutally tortured, killed and disposed of months earlier at the hands of her own mother and stepfather. Im standing in the basement of the familys old home, where much of the abuse occurred. There are still markings on the floor from where police had conducted a thorough forensic investigation days earlier. Theyve now cleared the scene, which is why the current resident allows me in for a tour. Its cold, dark and eerie.

This is where my mind regularly takes me. Three snapshots in time, forever burned in my head. Im not sure why these unpleasant images are the most prevalent for me from a 21-year career that has seen me cover hundreds of awful cases and write thousands of stories. They just are.

Theres another thing on my mind, especially lately. Post-traumatic stress disorder. Many have asked me if I have it.

Honestly, I dont know. Maybe? Probably? At the very least, I figured Ive experienced many symptoms despite the fact Ive loved pretty much every second of my career to date and wouldnt trade it for the world.

Colin Corneau / Brandon Sun files Robert Sand is led by an RCMP officer into the Brandon Correctional Institute in December 2001. During my time on the beat, Ive dealt with major weight fluctuations, occasional panic attacks, a bout with Bells palsy, mood swings, anxiety, waking up in cold sweats, stress and far too many sleepless nights to count.

Most recently, perhaps the most alarming feeling of all  nothing.

Over the past several months, I found myself becoming numb to whatever terrible tragedy I happened to be covering. Every horrible homicide started to sound, and feel, the same. I would forget details of a case almost as quickly as I learned them.

A coping mechanism? Perhaps. But I didnt like it. I was becoming cold, distant, almost robotic. I needed to change that.

Its a major reason why I recently moved out of the Law Courts beat. My brain needed a break from the daily front-row seat I had to some of the worst in society.

Thankfully, Ive had an amazing, compassionate and understanding wife at my side every step of the way, along with tremendous support from extended family, friends and colleagues. I know not everyone is so lucky.

Combined with a new approach toward self-care  cutting out caffeine and adding a nightly two-mile walk have both done wonders  and life is pretty good these days.

But Ive been thinking a lot about the darkness over past two weeks as Ive undertaken what is one of the most important and rewarding projects of my career. Its part of my new role at the Free Press that will have me working on long-form features and investigative reports.

Ive immersed myself in the world of PTSD, specifically among those on the front lines who are often exposed to horrific scenes in ways most of us cant comprehend. I typically got the much more sanitized version once it came to court. Witnessing the atrocities up close is an entirely different level of terror.

As Ive learned, PTSD can be a very scary place, one that remains taboo for many people to talk about because of the stigma attached with anything related to mental illness.

But that is changing, albeit slowly, even as the number of reported cases is soaring. And as youll read in Saturdays Free Press, numerous local first responders affected by PTSD are sharing their stories with the hopes of helping others and triggering important discussions in the community.

Among the people youll meet in my special report: a correctional officer who has tried to end his own life several times this year and a paramedic so traumatized by what he witnessed at a murder call last month he can barely sleep these days, let alone think about returning to work.

I was struck by how candid and courageous many of the people I met for this piece were. And how important they felt it was to bring these issues out into the open, especially as we continue to experience a seemingly non-stop barrage of trauma  the Orlando nightclub massacre, the Dallas police ambush, the recent Calgary child abduction and murder, the France terrorist attacks, the infant remains in a Winnipeg storage locker and so much more.

We are instantly bombarded on social media with pictures and videos and analysis and thoughts and prayers of these incidents, before quickly moving onto the next one. I fear we are all collectively going numb if something doesnt change.

But thanks to the many brave folks who have agreed to allow us into their troubled minds, we see not everyone can simply flip a switch and move on. And we can learn much more about what triggers PTSD and how experts are working to develop resiliency to it while still maintaining key emotions such as empathy.

I hope you find it as rewarding as I did.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So far, so good. Boris Johnson, the face of the leave side in last months Brexit referendum and now Britains new foreign secretary, got through his first encounter with the 27 other foreign ministers of European Union countries Monday without insulting anybody.

They were gathered in Brussels for a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and Boris was on his best behaviour. He didnt call anybody a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) or a cross-eyed Texan warmonger (George W. Bush).

The poem he wrote in May about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan having sex with a goat  just google Turkish president offensive poetry competition  didnt come up as there were no Turks present. There were no Russians at the Brussels meeting either, so nobody objected to his recent remark that the President Vladimir Putin looks like Dobbie the House Elf.

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / POOL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, speaks during a press conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the Foreign Office in London on Tuesday.

As for John Kerry, he was the soul of tact about Johnsons description of Hillary Clinton as a woman with dyed blond hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital. Boris is the Clown Prince of British journalism, but you have to admit he is a very odd choice for chief British diplomat.

He wasnt the only surprising choice new Prime Minister Theresa May made in filling her cabinet. The man who gets the tricky job of negotiating the terms of Britains exit from the European Union is David Davies, who as recently as two months ago thought this could be done by making trade deals separately with each EU member. (They always negotiate as a bloc.)

But Davies was a leading Brexiteer during the referendum campaign, so he gets the job anyway. Liam Fox, the new secretary of state for international trade, who will have the thankless task of negotiating new trade deals with countries around the world to make up for Britains lost trade with Europe  deals that cannot come into effect until the United Kingdom has actually left the EU  was also a leading voice in the pro-Brexit campaign.

So May (who was in favour of remain and probably still secretly thinks it would have been the better outcome) has chosen the three most prominent Brexiteers to deal with the hugely difficult task of finding a way for the U.K. to leave the EU without ending up in the poor house. Johnson, Davies and Fox are certainly not the three best negotiators for the job, so what is she up to?

One part of her strategy is obvious: Keep your enemies close. With the three leading Brexiteers in the cabinet, they will have less time and opportunity to plot against her. But another adage also applies: Give your enemies enough rope and theyll hang themselves.

The Brexiteers won the referendum by promising exit from the EU would be easy and painless. So let them take charge of negotiating that exit  and let them take the blame for the very painful terms Britain will probably have to accept as the price of leaving.

Will they be worse terms than a different negotiating team might achieve? Johnson is profoundly unpopular in Europe: Frances foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, told French radio Johnson told a lot of lies to the British people, and now it is him who has his back against the wall. But a more charming (or at least less insulting) British foreign secretary would probably get the same deal. Its not really about personalities.

The great advantage for May in having the Three Brexiteers negotiate the deal is nobody will be able to say a more devoted team would have got a better deal. And maybe by then she will even be able to say the deal is so bad the U.K. should have another referendum (or a general election) about it before actually leaving.

She cant say that now, so she just says Brexit is Brexit. But at least two years will pass before the outcome of the exit negotiations is known, and by then many things may have changed.

The British pound may be worth even less (some suggest it will be at par with the U.S. dollar). The British economy will probably be in a recession and maybe a full-scale financial crisis as foreign investment dries up and the huge British trade deficit becomes unmanageable. Jobs will have begun to disappear in large numbers, and British voters may be in a quite different mood than they are today.

Or maybe they will be even angrier at the stupid foreigners who wont accept that the world owes them a living. You cant really predict how the politics will play out. But May loses nothing by letting the leading Brexiteers try to make their promises come true  and when they fail, as they inevitably will, it might even create a chance to reverse the verdict of last months referendum.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A referendum is the best way to reform the way Canadians vote. Is it the easiest way? No. But is it the best way? Absolutely.

If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to strengthen Canadian democracy, he must hold a referendum before reforming the new way we hold elections.

Strengthening government accountability is a central goal for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Weve supported electoral reform in the past. Even though we campaigned hard for change in provincial electoral reform referendums and lost, well never use a loss as an excuse to take the easy way out.

ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has his eye on electoral reform, but without a referendum, changes could be implemented without gaining the explicit consent of voters.

We are unequivocal in our belief that the people have a right to vote on electoral reform, but the anti-referendum side makes some compelling arguments. The Winnipeg Free Press articulated that position well in its editorial (Referendum likely to stymie electoral reform, July 12).

A referendum is most likely to reject any conceivable reform plan because there are many possible systems, all of which have some merit and each of which will find supporters, stated the Free Press editorial board. Electoral reform attempts in British Columbia in 2005 and 2009 and in Ontario in 2007 were blocked by negative referendums  not because the existing system is perfect but because reaching agreement on a new one is difficult.

This assumes unengaged voters will oppose change because a simple yes or no question leaves the nature of the proposed change unclear. But does that mean voters are unqualified to make a decision or does it show that those advocating for change need to do a better job?

New Zealand showed the world how to implement electoral change. In 1992, it held a referendum. But that referendum included an important innovation: instead of asking one question, it asked two. First, it asked New Zealanders whether they wanted electoral change. Second, it asked what kind of electoral change they wanted. New Zealanders voted for change and identified their choice for a new system.

Even then, New Zealand did not settle for the easy way. In 1993, it held a second referendum asking voters to chose between the current system and the well-defined alternative. Again, New Zealanders voted for change.

New Zealand proved its the gold standard for implementing electoral reform when it held a third referendum in 2011 to ask voters if they wanted to go back to the old system. Voters reaffirmed their support for the new system.

Consider the alternative to a referendum. Members of Parliament could develop a new system and the majority Liberal government could ram it through the House of Commons. Reforms could be implemented without gaining the explicit consent of voters.

But what then? Voters who are denied the opportunity to engage with the issue through a referendum will be left to wrestle with an unfamiliar system during an actual election. How could that be an optimal outcome?

Critics rightly point out that numerous electoral changes have been made without referendums. The voting age was lowered. Race-based exclusions were removed. Women won the right to vote.

But what if referendums had been used to address some of these historic injustices? British Columbia put the issue of womens suffrage to a referendum in 1916. Voters recognized womens right to vote by a margin of 43,619 to 18,604 even though only men cast ballots.

We need a referendum to get the best reforms and make them durable, but we also need a referendum to prevent harmful unintended consequences. The Free Press points out that no party has ever succeeded in keeping itself in power forever by electoral jiggery-pokery. This is true, but its a reason for gratitude to our forerunners rather than complacency about our future.

Even if Trudeau has pure motives and resists the temptation to pick a new system for partisan advantage, what happens if a bad prime minister someday wants to implement bad changes? While Canada has been blessed with a stable government, history is full of examples illustrating the fragility of democracy. A referendum will remind Canadas leaders, both present and future, that the power in our democracy must always reside with the people.

Our federation will always work to strengthen government accountability, but well never compromise on our belief that the people have the right to be heard. Lets look at options to reform the way we vote, and lets do it the right way with a referendum.

Todd MacKay is the prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 22/07/2016 (2288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke for many this week when he asked the Turkish government to respect the civil rights of its political opponents in the current wave of repression following an aborted military coup. As a friend of Turkey and an alliance partner in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Canada has some standing to speak up for democratic values when they are under attack. Mr. Trudeau and other Canadians should, however, show due deference to Turkeys difficult circumstances.

Elements of the Turkish army rolled tanks into the streets of Istanbul and Ankara last Friday, occupied a television station and announced a seizure of power while military aircraft bombed the presidential palace. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan narrowly escaped an attack on the hotel where he was staying. Other military units and the police remained loyal, however, and the coup was defeated. In the subsequent wave of repression, nearly 10,000 people have been arrested, and more than 58,880 civil servants, academics, public prosecutors and police officers have been dismissed. Mr. Erdogan blames the coup attempt on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic teacher now living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Trudeau told reporters this week: We need assurances that all those who have been arrested in connection to this coup detat will have the chance to defend themselves in a robust and legitimate process, and those are the concerns we have underlined with Turkey.

KAYHAN OZER / POOL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Mr. Erdogan and his colleagues had abundant reason to fear a military coup. The Turkish army seized power in 1960 and again in 1980, gradually restoring civilian rule with tight military supervision. Since the revolution of Kemal Ataturk in 1923, Turkish army officers have believed they have a political mission to preserve secularist principles and to remove from power any civilian government that betrays those principles.

Mr. Trudeaus father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, had much less reason to fear a seizure of power in October 1970 in response to two kidnappings and a murder by cells of the Front de Liberation du Quebec. The elder Trudeau, on that occasion, called in the army to guard public buildings, invoked the War Measures Act and arrested 450 suspected sympathizers of the FLQ.

Challenged by a reporter for bringing soldiers onto Parliament Hill, Mr. Trudeau said: Well, there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just dont like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed. But its more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people  Asked how far he would go, he replied: Well, just watch me.

The younger Trudeau, born a year later, has no direct memory of these events. He cannot, however, help noticing how the shoe is now on the other foot. Mr. Erdogan stands roughly where the elder Trudeau stood 46 years ago, trying to preserve order in a time of turmoil. Advice offered to Mr. Erdogan that sounds like the bleating of weak-kneed bleeding hearts is apt to be dismissed in 2016 much as it was in 1970.

As an alliance partner in NATO, Canada needs Turkeys help in standing between Europe and the war-ravaged region of Syria and Iraq. Opportunities will no doubt arise for encouraging Turkey along the road to constitutional government, judicial independence, freedom of the press and other features of Western democracy. Canada should be ready to lend a hand when those moments arise. The immediate aftermath of a military coup, however, is probably not one of those teachable moments.
Going by the online pseudonym IcyEagle, a Winona man trolled the dark recesses of the internet peddling stolen bank account information  and now faces a potentially lengthy prison sentence, federal prosecutors said Friday.

IcyEagle was brought in from the cold Friday, as Aaron James Glende, 35, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Atlanta on several felony charges of bank fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

In November 2015, Glende began advertising on AlphaBay, a dark web market not accessible through regular web browsers and used to market drugs, weapons, stolen property, criminal services and other illegal items, according to information provided by the United States Attorneys Office and the FBI. The website is sophisticated, including search functions and the ability to rate and review sellers by name, similar to legitimate online retailers, officials said.

Beginning in March 2016, Glende posted ads for freshly hacked SunTrust Bank Account Logins, offering them at prices ranging from $9.99 to $69.99, depending on the available account balance. Undercover FBI agents found the offers too attractive to pass up and made several purchases from Glende, a.k.a. IcyEagle, using the online currency Bitcoin.

After affirming that the purchased account information was indeed linked to real accounts that Glende was not authorized to access, the information was brought before a federal grand jury and an indictment was handed down June 28.

Glende is also facing trouble closer to home.

On March 11, Winona law enforcement officers, acting on information provided by the U.S. Postal Service, executed a search warrant at Glendes home and seized significant quantities of prescription drugs not prescribed for him, including nearly 600 Xanax capsules, several dozen other pills, $1,300 in cash, and two packages containing drugs that were addressed and ready to mail.

As a result, Glende was charged in Winona County District Court with second-degree sale of oxycodone in a park zone, third-degree possession of oxycodone, fourth-degree sale of amphetamine, fifth-degree sale of alprazolam, fifth-degree sale of diazepam and fifth degree possession of marijuana resin.

Those charges have not been resolved.
A Fountain City man and former director of Habitat for Humanity of Winona-Fillmore Counties has been charged in Buffalo County Circuit Court with sexually assaulting a child.

Thaddeus (Tad) A. Powers, 56, is accused of second-degree sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy on June 27 in his home.

John Corcoran, Habitats acting executive director and construction manager, said in a statement Friday that Habitat for Humanity of Winona-Fillmore Counties is aware of the situation involving our now former executive director.

We are unable to comment on personnel or legal matters. Our board of directors is helping manage our day-to-day operations in the interim. We would like to thank the community and our volunteers for their continued support.

The incident was reported to the Buffalo County Sheriffs Department on July 7 and a sheriffs investigator spoke with the boy on July 11. The boy said he had gone to Powers residence, and while there Powers had put his hand in the boys pants and underwear, according to the complaint.

Powers was arrested July 15. An initial court hearing was held, release conditions set, and Powers was released from custody after posting a $10,000 cash bond.

Powers is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Buffalo County Circuit Court on Sept. 7. If convicted, under Wisconsin law he faces a potential 40-year prison sentence and mandatory lifetime supervision as a sex offender.

Powers came to the Winona area a few years ago from New Mexico, and had served as Habitats director for a little more than two years after initially taking a part-time job with the organization.
A community notification meeting has been scheduled to advise Winona residents of the release of three Level 3 sex offenders into the area in August.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Conference Rooms A and B in the Winona County Office Building.

According to information released by Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude:

Terry Carlton Ross, 38, will be released Aug. 1;

Joseph Charles Zacher, 37, will be released Aug. 18;

Luke Jon Pungowiyi, 33, is scheduled to be released Aug. 29.

All three are currently in custody of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

According to information provided by the Department of Corrections, Ross has a criminal history of sexual assault with 13- and 14-year-old girls, including sexual penetration. He was known to his victims.

Zacher has a history of assault with two girls, ages 12 and 13. One he met at a social gathering; the other was in her home when he entered the residence without permission. Zacher was not known to his victims.

Pungowiyi has a history of criminal sexual assault with adult women, taking advantage of intoxication, using force and with the assistance of accomplices. He was known to his victims.

All men have connections to the Winona area, with Ross and Zacher both living at previous addresses in the city as registered sex offenders.

The law requires these individuals to register with law enforcement and have the community notified of their release as a condition of their sentences. They have served their sentences and are not wanted by law enforcement.
The most famous Slovenian in the country, aspiring first lady Melania Trump, arrived in Cleveland to warmth reminiscent of home.

Slovenians are an active immigrant community in Cavalier Country. Proud of their roots, they celebrate their Central European culture and speak their native language, Slovene. Curiously, no one is asking them to erase the past or de-hyphenate their Slovenian-American personality.

No one is calling for their deportation or questioning how work or tourist visas turned into permanent residency. In fact, city banners during the annual Kurentovanje festival proclaim: Cleveland celebrates its Slovenian community.

Cleveland is home to the largest concentration of Slovenians outside of Europe, between 80,000 and 100,000. Make that plus-two this week, given the presence of Melania and Barron, her 10-year-old son, who speaks fluent Slovene with his maternal grandparents.

In a nation of immigrants, the would-be first ladys status would be cause for applause  except that Melania Trump supports closing the door of privilege opened wide for her.

Shes standing by a man catapulted to the GOP nomination by a rabid anti-immigrant agenda.

Donald Trump opened his campaign with a rant against Mexican immigrants, casting them as rapists and drug dealers. He rode on the coattails of tea party hate speech that hijacked the Republican Party all the way to the nomination. Among the 16 other candidates he beat is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has a kinder view of immigrants as nation-builders and is boycotting the Republican National Convention in his city.

As it is in Trumps campaign, a convention theme Monday was to link immigrants to crime and violence. For such a disgusting purpose, the GOP used as speakers people whove had the misfortune of suffering a loss at the hands of someone who entered the country illegally.

Then came Melanias speech about her model-citizen husband, who in her view, oozes respect for others.

It was her moment to shine dressed in designer purity white, but Trump  its always about him  upstaged her by making a grand entrance, silhouetted by dramatic lighting, like a rock star opening a concert. Delegates went wild, as if he were the one singing Queens We are the Champions. On the other hand, the discomfort of some delegates with Melanias thick foreign accent was evident when cameras panned the crowd.

Melania noted in her speech that Slovenia had been a Communist stronghold, as if this were the political system she fled.

But politics had nothing to do with her leaving her native land. In fact, her father was a member of the Communist Party, and although not rich, the family was well-off and enjoyed a better standard of living than most Slovenians.

Melania left her homeland  as did so many of the undocumented in the United States her husband wants to deport and wall off  to pursue dreams of a better life. In her case, being a jewelry and watch designer and a model in a country of 2 million people wasnt good enough.

The only difference between Melania and Mexicans and other Latin Americans is that the latter are often poor and fleeing for their lives, trying to get away from civil wars, gangs, and drug-trafficking (supported by U.S. consumption, I should add). And unlike the humble Latin Americans who seek refuge any way they can, Melania country-shopped plenty around Europe, even Germanizing her name from Knavs to Knauss.

According to a GQ profile, after Melania modeled in Milan and Paris, Paolo Zampolli, an Italian businessman who operates in New York, brought Melania to the U.S. with a contract and a work visa. Melania, then 28, met Trump, 52, at one of the parties Zampolli threw to promote his models during Fashion Week in 1998.

By 2005, she was Trumps wife, and a year later, a U.S. citizen. Her parents also now have emigrated and live by her in Trump Tower.

And here she is, vying to be first lady to complete her circle of privileged immigration.

That his third wifes convention speech was a riff off Michelle Obamas in 2008 is only another deceptive element of the Trump presidential candidacy.

Shes a smokescreen for a GOP dead set on forgetting that, even in the heartland of Ohio, immigrant communities vote.

The only difference between Melania and Mexicans and other Latin Americans is that the latter are often poor and fleeing for their lives, trying to get away from civil wars, gangs, and drug-trafficking ... And unlike the humble Latin Americans who seek refuge any way they can, Melania country-shopped plenty around Europe, even Germanizing her name from Knavs to Knauss.
Wild River Studios opens on Main in St. Charles Wild River Studios in St. Charles was the site of last weeks Friday morning Chamber Coffee as the Chamber Ambassadors packed up the giant red scissors and hit the road for another ceremonial ribbon cutting....

WHS students selected to perform with OPUS Honor Choir Many students at Winterset schools were able to audition for the Iowa OPUS Honor Choir, which will perform at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium in Ames on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 4 p.m. The following Winterset students...

Winterset Stage presents Get Smart at the Iowa this week The Winterset Stage opens the curtain on their latest production, Get Smart, this Thursday evening. The cast of over two dozen local actors will give four performances of the play which is based on the...

2022 Harvest Gathering in Earlham The fourth annual Harvest Gathering Farm-to-Table Dinner served 129 guests on Sunday, Oct. 2, at Bricker Price Block in Earlham. The five-course meal was prepared by Proof Executive Chef Diego Rodriguez and his team, utilizing...
Severe thunderstorms tore through Sauk County on Thursday night, leaving a trail of downed trees and power lines in their wake.

The National Weather Service received multiple damage reports from across southern Wisconsin due to high winds and flash flooding.

The Baraboo-Wisconsin Dells airport recorded 1.17 inches of rainfall, but other areas of Sauk County tallied more than 2 inches.

NWS reported downed trees and wires on U.S. Highway 12 near North Freedom, and some downed power lines were reported atop cars.

Meteorologist Ben Herzog said NWS recorded 110 mph winds near Friesland in Columbia County.

High humidity levels

Hot and humid conditions will continue into the weekend. NWS forecasts a high of 89 degrees Saturday with a heat index of 96 degrees.

Sauk County Public Health & Emergency Management is encouraging residents to watch out for one another and prepare for the heat. A cooling center will be available 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Baraboo Public Library.

The risk of heat stroke increases with humidity because the skin is less able to release heat through perspiration and evaporation.

Heat stroke can occur quickly and may be life-threatening, so Emergency Management recommends that people take necessary precautions. Symptoms include fainting, fatigue, rash and nausea. Skin may also become clammy and moist or hot and dry.

Emergency Management encourages residents to drink lots of water, spend the hottest part of the day indoors, use fans to increase ventilation, take cold showers to decrease body temperature and make frequent checks on elderly or ill people and make sure they are in an air-conditioned environment during the hottest part of the day.

More storms coming

With continued high humidity levels predicted for the weekend, Herzog said the area may see more storms on Saturday night.

The moisture is crucial for the severe thunderstorms, Herzog said. The high humidity levels will most likely be a factor.

The NWS forecasts a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms Saturday night. A cold front is expected to pass through Sunday with a marginal chance for additional thunderstorms.
Felony drug charges against a Sauk County woman have been dismissed after prosecutors learned she was immune from prosecution under a state law.

On Jan. 8, 19-year-old Claudia Cornelio-Riley called paramedics to her Baraboo home to report that her boyfriend, 22-year-old Andrew A. Lee, was suffering from a drug overdose. Paramedics revived Lee, but officers who came to the scene found heroin, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

That same day, the Sauk County District Attorneys Office filed felony drug charges against Lee and Cornelio-Riley.

Cornelio-Riley spent two days in jail before she was able to post a $200 cash bond that secured her release. In March, she pleaded not guilty to all three charges. In May, a newly appointed public defender filed a motion on her behalf to dismiss the case based on a relatively new state law.

Law provides immunity

The case here is a good example of a person who acted appropriately in saving someones life, Baraboo attorney Puck Tsai wrote in a legal brief. It is exactly as the Legislature had intended in enacting this statute.

A bipartisan bill that Gov. Scott Walker signed into law in April 2014 provides limited immunity for anyone who requests help for someone suffering from a drug overdose. The legislation was part of a package of bills designed to combat Wisconsins heroin epidemic.

The law defines an aider as someone who calls 911  or summons a law enforcement officer, ambulance, emergency medical technician or other health care provider  to assist someone they believe is suffering from an overdose.

In his May 2 motion, Tsai wrote that Cornelio-Riley not only called 911, but flagged down ambulance personnel and escorted first responders to the bedroom where Lee had overdosed. The motion referenced a Baraboo police incident report.

District Attorney Kevin Calkins said his office charged Cornelio-Riley because it was not apparent from police reports that she was the person who summoned law enforcement.

There were multiple people at the scene assisting the person who had overdosed, Calkins wrote in an email. We had to listen to the 911 call (which came to us after charges were filed) to confirm that Ms. Cornelio-Riley actually made that call.

Documents obtained from the Baraboo Police Department show Calkins requested a copy of the 911 recording May 26. An officer who fulfilled that request noted in his report that in the recording, the female caller identifies herself as Claudia.

In a phone interview Thursday, Cornelio-Riley said she wishes prosecutors would not have waited nearly five months to listen to the 911 recording. And she wonders whether her ordeal will impact others who are in a position to call for help during an overdose.

Some people might think: Well, she just got charged for this after calling 911 and I dont want to go through that, Cornelio-Riley said. I had to go through six months of hell wondering if I was going to go to jail or not. Thats a heart wrenching feeling ... I definitely think they should look into (the potential for immunity) right away before charging someone.

Nevertheless, knowing what she knows now, Cornelio-Riley said she still would have called 911 on Jan. 8.

I would call either way, just because I would never leave someone for dead, Cornelio-Riley said, adding that she has been clean now for seven months. But other people might not act the same way as me.

Other cases resolved, pending

The January incident occurred amid a string of overdoses throughout Sauk County that authorities say were caused by an abnormally potent batch of heroin.

That month, police arrested 32-year-old Daniel A. Kaiser, alleging that he sold a portion of the unusually potent heroin to local drug users. Kaisers felony drug possession and bail jumping case still is pending, and he remains jailed on a $7,500 cash bond.

Cornelio-Rileys boyfriend Lee pleaded no contest to one of the three charges against him, and was ordered to serve three years of probation and undergo drug counseling. He could go before a judge for sentencing on that conviction if he does not fulfill the terms of his deal with prosecutors.

In a separate case, paramedics arrived at a Sauk City home Jan. 9 to discover a man giving chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth to 21-year-old Christopher Lee Martinez of Merrimac. First responders revived Martinez with Narcan, a drug that counteracts the effects of opiate overdoses.

Martinez was charged with felony heroin possession. That case still is pending along with a slew of other cases, most of which are drug-related.
If you think voters have less influence on their lawmakers than big donors and lobbyists, youre not alone.

A Gallup Poll conducted in June asked Americans: How much influence do you think each of the following has on how members of Congress vote on legislation? Sixty-four percent of respondents answered that major donors have the most influence. Fifty-five percent put lobbyists right below major donors. Only 14 percent believe constituents have much influence. When Gallup separated responses based on preferred political party, the numbers werent much different. Voters from both parties know whats going on.

In Wisconsin, a mining company got to write the mining bill after its owners gave $700,000 to Republican campaigns. After billionaire Diane Hendricks gave Gov. Scott Walker a $500,000 donation and asked what he was going to do about the unions, the so-called right-to-work bill was written and passed.

Its the same in Washington, D.C. In his book The Party is Over, Mike Lofgren, who worked almost 30 years for Republican congressmen, tells how the hallways of Congress are full of lobbyists and other generous donors asking for, and usually getting, the legislation they want. Thats why prescription drug prices are so high, why defense contractors build equipment the Pentagon doesnt need, why wages have stagnated and taxes on the middle class are higher than those of the rich. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren has said for years, The system is rigged.

But if we all get together, we can un-rig it. One way is for voters to loudly demand campaign finance reform.

I know, its been tried before. The bipartisan, 2002 McCain-Feingold Act limited how much individuals and organizations could donate to campaigns. But the act lost its power when conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in the Citizens United case. So now anyone can give as much as they want to super PACs and interest groups that support candidates. Unlike candidates actual campaigns, those groups dont have to disclose donors names or business affiliations.

Unbelievably, Wisconsins Assembly Speaker Robin Vos sees no problem with that. On Feb. 27, 2013, he spoke at Marquette University Law School. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, he told the audience he favored the least possible restrictions on campaign contributions and expenditures. He also said he was for greatly increasing the limits on donations to candidates and parties, or have no limits at all.

In contrast, Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, said that one of the first things shed do if shes elected is to work to repeal the Citizens United ruling. That would be a good start.

Redistricting reform is another change that would give more power to average citizens. After each 10-year census, many district boundaries are redrawn. The practice was meant to ensure all districts end up with an almost equal number of voters. But like a lot of things, politicians use it to skew the votes in favor of their parties candidates. Thats called gerrymandering.

To understand how they do this, do a Google search for gerrymandering images. Look for the image showing three rectangles made of blue and red squares. Each square represents one voting precinct, 60 percent of which are blue and 40 percent red. In the middle rectangle, the precincts are divided straight across into five equal districts. When done that way, blue wins because there are more blue voters overall. The far right rectangle shows how manipulating the lines of voting districts (gerrymandering) gives an unfair advantage to the red voters so their party wins more legislative seats, even though its candidates are supported by fewer voters.

And thats what happened after the last census when Wisconsin Republicans had district lines redrawn to favor their party. As a result, our new voting districts often resemble Swiss cheese, with loops, curves and zigzags that skew the election results in favor of Republicans. Theres proof of that. In the last Wisconsin election, even though Democratic candidates received more votes, Republicans won more seats in the legislature.

Both parties do it, and thats why everyone, no matter how they vote, needs to demand a federal law outlawing the practice of gerrymandering. A redistricting system based on the one used in Iowa would make sense. There, every 10 years, a non-partisan panel draws the lines based purely on population changes and uses straight, sensible, natural boundaries.

Redistricting and campaign finance reform need to be top priorities if voters ever want a voice in government. Ask the candidates how they stand on those issues. Their answers may tell you if they deserve your vote.
Nearly three years after a traffic crash cost Valerie Greene her arm, the man who caused the accident was sentenced in Columbia County Court Wednesday.

Greene considered the wait necessary.

Everything is a process and for something this serious you need to be very sure, Greene said. Many lives were affected that day not just mine or his, our families, the emergency personnel, the community. I look at this sentence as a step just one more step in the healing process.

Greene was driving her work truck between Markesan and Randolph Aug. 5, 2013, travelling south on Highway 73. Benjamin Binder, formerly of Mayville and now living in Oxford, was driving west in a 2005 white Cadillac on Highway AW. He failed to stop at the intersection of 73 and AW, hitting Greenes 2004 black Ford F150 broadside.

Greene had nine broken ribs  four of them crushed  a punctured lung, a broken right foot and fingers broken in her right hand, cracked vertebrae and a head injury that required 10 staples.

Her left arm was so severely damaged it had to be amputated at the shoulder.

She spent a month at UW-Hospital and six weeks at a rehabilitation center in Chicago.

Binder was charged with injury by use of vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance causing great bodily harm to another human, injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle causing great bodily harm and first degree recklessly endangering safety.

He pleaded no contest and was found guilty of operating a motor vehicle without insurance, inattentive driving and failure to stop at a stop sign.

He appeared before Judge Andrew Voigt on Wednesday.

Voigt sentenced Binder to five years of probation and 12 months in jail with Huber privileges, with six months stayed. He must spend the first weekend in August every year in custody in Columbia County while on probation. His drivers license was revoked for 24 months.

I am satisfied with the sentence, Greene said. People say I won, but I dont think of this as a win. This is a very sad situation for everyone involved.

Greene, her daughter Danielle and her parents Dave and Jane Brown spoke during the sentencing hearing about the crash and the impact it had. Greene said Voigt increased the sentence from the recommendations.

The judge felt more needed to be added so he added an additional six months in jail to be stayed but to be used by the probation officers discretion to keep him going in the right direction. He also added that during the five years of probation Mr. Binder has to report to Columbia County jail the first Friday of every August and sit in jail for the weekend to remember the anniversary of the accident in hopes it will never happen again.

Binder apologized to Greene. According to Greene, he said he was truly sorry and that if he could, he would take all the pain from her and basically put it upon himself.

Judge Voigt did not require community service as part of the sentence, in hopes that Binder would volunteer for it, which would mean more than being ordered to do it.

I am truly thankful for all the support I have been given, from my family, my husband, our children, and my community, Greene said.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation Southwest Region will hold a public meeting to discuss US 151 freeway conversion between Columbus and Waupun in Dodge County.

The meeting will be held from 5-7 p.m., Aug. 4, at the Beaver Dam Veterans Center, 300 Beichl Ave.

The purpose of the meeting is to present the recommended alternative for converting US 151 from an expressway to a freeway between State Highway 73 in Columbus and State Highway 49 in Waupun. Identifying and preserving the corridor for a future freeway facility is required to ensure that potential future development is compatible with the transportation system.

The public is encouraged to attend the meeting, provide input and ask questions concerning this project. The meeting will be an open-house format with a brief presentation beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Representatives from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and Ayres Associates will be available to discuss project details, address comments, and answer questions. Displays showing WisDOTs recommended alternative and other alternatives under consideration in the Environmental Assessment will be available.
Beaver Dam Community Hospital has welcomed Dr. Jason Smith to its executive team as Chief Medical Officer.

His responsibilities include physician relations, the BDCH Medical Clinics primary and specialty clinics, quality, contracted physician services and case management.

Dr. Smith has the outstanding education, skills and experience we hoped for in the person assuming responsibility for this position, and he will play a key role in helping us shape BDCH, the BDCH Medical Clinics and regional health care strategy for decades to come, said BDCH President and CEO Kim Miller.

Most recently, Smith was the medical director at Mitchell Convalescent Center and Chief of Medical Staff at Mitchell County Hospital in Camilla, Georgia.

Smith earned his bachelor of science degree from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and graduated with honors from the Medical College of Georgia in 1999. He is board certified with the American Board of Family Medicine and has a master of business administration degree.
PARDEEVILLE  Residents in the Pardeeville Area School District will likely see their lowest school tax rate in eight years thanks to the estimated bump in state aid for public schools across Wisconsin.

Pardeeville School Board approved the districts 2016-17 initial budget Monday that, for now, shows a 6.69 percent decrease in school property taxes. The budget will be reviewed at Pardeevilles annual meeting Aug. 15 but will not be finalized until October.

That translates to a reduction of $347,384 for taxpayers, across the board, Superintendent Gus Knitt said. Its fairly significant since our tax levy hasnt been that low since 2008-09.

Last years school tax rate was $10.57 per $1,000 of equalized value, and using the same property values as last year Pardeeville projects its tax rate to fall to $9.86. That tax rate would amount to $1,479 on a $150,000 home  a projected savings of $106 from last year.

Knitt said the savings in state aid wont impact schools, but is happy for a tax break for those who have been so supportive of our school district in referendums. The district this coming school year will enter its third year of a four-year, $3.5 million referendum, from which the district can exceed revenue control by up to $855,000 in each of the remaining school years.

Public schools across Wisconsin will receive a state-aid increase of $108 million, a total that will likely be closer to $120 million due to changes in how Independent Charter School and Milwaukee Parental Choice programs are funded, the Department of Public Instruction reported earlier this month.

Portage Community School District does not yet have an estimate of its school tax rate, but officials noted last week its tax rate will be lower than its original projection of $9.80, thanks to the state-aid increase.

No program cuts

Pardeeville balanced its budget and is in good shape, Knitt said. We thought wed have to make a lot of significant cuts, but now we have no cuts to programs for 2016-17. The board felt very relieved and is very satisfied with what we can offer students and are able to do that now with a property tax cut for our taxpayers.

I think were in a win-win situation here.

Before the summer Pardeeville officials started with a budget $300,000 out of balance, but thanks largely to a health insurance switch that generated $200,000 in savings, Pardeevilles cuts werent as difficult as anticipated.

Pardeeville earlier this year needed to lay off two teachers  an elementary teacher and middle school physical education teacher  but those were due to enrollment, Knitt said. Other savings occurred due to high-efficiency boilers in the elementary school, and lower gasoline prices helped transportation costs.

The district had also cut its calendar from 178 days to 175, lengthening each school day by about 10 minutes  generating savings of about $25,000, Knitt said.

Teacher shortage

Pardeeville has made all of its teaching hires ahead of the 2016-17 school year, Knitt said. The district had five open positions, including the recent hires of its two new principals for the middle and high schools.

Knitt is serving a three-year term on the states Professional Standards Council, which he said reviews and makes recommendations regarding teacher licensure. At a recent meeting Knitt said DPI research regarding teacher shortages showed PSC members how theres a problem in every state  not just Wisconsin.

The research looked at the decreasing number of college students graduating with teaching degrees since 2010. Of the five states included in that research  Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan  Wisconsin was actually the second-lowest, Knitt said. Illinois situation, he added, is absolutely terrible, as their reduction in graduates was about 50 percent.

Part of it comes from the fact people can find better jobs with their degree in the private sector and education is under the microscope, whether you agree or disagree, and often times you look and say do I really want to jump in that fire, Knitt said. Bottom line is were struggling overall.

We were fortunate, Knitt said of this summers hires in Pardeeville. We were able to find people. Part of it was location  northern Wisconsin is having a horrible time trying to find teachers. So were fortunate with where we are, and what were able to offer teachers. Were close enough to big cities  especially Madison and Portage, with enough activities going on, especially for younger teachers.
Multiple groups may have the chance to use a former hardware store on Vine Street in Reedsburg.

The Reedsburg Community Development Authority met at the site on July 19 to consider requests for the space.

Wormfarm Institute has already been approved to occupy the building for its annual Fermentation Fest in October. Other parties before the committee included a proposed Boys & Girls Club, Rhinos Wrestling Club and Goodman Fitness.

The committee unanimously approved pursuing a partnership with the Boys & Girls Club once its ready to set up shop. Committee members also approved a motion to allow the Rhinos to use the building contingent upon a lease agreement. Goodman Fitness would likely seek approval next summer.

The store, which is now owned by the City, faces demolition in 5 to 10 years. In the meantime officials are trying to find temporary users for the building, with clients staying anywhere from a month to the buildings lifespan. Due to its size the building could accommodate multiple tenants at once.

Potential residents

Reedsburg doesnt have a Boys & Girls Club but that may change thanks to local efforts. The Boys & Girls Clubs of West Central Wisconsin wants to start a location in town to combat childhood obesity, provide homework help, teach kids leadership and responsibility and offer a place to hang out after school.

Executive Director Karen DeSanto said nothing is set in stone at the moment. The nonprofit will need to collaborate with other groups to avoid duplication and find a home.

She said Reedsburg has a Community Learning Center but theres a waiting list to get in and the program only accepts elementary school children. The Boys & Girls Club reaches all children up to age 18 and could serve those who arent able to get into the CLC, she said.

Reedsburg Police Chief Timothy Becker spoke in favor of the club, saying that its a great way to keep kids off the street and out of trouble.

He said Boys & Girls Clubs also teach children valuable real-world lessons, including skills they can carry with them into the workplace after graduation. Local employers cite an increasing need for talented employees and a Boys & Girls Club could help solve that problem.

DeSanto said she will accept suggestions on programming, scheduling and a location. It could be months before a club pops up in Reedsburg.

Its really an open dialogue at this point, she said.

The committee also heard from representatives for the Rhinos Wrestling Club. The club, which is one of three in Reedsburg, would like to find a space from October to April. The youth wrestling program would likely be held in the evenings from 6:30 to around 8 p.m.

In addition, Khrystyna Goodman approached the committee seeking a location for her business. She said shes a former trainer at Anytime Fitness but left to be a stay at home mom. She now has a small business and would like to see it expand through a new space and additional classes.

She said she is open to a future rental agreement since it doesnt appear the building will be ready in time to suit her needs. The City needs to finish some work on the site, which includes installing a new water heater. Officials also have not yet determined who will manage the location and oversee scheduling and operations.
The Reedsburg Community Development Authority has approved a mural to be displayed at a former hardware store.

Reedsburg ArtsLink requested 10 x 30-foot image that would depict part of Reedsburgs history. The committee unanimously approved the plan during its July 19 meeting at the vacant store on Vine Street.

The project would cost $40,000 but no City money would be used. It would be funded through fundraising and grants, said Joann Mundth Douglas, founder and director of Reedsburg ArtsLink.

She said the mural is a collaborative effort between ArtsLink and Little Eagle Arts Foundation out of Wisconsin Dells. ArtsLink works to spread awareness for the effects of art on the economy, education and quality of life while LEAF preserves and promotes American Indian creativity.

Mundth Douglas said the art would honor Reedsburgs ties to the Ho-Chunk Nation. During the citys development United States presidents tried to force the relocation of numerous native tribes. The Ho-Chunk, however, had strong ties to the region and the white settlers refused to allow their removal. The chief at the time, Ahuchoga, fostered a positive relationship between the natives and European settlers and is now considered one of Reedsburgs most important founders.

ArtsLink and LEAF chose the hardware store because the former train depot is visible from the location. The depot is significant because its where the U.S. government attempted the relocation, Mundth Douglas said.

Artist Wesley May, based in Red Lake, Minnesota, would be the primary creative force behind the mural, with help by apprentice Chris Sweet. Ho-Chunk students from Madison, Wittenberg and Tomah may travel to help with it.

The art is expected to last 15 to 20 years before it would need refurbishing, according to data from ArtsLink.

Mundth Douglas said ArtsLink is willing to work with other groups who might be using the former store. She said she understands they may need space for their own signs but doesnt foresee any obstacles for the mural or additional signs. For now the mural is set to go up along the stores west side.

The sites future is uncertain, with the City anticipating razing the building in 5 to 10 years. Should that occur ArtsLink and LEAF would find another home for the mural.

Melanie Tallmadge Sainz of LEAF said her father was an avid lover of Reedsburg. She and her family enjoyed sight-seeing and visiting local businesses every time they stopped in town.

Its great to be able to return to Reedsburg for this project, she said.

Mundth Douglas said theyd like to start the mural Aug. 12 and finish by Aug. 21 so its done before Fermentation Fest in October. She added that theres the possibility of Ho-Chunk members visiting during the festival and the mural would be a stop on their trip.
Ian Sharp

Ian James Sharp, 32, of Chino Valley, Arizona, formerly of Reedsburg, and Wickliffe, Ohio, was called to his Heavenly Father on Tuesday, July 19, 2016.

Ian graduated from Reedsburg Area High School CDS class. Ian enjoyed attending Holy Family Church in LaValle, with his family and their many friends and especially appreciated listening to all the music.

Profoundly handicapped since infancy, Ians loving care was the focal point of his family. Despite his inability to speak and incapacity, Ians life was transformative for those, who through his presence, learned life-long lessons of service, devotion, tenderness, love, and simple joy. Ians constant laughter and joyful innocence filled our home and now fills Heaven.

Ian is the beloved son of and survived by his parents, Matthew and Diane (Chukayne) Sharp of Chino Valley, Arizona; sister, Kathleen (Ryan) Koehler of Nashville, Tennessee; brother, Gabriel Sharp of Viroqua; and grandmother, Helen Chukayne (Wasilko) of Prescott Valley, Arizona.

He is preceded in death by his grandparents, Frank Chukayne of Euclid, Ohio, and Charles and Marilyn (Taggart) Sharp of Wooster, Ohio.

A Mass of Christian burial is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 23, 2016, at St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church in Chino Valley, Arizona, with a reception to follow. Fr. Fred LeClaire will officiate the ceremony. All are welcome to attend and celebrate Ians beautiful life.

Condolences can be sent to the family at P.O. Box 568, Chino Valley, AZ 86323. The family would like to thank the many wonderfully compassionate teachers, therapists and medical staff who supported Ian throughout his life.
Wisconsin company wrestles with the FDA over an infant formula

Nikos Linardakis says the FDA has stymied efforts that he and James Esselman have made to launch their Bene Baby Co.s product.
VIMS professor wins international recognition

Undergraduate minor: In addition to her accomplishments in research and graduate mentoring, Canuel was also instrumental in establishing the marine science minor at W&M. Here, faculty, staff and students involved in the minor program gather for a year-end celebration, including a cake with jellyfish and seahorses. Courtesy photo

Award winners: William & Mary President Taylor Reveley (left) announces the winners of the 2014 Thomas Ashley Graves, Jr. Awards for Sustained Excellence in Teaching during William & Marys commencement ceremony. VIMS Professor Elizabeth Canuel (center) was honored with the award along with W&M Professor of Education/Secondary English John Noell Moore (right). Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption

Professor Elizabeth Canuel of William & Marys Virginia Institute of Marine Science was awarded the honorary title of Geochemical Fellow at the annual Goldschmidt Conference recently held in Yokohama, Japan. Canuel is the first VIMS scientist to receive this international distinction.

The honor, bestowed annually by the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry, this year recognized 11 scientists for their major contributions to the understanding of the chemistry of Earths land, ocean and atmosphere.

It means a lot to me that my colleagues recognized my work in organic geochemistry in this way, says Canuel.

In addition to five other Americans, this years recipients hail from China, France, Germany and Taiwan. Previous honorees include Harold Urey, famous for his experiments showing how the precursors of life could emerge from non-living compounds, and Wally Broecker, who developed the idea of the global conveyor belt, a network of ocean currents that play an outsized role in Earths climate.

Liz has been a leader in the field of aquatic geochemistry for many years, says Deborah Bronk, chair of the physical sciences department at VIMS. Its wonderful to see her many contributions recognized with this prestigious award.

Adina Paytan, research professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, nominated Canuel for the award. In her nomination letter, Paytan describes Canuel as an internationally recognized expert in the field of marine organic geochemistry whose research is strongly interdisciplinary, crossing boundaries between chemical oceanography, landscape ecology, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, marine ecology, and marine pollution.

Paytan adds that Canuel is a model citizen-scientist as she is committed to the scientific enterprise and motivated to represent her peers and their accomplishments while giving back to her community, her institution and scientific societies.

The goal of Canuels research is to better understand the processes by which carbon moves between land and water, with a focus on its passage through floodplains, wet meadows and coastal ecosystems such as salt marshes. These ecosystems occur worldwide and are very sensitive to the effects of climate change  including rising sea levels  but have to date been poorly studied.

In addition to receiving her award at the Goldschmidt Conference, Canuel presented the early results of a two-year research study undertaken with Amanda Knobloch, a Ph.D. student at W&Ms School of Marine Science at VIMS. Supported by NASAs Carbon Cycle Program, the study focused on measuring the amount of organic carbon that moves between wetlands and estuaries at Taskinas Creek, a tributary of the York River in Virginia.

Canuel and Knobloch say their findings  part of a larger collaborative project including the City University of New York, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center  will help inform global carbon budgets and computer models, and help reduce uncertainties in the ability to predict the role of estuaries as a source or sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The study also has served as Knoblochs primary source of information in her Ph.D. studies. I have been very fortunate to work with Dr. Canuel on my dissertation research, says Knobloch. She is an excellent researcher, and she pushes those in her lab to be their best, and to do quality research. Liz is the reason I came to VIMS, because I wanted an advisor who cared about their students and was working on innovative and exciting chemistry and who was willing to take the time to teach me new and different lab practices. In addition to her mentoring of graduate students, Canuel was instrumental in the creation of a marine science minor for W&M undergraduates in 2010.

Canuel has been a member of the Geochemical Society since 2008 and previously served on its board of directors, as well as the chair of its organic chemistry division. In addition to this years honor, the society invited Canuel to serve as chair of the 2016 Alfred Treibs Award Committee. The Treibs Award is the pre-eminent honor for lifetime achievement in the field of organic chemistry.

Canuel was previously recognized with W&Ms Thomas Ashley Graves, Jr. Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching in 2014, W&Ms Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award (2006), and a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (1995). She received an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship in 2011.
The Shiv Sena MLA also demanded that the AIMIM should be derecognised as a political party and alleged that the AIMIM is supporting such youth with terror links.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Shiv Sena MLA Dr Rahul Patil today claimed that around 100 youths from the Marathwada rehion were missing and were suspected to be in touch with the ISIS. Patil, an MLA from Parbhani Assembly constituency in Marathwada region raised this question through Point of Propriety. Patil said that the state government sould act well in time or else this will be a big danger for the country. Patil, however, did not furnish any claims to substantiate his allegations.

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The Shiv Sena MLA also demanded that the AIMIM should be derecognised as a political party and alleged that the AIMIM is supporting such youth with terror links. Patil was refering to the arrest of a 31-year-old man with alleged ISIS links was arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

The suspect is a resident of Parbhani district of Maharashtra and was in touch with another wanted accused Farooque who is based in Syria and was trying to influence youth through social media using different handles and profile IDs.

The AIMIM sharply reacted to the Shiv Sena allegations saying that there is no substance to the allegations made by the Shiv Sena.

AIMIM MLA from BYculla, Mumbai Advb Waris Pathan said that the AIMIM was merely offering legal aide to muslim youths as in the past inncent youth had to suffer in cases like the Malegaon blasts.



--- ENDS ---




China News on Women





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By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 22 (PTI) Three persons have been arrested in China for staging protests outside the US fast-food chain KFC over Americas backing for an international tribunals verdict rejecting Beijings claims over strategic South China Sea.

The public security bureau of Puyang in central Chinas Henan Province detained three protesters on Wednesday for illegally gathering outside two branches of KFC, state-run Global Times reported today.

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Police said Li, 33, Yuan, 36, and Liu, 41, organised protests outside KFC restaurants in the Lianhua mall and on Huanghe Road in Puyang on Tuesday and disturbed public order.

The protesters, carrying banners reading "Support domestic products, love our country, boycott goods made in Japan, the US and South Korea," blocked the restaurants doors and disturbed its normal business, police statement said.

Li received 15 days in detention, while Yuan and Liu will be detained for 13 days each, according to the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, the Global Times reported.

Chinese police have been taking action to contain scattered protests calling for a boycott of US products, especially fast-food restaurants like KFC and McDonalds.

In a widely circulated video, a woman in Tangshan walked into the restaurant and told customers that it is they who pay for the bullets for the US.

Dozens of people gathered outside a KFC in Qinhuangdao in Hebei Province on Tuesday waving banners that said "Boycott the US, Japan and South Korea; Boycott KFC and McDonalds! Wake up fellow citizens," according to photos and videos uploaded on social media.

The protesters also attacked a police officer who was trying to take away their banners, according to a report.

The mob shouted "Patriotism is not illegal" at him.

Chinese police and state-run media have called for "rational patriotism" after sporadic protests against the US.

In a statement on Tuesday, Puyang public security bureau said it was illegal for residents to organise protests without getting permission from the local public security bureau.

The bureau also warned that patriotism is not a valid reason for breaking the law. PTI KJV ZH

--- ENDS ---
IAEA could benefit from non-state funding, says report

22 July 2016

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A working group assembled by the Partnership for a Secure America (PSA) has made recommendations on how non-state sources can help fund the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) nuclear security and technical cooperation activities.

The Vienna-based IAEA currently receives the majority of its funding - including extrabudgetary resources - from its member states. However, the PSA notes, "many members states are financially constrained, still recovering from the global economic recession that began in 2008, limiting the amount they can contribute voluntarily". As a result, the IAEA "faces a shortage of resources that impedes its ability to develop and implement" its technical cooperation and nuclear security activities.

As part of a two-year project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the PSA brought together a working group to consider ways in which non-state sources can help fund these activities. The group was composed of individuals from 17 countries, including former senior officials from the IAEA Secretariat, former governors and ambassadors who represented their countries at the IAEA, and other experts with IAEA experience.

The working group has now published its final report - entitled Strengthening the IAEA: Technical Cooperation and Nuclear Security - in which it says the agency "stands to benefit from diversifying its options through voluntary contributions". The report says, "The non-state donor community - industry and businesses, foundations, international governmental organizations (IGOs), and other entities in the position to donate or partner with the agency - can play a larger role in helping the agency execute its expanding portfolio."

The working group made ten recommendations which it believes would "help put the IAEA in a better place to attract, receive and utilize non-traditional contributions" to its technical cooperation and nuclear security programs.

"Foremost among these recommendations, the group believes that the IAEA would benefit if it developed a comprehensive strategy to diversify its revenue stream beyond reliance on state-based contributions," the report says. "Key to such a strategy is the commitment of the director general and senior staff. The director general should consider forming an influential global leadership team of corporate executives dedicated to fundraising, to engage the private sector and establish public-private partnerships."

The other recommendations focus on "identifying priorities, improving transparency for potential donors, establishing metrics, interacting with the private sector, working closely with other IGOs, and soliciting support from civil society and non-governmental organizations, all of which are core building blocks of a necessary comprehensive strategy".

The report says the IAEA's challenges in attracting non-state donor contributions are "at least in part, cultural". It says, traditionally, the agency has little experience in fundraising activities. However, it notes the IAEA "has in place a loose framework for accepting contributions from non-state donors and engaging in public-private partnerships".

The working group suggests that, in order to pursue non-state donor contributions actively, "both the Secretariat and member states will need to recognize the benefits that such donors and public-private partnerships can offer, and will need to commit to developing a strategy to pursue these types of partners".

The report says that, while the IAEA's safeguards and verification functions are well recognized, "its important projects in nuclear security, human health, agriculture, water security and other sustainable development areas are generally not well known". The working group recommends the IAEA should "dedicate itself to strengthening its brand with a compelling mission statement, reinforced by a strong communications and marketing campaign".

According to the IAEA's latest annual report, the agency had a total regular budget for 2014 of 342 million ($377 million), supplemented by extrabudgetary expenditures totalling 68.3 million. Its Technical Cooperation Fund also received 69.2 million from voluntary contributions in 2014.

The PSA is a Washington, DC-based non-profit, bipartisan, non-governmental organization to advance the principle of bipartisanship on critical national security and foreign policy challenges.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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The actor is fully committed to boyfriend Miles McMillan

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The Star Trek Beyond actor initiated the rumor when he was seen wearing a silver band on his wedding ring finger via an image online. However, this photo is said to be nothing but a sponsored advertisement for Amazon Prime.

Quinto has been with McMillan for approximately two years, as it became public when the two announced their relationship in 2014.

The actor admitted that he is currently not engaged but the couple is fully committed to each other. He then suggested that wedding bells could be in their future, but nothing is yet certain.

He revealed to E! News: Im just wearing a ring, man. Its the only finger this ring fits on. I like to keep them (fans) guessing. I dont know, well see what happens.

The star recently posted a photo on Instagram next to his boyfriend as the two held hands while walking their dogs in New York City. They were celebrating Quintos 39th birthday at the time.

The photo caption read: i never post paparazzi pics  but this one captures the joy of the amazing birthday morning family walk which lead to an incredible day full of gratitude and creativity and love.

i never post paparazzi pics  but this one captures the joy of the amazing birthday morning family walk which lead to an incredible day full of gratitude and creativity and love. thanks for all the well wishes and celebration. i am thankful for such amazing fans and even more amazing friends. not to mention @milesmcmillan and noah and skunk where it all begins and ends. thirty-nine never felt so good!!! A photo posted by Zachary Quinto (@zacharyquinto) on Jun 2, 2016 at 8:18pm PDT

Quinto stars as Commander Spock in the Star Trek films that started in 2009. He is accompanied by co-stars Chris Pine, John Cho, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban. They are all still mourning the death of fellow actor and friend Anton Yelchin, who died during a vehicle-related incident earlier this summer.
Physical pain and health problems are also much higher than for women without ADHD

A new study from the University of Toronto has found that women who suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) are much more likely to have a wide variety of mental and physical illness when compared to women without ADHD. Fully one-third have anxiety disorders. Almost half have considered suicide.

According to Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto, The prevalence of mental illness among women with ADHD was disturbingly high with 46 percent having seriously considered suicide, 36 percent having generalized anxiety disorder, 31 percent having major depressive disorder and 39 percent having substance abuse problems at some point in their life.

Women with ADHD were found to have suicidal thoughts and anxiety disorders more than four times as often as women without the disorder, and twice the amount of substance abuse and major depressive disorders, Fuller-Thomson said.

The study examined 3,908 Canadian women aged 20 to 39. 107 of the women reported that they had been diagnosed with ADHD.. Co-author of the study Danielle A. Lewis said the researchers were surprised at the high levels of physical health problems the women experienced, as well as the mental issues. More than 25 percent said physical pain prohibited at least some of their activities, which was much higher than the 9 percent reported by the participants without ADHD.

Insomnia was also significantly more prevalent in the women with ADHD, 43.9 percent compared to 12.2 percent. Smoking was also higher, 41 percent versus 22 percent.

Fuller-Thomson said that the study unfortunately does not provide information as to why the women with ADHD were so much more vulnerable to physical and mental health issues. It is possible that some of the mental health problems may be caused by and/or contributing to financial stress, she said.

ADHD is often thought of as a disorder affecting young boys, with little relevance for women or girls. The study shows that it is important that health care providers be vigilant in monitoring and treating female patients.
The problem found with "test-and-treat" is finding the people with the virus so they can be treated promptly

Two new studies conducted in South Africa, which suffers from an HIV epidemic, showed promise for immediate treatment, but highlighted the difficulties in carrying it out. The two studies actually had differing outcomes, which researchers at the International AIDS Conference said suggests that translating promising clinical results into real-world success is tricky.

One of the trials was randomized, offering immediate treatment. It found improvements in the results of individual patients but no differences in the HIV incidence in the HIV-negative population of the study. The other study, which also looked at immediate vs. deferred therapy, found that a 45 percent reduction in HIV incidence among people in the patients households could be achieved with early treatment, compared to those household members for whom therapy was delayed.

The randomized trial used home-based visits to find and test people in 22 rural communities near Durban. Those who tested positive for HIV were either offered immediate care or treatment, depending on which area they lived in. The strategy appeared to be feasible and well-accepted by the population. Even though there were some differences in how quickly people were treated, Francois Dabis, MD, PhD, of the Bordeaux School of Public Health, said that by the start of 2016 there was little difference found between the number of people on care and those with a fully suppressed viral load.

Dabis told MedPage Today that the researchers thought that the outreach would be good, which it was in the aspect that several thousand people learned their HIV status, and that many who were HIV-positive began treatment. However, by the start of 2016 there was little difference between the proportion of people with a fully suppressed viral load and those on care. There was also no significant difference in the rate of new HIV cases in the study population: 2.13 cases per 100 person-years in the treatment arm, 2.27 cases in the control arm.

Dabis said the lack of impact on the incidence of HIV cases suggests that a single approach, although good, is not sufficient. He said that one of the issues is that as much as 25 percent of the residents were not reached, mainly due to the migratory nature of the population.

Anton Pozniak, MD, PhD, of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, said finding the people to test-and-treat can be very difficult. Often the people who are high-risk transmitters are not reached, so more people continue to be infected.

The second study included household members who had had at least two HIV tests and were HIV-negative when the treatment for the index patient was begun. The primary endpoint of the analysis was how many household members acquired HIV, but the researchers also analyzed the outcomes of the HIV-positive index patients.

The immediate-treatment patients had a 35 percent lower risk of death and a persistently better improvement in their CD4 cell count. In addition, the early treatment was associated with a 45 percent reduction of the risk of a household member acquiring HIV. Guy Harling, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, said this is likely because of the benefit to sexual partners which is seen in clinical trials, during which the suppression of HIV nearly eliminates transmission to HIV-negative persons.

As in Dabis study, Harlings group of researchers was unable to find a sizable portion of official residents in the region. However, both said that an important part of the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic will be test-and-treat strategies, but acknowledged that other strategies are also needed.
Meanwhile, the State government on Wednesday offered to rebuild the Ambedkar Bhavan with its funding provided the two disputing parties - Dr. Ambedkar's family and the People's Improvement Trust (PIT) - agree to it.

By Vidya : Mumbai sessions court has granted anticipatory bail to the four accused in the Ambedkar Bhavan-demolition case and restrained them from entering Ambedkar Bhavan premises.

The trustees of Peoples improvement trust, Nagsen Sonare, Shrikant Gaware, Abhay Banbole and Uttamrao Omkarbodhawade, had been named in the FIRs as accused along with others, including former IAS officer Ratnakar Gaikwad in the demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan.

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RAGE OVER RAZE

It is believed Ambedkar had used the building as library and a press to print and disseminate literature opposing the caste system. Later, it was also used as a meeting hall, hosting public and private events by Ambedkar followers.

The iconic construction was razed to the ground overnight on June 24 leading to followers of Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar coming out on streets and halting the traffic at Dadar station in Mumbai.

After Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar's grandson, Anandraj Ambedkar, lodged a complaint at the Bhoiwada police station, the four accused had moved to court seeking anticipatory bail.

Meanwhile, the State government on Wednesday offered to rebuild the Ambedkar Bhavan with its funding provided the two disputing parties - Dr. Ambedkar's family and the People's Improvement Trust (PIT) - agree to it.

ALSO READ:

Ambedkar family questions motive behind demolishing Ambedkar Bhavan





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Lotta Losten, who is in the feature, is shown in a scene from the original short film.

When the lights are out, what could be hiding in the shadows? This question is answered in Lights Out, the feature film debut for director David F. Sandberg. The film has an interesting history. The two minute short was made by Sandberg and his wife, Lotta Losten and was submitted to a U.K. short film challenge. Though the film didnt win any awards, Sandberg won the Best Director award. Its YouTube video, however, went viral. Soon enough, Hollywood came calling. The film went viral in late 2014 and in early 2015, Sandberg and Losten were flown to Los Angeles to meet with studio executives. In late 2015, Lights Out was in production and is now being released. For those who may not know, this is an incredibly short time for a film to be made.

The film centers around Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) who moved away from home when her mother Sophie (Maria Bello) began acting strangely after the death of her father. Rebeccas younger stepbrother (Gabriel Bateman) is now exhibiting similar behavior. Much of Sophies problems lie in her insistence that her deceased childhood friend, Diana, whose skin condition kept her living in the dark, is still in their lives. Like many horror directors, David is a horror fan, though his tastes have evolved.

David: Lots of horror movies and stuff. My tastes sort of changed. As I kid, I would watch Nightmare on Elm Street and a lot of Italian horror movies from the 70s and 80s. At that time, I liked gory horror movies. Now Im more interested in suspense and mood and creating something thats not about blood.

Many aspiring filmmakers are faced with the dilemma of how to create a movie with no budget and no resources. David and Lotta had to get creative.

David: What scary thing can we do in an apartment with one actor. Weve all experienced when you turn off the light and a shadow looks like a person and you turn the light back on. What if there actually was someone there every time you turn the lights off.

Lotta: We had just bought that coat rack at the end of the hallway a few days earlier. To go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you have to go through that hallway. It seemed like a human shape at the end of the hallway and youd have to turn on the light to see what it was.

Hollywood is famous for making its rags-to-riches, overnight success stories. Well, David and Lotta are literally living that exact same experience. It wouldnt surprise me if a film is made of their astounding journey.

David: Its such a surreal experience. We made this short film for no money back home in Sweden

Lotta: Just the two of us.

David: for a contest. A few months after that, we didnt make the top six finalists, but I won the best director award. We figured that was it. A few months after that, it blew up online. It was getting millions of views.

Lotta: We didnt know what it meant.

David: Then all these people from Hollywood wanted to talk to us. We were getting contacted by agents and managers and producers and studios. I had to make a spreadsheet of everyone I talked to to keep track of it all. I had to get an imdbPro account just to see who they were. One of the first producers who got in touch with us was Lawrence Grey. I really connected with him and he knew what he was doing. He was really interested in making this into a feature. He had talked to James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring) about making something together and he thought that this could be it. James had seen the short online and really liked it, but he didnt know if there was enough there for a movie. I wrote a treatment about what I wanted the story and the characters to be that Lawrence gave to James and James really liked it. Lawrence flew us out here for a couple weeks to meet with James and James got New Line involved because they have a relationship. It just came together great and really smoothly. People keep saying that, dont get used to it. Thats not how it works.

Lotta: From November in 2014 to March when we flew over here in 2015, we kept waiting and waiting. I had a job and I kept telling them, I might be going to Hollywood for a while but I dont know when, so I will need time off. But [my job] has been a part of this entire story. They had heard about everything that had happened and they wanted to help me as best they could. When Hollywood called and said its happening, I had to quit my job because they couldnt give me any time off. They said, if you come back in a few months, you will get a new job. We kind of realized quickly that we wouldnt be going back in a few months.

David: It happened so fast. We just locked our door and got on a plane. For the first week, the studio paid for our hotel. Then we had to find places on Airbnb.

Lotta: We couldnt get a big lease because we dont have a credit score here and we didnt know how long wed be here so it was month to month. In January, we got a real apartment.

David: We sort of went along on this adventure to see what would happen. When we first got here, we were invited to a party. Furious 7 had just made a billion dollars and they had a party for [director] James [Wan] to celebrate that. We were invited to that when we just got here. We didnt have any money. We had to borrow everything we could from our parents to be able just to afford to stay here. We were invited to this mansion in Beverly Hills and these celebrities were there. We felt like such imposters. Were these broke Swedes who had just gotten into this Hollywood party. We were just standing in a corner speaking Swedish to each other and trying to look like we knew what we were doing.

Lotta: The dress I was wearing was bought at Goodwill. The zipper on the dress broke as I was trying it on that morning. Our neighbor was actually a seamstress and she fixed my dress. She had to sew it on me so I couldnt move it without breaking it. She was also a hair dresser so she fixed my hair. It was so crazy. We were going to this big fancy party and we had no money. It was so new to us.

Since everything else was already happening so fast, David was plugged to direct the feature.

David: It was my first time on a film set. There was so much I didnt know. We were flown halfway across the world. Heres this film team and were going to make a movie. I had to ask the first assistant director, when do I actually say action? I didnt know. This was film school to me to learn how it worked.

Lotta: This all an adventure for us. This is our first press junket. Everything that has happened since we flew over a year and a half ago has been new. We just follow along and see what happens. Maybe in the future, it will really sink in.

David: Its the best time ever to be a filmmaker. You have all these tools available. You can record audio on a recorder and shoot video on an iPhone. Theres no one stopping you from creating these things and you can put them up online where everyone can see them. You also have these communities of everyone sharing their knowledge. You have film school and film exhibition online. You never know what that one thing is that will resonate with people. We had no idea that our little two and a half minute short would lead to all this. That was one short of many we were going to make.

Lotta: Some people think you need someone bigger than you to make something like this. We realized you just need your friends and your family and can make things with what you have. We made lights with IKEA stuff, like a trash can. Out tiny budget caused a lot of limitations that actually created the inspiration for it. We didnt have fancy lighting so we had to have a lot of darkness. You keep getting better and better and keep putting stuff out here and hope you get noticed. You might not go to Hollywood, but maybe youll be famous on YouTube.

David: Ive heard of other people on YouTube getting attention from Hollywood. The only thing you can do is follow your passion.

Lights Out is now in theaters.
Joanna Birriel

By: Mahesh Sarin

(Scroll down for video) A young supermodel has died during a prison riot, during which four prisoners were decapitated, according to police in Guatemala.

24-year-old Joanna Birriel, who moved to the country from Argentina to be closer to her boyfriend, was killed when a prisoner threw a grenade at Byron Lima.

Lima had been serving a 20 year sentence for killing popular Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi, who was an opponent of the military regime.

Gerardi died after being bashed in the head with a brick. He was the head of the human rights division in the catholic church.

According to the police investigation, Lima was killed by a rival gang in prison. Lima was an army captain, and has been one of the most powerful inmates in the prison system.

Trouble started for Lima, when he banned a rival gang from selling drugs in the prison where he was serving his sentence.

The riot occurred at the Granja Pavon Prison. 13 prisoners were killed as a result of the riot and four were decapitated.
Jerson Lopez de Leon

By: Tanya Malhotra

A teenager and his friend were shot after breaking into a home to catch Pokemon while playing Pokemon Go on their cellphones, according to police in Guatemala.

Chiquimula police said that 18-year-old Jerson Lopez de Leon, died after being shot while playing Pokemon Go with his cousin, 17-year-old Daniel Moises Picen.

According to the police investigation, the cousins walked along the train tracks when a van stopped near them. A person in the vehicle opened fire on the teens and they both sustained gunshot wounds.

Police found 20 shell casings at the scene. Leon and Picen were taken to a hospital. Leon died, but Picen was treated and released.

Leonas mother Rosalinda said that her son was in bed when Picen called him and asked to play Pokemon Go. Police confirmed that the two victims had been hunting for the virtual creatures when they were attacked.

Police believe that the teens were shot because they broke into a home to catch Pokemon.
Newborn baby (illustration)

By: Wayne Morin

A woman was arrested on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm after allegedly cutting off the private parts of her stepson because her husband loves his first wife more than her, according to police in Nigeria.

Niger police said that they have arrested 17-year-old Baraaatu Muhammad, after being accused of harming the 23-day-old son of her husband identified as Muhammad Dauda, because she was jealous of the relationship he has with his first wife identified as Basira.

Buhari Muhammad was rushed to the IBB Specialist Hospital, where he is being treated. Doctors said that the bay lost his private parts, but he will survive.

Muhammad was charged with one count of causing grievous bodily harm. She booked into the Minna prison, where she will be held until the police complete their investigation.

Muhammad confessed that she took the child from his mothers room, where he was sleeping. She went with him to the bathroom, where she chopped off his manhood with a kitchen knife.

Muhammad said that she did it to take revenge against the childas mother who insulted her.

She complained that when she told her husband about the insults, he did not take any action, leading her to believe that he loves his first wife more than her.
British Airways flight landing in airport

By: Tanya Malhotra

A plane in the United Kingdom, was forced an emergency landing after the flight crew fell ill due to a strong odor of marijuana.

The British Airways flight was forced to return to Gatwick airport after the marijuana smell got stronger as the flight continued.

Flight BA2552 with 174 passengers was forced to abandon its trip to Heraklion, Greece, and return to the airport after 90 minutes.

When the flight returned, firefighters rushed on board the aircraft to find the source behind the smell.

40-year-old Stuart Barnes, who was on the plane with his wife and kids, said that the marijuana smell was present even before takeoff.

The flight crew told passengers that once the air condition will be turned on, the smell will go away. However, the smell only got worse, and after 90 minutes, the flight crew fell ill.

Barnes said that he has been to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, so he recognized the smell of marijuana, but his kids did not recognize the smell.
A young man wanted to make a point about racism in the United States, but his plan backfired when he was exposed for a liar by police. 20-year-old Khalil Cavil of Texas was working at the Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa when he claimed he was discriminated against because of his Muslim name. Cavil took
This evening a student Navneet while he was crossing the track came under a train and was killed.

All passengers had come out of train before these two bogies were torched.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Following the death of a student who came under a train while crossing the track, mob torched two AC bogies of South Bihar Express in Patna.

The students also jammed the movement of train on both track, up and down.

Police who came to remove the jam were also attacked and the mob pelted stones on the police.

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As a result, the train was stranded for two hours.

No casualties have been reported from the spot of mob-violence. All passengers had come out of train before these two bogies were torched.

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Earlier this month, the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy (CCSCE) released a report titled California Jumps to the Worlds 6th Largest Economy; Leads All States in Growth in 2015. With a whopping $2.46 trillion gross state product (GSP) in 2015, Californias economy is now behind only the US, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, having surpassed France and Brazils gross domestic product (GDP).

The Golden State has also the highest real GSP growth among US states in 2014, at 4.15 percent, well above the national 2.36 percent growth rate. It is also the state with the highest poverty rate, including among children.

The figures should be viewed within the context of the profound changes occurring in the world economy in the last few years, not as the result of a substantial economic development. In 2015, Brazil, not long ago considered one of the leading emerging economies, lost 27 percent of its GDP, while France saw its wealth diminish by 15 percent.

California is home to 131 billionaires, according to Forbes, making it third in the world for number of billionaires, after the US and China. Recent data shows that these individuals collectively own wealth of $560 billion, mostly derived from the tech industry, finance, real estate and media. This is the equivalent of GDP in countries like Argentina and Taiwan.

The most staggering aspect of this data is that California is, at the same time, the state with the highest poverty rate in the US, based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) criterion, with an average of 23.8 percent for the years 2010-2014.

The SPM is considered a more accurate method of poverty measurement since it includes, in addition to income data, items such as tax payments, work expenses, expenditure data on basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing and utilities) and is adjusted for geographic differences in the cost of housing.

Other indexes also show an increasing level of social inequality in California. The Gini coefficient, a measure of statistical dispersion and variance of inequality, ranks California at eighth place. With an index of 0.471, it is one of the most socially polarized states in the US. The most recent data is six years old and, considering a massive rise of living costs since 2010, the states current Gini coefficient is likely much worse.

California also has the highest child poverty rate in the nation. A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that 27 percent of California childrenmore than 1 in 4live in poverty. A nearly equal percentage of children live near the poverty threshold. All told, half of the children in the state are poor or nearly poor.

Skyrocketing rents are the greatest burden on working class families. Exorbitant housing costs represent a veritable crisis for working families, often absorbing more than half of their income. In areas like San Francisco, rent costs are forcing sections of workers to move away from the city. In the case of teachers, this is leading to staff shortages in the classroom.

Home ownership for Millennials is virtually unattainable. A recent survey showed that among this group, 89 percent in San Diego, 83 percent In Los Angeles, and 81 percent in San Francisco see home ownership as unrealistic.

Christopher, a student from Los Angeles, told the WSWS he doesnt think he will ever be able to buy a home: Most definitely not. I cant see that being possible. With the way that housing prices are rising every year, by the time that I feel like I have enough money to even get a nice place, the cost of living will be too high to afford a house.

Rachael, also a student from Los Angeles, struck a similar chord: I had to take out a loan through school to afford rent. I am a full-time student, which makes it difficult to work full-time hours. Housing is so expensive because the state has no affordable housing ordinates set up. Rent control is practically nonexistent.

Rachael also rules out home ownership. Its seriously out of my realm of imagination, she said. For our parents generation being a homeowner was unquestionable, but with my friends its not something we think about or plan for because it feels too unrealistic.

Reality stands in stark contrast to the American Dream. The economic and social crisis has thrown tens of thousands on the streets. Homelessness and food insecurity are so pervasive that a recent study by California State University shows that 8 to 12 percent of students are homeless, and 21 to 24 percent go hungry.

Such levels of poverty and inequality are the direct result of the crisis of the capitalist system and the policies implemented by federal, state and local governments. In fact, inequality is a dominant feature that clearly expresses the systems inability to further develop its productive forces and satisfy human needs, despite record levels of wealth.

The implementation of financial policies like quantitative easing and bank bailouts adopted by the US government in response to the 2008 world financial crisis meant a vast transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top, while social programs such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, public education and welfare were systematically slashed or dismantled.

Similar measures of austerity were also implemented at state level. In California, the brutal budget cuts imposed in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis were never restored despite a much-celebrated surplus in recent years. Public education, state worker benefits, the CalWORKS welfare-to-work program, MediCal and mental health care were all subject to brutal assaults.

Just as at the federal level, where both the Bush and Obama administrations pursued harsh anti-worker policies, California governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown adopted measures aimed at redistributing wealth in favor of the rich, demonstrating the equally destructive role of both big business parties. A crucial instrument for the enforcement of such policies has been the trade union apparatus, fully subordinated to the dictates of capital.

California is a stark example of the diseased state of capitalism, but it is the rule, not the exception. There is plenty of wealth to resolve social problems. There is no reason in the 21st century for child poverty, hunger or homelessness to plague the existence of millions. However, the crisis of capitalism aims at redistributing social wealth for the privilege and benefit of a small oligarchy of ultra-rich.
By Mustafa Shaikh: Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) confirms that Arshid Qureshi, who was arrested on Thursday for allegedly indoctrinating Kerala youths to join IS, is their employee. A source close to IRF which was founded by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik told India Today that Qureshi has been working with them in Mumbai as a guest relations manager.

Qureshi who has been working for several years with IRF was the first person to meet if anyone approached the institution. He was picked from his house in Navi Mumbai on Thursday afternoon.

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Palarivattom police who is investigating the case of missing 21 youths from Kerala who are suspected to have joined Islamic State (IS), recorded statement of Ebin Jacob (25), the brother of Merin alias Mariam, a woman who is missing along with her husband Bestin Vincent alias Yahia.



QURESHI'S INVOLVEMENT IN FORCED CONVERSION

According to sources in IRF, Jacob alleged that he was forced to convert to Islam and join IS in 2014 by his brother-in-law Bestin and Qureshi. He also alleged that his sister was also forcefully converted in IRF by Bestin.

After this statement a case under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and under Section 153 (A) of IPC was registered against Bestin and Qureshi. IRF sources have said that they do not support forceful conversion and Qureshi was not assigned to convert people.

IRF DISMISSES ALLEGATIONS

"Firstly forceful conversions in Mumbai is not possible. Second allegations suggest that the youths were indoctrinated for IS in 2014. Nobody was aware of IS till that time. How can Qureshi sent them to the terrorist organisation two and a half years ago? We think at this point it is just an allegation by some third person, " said a person close to IRF.

He added that Qureshi has been taken to Kochi to record his statement in the case. According to the IRF staffer, Qureshi does not remember any of the names and people mentioned. The non-profit organization's representative said that they will support Qureshi till there is any evidence suggesting his involvement in the case. He further added that the ongoing issues and branding was a part of a conspiracy against IRF.

Also read:

Youth associated with Zakir Naiks foundation arrested



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Europe

Strikes by Greek rail staff

Rail workers organised by the Panhellenic Federation of Rail Workers working for Trainose held a series of rolling three-hour strikes Monday through Wednesday this week, disrupting passenger and freight train traffic. This follows a one-day strike held last week.

The action took place after the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund accepted a bid from Italian state railways, which would give it a 100 percent stake in Trainose. According to press reports, the Italian state railway company paid 45 million for its stake in the Greek rail company.

All-out strike by bus staff in northern England

Bus workers employed by First Bus in Leeds are set to begin an indefinite strike from next Tuesday, July 26. This follows two previous 24-hour strikes by the staff over a pay claim. They were seeking an additional 36p an hour. The company responded with a 38p an hour pay rise, but it would not be implemented until May, 2018. The Unite union, to allow for further discussion with management, suspended a strike scheduled for July 11.

Following the second 24-hour strike, however, First Bus Leeds management has taken an aggressive stance and has dismissed the Unite branch secretary along with two other union activists. An additional 11 workers have been suspended.

Phil Bown, Unite regional officer, told the BBC, The management needs to stop ducking and diving and commit to holding genuine and meaningful talks, otherwise this strike could go on for some time with an adverse impact for bus users in Leedssomething we have desperately sought to avoid.

Around 4,000 bus drivers across Yorkshire working for the First Group in Bradford, Doncaster, Halifax, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Sheffield and York are being balloted by the Unite union for a possible strike over pay, terms and conditions.

Ballot of Scottish bus drivers in Glasgow

Bus drivers working for First Glasgow, part of the First Bus international transport company, are being balloted over possible strike action. The Unite union is balloting its 1,700 members who work for First Glasgow for a strike over staff shortages. Unite says the company has problems recruiting and retaining staff as a result of low starting pay and lack of promotion opportunities. According to Unite, the company is short of some 100 drivers. The union added that this shortage is being exacerbated by the companys failure to recruit enough temporary staff to cover its one-month contract to provide a replacement bus service while the citys underground rail system is upgraded.

Scottish rail staff to hold further strikes

Rail staff employed by Scotrail have announced a further two 24-hour strikes. They will be on Sunday July 24 and Sunday July 31. The members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have held previous strikes over the issue of increasing the use of driver-only trains, dispensing with guards (the driver being responsible for closing the doors). Some suburban trains currently operate on a driver-only basis.

The strikes follow the breakdown of talks under the auspices of the government reconciliation service (ACAS).

UK oil rig workers to strike

Around 400 employees of the Wood Group, an engineering contractor for eight Shell oil and gas offshore platforms, are to strike on July 26 in response to the companys proposals to cut pay by 30 percent and changes to allowances. The rig workers, members of the RMT and Unite unions, voted almost unanimously to strike.

Irish ambulance staff to strike

Irish ambulance staff, working for the National Ambulance Service (NAS), have voted by a 92 percent margin to strike.

They are members of the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU). The all-out strike is due to begin at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, August 8. The union will provide emergency cover during the period of the strike.

There are a series of issues, which according to a SIPTU official, include compensation due to them under the public service agreement, the implementation of a fully developed Intermediate Care Service as recommended by the Labour Court and the application of an annualised hours system.

Another SIPTU official told the press, In recent years, our members changed work practices and achieved significant cost savings so that the NAS could develop within the financial constraints place upon it by the wider economic recession. Our members have not received any recognition for the sacrifices they made.

Bus drivers in Dublin to be balloted

Bus drivers in the Irish capital of Dublin are seeking a 30 percent pay rise to bring them in line with drivers on the Dublin tram system LUAS. The Irish Labour Court has ruled they get a lower increase of 8.25 percent over the next three years. The members of the National Bus & Rail Union (NBRU) are to be balloted over the Labour Courts ruling. Rejection could lead to a strike.

Spanish pilots set date for strike

Pilots belonging to the Spanish Union of Airline Pilots (SEPLA) have announced four days of strikes beginning July 30. They are opposed to plans by Air Europa to create a new low-cost airline, Air Europa Express, using 11 of its current fleet. The new airline will take over some of Air Europas current routes. Air Europa pilots fear the new service will employ pilots on lower pay and worse conditions.

Other issues raised include alleged discrimination against some pilots who have raised concerns over the plans and the arbitrary adjustment of work schedules.

Africa

Farmworkers in Namibia oppose harassment and poor wages

Namibian farmworkers are continuing their strike against Desert Fruit Namibia. Workers held a demonstration outside the companys premises last Friday after walking out, demanding an N$30 (US$2) a day increase and an enhancement in their housing allowances.

Reports claim management treat workers like animals and pay them poorly. When they complain, they are told there are many other people seeking jobs. Management claimed the company was not making a profit and if employees achieved their demands they would have to reduce the workforce by 50 percent.

The company followed up by declaring the strike illegal and threatened that they would hold workers responsible for their loss of earnings. Strikers had proclaimed an indefinite strike while the union agreed to a return to work.

Parliamentary staff in South Africa denied bonuses

A strike in South Africas parliament that went to the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has been ruled out of order. The National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) went out on strike last year over bonus payments and threatened to return to the walkout if the denial of workers compensation continued.

The action was turned over to the CCMA, which ruled against the union. The ruling asserts that parliament was right to degrade the bonus payment conditions in the light of the legislatures failure to meet its spending targets.

The CCMA also assumed that as there were few complaints from union members over the change in bonus payments in 2015, the union did not have the support of its membership. The union plans to march on parliament each day until they change their position and implement the agreement that brought the 2015 strike to an end.

The African National Congress (the ruling party) has supported the decision of the CCMA against the parliamentary workers. NEHAWU says it will support the ANC in upcoming elections but their decision will make it difficult.

Ghanaian Pharmacists set to strike

Ghanaian pharmacists are threatening some industrial action if the Health Authority does not deal with their demands. The demands are for the fair implementation of the Interim Market Premium (IMP), a premium payment for retaining skilled labour, introduced in 2013.

One complaint is that pharmacists in the public universities have benefitted much more than those in the Ghana health service. The pharmacists feel they have been left out of the benefits of IMP, while other workers in the health service have been receiving the premium since the beginning of the year.

An inquiry looking into their situation should have reported in May but is constantly being delayed. A spokesman for the pharmacists insisted they are essential service workers and we demand that we are treated as such.

Ghana airline workers oppose government land grab

Airline workers employed by Ghana Aviation Authority have taken strike action to demand the proper use of encroached lands.

The land was taken into public ownership to install flight-monitoring technology to improve safety. In 2007, politicians and private developers acquired part of the land and a gated community was built. Aviation workers are insisting the whole 650 acres be used for the installation of the safety equipment. Currently, the equipmentworth over half a million eurosis stored in sheds. The government has offered just two acres.

Domestic airline operators are complaining that the strike is only affecting Ghanaian national airlines, but not international airlines. The strikers say they are prepared to extend their action to include international flights.
Immediately after Mondays bloody attack on train passengers in southern Germany by a 17-year-old Afghan refugee, Green Party politician Renate Kunast spoke out. In a Twitter message, she queried why the attacker had been shot to death rather than incapacitated.

Her Twitter account was subsequently bombarded with ugly denunciations and aggressive hate mail. Any critique of the actions of the police, who killed the attacker with a shot to the head, is to be suppressed.

Particularly aggressive was the response of the head of the German police union, Rainer Wendt. He said the police were very well trained and knew exactly what had to be done in such dangerous situations. We dont need any parliamentary smart asses, he said in a discussion with television channel N24. Perhaps one should recommend in principle that in such situations, politicians should not tweet for 24 hours, he suggested to Kunast in the Saarbrucker Zeitung .

That a parliamentary deputy had dared to question the activities of the security forces threw Wendt into a rage. He repeated in several interviews, It is an extremely stupid question, one must say. From clueless politicians. And it is actually really annoying as well (N24 interview).

Renate Kunast is an executive member of the Greens and has been an elected member of the German parliament since 2002. She was minister for food, agriculture and consumer protection in the SPD/Green government led by Gerhard Schroder. She is currently chairwoman of the parliamentary legal affairs committee and one of 12 members of the elections committee, which determines the appointment of half of the judges on the Constitutional Court.

The WSWS does not support the Greens and has often and repeatedly sharply criticised their politics. But Kunasts query about the actions of the police is entirely justified. According to prior reports, the 17-year-old attacker was fleeing. He did not have a firearm and had taken no hostages. No information has thus far been provided to suggest an immediate threat to the police or an emergency situation. Why the well-trained officers of the special forces command (SEK) unit could not subdue the young attacker without killing him remains unclear.

The final and fatal shot, i.e., the intentional use of lethal force by the police, is strictly regulated by law. It is permitted only when the use of non-lethal weapons offers no realistic prospect of success. The security forces are obliged to give an account of the circumstances of the shooting of the attacker.

The strict control of the police and all security forces by parliament is among the fundamental principles of parliamentary democracy. If such parliamentary oversight is abolished, the door is wide open to police arbitrariness and dictatorship.

The arrogant declarations by police union leader Wendt are utterly unacceptable. Wendt obviously cannot wait to shake off parliamentary oversight of the security forces and do away with democratic structures. His denunciation of the chair of the parliamentary legal affairs committee as a parliamentary smart ass is an attack on all elected democratic institutions. Wendt is also joining a long reactionary historical tradition.

It is well known that Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to enter the Reichstag, dismissing it as the Reichs theatre of apes or the gossip shop. Adolf Hitler described the Reichstag as a heap of blockheads and weaklings arbitrarily thrown together. Wendts diatribe against parliamentary wiseacres recalls this tradition.

The police union leader has repeatedly spouted reactionary and stupid statements. In October 2010, he praised the brutal use of water cannons, batons and pepper spray by the Stuttgart police against demonstrators protesting against the controversial Stuttgart 21 construction project, stating, The methods used by the police must include weapons which cause pain, only then do they have an effect. Up to 400 demonstrators were injured at the time.

One year later, Wendt demanded the accelerated introduction of temporary Internet data storage by the state, accusing the federal government of hindering the work of the intelligence agencies. And last year, Wendt demanded a stable border fence to effectively secure Germanys external borders and direct the flood of refugees in a supposedly orderly manner.

However, his latest attack on the parliamentary system is qualitatively different. Wendt speaks on behalf of sections of the security apparatus that are acting with increasing independence and view parliamentary oversight committees with growing hostility.

Similar behaviour was displayed by security representatives at a parliamentary committee investigating the NSU terrorist attacks. Although it has already been proved that the security agencies had at least two-dozen informants around the right-wing terrorist National Socialist Underground, which was responsible for the murder of nine immigrants and a police officer, the security agencies sought to block the work of the investigative committee.

Files were shredded, blacked out or withheld. Witnesses refused to answer, became mysteriously ill, received no authorisation to testify from their political superiors or treated the committee with unconcealed arrogance.

Wendts agitation against parliamentary smart asses makes clear that the security apparatus is increasingly acting independently. Although it is made up of authorities bound by directives, it is functioning as a state within a state.

This development has emerged over a prolonged period. It is directly connected with the return of German militarism, which leading representatives of the federal government announced two-and-a-half years ago. Ever since then, a systematic build-up of the state apparatus has taken place, accompanied by attacks on democratic rights.

Already, the strategy paper New Power, New Responsibilities, which prepared the foreign policy shift, contains a lengthy section on the domestic state dimension of German foreign policy. It concentrated on the question of how problems of legitimacy and opposition from a sceptical public could be overcome. In other words: how the opposition to militarism and war could be suppressed.

The return of militarism is directly bound up with the return of police arbitrariness and domestic state repression. It is significant that nobody within the political or media establishment has responded to the police union leaders reactionary attack.

Instead, Kunast was also criticised from her own ranks for the tweet. In such a situation, only the police can decide and determine how they have to deal with it, Greens foreign policy spokesman Omid Nouripour told N24, adding, And we must have the fundamental trust that in a difficult situation, they will do the right thing. That cant be judged from afar.

Kunasts statement was made in the heat of the moment, and had been not particularly clever, said Nouripour.
One week after the abortive military coup to overthrow Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, there remains no doubt that Washington had a major hand in the bloody events that shook Istanbul and Ankara.

Turkish military commanders with the closest ties to the Pentagon have been directly implicated in the attempted overthrow, including the commander of the Incirlik air base, where the US stores its largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in Europe and from which it carries out its bombing campaign against Iraq and Syria. Multiple aircraft supporting the coup flew out of Incirlik under the eyes of the US military. After it became apparent that the coup would fail, the Turkish base commander asked the US for asylum.

It emerged Wednesday that a warning of the impending coup had come from Russia, which relayed intercepted radio communications between the coup plotters to Turkeys National Intelligence Organization, known as the MIT. The warning was shared with the Turkish president in time for him to flee barely a half an hour in advance of a special operations squad sent to the seaside resort where Erdogan was vacationing with the mission of either killing or capturing him.

Is it plausible that the CIA and the US military, with their massive deployment in the region and the worlds most extensive electronic surveillance network at their disposal, would not have been aware of the same communications?

If they werent relayed to the Turkish government by the American military and intelligence apparatus, the reason is clear. They were in on the coup plot. Obama didnt want Erdogan warned; he wanted him dead.

Then there was Washingtons original reaction to the coup, which came from Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Moscow. Kerry limited himself to expressing American hopes for stability and peace and continuity within Turkey. There was no mention of defending a democratically elected government against military overthrow, not to mention any expression of concern for the fate of the countrys president, Erdogan.

What precisely Kerry was referring to in voicing support for continuity within Turkey can only be understood in the context of the last 70 years of US-Turkish relations. In 1947, at the outset of the Cold War, the US promulgated the Truman Doctrine, committing itself to the defense of both Greece and Turkey against what it alleged was Soviet aggression.

US aid, military advisors and an aircraft carrier group were rushed to Turkey to assist it in rebuffing Moscows demand for free passage through the Turkish Straits, the strategic passage connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. In 1952, Turkey was brought into NATO and, over the course of four decades, remained a pivotal country in the US military drive against the Soviet Union.

In the interests of maintaining this continuity, Washington supported a series of military coups in Turkey, the first in 1960 against Turkeys prime minister, Adnan Menderes, whose fate (he was hung) was sealed after he turned to Moscow for economic aid.

Erdogan, first as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, and then as president, has posed similar problems. In the interests of securing the grip of his right-wing Islamist party, the AKP, he has pursued a nationalist policy that has repeatedly antagonized Washington. In 2003, Turkey refused to allow the US to use its soil to attack Iraq. In 2010, it failed to back the US drive for UN sanctions against Iran. And in 2013, it shocked Washington and NATO by announcing plans to purchase a Chinese anti-missile system.

Relations have further deteriorated over the war for regime change in Syria, where Turkey is the principal backer of Islamist militias tied to Al Qaeda, while Washington has increasingly solidified ties with Syrias Kurdish militia, which is in turn aligned with the PKK, the Turkish Kurdish movement with which Ankara is at war.

Most recently, there is Erdogans apology to Moscow over the deliberate shoot-down of a Russian warplane in November 2015 and a move toward rapprochement with the government of Vladimir Putin.

In the wake of the coup, Erdogan spoke with Putin well before a phone call with Obama. And, in a conversation Tuesday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Erdogan declared, We are determined to resolve regional issues by joining hands with Iran and Russia, and with our efforts to return peace and stability to the region.

US imperialism has no intention of brooking such a strategic realignment in the region. Resort to an attempted military coup was no doubt a criminally reckless policy. If it had succeeded, the likely result would have been a civil war and a death toll that would have made the bloody US-backed coup in Egypt pale by comparison.

US imperialism has already wrecked Iraq, Libya and Syria, killing and maiming millions in pursuit of its geo-strategic interests, so why not Turkey as well?

The tensions with Turkey have emerged in the context of a global eruption of American militarism. The coup took place barely one week after a NATO summit in Warsaw outlined plans to execute a massive escalation of military deployments on Russias western border and preparations for a direct, i.e., nuclear, confrontation with Moscow.

In Asia, US imperialism has made it clear it intends to use a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration against Chinese claims in the South China Sea as the pretext for a major military escalation against Beijing.

To that end, the Obama administration dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to Australia to deliver bellicose speeches threatening China with US military might and, more pointedly, to instruct the Australians that, whether they liked it or not, they would be dragged into the US war preparations. Its never a good bet to bet against the United States, he threatened.

The US is moving toward a military confrontation on a scale not seen since the end of the Second World War. It is determined to crush all obstacles in the path of its war plans. Great shocks are coming in the wake of the American November elections, if not even before.

The growth of militarism and preparations for world war are incompatible with the maintenance of democratic forms of rule anywhere on the planet. The drive to war is intensifying and accelerating a turn toward dictatorial methods in country after country, a turn that is rooted in the profound crisis of world capitalism and the unchecked growth of social inequality and class tensions in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown.

In Turkey itself, the defeat of the imperialist-backed coup has spelled not some flowering of democracy, but the consolidation of a right-wing dictatorship in which Erdogan has arrogated to himself the power to rule by decree, while carrying out the arrest and firing of tens of thousands of people thought to oppose him and moving to restore the death penalty.

In answer to moralizing capitalist critics in the West, the Turkish president has retorted that he is only doing the same thing as French President Francois Hollande, who is now ruling under what is becoming a permanent state of emergency, imposed on the pretext of combatting terrorism but directed against mounting social tensions and working class unrest.

Whether the abortive coup of July 15 marks the end of the attempts by the Turkish military to seize power is itself an open question. With fully one-third of its general staff under arrest, the countrys armed forces are in a state of turmoil. Moreover, Washington is not about to passively permit Turkey to drift out of its strategic orbit.

The Turkish events have provided a stark lesson for the working class. It is impossible to defend basic social and democratic rights outside of a unified international struggle against imperialist war and militarism and the capitalist system in which they are rooted.
India and Pakistan have issued sharply divergent responses to the July 12 ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague on the South China Sea. This divide underscores the extent to which South Asias nuclear powers have been drawn into the explosive geo-political conflict between the US and China, adding a further incendiary charge to their already highly combustible rivalry.

The PCAs unanimous ruling was very favorable to the Philippine governments US-backed challenge to Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea. Although the Hague court has no legal authority to rule on territorial disputes, it effectively did that. It dismissed Chinas historical claims to much of the South China Sea, asserted that Beijings rights over the waters surrounding the reefs and islets under its control are very limited, and condemned Chinas land reclamation projects.

Following last weeks ruling, India quickly issued a series of statements that parroted Washingtons stance on the South China Sea dispute and promoted the PCA and the UN Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS), on which the court claimed to have based its ruling. Pakistan, meanwhile, has sided with China, arguing that the territorial disputes in the South China Sea should be resolved through negotiations among the states directly involved and calling on all other powers to refrain from interfering.

On July 13, Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a statement that noted the PCA ruling. It went on to frame the dispute in the terms laid down by Washington as revolving around freedom of navigation and overflight and concluded by calling for utmost respect for UNCLOS. India, declared the MEA statement, supports freedom of navigation and over flight and unimpeded commerce, based on principles of international law as reflected notably in UNCLOS.

The next day, India joined with Japan, the USs principal ally in Asia, to support the PCA ruling and launch a new maritime strategic dialogue as part of their Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership. The joint statement that was issued following talks between Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his visiting Japanese counterpart, Gen Nakatani, sought to cast Beijing as a threat to order and international law. The defence ministers, said the statement, had expressed concern over recent developments in the seas connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They had, it continued, reaffirmed the importance of respecting international law, as reflected notably in the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas (UNCLOS), of the peaceful settlement of the disputes without any threat or use of force, and of ensuring freedom and safety of navigation and over-flight as well as unimpeded lawful commerce in international waters.

Washingtons claimparroted by Tokyo and New Delhithat it is upholding freedom of navigation in the South China Sea against an aggressive China is a false narrative, concocted so as to provide the pretext for a dramatic escalation of US military pressure on China. The real right the US is seeking to assert is the freedom to position its warships so that they can seize Indian Ocean and South China Sea chokepoints and impose an economic blockade on China in the event of a war or war crisis.

The US has long been working to integrate India ever more fully into its anti-China pivot to Asia. In March, the head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, publicly called for the US and Indian navies to mount joint patrols throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including the South China Sea.

Under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that ruled India for 10 years ending in 2014, New Delhi forged a global strategic partnership with Washington and signed a defence cooperation pact that saw the Pentagon become the Indian militarys closest training partner, and the US Indias biggest supplier of new weapons and weapons systems.

The two year-old government of Narendra Modi and his Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has aligned India even more closely with Washington, transforming it into a veritable frontline state in the US drive to strategically isolate and encircle China. In January 2015, Modi and Obama issued a Joint Indo-US Strategic Vision for the Indo-Pacific that incorporated the US position on the South China Sea lock-stock-and-barrel. In June, Modi and Obama announced they had finalized the text of an agreement to allow the Pentagon to make routine use of Indian military bases for the refueling and resupply of its planes and warships, as well as to forward position material.

Despite all this, India continues to posture as strategically autonomous, so as to exploit Chinas hopes it can yet dissuade New Delhi from becoming a junior partner of US imperialism; and, above all, so as to prevent the Indian people from realizing the extent to which India is now harnessed to the USs strategic agenda and the terrible dangers that this entails.

Thus New Delhi is claiming that its stand on The Hague decision is not directed against China. This is not an issue of being in favor or against any particular country, said MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup. It is about the use of the global commons. It is not a matter of politics, it is a matter of law.

Indian military-strategic analysts have been far less circumspect, with many enthusiastically welcoming the PCA ruling as an opportunity for India to aggressively pursue its strategic ambitions.

With the PCA negating Chinese claims over South China Sea, Indian naval warships can now move through the region under UNCLOS without informing the Chinese, declared Indian Express columnist Sushant Singh. He urged the Modi government to use the ruling to further develop Indias military-strategic ties with the US and its allies in the Asia-Pacific and thereby boost Indias great power ambitions, including securing a major role in policing the Indian Ocean.

Asserting the PCA judgment, wrote Singh, is an opportunity for New Delhi to assure its friends and allies in the region that it believes in the principle of freedom of navigation ... This will enhance Indias credibility and reputation as a maritime power in the region.

The Times of India s Indrani Bagchi termed The Hague ruling a sweet verdict for India, adding it was greeted with much satisfaction by New Delhi.

Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary, called The Hague decision a damning indictment of Beijing and said China would appear as a rogue state should it fail to abide by it.

Dr. Mohan Malik, an Indian-born academic now affiliated with US government-sponsored Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, urged India to use the ruling to expand its economic and security ties with South-East Asia, including with Vietnam, which has awarded Indias state-owned oil company exploration rights in South China Sea waters claimed by Beijing. Writing in the Times of India, Malik said, The (Hague) verdict is a welcome development for Indias economic and strategic interests. It provides legal and diplomatic cover for increased Indian naval engagement with other South-East Asian countries.

For decades Pakistan was Washingtons principal ally in South Asia. But with the US now building up its arch-rival India as a counterweight to Chinaincluding by securing it access to civilian nuclear trade, offering it the USs most advanced weapons, and helping boost its economic and strategic ties with East Asia and AfricaPakistan has been thrown into a strategic crisis.

Islamabads response has been to deepen its longstanding alliance with Beijing, Pakistans so-called all-weather friend. But this is only heightening frictions with both Washington and New Delhi.

Nevertheless, Pakistan quickly made clear its support for Chinas position on how the South China Sea dispute should be resolved. On the very day of the ruling, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said, Pakistan opposes any imposition of unilateral will on others and respects Chinas statement of optional exception in light of Article 298 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Endorsing Chinas opposition to the intervention of outside powers, particularly the US, in the South China Sea dispute, Zakaria added: Countries outside the region should fully respect efforts made by China and the ASEAN countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, and play a constructive role to this end.

To the dismay of Islamabad, the US has ratcheted up pressure on Pakistan in recent months, demanding it shoulder still more of the burden in the Afghan counter-insurgency war, which has fueled an Islamist-tribal insurgency in large swathes of Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

In late May, the US violated Pakistan red lines to kill the Talibans political leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in the process deliberately blowing up Islamabads efforts to entice the Taliban into peace talks.

In a clear indication of a further deterioration of US-Pakistani relations, the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing under the title, Pakistan: Friend or Foe? the same day The Hague ruling was delivered. Although Pakistans logistical support has been vital for maintaining the 15-year US occupation of Afghanistan, Congressmen and witnesses alike used the hearing to rail against Pakistan. Several lawmakers called for the US to cut off all assistance to Pakistan, for failing to do Washingtons bidding. Some even urged Pakistan be declared a state sponsor of terrorism.
The attempt to remove UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is being spearheaded by right-wing supporters of former Labour leader Tony Blair. These forces, who aim to either take over or destroy the Labour Party and set up a new right-wing party, are working in intimate collusion with the security services in Britain and the United States.

The plot was enacted immediately after the June 23 referendum vote for Britain to leave the EU. The organisers of the putsch seek to reverse the referendum result and re-fashion the Labour Party as the central tool to carry this out.

Among those playing a leading role against Corbyn is Labour MP Ruth Smeeth. She was elected as a Labour MP at the 2015 general election, after working in public relations at multinational food and facilities management company, Sodexo. She later worked in public relations for Nestle. In between, she held a post with the pro-Israel lobby group, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).

On June 27, Smeeth resigned her position in Corbyns shadow cabinet as Parliamentary Private Secretary for the shadow Northern Ireland and Scotland teams. This was part of more than 60 coordinated resignations from Corbyns shadow cabinet organised by the plotters, with the aim of precipitating a no- confidence vote and forcing his resignation.

Corbyn refused to resign.

On June 30, Smeeth staged a stunt at a press conference where Corbyn was launching a report into the manufactured claims from Labours right wing that the party under his leadership was anti-Semitic. Smeeth stormed out of the meeting, with her office later claiming she had been reduced to tears. She made an official complaint to the party after claiming, a Jeremy Corbyn supporter had used traditional anti-Semitic slurs to attack me for being part of a media conspiracya reference to a statement that she was working with the Daily Telegraph.

Smeeth claimed that under Corbyn, Labour was not a safe space for British Jews. She called on Corbyn to stand down as leader immediately and make way for someone with the backbone to confront racism and anti-Semitism in our party and in the country.

Smeeth describes herself as a lifelong Labour Party campaigner, a former trade union officer and activist.

What is generally not known is that she was identified by WikiLeaks, via a US embassy diplomatic cable, as a strictly protect US informant.

The cable, dated April 24, 2009, was one of more than 251,287 made public by WikiLeaks and is headed UK POLITICAL SNAPSHOT. It notes, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Burton [the seat she contested and lost, prior to winning another in 2015] Ruth Smeeth (strictly protect) told us April 20 that [former Labour Prime Minister Gordon] Brown had intended to announce the elections on May 12, and hold them after a very short (matter of weeks) campaign season.

The cable ends: (Note: This information has not been reported in the press.)

The cable testifies to the intimate connections that Labours plotters have to the US state and intelligence agencies. However, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Ruth Smeeth is married to Michael Smeeth, a member of the executive body of the British-American Project (BAP). The BAP describes itself as a transatlantic fellowship of over 1,000 leaders, rising stars and opinion formers from a broad spectrum of occupations, backgrounds and political views.

A November 2004 Guardian article noted that the BAP, which was essential in the formation of Blairs New Labour, has been described as a Trojan horse for US foreign policy.

The article reported that following Blairs first election victory in 1997, BAP released a private circular headlined, Big Swing To BAP. The circular stated, No less than four British-American Project fellows and one advisory board member have been appointed to ministerial posts in the new Labour government.

These included Mo Mowlam, Chris Smith, Peter Mandelson, Baroness Symons, George Robertson, Jonathan Powell, Geoff Mulgan, and Matthew Taylor.

Mandelson was Blairs closest adviser. Powell was Blairs chief of staff and was previously posted at the British Embassy in Washington in 1991. Robertson, now a life peer as Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, was Blairs Defence Secretary. He became NATO Secretary General from October 1999 to January 2004. Symons was Blairs Minister for the Middle East, International Security, Consular and Personal Affairs in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Guardian named another Blairite, Douglas Alexander, then Foreign Office and Trade Minister, as a BAP member. David Miliband, the brother of Ed Miliband, Corbyns predecessor as Labour leader, was another BAP member.

The BAP includes a number of prominent UK and US journalists and broadcasters among its membership. A UK journalist, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, told the Guardian of one BAP conference: The amount of drink, the way you were treated, the dinners with everyone who was anyone. ... Jonathan Powell [Tony Blairs chief of staff] used to come a lot. I remember having many an argument with him beside swimming pools in white towelling dressing gowns. ... It was money that Id never seen at any conference before. We [the participants] used to joke, This is obviously funded by the CIA.

The BAP is certainly well financed. Journalist John Pilger wrote in a December 2007 article published in the New Statesman, Since 1985, BAP alumni and fellows have been brought together courtesy of Coca-Cola, Monsanto, Saatchi & Saatchi, Philip Morris and British Airways, among other multinationals.

The BAP was established in 1985 under the US Republican administration of Ronald Reagan with a mission to perpetuate the close relationship between the United States and Britain. Reagan said, A special concern being addressed by the BAP was cultivating the successor generations, as these younger people are the ones who will have to work together in the future on defence and security issues.

Pilger notes, Attending this ceremony [where Reagan spoke] in the White House Situation Room were the ideologues [media oligarch] Rupert Murdoch and the late James Goldsmith.

Labourite Nick Butler was central to the BAPs formation. The Guardian article states that he was treasurer of the influential left-leaning pressure group the Fabian Society and a promising junior player in the Labour party. It cites Butler as saying, The UK was in a bad state. ... America seemed much more dynamic, full of ideas, open.

He continued, My perspective then was that my generationI would have been described as rightwing in the 1982 Labour partywere totally stifled here. No prospect of being in power.

Between 1982 and the BAPs first conference in 1985, Butler secured the support of Sir Charles Villiers, a liberal Tory businessman; the US embassy in London, which gave Butler a grant to go to Washington to test reactions to the BAP idea; and the Pew Charitable Trusts, a very large and wealthy American foundation.

Butler spent 29 years with the BP, including five years as Group Vice President for Policy and Strategy Development from 2002 to 2006. The Guardian notes that such was the warmth of its relations with Downing Street that during his time as BP, it become known as Blair Petroleum.

Efforts to depose Corbyn were ramped up this week, with three quarters of Labour MPs voting for the renewal of Britains Trident nuclear weapons system. In the debate, various Blairites lined up to make clear that Labour is an unswerving ally of US imperialism and an advocate of nuclear war.

Smeeth stated that Britain had to embrace our responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and as a founder member of the NATO alliance. ... From Major [Clement] Attlees support for Churchill in our countrys darkest hour to the founding of NATO under Ernest Bevin, our party has always stood up first and foremost for the security of our nationwe do now, and we always will.

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The anti-Corbyn coup and calls for a second referendum on Brexit

[1 July 2016]
During his visit to New Zealand yesterday, US Vice President Joe Biden formally accepted an invitation for the US Navy to send a warship to the 75th anniversary celebrations of the NZ Navy in November. Prime Minister John Key said the ships arrival would be a further demonstration of the strength of our close relationship, our friendship and our shared values.

The decision marks a significant strengthening of US-New Zealand military ties as part of the Obama administrations aggressive pivot or rebalance to Asia and preparations for war against China. Bidens two-day stop in New Zealand followed a four-day visit to Australia, where he underscored US-Australian military relations and gave a belligerent speech asserting that America would use its unparalleled military strength to ensure the sea lanes are secure and the skies remain open.

At a press conference in New Zealand Biden similarly stated: We are a Pacific power, we have always been a Pacific power, we are going nowhere ... Whether or not we continue to prosper and live in peace depends on our ability to maintain a free and fair and open and liberal international system on the seas, in the skies and with free and open commerce.

These thinly-veiled threats are aimed at Beijing. Following the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in The Hague on July 12 rejecting Chinas longstanding claims in the South China Sea, Washington has begun ramping up pressure on its allies to collaborate in its military provocations against Beijing. On the fraudulent pretexts of defending freedom of navigation and the international rules-based system, the US ruling elite is determined to subordinate the entire region to its interests.

The US naval visit would be the first to New Zealand in 33 years. During the 1980s, the Labour Party government of Prime Minister David Lange effectively banned such visits when it introduced legislation making New Zealand nuclear-free. The US refuses, as a matter of policy, to confirm or deny whether its warships are nuclear-powered or armed. In 1985, Lange turned down a request for the destroyer USS Buchanan to dock in New Zealand because of uncertainty about its status.

Now, in defiance of widespread anti-war sentiment, the entire NZ political establishment is embracing the full restoration of military ties, essentially brushing aside the anti-nuclear policy. The public will have no way of knowing whether the ship is nuclear-capable. Key vaguely said he would take advice from NZ officials to ensure the nuclear-free legislation is complied with. However, Biden has not specified what sort of ship will visit New Zealand and the US will continue its policy of not confirming or denying if its ships and aircraft are nuclear armed. The event will set a precedent for more naval visits as tensions escalate in the region.

The opposition Labour Party warmly welcomed the forthcoming US warship visit. Deputy leader Annette King absurdly sought to portray Bidens announcement as an acceptance of our nuclear-free status which is core to our identity and has defined us a nation for 30 years.

Green Party co-leader James Shaw today told Newstalk ZB he supported the US ship visit because the government would be able to determine if it was nuclear-armed. Former Greens co-leader Russel Norman, now executive director of the environmental group Greenpeace, also welcomed the announcement, saying the US warship would visit NZ on our terms.

These statements underscore the opposition parties support for US imperialism in Asia and the shift to the right by a whole layer of middle class ex-protest leaders. Greenpeace played a major role in the protests against nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific and ship visits during the 1980s. Today, Norman hailed the return of US warships as a historic victory for people power.

The Labour Party held its own private talks with Biden, which undoubtedly discussed stronger military ties. Labours foreign affairs spokesman David Shearer told TVNZ on Wednesday that with the growth of China and the expansion of Chinas influence into the Pacific, the United States is looking more closely at the Pacific and their allies.

The Labour Party bears the main responsibility for restoring full military relations with Washington.

The 1980s Lange governments vocal opposition to nuclear weapons caused a public rift with the US. Behind the scenes, however, Labour oversaw a major expansion in New Zealands spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), which collaborates with the US National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the Five Eyes alliance. Last year Edward Snowden revealed that the GCSB has been spying on Chinese officials on behalf of the NSA.

The 19992008 Labour government of Helen Clarkwho is seeking US support to become the next United Nations secretary-generalsent troops to join Bushs criminal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The lengthy deployment to Afghanistan was supported by the fake left Alliance Party and, eventually, by the Greens.

Following the Obama administrations announcement of its pivot against China, NZ Labour and its allies have repeatedly sought to whip up anti-Chinese xenophobia. Along with the right-wing NZ First and Maori nationalist Mana Party, Labour has scapegoated Chinese buyers for the countrys housing crisis. The trade union bureaucracy joined the denunciations of China just days before Bidens visit after media reports accused Beijing of dumping substandard steel in New Zealand.

New Zealands National Party government has taken a less openly belligerent approach and is wary of alienating China, New Zealands second-largest trading partner. It has refrained from criticising Chinas claims in the South China Sea. At the same time, the government is ramping up New Zealands involvement with US plans for confrontation. A recent Defence White Paper announced $20 billion would be spent on new military hardware to improve interoperability with the US and Australia. The document openly endorsed the US rebalance to Asia. The government has increased military training exercises with the US and sent troops to support the war in Iraq.

Like its Australian counterpart, the New Zealand capitalist class has relied since World War II on US backing to maintain its own neo-colonial sphere of dominance in the Pacific region, where it views Chinese efforts to gain influence as illegitimate. It has now fully embroiled the population in US preparations for a catastrophic war between nuclear-armed powers.
Security establishments feel that AAP MP allegedly exposed the security apparatus set up right from the Vijay Chowk, opposite Parliament, till the main gate of the building.

Bhagwant Mann had showed in the video how many layers of security a car with MP tag passes through from Vijay Chowk to the main entrance of the main building.

By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to suggest upgrading the security in Parliament complex after AAP MP Bhagwant Mann uploaded a video of Parliament's internal security on social media.

There is a feeling in the security establishments that the AAP MP allegedly exposed the security apparatus set up from the Vijay Chowk, opposite Parliament, till the main gate of the building.

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Under Vehicle Surveillance System (UVSS) delivers the full picture of a vehicle's entire width and length and the Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFITs) identify and track tags attached to objects and individuals.

Mann had showed in the video how many layers of security a car with an MP tag passes through from Vijay Chowk to the main entrance of the main building.

LOK SABHA SPEAKER SAYS 'MERE APOLOGY' BY AAP MP WON'T RESOLVE ISSUE

Taking a stern view of AAP MP Bhagwant Mann uploading a video of Parliament's internal security on social media, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today said that it is "a serious issue" which cannot be resolved by a "mere apology".

Mahajan said that action on the issue would be taken after consulting members of all political parties.

"When he (Mann) met me, he said he is ready to apologise, but the issue isn't something that can be resolved by mere apology," Mahajan told reporters.

"All members are agitated. It is a matter of security of the Parliament. I would have taken a prompt decision if it had been inside the House. It is a serious issue. I am talking to everyone as to what action should be taken," she said.

Earlier, Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till Monday by the Speaker following pandemonium in the House as members, rising above party lines, demanded immediate action against the AAP member.

ALSO READ:

MPs slam AAP leader Bhagwant Mann for posting Parliament video on social media

Bhagwant Mann extends unconditional apology to Speaker for Parliament video



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Shares of biotechnology major Biocon today surged nearly 16 per cent after the company posted 17 per cent rise in net profit for the first quarter ended June.

The stock zoomed 15.28 per cent to settle at Rs 808.70 on BSE. During the day, it surged 17.60 per cent to Rs 825 -- its 52-week high.

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At NSE, it soared 15.57 per cent to end at Rs 809.70.

The company added Rs 2,144 crore to Rs 16,174 crore in market valuation.

In terms of volume, 15.40 lakh shares of the company were traded at BSE and over one crore shares changed hands at NSE during the day.

Biocon yesterday posted a 17 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 147 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, on the back of robust growth in segments like biologics and branded formulations.

The Bangalore-based firm had posted a net profit of Rs 126 crore during the same period of previous fiscal.

Total revenue of the company rose to Rs 952 crore for the first quarter, as compared to Rs 857 crore during the same period of corresponding fiscal, Biocon had said in a statement.

"Our strong performance this quarter has been driven by an all- round growth of our business across small molecules, biologics, branded formulations and research services," Biocon Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said. PTI SUM ABI

--- ENDS ---
TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) -- Tallahassee high school students are using the Tallahassee Future Leaders Academy to help assist them and open new doors to their future. The program is now in its second year, and this Summer, dozens of teenagers were given the opportunity to perform jobs in both public government and the private sector.

"It's an opportunity to gain skill [...] but also the opportunity to grow inter-personally and hopefully be able to make better choices for themselves as they consider what their futures will look like," said Mayor Andrew Gillum.

As a part of the curriculum, the students spent the day doing a variety of tasks at Tallahassee Community College, including working to get a national certification from the National Retail Federation in Customer Service and Sales. Plus, they heard from Gillum about what the future holds for them. They say it will all help them take the next step after high school.

"I've learned quite a lot", said Jasmine Jones, a senior at Leon High School, "I learned about myself for character development. I've learned a lot about work experience because this was my first job ever."

"It has given me a great opportunity to start working at an early age," said Roman Parker, a senior at Godby High School.

Whether it be in human resources, communications, or at a local restaurant, the taste of the real world while still in high school is something the teens at TFLA won't soon forget.

"I know a lot of people my age, we really don't know what we necessarily want to do in the world, so I think a program like this, especially at a young age in high school will definitely help us narrow those choices," said Jones.
JACKSON CO., Fla. (WTXL) - Two North Florida residents are arrested on drug charges during a traffic stop in Jackson County.

On July 20, 2016, a Jackson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) deputy pulled over a gold Ford truck on Basswood Road for having inoperable equipment. A K9 deputy arrived with K9 Max who alerted the deputies to the odor of drugs.

Deputies performed a probable cause search and say they found several items inside the passenger compartment, including nearly 8 grams of MDMA, over 20 grams of marijuana, Xanax and Hydrocodone tablets, and drug paraphernalia.

According to deputies, the driver, 41-year old Shelby Lee Britt of Tallahassee told them he had a drug problem and admitted to having the drugs without a prescription.

They say the passenger, 20-year-old Kristen Lee Ann Norris of Crawfordville, had marijuana and drug paraphernalia on her.

Both Britt and Norris were arrested on several charges and taken to the Jackson County Correctional Facility.
Tallahassee, Fla. (WTXL)--It was used in Dallas, a bomb robot deployed neutralize a sniper attack on police, that same technology available right here to the Big Bend Regional Bomb Squad.

The Leon County Sheriff's Office operates a Hazardous Devices team. The unit houses a bomb robot; commonly used in suspicious package calls and hostage negotiations.

Rugged by nature the robot can tow nearly 1,000lbs but is delicate enough to open even the smallest packages.

" We actually deployed the robot on our first day that we had it...we were able to retrieve a briefcase, unzip the leather briefcase, read the name on a file folder inside and figure out who it belongs to", says Sergeant Gore.

Gore says the device is much like a remote control car, except the operator needs to have a lot of knowledge beyond hobby experience.

Though the technology boats many functions including those deployed in Dallas, officials say the use of robots are less about the functions themselves and more about saving lives.
Construction is likely to start in the middle of next year with an investment of 2 billion baht ($57 million),

Thailand is a regional production and export hub for the world's top carmakers, and the sector accounts for around 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

By Reuters: BMW Group is considering building a new plug-in hybrid vehicle battery factory in Thailand, the country's industry minister said on Friday.

ALSO READ: BMW i3 sales rise after government's push to subsidize electric cars

Construction was likely to start in the middle of next year with an investment of 2 billion baht ($57 million), Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang said, adding that the factory would make hybrid vehicles more affordable for Thai consumers.

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"Hybrid vehicles are still expensive now but once there is a factory established and batteries are available this will make it affordable for consumers," Atchaka told reporters.

ALSO READ: BMW Motorrad commence G310R motorcycle production in India

A spokesman for BMW in Thailand said the company was not immediately able to comment on the investment but would issue a statement on Monday.

Atchaka said the Thai government was working with BMW to offer tax incentives in order to make the country a centre for plug-in hybrid vehicles.

ALSO READ: BMW, Intel, Mobileye to jointly develop autonomous cars

Thailand is a regional production and export hub for the world's top carmakers, and the sector accounts for around 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Phagwara, Jul 22 (PTI) Members of two communities armed with swords and other sharp weapons clashed and hurled stones at each other here today.

They took out protest march and clashed with each other at the Gaushala Road here.

Heavy police force was deployed in the town to prevent any untoward incident with Jalandhar Zone IG Loknath Angra, Kaputhala Deputy Commissioner Jaskiran Singh and SSP Rajinder Singh rushed to the scene to pacify the warring groups.

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Both the sides indulged in hurling stones at each other and later claimed that a few of their activists were injured. PTI COR CHS AKA ABH RG ABH

--- ENDS ---
In an operation plagued by bad weather, injuries and a helicopter accident, crews will this 
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) Congress today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "silence" on the Kashmir unrest and also demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each victim of violence in Gujarats Una besides action against guilty policemen.

"The Prime Minister is in Gorakhpur today and talks big. But he did not talk of Kashmir or Dalits, as he normally speaks on almost everything.

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"Today people of Kashmir are waiting for the Prime Minister to make a statement to show that he is concerned about Jammu and Kashmir and is applying balm on their wounds," Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said.

He said that Modi, who speaks on almost everything, is silent on the issue.

"Why is the Prime Minister silent? Such a big incident happened where there is your government? All that has happened in Kashmir is under his government and the Prime Minister has not spoken anything in Parliament our outside," he said.

On the issue of rising atrocities on Dalits, Sibal questioned the Prime Ministers silence and said, "Shouldnt he have apologised to Mayawati ji?"

Regarding the violence in Una, he said an independent team of Dalit Adhikar Manch has claimed that the police was aware of the violence that took place there. They have also said that there should be action against the erring policemen, compensation of Rs 10 lakh be given to each of the victims of atrocities and book all those involved. "Congress party agrees with them as it is a serious issue and not an isolated incident. We demand that compensation of Rs 10 lakh be given to all the victims of atrocities in Una, their statements be recorded in court under section 164 CRPC and all guilty cops be booked and all 30 persons involved in the incident be booked," Sibal said. "It took the police 6 hours to file an FIR. Nearly 30 people were allegedly involved, yet less than a third were arrested and only 8 were booked in the FIR," he wondered. He also took a dig at Modi, saying he is taking swings in Gujarat and speaking in Gorakhpur. "I wonder if the country will have an NRI Prime Minister for the first time in its history," he said. PTI SKC ZMN

--- ENDS ---
CARACAS - The Roman Catholic Church may soon join Ibero-American leaders seeking dialogue between Venezuela's feuding government and opposition, the head of a regional bloc said on Thursday.

"I think it's good news this petition has been accepted by both sides. It will enrich us spiritually and, hopefully, politically," said former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, who heads the UNASUR bloc of South American states.

With Venezuela enduring an unprecedented economic crisis, President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government is locked in a bitter standoff with the Democratic Unity opposition coalition.
SAN DIEGO- The US State Department said Thursday that it is looking into reports another American has been detained in Iran.

State Department spokesman John Kirby would not comment further Thursday on the detention of Robin Shahini. The girlfriend of the San Diego man said Shahini's sister told her Iranian authorities took him into custody July 11 while he was visiting family in his native Iran and he has not been heard from since.

The girlfriend asked not to be identified because she has family in Iran and fears for their safety. She said she worries Shahini was detained because of his online comments criticizing Iran's human rights record.
The Jerusalem District Court released Michael Schlissel on Friday, the brother of Yishai Schlissel, from his two-day arrest after he was suspected of planning to attack participants of Thursdays Jerusalem Pride Parade. Michael Schlissel denied that he had any desire to attack the marchers as his convicted brother asked him to during a conversation while he was in prison.

His lawyer, Itamar Ben-Gvir said, the police understand today that Michael is innocent but it is a shame that it took them three days to understand this."
An express train which will enable travellers to travel between Tel Aviv and Tiberias in just one hour is being planned by Public Transport Minister Yisrael Katz.

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Katz approved the continuation of the high speed train between Afula and Tiberias as part of a project to expand the train network in the north on Wednesday. He said that the project will be implemented within 7 years with the completion of an eastern track connecting Afula with Tel Aviv.

The train line will begin at the Afula train station and will continue directly to Poriya Hospital on the outskirts of Tiberias. The total length of the new line will be about 18 and a half miles, and will include a number of new tunnels and bridges.

Building the railroad between Afula and Tiberias

The Jezreel Valley railroad between Haifa and Beit Shean via Afula is set to begin operations on fall of 2016. The high speed rail between Tiberias and Afula is set to link up to this line. In addition to a train which will stop in cities on the Jezreel Valley railroad and the Sharon railroad, there will also be a special express train which will go directly from Tiberias to Tel Aviv in one hour.

Minister Katz praised the project, stressing that the route to will turn Tiberias and the surrounding area into a more attractive place to live and work. Furthermore, he said it will transform Tiberias into a metropolitan city in the eastern Galilee.

According to Katz, the high speed train to Tiberias, combined with a train to Kiryat Shmona and an advanced road network in the north will complete the connection of the Galilee with the center of the country.

The project also includes the construction of a cargo terminal next to Tiberias, which will enable the transportation of goods and raw materials to ports and airports. Additionally, it will encourage the construction of factories and industrial zones in the Galilee, and will expand residential areas in the northern region of Israel.

The construction of rail routes to Tiberias will accelerate the establishment of high-tech factories and the strengthen the connection of the Galilee with the rest of start-up and high-tech nation, Katz said.

Tiberias Mayor Yossi Ben-David expressed his delight with the new initiative on Wednesday.

It is very important to be able to arrive on the train to Tiberias from Golani junction. There is no doubt that the train will generate growth for the city in a variety of ways; in employment, tourism, the quality of life and more. The fact that the the train line starts in Ben Gurion Airport will benefit Tiberias which is an international tourist city, and which sees nearly 2 million visitors per year from Israel and from abroad.
Ahmed Dawabshe has been released from the hospital after being treated at Tel HaShomer military hospital for close to a year after an arson attack which killed his entire family. His mother, father, and brother died when their house was set on fire

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However, a long road of recovery still lies ahead for the Palestinian boy who just turned six years old earlier this week.

Ahmed's grandfather Hussein Dawabshe said "we were in the intensive care unit and afterwards in the children's ward. The doctors treated us well and made us feel like we were in a good place. They treated Ahmed's wounds in the best way possible and with devotion. I congratulate them."

Ahmed Dawabshe has been released from the hospital (Photo: Yogev Attias)

"(Ahmed) is doing well," the grandfather continued, "but there is still a long road ahead. He needs to undergo plastic surgery and additional surgeries to his nose and hands. However, he is able to walk, and he's feeling good."

Doctors only told Ahmed his family's fate a few months ago. "He knows his whole family is dead. He's a smart kid. I wasn't able to tell him," his grandfather said.

Ahmed Dawabshe celebrates his sixth birthday

Ahmed went through an extensive series of surgeries, and now gets around while wearing compression shirts due to the severe burns he sustained in the fire. Even after his release, he will still need to get to the hospital several times a week for treatment.

"I would like to thank the dedicated doctors and medical staff. They're the best doctors in the world and saved Ahmed's life," His grandfather said, continuing "we're the only family he has left, I won't leave his side until the end of my days."

Dr. Asher Barzilai, head of the Safra Children's Hospital at Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer said that the child's condition is very good. "He came to us with burns covering 70% of his body. He received medical treatment from the best doctors in Israel including the head of the burn unit. The treatment was complicated, and statistics show that the majority of children with these types of injuries don't make it. However, after a month in the burn unit, he was able to be transferred to the children's ward. As his condition improved, he was able to be moved to the rehabilitation unit. Today, he is able to walk and use his hands."
Michael Schlissel, the brother of Yishai Schlissel who murdered Shira Banki at last years Pride Parade, was released by the Jerusalem District Court following a two-day arrest on suspicion of planning to attack participants of Thursdays Jerusalem Pride Parade.

Michael Schlissel denied that he had any desire to perpetrate an attack against the marchers as his convicted brother asked him to do so during a conversation while he was in prison.

Michael Schlissel (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)

He further claimed that not only did he have no interest in attacking the marchers, but he even told his brother, who is serving a life sentence in prison, that he disagreed with him, adding a biblical word nemesis which he claimed was misinterpreted by the people monitoring the conversation, which was also recorded.

His lawyer, Itamar Ben-Gvir said, The police understand today that Michael is innocent but it is a shame that it took them three days to understand this. The investigators didnt understand that the term nemesis (recorded in the conversation) was michael disagreeing with his brother which, in my opinion, justifies enlisting Haredi investigators in the police."

Jerusalem Pride Parade (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

On Thursday during a hearing on extending Michaels remand, Eliezer Schlissel, the brothers father expressed deep remorse for the murder of Shira Banki: I wanted to hug (Shira Bankis) father . He didnt want to meet with me. I sent a few representatives and he said it was difficult for him. That was last year. I fully sympathize with the pain.

We were all in shock that Yishai murdered her, like all Israelis. It seriously hurt the family and we are sure it also hurts Yishai. We have heard this from him explicitly. He didnt really intend to get to this point, Eliezer continued. But from this the police enter into a total panic and harass the whole family that is not connected at all? He was detained and some of the family didnt see him. I didnt visit him, I didnt speak to him. Nothing.

On Thursday the Pride Parade took place in Jerusalem as planned attracting more than 25,000 marchers making it the largest of its kind in the capital. Prior to its commencement, 48 individuals were arrested who attempted to disrupt the parade and others were even founds in possession of knives. All the suspects were taken in for questioning.
The Lod District Court cancelled the release of Rabbi Eliezer Berland to house arrest, deciding instead to extent his arrest until Monday.

Berland, fled Israel three years ago when called for police questioning on suspicion of sexual harassment. He has wandered from country to country since then, was taken into police custody when he landed in Israel this week.
Avigdor Lieberman arrived at the last cabinet meeting on Sunday ready to fight. On the agenda; a law being put forth by Ayalet Shaked which deals with wiretapping. While it's true that only a regional court judge or his subordinate can authorize a wiretap, due to the high amount of requests, the Justice Minister has been asked to pass a law whereby lower ranking court officials can institute wiretaps on phones.

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There are approximately 4,000 requests for wiretaps submitted every year, 98 percent of which are approved almost immediately. The judges who are notorious for approving these requests are accused of being "rubber stamps" for the police. They have requested this change in the law so that they can more thoroughly review each new wiretap request.

Minister Shaked, with the backing of Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, has requested to bring the proposal to the government to be approved quickly in order to skip over the discussions in the Ministerial Council.

However, both ministers forgot about the primary detractor to this change in the law- Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has been the subject to seven investigations and wiretapped for years, and demanded that the proposed changes to the law be shelved.

Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Miriam Elstar)

"Increasing the amount of judges who can approve wiretaps won't streamline the process  it will only increase the number of wiretap requests coming from the police," Lieberman said. "People are afraid of talking on the phone  these wiretaps destroy the public atmosphere."

He then went on to remind Minster Erdan of his days as a junior Member of the Knesset when he appealed the dismissal of Police Commissioner Moshe Mizrahi over a decade ago after it was discovered that the commissioner had used illegal wiretaps.

"As if that weren't enough," Lieberman added, "only 70 wiretaps a year are approved in great big Britain. Are they not fighting crime there?"

Minister Gila Gamliel, whos name was included in the Yitzhaki Document which details the alleged illegal activities of politicians, supported Lieberman's stance. As did Minister Yoav Galant.

Erdan however kept to his position. "With all due respect, the characters in the story have changed since 14 years ago," he claimed. "The procedures to approve wiretaps have become more exact. I don't know of any instances of illegal wiretapping."

Regarding comparing Israel to the rest of the world, Erdan said that the moment that a wiretap prevents a single murder, the number of wiretaps isn't relevant. "Its impossible to know if this increases or decreases the motivation of crimes, but we have to try and prevent them by any means possible."

The Prime Minister joined the conversation at a certain point, and said that in the US, there are stringent rules governing wiretaps. He just forgot about the Patriot Act which came out in 2001.
'How can you shut your eyes when your fellow countrymen are being treated with such brutality and cruelty", Captain Amarinder Singh asked the Prime Minister.

By Manjeet Sehgal: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday condemned the incidents of violence against Dalits in different parts of the country.

"There appears to be a dangerous pattern in the verbal and physical abuse and violence against the Dalits everywhere, which is either being ignored or encouraged, at the peril of sparking off a caste war in the country", Capt Amarinder warned on Thursday.

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WHY IS PM SILENT?

Questioning the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter, he wondered as why he had not intervened till now. "How can you shut your eyes when your fellow countrymen are being treated with such brutality and cruelty", he asked the Prime Minister.

SINGH TO HOLD A STATEWIDE PROTEST

The PCC president also announced to hold statewide protests against the anti-Dalit violence on Sunday. He will himself be leading the protest at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district the same day. Referring to the flogging and parading of three Dalit youths in a Gujarat town by some self-styled "cow protection" vigilante groups, the PCC president said, there was genuine anger and outrage, not among the Dalits alone, but all the well meaning Indians about the direction the country was taking.

ANGRY OVER REMARKS AGAINST MAYAWATI

Captain Amarinder also condemned the abusive language used by the Uttar Pradesh BJP vice president Daya Shankar Singh against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief Ms Mayawati, saying it was most condemnable and deplorable.

He said, no punishment will be enough for the person who used such language against the former UP Chief Minister. Expressing concern over such incidents, the former chief minister suggested that the Prime Minister should personally intervene in the matter.

"Given the alarming sensitivity of the situation, it calls for urgent intervention at the highest level lest the country is pushed into caste war", he warned. The PCC president also announced that the protests will be held at all the district headquarters on Sunday, while he will personally lead a protest in Kartarpur.

Also Read:

Dalit woman raped for 10 days by her batchmates in Telangana

Only Congress has worked for Dalits: Rahul Gandhi

--- ENDS ---
A car bomb exploded outside a mosque run by Yemen's Houthi group in the capital Sanaa on Friday, residents said, going off as worshippers were leaving after midday prayers and injuring several of them.

There were no reports of casualties in the relatively rare attack in the city or an immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion by the Bilal mosque in western Sanaa.

Islamist militants have exploited Yemen's 16-month civil war between the Iran-allied Houthis and supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by a Saudi Arab coalition, to strike at both sides at will.
LONDON- One of the first questions aid worker Isaac Kwamy was asked in Greece's camps for refugees and migrants was not whether there was food or water, but whether there was internet access.

"Very few of them (migrants) said, 'We are hungry, we need food. Or we are thirsty, can we have water?" said Kwamy, who visited camps in June. "They were literally asking, 'Do you have Wi-fi access and where can we charge our phones?'"

As the head of emergency response at NetHope, an alliance of aid groups and companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Cisco that provide technology services during humanitarian crises, Kwamy said the need for connectivity came as no surprise.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will announce her pick for vice president in the upcoming hours, and that it will likely be Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.

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Long considered to be a leading candidate for Clinton's choice for VP, Kaine has taken on some of the most pressing issues in American politics today: among other causes, he had conducted a 15-hour filibuster to promote tougher legislation against gun violence, voiced his opposition to raids targeting Central American women and children under threat of deportation, introduced a bill aiming to help women gain easier access to birth control and has come out against continued reliance on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists as reasoning behind a broad use of US military action.

Clinton and Kaine at a rally (Photo: AFP)

Describing himself as "strongly pro-Israel," Kaine was among the senators who decided not to attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2015 speech before the US Congress , along with Senator Bernie Sanders. Kaine stated at the time that he felt Netanyahu's decision to speak during an election year was "inappropriate."

After gaining the necessary number of delegates to beat social-Democrat Senator Sanders and secure herself the Democratic nomination, Sanders finally threw his support behind Clinton. Following his show of support, many of his supporters hoped that Clinton would choose another liberal progressive, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, as her vice president. Kaine, by comparison, is considered neither an extreme leftist nor particularly charismatic, and is viewed as a more conservative choice.

By adding Kaine to the ticket, Clinton will be seen as looking to offer the American people a more stable alternative to the highly volatile, outspoken campaign led by the Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has found himself in hot water regarding women's issues, immigrants, America's relationship with NATO, as well as being accused of anti-Semitism.

Last week, Trump announced his own pick for VP,Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Pence is considered to have ties to several billionaire GOP supporters, and has called himself "a Christian, conservative and Republican, in that order."
Yigal Levinstein, who I will refer to as Rabbi, deserves a big "thank you." His recent comments referring to members of the gay community as "perverts" has started a public debate about what is already an ongoing battle within the religious Zionist community, between its more radicalized sector that is increasingly becoming more nationalistic and Haredi, to its more moderate sector made up of lenient Beit Hillel rabbis and some of the more progressive Tzohar rabbis. While the former group are more messianic and abide by such texts as "Torat Hamelech" (which details in what cases Jews are allowed to kill non-Jews during times of war), there are rabbis who do not fear modern progress, and who combine Judaism with the love of man, denouncing racist interpretations offered up by extremists.

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Rabbi Yigal Levinstein

Though it was never his intention, Levinstein's comments managed to greatly encourage the moderate sector: in the past few days, more and more religious people have declared their intention to march in a Gay Pride parade, citing the Good Samaritan Law and "Love they neighbor and thyself" as Jewish rules to live by. This more inclusive stance was also promoted by Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi), who stated, "I want to clearly tell all the children of Israel that they are loved and respected, and that our system has a place for each and every one of them." By contrast, national-religious rabbis who are making every effort to cause Jews to feel an aversion to Judaism, have inadvertently managed to distance not the secular Jewish sector, but traditional-religious Jews. It is precisely these moderates who must not give up the fight.

The recent awakening of religious moderates highlights an important fact: namely, that Israeli society has a normal distribution of opinions. We are neither primarily radical nor fanatical, and just as is the case in Europe, we have our share of anarchists and racists, with a majority that is neither here nor there.

The problem with Israeli discourse is that too much weight is given to the more radicals voices heard within it. Just as IDF Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eisenkot made the mistake of choosing a rabbi that permits soldiers to rape non-Jewish women during times of war as the IDF's chief rabbi, so do extremely anti-Israeli journalists routinely invited to take part in discussion panels. Editors and producers believe this is good for ratings, and that it is a part of our freedom of expression. But they're wrong: it is a corruption of that freedom. For when those who represent a fraction of a percent are granted ten percent of all media coverage, it stomps on everyone else's freedom of expression.

During a meeting of the Zionist Union this week, Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog claimed that Israel is awash with "a dark Intifada of hate and racism, in a war that pits brother against brother." Where the hell is this coming from?

Without much respect for Jewish Price Tag acts of terror, such examples are small potatoes compared to the burning down of refugee centers in Sweden or the hooligans accosting foreigners across Europe. And yet no one is claiming Britain is in the middle of "an Intifada of hate", or that the Swedes have found themselves "in a war that pits brother against brother." What Herzog fails to understand is that you can sit in the Opposition without turning your country or society into a racist monster. Such irresponsible statements don't help battle the extremists on either side, but grant them more importance than they're worth.

Earlier this week, a program on Army Radio raised public criticism when it ran a program on Palestinian poet and noted objector to Israeli actions Mahmoud Darwish. There is truth to the claim that a US public broadcasting network would never include the work of an Afghan poet, regardless of their talent, if they are seen as fundamentally opposed to the US. And yet, when you look at the context, there really isn't much to get excited about. The program was included in a 12-part series, which also focused on Israeli author Moshe Shamir, poet Naomi Shemer and Revisionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Darwish, in any case, is not only the enemy. His is the most notable intellectual to come out of the Palestinians. It is worthwhile to get to knew his life and poetry.

The issue only became a problem once Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber got involved, stating that the IDF chief-of-staff and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu) have no right to intervene in the matter. Seriously?

Zilber, it should be noted, is of the opinion that ministers should answer to their underlings, and not vice versa. One example of this was her statement that relevant officials do not have the authority to prevent young Israelis from taking part in National Service in organizations known for their anti-Israel propaganda.

Years ago, then-education minister Yossi Sarid (Meretz) decided to include Darwish's poetry in the students' curriculum, while under Yuli Tamir (Labor) the ministry had included "the Palestinian Exodus" (also known as the Nakba) in its students' education. These decisions were seen as legitimate, not as interference. Lieberman, on the other hand, isn't even allowed to conduct an investigation.

Zilber has also stated that we don't need to hold elections. Instead, we should just let the clerks decide and have elected officials tow the line. This is why we have to reinstate our common sense and fix this serious strike against our government and judicial systems.

I have repeatedly heard it said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "wants to see the Israel Broadcasting Authority bleed so that he could continue to control it." If you repeat something enough times, even ridiculous statements such as this begin to sound believable, which is why we should remind ourselves who exactly is working in the IBA: people such as Arye Golan, Oded Shahar, Oren Nehari, Keren Neubach, Eran Zinger and many more. If there's one thing you can't say about this group, it's that they serve the Prime Minister's Office, or that they are somehow identified with the political right. The only one there who has been known to sometimes express right-wing opinions is Yaakov Ahimeir, and it seems universally agreed upon that when it comes to public broadcasting, he is the champion of fairness.

So what "control" are they talking about? How exactly is the IBA "serving" the right, or the Prime Minister's Office? You can voice all the criticism in the world against Netanyahu's past actions in the Israeli media field or regarding his more recent attempt to stall the launch of the New Broadcasting Company, but there's no need to peddle far-fetched claims that have nothing to do with reality.

Earlier this week, news journalist and radio host Razi Barkai opened his show by reading that the daily newspaper Haaretz has called on Prof. Yuli Tamir to resign as president of Shenkar College due to her decision to remove an embarrassing, degrading, invasive and sexist nude portrait of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) from the graduating class' art exhibit. Barkai continued by saying that several weeks ago, the heads of Haaretz had pushed to prevent the publishing of a photo of a well-known figure that they found to be embarrassing, degrading, invasive and sexist. Suppose, said Barkai, that an art student would have presented as their final project a piece based on that photo. Would the enlightened newspaper still call for Tamir's resignation?

In the past, this column has taken jabs at Barkai over different issues. In this case, though, he is absolutely right in his criticism.
The Karmiel Dance Festival honored terror victim Hallel Ariel, with a dance performance that closed the festival. Among those watching the performance was Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev (Likud).

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The recital was conducted by the Hadarey Rehovot Dance Troupe, who performed to the sound of Amir Benayoun's "Yehaleluha Malachim" ("the Angels Will Sing Your Praise").

The performance in memory of Ariel (Footage: Alon Zulfi) (:  )

X





Hallel Ariel at a recital, the night before she died (Photo: Amichai Maatuf, Merkaz Machol Dance Studio)

Last month, a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist murdered Ariel in her parents' Kiryat Arba home, by stabbing her to death in her bed.
Rabbi Yigal Levinstein's speech before the Eli Preparartory had many facets to it: not only did it harbor a hatred toward members of the gay community, the Reform community and anyone else he doesn't get along with, but it also held a great deal of criticism against the IDF's Education and Youth Corps and the very spirit of the Israeli Army. The speech was dramatic, since the Eli Preparatory is in itself a symbol of the integrated, Zionist religious sector. It is a factory for combat officers, and sadly, many fallen soldiers are also listed among its graduates. The national-religious attitudes that stem from that preparatory are one thing; but the criticism it lobbies against the IDF is another, and can no longer be ignored.

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Lately, the IDF's relationship with Israeli society has been strained. And while it is true that top army officials have always been the target for politically-motivated attacks, most of them have come from the left, for example from Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz and his "Judeo-Nazis" comments or organizations such as "Breaking the Silence." The IDF withstood all of it, but over the past year it has become the right's punching bag, as well.





Rabbi Yigal Levinstein speaks with IDF soldiers (Photo: Eli Preparatory)

It happened at the hands of self-proclaimed patriots, with social media paving the way for their attacks. Elor Azaria support campaign is one example, the backlash from IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan being another. And now Rabbi Levinstein. The IDF knows how to combat its Arab enemies, in some incidences better than others. But when it comes to Jews, its forces never return home safely.

After Golan's Holocaust Remembrance Day speech, with its problematic comparison to Nazi Germany, many Israelis felt the IDF was stepping into educational matters that weren't its concern. What followed was a struggle between the IDF's Education and Youth Corps and the IDF Rabbinate, and finally by the claim that the Israeli Army is no longer the deciding factor in wars because it's lost its spirit.

I served in the IDF for nearly six years without getting mixed up with either sector. As far as I was concerned, the Education and Youth Corps was responsible for Sunday's culture events and the Rabbinate for providing us with sufganiyot come Hanukkah. Without interesting me very much, the two managed to strike a balance, with the left criticizing the IDF's visits to the City of David and meeting with settlers, while the right, it appears, didn't really care for the Education Corps. In any case, the two sides left the fighting to the commanders.

In 1948, Hebrew poet and Givati's Education Officer Abba Kovner motivated his soldiers through his words. It is doubtful that many of them, who had only just stepped off the boat that took them to Israel, understood what he was saying, but they got enough of it to have a lively debate about what he wrote.

It is permissible and even encouraged to voice your criticism of the IDF, but this past year has seen the widening of an essential crack, promoted by politics. Accusations of a defeatist spirit within the IDF is mainly a political tactic meant to evade taking responsibility. The IDF isn't defeating Hamas because it hasn't been given orders to do so, and not because it is "too leftist." It isn't conquering Gaza becuase no such order was handed down. There is the executive level, and only then there is the operative level. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to bring about Hamas' demise, and as head of the Opposition he has had numerous occasions to do so. It's easy for politicians to divert attention. Apparently, rabbis find it easy, too.
Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh couldn't take their eyes off each other at the screening of Madaari.

By India Today Web Desk: Deepika Padukone might have shot down the engagement and wedding rumours, but the Piku actor is completely in love with boyfriend Ranveer Singh. Don't believe us? See these pictures of the lovebirds who had eyes only for each other at the screening of Irrfan's Madaari.

ALSO READ: I'm not engaged, not planning to get married any time soon, says Deepika Padukone

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ALSO READ: Ranveer and Deepika's PDA in this video will give you major relationship goals



While the two arrived in different cars, Ranveer played the perfect boyfriend and went ahead to see off his girlfriend. And Bajirao's Mastani gave a peck on his cheek before making an exit.

Ranveer and Deepika is a dream couple not just om 70mm, but in real life too. With each public appearance, they have set major relationship goals for their fans.

Ranveer's public display of affection can give any guy serious trouble. Women love him, and men want to be him. Unlike his contemporaries, who keep their private life under wraps, the 31-year-old actor has always remained vocal about his love for Deepika. And this has rubbed off onto his ladylove too.

After indulging in some PDA at the recently held IIFA in Spain, the Tamasha actor had eyes only for Ranveer at Madaari screening.

Ranveer joined girlfriend Deepika for the screening of Madaari.

Deepika, who has worked with Irrfan in 2015 film Piku, came to cheer for the actor.

On the work front, she will be seen in Hollywood film xXx Return of Xander Cage.

(Photos: Yogen Shah)



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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.

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By Nitin Jain: Delhi Police rescued a Kenyan girl from the clutches of International Human trafficking racket who was brought to the Nation's capital for prostitution. The victim Gladys Wambui Mwangi (26), who hails from Kiambu County in Keny, was brought to India by her neighbour Alice Njoki. Police said that Njoki had brought the victim on a false promise of a job as a secretary in China.

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However, on arrival in India she was confined and her passport was snatched. According to the police, the victim was asked to join prostitution or she would have to face dire consequences. The victim called her parents in Kenya and also informed the Kenyan Embassy about her plight.

WOMAN TRACED WITH THE HELP OF HER PHONE



On July 17, Federick Ndegwa a political counselor from Kenyan Embassy approached the Delhi Police and informed about the illegal confinement of the woman. Apart from her mobile phone number, the police had no clues about the woman.



The police were able to trace the woman after they put her number on surveillance. She was traced to Rajpur Khurd Extension of Delhi. Following the information the police rescued the woman. The accused Alice Njoki and another person identified as Classidy fled from the spot immediately after the police arrived.

The police has registered a complaint of trafficking, wrongful confinement and attempt to murder against the duo.

Also read:

International sex syndicate busted in Delhi, army officials among top clients





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By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court today sought a response from the Election Commission on a PIL alleging that despite the ruling of the apex court, elected lawmakers continue to enjoy their status as MPs and MLAs for quite some time after their conviction in criminal cases.

Initially, a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices FMI Kalifulla and A M Khanwilkar was reluctant to issue notice on the PIL of NGO Lok Prahari by saying, "It is for the Election Commission to act in this matter as the law has been laid down by the court."

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The plea, filed through S N Shukla, the secretary of the NGO, alleged that though the law has been settled by the apex court in its 2013 judgement that a lawmaker stands disqualified on conviction, but due to the delay in the notification on the part of legislative Secretariat, the convicted MLAs keep enjoying fruits of the office.

It has sought a direction to the Registry of all the high courts that the certified copy of the judgements convicting lawmakers, be made available to legislative Secretariat within 24 hours so that a disqualification notice can be issued at the earliest.

The bench then issued notice to the poll panel on the PIL and asked as to why it has not taken steps even after three years of the apex court judgment to implement it.

In a landmark judgment, passed on a PIL filed by the same NGO, the apex court had held that chargesheeted Members of Parliament and MLAs on conviction for offences, will be immediately disqualified from holding membership of the House without being given three months time for appeal, as was the case before.

Prior to 2013, a lawmaker could continue as an MP or MLA on filing of an appeal against conviction in higher courts.

The apex court struck down section 8(4) of the Representation of People Act leading to immediate disqualification of MPs and MLAs upon conviction in an offence. PTI SJK MNL RKS SC

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According to police, the judge attempted to commit suicide by consuming overdose of sleeping pills after his colleague accused him of raping her.

By India Today Web Desk: A Dwarka court judge PS Malik was today hospitalised in Delhi's Hedgewar Hospital after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide.

According to police, the judge attempted to commit suicide by consuming overdose of sleeping pills after his colleague accused him of raping her.

ACCUSED AND SUSPENDED

A woman on July 20 had filed a complaint against Malik accusing him of repeatedly raping her since January 2016. Consequently, Malik, who lived with his family at residential area of Karkardooma, was suspended from the court.

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Shahadra Bar Association in their statement has stated the false allegations of molestation might have prompted Malik to take such step.

"He has been admitted to Hedgewar Hospital. He was in depression due to alleged false allegation of molestation by some woman, "the statement said.

ALSO READ:Karnataka: 'Harassed' bureaucrat attempts suicide





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In his letter to the PMO, Lawyer Suren Uppal said new conversations and recordings reveal that Ruias had allegedly tapped the telephone conversation between senior government officials and top corporates which include Ambanis.

By Anusha Soni: In a crucial development in the Essar leaks case, a fresh public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored investigation into the alleged phone tappings of top government officials.

NGO'S PIL WAS REJECTED IN 2014



The PIL has been filed by an NGO called "International Civil Enforcement Group for Anti-terrorism Ethics (ICEGATE)". Interestingly, the same petitioners had also filed a similar PIL back in February 2014 which was rejected due to technical defects.

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The PIL presented the same material, excerpts of taped conversations and other relevant evidences. Lawyer Suren Uppal has also forwarded the PIL to the PMO and Delhi High Court. Delhi High Court has recently dismissed a plea by Uppal seeking court monitored investigation as the Centre argued that the Delhi Police is looking into the matter.

NGO'S V-C FEARS FOR HIS LIFE



Earlier, speaking to India Today, Masood Ahmed, vice-chairman of ICEGATE revealed that he received this information through a trusted friend but his repeated letters to ministries, politicians and even CBI went unanswered. He also said that he fears for his life and safety and has been struggling to ensure the protection of his family for the last four years.

"I did not have the financial means to pursue the case in the Supreme Court. But I have much more damaging information about how the national interests were compromised. I want the apex court to hear my petition and I shall reveal all the details to them. Basit Khan is the person who did the tapping. He is the person who conducted the entire tapping operations for Ruia. I have no other interests but to bring the truth forward," said Masood Ahmed.

GOVT-CORPORATE-MEDIA NEXUS EXPOSED



The much talked about Essar Leaks which earlier exposed the links between the govt, corporates and media came to light again after lawyer Suren Uppal wrote a letter to the PMO.

In his letter, he said that new conversations and recordings reveal that Ruias had allegedly tapped the telephone conversation between senior government officials and top corporates which include Ambanis. These conversations are also evidence that how major policy decisiod. However the petition filed in 2014 by ICEGATE already had the same information.

ALSO READ:

Essar leaks: Second Judge recuses himself, says wife has shares in both the companies



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Latest News

Washington, DC - A certain famous chef is known for exclaiming BAM! when he wants to extract the most flavor from a recipe. The FTCs case against an unrelated California company called BAM Financial alleges a far less savory form of extraction.

Filed as part of Operation Collection Protection, the FTC charged that BAM Financial used lies, threats, intimidation, and other illegal practices to extract payment from consumers. When obscene language, incessant calls, and harassment of family members didnt get the result they wanted, the defendants got personal. The complaint outlines just a few examples. For instance, the defendants told the parent of one purported debtor No wonder your daughter is in such a predicament with a mother like you. The FTC alleges that they falsely stated to another consumers 84-year-old mother that they had a warrant for her daughters arrest, and later told the consumer they were bounty hunters.

The FTC says BAMs letters and phone calls were riddled with false threats of litigation. The complaint also charged that in numerous instances, the defendants didnt follow up within five days of their initial communication with proper validation notices, as the law requires.

The settlement with BAM Financial, Everton Financial, Legal Financial Consulting, Luis O. Carrera, and Roberto Llaury bans the lot of them for life from the debt collection industry. (Theyll join more than 100 others on the FTCs list of Banned Debt Collectors.) The order also imposes a $4.8 million judgment that, based on the defendants financial condition, will be partially suspended upon the surrender of certain assets and cash. The full amount will become due immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial state.

The message for other companies is that the plain language of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and cases brought under the FDCPA and the FTC Act offer a recipe for compliance that isnt hard for legitimate collectors to follow.
Latest News

Washington, DC - The Vice President spoke by phone today with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. During the call, the Vice President reaffirmed the importance of the strategic relationship between the United States and Turkey, and reiterated the United States' strong condemnation of last week's attempted coup against the democratically elected civilian government of Turkey.

He expressed his unyielding support for Turkish democracy and praised the Turkish people's commitment to democratic institutions. The Vice President urged that the investigations into the coup's perpetrators be conducted in ways that reinforce public confidence in democratic institutions and the rule on law. The Vice President emphasized that the United States stands ready to provide assistance to Turkish authorities conducting their investigation into the coup attempt, and that our legal experts are prepared to work with their counterparts on this matter. The two leaders also discussed ways to further strengthen the ongoing cooperation in the counter-ISIL coalition.
It is unclear what the man was trying to produce by cooking urine of all things.

By India Today Web Desk: The strong smell caused by a man cooking urine has prompted the evacuation of an apartment building in Massachusetts.

Police responded to the Amherst apartment complex Wednesday afternoon after the manager found several unmarked glass containers containing liquids in an apartment.



Fire officials say the manager had received a complaint of a pungent odour.

Assistant Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren says the smell came from urine and possibly other chemicals. She says it's unclear what the man was trying to produce. He was identified, but hasn't been criminally charged. A private cleanup company now has the chemicals.

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The tenants were allowed back into their apartments after authorities determined Wednesday night that the substances weren't explosive or a health hazard.

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By India Today Web Desk: In his first interview as a Cabinet minister, new Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar cleared the air on Smriti Irani's exit from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet.

"Smriti did very good, and took many good initiatives in HRD. Last week, we had an inter-state council meeting where all chief ministers come. One topic was quality. The prime minister said there that we have achieved expansion. We have practically taken education to all but now we need stress on quality. That's the job now as HRD minister, which she was also carrying. We will carry it further," Javadekar told India Today's Karan Thapar on his show To The Point.

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The minister also hinted at dramatic education reforms to be announced in the near future.

ON DEPOLITICISING EDUCATION



"I am convinced that education touches every family, and becomes an aspiration for the poor. There, we need consensus and therefore it is a national agenda. Even if the Congress or Communist have a forum on education, I will definitely go there...We don't believe in exclusion," said Javadekar.

The new HRD minister said that PM Modi or the government never targeted any left-wing intellectuals, or historians in particular, but new people and faces take over once terms end.

ON CHIDAMBARAM'S COMMENT ON KASHMIR



"Chidambaram is repenting in leisure. He was the home minister and defended AFSPA, and now he is contradicting himself, this is hypocrisy. We are taking the right decisions in Kashmir so that things get better in the future. If we compare recent incidents with the past in Kashmir, we have controlled the situation better. Stone pelting has been happening in Kashmir for years now. Chidambaram's analysis on Kashmir is atrocious. His desperation exposed," said Javadekar.

ON DALITS AND UPCOMING UTTAR PRADESH ELECTIONS



"We'll win UP because people believe in what BJP and PM Modi stand for. Congress and all other parties have duped them. Look at the response the prime minister got today at Gorakhpur. Those who fear defeat are targeting us," he said.

The BJP leader said that Dalits are actually coming and joining BJP and there are some "thekedars" (contractors) who think that they are losing their support among Dalits.

"Dayashankar is not part of BJP. When party has taken immediate action, still those who want to make agenda against BJP, they'll say so," he said.

ALSO READ | Will build upon good initiatives taken by Smriti Irani, says Javadekar



WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:



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Accra: Ghana`s presidential election will now be held on December 7, after parliament voted against an amendment to push the vote forward by one month, the electoral commission said on Friday.

Lawmakers late on Thursday rejected a bill seeking to change the date for the polls from December 7 to the first Monday of November for every election year.

"Despite the demonstration of our preparedness to deliver a credible and world-class elections on the proposed November 7 date, parliament in its wisdom has decided not to pass the amendment," the electoral commission said in a statement.

"The outcome of the voting therefore sets December 7, 2016 as the day for our presidential and parliamentary elections," it added.

The electoral body said the change in date would not affect its "commitment to deliver a free, fair, transparent and credible elections this year".

Proponents of the amendment believed an earlier vote would allow for enough time for any election disputes and possible presidential run-offs to be held before inauguration.

National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader President John Dramani Mahama is seeking a second, five-year term against Nana Akufo-Addo, of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Last week, Ghana`s electoral chief Samuel Tettey said the commission would be ready for the polls on either November 7 or December 7.

Some 56,000 names on the electoral register have been expunged after opposition claims the list was bloated with names of foreigners and minors.

Re-registration began this week.

str-joa/phz/wdb


Cleveland: Stevedore Crawford strode onto the plaza at Cleveland`s Public Square, not far from this week`s Republican National Convention, pulled two brightly colored toy guns from his pants, waved them around and then threw himself onto the concrete.

Crawford, 53, was evoking the 2014 fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy, by a white police officer.

"They never kill the people like me," said Crawford, who described himself as a former pimp who served time for shooting a cop. "They never kill the thugs, because they fear the thugs."

Crawford`s demonstration was one of the most powerfully emotional protests in what shaped up as a spectacle of free speech that turned Cleveland`s Public Square - a 10-acre (4-hectare) downtown park - into the unofficial public square of the Republican National Convention.

Demonstrators came to protest for and against Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Others had civil justice or public safety on their minds after recent police shootings of African-Americans in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the Minneapolis area, followed by the killings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

With more than 3,000 police from across the country looking on, the activists spoke forcefully, creatively - and mostly peaceably. There were just 23 arrests over the four-day convention that came to a close on Thursday. Authorities had prepared for as many as 1,000 arrests each day.

In the end, the cacophony of causes was a carnival of free speech.

A liberal Jew dressed in traditional Muslim garb carried a rifle and spoke against religious intolerance. A retired U.S. Army veteran who said he had been in the Special Forces spoke on behalf of a veterans group that aims to "take back the country from leftists and Muslims." A group of conservative preachers showed up wherever gay-rights activists appeared, while dozens of African-American demonstrators had a direct rejoinder to Trump`s slogan, "make America great again."

"America was Never Great!" their signs read.

A young man who did not appear to be a billionaire had a simple message opposing Trump`s plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall: "Build a Wall Around Trump," his sign read. "I`ll Pay for It."

One man walking through Public Square on Thursday seemed to have tired of the nonstop debate. His sign read, "God Hates Signs."

LINCOLN-LIKE DEBATE

In contrast to the bitter rhetoric and personal invective on the campaign trail, the free-for-all in Cleveland was at times even charitable.

Apropos of a Republican convention, one demonstrator simply dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the party`s first elected president. Im here to spread the message of Lincoln, because it is one that still applies, said Robert Ginzu, 55.

A group of several dozen motorcyclists calling themselves "Bikers for Trump" came to help convention-goers pick their way through crowds outside the fenced-off convention area.

"We want to show that Trump supporters are law-abiding citizens," said Daryl Rembowski, a 52-year-old carpenter and member of the group.

Bob Kunst, 74, an openly gay advocate for Jewish causes, came from Miami Beach to rally for Trump. In 2008, he campaigned for Hillary Clinton, and still considers himself a Democrat.

But Kunst believes Trump would be more effective fighting Islamic State than Clinton would be. If we dont get a handle on ISIS, nothing else is going to matter," Kunst said. "We are in crisis situation.

Stacia Huyler, 45, came as an alternate convention delegate from Rhode Island. But she wound up holding a pro-Trump banner in Public Square. Her motivation: seeing a man dressed as a Muslim holding a sign that said, "Ban Trump Supporters, not Muslims."

"So here I am," said Huyler, as nearby Trump proponents and opponents yelled at each other through bullhorns.

(Additional reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)


Cleveland: A triumphant Donald Trump on Thursday accepted the Republican White House nomination and made a promise to fearful Americans that "safety will be restored" if they shun Hillary Clinton to make him president.

Amidst a standing ovation and chants of "USA, USA, USA", "Trump, Trump, Trump" at the Republican National Convention, the mogul-turned-TV-star-turned-politico said: "I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States."

The Republican nominee for US president told party delegates that his foreign policy would put Americans first if he is elected to the White House in November.

"The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo," he said while addressing 2,000 raucous Republican Party activists in Cleveland.

He further cast himself as the "law and order candidate" and vowed to champion "people who work hard but no longer have a voice."

"In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate," he said, accusing US President Barack Obama of sowing disunity along racial lines.

"The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone."

"I am your voice," he declared pointing into the cameras, promising a return to more secure times with "millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth."

Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as US secretary of state and vowed to be tough on crime and illegal immigrants.

Trump`s speech of more than an hour was designed to set the tone for the General Election campaign against Hillary, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on November 08.

As the crowd chanted: "Lock her up" for her handling of US foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: "Let`s defeat her in November." Thousands of supporters who were gathered in the convention hall roared their approval.

The acceptance speech by Trump, 70, closed out a four-day convention that underscored his struggle to heal fissures in the Republican Party over his anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about his temperament. The event was boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents.

Trump presented a bleak view of America under siege from illegal immigrants, threatened by Islamic State militants, hindered by crumbling infrastructure and weakened by unfair trade deals.

He vowed to build a "great border wall." He said illegal immigrants were taking away jobs from American citizens and in some cases committing crimes.

"We will stop it," Trump said.

As president, Trump said he would avoid multinational trade deals but instead pursue agreements with individual countries. He would renegotiate the NAFTA trade accord linking the United States, Canada and Mexico. He would penalize companies that outsource jobs and then export their foreign-made products back into the United States.

"We will never sign bad trade deals," Trump thundered. "America first!"

The New York businessman, who has never held elected office, filled his speech with some of the bravado he used to win the Republican nomination over 16 rivals, punctuating his rhetorical points by waving an index finger.

"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump said. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

In his speech, Trump portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned.

Laying out his case against Hillary, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump said policies pursued by Hillary in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse. He blamed her for the rise of Islamic State militants and blasted her willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees.

"After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said.

In a contest that pits two politicians viewed as unfavorable by large segments of the American people, Trump also accused Hillary, 68, of being the puppet of big business, elite media and major donors who want to preserve the current political system.

"That is why Hillary Clintons message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change  and they have to change right now," Trump said.

Trump said he would speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month. He vowed to defeat "the barbarians of ISIS," the acronym for Islamic State.

"I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump said. The next president takes office on January 20.

As he finished his speech, his family appeared on stage to greet him, as red, white and blue balloons were dropped from the ceiling of the convention hall and confetti sprayed around the crowd.

(With Agency inputs)
Cleveland: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday accused Hillary Clinton of leaving behind a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as former US secretary of state and blamed her "bad judgement" for the rise of IS and chaos in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness. America is far less safe ? and the world is far less stable ? than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.

I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets," the 70-year-old real estate tycoon said in his acceptance speech here as the Republican presidential candidate.

"Her bad instincts and her bad judgement ? something pointed out by (Vermont senator) Bernie Sanders ? are what caused the disasters unfolding today," he said.

Reviewing Clinton's record, Trump said in 2009, IS was not even on the map and the situation across the Middle East was stable. He blamed Clinton for giving rise to the IS and for sowing chaos in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt.

"After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? IS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos."

"Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before," he said.

He said Clinton's legacy does not have to be US legacy.

"The problems we face now ? poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad ? will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."

Trump said while Clinton's message was that things will never change, his message is that things have to change. "And they have to change right now," he said amid applause.

Clinton fired off an icy rebuke on Twitter during Trump's speech, telling him: "We are better than this."

Countering Trump's attack, the Clinton Campaign accused him of painting a dark picture of an America in decline and said that his speech was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President.

"Tonight, Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline. And his answer ? more fear, more division, more anger, more hate - was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President of the US," Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta said.

"He offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe, just more prejudice and paranoia. America is better than this," he said.

"America is better than Donald Trump. Next week in Philadelphia, Democrats will focus on issues, not anger. We'll offer a positive vision for the future based on lifting America up, not tearing Americans down," he added.
Cleveland: Criticising Republican leaders for singling out American Muslims, US president Barack Obama has said the minority community has always been a part of America and what worries them is the fear of being blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent their faith.

"Like all Americans, you worry about the threat of terrorism. But on top of that, you fear that your entire community will be blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent your faith," Obama said at an Eid event at the White House yesterday.

"Singling out Muslim Americans, moreover, feeds the lie of terrorists like ISIL that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents. That's not smart national security," Obama said in an apparent criticism to Republican leaders who have been calling for banning the entry of Muslims and increased monitoring and even racial profiling.

"In fact, it is ISIL and al Qaeda, and organisations like those that are waging war on Muslim communities, even during the holy month.

"And discriminating against Muslim Americans is also an affront to the very values that already make our nation great," Obama said.

"Muslim Americans are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family," he said.

"And whether your family has been here for generations or you're a new arrival, you're an essential part of the fabric of our country," he added.

Muslim Americans, he said have to reject hatred.

"Muslim Americans -- and all Americans -- have to reject discrimination. Muslim Americans -- and all Americans -- have to answer those who would peddle hate, or suggest that somehow their interpretations of their faith justify violence," Obama said.

"All of us have those obligations -- whether we are Christian, or Jew, or Hindu, or Muslim, or of no faith at all.

We have to reaffirm that in this country, it is our obligation to abide by the law, to look out for each other, to be part of a single community -- and that we can still appreciate our differences and retain those things that are essential to our identities, and still strongly affirm our commitment and our faith in this country," said the US President.
By Vidya : Much to the displeasure of the courts, Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray's elder brother Jaidev Thackreray did not turn up for hearing at the Bombay High Court. His advocates informed the courts that he was unwell and now the hearing has been postponed to July 27.



It second time in a row, that the court had to adjourn hearing on Wednesday too after Jaidev's lawyer Seema Sarnaik told them that he was unwell.

However, Justice Gautam Patel was peeved at the deferment. He said that the deposition was being delayed on a regular basis even as they were making special adjustments to complete the hearing.

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DELAY IN HEARING ANGERS COURT



"This is becoming a luxury litigation. I have to answer other litigants who frequently ask me what is so special about this case. The next date you will get will be in September," Patel said.

Sarnaik tried convincing the court about the condition of Jaidev, however Uddhav's lawyer to countered her claims stating that they too were affected by the delay.

"There are 132 matters listed on Monday if you want to get your case listed then get a no objection in writing from all the people connected with the case," said Justice Patel.

WAR OVER WILL



Jaidev had on July 20 raked up a controversy by stating that Aishwarya his ex wife Smita Thackerays son who was born when they were married was not his son.

Jaidev, the second son of Shiv Sena leader late Bal Thackeray had challenged the will of his father which had left him virtually nothing. Most of the property worth crores was bestowed to Uddhav Thackeray while one floor of the residence was given to Aishwarya.



Also read:

Fight over Bal Thackeray's will: Balasaheb wanted me to carry forward his political legacy, says Jaidev Thackeray



--- ENDS ---
San Francisco: Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, the only big-name supporter of Donald Trump from the country`s technology hub, spoke on Thursday at the Republican National Convention to urge the country to discard petty cultural battles and turn its attention to solving the United States` economic decline.

Thiel offered a full-throated endorsement of Trump, echoing the Republican candidate`s themes of economic decline while lambasting economic and foreign policies that have allowed the country to get embroiled in "stupid wars."

"Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can`t even fly in the rain," Thiel said on the final evening of the four-day convention in Cleveland.

"Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East."

A co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook Inc who sits on that company`s board of directors, Thiel is well-known for contrarian and even eccentric views: a Libertarian who supports gay rights and legalizing marijuana, and who has proposed floating cities beyond the government`s reach while encouraging students to drop out of college and start companies.

His support of Trump has been both a source of curiosity and the butt of jokes in Silicon Valley, where Trump`s anti-immigrant, anti-trade positions are regarded with horror. Many tech executives lean Democratic, and prominent Republican tech executives such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman have also rejected Trump.

Thiel, who is gay, was expected to address gay rights in front of a political party whose platform rejects gay marriage and gay rights in general. He stopped short of such an appeal, however, addressing his sexuality only when saying: "I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American."

He is only the second openly gay man to address the Republican National Convention, CNN reported.

"When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union, and we won," Thiel said. "Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?"

Thiel said his support for Trump was based on the belief that the candidate could address the country`s economic decline. He cited the space program and other government technology achievements as examples of what has been lost.

Thiel drew parallels between himself and Trump each as a "builder."

His family emigrated from Germany when Thiel was one year old, and arrived in Cleveland - the city hosting this week`s convention. When Thiel pointed that out, he got loud applause.

Back then, Thiel said, "Opportunity was everywhere."

"In 1968, the world`s high-tech capital wasn`t just one city. All of America was high-tech."
Washington: Ivanka Trump stepped out as a potent surrogate for her father on Thursday promising he would be a compassionate leader who would fight for women`s rights and affordable childcare.

The 34-year-old businesswoman and mother of three, a loyal fixture on her dad`s campaign trail, introduced the 70-year-old mogul as he accepted the Republican nomination for president that few imagined ever possible.

"My father not only has the strength and ability necessary to be the next president, but also the kindness and compassion that will enable him to be the leader that this country needs," said the elegant blonde.

For those disturbed by Trump`s inflammatory comments about women, Muslims and immigrants, Ivanka presents a quandary: how can a woman whose public image is beyond reproach support him so lovingly?

The answer, apparently, is that America does not know the man as she does. Or as she diplomatically put it: "It is possible to be famous and yet not really well known."

Trump often gushes about Ivanka, her intelligence and business acumen, and her siblings acknowledge that she is the apple of her father`s eye.

Yet she treads a careful line, supporting her father but equally careful never to say anything controversial, as she maintains a carefully curated public image as businesswoman and entrepreneur.

On Thursday she spoke to women, independents and young people, who resonated particularly strongly with defeated Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and referred to crippling college debt."Like many of my fellow Millennials, I do not consider myself categorically Democratic or Republican," she said. "This is the moment and Donald Trump is the person to make America great again."

He was the single-most qualified person to lead the economy, and would "call on the best and brightest, both sides of the aisle," she said.

Trump, who polls as low as 34 percent among women, hired women on construction sites before it was commonplace, has more female than male executives and would introduce equal pay, she said.

"Women are paid equally and when a woman becomes a mother she is supported, not shut out," she said of life at The Trump Organization where she is a vice president of acquisitions and development.

"He will focus on making quality childcare affordable and accessible for all," she added, in comments that could have been lifted straight from the mouth of Trump`s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

"American families need relief... He will fight for equal pay for equal work and I will fight for this too."

Ivanka`s Instagram account is a heady mix of adorable pictures of her photogenic children, tips for working mothers and pictures of herself modeling elegant dresses from her affordable high-street range.

But behind the scenes, she is a force to be reckoned with. She reportedly urged her father to adopt a more presidential style and took exception to ugly nicknames he gave opponents.With her brothers Donald and Eric, she is thought to have been instrumental in persuading her father to pick conservative Indiana Governor Mike Pence as vice president in a bid to unite the party.

Born in 1981, she is the second child of Trump and his first wife, the Czech-born Ivana, whose marriage exploded in tabloid scandal and ended in divorce when she was 10 years old.

Privately educated at Chapin and Choate, some of the East Coast`s most exclusive schools, she followed her father to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in economics.

Much has been made by the Trump children of the value of hard work that their parents instilled in them, and how they spent summers working rather than jetting off to the French Riviera with friends.

While the offspring of New York`s super rich can be seen in and out of rehab, or struggling to hold down jobs, the Trump adult children are seemingly happily married and assets to his global corporation.

In addition to working for her father, Ivanka founded her eponymous fashion line, the Ivanka Trump Collection.

Married to multi-millionaire real estate developer and publisher Jared Kushner, for whom she converted to Judaism, the couple are fixtures on the society circuit but also known to like the quiet life at home.

jm/ec


Guwahati: The flood situation continued to deteriorate in Assam with close to three lakh persons affected by the floods in districts like Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Morigaon, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Sivsagar, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Bongaigaon and Chirang.

Army troops carried out rescue operation in parts of Chirang districts, where the floods have inundated several villages, and evacuated at least 30 persons.

Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) officials said that 2,90,880 people in 446 villages have remained affected by floods till Friday evening and the floods have inundated 24,394.37 hectares of cropland across the affected districts.

A total of 12,428 people have taken shelter in 27 relief camps in some of the flood hit districts, they added.

The surging waters of Brahmaputra river and its tributaries have damaged roads and embankments at many places, snapping communication to some of the remote areas of the districts.

While the flood waters have damaged seven roads in Sivsagar, embankments have been breached in Kokrajhar and Bongaon.

Defence spokesman Lt. Col. Suneet Newton said that the Indian Army moved swiftly on its rescue mission in Chirang amidst a heavy deluge and pouring waters of overflowing rivers.

"Based on a call for help from the local people, the army launched four teams on Friday in the Khungring area of Chirang district and rescued at least 30 people, who were helplessly trapped in their marooned village amidst fast currents," he said adding that the army deployed boats to reach the marooned people and made a number of trips against the swift current to save them.

He said that the Army Flood Control Centre at Tezpur is functioning round the clock to monitor the flood situation and coordinate relief and rescue efforts wherever required. "All units under the area of responsibility of the Gajraj Corps in Tezpur are fully alert and geared up to react swiftly to any flood related contingency," he added.
Sydney: Papua New Guinea`s Prime Minister Peter O`Neill survived a no-confidence vote in parliament Friday over corruption allegations following weeks of protests and civil disobedience urging him to resign.

O`Neill, who came to power in 2012, was forced to face the opposition-sponsored motion by the Supreme Court but won comfortably 85 to 21, PNG commercial television network EMTV and other media reported.

The impoverished, crime-ridden Pacific nation, north of Australia, has been plagued by outbreaks of violence against the O`Neill administration in recent times amid growing calls for him to step down.

University students have boycotted classes as part of their campaign to get rid of him, with protests turning violent last month when police opened fire on students, injuring dozens, some critically.

Local reports said that since then pilots and maritime workers have staged their own protests, calling in sick en masse.

O`Neill had fought back against the vote in recent days, saying the country needed political stability to maintain economic growth.

"We all know political stability is very vital, for the development of our country and the continued growth of our economy," PNG`s Post-Courier quoted him as saying Thursday.

"Today as you can see, the warnings this week from the International Monetary Fund on slower global economic growth this year and in 2017 makes it even more critical than ever that Papua New Guinea maintains a strong and competent national government."

O`Neill has been wanted for questioning by anti-corruption police for the past two years but has refused to comply with a warrant for his arrest.

Police are investigating whether he authorised millions of dollars in illegal payments from the government to Paraka Lawyers, one of the nation`s largest law firms. He denies the allegations.

When the arrest warrant was issued in 2014, O`Neill sacked the PNG police commissioner, fired his attorney-general and suspended numerous other justice department and police officials.
Berlin: More than three-quarters of Germans believe their country will soon be the target of terrorism, a survey showed on Friday, after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a train in an axe attack claimed by Islamic State.

Seventy-seven percent expect an attack to happen soon, up from 69 percent two weeks ago, according to the survey compiled by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF.

Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said investigations suggested he was a "lone wolf" who had been spurred into action by Islamic State propaganda.

The axe rampage came days after a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing 84 in an attack also claimed by the jihadist group.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper`s Friday edition that there was "no reason to panic but it`s clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The survey of 1,271 respondents, which showed 20 percent do not expect an attack soon, was conducted during the three days following the train attack.

It also showed 59 percent think enough is being done to protect them from terrorism - almost twice as many as think they should be better protected.
London: French President Francois Hollande on Friday said he respects Britain's decision to leave the EU and urged the country to begin Brexit negotiations as soon as possible.

He met British Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris and said he recognised the new government needed time to prepare but stressed: "The sooner the better."

He thanked May for her "message of solidarity" in the wake of the terrorist attack in Nice, BBC reported.

May said she wanted to "maximise opportunities" for Britain and the EU.

"The United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union and we respect that decision. We would like to be reflected in the best possible timescale to open a negotiation to establish what will be the relationship between the UK and Europe," he said.

"For France, the sooner the better. There cannot be discussions or pre-negotiations before the negotiations, but we can of course prepare these negotiations and we can understand that your government, that's just been formed, needs this time," Hollande added.

He said uncertainty was the greatest danger and also repeated France's argument that Britain could only get access to the single market if it accepted the free movement of people.

"It will be a choice facing the UK -- remain in the single market and then assume the free movement that goes with it or to have another status. That will be the subject of the negotiation," the French President noted.
London: Britain has listed the Pakistan-based East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organisation, a move likely to please China, which has demanded Western support for its fight against a group it says seeks to split off its western region of Xinjiang.

In London, the Home Office on Friday designated ETIM, which it also called the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), as an "Islamic terrorist and separatist organisation" trying to create an "independent caliphate" in Xinjiang, reports The Nation.

The United States and the United Nations have listed ETIM as a terrorist group, though there is some discrepancy internationally over whether ETIM and TIP are the same entity as China claims, and experts have questioned their cohesiveness.

The addition of ETIM to the list of proscribed organisations comes as leaders from China and Britain have proclaimed the countries are enjoying a "golden age" in relations.

Inclusion on the list criminalises association with the group, according to the Home Office website.

Criteria for the listing of a group include factors such as the "specific threat it poses to the UK" and "the need to support other members of the international community in the global fight against terrorism".

The Home Office said the group is based in tribal regions of Pakistan, had claimed responsibility for attacks in China, "maintained an active and visible presence in the Syrian war" and had detailed its "jihad against the Chinese authorities".

China`s Foreign Ministry did not immediately offer a comment on the designation.Hundreds have died in violence in recent years in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people.

Beijing blames the bloodshed on Islamist militants and separatists, though rights groups say the unrest is more a reaction to repressive Chinese policies.

Western countries have long been reluctant to share intelligence with China or otherwise cooperate when it comes to counter terrorism in Xinjiang, saying China has provided little evidence to prove ETIM`s existence and citing worries about possible human rights abuses.
Panaji: Amid mounting pressure of the opposition and the complaints filed in Lokayukta, Goa tourism department today said it is mulling to scale down the price of the controversial beach cleanliness contract.

Goa Lokayukta is already hearing a complaint filed by Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte and social activist Aires Rodrigues over alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 14 crore in tendering of beach cleanliness.

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which conducted an inquiry into the matter, recently gave a clean chit to state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. "We are waiting for the order from Lokayukta. The department has already decided to scale down the contract price when it would be renewed again," he said.

The minister said the scope of work for the contractor has decreased drastically due to the commissioning of garbage treatment facility at Saligao.

"Now they have to just lift the garbage from the beaches and send it for processing at the treatment plant. On their part, they don't have to treat it," Parulekar said.

The existing price of Rs 14 crore per year would be scaled down to Rs 8 to 10 crore annually during renewal, he said, adding the new guidelines would be issued after the Lokayukta pronounces its order.

"Till then we have to maintain status quo," he said.

The tourism department has awarded the contract of cleaning the beaches to two companies, which, according to Khaunte, are owned by the same person.

The Porvorim MLA said that his demand for action against the minister concerned (Parulekar), officials and the companies would continue.

"Our demand is that bank accounts of both the companies be frozen and the money paid to them recovered by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar," Khaunte said.

"If the Chief Minister fails to act, I will be forced to write to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in the case to issue necessary directions to the state government.

"In this beach cleaning case, the government has completely misused the police machinery (ACB) to institutionalise corruption by giving clean chit to Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. We have produced all the facts and figures to prove that it is a scam," the MLA alleged.
Rajkot: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met the victims of flogging incident that took place on July 11 for skinning a dead cow in Una town.

Talking to reporters after meeting the four victims of flogging at Civil Hospital here, the Delhi Chief Minister described the Gujarat government as anti-Dalit.

The BJP government in Gujarat is trying to suppress Dalits in the state, said Kejriwal, adding that such incidents must stop and a strict action must be taken against the culprits.

The AAP leader further warned that the oppressed Dalits would teach a lesson to the ruling BJP.

"Those culprits must be punished in such a manner that it should shake their hearts. An example must be set here," Kejriwal said.

He further took on the Gujarat government stating that the administration did not act at a time because it was hinted from "above".

"They were thrashed in full public. If such incident is happening in the presence of administration then it means that those culprits were backed by higher powers. It hints that the government was involved," Kejriwal said.

On July 11, four Dalit youth were severely beaten up in Una town in Saurashtra region of Gujarat for skinning a dead cow, which has caused nationwide outrage after the video went viral. The victims said they were skinning a dead cow and had not killed it.

As many as 17 Dalits across the state attempted suicide to protest against the incident, of whom, one has died.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had visited Una district to meet the family of victims yesterday.

(With Agency inputs)


New Delhi: Leaders of CPI, CPI(M) and JD(U) would visit Una tomorrow to meet members of the Dalit community who have been protesting the brutal assault on four youths for allegedly skinning a cow in the town in Gir-Somnath district 11 days ago.Una tomorrow to meet members of the Dalit community who have been protesting the brutal assault on four youths for allegedly skinning a cow in the town in Gir-Somnath district 11 days ago.

Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, CPI's D Raja and CPI(M) Lok Sabha member P K Biju would reach Una tomorrow and meet the family members of the youths who were allegedly beaten up by a group of right-wing 'gau rakshaks' (cow vigilantes).

"The situation in Gujarat is worsening. We are going there to express solidarity with the Dalit community as well as understand the ground situation," Raja said, adding the government should take steps to protect members of the downtrodden and minority communities.

He said the delegation would spend a night at Una to hold interactions with the protesting members of the community.

Their visit follows those by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

During a debate on growing attacks on Dalits in Rajya Sabha yesterday, Yadav had hit out apparently at the BJP-RSS saying "who created these 'Gau Rakshaks'? Why doesn't the government ban them? What is this tamasha? .... We talk about Taliban ... Our caste system has a Taliban-like attitude, we need to discuss that."

In his speech, Raja too had sought steps to stop atrocities against dalits, saying "there are organised right- wing forces in the country and there are people in political sphere and those close to them" who were backing them. "This is the challenge we are facing. The government will have to take action," the CPI leader had said.
While the Indian Navy is leading the Search And Rescue effort, given that it is an incident at sea, IAF and ICG are working in close cooperation.

By Jugal R Purohit: A Ukraine-returned, upgraded aircraft, Antonov 32 RE (K2743) (Re-Equipped) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) took off on Friday morning from Tambaram air force station in Chennai for Port Blair and not a speck was ever spotted again, anywhere. Its disappearance has resulted into one of the biggest maritime search efforts ever launched by India with at least 17 ships, a submarine and six aircraft from Indian Navy (IN), Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Indian Air Force (IAF) scouring the Bay of Bengal.

Efforts on to trace IAF AN 32 aircraft and our Service personnel on board.&; Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) July 22, 2016

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However, the odds are stacked up and well against the mission.

To begin with, a senior source admitted the aircraft had moved safely out of the radar's range by the time it went missing. As a result, the radar in Chennai had only traces. It was reliably learnt that the controllers at Chennai had to resort to extrapolation to determine the path and speed of descent. When worked out, the rate of descent of the aircraft came to a staggering 4500 feet per minute (roughly over 80kmph). The impact of this rapid rate on the crew, airframe, and passengers, totalling 29 is anyone's guess.

Images just in of Indian Navy ships departing Port Blair to hunt for missing Indian Air Force An-32. pic.twitter.com/q2EGI6FOOH&; Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 22, 2016

DEPTH OF THE FLOOR: MAJOR CHALLENGE

What is also likely to pose a challenge is the depth of the floor where the crash is likely to have occurred. The average depth in the region of probe is nearly 3500m. Last June, an ICG Dornier plane crashed after taking off from Chennai, over sea. It took a 36-day operation and reaching out to a depth of 990m in the Bay of Bengal to retrieve key flight and cockpit data recorders and mortal remains - parameters said to be unprecedented in India's search and rescue history.

What the inside of an Indian Air Force An-32 looks like. With @manupubby_ET, @ThaparVishal etc on report years ago. pic.twitter.com/04dQC0LRB8&; Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 22, 2016

HIGH ALTITUDE ISSUE

The An-32 was flying at a height of 21,000 ft when last recorded. The difference, those in the know say, between this incident and the one involving the ICG plane is the altitude and timing. ICG's Dornier, a smaller to An-32, was flying at about 9000ft and crashed at about 9:24 pm off Chennai whereas the Antonov had more altitude and was lost during day time. "Both these indicators show the IAF pilots had more time to react. Yet there was no SOS/May Day call," said a source.

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FLIGHT ENDURANCE TIME

An officer familiar with the flight path said, "These courier flights from Tambaram take off twice a week. The duration is roughly beyond 3 hours and by the time the An-32 lands, it is almost at the end of its endurance." Importantly, he said, "In this route, there are many blind zones where due to the curvature of the earth, the pilot has no contact with anyone for some time so if things went wrong during such a blind zone, the difficulty in pin-pointing the location of the crash will increase".

A demonstration of Search & Rescue ops launched by Indian Navy for Indian Air Force AN-32 plane which went missing pic.twitter.com/ICCvve6wBY&; ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

P-8I RETURNS EMPTY HANDED

Not surprisingly, the first flight of IN's highly-advanced P-8I aircraft, launched from Arakkonam returned empty handed this evening. The officer-in-charge there has stated, it is believed, that one more sortie will be launched little later. "P-8Is are far to advanced to let the night come in the way. We will use Infra Red (IR) sensor among other tools to carry on searching," said a source. The Arakkonam-based 312A squadron of the IN, comprising of the P-8Is can undertake nearly ten hours of flying in one flight. A breakthrough is expected sooner than later.

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While the IN is leading the Search And Rescue (SAR) effort, given that it is an incident at sea, IAF and ICG are working in close cooperation.

The IAF has over 100 An-32s and they form the mainstay of the transport fleet operations. While they have served for nearly three decades, those in the know say the aircraft are in perfectly fine condition. A dedicated five-member crew comprising a pilot, co-pilot, a navigator, a flight engineer and a gunner flies the An-32. The IAF has had crashes of the plane, one of them even dating back to 1986, possibly the earliest one.

- Writer is a senior special correspondent with India Today and tweets @JRPUR

ALSO READ:

All 29 feared dead as IAF AN-32 goes missing over Bay of Bengal, massive search on

IAF's AN-32 aircraft plunged from 23,000 feet before vanishing from radar, massive search on



--- ENDS ---
Ahmedabad: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday travelled to Rajkot in Gujarat to meet the victims of the assault on Dalits by members of a 'gau raksha samiti'.

However, hours before the Congress leader arrived in Rajkot, one of the victims of the public flogging was admitted to the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (PDU) General Hospital there.

Interestingly, on July 18 the victim had been discharged from the Junagadh civil hospital.

Reports said all this was done political pressure.

23-year-old Ramesh Sarvaiya was one of the seven Dalit men (all from the same family) who were publicly flogged by a group of gau rakshaks for skinning a dead cow in Mota Samadhiyala village of Una taluka in Gir Somnath district on July 11.

The incident was recorded and shared on social media. It later went viral.

As per The Indian Express, Ramesh was given first aid at a community health centre in Una town, before being referred to the Junagadh civil hospital for treatment of suspected fractures.

However, he along with his father Balu Sarvaiya, who had sustained head injury, was discharged from the hospital on July 18.

A doctor at the hospital said they had recovered from their injuries and were hence discharged.

However, curiously Ramesh was seen in the surgical ward of PDU on Wednesday when Chief Minister Anandiben Patel visited the hospital.

But, as per hospital documents, Ramesh was admitted there at 7.38 am on Thursday, hours before Rahul Gandhi visited the facility.

Dr Dharmendra Vatsraj, medical superintendent of PDU General hospital, told the newspaper, He had abrasions and bruises and came to us for treatment. As a matter of policy, we cannot deny treatment to any patient. Therefore, he was admitted this morning.

Ramesh, meanwhile, said his thighs had swollen again and the pain recurred which is why he got re-admitted to the hospital.

He rejected claims that he got admitted to the hospital again after being asked to do so by any politician or community leader.
Ahmedabad: Three more Dalit youths allegedly attempted suicide today in Botad district of Gujarat even as the situation in most parts of the state returned to normalcy after witnessing three days of violent protests by community members over beating of Dalits for allegedly skinning a dead cow in Gir Somnath.

At Ranpur village of Botad district, three youths attempted suicide by drinking poisonous substance, to protest the Una incident, police said.

"Villagers informed police that three youths from the same village had tried to commit suicide to protest the Una incident after which they were taken to nearby hospital and then referred to Bhavnagar hospital for treatment," Botad Superintendent of Police, Saroj Kumari said.

As the news of the suicide attempt spread, hundreds of Dalits gathered at the hospital to show solidarity with the cause, Kumari said.

So far, more than 20 youths have attempted suicide during the ongoing protest. Members of Congress party blocked a national highway in Vadodara by burning tyres that caused traffic jam. Police managed to clear the road and detained five persons in this connection.

Protest rallies were taken out in some parts of Ahmedabad district and Patan, as Dalits in Ahmedabad's Viramgam came out in hundreds and submitted memorandum to local administration demanding justice.

A protest march was carried out in Patan as well. While in Modasa in Arvalli district, markets continued to remain closed for the second day as local businessmen protested damages done to their shops and establishments by Dalits during the ongoing agitation.

Businessmen demanded action against vandals who damaged several shops causing loss of property.

District administration in Gir Somnath--where Mota Saladhiyala village is located--imposed Section 144, which prohibits gathering of more than four persons, to avoid any untoward incident by preventing gathering of people to protest.

"We imposed Section 144 last evening which will remain effective till July 31, in order to keep the situation under control," Collector Ajay Kumar said.
Ambala: In controversial remarks, Haryana BJP women's cell chief Nirmal Bairagi on Friday said incidents of rape have been there since the creation of earth.

She was replying to reporters who pointed out that such incidents have gone up in the state over the last two years.

"Incidents of rape were there ever since the creation of earth," she said on being asked about the progress in police investigation into a recent Rohtak incident where a Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by five persons in a repeat offence.

Bairagi claimed the state government took such incidents seriously and all necessary steps have been taken to curb them, adding that "most of the accused" in the Rohtak incident have been nabbed.

Replying to another query, she said the executive body of the state women's cell of the BJP would be constituted soon for which she was touring various districts to collect the feedback of active workers.
New Delhi/Amritsar: Taking a strong exception to Bhagwant Mann for uploading a video on social media showing the Parliament premises and internal security positions, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has become a shelter of comedians which doesn`t have an ideology.

Speaking to ANI, BJP leader Tarun Chugh said the way the AAP MP has leaked the security of the Lok Sabha and the way he has put the video on social media is a deception to the nation`s security.

"Bhagwant Mann calls it a matter of pride and says he will again show it. I think the AAP has become a shelter of comedians, which doesn`t have an ideology. Its aim is to create a sensation.

These kinds of people are a threat to the nation`s unity," he added.Dubbing the act as unfortunate, the BJP leader demanded strict action against Mann."I think Bhagwant Mann has even now not come out of the character of a person who cracks jokes.

This is Lok Sabha.not a stage of a `madaari`. Earlier too, the Parliament has tolerated a big attack.

Many of our sons had died in the attack. Bhagwant Mann on Friday insulted those sons," he added.

Resonating similar sentiments, Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said no one should play with the security of Parliament at a time when already a terror attack has taken place.

"Uploading video of the interior of Parliament, which is prohibited, is not right.

The Parliamentary Secretariat will look into the matter," he added. Mann, who stoked a controversy on Thursday after uploading a video showing security spots of Parliament, strongly defended his actions.

However, the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has taken cognizance of the video and it is being investigated.The Speaker will seek a report from Parliament security on the matter and Mann will be summoned if required.

"Did my video pose a security threat to Parliament? Is it illegal or inappropriate to post a video which shows the procedure of how questions are taken up in Parliament during Question Hour?," Mann asked after his video created an uproar.

Mann`s video, which was live-streamed on Facebook, shows security pickets and sensitive internal security positions of the Parliament.

Even as the video was dubbed as `highly irresponsible` and `foolish` by the opposition parties, Mann told reporters that he would shoot another video on Saturday.

`Let me be served a notice,` he said.
Patna/New Delhi: Lashing out at Bhagwant Mann for filming security pickets inside the Parliament, the Janata Dal United (JDU) on Friday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP must be refrained from entering into Parliament.

Speaking to ANI, JD (U) leader Ajay Alok asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to reprimand Mann for his act and sought Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan`s intervention into the matter."This is madness. Nobody can be allowed to make a mockery out of Parliament and nation`s security. I want Arvind Kejriwal to personally take note of this act and question him. Lok Sabha Speaker should intervene in this matter and must ask for an explanation and until then he must be refrained from entering into the Parliament," he added.

Echoing similar sentiments, another JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi said that instead of making the video viral Mann should have raised the issue of security lapse to the Parliamentary Committee.

"Bhagwant Mann has filmed the deficiencies in the security arrangements inside the Parliament, which is alarming.

Having said that he shouldn`t have made the video viral. Instead of making it viral, he should have shown the video to security officials or should have raised the issue to the Parliamentary Committee. The nation has been under threat from terrorists forces. This video might turn useful to them," he told ANI.

Earlier on Friday, Mann drew flak from all the political corners after a video of him shooting the Parliament check posts had emerged. However, the AAP MP while defending himself said that the purpose of the video was to showcase how Parliament functions.
New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA Government for not taking any action against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwat Mann for breaching the Parliament security and sought an explanation for the same.

CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury wondered as to why no action had been initiated yet despite the government being in majority in the Parliament.

"Whatever it is, I will say that it was breach of security, it was breach of privilege of the Parliament. And on the basis of both an action needs to be taken," said Yechury.

"The BJP has majority in the Lok Sabha; it is their government at the Centre. Why has the Centre not taken any action against him since tomorrow? The government must answer," he added.

The AAP MP yesterday posted a video of Parliament`s security positions and details on the social media. Mann, however, clarified his act after severe criticism from the opposition parties."My only intention was to tell the procedure (during the Zero Hour). I have done nothing to risk the security of the Parliament," he said.
Islamabad: Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has confirmed that he has links with firebrand separatist leader Asiya Andrabi and was also in touch with Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, who was killed in an encounter on July 8 in Kashmir.

An exclusive video released by news agency ANI shows the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind addressing Andrabi as his sister. Andrabi is Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief.

Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) is a radical womens organisation. DeM, led by Asiya Andrabi, has been hoisting Pakistani flags every year to mark Pakistan Day and Independence Day of the country on August 14.

In the sensational video, Saeed, an United Nations designated terrorist, is seen revealing that Burhan Wani called him a few days before his death and said his last wish was to talk to me.

The JuD chief is further heard saying that Wani told him that his wish has been fulfilled and he was now ready for martyrdom.

The video was shot during JuD's rally Kashmir Caravan which was held from Lahore to Islamabad to protest against the unrest and deaths in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

Saeed said that he had a word with 'sister' Andrabi who was crying for 15 minutes. I told her do not cry, we are on our way, the JuD chief was seen saying.

He warned the Indian establishment to accept Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's 4 point Kashmir solution, or be ready for war.

Kashmir has been witnessing huge protests ever since Wani was gunned down by the security forces.

#WATCH ANI exclusive: LeT Founder Hafiz Saeed talks abt his conversation with Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabihttps://t.co/B7bJWWyX5I  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

#WATCH ANI's exclusive: LeT Founder Hafiz Saeed talks about his conversation with slain terrorist Burhan Wanihttps://t.co/XcqZ9yiCKe  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016
New Delhi: With the Valley on the boil with the violent clashes between locals and security forces refusing to simmer down, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday on a two-day visit to take stock of the situation in the state.

Speaking in the Parliament on Thursday, Rajnath said that security forces were instructed to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with protests in Kashmir valley.

He also said that an experts` committee will review the use of pellet guns by security forces."It is not like pellet guns were not used in Kashmir in the past; they were, in fact, used in 2010 as well, and they are listed as non-lethal weapons.

We will, however, form a committee of experts, which will tell us in two months the non-lethal alternatives to these guns," Rajnath said.

Singh said he had spoken to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who said she would come to Delhi in the next 2-3 days to hold discussions.

"I told her that I myself would like to go there, stay in a guest house and meet people there," he said.The Home Minister said that all political parties have tried to work for the resolution of the Kashmir problem.

"The Kashmir issue needs to be dealt with collectively. Everyone needs to partake in the responsibility of making the situation better," the home minister said.

On Thursday, an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was held in Srinagar to review the situation in the valley and to find a way to solve the violence that has left around 43 people dead and thousands injured, after protests broke out in the valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.

Meanwhile in Jammu and Kashmir, the curfew and restriction remain in force across Kashmir on 14th consecutive day in view of continuous shutdown call by separatists and prevailing law and order situation.

Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr. Farooq Lone said that the curfew will continue in Srinagar.

The civilian death toll since July 9 unrest stands at 42 with one policeman also dead.

In view, of separatists` call to hold a peaceful protest after Friday congregational prayers, strict restriction on the movement and assembly of people will remain in force across the Kashmir valley.

The police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in strength to maintain Law and Order.
Jeddah: Mumbai-based televangelist Zakir Naik, who is under fire over allegedly inspiring one of the terrorists who attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka recently, has opened up in a bid to douse the controversies surrounding him.

Talking to The Times of India, the Islamic preacher said the news that one of the attackers was his follower first appeared in a Bangladeshi newspaper on July 03, and in the Indian media on July 04. It is totally wrong. The paper later clarified but the Indian media ran a trial against me.

Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the only PM of India who has visited so many Muslim countries in just two years, Naik said this will strengthen relations between India and other Muslim countries.

If his (Modi's) intention is to maintain unity between Hindus and Muslims and between India and other Muslim countries, I am totally for him."

Hinduism is a major religion of the world and India has a high Muslim population. So if the PM reaches out to Muslim countries, it is good. It will help bring investments to India. If all these countries get together, India would become a superpower. India was a superpower in the past and will attain that stature again.

When asked about his views on the Islamic State, Naik said, Jihad means to strive and struggle to make the society better. It also stands for self-defence. But the Indian media has hyped jihad. Besides non-Muslims, it is misunderstood even by Muslims.

IS is killing innocent people which, according to the Quran, is a sin against humanity. I call them anti-Islam state. They have given a wrong meaning to Islam. If someone killed Muslims in Gujarat that does not justify killing innocent Hindus in Mumbai.

He also refuted claims that he forced Hindus to embrace Islam.

The preacher also declared that he was proud to be an Indian and an Indian Muslim.

Saying that he has full faith in the Indian judiciary, Naik underlined that there should not be any political pressure on it.

He further rejected the charge that his lectures were against the Indian Constitution or attempted to disrupt the harmony of India.

The controversial preacher has said he is willing to return to India "whenever the government or the agencies want me".

Naik's Peace TV and Peace mobile have been banned in Bangladesh following revelations that one of the young Islamist attackers who killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, during a Dhaka cafe siege on July 01 drew "inspiration" from his speeches.

On Thursday, a joint team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala Police arrested a youth allegedly associated with Naik's foundation in connection with a case registered in Kochi.

A senior police official said Arshid Qureshi, who was associated with IRF Foundation of Zakir Naik, was nabbed from Navi Mumbai.
London: A UK based top separatist Khalistani movement leader had "predicted" the killing of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi months before her assassination in October 1984, according to newly declassified British government documents.

Jagjit Singh Chauhan, described by UK officials as a "self-styled president of the Sikh Republic of Khalistan", was among a number of suspects against whom the then Margaret Thatcher-led government considered "further action".

"The Indian authorities have repeatedly complained about statements made in the UK by a Sikh, Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan, self-styled 'President' of the Sikh 'Republic of Khalistan'. In June this year he 'predicted' the death of Mrs Gandhi; he has subsequently spoken of Rajiv Gandhi being a 'target'," reads a note prepared by UK foreign and Home Office officials in 1984.

It goes on to warn that Chauhan's presence on UK soil could harm bilateral relations between India and the UK.

"His remarks have drawn a sharp response from the Indian government and there is a risk of severe damage to our bilateral relations. Other Sikh extremists in the UK, some of whom have sought asylum, constitute a further threat to bilateral relations," it warns.

The documents released on Thursday also mention India's concerns over Hashim Qureshi, then Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader, and his alleged involvement in the murder of Indian diplomat Ravindran Mhatre in Birmingham.

With PTI inputs
Sangeeta was married to Santosh, son of Bilo Sahni, a resident of Begusarai in 2000. Ever since then, Sangeeta's in-laws had been torturing her for their son's property.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Sangeeta Devi, daughter of former JDU leader Baidhyanath Sahani, was stoned to death by her in-laws over a property dispute on Thursday. Sangeeta Devi was admitted to a local hospital in Begusarai last night in critical condition.

Sangeeta was married to Santosh, son of Bilo Sahni, a resident of Begusarai in 2000. Unfortunately, Santosh died last November after prolonged illness. Ever since then, Sangeeta's in-laws had been torturing her for the property that Santosh had left behind. Baidhyanath Sahni alleges that Sangeeta's in-laws used to force and torture her to transfer all the property and wealth in their name to which Sangeeta refused.

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Sahni said on July 20, he had gone to meet his daughter in Begusarai and found her in-laws beating her with stones. He tried to intervene but could not do so. Later, Sangeeta was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition. She succumbed to her injuries during her treatment on Thursday night.



"My daughter Sangeeta has been killed by her in-laws who have stoned her to death. I had come to see my daughter on July 20 and found that she was being beaten by her in-laws", said Baidhyanath Sahni.

According to police sources, after their son Santosh's death, Sangeeta's in-laws had usurped gold ornaments worth Rs 12 lakh and a Bolero jeep.



The police have now registered an FIR in this murder case against seven persons, four male and three female members of the family, and have begun their investigation in the case. In a late night crackdown, the police arrested three members of the in-laws' family. The other four accused are still absconding and the police are conducting searches for them.



Meanwhile, the former Minister has expressed confidence that he will get justice from the government.

"I have full faith in Nitish Kumar's government and I am hopeful that I will get justice in the case," said Baidhyanath Sahni.

Sangeeta Devi is survived by her three sons.







--- ENDS ---
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on friday thanked her Uttarakhand counterpart Harish Rawat for taking steps to install the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in his state, calling it a "positive action."

"I am grateful that you have responded speedily and positively to the outpouring of sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu on this sensitive issue.

"I am happy to learn that you have arranged for the installation of the statue of Thiruvalluvar in the premises of Mela Bhavan in Haridwar. On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I thank you for your prompt and positive action," she told Rawat in a letter.

The AIADMK Supremo told Rawat that the issue had been causing "considerable disquiet in Tamil Nadu," and that she had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu had expressed concern over the statue of the saint poet reportedly lying wrapped in a park in Haridwar after efforts by BJP MP Tarun Vijay to install it on the banks of river Ganga failed allegedly due to protests from local sadhus.

Several parties in Tamil Nadu had sought the intervention of the Tamil Nadu government in solving the row.
New Delhi: Union Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday accused two leaders of grand-old Congress party of allegedly misbehaving with her in Parliament House and said that she was humiliated by them.

In her allegation, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that after the House got adjourned, Renuka Chowdhury and Jairam Ramesh threw filth on her and used cuss words against her by calling her a 'trash' (Kachra).

The Akali Dal leader further alleged that when she raised objection to it, Renuka responded by saying, 'Go to hell' (Bhad mein jaye).

Kaur said, "I am planning to move a privilege motion against two Congress parliamentarians for allegedly misbehaving with her in the Rajya Sabha. This is not the way you behave with a woman and a minister."

Badal alleged that both Chowdhury and Ramesh did not allow her to speak in the Upper House when she put up the matter of parliament's security in the wake of a video uploaded on social media by Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann on Thursday.

"I am astonished at the rudeness Jairam Ramesh and Renuka Chowdhury showed while speaking to me. They questioned me as to how could I come in the house when I was not its member and said I was disrupting the house proceedings," Badal told the media outside Parliament House.

Badal is a member of the Lok Sabha but as a minister she can speak in either house of parliament.

"For them, the lives of our jawans, our people hold no value. The video clip that has been uploaded could fall in wrong hands and the house should have discussed it," Badal added.

As she claimed further, "the country threw out the grand old party from the power in Lok Sabha polls as its leaders were deep indulged in scams and corruption. Today, they are least interested in hearing about country's safety. They don't even know how to speak to a woman."

When contacted, Chowdhury denied the allegations of misbehaviour and termed Badal's rant against her as nothing but a 'political drama'.

"Where does the word 'kachra' crop up from? Either she has some problem with her English or with her hearing. I was speaking in English and not in Hindi," Chowdhury told TimesNow.

"Harsimrat is playing the victim card. They are losing in Punjab and are on the backfoot. If she wants to create a political drama as it can get her votes, then so be it," the Congress MP said.
Srinagar: Fresh clashes were reported from Kashmir's Pulwana district on Friday.

One protester was killed today as the security forces fired on the mob in Awantipora and Pulwama area.

The death toll in the clashes between protesters and security, which erupted following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8, has climbed to 45.

Meanwhile, curfew and separatists-called protest shutdown marred life across the Valley for the 14th day running on Friday.

Mobile telephony and mobile internet services remained suspended for the 14th day today.

J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday visited bereaved families in south Kashmir Anantnag district whose members have been killed in the ongoing violence that has claimed 45 lives.

Mufti also chaired an all party meeting held in Srinagar on Thusrday. The regional National Conference (NC) boycotted the meeting while the Congress, CPI M and Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) attended it.
Srinagar: Home Minister Rajnath Singh will on Saturday visit Jammu and Kashmir to review the situation in the Valley in the wake of tensions erupted following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 08.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the unrest in Kashmir rose to 44 with a youth, injured in clashes a few days ago, succumbing today.

Curfew, however, remained in force in all 10 districts of the Valley due to the apprehension of law and order problems in view of large gatherings for Friday prayers.

Authorities had eased curfew in four districts -- Baramulla, Bandipora, Budgam and Ganderbal -- yesterday to facilitate reopening of schools.

However, most of the schools in these districts remained closed as parents chose not to send their wards due to security apprehensions.

Mobile telephony and mobile Internet services remained suspended for the 14th day today. Normal life remains paralysed for two weeks now due to curfew and a separatist-sponsored strike.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday visited bereaved families in south Kashmir Anantnag district whose members have been killed in the ongoing violence.

The Chief Minister also met family members of those who have been injured during protests.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Shaina NC on Friday criticised Pakistan's politicization of Kashmir issue and said that talks between India and Pakistan will only take place on the issue of terrorism and not on Kashmir and the government will not compromise on this sensitive issue.

"Prime Minister has said time and again that dialogue with Pakistan will not be about Kashmir, it will be about terrorism and there is no compromise that is ever going to happen," Shaina NC said.

Responding to Pakistan's Foreign Affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz's comment on unrest in Kashmir, Shaina said, "Sartaj Aziz can say what he wants but do we want to trust Pakistan. It is for our Prime Minister and security agencies to work in collusion with the government of the day to decide what is the best approach to delink with Pakistan because as they say once bitten twice shy."

"One side we have Indian and on the other, the people who divide India," she said while adding that Kashmir is not up for bargain or for sale.

Aziz had on Thursday asserted that Pakistan has always provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for realisation of their fundamental rights to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.

Aziz had also mentioned that Pak had lodged its protests with the Indian High Commissioner on the situation prevailing across the border.

It is to be noted that Indo-Pak talks where suspended several times in the recent past over issues like terrorism, Kashmir among others.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh, who had blamed 'ghosts' for farmer suicides in the state, has now clarified his remarks.

He said: The government never said 'ghosts' are the reason for farmer suicides. This is what victims' families claim.

In shocking remarks, Singh had, in a written reply in the state Assembly on Wednesday, listed 'ghosts' among the reasons which were driving farmers to suicides.

Bhoot, pret, upari saya (apparitions), not crop loss, were forcing farmers to take the extreme step, he said.

Clarifying, the minister said today that the written reply to the MLA was based on police information and on statements made by the relatives of the deceased farmers.

The remarks caused uproar in the Assembly with the main opposition Congress seeking clarification on whether the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government believed in superstition.

In some rural pockets, a ritual prevails wherein people are freed of influence of spirits, Singh had later said, seeking to clarify his remarks.
Itanagar: Incessant downpour over the past couple of days has triggered landslides and floods in several districts of Arunachal Pradesh throwing normal life out of gear. Besides damaging culverts and some buildings, the floods and mudslide submerged low-lying areas and a rural link road and disrupted power supply.

Seijosa and its adjoining villages in East Kameng district remained cut off from the rest of the state due to landslides triggered by torrential rain.

The rains also caused landslides at many places at Talom Riktak village under Taliha Circle of Upper Subansiri district, an official report from Daporijo said. The flood situation was grim in Namsai district with Noa Dihing and its tributaries flowing above the danger mark, DC R K Sharma said.

In Lohit district, though all the rivers were flowing turbulently yet they were below the danger level, DC Danish Ashraf said.

Renu Kino, Anchal Samiti chairperson of Seijosa and adjoining villages of East Kameng, said that huge debris deposition caused by the rainfall has damaged many culverts and constructions.

With the PWD having no earth movers and loaders, it was former minister Atum Welly who pushed in two heavy earth movers and loaders (JCB) to clean the blockades from check gate to Goloso, Kino said.

The landslides at Upper Sbansiri district also caused damage to one government building besides a garage, official reports said.

Many domestic animals were also reported to be washed away in the mudslide, the report added.

A report from Tezu, Lohit district headquarters, said many low lying areas in the district were submerged by flood water.

The Lohit DC has directed all administrative officers, Water Resource Department (WRD) officials, state police and the disaster management cell to keep strict vigil on the flood situation.

According to the report, electricity lines at Changliang from Durra Nala micro hydel project have been damaged while the PWD rural link road was eroded threatening Changliang village which falls under Tezu circle of Lohit district.

Restoration of power supply was taken up on war footing by the electrical department while man and machinery under the supervision of WRD were also pressed into service to plug in the over-flooding of Durra river towards Changliang village but due to inclement weather, restoration work could not materialise, the reports said.
Chandigarh: In a bizarre incident in Punjab's Hoshiarpur town, a woman in a drunken state reportedly entered a stranger's home and started to create a ruckus. And when the members of the house tried to intervene, she allegedly started beating them with whatever she could get hold of.

The members of the Raj Singh Chauhan household were shocked to find a drunken woman stumbling on their porch and creating an ugly scene.

According to Dainik Bhaskar, when the family tried to stop her, she picked up whatever she could lay her hands on and started throwing at them.

After an hour of ruckus, when the family could no longer handle the situation, she called for neighbours' help who then dragged her out and tied her with a rope.

After sometime when the police arrived at the scene, they handed her over to them.

She also tried to attack the police officers who detained her.

During police interrogation she claimed that her name is Mushkan and worked as a science teacher for a government institute.

However, the reason for her aberrant behaviour was not immediately known but police have launched an investigation.

The police later took her to a hospital where again she created a ruckus after the staff put her in a ward.
New Delhi: India is likely to test a sub-scale demonstrator scramjet engine during the third quarter of 2016, parliament was told on Friday.

"The testing of sub-scale demonstrator scramjet engine is envisaged as a part of technology demonstration, by mounting it on a two stage solid rocket. This test intends to demonstrate supersonic combustion in flight and evaluate the integrated functioning of the engine," Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh, who also hold charge of the Space Department, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

"The preparations for carrying out the test are underway and the test is likely to be conducted in the third quarter of 2016," he said.

Scramjet engine technology is a complex technology which is yet to be fully proven worldwide. It is envisaged for use in launch vehicle, once the technology attains sufficient maturity.

The technology will be useful only during the atmospheric phase of the flight of launch vehicle and will benefit in bringing down the cost of access to space, by reducing the amount of the oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel, he said.


Tokyo: A lawsuit demanding local bureaucrats stop blocking the construction of a US military base in Okinawa was filed by Japan`s central government Friday, the latest in the spat between Tokyo and the southern island.

Tokyo wants to move the unpopular US airbase in a crowded residential district on Okinawa`s main island to a sparsely populated area in its northern part, but many residents want the base moved off the island altogether.

In Friday`s suit, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe`s government asked the court in Okinawa`s capital city Naha to declare that a move by the region`s governor to block construction for the base is illegal.

"The national government`s hardline attitude toward Okinawa`s US base issue is extreme," Okinawan governor Takeshi Onaga told reporters in Tokyo, citing local election results showing voters favour moving the base off the island.

"I have no choice but to call it a far cry from democracy," he said.

But Gen Nakatani, defence minister, reiterated that Onaga`s decision was illegal and the government would make its case in court.

"Governor Onaga`s decision to cancel the approval was illegal. We will argue that the infrastructure minister`s order (for him to reverse his move) is appropriate," Nakatani said.

More than half the 47,000 American troops in Japan under a decades-long security alliance are stationed on Okinawa, the site of a major World War II battle that was followed by a 27-year US occupation of the island.

A series of crimes including rapes, assaults and hit-and-run accidents by military personnel, dependants and civilians have long sparked protests.

Tempers flared again in northern Okinawa Friday, where protesters clashed with police as the central government resumed the construction of helipads for US forces -- a separate issue from the base relocation that is the focus of the lawsuit.

Riot police pushed and shoved protesters who refused to move from near a US military training area as construction resumed, Japanese television footage showed.

Protesters used more than 100 vehicles to block an access road to the training area, according to the Asahi Shimbun daily.

hih/kgo/kb
Rupert Murdoch will immediately take over as the Chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network.

Roger Ailes, 76 and the network's CEO since 1996, said in a communique sent to channel WNBC that he would not allow his presence to become a distraction from the work that Fox News must do to ensure that it leads the industry. Photo: Reuters

By Indo-Asian News Service: The president of Fox News, Roger Ailes, resigned as the network's chief after a number of female employees accused him of sexual harassment.

The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced his resignation on Thursday.

RUPERT MURDOCH STEPS IN

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organisation and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years," Rupert Murdoch, who will take over immediately as chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, said in a communique.

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Ailes' resignation comes weeks after he was accused by former Fox 5 reporter Gretchen Carlson of having taken reprisals against her, including reducing her salary, after she refused to have sexual relations with him, EFE news reported.

'UNWANTED SEXUAL ADVANCES' USUAL FOR AILES

In addition to the complaint presented by Carlson, this week Fox News channel anchor Megyn Kelly, who on July 12 said she had also been the victim of "unwanted sexual advances" by Ailes approximately 10 years ago.

After this latest revelation, 21st Century Fox launched an internal investigation and Ailes received an ultimatum from the corporate lawyers to resign before August 1 or be fired for justifiable cause.

Murdoch made no reference to these accusations or to the alleged ultimatum presented by the company to Ailes in the statement released on Thursday.

I IDENTIFIED AND PROMOTED THE BEST TALENT IN TV: AILES

Meanwhile, Ailes, 76 and the network's CEO since 1996, said in a communique sent to channel WNBC that Fox had become the No. 1 television network "because I consistently identified and promoted the most talented men and women in television, and they performed at the highest levels."

"I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry," he said.

The severance terms agreed to between Fox and Ailes were not disclosed.

Also Read:

Vladimir Putin dating Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng? Vladimir Putin dating Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng?

No watchdog in 2 Indian govt depts to address sexual harassment





--- ENDS ---
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday expressed concern over the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir during a high-level meeting here called to discuss regional security.

In the meeting, Sharif and Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, were briefed on the situation in Kashmir and Afghanistan, Dawn online quoted senior Foreign Office sources as saying.

The meeting condemned "the oppression of the Indian security forces over innocent Kashmiris" protesting against the violence in the region, a Prime Minister's House statement said.

Sharif said the "brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people which no civilised society permits".

Sharif maintained that the Indian attempts to claim the situation in Kashmir an internal matter were "factually incorrect, legally untenable and a violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions", the statement said.

The only solution to the Kashmir issue was "early implementation of UNSC resolutions -- a fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices", he said.

The statement said Pakistan "will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support" to the people of Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self-determination.

The meeting resolved to approach the UN Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir to "investigate the slaughter of innocent civilians and impose a ban on the use of pellet guns for dispersing people".

It called upon the international community to condemn human rights violations by Indian security forces.

The meeting comes a day after India slammed Pakistan over its deplorable meddling in the internal affairs of the country and asked it to vacate its illegal occupation of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan observed Kashmirs Accession to Pakistan Day on July 19, followed by Black Day on July 20 over the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. India in a statement on Thursday also strongly condemned the encouragement and support which terrorists and their activities receive from Pakistans state.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in Jammu and Kashmir following the July 8 killing of Wani in a gunfight with the security forces.
Chennai: India will launch a weather satellite next month with its heavy rocket, the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-Mk II), Indian space agency chief A.S. Kiran Kumar said here on Friday.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch INSAT-3DR next month with its GSLV rocket, said Kiran Kumar at the Madras Institute of Technology Alumni Association meeting here.

He also said ISRO is targeting to increase the number of its satellite and rocket launches from the current six-eight per year to 12-18 per year.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director K. Sivan said that ISRO will also be launching ScatSat - a weather monitoring and forecasting satellite - with polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, he said that the Indian satellite will be a co-passenger to an Algerian satellite.

"Both the satellites will be put into different orbits. So the fourth stage/engine of the rocket will be switched off after ejecting ScatSat first. Then after a gap of around 30 minutes, the engine will be switched on and put the Algerian satellite into its intended orbit," Sivan said.

According to him, the year end is expected to see the launch of GSLV-Mk-III with communication satellite GSAT 19 weighing around 3.2 ton - the heaviest satellite to be lifted by an Indian rocket from the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh.

Sivan also said ISRO will soon be testing its scramjet or air breathing engine for use future use to power Indian rockets.

The scramjet engine used only during the atmospheric phase of the rocket's flight will help in bringing down the launch cost by reducing the amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel.
Chennai: Flood warning has been issued in the low-lying areas near Cauvery river in Salem district of Tamil Nadu.

The South West Monsoon has brought in heavy rain in catchment areas of Cauvery river.

As the water level is rising, more than 6,000 cusecs of water is being released from KRS and 2,500 cusecs of water is being released from Kabini dam in Karnataka.

Water is gushing out through Hogenekkal falls as inflow into Cauvery has increased.

The Salem district administration has issued flood warnings to nine villages including Cauverypuram, Chinna Mettur,West Konur.

People are being advised not to bathe in Cauvery river and allow cattle to graze in river beds as water may gush in suddenly.

As per reports, the water inflow into Mettur Dam in Salem has increased to 9,048 cusecs because of rain in catchment areas in Karnataka.
Lucknow: The BSP workers are using the same kind of offensive language against women that they are protesting against being used for their leader Mayawati, said the Uttar Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday.

The posters, banners and slogans that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers used on Thursday to voice their anger against Dayashankar Singh, the expelled state BJP vice president, contains foul and derogatory language against his wife and daughter, said the BJP.

The language of BSP demonstrators was so objectionable that it compelled the minor daughter of Dayashankar Singh to confront BSP member Naseemuddin Siddiqui with the response, "Let me know where do I have to present myself before you."

Dayashankar Singh's mother said her daughter has been traumatised by the nasty words inflicted on her.

BJP leaders said while they do not approve of what Dayashankar Singh said against BSP supremo Mayawati, they cannot take lying down the language used against his wife and daughter.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Daljeet Chowdhary assured the agitated BJP workers that the demonstration by BSP workers was videographed and if anything objectionable was found, it would be dealt with as per law.

Dayashankar Singh had triggered a furore by making objectionable comments against Mayawati.

The BJP expelled him and an FIR was lodged against him in Lucknow.

The police has since been looking for him.
Lucknow: Swati Singh, the wife of expelled BJP functionary Dayashankar Singh, has accused the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of threatening and abusing her and her children.

A former lecturer at Lucknow University, Swati has gone into hiding fearing attacks by BSP workers.

She alleged that BSP men are calling me and my daughter and are abusing us. My daughter is a minor and she is being mentally harassed, she is in trauma after she heard the nasty words inflicted on her, she said.

"What crime has my daughter committed that BSP workers are abusing her...If the same words can hurt Mayawatiji, why will they not hurt us, particularly my daughter," said Swati.

She added that Mayawati should be held responsible if something happens to her or her minor daughter and son.

"FIR must be lodged against all those who spoke against me, my daughter. A case must be registered for mentally harrassing my daughter," she said.

Swati said her daughter will have to be hospitalised if her condition deteriorates further.
Lucknow: Apologising on her son`s behalf, expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dayashankar Singh`s mother on Friday said that he had done no wrong.

Dayashankar, who was the vice-president of the BJP`s Uttar Pradesh unit, was expelled from the party for six years after he used offensive words for Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.

"We have seen what has happened. My son has done nothing. My grand-daughter fell ill after seeing all this," Dayashankar`s mother told ANI here.

She also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give protection to Dayashankar and also to the whole family.

Dayashankar`s wife Swati Singh had earlier in the day accused the BSP members of `traumatizing` their minor daughter.

"Look, the law is doing whatever it has to in regard with my husband`s comment. But can four punishments be doled out because of one sin? He had been removed from his post, an FIR has been filed against him, he is facing several other charges and he has been removed from the party. After doing all this, Mayawati is still not satisfied. If she had her way, she would have my husband`s head," Swati told ANI.

However, the BSP workers took to the streets in anger protesting against Dayashankar demanding his arrest.

Earlier, Mayawati had warned that if concrete action was not taken against him for his statement, she would not be responsible for the action of her party members.

Mayawati stressed that Singh`s expulsion by the BJP was not enough and asserted that she had been assured of his arrest within 36 hours, which is why her party agreed to call off its protests.
Benghazi: A hospital in Libya's second city Benghazi said today it had received the bodies of 14 people killed execution-style, in what the UN envoy said was a war crime.

The unidentified bodies were found yesterday and brought to the Benghazi Medical Centre by members of the Red Crescent, a doctor at the facility told AFP.

"The bodies bear shots to the head which could mean they were executed," said the doctor who declined to be named.

UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler denounced the killings, branding them a "war crime" in a message posted on his Twitter account.

Kobler said he was "utterly shocked and dismayed by the summary execution of a number of people in Benghazi."

"This is a war crime," he said in the tweet, calling for an investigation into the murders and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Benghazi has seen bloody battles for more than two years between forces loyal to the internationally-recognised parliament and armed groups including the jihadist Islamic State group.

Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have regained several districts of Benghazi in recent months but have yet to retake the whole city.

The doctor told AFP that the 14 bodies were found in areas under the control of Haftar's men.

Security officials in the eastern city of Benghazi contacted by AFP declined to confirm or deny the killings.
Vientiane: Southeast Asian nations are in unparalleled disarray over Beijing`s sabre-rattling in the South China Sea, analysts and insiders say, with the fractures set to deepen as staunch China ally Laos hosts top regional diplomats this weekend.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are among the delegates due to fly in from Sunday for two days of meetings in Vientiane, the capital of the communist nation.

The South China Sea is set to cast a long shadow over the summit which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Earlier this month a UN-backed tribunal found there was no legal basis for China`s claims to most of the strategic and resource-rich seas a ruling rejected as "waste paper" by Beijing.

ASEAN prides itself on consensus diplomacy but divisions have never been starker with Beijing blamed for driving a wedge between members.

The Philippines brought the international arbitration case, while fellow ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have competing claims to parts of the sea.

But Cambodia and hosts Laos are Beijing loyalists, with both impoverished nations weaned on Chinese aid and investment.

Shortly after The Hague ruling Beijing announced more than half a billion dollars in soft loans for Cambodia.

"China has succeeded in splitting ASEAN on the South China Sea issue through its allies Laos and Cambodia," an ASEAN diplomat told AFP requesting anonymity.

The bloc`s inability to remain united "will surely weaken ASEAN not just on the South China Sea problem but as a regional grouping," the diplomat added.ASEAN initially touted itself as the best forum for China to negotiate with rival claimants over the sea, given so many are members.

But Beijing has resisted that approach, insisting that territorial disputes must be settled bilaterally.

As a result, Beijing has successfully moved to divide the bloc.

Chinese pressure was blamed last month for an embarrassing U-turn by the regional bloc as members suddenly disowned an apparent joint statement released by Malaysia that condemned Beijing`s aggression in the seas.

That has led to fears of a repeat of a 2012 summit in Cambodia where the bloc failed to issue a joint communique for the first time in its history because of disagreements over the waters.

Diplomats are already in Vientiane trying to hash out a response to this month`s tribunal ruling before the foreign ministers arrive.

But insiders say consensus is a long way off.

Critics have long derided ASEAN as an ineffective talking shop and in the face of the region`s most pressing security issue, some analysts believe the bloc is struggling for relevance.

"ASEAN suffers from inherent institutional paralysis," Richard Javad Heydarian, a regional expert at De La Salle University in Manila, told AFP.

"There is this sense of frustration among core ASEAN countries that China is essentially buying the loyalty of smaller ASEAN countries," he added.

China claims nearly all of the strategic sea home to some of the world`s most important shipping routes and has steadily strengthened its toehold by converting reefs and sandbars into islands.

Satellite images of Chinese-built airstrips and apparent sea defences have seen the fissures widen within ASEAN. To its defenders, ASEAN has brought trade and diplomatic cooperation to a region spanning Communist autocracies such as Laos and Vietnam, the tiny Islamic sultanate of Brunei and populous democracies like Indonesia and the Philippines.

Laos, one of Asia`s poorest and most tightly controlled countries, chairs ASEAN this year.

The one-party communist state has little experience of hosting major diplomatic gatherings.

Foreign media are rarely allowed into the country and must be accompanied by a government minder at all times but those restrictions appear to have been temporarily eased for the ASEAN meet.

Yet there are already questions over Laos` hosting of the event.

For the first time the ASEAN People`s Forum, a gathering of civil society leaders which meets on summit sidelines, will not be held in Laos. Instead it will take place in East Timor.

The Laos authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the issue.

But several charities and NGOs have said the authoritarian state was uncomfortable with opening its doors to so many potential critics.

Given the government`s historical closeness to Beijing there is little optimism Laos will push the South China Sea issue this year.

Carl Thayer, a regional expert at The University of New South Wales, said the regional bloc could still agree on a joint statement about the South China Sea.

"But they won`t mention China, and I doubt they`ll even mention the arbitral tribunal," he told AFP, referring to The Hague court.

That begs the question, he added: "Where`s the leadership in ASEAN?"
Peshawar: A tussle has erupted between Pakistan's powerful military and the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over a sprawling piece of land in the garrison city of Abbottabad where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived and was killed in 2011.

While local authorities want to construct a children's playground there, the military wish to build a graveyard, the BBC reported today.

The two sides have tussled over control of the land - and on Wednesday the military erected a wall around the site, surprising local authorities, the report said.

Bin Laden, 54, was killed in a US raid on his hideout on May 2, 2011. He had been living there in secret, in a three- storey building behind high walls, for several years before his death.

After his death, the land was handed over to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province which tore down the structure and its boundary wall, to prevent the place from becoming a site of pilgrimage for jihadists and their sympathisers.

Since then the land has been lying unutilised amid a growing neighbourhood.

Now, the local government and military authorities are in a dispute over how to use the land - and who should control its future, the report said.

The military-run Cantonment Board of Abbottabad (CBA) moved to occupy the area in May, erecting a rope-fence around it. But they removed it after the provincial authorities intervened.

This time the CBA was more decisive - building a one metre wall around the sprawling grounds, and catching the local government by surprise.

A member of the CBA council, Bashir Khan, said the military had decided to convert the land into a cemetery.

"It is needed because there is no graveyard nearby for the local population," he told the BBC.

But KP Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani dismissed the plan, saying the grounds were in the middle of a populated area and "not fit for a graveyard".

"Besides, the cantonment authorities have built the wall on land that belongs to the provincial government," Ghani said, adding that the CBA had said they build the wall "to prevent encroachments".

The provincial government hoped to turn the land into a playground for children, Ghani said.

The dispute looks set to continue - and local residents have their own ideas too, with some demanding that the land should be used to build a girls' school.

Some other military officials have mooted plans to build a revenue-generating amusement park on the land.

What everyone seems to agree on is that any project should be chosen with care so it could not be easily associated with the name of Bin Laden - something which could become a source of continuing embarrassment for the military, the report said.
Beijing: A fire forced a flight from North Korean flag-carrier Air Koryo to land in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Friday, China`s official Xinhua news agency reported.

In a brief despatch from Pyongyang, Xinhua said the scheduled flight from the North Korean capital to Beijing was forced to divert and land in Shenyang "because the plane caught fire."

The report, which was sourced to a passenger on board who had spoken to the news service, gave no further details and offered no information regarding damage to the plane or possible passenger injuries.

Although Air Koryo regularly occupies bottom spot in the Skytrax star rating system for commercial airlines, it has a decent safety record with just one fatal accident in more than 30 years.

However, critics point out that the record is built on an extremely limited service which currently comprises regular flights to just three destinations in China, and Vladivostok in Russia.

The Pyongyang-Beijing service uses a Russian Tupolev Tu-204 a twin-engine medium-range jet airliner that carries about 140 passengers.
By Adila Matra: Remember the half mask in The Phantom of the Opera and the Loki mask that transformed Jim Carrey into a green skinned cartoon?

Masks intrigue us, they hide identities and create new ones altogether. That is why the exhibition of Mexican masks in the Capital will be a fascinating experience.

The use of masks in Mexico dates from 3000 BC approximately. The rich, millenary Mesoamerican mask tradition survived the Spanish conquest and for almost 500 years, Mexican masks tightly intertwined with European theatre and musical traditions, and turned into instruments to expand the new Christian Faith.

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Also read: This stunning bookshop is actually a 100-year-old theatre and cinema hall!

The exhibition will feature 33 masks of different materials such as lacquered wood carving and polychrome clay. The masks have been sourced from various collectors. Mexican ambassador, Melba Pria says, "They are made to resemble creatures and people, such as snakes, jaguars, lizards, frogs, goats, sheep, frogs, skeletons, old men, and even el diablo--Spanish for the devil. Some are fun and friendly, while others can be scary. The magic of the masks is that they are able to take a life of its own."

Even today, masks are significant in Mexican culture--from the traditional religious ceremonies such as Dia De Los Muertos and All Soul's Day to the more secular realm of popular wrestling (Lucha Libre) in which heroes wear form-fitting masks covering the entire head and laced up the back.

The exhibition pays homage to the ritual theatre tradition in Mexico and seeks to evoke the sacred myths, legends and historical events that live in each of the performances in which masks are used.

Also read: This bath in Budapest is said to have healing and calming powers

"My favourite mask is the 'Fishermen', from the state of Guerrero. It is made of Polychrome wood and is used as a decorative piece. I like it for its simplistic beauty," says Pria.

Masks of Mexico is on at Art Gallery, India International Centre till July 31; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

--- ENDS ---
Berlin: German President Joachim Gauck today said he was "horrified" by the "murderous attack" in a Munich shopping centre which left at least eight people dead.

"I am with all the victims in my thoughts and all those who are mourning or fearful for loved ones," he said in a statement, adding that his "solidarity" was with emergency services personnel trying to "protect people and save lives".

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to the New York when the shooting rampage began, will immediately return to Germany, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
Munich: Gunmen attacked a busy mall in the German city of Munich on Friday evening, killing at least eight people and sending shoppers running for their lives from what police said was a terrorist attack.

Authorities told the public to get off the streets as the city - Germany`s third biggest - went into lockdown with transport halted and highways sealed off.

A police spokesman said three gunmen were on the run after the initial shooting subsided. The city was placed under a state of emergency as police hunted for them.

"We are telling the people of Munich there are shooters on the run who are dangerous," he said. "We are urging people to stay indoors."

Police said later that eight people had been killed and an undetermined number wounded. A ninth body had also been found and they were checking to see it was one of the gunmen.

Munich newspaper TZ said one of the shooters was dead. German news magazine Focus said a gunman had shot himself in the head. Reuters could not immediately confirm either report.

As special forces deployed in the city, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping centre which police said had been evacuated.

"Many shots were fired, I can`t say how many but it`s been a lot," said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall.

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

A police spokesman said there was no immediate indication that it was an Islamist attack but it was being treated as a terrorist incident.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in which he killed 77 people. Breivik is a hero for far-right militants in Europe and America.

IS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated on social media.

"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read one Tweet.

Two witnesses told n-tv television that they saw a man dressed as Santa Claus walking away from the scene of the shooting with a crowd of people. One said the man had blonde hair, was not carrying a weapon but had a suitcase.

A video posted online  whose authenticity could not be confirmed  showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

A worker at a shop in the mall, Harun Balta, said: "We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we`re waiting for the police to rescue us."

Police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded. They were treating it as a terrorist incident.

Witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets, he said.

Munich`s main railway station was also evacuated. BR television said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday`s attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train with an axe. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper`s Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it`s clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said on Twiiter: "Horrible killings in Munich. Taking place on the same day as we mourn & remember the appalling terror that hit Norway so hard five years ago."

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged support for Germany.

"We don`t yet know exactly what`s happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured," Obama said
Hong Kong: A Hong Kong student protester pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple criminal charges over a demonstration against a pro-Beijing figure, a day after the conviction of an "Umbrella Revolution" leader was blasted by rights activists.

The court cases come with feelings running high in the city over fears that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Billy Fung, former president of Hong Kong University`s student union, faces a raft of charges over a protest at the university in January where students stormed a council meeting.

Supporters gathered outside the court to support Fung Friday, a day after teenage protest leader Joshua Wong and two other prominent student activists were convicted for a protest that sparked major pro-democracy rallies in Hong Kong, known as the "Umbrella Revolution".

That prosecution was slammed by rights group Amnesty International, which said the "vague charges" against Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law "smacked of political payback".

Speaking outside the court Friday, Fung said he worried other students could be targeted, after pleading not guilty to four charges criminal intimidation, disorderly conduct in a public place, criminal damage and attempted forcible entry.

The charges all relate to the student siege of the meeting in January in protest at the appointment of pro-Beijing Arthur Li to a senior administrative role.

Around 200 students surrounded an HKU building and refused to let Li, who is council chairman and vice-chancellor at the university, leave the meeting, according to reports at the time. They said Li "forced" their hand due to his unwillingness to speak with them.

Fung, now 22, was accused of shouting: "Don`t let him go! Don`t let Arthur Li go! Kill him, kill him!" according to a court charge sheet.

He was released on a cash bail of HK$10,000 ($1,300) and will appear in court again in September for a pre-trial review.

The appointment of Li was made by Hong Kong`s unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying chancellor of all the city`s universities and comes after months of controversy and protests over what some see as politically motivated decisions at the prestigious university.

It also tapped into wider concerns that Beijing interference is affecting academic freedom and freedom of expression in the city.

The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a deal that guaranteed the retention of its civil liberties and capitalist system for 50 years.
Paris: IMF chief Christine Lagarde was ordered Friday to stand trial in France over a massive state payout to a colourful tycoon when she was French economy minister, dealing a setback to her stellar career.

France's highest appeals court dismissed Lagarde`s challenge against the decision to try her for negligence in her handling of a dispute between a state-owned bank and businessman Bernard Tapie.

Tapie walked away with a staggering 404 million euros ($445 million) in compensation in 2008 after Lagarde ordered the long-running row over the sale of Adidas to be resolved by arbitration.

Tapie claimed he was defrauded by Credit Lyonnais bank, which handled the sale of the sportswear giant that he owned between 1990 and 1993.

Friday`s ruling means 60-year-old Lagarde will go before a special tribunal that hears cases against government ministers accused of wrongdoing in the discharge of their duties.

If convicted, she risks up to a year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.

No date has been set yet for the trial.

The ruling is a blow to the IMF boss, who became the first woman to head the IMF when she replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn in July 2011.

She has been touted as a possible French presidential contender, though she denies any ambitions to hold the job.

The ruling comes two days after she began her second term as head of the IMF, where she has been hailed as both a tough negotiator and a skilled consensus-builder.

She insists she acted in France`s best interests in the Tapie affair, and the IMF has expressed firm backing for her.

In a statement on Friday the Washington-based lender said its board "continues to express its confidence in the Managing Director`s ability to effectively carry out her duties".

Her lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said he was "convinced" that she would be "absolved of all responsibility".

Lagarde will be the third successive IMF chief to face trial.

Strauss-Kahn, her predecessor and compatriot, was acquitted of pimping by a French court last year, four years after he resigned his IMF post to fight separate sexual assault allegations.

Spain`s former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato has also been ordered to stand trial for misusing funds when he was head of Spanish lender Bankia.

Lagarde was placed under formal investigation in 2014.

The case against her stems from her decision both to refer the Tapie row to arbitration, instead of leaving it to the courts to resolve, and then failing to challenge the massive award.

A court has since ruled the process was fraudulent because one of the arbitrators had links to 73-year-old Tapie, a flamboyant figure who was cities minister in the 1990s and has also dabbled in acting.

Tapie has been ordered to repay all the money.

- Misuse of public money -

Lagarde has denied any wrongdoing or that she acted on orders from then president Nicolas Sarkozy, whom Tapie supported for election in 2007.

Six people, including Tapie and one of the arbitrators, have been charged with organised fraud amid suspicion the mediation was rigged in the businessman`s favour.

In an interview with AFP in Washington earlier this month Lagarde insisted she had a "clear conscience".

"I`ve always acted in accordance with the law, and I`ve always had in mind the public interest.

"It was not my duty to select the arbitration panel, to investigate their past and history, and I had no reason to doubt their probity and honesty," she said.

Investigating magistrates however found evidence of "serious negligence on the part of a minister tasked with conducting affairs of state" and said Lagarde`s actions had led to a gross "misuse of public money".

The appeals court in its ruling Friday did not weigh in on the merits of the case, saying only that the magistrates had "justified" their decision to send it to trial.
Washington: U.S. officials on Thursday called on partners in the coalition against Islamic State to increase intelligence sharing as the militant group morphs to focus on attacks beyond its shrinking self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

"Even as it is losing ground in the Middle East, we know already that theyre going to try to transform themselves into (a) global terrorist organization," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after a meeting of defense and foreign affairs chiefs from about 40 nations in the U.S.-led coalition.

"We talked about the importance of real-time communication between countries, information sharing" about militant suspects, he said.

Kerry said that issue dominated the afternoon`s discussions, which for the first time included the international police organization Interpol.

He and other officials suggested that wresting control of Islamic State`s major remaining strongholds in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria is only a matter of time.

Brett McGurk, the United States` envoy to the coalition, told the meeting that the liberation of Mosul "is now in sight."

But a spate of recent attacks globally claimed or apparently inspired by Islamic State, such as a truck attack in Nice, France, that killed 84 people last week, formed a grim backdrop to two days of Washington meetings aimed at combating the group.

The meetings were meant as a show of unity in the coalition, whose members have sometimes differed on strategy. But last weekend`s coup attempt in Turkey has raised questions about that key country`s focus on the fight.

Turkey`s foreign and defense ministers did not attend the sessions, but Kerry said a top official from Ankara assured the group that Turkey`s commitment to the fight against Islamic State would not be affected.

In the wake of deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels, in particular, the United States has pushed allies to share more information on suspected militants, some of whom have easily crossed intra-European borders.

Kerry said breaking down bureaucratic barriers was crucial to allow more sharing of information about threats as Islamic State seeks to boost recruitment by adopting new languages and moving into new territories.

While improvements have been made, "it is also clear now that we have to do more," he said.

The goal, Kerry said, is "that a border guard in southern Europe has the same data about a terrorist suspect as an airport security officer in Manila."

Iraqi and U.S. officials have not announced a timetable for an expected assault on Mosul. But a senior Baghdad-based diplomat told Reuters that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wants to advance the start of the campaign to October.

U.S., Iraqi and U.N. officials have warned that the battle will unleash a flood of displaced Iraqis, necessitating a massive effort for short-term aid and longer-term stabilization.

Hinting at another complication, the defense and foreign ministers warned against abuses once Islamic State is ejected from Iraqi cities. Members of independent Shiite militias have been accused of abuses against Sunni Muslims in cities such as Tikrit and Falluja.

"Popular Mobilization Forces and similar groups operating in Iraq should be under the firm control of the Iraqi government," they said in a statement. "Every effort must be made to prevent arbitrary detention and irregular screening procedures, while holding violators to account."

Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said less than 10 percent of Iraqi territory remains in Islamic State`s hands, but battlefield advances have not been matched by security gains.

A suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State this month which killed at least 292 people in central Baghdad in one of the worst such attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 was a "stark example" of that failure, he said in a tweet from Washington.

German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier said that driving Islamic State out of Mosul could strengthen the U.S.-led coalition`s efforts in Syria.

"The group`s structures in Syria and Iraq are intertwined, so that a defeat for Islamic State in Mosul would undoubtedly have consequences for the situation in Syria," he said.
Berlin: Germany cannot confirm that the shooting attack in Munich in which at least nine people were killed on Friday was an act of terrorism, Chancellor Angela Merkel`s chief of staff said.

Police in Munich said nine people had been killed in the attack, including a dead body found near the scene. They are trying to verify whether the body is that of one of the attackers.

"We cannot rule out that it is linked to terrorism but we can`t confirm it either, but we are also investigating in this direction," Peter Altmaier said on German television.

He added that the security cabinet would hold a meeting midday on Saturday to assess the situation.
Putrajaya: Hope of finding flight MH370`s final resting place is "fading" and the massive three-nation search for the doomed jet will be suspended if nothing turns up in the suspected crash zone, Malaysia, Australia and China said Friday.

With the designated search area due to be fully scanned within weeks, transport ministers from the three countries held talks to discuss the future of the unprecedented deep-sea sonar hunt for the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

"Ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved, the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after the talks in the country`s administrative capital Putrajaya.

He was joined by Australia`s Darren Chester and China`s Yang Chuantang.

Unless "credible new evidence" is found by the current operation, "the search would not end, but be suspended" until solid new information pointing to a crash site emerges, Liow said.

The use of the term "suspended" was an apparent nod to anguished families who have stepped up pressure on authorities not to declare efforts to locate the aircraft completely abandoned.

"The suspension does not mean the termination of the search," the joint ministerial statement said.

"Ministers reiterated that the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned."

The Boeing 777 vanished for unknown reasons on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, mostly Chinese nationals. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led operation is scanning the seafloor at forbidding depths within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) area -- nearly the size of Greece.

Search authorities say satellite data indicates the plane went down somewhere in that remote and stormy part of the southern Indian Ocean far off Western Australia.

Only about 10,000 square kilometres are left, and officials say that could be completed in August, weather permitting.Next-of-kin who turned up for the three ministers` appearance told reporters they welcomed the official statement.

"This means authorities are committed to finding answers and not just quitting. This is to be welcomed," said K.S. Narendran, a business consultant in Chennai, India, whose wife Chandrika Sharma was on board.

Many relatives have long questioned whether the right area is being searched and want a thorough reassessment of the data.

Some next-of-kin present on Friday called for the three searching countries to actively seek new angles on the mystery, but the transport ministers did not mention any plans to gather new information or re-examine existing data.

Chester defended the focus on the current search zone, saying expert analysis determined it was the "most probable location for MH370."

"I hope new information will come to light and that the aircraft will be located," he said.

Authorities hope to find a crash site and recover MH370`s data recorders for clues into what happened.

Even if located, recovering them would be an operation of unprecedented difficulty in an area of rugged undersea terrain at crushing depths exceeding 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

Several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres toward Africa have been identified as definitely or probably from MH370.

But they have shed no light on where exactly the plane went down or why.

Theories include rogue pilot action, terrorism, or catastrophic mechanical failure, but there is no evidence to support any one hypothesis.
Islamabad: People of PoK have voted for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) because of its people-friendly Kashmir policy, Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said after the party's election victory.

PML-N is the front-runner in the Azad Kashmir general elections held on Thursday. The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) and the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) were in the second spot, grabbing two seats each. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) fared badly, with just one seat in its kitty.

Elections were held on 41 seats of the 49-member Legislative Assembly in PoK. As many as 423 candidates from 44 political parties were in the fray for 41 seats.

According to an exit poll, PML-N has bagged most number of seats.

The biggest upset perhaps was the defeat of PTIs Barrister Sultan Mahmood in the hands of PML-N candidate Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed by over 3,000 votes. The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) chief Khalid Ibrahim won a solitary seat for the party.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to visit Muzaffarabad to congratulate the people for handing the party a large mandate.

The voter turnout was about 50 percent, the Express Tribune reported.
Abuja: Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has said the government was in talks with oil rebels whose attacks have hit production, as the head of the state-run energy firm laid bare damage to the sector.

Buhari said yesterday in a statement that "his administration is talking to Niger delta militants through oil companies and law-enforcement agencies to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region".

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) group has claimed the bulk of the attacks since February, which have targeted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as oil majors Shell, Chevron and Eni.

The militants have revived long-standing grievances about widespread poverty in the southern swamps and creeks that saw attacks and kidnappings in the 2000s, slashing output until a government amnesty in 2009.

But the militants, who have previously scoffed at claims they are involved in back-channel talks, have added self-determination for the delta region to their list of demands.

Attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure have hit Nigeria's output, exacerbating a wider economic crisis sparked by persistently low global oil prices for the last two years.

OPEC-member Nigeria ordinarily gets 70 per cent of government revenue from oil sales.

The new group managing director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru met chief of defence staff General Gabriel Olonisakin in Abuja and appealed for military support to secure key oil and gas facilities.

As well as militant attacks, kidnapping and piracy, he said there were nearly 1,500 cases of "pipeline hacking", causing the loss of 109 million litres of petrol and 560,000 barrels of crude to refineries.

Between 2010 and 2015, more than 3,000 acts of vandalism were recorded while last year, 643 million litres of petrol valued at more than 51 billion naira (USD 175 million, 160 million euros) were lost.

"The 2016 national budget plan was based on 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production," he said.

"However, the budget plan is now grossly impacted due to renewed militancy: with about 700,000 bpd of oil production curtailed due to pipeline vandalism."

Domestic natural gas supply had also been halved, he said, leading to "significant power outage" in a country already hit by regular cuts because of ailing and badly maintained grid infrastructure.

In all, between 2,500 to 3,000 megawatts of power has been lost, he added.
District of Columbia: US President Barack Obama on Friday pledged support to Germany in the wake of a deadly shooting rampage in Munich, as officials said they were working to determine if any US citizens were affected.

Obama, speaking at a meeting with law enforcement officials, said he had been briefed on the unfolding drama in Germany, where at least six people are believed dead in a shooting at a shopping center in Munich.

"Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. It`s still an active situation, and Germany`s one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances," he said.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said US officials were working with local authorities to determine if any US citizens were affected by the incident.
By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today admitted the appeal of Maharashtra against the Bombay High Court order in the 2010 Pune German Bakery blast case. The top court has issued a notice to Himayat Baig for his response.

Earlier the state of Maharashtra had filed an appeal at the apex court against the Bombay High Court order which acquitted Himayat Baig of all terror charges in the 2010 Pune German Bakery.

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Baig was given a death sentence by the trial court which was subsequently quashed by the High Court. Out of the seven chargesheeted accused, six are still absconding in the case.

STATE APPEALED BASED ON EVIDENCE



The state of Maharashtra has said in its appeal that there is sufficient evidence against Baig to convict him under terror charges.

Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convict in the 2010 German Bakery blast was acquitted of all terror charges by the Bombay High Court but the court however, found him guilty of the charge of possession of explosives and confirmed life imprisonment handed down by the trial court. Seventeen people lost their lives and sixty injured in the 2010 German Bakery blast.

Also read:

German Bakery blast: Himayat Baig's death sentence commuted to life imprisonment



--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: Lashing out at Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif`s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz for calling upon the international community to take appropriate steps to fulfil its commitments towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the UNSC resolutions, former union minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Thursday said this is extremely unacceptable as Islamabad has been taking unpleasant interest in imposing upon India their vicious motives through the acts of terrorism.

"We do not expect it from anyone least of all from Pakistan, which has been seen in taking unpleasant interest in imposing upon India their vicious motives through acts of terrorism. And I think this is extremely unacceptable and in a very bad taste for Pakistan to be doing this," Khurshid told ANI.

"Whatever Sartaj Aziz has tried to attempt to say is totally unacceptable. He should concentrate and comment on his country, what happens here is none of his concern," he added.

Aziz on Thursday said that Pakistan has provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for realisation of their fundamental rights to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.

He also mentioned Prime Minister Sharif`s statement on the developments on the Indian side of Kashmir and the fact that Pakistan had lodged its protests with the Indian High Commissioner on the situation prevailing across the border.

He said that Pakistan has written letters to the UN Secretary General, President of the Security Council, OIC Secretary General, High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Foreign Ministers of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir (Azerbaijan, Niger, Saudi Arabia and Turkey) on the recent situation in Kashmir and called upon the international community to take appropriate steps to fulfil its commitments towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the UNSC resolutions.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday said it will ask the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to send a fact-finding team to Kashmir to assess the ground situation.

"The Indian attempts to claim that the deteriorating human rights situation" in Kashmir is an internal affair of India is "factually incorrect, legally untenable and a violation of international law and UNSC resolutions," Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Premier's Office.

The statement was issued after Sharif presided over a high-level meeting of the National Security Committee in Islamabad to discuss regional security, mainly the Kashmir situation.

The meeting resolved that Pakistan will approach the UNHRC to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir for investigating the "slaughter of innocent civilians and impose a ban on the use of pellet guns for dispersing people exercising their right to protest," PTI reported quoting the statement.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif also attended the meeting in which a briefing was made on the situation in Kashmir and Afghanistan by the Foreign Office.

"We have provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self determination in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions," Sharif said.

The statement said during the meeting, it was unanimously called upon the international community to condemn "human rights violations by Indian security forces" and play its role in ensuring the realisation of UNSC resolutions.

It said the meeting expressed "grave concern" over the law and order situation in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The "continuing brutal oppression by the Indian security forces of the innocent Kashmiris who have been peacefully protesting against the Indian violence in the region" was condemned during the meeting, the statement said.

"Brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people which no civilised society permits," Sharif said.

The Premier reiterated that the only solution to the Kashmir issue would be "early implementation of UNSC resolutions -- a fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices".

Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Rashad Mahmood, National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz were among those who attended the meeting.
Berlin: The Munich Police have asked the online commentators to not to speculate about the shooting rampage at a mall in the German city of Munich in which six people have been killed and several injured.

"...That would make our jobs much easier!. Thank you for your support," Munich police wrote on their Facebook page.

Meanwhile, Munich`s main train station has been evacuated completely and the city`s transport system has been suspended.

People are offering space to the stranded people in their own homes on social media, using the hashtag #Offenetuer -- which means "open door" -- for people who are stranded without a way to get home, BBC reported.

Police have asked everyone to stay indoors.

The Czech Republic`s interior minister, Milan Chovanec, has told local television that the country`s border will be reinforced in case the Munich attacker or attackers try to flee, German broadcaster NTV reported.

According to the German tabloid Bild, police are being drafted in from Austria to help in Munich.

The newspaper also reports that all of the available security forces personnel in Bavaria, as well as neighbouring states Hessen and Baden-Wuerttemberg, are being sent to the city.

Britain`s foreign secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that he was `shocked and saddened` by the shooting.

"Deeply shocked & saddened by #Munich shootings. My thoughts are w/ the victims, their loved ones & all #Germany at this time," he Tweeted.

US President Barack Obama also pledged support for Germany.

"We don`t yet know exactly what`s happening there but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured," he said before speaking at a White House meeting.

"We are going to pledge all the support they may need," he added.
Beijing: The chief of a village that became a symbol of resistance against corruption has been charged for allegedly accepting bribes, Chinese authorities said, over a month after his detention sparked protests.

Lin Zulian was elected head of Wukan village in rare open polls after residents expelled local officials in a mass 2011 uprising, drawing worldwide attention.

The government of Shanwei city in the southern province of Guangdong, where the village is located, said Lin had been formally arrested and charged by local prosecuting authorities on suspicion of taking bribes.

The case was under "further investigation", it said in a Thursday statement posted to its official website, without specifying details of what bribes Lin was accused of taking.

At a press conference last month following Lin`s detention in mid-June, the Shanwei government said that they had received online reports accusing him of taking kickbacks from a project to build a racetrack at the village school, an earlier Nanfang Daily report said.

Last month, Lin admitted to taking bribes in a video recorded while he was under interrogation and released by prosecutors, the state-run China News Service reported.

"Due to my lack of understanding of law, in many projects related to people`s livelihoods... and in some collective purchases I took huge kickbacks," it quoted Lin as saying.

Chinese authorities often release state-run media videos of suspects confessing while under detention, in what lawyers call a violation of the right to a fair trial.

Residents of the 13,000-strong fishing village began protesting in 2011 in what was then seen as just another bout of social unrest in China, which sees tens of thousands of such incidents each year.

But when a protest leader died in police custody, villagers took their demonstration a step further, barricading roads leading into Wukan, and effectively expelling security forces for more than a week.

Communist Party authorities then unexpectedly backed down and promised rare concessions, including pledges to investigate the land dispute and allow village polls to be held in an open manner -- a first in Wukan.

Lin -- who also led the protests -- was one of the successful contenders.
Washington: Russian warplanes bombed a remote outpost in Syria used by elite US and British forces last month as well as another site linked to the CIA, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Journal, which cited US officials as its source, said the previously unreported air strikes on June 16 and July 12 were part of a bid by Moscow to pressure Washington to cooperate more closely with it in the skies over Syria.

A contingent of about 20 British special forces had pulled out the day before the first attack on June 16, on a garrison about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Jordanian border at At-Tanf, the report said.

US officials and rebel commanders told the Journal that the outpost was hit with cluster munitions.

US attempts to wave off the Russians failed to prevent a second air strike on the base, the report said.

About three weeks later, on July 12, Russian warplanes hit a rebel camp used by family members of CIA-backed fighters about 50 miles west of At-Tanf, the report said.

US military and intelligence officials told the newspaper that the attacks hardened opposition at the Pentagon and the CIA to cooperating with the Russians.

But the White House and the State Department, seeking to avoid a military escalation, decided to pursue a compromise, it said.

Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry reached a provisional agreement with the Russians to join forces in strikes on Al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Under the agreement, the Russians would halt air strikes against US-backed rebels and restrain the Syrian air force in return for Washington easing Moscow`s international isolation, the Journal said.
Bangkok: Thai police on Friday questioned the wife of a British journalist over a social media post of unflattering photos alleged to be of the kingdom`s Crown Prince, in a country where insulting the royals carries heavy jail terms.

Detectives said the photos were fake and questioned Noppawan Bunluesilp, 39, the Thai wife of former Bangkok-based correspondent and strident Thai monarchy critic Andrew MacGregor Marshall, at a police station in the capital over her husband`s posts linking to the pictures.

The Twitter and Facebook post linked to a web article in German tabloid Bild with photos apparently showing 63-year-old Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany.

On Friday morning the link to the page was blocked in Thailand for carrying "inappropriate content".

Each charge of lese majeste insults, threats or defamation of Thailand`s leading royals carries up to 15 years in jail.

Local and foreign media based inside the country including AFP must routinely self-censor to avoid falling foul of the law.

"The pictures were doctored," said Thitirat Nongharnpitak, Commander of Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).

"The culprit is Andrew MacGregor Marshall who has violated lese majeste laws for several years," he said, adding "he has acted from overseas to attack" the royal family.

Marshall is an outspoken critic of the Thai monarchy and has written a book on the subject which is banned inside the kingdom.

He regularly posts commentary on social media that would be swift grounds for prosecution under the kingdom`s harsh royal defamation law.

On Thursday he posted the German newspaper article carrying the alleged photos of the Crown Prince, who spends much of his time in Europe.

"It`s a huge shock," he told AFP from Hong Kong of his wife`s questioning.

"The key point is my wife is not involved at all in my journalism we`ve always been very aware that it may put her in danger because I am writing things which break the Thai lese majeste law," he said.

"We`d always been concerned that it might be dangerous for my wife to visit Thailand especially since the military coup but she hadn`t seen her family for a couple of years."

The issue comes during a time of intense sensitivity surrounding the Thai royals, as the health of revered 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej wanes.

The arch-royalist Thai junta has previously been accused of intimidating the relatives of government critics.

Since seizing power two years ago the junta has used a range of tactics to reel in dissent, including laws that curb free speech, mandatory "attitude adjustment" sessions for its critics and intimidation tactics that have spawned self-censorship across much of the press.
Istanbul: Turkey detained 283 members of the presidential guard of Recep Tayyip Erdogan after last week`s attempted coup, a government official said on Friday.

The guard are members of the special forces regiment stationed at the presidential palace in Ankara. There are at least 2,500 members, according to local media.

The authorities issued arrests warrants for 300 members in total, broadcaster CNN-Turk said. The channel said that those detained were in Ankara.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has cancelled 10,856 passports "due to flight risk -- including close to 10,000 green/grey (official) passports", with the holders either in custody or on the run, the official said, confirming comments by Interior Minister Efkan Ala on CNN-Turk.

Green passport holders include civil servants and former MPs who can travel to some countries visa-free, while grey passports are issued to others working on government business as well as athletes.

Erdogan said on Thursday 10,410 people had so far been detained with 4,060 of them remanded in custody, including more than 100 generals and admirals.
London: British police said on Friday there had been almost 6,200 hate crimes reported in the last month following the vote to leave the European Union in a referendum where immigration had been a key issue.

In the four weeks from June 16, police forces across the country said 6,193 offences had been reported, with the most common crimes being harassment, assault and other violence such as verbal abuse or spitting.

Britons voted on June 23 to exit the EU following bitter and deeply divisive campaigning in which the control of immigration was one of the main arguments of those who supported leaving the bloc. Since the result was declared, Muslims and Eastern Europeans say they have been particularly targeted.

The latest figures showed there were 3001 offences in the first two weeks of July, down 6 percent compared to the previous fortnight but still 20 percent higher than the same period last year.

"Following increases in hate crime seen after the EU referendum, police forces have been taking a robust approach to these crimes and we are pleased to see the numbers of incidents have begun to fall," Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs` Council spokesman on hate crimes.

"Clearly any hate crime is unacceptable and these numbers are still far too high."

Critics of the "Leave" campaign say its focus on immigration helped stoke xenophobia and racism, an accusation its leaders reject. A week before the vote, opposition Labour lawmaker Jo Cox, a strong supporter of remaining in the EU, was shot and stabbed to death in her constituency in northern England.
Washington: Hillary Clinton fired off a icy rebuke Thursday to her rival Donald Trump after he savaged her record upon accepting the Republican nomination for president, telling him: "We are better than this."

Clinton`s one-line tweet came midway through a sweeping acceptance speech in which Trump attacked the Democratic former secretary of state for a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."
Giriraj said that following the track record, Nitish is silent when pro-Pakistan slogans were chanted on streets of Patna and Pakistan flag hoisted in Nalanda.

He has allowed Bihar to become fertile for terrorists and they are getting political patronage", said Giriraj Singh attacking Bihar CM

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Union Minister Giriraj Singh has attacked Bihar CM Nitish Kumar over his continuous silence over the Pakistani flag hoisted in his home district Nalanda and chanting of pro-Pakistan slogans in Patna.

Both the incidents, which have happened within a span of one week has given ammunition to the BJP to attack Nitish Kumar and slam him for playing vote bank politics.

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STARK SILENCE ON NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES



Speaking Exclusively to India Today, Giriraj Singh led an offensive on Nitish alleging that the latter had a track record of maintaining stark silence when it comes to issues related to national security. Citing example of Nitish's silence when Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal was arrested from Bihar in 2012 and when the rally of then BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi came under terror attack by IM operative, Giriraj said that Nitish has allowed Bihar to become a safe haven for terrorists.

"Nitish Kumar had opposed arrest of Yasin Bhatkal in 2012. He was silent when Narendra Modi's rally was attacked by terrorists in Patna. Why does he not speak on such issues, why does he remain silent?", asked Giriraj Singh.

Giriraj said that following the track record, Nitish is silent when pro-Pakistan slogans were chanted on streets of Patna and Pakistan flag hoisted in Nalanda.

"When pro-Pakistan slogans are chanted, then also Nitish is silent. When Ishrat Jahan was called "Bihar Ki Beti" then also he was silent. When Pakistani flag was hoisted, then also he is silent. He has allowed Bihar to become fertile for terrorists and they are getting political patronage", said Giriraj Singh.

SILENCE TRACED TO VOTE BANK POLITICS



Giriraj alleged that Nitish's silence was linked to vote bank politics. It may be noted that since Nitish has been demanding PM Modi to break his silence over Una Dalit torture incident, similarly, Nitish should also break his silence over pro-Pakistan chants and Pakistan flags unfurled issue.

"Nitish is silent because of vote bank politics. Nitish asks PM as to why is he silent on Una issue. In Kashmir, people who are chanting pro-India slogans are being threatened and Indian Army is also under attack. Nitish should go to Kashmir and share their pain", said the Union Minister.

'HE'S A POLITICAL PILGRIM''



Taking a dig at Nitish Kumar's touring the country and branding himself, Giriraj called him a political pilgrim.

JDU on the other hand has termed the pro-Pakistan slogans and unfurling of Pakistan flag as BJP and RSS sponsored act.

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"The incident is unfortunate but its sponsored by BJP and RSS", said JDU Spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan.

Also read:

Lalu, son Tejaswi attack Giriraj Singh for links with Bihar's toppers scam mastermind Baccha Rai

MoS Giriraj Singh promoting groupism in party: BJP MP



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YEREVAN, JULY 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenian police and law enforcement system have necessary means to neutralize the group that has taken hostages in the building of the Patrol Police in Yerevan, the Deputy head of the Armenian Police Hunan Poghosyan told the journalists. All indispensible preventive and investigative steps have been undertaken. If our calls are not heard, we have the capacity to neutralize them, Poghosyan said, as Armenpress reports. He also noted that during the attack Armenian police colonel Artur Vanyan was killed, colonel Aram Hovhannisyan, vice-colonel Hrach Khosteghyan and junior officer Gagik Mkrtchyan were wounded. At this moment we conduct negotiations. The police and the law enforcement bodies call on them to stop the illegal actions and surrender to the authorities, Poghosyan said. He went on saying that the attackers have voiced only one demand: to release Jirayr Sefilyn. They have 7 hostages. There are no injured among the attckers. An armed group has entered the building of the patrol police department in Yerevan and keeps people there with the threat of violence. The official statement of the National Security Service of Armenia runs as follows A group of armed people have taken hostage a small group of policemen and in order to release them they demand the release of Jirayr Sefilyan who was imprisoned with the charges of illegally obtaining, keeping, transporting weaponry. A policeman has been killed, two have been wounded. In order to stop and disrupt the criminal actions of the armed group that illegally holds the area, the Special Forces have released two hostages. Armenian law enforcement bodies fully control the situation and have undertaken all necessary means to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, the National Security Service calls on the mass media to use the information from official sources, as in case of the contrary that would assist the illegal actions and would pose threat for peoples life and health.
Opposition has slammed state governments decision to add new chapters in history syllabus by terming it as saffronisation.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: In a bid to improve the educational quality of state board syllabus the state government is contemplating to add new chapters in the history syllabus. These news chapters will be based on crucial events and socio-economic reforms that took place in India. However, the opposition has termed this as saffronisation of education.

"History doesn't mean only wars or political events that happened before independence. Our students should know the post independence history also as it includes crucial political events and socio-economic reforms," said Maharashtra education minister Vinod Tawade.

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Clarifying on the move to update history textbooks, Tawde added that the government is still discussing the proposal with educationists. "We have asked experts to study it and see if we could work on a comprehensive syllabus for our students. This will also help students to compete with other board students," said Tawde.

OPPOSITION DOUBTFUL



However, the opposition has raised doubts over the intention of the BJP-led government. "New chapters in history should be included but without changing the facts. We fear that this government may alter facts, so we want the changes to be approved by a panel of experts to authenticate it," said NCP spokesperson Nawab Mail.

He further added that as his party does not trust the government citing that saffronisation of education would be the BJP government's hidden agenda.

ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HINDU RASHTRA



AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan feels that this govt wants to make country a 'Hindu Rashtra' by implementing ideologies of Sawarkar and RSS.



"You cannot change history. The government has already permitted demolition of the historical Ambedkar Bhavan, tomorrow they will dare to change the name of Taj Mahal also," said Pathan.

The attempt to revive the quality of education in the state is a good initiative. However, it needs to be seen that which topics get added by the panel of experts.



Also read:

Tawde presses for safety of girl students in schools, colleges



--- ENDS ---
YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Another Armenian peacekeeping unit has left for Germany, from where the peacekeepers will be taken to Afghanistan following trainings.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, Commander of the peacekeeping brigade General-major Artur Simonyan saluted the peacekeeping unit before the departure and urged the servicemen to carry out their mission with dignity and remain committed to the traditions of the Armenian Armed Forces.

Armenia has been participating in NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan since 2010 under the leadership of the German Armed Forces.
YEREVAN, JULY 21, ARMENPRESS. Healthcare Minister Armen Muradyan said after the clashes in Khorenatsi street of Yerevan, on July 21 at 09:00 proper medical assistance has been provided to 51 citizens, from which 29 are policemen. At this moment there are no extremely serious or life-threatening cases, he said.

Concerning Gagik Mkrtchyans health condition who received gunshot wounds at the Police station, the Minister informed that there is a positive progress in his health condition. You can receive any other information from the official news, the Minister added.

Referring to one of the gunmens statement that they were not allowed to use the ambulatory service, Armen Muradyan said if necessary ambulance will be provided to anyone. I can say the following: medical assistance will be provided to everyone in case of necessity.

Referring to journalists question how is the condition of one of the gunmens pregnant wife, the Minister said: I have no specific information about someones pregnant wife, but I can assure that all pregnant women are under strict attention regardless of whose wife they are.

In the morning of July 17 gunmen stormed a Police HQ in Yerevan and took hostages  demanding the release of Zhirayr Sefilyan, who was imprisoned a month ago, charged with illegal possession, transportation and acquirement of weapons and ammunition. Police Colonel Artur Vanoyan has been killed by the gunmen during the ambush. Colonel Aram Hovhannisyan, Lt.-Colonel Hrach Khosteghyan, Corporal Gagik Mkrtchyan received gunshot wounds.

Clashes between riot police and the protesters occurred in Khorentsi street of Yerevan in the evening of July 20. The protesters were throwing stones towards the police forces.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. In an interview with Armenpress, Russian public figure, member of the Civic Chamber of Russia Denis Dvornikov said selling weapons to Azerbaijan is a huge blow to Russias reputation.

Within the country many people understand that one cannot put out the fire pouring fuel on it. Russia is an inhomogeneous country where sometimes those forces, who work to earn money, rather than to protect the countrys interests, win. The organized, concrete and influential voice of Armenians of Russia is lacking over this issue since the Armenian community of Russia has a huge potential. Meanwhile, even 20% of it does not being used. This is bad both for Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, and even for Russia, Dvornikov said.

Speaking about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, he said the process of the peaceful settlement of the conflict must firstly start with the elimination of hatred towards the Armenians in Azerbaijan, and as for the territories, here also there must be a talk over returning some parts of Martuni, Martakert and Shahumyan regions to Nagorno Karabakh.

Nevertheless, except from global issues, Dvornikov prefers to think about how people just simply live.

Now we should think about how people live in Nagorno Karabakh, we should live today and now. Thats why I and my friends are organizing literary events, concerts in Nagorno Karabakh, we are going to open writers club, many kind and worried people are sending their 20-30 USD to Nagorno Karabakh in order to buy new pants or books for a child who lost his father, Denis Dvornikov said.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. There are international mechanisms, in particular the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, Armenpress reports, Russian MFA official representative Maria Zakharova posted a note in her Facebook page commenting on the information spread in the media which said she announced that Turkey can participate in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process if it will have constructive input on that.

I cannot understand a stance of a number of journalists (of course, not everyones) from Armenia and Azerbaijan. You want to overcome the conflict or to deepen it inventing news based on Your taste. It is a dangerous activity, she said.

She said at the press conference she was asked about the situation in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey, which was more like a political manifesto which I had to disrupt.

For all those who are trying to spread disinformation and destabilize the situation over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process I will once again repeat: international mechanisms, in particular the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship exist for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, she writes.

Zakharova said at the same time bilateral contacts are also possible during which each state can discuss every issue related to the internal and external policy. The issue is how constructive role the countries play that are not a part of the settlement process, whether they are trying to contribute to the settlement, Maria Zakharova writes calling not to be subjected to provocations, including informational provocations as well.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Syria will be the highlight of a high-level meeting scheduled for July 26 in Geneva, a well-informed source in the diplomatic quarters told TASS.

The meeting will involve Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

"For the purpose of further Russia-U.S. cooperation on political and diplomatic aspects of settling the Syrian conflict, a trilateral Russia-US-UN meeting will be held in Geneva on July 26," the source said, adding that the UN Secretary Generals special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura was expected to attend it, TASS reported.

Russian Foreign Ministrys official spokesperson, Maria Zakharova informed reporters of the forthcoming high-level consultations in Geneva as she addressed a news briefing earlier on Thursday.

She recalled the Russian-U.S. talks in Moscow that were held on July 14 and July 15. Russian officials said during conversations with Secretary Kerry steps towards a buildup of coordination in the struggle with terrorism on a universal basis free of any double standards were necessary.

"We hope the American side will act on its promises to differentiate the moderate (Syrian) opposition from Jabhat al-Nousra," Zakharova said.

"Theres no place for terrorists in a future Syria or in other countries of the region. They must be eliminated."

"Russia will continue to facilitate precisely this pattern of developments in various formats," she said. "Proceeding from this position, were preparing for participation in a high-level trilateral meeting in Geneva next week.".






YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani side again fired at Movses village of Tavush province, in an interview with Armenpress, community head Ararat Avalyan confirmed this information. He said fortunately there are no damages and causalities. He said previously the Azerbaijanis were firing towards the village in the evenings, this time they crossed the line and fired at the village when the children were playing outside.

Thursday is their day of shooting range, we have understood this from their behavior. These days they are firing at the Armenian positions, we already know what is happening. But such kind of shootings has not been happened for a long time. There have been sporadic shots, but not when children were playing, Ararat Avalyna said. He informed that the children, of course, were frightened, but after two hours they continued playing outside. Our peoples will cannot be broken, he said.

He said the villages life is going well, everyone is engaged in his/her daily activities. At this moment farmers continue working, he said.

As for opening fire in response, Avalyan said the Armenian side tries not to aggravate the situation.

Armenpress also talked with the heads of Nerkin Karmiraghbyur and Aygepar villages who said there had been no shots towards their villages, the situation is calm.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. On July 22 President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan convened a consultation with the participation of the leaders of the National Security Service, the Police, the Prosecutor Generals Office and the investigative bodies. The President was briefed on the details of the July 17 armed assault on the Police station and the following events as well as results of ongoing operations, press service of the Presidential administration informed Armenpress.

The President was also briefed that active negotiations are underway for achieving the release of the hostages from the Police station, laying down the weapons and surrender of the armed group to the authorities, other necessary operations are being conducted taking into account the existing situation.

The Armenian President emphasized that all possible measures must be taken for peacefully solving the existing situation, he stressed the importance of the comprehensive and impartial investigation of all possible violations of the law, as well as ensuring the inevitability of punishment of the culprits. Based on the consultation results, necessary instructions were given to heads of law enforcement agencies.

Before starting our regular consultation let us once again state that these days our country faces difficult and responsible days. Of course, at this moment I will not touch upon the causes. Now is not the time for it. I will only say we should learn lessons from this.

I once again extend my condolences to fallen Colonel Artur Vanoyans family and relatives. We all owe him. We must do everything to solve this difficult situation and such tragedy must never be repeated.

The most dangerous mindset of our reality is in the source of this situation  solving issues with violence and use of force. The further development of this concern is fraught with very serious consequences for our country and the statehood.

No issues through violence, attack and taking hostages will be solved in Armenia. And we will never allow it. The resolution of this situation must be an important test of maturity of Armenia and our society, the state.

I urge the gunmen to show restraint and not endanger others life through their provocative actions.

The hostages must be released.

The armed group must lay down their weapons.

Further outcome will take place in accordance with the Constitution and Laws of the Republic of Armenia.

All attempts of personal revenge will be suppressed by the force of law.

Yes, many are dissatisfied in Armenia. However let no one be mistaken and think that they can exploit any opportunity or reason to destroy the foundation of our statehood.

I urge all representatives of our society to exercises their political and civil rights exclusively peaceful and within the frameworks of the law. I also urge no to be attracted to proposals and ideas of people who instigate extreme measures and provocations. It is fraught with serious dangers of new casualties.

I urge everyone to realize the real dangers arising from these provocations and extreme steps.

I instruct you  heads of law enforcement agencies  to continue your activities with strict restraint, within the framework of the law.

We continue taking all possible measures for the final peaceful outcome of the situation.

Once again I urge the armed group to lay down the weapons.

We act patiently and will continue acting patiently. The lives and health of every citizen of our country is very precious to us.

We didnt take the path which is considered standard in these kinds of situations. By this we have given the armed group a chance to take a step backwards. I hope they will sober up.

But we dont have the right to allow our entire society to be held hostage by this tension.

I think this situation is already taking place longer than we can afford. Much time hasnt passed since April for the society to afford forgetting what happened.

Once again I urge everyone to restraint and vigilance, for the sake of Armenias and the Armenian peoples future, President Sargsyan said.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Creative unions of Armenia are urging for unity.

Heads of various creative unions told a press conference in ARMENPRESS that they are deeply concerned over the latest situation in Yerevan, and they think solving the issues which are faced by the people during crucial times should be pondered upon.

The emphasis of our urge is mainly the following  no bloodshed and the unity of Armenian people.

The pain of the April war is still present and suddenly these events are developing. It is surprising, but Zoravar Andraniks 1906 urge is timely for the present developments. The Armenian should not take weapons against Armenians, Eduard Militonyan, President of the Writers Union said.

President of the Architects Union Mkrtich Minasyan said everyone is anxious these days and wish no bloodshed to happen.

The only outcome of the situation must be peaceful  without unnecessary ups and downs, said Karen Aghamyan, President of the Painters Union.

Aram Satyan, President of the Composers Union, says during these days the speeches of artists and intellectuals are very important.

Armenian going against an Armenian is a terrifying thing. What does the hostage taking of an Armenian by an Armenian mean for the sake of salvation of Armenians, this is absurd, he said.

President of the Journalists Union Astghik Gevorgyan says the Armenian people like to be proud of their history, but dont like to learn lessons from this history.

We have many concerning moments. The word hostage is not appropriate for the perceptions of the Armenian people. It doesnt have any connection to us, I wish, that the glorious war veterans who are now in this euphoric situation- whom we were proud of, whom we celebrated  to sober up and think why they are taking the responsibility of the word hostage on themselves, she said.

President of the Cinematographers Union Ruben Gevorgyan also made an urge for negotiations and unity.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged the Greek authorities to extradite the Turkish soldiers to Turkey who entered the territory of Greece through a helicopter after the failed military coup attempt in Turkey, Anadolu reports.

The initiators of the coup attempt require a political asylum. However, the political asylum is not enough for them. We expect from the Greek authorities a cooperation and a return of these traitors to Turkey in a fair way, the Turkish FM said.

A Greek court on July 21 sentenced 8 Turkish military personnel who fled to Greece aboard a helicopter during an attempted coup in their country to two months in prison on charges of illegal entry into Greece.

On July 15 a group of rebels initiated a military coup attempt in Turkey. They took under their control several strategic objects in Ankara and Istanbul, but after few hours the rebellion has been suppressed.

According to the recent information provided by Erdogan, 246 pro-governmental people were killed, 2185 are wounded, 10410 have been arrested, 4060 are imprisoned from which 103 are generals.

More than 100 coup attempt participants were killed.

The Turkish leadership believes Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the founder of the Hizmet movement, is behind the failed military coup attempt.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan presented his point of view on the Police station ambush in Yerevan.

In his statement Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that currently there is no point in analyzing the reasons which led to similar extreme measure, which is an armed ambush against a state agency.

He said analyses and lessons must be learned after resolving the very dangerous situation. Currently they will only aggravate and further complicate the situation. Ter-Petrosyan says new bloodshed must be avoided in every possible way and the issue must be solved through negotiations, no matter how difficult they are.

Ter Petrosyan also said: There is no point in reading moral-advisory and patriotism lectures to Zhirayr Sefilyan and his associates. Their patriotism has no need to be proved. They proved it on the battlefield by selflessly and voluntarily fighting in the Nagorno Karabakh War.

As much as he seems to be fiery and radical, I have been convinced through interactions with him that Zhirayr Sefilyan is able to make reasonable decisions during moments of crisis. I want to express hope that this ability wont betray him this time as well, and he will value the destiny of Karabakh and Armenia above all, he said.
"Those culprits must be punished in such a manner that it should shake their hearts. An example must be set here," Kejriwal said after meeting the four victims of flogging at Civil Hospital, Una.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met the Dalit victims at a hospital in Una on Friday and attacked the Gujarat government for not taking appropriate action.

"Those culprits must be punished in such a manner that it should shake their hearts. An example must be set here," Kejriwal said after meeting the four victims of flogging at Civil Hospital, Una.

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He further took on Gujarat government stating that the administration did not act at time because it was hinted from "above".

"They were thrashed in full public. If such incident is happening in the presence of administration then it means that those culprits were backed by higher powers. It hints that the government was involved," Kejriwal said.

He added, "Gujarat government is anti-Dalit".

Four Dalit youths were flogged in full public view at Mota Samadhiya village in Una, by a self proclaimed cow protection vigilantes for skinning a dead cow. The video of flogging appeared on July 11, that sparked uproar among the Dalit community in the state.

Prior to his visit, Kejriwal on Thursday said an atmosphere of "oppression" prevailed across the western state and that people of all communities were threatened.

Kejriwal in a video message released here asked the people to "unite" and raise their voice against what he called the oppression of the state.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had also visited Una district to meet the family of victims.

Dalits up in arms in Gujarat too; Rahul visits Una, Kejriwal to follow



--- ENDS ---
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. The ARF Armenia Supreme Council issued a statement over the armed assault on the Police station in Yerevan on July 17.

The statement says a group of people demand political changes through the use of force who do not accept the methods and ways of the political struggle. They said everyone has to show clear stance over this issue. Few hours later after the incident, the ARF expressed its stance that there is a need of qualified changes, but the extremist thinking is an obstacle for those changes. Issues will not be solved through weapons, violence, taking hostages and terrorism. The goal doesnt justify the means. Those who think or support them, they simply rule out the prospect of having a strong, organized, and a free state, the statement says.

The statement says the ARF seeks the peaceful solution of the situation, it considers unacceptable a new bloodshed, it requires the law enforcement agencies professionalism, to respect the law abiding citizens rights and dignity, it strictly condemns non-political methods of fighting and the extremist thinking.

We can and we will have a strong, free, prosperous Armenia. On that path we are obliged to form a new quality leadership. We will pass this way with these values and with the wide circles of the consciousness-driven society, the statement reads.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan will appeal to the Council of Europe and the UN Human Rights Commissioners, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children over the Azerbaijani firing towards Movses village of Tavush province, the Ombudsmans office informed Armenpress.

On July 20, 2016 at 17:10 the Azerbaijani armed forces fired from large caliber weapons at Movses village of Tavush province. The Azerbaijanis opened fire at the 15-20 year old children playing in the stadium located near the villages school. We were informed about this by the Movses community head, as well as this information has been spread by media.

The Azerbaijani armed forces such planned criminal harassment is a gross violation of the international norms, as well as the international humanitarian law. This is a violation of the international obligations of Azerbaijan. Each child is subject to special protection from shooting or any other harassment. This demand is subject to strict maintenance in terms of the protection of the civilian settlements, and the schools.

The data of the Azerbaijani armed forces such aggressive actions, together with taking appropriate measures with a concrete proposal on excluding such incidents will be submitted to the Council of Europe and the UN Human Rights Commissioners, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Karabakh conflict must be solved based on the three principles of Helsinki: right of the nations to self-determination, territorial integrity of states and non use of violence. This is what the international mediators and the Armenian side insists on. Armenpress reports Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov told, responding to the Vice-Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Ziyafet Askerov, who had announced that Karabakh conflict can be solved based exclusively on the principle of Azerbaijans territorial integrity.

Azerbaijan is not the one to decide the status for Nagorno Karabakh, but the international community should do that considering the will of the people of Artsakh and no other opinion is valid in this context. By the way, not only the Armenian side states this, but the Minsk Group Co-chairs and the representatives of the Co-chair states. Possibility of Kura River to enter Black Sea is larger than Karabakh to appear inside Azerbaijan, Sharmazanov said.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. The National Security Service of Armenia informs that a group of people having clandestine links with the gunmen who have taken control of police patrol regiment in Yerevans Erebuni district has been uncovered and arrested. The group supported different criminal acts in the past and currently continues supporting the preparations of new crimes.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the NSS Armenia, the members of the armed group in the police regiment are now directly guiding and coordinating the activities their accomplices outside to incite clashes, chaos and criminal activities endangering the lives and health of the citizens.

Particularly, on July 21 V. G. was arrested who carried illegal weapons, including a grenade, trying to reach to the blocked part of Khorenatsi Street, but his criminal intentions were prevented before he would reach the mentioned place.

In addition, on July 22 M. A. was arrested who tried to carry bottles filled with flammable liquid (Molotov cocktails) to the same place and use them in case of possibility.

The National Security Service warns that other people having real intentions to support the criminal activities of the armed group have been identified and are under the permanent monitoring of competent state bodies. All legal and available measures are taken to prevent their criminal activities.

Considering the above-mentioned, the National Security Service strictly urges citizens to demonstrate prudence during assemblies and leave their location in case of noting suspicious behavior or items and instantly inform law enforcement agencies about that.
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes (L) walks with his wife Elizabeth Tilson as they leave the News Corp building, July 19, 2016 in New York City

Roger Ailes, who built Fox News into a popular and politically powerful cable network that help redefine US television news, resigned Thursday under the cloud of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

He was replaced by Rupert Murdoch, head of parent company 21st Century Fox and founder of the empire that includes Fox.

The company said in a statement that the resignation was effective immediately and that Murdoch, 85, would take over the roles of chairman and acting chief executive of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network.

The news comes two weeks after Ailes was named in a lawsuit by the popular Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who claimed she was fired for rejecting his sexual advances.

The company statement made no mention of the lawsuit or its review of the allegations.

The move represents tremendous turmoil at Fox, built by Ailes and Murdoch two decades ago into the leading cable news channel, drawing praise especially from conservatives and criticism from the political left.

With the change, Rupert Murdoch returns to a bigger role a year after handing over more control of operations to his two sons.

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country," Murdoch said in the statement.

"Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years."

Murdoch said he and Ailes created a network that stands "in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media."

"I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice," he added. "Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country."

- To 'ensure continuity' -

Murdoch, who cut short a vacation on the French Riviera to return to New York, according to the Guardian newspaper, said he was taking the reins at Fox "to ensure continuity of all that is best about Fox News and what it stands for."

At 21st Century Fox, which also includes a major Hollywood studio and television network, Rupert Murdoch had taken the role of executive chairman with his son Lachlan, and with James Murdoch as CEO.

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The two sons said in the statement that "we join our father in recognizing Roger's remarkable contributions to our company," but also hinted about the accusations against him.

"We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect," the brothers said. "We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company."

A former consultant to Republican presidents, Ailes, 76, had been a key figure in the media empire and a longtime Murdoch ally.

- Home for conservatives -

Under his leadership, Fox became home to key conservative political commentators, drawing an audience distinct from rivals CNN and MSNBC.

David Greenberg, a Rutgers University political scientist, said in a Politico essay that Ailes essentially created modern conservatism in the United States, having worked with presidents from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush.

"In fact, apart from the presidents he served, he was arguably the single most important figure in the creation of modern conservatism," Greenberg wrote.

"By fusing television's power to conjure feelings of anger and resentment to an ideology of cultural populism that demonized liberal elites, Ailes set forth the methods and the message that would help conservative politicians win and maintain power for decades."

But critics said Ailes and Fox were blatantly partisan.

"Despite its 'Fair and Balanced' slogan, Fox News under Ailes' leadership has embraced its role as the communications arm of the Republican Party," said Eric Hananoki and Ben Dimiero in a column for the watchdog group Media Matters for America.

"During the Obama administration, this partisanship accelerated as the network openly campaigned for Republican candidates, launched the Tea Party movement, became a farm system for Republican politicians and served as the stage for Republican presidential primaries, among other egregious ethical issues."

The sexual harassment suit filed in New Jersey state court said Ailes terminated Carlson, a popular host and former Miss America, as a retaliatory act.

Ailes "unlawfully retaliated against Carlson and sabotaged her career because she refused his sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment," the lawsuit alleges. Ailes denied the allegations.

After the allegations emerged, some reports said several other women at Fox News had also claimed harassment, including the popular host Megyn Kelly.
Five years ago Christine Lagarde burst through the glass ceiling at one of the world's leading institutions, becoming the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund.

Her ascension to the prestigious post marked the culmination of a meteoric rise for the French lawyer and former government minister, who began a second term as managing director of the IMF in July.

But her stellar career may have hit a snag.

On Friday, France's highest appeals court ruled she should stand trial over a massive state payout to tycoon Bernard Tapie in 2008 when she was the country's economy minister.

Lagarde is accused of negligence for ordering that a long-running legal row between the state and Tapie be resolved by arbitrators, instead of in court, and then failing to challenge his colossal 404-million-euro ($445 million) award.

The trailblazing 60-year-old says she has a "clear conscience."

"I've always acted in accordance with the law, and I've always had in mind the public interest," she told AFP in an interview in Washington earlier this month.

Her legal woes have done little to dent her popularity in France, where her name has long been bandied about as a possible contender for president.

She herself has ruled herself out of the running.

"I think I'm better suited to what I'm doing today than for the world of politics," she told AFP.

A high-profile trial would be a blow to the unflappable finance czar, who patiently worked to restore the IMF's lustre after the sex scandal that brought down her predecessor and fellow compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011.

The IMF move gave her a seat inside the closed, male-dominated circle of world leaders, but also landed her with responsibility for handling Greece's debt crisis.

Less than a year after her arrival, the initial rescue plan for Greece crumbled and the IMF was forced to join an expanded second bailout operation, taking the cost to a massive 240 billion euros ($270 billion).

Greece kept bleeding, and now has a third bailout.

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IMF has refused to contribute to the latest rescue plan until Greece comes up with a plan to slash its massive debt pile.

- Straight-talker -

A tough negotiator, Lagarde, accusing her successor as French economy minister, Pierre Moscovici, of being asleep during one crisis meeting.

"There are many instances of Ms Lagarde's courageous truth-telling," said economist Desmond Lachman, a former IMF official.

At the same time, she skillfully managed the shifting currents of power in the Fund, where emerging giants like China are challenging the Europe-US-dominated status quo.

Lagarde recently scored two major successes at the IMF: the addition of the Chinese yuan to the Fund's basket of reserve currencies and the passage by the US Congress of long-stalled IMF reforms, for which she had joked she would "do belly-dancing" if needed to get US ratification.

- Synchronised swimmer -

The silver-haired mother of two sons has fashioned herself as an icon to talented women fighting male dominance in large organisations like the IMF.

Born in Paris to teacher parents, she was brought up in the port city of Le Havre.

As a teenager she was a synchronised swimming champion and learned to speak nearly flawless English.

After earning a law degree, she skipped a French establishment career and instead joined the Paris office of prestigious US legal consulting giant Baker & McKenzie.

She worked her way up to become chairwoman of the company's global executive committee in 1999, a first for the firm, and then of its global strategy committee in 2004.

She then embraced politics, joining the centre-right government of president Jacques Chirac as trade minister in June 2005.

Chirac's successor Nicolas Sarkozy appointed her to the finance portfolio in 2007, making her the first woman named to the post which she held until 2011.

Though not a trained economist, she proved deft at dealing with the financial crisis that at one pointed threatened the eurozone's unity.

In an interview with American public radio, she recalled how she was told by a major French law firm at the outset of her career there was no way to break through the glass ceiling.

"'You can join us tomorrow and be an associate, be given great tasks and great files and great clients to work on, but don't ever expect to make partnership' And I said, 'Why would that be?' They said, 'Because you're a woman.'"

"And I just left...," she said.
By PTI: Lucknow, Jul 21 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today hiked the ex-gratia to Rs five lakh from Rs 2 lakh for the kin of those who died after consuming spurious liquor in Etah and Farrukhabad districts.

"The Chief Minister has decided that Rs five lakh will be provided to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the hooch tragedy," an official spokesman said.

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Akhilesh had earlier announced a compensation of Rs two lakh from his discretionary fund but considering the weak financial condition of the affected families, the amount has been raised, the spokesman said.

He also directed the officials concerned to take prompt action in checking the manufacture and sale of illicit liquor and arrest all those involved in it, the spokesman added.

Earlier, BSP supremo Mayawati had criticised Akhilesh Yadav for giving a measly amount as compensation.

A total of 39 people have lost their lives in Etah and Farrukhabad districts since last week after consuming spurious liquor. PTI SAB RCB DV AAR

--- ENDS ---
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes (L) walks with his wife Elizabeth Tilson as they leave the News Corp building, July 19, 2016 in New York City

Roger Ailes, who built Fox News into a politically powerful cable network, resigned Thursday under the cloud of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

He was replaced by Rupert Murdoch, head of parent company 21st Century Fox and founder of the empire that included Fox.

The company said in a statement that the resignation was effective immediately and that Murdoch, 85, would take over the roles of chairman and acting chief executive of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network.

The news comes two weeks after Ailes was named in a lawsuit by popular Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who claimed she was fired for rejecting Ailes's sexual advances.

The company statement Thursday made no mention of the lawsuit or its review of the allegations.

Rupert Murdoch thus returns to a bigger role a year after handing over more control of operations to his two sons.

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country," Murdoch said in the statement.

"Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years."

He added: "I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice. Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country."

Ailes, a former consultant to Republican presidents, had been a key figure in the media empire and a longtime ally of Murdoch.

The sexual harassment suit filed in New Jersey state court said Ailes terminated Carlson, a popular host and former Miss America, as a retaliatory act.

Ailes "unlawfully retaliated against Carlson and sabotaged her career because she refused his sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment," the lawsuit alleged.
A new International Labour Organization report called ASEAN in transformation: How technology is changing jobs and enterprises predicts that "sewbots"  sewing robots that can piece together garments with little or no human intervention  will replace up to 90% of garment and footwear workers in Cambodia and Vietnam in the years to come.

This isn't an entirely bad news story: the South Asian garment industry is dangerous and underpaid, and replacing humans with robots will reduce the labor inputs (and hence the price) of things that we all need  clothes and shoes.





But obviously, that will leave a hell of a lot of people in the region without any jobs. This presents two problems: first, how will they live; and second, who will buy the things that robots make if all the benefits of automation accrue to an ever-dwindling group of people who own robots?

French philosopher Bernard Stiegler has led an effort to create an experimental town called Plaine Commune in Seine-Saint-Denis that seeks to address this question through a "contributory income" that differs from the better-known minimum basic income. Under contributory income schemes, participants receive a minimum income that is topped up by doing creative and cognitive work that is interleaved with continuous, lifelong learning and retraining.

His rallying cry: "The time saved through automation must be granted to the people."

//Bernard Stiegler// Such an income, also called "basic" [income], is a safety net. A contributory income is at the intersection of the models of temporary work in the performing arts [intermittents du spectacle] and the practices of [creating] free software. It covers various levels of compensation that depend upon the periods of employment and the level of salary. The work of tomorrow will be discontinuous [intermittent]. Periods of employment will alternate with periods of acquiring, developing and sharing knowledge. The right to the contributory income will be "rechargeable", based upon the number of hours of employment. In case of problems, the system will be accompanied by a minimum living wage [revenu minimum d'existence]  as a social protection system attached. The trial we have led with Plaine Commune includes testing a contributory income to benefit those who are younger, for whom the amounts could increase with age and where the contribution allowance [allocation contributif] outside of the employed period would represent a percentage akin to the model of paying unemployment benefit to those working in the performing arts [les intermittents]. The beneficiaries would be invited to "invest in themselves" [s'encapaciter], that is to say, to increase their knowledge through studies as well as professional experience. They would be invited to share their knowledge [savoirs] with their neighbouring community [communaute territoriale]. All of this calls for a new collective intelligence, capable of mobilising formal and advanced theoretical knowledge, which is why, with doctoral students, the aim is to develop a contributory research involving the young and local residents. The aim is to develop an economy of contribution founded on the production of negentropy. [3]

ASEAN in transformation: How technology is changing jobs and enterprises

[Jae-Hee Chang, Gary Rynhart and Phu Huynh/International Labour Organization]

Robot factories could threaten jobs of millions of garment workers

[Tansy Hoskins/The Guardian]

BERNARD STIEGLER: "THE TIME SAVED THROUGH AUTOMATION MUST BE GRANTED TO THE PEOPLE" [TRANSLATION]

[Sam Kinsley]

(via We Make Money Not Art and Four Short Links)
Workplaces looking to enter the 21st century may be encouraged to chuck their telephone land lines in favour of a new business communications tool that gives you all of your old-school phone features while letting you work just about anywhere.

Rogers launched Rogers Unison this week, a business service the telecom giant expects will help small to medium sized businesses save as much as 40 per cent on their monthly phone bills.



But will cutting the cord on traditional telecom services mean the end of business desk phones as we know them?



This is not the extinction of land lines; its the evolution of land lines, says Charlie Wade, senior vice president of products and solutions at Rogers. I think were shifting land lines and that technology onto the mobile. We arent going to see the complete removal of desk phones as there are folks in the office who still use them.



Wade says small and medium sized businesses spend $25 to $50 per phone line per month but could realize annual savings of $300 to $600 per year with Unison.



The software product lets businesses connect with customers and employees no matter where they are thanks to a web-based portal and mobile devices. Rogers Unison includes features such as an automated answering system, the ability to route incoming calls from one staffer to the next ensuring clients arent on hold for too long and the capability to create multiple identities to ensure a local presence in multiple regions by adding and routing local numbers to their mobile device. A voicemail to email feature is also included. This automatically turns all voicemail messages into email messages.



We certainly think our small business customers have been keeping their land lines because they need to keep the number because its on their website, its on their business card, its on the letterhead, explains Wade. Now they can do that but they can be way more agile, way more contactable by their customers because its not just ringing in the office, but potentially theyre not.



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The launch this week is Rogers first plan of attack in its quest for a piece of what it says is a $2 billion market, the companys enterprise business unit president Nitin Kawale told the Globe and Mail. Next up with be larger corporations and the public sector.



Toronto telecom consultant Mark Goldberg believes products like Unison will prove to be a tremendous asset for certain workplaces and professions.



Let says youre a plumber and you cant miss a call, Goldberg says. If someone needs a plumber theyre not going to leave a message. Theyre going to call the next plumber on the list because they need to reach somebody because the pipes broken. So when a plumber is out on a call he doesnt want to miss a call.



Services such as Unison are the next step in the evolutionary progression of the telecom industry, says Goldberg, but Rogers will ultimately need to lead the charge by showing the world that it believes in it as well.



Part of that is using capabilities themselves, he says. If it isnt good enough to provide communications capability in your own business, then its a lot tougher to sell to somebody else. If you see a lot of wire line phones at Rogers youve got to be asking questions.


Ford has found an odd new partner in its ongoing pursuit of greener vehicles, announcing earlier this week it would be teaming up with tequila maker Jose Cuervo.

The pair has been researching the use of byproducts from harvested agave  the plant responsible for countless bad decisions and hangovers  to develop bio-plastics for manufacturing vehicle interiors and exterior components like wiring harnesses, HVAC units and storage bins.

Initial assessments suggest the material holds great promise due to its durability and aesthetic qualities, said the company in a press release. Success in developing a sustainable composite could reduce vehicle weight and lower energy consumption, while paring the use of petrochemicals and the impact of vehicle production on the environment.

According to Ford, a typical car uses about 400 pounds of plastic.

Justin Gammage, former chief scientist at auto giant GM and the current industry liaison manager responsible for developing innovative partnerships at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) says he wasnt surprised with the partnership.

They were one of the first automotive companies to use bio-plastics and bio-composites in their inner products, Gammage told Yahoo Canada Finance. Really they should be commended for it because implementing bio-plastics in the automotive environment is extremely challenging.

Ford currently uses eight sustainable-based materials in its vehicles ranging from soy foam to coconut fibre and rice hulls.

Gammage points out that virtually every major car company is devoting some research and development to bio-polymers but like he said, its no easy task.

Its very hard to get a bio-based polymer to meet the requirements of a typical synthetic polymer  they tend to have issues with degradation, he explains. And again asking them to perform to the level they need to in an automotive environment, thats a whole other magnitude of difficulty.

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But when you get it right, says Gammage, its very effective, good for the environment and sustainable. Outside of the considerable challenge of creating reliable composites from organic products is creating bio-plastics to scale.

To put it in perspective, Canadian auto dealers sold a record 191,088 vehicles in June, extrapolated throughout the year with 400 pounds of plastic per car, automakers are going to need a lot of bio-plastic to keep up.

Ford bio-materials research engineer Angela Harris summed it up perfectly a few years ago in an interview with WWF about the viability of bio-polymers.

These new bio-based materials are competing with commodity based polymers, so we need to increase their scale and the volume for them to have a real chance in the marketplace, she said.

But Gammage is optimistic.

I do notice a lot of research taking place in the area  at universities like UOIT, Waterloo, Toronto, McMaster and Western  theyre all looking at trying to make things work, he says. I think this is the tip of the iceberg.
By Rod Nickel and Julie Gordon (Reuters) - Efforts to contain an oil spill in a major western Canadian river faced a setback on Friday, after water levels rose, allowing the oil to flow past containment booms and downstream toward a small Saskatchewan city, provincial officials said. The city of North Battleford, which draws its drinking water from the North Saskatchewan River, shut off its supply intake and was preparing to use ground water until the immediate risk had passed, the government of Saskatchewan said in a statement. Up to 1,572 barrels of heavy oil and diluent leaked from Husky Energy Inc's Saskatchewan Gathering System pipeline on Thursday, flowing into the river. The company shut in the line, stopping the leak. Husky crews were busy on Friday working to clean up and contain the spill, and both company and government officials were hopeful that booms in the river near the village of Paynton would stop the flow of the oil mixture. But water levels rose, pushing debris into the booms, and the oil continued to moved downstream, the province said. There were worries it could contaminate drinking water supplies, prompting North Battleford to shut down its water intake plant. The city of 14,000 has water in its reservoirs and can also rely on treated well water, Mayor Ian Hamilton said, adding he planned to speak with Husky about preventing future spills. The Calgary-based company, which reported a smaller-than-expected loss on Friday, said it is testing water samples as it monitors the situation. So far, no water advisories have been issued. Husky chief operating officer Rob Peabody told media on a conference call that it would likely be weeks before the cause of the leak was known. He added that the company was assessing the business impact of the spill, but did not provide details on shipment impact. The Saskatchewan Gathering System runs from Husky's heavy oil operations east of Lloydminster to facilities in that city. "This gathering system is flexible," said Peabody. "There's more than one way to get through the pipeline system, so we really are expecting minimal impact to production at this stage." The province said emergency activities are expected to continue for several days and has said the company will be responsible for the cost of the cleanup. The North Saskatchewan River is a major tributary to the Saskatchewan River, which flows east across Saskatchewan and Manitoba into Lake Winnipeg. Husky shares closed up 3.05 percent at C$15.89 on Friday in Toronto. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson, Bernard Orr)
Nine people have been killed and many more injured in a shooting at a shopping centre in the German city of Munich.

A number of "youths" were among the dead and children have also been shot, police said.

At least three of the 16 injured in the attack are in a "life-threatening" condition.

Police initially feared three gunmen might have been involved but now believe there was only one attacker, using a pistol.

It is understood the attacker, wearing a red backpack, shot himself in the head, taking his own life.

His body was found on a side street near the mall, about two-and-a-half hours after the assault.

Anti-terror robots examined the backpack for explosives.

The gunman has since been identified as an 18-year-old German-Iranian, who had been living in Munich for about two years.

He was not known to police and officers are searching his apartment for clues.

Police say it is unclear whether the attack was motivated by terrorism or was a "shooting rampage" by a disgruntled individual.

US intelligence officials said initial reports from their German counterparts indicated no apparent link between the suspect and Islamic State.

There was some speculation the shootings were orchestrated by a far-right extremist group.

In a statement, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "The motives for this abhorrent act have not yet been completely clarified - we still have contradictory clues."

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will meet ministers and intelligence officials on Saturday.

The attack happened on the fifth anniversary of a massacre in Norway by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik.

Despite the uncertainty, supporters of Islamic State celebrated on social media.

"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read one tweet.

Investigators said the "acute terror situation" sparked the biggest police operation in Munich for more than a decade.

An alert was sent to smartphones, declaring an "emergency situation".

Story continues

:: Live: Munich Massacre

The gunman began shooting at a McDonald's restaurant in Hanauer Street near the Olympic Park, before moving to the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum mall.

A woman named Loretta said she was in the restaurant when the pistol-wielding suspect came out of a bathroom and began shooting.

She told CNN: "I come out of the toilet and I hear like an alarm, boom, boom, boom.

"He's killing the children. The children were sitting to eat. They can't run."

Witness Luan Zequiri said he was near the McDonald's when the shooting began.

He told German broadcaster n-tv that he heard the attacker yell an anti-foreigner insult and "there was a really loud scream".

Mr Zequiri said he saw only one attacker, who was wearing jack boots and a backpack.

"I looked in his direction and he shot two people on the stairs," he said.

In a conversation between the gunman and someone on a balcony, the attacker can be heard shouting: "I am German... I was born here."

Employees and customers barricaded themselves inside shops as the attack took place, while more than 2,000 police flooded the area.

Video footage shows shoppers filing through the mall under police guard with their arms raised before lying down on the ground.

An employee who was inside the mall told Reuters by phone that many shots were fired.

The witness said they saw someone who was "so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive".

:: Gunman Opens Fire Outside Munich McDonald's

The entire transport network in Munich was suspended, and the city's main railway station evacuated.

Several highways north of Munich were also sealed off by police.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: "I am shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich, and the loss of life."

French President Francois Hollande called the attack "a disgusting act that aims to foment fear in Germany after other European countries.

"Germany will resist. It can count on France's friendship and cooperation."

This is the second attack in Germany in less than a week.

On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan wounded four people in an axe and knife attack on a train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzberg.

The latest incident happened not far from where Palestinian attackers opened fire in the Olympic Village in 1972, killing 11 Israeli athletes.

Five guerrillas and a police officer were also killed.
As part of its community policing, the South Zone police helped two daughter reunite with their mother after 28 long years on Thursday.

Nazia had thin memories about her daughter because she saw them around years ago.

By Ashish Pandey: Its impossible made possible by the Hyderabad City Police.

As part of its community policing, the South Zone police helped two daughter reunite with their mother after 28 long years on Thursday.

The story of parting and meeting may look like a Bollywood cine plot but it is actually a true emotional saga with a happy ending.

Two Dubai based sisters Ayesha Rasheed eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid were informed by there father just before his last breath that there mother is alive and lives in Hyderabad of India.

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The revelation made by the father was shocking for the two sisters who were always in belief that there mother died after giving them birth.

Nazia Begum, now 60, from Santoshnagar in south zone was married to a UAE national Rasheed Eid Obaid Rifaq Masmari in 1981 at a Qazi's office in Old City of Hyderabad.

After a few years of marriage, she left to United Arab Emirates.

She lived there for around four years aand gave birth to two daughters Ayesha Rasheed eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid.



Four year later, unfortunately Nazia was divorced by her husband Rasheed and she was sent back to India without her little daughters.

With a heavy heart Nazia returned back to India. She tried her best to get the daughters back but poverty and lack of education remained the barrier between mother and daughter.

After two years Nazia's was again married by her parents to a fruit vendor from Bidar in neighbouring Karnataka State.

Nazia got a new life and a family of three children, two sons and a daughter from the second marriage.

Meanwhile 28 year later, time turned, the two daughters separated years ago learnt about the woman who had given the birth and was alive living somewhere in India.

They decided to find out the mother at any cost.

Sisters Ayesha Rashed eid Obaid alias Kanoor Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid who are now aged 29 years and 26 years respectively landed to Hyderabad in search of their mother in January this year.

They had a black & white photograph of young Nazia and a photocopy of old passport.

Both of them knocked the door of Hyderabad police and met Mr. V Satyanarayana, DCP (south zone).

Pamphlets and posters were printed and circulated all over the south zone and even two teams were formed to find out the lost mother.

The police team also approached Old Qazis' and Shadi Khanas' with available material to find out the clues of Nazia.

After strenuous efforts that lasted for six months, the police finally traced their mother Nazia on Thursday.

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Nazia had thin memories about her daughter because she saw them around years ago.

All she could remember was her younger daughter had six fingers and bingo.

Now the Sisters had the happy news. At around 5 p.m, on Tuesday Ayesha, her husband, their 10-year-old son and Fatima drove into the office of DCP South zone.

Emotions filled the room when the women moved forward and embraced their mother. They held her tight for several minutes with tears rolling down their eyes.

The relentless effort of Hyderabad police and has made them the real life Banjara Bhaijaan after two Munni's united with there lost mother.



--- ENDS ---
SINGAPORE--(Marketwired - Jul 21, 2016) - PSB Academy and UON Singapore (UONS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Newcastle, Australia commemorates 10 years of partnership with the announcement of a $100,000 top-up to the PSB Academy-UONS scholarship fund.

The top up -- fully funded by PSB Academy -- will be open to deserving students of the University of Newcastle, Australia's bachelor and master degree programmes from August this year. These programmes range from business to engineering courses that are offered at the Academy's Singapore campus.

With 10 years' experience in helping graduates reach their career goals and aspirations, UONS and PSB Academy remain committed to providing access to quality higher education to deserving students, regardless of their financial background.

In 2015, about 18 students benefited from the joint-scholarship scheme, which range from full to partial scholarships. The top-up of S$100,000 will see up to 50 more students qualify for this scholarship programme.

"We are proud to be celebrating 10 years of success in Singapore. Together with PSB Academy, hope to continue giving back to the local community by continuing to groom industry-ready graduates who are well-equipped to contribute and shape future prospects of our Asian Century. With a growing student body from more than 37 countries since 2006, UONS remains the international footprint of the University of Newcastle, Australia," Professor Amir Mahmood, Pro Vice-Chancellor, UONS.

"PSB Academy looks forward to more wonderful years of partnership with UONS, as we both continue to champion productivity in our quest to nurture industry-ready graduates for our Smart Nation and beyond. The $100,000 worth of scholarships is an apt way to celebrate our partnership, while also serving as a reminder to us, of our commitment to making quality higher education accessible to all deserving students whose education and training will have a positive impact on the international community," says Derrick Chang, Chief Operating Officer, PSB Academy.

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Over the years, University of Newcastle, Australia courses offered at PSB Academy have been designed with the current needs of industry in mind. In 2002, for example, the university established its Bachelor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, a flagship program developed in response to a demand for professionals in Singapore. The Industry Advisory Committee, which comprises practising professionals from industry and government, meet regularly with academic staff to review the university's degrees and discuss improvements, ensuring that the academic experience remains relevant to the needs of the changing modern workforce.

With a global network of 3,700 graduates representing 37 different countries, students of UON Singapore are imbued with a global perspective that helps them embrace today's interconnected society. Ranked second in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-15, UONS' presence in Singapore, through PSB Academy, serves as a strategic gateway to the rest of Asia will continue to give its students a competitive edge over their international counterparts, and prepare them for a Smarter Planet.

Company logo

http://release.media-outreach.com/i/Download/4694

About PSB Academy

Productivity is at the heart of PSB Academy. Once known as the Productivity and Standards Board, PSB Academy today ranks as one of Singapore's leading private education institutions. Our full-time and part-time diploma, degree and post-graduate programs focus on what really matters: performance in the real-world. We aim to appeal to millennials looking for an industry-ready education as well as early to mid-career professionals looking to upgrade themselves.

We have over 300 part-time and full-time lecturers delivering lessons to over 11,000 local and international students. PSB Academy is currently situated at two campuses in Singapore: PSBAcademy@Delta and PSBAcademy@Shenton. Learn more at: psb-academy.edu.sg.

About UON Singapore

Established in 2006, and celebrating 10 years this year, UON Singapore has been the University of Newcastle's gateway in Asia, delivering educational excellence to thousands of students across the region.

As a wholly owned entity of the University, UON Singapore has continued to expand the delivery of programmes in the areas of business, commerce, communication, construction management, engineering, environmental and occupational health and safety, and information technology through strong partnerships with leading local institutions. With internationally qualified research-intensive academics and a teaching and learning adviser based in Singapore, UON Singapore is committed to connecting our students to new ideas and novel ways of thinking and equip them with a world-class education that will open doors across the region and the globe.

With a growing student body and close to 4,000 graduates from 37 countries in the last decade, UON Singapore is the international footprint of the University of Newcastle, Australia.
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Nazia Begum, a native of Santoshnagar, had married a UAE national Rasheed Eid Obaid Rifaq Masmari in 1981 at a Qazis office in Old city.

Mother Nazia Begum (centre) who reunited with her daughters, Ayesha and Fatima. Credit: DCP office, Hyderabad

By Press Trust of India: In a real life drama straight out of a Bollywood potboiler, a 60-year-old woman was today reunited with her two daughters after a gap of 28 years. The reunion became possible due to the community policing by Hyderabad Police (South Zone) under DCP V Satyanarayana.

"After few years of marriage, she left for UAE where she and Rasheed lived in Fujairah province. As Rasheed was already married, Nazia faced immense problems there," police stated in a release.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED Nazia Begum, a native of Santoshnagar here, had married a UAE national Rasheed Eid Obaid Rifaq Masmari in 1981 at a Qazis office in Old city. During her stay of four years there, Nazia had two daughters - Ayesha Rasheed eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid. Nazia was thrown out by Rasheed who divorced her and sent her back to India without her daughters. Then, Nazia's family members in Hyderabad could not do much to help her, but married her off to a fruit vendor from Bidar in Karnataka

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About 28 years later, Ayesha and Fatima came searching for her in Hyderabad this January. When they approached Satyanarayana for help, but they only had an old photograph of their mother.

The DCP said, "Pamphlets and posters were printed and circulated all over the south zone. After strenuous efforts that lasted for six months, the police finally traced Nazia today".

Nazia had obscure memories of her daughters and all she could remember was that her younger daughter had six fingers.

A meeting was fixed at Deputy Commissioners office at Purani Haveli here where Nazia and few of her relatives waited anxiously.

Emotions filled the room when Ayesha and Fatima, now in their 20s, moved forward and gave a hug to Nazia, which lasted for ten minutes.

"We never thought we would meet our mother in lifetime. The almighty had fixed the meeting and we are glad that we got to see our mother after 28 long years," Ayesha and Fatima said.



--- ENDS ---
An Indian Air Force's AN-32 aircraft with 29 people on board went missing over Bay of Bengal soon after taking off from Chennai for Port Blair. A massive search operation is underway to locate the plane which is feared to have crashed in the sea.

A massive search operation on to locate the missing AN-32 of the Indian Air Force.

By Manjeet Negi: All 29 on board an Indian Air Force AN-32 aircraft en route to Port Blair from Chennai are feared dead after the plane went missing over the Bay of Bengal today morning. The aircraft was on a routine weekly flight. Of the 29 people who were on the plane include 11 from the Air Force, two of the Army and nine people from the Navy, one person from Coast Guard along with eight defence civilians of the Naval Armament Depot from Vishakhapatnam.

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The plane took off from Chennai's Tambaram aircraft at about 8:00 am and was scheduled to land at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar islands around 11:20 am. The plane's last known contact with the ground control was at 8:46 am after which it vanished off the radar screens. | IAF in a death spiral

According to reports, the missing AN-32 abruptly turned and plunged from 23,000 feet approximately 280-km out at sea from Chennai.

File image of the same Indian Air Force AN-32 (K-2743) that's currently missing over the Bay of Bengal.

Air Force Headquarters sources said the plane was losing 4,000 feet per minute at the time of its last contact from the ATC and the chances of survival of the people on board were bleak but they were hoping for "miracle".

Updated list of IAF & Navy assets hunting for Indian Air Force An-32. Now 6.5 hours since last contact with plane. pic.twitter.com/Pa4YgEfMpW Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 22, 2016

"Efforts on to trace IAF AN-32 aircraft and our service personnel on board," Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in a tweet.

Parrikar is personally monitoring the situation from his South Block office in the national capital. The Defence Minister has also briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi the search operations for the IAF's aircraft.

TECHNICAL SNAG LED TO CRASH?

Sources in the Defence Ministry indicated that the aircraft had a history on snags. However, it was found fit to fly in the recent check up by the squadron based in Sulur in Tamil Nadu.

The snags included "pressure leak" from port door and a sluggish throttle, which is used to control movement of the plane.

The flight route of the missing AN-32

MASSIVE SEARCH OPERATION

The Indian Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard have launched a full scale search and rescue operation to locate the missing aircraft. The air force has deployed three aircraft, including a C-130J Super Hercules and four ships while the Navy has pressed several of its vessels into service. INS Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti, Kuthar, Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch etc. are scanning the aircraft's flight route. Help of military satellite Rukmini is also being taken to locate the missing aircraft.

Fullscale SAR lched by Indian Navy 2 look for IAF AN 32 ac overdue at INS Utkrosh PB since 1130h @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/fIDQQyz8ER SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) July 22, 2016

@SpokespersonMoD 4 ships deployed in Bay of Bengal diverted for SAR Kuthar Karmukh Gharial & Jyoti + 2 each P8I& DO pic.twitter.com/vZqtCgOgEh SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) July 22, 2016

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The Indian Navy has also diverted one of its submarines to detect the transmissions of locator beacon of the missing IAF aircraft.

AN-32: A RELIABLE AIRCRAFT

The Russian made AN-32 is considered to be one of the most reliable machines that the IAF has. The aircraft, which can fly for over four hours without stopping for refuelling, has the ability to take off and land from small airstrips. The twin-engine aircraft is primarily used to ferry cargo. Nearly 100 AN-32s are in service with the IAF currently. | All you need to know about the sturdy AN-32



Also Read:

Najafgarh crash landing: How hero pilot saved 7 lives after engine failure



BSF aircraft crashes into Delhi airport wall, all 10 officers on board killed



--- ENDS ---
The AN-32 with 29 people on board was on a routine weekly flight from Chennai to Port Blair.

By Manjeet Negi: A massive search and rescue operation is currently on in the Bay of Bengal to locate an Indian Air Force's AN-32 aircraft which went missing today morning with 29 people on board. The plane was on a routine weekly flight from Chennai to Port Blair.

According to reports, the missing AN-32 abruptly turned and plunged from 23,000 feet approximately 280-km out at sea from Chennai.

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The plane took off from Chennai's Tambaram aircraft at about 8:00 am and was scheduled to land at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar islands at around 11:20 am. The plane's last known contact with the ground control was at 8:46 am after which it vanished from the radar screens.

WAR SCALE SEARCH OPERATION

The Indian Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard have launched a full scale search and rescue operation to locate the missing aircraft. The air force has deployed three aircraft, including a C-130J Super Hercules and four ships while the Navy has pressed several of its vessels into service. INS Karmukh, Gharial, Jyoti, Kuthar, Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch etc. are scanning the aircraft's flight route. | IAF in a death spiral

The Indian Navy has also diverted one of its submarines to detect the transmissions of locator beacon of the missing IAF aircraft.

Updated list of IAF & Navy assets hunting for Indian Air Force An-32. Now 6.5 hours since last contact with plane. pic.twitter.com/Pa4YgEfMpW Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 22, 2016

AN-32: IAF's workhorse

The Russian made AN-32 is considered to be one of the most reliable machines that the IAF has. The twin-engine aircraft is primarily used to ferry cargo.



The aircraft has the ability to take off and land from small airstrips. Nearly 100 AN-32s are in service with the IAF currently.

2 Navy aircraft (P-8I & Dornier) 4 ships currently on hunt for missing IAF An-32. More to be deployed. pic.twitter.com/n5GgQXZuEK Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 22, 2016



Fullscale SAR lched by Indian Navy 2 look for IAF AN 32 ac overdue at INS Utkrosh PB since 1130h @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/fIDQQyz8ER SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) July 22, 2016

@SpokespersonMoD 4 ships deployed in Bay of Bengal diverted for SAR Kuthar Karmukh Gharial & Jyoti + 2 each P8I& DO pic.twitter.com/vZqtCgOgEh

Also Read:

Najafgarh crash landing: How hero pilot saved 7 lives after engine failure



BSF aircraft crashes into Delhi airport wall, all 10 officers on board killed



--- ENDS ---

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"We have arrested PN Sanyal. It seems that he was involved in illegal activities like human trafficking and used to cheat and impersonate people by posing as Member of Parliament and senior bureaucrat," said DCP (south) Ishwar Singh.

The presence of a Russian woman in businessman Pritindra Nath Sanyalas Safdarjung Enclave house spooked I-T officials and blew the lid off an international flesh trade.

By Ankur Sharma: When income tax officials raided businessman Pritindra Nath Sanyal's swank residences at south Delhi and Lucknow in search of undeclared assets, they found a bevy of foreign women and a thriving flesh trade.

STRING OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES SURFACED

Delhi Police this week arrested the 63-year-old kingpin of an international sex syndicate with army officers and politicians allegedly embroiled.

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According to cops, the trade has links to Central Asia. "During search, copies of passports and phone numbers from Central Asian countries were seized from the residence of the accused. Messages exchanged between him and his associates revealed financial transactions with foreign women," said an official.

IT officials also said there were foreign women in his Lucknow residence too. The Income Tax Department handed Sanyal over to Delhi Police on July 19 for further investigation.

RETIRED COLONEL OF INDIAN ARMY INVOLVED

Officials have also seized purportedly forged letterheads of parliamentarians that were being used by the accused. Investigators claim a retired colonel of the Indian Army was also part of the trade.

"We have arrested PN Sanyal. It seems that he was involved in illegal activities like human trafficking and used to cheat and impersonate people by posing as Member of Parliament and senior bureaucrat," said DCP (south) Ishwar Singh.

USED A RAJYA SABHA MP DISGUISE

"He also called up senior officials, trying to influence business deals. We are verifying his phone and WhatsApp messages." Singh said one of the women told the IT sleuths that she was being held against her will and had also tried to kill herself.

According to a senior official, Sanyal was in touch with a retired colonel, identified as Ajay Ahlawat. He introduced a Russian woman to the businessman. "The Russian woman has told us that a colonel who took voluntary retirement recently introduced her to Sanyal. She also told the income tax department that she did not feel safe with Sanyal," Singh added.

According to the police, Sanyal built an empire with the large amounts of money he was making through the trade. He recently shifted to a house in posh Safdarjung Enclave. "Sanyal came to Delhi from Lucknow in 1990. He had a flat in Vasant Kunj area. After spending almost 20 years there, he recently shifted to a very expensive flat situated in Safdarjung Enclave. He told us that he had some other businesses as well which we are verifying," officials said.

According to the police, the IT department also recovered blank letterheads of some politicians during the raid. "He sent WhatsApp messages using the name of Naresh Agrawal, Rajya Sabha MP to various people, including senior government officials. The Income Tax Department has handed over a blank signed letterhead with the name of Jagdambika Pal. The documents appear to be forged," said DCP Singh.

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MORE DETAILS AWAITED

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pal, reacting to the news of his name cropping up in the case, said that he doesn't know anyone named Sanyal. "I have been in politics for over 35 years. And I have never issued any blank letterheads to anyone in my entire career, not even to my wife," Pal told an agency. "If someone has used my name then police must probe against him and give the strictest punishment under the law," he added.



Cops have registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code at Safdarjung Enclave police station. According to a senior official, Sanyal may also be involved in setting up honey traps.

"There are multiple entries and chats with various businessmen and other officials. It is possible that he used to influence deals by using honey traps. We are investigating the matter and soon other details will be revealed," said an official.



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Also Read:

DDCA official sought sex for selection of cricketers, claims Kejriwal

Delhi teen in AIIMS after sex with calves



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Modi lauded his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina for her government's continuous drive against extremism in the country.

The inauguration of Integrated Check Post(ICP) at the Petrapole border was jointly attended by the prime ministers of both the countries along with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee through a video link. Photo: PTI

By Indrajit Kundu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday assured India's continuous support to Bangladesh in combating terrorism.

Modi lauded his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina for her government's continuous drive against extremism in the country.

Modi was speaking at the inauguration of an Integrated Check Post(ICP) at the Petrapole border in North 24 Paragana district of West Bengal. The programme was jointly attended by the prime ministers of both the countries along with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee through a video link.

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Exclusive: Bangladesh releases images of 10 suspected terrorists, alerts India

ISIS plans to attack India through its bases in Bangladesh and Pakistan

PAINED TO SEE ATTACKS: MODI

Security has been a major concern with last month's Dhaka terror attack serving a stark reminder once again.

Addressing the same, the Prime Minister conveyed his condolences to Sheikh Hasina for the loss of lives and assured full support in the country's ensuing fight against terrorism.

"It's a matter of pain for me as well as for people of my country that there were two terror incidents in Dhaka and Kishoregunj during the holy month of Ramadan. It's a sad moment when temples and priests as well as civilians are being subjected to such inhumane torture," Modi said.

Dhaka attack: Bangladesh minister blames Pakistan government, ISI

Another Hindu priest attacked in Bangladesh, condition critical

ICP TO BOOST BILATERAL RELATIONS

The ICP at Petrapole comes after the first one was commissioned in Tripura at the Agaratala- Akhura (Bangladesh) land border.

Welcoming the milestone project, Modi said he hoped it will boost bilateral relations between the neighbouring countries.

"The inauguration of the Petrapole Integrated Check Post marks another special moment in the ties between India and Bangladesh. The check post will ensure greater economic integration and significantly improve the connectivity between India and Bangladesh".

The biggest land port based on trade volume in South Asia, more than half of the India-Bangladesh trade takes place through the Petrapole junction. Almost 15 lakh people and over 1,50,000 trucks cross the Petrapole-Benapole border every year.

BENGAL CM ASSURED FULL SUPPORT

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her part assured all help from the state government required to develop the relations between the nations.

"Our government has provided all necessary help to develop the land port, which would generate a business of Rs 68,000 crore a year," Banerjee said. Mamata's assurance comes close on the heels of the Teesta water sharing agreement and fencing along the porous border between the two nations.

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The Integrated check post will have all regulatory agencies that will include immigration, customs and border security system.

Modi also took the occasion to thank West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for joining the programme and acknowledged her role in improving the ties between the nations.

Eight more such integrated check posts will be set up along India-Bangladesh soon. The Petrapole ICP will provide better facilities for effective and efficient discharge of functions such as security, immigration, customs and quarantine.

Meanwhile, it will also provide better support facilities for smooth cross-border movement of people, goods and transport.

Also Read:

RAB releases list of 261 persons missing from across Bangladesh





--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) CBI has arrested a Jharkhand resident along with his accomplice for allegedly forging signature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a letter which claimed he had been invited to organise a musical programme for Independence Day celebrations here.

The two accused Pandit Swaraj Kumar Roy and Suvendu Kumar Burman were produced today before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate here who remanded them in CBI custody till July 27.

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Roy, who hails from Bokaro, had sent a letter in May 2015, purportedly issued by the Prime Minister, asking him to organise a classical music programme on Independence Day, a CBI Spokesperson said today.

The letter bearing the forged signature of Modi was sent to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) which was taken aback as no such communication had been issued. The matter was then referred to the CBI for enquiry and the agency registered a case after preliminary investigations.

"The allegations pertain to forgery of signature of Prime Minister of India on a letter purportedly issued by the PMO to the said accused for arranging classical music programme on upcoming Independence Day," a CBI spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said searches were conducted at Bokaro steel City (Jharkhand) and Bishnupur, District Bankura (West Bengal), on the premises of accused which led to the recovery of a large number of "incriminating forged documents and articles" relating to forgery of the signatures of Prime Minister of India. PTI SKL SK

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Police in Bengaluru had to cane Thalaivar fans who overflowed the streets and created massive traffic jams on their way to catch Kabali in theatres.

By Mail Today: Vehicular traffic came to a standstill in many parts of the IT Capital of the nation on Friday morning, as thousands of fans of south superstar Rajinikanth thronged theatres to watch his latest release Kabali.

ALSO READ: Kabali Movie Review

ALSO READ: Fans all over India go crazy for Kabali

ALSO READ: Air Asia's Superstar plane takes off in style!



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Motorists in the city had a tough time in Subhashnagar, Lalbagh Road and Ballari Road, as the crowd overflowed on to the roads prompting the police to cane them to restore order.

Some of the single-screen theatres such as Nataraja, Cauvery and Urvashi are preferred by cine-goers because they have been screening Rajinikanth movies since decades. The fans erected huge cut-outs of Rajinikanth and poured milk and honey on them.



A few theatres are screening the movie almost round the clock through special permissions. The first screening commenced at 3am on Friday. The tickets priced are also the highest in Bengaluru with some theatres charging Rs 500 per person. All the multiple screens and theatres have full bookings till Tuesday.



Rajinikanth originally hails from Bengaluru and his siblings still live in the city. He has acted in a few Kannada movies before making it big in Tamil cinema.





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Rajinikanth-starrer Kabali is in theatres today. Here's our review of the most-awaited film of the year.

By Srivatsan: While Rajini fever runs high, reminding people that Rajinikanth's the invincible superstar, is Thalaivar's latest film Kabali up to the mark? Here's our review.

Cast: Rajinikanth, Radhika Apte, Dhanshika, Kalairasan, Dinesh, Kishore, Winston Chao

Direction: Pa Ranjith

Rating: (3/5)

Ever since Kabali was announced, Rajinikanth has kept millions of his fans waiting with bated breath. While the world deals with the Rajini hysteria, Kabali by far is the least-Rajini film you would ideally expect from the actor.

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ALSO READ: Kabali early reviews - India all set to make Rajinikanth's film a blockbuster

ALSO READ: Fans go crazy for Rajinikanth's Kabali ahead of first show

Kabali doesn't provide hints that the actor is inclined towards politics. It doesn't employ misogynistic dialogues. Rajinikanth, who is synonymous with his pompous introduction scenes; in Kabali, doesn't have one similar to that in Padayappa.

If noticed, his Kabali introduction scene would bring a fleeting smile on some of his fans' faces as it's reminiscent of the latter's dramatic entry in his debut film Apoorva Raagangal (1975), and this portion is a testimony to the least-Rajini film that follows.

Kabali is an emotional drama of the life story of a gangster, Kabali, who attempts to redeem the 25 years of life that he lost in the world of crime. Set against the picturesque Malaysia, the film touches upon the conflict between Malaysians and Tamils, with Winston Chao playing a Malaysian gangster.

After establishing the subject of the story, the film opens with the introduction scene of an imprisoned Kabali, arrested after a war between his gang and that of the antagonist trio Tony Lee, Veerasekaran and Loga. With Kabali set free, the film depicts his quest to redeem his lost wife Kumudhavalli (Radhika Apte) and his daughter Yogi (Dhanshika); and at the same time, finish his long-standing dispute with Tony Lee.

While the cat-and-mouse game between Kabali and Tony Lee is likeable in the first half of Kabali, it is completely lost in the latter half.

For what was projected as a stereotypical Rajini film in the sensational teaser, Kabali turns out to be a mediocre film which lacks poignant dialogues and an edgy screenplay.

Pa Ranjith said that he had tried to bring back the Mullum Malarum Rajinikanth in Kabali. But the film has enough traits to remind one of Mani Ratnam's Nayagan, that starred Kamal Haasan in the lead role. What if Nayagan's Velu Naicker had a daughter who is not against her father? What if Velu Naicker's wife Neela (Saranya) lived? These are some of the questions from Nayagan that seem to be answered in Kabali. Apart from these, Kabali and Nayagan have other striking similarities.

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At the same time, Pa Ranjith has retained some of his signature traits in this film, just like the Dalit angle and a similar supporting cast. Unlike previous Rajinikanth films, the run-time of Kabali is shorter for its own good.

In order to sell a story such as the Malaysian-Tamil conflict, the script demanded a commercial hero like Rajinikanth. With a saleable actor on board, Ranjith could have easily written a hardcore story, which he didn't.

Kabali doesn't even serve the typical Rajini moments to Thalaivar's innumerable fans. There's the iconic scene of the 'Style Samrat' ruffling his hair, which we had a glimpse of in the teaser, but that's all.

Santhosh Narayanan's rivetting soundtrack doesn't do anything to lift the film above mediocrity and even though Neruppu Da is an earworm, it is nothing exemplary.

As for the performance, Kabali is easily Rajinikanth's best performance in recent years. Very few actors have matched Rajinikanth's performance in his other films; Radhika Apte as Kabali's wife Kumudhavalli does it here with top-notch acting, reminding one of actor Lakshmi's role as Rajini's wife in Netri Kann.

However, apart from its leads, Kabali falls short of performance as far as the supporting cast is concerned. Pa Ranjith could have easily roped in some well-known actors from the industry who could actually bring some flavour to their roles.

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Making a film with Rajinikanth is nearly close to jeopardising one's career with an ignominious defeat at one's own peril. Because there are certain elements expected of a Rajinikanth film to cater to his ardent fans, even if the actor is prepared to look old on screen.





Though Rajinikanth's stardom subverts his ability to perform, only a few infallible directors have done justice to the star and the performer both. Even if it's a triumph for Pa Ranjith in bringing back the actor Rajinikanth in Kabali, the film falls short of a hardcore story.

There's a sly dialogue in Kabali, where Rajinikanth says, "Naa vanthuten nu sollu... 25 varusham munadi Kabali eppidi irunathano appidiye vanthutan nu sollu (Tell him Kabali is back after 25 years)."

While this dialogue aptly captures Rajinikanth's return to the silver screen as an actor, Lord Rajini-worshipping fans will inevitably miss the star Rajini in Kabali.





--- ENDS ---
The Bones Wheels UK Tour will be heading through Brighton, Preston and Nottingham this Summer, kicking off at the end of this month into the beginning of August. Taylor Bingaman, Dakota Servold, Yonnie Cruz, Corey Glick and Marek Zaprazny will hit Brighton on July 31st for a shop signing at The Level Skateshop before a demo at the park itself, Preston to skate Moor Park on August 3rd, an Flo in Nottingham on the 4th. Peep times below and, if you find yourself in one or more of these areas at the corresponding times, go see some shredding!

The Vans crew kick off their summer 2016 pro skate tour with a demo at Grant Park in Chicago, with a heavily street influenced set...

The Vans Summer Pro Skate Tour continues its trek across the country, landing this time in Cleveland, Ohio

The last three parts of the Vans Summer Pro Skate Tour puzzle sees the crew hit Philly, move on to New Brunswick to christen the...

UK Indy rider Sam Pulley going in on some rad, whippy looking transitions courtesy of Pixels...

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Learning Resources

Social Science Techbook Adds Civic and Government Course

The newest course added to the Social Science Techbook promotes inquiry-based learning and incorporates interactive content, exclusive videos and more.

The Social Studies Techbook, an interactive digital textbook from Discovery Education, has expanded its offerings to include a course that encourages students to explore the rights, roles and responsibilities of U.S. citizens and the purpose of government.

The new Civics and Government course for grades 68 includes dynamic digital content. As part of the Techbook series, the course engages students through an inquiry-based learning process. The course also includes interactive features that teach civic discourse, such as debates and role-playing.

Other features of the course include:

A teacher dashboard that allows communication with students;

Exclusive videos and primary source documents;

A weekly videos series called Global Wraps that features current events; and

Digital exploration and interactive maps.

In addition to the Civics and Government course, the Social Studies Techbook has World Geography and Cultures, World History and U.S. History courses.

All Techbooks in the series also include research-based professional development that supports educators as they use the digital content. Teachers using Techbooks can access the Discovery Education Community, a global network of education professionals, connects teachers and administrators with social media, virtual conferences and in-person events.

Social Studies Techbook provides challenging and meaningful learning experiences for our students and encourages them to think critically, said Tonya Faison, principal at James Martin Middle School in North Carolina, in a statement. We are looking forward to integrating this dynamic new course into instruction to further promote civic engagement and civil discourse among our students.

Further information about the new course is available on the Discovery Education site.
- Three al-Shabaab fighters were killed by a combined force of Amisom and Somalia National Army in an operation

- The combined forces were aided in the operation by US jets which bombed locations the terror group was hiding

- The militants were killed in Buurkoy location, Lower Jubba region which was a stronghold of the group

Three al-Shabaab fighters were on Thursday, July 21, killed by a combined force of African Union Mission in Somalia forces and Somalia National Army (SNA) in Southern Somalia.

The combined forces killed the militants in Buurkoy location, Lower Jubba region which was a stronghold for the terror group.

The combined forces were aided in the operation against the terror group by US jets which bombed the hideouts of the group.

FILE PHOTO: Three al-Shabaab fighters were killed after a joint force of Amisom and Somalia National Army raided their hideout in Southern Somalia, the joint forces were aided by US jets which bombed the location of the terror group.

READ ALSO: Al-Shabaab explosions cut off communication between KDF camp and Kenya

Amisom spokesman Joe Kibet confirmed the incident saying the operation targeted the groups checkpoint in the location.

According to Xinhua, more airstrikes were conducted in Bula-guduud area, 30 kilometers north of Kismayo, in Jubbaland.

Three al-Shabaab militants were killed in Southern Somalia by a joint force of Amison and SNA forces with the aid of US jets which bombed terror group hideouts.

The terror group al-Shabaab was removed from its major strongholds in Somalia by African Union force (Amisom) in 2011.

In 2015 the group lost more territories under its control by a combined force of Amisom and the Somali National Army.

The group has carried out several attacks in Kenya including the Garissa University College attack.

The Garrisa University attack which occurred in 2015 was one of Kenyas most bloodiest terror attacks.

The militant group al-Shabaab raided the university at dawn killing 148 people dead of which 142 were students.

READ ALSO: High Alert For Suspected Terrorist Planning Attacks In Wajir

Cover photo: Hiiran Online

Source: TUKO.co.ke
By Esha Vaish and Noor Zainab Hussain

(Reuters) - Lloyd's of London's Beazley Plc (BEZG.L) is working to get European insurance licences for its Irish reinsurance business to allow it to operate throughout the European Union, even if Lloyd's loses access to the bloc.

Insurers are making contingency plans after Britain's vote last month to leave the EU left them facing the risk they could lose "passporting" rights that enable them to sell their products throughout Europe.

"We're looking at getting the licences for our EU reinsurance company in Dublin and have an EU insurance company, which will give us some protection for growing in Europe into the future, if there are problems with the Lloyd's licences," Chief Executive Andrew Horton told Reuters.

Britain's insurance and banking industries - the biggest in Europe - are seen as some of the sectors with the most to lose following the Brexit vote, due to their reliance on the passporting system.

Dublin is the favoured alternative hub to London for insurers due to its geographical proximity and similar regulatory regime, as well as Ireland being an English-speaking country, industry specialists say. It is already considered an insurance centre, with giant insurer Zurich having its European HQ there.

Ahead of the referendum, Lloyd's, which groups more than 80 insurance syndicates in the City of London, warned that the specialist insurance market would be less appealing to investors outside Britain after a Brexit vote.

Beazley's Horton said the firm's main aim is to lobby with Lloyd's to ensure that the Lloyd's market manages to maintain the insurance licences that allow it access to the EU bloc.

The company is keen to do all it can to ensure continued access to Europe as it hopes to replicate there the success of its U.S. speciality lines business - which covers professional and management liability.

Beazley, which provides marine, casualty and property insurance and reinsurance, reported a 3 percent fall in first-half pretax profit as premium rates declined for much of the large risk business the company underwrites in London.

Story continues

Gross written premiums, however, rose about 2 percent to $1.12 billion (855.2 million) over the period, buoyed by strong growth of the firm's speciality lines business in the United States, which accounts for about 85 percent to 90 percent of its specialty lines business.

Horton said Beazley expected its U.S. and UK speciality lines business to compensate for fewer premiums written in marine and property accounts in the second half.

Over the six months ended June 30, pretax profit fell to $150.2 million due to fewer catastrophes, against a record $154.5 mln in the first half of last year. The Canadian wildfire was the only significant catastrophe over the period, Horton said.

Shares in Beazley were up 1.4 percent at 392 pence at 0930 London time, outperforming a 0.5 percent drop in the wider FTSE midcap index (.FTMC).

(The story was refiled to correct Beazley speciality lines in paragraph 8)

(Reporting by Esha Vaish; Additonal reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Susan Fenton)
US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Salaheddine Mezouar in Morocco on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.Click here for high-resolution version

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - July 21, 2016) - US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Morocco Wednesday and Thursday to meet with government officials as well as university students, entrepreneurs, and NGOs to discuss the fight against violent extremism and the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22), which is scheduled to take place in Marrakesh in November.

"The US-Moroccan partnership is key, not only to address common challenges, including security and climate, but also to benefit from available opportunities," said Mr. Blinken at a joint press briefing on Wednesday with Morocco's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Salaheddine Mezouar.

"We greatly appreciate the leadership of the Kingdom, host country of the 22nd Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, on a large number of issues related to environment and climate," he noted.

Minister Mezouar stressed that "the US commitment to the climate issue is crucial to accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the fight against climate change, capacity building, mobilization of funding and technology transfer."

On security, the two officials reviewed "several issues of common interest, particularly the threat of Daesh, the issue of terrorism, religious leadership and the importance of promoting the value of tolerance advocated by Islam," according to Moroccan press reports. Minister Mezouar "noted a convergence of views in relation to the Middle East and Libya," and that the fight against Daesh in Libya, Iraq and Syria "is beginning to bear fruit." Mr. Blinken praised the role played by Morocco in the fight against extremism and terrorism, which includes participating in the US's anti-ISIS coalition, co-chairing with the Netherlands the Global Counterterrorism Forum, and an oft-lauded strategy of promoting religious tolerance and moderation throughout the region.

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In addition to his meetings with government officials, Mr. Blinken also met with international relations and political science students from the International University of Rabat as well as with green entrepreneurs and innovators. Tweeting on these encounters, Mr. Blinken said he was "inspired by [meetings] today highlighting Morocco's bright future" and "bowled over by eco-entrepreneurs," whose "Innovative ideas/solutions [are especially] critical ahead of #OurOcean & @COP22 this fall."

Mr. Blinken will next travel to Tunisia and Algeria.

The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials, and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.

This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/7/21/11G107576/Images/mezouar_and_blinken-b15290265b2994368239895a8ecbad14.jpg


While we see flags associated with political parties or countries, it is for the first time you would see a flag associated with a film star and that's the power of Rajinikanth.

By Rohini Swamy: If Rajinikanth is hailed as Thalaivaar, then there is nothing wrong in having a flag in his name right? Rajinikanth is the the only actor in the world who has a flag. In the colours of blue red and white, the flag has the face of Rajinikanth right in the centre and is hoisted each time his movie is released.



ALSO READ: Kabali movie review: Rajinikanth's Nayagan



ALSO READ: Kabali (Hindi) review: Rajinikanth's film is a bore

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So what is it about Rajinikanth that makes him such a phenomenon? When we spoke to some of his fans, they first held their palms together in salutation, then they said," There is nobody like him. when he says something, it is like it has been emphasised a 100 times. His simplicity and style have influenced us so much in life that we strive to be like him." said Suresh, an autodriver.

Suresh and his friends, put up 2 flags on his autorickshaw. Photo: Rohini Swamy

Suresh along with his friends have put up two flags on his auto rickshaw and has been going round the city playing Rajinikanth film songs. For him it is nothing less than a festival. It is a celebration of great men who works for the masses, Suresh's friends say.



While we see flags associated with political parties or countries, it is for the first time you would see a flag associated with a film star. It is as if he is a country in his own self and all Rajinkanth followers are his countrymen!.



Suresh and his friends, put up 2 flags on his autorickshaw. Photo: Rohini Swamy

Rajinikanth is not just a phenomenon down south, he has spread his magic across the world. Nobody seems to be able to match his magnetism when it comes to attracting those from all ages.

So far has been the reach of Rajinkanth, that the president of the Rajinikanth association from Japan, Yasda flew to Chennai and watch Rajini's performance in Kabali. Just like Yasda, Frank Hugo who works in the USA has been a huge Rajinikanth fan. He has watches most of his movies and flew down to Chennai just to watch it from the epicenter of all the action. This why Rajinikanth is looked upon as a man who can influence anybody from any part of the world.

Film critics say the first thing that they say is that Rajinikanth or Thalaivar's persona is very humbling and charismatic. He seems to touch the lives of many directly or indirectly and that is what makes him the star that he is. Trade analyst, Sreedhar Pillai also feels that the phenomenon called Rajinikanth is also because of his down-to-earth attitude which makes him feel like someone you have known for ages.

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So now that Rajinikanth has a flag in his name, he has played several roles that have several political hues in it. The one big question, is Thalaivar ready to join politics?



--- ENDS ---
By Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic

PARIS, July 21 (Reuters) - France's Publicis (Paris: FR0000130577 - news) said the loss of large accounts in the United States last year will likely hamper sales in the third quarter after reporting a better than expected underlying growth over the April-June period.

The world's third-biggest advertising agency, whose growth has been lagging that of competitors such as WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) and Omnicom in recent quarters, confirmed on Thursday that it would improve all its financial indicators this year.

Publicis said quarterly sales rose 2.7 percent on an organic basis to 2.46 billion euros ($2.71 billion). Reported growth was 0.9 percent.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected an underlying growth of 1.72 percent in the second quarter. The amount of the quarterly revenue was in line with the poll.

"We're still expecting a difficult third quarter, as it's the least productive of all. We're expecting it with some apprehension," Chief Executive Officer Maurice Levy told reporters ahead of the publication of the results.

The loss of large media accounts in 2015 in the United States, Publicis' number one market, will likely have a "significant impact" in the current quarter, Levy added. These accounts included Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola (NYSE: KO - news) , Mondelez et General Mills (NYSE: GIS - news) .

Publicis called 2016 a year of transition when it reported 2015 results, as it digests the $3.7 billion acquisition of U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .-based digital business Sapient and reorganises its businesses to foster greater collaboration between the myriad agencies it has bought over the years.

Levy also said the company's supervisory board will announce the name of his successor between December 2016 and February 2017. The announcement will mark the end of a life-long career for Levy, who has led the group since 1987.

Omnicom said last week that its second-quarter organic sales growth was 3.4 percent. WPP, the top advertising company in the world, will report first-half earnings on Aug. 24, while Havas (Other OTC: HVSYY - news) will do the same after market close on Thursday. ($1 = 0.9088 euros) (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic, editing by David Evans)
SANTIAGO, July 22 (Reuters) - Workers at Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) 's small El Soldado copper mine in Chile (Stuttgart: 704599.SG - news) called off a strike on Friday after reaching an agreement with the company, a union official told Reuters.

The union has been on strike since July 8 after initial discussions failed with the company during its contract talks.

El Soldado, which has lost money in the last three years, has been following an aggressive savings plan against a backdrop of falling copper prices that have led global miners to cut costs and jobs.

The mine's copper output was 36,000 tonnes last year, less than 1 percent of Chile's overall 5.76 million tonnes.

El Soldado is part of the Anglo American Sur venture, which is controlled by Anglo and includes the larger Los Bronces mine. State-owned Codelco and Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi (LSE: 7035.L - news) also own stakes.

Anglo American could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero, Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; editing by Diane Craft)
By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) - Spain, Germany and Italy helped Vodafone to produce stronger than expected first-quarter sales growth despite a drag from European Union roaming charge cuts and a weak home market.

The world's second-largest mobile operator said on Friday Europe was stable, with three out of its four biggest markets doing well. Europe only returned to growth for Vodafone in the final quarter of 2015/2016 after five years of contraction due to sluggish economies in the region.

The notable exception was Britain, where Vodafone has been trying to fix problems encountered with a new billing system. The company also said it was too early to tell what Brexit would mean for Vodafone's business.

Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said the group was making good progress in Europe, led by Germany, Spain and Italy. "We are focused on improving our performance in the UK," he said.

Vodafone's performance marked an eighth consecutive quarterly rise in its main growth measure - organic service revenue.

"This momentum should steadily raise confidence in the sustainability of the recent return to growth, and underpins our belief that this growth profile is now top-tier amongst the incumbent Telco universe," JP Morgan Cazenove said in a note.

Shares in Vodafone topped the FTSE 100 gainers. They were trading up 4.5 percent at 235.5 pence by 0958 London time.

Analysts at Citi said they saw the 2.2 percent rise in organic revenue to 12.3 billion euros (10.3 billion) as a "modest beat". "The solid progress in Germany and Spain is encouraging."

Growth of 0.3 percent in Europe beat analysts' forecasts of a flat result. Sales in Britain fell 3.2 percent, more than expected.

Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific (AMAP) grew by 7.7 percent in the three months to end-June, also beating analyst forecasts for a 7 percent rise.

"Our growth momentum in AMAP remains strong, with excellent performance in South Africa, Turkey and Egypt and ongoing recovery in India," Colao said.

Story continues

He said a planned listing of Vodafone's Indian operation would provide clarity on its value, giving it more flexibility to pursue options like a deeper tie-up with Liberty Global, although no talks were ongoing or were planned.

LOOKING ABROAD

Vodafone has floated the idea of switching its home base to another European country after Britain voted to leave the European Union last month.

Colao said it was too soon to have any clarity on this. "Our position is we continue to care a lot for the single digital market," he said. "We believe pragmatic solutions will be found to make sure Britain does not get disadvantaged from not being part of it."

Vodafone has switched to reporting in euros from pounds - reflecting the relatively bigger size of its combined euro zone businesses, which make up about half of its sales.

In the short term, the company was seeing more shifts in traffic on its networks from the threat of terrorism in some tourist markets, Colao said.

Holiday makers from Britain and Germany have shifted from destinations like Turkey and North Africa this year in favour of perceived safer locations like Spain, holiday companies have said.

Vodafone is making less money from business and consumer calls when people travel after the EU cut charges at the end of April. Roaming charges will be abolished in June 2017.

But Colao said more than half of calls made when travelling were now included in bundles, a move that was boosting overall usage and helping to compensate for the roaming cuts.

The drag on revenue from roaming charges was 40 basis points in the quarter, although analysts at Mirabaud said they believed the changes would have a bigger impact in the second quarter.

Analysts had expected Vodafone to report organic service revenue growth of 1.9 percent, against underlying growth of 1.8 percent in the final quarter of 2015/16.

(Editing by Kate Holton and Jane Merriman)
By Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and fellow European leaders are pressing the new British government to trigger divorce proceedings with the European Union as soon as possible. But behind the scenes, senior German officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, say they fear a swift move by London to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty risks creating an impossibly short window for negotiating Britain's departure. Further complicating the task, EU leaders have rejected the possibility of any negotiations before Britain moves on Article 50, a step which would start a two-year countdown to Brexit. Behind their stance is a desire to send a message to Britain that it cannot hold the EU hostage by horse trading on the terms of an EU exit before it commits to leave. But six top officials in Berlin and Brussels described this position as problematic, with one dismissing it as "absurd". Some believe Europe's hard line on the sequencing of Brexit talks will need to be revised, perhaps as early as October, when new British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to attend her first meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. The comments reveal the depth of anxiety in Europe's key capitals about how both sides in the Brexit showdown have positioned themselves in the weeks after the shock June 23 vote to leave the bloc. "It was not wrong to send a tough message after the Brexit vote but I don't think the current stance is sustainable," said one official. "You need to start some sort of process as soon as possible, whether you call it negotiations or not." A second senior official said: "It's absurd to think that we won't negotiate on anything before Article 50 is invoked." May, on her first foreign trip since replacing David Cameron as prime minister last week, visited Berlin on Wednesday for talks with Merkel before travelling to Paris on Thursday to discuss Brexit with French President Francois Hollande. At a news conference in Berlin, she said Britain needed time to agree on its objectives for the talks and would not trigger Article 50 this year. Merkel said it was understandable that Britain would take a few months to figure out its negotiating strategy, but added: "Nobody wants a prolonged period of limbo." The French have taken a tougher line, pressing Britain to move fast, and launching an open campaign to woo London-based financial firms to Paris. FAR TOO SHORT Behind the concern of the German officials is a creeping realisation that the two-year window for negotiating a Brexit, as set out in Article 50, is far too short. An extension of the period is possible, but it would require the unanimous agreement of the remaining 27 EU member states, and is therefore seen as unlikely, or at best unsure. Berlin is also sceptical about the possibility of Britain revoking Article 50 once it has been triggered. This means that something will have to give, German officials say. They spell out two possible scenarios. Under the first, the EU would revise its position and agree to a prolonged period of negotiations before Article 50 is invoked. That would win both sides extra time before the clock starts ticking, but it would represent a climbdown and probably provoke outrage in some EU capitals, notably Paris. The second option, in the event May triggers Article 50 early next year, would be for Britain to settle for a very basic framework for its future ties with the EU, based on an existing model similar to that of Norway or Switzerland. Even then, the deadline of two years is widely viewed as a stretch. A third senior official said it took the EU three years to seal its divorce from Greenland, a negotiation that was focused almost exclusively on fishing rights. That official estimated that the EU and Britain, because of the complexity of their relationship, needed at least twice that time -- six years -- to seal their separation, describing two years as "mission impossible". Adding to the muddle is the heavy election calendar in Europe next year, which officials fear could lead to paralysis. Germany, France and the Netherlands are all holding elections in 2017, Spain is still struggling to form a government after two inconclusive votes, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he will resign if he loses a referendum on constitutional reform in the autumn. Leaders in these countries will be focused on their campaigns. If there are changes in power, new governments will need time to settle in. "Do you really think that Europe will be in a position to focus on Brexit talks next year if its five biggest countries are in the middle of elections or dogged by political uncertainty?" a senior Brussels-based official said. DOWN TO EARTH Even if formal negotiations do not start for half a year or more, the official said it was important that Britain and the EU converge on a "corridor of principles" for Brexit talks in the months ahead. One of the big worries in Berlin and other capitals is that London has unrealistic expectations about what it can secure from the Brexit negotiations, particularly on the tradeoff between access to the EU's single market and respect for the bloc's core principle of free movement. British diplomats also acknowledge that the team May has put together to steer Brexit talks has a starry-eyed view of what concessions London can win from the EU and say their European counterparts need to deliver this message to them directly. "A lot of people have 'climbed up trees', people like David Davis and Liam Fox," said one of the German officials, referring to the new Brexit and trade ministers in London. "They need time to climb down." The problem is not just on the British side. It remains unclear who will take the European lead in negotiations, although officials say the aim is to clear this up by September. Berlin is reluctant to hand over responsibility to the executive European Commission, its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and his chief of staff Martin Selmayr, out of fear they could take an overly confrontational stance towards Britain. An alternative would be to let the European Council, led by Poland's Donald Tusk, take the lead, with input from sherpas in European capitals and with the Commission playing a secondary, supportive role. Either way, agreeing a common negotiating strategy between the remaining 27 EU countries is becoming a huge challenge, especially because Berlin and Paris have different views about how to treat Britain during the process. (Editing by Timothy Heritage)
Arbor Investments has paid tribute to its co-founder and former vice chairman Joseph P. Campolo following his death after a battle with brain cancer.
By India Today Web Desk: Ever since the teaser of Kabali was out, superstar Rajinikanth has kept his fans in bated breaths. The Rajini hysteria is gripping all around and the fans have started their celebration in Chennai.

While the film is getting humongous reception from fans, actor Radhika Apte says that she never dreamt of working with superstar Rajinikanth.



ALSO READ: Kabali movie review: Rajinikanth's Nayagan



ALSO READ: Kabali first show: Watch fans go crazy for Rajinikanth's film



Radhika Apte, who plays Rajinikanth's wife in the film was quoted by The Times Of India , as saying, "To be honest I'd not even dreamt of it. But I also knew from the first phone call that even though it's a commercial film, it was a content-driven one and I had a role that had substance. I wasn't just there to sing songs. I also like writer-director Pa Ranjith's sensibilities."

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Speaking about the film, the Phobia actor said, "He was warm and friendly from the first day I met him. He treated me with such equality that I never felt nervous. I always felt like a professional actor." She added that the Lingaa actor had been very encouraging throughout the journey.

Kabali, directed by Pa Ranjith, features Rajinikanth as a don fighting against the atrocities faced by Tamils in Malaysia.





--- ENDS ---
Goldman Sachs is reportedly looking to raise between $5bn and $8bn for a new corporate buyout fund, nine years after its
By Suhani Singh: What is it like to watch a Rajinikanth film in pin drop silence? Really unnerving . And boring.

Cast: Rajinikanth, Radhika Apte, Dhanshika, Kalairasan, Dinesh, Kishore, Winston Chao

Direction: Pa Ranjith

Rating: (1/5)

An identity card flashes on screen which reveals that soon-to-be-released prisoner Kabali (Rajinikanth) is 60. The sexagenarian super star may be playing close to his age here but his physical prowess and flamboyant demeanour hasn't suffered much. He is very much in the superhuman avatar that has inspired an ardent fan following.

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In Kabali, he is the gangster with a heart of gold. A man who loves strutting about in suits. An Indian who fights for the rights of Tamil workers in Malaysia. A doting husband and caring father. A Good Samaritan who helps drug addicts and frees caged birds. The mannerisms are all there too - the walk with swagger, the crossing of the leg, the beaming smile and the tuck of hand in the pocket. And yes, he is still invincible. "Itni asaani se marne waala nahi hoon," says Kabali to let his nemesis know what they are up against.

ALSO READ: Kabali movie review: Rajinikanth's Nayagan



ALSO READ: Kabali first show- Watch fans go crazy for Rajinikanth's film

But that's all there to the film, which relies far too much on the super star credentials of its leading man to carry a listless story forward. The love for slow motion sequences here backfires as the gangster drama unfolds in slo-mo too. There are far too many back stories and flashbacks.In one, Kabali shares his violence-marred origins story with school students, inspiring one of them to take up arms to avenge his loss and another to accuse him of failing to protect his pregnant wife.

A chunk of the film centres on supporting characters singing praises of Kabali, addressed as Bhai in the Hindi dubbed version, with much fanfare. But these scenes are poorly scripted drawing chuckles. Bullets fly and the body count rises in the crime drama but it's not enough to rouse the audience. The bombastic background score, with blazing sirens, is a desperate attempt to invigorate the proceedings. There are multiple foes here but Rajinikanth reserves his best theatrics for the cartoonish Chinese don Tony Lee (Winston Chao).

After two hours and 30 minutes we still don't know what keeps his empire running given that it is against his principles to trade in drugs or women. Radhika Apte as Kabali's wife appears more as a model for India's rich handicraft tradition by ambling about in beautiful saris. Dhansika is the better-served female character here as a feisty contract killer, whose introduction alone is a giveaway to what her back story is.Rajinikanth displays ample of charisma but his Robin Hood act is not enough to keep the Thalaivar fans entertained.





--- ENDS ---
By Pramod Madhav: Kasi theatre is always considered a temple to see Superstar Rajinikanth's films on a first day first show. Fans usually spend lakhs of rupees bursting crackers and hoisting banners for Thalaivar.

Same was the situation on the day of Kabali's release. Fans started their celebrations by 7pm the night before.

Situation took a turn for the worse when the usually allotted FDFS tickets were unable to reach the fans, most eagerly waiting the tickets.



ALSO READ: Working with Rajinikanth was an awesome experience, says director Pa Ranjith

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ALSO READ: All that Rajinikanth's Kabali has offered to the audiences

For the first time in 40 years Kasi theater owners have allegedly sold the FDFS tickets to non Rajinikanth fans,sparking a major protest.

Rajinikanth fans after waiting hopefully 12pm finally decided to remove the banners as a mark of protest against what has occurred.

Disappointment was visible in nearly 500 Rajinikanth fans who were waiting outside the theater.

It was a sad scene to see Thalaivar's massive banners being removed, but carefully carried by fans so that it doesn't get torn as they still love the superstar.

Kasi theater, the one place that stayed as a sanctuary to many Rajinikanth fans, seems to have fallen for corporate greed and lost its sheen.

--- ENDS ---
The latest KBC Bank Ireland/ESRI Dublin consumer sentiment index has been released today as part of the Dublin Economic Monitor by the four Dublin local authorities.



The index shows that Dublin consumer sentiment weakened modestly in the second quarter of 2016, but the drop in confidence was slightly more pronounced in the capital than across the rest of the country and driven by slightly different factors.



It is believed that the slightly larger correction in the Dublin sentiment reading may reflect a correction following a comparatively strong reading in the previous quarter and sentiment has tended to follow a broadly similar trend inside and outside the capital in recent years.

However, the details of the two indices hint that the mood of consumers in Dublin was driven by somewhat different factors than those of most concern to consumers elsewhere in recent months.



The most notable divergence in recent years between these two regional sentiment indices has related to consumers assessment of the jobs market.

While official data show a broadly based improvement in numbers at work, this survey suggests a strong sense of altogether more buoyant job market conditions in the capital in recent years.

In the second quarter of 2016, the two indices moved in opposite directions that also contrasted somewhat with their recent trends.



The negative Dublin jobs reading reflected a number of elements according to the report. First, it may owe something to increasing uncertainty about the global economic environment and greater perceived threats to job prospects in the shape of a range of downside risks including that of Brexit-although the survey was concluded before the outcome of the UK referendum on membership of the EU was known.

To the extent that the Dublin jobs market is more closely connected to global conditions, this might have prompted increased concerns on the part of Dublin consumers just as signs of healthier domestic demand appeared to support the prospect of healthier hiring conditions elsewhere in Ireland.

The report suggests this might explain some element of the divergence in consumer thinking on job prospects.



According to the report, "We think a couple of specific developments likely also played some role in the weaker Dublin jobs reading in the second quarter. As was seen in Q3 2015, the announcement of the closure of Clerys coincided with a sharp drop in the jobs element of the Dublin sentiment survey, suggesting a particular sensitivity to bad news on the jobs front that might hint at a greater sense of precariousness in relation to employment."

They added, "One development was the announcement of proposed job cuts at Intel. Although the location of Intels operations might mean that technically, these jobs could be considered to be outside Dublin, their proximity to the capital and the broader focus on multinational operations in the greater Dublin area means this news might be expected to resonate more with Dublin consumers.

In addition, the survey period saw a high profile industrial relations dispute at Luas that may have prompted some Dublin consumers to downgrade their assessment of the outlook for the jobs market in Dublin."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Overseas tourist visits to Ireland in 2015 grew by 13.1% to 8.0 million in 2015 according to a new report published by Failte Ireland today.

The report shows that expenditure by tourists visiting Ireland (including receipts paid to Irish carriers by foreign visitors) was estimated to be worth 5.9 billion in 2015.



In terms of spend, Mainland Europe (at 1.6bn) was the largest source market, representing 36% of overseas spend in Ireland.



Britain remains Ireland's biggest source market, accounting for 42% of inbound traffic, although Mainland Europe is (at 40% of visitors) the biggest source for leisure tourists.

Irish residents took 7.5 million domestic trips in 2015, spending 1.5 billion.



Every year, Failte Ireland collates information from a wide variety of sources (including CSO statistics, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency numbers and its own surveys) to generate a comprehensive portrait of tourism performance in Ireland to share with members of the industry and its stakeholders.



Speaking today, a Failte Ireland spokesperson emphasised, "This document provides a rich resource for anyone looking for the fundamental facts about tourism in Ireland and is a valuable resource for those who wish to analyse current trends and patterns in the industry."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Modified On Mar 30, 2017 02:04 PM By Arun for Hyundai Elite i20 2017-2020

Looks like Hyundai has listened to the pleas of the car-buying junta after all. Reports suggest that the Korean automaker will be launching an automatic variant of its popular Elite i20 hatchback. The launch is expected any time in the next couple of months, with deliveries beginning around the festive season.

The automatic transmission is likely to be a four-speed unit, paired with a 1.2-litre petrol motor, that develops 83PS of power. The same engine-gearbox combo can be found in the Grand i10 as well. Notably, European markets get a 1.4-litre 100PS engine with the autobox, possibilities of which cannot be ruled out here either. Also, whether this transmission is carried over to the i20 Active as well, remains to be seen.

Sources suggest that Hyundai is mulling launching the automatic in at least two variants. While we are certain that the automatic transmission will be available in the 'Magna' trim, the other may either be the 'Sportz' or the 'Asta'. Hyundai is looking at pricing the automatic aggressively and might skip some features to make the price lucrative.

Speaking of which, expect the automatic to be priced at a premium compared to its manual counterpart. Prices are likely to start around the Rs 6.5 lakh mark.

If there was one chink in the car's armour, it'd have to be the lack of an automatic variant. All its direct competitors -- such as the Volkswagen Polo, Maruti Suzuki Baleno and the Honda Jazz -- feature two-pedal technology, which made the cars click with urban commuters. Like we mentioned, the Elite i20's own little sibling, the Grand i10 gets an automatic as well. It was about time, really.

All said and done, what the segment really needs is a diesel automatic. There's clearly a gap in the market that Hyundai can plug. While nothing seems concrete as of now, the diesel automatic will be a worthy addition to the i20 line-up. All we can do is wait and watch.

Read More on : Elite i20 price
Published On Jul 22, 2016 04:07 PM By Alshaar

Following Toyota holding back all fresh investments in India recently, American carmaker General Motors has also reportedly decided to pull the plug on its earlier announced $1 billion (Rs 6,713 crore) investments in the country.

The reason cited for GMs change in strategy is said to be a totally different from Toyota though. The American carmaker has decided to not limit India as an export hub but to also raise a profitable domestic business, reported ET NOW.

The company had earlier announced that it will be manufacturing cars based on the Global Emerging Market platform (GEM) in India. The GEM platform has been especially developed to make entry-level compact cars that are high on demand in emerging markets like India, China and Brazil.

The latest decision to improve Indias position in its strategy beyond being just an export hub comes can thus be viewed as a positive move for the countrys automotive market. However, the task seems an evidently challenging one.

In lack of indication on how GM might plan to go about things, its hard to imagine such a difficult turnaround, especially when it was announced not too long ago that GM would shut its plant in Halol, Gujarat in near future, leaving just the Malegaon facility in Maharashtra for manufacturing.

As one would imagine, the most important step in GMs Indian road to redemption would be to bring in appealing products since vehicles from GM's Chinese partner SAIC have failed to impress the Indian consumer.

The Chevy maker had showcased the Essentia sub-compact sedan and the Activ crossover at the 2016 Auto Expo in Delhi earlier this year. It would definitely need to do much more than this for its second coming in order to leave a lasting mark on the Indian automotive sphere.
Before a proper Kabali review is here, we get you the early reviews of the Rajinikanth film.

By India Today Web Desk: When Rajinikanth film is about to hit the screens, fan frenzy is but expected. However, the superstar's latest film Kabali has outdone every possible explanation in the book. Guess that's what defines Thalaivar and his power over the common man.

WATCH: Rajinikanth fans go crazy ahead of Kabali first show

ALSO READ: Tickets sold out for Rajinikanth's Kabali, fans is despair

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ALSO READ: Kabali mania sees insane 65-feet tall Rajinikanth cutout put up in Trichy

ALSO READ: Tickets for Rajinikanth's Kabali being sold by Rajinikanth 'fan clubs' for exorbitant prices



Even as people flock to theatres to catch a show of Rajinikanth's Kabali, social media has been flooded with reviews by people who were lucky enough to get tickets to Kabali. Which, as the past few days have been testimony to, is quite an indomitable task in itself.

Weeks before its release, Kabali tickets were sold out; theatres in Chennai, Bangalore and elsewhere in south India have seen stampede-like situations thanks to people trying to get a ticket to watch their God on 70mm.

Balaji Srinivasan, who was lucky enough to be invited to the premiere of Kabali in the US, the show Rajini himself was part of, took to Facebook to share his review of the most-awaited film of the year.

He wrote on his Facebook page, "Thanks to bay area cine industry friends, I got to watch a preview show of Kabali. I went in with no expectations and came out with mixed feelings. Kabali is paisa vasool for Rajinikanth fans while others can have equal fun mocking the aged superstar go through his paces.

The bar has been set high for Rajini, since he has already donated all his assets, built colleges, constructed dams, overthrew a Chief Minister and in general has given up his life for the masses.

So, in this movie, the setting moves to Malaysia, where Tamils are ill-treated and need a Messiah to save them. Enter the Superstar, who, like Nelson Mandela, spends several years in prison for his opposition to racism. When he comes out, he settles down to a regular life (think Baasha's auto driver), until circumstances force him to become a gangster and rescue his daughter from the enemies. And of course, he becomes the leader of Tamils/Dalits in Malaysia and improves their conditions tremendously."

Srinivasan goes on to write, "For a Rajini fan, this will all give him/her goosebumps. Slow motion walks, stylish poses, crisp dialogues are all there, and theatres will explode with applause each time Rajini does his carefully choreographed routine. There are flashback scenes where he looks "youth" that is sure to make his fans feel nostalgic. Director Ranjith has ensured that the larger than life image of Rajini has been preserved. In essence, it feels like a lifetime highlights of various Rajini movie scenes re-enacted."

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While Srinivasan wasn't able to find anything exceptional in Kabali as far as a non-fan of Rajinikanth is concerned, the aam janta in places from Mumbai to Chennai has a different take on the film.







Done with #Kabali. Liked it. It has its share of dull moments but it scores well in some areas too. Detailed review layer. 3/5 is my rating. One Kollywood (@OneKollywood) July 22, 2016

Several people took to Twitter to share glimpses from the theatres they are watching Kabali in. And, as is expected, it's madness inside the four walls of the halls.

This is from a person who is watching Kabali in France:



And in Trichy:



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And, goes without saying, Chennai:

8.30 AM Albert Theatre, can see few celebrities literally waiting in bus stop which is outside , #kabali pic.twitter.com/VUc7fiSGoy Prakash G Vasudevan (@PrakashGVasudev) July 22, 2016

Of course, there are people who have been trashing Kabali on Twitter. Not that it can dent the collection of Kabali any way whatsoever:

I pity Rajinikanth for okaying this shit story and director completely failed in utilizing Rajinikanth stardom.... boring, senseless #Kabali CK (@Chanti616) July 22, 2016

#Ranjith's #Madras was so realistic and it was the major reason for film's success.

Sadly that realism goes for a miss in #KABALI kishore (@tisiskicha) July 22, 2016

On the other side of the globe, in the US, people have been lauding Kabali to the heavens, saying how it is an excellent family entertainer. This video will show you what Kabali fever in the US is like:

Trade analyst Trinath pointed out why Kabali is all set to become a blockbuster. "In the last decade, never have I witnessed such craze over a release. 'Kabali' has sent even non-Thalaivar fans into frenzy because it is said to be the first Rajinikanth-starrer sans any cliches usually associated with his films," he said.

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As far as Rajinikanth is concerned, reviews don't really matter. Kabali is a reminder of that very fact. Nevertheless, our reviewer is currently watching Kabali. Watch this space for the full review of Kabali.

--- ENDS ---
Modified On Jul 22, 2016 10:49 AM By Alshaar

Heres some more electrifying talk. Daimler, the parent company of brands like Mercedes-Benz, on Wednesday revealed its plans to multiply the engineering workforce at its Bengaluru research facility to take the companys mobile-first strategy forward.

After having tested its autonomous bus in Netherlands recently, the German manufacturer has already tested driverless trucks on European roads and is also working on driverless luxury cars. With the impetus on electric vehicles of late and changing consumer preferences, no wonder even Daimler is envisioning self-driven, mobility services as a part of the future of automobiles.

There are two things to this as every other company will evolve more into a software company. There is no way to not be a software company. Secondly, the question to any company is where is profit. Right now profit is in selling products, in the future profit will be selling mobility, said Daimler CIO Jan Brecht on his first visit to Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India (MBRDI) in Bengaluru.

We will still make cars and trucks, but there might be different models in it. You will see the product prominently but you might not have to own the product. We will shift from selling a mechanical product to selling mobility services, said Brecht.

Out of its 8,400-strong IT team, Daimler has around 1,300 dedicated software professionals. Another few hundred will be further hired to strengthen its mobile first strategy that could establish its position as a mobility services company.

The immediate step will be to obtain data from test vehicles. Though stored in Germany, some of the data will still be available on a cloud network that will enable its engineers to access it from other parts of the globe too, informed Brecht.
If in the past it was large buildings and rows of tellers that attracted members inside credit union branches, these days customers are looking for different experiences. Credit unions across the world are now exploring new branch models to respond to the needs of their customers.

In a special breakout session, delegates at the World Credit Union Conference in Belfast heard from Terence Roche, co-founder of Cornerstone Advisors, who discussed the role of the branch as part of a multichannel delivery strategy.

As we think about branch configuration, lets keep in mind the environment in which they operate right now, he said. Mr Roche explained how the next step for credit unions would be to determine the skills employees will need and what technology the branch is going to have.
As a Yurok Tribal member, I am deeply affected by what happens on the Klamath River, said Stoney McCoy, a 16 year-old Yurok Tribal Youth Council member.  What I saw today coming out of the Klamath Strait Drain made me sick to my stomach, I will fight for as long as it takes to clean up the Klamath

On July 18, a group of over two dozen youth, including teens from the Yurok and Hoopa Valley Tribes, organized three protests demanding a thorough clean up of the polluted Klamath Strait Drain in Klamath County, Oregon.The drain dumps polluted water into the Klamath River, harming down river communities and struggling Klamath king and coho salmon and steelhead, populations, according to a statement from the Youth Coalition for a Clean Klamath.The group first stopped at the Klamath Strait Drain pump house and took samples of polluted water from the Klamath Strait Drain. Then they marched and staged a salmon "die-in" downtown Klamath Falls, the coalition said.As they marched in front of the Klamath County government building, the group chanted, "When the river is under attack, what do we do? Stand up and fight back!"They held signs proclaiming, "Save the Klamath," "B.O.R Clean Up Your Mess," "Politicians Lie Salmon Die," "Save Our Salmon," and "Protect Our Earth," Not Your Profits." Two protesters also carried a banner that read, "BOR Stop the Drain. End The Pain."Finally, the youth delivered the polluted water samples to the Klamath Office of the Bureau of Reclamation and "had a productive dialogue with acting Klamath BOR director, Jason Cameron, the group stated.The Climate Justice Camp youth took over the plaza where the notorious bucket brigade bucket once stood in downtown Klamath Falls, commented Stormi Salamander, independent journalist and filmmaker. The youth demanded that the Klamath Strait Drain stop dumping toxic ag run off into the Klamath River.The Youth Coalition for a Clean Klamath is "a diverse group of concerned youth activists from Northern Oregon to Northern California, including Yurok and Hoopa Tribal members that rely on the Klamath River for food and cultural practices."As a Yurok Tribal member, I am deeply affected by what happens on the Klamath River, said Stoney McCoy, a 16 year-old Yurok Tribal Youth Council member. What I saw today coming out of the Klamath Strait Drain made me sick to my stomach, I will fight for as long as it takes to clean up the Klamath.The group said pollution stemming from agricultural operations in the Klamath Reclamation Project taint Klamath River water quality and undermine restoration efforts, including the recovery of threatened salmon.Klamath River Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead need to return to the Upper Klamath Basin to their original spawning grounds for their species survival. "Their road to recovery needs more than just dam removal; conditions must improve dramatically for the fish to survive," the coalition stated.As a Native American woman, my livelihood and my cultural depends on the river, it depends on the fish, said Lacey Jackson, a 17-year old from Northern California. My livelihood is constantly under attack but thats not the narrative being told.Camp Mentor Annelia Hillman "expressed pride in the youth's initiative to march in downtown Klamath Falls," the Klamath Falls Herald and News reported.Their voice is strong. They are telling you they are not going to take it anymore... The dams are coming down but were not going to be satisfied until our water is clean, Hillman said. ( http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/pollution-protest/article_fba043f1-caf1-5064-bbf3-959654f36842.html The coalition is demanding that the Federal Bureau of Reclamation clean up the dirty water coming from the Klamath Strait Drain and that farmers practice more water-efficient methods to reduce waste and harm."The group formed at the Next Generation Climate Justice Action Camp (NGCJAC), a seven-day summer camp to empower youth around Oregon and Northern California by providing age-appropriate training and mentoring. Workshops at the camp included strategic campaign planning, media outreach, legal trainings, and anti-racist trainings. The camp is sponsored by the Civil Liberties Defense Center.The protests took place at a critical time for Klamath River salmon, steelhead and other fish species. On July 20, prominent commercial fishing groups and the conservation organization Klamath Riverkeeper took initial legal steps to compel the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to protect juvenile coho salmon after back-to-back years of potentially deadly disease outbreaks on the Klamath River.The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations (PCFFA), Institute for Fisheries Resources, and Klamath Riverkeeper, represented by Earthjustice, put officials of the two federal agencies on 60-day notice that they could be sued under the federal Endangered Species Act if they fail to reopen and improve water management in the Klamath River. Coho salmon that make their home in the Klamath River are listed as a threatened species under the act.The groups said mismanagement of Klamath River flows led to a disease outbreak in more than 90 percent of juvenile salmon in 2015 and nearly that many in 2014.The 60-day notice follows similar notices sent by the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes. The Hoopa Valley Tribe filed a lawsuit on July 20 in this matter.We are united in seeking management of flows in the Klamath River that will improve the plight of salmon, not make it worse. said Patti Goldman, a managing attorney for Earthjustice. The Bureau and NMFS must take immediate action and initiate comprehensive discussions on possible solutions.On April 6, representatives of the US Departments of the Interior and Commerce, the states of Oregon and California, the Yurok Tribe, the Karuk Tribe and PacifiCorp signed an agreement clearing the path for dam removal on the river.The Amendment to the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA)if approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)will initiate the removal of four dams on the Klamath River. It will be one of the largest river restoration projects in the history of the US, according to Interior Secretary Sally Jewel. ( http://www.oaklandmagazine.com/Feds-States-and-Tribes-Sign-Klamath-Dam-Removal-Agreement/ However, as the Youth Coalition for a Clean Klamath points out, Klamath River salmon, steelhead and other fish species need more than just dam removal to recover from decades of federal and state water mismanagement; water conditions must improve dramatically for the fish if we want to see full restoration of the river's ecosystem.As the tainted water from the Klamath Strait Drain continues to pollute the Klamath River, Governor Jerry Brown is promoting the Delta Tunnels, the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history. The construction of the tunnels under the California WaterFix plan would imperil salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers, as well as hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and green sturgeon.Thats because massive quantities of water are diverted every year from the Trinity River, the Klamaths major tributary, through a pipeline through the Trinity Mountains to the Sacramento River watershed and then to the Delta. The water is exported to irrigate toxic, drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley to grow almonds, pistachios and other export crops to enrich subsidized corporate agribusiness interests ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/07/15/1548621/-Brown-Hires-Bruce-Babbitt-As-New-Point-Man-For-Delta-Tunnels
Students Interning Across the Globe this Summer

July 22, 2016

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Nearly 200 Illinois Wesleyan University students are interning this summer in locations around the globe, from Californias Silicon Valley to a hospital in Kenya.

Summer internships are the ideal time for students to gain work experience and career knowledge in places far from home, and in work settings far outside what they might experience locally or in Illinois, said Laurie Diekhoff, associate director for career engagement at the Hart Career Center. Its exciting to hear about their internships and to know that students are not only gaining valuable experience, but also putting their critical thinking skills and adaptability to work for employers.

Experiential learning, whether through an internship, research with a faculty member, or study abroad, is a hallmark of an Illinois Wesleyan liberal arts education. Nearly 70 percent of Illinois Wesleyan students complete at least one internship during their time on campus.

Following are the summer experiences of a few Illinois Wesleyan interns:

Thomas Bravos 17

Thomas Bravos 17, Peoria Symphony Orchestra

Seeking administrative experience in a music-related position, Thomas Bravos 17 sought the advice of Hart Career Center staffers in applying for an internship with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra administrative office.

I assist with promotional events, organize the music library, create advertisements and help with mass mailings, said Bravos, a contemporary musicianship major from Saint Charles, Ill.

Ive learned a lot about how a musical entity operates. Even if I dont end up with a similar position (after graduation), I think assisting with the administrative operations will benefit me with any job I may end up having.

Emily Brown 17, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA)

One of Emily Browns tasks as an intern in the Governors Environmental Corps (GEC) program has been to design materials for the IEPA booth at the upcoming Illinois State Fair.

Emily Brown 17

This responsibility has allowed me to do research on topics I find interesting and can potentially reach a very large audience about things they probably dont know, such as what kinds of plants can purify the air in your home and how long certain items take to decompose in a landfill, said Brown of West Chicago.

Brown has also learned how the IEPA permit process works, and she cited a field trip to an oil refinery as especially eye opening. She has also observed staffers in the Office of Site Evaluation on a field trip, using GPS to find soil samples.

She learned about the competitive internship through the Hart Career Center and then talked with Associate Professor Laurine Brown, her professor in the course Health and the Environment.

A physics and international studies double major, Brown is interested in environmental law and policy and hopes to continue to learn about those areas in graduate school.

Im interested in environmental justice, so its been beneficial to learn how the EPA works and the research that goes into it. GEC interns also have the chance to meet the IEPA director multiple times, as well as many different people in different areas of the agency and the programs it sponsors. The networking opportunities are great.

Veena Hamill 18

Veena Hamill 18, Research & Development Internship, AbbVie

Veena Hamill is combining her interest in chemistry with her passion for helping those in need through her internship in research and development at AbbVie, a leading biopharmaceutical company. Hamill is designing new molecules for new medicinal therapy in treating tuberculosis.

Currently, TB patients require four different drugs across a 6-month period, said Hamill, a chemistry major. This is not a viable option for those living in remote areas or without regular access to a physician, especially in developing countries. She noted AbbVies TB research is part of the Gates Foundation TB Drug Accelerator consortium.

She said the internship has helped her perfect her lab technique and allowed her to make valuable connections in the pharmaceutical industry. The solid background in chemistry gained at IWU has prepared me well for this internship and I am really enjoying applying skills learned in the classroom to these real-world issues, said Hamill, a native of Glenview, Ill. She is considering medicinal chemistry as a career.

Paxton Johnson 18, Marketing Intern, Aeris Communications

Paxton Johnson 18

Paxton Johnson describes the Silicon Valley business atmosphere as intense. Her liberal arts background, however, has helped her acclimate to a marketing internship at Aeris Communications, a Santa Clara-based leader in the market of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Aeris is an operator of end-to-end IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) services and a technology provider. The technology allows businesses to transform unconnected products to a data internet that can be sold as a service, Johnson explained.

I am completely foreign to working in the technology and IoT industry, said Johnson, an English-writing major and native of Paxton, Ill. Her liberal arts background has widened her worldview and helped her adapt to new ways of thinking and writing, she said. Her marketing tasks have included writing blog articles for the company website and an online trade magazine, researching statistics to create infographics, and tracking potential customer leads.

I am learning an incredible amount about the IoT/M2M industry, she said. The innovation in a burgeoning industry like the Internet of Things moves incredibly quickly, which means there is no one right solution to the many questions or problems that I come across in my day-to-day work.

Simon Liu 17, Observational Cosmology Research Fellow, Caltech

Simon Liu 17

On the advice of Associate Professor of Physics Thushara Perera, Simon Liu 17 contacted Dr. Jamie Bock and his observational cosmology group at Caltech. Bocks research program develops unique experiments to study the early universe, so Liu applied for Caltechs Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program.

Dr. Bock's TIME-Pilot measures the intensity of CII spectrum and seeks to figure out the process of structure formation of the early universe, said Liu. The project also utilizes many advanced techniques in millimeter/submillimeter observational cosmology.

Liu is working on the mechanical design of support structures of a cryostat, the main body of the TIME-Pilot experiment. TIME-Pilot is the leading project in CII intensity mapping experiments, said Liu, a physics major from Wuhan, a city in Chinas Hubei province. From a technical standpoint, I have improved my design skills with SolidWorks (computer program), he said. Now I can rapidly design hardware with high precision. Ive also learned things in related fields, such as 21-cm observations, CO observations, and evolutions of galaxies, via both simulation and observation.

Liu said the experience has also solidified his goal to pursue a Ph.D. in cosmology.

Arham Sattar 17, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

Arham Sattar 17

At the IEPAs Bureau of Water and Pollution Control, Arham Sattar 17 compiles data and writes reports in support of the Illinois EPAs goal of converting the majority of the states streams for recreational use.

A student in Illinois Wesleyans 3:2 pre-engineering program with an interest in electrical engineering, Sattar is also majoring in physics. Through his internship, he said he is applying his theoretical knowledge to real-world problems in protecting human health and the environment. I have also learned how to use different software to carry out calculations and how to write technical reports.

He said the IEPA opportunity has taken him one step closer to his future goal of helping people in his home country of Pakistan to develop more efficient water treatment plants. The majority of the people there have limited access to clean water, he said. By working with the EPA I believe I am making a difference in this world and contributing to make the world a better place, even if its on a small scale.
Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are all set to welcome their first baby in December. Kareena's 3 Idiots co-star Aamir Khan has some tips for mom-to-be.

By India Today Web Desk: Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan are all set to welcome their first baby in December. Kareena's 3 Idiots co-star Aamir Khan has some tips for mom-to-be. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, the PK actor has advised Bebo to eat healthy and has strictly told her to ditch coffee.

ALSO SEE: These pictures of Kareena flaunting her baby bump is something you shouldn't miss today

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ALSO SEE: Post pregnancy announcement, Kareena Kapoor Khan makes her first public appearance

The report also suggested that Kareena is currently shooting a commercial for Adhuna Bhabhani's salon in Bandra and the Dangal actor was shooting nearby her sets. Aamir dropped in to say hello and also made it a point to give some tips to Kareena.

Recently, the Jab We Met actor was seen flaunting her baby bump at Mumbai airport and she looked graceful in her white suit. There were reports that Kareena will be taking a maternity break, but she has rubbished all such rumours.

In an interview to Hindustan Times, Kareena also said, "I'm just fed-up of people making it (her pregnancy) to be a death of some sort. In fact, it should be a message to a lot of people that marriage or having a family has absolutely nothing to do with my career."

On the work front, Kareena Kapoor Khan will next be seen im Rhea Kapoor's Veera Di Wedding.

--- ENDS ---
The Niger Delta people have for too long claimed to be relegated to the background with regards to the affairs of Nigeria.

Fighters with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), pictured in 2008.

The people of this embattled region have for quiet a while claimed to be cheated, debating that their land bleeds the natural resource on which the Nigerian economy thrives, however, they and their children do not get to benefit of the dividends, even at the expense of their well being.

The nightmares

Oil spillage and gas flaring has immensely destroyed the fragile ecosystem of the region and the people have from time to time called on the Nigerian government to come to their aid; all to no avail.

It is on this basis that these region has birthed some of the most notorious and dangerous militant groups that have caused Nigeria to shake to its very foundations.

Investigations have revealed five of the most deadly militant groups that have emerged from the region, threatening to destroy the peace and unity of Nigeria if their requests are not tended to.

We begin our count from number 5 to number 1, below are the most dreaded militant groups to have emerged from the Niger Delta region.

Niger Delta militants

5. Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV)

This armed militia group was led by Ateke Tom. The group is composed primarily by ethnic Ijaws from in and around Port Harcourt and their main goal is controlling the area's vast oil resources.

Reports suggest that in the late 2003, the NDV precipitated a conflict with their rival Ijaw ethnic militia, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF).

The two groups spent most of 2004 in an escalating conflict which was ended when the Nigerian government and military eventually intervened on the side of the NDV in summer of 2004.

Sources revealed that the government's support for the NDV went on to stir the Nigerian oil crisis, beginning in October 2004.

4. Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF)

The NDPVF is one of the largest armed groups in the Niger Delta region. This group is composed primarily of members of the region's largest ethnic group, the Ijaw.

Founded in 2004 with the aim to gain more control over the region's vast petroleum resources, particularly in Delta state.

Sources reveal that until 2005 the group was spearheaded by their charismatic leader, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

The NDPVF's Ijaw-oriented agenda caused serious chaos with both the Nigerian state and federal governments, as well as with neighboring ethnic groups, chief of which was the Itsekiris.

This rivalry caused a lot of conflicts in the Niger Delta region centered primarily around the cities of Warri and subsequently the 'oil capital' of Port Harcourt.

Historians says that up until 2003, the center of regional violence was Warri. However, after the violent convergence of NDPVF with the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV) led by Ateke Tom, the conflict became focused on Port Harcourt and outlying towns.

File Photo: The NDPVF's Ijaw-oriented agenda caused serious chaos with both the Nigerian state and federal governments.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Niger Delta militants seize a ship, unveil new target

Oil bunkering was the main tool by which the NDPFV attempted to gain control.

There are claims that the severe face-offs between the NDPVF and NDV was brought about by Asaris political falling out with the NDPVFs alleged financial supporter Peter Odili, governor of Rivers state, following the April 2003 local and state elections.

Asari publicly criticized the election process as fraudulent, and afterwards, the Odili government reportedly withdrew its financial support from the NDPVF and began to support Toms NDV, effectively launching a paramilitary campaign against the NDPVF.

3. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)

Perhaps the most popular militant group to spring up from the Niger Delta region, MEND which was founded in 2014 is composed primarily of members of the region's largest ethnic group, the Ijaw.

MEND claims to expose exploitation and oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and devastation of the natural environment by public-private partnerships between the Nigerian government and firms that explore oil in the region.

The Economist has described the organization as one that "portrays itself as political organisation that wants a greater share of Nigerias oil revenues to go to the impoverished region that sits atop the oil. In fact, it is more of an umbrella organisation for several armed groups, which it sometimes pays in cash or guns to launch attacks."

MEND's stated goals are to localize control of Nigeria's oil and to secure reparations from the federal government for pollution caused by the oil industry.

In an interview with one of the group's leaders, who used the alias Major-General Godswill Tamuno, the BBC reported that MEND was fighting for "total control" of the Niger Delta's oil wealth, saying local people had not gained from the riches under the ground and the region's creeks and swamps.

In 2006, MEND called President Olusegun Obasanjo to free two jailed Ijaw leaders  Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is jailed and charged with treason, and Late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa state convicted of corruption.

In 2007, Obasanjo's successor, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua authorised the release of Dokubo-Asari and Alamieyeseigha.

2. Niger Delta Liberation Front (NDLF)

The NDLF was formerly by John Togo who claims that their main goal is to secede from Nigeria and gain independence from Nigeria.

Reports reveal that although Togo is the NDLF's most notorious member he was killed on July 19, 2011 by a Nigerian air strike near Warri in Delta state.

The group is closely linked to MEND and both groups fought side by side against the Nigerian army. Earlier in 2013, a war erupted within the NDLF after 2 different commanders claimed to be leader. It ended after one was killed in March 2013.

Sources reveal that in 1998 the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) was formed and many militants were brought up in the Ijaw Youth Council.

In 1999 the Odi massacre occurred in Bayelsa state which was the spark that erupted into violence.

File photo of militants in Nigeria. They are accused of committing recent crimes in Lagos

READ ALSO: Breaking: Niger Delta group issues last warning to President Buhari

In 2004 the Joint Revolutionary Council was formed and recruited members to rock the Nigerian petroleum industry to its core. In 2005 high-ranking member John Togo formed a splinter group after the Joint Revolutionary Council did not deliver much damage. Togo recruited about 4,000 members and went into the Niger Delta to begin attacks.

With the death of Togo, the NDLF seemed weak and many members joined the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. Although many members left around 2,500 remained in the NDLF. For the next 2 years they attacked oil installations on and off.

1. Niger Delta Avengers (NDA)

This militant group publicly announced their existence in March 2016. The NDA has since its arrival into the scene, carried out a series of attacks on oil producing facilities in the delta, causing the shutdown of oil terminals and a fall in Nigeria's oil production to its lowest level in twenty years, hence their claim to relevance.

The attacks by NDA has caused Nigeria to fall behind Angola as Africa's largest oil producer, the reduced oil output has hampered the Nigerian economy and destroyed its budget.

With Nigeria's revenue seemingly dependent on the oil industry, the NDA has given the nation cause to be on the edge.

The NDA has said that it seeks to create a sovereign state in the Niger Delta and have threatened to disrupt Nigeria's economy if their aims are not met.

There are speculations that members of the NDA are young, educated, and well traveled.

File photo: Some militants of the Niger Delta Avengers have continued bombing pipeline installations in the region.

The APC-led government has been criticised by the NDA for having never visited the delta and President Buhari's detention of the Biafran independence activist Nnamdi Kanu.

The renewal of hostilities within the Niger Delta is one development no government wants to face, not when the economy of Nigeria is dying, and surely not at a time when the Boko Haram war has immensely drained the Nigerian army.

With so many promises on his plate, President Muhammadu Buhari would not like to have this war. The ex-general is having the toughest job in all of Africa, at a very old age, when health challenges are feared.

The Nigerian leader has commenced the clean-up of Ogoniland in a bid to make up for years of promises failed. However, there are a lot of making up to do, and this war in the Niger Delta will not let the president operate in peace, with these old and new militant groups in the region threatening and making outrageous demand.

Nigerians watch keen as their leader is weighed in the balance, the people are watching to see if president Buhari will dialogue with the militants or go at them with military might.

Source: Legit.ng
By India Today Web Desk: Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan might be getting ready to welcome their first child in December, but prying eyes will probably force them to move out of Mumbai for the baby's delivery, according to latest reports.



ALSO READ: These pictures of Kareena Kapoor's baby bump will brighten up your day

ALSO READ: My mother and I were shocked when Saif and Kareena moved in together, before marriage

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According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, a source close to the couple has said that Kareena and Saif are feeling increasingly uncomfortable because of the undue attention the to-be mother and her yet-to-be-born baby are getting.

"The paparazzi is clicking close-ups of her baby bump. There are too many prying eyes here in Mumbai, making her feel odd rather than special," said the source.

In fact, Kareena recently got angry when she had to speak on the subject.

"Im pregnant, not a corpse. And what maternity break? Its the most normal thing on earth to produce a child. It is high time the media backed off. Stop treating me any different from what I ever was. Anybody who is bothered shouldnt work with me? but my work goes on as is, like always. Stop making it a national casualty," Bebo was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

According to sources close to the couple, London is speculated to be where Saif and Kareena might move to stay away from the paparazzi. The Pataudi family spend maximum together in London whenever they are not in India. Saif and his sister Soha Ali Khan have both grown up there. London is close to their mother Sharmila Tagore too, as her late husband Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi loved spending time in the Queen's city.

"Sharmilaji herself spends a lot of her time in London and has advised Kareena and Saif that London could be a less stressful option for them to welcome their first child," the source added.

--- ENDS ---
A week-and-a-half after Hizbul leader Burhan Wani's killing, the Valley is still simmering. And the disconnect between CM Mehbooba Mufti and her administration in this time of crisis isn't helping matters.

Too little, too late: PDP president and CM Mehbooba Mufti prays on the occasion of Martyr's Day at Mazar-e-Shuhada (Martyr's graveyard) in Srinagar on July 13. Photographs by Abid Bhat

Two-and-a-half hours past midnight on July 16, a squad of the Jammu & Kashmir Police (JKP) laid an ambush at the entrance of Srinagar's Press Enclave. Minutes later, as the solitary van showed up, carefully negotiating the coils of concertina strewn across the road, the waiting policemen sprang into action, aiming cocked Kalashnikovs, angrily barking orders at the lone occupant to get off. A cursory look in the back confirmed they had what they wanted-no, it was no wanted terrorist but stacks of fresh-off-the-press copies of Rising Kashmir, just one among some 65 Urdu, Kashmiri and English dailies that did not reach readers that morning.

The media blackout was part of the latest crackdown in the Kashmir Valley, set ablaze all over again by the slaying of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen commander who was gunned down by security forces at Bemdoora village in South Kashmir's Kokernag area on July 8 evening.

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The ensuing public fury, witnessed nationally on network television, was articulated through a spontaneous eruption of angry street protests. Clearly taken by surprise, the state police, paramilitary and army found themselves at the receiving end of an unrelenting barrage of stones and Molotov cocktails.

Close to a fortnight into the protests that unpredictably erupted at the unlikeliest of locations, the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP government officially acknowledged that 37 protesters had died from bullet and shotgun (pellet gun) wounds. An astounding 1,948 civilians-men, women and children as young as five years old-suffered injuries. Numbers conveyed to Union home minister Rajnath Singh from Srinagar, as he rose to speak in the Lok Sabha on July 18 afternoon, stated that 1,671 security personnel were also injured, including some from grenade and gunshot wounds.

The July 16 Press Enclave Ambush, preceded by simultaneous police raids on several printing presses at Rangreth and Humhuma in Budgam on Srinagar's outskirts, is being widely seen as proof of the establishment's desperation to contain what could easily snowball into another long, bitter standoff between Kashmir's people and the security forces (as in the summer of 2010).

For someone who had, back then, attacked the then chief minister Omar Abdullah for his "inability to connect with Kashmiris", the response of Mehbooba's own administration has been decidedly dyslexic.

Consider, for instance, the move to gag the press. Rising Kashmir's editor-in-chief Shujaat Bukhari says that all Srinagar-based editors were individually called and informed of the state government's decision to force a suspension of publication "in view of apprehensions of further trouble in the Valley". Later, shortly after the editors and reporters staged a demonstration at Press Enclave, state education minister and PDP spokesperson Naeem Akhtar spoke to India Today. "We are responding to an extraordinary situation...the closure of newspapers is only a temporary measure," he said, insisting that circulation of newspapers during curfew orders was anyhow not possible.





Soldiers stand guard outside the Civil Secretariat during a unified headquarters meeting to discuss the uprising. Soldiers stand guard outside the Civil Secretariat during a unified headquarters meeting to discuss the uprising.

A sensible argument, one would think. But, aside from the fact that security forces were permitting vehicular and pedestrian movement as part of a deliberate strategy to restore normalcy in relatively peaceful Srinagar barely two days after Akhtar 'explained' the press censorship, the CM, ensconced in the comfort of Fairview, her official home along Srinagar's Gupkar Road, was promptly disowning the move. "There is no ban on newspapers," Mehbooba told Union minister for information and broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu when he called after the issue provoked a minor furore in the Lok Sabha on July 18. Shortly after, her advisor Amitabh Mattoo claimed the CM wasn't on board with any such decision! A day later, they found a convenient scapegoat in Budgam SP Fayaz Ahmed Lone, whose men had ostensibly raided the presses.

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Notably, the clampdown on all mobile telephony, barring a small skeleton of BSNL postpaid phones, and all mobile internet and cable TV, continues without respite. Which isn't a good sign. Past history has shown that the Valley is a place where whispers so easily metamorphose into concrete rumours without the benefit of technology.

Although it is true that only Mehbooba and her closest PDP confidants have been holding the fort in Srinagar (many of the BJP ministers are back home in Jammu enjoying an unexpected vacation on the other side of the Banihal tunnel), the state government's response to the Wani killing have been dithering and distressingly prone to backtracking.

The handling of the Kokernag encounter and its aftermath, by both the state police and the political leadership, has blundered from the start. Believe it or not, but it now turns out that JKP personnel themselves the first pictures of the slain Wani were put out on social media by the! Then, addressing a news conference in Srinagar the day after the killing on July 9, the state's additional director general (Intelligence) S.M. Sahai and inspector general (Kashmir region) Javed M. Gilani broadly indicated that "the chief minister was aware" of the police operation, as it was ongoing.

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While Mehbooba refuted this as well when she appeared in an emotional videographed appeal three days on, perceptions that the PDP government had actively participated in what many see as the "execution" of Wani, may just have been responsible for the particularly ferocious public reaction in south Kashmir. In fact, the CM's home district of Anantnag has been the worst hit, accounting for close to half the civilians killed.

It has also elicited a response from PDP MP and former deputy CM Muzaffar Baig that strains credulity. Insisting that standard operating procedures that could have resulted in Burhan being captured alive had not been followed, he not only demanded an inquest but also told India Today TV on July 18 that officials within the JKP hierarchy had "betrayed" the CM by keeping information from her.

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Baig's outburst may not have found many takers in Delhi but a senior official privy to meetings convened at Fairview since July 8 says civil servants have ignored the CM's directions more than once. He points to the decision to announce the reopening of schools in Srinagar from July 18, unanimously agreed to an evening earlier. "But for some curious reason, the official release sent out said school vacations had been extended for another week!" he says.

Out on the streets, word is that, like always, "everything is being orchestrated from Delhi". Sitting in a snug, pinewood-panelled office on the second floor of one of the many state-owned buildings in Press Enclave, Bukhari says the popular perception is not unfounded: "From Farooq Abdullah to Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar and between Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi in Delhi, the system that runs Kashmir remains unchanged. Only the faces keep changing," says the journalist.

Nearly a fortnight into the current unrest, both north and south Kashmir remain under lockdown, with vehicular movement being discouraged equally by the security forces as well as gangs of young stone-pelters, like the lot that emerged from nowhere on July 17 night to stone PDP legislator Mohammad Khalil Bandh's car in the Prichoo area of his home constituency Pulwama on his way to Srinagar.

But as predicted by a former JKP officer who had been in the thick of similar trouble in 2008, 2009 and 2010, things do seem to be easing up, evidenced in the diminishing frequency of demonstrations. From a dangerously high peak of 201 separate incidents resulting in several civilian deaths and injuries just on July 9, the day after the Burhan encounter, 10 days on (July 18), the police control room at headquarters in Srinagar's Batmaloo area reported just two incidents in the deep southern Kazigund area of Anantnag district.

"Tense but under control," says a young DSP, borrowing a famous Jaspal Bhatti comedy one-liner to describe the situation. Much of the success, says an officer at the apex of the JKP establishment, is a consequence of more boots on the ground-the additional paramilitary forces air-dashed to the Valley at home minister Rajnath Singh's behest. "We can now protect even the remotest of our posts in the hinterland," he says. Unlike, say, in 2010, where driven by calls from separatists, fresh protests would erupt at the same location following the death of a stone-pelter, the current strife has witnessed something completely different.





Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq being detained for attempting to enter martyr's graveyard.

"This time crowds emerged spontaneously at unlikely and remote locations to target police stations and posts with small personnel contingents," says the officer, adding that though impossible to predict, there is almost no recurrence of a demonstration at the same location.

And while the security establishment and the Mehbooba government have been faulted in failing to imbibe any lessons from the 2010 unrest or the success in maintaining peace after the Afzal Guru hanging in 2013, the present crisis may just have instigated a critical new change in SOP for crowd control across Kashmir.

Contrary to the procedure in place till now where pump-action shotguns (pellet guns) were deployed only as a last-ditch measure (before firing), forces on the ground have now been instructed to use these as an early resort, alongside teargas, to disperse a violent crowd when it is no closer than 70-80 yards away. "The problem was that by the time the shotguns were deployed, the protesters were invariably much too close. As we have seen in the rush of pellet injuries in Srinagar's hospitals, this often resulted in grievous injuries, even death," a police officer who spent the past week test-firing pellet-filled cartridges on dummy targets says. "The added distance," he promises nonchalantly, "will drastically bring down injuries."

Back in Srinagar, things are beginning to look calmer, although shops remained shuttered in view of the continuing curfew orders, the hartal call by Hurriyat separatists and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's declaration of July 20 as a "black day". But though the streets look more 'normal', the anger and deepening sense of alienation among Kashmiris, particularly the youth, is palpable. "Our first priority in the present circumstances is to stop the violence with minimum or no collateral consequences. But peace cannot sustain itself in the Valley unless there is political engagement with the people," says a senior police officer who has become a bit of a pundit on Kashmir after close to three decades of service. And perhaps not for the first time, the cop is in close agreement with moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who tells India Today that New Delhi's emphasis on deploying only "military means will push an entire generation (of Kashmiris) towards violence"

--- ENDS ---
In a Facabook post, Roohie Nazki lashed out at the BJP-PDP government and said use of force against people is wrong even if it has been happening over the last two decades or so.

By Shuja-ul-Haq : What could be seen as the clear sign of growing anger against Jammu and Kashmir government, the wife of a senior PDP leader and finance minister Haseeb Drabu asked the Mehbooba Mufti-led government to 'step down'. In a Facabook post, Roohie Nazki blamed the state government the alleged police and CRPF atrocities in Kashmir.

"The brutal killings of children, blinding and maiming of protesters, and the shameless suffocating of an entire population is wrong," her Facebook post read.

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'GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE UNACCEPTABLE'



A former MNC professional, Nazki has returned to the valley and has been a prominent voice on social media. She writes on issues concerning the society at large. She also runs a successful coffee shop on the banks of river jehlum. She termed the governments response "unacceptable" which "needs rectification. "They need to step down so that we can be convinced that every popularly elected government doesn't necessarily turn into an unresponsive monolith as soon as it is sworn into power. That each successive regime in Kashmir does not have to become indistinguishable from the previous one. That our leaders do not all have to transform into horrific, faceless, and voiceless entities," Nazkis Facebook post read.



Nazki lashed out at the government and questioned it by saying it is wrong, no matter what excuse were being fed, day in and day out. "It is immoral, unethical, tragic and wrong. Whatever has been happening in Kashmir over the last 14 days is terribly wrong. The brutal killings of children, the criminal blinding and maiming of protesters and the shameless suffocating of an entire population is wrong. It is wrong even if it has been happening over the last two decades or so. It is wrong even if there are 'far too many agencies at work trying to keep Kashmir burning", she wrote.

'GOVERNMENT SHOULD BREAK THE SILENCE'



Visibly upset over the killings that have happened in past two weeks of unrest, Nazki insisted that the government needs to step down to send across a message. "Their stepping down may not stop the injustice. But that is not all that matters. What matters more is for them to register a protest. To not become complicit by default. To break the silence and the cycle of waiting and watching. To have a conscience and keep it. To uphold truth if not justice," she added.

Nazkis Facebook post drew wide reactions with many commending her for this bold stand. The valley has been in the grip of unrest for past 15 days after the killing of Hizbul terrorist Burhan wani. Forty six people have lost their lives in clashes with security forces while close to 3000 have been injured and number of those injured have severe pellet gun injuries in their eyes.

ALSO READ:

Mehbooba Mufti visits Anantnag, offers condolences to families affected by Kashmir violence

Pakistan provokes India again: PM Sharif says waiting for the day Kashmir joins Pak



--- ENDS ---
Politicians like other people are sometimes caught in awkward situations. Yet, when politicians are caught, it most likely makes the front page.

Thanks to great photographers, such awkward moments can live forever in people's memories.

Here are 10 Nigerian politicians that have over time being caught in awkward situations:

1. Jaja Wachukwu

Jaja Wachukwu caught sleeping at UN meeting

To begin with, let's go back to as far back as 1960. The first on record is Jaja Wachukwu a royal prince of Ngwaland, "descendant of 20 generations of African chiefs in the Igbo country of Eastern Nigeria, was a Pan-Africanist, and a Nigerian statesman, lawyer, politician, diplomat and humanitarian.

He was the first Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives. Jaja Anucha Wachukwu fell asleep at a UN meeting in New York in 1960.

2. Monsurat Adedoyin

Munirat Adedoyin Rituals

About a year ago, a supposed Lagos state female politician and former deputy chairman of Ikorodu local government area, Monsurat Adedoyin, was caught performing rituals.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Rep member from Lagos dies

According to a Facebook user, Obiazi in a post said: Mrs.Munirat Adedoyin. She is the former Deputy Chairman of Ikorodu local Government Area. She is about to contest for the position of the Chairman of the local government. She was caught in the act by some good samaritans and the information and the photographs were passed to security agencies.

3. Olusegun Obasanjo

Sleeping Obasanjo

It made the headlines, and why not. Obasanjo, known as Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo is a former Nigerian Army general who was President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007.

Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nations head of state. So you can tell why it was really big news, when he was caught sleeping at an event.

4. Umar Ganduje

Umar Ganduje sleeping

Kano state governor, Umar Ganduje. He is often referred to as the Sleeping governor as he sleeps almost every time in public function.

He is the Governor of Kano state, having been elected on 13 April 2015, and sworn in on 29 May 2015. He is also a former two-term Deputy Governor of Kano state, serving from 1999 to 2003 and 2011 to 2015 under the administration of Rabiu Kwankwaso.

5. Dino Melaye

Senator Dino Melaye is popular for always doing the outrageous. In this picture he tweeted a while ago, he is seen with Zaaki Adze the popular musician, with a tray of boiled groundnuts on his head.

He was trying to according to him experience his past and humble beginnings again.

6. Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Tinubu caught looking at woman's breasts

This picture of former Lagos state governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is epic. The picture taken sometime in 2014 seems like Tinubu is staring in the direction of Shade Okoya, wife of billionaire businessman, Razak Okoya. What is even more epic is the expression of his wife, Remi Tinubu.

What was he really staring at? I don't know.

READ ALSO: Legit.ng digest: Top 10 news that broke this Wednesday

7. Ayo Fayose

Ayo Fayose

Ayo Fayose grew up in Ibadan, Oyo state where he attended Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo. He is married to Feyisetan. He conducted one of the most sought after medical outreach programmes during his political campaign in 2001.

In the picture above, he was seen with workers in the state prostrated before him for coming late to work. Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state reportedly arrived at the gates of the state secretariat as early as 8:00 am to supervise the arrival of state workers to the secretariat.

Source: Legit.ng
By PTI: Rourkela, Jul 22 (PTI) A Kolkata-based businessman was today allegedly abducted by unidentified persons while he was going to visit his textile plant near Sundergarh town here, police said.

Pratik Patodia, who is said to be in his 40s, got down at Jharsuguda railway station this morning.

Police said he was supposed to go to Ashok Multi Yarns Limited near Kirei in Sundergarh. Though he got down from the train at 9.30 AM, he reportedly moved in a van driven by his driver Rohit Tanty.

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As his employees at the factory inquired about his arrival, they launched a search operation. His vehicle was found near Beramahal, on the State Highway-10, few kilometres away from the Sundergarh-Jharsuguda border.

Sundergarh Superintendent of Police Nikhil Kanodia went to the spot and found that the vehicle was left abandoned.

There was no trace of the driver and Patodia. Police recovered the sun glasses of Patodia.

Kanodia said, "We got the information around mid-day about the abduction of the businessman".

He said two teams have been formed to look into the case.

"We have some definite clue on the crime and we are working on it," Kanodia added. PTI CORR AAM SUS CPS SNP

--- ENDS ---
Editors note: Legit.ng continues series of stories about outstanding Nigerians, who became famous abroad.

Martha Olawale, who writes from Florida, USA, devoted her second story to Femi Ayeni. A Nigerian man was born Ibadan and lived in a crowded apartment (popularly called face me I face you in Nigeria). However, despite all the challenges he faced in his life Ayeni became a renowned chef and a pacesetter for many young Africans who desire to follow his career path.

I had a mental picture of my future, I was not looking at the pain of the present but was looking at the joy and peace that I believed was ahead. Femi Ayeni

When he chose to become a chef in Nigeria, he was almost on a deserted island. People wondered why a young promising man will devote his time to studying how to cook. His choice was unpopular and too feminine at the time but he had a clear goal; become an outstanding chef. Like many Africans, his options were slim and the available resources were barely enough to keep him afloat. However, Femi Ayeni has the heart of a lion and he knew exactly what he wanted out of life, and he stuck to it.

Today, Femi Ayeni is a renowned chef and a pacesetter for many young Africans who desire to follow his career path. He recently partnered with the school that gave him the first chance to explore the international world of culinary to help other Africans. When I think about Femi Ayeni, it stirs up a strong hope in me that the future of the African continent is bright. Femi Ayeni, you are our star and we have no doubt that your excellence in the field of culinary will take you to higher places in life. Stars of Afrika celebrates your successes and urges you to keep cooking, keep moving, keep running, and never stop.

Background story (growing up, family, the journey)

I was born and raised in Ibadan, in the south-western part of Nigeria, the largest city by land area in the country. My seven siblings and I lived in a crowded apartment (popularly called face me I face you in Nigeria) with my mom, close to relatives particularly my grandmother who lived less than a mile away. I lived with both parents until age two when my parents divorced. After the separation, I spent weekends with my dad. My dad of blessed memory was a great man with a kind heart who truly loved his children. He emphasized education and encouraged a love for reading and writing.

READ ALSO: Adesegun Adeyemo: From poverty to celebrated computer engineer

At a young age, I had developed a strong interest in reading the newspaper and loved to discuss national politics with customers at my mums restaurant. My mum owned a restaurant where I stayed after school hours while in elementary and high schools. I recall days I walked miles to fetch water from streams and neighborhoods occupied by foreigners for use at the restaurant during periods of water scarcity. I also sold bread in the streets for my grandma and fetched firewood for cooking meals. After high school, my mother remarried and relocated to Lagos, the most populous city in Nigeria, starting a new chapter in my life. Our relocation to Lagos changed everything about my life.

I received my primary education from IMG Primary school Oke Ado Ibadan, and my secondary education was from Celestial Church High School, Oke Ado Ibadan. After high school, I attended Ondo State Polytechnic where I graduated with an OND (National Diploma) certificate while working full-time at a hotel. In addition, I received a Diploma in Hotel and Catering Management from DOF Institutes in Lagos, Nigeria. There were times I couldnt afford to pay my tuition while at DOF and I had to work night shifts and attend lectures during the day to complete my OND. My desire to continuously add value to myself and to develop my love for cooking led me to apply to the College of Arts and Technology, Manchester, United Kingdom where I obtained my NVQ 3 in hotel supervision. Through my pursuit of excellence in culinary, I have had the opportunity to train in the kitchens of luxury hotels through two industry placements at renowned hotels in the UK and the USA. I worked as a chef at Renaissance Manchester Hotel in Manchester for two years and a year at Grand Marriott hotel, USA. I believe in continuous learning and enroll in courses in my industry regularly to improve on my skills.

What are the obstacles that you faced pursuing your dream?

The obstacles were enormous: from poverty, accommodation challenges, to working as a casual staff (no guarantee of work the next day and no benefits) but my determination to succeed helped me through the journey. After completing my culinary studies at DOF, I sought internship placement at Lagos Airport Hotel and was rejected. I was happy to take on an unpaid internship at Ikoyi Hotel for six months. I got my first job as a baker at Tasty Fried Chicken in Lagos Nigeria with a monthly salary of 5,000 Naira. Though my internship application to Lagos Airport Hotel was rejected, I was not discouraged and persisted in applying for a permanent position at the hotel. Eventually, they offered me a job at the hotel as a permanent staff. I worked there for 3 years. While there, I had the opportunity of attending a training that was facilitated by a Chef from Eko Hotel. I was impressed by his wealth of experience and he informed me that he had information about overseas training. I took on the risk of leaving my secured employment for a highly unsecured one with loss of benefits just to gain increased exposure in a hotel affiliated with an international chain.

I resigned at Lagos Airport Hotel and resumed at Eko Hotel as a casual staff. I was constantly reminded that as a casual staff, I could be fired without notice and pay. I also had no health insurance and no benefits. I recall an incident where I couldnt afford to pay to extract an infected wisdom tooth and had to settle to be examined as a patient for a dentists exam in exchange for discounted healthcare fees. I was in excruciating pain afterwards for weeks. I spent many nights crying and hoping that someday, the struggles will end. In 1995 I had a family challenge that led me to leave my stepfathers house, and I had to move to a friends house at Mushin, Lagos Nigeria. I am forever grateful to those amazing people.

READ ALSO: Bishop Oyedepo under fire over prophecy

I had hoped I would become a permanent staff at Eko Hotel someday. Unfortunately, that day never came. I was not included on the list of casual staff that were converted to full-time staff. That was a major turning point for me. That encounter motivated me to intensify my research on training overseas to become a renowned chef. As I had no resources for education abroad, I focused on programs that would give me the opportunity to train and work as a chef so I could afford the living expenses. I spent many hours at the internet cafe researching till I came across a program that could give me such an opportunity but my poor economic status made it challenging to obtain a work permit. Through perseverance and determination, I found another international program that offered the opportunity to train me in luxury hotels in Western Europe and North America. It provided two paid industry placements in the UK and the USA where interns work with a team of culinary professionals. It was a dream come true for me.

I applied to the international program and was accepted, however, I had zero funds for travel. I could not afford to pay for the services of an agent to secure a work permit. I sought funds everywhere, talked to friends and mentors to help out but none was in a position to help. A few felt it was a scam and were not willing to take the risk. Some friends prayed with me and followed up consistently. Although I was meant to pay for the work permit before traveling overseas, God worked it out and I was granted a waiver. I was allowed to pay for the work permit and other processing fees after starting the internship program in the UK. My work permit was processed and mailed to me in Nigeria from Europe. That was the beginning of another phase of my life.

How did you overcome those obstacles?

It is not easy to overcome obstacles as many would attest to. I believe the following helped me:

 I accepted full responsibility and refused to blame anybody

 I acknowledged God and prayed everyday

 I double down, refused to give up even when my first visa application was denied

 I remained positive about life

 I refused to compromise my integrity

 I invested in right information that enhanced my transformation.

 I had a mental picture of my future, I was not looking at the pain of the present but was looking at the joy and peace that I believed was ahead.

Being a chef was unpopular when you chose it, why?

I believe it was destiny and passion. I l have always loved to cook as a teenager and I was the only child my mother took along to the market for grocery shopping for her restaurant. In my teens, she sent me to the market by myself to buy the food items for her. Through that experience, I developed negotiation skills and a love for cooking. When I was on the verge of going to chef school, I inquired from mentors and friends about my career. Many believed it was a career for women and encouraged me to seek a different career path. My initial intention was to focus on food and beverages when I was in school but when I went for my internship at Ikoyi Hotel and had the privilege to train in a different department in the hotel industry, I changed my mind and decided to be a Chef! Even though it was unpopular in Nigeria among young people at the time, I still met some inspiring people who really respected my choice of career.

What/who are the greatest inspiration in your life?

My mother has had a great impact on my life and by extension my career. She was my first Chef instructor. She taught me how to cook, negotiate with suppliers, and build strong lasting relationships with clients. I have also found inspiration in the words of Dr. David Oyedepo. I remember what he said during one of his teachings, If you are a cook, be THE cook. I understood leadership through him and his teachings transformed my approach to life. That said, some of my greatest inspirations are two famous chefs; Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. They made me aware that a chef can also be a successful entrepreneur.

READ ALSO: Meet talented 8-year-old Nigerian female artist

What are your goals for the future?

I look forward to establishing a world-class culinary school in Africa, and be able to raise our culinary standards. Currently, I run an organization that supports Africans in pursuing their dream of becoming world-class chefs by connecting them with a culinary school in Europe. I want to make the journey I went through easier for those coming after me. The students have the option of 6 month to 1 year paid internship in one of the finest hotels in Western Europe and USA. Two of my Nigerian students recently graduated from the program and having done their internships in Holland and USA have chosen to settle in the USA. The program gave them the opportunity to travel outside of Nigeria for the first time, experience world-class culinary services, and become independent confident Chefs.

What advice do you have for this generation of Africans?

My humble advice to you out there is to have a possibility mentality and trust God for your change. The challenges we are facing in that part of the world is real but I believe you can overcome and become a success!

What do you want the world to know about Nigeria?

Nigeria is a country of rich ethnic diversity. She has over 200 ethnic groups and languages! Nigeria is a beautiful place with friendly and hospitable people. Its a country filled with happy people regardless of the economic situation.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Legit.ng.

Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@naij.com  drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why. More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest contributors.

Were ready to trade your news for our money: submit news and photo reports from your area using our Citizen Journalism App.

Contact us if you have any feedback, suggestions, complaints or compliments. We are also available on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Legit.ng Opinion page!

Source: Legit.ng
By PTI: legal profession

New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) Taking the first step twoards reviewing the regulating legal profession in the country, including matters like professional misconduct by lawyers, the Law Commission today asked various advocates bodies to send their suggestions on the issue in the next one month.

The Supreme Court had earlier this month asked the law panel to review "all relevant aspects" relating to the law governing the legal profession, including issues like professional misconduct by lawyers, in consultation with all stakeholders.

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The bench sought a review of the Advocates Act under which the lawyers are governed.

The direction came in a verdict by which the apex court upheld the conviction of an Uttar Pradesh-based advocate for criminal contempt for intimidating and threatening a civil judge in Etah.

The bench upheld the decision of the Allahabad High Court convicting advocate Mahipal Singh Rana of criminal contempt.

"The Supreme Court...has asked the Law Commission to go into all relevant aspects relating to regulation of legal profession in consultation with all concerned...the Commission has undertaken the study and requests the Bar Council of India and all State Bar Councils, Bar Association of the Supreme Court and Advocates on Records Association of Supreme Court, Advocates Associations in the High Courts and their respective benches to send their comments within 30 days," the law panel said in a statement.

It said if need arises, it may decide on personal hearings.

The Law Commission advises government on complex legal issues but its recommendations are not binding. PTI NAB SMJ SK SMJ

--- ENDS ---
- About 10, 410 people have been arrested after a failed coup in Turkey

- President Erdogan said 9000 people were arrested to join about 4060 others earlier arrested

- Erdogan insists that the arrest is targeting supporters of Fethullah Gulen

The Turkish president, Recep Erdogan said on Friday, July 22, that the number of people who were arrested in Turkey following the last weeks attempted coup has increased to 10,410.

President-Erdogan of Turkey

Erdogan said that he number was at about 9,000, adding that the 4,060 people who were arrested earlier have been placed in detention.

The rapid pace of arrests which Erdogan insists is targeting the supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Erdogan had said that the suspects were behind the failed July 15 coup which has disturbed many of Turkeys Western allies, who said they see Turkey going down.

Meanwhile, Ankara has intensified checks on Turkish citizens leaving the country in a move to prevent people associated with the attempted coup from escaping the authorities.

READ ALSO: Breaking! Multiple people dead, more injured in shooting rampage (photos, video)

Those travelling from any of the countrys international airports will now have to provide proof of their employment. Civil servants as well as their spouses and children will need authorisation by their employer to travel.

Meanwhile other employees will have to prove that they work in the private sector and are therefore not civil servants, sources close to the government said.

The government has vowed to clean the civil service from Gulen supporters. All civil servants have been banned from going on holiday, while those currently abroad have been asked to return home.

Turkey entered into a 90-day state of emergency on Thursday, which Erdogan has said is necessary to restore order after the coup, which left 260 dead.

Turkey is also demanding that the U.S. extradite Gulen. Citizens have to defend themselves against the most insidious and vile coup attempt in the history of the Turkish people, Erdogan said.

People have indeed continued to celebrate the crushing of the coup since the weekend. Thousands gathered overnight on the Bosporous Bridge, which was occupied by troops in tanks who fired on civilians during the coup attempt.

Yasin Aktay, spokesman of Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP) said we cannot understand the criticism were getting from Europe about this.

There have been two recent incidents in France and Belgium where terrorist attacks resulted in six months of states of emergency, which were extended for six months.

He added that Turkey had been the victim of multiple terrorist attacks during this time and refrained until now from issuing a state of emergency.

The fact that we did it in this case should be applauded much more, out of the 10,410 people arrested, 7,423 were soldiers; 287 police; and 2,014 judges and prosecutors.

Furthermore, 686 civilians had been arrested. Among the soldiers were 162 generals, almost half the generals in the second-largest army of the NATO alliance.

Beyond the arrests, more than 37,500 civil servants and police officers have been suspended. Additionally, 21,000 teachers in private schools have lost their licences, Aktay said.

In the light of events in Turkey, Germany has said it would slow down talks on the countrys accession to the EU. Whether or not negotiations would be halted completely, however, was not immediately clear.

Germanys government spokesman Steffen Seifert said in Berlin that this is not a German decision after all.

The 28-member bloc started accession negotiations with Turkey 11 years ago, though progress has been slow with only 15 out of 35 negotiation chapters having been addressed and only one completed.

Source: Legit.ng
Bouwfonds European Residential Fund (BERF) has acquired a residential development project in Warsaw from Matexi Poland. It is the first transaction of a whole building with rental apartments by a foreign institutional investor on the Polish residential market. REAS has acted as transaction advisor to the deal on behalf of

[]
By Devarsi Ghosh: M Cream is the story of four Delhi teenagers who set out on a road trip to find real life and real hash.

Cast: Imaad Shah, Ira Dubey, Auritra Ghosh, Raaghav Chanana

Direction: Agneya Singh

Ratings: (0.5/5)

Agneya Singh's M Cream is painfully boring. One wishes if there were a better, less offensive, classier and subtler way to say it, but sadly, a person would be hard-pressed to find words that could better explain the film than "painfully boring".

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ALSO READ: Marijuana should be decriminalised, says M Cream director Agneya Singh

ALSO READ: Ira Dubey was inspired by Joan Baez for M Cream

It is a film about a gang of four young kids; Figs, Maggie, Jay and Niz; and their road trip and the myriad adventures they go... no, stop. They go through nothing. They have no adventure. What they do is smoke pot, have acid, and then go out looking for pot that is as good as acid, called M Cream or Malana Cream. The thing with road trip films is that when people get into vibrant, physical adventures, all that makes for good visual cinema. However, visually, a bunch of guys smoking up gives nothing. The bare minimum a scene about people getting high can give you is - a) People being stupid when they are high, and thus comedy or b) The world, all colourful, through their eyes, thus visual splendour.

In M Cream, we get neither. The film is as aimless and pointless as its protagonists, and Agneya Singh is no Richard Linklater or Gus Vant Sant who can create magic with a leisurely film about lost young folks (Dazed and Confused, SubUrbia, My Own Private Idaho).

Figs (Imaad Shah) is a pot-smoking, casual cynic. His best friend Maggie (Auritra Ghosh) is, well, just there, and she doesn't think things through. Maggie's boyfriend Niz (Raaghav Chanana) is also... just around. The fourth character Jay (Ira Dubey) is a young Bengali girl with some convictions, out there to save the world from evil corporates, basically the Yin to Figs's Yang. And obviously, they fall for each other and have sex.

Ira Dubey and Imaad Shah in a stil from M Cream

It is surprising how a film which tells the audience so many times about how non-conformist its protagonist wants to be, a film which pitches itself as 'India's First Stoner Film' and all that jazz, is so, so, so predictable. The film neither shocks nor jolts, forget entertaining or engaging; at least the film could have made you laugh, and the film does not even have jokes.

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At one point, Figs does crack a joke. When Jay expresses her wish to meet an activist-journalist called Marie Sartre, Figs quips whether she is related to Jean Paul Sartre. Jay is amused. Ha ha, so funny. NOT.

Before going any further, the story in two lines: Four kids travel to Dharamsala; Niz has to click pictures and Jay has something to do with the Free Tibet movement, that is really not worth mentioning, hence "something". From there, they travel to Mababajagal, supposedly the world's oldest democracy, where Figs has to score M Cream. That's about it.

On the way, Figs and Jay get close and start talking. A google search tells you that "sweet nothings" means "words of affection exchanged by lovers". In M Cream, 90% of the conversation is "stoned nothings" i.e words of insert expletive exchanged by stoners. At least, in drug films like Trainspotting, Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Half Baked, the dialogues are exciting, funny, often insightful and make you wonder about things. Here, the characters listen to each other's nonsense, look ahead into the distance as if they heard something really meaningful, nod and then take another puff.

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Imaad Shah shines as Figs in M Cream

The saving grace of the film is its cinematography, music, and well, Imaad Shah. Thank heavens, the film looks good, if not anything else. Cinematographer Mingjue Hu is a talent to watch out for. So is the music ensemble of Srijan Mahajan, Arsh Sharma and Nikhil Malik whose brilliant soundtrack did not deserve this film.

Finally, Imaad Shah. The young lad fits the role of Figs to the T. If good acting is something where you cannot see the effort, something which convinces you about the reality of the character, then Imaad Shah is fantastic in M Cream. Nothing else matters.

( The writer tweets as @devarsighosh )

--- ENDS ---
A new Northwestern University study shows that even in infants too young to speak, the object categories infants form and their predictions about objects' behavior, are sculpted by the names we use to describe them.

As English speakers, we might encounter a natural scene and describe the blue lake, green grass and light blue sky in front of us. But speakers of Berinmo, an indigenous language of Papua New Guinea, have a single term for the colors we describe as blues and greens. They would describe the lake, grass and sky all as "nol."

"This cross-linguistic difference reveals that the particular categories we impose on our experience of the world are shaped by the language we speak. And this has consequences for thinking and memory," said senior author Sandra Waxman, the Louis W. Menk Chair in Psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern and faculty fellow in the University's Institute for Policy Research. "Berinmo speakers are less likely to remember distinctions among shades that English speakers describe as blue versus green."

This compelling cross-cultural evidence leaves little doubt that the categories we form bear the imprint of our language. But how early in life does naming shape the categories we perceive?

To answer this question, the Northwestern researchers created a continuum of colorful cartoon-like creatures. First, in a learning phase, 9-month-old infants had an opportunity to observe several of these creatures, presented in random order: Each appeared at the center of the screen, moved in one direction or another, and then disappeared. By experimental design, creatures from one end of the continuum moved to the left, and those from the other end moved to the right.

What varied was how the creatures were named. Some infants heard the same novel word applied to all objects along the entire continuum; others heard two different names, one for objects from one end of the continuum and another for objects from the other end. Next, in a test phase, new creatures from the same continuum appeared in the center of the screen.

The researchers were interested in whether infants could anticipate the side to which the new objects would move, and whether this varied as a function of how the creatures had been named in the phase.

The results were striking, according to lead author Melanie Havy of the University of Geneva.

"Infants who heard two different names discerned two categories and therefore were able to anticipate correctly the likely location to which the test objects would move," she said.

In sharp contrast, infants who heard one name formed a single overarching category and therefore searched for new test objects at both locations.

"These results constitute the first evidence that for infants as young as 9 months of age, naming not only shapes the number of categories they impose along a perceptual continuum but also highlights the joints or boundaries between them," Havy said.

"Naming influences 9-month-olds' identification of discrete categories along a perceptual continuum" will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Cognition. http://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/waxman/documents/HavyWaxman2016CognitionInPress.pdf
The significant role of beta cell 'hubs' in the pancreas has been demonstrated for the first time, suggesting that diabetes may due to the failure of a privileged few cells, rather than the behaviour of all cells.

Researchers used optogenetic and photopharmacological targeting to precisely map the role of the cells required for the secretion of insulin.

The team believe that the findings, published in Cell Metabolism, could pave the way for therapies that target the 'hubs'.

Dr David Hodson, from the University of Birmingham, explained, "It has long been suspected that 'not all cells are equal' when it comes to insulin secretion. These findings provide a revised blueprint for how our pancreatic islets function, whereby these hubs dictate the behaviour of other cells in response to glucose."

According to the NHS, there are currently 3.9 million people living with diabetes in the UK, with 90% of those affected having type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin to function properly, meaning that glucose stays in the blood rather than being converted into energy.

Beta cells ( cells) make up around 65-80% of the cells in the islets of the pancreas. Their primary function is to store and release insulin and, when functioning correctly, can respond quickly to fluctuations in blood glucose concentrations by secreting some of their stored insulin.

These findings show that just 1-10% of beta cells control islet responses to glucose.

Dr Hodson, who is supported by Diabetes UK RD Lawrence and EFSD/Novo Nordisk Rising Star Fellowships, continued, "These specialised beta cells appear to serve as pacemakers for insulin secretion. We found that when their activity was silenced, islets were no longer able to properly respond to glucose. "

Prof Guy Rutter, who co-led the study at Imperial College London, added "This study is interesting as it suggests that failure of a handful of cells may lead to diabetes".

Studies were conducted on islet samples from both murine and human models.

The team note that, though the findings present a significant step forward in understanding the cell mechanisms, the experiments therefore may not be reflected in vivo, where blood flow direction and other molecule dynamics may influence the role of the hubs and insulin secretion.
Do regional practice patterns for radiotherapy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) breast cancer increase the likelihood of mastectomy when there is a second breast cancer in women who did not receive radiotherapy at the initial DCIS diagnosis?

In a new article published online by JAMA Oncology, Rinaa S. Punglia, M.D., M.P.H., of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and coauthors used population-based databases to examine regional radiotherapy practice patterns for DCIS and their effect on the use of mastectomy.

Radiotherapy usually necessitates mastectomy should a new cancer or DCIS develop in the same breast during a patient's lifetime. Previous radiotherapy can complicate reconstructive options following a mastectomy. Patients who receive breast-conserving surgery (BCS) alone may be candidates for subsequent BCS if there is a second breast cancer in the same breast.

The authors had data for 2,679 women (average age 64) with a diagnosis of DCIS between 1990 and 2011 and for 757 women (average age 79) with a DCIS diagnosis between 1991 and 2009 who had not undergone radiotherapy for DCIS and experienced a subsequent breast cancer or DCIS diagnosis.

The study separated patients into clusters based on health service areas (HSAs) and radiotherapy use.

The authors report that women who lived in an area with greater radiotherapy with BCS were more likely to undergo mastectomy if they had a second breast cancer even though they were candidates for BCS since they had initially foregone radiotherapy.

The study noted limitations because of the database used.

"Physicians in regions of high use of radiotherapy may guide patients with DCIS toward mastectomy because many of these patients are ineligible for BCS at the time of a second breast event -- having already received radiotherapy -- leading to mastectomy being recommended for patients who did not receive radiotherapy and are eligible for BCS. Awareness of this effect of practice patterns may be the first step toward its eradication and movement toward more patient-centered care," the authors conclude.
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics have found a gene responsible for an intellectual disability disorder and proven how it works. The research, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, details the role of a gene called BCL11A in a new intellectual disability syndrome.

The study showed that if one of a person's two copies of the BCL11A gene is abnormal, or mutated, then they will have the newly described intellectual disability. The team used human cells and a mouse model to show that the body needs two healthy copies of BCL11A to make enough of the BCL11A protein for brain cells to develop normally and work at capacity.

The Sanger Institute's Deciphering Developmental Disorders research programme, has found many new genes associated with intellectual disability. However, relatively little is known about how these genes work because each genetic cause is so rare. By exploring the mechanism in mice, they have been able to show for the first time the impact of these genes on human development.

A team led by Dr Darren Logan and Prof Simon Fisher worked with nine patients, from the UK and abroad, who have an intellectual disability. They found these people share the same genetic profile and symptoms that they now define as a new clinical syndrome. Each person also had the same unusual blood profile which could be used to help diagnose patients in the future.

Dr Darren Logan, lead researcher from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "We worked with patients, studied human cells and made a mouse model to translate research from the gene discovery phase into understanding a cause of intellectual disability. We've shown that the BCL11A gene does cause an intellectual disability syndrome. It's an excellent example of gene discovery by patient DNA sequencing paired with experimental investigation to prove a link between gene and outcome that is backed up by cellular and animal studies. We plan to follow this model on an even larger scale in the future, to test the role of many other genes associated with intellectual disability."

Nearly three in every 100 people in the human population have some form of learning disability and it can have many different genetic causes. The way conditions present in patients varies too, and so each syndrome is poorly understood. The research also revealed that mutated BCL11A influences many other genes important for brain development and function and so explains why people who carry an abnormal copy have intellectual disability.

Prof Simon Fisher, director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, said: "We were interested to find severe problems with speech and language development as a consistent feature of the syndrome caused by BCL11A mutations. Studies like ours are beginning to reveal intriguing connections between the biological causes of intellectual disability and disorders of spoken language. And although BCL11A mutations are themselves rare, the gene belongs to a bigger network of genes that are crucial for building a healthy brain, and so it can provide much broader insights into the basis of human cognition, and how this might go wrong during development."

Dr Cristina Dias, a clinical geneticist working in Dr. Logan's laboratory at the Sanger Institute, said: "The contribution of patients and their families to this study was essential for us to understand how a mutation in BCL11A affects them as a group. This is a newly recognized condition so it is important we continue patient studies. We will use experimental resources of cells and mouse models to further investigate how the mutations are influencing other genes, and find potential drug targets. Ultimately, these studies will help us better understand intellectual disability and associated health problems, to ensure that individuals have the best care."
The University of Nottingham and Royal Norwegian Naval Academy (RNoNA) are investigating how to prevent shipping Global Positioning Signals (GPS) being jammed in potential cyberattacks that may cause vessels to go off course and collide or run aground.

Big, modern ships are highly automated with networked navigational systems, including differential GPS (DGPS) which offers more accurate positioning (to one metre) than conventional GPS.

However, previous research has found that these highly-sensitive maritime DGPS receivers, are easy to disrupt, using 50 jammer devices, which are widely available on the market.

DGPS signal disruption, particularly when ships are navigating through narrow inshore waters, could result in inaccurate positional information, leading to more maritime accidents.

For the study, academics from the Nottingham Geospatial Institute (NGI) and RNoNA Navigation Centre tested DGPS disruption in the busy shipping lanes of the Norwegian straits where navigational errors account for half of accidents.

Dr Lukasz Bonenberg, senior technical officer at the NGI, said: "Main factors behind maritime accidents in this part of Norway are an influx of foreign vessels, coupled with quickly changing weather conditions and the dangerous nature of the narrow inshore waters.

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"In these difficult conditions, with a need for high-accuracy navigation, there tends to be an over-dependence on DGPS technology which can lead to a false feeling of security. These errors have increased significantly since the introduction of DGPS on most ships.

"DGPS jamming from nearby cliffs, for instance, could seriously affect shipping traffic going through the narrow straits and fjord networks. Affected vessels could take a long time to correct their journey or physically stop, which may cause the maritime equivalent of a motorway pile-up," Dr Bonenberg adds.

The trial was conducted with the high-end surveying grade receiver and antenna, which was placed on the shore with the jammer moving towards or away from the receiver on a small boat.

The aim of the trial was to quantify the jamming effect, simulating a vessel's approach to a narrow inshore strait. The researchers found that the DGPS receiver didn't stop functioning altogether. Instead it gave false readings in the on-board navigation system with positional data moving more than 10 metres.

"Observed discrepancies of up to 10 metres are very hazardous, considering the narrow nature of the Norwegian straits, which are frequently affected by poor visibility," explains Lieutenant Commander Oeystein Glomsvoll at RNoNA Navigation Centre.

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"GPS jamming is a worldwide growing problem. The technology for jamming is readily available, resulting in many cases of intentional jamming in recent years, and the attention given to this problem has increased."

The research team looked at a solution that would fix and maintain a transporter ship's position more accurately and quickly using additional GPS signal frequencies instead of upgrading navigational systems on board.

Currently, the majority of maritime receivers are DGPS L1 ones. Authors suggest combining this system with the multi-frequency GLONASS receiver -- an alternative navigation system to GPS -- is advantageous.

This is because the frequency band of GPS + GLONASS signals together is much wider than dual L1 and L2 frequency GPS or GLONASS alone, increasing positional precision.

This has been traced back, not only to the increased number of satellites used, but also to the higher elevation and better coverage of the GLONASS satellites operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.

Dr Bonenberg, from the Faculty of Engineering, said: "The use of multi-constellation receivers and an increase in the frequencies received offers better jamming resilience for close-to-shore navigation."

GPS signalling is currently undergoing modernisation, which includes an additional frequency (L5) and an open L2C code on an L2 frequency. Currently, only a limited number of satellites offer these signals. Data observed during this experiment suggests that use of this modernised signal will offer advantages similar to the multi-frequency GLONASS one.
More than one in three -- an estimated 328,000 -- Ontario students in grades seven to 12 report moderate-to-serious psychological distress, according to new survey results from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Girls are twice as likely as boys to experience psychological distress.

"This is a significant number of young people, especially girls, who are experiencing high levels of psychological distress," says Dr. Robert Mann, senior scientist at CAMH and co-lead investigator of the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS). A total of 10,426 students from across Ontario participated in the 2015 OSDUHS, the longest-running school survey of adolescents in Canada, and one of the longest-running surveys in the world.

"We were also surprised to see this number increase to 34 per cent in 2015 from 24 per cent in 2013. That is a 10 per cent jump in reported psychological distress in just two years," said Dr. Mann.

Psychological distress is defined as symptoms of depression and anxiety and is measured using a six-item screening tool. Students are asked how often they felt nervous, hopeless or worthless, among others indicators, in the last four weeks. Forty-six per cent of girls indicated high levels of distress compared to 23 per cent of boys.

Levels of distress also increase significantly in the later teens, to an average of over 40 per cent of students in grades 11 and 12. One in five students (21 per cent) reported visiting a mental health professional at least once during the last year, a marked increase from 12 per cent in 1999.

"While we can't say for certain what is causing this distress, it's important for parents, schools and health care providers to be aware of what young people are telling us about their mental health," said Dr. Mann. "Our research indicates that the later teen years into the twenties is the peak period of stress for many people."

Screen time, social media use, and problem gaming on the rise

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Survey results also showed that in 2015, almost two thirds (63 per cent) of students spent three hours or more per day of their free time in front of a TV or tablet/computer. The percentage of students who are screen-time sedentary has increased from 57 per cent since 2009, the first year of monitoring this behaviour.

At the same time, while the majority of students rate their health as excellent or very good (66 per cent), only 22 per cent of students met the recommended daily physical activity guideline, defined as a total of at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day, during the past seven days.

Additionally, 86 per cent of students visit social media sites daily and about 16 per cent spend five hours or more on social media per day.

"We know that the more time spent on social media sites, the greater the risk of cyberbullying and related mental health issues," said Dr. Hayley Hamilton, scientist with CAMH's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and co-lead investigator on the OSDUHS. "Combined with low levels of physical activity across this age group, we are seeing clear priority areas where we can work with youth to improve health."

An estimated 122,600 students in Ontario (13 per cent) report symptoms of a video gaming problem which includes preoccupation, loss of control, withdrawal and disregard for consequences. The percentage of students indicating a video gaming problem rose to 13 per cent in 2015 from 9 per cent in 2007, the first year of monitoring. Problem video gaming is especially prevalent among boys in this age group, with 20 per cent reporting problematic symptoms compared with 5 per cent of girls.

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"The reality is that it's not possible to be technology-abstinent in 2016," said Lisa Pont, social worker with CAMH's Problem Gambling Institute of Ontario, who helps youth and parents better manage technology use. "But it is possible to have good 'cyber health', to balance screen time with other activities and to prevent technology from having serious negative consequences on the rest of your life."

Noticing an increase in young people struggling with gaming and other forms of tech use, Pont helped develop CAMH's clinical programming on technology misuse and also trains other health professionals in this emerging area.

"At CAMH we see young people who are on the more severe end of problem tech use, many of whom have pre-existing depression and anxiety," said Pont. "Many youth are heavy users of technology and are able to keep good balance in their lives. But for those who develop problems, it is important that the underlying and concurrent issues are addressed so that healthier tech use is achievable."

See more at: http://www.camh.ca/en/research/news_and_publications/ontario-student-drug-use-and-health-survey/Documents/2015%20OSDUHS%20Documents/2015OSDUHS_Detailed%20MentalHealthReport.pdf
Discovered by scientists using the manned submersible Curasub in the deep-reef waters of the Caribbean island of Curacao, a new scorpionfish species is the latest one captured with the help of the sub's two robotic arms.

Found by Dr. Carole C. Baldwin, lead scientist of the Smithsonian's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) and based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Ms. Diane Pitassy, also affiliated with the Smithsonian in Washington, and Dr. Ross Robertson, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, the new species is described in the open access journal ZooKeys. In their paper, the authors also discuss the depth distributions and relationships of western Atlantic members of its genus.

The new scorpionfish is distinguished from other similar scorpionfishes by a number of physical traits, including its distinctive bright orange-red colors, more elongated fin rays, and DNA. Inhabiting depths between 95 m and 160 m, it is also the deepest-living member of its genus in the western Atlantic Ocean.

The new scorpionfish is officially called Scorpaenodes barrybrowni in honor of Substation Curacao and freelance photographer Barry Brown, who "has patiently, diligently, and expertly taken photographs of hundreds of fishes and invertebrates captured alive by DROP Investigators," explain the authors. "He has generously shared his photographs, and they have enhanced numerous scientific and educational publications. It is an honor to recognize Barry Brown's contributions to science through his photography."

"Fish specimens that are brought up from deep reefs only occasionally surface alive," explains Baldwin. When DROP scientists return to the surface in the Curasub with a living fish, Barry races it to his aquarium and begins to work his photographic magic."

The new fish already has a common name as well. For the public, it will be known as the Stellate Scorpionfish, deriving from its star-shaped yellowish spots and the radiating pigment markings accentuating its eyes.

The manned submersible Curasub reaches depths up to 300 m and is used by DROP and other marine scientists to search for tropical marine fishes and invertebrates, while conventional SCUBA divers are unable to reach deeper than 30 -- 50 metres below the water surface.

"The 50-300 m tropical ocean zone is poorly studied -- too deep for conventional SCUBA and too shallow to be of much interest to really deep-diving submersibles," notes Baldwin. "The Curasub is providing scientists with the technology needed to remedy this gap in our knowledge of Caribbean reef biodiversity."

The sub relies on two hydraulic arms, one equipped with a suction hose, and the other designed to immobilize the fish with an anaesthetizing chemical. Once anesthetized, the individuals are collected with the suction hose, which empties into a vented plexiglass cylinder attached to the outside of the sub.

In January, the team of Drs. Luke Tornabene, Robertson and Baldwin discovered the Godzilla goby. About a year ago, Baldwin and Robertson stumbled upon another new goby species, which amazed the scientists with its love for the depths so much that they named it after the Curasub. In 2013, the authors recognized the DROP research program in the name of a beautiful new species of small blenny fish, Haptoclinus dropi.

"Stay tuned for more new discoveries," suggests Baldwin. "We have only scratched the surface of our understanding of the biodiversity of tropical deep reefs."
Even though American consumers throw away about 80 billion pounds of food a year, only about half are aware that food waste is a problem. Even more, researchers have identified that most people perceive benefits to throwing food away, some of which have limited basis in fact.

A study published in PLOS ONE is just the second peer-reviewed large-scale consumer survey about food waste and is the first in the U.S. to identify patterns regarding how Americans form attitudes on food waste.

The results provide the data required to develop targeted efforts to reduce the amount of food that U.S. consumers toss into the garbage each year, said study co-author Brian Roe, the McCormick Professor of Agricultural Marketing and Policy at The Ohio State University.

The researchers developed a national survey to identify Americans' awareness and attitudes regarding food waste. In July 2015, it was administered to 500 people representative of the U.S. population.

The study found that 53 percent of respondents said they were aware that food waste is a problem. This is about 10 percent higher than a Johns Hopkins study published last year, Roe said, which indicates awareness of the problem could be growing. "But it's still amazingly low," he said. "If we can increase awareness of the problem, consumers are more likely to increase purposeful action to reduce food waste. You don't change your behavior if you don't realize there's a problem in the first place."

Among other findings, the study identified general patterns that play a role in people's attitudes regarding household food waste.

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"Generally, we found that people consider three things regarding food waste," said doctoral student Danyi Qi, who co-authored the study. "They perceive there are practical benefits, such as a reduced risk of foodborne illness, but at the same time they feel guilty about wasting food. They also know that their behaviors and how they manage their household influences how much food they waste."

In particular, the survey revealed patterns in how Americans think about food waste:

Perceived benefits: 68 percent of respondents believe that throwing away food after the package date has passed reduces the chance of foodborne illness, and 59 percent believe some food waste is necessary to be sure meals are fresh and flavorful.

Feelings of guilt: 77 percent feel a general sense of guilt when throwing away food. At the same time, only 58 percent indicated they understand that throwing away food is bad for the environment, and only 42 percent believe wasted food is a major source of wasted money.

Control: 51 percent said they believe it would be difficult to reduce household food waste and 42 percent say they don't have enough time to worry about it. Still, 53 percent admit they waste more food when they buy in bulk or purchase large quantities during sales. At the same time, 87 percent think they waste less food than similar households.

In studying these patterns, the researchers see several areas in which to focus educational and policy efforts.

"First, we can do things to chip away at the perceived benefits of wasting food," Qi said. "Our study shows that many people feel they derive some type of benefit by throwing food away, but many of those benefits are not real."

For example, removing "Sell by" and "Use by" dates from food packages could significantly reduce the amount of good food that is trashed, the researchers said.

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"Only in rare circumstances is that date about food safety, but people are confused about the array of dates on food packages," Roe said. Recent efforts to create uniform national standards for such labels have received bipartisan support. In addition, the researchers see an opportunity to help consumers understand the negative environmental impacts of food waste. Food waste is the largest source of municipal solid waste in the U.S. and the most destructive type of household waste in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers report.

"Helping people become more aware of that wouldn't be a silver bullet," Roe said, "but it could sway 5 to 10 percent of people who are generally willing to change their behaviors to improve the environment but who have never put two and two together about the damaging impacts of food waste."

Finally, researchers believe better data on measuring household waste could lead to improvements.

"Basically, right now everybody thinks they are doing as good as or better than everybody else," Roe said. "It's somebody else that's creating food waste."

To combat that problem, Roe, Qi and other members of Roe's research group are developing a smart phone app to better measure household food waste. Roe is seeking federal grants and private support to fund the project, a collaboration with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. The LSU group developed the SmartIntake app several years ago to help participants in food intake studies report what they eat more accurately.
Veterinary researchers at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) have successfully produced bison calves using in vitro fertilization -- a world first.

The four wood bison calves grazing beside their protective mothers look just like any other bison -- but what makes these animals unique is the way they came into the world.

Three calves are the first bison ever born using in vitro fertilization. Researchers produced them in a laboratory, then transferred the embryos into surrogate mothers more than nine months ago. The bison cows gave birth to the calves earlier this month.

The fourth calf was produced from a frozen embryo that was taken from a bison cow in 2012 and transferred to a surrogate mother in 2015 -- another reproductive first for the bison species.

"The babies look great," said Dr. Gregg Adams, a professor and reproductive specialist at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). "They're keeping up with mom, and I'm really happy about it."

Adams has conducted reproductive research of wood bison for nearly a decade. Indigenous to Canada, the wood bison are threatened both by disease and loss of habitat.

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"It is tremendously gratifying to see this. I'm excited. I'm hoping all the different interest groups will see this as a real possibility, a solution to the problem," said Adams.

Between 5,000 and 7,000 wood bison remain in the wild -- less than five per cent of their original numbers. Scientists hope that this reproductive breakthrough will help retain genetic diversity and eventually rebuild the depleted wild herds.

While there are many parallels with reproductive work in cattle, bison present their own unique challenges. Foremost is the presence of disease in both the plains and wood bison herds. Bison herds are infected with brucellosis and tuberculosis, diseases that were introduced by exposure to infected cattle more than 80 years ago, and that can be spread to both cattle and people.

"Besides a loss of habitat, which has been significant, these diseases have prevented us from getting back and reconstituting the population," said Adams.

By using advanced reproduction techniques such as artificial insemination, superovulation -- a process of inducing the female to release more than one egg per cycle in order to produce multiple eggs available for fertilization and more in vivo embryos from a single donor -- and in vitro fertilization, researchers can disinfect the egg and sperm of the female and male bison -- minimizing the chances of producing diseased babies or spreading disease.

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"The whole objective of our program is to conserve the species. I think what we're doing with advanced reproductive technologies is really designed to preserve the genetic diversity [of the animals]," said Adams. "If we can preserve the genetic diversity, I'll feel like I've done my job. That will benefit both the wild populations as well as any livestock producers."

Wood bison research began at the U of S in 2006, with the delivery of a herd donated by Elk Island National Park to the WCVM's Native Hoofstock Centre at Goodale Research Farm, 20 kilometres east of Saskatoon, Sask.

"It's been a tremendous amount of work," said Adams. He notes that four PhD students and a post-doctoral fellow have contributed vital research findings toward this recent achievement. Researchers from the University of Calgary have also collaborated on the research project.

Researchers first had to learn how the bison's reproductive cycle worked and characterize the species' normal breeding pattern.

"Really, none of that was known," said Adams.

Their first studies began with determining when the bison ovulates. Then they needed to figure out how to control the reproductive cycle.

On the male side, they needed to find out when to collect semen from the bulls and how to preserve the genetic material. Much of this work was done in the laboratory of cryobiologist Dr. Muhammad Anzar, whose lab developed techniques to produce and preserve disease-free, frozen semen. Anzar works for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, but is based at the WCVM.

In 2011, WCVM researchers conducted successful superovulation and embryo transfers on wood bison. Within the superovulation protocol, fertilization took place in vivo, in the fallopian tube of the female bison. Then, embryos were collected one week later and transferred to surrogate mothers.

This work, conducted by WCVM researcher Dr. J. Manuel Palomino as part of his PhD thesis research, was an important step in advancing reproductive knowledge and techniques.

WCVM PhD candidate Miriam Cervantes began her bison research the same year, and this latest development in in vitro fertilization has been the focus of her PhD program. Cervantes produced 10 embryos in the lab, and they were transferred fresh into the WCVM bison herd in October 2015. Another bison cow received a frozen embryo produced in vivo in 2012 by Palomino.

After diagnosing pregnancy in four of the animals after 30 days, the pregnant bison were left alone in the pasture to minimize stress. The researchers waited anxiously to see if the babies would be born.

"We are proud to say that our work has given a good result," said Cervantes. "We are very happy."

Now that researchers have developed these reproductive techniques, the next step is to retrieve and preserve genetic material from existing herds -- providing the groundwork for preservation of the species. Dr. Murray Woodbury, research chair of the WCVM's Specialized Livestock Research and Development Program, has provided professional herd management and oversight for the wood bison. Adams also credits the project's success to financial support from the U of S, Government of the Northwest Territories, Parks Canada and Saskatchewan's Agri-Food Innovation Fund.
Sources said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday held a high-level meeting to brainstorm on how to bring back the gem to India.

By Atir Khan: Will the return of Kohinoor become a reality? This debate has been triggered after fresh attempts being made by government to get the gem back to India through diplomatic channels.

However it's TMC MP Shukhendu Shekhar Roy's petition on this subject in the Supreme Court which is being widely talked about.

MEA HOLDS HIGH-LEVEL MEETING



Sources said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday held a high-level meeting to brainstorm on how to bring back the gem to India. The move has gained momentum as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi it is learnt is interested in the subject.

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Government is likely to engage highest diplomatic channels in this regard. Interestingly TMC MP Roy in Supreme Court is also fighting a legal battle to ensure India brings back Kohinoor.

TMC MP CHALLENGES AG



In his petition, he has challenged Attorney General's recent statement that Kohinoor was a gift to British, he says Kohinoor was taken by coercion and it was not a gift by infant Maharaja Duleep Singh to the British.

He has filed the petition seeking directions to Government to make efforts to bring back the diamond. He quotes several documents, treaties and a book called Sir John Login and Duleep Singh in this regard.

TMC MP Shukhendu Shekhar Roy's petition on this subject in the Supreme Court is being widely talked about.

He says Maharaja Ranjeet Singh's estate was confiscated and Duleep Singh and he was made to surrender Kohinoor to the queen of England following British victory in 2nd Anglo-Sikh war. So, the question of Kohinoor being a gift doesn't arise.

Backed by in-depth research Roy also states it was Late Maharaja Ranjit Singh's wish that the gem be kept in Jagannath Temple in Odisha. This issue, though was also raised by BJD MP Bhartuhari Mehtab during the last Budget session. Some MPs had also raised this matter in Parliament in 50s as well.

NEHRU DIDN'T MAKE EFFORTS TO BRING BACK KOHINOOR



Roy says, "Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru said gems are for emperors and India doesn't need emperors. In his petition, he mentions lackadaisical approach of successive Indian governments in making positive and meaningful diplomatic parleys has not been in national interest. All attempts on the part of the petitioners and other right thinking persons to activate the Central government have failed.

He quotes an interesting book from New York Public Library called Sir Login and Duleep Singh, which was written by the wife of Maharaja Duleep Singh's English caretaker Sir Login.

Interestingly, in the book along with Kohinoor, there is also a mention of state jewels and treasures in gold, silver and precious stones, plates, cups, cooking pots and gurrahs of gold, silver and vast store of cashmere shawls.

There is also a curious mention of a Prophet's relics, his shoes, walking-stick, shirt, cap and pyjamas; his prayer books and several locks of his hair. But it doesn't mention which Muslim Prophet's relics were taken along with Kohinoor.

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Former Prime Minister when he visited India on being asked about return of Kohinoor had said he doesn't believe in 'returnism,' however with the new dispensation in UK and Indian government making fresh attempts for the return of invaluable gem, there is hope it be become a reality one day.

ALSO READ:

Modi's Mission Kohinoor: Government begins fresh bid to get famed diamond back



--- ENDS ---
Each year, approximately 700,000 people die from drug-resistant bacterial infections. A study by UCLA life scientists could be a major step toward combating drug-resistant infections.

The research, reported in the journal Royal Society Interface, found that combinations of three different antibiotics can often overcome bacteria's resistance to antibiotics, even when none of the three antibiotics on their own -- or even two of the three together -- is effective.

The researchers grew E. coli bacteria in a laboratory and treated the samples with combinations of one, two and three antibiotics from a group of 14 drugs. The biologists studied how effectively every single possible combination of drugs worked to kill the bacteria.

Some combinations killed 100 percent of the bacteria, including 94 of the 364 three-drug groupings the researchers tested. According to said Pamela Yeh, the paper's senior author and a UCLA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, the success rate might have been even greater if the researchers tested higher doses of the drugs.

Elif Tekin, the paper's lead author and a UCLA graduate student, helped create a sophisticated framework that enabled the scientists to determine when adding a third antibiotic was producing new effects that combinations of just two drugs couldn't achieve.

"Three antibiotics can change the dynamic," she said. "Not many scientists realize that three-drug combinations can have really beneficial effects that they would not have predicted even by studying all pairs of the antibiotics together."

Different classes of antibiotics use different mechanisms to fight bacteria. One class, which includes amoxicillin, kill bacteria by preventing them from making cell walls. Another disrupts their tightly coiled DNA. A third inhibits their ability to make proteins. But there had been little previous research indicating that combinations of three antibiotics might be more potent together than any two of them.

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"People tend to think that you don't need to understand interactions beyond pairs," said Van Savage, a co-author of the paper and a UCLA associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics. "We found that isn't always so."

The researchers combined techniques from biology and mathematics to determine which groups of antibiotics would be most effective.

"The three antibiotics must be chosen systematically and rationally," Yeh said.

In addition to identifying certain combinations that were more potent than the researchers expected, the analysis revealed that adding a third antibiotic sometimes made the drug combination less potent -- sometimes much less so, she said.

Yeh said the findings could be one weapon to fight what has become a major public health risk, but overcoming drug resistance will require a full arsenal.

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"We need sound policy to stop the overuse of antibiotics, doctors to prescribe antibiotics wisely, agriculture to stop overusing antibiotics and researchers to develop new antibiotics," she said. "We need to attack this problem from all sides. We think our contribution will buy time for researchers to better leverage existing drugs and for policymakers to develop better policy about the use of antibiotics."

Another benefit of three-drug combinations is that they could allow doctors to prescribe lower doses of each antibiotic, which could reduce side effects.

The researchers plan to make available open-access software that would let other scientists and clinicians decide which combinations of antibiotics will be most effective.

Yeh said the team's approach could also be used to study how four or more pharmaceuticals interact, and a similar mathematical framework could be used to better understand climate change (for example, to understand how temperature, rainfall, humidity and acidity of the oceans interact) and other scientific questions that have three or more key factors.
Nearly 30 percent of newborn pups born to pregnant rats fed highly oxidized ("off") fish oil died within two days after birth a new study by researchers at the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland in New Zealand finds. Mothers given "off" fish oil also had a higher incidence of insulin resistance at weaning compared with those given unoxidized supplements or water. The research is published in the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

According to a summary of the research, "Omega-3 fatty acids are known to be chemically fragile or 'unstable,' and can easily break down when exposed to natural conditions such as light, heat and oxygen." In a previous study, the research team found 83 percent of fish oil supplements sold in New Zealand to be oxidized beyond internationally recommended levels. This is in line with other studies that have found highly oxidated fish oil supplements in North America, South Africa and Europe.

"Once we discovered so many supplements were oxidized, we decided to focus on the health effects of oxidized fish oil during and after pregnancy," research fellow Dr. Ben Albert, from the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland said in the release. "We were surprised by the death rate," said study lead Professor Wayne Cutfield, also from the Liggins Institute. "We'd expected some negative health effects on the rat offspring, but we didn't expect them to die."
And that's not the only sad story to come out of Marineland. The 46 beluga whales who live in its tanks aren't in very good shape, alleged Last Chance for Animals (LCA), an animal activist group, in a five-month undercover investigation released earlier this year. The group states beluga whales had been neglected and were found fighting with each other inside the park. Marineland denied the findings of the LCA investigation, suggesting it was politically motivated, aimed at banning marine mammal captivity. The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) conducted an investigation of LCA's allegations and cleared Marineland, but did not release its findings to the public.

A beluga whale at Marineland | Last Chance for Animals (LCA)

Since IDA issued its list of worst tanks, Marineland called IDA an "unknown" and "radical" organization. "To be clear, this 'group' seeks only one thing - 'celebrity' and media attention," a representative with Marineland's marketing department told The Dodo. "This 'group' never visited Marineland, never contacted Marineland ... and lack[s] any expertise to provide a credible opinion on the condition of any animal or facility." Still, animal welfare advocates have pointed out that the number and density of whales at Marineland are at odds with the whales' natural tendencies to live in small groups. "Belugas in open water can cover thousands of kilometers over a few months and can swim at a rate of up to 6 kilometers per hour and to depths of 600 to 1000 meters," Lori Marino, neuroscientist and marine mammal expert, told The Dodo earlier this year. One thing is for sure: The belugas at Marineland enjoy no such distances, even if Marineland claims its tanks "are the largest at any aquarium in the world." 2. Puerto Aventuras Dolphin Discovery Catering to the tourists and spring breakers who flock to Cancun, Mexico, Puerto Aventuras Dolphin Discovery, in nearby Quintana Roo, allows visitors to swim with captive dolphins. However, many tourists may not be familiar with the dark side of swimming-with-dolphins facilities. Puerto Aventuras may not be the dreamy dolphin experience for which a naive tourist might have hoped.

Dodo Shows Wild Hearts Orphaned Deer Runs Back To The Wild With Her Best Friend

A dolphin at Puerto Aventuras Dolphin Discovery | Semillas de Consciencia and Tribe of Gaia

"While tourists may expect turquoise-clear waters in the 'large' enclosures advertised by the facility, they will instead see a murky aquatic cage full of dolphins," IDA reported. "The pens share water with an adjacent active boat marina where pollution from feces, motor oil and petrol abound. The water is apparently so filthy that children participating in the dolphin 'swim-with' program are asked to avoid getting water in their mouths." IDA also observed the dolphins exhibiting stress-related behaviors, such as pushing against the sides of their enclosures. Some dolphins had visible facial wounds. Dolphin Discovery owns this destination, as well as the swimming-with-dolphins facility operating out of Six Flags Mexico (number five on this list) - and over 20 more facilities like it around the world. 3. Georgia Aquarium

A beluga whale tank at Georgia Aquarium | Georgia Animal Rights and Protection

Mike Leven, chairman and CEO of Georgia Aquarium, responded to the list and, echoing other aquariums' responses, critiqued the roundup based on the kind of organization IDA is. "This is an activist-driven organization that leads only with the forethought of removing all cetaceans from accredited zoological facilities," Leven told The Dodo. "Without accredited zoos and aquariums, millions of people would not be able to learn about thousands of aquatic species and, in turn, respect and conserve them."

4. Miami Seaquarium Lolita is a 50-year-old orca who lives alone in the tiniest orca tank in America at the Miami Seaquarium. She has been there for the past 46 years.

Lolita lives in the tiniest orca tank in America. | Paul Derdzinski/IDA

Advocates who are fighting for Lolita, urging Miami Seaquarium to release her into a sea sanctuary, suffered a setback earlier this year, when a judge dismissed their case. "This ruling allows Miami Seaquarium to continue harming the long-suffering orca Lolita by confining her to a tiny tank, subject to harassment from incompatible animals, with no companionship from her fellow species and little respite from the hot South Florida sun," Howard Garrett, co-founder of the Orca Network, wrote on Facebook after the ruling.

The Miami Seaquarium is also home to 32 captive dolphins who are forced to perform in shows and give "kisses" to tourist after tourist. 5. Six Flags Mexico This popular amusement park chain also runs a dolphin discovery program at its park in Mexico City. Six Flags Mexico's dolphin exhibit is owned by Dolphin Discovery (the company that also runs number two on this list). The dolphins here are forced to "kiss" and "shake hands" with amusement park visitors, as well as perform shows. It's basically a circus, but the intelligent mammals being exploited are dolphins in tanks instead of elephants. "Beneath the glitz, glamor and dolphins' permanently fixed 'smiles' is a world of pain and suffering in these brilliant and complex mammals of the sea," Toni Frohoff, cetacean scientist for IDA, said in a statement provided to The Dodo. "SeaWorld and other aquariums deprive whales and dolphins of the lives they've adapted to live for millions of years in the wild, and steal from them what we value most: freedom and family."
<p>Animals' Angels</p>

Dozens of dogs can be seen crammed in a pen, left in the hot sun without food or water, in a recent video taken at a Texas flea market. In other shots, puppies are packed into small wire crates. The footage was taken by Animals' Angels, a Maryland-based welfare group that conducted an investigation at the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas, this spring after being contacted by several concerned locals. "They said that they'd seen a lot of insufficient cages for the animals, especially for the birds, that there were birds crammed into rusted wire cages, too many birds in one cage," Sonja Meadows, the founder and lead investigator of Animals' Angels, told The Dodo. "Then they complained about dogs being sick, dogs being without water in the hot summer heat. And horses being sold with bad feet."

Puppies backed into a plastic playpen. They would climb on top of each other to try to find room in the shade. | Animals' Angels

When investigators arrived, it was worse than they feared. The flea market, which is held once a month on the Curry Trade Grounds, is home to the infamous Dog Alley, where hundreds of vendors set up shop to peddle puppies and other animals. Animals' Angels estimated there were around 500 animal vendors each market, with around 350 selling dogs. "A lot of them were private individuals; there were backyard breeders bringing animals to the sale," Meadows said. "Definitely several of the sellers we suspected to be puppy mills."

Young puppies packed into a wire crate. They appeared to be ill, Animals' Angels said. | Animals' Angels

Some breeders had dozens of puppies with them, who were being sold, in some cases, for as little as $30 each with no information about their backgrounds. The dogs were left in shoddy cages or pens with no water or shade. "There was one dog that was kept in a homemade, very rusted cage that had no flooring and the wire holes were too big for its paws so it couldn't move at all," Meadows explained. "All it could do was lie on its side because the moment it would move its feet would fall. And the cage was lifted off the ground."

Dodo Shows Faith = Restored Woman Tries Every Day For A Month To Rescue This Dog

This dog spent most of the day in this wire crate. | Animals' Angels

She explained that the only entrance to the cage was a roughly cut hole in the wire roof, and anytime someone wanted to see the dog he would be pulled out through the hole, passing by the exposed rusty wires. "It was really quite scary," she said.

When interested buyers stopped by, he was pulled out of a cage through a rusted wire hole | Animals' Angels

Many of the dogs also appeared to be sick, particularly with parvovirus, a highly contagious and and potentially fatal disease often spread through overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in kennels and similar environments. Parvo can live in soil for months, and because of the poor conditions in Dog Alley, Meadows said, even the dirt was riddled with the virus. The fair organizers could not be reached for comment. "We were told by several sellers that these fairgrounds are infested with this disease," Meadows said. "And that's why some of them were passing out hand sanitizer and asked you not to let the dogs lick your hands because it's so infested."

This young puppy appeared to have a runny nose and weeping eyes. | Animals' Angels

"We saw several dogs that were sneezing and coughing and had watery eyes; you don't know what you buy if you buy a dog there, because there is no information you can rely on," she added. "We spoke to several visitors as well and they said they purchased dogs from the fairground and they had that issue - their dogs were infested with parvo." Meadows said the problem stemmed not just from the shoddiness of the site and poor care of the dogs, but also from the fact that the flea market had minimal standards about which animals they'd allow to be sold on site. "You can just show up with your animals, and there is no vet that looks at the animals once you arrive there," she said. "You could be selling a sick animal and nobody would ever know."

The dog in the wire crate also appeared to be ill, with a runny nose and eyes. | Animals' Angels

As evidence of just how commoditized the dogs were, Meadows said, many vendors decide it's not worth it to cart their unsold dogs back home after the event. "We found out that a lot of the dogs - if they don't sell - they're abandoned after the sale," she said, noting that animals were often found wandering around the site after the flea market was over. "Because we requested police reports from after the sale." The conditions were similarly brutal for the other animals at the fairgrounds, where livestock as well as pets are sold. It was particularly bad for the chickens and other birds, who were packed tightly into cages with no room to turn around. "In one cage it was so horrible," she added. "One of the chickens was in a corner and had no way to get away and the other chicken was cannibalizing it. It was plucking bloody pieces from its back, but there was nowhere for the other chicken to go."

Animals' Angels

Like the dogs, the birds and other animals were left for hours in the midday heat without any shade. "They would place them in full sun with no access to water," she said. "The chickens as well as the rabbits and some of the dogs had no water - the dogs [were] panting heavily." Many of the birds, including ducks and turkeys, were also abused by the people around them. "We saw birds being kicked around in cages on the ground, and being pulled out by their wings," Meadows said. "Once they were sold they were stuffed into feed bags and carried away."

Live birds being stuffed into feed bags | Animals' Angels

She added that the rabbits, horses and other livestock animals at the flea market faced similarly harsh treatment. Unfortunately, this situation is not uncommon. Flea markets are often a golden opportunity for puppy mills and other irresponsible animal sellers - customers often make spur-of-the-moment decisions, and fairgrounds have little barrier to entry for even the most questionable animal dealer.

Parakeets packed into crowded cages with no shade | Animals' Angels

Last year, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) conducted a similar investigation into 21 flea markets, and found that many of the vendors who portrayed themselves as small hobby breeders were really linked to large puppy mills. "Thanks to a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act exempting face-to-face sales, most of the breeders who peddle puppies at flea markets are not subject to even the most minimal regulations and inspections by the USDA," HSUS wrote. Some vendors at the Canton Flea Market also told HSUS that nearby ranchers would shoot the dogs who were abandoned after the sales, presumably because they were a nuisance. Meadows said she hopes that the public will realize that the markets' lax rules lead to the inhumane treatment of animals.

One of the young puppies for sale, asleep in her wire cage | Animals' Angels
William Grabill, a waste management worker, was emptying bins as usual when he heard the desperate mewls of what he ultimately realized were six newborn kittens .

The kittens, who were found toward the end of June, were estimated to be between 1 and 2 days old at the time. Their eyes were still closed and they had their umbilical cords attached.

They had been left in a dumpster filled with tar and wood pellets. Sarah Varanini, foster care coordinator at the Sacramento SPCA (SSPCA) in California, told The Dodo it's likely a stray mother cat thought the dumpster was a safe place to keep her babies - although she didn't rule out the possibility that the kittens could have been purposefully thrown away.

The newborns were taken to the SSPCA and placed into foster care with two staffers, who had the bottle-feeding experience needed to help the young kittens grow big and strong.
Wildlife photographer Kerstin Langenberger recently captured this image of an emaciated polar bear off the shores of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

It's all in the photo.

Scared Little Dog Is So Full Of Joy Now  And Looking For A Family

"Only few times I have seen beautifully fat mothers with beautifully fat young. Many times I have seen horribly thin bears, and those were exclusively females - like this one here," Langenberger writes in the caption of her photo.

In the Arctic, polar bears face a grim scenario due to climate change.

Rising temperatures have caused sea ice to melt. This sea ice is where polar bears hunt seals. Without it, the bears have turned to other, less abundant food sources on land such as snow geese and caribou.

But "there is simply not enough to eat on land to support so many large bears,"

biologist Ian Stirling told the National Post.

As a result, some polar bears end up going hungry. Tragically, Langenberger's photo seems to support that claim.

There are about 3,000 polar bears in Svalbard, and about 20,000 to 25,000 in the world. But there's great debate over their future: While some scientists say it's exceptionally bleak, others claim that some polar bear populations are actually stable.

If the picture above is any indication, though, the future looks sadly grim.

Follow Kerstin Langenberger on Facebook. Below are some of her stunning images.
Police officers may have had the wrong address when they arrived at an Oklahoma family's home to serve an arrest warrant. And from there, things only got more wrong. Eli Malone was celebrating his fifth birthday with his family, as well as his best friend, a dog named Opie. The kids had just gone inside for ice cream when police showed up. They heard a gunshot outside. Looking out the window, Eli reportedly said, "Mama, something's wrong with Opie." Two more gunshots from a high-powered rifle. "He (Opie) was over here kicking and gasping for air," the boy's mother, Vickie Malone, told Fox25 News.

Dodo Shows Foster Diaries Guy Falls In Love With His Little Meatball Of A Foster Dog

The town's chief of police, Ken Moore, says the shooting was justifiable. The dog, he claims, was showing signs of aggression and appeared to be a "dangerous" breed. A pit bull mix. (Pit bulls have a very undeserved reputation.) "We have a right to defend ourselves so I stand by my officer in the decision that he made," Moore told News 9. Never mind reports that the officer used a high-powered rifle he took out of his car to shoot the dog through a fence. Or that a computer glitch may have led officers to the wrong address. Or that a little boy will never forget his fifth birthday.

While the chief is satisfied his officer did the right thing under the circumstances, the department faces a barrage of criticism on social media. In addition Wynnewood mayor Mike Perry has called for an investigation into the incident. At the very least, the shooting has renewed calls for training among officers in how to deal with dogs. "There is a lot of real estate between 'hi puppy' and 'bam, bam, bam'," Edith Williams, founder of the Idaho for Nonlethal Canine Encounter Training, tells The Dodo. "Officers must be given the opportunity to know and be confident in the use of less lethal means to deal with such encounters." Williams has been spearheading educational and training programs for police departments in her state - and hopes training programs expand to agencies nationwide. "I just wish the critics would see that the burden for change does not rest with law enforcement alone," she adds. "I hope dedicated advocates will rise in Oklahoma and all other states, someone that will find a way to work with law enforcement to bring about awareness and change." If the shooting in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, raised awareness, it's certainly the wrong kind. But, Williams says, "Criticism of use of force on dogs and respect and gratitude for officers are not mutually exclusive."

Edith Williams

Gomez squared off against not one, but two growling dogs on a dark street. He didn't end up drawing his gun. But ultimately, he got the dogs in the back of his cruiser and home to their owner with just a few words: "You want to go for a ride? Come on, let's go for a ride!"

This browser does not support the video tag. Edith Williams
Horrible mistreatment and neglect left this puppy's body so thin and frail that he nearly lost his life - but through it all, he clearly never lost his spirit.

Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge

Last Sunday, animal control officers in Patterson, New Jersey, were alerted to the young dog's plight after neighbors complained that his owner was keeping him alone outside with no food or water. What they saw when they arrived was heartbreaking: "A skeleton of a puppy wagged his emaciated body as they approached," the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge wrote online. "He then collapsed from the exertion and excitement of greeting a visitor, having been alone for days."

Dodo Shows Faith = Restored Woman Tries Every Day For A Month To Rescue This Dog

Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge

Fearing for the puppy's health, both due to malnutrition and a skin condition, the officers then wrapped him up in a towel and carried him to get treatment at the Oradell Animal Hospital. On the way, the pup - who they named Pax - showered them with affection, perhaps out of gratitude for ending his sad ordeal. "They almost forgot how sick he was because his frail body was hidden by the comfy towel and he never stopped kissing them," the shelter wrote. "When they arrived and unwrapped him, he began wiggling again. He was so happy, his tail wagging furiously - all the while the rescuers were in tears as he tipped over again and again from weakness [...]"

Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge

Pax remained at the clinic for two days, where he began to recover his strength, and charm the staff with his sweet, gentle nature. In fact, when it was time for him to leave, placed under the care of the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Pax couldn't help but stop to greet everyone he passed by on his way out.

Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge

It's been less than a week now since his rescue, but Pax has already gained two pounds. And while he still has a long road ahead of him before he's fully recovered, it's not something he's having to face alone. More than 150 people so far have donated to a GoFundMe page launched to help cover Pax's medical bills, raising over $6,000 in a matter of days.

Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge
Porsche, 911, Canadian models, tested, Mosport,

BOWMANVILLE, Ont.  Have you ever been close enough to actually buying a new Porsche that you looked at an actual Porsche order form?

There have been novels that ran fewer pages.

I'm sure with all the permutations and combinations of models, trim levels, colours and options, Porsche could build its entire year's production and never build exactly the same car twice.

Heck, they could probably go a decade without repeating.

You want a 911?

Certainly.

Coupe, Cabriolet or Targa body styles? Base, S, or Turbo? (Well, they're all turbos now, but more on that later)

Rear-drive or all-wheel drive?

Manual or PDK manumatic with paddle shift?

Wheels? Colour? Interior? Carbon fibre trim? Or full leather?

Oh, would you like your wheel centre caps left black and white, or would you like them painted in colou,r like the Stuttgart city emblem? That will be $220, thank you very much.

That's the level of detail the option list provides.

To illustrate the breadth of the 911 offering, Porsche invited a gang of journalists to the Driver Development Track (DDT) at Mosport to have a go.

It was part of what Porsche calls the Grand Tour''  a series of track events across Canada designed primarily for customers who already own one, or prospects who want to own a Porsche.

The idea is to allow people to exercise the cars beyond what they could do on public roads, in a safe environment, and with expert instruction.

We had seven variants. They ranged from about as base a base 911 as you can get, a $102,200 rear-drive Carrera coupe six-speed manual, with 19-inch wheels pretty much comprising the option list, bringing the tag to $110,635; all the way to a $140,100 all-wheel drive Carrera S Targa, decked out to $174,100.

I mentioned that all 911s are now turbos. The Carrera gets a 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbo in two states of tune, base at 370 hp, and S at 420 hp.

No Turbo turbos were on hand this time. Wah ...

First, our instructors reviewed proper seating position. Seat far enough forward so you can have your right foot flat on the floor under the brake pedal with your knee bent.

Hands at quarter-to-three, elbows nicely bent, seat as high as you can get it while still allowing about a fist's width between your skull and the ceiling.

And Porsche is the rare car company that does headlight switches the right way. Turn the switch to on when you pick the car up at the dealership, and never touch it again. Car on, all lights on. Car off, all lights off. So simple. So seldom done correctly.

Next, a brief spin through the surrounding countryside, followed by some slalom and lane-change exercises, piloting the cars through fields of pylons to get a feel for how they handle. Then on to the DDT for some quicker stuff.

The format was lead-follow. We were split up into groups of two or three. One of the instructors from the Porsche Experience program would go first, with his group of ducklings in line behind him.

Each lap we'd move one slot further forward, and the lead journo in each group would fall to the back, so each of us got a shot at following our pro's line. The key to this deal is obviously to get yourself into a group of drivers who have half a clue, because the leader will more-or-less set a pace that the slowest duckling could keep up with.

There's no such thing as too much track time. As long as there are unburned fossil fuels and tires with rubber on them, our work is not complete.

Even with about three hours of this, back to back with all the variants, followed by some untutored hot laps by ourselves, it was insufficient to really draw proper conclusions. I'm ready when you are, Porsche Canada.

The new turbo engine is quick enough for sure. I may just be imagining this because I know it's a turbo, but maybe the throttle response isn't quite as crisp as the former naturally-aspirated engine.

The exhaust note is also a bit muted  the price you pay for a nearly 10 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency.

Porsche engineers have spent the half century of the 911's existence working on the suspension, trying not to kill its occupants every time they enter a corner too fast. Essentially, they are compensating for the fact that the engine is in the wrong place.

I know, that's sacrilege to the 911 freak, but the laws of physics are the laws of physics.

They have done a masterful job. Turn-in is brilliant, the steering is light, direct and precise, cornering power is prodigious, and a mistake is no longer potentially fatal.

So, which model would I choose? If they were giving them away, I'd probably opt for a Carrera S 4 Cabriolet for all-year-round everyday driving.

But in this exercise, I have to say that the most rewarding car was the most base of them all, the rear-drive stick-shift Carrera with the bare minimum of nanny systems.

Sure, the four-wheel drive is more stable, the S is faster, and hard as it is for an enthusiast to admit, the PDK transmission shifts better than you can.

We  well, at least I  did leave the Electronic Stability Control operational. I never want to be that guy.

But with as little as possible between me and the pavement, I found it the most fun car to toss around.

Not that any of them weren't fun.

The Grand Tour is but one example of the fun and games Porsche has on offer. Check their website or contact your friendly local Porsche dealer and see how you can get on the list.

Oh, and start saving your pennies. We wouldn't want those wheel centre caps to be black and white now, would we?

History of Mosports Driver Development Track

The Driver Development Track (DDT) was built when Don Panoz bought Mosport way back in 1998.

The late lamented Charlie Goodman was given the opportunity to bid on the racing school Panoz wanted to establish there. Alone amongst the bidders, Charlie said you can't teach people to drive on the main Mosport Grand Prix circuit because you are always too busy trying not to kill yourself to learn anything else. Its reputation for being one of the racing world's most challenging circuits is for real.

So Charlie told Panoz they would need to build a separate training track.

Everyone thought Charlie was nuts to suggest this level of investment just for a school.

But Panoz invented controlled release medication and the nicotine patch; he was hardly lacking for funds.

And he is reported to have said, He's the only one [of the bidders] who told me the truth! Give him the job.''

And so the DDT was built, and Charlie moved his operation from Shannonville.

Charlie's son Brett runs the Bridgestone Racing Academy at Mosport to this day.

When the current owners, Carlo Fidani and Ron Fellows, bought Mosport from Panoz in 2011, they sunk big bucks into revamping the entire venue.

The stock car oval was shut down, and portions of that track incorporated into the DDT, making it longer, considerably faster and more challenging, but still technical enough to keep drivers busy and working on their line and their skills.

Rare among training tracks, there are actually elevation changes, so you can get a feel for the loading and unweighting of the tires in the corners. Not to mention, making it more fun.

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PONOKA, ALTA.A judge in Alberta has convicted a man of stunting after he was pulled over by police for driving his car with a sign with an expletive aimed at former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Robert Wells of Edmonton was driving home from British Columbia when he was pulled over in August 2015 by an RCMP officer near Ponoka, Alta., and told to remove the sign.

He refused, saying it was a political statement and he had a right to have it in his window.

Judge B.D. Rosborough wrote in his ruling that the handmade F--- Harper sign didnt amount to stunting itself, stating that it didnt amount to a dangerous trick or manoeuvre.

But Rosborough said he believed testimony that Wells was deliberately slowing down and cutting in front of traffic on Highway 2 so that people would see his sign.

The judge said Wells was interfering with the orderly progress of other vehicles on the highway, which he said met the criteria for stunting.

Display of a sign in the rear window of a vehicle was hardly a notable or impressive act of skill or daring, Wells wrote in his ruling. Likewise, it could not amount to an exciting or dangerous trick or manoeuvre, he continued.

On the evidence that I do accept, I am satisfied that Wells was intentionally interfering with other traffic in order to advertise his anti-Harper sentiment.

Wells, who represented himself when the case was heard earlier this year, said he knew he had to challenge the ticket because it suppressed his right to freedom of expression.

The Crown argued there are other ways to express oneself and a busy highway is not the right place for such political discourse.

Wells was also pulled over by Edmonton police 15 years ago, after he displayed a bumper sticker with the same expletive aimed at former premier Ralph Klein to protest his governments push for private health care.

He said he wasnt charged because police determined he wasnt doing anything illegal.

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The Boeing 777, with 239 aboard, disappeared in March 2014 while on a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing.

By Reuters: The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if the aircraft is not found in an area now being searched, Malaysia, China and Australia said in a statement on Friday.

The Boeing 777, with 239 aboard, disappeared in March 2014 while on a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing.

Almost A$180 million ($135 million) has been spent since then on an underwater search spanning 120,000 square kilometres (46,332 square miles) in the southern Indian Ocean.

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SUSPENDING SEARCH 'NOT GIVING UP'

"In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 sq-km search," Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai told a news conference at which he read out the statement from him and his Chinese and Australian counterparts.

The families of those on board, most of whom were from China, have pressed hard for answers ever since the plane went missing, and they are likely to decry any suggestion the search will end.

Liow said the team was not "giving up on the search for MH370" even if the less than 10,000 square kilometres that remains to be searched did not come up with anything.

"Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," the ministers said in the statement.

Investigators believe the plane was deliberately flown thousands of miles off course before crashing into the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.

Malaysian investigators said in 2015 there was nothing suspicious in the financial, medical or personal histories of pilots or crew.

PIECES OF WRECKAGE

Several pieces of aircraft wreckage have washed up on beaches in Africa and been positively identified as coming from MH370 but they shed little light on the mystery.

"While acknowledging the significance of the debris, ministers noted that to date, none of it had provided information that positively identified the precise location of the aircraft," the ministers said.

The search has lasted more than two years but has found no sign of the main wreckage.

SEARCHING WRONG PATCH

Searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for MH370 told Reuters they believed the plane may have glided down to the sea rather than dived, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean.

That was the first time officials directly involved in the search have lent some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments.

The glide theory is not supported by the investigating agencies, which includes Boeing Co, France's Thales SA British satellite company Inmarsat PLC and officials from the United States, Britain and Australia.

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Liow told the news conference there was not enough evidence to confirm a controlled ditching, and added that he was confident the search was in the right place.

He said all data and information collected from the flight, search and debris of MH370 would be released to the public.

"It is in a very big volume, so it will take some time," he said.

Also Read: We've been looking in the wrong place, MH370 search team says



--- ENDS ---
OTTAWAAn emotional three days of testimony on the plight of minority refugee groups has ended with no consensus on how the federal government could move forward to help.

That has prompted Conservatives and New Democrats to propose their own solutions while slamming the Liberals for their seeming unwillingness to assist one particular group desperate to escape genocide  the Yazidis.

All the MPs on the Commons immigration committee were visibly moved by testimony during hearings on vulnerable minorities that detailed the atrocities facing Yazidis in Iraq.

The unusual summer hearings were called to find ways to help.

But the immediate response to the testimony amounts to a letter to the federal immigration minister that contains no recommendations other than a call to expedite applications from the Yazidis, a Kurdish minority group which practices an ancient faith.

Randeep Sarai, one of the Liberal MPs on the committee, said the letter is the best that can be done right now. It will take time to come up with solutions based on the volume of evidence presented, he said.

Its like asking a judge to make a decision on the same day as a 10-day trial, Sarai said in an interview Thursday.

He said theres no question that whats happening to the Yazidis is barbaric and demands the worlds attention.

The United Nations said as much in a report last month that called, among other things, for countries to accelerate the asylum applications of Yazidi victims of genocide.

The UN report spurred the committee to hold the extraordinary summer meetings, so the absence of specific recommendations is disappointing, said Conservative MP Michelle Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill).

We cant wait until the House gets back in September for question period and 10 weeks of committee study, she said. The government has to act over the summer.

In the meantime, Rempel and New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) have sent public letters of their own to the minister laying out their ideas. Among their proposals is that the minister invoke his powers under the immigration act to accept applications from people abroad on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, opening an avenue beyond traditional refugee streams.

The former Conservative government had sought to prioritize religious minorities, but an audit of those efforts revealed it didnt quite work. Only three Yazidi refugees arrived out of more than 500 files reviewed, The Canadian Press reported this week.

The audit findings spurred bitter partisan bickering at the committee. The Liberals asserted the Conservatives could have helped but did not, while the Tories argued the Liberals are resisting action because it was a Conservative initiative.

Kwan said the partisan rancour should be shelved in the face of a population at risk of being wiped off the earth.

What weve got to do is focus on solutions, she said.

You guys can do the blame-game all you want and right now we are talking about peoples lives and peoples lives are at risk.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister John McCallum said that, given the committee just finished on Wednesday, it will take time to review what they heard.

Camielle Edwards noted Canadas existing policy provides protection to women and girls at risk, as well as well as members of religious minorities who are refugees.

What we can say is that the minister recognizes the compelling nature of the claims of Yazidis as ISIL is attacking them, Edwards said.

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Toronto Star national security reporter Michelle Shephard has been nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award for her film about a Canadians 13-year ordeal in a Guantanamo jail from the age of 15.

Guantanamos Child was co-directed by Shephard and Patrick Reed, and produced by White Pine Pictures. Based on her book about Omar Khadr by the same name, the documentary was premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. They are nominated in a category recognizing outstanding long-form coverage of current affairs and news.

This is a huge honour for everyone who worked hard to make this film. It wasnt an easy one to make, said Shephard, who is currently on leave for the yearlong Atkinson Fellowship, during which shes exploring topics including youth radicalization.

At a time when the world seems even more divided and we use hashtags to discuss terrorism and civil rights, were just thrilled such as documentary is being recognized.

Toronto-born Khadr, now 29, was captured by American forces in Afghanistan in 2002 at age 15, and charged with war crimes for the murder of a U.S. soldier in a firefight. He has maintained he was a forced soldier while both American and Canadian officials painted him as a willing insurgent.

He was held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba for 13 years until his transfer to a Canadian facility last year. On May 7, 2015, he was freed on bail with strict conditions.

A veteran reporter, Shephard joined the Star in 1995 and became the papers national security reporter in 2001 after covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in New York.

I was really lucky that the Star would not let this story go and allowed me to follow it for more than 12 years and then to be teamed up with a skilled filmmaker like Patrick, said Shephard, who has been a previous winner of the Michener Award for public service journalism and has been awarded three National Newspaper Awards.

In the end, I think people needed to see and hear from Omar Khadr and others involved in his case. He existed for so long as just a caricature, drawn and defined by others.

The News and Documentary Emmys will be presented on Sept. 21 in New York.

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American soldiers who fled to Canada rather than fight in Iraq joined activists and a Liberal backbencher on Friday to urge the government of Justin Trudeau to end legal action against them and grant them residency status.

Bolstered by a recent British report that found no justification for the bloody U.S.-led invasion, the war resisters pleaded for the Liberal government to make good on promises to end their state of limbo.

Im shocked and dismayed that its still going on, former U.S. Marine Cpl. Dean Walcott, 34, who came to Canada in 2006, told a news conference.

Walcott, who lives with his wife and Canadian-born children in Peterborough, Ont., is one of four American soldiers whose cases are due in Federal Court in September. Activists say the litigation is going forward even though Trudeau expressed support for the war dodgers during last years election campaign and told The Canadian Press earlier this year that his government was actively looking into the issue.

Also facing judicial action is Jeremy Brockway, 31, another U.S. Marine who returned from Iraq in 2007 with severe post-traumatic stress syndrome that keeps him largely housebound. He came to Canada in 2008 after being ordered to deploy to Iraq for a third time.

His wife, Ashlea, choked back tears as she described the stress of not knowing whether they and their three Canadian-born children  aged 8, 6, and 3  will be forced to leave their home in Port Colborne, Ont., and return to the U.S. to face a possible court martial.

We came to Canada to save his life, she said. Canada is our home and is the only home our children have known.

Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, scores of American soldiers opted to come to Canada rather than fight a war they saw as without justification. The former Conservative government under Stephen Harper essentially branded them as criminals.

Some were forced to return to the U.S. About two dozen are still in Canada fighting for status.

Former CBC radio host Andy Barrie, an American military deserter, lent his voice to the cause, describing how he came to Canada in 1969 and was granted permanent residence status immediately.

When I crossed the border, I got out of my car and I kissed the ground, Barrie said. I knew I was going to be OK.

Barrie noted that Trudeaus father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, welcomed American deserters and draft dodgers into Canada and about 100,000 of them were given sanctuary here.

Liberal backbencher Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said hes been raising the issue with the government and is hopeful that action is going to be taken. He could offer no details.

Immigration Minister John McCallum referred a request for comment Friday to the Immigration Ministry, which said it would not be appropriate to speculate on future actions the government may take.

New Democrat immigration critic, Jenny Kwan, noted that war resister Rodney Watson, who has a Canadian-born son, has spent almost seven years in church sanctuary in Vancouver. Conscientious objectors must have a pathway to citizenship in Canada, Kwan said.

Let the families get on with their lives, she said.

Michelle Robidoux, spokeswoman for the War Resisters Support Campaign, said the U.K. inquiry into the Iraq war concluded that the war was based on lies and would lead to catastrophe. U.S. soldiers who sought refuge in Canada because they could not in good conscience fight in Iraq, she said, should be welcome to stay.

Each week that goes by adds on to the 10 years of uncertainty and undue hardship that the Harper government inflicted on U.S. war resisters, Robidoux said.

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WHITEHORSEOntario consumers will finally have unfettered access to British Columbia wine under a historic deal inked by premiers Kathleen Wynne and Christy Clark.

The two leaders, along with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, uncorked the anti-protectionist tripartite agreement Friday.

It doesnt make sense to people in Ontario  or people in B.C.  that they cant access each others wine, Wynne said at the Council of the Federation (COF) meeting.

At my first COF meeting in Niagara (three years ago), Christy brought me a bottle of wine so weve been working on this, the Ontario premier said, adding, almost apologetically, that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) will oversee the program.

LCBO will be launching their e-commerce site, which will mean people can go on a site, they can order B.C. wine and have it delivered by Canada Post to their home or they can pick it up at the LCBO, she said.

The reality is that over the years there have been different regulations put in place and it is a bit of a labyrinth so  we are trying to make it more rational.

Wynne said opening up trade is part of her liberalization of beer and wine sales in Ontario. There will be 150 supermarkets selling six-packs of cider and beer by next May and 70 grocery stores will begin expanded wine sales this fall.

Im really pleased that people will have more choice. For me, its about people having the choice, people having access to the industry across the country, she said.

The accord is a huge win for Clark, who is up for re-election next May.

This is good news for Canadians who love B.C. wine, for B.C. wineries and the 10,000 British Columbians whose jobs depend on a strong and growing wine industry, said the B.C. premier.

Its a good example of what Canadas three largest provinces can achieve when we work together, she said, singling out Wynne for praise.

Changing liquor laws in Ontario is not an easy task. Its a byzantine system thats grown up over the years and I dont envy Premier Wynne having to take it on, but I certainly do admire the tenacity shes brought to it.

In 2013, B.C. officials smuggled a case of Okanagan Valley chardonnay and pinot noir to the premiers conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., the heart of Ontario wine country, to highlight the absurdity of Canadian trade barriers.

Even though Ottawa loosened interprovincial wine rules in 2012, it has remained illegal for Ontarians to buy B.C. wines in bulk and have them shipped from vineyards.

Wines from Niagara and Prince Edward County and other Ontario appellations are available to B.C. consumers, but the government-owned LCBO did not want to lose revenue and was a roadblock to greater access.

Clark, who has dramatically opened up B.C. liquor laws in recent years, conceded that having government monopolies in Ontario and Quebec as part of the new arrangement is imperfect.

We can say we have not freed the grapes completely, but they are freer, she stressed, prompting Couillard to quip: Weve unshackled them.

The Quebec premier, who is looking at revamping alcohol laws there, signed onto the accord because it should help his provinces nascent wine industry to grow.

Improved online ordering represents a great opportunity to ensure wine products from Quebec get greater access to Canadian markets, said the Quebecer, whose LCBO-style Societe des alcools du Quebec will run its e-commerce program.

We do this in the spirit of Canadian free trade. This agreement is open to any other wine-producing province that would like to join. So I know that Nova Scotia, in particular, is quite interested.

Along with the wine deal, the 13 provincial and territorial leaders gathered in Whitehorse for their annual summer convention finally concluded a broader agreement on internal trade that should expand labour mobility in Canada.

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The Globe and Mails Toronto building was evacuated Friday afternoon after someone called the reception desk with a bomb threat, police said.

Globe employees were told to evacuate the building, on Front St. W. at Spadina Ave., as a precaution, according to police. They were called about the threat by an employee at around 3 p.m.

Police set up a command post nearby and closed off surrounding streets. For roughly three hours, bomb-disposal officers, the K9 unit and firefighters searched the area, eventually finding an abandoned backpack in a stairwell that was later confirmed not to be a threat, according to Sgt. Chris Watson.

He said late Friday afternoon that police had no leads on the callers identity.

Employees were allowed to return to the building at about 6 p.m.

According to the Globes Toronto editor, Nicole MacIntyre, the Saturday edition was being assembled off-site because of the evacuation.

Executive editor Derek DeCloet also thanked the Canadian Press on Twitter for giving Globe employees a place to work during the search.

With files from Brennan Doherty and Jake Kivanc

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Kofi Patrong has won the right to sue the Toronto Police  again.

In the latest development in a years-long legal saga, an Ontario divisional court this week struck down an appeal by Toronto police that would have stopped Patrong, 31, from suing the force for its alleged role in a 2004 gang-related shooting that left him with a debilitating leg injury.

Since 2011, Patrong has been attempting to sue police for negligence, claiming officers could have prevented the now-convicted murderer, Tyshan Riley, from shooting Patrong in a case of mistaken identity.

I immediately started to thank the Lord and I started crying, Patrong said Thursday, shortly after learning he can proceed with his $9 million lawsuit.

Patrong was 19, with no gang affiliations and no criminal record, when he became an accidental victim in a bizarre case of mistaken identity during a time of tense gang warfare between two rival Scarborough gangs, the Malvern Crew and the Galloway Boyz.

On April, 2004, Patrong was hanging out with friends in the backyard of a Malvern townhouse complex over lunch when he was suddenly shot by Riley, a notorious member of the Galloway Boyz. It was found in court that Riley had mistakenly believed those in the group were members of the rival Malvern Crew.

At the time of the shooting, Riley was the main suspect in a prior shooting, and it was believed he posed a major threat to public safety. Riley was being wiretapped and trailed by police on the day Patrong was shot.

In 2011, Patrong and his mother Rose launched a lawsuit against Toronto police, alleging police had both the grounds and the opportunity to arrest Riley before he could harm anyone, but chose not to intervene.

The suit was based on the so-called Jane Doe case, in which a rape victim won a lawsuit against Toronto police for failing to warn women about the balcony rapist, now-convicted rapist Paul Callow.

Police in that case detected a very specific pattern: the rapist entered the apartments of single, white women living in the lower units with balconies in the Wellesley and Church Sts. area. But investigators failed to notify possible victims because they didnt want to alert the attacker to the fact that they were gathering evidence.

The lawsuit argues that police should have known Patrong was at a high risk of being victimized by Riley because he fell into a category of men who may be targeted by Riley: young, black men in Malvern who could be perceived as gang members.

The lawsuit names the Toronto Police Services Board, then-police chief Julian Fantino, and Al Comeau and Wayne Banks, two detectives investigating Riley at the time Patrong was shot.

But Patrongs lawsuit has encountered several legal hurdles. In 2013, Ontario Superior Court Justice Victoria Chiappetta rejected Patrongs lawsuit saying he failed to establish the special relationship between police and the victim that would make the officers accountable to Patrong.

The lawsuit did not support that Patrong was readily known to the police as a target of the foreseeable harm, he said.

His lawyers Barry Swadron and Kelley Bryan revised the lawsuit, using data from previous gang-related shootings to narrow down a more specific location where a drive-by shooting was likely to occur  the few blocks near the Malvern Town Centre, when Patrong lived.

In May, 2015, Ontario Superior Court Justice Frederick Myers gave the green light for the revised lawsuit, ruling that if the allegations in the suit are proven, (Patrong) and others in the neighbourhood had the right to expect the police to arrest Riley before he committed another drive-by shooting.

It is fair, just and reasonable that the defendants ought to compensate the plaintiffs for the injuries that were sustained due to the defendants wrongful acts, Myers wrote.

Lawyers for Toronto police board, Fantino and the two named detectives then appealed Myers ruling, but a panel of divisional court judges dismissed that appeal this week.

Toronto police could still appeal to the Court of Appeal. Kevin McGivney, one of the lawyers representing Toronto police, said Thursday the ruling is being reviewed and no decision has been made about an appeal.

The case raises a difficult issue, he said: the degree to which police can be sued for harm caused by other people.

Its a challenging issue with broad implications, he said.

Patrong, a father of two, spent over a month in hospital after the shooting, and almost lost his leg. Twelve years later, he still has chronic pain and walks with a pronounced limp.

He and his mother Rose  who still works full time at a bank  are getting frustrated with the delays. She would like to retire, Patrong said.

Swadron, one of Patrongs lawyers, says Toronto police should stop fighting Kofi tooth and nail all the way.

My hope would be that the whole issue of Kofis compensation is not going to be held up in some perpetual appeals, said Marshall Swadron, who represented Patrong on the latest appeal. Its time for them to stop, I hope they will.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

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Ontario Court Justice Marvin Zuker changed the landscape of sexual assault and the criminal justice system on Thursday.

He found York University student Mustafa Ururyar guilty of sexually assaulting fellow PhD student Mandi Gray.

Of this there is no doubt, he said. Ms Gray was raped by the accused.

But it was his verdict, 179 pages delivered in a deliberately patient cadence over more than two hours, that was revolutionary.

The myths of rape should be dispelled once and for all, he announced near the long-awaited end of his verdict. It doesnt matter if the victim was drinking, out at night alone, sexually exploited, on a date with the perpetrator, or how the victim was dressed. No one asks to be raped.

He underlined that last line, literally.

Does the woman rush to the police right away or wait days, weeks, months? It doesnt matter, Zuker said. There are plenty of reasons why victims wait or dont report at all. Does she remember every gruesome detail in a piecemeal fashion, rather than in a neat chronology? It is understandable, people only remember the gist of what happens and trauma causes memory fragments, he said. Does she lie stiff with fear, and not claw at her attacker or scramble desperately for the door during her rape? And if she doesnt, should she be disbelieved later?

This is ludicrous and contrary to the way in which victims behave when attacked, he said.

For much of our history the good rape victim, the credible rape victim has been a dead one.

At about the 80-minute mark, when it finally became clear which way things were going, many of Grays supporters in the gallery gasped, grabbed one anothers hands and cried. They had expected the opposite because thats the way it usually goes, particularly in typical sex assault cases like Ururyars that pivot entirely on consent.

Ururyar acknowledged he and Gray had sex. The two had been hooking up for two weeks, since theyd met at a union meeting at York, where he was studying political science and she sociology. The night of the assault, shed texted him from a bar to come drink and then we can have hot sex. He came, they shut the place down and then walked back to his place.

Her testimony, which Zuker ruled as the truth, was that he berated her on the way home, calling her an embarrassment and a slut until her self-esteem crumbled. Once he got there, he jammed his penis into her mouth and then raped her. She lay frozen in fear. The version Ururyar told from the witness stand was theyd gone home happily, hed broken up with her and then theyd had consolation sex.

Like in most cases, there were no witnesses to the rape. There were no obvious physical injuries detected by a sexual assault kit Gray had done the next day. There were just the two peoples words.

Zuker ruled Gray very credible and trustworthy and Ururyars evidence a fabrication, credible never.

He slammed him even for his defence tactics: He went or tried to go to any length to discredit Ms Gray, if not invalidate her. Such twisted logic.

Apart from the ruling, what was also atypical in the case was Gray herself. She wasnt the stereotypical broken woman. She came to court in a cute skirt and blouse, often revealing an arm of tattoos. She was bold, proud and angry. She repealed the publication ban on her name and sent press releases about coming court dates. She hired a lawyer to advise her. Instead of fleeing court after testifying, she arrived each day of the six-day trial to hear Ururyars testimony from the gallery and his lawyer Lisa Bristows final submissions, in which she painted Gray as a vengeful liar out for fame.

Despite the brave front, Gray called the experience traumatizing.

Its really sad that the legal system is doing what it is supposed to and we are all shocked, Gray said from the Old City Hall courthouses grand steps after the ruling had been delivered. (Gray uncharacteristically was not in court when the verdict was read Thursday. She released a public statement from home, and came in the afternoon after Ururyar had been found guilty.)

Its hard to feel a sense of justice and I want to, but this process has been so brutal to me I just cannot feel at this moment feel any sort of happiness. she said.

This outcome is statistically so unlikely, I think a lot of things lined up for me both within the legal system but also because Ive been fighting since day one, when it was the police officer that told me I implied my consent and I challenged him with case law, she said. Not a lot of people will do that.

Near the end of his ruling, Zuker seemed to address Gray personally, through feminist poetry and literature.

Who is this judge, I wondered? My colleague Oliver Sachgau dug up that hed been a family court judge in the 1990s and was known for taking a child-centred perspective. He co-wrote two books about women and the law with the late, wonderful feminist and social justice activist June Callwood. One was a handbook for women navigating the law, titled The Law Is Not for Women.

Zuker said many rape victims find therapy in creative outlets. Then he quoted the title of poet Maya Angelous autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Gray has a large colourful tattoo of a bird flying out of a cage on her upper left arm. What Zuker did not know was she got it done last summer, as a way of reclaiming her body from the rape that haunted her. (The phenomenon of rape tattoos is one shes studying.)

Among Grays supporters in the gallery was Linda Redgrave. She was the first witness in the case against Jian Ghomeshi, which began the same day as this one last February, in the same court, one floor down. In his not guilty judgment, Justice William Horkins excoriated Redgrave as inconsistent, deceptive even. Since then, she lifted the publication ban on her name and has become a regular at the courthouse, supporting other sexual assault victims.

Zukers verdict, she said, reaffirmed her belief that sexual assault deserves its own specialized court, where judges and Crown attorneys are trained in rape myths. It also reaffirmed her position that the accused in rape cases must take the stand, so their credibility can be as rigorously tests as hers was.

Its a victory, said Redgrave. But it makes me sad about my trial. It makes me wish I could go back and have different players.

Ururyar looked stunned by the verdict. During the lunch break, he wandered around the second floor of courthouse towing a blue suitcase (hes moved out of Toronto and is flying in for court dates), with a spaced-out glare in his eyes. Clean-cut and baby-faced, he looks like a nice guy, not a rapist, another myth Zuker skewered Thursday.

We cannot perpetuate the belief that niceness cannot coexist with violence, evil or deviance and consequently the nice guy must not be guilty of the alleged offence, Zuker said in his verdict.

Nice guys rape, too.

Crown Attorney Jennifer Lofft pushed for Ururyars bail to be revoked because he is a convicted rapist. Zuker will decide that Monday, but sentencing wont be until Oct. 24. Lofft is asking for a medium to maximum penalty of 12-18 months in jail, and Bristow is vying for no jail time.

The wheels of justice, even when theyre on the right track, grind excruciatingly slowly.

Out on the court steps, Gray declared the case still not over for her. She has filed a human rights complaint against York, for lacking clear policies and protocols for students sexually assaulted by classmates or staff, and that is dragging on with no end in sight.

In a lot of ways my life continues in shambles, she said.

She has changed her PhD subject from women in prison to sexual assault.

That seems fitting.

Catherine Porters column usually appears on Fridays. She can be reached at cporter@thestar.ca

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What happens when a maximum security facility produces maximum insecurity?

So opens Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgans ruling on a prison stabbing case that faults the prison system  rife with shanks and shivs  above the inmates involved.

Justice Morgans ruling last week acquitted inmate Michael Short, 27, of four assault charges after he fought back against a shank  a makeshift knife  attack by two prisoners at Toronto East Detention Centre in February 2015. Short was then released.

There is nothing unreasonable about Mr. Short using a weapon of his own to defend himself . . . where people are blatantly trying to kill him with knives or shivs, Justice Morgan wrote in the July 14 decision.

The judge laid broader responsibility at the feet of the institution and its violent conditions. The system put him in this situation, and the system cannot blame him for resorting to his own means of defence, he wrote.

Short, who was serving time for robbery when the incident occurred, was in court last week facing two charges of assault, and two of assault with a weapon. The three-day trial ended July 13 with Morgan letting Short walk free.

Shamar Brown and Jordan Marcelle were not charged in the incident.

Short sustained a neck injury, requiring stitches. Its unclear who caused the gash. Brown received a slash and a puncture wound from Short.

Morgans ruling comes in the wake of a wave of criticism around overcrowding, understaffing, lack of mental health support and use of solitary confinement in the provincial and federal correctional systems.

On Thursday, Short told the Star The East  the detention centre  needs more guards and fewer lockdowns.

Theres not nearly enough of them. And there needs to be an immediate response when this happens. Its dangerous, he said on the phone through his lawyer, Robert Costello.

Monte Vieselmeyer, chair of the corrections division for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said the ruling sets a dangerous precedent.

Its implied that hes saying that offenders are justified to carry these weapons, Vieselmeyer said.

He called on the provincial government for more prison funding.

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services has approved the roll-out of full-body scanners at all 26 provincial jails over the next two years. The scanners will catch inmates makeshift knives, sometimes lodged up their backsides said Vieselmeyer.

Earlier this year, the province announced it would hire 2,000 correctional officers over three years, on top of the 710 it has brought on board since 2013.

The new hires will beef up the number of guards, boost access to rehabilitation and reintegration programs and improve access to mental health services, then-minister of Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi said in March.

The head of security for the Toronto East Detention Centre, Sgt. John Lawson, conceded that The East is a violent place with many inmates having weapons, Morgan wrote. Short, Brown and Marcelle testified that the Scarborough facility is rife with weapons of all varieties, the judge wrote.

Correctional Services is currently reviewing Morgans ruling, and declined to comment on the case because it may still be appealed, said spokesperson Greg Flood.

Jason Mushynski, vice-president of Local 582 representing correctional officers at Toronto East Detention Centre, called the ruling insulting and a slap to COs.

He pointed to the absence of training to deal with weapons or sharp objects. Mushynski said the union has been asking the province for that for years to bolster safety for guards and inmates

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The Liberal government is stonewalling the release of two reports on what caused the important Nipigon River bridge to heave dangerously in a bone-chilling January cold snap, opposition parties charged Friday.

Just weeks after it opened on an isolated stretch of the busy Trans Canada Highway east of Thunder Bay, the bridges steel decking popped up 60 centimetres and forced a daylong closure for emergency repairs.

That prompted Nipigon Mayor Richard Harvey to state Canada has been cut in half.

Large trucks  which carry about $100 million worth of goods daily on that stretch of road  had to endure long detours for several weeks until more substantial fixes could be made to the $106-million cable-stayed structure by late February.

People deserve an explanation, Progressive Conservative MPP Michael Harris, his partys transportation critic, told a news conference, echoing calls from his New Democrat counterpart Wayne Gates.

It doesnt matter if its truckers or families on vacation, drivers need to have confidence in this government that roads and bridges are safe, Gates (Niagara Falls) told the Star.

The government has an obligation to release the reports immediately.

Delays could mean any further action required on the bridge could stretch into next winter, Gates warned.

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca acknowledged the government has received final reports on testing of bolts used to hold the bridge in place but maintained they are only one part of the comprehensive investigation that is ongoing.

Bridge engineers from the ministry are continuing to determine what happened to heave the bridge and Associated Engineering (Ont.) Ltd., an independent consultant with expertise in cable-stayed bridges, is conducting its own analysis, Del Duca added in a statement.

From my perspective, releasing limited information in piecemeal fashion prior to having all the facts does not help us get to the root cause of the bridge failure, the minister said.

When the entire investigation is completed, which we expect will be in the fall, expert findings and details from the engineers will be made public.

Gates said the fact that the investigation continues in the wake of bolt tests by scientists at two labs means its probably more complicated than the bolts.

Harris (Kitchener-Conestoga) said the delay in releasing any information makes him wonder what the government may be trying to hide . . . I think its more about protecting their own hides.

He raised the possibility of design flaws with the bridge  the first cable-stayed bridge in the province  or construction errors.

Its clear there was a lack of oversight.

Cable-stayed bridges are supported by lines of cables stretching from one or more towers, and are found elsewhere around the world, including cold climates in Russia and Alaska.

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OTTAWA  Canada weighed in Thursday in the ongoing South China Sea dispute, with a thinly-veiled call to China to abide by an international ruling that has angered Beijing.

While the statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion doesnt specifically name China, it appears aimed at the country, which is angry after an international panel rejected much of its maritime claim.

The Hague panel that administers the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea sided last week with the Philippines and rejected much of the legal basis of Chinas claim.

The maritime dispute has implications for Sino-Canada relations at a time when the Trudeau government is seeking to make economic and political inroads with China.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is bound for China later this summer for the G20 leaders summit, after having appeared to reboot relations with China last fall during his first meeting with President Xi Jinping.

But Canadas recent decision to side with G7 ally Japan on the maritime tensions, as well as disagreements with China over human rights, are complicating those aspirations.

Dion reiterated Canadas commitment to the maintenance of international law and to an international rules-based order for the oceans and seas in helping resolve the six-country dispute.

Whether one agrees or not with the ruling, Canada believes that the parties should comply with it, Dion said Thursday.

We are deeply concerned about regional tensions that have been escalating for a number of years and have the potential to undermine peace and stability, he added.

It is essential that all states in the region exercise restraint and avoid coercion and actions that will escalate tension.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan insisted that Canada wasnt taking sides in the dispute.

There are international bodies where we can resolve disputes and a decision has been made within the law, and the parties should respect those decisions, he said in an interview.

But one international affairs expert sees it differently.

It is a message to China without mentioning China  diplomatically worded but unambiguous, said Fen Hampson, the head of the global security program at the Centre of International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont.

The government is finding that China is a difficult country to do business with and that relations will not be easy to manage.

The South China Sea is one of the worlds busiest trade routes, which is significant for Canada as it tries to deepen its economic footprint in the region through the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, and other bilateral deals.

Dions statement makes specific reference to Chinas provocations in the region such as building artificial islands and landing strips, as well as requiring foreign aircraft flying over dispute waters to identify their presence to Beijing.

All claimants must refrain from land reclamation, militarization and other actions that can undermine regional security and stability, said Dion.

Actions that could jeopardize freedom of navigation and overflight exercised in accordance with international law, maritime security and international trade must also be avoided.

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Swati Singh added that she will file a First Information Report (FIR) against Mayawati for the "mental trauma" faced by her family over the controversy.

By India Today Web Desk: Expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's wife today said Mayawati will not be satisfied until he is beheaded for his abusive remarks comparing the BSP chief with a prostitute.

Swati Singh added that she will file a First Information Report (FIR) against Mayawati for the "mental trauma" faced by her family over the controversy.

"Can a person be punished four times? He was first sacked as the UP BJP's vice-president, then the FIR was lodged and later he was even expelled from the party for six years. He has also apologised for his remarks. But Mayawati ji is still not satisfied, she wants him beheaded," she told news agency ANI.

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"Now thousands of BSP supporters are protesting on the streets and abusing me and my 12-year-old daughter. Yesterday, all of them were condemning my husband's remarks. Why don't they say anything now," Singh said, asking why Mayawati is not acting against the abusive elements in her party.

"What applies to my husband also applies to others," she argued.

Meanwhile, the BSP on Thursday called off its agitation against Dayashankar Singh after police assured his arrest within the next 36 hours. The cops had failed to find him at his whereabouts in Ballia and Lucknow on Thursday.

BJP leader compares Mayawati to a prostitute as party counters anti-Dalit tag in Gujarat, ParliamentPeople treat me as Devi, BJP should have filed FIR against Dayashankar Singh, says Mayawati

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OTTAWA  Donald Trumps comments that, if elected president, the U.S. wouldnt automatically come to the aid of allies are not helpful, Canadas defence minister says.

The Republican nominee caused a stir this week when he said some NATO members arent spending enough on defence, and are instead relying on the U.S. to protect them. That would change if hes elected, Trump told the New York Times.

Were talking about countries that are doing very well, he said. I would absolutely be prepared to tell those countries, Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.

While Trump appeared to be directing his comments at European allies, Canada spends less than one per cent of its gross domestic product on defence. That is half the NATO target and puts Canada near the back of the pack among the alliances 28 members.

In an interview with The Canadian Press Thursday, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan defended Canadas military contributions and NATO. He pointed to Canadas recent promise to lead a NATO force in Latvia and its role in the fight against Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as proof the country is pulling its weight.

Were stepping up in a much bigger way, Sajjan said. When you put everything together, we have nothing to embarrassed about. In fact, we actually can be very proud of the fact of how much were doing.

Article 5 of the NATO treaty enshrines the concept of collective defence, in which an attack on one member is an attack on all. The only time it was invoked was after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which led to the war in Afghanistan.

Some Eastern European members have worried Article 5 will not be honoured if Russia takes action against them. That is partly why Canada and other allies are sending troops to the Baltics and Poland, to reassure those countries that the alliance stands with them.

Trumps comments, however, have the potential to stoke fresh concerns about the alliances unity, particularly as it faces a new Cold War with Russia.

Sajjan said collective defence is central to the alliance, which itself has been instrumental in helping bring peace and stability to Europe and other parts of the world.

So those comments that are made are not helpful, Sajjan said. But I understand theres an election campaign and thatll take its course.

Sajjans comments seemed quite reserved when compared with reaction from NATO members in Europe, and even from leaders with the Republican party.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance agreement was crystal clear: We defend each other.

I will not interfere in the U.S. election campaign, Stoltenberg said. But he pointedly added, Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States.

People throughout Eastern Europe expressed deep concern. Fears of Russian aggression have run high since it annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

His words were irresponsible and they inspired fear in me. Im worried about the worlds future, about Polands future, said 39-year-old schoolteacher Lidia Zagorowska in Warsaw, Poland.

If I were a U.S. citizen, I would never, ever vote for Trump. Let that be my answer, said Katarzyna Woznicka, 54, walking her dog in downtown Warsaw.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who backed Trump at the partys national convention only two days earlier, said he totally disagreed with the statement but was willing to chalk it up to a rookie mistake.

Star wire services

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CLEVELANDIt rocked with incompetence. It throbbed with hatred for Hillary Clinton. It caught fire and burned, burned, burned over this black hole of a candidate, Donald Trump.

And now, with the smouldering remains of the Republican National Convention done and dusted, only one thing remains.

Its time to be afraid.

No need yet for the full duck-and-cover. No need, either, to pore over every word of Trumps Thursday night finale in search of carved-in-stone tablature from Moses. He will say something else tomorrow. Or tonight. Or in 15 minutes.

But some degree of actual fear is appropriate now, given Trumps utter destruction of the Republican political sausage factory. The crucible of a national convention is meant to heal, unite, galvanize and thrust the candidate forth as standard-bearer for the party of Lincoln.

Instead, Donald Trump emerges as Donald Trump, with the party of Lincoln looking more like the party of clown car. And now hes in the home stretch to November, with the White House looking nearer than anyone imagined possible.

Ezra Klein, writing Thursday as editor-in-chief of Vox, put it this way: I am, for the first time since I began covering American politics, genuinely afraid. The issue is not ideology, but character, wrote Klein  his temperament, his impulsiveness, his basic human decency.

Trump has shown us who he really is. He is a person who should not be president. That he is being brought this close to the presidency  that he is one major mistake by Hillary Clinton away from winning it  should scare us all. It certainly scares me.

One fact the Cleveland experience made abundantly clear: Trumps impulsiveness will not be bottled and capped by anyone. Trump gonna Trump, no matter what. Often with the attention span of a common housefly.

On Wednesday night, just before his running mate Mike Pence made his mainstage debut with a speech that conformed to official Republican talking points  stand with allies, never apologize to enemies  Trump sat with two senior New York Times reporters to say almost precisely the opposite.

NATO allies cannot count on unconditional backing from Donald Trumps America without a better financial deal. Nor should America be in the business of holding the worlds worst leaders to account on how they treat their citizens, Trump said, because When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I dont think were a very good messenger.

Trump went on to again play the trade card, vowing to crack open NAFTA to cut a better trade deal with his immediate neighbours.

Trumps words rocked three cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy in one fell swoop. When his campaign manager denied the report, insisting his words had been taken out of context, the Times released a full transcript. The context made it even worse.

The now well-established pattern: When Trump is under the control of a teleprompter, a strong semblance of Republican ideology emerges. When he veers off-script, the language veers back to the same aggrieved Fortress America rhetoric he has nurtured for decades.

Trumps latest unvetted remarks coursed through Cleveland as the GOP awaited his acceptance speech. And far, far beyond, eliciting unease in Washington and throughout the NATO alliance.

Trumps podium speech Thursday night, by contrast, veered away from loose-lipped pratfalls. But it struck a sharp tone of impending doom, with the candidate claiming a place as national saviour-cum-avenger, warning America faces existential threats and vowing to lead the country back to safety, prosperity and peace.

The attacks on our police and the terrorism in our cities threaten our very way of life, Trump said, calling himself the law and order candidate. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

There is no shortage of nervous diplomats right here in Cleveland, including a team from Canada, monitoring, rubbing shoulders, making contacts. They have sat in the arena, witnessing with their own eyes the lustful chants against Clinton  lock her up, lock her up, lock her up. They have to be ready for all eventualities, including a Donald Trump presidency.

I dont have a crystal ball obviously. Were here listening and meeting, making the case that nine million U.S. jobs depend directly on trade with Canada, said Douglas George, Canadas consul general to Detroit.

People point out that eight years ago even Barack Obama spoke a bit about NAFTA on the campaign trail, said George, alluding to earlier instances of overheated campaign rhetoric.

But the difference, others say, is that Trump likes to be seen as a man of action. He likes to act. So the question might be, On what would he act first? 

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STERLING, VA.Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as the leading contender to join the Democratic ticket as Hillary Clintons running mate, according to two Democrats, who both cautioned that Clinton has not made a final decision and could yet change directions.

The announcement of Clintons pick could come as early as Friday afternoon in Florida, a crucial general election battleground state. The timing is aimed at shifting attention away from the end of Donald Trumps Republican convention and generating excitement before the start of Clintons own convention next week in Philadelphia.

Kaine, 58, has been a favourite for the vice-presidential slot since the start of Clintons search process. He has been active in the Senate on foreign relations and military affairs and built a reputation for working across the aisle as Virginias governor and as mayor of Richmond.

Im glad the waiting game is nearly over, Kaine told reporters Thursday after an event in Northern Virginia, deflecting questions about whether he was about to join the ticket.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a longtime friend of Clintons, is still in the mix, according to one of the two Democrats, who is close to the Clintons. Both Democrats are familiar with the selection process and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Clintons choice will be the culmination of a closely held search for a running mate, run by a small group of longtime advisers and confidantes.

Preparing for a showdown with Trump, Clinton has sought to project an inclusive campaign aimed at breaking down barriers and building bridges to mobilize the diverse coalition of voters who twice elected President Barack Obama.

Clinton has also considered Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favourite of liberals; Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Labor Secretary Tom Perez; and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

Clinton is opening a two-day campaign swing in Florida on Friday. Shes expected to unveil her running mate at either a Friday afternoon rally at the state fairgrounds in Tampa or at a Saturday event at Florida International University in Miami, where two-thirds of the student body is Hispanic.

The two locations give Clintons campaign the flexibility to make the announcement at the most optimal time. The campaign is expected to first inform donors, volunteers and activists by text message and has been encouraging supporters to sign up for such an update.

After the convention, Clinton and her vice-presidential choice will depart on a campaign bus tour, reminiscent of Bill Clintons First 1,000 Miles tour with Al Gore after the partys 1992 convention.

Kaine is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and worked as a lawyer on fair housing and civil rights issues. He has been considered a leading vice-presidential contender for weeks based on his broad political experience in Virginia, another presidential battleground.

One of the main reasons that Im being considered is because of Virginia, Kaine said. Its not necessarily just because of me. Its because Virginia is really important.

The Virginian is seen as a safe choice against Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Kaine could help Clinton woo moderate voters who have been turned off by Trumps provocative rhetoric.

Kaine campaigned with Clinton last week in Northern Virginia, where he spoke briefly in Spanish and argued that Trump was unqualified, untested and untrustworthy.

Do you want a youre fired president or a youre hired president, Kaine said in Annandale, Virginia, as Clinton nodded. Do you want a trash-talking president or a bridge-building president?

Kaine took a year off from law school as a young man to work with Jesuit missionaries at a vocational school in Honduras. His friends have described him as someone steeped in his convictions and his Roman Catholic faith.

He and his wife, Anne Holton, are longtime members of Richmonds St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, a predominantly black congregation in a poor part of town. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Kaine moved to Virginia after meeting Holton at Harvard Law School.

Anne Holton currently serves as Virginias secretary of education and is the daughter of former Virginia Gov. A. Linwood Holton Jr., a Republican. The couple have three children; their eldest son, Nat, is serving as a Marine.

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At the Republican National Convention, the party  and its presidential candidate Donald Trump  were at a crossroads.

In one direction, the party sees the road to reform in an embrace of women and minorities, while in the other direction, it sees it in a retreat back to its base.

No-one exemplified the partys split personality more than Trump, who alternately promised to protect LGBTQ citizens from violence, and to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants.

We will be a country of generosity and warmth, but we will also be a country of law and order, Trump said.

For an hour and 15 minutes, Trump painted a dark picture of America that can only be rescued by a firm hand unafraid of smiting external threats such as those posed by illegal immigrants and foreign nations.

No one knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it, Trump promised.

But which direction he will take remains to be seen.

The theme of the night was Make American One Again, which struck a note with voters frustrated by recent attacks against police and growing racial tension.

Our country is divided. Our people are afraid. And our spirits are nearly broken, said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.

The message took on a touch of irony as the party itself is embroiled in infighting over Trumps candidacy and the future of the party.

Trumps daughter Ivanka spoke at length about how her father would close the gender wage gap and make child care affordable for working mothers.

He will fight for equal pay for equal work and I will fight for this, too, right alongside of him, Ivanka said at the convention, where she introduced her father before he made the keynote speech as the partys presidential nominee.

Earlier in the evenings program, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel made history when he uttered five words on the stage at the Republican National Convention: Im proud to be gay.

Thiel was the first gay speaker to proclaim his sexual orientation at the partys convention. He used the spotlight to urge Republicans to abandon anti-gay rhetoric and focus on economic growth.

When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union and we won. Now were told the great debate is who gets to use what bathroom, Thiel said.

Fake culture wars threaten to distract us from our economic decline, and no one is being honest about it except for Donald Trump.

But others wanted the party to stick to its right-wing roots.

Jerry Falwell Jr. scoffed at how liberal universities have become Democratic party indoctrination camps. The son of Liberty University founder and evangelical leader Jerry Falwell assured the conservative Republican base that a vote for Trump is a vote to appoint conservative pro-life justices to the Supreme Court.

More on thestar.com:

For a United States in crisis, Donald Trump presents himself as the only solution

Its official. Now its time to be afraid: Potter

Photos: Day 4 of the Republican National Convention

Ted Cruz subjected to furious Republican recrimination after failing to endorse Trump

Trump sucks air in failed kiss attempt with Mike Pence.

Recap: Day 4 of Republican National Convention

With files from The Associated Press and Daniel Dale

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There are many things children cannot do at certain Australian schools.

One school outlawed hugging. Another prohibited singing Christmas carols. Another has removed the word black from ba ba black sheep. And now  clapping has been banned.

Elanora Heights Public School, a primary school in Sydney, is instructing students to punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot, instead of slapping their hands together  all with a teachers permission, of course.

The practice has been adopted to respect members of our school community who are sensitive to noise, the school wrote in a July 18 newsletter. When you attend an assembly, teachers will prompt the audience to conduct a silent cheer if it is needed.

Teachers have also found the silent cheers to be a great way to expend childrens energy and reduce fidgeting, the newsletter continued.

A New South Wales Education Department spokesman told The Educator magazine the clapping ban is only in place for school-wide assemblies, not all school events like plays, concerts or sporting events.

The spokesman also said the school consulted the Parents and Citizens group, similar to an American parent-teacher association, which supports the decision.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the school instituted the policy to support a faculty member with a hearing disability.

Australian schools have offered some interesting alternatives to more traditional ways of cheering or playing or displaying any kind of emotion.

Instead of hugs, one principle suggested high fives or a knuckle handshake.

Teachers at a prestigious all-girls school have been asked to replace terms like, girls, ladies or women with gender neutral terms like students, when addressing pupils to be considerate of nonbinary gendered students.

The bans have drawn outrage from some who say they feel the schools are overreaching in policing behaviour.

I am all for diversity and making sure that our younger generation understand exactly what is going on within the community, but to implement something like this, its just ridiculous, Sunday Mail newspaper editor Peter Gleeson told a local television station.

Australian radio host Chris Smith called the new rules, deplorable.

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MIAMI  The North Miami police officer who shot and wounded an unarmed black mental health worker earlier this week was actually aiming at the mans autistic patient and trying to protect the worker, the head of Miami-Dade Countys police union said.

John Rivera, who runs the Miami Police Benevolent Association, told reporters Thursday that the officer, who has not been identified by name, is a decorated four-year veteran of the police force and a member of the SWAT team. The police department said on its Facebook page Thursday evening that the officer is a 30-year-old Hispanic. Earlier in the day, Chief Gary Eugene said the agency will be transparent as the investigation unfolds.

The admission by Rivera and the officer was intended to help calm the fears of the nation following a rash of police shootings, and sometimes killings, of black men. Rivera said the officer fired three times and hit 47-year-old Charles Kinsey in the leg.

Kinsey, who was trying to coax the 27-year-old autistic man back to a group home hed run away from, is recovering from his injuries.

Mondays shooting comes amid weeks of violence involving police.

Five officers were killed in Dallas two weeks ago and three law enforcement officers were gunned down Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Before those shootings, a black man, Alton Sterling, 37, was fatally shot during a scuffle with two white officers at a convenience store there. In Minnesota, 32-year-old Philando Castile, who was also black, was shot to death during a traffic stop. Cellphone videos captured Sterlings killing and the aftermath of Castiles shooting, prompting nationwide protests over the treatment of blacks by police.

Thomas Matthews said Thursday that when he noticed North Miami police officers responding to a commotion a block from his usual outdoor sitting spot Monday, he grabbed his binoculars and saw a middle-aged black man and a younger autistic man sitting in an intersection.

The officers, he said, grabbed rifles from the patrol cars trunks and crept toward the men. The autistic man was holding something in his hand. Peering through his binoculars, he could see the object was a toy truck. Matthews says he tried to tell an officer who had stayed behind for crowd control, but she told him to back up.

Soon, three shots rang out and therapist Kinsey was injured. The shooting drew national attention because much of what happened before the shooting was captured on video.

If she would have told the other officers, maybe they wouldnt have shot, said Matthews, a 73-year-old African-American. He ran a North Miami flower shop before retiring and has lived in the area for years. He said he has never had a problem with North Miami police.

But I guess with all the shootings that are going on, they are nervous and shook up, Matthews said.

At a news conference Thursday, Chief Eugene said the investigation has been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorneys office. He called it a very sensitive matter and promised a transparent investigation, but refused to identify the officer or answer reporters questions. Eugene, a Haitian-American with 30 years of South Florida police experience, just became chief last week.

I realize there are many questions about what happened on Monday night. You have questions, the community has questions, we as a city, we as a member of this police department and I also have questions, he said. I assure you we will get all the answers.

During a Thursday news conference, Rivera, said the officer believed Kinseys patient was armed, and the officer was trying to shoot the patient in an attempt to save Kinseys life.

Nancy Abudu, the American Civil Liberties Unions legal director in Florida, said her group hasnt received any brutality complaints about the North Miami police or about any questionable shootings before this weeks.

Kinseys attorney, Hilton Napoleon II, said he is already talking to North Miami city officials about a monetary settlement for his client, who is married with five children. City officials did not return a phone call seeking confirmation.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters the Justice Department is aware of the shooting and working with local law enforcement to gather all of the facts and to decide how to proceed.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who represents the area, said she was in shock.

From what I saw, he was lying on the ground with his hands up. Freezing. But he was still shot, said Wilson, a Democrat.

This is not typical of North Miami, she said. Were not accustomed to this tension . . . This cannot happen again.

The chief said officers responded after getting a 911 call about a man with a gun threatening to kill himself, and the officers arrived with that threat in mind  but no gun was recovered.

Cellphone video shows Kinsey lying on the ground with his arms raised, talking to his patient and police throughout the standoff with officers, who appeared to have them surrounded.

As long as Ive got my hands up, theyre not going to shoot me. This is what Im thinking. Theyre not going to shoot me, he told WSVN-TV from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. Wow, was I wrong.

The video does not show the moment of the shooting. Napoleon said there was about a two-minute gap in which the person who was recording had switched off, thinking nothing more noteworthy would happen. It then briefly shows the aftermath of the shooting. He would not say who gave him the video.

Lay down on your stomach, Kinsey says to his patient in the video, which was shot from about 30 feet away and provided to the Miami Herald, Shut up! responds the patient, who is sitting cross-legged in the road.

Kinsey said he was more worried about his patient than himself.

Im telling them again, Sir, there is no need for firearms. Im unarmed, hes an autistic guy. He got a toy truck in his hand, Kinsey said.

After the shooting, Napoleon said officers handcuffed Kinsey and left him lying in the street on his stomach for 20 minutes without rendering first aid.

Kinsey said he asked an officer why he was shot and the officer said I dont know.

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MINNEAPOLISA Minnesota police officer and the black motorist he shot to death during a traffic stop had interacted in a previous stop more than four years earlier, newly released records show.

Philando Castile, 32, died July 6 after he was pulled over by St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in suburban St. Paul. Yanezs attorney has said the officer was reacting to seeing a gun. Castiles girlfriend, who streamed the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook, said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling the officer he had a gun permit and was armed.

Records released Thursday by the city of St. Anthony in response to a request from The Associated Press also include a report on a July 2 armed robbery at a Super USA convenience store that lists Yanez as one of two officers assigned to investigate. The robbery occurred a few blocks away from where the traffic stop took place four days later.

Yanezs attorney, Thomas Kelly, has said that when Yanez stopped Castile he was approaching someone he thought resembled a suspect in an armed robbery.

Castiles family has questioned that, saying his long history of traffic stops  pulled over or ticketed at least 52 times in recent years  suggested he was racially profiled.

The traffic stop included in Thursdays release was made in November 2011, with Castile pulled over for a defective brake light. He was arrested on a Hennepin County warrant for driving with a revoked license.

Yanez wasnt the arresting officer, but he was listed as one of two officers who drove Castile several miles to the county jail. It was just a few weeks after Yanez had joined the St. Anthony Police Department.

Yanezs attorney didnt respond to an email from AP.

The city also partially responded to a request for personnel data on Yanez and Officer Joseph Kauser, who also responded to the scene of Castiles shooting. The city said it had no record of complaints against either officer. Yanez joined the department in November 2011, and Kauser in January 2013.

The St. Anthony Police Department currently has 23 police officers and 14 reserve officers.

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PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA  The more than two-year-long hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will be suspended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the three countries conducting the operation announced Friday, possibly ending all hopes of solving aviations greatest mystery.

Some families of the lost planes 239 passengers and crew were angry over the decision to stop what is already the most expensive search in aviation history, having cost $177 million Cdn. Others continued to hold out hope.

In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-square-kilometre search area, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts.

There are fewer than 10,000 square kilometres left to be searched. In a statement read by Liow, the ministers acknowledged that the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading.

The ministers said the search could be revived, but only if new evidence emerges.

Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps, their joint statement said.

As Liow and the other two ministers were addressing the news conference, representatives of the passengers families stood outside the building holding placards calling on authorities to keep trying. Find the plane, ease our pain, read one.

We dont want the suspension to be just a way to let everyone calm down and slowly forget about it, said Grace Subathirai Nathan, a Malaysian whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on the flight. We want them to be doing something in the interim to look for new information.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said experts will continue to analyze data and inspect debris but added, Future searches must have a high level of success to justify raising hopes of loved ones.

The Boeing 777 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It is believed to have turned back west and then south before dropping into the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where the search has been concentrated. Much of what happened to the plane remains a mystery, though the Malaysian government has concluded that it was deliberately steered off course.

Liow said the search, hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, will end by December.

Although the ministers were at pains to say they were not permanently ending the search, it is evident that it is highly unlikely to continue after that, given how few clues have emerged since the disappearance of the plane. Confirmed and possible debris has been found off East Africa thousands of kilometres away, but authorities have said the wreckage has provided no information that might help locate the bulk of the aircraft.

Some relatives remained hopeful that the search will resume one day.

I feel encouraged. Fearing the worst, we now have something to hang on to, said K.S. Narenderan, who lost his wife, Chandrika Sharma, on the flight. I read into it a commitment to stay engaged in the search and to hold themselves accountable to pursue the truth.

You can suspend, but dont stop there, said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member on Flight 370. Suspension can be five years, 15 years, 20 years . . . Its a long wait, so go back to the drawing board.

Representatives from Voice 370, a group representing family members of the planes passengers and crew, met with Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and urged the governments to suspend the search until new funds can be raised. They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers.

The three governments are involved because the airline was Malaysian, most of the passengers were Chinese, and the suspected crash site is off southwestern Australia.

Several relatives of Chinese victims said they felt betrayed by the decision.

I will never agree with the decision to suspend the search, said Zhang Qian, whose wife, Wang Houbin, had been on board MH 370. We will definitely gather to protest it and I have lost confidence to the Malaysian government.

But Jeanette Maguire, whose sister and brother-in-law Cathy and Bob Lawton, from Brisbane, Australia, were aboard Flight 370, said that while the decision is very difficult to accept, she understood searchers needed more information to continue, because its costing an absolute fortune.

There have been several theories surrounding the disappearance and the final hours of the flight, including that the plane glided into the water and didnt dive in, indicating a controlled ditching.

We do not have any evidence to confirm that it was controlled ditching, Liow said.

He said the plane debris found so far did not identify the exact location of the aircraft but the location of the debris is consistent with the drift modeling pattern done by Australia, which indicated a general search area.

Western Australia University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi, who has done extensive drift modeling, has said the plane could have crashed slightly north of the current search area.

Pattiaratchis modeling was based on how long the first piece of confirmed Flight 370 wreckage took to reach La Reunion off the African coast , an island where confirmed plane debris was found, and his teams calculations of the effects of currents, wind and waves on drifting debris.

Drift modeling was not used to define the search area because no parts of Flight 370 had been found before a wing flap washed up on La Reunion island a year ago. The search area was determined by analysis of satellite signals that the plane emitted in its final hours.

But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has previously said wreckage found on the southwestern shores of the Indian Ocean was consistent with the plane crashing in the expansive search area.

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MOSCOW  Hundreds of local residents and journalists on Friday came to pay their respects to a prominent journalist who died in a car bombing in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv earlier this week.

Mourners lined to lay the flowers at Pavel Sheremets open casket, which had been put on display in a major Kyiv community centre. The 44-year-old is to be buried in Belarus, in his hometown of Minsk.

Sheremets killing on Wednesday in central Kyiv sent shock waves through the Ukrainian media community. Authorities have pledged to conduct a thorough and swift probe but provided no reason why they think Sheremet was killed.

The Obozrevatel news website on Friday released a video showing a man and a woman walking away from what Obozrevatel said was Sheremets car the night before it was blown up.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the authenticity of the video but Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko told reporters on Friday that it shows part of the group that was behind the journalists murder.

Sheremet had irked officials in Belarus and Russia before he moved to Ukraine, where he said there were fewer hurdles to independent reporting.

Though ties between Ukraine and Russia are all but severed because of the ongoing separatist war in the east, Russian journalists who worked Sheremet came to pay their respects.

Those who did it  no good will come to them in this life or the next one, said Ekho Moskvys deputy editor-in-chief Yevgeny Buntman who had come from Moscow.

This was a monstrous blow, but we must keep the memory alive, to always have Pashas face in front of us and his hand in our hands so that we are not overcome by fear and not betray ourselves.

Sheremet started out as a television journalist in Belarus in the 1990s when he was briefly incarcerated for illegally crossing the border while reporting on how porous it was. He left for Russia and was stripped of his Belarusian citizenship in 2010.

In a media landscape sanitized by the authoritarian Belarusian government, Sheremet  while living abroad  founded Belaruspartisan.org which went on to become one of the countrys leading independent news websites.

He moved to Ukraine in 2014 after what he said was pressure from his Russian television bosses over the reporting of ongoing opposition protests in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has urged police and prosecutors to find the killers and bring them to justice.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman held a moment of silence in honour of Sheremet at the start of a government meeting on Friday and said law enforcement agencies are working day and night in order to find the killers.

I know for sure that law enforcement agencies dont sleep at night in order to solve this monstrous murder and feel they have to do it as soon as possible, he said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency.

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Expressing grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives, especially the youth, Mehbooba Mufti assured every possible help to the affected families.

By Ashraf Wani: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday evening visited Anantnag to offer personal condolences to the families of youth killed in recent law and order situation in the twin districts of Anantnag and Kulgam.

Expressing grief and anguish over the loss of precious human lives, especially the youth, the Chief Minister assured every possible help to the affected families. She said it was painful to note that these children who have become the victims of the senseless violence belong to the poorest of the poor families.

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The Chief Minister interacted with the parents of the deceased youth and said she is pained to see the trauma they are undergoing due to the loss of their near and dear ones.

'SOME ONLY INTERESTED IN POLITICS'



The Chief Minister said while certain quarters are only interested in playing politics over the dead bodies of the youth, it is the family members of these slain youth who have to live with this pain forever. "Ironically, it is only the parents and other immediate family members of these ill-fated youth who have to live with the life-long trauma of losing their near and dear ones to this senseless violence," she said.

Adding to that, she said there are hundreds of such families in Kashmir today who have lost their near and dear ones to the violence, one way or the other, and have been left at the mercy of the God. "Most of these families are living in such miserable conditions that they have to even struggle for day-to-day living," she said and added while hundreds and thousands of people may be attending the funerals of the slain youth, "tell me how many of these people then bother to visit these anguished families to help them out of difficult circumstances."

The Chief Minister said the government is, however, alive to the abject condition of such distressed families. "We will try to work out a mechanism to ensure a secure and dignified living for the kith and kin of the victims of violence so that their families don't have to run from pillar to post to live a normal life," she said and added that it is the responsibility of the government to reach out to such families.

--- ENDS ---
Its tempting to say Donald Trump is all leader and no ship: no party inclinations in any recognizable forms, nor typical policies, organization, strategy or scripts. It centres on him alone. Except for a literal ship, labelled Trump, that he flies in on and speaks in front of. He likes it so much, he flies it home to New York each night to sleep in his bed  which is kind of touching  then drops in again next day.

A savvy journalist I know seems alone in having observed an uncanny similarity to the opening of Leni Riefenstahls dazzling Triumph of the Will (1935), about Hitler at Nuremberg. The opening shot has the Fuhrers little plane hovering above thick clouds. Then, lo  an opening appears through which we glimpse the rooftops of the town and the plane descends, lands and the leader emerges.

I mention this not to compare Trump to Hitler  Trump of the Will, as it were  but, if anything, the opposite: the tropes of leadership are numerous and recurrent, and among them is the leader who comes among the clouds. Trump as trope.

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, who I spent much of this week talking about to despairing party members in London  seems the polar opposite: all ship and no leader: an MP for decades, full of policies, everything about him told in terms of party politics, yet he himself is barely there. He fades before your eyes  while eliciting fiery reactions from everyone else. Hes all suffix (-ship) with no preceding noun. And this is precisely his magnetism!

Theres now a full-blown leadership challenge to him, before hes fought a single election  after being elected with unprecedented member backing. Why? After one of Corbyns shadow cabinet, Hilary Benn, was sacked (as they say) for plotting against his leader  being the UK, foes are called regicides  Benn explained, Jeremy is not a leader. Thats what they all repeat. He wont work ferociously, doesnt build bridges or concoct complex strategies to ally with others and achieve power, utterly lacks charisma, seems uninterested in doing anything he hasnt done for years. Yet somehow he hoovers up manic support.

So hes no Bernie Sanders, despite comparisons. His many enemies in the party elite have coalesced behind one candidate (unlike JC theyre ruthlessly strategic): Owen Smith, or Jones  no one can remember. Since they recognize Corbyns appeal to the young and via the partys radical roots, Owen whats-his-name began by saying, I am just as radical as Jeremy Corbyn. Nothing else could have communicated old and fake as swiftly. Then his past as a PR hack for ugly drug companies and a supporter of the Iraq War emerged. But he checks those leadership boxes and the old hands will continue pushing for him.

At a house party in London, the hosts were moaning about Jeremy. When asked what his appeal could be, they said, Oh, its like all those young people downstairs in the kitchen. Go ask them. There is a mystery lurking here.

Is it possible we are living in a non-leadership moment? That leaderliness has been so formularized and commodified that its undermined itself, and people yearn for someone who reeks to boredom of not having those qualities?

Leadership can still win elections. Justin Trudeau did it with all the basics of the old formula, though in his own rendition  which is worth keeping in mind. But something else is also going on, especially in the aftermath of the quashed hopes that attended Obamas coming. Would you rather have a victory for plausible principles or one for leadership itself without believable ideals? Because in the UK at the moment it seems impossible to have both elements.

Heres another thought. Might you unexpectedly be able to acquire leadership qualities when you appear totally happy without them, like Corbyn?

Hm. I once wrote a play about a false Jewish messiah of the 1600s who attracted vast support with his come-and-go charisma and a seeming ability to fulfil the needs and yearnings of his time. The problem was casting the part. Most actors didnt feel they had a messianic gear, AKA charisma. But a director suggested: if everyone onstage treats you as the messiah, youll start feeling it. That may be near the truth of much success. It would be an interesting wrinkle.

Rick Salutins column appears every Friday.

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Donald Trump has blown up the Republican Party. Its not clear what will replace it.

Trump didnt do the deed on his own. The Republicans have been at war with themselves for decades, a war that found expression in renegade presidential candidacies like that of Pat Buchanan in the 90s, in the ongoing tension between economic and religious conservatives and more recently in the rise of the anti-establishment Tea Party.

But Trump, a New York developer, has shrewdly exploited these contradictions to deliver the coup de grace.

Technically, Trump will appear on the November ballot as the Republican Partys nominee for the U.S. presidency. In fact, he will be the standard-bearer of a movement that some commentators are already referring to as Trumpism.

Trumpism is not a coherent ideology. It is a cult of personality that reflects the changing moods and thoughts of one man. Yet there are some key pillars that appear relatively fixed.

First, like old Republicanism, it is nostalgic. It appeals to those mourning a mythical past in a mythical land, where minorities kept their grievances to themselves, cops were tops and America ruled the world.

Second, it is insular. As Trump explained in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times this week, he is not wedded to the concept of collective defence under NATO.

This is a stark break from old Republicanism and hearkens back to the isolationist American Firsters of the 1930s.

Trumpism expresses American disillusionment with the wars in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. But it goes well beyond that to question U.S. military support of long-time allies such as Japan, South Korea and the nations of Western Europe.

In the Times interview, Trump was asked if he, as president, would come to the aid of a fellow NATO member threatened by Russia. His answer was: Not necessarily.

Third, and somewhat contradictorily, Trumpism is belligerent. Trump may question the value of facing off against Russia over, say, the Baltic states. But he calls for more defence spending and a bigger military.

He would rip up the nuclear deal with Iran and, in ways he declines to explain, destroy the Islamic militants known as Daesh.

Under the tenets of Trumpism, America might withdraw from the world. But when it did choose to engage it would always prevail.

Fourth, Trumpism is protectionist. This is perhaps the most fundamental break with old Republicanism.

Trump promises to either radically rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico or scrap it. He would can the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment pact signed by 12 nations (including Canada). He clearly has no love for a World Trade Organization treaty that he says allows China to cheat.

He says hes not against free trade deals in principle. But the criteria he uses to judge such deals are so stringent that he might as well be.

Trumpism prevailed in the Republican primaries, where Trump swept the board. It is also prevailing in the Republican convention taking place this week in Cleveland.

Texas senator Ted Cruz may have stolen the show at this convention Wednesday evening when he openly refused to endorse the man who had beaten him for the Republican nomination. But the boos that greeted Cruzs eloquent speech served also as a reminder that his principles  the principles of traditional Republicanism  now matter less than loyalty to Donald Trump.

The Republicans go into the November election not just as a divided party but as a party that, to all intents and purposes, no longer exists.

It has been replaced by an array of factions existing to promote various politicians  such as Cruz, House Speaker Paul Ryan or Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

At the forefront are the Trumpists, the most important faction of them all.

These factions may be united by their common hatred of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats presumptive presidential nominee. This common hatred may even allow them to win in November.

But they are no longer the Republican Party. Eventually, that party may be reborn in a different form. Right now, it is gone.

Thomas Walkom's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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On Nov. 13, 2013, Ian Pryce was shot to death by two police officers. The mentally ill man had threatened police with a weapon. Only after his death did officers discover it was a pellet gun that looked identical to a regulated firearm.

That much is known from a recent coroners inquest that looked into the death of the 30-year-old black man. What remains unknown is whether his death could have been prevented.

Thats a question all inquest juries are tasked with answering. Disturbingly, though, its the question that is least likely to be probed at an inquest into a police shooting death. Most of the lawyers at such an inquest represent police themselves  including the police chief and the officers involved in the shooting. All are there at public expense.

That imbalance should be addressed to ensure more perspectives are properly represented. One way to achieve that would be to change the Coroners Act to cover the cost of legal expenses at inquests for the families of anyone who is killed by a police officer. The questions that lawyers for families ask can get at issues that are key for the jury to hear in order to make informed recommendations on how police shootings can be prevented.

As it stands now, the family may go unrepresented if they dont have the resources to hire a lawyer for an inquest. Indeed, the only reason that the interests of Pryces mother, Heather Thompson, were raised at the inquest into his death was because she was represented pro bono by lawyer Peter Rosenthal. He showed the importance of family representation by raising important issues that the jury followed up on in its recommendations to help prevent future shootings.

The issue is especially critical now, with three inquests upcoming into the police shootings of Andrew Loku, John Caleb Ross and Eric Osawe.

The province should change the Ontario Coroners Act to make sure the juries that will look into the deaths of these men hear evidence from all points of view  including the families of those who died. Public safety depends on it.

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It just happened again. Id be rich if I had a dollar for every time a right-turning car did not pay attention to the right-of-way pedestrians trying to cross on their green light.

As per usual, running down the sidewalk southbound on Yonge St., approaching an intersection where I have a green light (and walk sign), a car coming on the side street to a red light, but the drivers head is turned left, oblivious to me and any other law abiding citizens, as shes creeping into my path.

I always yell, Look both ways! with hand gestures, hoping their startledness/guilt will cause them to be more careful next time, and possibly save a life. Worse is when the windshield is too dark to make eye contact, with these careless drivers.

My daughter still needs me, Toronto drivers, please be more careful!

Donna Ritchie, North York

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New Years Eve. Singlehandedly the best and worst night out on the calendar.

For many it starts with dreams of the best night out ever, which is often quickly followed by the worst hangovers ever. Of new life resolutions, quickly followed by remerging bad habits.

Theres overpriced drinks, overpriced entry, terrible DJs playing horrible music sure to give you a headache, and long queues to pretty much everything including the taxi rank home.

But for a lucky few in Western Australia, New Years Eve is now shaping up to be something pretty special, with the geniuses behind heavy music festival Unify teaming up with Red Hill Auditorium to announce Redfest  Perths first ever New Years Eve heavy music event.

Taking place at the picturesque Red Hill Auditorium, Redfest is the first New Years Eve event of its kind in Western Australia and will bring the very best of the burgeoning Australian heavy music scene to Perth and showcase them alongside fine local talent set to a breathtaking backdrop of the Perth cityscape.

Heading the inaugural Redfest will be The Amity Affliction. Redfest will be the first time The Amity Affliction has played in Perth in over a year since The Big Ass Tour in 2015.

As the band count down the days until the release of This Could Be Heartbreak, their fifth album follows on two consecutive ARIA #1 albums, one Platinum and three Gold records, as well as a ARIA #1 gold-certified documentary.

Supporting are Northlane  who will return to Perth off the back on absolutely massive year for the band which has seen them grow into one of Australias most successful heavy music exports  as well as Deez Nuts, hometown heroes Make Them Suffer, Hellions, and local legends Saviour.

Tickets for Redfest go on sale today at midday via Oztix, with tickets starting at a very reasonable $90.80 including booking fee.

And it wouldnt be a New Years Eve event without a VIP offering now would it?

For what organisers have termed a truly unique and unforgettable way for everyone to bring in the new year, Redfest will be offering special VIP tickets (limited to 150).

VIP tickets will give punters who purchase them access to the VIP deck with a panoramic view over the event and the city, a private VIP bar with a selection of drinks not available anywhere else in the venue, own toilet facilities and a complimentary drink.

So what are you waiting for? Get your tickets now, otherwise youve only got yourself to blame when you end up at some crappy disco this NYE.
07/21/2016

By Ed Brennen

Economics major James Aung emigrated from Myanmar to Lowell in 2008, just as political and economic reforms were beginning to take root in his troubled homeland (also known as Burma).

Since then, the rising senior has become executive director of the SayDaNar Community Development Center, a volunteer-based organization that serves the nearly 300 Burmese refugees and immigrants who, like himself, have built new lives in Lowell.

When Aung learned that 49 MBA students from Myanmar would be visiting UMass Lowell this summer to attend the Manning School of Business annual Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation course, he seized the opportunity to connect SayDaNar members with their Burmese compatriots. Working with the course organizer, Manning lecturer Ashwin Mehta, Aung arranged a special dinner and social event for the visiting students, hosted by SayDaNar at the Calvary Baptist Church.

The visiting MBA students, who had just received their certificates for completing the two-week program, thanked their hosts by spontaneously taking up a collection of $1,470 to donate to the SayDaNar organization following the dinner.

It was a very touching moment, says Mehta, who began the innovative exchange program in 2014. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the final day of the course.

Aung, who didnt expect such a generous donation, watched with a smile as SayDaNar members of all ages interacted with their guests at the event, which included traditional, home-cooked Burmese dishes, spirited games of volleyball on the church lawn and an appearance by state Rep. Rady Mom.

Usually refugees come from the countryside, while students usually live in the city, Aung says. They may never meet in Burma, so this is a good time for them to meet each other.

Photo by Ed Brennen Photo by Ed Brennen Visiting MBA students from Myanmar take on SayDaNar members in a friendly game of volleyball on the Calvary Baptist Church lawn.



Political Science chair Ardeth Thawnghmung, a native of Myanmar, was one of several faculty members in attendance. Like Mehta, Thawnghmung says she was moved, but not surprised, by the generosity of both the hosts and guests.

The Burmese refugees in Lowell spent hours preparing for the event, cooking everything from scratch, and I think the guests were touched by the hospitality and impressed by the works SayDaNar does, says Thawnghmung, who noted a recent study by the Charities Aid Foundation found that Myanmar was tied with the United States as the most generous country in the world. The spirit of volunteering and giving back to the community has continued to be preserved by the Myanmar refugees in Lowell.

Thawnghmung says that SayDaNar has developed a close collaboration with UMass Lowell over the past five years, in which faculty and students have lent their expertise, time and resources to help with things like the centers afterschool program and fundraising activities.

This event is another example of successful collaboration and partnership between the university and local organizations, she says, and reinforces UMass Lowells commitment toward engagement with the local community.

Global Growth

The Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation program brings together students from diverse academic disciplines and cultures to collaborate in small groups on entrepreneurial projects, with a winter session in India and a summer session in Lowell. Since its inception in 2014, the program has grown from 30 students participating from two countries to 122 students from eight countries.

Photo by Ed Brennen Photo by Ed Brennen Students in this summer's first Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation session visit iRobot in Bedford.



This marked the first summer that the course was expanded to two separate two-week offerings. The first session, which ran June 13-24, had 73 students from India, China, Japan, Thailand, Guyana, Myanmar, Haiti and the U.S. (including 18 Manning MBA students). The second session, which ran June 27-July 8, was attended exclusively by the 49 Myanmar students who are part of an MBA program offered by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, which has campuses in the Myanmar cities of Mandalay and Yangon.

UTTC Dean Jakarin Srimoon accompanied his students on the trip and met with new Manning Dean Sandra Richtermeyer to discuss future collaborations between the schools.

Im impressed with the people here and the energy of the new dean, Srimoon said as his students visited DifferenceMaker Central on North Campus. We would like to have strong partners here in the U.S. and create a collaboration that makes a difference in the lives of people in Thailand and Myanmar.

Myo Thet, vice president of the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, also led the delegation of students while participating in the course.

Our country has mostly family-run businesses, and we should transform to regional and global businesses, Thet says. This is a good reference for us, to apply the good examples of UMass Lowell, especially the DifferenceMaker Program, to encourage our innovators.

Photo by Ed Brennen Photo by Ed Brennen iRobot engineers discuss their work with students participating in the annual Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation course.



UTTC student Kyi Tha Htun, a medical doctor by training from Yangon, is pursuing his MBA in order to start his own medical equipment training business. After completing the Global Entrepreneurship course, he was struck by how different the education system is in the U.S.

In our country it is like spoon feeding. The teacher says that, and you study that and answer that. There is no thinking outside the box, Htun says. Here, they encourage you to think in your own way. They just give the seed of an idea, and we have to grow from that.

Standing in the recently renovated McGauvran Center as he awaited the certificate ceremony, Htun couldnt help but marvel at the campus setting.

I am envious of students of UMass Lowell, he said. They have a very good education system, very good professors and very good facilities, which can encourage them for whatever they want to do.
Companies around the globe are launching an increasing number of satellites, crowding Earths orbit in an effort to satisfy the ravenous on-demand desire for more broadband, satellite television and communications.

In the past five years, the number of operational satellites has jumped 40 percent, and nearly 1,400 now orbit the planet. And industry officials say the number could more than double in five years as a revolution in technology makes satellites smaller and more affordable. Entrepreneurs eye the ethereal real estate a couple of hundred miles up as a potentially lucrative new market.

Companies such as OneWeb, Boeing and SpaceX plan to put up constellations of small satellites that could number in the hundreds, if not thousands, and beam the Internet to the billions of people not yet connected.

Last month, Boeing filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission that would allow it to send up nearly 3,000 satellites for broadband services.

But U.S. officials are concerned about all the traffic in space and the lack of oversight. Although the Pentagon tracks objects orbiting the globe and warns of close approaches, it does not have the power to order an operator to move a satellite out of the way to avoid a collision.

Some members of Congress say a civilian agency, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, should be made responsible for managing satellite traffic. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) has led that effort, saying the Pentagon should focus instead on how to fight and win wars in space.

He has introduced legislation that would give the FAA authority to monitor objects in space and play the role of traffic cop, warning operators when satellites are dangerously close to one another.

The FAA would have the power to order operators to move satellites when necessary, Bridenstine said, and to require that satellites have propulsion systems to maneuver and transponders for better tracking. It would be up to the FAA, not Congress, to come up with the exact regulations, he said.

As space becomes more congested and contested and competitive, there needs to be an agency with unambiguous authority that can compel somebody to maneuver, Bridenstine said.

There is no guarantee the bill will pass anytime soon. And if it does, giving the FAA jurisdiction in space will require additional resources at a time of tight budgets. Creating rules of the road in space would also be an immense and complicated regulatory challenge. Bridenstine said he would favor only light touch regulations, but some interested parties fear a new set of rules would impose a costly burden on U.S. satellite operators and put them at a disadvantage with competitors in other countries that would not have to abide by them.

Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, said the industry wants to make sure that any transition that takes place is carefully thought through. The FAA, or any other government agency tasked with the job, should have sufficient resources to do it properly, he said.

Any regulation should be drafted so that it doesnt drive business away, he said. And the rules have to provide an international solution, he added, palatable to foreign governments and businesses, much the way air traffic is managed across international borders.

Defense officials say such an approach would help them focus on the possibility of hostilities in space.

Its clear that were going to need a way to regulate that traffic just as we have a way to regulate air traffic, said Douglas Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy.

Establishing rules of the road would not only help military satellites avoid collisions, he said, but also head off conflicts over nations satellites coming too close to other pieces of sensitive equipment.

The discussion comes as companies pursue plans to launch constellations of satellites that have become smaller and cheaper, much the way computers have gone from massive mainframes to smartphones. Satellites once were as big as garbage trucks, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Now there are versions as small as dishwashers, or shoe boxes  or even smaller.

The imagery of Earth that such devices provide could help weather forecasters, farmers and scientists studying climate change, aid rescue workers and guide soldiers on the ground.

There have been a lot of technological developments as well as a recognition that broadband access is the equivalent today to what electricity was 100 years ago, Stroup said. Theres a feeling theres a market opportunity and a cost-effective means for providing that service that didnt exist 20 years ago.

OneWeb, in a joint venture with Airbus that is also backed by business magnate Richard Branson, plans to put up nearly 700 satellites, beginning in 2018. The company is opening an $85 million manufacturing facility near NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida that it says will be able to build more than 15 satellites a week.

OneWebs mission is to bring the entire world online to improve quality of life and spur economic and national development where its needed most, Greg Wyler, the founder of OneWeb, has said.

Elon Musks SpaceX is best known for launching rockets that deliver commercial satellites to space and carry cargo to the International Space Station. But Musk has discussed plans to launch as many as 4,000 satellites that would provide broadband service to all parts of the globe. He said the effort would be like rebuilding the Internet in space.

Last year, SpaceX asked the federal government for permission to begin a test project and said that if all goes as planned, the service could be running within five years.

Raytheon, meanwhile, is building 50-pound disposable satellites for the Pentagon that could stay aloft for 60 to 90 days and provide soldiers with real-time imagery of the battlefield.

In its application to the FCC, Boeing said that it was aware of OneWebs plans and that it would work with the company to develop an analysis of the potential risk of collision and to prevent collisions from occurring.

Some observers were skeptical of leaving it to satellite companies to regulate themselves and work together to stop collisions.

Do they pinky-promise? said Brian Weeden, a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation. What if the two cant come to an agreement?

Bridenstine is also wary of self-regulation. If a company knew, for example, that there was a 1-in-10,000 chance of a collision, he said, it might decide to live with that level of risk and not perform a costly maneuver.

The problem is that analysis is whats in the best interest for the bottom line of that company, he said.

And the consequences, if there were a collision, could be severe, he said: It could create 5,000 pieces of debris that will be up there for 100 years.


Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton attends a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) in Portsmouth, N.H., on July 12. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

On Feb. 22, 1999, the countrys attention was riveted on the U.S. Capitol. For only the second time in U.S. history, the Senate was set to vote on whether to remove an impeached president from office.

But in the private residence on the second floor of the White House, the topic at hand was someone elses political career.

First lady Hillary Clinton had summoned longtime adviser Harold Ickes to discuss a delicate question: What would it take for her to become a senator  specifically, to win an open seat in New York, a state in which she had never lived?

As the morning dragged into an unseasonably warm afternoon, Ickes gave her a crash course on the Empire State: its Democratic Party structure and rules, a list of 100 key leaders she would have to get to know, the different electoral rhythms of upstate and downstate, its minefield of multiethnic politics.

Over lunch, Bill Clinton dropped by to hear how things were going and to download what he knew of New York politics. He literally remembered how many votes he had gotten in Herkimer County, Ickes marvels.

On the momentous day on which the 42nd president of the United States would be acquitted by the Senate, Bill Clinton later told an aide, If anyone had seen us, they would have seen us laughing, but not about what they would think. When Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) called Hillary Clinton later to tell her the good news, she and Ickes allowed themselves only a brief moment of celebration before getting back to the business of her future.

By that summer, the first lady was traveling around New York on a listening tour. The following February, she formally announced her bid to replace the retiring Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D).



( Reuters Photographer / Reuter/REUTERS)

Politics is the art of making possible what seems to be impossible, she told a cheering crowd of more than 2,000.

That also could be said of Clintons evolution into a politician in her own right, one who stands a single election away from becoming the nations first female president.

In some ways, this historic juncture can seem as though it was inevitable, a part of the destiny that she began to write with the electrifying, subversive speech she delivered upon her graduation from Wellesley College in 1969. It landed her in Life magazine as a voice of her generation.

Were searching for more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating modes of living, she declared. And so our questions, our questions about our institutions, about our colleges, about our churches, about our government continue.

Civil rights leader Vernon E. Jordan Jr. had met her that year at a League of Women Voters conference in Fort Collins, Colo. It was clear to me when I met her in June 1969 that she had a future, he says. I saw her as a young lady who was going somewhere.

Somewhere turned out to be Arkansas. Starting with her decision to follow her boyfriend, Bill Clinton, and his ambitions to Fayetteville, the next quarter century of her life would be a push and pull between her desire to forge her own identity and put her stamp on the causes she cared about, and the tight and traditional confines of being a political spouse.

More than once, she would learn the hard way that stepping beyond those bounds carried a cost  for herself and for her husband.

And more than once, her performance in a supporting role would be crucial to his survival.

She also would become a Rorschach test of how the country felt about the changing expectations of women, at home and at work. Was Hillary Clinton at the vanguard of the feminist movement, or had she betrayed it by marrying power, rather than earning it?

The Clintons presented themselves to the country in 1992 as a new kind of partnership in politics. His charisma paired with her discipline; his gut with her spine.

During his first presidential campaign, there was speculation about a possible Cabinet post for her. Instead, he put her in charge of a health-care overhaul, his boldest policy initiative. They quickly learned that the country did not want what they had called a buy one, get one free bargain.



(Mary Lou Foy/The Washington Post)

There was also a Lady Macbeth story line to her controversy-filled White House years. She found herself at the center of a host of scandals and pseudo-scandals, from the intrigue around the Clintons failed Whitewater real estate deal to the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of her law firm records to her suspiciously lucrative trades in cattle futures.

In 1996, because of Whitewater, Hillary Clinton earned the dubious distinction of being the only first lady in history ever compelled to testify before a federal grand jury.

Not until Bill Clintons political career was ending had she been free to consider doing something that no first lady had ever done: put her name on a ballot for federal office.

As it happened, her popularity in late 1998 and early 1999 was as high as it had ever been. The adulation, however, had not come for any achievement of her own  save the one of having endured the public humiliation of her husbands affair with a White House intern.

Top Democrats had begun urging her to run almost from the moment that Moynihan announced he was retiring. They would clear the field for her, leveraging her fame as their best hope of hanging onto a seat they had held for more than two decades. But it was expected to be an uphill race against the likely Republican nominee, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

In a sense, I was a desperation choice  a well-known public figure who might be able to offset Giulianis national profile and his partys deep pockets, Clinton wrote in her memoir Living History.

This was not a popular decision in the tightknit East Wing circle known as Hillaryland. Clinton talked it over with her close friend and adviser Maggie Williams during a long walk in the spring of 1999.

I think its kooky, Williams told her. And anyone who cares about you will tell you the same thing.

Patti Solis Doyle, Clintons scheduler who would later manage her 2008 presidential campaign, flatly predicted that she would lose.

That possiblity also worried her longtime friend Jordan, who suggested that she consider making a bid for governor of Illinois instead. She had grown up there, and would not be considered a presumptuous carpetbagger, he argued  leaving unsaid his belief that a statehouse would be a better springboard to something bigger someday.

I told her I didnt think it was a good idea, Jordan recalls.

But Clinton wouldnt budge. Im going to run, she told him.

***



(Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post)

This was not the first time Hillary Clinton had considered elective office.

In 1990, the Clintons were agonizing over whether Bill should run for a fifth term as governor of Arkansas, even though he was all but certain that he would be making a bid for the presidency two years later.

As a governor, he would be making unpopular decisions, perhaps such as raising taxes, in the middle of a presidential campaign. But if he gave up that job and lost the White House  a likely possibility  he might be washed up in politics.

Maybe there was a way to get the best of both alternatives. The Clintons asked Dick Morris, their pollster at the time, to find out what people in Arkansas would think of Hillary running for governor. If she won and Bill lost in his White House bid, he would still have his power base in his home state.

So the pollster did a survey, and I came to the conclusion  it seems hard to believe now  that people didnt see Hillary as a separate person, just as a part of Bill, Morris says.

Morris put it to the couple bluntly: Hillary running for governor would be viewed as the Lurleen Wallace effect.

That stung. In 1966, George Wallaces wife had been the first woman elected governor in the Deep South. But she was a little-educated homebody, branded a placeholder for her husband, because Alabama law prevented him from running for reelection as governor while in office.

The Clintons almost jammed the poll down my throat. They were screaming at me, going crazy. Bill especially. He was red-faced, Morris recalls.

Bill Clinton demanded that Morris take a new survey  this time, reminding people of Hillarys accomplishments as a lawyer, her commitment to childrens causes and the work she had done leading a state education reform initiative in the early 1980s.

The results came back the same.

Ive always believed that was the moment when she realized that she had to have her own achievements, Morris says.

That Hillary Clinton would have to struggle to define her identity is something that would not have been predicted for the earnest high achiever from the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. But things changed when Hillary Rodham fell in love with a husky, bushy-haired young man she met in the student lounge at Yale Law School in the autumn of 1970.

He was tall and handsome somewhere beneath that reddish brown beard and curly mane of hair. He also had a vitality that seemed to shoot out of his pores, she later wrote.

Her decision, four years later, to move to Arkansas had astounded her friends.

Are you out of your mind? one of them, Sara Ehrman, asked her. Why on Earth would you throw away your future?

Still, Ehrman agreed to drive her down to Fayetteville from Washington, where Rodham had been working on the House Judiciary Committees impeachment inquiry of President Richard M. Nixon.

Every few miles, she asked me if I knew what I was doing, and I gave her the same answer every time: No, but Im going anyway,  Clinton wrote. Bill Clinton was already teaching at the University of Arkansas Law School, and she had an offer to do the same.

I just cried when I left her there, Ehrman recalled in an interview 34 years after she dropped off her friend at the couples rented split-level. I thought: Shes going to the end of the world. I told her, You cant even get brie! 



(The Washington Post)

Hillary probably thought the move was only temporary; Bill, 28, was already running for Congress from Arkansas Third District. He lost. In 1976, a year after their wedding, he was elected the states attorney general, and he became governor two years after that.

She began building a career of her own, making partner at Little Rocks venerable Rose Law Firm in 1979, at age 32. She was also the young familys primary breadwinner, given that the governors salary was only $35,000 a year.

In the election of 1980, Bill Clinton suddenly went from being the youngest governor in the United States to the youngest former governor.

After that reelection loss, he seemed sometimes to be overtaken by self-pity, his biographer David Maraniss wrote.

Hillary Clinton sprang into action. One of her first acts in plotting the comeback was to recruit Morris, an abrasive, bare-knuckled New York political consultant whom many in the Clintons orbit viewed with suspicion, in part because he worked for clients of both parties.

Morris does not think she did so with any interest in a political future for herself.

No, none at all, he says. Quite the opposite. I got the impression that it was an imposition  that she had a nice legal career, and now she had to bail him out.

Part of the strategy was to retool her own image. In Arkansas, I was an oddity because of my dress, my Northern ways and the use of my maiden name, she wrote.

After Bill Clintons reelection defeat, for the first time, I came to realize how my personal choices could impact my husbands political future, she recalled.

He made the official announcement that he was running for his old job on their daughter Chelseas second birthday, Feb. 27, 1982. And on that day, Hillary Rodham began referring to herself as Hillary Rodham Clinton.

***

Yet Hillary Clinton did not fit anyones stereotype of a political spouse  as quickly became apparent when Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992.

If I get elected president, it will be an unprecedented partnership, far more than Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor, he told Vanity Fair. They were two great people, but on different tracks. If I get elected, well do things together like we always have.

Former president Richard M. Nixon, whose wife had been the embodiment of midcentury meekness, offered a different perspective in February of that year: If the wife comes through as being too strong and too intelligent, it makes the husband look like a wimp.

Hillary Clinton was a conundrum for her husbands handlers. They didnt get her. The people who were organizing the campaign were a bunch of Washington types, and they didnt quite get her, her adviser Susan Thomases said in an oral history of the Clinton presidency collected by the University of Virginias Miller Center.

They pigeonholed her, Thomases added. It was really complicated. Some of it was the campaigns decisions, some of it was her performance and some of it was the publics perception of her. She was so strong a personality that there were people who felt that when they were together, her strong personality made him seem weaker.

Still, when allegations about Bill Clintons extramarital affairs exploded, they needed Hillary Clinton to be by his side for a post-Super Bowl 60 Minutes interview as the ultimate validator.

Interviewer Steve Kroft flatly asked them if theirs was an arrangement, not a marriage. Im not sitting here like some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette, she retorted.

The reaction to her response was brutal, as it was when she later seemed to disparage homemakers with: I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies and had teas.

What got lost in the furor was the rest of her comment. The work that I have done as a professional, a public advocate, has been aimed . . . to assure that women can make the choices, she said, whether its full-time career, full-time motherhood or some combination.

Once she arrived in the White House, her management of her husbands health-care overhaul was a fiasco. The plan, hatched in secret by a 500-member task force whose identities she refused to reveal, never got a vote on the floor of either house of Congress. She became the most polarizing first lady in modern history, even burned in effigy by a group of tobacco farmers in Kentucky.



(Ray Lustig/The Washington Post)

Her health-care stumble also was a major reason that Democrats lost control of Congress in the 1994 midterm election. Bill Clintons reelection prospects looked iffy.

Even before the midterms, Hillary Clinton was plotting her husbands resurrection. In October, she once again turned to the controversial Morris, whose tendency to see the underside of things she considered a counterbalance to her husbands perpetual optimism.

She phoned Morris, she wrote in her memoir, and said, If I can get Bill to call you, will you help?

The Clintons agreed that Morriss role would be secret  even from people in their own White House, where the consultant would leave phone messages under the code name Charlie. George Stephanopoulos, then a top White House adviser, later referred to Morris as the dark buddha whose belly Clinton rubbed in desperate times. (Morris has since become a vocal critic of the Clintons and just co-wrote a book called Armageddon: How Trump Can Beat Hillary.)

Morris conducted a private poll. He found that one-third of the public viewed Bill Clinton as weak and that his marriage was a major reason.

Nixon had been right. The more these voters saw of Hillary Clinton, the more diminished her husband seemed to be. That slice of the population had no conception of a win-win marriage. They thought it was zero-sum, Morris recalls.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton had been seared by the health-care experience.

Sometimes, I am saddened by her understandable loss of spontaneity, Diane Blair, her close friend from Arkansas, told Ann Blackman of Time magazine.

It was one of her most endearing qualities, said Blair, who died in 2000. But in public now, she filters out her first response, and sometimes her second one, and that contributes to the sense that she is aloof and haughty. She has learned to be careful about what she says.

So it was in both their interests for Hillary Clinton to fade from view. Over the next few years, she rarely ventured into the West Wing; she stuck to safe issues, such as adoption and Gulf War syndrome; she wrote a best-selling book about raising children. Even her wardrobe underwent an overhaul under the guidance of Oscar de la Renta  from the power teals and reds she had favored to pastel suits, with pumps to match.

In the role her campaign now touts, the 1997 expansion of health-care coverage to uninsured children (CHIP), Hillary Clinton operated largely behind the scenes and on the edges, as Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) did the heavy lifting on Capitol Hill.

In 1998, Bill Clinton needed to be rescued yet again, after his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky became public and set him on the path to impeachment.

Just six days into the scandal, the first lady appeared on NBCs Today show, and pointed blame at this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. Not until much later, friends said, did she face up to the depth of his betrayal.

In that years midterm elections, no Democrat running wanted to be seen with him, but she was in demand everywhere.

And off she went. During the last week before Election Day alone, she hit nine states  twice in Florida and New York.

I think she began realizing her political strengths  chops, however you want to put it  in that 1998 election, said her longtime adviser Ann F. Lewis.

Defying expectations, the Democrats picked up seats in the House, in large part because the Republicans had overplayed their hand on the Lewinsky scandal. And then, three days after the election, Moynihan announced he was retiring.

That night, the White House operator patched through a call from Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), a longtime congressman from Harlem.

I sure hope youll consider running, he told the first lady, because I think you could win.

***

Several weeks into Hillary Clintons Senate campaign, Ickes received a phone call from her.

Harold, I never knew how good Bill is, he recalls her telling him. This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

The race had gotten off to a rocky start, in part because of her natural reserve, particularly with New Yorks famously aggressive news media. Her campaign team included people who had been hired for their expertise in that states politics, with whom she had not yet built up a reservoir of familiarity or trust.

Their internal focus groups and polling also showed that she had a big problem among women, who should have been her base. Some were mad at her for not leaving an unfaithful husband; others viewed her decision as proof that this had always been a marriage of calculated ambition, not a joining of two hearts.

So her advisers made her do the hardest thing imaginable: meet skeptical women face to face in living rooms in Westchester County, Long Island and upstate.

They were free to ask whatever they wanted to ask, says one former campaign adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

No reporters were invited, but in those pre-social-media days, it went viral in their communities, the strategist recalls.

Meanwhile, Giuliani withdrew from the race in the wake of revelations of his own marital infidelity and a diagnosis of prostate cancer. In his place, Republicans nominated Rick Lazio, a boyish four-term congressman from Long Island. Hillary Clinton won by 12 percentage points. She was reelected six years later by a staggering 36 points, carrying all but four of the states 62 counties.

By then, she already was laying plans for a 2008 presidential run, where she was heavily favored to win the Democratic nomination.

In a memo written shortly before the campaign began, Mark Penn, her chief strategist, identified former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as her political role model.

We are more Thatcher than anyone else  top of the university, a high achiever throughout life, a lawyer who could absorb and analyze problems, Penn advised in December 2006. She represents the most successful elected woman leader in this century  and the adjectives that were used about her [Iron Lady] were not of good humor or warmth, they were of smart, tough leadership.

Clintons campaign, however, was a disaster from the beginning.

She was a cautious front-runner, exactly wrong for an electorate that was looking for someone fresh and exciting. She had voted in favor of the 2003 Iraq invasion, putting her on the opposite side of the Democratic base on the question that mattered most. Her campaign never mastered the rules of the various primary states, particularly underestimating those that held caucuses. And her fundraising operation was a relic of the 1990s.

On the other hand, Barack Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, was perfectly suited for the moment and had built a nimble, modern campaign machine.

Their primary battle stretched into June. When she withdrew, she supported Obama, but not without calling attention to what she had achieved and the number of votes she had received.

Although we werent able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, its got about 18 million cracks in it, she said to a cheering crowd at the National Building Museum. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.



(Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

It has been. Hillary 2.0 is a far different operation.

She still struggles with campaigning. This is not easy for me, she said during a debate in March. I am not a natural politician, in case you havent noticed, like my husband or President Obama. So I have a view that I just have to do the best I can.

But theres one problem she has put behind her: Having served as a senator and then as Obamas secretary of state, she has carved out an identity of her own  and Bill Clinton is the one in the supporting role.

Now, the question is whether the plans that she and Ickes began laying more than 17 years ago in the White House will take her back there as the nations 45th president  and the first woman to sit in the Oval Office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi instructed his government to ensure the return of the Kohinoor diamond from Britain, now set in a crown which is on display in the Tower of London.

Kohinoor diamond, now set in a crown which is on display in the Tower of London. (Photo: AP)

By India Today Web Desk: A high-level meeting attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma was held in New Delhi's Jawahar Bhawan on the issue of bringing back the famed Kohinoor diamond from Britain.

The meeting was called after Prime Minister Narendra Modi instructed his government to ensure the return of the medieval artefact, now set in a crown which is on display in the Tower of London.

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In April this year, the government had told the Supreme Court that the diamond was neither "forcibly taken nor stolen" by the British, but given as a "gift" to the East India Company by the rulers of Punjab.

Citing a 44-year-old law, the Centre said the diamond cannot be reclaimed as it was given as a gift in 1849 by the successors of Maharaja Ranjith Singh, and not stolen or forcibly taken away from India.

The government, however, reiterated its resolve to "make all possible efforts" to bring back the Kohinoor diamond from the UK in an amicable manner.

Kohinoor, which means the Mountain of Light, is a large, colourless diamond that was found in South India's Golconda mines in early 14th century. The 108-carat gem is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and is claimed by at least four countries including India.

Also Read:

Pakistan jumps into Kohinoor controversy, says diamond was gifted to England



--- ENDS ---


A row of infused vodkas at the bar at Samovar in Rockville. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

It can be difficult to focus on the food at Samovar, a new Russian and Central Asian restaurant in Rockville. You might get distracted by the belly dancer balancing a sword on her rippling abs or a tray of lighted candles on her head. Maybe youll take a mid-meal dance break, or maybe your eyes will just wander to the enormous wolf pelt that hangs on the wall.

But when you put down the belly dancers finger chimes  she gives impromptu lessons!  and pick up your fork, youll be glad you settled in for dinner and a show. There is nothing else quite like it in the region.

Thats due in part to pedigree. Samovar is led by chef-owner Solijon Nasimov, who owned one of the most celebrated restaurants in his home country, Tajikistan. The Rohat Tea House served as many as 2,000 people a day in its heyday, and its famous chef won many awards. But in 1993, Tajikistan was divided by a civil war, and Nasimov, who faced pressure for aiding anti-government civilians, was forced to flee to neighboring Uzbekistan. He later opened a restaurant in New York, but he had always hoped to come back to the teahouse.

The situation after the civil war wasnt good. They didnt have electricity, they didnt have gas, they didnt have water, anything, said his granddaughter, Takhmina Nasimova, who works at the restaurant along with her aunt, Ika Nasimova. When Nasimov decided to sell the teahouse, it was very emotional.



Solijon Nasimov, the chef and a co-owner, ran a well-known restaurantin his home country of Tajikistan. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Lamb kebab served at Samovar. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

But nearly 25 years later, he has opened a restaurant that Nasimova describes as his dream project: a blend of all the food cultures in Central Asia. The menu pulls from Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and even the region of China where Uyghurs live.

Its like a little Soviet Union, said Nasimova.

Start with a plate of smoked fish  or the salo, a plate of cured pork fat, the richness cut with pickles and onions. And dont skip the lagman, a Central Asian soup prepared Uyghur-style with noodles that Nasimova says her grandfather makes by hand every day. Tomatoes, beef loin, peppers and scrambled egg come in a meaty broth, and the hot pepper sauce on the side packs a punch. Im partial to pelmeni, Russian dumplings served with sour cream. Samovar calls them Russian ravioli, and the tiny pouches of veal served here are pleasingly buttery.



Lagman Rahat, a traditional Uyghur soup with vegetables, beef loin, noodles and spices. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Some dishes come directly from the Rohat Tea Houses menu: the plov, a fragrant mound of rice sprinkled with lamb and raisins, and the lyulya kebabs of baked ground chicken, which Nasimova says are seasoned with spices brought from Tajikistan specifically for that entree. Missteps are few: The chicken Kiev came with a side of green beans that tasted as though they had seen the inside of a can. And it would be best to skip the cocktails, which are sweet and pink, with the exception of the Zubrowka-forward Polish martini. Go for the infused shots of vodka, which come in 12 varieties, though not all of them are in stock at all times. Sea buckthorn, a sweet and sour dandelion-colored berry native to Russia, is the best and most unusual flavor.

Not everything on Samovars extensive online menu is available in the restaurant on any given day, but Nasimova says theyre expanding gradually. Theyre also expanding the performance schedule. Saturdays are now the most lively (and loudest) day to go: Youll see the aforementioned belly dancer, and late at night, the place switches over to a nightclub with a deejay playing Russian and American hits, and karaoke.

Sometimes theres an accordion player, and sometimes you might catch a mini show by a performer named Alina Violin. A pretty blonde in a gold-sequined minidress, she played a techno remix of Vivaldi on her electric violin, tossing her hair under the multicolored lights. Pleasure to be here with you guys, she said, taking the mic.

The pleasure was ours.

Samovar, 201 N. Washington St., Rockville. 240-671-9721. samovarrestaurant.com. Appetizers $3 to $13; entrees $13 to $28. Tom Sietsema will return next week.


Cuban students in Old Havana pass a billboard for Havana Club rum. (Eliana Aponte/For The Washington Post)

Long before I got interested in booze, I knew Cuban rums were forbidden and wonderful  none more so than Havana Club.

Until recently, when U.S.-Cuba relations began to thaw, we werent able to buy Cuban rum. Cuban-style white rums were available, but rum from the island itself retained an ineffable mystique, as though, with one sip, wed be sitting in El Floridita, knocking back drinks with Hemingway, watching beautiful women in guayabera shirts play chess and smoke cigars over platters of ropa vieja while Michael Corleone and his brother Fredo dance an angry mambo on the hood of a mid-century American car.

[Inside the rum war between Bacardi and Cuba]

The mythology around Cuban rum, and Havana Club specifically, is bound into our feelings about Cuba itself, impressions both muddled and enhanced by the fact that most Americans have never been there.

Now Americans are heading to Cuba in droves. Visitors can bring back up to $100 worth of booze. And there are signs of movement in the longstanding legal battles between booze powerhouses Bacardi, which left Cuba after the revolution and later acquired the rights to sell its Puerto Rican-made Havana Club in the United States, and Pernod Ricard, which (in partnership with the Cuban government) sells Cuban Havana Club around the rest of the world. However their trademark dispute is finally resolved, the rules are expected to relax further in the next few years, allowing Cuban-made rums to sell in the States for the first time since 1962.

How will Havana Club hold up to its legend?

Does Cuba's Havana Club rum hold up to its legend? The Washington Post invited four rum aficionados for a blind tasting of dark and light rums at Cubanos restaurant in Silver Spring to find out. (Danielle Kunitz,Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

To help find out, Cubanos restaurant in Silver Spring set up a blind tasting of four light and two dark rums for a panel of four: Lukas Smith, cocktail specialist and bar manager at Cotton & Reed distillery in the District; master sommelier Jarad Slipp of RdV Vineyards in Fauquier County, Va.; Adolfo Mendez, the owner of Cubanos; and me. We tasted the Cuban Havana Club Anejo 3 Anos, Bacardis Havana Club Anejo Blanco, longtime industry standard Bacardi Superior, and Cana Brava from the 86 Co., which is distilled in Panama by a longtime Cuban rum master. The dark rums were the Cuban Havana Club Anejo 7 Anos and Bacardis new Anejo Clasico.

One of the dark rums smacked of butterscotch and had a faint salinity; the vanilla and wood notes from barrel aging were prominent in a way that the other dark rum seemed to express more subtly. In that other, I tasted caramel, vanilla, a subtle grassiness and some cinnamon  and it was the unanimous favorite.

Mendez articulated the group perspective: Because of the history, the myth about it, this should be the Cuban [Havana Club], he said.

We were all wrong. Turned out our favorite was Bacardis Puerto Rican-made Anejo Clasico.

[Make the recipe: Mojito]



Mojito. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

Among the lighter rums, the favorite was a split decision between the Cuban and Bacardi Havana Clubs. As to the others, the largely vodkalike Bacardi Superior had a subtle florality; none of us cared for the Cana Brava.

When the light rums were mixed into the house mojitos, the differences among them were imperceptible. But later I mixed them into daiquiris, a more spirit-forward cocktail, and the differences among the drinks were more apparent. There were rums that allowed the daiquiri to shine as a drink, and rums that bossily made the daiquiri their own. Cana Brava performed better here, disappearing into the cocktail seamlessly.

Jason Kosmas, co-owner of the 86 Co., acknowledged that its Cana Brava isnt meant for sipping. Most distillers, he says, consider the bottle of their product final; we decided a while ago that ours are finalized in the drink itself.

Owen Thomson, a co-owner of D.C. tiki bar Archipelago, says that a customer there who asks for a daiquiri will probably get Cana Brava; it was designed for such cocktails and he likes its viscosity. Some customers experiment with other types of rum; an aged rum daiquiri can be delicious, but youd need to lighten up the sugar a touch, he says.

One of my favorite daiquiri variations is a slightly less sweetened version of the accompanying recipe, with Banks 5 Island rum. (None of the five islands that contribute juice to its blend is Cuba.) Smith likes to use Smith & Cross overproof Jamaican rum. Some will say this isnt a proper daiquiri, but I know what I like, he says.

[Make the recipe: Classic Daiquiri]



Classic Daiquiri. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post)

To Cuba purists, such ad-libbing may seem sacrilegious. To Cuban Havana Clubs master blender, Asbel Morales, his product is more than a rum; it is an expression of Cuban culture. The brand is iconic in Cuba, he writes in an email, noting that the logo is reproduced in many different ways by local artisans as a symbol of the country; half of the rum consumed in Cuba is Havana Club.

Such loyalty is not unique to Cuba, points out David Cid, global brand master of rum and cane spirits for Bacardi. Although whiskey drinkers tend to be polyamorous, dabbling in bourbon and Scotch and Japanese whiskeys, rum tends to bring out national pride, he says. When you go to Jamaica, the best rum in the world is Jamaican rum; when you go to Barbados, the best rum in the world is Bajan rum; when you go Puerto Rico, the best rum in the world is Puerto Rican rum. There might be others available, but nobodys pouring them of their free will unless somebody asks for them.

In Miami, Cid says, there may be loyalties to Bacardi among those who grew up drinking it in Cuba, came here around the time of the revolution and identify with the experience of exile. But there are also Cubans who have never tasted Bacardis rums. The company left the island and saw its assets seized after the revolution, and it still has no presence in Cuba. Like Havana Club for us, Bacardi rums are the forbidden fruit for them, he says.

Much of our obsession with Cuban rum is really myth over substance, says Archipelago co-owner Ben Wiley. He points out that the daiquiri in its purest form has become a favorite among craft bartenders, one they make to demonstrate their chops. Its shaken, cold, tangy, lightly sweet, with just the right amount of rummy funk. But those craft daiquiris are not necessarily authentic. At El Floridita in Havana, theyre churned out in blenders.

If the rules continue to loosen as expected, youll soon be able to more easily stack Cuban rum up against varieties from everywhere else. But a daiquiri that lives up to the enduring mystique of Cuban rum? Start shaking. You may need to make it yourself.

Allan is a Hyattsville, Md., writer and editor. Follow her on Twitter: @Carrie_the_Red.
Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination last night, delivering a long speech about a nation in decline before balloons dropped from the ceiling and fireworks were launched outside as the Republican National Convention came to an end in Cleveland, Ohio.

Speaking to the forgotten men and women of our country, the people who work hard but no longer have a voice, Trump declared: I am your voice. He pledged as president to restore a sense of public safety, strictly curb immigration and save the nation from what he described as Hillary Clintons record of death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

[What really happens at political conventions?]

The speech capped a long and rocky primary campaign for Trump, who entered the Republican race in June 2015. The New York businessman shocked the political world this spring by consistently defeating more established rivals such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush, senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and Ohio governor John Kasich (pronounced KAY-sick) in primary elections and caucuses.

Trumps speech  which at one hour and 15 minutes was the longest acceptance speech in at least four decades  also marked the end to a convention that wasnt like the usual pep rally. On Wednesday, Cruz shocked the convention hall in a speech in which he failed to endorse Trump. The Texas senator was booed off the stage after he told Republicans to vote your conscience rather than telling the crowd to vote for Trump.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate Mike Pence celebrate at the close of the convention. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Trump called himself the law and order candidate in his acceptance speech, though he offered few specifics about how he would handle violence in American cities or terrorism around the world.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves, he said in his address.

[What happens after the conventions? More campaigning.]

Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Indiana governor Mike Pence, are now squarely focused on their general election campaign against Clinton. The former secretary of state and first lady is scheduled to accept her partys nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, next week.

Clinton has yet to announce her running mate. Democrats close to the Clinton campaign have indicated that the favorite for her choice appears to be Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has appeared with her on the campaign trail and has received support from the White House and former President Bill Clinton.

The election is November 8.
Before he enters the room, Craig Phillips pauses for a deep exhale. Just to let everything go, he says. And to remember that Im here for them.



Craig Phillips, an end-of-life doula with Gilchrist Hospice Care in Baltimore, pauses before entering the room of a dying patient. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Until he walks in, he wont know whom, exactly, hes about to see. Today its an elderly woman in a blue hospital gown. Eyes closed. Jaw dropped open. Breathing loud and labored, but regular.

There is a little green circle by her name on the white board in the nurses station. Hospice center code for actively dying.

She doesnt have anyone with her, a nurse says. So Phillips goes, pulls a chair up to her bed and introduces himself.

Im not here to poke or prod you, he says softly. Im just here to be with you. Im just here to sit with you.

The work of a death doula  Phillipss work, now  is primarily about presence. He is there to ease the passage from this world to the next. And he knows that the most valuable thing he can offer anyone taking that most solitary of journeys is his company. So he sits, silently wishing them peace and comfort.

Especially with patients who can no longer speak, Phillips has learned to slip his hand beneath theirs, palm to palm, rather than rest it on top. This way, he says, you get an understanding of how well wanted you are. When his grip is returned, he knows that he is welcome.

Phillips operates alone, but he is part of a growing army of volunteers and professionals who call themselves death doulas. (Some, opposed to that term, prefer end-of-life doulas, soul midwives or transition coaches.) And like the childbirth doulas from whom they draw their name, their mandate is to assist and accompany. Their patients experience may be quieter, more sorrowful, but it is no less sacred. Or scary.

As the baby boomers move into retirement, fresh consideration is being given to what it means to grow old, which measures to take to treat illness and, ultimately, how we die. Theres a growing recognition among hospice workers and palliative-caregivers that pain management is not enough. That the spirit must be attended to as much as the body. And that the soon-to-be-bereaved need help along with the dying.

Its out of this recognition that death doulas are emerging. Most say they feel almost inexplicably called to the role. And profoundly touched by it.



Henry Fersko-Weiss, president of the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA), leads a class in Alexandria, Va. (Victoria Milko/Victoria Milko For The Washington Post)

On a sunny spring day in Alexandria, Va., 30 women and one man sit in a windowless hotel conference room, having traveled from all over the East Coast and paid $600 to learn to serve as death doulas.

Our role is to walk alongside [the dying] in their journey, says Henry Fersko-Weiss, president of the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA), one of several organizations offering certification in the field.

The weekend-long training will cover the best ways to touch a dying person, when to use aromatherapy and guided visualizations, strategies to relieve overburdened family members, how to organize a legacy project to help capture the patients life, assisting at the moment of death and helping loved ones process their grief in the weeks that follow.

On the first morning, Fersko-Weiss, a social worker who worked with hospice facilities for decades before creating an end-of-life doula program in 2003, asks each of the students to recall a death that affected them. How it smelled and looked and felt. How it shaped their concept of what constitutes a good death.

One woman talked about her daughters stillborn baby. That was the hardest hurt I ever felt, she said. I didnt understand how you could take a baby who was full-term.

Fersko-Weiss nodded and observed that she may be able to transform her pain into something that could aid dying patients and their families. If we can touch that place of angst and anguish and despair, he said, it may help us to be more present to other people experiencing it now.

Later, the prospective doulas talk about their reasons for coming. Several had had negative experiences with the death of a close relative. A few were birth doulas who wanted to assist with the exit from, as well as the entrance into, life. One woman had suffered a brain injury and a near-death experience. All said that they wanted to be of service in a way that would make this final transition somehow better for others.

They will be called upon to fill all kinds of roles, Fersko-Weiss told them. Sometimes patients may need help with physical care; other times, families will need assistance with errands or household chores. In all cases it will be a doulas job to listen, without judgment, to honor the experience of both the dying person and their loved ones, and to facilitate meaningful interactions between them. As a doula, its important to encourage people to say everything they need to say, Fersko-Weiss explains, so that they dont look back and really regret it.



Craig Phillips has found that his work as a death doula has given him a greater appreciation for life. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Craig Phillipss path to end-of-life doula work wasnt straight, but he thinks he was always inching toward it. He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., next-door to a cemetery that served as his playground. In college, he had a chance meeting with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the famed psychiatrist whose groundbreaking work shaped our modern understanding of death. And all through his life, Phillips has had an intense awareness of his own mortality.

At 61, he has the look and presence of a yogi, but he spent most of his adult life in the corporate world. Several years ago, his sister called, saying that her ex-husband was suffering from advanced ALS and living in a facility very close to Phillipss Baltimore home. So Phillips went to see him. And kept going, two or three times a week, for the last 2 years of the mans life.

Id bring him flowers, he recalls. I'd tell him stories. Id take oil over and rub his feet, stuff like that. Just devoted myself to him. And it was a beautiful thing.

A man in Phillipss running club mentioned volunteering as a death doula, so when he retired last fall, he linked up with Gilchrist Hospice Care, which serves more than 750 patients daily in the Baltimore area and established its own end-of-life doula program in December 2009. It has since grown to more than 150 volunteers.

After 20 hours of training in January, Phillips spent a morning shadowing a mentor doula at Gilchrists facility in Towson. We walked into a patients room, and she said, Isnt this person beautiful? I could see that they were. And she said, Yes, all my patients are beautiful,  he recalls. You walk into a room and theres someone there with their mouth open, looking very near death. Perhaps no teeth in their mouth and a three-day beard or whatever. And I look at these souls and theyre beautiful. Its the oddest thing. Their guard is down. Theyre just who they are in their most real, beautiful state.

Several days a week, Phillips spends time volunteering either at the Towson hospice center or at patients homes. He has helped long-term-care patients communicate with a letter board and even washed a dog for a family that needed assistance with the chore. On his weekly visits to an elderly man who was still alert, Phillips brought videos of the patients favorite big-band performances.

But with many patients, Phillips just sits, quietly meditating and sending good wishes. He tells them that they are safe. And that they are not alone. One woman was unable to speak, but when he said goodbye after three hours, she mouthed the words Thank you and held out her hands like I was dear to her, he says.

The work has also produced an unintended side effect. It has pushed Phillipss awareness of mortality even further to the forefront of his mind.

And happily so.

The more immediacy, for me, that I have of this, he says, the more appreciation I have for every day, every minute.
THE DISTRICT

FBI searching for stolen weapons

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward to help retrieve an assault-style weapon, a handgun and other equipment stolen July 10 from an agency vehicle parked along the H Street corridor in Northeast Washington.

Authorities said the vehicle  a Ford Expedition  was locked and that someone smashed a rear window and took a secured gun lockbox. The agent reported the missing items to police at about 7:50 a.m.; the FBI said they think the break-in occurred between midnight and 2 a.m.

The missing items include a Rock River Arms LAR-15 rifle, similar to an AR-15; a Glock 22 handgun; a holster; a collapsible baton; pepper spray; two boxes of .40 caliber ammunition; protective head and eye gear; and a black TruckVault gun box.

The FBI said in a statement that it and D.C. police are working to locate these weapons and remove them from the possession of the untrained individuals who may have them.

Anyone with information about the weapon or other items is urged to call the FBIs Washington field office at 202-278-2000.

 Peter Hermann

Guilty plea in botched liquor store robbery

A District man pleaded guilty Friday to a botched liquor store robbery that ended with police fatally shooting his female accomplice on Oct. 26, 2015.

Ned McCallister, 21, of Northeast Washington will face sentencing Oct. 14 before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson after pleading guilty to federal robbery and firearms charges.

[Man charged in burglary that ended in shootout with D.C. police]

Police said Marquesha McMillan, 21, also of Northeast, was killed after firing multiple rounds at officers shortly after 9 a.m. that Monday after the pair ran from Morris Miller Wines & Liquor, at Alaska Avenue NW and Georgia Avenue, a block from San Miguel School.

 Spencer S. Hsu

MARYLAND

Man dies in motorcycle crash

A 28-year-old man driving a motorcycle was killed in a crash Thursday in Prince Georges County.

The incident happened just before 9 p.m. on the northbound side of Indian Head Highway near Farmington Road in Accokeek.

Police identified the man as Victor Mason Jr. of Fort Washington, whom they found with critical injuries at the scene, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said Mason apparently lost control of his motorcycle and hit a guardrail. They are investigating.

 Dana Hedgpeth
Mumbai Police has officially not asked Zakir Naik for his clarification nor have they contacted him. However, Naik's press conference a week back was keenly watched by Mumbai police officials.

Naik runs an organisation called the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai and one of its employees was picked up last night in a joint operation by ATS and the Kerala police.

By Vidya : Mumbai Police had almost finalised its report on islamic preacher Zakir Naik after going through various cases registered against him and his various controversial speeches. However, they have now decided to wait a little longer to wait for inputs from Maharashtra Anti-terrorism squad (ATS) on the latest arrest.

Naik runs an organisation called the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai and one of its employees was picked up last night in a joint operation by ATS and the Kerala Police.

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Kerala Police is probing the mysterious missing of some women from state and the forcible conversion bid on a Kochi youth. RC Qureshi was picked up from seawood area of Navi mumbai for a joint operation. Its the second time that someone from IRF has been arrested. Earlier Maharashtra ATS had arrested Feroz deshmukh, a librarian at IRF in a terror act but the investigating authority had not found any evidence against Deshmukh and had to let him go.

Mumbai Police officials do believe though that anybody can be a member of any organisation but certain details like the organisations involvement in what the accused was doing is something that needs to be ascertained. This input from ATS will be on this aspect and it is expected by Saturday or Sunday. Mumbai police commissioner Dutt Padsalgikar said, "It's likely that now we will be sending our report only by next week."

Mumbai Police has officially not asked Zakir Naik for his clarification, and they have not even contacted him. However, Naik's press conference a week back was keenly watched by Mumbai police officials. In Qureshi's case, IRF has decided to back him. In a press release IRF said, "Dr Zakir Naik and IRF has repeatedly condemned AISIS for being anti-Islamic. No staff of IRF will ever encourage anyone to join AISIS. Dr Naik had also taken a staff meeting a year back condemning AISIS and had warned people not to get misguided by those who support AISIS. AISIS is Anti Islamic State of Iraq & Syria who wrongly call themselves as ISIS."

Mr Arshi Qureshi is a Guest Relations Officer at IRF.



--- ENDS ---
Federal prosecutors dismissed charges late Thursday against a Northeast Washington woman who was arrested two weeks ago on allegations that she used ice cream and popcorn to lure three boys into her apartment and sexually assaulted them.

Prosecutors had charged Larona M. Steele, 42, with five counts of child sexual abuse after the boys, ages 12, 13 and 15, told police that Steele invited them into her apartment in the 3500 block of Clay Street for the treats and then locked the door and directed them to perform sex acts. She was arrested July 5.

The D.C. Public Defender Service said in a statement that its investigation revealed that Ms. Steele is innocent.

Ms. Steeles lawyer, Madalyn Harvey, shared this information with the government and upon the governments review the government dismissed the charges, the statement said. Sadly nothing erases the trauma of the last two weeks during which Ms. Steele has been jailed and accused of a terrible crime she did not commit.

The office declined to comment further. Steele could not be reached at the apartment or by phone on Friday afternoon.

As Steele and her attorney were preparing for a hearing in D.C. Superior Court on Friday morning, prosecutors dismissed the case and a judge ordered Steele released from the D.C. jail.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office said that as prosecutors and D.C. police detectives were investigating the case, prosecutors determined that there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction.

After further investigation, the U.S. attorneys office has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, said the spokesman, William Miller.

The case rocked the Northeast Washington neighborhood where Steele is known as Ronnie. At the time of her arrest, court documents revealed that one of the three youths allegedly videotaped the incident. Steele told police that she was intoxicated that day and did not recall whether she had sex with the boys, according to court papers.

Miller declined to comment on whether police had retrieved the video or what it showed.

[Woman charged with using ice cream to lure boys into home, raping them]

Steele was arrested after an adult family member of two of the boys filed a complaint with the police departments youth division.

The arrest affidavit filed in court alleged that Steele approached the boys as they sat on the front steps of her apartment building.

Elise Schmelzer contributed to this report.
A D.C. man pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm Wednesday after a daylight shooting in June left him wounded in front of a liquor store in Northeast Washington.

[D.C. police arrest man after shooting at shopping center]

Leroy Robinson, 32, said in a plea that he was an initial aggressor in a shootout in the 1300 block of Brentwood Road NE on June 1 about 9:45 a.m., the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. Police previously said Robinson was making a delivery when he was caught in the middle of an argument.

Surveillance video showed Robinson and an unknown shooter firing in the direction of two parked cars, the statement said, endangering a person not involved in the gun battle. Robinson was struck by a bullet and crawled away from the scene before law enforcement found him in a grassy area near where the shooting occurred with an empty gun holster on his waistband, according to the statement.

Robinson, who will be sentenced on Sept. 23, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the assault with a dangerous weapon charge and 15 years on the unlawful possession of a firearm charge, prosecutors said. Because he has a prior conviction for a crime of violence, he faces a minimum of three years in prison, the statement said.
A D.C. man pleaded guilty Friday to fatally shooting a man outside a library in Southeast Washington after his car was broken into, prosecutors said.

At 4 p.m. Feb. 10, 23-year-old Maurico Walker of Northeast and another man were looking for unlocked car doors in the 2100 block of R Street SE, a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District said. Alphonso Roberts, 32, saw Walkers accomplice taking items from his Volvo and confronted the two men, who walked away, according to the statement.

[D.C. police identify man fatally shot near library in Anacostia]

As Walker and the second person were walking over the grass lot next to the Anacostia Library in the 1800 block of Good Hope Road SE, Roberts drove by in his Volvo, pulled to the curb, got out of the vehicle, pulled out a handgun and began shooting, the statement said. Walker ran back through the lot, but was shot in the back and head and collapsed, later dying of his injuries, according to the statement.

During a search of Robertss apartment on Feb. 25, police recovered a loaded Glock 9-millimeter semiautomatic from the top shelf of a bedroom closet, prosecutors said. Although the gun was not the murder weapon, Roberts, who had an earlier felony conviction, was legally barred from possessing any firearm. He was arrested and has been in custody since.

On Monday, Roberts pleaded guilty to a federal firearms offense before pleading guilty Friday to a charge of second-degree murder while armed, prosecutors said. The pleas call for Roberts, who will be sentenced on Sept. 16, to serve a total of 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
D.C. police are investigating three apparently unrelated sexual assaults that occurred over the past month in Southeast, Northeast and Northwest Washington.

The most recent attack took place Thursday in the 2500 block of Alabama Avenue SE when police said a man forced a woman to the ground and sexually assaulted her. It occurred about 2 a.m. as the woman was walking along the street.

Police described the attacker as black, in his 40s, standing about 6-foot-3 and weighing between 300 and 400 pounds. He had a light complexion and was wearing a white T-shirt and dark shorts, and his hair was in dreadlocks.

On Monday, police said man armed with a knife approached a woman in the 1800 block of M Street NE and forced the person into a vehicle. The man drove the victim to a parking lot in the 2400 block of East Capitol Street NE where police said he sexually assaulted her.

The man is described as black, 39 to 40 years old with a dark complexion, short dreadlocks and weighing between 250 and 300 pounds. Police said he has a tattoo on his left arm and was wearing a white T-shirt, blue shorts and black, white and yellow sneakers. He was last seen driving a navy blue four-door vehicle with a gray cloth interior.

On June 26, police said a person was sexually assaulted inside a residence in the 4800 block of Connecticut Avenue NW. Police released few details of the incident, but said it occurred between 3:13 a.m. and 4:06 a.m.

Police did not say if the attacker broke into the residence or if the assault was random.

Authorities released video surveillance in hopes of identifying the person responsible. It shows a man in a gray or white T-shirt walking in and then out of what appears to be a lobby of an apartment building. On his way out, he is holding a cellphone.
He broke into rooms at two different hotels on the same block of Rhode Island Avenue in Northwest Washington and stole computers, money and games, once while the occupants slept, according to D.C. police,

In one of the burglaries, police said he took a laptop, but left behind his cell phone. Detectives found pictures of a man and text messages sent by Ronald.

That led authorities to charge Ronald Lewis, 18, of Lanham, Md., with three counts of burglary. He has been ordered detained until a court hearing Aug. 19. Police did not say how entry to the hotel rooms was obtained.

The first break-in occurred June 14 at the Doubletree Hotel in the 1500 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW. Police said in an arrest affidavit that a man broke into a room between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. and took a womans credit card, Nintendo game system and $1,200 in cash. Police said the credit card was used about 8 p.m. that night at a 7-Eleven on U Street Northwest.

Between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., also on June 14, police allege the same men broke into a room at the Holiday Inn, near the Doubletree and also in the 1500 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW. Police said a woman returned to her room about 10 p.m. and found that her laptop computer had been stolen. She found a cellphone on the floor that didnt belong to her.

Police seized the phone and obtained a warrant to search its contents. But before they could identify the suspect, police said the man returned to the Doubletree in the early morning hours of June 19. Police said the man entered a room and grabbed a handbag and a computer tablet as a woman and her son were sleeping.

A third occupant of the room was out at the time, but police said he returned and confronted the burglar about 7 a.m. I am in the wrong room, the man told the occupant as he ran out, according to the police affidavit.

Police said a credit card from the purse was used at a McDonalds on M Street Northwest at 8:40 a.m. Authorities said they also have surveillance video of the suspect at the hotels.
Liquor store at right was site of October 2015 robbery. (Peter Hermann/The Washington Post)

A District man pleaded guilty Friday to a botched liquor store robbery that ended with police fatally shooting his female accomplice on Oct. 26, 2015.

Ned McCallister, 21, of Northeast Washington, will face sentencing Oct. 14 before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson after pleading guilty to federal robbery and firearms charges.

[Man charged in burglary that ended in shootout with D.C. police]

Police said Marquesha McMillan, 21, also of Northeast, was killed after firing multiple rounds at officers shortly after 9 a.m. that Monday after the pair fled Morris Miller Wines & Liquor, at Alaska and Georgia avenues NW, a block from San Miguel Middle School.
A Manassas man who was the third and final suspect in a drug deal that ended in robbery and murder was arrested Thursday in New York, police said.

[Authorities search for suspect in Prince William County killing]

On March 18, Javiel Rosado Santiago arranged a narcotics transaction in the 7900 block of Blue Gray Circle in Manassas, Prince William County police said in a statement. Santiago was approached by two men and a juvenile, the statement said, and the juvenile attempted to rob him.

A gun battle ensued during which Santiago was killed, and the juvenile was shot in the hand, according to the statement. The juvenile and another suspect, 19-year-old Carlos Fernando Lazo-Rivera, were arrested in March.

On Friday, police said the third suspect, 20-year-old Alexander Esau Flores-Aguilar, of Manassas, was arrested in Hempstead, N.Y., after a three-day search that involved the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local police departments. Flores-Aguilar is in custody in New York awaiting extradition to Virginia, the statement said, and will be charged with murder, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and attempted robbery.
Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington in April 2016. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Prosecutors in Virginia want an additional month to respond to the Supreme Court decision overturning former governor Robert F. McDonnells corruption conviction.

With agreement from McDonnells defense attorneys, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to suspend the case for 30 days while lawyers are analyzing the Supreme Courts opinion and discussing what steps to take next in this case.

The motion was filed late Thursday. The parties suggest that in 30 days, they will either come up with a schedule for further action or update the court on the status of their discussions.

McDonnell was found guilty of public corruption in 2014, and the appeals court upheld that conviction. But the Supreme Court unanimously agreed last month that the law governing bribery of public officials had been misinterpreted in the case and ordered the appeals court to reconsider its decision in that light.

If the appeals court determines there is still enough evidence to convict McDonnell, prosecutors could call for a new trial. But experts said it would be difficult to win a conviction after the ruling from the Supreme Court, which found that the jury was given too broad a description of an official act.

After losing at the countrys highest court, prosecutors in Virginia will have to consider the viability of their legal theories and the likelihood of success at a second trial.

The facts of the case and the evidence investigators gathered have not changed.

The real issue is: Can the facts be interpreted or applied differently, or are there additional facts that were not introduced during the case that the government could use to salvage the prosecution? said Jacob Frenkel, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer at the Dickinson Wright law firm.

Typically, in these circumstances, Frenkel said, the government would lean against going forward after having already put on its strongest case during the first trial.

The internal deliberations also could involve policy questions likely being discussed at the highest levels of the Justice Department, said Justin Shur, former deputy chief of the public integrity section who is now in private practice at the MoloLamken firm.

Those questions relate to whether the governments evidence is sufficient to show an official act as a matter of law based on the Supreme Courts narrow interpretation of that term.

McDonnell, a onetime Republican rising star, has always maintained that he did nothing official for Jonnie R. Williams Sr., despite the gifts and loans the Richmond businessman gave him. Prosecutors, however, argued that the generosity was part of a quid pro quo in which the governor used the power of his office to promote Williamss vitamin supplement business.

McDonnell, through a spokesperson, declined to comment Friday. Federal prosecutors in Virginia also declined to comment.

McDonnells wife, Maureen, was found guilty of conspiring with her husband and convicted of public corruption charges. Her case remains on appeal.

Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.
Mumbai Police is finalising the report and giving it the finishing touches before handing it to the Maharashtra government.

By Vidya : Mumbai police will submit its report on controversial Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik to the state government on Friday.

The report is getting finalised and is being given the finishing touches before handing it to the Maharashtra government.

Naik has been in the eye of a brewing controversy after allegations of him inspiring one of the Dhaka attackers had been brought to light. Five Bangladeshi militants had hacked 22 people to death at an upscale cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave at the beginning of this month. After a background check was done, it was said that a video link of Naik's speech was uploaded by the terrorist on a social networking site.

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After the attack, Bangladesh corresponded with India asking for it to look into the issue. Maulanas in Bangladesh had also been complaining about Naiks teaching 'not being in line with Quran' and Dhaka attack was seen as the latest reason for Bangladesh to make such a request. A fortnight later Naik's Peace TV Bangla was also banned in both Bangladesh and India.

While the Central government had undertaken an investigation, the chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis too had enquired about the Mumbai based televangelist Naik. Within a fortnight, the team entrusted with the task viewed thousands of Naik's video clippings, both online as well as CDs and prepared the report. It is said that the state governments Law and Judiciary Department will scrutinise the report and give recommendations on what can be done.

In the meantime, Naik through skype from Africa addressed the Indian media clarifying that he had never supported terrorism.

Naik faces many cases across the country under sections of penal code pertaining to hurting religious sentiments. Most cases against him are stayed by Supreme Court and will come up for hearing in apex court only next month.



Also Read:

Zakir Naik's employee, suspected of recruiting Kerala youth for ISIS, arrested

Youth associated with Zakir Naiks foundation arrested



--- ENDS ---
Alexandria police have charged a suspect in the slaying of Saquan Hall, who was shot in the Old Town North neighborhood this month in what his family believes may have been a revenge killing.

Dijuan Clark, 30, was arrested in North Carolina, authorities said, and will be extradited to Virginia.

The suspect is the brother of Pierre Clark, who was killed in the same neighborhood in early June, Police Chief Earl Cook told reporters at a recent community meeting.

Halls mother, Patrice Hall, has alleged that police searched her home in connection with Clarks killing and that it made her son a target.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that the Hall home was searched as part of the investigation into Clarks slaying. She declined to elaborate on what led police there or what evidence was uncovered. Police said the investigation into Clarks death remains open.

It was a horrible mistake, Patrice Hall said at the meeting, asserting that authorities had been wrongly focusing on her son when they carried out the search.

Hall also challenged those whose silence after Clarks death she believes contributed to her own sons slaying.

If you knew something and did not give it up, you killed my son as sure as the triggerman, she said. A lot of you who kissed me and hugged me  youve got evidence. Youve got information.

At about 3:30 a.m. on July 2, Alexandria police responded to a report of a shooting in the 1000 block of First Street. They found Hall, 23, with a gunshot wound to the upper body, according to a news release. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

The shooting came less than a month after Pierre Clark, 28, of no fixed address, was killed around the corner, on Montgomery Street. The afternoon shooting forced schools in the area to go on lockdown and scared people who were out for lunch.

In that case, police went to a housing complex at about 12:35 p.m. on June 8 because of a report of a shooting. Clark was found with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at a local hospital.

A woman who identified herself as Clarks sister but would not give her name said at the scene on June 8 that her brother was a good person.

He just had a lot of people who was jealous of him, because he dressed nice, the woman said. A lot of people just hate. Thats what they do around here.

She then shook her head. But to kill him in broad daylight, she said and started to cry. In broad daylight!

On a Facebook page that belongs to Dijuan Clark, the man who was arrested in Halls death, Clark had posted several messages about the death of his brother, who rapped under the name Gwapo.

I not only lost my Brother . . . I lost my #1 fan, one of the messages read. I can handle this cold [world] you know it.

In a statement, Cook said he wanted to thank the community for uniting and helping end the cycle of violence by understanding the necessity of allowing Alexandria Police detectives to carry out their investigation.

Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.
A funeral wreath at a tongue-in-cheek Irish wake held for the GOP at the Dubliner on Capitol Hill. #NeverTrump supporters gathered to mark Donald Trumps speech to the Republican convention. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The coffin was draped in black cloth. So were the mirrors, as is the tradition at an Irish wake. A wreath of white mums offered a lament: RIP, GOP.

The mourners  most dressed in black  remembered the good times, helped along by pints of Guinness.

It was a seriously Washington-y way for a group of establishment, die-hard, #NeverTrump Republicans to stomach the night Donald Trump owned their party.

They darkly joked their way through it at the Dubliner, a Capitol Hill watering hole, eating Ronald Reagans jelly beans, ordering another pint and remembering five presidential campaigns worth of the good old days represented in that room.

When Trumps head filled the screen above the bar, they joked some more.

The crowd raises their glasses during a toast at the bar. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

We could all just be sitting at home with our heads in our hands, said Andrew Weinstein, one of the wakes organizers. He had brainstormed with Chris Scheve, a former Bush administration official, on how to deal with the darkness.

We decided a wake was perfect, he said. So they organized it and invited GOP friends from across the country to fly in and cry in their pints together.

This is what theyve been talking about for weeks  the death of the Republican Party as they know it. And its not an easy sentiment to share in these divided times.

All this racism and hate. I feel like someones going to throw rotten tomatoes at me every time I say Im a Republican, said Katie McHenry, 34, who works for a Republican firm she didnt want to identify. Thats not what were about. Its small government. Lower taxes.

[The Trump Effect is contaminating our kids  and could resonate for years ]

Shes had deep, long talks with her friends back home in Texas.

This is not the party they know, she said.

Past GOP presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan festooned the front of the coffin at the wake. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

They mourned, they hugged. Melancholy hung heavy. They exchanged business cards. They signed the guest book:

Before the dawn comes the deepest dark of night. This darkness is called Trump, and the GOP  or whatever follows it  will emerge stronger for it, Weinstein wrote.

My grandma deserves better than this. Shes a lifelong Republican, and her heart is broken, wrote another mourner.

Eventually, when Trumps yamminess filled the TV screen above the bar, they watched his speech.

They head-slapped, eye-rolled, groaned.

If Rubio said that, I have to be honest, I would agree, one man said. But this guy.

When Trump began talking about crime, McHenrys pint of Port City began to disappear.

Every time he said Law and Order, which is my favorite show, we have to say dum-dah-dum and take a sip, she explained.

The room got louder. The floor got stickier. The bartender joined in the howls.

When Trump said, Almost 4,000 have been killed in the Chicago area since [President Obama] took office, she drank anyhow.

Correlation! she yelled at the TV. Im a liberal arts major, and even I know that was off.

Weinstein, who was director of media relations for Bob Doles 1996 presidential campaign and then did the same job for former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) before he founded his own firm, Ridgeback Communications, groaned when Trump talked about undocumented immigrant families.

They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources, Trump said.

Released? Like Obama is opening cages of wild animals in neighborhoods? Come on! Weinstein said.

Immigrants are what make our country great, we all know that, no matter when we came, McHenry said. Im a 15th-generation immigrant.

Mine came over on one of the ships to Jamestown, a guy in a dapper hat said.

Mine were, like, the Mayflower 2, another mourner added.

Mine came through Staten Island, a woman with an exuberant, hot-pink scrunchie said. I mean, Ellis Island!

[The Orlando shooter, Donald Trump and the wave of hatred gripping our country]

Weinstein, whose grandfather was one of the czarist-era Jewish immigrants who left Minsk to come to America, turned to the screen and wailed, Der Fuhrer!

He got high-fives, head shakes and more groans.

Trumps doom-and-gloom speech probably did sound better in the original German, someone at the bar joked.

This was what they needed, this lament, this group wail.

The guys whose portraits graced the coffin (bought last-minute on Amazon)  Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan  are how they want to see their party.

But this Cheeto-face? someone said. No.

They admired the non-endorsement speech by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) on Wednesday. And they hailed the Republican leaders who refused to attend the convention, including all the Bushes and a number of governors: Marylands Larry Hogan, South Carolinas Nikki Haley, even Ohios John Kasich.

The Whigs died 160 years ago. Is this really a wake, not just a joke?

This is a time for soul-searching. Finding the soul of the party. It will rise from the ashes, said McHenry, appropriately enough, from a bar stool beside the Hotel Phoenix.

She hasnt ruled out voting for Trump. But she could also see herself voting for Hillary.

Weinstein  yes, the guy who worked for Newt  said hes voting for Hillary, even though they disagree on many things. She is qualified to be president, he said, and Trump is not.

Twitter: @petulad
An architectural rendering of what the Maryland Transit Administration says a Purple Line station would look like in downtown Bethesda. (Courtesy of Maryland Transit Administration)

Officials with the Federal Transit Administration are seeking Congressional sign-off on a funding agreement that will clear the way for major construction on Marylands Purple Line light-rail project to begin later this year.

Congress has 30 days to review what is known as a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA), essentially the governments guarantee to contribute to the project. Once that review process is complete, it will be sent back to the FTA administrator for her signature.

Those actions ensure that the $900 million the federal government pledged to the 16.2-mile light-rail line will come through. The federal funds will cover nearly half of the estimated $2 billion it will cost to build the line.

The Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) for the Maryland National Capital Purple Line project has been sent to Congress for the required 30-day review period, FTA said in a statement.

[Contractor begins preliminary work on the Purple Line]

But federal officials declined to offer any specifics, including whether they insisted on any changes to the contract state officials signed with the group that will build and operate the line as part of a 36-year public/private partnership. Although the agreement sets out an annual payment schedule, they would not say whether there were any changes in the financing structure of the project.

Until Congress signs off on the deal, FTA cannot comment further on the issue. More information will be available at that time, FTA officials wrote.

Maryland state transportation officials also were tight-lipped, referring all calls to the FTA.

Even so, approval of the grant agreement is an important milestone because it clears the way for major construction to begin.

Were assuming that its a done deal, said Roger Berliner, vice chairman of the Montgomery County Council. Theres been such cynicism about governments capacity to do anything big so for us to be able to point to something where dirt will be dug and something will be built  its nice. Should it take this long? No. But when it happens you have to be grateful its done.

The Purple Line is a 16.2-mile light-rail line that will run along a recreational trail and local streets between Bethesda in Montgomery County and New Carrollton in Prince Georges County. The east-west line will provide a vital rail link between two of Marylands biggest counties and will connect the states Metrorail lines with Amtrak and MARC commuter rail stations. It have 21 stops, including Silver Spring, Langley Park, the University of Maryland and Riverdale.

In April, Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn signed a contract with Purple Line Transit Partners, the consortium that will build and operate the light-rail line as part of a 36-year private/public partnership. But state officials could not allow crews to begin the bulk of the work until the federal grant agreement is finalized.

[Maryland board approves $5.6 billion Purple Line contract]

Congress already has appropriated roughly $203 million for Purple Line construction.

Of that amount, $3 million has been awarded to the Maryland Transit Administration as part of a grant in 2012 for preliminary engineering and environmental impact study activities. The remaining $200 million in appropriated funds will be released when the agreement is signed.

President Obamas proposed FY17 budget includes a recommendation for a next installment payment toward the FFGA of $125 million.

Even though the money is guaranteed, Congress must still make an annual appropriation each year. Once the grant agreement has been approved, however, it is rare that the money would not be made available.

Officials on other light-rail projects say a federal funding agreement gives developers the certainty that they -- and their banks -- are seeking before they invest in building new apartment or office buildings around future stations. The agreement, they say, assures developers that a light-rail line in plans for years will actually get built.

Tina Votaw, a transit-oriented development specialist for the Charlotte light-rail system, said she heard from developers occasionally as the first 9.6-mile segment of the citys light-rail Blue Line was being planned. After the projects full funding grant agreement was signed in early 2005, she said, developers calls picked up.

Like the Purple Line, Charlottes Blue Line was designed not only to move people but also to spur economic development around stations.

The phone started ringing pretty much continuously, Votaw said. Developers said Now youve got the [federal] money. Its going to happen. Now well make the investment.

Purple Line Transit Partners is led by Texas-based Fluor Corp., the French investment firm Meridiam and Star America, a New York firm that invests in public infrastructure projects.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued a sweeping order in April restoring rights to all ex-offenders who are no longer incarcerated or on probation or parole. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Gov. Terry McAuliffes decision to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons violates Virginias constitution, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday, dealing a major blow to the Democratic governor with implications for the November presidential race in the crucial swing state.

In a 4-to-3 decision, the court ruled that McAuliffe overstepped his clemency powers by issuing a sweeping order in April restoring rights to all ex-offenders who are no longer incarcerated or on probation or parole.

The court agreed with state Republicans who challenged McAuliffes order, arguing that the governor can only restore voting rights on a case-by-case basis and not en masse.

Never before have any of the prior 71 Virginia Governors issued a clemency order of any kind  including pardons, reprieves, commutations, and restoration orders  to a class of unnamed felons without regard for the nature of the crimes or any other individual circumstances relevant to the request, Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons wrote for the majority. To be sure, no Governor of this Commonwealth, until now, has even suggested that such a power exists.

But a defiant McAuliffe released a statement late Friday saying that he would pick up his executive pen and restore the rights of those felons on an individual basis, even if it means signing more than 200,000 orders.

My faith remains strong in all of our citizens to choose their leaders, and I am prepared to back up that faith with my executive pen, he said. The struggle for civil rights has always been a long and difficult one, but the fight goes on.

The court directed the state elections commissioner, Edgardo Cortes, to cancel the registrations by Aug. 25 of about 13,000 felons who had joined the voter rolls after McAuliffe signed his order. Cortes was also ordered to add their names to the list of prohibited voters.

McAuliffe said in his statement that he would expeditiously sign individual orders for those 13,000 felons and then keep on signing.

Once again, the Virginia Supreme Court has placed Virginia as an outlier in the struggle for civil and human rights, McAuliffe said. It is a disgrace that the Republican leadership of Virginia would file a lawsuit to deny more than 200,000 of their own citizens the right to vote. And I cannot accept that this overtly political action could succeed in suppressing the voices of many thousands of men and women who had rejoiced with their families earlier this year when their rights were restored.

The ruling comes three months after McAuliffe stood on the portico of the state capitol and pledged to erase the last vestiges of Jim Crow-era laws that disenfranchised African American voters. Nearly a quarter of the states black population cannot vote because of felony convictions.

Virginia is one of just a handful of states that ban all felons from voting and require individual exemptions for ex-offenders to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The ban is tinged with racial overtones: When it was adopted in 1902, a delegate testified to the need to eliminate the darkey as a political factor, according to Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

McAuliffe said his restoration order was his proudest moment as governor, and the state party has rallied around the policy as the premier achievement of his term.

[Virginia Supreme Court considers constitutionality of McAuliffes order]

But state Republicans saw it as a partisan move to swell the numbers of Democratic voters heading into the November election, when McAuliffes good friend, Hillary Clinton, will be battling to win the swing state and its 13 electoral votes in her presidential race against Republican Donald Trump.

Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City), who brought the challenge with four voters, applauded the ruling.

The Supreme Court of Virginia delivered a major victory for the Constitution, the rule of law and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Our nation was founded on the principles of limited government and separation of powers, they said in a joint statement. Those principles have once again withstood assault from the executive branch. This opinion is a sweeping rebuke of the governors unprecedented assertion of executive authority.

Lemons noted in his opinion that Virginias last Democratic governor, Timothy M. Kaine, declined in 2010 to issue a blanket voting rights restoration order on advice from a senior adviser who said such a move would be an improper rewrite of the law and constitution. A spokeswoman for Kaine, now a senator who was announced as Clintons running mate Friday evening, did not return a request for comment.

John Whitbeck, chairman of the Virginia GOP, said in a statement that McAuliffe was trying to stack the deck for Hillary Clinton and accused him of a naked power grab.

Along with voting rights, the governors action restored the right to serve on a jury, run for public office and become a notary public.

Civil rights and progressive groups condemned the ruling.

Its disgraceful that some politicians would go to such lengths to block these citizens from participating in our democracy, said Anna Scholl, executive director of Progress Virginia. We would be happy to send Governor McAuliffe a box of pens to start signing individual orders.

Voting access has become a heated topic across the country in a presidential election year that is expected to be especially close and hotly contested. Democrats have been pushing to loosen voting restrictions, saying they disproportionately affect poor and minority voters, while Republicans have been trying to tighten requirements in an effort they say is aimed at combating fraud. Earlier this week, a federal court struck down a voter identification law in Texas, finding it discriminated against minorities.

Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, which dispatched staff to begin registering voters minutes after McAuliffes order, called Fridays ruling heartbreaking for felons who had felt redeemed.

They had a glimmer of hope, and now its being completely dashed and taken away, she said.

But McAuliffe had also faced bipartisan criticism about the way his administration implemented the restoration order and for the decision to keep secret the list of felons who had their rights restored.

[Errors in McAuliffes clemency order draws scrutiny]

It was discovered that the list mistakenly included several violent criminals still in custody and 132 sex offenders under involuntary supervision. These errors drew ire from Democratic and Republican prosecutors who say they were not properly consulted ahead of the governors order and were tasked with finding errors.

McAuliffes order also made it simpler for felons to apply for the right to possess guns.

The Friday ruling also shows the consequences of a protracted and bitter battle in the past year over installing a state Supreme Court justice.

State lawmakers ousted a judge appointed by McAuliffe when the legislature was out of session and installed a preferred alternative. That judge, Stephen R. McCullough, joined three other conservative judges in overturning McAuliffes order.
During a heat wave the body has to work harder to maintain a normal body temperature. Here are five facts to keep in mind when dealing with intense heat. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

The most stifling weather of the year is expected to start moving into the Washington region Friday, building through the weekend with temperatures nearing 100, and peaking early next week with heat indexes even higher.

Forecasters are calling for readings to soar into the upper 90s, and beyond, through late next week, flirting with records and posting temperatures 10 degrees above the average highs in the upper 80s.

The record high for Fridays date at Reagan National Airport is 103, set in 1926. It doesnt appear likely that temperatures there will break the record Friday or either of the next two days. The record for Saturday is 102, set in 2011, and for Sunday is 101, set in 2010.

But one weather model has Mondays high around Washington at 104. The record high for that date in Washington is 100, set in 1930.

The National Weather Service issues heat advisories when the heat index has the potential to reach 105 degrees, Jason Samenow, chief meteorologist with The Washington Posts Capital Weather Gang wrote Thursday.

And we expect such advisories will be issued on most if not all of the days between Friday and Monday, he wrote.

On multiple occasions, we may match or best the summers highest temperature registered so far of 98 degrees on July 14, he wrote. And for the first time this summer, we should string together consecutive days above 95 degrees.

Home thermostat Voting is closed on this poll User Poll Results: Your thermostat is set to what temperature in summer when home? 66 or below 67-68 69-70 71-72 73-74 75-76 77-78 79 or higher Pardon the interruption! We need to verify that you are an actual person. 66 or below 67-68 69-70 71-72 73-74 75-76 77-78 79 or higher View Results This is a non-scientific user poll. Results are not statistically valid and cannot be assumed to reflect the views of Washington Post users as a group or the general population.

The mercury around Washington has not reached 100 since July 26, 2012.

Hot weather was expected to overspread much of the country by Monday, from the Midwest to New England.

Local officials warned people to take precautions, and said they were taking emergency measures.

Stay safe as it heats up, President Obama tweeted Wednesday. Drink water, stay out of the sun, and check on your neighbors.

The D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department said it will add five ambulances to its fleet to help with calls that officials says they anticipate will increase over the weekend.

On a typical day, the department has 25 basic life support ambulances and 14 advanced life support vehicles staffed by paramedics who can administer IVs and drugs. In addition, there are 25 private ambulances helping the city run routine calls from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Fire officials are adding five more transport vehicles  a mix of basic and advanced life support from Friday morning through 11 p.m. Monday, said Doug Buchanan, the fire departments chief spokesman.

Our up-staffing is directly related to the extreme weather we are anticipating, Buchanan said.



Water drips off Hermon Getu after he poured water over his head following a soccer game earlier this month in Washington. Some of the hottest weather of the summer is in the region through the weekend. (Matt McClain/For The Washington Post)

Buchanan also said that officials will do all they can to persuade people not to open fire hydrants to get water to stay cool. The practice is illegal and depletes water needed to fight fires.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said officers in neighborhoods, particularly officers on walking tours, will check in on elderly people living in their patrol areas. She said supervisors will be out to ensure officers have enough water.

The District opened a hyperthermia hotline at 800-535-7252 for people in dire need of relief. And the city urged people to cool off at cooling centers, public swimming pools and spray parks.

[Heres a map of Washingtons cooling centers, spray parks and swimming pools]

Officials in the surrounding counties also are issuing advisories and setting up cooling centers. In Fairfax County, cooling centers have been set up in libraries and community centers. Montgomery County is telling residents without air conditioning who are unable to get to a cool place to call the crisis center at 240-777-4000.

Humidity throughout the heat wave will be moderate to high but probably not off-the-charts, Samenow reported. Still, moderate to high humidity will frequently make air temperatures feel at least 5-10 degrees hotter than they actually are.

Saturday and Monday are likely to be the most humid days, he wrote. Humidity may ease slightly on Sunday.

Of dubious comfort may be the outlook for Phoenix, where it was 110 Thursday, with forecast highs of 113 Friday and Saturday.

Or, as Andy Woodcock, a lead forecaster at the Weather Service, points out: Exactly six months ago  Jan. 22 through 24  Washington was getting buried under 30 inches of snow.

[Remember the blizzard? Cool off with these images.]


Hillary Clinton in St. Louis earlier this year. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Let us mark the moment: After 240 years, America will this week anoint the first woman to head a major partys presidential ticket when Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination.

Now the cold reality: Its been a long, slow slog. In 1917, there was one female member of Congress. One hundred years later, there are 104 (out of 535 seats), with no growth spurt in sight.

At this rate it will be another 300 years before women have parity in Congress, says former congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.). Man, are we behind.

Indeed, women make up half the workforce and more than half of college students, but remain woefully underrepresented in elective office. In recent years, the numbers have either plateaued or risen only minimally.

Among the reasons: Old stereotypes die hard. Concerns persist that women are not tough enough on national security or the economy. And women are still often viewed through a lens of temperament and appearance. Supporters of Hillary Clinton were stunned when Donald Trump repeatedly assailed her for shouting at rallies. I almost fell out of my chair, said Ellen Malcolm, the founder of Emilys List.

The nonpartisan Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which studied the role of likability in weighing female and male candidates, found that it can make or break a woman running for office. People will say, I dont just like her,  said Adrienne Kimmell, the foundations executive director. But likability does not impact electability for men. They are judged by experience and competence.

The 2014 midterm elections brought an unprecedented number of women to Congress, but women still account for less than 20 percent of legislators in Washington. States hardly fare better. The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) reports that women average barely 25 percent of members of state legislatures.

Schroeder was sure in 1984 that the floodgates would open when Geraldine Ferraro became the first female vice-presidential candidate: I thought the barrier was broken  but it never happened.

Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP at Rutgers University, believes that the good old boys network is still very much alive and unintentionally acts as a deterrent. It becomes self-perpetuating, Walsh said. More men are elected and enter politics, and they tend to recruit candidates like themselves.

Most troubling, Walsh says, is how this affects the pipeline. Women tend to ease into politics at the state level when encouraged. Women start from a place where they dont think that theyre qualified to run  and then we found that they were less likely to get encouragement.

Malcolm has been on the front lines for 30 years and believes that women are inching forward. She points out that if Clinton is elected, a generation of middle-school and high school students will see an America where a female president is the norm.

In 1985, energized by Ferraros selection for a major-party ticket, Malcolm sought to create momentum. She didnt think the Democrats had sufficiently taken advantage of the historical moment. In fact, a female Democratic senator had yet to be elected in her own right (without succeeding a dead husband). And a few years earlier, Arkansas lawyer Hillary Rodham felt compelled to assume her husbands last name because keeping her maiden name contributed to his loss in his gubernatorial reelection race.

So Malcolm gathered some friends in her basement and founded Emilys List to help recruit, fund and give voice to female candidates who supported abortion rights. Since that moment, the organization has helped elect more than 130 governors and U.S. House and Senate members, as well as 700 women to state legislatures.

People didnt even know what a female candidate looked like  never mind vote for one, Malcolm says today. They would get asked: What does your husband think about you running? Who will do the laundry? We had to educate people. We had to change perceptions. If it was easy, we would have gotten here a long time ago.



Jeanette Rankin. (AP)

Hattie Caraway in 1931. (AP)

Jeannette Rankin

She was the first woman to be elected to Congress, an impressive achievement in 1916 considering women in most states didnt have the right to vote yet (although they did in her home state, Montana). In the House, Rankin immediately took up the fight to secure passage of the 19th Amendment. How shall we answer the challenge, gentlemen? she asked her colleagues during a floor debate. How shall we explain . . . the meaning of democracy if the same Congress that voted to make the world safe for democracy refuses to give this small measure of democracy to the women of our country? A committed pacifist, she failed in her effort to win a Senate seat in 1918, in part because she had voted against U.S. entry into World War I. She was elected to the House again in 1940 and promptly voted against declaring war on Japan  the only member of Congress to do so. She did not seek reelection.

Hattie Caraway

She was the first woman to be elected to the Senate and serve a full term. Like most women who landed in the Senate at the time, Caraway was initially appointed to finish out her late husbands term. She shocked Arkansas power brokers in 1932 when she decided to run for reelection  despite a crowded field of men. The time has passed when a woman should be placed in a position and kept there only while someone else is being groomed for the job, she said. It would be more than 40 years before a woman was elected to the Senate without having first arrived because of her husbands death. That distinction belongs to Nancy Kassebaum, a Republican from Kansas, who was elected in 1978.

Shirley Chisholm in 1972. (Library of Congress)

Shirley Chisholm

Rep. Shirley Chisholm, a Democrat from Brooklyn, was the first black congresswoman (1968)  and the first African American to run for president on a major party ticket. Upon entering Congress, she was assigned to the Agriculture Committee, not exactly useful for Brooklyn. Feisty and fearless, she demanded to be reassigned. She was then assigned the Veterans Affairs Committee. There are a lot more veterans in my district than trees, she noted. Her unsuccessful 1972 presidential quest generated much attention, and leaders in the womens movement rallied behind her. She was the first woman to run as a Democrat. Throughout her career, Chisholm was a vocal advocate for the poor and the disenfranchised. Many say she paved for way for Barack Obamas historic 2008 victory.



Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. (Frank Johnston/The Washington Post)

Patricia Schroeder. (Ray Lustig/The Washington Post)

Geraldine Ferraro

In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale selected her as his running mate, making her the first woman on a major partys ticket. So anomalous was it to have a dual-gender ticket that advisers were unsure how the candidates should interact. They were cautioned not to even touch each other onstage. Ferraro, a three-term congresswoman from Queens, was considered a bold yet desperate choice  an attempt by Democrats to take advantage of a gender gap to offset Ronald Reagans immense popularity. If we can do this, we can do anything, Ferraro thundered to the convention. Though she generated ample excitement, it didnt translate into support. She was immediately put on the defensive about her qualifications and soon found herself mired in questions about her husbands finances. The Democrats lost in a landslide. It would be a quarter-century before another woman was asked to join a major-party presidential ticket.

Patricia Schroeder

Schroeder, a well-regarded Democratic congresswoman from Colorado, seriously considered a run for president in 1988, generating much excitement. But she ultimately opted against it, because she couldnt raise money or assemble an organization quickly enough. On the day she announced her decision, she choked up  and was criticized by womens groups for showing emotion. A Harvard Law School graduate, Schroeder entered the House in 1973 after campaigning as an antiwar candidate. Asked by a male colleague how a mother of two small children could also serve in Congress, she famously quipped, I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both. She was the first woman to win a seat on the House Armed Services Committee and rose to become one of its most powerful members. She retired from Congress in 1997 after 12 terms.



Nancy Pelosi. (Paul Holston/AP)

Sarah Palin. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Nancy Pelosi

She was elected the first female speaker of the House in 2007, becoming the highest-ranking female politician in U.S. history to date. A wily strategist and tactician, Pelosi is credited with engineering her rise to speaker when she led the effort to take back the House after the 2004 elections, hiring outside marketers to fashion an anti-George W. Bush message and personally raising tens of millions of dollars. Pelosi grew up in a political family in Baltimore and became vactive in Democratic politics while raising five children in California. She was first elected to the House at 47, after her children were grown. At 76, and currently the House minority leader, she hasnt evidenced any hint of slowing down.

Sarah Palin

Palin became the second female vice-presidential nominee from a major party  and the first Republican  when Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) tapped her to be his running mate in 2008. It was a rough ride. Despite enormous excitement among conservatives when the first-term Alaska governor was named, voters eventually came to see her as unqualified. In addition, her eventful family drama, played out in public, became a running joke. After a damaging interview with Katie Couric, then with CBS News, Palins popularity plummeted, and many Republicans thought she was a drag on the ticket. Palin has maintained a strong following among conservatives and a voice on the national stage.

Carol Moseley Braun. (Mike Theiler/Reuters)

Carol Moseley Braun

In 1992 she became the first African American woman elected to the Senate. A Democrat, she captured national attention in 1993 when she and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland wore pants on the Senate floor in defiance of an arcane Senate rule prohibiting women from doing so. The rule was soon changed. Moseley Braun started her career as a prosecutor and was a legislator in the Illinois state House. Defeated in her reelection bid, she spent only one term in the Senate. After serving as ambassador to New Zealand, Moseley Braun decided to run for president in 2004. She dropped out of the race after the first primary.

Clarification: Rep. Shirley Chisholm was inadvertently omitted from an earlier version of this article.
Too late

to say sorry?

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) did not apologize for his inflammatory statements regarding minority subgroups at a private meeting this week organized by two African American conservative activists, reports our colleague Lateshia Beachum.

Two prominent conservatives invited King to explain his comments  that no other subgroup contributed more to civilization than white people  Monday on MSNBC.

Congressman King did not say anything overtly racist, said Ali Akbar, a prominent black conservative activist and director of the Black Community Forum Foundation. I dont think he owes any specific group an apology. He does owe clarity and a medium where he fully articulates his thoughts.

Akbar and activist Anita Moncrief asked King to elaborate on his comments for two hours on Wednesday evening in a condo near Quicken Loans Arena with about seven people attending.

It was very frank and open, Akbar said of the meeting. This wasnt us trying to punish him, as black Americans. It wasnt him trying to tell us how to act, as a white American.

Akbar said there has been miscommunication about what King intended in his comments. Kings remarks were rooted in his frustration about American exceptionalism being attacked, Akbar said describing an inclusive discussion about civilizations across cultures.

Dept. of Complaints

D.C. delegates wrote an official letter of complaint regarding the fact that their 19 votes were awarded to Donald Trump when the roll call was taken on Tuesday night, David Weigel reports.

The delegates were committed to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz, but the votes were instead awarded to Trump.

They watched Rina Shah, the second-highest vote-getter among the delegates who ran in the Districts caucus, be stripped of credentials after she made lightly critical remarks of Trump on TV.

We are deeply disappointed that the RNC reversed itself in order to unilaterally award the DC delegations votes to a candidate who did not earn those votes, wrote the 11 delegates in the letter.
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Jul 22 (PTI) Seventy-five people onboard North Koreas national carrier Air Koryo had a lucky escape today when a fire broke out mid-air forcing the plane to land in Chinas northeastern city of Shenyang.

The JS151 flight, en route from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to Beijing, made a safe landing at Shenyang airport at 8:50 AM. No one onboard was injured, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

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Smoke was seen from a compartment when the Russian made Tupolev Tu-204 plane, with 60 passengers and 15 crew aboard, landed at the airport.

The cabin was filled with smoke around 30 minutes after the flight left Pyongyang and passengers were forced to use oxygen masks, Xinhua quoted a passenger as saying.

The airport authority immediately dispatched a team to help check the plane.

The passengers were transferred to another flight to Beijing and the North Korean plane remains at the airport.

No details on the cause of the incident have been released yet. PTI KJV MNG AKJ MNG

--- ENDS ---
Phenomenal, Trump says

And for a change, the superlative was not about himself  instead, it was about Ted Cruz. Which is strange, since the senator gave a speech to delegates on Wednesday night in which he was booed loudly for refusing to support Donald Trump.

According to Robert Costa, the GOP nominee was beaming, said conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, who bumped into Trump after Cruzs speech at the Quicken Loans Arena.

I asked him, How do you feel?  Ingraham recounted. He said, Phenomenal! Phenomenal! He was smiling. He was beaming. He said, It couldnt have gone any better. Phenomenal! 

Ingraham continued: People around us in the boxes were buzzing about Cruz not being gracious, but Trump was just glowing, and everyone kind of noticed that  the way he was handling it  and thought he was hilarious. We thought it was awesome, Ingraham said. It was obvious that he wasnt angry or upset at all.

by the numbers

19.8 M

Thats the number of people who watched the second night of Trumps Republican convention, which he promised would be full of showbiz pizazz.

But The Fixs Philip Bump reports that is less than the more than 20 million who tuned in to the comparable night of Mitt Romneys 2012 gathering and far less than the 40 million who watched Sarah Palin make her national debut in 2008. (Caveat: Its not an apples-to-apples comparison because the first nights of the two previous conventions were canceled by hurricanes, meaning Bump technically compared the second night in Cleveland to the third night of those gatherings.)

It does seem clear, however, that Clevelands drew 23 million viewers, topping the previous years.

Spotted

Nigel Farage, the former leader of the United Kingdoms Independence Party, was spied out and about in Cleveland by our Kayla Epstein.

Farage was walking near the citys Public Square on Thursday. Although he has not officially endorsed Trump, he told Politico that he thinks the businessman is on the right track with his appeal to those who feel left behind by globalization.

And appearing at a Wednesday lunch celebrating Brexit  which he championed  Farage said he would be taking the same message to other European countries in hopes of spurring other referendums.
By Ashwini Kumar: 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAK LI) was inducted into Yaldor sub sector in May 1999. It was tasked to drive a wedge between the enemy's defences on Point 5203 and those on the Khalubar Ridge, which were separated by the Junk Lungpa (Lungpa translates as stream from Ladakhi). The Battalion inducted through the Junk Lungpa at night under the very nose of the enemy. Consequently, heavy artillery and machine gun was directed upon them. On 01 Jun, the Battalion captured Point 5390, which was thereafter utilised to bring down artillery fire onto enemy defences, which caused massive damage to his positions.

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On 07 June 1999, 12 JAK LI and 5 PARA launched their attack. By morning of June 8, they had reached within striking distance of the enemy's position, where they lay quietly throughout the day. In the evening, the enemy launched counterattacks just as our forces were about to launch their assault. 12 JAK LI lost Captain Amol Kalia in a valiant action to beat back the enemy's second counterattack.

On that fateful night, 13 brave hearts of 12 JAK LI made the supreme sacrifice, beating back counterattack after counterattack launched from well prepared defences by the enemy. Captain Amol Kalia, Subedar Bahadur Singh and Lance Naik Ghulam Mohammad Khan were awarded Veer Chakra (Posthumous) for their acts of bravery that night.

Defence Spokesman, SD Gowswami said that for 12 days, the troops held on to their tenuous defences under fire. Finally, on June 20, a multidirectional attack was launched on the feature by one company of 5 PARA and two companies of Karakoram Wing Ladakh Scouts, which succeeded in making the enemy abandon their defences and run for their lives. By 0700 Hour on 21 June 1999, Point 5203 had been recaptured. Seven dead bodies of the troops of 7 NLI of Pakistan which had been left behind by their comrades were given a military funeral by the troops of 12 JAK LI. Captain BM Cariappa of 5 PARA was awarded a Veer Chakra for his act of gallantry that night and for later battles.

CAPTAIN AMOL KALIA, VIR CHAKRA (POSTHUMOUS)

On 07 June 1999, 12 JAK LI launched their attack on Point 5203 under Major Sanjiv Dutt and Captain Amol Kalia. Climbing from the Junk Lungpa, the troops reached close to the enemy position by first light of 08 June, where they lay quietly throughout the day to avoid alerting the enemy. The enemy was alerted in the evening of June 8 just as our troops were preparing to launch the assault. A fierce counterattack at 2300 Hours was beaten back by our soldiers.

Defence spokesman, SD Gowswami said that leading from the front, Captain Amol Kalia assaulted the nearest enemy position with a handful of men and managed to capture the position. AT 0300 Hours on 09 June, the enemy launched a second counterattack supported by artillery, machine guns and RPGs from two directions. In the hand-to-hand fight that followed, Captain Kalia's LMG crew was killed.

The officer took over the LMG himself and killed three enemy personnel, injuring three others. During this action, he was seriously injured by a burst of bullets. In spite of this, he continued to fight till his last breath and succumbed to his injuries only when the counterattack had been beaten back and the position had been reinforced by our forces.

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For showing raw courage beyond the call of duty in the face of the enemy, dynamic leadership and utmost professional dedication with complete disregard for his own safety, Captain Amol Kalia was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra.

--- ENDS ---
The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention.

The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention.

The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention.

What it looks like at the Republican National Convention on Day 4

What it looks like at the Republican National Convention on Day 4

Reversal of fortune

Donald Trump and vice presidential running mate Mike Pence are now willing to headline fundraising events for super PACs. Thats a dramatic change for the GOP nominee, who attacked the big fundraising committees during the primary as horrible and corrupting, Matea Gold reports.

Trump and the Indiana governor have expressed willingness to headline fundraisers for Rebuilding America Now, according to Ken McKay, the groups chief strategist, Gold reports. Such appearances are permitted by the Federal Election Commission as long as the candidates do not solicit more than $5,000.

The commitment by the Republican ticket comes amid a flurry of signals to supporters that the campaign has blessed the super PAC, one of half a dozen entities that have been jockeying to be recognized as the main pro-Trump vehicle.

That dynamic has confused donors, who have held back from writing large checks because they were uncertain which group could be trusted  and whether Trump even wanted them to support such organizations.

But this week, it became clear that Rebuilding America Now, which was founded by Trump friend Tom Barrack, is the vehicle of choice in the view of the Trump campaign. Pence offered an explicit statement of support for the group that was shared during a presentation to several dozen donors at the Ritz-Carlton on Wednesday.

Supporting Rebuilding America Now is one of the best ways to stop Hillary Clinton and help elect Donald Trump our next president, read a Pence statement displayed during a PowerPoint presentation, according to McKay. Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort  a close friend of Barrack  called in to the event to register his endorsement of the groups efforts.

Weve made great progress, McKay told Gold on Thursday. I do think we have a nod from the campaign, to the extent that is legally permissible.

quotable

Im not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father ... and that pledge [to support the GOP nominee] was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi [Cruz, the senators wife] that Im going to come like a servile puppy dog and say, Thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father. 

 Sen. Ted Cruz, explaining to the Texas delegation Thursday morning why he didnt endorse Trump
LIBYA

14 bodies found after Benghazi execution

Fourteen unidentified bodies with gunshot wounds to the head have been found in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a hospital official said Friday.

The United Nations Libya envoy, Martin Kobler, said he was shocked and dismayed by the summary execution, labeling it a war crime and calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.

The bodies were recovered from Laithi, a neighborhood that forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter, the eastern commander, captured this year from a loose alliance of Islamists and other opponents.

Military officials from Hifters forces refused to comment, saying the incident is under investigation.

Benghazi has seen some of the heaviest violence of the sporadic conflict that developed after Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011.

 Reuters

POLAND

Remarks on WWII massacres defended

Polands foreign minister defended the countrys education minister, saying her remarks that appeared to deny Polish responsibility for two massacres of Jews in the 1940s have been misunderstood.

The comments by Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski showed that the on-and-off soul-searching in Poland regarding the Holocaust is far from over.

Education Minister Anna Zalewska spoke last week about the World War II-era Jedwabne massacre of 1941, in which Poles burned alive some 300 Jews in a barn, and the postwar Kielce massacre of 1946, in which 42 people died, 37 of them Jews. Anniversaries of both events were marked with observances this month, with President Andrzej Duda condemning anti-Semitism at the Kielce ceremony.

Jewish organizations protested  and some called for Zalewskas dismissal  after a television interview in which the minister avoided confirming Polish responsibility for the massacres. In fact, shortly after the war, Polish courts convicted and punished Poles for their involvement.

It is disturbing to think that senior government officials in Poland . . . now seem to be lurching backward to the

days of obfuscation and misinformation, said Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress.

 Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS

Aid sought on Libyas chemical weapons

The U.N. Security Council is expected to call on the international community to help Libya dispose of its last remaining stocks of chemical weapons by shipping them out of the country.

Citing the potential threat to international peace and security should the mostly precursor chemicals fall into the hands of extremists, a proposed Security Council resolution calls on the international community to assist in the substances destruction by providing transport out of the country, expertise and financing.

The resolution comes in response to a Libyan request, earlier this week, that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons help dispose of the chemicals.

 Associated Press

Venezuela accepts Vatican mediation: President Nicolas Maduro has accepted a proposal by the opposition to ask the Vatican to facilitate dialogue with Venezuelas socialist government. The Union of South American Nations Secretary General Ernesto Samper met late Thursday with Maduro and afterward announced that he would ask Pope Francis to send a representative to Venezuela. Samper was in Caracas along with former Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in an effort to revive a two-month-old attempt to bring the sides together to resolve the countrys economic and political crisis. The Holy See did not immediately comment.

Brazilian Muslims back terrorism probe of 10 people: A religious leader in Brazil says the countrys Muslim community supports police actions against a group suspected of planning attacks during the Olympics, as long as the investigations are conducted transparently. Sheik Jihad Hassan Hammadeh, president of the Ethics Committee of the Sao Paulo-based National Union of Islamic Entities, said the community is concerned about the arrest Thursday of 10 Brazilians who police said pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next months Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He said that the union supports the probe by the federal police but that there must be concrete evidence and transparency to ensure citizens or groups are not unjustly persecuted.

Man doing well after Britains rst double hand transplant: The lead surgeon in Britains first double hand transplant said he believes the patient will regain good movement and feeling in his hands. Simon Kay said that patient Chris King was doing very well after the complex 12-hour operation performed in the past 10 days. King said he already has some movement in his hands. The 57-year-old lost both hands except for his thumbs in an industrial accident three years ago. He is the second person to receive a hand transplant at a specialist unit at the Leeds General Infirmary and the first to have both hands replaced.

 From news services
Samer Attar, a surgeon with Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, is a volunteer with the Syrian American Medical Society and the Aleppo City Medical Council.

Please dont cut off my leg, a Syrian man pleaded. He had been shopping when a missile hit a crowded market. The blast seared off his hair and charred his face. He could not see that his leg was hanging by a thread of flesh and could not be saved. His screams were amplified by the echoes of the dozens just as horrifically injured around him.

I am an American surgeon who recently spent two weeks working in an underground hospital in eastern Aleppo, Syria. I have been there a few times, and each time I go, I descend into lower depths of hell. Its shocking how the very same inhuman conditions have been allowed to continue for years.

The path to this hell is Castello Road  which was the last remaining road leading into rebel-held Aleppo when I was there. The road smells of burned metal and rotten flesh, and it is littered with charred vehicles. Plumes of smoke scatter the horizon. Gutted homes with pancaked roofs, exposed wires and twisted rebar line the sides. At every moment, you feel you may be hit by a bomb or a rocket.

Inside the city, the screech of jets, the whirring of helicopters, the vibrating blasts of mortar shells and barrel bombs, the incessant ricochet of bullets  these sounds and sensations rarely stop. Civilians still manage to live there. They would rather die at home than live in a tent or drown in a boat, or they are simply too poor, too crippled, too sick or too defiant to leave their homes.

The hospital where I worked has been attacked so many times by airstrikes that it has been driven literally underground  with a ramp leading into the basement. Scalpels are dull, anesthesia is a luxury, sterility is an approximation.

Inside, the scenes are grim.

On July 1, a rocket hit a nearby marketplace. The hospital shook from the blast. The victims were not terrorists or soldiers. They were civilians shopping for the upcoming Eid celebration. Twenty-five people were killed. Dozens more were injured. There were not enough beds, so patients were placed on floors smeared with blood and body parts, with barely a place to step. Dead bodies were piled into the street to make room for incoming wounded.

The screaming never let up. Children covered in blood and dust and pockmarked with shrapnel screamed for their parents and siblings. Some would be reunited whole; others would learn whom they had lost, or which of their childrens limbs were missing or mutilated. Some had the bone shards of disintegrated bystanders embedded in their skin  routine findings after such attacks.

I saw a child, breathing but silent, with severe burns and his intestines protruding from his belly. His skin and hair were burned off. He died a couple of days later. A 5-year-old had just died before him due to respiratory failure  shrapnel from a bomb cut his spinal cord and paralyzed him from the chest down. One surgeon cut open a mans chest in a last-ditch effort to clamp a bleeding vessel near the heart. It worked temporarily, but the man had lost too much blood, and there was no more blood to give him. Two children would later bleed to death in the operating room for similar reasons. I did an above-knee amputation on a stretcher in a hallway because all the operating rooms were full. Others whose limbs were traumatically amputated in the attack had to sit with tourniquets until an operating room opened. We later learned that a child had been decapitated by the blast.

Such slaughter occurred daily. Here, innocent civilians being blinded, amputated, burned, paralyzed, crushed and mutilated by bombs is the routine. Here, the world has shown little solidarity with innocents being massacred. This was not the work of the Islamic State. The terrorism I saw in Aleppo came from helicopters and jets in the sky.

I asked one nurse if he ever gets scared and how he manages the exhaustion. He replied, This is Aleppo. We dont have time to be scared. We are being crushed like bugs daily, and the world has abandoned us. Pretty soon we may be permanently sieged, cut off. But it is our duty to be here, and who will help these people if we leave them?

A few days after I left, the Castello Road was cut. Russian jets and Syrian government soldiers bomb and shoot anything that moves. Before, passage was a roll of the dice. Now it is a death sentence.

I had to say goodbye to my Syrian friends and colleagues knowing that soon they would be cut off from the outside world, left to suffer and starve. I have no other words to describe the fear, the horror and the urgency of what I witnessed there.

I plead with the Obama administration to act. It must boldly confront Russia to halt the bombardment of Aleppo and Castello Road, the only humanitarian supply line to hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Aleppo. It must pressure and threaten the Syrian government to do the same. It must enforce a no-fly zone, using coalition air power already in place and in force against the Islamic State. All sieges must be lifted in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions. The Castello Road must remain open.

Innocent people are dying on all sides in Syria, but it is time to let the Syrian government know that the world will act upon a red line against its disproportionate crimes and atrocities.
Americas top spymaster offered contrarian assessments of some key issues: warning against hyping the threat posed by the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate (terrorist group) Jabhat al-Nusra, cautioning against Obama administration plans to share intelligence with Russia on Syrian targets and questioning Turkish claims that last Fridays coup attempt was organized by a cleric living in the United States.

National Intelligence Director James Clapper made the characteristically blunt comments in an interview Wednesday. He expanded on a warning he made in an interview in May that the United States cant by itself fix the problems of the turbulent Middle East. Clappers skeptical view is shared by President Obama and has reinforced the administrations wariness about committing military force in Syria.

Clapper began the wide-ranging discussion by questioning the recent groundswell of concern about Jabhat al-Nusra. He said that the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate poses only a nascent danger to the U.S. homeland and doesnt approach the threat posed by the Islamic State. Jabhat al-Nusras ability to attack the United States and Europe is aspirational rather than imminent, he said, describing as overly strident recent news reports about increasing evidence of external plots by the group.

Clappers skepticism about Jabhat al-Nusra is matched by his wariness of collaborating with Russia in strikes against the group, an approach that Obama has tentatively approved. Ive expressed my reservations about, for example, sharing intelligence with [the Russians] . . . which they desperately want, I think, to exploit  to learn what they can about our sources and methods and tactics and techniques and procedures, he said.

Based on Russias record of failure to deliver on promises, what is it theyve done that gives you confidence that if we do more with them or share more intel . . . theyre going to improve? Clapper asked.

Clapper underlined that Obama faces a bleak set of alternatives in Syria. All our policymakers have are bad choices. There is no good choice here. He continued: It seems theres a lot of rhetoric that makes you think, Gee, this is really simple. If we just did this, were good to go! Well, no. Syria is just unbelievably complex. It just makes your head hurt.

Like Obama, Clapper doubts that earlier U.S. military or paramilitary intervention in Syria would have helped. I was around for all the deliberations in 2012. . . . There was the big debate then about supporting the opposition, being much more aggressive and all that. Had we been, I dont know that wed be in any different situation now, other than that we would have invested more blood and treasure.

Asked whether Turkish allegations that cleric Fethullah Gulen planned the attempted coup passed the smell test of credibility, Clapper answered: No. Not to me. He said that Secretary of State John F. Kerry was right on the ball to press the Turks to back up their extradition request with evidence of Gulens involvement. We havent seen it yet. We certainly havent seen it in intel.

The coup attempt complicates the Syria situation, because a lot of the people purged were key interlocutors with the U.S. against the Islamic State, such as the Incirlik air base commander , he said. This is going to set back [counterterrorism] in general, because the Turks are going to be consumed with this and its implications. Clapper said that in this period of uncertainty, its vital that the Turks stay in NATO.

Clapper said that the United States should stop hoping for quick fixes in the Middle East and hunker down for a protracted period of instability and violence by al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and successor groups. Were going to be doing this for, I think, a long time. This is going to be the normal for us.

Clapper, a Cold War veteran, offered a final contrarian observation: that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be as strong as he appears. We watch public opinion in Russia, and I think his popularity may be a little brittle. Given the strains on the economy and the impacts on individuals  unemployment, wages, pensions  its not clear to me that the rhetoric about Russia as a great power exerting itself in far-flung places like Ukraine and Syria is going to continue to resonate with the Russian public, he said.

This is giving me a headache, talking about this, Clapper remarked at one point during the 90-minute conversation. He noted the amazing contrast between the simplicity of campaign debate and the complexity of real decisions. People may imagine that U.S. military power can just clean clocks in places such as Raqqa and Mosul and be done, he said, but the world doesnt work like that.

Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Controversial preacher Zakir Naiks Islamic Research Foundation today admitted that Arshi Qureshi, who was arrested from Navi Mumbai yesterday by a joint team of Maharashtra ATS and Kerala Police for allegedly radicalising a Kochi-based woman, has been associated with them but denied any "terror encouragement" by their staff.

In a statement issued here, an IRF spokesperson said Qureshi is a "Guest Relations Officer" with the organisation, but denied any "encouragement" on part of their staff to make anyone join terrorist organisation, ISIS.

advertisement

"Dr Zakir Naik and IRF have repeatedly condemned ISIS for being anti-Islamic. No staff of IRF will ever encourage anyone to join AISIS (Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)," the statement said.

Qureshi was picked up from his Navi Mumbai residence last night and placed under arrest in connection with a case registered in Kochi on July 17.

The case was registered, days after at least 21 youths from Kerala were reported missing and suspected to have joined Islamic State, against Yahiya, the husband of Kochi-based Merin alias Mariyam, who went missing in the Middle East about a month ago, and Qureshi, on a complaint by her brother.

In his complaint with Palarivattom police station in Kochi, Merins brother alleged that his sister was trapped and converted to Islam and radicalised by Yahiya, a Christian from Palakkad who had embraced Islam, and Qureshi during her stay in Mumbai in connection with her job last year, police had said.

Her brother also alleged that the duo also compelled his sister to join IS. He had accused the duo of trying to convert him to Islam and compelling him to join the IS during his stay with his sister in Mumbai.

A case under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between groups) as well as under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was registered in Kochi.

Meanwhile, IRF said, "Dr Naik had held a staff meeting a year ago condemning AISIS and warned its people not to get misguided by those who support AISIS which is actually the Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who wrongly call themselves ISIS."

A local court in Navi Mumbai yesterday granted Kerala Police Qureshis transit remand till July 25.

Naik, a city-based televangelist who also runs Peace TV, has been under scanner of various agencies after one of the attackers involved in the Dhaka terror strike posted that he had been influenced by the preacher. PTI APM NSK ABH

--- ENDS ---
Donald Trump addressed the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21. The Republican presidential candidate spoke for more than one hour, we broke it down to less than five minutes. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump addressed the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21. The Republican presidential candidate spoke for more than one hour, we broke it down to less than five minutes. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

DONALD J. TRUMP, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome. The real estate tycoon is uniquely unqualified to serve as president, in experience and temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis of Americas problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions. Mr. Trumps politics of denigration and division could strain the bonds that have held a diverse nation together. His contempt for constitutional norms might reveal the nations two-century-old experiment in checks and balances to be more fragile than we knew.

Any one of these characteristics would be disqualifying; together, they make Mr. Trump a peril. We recognize that this is not the usual moment to make such a statement. In an ordinary election year, we would acknowledge the Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention and spend the following months, like other voters, evaluating the candidates performance in debates, on the stump and in position papers. This year we will follow the campaign as always, offering honest views on all the candidates. But we cannot salute the Republican nominee or pretend that we might endorse him this fall. A Trump presidency would be dangerous for the nation and the world.

Why are we so sure? Start with experience. It has been 64 years since a major party nominated anyone for president who did not have electoral experience. That experiment turned out pretty well  but Mr. Trump, to put it mildly, is no Dwight David Eisenhower. Leading the Allied campaign to liberate Europe from the Nazis required strategic and political skills of the first order, and Eisenhower  though he liked to emphasize his common touch as he faced the intellectual Democrat Adlai Stevenson  was shrewd, diligent, humble and thoughtful.

[Read the transcript of Donald Trumps interview with The Washington Post editorial board]

Donald Trump painted a dark picture of America during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, but some of his doomsday stats are rather dubious. The Post's Fact Checker examined 25 of his key claims. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

In contrast, there is nothing on Mr. Trumps resume to suggest he could function successfully in Washington. He was staked in the family business by a well-to-do father and has pursued a career marked by some real estate successes, some failures and repeated episodes of saving his own hide while harming people who trusted him. Given his continuing refusal to release his tax returns, breaking with a long bipartisan tradition, it is only reasonable to assume there are aspects of his record even more discreditable than what we know.

The lack of experience might be overcome if Mr. Trump saw it as a handicap worth overcoming. But he displays no curiosity, reads no books and appears to believe he needs no advice. In fact, what makes Mr. Trump so unusual is his combination of extreme neediness and unbridled arrogance. He is desperate for affirmation but contemptuous of other views. He also is contemptuous of fact. Throughout the campaign, he has unspooled one lie after another  that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated after 9/11, that his tax-cut plan would not worsen the deficit, that he opposed the Iraq War before it started  and when confronted with contrary evidence, he simply repeats the lie. It is impossible to know whether he convinces himself of his own untruths or knows that he is wrong and does not care. It is also difficult to know which trait would be more frightening in a commander in chief.

Given his ignorance, it is perhaps not surprising that Mr. Trump offers no coherence when it comes to policy. In years past, he supported immigration reform, gun control and legal abortion; as candidate, he became a hard-line opponent of all three. Even in the course of the campaign, he has flip-flopped on issues such as whether Muslims should be banned from entering the United States and whether women who have abortions should be punished . Worse than the flip-flops is the absence of any substance in his agenda. Existing trade deals are stupid, but Mr. Trump does not say how they could be improved. The Islamic State must be destroyed, but the candidate offers no strategy for doing so. Eleven million undocumented immigrants must be deported, but Mr. Trump does not tell us how he would accomplish this legally or practically.

What the candidate does offer is a series of prejudices and gut feelings, most of them erroneous. Allies are taking advantage of the United States. Immigrants are committing crimes and stealing jobs. Muslims hate America. In fact, Japan and South Korea are major contributors to an alliance that has preserved a peace of enormous benefit to Americans. Immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans and take jobs that no one else will. Muslims are the primary victims of Islamist terrorism, and Muslim Americans, including thousands who have served in the military, are as patriotic as anyone else.

[Fareed Zakaria: America would be Trumps banana republic]

The Trump litany of victimization has resonated with many Americans whose economic prospects have stagnated. They deserve a serious champion, and the challenges of inequality and slow wage growth deserve a serious response. But Mr. Trump has nothing positive to offer, only scapegoats and dark conspiracy theories. He launched his campaign by accusing Mexico of sending rapists across the border, and similar hatefulness has surfaced numerous times in the year since.

In a dangerous world, Mr. Trump speaks blithely of abandoning NATO, encouraging more nations to obtain nuclear weapons and cozying up to dictators who in fact wish the United States nothing but harm. For eight years, Republicans have criticized President Obama for apologizing for America and for weakening alliances. Now they put forward a candidate who mimics the vilest propaganda of authoritarian adversaries about how terrible the United States is and how unfit it is to lecture others. He has made clear that he would drop allies without a second thought. The consequences to global security could be disastrous.

1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  In photos: The quirk, tension and excitement from the Republican National Convention View Photos Post photographers coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland Caption Post photographers coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland The family of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate after his nomination speech to the Republican National Convention. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Most alarming is Mr. Trumps contempt for the Constitution and the unwritten democratic norms upon which our system depends. He doesnt know what is in the nations founding document. When asked by a member of Congress about Article I, which enumerates congressional powers, the candidate responded, I am going to abide by the Constitution whether its number 1, number 2, number 12, number 9. The charter has seven articles.

Worse, he doesnt seem to care about its limitations on executive power. He has threatened that those who criticize him will suffer when he is president. He has vowed to torture suspected terrorists and bomb their innocent relatives, no matter the illegality of either act. He has vowed to constrict the independent press. He went after a judge whose rulings angered him, exacerbating his contempt for the independence of the judiciary by insisting that the judge should be disqualified because of his Mexican heritage. Mr. Trump has encouraged and celebrated violence at his rallies. The U.S. democratic system is strong and has proved resilient when it has been tested before. We have faith in it. But to elect Mr. Trump would be to knowingly subject it to threat.

Mr. Trump campaigns by insult and denigration, insinuation and wild accusation: Ted Cruzs father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; Hillary Clinton may be guilty of murder; Mr. Obama is a traitor who wants Muslims to attack. The Republican Party has moved the lunatic fringe onto center stage, with discourse that renders impossible the kind of substantive debate upon which any civil democracy depends.

Most responsible Republican leaders know all this to be true; that is why Mr. Trump had to rely so heavily on testimonials by relatives and employees during this weeks Republican convention. With one exception (Bob Dole), the living Republican presidents and presidential nominees of the past three decades all stayed away. But most current officeholders, even those who declared Mr. Trump to be an unthinkable choice only months ago, have lost the courage to speak out.

The partys failure of judgment leaves the nations future where it belongs, in the hands of voters. Many Americans do not like either candidate this year . We have criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the past and will do so again when warranted. But we do not believe that she (or the Libertarian and Green party candidates, for that matter) represents a threat to the Constitution. Mr. Trump is a unique and present danger.
THESE ARE anxious times in America. Despite a steadily, if slowly, growing economy and the absence of a major war, people remain troubled by a sense of national underperformance and myriad social ills, most recently the surge in racially tinged fatal shootings committed by law enforcement officers and against them. A new Gallup poll reports that only 17 percent of Americans feel satisfied with the way things are going, the lowest percentage since October 2013  and down 12 points in just the past month.

For many, of course, a cause of concern is Donald Trump, who accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday evening. Belligerent and erratic, Mr. Trump nevertheless has a serious chance to win in November. In his acceptance speech, he sought to enhance his political prospects the only way he knows how: by inflaming public angst, so as to exploit it.

Mr. Trump took real challenges and recast them in terms that were not only exaggerated but also apocalyptic. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life, he claimed. Though he addressed issues ranging from public safety, to immigration, to trade, Mr. Trumps proposed solutions all shared a common premise: the way to overcome difficulty is through force. To American companies that exercise their right to move production abroad, the Trump administration will administer unspecified consequences. A giant wall will block migrants and drug traffickers along the Mexico border. And law and order  an old trope of Richard Nixon and George Wallace that Mr. Trump brought out of retirement  will be restored.

Perhaps politically effective because of their simplicity, Mr. Trumps now-familiar formulations would fail as actual policies  because they are simplistic. There is no practical prospect, for example, of constructing the wall he insistently touts; even if built, drug traffickers and others could eventually tunnel under it. And, as per usual, last night he added no details to this plan that might convince anyone otherwise.

As for law and order, the president has at most indirect influence over thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country. To the extent it can be taken seriously at all, Mr. Trumps assertion that safety will be restored on the day of his inauguration implies a vast federalization of a traditional state and local function, contrary to long-standing law and custom  not to mention the small-government doctrine of the Republican Party that has so unwisely and hypocritically hitched its wagon to Mr. Trumps star. To tense communities in need of the nuanced toughness that police chiefs such as David O. Brown of Dallas have successfully applied, a President Trump would project from the White House a repressive attitude, unbuffered by a shred of sensitivity, racial or otherwise. Less safety, not more, could be the result.

Donald Trump addressed the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21. The Republican presidential candidate spoke for more than one hour, we broke it down to less than five minutes. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

Mr. Trump began his speech by presenting himself as the bearer of painful but necessary truth. And no doubt, for many of his listeners, his words expressed a deeply felt emotional reality. There is real fear in the land; real pain. But it will take real leadership, not the wishful, demagogic brand Mr. Trump embodied Thursday night, to address this.
Donald Trump speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

It was a grand old party at Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night.

Delegates wore cowboy hats, straw hats, tricorn hats, stovepipe hats, cheesehead hats, evergreen hats and Uncle Sam hats. They bopped to the music of a seven-piece band and waved red, white and blue pompoms. There was a Donald Trump action figure here, a Donald Trump superhero cape there  and little sign of the NeverTrump dissension that marred the early days of the convention.

But as the hour grew late, just after Ivanka Trump declared brightly that come Jan. 17 all things will be possible again, the tone in the room took a dark turn.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared on stage to the Air Force One movie theme and beneath 15-foot letters shouting TRUMP. For more than an hour, he shook his fists, chopped the air, stuck out his chin, bared his bottom teeth, paced behind the lectern, tugged on his lapels  and delivered the darkest piece of rhetoric spoken by a major political figure in modern American history.

Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation, he warned. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life.

Trumps portrait of America was dystopian and desperate:

Violence in our streets.

Chaos in our communities.

We dont have much time.

One international humiliation after another.

Forced to their knees.

Disasters unfolding.

In ruins.

Helpless to die at the hands of savage killers.

Worse than it has ever been.

Poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad.

Ignored, neglected and abandoned.

Communities crushed.

Horrible and unfair.

Corruption has reached a level like never, ever before.

Brutally executed.

Men, women and children viciously mowed down.

Families ripped apart.

Damage and devastation.

Such egregious crime.

This, Trump concluded, is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

Morning in America it wasnt. The delegates, so recently partying, were now booing and jeering at the horrors their candidate recited.

They booed more than 25 times during the speech. They booed, among other things: crime statistics, the debt, trade deals, illegal immigrants, Lyndon Johnson, NATO members and, above all, Clinton.

Trump invoked mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border.

Build a wall! Build a wall! the delegates chanted.

America is far less safe, he said, than when President Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy.

Lock her up! Lock her up! they chanted. Trump nodded in approval at the controversial chant, then reconsidered. Lets defeat her in November, he proposed.

Trump, by design, echoed the law and order theme from Richard Nixons 1968 acceptance speech in Miami. But this went far beyond Nixon, who in that speech took pains to answer those who say that law and order is the code word for racism.

Trump made no such qualification as he repeatedly employed that same racially loaded phrase. When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country, he said.

If there had been any lingering question, Thursday nights acceptance speech made clear that there will be no pivot to the general election for Trump. His will be a turnout strategy, trying to mobilize the same aggrieved, older, white, less-educated, less well-off voters who flocked to him during the primaries.

But this isnt 1968  the year of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, Vietnam strife and race riots. True, crime has been rising the past couple of years  but from historically low levels. Even those in the hall didnt seem to share Trumps sense of an existential crisis.

Im not despairing, said Ohios Jerry Hruby, who, at age 68, recalled 1968 being much worse. People were just so unhappy. I sampled delegates across the floor  from Missouri, Washington, Florida  and found none calling the current environment a crisis.

But Trumps warnings of imminent catastrophe serve a purpose: In times of panic, the appeal of an authoritarian is greater. And Trump presented himself as the classic strongman.

Beginning on Jan. 20th of 2017, safety will be restored, he promised, later declaring that I alone can fix a broken system.

When a protester briefly interrupted his speech, he paused while she was hauled off, then remarked: How great are our police!

I am your voice! he assured those he had driven to despair. Though others only talk, he said, Im going to do it.

Yes, you will! the delegates chanted.

There was a delay before the balloon-and-confetti drop at the end  and maybe they should have skipped it entirely. The rage and despair Trump generated hardly seemed to be cause for celebration.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Delegates from California cheer during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday, July 20. (Mary Altaffer/Associated Press)

Americans trust in government institutions has plummeted over recent decades. We have experienced huge declines in confidence across the board, including for Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court, even the Defense Department and the Food and Drug Administration .

We have also seen huge cleavages by party, with Republicans having substantially less faith than Democrats that government can be trusted to do the right (or even merely competent) thing. On almost every core function of government  such as strengthening the economy or keeping the country safe  Republicans evaluate the public sectors performance more negatively than Democrats do, according to Pew Research Center polling.

After watching the Republican National Committees convention this week, I think Ive figured out whats going on.

The problem is that Americans  and conservatives in particular  claim to want small, stingily funded government. But theyre making bigger (and more expensive, and less legally achievable) demands about what government should be responsible for.

This cognitive dissonance inevitably leads to disillusionment.

In other words: Deep down, Republicans want a nanny state, but they just cant bring themselves to admit it.

What kind of nanny state do these alleged fans of limited government desire? The kind that fulfills their wildest fantasies, yes, but more importantly that cocoons their constituents from offense, discomfort and perhaps even financial distress.

As illustrated by the 2016 GOP platform, they want government to protect heterosexual couples from the indignity of having their marriages seen as equal, in the eyes of the law, to marriages between same-sex partners.

They likewise want policymakers to bar transgender Americans from using the public bathroom of their choice, lest those in neighboring bathroom stalls feel vaguely threatened.

They want government to protect religious freedom, yet they also want government to expel holders of select religious beliefs  a policy that couldnt possibly pass constitutional muster even if you could figure out a way to implement it. (People can lie about their religious beliefs, after all.)

They also want their small, spartan government to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, quickly and on the cheap, but in a very humane way, a very nice way.

They want government to keep consumer prices low, but also to curb imports of competing products that help keep those consumer prices low. Avocados, for example. Or electronics.

They apparently want government to protect workers from the threat of technological innovation. At least thats one way to interpret all the stumping for coal, an industry whose main challenge comes from competition from natural gas, which technology has made much cheaper to extract. Or the pandering to U.S. manufacturing, whose output is up but workforce size is not. Again, thanks to technology.

They want government to mandate funerals for miscarriages. They want it to micromanage the width of hallways in reproductive health clinics and the medical center affiliations of abortion providers. They want policymakers to protect their constituents from the temptations of pornography and medical marijuana.

They want government to lock up or even execute conservatives perceived political enemies.

They (like the left) even want government to break up the banks.

And so on.

These are not the positions of a party that truly, madly, deeply desires limited government.

This is not a leave-me-alone coalition, at least not one that can credibly consider itself a foil to the lefts Big Brotherism. This is not a movement that wants bureaucrats to get out of the way and let the markets, spiked with human ingenuity, set the pace of economic and social progress.

This is a vision for a government that muscles its way into nearly every waking moment, that provides safe spaces for emotionally and financially fragile constituents, that sees its supporters as economically and socially beleaguered victims in need of protection and protectionism.

This is a party that, while decrying executive-branch overreach (tyranny, even), hopes to populate the White House with a strongman who sees few constraints on his power at home or abroad.

In other words, this is a party in denial.

Democrats generally recognize themselves to be in favor of big(ger) government and, as a corollary, generally acknowledge that they need to fund it accordingly. Republican leaders tell themselves they favor smaller government, while simultaneously demanding that government powers intervene in more and more areas of American life.

They want government to do more with less; they should act less surprised when government inevitably disappoints them.
Jessica YiYi Li is a graduate of a Montgomery County magnet school. John Mannes was a student member of the Montgomery County Board of Education.

Montgomery County Public Schools recently released a lengthy report calling for increased student diversity in its public magnet programs. We know that a more diverse student body would be indispensable to fostering a generation of compassionate, socially res ponsible learners and thinkers.

Diversity can be achieved in different ways, but we want to address those who may be opposed to such measures in ways they can most closely identify with. Being well-educated requires an appreciation for the questions and challenges confronting society. A good way to learn about inequality, bigotry and social tensions is to engage in active conversations with people who are different from you. The racially and socioeconomically homogeneous student body that exists in these programs hinders this mode of thinking.

For instance, while many magnet students would join a social media rally on the eve of a blizzard to call for a school closure, few would appreciate that a snow day means no breakfast or lunch for some students on free or reduced-price meals. While many magnet students see cutting-edge medical research internships as a great way to advance health care, few are aware of the barriers in translating and delivering these measures to the marginalized communities in Montgomery County. As many of our peers have expressed aspirations to become the next generations leaders in politics and science, to truly understand their mission and calling, it is critical that they stand alongside communities outside their own. Likewise, students who hail from a disadvantaged community and have an authentic appreciation of its challenges would be helpful in brainstorming solutions.

Another byproduct of a racially and culturally homogeneous environment is intensified competition among students because of the uniformity of values and short-term goals. With the majority of these students coming from well-educated, white-collar Asian and Caucasian families, theres a pronounced mentality among the magnets that the end goal of high school is to snatch an admission ticket to a top-tier university. Neither friendships nor extracurricular programs are immune to the effects of hyper-competition. Student-government elections have turned bitterly sour. Science competitions have played friends against one another. Even organizations such as National Honor Society arent spared from drama. While healthy competition is an intellectual stimulus, a cutthroat environment is disruptive. A more diverse student body that includes students with different definitions of success changes that dynamic.

And diversity is perhaps the only antidote to the toxic mind-set of privilege in these programs that starts with the magnet-school entrance test. When students take the test, those from families with means can pour money into test-preparation courses. When they score higher than their peers with lesser means, they internalize the result as a testament to their superior intellect. The elite mind-set perpetuates after school starts, too. Students of the host high schools are called plebians. And many magnet students speak derisively of highly resourced state universities, as if attending one would be an invalidation of intellect. Some of their peers would be wholeheartedly grateful for a need-based scholarship to a state university, never mind those who must babysit, tutor, wait tables or lifeguard for a couple of dimes to rub together instead of taking a history course at Georgetown during summer.

Montgomery County Public Schools magnet programs offer world-class educational opportunities that played a role in getting us where we are today. Many students are immensely grateful for the talented teachers, their rigorous and meticulously planned curriculums and the visionary program coordinators and counselors who brought numerous opportunities to their students, who then were accepted to top-tier colleges. But these resources should be made more available to parts of Montgomery that do not already have the ways and means. That would serve the compelling interest of cultivating leaders with, in the words of former Supreme Court justice Sanra Day OConnor, legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry and affirm core American values at a much needed time.
John Tirman is executive director of the MIT Center for International Studies. He is author of The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in Americas Wars.

In a remarkable coincidence, the two men most responsible for introducing global norms to punish vast crimes by states came from the same city in Poland, studied at the same law school, lost close family members to Nazi death camps and labored mightily to advocate their innovative legal theories at the same trial, the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal in 1945-46. But they didnt know each other personally and strongly disagreed with each others approaches to defining what crimes the Nazis had committed.

Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London, has woven together this intimate and important tale to illustrate how these great principles evolved  the assertions that Germany conducted genocide and that the Holocaust constituted crimes against humanity. Sands narrates this competition to define the crime of the century with inventiveness and depth, backgrounded by his unraveling the story of his own Jewish family from that same Polish city, Lwow, now Lviv in Ukraine.

That the principle of a state and its leaders being held criminally accountable should arise during World War II is unsurprising, but the Holocaust spurred two parallel norms. One, developed by Hersh Lauterpacht, is crimes against humanity, a formulation aimed at defining and judging states actions according to an emerging set of ideas about unacceptably harsh and consequential wartime behavior. This concept allowed Nazi leaders to be charged, convicted and executed at Nuremberg.

The second principle, the new notion of genocide, was promulgated by Rafael Lemkin. With its broader scope and emphasis on the attempt to eradicate groups of people  Jews, Armenians, Slavs and others  the crime of genocide was not limited to wartime and was not focused on acts against individuals. As a result, it was used sparingly at Nuremberg. But both concepts have since been embedded in international law and are among the foundations for the International Criminal Court, the Responsibility to Protect and other institutions designed to guard civilians against wantonly violent states.

East West Street: On the Origins of 'Genocide' and 'Crimes Against Humanity'" by Philippe Sands (Knopf)

Sands reveals this history through the personal journeys of Lauterpacht and Lemkin, legal scholars whose ambitions to engrave these ideas on the world stage drove them across Europe and America, seeking platforms to test the new notions of accountability and engaging pivotal actors such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, a Nuremberg prosecutor. Lauterpacht, an early legal star, had gone to London in the 1920s and landed a distinguished post at Cambridge University in 1938. By contrast, Lemkin remained in Poland right up to its occupation by Germany and the U.S.S.R., and then made his way to Duke University. Both men found it difficult to return to Poland, and their extended families wouldnt leave  like many European Jews, scarcely believing the terror to come. Their families perished in Poland, a haunting specter. The story is lent more dimension by a vivid portrait of Hans Frank, the Nazi overlord of Poland  his toxic views, his rise as Hitlers lawyer, his lavish lifestyle in Poland, his genocidal actions. Sands wisely chooses to include such a monster in this account, one responsible for murdering the relatives of Lauterpacht, Lemkin and the author.

Sands is an engaging writer, and the intertwining stories flow well. He is doing what many writers of popular nonfiction attempt nowadays  nesting a large, abstract topic in personal stories. The number of characters and their relations to one another can be a little taxing, but he develops his tale as a kind of mystery-solving journey. We are able to appreciate how arduous a journey it was for the author. He notes the difficulty of finding people and connections, something authors rarely describe in their books. Linking Lauterpacht and Lemkin to the same law school and professor, for example, meant mining thousands of students names until getting a match.

Using historical narrative to illuminate a broad-scope, international principle is a welcome change from dry-as-dust writing about such topics. The powerful impulses that drove the progenitors of genocide and crimes against humanity shaped their own lives and the principles they established. I would have liked more about the shaping forces, not only the heartfelt times in Lwow and the later struggles to survive, but the fierce historical winds that brought fascism to dominate Germany in the mid-20th century.

Because Sandss narrative moves back and forth through a duality  the reign of Nazi terror and the rational humanism of international law  the book would have benefited from a deeper context for each. The great British philosopher Isaiah Berlin detailed the rise of Nazism as an anti-Enlightenment, anti-rational burst of German romanticism and racism, born in a sense of inferiority to the French. No story could better illustrate this than Sandss, and with such irony: It wasnt a French or English intellectual who created the powerful counterpoints to the German death orgy, but the racially inferior Polish Jew  two of them, no less.

Sands seems to prefer Lauterpachts approach compared with Lemkins. An informal hierarchy has emerged, he writes. In the years after the Nuremberg judgment, the word genocide gained traction in political circles and in public discussion as the crime of crimes, elevating the protection of groups above that of individuals. Perhaps it was the power of Lemkins word, but as Lauterpacht feared, there emerged a race between victims, one in which a crime against humanity came to be seen as the lesser evil. Sands establishes a kind of competition  namely, victimized individuals vs. victimized groups  and he consistently sides with Lauterpachts emphasis on crimes against individuals, though he gives Lemkins contribution its due.

Im not convinced there is this sort of rivalry of principles. The worlds courts need as many stout instruments as they can muster  and enforce  to cope with the ongoing humanitarian and human rights catastrophes that erupt, fester and ruin countless lives. Each norm has power, if the powerful will use it. Sands has shown in this remarkable book the source of that power and what principles can do when we apply them with verve and determination.
Carol Ann Riordan was the last director of the American Press Institute at its Reston headquarters. Cheryl Terio-Simon was the wife of the founder of Reston. Ralph P. Youngren, an architect, studied under Marcel Breuer at the Harvard Graduate School.

America is losing its architectural heritage, one building at a time.

Wrecking crews are pulling the final curtain on grand old theaters. Beloved churches, spiritual centers for generations of families, are being razed. Queen Anne-style homes, unapologetically ornate, are being demolished.

With each, a community loses a chapter of its history. Once a building is gone, its gone.

Virginia is rich with Colonial and Civil War historic sites. More recent architectural wonders, such as Eero Saarinens Dulles International Airport and Lake Anne Village Center in Reston, are no less significant.

A historically and architecturally significant building in Reston since 1974 is under the threat of demolition: the American Press Institute building, designed by internationally acclaimed architect Marcel Breuer.

After API merged with the Newspaper Association of America in 2012, NAA sold the building to a property management company. The building since has been empty.

On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on a developers rezoning application for the site. If approved, the building will be razed and replaced by townhouses and condominiums. Last month, the Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended the application be denied.

Why should the API building be spared from demolition? Breuer, a master of Modernism, designed the third Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development building in the District, among others.

Most of Breuers projects were far larger than the 25,000-square-foot API building. But he was intrigued that the buildings purpose would focus on journalism training and would be in a planned community.

This was no ordinary job: It was a shared vision and a promise forged by Breuer, API and Reston in its early years.

The building nestles on a gentle slope, integrating with the landscape and leveraging its surroundings. Natural light creates an ever-changing show throughout the day. Breuers brutalist design commands attention: from the interior and exterior pre-cast concrete panels and high ceilings to his signature tubular steel chairs.

People who attended seminars at the building had effusive praise for it, the only Breuer building in Virginia:

A work of art.

Surrounded by trees as though it were gift-wrapped by Mother Nature.

A building that represents the very best of what Reston was designed to offer.

Residents, architects, historians and preservationists  and nearly 1,500 petition signers agree: The building should be saved and reused.

The Fairfax County Architectural Review Board agrees: It passed a motion, sent to county officials, urgently pleading that the county consider further historical and architectural evaluation and specific heritage resource significance of the American Press Institute building, and consider appropriate land usage that could lead to the preservation and/or adaptive reuse of the building.

The API building is not listed on the countys Inventory of Historic Sites. However, the ARB notes that The lack of a comprehensive heritage resources inventory within the designated Transit Station Areas along the Silver Line corridor areas is inconsistent with the Countys stated objectives for the District, a disservice to county residents and developers.

David Edwards, architectural historian for Virginias Department of Historic Resources, encourages the buildings preservation: If the API building were to be demolished, the community and the state would lose the work of a master architect. Additionally, and maybe more importantly, Reston would lose a building that is part of its communitys distinctive architectural history found nowhere else in the state.

The American Press Institute building is part of Restons rich tapestry. Given the buildings extraordinary history and architecture, Fairfax County must welcome proposals for adaptive reuse.

Great buildings should be celebrated and treasured. Communities have the responsibility and privilege of serving as their stewards. Breuers American Press Institute building deserves a second life, not a demolition permit.
Danielle Paquette is a policy reporter for The Washington Post.

Other humans basically control our minds. Thats what Jonah Berger argues in his new popular-psychology book, breaking out the kind of research that would make a policy wonk cry.

The most persuasive ideas dont grab us with detail and compelling evidence, he writes. No, the likability of a concept depends on, well, who already likes it. Take this 2003 study from Stanford professor Geoffrey Cohen. The academic wanted to better understand how social influence colors our views. So, he dreamed up two opposing welfare policies: One that offers $800 each month to eligible families with one child  more than twice the national average  and one that provides just $250. He slipped the mock proposals to people who self-identified as either liberal or conservative. He waited to see which idea they embraced. As expected, the left leaners preferred the more generous proposal. The right wingers opted for the more stringent one. Nobody seemed eager to step beyond the traditional bounds of their ideology.

But something strange happened when Cohen added another detail to the policies  something that would make lawmakers wonder why they should bother with, say, functionality. Conservative respondents actually loved the $800 policy if they were told that Republicans embraced it. Liberal respondents, meanwhile, dramatically increased their acceptance of the $250 policy if they believed Democrats championed it.

Berger, an associate marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of business, explains that, in this instance and myriad others, association can trump logic.

"Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior" by Jonah Berger (Simon & Schuster)

Peoples attitudes werent just slightly nudged one way or another depending on group endorsement, he writes. Their attitudes completely changed based on which party supported or opposed them. . . . When it came to political views, party was stronger than policy.

Cohens research, while depressing, isnt exactly shocking to anyone who has clicked through 2016 social media. But Berger oversimplifies complicated findings. That slightly bruises the credibility of Invisible Influence, his second book after his 2013 bestseller, Contagious. Readers, for example, might assume that Cohen had presented the fake policies to a nationally representative sample of adults. A scan of the original study, however, reveals that the people who apparently valued party over policy were all college students. Probably on the younger side, too. Cohen recruited many from an introductory psychology course.

Explaining humankinds unconscious tendencies with nuance requires time and space. Bergers book moves quickly, taking readers on a journey through dozens of sexy findings. (His citation section spans 15 pages.) This winding exploration of our collective psyche is fascinating, especially when Berger focuses on the specifics of one piece of research. Its limited, too. Each case study yields truths for one particular set of people in one moment of time. We dont always get to know their ages, their races, their incomes. We should take each big reveal as a suggestion, not a fact.

The messages are still humbling. Five chapters seek to describe the ways people around us lead us to stumble or grow stronger. We might think were acting independently, molding our lives with free will and elbow grease, but were often responding to cues that escape the eye. Not that were powerless against social influence. By understanding how it works, Berger promises, we can harness its power. We can avoid its downsides and take advantage of its benefits.

Much of Invisible Influence rings true  even if we dont want to admit it. Berger is careful to acknowledge that humans are complicated and that our socioeconomic backgrounds generally condition us to be one way or another. Our fates, though, are never completely sealed. Growing up poor is no more of a life sentence, he says, than growing up rich is a guarantee.

Without imparting too many spoilers, Berger seeks to answer some of lifes more perplexing questions: How do we win people over? How do we effectively battle climate change? Why do kids hate broccoli? Why do we love who we love?

For couples who believe that their bond was uniquely fated, the author unleashes a sobering statistic: More than a third of Americans meet their husband or wife at work or school. We tend to gravitate toward people who share our values and social status. Some economists say income equality is partly fueled by highly paid people consistently marrying other highly paid people, rather than romantically redistributing the wealth.

People who think love is a mere chemical reaction might snicker at Bergers explanation of what else might factor into our coupling decisions. He cites the work of psychologist Richard Moreland, who met his wife while they both worked at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo. After seeing her a handful of times, Moreland realized she was quite pretty. He asked her on a date. The store was actually a hotbed of romance, Berger writes, building the mystery. Almost all of the employees ended up marrying each other. Was there something in the Rocky Mountain water?

The answer comes in the form of another thought-provoking study. Moreland turned his undergraduate personality psychology class at the University of Pittsburgh into an experiment. At the end of the semester, he gave students a photo survey, asking which of four women was the most attractive. He also quizzed students who hadnt been in the lecture hall. Respondents didnt know that one woman had sat in the front row 15 times, while the others had attended less and less often. The students who hadnt taken Morelands class didnt identify one woman as particularly attractive; their answers shook out evenly. The other group clearly singled out the woman who had shown up 15 times.

Makes you wonder how many other seemingly insignificant forces might shape our lives.
The July 18 package of letters The muddle that is alcohol and consent responded to the July 15 front-page article He said it was consensual. She says she was blacked out, which detailed the case of a University of Virginia student, Haley Lind, who thought she might have been sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom at a house party.

The most important part of the case was the revelation that an individual who knocked on the bathroom window during the alleged assault reported that Ms. Lind said, Would you just give us a minute? That one line indicated that she was not incapacitated and was participating in what was happening, whether she remembers it or not. Its unfortunate that our culture has trained Ms. Lind to view herself as a victim. Her future emotional health need not be ruined if she took some personal responsibility for the regrettable incident.

When our daughter began attending U-Va. eight years ago, my wife and I were shocked by her stories of bathroom hookups between people who were practically strangers. Now our son is a student at U-Va., and we share these stories with him to make sure hes aware of how alcohol-fueled sex can have disastrous consequences for all parties involved.

John Taylor, Woodbridge
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) delivers a speech during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 20. He made news for not endorsing GOP nominee Donald Trump. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Republican National Convention wasnt a complete disaster, but only because Mike Pence showed signs of being a more able running mate than many expected. Other than that? Hot mess, dumpster fire, train wreck  pick your overused metaphor. It was huge , but not in a good way.

Political conventions are supposed to stoke and showcase party unity behind a presidential nominee whose virtues are unalloyed. But the GOP has no such unity and no such nominee. In Cleveland, Donald Trump was like a corporate raider who engineered a hostile takeover  and then, at his first board meeting, put his feet up on the table and couldnt remember anybodys name.

Party loyalists and Trump family retainers will try to spin Cleveland as some sort of triumph. But seriously, when has it ever been beneficial for a candidate to be upstaged at his convention by his chief rival? It didnt help Gerald Ford that Ronald Reagan stole the show in 1976 or Jimmy Carter that Ted Kennedy captured delegates hearts in 1980.

It is true that Ted Cruz, unlike those earlier usurpers, was booed off the stage Wednesday night when he refused to endorse Trump. But Nelson Rockefeller was booed, too, in 1964  and that years conquering outsider, Barry Goldwater, went down to crushing defeat.

Why were convention delegates so angry at Cruz? Because the truth hurts.

Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president. Here are excerpts from his speech, plus everything else that happened on the final day of the GOP convention. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

Republicans have nominated for president a boorish bully who does not share their conservative philosophy  who appears, in fact, to have no fixed philosophy at all. Cruz said Thursday that he refused to behave like a servile puppy dog toward someone like Trump. He implied that many in the convention hall were obediently sitting up and rolling over for a very bad man.

Trump relentlessly touts his managerial skill, but this week he showed that he cant even run a decent-size meeting. Amateur hour began Monday, on opening night, when Trumps wife, Melania, delivered a well-reviewed speech  parts of which, it turned out, were plagiarized from Michelle Obamas address to the 2008 Democratic convention.

What followed was a case study in political malpractice. Trump campaign aides and Republican spokespeople spent all day Tuesday denying the obvious word-theft, violating the first rule of damage control: Apologize quickly and move on. It wasnt until Wednesday that a Trump Organization employee fell on her sword and took responsibility.

It also wasnt until Wednesday that delegates and television viewers heard a lineup of speakers spend meaningful time saying nice things about Trump. For the first two days, aside from Melania Trumps speech, the focus was almost exclusively on painting Hillary Clinton as pure evil. I mean that literally: Ben Carson, going way off script, tried to associate the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state with Lucifer.

The repeated chants of Lock her up! were those of a political lynch mob, not a serious political gathering. But antipathy toward Clinton is really the only common ground that GOP regulars share with the partys nominee. Cruzs defiance made it impossible to paper over the fact that Trump, on a whole range of issues, simply does not agree with Republican orthodoxy.

The one positive development for the party, I thought, was Pences debut on the national stage. He was smooth and reassuring, all rounded edges as opposed to Trumps spikes. Im not sure how much hell help the ticket on the trail and the debate stage, but I dont think hell hurt it.

Bottom line, the GOP served up a hanging curveball for Democrats to smash into the upper deck, if they manage not to whiff.

Requirements for a successful convention next week in Philadelphia are modest. First, the Democrats need to display real party unity rather than the simulated kind; voters will be able to tell the difference. To that end, the speech by Bernie Sanders on Monday night will be tremendously important. If he goes all in for Clinton  and shows some enthusiasm about it  the Democratic Partys built-in demographic and electoral college advantages will be able to kick in.

Beyond that, the convention needs to portray Clinton as a human being, rather than the grotesque caricature painted by Republicans; draw a contrast between her vast experience and Trumps dangerous ignorance; demonstrate that she was enlightened, rather than annoyed, by the issues Sanders raised; and paint a positive vision of the nations future.

It is not, frankly, that high a bar. If Democrats cant make Philadelphia better than Cleveland, they dont deserve to win.

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.
By PTI: Boston, Jul 22 (PTI) Scientists have developed a type of artificial muscle for soft robots that requires no rigid components and can be used in wearable devices, soft grippers and surgical tools.

Artificial muscles that move soft robots, called actuators, tend to rely on hydraulics or pneumatics, which are slow to respond and difficult to store.

Dielectric elastomers, soft materials that have good insulating properties, offer an alternative to pneumatic actuators but they currently require complex and inefficient circuitry to deliver high voltage as well as rigid components to maintain their form - both of which defeat the purpose of a soft robot.

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Researchers at the Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a dielectric elastomer with a broad range of motion that requires relatively low voltage and no rigid components.

"Until now, the electric fields required to power actuators in soft robots has been too high," said Mishu Duduta, a graduate student at SEAS.

"This research solves a lot of the challenges in soft actuation by reducing actuation voltage and increasing energy density, while eliminating rigid components," Duduta said.

Researchers combined two known materials that worked well individually - an elastomer that eliminated the need for rigid components and an electrode of carbon nanotubes.

The complementary properties of these two materials enabled the new device to outperform standard dielectric elastomer actuators.

The team fabricated the elastomers one on top of the other, creating a multilayer sandwich of elastomer, electrode, elastomer, electrode and so on. In this way, each electrode gets double usage, powering the elastomer above and below.

"The voltage required to actuate dielectric elastomers is directly related to the thickness of the material, so you have to make your dielectric elastomer as thin as possible," said Duduta.

"But really thin elastomers are flimsy and cant produce force. A multilayer elastomer is much more robust and can actually provide significant force," he said.

"The significance of this work is that the combination of materials and processing enables two of the current technical limitations of dielectric elastomers - the need for high voltage and pre-stretch - to be overcome," said David Clarke, professor at SEAS.

This type of actuator may be used in everything from wearable devices to soft grippers, laparoscopic surgical tools, entirely soft robots or artificial muscles in more complex robotics.

"This breakthrough in electrically-controlled soft actuators brings us much closer to muscle-like performance in an engineered system and opens the door for countless applications in soft robotics," said Robert Wood, professor at SEAS.

The research appears in the journal Advanced Materials. PTI MHN SAR SAR

--- ENDS ---
Charles Kinsey, left, is shown with his hands up next to an autistic patient who had run away from an assisted-living facility in North Miami, Fla., when police arrived. (Courtesy of Hilton Napoleon)

When the video begins, the two men are already on the ground, one sitting cross-legged while the other, who is black, lies on his back with both hands extended toward the sky.

All he has is a toy truck in his hand, Charles Kinsey, the man on his back, yells at two police officers shown standing behind telephone poles a few dozen feet away. Thats all it is. There is no need for guns.

The video, recorded on Monday, then abruptly stops. A short time later, one of the officers fired three shots, striking Kinsey once in the leg, even though he says he never moved. On Thursday, after the video exploded across social media, the North Miami Police Department still had not explained what could have prompted an officer to fire on Kinsey.

When it hit me, Im like, I still got my hands in the air, Kinsey told Miami TV station WSVN in an interview from his hospital bed.

Police have not explained the incident, beyond saying that officers were responding to a report of an armed man. A police union representative said Thursday that the officer, who has not been identified and who has been placed on administrative leave, had been aiming for the other man, thinking he was armed.

That other man was a 23-year-old with autism who had apparently wandered away from the group home where Kinsey said he works as a behavioral therapist. On the video, Kinsey can be heard trying to calm the man and to get him to also lie down on the street.

Please be still, he says.

This recording, along with a second video taken after the gunshots that shows the two men being handcuffed, is the latest in a string of violent encounters between police and black men captured on camera and propelled into national attention. It arrives with the country still on edge over issues of race and law enforcement.

Recordings of fatal police encounters and their aftermaths in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier this month helped revive protests over how law enforcement uses deadly force, while the deadly shootings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge have spurred further fears among officers over the threats they face on the job.

According to Kinsey, the officer who fired the shots seemed confused by what happened.  Sir, why did you shoot me?  Kinsey recalled asking the officer. He said, I dont know. 

Police in North Miami, a city of 62,000 people tucked between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, offered few details about the encounter. Gary Eugene, who was appointed as the citys police chief just a month ago, said his department was dedicated to an open probe.

I realize there are many questions about what happened Monday night, Eugene said during a news conference Thursday. We all have questions. . . . I assure you, well get all the answers.

Eugene said he had asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to investigate the shooting, and a spokeswoman for that agency confirmed Thursday morning that it had launched an investigation.

Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the state attorney for Miami-Dade County, said in a statement that her office will carry out its own investigation when the FDLE finishes its probe and delivers its findings.

Eugene said that police received a 911 call shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday about a male with a gun threatening to commit suicide. He also said that there were other reports from witnesses about a man with a gun.

Our officers responded to the scene with that threat in mind, Eugene said. But he added: I want to make it clear: There was no gun recovered.

In a statement on Tuesday, the department had said that the officers who responded attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene and that the officers later learned that one of the men was autistic and the other worked at an assisted-living facility.

Kinsey, speaking to the local television station, said he was even more stunned by what happened afterward, when police handcuffed him and left him bleeding on the pavement for about 20 minutes.

His attorney sharply criticized the police for their actions.

There is no reason to fire your weapon at a man who has his hands up and is trying to help, Hilton Napoleon said in a telephone interview. Napoleon called for the department to fire the officer.

At a news conference later on Thursday, John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade County Police Benevolent Association, called the shooting an accident.

Sometimes police officers make mistakes, Rivera said. They are not computers. They are not robots. They are Gods creation.

So far this year, police officers have fatally shot 44 people while responding to calls regarding a person behaving erratically, according to a Washington Post database tracking deadly police shootings. Officers have also shot and killed 35 unarmed people, the database shows.

Rivera said the officer was trying to shoot the autistic man because police believed he had a gun.

Fearing for Mr. Kinseys life, [the officer] discharged his firearm, Rivera said. In trying to save Mr. Kinseys life, he missed and accidentally struck Mr. Kinsey.

Rivera said that the officers on the scene did not know that the autistic man had a toy, saying that information only emerged later. But in the video, Kinsey can be heard yelling about the toy, and one witness said he tried to tell an officer that the autistic man was carrying a toy.

Thomas Matthews, the 73-year-old property manager of a corner food store on the street where Kinsey was shot, said he watched the incident unfold through a pair of binoculars.

Matthews said Kinsey and the autistic man often stop by his store to buy candy and juices. They are always laughing and talking, Matthews said. He said he saw a female officer with her gun drawn, following behind a male officer who pulled a rifle out of his car, and tried to alert her.

With the binoculars, I could see the toy truck in the autistic kids hand, Matthews said Thursday. I tried to tell the female officer, but she barked at me to get back.

Matthews said he then saw the male officer raise the rifle and shoot three times.

The whole thing could have been avoided, he said. I was trying to tell them it was a toy. The police are so scared and hyped with all these killings, I guess [the officer] panicked.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said Thursday that the Justice Department was aware of the North Miami shooting, but she said federal officials do not know enough yet to know if they will review it.

Rivera also read a statement he said was written by the officer who shot Kinsey.

I took this job to save lives and help people, the statement said. I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me into something I am not.

Miller and Berman reported from Washington. Steven Rich in Washington contributed to this report.
Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president. Here are excerpts from his speech, plus everything else that happened on the final day of the GOP convention. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president. Here are excerpts from his speech, plus everything else that happened on the final day of the GOP convention. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump painted a dire portrait of a lawless, terrorized nation as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination here Thursday night, delivering a sweeping indictment of a feckless political and corporate class that he argued was thrusting the United States into a perilous decline.

Declaring that he alone has the leadership strength to secure the homeland and rejuvenate the economy, the billionaire real estate mogul offered himself as a law and order candidate and made a direct appeal to blue-collar Americans who have felt left behind in the 21st century.

The forgotten men and women of our country  people who work hard but no longer have a voice: I am your voice, Trump said in a long address to fired-up delegates on the closing night of the Republican National Convention.

Rather than pivoting to the political middle with an uplifting address, Trump punctuated the turbulent four-day convention with a heavy speech with simple declarations. And he focused intensively on the alleged dangers posed by immigrants and refugees, showing that on the biggest stage of his campaign he would not shy away from rhetoric that many minority voters find repulsive.

Trump spoke with so much gusto it sounded much of the time as though he were screaming, and by the end his face was notably red and glistening with sweat. The address lasted an extraordinary 76 minutes, with balloons falling in Quicken Loans Arena and fireworks shooting over Lake Erie nearly an hour after scheduled.

[Read his full remarks, annotated]

The tone of his prepared text was hard-edged  at times severe  and echoed the dark themes of Richard Nixons 1968 campaign. Trump is betting that general-election voters feel so beleaguered that they will heed his call for radical change.

Trump described the country as beset by illegal immigrants, some of them killers. The crowd chanted back at him, Send them home, and Build the wall. And Trump decried an increase in homicides in some cities.

I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country. Believe me. Believe me, he said.

Trumps relentlessly gloomy tone was a jarring contrast to the sunny introduction by his daughter Ivanka Trump, who portrayed him as a generous, magnanimous business executive who would be the peoples champion and a fighter who delivers results.

She said her father has been an advocate for women in his company and would do the same as president, saying that he supports equal pay for equal work and would change labor laws to help make quality child care affordable  all priorities of presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump laid out stark differences between his agenda and that of Clinton. He asserted that his rival is a puppet of corporations and elites, and that she would keep our rigged system in place.

1 of 50 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What it looks like at the Republican National Convention on Day 4 View Photos The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention. Caption The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention. July 21, 2016 Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers his speech. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Trump blamed Clinton directly for the past decade and a half of foreign operations that have wrought turmoil in the Middle East and cast the former secretary of state as a favor-trading, self-enriching agent of overseas powers.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness, he said. But Hillary Clintons legacy does not have to be Americas legacy.

[See what it looks like from the foot of the stage and more in 360 from Cleveland]

As Trump attacked Clinton, the attendees chanted, Lock her up! as they had for previous speakers. At one point, Trump tried to shush his supporters. He gestured no with his hands and declared that together they should beat her at the polls in November.

Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta, said in a statement: Tonight, Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline. And his answer  more fear, more division, more anger, more hate  was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President of the United States.

In virtually every policy realm, Trump vowed to put the countrys interests before any other  redirecting Washingtons gaze inward in an age of globalization.

Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo, he said. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect  the respect that we deserve. The American people will come first once again.

Thursdays address was the most consequential of Trumps brief and remarkable political career. He strode onstage to the Air Force One theme song before an enormous screen displaying his name in huge gold letters.

The stakes were made higher by missteps and missed opportunities during the conventions first three nights, putting pressure on the nominee to convince the general electorate that he has a credible and appealing vision for the nations future.

Throughout his remarks, Trump cast himself as a change agent and Clinton as a guardian of the status quo.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves, he said.

Trump directly addressed some of the more controversial policy proposals of his candidacy, including his vague, newly formulated vow to temporarily ban people from any nation connected to terrorism from entering the United States.

We dont want them in our country, Trump said. He added, I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people. Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, ever will be.

He also vowed, We are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS and we are going to defeat them fast, referring to the Islamic State.

Earlier in the evening, Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, one of the most polarizing figures in the immigration debate, vouched for Trumps proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border.

He said, Donald Trump will build the wall  at which point the crowd chanted Build the wall!  and restore law and order and keep drugs and illegal immigrants from entering our country.

But another moment illustrated the swift evolution of some Republicans on social issues. Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel said, I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American  the first to make such a declaration at a GOP convention. Thousands of delegates rose to their feet and cheered.

When Trump later referred to the recent massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando and said he would protect our LGBTQ citizens, the crowd applauded loudly. Taking it in, Trump said, As a Republican, I have to say, it is so nice to hear you cheering.

Trump was under pressure to project unity for the fractured Republican Party, which was split anew by an extraordinary uproar Wednesday night on the convention floor. As it became clear that Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) would not endorse his former primary rival in his prime-time address, the crowd booed and jeered him until he exited the stage.

As speakers all week have done, Trump sought to rally Republicans to his cause with sharp and relentless attacks on Clinton and the Democratic Party.

We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore, he said to enthusiastic cheers. So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.

One of the loudest crowd responses came when Trump introduced his new running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who has strong support among evangelicals and other conservatives.

In a remarkable departure from past GOP conventions, Trump made no mention of God, religion or his faith. And although he thanked the evangelical community for supporting him, he sounded a rare note of self-deprecation, saying, Im not sure I really deserve it.

Trump was unquestionably the star of the final evening. Throughout the night, his family, friends and employees talked glowingly about his character and leadership style. In gauzy videos as well as speeches, they described him as a compassionate visionary with a connection to the common man and a drive to fix problems and finish projects.

I truly believe Mr. Trump is Americas blue-collar billionaire, said Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University. He is down-to-earth. He loves America and the American people. He is a true patriot and a champion of the common man.

At center stage was Trumps eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, who introduced herself as nonpartisan. Like many of my fellow millennials, I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat. She spoke passionately about her fathers competitive drive. I have seen him fight for his family, she said. I have seen him fight for his employees, I have seen him fight for his company, and now I am seeing him fight for our country. Its been the story of his life and, more recently, the spirit of his campaign.

And she said her father cannot stand to see empty main streets and boarded-up factories, college graduates who are crippled by student debt and mothers who cannot afford the cost of child care.

Other politicians see these hardships, see the unfairness of it all, and say, I feel for you,  she said, evoking former president Bill Clintons legendary displays of empathy. Only my father will say, Ill fight for you. 

Donald Trump picked up from his daughter by saying he is ready to go to work for the country.

Its time to deliver a victory for the American people, he said. We dont win anymore, but we are going to start winning again. . . . America is a nation of believers, dreamers and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics and cynics.

He continued with an appeal to voters: To every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: Im with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you.

Matea Gold in Cleveland contributed to this report.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka said her father is a "fighter" who will fight for America. (The Washington Post)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka said her father is a "fighter" who will fight for America. (The Washington Post)

Ivanka Trump, the polished, careful daughter of a shoot-from-the-hip presidential candidate, made a personal appeal to female voters who remain skeptical of a Trump presidency, describing her father as a fighter for the nation and women.

Remarkably, the nominees daughter told the party faithful at the Republican National Convention on Thursday that I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat. Rather, the 34-year-old said that, like many millennials, more than party affiliation, I vote based on what I believe is right for my family and my country.

My father values talent, said Ivanka Trump, a vice president of the family Trump Organization. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color-blind and gender-neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period.

[Ivanka Trump: The Anti-Donald works to protect the billion-dollar brand]

Ivanka spoke in a prime-time TV spot, introducing her father with millions tuned in to watch his acceptance speech. Since he first announced his bid for president with her beside him, Ivanka has played the most visible role among his children, who have emerged as his closest advisers and greatest assets.

The daughter who has a growing celebrity of her own was showered with applause from the convention floor. She painted a picture of an empathetic man  and made it clear she doesnt think the country knows the real Donald Trump yet: If its possible to be famous and yet not really well known, that describes the father who raised me.

Ive learned a lot about the world from walking construction jobs by his side, she said. In the same office in Trump Tower where we now work together, I remember playing on the floor by my fathers desk, constructing miniature buildings with Legos and erector sets, while he did the same with concrete, steel and glass.

Her remarks were a highlight in a convention marked at times by party mutiny and chaos. With her stepmother and Trumps current wife, Melania, looking on, Ivanka played the central role traditionally filled by spouses who give personal testimonials of the candidate.

She described her father  who has five children from three marriages  as a man who showed all of his children how to be resilient, how to deal with challenges and how to strive for excellence in all that we do, she said.

 Ivanka, if youre going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big,  she said her father told her as a young child.

Ivanka Trump was the fourth of the Trump children to speak this week, and the Thursday night slot ahead of his big speech was seen as a testament to the importance of her role in the family, as well as a nod to her popularity.

Ivanka 2024 posters have even sprung up, with some calling the former model a possible candidate for future office.

1 of 50 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What it looks like at the Republican National Convention on Day 4 View Photos The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention. Caption The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention. July 21, 2016 Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers his speech. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

She devoted much of her remarks to defend her father from criticism that he is sexist, especially since he has a long history of crude remarks about womens physical appearances. He is viewed unfavorably by 69 percent of female voters, according to a new Washington Post poll.

At our familys company, there are more female than male executives, Ivanka said to sustained applause. Women are paid equally for the work that we do and, when a woman becomes a mother, she is supported  not shut out.

She said her father hired women for key jobs long before it was commonplace. The mother of three small children also promised that her father would make a special effort to help working mothers.

As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place during a time in which women were not a significant part of the workforce and will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all, she said.

A large part of her growing celebrity stems from her public focus on the balance of work and family life. Her youngest is only 4 months old and she often posts pictures of her kids while working on multimillion-dollar real estate deals.

She is married to Jared Kushner, who comes from a well-known Democratic family; they have hosted fundraisers for candidates of both political parties. She is also friendly with Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Trumps Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and noticeably abstained from the Clinton-bashing that has been rife in this convention.

She described her father as kind and compassionate, saying she remembered seeing him tear stories out of the newspaper about people he had never met who were facing some injustice or hardship. Hed write a note to his assistant in his signature black felt-tip pen and request that the person be found and invited to Trump Tower to meet with him. . . . They would leave his office, as people often do after being with Donald Trump, feeling that life could be great again.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) rebukes a comment made by Trump during a presidential debate at the University of Miami on March 10, 2016. (Pedro Portal/AP)

Donald Trump branded his rivals as little, low energy, lyin  Republicans as he systematically bulldozed them from the primaries.

Now, with the real estate mogul set to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night, many of those losing candidates are still trying to figure out their place in a party they barely recognize  cognizant that their political futures may hinge on the success or failure of their approaches to Trump.

In some cases, their plans are consistent with the kind of campaigns they ran. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas thrived on being loathed by party leaders and appears content continuing as chief villain. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who ran a cautious campaign, has sought a careful balance between warmly embracing Trump and coldly shunning him. Centrists John Kasich and Jeb Bush, two vocal Trump critics, are refusing to fall in line behind the mogul.

There are also some surprises. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who helped Cruz win his home state primary when he endorsed the Texan against Trump, spoke supportively of the mogul during a speech here this week. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an early Trump critic, has also come around and spoke at the convention.

Trump is paying close attention. In a speech to donors at a private lunch Thursday, he praised Rubio and Perry but slammed Bush, Kasich and Cruz, according to a Republican who attended the gathering.

Ted Cruz was being loudly cheered by many of the delegates at the Republican National Convention on July 20  until he urged voters to "vote their conscience." Photo by Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post (Peter Stevenson,Sarah Parnass,Jorge Ribas,Alice Li,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

The most dramatic posture toward Trumps candidacy has been adopted by Cruz, who is running for reelection in 2018 and who many Republicans believe is eying a second run for president in 2020. Cruz refused to endorse Trump during a high-profile speech at the convention Wednesday night, a move many Trump supporters saw as a brazen show of disrespect. He drew loud boos in the arena where he spoke.

He took a gamble, said Mica Mosbacher, a veteran fundraiser who hauled in cash for Cruz before joining Trumps team after the senator dropped out of the race. He was talking to his base and a lot of them werent there at the convention.

Mosbacher added: Its sort of brilliant on Trumps part because he gave Ted Cruz enough rope to hang himself.

Other holdouts didnt bother showing up. Kasich, the Ohio governor, skipped the convention, despite it being held in his home state. Bush, a former Florida governor who Trump insultingly dubbed low energy during the campaign, also stayed away.

Bryan Williams, chairman of the Summit County Republican Party in Ohio, said that although he disagrees with Kasichs decision not to back Trump, hes happy that he didnt try to do the same thing Cruz did.

I do respect the fact that he was invited to speak, and he chose not to speak  rather than speak, promote himself and not support the nominee, said Williams, who initially supported Kasichs campaign and now backs Trump.

At the Thursday donor lunch, Trump insulted Bush and Kasich for keeping their distance.

If I got beaten as bad as Kasich got beaten by me I wouldnt support him either, Trump said, according to the Republican who attended the lunch and was granted anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Trumps spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The clashes between Rubio and Trump were some of the most vitriolic of the entire campaign. Trump tried to denigrate Rubio by repeatedly calling him little Marco. After months of steering clear of Trump, Rubio abruptly shifted course after a televised debate in Houston, labeling him a con artist and lobbed an anatomical insult at him.

Rubio is running for reelection, a reversal of long-stated plans to leave the Senate in 2017  either as president or a private citizen. When he launched his campaign last month, Rubio explained that he wanted to serve as a check against the next president, because he has worries about both Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Rubio, who some Republicans believe might run for president again, skipped the convention to focus on his reelection campaign in Florida. But he recorded a video message that was played here Wednesday night in which he said, The time for fighting each other is over.

Unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump takes seriously the threats from Islamic radicals and is committed to rebuilding our military, Rubio also said in the video.

Walker, whose presidential campaign fizzled quickly after he launched it to heavy fanfare, might also have a second act on the national stage, some Republicans say. In his speech at the convention Wednesday night, he contrasted Trump with Clinton.

Donald Trump is standing with the American people, he said. We want a leader who is not afraid to take on the mess in Washington.

Earlier this month, Walker attracted attention with a tweet voicing strained support for Trump. He didnt mention Trumps name.

Last August, I said Id support the GOP nominee. Its now clear who the RNC delegates will vote to nominate. And he is better than she is, he tweeted.

Perry, who after two straight defeats in presidential primaries seems like he has run his last campaign for the White House, once labeled Trumps candidacy a cancer on conservatism.

He sung a different tune in his convention speech Monday night, nodding to Trumps signature theme as he introduced former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.

Making America great again starts by taking care of our veterans, Perry said.
Donald Trump addressed the GOP convention in Cleveland on July 21. The Republican presidential candidate spoke for more than an hour, but we break it down to less than five minutes. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump addressed the GOP convention in Cleveland on July 21. The Republican presidential candidate spoke for more than an hour, but we break it down to less than five minutes. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

 A traumatized Republican Party came here hoping for an arena-size group therapy session.

The GOP at large would talk through its differences, remind itself of what it shares, then head into the fall election with a renewed sense of identity.

Instead, the week laid bare the fact that the party has become a collection of warring tribes, with no coherent set of principles beyond a burning desire to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

The question many have is whether Donald Trump  with his skepticism of free trade and internationalism, blurry record on social issues, and insensitivity toward the life experiences of minorities  now owns the Republican Party or whether he is just borrowing it until November.

I think the party is either in a major transition or in the throes of self-destruction, said Randy Corporon, a Colorado delegate and tea party leader attending his first party convention.

1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  In photos: The quirks, tension and excitement from the Republican National Convention View Photos Post photographers coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Caption Post photographers coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland The family of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate after his nomination speech to the Republican National Convention. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Wednesday nights eruption on the convention floor, when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) took the stage and refused to endorse the celebrity billionaire who had bested him in the primary race, was the most dramatic expression of the partys existential crisis.

On what was supposed to be a victory lap the day after his acceptance speech, Trump was still fixated on the snub by Cruz.

I dont want his endorsement, Trump said during a rambling, disjointed news conference Friday morning. If he gives it, I wont accept it.

Rather than turning his attention to the battle ahead, Trump revisited some of the low points of his primary fight: He defended his retweet of an unflattering picture of Cruzs wife to his millions of Twitter followers. And he called attention to a false and far-fetched tabloid claim that Cruzs father might have had a hand in John F. Kennedys assassination.

Trump also insisted that the quadrennial GOP gathering had been probably one of the most peaceful, one of the most beautiful, one of the most love-filled conventions in the history of conventions.

Mixed messages

Whatever its artistic merits, the convention had more than its share of dissonant moments.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told the gathering Monday night that the Black Lives Matter movement represents anarchy and a collapse of the social order.

On Wednesday, however, another African American, Lynne Patton, who runs Eric Trumps foundation, stood on the same stage and declared: Theres not one person in this room who can deny that, historically, black lives have mattered less. My life mattered less. And whether we like it or not, there are people out there who still believe this to be true.

On Thursday, billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel became the first person ever to proclaim his homosexuality to a GOP convention audience, saying: I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. During his nomination acceptance speech minutes later, Trump declared that he would protect LGBTQ citizens, prompting widespread applause in the hall.

Yet speaking earlier that same night was Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, which argues that the rationale for same-sex marriage could also be used to justify man-horse matrimony. The GOP platform approved this week maintains opposition to same-sex marriage and argues in favor of allowing discrimination against gays for religious reasons.

The rifts extend into foreign policy as well. In an interview with the New York Times, Trump said he would condition assistance to NATO allies on whether the United States was properly reimbursed for the cost of its military operations  an abandonment of NATOs core tenet as a mutual-defense organization.

I think hes wrong on that, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Politico. I dont think that view would be prevalent or held by anybody he might make secretary of state or secretary of defense.

And while the convention approved the partys most socially conservative platform ever, Trump has played down cultural issues in his campaign and did not mention abortion or God in his acceptance speech.

The GOP nominee did express gratitude to his evangelical supporters. It is an easy decision to support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, said David Lane, who heads the American Renewal Project, which mobilizes conservative pastors and hosts rallies in battleground states.

But he added: Trump needs to give Christian voters a clear reason to vote. Otherwise, they will stay home.

The convention also saw a few stray issues cross the stage. Trumps daughter Ivanka, who gave the introduction to his acceptance speech Thursday night, promised that her father would rewrite federal labor laws to ensure equal pay for women and would focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all two proposals espoused by Democrats.

Grass roots vs. elites

Trumps rout of a highly credentialed field of 16 other candidates in the GOP primary contest revealed a chasm between the partys passionate grass roots and the elites who have run its presidential selection process for decades. Much of that energy comes from insurgent forces such as the tea party movement, which was instrumental in giving Republicans their biggest House majority since 1929.

Specifically, Trump proved that it is possible to win a strong plurality of the vote with an appeal to nativism and bigotry, if it is dressed up as a backlash against political correctness. Moreover, it is now clear to party leaders that the clinical, by-the-book conservatism espoused by the GOP establishment has been insufficiently responsive to the economic concerns of working-class Americans.

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, said he would support Trump and suggested that his success proved that Republicans need to find new ways to talk about trade. However, Norquist said Trumps foreign policy ideas, such as a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, are unlikely to endure.

His vice president said thats a dumb idea, the speaker of the House said thats a dumb idea. And he backed off of it, Norquist said. Do we easily and quickly get a guy who went out too far on something to admit he was wrong? No.

On Wednesday, Norquist held a roadshow version here of the popular conservative open-mic sessions he presides over in Washington. Trump was rarely mentioned; a succession of governors and strategists discussed the election as if another candidate sat atop the ballot.

Theres a conservative House and Senate, and everyones focused on a presidential race thats sui generis, Norquist said. If there were Trump candidates running for office, it would be one thing. But its not a wing of the party. Its a guy.

While many Republicans say they are skeptical that Trump can win in the fall, they say he has launched a struggle over the partys identity that is likely to endure.

Theres a real debate going on. A lot of people are already looking past November to see where the party goes next. There is a concern it will shrink further and double down on Trumpism, said Alex Conant, a strategist who advised the failed presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Looking to 2020

Even if Trump wins  but especially if he loses  the 2016 convention is likely to be remembered as an early proxy fight for the 2020 primary. The Cruz meltdown, while damaging in the short run, may look in retrospect like a principled stand. Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another of Trumps defeated primary opponents, kept an antiseptic distance from the convention proceedings in his own state, maintaining that his sunny brand of conservatism ultimately will prevail.

Throughout the chaotic week, anxiety percolated through the Republican donor class. They were heartened by Trumps choice of running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a popular and familiar figure.

But the face of the party is now Trump.

I still have reservations about him as a person, said Betsy DeVos, a major donor from Michigan, who attended the convention as a delegate. I cannot and will not support and vote for Hillary Clinton. But I think there are things I want and personally need to hear [from Trump], and that is a more serious focus on the really critical and important issues of the day, and a demeanor that I think would reflect the office of the presidency.

There is cautionary precedent for this weeks dissonance.

In 1964, the liberal Nelson Rockefeller was booed off the stage when he denounced extremism at the GOP convention in San Francisco. The nominee, Barry Goldwater, lost the election in a landslide.

In 1980, the Democratic convention was dominated by divisions between the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, and his liberal challenger, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Kennedy gave a fiery speech, declaring that the dream shall never die, and party officials had trouble getting him to pose with the president for an onstage photo op.

That, too, proved to be an omen. Carter got trounced by Ronald Reagan, and Democrats lost the next two presidential contests by huge margins, as their liberal and centrist wings battled over the future of the party.

Then, as now perhaps, a convention set off a partys struggle to find its soul.

Jenna Johnson, David A. Fahrenthold, Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and David Weigel in Cleveland contributed to this report.
The family of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate after his nomination speech to the Republican National Convention.

The family of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate after his nomination speech to the Republican National Convention. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

In photos: The quirk, tension and excitement from the Republican National Convention

In photos: The quirk, tension and excitement from the Republican National Convention

From Aimee Winder Newtons perch at the back of the convention floor, Donald Trump started on the right note.

Newton had come to Cleveland seeking reassurance about the man whose incendiary, pompous personality left her worried that for the first time in her life she might not be able to support her partys presidential nominee.

Then Trump came on stage and said he humbly accepted the nomination. And though his exhaustive and dark address would still give her pause, Newton felt confident by the end that she could make a decision.

I can do this, she said.

Four days earlier, as the convention got underway, Newton had not been so certain.

Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president. Here are excerpts from his speech, plus everything else that happened on the final day of the GOP convention. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

The 42-year-old Salt Lake County council woman was part of the delegation from Utah, home to Trumps most embarrassing defeat. And now the states delegates were being asked to make the countrys largest leap.

Newton is conservative and deeply religious. Her Mormon faith taught her to be kind and trustworthy, to speak well of others and not to ostracize those who dont share her beliefs.

The new leader of her party had had extramarital affairs and has been divorced twice. He maligned his opponents and called for a ban on Muslims. If Newton was going to support her party, she feared she would have to put aside her principles.

Newton and many of her fellow Utahans came to Cleveland hoping that a last-minute crisis of conscience among her fellow delegates would prevent Trump from getting the nomination.

Still, Newton didnt consider herself a Never Trumper. More like a Maybe Trumper. She was looking for a bit of humanity, a semblance of humility, something that felt right and could inspire her to follow Trumps leadership.

When she bumped into the husband of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), one of her political role models, she thought maybe he could help.

Help me. Why did you decide to support Trump? Newton recalled asking.

Utah delegate Casey Voeks converses on the final day of the convention. (Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post)

We really want a president who could be a role model for our children. So this is really hard for us.

Chuck Blackburn said what many who know Trump say: Hes different in private. Hes not mean. The bombast goes away. He can be gracious and kind. Blackburn said Trump had endeared himself to his wife.

All of these things are helping, Newton said. Maybe she would see this side of Trump during the convention. Maybe she could offer her support.

Newton hoped to get a little closer when Melania Trump spoke on the first night. She listened intently as Trump spoke of her husbands strength, his love and loyalty. The audience applauded politely. Newton and her delegation were not impressed.

She comes out, and here she is, 24 years younger than her husband, Newton said. Shes his third wife. Hes still had the affairs. She didnt tell us anything more about him. It just makes him seem like he cant relate to anyone but the elites.

Politics has defined Newtons life. She ran for student body vice president in high school, helped to lead the College Republicans and served on a nine-person county council that had five Republicans and four Democrats.

They worked together. In a recent fight over how to try to fix the criminal justice system, the Republicans went along with a Democratic plan after a deal to cut a half-million dollars from the budget. A compromise. This was how democracy was supposed to function, Newton said.

I dont know if I understand what is going on in the rest of America, Newton said on the floor of Quicken Loans Arena on the second night.

The rest of her delegation was with her.

Make America safe again? I feel safe, said Casey Voeks, 27. My kids are able to go out all the time, and we never lock our doors. Make America great again? Our lives are pretty great. We dont feel like the country is as bad as they are making it seem, at least not in Utah.

Voeks worried most about what he saw as a shift away from the federal governments core principles. President Obamas health-care law seemed like overreach, as did the nationalization of school testing standards.

We are proof that local, small government works, Voeks said. Nonetheless, he was able to acknowledge good things about Obama. He was a good father to his children and had good intentions.

Hes a good man, his friend David Kyle, 35, said. Unlike Hillary.

Its true, Voeks said. Obamas wrong. But Hillarys evil.

Trump, Voeks said, might be clueless. Voeks worried that so much of Trumps campaign was about asking voters to trust him, that the candidate never mentioned freedom or the Constitution.

If he did those things, I might be able to vote for him, Voeks said. Until then, I dont know.

As he spoke, the rest of the crowd was being roused to a standing ovation for Donald Trump Jr. But the Utah delegation stayed in their seats and fiddled with their phones. Newton went to dinner. Voeks laughed and wondered who cared.

Their stance against Trump went beyond political dissatisfaction. And, Voeks said, it might have been emboldened in Northeast Ohio. Most of the delegation belonged to the Mormon Church. Twenty miles away from Cleveland, in Kirtland, Joseph Smith had started a settlement  only to face prejudice and discrimination that forced the church to move and move.

Because of that history, the talk during this campaign of singling out a group based on religion held a particular sting for Voeks.

People kicked us out or ordered our extermination. So when we hear a man talk about banning an entire group of people, be it Muslims or Hispanics or refugees, we take it seriously, he said. We know what its like. Its not a joke.

The next morning, the Utah delegation piled into rental cars and buses for a trip to visit Kirtland.

As the rest of the delegation finished lunch, Newton rode a mile east to the Mormon religions first temple with her father, Kent Winder, and her brother, Mike. On the way there, she brought up Donald Trump Jr.s speech. She had been moved to hear the younger Trump discuss how his father had insisted that his children learn how to operate heavy machinery. She also appreciated the elder Trumps affinity for construction workers.

It made him seem like he had some good values, Newton said. It seemed like he raised good kids. I know a lot of that is attributed to his wife, but I was really impressed by them and his work to keep them grounded.

Im getting closer, she conceded.

A tour guide came to meet Newtons family, along with a couple who came with the convention delegation from Hawaii. All of their eyes widened when they walked into the house of worship, its walls covered in white with 100-foot high ceilings and large, Gothic windows that let in bright beams of light.

The group sat in the pews while the tour guide told the story about the first service, of its large crowds of dedicated believers coming together and singing the hymn The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning.

At the end of the tour, Newtons father asked if the group might be able to get the chance to sing the song. Newton took to the old piano in the corner. The guests from Hawaii gave the pitch. Their voices blended together and bounced off the walls as they joined to sing an iconic song of their faith.

As they walked out of the church, the visitor from Hawaii approached them.

Oh, youre from Utah? she said. Youve been having a hard time.

Were trying, Newton told her. We really are.

The delegate told Newton that she, too, had a hard time getting comfortable with Trump until she read some of his books. And when that wasnt quite enough, she read Ivanka Trumps book. The books helped to show her that Trump had a sense of fairness and spirit, true American values.

Mike Winder offered that when Trump first publicly considered running for office, he read the moguls first political tome, The America We Deserve. It spoke of renegotiating trade deals, being tough on crime and battling terrorists.

I actually thought hed be a good president then, Mike Winder said. Over time, the rhetoric changed.

I think you can get there, said Kathy Kamauu, the delegate from Hawaii. We have to. Were Republicans.

As her father started the car engine, he told his children, I have to say, visiting this temple will be the highlight.

Before coming to the floor on the third night, Newton and the delegation started getting emails from Utahans complaining about their lack of enthusiasm.

So when someone handed a sign that said Make America First Again to Casey Voeks, he took it. But he couldnt bring himself to lift it up. Too embarrassing.

Its so close to Make America Great Again, and I cant stand it, Voeks said. But then Voeks saw a man with signs saying, America Deserves Better than Hillary. Those were words he could get behind.

This is great marketing for Utah, Voeks said. A sign I would wave, proudly. It says nothing about Trump.

Voeks ran to the other side of the convention floor to pick up as many as his hands could hold. Team Utah snatched them up. As Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spoke, many in the delegation stood with a newfound enthusiasm.

When Walker abbreviated the phrase to America Deserves Better, Voeks shouted back, THAN HILLARY.

Now, the delegation was buzzing. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Voekss preferred candidate and Newtons second choice after Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), was coming up soon. The delegation was crowding the aisles. They whooped until Cruz quieted them. Voeks clasped his hands when Cruz told the story of a 9-year-old girl who lost her dad in the police shooting in Dallas. He nodded along as Cruz discussed the Bill of Rights. He erupted in high-pitched shrieks when Cruz told the crowd to vote their conscience.

But, if the delegates were looking for Cruz to help resolve their dilemma, they would be disappointed. Cruzs mind on Trump did not seem to be made up, either, and the rest of the crowd booed the delegations most-liked candidate off the stage.

Newton was a fan of that nights star, vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, but the hubbub following Cruzs appearance was too distracting to focus on Pence. Newton was too busy discussing whether Cruzs speech was honorable or selfish. Voeks walked off the floor.

On the fourth night, Newton was captivated by Ivanka Trump.

She clutched her heart as Trumps daughter told stories of playing with Legos in her fathers office and described how the Trump Organization gives equal pay to women. Finally, a sign of the sensitivity that Newton had been searching for all week.

Soon, the man himself would appear on stage.

Newton wanted to see his heart. Voeks wanted to see his brain.

All around, convention staffers passed around signs, Millennials for Trump, Women for Trump, Make America Great Again. The delegation mostly passed them around and around because no one wanted them. Newton took one to be a team player.

But then Trump started to speak. His initial expression of humility struck a tone that Newton had never expected.

She and her fellow delegates applauded when he talked about addressing crime and putting American needs at the forefront.

Then Trump began talking about his policies on immigration. Newton stopped clapping entirely when he talked about banning people who came from other countries compromised by terrorism, as did most of the delegation. Was this the introduction of the darker Trump they didnt like?

Then, a reprieve. He talked about the importance of appointing conservative Supreme Court justices. Trump thanked religious and evangelical groups for their support.

Im not sure I totally deserve it, he said.

There was an audible gasp in the delegation. He knows? one said.

Newton looked to the women who sat next to her.

I love that, she said. I love his self-awareness.

Voekss cellphone rang immediately after Trumps speech concluded. It was his father, wondering if he had converted to Trump. Voeks said he wasnt sure. But as balloons and star-shaped confetti rained down on the convention floor, encasing everyone in helium-filled blobs of red, white and blue, Newton took to her cellphone and smiled for a selfie.

His brutal honesty might be the thing I hate, but Im starting to realize it can be the thing I love, she said. Sometimes, we just have to compromise.

She took a deep breath and said: Im in.
Geert Wilders strolled toward Quicken Loans Arena, drawing the usual amount of double takes. Clad in a trim blue suit, wearing sunglasses under his silver-blond coif, he stopped to talk to Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and a small crowd of foreign journalists began to gather.

He heads the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, King explained to a delegate who was wondering about the fuss. A little bit of controversy here and there, but who among us hasnt created some?

In another year, the far-right Wilders would not have made it past the Republican National Conventions perimeter. He has proposed moratoriums on new Muslim immigration to his country and a similar halt on mosque construction. I dont hate Muslims, he has said. I hate Islam.

But the rise and nomination of Donald Trump had inspired Wilders  and expanded his American fan base. He was just one of many people who might have been labeled extremists, and whose views are rejected by the old elite of the Republican Party, but who attended the convention and related events with a sense that their politics were finally winning.

I was at a McDonalds, having a hamburger, and I asked the young person who served me, Are you going to vote?  Wilders said. He told me: Sir, Ive never voted, but for the first time in my life I have registered. I will vote for Trump. I feel that hes addressing the problems. Its the same that you see in the Netherlands  my party, being the strongest, is supported by the people who never voted before.

1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What it looks like inside the Trump pop-up museum in Cleveland View Photos Take a peak at the items one super PAC says are intended to draw attention to the Republican presidential nominees contradictions. Caption Take a peak at the items one super PAC says are intended to draw attention to the Republican presidential nominees contradictions. July 19, 2016 A Donald Trump talking doll, a Trump Plaza-branded camera, and a golf ball and a divot tool are displayed at the Trump museum near the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century set up the makeshift museum. Lucas Jackson/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Many members of the alt right, racially conscious and opposed to new immigration, came to Cleveland with the same praise of Trumps revolution. They held meetings, co-hosted parties and happily met the news media. Richard Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute, held a cheeky sign encouraging journalists to interview a racist.  Peter Brimelow, founder of the anti-immigration and race news site VDare, stopped by a Tuesday night party headlined by Wilders.

Wilders condemned the white supremacists who kept rearing their heads and suggested that Trump do a better job vetting his retweets to prevent racists from poisoning his feed.

I detest anything having to do with white supremacist or fascist groups, Wilders said. You cannot prevent that they retweet you, but I would never retweet any of that garbage myself.

White nationalists made their presence known in Cleveland throughout the week. A scrolling ticker of tweets that wrapped around Quicken Loans Arena briefly featured one from VDare, praising a speech that criticized illegal immigration. Lori Gayne, an Illinois Trump delegate whose Twitter handle praised white pride, lost her credentials after a Facebook post praised brave snipers just waiting for some n----- to try something at the convention.

Spencer, who was not a delegate, was nonetheless excited about the momentum he saw inside the Republican Party. On Tuesday, as he walked into the arena, he spotted the anti-feminist activist Daryush Roosh V Valizadeh using another entrance. The alt right, once ostracized from the GOP, was starting to find a home.

Its been one big, bourbon-fueled party all week, Spencer said Thursday as he walked around one of the public protest sites near the convention. It might be generous to say that the alt right makes up 1 percent of the crowd here. But weve gone from zero to 1. I hope we can go from 1 to 100.

The Republican Partys mainstream, defeated by Trump, has watched the transition with horror. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told the New York Times last week that Republicans needed to purge extremists, just as they once purged members of the John Birch Society. The new threat, said Flake, came from those who want a Muslim ban, those who will disparage individuals or groups.

1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  17 memorable quotes from Republican National Convention speakers View Photos From Ted Cruzs non-endorsement of Donald Trump to plagiarism moment, heres a look at memorable quotes from convention speakers. Caption From Ted Cruzs non-endorsement of Donald Trump to Melanias plagiarism moment, heres a look at memorable quotes from convention speakers. The forgotten men and women of our country, people who work hard but no longer have a voice: I am your voice, said presidential nominee Donald Trump. Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

For a week, those people had their run of Cleveland. The Tuesday night party, billed as a fab gay rights celebration, took over a dark rec center and paused for 30 minutes of speeches. Wilders was just one speaker; the events poster portrayed the anti-Islamist activist Pamela Geller and the provocative Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos as superheroes, charging into a fight behind Trump.

All of them congratulated the hundreds of conservatives in the room for seeing that liberal Western democracy in general, and gay rights in particular, were under siege from Islam.

We should acknowledge that Islam is the problem, Wilders says. No political correctness anymore. And  forgive me, to say these words  but no bulls--- about radical Islam. Not all Muslims are radical people, but there is only one Islam, and that Islam has no place in a free society.

After Yiannopoulos accused Democrats of betraying gay people by allowing unchecked Muslim immigration, dance music filled the room. Brimelow, standing apart from the young crowd in a three-piece suit, retreated to a quieter hallway to praise how Trump had changed Republican thinking on immigration. He had given prime convention speaking time to politicians and grieving parents to decry murders committed by undocumented immigrants.

The Republicans wouldnt have dared do that four years ago, Brimelow said. The only reason you hear it now is because Trump has blasted his way through. Even if he is destroyed, like Barry Goldwater was, Goldwater blazed a trail for Ronald Reagan. There is a blue-collar vote for these issues.

Theres at least fresh interest in talking about those issues, and celebrity for anyone who does. Wherever Wilders went in Quicken Loans Arena, he was pursued by reporters who wanted to know how Europe felt about Trump. On the floor, Wilders was repeatedly approached for autographs by delegates who had seen him on Fox News, or read his articles. Again and again, they delighted over the success of someone who laughed and fought harder when the old media gatekeepers called them racist or extreme.

Theyve about used up their ammo, throwing that racist word out, said King, the representative from Iowa. Theyve cheapened it. Theyre going to have to come up with something else.
According to police, half a dozen persons in a black SUV without any registration number opened indiscriminate fire, injuring one person of another community in the city's Chordi Darwaza area.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A communal clash left one dead and one injured in Godal city of Gujarat on Thursday night.

According to police, half a dozen persons in a black SUV without any registration number opened indiscriminate fire, injuring one person of another community in the city's Chordi Darwaza area.

OF GUNS, BULLETS AND COMMUNALISM

The person sustained bullet wounds in the throat and leg and was shifted to a government hospital in Gondal, 40 km from Rajkot. The incident took place on Thursday night.

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The police said this provoked the other community to retaliate. Soon, a mob of over 100 people came together in a jeep and motorcycles armed with weapons.

The irate mob attacked a vegetable shop owner in the Old Market Yard of the city who was passing by. The man died on the spot.

Acting swiftly, the police chased the black SUV, intercepted it and arrested its five occupants. A search is on for two more persons, a police officer said.



ALSO READ:

Weaker sections oppressed in Gujarat: Rahul

HC holds 10 guilty of murder in post-Godhra riots case

Key Godhra accused, who set fire to Sabarmati Express coach, arrested from Malegaon



--- ENDS ---
Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president. Here are excerpts from his speech, plus everything else that happened on the final day of the GOP convention. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president. Here are excerpts from his speech, plus everything else that happened on the final day of the GOP convention. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

There were no echoes of Ronald Reagans Morning in America, George H.W. Bushs kinder and gentler nation or even George W. Bushs compassionate conservatism in Donald Trumps speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination here Thursday night. Instead, in both theme and target audience, Trump offered a powerful echo of Richard Nixon almost 50 years ago.

Trumps speech proved once again that he would continue to throw out the traditional campaign rulebook that might dictate softer language and broader appeals. Instead, he offered his grim portrait of the country and a law-and-order message in the hope of summoning an army of disaffected and forgotten voters large enough to topple the political status quo in November.

Throughout this election year, it has been evident that the forces of change are in control, which puts Trumps Democratic rival Hillary Clinton at an obvious disadvantage. But with questions about his temperament and readiness to be president, Trump has but one way to win, and that was on display Thursday night.

In Nixons time, it was a call for the Silent Majority to rise up and take back the country. Trump spoke to the forgotten men and women who he said no longer have a voice in a rigged political system run by censors and cynics.

His target audience remains white, mostly working-class, Americans bruised by economic change and worried about cultural changes. But the coalitions that elected both Nixon and Reagan  that silent majority of 1968 or the Reagan Democrats of 1980  have been diluted by demographic change. Trumps gamble is that he can still find and mobilize enough of them to prove his critics wrong again.

1 of 50 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What it looks like at the Republican National Convention on Day 4 View Photos The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention. Caption The scene from Cleveland on the final day of the convention. July 21, 2016 Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers his speech. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Trumps speech was the capstone to a chaotic convention that highlighted divisions within the Republican Party despite repeated efforts at unity this week. He spoke Thursday less as the leader of political party than as a man seeking to lead a crosscutting movement of fed-up voters.

Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored and abandoned, he said.

He offered himself as a singular leader uniquely equipped to lead the country through the turmoil he described. His self-portrait was not that of someone eager to join forces with Republican majorities in Congress but that of a strong, even autocratic, leader who by sheer force of personality could deliver a dramatic national turnaround.

Nobody knows the system better than me, he said, which is why I alone can fix it.

He wrapped his message with a warning to those who did not take him seriously when he announced his candidacy 13 months ago. Remember, he said, all of the people telling you you cant have the country you want, are the same people . . . that said Trump doesnt have a chance of being here tonight. . . . Oh we love to defeat those people, dont we?

The language he used was as dark and ominous as in any acceptance speech in recent memory, and what he promised to fix was a mess that he laid directly at the feet of Clinton, the former secretary of state and wife of former president Bill Clinton, as well as at the feet of President Obama.

Running through a litany of problems in the Middle East that have happened over the past seven-plus years, Trump said of his rival: The legacy of Hillary Clinton is death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty recaps Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 21. Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post (Peter Stevenson,Sarah Parnass/TWP)

The speech was without question the most important Trump has ever delivered. Many of his speeches at political rallies have been carried live on cable networks, but none had either the setting or, likely, the audience Trump commanded on Thursday night. This was his opportunity to make a pivot to the general election, to begin to allay questions about his temperament as well as his understanding of a complex and dangerous world.

Trump was trying to rally a party badly fractured over his nomination and send reassurance to GOP leaders fearful that he begins the final months of the election with a campaign that is poorly organized and ill-prepared, highlighted by petty squabbles between Trump campaign officials and defeated rivals who wont endorse him and the messy handling of charges of plagiarism in Melania Trumps speech on Monday night.

Strains in the party have been visible all week in Cleveland and no more so than in Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday night when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) addressed the convention. Cruz, who ran second to Trump in the primaries, again declined to endorse Trump and then urged people to vote your conscience in November for candidates who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution. He was greeted by boos and jeers from delegates loyal to Trump.

Another symbol of a conservative coalition in turmoil came hours before Trumps speech with the news that Roger Ailes, the founder and chief executive of Fox News, was resigning under pressure. No outside institution has been more important to maintenance of the Republican coalition and the conservative movement as it now exists than Fox News. The timing of the news added an unexpected exclamation point to a week of surprises inside the party family.

Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign manager, had promised earlier in the week that Trump would campaign on a theme of law and order, a theme that was largely unspoken through much of the early months of Trumps candidacy.

On Thursday, Trump embraced that message in the opening minutes of his speech, asserting that this is a moment of crisis for the country that threatens our very way of life. He painted a picture of an America out of control, with rising crime in big cities, police being shot and illegal immigrants streaming across the border.

Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored, he said.

He described an economy in which household incomes are down since the beginning of the century, persistent poverty, especially among African Americans and Latinos, a trade deficit of $800 billion and a national debt at $19 trillion. Internationally, he ticked through what he described as a series of humiliations for Americas prestige that have left the Islamic State on the rise and allies doubting the countrys resolve.

His speech was long on pledges, shorter on how he would fulfill them. He promised again to defeat the barbarians of ISIS but without resolving the long-standing question of whether he could do so without committing significantly more U.S. forces to the battle.

He pledged millions of new jobs and trillions of dollars of new wealth. After pointing to the national debt as a problem that needed to be addressed, he promised significant tax cuts and a massive infrastructure project that would build new roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports and the railways of tomorrow.

He brought special emphasis to the core messages of his presidential campaign: trade and immigration. He pledged to build a great border wall and to negotiate trade deals that are fair to American workers. He called trade a signature message of his campaign and one that would be a signature feature of my presidency.

Trump said the answer to the problems he outlined is a policy of putting America first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo, he said. Government would be run not for elites but for those left out or left behind who no longer have a voice. To them he declared, I am your voice.

Trump proved during the primaries that there is a sizable audience for his harsh critique of the status quo and receptivity to a candidate who pledges strength and firmness above all else. That was enough to win the nomination. His Thursday night speech significantly raised the volume on that message.

From here there is no turning back. He has set his course, controversial as it might be.
Ted Cruz was being loudly cheered by many of the delegates at the Republican National Convention on July 20  until he urged voters to "vote their conscience." Photo by Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post (Peter Stevenson,Sarah Parnass,Jorge Ribas,Alice Li,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

Ted Cruz was being loudly cheered by many of the delegates at the Republican National Convention on July 20  until he urged voters to "vote their conscience." Photo by Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post (Peter Stevenson,Sarah Parnass,Jorge Ribas,Alice Li,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

If Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump loses the presidential election, Sen. Ted Cruz may be remembered as the person who stood up to the combative real estate magnate and refused to bend to pressure to endorse him.

But if Trump wins, or even loses by a close margin, it could mortally wound Cruzs political career.

Cruz made a massive gamble Wednesday night when he refused to back Trump during a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention, instead telling people to vote your conscience. Its a decision that could make the senator from Texas a heavier favorite to be the partys nominee in 2020 or banish him to the political wilderness.

Despite the stakes, Cruzs campaign insists that politics had nothing to do with his decision. Cruz and his aides on Thursday cast the speech as a principled stand for conservatism and the absence of an endorsement as a primal reaction to insults Trump lobbed at the senators family during the primary season.

I dont see a political advantage to this, Cruzs campaign manager, Jeff Roe, told reporters. The political things are gonna take care of themselves. If this was all for politics, none of this would happen.

But, naturally, politics crept in Thursday, with supporters and foes castigating the Texas Republican.

A prominent supporter said he wishes he could have vetted Cruzs speech. Phil Robertson, the star of TVs Duck Dynasty, who stumped around the country for Cruzs presidential campaign, told Cruz to swallow your pride. Trumps campaign manager said he and the campaign are disappointed with Cruz, who was denied access to a suite occupied by billionaire GOP donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. Hours later, there was another stinging rebuke: The Texas Republican was heckled and booed Thursday morning by his own states delegation, including a man who held a sign reading: Clinton/Cruz 2020.

Cruzs own plans for 2020 seem clear, particularly if Trump loses in November: to try another run for president. He also will come up for reelection to the Senate in 2018.

Katie Packer, a Republican strategist who founded Our Principles PAC in a vain attempt to stop the Trump nomination, called the Cruz speech a Rorschach test that will reverberate into future contests.

If you cant stand Trump, like me, you saw it as bold, she said. If you love Trump, you saw it as a betrayal. If you dont like Trump but have been cowed or fallen in line, you saw it as self-serving, because you need that to feel better about your own weakness.

I think he will be a force to be reckoned with in 2020.

None of the controversy seemed to bother Cruz on Thursday.

Former 2016 presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) encouraged voters to head to the polls in November, but did not specifically endorse Donald Trump. The crowd booed as he ended his speech and Trump entered the arena. (The Washington Post)

This isnt just a team sport. We dont just put on red jerseys or blue jerseys and, Yaaay!  he said. This is about principles and ideals. This is about standing for what we believe in.

It was a stand that had to be taken, Cruz said, even though he and other GOP primary candidates pledged last fall to back the eventual party nominee.

The day that was abrogated was the day this became personal, he said. I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.

During the campaign, Trump retweeted an unflattering image of Cruzs wife, Heidi, and suggested Cruzs Cuban-born father had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

At the Thursday breakfast here for the Texas delegation  a sea of people clad in cowboy hats and shirts bearing the Texas flag  some cheered Cruz, chanted his name and fiercely defended him as a man of principle and integrity. Others accused him of reneging on a promise. Some booed and shouted at him, and pro-Cruz and anti-Cruz delegates yelled at each other. The senator took a series of pointed questions.

I recognize there are some folks here and elsewhere at the convention who are not happy with me, Cruz said.

Thats right, a woman said.

Cruz tried to mollify his detractors in the room and beyond by pointing out that he congratulated Trump, has vowed not say bad things about him and under no circumstances will vote for Hillary Clinton.

But that did little to appease them.

From where I sit, I didnt see a statesman step forth for the countrys future, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said.

The nominee himself didnt seem too bothered. After Cruz was jeered off the stage Wednesday night, Trump roamed through the cramped, suite-level hallway of Quicken Loans Arena. He was beaming, according to conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham, who spoke with him.

Ingraham said Trump told friends and advisers that he was happy with the way the political drama had unfolded.

It was obvious that he wasnt angry or upset at all, she said.

But Trumps staff and supporters sounded a very different note publicly.

Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign chairman, said he and the campaign were disappointed with Cruzs speech.

Cruz used very bad judgment. I think he made a mistake, Manafort said Thursday on NBCs Today show. I think he was not respectful to the invitation by the convention to come and speak. He understood what the responsibilities are of somebody in his position, and he didnt meet them.

Cruz and Roe seemed to leave the door open to a future endorsement of Trump. Cruz said he is closely watching what the nominee says and does; Roe said the selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as the vice-presidential nominee was a welcome development.

The fracas is the latest twist in the rocky relationship between Cruz and Trump.

For months, the two were unusually close for primary rivals, meeting at Trump Tower and appearing at a rally together.

But the relationship tanked after Trump said Cruzs Canadian birth could be very precarious for the party. Trump soon dubbed Cruz Lyin Ted and started talking about Cruzs family; Cruz painted Trump as a con man and a charlatan.

Cruz said Thursday that if the party cant make the case that voting for the nominee is consistent with voting your conscience, then the party isnt going to win. He said his speech was a blueprint for how the Republican Party can win by talking about individual freedoms and issues rather than hollow rhetoric and chants or focusing only on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Cruz built a massive grass-roots operation during his presidential campaign, and Roe said that will continue.

Theres an obligation to keep that strength, that participation, and stay in communication with folks that are supportive, Roe said, as well as with people who are upset about what Cruz did.

I mean, this isnt some, you know, drop the grenade and walk out of the room, Roe said.

David Weigel, Louisa Loveluck, Wesley Lowery, Ed OKeefe, Philip Rucker, Robert Costa and Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report.


Hillary Clinton delivers an economic speech in June at the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, Ohio. If she is elected president, the United States will finally join dozens of other nations led by women. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Khertek Amyrbitovna Anchimaa-Toka is widely recognized as the first female leader of a nation who did not inherit the job from her husband or her father. She also was the last leader of the small Tuvan Peoples Republic, from 1940 until 1944, when it became a part of the Soviet Union. At the time, its population was fewer than 100,000 souls.

If Hillary Clinton is victorious in November, the United States will finally join dozens of other countries  from tiny Mauritius to Germany to Chile  that are led by women. And Clintons path to the White House will reflect both Anchimaa-Tokas trajectory and those of the female leaders who preceded Anchimaa-Toka: Although Clinton will have won her post through an election, she also is married to a former U.S. president.

A familial relationship has really been one of the routes to power, especially when seeking the presidency, said Farida Jalalzai, a professor of political science at Oklahoma State University who has done extensive research on female leaders around the world. With someone like Hillary Clinton, its hard to say shes not qualified; shes definitely accumulated the resume to do this job. But why is it, yet again, that it is the wife of a former president who will possibly break the glass ceiling in the United States?

Also, what has taken the United States so long? Kelly Dittmar, a political science professor and scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said it could have to do with how the United States elects its leaders.

As of today, for example, we rank 96th in the world for womens legislative representation. The structures of American campaigns and government  a two-party system, for example  as well as the lack of things like gender quotas, help to account for some of that gender difference, she said.

Countries with parliamentary systems and those that have proportional representation offer better opportunities for women to ascend party ladders and move into top jobs without having to wage costly presidential elections. Nordic countries have among the highest proportion of women in parliament and at the ministerial level, as well as women who have been heads of government for long periods.

Clintons election also would make her a member of a rare political sisterhood: Less than 30 women have ever won a presidential election decided by the publics vote, Jalalzai notes.

Here are some of the first women who served as national leaders:



Golda Meir, the first and only female prime minister of Israel, served from 1969 to 1974. (AFP)

Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Indias first prime minister, filled the job herself more than once. (AP)

Golda Meir

She was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister of Israel, from 1969 to 1974. She was 71 when she assumed the post and had already spent 40 years in public service, including stints as foreign minister and labor minister. She was born in Ukraine and her family immigrated to the United States when she was a girl. In her early 20s, she heeded the call to move to Palestine to help establish the state of Israel. She died in 1978.

Indira Gandhi

Gandhi was appointed prime minister of India in 1966. She was elected in 1967 and reelected twice before being defeated in 1977 after a power struggle with opponents. She returned to power in 1980 and was assassinated in 1984 by her own security detail. She was the daughter of Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who led India for 17 years after its independence from Britain in 1947. Before becoming prime minister, Gandhi had been president of the dominant Congress party.



Margaret Thatcher, Britains Iron Lady, became its first female prime minister in 1979. (Gabriel Duval/AFP/Getty Images)

Theresa May became Britains second female prime minister this month in the fallout from the Brexit vote. (Thierry Charlier/AFP/Getty Images)

Margaret Thatcher

She was the first woman to lead a major Western country when she became prime minister of Britain. She rose through the ranks of the Conservative Party to become prime minister in 1979, holding the position for more than 11 years. She was dubbed the Iron Lady for her tough style  although the moniker was first used to describe the similarly strong style of Israels Meir. Economic pressures, as well as differences with other government leaders over Britains role in Europe, led to a drop in the Conservative Party  and Thatchers popularity. In 1990, she withdrew her bid to run again. She died in 2013.

Theresa May

This month May, also a Conservative, became only the second female prime minister of Britain. The home secretary won the job by acclaim after other candidates dropped out of contention in the fallout from voters decision to leave the European Union.



Angela Merkel, who became German chancellor in 2005, is now considered Europes senior statesman. (Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace laureate, is in the last year of her final term (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Angela Merkel

Merkel became German chancellor in 2005 when her Christian Democratic Union narrowly won Parliament. A chemist by training, she had held cabinet posts under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, including minister for the environment and nuclear safety. With Britains exit from the E.U., she is now considered the senior statesman on the continent.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

She was elected president of Liberia in 2006, the first woman to head the government of an African nation. She was a government minister in the 1970s before being forced to flee after a coup. Johnson Sirleaf has been praised for pulling her nation out of the ashes of civil war and, more recently, out of the Ebola crisis. She won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 and is in the last year of her final term.



Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was elected president of Argentina in 2007 and served until last year. (David Fernandez/EPA)

Tsai Ing-wen, a former professor and trade negotiator, was sworn in as president of Taiwan in May. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

In 2007, she became the first woman elected president of Argentina. She succeeded her husband, Nestor Kirchner, and served until December 2015. In May, she was indicted on charges related to a currency manipulation scheme involving Argentinas central bank. Isabel Peron became the first female president of Argentina  and, according to some sources, the first female president in the Western Hemisphere  when she took over after the death of her husband, Juan Peron. She was deposed in a coup in 1976.

Tsai Ing-wen

In February, she was elected as the first female president of Taiwan. Tsai, a former professor and trade negotiator who holds degrees from Cornell University and the London School of Economics, won with more than 56 percent of the vote. In May, an op-ed in a newspaper linked to Chinas Communist Party derided the unmarried Tsai as a single female politician whose political style and strategy often grows emotional, individualized and extreme.

Alice Crites contributed to this report.
The plateau pika is a smaller relative of the rabbit and occupies an almost identical ecological niche to the prairie dog in the U.S. Environmentalists call the pika a keystone species. (The Washington Post)

The plateau pika is a smaller relative of the rabbit and occupies an almost identical ecological niche to the prairie dog in the U.S. Environmentalists call the pika a keystone species. (The Washington Post)

As he gazes out across the rolling grasslands of the Tibetan plateau, where hundreds of his yaks are grazing, 70-year-old Awang Chumpey is less than happy. The land he shares with his neighbors is dotted with thousands of tiny burrows, home to a colony of plateau pika that he blames for eating his animals grass.

A smaller relative of the rabbit, the plateau pika occupies an almost identical ecological niche to the United States prairie dog. And it is equally unpopular in many rural communities.

Over the years the grass has become very bad, Awang said. They dig holes and eat the grass. I hope the government can kill them.

Herders like Awang are largely getting what they want. For decades, across hundreds of thousands of square miles of the plateau, a relentless extermination campaign has been undertaken to wipe out the plateau pika, with thousands of people fanning out as spring arrives to poison their burrows. Across vast swaths of grassland, the pika has been virtually eliminated.

[A city built on sand is a monument to Chinas problems]





Only now are some people in China realizing they may have made a huge mistake  just as some people in the United States have concluded that the mass extermination of prairie dogs might not have been such a great idea after all.

Indeed, the plateau pika is the scapegoat for much deeper, man-made problems, a symptom, some Western scientists say, of decades of environmental mismanagement by Chinas Communist Party, which threw out the natural balance that had endured on these grasslands for thousands of years.

Just like the prairie dog, the plateau pika  which has not been wiped out yet, by any means  is what environmentalists call a keystone species, playing a crucial role in the ecosystem that sustains life. And their burrows, it is now believed, play an important role in absorbing the heavy rains that fall during the summer monsoon, allowing water to percolate slowly through the earth rather than cause dangerous downstream flooding and erosion.

The pika is very important for the food chain and for the grassland ecosystem, said Hashi Tashi Dorjee, founder of the Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association and one of the Tibetan regions most respected environmentalists. Poisoning them sets off a very bad cycle.

[Chinese mall becomes prison for bears, belugas, wolves]

Here, on the Alpine meadows that carpet most of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, almost all the major carnivores depend on pikas for food. That includes brown bears, Tibetan foxes, steppe polecats and Pallass cats  small, furry, real-life versions of the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland but with a distinctly wild nature. Upland buzzards and saker falcons feed primarily on pikas, too; one way to spot a pika colony on the grasslands is to look for a buzzard flying overhead or perched on a power pylon.

But as pikas have disappeared from broad stretches of this grassland, so have many of these unique animals, said Andrew Smith, an Arizona State University expert who has been studying the ecology of the Tibetan plateau since 1984.

Awang Chumpey, a yak herder who hates the pika, on land he owns in Yushu County, in the southern part of Qinghai province. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post)

For brown bears, what we call grizzly bears in the United States, 60 to 80 percent of their food is pikas, he said. Where the pikas have been poisoned, the bears go on the move to search for food, and they have been breaking into Tibetan houses.

On the largely treeless grasslands, birds such as snow finches and Tibetan ground tits nest in pika burrows. But, where pikas have been poisoned, the burrows collapse within a couple of years and these birds disappear or become scarcer, Smith said.

A pika warren can stretch underground for up to 20 yards and have several small openings from which the nervous animals poke their heads, scanning the grasslands for predators and emitting a faint, high-pitched alarm call at any sign of trouble. Starting in 1962, the government sowed those burrows, first with sodium fluoroacetate and then zinc phosphide, across nearly 140,000 square miles of grassland. In 2006, it stepped up the campaign across huge parts of the vast, newly created Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, now using botulinum toxin.

[You may never eat street food in China again after watching this video]

Justifying the governments extermination campaign, some Chinese scientists have blamed the pika for grassland degradation and erosion.

But a growing body of Western conservationists say they have it all wrong.

Far from causing grassland degradation, pikas tend to colonize areas where the grassland is already damaged by overgrazing or has dried out as a result of climate change. Not surprisingly, they prefer areas where the grass is short, so they can spot predators from farther away.

Villagers see the pika, and they see the grassland getting degraded, and they connect the two problems, Tashi Dorjee said. They see the surface problem, but they dont see the root of the problem.

Rather than causing soil erosion, pika burrows dramatically improve drainage on the plateau, according to a 2014 study by Smith and Maxwell Wilson in the journal Ambio, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Without them, water runoff creates more erosion and heightens the potential of dangerous floods downstream.

[The lagoon in front of Rios Olympic Park is so filthy the fish are dying]

Most of Asias great rivers originate on the Tibetan plateau, and 20 percent of the worlds population lives in their downstream watersheds.

The chances of downstream flooding, the chances of loss of life and property, are much greater as a result of this animal having been poisoned upstream, Smith said.

The Qinghai government boasts of exterminating rats, although pikas are not actually rodents. It says yields of grass have improved in areas where pikas have been wiped out. Officials declined requests to be interviewed for this story.

In fact, Western conservationists say, the overgrazing and degradation of the grasslands should be blamed not on the pika but more on the governments own social and environmental policies, stretching back to the imposition of communal animal husbandry in the 1960s, and to later moves to erect fences throughout the grasslands and resettle nomads into permanent houses.

The parallels with the prairie dog and the European rabbit are striking. Prairie dogs have been widely blamed for eating grass upon which livestock depend, and for building burrows that cause cows and horses to break their legs. A mass extermination campaign brought them to the brink of extinction across much of the United States.

But scientists say that, similar to the pika, they support prairie falcons, eagles, badgers and bobcats, while their presence helps increase the richness and diversity of plant species on the grasslands. Their extermination brought the black-footed ferret to the brink of extinction, with only 18 left in 1986. The extermination of the rabbit from its native habitat in Spain and Portugal has made the Iberian lynx, which depends on European rabbits, the most endangered cat on the planet.

Today, millions of dollars are still spent in the United States killing prairie dogs, and millions more are spent trying to preserve the ferrets that eat them. In China, the establishment of a national nature reserve goes hand in hand with the extermination of a native keystone species.

It is clear that the antagonism of government and ranchers towards prairie dogs was in part based on purposeful ignorance, even when accurate knowledge was available, and on vested interests in continuing a well-funded killing program no matter how outdated and harmful, leading conservationist George B. Schaller wrote in his book Tibet Wild. The story of the pika has been remarkably similar.

Xu Jing and Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report.

Read more:

Himalayan Viagra: Tibets gold rush may be coming to an end

Chinas booming ocean parks mean misery for bears, belugas and more

Chinese dog meat festival again stirs outcry

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Migrants disembark the Aquarius vessel as others wait to leave the ship on the island of Sicily after being rescued on June 26. (Bram Janssen/AP)

The bodies of 22 migrants arrived in Sicily on Friday after they were discovered by a Doctors Without Borders ship patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea amid a spike in asylum seekers and others trying to cross from North Africa.

All but one of the dead were women.

It is still not entirely clear what happened, but they died a horrible death, Jens Pagotto, who heads the organizations mission for search and rescue operations, told Reuters. He said that water and fuel had likely mixed together, generating fumes that might have been enough for them to lose consciousness.

The bodies were discovered at the bottom of one of two rubber dinghies floating off the coast of Libya on Wednesday, the group said. More than 200 people, including 50 children, were rescued.

[Why this has been the deadliest year for migrants on the Mediterranean]

The discovery comes as the International Organization for Migration announced that nearly 3,000 migrants have died this year in the Mediterranean.

It is the earliest in the four-year migration crisis that this grim benchmark has been reached, said IOM spokesman Joel Millman in Geneva on Friday. In the past, it took until autumn for that many lives to be lost.

The news came amid a reported rise this week in the number of migrants departing North Africa for Europe. Italian authorities have said that smugglers boost their efforts in the warmer weather and calmer waters of summer.

As of Monday, roughly 240,884 migrants have sought to enter Europe by sea this year, according to the IOM.

A crackdown on the safer route via Greece and Turkey across the Aegean Sea has shifted attention to human trafficking routes from North Africa to Italy, where there is much more sea to cross and more storms.

Libya, which has little in the way of effective central government, has been a magnet for migrants seeking a new life in Europe, especially those from across Africa.

As it transitions into a major landing pad for incoming migrants, Italy is struggling to accommodate a growing number of newcomers while it waits for the European Union to devise a cohesive relocation plan.

At present, no such relocation plan has materialized, and Italy has registered approximately 135,000 asylum-seeking migrants who are still awaiting a decision as to whether they can stay, travel elsewhere, or will be expelled altogether.

At the same time, Italian officials are concerned that border towns, such as Ventimiglia on the Mediterranean border with France, will become holding pens for migrants desperate to travel elsewhere in Europe.

We are doing everything to avoid a Calais-type scenario in Ventimiglia, Mario Morcone, the Italian interior ministrys immigration chief, told Agence France-Presse earlier this week. He was alluding to the Calais migrant camp known as the Jungle, where, according to humanitarian organizations, more than 7,000 are now gathered, most hoping to enter Britain.

In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, when British voters opted to bow out of the European Union, Theresa May, Britains new prime minister, and French President Francois Hollande have agreed that British border controls will remain in France, preventing a mass influx of migrants into Britain after the vote.

May and Hollande met Thursday in Paris.

Read more:

The number of migrants drowning keeps going up

More shipwrecks in the Mediterranean claim more lives

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
A memorial of candles and flowers is seen in front of the Olympia shopping center in Munich, where an 18-year-old German-Iranian student went on a shooting rampage on Friday. Europe reacted in shock to the third attack on the continent in just over a week.

July 24, 2016 A memorial of candles and flowers is seen in front of the Olympia shopping center in Munich, where an 18-year-old German-Iranian student went on a shooting rampage on Friday. Europe reacted in shock to the third attack on the continent in just over a week. Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images

At least nine people were killed and 16 others injured Friday in a shooting rampage at a busy shopping area in Munich.

German police sealed off a shopping mall in Munich on Friday after shots were fired, authorities said.

German police sealed off a shopping mall in Munich on Friday after shots were fired, authorities said.

A gunman went on a rampage Friday in a busy shopping area of Munich, killing nine people and wounding 21 others in an act of suspected terrorism before he committed suicide, police said early Saturday.

The attack prompted authorities to lock down much of the southern German city and launch a massive manhunt. After the search ended, police said that the suspected gunman was an 18-year-old with dual German and Iranian citizenship who had been living in the city.

The motive for the attack, the Munich police chief said, was fully unclear.

The assault was the third act of carnage to shake Europe in eight days. It followed a July 14 attack by a Tunisian-born man who killed 84 people in the French Riviera city of Nice by plowing a truck into a crowd. On Monday, an Afghan teenager wielding an ax wounded five people on a train near the Bavarian city of Wurzburg. In both those cases, the assailants were inspired by the Islamic State, authorities said.

But German officials said investigators were looking into the possibility that Fridays attack was motivated by anti-immigrant sentiments, as well as the prospect that Islamist extremism was behind it.

There were no immediate details about the victims of Fridays attack on Munichs Olympia shopping complex. Munichs police chief, Hubertus Andra, said 10 people were killed in total, including the shooter, who committed suicide about half a mile away from the mall. Sixteen of the 21 wounded were still being treated early Saturday at hospitals, police said.

About 50 people of various ethnic backgrounds gathered at a Munich sports hall early Saturday to await official word on the fate of missing loved ones.

[How recent shootings show the dumbing down and growing danger of terrorism]

Much of the city was placed on lockdown for hours as police conducted the manhunt. Despite initial reports of multiple attack sites, police could not confirm attacks in any other locations besides the shopping area. They initially thought as many as three assailants were involved, but later said two people who had been spotted speeding away from the crime scene were not connected to the bloodshed.

Officials did not immediately describe the full scope of the assault. But a senior security official told The Washington Post that four people were killed inside a McDonalds restaurant near the complex and that one was fatally shot outside. The official said another victim died at a hospital.

The initial investigation was pointing in all directions, police spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins told reporters in Munich.

There have been few mass shootings in recent years in Germany, which has tough gun laws, and police said they had not previously been aware of any threat posed by the gunman.

A shooting rampage in a Munich shopping area left at least eight people dead Friday. Police reported a ninth fatality and said they were trying to verify whether a gunman committed suicide. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

Authorities were also investigating whether the gunman may have been motivated by anger at immigrants. Language against foreigners can be heard on a recording from the scene of the shooting, but it was not immediately clear who was speaking. A German television station said a witness told a colleague that the shooter shouted Bloody foreigners! at the scene of the McDonalds attack. There was no immediate confirmation of that account.

A German intelligence official noted that it was the fifth anniversary of a lone-wolf massacre in Norway that claimed the lives of 77 people. The bomb and gun attacks there were carried out by a right-wing extremist.

As the manhunt was launched, helicopters fanned out over the city, and Munichs transit system was shut down. Residents were asked to stay off the streets.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rampage, but a high-ranking police official told The Post that it appeared likely that it was linked to terrorism.

A message posted online in Arabic, apparently from an Islamic State account, said: Nowhere is safe for all of you. You people have opened the doors of hell by declaring war on us.

[Tracing the path of terrorists sent to Europe by ISIS]

An elite German counterterrorism force was promptly dispatched to Munich to help deal with the situation.

An employee inside the mall, who would give only her first name, Sabiha, said she saw a gunman open fire outside her clothing store. The assailant  described as about 6-foot-1, with black hair and a beard, and wearing a black shirt and some kind of vest  moved through the corridors before leaving the building, she told The Post.

Sabiha said she saw at least two people killed and one injured.

I was lucky because he shot toward the other directions, not mine, she said, speaking from a hiding spot inside a storage room in the store.

A video clip posted on Twitter showed a gunman opening fire outside the McDonalds as people dashed for cover. The man appeared to fire on passersby with a handgun, seemingly at random.

A U.S. investment adviser and blogger, Eddy Elfenbein, tweeted Friday that his brother was in Munich. He was helped to safety by a young Syrian immigrant. The young mans family called from Aleppo to see if he was OK, Elfenbein wrote.

In Washington, President Obama told a group of law enforcement officers at the White House that the United States is offering German authorities all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances.

He said the Munich attack is a reminder that our freedoms, our ability to go about our business every day, raising our kids, seeing them grow up . . . that depends on law enforcement. It depends on the men and women in uniform every single day who are, under some of the most adverse circumstances imaginable at times, making sure to keep us safe.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a statement: This cannot continue. The rise of terrorism threatens the way of life for all civilized people, and we must do everything in our power to keep it from our shores.

The Munich mall is near the citys Olympic Stadium, the centerpiece of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games that became known for tragedy when Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage and killed 11 of them.

Munich is about 40 miles north of Germanys southern border with Austria, and the city has been deeply affected by a huge influx of asylum seekers sparked by upheaval in the Middle East. More than 1 million asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2015, and many of them have passed through Munich. About 1 in 7 of the arrivals remain in the city and surrounding region, in the state of Bavaria.

[Ax-wielding attacker roils Germany]

German security forces have been on heightened alert since Monday, when a 17-year-old Afghan armed with a knife and an ax attacked passengers on a commuter train near Wurzburg. At least five people were injured. Police fatally shot the attacker as he tried to flee.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the train attack, but German authorities have said there is no evidence of direct links between the teen and the group.

Last month, German authorities arrested three Syrians on suspicion of planning an Islamic State attack on the city of Dusseldorf. The men had entered Germany with a wave of migrants fleeing war and mayhem in the Middle East.

The alleged plot involved suicide bombers, firearms and explosives, German authorities said. The arrests potentially thwarted a deadly operation comparable to assaults on Brussels in March and Paris in November.

Kirchner reported from Berlin and Branigin from Washington. Brian Murphy and Mark Berman in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Tracing the path of four terrorists sent to Europe by Islamic State

Migrants find doors slamming shut across Europe

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
"We are waiting for the day (when) Kashmir becomes (a part of) Pakistan," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was addressing a public gathering on the occasion of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's win in the "Azad Jammu and Kashmir" assembly election, today said that Pakistan is waiting for the day Kashmir becomes its part.

In his first public address following his return from London after an open-heart surgery in May, Sharif urged Kashmiris "not to forget those in Kashmir who are sacrificing their lives for their movement for freedom".

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"Their movement for freedom cannot be stopped and it will be successful. You are aware of how they are being beaten and killed. All our prayers are with them and we are waiting for the day Kashmir becomes (part of) Pakistan," Sharif was quoted as saying by Dawn News.

"I saw the election results at night and thought that if our victory is evident, I will travel to Muzaffarabad to congratulate my brothers and sisters. I was told to go tomorrow or day after tomorrow, but said I can't wait, I want to go tonight," he said.

The Pakistan Prime Minister even thanked the people of PoK and congratulated them for voting for his party.



THINGS YOU MUST KNOW

Prime Minister Sharif's party emerged victorious in the assembly elections held on Thursday in which a total of 26 political parties and 423 candidates took part. Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which won the last polls, could only manage to win two seats while cricketer-turned- politician Imran Khan's Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI) also got as many with the Muslim Conference bagging three. A total of 2.674 million Kashmiris exercised their right to franchise to elect members for the PoK Legislative Assembly, which will be the ninth since the parliamentary form of government was introduced there in 1975. It was expected that there would be a stiff competition between the three mainstream parties -- Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), PPP and Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf but the PML-N routed them, stunning political pundits. While the region is spread over 14,245 square kilometres, the polling process is not restricted to this area and instead stretches to entire Pakistan because members for 12 out of the 41 directly elected seats are elected by 438,884 voters living in various parts of the country. The PML-N is set to form the next government in PoK.

ALSO READ | Pakistan announces 'black day' over Kashmir, don't interfere in our issue, India hits back



26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed warns of more Kashmir violence



Chidambaram to India Today: Jammu and Kashmir needs unique political system



--- ENDS ---
The Federal Communications Commission this week selected a Swedish-owned firm to run a sensitive national database that routes billions of phone calls across the country. (Yuri Gripas/ Reuters)

The Federal Communications Commission this week selected a Swedish-owned firm to run a sensitive national database that routes billions of phone calls across the country, apparently satisfied that the award would not jeopardize national security.

The vote by the five commissioners clears the way for Telcordia, owned by Ericcson and based in New Jersey, to proceed with the challenging task of building a system that can track calls and text messages by nearly every phone number in North America while ensuring the data remains secure. The FCCs decision was first reported by the New York Times.

The database handles the intercarrier routing of calls and texts for more than 650 million U.S. phone numbers and for more than 2,000 carriers. If numbers are scrambled or deleted, a massive communications breakdown could occur.

The database is particularly important for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that query the database every day, several million times a year, in the course of criminal and intelligence investigations to track which phone company provides service for a particular number.

Security experts say that if a foreign spy agency wants to know which of its agents the United States has under surveillance, it could attempt to hack the system to see what numbers the FBI has wiretaps on. The system includes the phone number, database and the platform that tells law enforcement which carrier owns which number.

[Security of critical phone database called into question]

Earlier this year, Telcordia, which had begun to build the system in anticipation of winning the contract, was forced to jettison its work and start from scratch after the FBI learned that foreign citizens  in particular one from China  had access to the project. Though Telcordia began the work prior to receiving a preliminary contract in May 2015, it continued until March this year, an apparent violation of a requirement in the draft contract that only U.S. citizens work on the system.

After Telcordia agreed to redo the code, the FCC was assuaged. On Friday, commission spokesman Mark Wigfield confirmed that the panel had given Telcordia the green light, apparently satisfied that the national security risks had been minimized.

National security and public safety are the commissions utmost concern, Wigfield said in a statement. The commission has verified that the contract includes rigorous security and oversight measures, which were developed in consultation with our national security partners.

The FBI also did not raise objections to the award. In a letter last month to the commission, Todd McCall, FBI assistant director of the Operational Technology Division, stated that the bureau does not possess any information, as of this date, to reasonably question Telcordias ability to meet law enforcements needs in a secure manner.

But the firm that runs the system, Sterling, Va.-based Neustar, a competitor to Telcordia, has expressed a number of concerns. Earlier this month, as an FCC decision to approve Telcordia appeared likely, Neustar lawyers wrote a letter to the commission asserting that the FCC was about to award a contract to Telcordia that assumes all of the transition risk but none of the cost savings over the existing contract. 

Telcordias bid to run the system, the Number Portability Administration Center, is worth nearly $1 billion over seven years. The contract is paid by the carriers. Cost, observers say, is largely what drove the carriers  especially the large ones  to seek bids for a new administrator.

Neustar was paid $496 million last year to operate the database. When the FCC in 2013 put out a request for bids to run the system, Neustar made a series of offers that were significantly less than that. Its lowest offer was not considered by the FCC. The amount has not been disclosed.

Neustar has been running the database  the most complex such system in the world  since 1997. Though it experienced difficulties in the first few years, its operation since then has been considered highly reliable and secure.

Neustars contract expired in July 2015, but it was extended for 15 months pending a final FCC decision.

Tech and security experts have warned that the complexity of the transition could lead to network failures and disruptions that affect national security or consumer services.

There is no firm transition date, though it will not be before late 2017.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a press briefing after a "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday that the tide has turned in the battle against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria and that the U.S.-led coalition wants to do more against the terror group and we want to do it faster.

Kerry, speaking at the end of a Washington meeting of coalition defense and foreign ministers, said he was hopeful that a U.S.-proposed plan for counterterrorism coordination with Russia in Syria will bear fruit, but I cant say Im confident, because there are very tough issues that are being resolved in ongoing U.S.-Russia talks.

Were going steadily and carefully down a road without making promises in public that we cant keep, because I think people are already frustrated enough by Syria, Kerry said of the still-secret plan.

Still, he said, its possible that if everybody does what theyve said theyre prepared to do that this could change what is happening in Syria.

Turkish ministers did not attend the meeting, saying they had to attend to ongoing upheaval following a failed coup attempt. But Kerry said Turkeys deputy foreign minister had made a

very strong statement to the closed-door session here that events at home would not affect his countrys commitment to the coalition.

The coalition now numbers 67, Kerry said, including all of NATOs 28 members and the addition this week of Interpol, the international police organization. Its presence is expected to aid efforts to coordinate global intelligence sharing, including within Europe, to prevent terrorist attacks plotted or inspired by the Islamic State.

Outlining what he called significant coalition progress in Iraq and Syria, Kerry included what he said was a 50 percent reduction in Islamic State-held territory in Iraq; a 20 percent reduction in Syria; the death of numerous leaders targeted in coalition airstrikes; reduction of the groups fighting force by at least a third; a slowdown in foreign recruitment; and an increase in defections.

But, he acknowledged, capturing the groups core areas, including the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, is obviously a challenge.

Iraqi forces, aided by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and coalition training and equipment, have moved faster than anticipated toward Mosul. But Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter said at a Wednesday meeting he hosted here for coalition defense ministers that the biggest strategic concern they raised was whether Iraq and its partners were prepared to stabilize and bring governance and services to Mosul in the aftermath of a military victory there.

The timeline has clearly accelerated for a Mosul offensive, British Defense Minister Michael Fallon said in an interview, but a lot more planning is needed for what comes afterward. Britain agreed during the conference to double its troops on the ground in Iraq to 250, he said.

An offensive in Raqqa, he said, looks further off. Fallon, who has been defense minister for the past two years, is one of the few senior cabinet members to keep his position following Britains recent reshuffle of the Conservative Party government.

Although Britain is flying combat missions against the Islamic State in Syria along with the United States, Fallon said he had not seen any formal U.S. proposal to coordinate counterterrorism strikes there with Russia. We dont think its right to collude in any way with Russia, he said. Were happy with the current arrangement.

Russian and Syrian aircraft are currently bombing coalition-backed Syrian opposition forces fighting a separate war to oust President Bashar al-Assad, a Russia ally. Contacts with the coalition are restricted to U.S.-Russia deconfliction of their flights in Syrian airspace.

Under the proposed deal, Russia would use its leverage to ground the Syrian air force and focus its own firepower more exclusively on Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaedas Syrian affiliate, the strongest anti-Assad group. The United States would share intelligence on al-Nusra positions, and U.S. aircraft would join the strikes.

U.S. officials have described al-Nusra as the worlds most powerful al-Qaeda group, in competition with the Islamic State, and said they have indications that it is planning to copy the latters tactics with strikes on overseas targets.

In a response Wednesday to reports of U.S. concerns, and the U.S.-Russia proposal, al-Nusra spokesman Abu Ammar al-Shami said the group saw no benefits of targeting the west and USA. In a post to Twitter, he called on foreign recruits to join al-Nusras cause in Syria.

All anti-Assad groups, he said, should realize that any Russian-American deal to target al-Nusra would weaken the opposition and only benefit Assad.

Read more:

Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.
Pro Erdogan supporters wave a Turkish national flag during a rally at Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, one of the key battlegrounds in Friday night's coup attempt. (Umit Turhan Coskun/AFP/Getty Images)

Turkeys top diplomat urged the United States on Friday to quickly hand over a self-exiled cleric whom Turkish leaders have linked to last weeks coup attempt  an issue that risks causing serious tension between the two allies.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run broadcaster TRT that Turkey was ready to take part in a commission proposed by Washington to discuss the extradition of Fethullah Gulen. But Cavusoglu insisted there was no need for it to take a long time.

If you want to draw out the Gulen extradition issue, it can take years, but if you are decisive, it can be completed in a short period, he said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Since a failed July 15 coup by military units, Turkey has carried out a widespread crackdown on members of the army, police, judiciary and educational institutions. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested, fired or suspended on suspicion of sympathies to Gulen.

[The cleric blamed by Turkey leads a global movement from the Poconos]

The government maintains that followers of Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, were behind the attempted overthrow, and it has demanded that he be returned to Turkey. But the United States has insisted on clear evidence of the clerics involvement.

Any blows to U.S.-Turkish relations could spill over to other crises around the region.

Turkey, a member of NATO, is a critical front-line partner in the fight against the Islamic State and efforts to control the flow of migrants into Europe. There also is concern that Turkish society and freedoms could come under much tighter control amid the purges and probes following the unsuccessful coup.

Gulen has denied any link to the plot, implying instead that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan staged it as part of a bid to consolidate power.

In a possible sign of rising friction over Gulens extradition, Turkeys ambassador to the United States would offer only a brief response when asked by reporters whether he thought the United States had played a role in the attempted coup.

I hope not, Serdar Kilic said during a news conference at the Turkish Embassy in Washington.

He did not provide details regarding Turkeys extradition request for the dissident cleric beyond saying that the necessary documentation had been submitted and that discussions with U.S. authorities are ongoing.

Fethullah Gulen is an Islamic scholar and cleric from Turkey. He left Turkey in 1999, and is now living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. (Claritza Jimenez,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

Erdogan, meanwhile, called on Turks to continue nightly protests a week after the coup attempt, calling them an antidote to the mutiny. And he has declared July 15 Martyr Remembrance Day to honor those who lost their lives resisting the military power grab.

I am requesting my heroic nation, which thwarted the armed coup attempt with its foresight and courage, to continue the democracy watch on the streets until our country gets out of this difficult situation for good, Erdogan said late Thursday.

The president added that more than 10,000 people have been detained so far.

Among them is one of Turkeys most prominent human rights defenders, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who was stopped at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport and taken to a local police station.

Tens of thousands of others have been put under investigation.

Dan Lamothe and Ishaan Tharoor in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Turkish authorities granted emergency powers amid cleansing after failed coup

Almost one-third of Turkeys top military officers charged in coup plot

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Airstrikes by the American-led war coalition killed as many as 212 civilians in Syrias northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday, according to estimates published Thursday by Al Jazeera.

The original civilian death toll produced by the strikes was reported to be 56. The strikes, which were allegedly carried out with significant support from the French military, pulverized entire families, including young children, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The carnage in Aleppo is merely a foretaste of the slaughter being prepared by Washington against the Syrian city of Raqqa and Iraqi city of Mosul. The bombings, carried out in total disregard for civilian lives, serve notice that Washington and its allies are ready to carry out large-scale war crimes in pursuit of strategic domination over the Middle East.

Planning sessions for the attacks on Raqqa and Mosul were held this week, attended by leaders from the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other governments aligned with Washingtons anti-Islamic State coalition.

In addition to hashing out the details for a massive urban assault against areas inhabited by hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis, the talks included discussions over a package of new military escalations throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

The stepped-up NATO military operation, to be conducted in the name of the war against Islamic State, includes deployments to Iraq, Syria, and Libya. The NATO powers also agreed to contribute additional forces for naval operations in the Mediterranean, as part of Operation Sea Guardian.

With the US military and its proxy forces on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border now in the final countdown for the offensives, it is already clear that the assaults will be bloody affairs. They are predicted to produce hundreds of thousands of refugees, and the Pentagon is planning for an extended ground occupation, aimed at controlling the population and modeled on the lessons of the 2003-2011 US occupation of Iraq, once Islamic State militants are cleared from the area.

The US-led coalition seeks to collapse ISIS control over Mosul and Raqqa, and is planning for large-scale stabilization and governance efforts, geared to hold, rebuild and govern their territory, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.

Mosul is now increasingly coming upon us. We have it in sight, anti-ISIS coalition spokesman Brett McGurk declared Thursday.

Having committed an additional 560 US troops to Iraq last week, bringing the official US troop presence there to nearly 5,000, Washington is pressing for greater troop contributions from its allies. The Australian government announced Tuesday that it will send forces to Baghdad in support of counter-terror training programs for Iraqi forces. NATO plans to expand efforts to train Iraqi military officers, in an effort to bolster the imperialist-controlled Iraqi government in Baghdad. The alliance is already training hundreds of Iraqi officers at camps in Jordan, and plans to expand its training programs into Iraq itself.

Secretary Carter made clear Wednesday that Washington expected all of its major allies to get on board with the war against ISIS. He called for material support from NATO allies, along with commitments of more trainers and advisors.

Were all going to need to do more, Carter said, following discussions Wednesday morning.

Today, we made the plans and commitments that will help us deliver ISIL the lasting defeat that it deserves, he stated. Weve pursued a number of deliberate decisions to accelerate our plan.

Just prior to Wednesdays conference, Secretary Carter met with French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who confirmed that Paris would deploy the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in support of the US-led aerial bombardment of Iraq and Syria.

On Thursday, Le Drian made clear the global scope of the war preparations being implemented under the banner of the war on terror and the war against ISIS, which extend from West Africa straight across to Central Asia. He called for stepped-up NATO deployments to sub-Saharan Africa, citing the need for operations focused on the Lake Chad Basin.

We must also help the poorest countries which are on the front line (near) Lake Chad, the French Foreign Minister said, highlighting Niger, Chad, and Nigeria for targeting by NATO forces.
Early this month US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Li both visited Sri Lanka, highlighting the mounting geo-political rivalry between the US and China in the Asia-Pacific region.

Wang began his three-day trip on July 8, meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. The visit is part of ongoing moves by Beijing to counter Washingtons increasing efforts in the region to line up countries as part of its pivot to Asia to encircle China diplomatically, militarily and, if necessary, to launch a war to subordinate that country to US dictates.

Wangs trip occurred just before the Permanent Court of Arbitration decision on the US-initiated Philippines legal challenge to Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea.

China has attempted to strengthen its relations with Sri Lanka since the US-inspired, Indian-backed regime-change that ousted former President Mahinda Rajapakse and elevated Sirisena and Wickremesinghe into power.

While Washington fully supported Rajapakse anti-democratic rule and the war against the separatist Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam, it was determined to scuttle his close relations with Beijing and bring Sri Lanka into line with its aggressive policy against China.

Straight after coming to office, Sirisena and Wickremesinghe shifted the countrys foreign policy in favour of the US and India and postponed a number of Chinese-funded projects. These included the $US1.4 billion Colombo Port City Project (CPCP), a major component in Beijings Maritime Silk Road scheme to link Chinese trade routes to southern and western Asia.

India and the US raised various security objections to these projects. In March 2015, the Financial Times noted that Indian government officials, in particular, expressed concerns about the port city project in Sri Lankas capital.

During his talks with Samaraweera, Wang Li asked about Sri Lankas position on the South China Sea dispute. The Colombo-based Sunday Times reported that Samaraweera said the government understood Chinas position but hoped the dispute would be solved through dialogue between the parties involved.

At a joint press conference with Wang, Samaraweera said the issue should be resolved through constructive dialogue, consultation and cooperation, in accordance with international laws and practices.

The cash-strapped Sri Lankan government, which is trying to reduce its foreign debt burden, is seeking to boost Chinese investment and has allowed China to now start the CPCP. The project, however, will be governed by new laws reducing the Chinese construction companys outright ownership of part of the reclaimed land. The legislation will be submitted to parliament in October.

Similar agreements are being prepared for an airport being built in Hambantota with Chinese funds, and a nearby harbour.

According to recent figures, the majority of foreign investment in Sri Lanka for the first quarter this year came from China, amounting to $US855 million. Other Chinese investment projects under consideration include a petroleum refinery and a liquefied natural gas power plant. Military procurement deals have also been signed with China.

On July 12, US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal arrived in the country, just after Wangs visit. During her three-day trip she met with Wickremesinghe, Samaraweera and other parliamentarians and senior government officials.

Addressing a meeting of the America-Sri Lanka Business Chamber, she declared: For those of us who work in foreign policy, Sri Lanka has truly been a bright spot in the region and the world over the last year and a half. It was her fourth visit to Sri Lanka since Sirisena came to power.

Biswal falsely claimed that Sri Lanka had achieved democratic progress, including advances in [ethnic] reconciliation, accountable governance, and freedom of expression along with economic progress.

Having orchestrated the regime-change operation that brought Sirisena into the presidency, the US is assisting Colombo to whitewash its war crimes, maintain the military occupation of the north and east, and divert attention from the police-state methods used to suppress the struggles of workers, students and rural poor.

Referring to its geo-strategic location astride major Indian Ocean sea lanes, Biswal declared: Sri Lanka has the potential to become a premier transshipment hub, making it a strong, value-added link in global supply chains.

Significantly, Biswal visited Colombos current port facilities, which are located near where the CPCP is being constructed. She said the US was keen to be involved in the port, which had enormous capacity as South Asias busiest port and one of the top 30 globally.

Last week, Wickremesinghe participated in investment meetings in Singapore. Speaking with Bloomberg he said Sri Lanka had No China phobia and welcomed Chinese investment. Basically, any agreement with China will be to accommodate everyone in investments, any agreements with India will accommodate everyone  We need the investment, we need the growth, we need the economic transformation, he said.

Referring to the projects in Hambantota and the ironing out of the CPCP, Wickremesinghe said: The goal, is to make Sri Lanka the hub of the Indian Ocean for a revived Maritime Silk Road trading route to Europe.

Commenting on the South China Sea dispute, he said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China should implement a code of conducta proposal first mooted by the Obama administration in 2010 as a means of undercutting Chinas claims.

Wickremesinghe, who is notorious for his pro-US line, is attempting to appease Beijing in order to secure desperately-needed financial assistance. While his government has secured a $1.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert a balance of payment crisis, the economy stands on the edge of a precipice.

This week, Colombo requested a $1 billion loan from the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and last week sold $1.5 billion in sovereign bonds on the international markets.

While India, the USs principal partner in South Asia, has not commented on Sri Lankas recent moves to strengthen its economic ties with China, the Asia Times reported on Monday that senior Indian officials have voiced concerns about the frequency of official Chinese visits to Colombo and Sri Lankan leaders trips to China.

M.K. Bhadrakumar, a former top Indian diplomat, said the regime change in Sri Lanka has really brought us [India] no dividends. He pointed to Wickremesinghes encouragement of Chinese investment and said the government had not made any decisions advantageous to India or the US.
It would take a comedic genius like Joanna Lumley to turn the single word Gabon into a three-act play. But it is the visionary Jennifer Saunders who wrote the joke, gave it to her partner in crime and brought the outrageous world of Absolutely Fabulous to life. And for that, we should all be in awe. Saunders is the star and creator of Absolutely Fabulous  Ab Fab, to fans  the movie based on the hit series that ran on BBC One for twenty years, and one of the most successful series-to-movie adaptations of the last decade.

Not that Absolutely Fabulous is a cinematic masterpiece, but unlike the big screen versions of Sex and The City or the just-released Looking, Absolutely Fabulous captures the irreverent fun of the series using an appropriately absurd plot device and does not read like a tired excuse to put the characters back in a room together. Its no surprise, the Brits do know their playwriting.

READ MORE: Looking Review: Filmmaker Andrew Haigh Should Stick To Indies

The opening credits feature choice physical comedy, one of the hallmarks of the series. Edina (Saunders) and Patsy (Lumley) push models off their seats during a fancy fashion show, walk the runway mistakenly and twerk the way only a woman of a certain age can (Look! Im twerking!). As always, their extravagant shopping and partying catches up with the two friends. When the bubbly runs out  and Patsy starts knocking back the Chanel No. 5  they must scheme new ways to make money.

When Patsy learns that Kate Moss is changing her PR, Edina sets her sights on landing the very tiny bigwig as a client. But when she sees Kate at a party, smoking on a balcony, she gets so excited that she accidentally knocks her into the Thames. Panic ensues when Kate does not wash up, and Edina finds herself facing the entire nations ire and a possible manslaughter charge for killing Kate Moss. None of which compares to the humiliation of Stella McCartney throwing a brick through her window. (First thing Ive ever had from Stella.)

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The ladies abscond to Cannes, so Patsy can entrap a filthy rich old flame into marriage. Then, the two women can really live the dream. But when she finds him, he has upgraded to a much younger version, as have all the other old men in Cannes. In an odd twist, Patsy throws on a mustache and a tux to instead woo the richest woman in the world, a Baroness in a wheelchair.

READ MORE: An African City is the Modern Sex and the City You Need to See, Warts and All

Absolutely Fabulous has enough of the series charm to appeal to new viewers, at least those already in its target demographic. At a recent advance screening in Chelsea, dapper gays applauded each characters onscreen entrance like they were at a Broadway show. When the lights went down, one guy asked his date, Are you ready? The response: Always. Saunders and Lumley even made an appearance beforehand to take in the adoration and thank their loyal fans.

It was basically the LGBT community in New York that broke Ab Fab in America, said Saunders to cheers. We love you very much. Lumley took the mic and added: I think we love you very much more than very much.

The movie is chock full of cameos from Jon Hamm, Kate Moss, Emma Baby Spice Bunton, Dame Edna Everage, Joan Collins, and Rebel Wilson. Saunders original writing partner on the series, the brilliant Dawn French, also makes a brief appearance. (The two honed their comedy chops together with one of the best sketch shows ever made, French and Saunders). It also delivers its characteristically shocking quips, like Patsys take on Botox: You need to be using stem cells. With a little spritz of afterbirth.

READ MORE: Review: How to Be Single Starring Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann, Alison Brie and Anders Holm

The plethora of women over forty in the movie gives Edinas fears of growing fat and irrelevant a ring of authenticity. Every scene features an older woman, many of them large and in charge, running some industry or event. Even as the movie skewers the seriousness with which these characters take their jobs, the shallow world of Absolutely Fabulous is nonetheless a female-run one. It is a world where women can be fat, mean, competitive or incompetent and never lose their power. While the men rub elbows with young foreign models, Patsy and Edina have more fun with each other. Without forcing the point, the movie is a testament to female friendship.

Saunders attempts to appeal to younger audiences fall a bit flat. Chris Colffer (Glee) is loud in all the wrong ways as Edinas hairdresser, and his flimsy flamboyance is not worthy of sharing the screen with the British comedy royalty that abounds. Saunders also seems intent on proving how un-PC she can be, with more than a few misfires about trans people and Edinas mixed-race granddaughter. Her loyal audience can handle seeing Patsy do her own lipo, but the laughs stop with racism or transphobia.

Still, Saunders proves that she has earned her place in the canon of revered divas. (Let us take a moment to praise gay mens unceasing devotion to flawed older women.) Since Saunders wrote Absolutely Fabulous, the world is a little brighter, a little brasher, and a lot more, well, fabulous.

Grade: A-

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maurice levy

Good morning. Here's everything you need to know in the world of advertising today.

1. UK broadcaster Channel 5 has a novel plan for growing its online video service. It is launching a TV channel called My5.

2. Google-backed UK startup Yieldify is settling with the US rival that accused it of copying code. The accusations, leveled by US competitor Bounce Exchange, prompted an ugly year-long legal battle, complete with counter-suits, threats targeting customers, and name-calling  but now it's over.

3. The Daily Mail's earnings suggested Brexit's impact on advertising may not be as disastrous as first thought. The company's print advertising revenues were down 8% in the three weeks after the EU referendum, but that was better than the 11 month decline in the three months to the end of June.

4. Maurice Levy chatted to Business Insider about Viva Technology Paris, account losses, rebates, and Publicis in post-Brexit Britain. He's anxious for Prime Minister Theresa May to move quickly.

5. Snapchat's Bitmoji update was so popular it crashed its servers and sent the app down. A source tells Business Insider more people are using Bitmoji than the app's new Memories feature.

6. Spotify is making programmatic audio ads available on its platform. It has struck deals with The Rubicon Project, The Trade Desk, and AppNexus, AdAge reports.

7. Havas' organic growth slowed to 2.7% in the second quarter of 2016, AdAge reports. That's down from 3.4% in the previous quarter.

8. Chipotle's new loyalty program is taking off. But there's a catch: The program is only temporary, lasting just three months.

9. How UK startup Crowdmix blew through 14 million before going bankrupt. Crowdmix was hoping to be a social network and streaming site, but it never properly launched, before going bust.

10. Al Jazeera is coming back to the US. The move comes three months after it shut down its US cable TV network, citing economic challenges in the US media market.

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NOW WATCH: Forget Q-tips  heres how you should be cleaning your ears





More From Business Insider


Qandeel's father Anwar Azeem said his son, who suffocated his little one, "should be shot on sight".

By Indo-Asian News Service: Pakistani social media sensation Qandeel Baloch's father said his son, who killed the model-cum-actress for honour, should be "shot on sight".

"I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one," Baloch's father Anwar Azeem said.

According to the News International report on Friday, Baloch's parents voiced their pain at the murder of their daughter by their younger son Waseem, who killed her for bold posts and pictures on social media sites.

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"We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us," Azeem said.

Also read: 8 chilling confessions made by Qandeel Baloch's murderer brother



Azeem said that his daughter was his "best friend" but claimed that his son Waseem had been "crazed".

Baloch's mother said she used to share all her secrets with her.

"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me 'Your daughter is working hard, she'll go far'," she said.

Also read: Who was Qandeel Baloch, and why was she killed?



Qandeel's mother said she and Azeem were also drugged the night Baloch was first sedated and then strangled to death.

"My husband and I fell deep asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives," she said.

"In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... but she didn't get up."

Her mother, describing Baloch's corpse, said: "Her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips were black."

Baloch was killed on the night of July 14 by Waseem. He confessed to drugging her and then strangling her to death, for family honour.

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In the very near future, cash may become a rare commodity due to changes in technology, consumer and business preferences for online, contactless options and the ease of electronic cash payments. Imagine a world that no longer requires that you carry something in your pocket like a check, credit/debit card or even cash. Wallets have become digital, freeing us from that heavy load in our pockets or handbags as well as from the worry that these critical payment methods will be lost or stolen.

You may not have to imagine this scenario much longer because the ecash world is already taking shape with peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and online payments through various apps, platforms and tools. A recent Business Insider Intelligence report gathered statistics to show just how much this idea of social electronic cash has already permeated our lives and transactions.

For example, on a global scale, P2P payment volume has already topped $1 trillion with just $5 billion of those payments in the U.S. being done over a mobile phone. One estimate puts the U.S. mobile P2P payment volume at $86 billion by 2018. An even bigger opportunity lies in emerging mobile markets, such as Kenya, where it's reported that 92 percent of consumers have used mobile P2P payments as a solution for a relatively new and undeveloped financial infrastructure where there is no access to bank accounts. This has been a space to which I've been working on evolving with my payments company as I see it taking over the future of cash.

Related: The Future of Mobile Payments Awaits Your Fingerprint

With such huge potential for P2P payments, along with the ever-growing online payments industry, more companies are making a home in this social ecash world to offer customers more options, features and security measures. Here are some of the well-known, up-and-coming and startup brands entering the P2P and online payments space:

1. Apple Pay.

Apple Pay is the ideal way to cover online and in-store purchases. It works as an app on your iPhone or iPad to immediately transfer funds for these transactions.

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2. FaceCash.

Turning your phone into a digital wallet, FaceCash lets you make retail payments with stored payment information, split bills with friends, store coupons and frequent flier numbers and access a tip calculator. While FaceCash charges a $2.99 identification fee, there are no other charges in order to be able to use this cashless payment system.

3. Square Cash.

Square Cash is completely free and lets you send and receive money from your smartphone contact list. Money can be transferred between phones, email addresses or bank accounts.

4. Snapcash and Square.

In creating a truly social payment system, Snapchat has partnered with Square to provide a way so people can pay each other within their Snapchat social profile.

5. Facebook Payments.

Facebook also now offers P2P payment options through its messenger feature. You can send money to individuals within your friend list or within a group chat.

6. Twitter Buy, Amazon and American Express.

Twitter has also gotten into the social payments system by teaming up with companies like Amazon, American Express and other retail brands to use its platform to make payments for products and services. A hashtag can be added to items in an Amazon shopping account or when buying products online with an American Express account.

7. Venmo.

Venmo offers a way to link bank accounts or debit or credit cards together through its app so its easy to send and receive money from peers, rather than worry about carrying the exact change or having to wait until you see the person again. Venmo also incorporates a social dimension. They were also featured as a top payment company.

Related: Why Mobile Payments Aren't Gaining Traction With Small Businesses

8. American Express Serve.

Also getting into social payments is AmEx with the ability to make payments directly from a linked bank account. There are no limits on the amount that can be sent or received as well as no fees listed to sign-up or use this online payment service.

9. Google Wallet App.

Separate from its Android Pay platform, the Google Wallet app is now solely focused on sending and receiving money through iOS and Android systems. Money can be sent directly to a bank account or debit card or left in the wallet. The wallet funds works with ATMs and wherever a Mastercard debit card is accepted.

10. Android Pay.

Android payment tool now serves as Googles mobile payment platform for smartphones. It takes care of all your in-store, online and in-app payments.

11. Samsung Pay.

This mobile app works as a contactless solution through tap and pay technology. It works online and with in-store retail payment machines.

12. Western Union.

This long-standing wire transfer company Western Union is now repositioning itself to serve the social electronic cash world. It now has an app for iOS and Android as well as offers an online payment system that works with bank accounts, debit cards and credit cards. While there is a limit on transfer amounts of $3,000, there does not appear to be any significant fees involved.

Related: How Mobile Payment Apps Are Energizing Businesses That Live On Cash Flow

13. Dwolla.

For a minimal flat fee, Dwolla lets you transfer money to a friend through its app. Friends dont even have to set up an account to receive money from you or send money back to you.

14. Popmoney.

This low-fee, ecash payments app allows money to be transferred between bank accounts with money requests and payments handled through a phone number or email address.

Other online platforms are also beginning to focus on the social dimension of online and P2P payments, including the long-standing online payment brand, PayPal. Even banks are trying to break into this payments arena, including Wells Fargo and Chase. These traditional financial institutions recognize the growing preference for these types of payment options for consumers to use, facilitating everything from online purchases to bill-splitting and group payments for an event or gift.

As adoption to the ecash system grows around the world, more fintech and traditional payments companies will join this growing payments segment to leverage the potential and safety found within.
Getting stood up for a date or an appointment isn't always so awful; often, the person who bailed on you isn't meant to be in your life anyway. (Also there's always pizza to comfort you.)



Here are 17 stories from Reddit of people who got stood up and, in some cases, found a silver lining.A



1. "I was supposed to meet my friend at a nightclub, and he didn't show up. I was upset, but figured I had already paid the cover to get in, so I might as well stay for a while. A guy I struck up a random conversation with introduced me to his friend, and we really hit it off well. We talked, danced and drank together for the rest of the night. I got her number, and we went on a few dates afterwards. We have since been together for 10 years, married for 6 of them, and just had our first, wonderful baby boy last year."





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2. "I planned coffee with a guy and showed up at the coffee shop and bought two coffees. After half an hour, the barista realized that I had gotten stood up, so she gave me back my $3 and offered me a muffin."



3. "I got stood up and decided to go to a local electronics store and buy something to cheer myself up. Turned out they were having a free raffle that day. I won a free PlayStation 3!"





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4. "When I was in high school, I had planned a movie date with this girl I liked. So I arrived early at the movie theater, bought a pair of tickets and waited. When the movie started, I called her to see if she was coming but I kept getting her voicemail. As I'm about to give up and watch the movie alone, her mom shows up knowing her daughter just stood me up. We watch the movie together, she pays me back for the tickets and we part ways. My day went from sad, to sad and uncomfortable."



5. "Sitting in a lounge on a weekday in the afternoon, I was meeting a potential employee, so I told the server: 'There will be one more. She should be here shortly.' I waited for half an hour after when she should have met me and thought, 'Oh well, I'll eat anyway.' I had a few beers, read the paper and went up to pay when the server told me it was on the house. I thanked her, and she said, 'We're not all like that; I wouldn't have ditched you.' At first I was just thinking that she was meaning she wouldn't have missed the interview, but about an hour later it all clicked, and I had to punch a bear to gain back my man card."





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via GIPHY





6. "It was Valentine's Day in college. I spent 6 hours tying to get ahold of my girlfriend. Her RA said she was in her room. The RA let me in the dorm, and I knocked on her door. Three minutes later, a man in a cowboy hat answered. I delivered $100 of gifts right onto her messy bed, said f you and left. The RA takes me to her room where we talk about it. I then hooked up with the RA."



7. "Back in 1981, Eric Clapton came out of seclusion and played some small venues, including Viking Hall in Bristol, Tennessee. I invited a girl and bought tickets, but she blew me off with no notice. I still have the unused ticket."





via GIPHY





8. "A girl ditched me to watch The Jersey Shore."



9. "I got stood up for a dinner date. I tried calling her, but couldn't get through. I called her home, and her mom told me that she left the house an hour ago. I was really worried and didn't know what to do, so I just kept waiting for two hours  I was young and naive. However, it turned out that there was a massive subway problem, and she was stuck in a tunnel for almost two hours. She eventually showed up, and we had dinner!"





via GIPHY





10. "My friend stood me up for dinner, so I was sitting at a table all by myself. A really cute guy in the bar right across from the table came over and started a conversation with me. We ended up dating for a bit, but it really did not go anywhere. The fact that being stood up led to a date with a cute guy was pretty cool, though."



11. "I got stood up and went and bought a vibrator instead."





via GIPHY





12. "I was supposed to go on a date with someone I met online. She never showed up and I found out later that she died in a car accident."



13. "The first time I got stood up was the first time I got drunk. In high school, my sister had invited some friends over for drinking since my parents were away, and I planned on going out with a guy that I'd had a huge crush on for a long time. He never showed. My sister's friends took pity on me and fed me alcohol. Later it also became the first time that I projectile vomited."





via GIPHY





14. "I got stood up by a girl who was supposed to have called me. I got pissed off and grabbed a friend to hit up some bars and pool halls. I ran into a girl I knew who dated a different friend. She was with another girl. Me and that girl will be married for seven years this summer."



15. "When I got stood up twice by the same guy in one month last year, not only did I realize he doesn't deserve me, but my mom took me out for pizza and ice cream both times!"





via GIPHY





16. "I had someone stand me up after I was already at the roller derby venue. My date couldn't find parking, had a panic attack and left. He then deleted his online dating profile and never spoke to me again."



17. "A girl once stood me up, and I confronted her on it. Her response? 'Sorry for not arriving, but on my way there, I ran into another friend and decided I'd rather go out with him.'"



Posts have been edited from Reddit for length and clarity.
DBS, UBS and Standard Chartered have become embroiled in the scandal surrounding 1MDB, with Singapore's central bank saying it had found lapses and weaknesses related to the beleaguered Malaysian wealth fund.



The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Thursday that it found "lapses and weaknesses" in anti-money-laundering controls at the banks' Singapore operations and that it would be taking actions against them.

The preliminary investigation found "extensive layers of transactions and subterfuge aimed at disguising the nature of certain activities and fund flows," with shell companies in various jurisdictions used to conceal the funds' true beneficiaries.

In May, the MAS also completed a related investigation of BSI Singapore , which resulted in a decision to shut down that private bank, calling it at the time "the worst case of control lapses and gross misconduct that we have seen in the Singapore financial sector."



The MAS said the deficiencies at the three banks were related to lapses in specific processes and by individual officers, which would be met by "firm regulatory action," but the central bank added that the inspections didn't find pervasive weakness or staff misconduct, unlike at BSI Bank.



UBS said that it self-reported the suspicious transactions and was working with regulators on the matter.

Standard Chartered said it took financial crime compliance very seriously and that it reported the suspicious transactions when it discovered them. It added that the bank has strengthened its money-laundering controls.

DBS said "egregious financial crime is highly sophisticated and intentionally designed to evade systems and controls," and added that it had previously voluntarily reported some questionable activities to authorities. The Singapore-based bank said it took its anti-money-laundering obligations seriously and would continue to cooperate with regulators and law enforcement.

CNBC has contacted Prime Minister Najib Razak's office and 1MDB for fresh comment. Najib previously chaired 1MDB's advisory board during the period when funds allegedly went missing.



Story continues

The Singapore announcement thickens the plot of the long-running scandal over billions of dollars missing from the Malaysia state fund 1MDB, coming a day after U.S. authorities moved to seize assets tied to the beleaguered fund, including funds related to the film "The Wolf of Wall Street."



In the course of Singapore's investigations, bank accounts belonging to various individuals were seized and dealings in properties belonging to some of these individuals have been curtailed, the MAS said. The assets amount in total to S$240 million ($176.82 million), with about S$120 million of that total belonging Low Taek Jho and his immediate family, it said.

Low has been a friend of Najib's family, particularly Najib's stepson, Riza Aziz, who was named in the U.S. complaint.

In the U.S., prosecutors said they were seeking to seize more than $1 billion of assets tied to an international conspiracy to launder funds funneled away from 1MDB, marking the biggest action ever taken under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.



In a statement, the Department of Justice said officials at 1MDB, their relatives and other associates diverted more than $3.5 billion from the state funds and laundered it through complex transactions and shell companies with bank accounts in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the U.S.

The assets the DOJ said were purchased with the laundered funds included high-end real estate and hotels in New York and Los Angeles, a $35 million jet aircraft, artwork by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet, a stake in EMI Music publishing rights and production of the 2013 film "The Wolf of Wall Street," which ironically was not only about a corrupt stockbroker, but also was banned from playing in Malaysia for being too risque.

The film's producer, Red Granite Pictures, was co-founded by Najib's stepson Riza Aziz.

Red Granite said in a statement Thursday that to its knowledge, "none of the funding it received four years ago was in any way illegitimate and there is nothing in today's civil lawsuit claiming that Red Granite knew otherwise."

"Red Granite continues to cooperate fully with all inquiries and is confident that when the facts come out, it will be clear that Riza Aziz and Red Granite did nothing wrong. Red Granite does not expect the lawsuit  which is limited to future proceeds generated by a single film, and which was not filed against Red Granite or any of its employees  to impact its day to day operations," the statement said.

Riza was named as a "relevant individual" in the complaint, but Najib wasn't named. However, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the investigation, that the complaint's 32 references to "Malaysian Official 1," who allegedly received hundreds of millions from 1MDB, were to Najib.

After the Singapore announcement, Malaysia's attorney general said that there was no evidence from any law enforcement agency in various jurisdictions showing that funds were appropriated from 1MDB, according to wire reports. The Malaysian attorney general added that there haven't been any criminal charges against any individuals for misappropriating funds from 1MDB, the reports said.

Within Singapore, two individuals have been charged with various offenses in cases likely related to 1MDB and several others were still being investigated, the MAS statement said.

Switzerland's Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) said on Thursday that it was conducting four other enforcement proceedings in relation to 1MDB, in addition to the one it concluded against BSI Bank. It declined to name the banks until the investigations were concluded.

In an April statement, Finma CEO Mark Branson said that the evidence in the 1MDB "points to clear cases of corruption."

Prior to the Singapore authorities' announcement, the Malaysian Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Thursday that the government would fully cooperate with any lawful investigation of Malaysian companies and citizens, but it noted that the country's attorney general had found no crime was committed.

"As the Prime Minister has always maintained, if any wrongdoing is proven, the law will be enforced without exception," the statement said.

In the wake of the Singapore and U.S. announcements, further plot twists in the 1MDB saga may be on the cards, analysts said.

"Now that the U.S. has come out in the open and accused those individuals involved in the laundering of this money, you will see governments around the world, especially countries like the U.K., and Switzerland and Singapore, step up their investigations.and they will connect the activities with the U.S. government," James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, told CNBC's "Capital Connection."

Chin focuses on Southeast Asian governance issues.

But analysts still don't expect the latest developments to dislodge the grip of Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak from power.



"Domestically in Malaysia, the political impact will still be quite minimal," Oh Ei Sun, who was political secretary to Malaysia's Prime Minister's Office from 2009-11, told CNBC.

For one, the Malaysian government's inordinate control over the media means many Malaysians won't even hear about the asset seizures in the U.S.

"The mainstream media are not even printing this today and then you don't see it in various news bulletins," said Oh, who is currently an adjunct senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. "Unless they really go online, they're hard-pressed to get information about this development."

Indeed, the website Malaysian Insider, owned by The Edge Media Group, was shut down earlier this year after the government blocked access to it over its reporting on 1MDB and two of The Edge's other publications were suspended for several months last year.

Concerns about the implications of the prime minister's ties to a multi-country criminal investigation aren't likely to dent Najib's ability to rule, analysts said.



"In Malaysia, moral authorities, or in general moral obligations, is definitely not a prerequisite in politics," Oh said.

"What you have to do in Malaysian politics very often is distribution of resources. For example, how to make sure your supporters will get amply compensated," he said, noting that as long as that's done, "you can still hold on to power for a very long time to come."

The Asia Institute's Chin agreed that Najib was likely to keep his hold on power for now.

"Unless the prime minister is named directly in one of these charge sheets it will be quite easy for him to deny that he's the recipient of this money," Chin said, noting that global investigators may have faced difficulties getting documentation from Malaysia's central bank.

Another problem has prevented political change in Malaysia: fatigue.

Despite more than 18 months of 1MDB-related revelations, "people are unable to do anything about it ," Oh said. "This sort of inability to affect change really gets into people's mind and thereby people are sort of desensitized."

But the Asia Institute's Chin does expect the political situation to change eventually.

"Ultimately, it will unseat him. The issue is the timing," Chin said, noting that Najib's political enemies within his own party have left to form an opposition alliance and it will take time to develop. That means Najib isn't likely to step down in the near future.

For its part, 1MDB said in a statement Thursday, prior to the Singapore announcement, that it wasn't a party to the U.S. civil suit, didn't have any assets in the U.S. and didn't benefit from the transactions described in the U.S. complaint. It added that it wasn't contacted by the U.S. authorities in relation to the investigation, but it stood ready to cooperate with any foreign lawful authority.

Singapore authorities also said on Thursday that they found "substantial breaches" of money-laundering regulations at Falcon Private Bank's Singapore branch. That included a failure to assess irregularities in customers' accounts and a failure to file suspicious transaction reports.

The MAS said the investigation of Falcon PBS was continuing as some key client relationships were handled from the bank's head office in Switzerland.

Falcon PBS is owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Co., or IPIC. Earlier this year, IPIC and its subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS, said that they never received $3.5 billion in payments from 1MDB, which were related to a guarantee for a bond that was placed by Goldman Sachs.

Instead, the payments appear to have been sent to a nearly identically named firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Aabar Investments PJS Ltd. and Swiss authorities said at the time they believed the funds flowed in part to "a company related to the motion picture industry."

IPIC and 1MDB reportedly have entered arbitration to resolve the disputed payment.

Falcon Private Bank said that it remains in full cooperation with authorities and that it will comment further when investigations are complete.

Questions about movement of funds from 1MDB gained attention around a year ago, when the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2013 nearly $700 million had flowed from the fund to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's personal bank account.



Najib has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and, under pressure from the outcry caused by the WSJ report, said the funds were a private donation from a Middle Eastern country he declined to name. He has denied benefiting personally from any of the funds.

In January, Malaysia's Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali said that Saudi Arabia's royal family gave Najib a $681 million gift, of which Apandi said about $600 million was later returned.

Apandi said that no criminal offense had been committed. But globally, investigations into 1MDB in locales as varied as U.S., Switzerland, Singapore and the Seychelles have continued.

In addition to 1MDB funds allegedly flowing into the film production company founded by Najib's stepson Riza, the WSJ has also reported tha Riza used at least $50 million from 1MDB to purchase luxury properties in London, Los Angeles and New York.

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.



By CNBC.Com's Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter @LeslieShaffer1





More From CNBC


From Cosmopolitan

Since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, en route to Beijing, very little information has been uncovered about the plane's disappearance. Now, Reuters reports, top searchers at Fugro, the Dutch company heading the underwater search for the plane, believe MH370 glided down into the water in its final moments instead of diving down from cruising altitude, which means the plane's final landing spot may be very far from where they've been searching this entire time.

The main area they've been searching has been an approximately 46,000-square-mile piece of the Southern Indian Ocean, but because nothing has yet been found, "it means it's somewhere else," Fugro project director Paul Kennedy told Reuters.

Kennedy notes it's possible the plane's remains are in the area they've been searching and that they just haven't found it yet, but Bloomberg reports the search for the plane has been so thorough "that not even lumps of coal on the seabed have escaped detection."

"If it was manned it could glide for a long way," Kennedy told Reuters. "You could glide it for further than our search area is, so I believe the logical conclusion will be well maybe that is the other scenario." He added the plane could glide as far as 120 miles from the search area after running out of fuel, but in order to do that, someone would have to manually put the plane into a glide mode when the fuel ran out.

A press conference was held in Kuala Lampur on Tuesday to explain this new theory to media and friends and families of the MH370 victims, who were gathered to ask the Malaysian and Australian government to continue to the search for the plane longer than they plan to.

Other agencies investigating the plane's disappearance don't support this new glide theory, according to Reuters, and continue their work in the current search area based on the original theory of a nosedive crash.

Follow Tess on Twitter.
From Cosmopolitan

Social activism is coming at a cost for WNBA players.

The WNBA has fined the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury, and Indiana Fever and their players for wearing black warm-up shirts in the wake of recent shootings by and against police officers.

All three teams were fined $5,000 and each player was fined $500.

The Liberty have worn the plain black shirts four times, including Wednesday morning against Washington. The Mercury and Fever wore them Tuesday night. While the shirts were the Adidas brand - the official outfitter of the league - WNBA rules state that uniforms may not be altered in any way.

"We are proud of WNBA players' engagement and passionate advocacy for non-violent solutions to difficult social issues but expect them to comply with the league's uniform guidelines," WNBA President Lisa Borders said in a statement provided to the Associated Press on Wednesday night.

The league sent out a memo earlier this week to the teams reminding them of the uniform policy. The memo came out after Minnesota, New York, and Dallas all wore shirts in remembrance of two men who were shot by police and the five Dallas police officers who were killed in an attack July 7.

The Lynx only wore their shirts once and said they will shift their focus to addressing the issue in other ways. The Liberty reached what the players called a compromise in which they wear plain black shirts bearing only the Adidas logo. New York's normal warm-up shirt is black, but has its logo on it as well.

Phoenix Mercury forward Mistie Bass tweeted, "Don't say we have a voice and then fine us because we use it. #notpuppets #cutthestrings."
Donald Trump is far more interested in winning over crowds than adhering to any kind of Republican foreign policy orthodoxy. These five facts detail the divergence between a traditional Republican approach to the world and the views of a candidate selling a foreign policy as iconoclastic as the man himself.

1. Trade

Once upon a timeall of six months agoAmericas business friendly party was the GOP, and being pro-business meant being pro-trade. Trump has a different view: Our politicians have aggressively pursued a policy of globalization moving our jobs, our wealth and our factories to Mexico and overseas. This wave of globalization has wiped out our middle class. Trump has railed against NAFTA (which supports 14 million jobs, 5 million of which exist only because of NAFTA, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), and vowed to tear up the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, expected to net $77 billion in new income annually and support 650,000 jobs for American workers overall. For the record, his new running mate Mike Pence is a strong supporter of TPP, too. Or at least he was until this week.

Back in 2009, 59 percent of Republicans said trade agreements have been good for the country. By 2015, that number had fallen to 53 percent, before nosediving to 39 percent this year. Trump probably cant win without the combined 38 electoral votes in Ohio and Pennsylvania, states in which existing trade deals are especially unpopular, and Michigans 16 electoral votes are a top target, as well. On trade, Trump sees a growing divide between party elites and voters who have lost manufacturing jobs. Hell side with those voters.

(US Chamber of Commerce, Peterson Institute for International Economics, LA Times, FiveThirtyEight)

2. Middle East

The Republican Partys traditional approach to the Middle East centers on unwavering support for Israel (79 percent of Republicans are sympathetic to Israel), the necessity of intervening in the region to protect U.S. interests (91 percent of Republicans supported the Iraq war in 2003) and forceful opposition to Iran (just 6 percent of Republicans supported the Iran nuclear deal after it was struck last summer).

Story continues

Trump has held the party line on the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. On Israel, however, Trumps early attempt to position himself as a neutral arbitrator between Israelis and Palestinians backfired spectacularly. To make amends, Trump was forced to deliver a carefully scripted speech to the countrys largest pro-Israel lobby that hit all the traditional notes. Trump has also repeatedly claimed that he opposed the Iraq War from the start, an argument that is both demonstrably false and one that in any case puts him at odds with the 62 percent of Republicans who still believe that going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do.

(Gallup, CNN, Pew Research Center, Quinnipiac University Poll)

3. Nuclear Weapons

It was the spiritual father of the modern Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, who famously proposed reducing the worlds nuclear arsenal at a crucial Cold War moment. The worlds supply of nuclear weapons has since been reduced by two-thirds to some 15,000. About 93 percent of these belong to the United States and Russia, and the other 7 percent are divided among 6 countries (excluding North Korea).

If Trump has his way, the nuclear club would grow, and quickly. The newly-minted Republican nominee has argued that the U.S. pays more than its fair share for global security, which is certainly a defensible position. But his proposal to solve that problemleaving countries like Japan and South Korea (and Saudi Arabia!) to defend themselves with nuclear arsenals of their ownhas baffled Democrats and many Republicans. For decades, U.S. presidents have worked to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to minimize the risk they fall into the wrong hands. For Trump, they are ordinary bargaining chips in the fight to manage defense costs.

(Ploughshares Fund)

4. U.S. Allies

But the divergence with fellow Republicans runs deeper than that. Presidents of both parties have traditionally promoted relations with allies to help extend U.S. influence abroad. Trump speaks of allies as free-loaders, taking advantage of foolish American generosity. We have spent trillions of dollars over timeon planes, missiles, ships, equipmentbuilding up our military to provide a strong defense for Europe and Asia. The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defenseand, if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.

The U.S. has indeed spent trillions of dollars on defense over the decades, and allies have benefited without always fulfilling their agreed obligations. For example, of NATOs 28 member states, only fivethe U.S., Greece, Poland, Estonia and the U.K.meet NATOs recommended guideline of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. The U.S. actually spends more than 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense. But Republicansand a strong majority of the American people, 77 percent of whom say NATO is good for the U.S.accept extra burdens as part of the price of leadership. Trump made clear again during the GOP convention that he will abandon NATO partners who have not fulfilled their obligations to us, something he expanded on in a New York Times interview where he cast doubt on whether he would come to the aid of NATO allies like Estonia in the event of a Russian invasion.

(CNN, Wall Street Journal)

5. U.S. Rivals

But arguably the most surprising development this election cycle has been Trumps open admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has responded in kind. Past Republican leaders have treated Putins authoritarian rule and military aggression with contempt. Former Republican nominee John McCain has called Putin an old KGB apparatchik who wants to restore the Russian Empire. The most recent GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, called Putins Russia our number one geopolitical foe. But Trump seems to like Putins tough-guy style.

Trump has an entirely different view of the authoritarian power that many Republicans and Democrats would like to do business with. China is Americas top importer and 3rd largest export destination; Russia is the U.S.s 24th largest importer and doesnt rank in the top 30 exporters. But Trump treats China first and foremost as an economic predator and pledges to impose a 45 percent across-the-board tax on Chinese imports into the U.S. Thats a good way to start a trade war that harms China, the U.S., and the entire global economy.

(US Census Bureau, New York Times)

***

Bottom line? Trumps less interested in the Republican Party brandand any damage he might do to itbecause the GOP is simply his available vehicle to the White House. Traditional Republican foreign policy will survive a likely Trump loss in November. Its ability to survive a Trump victory is much less clear.
Donald Trumps speech at the Republican National Convention was full of extended passages on immigration, trade and national security  all issues that hes made central to his disruptive presidential campaign.

Still, there were a few surprising moments:

LGBTQ: When talking about the 49 killed in the terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Trump made a point of noting that the target was the LGBTQ community. He struggled a little with getting the acronym out, but it was a pointed response to complaints that some GOP lawmakers were playing down sexual orientation in speaking about the tragedy.

As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, he said. Believe me.

It drew applause from the crowd.

And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.

For a politically incorrect candidate, his use of the q in the acronym was a politically correct gesture.

Puppet: The whole week, Hillary Clinton has been blamed for just about everything, but Trump took it a step further. He called her a puppet of big business, elite media and major donors.

They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does, Trump said.

The Length: This was a very long speech  clocking in at 76 minutes  reportedly the longest of its kind since 1972. Its even longer than a length of a Trump rally address.

In the arena, there was some fidgeting in the gallery  the Trump supporters behind me chatted among themselves for much of it  but the delegates didnt lose their sense of enthusiasm.

Trump went well beyond primetime, so it is a little surprising that he may not have been more conscious of the possibility that some viewers may tune out.

Trains: Trumps stray from the establishment on trade and international affairs is well known, but he threw in one almost in passing. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways of tomorrow, Trump said. There are many, many Capitol Hill Republicans who are skeptical of high-speed rail and Amtrak.

Story continues

Self Deprecation: Trump got laughs when talked about his support among evangelicals. I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community because Ill tell you what, the support theyve given me, and Im not sure I totally deserve it, he said, drawing a lot of chuckles in the crowd. It was an acknowledgement of how much he does;t fit the mold of social conservatives, even if he is garnering their support.

And the least surprising:

A protester. Like so many of his rallies, Trump was disrupted, this time by a protester from Code Pink who unfurled a banner saying Build Bridges Not Walls in the media section. Reporters identified her as Madea Benjamin. They know her because the group seems to have an uncanny ability to get in to places with tight security, not just this convention but the GOP gathering in Tampa in 2012.

Related stories

The Winners and Losers From the Republican National Convention

Donald Trump's Acceptance Speech Paints Apocalyptic Vision From a B-Movie

Jon Stewart to Trump Supporters: 'You Don't Own America'
Did you ever send an email or submit a discussion forum post that you wish you could take back? Most people have.

As more interactions shift from in-person to text-based communications, a subtle but meaningful interpersonal feedback loop is lost: We can no longer scan non-verbal cues to adjust content, volume, tone, word choice, posture and overall delivery. As a result, an online classmate or professor may misinterpret sarcastic jokes, puns and innuendos.

Before taking an online class for the first time, it's wise to familiarize yourself with Internet etiquette, or "netiquette." Many online programs include this information as part of orientation. Arizona State University tells ASU Online students on its website, "Netiquette, a social code that defines 'good' online behavior, is something to keep in mind during your online course interactions. Writing may be the only means of communication you have with classmates and instructors, so it is especially important to do this effectively."



[Explore tips to improve writing for online classes.]

While most students don't enter an online degree program intending to bully a professor or classmate, if students are not absolutely vigilant in monitoring themselves, their language and their general behavior, it can easily happen. Consider these five tips to keep your interactions in online courses productive.

1. Abide by the headline rule: Would you want your words printed as a headline in The New York Times? If not, don't put it in writing -- period. The headline rule applies to all aspects of an online class: homework, quizzes, papers, discussion forums, journal entries, emails with professors and classmates, and social media. Tempted to describe a n online classmate lazy, boring or stupid in an email to a professor? Now imagine the headline, "Student Called Sally... ' Lazy, Terrible, and Impossible."" Ultimately, negative language reflects poorly on you, and the other student becomes the victim.

Story continues

2. Read it aloud to a trusted friend first: Using the same example, you might want to call someone who doesn't know your classmate and ask him or her to listen to you read the email you've written. Ask the friend what he or she thinks and to suggest a more neutral way to express the same idea -- or if it needs to be said at all.

3. Never click "send" or "submit" when angry: In an online course, it's easy to write something you might never have the gumption to say to the person's face. The social feedback loop is missing, your empathy is turned off and you will likely regret it later. If you're heated, allow yourself time to cool down. If deadlines allow, revisit your words the next day. Respecting all viewpoints, even ones with which you adamantly disagree, is a necessary part of learning.

[Discover how to succeed in an online course.]

4. Respect the privacy of others: It has become easy to find personal information about classmates and professors online. Google images, social media, background checks and online records can reveal much about a person. Don't be a troll. Many universities will investigate or even prosecute students for an unreasonable invasion of privacy or for exhibiting suspicious or threatening behavior.

5. Report online bullying immediately: If you are the victim of online bullying, do not respond to or escalate the incident. Document and save the evidence, and report it to the appropriate university official. Inaction is a conscious decision, and even if you feel thick-skinned enough to not be bothered by the attack, the next victim might not.

The takeaway: In online classes, it can be easy for the inherent competitive atmosphere to compel one to be unkind at the expense of another. Learning to operate harmoniously and thrive in a highly charged intellectual and potentially competitive online environment is a transferable skill to the professional marketplace and is essential to success.

Bradley Fuster, special assistant to the provost for innovative learning at SUNY Buffalo State, teaches both hybrid and online courses and developed the school's fully online master's program in music education. Fuster holds degrees in music from SUNY--Geneseo, Yale University and University of Southern California.
Abaxis, Inc. ABAX  a global provider of point-of-care blood analyzers, reported its first-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings per share (EPS) of 30 cents, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.1%.

The quarters EPS also dropped by a penny from the year-ago comparable figure.

The downside in the bottom-line results can primarily be attributed to a double-digit increase in operating expenses, a result of managements decision to increase investments in research and development (R&D) and international sales and marketing (S&M).

Total Revenue

In the fiscal first quarter, Abaxis delivered revenues of $57.7 million, reflecting an 8.7% year-over-year increase. The top line however missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $59 million.

Notably, the mid-single-digit growth witnessed in its medical market segment and the double-digit growth in veterinary market segment collectively drove the high-single digit growth in Abaxis overall revenue during the first quarter.

Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations had almost negligible impact on Abaxis top line growth, as currencies reduced total revenue growth by only 0.3% in the quarter.

ABAXIS INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

ABAXIS INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | ABAXIS INC Quote

Segments in Detail

In the quarter, on a geographic-region basis, revenues from North America (accounting for 81.1% of total revenue) grew 11% to $46.8 million, while revenues from the international market (accounting for the rest) rose 1.3% to $10.9 million.

Abaxis operates under three main segments, namely Veterinary, Medical and Other. In the reported quarter, Veterinary sales comprised 82.7% of total sales; Medical sales contributed 15.8% while the remaining 1.5% was generated from Other.

Veterinary market revenues improved 10% year over year to $47.7 million, driven by a 6% growth in veterinary consumable revenues and 27% growth in veterinary instrument revenues. Revenues from medical market segment grew 5% year over year at $9.1 million, on account of 11% increase in medical rotor revenue while Piccolo instrument revenues dropped 19%. Revenues from the Other segment increased 6.2% to $0.87 million.

Story continues

Abaxis also exhibited a strong consumable growth, up 7% year over year to $44.7 million, accounting for approximately 77.5% of the companys total worldwide revenues in the quarter. Total Instruments sales, also, increased 5% to $11.1 million.

Operational Updates

Fiscal first-quarter gross profit rose 9% to $32 million. However, gross margin expanded only 10 basis points (bps) to 55.5%, affected by sales mix during the quarter.

R&D expenses increased 10.8% year over year to $5.2 million, while S&M expenses rose 11.7% to $11.8 million. General and administrative expenses also rose 21.5% to $4.2 million. Although the resultant operating income came in almost flat at $10.7 million for the quarter, operating margin declined 140 bps to 18.6% owing to higher operating expenses.

Financial Update

Abaxis exited fiscal first quarter with cash, cash equivalents and short and long-term investments of $153 million, up from $129.8 million in the prior quarter.

Meanwhile, Abaxis' management has approved a $30 million increase to its existing share repurchase program, making the total amount available for repurchase to $54 million at present.

Our Take

Abaxis first-quarter fiscal 2017 results disappointed us, with the company squarely missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, on a year-over-year comparable basis a strong outcome was observed, with global sales improving across all Abaxis segments as well as in geographical bases. Moreover a specific rebound in Europes veterinary rotor units sales is encouraging as Abaxis had displayed a dreary performance in this space in the past two quarters.

Abaxis faced a challenging year over year comparison in the Asia Pacific region this quarter. But for the remaining quarters of fiscal 2017, management offered an improved outlook anticipating increased sales of veterinary rotors in the region. Besides, the strong cash position of Abaxis is evident from managements decision to increase the share repurchase fund, which all the more buoys our optimism for this stock.

Zacks Rank

Abaxis currently holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked medical stocks are Boston Scientific Corp. BSX, NuVasive, Inc. NUVA and Lonza Group Ltd LZAGY. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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The Union Labour Ministry will hold talks with representatives of the management and trade unions championing the cause of the employees in Mumbai on Friday.Comment: Is India's aviation boom over? 'Cost cutting was essential' Jet faces red flag over pink slips

By Press Trust of India: Seeking to address concerns of 1,900 employees retrenched by Jet Airways, the Union Labour Ministry has convened a tripartite meeting in Mumbai on Friday to discuss the issue.

Under pressure from trade unions and the sacked employees, senior officials of the labour ministry will hold talks with representatives of the management and trade unions championing the cause of the employees.

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"We will seek details of employment and inspect the work contracts of the employees to decide if action can be initiated against the airline," a labour ministry official told PTI from Mumbai.

He said the Chief Labour Commissioner, who is currently in Mumbai for some other official work, might also attend the meeting.

The CPI (M)-affiliated trade union, CITU, registered a complaint with the Labour Commissioner's office in Mumbai in this regard and sought resignation of the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel for his "insensitive response" to the lay-offs.

CPI-backed AITUC described the lay-off as "illegal" and "against the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act".

"AITUC and CITU will take up the issue with the Prime Minister and the Union Labour Minister. It is unfortunate that the government on one hand is trying to bailout airlines with sops and concessions but on the other hand doing nothing to protect jobs of employees," AITUC General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said.

Jet Airways on Wednesday sacked 1,900 of its employees as part of its cost-cutting measure.

--- ENDS ---
Donald Trump brought a close to the Republican National Convention on Thursday night by delivering a dark assessment of the country he hopes to lead, promising to restore safety and prosperity largely through the strength of his will.

The address played to his favorite issues, focused on the candidates bold, if vague, core principles, and included many of his standard campaign lines.

Trump talked once again about his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border. We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities, he said.

Trump attacked Hillary Clinton in unusually vicious terms for a nominees acceptance speech, focusing on the presumptive Democratic nominees foreign policy record and the scandal regarding her use of a private email server. On her tenure as Secretary of State, Trump said that Clintons legacy was death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

And, of course, the Republican presidential candidate emphasized his own success as a businessperson as a key qualification for his election.

Trump referred to himself as the law and order candidate, promising that Americans would feel safer under his leadership.

On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced, Trump said. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone.

At the top of his speech, Trump pledged to lay out some harsh realities. "We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else," he said, before launching into a litany of crime statistics chosen to conjure a scary picture of rising lawlessness. It was a theme he returned to later in his speech: "I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our country. Believe me, believe me."

Story continues

But the national crime wave Trump presented isn't backed up by the numbers, which show violent crime has dropped significantly since the early 1990s. A recent fact-check of Trump's claims by the Associated Press, citing FBI data, found the violent crime rate topped out in 1991 with 758 attacks per 100,000 people and had dipped by more than half to 366 per 100,000 by 2014, the last year for which numbers are available. Further, there's little evidence that voters see a threat as dire as the one Trump depicted. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found the issue didn't rank in the top 14 concerns that voters listed as very important to their decision in the presidential race.

In full, Trump's speech refuted the old saw that pols campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Implicit in that formulation is a recognition that candidates have to inspire with uplift and then, once in office, lead by reconciling their vision with the demands of the opposition. But Trump, in accepting the Republican nomination, offered a different model - he's campaigning with fear and pledging to govern with blunt force.

In place of proposals hell pursue to advance his agenda, he offered QVC-worthy guarantees that things will turn around -- quickly -- as soon as hes inaugurated, a point he frequently punctuated by adding one of his signature rhetorical flourishes, Believe me, though it never appeared in the draft version of his speech.

Otherwise, Trump mostly stuck to the script, avoiding his frequent pitfall of riffing extemporaneously to sometimes disastrous results. And, in a departure from his behavior during the campaign so far, Trump responded to chants of lock her up regarding Clinton by simply nodding and then saying that Republicans should defeat her in November.

As is tradition, the speech ended with Trump and his family on stage, along with vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and his wife and children. The balloons fell from the rafters of the Quicken Loans Arena. The delegates cheered, screamed, clapped, and danced.

After a convention that was beset with a number of high-profile distractions -- Ted Cruzs non-endorsement, threats of revolt from delegates, and the plagiarism in Melania Trumps speech -- the event came to a fairly traditional ending.

The end of the convention, though, is where the real campaign begins. And with Hillary Clinton and the Democrats set to have their own four-day party/infomercial next week, the Trump campaign now faces the real test of both maintaining GOP unity and keeping its organization intact all the way to November.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f153061%2f506b81d06bf54a39ac15ad416ee7e60c

It seems like everyone at this week's Republican National Convention is trying to make a statement, but one activist put her money where her mouth is.

A particularly aggressive vendor, whose specialty was shirts that read "Hillary Sucks, but Not Like Monica" on the front and "Trump That Bitch" on the back, reportedly also yelled those phrases over and over near the arena.

It really bothered Sarah Wellington.

Wellington is a part of the group We Will Not Be Silent, a project in which artists and activists respond to, "current social justice issues, encouraging creative, direct public actions" through the use of language on shirts and signs, according to their website.

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert brought back his 'Colbert Report' persona to cover the RNC

It's no surprise that RNC vendors would sell pro-Republican or anti-Hillary Clinton merchandise. What bothered Wellington is that vendors were selling specifically anti-women merchandise.

According to Glamour, she decided to appeal, not to the man's sense of decency, but to his sense of capitalism.

The activist told Glamour that she had, "grown tired of hearing the man yell such a disturbing sentiment again and againand she confronted him."

To get the man to leave, Wellington gave him $400 and bought all of his shirts.

Even though vendors continued to sell offensive souvenirs, Wellington's stand against misogyny hopefully did not go unnoticed.

As Glamour pointed out, Sarah Wellington, "wasnt a Donald Trump supporter, and she wasnt a fan of Hillary Clinton either." She just did not want to idly witness misogyny.
NextShark

Jahrah, who only has a first name as customary in Indonesia, went out to collect rubber on Sunday morning in the forest in Jambi Province on Sumatra Island, Indonesia. The search parties only found success a day later, on Monday, when they discovered a 22-foot-long (6.7-meters-long) python with a bulging stomach resting in the woods. Her family then reported her missing to the local authorities, and a search has been carried out since then, Anto, the local villages chief, said.
From Town & Country

Ludwig Bemelmans, Raoul Dufy, and Salvador Dali are just some of the artists whose illustrations have appeared on the covers of T&C. During the 1930s and 1940s, illustrated covers were far more common than photographed ones, and museum-worthy works were routinely created especially for our magazine. One of these covers, illustrated by the artist Saul Steinberg, is available to purchase during Christie's online-only sale First Open: Post-War and Contemporary Art, which runs through Wednesday, July 27th.

Steinberg created the work between 1940 and 1941 as a cover proposal for T&C, and although the Romanian-born artist was living in Italy at the time and didn't move to the United States until a few years later, his drawing proves to be quite prescient. As Kat Widing, Christie's Junior Specialist in Post-War and Contemporary Art and the head of the online sale observes, the proposal "illustrates an interior scene of the 'Town' or 'City' life, with upscale china, a lamp and a picture frame arranged on a wooden table. Birds and insects hide in the lower third of the composition and an equestrian painting adorns the wall, cleverly connecting 'Town' and 'Country' in a single image."

Steinberg was beloved for the witty commentaries on modern life that he illustrated for publications like The New Yorker (he drew 87 covers for magazine), LIFE and Harper's Bazaar. "Steinberg said that he always wanted to draw like a child, and his honest and forthright depictions of the world indeed have an unadulterated quality. His illustrations encapsulate not only the humor but also the truth of our day to day lives," notes Widing.

The T&C cover proposal is estimated to sell for $4,000-$6,000, a very accessible price for an original work by an artist like Steinberg. The online-only auction also has many other pieces with surprisingly low estimates-some start bidding at just $400. There is even another magazine cover proposal in the sale, a study for an Artforum cover by the artist Eric Fischl, expected to sell for between $7,000-$10,000. (Call us biased, but we like the T&C cover a little better.)
By Caroline Humer and Carl O'Donnell

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Health insurer Aetna Inc <AET.N>, whose $33 billion purchase of Humana Inc <HUM.N> has been spurned by the U.S. government, faces a tough but not impossible legal battle to try to reinstate the deal.

Aetna vowed to fight to the very end after the Department of Justice filed suit earlier on Thursday to block the merger, which had been in the works for more than a year. Antitrust reviewers say the combination will hurt consumers and the companies' proposed fix - selling some health plans to a competitor - is insufficient.

The Justice Department simultaneously sued to block Anthem Incs <ANTM.N> proposed $45 billion deal for Cigna Inc <CI.N>, moving against an unprecedented effort to consolidate the U.S. health insurance market.

Of the two deals, analysts and investors see Aetna and Humana as having a slight chance to reverse the decision through a court battle. They face a Justice Department empowered by a series of high-profile successes against mega-mergers, scuttling deals in industries from oil services to retail stores and telecommunications.

"My initial impression from the complaint ... is that the Justice Department and the states are on much safer ground" in their argument against an Aetna-Humana tie-up, said Beau Buffier, co-head of the antitrust group at Shearman & Sterling in New York.

The Justice Department lawsuit focused on a county-by-county analysis of where Aetna and Humana have what is deemed too much market share in providing Medicare Advantage for elderly people and in the individual health plans created under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law.

Aetna will argue in court that the Justice Department defined the market for Medicare Advantage too narrowly, which has caused it to see competition issues where they do not exist, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said in an interview. The government has failed to take into account that seniors can not only choose between Medicare Advantage plans sold by private players, but also have the government-run Medicare program as an option.

Story continues

"Let a judge decide. Is Medicare Advantage competitive with Medicare fee-for-service? If that is indeed the case, then there isn't any market we need to divest," Bertolini said. "If we have to divest, can we provide an appropriate remedy? And we have."

The Justice Department has already rejected that argument. However, Aetna will use evidence that the Obama administration envisioned Medicare and Medicare Advantage as direct competitors as it sought support for the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010.

Aetna and Humana also have an answer to the concerns over the Obamacare market, since Humana has already announced plans to cut back dramatically on its presence in that business.

"We think over time, that becomes less of an issue," Humana CEO Bruce Broussard said in an interview. Humana will in 2017 offer Obamacare plans in only about 160 U.S. counties, compared with 1,351 counties this year. The Justice Department has signaled antitrust concerns in 19 counties.

Aetna may also gain some leverage if the Anthem-Cigna deal breaks up first, according to some antitrust experts. In that scenario, Anthem could become a buyer of some Medicare Advantage business they need to divest.

If Cigna-Anthem craters, I wouldnt be surprised to see the Justice Department agreeing to some kind of divestiture package, said Matthew Cantor, an antitrust lawyer at Constantine Cannon.

Bertolini said Aetna has presented a package of assets to sell that nearly matches up with the 364 counties in 21 states where the Justice Department cites a lack of competition. Aetna has two buyers for those health plans that have experience in Medicare Advantage, he said. A source familiar with the situation said the two companies that have offered to buy all the assets are WellCare Health Plans Inc <WCG.N> and Molina HealthCare Inc <MOH.N>.

The Justice Department has argued that the proposed buyers are not strong enough players on their own.

"Overall, this will be all about litigating the fix," said Andrea Murino, co-chair of Goodwin's antitrust group based in Washington D.C. "What DOJ wants when they come up with a remedy is an immediate and expansive competitive response - to substitute one company in for another without missing a beat."

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
* WhatsApp used more widely than WeChat

* Facebook yet to leverage WhatsApp's popularity to make money

* WeChat almost unknown in some part of Africa

* WeChat betting a suite of additional features will attract users

By Tiisetso Motsoeneng

JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (Reuters) - Late to the party, WeChat, China's biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform, is scrambling to get a piece of the action in the booming African market.

The move is leading the South Africa-China joint venture down a fiercely competitive path as Facebook's WhatsApp is already part of the social media fabric in most African countries.

Africa is not often the scene of battles between tech giants, but the outcome could help determine who can turn the exponential growth in online messaging services into profits.

WeChat stands at a major disadvantage as WhatsApp is used far more widely, making users naturally reluctant to choose a rival service.

But WeChat is betting an array of services that include money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases and its experience in selling products to lower income users in the villages of China will loosen the Silicon Valley grip.

"That's at the heart of the story for us because we knew that we were late to the market compared to other instant messaging apps and so we realised that focusing on chat services was not the most practical way to get to market," WeChat Africa head Brett Loubser told Reuters.

Launched in Africa in 2013 by China's Internet giant Tencent and its 34 percent shareholder South African e-commerce and media group Naspers, WeChat Africa is a rare south-south corporate partnership to expand on the continent.

The joint venture is facing an uphill battle in taking on WhatsApp, which offers free text, picture and video messages and whose adoption in big African markets such as South Africa was lightening-fast because texts over a phone network are still expensive.

A 2015 study by World Wide Worx, a Johannesburg consultancy, showed WhatsApp had just over 10 million users in South Africa compared with just over 5 million for WeChat.

Story continues

But WhatsApp, acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion and which has a long-standing promise to keep the platform ad-free, has no immediate plans to make money out of the service in Africa, Facebook Africa head Nunu Ntshingila said.

"At this point in time, we are not at the stage where we are looking at monetising WhatsApp," Ntshingila told Reuters. "That's in a three-year time frame because right now the focus is on two big apps which are Facebook and Messenger."

With Facebook's deep pockets, analysts believe WhatsApp can easily leverage its popularity on the continent as and when it turns on the monetization tap. Ntshingila said WhatsApp is the No.1 messaging platform in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

"You could argue that WeChat is pulling ahead in monetization efforts but WhatsApp guys can do anything using their numbers. It's all about who's got numbers," ICT analyst Sibonginkosi Nyanga at fund manager Momentum SP Reid said.

WhatsApp is testing making restaurants, airlines and credit card firms pay to contact consumers, its Chief Executive Jan Koum said in January, when the company announced it is dropping its token $1 fee levied on some of its users.

BEYOND MESSAGING

Although there are no reliable statistics on the number of mobile phone owners who use either WhatsApp or WeChat on the rest of the continent, there are parts of Africa where WeChat is almost unknown whereas WhatsApp is everywhere from Namibia to Niger.

"I used to have a WeChat account but I deleted it because you will find virtually nobody to chat. With WhatsApp, there are no complications, it's simple and all my friends use it," Nkululeko Mabuza, a 24-year-old social worker in Tzaneen, a large town 400 km (250 miles) north of Johannesburg.

Loubser said WeChat is all about making it easier for users with a suite of features to order food takeouts, shop online, search for jobs and transfer money without having to leave the interface.

"We looked very carefully at what the platform can achieve beyond just messaging because people use products when there's value for them," he said.

Late last year WeChat launched mobile money services, or WeChat Wallet, which allows users to store bank cards and withdraw cash at the automated teller machines (ATM) of a partner, Standard Bank.

The service might be alluring for Africans. The success of telecoms operator Safaricom's mobile money service M-Pesa in Kenya has convinced investors and executives that the convergence of financial services and mobile phones offers growth opportunities.

The logic of using mobile phones to access financial services in sub-Saharan Africa is obvious: For every 100,000 people there are at least four bank branches and five ATMs but more than 700 mobile phones.

Earlier this month WeChat partnered with Stuff, the word's best-selling gadget and technology magazine, and a unit of household goods retailer Steinhoff to launch a payment feature that allows WeChat Wallet users to scan a barcode along side a product in the magazine.

Riding on Naspers' pay-television monopoly across Africa WeChat can also be used to cast votes for popular reality shows such as Idols and Big Brother.

"I'm a big Idols fan and for me to vote on Idols I have to have a WeChat account. But I still have WhatsApp, which is for chatting with my friends," said Nkosinathi Sibanyoni, 28-year old a human resource practitioner.

Naspers Chief Executive Bob van Dyk admits that the number of WeChat users has not reached a level that would make the platform's collection of features mainstream.

"Something that we've been confronted with is that because there is so much competition for the chat product you need a certain audience engagement before any of those other products can become mainstream," van Dyk told Reuters last month.

(Addtional reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Susan Thomas)
Durban (South Africa) (AFP) - The International Aids Conference in South Africa wrapped up Friday with calls for increased funding as the search for a cure continues and with HIV infections running at around 2.5 million a year.

"The work simply isn't done," incoming International Aids Society (IAS) president Linda-Gail Bekker told thousands of delegates at a closing ceremony.

"During the five days of this conference, 15,000 people living with HIV have died... and more than 28,000 have been newly infected with HIV, of which 1,500 were young people from this country alone.

"This makes me outraged and appalled and I see no room for complacency."

Around 15,000 scientists, campaigners and donors gathered in the South African port city of Durban to discuss the latest advances in tackling an epidemic that has claimed more than 30 million lives in 35 years.

But as the number of new infections has levelled off, funding has dipped.

A UNAIDS and Kaiser Family Foundation study presented at the conference this week pointed to a billion dollar drop in donor government funding, from $8.6 billion in 2014 to $7.5 billion last year.

"We're at a particularly critical moment for the future of funding," said Bekker, who is the first African women to lead the IAS.

The warning comes just over two months before the international financing organisation Global Funds conference in Canada.

Founded in 2002, the fund was established to raise money in the fight against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

The Fund is asking for at least $13 billion from donor governments.

Failing to address the funding gap, would only cost more money, said the Global Fund Advocates Network earlier this week.

- Critical moment for funding -

A study released by the group this week warned of 21 million preventable Aids deaths and 28 million new HIV infections over the next six years if the Global Fund did not get the requested $13 billion.

"People, this is what it comes down to: whether people live or die in many countries, will depend on how donors respond to the Global Fund's call to action," said Bekker. "Lives depend on the Global Fund."

Story continues

Some 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of these, only 17 million are receiving treatment.

But despite the dire warning, Bekker said she was optimistic about the future.

"I'm excited and optimistic about the future of the global HIV response," she said.

"The scientific insights and programmatic responses shared at this conference provide powerful evidence that we can beat this."

The conference returned to Durban this year 16 years after Nelson Mandela galvanised the world to take up the fight against AIDS, describing it as "one of the greatest threats humankind has faced".

The 2000 conference was a contentious affair, with South African activists angrily criticising then-president Thabo Mbeki, who insisted the disease was caused by poverty, not by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

But its emotional impact transformed the AIDS campaign.

"People at the last Durban conference came at a time when there was no hope," UNAIDS' deputy executive programme director, Mahesh Mahalingam told AFP.

"They came here (now) with hope, and they came here with results, results that showed that the glass was half full."

"But also what the conference did was tell the world that a glass half full is no longer acceptable."

"We need the glass completely full -- we need 30 million people on treatment," he said.

The United Nations has set 2030 as its deadline to end the Aids epidemic.
Beirut (AFP) - Nearly 40 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime fighters were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel under a government position in Aleppo city, a monitor said Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 38 members of government forces were killed in Thursday's blast, which brought down a building used by the regime in Aleppo's Old City.

The monitor had earlier reported a toll of 14.

A video posted online by the Thuwwar al-Sham rebel group purported to show the incident, with members of the force walking though a long tunnel and preparing barrels full of explosives.

"We are now inside the tunnel that will be detonated soon, God willing, the tunnel under the traffic branch building, which is an important headquarters for the Assad regime and its mercenaries," a rebel says in the video.

The footage then shows a massive blast levelling a multi-storey building, filmed from multiple angles.

A huge geyser of dirt and smoke shoots upwards from the scene of the blast, after which gunfire can be heard.

Aleppo was once Syria's economic powerhouse, but it has been ravaged by the conflict that began in March 2011.

The city has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.

The east of the city has been under siege for the past two weeks, since government forces severed the only remaining supply route into rebel-held districts.

The government advance has raised fears for more than 200,000 people who remain in the east of the city, where food shortages and spiralling prices have already been reported.
By PTI: Lahore, Jul 22 (PTI) The brother of slain Pakistani social-media sensation Qandeel Baloch has told the police that two other relatives helped him in the "honour killing" of his 26-year-old model-actress sister, officials said today.

Muhammad Waseem, who allegedly drugged and then strangled his sister to death for the "honour of the family", underwent a polygraph lie detector test here and told the police that two other men were involved in Qandeels killing.

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Waseem said he made the plan to kill Qandeel with the assistance of a relative, Haq Nawaz, who was present when he strangled his sister while another relative Basit waited outside the house in a car, police said.

Wasim said that after killing Qandeel he and Haq Nawaz had fled in Basits car to Dera Ghazi Khan from where he was arrested.

Police are said to be probing at least seven people in the killing of Qandeel who made headlines last month during the month of Ramazan when she posted suggestive videos and pictures of herself with a well known cleric, Mufti Abdul Qavi on her social media accounts.

Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Police said they had also detained two sister-in-laws of the slain model from Dera Ghazi Khan and also recovered her mobile phone from their ancestral home.

The government through the police have also instituted state cases against Wasim which bars Qandeels family from forgiving her killer(s) which is the usual practice in honour killing cases in Pakistan.

Qandeels honour killing has sent shockwaves across the country and has led to fresh calls from civil rights and womens rights activists and the media to pass bills to protect women against violence and to classify honour killings as a capital crime.

Belonging to a working-class rural family from southern Punjab, Qandeel was an instant hit on television channels and social media with her provocative posts and sexually suggestive talk.

She faced regular insults and threats on her social media accounts from people, mostly men, offended by her independent assertions online.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she, spoke of trying to change "the typical orthodox mindset" of people in Pakistan. PTI CORR SUA SUA

--- ENDS ---

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An alleged triad boss known as "Shanghai Boy" has been arrested after arriving at Hong Kong airport from Thailand, months after he hit the headlines for being punched in the face at the city's most famous luxury hotel.

Kwok Wing-hung was detained Thursday night for "conspiracy to commit criminal intimidation, conspiracy to wound with intent and conspiracy to blackmail", police said in a statement Friday.

Famed for his ever-present 70s-style sunglasses and swept-forward bowl haircut, Kwok, 58, had dropped off the radar for seven months, according to local media.

He had been put on a police wanted list and was arrested at Hong Kong airport by officers from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, the South China Morning Post reported.

Video from the Oriental Daily showed Kwok, wearing a dark suit, being escorted by officers into a police van at the city's airport after reportedly arriving from Phuket.

Controversial businessman Kwok's public profile rose in 2012 after he was reportedly seen dining with a campaign director for the city's current leader Leung Chun-ying, who was then a candidate for chief executive.

That led to questions over whether Leung and his team were in collusion with the triads.

Kwok was back in the headlines in December after reports that he had been punched in the face by a mystery attacker while having afternoon tea at Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel.

After treatment at a private hospital, Kwok brushed off the incident, saying that he had bumped into a table corner.

Local media said the attack was related either to a dispute over his mistress, or to financial problems with his Macau business.

Days after the attack, Kwok called a much-anticipated press conference but failed to show up.

While Hong Kong prides itself on rule of law and being a vital regional financial hub, it has never been able to shake off a darker side to its reputation as a hotbed for organised Chinese criminal networks.

That reputation came to the fore once more during 2014's mass pro-democracy protests.

The police and the government were forced to deny allegations that they were working with criminals after masked thugs attacked protesters at a demonstration camp in Mong Kok -- a working-class district known for its triad gangs.
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated ATI is scheduled to release its second-quarter 2016 results before the market opens on Jul 26.

The company reported an adjusted net loss of 58 cents per share in the first quarter of 2016. The adjusted loss was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 59 cents by 1.69%.

The results exclude restructuring charges and transformation charges of $9 million, pre-tax costs related to work stoppage and return of USW-represented employees of $26 million, and tax benefits of $12 million. Including these charges, the company reported a net loss of $101 million, or 94 cents per share for the quarter. Results were negatively affected by lower efficiency of operations due to the halt of operations and return of workers. The quarter saw sales of $758 million, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.34%.

Lets see how things have shaped up for the forthcoming announcement.

Factors at Play

Allegheny is undergoing drastic restructuring and reorganizing to convert the currently incurred losses into profits in the future.

The High Performance & Components (HPMC) Segment is well positioned for growth in the long term, particularly due to the increasing demand from commercial aerospace. The segment has several long-term agreements on legacy as well as next-generation airplanes and their jet power engines. These contracts will provide the segment with sustained profitable growth. Increased volumes are expected to improve utilization and product mix of the mills for the rest of 2016. The company expects the segment to grow throughout the year, with operating profits as a percentage of sales returning to low double digits in the second half of the year.

For the Flat Rolled Products (FRP) segment, the company intends to continue its focus on the restructuring activities. Management aims to focus on differentiated products that have more technical barriers to entry and serve markets, along with high long-term growth prospects.

Story continues

In first-quarter 2016, the company idled its Midland, PA-facility and re-negotiated contracts with USW-workers which reduced retirement benefit expenses for the future. These actions are expected to return the segment to profitability in the future. Although some inefficiencies of the first quarter may negatively impact second-quarter results, operating losses are expected to reduce in the quarter and profits are anticipated from the second half of 2016.

The segments largest end users continue to be the oil and gas chemical processing and hydrogen processing industry. However, the aerospace and defense industry is gaining prominence. The change in the segments market is due to an increase in demand in the aerospace and defense sector, the companys new HRPF capabilities and its ability to cater to existing Allegheny customers. Further, management is optimistic about the future of the aerospace industry.

Allegheny is also seeing higher demand from the automotive sector. Although the company has reduced the production of most commodity exhaust alloys with the idling of the Midland facility, it continues to offer specialty grades for auto exhaust applications. The demand for nickel-based and specialty alloys for automotive applications has been rising.

Allegheny has been striving to increase its cash generation from the beginning of 2016 and continue the same for the rest of the year. Capital expenditure in 2016 is estimated to be below $240 million for the expansion of current plants, of which $70 million has already been made in the first quarter. Since the company will be utilizing much of the cash generated in the first half, positive cash flows are expected in the second half of the year.

Management is strategizing to make the company profitable in the long run with higher projected growth rates. However, all profitable projections are for the long term and the company is expected to continue facing loses in the second quarter.

ALLEGHENY TECH Price and EPS Surprise

ALLEGHENY TECH Price and EPS Surprise | ALLEGHENY TECH Quote

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model shows that Allegheny has the right combination of two key ingredients to beat estimates.

Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP for Allegheny is +2.56%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate is pegged at a loss of 38 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is at a loss of 39 cents. This indicates a likely positive earnings surprise.

Zacks Rank: Alleghenys Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) increases the predictive power of its ESP.

Note that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) and 3 have a significantly higher chance of beating earnings. The Sell rated stocks (#4 or 5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some other companies in the steel space you may want to consider as our model shows they also have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS has an Earnings ESP of +50.00% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Ryerson Holding Corporation RYI has an Earnings ESP of +7.69% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Carpenter Technology Corp. CRS has an Earnings ESP of +3.03% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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Donald Trump touted his plan to spur job growth through tax cuts and new trade deals, as he accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday in a primetime address at the GOP convention.

Trump, the real-estate tycoon who surprised many political observers with his rise to the nomination, vowed to be a voice for Americans who have been ignored, neglected and abandoned. He focused some of his remarks on workers who have lost their manufacturing jobs, as well as the communities that he says were torn apart by one-sided trade deals.

The GOPs candidate for president also threw jabs at Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. In addition to sharp criticism over Clintons tenure as Secretary of State, Trump said her positions on immigration will take jobs away from Americans and hurt wages, while creating more obstacles for recent immigrants.

I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat, Trump said to a cheering crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Its been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office.

Trump reiterated his opposition to current trade deals, mainly NAFTA. America has lost close to one-third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, a shift that Trump has tied directly to trade agreements that have encouraged companies to move jobs to other nations. He added that NAFTA has especially hurt the middle class.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership was another target of criticism by Trump. TPP, which needs the approval of Congress, was signed by a dozen nations earlier this year, including the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Japan and Vietnam. It is also favored by many CEOs including Caterpillars (NYSE:CAT) Doug Oberhelman, who chairs the Business Roundtable.

Clinton had backed TPP early on, but during the primary race, she expressed opposition to the deal.

Story continues

A Trump administration wont sign onto TPP or other large pacts with multiple nations, Trump said. He also pledged to renegotiate NAFTA and enforce trade violations by China, such as the theft of intellectual property.

I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries. No longer will we enter into these massive deals with many countriesand which no one from our country even reads or understands, he said.

Trumps comments on the economy also included a promise of tax reform. The longtime businessman said the tax code will be simplified and middle-income Americans will see their rates cut. Businesses will also see tax relief, he said. The top federal corporate tax rate is 35%, one of the highest in the world.

Excessive regulation costs the U.S. as much as $2 trillion annually, he said. Trump specifically pledged to lift restrictions on the production of American energy. Clinton, he said, will pursue regulations that hurt coal miners and steel workers.

According to Trump, the economic ideas central to his campaign will lay the foundation for $20 trillion in economic activity over the next four years.

This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions more jobs, Trump said.

Related Articles
Ice Age: Collision Course arrives in theaters Friday (July 22), and American Idol winner Trent Harmon is part of the movie's soundtrack, which will be released the same day.

As the Fox singing competition's last Idol champion, the Armory, Mississippi native was awarded the opportunity to record a song for the 20th Century Fox animated film, which stars Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Adam Devine, and Jennifer Lopez.

'American Idol' Winner Trent Harmon Premieres Video for 'There's A Girl'

Harmon recorded a dreamy cover of Gary Wright's 1975 song, "Dream Weaver," a No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 hit. The song will be included as a bonus track in the digital version of the franchise's fifth installment.

Produced by Ross Copperman (Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, Brett Eldridge), the song makes use of synthesizers and Harmon's crystal clear vocal to create a faithful recreation of the song that leaves Harmon room to improvise. Towards the end of the song, the 25-year old hits a sweet high note that fades into the music.

Harmon recently released his first single, "There's a Girl," earlier this month. He is currently gearing up for his debut album on Big Machine Records.

'American Idol' Winner Trent Harmon on Mississippi's Anti-LGBT Bill: 'Love All People. Period.'

In support of his new music, Harmon performed a concert for Skype tonight in Portland. After the show, he posed for a photo with local law enforcers.

Thanks @trentharmon for the performance and kind words tonight! Best of luck in your musical career! pic.twitter.com/wqwqWisbwF

- Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) July 22, 2016

The Ice Age: Collision Course soundtrack is available for download Friday on iTunes.

Listen to it here.
Donald Trump might have whipped the crowds into a frenzy with his first speech as the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency, but Europe looked on with a mixture of criticism, fear and bemusement.

Giving his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, Trump attacked his rival Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and reiterated his pledges to make America both "safe" and "great" again.

Trump's speech focused on the "threat" to the U.S. posed by terrorism, immigration and what he called "unfair" trade deals. In addition, he said that he was the only man who could challenge the elite and "fix" the country. His was a campaign for "Americanism" not "globalism," he added.

The image of Trump in front of a line of American flags at the convention dominated European newspapers' front pages on Friday with a mixture of reactions to the Republican candidate's manifesto and musings on what the world might look like if he became president of the world's most powerful nation.

In London, the left-leaning Guardian newspaper said in its lead that the Republican had struck an "authoritarian tone in [a] convention speech focusing on recent terrorist attacks and police killings to assure Americans' safety will be restored." The right-leaning Telegraph noted that Trump had promised Americans to be the "law and order candidate" and had, in the process, painted what one journalist called a "dark and terrifying" portrait of America.

Capping a four-day convention in Cleveland, the billionaire businessman and reality TV star said he "humbly and gratefully" accepted the Republican presidential nomination.

Europe's most powerful nation was not too impressed, with newspapers in Germany generally noting that there was little humility in the one hour and 16 minutes Trump addressed the convention making it the longest speech in 44 years.

Der Spiegel noted that Trump's keynote speech was characterized by "attacks against Hillary Clinton and illegal immigrants, many promises and lots of self-praise."

Story continues

Business daily Handelsblatt's headline focused on Trump's call that "we cannot be so politically correct."

Trump was no less controversial when he promised to clamp down on immigration, strengthen borders and champion hard-working Americans. "I am your voice," he said.

The convention audience cheered wildly as Trump stood in front of a row of American flags to deliver his speech. Chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A," "Lock her up" (referring to Hillary Clinton's recent use of a private email account when she was secretary of state) and "Build the wall!"  a reference to the wall that Trump has promised to build on the U.S.- Mexico border.

Trump has the ability to make even Europe's right-wing political establishment look liberal. The U.K. Independence Party's former leader Nigel Farage, also not known for political correctness, once told CNBC that Trump was "wrong" to call for a complete ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

So it was on Friday, with even Europe's conservative press critical of Trump's key messages. Germany's center-right, conservative Die Welt newspaper noted that Trump's message was "apocalyptic" and "bleak": "The speech was populist through and through and offered no solutions," the newspaper said, adding that it lacked "elegance, humor, self-irony."

France's Les Echos, a right-leaning financial newspaper, said Trump had posed as the "savior of a country at the edge of the Apocalypse" in his "endless" speech on "endangered America." The left-wing Le Monde newspaper also drew attention to Trump's attempt to paint the "most distressing picture possible of the U.S." although it feared that Trump now "has just over three months to arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington."

Spain's centrist El Pais newspaper said that Trump's speech, although more "orderly" than his more impromptu utterances, was full of "half-truths and manipulated data," whereas Italy's Corriere della Sera attacked Trump's "absolutely groundless accusation that illegal immigrants would destroy America's middle class."

Not every country in Europe cared about Trump's speech  Russian dailies Vedomosti, Kommersant and the English-language Moscow Times, among others, had no reports on Trump's address.

Correction: This story was revised to correct the White House address to 1600.

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By PTI: Islamabad, Jul 22 (PTI) The father of slain Pakistani social-media sensation Qandeel Baloch has said that his son, who killed the 26-year-old model-actress for honour, should be "shot on sight" for murdering his daughter.

"I say he should be shot on sight! He suffocated my little one. We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us," Qandeels father Anwar Azeem said.

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Qandeel, Azeem said, was his best friend but claimed that his son Muhammad Waseem had been crazed.

Qandeels mother also shared the pain of loosing their daughter.

"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me - Your daughter is working hard, shell go far," her mother was quoted as saying by BBC Urdu.

Qandeels mother also said that she and her husband were also drugged by Waseem the night Qandeel was first sedated and then strangled to death.

"My husband and I fell deeply asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives. In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... but she didnt get up," she added.

Police had arrested Qandeels brother Waseem last week. He has admitted to strangling his sister to death for the "honour of the family". Waseem said he gave her a tablet to subdue his sister and then strangled her in their family home over the weekend.

Waseem said he killed his sister due to her social media activities, which included a series of risque video posts with the prominent cleric, Mufti Qavi.

Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Qandeels mother had accused Qavi, her daughters former husband Ashiq Hussain, and a man name Shahid of being involved in the murder.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she, spoke of trying to change "the typical orthodox mindset" of people in Pakistan. She faced frequent abuse and death threats but continued to post provocative pictures and videos.

The so-called honour-killing has sent shockwaves across the country and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media for Baloch. PTI SUA AKJ SUA

--- ENDS ---
(Reuters) - Arsenal will continue their focus on youth development and maintain a disciplined approach in the transfer market in order to compete with their bigger-spending rivals, chief executive Ivan Gazidis has said. Arsenal finished a distant second to champions Leicester City last season and some fans have grown frustrated with a lack of big-money signings. Over the past two years, Arsenal have signed marquee names such as Germany midfielder Mesut Ozil and Chile winger Alexis Sanchez, but they have still spent less than many of their rivals. In the current close-season, they have added Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka, striker Takuma Asano and defender Rob Holding to their ranks. "This approach, for us, gives us a very, very powerful balance because it's not just about spending money but about how you spend your money and doing it wisely," Gazidis told ESPN. "We're making progress in what is a fiercely competitive world, against competitors that have the capability to spend far more money than we do. "We're doing it by being very, very disciplined; spending money where we believe it makes a difference, but also giving young players a chance and believing in ourselves and our values." Despite failing to win the title since 2004, Gazidis is certain the squad have been showing signs of improvement as they head into the new season looking to build on the two FA Cups they have won in the last three years. "When you look at Arsenal over the last four or five years, there's no question that the squad has been progressing in strength," Gazidis said. "We've got a squad now that we believe is capable of competing to win the Premier League. We're on the right track." Arsenal begin their new campaign on Aug. 14 against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium. ($1 = 0.7638 pounds) (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
Get ready to work on that smize because America's Next Top Model is coming back this fall on VH1 with a new host and panel of judges.

The Viacom-owned cable network announced Friday that its reincarnation of ANTM will be hosted by pop star Rita Ora, with Paper Magazine chief creative officer Drew Elliott, supermodel Ashley Graham, and Zendaya and Celine Dion's stylist Law Roach as judges.

Roach has had quite a year so far. He recently started styling Dion, who has been ruling the street-style scene, and launched a fashion-forward, affordable shoe line called Daya with Zendaya.

Read More: Vanessa Seward's 'Charlie's Angels'-Meets-Parisian Cool Hits Melrose Place

Graham also has much to celebrate this year. The body-positive advocate was featured on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, landed several major magazine covers (Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Sports Illustrated), released her swimwear collaboration with Swimsuitsforall and starred in her first-ever music video for DNCE's "Toothbrush."

Ora and Elliott are no strangers to the fashion and beauty world, either. Ora, who is styled by Jason Rembert, has collaborated with Adidas and serves as an ambassador of Rimmel London. Elliott was the mastermind behind the social content strategy of Kim Kardashian's Paper magazine cover that was designed to #breaktheinternet.

A premiere date has yet to be announced for the 23rd season of America's Next Top Model.

Though Tyra Banks won't be back as the show's host, she will exec produce the new version of the reality competition show with original exec producer Ken Mok. You'll be missed, Tyra (and TYRA MAIL!).

Read More: Celine Dion Impersonates Rihanna, Sia in Mikael D Dress on 'Tonight Show'
By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Austin's police department has launched an investigation into a traffic stop last year in which a white officer twice threw a black woman to the ground and another white officer later told her African-Americans have "violent tendencies."

Art Acevedo, the police chief in the Texas capital, said his department was looking into the June 2015 incident involving a 26-year-old school teacher, caught on police car videos that were broadcast by a local television station on Thursday night.

It is another in a series of incidents caught on video that have raised questions about racial bias in American policing.

Acevedo told local media on Friday that "your heart sinks" when you see such an incident, and that while the woman resisted, the officers did not respond properly.

Police killings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota this month triggered protests in various U.S. cities, and two black gunmen upset by those incidents later shot dead five policemen in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The videos of the Austin incident involving schoolteacher Breaion King were released by Austin police following an investigation by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper and local television station KVUE.

King, who did not initially press charges against the officers, told local media she waited to revisit the incident because she was embarrassed and afraid. She has hired a lawyer, who sought the videos, and has not said if she will file a civil lawsuit.

The two officers have been placed on non-law enforcement duty during the investigation.

The Travis County district attorney's office is considering taking the case to a grand jury, the newspaper reported. The office was not immediately available for comment.

In one video, officer Bryan Richter is shown pulling over King for going 50 miles per hour (80 kph) in a 35 mph (56 kph) zone. King is seen stepping out of the car, goes back in to get her driver's license and is told by Richter to put her feet in the car so he can shut the door.

Story continues

A few seconds later, he asks her to stand up, and grabs her. She is heard saying, "Oh my God," and the officer says, "Stop resisting," as the two struggle.

He then is seen pulling King out and throwing her to the ground. She stands up with her hands behind her back and is thrown to the ground again and the two again struggle.

Later, as King is transported to jail by another officer, Patrick Spradlin, video shows King telling the officer she believes police can be biased against black people.

"I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way. Violent tendencies. And I want you to think about that," the officer responds.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Will Dunham)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f153730%2fharambe

In case you missed it, a mural resurrected in loving memory of Taylor "Smith" (1989-2016, as the illustration depicts) popped up this week. There is no doubt it's pointed at Taylor Swift.

It was painted after video of a recorded conversation between Taylor Swift and Kanye West was released on Snapchat Sunday and the internet lost its collective mind over the ordeal.

The mural has gone through a hilarious transformation since it was originally painted on a wall in Melbourne. Someone gave Swift a facelift and replaced her with a Spongebob gorilla meme and tribute to Harambe, the gorilla who was killed in the Cincinnati Zoo in May after a child fell into the pen.

SEE ALSO: RIP Taylor Swift mural popped up in Australia and people are actually leaving flowers

The original was created by artist lushsux who encouraged people to pay respects by leaving candles and flowers.

The mural eventually got another facelift, with anonymous folks transforming it into a depiction of Kanye West with Swift's blonde hairbut left up the Harambe name, adding "savage" to the title.

Some have called out this version of the mural for being racist.

We worry what this will mean for the memory of poor Taylor Smith.
Vienna (AFP) - An Austrian mayor demanded on Friday that Turkish residents "immediately" stop displaying national flags in windows and on balconies, saying foreign politics had no place in his city.

Following last week's coup in Turkey, many of Austria's 300,000-strong Turkish community hung red flags with a white star and crescent from their homes including in Wiener Neustadt, 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of the capital Vienna.

Around a fifth of the city's 43,000 inhabitants are migrants, with Turks making up the majority.

Mayor Klaus Schneeberger of the conservative People's Party said he did not want "current developments in Turkey to be imported" into Wiener Neustadt.

"I therefore call on all those who have put up Turkish flags on their homes or balconies to remove them at once," he wrote in an open letter sent to Turkish community groups and council estates.

Schneeberger said the city's "decades-old traditions and values" had to be protected in the face of the massive migrant influx.

"Wiener Neustadt is an open, tolerant city. However, the issue of integration is one of the greatest challenges of our time", he said.

"Those who don't commit to Wiener Neustadt have no place in our city, just like Turkish flags have no place outside of big sporting events."

The Austrian government has repeatedly expressed concern over events in Turkey, which has imposed a state of emergency and detained or sacked tens of thousands of people after the failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 15.

On Thursday, the foreign ministry summoned Turkey's ambassador to discuss Ankara's "increasingly authoritarian" behaviour and allegations it had been behind large pro-Erdogan protests in Vienna last weekend.
From Cosmopolitan

The most recent star of ABC's The Bachelor, Ben Higgins, is getting into politics, officially. Higgins is running for a spot in Colorado's House of Representatives, as a Republican in a Denver state district that is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Higgins first appeared last year on The Bachelorette, eliminated in fourth place by then-leading lady Kaitlyn Bristowe. This year, he was star of The Bachelor and now lives in northwest Denver with his fiancee from the show, Lauren Bushnell. The two have a new show airing this fall, Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After.

Higgins will face Democratic Rep. Dan Pabon, the second-ranking member of the House. Pabon was recently sentenced to one-year probation after pleading guilty to drunken driving in March. Higgins toldtheDenver Post in a statement that he is "certainly not a politician" but that he has a lot to offer voters. Presumably he does not just mean roses.
He was sent home without a rose weeks ago, yet Chad Johnson remains one of the most talked about contestants on JoJo Fletcher's season of The Bachelorette, maybe even in Bachelor history.



Now, as Fletcher, 25, gears up for the romantic overnight dates with her remaining suitors, everyone's favorite carnivorous body builder is opening up about public misconceptions.



"People are like he's so cocky, he's so arrogant, he'll never find somebody to fall in love with," Johnson tells PEOPLE. "But my cockiness and arrogance is just a fun side. I know how to pump the brakes and say 'Hey, I'm joking.' "



Johnson memorably clashed with nearly every contestant on the show (RIP Evan's red V-neck), but insists he's not prone to violence.







"I haven't gotten in a fight in, like, 10 years," says Johnson. "If somebody is mean to me, I'll just politely ask them to stop or leave. But the fact of the matter is, these guys were badmouthing me 24/7 in front of the whole world. If somebody [messes] with me that much, I should fight!"



For now, the 28-year-old luxury real estate agent is single (though he reveals that he's still talking to the former girlfriends of fellow Bachelorette contestants Grant Kemp and Robby Hayes) and focused on future endeavors.



And what about a spin-off show? ( Please?) Johnson says he'd consider it, "but not because I want to get famous or make money."



"I would just love something good to watch," he adds. "I watched The Bachelorette alone and I cracked up watching myself every time!"



The Bachelorette's two-part special airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, and Bachelor in Paradise premieres Aug. 2, both on ABC.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Though nearly a 1,000 km away from the city where megastar Rajinikanth resides, his latest offering "Kabali" has opened to an unprecedented frenzy among the audience in the film capital of the country.

With shows starting from as early as 6 in the morning-- and ticket prices at some places ranging anywhere from Rs 100 to Rs 500--the film was welcomed with euphoria by Rajini fans.

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As it happens with most of the films starring the 65- year-old legend, single screens, especially the famous Aurora theatre in Matunga, had huge cut-outs of the actor and posters of the film which features Rajinikanth as a stylish gangster who is out to take revenge.

People were seen wearing t-shirts with "Kabali" printed on them outside theatres as a tribute to the charismatic actor who returns to the big screen after "Lingaa" which released in 2014.

Though the film, which has more than nearly 100 shows playing across several theatres in a single day in Mumbai, has been getting mixed reactions, it could not dampen the enthusiasm of the fans.

Distributor Akshaye Rathi says "Kabali" is doing phenomenally well in the south.

"Kabali is like a hurricane. Some of the offices in Tamil Nadu are giving leave to watch the film. Rajinikanth is a legend and shows are sold out till Monday-Tuesday in the south," Rathi told PTI.

"It is doing reasonably well in north with 30-40 per cent occupancy. In Tamil Nadu though it is housefull," he added.

"Kabali" is directed by Pa Ranjith, known for his critically acclaimed "Attakathi", a breezy portrayal of a semi-urban Casanova and "Madras" that had strong political undertones.

The Hindi dubbed version of the film has released in nearly 1,000 screens across India.

"Kabali" clashed with Irrfan Khans "Madaari" and Rathi says though the latter has not recorded huge collections on its opening day, it will grow due to word of mouth. PTI KKP JUR RSY AAR DK

--- ENDS ---
San Diego (AFP) - Widely regarded as one of the most polarizing figures in modern politics, Donald Trump has stoked a firestorm among Republican leaders and divided middle America.

But the real estate tycoon is also pitting brother against brother in one of Hollywood's most famous families, veteran actor Alec Baldwin revealed on Thursday.

"I have one brother at the Republican convention. It's okay -- my other brother is there protesting Trump," the actor told a laughing audience of around 4,000 at San Diego Comic-Con.

The revelation came during a surprise debut appearance by the actor at the annual fan event, to promote "Boss Baby," the story of an infant who turns out to be a cunning businessman who can talk.

"My two brothers are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and I'm here wearing a diaper and telling people what to do," the eldest Baldwin laughed.

The revelation led US presenter and comedian Chris Hardwick, who was hosting the Dreamworks panel, to quip: "There's a Baldwin for every occasion. Bizarre."

Baldwin didn't say which of his three brothers was in Cleveland but Stephen has been a vocal Trump supporter since appearing on the GOP presidential candidate's reality show, "The Apprentice."

The 50-year-old, who starred in "The Usual Suspects," has been giving supportive interviews from the Republican National Convention this week.

The anti-Trump brother is almost certainly "Backdraft" actor William Baldwin, who took part in a march in the city on Tuesday condemning police shootings of African-Americans.

"The vast majority of the cops are good and are well trained," Baldwin told AFP during the demonstration, which was overshadowed by scuffles between rival protesters before Baldwin arrived.

"But I think police practices and procedures have to change. Have to. It doesn't work."

Alec hasn't officially endorsed any presidential candidate, but he is not known for his love of "The Donald," tweeting earlier this year that the entrepreneur "uses aggression and hyper-confidence to mask an inarticulate message like no other."
Penny will be meeting her family in Season 10 of The Big Bang Theory, with Katey Sagal (Sons of Anarchy) as her mom and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) as her brother, the writers announced at San Diego Comic Con Friday.

Steve Molaro made the announcement during the Big Bang Theory writers panel, saying, We are finally going to meet more of Pennys family. Were going to be meeting Pennys mom and her brother in the first episode back.

Season 10 of CBS perennial hit comedy marks the tail-end of a three-year renewal for the show announced back in 2014.

Also Read: Kaley Cuoco Apologizes for Dogs Sitting on American Flag: 'I Am Not Perfect' (Photos)

The show stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch.

Chuck Lorre, Steve Molaro and Bill Prady are executive producers. The series comes from Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc., in association with Warner Bros. Television. Lorre and Prady created it.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - German carmaker BMW Group is considering building a new plug-in hybrid vehicle battery factory in Thailand, the country's industry minister said on Friday.

Construction was likely to start in the middle of next year with an investment of 2 billion baht ($57 million), Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang said, adding that the factory would make hybrid vehicles more affordable for Thai consumers.

"Hybrid vehicles are still expensive now but once there is a factory established and batteries are available this will make it affordable for consumers," Atchaka told reporters.

A spokesman for BMW in Thailand said the company was not immediately able to comment on the investment but would issue a statement on Monday.

Atchaka said the Thai government was working with BMW to offer tax incentives in order to make the country a centre for plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Thailand is a regional production and export hub for the world's top carmakers, and the sector accounts for around 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

(Reporting By Pracha Hariraksapitak and Pilaiporn Promsompan; Writing by Pairat Temphairojana; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Richard Pullin)
Benghazi (Libya) (AFP) - A hospital in Libya's second city Benghazi said Friday it had received the bodies of 14 people killed execution-style, in what the UN envoy said was a "war crime".

The unidentified bodies were found Thursday and brought to the Benghazi Medical Centre by members of the Red Crescent, a doctor at the facility told AFP.

"The bodies bear shots to the head which could mean they were executed," said the doctor who declined to be named.

UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler denounced the killings, branding them a "war crime" in a message posted on his Twitter account.

Kobler said he was "utterly shocked and dismayed by the summary execution of a number of people in Benghazi."

"This is a war crime," he said in the tweet, calling for an investigation into the murders and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Benghazi has seen bloody battles for more than two years between forces loyal to the internationally-recognised parliament and armed groups including the jihadist Islamic State group.

Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have regained several districts of Benghazi in recent months but have yet to retake the whole city.

The doctor told AFP that the 14 bodies were found in areas under the control of Haftar's men.

Security officials in the eastern city of Benghazi contacted by AFP declined to confirm or deny the killings.
Sarah Jessica Parker was not really keen on taking up the role of Carrie Bradshaw in hit television series Sex And The City

By Indo-Asian News Service: Actress Sarah Jessica Parker was hesitant to take on the role of Carrie Bradshaw in TV series Sex And The City.

The 51-year-old actress opened up how her agent Kevin Huvane was the middleman between her and Sex And The City creator Darren Star, in James Andrew Miller's new book Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists.

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Miller's book has been exclusively excerpted by The Hollywood Reporter.

Also read:Parks and Recreation actor Aziz Ansari becomes first Indian-American to be nominated for an Emmy



"He called me up and said, 'Darren Star reached out to me. He's written this pilot ('Sex and the City') and tells me he wrote it with you in mind--you were in his head when he was writing it. I'm going to send it to you. I've read it. I think it's really good. You should meet with him'," hollywoodreporter.com quoted Parker as saying.

A still from the TV series. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sexandthecity

Parker continues, "And I said, 'Really? I feel like I've got it all right now. I can do a play, then do a movie, then do a play, then do a movie. There's a lot of flexibility. What could be better? Do I really want to go back to making a television series when I'm maybe held hostage signing a long-term contract?'"

Also read:Game of Thrones season 7: Winter is coming next summer with 7 episodes



Parker, whose upcoming show Divorce will premiere in India on Star World Premiere HD soon, goes on to say that, after meeting with Star, she still wasn't quite convinced to take on the part.

She shares, "I met with Darren, and there were a couple of concerns that I had. Like I really wasn't keen on doing nudity and language issues - but Kevin continued to say to me, 'This is different. You have never done anything like this before. No one's ever done a part like this. Do this.'"



--- ENDS ---
From Esquire

GARRISON: I want to show you something. Take a look here. 544 Camp Street. 531 Lafayette Street. Same building, right? Different addresses, different entrances, both going to the same place...to the office upstairs. Guess who used it? Lee Harvey Oswald. How do we know that? This address was stamped on...pro-Castro leaflets he handed out in the summer of '63 on Canal Street. The same leaflets they found in his garage in Dallas. After the arrest, 544 Camp St. never appeared on the pamphlets again. He was arrested for fighting with anti-Castro Cubans. But he'd contacted them already...as an ex-Marine trying to join their anti-Castro crusade. When they heard he was now pro-Castro, they paid him a visit. "What's this Fidel shit? You lied to me!"

-Oliver Stone/Zachary Sklar, JFK

CLEVELAND, OHIO-On the morning of this year's Indiana primary, He, Trump suggested that Ted Cruz's father, Rafael, was part of the very scene depicted in that slice of Oliver Stone's movie. He wasn't saying that the elder Cruz was hanging out in the French Quarter with Lee Harvey Oswald, mind you.

"You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being-you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this? "Right prior to his being shot and nobody even brings it up. I mean, they don't even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it."

Of course, it was "reported" in the National Enquirer, which published a grainy photo of a guy standing behind Oswald who looked a little like Rafael Cruz. The man also looked like your Uncle Manny. This was another one of those things that He, Trump had heard somewhere and it was just something that was out there. Just like how we have to keep Muslims out of the country "until we figure out what's going on," and, more recently, how the president was maybe, possibly complicit in the killing of police officers because "something's going on there" and he doesn't know what it is. Donald Trump is Mr. Jones.

Story continues

That is how, in the overfilled catch-basin that is He, Trump's conscious mind, Tailgunner Ted Cruz somehow got linked in patriarchal line with the murder of John F. Kennedy. So, on Wednesday night, when Cruz declined formally to endorse the candidate, and when he got lustily booed for his trouble, it was hard not to admire the pure cussedness of the man. He certainly showed more stones than the rest of the lickspittles who are riding in the cattle cars of the Trump train, and that includes Young Marco Rubio, who beamed his surrender into the hall by video.

Then there was Cruz:

"I congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night. And like each of you, I want to see the principles that our party believes prevail in November Don't stay in home in November. Stand and speak and vote your conscience."

And that was as far as he went. He ignored a sneering cheap shot from radio terror Laura Ingraham. Trump roughnecks in the cheap seats heckled his wife, screaming, "Goldman Sachs," until security hustled them out. He went as far as he did and he went no further and, truth be told, he's the most principled politician who's stepped to the podium all week.

Truth be told, he's the most principled politician who's stepped to the podium all week.

This is not to say that the speech he did give was anything more than the same weird concoction he was peddling all over the country all year. It takes an amazing leap over an amazing cognitive canyon to say:

And freedom means recognizing that our Constitution allows states to choose policies that reflect local values. Colorado may decide something different than Texas. New York different than Iowa. Diversity. That's the way it's supposed to be. If not, what's the point of having states to begin with?

And then follow it, not five minutes later, with a paean to the Republican Party's largely abandoned historical roots.

Our party was founded to defeat slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. We passed the Civil Rights Act, and fought to eliminate Jim Crow laws.

There's not much I know for absolute goddamn certainty, but this is one thing I know for absolute goddamn certainty: States rights were on the losing side at Gettysburg, and they were on the losing side in Little Rock, and they were on the losing side on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. So, no, Tailgunner Ted Cruz's brand of snake-oil is no more palatable now than it was in Des Moines last January.

But when He, Trump deliberately walked into the hall to disrupt and to drown out Cruz's peroration and whatever ovation he was going to get-which, I must admit, is an old-school James Michael Curley elbow to throw-Cruz left the stage with no little dignity. (According to CNN's Dana Bash, he got confronted several times in the hallway by outraged Trump supporters.) He is one of the few people who have spoken here who can honestly say that. And I most emphatically include the candidate himself.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson came to the United Nations on Friday to deliver the message that Britain's vote to leave the European Union did not signal a turn toward isolationism.

Johnson, who led the Brexit campaign, rejected comparisons between his political views and those of US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has vowed to put "America first."

"I would draw a very, very strong contrast between Brexit and any kind of isolationism," said the former London mayor who was appointed last week.

"Brexit means us being more outward-looking, more engaged, more enthusiastic and committed on the world stage than ever before," he said.

Johnson met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss international efforts to end the wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya, and with the French and US ambassadors.

The foreign secretary said the "mood had changed" in Europe and around the world in the weeks following the shock result of the referendum "as understanding starts to break in".

"People see what this is all about -- the opportunities and the positive side of this as well," he said, adding that he was "very, very encouraged" by the talks he had held with foreign diplomats.

Johnson took Britain's seat at the UN Security Council to vote in favor of a British-drafted resolution on ridding Libya of its chemical weapons stockpile.

"I never thought I would do that in my life," he commented.

The foreign secretary said he was "shocked and saddened" by the attack in Munich, adding that if the violence was terrorism-linked "it proves once again that we have a global phenomenon, a global sickness."

Johnson said terrorism and violent extremism must be tackled globally.
Boston Beer Co. Inc. SAM posted better-than-expected earnings for second-quarter 2016, while sales were in line with estimates. However, both top and bottom lines fell year over year, largely affected by lower shipments and depletion trends, along with higher costs and intense competition from other craft brewers. Based on the year-to-date trends and weak results, the company lowered its outlook for 2016.



Q2 Highlights



Boston Beers second-quarter earnings per share of $2.06 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.97. However, earnings fell 5.5% year over year, mainly on account of a revenue decline, elevated general and administrative costs, and soft gross margin partly offset by lower advertising, promotional and selling expenses.

The Boston Beer Company Inc. (SAM) Street Actual & Estimate EPS - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany

Net revenue was down 3% year over year to $244.8 million and was almost in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $244 million. The decline in the top line resulted from a 4% drop in core shipments to 1.1 million barrels, along with a 5% fall in depletions, which was consistent with the first-quarter trend.



While the overall beer and craft categories remain strong, the soft-depletion trend at Boston Beer is due to the continued weakness at the Samuel Adams brand, which is losing share to the rising competition in craft beer and the shift of consumers interest toward trying new styles. Additionally, declines at the Angry Orchard and Traveler brands contributed to the fall in depletions, partially offset by growth at the Twisted Tea, Coney Island and Truly Spiked & Sparkling brands.



Though the company has seen some improvement in the depletion trends since mid-June, it is unsure if these trends will sustain. For the rest of 2016, it expects to witness more favorable hard cider comparisons and positive impact from Truly Spiked & Sparkling. However, the fate of the broader hard cider and craft beer categories as well as the companys new brand launches remains unpredictable.



Costs & Margins



Gross profit fell 3.8% year over year to $126.9 million while gross margin shriveled 220 basis points to 51.8% in the quarter. The contraction can be attributed to unfavorable product mix coupled with higher brewery processing expenses per barrel, partly offset by improved prices.



Advertising, promotional and selling expenses dipped 11.3% to $63.3 million due to lower freight to distributors stemming from lower volumes and freight rates as well as lower media spending, partially offset by increased points of sale.



General and administrative expenses surged 21.1% to nearly $21.8 million owing to hikes in salaries, benefits, stock compensation and facilities expenses.



Financials



As of Jun 25, 2016, Boston Beer had cash and cash equivalents of $27.6 million. Debt and capital lease obligations, excluding current portion, were at $411 million, while stockholders equity was $412.2 million.



During first-half 2016, the company generated approximately $48.3 million of cash from operating activities, while it deployed nearly $26 million toward capital expenditure, primarily to be invested in breweries.



In the first half of 2016 and the period from Jun 26, 2016 through Jul 16, the company bought back nearly 743,000 shares for $127.7 million. As of Jul 16, Boston Beer had roughly $12.2 million remaining under its standing share repurchase authorization of $586 million.



Growth Plan



Management intends to focus on aggressively aligning its cost structure with volumes, to achieve efficiencies across the organization and generate cost savings. The company plans to utilize these cost savings in making strategic investments, apart from developing its brands.



The company maintains its commitment to innovate within the Samuel Adams brand, promote and advertise all its brands, and increase distribution of its core styles within each brand. It plans to introduce new packaging and advertising in the second half of 2016 for the Samuel Adams brand, in order to support its promotional plans. The company also remains keen on sales execution and a completely reviewing brand messaging and packaging across all its brands, along with persistent innovation for existing brands and utilizing any growth opportunity that might arise.



Also, Boston Beer plans to step-up investments to revive its hard cider category and Angry Orchard brand, while maintaining category leadership. The company is on track with the roll out of the Truly Spiked & Sparkling brand, which has been well-received by distributors, retailers and drinkers. In the third quarter, the company expects to support this roll out with media and increase investments above planned levels in case of a positive response.



Though management is prepared for not so impressive bottom-line results in the short-term, it remains on track to boost long-term profitability.



Guidance



Taking into consideration the first-half trends, management lowered its earnings and depletions outlook for 2016. Earnings per share are now projected in the range of $6.40$7.00, compared with $6.50$7.30 guided earlier. Also, the company stated that 2016 will include 53 weeks as against 52 weeks last year.



Other assumptions for earnings include depletions and shipments changes of between -4% and zero, compared with -4%2% expected earlier. The company continues to expect price increases of 1%2%, while gross margin is now expected to range from 5052%, down from 5153% projected earlier. Investment in advertising, promotional and selling expenses are now envisioned to a range of decrease of $5 million and an increase of $5 million, compared with zero and $10 million anticipated earlier.



Effective tax rate for 2016 is anticipated to be 36.3% versus 37% predicted earlier. The company also narrowed its range of capital expenditure for the year to $60$70 million from $50$70 million.

BOSTON BEER INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

BOSTON BEER INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | BOSTON BEER INC Quote

Zacks Rank



Boston Beer currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same industry include Constellation Brands Inc. STZ and Molson Coors Brewing Company TAP, each with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Another well-ranked stock in the related industry is Primo Water Corp. PRMW, also with a Zacks Rank #2.



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BOSTON BEER INC (SAM): Free Stock Analysis Report



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Oil giant BP plc BP is expected to report second-quarter 2016 earnings on Jul 26, before the opening bell.



Last quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 165.38%. Over the last four quarters, the companys average earnings surprise was a positive 42.06%. Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.



Factors to Consider This Past Quarter



BP expects second-quarter 2016 production to be lower than the first quarter, reflecting PSA entitlement impact, seasonal turnaround and maintenance activity. In the downstream space, the company expects a significantly higher level of turnaround activity, particularly in the U.S., and some seasonal improvement in industry refining margins.



BP PLC Price and EPS Surprise

BP PLC Price and EPS Surprise | BP PLC Quote

The companys overall picture for the second quarter remains closely tied to the volatility in crude prices. Crude, in sharp contrast to the previous few quarters, advanced more than 26% sequentially during the AprilJune period. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures during the second quarter hovered mostly between $40 and $50 per barrel. However, although data point to a recovery, the numbers may not yet be rosy for the company. This is because oil price is still hovering well below $50, which is nowhere near the breakeven price for many energy companies.



What Our Model Indicates



Our proven model does not conclusively show that BP is likely to beat estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to be able to beat estimates. That is not the case here as you will see below.



Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is 0.00%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate is in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 24 cents.



Zacks Rank: BP has a Zacks Rank #2 which increases the predictive power of ESP. But we need a positive ESP to be confident of a beat.



We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing a negative estimate revisions.



Stocks That Warrant a Look



Here are some companies in the energy sector with the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



Legacy Reserves LP LGCY has an Earnings ESP of +31.58% and a Zacks Rank #1. The partnership is expected to release earnings results on Aug 3.

Story continues

Ring Energy, Inc. REI has an Earnings ESP of +33.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is anticipated to release earnings results on Aug 8.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation APC has an Earnings ESP of +1.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is likely to release earnings results on Jul 26.

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BP PLC (BP): Free Stock Analysis Report



ANADARKO PETROL (APC): Free Stock Analysis Report



LEGACY RESERVES (LGCY): Free Stock Analysis Report



RING ENERGY INC (REI): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
* Graphic on Brexit impact http://reut.rs/2aqnwkw LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Britain's June 23 referendum decision to leave the European Union has had far-reaching consequences for the world's economy, businesses, investors and politics. Following are the main developments: July 22 Britain will get a fair deal from the EU that neither punishes nor rewards it for leaving, European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva tells Reuters in an interview.

But she also says that there could not even be informal negotiations before London invokes Article 50 saying it wants to go. Georgieva also says Brexit vote was a reminder that not everyone wants "more EU".

Research firm Markit takes a special sounding of British purchasing managers - a so-called flash reading - and finds business activity tumbling. Recession ahead is the gist.

The report is particularly noteworthy because it follows a rather steady report to the Bank of England from its own agents in the field.

Pound falls but stocks rally. Not a contradiction, both reacting to probable BoE monetary easing.

Signs of Brexit stress: 1) Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley says it is seeking European insurance licences for its Irish reinsurance business to allow it to continue to operate throughout the European Union if Lloyd's loses access to the bloc.

2) Spain's Banco Sabadell says the fall in Britain's pound has hit group profits by 0.3 percent.

IMPORTANT DATES AHEAD: - Aug. 4: Bank of England policy meeting, economic forecasts - Sept. 16: Informal EU summit in Bratislava - Sept. 25-28: UK Labour Party conference - October TBA: Italian constitutional reform referendum - Oct. 2: Re-run of Austrian presidential election - Oct. 2-5: UK Conservative Party conference - Oct. 13-15: Scottish National Party conference - Oct. 20-21: Formal EU summit in Brussels PREVIOUS July 21 The European Central Bank appears relatively calm about Brexit's impact on the euro zone economy - at least so far. At his news conference, ECB President Mario Draghi says the initial market stress was "contained". But its too early to know for certain, he says.

Story continues

French President Francois Hollande says rather bluntly he will tell British Prime Minister Theresa May when they meet later in the day that Britain that exit talks must start fast and without any pre-negotiating. He also wants explanations for the delay in launching Article 50 - the formal start of divorce.

Bit of a change in tone from German Chancellor Angela Merkel who only went as far as saying: "Nobody wants a long period of limbo." May is ignoring demands like Hollande's; Article 50 won't be until next year.

There may be some people enjoying a bit of Schadenfreude with this one. Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of the vehemently pro-Brexit Daily Mail newspaper, said that total advertising revenue across its media unit was down by an underlying 4 percent in the three-month period to June 30 It blamed uncertainty over Brexit.

Investment demand for British commercial property dropped by the largest amount on record after the vote, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says. Retail sales also took a dive, registering the biggest fall in six months. Officials blamed the weather, not Brexit.

REGULAR ITEMS: - Global Markets - Currency reports - Brexit Factbox: [nL8N19T1LJ (Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Larry King)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain stands ready to assist Germany after gunmen attacked a busy shopping mall in Munich, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday. "I am shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich, and the loss of life. My thoughts are with those injured and the families of those killed," Johnson said in a statement. "We stand ready to assist our friends in Germany. Our travel advice to UK nationals in the area tonight is to stay indoors and follow the advice of the local authorities." (Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by Jemima Kelly)
The petition argued by Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves says that the current laws deny women's rights to abort in case of extraordinary medical complications.

By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today directed to set up a medical board on the plea of a woman seeking permission of abortion after twenty four weeks of pregnancy. The petition argues that the foetus has abnormalities and will cause mental distress to the mother upon birth.

The apex court bench headed by Justice Khehar also said that the report must he submitted to the Supreme Court by Monday. The complainant has been asked to appear before the medical board in Mumbai's K E Hospital tomorrow.

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Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar appearing for the Centre said that the government will deal with the matter expeditiously. The top court further questioned the government on what it intends to do with the pending amendment which raises the ceiling from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for termination of pregnancy.

The petition filed in the matter has also challenged the constitutional validity of abortion laws in India. The petition argued by Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves says that the current laws deny women's rights to abort in case of extraordinary medical complications.

The constitutional validity of section 3(2) of Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 prescribing a ceiling of 20 weeks has been challenged before the Supreme Court. The ceiling of twenty weeks has been termed as unreasonable , arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory & violative of right to life & equality.

Petition seeks that the relevant section must be declared unconstitutional or read down. It has been said that out of 26 million birth in India every year approximately 2.3% have severe with medical abnormalities.

--- ENDS ---
NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Friday he expects the U.K. to win the right for its financial firms to sell services across European Union member states following Britain's exit from the bloc.

U.K. voters chose to secede from the European Union in a national referendum last month. Now, Britain will need to negotiate a new relationship with the EU once the government triggers Article 50, the formal start of divorce talks.

Appointed last week to the newly formed Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Theresa May, Johnson was in New York for his first visit to the United Nations and to court U.S. business and investment interests rattled by the referendum outcome.

(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Grant McCool)
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria is bracing for a potential rush of migrants on its southern border following an attempted coup in Turkey, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Friday. Patrols on the border with Turkey have been bolstered and 150 to 200 migrants a day have been detained since the failed coup, Borisov said. "The situation at the border is much more dramatic," Borisov told local media. "We prepare for a severe problem with the refugees ... The army, police and gendarmerie, they are all working." Borisov said he would meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Aug. 24 in Istanbul. On Thursday, he met Bulgaria's top military personnel to discuss the measures the government and security services were taking. After the meeting, he said events in the coming weeks might require rapid reactions from the military officers, the government and citizens, to guarantee the security of the country. Borisov said that Sofia should aim to keep the balance and maintain communication with Turkey, but he criticized some of Erdogan's moves. "We do not understand the arrests of journalists, judges, teachers," he said. Migrant flows into Bulgaria had been easing slightly before the failed coup. The country detained about 14,000 migrants in the first six months of the year, compared with 21,000 in the same period last year. Few migrants want to stay in the European Union's poorest state, preferring to journey onwards to wealthier EU countries like Germany and Sweden. (Reporting by Angel Krasimirov, editing by Larry King)
PORTO, Portugal (Reuters) - A meeting of shareholders in Portugal's Banco BPI, that started on Friday and was expected to lift a 20 percent limit on voting rights, was suspended until September due to a legal injunction, in a new snag for a takeover bid by Spain's Caixabank. The bid is opposed by the bank's No. 2 shareholder, Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's president. Caixabank has said its bid hinges on the scrapping of the voting rights limit, which has so far allowed dos Santos to fend off its attempts to control the country's third-largest lender. Chairman of the BPI board Artur Santos Silva said the injunction blocked the vote due to a minor procedural issue, which Santos Silva expected to be resolved by Tuesday. He said Caixabank had then proposed to postpone the meeting for 45 days, which shareholders approved. Portugal's market regulator CMVM had suspended trading in BPI shares on Friday awaiting the result of the vote. "I am very sorry about this situation ... which is hard to understand," he said, adding the injunction was based on the fact that the minutes of the board meeting that set Friday's vote had lacked a formal seal of approval. "On Tuesday this problem will disappear," he said. He did not name the shareholder who launched the injunction, but shareholders at the meeting said Portuguese shareholder Violas Ferreira, who has a 2.7 percent stake in BPI, had presented it. Thanks to a government decree in April aimed at putting an end to voting right limits in the banking sector, Caixabank would have voted with its full 45 percent stake in BPI to lift the cap. The motion requires a two-thirds majority to pass. In April, Caixabank launched a takeover bid for the lender, offering 1.113 euros per share, less than its initial offer of 1.329 euros, which dos Santos fended off last year. Dos Santos has already said the price is too low and wants an independent auditor to fix a minimum price for BPI shares, above the current offer. She has also accused the government of making an "unprecedented and clearly partial" decision in changing the law on rights limits. But BPI's board has called the new offer "opportune and friendly", if low. It said an eventual takeover should help resolve the problem of BPI's excessive exposure to risky Angolan assets and better prepare the lender to meet growing capital requirements from regulators. BPI, which draws most of its profit from Angola, has been affected by a change in European rules that classify all exposure to the African country as risky and to be fully provisioned for, significantly reducing BPI's solvency ratios. It has to cut the exposure and comply soon or pay hefty fines. (Reporting By Sergio Goncalves, writing by Andrei Khalip, editing by Axel Bugge and Susan Thomas)
(Adds details of release, background)

OTTAWA, July 22 (Reuters) - Canadian retail sales rose by 0.2 percent in May from April to hit a record C$44.28 billion ($33.80 billion), largely because of increases for food, drink and gasoline, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The gain, the fourth in five months, contrasted with a forecast of no growth in a Reuters poll, while in volume terms, May sales edged up 0.1 percent. The previous record was the revised C$44.21 billion reported for April.

Overall, sales rose in six of 11 subsectors, representing 51 percent of the total. Food and beverage stores posted a 2.1 percent increase, and gas stations, a 2.3 percent gain.

Sales at car and parts dealers, the largest of the subsectors, slipped by 2.0 percent, falling for the third consecutive month.

Sales dropped by 0.4 percent in Alberta on declines at new car dealers, the main retail store type affected by a major wildfire that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray.

($1=$1.31 Canadian)

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
Ottawa (AFP) - Canada said its military is set to deploy up to 60 medical staff to Iraq to run a field hospital for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

"As part of our ongoing commitment, Canada will soon deploy up to 60 medical personnel who will be leading a medical facility alongside coalition partners in northern Iraq," Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a statement following a meeting in Washington with other coalition members.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion added: "Canada is proud to be contributing to all military and civilian lines of effort of the coalition. This type of integrated approach is essential to help secure long-term stability in the region."

The medical personnel will join Canadian special forces and trainers already deployed to Iraq as part of the fight against IS.

Canada withdrew from the coalition's bombing campaign in March following the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but Ottawa still provides CP-140 Aurora surveillance and CC-150T Polaris refueling aircraft to the effort.
CAIRO (Reuters) - A grenade exploded on Friday outside a mosque in Yemen's capital Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-allied Houthi group, residents said, as worshippers were leaving after midday prayers. There were no injuries or casualties, a Reuters witness said. No group claimed responsibility for the explosion under a parked car by the Bilal mosque in western Sanaa. Islamist militants have exploited Yemen's 16-month civil war between the Houthis and supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, to strike at both sides. The Houthis have controlled Sanaa since 2014 when they drove Hadi and his government into exile in Saudi Arabia. Yemeni government forces and allies from the United Arab Emirates control the southern port city of Aden and have pledged to win back control of the capital. Islamic State said it carried out an attack on a mosque in Sanaa last September that killed 10 worshippers. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Khaled Abdullah; Writing by Tom Finn; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
What happens when at least 36 women accuse you of sexual harassment? You sue them, apparently.

By India Today Web Desk: While the act dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace is yet to garner the attention it deserves, there are incidents that come up that make you believe that the faster the act gets some teeth, the better.

This particular incident though isn't about a loophole in the law; it's in fact about a man who is trying to question and ridicule the people--36 of them--who have dared to speak out against him.

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We're talking about a Delhi-based photographer called Manik Katyal who has several cases of sexual harassment filed against him. Katyal--the editor-in-chief of a photography magazine, Emaho--had to eventually step down as the co-director of a reputed photo festival in 2015, after a string of sexual harassment cases against him came to light.

Also Read: Rapist's father thinks jail too harsh a punishment for '20 minutes of action'



From flirtatious texts to sexual innuendos, Katyal's antics were documented in a blog titled I Was Harassed by Manik Katyal --where anonymous submissions by several women highlighted incidents of sexual harassment involving him.





A screen grab from one of the testimonials on I Was Harassed By Manik Katyal. Picture courtesy: Wordpress

A screen grab from one of the testimonials on I Was Harassed By Manik Katyal. Picture courtesy: Wordpress

This is how it happened: In 2015, one woman wrote a blog titled I Was Harassed by Manik Katyal. Soon, several women, anonymously, and some with their names, from all around the globe including cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Seoul, Paris, Thailand, and Japan added to the blog and even submitted screenshots of phone conversations that showed harassment at several levels.

By the end of 2015, many of these women had submitted complaints against Katyal to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and the National Commission for Women. However, Katyal's position was quite clear; he maintained that the inappropriate messages sent through his social media accounts were in fact, false and morphed.



And now, Katyal has decided to sue all the women who've charged him with sexual harassment. For defamation. Yes. Katyal has sued the ladies for 'defaming' him, earlier this month.



According to The Wire, Katyal wants to silence "young women professionals in photography and allied industries who have complained of sexual assault and/or harassment by him, as well as their supporters."

But after Katyal's recent move, under which he has filed a defamation suit against "36 people and intermediaries" for making public sexual harassment allegations against him, the complainants are in no mood to be silenced.

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Will this end up being another Pachauri?



--- ENDS ---
OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / July 22, 2016 / Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) is pleased to announce recent initial drill results from the Bellas Gate and Above Rocks Joint Ventures in Jamaica. The 2016 exploration programs at both JV's are being operated by OZ Minerals Limited, a $1.9B Australian copper producer.

Highlights of recent drilling:

Drilling at Bellas Gate is presently focused on the Provost Prospect where initial drilling yielded:

Hole PVT-16-002  339m of 0.34% CuEq , including 10m of 1.79% CuEq

Hole PVT-16-001  82m of 0.46% CuEq, including 29m of 0.63% CuEq

Drilling at Above Rocks is presently focused on the Job's Hill Prospect, where high grade copper oxide had previously been identified over a 45 metre by 600 metre surface area; initial drilling yielded:

Hole JBH-16-001  5m of 0.87% CuEq and 3m of 0.48% CuEq

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO of Carube Copper stated: "Results from the new discovery at Provost are extremely encouraging as they show near surface to end of hole copper and gold mineralization situated within the five-kilometre long Porphyry Alley trend from Camel Hill, to Provost and on to Hendley. I believe that we have identified a large and significant copper-gold porphyry system with this discovery."

Cannot view this image? Please visit https://www.accesswire.com/uploads/Carube%20Copper%203.jpg to view this image

Figure 1: Location of the Provost Prospect and Lucky Valley Prospect within the NW Trending Alteration Zones at the Bellas Gate Joint Venture.

Bellas Gate Drilling

At the Provost Prospect, a total of 728 metres in 3 holes has been completed with another hole in progress. Provost is a copper-gold porphyry target, located on the five kilometer long prospective Southern Alteration Zone and Porphyry Alley trend hosting numerous coppergold porphyry systems. Soil geochemistry has defined a 400m by 400m copper in soil anomaly where strong to intense density of stockwork veining in volcanic rocks including quartz "A-veins" in malachite-mineralized outcrop are present. A recent ground Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey is also coincident with the mapped alteration and copper in soil anomaly.

Story continues

There has been no historic drilling on this prospect, but Hole PVT-16-001 intersected copper mineralization from 29m downhole to the end of the hole at 111m. It was stopped in mineralization and abandoned due to drilling difficulties. Hole PVT-16-002 intersected copper mineralization from 29m downhole to the end of the hole at 368.15m with anomalous copper values to the end of the hole.

At the Lucky Valley Prospect one hole was drilled where an intrusive complex has been interpreted to be analogous to the Connors porphyry complex. Multiple phases of intrusions, including quartz-feldspar porphyry with strongly sheeted quartz +/- magnetite veining, have been identified in field mapping; individual rock samples yielded up to 0.44% Cu and 0.67g/t Au. A zone of anomalous Cu in soil measuring 200m by 400m has been identified in an area of poor outcrop. Assays are pending for hole LKV-16-001.

At the Provost Southeast Prospect at least one drill hole is planned. Soil sample data outlines an anomalous copper zone 600m long by 100 to 200m wide. Provost Southeast is some 800m southeast of Provost.

The Calabash Ridge Prospect is new and has been identified by surface mapping and sampling and has been upgraded in priority with the completion of the IP survey. It has been brought to the drill-ready stage and will be drilled later this quarter. Calabash Ridge is situated between the Connors Porphyry Complex and the new discovery at Provost.

Table 1: Summary of Most Recent Drilling Intersections from the Bellas Gate and Above Rocks Joint Ventures.

Joint Venture Prospect Hole Name From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (g/t) CuEq (%) Bellas Gate Provost PVT-16-001* 29 111.1 (EOH) 82.1 0.37 0.16 0.46 including 61 111.1 50.1 0.4 0.19 0.51 and including 82 111.1 29.1 0.49 0.24 0.63 Provost PVT-16-002 29 368.15(EOH) 339.15 0.28 0.12 0.34

including 80 93 13 0.41 0.16 0.50

including 138 148 10 1.28 0.90 1.79

including 189 204 15 0.38 0.24 0.52 Provost PVT-16-003 Drilling in progress Lucky Valley LVY-16-001 Assays awaited

Above Rocks Jobs Hill JBH-16-001 160 163 3 0.48 0 0.48 and 179 184 5 0.87 0 0.87 Jobs Hill JBH-16-002 Assays awaited

*Note: Hole was abandoned before target depth due to technical issues. EOH  End of Hole.

The intervals do not necessarily indicate true width of mineralization, as its geometry is not known. Copper equivalents are calculated using a US $3.00/lb. copper and a US$1200 per ounce gold price assuming unlimited internal dilution and 100% recovery of both metals.

Above Rocks Drilling

At the Jobs Hill Prospect one hole has been drilled for 237 metres while a second is currently being completed. The results of the first hole are reported in Table 1. Jobs Hill has extensive copper oxide showings and numerous exposures of malachite with good gold credits. It is hosted in a northeast trending structural zone, is at least 600m long and 45m wide and is open to the southwest. Drilling has indicated an intensely sheared contact zone between fine-grained volcanic flows and coarse-grained volcaniclastic rocks. Mineralization is comprised of chalcocite with occasional chalcopyrite and bornite. Two narrow zones of copper mineralization were encountered at depth. The second hole (results pending) was drilled beneath surface trench with visible chalcopyrite, bornite, azurite and malachite.

At the Bellas Gate JV the drilling is being fully funded by OZ Minerals under Phase 5 of the JV, which includes all work to the completion of a feasibility study. At the Above Rocks JV, this drilling campaign is part of the ARJV's Phase One exploration program, which will enable OZ Minerals to earn 40% of the project by sole funding $500,000 in exploration expenses.

Sample Preparation, Analysis and Quality Control: For a description of these items as pertaining to drill core and soil samples please see disclosure in press releases of January 14, 2015 and October 2, 2014. OZ Minerals, Carube Copper and Activation Laboratories all have robust sample security and quality control programs in place for samples collected in Jamaica.

Contacts

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO  1-613-839-3258  jackert@carubecopper.com

Vern Rampton, Executive VP of Corporate Development  1-613-839-3258  vrampton@carubecopper.com

Alar Soever, Chairman  1-705-682-9297  asoever@carubecopper.com

www.carubecopper.com

This press release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Vern Rampton, P. Eng., in his capacity as a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101. All references to "$" herein are to Canadian dollars unless stated otherwise.

 END PRESS RELEASE 

Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC:) is a Canadian exploration company focused on the exploration and development of copper and gold projects in Jamaica and Canada. In Jamaica, two projects, totalling 188 square kilometres in area, are the subject of separate joint venture agreements with OZ Minerals Limited, an Australian copper-gold producer with a market capitalization of approximately $1.9B. Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in two other nearby projects, totalling 80 square kilometres. In Canada, Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in three porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum properties, totalling 593 square kilometres within the Tertiary-aged Cascade Magmatic Arc in southwestern British Columbia. Exploration continues on these properties with the goal of joint-venturing them to larger exploration and mining companies. Carube Copper continues to seek opportunities in Canada and the Caribbean for acquisition and development.

DISCLAIMER & FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, and by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on currently available information, Carube Copper Corp. provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Factors that can cause results to differ materially are set out in the Company's documents filed on the SEDAR website. Undue reliance should not be placed on "forward looking statements".

IMPORTANT NOTICE: By reference herewith, Carube Copper incorporates into this release the entire disclaimer set forth on our website at http://carubecopper.com/disclaimer.htm.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Carube Copper Corp.
GettyImages 578544772

CLEVELAND  Tech billionaire Peter Thiel got a roaring response from the Republican National Convention crowd when he declared that he was "proud to be gay" and "proud to be a Republican" during his big speech on Thursday night.

Republicans at the event told Business Insider that it was generally "good" to have someone represent the LGBT community on the stage  the first to do so in 16 years  but that it wasn't the major point of Thiel's speech.

"Well, Peter Thiel is a remarkable person," Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama told Business Insider, before Thiel took the stage in Cleveland. "He's got some brilliant ideas and I think we'll all be interested in listening to him, and I think it's good to have and I certainly think it's all right that he has a lifestyle, whatever he wants."

Renee Slinkard, an alternate delegate from Kansas, said that she didn't "have a problem" with Thiel mentioning his sexual identity.

"I thought it was fine," she told Business Insider of the speech. "If he wants to say he's gay, that's fine. I don't have a problem with that."

Thiel, a friend of Trump, spoke of how the candidate is pushing the conversation away from "distractions" that are hampering the country.

"When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union," he said. "And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?"

"Of course, every American has a unique identity," he continued. "I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American."

He admitted that he doesn't "pretend to agree with every plank" in the Republican Party platform, which included that marriage is between one man and one woman.

"But fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline," he continued. "And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump."

Story continues

Gary Teal, an alternate delegate from Washington, DC, thought that it would've been "easy enough" for Thiel to not even mention being gay because "it's really not relevant to economic kinds of issues"  but the fact that he did led to something much greater.

"The reaction was unequivocal," Teal told Business Insider. "He was cheered, and I think that's important and significant."

The DC delegate called some of the strong anti-LGBT platform planks "more than unfortunate" and "not representative of every delegate, much less every Republican in the country."

"And, ironically, it's something that clearly the nominee is not in concert with," he said of Trump's stance on LGBT issues. "So it was good to have a speaker that really made that clear to anyone watching TV."

"And I realize that on the other side they're going to use this as an issue and that's fair enough," he continued. "They should. But, I believe that anyone watching that speech saw Peter Thiel say 'I am gay' and people cheered, and I think that's important."

NOW WATCH: Watch Trump relentlessly slam Hillary Clinton in his big RNC speech





More From Business Insider


Chad Michael Murray loves One Tree Hill just as much as we all do

Chad Michael Murray loves One Tree Hill just as much as we all do

Chad Michael Murray has stolen our hearts time and time again. He played bad boy Tristin Dugray on Gilmore Girls, womanizer Charlie Todd on Dawsons Creek, Hilary Duffs bae in A Cinderella Story, Lindsay Lohans main man in Freaky Friday the list goes on and on. However, this specific Chad Michael Murray character definitely has an extra special place in our memories: Lucas Scott from One Tree Hill.

The best part: Chad himself is right there with us.

This year, on July 23rd and 24th, the actor will be attending the yearly One Tree Hill reunion that takes place in Wilmington, North Carolina (where One Tree Hill was filmed). I love seeing everyone and catching up, Murray told InStyle. A lot of us have families now, so its always nice to share kid stories and goof around. Plus, Chad loves going back to Wilmington and dreams of owning a beach house there one day.

A photo posted by Chad Murray (@chadmurray15) on Jul 18, 2016 at 9:40am PDT

He also said the sweetest thing to Bustle about the entirety of his time on One Tree Hill:

Its such an honor and it was such a great part of my life.

Murray especially loves seeing all the new OTH fans out there, since its one show that will never get old. Its really jumping generations, Chad said. A lot of these people grew with me and now theres a whole new generation out there of 11-to-12 year old girls and boys that are watching it for the first time on Netflix and its just crazy how much it touches people. Chad then revealed that hes super grateful for all the fans out there  both old and new.

A photo posted by Chad Murray (@chadmurray15) on Jun 3, 2016 at 12:53pm PDT

Ultimately, we love One Tree Hill, Chad Michael Murray, and the fact that Chad himself loves One Tree Hill.

The post Chad Michael Murray loves One Tree Hill just as much as we all do appeared first on HelloGiggles.
By Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS (Reuters) - French luxury goods maker Chanel has created a silks production unit by investing in high-end specialists, it said on Friday after completing the third deal in four months aimed at strengthening its supply chain.

Chanel said the four companies, in the Loire region, were long-standing suppliers involved in every step of silk production from yarn making to weaving and printing.

"Through these investments, Chanel is reaffirming its commitment to the long-term sustainability of a high-quality segment and to ensuring the longevity of the silk weaving industry in France," Bruno Pavlovsky, President of Chanel Fashion said a in a statement.

Chanel plans major investment in the four companies to boost their production capacity and modernize their manufacturing tools, Pavlovsky added.

Three of them carry the government-sponsored label Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant, reserved for companies delivering traditional, high-end artisan work.

In recent years, every major luxury group including Hermes, Kering, Richemont and LVMH has been snapping up suppliers, from tanneries to flower growers, securing access to high quality raw materials in competition that grows more fierce every year.

Many acquisitions have involved small suppliers struggling to cover high production costs with artisan production volumes.

Relentless vertical integration has made life difficult for smaller labels such as shoe maker Pierre Hardy and Lanvin, France's oldest fashion brand, which have to fight to access key suppliers.

Hermes acquired a minority stake this month in Pierre Hardy, whose designer has been creating shoes for Hermes since 1990 and jewelry since 2001.

Hermes is France's biggest high-end and fully integrated silk manufacturer, concentrated around the Lyon region, employing more than 800 people.

Silk making, once mainly the preserve in Europe of Sicily, started in earnest in 16th century France under King Henry IV, who ordered the plantation of thousands of mulberries in Provence and Languedoc for the production of silk worms.

Story continues

Chanel, which has been buying up specialists such as feather providers, milliners and boot-makers for more than a decade, has made significant investments in cashmere production and leather goods manufacturing.

Last week, it took a majority stake in the family-run Richard Tannery, a provider of lambskins for the brand's small leather goods. The company came from the Millau region, where Chanel acquired the Bodin-Joyeux tannery in 2013 and the glove-maker Causse a year earlier.

In April, Chanel bought a minority stake in 129-year-old tulle and lace supplier Sophie Hallette near Calais, France's lace capital. The lace industry has been hit hard by a sharp drop in lingerie demand from major markets such as Russia.

Chanel is the world's second largest luxury brand behind Louis Vuitton. It is estimated to generate just under 7 billion euros ($8 billion) in annual sales. The company, controlled by secretive billionaires Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, never publishes figures or financial details of its acquisitions.

(Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday called on world leaders to step up macroeconomic policy coordination, after meeting the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other senior global economic officials.

Li said the sound fundamentals of China's economy remained unchanged despite facing strong downward pressures, and that the government's debt ratio was not high, although he added that the government would step up regulation of the shadow banking sector and monitor local government fiscal practices.

The premier also addressed concerns that China is promoting its exports through aggressive policy support with the yuan weakening against the dollar.

"Given the financial fluctuations as a result of Brexit, China will advance the market-based reform of the exchange rate," Li said.

"We will maintain a basically stable exchange rate at a balanced level and we will not engage in a trade or currency war," he added.

Li made the remarks at a joint briefing with the officials, which also included the heads of the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Financial Stability Board.

The comments came ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in China this weekend.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Thursday that G20 finance officials do not need to take the same type of massive coordinated fiscal stimulus efforts as those used to combat recession during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

Unlike many developed economies, China still has ample ammunition left for further fiscal and monetary policy stimulus, but some economists worry stimulus won't be able to compensate for weak demand, leaving China in a "liquidity trap".

China's economy grew slightly faster than expected in the second quarter as government spending and a housing boom boosted industrial activity, but a slump in private investment growth is pointing to a loss of momentum later in the year.

Story continues

The world's second-largest economy grew 6.7 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, steady from the first quarter but still the slowest pace since the global crisis.

But steadier headline growth in China are accompanied by other signs of economic imbalance.

An anaemic private sector and signs of fatigue in the property market point to the increasing possibility the government may need to provide additional stimulus this year to hit its growth target of 6.5 to 7 percent.

Investors worry a further slowdown in China, aggravated by Britain's decision to leave the European Union, would leave the world more vulnerable to the risk of a global recession.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde called on Europe to quickly resolve questions over Britain's exit from the European Union.

"Our first and immediate recommendation is for this uncertainty surrounding the terms of Brexit be removed as quickly as possible so that we know the terms of trade and the ways in which the United Kingdom will continue to operate in the global economy and vis a vis its partners," Lagarde said.

The IMF cut its global growth forecasts for the next two years on Tuesday.

(Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Kim Coghill and Sam Holmes)
By India Today Web Desk: Much like you, we too are obsessed with Sia's very addictive and catchy track, Cheap Thrills. So obsessed, that even the full-fledged Snapchat filter dedicated to the track, doesn't seem enough!

And adding to the whole addiction thing are two sisters who have gone ahead and given the track an Indian twist.

Also Read: This version of AR Rahman's Kun Faya Kun is absolutely beautiful

advertisement

That's right!

Assuming that you must've already seen the video starring three Mumbai women dancing to the chartbuster track, here's presenting yet another wonderful version of the song--courtesy, Veena Thambaps, whose veena rendition of Cheap Thrills has already been viewed over 60,000 times.

Veena Thambaps is a music duo comprising Aranya Thambiappah and Athithya Thambiappah who hail from Toronto, Canada.

The duo strums their respective veenas and mesmerises us in the bargain.

Think we're exaggerating? Give it a listen and decide for yourself.







--- ENDS ---
SHANGHAI, July 22 (Reuters) - The yuan firmed for a fourth straight day on Friday, posting its biggest weekly gain since April as China's state-run banks were suspected of supporting the currency before Group of 20 finance officials meet this weekend in Chengdu.

There has been heavy intervention by those banks after the yuan on Monday breached a key psychological level of 6.7 per dollar for the first time in more than 5-1/2 years. For the week, the yuan rose 0.3 percent.

China typically holds the yuan steady before and during major diplomatic events. The G20 meeting of finance minister and central bank governors from major economies is likely to focus on currencies and monetary policy settings globally.

In September, a G20 summit of world leaders will also be in China.

Early this year, there were worries in markets that China might engineer a sharp depreciation of the yuan to lift its exports and slowing economy. On Friday, Premier Li Keqiang reiterated that China will maintain a basically stable exchange rate.

Markets have been less jumpy about the yuan's latest descent, as fears of a hard landing for the Chinese economy ease and as the People's Bank of China's new method for setting its daily yuan price fixings becomes somewhat more predictable.

Still, many market watchers expect the central bank will allow the yuan to weaken further in coming months if the economy continues to struggle, though some believe it may allow a more gradual decline after a 2.7 percent fall so far this year.

Prior to Friday's market opening, the PBOC set the midpoint rate at 6.6669 per dollar, 0.3 percent firmer than the previous fix of 6.6872. Traders said Friday's guidance rate was within market expectations.

The spot market opened at 6.6715 per dollar, and at the close of the official daytime trade at 4:30 pm (0830 GMT), the PBOC announced the yuan was at 6.6704, or 0.1 percent stronger than Thursday's close. There is an evening session that lasts until 11.30 pm Shanghai time.

Story continues

'MUCH HAPPIER' CENTRAL BANK

Traders said state banks was defending the yuan at 6.67 on behalf of the central bank during the day.

"I believe the central bank is much happier right now with the yuan back to 6.66," said a trader at a Chinese commercial bank in Shanghai.

Bearish bets on China's yuan have likely eased from five-month highs after the central bank was suspected of intervening to support the currency, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

Many market watchers expect the PBOC to let the yuan weaken further in coming months if the economy continues to struggle, though some believe it may allow a more gradual decline.

"It seems to me China's central bank has put a brake on CNY depreciation, at least temporarily," Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore, said in a note.

HSBC economists wrote last week China's path to greater exchange rate flexibility "is not a straightforward one, but involves various 'ease-then-squeeze' episodes". They forecast a year-end dollar-yuan exchange rate of 6.90.

The offshore yuan was trading 0.08 percent softer than the onshore spot at 6.675 per dollar around 4:30 pm, suggesting eased depreciation pressure on the yuan.

The Thomson Reuters/HKEX Global CNH index, which tracks the offshore yuan against a basket of currencies on a daily basis, stood at 96.07, almost flat from the previous day's 96.04.

(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
Grieving relatives of 24 Chinese tourists who died in a bus inferno in Taiwan have demanded answers from authorities, after the worst road accident ever to hit mainland visitors.

The first group of 46 relatives arrived in Taiwan Thursday to identify the bodies of their loved ones, and many broke down in tears as they visited a funeral parlour where the victims's bodies are being kept.

Emotions were high at a briefing hosted by Taiwanese officials, with distraught relatives demanding to know the cause of the tragedy and questioning why no one was able to escape when fire ripped through the bus.

"The relatives demanded the truth and asked about the rescue process. Some of them wanted Chinese experts to take part in the investigation," said Tang Wen-chi, a Tourism Bureau official who attended the late night meeting Thursday.

"Why is there no truth after so many days? Why can't we find anyone to take responsibility?" Taiwan's United Daily News quoted unnamed relatives as saying.

The report said some relatives questioned whether the low cost of the tour had increased safety risks, as drivers for such tours reportedly often work over-time, leading to fatigue.

The price for an eight-day around the island tour, tailor-made for Chinese tourist groups, typically costs less than Tw$20,000 ($625).

The bus was just a few kilometres away from Taipei's Taoyuan airport, for passengers to catch a flight home Tuesday, when it was engulfed in flames and careered through an expressway barrier, killing all 26 on board, including a Taiwanese driver and guide.

Investigators are probing the cause of the accident and say the fire started at the front of the bus, near the driver's seat.

Questions are still swirling over why no one was able to escape via the emergency exits.

Chinese officials have demanded Taiwan take measures to ensure the safety of mainland visitors to the island, after a number of fatal accidents involving tourists from China in recent years.

Story continues

"Relevant government agencies are taking measures to review and improve travel safety to ensure that similar accidents will not happen again," said tourism official Tang.

Since the accident authorities have increased inspections of tourist buses and tour operators will be fined if safety doors are not working.

Liu Kezhi, secretary-general of China's Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Straits, expressed "strong dissatisfaction" over the accident Thursday.

Chinese media has also warned of a decline in tourists to Taiwan.

"If Taiwan does not seriously reflect and improve, Chinese tourists would be playing with their lives if they go there again," Huanqiu.com said in an editorial.

Tourism from China to Taiwan boomed for eight years under Beijing-friendly president Ma Ying-jeou who left office in May.

But since new leader Tsai Ing-wen, a Beijing-sceptic, took over ties have become increasingly frosty.

Taiwan's official data showed the number of Chinese tourists dropped 16 percent in May-July 2016 compared to the same period last year, with speculation Beijing is putting pressure on Tsai through squeezing tourism.
Washington (AFP) - Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could announce her vice presidential pick as early as Friday, with reports suggesting she is leaning towards Spanish-speaking Senator Tim Kaine from the battleground state of Virginia.

Clinton is scheduled to campaign in Florida on Friday and Saturday, but The Wall Street Journal -- citing people familiar with the former secretary of state's selection process -- said the news could come Friday in a text message to supporters.

The Washington Post said Clinton would likely introduce her pick either later Friday or at a Saturday rally in the Sunshine State. The Journal and the Post, citing unnamed sources, said Kaine has emerged as the frontrunner.

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign had no comment, when asked about the reports.

Kaine is seen as a leading contender for several reasons: he could help Clinton claim Virginia, a key battleground state and one her campaign believes is key to victory, and also could help cement her overwhelming lead with Hispanic voters.

The 58-year-old senator also has strong foreign policy experience -- he currently serves on the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. And he is seen as helping Clinton win votes from independent male voters.

Also on the short list are: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who has been friends with the Clintons for decades and is from another key battleground state, Pennsylvania; and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, a Latino seen as a true liberal.

Clinton, 68, has said she wants a running mate with enough experience to "literally get up one day and be the president of the United States."

Her Republican challenger Donald Trump, who accepted his party's nomination on Thursday with a speech painting a dark picture of an America in crisis, has chosen Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate.

The Democratic National Convention, at which Clinton will be formally crowned the party's White House candidate, begins Monday in Philadelphia.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f153906%2fscreen_shot_2016-07-22_at_11.20.35_am

Thank heavens for social media-savvy college students.

Tragedy struck at the Republican National Convention this week when Ivanka Trump misplaced her long, white and elegantly tampon-esque earring. The next day, an Ohio student, who goes by Annabelle Marie on Twitter, somehow discovered it under Ivanka's seat.

SEE ALSO: Where are they? The Republicans who skipped their national convention.

Thus began Annabelle's Twitter quest.

After tweeting at Ivanka several times, Annabelle reached out to several television network employees, including Today's Savannah Guthrie.

Finally, Annabelle went for the gold, tweeting at four members of the Trump family as well as the convention's official Twitter account.

Brave Annabelle was going to return that earring  no matter how many @ replies it took.

At long last, Twitter took note, turning Annabelle's pleas into a Moment. This, we assume, caught the attention of Ivanka's team.

And at even longer last, Annabelle finally presented the earring to Ivanka herself.

"Only trying to be honest and kind here, life is good," she wrote.

In the end, this tale has a clear moral: if you want to get in touch with someone, tweet relentlessly.
GettyImages 578546420

CLEVELAND  Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president at the party's convention on Thursday night, but it was his daughter Ivanka who stole the show.

Ivanka delivered an elegant address that spoke to her father's record of supporting women and minorities within his company. She also shared touching anecdotes about growing up with Donald as a dad, helping to humanize a candidate who has gained a reputation as a ruthless ladder-climber.

"If it's possible to be famous and yet not really well known, that describes the father who raised me," Ivanka said. "In the same office in Trump Tower, where we now work together, I remember playing on the floor by my father's desk, constructing miniature buildings with Legos and Erector sets, while he did the same with concrete, steel, and glass."

She painted a picture of Trump as a family man and discussed the values he instilled in her and her siblings.

"My father taught my siblings and me the importance of positive values and a strong ethical compass," Ivanka said. "He showed us how to be resilient, how to deal with challenges, and how to strive for excellence in all that we do. He taught us that there's nothing that we cannot accomplish, if we marry vision and passion with an enduring work ethic."

GettyImages 578546380

Ivanka also characterized her father as someone who reaches out to help people, even mentioning the now notorious black felt-tip pen he has been known to use to write notes to people.

"He'd write a note to his assistant, in a signature black felt-tip pen, and request that the person be found and invited to Trump Tower to meet with him," she said. "He would talk to them and then draw upon his extensive network to find them a job or get them a break. And they would leave his office, as people so often do after having been with Donald Trump, feeling that life could be great again."

Story continues

Implicitly pushing back on the accusations of sexism her father has faced, Ivanka talked about how she has seen him work with women.

"My father values talent," Ivanka said. "He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is color-blind and gender-neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period."

She then took it a step further to make the case that her father is a champion of women in the workplace.

"At my father's company, there are more female than male executives," Ivanka said. "Women are paid equally for the work that we do, and when a woman becomes a mother she is supported, not shut out."

Ivanka is thought to be a "secret weapon" of sorts for her father's campaign. A vast majority of American women view Trump negatively, according to a March Gallup poll, and old interviews have surfaced that show Donald talking about women in a derogatory way.

But Ivanka "can speak in the first person about how women have prospered in the Trump Organization, how Donald Trump, unlike Hillary Clinton, has paid women more than men," veteran Republican strategist Roger Stone told Business Insider at the convention this week.

"I think she helps soften Donald's rough edges, I think she's a giant asset, and I think that's why she's going to be showcased," he said.

From the floor of the convention, Ivanka's speech seemed well-received. Delegates cheered her testament to her father, and she came across as articulate and poised.

"I thought her speech was very empowering and her love for her father really showed and as a woman, seeing someone else speak in favor of Donald Trump just makes me support him all the more," Sarah Reynolds, a delegation aide for Arkansas, told Business Insider after the speeches wrapped.

Linda Collins-Smith, a business owner and state senator from Arkansas, said Ivanka came across as very confident in her speech.

"She spoke with confidence  you had no doubt you believed her," Collins-Smith said.

California delegate Alison Hayden said she viewed Donald's children "as a reflection of the man."

If the negative things people have said about how Trump treats women are true, Hayden said, he wouldn't "have such self-assured daughters and wife, nor would he have a company that employed more women than men and paid them equally."

It seems the Trump children are already having a measurable effect on voters in Cleveland.

A reporter for The Washington Post had conversations with voters in a suburban tavern this week and came to this conclusion: "Above all, three days into the GOP convention, people who had been looking for a reason to feel better about Trump said they found it in his family."

NOW WATCH: Watch Trump relentlessly slam Hillary Clinton in his big RNC speech





More From Business Insider


London (AFP) - They may look garish for some but Queen Elizabeth II's brightly-coloured outfits are a power dressing tool that allow her to make an impression, according to a new exhibition opening on Saturday.

Exhibits at the Buckingham Palace show range from her christening gown to the eye-catching bright green wool-crepe and silk dress she wore at one of her 90th birthday celebrations earlier this year.

The queen's wedding dress from 1947 and the one she wore at her coronation in 1953 are also exhibited together for the first time in "Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from the Queen's Wardrobe".

"The Queen is well-known for block colour dressing using vivid and bold colours to ensure she is easily visible on important occasions," Caroline De Guitaut, the exhibition's curator, told reporters.

De Guitaut said the dresses reflected the multi-faceted role the Queen plays as sovereign not only of Britain but also of the Commonwealth states, as well as being commander-in-chief of the British army.

The curator said that hats also played an important role in making her easier to spot in large crowds, which is why they often have elaborate trimming.

The monarch's preferences for headgear range from cloche hats made popular in the 1960s to the Breton style of the 1970s and 1980s.

Nowadays, she is rarely seen in public without a hat.

Details such as colours and design gained a whole other level of significance during her state visits.

"The Queens ensembles are carefully designed to ensure they are appropriate for the climate like the oriental-flower patterned dress Her Majesty wore to a state visit to Singapore," De Guitaut said.

Others respect religious or social conventions like the ensemble worn for her state visit to the Middle East in 1979, in which the Queen was covered as much as possible to respect local traditions.

"Clothing can do things for women sovereigns that it cant do for men and the Queen has definitely used that as a tool in her reign," De Guitaut said.

The exhibition, which runs until October 2, is one of three organised by royal officials this year showing off 150 outfits and is billed as the biggest ever.
oil rig

The US oil-rig count rose by 14 to 371 this week, a fourth straight week-over-week rise, according to Baker Hughes.

This tally has steadily climbed since it bottomed in May, indicating that producers activated rigs as crude prices also rose.

The gas-rig count fell by one to 88, and miscellaneous rigs rose by two to three, taking the total up 15 to 462.

Last week, the tally of active rigs rose by six. The gas rig count rose by one, taking the total up seven.

The world's two largest oilfield services companies this week said they believed the oil market may have bottomed.

Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar said in the company's earnings statement released on Wednesday that it expects to see a "modest uptick" in the rig count during the second half of the year.

And, Schlumberger on Friday said it believed "the North America market has turned."

Amid steep cost reductions and higher oil prices versus the start of the year, producers are betting that a rebound is underway.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices are lower on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined further after the rig-count data, sliding by as much as 1.85% to $43.95 per barrel in New York.

Earlier this week, data from the Energy Information Administration showed that inventories are still historically high for this time of the year, despite a ninth straight weekly drop.

This is the latest chart of the oil rig count:

7 22 16 oil rigs chart

NOW WATCH: Here's what popular dog breeds looked like before and after 100 years of breeding





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With the second half of season two of AMCs Fear the Walking Dead fast approaching on August 21, the cast and producers took the stage at San Diego Comic Cons Hall H to tease whats ahead for the survivors  who no longer have the Abigail or the compound as sanctuary.

For the first time were going to see our characters really having to learn how to survive in the apocalypse in a way they havent before, said executive producer Dave Erickson, And then on top of that theyll be separated, theyre really doing it on their own. He was joined on the panel by executive producers Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Gale Anne Hurd as well as cast members Colmon Domingo (Strand), Kim Dickens (Madison), Cliff Curtis (Travis), Frank Dillane (Nick, Mercedes Mason (Ophelia), Alycia Debnam-Carey (Alicia), Lorenzo James Henrie (Chris) and new cast member Danay Garcia (Luciana).

As the teaser trailer revealed at the top of the panel, the group will not only be separated but end up south of the border alongside growing violence in the world. I think they have enough zombie savvy now to realize that things are not going to go back to the way they were, said Erickson. Were going to see a level of intensity and violence in the back half that we havent seen before.

Hurd also promised that in this batch of episodes, were really going to see a lot of things that youve probably never seen on television before in the midst of the zombie apocalypse. Alpert also teased our characters turn into warriors while Nicotero said, I think were going to see the scope of our show grow bigger.

New cast member Danay Garcia plays Luciana, who will meet up with Nick when he arrives in a community just outside of Tijuana. Of these people, Erickson said, they dont see the dead as a bad thing, necessarily. They really see it as just an evolution and a next step. Luciana is sort of this bad ass soldier in this group and somebody who is also an orphan of the apocalypse in the same way that Nick is by choice. Luciana will also be testing Nick in this new group, Garcia said.

Story continues

For Dickens, glimpses of Madisons toughness became more prevalent when she killed Celia in the midseason finale. Will that trajectory continue? I think it is indicative of what were going to see, the actress said, but I also think its indicative to where shes come from, what her lifes been like.

Also expect Strand to be further deconstructed from who he was when we first met him in the first season. He knew himself as such a con man and entrepreneur so now hes just out to sea, Domingo said, so hopefully that will make him stronger but it could possibly break him. Domingo also said his theory of the relationship between Strand and Thomas is that Strand didnt realize he loved him until just before Thomas died in his arms.

Fan favorite Debnam-Carey teased fans will see a change in dynamic between Alicia and Madison now that Nick has gone off on his own. For her I think it feels like a fresh starttension has been boiling underneath the surface with Madison and Alicia for a really long timeI think for her, maybe now Madison will focus most of her energy finally on Alicia.

Fear the Walking Dead returns on August 21 at 9pm on AMC.

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'Game of Thrones' Cast and Creators Talk Season 7 Delay, Jon's Parentage and Sansa's Goals
Kristin Chenoweth and Bryan Fuller are reuniting.

The Pushing Daisies alum has joined American Gods as Easter, it was announced Friday at San Diego Comic-Con with a surprise appearance from the star.

"I'm so excited to be reunited with my Bryan Fuller," the actress said when she was brought up midway through the panel for the highly anticipated Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel. Chenoweth won an Emmy for her role on Fuller's short-lived ABC series Pushing Daisies.

American Gods centers on a war brewing between old and new gods. The traditional gods of biblical and mythological roots from around the world continue to lose believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society's modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Series protagonist Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) is an ex-con who becomes the bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). A con man who is secretly one of the older gods, Mr. Wednesday is on a cross-country mission to gather his troops in preparation for a battle with the new deities.

In the series, Chenoweth's character, Easter, is one of the old gods. Once known as Ostara, goddess of spring, Easter still embraces the jelly beans and chocolate bunnies associated with the holiday that bears her name in an effort to stay relevant.

The actress joins a cast that also includes Pablo Schreiber, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover, Jonathan Tucker, Gillian Anderson, Peter Stormare, Orlando Jones and Cloris Leachman.

In addition to Pushing Daisies, Chenoweth's other TV credits include Glee, The Good Wife and The West Wing.

In addition to Chenoweth, Fuller has previously worked with Anderson on NBC's Hannibal. Later in the panel, Fuller was asked about the likelihood of any other Hannibal stars coming to American Gods.

"The door is always open for those lovely folks. It was such an incredible experience working with that production for three years," he said. "As soon as schedules sync up, yes, we would love it."

Story continues

Production on the 10-episode first season is currently underway in Toronto.

American Gods is set to debut in 2017 on Starz.

See More: The Scene at Comic-Con 2016
By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Jul 22 (PTI) The birth anniversary of renowned Bengali poets Ravindra Nath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam was jointly observed with fervour here in the Nepalese capital today.

Songs based on the poems of Tagore and Islam were presented by noted Bangladeshi musicians during a programme organised by the Bangladesh Embassy in Kathmandu to celebrate Rabindra-Nazrul Jayanti 2016.

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Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Nepal Army chief Rajendra Chhetri were among the dignitaries, who attended the cultural show hosted by Bangladesh ambassador Ms Mashfee Binte Shams.

On the occasion, ambassador Shams said that both the great Bengali poets Tagore (1861-1941) and Islam (1899-1976), also known as the National Poet of Bangladesh, have great place in the hearts of Bangladeshi people.

"This year, the deadly terrorist attack in Bangladesh overshadowed the celebrations of these poets in the country," she said.

"Both of the poets stood for the cause of humanity, peace and freedom," she said. PTI SBP SUA AKJ SUA

--- ENDS ---
As conservative voices go, Kim Campbell is one of Canadas most iconic  she was the countrys first female prime minister, after all. But dont get the former attorney general and justice minister started on Donald Trump, whos walking out of this weeks Republican National Convention as the GOPs presidential nominee. Previously, Trump warned that the U.S. should rethink its involvement in NATO because it pays a lions share to safeguard member nations (a claim that The Washington Post said was wildly exaggerated); yesterday he came under attack for suggesting the U.S. might not help defend NATO allies in the Baltics if Russia attacked and he were in the White House.

It was a reckless and deeply unwise statement, R. Nicholas Burns, who served as ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush, told Talking Points Memo. Meanwhile, Campbell recently told OZY, This is not somebody that I would engage in a serious debate about the future of NATO. In this edited conversation, the former PM discusses who she thinks will become the next U.S. president  and what they might need to do to ensure NATOs greatest threats dont morph into an even bigger challenge.

OZY: How does NATO remain important today?

Kim Campbell: Certainly Vladimir Putins adventurism  the stealth wars that he is fighting, and the concern that the former Warsaw Pact countries and those that were freed from the Soviet Union have about whether Russia will continue to respect those borders  has meant that NATO has to rethink things. We are seeing those countries become members of NATO. Were seeing the deployment of forces there. Its utility is still there, and I dont see a strong sense on the part of NATO members who want to disband it. There are varying degrees of commitment to arming, to meet their responsibilities, and that is an interesting issue, because defense is expensive.

[Trump] does not have any kind of independent basis on which to understand foreign policy  he appears to get his news from the National Enquirer. Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada

Story continues

OZY: Following Trumps earlier comments, Hillary Clinton warned his approach might reverse decades of bipartisan leadership and send a dangerous signal to Americas friends and foes. Is this a healthy debate to be having, or does a more important question need to be asked?

K.C.: Well, there might be a healthy debate; Donald Trump is not going to be a participant in it, because he doesnt know anything. He does not have any kind of independent basis on which to understand foreign policy  he appears to get his news from the National Enquirer.

It is also quite naive. The United States is the largest superpower in the world. It also understands that it needs other forms of engagement and security than military might, particularly in intelligence and cybersecurity issues. That means a lot to its allies. And not to understand the relationship of the United States to its allies and what that means to American security is frighteningly naive and ill-informed and dangerous. Anybody who thinks that it would be good for the United States if youre overtaken by right-wing, nationalist movements  fed by Russian political engagement and the kinds of disruption that Russia wants to create  is delusional. No country is an island, and alliances are extremely important.

OZY: Does that leave Putin as the greatest threat right now to NATO and its vision for peace?

K.C.: He is the largest. Its not that there arent others  but he is explicitly determined to undermine, and partly because he is still a Soviet KGB person. Incidentally, he was a lieutenant colonel in the KGB who was never promoted any higher because he was considered too reckless. So hes a great question mark for people.

In a way its ridiculous. It is actually in Russias interest to have a stable, prosperous Europe, to be a great market. Nobody wants to go to war with Russia. You have to work hard to create that paranoia, because theres no natural reason for it. Putin has an interest in Soviet irredentism, not because its a good thing in any kind of rational way, but because he thinks it feeds the Russian nationalism. And, of course, now hes censoring the media so he can control the flow of information. Its a total Soviet playbook. His support for Marine Le Pens [National Front] party in France  its open!  is not secret. He is supporting these movements, and they are anti-democratic.

@AKimCampbell We dont discriminate on the #TrumpTrain. Just pitch in already!  Donald Trump Jr. (@DenaldJTrumpJr) June 29, 2016

OZY: What sorts of decisions might the next president of the United States have to make when exerting influence as a member of NATO?

K.C.: If its Trump, all bets are off because he is an ignoramus. He doesnt understand government at all. He has no experience. I dont think he will be president. If he is president, I shall be plumping up the pillows in my guest room.

The point is that Hillary Clinton, as a former secretary of state and as somebody whos been engaged in a variety of capacities  as a member of the Senate, as first lady  she understands what these things are about and she understands that Americas security is guaranteed by patient, painstaking building of alliances and relationships and exerting influence in a whole variety of ways: hard power, soft power, negotiations, treaties, etc. She gets that. And that will continue to be what America needs to do.
The cruel irony is that it looked so much like what grassroots conservatives had dreamed of: Their fan favorite, Ted Cruz, speaking to a raucous crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, giving a stirring speech outlining the aspirational dream of conservatism with one of its most inclusive elucidations to date. And yet, thats where the dream ends. Because as his speech trailed off to a chorus of boos, in entered the most public acknowledgment of Donald Trumps coronation yet, as Newt Gingrich, House Speaker Paul Ryan and VP pick Mike Pence all paid homage to their new presidential nominee. Delegates celebrated on the floor, turning their attention to the general election with chants of Lock her up! while gleefully waving their America Deserves Better Than Hillary signs.

But even as the celebration of party unity rages on today, now echoing beyond the convention floor, a segment of next-gen conservatives are in mourning. These are the young folks who had devoted degrees, internships and fledgling careers to the party of Ryan and Ronald Reagan  and are now inheriting what they perceive to be a different kind of party instead. Their coping mechanisms vary. Some vow to seriously consider Libertarian Gary Johnson, or not vote at all. Others who spoke to OZY say theyd delay their ambitious political goals, pursuing the apolitical world of the judiciary system for a while or stumping for state and local candidates. Then there are those who are thinking of dropping the party entirely  starting fresh once the hangover of this year fades. How do we reconcile being conservative and realizing that, in reality, this is not a candidate we can support? People are going to take different paths, says David Cahn, the 20-year-old co-author of When Millennials Rule: The Reshaping of America.

I dont know what to call myself anymore. Im a conservative. But am I still a Republican? A recent Harvard Law grad and former student president

Story continues

Theres a feeling that many dont fit into this new family portrait of nativist rhetoric. Enter those broader, existential questions you may catch on Facebook: I dont know what to call myself anymore, a recent Harvard Law grad and former student president posted the night Trump clinched the nomination, though he declined to speak with OZY. Im a conservative. But am I still a Republican? Another longtime Republican, an Ohio millennial who campaigned vigorously for George W. Bush as a teenager, says his life would be entirely different if it werent for conservatism, which gave him meaning and his current career working in right-leaning politics. Im probably going to vote for Donald Trump, but I will do it with tears in my eyes, the 29-year-old says. It breaks my heart that this is the embodiment of conservatism in this race.

Not everyone is sure the end of conservatism is truly at stake. Thats because Trump is a non-ideological candidate, says Ken Cuccinelli, the former Cruz campaigner who staged a doomed floor fight to free delegates to vote for anyone else. And some young voters actually favor Trumps new brand of rightish populism: Im a conservative at heart, but I just want to be a patriot, says Clay Chapman, an 18-year-old from Noblesville, Indiana, who traveled to Cleveland with a Trump T-shirt and Make America Great Again hat. These inheritors of the Trump legacy, at first blush, seem more interested in upending the status quo than the solvency of a party and its platform. Its not about these ideas, Chapman says. I couldnt care less about the Republican Party.

What happens if a non-ideological candidate leads a once-principled party into the White House for the next four or even eight years? Theyre not getting conservatism, argues Regina Thomson, a Colorado delegate who helped lead the anti-Trump efforts. Theyre getting a man who gives them promises he either cant, or wont, fulfill. Already, Trumps nomination has sown confusion with young intellectual conservatives, who now find themselves caught between principle and practicality. I go back and forth, says Larissa Martinez, the 33-year-old leader of RightNOW, a social welfare organization that promotes women with center-right views. Nobody is excited  nobody I know.

To make matters worse when it comes to inspiring a more diverse generation of millennials, the RNC has struggled to hire and retain Latino and Black outreach directors in the wake of Trumps candidacy.

While critics deride rightward politics as unfeeling, clinging to hard numbers and religious doctrine while advocating cuts to safety nets and abortion rights, many conservatives feel the opposite. They view themselves as deeply idealistic, operating with a belief that free people can accomplish anything, so long as the government gets out of their way. Its a belief that risks minimizing the role of racial bias or intergenerational poverty in outcomes, but its hopeful nonetheless. The American dream is that you lift yourself up by your bootstraps, and some of the draw is that nobody is going to help you do that, says Jack Bell, a convention delegate from Washington. Yet when asked about his partys nominee, the 18-year-old demurs. When pushed, he says, My view of conservatism and Donald Trump dont always coincide.

Even if Trump wins the presidency, his barnstorming of aspirational conservatism has led to a talent drain that will echo for elections to come. Likable stars with wide appeal such as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse never took to the convention stage  an opportunity they almost surely would have had, or taken, with another nominee. While other up-and-comers rose in their place, Trump has put on hold the partys dreams of inclusiveness when it comes to staffing, as outlined in its 2012 platform. To make matters worse when it comes to inspiring a more diverse group of millennials, the RNC has struggled to hire and retain Latino and Black outreach directors in the wake of Trumps candidacy. Only 18 Black delegates, of 2,472, reportedly attended the GOP convention this week, comprising the lowest percentage in a century, according to a 2012 Joint Center for Politics and Economic Studies report.

The lament doesnt escape the Old Guard, either. Were witnessing the death of the party, says establishment Republican strategist Howard Schweitzer. Wheres the soul? And Schweitzers former boss, George W. Bush, touched on a similar vein of despair. Im worried that Ill be the last Republican president, Bush reportedly told former aides and advisers earlier this year. Yet its upcoming voters, a crowd not easily typecast, who present the biggest lost opportunity for a party enamored by a big-tent mentality but ensconced in a feudalistic candidacy. And if young voters sit out this time, theres no promise theyll return four years from now, says Cahn, the millennial author: There is a stickiness to voting  the more times you vote for one party, the more you continue to, he says. People arent just voting for Clinton; theyre disassociating with the Republican Party.
From Good Housekeeping

Earlier this week, an elementary school in Australia announced via a school newsletter that it has put an end to student clapping at school assemblies. Elanora Heights Public School students are now encouraged to engage in silent forms of celebration and "punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot" instead of clap and cheer.

The newsletter, which has since been taken down from the school's website, explained that the new practice is meant to accommodate members of the school community who are "sensitive to loud noises."

However, with this explanation, Elanora Heights has received some major criticism for its decision. Susie O'Brien from the Herald Sun wrote that the ban "is one more sure sign that the world is going mad." For GQ, Lauren Larson wrote, "Kids are also very powerful. If we silence them now, the 'quiet air punching' will grow until the fists of their rage pummel us all."

On Wednesday, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli took to Australian radio to defend the school's clapping ban, News.com.au reports. He said the decision was made in an effort to support a teacher who wears hearing aids. "The teacher has asked for instances where there is cause for applause, for this not to be done loudly," Piccoli said. "I believe we should be respectful to people with disabilities, and if we can slightly change what we do to accommodate them, then we should." And as the newsletter originally reported, the clapping ban will only be enforced "as needed" at school assemblies.

A move toward silent cheering could also help cut down on loud noises that might cause students with sensory processing disorders such as autism to have outbursts or panic attacks, as POPSUGAR mentions in its report on the ban. The original blurb in the schools' newsletter reported that the new cheering method has helped students to "expend energy" and "reduce fidgeting" as well.

Elanora Heights' new clapping rule follows a number of Australian efforts to make schools more accommodating for all members of the community, News.com.au reports. Recently enacted rules include one all-girls school's ban on gendered words such as "ladies" in favor of words that will make LGBTQ students feel more comfortable, and others have bans on hugging in order to help children learn to respect other people's personal space.

[h/t News.com.au]
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have each won the support of some corporate big shots. In Clintons corner: billionaire Warren Buffett. On the Trump train: billionaire Carl Icahn.

But the bigger story this election season is how unhappy many business bigwigs are with both Clinton and Trump. Especially Trump.

Weve commented on the bad ideas of both major candidates, John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the US Chamber of Commerce, tells Yahoo Finance in the video above. Trade policy has been very much under discussion on both sides of the aisle. Trade has been one of the things thats been going right.

Neither candidate sees it that way. Trump is the most vocal, vowing to tear up free-trade deals and impose tariffs on imports from China and Mexico. Clinton has backed away from prior support for free-trade pacts, saying she no longer supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership now under consideration on Capitol Hill.

Murphy says Trumps policies would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in lost sales. And he says Trumps proposal to raise tariffs against imports from certain countries, to rip up our past trade agreements, we think would be very damaging. And were not the only ones.

Thats true: The Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs of major American companies led by John Engler, has also slammed Trumps stance on trade and immigration. So has Jay Timmons, the head of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Nearly 150 technology leaders recently signed a public letter in the Huffington Post saying, Trump would be a disaster for innovation. They say his efforts to reduce immigration and restrict trade would thwart innovation, not stimulate it.

But it was John Murphy and the Chamber that took aim at Trump on Twitter while the candidate was giving a trade policy speech in June. The next day Trump responded both on Twitter and in person, saying the Chamber is totally controlled by special interests.

As for Clinton, both the Chamber and the Business Roundtable have criticized her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that she once supported that is supported by President Obama.

When we hear candidates criticize those past trade agreements, and this future trade agreement which would allow us to reach literally hundreds of millions of new customers, we think thats a problem for American competitiveness and our ability to create jobs here at home, Murphy says.
Saint-Gervais les Bains (France) (AFP) - Chris Froome said his crash on Friday's 19th stage of the Tour de France proved the race is never over until the finish line in Paris is crossed.

Froome ended the 146km Alpine stage on team-mate Geraint Thomas's bike with a ripped jersey, while he went up to the podium after the race with a heavily-bandaged knee.

Despite crashing on a slippery descent and finishing the stage ninth at 36sec behind Romain Bardet, who is now second overall at 4min 11sec, Froome actually extended his lead in a race most observers had already declared sewn up.

But he said events on the mountainous stage from Albertville to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc showed how unpredictable sport can be.

"Ironically, I was trying to stay safe but I hit one of the white lines and lost my front wheel," said Froome.

"I'm OK, I'm lucky nothing is seriously injured. I lost some skin and banged my knee a little bit but today I'm grateful to have that four minute advantage to fall on a little bit."

Several riders crashed in the final 30km as falling rain made the roads treacherous.

"Today showed exactly why I thought the Tour was not over," added Froome.

"A crash like that, I'm really grateful nothing is seriously injured but it could have gone either way. There is never a quiet day on the Tour.

"Tomorrow will be hard, I'm sure I'm going to be a bit sore and stiff from today but hopefully I can rely on my team-mates and just one last push again to get through tomorrow's stage now."

- 'Fairytale' -

One of the worst affected riders to crash was Bauke Mollema, who also skidded off the road a second time.

"I started the climb with a gap, 20 seconds back and I couldn't close it," he lamented. "At the bottom, I tried to come back, I had to try and close it there as fast as I could, otherwise it would have been difficult."

He added: "I couldn't close it and I just exploded."

Story continues

He lost more than four minutes by the finish and dropped from second overall to 10th.

It was a rare day of excitement on an otherwise sterile Tour, although that was mostly due to the weather provoking crashes.

Bardet said he had been fed up of hearing criticism of the race.

"I felt a bit bitter hearing negative comments during this Tour, that there were no attacks, that it was soporific," said the 25-year-old Frenchman.

"But we were all at our limits. I knew I was in the form of my life, I was just waiting for clarity, without setting a plan.

"Now I want to enjoy this and see how thigs go."

Last year Bardet won stage 18 and then held the climbers' polkadot jersey after the following stage.

But he failed to hold onto it and said he has learnt from his mistakes this time around.

"Last year I was thinking mostly about defending the polkadot jersey and I didn't sleep that night," he revealed.

"I'm not going to give up, that's for sure and if I'm on the podium in Paris, it will be a fairytale."

As Mollema and young Briton Adam Yates floundered -- they started the day second and third but finished it 10th and fourth respectively, Nairo Quintana also moved up onto the podium into third spot, at just 16sec behind Bardet.

But the Colombian said he had come close to giving up.

"It was a miracle from God that I could be here (at the finish). I'm feeling really bad and it's difficult to explain what's happening in my body," said the 26-year-old, who was second to Froome in 2013 and 2015.

"We fought all day long on the climb, I suffered a lot."

He added: "My body's not OK, my legs aren't responding, I'm finishing stages as if everything's OK but my body's not responding."
Soylent Rob Rhinehart

Soylent CEO Robert Rhinehart's "experiment in sustainable living" may be in trouble.

Rhinehart, who founded the futuristic meal-replacement company, owns a shipping container (which Rhinehart calls an "eco home") that sits on a hill called the Flat Top in Los Angeles.

Not only are local residents unhappy with the state of the shipping container, but Rhinehart might now be facing criminal charges from the city.

A photo posted by Robert Rhinehart (@robertrhinehart) on Apr 19, 2016 at 12:11am PDT

According to Curbed Los Angeles writer Elijah Chiland:

"Alexander Moffat, a senior inspector in the city's department of building, says Rhinehart has refused to comply with an order to remove the container. (In June, the department cited Rhinehart for having an 'abandoned or vacant building open to the public.') Now his department is asking the city attorney's office to file criminal charges."

The container is clearly in rough shape  the windows have been smashed in, and, according to recent photos, it's covered in tags and graffiti  and it doesn't appear to be an "eco home" at all. In fact, one local resident speculated that the container isn't secured, so it could roll down the hill in the event of an earthquake, according to Curbed.

Party on, Garth A photo posted by David Benhaim (@readygopictures) on Jul 3, 2016 at 6:55am PDT on Jul 3, 2016 at 6:55am PDT

Rhinehart told Curbed that he plans to move the container at some point but hasn't given a definite date yet and might even buy more plots of land on the hill.

When reached for comment, Soylent said it doesn't comment on employees' personal affairs and did not respond to a request to make Rhinehart available for comment.

Head over to Curbed for more on the dispute, plus photos of Rhinehart's Fourth of July party at the container, which featured an entire roasted pig.

NOW WATCH: Elon Musk just unveiled Tesla's 'top secret' master plan  here are the details





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On Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump accepted the nomination as the Republican candidate for President of the United States.

(In a related story, the death of nuance has been officially confirmeddetails to come.)

Yes, Trump "humbly" accepted the nomination, which is the first time "Trump" and "humbly" have ever been used in the same sentence. If the audience is still inside Cleveland's Quicken Loans arena Friday morning, it's because they were too afraid to leave after he painted such a dire portrait of our lawless society that even the filmmakers of The Purge would have found it too much. Either that or because the seemingly endless speech is still going on.

Trump doubled down on his Nixonian appeal to the silent majority and his commitment to being the "law and order" candidate. Practically foaming at the mouth, he used the inflammatory phrase so often it should have been accompanied by a "chung chung." Dick Wolf might have grounds for a lawsuit. He undoubtedly set the record for reciting the most names of murder victims in a presidential nomination acceptance speech.

Read More: Donald Trump "Humbly and Gratefully" Accepts GOP Nomination

"I am your voice," he told the crowd, and it was a very, very loud one. He mostly hewed to his prepared script (he, gasp, used a teleprompter) but he couldn't stop himself from resorting to his familiar rhetorical flourishes, frequently exhorting the audience, "Believe me, believe me!"

Anyone who wasn't already on the Trump train is unlikely to board after hearing this rabid address by the first presidential candidate to use air quotes (when describing President Obama's "leadership"). Frequently stopping to grin in self-satisfied fashion between proclamations, he presented such a dystopian portrait of a nation once described by the party's beloved figurehead as "a shining city on a hill" that from now on we'll probably have to worry less about immigration than emigration.

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Speaking of immigration, Trump delivered his unique interpretation of "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Referring to immigrants from countries with terrorists ties, he declared, "We don't want them in our country." The Statue of Liberty is now rusting from her tears.

He promised that "America will finally wake up" on the day that he is inaugurated, and truer words were never spoken.

He blamed Hillary for everything that's gone wrong around the world, leaving out only natural disasters. He described her legacy as one of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," which sounds like a great name for a heavy metal band.

The crowd ate it all up, including his boasts that he would build a great wall, get great deals in trade negotiations, put China in its place, destroy ISIS, lower taxes, improve the infrastructure, get rid of Obamacare, take better care of our veterans, and most especially, appoint the literally right kind of Supreme Court justices.

"We're going to win!" he exulted. "We're going to win big!"

For all his policy proposals, if you could call them that, this was less a political speech than the ramblings of a schoolyard bully. Reveling in his success and the candidates he vanquished, he cried out, "We love defeating these people! Love it, love it, love it!" It made you wonder just how much love he was deprived of as a child.

Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, who strolled onto the stage to the not-so-subtle musical accompaniment of "Here Comes the Sun." She was beautiful, elegant and poised (her father once declared that if she wasn't his daughter he would date her).

Read More: GOP Convention: Ivanka Trump Introduces Her Father, the "People's Nominee"

Other than displaying the nervous tic of softly purring during her pauses, she delivered a strong tribute to her father. She heavily emphasized his positive treatment of women, in an attempt to improve his lackluster appeal to the female population.

(On a side note, the media has been lavish in its praise of the Trump children, sometimes to a fault. But doesn't anyone wonder why none of them chose to go his or her own way in the world rather than work for Daddy? This isn't a family, it's a cult. Even Michael Corleone had to be reluctantly coaxed into the family business).

The opening acts were the usual mixed bag. Rev. Mark Burns earned cheers by telling the crowd that "all lives matter," the irony escaping him that throughout the entire convention there were more African-Americans on the podium than in the audience. Tennessee's Rep. Marsha Blackburn told the crowd that Trump "has lived the American dream," which is true since he was born rich and married a model. (She said more, but I stopped listening after she quoted Larry the Cable Guy.) Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin lamented that "our spirits are nearly broken," which was certainly the case with anyone who'd watched the convention four nights straight.

Reince Priebus began his address by saying, "I stand before this convention tonight" and you assumed he was going to say "a broken man." But no, the Republican National Committee Chairman continued to earn his substantial paycheck at the cost of his soul. He criticized Democrats for depending on superdelegates and bureaucrats, but considering that their party hasn't suffered a hostile takeover it seems like a pretty good system right now.

Billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel made history by proclaiming, "I'm proud to be gay, and I'm proud to be a Republican," despite the party's platform explicitly stating that children should be raised only by a man and a woman. He called for an "end to the era of stupid wars," not mentioning that he was willing to make an exception when it comes to Gawker. He also lamented the sorry state of government software, perhaps subtly angling for his company to take over Social Security payments.

Psychiatrists will have a field day analyzing the bizarre speech by Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack, whose opening statement, "I feel like the anchovies on Ivanka's Caesar Salad," elicited a collective "WTF?" from the crowd. Apparently put on the bill to prove that Trump actually has friends that he hasn't sired, Barrack admitted that in one of their past negotiations Trump "played me like a Steinway piano," practically giggling with delight at the thought. It was all kind of creepy, especially when you consider that the anecdotes he delivered, including one about taking a helicopter trip with Trump to Atlantic City for a Mike Tyson fight (you know, just like regular guys), were more personal than any of those delivered by the candidate's children.

There was also the obligatory video biography, this one narrated by Jon Voight (a brave move considering that Emmy voting has just begun). The hagiographic portrait, which felt like it was directed by Frank Capra and scored by Aaron Copland, made Abe Lincoln in Illinois look like an Oliver Stone production. In this revisionist retelling featuring effusive testimonials by many of his paid employees, Trump, like Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever, bravely made the journey from an outer borough to Manhattan to make his fortune. His first major business deal, involving the renovation of a midtown hotel, wasn't about making money, but rather about helping "the city rediscover its soul." There are many who would say that he's been helping the city lose it ever since.

Read More: Hollywood Reacts With Anger, Incredulity to Trump's RNC Speech
By India Today Web Desk: Imagine that you go out to walk your dog and that you randomly discover a giant humanoid robot.

Scary much?

This happened with a hiker who was shocked to have an unusual encounter with a terrifying robot. The robot was trekking through the wild with a team of human support staff.

She saw the creepy figure through the trees who was running across the ground. The robot apparently possesses great speed and was being tested by Boston Dynamics, reports the Mirror.

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Also read: Watch: Nivea built a robot seagull that craps sunscreen



Boston Dynamics have previously used the same forest for testing its humanoid robots.

If you want to find out how the experience might have been, here is a video posted four months ago by Boston Dynamics of a humanoid walking in the forest.





Also read: Made in China: Chinese soldier creates creepy robot rickshaw



--- ENDS ---
Zagreb (AFP) - A Croatian court on Friday quashed a communist era verdict convicting a controversial World War II-era cardinal for collaborating with the Nazis, infuriating neighbouring Serbia.

Alojzije Stepinac, who critics say failed to condemn the persecution of Serbs and Jews, headed Croatia's Catholic Church during WWII.

He was later sentenced by Yugoslav communist authorities for allegedly collaborating with the countrys pro-Nazi regime (NDH) which he denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in jail.

The 1946 verdict against Stepinac "grossly violates basic principles of both then and current criminal law", a Zagreb court judge said.

The goal of the trial was to "morally discredit him and the Catholic Church", judge Ivan Turudic said.

Stepinac spent five years in prison and was then put under house arrest. He died in 1960 at the age of 61.

The judge said the trial was a "rigged political process."

The quashing of the verdict, sought by Stepinac's nephew, immediately fuelled tensions with Serbia, where he is considered a war criminal.

In Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement: "This is not only Serbian-Croatian issue, this is a global and Europe's problem.... How is this possible in the European Union which was built on the victory over fascism?" he added.

Croats and Serbs fought each other during the WWII and during the Balkans 1990s wars. Croatia joined EU in 2013 as its 28th member.

Stepinac's trial was for long also a sticking point between the Catholic Church and the Yugoslav communist regime.

Stepinac has been beatified but has not been declared a saint.

In overwhelmingly Catholic country, many see Stepinac as a national hero and martyr for his attachment to an independent Croatia and unwavering faith in the face of communist persecution.

In 1992, Croatian lawmakers adopted a declaration condemning the "political verdict" against Stepinac.

Nearly 90 percent of the former Yugoslav republic's population of 4.2 million is Roman Catholic.
NextShark

Jahrah, who only has a first name as customary in Indonesia, went out to collect rubber on Sunday morning in the forest in Jambi Province on Sumatra Island, Indonesia. A search party was organized that night to find the 54-year-old grandmother, but they only found her sandals, headscarf and jacket, and the tools she used to gather rubber at the time. The search parties only found success a day later, on Monday, when they discovered a 22-foot-long (6.7-meters-long) python with a bulging stomach resting in the woods.
And a 5-room Queenstown flat was sold for $955,000.

Singapores central bank, which on Thursday singled out banks including UBS Group AG for lapses related to Malaysias scandal-riven investment fund, also put other financial firms on notice that isnt done probing the sector. In a statement Thursday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore rebuked UBS, DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and two other banks for weaknesses in anti-money laundering controls related to transactions tied to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. Read more here.

Keppel Corp., the worlds largest builder of oil rigs, sees little prospect of an improvement in global demand amid a supply surplus thats helped cut its quarterly profit to the lowest in almost a decade. The company may consider reducing its workforce and mothballing some facilities in its rig-building operations because of excess capacity, the Singapore-based company said Thursday. Find out more here.

Another HDB flat in Queenstown has been sold for close to $1 million in 2016. The 5-room resale flat at Block 52 Strathmore Avenue changed hands for $955,000 this month. With a built-up area of 1,184 sq ft, the price translates to about $807 psf. The block is within walking distance from Queenstown MRT station, while nearby schools include Queenstown Primary School and the Global Indian International School. Read more here.





More From Singapore Business Review


After the New Deal and the Fair Deal, America may soon be facing Donald Trump's Very, Very Incredible Deal, according to the Daily Show.

The Comedy Central series aired a parody biographical film on Thursday night, narrated by Rosie O'Donnell. "Before Donald Trump accepted his party's nomination, delegates viewed a short film about his work, life and overall fantasticness," explained Trevor Noah. "We bring it to you now - just slightly edited for clarity."

The video began with how Trump was born "nine months after the nuking of the Japanese Asians - some say, the radiation gave fetal Trump his Godzilla-sized business acumen and his Godzilla-sized head-to-hand ratio," explained O'Donnell. "In school, young Donald showed great promise as a negotiator, settling a dispute with his music teacher by punching him in the face."

Read More: Critic's Notebook: Donald Trump's Speech Closes GOP Convention on Apocalyptic Note

Though Trump attended New York Military Academy, he never fought in Vietnam "due to a sudden tragic diagnosis of heel spurs, a condition so debilitating it spread to his brain." Still, he repeatedly referred to his dating woes as his "personal Vietnam," and O'Donnell saluted, "Someone should pin a Purple Heart on that orange dick."

After business school, Trump began his real estate career with a loan from his father of "almost nothing" (aka a million dollars), and established Trump-branded properties around New York City, "turning a town of rundown eyesores into the home of the country's classiest eyesores." A slew of bankruptcies, a career in "fake business" on The Apprentice, "he seemed to have it all: money, fame and no beliefs to slow him down."

The video noted that his presidential campaign has seen him face "obstacles like smaller penised rivals, former wedding guests and dishonest media unfairly bent on destroying him by reporting actual things he said." When he targeted O'Donnell personally, she paused to say, "Okay, you f - ing piece of shit. ... I swear to Christ, I will step on you."

Story continues

See More: Republican National Convention Day 4: Top 5 Best Moments

Watch the video below.
When it comes to ground transportation, you pretty much know the options: Walk, bike or drive. Each offers a different balance of speed, exercise, cost, comfort and pollution.

You could argue, though, that theres room for another mode, one that fills in an important empty spot on that spectrum: the electric bike.

The electric motor on an e-bike basically amplifies the power of each pedal stroke, making easy work of hills and headwinds, getting you going faster, and giving you the chance to rest occasionally.

Legally, an e-bike is a bicycle. So unlike a motorcycle, you dont need a license, dont have to be 16, dont have to register it, dont have to fuss with a bunch of laws. (Also unlike a motorcycle, youre supposed to pedal most of the time.)

The good e-bikes seem surprisingly expensive  in the $3,500 range  until you consider how often you can commute or do errands on these things. Plenty of people can get away with an e-bike instead of a car (or instead of two $2.75 bus rides every day). And, of course, you never have to pay for gas. You sail past traffic jams, and you never have to hunt for (or pay for) parking.

OK. Now that youve had a crash course in the Fourth Great Mode of Land Transport, its time to introduce you to the Elby. Its a $3,700 e-bike, shipping in September, thats billed as the worlds first one-size-fits-most pedal assist hybrid bicycle thats attractive, intuitive, versatile and confidence inspiring.

The worlds first what?

When pressed, Elbys spokesperson refined that statement enough for me to assess.

First, integration. Many e-bikes are just regular bikes with motors and batteries bolted on. The Elby bike, though, was designed all at once, around a weather-sealed propulsion system (battery, motor, controls, screen) from a company called BionX (pronounced bionics). No other bike, according to Elby, was designed with the BionX system so smoothly integrated into the bike.

Second, the Elbys power and range are better than other bikes in its price class, as you can see here:

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And the Elby? 500 watts, and a 90-mile range.

Keep in mind that e-bike range figures are notoriously waffly. Obviously, youll get more range the less you use the motor. So 90 miles is the Elbys maximum  when you pedal over gentle terrain with a moderate level of assist, the company says. Hills, wind and using the motor at top power continuously give you much shorter range.

Heres whats cool about the BionX motor, though: Its got regenerative braking, just like a Prius or another hybrid car. That is, you can actually recharge the battery when youre coasting, extending it by (Elby says) 15% or so.

Riding the Elby

OK, so the Elby has more power, greater range, and more unified design than its high-end rivals. Looks great on paper. How is it to ride?

The power kicks in as soon as you begin to pedal  smoothly, firmly, easily, silently  and you start whooshing forward with an unexpected speed and grace. You feel like youve got thigh muscles the size of redwood trees. It is fantastic.

I would give anything to have a montage of peoples exclamations as they ride this thing for the first time. Friends, family, neighbors, our Yahoo film crew  everybody gets a turn, and everybody goes, Oh my GOD! or Oh MAN! or Holy ____! Everybody.

The sensation reminds me of your dads hand on your back when you first learned to ride your bike: a controlled, steady, affectionate boost forward. I wish you could try it. You may suddenly be more inclined to forgive the $3,700 price tag.

Many e-bikes deliver power either when you pedal or when you press an accelerator button. The Elby does either. That is, when youre tired of pedaling, you can press a thumb throttle on the right handlebar to deliver juice to the motor.

Also on that handlebar: + and  buttons. The + button cycles through four levels of push; use more when you want to go faster (or the hill is higher). The  button cycles through four levels of regenerative braking. Use more when youre going down a steep hill, to slow down the bike and convert its momentum back into battery charge.

Those buttons are the least satisfying part of the Elby. Whats the relationship between these different motor gears and the bikes actual gears? When should you use what?

Also: To cycle through all the way from the top-acceleration mode to the top-regeneration mode  for example, when you crest a big hill  you have to press the  button a total of eight times, which feels pretty clumsy.

(By the way: I asked where the name Elby comes from. Whose initials are L.B.? Nobodys  its short for ELectric BYcycle. Doh!)

A loaded e-bike

For $3,700, youd better get a really tricked-out vehicle  and you do. Its rain-proof and built like a tank, warrantied for three years; the motor and battery need no maintenance at all. And it comes with:

Nine gears. You can ride the Elby perfectly well even when the batterys totally dead; its just a bike. (A single-speed version is also available, for $200 less.)

Front and back LED lights. Really, really bright, clear lights up front; red taillights. A switch on the handlebar turns them on and off.

Hydraulic brakes . Tektro hydraulic disc brakes, to be precise.

Heavy-duty kickstand. Also rails for installing panniers (saddle bags).

Color screen. The bike computer is wireless and easy to twist on and off a post at the center of the handlebars. A button on the right handlebar controls what statistics it shows:

odometer, speed and so on.

Smartphone options. Whats cool, though, is that you can replace that little screen with your smartphone, running an Elby app. (The bike comes with an adhesive mounting disk for the back of your phone.) The app can show you a lot more details about your rides, including navigation and a history of your rides. It communicates with the bike by Bluetooth.

A USB charging jack. Yeah, thats right: This bike can recharge your phone as you ride. Where do I sign!?

A dinger bell. The battery on this thing is worth special note. Its an oddball shape, sculpted to fit neatly into a compartment beneath the main foot deck, which pops right off. (This 8-pound battery is down low on the frame, which keeps the center of gravity low for stability.)

You need a key to get the battery out; wouldnt want thugs stealing your battery, now, would you?

You can recharge the battery either in the bike (for example, in your garage at night) or out of it. For example, to recharge it while youre at work, you unlock it, grab its handle, lift it out, and bring it up to your desk to plug in. The battery takes five hours for a full charge, and is expected to last 2 to 3 years if you ride every day, or 3 to 5 years if you dont.

Reasons for pause

Theres no question that the Elby fulfills its mission, as defined by the two Austrian car-company veterans who came out of retirement to create it. It makes biking cities and suburbs more practical, more desirable, more pleasant. As many e-bike owners can attest, an e-bike means that you can commute to work and arrive not sweaty.

Even so, the joy isnt entirely without its asterisks.

The big one is the weight. This bike weighs 50 pounds. You really dont want to haul it up to your third-story walkup apartment every day.

The styling, as youve probably noticed, isnt exactly Tour de France. Its available in black, white, blue, gray or orange, but they all look like the bikes people ride to the market in Europe  more Schwinn than Ferrari. (It is nice that it has a step-through frame; theres no horizontal bar to make life difficult if youre wearing a skirt, a dress or a tuxedo.)

The front wheel has a quick-release lever, but not the back one. And you have to use an Allen wrench to adjust the seat; theres no quick-adjust lever, as youd find on friendlier bikes. Since everyone within miles is going to want a turn riding the Elby, that seat-adjustment business will get old fast.

Finally, the top speed of this bikes motor is 20 mph. (Rival bikes can go up to, for example, 28 mph.) Once you hit 20 mph, you feel a weird damping, as though a ghost is holding you back. You can pedal the bike faster, pushing through that threshold, especially when going downhill  but it feels as though the bike really doesnt want you to go any faster. (The company says youre just feeling the difference between the electric push and your manual pedaling.)

A little push

Even so, the Elby is a joy. You cant wait to get back on it and feel the wind rushing by.

An e-bike sits on its own special place on the spectrum of transport: Like a bike, it makes you part of your environment, giving you a sense of really experiencing your surroundings. But like a car, it gets you where youre going faster, and helps you out when you need it.

Later in the summer, I plan to review a wide range of e-bikes  thank you, Elby, for getting me excited about the category. But its already clear that in the tournaments of design integration, power (500 watts), and range (90 miles), the Elby is already a winner.

David Pogue is the founder of Yahoo Tech; heres how to get his columns by email. On the Web, hes davidpogue.com. On Twitter, hes @pogue. On email, hes poguester@yahoo.com. He welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below.
Critics of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have accused each candidate of having the ability to create a constitutional crisis. Such claims, however, are nothing new. As constitutional scholars Jack Balkin and Sanford Levinson point out, the Constitution was written against a backdrop of perceived crisis, and so not surprisingly, the language of crisis, has been repeated throughout discussions of American politics and American constitutionalism since the Founding. Yet the label constitutional crisis has no fixed meaning.

President Jackson, a player in the Nullification Crisis

People often label periods when government institutions are in conflict as constitutional crises. But Balkin and Levinson criticize the promiscuous use of the term crisis to describe constitutional conflicts of every size. The branches of American government are usually in conflict on a daily basis. Yet this is arguably the very purpose of the checks-and-balances system that the Framers envisioned, and rather than representing a constitutional failure, such conflict represents how the system is working properly. If we were to say that every such confrontation was a crisis, we would have to conclude that the American Constitution was designed to place the country in a state of perpetual crisis, they write

For instance, certain constitutional criseslike the Saturday Night Massacre, when President Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Coxmay be mere political crises. Many characterize President Roosevelts Court-packing plan of 1937 as a constitutional crisis, but Balkin and Levinson dispute this: Roosevelt simply accepted his defeat and did not attempt to install extra Justices without congressional approval. Even the impeachment of a president can hardly be seen as a constitutional crisis since procedures for impeachment are written into the Constitution.

So what constitutes a true constitutional crisis? Balkin and Levinson define a constitutional crisis as a major instance in history that serves as a significant turning point in the existing constitutional order, in which the order may have threatened to break down but instead may have resulted in an altered status quo. The secret, they note, is not to think of constitutional crises in terms of constitutional disagreement, but in terms of constitutional design. NCC scholar-in-residence Michael Gerhardt, in Crisis and Constitutionalism, describes constitutional crises similarly, as instances where there is no adequate constitutional mechanism available to solve a particular problemwhen the Constitution is of no avail.

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The clearest example of a true constitutional crisis was the Civil War. Arthur Bestor, in The American Civil War as Constitutional Crisis, explains how the Civil War actually encompassed a series of the most severe constitutional crises the country has faced. The War and events leading up to it also provide examples of three different types of constitutional crises that Balkin and Levinson define.

The first type of constitutional crisis results when disagreements about the Constitution lead political actors to engage in extraordinary forms of protest: people take to the streets, armies mobilize, and force is used or threatened. The Nullification Crisis under President Jackson was one such example. After Congress passed high protective tariffs on manufactured goods that favored the North, South Carolina declared the tariffs void in the Ordinance of Nullification, even threatening to leave the Union. President Jackson saw this move as treasonous and asked Congress for authorization to use military force against rebellious states. Congress passed both the Force Billwhich granted Jacksons authorizationas well as a compromise tariff. In response to the compromise tariff, South Carolina rescinded the Ordinance. But the Crisis foreshadowed the eventual secession of the South. As Jackson wrote, the tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the . . . slavery question.

The next type of constitutional crisis is when fidelity to constitutional forms leads to ruin or disaster. This kind of crisis occurred when President Buchanan, Lincolns predecessor, sat by while the southern states seceded from the Union. Buchanan believed that the seceded states had violated the Constitution, but he also believed that that the Constitution did not give the national government the power to prevent secession by using force: Congress had the means to preserve the Union by conciliation, but the sword was not placed in their hand to preserve it by force. Yet following such formalism to its end would have destroyed the country and Constitution.

Conversely, President Lincoln recognized that the Constitution was intended to preserve a preexisting nation, and he believed that his constitutional duty to preserve the Union trumped all other obligations. But bending constitutional rules creates constitutional crises of a different sort. A third type of crisis thus emerges when political leaders believe that certain exigencies require violation of the Constitution. Some argue this happened when Lincoln unilaterally suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and ignored Chief Justice Taneys ruling in Ex Parte Merryman that his suspension was unconstitutional by refusing to release the prisoner John Merryman. Others note that Lincoln believed that the Constitution granted the power to suspend the writ to both Congress and the executive, and Congress later sanctioned suspension anyway. But even if he had acted unconstitutionally, Lincoln thought it justified in order to preserve the Union; as he explained to Congress: Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the Government itself to go to pieces, lest that one be violated?

As Balkin summarizes, if the goal of a constitution is to preserve political stability and make ordinary forms of democratic politics possible, then a constitutional crisis occurs when the constitutional system can no longer perform this function. Such instances are rare episodes in which political leaders must recognize and address the inadequacy of the Constitutionwhich, by its nature as a determinate, written document, has limitations.

And how a president deals with a constitutional crisis can make or break both the country and his or her presidency. As Annette-Gordon Reed writes in her biography, Andrew Johnson, Crisis widens presidential opportunities for bold and imaginative action. But it does not guarantee presidential greatness. The inadequacies of Buchanan in the face of secession allowed Lincolnwho was more active and successful in meeting the challenge of crisis, and who is simultaneously ranked as one of our best presidentsto showcase the difference that individuals make to history.

Back to the 2016 election, and the portents of constitutional crisis: From Johnson to Nixon, Congress and the Supreme Court have been largely successful in checking executive power, as the legislative and judicial branches through checks-and-balances can step up to defend the Constitution. And of course, theres always impeachment.

Therefore, while many commentators are concerned about whether the next president might create a constitutional crisis, they must also consider how well he or she might handle them.

Lana Ulrich is associate in-house counsel at the National Constitution Center.
By PTI: Chennai, Jul 22 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today thanked her Uttarakhand counterpart Harish Rawat for taking steps to install the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in his state, calling it a "positive action."

"I am grateful that you have responded speedily and positively to the outpouring of sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu on this sensitive issue.

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"I am happy to learn that you have arranged for the installation of the statue of Thiruvalluvar in the premises of Mela Bhavan in Haridwar. On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I thank you for your prompt and positive action," she told Rawat in a letter.

The AIADMK Supremo told Rawat that the issue had been causing "considerable disquiet in Tamil Nadu," and that she had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu had expressed concern over the statue of the saint poet reportedly lying wrapped in a park in Haridwar after efforts by BJP MP Tarun Vijay to install it on the banks of river Ganga failed allegedly due to protests from local sadhus.

Several parties in Tamil Nadu had sought the intervention of the Tamil Nadu government in solving the row. PTI SA ROH DV

--- ENDS ---
Derrick Rose speaks during a news conference at Madison Square Garden in June. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Kevin Durants decision to join the Golden State Warriors served as the latest shot in the ongoing battle to form the NBAs strongest superteam. An arms race that hit new highs after LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in 2010 has turned into an annual issue. General managers do their best to construct their own strong squads, stars usually only seriously consider teams that already have several high-level players, and unlucky owners rail against the rules that make such moves possible.

[Follow Dunks Dont Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

At the same time, its fairly apparent that not all high-profile moves result in the construction of a superteam. Not every team can be the Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, or San Antonio Spurs. And that can make it somewhat embarrassing when someone acts as if hes part of a potential juggernaut when pretty much no one thinks thats the case.

Alas, we must call out newly acquired New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose for just this mistake. From an interview with Lang Whitaker of NBA.com:

Q: Knicks fans always have high expectations, sometimes maybe not even grounded in reality over the years. Before last season, Melo came out on media day and talked about managing expectations with such a young team. But with this roster now and all these veterans, what should the expectations be for the Knicks?

ROSE: Theyre high. I mean, with these teams right now, theyre saying us and Golden State are the super teams, and theyre trying not to build that many super teams, and Adam Silver came out with the statement and this and that. And the expectations I think of us, we just want to win. Talking to Melo and all the guys whove been around. Youve got Brandon [Jennings] who just signed for one year, hes got to show why hes there. Ive got to show why Im there. Joakim [Noah] has to show why hes there. Everybodys trying to prove themselves. When youve got a group like that, its like, alright, I know everybody wants to do that, but were going to break this down as simple as possible, and try to win every game. I think winning takes care of every category, as far as being an athlete. You look at endorsements, being on the floor, almost everything  I think winning takes care of all that. And if youre in the league, winning takes care of all the mistakes, or if you have any problems on teams.

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Lets be clear  Rose might be the first person to speak of the Knicks and Warriors as peers. The Warriors have constructed an honest-to-god juggernaut with four current All-NBA selections, one of the leagues best reserves and perimeter defenders, and enough ring-seeking role players to fill out a solid postseason rotation. The Knicks possibly would have been a superteam in 2011, a joke so many of us have made in the last few weeks that its not especially funny anymore. But injuries to Rose, newly signed center Joakim Noah, and oft-criticized star Carmelo Anthony have made this roster look more like a casual fans idea of a superteam than one that anyone takes especially seriously.

Its instructive that Melo was much less willing to set a ceiling for the Knicks when asked about their potential earlier this week. From Al Iannazzone for Newsday:

We have a very special team on paper right now, Anthony said after the U.S. mens Olympic team held its first practice Monday. I think we have a good opportunity to do some things this year. Its all about what we do. Its all about us now. Its all about how we come together, how we jell together. For the most part, the pieces are there, so its up to us.

Anthony used the expression on paper three different times when talking about the Knicks. Chemistry and how some of the players whom team president Phil Jackson brought in hold up healthwise and under the scrutiny in New York will determine where the Knicks end up.

Anthony also said the time is now in reference to this rosters potential, but thats an unavoidable thought when so many key players look past their primes. The key takeaway here is that he understands just how much will have to go right for the Knicks to become a contender.

Its understandable why Rose is confident. Years of injuries and disappointments mean that he has the chance to rekindle his career away from Chicago, where his 2011 MVP and status as a homegrown star solidified unrealistic expectations for his comebacks. For that matter, athletes usually have to aim for greatness as a precondition of achieving it.

Itd be fine if Rose just said he sees the Knicks as a superteam. Where he gets himself in trouble is in claiming that others think the same. Perhaps Rose will eventually prove correct, but he has a lot of work to do to show us were wrong.

      

Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Dont Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @FreemanEric
(Adds background, EBRD source quotes)

By Marc Jones

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Friday it will continue to lend in Turkey following the failed coup attempt in the country and subsequent surge in political uncertainty.

Turkey has become the EBRD's largest market since it banned new Russian lending in 2014 and pumped a record 1.9 billion euros ($2.10 billion) into the country last year.

This week's crackdown on rights by Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has drawn criticism from a number of the EBRD's big shareholder governments, the bank isn't about to withdraw. "We will stay engaged in Turkey," an EBRD spokesman told Reuters.

The development bank, whose members agree to apply "the principles of multiparty democracy, pluralism and market economics", had been expecting to see another bumper year of investment in Turkey this year.

The bulk of its projects are in the banking, agricultural infrastructure and energy sectors, but it is also spending roughly 200 million euros there over the next couple of years to ease the spillovers of the Syria refugee crisis.

One EBRD decision maker, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said Turkey's recent "drift away" from the preferred political path had made decisions more "sensitive".

Nevertheless, it was Europe's broader drive to secure Ankara's help with the migrant crisis and in tackling the threat of Islamist militancy, that would keep the money flowing.

"The EBRD is to some degree political of course, but it is only very small and it certainly will not do anything that would be detrimental to the wishes of its (big) shareholders," the source said.

($1 = 0.9066 euros) (Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
This week, scholars Josh Blackman and Michael Gerhardt will discuss on Twitter the constitutional aspects of issues arising at the Republican National Convention. Today, they look at the Republican Partys concerns about next Supreme Court nominee.

convenrecapfriday

On Thursday night, GOP candidate Donald J. Trump repeated calls from the Republican Party platform that the next Justice on the Supreme Court should resemble the late Antonin Scalia.

We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution, Trump said. The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election.

To follow the discussion between our scholars on Twitter, go to our Twitter account at @ConstitutionCTR
By Amy Tennery and Angela Moon CLEVELAND/NEW YORK (Reuters) - At times, the speech was drowned out by the cheering crowds in the arena of the Republican National Convention. Social media crowned a new political star. Some Republicans said they were seeing the U.S. president they longed for. It was Ivanka Trumps night. The eldest daughter of New York businessman-turned-presidential nominee Donald Trump almost stole the show on Thursday night with a speech about her father that roused a packed Cleveland convention hall, broadcast to millions. On Google, there were more searches for Ivanka Trump than for her father. The 34-year old businesswoman and former model talked about her father's yearning to improve America, childcare, equal pay for women and other issues close to her heart, with a poise some found befitting of the White House. "Okay, why isn't @IvankaTrump running for President?" television actor Anson Mount said in a Twitter post. "One of the best speeches - if not the best speech - tonight," said Chris Herrod, a 50-year-old delegate from Utah who had worked for Trump's vanquished rival Ted Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas. One of Trump's five children, Ivanka was chosen to introduce her father, who then officially accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Since Trump announced his intention to run for the White House last year, she has been steadily drawn into her fathers presidential campaign along with her 35-year-old husband Jared Kushner. The couple both take part in the Trump campaigns family meeting each Monday morning, helping make decisions about spending and strategy, according to a source familiar with the meetings. Among the children, Ivanka is the one who is often the bridge to women voters and seems to have the mission of selling her father's softer side. When she is not involved in the campaign, she helps to run the family's sprawling business empire from its New York City headquarters. This week in Cleveland she has been everywhere, lobbying for her father with delegates and donors, appearing in television interviews and leaving a trail of picture-taking fans in her wake. One man, a Republican delegate in Cleveland, carried a placard all week around the convention that read: Ivanka, 2024. First Female President. Her star turn in Cleveland was one of the top trending topics on Twitter late on Thursday, with about 121 tweets mentioning her name posted every minute. Overall sentiment on her was more positive than negative by a ratio of 3 to 1, according to analytics firm Zoomph. Ivanka missed her one chance to date to vote for her father: she had not changed her party registration from Democrat to Republican in time to cast a ballot in the April 19 New York primary election. She more than compensated on Thursday night, some convention delegates said. "She gave us enormous insight into him and the kind of man he is," said retiree Fernando C. deBaca, a 78-year-old New Mexico delegate. "She's (an) enormously capable young lady, as is her brother. We're going to see the beginning of a dynasty here." (Additional reporting by Michelle Conlin and Emily Flitter; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Howard Goller)
A critique frequently lobbed at Hollywood tentpole films is that their last acts are usually punishingly long. Leave it to Donald Trump to make an entire speech an endless, tedious final battle, complete with every possible apocalyptic reference short of the Illuminati. In his acceptance speech at the closing night of the Republican National Convention, Trump dispensed almost completely with anything that wasnt bombastic.

His daughter Ivanka, who introduced him, had tried to soften her fathers image with references to daycare and lunch-bucket workers. Whether or not anything Ivanka said was true (and there was a lot in both speeches that was not backed up by credible evidence), her attempts to take the edges off his fear-mongering worldview evaporated very quickly.

Once her father took the stage, it was all strongman code. America first, he said, to loud cheers. Build the wall was a chant heard over and over again. All Hillary Clinton had brought to the world was death, destruction, terrorism and weakness, a theme he hammered relentlessly.

I am the law-and-order candidate, Trump said. He repeated variations of that phrase more than Dick Wolf probably has all year, as many snarked on Twitter. We are going to start winning again.

Winning, according to Trump, would come very quickly if voters put him in office. Very soon after being sworn in as President, he told the crowd, he would fix all the bad trade deals, change the tax laws and energy policies, and create jobs. He made it all sound easy, as if making America great again would take him a couple of months, maybe a year. If it was all so simple, how come no one has done it? They hadnt had the guts, because they werent Donald Trump.

It was a night marked by cognitive dissonance, putting a wrench into the logic gears of the human brain. The band played Here Comes the Sun, but Trump painted a picture of a nation beset by an epidemic of lawlessness, of citizens living in fear of almost every kind of threat, from Chinese currency to thousands of criminally inclined refugees. Never mind that studies show immigrants are less likely to commit crimes. Never mind that crime statistics are down over time, according to the FBI.

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The cognitive dissonance began with Peter Thiel, who talked about being a proud gay man and the useless distraction of fake culture wars, not understanding that those who fought for LGBT rights were derided and mocked for decades for prioritizing that particular cultural battle. He acknowledged not agreeing with all of the partys positions, but failed to mention that the RNC platform advocates conversion therapy and opposes marriage equality.

Ivanka talked about how female-friendly her fathers company was, but like Melania Trump on Monday, she offered very little in specifics. He sounded like someone she had once sat next to on a cross-country flight, not someone shed spent her life with.

But Thiel, who rushed through his remarks, and Ivanka, who was glacially composed through her anodyne speech, were no match for Trump, who held the crowds attention simply by shouting his way through his record-long 76-minute diatribe.

His only stumble was over the acronym LGBTQ, tentatively sounding it out in a reference to the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Miami. But he didnt dwell on that awful day or the hate that motivated it for long. No good, he said, before moving on to the next travesty destroying America and repeating law and order a dozen more times.

What linked Trumps speech to the majority of other speakers this week is a pathological obsession with Clinton. According to Trump, she is both a puppet of her elitist paymasters and an all-powerful, shadowy entity capable of committing almost every evil act imaginable.

But the point of this speech was never about logic; appealing to reason was never the big idea. The point was to stoke fear, to wear the audience down, to break down their defenses so that the terrifying end-times clash-of-cultures messages got through.

I am your voice, Trump said. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

As a commentator on PBS NewsHour coverage of the speech noted, Trump frequently sounds like someone at the center of a cult of personality. Trump painted Clinton as a spectral villain, but in the end, hes the one who sounded like a messianic narcissist.

The biggest disjunction of all came around the midpoint of his speech, when he said Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome and never will be. Fine, stirring words, but Trump, like most B-movie villains, couldnt see how hypocritical that sentence was. Hed spent the better part of an hour whipping up racist tendencies and describing a xenophobic America that, according to him, views much of the rest of the world with fear, if not outright disgust.

Much of his message was coded (inner cities, America first, violence spilling across our borders), but it wasnt difficult to understand what kind of beliefs Trump was espousing. At the end of a long week, it was hard not to construct a mental wall to stem the flow of Trumps fear-mongering, but enough got through. Viewers heard him, and his peroration got the convention attendees on their feet, cheering and clapping.

But it wasnt for them, apparently, even though Trump often paused to soak in the love of the crowd.

Hes going to speak to the nation, not to the Republican Party, his campaign advisor Paul Manafort said earlier that evening, before Trump came to the stage. Now hes focused on the broader message to America.

If it was meant to be broad, it felt awfully narrow.

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The Winners and Losers From the Republican National Convention

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Jon Stewart to Trump Supporters: 'You Don't Own America'
Donald Trump "humbly" accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday night, delivering a blistering speech that painted America as being crippled by chaos and himself as its only savior.

Crime "threatens our way of life" and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has left a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness," he proclaimed.

Read: Heckled Ted Cruz Defends Decision Not to Endorse Trump: I Don't Support People Who Attack My Wife

It was the most important speech of his short political career  delivered at a time when the GOP is sorely divided and its convention marred by his wife's plagiarized speech Monday night and Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs defiant address Wednesday, when he refused to endorse Trump and was booed offstage.

I have a message for all of you. The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon  and I mean very soon  come to an end, Trump said Thursday night as the four-day convention in Cleveland drew to a close.

He did not say how he would end violence or crime.

Safety will be restored, he declared.

His remarks were briefly interrupted by a Code Pink protester who shouted Hes a danger to the world! Donald Trump is a racist  Build bridges, not walls, before she was escorted out.

Trumps promised wall between Mexico and the U.S. was a major part of his speech. "llegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored," he said.

Story continues

He blasted Clinton for her support of allowing Syrian refugees to enter the country, saying she is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration and mass lawlessness."

"I only want to allow people in who will love our country," he said. And he promised to ban all immigrants from countries where ISIS has a stronghold.

"I am your voice!" he declared in a speech that lasted an hour and 15 minutes, one of the longest in GOP history.

Not so fast, said Hillary Clinton.

You are not our voice, @realDonaldTrump.  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016

The nominee was introduced by Ivanka Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, who called her father "the peoples champion" and "the peoples nominee."

Echoing her dads campaign theme, she announced, "This is the moment, and Donald Trump is the person, to make America great again."

She presented a polished image of a man with strong work values, of an employer who promoted women and of an entrepreneur who dreamed big and thought big.

She spoke of being a child, building towers with Legos in her fathers office while he built real-life skyscrapers of steel and glass. She touted her fathers "work values" in promoting his female employees and talking with workers of every skill level.

She did not mention her fathers vow to erect a huge wall to keep out Mexicans or his belief in banning Muslims from entering America.

"No one has more faith in the American people than my father. This is the fighter, the doer, you have picked as your nominee."

Earlier in the night, Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel made GOP history by proclaiming he was gay while speaking to the Republican National Convention.

Every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American, he said to huge applause.

Openly gay men addressed GOP conventions in 1996 and 2000 but did not mention their sexuality.

Read: Sealing the Nomination With a Kiss: The Awkward Moment Trump Tried to Smooch Running Mate

When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union, said Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and a Trump delegate. And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of Virginias famous TV evangelist, and the president of Liberty University, called Trump a "blue-collar billionaire."

He also shared a joke told by dad Jerry Falwell Sr.

His father once dreamed that he told Chelsea Clinton the three greatest threats to America were Osama, Obama and Yo Mama, the son said.

"Well, Osama is now gone," he said Thursday, referring to terror leader Osama bin Laden. "Obama has six months left in his term. And the only way to make America great and one again is to tell Chelsea's mama, 'Youre fired.'"

Watch: Lip Reader Reveal What Trump Said During Cruz's Speech: Did I Make a Mistake?

Related Articles:
After more than 13 months of campaigning, real estate billionaire and reality TV star Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican Partys nomination for president in a speech that evoked the dark themes of his campaign  immigration violence, economic chaos and American weakness.

I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States, Trump told a cheering crowd at Clevelands Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday. We will be a country of generosity and warmth but we will also be a country of law and order.

However, he quickly turned to attack his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy, he said, adding, I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts.

Also Read: Peter Thiel Makes History at 'Most Pro-LGBT' GOP Convention Ever

The crowd seemed to agree, shouting in a unified chant: Lock her up! Lock her up!

Trumps speech was one of the longest in recent history  an hour and 15 minutes, according to cable news. In an often repetitive stemwinder, Trump promised to simplify international trade agreements, build a wall on the Mexican border, defeat the Islamic State and end violence in the country. He also promised to do all these things fast.

He emphasized that he was a different kind of candidate  and represented a different tone from politics as usual. We can not afford to be so politically-correct anymore, he said. At our convention there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else.

Despite a week of hiccups that nearly overshadowed his big moment, Trump seemed to have the audience in his thrall, with delegates stopping him for nearly a minute chanting, USA! USA!

Also Read: Sheldon Adelson Refuses to Let Ted Cruz Enter RNC Donor Suite After Speech

Trump was introduced by his daughter, Ivanka, who praised him as a colorblind, gender neutral person who was not the man painted as being racist and anti-women during the campaign.

Story continues

Ivanka said shed worked for 10 years beside her father and watched him promote women. Policies that allow women to thrive should not be anomalies, they should be the norm, she said, sounding more like a Democrat than a Republican.

He will fight for equal pay and equal work, and I will fight too, right alongside him, she vowed.

In his own speech, Trump told the story of a woman killed by an immigrant, after which the crowd shouted, Build the wall! Build the wall!

Also Read: Trump Today: Sexist Comments, Tombstone and Scapegoating Marco Rubio (Video)

Trump also addressed the recent shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas telling delegates, Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims. I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored.

Looking determined in a dark suit with a satin red tie, Trump pivoted to speak of championing the Amerian worker who has been ignored, neglected and abandoned. The forgotten men and women of our country. But theyre not gonna be forgotten long.

Pointing into the camera he said: I am your voice. At this point, the crowd rose in a frenzy, roaring approval with wave after wave of full-throated noise.

Beeaking from the partys platform, which has been criticized for being one of the most anti-gay the party has ever put forth, Trump made a point to address LGBT voters and delegates, after his party has been harshly criticized for putting forth one of the most anti-LGBT platforms in GOP history.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist, he said. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBTQ community.

After the crowd roared in approval, Trump added: I must say as a Republican its so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said.

Also Read: Watch Anti-Trump Mob Debate Lone Trump Supporter at RNC (Video)

Trump doubled down on his controversial Muslim ban, insisting the flood of Muslim immigrants is dangerous to national security.

Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be, he said

Trump promised to deliver on his biggest campaign promise while bringing up what many in the Republican Party believe to be his biggest selling point: his business acumen.

Its been a signature message of my campaign from day one, Trump said. I have made billions of dollars in business making deals, now Im going to make our country rich again.

Trump did not explain how he would go about doing it but did say he would turn around the countrys bad trade agreements, calling NAFTA one of the worst economic trade agreements ever.

He also vowed a tax reform, proposing the largest tax deduction of any candidate running this year, Democrat or Republicans, with taxes simplified for everyone. This, he said, will result in jobs roaring back. Per usual, none of this came with any specifics.

Trump sealed his address with a promise: Im with you, I will fight for you and I will win for you, he concluded. We will make America strong again, we will make America proud again, we will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.
If you only read one thing: Donald Trumps conventions dark turn continued Thursday night, as the Republican presidential nominee painted a picture of a nation in decline and at war, both abroad and at home. The speech was a fitting capstone to a week which highlighted death and destruction and economic malaise. The uniquely gloomy message seemed designed to resonate with the majority of Americans who still feel the nation is on the wrong track. Hillary Clintons message is that things will never change, Trump said in the clearest summation of his campaigns organizing principle. My message is that things have to change  and they have to change right now. But Trump was light on how hed bring about the change, instead betting that his catch-all anger would be enough to win voters to his side.

Trumps campaign entered the convention hoping to show the personal side of Donald Trump and to help voters imagine him in the White House. Instead, a series of distractions overshadowed entire days of convention programming as Trumps most-scripted moments hit some snags. Taken as a whole, Trump was successful at softening his image, in particular in the fourth night of programing as friend Tom Barrack and Ivanka Trump delivered testimonials. But its too early to tell whether voters will buy it.

Hillary Clinton is expected to announce her selection for Vice President as soon as Friday in a message to her supporters. Strong signals from her orbit point to Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her selection. The admittedly boring candidate would be a safe pick for the presumptive Democratic nominee, designed to highlight her experience without overshadowing her less-than-thrilling campaign persona.

Fact-checking Trumps speech. How Trump appealed to LGBTQ voters. And young Republicans speak out.

Well be back on Monday with more from the Democratic convention in Philadelphia on Monday. Here are your must reads:

Story continues

Must Reads

Midnight in America: Donald Trumps Gloomy Convention Speech

TIMEs Alex Altman on Trumps message of fear

Republican Convention Ends With Mixed Results for Donald Trump

He came with a clear goal, but distractions muddled the message [TIME]

Donald Trumps Big Convention Gamble Could Shock Hillary Clinton

TIMEs David Von Drehle on Trumps unique playbook

Hillary Clinton Prepares for Vice Presidential Pick

Announcement expected within the next 24 hours [TIME]

Young Republicans Want the GOP to Back Off Social Issues

TIME speaks with young convention-goers

Fact-Checking Donald Trumps Acceptance Speech

TIMEs Haley Sweetland Edwards checks the GOP nominees assertions about crime

How Donald Trump Courted Gay Voters at the Convention

TIMEs Philip Elliott on Trumps overture

Sound Off

I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.  Donald Trump as Republicans cheered his call for protections for LGBTQ people

Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.  Donald Trump opening his doom-and-gloom message at the GOP convention

Bits and Bites

How the Establishment Beat Ted Cruz and Never Trump [TIME]

Ivanka Trump Steals the Show [TIME]

Watch Jon Stewart Return to Late Night to Shred Trump, the GOP and Fox News [TIME]

Photographing Tensions at the Republican Convention [TIME]

Never Trump Lives, Sort Of [TIME]

GOP Shows White Supremacists Tweet During Trumps Speech [TIME]
Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel knew he just had to get to the end of the line. Dont slow down, dont give the audience a chance to react until he had delivered the whole point.

I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American, Thiel said Thursday, drawing Republicans to their feet in cheers of USA, USA on the final night of their nominating convention.

The words made history  the first time a Republican convention speaker noted his sexual orientation  but also left the party stuck in something of a contradiction. Donald Trumps acceptance speech mentioned gay rights and it drew cheers too. I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you, Trump said, straying slightly from an otherwise closely scripted speech. It was an uneasy moment inside the hall, with those who disagreed choosing to stay silent.

After all, days earlier, the party adopted as part of its platform ideas that gays and lesbians can be made into heterosexuals through conversion therapies and that marriage should be limited to straight couples  setting aside the Supreme Court ruling that rendered opposition moot with a ruling that all couples can marry. If the GOP platform were enacted, some of Thiels rights would be rolled back.

To say there has been a tension over LGBT rights in Cleveland would be an understatement. Thursday nights end of Republicans nominating convention brought to an end one of the most disjointed, least consistent weeks in American politics. Thiel didnt even make it through the first paragraph of his speech when a heckler shouted an antigay epithet from the balcony. By the time Thiel uttered his six, history-making words  I am proud to be gay  the audience inside the arena had come to see Thiel as a person, not someone who deserved jeered.

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Thiels inclusion on the schedule was always high-risk. Yes, he founded PayPal and was an early Facebook investor. But hes also an openly gay man in a party that has seldom embraced such members. Like the broader culture, there is a generational divide on LGBT rights inside the GOP, and this was not an audience that tilted toward youth. Thiel and his team knew the appearance was fraught with potential problems, but decided it was worth the risk. He just had to keep the speech moving.

When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union, and we won. Now, we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares? Thiel said, nodding to his libertarian instincts and showing his disgust with those who have kept their eyes on public bathrooms. Fights about such private spaces should not have been in the platform, to Thiels frustration.

I dont pretend to agree with every plank in our partys platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline, Thiel said. And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump. It was a rejection of the GOP orthodoxy with Trumps tacit endorsement.

There are signs that party is shifting. At a packed, off-site event this week, reality-TV personality and Olympian Caitlyn Jenner said it was easier to come out as transgender than to come out as a Republican. I get it. The Democratic Party does a better job when it comes to the LGBT and trans community, Jenner said. The Republican Party needs to understand. They need to know people who are trans.

The culture wars, however, had a fertile battleground in Cleveland. Retired Lieut.-Gen. Michael Flynn mocked the Obama Administration for being too inclusive with the military: War is not about bathrooms. It won hearty support from delegates on the floor, who see LGBT rights as yet another example of political correctness gone wild. Trump brought the crowd to a roar, saying: We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

So delegates are to be forgiven for not fully understanding what, exactly, the GOP is trying to do at other points. From the podium, a Trump executive said her boss knows LGBTQ lives matter  using one of the more inclusive versions of an acronym that is not on the tips of these conservatives tongues. We are the party of the open door, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich framed LGBT rights through national security. If our enemies had their way, gays, lesbians and transgender citizens would be put to death as they are today in the Islamic State and Iran, he said. And Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said the Constitution does not see sexual identity. Whether you are gay or straight, the Bill of Rights protects the rights of all of us to live according to our conscience, he said.

Thiel was the first openly gay individual to address a GOP convention since 2000, when former Representative Jim Kolbe spoke  and some delegates lowered their head in silent, prayerful protest back then, even though Kolbe said nothing about his sexuality. But thats not to say gays and lesbians have not been at conventions since. Mary Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and one of his top aides, watched her fathers 2004 speech from the VIP box with her partner Heather. And there is a corps of LGBT Republican operatives who power the party behind the scenes and fund it with their checkbooks.

Thiels moment Thursday night was, in part, an acknowledgement that the party has made its road to the White House more difficult than it needed to be. Four years ago, with a less-conservative platform on marriage, Republicans won just 22% of voters who identified themselves to exit pollsters as gay, lesbian or bisexual. President Obamas re-election bid carried 76% of them.

Thiels speech Thursday night was unlikely to push it to an equal balance, but it might have changed a few minds inside the hall  the very people who insisted on the socially conservative platform positions that Democrats so easily demonize.
Trinamool Congress delegation is all set to visit Rajkot and Una in Gujarat even as violent protests continue unabated in the state.

By Indrajit Kundu: A three-member Trinamool Congress delegation is all set to visit Rajkot and Una in Gujarat on Saturday even as violent protests continue unabated in the state. The delegation comprises of Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien and Lok Sabha MP's Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Pratima Mandal.

Party spokesperson Derek O'Brien made the announcement in an official statement on Friday. "After raising the issue in Parliament and participating in the debate, now it is time to further assess the situation on the ground and meet those affected," he said.

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MAMATA BANERJEE SAYS UNA INCIDENT ORGANISED CRIME AGAINST DALITS

Earlier this week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had taken to micro-blogging site Twitter to express her concerns over the crime against Dalits in Gujarat. "Incident in Una is organised crime against Dalits. I urge Central Govt to treat Dalits with care & give full protection. This is unacceptable," Banerjee had tweeted.

Gujarat is witnessing violent protests by Dalits with several incidents of clashes and public vehicles being set ablaze by protestors in Una and other parts of north Gujarat. Violence broke out after four Dalit youths at Una were paraded and thrashed for allegedly killing a cow on July 11. The incident has caused a nationwide stir after the video of the incident went viral and the protestors demanded strict action against the perpetrators.

ALSO READ | Una Dalit thrashing: As Opposition guns for Gujarat govt, Union ministers come to Anandiben's defence



--- ENDS ---
When Donald Trump didn't accept the resignation of his wife's speechwriter, Meredith McIver, after it was revealed that she accidentally copied some of Michelle Obama's 2008 remarks for Melania Trump's speech on Monday night at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the move seemed to come as a surprise to those who called on (or expected) the campaign to fire whoever was responsible for the plagiarism scandal.

Speaking to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that aired on Thursday's Good Morning America, the GOP presidential candidate reiterated the same message that he reportedly told McIver: Everyone makes mistakes.

"She's been with me a long time. She's a very good person," Trump said of McIver. "She came to see me because she hated to see the conflict and she made a mistake. People make mistakes. You've made mistakes. We all make mistakes. And I think it was terrific how she just came forward and said, 'Look, it was a mistake that I made,' and she thought it was very unfair to Melania."

When asked how his wife is dealing with the scandal, Trump indicated she's tough and that he thinks the moment has passed.

"How she's handling all of this - It's a different world. Who would ever think to this extent, no matter where you move, no matter where you breathe, it's like a big deal. But she handles it well. She's a strong woman, she's a good woman. I thought she made an incredible speech," he said. "Now that cloud has lifted off her, which I think was very unfair."

And Trump appreciated that, as he saw it, the media didn't blame her for what happened.

"Interestingly, the press treated Melania very well because they didn't think it was her," he said.

Read More: Critic's Notebook: It's Cruz v. Trump All Over Again at GOP Convention

Trump also previewed his Thursday night speech and said that after a week in which he made dramatic entrances (read: smoke, the helicopter), the evening would be less about "a great entrance" (although he did tell Stephanopoulos to "stay tuned" when asked how he would top his previous entrances) and more about "a good grouping of words."

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"I'm not looking for a great entrance," said Trump. "I'm looking for really a good grouping of words that's going to talk about our country and the problems that we have. We have deep problems, really deep-seated problems. So it's not about the entrance, it's about the words and it's about getting the words done. The only way we're going to get that taken care of is we have to in November do very well."

When asked whether he'd bring up some of his more controversial proposals, like his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, Trump wouldn't reveal specifics except to say, "You'll be hearing things tomorrow. You'll be hearing a lot of things tomorrow."

He continued: "I'm going to be talking about trade. I'm going to be talking about law and order. I'm going to be talking about borders. I'll be talking about many different things. Our country has a lot of problems. We're weak in so many different ways. I think I'll be basically using the same message that I've been giving for a long time."

Read More: Michael Moore Tells Bill Maher: "Trump Is Going to Win"

Indeed, when asked if he has to "evolve," as Newt Gingrich told Stephanopoulos as Trump goes into the general election, he seemed to dismiss the notion.

"Look, I am who I am. I'm a very honest person. And I think my message is a good message. It got me here," said Trump. "There's something happening  and people are tired of what's going on. They're sick and tired of what's going on."

Asked if he imagined when he announced his candidacy that little over a year later he'd be the nominee, the real-estate mogul said he plays to win.

"This is beyond what I would've even assumed," said Trump. "People have asked me that question and I guess the answer has to be 'yes' or I don't think I would've done it. I don't play to lose, so I assume I thought somewhere deep down that I was going to do well."

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos
donald trump

Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday night in a lengthy, dark speech casting himself as the only savior of an America in decline.

"I'm with you, the American people," Trump said. "I am your voice."

Addressing the Republican National Convention audience in Cleveland, Trump cast his candidacy as a contrast between establishment "political correctness" and his unique brand of isolationist populism.

"No longer can we rely on those same people in the media, and politics,

who will say anything to keep a rigged system in place," Trump said.

"History is watching us now. It's waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong."

Trump's acceptance speech focused heavily on supporting law enforcement, with references to the recent shooting of police officers and to the attacks in San Bernardino, California, and Orlando, Florida. The Republican nominee promised to appoint "the best prosecutors and law-enforcement officers."

"In this race for the White House, I am the law-and-order candidate," Trump said.

When a protester interrupted the Republican nominee midway through his speech, he briefly veered off-script.

"How great are our police?" Trump said, prompting some of the loudest applause of the night.

Trump also returned to some of his time-tested themes, reiterating his ban on immigration from countries that have "been compromised by terrorism," a policy the Republican nominee proposed after first advocating a ban on all Muslims entering the US.

Story continues

But the real-estate mogul spent considerable time criticizing President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Republican presidential nominee said Obama regretted appointing Clinton as secretary of state, criticizing her foreign-policy legacy in countries like Libya and Syria that have been plagued by civil war.

"I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets," Trump said. "Her bad instinct and her bad judgment."

He added: "This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness."

Trump also attempted to cast Clinton as a representative of corporate interests, asserting that wealthy donors were attempting to influence the former secretary of state by donating money to her campaign.

"They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does," Trump said. "She is their puppet, and they pull the strings."

donald trump

The crowd's enthusiasm in the hall occasionally boiled over, interrupting the real-estate magnate.

After Trump criticized Clinton's character and honesty, the crowd began chanting "Lock her up!"

Trump paused, acknowledging the crowd's chanting.

"Let's defeat her in November," Trump replied.

Clinton's campaign criticized the speech as relentlessly negative and promised a "positive vision for the future" at next week's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

"Tonight, Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline," Clinton campaign chair John Podesta said in a statement.

The statement continued:

"And his answer  more fear, more division, more anger, more hate  was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States. He offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe, just more prejudice and paranoia. America is better than this. America is better than Donald Trump. Next week in Philadelphia, Democrats will focus on issues, not anger. We'll offer a positive vision for the future based on lifting America up, not tearing Americans down."

NOW WATCH: Watch Peter Thiel tell the RNC audience that he's proud to be gay and Republican





More From Business Insider


Donald Trump "humbly and gratefully" accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday night.

Taking the golden stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump led the crowd in chant of "USA! USA!"

"Who would have believed this?" he asked.

Introduced by daughter Ivanka Trump, his remarks bring a close to the four-day Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

His speech followed along closely to both the excerpts previewed to media by his campaign and a leaked draft released ahead of his primetime address on Thursday. According to Politico, a super PAC backing Hillary Clinton, Correct the Record, obtained and leaked the draft from a Republican source.

Read More: Critic's Notebook: Donald Trump's Speech Closes GOP Convention on Apocalyptic Note

Trump spoke about the country's recent violence, including the police officers who were attacked in both Dallas and Baton Rouge, pledging to bring safety if he is elected.

"An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans," he said. "In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate."

He also spoke about immigration and took direct aim at Hillary Clinton and her legacy: "This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."

He vowed to defeat the "barbarians of ISIS" and recounted the terror attacks in France, Orlando and San Bernardino.

Of the Orlando attack on the LGBT community, Trump appeared to comment off-script: "No good, and we're gonna stop it." He added, "I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.

He then ad-libbed: "As a Republican, it was so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said."

He delivered on his promise to build a border wall, saying, "We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration." Adding, "It won't be happening very much anymore, believe me."

Story continues

Read More: Peter Thiel Makes History at RNC: "I Am Proud to Be Gay"

The gold podium was brought out to the stage before Ivanka Trump walked out to "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles to introduce her father. "Real change is only going to come from someone outside the system," she said in her speech. "My father is a fighter."

"He is colorblind and gender neutral," she added, earning the loudest cheers when talking about equal gender pay. "He will fight for equal pay, for equal work, and I will fight for this too right alongside of him."

Before she took the stage, a Jon Voight-narrated video played. The actor chronicled Trump's life, including his business accomplishments and his family, who have been a key focal point throughout the convention. Trump's children, Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric all spoke during the video.

When Trump did his microphone check at the Quicken Loans Arena earlier in the day, he joked, "I love the media. They're such honorable people," which got a huge cheer from the floor. "It's about time I said that," he added. During the rehearsal, he stood behind the gold podium to practice his speech.

var el = document.getElementById('targetParams');if (el !== null && typeof(el) != 'undefined') {var srcParams = $('.advert iframe').attr('src');var addParams = srcParams.split(";");for (i=1;i<=addParams.length - 1;i++) {if (addParams[i] != '=null' && addParams[i] != 'dcopt=ist' && addParams[i] != '!c=iframe' && addParams[i] != 'pos=t' && addParams[i] != 'sz=728x90') {el.value += addParams[i]+";";}}}brightcove.createExperiences();>>>>>>>
Sajid Tarar, founder of American Muslims for Trump, delivers a benediction at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 19, 2016. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP)

By the time Sajid Tarar took the stage to deliver the closing benediction at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, many delegates and members of the press had already begun filing out of Clevelands Quicken Loans arena.

Day two of the RNC had been an eventful one, with Donald Trumps official nomination for the White House followed by speeches from his children and past political rivals like Ben Carson and Chris Christie.

But the arrival of perhaps the most unlikely speaker on the RNC dais, a 56-year-old Pakistani immigrant and Muslim Trump supporter, did not go unnoticed. According to reporters inside the venue, a single delegate was heard shouting no Islam as Tarar, clad in a silvery bow tie, addressed the crowd.

Lets pray, Tarar said when he reached the podium. Pray for a strong America, for a safe America. And lets ask God to make us strong to fight terrorism all over the world.





Other than maybe Mexicans, no group has been subjected to more attacks by the Trump campaign than Muslims. The Republican presidential nominee has accused Muslim-Americans of celebrating 9/11, claimed that Islam hates America and proposed a ban on Muslim travel to the U.S.  ramping up the rhetoric after each of the recent domestic and international terror attacks.

With each step closer to the White House, hes picked up support for his controversial proposals. A recent example: After the terror attack in Nice, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (in a move seen as a last-ditch attempt to be chosen as running mate) proposed that all Americans of a Muslim background be required to undergo some sort of religious test, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported.

Gingrich didnt get the gig. But days before members of Republican National Committee would officially nominate Trump for the presidency, they approved a new provision to the party platform calling for special scrutiny of all non-U.S. citizens seeking to enter the country from regions associated with Islamic terrorism.

Story continues

In response to a request for more information on how Tarar was chosen for the benediction, a spokesperson for the conventions planning committee referred Yahoo News to Trumps press secretary, who could not be reached for comment.

Its not hard to imagine why Tarar  a vocal supporter Trumps more controversial proposals, including the Muslim travel ban  would be invited.

As Tarar himself explained in an interview with CNN Tuesday night, he had come to the RNC to show the rest of America that all Muslims are not bad people.

We are living here, we are part of American fabric, he said. And we will stand behind America. The safety of America is our No. 1 priority as well.

But a spokesperson for the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a prominent Muslim advocacy organization that has consistently denounced Trumps anti-Muslim rhetoric, said Tarar does not speak for the majority of the community.

The majority of American Muslims reject [Trumps] hostile attitudes toward the Muslim community and his proposals, said Robert McCaw, CAIRs government affairs director.

McCaw expressed mixed feelings over Tarars appearance at the RNC.

On the one hand, Were happy to see the Republican National Convention include a Muslim speaker.

At the same time, McCaw told Yahoo News he wished theyd picked someone else.

It could be said the Trump campaign engaged in tokenism, McCaw added, arguing that Tarar has no actual position within the Muslim community that gives him leverage, therefore he doesnt actually represent the views or interests of the Muslim community.

McCaw described American Muslims for Trump as a one-off organization thats engaged in astroturf politics.

They have no ground presence, no grassroots engagement, he said, suggesting the group simply exists to give Trump the coverage he needs to continue making bigoted remarks about the Muslim community.

Its unclear how big Tarars organization actually is  or whether its even much of an organization at all.

Most of the news coverage surrounding his RNC appearance refers to Tarar as the founder of American Muslims for Trump, yet a Google search yields little evidence that such a group exists, at least online.

A closed Facebook group called American Muslims for Trump boasts two members, neither of which are Tarar. There is also a separate Facebook community page titled Muslims for Trump, which has been liked by 581 people but names no specific creator.

A search of registered nonprofits shows no record of an organization under either name.

And the RNCs official list of speakers makes no mention of Tarar  despite including a lengthy bio and photograph of Pastor Mark Burns, who delivered Mondays benediction.

The best available source of information on Tarar is a Fusion profile from April, which describes Tarar as a Pakistani immigrant who started the organization [here referred to as Muslims for Trump] to convince his fellow Baltimore-area Muslims to support Donald Trump.

According to Fusion, Tarar grew up in Islamabad and moved to the U.S. in 1986, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen and a father of four. He received his law degree from the University of Baltimore and now runs the Center for Social Change, a Baltimore-based nonprofit for children and adults with developmental disabilities.

Tarar told Fusion that he was drawn to Trump for many of the same reasons as most of his supporters: his business experience, his willingness to be politically incorrect and the fact that hes not an establishment insider.

When Donald Trump has said something about Muslims and Islam, he doesnt mean American Muslims, hes talking about terrorists, Tarar said, affirming his support for a temporary ban on Muslim travel as well as increased surveillance of U.S. mosques.

If a tip comes from a Muslim-American that something is going on, they should be monitored, he said.

Beyond a few of Tarars friends from the local mosque who were willing to concede that Trump might not be a total monster, however, Fusion could not confirm if Tarars group had a membership larger than one.

Thats not to say that Tarar is entirely alone in his support for the Republican nominee. In March, CAIR conducted a survey of Muslim voters after Super Tuesday and found that 11 percent supported Trump.

Around the country, plenty of other groups have emerged to rally the candidates Muslim  as well as Sikh and Hindu  supporters.

Im sure the Trump campaign or the Republican Party could have found a speaker from a mainstream Muslim organization to address the RNC and iterate how the party can make better inroads in the Muslim community, McCaw said.

He pointed out that Muslim-Americans and the GOP werent always at odds.

According to CAIR, approximately 78 percent of American Muslims voted Republican in 2000. By many accounts, George W. Bushs narrowly won victory in the 2000 presidential election was made possible in part by the estimated 60,000 Muslim-Americans who voted for him in Florida.

But that was before 9/11.

Since 2004, McCaw said, theres been a mass exodus of American Muslims from Republican Party.

Several factors drove this shift, he said, including the passage of several state Sharia bans proposed by Republican lawmakers, and the 2011 Islamic radicalization hearings led by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., as examples of the specific actions that have driven Muslim voters from the GOP.

Citing concerns about Sharia, the Republican National Committee adopted an antiforeign law amendment to the party platform in 2012.

Even within the Republican Party platform they have planks against the Muslim community, he said.

Today, CAIR estimates that only 15 percent of American Muslims support the Republican party.

I have not seen any gestures from the national Republican leadership to the mainstream leadership of the American Muslim community, McCaw said, suggesting that the selection of Tarar as the RNCs Muslim voice further confirms the partys lack of interest in repairing its relationship with Muslim voters.

McCaw added that the hostile welcome Tarar received from at least one delegate in Cleveland Tuesday night, reflects that the Republican Party has become the epicenter of Islamophobia in American politics.

Tarar did not respond to Yahoos request for comment on this story, but in an interview with CNN immediately following his speech Tuesday night, he said he did not hear the delegate shout, No Islam!

_____

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Donald Trumps America >>>
Donald Trump will officially accept the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night, bringing a close to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

The Trump campaign released a preview of his speech on Thursday afternoon while Politico posted what they reported to be a transcript of a full draft of the speech.

According to the report, a super PAC backing Hillary Clinton, Correct the Record, obtained and leaked drafts of Trump's speech from a Republican source. Correct the Record reportedly sent the text out to its press list with the note: "As if this convention hasn't been enough of a failure for Trump, somehow he let US get a hold of his full remarks before the speech."

Political reporters and analysts took to social media to comment on the reported speech as it began to circulate. Jon Favreau, President Barack Obama's former chief speechwriter, said the speech "mostly doesn't sound like" Trump. "Read Trump's speech," he wrote on Twitter. "Can't wait to hear him say 'Now let us consider the state of affairs abroad.'"

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to The Hollywood Reporter's request to comment on whether or not the draft (which is included below) was accurate.

According to the excerpts that were released by the campaign, Trump will discuss the recent violence seen across the country and pledge to restore safety when he takes the stage.

Saying: "Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims ... I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored."

He also discusses Hillary Clinton's "bad instincts and her bad judgment."

The GOP nominee, who rehearsed the highly anticipated speech behind a gold podium this morning at the Quicken Loans Arena, will be introduced to the stage by his daughter Ivanka.

Story continues

Earlier in the night, Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel made history by becoming the first RNC speaker to say he is proud to be gay.

"I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican," he said, receiving a standing ovation.

Trump is scheduled to begin at 10:15 p.m. ET.

Read the excerpts that were released to the media, followed by the full text obtained by Politico, below.

Excerpts released by the Trump campaign to The Hollywood Reporter:

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. 

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored. 

America is far less safe - and the world is far less stable - than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.

I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment - something pointed out by Bernie Sanders - are what caused many of the disasters unfolding today. 

But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy. The problems we face now - poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad - will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. 

As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. This will all change when I take office. 

My message is that things have to change - and they have to change right now.

Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned. 

Middle-income Americans and businesses will experience profound relief, and taxes will be greatly simplified for everyone. America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world.

Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country.

Then we are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all.

Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as 2 trillion dollars a year, and we will end it. 

With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country.

This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow.

This, in turn, will create millions more jobs.

We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice. 

So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I'm with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you

A reported full draft posted by Politico:

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order.

Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored.

The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.

It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation.

I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths the Democrats are holding their convention next week.

But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.

These are the facts:

Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this Administration's rollback of criminal enforcement.

Homicides last year increased by 17% in America's fifty largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation's capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60% in nearby Baltimore.

In the President's hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office.

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.

The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources.

One such border-crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years old, and was killed the day after graduating from college with a 4.0 Grade Point Average. Her killer was then released a second time, and he is now a fugitive from the law.

I've met Sarah's beautiful family. But to this Administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn't worth protecting. One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders. What about our economy?

Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper: Nearly Four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African American youth are not employed. 2 million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.

Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. Our manufacturing trade deficit has reached an all-time high - nearly $800 billion in a single year. The budget is no better.

President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing. Yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in Third World condition, and forty-three million Americans are on food stamps.

Now let us consider the state of affairs abroad.

Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they have lived through one international humiliation after another. We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gunpoint.

This was just prior to the signing of the Iran deal, which gave back to Iran $150 billion and gave us nothing - it will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever made. Another humiliation came when President Obama drew a red line in Syria - and the whole world knew it meant nothing.

In Libya, our consulate - the symbol of American prestige around the globe - was brought down in flames. America is far less safe - and the world is far less stable - than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.

I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment - something pointed out by Bernie Sanders - are what caused the disasters unfolding today. Let's review the record. In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map.

Libya was cooperating. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.

Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.

But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy. The problems we face now - poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad - will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is required to change these outcomes. Tonight, I will share with you my plan of action for America.

The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect. This will all change in 2017.

The American People will come first once again. My plan will begin with safety at home - which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and protection from terrorism. There can be no prosperity without law and order. On the economy, I will outline reforms to add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America.

A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our nation's most powerful special interests. That is because these interests have rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit.

Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.

That is why Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change - and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned.

I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice.

I AM YOUR VOICE.

I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.

When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws - or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash - I am not able to look the other way.

And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can't see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence - I know that corruption has reached a level like never before.

When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was "extremely careless" and "negligent," in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it - especially when others have paid so dearly. When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders - he never had a chance.

But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade. Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans. In this cause, I am proud to have at my side the next Vice President of the United States: Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.

We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana. He is a man of character and accomplishment. He is the right man for the job. The first task for our new Administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities.

America was shocked to its core when our police officers in Dallas were brutally executed. In the days after Dallas, we have seen continued threats and violence against our law enforcement officials. Law officers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee.

On Sunday, more police were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed, and four were badly injured. An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our country.

I will work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job done. In this race for the White House, I am the Law And Order candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.

This Administration has failed America's inner cities. It's failed them on education. It's failed them on jobs. It's failed them on crime. It's failed them at every level.

When I am President, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally.

Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child America?

To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside America: we are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS. Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism.

Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A nation in mourning.

The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been over and over - at the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston Marathon, and a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBT community. As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. To protect us from terrorism, we need to focus on three things.

We must have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world. We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror.

This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel. Lastly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.

My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people.

Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be.

Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.

On Monday, we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and Jamiel Shaw. They are just three brave representatives of many thousands. Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border.

These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them, or share in their pain. Instead, my opponent wants Sanctuary Cities. But where was sanctuary for Kate Steinle? Where was Sanctuary for the children of Mary Ann, Sabine and Jamiel? Where was sanctuary for all the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered, and who have suffered so horribly?

These wounded American families have been alone. But they are alone no longer. Tonight, this candidate and this whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them our love, and to pledge in their honor that we will save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate.

We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. I have been honored to receive the endorsement of America's Border Patrol Agents, and will work directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful immigration system.

By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence. Illegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored. By enforcing the rules for the millions who overstay their visas, our laws will finally receive the respect they deserve.Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied - and every politician who has denied them - to listen very closely to the words I am about to say.

On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone.

But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief.

Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness. Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape from poverty.

I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat. It's been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office.

I have made billions of dollars in business making deals - now I'm going to make our country rich again. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones. America has lost nearly-one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Remember, it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country.

Never again.

I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and to America - and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences.

My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA, and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organization - another one of her husband's colossal mistakes.

She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments. I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries.

This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we'll walk away if we don't get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again.

Next comes the reform of our tax laws, regulations and energy rules. While Hillary Clinton plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year - Democrat or Republican. Middle-income Americans will experience profound relief, and taxes will be simplified for everyone.

America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Then we are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it. We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy. This will produce more than $20 trillion in job creating economic activity over the next four decades.

My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and steel workers of our country out of work - that will never happen when I am President. With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country.

This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans - We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice.

My opponent would rather protect education bureaucrats than serve American children. We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare. You will be able to choose your own doctor again. And we will fix TSA at the airports! We will completely rebuild our depleted military, and the countries that we protect, at a massive loss, will be asked to pay their fair share.

We will take care of our great Veterans like they have never been taken care of before. My opponent dismissed the VA scandal as being not widespread - one more sign of how out of touch she really is. We are going to ask every Department Head in government to provide a list of wasteful spending projects that we can eliminate in my first 100 days. The politicians have talked about it, I'm going to do it. We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution.

The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to essentially abolish the 2nd amendment. I, on the other hand, received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association and will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe.

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community who have been so good to me and so supportive. You have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.

An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.

I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans. We can accomplish these great things, and so much else - all we need to do is start believing in ourselves and in our country again. It is time to show the whole world that America Is Back - bigger, and better and stronger than ever before.

In this journey, I'm so lucky to have at my side my wife Melania and my wonderful children, Don, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron: you will always be my greatest source of pride and joy. My Dad, Fred Trump, was the smartest and hardest working man I ever knew. I wonder sometimes what he'd say if he were here to see this tonight.

It's because of him that I learned, from my youngest age, to respect the dignity of work and the dignity of working people. He was a guy most comfortable in the company of bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians and I have a lot of that in me also. Then there's my mother, Mary. She was strong, but also warm and fair-minded. She was a truly great mother. She was also one of the most honest and charitable people I have ever known, and a great judge of character.

To my sisters Mary Anne and Elizabeth, my brother Robert and my late brother Fred, I will always give you my love you are most special to me. I have loved my life in business.

But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country - to go to work for all of you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people. But to do that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past.

America is a nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics.

Remember: all of the people telling you that you can't have the country you want, are the same people telling you that I wouldn't be standing here tonight. No longer can we rely on those elites in media, and politics, who will say anything to keep a rigged system in place.

Instead, we must choose to Believe In America. History is watching us now.

It's waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion, and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.

My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads: "I'm With Her". I choose to recite a different pledge.

My pledge reads: "I'M WITH YOU - THE AMERICAN PEOPLE."

I am your voice.

So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I'm With You, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you.

To all Americans tonight, in all our cities and towns, I make this promise: We Will Make America Strong Again.

We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again.

And We Will Make America Great Again.

THANK YOU.

Read More: Donald Trump Rehearses GOP Convention Speech Behind Gold Podium on Gold-Trimmed Stage
Donald Trumps acceptance speech played like a best-of episode of his dark reality TV primary season. Immigration = crime = terrorism = political correctness = economic decline. Trump put it all together in one scary ball that defined a moment of crisis in the country.

And, for those hiding under the couch? I am your voice, he said.

President George H.W. Bushs speechwriter Mary Kate Cary called the 75-minute speech, one of the longest in RNC history, a very dark and frightening address.

Our convention occurs at moment of crisis for our nation, Trump began. Attacks on our police, and terrorism of our cities threatens our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Among the highlights, he said:

Americans watching this address tonight have seen recent images of violence in our streets.  Some have been its victims. I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today affects our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, will come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored. The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens and any government that fails to do so it a government unworthy to lead. It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the states of our nation. On January 20, the day I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore. That one got maybe the biggest applause of the night. I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good.  I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens. When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws  or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash  I am not able to look the other way. The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit to divide us by race and color, has made us a more dangerous environment than I have ever seen. This administration has failed Americas inner cities. The first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities, I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country. Believe me. Believe me. America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy, To make life safe for all our citizens, we must all address the growing threats we face outside the country. We are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS, and were going to defeat them fast. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders  he never had a chance. But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade deals that strip us of our jobs and strip us of our wealth as a country.

I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice, he said. And then he said it again.

Story continues

The speech also was remarkable for the many Republican orthodoxies it ignored. Trump did not discuss his faith but spoke touchingly of his mother and father. And he thanked the evangelical community for the role they played in securing him enough delegates to secure the nomination, but said he probably did not deserve the effort.

Then there was his promise to do everything in his power to protect the LGBTQ community, which is likely a first at an RNC. Some skeptics noted he only promised to protect them from being killed by hateful foreign ideology  and even then he thanked the RNC crowd for not booing him over that, saying: I have to say, as a Republican, its so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.

He also dinged trade deals that have been GOP dogma for years.

Afterward, TV talking heads talked about it being one of the most relentlessly negative acceptance speeches in broadcast history. Whereas Franklin D. Roosevelt told people listening on their radio at his first inaugural address in 1933 that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, Donald Trump in 2016 preached on TV that we should be very afraid, Dem strategist David Axelrod noted on CNN.

But George W. Bushs first press secretary Ari Fleisher insisted that, for everyone saying this speech is too dark, remember  69% of the nation thinks the USA is on the wrong track. Many will agree with Trump.

KKK bigwig David Duke liked the speech even better, tweeting: Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldnt have said it better!

Daughter Ivanka Trump, on the other hand, gave a much more upbeat speech, by way of introducing Dad. Eric Trump had predicted as much, telling CNNs Sara Murray this morning that his sister would win over the crowd in her primetime speech tonight, because She does the princess thing very well, and shes immensely close with my father.

After Trumps speech was over, the Trump campaign played the Rolling Stones You Cant Always Get What You Want.

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I know words. I have the best words, Donald J. Trump so famously said on the campaign trail late last year.

On Thursday, the businessman-turned-reality-star-turned-presidential-candidate put his nouns and verbs and adjectives to the test on the closing night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

RELATEDMichelle Obama, Missy Elliott Join James Corden for Carpool Karaoke

In a speech that pushed Law and Order harder than NBCs promo department in the mid-2000s, Trump also tried to impress upon voters the idea of his honesty in relation to his rival Hillary Clinton (without once resorting to his oft-used Crooked Hillary jab); his concerns about illegal immigration, including violent crimes that have/could be perpetrated by convicts from foreign countries and Islamic terrorists; his committment to the idea of Americanism over globalism; his hope to renegotiate trade deals in a way that will protect our jobs and stand up to countries that cheat; his desire to reduce taxes and simplify the tax code; and his goal of replacing our beloved Justice [Antonin] Scalia on the Supreme Court with a person of similar views, principles and judicial philosophies  very important.

Heres a sampling of a dozen of the most surprising, provocative and memorable quotes from what, for Trump, was a restrained, insult-free speech, albeit one that was light on specific, detailed policy proposals. (Hat tip to Politico, which leaked a draft of Trumps remarks in advance.)

* ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world. Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war, and a refugee crisis now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

Story continues

RELATEDTeen Wolf Cast Spills Final Season Secrets: Stiles First Name Revealed, Surprise Returns and More  Watch

* Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.

* When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was extremely careless and negligent, in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible, terrible crimes. In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such egregious crime and getting away with it  especially when others, who have done far less, have paid so dearly.

* In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly I have ever seen and anybody in this room has ever watched or seen. This administration has failed Americas inner cities. (Editors note: O_o)

* Every action I take, I will ask myself: Does this make better for young Americans in Baltimore, in Chicago, in Detroit, in Ferguson, who have really, in every way, folks, the same right to live out their dreams as any other child America?

* As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology  believe me. (Editors note: But what about the extreme, anti-gay rhetoric of his own partys platform?)

* We must have the best gathering of intelligence anywhere in the world  the best. We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly. Were going to win! Were going to win fast!

* We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. We dont want them in our country!

* We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities!

* I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great trade agreements No longer will we enter into these massive transactions, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long, and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are going to enforce all trade violations against any country that cheats. This includes stopping Chinas outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation.

* We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare! You will be able to choose your own doctor again. And we will fix TSA at the airports  which is a total disaster!

* An amendment pushed by Lyndon Johnson many years ago threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views  their voice has been taken away. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans.

Your turn. What did you think of Trumps primetime speech? Grade it in our poll below, then hit the comments to expand on your thoughts!





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CLEVELAND  Donald Trump kicked off his general election campaign Friday with a scathing attack  not on Hillary Clinton, but his Republican primary rival Ted Cruz, calling the Texas senators decision not to endorse him dishonorable and insisting he would not accept his support even if Cruz ever decided to endorse him.

In what were supposed to be simple remarks thanking staff and volunteers of the Republican National Convention, Trump veered wildly off course, looking past his likely Democratic rival to inflame his long-standing feud with Cruz, who has pointedly declined to endorse the New York real state mogul as the GOP nominee.

Chaos erupted at the convention on Wednesday when Cruz ended his convention speech without an endorsement, eliciting boos from many delegates. Trump initially described the non-endorsement in a tweet as no big deal, but speaking to supporters on Friday, Trump said the Texas senator deserved to be heckled and predicted he may have ruined his political career.

Hell come and endorse over the next little while. Its because he has no choice, Trump declared. But I dont want his endorsement. What difference does it make?

Sarcastically, Trump added, Ted, just stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.

But in relitigating the ghosts of primaries past, Trump also revived memories of a bizarre episode that Cruz cited as one of the reasons for withholding his endorsement. As he did last spring, at the height of the bitter primary, the GOP nominee called attention to a National Enquirer story linking the senators father, Rafael, with Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

On Friday, Trump said he hadnt suggested Rafael Cruz was directly involved in the JFK assassination plot but had merely pointed out a photo purporting to be of Harvey and the senators father. The photo appeared on the cover of the supermarket tabloid, which Trump described as a publication that often gets things right and should be very respected.

Story continues

Ive always said, why didnt the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for [John] Edwards and O.J. Simpson and all of these things? Trump mused.

But back to Cruzs father. Trump insisted he barely knew the man. I know nothing about his father. I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald. But there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer, which does have credibility, and theyre not going to do pictures like that because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong, Trump said.

Trump allowed he may have pointed out the picture but said that he wasnt responsible for the story. But, he added, Ted never denied it was father. (In fact, Cruz and his campaign repeatedly denied the story.)

The GOP nominee also denied being behind personal attacks on Cruzs wife  though he retweeted a picture showing Heidi Cruz in an unflattering pose, side by side with one of his own wife, Melania, a former model. He added a grievance of his own, that a super-PAC the Texas senator was friendly with had sent risque pictures of Melania to voters in Utah.

GQ magazine [where the photo of Melania ran] is not exactly Penthouse, Trump said, as Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, his extremely religious running mate, stood at his side. I love the people of Utah. But thats not where you want to necessarily send a risque picture.

Still, Trump insisted the party is coming together behind his candidacy, citing what he described as the partys amazing convention this week as proof. This was probably one of the most peaceful, one of the most beautiful, one of the most love-filled conventions in the history of conventions, he declared.

Trumps appearance here came the morning after his RNC speech accepting the nomination, which was notable for the absence of his usual off-the-cuff eruptions. On Friday, Trump was back to being Trump, delivering rambling remarks that at times seemed closer to a stand-up routine than a presidential campaign speech.

At one point, Trump randomly invited Dan Scavino, his social media director, to say a few words about the candidates Twitter and Facebook presence. Pence, his running mate, who had not yet spoken, stood on the platform as the candidate rambled on and on about Cruz and the events of the primary.

In rehashing his feud with Cruz, Trump barely mentioned Clinton, who is set to unveil her running mate soon, ahead of next weeks Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The GOP nominee bragged about the television ratings of the RNC, though initial reports suggested they were lower than those of previous conventions.

Still, Trump, the former television star, predicted the DNC wouldnt live up to the Republican convention, and offered a dismal preview of Clintons acceptance speech.

Im going to have a hard time watching her final speech, Trump said. No. 1, I know her too well. No. 2, boooring.
Just one month after the deadliest mass shooting in American history targeted the LGBTQ community, Donald Trump took a moment during his lengthy speech at Thursday's Republican National Convention to address that group  vowing to protect them from Islamic terrorism.



"Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist," Trump said as he accepted his party's nomination for president. "This time, the terrorist targeted LGBTQ community. No good. And we're going to stop it."



"As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me!" he continued.





Donald Trump Vows to 'Protect LGBTQ Citizens' in GOP Speech as He Evokes Orlando Massacre| 2016 Presidential Elections, Gay and Lesbian, Politics and Current Events, Donald Trump



His words were met with cheers from the crowd  something the 70-year-old New Yorker addressed in off-the-cuff remarks.







"I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said," he said, breaking from his planned speech. "Thank you."



The candidate initially faced criticism just following the massacre, for issuing a tweet many deemed insensitive.



"Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!" Trump tweeted just hours after the shooting.





RELATED VIDEO: What Role Will Ivanka Trump Play If Donald Is Elected President?



However, Trump's speech Thursday marks the first time a Republican presidential candidate has openly spoken about LGBTQ rights during a Republican National Convention.



Earlier in the day, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel also made history as the first out speaker for the GOP.



"Every American has a unique identity  I am proud to be gay," Thiel said, as the Trump family and the convention broke out in applause. "I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all I am proud to be an American."
By PTI: From Lalit K Jha Cleveland, Jul 22 (PTI) Donald Trump today promised jittery Americans of restoring law and order amid deadly shooting incidents, stop illegal immigration and bring back jobs as he vowed to "put America first" to garner support in the epic race to the White House after accepting the Republican ticket.

Painting a bleak picture of the state of affairs in the US and the world under Democrats - President Barack Obama and his former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the 70-year-old real estate tycoon said he would "Make America great again".

advertisement

He also vowed to defeat ISIS and reiterated his resolve to build "a great wall" along the Mexico border, seeking immediate suspension of immigration from countries that have compromised on terrorism.

While accepting the nomination "humbly and gratefully" here, Trump toned down his previous proposal of a complete ban on entry of Muslims in the country even as he promised to defeat ISIS and Islamic terrorism.

Trump said his plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be his credo.

"As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect that we deserve," he said amid thunderous applause.

"In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate," he said as he accused Obama of sowing disunity along racial lines.

"The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and colour, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.

The "crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end," he said. "Beginning on January 20, of 2017, safety will be restored."

Trump also painted his rival from the Democratic camp Clinton as incompetent. "This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."

He said if elected as the US President in the November elections, he will put in place an immigration system "that works, but one that works for the American people".

"Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied ? and every politician who has denied them ? to listen very closely to the words I am about to say. On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the US are enforced. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone.

"But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief," he added.

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His speech that lasted for over an hour also witnessed interruption when a woman waving a banner started yelling more than 20 minutes into Trumps remarks following which he paused for nearly a minute while waiting for police to remove her. (MORE) PTI LKJ AJR SAI AKJ SAI

--- ENDS ---
Tapper Manafort

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign manager, suggested that he is not confident in the FBI during a Thursday interview on CNN.

Manafort was speaking with news anchor Jake Tapper about Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

The address, which leaned heavily on Trump's self-described "law and order" platform, cited statistics on the current state of crime in America.

Trump's speech noted that "decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed" by what he describes as the Obama administration's "rollback of criminal enforcement."

Tapper argued that Trump's suggestion did not seem accurate: "The Republicans make the argument that somehow it's more dangerous today when the facts don't back that up."

Manafort replied, "People don't feel safe in their neighborhoods, I'm not sure what statistics you're talking about," to which Tapper quickly interjected, "FBI statistics."

"The FBI is certainly suspect these days after what they just did with Hillary Clinton," Manafort said.

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was cleared by the FBI earlier this month in an investigation over her use of government emails while she was secretary of state. Some Republicans have decried the FBI's decision.

It came after a separate controversy over an impromptu meeting ;that Attorney General Loretta Lynch had with former President Bill Clinton  days before the FBI announced that it would not recommend criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton.

The US Justice Department closed the case days later.

Watch the exchange below:

Trump campaign manager asked about crime statistics: "The FBI is certainly suspect" https://t.co/KjpeNheq0X https://t.co/nY3LmvtJo8  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 22, 2016





More From Business Insider


Don't Fall for the Car Warranty Scam

If you get a call or letter saying that your new car warranty is about to expire and it offers you an extended warranty, use caution. Car warranty scams, which attempt to trick consumers into buying vehicle service contracts, continue to plague consumers despite government efforts to crack down on the caper.



The Federal Trade Commission announced earlier this week that it was mailing more than $4 million in refunds to nearly 6,000 consumers who the agency said were conned by a company that used robocalls to hawk service contracts costing from $1,300 to nearly $2,900.



The FTC says the Miami-based company tricked consumers into believing that the calls were from their vehicle manufacturer or car dealer, a common tactic in car warranty scams.



Those who purchased the service contracts found that the coverage was far less than represented, the agency says. For instance, it says, the policies didnt provide bumper-to-bumper protection or cover the entire vehicle engine, as customers were led to believe. Those who tried to obtain refunds found it virtually impossible.

This is not the first case of its kind. In 2011, the agency announced it was returning nearly $3.2 million to 4,450 victims of two other telemarketing companies that it accused of using deceptive practices to sell auto warranties.



Although the refunds announced this week are from a 2011 settlement between the FTC, the company and its principle executive, the car warranty scam is alive and well, say the Better Business Bureaus based in West Palm Beach and St. Louis, where many warranty marketers are located.



We have many, many complaints. We continue to get them, says Bill Smith, investigator for the St. Louis BBB.



Along with phone calls, some warranty marketers mail bogus warranty expiration notices disguised to look as though theyre from manufacturers, dealers or state motor vehicle departments, says Smith. They advise recipients to call for details about extending their coverage.

These people get you on a phone, and they will not let you go until they have sold you on a deal, he says.



Smith says the salespeople often try to pressure car owners into an immediate purchase by claiming the offer is good only for that day. They promise customers that they have ample time to cancel if theyre unhappy after receiving the contract terms. But canceling and obtaining a refund often is difficult or impossible, he says.



Michele Mason, senior vice president of the West Palm Beach bureau, says the BBB has received consumer complaints about the scam as recently as last week. She says some complain that theyre harassed daily by callers pushing the coverage. Even the bureaus new CEO has received bogus warranty expiration notices, she says.



Typically, the marketers arent providing the actual coverage. Instead, theyre selling the policies on behalf of companies that do. Legally, the policies arent warranties, which typically are provided by manufacturers or retailers at no additional cost. Instead, theyre service contracts that promise to pay for repairs. Many of the contracts simply duplicate coverage available under any existing manufacturers warranty.

What to Do

If you receive a letter, postcard or telephone call advising you that your cars express warranty is about to expire, check with the manufacturer. It could be a car warranty scam. Dont call the number thats on any letter or postcard you receive, even if it looks like the communication is from the automaker. It could be a fake.



If your vehicle warranty has expired or is about to, dont purchase a service contract. Instead, plan ahead by buying a reliable car and maintaining it as the manufacturer recommends. Then self-insure by saving the money you otherwise would spend on a service contract and use that for any needed repairs or maintenance.



If you feel you must purchase a service contract, consider one offered by the carmaker. Third-party contracts are notorious for fine print that excludes many types of repairs and for denying claims for anything the provider deems to be a pre-existing condition. Repairs required because of normal wear and tear also may be excluded.

Never agree to a contract for any product or service without reading terms and conditions, no matter how long the company says you have to change your mind, says Smith. If a salesperson pressures you to make a purchase right away, go elsewhere.



You can learn more by reading the FTCs guide Auto Service Contracts and Warranties. The agency also offers details on the differences between warranties and service contracts.





More from Consumer Reports:

5 least reliable cars from Consumer Reports' survey

Best Used Cars for $25,000 and Less

Which Car Brands make the Best Vehicles





Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright  2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.
Friday, July 22, 2016



So the Dow finally closed lower at the bell on Thursday, and the Q2 earnings juggernaut finally brought some less-than-positive news. Market futures are up in the pre-market Friday, so perhaps were seeing a bounce-back as the trading week ends? We shall see.



After yesterdays close, Starbucks SBUX and AT&T T met earnings expectations but came in light on revenues. Chipotle CMG missed on both top and bottom lines, and Visa V beat on both sales and earnings estimates, but the Dow finally finished in negative territory for the first time in more than a week.



This morning, were seeing more mixed results from Q2 earnings season, with Stanley Back & Decker SWK beating on both top and bottom lines, while Skechers SKX is down 15% in the pre-market following a miss on both earnings and revenues. The company blamed higher taxes in Brazil and a fire in Malaysia for its quarterly difficulties.



American Airlines AAL was able to lower costs more than 3% on the way to a quarterly earnings beat. The airline major also beat on quarterly sales figures, though both top and bottom lines are down from a year ago.



Next week we shall see earnings results from many big tech firms in what will amount to the busiest week of quarterly numbers of the entire calendar Q2. And with the market (at least on the Dow) taking a breather, perhaps this is a good time to take stock of stocks in our portfolios. For some assistance, check out Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mians latest Earnings Trends report.



Mark Vickery

Senior Editor



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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have come under fire for releasing this shot of Prince George feeding the family dog ice cream [Photo: PA Images]

ICYMI its Prince Georges third birthday today and his parents have chosen to mark the occasion by releasing four adorable new photos of his royal cuteness.



The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said they were delighted to share four new pictures of the mini royal to celebrate his birthday, including one particularly sweet snap of George hanging out with the family dog, Lupo.



But, not everyone was thrilled by the picture, and the royal couple have come in for some criticism for seemingly allowing George to feed ice cream to the dog.



In the snap, taken by photographer Matt Porteous at Anmer Hall, Norfolk, the Cambridges country home, Prince George can be seen crouching down, his trademark cheeky grin in place, as he offers Lupo a white chocolate ice cream.



But though the picture is undoubtedly cute, it has come under fire from some animal cruelty campaigners who say giving dogs treats, such as ice cream could be dangerous.



Four new photos have been released to mark Prince Georges third birthday [Photo: PA Images]

Some experts warn that dogs are allergic to dairy food, such as ice cream, and feeding it to them could cause the animals to have digestive problems including diarrhoea. One charity explained to Mail Online that adult dogs are deficient in the lactose necessary for digestion of milk.



Taking to social media animal cruelty activists were quick to express their concern over the photo



Why is Prince George trying to kill this dog by feeding it a white Magnum? tweeted one critic.



Happy 3rd Birthday to Prince George!! Here he is poisoning a little dog, added another.



Two more of the official photos of the birthday boy [Photos: PA Images]

And one particularly angry tweeted referred to the Prince as a Monarchist Monster!!



Monarchist Monster, he wrote. Never give a dog ice cream. At worst: itll die, At best: the dog will diarrhoea everywhere!



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Another went so far as to say Prince George should go to prison for the act.



Prince George needs chucking in prison for feeding that dog an ice cream, irresponsible animal cruelty paid for by the taxpayer, they tweeted.



We mean, really?

Obviously nobody would wish for any harm to come to the poor dog, but seriously?! The child is three! He just wanted to give his bestie a lick of his ice cream. He didnt know it could hurt him.

And how are we to know the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge didnt intervene to stop the dog actually licking the ice cream?



Maybe we should all just cut the little dude a little bit of slack? It is his birthday after all!



What do you think of the picture? Let us know @YahooStyleUK



Prince Georges Photo Album: Baby Cambridge From Birth To Toddlerhood

Proof Prince George Has Got This Royal Thing Nailed
Seagate Technology plc STX is a Computer Storage Device company that could be an interesting play for investors. That is because, not only does the stock have decent short-term momentum, but it is seeing solid activity on the earnings estimate revision front as well.

These positive earnings estimate revisions suggest that analysts are becoming more optimistic on STXs earnings for the coming quarter and year. In fact, consensus estimates have moved sharply higher for both of these time frames over the past four weeks, suggesting that Seagate Technology could be a solid choice for investors.

SEAGATE TECH Price and Consensus

SEAGATE TECH Price and Consensus | SEAGATE TECH Quote

Current Quarter Estimates for STX

In the past 30 days, 9 estimates has gone higher for Seagate Technology while none has gone lower in the same time period. The trend has been pretty favorable too, with estimates rising from earnings of 13 cents per share 30 days ago, to earnings of 48 cents today, a significant move.

Current Year Estimates for STX

Meanwhile, Seagate Technology current year figures are also looking quite promising, with 9 estimates moving higher in the past month, compared to none lower. The consensus estimate trend has also seen a boost for this time frame with estimates rising from earnings of $1.72 per share 30 days ago, to earnings of $2.01 today, a move of 16.9%.

Bottom Line

The stock has also started to move higher lately, adding 27.8% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are starting to take note of this impressive story. So investors may definitely want to consider this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock to profit in the near future.

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 >>



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The report also quotes an unidentified official as saying the site could have held between 200 and 300 centrifuges.

A ballistic rocket launch drill of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen at an unknown location, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: A US policy institute said it may have located a secret facility used by North Korea in the early stages of building its program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, which if confirmed would be critical to the success of any future nuclear deal, according to a report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The report by the Institute for Science and International Security said there has always been doubt about whether North Korea has disclosed all of its nuclear facilities. Confirming their location would be critical to the success of any future agreement to freeze and dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program, it said.

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SITE PLAYED A CRUCIAL ROLE?



The site, 27 miles (43 km) from the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, may have played a key role in development of centrifuges that refine uranium hexafluoride gas into low-enriched and highly enriched uranium, the report said.

"It is necessary to identify where North Korea enriches uranium and part of that is understanding where it has done it in the past," said David Albright, the institute's president.

ALSO READ: North Korea: We won't abandon nukes with US gun to our head THE DISCREET LOCATION



What may once have been the early centrifuge research and development facility is believed to have been inside an aircraft part factory inside a mountain next to Panghyon Air Base. It was located using commercial satellite imagery, the report said.

It was unclear whether the aircraft part factory was still operational but information from defectors indicates there may be three production-scale centrifuge manufacturing plants operating in the country although their locations have not been confirmed, said Albright.

GROWING UNREST OVER JANUARY'S NUKE TESTS



Tensions have been escalating between North Korea and South Korea, the United States and Japan over Pyongyang's fourth underground nuclear test in January and a series of missile launches.

North Korea's nuclear program is based on highly enriched uranium and plutonium separated from spent reactor fuel rods.

GOVT FIRST DENIES, BUT ADMITS LATER



The reclusive government, which for more than a decade denied having a gas centrifuge program, in November 2010 revealed the existence of a production-scale gas centrifuge plant at Yongbyon but insisted it had no other such facilities.

In June 2000 a Japanese newspaper quoted Chinese sources as saying a facility was located inside Mount Chonma, the report said. Information recently obtained from "knowledgeable government officials" suggested the undeclared facility was associated with an underground aircraft parts factory, it said.

Working with Allsource Analysis, which interprets satellite imagery, the institute determined it most likely was Panghyon Aircraft Plant, which made parts for Soviet-supplied fighters.

The report quoted an unidentified official as saying the site could have held between 200 and 300 centrifuges.

ALSO READ:

North Korea test-fired missiles to simulate pre-emptive nuclear attack on South Korea

Pakistan selling nuclear material to North Korea, China knows it: US sources

--- ENDS ---

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A tremor reported on July 16 off the coast of Florida was not an earthquake, but a Naval test explosion.

The U.S. Geological Survey now lists the event on its earthquake hazards page as an "experimental explosion by the U.S. Navy." According to DefenseNews.com, the 10,000-pound explosion was set off to test the resilience of a combat ship, the USS Jackson. Navy officials have told multiple news outlets that they plan to release a statement about the testing.

USGS instruments measured the blast as a magnitude-3.7 earthquake, which would have been a rare seismic event in the tectonically quiet region. Florida sits on the passive margin of the North American continental plate, meaning that temblors are rare. The active margin of the plate is on the West Coast, where the North American plate is slipping under the Pacific plate in a process called subduction. Subduction is why California and the Pacific Northwest experience earthquakes on a relatively regular basis.

There has never been an earthquake with its epicenter under Florida, according to the state's Department of Environmental Protection. On occasion, Floridians have felt tremors from quakes centered outside of the state. For example, in September 1886, Florida experienced some shaking from a massive earthquake in Charleston, South Carolina, which had an estimated magnitude of 7.3, according to the USGS. It was the most damaging earthquake ever in the Southeast, according to the agency, and was unusual in that it occurred within a tectonic plate, not at the boundary between two plates.

Scientists don't yet understand why earthquakes sometimes occur within plates, according to the Incorporated Research Institutes for Seismology, a consortium of universities that gathers seismological data.

The Florida Navy test, which took place 104 miles (168 kilometers) east-northeast of Daytona Beach, is not the first non-earthquake mistaken for a temblor. A 1997 review of all of Florida's historical earthquake reports suggests that out of about 24 incidents reported since 1727, only about five were probably actual quakes.

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Many of the events, rounded up in a 1991 report, are poorly sourced or can't be confirmed. For example, in 1948, people on Captiva Island reported rattling doors and the sound of distant explosions. In 1952, a slight tremor rattled doors and windows in Quincy, Florida. Such rattling could be explained by ground tremors, but small shakes are also caused by construction, explosions and even supersonic flight (first developed in 1948). And though deep freeze is rare in Florida, some colder areas have reported small earthquakes that are actually "frostquakes"  groundwater expanding rapidly in a deep freeze, causing booming sounds and localized shaking.

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.
Cleveland (AFP) - Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump took a victory lap on Friday after accepting his party's nomination at a raucous convention in Cleveland, proclaiming it "the summer of Trump."

But while insisting that the four-day confab brought "amazing" unity to divided Republicans, Trump harshly criticized his erstwhile rival Ted Cruz for pointedly declining in a convention speech to endorse his candidacy.

He called the Texas senator "dishonorable," adding that Cruz "may have ruined his political career."

The New York mogul said that even if Cruz now offered an endorsement, he would not accept it.

In often-rambling remarks Friday, the candidate seemed ebullient after delivering a focused acceptance speech Thursday night that drew warm and loud applause within the Cleveland arena.

The convention had been marred not only by Cruz's speech -- which drew loud boos -- and a brief anti-Trump revolt but by apparent plagiarism in a speech by Trump's wife, Melania.

Still, the nominee called it "one of the most love-filled conventions in the history of conventions."

"It's been the summer of Trump," he said, adding, "There's never been anything like it."

But at a time when more traditional candidates might have been looking ahead to the race against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the unconventional Trump seemed unable to let go his differences with Cruz.

Cruz, he said, had been "booed the hell out of the place."

Trump added, "What difference does it make? I don't want his endorsement."

An unrepentant Cruz said after his speech Wednesday night that he could not support a man who had criticized both his wife and father during the primary campaign.

Trump had tweeted a picture of an angry-looking Heidi Cruz appearing next to a model-perfect photo of his own wife.

Trump on Friday blamed the Cruz camp for drawing first blood.

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As for Cruz's father, he said he had merely tweeted a photo that seemed to show the elder Cruz with "crazy Lee Harvey Oswald" -- President John F. Kennedy's assassin.

"I think he's a lovely guy," Trump said of the father. But he said the photo had appeared in the National Enquirer, a magazine know for sensationalism but which Trump said "does have credibility."

Democrats will have their moment in the spotlight when their convention convenes Monday in Philadelphia to confirm Clinton's nomination.
UFC Fight Night: Pettis v Alvarez

Getty Image / Maddie Meyer

Freshly minted UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez would like to arrange a playdate with the winner of UFC 202s massive main event and hes not interested in hiccups like rankings and weight classes that might get in the way.

As reported by MMA Fighting, Alvarez chatted about his future plans with SiriusXM Rushs The Countdown. Instead of hard selling a potential fight with lightweight division contenders like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson or recent opponent (and former champ) Rafael dos Anjos, the 32-year-old Philly fighter has his eye on next months highly anticipated McGregor vs. Diaz rematch. Hes prepared for the challenge and the money that comes from a fight of that profile.

Initially I want the winner of Conor-Nate. I would like a big pay-per-view, big money fight. Im willing to wait for one of them guys. I almost got in a fight with Nate in Mexico City so maybe we can settle our differences, and if Conor happens to win I welcome that fight as well. The number one contender in my weight class has fought once in about the last three years or something. So Im a little nervous about fighting a guy like that who barely shows up to fight. So Conor and Nate, theyre the guys on my radar, one of them Id really like to get my hands on.

Thanks to McGregor, its been a bit tricky to get the toothpaste back in the tube when it comes to the status of the featherweight belt and a bout against the toast of the lightweight division would likely gum up the works all the more. Of course, you cant blame a fighter for wanting the colossal red panties paydays.

Alvarez has reason to be confident about those potential matchups. He hasnt lost since 2014 (UFC 178 against Donald Cerrone, to be exact) and his impressive first round TKO of the mighty dos Anjos boosts his stock all the more. According to Alvarez, rankings are subjective anyway.

Look at the case between Tony Ferguson and Khabib. Tony Ferguson is 8-0, hes been active for the last God-knows-how-what, hes been finishing opponents, been on a tear; Khabibs fought once in three years and hes number one and he decides he wants a title shot? The last guy he beat was virtually un-ranked  maybe top 100 in the world  and hes the number one guy in the world. So who says that? Who makes that up? Who appoints him number one? That being said, make the fights that make sense. Make the fights the fans want to see. Who gives a sh*t about the rankings?

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Alvarez predicts that Diaz will win his next go-around with McGregor, but lets use Uproxx FutureVision to see how Jose Aldo will react if McGregor gets wrangled into a fight with Alvarez next, shall we?

Checks out. Root for Nate, Jose.

(via MMA Fighting)
Of all the celebrity appearances at Comic-Con on Thursday, none was more meta than Edward Snowden appearing via Google Hangout from an undisclosed location in Moscow to discuss a screening of Oliver Stones biopic Snowden.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who stars as the fugitive whistleblower, and Shailene Woodley, who plays his long-suffering girlfriend, joined Stone and the disembodied Snowden for a 30-minute Q&A after the Thursday event.

Snowden appears briefly as himself at the end of the film to explain what has transpired in the years since he revealed the illegal data-mining of U.S. citizens by the NSA. The scene took nine takes to perfect, according to Stone, who cheekily added that Donald Trump required the same number of tries for a scene that was ultimate deleted from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Im not an actor, Snowden said. It was something that made me really nervous.

Stone said it was a gamble to use the real Snowden after spending the entire film with Gordon-Levitt playing him.

Asked if he thought Gordon-Levitt did a fair impersonation, Snowden paused for a moment then answered: This is one of the things thats kind of crazy and surreal about this whole experience, he said. I dont think anybody looks forward to having a movie made about themselves, especially someone whos a privacy activist.

But what I can say is some of my family members have said, He sounds just like you. To me, the voice in my head doesnt sound the same. but if he can pass the family test, hes doing all right.

It means a lot to have Eds endorsement, and it means a lot to have you [Snowden] here tonight, said Gordon-Levitt, who was sporting an American flag on his T-shirt.

Stone copped to taking liberties with some of the action in film, in particular how Snowden smuggled a thumb drive out of an NSA building. In the film, Snowden uses a Rubiks Cube. But neither Stone nor Snowden would say exactly how it really happened because there are still charges pending against Snowden. The FBI actually gets a copy of this talk because were going through Google Hangouts, which, unfortunately has built-in surveillance technology, Snowden noted.

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He also gave a little background on why he cooperated with Stone on the biopic. You dont get to decide whether or not a movie gets to be made.  You kind of lose control over these kind of things, he said. But Oliver thinks for himself, and thats something I respect very highly. You look at his filmography and you can see that nobody tells Oliver what to do. And thats not the case with a lot of studios.

Asked what his life is like now that hes stuck in Russia without a passport, Snowden responded, I can confirm that I dont live in a box. I actually live a surprisingly free life.

Every day Im working on something now that I can be proud of.

Snowden comes out Sept. 16.

Heres the films new trailer released at Comic-Con:

Read Yahoo Movies complete Comic-Con coverage.
By PTI: Patna, Jul 22 (PTI) One of the 36 gates of Valmki Nagar barrage on the Gandak river in Bihars West Champaran district was partially damaged due to pressure of water discharge from Nepal and repair works are underway.

Water Resources Department (WRD) Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh today said, gate number 33 of the barrage on Gandak river was partially damaged last night when all the gates were being opened to regulate discharge of 2.70 lakh cusec water by Nepal following heavy rainfall in catchment areas of various rivers.

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"However, there is no need for panic by people residing in the low lying areas of West Champaran and other districts as the other 35 gates are functioning normally and regulating discharge of river water from Nepal," he said.

Singh said the barrage had discharged 1.69 lakh cusec water during the day yesterday, but the discharge level suddenly jumped to 2.7 lakh cusec in the night due to heavy rainfall in the catchment area in Nepal. The Valmiki Nagar barrage has water discharge capacity of 8.5 lakh cusec.

While WRD engineers were deputed permanently at the barrage, a private maintenance team is working overtime to repair the damaged gate, Singh said, adding a team of engineers have been rushed to Valmiki Nagar to supervise repair and restoration works of the barrage gate.

A probe has been ordered and the WRD chief engineer at Muzaffarpur and the chief engineer of mechanical department at the state headquarters have been sent there, he said.

The WRD minister said they have been asked to submit a report by tomorrow so that stringent action can be initiated against the engineers responsible for lapses, if any.

West Champaran district magistrate has ordered a simultaneous probe to find out any criminal lapse by engineers deputed at the barrage for maintenance of the gate, Singh added. PTI KDK KK NSD

--- ENDS ---
Edward Snowden may be persona non grata in the United States, but that didn't keep the CIA whistleblower from video conferencing in for a Q&A after a private screening of the new biopic about his life at Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday.

The 33-year-old computer expert, who gained notoriety when he leaked classified documents detailing the U.S. government's domestic surveillance programs, called in via Google Hangouts to answer questions about the Oliver Stone-directed film, Snowden.

Snowden, who joined the celebrated director as well as the film's stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley, admitted that he had his reservations about participating in the biopic.

WATCH: 'Snowden' Cast Talk Politics and Pokemon Go at Comic-Con: 'It's a New Level of Invasion'

"I don't think anybody looks forward to having a movie made about yourself, especially a privacy advocate," Snowden explained.

However, he did endorse the film, and admitted that it's a fairly accurate portrayal of events. "I didn't think there was a lot of fictionalization," he shared with the audience.

Snowden also revealed that several of his family members praised Gordon-Levitt's portrayal, marveling at how much the actor "sounded like him."

"I think it means a lot to have the endorsement of Ed himself," shared Gordon-Levitt.

PHOTOS: Stars Take On Real-Life Roles

The former CIA employee fled America after absconding with the intel, which he later leaked to the New York Times, and eventually made his way to Russia, where he felt he was safe from the long arm of the U.S. government.

Snowden still resides in Moscow, where he lives with his girlfriend, and revealed during the Q&A, "I actually live a relatively free life."

Before the private screening, the cast and creator sat down for a panel discussion in Hall H, where Gordon-Levitt talked about traveling to Moscow to meet Snowden face-to-face.

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"He's very polite. I think that's actually pretty charming. He's like an old-fashioned gentleman in that way. Really warm. He's an optimist," the 35-year-old actor recounted.

PHOTOS: See the Stars at San Diego Comic-Con 2016!

ET caught up with Woodley on the red carpet at SDCC where she opened up about playing Snowden's girlfriend, Lindsay Mills.

"It was very foreign to me to play someone who is real, because not only am I trying to feel truthful and grounded in the dialogue that Oliver [Stone] and Kieran Fitzgerald, the writers of the film, created, but I'm also trying to pay homage to a living, breathing woman, without knowing that woman," Woodley admitted. Check out the video below to hear more.



Snowden hits theaters September 16.

Additional reporting by Philiana Ng.

Related Articles
By Piya Sinha-Roy SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuters) - When former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden met with Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone to discuss a movie on his life, he never thought he would be making his own film debut. Stone had initially interviewed Snowden to include him in DVD outtakes, Snowden said via video link late Thursday in San Diego after a screening of Stone's "Snowden," which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character. But Snowden and Stone ended up filming nine takes for a scene in which he talks about his fears stemming from his actions. "I spoke at length just about personal values and just what it meant to me with the things that were happening since 2013," said Snowden. "I guess he liked it. People do seem to respond to that." The movie, due out in September, follows the 2013 events that led Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, to expose the U.S. government's mass surveillance programs and flee the country after the government filed espionage charges against him. He was granted asylum in Russia later that year, and has lived there since with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills. "When there is enough in the public record, you don't really get to decide whether or not the movie gets made," Snowden said. The film follows Snowden's discovery of the U.S. government's mass surveillance programs that digitally monitor unaware citizens. It fictionalizes and condenses some events, such as how Snowden smuggled the data out of the NSA - dramatized with a Rubik's Cube in the film - and got it to documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald in Hong Kong. "I admitted that I did not have a plan beyond getting straight out of there (Hong Kong), I planned to ask the world for justice and see what happened. It was kind of surprising how that worked out," he said. Asked by an audience member if he was happy, Snowden said: "I actually live a surprisingly free life," working with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union that Gordon-Levitt donated his "Snowden" acting fee to. "Every day, I'm working on something now that I can be proud of. I love my country, I love the things that we try to do," he said. "The fact that Lindsay ... has been with me for ten years, is still with me, that's something that just makes me happy every day." (Editing by Bernadette Baum)
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA / ACCESSWIRE / July 22, 2016 / Troy Grant, President and CEO of ELCORA ADVANCED MATERIALS CORP. (ERA.V) (ECORF) (ELM.F), (the "Company" or "Elcora"), is pleased to announce that that graphite nano-platelets are formed as a by-product from the laboratory of Elcora's subsidiary, the Graphene Corp. This provides the company with another product line in a growing market.

Cannot view this image? Please visit [http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2409/21721_a1469103910502_1.jpg] to view this image

Graphene Corp 4-6 micrometer graphite nano-platelets (NOO  July 12, 2016)

The Graphene Corp (Canada) nano-platelets are between 100 nm and 5 micrometers in size and can be used in many of the same applications as graphene including fillers for rubber and plastics to increase strength, impart electrical conductivity or to increase the heat transfer of many composites. This is a by-product of the Graphene Corporation's high yield graphene production. This material currently sells for between one and fifty dollars per gram depending on the quality. Production of nano-platelets is scalable depending on demand.

"This work is a positive step in Elcora's goal of producing graphite added value products that utilizes the same marketing as graphene" said Troy Grant, Elcora's President and CEO. "And is another positive step towards Elcora's continued strategic development as vertical integrated graphite company."

About Elcora Advanced Materials

Elcora was founded in 2011 and has been structured to become a vertically integrated graphite & graphene company that mines, processes, refines graphite, and produces both the graphene and end user graphene applications. As part of the vertical integration strategy, Elcora has secured high-grade graphite and graphene precursor graphite from its interest in the operation of the Ragedara mine in Sri Lanka which is already in production. Elcora has developed a unique low cost effective processes to make high quality graphite and graphene that are commercially scalable. This combination means that Elcora has the tools and resources for graphite and graphene vertical integration.

Story continues

For further information please visit the company's website at http://www.elcoracorp.com

For further information please contact: Troy Grant, Director, President and CEO, Elcora Resources Corp., T: 902 802-8847 F: 902 446-2001.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT:

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock Exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and reserves, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of Elcora, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Elcora's expectations are exploration risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by Elcora with securities regulators.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the filing statement prepared in connection with the transaction, any information released or received with respect to the transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon.

SOURCE: Elcora Advanced Materials Corp.
Cafe Society, out in wide release this week, is not a good movie. Its plot is weak; its characters are flat; it seems to have no artistic or moral convictions save for its recognition that love can be really awkward and that Kristen Stewart can be really prettybut all that seems, at this particular moment in the affairs of the world and in the career of Woody Allen, to be somehow beside the point. The movie premiered in May at Cannes, as the film festivals opener. It was financed by Amazonwhich paid a reported $20 million to secure the rights to itas part of Amazon Studios bid to compete with Netflix and to establish its artistic legitimacy. Cafe Society has improved financially on Allens other recent work: Last weekend it earned $355,000 in theaters in New York and Los Angeles aloneenough to give it, according to Indiewire, the biggest limited opening of 2016.

Related Story

Woody Allens Dark, Tedious Fantasies

Woody Allen makes pictures, rather than movies; that alone might help to explain Cafe Societys success. Allen is an icon, after all, not just of nebbishy narcissism, but also of the bygone era in which movies were one of the few, and most significant, mechanisms the culture had for talking to itself. Allen claims to reject nostalgianostalgia is a trap, he has said; its a pleasant, sticky substance, like honey, that you fall intoand yet his recent films, many of them dubbed by critics to be love letters to some forgotten dream, have gone to pains to celebrate what came before: the age when filmmakers were also auteurs; the age when a famous person could claim, with some degree of believability, not to read his own press; the age in which a documentary about a celebritys life could stay silent on the allegations, waged against him by his daughter, that he molested her when she was 7 years old.

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Cafe Society, too, pulses with a palpable longing for that which was and will never be again. It is Allens love letter to Old Hollywood, or more precisely its another of Allens love letters to Old Hollywood. Set in the 1930sthe decade, perhaps not uncoincidentally, of Allens birthit revolves around Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg, serving again as an unsubtle stand-in for Allen himself), who leaves his home in the Bronx for Los Angeles, in search of a new job and a new life. Bobby relies on his uncle, the high-powered agent-to-the-stars Phil Stern (Steve Carell), to help him to settle in; Phil accomplishes this mostly by introducing Bobby to Vonnie (Stewart), Phils languid, limpid secretary. Bobby immediately falls in love with her. She does not return the sentiment. He goads her, though, into befriending him, and then into dating him, until  lets just say that theres a complication. Vonnies heart belongs to someone else.

Nothing in Cafe Society suggests anything resembling a message or a conclusion.

Cafe Society is a slight little love story, its central triangle made slightly more complicated by stories of the mobBobbys brother (Corey Stoll, oozing charm) is a New York gangsterand by many, many not-terribly-funny jokes about being Jewish (when a Jew cooks something, Bobby says, solemnly, its always overcooked, because they want to kill all the germs). The films stars, as will so often be the case with an Allen film, give game performances (especially, this time around, Blake Lively, who plays another love interest for Bobby and makes the most of a sorely underwritten role). And everyoneas will so often be another case with an Allen filmseems, you know, really happy to be there.

But for all its beauty and its star power, the movie never elevates to anything beyond a kind of storyboard sketch. Theres love, and loss, and betrayal, and ego, and death ... yet none of these epic themes ever leap from the screen as full or human or even interesting. Everything here is beautiful and meaningless. Perhaps that is Allens pointhis films have long been interested in existentialism and, lately, nihilismbut nothing in Cafe Society suggests anything resembling a message or a conclusion or, indeed, an artist who has much to say beyond (as Phil observes at one point): In matters of the heart, people do foolish things.

Recommended: Jon Stewart's Pitch-Perfect Rant on Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show'

They do. Yes. And while thats a truism that has animated the output of artists from Shakespeare to Austen to Kanye, matters of the heart have never, really, been Allens strong suit. True, his films feature characters (men, mostly) doing foolish things because of love (dating inappropriate women, largely). As my colleague Sophie Gilbert pointed out last year:

In 1996, at the age of 61, he successfully wooed the 29-year-old Julia Roberts in Everyone Says I Love You, the year after he had an affair with Mira Sorvinos 20-something prostitute in Mighty Aphrodite. In 1979s Manhattan, Allens 40-something character, Isaac, dates a 17-year-old schoolgirl played by Mariel Hemingway (the film is believed to be based on Allens real-life experiences dating 16-year-old Stacey Nelkin, whom he met on the set of Annie Hall and dated while she was attending Stuyvesant High School).

But the subtle give-and-take that guides deep human connection? The stuff that so often makes for good rom-coms, and for good literature? Allen dabbles in it, certainly, but he tends to return, like a tuft-headed boomerang, to his comfort zones: allegory. Slapstick. Sketch. Even Annie Hall, perhaps Allens best film and certainly the one that catapulted him to fame, had to evolve into the rom-com that it would become. Allens original vision for the film, his aforementioned documentary points out, was that it would focus on Alvy, with Annie as a more minor character; it was only in editing, and because of Diane Keatons manic charisma, that the films iconic rom-com structure emerged.

Recommended: Michelle Obama's Glorious and Savvy 'Carpool Karaoke' Clip

The generous reading of Allens work is that he has suffered from the cruel paradox that will plague so many visionaries, in the end: His innovations have become so normalized that they now whiff of cliche. Allen certainly was a visionary, many times overand also, as both a cause and effect of that, a product of his times. He rose to fame around the same years, in the United States, that psychotherapy was becoming a standard mode of dealing with the world (one study found an eightfold rise in the number of psychologists who focused on mental health between 1950 and 1975); he channeled that shift, becoming a de facto mascot of the nations newfound awareness of its own mental impulses. For Gods sake, Alvy, exclaims a girl in Annie Hall, even Freud speaks of a latency period! This is a joke that could not have landed, with a wide audience, before the me generation came of age.

Allen conflates the star and the hero. Bobby wants, and Bobby deserves; for Allen, revealingly, those two things are indistinguishable.

While Allen may not be, strictly, a member of that generation, his films embraced its aestheticsand its ethics. If the 70s were indeed awash, as has so often been argued, in a culture of narcissism, then Allen was the bard of that culture. And that was, in large part, a very good thing. It led to filmsAnnie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairothat dared to assume what so many movies today take for granted: that individual introspection is a crucial element of culture. That awkwardness, individual egos colliding and tripping each other up, is a defining fact of human life. That the psychic alchemy that takes place as a person sits, silently, in a movie house as film crackles and rolls means that movies can legitimately tackle, and maybe even answer, some of lifes Biggest Questions. What does it all mean? Who, or what, is it all for? Why this, and why not that, and just why, why, why?

The later period of Allens career, though, saw a darker twist to those impulses. It saw Allen moving away from the existential questions and toward more ethical ones. To what extent, Allen began wondering, audibly, can the mandates of morality really apply to the messiness of human life? To what extent are cheatingand betrayaland murderand abusewrong? To what extent must they be punished? To what extent can they be justified? If theres a through line to Allens recent work, it is a deepalmost morbidcuriosity about what, precisely, a person can get away with.

Recommended: Leslie Jones and the Power of Speaking Up

Well. Another bad movie is one more thing Woody Allen has gotten away with. Cafe Society comes in the wake of Irrational Man and Magic in the Moonlightsimilarly self-indulgent, similarly trivial. One of the biggest problems afflicting Allens latest picture is the simple fact that Bobby, as a stand-in for the films creatorAllen narrates the movie, an unnecessary self-injection that will come as a surprise to precisely nobodyis distinctly unappealing both as a protagonist and as a person. He is blithely self-absorbed; he is smarmy; he is manipulative. Allen assumes, it seems, that Bobbys centrality to the films story means that he should, therefore, get what he wantsbe it a job or a beautiful woman. He conflates star and hero, revealingly. Bobby wants, but more importantly Bobby deserves; and, for Allen, those two things are indistinguishable.

They have to be: Bobby pursues Vonnie so aggressively that her giving in to him reads not as a triumph of love, but rather as, well, what it is: an acquiescence. Her concession to Bobbys will is never questioned or complicated. And there are the workings of Allens ethical cosmology laid bare. Bobby has to be entitled to what he wants, even when that thing is another human; otherwise, Cafe Societys already tenuous moral universe will succumb to the forces of its own smug entropy.

Its hard, given Allens age, not to read that as a metaphor: the creator, in his twilight years. A portrait of the artist a no-longer-young man.

These are attitudes thatparticularly given his daughters allegations against Allenare uncomfortable for obvious reasons. But they also suggest the less generous reading of Allens career: that the ground beneath him has shifted, and that he has proven either unwilling or unable to move along with it. The bard of narcissism is out of date.

The current age is defined, to be sure, by its own brand of self-inspection: the social media update, the selfie, the general sense that, whatever the orthography may have to say about it, there is totally an I in team. And yet it is also defined by oppositional forces: by a new sense, enabled by the internet and social media and hashtags and all the new ways that exist to expose human experience, of community. People who used to be invisible to the culture at large are, via the workings of the digital world, suddenly less so; people who used to be unheard are now raising their voices. Allens work has emphasized the primacy of the individual, often at the expense of the other individuals who may be, sometimes inconveniently, in the picture; that is another way that it scans, in the current world, as distinctly retrograde. Cafe Society is Allens first digital film; that, though, its Amazon backing notwithstanding, is the only way the film nods, even faintly, to the future.

Its perhaps fitting, then, that nearly every scene of the movie is washedvia its cinematographer, the great Vittorio Storaroin the lovely side-light of the golden hour. Its a choice, at once subtle and pervasive, that gives the films proceedings, whatever the time of day, whether characters are outside or in, the effect of perpetual sunset. And its hard, given Allens age, not to read that as a metaphor: the creator, in his twilight years. A portrait of the artist a no-longer-young man. Allen, early in his career, was obsessed with The Seventh Seal, Bergmans masterpiece of cinematic existentialism; perhaps he has come to see himself, in his own way, as someone who is working to cheat death. Perhaps the frenzied pace of Allens recent cinematic outputa movie a year, pretty muchis evidence of the artist trying, in the only way he knows how, to stay alive. Running, desperately, but vainly: It would make sense. The problem is that running, like most other things in life, is particularly difficult to do if the runner is constantlystubbornlylooking backward.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) - Germany's Olympic eventing team and individual champion Michael Jung has had to change horses for the Rio Games a week before the animals are due to fly to Brazil. The double gold medallist said he will now ride Sam, the 16-year-old he won with in London in 2012, after his first choice Takinou suffered an infection. However, Germany's eventing team trainer Chris Bartle, a Briton, told the Horse and Hound website that the replacement had yet to be decided with Rocana another option. "Today I have to write the worst news of the year," said Jung on his Facebook page. "Takinou has suffered a febrile infection after his victory in Aachen (last week) and cannot fly to Rio." Only two horse and rider pairings have ever won back-to-back individual Olympic gold medals in eventing, the most recent being New Zealander Mark Todd on Charisma in 1984 and 1988. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Tony Jimenez)
As the prime election day is drawing closer, the gap between Republican and Democrat presidential candidates is narrowing, though Clinton is still ahead. As per Real Clear Politics poll average, the lead of Clinton over Trump shrank from 19.6 points (on July 2, 2015) to just 2.8 points on July 20, 2016.

Though throughout the campaign period, Clinton has mostly maintained a strong lead, recently Trump is all over with his popularity picking pace. Against such a scenario, Trumps economic and political agenda, and its impact on the investing world deserve a look.

Tax Cut into the Play?

Donald Trump is a believer of tax cuts and plans to bring the top individual tax rate down to 25% from 39.6%, abolish the estate tax, slash the corporate tax rate to 15% from 35% and tax business profits of high-income households at a lower rate than their wages, as per Wall Street Journal. However, he noted that despite such widespread cuts, the economy will not face higher budget deficits.

On the corporate level, a notable impact would be felt on the tax inversion deals. U.S. companies often resort to the cross-border merge route to shift headquarters to a foreign base and avoid higher U.S. taxes. Notably, such deals have been rampant in the Health Care sector (read: New Tax Inversions Rules: Threats to Healthcare ETFs?).

With a cut in the tax rate, companies may not have to rush to tax havens. This might benefit Health Care companies and related ETFs like Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) to some extent.

On the other hand, Trump is a believer of the fact that medicare could save as much as $300 billion annually through negotiation with drugmakers. This may turn negative for the healthcare sector.

On a different note, tax cuts would invariably boost consumer spending thus pushing up consumer stocks and the related ETFs like iShares U.S. Consumer Services ETF IYC. Income earners who are into the top tax bracket will especially be blessed. Since stock markets in most cases are being accessed by the high-income population, this extra cash received from tax will likely boost stock market activity further.

Story continues

Infrastructure to Get a Boost

Donald Trump is also in favor of beefing up the infrastructure sector by working on roads, bridges, water systems and the power grid. He has a plan to shell out a trillion dollars on this.

Needless to mention, infrastructure and utilities ETFs should get a boost, if the plan ever materializes. Utilities ETFs like First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund (FXU) and PowerShares S&P SmallCap Utilities Portfolio ETF (PSCU) are likely to benefit from this trend (read: Should You Play these Overvalued Sector ETFs?).

Break-Up of Big Banks

The latest surprise from the Republican platform is to pitch for reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act. The act, which showed up after the 1929 stock market crash, made investment and commercial banking two different segments. This step was taken because it was believed that commercial banks excessive stock market investment led to the market crash and the subsequent Great Depression (read: These Big Banks Could Lose If Donald Trump Wins).

The rule was dropped during the Clinton administration, but Trump seeks to revive it to create a wall between big banks' businesses and "try and avoid some of the crisis that led to 2008," as per an article published in CNBC. Needless to say, financial ETFs like XLF,IAI, KBWB will come under pressure if Trump makes it to the White House (read: Will Financial ETFs Forget Brexit and Gain on Decent Q2 Earnings?).

To Encourage Fossil Fuels

Taking a completely difference stance than president Obama, Trump is ready to push for more fossil fuel generation. Be it crude oil, natural gas or coal, Trump is to help it all. This in turn may hit low carbon and clean ETFs like iShares MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target ETF (CRBN), PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio ETF PBW, Guggenheim Solar ETF TAN and First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund FAN.

Though Trump indicated that he will take a dovish stance on other energy sources, including nuclear, wind and solar, he still said that solar and wind still required subsidies or had payoff periods too long to be attractive.

So, coal ETF VanEck Vectors Coal ETF KOL andenergy exploration ETFs likeSPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF XOP should see some surge from this move.

Also, sinceTrump is planning to lift limits on energy production and drill oil at the countrys full potential, oil prices  which are already suffering from higher global output and are finally on the verge of a turnaround  may slip again. Oil ETFs including United States Oil Fund USO and PowerShares DB Oil Fund DBO are likely to feel the pinch (read: 5 ETFs for Those Who Believe the Oil Rally is Over).

Idea of Mexico Wall

Trump vows to make Mexico pay for a wall along the border as a part of his immigration plan. If this concept of Trump Wall turns into a reality, it might hamper booming U.S. exports of its natural gas surpluses to Mexico. This suggested move puts the spotlight on iShares MSCI Mexico Capped EWW while natural gas ETFs like United States Natural Gas Fund UNG also draw attention.

35% Tax on Products Built Outside US

With Trump urging U.S. companies to shift their manufacturing plants back home by imposing a 35% import tax, a trend of offshoring will eventually fade out and a trend of reshoring will be seen. With this, industrial ETFs like Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS) and First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX Fund (FXR) may gain traction.

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* Europe key market for North American soybeans

* GMOs are a focus of environmental campaigners

* Authorisation for feed, food use but not cultivation (Recasts throughout; adds ADM comment, analyst comment, Monsanto share prices)

By Karl Plume

CHICAGO, July 22 (Reuters) - The European Commission on Friday approved imports of Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 Xtend genetically modified soybean variety, after months of delays that had derailed the U.S. seed giant's product launch this spring.

The decision now clears the way for widespread planting next season and removes a hurdle for North American farmers and grain traders, who have to keep close track of unapproved biotech traits that can disrupt trade. Top importer China approved the soybeans earlier this year.

U.S. grain trader and processor Archer Daniels Midland Co told Reuters on Friday its elevators and processing plants will now accept the Xtend soybean variety. Rivals Cargill Inc, Bunge Ltd and CHS Inc, which had also refused to accept the variety without EU import approval, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The EU is the second largest importer of soybeans and its approval is not expected to have a major impact on merger talks by German suitor Bayer AG, whose sweetened $64-billion buyout offer of Monsanto was rejected last week, as it had been widely anticipated, analysts said on Friday.

"It would have been a big deal if it hadn't been approved, but this was the expected outcome, although it took longer than anyone thought," said Bernstein analyst Jonas Oxgaard.

Still, the approval marks a key victory for Monsanto in the wake of months of regulatory delays over this launch, and swirling controversy over whether glyphosate, the chemical in its popular Roundup herbicide, is carcinogenic.

Monsanto expects Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, designed to tolerate applications of glyphosate and dicamba weed killers, to be planted on 15 million acres next spring and 55 million acres by 2019. The company is still waiting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve dicamba use on crops.

Story continues

The European Commission also approved a Bayer CropScience soybean variety. The EU executive branch took action after EU member states failed to reach an agreement on whether to licence them.

The approval will allow these GMO soybeans to be used in food or animal feed, but not for planting within the EU.

"Any products produced from these GMOs will be subject to the EU's strict labelling and traceability rules," the European Commission said in a statement.

The EU imports tens of million tonnes of GMO crops and products every year for use in animal feed.

The authorisations, which cover Monsanto's soybean MON 87708 x MON 89788 and soybean MON 87705 x MON 89788 and soybean FG 72 of Bayer's CropScience division, will be valid for 10 years.

Monsanto shares were little changed on Friday at $106.07.

(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels and Karl Plume in Chicago; editing by Jane Merriman, P.J. Huffstutter and Bernard Orr)
Paris (AFP) - The European Union's securities watchdog fined Fitch Rating agency 1.38 million euros ($1.52 million) Thursday for breaking the bloc's credit ratings regulations.

The European Securities and Markets Authority said that senior analysts at Fitch had passed on information to senior figures at a parent company before the information was public.

The ratings agency also did not give Slovenia the minimum 12 hours to respond to a sovereign rating downgrade before announcing the move.

"ESMA found certain senior analysts in Fitch transmitted information about upcoming rating actions on sovereign ratings to certain senior persons in a parent company of Fitch before it was made public," ESMA said in a statement.

"Further, ESMA found that Fitch failed to have proper internal controls in place to ensure it provided a rated entity with the minimum time period to consider and respond to a rating action before making it public."

ESMA said that information about the ratings downgrades of Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain in 2012 had been shared with people working for a Fitch parent company before the public announcement.

In January 2012 the agency gave Slovenia just a three hour advance warning before announcing its downgrade, ESMA said.

According to ESMA's statement Fitch has made changes to ensure such breaches do not happen again, and it said this had been taken into account when deciding on the amount to fine the agency.
By PTI: Patna, Jul 22 (PTI) One of the 36 gates of Valmki Nagar barrage on the Gandak river in Bihars West Champaran district was partially damaged due to pressure of water discharge from Nepal and repair works are underway.

Water Resources Department (WRD) Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh today said, gate number 33 of the barrage on Gandak river was partially damaged last night when all the gates were being opened to regulate discharge of 2.70 lakh cusec water by Nepal following heavy rainfall in catchment areas of various rivers.

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"However, there is no need for panic by people residing in the low lying areas of West Champaran and other districts as the other 35 gates are functioning normally and regulating discharge of river water from Nepal," he said.

Singh said the barrage had discharged 1.69 lakh cusec water during the day yesterday, but the discharge level suddenly jumped to 2.7 lakh cusec in the night due to heavy rainfall in the catchment area in Nepal. The Valmiki Nagar barrage has water discharge capacity of 8.5 lakh cusec.

While WRD engineers were deputed permanently at the barrage, a private maintenance team is working overtime to repair the damaged gate, Singh said, adding a team of engineers have been rushed to Valmiki Nagar to supervise repair and restoration works of the barrage gate.

A probe has been ordered and the WRD chief engineer at Muzaffarpur and the chief engineer of mechanical department at the state headquarters have been sent there, he said.

The WRD minister said they have been asked to submit a report by tomorrow so that stringent action can be initiated against the engineers responsible for lapses, if any.

West Champaran district magistrate has ordered a simultaneous probe to find out any criminal lapse by engineers deputed at the barrage for maintenance of the gate, Singh added. PTI KDK KK NSD LNS

--- ENDS ---
(Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended suspending sales of some generic drugs after a review found that data collected by a contract research company in India for their approval was unreliable. The EMA's list included drugs made by some of the top generic drugmakers, including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Mylan NV and Novartis AG's Sandoz. The recommendation comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization raised concerns about substitution and manipulation of patients' clinical samples by Semler Research Center Pvt Ltd. (http://bit.ly/2a0Lq4t) The FDA asked drugmakers in April to repeat bioequivalence studies for drugs whose application used data obtained from tests conducted by Semler. (http://bit.ly/2a1PpRm) Generic drugmakers have to prove to health regulators through bioequivalence studies that their cheaper copy-cat drugs are as effective as the drug that they try to mimic. The EMA review expressed concerns about the bioequivalence of the suspended generics of cancer drug Tarceva, migraine treatment eletripan and anti-malarial drug Atovaquone/Proguanil. The EU health regulator said it also recommended against approving those drugs whose applications used data from studies conducted at the research site. The agency, however, allowed sales of those drugs where the manufacturing company provided data from alternate studies. The European Commission will make a legally binding decision on these recommendations, the agency said. (Reporting by Vidya L Nathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
Paris (AFP) - Europe's medicines watchdog said Friday it has recommended the licensing of the first-ever AIDS prevention pill for the European Union.

Dubbed Truvada, the pill combines two drugs and is already used in Europe and elsewhere in the world as part of AIDS treatment, and is approved in the United States, Kenya and South Africa as a preventive "pre-exposure prophylaxis" or PrEP.

Now the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also "recommended granting a marketing authorisation in the European Union for Truvada... for pre-exposure prophylaxis."

The medicine must be used "in combination with safer sex practices to reduce the risk" of picking up HIV, it added.

PrEP is a way for people at high risk of infection -- including men who have sex with men, and heterosexual couples of whom one partner has the virus -- to lower their chances of getting HIV.

Two recent studies had found "substantial reductions" in infection risk with Truvada, an EMA statement said.

In one study, risk was lowered by 42 percent in homosexual men, and another by 75 percent in heterosexual couples with one HIV-positive partner.

The recommendation of the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) will be forwarded to the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, for approval.

Each member state will then take a decision on price, and whether or not it will be covered by national health systems, said the EMA.

EU member France already announced last November it would make the drug available as PrEP for free, under a temporary national authorisation.

Truvada is manufactured by US pharmaceutical group Gilead.

With no vaccine or cure for AIDS, the focus remains on prevention.

Yet, a study released this week said about 2.5 million people a year are still becoming infected with the AIDS-causing virus.
Coming to you live every morning from Cleveland, Unconventional is the one thing you need to read to understand whats really happening at the conventions. Each edition will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the biggest (and weirdest) moments of the day, with original dispatches from the entire Yahoo Politics team  plus a sneak peek at whats next.

I alone can fix it: What Trumps speech revealed about the future of the GOP

CLEVELAND  When Donald Trump took to the stage of the Quicken Loans Arena to deliver his nomination acceptance speech, he was hoping for a repeat of 1968.

That was the year, of course, that a chip-on-his-shoulder, knife-fighting white man appealed to the United States racially anxious silent majority by promising to restore law and order  and won the White House over an establishment Democrat as a result.

And so, on Thursday night, Trump used his moment in the spotlight to portray the world around us as a terrifying hellscape, with hundreds of thousands of law-breaking illegal immigrants tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens, and murder on the rise because of this administrations rollback of criminal enforcement.

The situation is worse than it has ever been before, Trump added.

And the only solution, according to Trump, was Trump.

The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life, the real estate developer told the tens of millions watching at home. But, he added, I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon  and I mean very soon  come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored.

Never mind that the rate of violent crime has fallen by half since 1990. Never mind that only 3 percent of Americans list crime and violence as the nations most important problem. If it worked for Richard Nixon, why not try it again?

The problem, though, is that  as Mark Twain is reputed to have said  History doesnt repeat itself. Rather, it rhymes.

Story continues

The story of the 2016 election wont be the story of 1968, no matter how much Trump might want it to be. Trump isnt Nixon; Hillary Clinton isnt Hubert Humphrey. History doesnt repeat itself.

But there were rhymes this week. And thanks to Ted Cruzs dramatic mutiny Wednesday night  the boos and back-turning it provoked; the division and doubt it exposed  the most revealing was the way Cleveland rhymed with the GOPs rancorous 1964 convention in San Francisco.

It hasnt gone unnoticed that Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater was, in some respects, the Trump of his day. He was a Republican insurgent. He was running against the establishment. His views  on the New Deal, on the Cold War  werent considered mainstream. He was seen as impulsive, hot-headed, ill-informed  not someone to be trusted with the nuclear codes. The press was hostile. He opposed the Civil Rights Act, and white supremacists were drawn to him.

In the primaries, Goldwater vanquished his main rival, moderate New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, along with several lesser competitors. But the moderates did not give up. In June, they launched a Stop Goldwater movement. They even drafted a candidate: Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton. And when Scrantons 11th-hour challenge fizzled, Rockefeller decided to go to San Francisco himself and propose a platform amendment repudiating Goldwaters extremist followers.

During this year, I have crisscrossed this nation fighting  to keep the Republican Party of all the people, and warning of the extremist threat, Rockefeller said from the convention stage. These things have no place in America.

The delegates threw paper at the stage. We want Barry! they chanted.

Some of you dont like to hear it, ladies and gentlemen, but its the truth, Rockefeller said.

You goddamned Socialist! cried a young Goldwater supporter.

The booing was so loud, Rockefeller could barely finish his remarks. Historian Rick Perlstein later described the event as the ugliest of Republican conventions since 1912. And with the GOP divided  Rockefeller, like Cruz, refused to endorse his partys nominee  Goldwater went on to lose 44 states on Election Day.

The scene Wednesday night was similar. When Cruz urged listeners to vote your conscience, thousands of delegates booed and turned their backs, choosing instead to face Trump, who had materialized on the other side of the Quicken Loans Arena in silent, seething protest.

Vote for Trump! Vote for Trump! they shouted. Go home, Ted!

And yet a rhyme isnt a repetition. Trump could win in November, or he may lose in a landslide, with party discord playing a part. But for anyone looking to answer the big post-Cleveland question  Where does the GOP go from here?  its worth remembering what happened after Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Goldwater: Conservatism took root. The movement blossomed. Eventually, Ronald Reagan won the White House and Republicans recaptured Congress after decades in the wilderness.

Was Cruzs rebellion the last gasp of the old guard? Has movement conservatism lost its grip on the GOP? Is the inward-looking Americanism that Trump touted in his address ascendant?

Or is Trump a party of one, without the infrastructure or ideological integrity to sustain the kind of movement that could remake the GOP?

Well know more in a few years time. Still, an early clue came Thursday night, in the middle of Trumps address. He was bemoaning Americas political system  how it permits the powerful to beat up on people that cannot defend themselves; how its rigged against our citizens. He claimed to know the system well. And then Trump uttered a telling line:

I alone can fix it.

_____

Missed the big speeches? Weve got you covered.

Holly Bailey on Donald Trump: In a surreal moment befitting an unconventional candidate at one of the most unusual conventions in recent memory, the arenas speaker system began playing the Rolling Stones You Cant Always Get What You Want. The song is one of Trumps favorites and a mainstay of his raucous campaign rallies, but it also seemed to be a message from the candidate to a divided party.

Lisa Belkin on Ivanka Trump: Her speech tonight was not big on personal anecdote  the few that she did offer included stories of sitting on the floor building towers with Legos while her father sat at a desk designing ones from concrete, or of having her dad exhort to her think big  but it was filled with personal reassurance, one mother to millions of others, that her father would represent women in particular.

Michael Isikoff on Peter Thiel: Maverick Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel delivered a speech tonight that would have been unheard of at a Republican convention not too many years ago: He proclaimed himself proud to be gay, decried fake culture wars and called for an end to stupid wars in the Middle East.

Hunter Walker on Joe Arpaio: Arpaio suggested the cornerstone of Trumps immigration platform, a massive wall the developer promises to build along the U.S. border with Mexico, would help guard against the dangers of illegal immigration and drugs.

_____

Overheard

It was very interesting  but it was different than ones Ive been to before.

 A deadpan #RNCinCLE operations volunteer, summing it all up as 10,000 delegates, donors, politicians and journalists streamed out of the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday night.

_____

The RNC wanted to reach out to minorities. Then along came Trump.

By Jon Ward

CLEVELAND  Before RNC Chairman Reince Priebus spoke Thursday night at the Republican convention he had presided over, his young staffers played a video on the big screen that demonstrated what theyd hoped their party would represent this year.

The video was skillfully produced, with slick graphics. It showed young, earnest men and women walking up to homes to knock on doors. There was a young Latino shaking hands with a couple, and an African-American man in a stylish hat telling a voter about the greatness of the Republican Party.

If only.

This years convention was as white and as old as ever, and was punctuated by outbursts of resentment against the Black Lives Matter movement and undocumented immigrants. Several speakers stood at the podium nodding and smiling as thousands of delegates chanted, Lock her up! Lock her up! in reference to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

(Read the full story here.)

One year ago, young Republicans looked at Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, or Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and thought, Were headed for a young, positive, hopeful campaign.

A Rubio or Bush nomination, in particular, held the prospect of winning over millions of Latino voters and young voters. It was one of the goals set forth in the 2013 autopsy report that Priebus sanctioned and released from the RNC.

That report laid out the demographic facts  the diminishing percentage of white voters in each consecutive presidential election  and said, If Hispanic-Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States  they will not pay attention to our next sentence.

It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies, the report said.

One of Priebus favorite lines is that Republicans are the party of the open door.

On Thursday, Priebus started his speech with that same phrase. And then he ceded the stage to a nominee whose central idea is to build a giant wall.

_____

A tale of two protests

As Trump spoke Thursday night, he was briefly interrupted by veteran Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin, who began shouting and waving a banner that read Build Bridges Not Walls. Yahoo News National Correspondent Hunter Walker caught up with Benjamin after security dragged her out of the arena:

Benjamin and other members of Code Pink plan to travel to Philadelphia to protest next weeks Democratic convention. She said they get inside the conventions because the party activists and delegates in attendance just give us their badges.

There are a lot of Republicans who dont like Donald Trump. I mean, weve been out on the streets all these days, and weve just seen so many people who come up and say  you know, they agree with us that Donald Trump is not fit to be president, Benjamin said. There seemed like a lot of enthusiasm tonight, but from what Ive seen, theres a tremendous crisis in this party, and I think its going to be a very difficult electoral season for them.

After protesting at so many major events, Benjamin has become fairly well-known. She was amazed security didnt notice her infiltrating the RNC. There was a congressman there who came up and said hello, Benjamin said.

There were people who winked at me. Im sure there were people who recognized me, but thankfully they didnt say anything. I was indeed nervous the whole time that somebody was going to come and pull me out because I had been recognized.

Benjamin wasnt sure which lawmaker she saw, but she said he was wearing a congressional lapel pin. She spent about two hours waiting on the convention floor for Trumps speech, and said she was very nervous the entire time.

Its scary. I mean, you look out and you see a sea of people who are so enthusiastic and cheering, and you know that the people around you are going to be really upset with you. It is scary, Benjamin said.

Meanwhile, outside the Q, Yahoo News Chris Wilson wandered among the protestors gathered in Public Square:

Here, for this night at least, there was no fear on display, no violence  and no arrests.

There were some gun-rights supporters carrying long guns and pistols, but they were outnumbered by people lounging in the grass with their dogs, and in one case, a pet lizard. There were also a few men in Guy Fawkes masks, and flag-waving Trump supporters in Hillary for Prison shirts, but their exchanges with the anti-Trump demonstrators never got beyond the occasional taunting shout or intense but mostly cordial political argument.

As the night wore on, the various constituencies began to disperse. The last remaining group was Stand Together Against Trump, whose co-founder, Bryan Hambley, has been writing a convention diary for Yahoo News all week. The group of a hundred or so anti-Trump protesters roamed the park chanting variations of, Donald Trump has got to go. Later in the evening, an organizer had everyone take a ten-minute break to catch their breath and get to know the people around them if they hadnt already met. The preferred slogan on more than one sign Thursday night read, Vote your conscience, quoting Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs Wednesday night address.

Advocates for marijuana reform stuck it out until late in the night. A police officer who appeared to be engaged in a heated discussion with a banner-waving pot advocate turned out to just be amused by the weed-lovers disgust that trans fats are legal while marijuana is still outlawed.

When Trumps speech ended, fireworks began going off over the Cuyahoga River, with the park offering a view for those who had stuck around, now clearly outnumbered by law enforcement officials and members of the media. The convention was over, the delegates would soon be dispersing to their homes in an America that looked a lot friendlier and less dangerous outside the arena than inside.

_____

The big picture

Photographer Khue Bui is on the ground in Cleveland, capturing all of the action for Yahoo News. Heres his most unconventional pic of the day.

_____

Cory Booker vows DNC will take high road, berates RNC for lock her up chants

By Liz Goodwin

CLEVELAND  Democrats who gathered Thursday for the Clinton campaigns counter-convention, a few miles from the Republican National Convention site, blasted the event and vowed that their convention next week in Philadelphia would have a kinder tone.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., Sen. Cory Booker. N.J., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who chairs the Democratic National Committee, berated the GOP conventions speakers and delegates for connecting Hillary Clinton to Lucifer and leading chants of Lock her up! Separately, an adviser to GOP nominee Donald Trump said Clinton should be executed by a firing squad.

These chants of lock someone up, take away their liberty, throw them in prisons  thats why we had a revolution in this country, against those ideas, said Booker, a rumored potential Clinton vice presidential pick who delivered an emotional defense of the presumptive Democratic nominee Thursday morning.

Booker vowed that there would be no such ugliness at the DNC in Philadelphia, which kicks off Monday. No one will be leading chants so filled with hate, he promised. Nobodys going to be wearing T-shirts calling for violence against other Americans.

(Read the full story here.)

There was some sense of Democratic schadenfreude toward the Republican event, which was marred by Melania Trumps plagiarism scandal, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz getting booed on stage after telling delegates to vote your conscience, and numerous high-profile Republicans skipping Cleveland altogether.

The Democratic National Convention may face its own drama, though, depending on how supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders decide to act.

_____

By the numbers

100,000: The number of balloons that fell from the rafters of the Quicken Loans Arena after Donald Trump spoke last night

120: The number of local high school students tasked with inflating the balloons last week

_____
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats plan to use next week's convention to appeal to every American to work together to chart the course for the nation, ex-Clinton advisor Ann Lewis said Friday.

In an interview on CNBC's " Squawk Box ," Lewis said this approach is in sharp contrast to how Donald Trump and the Republicans handled this week's convention in Cleveland.

"I saw a Republican convention that talked only to primary voters, only to people who are already voted for Donald Trump," she argued. "Hillary is going to talk to the whole country."

A major theme of the Democratic National Convention will be the idea that "working together we can make a real difference," said Lewis, a senior advisor for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and communications director during the Bill Clinton's presidency.

"We just heard four days of very angry rhetoric capped off by Donald Trump. What he never heard was what people are for," she said. "I never heard Donald Trump talk about what he's proud of [about] America; what it is he thinks we do right."

Lewis said Clinton will focus on how to move the nation forward in unity.

Harold Ford Jr., former Democratic congressman from Tennessee, also felt Trump needed to show more of a way forward.

"The history of presidential elections, you project optimism, you tell the country where you're going to take us. I'm not convinced Trump did enough of that last night, Ford told "Squawk Box" in a separate interview.

"But a lot of people weren't convinced he was going to be the nominee and he's proven people different," he added. "I take Mr. Trump very seriously."

Still, Ford said he likes Clinton's chances. "I like demographics on our side. I like leadership on our side. I like seriousness on our side."

Clinton could announce her choice for vice president as soon as Friday. Many pundits believe she'll choose Tim Kaine , currently a U.S. senator from Virginia and a former governor of the commonwealth.





More From CNBC


By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - The former union leader for New York City's prison guards and a hedge fund financier pleaded not guilty on Friday to engaging in a bribery scheme in a case linked to a widening federal municipal-corruption investigation.

Norman Seabrook, the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association's ex-president, and Murray Huberfeld, a longtime associate of hedge fund manager Platinum Partners, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and honest services wire fraud charges in Manhattan federal court.

"Absolutely not guilty sir," Seabrook told U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter.

The arraignment came a month after the men were arrested as part of a sprawling investigation that has resulted in several police officers being charged or disciplined and put the fundraising of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio under scrutiny.

Prosecutors said Seabrook, 56, accepted a $60,000 bribe in 2014 orchestrated by Huberfeld, 55, with the promise of more money in exchange for investing $20 million of union money with Platinum Partners.

The two men were introduced to each other by Jona Rechnitz, a real estate investor who secretly pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators, a person familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.

Rechnitz has been central to the investigation along with another businessman, Jeremy Reichberg, who was charged in June in another bribery case involving two police officers.

Both served on de Blasio's inaugural committee after his 2013 election and either raised money for his campaign or for a nonprofit set up to advance his agenda. De Blasio has said he and his administration have acted legally.

Two weeks after Huberfeld's arrest, Platinum Partners' Manhattan headquarters were raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, amid separate probes by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission..

The firm is now in the process of liquidating its two main hedge funds.

Story continues

Platinum, led by Mark Nordlicht, has produced exceptional profits for investors since it launched in 2003, but its strategy of lending to troubled companies carries risks that have scared away many large investors.

Prosecutors have described Huberfeld as a founder of Platinum and current investor in its funds, adding that he played a significant role at the firm that was not publicly acknowledged due to prior legal troubles. He has faced prior criminal and SEC actions.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Additional reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
On Sunday, Bindi Irwin is turning 18, and the Dancing With the Stars champion has big plans for the milestone birthday: She's going to have her first drink of Coke.

"I've never had a Coca-Cola before," Bindi admitted to ET's Lauren Zima during a phone interview from her home at the Australia Zoo on Thursday. "[My] mom always tried to limit us on soft drinks and things like that, [but] I think that now I'm allowed to have a Coca-Cola. I think?"

NEWS: Bindi Irwin Is Adorably Entering Her 'Rebellious' Phase

And the day of revelry isn't going to stop with soda. The lifelong nature conservationist has a wild night planned for the special occasion.

"I will be celebrating with my lovely little family and I'll probably play some board games, and you know, have a nice cup of tea," Bindi shared. "I might go crazy and wild and have three cups of tea that night. I'm feeling rebellious!"

For Bindi, the milestone birthday doesn't feel like much of a change, as she's always been an adult at heart. "My mom always says that I'm an 86-year-old stuck in a 17-year-old body," Bindi joked. "So I guess I'm already kind of in my adult years in that regard."

WATCH: Bindi Irwin Shares Adorable Flashback Photo and Sweet Message for Mom Terri on Her Birthday

While she's excited about turning 18, Bindi admitted that her special day is a "really bittersweet time," in the absence of her late father, Steve Irwin.

"I can feel that he's not here anymore on most of the days that are really big for our family," Bindi shared. "On days like birthdays, Christmases, it's really a tough time because he's not here."

"It's sad because you want him to be right next to you and experiencing all these milestones, but I truly believe that, in some way, he is still with us," she added.

WATCH: Bindi Irwin's Cutest Pics: Family, Friends & Animals

Story continues

Bindi's father, the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed by a stingray in September 2006 while filming a nature documentary in Queensland, Australia. Bindi was 8 years old at the time of his death, and has spent much of her life working to preserve and honor his memory and legacy.

"He was our superhero, he was our pillar of strength, so it's hard knowing that he's not right there," she explained. "But hopefully he's looking down on us from somewhere and is really excited for these moments too."

WATCH: Bindi Irwin Shares Adorable Throwback Tribute to Her Dad: 'I Hope I'm Making You Proud'

Joining Bindi and her family for her birthday this year is her boyfriend, professional wakeboarder Chandler Powell, who she says is "actually very good" at picking out the perfect birthday present for her.

"He's coming to Australia for my birthday. As we speak he's on a plane on the way to Brisbane," Bindi said. "He was in England for a big wakeboard competition [so] he decided that he'd get me a [number] of gifts from England."

WATCH: Bindi Irwin's Boyfriend Shares a Sweet Pic on Instagram

And she already knows what one of those special gifts is: authentic English tea.

"That's my favorite kind of tea, [so] he wanted to give English breakfast tea from England. I asked him if it was called English English breakfast tea, or just breakfast tea," the birthday girl adorably joked.

WATCH: Bindi Irwin's Boyfriend Adorably Cheers Her On From 'Dancing With the Stars' Audience

The two seem like a perfect match, if their adorable Instagram romance and their time together during her run on Dancing With the Stars are any indication. According to Bindi, the pair get along so well because they share a lot of interests and Chandler is willing to step outside his comfort zone.

"He understands us, he loves wildlife, loves wild places and is just ready to try," she said. "I think that that makes a big difference because there's not many people who would be willing to jump on top of a 16-foot crocodile, or wrangle snakes."

WATCH: Bindi Irwin Shares Her Secret For Making Her Long-Distance Relationship Work

"I'm really blessed and grateful to have him in my life," she added.

For more on Bindi's heartwarming time on Dancing With the Stars, where she routinely paid tribute to her late father and was supported by her adoring boyfriend, check out the video below.

Related Articles
By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) - U.S. factory automation equipment maker Emerson Electric Co <EMR.N> has made an offer to acquire pump manufacturer Pentair Plc's <PNR.N> troubled valves and controls division, according to people familiar with the matter.

Such a deal would free Pentair from a unit that its chief executive Randy Hogan has called a laggard when it comes to generating cash, while allowing Emerson to expand within its core sectors as it seeks to shed its network power and motors and drives businesses.

Pentair has received offers for the valves and controls business from companies other than Emerson, and there is no certainty that it will agree to any deal, the people said. The unit for sale could be valued at around $2 billion, the people added.

The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Emerson and Pentair declined to comment.

Pentair inherited its valves and controls business as part of its $10 billion all-stock merger with Tyco International Ltd's <TYC.N> flow control unit in 2012.

Its fittings are used in machinery in the chemical, power generation, oil and gas and power generation sectors. As a result, it has suffered from the commodities-driven downturn in the mining and energy industries.

Pentair has responded by slashing costs, letting more than 2,000 employees go in the last year, and hiring a new executive to lead the unit. The company has been under pressure since last year from activist hedge fund Trian Fund Management LP to improve its performance.

Emerson announced last summer it would seek to spin off its network power division, which provides equipment and services that stop mission-critical systems from failing including surge prevention, uninterruptible power supplies and precision cooling. It has since said it is also considering a sale of that business.

The remaining non-core businesses that Emerson has been looking to sell include its motors, drives and remaining storage businesses.

Story continues

Emerson could announce its final decision on the fate of these businesses in the coming weeks, according to the sources.

Emerson Chief Executive David Farr told analysts on the company's second-quarter earnings conference call in May that he could spend billions of dollars in cash on acquisitions in the second half of 2016.

"If we could pick up a couple billion dollars worth of things, then we would be very excited about that," Farr said.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporing by Michael Flaherty in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
The cast of the new Rocky Horror Picture Show has some pretty big shoes to fill, and they know it!

ET caught up with the cast of the upcoming FOX remake at Comic-Con, where they dished on exactly what it was like to take on the film's iconic roles.

WATCH: Laverne Cox Opens Up About 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' Remake: 'I Put Everything I Had Into This'

"Those are some pretty big shoes to fill," Victoria Justice admitted of stepping into Susan Sarandon's role of Janet. "I mean, it was so much fun. I've been such a big fan of Rocky Horror for such a long time, and to be able to sing iconic, you know, 'Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me,' just blew my mind. It was incredible."

Respect for the original cast is something this new generation clearly shares. "It's really fun to see all of us bring our own take to these characters, and also just pay homage to the original," said Christina Milian (Magenta).

"We did our best to honor the original and bring a fresh take to it. It's not designed to replace the original," Reeve Carney (Riff Raff) echoed. "It's designed to bring more Rocky Horror family members into the fold."

And while Laverne Cox will take on the iconic role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, not only has original star Tim Curry given his stamp of approval to the remake, the 70-year-old actor will make an appearance in the film as the narrator.

Check out the newly-released trailer featuring Curry below:

PHOTOS: See the Stars at San Diego Comic-Con 2016!

Curry's participation in the reboot is certainly exciting for fans of the original, something the new film is hoping to capitalize on.

"The movie really embraces the fans, in the actual film," Milian told ET. "For 42 years this movie has been out in theaters continuously, where they go and they celebrate and they dance and dress up."

"Get ready. It's about to get wild," she said.

Story continues

ET

The Rocky Horror Picture Show premieres this October on FOX.

Related Articles
Employee of Islamic Research Foudation, Qureshi came under Kochi police scanner after statement of Ebin Jacob (25), the brother of Merin alias Mariam, a woman who is missing.

Mumbai police was supposed to file a report regarding Dr. Zakir Naik and IRF on Friday has kept the report on hold and will wait for inputs from Maharashtra ATS. Photo: PTI

By Mustafa Shaikh: Arshi Qureshi (42) was interrogated by officials of Maharashtra ATS and Kochi police in Mumbai on Friday. Sources in ATS said that after initial denial, Qureshi accepted he knows the Kerala couple who converted to Islam in 2012 and later went missing and are suspected to have joined ISIS.

Qureshi on Friday was confronted with technical evidence after which he was not able to deny his interaction with the couple. ATS officials also said that the couple stayed in a hotel during their stay in Mumbai.

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Employee of Islamic Research Foundation, Qureshi came under Kochi police scanner after statement of Ebin Jacob (25), the brother of Merin alias Mariam, a woman who is missing along with her husband Bestin Vincent alias Yahia.

A source close to IRF said that "Arshi has been working with us for last 8 years as a guest relation manager. We are waiting to understand the exact charges against him before commenting on the case further. All we know that a person has given a statement that his sister and brother-in-law approached Qureshi at his house to convert Merin into Islam and Qureshi them a book."

Read more about: Employee of Zakir Naik's IRF arrested for allegedly brainwashing youths to join ISIS

According to IRF officials, Qureshi's job is only to meet people who come to IRF and not to convert people. Ex- employee of IRF told India Today that Qureshi was involved in inviting people towards Islam. When an IRF emplyee was asked about this contradiction he replied that inviting people towards Islam and ask people to be a better Muslim is a standard practise of people at IRF.

Qureshi is a resident of Seawoods in Navi Mumbai and stays there with his wife and daughter. An enquiry with the neighbours revealed that Qureshi has been staying there only for past few months and not much is know about him. His wife, who identified herself as Mrs. Qureshi, spoke to media persons from behind a wooden door said that he doesn't know much about the current case, but Zakir Naik is a very nice person.

Qureshi has been remanded to police custody till 25th July and there are possibilities that he will be taken to Kochi on Saturday for further investigations. Meanwhile, Manzoor Shaikh, an IRF representative is likely to address a press conference on the issue.

On the other hand, Mumbai police was supposed to file a report regarding Dr. Zakir Naik. IRF on Friday has kept the report on hold and will wait for inputs from Maharashtra ATS. The report was likely to suggest is there any offence made out in Naik's speech and what action can be taken against him.

IRF's lawyer Mobin Solkar said on Friday that all legal aid will be provided to the arrested employee. "He has been implicated falsely in the case with intentions to defame Dr Zakir Naik and IRF. He will not be terminated from IRF for now."

advertisement

Also read:

Employee of Zakir Naik's IRF arrested for allegedly brainwashing youths to join ISIS

Zakir Naik justifies suicide bombing as legal in tactic of war

Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's financers traced to Saudi Arabia, UK





--- ENDS ---
By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice will urge Beijing next week to avoid escalation in the South China Sea when she makes the highest-level U.S. visit to China since an international court rejected its sweeping claims to the strategic waterway. Even as Washington has sought to keep a lid on the situation, Rice - in an interview with Reuters  vowed that the U.S. military would continue to sail and fly and operate in the South China Sea, despite a Chinese warning that such patrols could end in disaster. With less than six months remaining of President Barack Obama's tenure, Rices broader mission in her July 24-27 trip is aimed at keeping overall ties between the worlds two largest economies, which she called the most consequential relationship we have, on track at a time of heightened tensions. "I'll be there to advance our cooperation," she said. But the trip, due to be formally announced later on Friday, follows a July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea. Beijing has angrily rejected the verdict and pledged to pursue claims that conflict with those of several smaller neighbors. Ive been in communication with our Chinese counterparts over the last couple of weeks  We understand each others perspectives clearly, Rice said when asked what message she would deliver to the Chinese. Well urge restraint on all sides." Her trip, to include Beijing and Shanghai, will coincide with visits by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Laos and the Philippines where he is expected to try to reassure Southeast Asian partners of Washingtons commitment. The United States is also using quiet diplomacy to persuade claimants like the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam not to move aggressively to capitalize on The Hague ruling, U.S. officials have said. TEST OF U.S. CREDIBILITY How Washington handles the aftermath of the ruling is widely seen as a test of U.S. credibility in a region where it has been the dominant security presence since World War Two but is now struggling to contain an increasingly assertive China. China has responded to the ruling with sharp rhetoric. But a senior official said, So far there has not been precipitous action and Washington was hoping confrontation could be avoided. We are not looking to do things that are escalatory," another senior U.S. official said. "And at the same time we dont expect that they (the Chinese) would deem it wise to do things that are escalatory. Despite that view, two Chinese civilian aircraft conducted test landings at two new military-length airstrips on reefs controlled by China in the Spratly Islands shortly after the arbitration ruling. And signaling Beijings plans to further stake its claim to contested waters, a Chinese state-run newspaper said that up to eight Chinese ships will offer cruises to the South China Sea over the next five years. China has blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Citing international rules, the United States has conducted freedom-of-navigation patrols close to Chinese-held islands where China has been bolstering its military presence. Rice is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during her visit and her agenda will include North Korea, economic issues and human rights. She will also lay the groundwork for Obamas talks with Xi at a G20 summit in China in September, U.S. officials said. But with the South China Sea issue looming large, Rice, who has led U.S. policymaking on China, said the United States and China have careful work to do to manage our differences. She also said the administration would not allow crises in other parts of the world, from Syria to Turkey to Ukraine, to distract from Obama's signature policy of rebalancing toward Asia. We dont have the luxury as the worlds leading power to devote our attention to one region and ignore another, she said. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
-- APA has promoted veteran music agent Christianne Weiss to Head of Adult Contemporary, Concerts. She began her career at ICM in New York and later joined APA as agent in the Concerts department in 2007.

-- Midred Delamota has been promoted to Vice President, content creation of Def Jam Recordings. As head of the new department, she will be responsible for creating visual content across all media platforms.

-- Warner/Chapell Music has appointed Paul Smith to its UK team as Senior International Creative Manager, where he wil replace Jane Bell. Previously, Smith worked at 365 Artists, where he served as Creative Director for six years.

-- Really Useful Theaters has promoted Rebecca Kane Burton to Managing Director. Prior to this position, Burton served as VP & General Manager of The O2 for the past four and a half years and will now be responsible for managing all aspects of RUT's current and future business activities.

-- Maria Alonte has been named Senior Vice President of Film & Television synchronization for Def Jam, Island and Republic of Universal Music Group. With extensive experience in film and TV licensing, Alonte most recently served as Senior Vice President of Film & TV at Kemosabe Records and Prescription Songs.

-- Brad Wiseman has joined APA as Agent in the Contemporary division of the agency's Concert department. Previously, Wiseman founded The Soroka Agency with Ryan Soroka in partnership with Equal Vision Records, where he accumulated clients like Four Years Strong, Hit the Lights, and H2O.

-- Jill Hollywood has launched the new company Echo Beach Management. Hollywood previously spent 12 years at Big Life Management, where she guided the careers of producers such as Jacknife Lee, Youth and Cam Blackwood.

-- Jaclyn Ulman has joined Motormouth Media. Formerly, Ulman worked for four years at Press Here.

-- Kobalt has promoted James Fitzherbert-Brockholes to Chief Operating Officer, where Fitz will be responsible for ensuring the business delivers on the strategic and operational plans across the group. Fitz has served Kobalt as a shareholder and director since its foundation in 2001.

Story continues

-- Derek Webb has been named GM of PledgeMusic, Nashville. Webb has performed and recorded as both a solo artist and founding member of folk/rock band Caedmon's Call and founded NoiseTrade in 2008.

-- Austin Darbo has joined Spotify as Senior Editor of Content Programming, UK.

-- Deep Well Records/ Capitol Music Group has promoted Kimberly Nieva to Vice President of Operations for Deep Well Records. Nieva will oversee all aspects of Deep Wells' business, including all deal structures with artists/writers and album agreements as well as setting up co-writing sessions for talent. Previously, Nieva was founder of Engine House Music.

-- Andy Ma has been promoted to Chief Commercial Officer for Greater China of Warner Music Group, where he will be responsible for spearheading the music company's commercial expansion in China. He will also be working alongside Sam Chen, CEO, Warner Music Greater China, who oversees A&R activity in the market.

-- The Orchard has appointed Tucker McCrady to EVP & General Counsel, where he will manage The Orchard's legal and business affairs teams with global oversight of the company's digital licensing negotiations and label distribution contracts. Prior, McGrady was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where he worked on the legal team representing SoundCloud.

-- Warner/Chappell UK's Senior International Creative Manager Jane Bell has relocated from the company's London office to its New York office, where she will focus on championing international songwriters in the U.S. as well as help the company's American songwriting talent build a presence overseas.

-- Universal Publishing has named Mike McCormack as Manager Director. He will succeed Paul Connolly, who is stepping down from his position as president of Europe and managing director U.K. McCormack was previously at Simon Fuller's 19 Music Publishing, and he served as director of A&R at RCA Records before that.

-- Ryan Barkan and Mike Ladman have joined Droga5's New York headquarters as Music Supervisors. They will further develop Droga5's music and audio capabilities while seeking new opportunities for the agency and clients within traditional and nontraditional spaces.
NEWS BRIEF Roger Ailes is out at Fox News with immediate effect.

Ailes resigned Thursday as chairman of Fox News in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment made by Gretchen Carlson, a former host on the network, the company announced.

Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country, Rupert Murdoch, who assumes the role of chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, said in a statement. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organization and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years.

The statement did not mention the allegations of sexual harassment leveled at Ailes by Carlson and recent reports that other women at the network had made similar claims. The statement did not quote Ailes.

News of Ailess impending departure was first reported Monday by New York magazines Daily Intelligencer and on Tuesday by the Daily Beast, which said Ailes received a $40 million parachute to leave Fox News.

Recommended: Munich Mall Shooting: What We Know

As my colleague Marina Koren reported on July 6:

Carlson alleges Ailes fired her from the network late last month because she refused his sexual advances, and because she complained to him about sexual harassment in the office. When Carlson met with Ailes to discuss treatment she considered offensive, the complaint alleges, Ailes told her, the lawsuit claims, they should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then youd be good and better and Id be good and better, adding that sometimes problems are easier to solve that way.

Heres more from New York:

While Gretchen Carlsons sexual-harassment lawsuit against Ailes sparked the investigation, sources say it has expanded into a wide-ranging inquiry into Ailess controversial management style. The interviews are now being conducted at Paul, Weisss midtown offices because of concerns that the Fox offices could be bugged, sources say. The lawyers are seeking to interview former female employees of Fox News in addition to current staff. They are also looking into the appropriateness of Ailess pressuring employees to speak out on his behalf, against his accusers.

Story continues

Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James, the co-chair and CEO, respectively, of Fox News parent company, had agreed Ailes must go, according to New York magazine. But they were reportedly divided over when: James Murdoch was said to want Ailes to be given a choice this week on whether to resign or be fired. Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch wanted no action taken until after this weeks Republican National Convention, which ends Thursday.

Ailes, 76, is a former aide to President Nixon. He has run Fox News since it was founded in 1996. Ailes has been accused by his liberal critics of tilting the networks coverage to favor conservatives and the Republican Party, but the network dominates the cable news ratings.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Facebook, Inc. FB is set to report second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 27. The company reported a positive earnings surprise of 29.55% in the last quarter. It has also delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 11.80% over the trailing four quarters. Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Things to Watch Out for this Time

Investors area of interest again this quarter will be online and mobile advertising revenues. Facebook has gained significant traction in its mobile ad business within a very short span of time. Mobile monetization has increased with a higher number of marketers, continuing investment in new products and robust performance of its newsfeed ads. Notably, in the first quarter, mobile ad revenues grew 75% to $4.2 billion representing 82% of total ad revenues. However, Facebook needs to tread cautiously so as not to irritate users with too many ads.

After opening its ad platform to worldwide advertisers last year, Instagram has emerged as an important cash cow for Facebook. Again there were no exact numbers for the last reported quarter with regard to contribution from Instagram but Facebook said that the platform has now over 200,000 advertisers. The fact that the ad platform has been well received is reflected in increases in both overall ad impressions and average ad prices. Average price per ad increased 5% from the year-ago quarter and ad impressions grew 50% due to increases in mobile impressions. Investors will once again be focused on Instagrams money minting abilities to boost overall ad revenues for the company.

Moreover, Facebook has been aggressively promoting Live in order to capture the opportunity presented by ever increasing video viewing on social media platforms. Leading research firm, Forrester Research projects digital ad revenues to touch $12.6 billion by 2019. The company has signed deals with Internet and media celebrities to churn out more content for its Live platform. However, in the aftermath of the racial tensions that erupted across U.S, after graphic videos of two Afro Americans shot dead by police went viral on the network, Facebook has made updates to its Live Policy content. Facebook has reassured users that any offensive content will be reviewed by its trained staff that works 24x7 and if needed, the content would be taken down. Facebook isnt taking the matter lightly as it can deflect users.

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Given that Facebook has hit a jackpot with the monetization of Instagram, investors will be looking forward to the commentary on Messenger, Oculus, and WhatsApp. Facebook is now working aggressively to monetize these platforms. Recently Messenger crossed the 1 billion user milestone. It is the third 1 billion plus user platform for the company after Facebook and WhatsApp. Plus, Messengers bot platform reportedly now boasts over 18K chatbots.Chatbots could serve as a powerful strategy to monetize the platform. Messenger has over 40 partners in the commerce, transport and aviation sectors. KLM Airlines was the first airlines to offer flight updates, check in & more on Messenger.

User growth numbers will also be in focus. With a gargantuan user base of 1.65 billion, Facebook is the largest social media platform. Facebooks Monthly Active Users (MAU) and Daily Active Users (DAU) have also crossed the billion mark. With its user base already at sky high levels, a relative slowdown is imminent. Also, the company faces heightened competition for ad dollars. Plus, rising expenses can thwart its margin growth.

Moreover, Facebook finds itself increasingly at loggerheads with authorities across different countries who accuse the social media giant of repeatedly failing to co-operate with them on extremely sensitive matters. Recently, Israel accused Facebook of not removing offensive content that Palestinians post against the country on the network that tends to glorify terror. Moreover, Facebook faces a $1 billion lawsuit filed by the kin of victims who died in Israel terrorist attacks. They have accused Facebook of providing support to Hamas, a radical outfit deemed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. It is also facing trouble in Brazil and Germany over antitrust concerns.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Facebook is likely to beat earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Facebook has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at 62 cents.

Zacks Rank: Facebook has a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. But we need to have a positive ESP to be confident of an earnings beat.

Please note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions momentum.

FACEBOOK INC-A Price and EPS Surprise

FACEBOOK INC-A Price and EPS Surprise | FACEBOOK INC-A Quote

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few stocks that, as per our model, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Innoviva, Inc INVA with an Earnings ESP of +25.00% and a Zacks Rank #1.

GoDaddy Inc. GDDY with an Earnings ESP of +50.00% and a Zacks Rank #3.

Amazon.com, Inc AMZN with an Earnings ESP of +37.72% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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 >>



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AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report



FACEBOOK INC-A (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report



GODADDY INC-A (GDDY): Free Stock Analysis Report



INNOVIVA INC (INVA): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Donald Trumps speech Thursday night was riddled with bracing statistics about crime, immigration, jobs and debt, each designed to speak to the real fears and concerns of Americans. He did a careful job of making sure the facts in his speech were cited to published sources, and the campaign published an annotated draft. But many of the facts, taken alone, failed to fully describe the nations condition.

Heres a look at the fuller context for some of the newly minted Republican presidential candidates claims.

Homicides last year increased by 17% in Americas 50 largest cities. Thats the largest increase in 25 years. In our nations capital, killings have risen by 50%. They are up nearly 60% in nearby Baltimore.

The raw numbers are true, according to a Washington Post analysis. But they paint a misleading picture by looking at 2015 in isolation. Since Obama took office, homicides have actually dropped 13%  a continuation of a 25-year trend spanning all large cities across the U.S. since the early 1990s. In 1991, an average of 27 people were killed in large cities every year; in 2015, the average was 11.

Criminologists fiercely disagree over whether the recent spike in homicides is a statistical anomaly or the result of short-term factors, or whether they point toward a more distressing longer-term trend.

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared to this point last year.

Again, that number is strictly true, but it lacks context. If you exclude the vast majority of officers who are killed by illnesses, heart attacks, or accidents  drowning, weather, car and motorcycle crashes  an average of about 50 to 60 officers are killed on-duty every year. In 2014, 60 police officers were killed by gunfire, assault or explosives. In 2015, 56 police officers were killed in the same way. So far in 2016, 42 officers have been killed by gunfire or assault.

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According to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, between 2009 and 2015, under Obama, there were 17% fewer police officer fatalities that there were between 2002 and 2008, under George W. Bush.

Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.

Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants do indeed have criminal convictions, according to federal data, but many of them are for crimes resulting from being in the country illegally  like breaking immigration laws, evading deportation notices, or driving without a license. Theres no data on murders committed by illegal immigrants.

The Obama Administrations Department of Homeland Security has come under criticism from the left for presiding over the deportation of more undocumented immigrants than any other president in history, according to a Reuters analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security deported 438,421 people, and in 2014, it deported 414,481 morenearly 60,000 more than the previous record-high, in 2008, under Bush.

Fifty-eight percent of African American youth are not employed.

Its true that 58% of African-American youth are not employed. But its not true that 58% of African-American youth are unemployed. From an economic perspective, that two-letter difference is significant. The first statistic includes all the youth  a term that the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines as 16- to 24-year-olds  who are in school, taking care of their families, or otherwise engaged in the economy.

The second, which includes only those who are looking for work, but cant find it  those who are unemployed  is closer to 21%, compared with about 10.3% of young whites. In July 2015, there were 28.8 million unemployed youth, down from 3.4 million a year earlier, according to BLS data.

Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago.

Rapid population growth among the Latino population, both from a higher natural birth rate and immigration, undergirds this number. According to the Pew Research Centers analysis of 2013 Census Bureau figures, Hispanics have actually seen their economic prospects improve since 2008. In fact, they are the only major racial or ethnic group to see a statistically significant decline in its poverty rate, helping to fuel the nations first decline in poverty rates in a decade.

Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.

The Trump campaigns annotated draft cites a CNS News article that doesnt appear to repeat that statistic. Instead, it says that a record 94,708,000 Americans were not in the labor force in May of this year, which bears out in the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The current labor force participation rate, at 62.7%, is indeed low, but it doesnt take into account demographic changes: the baby-boom generation is in the process of retiring, and is therefore leaving the workforce voluntarily, while, the boomers younger counterparts, Millennials, are not yet through college, and therefore out of the workforce voluntarily too.

Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000.

American households have shrunk by roughly 3.4% since the late 1990s, as families have had fewer children and more people now live alone, so comparisons of household incomes across that time period reflect different household needs. If a household, made up of four people, earned the equivalent of $50,000 in 2000, it was not necessarily better off than a three-person household earning $48,000 in 2016.
From Country Living

While traveling the world, Chanel Cartell and Stevo Dirnberger, creators of the website How Far From Home, came across some pretty incredible views-and we're not just talking beautiful vistas.

After quitting their jobs in March 2015 to journey around the globe, the couple has since traveled to about 15 countries, including Norway, Austria and Sweden, to name a few. Along the way, they've documented their adventures through stunning photography. But it's not all breathtaking scenery and architecture: They've also gotten up close and personal with a few local animals who were ready for their close-ups.

Chanel and Stevo recently shared a few of their favorite "animal mugshots" on The Huffington Post. Take a look at the most hilarious ones below:

A grinning alpaca, taken in Salzburg, Austria.

Photo credit: Courtesy of How Far From Home

A yelling horse, taken in Umbertide, Italy.

Photo credit: Courtesy of How Far From Home

A spaced-out goat, taken in Bergen, Norway.

Photo credit: Courtesy of How Far From Home

A chewing Rabbit: taken in Jarpen, Sweden.

Photo credit: Courtesy of How Far From Home

A single-toothed goat, taken in Salzburg, Austria.

Photo credit: Courtesy of How Far From Home

A hungry highland cow, taken in Salzburg, Austria.

Photo credit: Courtesy of How Far From Home

Follow all of Chanel and Stevo's How Far From Home adventures on Instagram.

(h/t The Huffington Post)
London (AFP) - British farming leaders warned Friday that post-Brexit curbs on EU immigration could be "devastating" for their sector and suggested a visa system to allow in seasonal workers to pick British crops.

"The loss of labour post-Brexit could have a devastating impact on the horticulture industry," National Farmers Union (NFU) president Meurig Raymond said after talks with farming minister Andrea Leadsom.

Raymond said that a shortage of seasonal workers could damage the competitiveness of the sector compared to foreign imports "but could also, in the most severe cases, lead to a loss of crops".

Ali Capper, the NFU's horticulture board chairwoman, suggested the possibility of a visa system.

"We need to explore all the possible options in maintaining access to horticulture's vital labour supply, which could involve some form of visa-restricted access to labour," she said, calling for an urgent meeting with Brexit minister David Davis.

A shortage of labour in 2007-08 blamed on changes to a system in place at the time for bringing in seasonal workers -- mainly from Eastern Europe -- saw many crops unharvested and left to rot.

Farmers have warned that they will grow their crops elsewhere in the EU to avoid a similar situation.

"British farmers could decide to transfer some of their enterprises to other places in Europe where there is an ample supply and suitable land, said Laurence Olins, the chairman of British Summer Fruits (BSF), an industry body.

Olins pointed out that the 1.2 billion (1.4 billion euros, $1.6 billion) industry relies completely on European workers because their British counterparts do not like working in the fields despite numerous government attempts to attract British workers.

Capper, an apple farmer, said she was worried the Brexit vote would impact the industry even before the formal withdrawal from the 28-nation bloc.

"It is not unusual for horticultural producers to be planning crops 10 years in advance, yet these crops cannot be produced without a good labour supply," she said.
By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Federal authorities on Friday formally repatriated a collection of more than thousand-year-old Mayan artifacts to the Guatemalan government at a ceremony in Los Angeles after recovering them from the estate of a deceased art collector.The collection of limestone sculptures was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by a person handling the estate of the collector, who has not been publicly identified. "The cultural significance of these pre-Columbian artifacts is priceless to the people of Guatemala," Deirdre Fike, FBI assistant director in charge of the agency's Los Angeles office, said following the ceremony. "I'm very pleased that the FBI's Art Crime Team was able to facilitate the return of these ancient treasures to their proper home." No criminal charges were filed over the recovery of the sculptures, three which have been traced to the Late Classic Maya Era (A.D. 600-900). According to the FBI, experts say the fragments were uncovered near a ruined temple building in the Petexbatun Region of Guatemala and that an inscription found on them is part of a text that served as a primitive calendar. The other four pieces were thought to have originated in the El Peru area of Guatemala and believed to date to the Early Classic Period (A.D. 400-600). According to the FBI, experts have said the artifacts are consistent with Mayan iconography and that the carvings are associated with symbolism depicting an earth or mountain monster. All seven will be shipped to Guatemala in the coming days. The Guatemalan government will determine the best place to house and display them. A source close to the case said that the items were believed to have been purchased by the now-deceased art collector in the 1970s from a man who was convicted during that decade of dealing in other artifacts that were illegally brought to the United States. No charges were ever filed in connection with the seven pieces repatriated on Friday. The U.S. government has an agreement with Guatemala restricting the import of archaeological artifacts. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Aquila, Facebook's lightweight, high-altitude aircraft, flew at a few thousand feet for 96 minutes in Yuma, Arizona, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on his Facebook page.

By Reuters: Facebook Inc said on Thursday it had completed a successful test flight of a solar-powered drone that it hopes will help it extend internet connectivity to every corner of the planet.

Aquila, Facebook's lightweight, high-altitude aircraft, flew at a few thousand feet for 96 minutes in Yuma, Arizona, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on his Facebook page. The company ultimately hopes to have a fleet of Aquilas that can fly for at least three months at a time at 60,000 feet (18,290 meters) and communicate with each other to deliver internet access.

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Google parent Alphabet Inc has also poured money into delivering internet access to under served areas through Project Loon, which aims to use a network of high-altitude balloons to made the internet available to remote parts of the world.

Yael Maguire, Facebook's engineering director and head of its Connectivity Lab, said in an interview that the company initially hoped Aquila would fly for 30 minutes.

"We're thrilled about what happened with our first flight," Maguire said. "There are still a lot of technical challenges that need to be addressed for us to achieve the whole mission." He said he hoped the system might be brought into service "in the near future."

Zuckerberg laid out the company's biggest challenges in flying a fleet of Aquilas, including making the plane lighter so it can fly for longer periods, getting it to fly at 60,000 feet and creating communications networks that allow it to rapidly transfer data and accurately beam down lasers to provide internet connections.

Maguire said Aquila will go through several more test flights and hopes it will soon break the world record for the longest solar-powered unmanned aircraft flight, which currently stands at two weeks.

Facebook, which has more than 1.6 billion users, has invested billions of dollars in getting more people online, both through an initiative called internet.org - which offers a pared-down version of the internet to poor areas - and by building drones.



--- ENDS ---
When you see an SPF number on a sunscreen bottle, you probably think you can trust it to protect your skin. But in Consumer Reports independent lab tests, developed to provide the best comparative consumer ratings, many sunscreens didn't meet the sun protection factor claim on their label. Based on these findings, Consumer Reports has submitted its test results to the Food and Drug Administration and asked the agency to step up its current review process for sunscreens to help ensure that consumers are getting the protection they think theyre buying. The FDA responded to Consumer Reports by asking for more information on our tests.

Yesterday the issue of SPF performance heated up when Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) called on the FDA to launch a full-on investigation of deceptive SPF marketing, citing Consumer Reports' latest testing. There is simply no doubt about itsome consumers are being totally burned when they buy sunscreen, which is why the FDA must give sunscreen labels the third degree, Schumer said.

How the FDA Regulates Sunscreen

The FDA requires sunscreen manufacturers to test their products to back up their SPF claims as well as test for broad-spectrum protection if a broad-spectrum claim appears on the label. But the FDA does not verify the testing, require manufacturers to report the results, or do pre-market testing itself. And manufacturershave to test only new products or reformulations of older products, not every batch of a sunscreen they produce.

If the agency suspects a problem, it can ask a manufacturer for the results of its testing, right now, sunscreen manufacturers are too often policing themselves. In Schumers announcement, he asked the FDA to instead test sunscreens and confirm true SPF numbers.

Schumer also urged the FDA to finalize the rules in the 2014 Sunscreen Innovation Act, which sets a timetable for the FDA to review new sunscreen ingredients. Many UV-shielding ingredients that have long been used in sunscreens in other countries are not available in the U.S. Eight ingredients were up for review, and the FDA has asked the manufacturers of all of them for more data.

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Call for More Funding

The agency has noted that the Sunscreen Innovation Act did not provide additional resources for them to increase their sunscreen oversight, nor did it change the FDAs standards for reviewing ingredients safety and effectiveness. In a May 2016 report to Senate and Congressional committees responsible for overseeing the Act, the agency said that its ability to review its regulatory responsibility . . . is at serious risk without a substantial increase in resources.

Consumer Reports applauds Schumer's efforts to get the FDA to take strong action, and encourages Congress to work to get the FDA the resources it may need to better oversee SPF claims and other issues involving sunscreen safety and effectiveness.





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright  2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.
(Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said on Friday U.S. regulators have raised concerns over a new eye drop manufactured at a Bausch + Lomb facility in Florida. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a complete response letter (CRL) regarding the eye drop for a type of glaucoma, raised concerns over Current Good Manufacturing Practice at the unit. The letter did not identify any efficacy or safety issues with the eye drop, a latanoprostene bunod ophthalmic solution. Valeant said it intends to meet the regulators and resolve these concerns, the company said in a statement. Eye care unit Bausch + Lomb is one of Valeant's core assets and a franchise to build on, billionaire investor and Valeant board member Bill Ackman said last week. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)
CLEVELAND - In a surreal moment at "media row," where anchors have been broadcasting live from the Republican National Convention, right-wing radio host Alex Jones and political consultant Roger Stone interrupted liberal commentator Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks and the confrontation devolved into a screaming match.

As dozens of TV and radio hosts from all over the country looked on, Jones, carrying a microphone and escorted by an entourage, some with video cameras, marched to the Young Turks' stage Thursday night, just a few hours before Donald Trump accepted his nomination for president.

After Jones asked an associate to "point 'em out," he interrupted Uygur practically mid-sentence by shoving his microphone into his face and asking him a series of questions.

"I'm gonna come sit in your lap," Jones told Uygur. "Hey, how's the revolution going?"

Uygur was cordial at first, but things turned ugly when Jones handed him a shirt with the word "rape" written beneath an image of President Bill Clinton, and a fight nearly ensued when Stone jumped into the fray.

As Stone shouted at Uygur from off stage, Uygur shouted back that he was a liar and that Donald Trump had also been accused of rape.

"First of all, Alex, this ain't your f - king show, and Roger this surely ain't your f - king show," Uygur yelled.

As the scuffle escalated, the crowd of media personalities grew, and Jones continued to egg Stone on, telling him to stay so Uygur could debate him, but the Young Turks host refused.

As staffers tried to clear the area, Uygur took the microphone from Jones and repeatedly called both Stone and Jones "sick."

Eventually, Uygur was physically restrained.

Uygur later tweeted a short version of the video with the message: "Despite unwelcome interruptions to our show by small time losers we are still broadcasting."

After the altercation, the Young Turks beefed up its security measures.

Story continues

As Jones walked away, he said he was "attacked" and that he was "spit on," and he claimed he was an invited guest on the Young Turks show.

Jones also complained on his website that YouTube kept taking down his full video of the confrontation, which is below.
The dissidents who speak out against towering monolithic regimes  who have the courage to play David to the Goliath of totalitarianism  are often instrumental in making those regimes fall. To give one obvious example: The crack-up of the Soviet Union might have been unimaginable without the writings and activism of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In China today, a roughly equivalent figure  in status and heroism  is Ai Weiwei, who has leveraged his image as an internationally celebrated artist to shine a relentless light on the governments human-rights violations. Ai knows that his fame, to a degree, can protect him  though not always. (He has been incarcerated and has suffered the agonies of interrogation.) But what of the dissidents who have no fame? Theyre on the high wire of freedom-fighting without a net, and Nanfu Wangs Hooligan Sparrow, a whistleblowing documentary made with fearless guerrilla cunning, is a portrait of one of those people.

Her name is Ye Haiyan, and in 2013 she caused a stir by standing up against a case of child rape so flagrant that it galvanized a major sector of the Chinese public. In Hainan Province, six girls aged 11 to 14 went missing for close to 24 hours. It turned out that they had spent the night at a hotel with their school principal and his accomplice, who paid them $2,000 in order to abuse them. The money is significant, because it allowed the crimes to be classified as prostitution, and Chinas prostitution laws wound up letting both men off the hook. Wangs film follows the attempt by Ye, a veteran advocate of womens rights, to protest the case. One may well ask: Why would the government of China have any vested interest in protecting men who have committed crimes against children? The horrifying answer is that, in Nanfu Wangs words, China is so corrupt that it has become fashionable for government officials to have sex with young girls. This particular case needed to be hushed up so that the entire can of worms could remain tightly shut.

Story continues

Its a sign of how prostitution has been woven into the mainstream of Chinese society that when Ye first planted herself on the map of protest, it was by posing as a sex worker named Sparrow. She wanted to expose the conditions within brothels, and in doing so, she was able to draw attention to herself without recrimination. But from the moment she starts to organize protests about the Hainan case, the government is on her back. Shes under constant surveillance by the police, and when a gang of brothel owners shows up at her door and attempts to beat her up, shes forced to fight them off with a kitchen knife.

This incident raises a question: Is the Chinese government in collusion with representatives of the underworld? The movie doesnt address that issue directly, but it does make the point that the government employs not just plainclothes officers but freelance thugs to violently harass Ye. After a while, she is stripped of her home. She isnt allowed to rent an apartment or even a hotel room, and the film presents us with a powerfully sad photograph of Ye embracing her 13-year-old daughter, the two of them sitting on a road with all their possessions: a dozen boxes and a refrigerator-freezer. The only place that she can go is back to her parents rural home, and there, as a divorced single mother in China, she faces the stigma of gossip and further ostracization. But at least she has a roof over her head.

Nanfu Wang had been living outside of China for two years when she returned to make this film, and there are points when she herself comes under suspicion. Much of her filming is done surreptitiously, with a micro-camera hidden inside a pair of glasses, and at certain points the movie generates the high tension of a thriller, as when an official suddenly looks at Wang and says, theres something odd about your glasses. He winds up taking them off and destroying them (though he never did find the camera).

We know, from the simple fact that were sitting and watching Hooligan Sparrow, that Wang successfully smuggled the footage she shot out of China. She tells us as much (though she doesnt reveal how she did it), and watching the movie, you feel grateful to be in the presence of a rippling chain of heroism, one that extends from Ye to Wang to the other protesters in the film (several of whom, an end title reveals, are now in detention), all the way to Ai Weiwei. At the end, the film cuts to Ais 2014 retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, and one of the installations there is so simple in its audacity that it may stir you to tears: It is all of Ye Hainans possessions, the ones that were sitting on that road, arranged exactly as they were in that photograph. Hooligan Sparrow is a literal and moving testament to how political protest works. It may start off looking small, but it becomes powerful and large when it is seen.

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A fire forced a flight from North Korean flag-carrier Air Koryo to land in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Friday, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The scheduled flight from the North Korean capital to Beijing was forced to divert and land in Shenyang "because the plane caught fire," Xinhua said, quoting a passenger on board.

The cabin filled with smoke around 30 minutes after the flight left Pyongyang and passengers were forced to use oxygen masks, it quoted the passenger as saying.

Airport authorities said the plane had made a safe landing and no one aboard was injured, Xinhua said.

Although Air Koryo regularly occupies bottom spot in the Skytrax star rating system for commercial airlines, it has a decent safety record with just one fatal accident in more than 30 years.

However, critics point out that the record is built on an extremely limited service which currently comprises regular flights to just three destinations in China, and Vladivostok in Russia.

The Pyongyang-Beijing service uses a Russian Tupolev Tu-204 -- a twin-engine medium-range jet airliner that carries about 140 passengers.
Garcia was a walk-on linebacker in 2015 (Getty).

Florida linebacker Christian Garcia said he stopped a man who was sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman behind a bar Thursday morning.

Garcia told First Coast News that he works at the 101 Cantina in Gainesville and was taking out the trash around 2 a.m. when he heard something happening behind a dumpster. From FCN:

According to the linebacker, he was taking out the trash when he spotted the two by the dumpsters. Initially he thought they were just having sex. But once he got further he noticed the girl was unconscious. The girl was basically unconscious, so I knew there was no way she could be giving consent, Garcia said.

A 34-year-old man, Christopher Shaw, has been arrested on sexual battery charges in relation to the incident. Garcia said Shaw got away after he grabbed Shaw to break up the incident. Shaw allegedly then threw a few punches and escaped.

[Check out Dr. Saturday on Tumblr for entertaining things you wont see on the blog]

According to Floridas website, Garcia joined the team as a walk-on in 2015 and appeared in one game. The Miami native will be a redshirt junior in 2016.

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By Lamine Chikhi KRECHBA, Algeria (Reuters) - Some foreign workers have returned to Algeria's Krechba gas plant after they were evacuated following a rocket attack in March, a senior plant manager said on Friday. Benmaazou Slimane told Reuters the number of foreign staff at Krechba would be lower than the 340 that used to work there, and their security would be assured by the military. The facility, the hub for an area that produces 9 billion cubic metres of gas per year, is operated by state oil company Sonatrach with BP and Statoil. Sonatrach says the plant has been operating since the attack. Krechba's managers say 25 new wells are planned around Krechba to maintain production at current levels. Foreign workers previously represented 10 percent of staff at the site and Slimane said their number would be reduced because of high costs, adding it might be possible to give some of their positions to Algerians. "We have agreed with our partners to reduce the number of expats as much as possible," Slimane said on a tour of the site. "Most of the expats are working in engineering, the launching of new projects - mainly in technical profiles." Statoil said none of the returning foreigners worked for it. "(After the rocket attack) we made the decision to temporarily withdraw our expats and there is no change to that," a spokesman said. "We follow the security situation closely. It is obviously challenging." Al Qaeda's North Africa branch claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, which caused no casualties or damage. In March Statoil said production at the plant had resumed after the attack. "There was no impact then on production," the spokesman said on Friday, without giving current output figures. Security at the site has been stepped up. "We have to make sure that safety of our people is fully assured," Slimane said. Algeria is a major gas supplier to Europe. The OPEC member's oil and gas facilities are heavily protected by the army. Algeria government forces fought off a major insurgency by Islamists in the 1990s, and in recent years the country has become an important partner for the West against Islamist militancy. (Additional reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Holmes)
Samsung sued Huawei in a Beijing court about two weeks ago for allegedly infringing six of its patents.

By Reuters: Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it sued Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for patent infringements through multiple courts in China, escalating a legal conflict between the smartphone rivals.

The suits mark the latest salvo in a fight between the world's No. 1 and No. 3 smartphone makers, who compete fiercely across the world in an industry that researcher IHS says is worth $332 billion this year.

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The South Korean firm sued Huawei in a Beijing court about two weeks ago for allegedly infringing six of its patents, a spokeswoman said. She did not elaborate on the types of patents or the other Chinese courts involved.

"Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property," Samsung told Reuters in a statement.

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies - also one of the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturers - said in a statement it had not received a "formal complaint" but would defend itself as necessary.

"In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve" intellectual property rights disputes, it said.

Huawei sued Samsung in the United States and China in May, accusing its rival of infringement on patents for fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software.

Chinese technology companies have often been on the receiving end of such lawsuits, so Huawei's U.S. litigation marked something of a reversal of roles reflecting its growing clout in the global telecommunications and smartphone markets.

CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon said neither company was likely to be motivated by monetary compensation from the legal battle.

Huawei could be angling to boost its reputation by taking on the top smartphone player, he said, while Samsung's suit might be a maneuver to force Huawei to settle its claims as soon as possible.

"If you look at the patent battle with Apple and Samsung ... it ultimately created a lot of benefits for Samsung in a kind of an advertisement," he said.

"Huawei might also be trying to create some noise marketing for itself," he said, adding he expected the two firms to eventually reach a deal such as a cross-licensing agreement.

Huawei became the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones in a year in 2015 when a 44 per cent jump in its shipments defied a market slowdown.



--- ENDS ---
By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A former California police officer was arrested on Thursday and booked on suspicion of 22 felonies related to the rape and sexual battery of five women while on duty and in uniform, the prosecutor handling the case said.

Noah Winchester, 31, was taken into custody Thursday morning near his home in the Central Valley city of Stockton, on an arrest warrant that included charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual battery, all under color of authority, said Stephen Wagstaffe, District Attorney for San Mateo County near San Francisco, where some of the alleged assaults took place.

"In this time when police officers across America are being questioned, to have something like this occur truly tarnishes the good men and women who are police officers," Wagstaffe said in an interview.

Winchester preyed on women who were poor and down on their luck, including one who was homeless, spying them on the street and insisting that they come with him, Wagstaffe said.

"I could arrest you," he told one woman, according to Wagstaffe.

The women were of different races and ages, but the similarity is that they had all fallen on tough times, the prosecutor said. They were not prostitutes.

Winchester committed his alleged crimes as an officer in two cities. In Sacramento, where he worked for the Los Rios Community College District, and in San Mateo, where he worked for the city police department, Wagstaffe said.

The San Mateo Police Department said in a news release that Winchester joined the city as a police officer in early 2015. In October, he was accused of sexual assault and put on leave, before resigning in February of this year.

"We were first made aware of criminal allegations regarding the conduct of Winchester, at that time a San Mateo Police Officer, on the morning of October 20, 2015," the news release said, adding that the department had cooperated in the investigation and was "horrified" at the arrest.

Story continues

"These allegations, if proven true, are a disgrace and wholly disavowed by this department and this city," the release said.

The incidents in Sacramento occurred in 2013, the release said.

Winchester will make his first court appearance on July 25, Wagstaffe said. He is being held in San Joaquin County Jail on $3.1 million bail, the prosecutor said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Bill Rigby)
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Fourteen unidentified bodies with shot wounds to the head have been found in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a hospital official said on Friday. U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler said he was "shocked and dismayed by the summary execution," labeling it a war crime and calling for those responsible to be brought to justice. The bodies were recovered from Laithi, a neighborhood that forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar captured this year from a loose alliance of Islamists and other opponents. Military officials from Haftar's forces refused to comment, saying the incident was under investigation. Benghazi has seen some of the heaviest violence of the sporadic conflict that developed after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011. Haftar has been waging a military campaign there for the past two years against a coalition of armed groups called the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries. His forces have advanced in several areas in recent months, but have not gained full control over the city. Campaign group Amnesty International said on Thursday that air strikes by Haftar's forces were endangering the lives of scores of detainees being held captive in Benghazi. Amnesty said it appeared that the Shura Council may be using the captives as human shields, which can constitute a war crime. It said the captives were likely being held in the district of Ganfouda, where Haftar's forces have recently dropped leaflets urging civilians to leave. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Paris (AFP) - France will supply weapons to Iraq to support its fight against the Islamic State group, President Francois Hollande said Friday, but ruled out any troop deployment in the country.

"This morning at the defence council, I took the decision as part of the anti-Daesh coalition to make weapons available to Iraqi forces," Hollande said, using another name for IS.

"They will be there next month," he said following the meeting with a handful of ministers and the heads of the security forces.

An aide to the president said the weaponry would include artillery batteries and that France would also send military advisors to train Iraqi forces in using them.

Hollande said he would also be sending the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the region "at the end of September".

The carrier "will allow us to intensify strikes against terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq using our Rafale jets," he said.

Hollande insisted that the move did not change the nature of France's military involvement in the region.

"We support our allies in Iraq and Syria but we are not deploying ground troops," he stressed.

"We have advice to give and training to carry out, but it is not our soldiers fighting on the ground in Syria and Iraq."
Funeral services were held Friday for slain Baton Rouge policeman Matthew Gerald, one of the three officers fatally shot in an ambush last Sunday morning.



Gerald, a 41-year-old Marine who served as a former Black Hawk crew chief in the US Army, is survived by his wife of four years and his 3-year-old daughter. He'd only graduated from police academy training four months ago, PEOPLE learns from novelist Skye Turner, a friend of Gerald's wife.



Funerals for 45-year-old East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola and 32-year-old Baton Rouge Police Department Officer Montrell Jackson are set for Saturday and Monday, respectively.



The New York Times reports police officers from across the country attended Gerald's funeral and were presented with a letter written by the fallen officer's wife, Dechia.



"When Matt answered the call to become a police officer, my prayers were answered and our marriage was made anew  as only God can do," reads the letter, according to the Times. "My blue-eyed rock was a hero. The only thing stronger than his love for the red, white and blue was his love for us."



The funeral was held at the nondenominational Healing Place Church, where Gerald was a member.



Investigators have since determined that the shooter, 29-year-old Gavin Long, a former Marine, traveled to Louisiana from his native Missouri with the goal of murdering police officers. Long wounded three other officers before he was killed by a SWAT team member.



 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.



Gerald first joined the Baton Rouge Police Department less than a year ago following 11 years with the armed services  including three tours in Iraq.



During Friday's funeral, Gerald's partner, Cpl. Lester Mitchell, spoke about their brief time together patrolling the streets.



"We talked about the madness, how much it was putting a strain on the community, police relations," he said, according to the The Associated Press.



He later called Gerald "a protector," and told mourners being a cop "was just in his DNA."



Nearly 3,000 people attended Friday's services, and Gerald's wife and daughters laid flowers on his casket before the funeral began, The Advocate reports.



The paper reports Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie told Gerald's grieving relatives and friends that losing three men has been "one of the heaviest burdens of my life and my career."



In an interview with PEOPLE earlier this week, Turner explained that Gerald "was the kind of person who always wanted to do for others," adding that "police work was a natural progression for him" after the army.



Turner says Gerald "was just the guy next door everyone wanted to be friends with. He had an amazing smile. He was always in a good mood and in good spirits  just a typical Louisiana guy."



Nick Lambert, a friend who served in the military with Gerald, tells PEOPLE his slain friend was "full of life" and "always excited and looking to have a good time."



According to Lambert, Gerald "had a thick, unforgettable Louisiana drawl" and would "give you the shirt of your back  no problem."



Adds Lambert, "Anytime we'd go out, you knew Matt was around. He always wanted to make everyone laugh. He made fun of himself a lot and he was fearless. He definitely enjoyed life."
BANJUL (Reuters) - A court in Gambia convicted 11 opposition supporters on Thursday on charges including unlawful assembly, rioting and conspiracy after they staged a protest in May calling for elections reforms in a case that has drawn international criticism. The convictions of the United Democratic Party (UDP) supporters comes just a day after another group of 18 party members were jailed on similar charges. Those convicted on Thursday participated in an April 14 march near the capital, Banjul, and refused to defend themselves before the court or participate in their trial. "I therefore hold that the prosecution has proved the ingredients of the case beyond all reasonable doubts. I therefore hold all the accused persons guilty," Justice Simeone Ateh Abi announced in the court. The trial was held in the town of Mansa Konko, around 130 km (81 miles) east of Banjul. Each of the defendants was convicted on seven separate counts. The sentences for the individual charges ranged from monetary fines to three years in prison, with the combined sentences totalling 18 years imprisonment. It was unclear, however, whether the accused would be allowed to serve those sentences concurrently. Another group of 21 UDP supporters is still on trial. The protests were a rare instance of open opposition to the iron-fisted rule of President Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the tiny West African country for two decades after seizing power in a bloodless coup. Rights groups accuse him of cracking down on political opponents figures as he eyes a December election, where he will seek his fifth term, after he scrapped term limits. Both the United Nations and the United States condemned the arrests. (Reporting by Pap Saine, writing by Joe Bavier, editing by G Crosse)
By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - The United States will miss its emission-reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement if 19 pending natural gas pipelines are built across eastern states, a report published on Friday by environmental groups said.

Oil Change International and 11 other organizations found that 19 proposed pipelines due to move natural gas from the shale fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to states from Louisiana to New York would unlock at least 15.2 billion cubic feet per day of new natural gas production.

This would lock the country into more natural gas-fired electricity rather than renewable energy, and cause the United States to miss a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 83 percent from 2005 levels by 2050, the report said.

"Our calculations show that the rise in gas consumption projected by the EIA (Energy Information Administration) would alone lead to emissions that would surpass the current long-term U.S. climate target by 2040," it added.

Owners of the pipelines cited included Spectra Energy Co , Williams Cos Inc and EQT Corp.

The study comes as opponents of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, move from targeting drilling sites to planned pipeline routes. By limiting the capacity for transporting carbon-based fuels, they hope to reduce the number of projects developed.

Environmentalists and landowners in states like New York have helped to block or slow down construction of proposed pipelines, such as the Pennsylvania-to-New York Constitution Pipeline.

Energy companies and building unions have raised concerns about this opposition to pipeline construction, and accused protesters of being ill-informed about the need for infrastructure.

American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard told reporters in May he wants to take "the shrill politics out of it."

The report recommends that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which reviews pipeline construction applications, and other federal agencies weigh the climate change impacts of new infrastructure before approving projects.

Story continues

This so-called "climate test" was a position that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders had advocated, and resembles the criteria President Barack Obama applied when he rejected TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline.

Sanders supporters negotiated its inclusion in the Democratic Party 2016 policy platform with representatives for presumptive party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who had previously called natural gas a bridge fuel between coal and renewable energy.

"This should be a wake up call to anyone promoting natural gas as a bridge to a clean energy future. Put simply, it's not," said Stephen Kretzmann, Oil Change International director.

(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)
By Saurabh Singh: Samsung is working on a standalone virtual reality headset to take on Facebook's Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive. Supposedly a high-end device -- that is said to be able to function independently of a smartphone, PC or console - Samsung's take on the high-end VR may be called, or at least code-named, Odyssey. The reveal comes from trademark filings made by the company itself in Korea.

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Snippets, of the alleged fillings have made their way to the internet , revealing the company's intentions for building virtual reality game software and headsets. Samsung has apparently filed for the registration of two logos, one of which has the term VR mentioned in stylised letters. We do not know for sure whether Samsung's standalone VR headset would be called Odyssey, but by the looks of it we might be closer to Samsung's Oculus-rival now more than ever.



Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Gear VR 2.0 details surface online

Preliminary reports suggest that Samsung's take on high-end VR could be a truly standalone device, unlike the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive that require at least a $1,000 PC to work. Sony's PS VR meanwhile requires a console - the PlayStation 4 - to function. Not much is known about Samsung's 'Odyssey' for now apart from the fact that it will feature position-tracking.

The company might just reveal something about the Odyssey at its upcoming Galaxy Note 7 unveil, scheduled for August 2. That or quite possibly the second-generation Gear VR to go along with the Note 7's all-new 'alleged' USB Type-C port. Samsung is reportedly working on the Gear VR 2.0 - with model number SM-R323 - that will replace the current-generation Gear VR, with model number SM-R322. The VR headset was spotted recently on Indian import-export website Zauba. Whatever be the case, these sure are exciting times for VR.



--- ENDS ---
CLEVELAND  Maverick Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel delivered a speech tonight that would have been unheard of at a Republican convention not too many years ago: He proclaimed himself proud to be gay, decried fake culture wars and called for an end to stupid wars in the Middle East.

Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East, Thiel said to a packed auditorium. Then, after attacking Hillary Clinton for pushing for a military intervention in Libya, he added: On this most important issue, Donald Trump is right. Its time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country.

Thiel is by far the most prominent  and controversial  figure from Silicon Valley to be backing Trump. A co-founder of PayPal and a major early investor in Facebook (who now sits on the social media giants board), Thiel is a staunch libertarian. He has also garnered headlines in recent weeks when it was disclosed he had secretly financed ex-wrestler Hulk Hogans invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media  a case that he reportedly bankrolled because its website had outed him as gay.

Thiel avoided any reference to the lawsuit  which has forced Gawker into bankruptcy protection  in his speech at tonights convention. Instead, he recited evidence of what he said shows that America is in decline and its government broken: flat wages, skyrocketing college tuition and fighter jets that cant even fly in the rain.

We dont accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government, said Thiel. And nobody is being honest about the countrys decline, he said, except Donald Trump.

Thiels reference to his homosexuality came in a rhetorical flourish that drew cheers from a crowd that only minutes earlier had also warmly received Jerry Falwell Jr., whose father was one of the founders of the religious right.

I am proud to be gay, he said. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American.

Story continues

If there was irony in those remarks before a party that has often been accused of intolerance, so too was Thiels reference to his origins: an immigrant from Germany who moved to Cleveland with his parents as a young child to live the American dream.

Back when my parents came to America looking for that dream, they found it  right here in Cleveland, he said. They brought me here as a 1-year-old, and this is where I became an American.

_____

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Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, sustained restructuring initiatives for a leaner firm with a re-focus on core operations enabled General Electric Company GE to report strong second-quarter 2016 results. Operating earnings for the reported quarter were $3,613 million or 39 cents a share compared with $2,127 million or 21 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. Including industrial and other verticals, operating earnings were 51 cents per share and improved 65% year over year. The operating earnings (including industrial and other verticals) for the reported quarter comfortably exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5 cents.



On a GAAP basis, the company reported net income from continuing operations of $3,281 million or 36 cents per share compared with $1,679 million or 17 cents per share in second-quarter 2015. The remarkable improvement in reported earnings was primarily due to a reshuffle in the operating portfolio and divesture of GE Capital assets to reduce the volatility in earnings and focus on the strong industrial roots of the company.



Revenues



Total consolidated revenue for the reported quarter increased 15% year over year to $33,494 million from $29,226 million in the year-earlier quarter, and well exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $30,844 million. While the Industrial segment revenue increased 7% year over year to $28,630 million, GE Capital revenues improved 3% to $2,771 million. Organic revenue growth for the Industrial segment declined 1% for the quarter due to slow growth and volatile environment.



Total orders for the quarter for the Industrial segment decreased 2% year over year to $26.6 billion, with significant order declines from the Transportation and Oil & Gas segments. Total backlog of equipment and services at quarter-end was record high at $320 billion, up 17% year over year.

General Electric Company (GE) Street EPS & Surprise Percent - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany

Story continues

Revenue by Segment



During the reported quarter, Oil & Gas revenues declined 22% year over year as expected due to macroeconomic headwinds and volatility in oil prices to $3,219 million, while Energy Connections revenues increased 55% to $2,734 million due to positive contribution from Alstom. Revenues from Aviation segment were up 4% year over year to $6,511 million largely due to higher services revenue. Transportation revenues declined 13% year over year to $1,240 million on lower locomotive deliveries.



Power segment revenue was up 31% year over year to $6,639 million with strong execution of projects. Appliances & Lighting segment reported revenues of $1,667 million, down 25% year over year driven by partial quarter. Revenues from the Healthcare segment improved 4% to $4,525 million due to solid volume and cost productivity. Revenues from the Renewable Energy segment were up 28% year over year to $2,094 million largely due to higher turbine shipments owing to Alstom.



Revenues from the GE Capital segment increased 3% year over year to $2,771 million. During the first six months of the year, GE Capital returned $11 billion in dividends to parent General Electric and remained on track to reach the tally of $18 billion in 2016. Ending net investment or ENI (excluding cash and cash equivalents) for GE Capital was $79.3 billion at quarter-end, down 55.8% year over year.



Margins, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow



Owing to a highly volatile environment and sluggish growth across the globe, General Electric recorded a decline in margins in the reported quarter despite stringent cost-cutting and simplification initiatives. Industrial segment operating profit decreased 5% (organic growth down 6%) year over year to $4,122 million, with a significant fall in profits in Energy Connections (down 57%), Oil & Gas (down 48%) and Appliances & Lighting (down 42%), partially offset by a rise in profits in Healthcare (up 11%) and Power (up 9%). Gross margin for the Industrial segment improved 70 bps to 27.3%, while non-GAAP operating margin remained flat at 14.2%.



Cash generated from operating industrial activities (excluding dividends) for the quarter totaled $33 million. Cash and marketable securities at quarter-end aggregated $91.8 billion.



Restructuring Initiatives



General Electric is actively pursuing its massive restructuring initiatives in order to create a simpler and nimbler firm. From a classic conglomerate with diversified business interests in financial services, media, industrial and technology-based operations, the company is pruning its operating portfolio to focus on core manufacturing businesses with a digital edge.



Since Apr 2015 through the end of Jun 2016, GE Capital inked sale agreements worth approximately $181 billion in ENI, of which it has already completed deals worth $158 billion. The transactions are in conformity with the corporate strategy of building a manufacturing-based entity with emphasis on big-ticket items such as aviation engines, drilling machines, generators, medical equipment and scanners. With these restructuring initiatives, General Electric expects operating earnings from the industrial business to comprise over 90% of its total operating earnings by 2018, up from 58% in 2014.



During the reported quarter, General Electric completed the divesture of its appliance business to Haier Group, a Chinese multinational consumer electronics manufacturing firm. The transaction unlocked incremental value by allocating more resources to high-growth core industrial businesses. Other notable divestures during the quarter include the sale of GE Capitals restaurant franchise financing assets in the U.S. The transactions include about $1.4 billion in ENI and are likely to yield $0.2 billion of capital to General Electric.



Also during the quarter, General Electric had initiated steps to supplement its digital presence in Europe and foster growth of the industrial ecosystem for the continents overall development. The company opened a new digital office in Paris  Digital Foundry, which is likely to be the hotbed for the industrial ecosystem. The Digital Foundry forms a global network of centers through which GE Digital intends to incubate local startups, form client collaborations to develop new applications and extend the burgeoning community of industrial developers in Europe. This industry-pioneering program will likely help General Electric to gain a competitive edge over peers, grow its customer base and generate higher revenues by expanding its IT portfolio.

GENL ELECTRIC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

GENL ELECTRIC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | GENL ELECTRIC Quote

Outlook Reiterated



Despite soft macroeconomic conditions and expectations of weak global growth in 2016, General Electric aims to build upon the momentum for a healthy rise in operating profit in the next year and reiterated its earlier guidance. The company anticipates operating earnings in 2016 to be within $1.45-$1.55 a share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 is currently pegged at $1.50 and lies comfortably within the predicted range.



Organic revenue growth in 2016 is expected to be 2-4%. In addition, General Electric intends to return $26 billion to the shareholders in 2016, including $8 billion in dividends and $18 billion in share repurchases. In addition, the company expects to generate $30-$32 billion in cash flow from operations in 2016.



The company has started its exit from the financial business and has increased its investments in core industrial businesses through restructuring, state-of-the-art technology, and R&D initiatives. We remain encouraged with the restructuring endeavors.



General Electric currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the industry include Honeywell International Inc. HON, Leucadia National Corporation LUK and Swire Pacific Limited SWRAY, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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(Repeats story published late on Thursday)

* German exports to Britain stagnated in Jan-May period

* Companies held off UK investments prior to Brexit vote

* Now firms freeze plans to see how divorce talks shape up

* Britain likely to remain major market for Germany

By Michael Nienaber and Paul Carrel

BERLIN, July 21 (Reuters) - Some German companies are holding off making investments in Britain until they know more about the relationship the country will forge with the rest of Europe following the Brexit vote.

While big companies like Siemens and Bosch have the deep pockets to take a longer-term view about one of Europe's most lucrative markets, and weather uncertainty about how the divorce will play out, smaller firms are more cautious.

Britain is a major market for Germany, accounting for around 7 percent of its exports, and is likely to remain so regardless of Brexit. But Germany's VDMA association, which represents thousands of firms in the engineering industry, said many of its members were unwilling to make any financial commitments.

"Companies want to continue to do good business in Britain and most are likely now waiting to see how the exit negotiations go, once they start," said its head Thilo Brodtmann.

Family-owned industrial manufacturer Kemper, for example, has shelved plans to expand its British business.

Before the Brexit vote the company, which makes air filter systems and fume extraction units for the car and construction industries, had planned to invest in its UK marketing and servicing operations this year.

"We definitely won't do that now," CEO Bjoern Kemper told Reuters from his office in Vreden, close to the Dutch border in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

He said Kemper's British sales have fallen this year, partly because customers had put off spending decisions ahead of the June 23 referendum, and that he saw little prospect of a rebound in the short term following the decision to leave the EU.

The company, which has overall annual turnover of about 40 million euros ($44 million), said it expects to lose around 1 million euros in UK sales this year as a result of economic uncertainty before and after the Brexit vote.

Story continues

COMPLEX TALKS

Little is clear about how Brexit will affect the British and German economies.

The Bank of England said on Wednesday it saw "no clear evidence" that a sharp economic slowdown was yet under way in Britain after last month's vote, though there were signs investment and hiring were being put on hold.

New Prime Minister Theresa May says her government is formulating its position for talks that will determine the country's relationship with the EU, and has appealed for time to work out how best to approach the complex Brexit negotiations.

British officials have stressed they believe investment will flow again once foreign businesses can see how Britain's post-Brexit ties with the EU are starting to shape up.

"People are not disinvesting, they are just on hold ... if by December or March they can see a decent landing point, they'll move ahead again," one senior economic official told Reuters.

Kemper is more exposed to Britain than most German companies, with the country accounting for a tenth of its turnover, but its experience nonetheless reflects some of the challenges the Brexit vote poses to Germany's economy.

In the first five months of 2016, German exports to Britain stagnated on the year, official data shows. The slowdown contrasts sharply with last year, when German shipments to Britain surged almost 13 percent to just under 90 billion euros, a record for German exports to Britain.

In 2015, Germany sold more goods only to the United States and France.

The VDMA engineering association said German exports from the sector to Britain fell by 4.2 percent in the first quarter, year-on-year.

In a further sign that political uncertainty has harmed economic ties, German foreign direct investment to Britain fell 6 percent on the quarter in the first three months of 2016, Bundesbank data show.

Markus Kerber, managing director of the BDI Federation of German Industries, told Reuters it expected a significant deterioration in economic relations with Britain in the coming months. "When it comes to new German foreign direct investment, it's looking bad," he said.

MARKET ACCESS

The immediate uncertainty is perhaps less problematic for big companies whose size and financial muscle allows them to plan further ahead.

Siemens said late last month that it was not scaling back investment in a British wind power factory due to go into production in a few months.

German car parts maker Bosch, which employs 5,300 people in UK factories, told Reuters last week that it was sticking to its plans and intended to invest 20-25 million euros in Britain this year, about in line with last year.

Much of the negotiations between London and Brussels, when they come, are likely to boil down to a trade-off between Britain's controls on immigration and its access to the EU single market. Tougher immigration controls will likely mean less market access.

Reduced market access for Britain could be damaging for trade flows between Britain and the EU. However, some German companies could profit from such a scenario.

Stephan Gais, CEO of German firm Mahr, which makes high-end measuring tools used in the auto and chemicals sectors, said uncertainty caused by Brexit was hurting his business. But he also scented opportunity should trade between Britain and the EU become more complicated as a result of the divorce.

"There are a few British competitors and if they have difficulties in Europe that would of course help us."

($1 = 0.9092 euros)

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Paul Carrel; Editing by Pravin Char)
Berlin (AFP) - German President Joachim Gauck said Friday he was "horrified" by the "murderous attack" in a Munich shopping centre which left at least eight people dead.

"I am with all the victims in my thoughts and all those who are mourning or fearful for loved ones," he said in a statement, adding that his "solidarity" was with emergency services personnel trying to "protect people and save lives".

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to the New York when the shooting rampage began, will immediately return to Germany, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
Accra (AFP) - Ghana's presidential election will now be held on December 7, after parliament voted against an amendment to push the vote forward by one month, the electoral commission said on Friday.

Lawmakers late on Thursday rejected a bill seeking to change the date for the polls from December 7 to the first Monday of November for every election year.

"Despite the demonstration of our preparedness to deliver a credible and world-class elections on the proposed November 7 date, parliament in its wisdom has decided not to pass the amendment," the electoral commission said in a statement.

"The outcome of the voting therefore sets December 7, 2016 as the day for our presidential and parliamentary elections," it added.

The electoral body said the change in date would not affect its "commitment to deliver a free, fair, transparent and credible elections this year".

Proponents of the amendment believed an earlier vote would allow for enough time for any election disputes and possible presidential run-offs to be held before inauguration.

National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader President John Dramani Mahama is seeking a second, five-year term against Nana Akufo-Addo, of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Last week, Ghana's electoral chief Samuel Tettey said the commission would be ready for the polls on either November 7 or December 7.

Some 56,000 names on the electoral register have been expunged after opposition claims the list was bloated with names of foreigners and minors.

Re-registration began this week.
By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's parliament has taken a step towards passing a law on central bank reform that could breach a key tenet of its $918 million aid deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), parliamentary and finance sources told Reuters. The parliamentary finance committee has recommended a change to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Amendment Bill to allow central bank financing of the budget deficit up to 5 percent of the previous year's total revenue, the committee's chairman said. Current law allows the Bank to finance the deficit up to 10 percent but the IMF wants the funding eliminated as part of Ghana's austerity program to restore economic balance and boost sustainable growth. Until 2014, Ghana had one of Africa's fastest-growing economies based on its exports of gold, cocoa and oil. Growth has slumped sharply since and any threat to the IMF programme will hit the confidence of domestic and foreign investors. "The finance committee is of the view that the zero financing provision as contained in the Bill should be amended to a 5 percent limit and that is what we are recommending," chairman James Klutse Avedzi told Reuters. If the bill passes with the 5 percent amendment it would likely make it harder for the Fund's Board to approve disbursement of the next tranche of balance of payment support. The Fund said in a document issued in Dec. 2015 that Ghana should: "Submit to Parliament a revised Law that strengthens the functional autonomy of BoG (and) sets a zero limit on monetary financing to the government and public institutions. One economist close to the process said it is "absolutely central" to the whole IMF deal. TIMING CRUCIAL The finance committee's amendment comes in the context of an apparent delay on a decision by the IMF Board on whether to disburse the next tranche of aid to Ghana following the third staff review of the programme in May. The Board will now complete its review after that recess and only if the government undertakes certain steps, including passage of the law to back zero central bank financing, said the Fund's Ghana representative Natalia Koliadina. "The completion of prior actions is not unusual in Fund programs and, while their implementation takes time, they need to be met before the board meeting," she said in an email to Reuters, adding that the programme is "broadly on track." "Subject to this work being completed and prior actions met IMF staff will finalise the preparation of the required documentation for the Executive Boards consideration of the review," she said. The uncertainty is more acute because Ghana will hold an election in December when President John Mahama is expected to face a close race against opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo. Parliament rises on July 29, thus the bill must pass by then. Parliamentary sources said the central bank wants the amendment but MPs in the ruling party say it could tie the government's hands in the run-up to the election. A senior opposition MP told Reuters that the IMF's restriction on deficit financing is unfair because it impinges on national sovereignty. (Additional reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's parliament failed on Thursday to secure the two-thirds majority needed to change the presidential election date from Dec. 7 to Nov. 7, sources in parliament said. The Electoral Commission wanted to bring the vote forward to allow for a second round to be held if necessary and still have time for a smooth transition before Jan. 7, when a new government must be sworn in. The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) voted against the measure, arguing it would reduce the time available to the Electoral Commission to organize the election, witnesses said. "The idea (for a Nov. 7 election) is good and many of us have worked hard on it. But we don't like the shortness of the timetable for the Electoral Commission," the NPP's legal secretary Mike Oquaye told Reuters. The ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition are competing for advantage ahead of what is expected to be a tight election between President John Mahama, who is running for a second term, and opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo. Ghana's 2008 election went to a run-off and the NPP challenged Mahama's victory in the 2012 election, leading to a protracted case before the Supreme Court. The case reinforced Ghana's reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies. (Reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Leslie Jones has returned to Twitter after she was the subject of racist and homophobic trolls earlier in the week.

I did not leave Twitter. I just signed out, because I wanted to deal with what was going on, she told Seth Meyers on Late Night Thursday.

Read: I Ain't Afraid of No Trolls: 'Ghostbusters' Star Leslie Jones Says She's the Target of Racist Slime on Twitter

Earlier this week, the Ghostbusters star signed off Twitter with tears and a very sad heart because of the "personal hell" she experienced as internet trolls posted racist tweets about her.

I'm used to insults. That's unfortunate. What scared me was the injustice of a gang of people jumping against you for such a sick cause, she told Meyers. We got a whole bunch of accounts taken off Twitter because it's not right. It's not right to gang up on nobody.

When she returned to the social media site Thursday afternoon, around the time she taped her Meyers appearance, she started a discussion on Game of Thrones.

Welp...a bitch thought she could stay away. But who else is gonna live tweet Game of Thrones!!  Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 21, 2016

Breitbart.com tech editor and conservative Milo Yiannopoulos, was barred from the microblogging site after Jones pointed out that he was accused of orchestrating the vicious remarks against Jones.

Read: Columnist Blamed for Vile Attacks on 'Ghostbusters' Star Leslie Jones Is Banned From Twitter

Yiannopoulos spoke to Inside Edition at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, where he said: "Am I responsible for what every else does on Twitter? No!"

He added: "I didn't tweet anything racist, I didn't tweet anything sexist. I made a few jokes at the expense of a Hollywood actress."

Story continues

Watch: House Speaker Paul Ryan Blasts Trump's Judge Comments as 'Textbook Racism'

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Teresa Giudice had a major Proud Mom moment this week.



The Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 44, took her four daughters  Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, 6  out on the town for the first-ever Bravo Awards where she took home the "Don't Call It a Comeback" award for returning to RHONJ after an 11-month stint in prison for fraud.



Oldest daughter Gia participated in the awards ceremony, handing out the statuettes to winners, while her younger sisters took part in a pretaped sketch that aired during the ceremony.





Girls Night Out! Teresa Giudice Hits the Red Carpet with All 4 Daughters| Babies, The Real Housewives Of New Jersey, The Real Housewives of..., People Picks, TV News, Teresa Giudice

The lighthearted event is a nice change of pace for Giudice and her girls, who are nearly four months into Giudice patriarch Joe's 41-month prison sentence, also for fraud.









RELATED VIDEO: Teresa Giudice Opens Up About How Her Four Daughters Are Coping While Their Dad Joe Is in Prison



Teresa recently told PEOPLE that she's trying to keep everything in perspective while Joe, 44, is away.



"I think about it like there's people in the military that are not there for everything," she said. "Of course he would be there if he could ... as long as we have our health, that's all that matters. When you have your health, you have everything."



The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo
WikiLeaks compared banning people on Twitter to Turkey's recent mass arrests and (apparently) Stalin's Great Purge in 1937. Then, it threatened to create its own alternative micro-blogging service.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Reacting to Twitter's permanent ban on Milo Yiannopoulos, the tech editor at conservative news site Breitbart and one of the micro-blogging site's most offensive users, WikiLeaks has threatened to start its own Twitter because of "cyber feudalism".

In an online exchange of words between WikiLeaks and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, WikiLeaks posted: "We will start a rival service if this keeps up because @WikiLeaks and our supporters are threatened by a space of feudal justice."

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After several complaints and repeated suspensions, the micro-blogging site banned Yiannopoulos after he led an online troll against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones who vowed to leave Twitter over her treatment, prompting a major outburst on social media.

"People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others," Twitter said in a statement.

According to a report on The Verge, WikiLeaks' Twitter account declared the ban an example of "cyber feudalism," saying that Twitter had "banned conservative gay libertarian (Yiannopoulos) for speaking the 'wrong' way" to Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones.

Dorsey replied to WikiLeaks: "We don't ban people for expressing their thoughts. Targeted abuse and inciting abuse against people however, that's not allowed."

WikiLeaks, however, compared banning people on Twitter to Turkey's recent mass arrests and (apparently) Stalin's Great Purge in 1937.

Then, it threatened to create its own alternative micro-blogging service.

"Over the past 48 hours in particular, we've seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension," Twitter posted earlier.

Yiannopoulos reacted to the ban, saying that the site has "confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and 'Black Lives Matter' extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives."

The Breitbart tech editor has been disturbing Twitter users with his trolls for the past few years. Twitter earlier removed his verified status, but allowed him to keep tweeting.

Last March, Chuck Johnson who once argued that homosexuality caused a horrendous Amtrak train crash, was permanently barred from Twitter.

--- ENDS ---
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) will invest 600 million reais ($184 million) in Brazilian storage company Metrofit over the next 6 years, betting on a recovery from the harshest recession since the 1930s, a company executive said on Friday.

Metrofit, founded in 2012, is a joint venture between Brazilian real estate company TRX (TRXL11.SA) and U.S. company Metro Self Storage. The terms of the agreement with the U.S. investment bank were not disclosed.

The self storage business is growing in Brazil, despite the recession. Metrofit plans to build up to 10 storage sites a year in different state capitals, TRX's chief executive officer Luiz Augusto do Amaral said.

Metrofit's competitors GuardeAqui, controlled by Sam Zell's Equity International, and GoodStorage have announced expansion plans, taking the opportunity to buy cheap real estate during the recession.

"Goldman Sachs is betting on a longer term recovery", Amaral said. "And the timing is good to expand, since this year there is a lot of new real state coming to the market with prices lower than expected."

Metrofit owns two self-storage sites in the rich Sao Paulo metropolitan region and is building two others. The company may use part of the cash injection to fund acquisitions, Amaral said.

Earlier this week, Brazilian technology startup CargoX announced that Goldman Sachs had led a 35 million reais ($11 million) investment round for the company to help it fund an expansion.

(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; editing by Grant McCool)
SAO PAULO, July 22 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc will invest 600 million reais ($184 million) in Brazilian storage company Metrofit over the next 6 years, betting on a recovery from the harshest recession since the 1930s, a company executive said on Friday.

Metrofit, founded in 2012, is a joint venture between Brazilian real estate company TRX and U.S. company Metro Self Storage. The terms of the agreement with the U.S. investment bank were not disclosed.

The self storage business is growing in Brazil, despite the recession. Metrofit plans to build up to 10 storage sites a year in different state capitals, TRX's chief executive officer Luiz Augusto do Amaral said.

Metrofit's competitors GuardeAqui, controlled by Sam Zell's Equity International, and GoodStorage have announced expansion plans, taking the opportunity to buy cheap real estate during the recession.

"Goldman Sachs is betting on a longer term recovery", Amaral said. "And the timing is good to expand, since this year there is a lot of new real state coming to the market with prices lower than expected."

Metrofit owns two self-storage sites in the rich Sao Paulo metropolitan region and is building two others. The company may use part of the cash injection to fund acquisitions, Amaral said.

Earlier this week, Brazilian technology startup CargoX announced that Goldman Sachs had led a 35 million reais ($11 million) investment round for the company to help it fund an expansion. ($1 = 3.2565 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; editing by Grant McCool)
(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> will start marketing a new corporate-buyout fund of $5 billion to $8 billion, its first such fund since the 2008 financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Goldman hoped to raise about $500 million from its employees and was aiming for an initial close by the end of the year.

The new buyout fund is smaller than prior ones, less than half the $20 billion Goldman raised in 2007 for GS Capital Partners VI, the Journal said. The company will contribute just a tiny slice of its own capital this time to comply with post-crisis rules meant to make banks safer, the Journal added, citing unidentified sources.

The West Street Capital Partners fund is named after Goldman's New York City address to comply with a post-crisis rule that does not allow private-equity funds to bear the parent bank's name, WSJ said.

Goldman was not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)
(Changes sourcing)

By Parikshit Mishra

July 21 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc will start marketing a new corporate buyout fund of $5 billion to $8 billion, its first such fund since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Goldman hoped to raise about $500 million from its employees and was aiming for an initial close by the end of the year, according to the source.

The bank will contribute a tiny slice of its own capital to comply with post-crisis rules meant to make banks safer, according to the source.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Goldman Sachs was raising $5 billion to $8 billion for its private equity funds. (http://on.wsj.com/2agyHgg)

The new buyout fund is smaller than previous ones, less than half the $20 billion Goldman raised in 2007 for GS Capital Partners VI, the Journal also reported.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

(Reporting by Parikshit Mishra and Arunima Banerjee; Additional reporting by Rama Venkat Raman; Editing by Richard Chang and Bill Rigby)
MOSCOW, July 22 (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Friday called on the International Olympic Committee to resist calls to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics in response to doping allegations. In an open letter to committee president Thomas Bach and other IOC members, he said he was deeply concerned by the possibility the innocent would be punished along with the guilty. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday recommended that the IOC and International Paralympic Committee should consider banning all athletes entered by the Russian Olympic Committee for next month's Rio Olympics. (Reporting By Jack Stubbs, writing by Jason Bush)
A crenellated silhouette captures the imagination long before you get anywhere near the mountaintop ridge overlooking Sintra, 30 minutes outside of Lisbon by car. Streams of pedestrians, buses, cars and motorbikes continue on from the Portuguese Riviera town to the top of the Monte da Lua  Mount of the Moon  and we follow them, keeping our eye out for the castles gray granite rocks.

The ancient fortifications stand in stark contrast to the more colorful Romanticist National Palace of Pena. But for lovers of an even older era like us, the Moorish Castle, built in A.D. 714 as a means to protect an area important for the movement of goods and people along the Atlantic coast, is the truly romantic sight. For centuries, the castle was fought over by Muslims and Christians; it was renovated under the first Portuguese dynasty of the 12th century. By then, it was more than just a strategic stronghold: It symbolized dynastic power, over both its enemies and its subjects  inspiring awe as well as fear.

Mesmerized from afar, I was scared shitless up close.

It still does. Mesmerized from afar, I was scared senseless up close. Though the castle had been ravaged by wars, time and the earthquake of 1755, King Ferdinand II fell in love with it in the 1800s, making it his mission to incorporate the castle into the Park of Pena as a romantic ruin. But neither the king nor the 2009 Conquering the Castle project, which improved access to the site, could fix the height of those walls: The royal tower, the highest point, is more than 1,500 feet high.

Just like the 351,037 visitors who soaked up the castles history firsthand last year, I looked up in awe this spring before beginning the climb around the site with my husband and young kids. Having lived in Europe with a castle-lover for much of my adult life, Ive toured hundreds of ancient ruins, and while I appreciate sympathetic renovations, in the hills above Sintra I learned that I also enjoy the modern addition of railings.

Story continues

The entrance fee is eight euros, and a walk through the woodland that surrounds the castle offers peeks at 300-year-old graves and archaeological finds on display. Two concentric curtain walls are built atop one of the highest points of the hills, the buttressed inner one comprising six towers and a keep. Anyone nursing a hangover should steer clear, and toddlers should be restrained from running riot. Tripping, stumbling or pushing are also not advised. The outer wall has crenellated buffers, making it difficult to accidentally fall off. Thats not the case, though, with most of the inner walls, which have far stubbier barriers  to a serious plunge. When my youngest tried pushing past my eldest, I was frantic.

Has anyone actually been hurt? Not recently, says Ana Pais, press officer for Parques de Sintra, explaining that refurbishments have turned it into a very safe monument. Which makes me wonder how scary it must have been before. But for those in search of a historical adventure and stunning views  a clear day offers glimpses of the sea and nearby palaces of Sintra, Monserrate and Pena, to name a few  the Moorish Castle will leave you wanting more, even if youd prefer to climb a little bit less.

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Earnings season is off to an inconsistent start, with big name brands like Netflix NFLX, Chipotle CMG, and Starbucks SBUX struggling with revenue numbers and customer growth. On the tech side of things, however, we are witnessing a very clearly trend: cloud-based services are the key to success.

This week, a few tech giants reported earnings. One of the more impressive reports was from Microsoft MSFT, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 11 cents and topped revenue estimates by about $500 million.

(Also read: Microsoft Beats on Q4 Earnings Behind Impressive Cloud Performance)

The big story from Microsoft was the success of its cloud platforms. Its Intelligent Cloud segment saw revenues grow by 7% year-over-year, while its main cloud product, Azure, saw sales grow by over 100% from last year.

We also saw an earnings beat this week from International Business Machines IBM. The company announced its second-quarter results, and both non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.95 and revenues of $20.238 billion easily surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.89 and $20.082 billion.

(Also read: IBM Corp. Q2 Earnings Beat; Imperatives Gain Steam)

On a year-over-year basis, IBM actually saw declines in both earnings and total revenue. However, the company was boosted by strong performance in its cloud segment. IBMs cloud as-a-service offerings had an annual run rate of $6.7 billion, which was up 50% year-over year, and its overall cloud revenue was up 30%.

SAP SE SAP also reported earnings this week. The company reported second-quarter 2016 IFRS earnings of 0.68 (77 cents) per share, growth of 74.4% from 0.39 earned a year ago. Its Cloud and Software business reported second-quarter revenues of 4,359 million ($4,922.2 million), up 7.3% year- over-year. Cloud Subscriptions & Support saw revenues of 720 million ($813.0 million) in the quarter, up 30.4% year-over-year.

By now, most investors are aware of Amazons AMZN incredibly popular cloud-based platform, Amazon Web Services. AWS has become a key factor in Amazons recent profit-turning, with revenues in the segment growing by 64% in the first quarter.

Story continues

One of the best stocks in the computer software industry right now is Adobe ADBE, which has seen massive growth in its Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, and Marketing Cloud services. All of Adobes Cloud offerings are actually hosted on Amazon Web Services.

In the latest quarter, strong growth in the Creative Cloud and Document Cloud areas drove Digital Media annualized recurring revenue to $3.41 billion, an increase of $285 million from the quarter before. Adobes Marketing Cloud posted record revenues of $385 million, an 18% increase year-over-year.

So, why is that tech stocks are being boosted by the cloud? Well, consistent growth in these companies cloud segments is helping with margins. One of best aspects of cloud-based offerings is that they often cost less to develop and operate than other business areas.

Also, cloud-based products are in high demand and are making up for sluggishness in other categories. For example, Microsoft has been dealing with global decline in PC demand. As the company has shifted its focus away from traditional PC-based hardware and software, it has seen success again.

The bottom line is this: tech stocks are living by the cloud right now. Until we see a drop-off in demand for these offerings, investors should continue to expect cloud growth to drive gains in share prices.

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hot

This weekend is set to be one of the hottest of the summer.

Our bodies can do a lot for us to help us deal with the heat, such as sweating to reduce our core temperature. But one thing it can't do is provide us with a self-made beverage to quench our thirst.

That's right  even though saliva is made up of around 98% water, it simply can't give us the same benefits as drinking a glass of water. This seems a little counterintuitive considering our salivary glands produce up to two liters of liquid a day.

Dr. Len Horovitz at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital told LiveScience that the reason saliva can't hydrate us is because it is concentrated with things such as proteins, enzymes, and electrolytes  much more so than the water we drink.

This causes a problem with osmosis, which is when two liquids of different concentrations are separated by a membrane (such as the membranes of our cells), the liquid with the lower concentration flows in the direction of the liquid with the higher concentration in an attempt to even out the concentration levels of both.

Since fresh water is much less concentrated with salts and other solutes than the fluids in our body, when we drink it, our body's cells are able to absorb it via osmosis, resulting in that satisfying feeling of a quenched thirst.

But the concentration of saliva is too high, so it can't be absorbed by osmosis. In fact, if we drink it, it will likely make us feel thirstier because it is actually more concentrated than our body's fluids.

To make matters worse, when it's hot out, our saliva becomes even more concentrated when our bodies start to lose water through sweat.

So while desperation might lead people to try to swallow their own saliva to satisfy their thirst, it simply is never going to work. The best bet this weekend  and during any hot weather  is to always keep a water bottle handy and stay hydrated.

NOW WATCH: Here's what popular dog breeds looked like before and after 100 years of breeding





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(Adds dropped word "with" in headline and final paragraph)

July 22 (Reuters) - The board of the charitable trust that controls Hershey Co is nearing a resolution with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office that would avoid a legal row in exchange for reforms on how it is run, people familiar with the matter said.

The agreement will impose 10-year term limits on trustees, the people said on Friday. Three trustees, Joseph Senser, Robert Cavanaugh and James Nevels, will have to step down by the end of the year, the people said.

Hershey Trust board Chairwoman Velma Redmond, who joined the trust in 2003, will stay on to ensure continuity, but will step down by the end of 2017, along with James Mead,, the sources added.

Caps on trustees' compensation are also part of the settlement, though these exclude salaries of trustees at Hershey Co and other affiliates, the people said. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office will also be given a 30-day window to object to new trustees, the people added.

The sources asked not to be named because the negotiations have not yet been completed. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office declined to comment.

"There is no final agreement but we have been having productive discussions with the AG's office and hope that a final resolution will be reached very soon," said Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for the trust's board.

(Reporting by Lauren Hirsch and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Residents of a small farming community in eastern Colorado have been warned to avoid drinking the towns water after THC, the psychoactive agent in marijuana, was found in one of its feeder wells, authorities said on Thursday. A public works employee in Hugo, a town of about 800 people 90 miles southeast of Denver, detected the chemical and health officials believe it is marijuana THC-related, the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook posting. At this time, investigators are assessing the situation with state and federal authorities, the sheriffs office said. Bathroom usage is still safe, but until more information is known to us, out of an abundance of caution, avoid drinking Town of Hugo water. Susan Kelly, the countys public health director, said there were no reports of anyone falling ill or otherwise being affected by the tainted water. Colorado allows both medical and recreational marijuana use. But it was unclear how THC got into the water, as there are no legal marijuana cultivation sites or dispensaries in the area, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue, which regulates the states cannabis industry. Captain Michael Yowell of the sheriffs office said there was evidence that the well was tampered with, and that the FBI and Colorado Bureau of Investigation have joined the probe. The initial screening was done with a field testing kit, Yowell told reporters, and the state health department would conduct more through testing. The level of contamination detected was not specified. The Lincoln County health department said in an alert that residents should avoid drinking, cooking or bathing with the towns water for at least 48 hours. The contaminated well has been identified and shut down and the lines are being flushed, the alert said. Fresh water will be coming into town for the public as soon as possible. Peter Perrone, a chemist and owner of the state-licensed cannabis testing facility, Gobi Analytical in suburban Denver, said he was skeptical of the reports. Its virtually impossible to find THC in water in concentrated levels because cannabinoids are not water soluble, Perrone told Reuters in a telephone interview. Yowell said he understands that some are questioning how THC could be found in the water, but that does not explain why the tests came up positive for the chemical. I wouldnt be doing my job for the community if we just wrote this off, he said. (Editing by Steve Gorman and Nick Macfie)
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters on Thursday that there were significant failures in intelligence ahead of last Friday's attempted military coup and that the armed forces would quickly be restructured and have fresh blood. Following are comments from the interview on topics including the events of Friday night, the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of masterminding the coup bid, and his desire for an executive presidency: ON EVENTS DURING THE COUP ATTEMPT: "It was around 4 or 4:30 p.m. I got a phone call from my brother-in-law and he was informing me of some problems in Istanbul next to the Beylerbeyi Palace. He was telling me that soldiers were actually cutting off streets, and they were not allowing cars to proceed to take to the bridge. "When I got the news, initially I did not believe that this was happening and I called the head of national security, the head of national intelligence, I could not reach him. I called the chief of staff of the armed forces, I could not reach him, they were not in a position to be able to answer their phones ... "Then I tried to contact the prime minister, and although with some difficulty, we were able to get into contact with the prime minister ... "By 8 p.m., we had to do an assessment of the situation on site and after a while we started seeing some reports on TV channels. The first decision after that was to invite the media and the TV channels to our location and then I made the first declarations to them. ... What we resorted to was to go live by joining a broadcast via our cellphones ... "That was the opportunity for me to make my points, and I underlined the might of the people, I said repeatedly that its very important that there is a government and president of the republic elected by the will of the people and I was saying that such a coup attempt would fail. "I invited the nation to the streets, to the squares of the cities, and simultaneously of course I was trying to assess and gauge the reactions of the people across Turkey. I was being informed that the people were marching, out on the streets, marching towards airports. So when I got this information, it became clear to me that I had to move ... "That involved taking a helicopter to Dalaman, and then with the children, the family, everyone gathered and in the helicopter we went to Dalaman where we got on the plane. Initially our destination was not certain ... or we did not make it clear initially. It could have been Istanbul, or Ankara, that was sort of intentional. "In the meantime, we were inquiring as to the situation of the landing tower of the airports in Ankara and Istanbul and we were informed that the tower in Istanbul was occupied. I was talking to our pilot, asking questions about the situation at the airport. He told me the landing strip was dark, the lights were shut off. "I asked him how much fuel he had, and he told me he had enough fuel to keep us airborne for three or four hours, and then I also asked him if he could land without the lights on the landing strip. He said he could but he didnt want to risk it ... "I told him to draw circles above the landing strip so he could check for any obstacles. As he was doing this, I was contacting the head of the national police for Istanbul and he assured me they would secure the perimeter in a very short time. And it was very quick indeed, the tower of the airport was freed, the officials were able to put the lights back up and then we were able to land ... "Having faith is one of the conditions of being a Muslim ... I told my pilot that we are ready to face any risks. My wife, daughter, grandchildren, my son-in-law, my security detail, everybody was in the plane. ... Allah apparently decided for us to continue and not to perish that night ... ON INTELLIGENCE FAILURES "Intelligences agencies are not always excellent, they do not always master everything . And unfortunately in this incident, it is very clear that there was significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence. "There is no point trying to hide it or deny it, I told it to the head of national intelligence, there is a significant shortcoming of intel in all of this. "Unfortunately when I heard it from my brother-in-law, that was the first time I was hearing about it ... "It is very grave, very serious. This kind of armed coup attempt isnt something you can plan in 24 hours, there must be more to it. Of course by drawing lessons from all that has happened, we will take steps. We have planned those steps and we will do the necessary follow-up." ON SUGGESTIONS THE COUP WAS STAGED "It is indecent to say that. Do you have people saying that 9/11 was orchestrated by the United States, or can we attribute the latest incident in France to President Hollandes administration? No, you dont have people saying that ... "This attempted coup was against the nation. Why? Because the National Assembly was bombarded, it was against the nation that this was done. They did not stop there, they bombarded parliament, they also bombarded this very presidential complex, and we lost five martyrs as a result. Similarly, they attacked the premises of the prime minister, the special operations unit of the Turkish national police where 47 people were martyred." ON MEETINGS WITH CLERIC FETHULLAH GULEN "Feto (Gulen), when he lived in this country, was a citizen of this country, and I was the mayor back then. ... He had some demands and requests. We met a couple of times, but those were not very lengthy talks or contacts. "After 1999, there were some developments and we started having question marks in our minds. But in the past three years it became painfully obvious that it was an act of treason. But in terms of phone conversations, or one on one contacts, very limited, a very limited number of times. ON THE GULENIST NETWORK "We never considered even the possibility that they might be involved in this kind of a treason. They were citizens of our country and we supported them to the fullest as citizens of our country. They are traitors, thats what they did, they betrayed this country. They are present in education, in trade, in religious affairs, they have always been two-faced if you want and now we see their real face very clearly. "Both the Turkish armed forces, the Turkish national police, and all of our ministries, these people almost invaded all of these, occupied all of these institutions. They were occupying forces in these state institutions because they were not working for their homeland, and these traitors have to pay the price ... "There is an example I give, it is like a cancer, it is a cancer metastasizing in the human body. ... The physicians will tell you we have cleaned it out, but after a while you might see the cancer coming back. "This will be treated as another separatist terrorist organization, the Gulenist terrorist organization, and we will continue the fight ... wherever they might be." ON THE POSSIBILITY OF ANOTHER COUP ATTEMPT "It might happen, but it will not be so easy, because this time round we will be very attentive and vigilant." ON MILITARY REFORMS "We will also have the Supreme Military Council (YAS) meeting in a short while  it might be brought forward by a week, by the decision of the chief of staff, so we will be making the necessary preparations for that. "The Supreme Military Council is chaired by the prime minister, the minister of defense, the chief of staff. The relevant units of course are all involved. They are all working together as to what might be done and within a short amount of time they will be presenting their recommendations to the Supreme Military Council. "Within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging and with this new structure, I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood. I also think that after all that has come to pass, I think they must now have drawn very important lessons. This is an ongoing process, we will never stop, we will continue very actively, we have plans." ON AN EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY "It might be considered as a part of a constitutional package, but instead of keeping it comprehensive in terms of its content, maybe it might be a bit more limited. By consulting with the political parties in parliament maybe we can envisage such a thing ... "If the political parties tell us ... this and that article should be included or should not, both in terms of fighting the terrorist organizations, and for the sake of the fundamental rights and freedoms, and for fighting for democracy, all of those things are part of our agenda. "If we can achieve consensus with the political parties then as a result of that consensus, we may not be able to get the 367 votes required, but failing that we might take it to the people in the form of a referendum. "There was a vote in parliament with regard to instituting a state of emergency and 346 members of the parliament voted in favor. So it is food for thought in my opinion. Even in this kind of an environment, some people hesitated to vote for this." ON STATE OF EMERGENCY "This state of emergency is not a curfew, people will still be on the street minding their own business and getting on with their daily life. It is a step that is taken to render daily life more functional in a short amount of time. "As you know, France declared an initial state of emergency for three months, then prolonged it for a second three months, and now they have prolonged for yet another three months. ... So there is no obstacle in terms of prolonging it. ... After three months we can ask for second three-month period and extend it." ON THE ECONOMY "In terms of the economy, we came from a very tough past. Turkey isnt a country that really has the conditions pointed out by Standard & Poor's. We have no affiliation to S&P, so how can an institution to which we have no affiliation make a declaration about us? It's completely political. "It is simply the proof that they are hired agents by other people. And Moodys, if they come up with a similar statement, its not honest, its not objective. When you have an attempted coup in Turkey, how can you go ahead and decide if Turkey is a country in which people can invest or not, whats your criteria for that?" "They sided with the coup plotters, theyve never been in favor of democracy. ... The stance of these international organizations, we simply cannot understand these positions. We will not mind what they have to say, we will mind our own business." (Reporting by Samia Nakhoul, Nick Tattersall and Orhan Coskun; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Hillary Clinton made an emotional pilgrimage to Pulse in Orlando, Florida, Friday, laying a bouquet of flowers in honor of the 49 killed by a gunman at the LGBT nightclub last month.



Clinton, joined by Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer and state Sen. Bill Nelson, left the flowers at the makeshift memorial at the club, the Orlando Sentinel reported.





. @HillaryClinton visits the memorial at Pulse nightclub in Orlando: pic.twitter.com/mMfQJzePfW a Hannah Chanpong (@hannahfc) July 22, 2016





Earlier in the day, Clinton participated in a roundtable meeting with local leaders to discuss the attack, which was carried out by Omar Mateen on June 12.







"We have to be willing to stand as one and demand changes from lawmakers at the federal, state and local level ... We have a lot of work ahead of us," said Clinton, the Sentinel reported, later noting that the Latino LGBT community was most directly impacted by the attack. (The attack happened during a "Latin night" at the club and many of the victims were Latino.)



"It means that it is still dangerous to be LGBT in America," Clinton shared to Equality Florida's Carlos Guillermo-Smith and Ida Eskamani; Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida; Terry DeCarlo, of The Center; and Orlando SWAT Capt. Mark Canty, according to the Sentinel. She added, "I think it's an unfortunate fact, but one that needs to be said, that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered ... are more likely than any other group in our country to be the targets of hate crimes."





RELATED VIDEO: Is Hillary Clinton Intimidated by Donald Trump?



Clinton, 68, also met with friends and families of the shooting victims, The Washington Post reported.



She is now in Tampa for a rally, and will travel to Miami on Saturday  just ahead of the Democratic National Convention, according to the Sentinel.
The 125,000 red, white and blue balloons have dropped and are deflating in unceremonious heaps on the ground as the Republicans wrapped up their convention in Cleveland, and Hillary Clinton is set at any moment to announce her pick for vice president.

The list of possible candidates, once a lengthy roster of Washingtons rising stars, has been clipped and culled to a safe handful: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

There is, of course, the possibility of someone completely out of left field that no one is discussing, such as Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. Aides, clearly enjoying the speculation, not-so-subtly asked reporters when the last time Clinton did something as unexpected as that.

Clinton aides were preparing for an announcement on her social media platforms, with a weekend rally in Florida to formally introduce the Democratic ticket to the cameras. Clinton was set to arrive in Florida on Friday and stay through Saturday. Her nominating convention begins on Monday in Philadelphia.

At the campaigns Brooklyn headquarters, the top women and men of Clintons tech-savvy team were essentially in seclusion, lest someone walk by their cubicles and see a draft of a tweet, video or branding. Those on the outside have taken to calling everyone who could possibly be joining the campaign Vice President.

While Republicans met in Cleveland, Clinton and her top advisers were going through the list in tremendous detail. As is so often the case with Clinton, she wanted every piece of information and data to review. Ever the perfectionist, Clinton did not want to go with her gut on this one and was still asking around about her optionsincluding a phone call with President Obama. Although several outside advisers thought they could read between the lines of her thinking, Clinton is a pro when it comes to keeping her cards close and holding outsiders at arms length.

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Kaine is seen as the leading contender, and he was doing little to conceal the fact he was in talks. He interviewed for the gig in 2008, for Obama, but was passed over for veteran Sen. Joe Biden. Now, with eight years more experience and a turn as the Democratic National Committee chairman, hes a more seasoned match for Clinton. The two have a friendly relationship, and Clinton pal and Gov. McAuliffe is a booster. (Should Kaine win the vice presidency, McAuliffe would get to pick his replacement in a Senate, which could return to Democratic control if the party rides an anti-Republican wave.)

Others, though, have an appeal. Perez and Clinton have a shared appreciation for what government canand shoulddo to help its citizens. Vilsack, a former Iowa Governor who is the only member of Obamas Cabinet to have been there since Day One, was an early Clinton backer in 2008 and has similar love for nitty-gritty details about obscure programs. And Brown could help Clinton score a win in Ohio, a state that has a history for picking Presidents. (The last Democrat to win the White House without Ohio was Kennedy in 1960, and no Republican has ever done it.)

There were plenty of reasons to knock each potential pick. Kaines Catholicism and personal views on abortion could dog him, though he has always supported the right to have one. Perezs activist instincts could push the pragmatic Clinton faster than she likes. Vilsack is mild at best, and his 2008 campaign against Clinton was barely a fizzle. Browns replacement in the Senate would be chosen by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican.

Progressives seemed destined to be disappointed. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was nowhere in the mix, Bernie Sanders is relegated to Clintons sidelines and others, such as Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan or New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, were never really in the running. Housing Secretary Julian Castro, a rising star in the party, has not impressed Clintons team. Browns chances might have been doomed by Kasich.

Kaine, meantime has been blacklisted by the progressives who backed Bernie Sanders: the Virginia Senator signed letters this week calling for lighter regulation of smaller and regional banks. Democracy for America, a grassroots group that endorsed Sanders, circulated a statement saying the Kaine-signed letter should be disqualifying.

The very senior Clinton aides were typically mum on the pick. As with most things in the Clinton campaign, only a handful of aides and advisers knew the boss true thinking. As one top lieutenant put it: Those who are talking dont know, and those who know arent talking.

In conversations with outside allies, Clinton has stressed that her running mate would be someone who could sit in the leather chairs in the White House Situation Room on Day One. Having spent four years watching President Obama lead discussions with his national security team, Clinton is keenly aware of the intense pressures in that basement hive of conference rooms. She wants someone who can do it with a minimal learning curve.

If Clinton nominates a Senator for the ticket, she may hurt Democrats chances of retaking control of the Senate next year. Though McAuliffe would appoint a temporary replacement to fill Kaines seat, the commonwealth would hold a special election in November 2017 for a full-term replacement; Clintons advisers fear Virginians could elect a Republican in an off-year race. Warren, though she is not likely to be the nominee, would also be replaced by a Republican governor, Charlie Baker. Clinton and her advisers see a Democratic Senate as essential for her legislative agenda.

Clinton aides also are sensitive to her worry that some voters might end up pining for the top of the ticket to be swapped. At no point, one adviser said, does Clinton ever want to turn on the television to see an Ohio voter tell a reporter that he voted for the Democrats, but, man, he wishes the VP nominee were the presidential contender. Clinton has insisted that no running mate will outshine her.

But when Clinton makes her choice known in the next few days, theres no way the second name on the ticket can dodge overshadowing her, at least for a day.
Kafr Malik (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Their faces covered in mesh and bodies protected by white suits, three Palestinian women carefully inspect beehives which they say have helped to transform their lives.

In the hills of the West Bank, occupied for nearly half a century by Israel, producing honey has become an economic lifeline for a growing number of women.

The income it brings is a major boost in the Palestinian territories, where one in four people -- and 40 percent of women -- are unemployed.

Muntaha Bairat, 37, started beekeeping four years ago in an olive grove near the village of Kafr Malik, near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

She was not expecting big results, she told AFP as she examined the beehives, which she runs with five women from the village.

"But after we worked we discovered it was a great project for us," she said. "It has totally changed our lives."

Each year they produce 600 kilos (1,320 pounds) of honey, which sells for about 100 shekels ($26, 23 euros) per kilo.

Once maintenance costs are deducted, each woman takes home around 6,000 shekels a year -- more than $1,500.

From the profits, one woman was able to send her son to college, while another bought a television she had long dreamed of, Bairat said.

"Before this project, some of the women never left Palestine," Bairat said.

"Today they travel to Jordan or Spain" to display their goods in agricultural and trade forums.

As well as honey, they now aspire to make products with jelly and beeswax.

- Strong roots -

The project was supported by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), an organisation that helps 103 women run 64 small agricultural projects across the West Bank and Gaza.

Most of the projects in the West Bank are in the region known as Area C, the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

Since then, Israel has tightly restricted any Palestinian development of the area.

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The decision to focus on Area C was deliberate, says PARC's Nasseh Shaheen, who oversees the projects.

He said the goal is to "support people to stay on their land, especially women living in agricultural areas."

The share of agriculture in the Palestinian economy has fallen by 72 percent since the Oslo agreement.

It now represents just four to five percent of the economy, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

In the West Bank, more than one in 10 families rely on the mother as the major breadwinner.

This is true among the beekeepers, with some feeding families of seven or nine members, Bairat said.

No'ama Hamayel expects the annual harvest in August. The 52-year-old mother of six has school bills to pay and "by selling a kilo of honey every week, my finances improve substantially."
Hong Kong (AFP) - A Hong Kong student protester pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple criminal charges over a demonstration against a pro-Beijing figure, a day after the conviction of an "Umbrella Revolution" leader was blasted by rights activists.

The court cases come with feelings running high in the city over fears that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Billy Fung, former president of Hong Kong University's student union, faces a raft of charges over a protest at the university in January where students stormed a council meeting.

Supporters gathered outside the court to support Fung Friday, a day after teenage protest leader Joshua Wong and two other prominent student activists were convicted for a protest that sparked major pro-democracy rallies in Hong Kong, known as the "Umbrella Revolution".

That prosecution was slammed by rights group Amnesty International, which said the "vague charges" against Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law "smacked of political payback".

Speaking outside the court Friday, Fung said he worried other students could be targeted, after pleading not guilty to four charges -- criminal intimidation, disorderly conduct in a public place, criminal damage and attempted forcible entry.

The charges all relate to the student siege of the meeting in January in protest at the appointment of pro-Beijing Arthur Li to a senior administrative role.

Around 200 students surrounded an HKU building and refused to let both Li, who is council chairman, and the vice-chancellor of the university leave the meeting, according to reports at the time. They said Li "forced" their hand due to his unwillingness to speak with them.

Fung, now 22, was accused of shouting: "Don't let him go! Don't let Arthur Li go! Kill him, kill him!" according to a court charge sheet.

He was released on a cash bail of HK$10,000 ($1,300) and will appear in court again in September for a pre-trial review.

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The appointment of Li was made by Hong Kong's unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying -- chancellor of all the city's universities -- and comes after months of controversy and protests over what some see as politically motivated decisions at the prestigious university.

It also tapped in to wider concerns that Beijing interference is affecting academic freedom and freedom of expression in the city.

The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a deal that guaranteed the retention of its civil liberties and capitalist system for 50 years.
Teresa Palmer in Lights Out. (Warner Bros.)

This weekend, the horror movie Lights Out will attempt to scare audiences silly with its tale of a woman (Teresa Palmer) trying to protect her younger brother from a malevolent spirit that only comes out in the dark. Helmed by first-time Swedish director David F. Sandberg, its got an excellent horror pedigree with Saw, Insidious, and Conjuring director James Wan serving as a producer. Its also got something else going for it: a fascinating origin story that starts with a terrifying two-and-a-half-minute viral video.



Lights Outs journey to the big screen began one night in 2013, when aspiring filmmaker Sandberg and his wife, Lotta Losten, shot a chilling horror short. They had no budget to speak of, used their Gothenburg apartment as a set and Losten herself as the star, and built a camera dolly with lights, rubber, and wood from (naturally) IKEA. Sandberg had been making animated shorts and working on documentary crews since 2006, but he was eager to break into horror and thought he had just the right scary idea: a story about a woman haunted by a shadowy figure who appears every time she turns off the light. (Sandberg created the onscreen special effects using Photoshop.)

Ive had that happen a lot, when you turn off the lights at home and you think you see like a shadow, or someone standing there, and you have to turn it back on, Sandberg told Yahoo Movies. Its nothing, but you think, Hmm, what if there actually was something in the dark every time you turned off the lights?

Sandberg entered the short in Britains Bloody Cuts Horror Challenge. It didnt win  it wasnt even a finalist  but Sandberg was named Best Director. Yet a far greater prize came in the months that followed: The short went viral on Vimeo, YouTube, and other video platforms, racking up more than 20 million views. Watch it here  if you dare.

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Soon Sandberg was being bombarded by calls from managers, agents, producers, and studios. It was insane how much attention a two-and-a-half-minute short could get, he recalled. I had to make a spreadsheet of everyone I talked to just to keep track of everyone and what everyone was saying. One of those suitors was Lawrence Grey, a former Fox Searchlight executive who has since produced films like Hope Springs and Last Vegas and discovered the short film on Reddit in early 2015.

It was one of those things that just blew me away, said Grey. I watched it in my office during the day on a bright and sunny L.A. morning  I shouldnt be scared at all. But I jumped every time. I went to bed that night seeing that thing in my dreams.

The next day Grey tracked Sandberg down. Sandberg said he and Losten had no intention of turning the short into a full-length feature, and even Grey wasnt sure it was possible. But Grey and Sandberg hit it off and started workshopping the concept, based on the premise of an adult having an imaginary friend, who turns out to be the spirit going bump in the night.

Grey also had the perfect collaborator in mind  horror hitmaker James Wan. The two had known each other since the early 00s, when Grey attempted to bring the then unknown Wan into the Searchlight fold for a microbudgeted film he wanted to make called Saw (which, like Lights Out, was based on a short). Searchlight ultimately passed, and of course Saw  and its six sequels  went on to make over $400 million. But Grey and Wan had kept in touch. I said, You know, James, Im thinking back to when you and I first met when you showed me Saw, and I think I might have a guy whos like you, 10 years [earlier], recalled Grey.

Wan had seen the short, and while he was skeptical Sandberg could make the jump to a feature film, he was impressed by the treatment they created. What I really liked about it was the simplicity of the concept, Wan said. The idea is very universal: people afraid of the dark. Wan made Lights Out one of the first films hed produce under his new production banner, Atomic Monster.

Grey recruited screenwriter Eric Heisserer (who wrote the Thing and Nightmare on Elm Street remakes) to pen the feature version. The filmmakers cast Teresa Palmer as a young woman who has to care for her younger brother (Gabriel Bateman) while attempting to save her mentally troubled mother (Maria Bello) from the evil spirit named Diana. Warner Bros. signed on to distribute, and Lights Out went into production with a $4.5 million budget (meaning, no more IKEA-based equipment).

Watch the trailer:

Wan said one of the reasons he launched Atomic Monster was so he could give young genre filmmakers the tools they needed to make names for themselves. Im very thankful for the opportunity I had starting off, and I want to do the same, he said. Im not going to give [them] a lot of money, but what I think it does is it allows them to be very creative as a new, upcoming filmmaker.

Warner Bros. is obviously satisfied and the reviews so far have been solid. Sandberg has already gone into production on another one of the studios tentpole genre films, Annabelle 2, the sequel to the hit 2014 Conjuring spinoff that is currently shooting in Atlanta. (The film is again being produced by Wan.) It just went really fast and really smooth and people keep telling me, Dont get used to that, Sandberg said. Because thats not usually how it happens.

Lights Out opens July 22.

Watch Teresa Palmer talk about her own haunted house:
Beirut (AFP) - Human Rights Watch on Friday urged Syrian regime forces to immediately let desperately needed aid into besieged districts of Aleppo and to allow civilians to leave the city.

The New York-based group appealed to forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad to abide by international humanitarian law.

More than 200,000 people living in opposition-controlled parts of the battered northern city have been effectively living under siege for more than two weeks.

Residents have reported food and fuel shortages and skyrocketing prices.

"Syrian government forces are repeating the terrible siege tactics in densely populated eastern Aleppo that devastated civilian populations in other towns in Syria," HRW's deputy Middle East director Nadim Houry said.

"Syrian authorities should allow aid in and permit civilians wishing to leave to do so safely."

The United Nations says that nearly 600,000 Syrians already live under siege countrywide, most surrounded by government forces though rebels and jihadist groups also employ the brutal tactic.

"We haven't seen vegetables in weeks and the air strikes are not giving us a break," Feras Badawi, a journalist in eastern Aleppo city, told HRW.

On Thursday, at least 15 civilians including six children were killed in government bombardment of two rebel-held districts in the city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"It is a crisis situation in our city... The lines of people at shops to stock up on rations are extremely long. We are really expecting a famine in a few days," said Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, a rescue worker in east Aleppo.

Aleppo has been rocked by violence since mid-2012, just over a year after Syria's conflict first broke out with anti-government protests.

The city has since been roughly divided between government forces in the west and rebel control in the east.

An enormous explosion detonated by rebels in an underground tunnel on Thursday left at least 38 regime soldiers and allied forces dead in Aleppo's Old City, the Observatory said.

Repeated attempts by regime ally Russia and the United States to secure a freeze in fighting in the city have failed.

HRW called on both world powers to use their "influence to press the Syrian government and other warring parties to allow unhindered access to aid, particularly to all hard-to-reach and besieged areas of the country."
Hundreds of civilians displaced by recent fighting in South Sudan are struggling to find proper shelter in U.N. compounds in the capital as the rainy season begins to set in. In the latest flare up of violence, at least 272 people were killed after fighting erupted on July 7 in Juba between followers of Kiir and Machar, a former rebel leader who became vice president under a deal to end a two-year civil war. Conditions in Juba are far from ideal, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says. The fighting uprooted about 36,000 people who sought shelter at U.N. compounds, and 14,900 are still displaced. Dozens of people have fallen ill with suspected cholera in South Sudan's capital, while a U.N. food warehouse was looted and destroyed, incurring 20 million U.S. dollars of damage, the United Nations has said. Many foreigners have already been evacuated from the world's newest nation, which is still recovering from a two-year civil war that started in 2013, killing tens of thousands of people and driving more than 2.5 million from their homes. "All things are put out because of the rain. Things are wet and even the situation is very bad because even you can see these children when they are staying in a place where there is rain, it cannot be good, but because of the situation, I wasn't happy, and actually I am not happy, but because I have nowhere to go this is why I am here now," said an unidentified displaced civilian. Other parts of the country have subsequently reported clashes, and the U.N. has recommended aid agencies reduce staff in hotspot locations. Over 5,000 people fled to Uganda, almost all women and children who had walked for days, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said. The violence in Juba has prompted many traders and markets to shut down, and insecurity along supply routes meant food supplies were likely to dwindle further, the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) said. "We need peace. We need peace because Children are suffering. We were outside South Sudan, but what brought us back was our country, irrespective of the situation, one stays because it is their country where one has rights. Even if someone wrongs you, you will be able to respond, but if you are in another country, you will face difficulties. So we came here because it is our country, but we honestly need peace in South Sudan. Children are suffering; there is no education, no stability, so we need peace as women," said another unidentified civilian. South Sudan has 4.8 million people who are severely short of food, and about 1.6 million people who have been displaced since a civil war broke out in December 2013. A further 743,000 have fled the country, a number the U.N. expects to reach one million in the coming months.
Belgrade (AFP) - Some 300 migrants in Belgrade, mostly young men from Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Friday began a hunger strike and set off on foot towards the Hungarian border in the hope of entering the European Union.

Defying afternoon heat, the migrants began their 200 kilometre (120 mile) trek north escorted by a police car, an AFP photographer reported.

They were carrying blankets and backpacks, many bearing the distinctive blue logo of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Some covered their heads with wet towels to keep cool as temperatures rose above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

Abdul Malik from Afghanistan said the group was "going to Hungarian border."

"We're gonna change something by walking and not eating," he said.

"We are today in hunger strike. We don't want to eat. We didn't come here for the food, we are not hungry people," the 24-year old said.

"The only things we don't get in our country is security and education. That's the only thing we want to find here," he said.

The number of migrants blocked inside Serbia has grown significantly since Hungary introduced tough new measures aimed at stopping them crossing the border earlier this month.

According to UNHCR in Serbia, some 2,800 migrants were in the country on Friday, mostly in makeshift along the Hungarian border.

Malik said he had spent 20 days in Belgrade, sleeping in a park, but than decided to move on.

"I really appreciate Serbian people, they are really nice with refugees, the only problem we have right now is with Hungary," he said.

He explained that there were no children and women in the marching group "because they can't walk so just young men and some old people."

The men carried cardboards with messages reading "Stop wars if you want to stop refugees," "Hungary remove dogs from your border" and "Prove that humanity is still alive."

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Serbia lies on the so-called Balkan route taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa since last summer on their way to western Europe.

Although the route was effectively shut down in March, migrants have continued to cross the region in smaller numbers, often with the help of smugglers.

Last weekend Belgrade decided to launch joint police and army patrols to beef up its borders against migrants.

Serbian authorities said recently that 102,000 migrants had been registered since the start of the year -- more than 500 a day.
Beaumont-sur-Oise (France) (AFP) - Hundreds of people took to the streets on Friday in a northern suburb of Paris, furious over the death of a young man in custody.

"Justice for Adama!" the marchers chanted, referring to Adama Traore, a 24-year-old who died on Tuesday, shortly after he was arrested in the town of Beaumont-sur-Oise.

Estimates for the crowd taking part in the memorial march and protest ranged from 1,500 and 5,000.

Some wore T-shirts with the slogan "Justice for Adama, you will never have peace without justice" printed on them.

"Je Suis Adama," protesters chanted, echoing the "Je Suis Charlie" slogan that went viral after the jihadist attack at the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo last year.

Authorities said an autopsy revealed he was suffering from a serious infection at the time of his death and that his body showed few signs of violence.

He was taken into custody after interfering in the arrest of his brother in an extortion case, said a source close to the investigation.

But his sister Assa accused police of causing her brother's death.

"My brother was killed, he was subjected to violence," she told reporters.

According to local prosecutor Yves Jannier, Traore "fainted during the ride" to the police station, and paramedics were called immediately but were unable to revive him.

Jannier said the infection was "very serious" and had "impacted several organs", while the medical examiner had found scratches but no "marks of significant violence" on the man's body.

Traore's family has said it will seek an outside expert's opinion before his burial.

His death unleashed a wave of nightly clashes in his town and nearby suburbs, and 150 police officers were deployed to the area on Friday night, a local official said.
The recent lone-wolf terrorist attacks on the beachfront in Nice and on a train in Bavaria are likely to fuel existing anti-refugee, anti-Muslim fears in a Europe made uneasy by large-scale attacks in the last year in Paris and Brussels. As of writing, it is too early to say whether the ongoing violence in Munich will add to this grim toll.

Nevertheless, these sentiments are particularly prevalent among people on the right of the ideological spectrum in many European nations, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of 10 countries in the European Union. Given Europes tragic history with right-wing political movements and the recent rise of avowedly anti-immigrant parties in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, this ideological divide does not bode well for the future of social harmony in a Europe that has a rapidly growing immigrant population.

Data from 29 European countries show that the median share of immigrants  refugees, recent migrants, as well as long-time foreign-born residents  in the population is 12 percent, according to a recent Pew study. The proportion of immigrants in individual countries ranges from as high as 18.3 percent in Sweden to as low as 1.6 percent in Poland. In some countries this share is rising, mainly due to the large number of asylum seekers entering Europe in the past year. In Sweden and Hungary, for example, the portion of the population that is foreign-born grew by 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively between 2015 and 2016.

Of course, public debate over the impact of immigration is as much about perception as actual numbers. In the United States, for example, public discourse is currently at a fever pitch over immigration. And yet, in real terms, the immigrant share of the American population, which currently stands at roughly 14 percent, has only grown by about 1 percent over the last decade.

Across Europe, a median of 49 percent believe that the large number of refugees fleeing countries such as Iraq and Syria pose a major threat to their country. An even larger median of 59 percent say that refugees will increase the likelihood of terrorism in their country. And a median of 43 percent have an unfavorable view of Muslims in their society.

Story continues

These broadly shared negative sentiments mask a potentially more threatening political divide in Europe: Those on the right are far more likely than those on the left to hold such views.

The ideological divide on the general threat posed by refugees is 32 percentage points in France: 61 percent of those on the right see refugees as a major threat, while just 29 percent of people on the left share that fear. The partisan divide is 30 points in the U.K., 29 points in the Netherlands and 28 points in Germany and Italy.

Majorities on the right in all 10 EU nations surveyed believe that refugees heighten the likelihood of terrorism in their country. And the ideological divide between the sentiments of those on the right who are more worried about terrorism compared to the views of those on the left is profound: 35 points in the U.K., 34 points in France, 32 points in Italy and Spain, 29 points in Sweden, and 25 points in Germany.

This fear is inextricably linked to attitudes toward Muslims, who make up a large share of the current refugee surge in Europe. An unfavorable view of Muslims is held by majorities of people on the right in Greece, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and Spain. And at least four-in-10 people on the right in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden share that negative opinion. (By comparison, in a 2011 Pew Research Center survey in the United States, only 26 percent of Americans voiced an unfavorable view of Muslims.) Again, there is a significant partisan divide in anti-Muslim sentiment: a 31-percentage point differential between those on the right and left in Greece, a 30-point difference in Germany, and a 29-point gap in Italy.

This also reflects underlying antipathy in many European nations toward diversity  and a lingering belief that Muslims want to remain distinct and not become part of the broader national society.

A majority of Greeks and at least 40 percent of Italians, Hungarians, and Poles think that having an increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups, and nationalities makes their country a worse place to live. Again, those on the right are often more opposed to diversity than those on the left; the greatest divide is 36 points in Germany. (By comparison, only 7 percent of Americans say diversity is bad for the United States.)

Upward of 50 percent of the public in nine of the 10 EU countries polled believe that Muslims want to remain distinct and not adopt local customs and ways of life. People on the right are more likely to believe this than people on the left by significant margins in Germany and the U.K. (both a 33 point difference), in France (28 points), and the Netherlands and Sweden (23 points each).

The intertwining fear of refugees, Muslims, and terrorism is now very real among many Europeans. This in itself poses a major challenge for leaders of countries that are rapidly becoming more diverse. Compounding this is the rise of right-wing populism and the spread of nativist rhetoric. And each terrorist incident only strengthens this argument and adds to the base of support. If the far-right continues to surge in the months ahead in countries like France and Germany, it could mean a return to nationalist politics that have more than once left Europe with a sorry legacy.

Photo credit: DURSUN AYDEMIR/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Star Bulk Carriers Corp. SBLK is a transport ship company that could be an interesting play for investors. That is because, not only does the stock have decent short-term momentum, but it is seeing solid activity on the earnings estimate revision front as well.

These positive earnings estimate revisions suggest that analysts are becoming more optimistic on SBLKs earnings for the coming quarter and year. In fact, consensus estimates have moved sharply higher for both of these time frames over the past four weeks, suggesting that Star Bulk Carriers could be a solid choice for investors.

Current Quarter Estimates for SBLK

In the past 30 days, 4 estimates have gone higher for Star Bulk Carriers while none have gone lower in the same time period. The trend has been pretty favorable too, with estimates narrowing from a loss of 88 cents a share 30 days ago, to a loss of 76 cents per share today, a move of 13.6%.

Current Year Estimates for SBLK

Meanwhile, Agnico Eagle Mines current year figures are also looking quite promising, with 4 estimates moving higher in the past month, compared to none lower. The consensus estimate trend has also seen a boost for this time frame, narrowing from a loss of $3.44 per share 30 days ago to a loss of $3.01 per share today, an increase of 12.5%.

STAR BULK CARRS Price and Consensus

STAR BULK CARRS Price and Consensus | STAR BULK CARRS Quote

Bottom Line

The stock has also started to move higher lately, adding 28.6% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are starting to take note of this impressive story. So investors may definitely want to consider this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock to profit in the near future.

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(Photo: Instagram/tuesdaybassen)



When Toronto entrepreneurs Rose Chang and Stephanie Drabik heard about the alleged copying of designs by illustrator Tuesday Bassen by fast-fashion retailer Zara, they were appalled. They didnt realize at the time that they were victims of theft as well.

We didnt know that we were also ripped off until another designer, Adam J. Kurtz, posted one of his designs that was stolen and we saw ours on there as well, Chang and Drabik, the co-owners and founders of fashion and accessories line Crywolf, tell Yahoo Canada Style in an email. A few friends had also tipped us off at the same time.

Bassen posted to her Instagram account earlier this week with photos of her own designs for enamel pins and patches side-by-side with similar versions from Zara, a Europe-based fast-fashion retailer. Zara had responded to Bassens lawyer saying that because of the difference in the size of the two companies viewers of their products would be unlikely to associate them with her original designs.

Inditex, the company that owns Zara, said in a statement Thursday that the company has opened an investigation and suspended the sale of the items in question while they work with Bassens lawyers to resolve the situation.

But Bassens situation is not unique. Since her initial Instagram post, several other independent designers have come forward with their own allegations of trademark violation and copyright infringement by large-scale retailers. And in recent years other small companies have had similar complaints.

(Photo: @stayhomeclub)

Olivia Mew discovered theft of one design for Stay Home Club, of which she is president and creative director, thanks to an observant customer who tweeted a photo of the item after spotting it in a River Island store in the UK.

Small-scale copyright infringement is unfortunately nothing new for her company or for many others like hers, Mew tells Yahoo Canada Style.

Small cases by individuals are generally easy to deal with: emailing the website in question with a takedown notice will generally result in its quick removal, Mew says. But its more difficult, time consuming, and expensive to go up against a large retailer even if the legal principles are the same.

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When it happens with large retailers like River Island, its much more daunting, Mew says. You can see from the condescending reply Tuesday Bassen received from Zaras legal team that it often seems futile to go up against companies with infinite resources and in-house lawyers.

Crywolf has had designs copied by other large retailers like Urban Outfitters and Forever 21, they say, and the process seemed equally daunting in those cases as well. Big retailers take advantage of the upper hand they have in this situation, Change and Drabik say.

And Stay Home Clubs experience with River Island is also not their first time dealing with design theft from a company of that size, Mew says. European retailer Berksha, which is owned by the same corporate group as Zara, used their trademarked company name on sweatshirts. American retailer Old Navy sold a childs tshirt that Mew says was clearly heavily influenced by her companys design. And clothing with redrawn versions of their trademarked logo have been reported by customers in Brazil and Russia.



The problem is widespread for independent companies, Mew says. She knows Bassen, though they havent spoken this week, and theyve emailed each other about copies of their designs in the past. And shes talked about her experience with larger retailers with the owners of other companies who say theyve also had designs stolen including No Fun Press (by Forever 21), Adam J. Kurtz (by Zara), Explorers Press (by Pull and Bear, a Zara subsidiary), and Datter (by TopMan).



(Photo: Courtesy of Olivia Mew)



In the last case, Kaye Blegvad of Datter did pursue a case with TopMan. The company removed the item from stores but didnt admit any wrongdoing or provide compensation. Mew didnt pursue any of these cases legally because the long process required to own their copyright isnt yet complete. And the complexities of fashion law make it harder to know what the options are when designs are copied. Canadian Fashion Law provides advice on the complexities to designers, but things can get expensive when a lawyer is required to determine if a case is warranted.

There is a legal difference between when an idea is copiedwhich is frustrating for the designer but not illegaland when artworkwhich has inherent copyrightis reproduced. Original illustrations are subject to copyright as soon as they are created, The Fashion Law reported, and the legal threshold for originality is low.



The blurry line between copying and inspiration can make it hard to know when something is truly a legal violation, Chang and Drabik say. Copyright laws seem to reflect that blurred line and its hard for artists and small brands to protect themselves, they say.

Mew says shes not an expert in fashion law but she still finds that distinction easy to spot. When youve created an image its impossible to look at a knockoff and not know right away whether it was an innocent product of collective consciousness or whether the person redrawing it was staring at your piece while they made it, Mew says. In the case of the patch on the River Island t-shirt, she says, the similarities in composition, colour scheme, and typeface to her companys patch are obvious.



(Photo: Courtesy of Olivia Mew)



Right now, Mew is watching to see what happens with Bassens case and how it might apply to her own company. Hopefully it will set a precedent for how to deal with issues like this in the future, she says. Its an incredible thing that her story has finally managed to gain mainstream attention and I think it will be a great step forward for our entire community.

The upside may be that building a community of creators amplifies their voices when allegations of design theft come out. Chang and Drabik heard about theft of their design from another designer. Several other entrepreneurs have spoken in defence of Bassen and others who have had work copied by large retailers, and helped bring attention to the stories. And Chang and Drabik of Crywolf say theyve been advised to work with other artists if they pursue a claim, which may add strength to any complaint they make if they choose that strategy.

The importance of fairly compensating artists and illustrators is key to this issue, Mew says. For example, Stay Home Club licenses work from designers and illustrators, crediting them and paying royalties. One of the more frustrating things about this whole situation is the fact that its our ethical practices that often make our product more expensive than the fast fashion brands, she says. Its maddening to think that by following the rules, we wind up losing out to themespecially when our resources are so drastically different from theirs.

What do you think of this story? Let us know by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.


The MEK members, who are the main opponents to the authorities in Tehran, have come under repeated rocket attacks in Camp Liberty near Baghdad by militias affiliated to Tehran. As part of an international agreement involving the UN and the United States the residents have agreed to move to third countries.

According to the UNHCR, it continues to maintain momentum, with more than 1700 residents having now been relocated to a situation of safety in third countries. This represents a significant milestone: more than half of the residents registered by UNHCR have now been successfully relocated.

Despite the attack of July 4 on Camp Liberty, when nearly fifty people were injured, the continued cooperation of the residents, who are members of the MEK, has helped to achieve the milestone referred to by the UNHCR.

The UNHCR update continues: Ongoing success in the implementation of solutions has also been assisted by the residents commitment to meeting the bulk of the associated costs, particularly for long term support of all residents relocated out of Iraq who have no access to state-sponsored assistance. This commitment is crucial to the ongoing implementation of solutions for the group.

The commitment of these refugees to relocate abroad is reflected in the responsibility theyve taken upon themselves to fund their own relocation and subsequent habitation. These residents have no access to state-sponsored assistance, nor have they requested any. The West should note that these refugees have never asked for funding. Neither have they asked for anything, except that the West refrain from supporting the mullahs regime, which, in effect, is support for terrorism and human rights abuses.

In their update regarding the relocation process, the UNHCR further expresses is deep appreciation to the measures taken by some countries to relocate residents to situations of safety and security. Albanias exceptional contribution to this humanitarian endeavour merits special note, as Albania has received a significant proportion of the residents who have been relocated. Likewise, the United States has been actively supporting the relocations in a number of ways, and without those sustained and concerted efforts, the progress reported here could not have been achieved.

The UNHCR also continues to call upon the Government of Iraq to take all possible measures to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, including ensuring access to life saving medical treatment and assistance with the provision of goods and services to enable the residents to make arrangements for their own protection.

In the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Iraq and the United Nations, it is explicitly recognized that residents will benefit from the principle of non-refoulement. Under this law, these refugees who call for freedom, will never be forced to return to a country in which they are liable to be subjected to persecution by the mullahs who have stolen their freedom.

The UNHCR updates concluded on this frightening note, Despite noteworthy progress made over the last two years, UNHCR maintains its call upon States to find ways to offer long term solutions for the residents in the Hurriya TTL and to do so with urgency. This appeal should be read in light of the potential for more attacks on the Hurriya TTL, as has been recently witnessed. This emphasizes the need for quick and pragmatic action on the part of States to ensure that these people are very swiftly relocated to a situation of safety and security.
Chennai (India) (AFP) - India on Saturday stepped up a major search operation for an air force plane that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal the day before with 29 people on board, as the defence minister headed to the region.

The AN-32 military transport plane was on a routine flight from the southern city of Chennai to Port Blair, capital of the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, on Friday morning when it vanished from radar screens.

Twenty-one of the passengers on board were defence personnel, including six crew members, while eight others worked for the military in non-uniform roles, an IAF source told AFP.

On its official Twitter account the Indian navy said 18 navy and coastguard ships were now deployed in the search operation, along with six aircraft and a submarine.

" 18 Naval & ICG ships (+1sm) deployed with various aircraft... to locate missing AN 32" the navy tweeted.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar travelled to Tambaram air base on the outskirts of Chennai on Saturday morning, where he was briefed by military officials before departing for an aerial survey to monitor the ongoing operation.

"It lost contact with the radars approximately 150 nautical miles east of Chennai," IAF Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee told AFP.

Several reports said weather in the Bay of Bengal had been rough owing to the southwest monsoon.

An IAF source said Friday radar data from the missing aircraft showed it making a sharp left turn before rapidly losing altitude.

The Russian-built AN-32, equipped with navigational aids, is the IAF's workhorse aircraft and capable of flying for up to four hours without refuelling.

Experts have warned India's outdated fleet -- some of which dates back to the 1960s -- is a threat to national security, with some aircraft virtually on their last legs.
A low-caste Indian who survived a gang-rape aged 17 only to be raped again, allegedly by men awaiting trial for the first attack, said Friday she feared she and her family would never be safe again.

Police say the 20-year-old student from India's lowest Dalit caste was abducted from outside her college on July 13, drugged and raped before being dumped on a highway.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack, two of whom had been charged with raping her in 2013, and only released on bail a few months ago.

Relatives say they believe the latest attack was revenge for her refusal to drop her complaint against the men, who they say were able to evade justice because they belonged to higher castes and had political connections.

"I will have to spend my entire life in constant fear of being raped again or killed," said the woman, who AFP is not naming for legal reasons.

"My life will never be the same. I am worried about my family's safety. They can harm us any time," she told AFP by telephone from her hospital bed in the northern Indian state of Haryana.

India promised to speed up rape trials in the wake of a fatal gang-rape in 2012 that shone a global spotlight on frightening levels of violence against women in India.

But rape and sexual assault remain commonplace and cases are often slow to come to court -- especially if the defendants are wealthy and well-connected.

Relatives of the victim said the alleged perpetrators of the 2013 rape had offered them money to withdraw the case, and threatened to attack her again if they did not.

"We were offered five million rupees ($75,000) to withdraw the case. They are rich people and have strong political links," her cousin told AFP.

"We didn't give in to their demands and pursued the case, but we were let down by the court, which gave them bail in May," he told AFP in the city of Rohtak in Haryana, where the family moved to after the first attack.

Story continues

- 'Only rich get justice' -

He said he believed his cousin was originally attacked because she had spurned the advances of one of the alleged rapists.

"He must have thought, they are poor and helpless, and we will get away with the crime," he added.

The relative said police only moved to arrest the alleged perpetrators after weeks of protests by the Dalit community, who face widespread discrimination in India even though this is illegal.

"We were tossed from one police station to another, but no one was listening. The accused were bribing them and were getting all help from the authorities," he said.

"This country is only for rich and for upper castes, only they get justice," said the cousin, adding that the entire family had now converted to Buddhism to escape discrimination under the Hindu caste system.

Local police say they are using all their resources to track down another two men accused in last week's attack, and have set up a special investigation team.

"We are collecting all evidence and will investigate the case in a fair and transparent manner," Rohtak police chief Rakesh Arya told AFP.

But rights activists say the case shows the justice system is still failing victims of sexual assault, more than three years after the Delhi gang rape that sparked mass protests.

"We need action now to end this brutality that has become routine and to give the victims of violence the justice and protection they deserve," said Anju Malhotra, gender advisor to the UN children's agency UNICEF.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's two state-run trading firms have floated two tenders to import 330,00 tonnes of non-genetically modified corn, as the government tries to improve supplies of the grain to keep a lid on local prices.

PEC Limited has opened a tender to import 200,000 tonnes of corn for shipment in December 2016 and January 2017. The last date for submitting bids is July 29, the company said on its website.

The State Trading Corp of India has sought 130,000 tonnes of corn for shipments in August. The last date for submitting bids is July 28, it said on the website.

India had difficulty in sourcing non-GM corn in late 2015 and earlier this year. It only allows the planting and consumption of genetically modified cotton.

Reuters reported this month that India had asked a government-backed trader to import half a million tonnes of corn.

Indian farmers plant corn twice a year. The winter crop is planted in October, with harvests in March and April. The summer crop planting has started, and supplies will become available only from end-September.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; editing by Susan Thomas)
SAN DIEGO  Its just unabashed, Justin Timberlake says about the Comic-Con experience. Hes there this week for his second-ever trip to the geek confab, after touring the festivities incognito as Ernie from Sesame Street when he was there to promote the film In Time five years ago. Where else can you find Gandalf and a Stormtrooper having a beer? They go hard here.

This time hes among the consumer masses to pitch DreamWorks Animations Trolls, releasing Nov. 4. A cheery musical wrought with colorful, tactile-like craftsmanship, the film manifests a mythology behind the ubiquitous creature dolls originally created by Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam: The trolls live a deliriously happy existence, singing on cue, taking breaks throughout the day to hug. They are hunted, meanwhile, by a monstrous race called the Bergin, who get their own happy highs by eating the trolls.

The 35-year-old Timberlake voices Branch, a troll that has grown weary of his communitys overt state of cheer, mostly because it attracts the Bergin. He has become so cantankerous as to see his bright skin and hair tone drained to muted colors. Hes taken on something of a survivalists existence, focused on just one thing: defending against a Bergin attack. When that moment comes, the plot sends Branch and bubbly Poppy (Anna Kendrick) off on their way through a vibrant, trippy environment.

The movie has a shot at big business when it opens in the fall, particularly as audiences flock to feel-good toons in the midst of dire world conditions. That dark climate was very much a part of the DreamWorks panel discussion Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center.

The world right now is a cynical toilet, moderator Chris Hardwick said. Theres one convention right now that Im excited to be at  the other one, not so much, he continued, indicating the ongoing Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Director Mike Mitchell took Hardwicks cue, noting that the news is depressing. We were really excited to make a film that would make people happy and feel good.

Story continues

And that meant the music, too. In addition to voice acting, Timberlake was also tasked with producing the films soundtrack, which features re-workings of artists like Earth Wind & Fire, Simon & Garfunkel, Gorillaz and Cyndi Lauper. Not only that, but he also wrote original songs for the film, including Cant Stop the Feeling, which enjoyed a week at the top of the charts last month. Timberlake says the upbeat track, reminiscent of the late-70s disco-punk confluence, was inspired by Michael Jackson, Bill Withers and the Bee Gees.

I kept bringing up Saturday Night Fever with this movie, he says. The filmmakers say they were inspired by the two sides of the 70s, the two different worlds this movie exists in. So I said lets make a song that sounds like it could be from the 70s, but make it modern. Nothing was out that sort of sounded like that, and it just felt like it was perfect for the movie.

For Timberlake it was also a serendipitous time to tackle this kind of material: His son Silas is 15 months old, and while he doesnt necessarily feel having a child inspires his artistic choices, Timberlake says it definitely informs them.

Id be leaving out the whole truth if I didnt say having him shaped what the song actually is, he says. [Having a child] gives you a different insight. Its like The Matrix, man. You open a door and theres this whole other world on the other side of it. And you look back through the door at the other world and youre like, What was I doing there?'

Being back in the studio and having his hands all over a film soundtrack (a personal dream of his) also lit the spark for a new album. Hes been working on a follow-up to his 2013 double album The 20/20 Experience ever since Trolls came into his life, but hes approaching it casually.

Im kind of taking my time, he says. Im doing the Woody [Allen] movie in the fall, so that was unexpected. I think for the first time in my career I feel like I can slow down and be a little more patient.

Speaking of the Allen project, which also stars Kate Winslet, Juno Temple and Jim Belushi, Timberlake is abrupt when asked if there was any trepidation in taking on the role, given the resurgence of previous allegations that Allen sexually assaulted his own daughter Dylan two decades ago. No, I dont get into that stuff, man, he says.

Timberlake wants to keep his acting career revved. In particular, he would love to reunite with The Social Network helmer David Fincher, who also directed the music video from Suit & Tie from The 20/20 Experience.

Whenever he needs me, I am a masochist, and he is very good at being a sadist, Timberlake says. I enjoy working with David so much because you go home at night after every day and go, Well, I dont think we could have tried anything else. You really feel like you left it on the floor. I find so much of filmmaking is maddening because you get to the end of principal photography and you go Oh, now I know how to play this role. But his level, its a different type of meticulous. Its a one of a kind.

For now, its back into the studio to finish that new album  on his time, at his pace. Its a downward gear shift he attributes to, what else  getting older.

Maybe its the difference between 20s and 30s, he says. The difference between must achieve, and now its like, Work smarter, not harder. You want to have time for your family.

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Less than 10 percent of Iraqi territory remains in the hands of Islamic State, but battlefield advances have not been matched by better security inside Iraq, the country's defense minister said on Thursday. Iraq is now mounting a campaign to retake Mosul, the de facto IS capital, after recapturing Falluja late last month. But a suicide bombing in Baghdad less than a week after Falluja fell killed almost 300 people, and bombings since then have taken at least 51 more lives. "Progress in military performance must be paired with progress on the security file," Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi tweeted from Washington before a meeting of defense ministers from the U.S.-led coalition battling the ultra-hardline militants. At its peak, IS had captured somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of Iraqi territory. The ground it holds has been drastically reduced, but the militants can still inflict tremendous damage in Iraq's towns and cities. The suicide bombing in central Baghdad earlier this month, which killed at least 292 in one of the worst such attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, was a "stark example" of that failure, he said. IS claimed responsibility for the attack. Obeidi said the battle for Mosul, which has gained momentum since the recapture of Falluja and a northern airbase, required airstrikes, intelligence, logistics and engineering support [nL8N1A30TM}. He said he expects most residents, which he estimated at around 2 million, to flee Mosul as they've done in recent battles, and that the offensive would require coordination with peshmerga forces from the autonomous Kurdish region. That population estimate is nearly double recent projections from the United Nations, which predicts displacement from Mosul will require the largest humanitarian relief operation in the world this year. Obeidi acknowledged the need for political understandings about the offensive and post-IS management, but it is far from certain that Iraq can accomplish that before the battle begins. Although Iraqi and U.S. officials have not announced a timetable for moving on the city, a senior Baghdad-based diplomat and a Western official have said Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wants to push into Mosul by October. Western officials say retaking the city without a plan to restore security, basic services and governance, along with money and personnel to implement it, risks repeating the mistake U.S. President George W. Bush's administration made in 2003, by toppling one government without plans for a new one. Mosul and its outskirts are a mosaic of different ethnic and religious groups lying between Turkey, Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan, and the fight against IS has exacerbated tensions among many of those communities. Obeidi said Iraq needed the help of its allies in securing cities and borders, but that the participation of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, would be determined by "military plans and a decision by the commander-in-chief". Some PMF elements have been accused of rights violations in earlier battles, including Falluja. Obeidi condemned such abuses on Twitter as "a betrayal of the army's sacrifices" and said violators would be held accountable. Speaking with a small group of journalists in Washington on Thursday, Obeidi said he expected Islamic State to use tactics it has used in past battles, in defending Mosul, ranging from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) to the use of trenches and tunnels. Obeidi added that he did not expect the peshmerga forces to enter the city of Mosul. "We won't even let them take part in the liberation of the city," the defense minister said through a translator. (Reporting By Stephen Kalin and Idrees Ali; Editing by Larry King and Jonathan Oatis)
Najaf (Iraq) (AFP) - Authorities in Iraq's Karbala province have voted for the return of all displaced Iraqis whose home areas have been recaptured from the Islamic State group, they announced on Friday.

Millions of people have fled their homes to escape violence in Iraq, but many areas that have been retaken from IS jihadists are still littered with bombs and heavily damaged, making returning difficult.

"The Karbala provincial council voted unanimously on a decision to return all the displaced people who came to Karbala," its chief Nasayif al-Khattabi said in a statement, adding that it applies to those "whose areas were liberated."

The decision was made "to preserve the security situation in Iraq in general and Karbala province specifically," he said.

Mahfudh al-Tamimi, the head of the provincial council's legal committee, said that the process would not be compulsory.

"It will be implemented voluntarily," Tamimi said.

"The decision is an attempt to guarantee the return of the displaced officially and legally without exposing them to danger," he said.

The United Nations refugee agency has warned against premature or forcible returns of displaced Iraqis.

"It is important to ensure conditions are in place for (the) return to take place in safety and to be sustainable," UNHCR said earlier this month.

And "it is important that displaced families can make a choice about when they feel it is safe to return and are not forced into making a decision," it said.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists.

But many areas retaken from IS are still full of bombs left by the jihadists that must be cleared before residents can return -- a time-consuming process that is in its early stages in many places.

And displaced Iraqis may not have a home to return to even if they wanted to due to destruction caused by the fighting to force the jihadists out.
London (AFP) - Leaders from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland said Friday that Brexit must not mean a "hard border" being put up between the two.

At an emergency meeting of the British Irish Council in Cardiff, called to discuss the aftermath of Britain's vote last month to leave the European Union, they said it was fundamental that border checks would not be imposed along what what would be the EU's land frontier with the United Kingdom.

The council brings together leaders from the Republic of Ireland; Britain; its devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and its crown dependencies Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

The United Kingdom, the British crown dependencies and the Republic of Ireland share a free-movement Common Travel Area (CTA) dating back to Irish independence in the 1920s.

"There are modern ways of not having hard borders," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said after the talks.

"Hard borders would not be accepted in the south or the north.

"The best possible outcome for everyone is a UK that's prosperous and has the closest possible links with the European Union.

"For us in Ireland, that means access to the single market.

"And it's been made perfectly clear by the EU council that if that is to happen, then the respect has to be there for the freedom of (movement of) people.

"We have difficulties but I expect us to retain the Common Travel Area.

"It's a fundamental part of who we are."

Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster -- who campaigned for Brexit -- said a CTA would still be possible even with the UK outside the EU.

She said it was "vital" for Ireland.

While a majority in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London voted for Britain to remain in the EU, a majority in nine other UK regions voted for Britain to leave in the June 23 referendum.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Supporters of the Islamic State militant group celebrated on social media a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday that killed and wounded many people. "Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men," read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favors the radical Islamist movement. "The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read an Arabic-language tweet on another account also known to support Islamic State. The attack was the third major act of violence against civilian targets in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by Islamic State and Munich police said they suspected the latest assault was a terrorist attack. Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall in the Bavarian capital but many others were hiding inside. A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded. "We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said. Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. NTV television reported the state's interior ministry as saying three people were dead, but the ministry said later it would not confirm this. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train, wounding four people before he was shot dead. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
What former President Clinton did by designating the MEK a terrorist organization, was try to improve relations with the Iranian government after the alleged moderate Mohammad Khatami won the presidential election in 1997. He wanted to appease Khatami, who had asked him to do it.

As it turned out, Khatami wasnt a moderate or, according to Totten, even Irans head of state. Irans head of state, then as now, was Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran during Khatamis time was no more moderate than it was with the bombastic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as its president.

The MEK are based in France now, and are part of a larger organization that includes other opposition movements, called the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Totten attended the annual Free Iran rally held in Paris, thats broadcast live on television, via satellite, of course, because they face torture and execution if they were to go into Iran.

Although initially skeptical because they were only removed from the terrorist list a few years ago, Totten soon decided that they are the true moderates. He says, our relations with the MEK are outstanding. They havent even allegedly done anything bad to America for at least three and a half decades. Why would they? We have common enemies now. Theyve been ruthlessly persecuted by Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Khomeinists insist the MEK is contaminated with atheism and the Western plague.

Totten was very impressed that the MEK is the only major Middle Eastern political movement led by a woman, Maryam Rajavi. She is an exiled woman who wishes to overthrow an illegitimate government by rallying forces around her from abroad. Her 10-point platform for a future Iran read like the first draft of a constitution in a modern liberal democracy. Under what theory should the West spurn these people in favor of a government that tortures dissidents, supports terrorist armies all over the Middle East and hangs homosexuals from cranes in the capital?

He called the event in Paris a grand spectacle, where over 100,00 people were consistently engaged for more than eight hours. The MEK may not be popular inside Iran, but it sure as hell is in the European diaspora, which suggests its popularity back home may not be quite so near the floor as its critics allege.

He goes on to say that Most of the speakers werent Iranian. They were high profile officials from the United States, the European Union, and the Middle East, including Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal. He delivered a real stemwinder in Arabic, opening with heartfelt praise of the high accomplishments of Persian civilization since the time of the ZoroastriansPersians are not accustomed to hearing this sort of talk from Arabsand ending with a clarion call for regime-change in Iran.

He marvels at how far this terrorist organization has come, with its bipartisan clout inside Washington rivaling Britains. It was refreshing to see so many American officials from across the political spectrum on the same stage agreeing with each other about something so fundamental.

He concludes by calling the Iranian Dissidents, the MEK, and the NCRI genuine liberals and moderates. They are not the fake moderates of the Muslim Brotherhood or the Iranian presidency.
In an expansive two-part interview with PEOPLE this week, Ivanka Trump is opening up about balancing her many businesses, raising three children with her husband Jared Kushner and dealing with the demands of her Donald Trump's presidential campaign.



Ivanka Trump is the first to acknowledge that her childhood was extremely privileged.



As the daughter of billionaire businessmanaturnedapresidential candidate father Donald Trump, 70, and his first wife, Ivana, 67, "I grew up in an environment where I had access to many luxuries that are highly unusual," the entrepreneur and mother of three, 34, tells PEOPLE. "My parents didn't have to worry about putting food on our table, they could afford to send us to the best schools we could get into. I'm enormously grateful for that."



But they also dealt with tough times.







Ivanka was just a little girl when her parents split  and a tabloid scandal exploded when it was revealed that Trump had had an affair with Marla Maples, who later became his second wife. But Ivanka says her parents worked hard to shield her and her brothers Donald Jr. and Eric from the explosive fallout.



"They did a remarkable job protecting us from something largely outside of their control," Ivanka says. "We didn't have newspapers in the house for a significant period of time and the TV wasn't on when they weren't there. So they tried to mitigate the attention that that moment received."





Ivanka Trump on Being Protected by the Scandal of Her Parents' Split| Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump, Marla Maples

Although her parents duked it out publicly in the New York City tabloids as the costly divorce dragged on, at home, they remained composed and never spoke ill of one another, Ivanka says.



"Really the way in which they helped us the most was by being supportive with one another, not disparaging the other in front of us, recognizing that and communicating that there was still tremendous affection between them and that there would always be great love for us," she says.



"And I think in retrospect, I became closer with both of my parents because I was at that stage in life where you do take your parents for granted and something like that happens and maybe you stop taking them for granted as much," she says. "They made a real effort to ensure that we knew that they would always be there for us and accessible to us and it helped us through a difficult time."



 For more from Ivanka Trump, including her life as a mom, business woman and daughter on the campaign trail, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday





Story continues

Ivanka Trump on Being Protected by the Scandal of Her Parents' Split| Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump, Marla Maples

These days, Trump and Ivana "are very close. It's actually, it's amazing," Ivanka reveals. "They were together for many years, they raised three children together and they have a great relationship. I'm very fortunate for that."



For her part, Ivanka has developed a special bond with her little sister, Tiffany, 22, Trump's daughter with Maples.



Though Tiffany was raised in California by Maples after she divorced Trump in 1999, meaning the siblings were not always nearby, "we would see each other on all of the holidays and talk to each other frequently," Ivanka says. "She's my little sister! I've been close to Tiffany her whole life, and I really love her."





Ivanka Trump on Being Protected by the Scandal of Her Parents' Split| Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump, Marla Maples

When asked if she is close with Maples, Ivanka is very clear: "I'm not," she says. "She was out in California and really my relationship is with Tiffany."



But now that Tiffany lives in N.Y.C., and has become involved in her father's campaign as well, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in May, "it's wonderful because she's right here in New York. She'll come with [me and Jared to our country house] on weekends sometimes, and she's always with my kids," Ivanka says. "She's a really good person."
Jae Crowder

Getty Image

The Boston Celtics went 48-34 last season. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Atlanta Hawks after six hard-fought games, failing to advance past that point of the postseason for the second consecutive year.

Boston has much to accomplish before establishing itself as the clear-cut second-best team in the Eastern Conference, basically. Jae Crowder, though, believes the Celtics  who caught the summers second-biggest free agency fish in Al Horford  are on the verge of doing just that.

Related Links:





The 26 year old forward recently told Tom Westerholm of MassLive.com that the Cleveland Cavaliers are the only team in the East better than Boston.

My guys were telling me that Bleacher Report says well win 59 games, Crowder said. Thats a lot of wins, but I want to get past the first round of the playoffs. Two seasons in a row getting swept (Note: The Celtics lost in six games this past year) thats my goal to be honest with you. I think our ceiling is the Eastern Conference Finals. Toronto is not a team were worried about. I think Cleveland is the top team. Thats what it comes down to.

Its far too early to say for certain whether Crowders assessment is accurate.

The Celtics, Hawks, and Indiana Pacers each made significant additions to their roster this summer, while the Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards, and even Milwaukee Bucks could potentially make major improvements given their collective youth. Questions abound about the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls, while the Charlotte Hornets lost some critical depth after re-signing Nic Batum and Marvin Williams to big-money contracts.

The only thing we really know about the East right now is that Cleveland sits alone at the top. Boston is among several teams that will be fighting tooth and nail to emerge as the most legitimate challenger to LeBron James and company, and maybe has the best chance among them at doing so. Horford is eons better than any big man who played for the Celtics last season, obviously, and Brad Stevens can count on continued development from youngsters like Marcus Smart and Summer League star Terry Rozier. Crowder may not be done refining the rough edges of his game, either.

But for him to submit that Boston is only worried about the Cavaliers is definitely premature, and counts as bulletin-board material for Toronto and other Eastern Conference teams with hopes of having the chance to dethrone the two-time defending champions. Not that were upset at Crowders brash confidence, though. After all, the league could always use some new rivalries.

(MassLive.com)
Caracas (AFP) - Jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez appealed his 14-year sentence during a marathon hearing that stretched into early Saturday, declaring himself innocent of inciting violence at anti-government protests in 2014.

Following the hearing, which lasted 12 hours, the court has 10 days to decide whether to accept the appeal.

Lopez, who calls himself a political prisoner, transferred to the court in Caracas from a military prison on the outskirts of the capital.

"I am innocent of the crimes for which I am accused," Lopez said.

"I assume full responsibility for having convened the peaceful protest, under the terms established by the constitution, as is my right and the right of all Venezuelans to do," he said.

Dozens of supporters rallied outside the courthouse holding pictures of Lopez with the messages "Free Leopoldo Now" and "Wanting a better Venezuela is not a crime."

Lopez's family and an opposition lawmaker confirmed his presence at the hearing. He was apparently ushered into court out of view of journalists waiting outside.

A 45-year-old US-educated economist, Lopez was arrested in February 2014 amid a wave of pro- and anti-government protests that swept Venezuela and left 43 people dead.

The government accused Lopez, one of leftist President Nicolas Maduro's most hardline opponents, of inciting the violence.

He denies the charge, calling his arrest an act of political repression.

His sentence, handed down in September after a closed-door trial, was strongly condemned by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.

Lopez's mother and lawyers were allowed into Friday's hearing, but not the two Spanish advisers helping prepare his defense.

One of the advisers, former Spanish justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, called the court's handling of Lopez's case "arbitrary" and "unjust."

His defense lawyers say Venezuela's court system is beholden to Maduro's government.

Story continues

The head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, wrote on Twitter that "the OAS is closely watching" the appeal, saying judicial impartiality was "key."

Lopez's wife, Lilian Tintori, said her husband had been held in solitary confinement for weeks and that the documents for his appeal were removed from his cell.

"Despite that, they don't know him," she said. "He won't break."
A lawsuit demanding local bureaucrats stop blocking the construction of a US military base in Okinawa was filed by Japan's central government Friday, the latest in the spat between Tokyo and the southern island.

Tokyo wants to move the unpopular US airbase in a crowded residential district on Okinawa's main island to a sparsely populated area in its northern part, but many residents want the base moved off the island altogether.

In Friday's suit, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government asked the court in Okinawa's capital city Naha to declare that a move by the region's governor to block construction for the base is illegal.

"The national government's hardline attitude toward Okinawa's US base issue is extreme," Okinawan governor Takeshi Onaga told reporters in Tokyo, citing local election results showing voters favour moving the base off the island.

"I have no choice but to call it a far cry from democracy," he said.

But Gen Nakatani, defence minister, reiterated that Onaga's decision was illegal and the government would make its case in court.

"Governor Onaga's decision to cancel the approval was illegal. We will argue that the infrastructure minister's order (for him to reverse his move) is appropriate," Nakatani said.

More than half the 47,000 American troops in Japan under a decades-long security alliance are stationed on Okinawa, the site of a major World War II battle that was followed by a 27-year US occupation of the island.

A series of crimes including rapes, assaults and hit-and-run accidents by military personnel, dependants and civilians have long sparked protests.

Tempers flared again in northern Okinawa Friday, where protesters clashed with police as the central government resumed the construction of helipads for US forces -- a separate issue from the base relocation that is the focus of the lawsuit.

Riot police pushed and shoved protesters who refused to move from near a US military training area as construction resumed, Japanese television footage showed.

Protesters used more than 100 vehicles to block an access road to the training area, according to the Asahi Shimbun daily.
Jeff Gordon returns to the Cup Series this weekend (Getty).

INDIANAPOLIS  Jeff Gordon said hes been cramming like a college student for a final over the last few days to prepare for his return to the Sprint Cup Series.

Im going to tell you, the last two days, I dont think Ive ever put as much effort in to preparing for a race, and crammed in all that I have in the last two days, Gordon said. That process itself has been really interesting, exciting and fun and has me pretty fired up to get in the car and feel what it is like to be in there.

Gordon is filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Sundays Brickyard 400 and the next race at Pocono. Itll be the first time in 798 career Cup starts where Gordon has raced a car other than the No. 24.

Im going to be racing against the No. 24 car [driven by Chase Elliott] out there, Gordon said. I mean, none of us anticipated this happening. You cant plan. You dont know how you are going to react to it. To me, once I get behind the wheel and Im inside the car I dont know what is on the outside of that car. Its a race car and Im going to be focused on driving, not focused on anything else. But, when Im standing outside of it and Im looking at the No. 88 car and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.s name over the door  it is certainly a unique situation that I dont know how that is going to impact me.

Junior, who will miss at least three races because of what the team has said are concussion-like symptoms, tweeted Friday morning that he was feeling better; a tweet that was referenced multiple times by Gordon and team owner Rick Hendrick when referring to Earnhardt Jr.s status.

Today is the 1st day in many that I sensed improvement. Seen small gains during my physical therapy as well. Light at the end of the tunnel.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 22, 2016

Gordon said he found out about the chance to drive at Indy via a text from team owner Rick Hendrick that said Call me. And once Hendrick told him what was going on, Gordon said he didnt have to think twice about accepting Hendricks offer.

Story continues

I get that text, and I looked at [wife Ingrid Vandebosch] and said Oh boy, here we go, Gordon said. I had no idea. When Rick said to me Are you coming to Indianapolis? I said Yes I am. I am coming on Saturday. He said Well, you better bring your uniform. I asked what he was talking about and he started to tell me about what was going on. I thought he was messing with me. I knew he was messing with me. I knew right away the seriousness after that, and that he wasnt joking.

Gordon has won five Brickyard 400s and said he felt comfortable after he ran laps at Indianapolis in General Motors racing simulator in North Carolina. He said the setups for this years race are more similar to the ones for the 2014 race, a race Gordon won. Last years Brickyard 400 was, well, not much of a success with a high-drag rules setup.

Gordon returned from a vacation in France on Tuesday and said he flew immediately from New York to Charlotte to visit Hendrick Motorsports. The team had already installed his steering wheel and seat from the final race of 2015 at Homestead. HMS had kept the equipment from what was supposed to be Gordons final Cup Series start, not realizing itd be needed again. Hendrick said he and Gordon hadnt had a discussion about being a substitute driver until this scenario.

No we never talked about it because [Gordon] gave me a helmet when you got out of the car, so I thought [he was] done, Hendrick said.

Gordon responded with a laugh.

I should have given you the seat and the steering wheel, he said.

      

Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
CLEVELAND  Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., praised GOP nominee Donald Trump and warned of threats posed by undocumented immigrants in a speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night.

During more than two decades in office, Arpaio has made a national name for himself by creating unusual punishments for criminals, including making them wear pink underwear and confining them to tent city jails. Arpaio has also weighed in on political issues with strong criticism of U.S. immigration policy and by conducting an investigation into the conspiracy theories about President Obamas birthplace.

At the RNC, Arpaio began his address by declaring the stakes are high and expressing the need for a strong leader.

We are losing the battle. We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the need of other nations ahead of ours. We are more concerned with the rights of illegal aliens and criminals than we are with protecting our own country, the sheriff said. That must change. We need a leader who will protect our border and enforce our laws, because a nation without borders and a nation without laws is no nation at all.

Arpaio suggested the cornerstone of Trumps immigration platform, a massive wall the developer promises to build along the U.S. border with Mexico, would help guard against the dangers of illegal immigration and drugs.

We have terrorists coming over our border, infiltrating our communities, and causing massive destruction and mayhem. We have criminals penetrating our weak border security system and committing serious crime, Arpaio said, adding, Donald Trump will build the wall  and restore law and order, and keep drugs and illegal immigrants from entering into our country.

Arpaio finished by branding Trump a leader who will stand up for America.

Lets elect Donald Trump! Arpaio declared.



_____

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Star Trek Beyond (Kimberley French/Paramount Pictures via AP)



By revealing that Hikaru Sulu is gay, Star Trek Beyond boldly goes where no other installment in the classic sci-fi franchise has gone before. And according to the man who plays the character, John Cho, it might have further ventured into new realms by providing Sulu with an on-screen same-sex kiss  except that it didnt make it into the final cut.

Speaking to Vultures E. Alex Chung, the 44-year-old actor disclosed that a scene was shot featuring Sulu and his husband (played by screenwriter Doug Jung) sharing a smooch. However, the moment was left on the cutting room floor. Explained Cho: It wasnt like a make-out session. Were at the airport with our daughter. It was a welcome-home kiss. Im actually proud of that scene, because it was pretty tough. Obviously, I just met the kid, and then Doug is not an actor. I just wanted that to look convincingly intimate. Were two straight guys and had to get to a very loving, intimate place.

Related: 19 Actors You Forgot Were in Star Trek Movies

In the lengthy interview, Cho also speaks about his fears over reimagining Sulu as gay  not least of which was how such a twist would be taken by the man who originated the character, George Takei. Hes a gay actor that played a straight part and crafted a straight character, said Cho. I didnt want him to feel that we had reduced him to his sexuality by sort of borrowing this bit, if you will, from his life.

Takei has since told The Hollywood Reporter, Im delighted that theres a gay character. Unfortunately, its a twisting of Genes creation, to which he put in so much thought. And as it turns out, when originally notified, Cho says Takei voiced the same objections then that hes subsequently articulated. "It turned out that Georges objection was mostly, as I understand it, This isnt canon. It didnt turn out to be a political argument at all, said Cho. Everything he does in the Star Trek universe, its like What Would Jesus Do: "What would [creator Gene] Roddenberry do? Ive got to respect him for that.

Story continues

Simon Pegg, who co-stars as Scotty and co-wrote the screenplay with Jung, also recently responded to Takeis displeasure in a diplomatic manner, stating that he respectfully disagrees with the 79-year-old actors reaction.

That tack was also taken by Zachary Quinto (a.k.a. the series new Spock), who told Pedestrian.TV, My hope is that eventually George can be strengthened by the enormously positive response from especially young people who are heartened by and inspired by this really tasteful and beautiful portrayal of something that I think is gaining acceptance and inclusion in our societies across the world, and should be.

Read the rest of Chos interview on Vulture. Star Trek Beyond is in theaters today.



Watch: the Star Trek cast on why the series is more relevant than ever:
Stephen Colbert closed out his week of live shows tied to the Republican National Convention with another appearance from Jon Stewart.

But this time, Stewart was in studio and, after some modifications from the Late Show wardrobe department, back behind a desk delivering a scorching takedown of Fox News in what was likely a welcome sight for fans who've missed Stewart this election season.

Stewart first popped up from under Colbert's desk, joking that he's usually sleeping there, as Colbert was discussing Thursday's other big news story: Roger Ailes' resignation after being the target of a sexual harassment lawsuit and additional accusations of inappropriate behavior.

Both Colbert and Stewart spent years mocking Fox News but insisted they couldn't react to Ailes' resignation while the camera was on them. But after the camera panned away, Colbert could be heard laughing and, after Stewart popped up, shadows indicated that the two were dancing and jumping up and down.

Then Stewart asked if he could talk about the election for a bit, but to do so, Stewart said, he needed to sit in Colbert's chair. So the two swapped places and Colbert gave Stewart a jacket and clip-on tie to go with his gray t-shirt and jeans.

Read More: Critic's Notebook: Donald Trump's Speech Closes GOP Convention on Apocalyptic Note

Stewart first offered his take on Trump's speech ("This angry groundhog came out and he just vomited on everybody for an hour") and the convention as a whole.

Then he got to his main argument and it was about gymnastics, but not the kind on display in the upcoming Rio Olympics, "the contortions that many conservatives will now have to do to embrace Donald J. Trump, a man who clearly embodies all the things that they have for years said that they have hated about Barack Obama."

Stewart then aired footage of people on Fox News calling Obama inexperienced, divisive, thin-skinned and a raging narcissist.

Story continues

"A thin-skinned narcissist with no government experience. Yes, that sounds exactly like Barack Obama," Stewart said as a picture of Trump popped up on the left side of the screen.

And he proceeded to use Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, whom Stewart called "Lumpy," claiming he forgot his name, to show how right-wing media is now "making the turn" to embrace Trump.

Read More: 'Daily Show' Airs Parody Film of Donald Trump's Life, Narrated by Rosie O'Donnell

He aired footage of Hannity criticizing Obama for divisiveness, being locked on a Teleprompter, being too elite and not Christian because of his involvement with Rev. Jeremiah Wright; as well as footage of the Fox News host giving Trump a pass for not saying all Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, praising Trump for using a Teleprompter effectively, calling Trump a "blue-collar billionaire" (Stewart: "That's not a thing") and criticizing the pope for saying Trump wasn't Christian.

"Either Lumpy and his friends are lying about being bothered by thin-skinned, authoritarian, less-than-Christian readers-of-prompters being president or they don't care as long as it's their thin-skinned, prompter, authoritarian, tyrant, prompter narcissist," Stewart summarized.

He then called out those who felt they "owned" the U.S. and want their country back.

"You just want that person to give you your country back. Because you feel that you're this country's rightful owners. There's only one problem with that. This country isn't yours. You don't own it. It never was. There is no real America. You don't own it," Stewart said, getting fired up. "You don't own patriotism; you don't own Christianity; you sure as hell don't own respect for the bravery and sacrifice of military police and firefighters. Trust me. I saw a lot of people on the convention floor in Cleveland with their blue lives matter rhetoric who either remained silent or actively fought against the 9/11 first responders bill reauthorization. I see you and I see your bullshit."

"Those fighting to be included in the ideal of equality are not being divisive, those fighting to keep those people out are," Stewart added, taking a minute to praise Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Read More: Hollywood Reacts With Anger, Incredulity to Trump's RNC Speech

In closing, Stewart said, "So Lumpy, you and your friends have embraced Donald Trump. Clearly the "c" next to your names don't stand for "constitutional" or "conservative" but "cravenly, convenient - "

With that, an air horn went off and Colbert popped up saying it was an accident that he just made a loud noise preventing his colleague from likely cursing on live TV.

Stewart's 10 minutes of media criticism included a dig at Arby's and a reference to the Taylor Swift-Kanye West feud but being "out of the industry for a while," Stewart said he didn't really know what the latter was about. Watch the full Stewart segment below.
Jon Stewart, took over The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to blast Sean Hannity and Fox News. Jon popped up from under Stephens desk to celebrate Roger Ailes stepping down at Fox News. Although, that wasnt the only reason Stewart was there, he had a few things to say to the people at Fox News who are supporting Donald Trump. Jon sat in Stephens chair as the host ducked under his own desk to let his buddy take over the show. The former Daily Show host then pointed out how Sean Hannity has been praising Trump for the same things that the Fox News correspondent has been ripping President Obama for over the past eight years. Stewart went on to say that Hannity isnt really upset by the things that hes been complaining about all these years, he just says those things because Obamas not the president he wanted. Jon felt like the people at Fox News say negative things about the President because they feel like they own America, but Jon told them they dont. Stewart also let them know a few other things they dont own, saying, You don't own patriotism. You don't own christianity. You sure as hell don't own respect for the bravery and sacrifice of military, police, and firefighters. Trust me.
In turn, Iranian figures like Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani have responded by doubling down on those provocations, insisting that Tehran will cancel the deal if it does not receive additional economic concessions from the United States. It has already been reported that Larijani announced via Iranian state media that the Islamic Republic has no way forward by to counteract what he suggests are acts of aggression by the West. This supposed aggression includes the UN report itself, which the Iranian Foreign Ministry accused of being the result of open pressure from the US.

Now, the Free Beacon adds that Larijani has gone beyond mere rhetoric statements and has actually directed the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization to prepare a plan for resuming full-scale nuclear enrichment activities, so as to reclaim or even exceed the levels of enrichment that were taking place before the JCPOA began to go into effect. This threat is sure to contributing to tensions that have already been running high in the wake of this weeks Associated Press report detailing pre-existing Iranian plans to exploit sunset provisions in the nuclear deal in order to greatly expand the countrys enrichment capabilities 10 years from now.

The JCPOA itself technically lasts 15 years, so the revelation of these plans has led many skeptics to conclude that the deal and Irans commitment to it are even weaker than previously assumed. In fact, the Free Beacon noted that at least one US Congressman, Illinois Republican Representative Peter Roskam, had declared that the newfound documents invalidate the entirety of the nuclear agreement.

In light of this perspective, harsh critics of the JCPOA can be expected to look upon Irans more recent provocations as an entirely separate matter. The deals defenders have been variously accused of dealing very softly with those provocations in order to avoid imperiling the longevity of nuclear implementation. But those who see the deal has having already been invalidated will presumably recognize no such utility in a diminished response to aggressive or illicit behaviors.

One can therefore expect that some US lawmakers will urge a harsh response to planned Iranian war games that are specifically aimed at presenting an image of readiness for conflict with Western powers. Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported on Thursday that IRGC commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari had announced plans for such war games to continue through the duration of the current Iranian year, which ends in March of 2017. The stated goal of those activities is to develop such good level of military preparedness that [the IRGC naval forces] can send the US warships to the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

Such statements seem to follow upon the Foreign Ministrys harsh reaction to criticisms in the UN report. But at the same time that the resulting rhetoric arguably imperils the nuclear agreement, it also ignores the fact that the UN Secretary General has also made statements urging the US and other participants in the JCPOA to assure that the deal has positive economic effects for the Islamic Republic. These aspects of Bans comments were reported by Ya Libnan on Thursday, and they indicate that the international body is making efforts to remains sensitive to both American and Iranian criticisms of the other side.

But whereas the White House has reached out to Irans potential European investors and has even been accused of overreaching in its efforts to fully implement the nuclear deal, Irans provocative behaviors and refusal to compromise have not diminished during the period of implementation. Quite the contrary, by most accounts the anti-Western rhetoric pouring out of Tehran has only intensified in the months since the deal went into effect. And Jafaris latest announcement seems only to reaffirm that conclusion.
Juri will be joining Street Fighter V on July 26 (Capcom)

After revealing her at Evo 2016 (much to the joy of your friend and ours Joe LI Joe Ciaramelli), Capcom has announced that the Taekwondo master Juri will be coming to Street Fighter V this month. Specifically, July 26.

Juri hasnt changed her look up much since we last saw her in Street Fighter IV, but thanks to SFVs gameplay changes, she obviously needed an update to the way she works. Her V-Skill Kasatsushu allows her to dash behind her opponent and kick them from behind, while her V-Trigger lets her cancel all of her standard attacks, both in the air and on the ground, into one another. Seems pretty useful for combo strings. Finally her Critical Art Sakkai Fuhazan turns her kick into a huge blast of energy, hitting her opponent for a buttload of damage.

Juri will be available to pick up on Tuesday, July 26, and her Story mode will be free for all players.

Taylor Cocke will leave it to Yahoo Esports very own Street Fighter expert Michael Martin to really dig into Juri upon her release. Follow Taylor on Twitter @taylorcocke.
Justine Kish has been forced out of her UFC Fight Night 92 main card bout with Maryna Maroz due to a spiral fracture in her finger.

Kish revealed the injury and her removal from the fight on Friday via social media.

What I thought was just a finger sprain during practice Wednesday night ends up being a complete spiral fracture, she wrote on sqor.com. My hand simply got tangled in my training partner's Gi and some how my finger cracked in the scramble It physically hurts but not as much as it hurts to tell you all that I will no longer be fighting on UFC Fight Night 92.

Kish didn't yet have a rehabilitation plan or a timetable for her expected return.

These next fews days, I'll be meeting with specialists in California to find the best fix for this injury. At the very least, I'm optimistic that a cast will do the trick; however, I'm currently facing surgical options, as well.

TRENDING > Jon Jones NFL Star Brother, Arthur Jones, Suspended for PEDs Violation

Although UFC officials had yet to comment on Kish's injury, they have two weeks to find a replacement to fight Maroz.

UFC Fight Night 92 takes place on Aug. 6 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The card is headlined by a featherweight bout between Yair Rodriguez and Alex Caceres.

(Photo courtesy of UFC)

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The Hague (AFP) - Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Friday lodged an appeal against his genocide conviction and 40-year jail sentence, accusing UN judges of "subjecting him to a political trial".

Prosecutors at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague also appealed on several grounds including against judges finding Karadzic not guilty on one count of genocide, and called for his sentence to be increased to life imprisonment.

Karadzic, who appealed on 50 grounds, "was subjected to a political trial that was simply designed to confirm the demonisation of him and the Bosnian Serb people," his lawyer Peter Robinson said in a statement.

Once the most powerful Bosnian Serb leader, Karadzic, 71, was sentenced in March for genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and nine other charges stemming from Bosnia's three-year war.

More than 100,000 people died and more than 2.2 million others were left homeless in the conflict that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia after the fall of communism in the early 1990s.

Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled that Karadzic, the most high-profile figure convicted over the wars that tore the Balkans apart, bore criminal responsibility for murder and persecution during the Bosnian conflict.

- 'Cryptic conversation' -

Almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were butchered and their bodies dumped in mass graves in Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in mid-July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces brushed aside lightly armed UN Dutch peacekeepers protecting a UN safe area.

The massacre was the largest bloodshed on European soil since World War II.

A long-time fugitive from justice until his arrest on a Belgrade bus in 2008, Karadzic was also found guilty of being behind the harrowing 44-month siege of Sarajevo in which 10,000 civilians died in a relentless campaign of sniping and shelling.

He was however found not guilty on a genocide charge relating to killings in seven Bosnian towns and villages, with judges saying they did not have enough evidence "beyond reasonable doubt" to convict Karadzic.

Story continues

Robinson said Karadzic did not receive a fair trial and that UN judges "presumed him guilty and then constructed a judgement to justify its presumption".

Nowhere was this more apparent "than when the trial chamber found him guilty of genocide by inferring that he shared the intent to kill prisoners from Srebrenica based on (the court's) interpretation of a cryptic intercepted conversation," Robinson said.

Karadzic himself called the verdict "injust".

- Trial 'errors' -

ICTY chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz also filed four grounds of appeal including that judges "erred in law and fact" when they failed to find that Karadzic had genocidal intent in the Bosnian municipalities.

"The prosecution requests that the appeals chamber correct the trial chamber's errors and increase Karadzic's sentence to life imprisonment," Brammertz said in a document filed before the court.

The one-time psychiatrist is the highest-ranking official to face judgement at the ICTY, set up in 1993 to prosecute those who committed crimes during the Balkans wars.

Former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was also on trial, but died in his prison cell in 2006 before the proceedings could be concluded.

Also still on trial is Karadzic's military commander Ratko Mladic, who was in charge of the Bosnian Serb troops that overran Srebrenica and faces similar charges to Karadzic.

During Karadzic's marathon trial, which ended in October 2014 after an exhausting 497 days in the courtroom, some 115,000 pages of documentary evidence were presented along with 586 witnesses, while court officials recorded some 47,500 pages of transcripts.

Earlier this year Karadzic revealed that on the day of the judgement he was so convinced he would walk free that he had already packed his bags.

Meanwhile the ICTY said Friday it had formally dropped the case against wartime Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic who died from cancer on July 12.

Hadzic, 57, had been charged with 14 war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1991-95 war in Croatia.

With the ICTY preparing to wind down having indicted 161 people for the brutal Balkans wars, Hadzic's trial was the last to open at The Hague-based court. So far about half have been convicted and sentenced.
Amidst the flashbulbs, media frenzy and immense curiosity of fans, Kareena Kapoor Khan is gearing to have her first child this December. But if reports in a popular daily are to go by, Bebo could well have the baby in London!

Recommended Read: Mommy-to-Be Kareena Looks Like A Million Bucks As She Steps Out Of A Salon

According to close friends of Saif and Kareena, the couples plan is to slip out of the city and go somewhere far away from prying eyes. A source close to the family shared, The paparazzi is clicking close-ups of her baby bump. There are too many prying eyes here in Mumbai, making her feel odd rather than special.

So much so, that recently Kareena even lost her cool while speaking on the subject. Im pregnant, not a corpse. And what maternity break? Its the most normal thing on earth to produce a child. It is high time the media backed off. Stop treating me any different from what I ever was. Anybody who is bothered shouldnt work with me but my work goes on as is, like always. Stop making it a national casualty.

London, according to close sources, is where the Pataudi family spends its maximum time when away from India. Saif and his sister Soha Ali Khan have both spent their formative years there. Their mother Sharmila Tagore too has fond feelings for the city as her husband, the late Nawab Pataudi loved spending time there. Sharmilaji herself spends a lot of her time in London and has advised Kareena and Saif that London could be a less stressful option for them to welcome their first child, the source added. Above all, even by Saif-Kareenas admission, London is their fav holiday destination. And before the news of the baby surfaced, the couple was in the city only, enjoying a long vacation.

Guess, its London calling for Junior Khans arrival!
Iranian security forces are notorious for carrying out arrests on the basis of unsubstantiated suspicions or on the basis of dissenting political attitudes. This trend has been behind a recent and ongoing surge in arrests of artists, activists, and dual-nationals. The 40 arrests announced on Thursday are different in that they are at least tentatively connected to evidence of genuine criminal activity. But until such time as the regime provides verifiable evidence of the connection, the possibility remains that at least some of those arrests merely constitute a crackdown on political opponents of the regime in the local area.

It is also important that outside observers of this situation avoid falling prey to any attempts by the regime to use this incident as evidence that Iran is a victim and not a sponsor of terrorism. Certainly, Iranian authorities have made this claim explicitly in other conditions. For instance, in an interview with Fortune, which was previously referenced by Iran News Update, Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia declared that Iran is a natural enemy of Sunni terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. He further claimed that Irans enemies  apparently meaning both Saudi Arabia and the United States  have sponsored these groups.

But Tayebnias interview closely coincided with the US Treasurys imposition of new economic sanctions against three people who are generally understood both to be members of Al Qaeda and to be living freely in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This announcement is only one of numerous pieces of evidence indicating that the Iranian regime is far more likely to harbor or sponsor terrorism at any given moment that to be victimized by it. Fostering the contrary perception has apparently been important to recent Iranian efforts to encourage the international community to turn a blind eye to ongoing Iranian interference in places like Syria and Iraq.

Toward this end, Iranian officials invariably refer to fighters on the opposite side of Irans regional conflicts as terrorists. But the regimes critics are quick to point out that this ignores the widely recorded human rights violations carried out by Irans allies and proxies, including Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the various Shiite militias fighting both in Syria and in Iraq.

A new report on those militias emerged in Iraq Business News on Thursday. It emphasized that the Shiite forces fighting alongside the Iraqi government are suffering from extensive internal divisions as a result of disagreements about their proper relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The report reiterates what various other reports have already shown: that some of the Iran-backed militias have demonstrated greater allegiance to Tehran than to Baghdad.

It is easy, therefore, to describe these militias as terrorist groups, if only because they have used armed conflict not only as part of the collective mission of fighting ISIS, but also to push certain political and ideological agendas for Iran. Iraq Business News specifically points out, for instance, that some pro-Iran militias took advantage of a period of virtually unparalleled violence early in July in order to fire numerous rockets into Camp Liberty, the temporary residency in Iraq of more than 2,000 members of the Iranian opposition group the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

The incident was arguably an example of the Iranian propaganda machine utilizing a separate terrorist act to distract attention away from other activities that are connected, either directly or indirectly, to the Islamic Republic. With this in mind, it may be interesting to note that the reports on the alleged terrorist tunnel coincided with a return to the headlines of an Iran-linked terrorist network that had previously been disrupted in Kuwait.

GDN Online reported on Thursday that Kuwaits court of appeals had upheld the death penalty for Hassan Abdulhadi Ali, a member of the Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary Hezbollah and a Kuwaiti citizen, who is alleged to have been the mastermind of a 26-person cell that was apparently plotting terrorist attacks on behalf of Iran.

The court determined that Ali had personally coordinated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps so smuggle large quantities of weapons and explosives into the country.
Though Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan make one of the best couples of Bollywood, her decision initially wasnt taken too kindly by her sister Karisma Kapoor and her mother Babita Shivdasani.

In a report by Pinkvilla, giving credits to She Walks She Leads, Lolo was quoted as saying, It was for me too, to some extent. Our family is slightly conservative but then we accepted that this was Bebo: all heart and all sentiment. Besides, she has this incredible ability to always know what is right for her. She is led by emotion and instinct but, touch wood, her decisions have always proved to be positive and wise.

Years back, Saifeenas dating news indeed came as a surprise to many fans. The couple started seeing each other since October 2007 and it was in October 2009 when the Chote Nawab made their relationship public. Finally, on October 16, 2012 they tied knot and began a new chapter of life.

Amidst the flashbulbs, media frenzy and immense curiosity of fans, Kareena Kapoor Khan is gearing to have her first child this December. But if reports in a popular daily are to go by, Bebo could well have the baby in London!

According to close friends of Saif and Kareena, the couples plan is to slip out of the city and go somewhere far away from prying eyes. A source close to the family shared, The paparazzi is clicking close-ups of her baby bump. There are too many prying eyes here in Mumbai, making her feel odd rather than special.

So much so, that recently Kareena even lost her cool while speaking on the subject. Im pregnant, not a corpse. And what maternity break? Its the most normal thing on earth to produce a child. It is high time the media backed off. Stop treating me any different from what I ever was. Anybody who is bothered shouldnt work with me? but my work goes on as is, like always. Stop making it a national casualty.

London, according to close sources, is where the Pataudi family spends its maximum time when away from India. Saif and his sister Soha Ali Khan have both spent their formative years there. Their mother Sharmila Tagore too has fond feelings for the city as her husband, the late Nawab Pataudi loved spending time there. Sharmilaji herself spends a lot of her time in London and has advised Kareena and Saif that London could be a less stressful option for them to welcome their first child, the source added. Above all, even by Saif-Kareenas admission, London is their fav holiday destination. And before the news of the baby surfaced, the couple was in the city only, enjoying a long vacation.

Story continues

Yesterday, her best pals Malaika Arora Khan and Amrita Arora and her sister Karisma Kapoor were spotted outside her home. Here is a look.

Text  Pinkvilla and ANI

All photos by YOGEN SHAH
By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced a man to 20 years in jail and fined him 20 million shillings ($200,000) for ivory smuggling. Police accused Feisal Mohamed Ali, from the coastal city of Mombasa, of being behind an international ivory poaching syndicate linked to a 3-tonne haul of elephant tusks seized in Mombasa in June 2014. Poaching has surged in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa, where gangs kill elephants and rhinos to feed Asian demand for ivory and horns for use in folk medicines. Kenya has imposed longer jail terms and bigger fines for wildlife poaching or trafficking, saying it is harming tourism, a major earner of foreign exchange. Ali was arrested in Dar es Salaam in neighboring Tanzania in December 2014 on a warrant issued by Interpol. He faced two counts of handling ivory tusks and possessing ivory. He denied the charges but the court in Mombasa found him guilty on the second count and acquitted him on the first. Magistrate Diana Mochache said: "120 elephants were killed and the value of the tusks was 44 million shillings." She was referring to the consignment of elephant tusks confiscated during a police raid on a warehouse in Mombasa. Four other suspects on trial alongside Ali were acquitted of all charges. Ali's lawyer Gerald Magolo told reporters his client would appeal the verdict. "There is no way he alone could be convicted," Magolo said. Prosecutors said they would appeal against the acquittal of the other four suspects. "The guilty verdict is a strong message to all networks of poaching gangs, ivory smugglers, financiers, middlemen and shippers that Kenya will not watch as its elephant population is decimated or its territory used as a conduit for traffickers," Kenya Wildlife Service said in a statement. In January 2014, a Kenyan court convicted a Chinese man of smuggling ivory and ordered him to pay a fine of 20 million shillings or serve seven years in jail, the first sentencing since Kenya introduced its anti-poaching law. In April, President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns, destroying a stockpile that would have been worth a fortune to smugglers and sending a message that trade in the animal parts must be stopped. In 2011, then-President Mwai Kibaki set fire to five tonnes of contraband ivory. His predecessor, Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, did the same in 1989. (Addtional reporting by by George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart in the coming days to discuss an American proposal for closer military cooperation and intelligence sharing on Syria. Kerry told reporters that he might meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, but indicated detailed talks were more likely to take place on the sidelines of a gathering of Southeast Asian nations in Laos on Monday and Tuesday. Kerry defended the U.S. proposal, which has been greeted with deep skepticism by top American military and intelligence officials. "The president of the United States has authorized and ordered this track," he said. "It is the presidents desire to test whether or not the Russians are prepared to do what they said during our negotiations in Moscow that they will do." "I don't comment on internal negotiations" within the U.S. government, Kerry said. "The place for these arguments to be argued is in the (White House) Situation Room with the president of the United States, and he has made a decision." The proposed agreement - which Kerry discussed in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week - would require the Syrian government to cease attacks on U.S.-backed Syrian opposition fighters. In return, Russia would receive U.S. intelligence help to target militant groups in Syria such as Islamic State and al Qaeda affiliate Nusrah Front. "Were going to test this very carefully based not on trust, based on specific steps," Kerry said of the diplomacy with Moscow. "So far, it is showing a modicum of promise which, hopefully, we can complete." (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration, like every U.S. administration since 1949, remained committed to the NATO military alliance and security commitments under the treaty, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. "I want our NATO partner to be clear where we stand. This administration, like every single administration Republican or Democratic alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments on the Article 5," Kerry told a news conference. He was responding to comments by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who told the New York Times that if elected he might abandon NATO's guarantee that any member, including the United States, would defend the others if they were attacked. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by David Gregorio)
Vienna (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday urged signatories of an international ozone pact to back the phasing-out of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) -- toxic greenhouse gases thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.

"Climate change is happening  and it is happening quicker than most of us ever anticipated," Kerry said.

"Week after week, month after month, year after year, we continue to see new evidence, tangible evidence, of the danger climate change poses to our planet. Last year was the hottest in recorded history... but 2016 is on track to be even hotter."

He was speaking at a conference in Vienna uniting close to 200 signatories of the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

The Protocol, implemented by 196 nations and the European Union, commits all UN members to scrapping ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons, which were once widely used in aerosol sprays, solvents and refrigerants.

While the treaty has managed to slash these substances and help the ozone's recovery, it now faces a new challenge in the shape of HFCs.

As a result, nations have agreed to discuss an amendment to the Protocol to include the phasing-out of HFCs.

The Vienna conference was the last meeting before a final deal is due to be reached in October in Rwanda.

"HFCs... are exceptionally potent drivers of climate change  thousands of times more potent, for example, than CO2," said Kerry.

"Amending the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFCs is one of the single most important steps the world could possibly take at this moment to stave off the worst impacts of climate change."

Kerry said the move could help avoid a global temperature rise of 0.5 degrees Celsius (33 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

Under an international climate deal reached in Paris last year, 177 governments set a target of limiting global warming to "well below" 2.0 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.
Cleveland (AFP) - The following are key quotes from New York billionaire Donald Trump's speech on Thursday accepting the nomination to be the Republican Party candidate in November's US presidential election:

Time of crisis

"Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country."

Hillary's legacy

"America is far less safe -- and the world is far less stable -- than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy... After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."

'I am your voice'

"Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned. I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice. I AM YOUR VOICE."

Blame Obama

"The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone."

Suspend immigration from 'terror' nations

"We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place."

Build the wall

"We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities."
Excerpted from TIMEs Star Trek: Inside the Most Influential Science-Fiction Series Ever. Available at retailers and at Amazon.com.

1_StarTrekCOV_US_v1.pdf

Leonard Nimoy and I certainly didnt start our journey as close friends. Rather, like the other members of our cast, we were colleagues, feeling each other out, learning our professional strengths and weaknesses and trying to bring our A game to the show. The friendships that developed initially were in the scripts: the relationship between Kirk and Spock held the show together. The two of us were onscreen in almost every scene. Leonard described the relationship between these two characters as a great sense of brotherhood. Spock was tremendously loyal and had a great appreciation for the talent and the leadership abilities of Kirk. He was totally devoted to seeing to it that whatever Kirk needed to be done got done.

Conversely, Kirk relied on Spock unfailingly for his advice, knowing it would never be encumbered by any thoughts of personal gain or tempered by emotional constraints. But he also depended on him to share the burdens of command. With the exception of Dee Kelleys McCoy, Kirk had to maintain the distance of command from the rest of the crew. That can be a lonely place if there is no outlet, and Spock provided that outlet for Kirk.

The first week we were on the air, there was one bag of mail. People were writing that they loved the show and asked for autographed pictures. That was encouraging. The second week we got three bags of mail. That was interesting. And then the deluge started, and in fact, it still hasnt ended. We had not the slightest idea what we were creating; we were always fighting to stay on the air one more season, one more week.

What was surprising to me was that rather than Capt. James T. Kirk, the character who received the most attention, and the most fan mail, was Mr. Spock. This was long before Leonard and I became friends, and honestly, I hadnt expected it, and I was not especially thrilled about it. I was being paid the largest salary, I was out front for the publicity, I had the most lines, my characters fate carried the story line, my character got the girl and saved the ship. The natural flow of events should have been that Kirk would receive the most attention, not some alien with strange-looking ears.

Story continues

But the spectacular performance Leonard gave occupied all that attention in the beginning. Mr. Spock fan clubs were formed. Newspapers and magazines ran features on this extraordinary new character. Gene Roddenberry, the shows creator, got a memo from the network suggesting that Spock be featured in every story. My future was on the line, and that line seemed to be getting shaky. And so, for a few weeks, I was quite jealous. It bothered me so much that I went to Gene Roddenberrys office to discuss it with him. Gene was the voice of good reason in this case. Dont be afraid of having other popular and talented people around you, he said. They can only enhance your performance. The more you work with these people, the better the show is going to be. In other words, the more popular Spock became, the better it was for everyone, including me, and I settled down to that lovely fact.

Spock evolved as Leonard explored all the possibilities of the character. It was a considerably more complex task than usual because there were no recognizable hallmarks. This was a brand-new character in American culture; he was carving out the path. There was no traditional right or wrong; the audience would tell him what was true. So Leonard took great care to protect Spock. He explained to me once, No one else is going to provide that consistency and continuity. If the writers gave me the line Lets make hay under the Vulcan moon, it was up to me to remind them that three episodes earlier Spock had mentioned that Vulcan had no moons.

Most of the hallmarks that became associated with Spock, in particular the Vulcan neck pinch and the Vulcan salute, were entirely Leonards creation. In one of our first episodes, Kirks personality was split into good and evil, and evil Kirk was about to kill good Kirk. In the script, Spock was supposed to sneak up behind evil Kirk and knock him out by hitting him over the head with the butt of his phaser. Leonard wasnt comfortable with that; brawling, banging someone in the head somehow seemed below Spocks evolved personality. It was too 20th-century. So he suggested to the director that Spock had a special capability that allowed him to put enemies out of action with little physical exertion. The director was open to the concept.

Leonard and I sat down, and he told me what he had in mind: he would pinch my trapezius muscle, and I would collapse in a heap. I have no idea where that concept came from, but I was a professional actor; I knew how to fall down. Of course, it fit Spock perfectly: an advanced civilization would know where the vital nerves are located and have the physical strength to take advantage of that knowledge to incapacitate their enemy. We did the scene: Spock came up behind evil Kirk and pinched his trapezius, I dropped to the floor, and the Vulcan nerve pinch was born. For those people counting at home, fans of the show saw the Vulcan nerve pinch being used 34 different times. I wonder how many kids since then have had to suffer through the real pain of a Vulcan neck pinch.

The Vulcan salute has become recognized literally throughout the world. In this salute, the right hand is held up with the pinkie and ring finger touching but separated from the middle finger and forefinger, which also are touching, in a modified V-for-victory salute. It was created for the first episode of our second season, by which time Leonard had a strong understanding of Spock. In this episode, Amok Time, Spock has to return to Vulcan to fulfill a marriage betrothal that was arranged when he was a child. If he doesnt return, he will die. This episode was written by the great science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. This is the first time we have seen Spock on Vulcan, among the people of his race. In the script, he is greeted by the woman who is to conduct the marriage ceremony. Leonard suggested to the director that there needed to be some type of Vulcan greeting that would be appropriate. It would be the Vulcan version of a handshake, a kiss, a nod or bow, or a military salute. When the director agreed, Leonard had to create it. It was not an especially easy thing to envision. It needed to be unlike any traditional greeting, but it couldnt be at all comical. As he often did, Leonard drew on his own life to find it.

There is a gesture he had first seen when he was 8 years old, when he went with his grandfather, father and brother to an Orthodox synagogue, and he had never forgotten it. In Jewish Orthodox tradition, during the benediction, the Shechinah, which very roughly means the feminine counterpart to God, enters the sanctuary to bless the congregation. The Shechinah is so powerful that simply looking at it could cause serious or even fatal injury. So worshipers use this gesture, in which their fingers form the shape of the Hebrew letter shin to hide their eyes. The gesture always intrigued him. I didnt know what it meant for a long time, he said. But it seemed magical to me, and I learned how to do it. Not only did he use it as the basis for the traditional Vulcan greeting in the episode, many years later he published a controversial book of naked glamorous women wearing religious symbols, titled Shekhina. The gesture immediately caught on. Fans of the show started greeting him with it on the streetwithout realizing they were blessing each other.

Several of Spocks phrases also have become part of the general culture, but none of them are as widely known as the four words said when giving the Vulcan salute that have come to have such deep meaning: Live long and prosper. They were written by Theodore Sturgeon for the same episode and are now known by the abbreviation LLAPwhich was the way Leonard ended all his own tweets.

Spock eventually became a lasting archetype for an unemotional person. Even decades later, when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wanted to make the point that President Obama was dispassionate and distant, she referred to him as Spock. Spocks lack of emotion became a central theme of the show. In fact, a lot of the humor in the show came from the constant sparring between the very human Bones McCoy and Spock. In one episode, for example, Spock comments, He reminds me of someone I knew in my youth. To which the surprised Bones responds, Why, Spock, I didnt know you had one.

It is difficult for people who arent actors to appreciate the talent it took to create a character that has become a part of American cultural history, the enigmatic Jay Gatsby of the 23rd century, destined to be played and interpreted by other actors. In less capable hands, it could have been a very one-dimensional role, but Leonard was able to create a dynamic inner life for Spock.

It resonated with audiences. Kids began wearing Spock ears, and Leonard received piles and piles of fan mail, far more than any of the other cast members. When he was out in public, people would greet him with a raised hand or wish him, Live long and prosper. On a different level, I experienced the same thing. People began addressing me as Captain or Kirk. That was a new experience for me. Id had professional success, Id played a role in some major movies, people recognized me, but I had never before been called by my characters name. It was odd, and in some ways, it made me uncomfortable. Im not quite sure why, but it did. I wondered, What is that all about? Its crazy. So often I didnt acknowledge it, or I disparaged it.

Perhaps the strangest thing was that eventually Leonard became somewhat ambivalent about his relationship with Spock. Spock made Leonards career. In each of the three years the show was on the air, Leonard was nominated for an Emmy for best supporting actor. TV Guide named Spock one of the 50 greatest characters in TV history. Leonard became well known and in demand because of the original series. But the new fear, replacing I will never work again, was that he was so strongly identified as Spock that he could never escape him.

For someone who proudly described himself as a character actor, being so strongly typecast he could not play other roles was a terrifying possibility. His first autobiography, published in 1975, was titled I Am Not Spock. The title, he explained, came from a meeting in an airport in which a woman introduced him to her daughter as Spockalthough the child was never convinced. It also came from the publishers desire to profit from the popularity of Spock as well as create a little controversy. It was not, Leonard always insisted, meant to be a statement about his feelings about Spock, and he said if he ever had the opportunity to portray any fictional character, without hesitation he would choose Spock. And several years later, when he did write a second autobiography, it was titled I Am Spock. He had come full circle.

Adapted from Leonard, by Willam Shatner with David Fisher. Copyright 2016 by the authors and reprinted by permission of Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martins Press, LLC.
From ELLE DECOR

If you're thinking of where to go on your next tropical beach getaway, you may want to look a little farther than the Caribbean.

For the second time, the Palawan archipelago in the Philippines has been named 'Best Island In The World 2016' by the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine, after ranking first place in 2013. The annual list is based on the sights, natural attractions, activities, food, friendliness and overall value.

Palawan, the western most string of islands in the Philippines, is known for its undisturbed, lush rainforests and quiet beaches, and it's home to natives and occupied with few tourists.

Bacuit archipelago at El Nido, Palawan.

Here are a few more things you probably didn't know about the best island in the world:

1. It's home to incredible marine life.

According to the Palawan Diver's organization, the crystal clear waters of Palawan are home to 120 species of coral reef, 800 species of exotic fish and it's known to have sunken shipwrecks, making this the ultimate scuba diving destination. Kayaking and snorkeling are also popular activities here thanks to the abundant native marine and animal life that occupies the land.

A kayaker paddles to a small lagoon in Bacuit Bay in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines.

2. You'll find the largest underground river here.

According to UNESCO, the world's largest underground river, a five mile waterway that runs through the caves beneath the island's mountains, is located inside Palawan's St. Paul National Park. Voters recommended hotspots such as Bacuit Bay for exploring reefs and the serene beaches of El Nido for simply relaxing.

A beach of El Nido, Palawan Province, Philippines.

3. Palawan is a big-screen favorite.

Palawan's picturesque landscape has been featured in movies like "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "James Bond." The Philippine News website also notes some of the A-list visitors such as Madonna and Brad Pitt.

Story continues

4. It's a sanctuary for wildlife.

Calauit Safari Park on Calauit Island, the Philippines' largest game reserve and wildlife sanctuary, is open for tours to see the native animals in their natural habitat.

Sunset on the beaches of Palawan.

5. It's a history buff's dream.

If you're into anthropology, Palawan is the place for you. Researchers discovered the remains of the oldest Homo sapiens were discovered in the Tabon Cave in Puerto Princesa in Palawan, and date back roughly 47,000 years.

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Just three weeks after the AMIA bombing, the Iranian resistance, in a press conference in Washington DC, underscored the planning and organization of the AMIA bombing by the Iranian regimes Supreme National Security Council.

Although several former Iranian officials have been on an Interpol capture list for years, for various reasons, Argentine prosecutors have never been able to question them. On Wednesday, July 20, an Argentine judge requested that Singapore and Malaysia arrest Velayati, who is visiting Southeast Asia to attend a regional summit. This request seeks to reinforce existing arrest orders, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

According to a report by the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI), a similar attack involving an explosives-laden truck driven by a suicide bomber on the Israeli Embassy in the city left 29 people dead. Two years later, eighty-five people were killed in the AMIA bombing.

Hassan Rouhani, the current Iranian regimes president, was also a member of the committee that plotted the bombing, according to an indictment by the Argentine government prosecutor investigating the case. He referred to press conferences, interviews and press statements by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) that disclosed exact details of the Iranian regimes role in this crime.
From Town & Country

This year's Republican National Convention is one for the history books, and day three was no less interesting than the previous two.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (who ran for the party's presidential nomination earlier this year) made headlines for his speech, which withheld any endorsement of Donald Trump, encouraging Americans to rather "vote your conscience" in November.

"Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution," Cruz said.

This was, unsurprisingly, an unpopular move in the convention hall. Delegates on the floor began chanting Trump's name and the heckling eventually escalated to boos when it became clear that Cruz would not be backing the candidate.

Also noteworthy, Mike Pence anchored the evening, formally accepting Vice-Presidential nomination.

"I am deeply humbled by your confidence, and on behalf of my family, here and gone, I accept your nomination to run and serve as vice president of the United States of America," he said.

The Indiana governor, widely thought to have been chosen to speak to the Republican establishment, introduced himself to to the room, "I'm a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order," he said. "I grew up on the front row of the American dream."

Ever the dutiful running mate, he also devoted a large portion of his speech to building up Donald Trump...and to tearing down their opponent Hillary Clinton.

"You have nominated a man for president who never quits, who never backs down. A fighter. A winner," he said. "Until now, he's had to do it all by himself, against all odds, but this week, with this united party, he's got backup; and on November 8, I know we will elect Donald Trump to be the 45th president of the United States of America."

"If you want a president who will upend the status quote in Washington D.C.," he said, "we have but one choice, and that man is ready. This team is ready. Our party is ready."

The Associated Press contributed reporting to the story.
marissa meyer

Finance Insider is Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.

To sign up, scroll to the bottom of this page and click "Get updates in your inbox," or click here.

The saga of Yahoo's attempt to sell itself could finally be coming to a close.

Verizon is reportedly in 'one-on-one' talks to acquire the tech company for $5 billion.

Elsewhere in company news, Valeant just got blindsided, something strange seems to be going on at Universal Studios Hollywood, and Wall Street is pessimistic on Apple earnings.

A Wall Street billionaire just nailed the 4 things that are rocking the hedge fund industry, and here are the star traders trying to become the hedge fund honchos of tomorrow.

One part of Saudi Arabia's economy is 'suffering'  and it's not oil. And here's a controversial idea about China's economy that no one wants to hear

Finally, even steakhouses are getting crushed by the oil crash.

Here are the top Wall Street headlines at midday:

Goldman Sachs is getting back into the corporate buyout game  Goldman Sachs Group is raising a new corporate buyout fund of between $5 billion and $8 billion  its first since the financial crisis.

The real-estate market is about to either take off or collapse  The real-estate market is one of the most important parts of the American economy. And there's a lot of disagreement about where it's going next.

Wall Street is pumped about blockchain  here's a definitive list of every project out there  We warn you, this list is seriously long.

Smartphones are causing a 'visual health crisis' in China  A major Chinese health research center recently published a white paper on the country's visual health. The findings weren't great.

American manufacturing is seeing a 'revival'  US manufacturing is showing new signs of progress.

SCHLUMBERGER: The worst is over for oil  The world's largest oil field services company thinks the crude oil market has bottomed.

Nigeria's currency just tumbled to a record low  The Nigerian naira just dipped past 300 per dollar for the first time ever.





More From Business Insider


Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Friday made a last-ditch bid to avoid a blanket ban at the Rio Games over state-run doping as a fresh batch of drug test failures from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 rocked the Olympics.

However, as they launched a desperate rearguard action, the International Paralympic Federation (IPF) announced they were seeking a suspension which would sideline the Russians from the Paralympics in Rio in September.

The IOC's executive board are to hold a conference call on Sunday to discuss barring Russia from the Olympics starting on August 5 over bombshell doping revelations.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday rejected an appeal by Russia's track and field team against their suspension from Rio in a decision seen as a key indicator as the IOC debates whether to kick out the whole Russian team.

Russia is a sporting powerhouse whose absence from Rio would create the biggest crisis in decades for the Olympic movement and President Vladimir Putin launched a final push to avert a ban.

"The official position of the Russian authorities -- the government, the president and all of us -- is that in sport there is not and can be no place for doping," Putin told government ministers.

The Kremlin strongman ordered officials to cooperate with the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency and Russia's Olympic committee to establish an anti-doping commission.

He also picked an 81-year-old former national Olympic committee chief, Vitaly Smirnov, to head the new commission.

Last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev also intervened, urging IOC president Thomas Bach to spare clean athletes in a letter released by Match TV sports channel.

"For me the principle of collective punishment is unacceptable," wrote 85-year-old Gorbachev, asking Bach to make a "just decision."

- "Institutionalised doping" -

Meanwhile, the IPC said that in light of this week's McLaren report, it expected to announce a decision on whether or not it will suspend Russia in the week commencing August 1.

Story continues

The IPC said they have been provided with the names of the Paralympic athletes associated with the 35 "disappearing positive samples" from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory which were highlighted in McLaren's report.

They are also sending 19 samples from the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for immediate further analysis, after they were identified as having been potentially doctored as part of a sample-swapping regime.

The Paralympics take place in Rio from September 7 to 18.

"The McLaren report revealed an unimaginable scale of institutionalised doping in Russian sport that was orchestrated at the highest level. McLarens findings are of serious concern for everyone committed to clean and honest sport," said Philip Craven, the IPC president.

"With regard to NPC Russia, we have started proceedings to consider the suspension of their membership of the IPC."

Against the backdrop of the current doping scandal engulfing Russia the IOC reported separately on Friday 45 new doping failures from the last two Games, bringing the total number of positive drug tests to 98 since a retesting programme was launched.

The IOC has reanalysed more than 1,200 samples, focusing on medal winners, in a bid to clean up the Olympics' reputation.

- IAAF ban -

It did not identify the athletes or their nationalities for legal reasons but said 30 positives came from Beijing, including 23 medal winners, and 15 from London.

The IOC is facing international pressure to act tough on Russia and ban the entire team over incendiary revelations of a state-run doping system that saw the country cheat its way to victory.

Fourteen national anti-doping agencies including the United States, Canada and Germany urged Bach to ban Russia from Rio in a joint letter on Thursday.

Moscow officials have slammed the CAS decision to reject its appeal against a ban from the world athletics body IAAF, blaming a broader political campaign by the West against Russia.

The suspension of the track and field team already means that stars like pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and hurdler Sergey Shubenkov will not be in Rio.

Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko -- who has clung on despite the scandal -- said Moscow hopes the IOC will defer to individual international sporting federations to decide whether other Russian squads can compete.

The CAS ruling came after an independent WADA report this week said Russia ran a "state-dictated failsafe system" of drug cheating in 30 sports at the 2014 Sochi Games and other major events.

The IAAF banned all of the Russian track and field team over allegations of state-sponsored doping but said athletes who prove they were not tainted by their country's corrupt system could be cleared.

The IAAF has only permitted one Russian team member to compete in Rio as a neutral: US-based long jumper Darya Klishina.
The upcoming NBC comedy The Good Place starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson is a major departure in premise for creator Mike Schur, the man behind the American version of The Office, Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

In the pilot, which screened at Comic-Con on Thursday, Kristen Bells character discovers that she has died and gone to the good place, an idyllic neighborhood with shops like Everything Fits and Lunches With Dragons designed by Ted Dansons character. Except its all a huge clerical error: She was a bad person in life and should have wound up in the bad place.

The show is much more premise-based and sci-fi-esque than the affable office comedies Schur has created beforethe pilot involves giant, flying ladybugs and shrimp. The writer said at a panel after the screening that each episode will have a huge, twisty cliffhanger after it, which is why he consulted with Lost creator Damon Lindelof before creating the show.

It was an Is this anything? lunch, Schur recalled. This was the idea he got most excited about. He was very encouraging, and he was the one reason that I got Drew Goddard to direct the pilot. (Goddard helmed The Martian and Cabin in the Woods.)

The result is a show with the humor of the office but the feel of a fantasy drama a la Lindelof. Schur said that the idea for the pilot came when he was driving his child to school every day.

It came largely from being at an intersection in my car and the light turning green and then people going the other way turning left through their yellow light to go back the other way from where I was going, he explained to press after the panel. In my opinion, two cars are allowed to do that. And sometimes theres a third car, and I would get a little annoyed. But I would give them the benefit of the doubt and say, Maybe your kid is sick and you have to get home and see your kid. And then sometimes theres a fourth car and Im like, Youre a bad person. Youre putting your need to go left above the needs of all of these people to go straight and thats not okay. So I started imagining that person.
ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's president needs to get personally involved in talks with militants in the Niger Delta, an organization representing the largest ethnic group in the region said on Friday. On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari's office said the government was talking to militants through security agencies and oil companies to halt attacks on oil and gas facilities. But the youth council of the Ijaw ethnic group called that statement "highly ridiculous and laughable", adding that "the issues at stake are completely beyond the capacity of oil companies to resolve". A wave of attacks in the region over the past six months have cut oil production by 700,000 barrels a day, the state energy company has said. Formerly Africa's biggest oil producer, Nigeria's output now ranks behind Angola's. The militants say they want a greater share of the country's oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude sales make up around 70 percent of national income and most of that oil comes from the southern swampland. "Only a sincere and holistic dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta region ... can bring permanent peace," the youth group said in a statement. "This can only happen when President Buhari as the political leader of Nigeria comes down to the negotiation table." The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group which has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in recent months, late on Thursday said it was "not aware of any peace talks". In the statement, carried on its website, the group also reiterated that it would not participate in talks without the involvement of the international community. Buhari caused widespread anger among former militants in the Delta earlier this year when he cut by around two-thirds the budget for an amnesty program, agreed in 2009, that offers them cash and job training. On Thursday, the president said his government was reviewing the amnesty program. (Reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Larry King)
ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's president needs to get personally involved in talks with militants in the Niger Delta, an organisation representing the largest ethnic group in the region said on Friday. On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari's office said the government was talking to militants through security agencies and oil companies to halt attacks on oil and gas facilities. But the youth council of the Ijaw ethnic group called that statement "highly ridiculous and laughable", adding that "the issues at stake are completely beyond the capacity of oil companies to resolve". A wave of attacks in the region over the past six months have cut oil production by 700,000 barrels a day, the state energy company has said. Formerly Africa's biggest oil producer, Nigeria's output now ranks behind Angola's. The militants say they want a greater share of the country's oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude sales make up around 70 percent of national income and most of that oil comes from the southern swampland. "Only a sincere and holistic dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta region ... can bring permanent peace," the youth group said in a statement. "This can only happen when President Buhari as the political leader of Nigeria comes down to the negotiation table." The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group which has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in recent months, late on Thursday said it was "not aware of any peace talks". In the statement, carried on its website, the group also reiterated that it would not participate in talks without the involvement of the international community. Buhari caused widespread anger among former militants in the Delta earlier this year when he cut by around two-thirds the budget for an amnesty programme, agreed in 2009, that offers them cash and job training. On Thursday, the president said his government was reviewing the amnesty programme. (Reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Larry King)
Adam and Leonard Nimoy in For the Love of Spock (For the Love of Spock Productions)

Star Trek Beyond warps into theaters this weekend. Although Leonard Nimoys Spock Prime is absent from the screen  the actor died in February 2015 at age 83, about four months before filming began  the film pays tribute to the iconic character as well as the actor. In Beyond, the younger Spock, played by Zachary Quinto, must come to terms with the death of his Vulcan mentor. At the end of the credits, the filmmakers dedicate the film to the memory of Nimoy. But, according to Nimoys son, Adam, it was the original intention of the filmmakers to bring back his fathers Spock Prime for Beyond. And it was devastating to the actor to have to turn down the offer.



I know, because I talked with Dad extensively about it, that he was very happy to be a part of this reincarnation of Star Trek, to be participating. It was very hard for him when they came with the third installment, Star Trek Beyond, and they wanted him involved, but he had to say no because of his health, Adam Nimoy told Yahoo Movies at Comic-Con in Thursday.

Related: Despite Turmoil, Star Trek Cast Embraces Films Beyond Beyond

He didnt think he could physically do it. So that was difficult for him.  But he was very pleased and very happy to end his career as Spock with those cast members.

The younger Nimoy has been in San Diego as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the original Star Trek series. He appeared at 50 Artists. 50 Years, an exhibition of Trek-inspired artwork that includes one his fathers final pieces, a study of the Vulcan salute.

Hand in Vulcan Gesture, by Leonard Nimoy (50 Artists. 50 Years)



Adam also attended the premiere of Star Trek Beyond on Wednesday, the same day his Kickstarter-funded documentary on his dad, For the Love Spock, released its trailer. As shown in the heart-tugging clip, Nimoys surviving castmates from the original series and J.J. Abramss rebooted film franchise fondly recall the late actor.



Story continues

Dad could be very reserved because he liked to stay in Spock character. So it was sometimes hard to engage him. [However], when we went up to Vancouver last year [where Beyond was filming] to interview the new cast, everyone said pretty much the same things about my dad: that he was gracious, that he was kind, that he was warm.

Theyve told me that in a way he was still there. He had such an influence on them, on validating what they were doing and passing the torch to them because he participated in this reincarnation, these new installments, that they could still feel his spirit. He was very appreciative and respectful of the work they were doing, and I think they really felt that.

Related: Zachary Quinto: I Feel Leonard Nimoy With Me in a Very Powerful Way All the Time

Adam Nimoy said that Quinto has been a worthy successor to the Spock mantle. Zachary has been a big part of the film For the Love of Spock because he tells the whole tale of this genesis of Spock  where hes been and where hes going..  He had a very special relationship with my dad. Hes done a great job continuing on with the role.

Dad was very comfortable with Zachary continuing the tradition of playing Spock. So hes got a professional connection with Spock and the family, but hes also got a personal connection. Hes been like a member of the family ever since [2009s Star Trek].

The feeling was mutual. Last year, when Yahoo Movies went to the Vancouver set of Beyond, Quinto said, I think [Leonard]s very much a part of this  with me, for me. I feel him with me in a very powerful way all the time. And doing this film, I feel hes a part of it for all of us. Everybody feels his absence. We want to honor him with continuing to tell these stories with integrity.

Watch the For the Love of Spock trailer:
Lesdoggg is back!

Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones has returned to Twitter after a two-day hiatus, prompted by a series of hateful and racist tweets directed at her account.

"I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart," she wrote on Tuesday. "All this 'cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie, but the s**t I got today... wrong."

WATCH: Leslie Jones Claps Back at Racist Twitter Trolls

But the 48-year-old comic couldn't stay silent for long. As Jones continues a publicity tour to promote her film, the Saturday Night Live star took to Twitter on Thursday with a lighthearted message.

"Welp... a b**ch thought she could stay away," she joked. "But who else is gonna live tweet Game of Thrones!!"

(Shh... don't tell her that GoT's seventh season just got pushed!)

"Thanks for the love and support I received! Made me feel real special," she added, paired with a gif of Wilmer Valderrama's That 70's Show character mouthing, "I love you."

Thanks for the love and support I received! made me feel real special See you later on @sethmeyers #LoveForLeslieJ pic.twitter.com/1SOU5QnhMQ  Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 21, 2016

WATCH: Leslie Jones Reveals She Was a Telemarketer for Scientology Before 'SNL'

Jones is slated to appear on Thursday's episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, where she'll likely address the controversy surrounding her Twitter attacks.

"Ok I have been called Apes, sent pics of their a**es, even got a pic with semen on my face. I'm tryin to figure out what human means. I'm out," Jones previously posted. "I feel like I'm in a personal hell. I didn't do anything to deserve this."

Story continues

Thankfully, Jones hasn't been alone in her fight. Ghostbusters director Paul Feig quickly jumped to her defense, tweeting: "Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know. Any personal attacks against her are attacks against us all."

Original Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd also showed his support for Jones, telling ET Canada: "These people, first of all, they're insignificant gnats. They have no lives of their own, they can barely pay for the wi-fi they're using, probably no jobs. I would say you're looking at obese, white men between 50 and 60, who are active Klan members or members of the Aryan Nation, and there are millions of them."

As for Jones, Aykroyd had nothing but praise, calling her a "great writer and a great comedian."

"[She] comes from a real urban background where she had a lot of hardship and she's channeling that into a great achievement and a great career," he shared.

Meanwhile, a Twitter spokesperson issued a statement about how it was working to remedy the horrifying situation on its site.

"This type of abusive behavior is not permitted on Twitter, and we've taken action on many of the accounts reported to us by both Leslie and others," the statement read. "We rely on people to report this type of behavior to us but we are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to prevent this kind of abuse. We realize we still have a lot of work in front of us before Twitter is where it should be on how we handle these issues."

In happier news -- can we please talk about how amazing Jones looked at the Ghostbusters Hollywood premiere?! Get all the details about her "dream" night in the video below.

WATCH: Leslie Jones Opens Up About Her Stunning 'Ghostbusters' Premiere Dress

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"In the President's hometown in Chicago, more than 2,000 people have been victims of shooting this year alone. 4,000 have been killed since Obama took office," Trump commented in his speech during the Republican National Convention.

Trump says there is no regard for public safety.

Shortly later, Trump supporters began chanting "Build That Wall," as Trump talked about immigrants in the Untied States.

"Nearly 4 in 10 of American children are living in poverty and 58 percent of African American youth are not employed," Trump described.

Trump says that President Obama has almost doubled America's national debt.

"Another humiliation came when President Obama put a red line in Syria. America is far less safe and the world is far less safe than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of American's foreign policy," Trump said.

Trump supporters began chanting "Lock Her Up."

"I am certain that it was a decision that President Obama truly regrets. Her bad decisions and bad judgment, something pointed out by Bernie Sanders, are what caused so many disasters unfolding today," Trump said.

Trump says that after four years of Hillary Clinton ISIS has spread across the entire world.

"Libya is in ruins and the ambassador and his staff were left to die. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood forcing the military to take control. Iran is in chaos," Trump said, "The situation is worse than it has ever been before."

Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness are the words Trump used to describe Hillary Clinton's role in foreign policy.

"Hillary Clinton's legacy doesn't have to be America's legacy," Trump said.

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
It seems congratulations are in order for Lizzy Caplan!

The Mean Girls star is engaged to British actor Tom Riley, ET can confirm.

WATCH: 'Masters of Sex' Exclusive: Watch Josh Charles and Lizzy Caplan Discuss the Sexual Prowess of Orchids

According to Caplan's rep, the two have actually been engaged for a couple of months; Riley, 35, popped the question in May in New York City.

Reports of the engagement first surfaced on Friday morning, when the Masters of Sex star was spotted wearing a ring on that finger while grocery shopping with Riley in Los Angeles, even though Caplan did wear the same ring to the Ghostbusters premiere earlier this month, as well as the premiere of Now You See Me 2 in June.

The pair first met while Caplan was filming in London in January 2015, confirming their relationship a year later as they arrived as a couple to the 2016 Prague Opera.

While there's no word yet on when they'll tie the knot, it seems the 34-year-old actress has already got an idea of who's going to raise any future children.

"I actually romanticize the idea of a stay-at-home dad. Partly because I think that's a very sexy thing, but also because if there are two working actors and both of them get a job and they have a baby, the woman is going to stay with the baby. I see it all the time. It just seems unfair," she told Elle Canada in 2014. "I don't want it to be an assumption that I will be the one to stay home and raise the kids."

NEWS: 'Mean Girls' Star Daniel Franzese Is Engaged!

But for now, it's back to work for the couple, as Riley is set to star in the new Amazon series, The Collection, while the fourth season of Caplan's show, Masters of Sex, premieres in September.

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f35

Earlier this week, Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's top weapons supplier and the manufacturer of America's most expensive weapons system, posted quarterly results that were better than expected.

Lockheed Martin, which is considered a bellwether for the US defense sector, has faced no shortage of issues with the now nearly $400 billion F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet.

In the company's latest 10-K filed with the SEC, the world's largest defense contractor concisely addressed the troubled F-35.

Here's the simple disclosure from Lockheed Martin:

screen_shot_2016 07 21_at_4.03.29_pm

The F-35 is one of the most challenged weapons programs in the history of the US Department of Defense. Since its inception in 2001, the F-35 has experienced setbacks that include faulty ejection seats, software delays, helmet display issues, and an inability to dogfight.

NOW WATCH: America's $400 billion warplane has some major flaws





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Every weekend, Longform highlights its favorite international articles of the week. For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow @longform on Twitter. Have an iPad? Download Longforms new app and read all of the latest in-depth stories from dozens of magazines, including Foreign Policy.

White Picket Fence Against Green Ivy Wall

Fences: A Brexit Diary by Zadie Smith, New York Review of Books

Much has been written since about the shockingly irresponsible behavior of both David Cameron and Boris Johnson, but I dont think I would have been so entirely focused upon Boris and Dave if I had woken up in my own bed, in London. No, then my first thoughts would have been essentially hermeneutic. What does this vote mean? What was it really about? Immigration? Inequality? Historic xenophobia? Sovereignty? EU bureaucracy? Anti-neoliberal revolution? Class war?

But in Northern Ireland it was clear that one thing it certainly wasnt about, not even slightly, was Northern Ireland, and this focused the mind on what an extraordinary act of solipsism has allowed this long-brutalized little country to become the collateral damage of an internal rift within the Conservative Party. And Scotland! Its hard to credit. That two supposedly well-educated men, who have presumably read their British history, could with such utter recklessness throw into hazard a hard-won union of three hundred years standingin order to satisfy their own professional ambitionsappeared that morning a larger crime, to me, than the severing of the decades-long European pact that actually prompted it all.

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Donald Trumps Ghostwriter Tells All by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker

The Art of the Deal made America see Trump as a charmer with an unfailing knack for business. Tony Schwartz helped create that mythand regrets it.

Around this time, Schwartz, who was one of the leading young magazine writers of the day, stopped by Trumps office, in Trump Tower. Schwartz had written about Trump before. In 1985, hed published a piece in New York called A Different Kind of Donald Trump Story, which portrayed him not as a brilliant mogul but as a ham-fisted thug who had unsuccessfully tried to evict rent-controlled and rent-stabilized tenants from a building that he had bought on Central Park South. Trumps effortswhich included a plan to house homeless people in the building in order to harass the tenantsbecame what Schwartz described as a fugue of failure, a farce of fumbling and bumbling. An accompanying cover portrait depicted Trump as unshaven, unpleasant-looking, and shiny with sweat. Yet, to Schwartzs amazement, Trump loved the article. He hung the cover on a wall of his office, and sent a fan note to Schwartz, on his gold-embossed personal stationery. Everybody seems to have read it, Trump enthused in the note, which Schwartz has kept.

Story continues

I was shocked, Schwartz told me. Trump didnt fit any model of human being Id ever met. He was obsessed with publicity, and he didnt care what you wrote. He went on, Trump only takes two positions. Either youre a scummy loser, liar, whatever, or youre the greatest. I became the greatest. He wanted to be seen as a tough guy, and he loved being on the cover. Schwartz wrote him back, saying, Of all the people Ive written about over the years, you are certainly the best sport.

Kashmiri protestors clash with Indian police in Srinagar on July 10, 2016. The death toll from unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir climbed to 15 July 10, officials said, despite authorities imposing a harsher curfew on the restive territory in a bid to prevent new demonstrations. One protestor was killed on July 10 when government forces fired on angry residents who defied the restrictions in the southern Pulwama area, and six died in different hospitals overnight after suffering gunshot wounds on July 9, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. / AFP / TAUSEEF MUSTAFA (Photo credit should read TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)

Confessions of a killer policeman by Raghu Karnad and Grace Jajo, The Guardian

In a state bloodied by decades of armed rebellion, Thounaojam Herojit became one of Indias most deadly policemen  killing more than a hundred people. This year, he became something rarer still: an executioner who wanted to tell the world about his crimes.

When he began to kill, Thounaojam Herojit never intended to tell his wife  let alone the whole country. After an execution, he would go home and wait by the corrugated tin gate for her to bring him a towel and bucket. He bathed, right there in the lane, as their children did, to keep the pollution of death from entering their house. Each time, he would ask her to wash his uniform, even though his clothes looked clean. Eventually she caught on.

The worst days were ahead of Herojit  these were merely the most dangerous. He was a young police constable in Manipur, a province in the north-east of India bloodied by decades of separatist insurgency and state reprisal. But he was also a commando  part of an elite unit raised to fight the insurgents  and he was set to become their most effective executioner.

SIKAMINIAS, GREECE - NOVEMBER 13: Two Syrian refugees check their phones after making the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on November 13, 2015 in Sikaminias, Greece. Rafts and boats continue to make the journey from Turkey to Lesbos each day as thousands flee conflict in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries. Over 500,000 migrants have entered Europe so far this year and approximately four-fifths of those have paid to be smuggled by sea to Greece from Turkey, the main transit route into the EU. Most of those entering Greece on a boat from Turkey are from the war zones of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Can This App Help Syrian Refugees Survive in Exile? By David Lepeska, Narratively

Even once they find freedom, an endless maze of legal issues and language barriers stand in any immigrants way. One refugee coder is building the tools to break down those walls.

When the uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad began five years ago, Mojahed Akil was a computer science student in Aleppo. Taking to the streets one day to protest with friends, he was arrested, flown to Damascus, beaten, and tortured. They punched me over and over. They strapped my wrists to the ceiling and stretched my body as far as it could go, the 26-year-old said calmly during a recent interview in the offices of his small tech firm in Gaziantep, Turkey, some 25 miles from the Syrian border. This is very normal.

Akils father, a businessman, paid the regime to release his son, who fled to Turkey. There, he ran into a massive language barrier. I dont know Turkish, and Turks dont speak English or Arabic, he recalled. I had difficulty talking to Turkish people, understanding what to do, the legal requirements for Syrians.

The Worlds Largest Refugee Camp Is Invited to Please Shut Down by Ty McCormick, Foreign Policy

The Kenyan government says it will clear its country of Somali refugees before the end of this year. But its not saying how.

Noor knows what it means to return prematurely to a war zone. In May 2015, after Kenya renewed what has become a perennial threat to shutter the sprawling, windswept settlement on its northeastern frontier that houses more than 326,000 refugees, most of them from neighboring Somalia, she decided to sign up for the U.N.s voluntary repatriation program. Better to go back on her own terms than risk being rounded up and deported without warning, she thought.

So in August, after waiting three months for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) to process her application, she boarded a flight to the Somali capital of Mogadishu. She found her old house in Wardigle, a neighborhood whose name in Somali roughly translates to stream  or channel  of blood, still standing. But less than two months later, a mortar fired by al-Shabab militants crashed into her kitchen. The round sheared off her right breast, sliced a 3-inch gash in her left foot, and left shards of metal embedded deep in her left hip.

Image credits: Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images; TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images; Carl Court/Getty Images; Ty McCormick/Foreign Policy
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attends a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov following their meeting in Moscow, Russia, July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Russian warplanes bombed a garrison used by US and British forces in Syria twice last month, despite being warned by a US surveillance aircraft flying nearby that the base was not occupied or being used by members of ISIS.

The airstrikes  which hit the base in southeastern Syria just 24 hours after 20 British special forces had left and killed four US-backed rebels  appear to have been Moscow's way of pressuring the US into sharing military intelligence and coordinating more closely with the Russians in Syria, The Wall Street Journal's Adam Entous reported.

Moscow initially told the Pentagon that it thought that the base was being used by ISIS, according to the report. It later claimed that US Central Command's refusal to provide Russia with the garrison's coordinates was largely to blame for the incident.

Nearly a month after the first incident, Entous reported, Russia dropped cluster bombs on another US-linked base on the Jordanian border housing CIA-backed rebels and their families.

Washington's reluctance to coordinate with Moscow in Syria has largely stemmed from the Russians' pattern of targeting US-backed rebel groups there under the guise of defeating "terrorists" who oppose Syria's president and Russia's close ally, Bashar Assad.

putin

Russia's intervention in the war on behalf of Assad last September has created a catch-22 for the Obama administration, which remains divided over whether sharing military intelligence with the Russians in Syria would make them more or less likely to target the country's non-jihadist opposition.

This incident "brings out something that was already evident to almost everyone who has spoken to US foreign policy officials recently," Mark Kramer, Program Director for the Project on Cold War Studies at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, told Business Insider on Saturday.

Story continues

"Namely, that the Obama administration is deeply divided over how to respond to Russia's inflammatory actions in Syria and elsewhere."

He continued:

"Many on the NSC [National Security Council] staff, as well as in the Defense Department and CIA, worry that Obama's timidity and inaction are simply encouraging the Russians to step up their dangerous and provocative actions...The State Department is highlighted in the WSJ article as the defender of a timid approach in the face of Kremlin aggression, and there is certainly a good deal of truth in that. But the real problem is Obama himself, who seems to have no desire to take a firm stand against Russian actions."

'The president has authorized and ordered this track'

US President Barack Obama decided earlier this month that working more closely with the Russians to target Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, aka Jabhat al-Nusra, would serve US national security interests long-term. Obama and Putin reportedly spoke by phone in early July and confirmed the plan that will involve enhanced sharing of information about the group's positions.

US Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Moscow shortly thereafter and met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He has declined to comment on the "internal negotiations" ongoing between the US and Russia.

"The president of the United States has authorized and ordered this track," Kerry told reporters on Friday. "It is the presidents desire to test whether or not the Russians are prepared to do what they said during our negotiations in Moscow that they will do."

According to the leaked text of the coordination plan  known as the Joint Implementation Group  the US will share intelligence with Russian officials about Nusra if Russian warplanes refrain from launching airstrikes outside certain "designated areas." It also proposes that the Syrian army completely halt its aerial bombardments.

As analysts have noted, however, the proposal has several loopholes  including one that seems to explicitly allow Russia to "strike in areas where the opposition is dominant," even if Al Qaeda has only "some possible" presence there.

From the proposal (emphasis added):

"Designated areas include areas of most concentrated Nusrah Front presence, areas of significant Nusrah Front presence, and areas where the opposition is dominant, with some possible Nusrah Front presence. Even prior to the establishment of the JIG, technical experts from the U.S. and Russia will plot the geo-coordinates of these designated areas."

As Middle East expert Andrew Tabler, the Martin J. Gross Fellow at The Washington Institute's Program on Arab Politics, noted in a recent policy analysis, "Russia's track record in Syria indicates that it would continue air operations against non-designated rebel groups under the proposed TOR [terms of reference]."

russian airstrikes syria July

Washington has noticed that trend and has repeatedly called on Moscow to stop launching airstrikes in areas under non-jihadist rebel control. It has continued to do so for the better part of 10 months, largely to no avail.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an intelligence official told Reuters that "it isn't clear" why the administration thinks that it can enlist the Russians to support its goals in Syria.

The proposal amounts to "ignoring the fact that the Russians and their Syrian allies have made no distinction between bombing ISIS and killing members of the moderate opposition, including some people that we've trained," the official said.

"Why would we share intelligence and targeting information with people who've been doing that?" the official added.

With reports that Russia purposefully targeted a base used by British and American special forces, that question is poised to take on even greater urgency.

NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: Why our strategy against terrorism is making things worse





More From Business Insider


By Daniel Holloway



When Luke Cage premieres Sept. 30 on Netflix, it will mark the first time that an African-American superhero has led a Marvel series or movie. Executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker says that the character, created in 1972, is now especially timely.

There arent a lot of African-American superheros, Coker said Thursday at Comic-Con. Ive been reading comics since I was eight or nine years old. Luke Cage stood out.

He added, When I think about whats going on in the world right now, the world is ready for a bulletproof black man.

Coker, a former journalist who once worked at Vibe magazine, talked about the importance that music plays in the show. Every episode is named after a song by the rap duo Gang Starr. One of several clips from the show screened during the panel prominently featured an enormous portrait of the Notorious B.I.G.

Its what I call the Wu Tang-ification of the Marvel universe, he said.

Alfre Woodard, one of the shows stars, praised Cokers writing. When I picked this up, it was one of the smartest pieces of writing Ive ever come across, she said.

Coker signed on in March, 2015 to serve as showrunner for Luke Cage, which spins out of Netflixs second Marvel series, Jessica Jones.

The panel was the first ever at Comic-Con for a Marvel-produced show for Netflix. When introducing that panel, Jeph Loeb, Marvels head of television, said it was the first of what he hoped would be many Marvel-Netflix panels in the future. The folks at Netflix really need to understand how great an audience this really is, Loeb said.

Netflix and Marvel also released a new teaser for Luke Cage. Watch it above.



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[July 21, 2016] Actility Launches ThingPark Approved Programme to Simplify and Accelerate IoT Solution Deployment

LoRa Alliance All Member Meeting, Munich: 21 July 2016 Actility, the industry leader in low power wide area networking, and the innovator behind the ThingPark LPWA IoT platform, today announces the launch of the "ThingPark Approved" programme, and welcomes its first partners to obtain the ThingPark Approved status. Covering the solution spectrum from sensors and modules to gateways and ultimately applications, ThingPark Approved products are evaluated across a range of interfaces and integration points to ensure interoperability within an end to end solution. Highlighting the diversity of partners in the ThingPark Ecosystem, Actility is delighted to announce ThingPark Approved status for Adeunis RF, AllThingsTalk, ATIM, Daliworks, Expemb, Finsecur, Flashnet, Foxconn, Globalsat, IMST, Kerlink, Microchip, MultiTech, MyDevices, Nemeus, NKE-Watteco, Omniimpex, Rising HF and Sensing Labs. "One of the key challenges in making the IoT a global reality is to simplify the process of creating and deploying end to end solutions," says Actility Vice President for Ecosystem Christophe Francois. "Even today, there are thousands of potential solution components from hundreds of suppliers, the ecosystem is exploding. Open standards and certification programmes have a key role to play, but they address specific technology requirements. ThingPark Approved is a business enabler, not a certification programme. It allows partners in our ecosystem to feel confident that they can rely on interoperability with any other product or service found in the ThingPark Marketplace." "We are very proud to be approved by ThingPark and join this family." comments Alpha Tsai, EVP of GlobalSat, "GlobalSat is among the very first LoRa adaptors in Asia. We have spent tremendous effort in promoting LoRa applications. Actility is our first choice network provider thanks to their reliability and instant support. We have gone through intensive interoperability testing to provide customers the easiest integration from end-node to application platform through the ThingPark environment." "It's a great opportunity for Expemb to work with Actility, to master the unique challenges and opportunities offered by the industrial IoT," adds Franck Priou, IoT & M2M Market Manager at Expemb. "We are delighted to offer our ThingPark Approved gateways, simple and scalable connection solutions which promote greater adoption of industrial IoT. We strive to better meet the needs of businesses to access their data, allowing them to focus on the development of their business applications." "By combining Actility ThingPark with myDevices' (News - Alert) Cayenne, the world's first drag and drop IoT project builder, we have provided smart cities and enterprise customers with the ability to quickly prototype and deploy large-scale IoT projects," explains Kevin Bromber (News - Alert), CEO myDevices. "This partnership will enable end customers to select from a growing list of LoRa sensors, motors and actuators that can be combined into a single project where remote monitoring, data visualization, triggered events and SMS/email notifications can be assembled and deployed for a variety of use cases." "We are pleased to be among the first ThingPark Approved gateway and module vendors for Actility LoRaWAN networks," says Daniel Quant, Vice President of Product Management and Strategic Marketing at MultiTech. "With Actility software preloaded on our new Conduit LoRa Starter Kit, Actility and MultiTech make developing and deploying LoRaWAN-based IoT applications easier than ever." The ThingPark Approved Programme offers a complete business accelerator to fast-track IoT solutions to market. ThingPark partners can connect and test their products and achieve ThingPark Approved status, interact with other solution providers in the ThingPark ecosystem, and then market and sell their solutions in the ThingPark MarketPlace. The straightforward process will be managed through the ThingPark Partner website. ThingPark Approved partners will have opportunities to participate in co-marketing activity, and all will be able to display the ThingPark Approved logo on their products, collateral and web-sites. The ThingPark Partner web-site ill be open for business early August, after completing its pilot phase. It will be accessible at: www.partners.thingpark.com



The ThingPark Approved programme is the latest step in the development of Actility's ThingPark IoT solutions platform. Alongside ThingPark Marketplace, it also comprises the ThingPark Wireless LPWA network, and ThingPark Mash-up, an open API data mediation platform. "The launch of the ThingPark Approved programme clearly demonstrates the growing maturity of the ThingPark ecosystem," concludes Actility CEO Mike Mulica (News - Alert). "We're delighted that such a diverse group of partners have stepped up to launch the programme and take advantage of the go-to-market acceleration that it delivers."

About Actility www.thingpark.com About our new ThingPark Approved Partners Adeunis RF http://www.adeunis-rf.com/en/products/lorawan-products AllThingsTalk http://www.allthingstalk.com ATIM http://www.atim.com/en/ Daliworks https://thingplus.net EXPEMB http://www.expemb.com/en/ Finsecur http://www.finsecur.com/ Flashnet www.flashnet.ro Foxconn http://www.foxconn.com/ Globalsat http://www.globalsat.com.tw IMST http://www.wireless-solutions.de Kerlink http://www.kerlink.com/ Microchip http://www.microchip.com/ MultiTech www.multitech.com. MyDevices www.myDevices.com Nemeus http://www.nemeus.fr/en/ NKE-Watteco http://www.nke-watteco.com/ Omniimpex http://www.omniimpex.ch Rising HF http://www.risinghf.com/?lang=en Sensing Labs http://sensing-labs.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160721006270/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
The Man in the High Castles behind-the-scenes intrigue  which rival its on-screen ones  didnt even get a passing mention during the Amazon series panel at San Diego Comic-Con Thursday.

In May, showrunner Frank Spotnitz abruptly exited the drama amid a difference of opinion with Amazon regarding his involvement in Season 2. The Vancouver-shot drama quickly went into hiatus, with other members of the production team scrambling to fill the EPs duties.

RELATED Comic-Con 2016: Your Guide to the TV-Related Panels and Screenings

At the time, Amazon released this statement:

Given the ambition and scope of the series, the decision has been made to locate all creative efforts on The Man in the High Castle to the west coast; Frank Spotnitz will remain as an executive producer and step back from showrunner. His responsibilities will be managed by our deep and talented bench of producers. We are enormously grateful to him for bringing our customers on one of the most watched original shows on Amazon Video and we are excited about the teams vision for Season 2.

The Comic-Con panel was the first time, aside from some brief, positive remarks Spotnitz made about the show made at a For Your Consideration Emmy event in Hollywood later in May, the cast and production team had an opportunity to discuss what had happened. But the topic didnt come up.

VIDEOSComic-Con: Luke Cage Cast Says a Necessary Evil Pushes New Hero Into Action Mode

Instead, executive producers Isa Dick Hackett, David Zucker and Dan Percival, as well as cast members Alexa Davalos, Rupert Evans, Luke Kleintank, DJ Qualls, Bella Heathcote, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Rufus Sewell took part in a discussion that stuck to previewing the dramas upcoming second season. A few highlights:

* The series will continue to use Philip K. Dicks novel as a spiritual guide, Dick said, and some content not tackled in Season 1 will show up in coming episodes. Also: I can say we will meet the Man in the High Castle this season, she said.

Story continues

* The Man in the High Castle is currently shooting Episode 7 of 10 in Vancouver.

RELATEDComic-Con 2016: Your Guide to the TV-Related Panels and Screenings

* When asked for an update on where her character, Juliana Crain, is in what the series is currently shooting, Davalos said, Shes having to be a chameleon in order to survive. When pressed, the actress said that the reluctant rebel finds herself in seriously compromising circumstances and added, Shes in a very surprising place at the moment things have taken a turn.

* A sneak peek of an upcoming episode showed Juliana escaping from the trunk of a moving vehicle, then dodging bullets as she tried to make her way to safety.

* How about that season-ending scene in which Tagomi appeared to shift into the timeline that we know? It will be answered more thoroughly in the second season, Tagawa promised. And in case you needed a little more clarity, Hackett added: Tagomi did not have a dream at the end of that last episode.

VIDEOSComic-Con: Scorpion Cast Talks Outer Space Trip, Happys Familiar Hubby in Season 3

* A common question regarding the series first season  whats going on in other parts of the world?  will be addressed in Season 2, but just a little. Percival noted that the action will travel to Berlin, where well meet Heathcotes character; a plan to explore a North Africa storyline was nixed because the EPs wanted to be more methodical with the pace of the narrative, the EP said, and take more time in the dramas current landscape.

* Heathcote described Nicole, her character, as a bit of a sassy, flirty Nazi who doesnt necessarily espouse her parents principles.

Launch Gallery: Exclusive Comic-Con Portraits From Your Favorite Shows

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Journalist and Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal has told a federal judge that he would suffer irreparable injury to his career and reputation if he is forced to turn over confidential information he obtained during 25 hours of taped interviews with accused Army deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

On Wednesday, under the threat of a subpoena, Boal filed a suit against President Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the Army major who is prosecuting Bergdahl, seeking an injunction to stay the subpoena, which the Army said would be issued today. Its a case that puts military justice on a collision course with a journalists First Amendment rights.

In a separate declaration filed Wednesday, Boal said: During the course of my interviews of Bergdahl, confidential sources were revealed. I believe that those sources would suffer serious adverse action, including devastating adverse employment action, if their identities were revealed.

Shield laws that allow reporters to protect their sources vary from state to state, and the military has found, in some cases, that they do not apply to military courts-martial. That was the case in 2009, when a military judge ruled that CBS did not have to hand over the unaired footage of a 60 Minutes interview with a Marine who was being investigated for alleged crimes committed in Iraq. That ruling, however, later was overturned by a military appeals court, which found that military courts did not have to recognize a reporters confidentiality privilege.

In his declaration, Boal said that he began researching Bergdahls case in summer 2014, shortly after Bergdahl had been released by the Taliban after five years of captivity. When I interviewed Sergeant Bergdahl, I made promises of confidentiality in connection with portions of the interviews, Boal said in his declaration. From late 2015 through 2016, I used excerpts of some of the recorded interviews with Sergeant Bergdahl in the popular podcast Serial. Before I shared any of the excerpts with the Serial hosts, I sought and gained Sergeant Bergdahls permission to broadcast interview portions regarding specific subjects. Sergeant Bergdahl deemed other topics to be off-limits, and therefore I did not share such material with Serial or the public.

Story continues

The military, however, now wants to look at all of the taped material.

Investigative reporting often  as in the case of my interviews of Bergdahl  requires building piece upon piece to understand a story and then effectively convey that story to the public, Boal said in his declaration. Some of those pieces are available for public consumption while others must be maintained in confidence as background or off the record in order to obtain and ascertain what can be told on the record.

As a journalist, it is of paramount importance to my job and my reputation to be able to interview witnesses and maintain information in confidence. If I cannot be trusted by my sources and my interviewees to keep information told off the record or in confidence confidential then interview subjects and sources will be reluctant to speak with me, and my ability to report the news and other matters of public concern will suffer irreparably. That will harm society because the news will be stymied and the public will be uninformed or misinformed on critically important subjects.

Likewise, if I am seen as an arm of a prosecutor  i.e., as someone who will get statements and information in the course of newsgathering that can then be used against an interview subject or to otherwise aid the government  then my ability to get newsworthy information and then report on newsworthy events will suffer irreparably because sources and subjects will be afraid to talk to me for fear that everything they say will end up on a prosecutors desk.

The very issuance, let alone the enforcement, of the threatened subpoena in this case puts me in an impossible position, the filing adds. I, as a civilian, must either face contempt proceedings stemming from my refusal to divulge unpublished and confidential information in a military court thousands of miles from my home; or I must sacrifice my reputation, my sources, the integrity of my work and my constitutional rights. Even being put to that choice will cause me irreparable injury because it will signal to my contacts, interviewees and subjects that my work is ripe for the picking by a military prosecutor. Moreover, the prospect of a sweeping subpoena actually being enforced against me only heightens my concern that my injuries will be realized.

Boal, who won the screenwriting Oscar for The Hurt Locker and was nominated for Zero Dark Thirty, asked the court to protect my well-recognized, constitutionally-based rights as a journalist. I am a civilian from Los Angeles. I am not in the military, and my rights should not be subjugated as if I were. My right to gather and disseminate newsworthy material should not be sacrificed to a military prosecutor on a fishing expedition.

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Obama Turns Donald Trump Taunter-In-Chief During First Hillary Clinton Campaign Stop
Mark-Cuban-Shark-Tank-Cast

ABC

Dallas Mavericks owner and alternate universe president Mark Cuban is offering Hillary Clinton some free advice on how to topple GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump. Welcome to 2016, where what once sounded like a lost episode of Celebrity Deathmatch has morphed into the daily discourse.

Cuban got a good number of pops in on fellow billionaire Trump during an RNC week appearance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert and now hes providing the presumptive Democratic nominee with his strategy on how to dispatch the New York business titan. Its a game plan (complete with criticism of Clintons current campaign) thats been placed on Twitter for the world to see. In the Shark Tank stars eyes, the way Clintons being presented is straight out of 1995 and in need of an update that presents the former First Lady as a real person to Trump supporters. No easy task considering that her name had a tendency to spark angry lock her up chants during the RNC.

1) Those of us who don't want @realDonaldTrump to be POTUS have to be brutally honest with @HillaryClinton and her campaign  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

2) @HillaryClinton marketing of herself is awful. It's straight out of 1995. It's not newsfeed or social media literate at all.  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

2a) her marketing message needs to be simplified. She needs to tell people why they should vote for her in one short sentence or less  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

3) her opponents have spent years dehumanizing @HillaryClinton. She is the devil and a criminal to them. The only way to combat that is to  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

3a) She needs to go into enemy territory and do 5 interviews a day on @FoxNews That's the only way to become a real person to trump fans  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

4) trump won't kiss babies and shake hands. He won't sit down with small business and offer help. You can connect by doing both  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

5) @realDonaldTrump has done a better job using real people, non politicians as surrogates. @HillaryClinton has failed in this area.  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

6) @HillaryClinton needs to find as many social media influencers and real people to use their platforms and tv to connect to the undecided  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

7) winning this election is not about Trump Its about @HillaryClinton ability to become a real person who voters trust to lead this country  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

As you may have gathered from Cuban playing volunteer campaign consultant, he was not particularly enthused by Trumps RNC speech on Thursday.

Story continues

Did @realDonaldTrump visit a single home at all during the primaries ?  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

I used to be a crook. But trust me, I'm not any more. Says @realDonaldTrump  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Dear world. Please ignore what the loud guy in the suit is saying. Americans are nothing like him. We love our country and are proud of it  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

To paraphrase @realDonaldTrump I'm the government and I'm here to save you, give you a job, cut you off from the world & end tech progress  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Will school curriculums be changed to encourage our kids to refer to themselves in the 3rd person ? Cuban thinks they should be lol  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Cuban did enjoy the post-speech classic rock anthem chosen by The Donalds camp, albeit for a different reason than Trump likely intended.

What I do love about the speech is the song All Right Now by Free. Wonder if donald knows what it's about  Took her home to my bed  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Somewhere whoever picked the closing music is laughing their ass off  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Considering that both Trump and Cuban have WWE experience, maybe they can sort out their differences at SummerSlam next month? Otherwise, well see how things pan out at the ballot box.

(via FTW)
mark cuban

Mark Cuban went on a brutal tweetstorm Thursday night slamming Donald Trump as Trump accepted his party's presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention.

In a series of tweets Thursday evening, the billionaire owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks mocked Trump's presentation and rhetorical style and reassured people that Americans were "nothing like" Trump.

"@realDonaldTrump should have worked harder to make his TelePrompTer reading skills great again," Cuban wrote in one tweet.

Cuban went as far as retweeting Sen. Bernie Sanders' criticism of Trump's rhetoric, which the Vermont senator characterized as bigoted.

Read some of Cuban's tweets below:

What are the odds that @realDonaldTrump will smile during his speech ?  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Did @realDonaldTrump visit a single home at all during the primaries ?  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

I used to be a crook. But trust me, I'm not any more. Says @realDonaldTrump  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Dear world. Please ignore what the loud guy in the suit is saying. Americans are nothing like him. We love our country and are proud of it  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

To paraphrase @realDonaldTrump I'm the government and I'm here to save you, give you a job, cut you off from the world & end tech progress  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Dear world we are going to stop you from cheating on the trade deals I will longer do. Watch out !!! - @realDonaldTrump  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Will school curriculums be changed to encourage our kids to refer to themselves in the 3rd person ? Cuban thinks they should be lol  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

I know this is horrible to say. But please don't ever let me hug my family that way. My family should always have to pull away from a hug  Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 22, 2016

Though Cuban does not identify with either major political party, the businessman has frequently accused Trump of mismanaging his campaign and promoting isolationist rhetoric.

Story continues

Trump himself has been irked by Cuban's comments.

The Mavericks owner told Fortune earlier this year that Trump reached out to him directly after asking why Cuban had "gone far more negative."

NOW WATCH: Watch Trump relentlessly slam Hillary Clinton in his big RNC speech





More From Business Insider


Donald Trump's Republican National Convention speech drove billionaire Mark Cuban into a Twitter frenzy, with the Dallas Mavericks owner tweeting: Americans are nothing like Trump.

Cuban, who had already bashed Republican presidential nominee Trump as well as Sen. Ted Cruz earlier in the day, took to Twitter again as Trump began his speech.

Cuban had taken time out of a back-and-forth with journalist Piers Morgan earlier Thursday on Twitter (TWTR) to hit out at Trump and Cruz.

"Donald is the Ted Cruz of business His biz partners are no where to be found Which partner has supported him?" Cuban wrote in a tweet.

The conversation with Morgan was spurred by an earlier tweet in which Cuban wrote, "I'm convinced the @realDonaldTrump dream scenario is to win the popular vote but lose the election. All the glory. None of the work".

Along with knocking both Cruz and Trump, Cuban focused in on Trump's business record. Cuban wrote that, "if winning were the goal he would raise outside money for his campaign like he borrows money for a building".

This is not the first time Cuban has taken to Twitter to share his ire of Trump. Earlier this spring, the billionaire let loose in questioning Trump's ability to self-fund his campaign.





More From CNBC


[July 21, 2016] Green Dot to Announce Second Quarter 2016 Results on August 4th

Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT) today announced that it will host a conference call to discuss second quarter 2016 financial results on Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 5:00pm ET. A press release with second quarter 2016 financial results will be issued after the market closes that same day. The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing (888) 348-8307, or for international callers (412) 902-4242. A replay will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes and can be accessed by dialing (877) 870-5176, or for international callers (858) 384-5517, and entering the conference ID 10088864. The replay will be available through Thursday, August 11, 2016. The call will be webcast live from the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.greendot.com/.



About Green Dot Green Dot Corporation, along with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a pro-consumer financial technology innovator with a mission to provide a full range of affordable and accessible financial services to the masses. Green Dot is the largest provider of reloadable prepaid debit cards and cash reload processing services in the United States. Green Dot is also a leader in mobile technology and mobile banking with its award-winning GoBank mobile checking account and a top 20 debit card issuer among all banks and credit unions in the country. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, TPG, Green Dot is additionally the largest processor of tax refund disbursements in the U.S. Green Dot's products and services are available to consumers through a large-scale "branchless bank" distribution network of more than 100,000 U.S. locations, including retailers, neighborhood financial service center locations, and tax preparation offices, as well as online, in the leading app stores and through leading online tax preparation providers. Green Dot Corporation is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., with additional facilities throughout the United States and in Shanghai, China.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160721005113/en/

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Billionaire Mark Cuban took to Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) on Friday to say how presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton should change her strategies to win the presidential election.

"Hillary Clinton marketing of herself is awful. It's straight out of 1995. It's not newsfeed or social media literate at all," Cuban said in his stream of tweets.

The Dallas Mavericks owner said Clinton's marketing messages needed to be simplified and that they need "to tell people why they should vote for her in one short sentence or less."

Cuban also suggested that Clinton go into "enemy territory" and do five interviews a day with Fox News.

Cuban previously supported Donald Trump's run for president, but has since changed his mind.

The tech billionaire noted that Clinton needs to use "real people" to connect with undecided voters.

He announced Tuesday on his Twitter account that he is against the Republican candidate, saying, "I have to admit I've become a #nevertrump."

Cuban ended his Twitter rant telling Clinton how to win the presidential election.

The tweets came days before the Democratic National Convention, which starts next Monday.

Story continues









More From CNBC


Marriott International, Inc. MAR is scheduled to report second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 27, after market close.



Notably, Marriott has inked a definitive agreement to purchase Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. HOT, which will lead to the creation of the world's largest hotel company.



Meanwhile, last quarter, Marriott posted a positive earnings surprise of 3.57%. In fact, the companys earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 2.88%.

MARRIOTT INTL-A Price and EPS Surprise

MARRIOTT INTL-A Price and EPS Surprise | MARRIOTT INTL-A Quote

Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.



Factors Likely to Influence this Quarter



For the second quarter, Marriott expects earnings per share in the range of 96 cents to $1.00, up from the year-ago level of 82 cents. Notably, the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 98 cents is in line with the mid-point of the guided range.



Meanwhile, comparable system-wide RevPAR are expected to increase 35% in North America, 24% outside North America and 35% worldwide. Further, its investments in technology for hotel bookings would improve guest experience, which in turn should boost occupancy in the to-be-reported quarter.



However, lingering global uncertainty in economies like Europe, Brazil and China is likely to limit revenue growth. Also, soft demand in the oil producing regions is likely to mar RevPAR in the to-be-reported quarter. Apart from that, in the domestic market, the company is facing competition in New York due to a continuous increase in the number of hotels, which might limit room rents and hurt RevPAR.



Additionally, despite the weakening of the U.S. dollar in 2016, negative currency translation is expected to reduce the value of overseas sales, given Marriotts significant international presence. The company is simultaneously bearing the brunt of the Venezuelan currency devaluation. Such volatility in exchange rates is thus expected to hurt revenues and profits in the second quarter.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Marriott is likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. Unfortunately, that is not the case here as elaborated below.



Zacks ESP: Marriott has an Earnings ESP of -1.02%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate stands at 97 cents, whereas the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged higher at 98 cents.



Zacks Rank: Marriott has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Please note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.



Stocks to Consider



Here are some companies to consider as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



Vail Resorts Inc. MTN has an earnings ESP of +1.21% and a Zacks Rank #2.



Penn National Gaming Inc. PENN has an earnings ESP of +6.90% and a Zacks Rank #3.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Marvel's "Daredevil" action-drama is set to return to Netflix for a third season, according to Exec producer Jeph Loeb who revealed the news at the recent the Comic-Con panel for Netflix's upcoming Marvel drama "Luke Cage."

"If you like Daredevil, there's going to be even more Daredevil in season three," Loeb said, during Netflix and Marvel's first joint panel on Thursday, July 21.

The series, starring Charlie Cox as blind superhero "Daredevil" Matt Murdock -- attorney by day and vigilante by night -- was Netflix's first Marvel show, and has since opened doors for a string of Marvel-based series, including "Luke Cage," "Jessica Jones" and the upcoming "Iron Fist," "The Defenders" and "The Punisher" (via Variety).

Season three will return in 2017 with showrunners Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez set to continue executive producing the series.
Perhaps the biggest surprise that Marvel TV had for San Diego Comic-Con was not just a teaser, but one with actual footage, for Iron Fist, the next hero to join Daredevil, Jessica Jones and (soon) Luke Cage in fighting crime on Netflix.

RELATEDDaredevil Renewed for Season 3  Plus, The Defenders Team-Up Logo Revealed

Marking Netflixs fourth collaboration with Marvel Television, Iron Fist stars Game of Thrones Finn Jones as Daniel Rand, who returns to New York City after being missing for years. He fights against the criminal element corrupting New York City with his incredible kung-fu mastery and ability to summon the awesome power of the titular, fiery Iron Fist.

The teaser below opens with a peek at Daniels tragic backstory, before offering a hint of who/what he eventually becomes  all capped with the reveal of the series logo.

RELATEDMarvels The Defenders Pits Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist Versus Their Biggest Threat Yet

Holding court at Comic-Con, Marvel TV also released a teaser for the Luke Cage series (premiering Sept. 30), announced Daredevils Season 3 renewal and revealed the logo for the eventual Defenders team-up.

Launch Gallery: Exclusive Comic-Con Portraits From Favorite Shows

Related stories

TVLine Items: Hamilton's Drunk History Lesson, Bojack Renewed and More

Degrassi: Next Class Returns: Grade the Racially Charged Season Premiere

Daredevil Renewed for Season 3 -- Plus, The Defenders Team-Up Logo Revealed
By Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) - MasterCard Inc hopes to apply this year to become a payment service provider in China after the government opened the market, but the company is still weighing whether to do so alone or with a partner, senior executives said on Friday. The world's most populous country is "pretty crucial" to its future, but MasterCard is still studying rules in China that would affect its business and is hammering out a business plan, Ann Cairns, president of international markets, told Reuters in an interview. China in June allowed foreign payment card companies to operate in the country under new rules, potentially giving companies like MasterCard and Visa Inc access to its 55 trillion yuan ($8.25 trillion) card payment market. Under the rules, China's national security and cyber security standards must be met. Applicants must also hold 1 billion yuan in registered capital in a local company. "We're trying to understand the rules," Cairns said, adding that MasterCard would like to enter China as soon as possible. "Certain things inside the rules  such as the new cyber rules, which need more development and understanding about how theyre going to work." Visa and MasterCard, the world's two largest credit and debit card companies, have been lobbying for more than a decade for direct access to China's cards market, projected to become the world's biggest by 2020. Asked if it was possible that MasterCard submits a license application this calendar year, Ling Hai, co-president for Asia-Pacific, said that was the hope but there were no guarantees. "There is so much uncertainty and variability in the process. Something that should take one year can take two years," he said. Bank card consumer transactions reached 55 trillion yuan in 2015, accounting for 48 percent of total social consumption, according to the People's Bank of China. The market is dominated by state-run China UnionPay Co. Asked what was holding MasterCard back from jumping in, Cairns said it hinged on the business model and which local partners it decides to go with. Cairns said capital requirements, security standards and for MasterCard to be locally based did not represent obstacles to the company. MasterCard has never said it was under pressure to partner in China, according to Cairns. ($1 = 6.6690 yuan) (Reporting by Matthew Miller; Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Ryan Woo)
(Reuters) - There is space for Juan Mata at Manchester United but the midfielder must fight to break into the first team, manager Jose Mourinho has said. Mourinho was in charge at Chelsea when Mata left Stamford Bridge to join United in January 2014, having won back-to-back Player of the Year awards in his two previous seasons there. "He's here and he works hard. He knows that I know he is a good player and he has space in the squad. Until August 31 the market is open for every one of my players that is not happy, but to be fair I think he is (happy)," Mourinho told the BBC. "I think he is happy and I am not expecting him to ask to leave. I am expecting him to do what he is doing now, which is to fight for a place." "We have 38 matches in the Premier League, we expect to play a lot of them in the Europa League and domestic cups so in a squad of, let's say, 22 players, there will be a space for everyone. So, yes, there is a space for Juan," Mourinho added. Mata scored six goals in 38 Premier League appearances last season as United finished fifth in the standings. Since his arrival in May, Mourinho has boosted United's squad by signing defender Eric Bailly, midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan and striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, according to media reports, is chasing midfielder Paul Pogba from Serie A champions Juventus. The 53-year-old refused to comment on the Frenchman's possible return to United, but said he has three different choices for his final major transfer. Mourinho's first game in charge will be against Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund in the International Champions Cup in Shanghai later on Friday. (Reporting by Ian Rodricks in Bengaluru; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Mauritius said on Friday its trade deficit widened 22.1 percent to 6.91 billion rupees ($195.47 million) in May from the same period a year earlier, hit by a dip in exports of machinery and transport equipment. The Indian Ocean island nation's earnings from exports fell 6.5 percent from a year before to 7.46 billion rupees in May, the government's statistics office said in a statement. The United States was the main destination for Mauritius's exports, followed by France and Britain. Foreign sales of machinery and transport equipment declined to 687 million rupees in May from 1.19 billion rupees in the same period last year. Total imports rose 5.4 percent from a year before to 14.37 billion rupees in May. Some 20.3 percent of imports in the period came from China. ($1 = 35.3500 Mauritius rupees) (Reporting by Jean Paul Arouff; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Catherine Evans)
From Cosmopolitan

Paul Ryan has strong opinions about makeup.

The Speaker of the House sat in makeup artist Jason Kelly's chair Tuesday morning before announcing Donald Trump as his party's presidential nominee at this week's Republican National Convention. Ryan had the beginnings of stubble - but he knew exactly what it'd take to get himself back into baby-faced shape.

"He said his 5 o'clock shadow comes in at 2,'" explains Kelly, owner of Cleveland-based J Kelly Face Art. "He knew he needed the full coverage foundation to cover it up. Some guys like letting the stubble show - but not him." Kelly's team says Ryan also wanted to brighten up his inner-eyes and powder on the top of his ears to hide redness.

Kelly is the official makeup artist for the RNC - a major undertaking involving four days lasting as long as 12 hours. Kelly and his two assistants have bronzed, concealed, and brightened nearly every speaker who has taken the stage. While Kelly loves experimenting with bold lips - he's currently into deep navy blues - and what he calls "Gaga-esque" shadow palettes, making the nation's most prominent conservatives camera-ready calls for a lighter stroke of the brush.

"I can make it look not theatrical, so it looks good on TV and person-to-person," says Kelly, who is also the makeup artist for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Makeup appointments last anywhere from 15 to 90 minutes, Kelly says, depending on each speaker's preference.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst needed the full-body treatment. She took a spill Monday before going on stage to give her anticipated speech, so Kelly had to cover up the scrapes on her knees with a bit of concealer.

As far as the Trump family, most of them have come to the arena camera-ready. So, the only one Kelly and his team have worked on is Donald Trump Jr., who Malone says was very chatty and charming. She notes Donald Trump's very tan son required the same dark makeup shade she wears.

Story continues

If Kelly is called to do the Republican presidential nominee's makeup tonight before his closing speech, though, he's got a plan.

"I'm prepared if it does happen," he says. "I know exactly what he does to himself - the tanning bed, the spray tan, he wears the goggles and you can see the hyper-pigmentation around his eyes. What I'll do is use a slightly deeper color and blend it into his tan so there's not an abrupt contrast. I'm ready for it."

[For Trump] I'll use a slightly deeper color and blend it into his tan so there's not an abrupt contrast. I'm ready for it.

Kelly, a Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, says he was thrilled to get the call from the RNC - in spite of his political leanings.

"Politics don't need to be discussed and, if they do come up, I can calm it down and just keep it light," he says. "I can steer the conversation more toward one that will end in shaking hands after. You can't let your feelings get involved in something like this or you'll never get hired again. Get in where you fit in and keep it light and do your job."

Kelly and his two assistants have even found themselves charmed by many of the politicians and celebrity speakers backstage.

"Paul Ryan was funny. I was wearing a Batman shirt and there was this running joke where he'd call me Batman," Kelly says. "I got a picture with him after. And the girls fell in love," he says about his assistants, Tamra Malone and Kristian Bailey-Gaines.

Bailey-Gaines worked on Scott Baio, getting a serenade from the actor while she powdered his face. "He started singing that song 'Sister Christian' because that's my name," the 27-year-old says. "It was easy to do his makeup - he has great skin."

Kelly adds, "Oh, she was playing it cool but she was a huge Happy Days fan, she loved Joanie Loves Chachi, so I could tell she was kind of freaking out."

Meanwhile W. Kirk Bell, the director of regional satellite and radio media, is preparing for any last-minute calls to appear on TV that he might get on day three of the convention. Sporting a pink-and-blue bowtie, navy suit, and GOP-themed elephant-printed socks, Bell explains that he's conscious of that overly made-up look.

"For me, lighter is better with makeup. I'm fortunate enough to be pretty tan already," he says, quickly adding, "It's not a fake tan; I have a place in North Carolina."

Kelly brushes onto Bell a powder with golden undertones to counteract redness, then layers on a bit of bronzer. Around Kelly's neck hangs a miniature fan he uses to cool down and to set false lashes for his female clients, as well as a colorful stack of credentials to get him through the four layers of security at the arena.

He adds a swipe of eye cream to Bell's pursed lips. Bell asks: "Is that going to puff them up or something?"

"Oh yeah," Kelly responds, "it'll give you the Lisa Rinna look."

The men laugh and, as Bell gets up from the makeup chair, he gives Kelly a firm handshake and says, "Thank you, sir."
From Harper's BAZAAR

Paul Ryan has strong opinions about makeup.

The Speaker of the House sat in makeup artist Jason Kelly's chair Tuesday morning before announcing Donald Trump as his party's presidential nominee at this week's Republican National Convention. Ryan had the beginnings of stubble-but he knew exactly what it'd take to get himself back into baby-faced shape.

"He said his 5 o'clock shadow comes in at 2,'" explains Kelly, owner of Cleveland-based J Kelly Face Art. "He knew he needed the full coverage foundation to cover it up. Some guys like letting the stubble show-but not him." Kelly's team says Ryan also wanted to brighten up his inner-eyes and powder on the top of his ears to hide redness.

Kelly is the official makeup artist for the RNC-a major undertaking involving four days lasting as long as 12 hours. Kelly and his two assistants have bronzed, concealed, and brightened nearly every speaker who has taken the stage. While Kelly loves experimenting with bold lips-he's currently into deep navy blues-and what he calls "Gaga-esque" shadow palettes, making the nation's most prominent conservatives camera-ready calls for a lighter stroke of the brush.

"I can make it look not theatrical, so it looks good on TV and person-to-person," says Kelly, who is also the makeup artist for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Makeup appointments last anywhere from 15 to 90 minutes, Kelly says, depending on each speaker's preference.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst needed the full-body treatment. She took a spill Monday before going on stage to give her anticipated speech, so Kelly had to cover up the scrapes on her knees with a bit of concealer.

As far as the Trump family, most of them have come to the arena camera-ready. So, the only one Kelly and his team have worked on is Donald Trump, Jr., who Tamra Malone, one of Kelly's two assistants, says was very chatty and charming. She notes Donald Trump's very tan son required the same dark makeup shade she wears.

Story continues

If Kelly is called to do the Republican presidential nominee's makeup tonight before his closing speech, though, he's got a plan.

"I'm prepared if it does happen," he says. "I know exactly what he does to himself - the tanning bed, the spray tan, he wears the goggles and you can see the hyper-pigmentation around his eyes. What I'll do is use a slightly deeper color and blend it into his tan so there's not an abrupt contrast. I'm ready for it."

"[For Trump] I'll use a slightly deeper color and blend it into his tan so there's not an abrupt contrast. I'm ready for it."

Kelly, a Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, says he was thrilled to get the call from the RNC-in spite of his political leanings.

"Politics don't need to be discussed and, if they do come up, I can calm it down and just keep it light," he says. "I can steer the conversation more towards one that will end in shaking hands after. You can't let your feelings get involved in something like this or you'll never get hired again. Get in where you fit in and keep it light and do your job."

Kelly and his two assistants have even found themselves charmed by many of the politicians and celebrity speakers backstage.

"Paul Ryan was funny. I was wearing a Batman shirt and there was this running joke where he'd call me Batman," Kelly says. "I got a picture with him after. And the girls fell in love," he says about his assistants, Malone and Kristian Bailey-Gaines.

Bailey-Gaines worked on Scott Baio, getting a serenade from the actor while she powdered his face. "He started singing that song 'Sister Christian' because that's my name," the 27-year-old says. "It was easy to do his makeup-he has great skin."

Kelly adds, "Oh, she was playing it cool but she was a huge Happy Days fan, she loved Joanie Loves Chachi, so I could tell she was kind of freaking out."

Meanwhile W. Kirk Bell, the director of Regional Satellite and Radio Media, is preparing for any last-minute calls to appear on TV that he might get on day three of the convention. Sporting a pink-and-blue bowtie, navy suit, and GOP-themed elephant-printed socks, Bell explains that he's conscious of that overly made-up look.

"For me, lighter is better with makeup. I'm fortunate enough to be pretty tan already," he says, quickly adding, "It's not a fake tan; I have a place in North Carolina."

Kelly brushes onto Bell a powder with golden undertones to counteract redness, then layers on a bit of bronzer. Around Kelly's neck hangs a miniature fan he uses to cool down and to set false lashes for his female clients, as well as a colorful stack of credentials to get him through the four layers of security at the arena.

He adds a swipe of eye cream to Bell's pursed lips. Bell asks: "Is that going to puff them up or something?"

"Oh yeah," Kelly responds, "it'll give you the Lisa Rinna look."

The men laugh and, as Bell gets up from the makeup chair, he gives Kelly a firm handshake and says, "Thank you, sir."
By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona teenager jailed on charges of plotting to bomb a public building suffers from autism, with the mental capacity of someone younger than 13 and a "limited ability to function on his own," his parents said on Thursday.

Mahin Khan, 18, who, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, professed to be an "American jihadist," was arrested on July 1 and has been charged in a three-count indictment with terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism and conspiracy to commit misconduct involving weapons.

Khan, a resident of Tucson, is accused of planning to stage an attack with bombs and other weapons on a Phoenix-area state motor vehicle office.

He pleaded not guilty last week, and was ordered to remain held without bail on Wednesday at the end of a two-day hearing in which a Maricopa County Superior Court judge found that he posed a "substantial danger to the community" if released.

But in a statement posted online by Tucson television KGUN-TV and verified as authentic by defense lawyer Robert Ditsworth, Khan's parents said their son lacks "the mental capacity to carry out the horrendous acts he is accused of planning."

"Since early childhood, Mahin has suffered with mental health issues including cognitive disorder and developmental delays, namely autism," they wrote in the statement posted online.

Although Mahin is now 18, mental health professionals have put his mental age at "less than 13," he parents said, adding: "We believe that he does not pose any real threat to society."

The statement, signed by "Mr. & Mrs. Khan," also said Mahin previously underwent "extensive inpatient psychiatric evaluation under the directive and supervision of the FBI," and that review "documented the extent and severity of his mental health."

An FBI agent testifying at this week's court hearing, Ben Trentlage, said Mahin first came to the agency's attention when he was 15, and that his family was urged then to seek mental health treatment for the boy. Trentlage did not elaborate.

Story continues

Authorities have said the case against Khan stems from contacts Khan had with undercover FBI operatives, and that he communicated with someone he believed was an Islamic State militant seeking components for pressure-cooker bombs and pipe bombs.

Trentlage testified that a search of Khan's home uncovered handwritten attack plans, three pressure cookers and what may have been a crude Molotov cocktail, or firebomb.

If convicted, Khan faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
BERLIN (Reuters) - An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged the European Union to suspend accession talks with Turkey over a purge launched by the government against suspected plotters of last week's failed coup. European officials have called on the Turkish government to respect the rule of law in a sweep against soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers, who have been suspended, detained or investigated over Friday's attempted putsch. "If one sees how Turkey is dismantling the rule of law ...then these (EU membership) negotiations must be stopped immediately," said Horst Seehofer, who heads the Bavaria-based sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). "No democratic constitutional state acts like this," the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party told the Funke Media Group in an interview. Merkel told President Tayyip Erdogan during a phone call on Monday that Turkey cannot join the EU if it reinstates the death penalty, which has been advocated by members of his AK party. Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004, allowing it to open EU accession talks the following year, but the negotiations have made little progress. The EU struck a deal in March to reward Turkey for preventing migrants from crossing to Greece by channeling aid to Syrian refugees in the country, reviving accession talks and scrapping visas for Turks wishing to visit Europe. The deal has not been finalized. A spokesman for Merkel told a news conference on Friday that Germany was monitoring developments in Turkey and that any decision on the course of accession talks would be a collective EU decision. (Reporting by Joseph Nasr; editing by John Stonestreet)
Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene her security council Saturday to address the deadly shooting rampage in Munich, her chief of staff Peter Altmaier said.

Altmaier told ZDF public television on Friday that Merkel was being "constantly briefed" on developments in the southern city, where police say at least eight people were killed and up to three gunmen were still at large.

"The cabinet ministers concerned are on their way to Berlin," he added.

Beyond the chancellor and her chief of staff, the German security council includes the ministers for foreign affairs, defence and interior affairs as well as other top officials.

Altmaier said the council would "compile all information available and evaluate it".

"We are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany," he said.

"Our thoughts are with the victims of the attack, with their loved ones and also with the police who are defending freedom and security."

Merkel had been due to start holidays in the Alps, while her Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, on a flight to New York when the shootings began, was heading back to Berlin.
Washington (AFP) - Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto extended an olive branch to Donald Trump on Friday, voicing respect for the US presidential candidate, whose anti-immigrant rhetoric has angered Mexicans.

One day after Trump accepted the Republican party's presidential nomination, Pena Nieto vowed to have a "frank and open dialogue" with whoever wins the November election, whether it is the real estate tycoon or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

"To Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump, I want to express my highest respect," Pena Nieto said at a White House press conference with President Barack Obama.

It was a change of tone from March, when Pena Nieto condemned Trump's "strident tone" and compared his rhetoric to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

But Pena Nieto said Friday that he had "never done any finger-pointing" about a US candidate and that his March remarks were "taken out of context."

"The Mexican government will work in a constructive manner and in good faith with whoever is elected," he said.

The Mexican leader said his government was following the US election with "great interest" but that "we will not get involved, we will not opine, we will not take a position" on a decision that is in the hands of American voters.

But his foreign minister said Thursday that the Mexican government will contact the Trump and Clinton campaigns after next week's Democratic convention.

Mexican officials said in March that the government planned to speak with the eventual primary winners in order to rebut "disinformation" said during the campaign.

Trump has infuriated Mexicans by saying "rapists" and drug dealers are coming into the United States and by vowing to make the southern neighbor pay for a huge border wall.

Pena Nieto said earlier this month that his government would not pay for the wall.
And so the balloons almost failed to drop on the weirdest political convention and most belligerent and longest nomination acceptance speech in modern memory. By any standard political judgment, the Republican National Convention has been a catastrophe, a joke, a meltdown, a departure not just from the best-practices political playbook but from political reality. It was also dark and venomous.

At an hour and a quarter, the Trump speech last night offered nothing optimistic or positive - just darkness at noon in America. He gave no quarter to his own likability (heretofore the sine qua non of electability). He wasn't playing that role. He replaced the inherent blandness of American politics with a type of character acting - eyes, mouth, fingers, chin in constant dramatic movement. The big breaths, the pumped chest, the step back and strut forward. The threats, the chanting, the constant exclamation points. The absolute, sweeping, categorical assertions. "I am your voice," he proclaimed and, indeed, he certainly seemed to change the terms of how we heretofore thought it was proper to speak.

The summer political conventions are the media and marketing events that, since the age of modern television, have come very close to deciding the presidential race. Each convention is a kind of gladiatorial PR battle. The candidate who gets the biggest bump from his (and now her) convention can be expected to win. By anecdotal, social media and gut-instinct evidence, almost none of the 20,000 media people here in Cleveland believe, for seemingly obvious reasons, that this convention, this cock-up and farce, with its disturbing current of malevolence, will be anything but the final nail in the coffin of the Trump campaign.

The aspiring First Lady cribs the sitting First Lady's speech, and then everybody denies it until they find someone to blame it on. And then they admit it and laugh it off - and anyway, pay no attention, says Newt Gingrich, because the possible First Lady is a looker. Really? Really?

Read More: Critic's Notebook: Donald Trump's Speech Closes GOP Convention on Apocalyptic Note

The one consistent 4-day refrain is to put Hillary Clinton in jail - "lock her up" - or, even, shoot her. Virtually the entire establishment of the Republican party decides to be somewhere else. Ted Cruz comes to the convention and publicly snubs the candidate. The Republican governor of the state where the convention is being hosted is everywhere but at the convention itself - taunting the candidate from offsite.

Most of the speakers are unknowns or oddities or, seemingly, recruited off the street minutes before, or Trump family and business retainers - or Rudy Giuliani having a frothing-at-the-mouth episode. Then, in the middle of the convention, the candidate gives an interview saying he doesn't believe in NATO. Oh, and the collaborator on the book that made Trump famous, The Art of the Deal, says he's a sociopath - with Trump promptly siccing lawyers on him. And, to boot, the hall is at best half full.

And yet, none of this is much more extreme than the inexplicable behavior that has occurred all year. And here he is. It's his convention. And so there's the question: In some alternative reality, one which has whacked the media alongside the head again and again this year, will Donald Trump emerge out of this jaw-dropping event as an ever-more-compelling, protean, even romantic figure of clarity and strength?

In my hotel, a low-end Hyatt set in a mall development in the suburbs of Cleveland lodging various Republican delegates, there has been every morning - in the make-your-own-breakfast lobby kitchen feature - some kind of ecstatic, near-tremulous response to the night before. They can't get enough of the Trump thing.

He's a rococo Howard Roark. Or an aging rock star for the aging rock star demographic. Or - and last night, the liberal media took off its historical analogy gloves - he's Hitler or Mussolini. Which is another way of saying his appeal is utterly incomprehensible.

See More: Republican National Convention Day 4: Top 5 Best Moments

It's a dog whistle that no seemingly reasonable person, Democrat or Republican, can hear. Indeed, the country may not be so much separated by politics, conservative or liberal, but by taste, logic, aspirations and sensibility (quite a difficult divide for political writers and cable news channels to express). What one side sees as ugly and ridiculous, the other side sees as new and amazing - much like the reaction to the decor of a Trump building.

But even this falls far short of an explanation because with Trump, consistency and coherence fall short. In the midst of this angry populist convention, he asked his base to embrace his prepped-out, Richie Rich family. And perhaps it has.

Curiously, part of the dog whistle here is a message against the media itself and its inability to understand his appeal. If the media is arguing - and it is - that Trump is a joke, that the Republican party is finished, that demographics doom conservatism, the Trump view of the world sees the media the same way. We're the joke, the problem, the corrosive opinion. But in Trump land, he can negate that opinion. He negates all other opinions and arguments not his own by ignoring them, talking over them, denying them, mocking them. He creates his own reality, which seems to be pleasurable to many people.

Anyway, very few of us are capable of seeing how - at least in the traditional terms - this convention can possibly work for him.

But soon the numbers will be out with a bump or no bump. And meanwhile it's on to Philadelphia.
Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest Viking axes ever found, in the tomb of a 10th-century "power couple" in Denmark.

Kirsten Nellemann Nielsen, an archaeologist at the Silkeborg Museum who is leading excavations at the site near the town of Haarup, said Danish axes like the one found in the tomb were the most feared weapons of the Viking Age.

"It's a bit extraordinary  it's much bigger and heavier than the other axes. It would have had a very long handle, and it took both hands to use it," Nielsen told Live Science. [See Photos of the 10th-Century Viking Tomb]

The simplicity of the mighty ax, without any decorations or inscriptions, suggests this fearsome weapon was not just for show. "It's not very luxurious," she said.

And the man in the tomb was buried with his ax alone. "He didn't have anything else buried with him, so I think you can say he identified himself as a warrior above anything else," Nielsen said.

The ax was one of the artifacts recovered from the Haarup Viking tomb, or ddehus, which means "death house" in Danish. The tomb consisted of a wooden palisade or roofed structure, about 13 feet (4 meters) wide and 43 feet (13 m) long, which was constructed around the two graves.

The tomb was built around A.D. 950 for the burial of a man and a woman of evident distinction, Nielsen said. The individuals were identified by their clothing and belongings, and the only human remains that survived the centuries was a single black human hair found in the woman's clothing.

The woman was buried lying in a wooden wagon, which was a tradition for women of noble birth at the time, and a pair of keys found in the tomb indicated that she was one of the leading people in the community, according to the archaeologists.

Keys were a symbol of authority and distinction for women in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe in the Middle Ages, and the tradition likely dated back to an earlier time, Nielsen said. "If you are an important woman, with a lot of fine artifacts with you in the grave, then you also have a key," she said.

Story continues

One of the keys was for a small wooden casket, bound with iron brackets, that was buried beside her.

"She also had gold and silver threads woven into her clothing, so this is quite fine," Nielsen said.

Viking "power couple"

Nielsen said the man and woman in the tomb may not have been husband and wife, but they were clearly the local "power couple." [Fierce Fighters: 7 Secrets of Viking Seamen]

"The special thing about this tomb is that these two people, each in their own grave, are put inside the same structure," she said. "I can't say it isn't a brother and sister, or it could be [a] husband and wife relationship. But definitely, these two were the ones in charge, the noblest people of the local area."

At some point in time, after the first man and woman were buried, a second man was buried in a grave inside a wooden structure that was added to the original tomb. This man was also buried with his ax, although it was not as large as the ax from the original burial, the researchers said.

Nielsen thinks the second man could have been a relative or successor of the first man. "He was definitely a warrior," she said. "Both men had Dane axes made for fighting, and both were definitely warriors."

The tomb at Haarup was unlike any other Viking tomb in Denmark and the other Viking burials uncovered at the same site, she said.

"This is unique  the only one of its kind that I know of," Nielsen said. "It's a special place."

International connections

Other finds from the tomb, and other sites in Haarup, show that the local Vikings likely had some international connections, whether through trade or travel, the archaeologists said. [In Photos: Viking Voyage Discovered]

The woman in the tomb was buried with a decorated ceramic cup that originated in the Baltic region, Nielsen said. Two silver coins of a Middle Eastern type called dirhams, thought to be from an area that is now in Afghanistan, were found in the grave of another Viking woman buried nearby.

Nielsen has been working at Haarup since the site was unearthed during the construction of a motorway in 2012. As more construction goes on in the area, more archaeological discoveries are being made, including artifacts from the Iron Age and Danish medieval periods, as well as the Viking 10th century.

"From the Vikings, we have only found their burials  we haven't found their houses yet, so we know them only from their graves," Nielsen said. "They most definitely lived there, but we just haven't found the place yet."

Future archaeological research from Haarup will focus on the four different types of woven cloth found in the graves, the construction of the small casket in the leading woman's grave, and the single black hair found in her clothing  the only human remains that have survived, and potentially a source of DNA that could provide more clues about its owner, Nielsen said.

A report on the discoveries at Haarup, titled "Dead and Buried in the Viking Age," can be read online (in Danish) at Academia.edu.

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.
[July 22, 2016] Octapharma to Sponsor Two Symposia at the 2016 World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) World Congress in Orlando, USA

Octapharma will sponsor a range of activities at this year's WFH World Congress in Orlando, USA, including two symposia and a number of posters and scientific presentations highlighting Octapharma's recent developments in haemophilia A and von Willebrand disease (VWD). The first symposium, "Simple solutions to complex issues: Addressing today's challenges in VWD and haemophilia A" on Monday 25 July 2016, will be chaired by Professor Erik Berntorp (Lund University, Malmo, Sweden) and will explore current clinical issues in the management of patients with VWD and haemophilia A. New insights into prophylactic therapy for VWD patients will be discussed, including the management of bleeding in patients in the perioperative setting, and special issues related to VWD in women will be addressed. The latest clinical experiences with wilate, a high purity, double virus-inactivated VWF/FVIII concentrate containing both factors in a physiological 1:1 ratio, will be presented including its use in immune tolerance induction in haemophilia A patients with FVIII inhibitors. Major challenges in current haemophilia A treatment include the development of inhibitors and the need for frequent venous access for FVIII injection. Octapharma's human cell line recombinant FVIII Nuwiq (Human-cl rhFVIII), is a fourth generation rFVIII derived from a human cell line without chemical modification or fusion with any other protein and is devoid of antigenic non-human epitopes1,2. The development aim of Nuwiq is to address the challenges of FVIII inhibitors and frequent infusions required during prophylaxis. The second symposium, "A focus on human cell-line derived rFVIII in haemophilia A: Update on clinical experience with Nuwiq in PUPs and PTPs" on Wednesday 27 July, will be chaired by Professor Craig Kessler (Georgetown University Medical Centre, Washington DC, USA) and will provide an opportunity to discuss the current complex issues in haemophilia A and the latest experience with Nuwiq. The risk of inhibitor development throughout the life of haemophilia A patients, taking into account factors such as age and the need for intensive treatment during surgery will be reviewed. New interim data from a clinical study of Nuwiq in previously untreated patients (PUPs) will be presented, as well as the importance of PK-guided personalised prophylaxis and its potential to reduce the number of infusions and bleeding rates.



Nuwiq-Focused Posters:

Individualized prophylaxis with Nuwiq  (Human-cl rhFVIII) in previously treated adults with severe haemophilia A who had received regular routine prophylaxis in the past

(Human-cl rhFVIII) in previously treated adults with severe haemophilia A who had received regular routine prophylaxis in the past PUPs with Severe Haemophilia A - A GCP Study Evaluating the Immunogenicity, Efficacy and Safety of Nuwiq  (NuProtect)

(NuProtect) Individual baseline thrombin generation and bleeding rate during personalized prophylaxis with Nuwiq  in previously treated patients with severe haemophilia A

in previously treated patients with severe haemophilia A Long-term Immunogenicity, Safety and Efficacy of Human-cl rhFVIII in Previously Treated Children with Severe Haemophilia A

Experience with Nuwiq in clinical trials with previously treated paediatric and adult patients Wilate-Focused Posters: Surveillance Study of Safety and Efficacy of a VWF/FVIII concentrate in patients with von Willebrand disease (VWD) - data report from an ongoing study (Wil-20) Octanate-Focused Posters: Immune tolerance induction in haemophilia A inhibitor patients with a single factor VIII/von Willebrand factor concentrate in an observational immune tolerance induction study (ObsITI)

Disease severity as a predictor of response to immune tolerance induction (ITI) in adult patients with haemophilia A and high titer inhibitors Fibrinogen-Focused Posters: Pharmacokinetic (PK) Comparison of Two Fibrinogen Concentrates in Patients with Congenital Fibrinogen Deficiency: final analysis. About von Willebrand Disease VWD is the most common of the inherited bleeding disorders, with approximately 1% of the population having VWF levels below normal. VWD is classified as type 1 (generally mild), type 2 (variable) or type 3 (severe). The symptoms of VWD are usually those of platelet dysfunction and include nose bleeds, skin bruises and haematomas, prolonged bleeds from trivial wounds, oral cavity bleeding, and excessive menstrual bleeding. Gastrointestinal bleeds are relatively rare, but may be very serious when they occur. Severe deficiency of VWF, or a specific defect in the interaction of VWF with FVIII, causes a secondary moderate deficiency of FVIII. These patients may have symptoms that are more characteristic of haemophilia, such as bleeds into joints or soft tissues including muscle and brain. About Haemophilia A Haemophilia A is an X-linked hereditary disorder caused by FVIII deficiency which if left untreated leads to haemorrhages in muscles and joints and consequently to arthropathy and severe morbidity. FVIII replacement prophylactic treatment reduces the number of bleeding episodes and the risk of permanent joint damage. This disorder affects one in every 5,000 to 10,000 men worldwide. Globally, 75% of haemophilia cases are left undiagnosed or untreated. The development of neutralising FVIII antibodies (FVIII inhibitors) against infused FVIII represents the most serious treatment complication. The cumulative risk of FVIII inhibitor development is reported to be currently up to 38%. About Octapharma Headquartered in Lachen, Switzerland, Octapharma is one of the largest human protein manufacturers in the world, developing and producing human proteins from human plasma and human cell lines. As a family-owned company, Octapharma believes in investing to make a difference in people's lives and has been doing so since 1983; because it's in our blood. Octapharma employs approximately 6,400 people worldwide to support the treatment of patients in 105 countries with products across three therapeutic areas:  Critical Care  Haematology (coagulation disorders)  Immunotherapy (immune disorders) Octapharma owns five state-of-the-art production facilities in Austria, France, Germany, Mexico and Sweden. For more information visit www.octapharma.com References: 1. FDA Memorandum to Octapharma dated 09 October 2014, reference STN 125555\0 2. Kannicht et al. Thrombosis Research 2013; 131: 78-88 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005358/en/

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When Disney's Moana hits theater this fall, romance won't be a part of the storyline.

The Polynesian animated character will be the first Disney princess to not have a love interest, the film's directors John Musker and Ron Clements, confirmed on Thursday during a panel event at Comic-Con 2016.

"There is no romance in the movie," Musker said, explaining that Moana's story will focus on her own personal journey.

WATCH: Meet Disney's Newest Princess, Moana, and the 14-year-old Girl Who Plays Her

As the only daughter of a chief and navigation expert, 16-year-old Princess Moana Waialiki, sets sail for an unforgettable voyage in the South Pacific Ocean. Joining her on the trek are sidekicks Pua the pig and Hei Hei the chicken, along with the Demi-god Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson.

The former wrestling star also sings a song penned by Hamilton creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda and he's hoping not to "screw it up," Johnson jokingly tweeted on Thursday.

Yup, I sing in #Moana a song written/conducted by the master himself @Lin_Manuel. I just tried not to screw it up https://t.co/mlmSltaVGZ  Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 21, 2016

Moana is voiced by 14-year-old Hawaiian newcomer, Auli'I Cravahlo . The teen excitedly tweeted out snapshots from the Comic-Con event on Thursday. "It was so awesome getting to meet all of the fans on the floor. Even got to sign some autographs," she wrote next to a photo signing an autograph.

It was so awesome getting to meet all of the fans on the floor. Even got to sign some autographs! #Moana #SDCC2016  pic.twitter.com/U5BqlVDyTR  Auli'i Cravalho (@auliicravalho) July 21, 2016

WATCH: Dwayne Johnson Gets Animated in Adorable New 'Moana' Trailer

Moana hits theaters on Nov. 23. Take a behind-the-scenes look at the film below:

Story continues

Related Articles
The mother of a missing Arizona boy has made a desperate plea for her son to return home safely as search efforts to find him intensified.

No one is mad at you, Crystal Wilson, choking back tears, told local media Thursday.

Read: Mystery Deepens Over 2-Year-Old Boy Who Vanished in the Woods

Police say the 10-year-old boy, Jesse Wilson, is believed to have left the family home in Buckeye through an open window sometime Sunday evening, the Arizona Republic reported.

I just miss you  your sister and your brother love you so much, she said.

Police fanned out Wednesday throughout Buckeye and larger Maricopa County, though excessive heat forced searchers to halt operations late Thursday morning.

Summer temperatures in the area routinely reach triple digits and much of the search terrain is treacherous.

In addition to combing the land, Buckeye police have also taken to the web to ask for tips and to keep the public informed of new developments.

An active investigation into Jesse's disappearance is ongoing and BPD will be providing updates as we get them, the department wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. At this time, we are asking the public to continue to keep an eye out for Jesse and share his photo with your social media friends.

Read: Men Hailed as Heroes After Finding Missing Girl Carlie Trent: 'It's a Blessing We Found Her

In addition to local law enforcement, the Buckeye Swat team as well as the FBI have both joined the search. On Thursday evening, FBI officials visited the Wilson home and reportedly left with bags of evidence, according to affiliate KPHO.

Well-wishers have also done their part. Wilsons school, the Bradley Academy of Excellence, launched a hashtag campaign, #LeadJesseHome and website for donations.

Wilson is reportedly four feet tall and roughly 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing black shoes, black socks and a red shirt, the Associated Press reported.

Story continues

Watch: Dad Charged With Neglect After Twin Daughter With Autism Dies in Hot RV

Related Articles:
Though she is grateful for the supportive community that has risen up around her, the mother of a missing Ohio woman tells PEOPLE she is still frustrated by the lack of answers.



"We don't know any more than the night she went missing," says Sheila Vaculik, mother of 20-year-old Sierah Joughin, who went missing Tuesday. "I mean, people are spreading this information all over and everyone knows she's been missing, but nobody has seen her or given us any kinds of leads."



"The last person saw her and then she's just gone," Vaculik says. "It's just so frustrating."



Vaculik tells PEOPLE she believes "that somebody took [my daughter] and there's more than one person."







"She's a strong girl. She's had self-defense classes," Vaculik says. "We've talked extensively about being aware of her surroundings and what to do if somebody takes you."





Bicycle Discovered in Cornfield

Joughin was reported missing in Lyons by her family Tuesday night, just hours after she didn't return from riding her bike with boyfriend Josh Kolasinski, who was riding a motorcycle, local authorities have said, adding that the pair parted amicably.



She and Vaculik spoke that night, about 5 p.m. local time before Joughin went for her bike ride, Vaculik says.



Shortly after 10 p.m., Vaculik says, Kolasinski called her to ask if Joughin had made it home.



Authorities have said Kolasinski has been cooperative with their investigation and is not a suspect. "He's doing whatever they ask, he's been trying to help," Vaculik says.





Mom of Missing Ohio Woman Speaks Out: 'There's More Than One Person' Involved| Crime & Courts, True Crime

Kolasinksi had posted a photo to social media from their bike ride together Tuesday night, showing Joughin wearing neon shoes and clothing, with sunglasses.



At some point on her ride, Joughin "actually rode by a house on county road 6 and the family was out and they had young children so she waved to them and they waved to her," Vaculik says. "That was the last people who visually saw her."





Story continues

Mom of Missing Ohio Woman Speaks Out: 'There's More Than One Person' Involved| Crime & Courts, True Crime

Authorities have said Joughin's bike was discovered in a cornfield, a few rows in.



"We're going to always be optimistic," Fulton County Sheriff Roy Miller said Thursday.



"Until someone proves something different to me, she's alive and we're going to do what we can do to bring her home," he added.



Joughin is 5-foot-5-inches and weighs 130 pounds, with brown and black hair and brown eyes.



The sheriff's office is urging anyone with information on Joughin's whereabouts to call 419-335-4010, ext. 8.



 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.





Mom of Missing Ohio Woman Speaks Out: 'There's More Than One Person' Involved| Crime & Courts, True Crime

Keeping the Faith

Joughin, a student at the University of Toledo, loves to travel and shop and exercise, her mom says. She is a hard-worker who enjoyed school and who is very close to her family.



"She was hoping to study abroad this fall," Vaculik tells PEOPLE, adding, "She's very dedicated, caring, compassionate."



In their traditionally peaceful community, Vaculik says she never thought she needed to "check up" on her daughter.



"We live in a very quiet, supportive community and I've got younger kids and wouldn't even bat an eye letting them ride down to my parents' house," she says. "And now I won't let them out."



Vaculik says she has shared her concern that Joughin is no longer in their Fulton County area. "I feel like the police are being very thorough and doing everything they can, even if they're not giving me answers," she says.



The community  including family and friends  "is messaging me and praying and keeping the faith," Vaculik says. "It does help and keeps me positive, because it's very easy to go down a dark path."



Vaculik also created a GoFundMe page to raise money for "billboards, advertisements, posters, large signs, and flyers," or anything else that can raise awareness about her daughter's disappearance. As of this writing, it has raised more than $25,000.



"I just want her to come home," Vaculik says. "I just want this to be over."
The Ishares Msci Turkey Inv Market Index Fd (NYSE: TUR) fell almost 3 percent Thursday, bringing the five-day loss for the only exchange-traded fund dedicated to Turkish equities to almost 18 percent.

Since last Friday's failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, TUR has been getting punished and that punishment is arriving on consistently high volume. Thursday's decline saw 1.77 million shares of TUR change hands, more than triple the three-month daily average.

Ratings Agencies

Predictably, ratings agencies are expressing caution, to say the least, on Turkey. Early this week, Moody's Investor's Service lowered its outlook on Turkish sovereign debt to negative, while putting the country on review for a possible downgrade to junk status. Moody's currently rates Turkish sovereign debt one notch above junk.

Related Link: Turkey's Government Wants Banks To Hand Over Their Post-Coup Analysis

On Thursday, S&P Global Ratings trimmed Turkeys credit rating to BB, two levels below investment grade, with a negative outlook. Turkey has long had a troubled relationship with Standard & Poor's and Thursday's ratings cut is not going to do anything to repair that relationship.

Political Volatility And Investor Sentiment

Global investors are also concerned about how the political volatility in Turkey will affect the country's banks. That is of particular concern for TUR investors, because the ETF devotes over 43 percent of its weight to financial services, more than triple its weight to consumer staples, TUR's second-largest sector allocation.

Downside risks for Turkish banks' credit profiles and ratings have increased as a result of the country's attempted military coup and the greater political polarisation that appears to be following in its aftermath, Fitch Ratings says. Turkish banks' credit profiles are sensitive to country risks, access to foreign credit markets and the lira exchange rate, said Fitch Ratings in a recent note.

Story continues

That is an added element of volatility for an ETF that does not need it. TUR's three-year standard deviation is 29 percent, putting it on par with Russia ETFs, and making the fund much more volatile than diversified emerging markets ETFs.

It's Not All Terrible For Turkey

Fortunately, Turkish bank fundamentals remain solid.

At the same time, we continue to view the Turkish banking sector as fundamentally sound, as reflected in the investment-grade ratings of most large lenders, and do not expect any sharp movements in banks' financial metrics in the near term. There has been little evidence of deposit instability triggered by the attempted coup, and the central bank has indicated its readiness to provide liquidity support to the sector, added Fitch.

Full ratings data available on Benzinga Pro.

Did you like this article? Could it have been improved? Please email feedback@benzinga.com with the story link to let us know!

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
An 18-year-old who authorities say was "obsessed" with mass shootings opened fire on a crowd in a Munich shopping mall, killing nine people and wounding 16 on Friday.

The shooting spree ended when authorities say the German-Iranian man, who reportedly has no links to ISIS, killed himself.

"Documents were found about mass shootings," Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told reporters about the subsequent investigation into the unnamed gunman. "The perpetrator was obviously obsessed with the issue."

Video footage captured at least one of the gunmen on film.

Read: How to Use a Belt to Barricade a Door During a Shooting

Munich police warned residents to avoid public places and said a large operation is underway. They said the scene on the ground remained highly fluid.

The situation is still completely confusing, Thomas Baumann, a deputy spokesman of the Munich police, told Germany's dpa news agency, according to The New York Times.

The attack began at about 6 p.m. local time at a McDonalds, Munich police told dpa. Police said on Facebook that witnesses saw three people with guns. At least one woman said a gunman came out of the bathroom and targeted children while they ate, according to CNN.

Footage taken outside the mall showed people streaming into the streets.

Shooting in #Munich shopping mall #OEZ!! People running away to seek shelter!! pic.twitter.com/PB189s6RQy  Thamina Stoll (@thaminastoll) July 22, 2016

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been alot," an employee said, according to Reuters. "All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive."

Story continues

On Friday, President Obama issued a statement of solidarity to the German people.

"We don't yet know exactly what's happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured," he said from the White House. "We are going to pledge all the support they may need."

Read: Brave Cop Told Trapped Workers: 'I'll Take A Bullet Before You Do'

It comes just days after a 17-year-old Afghan used an ax and knife to wound four people on a train in Wuerzburg Monday. The attacker was shot dead but all of his victims survived. One man remains in life-threatening condition at a local hospital.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the train attack.

Watch: How to Use a Fire Extinguisher in an Attack

Related Articles:
UPDATED: Police confirm that eight people were killed and several wounded in and around a Munich shopping mall Friday afternoon. Authorities are searching for three perpetrators in the Munich area, although a ninth person found dead near the crime scene could have been one of the killers.

Police are searching for the culprit or culprits, who are reportedly on the run following the shooting in the Olympia shopping center, in nearby locations in the northern part of Munich.

Several online and TV news reports cited witnesses who heard one of the shooters yell scheiss Auslaender, or f***ing foreigners, while he fired his weapon.

Witnesses reported seeing three people with firearms, according to police.

President Barack Obama issued a statement Friday before a White House meeting. We dont yet know exactly whats happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured, Obama said. We are going to pledge all the support they may need.

German media reports initially describe the attack as a rampage shooting by a perpetrator who fired randomly at shoppers and passers by. Police have indicated that a terrorist motive appears increasingly likely. Fridays shooting comes a week after the Nice massacre that killed more than 80 people.

Munich police have closed off the area surrounding the shopping center, set up roadblocks and halted subway trains and other public transportation in an effort to corral the shooter or shooters and prevent their escape from the area, according to public broadcaster ARD news reports.

The emergency services received a call at about 6 p.m. local time reporting that a man had opened fire in a McDonalds in the Olympia shopping mall in the Moosach district. Witnesses later told police there had been more than one attacker. A police spokeswoman said: We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage. We believe there was more than one perpetrator.

The police have told people to stay indoors and avoid public places, and asked folks not to post photos or video of the police operation online. Dont support the attackers!, a police tweet said.

Story continues

The U.S. consulate in Munich has issued the following advice to U.S. citizens in the city: Media is reporting shots fired at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany, resulting in casualties. There are subsequent reports of shots fired in other locations in Munich. There is a major police operation underway. Mass transit around the city is also reported to be halted during the police operation.

U.S. citizens are advised to shelter in place pending police announcements that the situation is under control. Review your personal security plans; remain aware of your surroundings, and monitor local news stations for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security.

A second shooting reported in another part of the Bavarian city, Karlsplatz (known locally as Stachus), is believed to have been a false alarm. Security officials in the region have been on alert following an ax attack on a train earlier this week.

Related stories

Turkish Film and TV Community on Edge After Airport Terror Attack

French Terror Suspect Broadcasts Deadly Kidnapping on Facebook Live

President Obama: Orlando Attack Was 'An Act of Terror and an Act of Hate'




"Several are dead and wounded" following a shooting at a Munich shopping center in Germany on Friday, July 22, a police spokesman said, according to the Associated Press.



The attack began at a fast food restaurant around 6 p.m. local time at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, reports the AP. The Bavarian Interior Ministry confirmed that others have also been injured.

Celebrity Health Scares

Police quickly ordered civilians to find shelter and to go to the other side of the street. The incident is still under investigation and identities of the victims have not been released.

Lynn Stein, who works at the Jack Wolfskin store in the mall, told CNN what she saw at the scene. "I heard several shots," she said. "People started running. I went outside as well; more people running outside. I think I heard more shots. Then it sounded like he went to the parking house next to the mall  several shots there."

Stars We've Lost

According to the AP, the perpetrator or perpetrators are on the run.



The British Foreign Office issued a statement warning others to stay away from the area, which has since been sealed off. "You are advised to avoid this location and follow the advice of local authorities," the statement read. Police are also asking bystanders to not share images or videos of the situation on social media.

Story is developing.






[July 22, 2016] PFP Cybersecurity Announces DARPA Award for Leveraging the Analog Domain

PFP Cybersecurity, a provider of unique, physics-based anomaly detection technology, today announced it has been awarded a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for Leveraging the Analog Domain for Security (LADS) program to study advanced solutions that provide a new category of threat intelligence and detection to identify today's most sophisticated IoT and embedded system cybersecurity attacks. "PFP is excited to be part of DARPA's LADS program," said CTO Carlos Aguayo Gonzalez. "We're thrilled to be a part of ensuring the country's cyber protection. This program will add significant enhancements to our detection technology to secure IoT devices." In some instances, a physical side channel can be used to assess the execution status in a connected device's processor or digital circut using an external monitor to detect, with extreme accuracy, when an unauthorized action has disrupted the normal operation of any system (e.g., a computer system). The increase in connectivity, consumer behavior and enterprise security is vital to the safety of anything and anyone connected to the internet. PFP's solution protects against cyber-attacks that threaten any IoT connected devices including the power grid, cars, cell phones, tablets and various other smart devices.



PFP enables a SaaS (News - Alert) solution for brand protection for Fortune 1000 companies. The PFP IoT platform for trust, based on patented analytics for power - the lowest common denominator, is proven to detect supply chain, configuration and continuous attacks. The PFP analytics could provide alarms in machine time to an enterprise system such as SOC with strong confidence. It could also be used for forensic to provide clarity which does not exist today. About PFP Cybersecurity

Headquartered in the Washington, D.C., PFP Cybersecurity (aka Power Fingerprinting Inc.) is a Virginia Tech spin-off using patented technology developed by Dr. Jeff Reed and Dr. Carlos Aguayo Gonzalez (CTO). Cofounder and CEO Steven Chen, CFO Rich Kearney and VP Marketing Thurston Brooks have proven the same business model, leveraging government funded technology for commercial success through $300M+ SBIR Phase III contracts. The PFP Board and advisors include the Honorable Gordon England, Chairman, National Academy of Engineering Council and former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Homeland Security; John Czupak, CEO of ThreatQuotient and former SVP of Business Development at SourceFire; Dave Merkel, former CTO of Mandiant and FireEye; and Todd Headley, former CFO of SourceFire. PFP has been covered by media (e.g., Forbes, MIT (News - Alert) Technical Review, Bloomberg, Dark Reading, etc.). Gartner has selected PFP as a 2015 Cool Vendor. PFP has been awarded the SINET16, the top 16 cyber security innovator award in 2015 and 2016. Lux Research highlighted PFP as a top 10 innovative company with a strong positive rating for connected objects and platforms. For more information, please visit: http://www.pfpcyber.com/ View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005760/en/

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By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have perished in the Mediterranean Sea already this year while almost 250,000 have reached Europe, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday. The estimated death toll could put 2016 on track to be the deadliest year of the migration crisis. Last year the same landmark was only reached in October, by which time nearly one million people had crossed into Europe. "This is the earliest that we have seen the 3,000 (deaths) mark, this occurred in September of 2014 and October of 2015," IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a briefing. "So for this to be happening even before the end of July is quite alarming." Three out of four victims this year died while trying to reach Italy from North Africa, mostly Libya, a longer and more dangerous route. The others drowned between Turkey and Greece before that flow dried up with the March deal on migrants between Turkey and the European Union. Nearly 2,500 fatalities have occurred since late March, with about 20 migrants dying each day along the route from Libya to Italy, Millman said. Most are from West Africa and the Horn of Africa, although they may include people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco. "The (Libyan) coast guard has had some luck turning back voyages from Libya. We've heard in the last six weeks a number of cases where they have been able to turn boats back. "They (have also been) recovering bodies at an alarming rate," Millman said. Some 84,052 migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy so far this year, almost exactly the same number as in the same period a year before, he said. That indicated departures from Libya were at "maximum capacity" due to a limited number of boats deemed seaworthy. But there is "a very robust market of used fishing vessels and things coming from Tunisia and Egypt that are finding their way to brokers in Tripoli," Millman said. "And you can actually go to shipyards where people are trying to repair boats as fast as they can to get more migrants on the sea." Migrants in Libya are often held in detention centers, some run by criminal gangs and militias, he said. IOM officials seek access to detainees and authorization for their repatriation. "There's no question that in some of this range of detention (centers) there are people in league with smugglers who are moving people toward the smugglers," Millman said. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Friday to offer condolences on the death of his brother, an Israeli official said.

Abbas's brother Omar died in Qatar on Thursday, with the funeral taking place on Friday.

He had been suffering from cancer, according to Israeli media reports.

The official, in the Israeli prime minister's office, told AFP that Netanyahu's telephone call to Abbas was "only to offer condolences".

No other topics were discussed, he said.

Palestinian state media confirmed the call.

Relations between the two men are frosty, with Netanyahu accusing Abbas of libelling the Jewish people last month after he suggested some rabbis had called for Palestinian wells to be poisoned.

Abbas and Netanyahu shook hands at a climate summit in Paris in November, but held no significant talks.

The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have happened in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

The last talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April 2014 despite intense American diplomatic efforts.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, the architect of those talks, was meant to meet Abbas in Paris on Friday evening, but the meeting was cancelled following news of the Palestinian president's bereavement.

Addressing journalists in Vienna before flying to Paris, Kerry said the meeting would take place towards the end of July.

"I talked to him last night... he and I will meet somewhere shortly after the period of mourning," Kerry said.

Israel has called for direct peace negotiations without preconditions, but the Palestinian leadership prefers a multilateral approach, saying Israel's leadership has failed to abide by previous agreements.
The American streaming platform proved particularly generous with its teasers at this year's San Diego Comic Con, which opened July 21 in the USA. Fans of superheroes and the world of Marvel found out more on the site's upcoming series, "Luke Cage," "Iron Fist" and "The Defenders."

Due to land September 30 on Netflix, a first teaser for "Luke Cage" showcases the superhuman force acquired by this African-American superhero following a sabotaged scientific experiment. The video also hints at the painful past of the character, who has previously appeared in "Jessica Jones," the most recent Marvel series to land on Netflix. Actor Mike Colter ("The Good Wife," "Zero Dark Thirty") will be stepping into the role once again.

At the end of the Netflix panel, San Diego convention-goers were then treated to two eagerly awaited teasers. The first, for "Iron Fist," gave a brief summary of the story of Daniel Rand, an American hero who, as a young boy, lost his parents on a trip to the heart of the Himalayas. Taken in by Lei Kung, the boy received advanced martial arts training. Ten years later, he returned to the USA to avenge the death of his parents, caused by his father's former business associate Ward Meachum. Iron Fist is played by Finn Jones, a British actor known to "Game of Thrones" fans as Loras Tyrell.

"Iron Fist" is due to land on Netflix in 2017, along with "The Defenders," a series featuring the full line-up of Marvel/Netflix characters, i.e., Daredevil -- which has just bagged a third season -- Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. A first teaser was presented at San Diego Comic-Con, although it didn't preview any footage from the series, which hasn't yet started filming. Fans of the genre will instantly recognize the voice of Stick, Daredevil's mentor, saying "You think the four of you can save New York? You can't even save yourselves," as Nirvana's "Come as You Are" creates a creepy soundtrack.

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See the teaser for "Luke Cage": Youtu.be/TZJiyvO28Rc

See the teaser for "Iron Fist": Youtu.be/8zE9Jt-9swI

See the teaser for "The Defenders": Youtu.be/vyhmtZD4s0Q
Never Trump lives on on the GOP convention floorwell, sort of.

Justin Dillon, an alternate delegate from the District of Columbia is handing out 200 buttons opposing Donald Trump on the convention floor, just hours before Trump is set to formally accept the nomination.

Sometime party loyalty asks too much, the button says, including the hashtag #NeverTrump and a pair of thumbs down emoji.

The DC delegation is seated the furthest from the podium, in recognition of the high propensity of Anti-Trump delegates in its delegation. Many members of the delegation were seen sporting the buttons and Dillon said he passed some to delegates in Ohio and Virginia.

Asked how hed vote in November, Dillon, a supporter of Ohio Gov John Kasich, said hed, Probably vote for Gary Johnson.

Dillon has been the subject of jeers from some pro-Trump delegates with one Texas delegate accosting him and calling him retarded in full view of reporters.
Paris (AFP) - Truck attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had long plotted the carnage in the French city of Nice that killed 84 people, with the assistance of five suspects, prosecutor Francois Molins said Thursday.

Anti-terrorism judges have charged the five suspects and remanded them in custody.

Here is what we know so far about Bouhlel and his alleged accomplices.

- Bouhlel, the attacker -

Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who had been living in France since 2005, carried out the attack during Bastille Day celebrations on July 14, ramming a truck into a crowd that had been enjoying a fireworks display.

Molins said photos on his phone showed he had likely staked out the event in 2015, and initial details of the investigation reveal he had been fascinated with jihad for some time.

However many people interviewed by investigators described the father of three as "someone who did not practise the Muslim religion, ate pork, drank alcohol, took drugs and had an unbridled sexual activity", Molins said earlier this week.

While the Islamic State group claimed the attack, describing him as a "soldier", investigators have not found direct proof of his allegiance to the jihadists.

On Bastille Day this year, the attacker used a rented truck to carry out the deadly attack on the crowd on the promenade, after apparently monitoring the walkway in the preceding days.

His family and friends have described him as violent and possibly suffering from mental illness.

Bouhlel was shot dead by police during the rampage. Investigators have since managed to track down other suspects through his phone.

- Ramzi A. -

With a criminal record for robbery and drug offences, Franco-Tunisian Ramzi A. is the only one of the suspects who was known to the authorities prior to the attack.

Born in Nice, he received two text messages from Bouhlel minutes before the carnage began.

In one of the messages, the killer thanks him for a pistol he allegedly gave him the previous night, and mentions five other weapons.

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Police found a Kalashnikov and a bag of ammunition as they searched a cellar of one of Ramzi A.'s associates on Wednesday, but what the weapon was intended for was unclear.

Officers also found more than 2,500 euros ($2,750) in cash and 200 grams (seven ounces) of cocaine in Ramzi A.'s home.

He has been charged with both acting as an accomplice to murder by a terror group and of breaking the law on firearms in relation to a terrorist crime.

- Artan H. and his wife -

Ramzi A. has claimed that an Albanian aged 38, named Artan H., gave him the pistol Bouhlel mentioned in his message.

The Albanian and his wife -- Enkeledja Z., who holds French and Albanian nationality -- were taken into custody Sunday.

- Chokri C. -

On April 4 this year, Tunisian Chokri C., aged 37, sent Bouhlel a Facebook message reading: "Load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron... release the brakes my friend and I will watch".

Video surveillance placed Chokri, who had no previous police record, with Bouhlel in the truck on the Promenade Des Anglais prior to the attack.

His fingerprints have been found on one of the truck doors.

- Mohamed Oualid G., 40 -

Molins said Bouhlel and Mohamed Oualid G., a 40-year-old French-Tunisian, called each other 1,278 times between July 2015 and July 2016.

Investigators also found a message in Bouhlel's phone from Oualid on January 10 2015 -- roughly a year after attacks on the Charlie Hebdo weekly which spawned the hashtag "I am Charlie" in support of those killed.

The message read: "I am not Charlie ... I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job."

Pictures of Oualid apparently taken in the truck used in the attack were also found on Bouhlel's phone.
CLEVELAND  A tall man with a heavy Dutch accent and thick wave of platinum blond hair stood behind the podium in a darkened ballroom, and told the American audience what it came to hear.

If you allow Islam to be planted on your soil, dont be surprised when you grow Sharia law, Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician, said to roars of approval.

Wilders may be not be a household name in the United States, but an enthusiastic crowd of Trump supporters gave him a heros reception Wednesday night on the sidelines of the Republican party convention in Cleveland.

Chanting Geert! Geert! Geert! the audience welcomed his warnings about the dangers of Muslim immigration.

We should stop the Islamicization  it is a matter of our survival, said Wilders.

Whether facing lawsuits in European courts over his alleged hate speech or threats to his life that have prompted a constant security detail, Wilders maintains a defiant stance. And he is an avowed admirer of a certain American presidential candidate known also for his distinctive hair and distrust of Muslim refugees.

Wilderss presence at the GOP convention, along with the British Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, highlighted an extraordinary convergence of nativist, nationalist sentiments surging on both sides of the Atlantic.

Both Wilders and Farage were recognized by cowboy hat-wearing, sequin-covered GOP delegates around the halls of the convention this week. And both believe the shift to nativist politics is personified in the United States by Donald Trump, the New York businessman and Republican nominee who has made building a wall on the Mexico-U.S. border to halt illegal immigration a signature of his unlikely campaign.

However, the event where Wilders spoke, titled Wake Up! The Most Fab Party at the RNC, was not exactly a typical Republican affair, as it was sponsored in part by LGBTrump and emphasized the threat posed by Islam to gay rights. The LGBT community is not a mainstay of support for Trump or the GOP, and Wilderss references to gay rights would have not gone over well with many in the convention hall. Flanking the podium behind Wilders were posters of naked and half-naked men sporting various versions of Trumps Make America Great Again hats.

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Wilders told the small but enthusiastic audience that his message  and Trumps message  was gaining growing political support  whether in Austria or Arkansas.

Parties like Mr. Trump, my party, all over Europe, from France to Germany and Austria to Italy, they are winning, he said, and he added: I could become the next prime minister.

The crowd roared again.

A few hours later and across the river, journalists and Republicans in professional attire sipped coffee in porcelain mugs and forked frittata as another populist politician from across the pond took to the stage.

The conversation hosted by McClatchy newspapers was one of Nigel Farages first appearances since stepping down as the leader of Britains right-wing U.K. Independence Party, a major force behind the shocking June 23 referendum in which British voters opted to leave the European Union. Well-dressed in a slate gray pinstriped suit and shoes that shone off the spotlights, Farage was unapologetic over the political shakeup he helped unleash.

There is no xenophobia to saying we are proud to be the United Kingdom, and that we should control the people who come into the country, Farage said of the movement he led, fueled in part by anti-immigration fervor in Britain.

People accuse me of being anti-European, as if I thought everybody south of Calais was frightful, he laughed.

Farage said he was not attending the GOP convention at the invitation of the newly minted nominee Trump, but added, Im going to enjoy other independence movements.

His and Wilderss visit to the GOP gathering amounts to a blessing by European nativists of the Republican nominees America First doctrine, a neo-isolationist, anti-trade, anti-immigration foreign policy that turns traditional Republican tenets upside down. Throughout the campaign, Trump has drawn the admiration of some right-leaning European politicians but also the dismay of other leaders alarmed at his talk of overturning decades of U.S. policy.

In a bombshell interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, Trump took his America First slogan to a new level, suggesting he might ignore the Article 5 principle at the foundation of the NATO alliance that pledges protection for any member state that comes under attack.

Still, Wilders and Farage are not totally aligned with the GOP nominee.

The Dutch leaders heated anti-Islamic rhetoric goes beyond what even the blunt-speaking Trump dares. He came to the convention at the invitation of Tennessee State Sen. Bill Ketron, a controversial figure who has pushed legislation in the southern state prohibiting the practice of Sharia and challenging the Obama administrations authority over where to resettle refugees.

Ketron describes his state as being overrun by refugees, though in an interview with Foreign Policy he produced little evidence to prove that, and alleged the federal government is lying about the true connections between Islam and terrorism.

Ketron dismissed critics who faulted him for inviting Wilders, whom hes known for five years. None of the people hes met or that Ive introduced him to this week think that  they respect him so much, because they get it, he said. They understand whats happening in France, in Berlin, in the Nordic countries, here  theyre trying to enforce Sharia.

As for Farage, he said he was close to several Republican U.S. senators, but declined to name them. He insisted he came after an initial invitation from McClatchy. Although he was highly critical of President Obamas decision to weigh in on the Brexit referendum before the vote was held, urging U.K. voters to remain in the European Union, Farage insisted his visit was not aimed at inserting himself into Americas presidential campaign.

Im not American, I havent got a vote, I havent come to endorse anybody, Ive come to tell a story, he told FP.

He was in admiration of the freedoms afforded delegates and protesters at the Republican convention. He noted that the crowd was allowed to chant Lock her up! in response to a fiery speech delivered by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, which he watched in person. Christie accused Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton of a litany of alleged crimes and mistakes.

The crowd was saying things that if I said in the U.K. Id be locked up for, he said, grinning.

But he drew some distance between himself and the Republican nominee. He pointed to Trumps on-again, off-again Muslim ban and insinuations of violence against some reporters. Although controversy can be an effective political tool, Trump pushes things to the point that makes even me wince just a little bit, he said.

If we make an enemy of everyone of Islamic faith we are committing a grave error, he told FP.

Although he believes the British exit from the EU will allow the U.K. to have more control over its national security strategy, he also disagreed with Trumps anti-NATO stance.

Am I supportive of NATO in the sense that its sovereign states cooperating together? he said. Yes, of course I am.

But Farage also argued that the rise of far-right parties in Europe has been prompted by liberal political correctness, rather than politicians exploiting peoples fears.

Farage was once dismissed and scoffed at by Britains political elite, who assumed his campaign to lead the U.K. out of the EU would fail. Although he wouldnt make any predictions about the outcome of Americas election in November, Farage said the U.S. political establishment should not to underestimate Trumps appeal.

I think Trump has surprised everybody all the way through to now.

Photo credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
(Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group said on Thursday they are not aware of any peace talks with the government. "If we are to engage in any peace talk we made it clear that the international community must be part of it," the group's spokesman Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo said on the organizations website. "The President knows our demands. So they should stop deceiving the international oil companies, the general public and the international community." Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said the government is talking to militants in the southern Niger Delta to end a wave of attacks on oil and gas facilities and "to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region". (Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru)
Itongadol.- One year after the murder of teenager Shira Banki, at least 30 suspects were arrested for attempting to disrupt Thursdays annual Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, which attracted a record 25,000 participants amid unprecedented security.

Following Bankis death at the hands of religious zealot Yishai Schlissel last July, hundreds of heavily-armed police officers from a breadth of units, aided by a helicopter, cracked down on any disruptions, seizing two knives, police said.

Hours before the parade began at Liberty Bell Park, police announced that Schlissel  who stabbed Banki, 16, and six others, days after being released from prison for committing a similar crime 10 years earlier  was rearrested for conspiring with his brother to carry out more attacks from prison.

Holding a rainbow-colored gay pride flag, Omer Barsheshet, 16, said he traveled from Ashdod with his boyfriend to Jerusalem for the parade to honor Bankis memory.

Last year Shira was murdered, and its super important for me to be in this place just to support the gay community, he said. I am a little nervous, but the security here is f crazy, so I feel safe.

While waiting inside a cordoned-off Liberty Bell Park for the parade to begin, Sarah Shwarz, a heterosexual woman in her 60s, said she felt compelled to attend this years procession because she is exacerbated by the poor treatment of the LGBT community in Jerusalem.

Im very sick and tired of the atmosphere that we have here, and even though Im older than the other participants, I felt the need to go on the street and show people that not all Israelis are intolerant and hateful, she said.

I have very good friends in the gay community, who I love, and I wanted to show them my support.

Walking with a cane following a recent double-knee replacement surgery, Paul Jeselsohn, 66, said he traveled with his husband from New York to march in the parade after meeting with members of Jerusalem Open House, the capitals sole gay advocacy group, at his LGBT synagogue, Congregation Beth Simcha Torah.

They asked us not only for financial support, but to support them in this march because of what happened last year, he said, noting that he flew to Israel with another gay couple who also attended. So we planned this several months ago to support them.

Yoav, a heterosexual Orthodox 19-year-old resident of Kfar Saba wearing a yalmuka and gay pride t-shirt, said homosexuality and Judaism does not present a conflict in his eyes.

As an Orthodox person, I should be supporting this parade and supporting the rights of gay people and equality in Israel  especially after the horrible murder of Shira Banki, he said. I see it as my religious duty to be here and support the [LBGT] community.

Asked to comment about the vocal intolerance and condemnation from members of the ultra-Orthodox community, Yoav said such attitudes are antithetical to Jewish values.

Its horrible, he said. Its unreligious, its ungodly, and its disgusting to hear things like that. As a religious person, I think its your duty to support every minority group, and to help them get equality.

Jerusalem resident Or Bitan, a 25-year-old lesbian, said she attended the parade with members of the gay youth organization IGY (Israel Gay Youth).

I think this is the most important gay pride parade in Israel because it is the most political one, she said. So, I think it can most influence the government and show that we are here in Israel, and that people cant ignore us.

Bitan continued: We are here, this is who we are, and were not going to disappear. This is our country as well. We serve in the army and we pay taxes just like everyone else, so its important to show ourselves.

Itay Ahon-Zada, an openly gay 14-year-old, said he came to the parade to defy ultra-Orthodox rabbis who have condemned him.

A lot of rabbis are against the gay community, and I think that we need to stand in front of them and say what we have to say, because we are a community with a lot of attacks on us, he said, noting that he and his boyfriend have been assaulted in the capital.

We cant walk in Jerusalem with our boyfriend or our girlfriend without being attacked. So, I think we need to be here today to say that we are not going anywhere  this is our country, this is where we want to live, and I want to go with my boyfriend in the street without being attacked.

That is why I am here today, Ahon-Zada continued. And to say that I am proud.

Donning a miniature rainbow-colored umbrella hat under a powerful sun, medical school student Or Yaakov, 28, said he forsake studying for his exams to attend the parade to support the capitals largely marginalized LGBT community.

This is my city, he said. I grew up here, and its important for me to march here and to support this cause here, where many people who are gay or bisexual like me cant really be openly proud. And our mayor did not even support this parade. That is really sad that that is the way it is.

Yaakov added that it is important for the government and municipalities to show support for all citizens.

Even though Tel Aviv is pretty gay-friendly, most of this country isnt, he said. And we should encourage gay people not just to move to Tel Aviv; they should be supported and encouraged where they grew up, and to feel safe and welcome there.

I dont feel very safe now walking with this hat here, he added.

For his part, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who was roundly condemned by left-wing politicians for not marching in the parade due to the offended sensibilities of his largely right-wing and haredi constituency, said he understood the pain and criticism directed at him.

I have chosen a different way of honoring the memory of Shira z"l, who was a sweet, young girl murdered because of a boundless hatred, Barkat said before the parade. The Jerusalem District Commander of the Israeli Police and I paid our respects to Shira by laying a wreath at the site where her life was cut short.

Barkat added: I hope, with all my heart, that we come together, on this day, against every manifestation of incitement, hatred, and violence, and that we unite around the right of every individual and community to exercise their freedom of expression, regardless of gender, race, or religion.

Meanwhile, across the street from Liberty Bell Park, roughly 200 meters from where Banki was murdered, dozens of members of Lehava and the ultra-Orthodox community loudly protested the march behind metal partitions manned by at least a dozen heavily-armed officers.

Holding a large placard reading We stand strong for traditional marriage, preserving family sanctity, and giving every child an opportunity to have a father and mother, Orthodox Jerusalem resident Yosef Shalom Rabin explained why he is protesting.

What Im upset about here is not so much that people have homosexual issues  I understand that God created some people like that, he said, as a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews wrapped in tefilin sang psalms.

What Im upset about is that people want to promote [homosexuality] as an ideology and try to make us recognize them as something normal, instead of accepting reality and realizing theres a problem here Thats outrageous and an abomination!

He continued: These people suffer from an extreme case of Western liberalization, and see no lines and do anything they want. And its not by chance that almost every religion, not just Judaism, denounces homosexual relations.

Teenaged friends Chaim and Daniel, both 16, traveled to the protest from Modiin.

Im here to protest something that is disgusting in the eyes of God, according to my religion, in the city of God, right in front of His face  like a kilometer away from the place where his Temple used to sit, said Chaim.

It bothers me because it is a slap in the face to God If they want to be a gay person walking around Jerusalem by themselves and not showing off their sexuality, we dont have a problem with it, but you dont have to shove it in the face of God.

Clarifying that he is not homophobic, Daniel said he also strongly objects to public displays of homosexuality.

Mainly, my problem is that I dont like seeing [homosexuality] in public, and theyre kind of parading it around, showing it today, he said. We dont have a straight pride parade, so theres no point to this other than to boast and show off.

Secondly, he continued, Im not religious, but I do believe in Judaism, and as Chaim said before, basically its a slap in the face to God, desecrating God straight in his face.

Benzi Gopstein, head of the radical Jewish group Lehava, which is openly anti-Palestinian and homophobic, said the police arrested several members of the organization.

We think the Holy city is not the place for a march like this, said Gopstein. This is a holy place and the police arrested people wearing Lehava t-shirts, not allowing them to come to the demonstration.

While Gopstein said he condemned the murder of Banki last year, he nonetheless described the parade as a problem for Jerusalem, adding that the police should not allow this march.
By Chijioke Ohuocha LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank has provided a short-term loan to Skye Bank to help to stabilise its operations after it replaced top executives for failing to meet minimum capital requirements. The central bank has been seeking to contain growing problems at Nigerian banks where profits have been falling and bad loans rising due to a heavy exposure to the oil industry and a weak economy due to low oil prices. "We provide a short-term facility to help them manage the panic withdrawal that happened," central bank spokesman Isaac Okorafor said. Depositors had rushed to withdraw money after Skye Bank's bosses were replaced. "In order to support the new management we decided to give them some money, just to support them," he said. Okorafor did not disclose how much money was granted to Skye. The central bank had decided to replace Skye's senior executives two weeks ago. It subsequently appointed Tokunbo Abiru from rival First Bank to head Lagos-based Skye Bank, the country's eighth-largest bank. Nigeria's central bank has powers to remove bank executives and used them during the 2008/2009 global financial crisis when it sacked nine CEOs at banks which were undercapitalised. Skye became one of the country's systemically important banks according to the central bank after it bought Mainstreet Bank in 2014 requiring it to hold more capital. The central bank has said Skye is able to meet its obligations and that it will provide support until the new management can bring in fresh funds. (Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Jane Merriman)
Noble Corporation plc NE is expected to report second-quarter 2016 earnings on Jul 27, 2016, after the market closes.

The company has a mixed earnings history. Noble Corp. beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two and missed the same in another two of the trailing four quarters. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered a negative earnings surprise of 8.82%.



Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Earnings Whispers



Our proven model shows that Noble Corp. is likely to beat on earnings because it has the perfect combination of two key ingredients.



Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is +14.29%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate stands at 8 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged lower at 7 cents. This is a meaningful and leading indicator of a likely positive earnings surprise.



Zacks Rank: Noble Corp. carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which when combined with a positive Earnings ESP, makes us confident about an earnings beat.

Note that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 have a significantly higher chance of beating earnings. The Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 and 5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement.

What is Driving the Better-than-Expected Earnings?



Noble Corp. is a leading offshore drilling firm with a robust portfolio of assets. Though the industry has witnessed a setback in the past few months, the company is likely to be less impacted by it than its peers. This is because Noble Corp. enjoys a strong backlog position ($8.7 billion).

As of Mar 31, 2016, about 69% of the company's available rig operating days, including 54% of floating rig days and 87% of jackup rig days, were committed for the year. These secured commitments cushion the company from the volatile pricing market.

Currently, less oil being is discovered on land and hence, companies have to dig ever deeper to get to their reserves. This has turned out to be favorable for Noble Corp. as the company is poised to benefit from a market with robust multi-year demand trends, given its technologically advanced and versatile drilling fleet.

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NOBLE CORP PLC Price and EPS Surprise

NOBLE CORP PLC Price and EPS Surprise | NOBLE CORP PLC Quote

Additionally, Noble Corp. has been making continuous efforts to upgrade its fleet through acquisitions and newbuild projects. The company has also shown strong operational execution and cost-management efforts, which should reflect positively in the upcoming earnings.



Other Stocks to Consider



Here are some other companies to consider as our model shows that these too have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.



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Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK has Earnings ESP of +12.50% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is anticipated to release earnings on Aug 4.

Spectra Energy Corp. SE has Earnings ESP of +40.00% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is likely to release earnings on Aug 3.

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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's economy contracted for the first time in five years in 2015, the South's central bank said Friday, undermining leader Kim Jong-Un's stated policy of simultaneous military and economic development.

The isolated North's gross domestic product appeared to have shrunk 1.1 percent last year -- the first downturn since 2010 and the sharpest fall since 2007, the Bank of Korea said.

The figure was based on information compiled from state and private organisations, as Pyongyang does not make public its official economic data.

According to the estimate, almost all sectors except for construction and services suffered sharp declines, particularly mining and utilities including power and gas.

The mining sector contracted 2.6 percent on waning production of magnesite and iron ore, while the utilities industry dived 13 percent as a drought sapped hydropower production, the BOK said.

The downturn came during a period of rapid development for North Korea's nuclear weapons programme -- topped by a fourth atomic test in January that resulted in a substantial tightening of international sanctions on Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-Un has repeatedly stated that economic growth enjoys the same priority as military development, but the BOK's assessment suggests the dual policy is well out of sync.

The tougher UN sanctions imposed in March were backed by North Korea's main ally, China, which has continued to provide an economic lifeline to its maverick neighbour, despite increasing frustration in Beijing with its nuclear ambitions.

China accounted for 91 percent of North Korea's trade in 2015, followed by Russia, India and Thailand, a statement from South Korea's Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said in June.

According to the BOK estimate, North Korea's international trade was down 18 percent at $6.25 billion in 2015 -- the first contraction since 2009.
A North Miami police officer who shot an unarmed black man lying in the street Monday was actually trying to save the man's life, says the president of his local police union.



John Rivera, president of Dade County's Police Benevolent Association, spoke out Thursday and said the unidentified officer, a SWAT team member, "accidentally" shot 47-year-old Charles Kinsey while trying to protect him from another man in the street. That man was later determined to be a 23-year-old with autism, who was carrying a toy truck.



Although authorities did not know it at the time, Kinsey was working as a behavioral therapist at a North Miami group home and followed the patient after he wandered off the property.



Cell phone video of the incident surfaced earlier this week, showing Kinsey with his arms in the air as he lay in the street, bringing national attention the case.







Rivera said that responding officers Monday had received a call of a suicidal man with a gun, and when they found two men at the scene, "It appeared to the officers that the white male was trying to do harm to Mr. Kinsey."







The officers believed that the man was carrying a firearm, Rivera said. They did not know it was a toy and the officer who fired felt Kinsey's life was in danger, he said.



"And fearing for Mr. Kinsey's life, the officer discharged his firearm, trying to save Mr. Kinsey's life, and he missed and accidentally struck Mr. Kinsey," Rivera said.



"Mr. Kinsey did everything right. What the officer didn't know [was] what was the white individual's intentions," Rivera said. "He thought Mr. Kinsey was about to be killed. He actually was trying to save Mr. Kinsey."



 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.





North Miami Officer 'Accidentally' Shot Unarmed Man Lying in Street While Trying to Save Him, Says Union Chief| Crime & Courts, True Crime



Rivera also rebuked the suggestion that the officers could hear Kinsey, who tried to explain to them what was happening as he lay on the ground, according to the video.



Rivera said the video was filmed from a "different vantage point and much closer than the officer was," though he said he did not know how far away the officer was from Kinsey.



Rivera also said that, according to what he had been told, the officer who fired is a member of the SWAT team and a decorated officer. "I don't think he's had any issues," Rivera said.



He also read a statement from the officer:



"I took this job to save lives and help people. I did what I had to do in a split-second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something I am not."



Kinsey remained hospitalized Thursday with a gunshot wound to his leg, according to the Miami Herald. Police officials have said the officer fired his weapon three times, striking Kinsey once, according to the Herald.



"The officer is praying for his speedy recovery, as are we," Rivera said Thursday.











The Police Chief Speaks

No weapons were recovered at the scene of Monday's shooting, North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene said at his own news conference Thursday, according to the Herald.



He said that outside state agencies have assumed the investigation, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state's attorney general.



The FDLE's findings will be reviewed before prosecutors determine whether or not to charge the officer, according to the Herald.



Eugene did not identify the officer, according to the Herald.



"I assure you, we'll get all the answers," he said.
By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain cannot expect even informal talks with the European Union before it has notified the bloc of its intention to leave, European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday. But she said in a Reuters interview that London can expect a fair deal that neither rewards nor punishes it for leaving. Britain is not expected to begin its formal divorce from the EU by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty this year, leaving a gap of six months or more during which London might seek to sound out its options with Brussels. "It's not possible because to negotiate even informally about the way forward there has to be clarity on the pathway the UK would choose," Georgieva, one of seven Commission vice-presidents, said. "I don't see how we can sit and discuss hypotheticals on a matter of such importance," she said, adding that pre-negotiations could wrongly influence Britain's choice. Georgieva, a Bulgarian who in charge of the EU budget, said negotiations would be tough, but leave all parties with a sense of fairness. Britain should also not be punished - or rewarded. "I don't want people to stay in the European Union because they are afraid of punishment if they leave. I want them to stay because in the Union they're stronger," she said. Britain's net contribution to the EU was around 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion), excluding customs duties but including funds received by poorer regions or universities for research. The figure was not negligible, Georgieva said, but could be managed. Georgieva said support for the European Union had grown by 10-12 percentage points since the UK referendum. "Post-Brexit vote support for the European Union jumped 10-12 percentage points. Why? Because people now look into the future and say we want to stick together," she said, adding this improved sentiment would not last forever. The next couple months represented a window of opportunity to "step on the pedal" of reform. One message from the Brexit referendum showed a sizeable class of people left behind by a changing economy. She said social safety nets, which covered people while they waited for the same jobs to reappear, should be replaced by "social safety ropes" to help people find new roles. Georgieva, who worked for the World Bank for more than a decade, said the EU also had to recognise that not all wanted "more EU" and also needed to forge a greater sense of unity, whether by cutting red tape or giving nations a bit more space. "When there is a problem it's Brussels, when there is success it is the national capital. This finger-pointing has to stop because who is the European Union? It's all of us." (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)
By Ayesha Rascoe and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The dark vision of America under siege described by Donald Trump in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination does not mesh with reality, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday. Obama noted that the "birds were chirping and the sun was out" for most Americans after Trump's Thursday night speech, which expounded on the threats to America from illegal immigrants, Islamic State militants, and race-related violence. "This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people," Obama said at a White House news conference after meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Obama said the violent crime rate in America has been lower during his 7-1/2 years in office than any time during the last three or four decades, despite an "uptick" in murders in some cities this year, and the recent high-profile killings of black men and police officers. The timing of Obama's quickly arranged short meeting with Pena Nieto presented both leaders with a convenient platform from which to criticize Trump. Just three weeks ago, Obama - who has six months left in the White House - invited the Mexican president to visit one last time before the U.S. president leaves on Jan. 20. Trump has pledged to build a wall at the Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and to force Mexico to pay for it. The New York businessman has also promised to slap tariffs on some U.S. products made in Mexico, and seek radical changes or even discard the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Pena Nieto was first to mention Trump, but said he respected both Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and would work with constructively and in good faith with whoever wins the Nov. 8 election. In March, Pena Nieto likened Trump's "strident tone" to the ascent of dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. But he said on Friday that he had never pointed the finger at any of the candidates, saying that anything he had said had been taken out of context. And he stressed that the two nations' futures were closely bound. "The closeness between the United States and Mexico is more than a relationship between governments. It's a solid and unbreakable relationship between millions of people who live in both nations," Pena Nieto said. Obama said the rate of illegal immigration is down from past decades, and praised Mexico for helping to address a flood of migrants fleeing Central America and for work on drug trafficking. "A Mexico that has a healthy economy, a Mexico that can help us build stability and security in Central America, that's going to do a lot more to solve any migration crisis or drug trafficking problem than a wall," Obama said. Obama and Pena Nieto praised the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal as addressing some of the criticisms of NAFTA. Both Trump and Clinton have said they oppose the TPP, which has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Congress. "There are going to be different visions about where we should go as a country," Obama said, running down a list of economic issues facing the nation. "But we're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact," he said. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, David Alexander and Eric Walsh in Washington, and Dave Graham, Ana Isabel Martinez, Adriana Barrera and Michael O'Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
President Barack Obama on Friday pushed back against some of the assertions made over the last week at the Republican National Convention.

Speaking at a joint White House press conference with Mexico's president, Obama said he "did not watch" the convention because he had "a lot of stuff to do."

That said, the president told reporters that he had read news reports about what took place in Cleveland and argued "some of the fears" expressed "don't jibe with the facts." Obama didn't address Republican nominee Donald Trump by name, but he touched on some of the biggest themes of the mogul's speech.

Obama: Some of the fears expressed during the #RNCinCLE "don't jive with the facts" https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/PE9bwCNisw  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 22, 2016

"This vision of violence and chaos everywhere doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people," Obama said. "I hope people the next morning walked outside. Birds were chirping and the sun was out."

Obama assailed speakers for contending that violent crime was on the rise throughout the US, noting that it was, in fact, lower today than when he took office eight years ago.

"It's far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president," he said.

The president also took issue with the way Republicans portrayed immigration.

"I think Americans expect that our immigration process is orderly and it is legal. And we have put unprecedented resources at our border," he said, noting there are "far fewer undocumented workers crossing the border today" than under George W. Bush's presidency.

Obama is set to address the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, as Hillary Clinton is expected to formally accept the Democratic Party's nomination for president.

NOW WATCH: Jon Stewart just ranted against Republicans who have praised Trump for the same things they have bashed Obama on





More From Business Insider


Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama on Friday dismissed Donald Trump's depiction of the United States as a nation in deep crisis as just plain wrong and not the experience of ordinary Americans.

In his speech Thursday night accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Trump painted a gloomy picture of the United States, describing it as awash in urban violence and illegal immigration, among other problems.

Obama said he had not watched the convention -- "I've got a lot of stuff to do," he said -- but read parts of Trump's speech.

"This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jive with the experience of most people," Obama said.

"We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact," Obama said at a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Friday pledged support to Germany in the wake of a deadly shooting rampage in Munich, as officials said they were working to determine if any US citizens were affected.

Obama, speaking at a meeting with law enforcement officials, said he had been briefed on the unfolding drama in Germany, where at least six people are believed dead in a shooting at a shopping center in Munich.

"Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. It's still an active situation, and Germany's one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances," he said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: "The resolve of Germany, the United States, and the broader international community will remain unshaken in the face of acts of despicable violence such as this."

At the State Department, spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said US officials were working with local authorities to determine if any US citizens were affected by the incident.

American citizens in Germany were urged to contact loved ones to let them know their whereabouts.

"For your own safety, avoid squares and streets: perpetrators are on the run," said a statement on the website of the US embassy in Germany.

"Continue to shelter in place, contact your family members to let them know you are safe, and follow the instructions of police and emergency personnel."
Off-grid parents Adele and Matt Allen appeared on This Morning to explain more about their parenting style [Photo: Rex Features]

Authoritative, attachment, positiveWhen it comes to parenting, everyone has their own way of doing things. Each to their own and all that. But one couples unusual style of child-rearing is causing controversy among other parents for its extreme techniques.

Adele and Matt Allen, from Brighton, have dubbed themselves off-grid parents due to their beliefs that children dont need vaccinations, doctors or official schooling. Their out-there views on raising their kids have already raised eyebrows, but an appearance on TV this week has created even more of a stir.



The couple appeared with their children Ulysses, five and Ostara, one, to discuss everything from their decision to keep their children out of mainstream schools to Adeles choice to continue breastfeeding their five-year-old.



But their free-spirited ways caused quite a buzz with viewers on social media. Some critics accused Adele and Matt of being ridiculous, while others observed that the children - who were wandering the set - were badly behaved.



These parents are absolute morons. Have no clue how to parent properly what so ever, clearly! #offgridparenting, wrote one viewer.



My god worst behaved kids ever, no boundaries, it shows, added another.



The couples approach to parenting has created quite a stir [Photo: Rex Features]

The biggest reaction, however, came when the couples daughter appeared to wee on the studio floor, as her parents watched on.

But taking to her Facebook page, The Unconventional Parent, the mum-of-two defended her daughter, claiming she was wearing a nappy.



Well done to Ulysses and poorly Ostara for putting up with the media chaos today and Ostara did have a nappy on today but shock horror sometimes they leak!! #herecomethetrolls, she wrote.



Her defence comes as it was revealed that the couple, who have never given their children medicine and prefer them not to wear shoes, are asking the public for 100,000.



Story continues

Sharing a link on her Facebook page to a site called fundmytravel, the couple implored strangers for donations to help them move to Costa Rica and live a more eco-friendly life.



Our ultimate ambition is to move towards self-sustainability. Were looking at Central America; somewhere we can get a big plot of land and grow food. Have the space for freedom and access to wildlife in its natural state, it says in the website bio.



The couple used their appearance on This Morning to explain a little more about their unusual parenting approach, claiming they shun conventional medicines, such as Calpol, in favour of more natural treatments. Even when their children were suffering from chicken pox and scarlet fever.



We treated it naturally. We believe in the body to self heal, she told presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes. If you support the bodys healing through supplements and herbs then it will heal.

I dont believe that bringing a fever down artificially helps the body. I believe a fever is there for a purpose to clean the body out.

In a previous interview with Mail Online, Adele explained that both of her children were born at home with no medical help, and Adele chose to keep their umbilical cords attached to them until they shrivelled and fell away naturally, while she carried the placenta on her in a little bag scented with rose petals and salt to disguise the smell.

Speaking about how often she breastfeeds her son whos now five, Adele explained: It really depends on the day. He does it more at home when hes feeling tired or needs comfort.



Not so much when were out but sometimes if hes feeling a bit emotional he asks to. And thats fine with me.



And when asked about disciplining their children the couple explained that they favour a gentle approach. Pointing out that, though they didnt mind, the children were clambering over the sofa, Ruth asked if Ulysses is ever disciplined by his parents.



He would do as we ask, Adele explained. We speak to him respectfully as an equal human being. He is a highly sensitive child so he does struggle with getting overwhelmed easily so its important for him not to have strong, authoritarian discipline.



Little Ostara wanders around the studio before her accident [Photo: Rex Features]

Though there was some criticism of their style of parenting, there was also some social media support for the couple.



Why are people so horrified that the children are jumping around, being breastfed and weeing? All natural parts of being a kid, one woman wrote.



So refreshing to see these parents doing what feels natural rather than conforming.



What do you think about off-grid parenting? Let us know @YahooStyleUK.



Cafe Owners Post Threatening To Tell Off Children Sparks Debate About Stranger Discipline

Should Parents Kiss Their Kids On The Lips?
An aedes aegypti mosquitoes is seen in The Gorgas Memorial institute for Health Studies laboratory as they conduct a research on preventing the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Panama City February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Florida is looking into four cases of what might be mosquito-transmitted Zika.

Florida's Department of Health confirmed Wednesday that it's investigating two cases of Zika in Miami-Dade County and two in Broward County that were not related to travel.

The department hasn't clarified whether that meant the case could have been contracted sexually, which has happened before in the US. The department also hasn't specified whether this meant the cases were caused by an infected mosquito.

"This pattern is consistent with other mosquito-borne virus investigations, such as the 2013 dengue response," the department said in a release. "The investigations into the new cases will begin today and door-to-door outreach and sample collection are ongoing in all cases. The department will share more details as they become available."

Zika, which is transmitted mainly by mosquitoes, has been spreading around the Americas over the past year, though local transmission by mosquitoes hasn't yet been reported in the US. Officials have warned that mosquito transmission could be possible in the US, especially in the summer months. Only about 20% of people who are infected with Zika ever show symptoms, which most commonly include fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes. No vaccine or treatment is available for the virus.

Here's a map of all the places Zika has spread locally so far:

BI Graphic_Zika Virus Map And List (4)

NOW WATCH: Here's what popular dog breeds looked like before and after 100 years of breeding





More From Business Insider


Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP) - Two multiple-target attacks in as many months have shaken Kazakhstan's reputation for stability and led to fears that home-grown radicalism could be on the rise in the ex-Soviet republic.

Some have suggested that the central Asian state's faltering economy may also have had a role in the unrest.

On any given evening the trendy cafes lining the leafy boulevards of economic hub Almaty teem with chatting students, creative types and business people enjoying the fruits of years of oil-fuelled economic boom.

But on Monday the scene was shattered when gunmen attacked a police station and a building used by the security services, leaving six dead.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev called it an "act of terror."

On June 5, four civilians and three soldiers were killed in the western city of Aktobe when assailants attacked gun shops and tried to storm a military base in a bus they had hijacked.

Security forces killed 18 people suspected of involvement in the Aktobe incidents.

Nazarbayev said the attacks had been orchestrated "from abroad" and carried out by "followers of the non-traditional religious movement Salafism," referring to an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam.

Sabina Sailaubekova, a marketing specialist who witnessed Monday's attack in Almaty, told AFP: "I never thought something like that would happen so close to us."

"We had no idea how to react in such situations."

Under Nazarbayev, 76, majority-Muslim Kazakhstan, which shares a border with Afghanistan, has cultivated an image as an island of stability in a volatile region wracked by poverty.

While other former Soviet republics in the region have endured varying degrees of political upheaval, ethnic clashes and violence, Nazarbayev's firm rule since the fall of the USSR has largely kept a lid on any turmoil in his own country.

So far the motives for Monday's attack remain murky.

Story continues

- Jihadist links? -

Police on Thursday said the main suspect had previously carried out several armed robberies and had spent two stints in jail.

They also said he was usually unemployed and that he had been violent towards his wife, whom he forced to wear Islamic clothing.

An estimated 300 Kazakh citizens are thought to have joined jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, including the Islamic State group, fuelling speculation about a religious motive.

Some IS propaganda videos feature Kazakh children.

While police have not yet explicitly linked the main suspect in Monday's attack to any jihadist groups, the country's security chief has suggested he might have formed ties with followers of an ultra-conservative strain of Islam during stints in jail.

Commentators have been cautious in connecting the two recent attacks directly.

Erlan Karin, director of the government-linked Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP that similarities between the two attacks suggested Monday's assault might have been inspired by the bloodshed in Aktobe.

"As regards the Islamic State and other groups, it is possible attackers are influenced by these movements, while not having any kind of formal affiliation," said Karin.

He argued the attacks followed a broader pattern seen across the globe of "lone wolf or lone cell attacks."

For others the flickers of violence in Kazakhstan are linked to wider instability driven by the shock of falling oil prices and Russia's economic downtown.

In April and May, rare protests took place in several parts of the country against proposed land reforms, prompting the president to postpone the changes.

Analyst Raffaello Pantucci said the attacks that followed have "to some extent shattered the all-powerful image projected of the country's security services" and left Kazakhstan looking unusually vulnerable.

"On the back of the economic slump it is quite a worrying time for the country, with a lot of unrest," Pantucci, the director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told AFP.

"Random attacks might just be the sharp end of that."
Edward Snowden appeared via video chat during the first-ever screening of Snowden, Oliver Stones new film about the NSA leaker, at a San Diego theater down the street from Comic-Con Thursday night.

Snowden, who has a cameo in the film (though we wont spoil when or how) was projected onto the film screen during a Q&A with the director and stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley. Audience members asked him to weigh in on the current election.

We have become something of a legalistic society where people parse, is it lawful or is it unlawful? When someones defense for their activities is this was legal, I didnt break any laws, thats a very weak defense. The legality of a thing is entirely distinct from the morality of it, Snowden said. If we become afraid to point that out and challenge people who are running for leadership roles on here, weve lost something uniquely American thats been a rudder on our ship.

Snowden, who is currently in exile in Russia, also received questions about a scene in the film (also in the trailer) in which he sneaks information past government security using a Rubiks Cube. He said that that wasnt really how he did it, but he did come up with that trick for the movie. He wouldnt reveal the actual way he accomplished that feat in real life: This the part where we remember the FBI would get a copy of the

Google Hangout.

Stone joked that the time spent filming Snowden (who said, Im not an actor) was arduous and compared it to his sessions filming Donald Trump for what became outtakes of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. The difference between Donald and Ed, and I love the man in a weird way, is that [Donald Trump] jumped up after every take and said, Wasnt that great?' Stone said.

The director had said at a panel earlier that day that Snowden had been hesitant to come onboard the film, and it took three covert meetings abroad for Stone to convince Snowden.

Story continues

At the Q&A, Snowden confirmed he didnt relish the idea of a fictional version of himself onscreen. I dont think anyone looks forward to having a movie made about themselves, particularly someone who is a privacy advocate, said Snowden. But he said he came around once he saw the value of avatars telling his story in a narrative, digestible form for a bigger audience. He even admitted that Joseph Gordon-Levitts impression was spot-on. Some of my family members have said he sounds just like you.'

Finally, an audience member asked what Snowdens quality of life is like today. I can confirm that I am not living in a box, he said. I actually live a surprisingly free life. He went on to say that he was happy in the sense that he does work that he is proud of every day now working with freedom of information organizations and the ACLU.
Berlin (AFP) - At least one person has been killed and 10 wounded in a shooting at a shopping centre in Munich on Friday, German police said.

The mall near the southern German city's Olympic stadium was surrounded by police after shots were fired.

"There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre," Munich police said on Twitter, urging people to avoid the area.

Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as passers-by looked on.

The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany, injuring five people.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" attacker who appeared to have been "inspired" by the Islamic State group but was not a member of the jihadist network.

It also follows a truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice after Bastille Day fireworks last week that left 84 people dead.
Bouake (Ivory Coast) (AFP) - At least one person was killed and about 10 others wounded by gunfire in Ivory Coast on Friday during protests over a hike in electricity rates.

Demonstrators ransacked a number of electricity company agencies, government buildings and a bank in the central city of Bouake, witnesses said.

About 10 injured people were taken to hospital and one succumbed to gunshot wounds, a hospital source said.

An AFP journalist saw the body of a 29-year-old man at the morgue. He had been shot in the stomach during the protest in Bouake.

In the midst of the clashes rioters looted a police station, carrying off several Kalashnikov rifles.

"They are going to regret shooting at us," said one man.

The protest started with hundreds of people pressed against barricades and shouting "CIE thieves, CIE thieves," using the acronym for Ivory Coast's electricity company.

"CIE doesn't care about us, today we are going to tell them what we think of them," protester Arouna Toure told AFP. "The bills are too high and nobody is listening to us."

Authorities tried to disperse the protesters with tear gas, but a crowd then looted and burned a CIE office. Violent clashes subsequently broke out between rioters and security forces, who opened fire on the crowd, witnesses said.

Similar violence flared earlier this week in the administrative capital of Yamoussoukro and the western city of Daloa over the hikes in electricity prices of up to 10 percent.

Following the unrest, the government agreed to allow residents to delay paying their electricity bills until September, but this did not prevent the demonstrations in Bouake.

"The government is responsible for the current social tension and the protests in Yamoussoukro," said on Tuesday Jean-Baptiste Koffi, the head of a consumers union.
After schlepping to the supermarket and back, you might be tempted to unload your haul as quickly as possible so that you can kick back and relaxor at least move on to other household chores. But carefully stocking your fridge will help cut down on food waste, not to mention the risk of foodborne illness.

Smart food storage takes into account the fact that climate conditions vary throughout a refrigerator. Door bins and upper shelves tend to be warmer than bottom shelves and deli compartments. Crisper drawers, meanwhile, can often be adjusted to create more or less humidity, depending on whats going inside.

Here's a step-by-step guide to organizing your refrigerator. Even if your fridge's layout differs slightly, the same basic storage principles should deliver optimal results.

Step One: The Door

In our temperature performance tests, which occur in climate-controlled chambers where we crank the heat up to 110 F, temperatures on the door climb a couple degrees higher than the main compartment. Thats too warm for milk and eggs, despite the fact that many refrigerators have gallon door bins and egg-shaped compartments that seem like ideal places for these items. Instead, reserve the door for items that can handle warmer conditions, including the following:

 Butter

 Condiments

 Juice

 Cooking oils

 Soda

 Water

Step Two: The Meat/Deli Bin

This storage option is most common on French-door bottom-freezers, where it typically sits beneath the crisper drawers. Its a helpful feature, especially if the temperature can be adjusted to best accommodate a range of foodscooler for cured meats, for example, and warmer for a platter of hors d'oeuvres. Heres the items that belong in the bin:

 Bacon

 Cheeses

 Deli meats

 Hot dogs

Step Three: The Crisper Drawers

Crisper drawers are designed for produce. On many refrigerators, the humidity can be adjusted from high, ideal for most wilting vegetables, to low, best for a lot of fruits, plus some vegetables with thin skins that like the air a bit dryer. Even if your crisper drawers arent adjustable, the following division will help maximum freshness by keeping like-reacting produce together.

Story continues

Low-Humidity Drawer

 Apples

 Avocados (once ripe)

 Grapes

 Mushrooms

 Peaches, Pears, Plums, Nectarines (once ripe)

 Peppers

 Melon (once ripe)

 Summer squash

High-Humidity Drawer

 Broccoli

 Carrots

 Cauliflower

 Green Onions

 Leafy Greens

Step Four: The Lower Shelf

The lower shelf, usually located in the middle of the fridge, tends to be the coldest part of the refrigerator. This makes it ideal for storage of items that are more susceptible to developing harmful bacteria, including the following:

 Eggs (in their original carton)

 Milk

 Raw fish, meat, and poultry (on trays to catch drippings so as not to contaminate other foods)

Step Five: The Upper Shelf

The upper shelves, conversely, are the warmest part, with temperatures often reaching up around 40 F. Thats too warm for milk and eggs, though yogurt is okay because it's fermented. Heres the complete list of what to store on the top shelf.

 Jam & Jelly

 Leftovers (large amounts should be transferred to several small containers so theyll cool faster. Position towards front of fridge so you don't forget them)

 Peanut butter

 Snacks (like hummus and fruit cups)

 Yogurt

Refrigerator No-Nos

Knowing what goes where in the fridge can prevent spoiling. You also need to know which foods don't belong in the fridge in the first place. Heres a look at that list:

 Bananas

 Bread (freezer is okay)

 Coffee

 Garlic

 Onions (keep away from potatoes)

 Potatoes (keep away from onions)

 Tomatoes

More DIY Projects to Try





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

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Protesters yell in Clevelands Public Square on July 21, the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

CLEVELAND  Inside the hall, Donald Trump was describing an America beset by nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, who threaten our very way of life. Outside, in Clevelands Public Square Park, the closest protest zone to Quicken Loans Arena, a large, heavily armed force of police from cities all across the country stood watch over families posing for selfies and splashing in the parks fountain. Here, for this night at least, there was no fear on display, no violence  and no arrests.

The recently renovated park  6 acres dominated by a Civil War memorial  was considered a potential flashpoint for clashes, like the ones that had broken out with some frequency at Trump rallies earlier this year, only bigger and potentially involving armed demonstrators taking advantage of Ohios open-carry law. But it was heavily patrolled all week, and on Thursday night, as the convention reached its bellowing climax, there was peace.

The overwhelming police presence certainly had a lot to do with it. For most of the evening, the ranks of law enforcement officials were equal to or greater than the number of civilians. And their interactions were nothing like the disturbing pictures out of Ferguson, Mo., or Baton Rouge, La., where police in riot gear advanced on a populace wearing shorts and T-shirts. Cops from across the country on horses, bicycles and on foot fielded questions about their home states, posed for pictures and accepted well wishes and thanks all evening long. At one point, a heavily armed officer with an assault rifle and protective vest laughed as a small child with a plastic gun that blew bubbles ran circles around him, while other children played in the parks fountain late into the evening.

There were cops from Ohio, Montana, South Carolina, California, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Georgia, with mounted units coming from as far away as Fort Worth, Texas and as close as Columbus, Ohio. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams, who was making the rounds of the city on a bicycle Thursday evening, stopped by often, taking the time to talk with officers and civilians.

Story continues

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams, fourth from left, joins a prayer circle in Public Square outside the Republican National Convention. (Photo: Reuters/Andrew Kelly  RTSIXMN)

Black Lives Matter had a strong presence, reminding passersby and reporters about Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy killed by Cleveland police in 2014. One African-American man, reviving a term from the 1960s, stood on a bench and, while officers stood nearby, shouted that while he didnt hate all cops, he did hate pigs. Eventually an older white man stepped up and embraced him, one of the many small gestures of friendship throughout the night. Several groups handed out bottles of water to anyone who needed one, and one man carrying a Free Hugs sign took the time to fist-bump and thank an entire row of officers.

The tensest moment of the night occurred slightly after 9 p.m. A few dozen anti-Trump, anti-capitalism protesters left the park and crossed the street south of the park. Had they turned left, they would have been heading towards 4th Street, the route that funneled into the entrance of Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention was taking place. Police on bicycles fanned out across the entirety of Euclid Avenue, blocking their way, and after a few minutes of milling about, the groups members headed right, curving back into the park, where they continued to chant for another hour.

There were some gun-rights supporters carrying long guns and pistols, but they were outnumbered by people lounging in the grass with their dogs, and in one case, a pet lizard. There were also a few men in Guy Fawkes masks, and flag-waving Trump supporters in Hillary for Prison shirts, but their exchanges with the anti-Trump demonstrators never got beyond the occasional taunting shout or intense but mostly cordial political argument.

As the night wore on, the various constituencies began to disperse. The last remaining group was Stand Together Against Trump, whose co-founder, Bryan Hambley, has been writing a convention diary for Yahoo News all week. The group of a hundred or so anti-Trump protesters roamed the park chanting variations of, Donald Trump has got to go. Later in the evening, an organizer had everyone take a ten-minute break, to catch their breath and get to know the people around them if they hadnt already met. The preferred slogan on more than one sign Thursday night read, Vote your conscience, quoting Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs Wednesday night address.

As the chanting wound down, it was replaced by music from Rebol, the bustling bar and cafe situated on the northeast corner of the square. Weve had to wear these all week, said one of the employees when Yahoo News asked about her Make America Healthy Again baseball cap, but todays the last day. Which is good, because I am not a hat person.

Two members of She Speaks, a Cleveland womens group, spent part of the evening doing yoga in the parks fountain while wearing small, black masks. This is the first night weve tried it, said one of the members when asked by Yahoo News if this was a usual occurrence. But I think were going to do it some more after this.

A member of the group She Speaks does yoga in the fountain of Clevelands Public Square Park. (Chris Wilson/Yahoo News)

Advocates for marijuana reform stuck it out until late in the night. A police officer who appeared to be engaged in a heated discussion with a banner-waving pot advocate turned out to just be amused by the weed-lovers disgust that trans fats are legal while marijuana is still outlawed.

A local magician named Gilligan, standing next to a sign that said, Make America Magical Again, was having a less enjoyable evening.

Ive been down here every day and every night so far this week, he told Yahoo News, but this isnt a great magic crowd. People arent particularly positive, and theyre more interested in the drama.

When Trumps speech ended, fireworks began going off over the Cuyahoga River, with the park offering a view for those who had stuck around and were clearly outnumbered by law enforcement officials and members of the media. The convention was over, the delegates would soon be dispersing to homes in an America that looked a lot friendlier and less dangerous outside the arena than inside.

_____

Related slideshows:

On the ground at the GOP convention  a photo report >>>

BOOS CRUZ: Newspapers react to Ted Cruzs RNC stunner >>>

Armed at the RNC >>>

Front pages cover Donald Trumps final primary victory >>>

Melania Trump in the convention spotlight >>>

Convention floor erupts when no roll call taken to change rules to unbind delegates >>>

How newspapers covered the RNCs fiery first day >>>

Demonstrators protest outside the RNC >>>

Donald Trumps America >>>
PACCAR Inc. PCAR is set to report second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 26. In the last quarter, the company had delivered a positive earnings surprise of 4.21%. Further, PACCAR posted positive earnings surprises in three of the trailing four quarters with an average beat of 3.07%. Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors Influencing this Quarter

PACCAR is well positioned in the key non-U.S. markets due to its strategic investments. The company continues to expand its global network of strategically located parts distribution centers. These factors should positively impact second-quarter earnings.

However, Class 8 industry retail sales for the U.S. and Canada are expected to be in the range of 220,000250,000 units in 2016, lower than the prior projection of 230,000260,000 units as well as 278,000 units sold in 2015. This indicates the possibility of a year-over-year decline in the second quarter as well, which may adversely impact the companys upcoming results.

Moreover, DAF, owned by PACCAR was recently charged 752.7 million euros ($829.4 million) by the European Union regulators for illegally forming a cartel with a few other truck makers. The company will pay the charge out of the 850 million euros ($936.6 million) provision it created earlier.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that PACCAR is likely to beat earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. This is not the case here, as you will see below:

Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate. PACCAR has an Earnings ESP of -0.98% because the Most Accurate estimate stands at $1.01, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.02.

Zacks Rank: PACCAR currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Story continues

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Westport Fuel Systems Inc. WPRT has an Earnings ESP of +9.09% and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The companys second-quarter 2016 financial results are expected to release on Aug 3.

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. ALSN has an Earnings ESP of +6.35% and a Zacks Rank #3. The companys second-quarter 2016 financial results are expected to release on Jul 27.

Tower International, Inc. TOWR has an Earnings ESP of +2.82% and a Zacks Rank #3. The companys second-quarter 2016 financial results are expected to release on Jul 26.

PACCAR INC Price and EPS Surprise

PACCAR INC Price and EPS Surprise | PACCAR INC Quote

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By Abu Arqam Naqash MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party swept local elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to unofficial results on Friday, giving the premier a boost after months of pressure from his opponents. Sharif has faced criticism since documents released as past of the Panama Papers data leak showed his children owned several off-shore companies and used them to buy properties in London. He denies wrongdoing, as do his children. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party won 31 seats in the region's 41-seat assembly in Thursday's vote, said Tariq Mahmood Butt, spokesman for Pakistani Kashmir's election commission. "This win is proof that our voters have completely rejected our opponents' incessant diatribe against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif," said the party's regional chief, Raja Farooq Haider. "It is not merely a win. It is a landslide," Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, an increasingly influential member of her father's party, said on her Twitter page. The disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir was split between India and Pakistan in 1948, after they fought a brief war over it. It remains at the heart of animosity between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The win by Sharif's party in the region will not have any direct bearing on Pakistan's stand on the Kashmir dispute or on its dealings with India. Sharif stressed the need to improve relations with India in his successful campaign for the last general election in 2013 but the powerful army, which oversees security and foreign policies, is seen as wary of making big concessions quickly. The criticism of Sharif from his political opponents and occasional strains in his relations with the army have raised questions about prospects for his government. Pakistan's next general election is due in 2018. (Writing and additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Steve Scherer and Wladimir Pantaleone ROME/PALERMO (Reuters) - A suspected people smuggler who alleged he had been mistakenly arrested and extradited to Italy is indeed the man prosecutors had sought, Palermo magistrates said after investigating his identity. Sudanese witnesses and the man's lawyer have said the suspect, who was initially identified as Medhanie Yehdego Mered, is not the smuggler sought for running a human trafficking network that sent thousands of migrants to Europe and many to their deaths at sea. But Palermo prosecutors listed a series of reasons in a document seen by Reuters that they say show him to be the man they consider to be the smuggling kingpin who goes by the nickname "the General". "There are many factors that confirm that the person we wire tapped, investigated in 2014, and sought to arrest for international people smuggling in 2015 is the same man who was arrested in Sudan and extradited to Italy," a prosecutor told a closed hearing on Thursday, according to a judicial source. If his identity is confirmed by the court, it would be the first time a suspected trafficking kingpin has been tracked down in Africa and brought to face justice in Italy since Europe's immigration crisis started almost three years ago. Prosecutors however admit that they may have got his name wrong, and they also say that the picture that had been circulated of their suspect, which bears little resemblance to the man arrested, was discovered to be of someone else who had nothing to do with the case. The suspect's lawyer, Michele Calantropo, told Reuters his client's real name was Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe. He said he had been living in Khartoum as an Eritrean refugee when he was arrested in May, and had no ties to people smuggling. "We are also continuing our own investigations and we will show our results to the judge at the next hearing on Sept. 21. The wrong man is in prison," Calantropo said. At a hearing on Thursday, prosecutors presented the results of their investigation to the judge who will decide whether the suspect must remain in prison or not. The case underscores the difficulties in fighting people smuggling to Europe from Africa. Both Italy and Britain, whose National Crime Agency helped coordinate the man's arrest with Sudanese authorities, have a lot riding on the case. If it turns out that the wrong man was seized, it would be a huge blow in their battle against traffickers who have shipped more than 400,000 migrants to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea since 2014. NAME DISCREPANCY In a 27-page document Palermo prosecutors Calogero Ferrara and Claudio Camilleri list 17 elements that they said proves the suspect in custody is the man they had sought. The reason for the name discrepancy was due to the fact that prosecutors had to deduce his identity from wiretaps, the document says. The suspect used different names on each of his multiple social media accounts. A cell phone Medhanie was carrying when arrested had accessed the same Facebook account as the man investigated in 2014, and had spoken to some of the same people. Medhanie was carrying the phone number of a man whom he had spoken with on 78 occasions during the original investigation, which was launched after a shipwreck that killed more than 360 people near the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013. A voice recognition specialist also compared wiretaps and said there was a similarity between the voices, but could not say with certainty it was the same man. Medhanie originally volunteered to allow authorities to record his voice in prison to help improve the accuracy of the voice recognition test, but refused when technicians came to make the recording, the court document said. (Editing by Crispian Balmer)
Munich (Germany) (AFP) - First came the crack of gunfire, then panicked screams and the wail of sirens as an armed attacker launched a killing spree in the German city of Munich on Friday.

Residents were going about their shopping at the busy Olympia mall, some eating at a McDonald's restaurant, when the horror began.

Panicked shoppers fled the building as armed anti-terror police flooded the streets in search of what was initially thought to be a group of three assailants but was later believed to be a young lone gunman armed with a handgun.

A police patrol shot and wounded the attacker but he managed to escape.

Authorities later discovered the body of the 18-year-old German-Iranian dead by his own hand just one kilometre (0.6 mile) from the mall.

Nine victims have been confirmed dead, and 16 others were wounded in the burst of violence, according to the latest official toll, as police revised earlier reports of a higher number of wounded.

While the manhunt was still under way police had called on residents of Germany's third-largest city to stay indoors, throwing the economic hub into lockdown.

"Attention -- avoid the neighbourhood around the OEZ (Olympia). Stay in your homes. Leave the street," a Munich police tweet said.

The Bavarian capital's main train station was evacuated and bus, metro and tram services were suspended.

Survivors of the rampage described terrifying scenes.

"We entered McDonald's to eat... then there was panic, and people ran out," one woman told Bavarian public television.

She said she heard three gunshots, "children were crying, people rushed to the exit in panic".

A video posted on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black walking away from a McDonald's while firing repeatedly on a group of people, who screamed as they fled.

- 'Bodies, injured people' -

A man who said he worked at one of the shops in the mall, described how he came face-to-face with the shooter.

Story continues

"I looked towards him, he fired at two people and I fled the building by climbing a wall.

"And then I saw bodies and injured people," he said.

According to one of his colleagues, the attacker was wearing military boots and carrying a backpack, he said.

Police chief Hubertus Andrae said the man had shouted something as he started his rampage but it was not yet clear what.

Police initially thought they were dealing with three attackers but it turned out that two men seen in a car leaving the scene "had nothing to do with it", Andrae said.

The shopping centre, which opened in the 1970s and bills itself as Bavaria's biggest, was surrounded by armed police, while a helicopter buzzed overhead.

The mall is not far from the Olympic stadium which hosted the 1972 summer Games and the athletes' village, the site of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September group.

In a neighbourhood located near the mall, schoolchildren and their parents were celebrating the end of the academic year when news of the shooting spree broke.

The families rushed home, on foot or by car.

German television broadcast footage of deserted streets as bars and cafes, normally bustling on a warm summer evening, quickly closed.

In a gesture of solidarity, Munich residents posted messages online inviting those stuck in the city into their homes.

However as the night wore on, the public was no closer to knowing why the shooter opened fire.

"The motive or explanation for this crime is completely unclear," Andrae told reporters.
Two Florida paramedics are facing criminal charges because they took selfies with patients inside ambulances as part of a selfie war.

Kayla Renee Dubois, 24, and Christopher Wimmer, 33, took photos and videos with 41 identified patients, many of whom were intubated, sedated, or otherwise unconscious at the time, the Miami Herald reports. They sent texts challenging each other to take more selfies and step up their game. Zimmer is also charged with holding open the eyelid of a sedated patient for a selfie and posing with an elderly woman with her breast exposed.

This investigation launched on May 13 after officials learned about these allegations from three other EMS employees a week earlier. Some of the photos were sent to other people, but an investigator says a very small number of EMS personnel received these images and videos. Dubois was fired on May 20, and Wimmer also resigned that day.

According to the Okaloosa County Sheriffs Office, two of the patients have since deceased, and three appear consensual. The remaining 36 patients include 19 women and 17 men. Their ages range from 24 to 86. Five of the patients are homeless.

[Miami Herald]
Nobody likes a mooch, but new research finds that grifting off others is a sound evolutionary strategy.

Parasitism  a survival strategy that involves hijacking a host's nutrients for one's own benefit  has emerged in the animal kingdom at least 223 times, according to a study published July 19 in the journal Biology Letters. And though parasitism is sometimes considered an evolutionary dead end because it requires putting all of one's eggs in the host's basket, parasitic species are equally as diverse as nonparasitic species, suggesting that parasites do just fine for themselves.

The estimate of 223 independent origins of parasitism is nearly four times higher than the previous estimate of around 60. That's because no one had looked at the question systematically, said study lead author Sara Weinstein, a graduate student in ecology, evolution and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. And many surveys of parasitism have focused on organisms that are relevant to humans, like the intestine-dwelling tapeworm, while overlooking arthropods like mites and flies.

"We spent a lot of time looking at these groups that aren't typically included in these estimates," Weinstein told Live Science. [See Photos of Human Parasites Under the Microscope]

More than expected, but rare

Tracing the origins of parasitism took six years of combing through research on parasitic animals and their closest relatives, Weinstein said. Some of the research she used dated back to as early as the 1800s. By comparing parasitic species to their closest nonparasitic relatives, Weinstein was able to tease out the points in time when a new, parasitic species split off from a free-living ancestor. She focused on the animal kingdom  it would have been an overwhelming task to include viruses, bacteria and fungi in the survey.

There are millions of parasitic species, Weinstein said. In fact, a 1998 paper published in the International Journal for Parasitology argued that most life on Earth is parasitic. Other estimates put the number at around 40 percent of animals. Pegging the number of independent examples of parasites that have evolved at 223 might seem high, Weinstein said, but considering the more than 7 million species of animals currently alive, 223 is a relatively small number.

Story continues

"It's actually a fairly rare transition," she said.

Developing parasites

Most parasite groups evolved before the Mesozoic era, more than 250 million years ago. These old groups are also, generally, the largest, and as such contain the most species.

"The 10 largest parasite groups actually contain 90 percent of parasite species," Weinstein said.

Because these groups are so old, it's hard to find the free-living relatives that the parasitic species evolved from. Far more illuminating, Weinstein said, are the remaining 10 percent of parasites, particularly the understudied mites and flies, Weinstein said.

"They either transitioned to parasitism relatively recently or actually are in the process," she said. Some are "facultative parasites," which are organisms that can become parasitic when the environmental conditions are right, but can also live independently.

Many parasites have only one parasitic stage in their life cycle, or spend at least some portion of their life as free-living organisms. One example is the Schistosoma parasite, which hatches inside of freshwater snails. The larvae then swim through the water until they find an animal host (including humans). When they have a host, the free-swimming larvae revert back to a parasitic stage, squirming through the skin and developing to adulthood inside the blood vessels. They then lay eggs, which are released through urination or defecation to  hopefully, from the worms' perspective  find their way back to a snail host. The human host who is infected with the Schistosoma parasite develops the disease schistosomiasis, which is marked by bloody urine and diarrhea, fever, and bladder, liver and spleen damage.

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.
Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort talks with reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Sunday, July 17, 2016. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

CLEVELAND  Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort suggested Thursday that the FBI might be cooking its statistics to hide the increase in violent crime that many speakers at the Republican National Convention  including Donald Trump himself  claim is occurring.

In the text of his prepared speech, Trump claimed that Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administrations rollback of criminal enforcement.

In an interview, CNNs Jake Tapper reminded Manafort that statistics show crime rates have been going down for decades.

People dont feel safe in their neighborhoods, Manafort responded. Im not sure what statistics youre talking about.

Tapper said the figures come from the FBI, and Manafort retorted that the FBIs certainly suspect these days, after what they just did with Hillary Clinton  a reference to FBI head James Comeys recommendation that the former secretary of state not be prosecuted over her use of a private email server.

In fact, although crime rates in general are far below the levels of the 1990s, some cities have seen an increase in shootings and homicides over the last year. It was not clear what Trump meant by the Obama administrations rollback of criminal enforcement, which is generally a state and local responsibility.

_____

Related slideshows:

On the ground at the RNC Convention  A photo report >>>

BOOS CRUZ: Newspapers react to Ted Cruzs RNC stunner >>>

Armed at the RNC >>>

Front pages cover Donald Trumps final primary victory >>>

Melania Trump in the convention spotlight >>>

Convention floor erupts when no roll call taken to change rules to unbind delegates >>>

How newspapers covered the RNCs fiery first day >>>

Demonstrators protest outside the RNC >>>

Donald Trumps America >>>
Britain's Official Charts Company, which is celebrating its 60th birthday, announced it's honoring Paul McCartney with its second Official Record Breaker Award as the most successful album act of all time in the U.K. The honor was given for McCartney hitting the No. 1 album spot 22 times beginning from his time with the Beatles and continuing into his solo career.

The lengthy roster of chart toppers starts with 15 U.K. No. 1 albums when he with the Beatles: Please Please Me and With the Beatles in 1963; A Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale in 1964; Help! and Rubber Soul in 1965; Revolver in 1966; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, The Beatles (White Album) in 1968, Abbey Road in 1969 and Let It Be in 1970. After the group's break up, they hit No. 1 with 1977's The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, which was just announced for re-release, Live at the BBC in 1974, Anthology 2 in 1996, and, finally, 1 in 2000.

His U.K. solo No. 1 albums start in 1971 with Ram by Paul and Linda McCartney, followed by the McCartney-Wings albums Band on the Run in 1973 and Venus and Mars in 1975; and the solo albums McCartney II in 1980; Tug of War in 1982; Give My Regards to Broad Street in 1984 and Flowers in the Dirt in 1989. By comparison, John Lennon has had 18 U.K. No. 1 albums, with George Harrison right behind at 17 and Ringo Starr at 15.

"Okay, you know how it really feels? It feels unbelievable, because when you write your songs you don't count how well they're doing," McCartney said in a statement. "I remember when Please, Please Me went to No. 1, that was our first No. 1 record, and it's a beautiful feeling to suddenly get this [award], I mean it's amazing.

"So thank you to the people for giving it to me, I love you. And thank you to everyone who made it possible by buying the records, we love you too!"[[{"fid":"621602","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":1795,"width":1240,"class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]]

"It is a huge honour for the Official Charts to pay tribute to Paul McCartney's incredible achievements with this special award," said Martin Talbot, Official Charts Company's chief executive officer. "Over more than 50 years, Paul has been a fixture on the British and world music scene -- so to recognize his contribution as part of the U.K. Albums Chart's 60th birthday feels absolutely appropriate. Congratulations Paul! Here's to many more No. 1 albums to come!"

McCartney is only the second record breaker to be honored by the Official Charts Company. The first was Justin Bieber, who in January became the first artist to hold the top three spots in the U.K. singles chart at the same time.
Paul Mitchell Co-Founder John Paul DeJoria weighed in on Donald Trumps acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and how the nominees trade and economic policies would impact the business community.

Not being a big fan of Donald Trump because of his demeanor during of course the primaries, that speech last night was a great speech, a really great speech, DeJoria told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo.

DeJoria questioned the feasibility of implementing some of Trumps trade policies and plans to bring jobs back to America.

When he talks about bringing jobs back to America and really looking at some of these trade agreements, I know that some things hes saying cant easily be done to bring American jobs back.

DeJoria responded to concerns that a Trump presidency would lead to a shutdown in trade.

No, I didnt hear it at all last night and there wont be a shut down in trade because both sides still benefit. No matter who youre doing business with, they still benefit. But I think what scares some of the bigger businesses is hes saying its not going to be business as usual. And with all due respect, our government does give a lot of grants to a lot of big companies that make a lot of money that shouldnt really be getting those grants.

DeJoria then called on Trump to explain some of the tangible steps he would take to achieve his plans.

At first you were going to build that wall and have Mexico pay for it. Well thats not going to happen  I dont think Mexicos going to pay for a wall. Donald you have a lot of great things that you said, a lot of good things. But exactly how are you going to do it? Thats what Id love to hear. How are you going to do it? We in business say we are going to do this, were going to market this, but heres how were going to do it. And then we go forth with our plans. Donald how are you going to do it buddy?

Related Articles
By Nate Raymond

July 22 (Reuters) - A former partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild was sentenced on Friday to six months in prison for trading on inside information that a client at his law firm was about to announce a merger, prosecutors said.

Herbert Sudfeld, 64, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe in Philadelphia after a federal jury in February found him guilty on charges of securities fraud and making a false statement.

He was also ordered to pay $77,000 in restitution, which his lawyer, Robert Welsh, said will be considered satisfied once Sudfeld pays $91,747 plus interest to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a related civil case.

The sentence was confirmed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia. Welsh, who called the sentence "very fair," said Sudfeld had not yet decided whether to appeal his conviction.

Prosecutors said that Sudfeld engaged in insider trading while he was a partner at Fox Rothschild, which represented insurer Harleysville Group Inc in its $760 million merger with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co in 2011.

According to an indictment, Sudfeld, a real estate lawyer, learned that his partners at the large law firm were representing Harleysville two days before the merger was announced, and bought stock in the company.

When the deal was announced, Harleysville's stock price jumped about 85 percent. Sudfeld then sold the shares he had bought just a day earlier, earning profits of $75,530, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Sudfeld, who stopped working at Fox Rothschild in 2012, later made false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

The case is U.S. v. Sudfeld, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Philadelphia, No. 15-cr-00330.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
CHARLESTON -- Yesterdays sweltering heat is not expected to get any better for the next few days.

The city along with a majority of Illinois and surrounding states are under an excessive heat warning today and through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

The warning will remain in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. Expected highs will be up in the mid-90s with little relief at night with lows sitting around the upper 70s.

Cameron Craig, Eastern Illinois University climatologist, said this is the hottest heat wave of the summer so far, but that it is fairly normal for this time of year. If it persisted longer than a week, it would be odder.

This heat is compounded with the large amount humidity throughout the region. Craig said this could make the heat index reach 100 to 115 degrees.

In response to this heat, the Illinois Department of Transportation is urging people to stay alerted of possible pavement buckling on roads. Recent rainfall and extreme heat make for a bad combination on roads.

The combination of very high temperatures and precipitation can lead to pavement expanding and ultimately buckling or blowing out, causing uneven driving surfaces in some areas, according to IDOT.

Curt Buescher, director of Public Works, said damages normally take place on long stretches of road with concrete pavement. The stress from the expansion can ultimately lead to damages to the road. Buescher said sometimes the heat also leads to cracks in the road.

While not impossible, he said it was uncommon specifically in the city where stretches of road are shorter. He said could not recall a time in the past couple of years where city crews have had to repair and patch the road as a result.

IDOT crews are expected to monitor the situation as long as the heat and humidity persist. IDOT recommended also to carry drinking water when traveling. Getting stranded in these situations can be dangerous, according to IDOT.

The risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, are high in this heat, Charleston Fire Chief, Steve Bennett said.

Those experiencing heat exhaustion will often experience symptoms including dizziness, excessive sweating, clammy skin, nausea and muscle cramps.

In cases of heat stroke, a person will show symptoms such as nausea, headache, no sweating, vomiting and body temperature above 103 degrees. Those experiencing these symptoms are urged to call 911.

Bennett said as long as people in the heat for an extended period of time are sweating, it is a good sign

Steps to avoid dehydration include staying inside as much as possible and drinking a lot of fresh water consistently. Bennett said it is not wise to wait until feeling thirsty.

While anyone is susceptible to heat-related illnesses, those working outside as well as elderly and children and animals are at a higher risk. Bennett said it is also important to be mindful and not leave children or animals in the car especially in this heat.

He said the temperature in the car that has been sitting for a just 10 minutes can lead to temperatures inside the car rising roughly 15-30 degrees.

For animals, it is recommended they should not stay outside longer than approximately 10 minutes, Nicole Sloter, Albin Animal Hospital veterinarian, said. If they are to be taken on walks, she said they should not be taken out during the day.

Sloter also recommended that people pay attention and make sure their pets do not show signs of dehydration, which can often include heavy panting.

Craig said so far, the area has seen a good summer filled with comparatively normal temperatures and consistent rains. Today, the forecast shows a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. Otherwise, today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 93 degrees and heat index values as high as 109.
By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Friday updated its law of war manual after a previous version came under fire for appearing to allow commanders to treat journalists as belligerents or spies. The U.S. Department of Defense manual, the first and most comprehensive of its kind, was first released last June. It compared some of the tasks of journalism to spying or other hostile actions by an enemy. The manual said some journalists may be considered "unprivileged belligerents" -- a legal category with fewer protections than combatants, such as prisoner-of-war status. "Reporting on military operations can be very similar to collecting intelligence or even spying," one passage of the manual said. Press freedom advocates said the manual's wording blurred the line between journalists and combatants and gave commanders the authority to detain reporters without charge. They also warned that it would erode U.S. credibility abroad at a time when journalists are being targeted by governments and militant groups. Sixty-nine journalists were killed for their work in 2015, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, up from 61 in 2014. In 2015, 199 journalists were being detained worldwide, compared to 221 in 2014. After the manual's release last year, news organizations including Reuters met with Pentagon officials to protest the language and ask for changes. The revised manual provides greater detail on the legitimate purposes that journalists serve and makes clear that journalists have all the rights of civilians. Press freedom groups, including CPJ and Reporters Without Borders, praised the revisions. Advocates said the new manual acknowledged journalists right to interview enemy combatants and placed the onus on commanders to discern between the actions of reporters and combatants. These are major changes, said Frank Smyth of the CPJ. This affirms the rights and the practice of open and independent reporting on the battlefield. The Pentagon eliminated the passages comparing reporting to spying or hostile acts, but gives specific examples of how an act of reporting could result in the loss of civilian status. Journalists could still be considered unprivileged belligerents, the manual states, if they were a member of a non-state armed group and were carrying out propaganda "or other media activities." Journalists could also lose their civilian status in certain cases, such as relaying target coordinates for an artillery strike against opposing forces, the manual said. The new manual also eliminates language that called for journalists to seek permission from "relevant authorities" for their work "to avoid being mistaken for spies." That passage drew criticism for setting an unrealistic standard for war reporting, in which frontlines can shift quickly. To cover conflicts in Libya or Syria, for instance, reporters often have to cross borders illegally. Pentagon officials also said they would be willing to revise the manual again if needed. "The department's mission is to defend the very freedoms that journalists exercise," the Pentagon's top lawyer, Jennifer O'Connor, said in a statement. "We have learned a lot during this process, and the department and the manual are better off for the experience." (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati. Editing by David Rohde and Clive McKeef)
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and hedge fund titan Peter Thiel, a delegate for Donald Trump from California, drew applause, cheers and many delegates giving a standing ovation as he declared from the stage at the Quicken Loans Arena, Im proud to be gay.

I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American, Thiel said.

Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, was not the first openly gay man to address a GOP convention. Rep. James Kolbe (R-Arizona), who is openly gay, spoke in 2000 but did not make reference to his sexual orientation. A official from Log Cabin Republicans, an organization that works within the Republican party to advocate for LGBT rights, addressed the 1996 convention.

But Thiel openly acknowledges that he is gay, and the response to his speech was viewed as progress among some of the Log Cabin Republicans at the convention, even though the GOP platform continues to include opposition to same-sex marriage.

Thiels speech didnt concentrate on LGBT rights, but on his support for Trump.

Still, he did remark on the issue of transgender access to bathrooms.

When I was a kid the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union, he said. And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?

Thiel secretly helped bankroll Hulk Hogans litigation against Gawker Media, after the audacious news outlet published a story outing him. He recently told the New York Times that he funded the litigation because he was concerned about the sites ethics in pursuing stories that were very painful and paralyzing for people who were targeted.

Hillary Clintons campaign quickly sent out a release noting statements Trump and Pence opposing marriage equality. Four years ago, another GOP LGBT group, GOPProud, had a presence at the convention and even staged an event called Homocon. Since then, one of the groups founders, Jimmy LaSalvia, quit the GOP and has endorsed Clinton.

Story continues

Thiels speech also included attacks on Hillary Clintons foreign policy, noting that her support for intervention into Libya. Instead, Thiel spoke against foreign intervention, itself a diversion from past establishment GOP rhetoric.

Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East, he said.

He added, Donald Trump is right. It is time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country.

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Billionaire investor Peter Thiel announced that he was proud to be gay during a speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday evening.

The PayPal co-founder used his short time on stage to stump for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in a speech that focused primarily on the message of creating a "bright future" for America and its economy. But the statements that got the biggest response were his comments about being gay. "I'm proud to be gay. I'm proud to be a Republican. But most of all I'm proud to be an American," he said, to a standing ovation from many in the room.

Thiel, who recently revealed himself to be the backer of Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media, was a surprising choice for the RNC. Openly gay and a libertarian, he's not a name widely known outside of Silicon Valley circles, let alone among the GOP. But Thiel was given a prime spot on Thursday night's lineup, just a few speakers ahead of Trump, and the crowd inside FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland gave him a warm reception.

His speech touched on the divide between the wealth that has accrued in Silicon Valley and the economy across the country. "Silicon Valley is a small place," he noted. "Drive out to Sacramento or even across the bridge to Oakland and you won't see the same prosperity." He went on to explain that the "economy is broken" and to describe that his German parents immigrated to America and first settled in Cleveland before moving West.

He ended his speech by urging people to vote for Trump.

The one message that appeared to fall flat inside the stadium was a comment about the transgender bathroom bills that have passed in some states. "When I was a kid, the great debate was how to defeat the Soviet Union and we won," he said. "Now we are told that the great debate is about w ho gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares."

Story continues

Thiel is the first openly gay man to speak at the Republican National Convention since 2000. When George W. Bush was nominated for the first time, then-Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona spoke in Philadelphia, but he steered clear of talking about his sexuality.

Thiel's personal actions have caused some in Silicon Valley to question his powerful position as a Facebook board member. But the company has brushed aside critics, saying that his funding of the Hogan lawsuit was outside of his role at the company. He was re-elected to the board earlier this year, and the company released a statement that his speech at the RNC was personal and not "on behalf of Facebook or to represent our views."

Reactions were mixed on social media after Thiel's speech, especially from his colleagues in Silicon Valley. Here are some of the reactions from the media and tech executives who watched the speech:

This is really not Peter's best venue.

- John Lilly (@johnolilly) July 22, 2016

Peter Thiel sure looked like he was on drugs while speaking at the Republican convention.

- Michael Arrington (@arrington) July 22, 2016

Peter was awkward at first, but he is picking up steam with the focus on what matters angle

- jason (@Jason) July 22, 2016

Thiel just delivered the first tech speech in the last year that didn't have an AI bot launch in it.

- Aaron Levie (@levie) July 22, 2016

Peter Thiel considered all the standard coming out venues: The Advocate, People Magazine, the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

- Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) July 22, 2016

.@guypbenson: "I'm proud of what [@peterthiel] just did on a personal level & I tip my cap to the Trump camp for welcoming that message"

- Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) July 22, 2016

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Tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel ignited a thunderous applause on Thursday night when he became the first openly gay man to address the Republican National Convention and tout his sexuality onstage.

"I am proud to be gay," Thiel declared. "I am proud to be Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American."

The line prompted the crowd at the GOP convention in Cleveland to roar with applause and chant, USA, USA, USA!

Thiel, a Silicon Valley investor who cofounded PayPal and was the first major private investor in Facebook, was an early supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The billionaire said that he didn't "pretend to agree with every plank in our party's platform."

"But fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline," he contended. "And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump."

GettyImages 578544554

In his speech, Thiel argued that the US had become distracted with identity politics.

"When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union. And we won," he said. "Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom."

Thiel also said that Americans should not accept incompetence from their government and invoked technology to illustrate his point.

"Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can't even fly in the rain. And it would be kind to say the government's software works poorly, because much of the time it doesn't even work at all," he said.

Thiel added: "That is a staggering decline for the country that completed the Manhattan Project. We don't accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government."

The Silicon Valley investor concluded his speech by contending that Trump would not be a "return to the past."

"He's running to lead us back to that bright future," Thiel said. "Tonight I urge all of my fellow Americans to stand up and vote for Donald Trump."





More From Business Insider


By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, the only big-name supporter of Donald Trump from the country's technology hub, spoke on Thursday at the Republican National Convention to urge the country to discard petty cultural battles and turn its attention to solving the United States' economic decline. Thiel offered a full-throated endorsement of Trump, echoing the Republican candidate's themes of economic decline while lambasting economic and foreign policies that have allowed the country to get embroiled in "stupid wars." "Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can't even fly in the rain," Thiel said on the final evening of the four-day convention in Cleveland. "Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East." A co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook Inc who sits on that company's board of directors, Thiel is well-known for contrarian and even eccentric views: a Libertarian who supports gay rights and legalizing marijuana, and who has proposed floating cities beyond the government's reach while encouraging students to drop out of college and start companies. His support of Trump has been both a source of curiosity and the butt of jokes in Silicon Valley, where Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-trade positions are regarded with horror. Many tech executives lean Democratic, and prominent Republican tech executives such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman have also rejected Trump. Thiel, who is gay, was expected to address gay rights in front of a political party whose platform rejects gay marriage and gay rights in general. He stopped short of such an appeal, however, addressing his sexuality only when saying: "I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American." He is only the second openly gay man to address the Republican National Convention, CNN reported. "When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union, and we won," Thiel said. "Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?" Thiel said his support for Trump was based on the belief that the candidate could address the country's economic decline. He cited the space program and other government technology achievements as examples of what has been lost. Thiel drew parallels between himself and Trump each as a "builder." His family emigrated from Germany when Thiel was one year old, and arrived in Cleveland - the city hosting this week's convention. When Thiel pointed that out, he got loud applause. Back then, Thiel said, "Opportunity was everywhere." "In 1968, the world's high-tech capital wasn't just one city. All of America was high-tech." (Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Jonathan Oatis)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f154188%2fpeterthiel

Last night, Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel made history as the first openly gay speaker in the history of the Republican National Convention.

His speech drew real applause, however hesitant or polite, and made big headlines across major media outlets and every social platform. Here was an openly gay man, advocating on behalf of a political party that has long refused to acknowledge the existence of people like him. Peter Thiel's presence was, if nothing else, a cosmetic nod to gay humanity from the GOP.

Yet Thiel's speech wasn't used to advance the rights of the LGBTQ community, but to instead do what Republicans have long accused the Democrats of doing  to cynically exploit a person's identity in order to advance a regressive political agenda.

It was the cultural milestone we in the queer community were waiting for, just not the one we deserved.

SEE ALSO: Peter Thiel tells America that he is a proud, gay Republican

Thirty years ago, Thiel's speech would have been unthinkable. Republican president Ronald Reagan  the hero of this week's GOP convention  refused for years to provide funding for AIDS research, a disease that disproportionately affected the gay community and ultimately killed more than 650,000 Americans. Groups like the Moral Majority, which once issued a "Declaration of War" against homosexuals, found a safe haven in the Republican party. Throughout the '80s, '90s, well into the 21st century, the Republican Party stood for "traditional family values," a euphemism used to disguise an anti-queer, anti-trans, anti-human rights agenda.

As a gay teenager growing up in the '90s under the Clinton administration, the distinction between the parties was memorable. The Republican party was the party of "traditional family values," and the Democratic Party  who helped to pass the Defense of Marriage Act  well, they were too, but they were just nicer about it.

Story continues

It was a miserable set of choices.

2016 should have been better. But this year's Republican party platform was called the "most anti-LGBT platform in history" by none other than the Log Cabin Republicans, the most popular gay Republican group in the country. The platform wasn't just anti-gay marriage and anti-discrimination laws. It further gave nod to gay conversion therapy, a dangerous and abusive practice denounced by the American Medical Association. And sitting atop that platform was none other than gay Republican billionaire, Peter Thiel.

For the millions of people who watched the GOP convention this week, and the thousands more that read about it the next day, the message was clear: You can call gay people your friends, you can invite them in as neighbors and fellow party members, while simultaneously voting for their destruction.

It's a dangerous precedent for the Republican party, if not a familiar one. Donald Trump himself captured the paradox perfectly last night. During his speech, Trump made a historic overture to members the LGBTQ community.

"As president, I will do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology," Trump said, to applause.

A little while later, however, Trump went to shake hands with his Vice Presidential appointee, Governor Mike Pence, a politician celebrated for his anti-LGBTQ views.

During his run for Congress in 2000, Pence advocated to redirect funding used to help AIDS victims, to fund gay conversion therapy. In 2009, he voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extended hate crime legislation to include gender and sexual orientation.

Thiel's inclusion at the ceremony, and Trump's appointment of Mike Pence, made the party's positions clear: Homophobia from our enemies should be denounced, but when hate comes from "real Americans," it comes with a heart.

To Thiel's credit, he did express open distaste for some aspects of the Republican platform:

"I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all I am proud to be an American," Thiel said, before gently encouraging Republicans to lets trans people to use the bathrooms of their choice. "This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares? I don't pretend to agree with every plank of our party platform."

For some in the queer community, including myself, it's mind-boggling to imagine how Thiel could so clearly advocate on behalf of one of the most anti-LGBTQ platforms in modern American history. But it's not entirely novel. For decades, members of the queer community have lined up behind far more sympathetic candidates like Barack Obama, who was late to protect transgender inmates in prison, or Hillary Clinton, who delayed her support for gay marriage well beyond when she "needed to."

Compromise is a routine feature of LGBTQ life, but there's a fine line between politically expedient compromises and gratuitous disavowal.

And Thiel seems to have missed, or been disinterested in, the larger point that so many LGBTQ activists have stressed over the past decade: It's not just anti-gay, anti-trans laws that the community is fighting against.

The LGBTQ community is fighting for an agenda that benefits low-income folks, who are disproportionately transgender, and people of color, who are more likely to be victims of hate violence. Oppression doesn't work in isolation, but in unison, and it's alienating to watch a towering industry figure like Thiel so casually dismiss the remainder of a platform that would have adverse affects on the majority of the LGBTQ community  though maybe not him.

Thiel was, simply, the safest representation of the LGBTQ community the RNC could have picked  not queer but gay, not trans but cis, male, white, profoundly wealthy, proudly assimilated and committed to the destruction of Gawker.

None of this is to say that Thiel's story doesn't matter, or that his speech wasn't some sort of sick, strange accomplishment. Surely, there must have been queer kids out there sitting on couches with their conservative families watching Thiel speak. And it might have provided some comfort to see themselves represented, or given them the hope that they too could grow up and express this part of their identity without being abandoned by a party or a community.

That matters.

But it's limiting to call Thiel's speech progress, and while his performance was no doubt a milestone  it comes with painful baggage.

Thiel is entitled to his views, and no one in the queer community  liberal or conservative  should be forced to wear a political straightjacket. Maybe Thiel thought he could help create a more compassionate Republican platform. Or advocate for the end of democracy. Or maybe he just really wanted to eliminate floppy disk waste. As much as I and many people in my community vehemently disagree with Thiel's worldview, it's unfair to label him as a "bad gay." There is no right or wrong way to be gay, there are just better ways to be human.

History was made last night  which is why we'll keep waiting for the future.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A woman from the Philippines convicted in Indonesia for drug smuggling and sentenced to death will not be among the first round of executions carried out when capital punishment is resumed after a lull, the attorney general said on Friday. Indonesia imposed a moratorium on executions for five years before resuming them in 2013. It provoked international outrage in April last year with the execution of eight drug traffickers, seven of them foreigners. After the outcry, authorities said they were postponing executions while the government focused on reviving he economy. But President Joko Widodo's administration has this year pledged to resume executions by firing squad. A Philippine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, got a last-minute reprieve last year, following a request from Manila after an employment recruiter, whom Veloso had accused of planting drugs in her luggage, gave herself up to police in the Philippines. "Not yet," Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told reporters when asked about Veloso. "We are still waiting on the legal process in the Philippines, which we have to respect." Prasetyo has said 16 prisoners will be executed this year, including nationals from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, but has declined to give a specific time frame. That number will be more than doubled next year, he said. Indonesia has declared a "drug emergency" and vowed no mercy for drug traffickers. Authorities have not given a breakdown of the numbers of foreigners on death row but citizens of France, Britain and the Philippines are known to be among them. (Reporting by Yuddy Cahyadi; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Enrico Dela Cruz MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines, eager to resume development of vital oil and gas reserves off its coast, will likely need to reach an accord with a Chinese government infuriated by last week's ruling that granted Manila a big victory in the South China Sea. The Philippines relies overwhelmingly on imports to fuel its fast-growing economy. That reliance will grow further in a few years when the main source of domestic natural gas runs out, so the clock is ticking for it to develop offshore fields that China shows no sign of loosening its grip on. Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that granted the Philippines sovereign rights to access offshore oil and gas fields, including the Reed Bank, a shallow tablemount some 85 nautical miles off its coast. And as long as things stay that way, the Philippines will have a hard time finding much-needed foreign expertise willing to risk upsetting China, officials and experts say. According to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford, one concession - SC 72 - contains 2.6-8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That would be as much as triple the amount discovered at the Malampaya project, an offshore field that powers 40 percent of the main island of Luzon, home to the capital Manila. Malampaya, which was developed by Royal Dutch Shell and began operations in 2001, is approaching the end of its productive life. Its only viable replacements are in waters that China insists it will not cede. "Malampaya is going to run out of gas in 10 years so there is urgency for us to develop the Reed Bank," said Antonio Carpio, a supreme court associate justice. Carpio was part of the legal team that made the case in The Hague and said a big factor in the Philippines' decision to pursue arbitration in 2013 was China's obstructions around Reed Bank. "Every time we send a survey ship there, Chinese coastguard vessels harass our survey ships," he told news channel ANC. "That's why we had to do something." DEFERRED BY DISPUTES The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes that beneath the South China Sea could be 11 billion barrels of oil, more than Mexico's reserves, and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Most foreign firms with capital and technology needed to develop those reserves, however, don't want to risk being caught up in spats over jurisdiction and have avoided concessions offered in disputed waters. Manila's state-run Philex Petroleum has the controlling stakes in two stalled concessions, the 880,000-hectare SC-72 at the Reed Bank and the 616,000-hectare SC-75 off the island of Palawan. The court verdict on July 12 sparked a surge in energy stocks the next day, with Philex shares up as much as 21 percent. Philex says it is seeking a meeting with Philippine energy officials regarding the potential to lift a suspension order on drilling activities in the Reed Bank, in place since December 2014. "It's a matter of national importance. We don't want to move on our own without guidance from the government," Philex Chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters. "We will need a partner ... no local company has the expertise that we need." Department of Energy spokesman Felix William Fuentebella said there were no immediate plans to lift the suspension as the department awaited guidance from new President Rodrigo Duterte. "The moratorium stays. We are exploring ways to resolve the conflict peacefully and we follow the lead of the President," he said. Manila and Beijing have both expressed a desire to resume talks, but the Philippines says it could not accept China's pre-condition of not discussing the ruling. CONCESSION TO SHARE? Without an agreement between Manila and Beijing, finding development partners would be difficult, said Andrew Harwood, a Southeast Asia upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie. "There has to be some softening of Beijing's stance before any companies would be willing to go and drill in any of the disputed areas," he said. China has involved energy businesses in diplomatic disputes previously. In May 2014, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) moved its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig into Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone, guarded with a flotilla of coastguard ships. In a tense standoff, Vietnam protested vehemently and sent ships to try to disrupt operations. Surveying on the disputed Reed Bank concessions began in 2003 under a Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) between Philippine state-owned PNOC Exploration Corp, CNOOC and state-owned PetroVietnam. Manila did not extend the agreement when it lapsed in 2008 after criticism from within the Philippines that the deal compromised its sovereignty. The pact also caused a diplomatic upset in Southeast Asia as it was seen as undermining regional solidarity against an assertive China. But some Filipino oil executives think teaming up again with CNOOC could solve problems on both the diplomatic and logistical fronts. Pangilinan of Philex said he would not close the door on a China JV, while Philex President Daniel Stephen Carlos said a "farm-in" type deal was also being looked at. Rufino Bomasang, a former Philippines energy ministry undersecretary and current executive chairman of Otto Energy Investments, an oil and gas exploration and production company, said restarting the JMSU with CNOOC should be considered. "It is something worthwhile resuming," Bomasang told Reuters. "If there's good faith on both sides, why not? And I hope so." CNOOC did not respond to a request for comment. China's Foreign Ministry did not directly answer a question submitted by Reuters about whether the government would permit a Chinese firm to join up with Philex, but said in a faxed statement that Reed Bank was Chinese territory. China wants to resolve the South China Sea issue through talks and is willing to set aside disputes for joint development before a resolution is reached, the ministry added. "China is willing to have consultations and dialogue with the Philippines about this," it said, without elaborating. (Additional reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE and Aizhu Chen and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING.; Writing by Martin Petty.; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Daniel Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright  who played Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter film series  reunited Thursday.

With the release of The Cursed Child script-book a week away, Harry Potter fans are gearing up to re-enter the world of the boy who lived. And what better way to get excited for J.K. Rowlings new story than by reminiscing about the seven books  and eight movies  that came before it.

In fact, the shot of Radcliffe and Wright has provided the perfect opportunity for nostalgia. Wright shared a picture of herself with her former onscreen husband and Sorcerers Stone director Chris Columbus on Instagram Thursday after attending a showing of Radcliffes play Privacy. Reunion!, she wrote. Congrats Dan on another stellar performance. Google is terrifying and Im now scared to use my phone. Can say no more. Go see Privacy!

Reunion! Congrats Dan on another stellar performance  Google is terrifying and I'm now scared to use my phone. Can say no more. Go see Privacy! A photo posted by B O N N I E W R I G H T (@thisisbwright) on Jul 21, 2016 at 8:56pm PDT

Now all we need is a shot of the golden trio back together to complete our Potter state of mind.
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's parliament on Friday eased some restrictions on the constitutional court in a move the government said addressed concerns that the ruling party had undermined the rule of law but the opposition said the changes did not go far enough. The United States and European Union have criticized Poland for undermining the constitutional court's ability to act as a check on government powers. Critics say the government's changes to the tribunal had undermined democratic standards and are part of a broader push to seize more control over state institutions, charges denied by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. The government says the changes were needed to resolve a deadlock over how the tribunal functioned after the previous parliament, dominated by the current main opposition party Civic Platform, illegally appointed judges to the court last year. Poland's 1997 constitution gives the tribunal power to block legislation approved by parliament and the president. But the constitution also says parliament should decide how the tribunal proceeds with cases. The PiS-controlled parliament in December passed laws that court verdicts had to be passed by a two-thirds majority, instead of a simple majority, and imposed a requirement that cases be heard in the order they were received. On Friday, parliament voted to remove the requirement for a two-thirds majority but introduced a clause giving judges the power to postpone a ruling by six months if four judges agreed. It also said verdicts in the most important cases needed to be agreed by at least 11 of the 15 judges, instead of its previous requirement of at least 13, a number critics say effectively paralyses the court, and eased restrictions on the order in which cases could be heard. PiS lawmaker Wojciech Szarama said the amendments sought to address the opposition's concerns. Opposition lawmaker from the liberal Nowoczesna party, Monika Rosa, said in parliament during the vote: "The law on the constitutional tribunal will remain bad, unconstitutional and in fact will damage the functioning of the tribunal." (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
By Sam Karlin BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) - Police officers from across the United States were among several thousand mourners gathered at a church in Louisiana's state capital on Friday for the first of three funerals for policemen killed this week by an Iraq war veteran. Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, 41, a veteran of the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army who also served in Iraq, had been on the force only a few months before his death on Sunday. "His end of watch came too soon but he served well," Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said as he fought back tears near the officer's flag-draped coffin. Gerald and two colleagues were killed and three were wounded by Gavin Long, 29, a black former Marine from Kansas City, Missouri, less than two weeks after the police killing of a black man in Baton Rouge on July 5. The shootings were the latest in a series of deadly encounters that have sparked debate over policing and minorities in the United States. Friday's mourners at the Healing Place Church included a police contingent from Dallas, where five officers were killed on July 7 by another black former U.S. serviceman. "We felt it was very important to come support Baton Rouge today," said Christina Smith, a deputy chief with the Dallas Police Department. Funerals for the other slain officers - East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola and Officer Montrell Jackson of the Baton Rouge Police Department - will be held on Saturday and Monday, respectively. The officers were gunned down in what Louisiana officials have described as a calculated attack by Long. The shooting rattled a city already grappling with protests after the fatal police shooting on July 5 of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man confronted by officers while selling CDs outside a convenience store. Police said Long had intended to kill as many officers as possible before a SWAT team marksman fatally shot him. One wounded sheriff's deputy remains in critical condition, while another left a Baton Rouge hospital on Thursday after surgeries to repair serious arm injuries. On Friday, the commander of the city's police academy recalled asking Gerald, a married father of two children, why he wanted to be an officer. "I have served my country, and now its time to serve my community," Gerald answered, according to commander J.D. Leach. Hundreds of officers lined a long walkway as Gerald's casket was carried to a hearse after the service, saluting the fallen policeman. (This version of the story was corrected to remove "unarmed" in reference to July 5 shooting in paragraph four) (Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Bill Trott)
The reason wall-to-wall coverage of true crime stories seems to dominate TV news is arguably thanks to figures like the so-called Milwaukee cannibal-murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was arrested 25 years ago Friday, on July 22, 1991.

On that day, in his apartment, police found body parts and severed heads in his fridge, freezer, filing cabinet, even in a kettle, which contained what are thought to be decomposing hands and a male genital organ, per TIMEs report. He quickly confessed to 11 murders, and later, to the killing and dismembering 17 people between 1978 and 1991. He was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in jail, but died in 1994 after fellow inmate Charles Sarver beat him to death.

But, despite the heinous nature of his crimes, his arrest was largely an accident.

The week after it happened, TIME described how the 31-year-old former chocolate-factory worker with a history of alcohol abuse and pedophilia was finally apprehended:

Jeffrey Dahmer spent 10 months in prison for fondling a 13-year-old Laotian boy in 1988 and offering him $50 to pose nude for pictures. On his release, Dahmer was put on probation. Although he showed up at the probation office every month, his caseworker never visited Dahmer in his home, as is usually required. A state department of corrections spokesman said the requirement had been waived because the agent was overworked. Another serious lapse occurred in May, when police officers were called by two women who found a naked, bloodied Asian boy on the street. A man the women believe was Dahmer apparently convinced the police that the boy was his homosexual partner; the police declined to investigate. The 14-year-old boy, whose body has been identified amid the carnage in Dahmers home, was the brother of the Laotian youth Dahmer molested in 1988. Three police officers were suspended last week pending an investigation into why they did not rescue the youth. Dahmers murderous rampage might have continued indefinitely had one of his victims not escaped last week. Running down a Milwaukee street with a pair of handcuffs dangling from one wrist, Tracy Edwards, 32, told police that Dahmer was trying to kill him. Dahmer was arrested without a struggle. He has since expressed remorse and briefed the authorities on his modus operandi: he usually lured men from shopping malls and bars by offering them money to pose for pictures; after drugging them, he would strangle his victims and dismember the bodies. Often he boiled their heads to remove the flesh, and in at least one case, say authorities, he had anal sex with a cadaver.

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The haphazard nature of Dahmers arrest led many to accuse the Milwaukee police of negligence in the case, and of failing to properly investigate crimes against minorities.

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

Dahnmers case helped bring the pop-culture obsession with true crime to a new level, based on the record ratings for network TV interviews with Dahmer and talk of book deals for Dahmers father and the judge in the case. As TIME summed up the mass appeal of such mass murders, citing Diane Sawyers program revisiting the Charles Manson murder case: Viewers are fascinated with these stories less for the gory crime details than for the peek they provide into the extremes of human psychology. We watch to be reassured these people are monsters, not at all like you and me. And to face the fear that in some basic ways they are exactly like you and me.
Coatzacoalcos (Mexico) (AFP) - Eight Mexican police officers appeared before investigators Thursday to testify over the murder of a journalist, as his family accused agents present during the homicide of letting the killers flee.

Pedro Tamayo Rosas, a 45-year-old newspaper reporter who covered crime, was gunned down late Wednesday in front of his wife and two grown sons in the town of Tierra Blanca, eastern Veracruz state.

Mexico, plagued by drug violence, is among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with 19 reporters killed in Veracruz alone since 2010.

The Veracruz prosecutor's office said in a statement that the state police officers "appeared voluntarily" before investigators and gave their "version of the moment they arrived at the scene of the homicide."

The statement did not describe the legal status of the officers. The prosecutor's office said it would look at all lines of investigation.

Tamayo's relatives, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said a state police vehicle was parked near his home during the attack.

The family told investigators that the police vehicle blocked access to other vehicles but that the two assailants were able to arrive in their car.

Tamayo was working with his wife and sons at the family's food stand in front of their house after 10:00 pm when the two men arrived and ordered a hamburger.

After the killers opened fire, they left "calmly, they didn't run, they weren't in a hurry or concerned. They got into their car and left," one of the relatives said.

A family member ran to the police for help, but the officers did not act and "laughed" before leaving, the relative said.

Another relative said the killers even drank beers at a bar a few blocks away following the murder.

The prosecutor's office said in a previous statement that preliminary investigation indicates "there were two assailants who approached Tamayo to greet him at a business in his home."

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The gunmen opened fire and fled in a vehicle, the statement said. Tamayo succumbed to his wounds in a hospital.

The authorities are "not ruling out any line of investigation, including his journalistic work," as a motive, the statement said.

Tamayo worked for the media outlets El Pinero de la Cuenca and Al Calor Politico.

Earlier this year, he covered the disappearance of five young people in Tierra Blanca who, according to the authorities, disappeared after they were abducted by state police officers in January.

After the disappearance garnered international media attention, Tamayo fled Tierra Blanca over safety concerns for about three months.

Eight officers have been charged over the disappearance of the five young people. Authorities say the four young men and 16-year-old girl were handed over to members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, who killed them.

Murders against journalists have spiked since Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte took office in 2010. He has come under criticism for suggesting that some reporters are linked to organized crime.
Polycom, Inc. PLCM recently posted second-quarter 2016 results. The quarterly adjusted (including stock-based compensation expense) earnings per share came in at 8 cents and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 13 cents. Polycom incurred a GAAP net loss of $10 million or 7 cents per share compared with a profit of $19.6 million or 14 cents in the prior-year quarter.

Quarterly total revenue declined 9% year over year to $288 million and also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $295 million. Product revenues totaled $201.72 million, while Service revenues grossed $86.1 million. Meanwhile, both were down 9.1% from the prior-year quarter level.



Segment-wise Sales

UC Group Systems revenues totaled $171.4 million, down 12% year over year. UC Personal Devices revenues grossed $68.8 million, up 3% from the year-ago quarter. UC Platform revenues came in at $47.6 million, down 13% year over year.



Geographic Distribution of Sales



The Americas (North and South) generated $142 million in revenues, down 10% year over year. Europe, the Middle East and Africa contributed $72.7 million, down 10% year over year. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for the remaining $73.1 million, down 6% year over year.



Margins



Gross margin in the quarter stood at 57.4% compared with 59.2% in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly operating expenses totaled $129 million, down 16.3% year over year. Quarterly operating margin was 12.7% versus 11.3% in the prior-year quarter.

POLYCOM INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

POLYCOM INC Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | POLYCOM INC Quote

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow



At the end of the second quarter of 2016, Polycom had nearly $722 million of cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet compared with $660 million at the end of the second quarter of 2015. Total debt for the same period stood at $232 million compared with $237 million in the same period of 2015. Cash flow from operations, at the end of second-quarter 2016, was $19 million compared with $30.4 million at the end of 2015.

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Meanwhile, Polycom agreed to end the merger agreement with Mitel and approved a new deal with Siris Capital Group LLC valued at $2 billion. The agreement has been chalked out with Triangle Private Holdings I, LLC and Triangle Private Merger Sub, Inc., which are affiliated to Siris Capital. Each share of Polycom would be exchanged for $12.5 in cash on completion of the merger expected in the third quarter of 2016.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks



Polycom currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include ARI Network Services, Inc. ARIS and Mobile TeleSystems PJSC MBT with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and F5 Networks Inc. FFIV with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Portugals former prime minister Antonio Guterres topped the first informal poll to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1 followed by Slovenias former president Danilo Turk.

Two diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the vote was secret, said three candidates had the same support for third place  Irina Bokova of Bulgaria who heads UNESCO, Serbias former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic and former Macedonian foreign minister Srgjan Kerim.

The 15 council members decided not to reveal the results of their voting to encourage, discourage, or express no opinion about the 12 candidates  unlike the informal straw polls 10 years ago, which were made public and led to Bans election to the worlds top diplomatic post.

But despite the councils efforts at secrecy, the results quickly leaked out.

By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions and Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have all held the top post. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. There has also never been a woman secretary-general and a group of 56 nations are campaigning for the first female U.N. chief.

Bokova got nine encourage votes, the highest number for a woman, the diplomats said. New Zealands former prime minister Helen Clark was in fourth place with eight encourage votes.

Argentinas Foreign Minister Susanna Malcorra, a former chief-of-staff to Ban who was expected to be a leading contender, was behind Clark, they said.

Guterres, who was Portugals center-left Socialist prime minister from 1995-2002 and served as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees until the end of last year, received 12 encourage votes and three no opinion votes, the diplomats said.

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Portugals Foreign Minister Augusto Santo Silva called the vote an extremely positive result, given the great quality of the other candidates, telling the media in Washington It gives a clear incentive to the candidature of Mr. Guterres and confirms that hes particularly qualified for the position of secretary-general.

Turk, who served as Slovenias first U.N. ambassador from 1992-2000 and was the U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs from 2000-2005, received 11 encourage votes, 2 discourage and two no opinion, the diplomats said.

Turk tweeted: Grateful for attention, understanding and encouragement of the UN member states and civil society. Great platform for the next rounds.

The diplomats said former Croatian foreign minister Vesna Pusic received 11 discourage votes, the most of the 12 candidates.

The three other candidates at the bottom of the list were Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, the U.N. official who played a key role in shaping last Decembers historic agreement to fight climate change, former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman and Montenegros Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, they said.

Weve never had 12 candidates before, Britains U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said before the vote. We need to whittle it down to a reasonable number through the straw polls. That is what straw polls are for. I would encourage people who dont do so well to drop out of the race.

There is also a possibility that more candidates will enter the race because there is no deadline for nominations. At least one more, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, is making a late bid and has requested that the Australian government formally nominate him.

According to the U.N. Charter, the secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, this has meant that the councils five permanent members  the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France  have veto power over the candidates.

The United States, Britain and France stressed Thursday that they want a strong secretary-general to lead the United Nations through turbulent times, but Russia and China havent made clear what qualities are key for them.

This could not be a more important job, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said as she headed into the council to vote. And it could not be a more important time to choose the best possible leader for this organization on which so much depends and so many depend.

Frances U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre noted that some have compared the vote for U.N. secretary-general to the vote for a new pope to lead the Catholic church.

Its critically important to ensure that the process inspires trust and ensures that we simply have the best candidate selected to become the worlds number one diplomat, he said.

Another informal poll is expected to take place next week followed by several more in August, and possibly September.

Frances Delattre said the Security Councils goal is to make a recommendation to the General Assembly in the fall.

Ten years ago, there were seven candidates to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary-general. In the final straw poll in early October 2006, Ban received 14 encourage votes, 1 no opinion and no discourage vote, and days later the Security Council nominated the former South Korean foreign minister by acclamation to succeed Annan. In 1996, Annan was vetoed by the French  but after a few days of talks, France agreed to support him and he got the job.
By Magdalena Mis

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - New Google-powered software will help the world tackle problems related to climate change, deforestation and food production, a United Nations agency said on Friday, as it presented its revamped online platform.

Open Foris, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) software, uses high-resolution satellite images to monitor the environment and changes in land use and forest cover.

"We make maps that used to take three years in a week," Erik Lindquist, forestry officer at FAO, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Rather than preparing data to analyze we can spend time probing the data for answers. We're getting to answers much more quickly," he said on the sidelines of a global forest conference in Rome.

Lindquist said the software was free to use by anyone, from citizens who want to monitor misuse of natural resources to scientists or governments wanting to assess the carbon storage capacity of an area.

"There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the total forest area in the word, how much forest is being lost and gained, how is the land use changing and what are the effects on carbon emissions," Lindquist said.

"The more we use these tools the more we're going to be sure of whether the situation is improving or getting worse."

The software can also be deployed to inspect water resources and even evaluate locations for refugee camps based on availability of firewood for cooking, he said.

Earlier this month, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres launched the MapSwipe app, which also uses satellite images and allows users to map remote, rural regions vulnerable to humanitarian crises.

(Reporting by Magdalena Mis; Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
President Obama on Friday assumed the role as fact-checker-in-chief following Donald Trumps doom-and-gloom Republican convention speech, saying the picture painted by the GOP doesnt line up with reality.

This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse. This vision of violence and chaos everywhere doesnt really jibe with the experience of most people, Obama said during a joint news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. I think it is important just to be absolutely clear here that some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just dont jibe with the facts.

From crime to immigration, Obama said, Trump and various other speakers at the Republican convention embellished the facts in their depictions of widespread death and a flood of migrants coming across American borders. Violent crime rates, Obama said, have been lower during his presidency than at any point during the past four decades, despite an uptick in murders in some major cities. Obama noted the recent violent tragedies Americans have lived throughfrom Orlando and Minnesota to Dallas and Baton Roguebut said that as a whole, America is far less violent than it was a few decades ago.

There are going to be different visions about where should be going as a country; how we can provide jobs how we make sure our tax system is fair, Obama said of Democrats and Republicans. But were not going to make good decisions based on fears that dont have a basis in fact. That is something I hope that all Americans pay attention to.

Pena Nieto on Friday was also asked to address the Mexican governments perception of the presidential race, given Trumps promise to build a wall between U.S. and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. Nieto said he would not weigh in on the American democratic process and that Mexico will always be a partner to the U.S.

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We are going to respect the decision of the American people, he said.
July 22 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Donald Trump ended his party's convention the way he started his campaign last summer: attacking the political establishment, playing to voters' fears of foreigners and crime, and making bold promises to fix America's ills. http://on.wsj.com/2afCr5j

- Roger Ailes has agreed to resign as Fox News Channel's chairman and chief executive following accusations of sexual harassment. He will be replaced by Twenty First Century Fox Inc Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch. http://on.wsj.com/2afBSYS

- Goldman Sachs Group Inc soon will begin marketing a new corporate-buyout fund of between $5 billion and $8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, its first such fund since the financial crisis. It is aiming for an initial close by the end of the year, the people said. http://on.wsj.com/2afCxJQ

- The man who killed 84 people in Nice on Bastille Day conspired with several others in an attack planned for many months, France's top anti-terror prosecutor said, reversing authorities' theory that he had only recently been radicalized. http://on.wsj.com/2afCSMJ

- JPMorgan Chase & Co is expected to pay around $200 million to settle federal investigations into whether it tried to win business by hiring the sons and daughters of powerful people in Asia, people familiar with the matter said. http://on.wsj.com/2afCA8x

- Liberty Media Corp Chief Executive Greg Maffei floated an offer to internet radio company Pandora Media Inc for roughly $15 a share, but Pandora's board rebuffed the advance, people familiar with the matter said. http://on.wsj.com/2afDmT8 (Compiled by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru)
Over the course of my years as a substance abuse therapist, I've heard one question time and again: "How do I prevent my children from becoming alcoholics and drug addicts?" The question comes from active alcoholics and addicts who don't want their kids to suffer like they do, as well as from people who have witnessed addiction destroy their families and murder their loved ones' spirits.

[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health.]

The simple answer is: If addiction runs in your family, don't drink alcohol or abuse drugs. But the full answer is more complex. Here's what you can -- and can't -- do to reduce your children's risk for addiction:

1. Forget parenting techniques.

Understand that there is no right or wrong parenting technique that will keep your child from the grasps of addiction or alcoholism. The only way you can promote a sober lifestyle for your child is by role modeling a sober lifestyle.

2. Ask for help.

If you personally suffer from addiction, alcoholism or both, ask for help -- it's the most powerful example you can set for your child. Though your own sobriety does not promise abstinence for your children, it does relay the message that asking for help is courageous and brave, and that living a sober lifestyle is an admirable aspiration.

[See: How to Find the Best Mental Health Professional for You.]

3. Know the limits of parenting.

Some of my clients come from seemingly perfect families that appear to belong on the set of "Leave it to Beaver." They went to church on Sundays, kept a curse jar on the kitchen counter and didn't have a bar in their homes other than a coffee bar. Still, at 20 years old, they need treatment for heroin addiction.

I've also heard horror stories from close, well-adjusted friends who grew up in volatile households, left home at age 16 and barely made it out of their 20s alive. Yet somehow, they have never developed an addiction to chemical substances. This dichotomy is tricky because it's closely related to the chaotic argument of nature versus nurture.

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If you refrain from having alcohol or drugs in your home, your child can still develop an addictive relationship with these substances if he or she has the disease of addiction. In that case, he or she will manage to one day encounter a substance that masks deep pain and makes feelings of isolation seem obsolete.

You see, the reality is that alcoholism and addiction are diseases intertwined into our DNA. While they are often propelled by an exposure to an alcoholic environment; sometimes, they seem to originate from thin air. Recognize that no matter how good or bad of a parent you feel that you are, your child's addiction is not your fault.

4. Take control.

My intention for acknowledging this topic is not to make you feel helpless, but rather to make you feel empowered -- empowered to ask for help if you suffer from addiction or alcoholism and empowered to live a life of self-care and self-esteem. You can then pass those traits on to your children.

[See: 14 Ways Caregivers Can Care for Themselves.]

5. Fall in love with yourself.

When no one is watching, how do you treat yourself? What does your internal dialogue look like? Is it positive self-talk or harsh words of disbelief? I am a strong advocate of the old adage: You can't love others unless you love yourself. To set an example of someone who doesn't need drugs or alcohol to feel good about themselves, fall in love with your positive and negative attributes, and let your children watch this long-term love affair. That way, they can fall in love with themselves, too.

DeAnna Jordan is the clinical director at New Method Wellness, a substance abuse treatment center in Orange Country, California. Jordan has over 20 years of experience working with clients in recovery and is a marriage and family therapist specializing in the maintenance of healthy relationships. As a recovering addict, Jordan brings a breadth of personal recovery experience to her clinical leadership and believes a comfortable, structured and supportive environment is an essential part of maintaining long-term sobriety. In addition to her passion for recovery, Jordan is extremely involved in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As a current Woman of the Year candidate, Jordan is campaigning to raise funds for LLS blood cancer research in honor of local children who are blood cancer survivors.
Nobody has ever said that it is easy being a new mum. From the late night breastfeeding, to the aching back from carrying your child and to the diaper changing sessions every day, it is a well-known fact that motherhood is challenging. While the struggles of motherhood are always diminished when your child gives you her brightest smile, this does not mean that you cannot try to make your motherhood experience more enjoyable! For the young mummies out there, here is a list of lifesaving products that will make your new mum experience slightly easier.

1. Dr. Browns Milk bottles

Dr. Browns bottles are made with BPA-free plastic, ensuring safe consumption for your young child. A simple search on the internet will reveal plenty of positive reviews for Dr. Browns milk bottle, and these good reviews are justified; The internal vent system is known to get rid of air bubbles, reducing gas and the chances of reflux and burping for your baby. The Dr. Brown milk bottle would definitely help ease the discomfort for your little one!

mummy life savers: Dr.Brown's Milk Bottle

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mummy life savers

Price check: Dr.Browns feeding set costs almost half the price in the U.S! Ask a friend whos travelling to help you get hold of one, or simply ask a traveller on Airfrov!

*U.S. price from Walmart.

2. Ergobaby Nursing Pillow

Many mothers enjoy nursing their child; whats not to love about nourishing your baby through your own body. Yet, it is undeniable that feeding sessions can cause a strain on your arm, especially if you have already been cradling your baby for the entire day. This is where this life-saving product comes in! The Ergobaby Nursing Pillow allows hands-free breastfeeding! This nursing pillow is made up of solid foam with a unique contour that allows you to position your child comfortably to nurse her. Since the pillow is structured at a good height, you would not have to slouch the entire time, saving you from long lasting back pains.

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mummy life savers: ergobaby nursing pillo

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This dependable product originates from U.S., and are sold at outrageous prices in local stores. Some mummies turn to online stores like pupsikstudio for more affordable Ergobabys products. Yet, it is undeniably cheaper to buy it directly in the U.S.

ergo

3. Jujube bags

It does not mean that you have to give up on style just because you have to lug all that baby gear around. For the mummy fashionistas, the Jujube bag will be a dream come true for you. The brand is known for their stylish and fashionable diaper bags, and are widely popular among many trendy mummies.

The Jujube B.F.F. Diaper bag is one of the brands most well-received style. It comes with detachable shoulder and messenger straps and most importantly, numerous pockets and organisation compartments! Now you have space for all that baby snacks, diapers and milk bottles!

Mummy life savers: Jujube bags

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Mummy lifesavers: Jujube Bags

Jujube B.F.F Diaper bag (USD$165)

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Mummy life savers: Jujube Bags price comparison

4. Boots milk storage bags

Many breastfeeding mummies trust Boots breastmilk storage bags! These storage bags are pre-sterilised to guarantee hygiene standards and are also easy to seal. Boots storage bags are also known to be double walled with secured zips that will minimise the risk of leakages. Each bag can hold up to 150ml, and are suitable for storage of up to 5 days. With its good quality, the Boots storage bags are surprisingly affordable!

Sadly, there are no Boots retail stores in Singapore. So mummies looking for Boots milk storage bags have to purchase them overseas! Heres a tip: even though Boots originated from the U.K., many mummies purchase the Boots Milk Storage bags from Boots retail stores in Thailand.

Ask a friend whos travelling to Bangkok to help you buy, or simply post a request to ask for travellers help!

mummy life savers: boots milk storage bags

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5. GAIA products

GAIA is well received by mothers around the world, for its convenient and gentle shower products. The GAIA Hair and Body wash for instance, is suitable for use on newborns as the cleanser will not leave your babys skin uncomfortably dry. GAIAs Hair and Body wash also contains organic lavender and organic ylang ylang that induces a relaxing bath experience for your little one. Besides GAIAs hair and body wash, the brands baby wipes, baby massage oil and baby moisturiser are equally well received.

mummy life savers: gaia

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Mummy life savers: Gaia

Find out how to win this Gaia Baby Shower Set at the end of the article!

6. Lilypadz Nursing Pads

One of the most horrifying things a new mummy can experience is milk leakage. Many mothers resort to traditional nursing pads that are bulky and have to be disposed of frequently. But there is no need for all that inconvenience and discomfort with Lilypadzs Nursing Pads. The brands nursing pads are revolutionary, as they are made with a skin-like layer of silicon and are reusable for up to 3 months. However, do note that you would have to wash the nursing pads from time to time in order to maintain the adhesiveness of these nursing pads for a longer period.

Many mummies have raved about these nursing pads since the pads can be used with strapless dresses, bodycon outfits, and even your swimming costume! If you are always worried about milk leakage, the Lilypadz Nursing pads may be ideal for you.

Unfortunately, this ingenious product is not widely available in Singapore. Ask a friend or traveller for help!

Mummy Life savers: Lilypadz Nursing Pads

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These mummy lifesavers are evidently more affordable in their origin country! You dont have to break the bank to purchase all these mummy gear. If you would like to avoid the outrageous prices of these must-have mummy products, get our helpful travellers to purchase these items for you!

Check out what other mummies are requesting for on Airfrov!

share-gaia

Share our Facebook post with other Mummies and stand to win a pair of GAIA baby wash from Australia!

2 winners will be selected randomly and announced on 1 Aug 2016. Post visibility must be set to public.

The post Price Comparison: 6 Must Have Life-Savers for New Mums appeared first on Airfrov Blog.
By Alex Dobuzinskis and Steve Gorman (Reuters) - The administrator of Prince's estate has dismissed claims from three would-be heirs who asserted that their father was also the true biological dad of the late pop star through an alleged affair with his mother. The denials, in Minnesota court documents filed on Wednesday, came in reply to three individuals seeking a piece of the estate left by Prince after he died unexpectedly in April, apparently without a will, and demanding DNA tests to prove they were his half-siblings. The dismissals, subject to a judge's review, underscored the tangled and voluminous testaments of kinship that need to be sorted out by the Minnesota probate court overseeing Prince's estate, estimated to be worth more than $500 million. Among the more colorful are petitions from at least three men claiming they were fathered by Prince out of wedlock - two who are now incarcerated - and a woman who claims she was a secret bride to Prince whose marriage records are classified by the CIA as top secret. The latest decisions dealt with three people who have asserted that their late father, Loyal James Gresham Jr., was also Prince's biological father by way of an extramarital affair with Prince's mother, Mattie Della Shaw, the year before Prince was born. Prince, whose legal name was Prince Rogers Nelson, has long been identified in public records as the only son from Mattie Shaw's marriage to John L. Nelson, who also fathered Prince's younger sister, Tyka Nelson, and three older surviving children from a previous marriage. David Crosby, an attorney for the estate's special administrator, Bremer Trust, wrote in a letter of determination that Minnesota law presumes that John and Mattie were Prince's biological parents because they were married when he was born. "Only a very limited group of persons have standing to challenge that presumption and, in any event, the time to make such a challenge passed long ago," Crosby wrote. He cited a statute of limitations requirement that any challenge to that presumption be brought within three years of the child's birth. Prince was born in 1958. Crosby said no DNA testing was necessary to dismiss the claims of Gresham's three adult children, daughters Darcell Gresham Johnston and Orrine Gresham and son Loyal Gresham III. Separately, Crosby upheld as valid the claims of heirship from five known half-siblings, previously acknowledged in court filings by Tyka Nelson, who Crosby said have demonstrated that they share at least one genetic parent with Prince. If Prince left no will and no surviving offspring of his own, as his sister stated, then his estate under Minnesota law would be apportioned in equal shares to his siblings and the nearest surviving descendents of any siblings now dead, according to court papers. Siblings and half-siblings are treated the same under Minnesota inheritance law. Prince, who was 57, was found dead at his Minnesota home and studio complex in April. Medical examiners ruled last month he died of an accidental, self-administered overdose of the opioid painkiller fentanyl. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Prince George shares his ice cream with Lupo. The caption of the post reads, Cant believe its been three years already! (Photo: @kensingtonroyal/Instagram)

For Prince Georges third birthday, his parents chose to mark the occasion by releasing four adorable new photos of his royal cuteness. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said they were delighted to share the images of the royal toddler in celebration of the occasion, including one particularly sweet snap of George picnicking with the family dog.

In the snap taken by photographer Matt Porteous at Anmer Hall, Norfolk, the royal couples country home, Prince George shares his ice cream with Lupo. Now, the royal couple is being criticized for allowing George to do so.

Though the picture is undoubtedly adorable, some animal cruelty campaigners say giving canines treats such as ice cream could be dangerous.

Four new photos have been released to mark Prince Georges third birthday. (Photo: PA Images)

Experts warn that some dogs are allergic to dairy, and they say feeding it to them could result in digestive issues, including diarrhea. One animal charity told Mail Online that adult dogs are deficient in the lactose necessary for digestion of milk.

Taking to social media, activists were quick to express their concern over the photo. Why is Prince George trying to kill this dog by feeding it a white Magnum? one person tweeted. Happy 3rd Birthday to Prince George!! Here he is poisoning a little dog, added another.

Prince George posing on the William and Catherine swing. (Photo: @kensingtonroyal/Instagram)

Another of the birthday pictures. (Photo: @kensingtonroyal/Instagram)

One particularly angry tweeter referred to the Prince as a Monarchist Monster and said, Never give a dog ice cream. At worst: itll die, At best: the dog will diarrhea everywhere! Another went so far as to say Prince George should go to jail for the act. Prince George needs chucking in prison for feeding that dog an ice cream, irresponsible animal cruelty paid for by the taxpayer, the tweet read.

Kensington Palace has yet to release a statement on the manner. But maybe we should all just cut the little dude a bit of slack? It is his birthday, after all!

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Photo credit: Four Seasons/Getty

From Town & Country

People wait years for the chance to dine at Noma, Rene Redzepi's restaurant in Copenhagen. But now a new opportunity is offering travelers the chance to eat not only there, but also at Redzepi's favorite restaurants around the world.

Starting in May, the trip that Redzepi organized in conjunction with the Four Seasons (it requires use of their private jet, above) will kick off in Seoul, Korea.

Photo credit: Getty

"Traveling, and really traveling with the people that are close to you like I did with my pop-ups in Australia and Japan, has become my biggest inspiration," Redzepi told T&C from Denmark. "Typically in our trade you just work all the time, you never really tap out to explore. It's really proven to be something out of the ordinary for me to take these journeys, and I feel so fueled. Traveling has really built up the energy and spirit among my team and in myself as well."

At this moment in the interview, a cook interrupted our call with Redzepi for the following exchange:

[And tomatoes? Oh my god, it's perfect fit, huh? Do you think we should try to add some give it some salt and give it one or two day ferment? Just to see what happens? A lactic ferment?

"Sorry," Redzepi said. "We're just testing some wild roses with some first season tomatoes here, and they really fit each other very well."

Back to the business of discussing this epic trip he's put together, and specifically how he selected the destinations.

"We basically started to talk to our colleagues and friends within the chef community and I tapped into my own travel experience and also the travels of the very diverse and multicultural staff at Noma," he said. "It ended up being a good mix of things you want to explore, places that you've always dreamt of going, and places that I feel we know very well. We'll be going to places that are really well-known for food."

Photo credit: Four Seasons

Tokyo, for example, is an early stop on the trip and a place Redzepi has visited in the past. It's a city to which he says he "could go every month and even though I've been many times, I still feel like a total novice going back."

Story continues

Here are the stops on the Culinary Discoveries journey, which runs from May 27 to June 14, 2017, and some highlights:

Seoul, Korea (dinner at Chef Jong Kuk Lee's home and a visit to the Jin-Kwan temple)

Tokyo, Japan (foraging with Chef Namae Shinobu and a private dinner at his Michelin-starred restaurant, L'Effervescence)

Hong Kong (street food, tours of local markets, and cooking classes with Michelin-starred chefs)

Chiang Mai, Thailand (exploring traditional Thai markets, an elephant trek through the verdant jungle, and a private dinner with Garima Arora, a native of India and former Noma chef now based in Thailand)

Mumbai, India (dinner at Gaggan with a former Noma chef)

Florence, Italy (wine tasting at medieval estates and exploring the Chianti countryside, a private viewing of Michaelangelo's David, and dinner with Chef Fulvio Pierangelini, who will return from retirement for a single night to cook alongside his son, Fulvietto Pierangelini)

Lisbon, Portugal (gala dinners, Michelin star dining, and a tour of the historic Mercado da Ribeira)

Copenhagen, Denmark (foraging for local ingredients with the Noma team for a private dinner at Noma that evening)

Paris, France (a farewell dinner at the Michelin-starred Le Cinq at Four Seasons Hotel George V)

The guests, each of whom will have spent $135,000 for this experience (there's a $12,000 supplement for single travelers), will stay at Four Seasons properties and visit Redzepi's choices for the best restaurants in each city. Business class airfare from each guest's home city to the trip's first stop in in Seoul and home from the journey's final stop in Paris is included.

Redzepi is especially excited about Chiang Mai and Mumbai, two places he's never been, and in Mumbai the group will visit Gaggan, a restaurant that was recently ranked the best restaurant in Asia and where one of his former staffers works as sous-chef.

Redzepi doesn't yet know how much of the trip he will take part in; he has three children at home and is in the middle of building a new Noma whose location in a national landmark area is delaying the project slightly ("That's the price, I guess, for really wanting to be in a very unique location," he says). The original Noma will close February 25, and the new restaurant is scheduled to open later this year.

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Photographer Sasha Samsonova

Kylie Jenners social media kontent is an art form. She could teach a course on selfie taking and lipkit swatching. Plus, she knows the exact pose for any outfit  whether its a new pair of Pumas or a sexy spandex dress. And while we believe Kylie has a natural-born gift for serving face to the camera, shes also worked with some extremely talented photographers, like Sasha Samsonova.

Basically, Kylie and Sasha are a match made in Instagram heaven. If youre not yet familiar with the photographer and film producer, stop everything, follow her on all her social media channels, and then continue reading. Shes the person behind the lens for almost all of Kylies impromptu photo shoots and secret projects. Shes also shot for high-fashion publications across the globe and  wait for it  shes only 25.

We caught up with the rising star to find out how she entered the KarJenner universe, her best tips for staging our own Instagram shoots and where she plans to be in 10 years.

When did your passion for photography start?

Ive been doing photography for nine years now. I started when I was 16 in my home country Ukraine, and when I was 17 I did my first shoot for Harpers Bazaar back in Europe. It was a small piece. Then after that I got picked up by a fashion editor from Marie Claire France. She picked me as a photographer to shoot for them. And then Elle reached out and I got a Harpers Bazaar September story. It just all followed  and then I moved to L.A. Ive been doing fashion photography my entire life.

How has Instagram impacted your career?

I love the Internet. I love Instagram. I never really tried to do anything to build a following. I feel like back in the day you had to just go out and party with people to make connections or have an agent to make connections for you. Now its not necessary because you have the Internet and social media and you can put your work out there by saying, Hey, here I am and this is what I do. If people like it you get the response. You dont have to fake anything. Youre just there. At least for me its such a relief because I am not a big party person. I definitely dont know how to sell my own work. Im not the person whos gonna be like, Oh, check my work out! I am really good. I would be the last person to try to sell somebody what I do. Its so much easier for me because I just put my work out there and people like it. It makes me really happy.

Story continues

How did you first connect with Kylie?

Over Instagram. She reached out to me about a year ago. She found me  she wanted to do a shoot and obviously I really wanted to do a shoot with her. We got together and we did a shoot that came out on her birthday last year. The one with all the colorful wigs. Thats what we did. That was so much fun. It was really, really great working together so we just continued doing that.

Love this artwork we did with @kyliejenner  @styledbyhrush @clydehairgod @monicarosestyle A photo posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Oct 4, 2015 at 10:30am PDT

How involved is Kylie in the process of planning her own impromptu photo shoots?

She is great. Super creative. I love working with her. She knows her body well, and knows how to move and what to do with it.

@kyliejenner official App is out now, with more pictures from our shoot and a bts video  A photo posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Sep 14, 2015 at 12:44pm PDT

Do you get involved with the fashion direction at all?

I have a pretty distinct vision. No matter whats going on in the shot its still gonna look like my photography. I honestly dont worry too much about the fashion or wigs  the glam part. She already has that team and Monica Rose who styles her is just insanely good. I never really worry about that. My thing is more so location and lighting and stuff like that. But like I said, I have a pretty distinct vision and no matter what its going to look like me.

Whats your favorite place youve ever photographed Kylie?

Oh, I really loved the desert. It was one of the first locations we ever shot at. It has beautiful lines. It has amazing lighting. Its probably one of my favorites.

So excited to share this shoot we did with @kyliejenner style @monicarosestyle beauty @styledbyhrush @jonathan_colombini More photos on Kylie's app A photo posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Oct 22, 2015 at 9:56am PDT

Why do you think fans are so inspired by Kylies Instagram feed?

She has really great taste and a powerful influence. The coloring is always great. Everything just looks perfect and exactly how it should. I dont think its only about being famous. There are a bunch of famous people on Instagram, huge actresses and actors who dont really have such big followings because their Instagram just looks really random, and they probably dont take care of it whatsoever  or [they] just dont know how to take a beautiful photo. But on her page you go there and you see everything, and it looks really amazing. You kind of want to creep around it and stare at is for hours.

RELATED VIDEO: Forget the Kylie Jenner Challenge, Heres How You Really Get the Perfect Pout

You also shot both Kendall and Kylie for their Topshop swimwear campaign. Is there a go-to bikini pose you think is the most flattering?

I feel like each body type would require its own pose. I try to keep it as natural as possible. I love when girls look sexy in photos, but I also need them to look like theyre not trying to look sexy. And with Kendall and Kylie theyre just naturally so gorgeous  thats not an issue. Even if you look at all the Topshop pictures theyre all pretty relaxed. There are no crazy poses or crazy lighting. Its just a very relaxed, very natural thing.

bts on set with @topshop @kendallandkylie Sand stage by @thespenc A photo posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Jun 8, 2016 at 2:40pm PDT

Is there the secret to pulling off your own impromptu photo shoot?

I feel like people always try to pre-plan everything way too early. They try to plan everything down to a point and then when they get on set something goes wrong and they completely freak out and panic and they just drop everything and try to still pull off what they have planned when they should be just working with whatever they have in the moment and making the best out of that. People should be more relaxed and take it easy and work with whatever you have right now. In the world were working with nothing can go exactly as planned. Everything is dependent on human factors so just relax and work with what you have. If you planned a photo shoot on a sunny day and its raining just chuck it. Youre not gonna do a photo shoot on a sunny day. Do a rainy photo shoot. Its all good.

Uncle Itt A photo posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Dec 25, 2015 at 2:45pm PST

How about the perfect selfie?

Its all about lighting. If youre just outside my favorite time of day starts around 5 oclock. But also I have these perfect little blinds that make these amazing shadows in my apartment early in the morning. It creates this stripe world that reveals only 30% of the photo. Depending on where you are just look around and try to spot good lighting. If you look on Instagram, lots of my selfies I am not wearing much. But also you cant really see a lot of stuff. Its kind of the balance between being naked and not showing too much.

When you post 1 selfie a year A photo posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Jul 8, 2016 at 10:47am PDT

What is the best setting to use on your iPhone?

Just using the regular camera is fine. I hate when people use the square on their phone because it slows the quality of the picture. Why would you want to do that? I found that a lot of people have no clue that you can control exposure on your phone. I feel like that is a big, important tool. You can definitely make your photo look a lot better by controlling your exposure. Its right there on your screen. Just tap it or push it down or up and it totally works.

RELATED PHOTOS: DeKoding KarJenner Style: The Unofficial Guide to the Impromptu Photo Shoot

How would you describe your fashion MO?

I really try to pick stuff that doesnt really have an identity. I hate printed stuff or clothes with words on them. I dont like flashy stuff much. I really like keeping it very simple, but also really, really high quality.

A lil something A video posted by Sasha Samsonova (@sashasamsonova) on Jul 12, 2016 at 12:10pm PDT

Whats your go-to thing to wear to a shoot?

I make the dumbest decisions. I literally make the dumbest decisions. I have these silk pajamas that I wear on shoot that just got destroyed in one of my shoots with Kylie. And then I completely destroyed my dress yesterday on a video shoot. I have to direct and move around a lot and I always work a lot with the models or the artist. I control a lot of their movement. So I will lay on the floor and show them what to do and I totally killed it. I end up wearing the most fragile beautiful little pieces because I cant refuse.

Whats your ultimate end goal?

I want to do film. I want to direct film. I really love directing. I love photography obviously but directing is the next step for me and Ive been doing a lot of music videos. But definitely film is my ultimate goal.



What do you think of Sashas work? Are you pumped to stage your own impromptu photo shoot now? Share below!

Brittany Talarico
By Randi Belisomo (Reuters Health) - When Elizabeth Kennedys 84-year-old father was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease two years ago, she removed the car keys from his Johnstown, Pennsylvania home and his Volkswagen Passat from the driveway. Despite warnings from his four children and his doctor, any opportunity to get behind the wheel would have proven too tempting for Kennedys newly widowed dad. He was convinced he was a perfectly good driver, and he took it like he was being attacked, she said. My father didnt understand why we told him he couldnt drive anymore. The car conversation often careens older drivers and families into conflict, aging experts say. Frequently, this discussion is dodged altogether- or addressed too late. A recent telephone survey, sponsored by Home Instead Senior Care and conducted by a private public opinion research firm, polled 600 U.S. and Canadian residents 70 and older about driving. Ninety five percent said they have not had a conversation about driving initiated by family or friends. Three quarters indicated that stopping driving would equate to the loss of independence. Almost 90 percent said they are dependent on their car. More than a quarter said if they could not drive, they would suffer depression. With someone like my father, a man very used to providing for his family and being strong, efficient and capable, it would always be hard, Kennedy said. Her sister helps their father with errands, and a hired caregiver comes once a week to take him where he wants to go. While his level of acceptance is increasing, he was angry for months. A license is not given with a lifetime contract, said Elin Schold Davis, coordinator of the Older Driver Initiative Project for the American Occupational Therapy Association, which collaborated with Home Instead to design the survey. She says many senior drivers worry about their abilities - and keep worries to themselves. The projects community education program, Lets Talk About Driving, helps families discuss how to limit or stop driving. The online resource includes a tool to assess driving capabilities (http://bit.ly/1rWQRuh). According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, signs that older drivers may be unsafe include: heightened agitation, difficulty remaining in a lane, pedal confusion, stopping at green lights, getting lost in familiar locations, and delayed reaction time. However, the appearance of one or two signs does not always necessitate stopping driving. The installation of a padded or smaller steering wheel, for example, could make maneuvering more manageable for a driver with arthritis. A seat lift can ameliorate the toll of aging on the spine, allowing a senior struggling to see over the dashboard to handle a car confidently. Blind spot indicators, backup cameras and GPS may lend a sense of situational awareness and comfort in navigating less familiar areas. June McKoy, an associate professor in geriatrics at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, urges families to address the issue with respect and empathy. Patients are often losing everything, McKoy said. They are losing their hearing a little bit, their vision a little bit, their husband might be dead, their friends are dying, but they still have their car. Research into alternate options is a must for families before broaching concerns, McKoy advises. We cannot pull this great freedom without having a plan, she said. That plan should include offers to help get around; other options may include para-transit services and reduced fare programs. If a senior has friends who drive, carpooling is a practical and social option. Families must put on the table what theyre willing to do and not do, McKoy said. Cabs are more affordable if a senior sells their car and no longer pays for insurance and gas. McKoy sometimes suggests giving the car to a teenage grandchild, for example, on the condition that the teen drives them on errands once a week. Ideally, if we have these conversations early, seniors are empowered in the planning, Schold Davis said. The more families have conversations about driving earlier, the more it allows for the exploration of options and the comfort level with talking about some of the changes. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2a1aJ6m Lets Talk About Driving: North American Research Report 2016.
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar said on Thursday it would give $30 million to help pay the salaries of thousands of Gaza Strip public sector workers left without a full wage package since 2013. The donation was welcomed by Hamas, the Islamist group that dominates the enclave who said it would help ease the wage shortages - that have tested already strained relations with the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian Authority or Israel, who have long been suspicious of Qatar's regular donations to Hamas and other Islamist groups across the region. The emir of the wealthy Gulf state, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said the payment of 113 million riyals was meant to "alleviate suffering and financial distress", according to Qatar's state news agency, QNA. Hamas fighters seized control of Gaza in 2007 from forces loyal to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, triggering years of mutual distrust. A reconciliation pact signed in 2014 by the two sides raised hopes among Hamas that its 50,000 public sector employees' wages would be taken care of via the Palestinian Authority (PA) payroll. But the Palestinian Authority cannot afford to pay all those extra workers and international donors who support the PA budget, including the European Union, say they want an audit of workers and cutbacks to the bloated payroll, which costs more than $2 billion a year. The Hamas-hired public servants have grown restive and in 2014 protested over their lack of payment which is partly due to a continued blockade imposed on Gaza by both Israel and Egypt. "The July payment will be made in full immediately once the Qatari financial fund is received," Hamas' deputy finance minister, Youssef al-Kayyali said. Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, has for years preserved influence with Islamist forces across the region it believes are the long-term future. The breadth and resilience of Qatar's links to Islamist groups including Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which has suffered a crackdown in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, fuels suspicions in other Gulf states. (Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Tom Finn)
CHRISTIE: Good evening. Good evening.

I am here tonight not only as the governor of New Jersey, but also as Donald trumps friend for the last 14 years. We are about to be led by not only a strong leader but by a caring, genuine, and decent person.

CHRISTIE: Im proud to say that the voice of the people of our nation is being heard in this hall tonight and those voices want Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

But everybody, this election is not just about Donald Trump. No, Its also about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Now, in the past few weeks, weve seen the Justice Department refuse to prosecute her. Over the last eight years, weve seen this administration refuse to hold her accountable for her dismal record as Secretary of State. So, lets do something fun tonight. Tonight, as a former Federal Prosecutor, I welcome the opportunity to hold Hillary Rodham Clinton accountable for her performance and her character.

(APPLAUSE)

Now

(APPLAUSE)

All right, all right, were getting there. Give me a few more minutes, well get there.

(LAUGHTER)

Heres what were going to do. Were going to present the facts to you. You, tonight, sitting as a jury of her peers, both in this hall and in your living rooms, around our nation. You see, since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, Im going to present the case now, on the facts, against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, she was Americas Chief Diplomat. So, lets look around the world at the violence and the danger, today, in every region that has been infected by her flawed judgment. But, Im going to be specific so that you can render your verdict tonight on the basis of facts.

Lets go to North Africa. She was the Chief Engineer of the disaster overthrow of Gadhafi in Libya. Libya today, after Hillary Clintons grand strategy, their economies in ruins, theres death and violence in the streets, and ISIS is now dominating that country. So, Im going to ask you this. Hillary Clinton, as a failure for ruining Libya and creating a nest for terrorist activity for ISIS, answer me now, is she guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: In Nigeria, Hillary Clinton amazingly fought for two years to keep an Al Qaida affiliate off of the terrorist watch list. Now, what happens because of this reckless action by the candidate who is the self-proclaimed champion of women all around the world. These Al Qaida terrorists abducted hundreds of innocent young women two years ago. These school girls are still missing today. And what was the solution from the Obama-Clinton team? A hashtag campaign.

So, now lets figure it out. Lets decide. Hillary Clinton, as an apologist for an Al Qaida affiliate in Nigeria, resulting in the capture of innocent young women, is she guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: See, she fights for the wrong people. She never fights for us. She doesnt get the real threats that America faces.

So, now lets go to China. In China, Hillary Clinton praised the Chinese government for buying our debt to finance Barack Obamas bloated stimulus plan. She was so desperate for Chinese cash, she promised to oppose the buy American provision in the stimulus bill in exchange for the cash to finance a huge expansion of federal government spending.

So, Hillary Clinton, putting big government spending financed by the Chinese ahead of good paying jobs for middle class Americans, is she guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Lets go to Syria. In Syria, imagine this. Imagine this. She called President Assad a reformer. She called Assad a different kind of leader. Theres now 400,000 dead. Think about that. Four-hundred thousand dead. At the hands of the man that Hillary defended.

So, we must ask this question. Hillary Clinton, as an awful judge of the character of a dictator and butcher in the middle east. Is she guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Next, next in Iran. She launched a negotiations that brought about the worst nuclear deal in history. Let me be clear. America and the world are measurably less safe unless respected because of the Iran deal that Hillary helped cut. Period. After she launched those negotiations, she became the biggest cheerleader for this agreement in the end. Its a deal that will lead to a nuclear Iran. An Israel that will be less safe and secure. And a much more dangerous Middle East.

So, lets ask it. Hillary Clinton, as an inept negotiator of the worst nuclear arms deal in American history, is she guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Next, Next. Oh believe me, were not done yet. The indictment is hardly complete.

(APPLAUSE)

Next, lets go to Russia. She went to the Kremlin on her very first visit, and gave them that stupid, symbolic reset button. You know what I think that button should have read? It should have read, delete. You know, shes very good at that, by the way.

(APPLAUSE)

And it should have read delete because, she deleted, in four years, the safety and security it took us to build in 40 years. The next year, she said our goal, Americas goal was to strengthen Russia. Strengthen an adversary led by a dictator who dreams of reassembling the old Soviet empire. What an extraordinarily dangerous lack of judgment.

So, once again, we need to ask, as a flawed evaluator of dictators that failed strategists, who has permitted Russia back in as a major player in the Middle East, is Hillary Clinton guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Now, now, we go to Cuba. Hillary Clinton supported concessions to the Castro brothers, and got almost nothing in return for ending the embargo. She supported a deal that didnt even require this murderous regime to return a cop killer, JoAnne Chesimard to face justice. See, I know about this personally. JoAnne Chesimard murdered a New Jersey state trooper in cold blood, fled to Cuba, and lives there under Cuban protection to this very day.

I want to ask you. How can someone live with their own conscious when you reward a domestic terrorist with continued safety and at the same time betray the family of a fallen police officer, waiting for decades for justice for his murder? So lets ask the question. Hillary Clinton, as a coddler of the brutal Castro brothers and betrayer of the family of fall state trooper, Werner Foerster and his family. Is she guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Now, finally. Finally, here at home in one of her first decisions as Secretary of State. She set up a private e-mail server in her basement in violation of our national security. Lets face the facts. Hillary Clinton cared more about protecting her own secrets than she cared about protecting Americas secrets.

(APPLAUSE)

And then, she lied about it, over, and over, and over again. She said, there was no marked classified information on her server. The FBI director said, thats untrue. She said that she did not e-mail any classified information. The FBI Director says, thats untrue. She said, all work-related e-mails were sent back to the State Department. The FBI Director said, thats not true.

So, I say, Hillary Clinton, the charge of putting herself ahead of America, guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: I got another question for you. I got another question for you. I say, Hillary Clinton, lying to the American people about her selfish, awful judgment in making our secrets vulnerable. Whats your verdict, guilty or not guilty?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Now, time, time after time after time. The facts and just the facts lead you to the same verdict. Both around the world and here at home. In Libya, in Nigeria, Guilty. In China and Syria.

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: In Iran and Russia and Cuba.

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: And here at home, for risking Americas secrets to keep her own and lying to cover it all up?

AUDIENCE: Guilty.

CHRISTIE: Her focus group tested persona with no genuineness to be found, is a shame. Meant to obscure all the facts and leave you able to vote for her. We cannot promote someone to Commander in Chief who is made the world a more violent and dangerous place with every bad judgment shes made. We cannot make the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States, someone who has risked Americas secrets and lied to the American people about it, day after day after day.

Here it is everybody. We didnt disqualify Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States, the facts of her life and career disqualify her.

(APPLAUSE)

See, I can tell that everybody in this hall agrees with this. But, I want to take our last moments here to talk to all of you at home. In your living rooms, sitting there tonight. Youre the ones who will decide this election. We have an alternative. We have a man who is unafraid. We have a man who wants to lead us. We have a man who understands the frustrations and the aspirations of our fellow citizens. We have a man who judges people based on their performance, regardless of your gender, your race, your ethnic or religious background. I implore you. We do not need to settle for less in this election. We can not reward incompetence and deceit. We need to demand more than what Hillary Clinton offers for America. Because see, we know exactly what four years of Hillary Clinton will bring. All the failures of the Obama years, but with less charm and more lies.

(APPLAUSE)

Tonight, those of us in this hall and the people at home. It is our obligation to stop Hillary Clinton now and never let her get within ten miles of the White House again.

(APPLAUSE)

It is time to come together and make sure that Donald Trump is the next President of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

I am proud to be part of this team. Now lets go out and win this thing together. Lets go get them.

Good night.
The Italian Navy rescued 400 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, July 22. This video, uploaded by the Italian Coast Guard on that date, shows the arrival of a group of migrants to Lampedusa, Italys southernmost island, in Sicily. It is unclear if this group was rescued on July 22, however. Among the refugees seen in the video is a baby and several women, who sing and dance on the boat on their way to land. Credit: Youtube/Italian Coast Guard
CLEVELAND  Before Reince Priebus spoke at the Republican convention he had presided over, his young staffers played a video on the big screen that demonstrated what theyd hoped their party would represent this year.

The video was skillfully produced, with slick graphics. It showed young, earnest men and women walking up to homes to knock on doors. There was a young Latino shaking hands with a couple, and an African-American man in a stylish hat telling a voter about the greatness of the Republican Party.

If only.

This years convention was as white and as old as ever, and was punctuated by outbursts of resentment against the Black Lives Matter movement and of undocumented immigrants.

The theme of Donald Trumps candidacy has been that things are terrible, and people are afraid, and he will protect them. He doubled down on this in his acceptance speech inside Quicken Loans Arena.

One year ago, young Republicans looked at Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, or Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and thought, Were headed for a young, positive, hopeful campaign.

A Rubio or Bush nomination, in particular, held the prospect of winning over millions of Latino and younger voters. It was one of the goals set forth in the 2013 autopsy report that Priebus sanctioned and released from the RNC.

That report laid out the demographic facts  the diminishing percentage of white voters in each consecutive presidential election  and said, If Hispanic-Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States they will not pay attention to our next sentence.

It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies, the report said.

One of Priebus favorite lines is that Republicans are the party of the open door. And he presided over a move to make the party more open and friendly to minorities.

Story continues

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, leaves the stage at the Republican National Convention. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Then along came Trump, attracting many voters who had not participated in the system before, and eventually winning over enough traditional Republican voters and grassroots activists, who are generally older and whiter.

There is much in the nation to be afraid of. But instead of speakers inspiring Americans to meet the challenges of the day with courage and love and charity, the Cleveland convention saw such sights as Christie standing at the podium nodding and smiling as thousands of delegates chanted, Lock her up! Lock her up! in reference to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Priebus focused much of his speech on the need to stop Hillary Clinton.

She lied and she lied, over and over and over and over, Priebus said, referring to the erroneous story Clinton told families of those who died in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, saying that an anti-Islamic video instigated the violence.

She lied. She lied, Priebus repeated, as the crowd began its nightly chant of Lock her up!

Priebus sought to tamp down the chants by talking them over. And in contrast to his speech to RNC members last week, in which he barely mentioned Trump, he called Trump the right man for the presidency.

Priebus started his speech with that favorite phrase: We are the party of the open door.

And then he ceded the stage to a nominee whose central idea is to build a giant wall.

_____

Related slideshows:

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BOOS CRUZ: Newspapers react to Ted Cruzs RNC stunner >>>

Armed at the RNC >>>

Front pages cover Donald Trumps final primary victory >>>

Melania Trump in the convention spotlight >>>

Convention floor erupts when no roll call taken to change rules to unbind delegates >>>

How newspapers covered the RNCs fiery first day >>>

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Donald Trumps America >>>
On the first day of the GOP convention, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort briefed reporters on what he hoped to accomplish in Cleveland. Our goal all week is to present a picture of Donald Trump that is broader than just the campaign image that people have developed through the primary season, he said.

Trumps high command wanted voters to walk away with a new understanding of the man when the cameras are off, and perhaps a newfound ability to imagine him behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. Conventions are one of the few opportunities candidates have to completely control the image they transmit to the American people. And for Trump, the most unpopular major party nominee in the history of polling, the need to change that image was critical.

But four days later, there remained an open question whether Trumps campaign made any progress.

In 2012, Clint Eastwoods conversation with a chair marred an otherwise well-executed convention. The 2016 edition was far more bizarre.

Donald Trumps record-length address to the GOP convention capped a week of confounding turns, marked by a plagiarism scandal, technical problems with the video displays in the hall, gloom and doom rhetoric, and intra-party squabbles that masked the rosy image the campaign sought to display. At several points, the looming last stand of the Never Trump movement spotlighted the absence of the Republican Party unity.

The convention was orchestrated by Manafort, Trumps convention manager before he was promoted to campaign chairmanand later de facto campaign manager. He is a longtime lobbyist and fixer who had been out of politics for years before signing onto the Trump campaign. Even before the convention was gaveled to order, Manafort was firing spitballs at the Republicans who chose not to attend, including swing-state Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the Bush family.

Trumps campaign argued that it would be a Trump convention, and the line-up of speakers proved it. His four adult children and his wife spoke. But Melania Trumps sentimental address was overshadowed by the revelation that she had cribbed from First Lady Michelle Obamas 2008 Democratic Convention address. The Trump campaign, in typical form, refused to admit error for days, blaming the media and Hillary Clintons campaign as it flailed for an explanation. By Wednesday, they admitted it was a mistake, and it wasnt until Thursday morning that Manafort offered a complete explanation for the episode, claiming he had been unaware that the offending aide to Melania was involved in the writing process.

Story continues

Just as that controversy was lifting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took the stage to make clear his decision not to endorse Trump. Boos filled the hall, followed by subsequent recriminations and insults thrown by both camps.

By the final night, Trumps message began to break through, as billionaire friend Tom Barrack, strolling across the stage with a handheld microphone, delivered the equivalent of a best mans speech about his longtime compatriot. Playfully teasing Trump and retelling stories of his success and evidence of his kindness, Barracks testimony was moving.

It was quickly reinforced by Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump, a celebrity and accomplished executive in her own right, whose praise for her father was calculated to rehabilitate his image among women. She promised her father would fight for equal pay legislation and paid family leavepolicy areas where Trump has been less than clear. There were also videos narrated by Eric Trump and actor Jon Voight speaking to Trumps business and personal biographies.

But the reliance solely on Barrack and family members to Trumps private side was a missed opportunity. In 2012, Romney brought average people he helped through his business and church to speak in some of the most poignant moments of that convention. Instead, a group of wealthy friends and family spoke on his behalf.

On the final night, the convention hall filled for the first time all week. Trumps first-person effort to redefine himself was a mixed bag. His winding address to the convention was the longest recorded, according to C-SPAN. Replete with predictions of doom and gloom, it including promises of change, but little sense of how hed bring it about.

In a sign he was looking to adjust how he is perceived, Trump made seemingly prepared deviations from his released text designed to highlight his effort to pivot toward the general election. He dropped-in a thank you to the GOP audience for applauding efforts to protect LGBTQ Americans from ISIS and cut off a Lock Her Up chant about Hillary Clinton, saying simply he was out to defeat her in November.

His most poignant line, a riff off Hillary Clintons Im with Her slogan, was delivered at nearly 11:30p.m. on the east coast. So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight, Trump said. Im with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you.

That was the message Trump had hoped to convey all week. It remains to be seen whether it made it through all the other noise.
By Eveline Danubrata

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab said on Friday it is teaming up with Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group to roll out a mobile payment platform in its biggest market, extending its reach beyond transport.

The partnership, which will give Grab access to 50 million existing customers in Indonesia, is Grab's first step to launching mobile payment solutions more widely across Southeast Asia, it said in a statement.

"Grab's partnership with the Lippo Group to develop a universal payments platform will be a leap forward for e-money in Indonesia," said Anthony Tan, a Harvard Business School graduate who co-founded Grab in 2012.

Customers will be able to use the Grab app to make payments across Lippo's retailers, including its department stores, cinemas and e-commerce site.

Lippo director John Riady told Reuters last year that the Indonesian media-to-property conglomerate planned to launch payment, chat and other online services in 2016. (http://reut.rs/29XSdBU)

Starting as a taxi-hailing app in 2012, Grab has since expanded to private cars and motorbikes. It currently has 320,000 drivers in Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

So far, Grab has raised a total of around $700 million from investors including Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, Japan's SoftBank and an arm of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings.

Tan told reporters earlier this week that Grab still has a "significant" amount of capital left.

(Reporting by Eveline Danubrata; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Rielle Hunter and daughter Frances Quinn are stepping back into the spotlight  this time, as published authors.



Hunter and Quinn, 8  whose father is former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards  revealed their upcoming, joint children's book to ABC News in an interview that airs Friday.



The book, called Howie Do It, was written by Hunter, 52, and illustrated by Quinn.



Also during the interview, Hunter discussed her relationship with Edwards  which began as an extramarital affair and only ended last year.







"We're very, very good friends," Hunter explained, adding that she and Edwards were also "great co-parents."



She noted, "We have the same goals. We want the best for Quinn."





Rielle Hunter, John Edwards' Ex, Writes Children's Book with Their 8-Year-Old Daughter| Kids & Family Life, politics, ABC News, Good Morning America, Books, John Edward, Rielle Hunter

Edwards fathered Quinn during his failed presidential run in 2007 when he was still wed to the late Elizabeth Edwards. Although Hunter gave birth to Quinn in February 2008, Edwards did not admit paternity until almost two years later.



Earlier this year, Hunter told Steve Harvey that Quinn understood why her parents were the subject of media attention, contending, "That's her reality."



She said that the father and daughter see each other "as often as they can," and called ex Edwards "a great dad."



Quinn and Hunter's full interview will air on Good Morning America Friday, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. EST.
As Brazilian officials scramble to prepare for the hundreds of thousands of tourists traveling to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics, the recent lone wolf terror attacks in Orlando and France have renewed concern about the cash-strapped Rio states ability to secure key venues.

Local police arrested 10 people in 10 states across Brazil on Thursday for purportedly pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and communicating through social media about a potential attack during the Summer Olympics, FOX News reported. Authorities described the suspects at complete amateurs, but noted that some had attempted to secure weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle.

Government and Olympic officials have repeatedly stressed that they are adequately prepared to vet travelers and protect tourists. More than 85,000 security personnel will be deployed in the streets of Rio, including a large contingent of military police. But Brazils financial crisis has decimated morale among Rios civil police force, groups of whom have gone on strike to protest poor working conditions and delayed paychecks. With two weeks to go until the start of the Olympics, Brazil faces an evolving terror threat with security forces that may lack adequate training or funding.

During this threat period, having an event such as the Olympics in the United States with the advanced system of policing that we have would be difficult, John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told FOXBusiness.com. In a place like Rio, where crime is endemic, corruption is endemic and there are other challenges facing police, its going to be even more complicated.

Despite a months-long crackdown on organized crime, Rio has seen an uptick in violent crime during the first half of 2016, especially in poor inner-city areas. The states homicide rate rose 15% through the first four months of the year, while robberies rose 24%, according to Washington Post statistics. Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, allege that brutality and summary executions are rampant among the military police that are being counted on for Olympic security.

Story continues

Other parts of the countrys security apparatus have come under increased scrutiny as well. A Wall Street Journal report found this week that government contractors have hired just 1,500 of the 7,000 people needed to screen spectators for weapons at stadium entrances. Many of those hired reportedly lack adequate training or security experience.

But Olympic stadiums are only part of the problem, Cohen said. Terrorists are increasingly conducting attacks on less obvious targets, such as restaurants, hotels and public transportation systems.

You dont even have to conduct an attack at one of the venues to bring visibility to your cause, Cohen said. You could go and do an active-shooter type of attack at a restaurant in Rio, and because Rio is on the international stage, thats going to bring a significant amount of attention to somebody whos carrying out an attack on behalf of some ideological cause.

Despite financial strains that led Rios state governor to declare a state of emergency this year, the Brazilian government is teaming with international intelligence agencies to staff a counterterrorism center tasked specifically with assessing threats to the Olympics. Authorities have increased checks at local airports and deployed officers at public places like beaches.

Coordination between Brazilian authorities and outside intelligence services is crucial to establishing the layers of security that can prevent a terrorist attack. The rise of self-radicalized lone wolf attackers, who obtain weaponry and training without direct ties to well-known terrorist groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda, has made it more difficult than ever for governments to detect threats.

You have to have a fully-integrated, highly professional, highly competent security operation, which brings together not only security professionals, but local and national law enforcement authorities who work closely with intelligence and military entities, Cohen said. I think its going to be lift for Brazil to be able to bring to bear that kind of capability during the Olympics.

Related Articles
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- On the eve of hosting the world's largest sporting event, Rio de Janeiro's decade-long push to curb violence in hundreds of slums appears to be crumbling.

Murders rose sharply in the first half of 2016, just as officials wanted to use the Aug. 5-21 Olympic Games to showcase the city as a tourist destination. Shootouts erupt daily, even in Rio slums where community policing programs created to pacify them had successfully rewritten the narrative in recent years.

The number of people killed by police, who many residents accuse of shooting first and asking questions later, has spiked in the past two years after dropping significantly the previous six. Police, in turn, are increasingly under attack: 61 have been killed in Rio since January, the majority while off duty.

''2016 has been a very bad year. We have seen a dramatic increase in homicides, robberies and other crimes,'' said Ignacio Cano, a sociologist at the Violence Studies Lab of Rio de Janeiro State University. ''We lost a big opportunity to transform police and develop a new public safety model.''

The victims are overwhelmingly young, black men like Jhonata Dalber Mattos Alves, a 16-year-old who was shot to death June 30 - family members say by police - in a slum with a much-vaunted community policing program.

Witnesses say the high-school student was killed as he walked down a dark path with paper bags for the popcorn he had fetched for his 4-year-old brother's daycare party.

''I want them to pay for what they did. They ripped out a part of me,'' said his mother, Janaina Mattos Alves, her voice breaking. ''They are taking away innocent lives. That's my fear.''

Law enforcement experts say Brazil's worst recession since the 1930s is at the heart of the surge in violence in Rio. A financial crunch in the oil-producing state has put thousands of government workers' salaries and pensions on hold, police budgets have been slashed and daily announcements of layoffs have added to the angst.

Story continues

Rights groups additionally blame a culture of combat still at the core of much of Rio's law enforcement, instincts more likely to emerge when officers feel under attack.

Cano says tourists coming for the Olympics will likely be spared the violence lived daily in the slums, though it periodically does spill into the city's tourist-friendly and affluent south. The 85,000 soldiers and police assigned to patrol the streets is a force double that of the 2012 Games in London.

''The big question is not the Olympics but what comes afterward,'' said Cano, who like many experts, believes that deeper cuts in police budgets are likely.

On a recent afternoon, two Associated Press journalists watched as half a dozen officers sheltered behind a cable car station shot it out with suspected drug traffickers in Complexo do Alemao, a sprawling cluster of slums in north Rio. Minutes after the gunfire stopped, several schoolchildren walked by the building as gun-toting police stopped and frisked drivers and bikers.

Amnesty International counted 265 such shootings last week, the first since launching a crowdsourced app to help alert people living in violence-plagued areas.

The racial element of the violence is undeniable.

Black people are three times more likely to be killed by Rio police as whites, according to data from the state government's public safety department. In the U.S. the apparent disparities in how police treat blacks and whites sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, which has organized large rallies after unarmed black men die at the hands police. The rate of police killings here is almost 10 times that of the U.S.

The mother of Jhonata Alves hadn't heard gunfire the day she asked him to go pick up paper bags used to put popcorn from his aunt's house in the slum of Borel. The family home is partly shielded from the slum by a forested hill, but the bang, bang, bang of clashes make their way to Janaina's silent street on a regular basis.

A witness who would not show her face told Globo news station that after Alves was shot, police fired off bullets to fake a shootout. Residents that were in the area told the family that officers tried to plant a gun on the teenager, but they didn't allow them to do it.

Police carried him as blood dripped from his head and put him in their car to take him to the hospital where he died. Police did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

A Human Rights Watch report released earlier this month found many instances of police killings that followed a similar pattern: Officers shoot at unarmed people, in custody or trying to flee, then simulate shootouts, plant guns and transport victims to hospitals where they arrive either dead or in critical condition.

Such killings, combined with the ensuing flimsy investigations and prosecutions, have dented the credibility of security efforts.

In the first five months of 2016, the number of killings that cover all homicides, including slain officers, shootings at the hands of police and as a result of robberies, increased by 18 percent to 1,870 in greater Rio, compared to the same months in 2012, when killings reached their lowest rates of the past decade.

Lt. Carlos Veiga, who leads the community police unit in the Babilonia slum, says police are under a lot of stress. The training of new officers has been cut from 12 to nine months and only two weeks are dedicated to explaining community policing.

''You are looking at a weak training program, police working under difficult circumstances, in places where people love breaking the law. All that adds up and makes the job of a cop very difficult,'' Veiga said.

The Pacification Police Units, known by its Portuguese acronym as UPP, were created in 2008 to change that dynamic.

Police set up community stations in at-risk areas. They took over mazes of pathways run by gangs, removed weapons and gave residents some relative peace while integrating access to public services such as utilities and garbage collection.

Fabio Amado, head of human rights at Rio de Janeiro Public Defender's Office, said the pacification units worked only in smaller, more densely populated slums. As the effort moved north and away from affluent areas and into sprawling hills, residents showed increasing dissatisfaction with police, according to a recent survey by Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a university and think tank.

A drug gang leader who recently spoke to the AP on the condition that his name not be used called the program a ''facade.'' He said drug dealers were initially worried and kept a low profile, but soon it was back to business as usual.

''Trafficking returned with even greater strength,'' said the man, wielding an AK-47 assault rifle. ''The UPP is powerless.''

---

Associated Press photographer Felipe Dana and AP video journalist Yesica Fisch contributed to this report.

---

Adriana Gomez Licon is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/agomezlicon
Rita Ora spotted in New York heading to the set. (Photo: Getty Images)

After 22 seasons of spreading the fierce, Tyra Banks has ended her reign as host of Americas Next Top Model, and Rita Ora will be stepping into her stilettos as the model mentor.

With the reality show switching networks from CW to VH1, producers  including Banks, who will stay on as executive producer  were reportedly ready for a shakeup, especially considering that the current state of the modeling industry isnt what it was when the reality show first debuted in 2003. Success isnt based on just looks anymore. Take, for example, Gisele Bundchen, whos known not only for her beauty but for being one of the best businesswomen in the world. As Banks told USA Today, its no longer just about having the highest cheekbones and best pout and the best hair. She added that her goal is to really get into these girls heads that Im not looking for some successful model and Im not looking for some social-media star. Rather, she explained, Im looking for both. Im looking for a hybrid, because thats where the world is.

Thats where Ora steps in. Joined by a new panel of judges, including curvy supermodel Ashley Graham; Law Roach, stylist to Zendaya and Celine Dion; and Drew Elliott, chief creative officer at Paper magazine (the publication behind Kim Kardashians Break the Internet cover), the show is getting a makeover of its very own.

The approach I wanted to have as a host and judge to the girls is what my career stands for at this moment in time, which is being a businesswoman and being able to do multiple things at the same time, whether its music or shooting [magazine covers] and being in movies and designing clothes, Ora said.

ANTM is currently being filmed in New York City and will feature 14 episodes with all-female contestants.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who served as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees for 10 years, has emerged as the front-runner in the campaign to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the UNs ninth secretary-general. Ban Ki-moon steps down at the end of 2016 after two five-year terms, the Foreign Policy reports.

The straw poll gave a boost to the campaigns of sleeper candidates like Danilo Turk, a former Slovenian president and UN veteran, who finished closely behind Guterres, as well as Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian national and director-general of UNESCO Irina Bokova, who finished third. But it also dampened hopes among many delegates that a woman might lead the United Nations for the first time in its history. There was only one woman among the top five contenders.

After the polling was concluded, Portugals Foreign Minister Augusto Santo Silva welcomed the outcome, telling reporters it provides clear incentive to Mr. Guterres candidature and confirms that he is particularly qualified for the position of Secretary General.

Diplomats attributed Guterress strong showing to his extensive U.N. experience and an effective performance in a series of U.N. debates. A natural communicator with a deep grasp of U.N. affairs, Guterres has emerged as a clear favorite among the U.N.s rank-and-file.

The secrecy surrounding the vote  the Security Council did not release the results of the straw poll  infuriated UN envoys who had been pressing for greater openness in the process of selecting the secretary-general. Following the vote, the Security Council president, Koro Bessho of Japan, informed the president of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, as well as the press, that the straw poll had been conducted. But he provided no information to either on the results. Lykketoft  who hosted a series of unprecedented public meetings in the General Assembly with the candidates  sharply criticized the Security Councils discretion.

In my view, limiting the communication to the fact that the informal straw poll has taken place without any further detail adds little value and does not live up to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency, he wrote.

Thursdays vote was designed to narrow the slate of 12 candidates vying for the top UN job, and provide council members with some clarity on which aspirants stood a chance of securing sufficient support to continue. Guterres came out on top with 12 delegates encouraging him to pursue the top job, three expressing no opinion, and none discouraging him to go for it. Turk was close behind with 11 votes of encouragement. But two delegations discouraged him and two expressed no opinion. If any of those discourage votes were cast by permanent members that could spell danger for his campaign.

Bokova, who was seen as flagging in the race, recovered ground by securing nine votes in favor, continuing her bid. But she received four votes of discouragement, raising the risk that she may be opposed by a permanent member of the council. Vuk Jeremic, a former Serbian foreign minister, and Serjm Kerim, a former UN General Assembly President, also performed better than expected, each gaining nine votes in favor of their candidacies. But they each received five votes of discouragement.

The initial sounding by the Security Council proved particularly discouraging to two of the UNs best-known candidates, Helen Clark, who currently serves as the executive director of the UN Development Program, and Susana Malcorra, who served for nearly a decade as a top UN official, including more than four years as Bans chief of staff.

But Malcorra took to Twitter late Thursday vowing to pursue her bid for the top UN job, thanking council members that supported her candidacy. This support has made me even more committed to continue working with my team and with all states members in pursuit of this candidacy, she Tweeted. Clark also pledged to press ahead, writing on Twitter that she was thankful for the support shown in first straw poll of NextSG candidates. Look forward to continuing #Helen4SG conversations.
CEO Samwer of Rocket Internet walks to the podium during their shareholder meeting in Berlin

Rocket Internet, among the largest listed internet companies in Europe, announced today (July 22) that it closed a 330 million ($364 million) funding round for Global Fashion Group, one of its portfolio companies that sells clothing online on several continents, and that it was oversubscribed. The round was 10% larger than anticipated, Rocket said. So why is its stock, listed in Frankfurt, cratering? Its down more than 5% today.

Rocket, which starts up copycat versions of e-commerce sites like Amazon and Expedia in untapped markets, first announced the round of funding in April. It was a signal to investors that all was well after a poorly received report (paywall) of the companys performance in 2015. It had 300 million in commitments for this infusion of cash, it said, and longtime partner, the Swedish fund Kinnevik, was on board as well, softening the perception that its deep-pocketed partner was distancing itself.

What set off the alarm bells for investors was that it had written down Global Fashion Groups valuation to 1 billion. Rocket had valued it at 3.1 billion just eight months earlier. Rockets stock duly tanked.

Todays announcement should have been a boost to the beleaguered German internet conglomerate, with the additional 30 million the company had added to the funding round. The market had ample timethree monthsto digest the lower valuation. Instead, Rockets stock is down again some 5% today. Heres the chart:

The market may be punishing Rocket for the lack of new investors in its funding rounds. Rocket Internet itself put in 68 million. An undisclosed amount came from Rocket Internet Capital Partners, a late-stage fund it created in January, and Kinnevik. The round was comprised of existing investors in Global Fashion Group, according to Rockets press release on the financing, which consist of a clutch of European funds and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. Global Fashion Group CEO Romain Voog met with more than 90 investors around the world but couldnt get a penny from them, according to TechCrunch, citing an unnamed source. Rocket wouldnt provide further detail on shareholders, referring us to the press release.

Story continues

There seems to be little the Samwer brothers, who helm Rocket, can do to convince investors that their complicated vehicle can build profitable internet businesses on a global scale. They have had success, clinching a deal to sell a majority stake in Amazon-like retailer Lazada to Chinese internet giant Alibaba, for instance. But the rest of their internet empire, which still loses vast sums of money, in the tens of millions every quarter, seems tied to the markets sinking appraisal of their performance.

Read this next: How much is Germanys glorified $5 billion startup factory really worth?

Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news.

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Rockwell Automation, Inc. ROK is geared up to report third-quarter fiscal 2016 results on Jul 27, before the market opens. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is pegged at $1.46, reflecting 8.37% year over year dip.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Rockwell Automation will be able to pull a surprise this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or #3 (Hold) for an earnings beat. That is not the case here as you will see below.



Zacks ESP: Rockwell Automations Earnings ESP stands at -1.37%. This is because the companys Most Accurate estimate is $1.44, whereas the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.46.



Zacks Rank: Rockwell Automation currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Buy). Note that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 or 3 (Hold) have a significantly higher chance of beating earnings. Conversely, Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement.



The combination of Rockwell Automations Zacks Rank #3 combined with a negative earnings ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.



Surprise History



In the last reported quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 3.79%. Notably, Rockwell Automation has delivered a positive earnings surprise of 1.61% on an average over the last four quarters.



ROCKWELL AUTOMT Price and EPS Surprise

ROCKWELL AUTOMT Price and EPS Surprise | ROCKWELL AUTOMT Quote

Factors at Play



The company cautioned that the recent industrial production forecast underscored lower-than-estimated economic growth in 2016, but continues to expect modest improvement in the second half of the year. It stated that its performance in the rest of the year will improve sequentially, though a year-over-year growth is not anticipated.

Globally, heavy industries will remain weak, with sporadic growth in the consumer and automotive verticals. The U.S. and China will continue to be the weakest geographies.



Spending in the architecture and software segment has been increased as the company focuses on new product development. Given that the company expects sequential growth in the second half of the year in the segment, it anticipates fiscal third-quarter 2016 to witness the lowest margin this year at the segment.



Despite the weakening oil and gas, mining markets, Rockwell Automation remains optimistic about the consumer, life sciences and auto verticals. These will continue to grow which bodes well for the company. Moreover, its perked up restructuring activities should begin to pay off during this quarter as well as the next.

Stocks to Consider



Here are some other companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



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The irony that the most powerful unelected figure in the Republican Party was eliminated, professionally speaking, on the very day that reality-show candidate Donald Trump triumphantly accepted the partys nomination for president was lost on no one at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

As the news rippled across the outdoor news platforms and bars near the Quicken Loans Arena, media figures paid obeisance to the man whose power in the halls of conservatism was considered unimpeachable until just days ago.

His influence is enormous, Carl Bernstein, the legendary investigative journalist and CNN commentator, told TheWrap.

Also Read: Roger Ailes Sexual Harassment Allegations From Over 20 Women Pour In, Gretchen Carlson's Lawyers Say

Ailes is a nefarious genius who single-handedly, using sleight of hand and the phrase fair and balanced [created] as important an instrument as has existed in setting the agenda for the country, Bernstein said.

But the sense that the forces unleashed by Ailes in creating the Fox News empire and Republican king-making machine had finally overtaken him was unavoidable.

His influence on the American public through the television screen has created the divide we see today, said Harry Hamlin, the activist and actor attending the convention with The Creative Coalition.

The actor told TheWrap: I do think that a major contribution to the divide that we see today has come from the extreme positions taken by Fox News. Im not sure there can be any argument against that. Any sane person would know that when you have an instrument as powerful as television, you have a point of view as strong as the point of view espoused by Fox News, delivered to the eyeballs of country, that is going to have an influence. That is indisputable.

Also Read: 5 Ways Roger Ailes' Fox News Exit Will Shake Up Cable News for Years to Come

The news of Ailes ouster came barely four hours before Donald Trump was set to take the stage and formally accept the nomination for the highest office in the land.

Story continues

It was a stunningly unlikely outcome that the Fox News chief had done much in his power to prevent. Now that same kingmaker  remember those behind-the-scenes calls between Ailes and the George W. Bush campaign during the contested election of 2000  faced a very public firing squad.

Just a few months ago, Trump and Ailes held high-level Kremlin-style diplomatic talks, trying to broker peace between two competing power nexuses.

Trump battled publicly with Ailes and the Fox News Channel, complaining that the network was targeting him unfairly in comparison to other Republican candidates. He denied the news channel access to him and his campaign, even as his interviews drove unprecedented ratings at rival network CNN.

For his part, Ailes seemed frustrated at his inability to impact the surging popularity of the reality-show billionaire candidate. Trump refused to play by Ailes playbook, speaking directly to voters through his Twitter feed.

The animosity emerged most palpably at the Republican debate last August, when network anchor Megyn Kelly posed a series of pointed questions at Trump  scripted by Ailes, according to some reports  about the candidates past derogatory comments toward women.

Also Read: Glenn Beck on Roger Ailes: 'He Has Become Bill Cosby'

In his pique, Trump overstepped the next day and in an interview accused Kelly of being menstrual, setting the stages for his very public feud with Fox News, Ailes and Kelly. (Trump denied he was referring to her menstrual cycle.)

In hindsight, it is the more ironic that Ailes defended Kelly and even taunted Trump in press releases before losing his job on Thursday for alleged sexual harassment of women at his network.

Many found an historic symmetry in Ailes ouster and Trumps triumph, given that Ailes had essentially created the modern Republican Party and built conservative brands out of on-air talent such as Bill OReilly, Sean Hannity and most recently Megyn Kelly. He also offered powerful and lucrative commentator perches to ex-candidates like Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.

And now he finds himself out the door, settling for a consulting gig at 21st Century Fox and a severance package reported to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

Roger Ailes is a television genius who created Fox News, and Im sure they are very upset that he has to go, Huffington Post editor at large Michealangelo Signorile told TheWrap. Hes demanding his ransom because he earned it. I think the bigger challenge is: Whos going to take over at Fox? Whos going to continue that? Its going to be difficult.
(Reuters) - The following is the full text of the resignation letter sent by Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes to Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O), the parent of Fox News.

It was provided to Reuters by Ailes lawyer.

Dear Rupert,

With your support, I am proud that we have built Fox News and Fox Business Channels into powerful and lucrative news organizations that inform our audience and reward our shareholders. I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and on-air positions. Many of these talented journalists have deservedly become household names known for their intelligence and strength, whether reporting the news, fair and balanced, and offering exciting opinions on our opinion programs.

Fox News has become Number 1 in all of cable because I consistently identified and promoted the most talented men and women in television, and they performed at the highest levels.

Having spent 20 years building this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry. I am confident that everyone at Fox News and Fox Business will continue as the standard setters that they are, and that the businesses are well positioned for even greater success in the future.

I am proud of our accomplishments and look forward to continuing to work with you as an adviser in building 21st Century Fox.

All the best,

Roger.

(Editing by Bill Rigby)
To mark Prince Georges third birthday, the British Royal Family shared four new photos of the adorable toddler frolicking around, but one picture is causing a furor against the monarchy.

Read: Bride and Groom Ask Grandmothers, 75 and 74, to Be Flower Girls at Their Wedding

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared an image Friday of the young prince feeding a dog ice cream, resulting in a series of angry comments on social media.

You should never let a dog lick your ice cream, unless you're Prince George pic.twitter.com/RMiSWc0oJu  Elliot Wagland (@elliotwagland) July 22, 2016

Prince George accused of animal cruelty for feeding ice cream to his dog. More cruelty say dogs.  Fiona-Natasha Syms (@fifisyms) July 22, 2016

Prince George needs chucking in prison for feeding that dog an ice cream, irresponsible animal cruelty paid for by the taxpayer  King in the North (@GRColton) July 22, 2016

Those moronic pictures of Prince George giving a dog ice cream,WTF? Is the world not bad enough at the moment, without their contribution?  Claire Duffie (@ClaireDuffie) July 22, 2016

Prince George expected to apologise for feeding a dog ice cream. pic.twitter.com/zYTzJfR49Z  Matt Spencer (@MatttSpencerr) July 22, 2016

Giving ice cream to a dog could be dangerous and toxic to the animals system. Experts advise that it should never be done.

Britain's animal welfare charity, the RSPCA, said in a statement: "It is lovely that Prince George is trying to help keep his family dog, Lupo, cool in these high temperatures. We would advise people to be cautious when giving their dogs food meant for human consumption as some items, like chocolate, can be highly toxic to dogs and dairy items can be difficult for them to digest.

Other photos were not controversial at all. The pictures were taken by Matt Porteous at the royal couples home in Norfolk, England, last month.

Porteous said of the experience: I really enjoyed the opportunity to take these photographs of Prince George. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. I'm honored that they have decided to share these images with the public to mark his third birthday."

Read: Prince George Gets to Stay Up Late to Meet The Visiting Yank President

A spokesman for Kensington Palace said: "The Duke and Duchess hope that people will enjoy seeing these new photographs. They would like to thank everyone for all the lovely messages they have received as Prince George celebrates his third birthday."

There has been no response from the Royal Family about the ice cream controversy.

Watch: Royal Family Photographer Reveals How He Made Prince George Giggle

Related Articles:
By Alexander Smith PORTSMOUTH, England, July 22 (Reuters) - Jimmy Spithill bounds from one side of his America's Cup catamaran to the other in a couple of strides, deftly dodging the edge of the huge "wing" which drives this state-of-the-art sailing craft. Oracle Team USA's boat, which lifts out of the water on hydrofoils even in the light breeze, is a far cry from the more stately schooner "America" which first laid claim to the cup known as the "Auld Mug" in the same channel off southern England 165 years ago and after which sport's oldest trophy is named. Since losing in 1851, British yachts have failed in every attempt to win back the America's Cup, a statistic Spithill hopes will not change next year in Bermuda when he defends the trophy he won in 2013. During a practice race ahead of the latest America's Cup World Series event, a build-up to the 35th America's Cup itself, Spithill's four fellow crew members are constantly on the move, bouncing off the trampoline that joins their two hulls. They also skip through a web of ropes and controls as they harness the power of the aircraft-like wing and coax the 45 foot boat out of the water and on to its foils. Despite a relatively light wind and calm seas, the hum of the tension in the rig and the foils slicing through the water makes for an eerie sensation, combined with an extraordinary acceleration which can see the boat reach speeds of up to 50 knots. Skipper Spithill, who said at the launch of this weekend's event in Portsmouth that he wanted to make amends for a disappointing fifth out of six last month in Chicago, gives little away on board, but constantly watches his rivals as they jockey for position at the start of Thursday's unofficial racing. He keeps a particular eye on home favourite Ben Ainslie, the British former Olympic sailor who has set up his own team Land Rover BAR in an effort to bring the cup home and who won in Portsmouth a year ago. NOTABLE COMEBACK Spithill and Ainslie sailed together on the U.S. boat in San Francisco during the last cup in 2013, winning against the odds in one of the most notable comebacks in sport as they recovered from 1-8 down to beat Emirates Team New Zealand 9-8. Unlike Ainslie and other crews who have lost some of their members to preparations for next month's Olympics, Spithill and his sailing team manager Tom Slingsby are sailing in Portsmouth with their usual line-up. The crew of Team USA talk to each other throughout the informal practice race, with a rare silence falling as they put all their efforts into "hiking" their body weight over the edge of the hull when the boat lifts off and "flies". Although it is only a practice, they are clearly not pleased when Ainslie crosses the line ahead of them, quickly going over the points in the race they could have improved. After Chicago, Spithill and the team not only scrutinised footage and data of their own performance, they also looked closely at everyone else's to see if there are techniques they can learn from. Going into the weekend's real racing, Oracle Team USA and Land Rover BAR are on equal points in the overall standings, 10 behind leaders Emirates Team New Zealand, whose Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are preparing to represent their country in Rio in the 49er class. Team New Zealand skipper and sailing director Glenn Ashby told Reuters ahead of the practice that this represents a chance for the team to try out new combinations and positions on the boat, something it will be doing in Portsmouth. "It's a wonderful opportunity for us to run through some different guys, we've got a great depth of talent through the rest of our sailing team," Ashby said. (Editing by Ed Osmond)
Keith Davis and David Ruth couldn't wait to move their family into their new home.



"When we drove through the neighborhood, we loved everything," says Davis, 36, who bought his home in Avondale, Pennsylvania, with his partner in October 2014.



Before moving in, the couple of eight years spent $70,000 and over two months renovating. The landscape, electrical and septic work went off without a hitch, but a neighbor took umbrage when a surveyor was seen taking measurements for a fence the family intended to have installed.



"A lot of other homes in the neighborhood have fences, so at the time I thought he was just upset that my property line went all the way up to his house," Davis tells PEOPLE. "He insisted that the builder had said that a fence would not be built, but our realtor had no record of a homeowner's association or any builder agreement. We even asked the zoning office and they said that as long as the fence wasn't higher than 6 ft. tall, we didn't need any permits."



The installation of the fence took over a week but it wasn't until the last day of the process that Davis was contacted by a neighbor who was part of the committee that had dictated the neighborhood rules the first neighbor had mentioned.



"I told him the fence couldn't be un-installed and he was understanding," says Davis. "He wanted to work on changing the wording of the document to allow for my fence."



Feeling that the fence issues were behind them, Davis and Ruth moved the two boys in their care  who are Ruth's nephews  into the home just before Christmas 2014.





A Same-Sex Couple Faces Anti-Gay Vandalism as They Fight 'Devastating' Lawsuit from Neighbors| Crime & Courts

Shortly after moving in, Davis was working in his garage when a welcoming couple, the Carpenters, came by to introduce themselves.



"They brought a gift card and actually told me the fence was gorgeous," says Davis. "We were in the middle of a conversation and David comes out and I introduce him as my partner and let them know we have two small children and that we're happy to be in the neighborhood. They finish the conversation quickly and off they go."



Davis says he didn't think anything of the other couple's abrupt departure: "I just figured they had to get home," he recalls.



But the response to Davis and Ruth's relationship was perhaps an early signal of what was to come. In the ensuing months, the battle over the fence escalated, and Davis and Ruth endured shocking hate speech and alleged treatment they never expected.





Story continues

A Lawsuit and Anti-Gay Vandalism

A week after the neighbors came by, Davis got a text from Ryan Carpenter, who had originally told him they would work to change the neighborhood document.



"Mr. Carpenter...told Mr. Davis the fence had to come down," reads the decision written by Judge Jeffrey R. Sommer, who eventually heard arguments from both sides after two families filed a lawsuit against Ruth and Davis in March 2015. "In conversations, Mr. Davis offered to [pay to put trees along the side of the fence] that faced the Carpenter property. This was unacceptable to Mr. Carpenter. There would be no compromise."



That May, Davis and Ruth received a letter from Carpenter stating that the security lights that Davis and Ruth had installed were a "nuisance" and should be removed immediately.



Not wanting to ruffle any more feathers, the couple turned the lights off, leaving their property dark in the evenings.



Three days later, Davis was pulling his car out in preparation for taking the boys, now 10 and 13, to summer camp when he saw hate speech spray painted on his garage door.



"I was just shocked. I couldn't believe it," says Davis, who raised both garage doors before bringing his kids out of the house. "It was awful to see that, but my main concern was to make sure the kids didn't see it."



Davis believes it was no coincidence that he was asked to remove his security lights just days before the vandalism.



Judge Sommer wrote in his declaration that "there is no evidence Carpenter knew of or was in any way involved in the spray-painting" but it was noted that Carpenter "did acknowledge that this lawsuit has become 'personal.' "



Davis and Ruth installed a security system but decided to take their family on vacation to get away from the strife. They asked their next door neighbors, who had recently moved in and were not a part of the suit, to keep an eye on their property.



"A couple of weeks after we left, we got a text from them saying that our security system sensors had been ripped up," says Davis. "And then someone smashed up the fence. We spent thousands replacing the security system and the fixing the fence."





A Same-Sex Couple Faces Anti-Gay Vandalism as They Fight 'Devastating' Lawsuit from Neighbors| Crime & Courts

"Mr. Carpenter also found other things about Mr. Davis and/or his partner...and their children," reads Judge Sommer's decision. "Mr. Carpenter testified that the Davis/Ruth dogs would bark. When this occured, Mr. Carpenter would stand on his deck and yell at the dogs. Mr. Carpenter acknowledged that he would yell 'other things' which included homophobic slurs. It appeared unlikely to the Court that the homophobic slurs were directed at the dogs."



(Carpenter has yet to make himself available for comment to PEOPLE.)





Judge Cites Homophobia

"This case is not at all about a fence," Judge Sommer wrote of the lawsuit, which eventually grew to include five households among the plantiffs.



Davis says the suit has now cost him and his partner almost $80,000.



On top of that, Davis, who owns a company that installs electronic medical records systems, says that the stress and time-consuming nature of the lawsuit has lost him clients and upwards of $400,000 in business. He's taken a second job as a consultant to try and make ends meet. He and Ruth have also set up a GoFundMe page to get help with their legal fees.



"The five families that are suing us are all splitting the cost of their legal fees. We don't have that luxury," says Davis. "We've lost all of our savings. It's been devastating."



In June, after hearing a day of testimony, Sommer ruled in favor of Davis and Ruth, saying they can keep their fence and also install a pool they'd previously been denied by the committee of residents.



Sommer wrote that the committee appeared to selectively enforce the rules when convenient for its members, denying Ruth and Davis requests for things that other houses in the 26-home neighborhood had, including their fence.



"The Planitffs and their witnesses all appearred well-prepared and repeated, almost verbatim, the 'theme' of the case: 'I only wish to honor the document.' However, the evidentirary narrative which was developed both in direct and in cross examination belied the 'theme,' " reads Sommer's decision. "There is no doubt that once Mr. Davis' sexual orientation was discovered, the tenor of the neighborhood interactions changed."



But some of the neighbors say that's just not true.



"Most of my neighbors who were involved or weren't involved are just disgusted with the way this evolved into a homophobic thing," Frank Charlton, one of the neighbors who has sued Davis and Ruth, told NBC10. "It is about a fence. It was about a fence."



The neighbors' lawsuit, which was obtained by PEOPLE, claims the fence is out of compliance with the subdivision's declaration of covenants.



"Mr. Davis and Mr. Ruth chose to ignore the restrictions and the Declaration and installed the fence despite knowing that doing so would violate the terms of the Declaration," the lawsuit claims.



The suit claims the fence "is made of a material other than wood," which requires approval by the subdivision's Architectural Control Committee; that it "extends beyond the back tall of the property towards the front of the property;" that it is more than four feet tall, among other reasons.



"Most of the members of the community expressed that they did not approve of the fence," the suit claims.



Whatever the reason behind the lawsuit, Davis hopes that his neighbors choose not to appeal the judge's decision (their window to file an appeal closes at the end of the week, he says) and looks forward to the day his family can put the ordeal behind him.



"We're holding our breath until the end of the week," says Davis. "But I hope that we can finally provide the happy and safe home for our family that we thought we were getting when we moved in. That's all we've wanted all along."



With reporting by HARRIET SOKMENSUER
By Se Young Lee and Donny Kwok

SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it sued Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] for patent infringements through multiple courts in China, escalating a legal conflict between the smartphone rivals.

The suits mark the latest salvo in a fight between the world's No. 1 and No. 3 smartphone makers, who compete fiercely across the world in an industry that researcher IHS says is worth $332 billion this year.

The South Korean firm sued Huawei in a Beijing court about two weeks ago for allegedly infringing six of its patents, a spokeswoman said. She did not elaborate on the types of patents or the other Chinese courts involved.

"Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property," Samsung told Reuters in a statement.

An intellectual property court in Beijing said on its official Weixin account that Samsung sued Huawei and a department store in Beijing and has claimed 161 million yuan ($24.14 million) in damages.

Samsung asked the two defendants to stop production and sales of products the South Korean firm says infringes on its patents, including Huawei's Mate 8 and Honor smartphones, the court said.

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies - also one of the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturers - said in a statement it had not received a "formal complaint" but would defend itself as necessary.

"In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve" intellectual property rights disputes, it said.

Huawei sued Samsung in the United States and China in May, accusing its rival of infringement on patents for fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software.

Chinese technology companies have often been on the receiving end of such lawsuits, so Huawei's U.S. litigation marked something of a reversal of roles reflecting its growing clout in the global telecommunications and smartphone markets.

Story continues

CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon said neither company was likely to be motivated by monetary compensation from the legal battle.

Huawei could be angling to boost its reputation by taking on the top smartphone player, he said, while Samsung's suit might be a maneuver to force Huawei to settle its claims as soon as possible.

"If you look at the patent battle with Apple (AAPL.O) and Samsung ... it ultimately created a lot of benefits for Samsung in a kind of an advertisement," he said.

"Huawei might also be trying to create some noise marketing for itself," he said, adding he expected the two firms to eventually reach a deal such as a cross-licensing agreement.

Huawei became the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones in a year in 2015 when a 44 percent jump in its shipments defied a market slowdown.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee in SEOUL and Donny Kwok in HONG KONG; additional reporting by Yimou Lee in HONG KONG; Editing by Stephen Coates)
On 3-5 October 2017 Kyiv is going to host the Space and Future Forum to network international experts and youth, many of whom will also participate at the first CosmoHack in the world. Joinfo provides media coverage of the Forum, and some of its topics were already discussed ...
It's hard to imagine anyone else nailing Sex and the City's fashion-savvy lead character the way Sarah Jessica Parker did, but it took some convincing for her to become Carrie Bradshaw.

The 51-year-old actress' casting revelation is explored in the forthcoming book, Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists by James Andres. In an excerpt obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Parker admits that she was less than enthusiastic about Bradshaw.

READ: Sex and the City' Creator Reveals He First Wanted Alec Baldwin to Portray Mr. Big

Luckily, Kevin Huvane, Parker's longtime agent and friend, was able to get her on board.

"He called me up and said, 'Darren Star reached out to me. He's written this pilot [Sex and the City] and tells me he wrote it with you in mind  you were in his head when he was writing it," said Parker.

Huvane loved the script and suggested Parker meet with Star. "I said, 'Really? I feel like I've got it all right now,'" she recalled.

READ: 10 Reasons Why We Don't Need Another Sex and the City' Movie

No matter how much Huvane raved about SATC, Parker was still reluctant to give up her freedom and commit to a TV contract.

"I can do a play, then do a movie, then do a play, then do a movie," thought Parker. "There's a lot of flexibility. What could be better? Do I really want to go back to making a television series when I'm maybe held hostage signing a long-term contract?"

After officially meeting with Star, Parker remembers not being "too keen" on the nudity and bad language in the script.

Huvane pushed her to step outside of her comfort zone. "Kevin continued to say to me, 'This is different. You have never done anything like this before," Parker explained. "No one's ever done a part like this. Do this.'"

His instinct paid off. Not only did SATC change the career of Parker and her co-stars  Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall, and Cynthia Nixon  the role earned her four Golden Globes and two Emmy Awards.

Story continues

READ: Chris Noth Sloppily Kisses John Corbett to the Delight of 'Sex and the City' Fans Everywhere!

The HBO series (which was adapted from Candice Bushnell's novel of the same name) debuted in 1998 and ended its six-season run in 2004. SATC was revived on the silver screen in 2008, followed by a sequel in 2010. The films grossed more than $700 million combined.

While it looks like Parker is closing the book on SATC for now, she's opening a new chapter with HBO. Watch Parker's ET interview for her upcoming series, Divorce, below.

Related Articles
SAN DIEGO  I think the MPAA didnt know how to handle food, Seth Rogen said of his raunchy animated comedy Sausage Party, releasing Aug. 12, at a post-sausage Q&A session Thursday night. They crossed into this unprecedented area of, Is [the sausage] a d? If its a pita breads ball sack, is it a ball sack?'

That conundrum for the industrys trade association is as good a way as any into discussing the film, which dabbles in religious and socio-political overtones while also featuring an actual douche bag sexually assault a juice box. There is nothing like Sausage Party, which first screened as a work in progress at the South by Southwest film festival in March. It is 100 percent its own thing.

The film, co-written by Evan Goldberg and Jonah Hill and directed by Greg Tiernan (Thomas and Friends) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2), was born out of a love of animated movies, particularly the Pixar brand. Rogen and company set out to follow the structure and tropes of those films with a story about talking food, but of course things immediately went in a trademark vulgar direction from there.

The day after we knew we wanted to make a movie about food, we decided food had to f each other, Rogen said. We were like, Someone is going to make an R-rated Pixar movie one day and Im going to be pissed if were not the guys to do it.

The crux of the narrative centers on the notion of The Great Beyond, a heaven-like utopia that various anthropomorphic items in a supermarket believe they will be carted off to once chosen by gods (customers). A sausage, Frank (Seth Rogen), learns the awful truth  that the gods eat food and its horrific  and attempts to reveal his findings.

That premise, as well as many stoned nights wandering around supermarkets with a pad in hand, opened countless doors to a number of interesting areas, including the testy relationship between a pita (David Krumholtz) and bagel that sounds like Woody Allen (Edward Norton). Yes, a movie about talking food that ends in a condiment-soaked orgy digs into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict  with remarkable aplomb.

Story continues

If food doesnt think it gets eaten, what does it think, Rogen recalled brainstorming. And that kind of led us down the path of beliefs and how people face the idea that you expire in different ways, and they have different ideas to support those ideas.

Norton was a huge champion for the film as soon as Goldberg pitched it to him. He became a bit of an ambassador, convincing others  like Salma Hayek  to be a part of it. He also, according to Rogen, tried to explain the premise to Birdman and The Revenant director Alejandro G. Inarritu at a dinner party one night. He was apparently unsuccessful.

In any case, Sausage Party is one of the best films of the year for its sheer audacity and deft handling of hot button subject matter. But while there is probably no hope for an animated feature Oscar nomination  the mind reels at the thought of it screening for octogenarians at the Academys esteemed Samuel Goldwyn Theater  Sony should give it a serious shove anyway, just to be a disrupter in the race. Its an intriguing complement to, say, Zootopia, which deals heavily in zeitgeist matters with lovable talking animals and is already considered the frontrunner to win the Oscar.

Either way, the goal for Rogen and company is to keep expanding this zany world.

Its the first time weve ended a movie with the intention of making another one, he said. We have an idea of where wed like it to go and wed love to just make talking sausage movies for the rest of our lives. Who wouldnt?

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oil worker

The world's largest oil field services company thinks the crude oil market has bottomed.

"In the second quarter market conditions worsened further in most parts of our global operations, but in spite of the continuing headwinds we now appear to have reached the bottom of the cycle," CEO Paal Kibsgaard said in the earnings statement released Thursday.

Schlumberger joined Halliburton, the world's second-largest oil field services company, in calling the bottom. On Wednesday, Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar said in the company's earnings statement that he believed "the North America market has turned."

The worst crude-oil crash in decades, which began in mid-2014, forced oil companies to find ways to maintain cash flow and possibly stay profitable that included job cuts and rig shuttering.

Oil prices have gained about 22% this year, and amid supply disruptions they were once nearly double the cycle low.

To weather the downturn, Schlumberger has lowered prices for its clients and allocated capital mostly to assets with the highest return. It has also trimmed costs via its headcount, announcing an additional 16,000 layoffs on Thursday. These steps, and higher oil prices, give the company confidence that it will withstand "the weakness that will persist through 2016 as expected."

Higher oil prices also give Schlumberger the chance to renegotiate some of its contracts with oil explorers that may not make financial sense for it going forward.

Schlumberger reported a second-quarter loss of $1.56 a share, down big from a profit in the previous year, and a 20% year-over-year drop in revenues to $7.16 billion (versus $7.15 billion forecast).

NOW WATCH: This defunct oil rig in the middle of the ocean is now a cool hotel for divers





More From Business Insider


(Adds details)

By Rozanna Latiff

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 (Reuters) - The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if the aircraft is not found in an area now being searched, Malaysia, China and Australia said in a statement on Friday.

The Boeing 777, with 239 aboard, disappeared in March 2014 while on a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing.

Almost A$180 million ($135 million) has been spent since then on an underwater search spanning 120,000 square kilometres (46,332 square miles) in the southern Indian Ocean.

"In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 sq-km search," Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai told a news conference at which he read out the statement from him and his Chinese and Australian counterparts.

The families of those on board, most of whom were from China, have pressed hard for answers ever since the plane went missing, and they are likely to decry any suggestion the search will end.

Liow said the team was not "giving up on the search for MH370" even if the less than 10,000 square kilometres that remains to be searched did not come up with anything.

"Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," the ministers said in the statement.

Investigators believe the plane was deliberately flown thousands of miles off course before crashing into the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.

Malaysian investigators said in 2015 there was nothing suspicious in the financial, medical or personal histories of pilots or crew.

PIECES OF WRECKAGE

Several pieces of aircraft wreckage have washed up on beaches in Africa and been positively identified as coming from MH370 but they shed little light on the mystery.

"While acknowledging the significance of the debris, ministers noted that to date, none of it had provided information that positively identified the precise location of the aircraft," the ministers said.

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The search has lasted more than two years but has found no sign of the main wreckage.

Searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for MH370 told Reuters they believed the plane may have glided down to the sea rather than dived, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean.

That was the first time officials directly involved in the search have lent some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments.

The glide theory is not supported by the investigating agencies, which includes Boeing Co, France's Thales SA British satellite company Inmarsat PLC and officials from the United States, Britain and Australia.

Liow told the news conference there was not enough evidence to confirm a controlled ditching, and added that he was confident the search was in the right place.

He said all data and information collected from the flight, search and debris of MH370 would be released to the public.

"It is in a very big volume, so it will take some time," he said.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Writing by Praveen Menon and Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)
Munich (Germany) (AFP) - Elite German police were hunting for gunmen who went on a shooting rampage at a busy mall in Munich, killing eight people in cold blood in the third attack on civilians in Europe in barely a week.

The southern city was in lockdown after the shootings, which saw panicked shoppers fleeing the Olympia mall as anti-terror police launched a massive operation to track down the assailants.

"We suspect terrorism," a police spokesman in the Bavarian capital said, but there were no immediate indications of an Islamist link.

A video posted on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black walking away from a McDonald's restaurant while firing repeatedly on people as they fled screaming.

Germany has so far escaped the kind of large-scale jihadist attacks seen in neighbouring France and the motives and identities of the gunmen were not yet known.

Police said up to three shooters were still at large and reported to be armed with "long guns".

Munich's main train station was evacuated and metro and bus transport in the city suspended while residents were ordered to stay in their homes, leaving the streets largely deserted.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene her security council on Saturday to address the deadly rampage in the European economic powerhouse which took in more than one million migrants and refugees last year.

"We are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany," her chief of staff Peter Altmaier said.

It is the third strike against civilian targets in Europe in eight days, following an axe rampage on a train in the same German state of Bavaria on Monday and the truck attack in France on July 14.

- 'I'm German' -

One spokesman said the body of a man had been found near the mall and investigators were trying to determine whether he was one of the assailants.

Another video appeared to show a gunman on the roof of a parking garage as he exchanged insults with people on a nearby balcony who referred to him a foreigner.

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"I'm German, I was born here," the assailant is heard to reply.

The spree began before 1600 GMT at the McDonald's and continued on a nearby street before the gunmen moved into the Olympia centre -- which lies not far from the scene of the 1972 Olympics massacre.

Shoppers rushed away from the mall, some carrying children in their arms, as the building was surrounded by armed police and emergency vehicles, while helicopters buzzed overhead.

Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks in neighbouring France and Belgium claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

- 'Murderous attack' -

German President Joachim Gauck said he was "horrified" by the "murderous attack", while Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to New York when the shooting began, will return to Germany.

US President Barack Obama and French counterpart Francois Hollande voiced staunch support for their close ally.

"Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. It's still an active situation, and Germany's one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances," Obama said.

Austria said it has "significantly" tightened security measures in states sharing a border with Germany and put its elite Cobra police force on high alert.

The Munich mall is located near the stadium for the 1972 Olympics and the athletes' village which was the site of the hostage-taking and massacre of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September group during the Games.

The shooting coincides with the fifth anniversary of the the massacre of 77 people in Norway by rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik.

It also comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train on Monday near Wuerzburg, also in Bavaria, injuring five people.

De Maiziere had said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" who appeared to have been "inspired" by IS but was not a member of the jihadist network.

- Flow of migrants -

The train rampage triggered calls by politicians in Bavaria to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into Germany -- many of them via the southern state.

A record 1.1 million migrants and refugees were let in to Germany last year, with Syrians making up the largest group followed by Afghans.

The mall shooting came just eight days after 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, in the French Riviera city of Nice.

It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November 2015 and the shootings at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

In March, IS claimed suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a city metro station that left 32 people dead.

In May, a mentally unstable 27-year-old man carried out a knife attack on a regional train in Bavaria, killing one person and injuring three others.
LEXINGTON, KY / ACCESSWIRE / July 22, 2016 / The law firm of Mehr, Fairbanks & Peterson Trial Lawyers, PLLC announces that a shareholder class action lawsuit has been filed against Inovalon Holdings, Inc. (INOV) ("Inovalon" or the "Company") on behalf of purchasers of the Company's common stock issued pursuant or traceable to the Registration Statement and Prospectus (collectively, the "IPO Offering Materials") filed in connection with Inovalon's February 12, 2015 initial public offering of common stock (the "IPO").

Investors who purchased Inovalon common stock pursuant or traceable to the IPO Offering Materials may, no later than August 23, 2016, petition the Court to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information please visit www.mehrfairbanks.com/inovalon/.

Inovalon investors who wish to discuss this action and their legal options are encouraged to contact Mehr, Fairbanks & Peterson Trial Lawyers, PLLC (Erik D. Peterson, Esq.) at (800) 249-3731 or via e-mail at contact@austinmehr.com.

Inovalon is a technology company that provides cloud-based data analytics and data-driven intervention platforms to the healthcare industry in the United States.

On February 12, 2015, Inovalon completed its IPO of common stock. The IPO was a financial success for the Company as it sold over 25 million shares of common stock to investors at $27.00 per share for gross proceeds of over $684 million.

The complaint alleges that the IPO Offering Materials were negligibly prepared, contained untrue statements of material facts, and omitted to state other necessary facts. Among other things, the complaint alleges that the IPO Offering Materials failed to disclose the substantial revenues the Company derived from sales in New York City and the State of New York. This was material information because the IPO Offering Materials also failed to disclose that the State of New York had implemented (prior to the IPO), and New York City was about to implement, substantial corporate tax reforms that would significantly impact Inovalon's tax rate and financial results.

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Subsequently, Inovalon reported quarterly financial results that included higher than expected corporate tax rates, which in turn adversely impacted the Company's financial results. For example, on August 5, 2015, Inovalon reported its second quarter 2015 financial results and disclosed that, "New York City enacted corporate tax reform legislation retroactive to January 1, 2015 which increased the Company's effective tax rate by 1.7% and 1.1% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, respectively. This legislation negatively impacted Non-GAAP diluted net income per share during the quarter by $0.01. "The Company also reduced its fiscal 2015 Non-GAAP net income and Non-GAAP diluted net income per share guidance on August 5, 2015, "to reflect the effect of intra-quarter changes in New York City tax and other statutory tax regulation changes," and disclosed that "inherent in the revised guidance provided for Non-GAAP net income and Non-GAAP diluted net income per share is an increase in the effective tax rate from 41% to 43%."

Following this news, shares of the Company's stock declined $5.87 per share, or over 23%, to close on August 6, 2015 at $19.53 per share.

Inovalon shareholders may, no later than August 23, 2016, petition the Court to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Mehr, Fairbanks & Peterson, or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class in the action. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.

For more information about Mehr, Fairbanks & Peterson Trial Lawyers, PLLC, or for additional information about participating in this action, please visit www.mehrfairbanks.com. This is an advertisement.

CONTACT:

Mehr, Fairbanks & Peterson Trial Lawyers, PLLC

Erik D. Peterson, Esq.

201 W. Short Street, STE 800

Lexington, KY 40502

1-800-249-3731 (toll free)

contact@austinmehr.com

SOURCE: Mehr, Fairbanks & Peterson Trial Lawyers, PLLC
This story was updated as further information became available.

A gunman who opened fire on the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping center in the German city of Munich is still on the loose, with police reporting that at least nine people are dead and 10 injured.

Despite initial reports that there were three gunmen seen with long rifles, German police now believe that there was only one gunman and that he acted alone before shooting himself.

German police and security forces sent helicopters to the scene, and shopkeepers inside the mall were asked not to leave. Initial reports said multiple shooters may have fled into a nearby subway station, launching parts of Munich into full lockdown.

There were also contradicting reports over what the shooter yelled when he opened fire, with at least one witness claiming they heard him shout God is great in Arabic, and others claiming he yelled that he was German. Experts following the attack questioned whether or not it could have been intended to copycat right-wing terrorist Anders Breiviks deadly attack in Oslo, Norway, which took place five years ago Friday.

In Munich, shots were also reportedly fired at a McDonalds across the street from the mall and in a nearby parking lot.

The attack came just five days after an Afghan teenager wounded four people with an ax and knife in Bavaria on Monday. He said he was inspired by the Islamic State, and although the gunmen have not been identified, Islamic State-linked Telegram groups have begun posting about the Munich attack on the widely used app.

There is still no word on the shooters motive, and no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the rampage.

#MUNICH Video of scene of attack is being spread on IS-linked Telegram channels pic.twitter.com/tFB0oaRmT9  Michael S. Smith II (@MichaelSSmithII) July 22, 2016

Below, video footage of a helicopter on the scene in Munich:

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Instagram Photo

Foreign Policy will update as more information becomes available.

Photo credit: LUKAS SCHULZE/AFP/Getty Images
Eight people were killed in a shooting Friday at a shopping center in Munich, Germany and at least three armed suspects are at large, police said.

Munich police spokesman Peter Beck told the Associated Press that eight people were killed in the shooting, which took place at a McDonalds restaurant. Authorities said there were at least at least three suspects armed with rifles and urged residents to stay at home or indoors. We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage, police said according to Reuters. The AP reports police are using suspected terrorism in relation to the mall attack.

Footage showed dozens of emergency vehicles outside the shopping center and German media reports said the citys transit system has been shut down following the shooting. The U.S. State Department warned Americans abroad to shelter in place. President Obama and the White House are aware of the situation and pledged to Germany all the support that they may need in the investigation.

Earlier this week, a teenager armed with a knife and an axe attacked passengers on a train near Wurzburg, Germany. Officials treated that incident as the first ISIS attack in Germany.
Update: The death toll remains at 10, including the attacker, who shot himself.

Munich police have said at a press conference this morning that 27 people were injured in the attack, of whom 10 are seriously injured, The Guardian reports.

Each of the 10 people killed in the attack, including the perpetrator, was aged between 13 and 45. Seven were male and three were female.

The attacker, an 18-year-old German-Iranian born in Munich, does not appear to have held any political motivations. Police told the conference he had been receiving psychiatric and medical care before the attack.

German Chancellor Angela Merkels is due to make a statement at 1.30 p.m. BST.

Update: 8.40 a.m. BST: Police found that the attacker, who shot himself, was an 18-year-old German-Iranian. The police have thus far refused to release his identity.

The shooter's motives are unclear, and he was not a terror suspect, according to police.

21 were hurt Friday in addition to nine dead. 16 remain hospitalised, police say. Those casualties include "many children," CNN says.

Apparently an angry exchange led to gunfire.

"The exchange, recorded on two different camera phones, captured an intense conversation that ends in gunfire," CNN writes. "The man who appears to be a shooter said insulting things about Turks, did not espouse jihadist ideology and spoke with a German accent."

Update: 1:57 a.m. BST: Police have raised the death toll to 10, which includes the body of the likely attacker, who apparently acted alone and appears to have killed himself, according to The Associated Press.

Update: 9:50 p.m. BST: The death toll in the attack on a Munich shopping center has risen to nine, Munich police told The Associated Press. In a press conference, police spokesman Peter Beck said that several more were wounded, but could not confirm that number.

It is unknown if any of the attackers are among the dead.

Police called the shooting suspected terrorism, citing the nature of the attack. Members of Germanys anti-terror force are en route to the site of the shooting. Authorities are still searching for up to three attackers, who they believe to be armed with rifles.

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Update: 8:50 p.m. BST: A police spokesperson confirmed that six people had been killed, with several more wounded in the attack on the Olympia shopping center, The Associated Press reported.

Police also said in a press conference that, though they had conflicting information, they were looking for up to three perpetrators who were believed to still be in Munich. Police are continuing to warn residents to stay indoors and away from public places.

In a press conference, President Obama said that hearts [went] out to those who may have been hurt in the attack, and said that America would pledge all the support that Germany may need in the aftermath, according to ABC News.

Update: 7:30 p.m. BST: A police spokeswoman confirmed multiple deaths in the shooting, Reuters reports. Police told the news organization that they suspected terrorism in the attack.

Munich police are still looking for one or more suspects in the shooting at the Olympia shopping center, and are warning residents to stay out of public places. The main train station in Munich has been evacuated as authorities continue the search.

This story was originally published on July 22, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. BST.

Shots have been fired at a shopping centre in Munich, Germany, the BBC reported on Friday afternoon.

At least one person is reported to have been killed in the shooting at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre, with an unknown number of others injured.

"We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," a police spokeswoman told Reuters.

German police told the BBC that they believed they were dealing with multiple attackers. A security operation is underway and the shopping centre has been sealed off. Police in bulletproof jackets were seen closing off the area, and people inside the centre are reportedly unable to leave.

On Twitter, police asked citizens to avoid the area. Public transportation has been shut down following the shooting.

The Associated Press reported that German police expect multiple deaths in the shooting.

This is a breaking news story which will be updated with more details as they emerge.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Woman Reflects On Munich Attack: "Had I Left Work Early, I Might Not Be Alive"

Inspiring Instagram Pictures Of Brighton Celebrating Trans Pride

Update: Suicide Bombers In Afghanistan Leave 81 Dead, Hundreds Wounded
An ISIS flag. (Photo: Reuters)



Singapore has banned the Al Fatihin newspaper, citing its connection to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

The Bahasa Indonesia paper is published by Furat Media, an ISIS-affiliated media agency, and has been gazetted as a prohibited publication, said the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) in a press release on Friday (22 July).



The publication is a means for the group to spread its propaganda abroad, with a clear intention to radicalise and recruit Southeast Asians to join ISIS, the ministry said.



The contents of Al Fatihin and the fact that it is published in Bahasa Indonesia, which is used by many in this region, confirm the objectives behind the publication to influence the people in this region and to cause disharmony, said Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs.



We take a very strong stance against terrorist propaganda and we will take decisive action as necessary. Hence, I have instructed for the publication to be prohibited in Singapore, he added.

It will now be an offence to distribute or be in possession of the newspaper. Those convicted of doing so face a fine, imprisonment or both.


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore on Friday banned the distribution and possession of Al Fatihin, a newspaper linked to the Islamic State militant group, after government officials repeatedly warned against terror threats. The wealthy city-state saw its first case of terrorism financing this month, with four Bangladeshi men jailed for terms ranging from two to five years for funding attacks in their South Asian homeland. "The Singapore government has zero tolerance for terrorist propaganda and has therefore decided to prohibit Al Fatihin," the Ministry of Communications and Information said in a statement. Launched in the southern Philippines on June 20, the paper, whose name means "The Conqueror" in Arabic, is also distributed in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand, the Straits Times newspaper said this month. "ISIS is a terrorist group which poses a serious threat to the security of Singapore," the ministry added. "Al Fatihin is yet another step by ISIS to spread its propaganda abroad, with a clear intention to radicalize and recruit Southeast Asians." The newspaper is published in the Indonesian language, which is very close to Malay, Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's minister in charge of Muslim affairs, said in the statement. Anyone convicted of possessing or distributing the newspaper faced a fine or imprisonment, or both, the statement added. The fine can range up to S$10,000 ($7,380), and the jail term up to three years for a first offense, rising to four years for subsequent offences, the Straits Times newspaper said. Al Fatihin is mainly distributed online, said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. "I have not seen a printed version in Singapore," Gunaratna told Reuters this month. "It is primarily directed at Indonesia and Malaysia. The number of potential supporters and sympathizers in Singapore is very small  insignificant." (Reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Marius Zaharia; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Russians cutting it close. Russian aircraft bombed a secret U.S. and British special operations base in southeast Syria last month, followed by another strike on a CIA-backed site, defense officials tell the Wall Street Journal. The strike happened just hours after about two dozen British commandos pulled out of the site.

The leak about the strikes  which had previously been reported as a strike on a U.S.-backed rebel facility  comes about a week after Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Moscow to pitch a new intelligence-sharing proposal with the Russians that would combine the efforts of the two countries to fight the Islamic State and other Islamist groups in Syria. The Pentagon and CIA are highly skeptical of the proposal. U.S. military and intelligence officials told the Journal that the strikes were part of a campaign by Moscow to pressure the Obama administration to agree to closer cooperation in the skies over Syria.

Talking about talks. After two days of talks in Washington among the members of the U.S.-backed coalition fighting the Islamic State, John Kerry said that the tide has turned in the battle against the group. He struck a measured tone when referring to the proposed Russian cooperation however, saying, I cant say Im confident, because there are very tough issues that are being resolved in U.S.-Russia talks. Were going steadily and carefully down a road without making promises in public that we cant keep, because I think people are already frustrated enough.

The speech. Republican candidate for president Donald Trump delivered his much-anticipated acceptance speech Thursday night in Cleveland, where among other things, he backtracked just a bit on earlier comments indicating he would toss aside some key components of the NATO alliance, namely, refusing to commit to backing up allies in the event they were attacked by Russia.

Recently, I have said that NATO was obsolete. Because it did not properly cover terrorism, he said Thursday evening. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism. A true step in the right direction. It is unclear what new NATO program he was referring to. A NATO Response Force was set up in 2002, and bolstered in 2015, but the alliance has set up no new counterterror programs in the 24 hours since the New York Times published its now-infamous interview with the candidate, where he outlined his foreign policy views.

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Fallout. The Baltic states hit back hard, FPs John Hudson and Siobhan OGrady write, with Estonian and Latvian officials blasting Trumps hints that he would leave them high and dry. FPs Dan De Luce and Paul McLeary followed that up with a deeper dive into the implications of Trumps proposal to walk away from the NATO alliance. If carried out by a future President Trump, the policies would also represent an effective surrender to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spent years trying to undermine NATO, which he derides for accepting the membership of Baltic states he sees as part of Russias sphere of influence. Over the past decade, Putin has used cyberweapons against Estonia; invaded Georgia; and annexed Crimea while sending uniformed troops and operatives to back separatist forces throughout eastern Ukraine.

Heading East. U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice is heading to Beijing next week, following a recent trip by Navy chief Adm. John Richardson, in an attempt by the Obama administration to soften the impact of a recent ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that China has no historic claim over the South China Sea. Beijing has flatly rejected the verdict, angrily sending more ships and military planes to the region in recent days. The visit coincides with a trip by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Laos and the Philippines, hell reassure Southeast Asian partners of Washingtons commitment.

Off the list. The Defense Department has revised its Law of War manual, and theres some good news: Your SitRep correspondents are no longer considered targets. Mostly. The manual was restructured to make it more clear and up front that journalists are civilians and are to be protected as such, Charles A. Allen, the Pentagons deputy general counsel, said Thursday. The last revision to the manual in 2015 said that journalists in general are considered civilians, but they may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents.

Back on. The U.S. European Command announced Friday that Turkey has turned the power back on at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, which is a major hub for the U.S.-backed airstrikes on ISIS in Syria. The base was without power since July 16 and was operating on backup generator power.

The United States, in close coordination with the Turkish military, will continue to work towards ensuring our facility, the U.S. servicemembers who live and work on it, and the operations occurring there remain fully prepared to take on a myriad of missions as we work together to defeat terrorism the command said in a statement.

Hey there! Good morning and as always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley

China

Beijing is still pretty steamed about an international courts ruling against its territorial claims in the South China Sea and now its issuing veiled threats by showing off its missile and bomber arsenal. The South China Morning Post reports that the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command showed a little leg on TV this week, including shots of the PLAs DF-16 missiles and H-6K bombers. Chinese officials recently showed off pictures of the H-6K flying near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, saying that the PLA Air Force would begin routine patrols of the region.

Iraq

Iraqi officialdom is frustrated as security forces gains against the Islamic State arent necessarily translating into improved security. Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi met with reporters on Thursday and lamented that the Islamic State is still able to carry out suicide attacks in Iraqs interior despite losing a record amount of territory. Obeidi also described the myriad challenges that await Iraqi security forces in the event of an offensive against Mosul, including massive refugee issues and the need to coordinate with Peshmerga and Shia militias.

al Qaeda

al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has released the latest issue of its online magazine Inspire, leaving the jihadist group to celebrate an attack claimed by its rival, the Islamic State. In a statement released after the attack, the Islamic State claimed that Nice attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhel was a fighter for the group and French authorities say they found a hand-drawn picture of the groups flag in his home. But you wouldnt know that from reading Inspire, which praised Bouhel for his operational acumen in employing an innovatively lethal attack method.

Libya

Forces aligned with the internationally-recognized government in Tripoli lost 13 men in the fight to oust the last remaining Islamic State troops from Libyas city of Sirte, Reuters reports. The forces say theyre making progress at squeezing the jihadists, but say theyre disappointed in what they claim is lackluster support from international allies who havent provided enough supplies and medical equipment.

Ukraine

A joint report prepared by two human rights groups is accusing both the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed rebels of torturing suspected spies and arbitrarily detaining civilians to keep as currency in prisoner exchanges. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International teamed up for the report, named You Dont Exist, detailing 18 instances of abuse divided evenly between the two sides. Torture methods included waterboarding and electrocution used against those suspected of espionage. The report also accuses Ukrainian intelligence of running unacknowledged black site-style detention facilities.

Photo: Vadim Savitsky\TASS via Getty Images
Premier semiconductor manufacturer Skyworks Solutions Inc. SWKS reported relatively healthy third-quarter fiscal 2016 results, driven by superior execution of operational plans and healthy demand patterns. Non-GAAP earnings for the reported quarter were $238.1 million or $1.24 per share compared with $262.5 million or $1.34 per share in the year-earlier quarter. Recurring earnings (with stock-based compensation adjustments) of $1.12 per share exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3 cents.



GAAP net income in the reported quarter declined to $185.0 million or 97 cents per share from $207.4 million or $1.06 per share in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year decrease in GAAP earnings was primarily driven by lower revenues.



Quarter Details



Skyworks reported fiscal third-quarter revenues of $751.7 million, down 7.2% year over year but ahead of its guidance. Reported revenues missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $756 million. In terms of the product mix, power amplifiers represented 16% of revenues, while integrated mobile systems and broad markets accounted for 55% and 29%, respectively.



Skyworks continues to capitalize on global mobile connectivity and demand for high-performance solutions across a diverse set of verticals and the Internet of Things market. As customers implement the next level of functionality for higher bandwidth, demand for system-level solutions and higher levels of integration are also increasing. These in turn are playing directly into Skyworks' strengths and generating huge demand for its products.



Non-GAAP gross profit in the reported quarter was $382.3 million compared with $396.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP gross margin improved 190 basis points year over year to 50.9%, driven by new product launches, enhancements in the filter business and superior operational efficiencies. Non-GAAP operating income was $274.7 million, leading to non-GAAP operating margin of 36.5% compared with the respective tallies of $295.4 million and 36.5% in the year-earlier quarter.

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SKYWORKS SOLUTN Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

SKYWORKS SOLUTN Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | SKYWORKS SOLUTN Quote

Significant Quarter Developments



Skyworks continued to gain broad market traction during the quarter. The company was chosen by Chinese multinational electronics goods manufacturer, Huawei, to install a broad suite of its products in the latters flagship P9 and P9 Plus smartphones. Skyworks also launched advanced carrier aggregation capabilities across a suite of premium mobile manufacturers, including Samsung, Motorola, Oppo, Vivo and ZTE.



During the quarter, the company produced over two billion filters on a cumulative basis in its joint venture with Panasonic, improved proprietary SkyBlue technology for enhanced power management in LED flash drivers and commenced volume production of products that support the worlds first headcam with LTE connectivity in 4k video streaming. Skyworks also introduced a set of highly advanced amplifiers specifically addressing the rapidly growing small cell infrastructure market. Such developments signify the expanding customer and end market reach of the company across both mobile platforms and the Internet of Things.



Balance Sheet & Cash Flow



The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $973.7 million and a zero debt balance. Skyworks generated $141 million of cash from operations during the quarter.



The company repurchased 3 million shares during the quarter and returned over $240 million to shareholders as dividends and share repurchases. Capital expenditures for the quarter were $57 million. Skyworks further increased its quarterly dividend by 8% year over year to 28 cents per share and authorized a new $400 million stock repurchase program that replaced the existing share repurchase program of the same value. These further underscored the confidence of the management in its business model and demonstrated its ability to deliver superior returns to shareholders.



Outlook



Going forward, Skyworks is well positioned to capitalize on the Internet of Things with healthy demand for high-performance wireless solutions in new markets. The company continues with its strategy of providing custom integrated solutions and diversifying its business into high-margin verticals. Leveraging on product innovation and broad-based customer demand, the company appears poised for sustainable above-market growth in the near term. We remain impressed with the quarterly results, its deep customer engagements, clear visibility into future generation architectures, and internal margin enhancement initiatives.



The company expects fourth-quarter fiscal 2016 revenues to be up 1011% sequentially to $831 million at the midpoint, with non-GAAP earnings of $1.43 per share.



Skyworks currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the industry include Ambarella, Inc. AMBA, Amkor Technology, Inc. AMKR and AXT Inc. AXTI, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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By Mitch Phillips LONDON (Reuters) - Usain Bolt delivered on his top billing by winning the 200metres at the London Diamond League on Friday but the Jamaican was upstaged for once as American sprint hurdler Kendra Harrison broke one of the oldest world records in the book. Bolt, running his first 200metres race for a year in his last outing on the track before the Olympics, struggled for his usual rhythm as he laboured to victory in 19.89 seconds. However, having pulled out of the Jamaican trials last month with a hamstring strain, he was delighted to get through Fridays race uninjured and can now go away and fine-tune for his attempt at the triple-triple of 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay golds in Rio. Harrison, however, will be watching the Games on TV having finished sixth in the 100m hurdles at the U.S. trials after breaking the national record in May. She earned some consolation - as well as a $50,000 bonus - on Friday with a stunning world record. After delivering a silky smooth performance to win, the clock initially showed a modest 12.58 seconds. However, it was quickly corrected to 12.20, one hundredth of a second faster than the mark set by Bulgaria's Yordanka Donkova in 1988 - four years before Harrison was born. Brianna Rollins (12.57), Kristi Castlin (12.59) and Ali Nia (12.63), all Rio-bound after finishing 1-2-3 in the U.S. trials, finished in the same order, behind Harrison on Friday. "I wanted to come out here with a vengeance to show that even though I won't be going to the Olympics I had to give it all I had," said Harrison, who collapsed to the track in tears when she saw the revised time. There was a more muted celebration for Bolt, who nevertheless delighted the crowd by winning then spending his usual remarkable amount of time signing autographs, posing for photos and giving endless media interviews. After a steady start he led halfway round the bend, but only just. As he hit the straight and the crowd expected the sort of surge that brought him three Olympic golds on the same track four years ago, it didnt happen. Rocking noticeably, he had to work all the way to the line for a time considerably shy of American LaShawn Merritt's season-leading 19.74. Panama's Edward Alonso was second in 20.04 with Briton Adam Gemili third in 20.07. "I tried to hold my form. I'm not fully in shape and I dont think I executed well - I need more work," said Bolt, who turns 30 next month. "I don't want to see it again. I wasn't that impressed," he added of his performance. "But I'm feeling good and happy I could run and finish the race without any injuries." Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas will also head to Rio in confident mood after posting a world-leading 49.55 to win the women's 400metres, setting up a mouth-watering one-lap showdown with Allyson Felix. There was plenty to cheer for the home fans in the Olympic Stadium now decked out in the claret and blue of its new tenants, West Ham United soccer club. Britains womens 4x100m relay team opened proceedings by triumphing in a national record 41.82 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year. Laura Muir also channelled the spirit of 2012's "Super Saturday" when the crowd roared her home in a gutsy front-running victory in the womens 1500m for a huge personal best and another British record of 3:57.49  knocking Olympic champion Kelly Holmes off top spot. Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut won a disappointing 100 metres final in 10.02, having been the only man to dip under 10 seconds with a 9.96 in the heats. The action continues on Saturday, with the days highlight being the 5,000m, featuring home favourite Mo Farah. (Editing by Tony Jimenez/Rex Gowar)
News from the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Tremor is Reduced by Nearly Half in Trial of Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Tremor-Dominant Parkinson's Disease

ARTICLE IN BRIEF

IN FOCUSED ULTRASOUND, MRI-guided ultrasound is used to noninvasively heat and lesion tissue in the thalamus.

Researchers reported that unilateral focused ultrasound thalamotomy can be effective in reducing tremor in Parkinson's disease at three months, though there were side effects associated with the procedure.

BERLIN  Tremors were reduced by nearly 50 percent in patients with tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease who underwent unilateral focused ultrasound thalamotomy, scientists from the University of Virginia and Swedish Neuroscience Institute reported here in June at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders.

In focused ultrasound thalamotomy, magnetic resonance imaging is used to guide ultrasound through the intact skin and skull to non-invasively heat and lesion tissue in the thalamus. The procedure requires no incisions or anesthesia.

The one-year results from a blinded, sham-controlled, two-center trial showed that the outcomes were significantly improved in treated patients compared with controls. All 25 patients in the pilot study had experienced disabling tremors, despite optimal medical treatment (with at least 900 levodopa equivalents daily).

Sixty-three percent [of 25] patients had greater than 50 percent improvement in the tremor scores at three months, and 58 percent of patients had greater than 50 percent improvement at one year, indicating a very favorable response, Binit B. Shah, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the Parkinson's disease and movement disorders division at the University of Virginia, told Neurology Today.

Radiofrequency to make lesions in discrete areas is still done on occasion, but the technique is not adjustable and it is difficult to lesion areas deep in the brain. Dr. Shah noted. Today, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is the surgical treatment recommended for PD patients, Dr. Shah said, but scientists have been looking for alternatives to DBS since many patients are reluctant to have invasive surgery to implant electrodes in their brain and a stimulator and battery pack in their chest.

These results, Dr. Shah said, demonstrate that focused ultrasound provides a noninvasive solution for thalamotomy lesions in PD.

STUDY PROTOCOLS

Dr. Shah and his colleagues performed one sham procedure for every three active treatments, and monitored participants at one month, three months, and one year. The patients, whose heads were shaved, wore a helmet with transducers during the procedure. Those in the control group had the same assessments as the treated group, and at three months, they were given the option to have thermal lesioning. All but one chose to have ultrasound thalamotomy.

The primary outcome measures were safety and changes over a three-month period on the Clinical Rating Scale for Tremor (CRST) part A & B, which scores tremor location and severity (in the face, arm, leg, for example) and specific motor tasks, and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III, which measures motor skills. A decrease in the CRST part A & B combined score of 50 percent is considered a good outcome, leading to dramatic improvement in the ability to carry out activities of daily living, while a change in two to three points on the UPDRS III is considered clinically significant.

Dr. Shah said that the side effects were frequent in the treatment group; although most resolved the first day, some took a month to resolve. One patient in the sham group reported tinnitus. Among the treated group, 48 percent had headache, 28 percent dizziness, 24 percent ataxia, 24 percent finger paresthesia, 20 percent lip paresthesia, 16 percent sensation of heat in the scalp, and 4 percent tinnitus.

There was a notable placebo effect at three months  a 17 percent decrease in the CRST A & B score  among controls who did not have focused ultrasound. But those who underwent the procedure improved significantly; at three months, their CRST A&B scores decreased by 49 percent (p=0.04). The one-year CRST A&B scores were improved by 48.5 percent from baseline (p<0.001).

The UPDRS III scores were not significantly different for the sham and treated groups, however.

Dr. Shah said that the frequency of the side effects, though they resolved, remain a concern. Additional studies are in the works to further establish a safety profile and identify the ideal patient population for this procedure, he said.

EXPERTS COMMENT

This is a new technique to make a lesion in the brain, said Mark Hallett, MD, chief of the human motor control section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who was not involved with the study. It is non-invasive, and some patients are opting to do it. But unlike deep brain stimulation, which is reversible, this is not.

DR. BIRIN B. SHAH: Sixty-three percent [of 25] patients had greater than 50 percent improvement in the tremor scores at three months, and 58 percent of patients had greater than 50 percent improvement at one year, indicating a very favorable response.

Dr. Hallett said the data for essential tremor look good, but the technique may not be quite as promising for Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's patients have a lot of other problems, he said, adding that the thalamus may not be the best target for these patients.

Paul Fishman, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, pharmacology and neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chief of neurology at the VA Health System in Maryland, is involved with the studies of focused ultrasound technology for essential tremor and has been identifying potential candidates for the non-invasive technique.

The technique is promising and exciting, he said, but he noted, as did Dr. Hallett, that while DBS allows for adjustments by programming the amount of stimulation after surgery, with focused ultrasound, there is no opportunity to readjust what we've done. His group is also recruiting for a trial in PD, which will target is the globus pallidus pars interna. Eight patients have been through the procedure already.

What we want is a non-invasive technique with symptom relief and no side effects, he said. This is a work in progress.

Neal Kassell, MD, professor of neurosurgery at University of Virginia and chairman and founder at Focused Ultrasound Foundation, said that focused ultrasound was tried and abandoned decades ago by Swedish neurosurgeon Lars Leksell, MD, but the technology was too primitive and ultrasound could not penetrate the skull. Since then the technology has improved.

The procedure may be considered for patients who are not candidates for DBS or for those who do not want the surgery to implant the electrodes in their brain, Dr. Kassell said. This is not meant to be a wholesale replacement of DBS. It is an alternative for certain patients.

Dr. Kassell is chairman and founder of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, which has funded the ongoing studies on ultrasound for Parkinson's disease and other disorders.

EXPERTS: ON FOCUSED ULTRASOUND FOR TREMOR IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE

DR. MARK HALLETT said the data for essential tremor look good, but the technique may not be quite as promising for Parkinsons disease. Parkinsons patients have a lot of other problems, and the thalamus may not be the best target for these patients.

DR. PAUL FISHMAN: What we want is a non-invasive technique with symptom relief and no side effects. This is a work in progress.
WEST PALM BEACH, FL / ACCESSWIRE / July 22, 2016 / Solitron Devices, Inc. (SODI) (the "Company") today announced:

Shevach Saraf, Chairman and CEO of the Company has retired as of Friday, July 22, 2016. The Board would like to thank Mr. Saraf for his many years of service. He joined the Company at a particularly difficult time for Solitron and guided the Company successfully while many competitors failed. The Company will be holding a retirement luncheon in Mr. Saraf's honor at the Company's offices in early August.

Pursuant to Mr. Saraf's retirement, the Company reached an agreement with Mr. Saraf, subject to a seven day revocation period by Mr. Saraf ending July 29th, whereby the Company will fulfill the terms of his employment agreement, repurchase all shares held by Mr. Saraf, and repurchase all outstanding options held by Mr. Saraf. The total sum of the payment to Mr. Saraf is approximately $2.85 million including accrued unused vacation and COBRA benefits. Mr. Saraf has also resigned from the Board effective as of July 22, 2016, subject to the revocation period described above. As a result of this transaction the total number of fully diluted shares outstanding will decline from 2,523,050 to 1,901,950, a reduction of 621,100, or 24.6%.

The Board has also approved an amendment to Solitron's bylaws in order to separate the CEO and Chairman roles, and appointed Tim Eriksen as CEO of the Company. Mr. Eriksen has served as a Director of the Company since the election of August 4th, 2015. Mr. Eriksen's responsibilities will primarily consist of shareholder relations, capital allocation, governance issues, and assistance in financial reporting. The Board believes Mr. Eriksen is well qualified to fill this position.

David Pointer has been appointed Chairman of the Board of the Company. Mr. Pointer has served as a Director of the Company since the election of August 4th, 2015. The Board appreciates Mr. Pointer's willingness to step in and fill this role.

Story continues

Mark Matson has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company (COO). In recent months Mr. Matson has served the Company in a consultant role and is very familiar with Solitron Devices, Inc.'s products and markets. Mr. Matson's previous experience includes COO and VP of Operations at YSI, Vice President of Operations and Engineering at Rockford Corporation, General Manager of Seattle Division for Benchmark Electronics, and Vice President at ADIC (Advanced Digital Information Corporation) and at Interpoint. The Board is pleased to have someone of Mr. Matson's experience in the semiconductor component marketplace to be able to step in and run the operations of the Company.

Several months ago a shareholder of Solitron informed Solitron of the shareholder's intention to run a proxy contest in the 2016 election. The Board entered into discussions with this shareholder and was pleased to learn that their concerns about the Company closely mirrored those expressed by shareholders in the 2015 election. As a result of those discussions, the Board has appointed Charles Gillman as a Class III director effective July 22, 2016 to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Saraf's retirement. Mr. Gillman will hold office until the Company's 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and will be the Company's nominee in the upcoming election at the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Mr. Gillman has served on numerous corporate boards and has an excellent reputation for strong corporate governance in favor of all shareholders.

Solitron has agreed to reimburse expenses related to the 2015 proxy contest and the potential 2016 proxy contest. In total, the expenses to be reimbursed will not exceed $200,000.

The Company has set the date of its 2016 annual meeting of shareholders for August 26, 2016. The meeting will be held in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Important Additional Information About the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders

This press release may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, including the upcoming election of directors. The meeting proposals, including the election of directors, will be submitted to the stockholders of Solitron for their consideration. In connection with the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, Solitron will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") a proxy statement. Stockholders of Solitron are urged to read the proxy statement when it becomes available and any other relevant documents filed with the SEC, as well as any amendments or supplements to those documents, because they will contain important information. Stockholders of Solitron will be able to obtain a free copy of the proxy statement, as well as other filings containing information about Solitron at the SEC's Internet site (http://www.sec.gov). Copies of the proxy statement and any SEC filings that will be incorporated by reference in the proxy statement can be obtained, free of charge, by directing a request to: Tim Eriksen, Chief Executive Officer, E-mail: corporate@solitrondevices.com.

Solitron and its directors, executive officers and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Information regarding Solitron's directors and executive officers is available in its Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the year ended February 29, 2016, which was filed with the SEC on June 28, 2016. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the proxy statement and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available. You may obtain free copies of these documents as described in the preceding paragraph.

About Solitron Devices, Inc.

Solitron Devices, Inc., a Delaware corporation, designs, develops, manufactures and markets solid-state semiconductor components and related devices primarily for the military and aerospace markets. The Company manufactures a large variety of bipolar and metal oxide semiconductor ("MOS") power transistors, power and control hybrids, junction and power MOS field effect transistors ("Power MOSFETS"), field effect transistors and other related products. Most of the Company's products are custom made pursuant to contracts with customers whose end products are sold to the United States government. Other products, such as Joint Army/Navy transistors, diodes and Standard Military Drawings voltage regulators, are sold as standard or catalog items. The Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in March 1959, and reincorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in August 1987.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future performance of Solitron Devices, Inc. that involve risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results, including statements regarding interim appointments to our Board of Directors and our executive officers. Factors that could cause actual results to vary from current expectations and forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to: (1) our ability to implement a smooth succession plan at the Board and executive officer level on both an interim and long-term basis, (2) our ability to develop and recruit effective Board members and executive officers, (3) changes in our stock price, corporate or other market conditions; (4) the loss of, or reduction of business from, substantial clients; (5) our dependence on government contracts, which are subject to termination, price renegotiations and regulatory compliance; (6) changes in government policy or economic conditions; (7) increased competition; (8) the uncertainty of current economic conditions, domestically and globally; and (9) other factors contained in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports.

CONTACT:

Tim Eriksen

Chief Executive Officer

E-mail: corporate@solitrondevices.com

SOURCE: Solitron Devices, Inc.
Beijing (AFP) - A subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Samsung will buy a $450 million stake in China's electric carmaker BYD, which is partially owned by US investment guru Warren Buffet, the Chinese company said Friday.

Shanghai Samsung Semiconductor has promised to pay nearly three billion yuan for a 1.92 percent stake in the company, becoming its ninth-largest shareholder, BYD said in a filing with the Shenzhen stock exchange.

The investment, at a price of 57.4 yuan per share, is part of a private placement that has raised 14.5 billion yuan from six investors including Samsung, according to the statement. The other five investors are a state-controlled industrial investment fund and four Chinese fund management companies.

The new share issuance will dilute the shares of BYD founder and chairman Wang Chuanfu to 18.79 percent from 20.70 percent, the statement said.

It added that Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy will see its stake decline to 8.25 percent from 9.09 percent but remain BYD's fourth-largest shareholder.

BYD will use the proceeds to expand its battery production and the research and development of renewable energy cars, the statement said.

Samsung pursued a stake in BYD after the affiliate was among a number of foreign battery makers left off a list of suppliers approved by China, where sales of electric vehicles are surging and the government has sped up construction of charging points, Bloomberg News reported.

One of the world's largest chipmakers, Samsung said last week investing in BYD would bolster their semiconductor business for cars, the report said.

BYD shares fell 0.71 percent to 61.5 yuan in Shenzhen on Friday.
CLEVELAND  Even for veteran rocker Rick Springfield, whose chart toppers date to Ronald Reagans first term, Tuesday nights crowd across the Cuyahoga River from the Republican National Convention mustve seemed decidedly unconventional.

Clusters of young men in standard-issue delegate garb  blue blazers, pleated khakis  milled about. Women shimmied to Jessies Girl in heels and skirt suits, convention credentials swinging from lanyards around necks.

The concert Tuesday night was a tribute to the House Republican Whip Team and was to benefit charity, even though there was no admission fee. So who picked up the tab? Sponsors. Lots of them, virtually all with business before Congress. How much money was going to which charity wasnt foremost on anyones mind.

The show was really a thinly veiled schmooze-fest, where powerful members of Congress and their staffers drank free beer, listened to live music and ate free bratwurst while rubbing elbows with corporate lobbyists, all sanctioned by congressional ethics rules.

During the convention, dozens of organizations have sponsored such events, all with an interest in gaining access to lawmakers and political power brokers.

The events are almost all carefully crafted to fit into exemptions in congressional gift and ethics rules that allow members of Congress to attend, say, charitable fundraisers, or widely attended events. Even the honoree wording is particular. Honoring a delegation is allowed, but honoring a specific member, such as, say, House Speaker Paul Ryan, is against the rules.

These exemptions very quickly become major loopholes to allow lobbyists and others to put on events for officeholders and allow officeholders to go to them for free, said Lawrence Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit group.

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.

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Invitation only

The concert at Jacobs Pavilion, an amphitheater by the river, was a private, invitation-only event with its own special pass required for admission.

Story continues

And prominently displayed  on massive video boards, signs, the amphitheaters white overhang, the back of the plastic event credentials  were the event sponsors, a long list of blue-chip corporations, from tobacco company Altria, to communications giant Viacom, to political advertising and communications firm Harbinger Outreach, to conglomerate Koch Industries.

Others included Uber and Chevron.

Materials promoting event sponsorship packages note Concerts for a Cause Pavilion is supported by key convention stakeholders, including GOP House Leaders, GOP House Whip Leaders and, for good measure, Other Party Leaders.

The event is intended to comply with the charity fundraising event exception of the House ethics rules.

The event organizer, Concerts for a Cause, is a charity  even though many sponsors arent. Ethics rules require the main purpose of the event to be the raising of funds for charity if members and staff are to accept free admission, and the organizer stresses that benefiting charities is indeed the point.

But attendees can be forgiven for thinking the emphasis was on mixing and mingling with other political insiders, and on Tuesday night, the names of the sponsors, not charities that will receive the money, were on prominent display.

The conventions are a stocked pond for lobbyists, Noble said.

The concert is just one of many events filling up the schedule of public officials at the two national conventions this month, almost all of which give lobbyists and professional influencers the opportunity to mingle in a target-rich environment of politicians and their staffers.

Robert Walker, a lawyer at the firm Wiley Rein who specializes in government ethics and has worked for both the House and Senate Ethics Committees, said the rules do allow members and staff to legitimately attend a wide range of events.

Still, he stressed, that does not mean that anything goes. There are limits.

Behind closed doors

The Center for Public Integrity was not invited to the Concerts for a Cause event but spent more than two hours there after gaining admission. The general public, for its part, rarely gets a good look at these affairs.

Take the Western Caucus Foundation, a little-known nonprofit group whose honorary chairs are Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

On Wednesday, the Western Caucus Foundation held a Red, White and Western Whiskey & BBQ Reception at Mabels BBQ in downtown Cleveland, just outside the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena.

A flier obtained by the Center for Public Integrity advertised the event as an opportunity for invited guests to meet with members of Congress.

A Center for Public Integrity reporter walked up, presented the invitation on his iPhone to a security guard, announced himself by name and organization and proceeded inside without issue.

A handful of people milled about the industrial-meets-rustic restaurant, chatting and ordering drinks. The doors to the 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. event had just opened, and no formal program had yet begun.

About a minute later, another security guard, earpiece in ear, approached, and ordered the reporter to leave.

The event flier encouraged potential financial backers to contact two event officials listed regarding support opportunities, but its unclear who sponsored and funded the event. There were no banners or placards visible in the restaurants foyer that listed its financial backers.

Still, there are clues as to the foundations funders.

The Western Caucus Foundation counts Republicans lawmakers of the Senate Western Caucus and House Western Caucus among its members. Individuals, corporations and other nonprofits may donate to the group and receive a tax credit for doing so.

It describes itself as the voice of the West and its mission as informing and educating policy makers and the public on federal policy issues distinctive to western and rural communities. It says it is committed to advancing the following key principles: protecting private property, strengthening local control, promoting economic growth and increasing energy independence.

The focus on energy issues perhaps explains why a powerful energy industry trade group, the American Gas Association, contributed $12,000 in 2014, when the foundation was still in its infancy, a Center for Public Integrity review of nonprofit tax filings found.

Darrell Henry, the executive director of the Western Caucus Foundation and a former lobbyist for the American Gas Association, the Western Business Roundtable and the Healthcare Waste and Emergency Preparedness Coalition, declined to discuss the event in detail.

Were looking forward to a great event with our Western members as our guests tonight, he said Wednesday, before telling a reporter he was too busy to talk further and hanging up.

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Concerts for a Cause

Concerts for a Cause put together three nights of shows at Jacobs Pavilion, featuring not just Springfield but country acts the Band Perry and Lee Brice.

The charity had previously held smaller, single-day events to raise money that was passed on to epilepsy-focused charities, according to the founder, Chad Barth, who created the group in honor of his sister, who has epilepsy.

In fact, Concerts for the Cause has reported less than $50,000 in income per year dating back to 2011, according to Internal Revenue Service filings  a sharp contrast to the sums connected to the Republican National Convention event.

The Jacobs Pavilion venue was at one point quoting a price of more than $2 million for a full convention week rental, according to information obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

Barth said the $2 million price was too high, calling it far off, and stressed that another group is holding concerts at the pavilion on two of the five nights this week.

Nonetheless, the Concerts for a Cause events at the Republican National Convention clearly involved significant money. Talent has to be paid, there are production costs, and the free bratwurst, liquor and at least five kinds of beer served to attendees has to be paid for somehow.

Packages ranged widely in price. For example, one package described in marketing materials was advertised as $875,000 and included 150 general admission tickets and 75 VIP tickets per concert, as well as private VIP event space and VIP viewing platform options.

A more modest emailed pitch for sponsorship packages in connection with Tuesday nights concert offered a $10,000 Gold Sponsor package that included an invitation for one attendee to a VIP sponsor pre-reception, recognition on signage, four VIP tickets, 10 general admission tickets and VIP access during the concert.

Barth said Concerts for a Cause is something he started because of his personal connection to the epilepsy issue via his sister, and he takes the charitable mission seriously.

He said it is now expanding its mission to work with other types of charities, and he said the Republican National Convention events meet a test in House Ethics rules meant to determine whether an event qualifies as a charitable fundraiser members are permitted to attend. The test calls for more than half the amount of money paid for admission is tax-deductible as a charitable contribution.

Barth declined to name the groups that will receive the proceeds or estimate how much money the events would generate for charity. He would say only that the money will go to two Cleveland-based charities and a third charity based elsewhere. The charities are not focused on epilepsy work, he said.

Everyone around here has become skittish of having their name attached to any of the convention events so we havent publicly disclosed those as of yet, he said, adding that he expects to release the recipients of the money after the convention.

He declined to estimate the size of the contribution, saying costs and contributions were still being accounted for.

Sharing in the electoral process

Of course, sponsors are also paying for these events because it makes sense for business reasons, as well as charitable ones.

Aflac believes that we are fortunate to reside in a country that enables such incredible opportunity to share in our nations electoral process, especially when we can further our philanthropic causes at the same time, said Jon Sullivan, a spokesman for the company.

Sullivan added that the event benefits charities like Lukes Wings, an organization dedicated to the support of veterans who have been wounded in battle and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, two worthy causes that are near and dear to Aflacs heart.

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Those two charities are also named in some marketing materials for Concerts for a Cause. Barth and representatives of the two charities did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation of the charitable beneficiaries named by Aflac.

Walter Lukens, head of direct marketing firm the Lukens Company, a Concerts for a Cause sponsor, said the company sponsored the event to kind of elevate our name.

A concert was a good fit, he said, because you get decision makers who are 30 years old, and concerts are where those decision makers go. Theyre not in a smoke-filled room in a steakhouse. Theyre looking to have fun.

Concerts, he added, are fun.

Meanwhile, Springfield, the headliner, was having a bit of fun of his own.

We have a new record out  Im sure you dont give a s--- at this point, and neither do I, he said as Tuesday night bled into early Wednesday morning.

At one point, he smiled wryly and threw his hands in the air, revealing the white letters on his size-too-small t-shirt: NOT AN ENDORSEMENT.

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.
By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - A rift appeared in one of South Sudan's two main rival groups on Friday, raising the prospect of further turmoil after months of fighting, as members of one faction threatened to replace their leader. A group inside the SPLM-IO movement issued a statement saying its head Riek Machar should return to the capital Juba and carry on his work in the government, or be removed from office. Machar, South Sudan's Vice President, and his SPLM-IO group, have been caught up with more than two years of on-and-off, ethnically charged fighting with supporters of the country's President Salva Kiir. Machar left the capital last week after a fresh outbreak of clashes, saying he would only return when an international body set up a buffer force to separate his forces from Kiir's. Kiir called on him on Thursday to return to salvage a peace deal, and a faction of Machar's own group, led by mining minister Taban Deng Gai, on Friday said they agreed. The decision by the government to give... Machar an ultimatum is entirely in line with its powers," William Ezekiel, spokesman for SPLM-IO faction allied to Gai, told Reuters by phone. "On our side, we want him to show up, otherwise we will replace him." Machar's spokesman, James Gatdet, rebuffed the threats, saaying Gai's faction had no official status in the momement. South Sudan's politics has long been plagued by splits and rivalries as leaders switch allegiances, in the contest for power and influence in the oil-producing nation, which only emerged from Sudan five years ago. Machar ... has communicated to all his military commanders to cut off any communication with General Taban Deng Gai and his few individuals who support the President Kiir's conspiracy," he said. The two years of fighting started after Kiir sacked Machar as Vice President in 2013 and has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million, many of whom fled to neighbouring countries. The most recent fighting in Juba has forces 26,000 people to flee to neighbouring Uganda, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR's spokesman Andreas Needham told a news conference in Geneva. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
GettyImages raul castillo looking hbo

Raul Castillo says that playing a gay character on HBO's drama "Looking" has been really good for his acting career.

"I feel like I couldn't have found a straight role with that much complexity, because oftentimes with Latinos we go into roles that are written specifically for Latinos and they're either tropes or one-dimensional representations of who we are," Raul Castillo recently told Business Insider.

Castillo played Richie Ventura, the tough, closeted neighborhood barber who was the unconventional on-and-off love interest for main character Patrick (Jonathan Groff). Castillo, who's straight, calls the role "a gift."

"Richie was a fully formed, fully fleshed human being," the 38-year-old actor said. "So if anything, he's been a great gift for me as an actor because I think people see sides of me that they wouldn't normally have gotten had I played a 'straight role' or sort of typical Latino role you're used to seeing on TV."

looking the movie jonathan groff raul castillo hbo full

Interestingly, Castillo has been attached to "Looking" ever since its genesis as a short film. Titled "Lorimer," the 2011 short film was written by Michael Lannan and directed by Andrew Haigh, the team behind HBO's series adaptation.

And, according to Castillo, not much has changed from the film.

In it, "there's something about finding moments of intimacy in unexpected circumstances," Castillo said. "And I really think that's what the show did brilliantly."

But there was one major thing that did change.

"At the time, the story was set in New York instead of San Francisco," the actor told us.

With "Looking: The Movie" premiering on Saturday, fans of the actor can next see him on "Easy," "Drinking Buddies" director Joe Swanberg's upcoming anthology series for Netflix.

"I feel really lucky to be in a place after this show, and after the experience of working on 'Looking', where I'm getting to work on interesting characters and interesting projects," Castillo said. "And I feel like in a lot of ways 'Looking' kind of opened up those doors for me."

Story continues

NOW WATCH: Here's what real NFL agents think about HBO's 'Ballers'





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As Star Trek Beyond opens in theaters today, a specially mastered version of the film will bow in 30 theaters worldwide that support Barco Escape, a new Cinerama-like theatrical format. It's the widest opening ever for the new theater experience from digital technology developer Barco, which uses three screens, mounted on the front and side walls of a movie theater, stitched together to create wider images.

But designing Beyond for Barco Escape and getting it to those theaters by opening day proved to be an ambitious and "crazy" experience on the part of the filmmakers. The results were shown for the first time in the U.S. on July 20 at Regal L.A. Live, a "Barco Innovation Center," which has an Escape auditorium. Attendees got a look at how Barco hopes to excite movie-goers as an enormous rendering of the Starship Enterprise soared across the three-screen configuration.

As first reported in The Hollywood Reporter in April, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot inked a deal with Barco, with Bad Robot, Paramount and Skydance agreeing to release a special version of Beyond in Barco Escape. They agreed to that roughly 20 minutes of the film, which was already deep in postproduction at the time, would be extended to fill the three-screen format. However, that meant that in addition to working on an already tight production schedule, the filmmakers needed to develop and employ cutting-edge postproduction techniques to get the Escape version to theaters on time.

Read More: Comic-Con: J.J. Abrams, Cast and Crew Honor Anton Yelchin at 'Star Trek Beyond' Premiere

"It was crazy," admits Bad Robot producer and head of postproduction and visual effects Ben Rosenblatt, who also had to produce all other versions of the film including 2D (digital and film), 3D, Imax 2D, Imax 3D, laser projection, immersive sound - not to mention the many non-English language versions.

For Rosenblatt, the final push also involved hopping down to San Diego for his sister's wedding last Saturday. "I got back to Bad Robot around 3 p.m. on Sunday and we stayed up until 3 a.m. Tuesday," he tells THR.

Story continues

He also had to go to the Escape auditorium at Cinemark's Howard Hughes Center for a quality control screening before delivering the digital cinema master to Deluxe, which mastered the Digital Cinema Package (the digital equivalent of a film print).

"I never finished anything this close to release," Rosenblatt says, adding that he then slept for a few hours before headed back down to San Diego for Comic Con. "We finished Tuesday and it screened Wednesday in Dubai, which is 11 hours ahead of us. Had anything in the pipeline gone wrong, we wouldn't have made it."

About half of the Escape material is fully CG set-extensions created by Prime Focus in conjunction with Prime Focus-owned Double Negative, a leading VFX house on the film. The other half was created by Kelvin Optical, an in-house VFX group at Bad Robot, working with Base Effects in China. Beyond director Justin Lin and producer Abrams, who directed the first two films in the franchise reboot, led the creative side.

While Double Negative's London and Vancouver office were working on the movie, they shared the same pipeline to move and share images with Prime Focus in Mumbai, which did the Escape extensions. "That was key, but [the challenge] was also the sheer volume of data, hundreds of terabytes of information," says Merzin Tavaria, who served as Prime Focus' creative director on the Escape version.

Rosenblatt says that a "critical component" was Bad Robot's pair of Mistika finishing systems, which are made by Madrid-based manufacturer SGO. "We had to finish the whole movie again, involving all three screens of the movie with a lot of color matching. We were able to preview the experience with the full three-screen view and make sizing, sharpening and other decisions for a consistent look."

He gave kudos to SGO's Peter Amies, who helped Bad Robot to develop the workflow, as well as complete the production. "SGO has been incredible as a partner to us, writing new software," says Rosenblatt. "They are super nimble. We are talking about [adding standard features to Mistika] so that anyone can use it for Escape finishing."

For Star Trek Beyond, the Escape footage is spread throughout the film (as a result it might feel like more than reported) and the side screens go to black when then are not in use. Will audiences see this as a gimmick or exciting new format? This remains to be seen, but Rosenblatt gives it a "big thumbs up. Everyone on our side has been more and more excited about it. I think this is an exciting next step for the format. We're very interested in emerging technologies and new formats that offer innovation in the theatrical experience."

Following Beyond, the next big step for Escape may be Scott Waugh's upcoming 6 Below, which will be the first film shot for release entirely in Escape.

Escape debuted in 2014 with Twentieth Century Fox's The Maze Runner, which included the expanded tri-screen imagery in seven minutes of the film, at a handful of supported theaters. As part of a multi-year deal with Fox, that was followed by Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, which incorporated 20 minutes in the Escape format.

In 2015, Barco announced a development deal with Jerry Bruckheimer, who also sits on the Escape Advisory Board.

With 30 auditoriums ready for Star Trek Beyond, additional Escape installations are under contract and the company anticipates having about one hundred screens worldwide by the end of the year.

Read More: 'Star Trek Beyond': Film Review
kirby pokemon

A US State Department press briefing was interrupted Thursday when spokesman John Kirby stopped to ask a reporter whether he was playing Pokemon Go.

Kirby stopped mid-sentence to say, "You're playing the Pokemon thing right there, aren't you?"

Here's the exchange via the State Department transcript:

Kirby: As the amount of anti-ISIL content continues to eclipse pro-ISIL content online, the working group renewed its commitment to launching innovative international campaigns and expanding regional and global networks and accelerating global efforts to confront them in the information space.

As the secretary said earlier today, though, and I think it's an important reminder  you're playing the Pokemon thing right there, aren't you?

Reporter: I'm just keeping an eye on it.

Kirby: It's an important reminder  we know this won't be easy. We recognize it's a challenge, and we're clear-eyed about the work we still have to do. This is why we convened this important ministerial and will continue to work with our coalition partners to defeat Daesh. Did you get one?

Reporter: No. The signal is not very good.

Kirby: Sorry about that.

Here's the video:







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From Esquire

CLEVELAND, OHIO-It says something about the crowd gathered here that Laura Ingraham, a famous radio terror, was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention, and that she got a wild ovation at the beginning and at the end of her remarks. Her theme was "Respect." She told a touching story about watching TV back in the 1970s at her Momma's knee and asking why people were burning the American flag.

"Honey," said Momma Ingraham, "that's because their parents didn't teach them about respect."

"Respect."

When she was at Dartmouth, she edited the Dartmouth Review, during which time she arranged to surreptitiously record a meeting of the campus gay students association. She then outed the members in her magazine and sent the tapes to their parents. She later changed because one of her brothers came out, but fck that, too.

"Respect."

Back in 1995, in a truly embarrassing piece in The New York Times Magazine, there was this darling anecdote about Ingraham's evening in some DC bar.

As we sat in the bar of the Tabard Inn knocking back big glasses of Sambuca ("Should we all sing 'Kumbaya'?" suggested Ingraham), she entertained us with stories of her adventures in El Salvador during the mid-80's. What was she doing there? I asked. "Subjugating third-world nations," she said with a dry laugh.

In the course of the proxy wars launched illegally and luxuriously financed by everybody's hero, Saint Ronnie Reagan, some 20,000 Salvadorans were killed. Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down while saying Mass. Four American nuns were raped and slaughtered.

"Subjugating third-world nations."

"Respect."

Yeah, right.

This was followed by a speech by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. "I've dedicated my entire public career to the rule of law."

"Lock her up!" cried the crowd.

"I love that," said Pam Bondi.

Story continues

And, in case you were wondering, that's the same Pam Bondi who's being looked at sideways these days because, after soliciting a nice contribution from some outpost of the Trump empire, she announced that she was calling off the Florida investigation into the scam that was Trump University.

"Rule of law."

Yeah, right.

Then there was a video about Apollo 11 and the space program, a deep and heartfelt tribute to the miracle of big government. Astronaut Eileen Collins gave a nice talk about how we have to reach for the stars again. This unseemly appeal for big government didn't seem to sink in. Which reminds me that, all week, delegates from all over America have been thanking the assembled lawmen, and having their pictures taken with them, and generally making quite manifest their support. I am wondering, of course, what will happen when they go home and some poor sucker whom they'd elected mayor asks them to pay another dime in taxes to equip and train the local cops. I am terribly cynical.

This was followed by a couple of bullgoose ravers-a Kentucky state pol named Ralph Alvarado and a pastor named Darrell Scott. Alvarado gets points for yelling about "the IRS scandal," as far as I know the first big bite taken here out of that particular nothingburger. Pastor Scott roared to a conclusion by reciting the Presidential Oath as he imagines He, Trump will take it next January. Then along came Harold Hamm, an extraction billionaire from Oklahoma, notable for trying to get professors fired for doing studies linking fracking to the unlikely seismic hootenanny that has broken out beneath the ground. (Thanks to FOTP, LLC. for the link.)

"Every time we can't drill an oil well," Hamm told the hall, "a terrorist is funded."

This seems to me to be an odd economic theorem, but I'm just along for the ride here.

I had forgotten all the reasons why Scott Walker never even made it to the Iowa caucuses, dropping out, you may recall, so that he could help the Republican Party stop the barbarian with the combover. They all came back when he came bounding out and grabbed a hand mic. Geez, I thought, maybe he's going to give us his hard five minutes. Instead, employing his Big Boy tenor, he once again recited all those arguments that made him invisible during that part of the campaign when he was actually participating in it. This is what he said.

"We made a solid commitment to support our veterans with health-care and everything else they need once they get homeIf Hillary Clinton were any further inside, she'd be in prison."

Saith the man who once employed a dude who literally stole money meant to take war widows and war orphans to the zoo and used it to go on vacation, and who then ended up really, really inside.

All of this and N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of civilization's rules and Leader (perhaps) of the civilizing forces, came on with his Churchill act and told some scary stories about how Sharia law is lapping at our coastline and how The End Is Near.

"The cost of Hillary Clinton's lies might be the end of America as we know it."

Oh, give it a rest, Chauncey.

There never has been a moment in which Lily Tomlin's wisdom was more needed. No matter how cynical you are, it's hard to keep up.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
News from the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Is Visual or Automated Analysis of SPECT Scans More Reliable in Diagnosing Parkinsonism?

DAT SPECT imaging cases that were categorized abnormal in the visual analysis but normal in the automated analysis (cases 1-9) and normal in the visual analysis but abnormal in the automated analysis (cases 10-12). Four representative striatal slices of each case are presented. The color scale bar indicates specific binding ratios.

BERLIN  When interpreting brain dopamine transporter SPECT scans for signs of Parkinson's disease, which is more reliable  the trained eye of a nuclear physician or a software program that uses automated analyses to assess regions of interest (ROI)?

Generally, visual interpretations by experienced physicians were accurate and matched with the automated assessments of ROI analysis, according to the findings presented here in June at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders.

But there were were discrepancies in the interpretation of 12 of 120 (10 percent) dopamine transporter SPECT scans reviewed by the two physicians, study author Elina Makinen, MD, of the Division of Clinical Neurosciences at Turku University Hospital and University of Turku in Finland, told Neurology Today.

In nine cases, the physicians suggested the scans were abnormal while the automated software said they were not. The three other cases were thought to be normal on visual inspection while the software said the scans were abnormal.

STUDY FINDINGS

The study investigators looked closely at the measures of the tracers, finding that the dozen scans had 17.6 percent lower mean striatal tracer binding compared to normal scans (p=0.003) and 62.7 percent higher binding compared to abnormal scans (p<0.0001). These patients were older compared to patients with non-discrepant normal findings (72.6 vs. 62.4 years, p=0.023), and after a minimum clinical follow-up of 4.5 years, none of them developed neurodegenerative dopaminergic parkinsonism; one case was lost to follow-up.

These cases could possibly fall on the borderline of an abnormal scan, said Dr. Makinen. That the patients with discrepant imaging findings did not develop degenerative parkinsonism syndromes, she said, calls for a cautious interpretation in these discrepant cases.

Should the discrepant cases be labeled as normal or abnormal? Dr. Makinen asked. This is an important issue as SPECT appears to heavily impact the clinical diagnosis. Abnormal cases easily get a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Based on these findings, she added: It seems that some cases should probably be interpreted as normal, based on the automated analysis, even if the visual analysis interprets it as a slightly abnormal finding.

Dr. Makinen explained that the visual analysis could be affected by the age-related dopaminergic changes, whereas the automated analysis can include age-corrections. The visual analysis seems also to be very much training dependent, and it's always subjective, she said.

But she added that the visual analysis is important in some of the discrepant cases where the automated methods interpret falsely that the scan is abnormal. It seems that cases with atypical reduction patterns in striatal tracer binding can be analyzed more accurately by the visual analysis, she said. The visual analysis also allows room for clinical interpretation. In addition, the automated method can always include artifacts and errors.

Generally, a great majority of cases can be correctly diagnosed by visual analysis alone, whereas the value of the semi-quantitative analysis is emphasized in borderline cases that appear to show mild uptake defects. This has been observed in previous studies.

Visual interpretation by an expert, which is usually a nuclear medicine physician, is generally accepted as the preferred method, she added. There are several semi-quantitative automated methods available, but the use of these methods and to what extent these should be used (not at all, equal or supplementary to the visual analysis, or even as a primary method of analysis) varies between different centers, Dr. Makinen said.

The problem with the earliest automated programs is that they lacked reference values for what defines normal and parkinsonism, and the regions of interest were drawn by hand, Dr. Makinen explained. Only recently have large scale SPECT studies of healthy controls versus parkinsonism patients become available, she said, and these values are now used in evaluating if a scan is abnormal or not.

EXPERTS COMMENT

Patrick Hickey, DO, assistant professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center, who was not involved with the study, said that other studies have shown that there is variability between raters, as well. And two scans on the same person could have differences in the uptake of the tracer. Of course, there is also the question: What is normal and what is abnormal?

DR. ELINA MAKINEN: Should the discrepant cases be labeled as normal or abnormal? This is an important issue as SPECT appears to heavily impact the clinical diagnosis. Abnormal cases easily get a diagnosis of Parkinsons disease.

It is an important issue, he said. This is not just a research tool. If you are going to tell people that they have a chronic neurodegenerative disorder you want to be correct.

Robert A. Hauser, MD, professor of neurology, molecular pharmacology and physiology and director of the University of South Florida Byrd Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Excellence and the Parkinson's Disease Clinical Trial Center, agreed.

Dr. Hauser has done a number of studies on these tracers, noting that the scans are federally approved as an adjunct to a detailed history and clinical exam and are ordered only when a clinical exam is unclear.

He said that the scan is typically normal in people with essential tremor and in patients who are taking dopamine receptor blockers that can mimic some of the symptoms of PD.

So what does the automated software bring to the table? Dr. Hauser asked. Is it better? Is it additive? Should we be using both visual inspection and software?

An automated system may be more accurate but overall, this study suggests that if you use both it is better, he added. The DAT scan is not 100 percent by either method.

There is growing interest in using the scan to evaluate disease progression in clinical trials, but he noted that there is too much noise in the scan results to use it to monitor an individual patient's disease progression over time.

EXPERTS: ON VISUAL INSPECTION VERSUS IMAGING SOFTWARE TO INTERPRET DAT SCANS

DR. PATRICK HICKEY said that other studies have shown that there is variability between raters, as well, and two scans on the same person could have differences in the uptake of the tracer.

DR. ROBERT A. HAUSER: Should we be using both visual inspection and software? An automated system may be more accurate but overall, this study suggests that if you use both it is better. The DAT scan is not 100 percent by either method.

Neurology Today Conference Reporters in 2016!

Whether you are attending a meeting or reading about it remotely, you'll be able to access daily, concise peer-reviewed reports from major neurology conferences via email blasts that are optimized for web and mobile viewing.

The Neurology Today Conference Reporters will highlight only those papers and presentations deemed noteworthy by the Neurology Today editors. All reports are chosen, vetted, and reviewed by our team of neurologist reviewers. Each report will include commentary and analysis from independent experts. Look for expanded coverage and perspectives in the print edition of Neurology Today.

Look for Neurology Today Conference Reporters for these upcoming neurology meetings in 2016:

Alzheimer's Association International Conference, Toronto, July 23-28

Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, London, September 14-17

Child Neurology Society Annual Meeting, Vancouver, October 7-10

American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, Houston, December 2-6
The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally  not a 20 percent traitor. So goes a famous saying, often attributed to Ronald Reagan. It sums up how I feel about the World Banks upcoming International Development Association (IDA) account replenishment  while it is not perfect, it is a good deal for the United States and should be approved by Congress.

The hat passing exercise for the IDA may seem like a fringe topic given the host of serious global challenges we face today, but a successful replenishment round would help us respond to conflict, instability, and refugee crises around the world. As I have said before, the Bretton Woods institutions and multilateral development banks are force multipliers for a U.S.-led, rules-based global order. These institutions are at their best when the United States takes an active leadership role.

For those of you who are not familiar, the IDA replenishment process bears some explaining. Every three years the IDA account  which provides soft loan assistance to the worlds 77 poorest countries  requires a fresh round of money to continue operation. These replenishments provide a moment of accountability for shareholders to impact World Bank policy and operations, but the accountability flows in both directions. The ask for money from shareholders for the 18th IDA replenishment offers some new and overdue adjustments to the World Banks almost 60-year-old business model.

In the face of global challenges like the ongoing refugee crises, growing conflict and fragility, and resource constraints in traditional donor countries, the Bank needs to carefully assess its priorities and business practices. The United States was the driving force behind the World Banks creation at the close of the Second World War, and it is in our interest to take the lead in shaping the institutions response to the challenges of the 21st century.

As a Republican, there is a lot to be happy about in this latest IDA replenishment. First, our money is leveraged by other peoples money. Second, we want developing countries to plug into an American form of globalization and the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other regional development banks are cost effective support mechanisms for an American led form of globalization.

Story continues

Specific to this new round are some important accomplishments, including:

Conflict and Fragility: A small number of fragile and conflict-affected states increasingly impact global stability and prosperity. Historically, the World Banks incentives, instruments, and people have not been set up for these types of environments. The World Bank will significantly increase its commitments to fragile and conflict-affected states. When the World Bank spends money, the United States gets to spend less or can spend that money on other things.

Private Sector Engagement: Despite growing recognition of the important role played by the private sector in creating jobs and broad-based economic growth, IDA funding has not sought to work closely with the private sector and instead has been programmed through government ministries. For at least a decade there has been a call for a private sector window for IDA, and this round will have monies that will be used for important but higher risk private sector transactions in poor countries. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, will be very involved.

Governance: There is an increased recognition that improving governance is central to development, and IDA funds will be deployed to a series of areas to improve governance. Capable and competent governments create the preconditions for economics growth; donors can support this process by working to improve public financial management and local tax systems so that developing countries themselves take the lead on public goods delivery.

Doing Business Index: Every time the World Bank makes a request for new funds like the IDA replenishment, Republicans should always ask: Is ease of doing business being messed with? A few years ago, the Banks ease of doing business index came under fire by a host of countries (led by China) that did not like where they fell in the rankings. Fortunately, this effort was thwarted. As I have written before, the doing business program is one of the World Banks most important initiatives, and will not be watered down or scuttled in coming years.

Sadly, it is not all good news for Republicans when it comes to the World Bank. One example is the World Banks policy of not supporting coal projects following pressure from President Barack Obama and his administration. Coal is a primary source of power for many developing countries (just google new coal projects to come on line in Asia and you will get the idea about how big coal is for the energy future of Asia). If Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-backed institutions will not support coal projects, other financiers will. Specifically, the Chinese will fund coal projects that use older and dirtier technologies.

The World Bank could do yet more in the fragile and conflict-affected space. Increasingly, the majority of the worlds development challenges are focused in these settings. When the World Bank creates a vice presidency focused on these issues, then we know that the incentives are aligned within the bureaucracy.

The United States is behind on its financial commitments to the World Bank by about $1 billion, a situation that undermines our credibility and leadership within the institution. Falling into arrears on our World Bank obligations is not without consequences. For one, it is difficult for the United States to ride herd on the Banks board when it comes to issues such as Zika, Ebola, the Northern Triangle, peace in Colombia, or standing up Ukraine in the face of the Russians when we are deadbeats on IDA commitments.

While it can be hard to measure, this kind of lapse makes it harder for us to lead: Our calls do not get returned as fast by bank bureaucrats or by other shareholders. Being deadbeats on IDA limits our influence within the multilateral system. For the United States to call on others to meet their global commitments, it must first do so itself. Worse, if we are not vocal and responsible leaders on the global stage, other countries  sometimes friends and sometimes adversaries  will step in to fill the void. For these reasons among others, the United States needs to be prepared to step up and support the IDA replenishment.

If there are any holdups in approving the IDA replenishment, the blame will be laid at the feet of the Republican Congress. That is wrong. It is an open secret that the Obama administration has terrible relations with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, but it needs to engage legislators in a meaningful way to help sell the new IDA replenishment. Others should help in this process, including the aid advocacy community, but the administration will need to take the lead. This will require a sustained effort, not just a few phone calls.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew also has a job to do on these global leadership issues. Lew is perceived as not having made the phone calls or done the meetings necessary for obscure but important things such as IMF quota reform and money for the World Bank. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was part of the job description of a U.S. Treasury secretary to sit with groups of members of Congress to educate and engage them early. A half-dozen phone calls at the 11th hour, which is the modus operandi of the current Treasury secretary, does not cut it.

Global leadership does not come for free. Things like IDA replenishment are the condo fees that the United States pays to maintain its influence and in the international system. The world depends on the United States to pay the costs of global leadership, and it is in our interest to do so.

Photo credit: PER-ANDERS PETTERSSON/Getty Images
STOCKHOLM, July 22 (Reuters) - Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, which backs Europe's biggest pure online fashion firm Zalando, is confident the retailer can withstand competition from Amazon because it caters to a different type of customer.

Zalando's shares have tumbled 11 percent this year as investors have expressed fears it is more exposed to Amazon's foray into fashion than British rival ASOS, whose shares have rallied 30 percent since the start of 2016.

Kinnevik is Zalando's biggest shareholder.

"Amazon does very well in its markets and we are very impressed with what they are doing, and Zalando does very well in its own market and the two can co-exist happily," Kinnevik CEO Lorenzo Grabau told Reuters after the investor reported second-quarter earnings.

Grabau said Amazon is catering to consumers who are not particularly brand conscious and who want affordable clothes.

Zalando customers, he said, want more than that.

"They want to express their personality and their happiness or their mood via the clothes they wear," he told Reuters.

"As a result, Zalando caters to them increasingly as a technology platform that allows those customers to connect with the entire fashion and accessories market in Europe," he said.

Zalando eased some concerns over the Amazon threat on Tuesday when it raised its full-year profit forecast and reported strong second quarter results.

Analysts, however, see ASOS as better placed to compete with Amazon as it has a targeted audience of fashion-conscious twentysomethings and offers more own-label goods, while Zalando and Amazon both offer a broad range of brands to a broad clientele.

Kinnevik said on Friday its net asset value slipped 1.7 percent to 64.6 billion crowns ($7.52 billion) at the end of the second quarter, pulled down by lower valuations for both its listed and unlisted companies.

($1 = 8.5902 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Mia Shanley; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By Sophie Davies RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Hanan Dacka fled the civil war in Syria with her family to start a new life in Brazil, the idea that she might one day carry the Olympic torch was beyond the stretch of anyone's imagination. At first, she struggled to settle into school, not knowing how to speak Portuguese. Her family lived, and still lives, in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Sao Paulo. Her brother works seven days a week in a shop. Yet the 12-year-old girl ran with the Olympic flame in Brasilia in May, the first day of its journey through more than 300 towns and cities. The Summer Olympic Games begin on Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro. She was chosen by the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee after her name was put forward by the U.N. refugee agency in Brazil. Her high-profile Olympics role put a spotlight on the lives of refugees who have settled in Brazil, which is deep in the throes of recession. Brazil's economy is expected to contract nearly 4 percent this year, for a second consecutive year. Economists' forecasts suggest a downturn of a magnitude not seen since Brazil began keeping records in 1901. Refugees like the Dacka family are finding it hard to land permanent jobs and get state support to settle in. "The labor market conditions in general are terrible, especially for those who are looking for jobs now, especially for those who don't have the skills," Rudi Rocha, an economics professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "For this reason, the situation for those who are arriving in Brazil, the immigrants, the refugees in particular, is complicated," he said. A wave of refugees who began arriving in Brazil a few years ago was met with a steadier economy and greater job prospects, he said. Today's refugees may find only informal, temporary positions in the services and retail sectors, he said. Some 2,100 Syrian refugees live in Brazil, mostly in the country's most populous city of Sao Paulo. Hanan Dacka said when she arrived, her classmates did not know what it meant to be a refugee and she stumbled in her schoolwork. "I could not follow the pace," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It was a surprise for me to hear a different language here." WELCOMING Brazil, the region's largest country, receives more Syrian refugees than any other country in Latin America. Starting in 2013, Brazil issued special visas under simplified procedures to allow survivors of the war in Syria to travel to the country, where they can claim asylum. Last year Brazil initiated talks with the European Union to fast-track Syrian immigration to help some of the millions who have fled their homes in the deadly conflict, now in its sixth year. Nothing concrete has yet been agreed. The Dacka family arrived in Brazil just over a year ago, fleeing Syria for Jordan where they spent two-and-a-half years at a refugee camp, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR which provided details of their lives. In Jordan, water was scarce and the weather, scorching hot by day and freezing at night, was harsh. "I lived in a tent, with no bathroom, with my father, my mother, and my brother Mustafa," the girl said. "We could not play outside the tent at the refugee camp." The family applied for visas through the Brazilian embassy in Amman. Now they live with the girl's uncle, aunt and four cousins in an apartment shared by 11 family members in all. Hanan's father, Khaled Dacka, worked at a currency exchange office in Syria and is a factory worker in Sao Paulo, making car parts. Her mother Yusla Dacka is a housewife. "For any refugee, especially for those coming from the Middle East, they have a cultural shock," Luiz Fernando Godinho, a spokesman for the UNHCR, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Refugees in Brazil face falling wages as well as rising unemployment. Average monthly wages in April dropped by more than 3 percent from a year earlier to an average of 1,962 reais ($604), according to the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Joblessness rose to 10.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared with 7.9 percent a year earlier, the Institute said. WATER AND HEALTHCARE The outlook is sobering, with unemployment predicted to rise until at least 2018. "For poor refugees, particularly if they don't have any help from a migrant community that is already here, it is really tough," said Oliver Stuenkel, assistant professor of International Relations at the Sao Paulo-based Getulio Vargas Foundation. Refugees can expect little in the way of healthcare, which many Brazilians only receive through private means, and services such as sewage and water, he said. "Half of Brazilians don't have a functioning sewage system; they don't have proper running water. You can't really say that the state should provide that to refugees without any money because then it would be providing better services to refugees than to its own population," Stuenkel said. Overall, the Brazilian state has "very little capacity" to help integrate new refugees, Stuenkel said. However, a lack of anti-immigrant sentiment in Brazil does make it an attractive option, he said. ($1 = 3.2472 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by Sophie Davies, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. 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)
gurbaksh chahal

Gravity4 CEO and founder Gurbaksh Chahal was found guilty of violating his probation on Friday in a San Francisco court, according to a press report.

TechCrunch reports that the tech CEO will face a sentencing hearing on August 12, but had to surrender his passports as a result.

In October 2014, the tech entrepreneur was taken into custody for allegedly kicking a woman multiple times, as first reported by the San Francisco Business Times. Chahal was already on probation after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors of battery and domestic violence in April 2014.

Chahal had gained fame in the tech community after he sold his first ad-tech company, ClickAgents, for $40 million. In 2007, Yahoo bought his next ad company, BlueLithium, for $300 million. He went on to found RadiumOne, another ad-tech company.

He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Yet another transgender student is suing for the right to use the restroom of their choice at school, but this time, according to a lawsuit filed this week, a Wisconsin school is going so far as to propose transgender students wear green wristbands to better restrict bathroom use.

Ash Whitaker, a 16-year-old transgender boy in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is suing school officials at Kenosha Unified School District for allegedly planning to make him and other transgender students wear the bright green identification wristband.

"Branding transgender students in this way would single them out for additional scrutiny, stigma, and potentially harassment or violence, and violate their privacy by revealing their transgender status to others," the lawsuit, filed in federal court, states.

SEE ALSO: 10 states sue federal government over transgender bathroom policies

Recently, anti-trans legislation restricting bathroom use has been shaking up states such as North Carolina and Mississippi. And transgender students across the country have been fighting for years to use the bathrooms of their choice at school.

Whitaker's lawsuit claims that in May a guidance counselor at Tremper High School showed him a green wristband the school intended to make him and other transgender students wear the following school year. The wristband would be used to alert teachers to stop Whitaker from entering the boy's restroom since his birth certificate has his sex listed as female, according to his complaint. Instead, Whitaker must use the girls' restroom, causing him extreme distress.

"He was also deeply distressed by the prospect of using the office restroom...far out of the way from most of his classesand is only used by office staff and visitors," according to the lawsuit.

In addition, school officials refer to Whitaker with female pronouns, using his female birth name, fail "to inform substitute teachers and other staff members" of his preferred name and pronouns, force him to room with female students on school trips and tried to exclude him from running for prom king, despite being nominated. Only after a deluge of protests did school administrators let him run for prom king.

Story continues

Whitaker's lawyers claim in the lawsuit that school officials are in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The lawsuit states that school officials must treat Whitaker and all transgender students as their preferred gender identities and stop any discrimination against transgender students.

Mashable reached out to the school district, but it was closed for the day.

The school district updated its policies earlier this month to ban forms of discrimination based on gender identity, according to its July school board meeting notes posted online, but noted that if a student wanted to use a restroom of their choice, that would be decided by a school counselor or principal on a case-by-case basis. The wristbands are not mentioned.
The claws are retracting. MTV's Teen Wolf is saying goodbye after its upcoming sixth season, with the cast and creator announcing the news during the show's panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 21.



PHOTOS: TV Shows Gone Too Soon!

Creator Jeff Davis broke the news at the start of the presentation, pointing out that he typically announces at the event every year that the show has gotten renewed.



PHOTOS: TV's 10 Most Shocking Deaths of the 2015-2016 Season

"This season is a little different, but no less reason to celebrate," Davis told the crowd. "We're going to hit 100 episodes at the end of season 6, and we've decided that 100 episodes is going to be it."



"These next 20 episodes will be the final season of Teen Wolf," he continued. "I'm going to start to cry, I think."

PHOTOS: Best TV Couples of All Time

Star Tyler Posey, who has played alpha wolf Scott McCall since the series launched in June 2011, told fans that he is grateful for their support over the years.



"This is it  this is the regime that we built," he said. "I just want to let everybody know from everybody here's heart that this has been the biggest movement that we've ever been a part of. I do crazy st like [pouring water on myself at the beginning of the panel] because I want to make you guys smile and laugh. You mean so much to me."

"I love each and every single one of you, and want to come hug every single one of you," Posey, 24, continued.



Davis pointed out that costar Dylan O'Brien ("Stiles" Stilinski) wrote a note to say "how bittersweet it was." The showrunner explained that O'Brien, 24, couldn't attend the panel because "he's still at home recuperating" following his injury from an accident in March on the set of his film The Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

Teen Wolf season 6 premieres on MTV in November.




By Summer Delaney

CLEVELAND  A day after Sen. Ted Cruz was booed off stage at the Republican National Convention for not endorsing Donald Trump, Yahoo Newss Summer Delaney spoke with Texas delegates about Cruzs decision and its impact on the delegation of his home state.

Cruz spoke during the RNCs Wednesday primetime lineup, and while he congratulated Donald Trump on securing the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, he did not endorse Trump. His speech was met initially with applause, but as it drew to a close, the crowd began to boo the senator. Cruzs wife, Heidi, was escorted out of the arena because of concerns about her safety.

Some of the delegates Yahoo News spoke to were Cruz delegates, whose reactions to his speech were mixed. They had all attended a Texas GOP delegation breakfast Thursday morning in which Cruz spoke with delegates and his constituents in a 25-minute conversation defending his decision.
Thai police on Friday questioned the wife of a British journalist over his social media links to unflattering photos allegedly of the kingdom's crown prince, in a country where insulting the royals carries heavy jail terms.

Detectives said the photos shared by former Bangkok-based correspondent and strident Thai monarchy critic Andrew MacGregor Marshall were fake and violated the kingdom's royal defamation law.

On Friday Marshall's wife, 39-year-old Noppawan Bunluesilp, was taken into police custody in Bangkok and released without charges after several hours of questioning over her husband's social media posts from the day before.

"Based on forensic evidence, we determined she has nothing to do with (the case)," Thitirat Nongharnpitak, commander of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), told reporters after the interrogation.

"She is still a Thai who loves the institution," he added, using a euphemism for the monarchy.

The Facebook and Twitter posts published by Marshall, who lives outside Thailand, linked to a web article in German tabloid Bild with photos apparently showing 63-year-old Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany.

On Friday morning the online article was blocked in Thailand for carrying "inappropriate content".

Under Thai law each count of lese majeste -- insults, threats or defamation of Thailand's leading royals -- carries up to 15 years in jail.

Local and foreign media based inside the country, including AFP, must routinely self-censor to avoid falling foul of the law.

"The pictures were doctored," Thitirat told AFP ahead of the questioning.

"The culprit is Andrew MacGregor Marshall who has violated lese majeste laws for several years," he said, adding "he has acted from overseas to attack" the royal family.

Marshall is an outspoken critic of the Thai monarchy and has written a book on the subject which is banned inside the kingdom.

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He regularly posts commentary on social media that would be swift grounds for prosecution under the lese majeste law.

"The key point is my wife is not involved at all in my journalism," he told AFP from Hong Kong Friday.

"We'd always been concerned that it might be dangerous for my wife to visit Thailand especially since the military coup but she hadn't seen her family for a couple of years," he added.

The issue comes during a time of intense sensitivity surrounding the Thai royals, as the health of revered 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej wanes.

Lese majeste prosecutions have soared under the arch-royalist junta that seized power two years ago and styles itself as a defender of the monarchy.
News from the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders SOD1 Aggregates Identified in Brains of Patients with Parkinson's Disease

ARTICLE IN BRIEF

Researchers reported new evidence that superoxide dismutase 1 aggregates were associated with Parkinson's disease pathology.

BERLIN  What began as an effort to determine what makes cells in the substantia nigra vulnerable in Parkinson's disease (PD) ultimately led an international team of investigators to identify superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) aggregates in post-mortem tissue from people with this PD.

As the aggregates are common in degenerating motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and concentrate is only the degenerating regions of the PD brain, the scientists said they suspect the abnormal protein might also play a role in brain cell death in PD.

Ben Trist, a graduate student at the Brain and Mind Centre and Discipline of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Sydney in Australia, reported the findings here in June at the International Congress of Movement Disorders and Parkinson's Disease.

Kay Double, PhD, associate professor at the University of Sydney and lead researcher on this work, told Neurology Today that this discovery began when she was studying dopamine-producing cells of the substantia nigra. 

They contain a melanin pigment and melanin binds metals, she explained. There was an increase in iron and a decrease in copper levels specifically within the degenerating brain regions in PD, and this change in copper led us to consider that SOD1 might be involved.

SOD1 is a key antioxidant in the brain, and low levels of copper can alter the functioning of SOD1.

She and her colleagues found SOD1 in neurons in the substantia nigra. They found normal SOD1 in soluble form, but antibody staining revealed the presence of aggregated SOD1.

That raised a red flag, she said. She knew that the pathways that lead to SOD1 aggregation result in the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord in ALS patients with an SOD1 mutation. Abnormal SOD1 also plays a role in sporadic cases of ALS, she said.

Others had also reported that some patients with PD have a loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord, while some ALS patients lose cells in the substantia nigra.

Working with colleagues at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne and at the University of Bordeaux in France, the scientists conducted studies to characterize the aggregates and to count their distribution throughout the PD brains and those of normal controls.

Using immunohistochemistry, they identified Lewy body pathology and SOD1-immunopositive protein aggregates in regions of significant neuronal loss in the PD brain, said Dr. Double.

The SOD1 protein aggregate was significantly more abundant in degenerating regions of the PD brain (with more than a five-fold increase in substantia nigra, and more than 2.5-fold increase in the locus coeruleus) compared with non-degenerating PD brain regions or in control brains.

Like SOD1 pathology in ALS, these aggregates contained significant amounts of SOD1, copper chaperone for SOD1 and ubiquitin, but not alpha-synuclein. A positive isoelectric point shift in SOD1 was also observed in the PD, compared with control brain, the researchers said.

No one had ever looked for SOD1 aggregates in PD. It just slipped under the radar, Dr. Double told Neurology Today. We looked at the amount of SOD1 and the functioning of the protein. The enzymatic activity of the protein is reduced. One of the reasons that SOD1 aggregates in ALS is because it is not binding copper.

Dr. Double said she suspects that the SOD1 pathology could have a role in the vulnerability of the substantia nigra in PD. We have found a 60 percent loss of copper in neurons in the substantia nigra in PD, so it makes sense that part of the problem with SOD1 in PD is that it is not binding adequate amounts of copper to enable the enzyme to function normally.

The researchers also had access to two brains from people with a pathological form of preclinical PD but no clinical disease. An intermediate number of SOD1 aggregates were found in these brains, suggesting that the formation of the aggregates occurs very early in the disease process.

If the pathology is similar to what is seen in ALS, Dr. Double said, it is possible that the two diseases could respond to the same treatment.

DR. KAY DOUBLE: No one had ever looked for SOD1 aggregates in PD. It just slipped under the radar.

EXPERTS WEIGH IN

ALS researcher Jeffrey Rothstein, MD, professor of neurology and neuroscience and director of the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said that when aggregates form, they can trap lots of other cytosolic protein in them. Since SOD1 is a very highly abundant cytosolic protein  1 percent of all body protein is SOD1  its not surprising that it could decorate these inclusions.

Dr. Rothstein agrees that the finding of the aggregates call for additional experiments aimed at reducing SOD1 to see if it has any meaningful pathophysiological changes.

This is extremely interesting, said Robert H. Brown, Jr., MD, PhD, chair of the department of neurology at UMass Medical School. There is a growing and credible body of data documenting misfolding of non-mutant SOD1 in ALS, typically demonstrated using antibodies specific for misfolded SOD1. These studies suggest the hypothesis that SOD1 may represent a convergence point in ALS, driving pathology by misfolding even if not mutated. Further, these reports have been used to support the view that both wild type and mutant SOD1 can adopt a prion-like behavior, self-assembling to form toxic aggregates that can propagate more misfolding.

What I have not seen extensively studied yet is misfolding of SOD1 in other neurodegenerative disorders. This study would appear to show that misfolding of wild-type SOD1 is not specific. And, if it is not specific to ALS one might envision two opposite extremes of interpretation (and there are probably many others).

Perhaps misfolding of wild-type SOD1 is neurotoxic and drives pathogenesis in many neurodegenerative diseases, linking ALS, PD and perhaps other disorders as a common, disease-triggering, miscreant protein. At the other end of the spectrum, does this study suggest that misfolding of wild-type SOD1 is simply a byproduct pathology in a dying neuron, which is completely unrelated to causing disease?

David Sulzer, MD, professor of psychiatry, neurology and pharmacology at Columbia University Medical Center, agrees with this idea. When you begin to aggregate one type of protein, the same type of aggregation may occur with other proteins. Maybe there is a convergence in these processes that lead to aggregation in neurodegenerative disorders.

There seems to be a serious problem with copper dysregulation in the affected region in PD, said Ashley Bush, MD, PhD, professor of neuroscience at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, who has spent his career studying the role of metals in neurodegenerative diseases.
Police in Thailand questioned the wife of British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall on Friday, reportedly grilling the Thai national over recent social media posts by her husband that may have breached the countrys strict lese-majeste laws.

Marshall said in a Facebook post that police raided the Bangkok family home of his wife Noppawan Ploy Bunluesilp, 38, which she was visiting with the couples 3-year-old son. Ploy and her father were taken in temporarily for questioning Friday morning, he said, adding in a later update that his wife had been released.

Thitirat Nongharnpitak, commander of Central Investigation Bureau, confirmed the detentions to Agence France-Presse, and said a laptop, iPad and documents were also seized. He also linked the questioning directly to unflattering photographs of Thailands Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn published this week by German tabloid Bild, which Marshall has shared on social media.

Thitirat insisted the photographs were doctored, and said Marshall was responsible. The culprit is Andrew MacGregor Marshall who has violated lese-majeste laws for several years, he said, according to AFP. Formerly based in Bangkok, the journalist has written extensively about the monarchys recent history and authored the 2014 book on the subject, A Kingdom in Crisis, which is banned in Thailand.

Marshall insists his wife is not involved in his journalism. I have always ensured that I work completely independently of her, both because of the risks and because she has her own views on Thai politics and does not share mine, he wrote on Facebook. There is no reason for police to detain her.

Criticizing the monarchy in Thailand is punishable with lengthy jail terms, and prosecutions have ramped up under the military junta that took power in a coup in 2014, against a backdrop of uncertainty over the future of the monarchy. The current King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, is in poor health and has rarely been seen in public in recent years.

[AFP]
Ivanka Trump at the Republican National Convention. (Photo: Getty Images)

When Melania Trump addressed Republican convention-goers on Monday night, the white Roksanda Illicic (wedding) dress she wore sold out nearly instantly.

So its no surprise that on Friday, Ivanka Trump  who addressed the convention and introduced her father the evening before wearing a design from her namesake collection  tweeted out the details of her look, complete with links of where to buy.



Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention. (Photo: Getty Images)

Considering the high likelihood that Ivanka Trump has read The Art of the Deal as a bedtime story, it seems shes not afraid to make as much as she can off of her star turn at the Republican National Convention.

As the Wall Street Journals Elizabeth Holmes points out, not only is the dress that Ivanka tweeted out not an exact replica of the one she wore last night, it was also linked to an affiliate shopping link, a tech-savvy move that lets her earn a commission on sales on the item being linked to when bought through that link as well as any item a buyer purchases from a retailer whose site is visited through such a link. In other words, the mother and businesswoman is set to see earnings rise through the sale of her almost-replica dress and through anything curious shoppers might buy after ending up on the Macys site in pursuit of their own not-quite-matching version of her dress.

And incidentally, while writing this story the Ivanka Trump dress in question just sold out on Macys site.

Michelle Obama at the State of the Union address in January 2016. (Photo: Getty Images)

Today, our concept of celebrity is broader than ever. Undenaibly, Michelle Obama has just as much  if not more  sway over the latest must-have styles as any Hollywood actor. Case in point: the golden Narcisco Rodriguez sheath that Mrs. Obama wore at the State of the Union address this January sold out before her husband had even finished his remarks to the nation. The J.Crew belt that the first lady wore at her husbands second inauguration likewise sold out nearly instantly.

Michelle Obama at President Obamas 2013 Inauguration ceremony. (Photo: Getty Images)

And the current FLOTUS isnt the only political spouse whose sartorial choices can create a retail tidal wave. The Duchess of Cambridge bestows the sell-out effect on practically everything she puts on her body, from trendy earrings to that blue dress she wore to announce her engagement.

So just why is it that these women can make us feel like we need to have a certain garment immediately, just because they wore it?

Kate Middletons Issa dress sold out immediately after her engagement announcement. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modern celebrity is an interesting thing, Art Markman, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, tells Yahoo Style. In the past, you might encounter your favorite star a few times a year. They might star in a movie, then have a few articles written about them in monthly magazines and perhaps do a television appearance every few weeks. Now, we feel much closer to our favorite celebrities, because there is much more access to them. The 24-hour news cycle is filled with celebrity sightings. In addition to movies and television, there are social media pages and YouTube videos. As a result, we can feel quite close to the celebrities we follow.

But Markman also drives home an important reality about the closeness we feel with our celeb BFFs: They are not actually friends with their fans IRL.

Which is where a little retail therapy comes in.

An easy way to feel closer to a beloved celebrity is to buy the same products and clothes that celebrity wears, he says. Combine that with an easy access to shopping. In the past, you would have to wait for your next shopping trip to dress like your favorite celebrity. Now you can order that outfit in the moment from your phone while you are watching. That shortens the distance between the desire instilled by the wish to be closer to a favorite celebrity and the point of purchase.

And clearly, the women in the Trump family aspire to be Michelle Obamas successor not only in assuming her address at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue but also in having the kinds of fashion credence and popular recognition to confer the magical sold-out factor onto their preferred garment.
Ivanka spoke, the nominees celebrated, police and community joined hands and the convention came to a close in Cleveland. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News, photos (clockwise from top right): Evan Vucci/AP, Paul Sancya/AP, Andrew Kelly/Reuters, John Locher/AP, background photos: Getty Images [3])

Yahoo News enlisted participants at the Republican National Convention representing different viewpoints and roles to file daily diary entries on their experiences in Cleveland. They were your eyes and ears at one of the most unconventional political gatherings in generations, offering a front-row seat on the convention floor, behind-the-scenes access to key political meetings and a vivid picture of what conventions are really like, both inside and outside the arena. Here are yesterdays entries.

On Thursday night, those participants filed their final entries, which you can view below. Be sure to check back next week during the Democratic National Convention for an entirely new cast of chroniclers.

_______

You dont realize how many problems we have until someone lays it out. And Trump did that Thursday night. I thought he hit it out of the park.

It was a little long, but he didnt leave one section out. It was nice to hear someone finally standing up for us. Were at a point where were seeing some negative change, and that means the next generation may have a hard life. We need a cheerleader in chief, and he showed that tonight.

I hope it made an impression with people at home. It was a very presidential speech. If you lay it all out, people can see there are so many things that need correcting and it never happens in Washington, where there are so many broken promises. And we see inaction has led us down this track. And people dont want four more years of the same inaction.

Trump understands trade. He understands monetary policy. Weve never had anyone who is that experienced. Instead, we have a community organizer as president and a woman who wants to be president who thinks the government creates jobs.

Trump doesnt lie. He tells it like it is. People like the plain talk. Everyone in the arena understood it. He said he was going to help people. He said he was going to help the coal miners, help the businessmen. He made it clear he wanted to build things because thats what he does, build things. He knows how to get it done, and he showed it. It was a little long, but he hit every special niche or interest that delegates have.

Story continues

Donald Trump speaking on July 21, the final day of the Republican National Convention. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

During the day, before Trumps acceptance speech, we had a reception with the Texas and North Carolina delegations. I made a point of asking around about the Cruz debacle from the night before. I was with the Texas delegation in the afternoon. People were split, but a lot of the folks I talked to were angry with him. Texas led the booing last night, and they made sure I knew it at the event today! Even the Cruz supporters said they wished he hadnt done it. They were talking about how they wouldnt support him and that he cut himself off from a future presidential run.

Before that, we had breakfast with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. He was a really interesting guy. I had forgotten he had served in the Department of Homeland Security under George Bush. He was a really nice guy and had a great sense of what is going on in the country. But everyone was gearing up for Trumps speech. It was a mostly quiet day.

After all the drama, I dont see how you couldnt vote for Trump. But overall, the convention experience was great. I dont know where Im going to be in four years, but I couldnt have asked for more.

As told to Andrew Bahl/Yahoo News

______

We had two protests against Donald Trump today, and both were amazing. Weve always seen this as a moment for everybody. Not just people who go to protests frequently, but also people who have never protested before, to come out and say why they believe in each other.

For the afternoon march, we kept getting RSVPs until the last minute. One of the things we did earlier was survey all the people who said they were coming and ask them if they had any experience protesting. Seventy percent of people said it was their first time protesting, and they came to a national convention to march.

We may sound idealistic or sappy, but we believe it. People were carrying signs about sexism, racism and immigration. They were about valuing people, valuing women, valuing immigrants, valuing Muslims and valuing Hispanics. These arent anti-Republican messages, but rather the core beliefs of our group. These arent mass-produced signs, but ones that people took a marker in their backyard or in their basement and made. This is how they feel and why they want to be out here. The march went great. We were stoked.

It is going to sound weird coming from a protest organizer, but we also want to thank the police. It is one of the hottest days of the year, and the officers did great. It was safe and positive. I loved seeing handshakes between protesters and police. This was the kind of moment we thought the country needed. It is the same vibe we had later in the day in Public Square. I cant say enough good things about the police.

Demonstrators make their way to the Lorain-Carnegie bridge in Cleveland on July 21. (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP)

We think Trump needs a protest that isnt about violence and chaos. That positivity happened in the afternoon and it happened in the evening. We are committed to this, and it says a lot about the people involved to have it turn out as it did.

The evening rally was great, during Trumps speech. The turnout was about the same as the march  a few hundred people. We took over Concert Hill in Public Square downtown. Other opposition groups came up and hung around, but we dominated the hill.

A great moment came when Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams rode by. He was on a bike with other officers and clearly doing work. But he came over and made sure we felt secure when people openly carrying weapons came by. It was a true act of leadership on his part.

Today was more than we ever expected. We thought we would be a tiny group in a larger protest put on by someone else. We had no idea we would be the largest march and the largest Public Square demonstration. That being said, I hope a cause like this never comes again, to make us protest like this. Once was enough. I dont even want to think of what a Trump reelection campaign would look like.

As the Republican National Convention closes tonight, Stand Together Against Trump congratulates demonstrators, the people of Cleveland, city government, police and Republicans on a peaceful and positive week of demonstrations. We hope it is said of our city that in a time of hate, Cleveland was not hateful. In a time of division, we stood together. In a time of fear, we were not afraid.

As told to Andrew Bahl/Yahoo News

______

Donald Trumps acceptance speech was disappointing. Its not enough to read off of a teleprompter. He didnt do what he needed to do.

He lied again and again. He made a lot of misrepresentations and made up facts that are just not true. At the end of the day, it was an ugly speech about pitting Americans against one another. And that was offensive. As a country, we need to be coming together and bring people together. Thats not what this convention did.

This convention also showed a lot of disorganization and chaos. The arguments he made tonight about being a strong executive were very much undermined by how poorly his whole convention was executed. It started out with his own vice presidential rollout of Mike Pence, in which his own organization was leaking that he wanted to change his mind. Then theres the weird scene with Ted Cruz on Wednesday night in the middle of the arena being booed.

I dont think in any of these four days we heard anyone outline a positive vision about what this country needs to do. And theres been no real recognition of how far weve come. Eight years ago, this was a country that was losing 800,000 jobs a month. Theyre pretending  somehow  like that time was the good ol days we need to get back to.

Attendees shout as Sen. Ted Cruz delivers his speech on July 20 at the Republican National Convention. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP)

Earlier in the day, we had Sens. Cory Booker and Al Franken join us for a press conference with Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee. They spoke out a lot about this: the division and the use of very ugly language. Donald Trump ran this convention the way he ran the first day of his campaign  by calling immigrants criminals.

We wont be getting enough sleep fact-checking all of the lies tonight, but thats been the story of the week. But its been worth the lack of sleep to hold Republicans accountable for all of their falsehoods. Because there have been a lot of them.

Were on our way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Were going to stop briefly in Washington, D.C., to do laundry. We leave tomorrow morning. Our flights got canceled, so were just going to drive right back. Whatever flights we could find would take us just as long, anyway.

But were excited to get to Philly and show what really makes America great, and that is its people. Philly will showcase a positive vision for America, one that recognizes were stronger together and that were better than this mess we saw in Cleveland.

As told to Hunter Walker/Yahoo News

____

Ive had a great last day. I got in late the night before, then I went to a breakfast. Karl Rove was at breakfast, which was a big surprise. He talked about how Donald Trump invited him to New York City to visit. Rove said he had a good talk with Trump. Whether Donald picked him up on that or not, we dont know. In any case, Karl Rove has a lot to offer.

After breakfast, I took a nap, went to a luncheon and then took another nap. The luncheon was at a waterfront restaurant out on the lake. We drove out on school buses into the residential area, which was really nice. It was great to see part of Cleveland that we wouldnt normally see.

I think the media pays too much attention to Ted Cruz. As Trump has said, hes that Lyin Ted. Trump invited him here and he said he would endorse Trump, and then he didnt. I have no respect for him. I was out on the convention floor while everyone was booing him. Cruz said it was just New York booing him, but everyone was booing  our own Mississippi delegation included.

I think Mike Pence is going to be great as Trumps running mate. Its a different balance, and I think its one that we need. He attracts the evangelicals  those people will be happy with him. Im happy that Trump is our nominee.

Donal Trump and Mike Pence embrace after Trumps acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News)

As the RNC comes to a close, I feel tired. But I am feeling good about this election. Im looking forward to going to work for Trump. Thats what I came to do.

This week, in general, has been exciting and productive. I think were going to win in November. Rudy Giuliani was definitely one of the best speakers of this week, in addition to Donald Jr. and Eric Trump. The Trumps are a wonderful family. Mike Pences family is also a wonderful family. I think well come back to a lot of family values as this election goes on.

I think what we need, most of all, is a good businessman, and thats what we have got.

As told to Susanna Heller/Yahoo News

_____

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Silicon Valley Republicans praised billionaire investor Peter Thiel for his speech at the Republican Party Convention on Thursday night, in particular, for calling on the party to focus on real issues such as wealth inequality, the economy and security, instead of what some termed faux culture wars and identity politics.

The debate about who gets to use which bathroom is a distraction from real problems, said Thiel, a comment which strongly resonated with members of the San Francisco Republican Party and The San Francisco Log Cabin Republicans  the founding chapter of the nation's largest Republican LGBT organization  at a viewing party hosted by a tech incubator located in the same San Francisco building as Twitter.

"I love that he said that because I feel strongly about that," said Eric Gonzalles, a tech worker at a company which recently went public, and former Marine who completed two tours of duty in Iraq.

The overriding perception  at least, at this party  was that Thiel's speech, with its focus on tech, the economy and small government, had been a resounding success.

"He hit in exactly what he needed to, which was that we need to focus down on what's important for the average American," said John Hessling, a tech worker who plans to vote for Trump. "Economics and national security are things that are the most important in everyone's lives."

Thiel's public acknowledgment of his homosexuality on the GOP stage  and the positive response he received from GOP delegates  was another highlight, said attendees we spoke with. Among Log Cabin members, both gay and straight, many felt that Thiel had struck the right balance by establishing his Republican credentials before telling the audience he is proud to be gay and proud to be a Republican.

"This convention is to focus on the party's future, candidates and winning in November," said Fred Schein, a retired federal auditor and Vietnam veteran who is openly gay and the president of Log Cabin Marin, Calif. "His gayness was not directly relevant to that, and so there was no need to focus on that, and he didn't."

Story continues

"It's Important for people not to look at gay people within the Republican party as token gays," said Michael Gofman, an incoming freshman to the University of California, Davis and member of the San Francisco Log Cabin Republicans. Gofman is straight but said the Log Cabin group has the most interesting and diverse mix of people and events.

"He showed mainstream Republicans, 'I look just like you,' and he showed regular gay people that, 'you could look just like me,' said Gofman.





Many people expressed relief to see Thiel elevated within the Republican party, an indication that there is a level of tolerance not necessarily consistent with the GOP's anti-gay platform. This is particularly important to young voters, said Gofman.

"You hear the GOP's platform and you see 'wow what an anti-gay platform - everyone in the GOP must be a straight white male,' and then you see this guy and you go 'oh wow, obviously there's a little more to this,' he said.

Gofman was so impressed by Thiel's speech, he said had he been on the fence about whether to cast his vote in Trump's favor, he would have been convinced.



That said, feelings about Trump remained mixed among this crowd, with some still undecided as to whether they would in fact vote for their party's nominee for the White House.

"I have a really hard time with some of his rhetoric," said Troy Bodnar, a nurse and openly gay member of the Log Camp Republicans who may vote Libertarian in November. "It's going to take me a lot to vote for Trump."



Several other attendees said they had come around to their party's nominee for President, and were pleased that Thiel had so strongly endorsed him.

It is hard to talk openly about politics in Silicon Valley, especially with tech CEOs "preaching these liberal policies" and "colleagues wearing paraphernalia in support of Hillary Clinton," said Gonzalles He plans to vote for Trump, though Ted Cruz had been his first choice.

"I do feel uncomfortable to speak about it, but I am a proud conservative," he said.





More From CNBC


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When the choice comes down to Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, a lot of voters are reaching back into the pile.

According to Google Trends, searches for "third party candidate 2016" have spiked 1,150 percent in the last week  the week of the Republican National Convention.

SEE ALSO: Trump Pornhub searches increased 648% in Cleveland during Republican convention

States with the highest interest include Missouri, Colorado, Michigan, Washington and Ohio. Colorado and Ohio, it should be noted, are battleground states in the 2016 election.

Favorable third-party candidates people are searching for include Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

It's anyone's guess whether the Democratic National Convention will spark better search statistics.

via GIPHY
A woman was stunned to find an urn hidden in a dresser at a Florida thrift store, unraveling a mystery of a lost family keepsake that somehow wound up on the other side of America.

Read: Keith Richards Wants Daughters to Snort His Ashes: 'I'll Give Them A Straw'

Brittany Gaither of New Smyrna Beach told InsideEdition.com that she was searching through a thrift store when she approached a woman asking about a dresser.

Gaither opened it, and discovered an urn inside.

"It was overwhelming," she said. "I have my mother's ashes in my home, which is so meaningful to me, so I immediately was like, 'Oh my god, someone has to be missing these.'"

Gaither, determined to track down the owner, took a picture of the bottom of the urn and posted it to Facebook.

A day later, an Arizona man who claimed the urn had contained his older brother's ashes reached out to Gaither.

"I had extremely mixed emotions," 52-year-old Jody Fanning of Cottonwood told InsideEdition.com. "I was ecstatic that somebody had taken the time and the effort to find me.

I was sad my brother's urn was in a thrift store in an abandoned dresser," he added.

According to Fanning, his older brother Robert Roy Fanning Jr. was known to most people as Rusty, and was an auto mechanic in Phoenix before he took his own life when he was 27.

Fanning said he thought his brother's widow had the urn, and was shocked to find it had become lost in a thrift store on the opposite side of the country.

"My feelings were confused. What was my sister-in-law thinking?" He said, speculating that the dresser may have been given away during a move. "Why wasnt it with her?"

When he saw the name and the date on the picture posted to Facebook, he said he knew it was his brother who died 28 years ago, and said "I knew I had to do whatever it took to get him home."

Story continues

Read: Fairy Godmother Gives Comfort To Grieving Mom Carrying Her Daughter's Ashes in Teddy Bear

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Gaither immediately mailed the urn to the man's father, who's eldest son and namesake had been contained in the urn.

But when the family received the urn, they were shocked to find the urn was empty of the ashes.

"I pray my sister-in-law did what she was supposed to do and spread his ashes on the San Francisco peaks," he told InsideEdition.com, "but yes, it does give the family closure. I'll be giving [the urn] to my father, who will keep it at his home until his passing."

Watch: Fishermen Use Dead Friend's Ashes to Catch 180-Pound Carp in His Memory

Related Articles:
Update: It's official, Hillary Clinton has picked Tim Kaine as her running mate.



Hillary Clinton is preparing to announce her vice presidential pick as early as Friday. While her short list of potential running mates reportedly includes Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the leading contender is Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, according to multiple reports.

Kaine is Clintons safe choice. Hes seen as capable but vanilla, even boring  especially in comparison to liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Perez, who would be the first Hispanic Democratic vice presidential nominee; or Sen. Cory Booker, who would be the first African-American vice presidential nominee.

Still, in an interview with PBSs Charlie Rose on Monday, Clinton said her priorities in a running mate are experience and preparedness. As a former mayor of Richmond, governor of Virginia and now U.S. senator, Kaine meets those criteria, though he himself has said he isnt prepared to be president. Nobody should ever say theyre ready for that responsibility, because it is so, so huge, he said on NBCs Meet the Press last month.

On top of that, Kaine is unlikely to overshadow the candidate, grab the limelight or create turbulence with controversial comments  all valuable traits for a Clinton campaign that cant any afford more scandal.

Related: In Enemy Territory, Top Dem Blasts GOP Over Trump

Plus, Kaines home state of Virginia is also a key battleground, and adding him to the ticket could move it firmly into Clintons column while still keeping the Senate seat in Democratic control.

Here are 12 other things you should know about him:

1. Born Feb. 26, 1958 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Kaine is 58  10 years younger than Clinton.

2. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where his mother was a home economics teacher and his father owned an iron-working shop.

3. Kaine graduated from the University of Missouri in three years with a B.S. in Economics and then received a J.D. from Harvard Law in 1983.

Story continues

4. He took a year off from law school to volunteer with Jesuit missionaries at a vocational school in Honduras. He speaks Spanish fluently, switching between languages in many ads and campaign speeches. In a 2013 address on immigration, he became the first senator to give a speech on the Senate floor in a language other than English.

Related: Trump Reveals His Vision in Grim Speech: Call It Twilight in America

5. Raised Catholic, Kaine has been part of the same predominantly African-American church community in Richmond for years. While personally opposed to both abortion and the death penalty, as a senator he has aligned with the Democratic platform on both issues.

6. His wife, Anne Holton, is currently the Virginia secretary of education. Her father helped integrate Virginias state schools, and Anne formerly worked as a legal aid lawyer and juvenile court judge. They have three children: Nat, Woody and Annella.

Clinton vs. Kaine On The Issues | InsideGov

7. For 17 years, Kaine worked for a law practice in Richmond, focusing on representing people denied housing based on race and disabilities.

8. Kaine was governor of Virginia from 2006 through 2011. To balance the state budget, he cut social welfare programs, and he invested in infrastructure, but partisan disagreements left him unable to produce major legislation.

Related: Right Wing Christian Leader Tony Perkins Calls Trump Vote A Calculated Risk

9. Kaine accepted $160,000 in gifts as governor. The gifts were legal under Virginia law, and he did publicize all accounts, but Republicans may jump on that  trying to prove hes just as corrupt as they think Hillary is.

10. He was the second governor to endorse Barack Obama in his 2008 campaign. Kaine was also one of Obamas top choices for vice president. The White House has endorsed him as Clintons pick.

11. Kaine was elected to the U.S. Senate from Virginia in 2012. He continues to serve on the Armed Services, Budget, Foreign Relations and Aging committees.

12. He is one of 20 Americans to have been a mayor, governor and U.S. senator. As Clinton pointed out, hes never lost an election.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
A grocery store is coming to downtown Lincoln as part of a major development in the South Haymarket that will also include apartments for adults beyond college age and office space.

The three-building complex, to surround the citys Lumberworks parking garage on the north, west and south, is being developed by Lincoln companies Nelnet and Speedway Properties, Mayor Chris Beutler announced Thursday.

The grocery store, a small, full-service operation, is being developed by Whitehead Oil, which operates U-Stop convenience stores, working with a small grocery chain.

The project combines the experience of Whitehead Oil in Lincoln with the expertise of Jill Moline, who operates small grocery stores in Imperial and the Colorado towns of Wray and Holyoke.

It will be a full-service grocery, with meat, a deli and produce, said Whitehead during a Thursday news conference.

The key will be to identify demand from downtown consumers who range from college students to retirees, he said.

The development at Canopy and N streets, south of the Harris Overpass, will also include 48 one- and two-bedroom apartments aimed at both young urban professionals and retirees, said Clay Smith, general partner of Speedway Properties.

The apartments capitalize on some of the new amenities in the area -- the N Street bikeway, the gallery alley leading to the Historic Haymarket and the parking garage, said Smith.

And Smith expects the apartments to be popular based on the companys experience in the area.

Units at Cadillac Lofts, 1226 P St., and Arena Lofts, 800 Q St., both owned by Speedway, were leased within 40 days without any advertising, and one of the complexes has a waiting list larger than the number of apartments in the building, he said.

A wave is sweeping the country of young professionals who want to live in an urban environment, until they are blessed with children, he said.

The development also includes 100,000 square feet of office space, expected to appeal to small companies like those outgrowing space at FUSE Coworking in the Haymarket, said Smith.

The grocery store fulfills a need, according to Terry Uland, president of the Downtown Lincoln Association.

In every survey, respondents say they want a grocery store downtown, said Uland.

This is the holy grail for downtown, he said. But making a downtown grocery store profitable is difficult, he said.

Whitehall said he and Moline were both separately considering a downtown Lincoln grocery store and decided to combine their strengths. With access to the parking garage, the new space will be accessible to people walking or driving.

The development company for the project, called Lumberworks Lofts LLC, expects to spend more than $11 million on the project.

The city will likely be contributing $1 million to $2 million in tax increment financing, said David Landis, director of the city's Urban Development Department. The TIF-related agreement will likely go to the City Council this winter, he said.

Developers hope to begin construction next spring and hope to be finished sometime in 2017, Smith said.

Speedway and Nelnet are already working together on the Telegraph District, a development east of downtown, and the new headquarters for Hudl in the West Haymarket.

We love Lincoln and together we are reinvesting our resources bank into the community," said Smith of the Speedway-Nelnet partnership.

The three-building project was one of two proposals for the area around the 475-stall, city-owned Lumberworks garage. Another proposal, from Omaha-based Anant Enterprises, included a hotel, apartments and retail space.

The city is still working with developers on a proposed redevelopment west of Canopy Street in the South Haymarket and has made no formal announcements on those plans, Landis said.
David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, announced Friday that he would run for the US Senate in Louisiana.

"I'm proud to announce my candidacy for United States Senate," he said in a video posted to YouTube. "I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans. However, what makes me different is I also demand the respect for the rights and the heritage of European-Americans."

He added: "Thousands of special-interest groups stand up for African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Jewish-Americans, etcetera, etcetera. The fact is that European-Americans need at least one man in the United States Senate  one man in the Congress who will defend their rights and heritage."

Duke said lawmakers "must stop the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America" and touted his opposition to "free trade without fair trade." Duke, who has also raised eyebrows in the past by denying that elements of the Holocaust took place, also argued for "total campaign finance reform" and said it was time to "break up the anti-American media conglomerates."

The former KKK leader, who left the Klan in 1980, citing its violent nature, also offered praise for GOP nominee Donald Trump.

"I am overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I've championed for years," he said. "My slogan remains America First."

Duke, who describes himself as a "racial realist," said "America must have at least one man in the Senate" who will "never surrender" on the issues he stands for.

"The time is now," he said. "The revolution is coming in the United States of America."

Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana announced last year that he would not run for reelection. Duke is a registered Republican, but the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee said on Twitter that the group "will not support" his candidacy.

We will not support David Duke. Several GOP candidates in LA will have a great impact on our country. He is not one of them. #LASEN  Ward Baker (@WardBaker) July 22, 2016

Duke's Senate candidacy comes as Louisiana grapples with issues of racial tension between citizens and the police. Three police officers were shot and killed Sunday when a man ambushed them in Baton Rouge. Earlier this month the killing of a black man named Alton Sterling by the police there sparked protests across the US.

Story continues

NOW WATCH: Here's what we know about Trump's youngest daughter, Tiffany





More From Business Insider


Rarely in history has the United States been so deeply divided as it is today. As Neil Howe and the late William Strauss predicted more than 20 years ago, we have entered the fourth great crisis of our national life. The first two were the American Revolution and the Civil War, and a third took place from 1929 through 1945, as the nation was threatened by economic collapse and foreign war. According to their theory, these critical eras occur every 80 years.

Certainly Americans are entitled to hope that the new crisis will not end with hostile armies marching through our territory and fighting battles, as they did in 1775-1781, and on a much larger scale in 1861-1865. Yet sadly, though the physical scale of the problem may seem smaller, the way out of crisis is less clear now than it was in those earlier times. That is because the critical element that saved American institutions thenthe nations ability to come together and embark upon a great enterprise to solve a critical problemis almost completely lacking.

The enemy in the first great crisis, from about 1774 through 1783, was of course the British crown, which had reacted to colonial resistance to taxation by sending troops across the ocean and imposing martial law. Feeling that these steps had deprived them of their rights and liberties under the British constitution, most colonists went to war. Though some Tories remained loyal to the crown, and some collaborated with the British Army when it occupied their neighborhoods, the revolutionaries generally had a common and easily identifiable enemy. After a disastrous interregnum in the mid-1780s, the need to form a new national government provided a second great task to unite the people. They emerged stronger, dedicated to the new Constitution that they had created.

Nearly a century later, the debate over slavery and the civil war that resulted divided the nation largelythough not completelyalong regional lines. The war cost the nation more lives than any other, but it bound both the North and South together, each side in support of its own cause: the maintenance of the Confederacy and slavery in the white south, and the maintenance of the union and the abolition of slavery in the North and among the slaves themselves. The two sides fought with equal purpose and commitment. In the North, the Republican Partywhich won six consecutive presidential elections from 1860 through 1880was the party that had won the war and preserved the union. The war helped integrate immigrant groups like the Irish and Germans into national life, because they helped fight it. In the South, sadly, a new white ruling class emerged from reconstruction, reconciled to the union but dedicated to the preservation of white supremacy. Within each larger group, a widely shared goal could be identified.

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

As much as any democratically elected leader in history, Franklin Rooseveltwho took office in 1933, in the midst of the third great national crisis, the Great Depressionunderstood the importance of enlisting the nation in a great task. Though Americans may have differed about how to achieve it, all agreed that fixing the economy was the primary goal. During his first eight years in office he focused on increasing employment, securing the rights of organized labor, passing social security and rebuilding the nations infrastructure. Beginning in 1940, he focused on preparing for world war, and succeeded so brilliantly that by the time of his death in 1945 the United States was on the verge of victory over all its enemies. That crusading spirit, at home and abroad, held the nation together for another twenty years, and black and white Americans drew upon it to create the civil rights movement. Even the controversy over the Vietnam War failed to destroy the postwar consensus. As late as 1968, a broad consensus still prevailed among the political elite and among most older Americans. Realizing this, Richard Nixon promised to bring us together, reduce violence at home and bring an end to the Vietnam War. He parlayed those statements into a highly successful first term in office.

Today, there is no common purpose and no legacy of recent achievements upon which to build. The two parties live in different mental universes.

Much of the old political order has collapsed: this week the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump, who had virtually no ties to its leadership, for president. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, seems likely to run as the representative of the status quo and the center-left ideological consensus that Trumps followers reject. The low favorability ratings of both candidates suggest that either will have great difficulty rallying opposition voters after the election. No matter who wins, it seems likely that the election will leave the country more divided than ever.

What common purpose could unite the nation today? Not foreign war, surely. Americas endless conflict in the Middle East, fought by its small professional army, lost any power to inspire citizens years ago, and now drags on while the problem it was supposed to addressterrorismgets worse and worse. The hawkish Clinton would hardly create a new national consensus by taking more military action in the Middle East. If Trump wins, a crusade to rid the nation of millions of immigrants could trigger widespread violence at home. There is enormous work to do regarding infrastructure, economic inequality, the cost of education climate change and more, but none of those issues has seized the public imagination as the single primary problemand all of them are the subject of political gridlock.

Of the three previous crises, the Civil War probably offers the most useful comparison. It was horribly bloody, it did not secure real citizenship for the former slaves and it led to an era of weak government, all-powerful corporations and inequality. But the nation, the Constitution and the government survived, allowing for further progress on many fronts in the 20th century. The survival of such institutions may be the best America can hope for over the next ten years. Survival now remains the critical goal. Rebirth must come later.

The Long View

Historians explain how the past informs the present

David Kaiser, a historian, has taught at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Williams College, and the Naval War College. He is the author of seven books, including, most recently, No End Save Victory: How FDR Led the Nation into War. He lives in Watertown, Mass.
Tony Stewart won the Brickyard 400 in 2005 and 2007 (Getty).

INDIANAPOLIS  Tony Stewart doesnt know how many family and friends will be in attendance for Sundays Brickyard 400. And he doesnt want to know.

Stewart, an Indiana native and two-time winner of the Brickyard 400, is retiring at the end of the 2016 season. Since Indianapolis Motor Speedway is so special to Stewart  hes competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times as well  its natural to think Stewart will be sentimental this weekend.

Hes not. Or if he is, he didnt want to show it on Friday.

You guys are going to make a lot more out of this than what Im going to make out of it this weekend, Stewart said. I am literally just coming here in my mind like it is just another race, and its another weekend here at Indy. Im not doing all the sentimental crying stuff that you guys think Im going to be doing. Im going to race this weekend. Im more focused  Im probably more prepared for a Brickyard than I have been any other year.

Stewart said he was confident in his car after an earlier tire test at Indianapolis.

You guys can ask me all about how Im feeling, thinking, whatever but you are wasting my time and your time because all I care about is driving that race car right now, he said. It is probably the most focused Ive been getting ready for a race. It is not amped up, or anything that. Im just really relaxed and focused and feel good going into it. That is the way I need to do it.

Hell, maybe this wont be Stewarts final Brickyard 400. Jeff Gordons final Brickyard 400 was all set to be in 2015 and hes racing on Sunday in place of Dale Earnhardt Jr. With Gordons brief return to the Cup Series, Stewart was asked if hed be open to returning if Stewart-Haas ever needed a fill-in driver.

It is something that I thought about since the talk came about Jeff getting back in the car, Stewart said. We dont have a feeder system. We dont have an Xfinity team. We dont have anybody thats in our system to bring up if that is the case. We will talk about it at some point, but I am definitely open to that scenario if it were to happen down the road and we needed somebody, I would be open to doing what Jeff is doing this weekend.

Story continues

Stewart also added that hed be keeping the helmet hes wearing for the race and we can understand why. He uses the No. 14 in the Cup Series in honor of Foyt.

      

Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Once you are in Moscow on vacation or on a business trip, dont miss the chance to try unusual Russian foods! Here is a selection of snacks from Russia you have probably never heard of before. All of them can be found in local stores. Plenty of tasty local snacks are waiting for you. Check them out!

1) Lays with fresh-salted cucumbers and dill

3058655H

If youve never tried a local Russian cuisine, now you have a chance with a national Lays flavor! Summer fresh-salted cucumbers flavored with spices and herbs are usually served in Russia with boiled potatoes and it is a bright example of a traditional dish. In this case, cucumbers join together with crispy golden chips and both form a truly unique taste of homemade Russian food!

Price  57.00 RUB

2) Vorontsovskie rusks

3265573H

3265572H

550

National toasted bread with different flavors, such as onion, bacon, barbecue and a local dish  jellied meat with horseradish. These are crispy and spicy snacks, which are very popular among Russians to have with beer. One of the most popular snacks in the country!

Price  17.50 RUB

3) Hrusteam rusks

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That is another example of Russian rusks in a form of baguette with different tastes like cheese, king crab, tomato and herbs. Made of white bread and tastes absolutely delicious!

Price  36.00 RUB

4) Nuts and seeds bars

3074062H

3074039H

3074036H

Such bars are made of cleaned nuts, which are slightly dried and filled with honey. This is a traditional Georgian snack, called kozinaki, but it has a lot of fans across Russia and produced locally as well. Here you can find unique examples of this product, such as sesame seeds and sunflower seed bars. Due to the high content of nutritional ingredients, this product perfectly fills the vitality of the body.

Prices:

Sunflower seeds bar  33,80 RUB

Sesame seeds bar  49,60 RUB

Peanut bar  54,50 RUB

5) Pine nuts

3257556H

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Exclusive nuts, which are full of vitamins and minerals, are picked up and produced in the central part of Russia  Siberia. These nuts are highly valued all across the globe and are actively exported to European countries. They are not as cheap as other nuts but are extremely nutritious and popular among healthy lifestyle lovers!

Story continues

Price  550.00 RUB

6) Sunflower seeds

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You can hardly find a person in Russia, who has never tried sunflower seeds. It is, without doubt, a top national snack! Russians often eat them while watching TV  It is a kind of local popcorn that is popular among people of all ages. Seeds also contain proteins and fats, which are good for your health!

Price  40.00 RUB

7) Bite bar

bar1

  2016-07-11  13.04.25

This is a 100% natural snack bar from Russia, which consists of fruits, nuts, berries and spices. Made by the team of enthusiasts, who want to make healthy lifestyle tasty, easy and convenient. There are different tastes, which are divided into following sections: mood, balance, intellect, immunity, sport, weight control and tonus. So nearly everyone can find his own flavor according to personal goals! The brand has also developed a national Russian edition of the bar with dates, pumpkins seeds and whole grains.

Price  99.00 RUB

Check out the store locator | Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bite_russia/

russia snacks

The post Top 7 Snacks to Try on your First Trip to Russia appeared first on Airfrov Blog.
Abidjan (AFP) - Cocoa crops in the world's top producer, Ivory Coast, are being ravaged by caterpillars but authorities are playing down the new scourge, saying they have it under control.

The west African nation, now a beacon of stability and prosperity in the restive region, is slowly emerging from about a decade of low-level civil war and political turbulence, and is desperately trying to restore its once-booming economy to its former glory.

"This is the new menace for cocoa cultivation," a researcher at the Ivory Coast National Centre for Agronomy said.

Authorities say some 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of cocoa have been ravaged in a few weeks but stress that it is a fraction of the country's total cocoa fields.

"This caterpillar attack will not have a significant impact on production as about 20,000 hectares have been affected out of the total crop area of two million hectares," said Nanga Coulibaly, who works for the national cocoa board.

Kra Kouame, the local head of agriculture at Taabo in southeastern Ivory Coast, said cocoa crops in the village of Lelebele had been wiped out in a month.

- 'Like a nightmare' -

Maxime Brou, a 48-year-old cocoa farmer from a small village in the Taabo region, said his life turned topsy-turvy in the space of just four days.

"One Monday, I went to my fields and everything was normal. Four days later, there was nothing. It was like a nightmare!" he said.

The cocoa industry, which accounts for 15 percent of GDP and more than 50 percent of export receipts as well as two thirds of the country's jobs, is absolutely vital to Ivory Coast's economic welfare, according to the World Bank.

"Caterpillars are not new for us but this is the first time they've attacked cocoa crops," said Nanan Kouame Kan Kouame, the chief of Ahondo -- a village of 5,000 people.

Cocoa board adviser Coulibaly said global warming had reduced the caterpillars' natural predators -- which includes birds and beetles -- leading to a leap in their population.

Story continues

"But the situation is totally under control" and pesticide teams have been deployed across the country, he said.

The caterpillars have also attacked banana plantations, which are already reeling under a drought.

Between 2014 and 2016, rainfall in the region fell drastically from 1,100 millimetres (43 inches) annually to 900 mm in 2015. In the first six months of this year there were only 13 days of rain against 28 days in the same period in 2015.

"In June, there were only four days of rain and then nothing", said village chief Kouame.

Francois Kouakou Konan, a 41-year-old farmer said he watched on helplessly as the caterpillars "ate up" his eight-hectare field in a week.

"How will I send my young brothers and my children to school?" he asked, teary-eyed.
Integrated oil & gas company TOTAL S.A. TOT announced that it has signed an agreement with Japans Chugoku Electric for the direct supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for a period of 17 years starting from 2019.



The Agreement



Per the agreement, Total will supply Chugoku Electric with up to 0.4 million tons of LNG per year sourced from its global portfolio. TOTAL has been operating in Japan for nearly the last four decades and the latest deal will further strengthen its position in the country.



Japan Post-Fukushima



After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan has steered clear of nuclear energy, diverting its focus to fossil fuels and alternate sources to produce electricity. The decision to shut down all nuclear power plants post Fukushima tragedy enhanced the importance of fossil fuel as an energy source in Japan.



Incidentally, Japan is the largest importer of LNG in the world. TOTAL with a presence in the entire LNG value chain is well poised to benefit from the rising demand of LNG in Japan.

TOTAL FINA SA Price

TOTAL FINA SA Price | TOTAL FINA SA Quote



TOTALs 3rd LNG Agreement in Asia



The agreement with Chugoku Electric of Japan is the third long-term LNG agreement signed by TOTAL in Asia this year. In February, TOTAL signed a long-term agreement with state-owned Indonesian company Pertamina to supply LNG volumes of 1 million tons per year over a period of 15 years beginning 2020.



TOTAL also entered into an agreement to supply 0.5 million tons of LNG per year to the largest Chinese natural gas distributor ENN for 10 years, starting 2018.



TOTALs LNG Capacity



In 2015, TOTALs LNG production was 10.2 million tons. Totals objective is to double its liquefaction capacity to around 20 million tons per year and increase its LNG trading portfolio to 15 million tons per year by 2020.



The above mentioned three contracts signed by TOTAL with its Asian customers will boost its LNG trading portfolio by nearly 2 million tons per year. Without a doubt, TOTAL is on course to meet its trading objective.



The clean burning nature of natural gas and its increasing usage across the globe will drive LNG demand. We believe TOTAL with its operations spread out in more than 130 countries is one the largest integrated oil & gas companies to gain from the increasing demand for LNG.



Zacks Rank



TOTAL currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the integrated oil & gas space include BP plc BP, Chevron Corp. CVX and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



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BP PLC (BP): Free Stock Analysis Report



CHEVRON CORP (CVX): Free Stock Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
(Repeats with not changes to text.)

* Brent/WTI spread presents window of opportunity

* Vitol said to have secured two vessels

* Pipeline discounts help export economics

By Liz Hampton

HOUSTON, July 21 (Reuters) - A ballooning spread between the price of U.S. and European oil, coupled with lower shipping costs, has traders scrambling to take advantage of what may be a brief window of opportunity to ship crude to higher priced markets.

The premium for Brent futures relative to U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose above $1.50 barrel on Thursday, its largest level since April, up 50 cents from the start of the week (WTCLc1-LCOc1).

European futures have mostly traded at less than a dollar premium to the U.S. benchmark for the past two months, effectively closing off the opportunity to move oil across the Atlantic profitably. Traders typically move crude to markets where it can fetch a higher price, an economic structure known as arbitrage.

With the closely watched spread now widening, ship brokers said the appetite for Aframax tankers, which can carry around 700,000 barrels of product, has picked up, the first sign that traders are positioning themselves for exports.

The United States lifted its decades-old ban on exporting crude in December, but since then opportunities to ship out U.S. crude have been limited by poor economics and a global glut in oil. Brent futures only riefly traded close to a $3 a barrel premium to WTI this year, whereas last year the spread hit a high of nearly $13 a barrel.

U.S. crude futures have lately faced increasingly bearish pressure, with WTI futures down about 10 percent since the end of June; it settled at $44.75 a barrel on Thursday.

The opportunity to move crude as a result of the opening of this spread may be limited.

"Over the longer term we expect a stable and low WTI-Brent spread as U.S. domestic inventories return to historical levels. We may see an uptick in arbitrage-driven trading until that happens," said David St. Amand, owner of Navigistics Consulting.

Story continues

Swiss commodities firm Vitol was said to have put two Aframax vessels which can carry crude, the Seagrace and Primorsky Prospect, on "subs" this week, which is a way to tentatively book a vessel for loading, according to three sources.

Both ships are fixed to move from U.S. Gulf Coast to Europe at between 55 to 60 percent of the Worldscale shipping rate, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data. That translates into roughly $750,000 to $800,000 for the voyage, which is down from around $1.5 million when demand is more robust, shipping brokers said.

One ship broker, who was not authorized to speak to media, said folks "are jockeying for position," as they try to "export crude to whomever will take it."

PIPELINE DISCOUNTS

Discounts for pipeline space traded on the secondary market may also make exports more viable because they reduce the cost of shipping oil to ports on the Gulf Coast.

Traders on Thursday reported seeing discounted rates on Magellan Midstream Partners' and Plains All American Pipeline's 300,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) BridgeTex, which connects the Permian Basin to the U.S. Gulf Coast, and TransCanada Corp's 700,000-bpd MarketLink system, which moves crude from Cushing to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The increased interest in exporting helped support cash prices this week, traders said, with WTI at Midland, Texas, (WTC-WTM) jumping 55 cents to trade at a 15-cent-per-barrel premium to U.S. futures. WTI at Magellan East Houston jumped 50 cents a barrel this week, trading at a $1.35 a barrel premium to the U.S. benchmark.

To be sure, several sources said the economics were still too tight for their shops to make exports work. They noted the current spread favored those with committed space on certain pipelines, access to ships, or refining and storage assets.

"Players with a system - pipe space, tankers on time charter or a refinery short will have better econs than those looking to do spot business," said Dominic Haywood, an analyst with Energy Aspects.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
This woman does not recognize the pictures of a macho weightlifter who used to be in the U.S. Army Special Forces, despite the fact that she is the person in the photos.

Read: Army Officer Takes Miss USA Crown After Impassioned Pro Female Soldier Speech

Alana McLaughlin, 32, was assigned male at birth, but the Portland woman said she has always felt like she was born in the wrong body.

"I was playing a part that wasn't really me," McLaughlin said in an interview with Barcroft Media.

She came out as gay and transgender to her family, but she said her parents were not supportive.

"They would not accept me as their daughter," she said. "They would only accept me as their son. Even as their son, I was a disappointment."

She gave into the pressure, and created a new persona for herself.

"I just sort of constructed this false personality that was just a combination of action heroes that I could think of," she explained, "very much the stoic violent, male type."

From lifting weights, to growing a beard, to riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle, she said, "I did all the things you were supposed to do."

She even joined the U.S. Army Special Forces as the ultimate transformation.

"It was my only option," McLaughlin explained, "to either force myself into manhood somehow or die."

She eventually left the army and dove into female hormone treatments, but did not begin her transition until 2012, when she opted into doing surgery with the support of her friends.

Read: Caitlyn Jenner Uses Women's Bathroom At Trump Tower: 'Nobody Got Molested, Ted'

"I don't feel like I'm faking anymore," she said, joking, "my outie has been made an innie."

McLaughlin has since taken up welding as a reflection of her transition, saying it is like turning "something cold and lifeless," into "something beautiful, delicate but strong at the same time."

Story continues

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CLEVELANDAnd so it came to pass, in the year 2016, on a sunny day in Americas heartland, in a hall smelling of sweat and popcorn and filled with a seething, roaring crowd, that Donald Trumpbuilder, shocker, demagogue, smasher of certainties, destroyer of the Republican Party, winneraccepted his partys nomination, with a vow to restore order.

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities, Trump proclaimed, his hand slicing the air, his pompadour gleaming with the reflection of hundreds of lights. I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soonand I mean very sooncome to an end, he added.

Yet Trump had just finished presiding over a convention that was anything but orderly. Many party stalwarts, including four of the five living former Republican presidents or nominees, refused to attend. Trumps campaign released the speaker lineup at the last minute, then lied about who was on it. It picked a public fight with the popular sitting Republican governor of the swing state hosting the convention, who boycotted the proceedings.

Recommended: Donald Trump's Bad Bet on Anger

A restive faction of delegates created a spectacle of dissent before being crushed on the floor. The potential first ladys speech turned out to be partially plagiarized. The lights and television monitors in the hall periodically failed. More than 700 delegates voted against the nominee, the most in four decades. The candidate interrupted his own testimonials with televised interviews, gave a hair-raising description of his foreign-policy ideas, and, most shockingly, was rebuked from the convention stage itself by a primary opponent who conspicuously declined to endorse him, was booed off the stage, and subsequently still refused to fall in line.

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Modern political conventions are intended to be slick shows of partisan boosterismweeklong infomercials in which differences are papered over and everyone smiles for the cameras. This was something quite different, something rarely seen in the age of lockstep partisanship and spin: a ramshackle, thrown-together, halfhearted spectacle, one that brutally exposed the flimsiness of a campaign that has always been little more than a man, his plane, and his Twitter account. Behind the scenes, it was a constant scramble: One convention staffer described spending the week trying to plan around a disengaged campaign, only to have the campaign repeatedly blow up the plans at the last minute. If he cant run a convention, the staffer said, how is he going to run a country?

Recommended: It's Official: Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Vladimir Putin

And so, if America is in chaos, Trump seems more a symptom than a remedy. As he and his party now veer unsteadily toward November, to an election he could still quite plausibly win, the convention and the circus surrounding it proved that there will be no rhyme or reason to this madcap process. If this election is to be fought over chaos versus order, the convention did not make a convincing case for Trump as the candidate of control.

Trump has been the chaos candidate, as Jeb Bush once described him, from the beginningfrom the day 13 months ago when he descended the famous escalator at Trump Tower, chucked his script, and embarked on the first of the angry rants that would become his signature. As he prepared to speak here on Thursday, a New York delegate in the front row clutched a sign reading, Trump Is Americas Great Ball of Fire! It was meant as a compliment.

The mood in the arena was often glum. At one point, I ran into Eric OKeefe, a Wisconsin conservative activist who helped lead a group of delegates quixotic last-minute attempt to steal the nomination from Trump. I feel like Im at the wake of a once-great political party, he said. A conservative consultant, seeing Trump officially crowned the delegates choice, pronounced grimly, Well, the suicide pact is complete.

Yet there could be no avoiding it: Trump won and the haters lost. Just after the delegates voted to make him the nominee, I encountered a jubilant Corey Lewandowski, Trumps fired-campaign-manager-turned-television-commentator, who was leading the New Hampshire delegation (and who had used the convention chaos to try to cast doubt on his replacement in the post). Its amazing, right? he exulted. You never would have predicted it!

Recommended: Donald Trump's Weird and Wild Post-RNC Speech

Lewandowski predicted that Trump would win far and wide by upending the partisan patterns of old and competing in states that have been unfriendly to Republicans for decades. Donald Trump is a disruptive force to the system, he said. Thats why theyre scared to death. And I love it!

Every American political convention is surrounded by a freak show. This week, the streets of Cleveland were crowded with vendors and activists and weird hangers-on: the guy in the Hillary mask with the TRUMP VS TRAMP poster, the sellers of Trump socks, the person in a polar bear costume, the pro-Trump buskers, the sellers of a vast and diverse selection of pro- and anti-Trump merchandise. It was not clear in what category the T-shirt reading TRUMP VS EVERYBODY 2016 belonged. The crowd of weirdos jostled with the delegates and lobbyists and donors and journalists through the closed-off streets.

A couple of days earlier, I attended a party billed as a gay celebration of Trump, featuring stars of the alt-rightthe loose agglomeration of racists and trolls that has risen to wide attention in the past year. The Wake Up! party was headlined by Milo Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart editor and online provocateur, who had conveniently been banned from Twitter earlier in the day for harassing one of the actresses in Ghostbusters. Outside the Cleveland State University arena, protesters chanted, Youre here! Youre queer! Your politics are weird! Security was tight, with list minders claiming all attendees had been FBI-screened.

Inside, the event was surprisingly small, with a cash bar on one end of a half-empty interior ballroom and a couple hundred people milling around. One wall was festooned with arty photographs of scantily clad young men in Make America Great Again hatsTwinks for Trump. Yiannopoulos, when he took the stage, was a vision, with a deep-orange tan, sunglasses, and a freshly bleached and gelled brush of hair; he wore a tank top decorated with a rainbow-colored gun and the words We Shoot Back.

This is the hottest party of the Republican convention! Yiannopoulos proclaimed. The stage had also featured the anti-Islam crusader Pamela Geller and the Dutch nativist politician Geert Wilders; some in attendance were actual fascists. (Two more professional provocateurs, author Ann Coulter and political consultant Roger Stone, were also on the invitation but did not appear.) Gay people bear some responsibility for the current state of affairs, Yiannopoulos mused, citing the role in history of fashion designers and artists. It was us who gave the left their power. But it was time, he contended, to reject hateful social-justice maxims and say, Your stranglehold on homosexuals is over!

As Yiannopoulos left the stage, thumping techno music started to play, and reporters clustered around him. I asked him how he felt when Trump, whom he calls Daddy, secured the nomination. Oh, I was overjoyed, he said. Hes the only person who can save gay people from whats coming!

For the next hour, Yiannopoulos signed autographs and posed for selfies with a long line of fans, overwhelmingly young, white, and male, while an associate passed out black T-shirts advertising his Dangerous Faggot Tour of college campuses. Hunter Swogger, an amiable 22-year-old engineer, was wearing a pink Make America Fabulous Again shirt, a gift from when he brought Yiannopoulos to speak at the University of Michigan before he graduated this spring, having become a fan after a late-night YouTube binge.

The university, he said, denounced the event, and created a safe space for those who found it hurtful. Both Milo and Trump, he said, were about being alive, being fearless, being an unrelenting warrior. He loved how angry they make the right people.

Edwin Oslin, a 32-year-old from Detroit, was swigging a Coors Lite, sporting a Punks for Trump shirt, gingery mutton chops, and tattoos on both arms. The shirt showed a black-and-white Trump holding a guitar and flipping off the camera. Im a Nazi skinhead who wants to get rid of brown people, Oslin said, clarifying that he was being sarcasticsatirizing the media cliche of nonconformists like him.

Trump is anti-establishment, just like punk rock, he said.

Cleveland had steeled itself for violence. Reporters took conflict training and brought helmets and gas-masks. The city, which is 53 percent African American, has recently been the site of racial conflict: After the police shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, demonstrators marched, peacefully, for days. Given the racially polarized mobs that have sometimes been drawn to Trump events in urban areas, it was not unreasonable to expect conflict.

Yet the conflict, like Marco Rubio, failed to show. Each day, a few dozen to a few hundred activists converged on the Public Square, a concrete plaza surrounding the citys ornate, column-topped Civil War memorial. Sometimes things got a little hairy; at one point, the conspiracist radio host Alex Jones had to be escorted out by police. But there were few arrests, and the vibe was more festive than tense.

They were there to have their say; they were there to be seen and heard in the shadow of the greatest show on earth. On one side of the square, a group of men held giant signs with slogans like Ever Real Muslim Is a Jihadist while one shouted into a megaphone, Black Lives Matter is anti-America!

A middle-aged man yelled back, More people have died in the name of God than anything else, you cunt!

A multi-racial group of young people began chanting, Stop the hate!

The older man joined in: Stop the hate, cunt!

A woman with a Free Hugs sign meandered through the crowd crying plaintively, Gods not angry!

Its nice to see downtown so lively, remarked a passing local. Its usually empty this time of day!

Later, I watched a bored-looking woman in a black mask lean on her No War But Class War sign while her comrade earnestly tried to convince an equally earnest Texas delegate of the virtues of communism. I watched a woman in a spangly red-white-and-blue dress and a Trump: Make America Hate Again poster chitchat with a man in a T-shirt with a fetus on it. I met a 35-year-old rickshaw driver whod come all the way from California to conscientiously object to both candidates: His sign said, This Election Is an Inside Job.

The fountains in the middle of the square were going, and a young mother and her toddler were running through them.

A young African American woman with red-dyed curls was holding hands with a tiny blonde woman. Both their eyes were squeezed closed as the older woman murmured, We pray, God, for a revivalthat all will be respected and each and every individual be loved. Yes, the younger woman said. They stayed there, praying, motionless, for several minutes, until tears were running down both their faces and they said in unison, In Jesuss name, amen, and hugged.

The younger woman, Ashainique Lee, 18, was holding a Black Lives Matter - Stop Killing Us sign; the older one, Kathryn Sears, 61, clutched a Billy Graham pamphlet. Lee plans to vote, reluctantly, for Hillary Clinton; Sears, with misgivings, for Trump.

A few hours later, Trump would take the stage and darkly warn of urban chaos and international tumult. In this race, he would say, I am the law and order candidate! The balloons would fall. And America, a country in chaos, divided, would have its Republican nominee.

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This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
In the seven weeks since his Lexus of Omaha dealership switched to no-haggle pricing, salesman Jim Endebrock has had one customer walk out.

It was a little disappointing because I had sold him eight cars before this, Endebrock said in an interview at the dealership. But he considers himself a shrewd negotiator, and he thought he should get something better.

Still, Endebrock has managed to sell 40 cars since June 1. Those customers, he says, have been delighted with the no-haggle approach, which means the dealership puts its best offer for new and used vehicles on the window sticker and then refuses to entertain counteroffers. Toyota Motor Corp.s Lexus division is the first luxury brand to launch a factory-sanctioned pilot program for expanding the idea nationwide, according to Erin Kerrigan, founder of Kerrigan Advisors in Irvine, California.

So far, 11 of the 236 U.S. Lexus dealerships have adopted the no-haggle plan, said Matt Kaleba, the brands national marketing manager, including Lexus of Lincoln, which like Lexus of Omaha is owned by Baxter Auto Group. In the future, additional dealerships will be able to opt in and receive staff training and consulting services from Lexus.

To encourage recalcitrant dealers, the companys Lexus Plus program comes with an additional set of incentives. As it helps dealers move toward no-haggle pricing, Lexus also helps them reorganize their operations to offer customers additional amenities, such as a salesperson trained to also handle their financing paperwork, and a single point-of-contact representative for all their service requests.

In effect, Lexus Plus shifts manpower away from the finance departments that once presided over price negotiations and served as a major profit center for the dealerships, and moves it into customer service.

The Lexus of Omaha dealership is on the west side of town, a few hundred yards from the famous Boys Town home for at-risk children. Rebuilt in 2014, its main showroom features two-story glass windows on three sides, and a portion of the back wall covered with various shades of climbing ivy.

Mickey Anderson, who owns Baxter with his sister Angie, said he needed four years of preparation to switch to no-haggle pricing. One reason: Salespeople now receive a flat fee for each car sold rather than having their compensation vary depending on the outcome of talks with each customer. Many dealerships, he said, dont want to embark on that kind of painstaking reorganization at a time when sales and profits are booming.

The deals that Lexus of Omaha offers today, he said, are basically the same as those customers could achieve after haggling their way through the old system. But he said he hopes they can complete the transaction in less than two hours, or half the time needed for the traditional approach.

During the first full sales month with the no-haggle plan, Anderson sold 1,200 vehicles at Lexus of Omaha, up 9 percent from last years monthly pace. He said he hopes to be selling 1,500 a month by 2018.
Cleveland (AFP) - The Trump troops embraced their newly crowned Republican presidential nominee, clogging the convention floor to roar their approval, swat away talk of party division, and vent their collective disgust of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump's acceptance speech Thursday night was the moment thousands in the Cleveland arena were waiting for, and the brash billionaire did not disappoint.

Cheers erupted when he strode across the stage to face his flock, soaking up the lengthy standing ovation from a crowd that hardly expected such a result 14 months ago when Trump launched his underdog White House bid.

One thousand supporters snapped his picture in unison, while a delegate in a pink elephant-print shirt climbed atop her chair for a better view.

"This is fantastic!" beamed Donald Hartley of Madison, Alabama, who snuck onto the floor from the guest seats to be closer to the action.

While Trump laid out his vision for America, the crowd reacted much the way they did at his campaign rallies: loudly and impulsively.

Despite the week's turmoil over the Trump nomination, Thursday night was a one-sided affair, and several delegates cheerfully sought to put to rest the assertions that Republicans were in disarray.

"I'm telling you, this party is not divided, the voters are not divided, and Trump is going to continue to gain strength and he's going to win this election," Senator Jeff Sessions, a close advisor to Trump, told AFP.

House Republican Thomas Massie used to support fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul, but now said Trump had "the opportunity and the obligation to bring us together."

"I think he can do that, but the biggest unifier we've got is Hillary Clinton."

Boos rained down when Trump mentioned the former secretary of state, and at one point the crowd loudly reprised the caustic chant "Lock her up! Lock her up!" that ricocheted through the arena throughout the week.

Story continues

Trump gestured as if to stop the ruckus, then leaned in and boomed: "Let's defeat her in November."

Clinton made an appearance of sorts, courtesy of Wes Nakagiri, a delegate from Michigan who dressed up in a prison outfit, plastic handcuffs and rubber Hillary mask.

"I heard 'Lock her up' last night and thought it would be funny if I went out and bought an orange prison jump suit," he said.

Trump spoke for 77 minutes, a virtual eternity as far as conventions go, and supporters started to flag. Several waved their mangled-Spanish "Hispanics para Trump" signs from their seats.

- 'We're alive' -

Trump's night wouldn't be complete without a disruption, and it faithfully arrived in the form of a protest by the group Code Pink.

The protester yelled and held up a banner that was quickly ripped away, but she disrupted proceedings for more than a minute before cops managed to drag her out.

Christopher Harvey, an African-American delegate from Houston, Texas, said the turmoil at this week's convention was all part of the circus that is American politics.

"We show anger, we show emotion," said Harvey, who acknowledged Trump was his fourth choice for nominee, behind arch-conservative Rick Santorum, Senator Marco Rubio, and Senator Ted Cruz.

"We're alive, unlike the robots you're going to see next week" at the Democratic convention, he said.

When Trump finally wrapped up -- "I will fight for you, and I will win for you!" -- the balloons cascaded down on the crowd.

The music seemed to match the sense of relief in the arena as the rock classic "All Right Now," by the band Free, blared from the speakers.

Not everyone was claiming success.

"We've had more successful conventions than this one," Texas delegate Bill Eastland, wearing a cowboy hat and "Ted Cruz" campaign pins, said matter-of-factly as confetti fluttered down around him amid the sound of popping balloons underfoot.

Minnesota state delegate Mary Susan, clad in a red cape with blinking lights that formed the name Trump, said the convention could be a "failure" if Trump can't rally the broad coalition of Republicans in the coming months.

Her liberal friends have mocked Trump's rhetoric-heavy campaign, calling Trump "an orange buffoon," Susan said as she turned around and spread her cape.

"But he's our orange buffoon, and we love him!"
As Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, he repeated his oft-cited claim that America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world while touting his plan for steep tax cuts  the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has run for president this year.

Trumps claim might ring true to an American public that doesnt like sending checks to Uncle Sam and is tired of dealing with a complex, multi-layered tax system, but fact-checkers have called Trump out on this line before. Even a cursory comparison suggests Trump has it wrong.

Simply put, the U.S. is nowhere near the highest-taxed country in the world.

Related: Americans Will Spend 8.9 Billion Hours Doing Taxes in 2016

As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) points out, there are different ways to measure the tax burden a nations population faces. One metric experts like to use is tax revenue as a share of the economy. Using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the CRFB compared the tax revenue of 34 developed countries as a percentage of GDP. The U.S. ranked 31st, with tax revenue (including federal, state and local government taxes) amounting to 26 percent of GDP. Denmark ranked the highest at 52 percent. Only Mexico, Chile and Korea were lower.

International tax rates

Looking at tax revenue per capita, the U.S. ranked 16 out of 34 countries, according to the OECD.

Related: How Fortune 500 Companies Avoid Paying $620 Billion in Taxes

The CRFB also notes that Trump would still be wrong even if he was referring to just the the federal individual income tax rate or the U.S. corporate tax rate. The top U.S. individual federal tax rate is 39.6 percent, below the OECD average of 42.2 percent, according to tax advisory company KPMG. Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Austria, the Netherlands, Australia, China, Germany and the U.K. all have higher tax rates, according to the KPMG list. Similarly, a host of nations have higher income tax rates on low earners.

Story continues

On the corporate side, the statutory corporate tax rate is 39 percent, including an average of state and local taxes. This figure is the highest among OECD countries studied  so score one for Trump. However, its important to take this figure with a grain of salt, as the effective corporate tax rate  the rate businesses actually pay when deductions, credits and loopholes are taken into account  is considerably lower. Martin Sullivan, chief economist and contributing editor for the Tax Analysts Blog, compared five studies of American companies effective corporate tax rates and found that they actually paid 5 to 10 percent lower than the statutory tax rate  not far off from the OECDs unweighted average of 25 percent.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Cleveland (AFP) - Donald Trump rallied Republicans by vowing he alone could fix a nation adrift in a dangerous world, storming into an election showdown with Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee determined to become Americas first woman president.

The billionaire and former reality TV star electrified the Republican National Convention by delivering the speech of his life, promising to restore security, clamp down on immigration and put America first.

Nationwide polls suggest the New York mogul, who has never held elected office, is almost neck and neck Clinton, the former secretary of state mired in an email scandal yet propelled by ardent fundraisers.

A CNN straw poll suggested that 75 percent of respondents found Trumps speech positive and 56 percent were more likely to vote for him  balanced out by 42 percent either less likely or unmoved.

But eyes will now pivot to Clinton. She is expected to unveil her pick for vice president by Saturday, then accept the Democratic nomination at her partys convention in Philadelphia next week.

Between chants of U-S-A and Trump, Trump, Trump, the Republicans candidate cast himself as the law and order candidate who would champion people who work hard but no longer have a voice.

I am your voice, he declared pointing into the cameras, promising better times with millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth.

Exploiting angst over racially-tinged shootings and seemingly indiscriminate attacks, Trump offered a tough-on-crime message that was reminiscent of Richard Nixons election-winning strategy in 1968.

Dayna Dent, 69, a retiree and alternate delegate from Washington state told AFP she was thrilled by the speech. I think Donald is very real, and I like that about him, she said.

But speaking for over an hour, he also stuck to many of the hard right themes from a bruising primary campaign, showing why he is one of the most controversial US politicians in living memory.

Story continues

- President or dictator? -

Foreigners from terror-linked countries would be banned, a wall built on the Mexican border and trade deals ripped up and renegotiated.

I alone can fix it, he claimed, not impressing Democrats.

We are better than this, tweeted Clinton.

Her former presidential rival Bernie Sanders, who galvanized young people with his call for free college education and universal healthcare, also took umbrage.

Is this guy running for president or dictator? he tweeted.

But the Republican party rank-and-file lapped it up, rising to their feet in standing ovation after standing ovation and displaying none of the divisions that have plagued the four-day convention.

This, a Trump top aide remarked, is now the party of Trump. Many of the Republican old guard had stayed away, including both former presidents Bush.

Daniel Carter, an Ohio delegate and lawyer who originally wanted Ohio Governor John Kasich to win the nomination, said he would now be working to get Trump into the White House.

For the most part everyones, Come on lets get this guy elected, he said. We certainly dont want Hillary Clinton.

- Vice president -

When the former first lady formally accepts the Democratic nomination next week, it will be the highlight of her more than three-decade career in public service.

Trump painted her as corrupt, incompetent and hopelessly out of touch. Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness, he said of her legacy.

While Trump went with experience, steadiness, and rock-solid conservative credentials in picking Mike Pence to join his ticket, the deeply experienced Clinton needs other skills in a vice president.

Tim Kaine, senator from Virginia, comes from a battleground state, speaks Spanish and is a southern white man who might put independent male voters at ease.

Tom Vilsack, from Pittsburgh and known to the Clintons for years, could help in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. As a former two-term governor of Iowa, can woo rural American voters.

Tom Perez, labor secretary and a liberal, could heal the rift with left-leaning supporters of Sanders and as a Latin, cement the increasingly important Hispanic vote.

Two outside choices are James Stavridis, a retired four-star US Navy admiral and liberal superstar Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who could also help attract Sanders supporters.

It remains unclear if antipathy towards Clinton will be enough to unite a Republican Party riven with doubts over his candidature.

Warming up the crowd before Trump took to the stage, his daughter Ivanka tried to soften her fathers image.

My father not only has the strength and ability necessary to be the next president, but also the kindness and compassion, she said.
In a national presidential campaign of international significance, Americas police officers have somehow come to occupy center stage. Both major parties seem convinced, and the country seems to agree, that the United States faces a national police crisis, one that traces back to the shooting two years ago of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then, there has been a steady stream of fatal police shootings, with each incident prompting angry protests  and, at least on two occasions, that anger has boiled over into the assassination of police officers.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has now declared himself the law and order candidate. By contrast, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has scheduled family members of people shot and killed by the police to speak at the Democratic National Convention next week. But neither candidate seems to appreciate the ways in which Americas police crisis has uniquely American causes, including a tragic history of race relations and vast bureaucratic decentralization. (The United States has 15,388 city and county law enforcement agencies, which bear primary responsibility for policing communities, with no common central authority able to initiate reforms.)

But what truly makes U.S. policing an international outlier is a problem that almost always escapes scrutiny. Unlike most other countries in the world, Americas local police departments are heavily unionized, and local police union contracts include an array of provisions that impede officer accountability and serve to sustain misconduct. Absent the actions of police unions, its unlikely there would be a police crisis for the country to be so consumed by in the first place.

Consider Chicago, which has been in political turmoil since November 2015 when a police video, released only because of a court order, clearly showed a city police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in the back as he was running away, killing him. Its only fair to be outraged by the shooting. But Americans should also be outraged by what happened next.

Soon after the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting, the police union spokesman, Pat Camden, arrived on the scene and issued an official union statement: The suspect lunged at the officer with a knife, leaving him with no choice but to shoot. The statement was a lie. Then it got worse. The other officers who had witnessed the shooting completed their required incident report. They all said the same thing: The suspect lunged at the officer with a knife. The officers knew they were lying because they had all been witnesses to the shooting.

In short, the union spokesman not only issued a lie on his own behalf, but orchestrated a conspiracy to obstruct justice and the investigation of a homicide.

The incident just described is exceptional only for its brazenness. Day in and day out, all across the country, police unions shield officers guilty (or merely suspected) of misconduct from being investigated and, where appropriate, from being disciplined.

The way out of the current police crisis includes, above all else, holding police officers strictly accountable for their actions. And that requires removing, or at least significantly modifying, union contract provisions that are almost unknown to most Americans. (The activist group Black Lives Matter, through its project Check the Police, has compiled the first-ever database on various police union contract provisions across the country.)

In Baltimore, Maryland, a police officer suspected of misconduct (a shooting, a beating, a false arrest) does not have to answer questions about the incident for 10 days. Ten days. Its difficult to imagine any other line of employment where employees would enjoy such protection.

More common are the 48-hour waiting periods before an officer involved in, say, a use-of-force incident has to answer any questions. In Chicago, [t]he interview shall be postponed for a reasonable time, but no longer than 48 hours. Detroit officers get 48 hours even after being ordered to make a written statement. Do employees in any other job or profession get such a luxury?

What do those waiting periods do? They give officers time to put together a story to justify their use of force. They can ask their friends how they explained a similar kind of situation. And, as with the incident in Chicago, officers can conspire to concoct an exculpatory lie, often with a union official taking the lead.

Waiting periods are not all. Some union contracts put strict time limits on disciplinary actions. In Indianapolis, a recommendation for discipline must be made not later than sixty days after the time the Department learns of the occurrence. In a complex shooting or use-of-physical-force incident, where more than one officer is involved, and with several witness officers and citizen witnesses, investigations are often not completed for five or six months.

And even when officers are disciplined, many union contracts afford them the opportunity to purge the record from their personnel file. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a sustained citizen complaint will be purged after 18 months, as long as the officer has no other complaints in that period. Incredibly, in Cleveland, Ohio, all [v]erbal disciplinary warnings and disciplinary written reprimands shall be removed from an officers file after six (6) months.

In Omaha, Nebraska, [a]n employee may request that any reprimand that is greater than one year old be removed from his personnel file. What other employees in this country have any such opportunity?

In short, across the country, police officers get to wipe their disciplinary records clean.

Even when disciplinary actions remain in an officers file, in some departments they are no barrier to promotion or assignment to a choice position (as a detective, for example). In San Diego, formal reprimands that are 2 years old, and where there are no further disciplinary actions in that period, will not be considered for purposes of promotion, transfer [or] special assignments.

Do other employers accept promoting to supervisory positions people with a past history of disciplinary actions? Is a newly promoted police sergeant likely to command the respect of the officers under his or her responsibility when they all know about his or her dubious conduct record?

Beyond the specific protections in the various provisions cited here, they have serious cumulative effect, creating a culture of impunity within a police department. Its a culture that says officers do not have to be held accountable for their actions, a culture that tolerates and even breeds patterns of excessive use of force, of verbal disrespect of citizens on the street, and contempt for basic standards of professionalism.

How, you ask, did the United States ever allow this to happen?

The sad truth is that, for the last 50 years, American police union contract negotiations have occurred in the shadows, with almost no sunlight and public scrutiny. And at the heart of the problem is a corrupt relationship between union officials and city mayors. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune documented the standard trade-off. Union negotiators begin with high demands on salaries and benefits and then offer to trade lower demands for concessions on disciplinary matters. City negotiators are all too eager to save their budget in return for management issues within police departments whose consequences they do not understand.

But, in fact, the consequences of management and disciplinary problems among police officers are very real and very damaging for all citizens. The protections won by police unions allow bad officers to remain on the job, allow misconduct to continue unpunished and uncorrected, and have allowed the current culture of impunity to grow and impede the development of true police professionalism.

Its also important for Americans to understand that their countrys police crisis isnt simply a domestic issue. It also has international consequences. The unjustified shootings that have occurred, and the angry protests that have followed, severely tarnish Americas reputation around the world. Thoughtful Americans in the 1950s and 1960s worried that the dramatic events in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, told the world that this country had not honored the promises of equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. To many people around the world, Americas efforts on behalf of human rights are similarly undermined by its policing crisis at home and the racial issues bound up with it.

Donald Trump isnt wrong to say that this has become a law and order election. But addressing the problems of police union contracts  especially the provisions that impede accountability  is what a true law and order candidate would insist upon.

Photo credit: Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images
In another time and place, a presidential nominee might have reacted with outrage or alarm if one of his campaign advisers had called for the execution of the rival partys candidate.

But there was radio silence from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's command post in Cleveland this week after one of Trumps Veterans Affairs advisers declared that Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.

Related: After Fresh Foreign Policy Stumbles, Can Trumps Acceptance Speech Inspire Confidence?

The adviser, a New Hampshire state representative named Al Baldasaro, made the shocking and potentially criminal assertion during an interview on a Boston radio station.

Like many others who have taken part in the four day Republican National Convention, Baldasaro personally blames the former secretary of state for the deaths of four Americans during the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Patricia Smith, whose son Sean was one of those killed in Benghazi, gave a tearful speech Monday evening in which she blamed Clinton for her sons death.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, both former prosecutors, devoted large portions of their primetime speeches to convicting Clinton for an array of perceived crimes  including failing to provide adequate security at the Benghazi compound and then misleading the families of the victims as to the cause of the attack.

Hatred and contempt for Clinton has permeated the GOP convention from day one  a visceral feeling that has been fueled by Trump and his advisers for months and that appears to be the one thing truly uniting the otherwise fractious party. Most speakers by far have mentioned Clintons name more often than Trumps.

Related: GOP Leaders Tepid Praise Spells Trouble if Trump Wins

Lock her up, lock her up! thousands of GOP delegates and party officials have yelled in response to a seemingly endless series of speeches condemning Clinton as a traitor, an incompetent and even (as former presidential candidate Ben Carson suggested) in league with Lucifer.

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Many are also reacting to FBI head James Comeys ruling that Clintons email use of a private account and server did not meet the criteria of a criminal felony. An Associated Press/GfK poll released July 15 shows that 56 percent of Americans believe Clinton was guilty and broke the law.

The anti-Clinton feeling has spilled into the streets of Cleveland, where sign trucks emblazoned "Hillary for Prison 2016" are about the most polite reference to the presumptive Democratic nominee in sight.

Savvy vendors knew what would sell, and merchandise bearing crude, hateful slogans about Clinton are for sale everywhere. On Thursday afternoon, a salesperson stood for hours shouting over and over the two slogans on one of his double-sided t-shirts: "Hillary sucks, but not like Monica!" (pause) "Trump that Bitch!"

GOP leaders, dignitaries and delegates have assumed the role of Clintons judge and jury. During his speech on Tuesday night, Christie called out more than a dozen indictments of Clinton and the crowd declared Guilty! Baldasaro has taken the political witch trial one-step further, as the self-appointed executioner.

Related: Christie Unites the GOP by Condemning Clinton for 8 Major Failures

She is a disgrace for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi, he said in the radio interview. This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.

Trump, no doubt, had other things on his mind while his half-witted military and veterans affairs adviser was getting into hot water, but he might have taken a moment to disavow the comments and disassociate himself from Baldassaro. But thats an unlikely outcome. This, after all, is the same candidate who was slow to disavow the endorsement of KKK leader David Duke, and has never apologized for having once belittled the Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a heroic Vietnam War era veteran, for have been captured and imprisoned by the enemy.

An unrepentant Baldasaro has refused to apologize, even as the Secret Service began to investigate to determine whether the hot-headed state legislator was harmless or should be taken out of circulation.

Instead  in perfect Trumpian style  he denied that he called for Clinton to be executed and accused the media of distorting his words.

I never said she should be shot, he said late Wednesday, according to the Military Times. As usual, the liberal media is taking it out of context. What I said was she should be up on treason charges, and the punishment for that is a firing squad.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican foreign policy veterans and outside experts warned that the suggestion by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that he might abandon NATO's pledge to automatically defend all alliance members could destroy an organization that has helped keep the peace for 66 years and could invite Russian aggression. "Statements like these make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe," Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump critic who is one of the Republican Party's leading foreign policy voices and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement on Thursday. "I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Baltic states, must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump. I'm 100 percent certain how Russian President Putin feels  he's a very happy man," he said.Trump's comments in a New York Times interview "would seem to put him on the same page with Mr. Putin," Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Reuters. In the New York Times interview, Trump, in response to a question about potential Russian aggression toward the Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - said that if Moscow attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations "have fulfilled their obligations to us." He added, "If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes." "It's the end of NATO," Robert Hunter, a former U.S. ambassador to the alliance under President Bill Clinton, told Reuters. "The essence of NATO, more than any other single factor, is the commitment of the United States of America to the security of the other 27 members." Asked about Trump's comments, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU knows it needs to "work more on our defense capabilities," but said the United States needs to keep solidarity with its allies. "It's very simple to realize that in the world of today, which is quite a complicated one and quite a dangerous one, you need friends," said Mogherini, who spoke in Washington at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "INFLAMMATORY REMARKS" A letter signed by a bipartisan group of 39 national security experts said Trump's "inflammatory remarks" do not represent the interests of the United States. "The strength of our alliances is at the core of those interests," said the group, which includes prominent Republicans such as former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former State Department official Eliot Cohen. The United States must uphold the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's commitments "to all of our allies, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania," the letter said. U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the mutual defense commitment was the essence of the Atlantic alliance. But he added that both Republicans and Democrats "are becoming exasperated that most members of the alliance are not honoring their obligations" for military spending, Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said in a statement. Responding to Trump's suggestion that his decisions would depend in part on whether states that were attacked were meeting their financial commitments to the alliance, former diplomat Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it is important not to see NATO or any alliance solely in budget terms. "More important is the net benefit the U.S. derives from the stability and security of the country and region affected and the price the U.S. would pay if stability were to be lost or its interests undermined," Haass told Reuters. Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which created NATO in 1949 and calls an attack on one member an attack on all, has been invoked once - to help defend the United States after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Following the attacks, NATO sent AWACS planes to patrol over U.S. skies, with more than 800 crew members from 13 NATO countries flying over 360 sorties. As part of the eight measures approved to support the United States, NATO, about three weeks later, sent elements of its Standing Naval Forces to patrol the Eastern Mediterranean and monitor shipping, expanding that to include the entire Mediterranean several months later. A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also noted that the alliance "deployed a third of the troops in Afghanistan for over a decade, where over one thousand soldiers from non-U.S. NATO allies and partners gave their lives. Still, some experts downplayed Trump's comments, even as they criticized them. Kurt Volker, who was U.S. ambassador to NATO under both Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama, said it was inadvisable to create doubts in adversaries' minds about the consequences they would face if they invaded a country. "Putin loves it," Volker said. But he said the general European attitude was to take Trump's pronouncements with a grain of salt. "Everyone knows it's an election campaign," he said. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, Yara Bayoumy, Warren Strobel, Roberta Rampton and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Emily Stephenson and Ginger Gibson in Cleveland; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
By Steve Holland CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Donald Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as U.S. secretary of state and vowed to be tough on crime and illegal immigrants in a speech on Thursday accepting the Republican presidential nomination. Trump's 75-minute speech was designed to set the tone for the general election campaign against Clinton, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on Nov. 8. As the crowd chanted: "Lock her up" for her handling of U.S. foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: "Let's defeat her in November." Thousands of supporters who were gathered in the convention hall roared their approval. When it was over, Trump was joined on stage by family members as balloons cascaded from above and confetti blew around the arena. A CNN snap poll of viewers of the speech said 57 percent had a "very positive reaction" to the address and 18 percent a somewhat positive reaction, while 24 percent said it had a negative effect. Social media sentiment toward Trump based on tweets that mentioned his name was slightly more negative than positive shortly after his speech. The acceptance speech by Trump, 70, closed out a four-day convention that underscored his struggle to heal fissures in the Republican Party over his anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about his temperament. The event was boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents. Trump presented a bleak view of America under siege from illegal immigrants, threatened by Islamic State militants, hindered by crumbling infrastructure and weakened by unfair trade deals and race-related violence. Accusing illegal immigrants of taking jobs from American citizens and committing crimes, Trump vowed to build a "great border wall" against the border-crossers. "We will stop it," Trump said. Trump took positions in conflict with traditional Republican policies. He said he would avoid multinational trade deals but instead pursue agreements with individual countries. He would renegotiate the NAFTA trade accord linking the United States, Canada and Mexico. He would penalize companies that outsource jobs and then export their foreign-made products back into the United States. "We will never sign bad trade deals," Trump thundered. "America first!" The New York businessman, who has never held elected office, filled his speech with some of the bravado he used to win the Republican nomination over 16 rivals, punctuating his rhetorical points by waving an index finger. "I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump said. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." In his speech, Trump portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned. Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W. Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump said policies pursued by Clinton in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse. He blamed her for the rise of Islamic State militants and blasted her willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees. "After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said. Clinton senior adviser John Podesta dismissed the speech as painting "a dark picture of an America in decline" and called it a reminder that Trump "is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States." John Weaver, a senior adviser to Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, a former presidential rival to Trump, said in a tweet that Trump had delivered the "saddest, darkest, most depressing acceptance speech in modern history." 'THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE' Trump needed a strong performance on Thursday night to improve his chances of getting a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own, more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia. In a contest that pits two politicians viewed as unfavorable by large segments of the American people, Trump also accused Clinton, 68, of being the puppet of big business, elite media and major donors who want to preserve the current political system. "That is why Hillary Clintons message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change  and they have to change right now," Trump said. Trump said he would speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month. He vowed to defeat "the barbarians of ISIS," the acronym for Islamic State. "I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump said. The next president takes office on Jan. 20. CONVENTION DISCORD The prevailing narrative at the Cleveland convention has not been about Trump's positions, but dominated instead by the failure of he party's various factions to unite behind Trump. A series of distractions at the convention largely thwarted a bid by the Trump campaign to show him as a caring father and magnanimous business leader who would bring greater prosperity and safety to the United States. But in the end, many of these points were made when Ivanka Trump, Trump's daughter, introduced her father. "I have seen him fight for his family. I have seen him fight for his employees. I have seen him fight for his company and now I am seeing him fight for our country," she said. Trump's text of his speech, released by his campaign, included extensive footnotes to show where the material originated. That was perhaps in reaction to the speech given on Monday night by Trump's wife Melania, who was accused of plagiarism when she repeated lines from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, Obama's wife. A staff writer for the Trump Organization later took responsibility for the misstep. (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson, Angela Moon, Michelle Conlin and David Alexander; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Howard Goller and Peter Cooney)
The sight of police officers at last week's Black Lives Matter rally outside the state Capitol shook Sharon Glenn.

Their blue uniforms brought back bad memories of a violent encounter with an officer 10 years ago on the Fourth of July, for which she was arrested.

"It made me anxious, sweaty; I lost my composure," she said of last week's experience. "I just couldn't bring myself to be around them or look at them."

But Thursday, she wept as Lincoln Police Capt. Genelle Moore embraced her in front of dozens of people at Belmont Recreation Center, during a community conversation between local cops and those they are sworn to serve.

She said that she had heard about me, Glenn later recounted. Moore also consoled her, she said: This is when the healing is going to start.

It was a dramatic moment during a mostly amicable meeting that drew a diverse crowd of about 100 people, including a dozen police. Lincoln Chief Jeff Bliemeister, Assistant Chief Brian Jackson, at least three captains and the department's top gang officer all attended.

Others did most of the talking.

Some told of past struggles with law enforcement in Lincoln and elsewhere. Many complimented local police for their efforts to respect everyone they encounter, regardless of race or criminal history.

A few posed emotion-laden questions.

Lisa Tayor -- whose 15-year-old son is black, 6-foot-2 and has an autism spectrum disorder -- asked how officers are trained to react "if he doesnt respond the way the police think he ought to."

Dan Coke, 35, asked when during a traffic stop police must tell someone why they have been pulled over, and whether Lincoln officers are instructed to de-escalate situations so they don't become violent.

Police answered: They do receive training for working with people who have developmental disabilities. They aren't supposed to pull someone over without telling them what for.

And de-escalation "is immersed in everything that we do," Bliemeister said. "We want and need our officers to de-escalate all the time.

Before the Belmont event, Bliemeister had met with about 15 people during a monthly meeting of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

He told them Lincoln isn't immune from the national focus on relationships between police and racial minorities, and that decades of efforts to make the city's police force more representative of its population have really not been successful.

Some people believe officers put on their uniforms intending to kill black people, he said.

I dont believe that. (However), bias does exist, and we need to have an awareness of that.

Training on ethics and impartial policing are included in the department's academy program for new officers, and other officers receive ongoing training.

But the Lincoln Police Department must bolster its ranks to effectively address the demands of an increasingly diverse community, he said: that means more officers of color -- and more officers, period.

Mayor Chris Beutler has proposed adding four cops with his next biennial budget.

"I can tell you we asked for many, many more than that," said Bliemeister, who has been on the job three months.

Citizens can be part of the solution, too, said John Harris, who organized the Belmont Center event and is planning another one for Aug. 25 at the F Street Community Center.

Community policing should involve not only police but neighbors, family members and friends looking out for each other, Harris said.

Everyone must also take part in combating racial tension by becoming more open-minded themselves, said Jaida Jackson, a sophomore at the University of Nebraska at Omaha whose mother, Chassidy Jackson, is a Lincoln police officer.

"If we as black people or we as police officers do not like being stereotyped, we cannot do that to everybody else," Jaida Jackson said.
Donald Trump can always be counted on to upset a long-standing apple cart. He did it again in his most recent interview with the New York Times. He made clear that in his view, Americas treaty commitments, for decades a cornerstone of its national security policy, are not binding. Instead, they are subject to any sort of conditionality that the president might choose to impose.

For Trump, that conditionality is budgetary. If a given ally, or group of allies, do not contribute their fair share according to Trump, they can no longer rely on America coming to their aid in case of an attack by an aggressor. And it will be Trump  assuming, as he does, that he is elected president  who will determine what a fair share might be.

Trump was referring specifically to a Russian attack on one of the three Baltic states, all of which are NATO members. By asserting that they could well be on their own were Russia to seek to reoccupy them, Trump was doing more than abandoning allies who for five decades, from 1940 to 1990, the United States had considered captive nations. He was serving notice that he perceives Russia as far more benign than do the Europeans or the previous leaders of both major American political parties. Perhaps that should come as no surprise. Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the first major figures to support Trumps candidacy for president. And American presidents have a long tradition of rewarding their earliest supporters once elected. Since Trump cannot award Putin an ambassadorship (then again, who knows, maybe he can?), the Republican nominee might as well grant the Kremlin the right to invade one or more neighboring states.

Rather than maintaining oversees bases, Trump asserts that it would be far more efficient for American forces to deploy from the United States. Such a policy would solve the problem of underutilized bases and would obviate the need for a new round of base closures. And it would no doubt delight a non-insignificant number of members of Congress. On the other hand, the redeployment of forces back to the United States may not result in cost savings when  not if  an aggressor threatens Americas overseas interests. The cost of stationing American forces abroad is not borne by Washington alone. Host nations such as Japan and South Korea make a significant contribution toward covering those costs.

Moreover, forward deployments have had a major deterrent effect on potential adversaries. In the absence of a prompt American response to aggression, such deterrence will no longer be as credible as it has been until now. Instead, an aggressor could be sorely tempted to attack an erstwhile American ally, whose security is important to those very economic interests that Trump values so highly, and that he would have to deploy forces to defend. Wars always cost more than deterrence; by inviting a war that would draw in American forces, Trump would actually end up growing defense budgets to a far greater extent than he seems prepared to acknowledge, or worse still, fully comprehend.

Trump also fails to realize that forward deployments have long represented a tacit bargain between America and its allies. By stationing forces on allies territory, Washington ensures that the battles it fights will take place on foreign soil. That has been the case since the nineteenth century. Allies and friends accept the risk of war on their territory because the presence of American forces renders war far less likely. Trump would change all that.

Whether or not he is elected president, Trump has already succeeded in altering and undermining the nature of Americas alliance relationships. He has planted in the minds of NATO and other American allies a seed of doubt about Washingtons reliability that will not disappear regardless of who is the next occupant of the White House. His increasingly frequent and explicit statements about the diminished utility of alliances have opened a Pandoras box that will not be closed easily.

Trump has forced European and Asian allies to rethink their options. Several Central European states have already developed ties to Putin that are too close for American comfort, and more may follow down the same path. Similarly, the Arab Middle East, and perhaps even Israel, may build upon their own increasingly close ties with Russia. And the smaller Asian states may decide that it is better to look to Beijing rather than rely on an ambivalent America for security.

Trump is a master salesman. He has a knack for dominating media headlines. Unfortunately for America, he is selling a policy that could have disastrous consequences for the security that he so loudly claims to promote. Sadly, it is the headlines, rather than their content, that are uppermost in Trumps mind. America is already paying a high price for the snake oil that he is marketing as America First. The more he repeats his sales pitch, the higher that price is likely to be.

Photo credit: JUSTIN SULLIVN/Getty Images
Two years ago, President Barack Obama delivered a stern warning to Russia and an ironclad promise to NATO allies: The United States was prepared to go to war to defend Baltic countries from possible aggression.

The NATO treaty is crystal clear: An attack on one is an attack on all, Obama said in a landmark speech in Tallinn, Estonia. You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has a different message for transatlantic allies and other U.S. partners: Pay up, or youre pretty much on your own.

In an interview with the New York Times that has shocked Washingtons allies, Trump said if he were elected president, the United States would not automatically defend NATO members if they were invaded by Russia. Preventing Moscow from marching into other nations is, of course, the sole reason NATO was created in the first place.

If allies in Europe or Asia failed to pay their fair share for U.S. military assistance, Trump said: Then, yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.'

Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich went even further than the candidate himself, saying Thursday that NATO allies ought to worry about our commitment because he claimed they were failing to pull their weight.

Gingrich called transatlantic allies a source of weakness, not a source of strength. The former speaker of the House singled out Estonia, saying, Im not sure I would risk a nuclear war over some place which is the suburbs of St. Petersburg.

The comments by Trump and one of his top surrogates stand in stark contrast not only to Obamas 2014 speech in Estonia, but to decades of U.S. diplomacy upheld by both Democratic and Republican presidents since the end of World War II.

If carried out by a future President Trump, the policies would also represent an effective surrender to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spent years trying to undermine NATO, which he derides for accepting the membership of Baltic states he sees as part of Russias sphere of influence. Over the past decade, Putin has used cyberweapons against Estonia; invaded Georgia; and annexed Crimea while sending uniformed troops and operatives to back separatist forces throughout eastern Ukraine.

Story continues

From Harry Truman to the current commander in chief, Washington has never wavered in its commitment to the transatlantic alliance, viewing it as a bedrock of stability and an effective deterrent to Russia. The same unequivocal pledge of military support has applied to Americas defense treaty allies of Japan and South Korea, where Washington has worked to counter North Korea and China.

Trump, however, said this is not 40 years ago and that the country could no longer afford the cost of deploying military power around the world  including 28,000 troops in South Korea  without more financial help from its allies.

But the South Korean government pays about half of the U.S. basing and personnel costs in the country. The top U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Vincent Brooks, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April that the Republic of Korea is carrying a significant load of the American commitment there.

The Japanese government also pays many of the land-leasing costs for U.S. bases there, as well as a share of the utilities. The countrys budget earmarks about $4 billion for base-related expenses annually.

Trumps comments come on the heels of U.S. Defense Department warnings that a resurgent Russia, which seized Ukraines Crimean peninsula in 2014, represents the most serious national security danger facing the country. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said last year that Russia poses the lone existential threat to the United States. Republican lawmakers have repeated those warnings and charged the White House with moving too slowly to check Moscow.

Trumps remarks stunned foreign ministries across Europe and Asia and prompted some diplomats to drop their customary reluctance to wade into a U.S. presidential race.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a blunt statement that two world wars had shown that peace in Europe was in the interest of the United States.

Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO. This is good for European security and good for U.S. security. We defend one another, he said.

Others inside NATO privately pushed back, with one official telling Foreign Policy that those who think the alliance has been a free rider should remember that allied countries have deployed a third of the troops in Afghanistan for over a decade, where over 1,000 soldiers from non-U.S. NATO allies and partners gave their lives.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clintons campaign pounced on Trumps remarks as a betrayal of more than a half-century of bipartisan foreign policy.

Ronald Reagan would be ashamed. Harry Truman would be ashamed, Jake Sullivan, Clintons top policy advisor, said in a statement.

Slamming Trump for refusing to commit to protecting our NATO allies against a Russian invasion, Sullivan said: It is fair to assume that Vladimir Putin is rooting for a Trump presidency.

Trump has called the Russian president a strong leader and predicted he would be able to work with him while his campaign successfully watered down language in the GOP platform to remove calls for arming Ukraines forces against pro-Russian separatists.

Over the years, Trump has pursued business prospects in Russia, including trying to bring the Miss Universe beauty pageant there. And a number of his closest advisors have had business interests linked to Russia. His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is a onetime consultant to the pro-Moscow former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. One of his military advisors, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, was invited to sit at Putins table at a December dinner in Moscow sponsored by RT, the government-funded news network. Flynn has declined to say whether he has been paid to appear as a guest on the channel.

Another advisor, Carter Page, a former consultant to Russias state-owned gas giant, Gazprom, has suggested Washington is to blame for raising tensions with Moscow over Ukraine.

At a lecture this month in Moscow, Page accused the United States of an often hypocritical focus on democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change.

Trumps remarks to the Times, delivered on the eve of his speech Thursday to the Republican National Convention, carried echoes of rhetoric from Moscow and other adversaries of the United States, which have accused Washington of double standards in its criticisms over human rights.

Asked about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans massive purge of the military, police, and universities after a failed coup last week, Trump said the United States should not be scolding other countries about civil liberties.

Look [at] whats happening with our country, Trump said in the interview. How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood?

Trumps running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, sought to defuse the uproar over the real estate moguls comments on Thursday, insisting that Trump would not abandon Americas partners overseas.

Pence, however, said he agreed with Trump that the United States must re-evaluate how it conducts business with its international partners. We need to begin to look to our allies around the world and make sure they pay their fair share, he said on Fox & Friends.

Declining to respond directly to Trumps words, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Washingtons bond with the NATO alliance was unequivocal. This enduring commitment has formed the basis of U.S. security policy toward Europe since the [alliance] treaty was signed in 1949, he said.

The Latvian ambassador to the United States, Andris Razans, told FP that Trumps remarks were making front-page news in his country.

Razans said a clear commitment among NATO members was more important than ever, given Russias recent aggressive behavior toward its neighbors in Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic states.

When asked about Trumps recurring complaints that the majority of NATO countries fail to spend enough on defense, Razans said Latvia is making progress. By law, the country was required to reach the NATO target for military spending of 2 percent of GDP by 2018.

What I can say is Latvia is a NATO ally and we very seriously honor our commitments of sending out troops in NATO operations in Afghanistan or Iraq, he said.

If Russia were to decide to launch a full-scale assault on one of the tiny Baltic countries, theres little that NATO could do to stop it in the short term. But the threat of a potential U.S.-backed military response acts as a genuine deterrent to Russian notions of reimposing Soviet-era boundaries, experts and former diplomats said.

In an alliance of democracies, youll always have to confront the burden-sharing question, said Stanley Sloan, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

But with some NATO allies peeking over their border fences at snap exercises featuring thousands of Russian soldiers with brand-new equipment and heavy armor, Washingtons word counts a great deal, Sloan said. Deterrence means a lot of things, he said, like indications of intent and support.

Photo credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
CLEVELAND  As GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, he was briefly interrupted by veteran protester Medea Benjamin. She began shouting and waving a banner that read BUILD BRIDGES NOT WALLS, a critique of Trumps plan to build a wall on the United States southern border.

Benjamin was forcibly removed from the convention floor by police. As she was taken away, she denounced Trump as racist, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-woman.

Hes a danger to our country and the world! Hes a danger to all of us! Say no to Donald Trump! Hes a danger to the world! she exclaimed.

Trump, who had started his speech by declaring himself a law and order candidate, paused as Benjamin was pulled off the convention floor clutching a banner in her hands. Audience members attempted to drown out her shouts with chants of U.S.A.! U.S.A.! After Benjamin was taken out, Trump acknowledged her removal by praising the police officers who had carried her out.

How great are our police, and how great is Cleveland? he asked.

Protester Medea Benjamin of Code Pink is taken away as Donald Trump speaks on the final day of the Republican National Convention. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

Benjamin is the co-founder of the antiwar activist group Code Pink. She and the groups other members specialize in infiltrating and disrupting political events, including multiple party conventions. In a conversation with Yahoo News shortly after her protest, Benjamin said members of Code Pink caused interruptions on three of the four nights of the RNC, which began Monday and ended with Trumps speech. Benjamin said she was there to criticize Trumps hawkish policies. However, she stressed that she doesnt support Trumps rival, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

You know, Im very upset with Hillary Clintons foreign policies that have been very hawkish, Benjamin said. So it wasnt anything done to support one party or the other.

Benjamin and other members of Code Pink plan to travel to Philadelphia to protest next weeks Democratic convention. She said they get inside the conventions because the party activists and delegates in attendance just give us their badges.

Story continues

There are a lot of Republicans who dont like Donald Trump. I mean, weve been out on the streets all these days, and weve just seen so many people who come up and say  you know, they agree with us that Donald Trump is not fit to be president, Benjamin said. There seemed like a lot of enthusiasm tonight, but from what Ive seen, theres a tremendous crisis in this party, and I think its going to be a very difficult electoral season for them.

After protesting at so many major events, Benjamin has become fairly well known. She was amazed security didnt notice her infiltrating the RNC.

There was a congressman there who came up and said hello, Benjamin said. There were people who winked at me. Im sure there were people who recognized me, but thankfully they didnt say anything. I was indeed nervous the whole time that somebody was going to come and pull me out because I had been recognized.

Benjamin wasnt sure which lawmaker she saw, but she said he was wearing a congressional lapel pin. She spent about two hours waiting on the convention floor for Trumps speech and was very nervous the entire time.

Its scary. I mean, you look out and you see a sea of people who are so enthusiastic and cheering, and you know that the people around you are going to be really upset with you. It is scary, she said.

When she was pulled out, Benjamin said the police were extremely professional. She couldnt recall anything members of the audience said to her.

I was so focused on the moment, I couldnt even hear, she said.

Once she left, Benjamin wanted a beer to help her relax.

I would love to get a beer, but I actually am catching an Amtrak train in a couple of hours to go back to Washington, D.C., to get ready for Philadelphia. So there wont be a lot of unwinding  although I think a beer is in order, Benjamin continued. When the Secret Service asked me, Do I drink or smoke or have mental illnesses? I said, I must confess, I would really love a beer tonight.

Yahoo News was on hand as Benjamin was taken off the convention floor. Watch a video of her exit below.

The protester who interrupted Trumps speech was Code Pinks @medeabenjamin. She was forcibly removed by police. pic.twitter.com/XnmGiX3Hvb  Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 22, 2016



This post was updated at 1:41 a.m. on Friday, July 22, 2016, with details from our conversation with Benjamin.

_____

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From ELLE

At the start of the week, I was judging RNC 2016 by the by typical standards of a party convention, and it looked like the whole affair was going to be a #fail. But as we move into prime time on the final night of the Republican National Convention, I find myself having to admit that this week just may prove another jaw-dropping example of Donald Trump's unorthodox mastery of American political media and partisan politics.

WIN #1

Protests, danger, threats, and, fear were the main themes of pre-convention news. Even now, hours before Mr. Trump takes the stage, a threatening atmosphere of tension, fear, and the need for security is being telegraphed from Cleveland to the rest of America. For ordinary politicians, all this riot gear and breathless reporting would likely be seen as a failure; for Mr. Trump it is a victory. His campaign has propagated the message that America is unsafe. Each night, RNC speakers convey how dangerous America is, how insecure the world is, and how important it is to build walls, to lock down borders, to own personal firearms, to identify and eliminate enemies, and to elect a leader capable of managing a scary world. By governing each night over what appears to be a terrifying convention, Mr. Trump burnishes his bona fides to rule the frightening world he says we occupy.

WIN #2

Mr. Trump continued his winning streak on the first night of the convention when his wife, Melania Trump, delivered her first public remarks of the campaign. For the first hour after Mrs. Trump's speech, pundits were complimentary of reflections that seemed to humanize a man who can seem more like a caricature than a person. Reactions swiftly changed when it became clear a portion of Mrs. Trump's speech was strikingly similar to that of Michelle Obama's 2008 convention address.

I get why most everyone thinks this is a huge failure for the Trump campaign, but excuse me, I have got to count this one as a win. Under what other circumstances would American media and the entire social media world have spent nearly every waking hour comparing Melania Trump to first lady Michelle Obama? What other act could have elevated Melania Trump-described on the CNN ticker as having "Launched Jewelry Collection with QVC in 2010, and Caviar Skin Care Collection in 2013"-to the level of Michelle Obama, a cum laude graduate of Princeton University, graduate of Harvard Law, and, for more than seven years, the first lady of the United States? (Not to mention the mother of two extraordinary daughters, and a woman who is just generally fabulous?) What now exists are thousands of images of Melania Trump on equal footing with Michelle Obama.

Story continues

WIN #3

Tuesday night, Mr. Trump pulled out a third victory by letting his former adversary do his dirtiest dirty work: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conducted what amounted to a kangaroo court against Hillary Clinton. Whatever veracity the charges themselves may have, the proceedings gave an impression closer to the Salem witch trials than normal convention events. My stomach clenched in visceral repulsion as a largely white male audience embraced the mantra "Lock her up!"

When you are standing in the room, and it feels like this chant might be directed at you, the words are far scarier than "Make America Great Again." There is not a hint of dog whistle here. And as the red meat was thrown to the base, Mr. Trump was not in the building. On Monday, he appeared to introduce his wife. Wednesday and Thursday, he would return. But on the night most inflected by intolerance, Mr. Trump appeared only briefly by satellite. Trump did not choose Christie as his running mate-this shouting, angry man, ready to lock up a woman for crimes for which she has not been found guilty in any court of law. He did not choose Christie, despite the ways the governor showed puppy-like devotion for months on the campaign trail. Trump did not even attend Christie's mock trial of Clinton-he just allowed it to happen. Convention win three.

WIN #4

Wednesday night Donald Trump pulled off the most unlikely victory of all. On Wednesday, Trump beat Cruz by getting Cruz to beat himself when he thought he was beating Trump. It was nuts! The reality is the Republican party is deeply divided. Many elected Republicans simply chose not to attend the convention this year rather than endorse Mr. Trump. They don't want to run afoul of Trump-supporting voters in their base, but they don't see this nominee as the future of their party. So they scheduled family vacations, dental appointments, haircuts, pretty much any excuse to avoid going to Cleveland.

Senator Ted Cruz took a different approach. He decided to come to the convention to give an impassioned speech on the meaning of conservatism, to articulate the importance of voting in November, and then to call on conservatives to "vote their conscience." Cruz came to Trump's convention and then trolled him-stunning theater, ideological idealism, gangsta GOP-ism. If you were watching the whole thing go down on a liberal social media feed you could easily think Cruz won the exchange.

But it felt very different in the Quicken Loans Arena. Cruz was booed off stage. Delegates were chanting, "We want Trump!" A state party chairman had had to be restrained. And who saunters in coolly, as though he is perfectly unaffected by the whole affair? Mr. Donald Trump, nominee of the Republican party, tweeting:

As he prepares to take center stage tonight, Donald Trump continues to defy all (excuse the pun) conventional logic of political pundits-winning even when he seems to lose.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Turkey is asking its nationals living abroad to report people and organizations that support a U.S.-based Muslim cleric who is accused of masterminding a failed military coup to Turkish authorities, Swedish Radio reported on Friday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric and former ally, of being behind the plot, which crumbled early on Saturday. In a crackdown on Gulen's suspected followers, more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and educators have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation. On a Facebook page that caters to supporters of Turkey's ruling AK Party, a post urged people to call a Turkish number and provide information about supporters of Gulen. When calling the phone number, public broadcaster Swedish Radio reported it reached the president's office that confirmed it was interested in information about Gulen supporters also in Sweden and said it wanted "all information you could give, personal data and addresses". No one picked up during regular office hours when Reuters called the number on Friday. Turkey's ambassador to Sweden, Kaya Turkmen, had not been aware of the post, Swedish Radio said, but he said he found it natural that the Turkish state would be interested in such information. "Every state has a right to collect information on activities that are directed against it, even if it is individuals living in Sweden," Turkmen told Swedish Radio, which added there had been similar posts on social media in Germany and Austria. (Reporting by Daniel Dickson and Violette Goarant, additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday denied any U.S. role in Turkey's failed coup and insisted that an extradition request for a U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused of orchestrating the putsch would have to go through normal channels. Obama, speaking at a news conference, said he told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a call earlier this week that the United States had no prior knowledge of the abortive coup. "Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false," Obama said. "He (Erdogan) needs to make sure that, not just he but everybody in his government, understands that those reports are completely false," Obama added. "Because when rumors like that start swirling around, that puts our people at risk on the ground in Turkey and it threatens what is a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey." Reports of U.S. involvement in the coup attempt, which were also denied earlier this week by the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, appear to be partly fueled by the fact that cleric Fethullah Gulen lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Erdogan accuses Gulen, a charismatic former ally, of masterminding the plot against him. In a crackdown on Gulen's suspected followers, more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation. Gulen has condemned the attempted coup and denied any involvement in it. Obama, reiterating what U.S. officials had said earlier this week, said he told Erdogan his government must first present evidence of Gulen's alleged complicity in the failed coup. An extradition request would then receive the review required by the Justice Department and other government agencies just like any other petition. "America's governed by rules of law, and those are not ones that the president of the United States or anybody else can just set aside for the sake of expediency," Obama said. "We've got to go through a legal process." Serdar Kilic, the Turkish ambassador to the United States, told a news conference on Friday that his country had submitted the "necessary documentation" for Gulen's extradition. But U.S. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said he could not yet give a "hard yes or no" on whether the materials submitted by Turkey constituted a formal extradition request. (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Julia Harte; Editing by Tom Brown)
ANKARA, July 22 (Reuters) - The United States does not need to take years to extradite a U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of masterminding a failed military coup, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

Washington has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of Fethullah Gulen's involvement in the attempted coup and lawyers have said any extradition process could take years. Gulen has condemned the July 15 abortive coup and denied any involvement.

"If you want to draw out the Gulen extradition issue it can take years but if you are decisive it can be completed in a short period," Cavusoglu told state broadcaster TRT Haber.

Cavusoglu said the United States had proposed setting up a commission to discuss the Gulen extradition issue and said Turkey was ready to take part. He also said Gulen should not be allowed to flee to another country in the meantime.

The foreign minister also urged Athens to deport to Turkey soldiers involved in the coup attempt who fled to Greece after it collapsed.

(Reporting by Asli Kandemir; Writing by Gareth Jones)
Lancaster County prosecutors have accused a couple of felony child abuse after police say they were high on drugs around their two children and exposed them to filthy conditions.

Steven R. Didomenico, 32, of Shenandoah, Iowa, and Christina A. Smith, 38, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, were arrested by Lincoln police just after midnight Friday.

Police went to the CVS Pharmacy at 14th and Superior streets just after 11 p.m. Thursday where Didomenico wanted to report a disturbance at his hotel room from earlier, Officer Katie Flood said.

Officers met Didomenico in the parking lot, where he had driven in a black Nissan Rogue, Flood said.

The SUV was littered with garbage and his two sons, ages 3 and 6, were in the backseat, sitting in booster chairs, she said.

Police noted the booster chairs weren't proper safety seats for their size, she said.

Didomenico appeared to the officer to be under the influence of a stimulant, likely methamphetamine, Flood said.

Officers contacted Smith at their hotel room near the Lincoln Airport.

Smith also appeared impaired by drugs and had fresh track marks visible on her arms, Flood said.

The hotel room was in disarray and "extremely dirty," an unsafe environment for two young children, police said.

"Neither Steven or Christina appeared to be in condition to care for the two children," Flood said, adding that the children were placed in the care of other family members.

Didomenico and Smith have been charged with intentionally committing child abuse not resulting in injury. Didomenico has also been charged with fourth-offense DUI.

Didomenico faces up to six years in prison if convicted, and Smith faces up to three years if convicted.

Both remained in the Lancaster County jail Friday afternoon.
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey on Friday detained almost 300 members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's guard and began shaking up the security forces one week after a failed coup, as US President Barack Obama denied having any prior intelligence of the putsch.

Supporters celebrated the coup's failure to unseat Erdogan, but the Turkish strongman faced growing global criticism over the mass detentions and sackings of tens of thousands of people.

In the latest swoop, Turkey detained 283 members of the presidential guard, an official said, There are at least 2,500 members of the guard, according to local media.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has cancelled 10,856 passports mainly of state officials "due to flight risk with the holders either in custody or on the run," the official said.

In the most significant institutional changes since the coup, powerful Interior Minister Efkan Ala said the gendarmerie would in future be part of the interior ministry and not the army.

The gendarmerie, which looks after domestic security, had always been part of the military and its removal is a blow to the armed forces' clout after the coup.

"The gendarmerie will definitely be dependent entirely on the interior ministry," Ala said, quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

- 'Intelligence failures' -

Erdogan held a two-hour meeting with the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MIT) Hakan Fidan at the presidential palace, Turkish television said.

Fidan, a key figure in modern Turkey, is under pressure after Erdogan repeatedly identified intelligence weaknesses during the coup bid.

On Wednesday, the president admitted there had been "intelligence failures", saying he learned about the coup from his brother-in-law.

Authorities imposed a state of emergency on Thursday, strengthening powers to round up suspects behind the failed putsch and suspending the European Convention on Human Rights.

Turkey's Western allies have been watching with alarm the turmoil in the key NATO member state, which has also been reeling from a wave of bomb attacks by Islamic State group jihadists and Kurdish rebels.

Story continues

"Turkey is a state of law and does not act by revenge," said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as he visited a military centre in Golbasi outside Ankara, where bombings on the night of the coup killed dozens of people.

"Turkey will not do what they (the plotters) have done. We will act with justice but not a single drop of blood spilt will remain without consequences."

Erdogan said 10,410 people had so far been detained with 4,060 of them remanded in custody, including more than 100 generals and admirals.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said there would be no curfews, and that the special measures may only last 45 days, insisting: "We want to end the state of emergency as soon as possible".

"This is not a declaration of martial law," he said.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told CNN-Turk that the period of pre-charge detention would be lengthened.

Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), told AFP in an interview he feared the a state of emergency could be used for a wider crackdown beyond the coup plotters.

"We voted against the state of emergency because we have no confidence in the AKP (ruling Justice and Development Party) on this subject," he said.

- 'Show us evidence' -

The president blames the coup, which saw seized fighter jets bomb Ankara and tanks run amok in Istanbul, on loyalists of the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey has demanded his extradition and the case has raised tensions in already strained relations between Washington and Ankara.

Obama on Friday flatly rejected reports that the United States had prior intelligence, calling such suggestions "unequivocally false."

Obama also told reporters that Turkey's request for Gulen's extradition would be handled in accordance with US law and that "evidence" of wrongdoing by the preacher would be taken seriously.

Obama said that in order for the United States to consider extraditing Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, Turkey would have to provide evidence he was involved in last week's attempted coup.

Twenty-eight people were detained in a nationwide operation against individuals suspected to be behind an allegedly pro-Gulen Twitter account called Fuat Avni, which claims to spill key state secrets, the Dogan news agency reported.

Erdogan has basked in the support of jubilant crowds who took to the streets of Istanbul Thursday night, packing one of the bridges spanning the Bosphorus and closing it to traffic.

The president has said July 15 would in future be marked as the "Remembrance Day of the Martyrs".

The government said the coup claimed the lives of 24 plotters, and of 241 citizens and members of the security forces who stood up to them.
Athens (AFP) - Eight Turkish military officers who fled last week's failed coup to Greece were moved to Athens on Friday, a police source said, where authorities will examine their asylum pleas.

"They came to Athens this morning," the source said, without being able to confirm where the suspects are being held.

"I assume it's because their asylum cases will be examined here," the officer added.

The eight men -- two commanders, four captains and two sergeants -- requested asylum in Greece after landing a military helicopter in the northern city of Alexandroupoli on Saturday.

They were allowed to land after sending a distress signal to authorities, and claim they will not receive a fair trial in Turkey.

A first ruling on the asylum applications is expected in early August.

On Thursday, the Alexandroupoli court handed them suspended two-month prison sentences for illegally entering Greece.

The sentences were suspended for a three-year period as the court took into account that the men felt threatened.

In his defence, one of the Turkish officers told the court through a translator that he did not want to return home owing to "indiscriminate" arrests by Ankara authorities.

"We saw indiscriminate arrests of military personnel and we were afraid," the suspect said.

The eight had been in police custody in the city of Kavala until Friday.

The case threatens to strain ties between NATO allies Turkey and Greece, with Ankara labelling the eight "terrorists".

Turkey's ambassador has warned that failure to return the officers "will not help" ties.
Decrying a spate of negative press coverage, the Turkish Embassy in Washington made its case to reporters Friday that Ankara has not abused its authority in the wake of a failed coup, screening a slick, government-produced documentary that shows tanks running over protesters and fighter jets strafing a city.

Much of the film appeared to be taken from security cameras perched on buildings or from international TV news clips, including footage of a soldier shooting a civilian at point-blank range.

Please give the benefit of the doubt to a government that has barely survived the worst attack on Turkish democracy in its history, Turkish Ambassador to the United States Serdar Kilic said, citing the deaths of 246 people and the injuries of more than 2,000.

There is a prejudice that President Erdogan and the government of Turkey is trying to take advantage of the attempted coup.

In recent days, Turkey has suspended, detained, or placed under investigation more than 60,000 judges, soldiers, police, civil servants, and teachers suspected of ties with accused coup plotter Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in the United States. Western governments and rights activists have raised concerns that President Recep Tayyip Erdogans crackdown may be extending beyond the coup plotters and targeting his political opponents  a charge Kilic denied.

If it was the case that Erdogan was exploiting the coup to crack down on the political opposition, then not all the political parties would stand with the government in their fight against this terrorist organization, he said, noting statements by Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Nationalist Movement Party condemning the coup attempt by a faction of the military.

Kilic repeatedly referred to the Gulen movement as a terrorist organization and said his government would continue pressing the United States to extradite the Pennsylvania-based religious cleric. When asked if Ankara submitted a formal extradition request to the Washington, he said officials submitted the necessary documentation to U.S. authorities.

Story continues

Secretary of State John Kerry has said the United States will consider any extradition request for Gulen from Turkey but that Washingtons decision will be based on the strength of the evidence. Obviously, we would invite the government of Turkey, as we always do, to present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny, Kerry said earlier this week. And the United States will accept that and look at it and make judgments about it appropriately.

When James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, was asked on Thursday if allegations that Gulen orchestrated the coup attempt passed the smell test, Clapper told the Washington Post No. Not to me.

When asked if Turkey had evidence directly linking Gulen to the coup, Kilic stated that a number of plotters who have been apprehended have confessed direct links to Gulen. He said the confessions would be publicized at some point but did not give a specific date.

Asked how far the purges might go, Kilic said: If you ask my opinion, it should go to the extent possible until the point where we can ensure that no attempt again will be orchestrated against the Turkish democratic system of government.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Thursday that Turkey should not be using democratic institutions to undercut human rights following a failed coup. "We are making it very clear to our Turkish friends - we are fully behind the institutions, the democratic institutions, the legitimate institutions," Mogherini said after remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "But there is no excuse, there is no way in which the reaction can undermine fundamental freedoms and rights." Mogherini added "what we're seeing especially in the fields of universities, media, the judiciary, is unacceptable." (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Toni Reinhold)
Bottoms up, Lin-Manuel Miranda! The Hamilton creator will appear on Season 4 of Comedy Centrals Drunk History to  naturally!  narrate the rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

The guest appearance was announced at San Diego Comic-Con, along with news that Criminal Minds Paget Brewster will narrate the friendship and fight for womens rights between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Cougar Towns Busy Philipps) and Soviet soldier Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Parenthoods Mae Whitman.)

RELATEDTVLine @ Comic-Con: Our Exclusive Photos of Dozens of Fan Favorites

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After officially securing his party's nomination for president this week, Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night to outline his policy proposals at home and abroad. Trump's speech, which focused heavily on "law and order" and "safety," marked the end of the four-day-long Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Over the course of the week, a host of speakers stepped up to the podium, most in support of Trump  including his wife and several of his children. On Thursday, he was introduced by his oldest daughter, Ivanka. But Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who ran against Trump in the primaries, made headlines when he refused to endorse the New York businessman the night before.

Refinery29's News team was there at the Quicken Loans Arena live-tweeting the speech. Ahead, we round up the biggest moments.

"Friends, delegates and fellow Americans, I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination" -@realDonaldTrump begins  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#DonaldTrump: "We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore." Receives massive cheer from audience at #rncincle  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

Crowd starts chanting "build the wall" after #Trump claims "tens of thousands" of immigrants are being released into communities  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump: "Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in Third World condition, and 43 million Americans are on food stamps."  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump talks #Benghazi at #rncincle: "In Libya, our consulatethe symbol of American prestige around the globewas brought down in flames."  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

Crowd chants: "Lock her up" and Trump responds "Let's defeat her in November." #rncincle  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

Crowd chants "#USA!" after #Trump says his plan will put #America first. "Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo!" is met w/applause  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump bashes #Clinton in his policy speech at #RNCinCLE: "She is their puppet, and they pull the strings" he says of donors &media  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#DonaldTrump stays true to leaked prepared remarks by shouting what was in all caps: "I AM YOUR VOICE!" #RNCinCLE  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump slams #Clinton over #emails: "her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it."  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump mentions victims of #Pulse shooting in #Orlando: "As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our #LGBTQ citizens"  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump: "As a Republican, it's so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said" about protecting #LGBTQ people from violence. #rncincle  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump denounces "nation building" and "regime change," says #US must work with allies to "stamp out Islamic terrorism." Crowd chants "USA!"  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump pledge that "We are going to build a great border wall!" is met with a standing ovation at #RNCinCLE  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump: "We will repeal and replace disastrous #Obamacare. You will get to choose your own doctor again!" #rncincle  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump on #guns: "I...received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association" #rncincle  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump thanks evangelical and religious community for their support, says he doesn't "always deserve it" at #rncincle  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

#Trump concludes with: "We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again. We Will Make America Great Again." #RNCinCLE  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

And then came the balloons pic.twitter.com/kD9S3XleZ6  Refinery29 News (@R29News) July 22, 2016

Refinery29s News team is on the ground covering the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. Follow along @R29News and check out our full coverage of the 2016 race here.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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Why Everyone Is Tweeting About Melania Trump's RNC Speech
Ponant, the worlds only French cruise line, has partnered with Chateau Latour, Christies, and Air France to introduce two new Exclusive Collection cruises for 2017. Specializing in the French Touch, all Ponant cruises embody the companys core values of intimacy, well-being, and a generous serving of extravagance.

On April 15, Vineyards and Grands Crusa 10-day-cruise through April 24 aboard Le Solealdeparts from Lisbon, Portugal, and heads to Portsmouth, England. Along the journey, guests will be whisked away to some of the worlds top fine-wine destinations, with stops at Taylors port cellars in Porto; private tours of vineyards in the illustrious Pauillac and Bordeaux regions; and even a visit to the Chateau Latour estate. Highlights include a gala dinnerserved with perfectly paired wines from Chateau Latourprepared by a team from Michelin three-star chef Alain Ducasses Ducasse Education culinary program; a refreshing lecture by Jean-Robert Pitte, president of the French Wine Academy; and wine-tasting workshops run by Eric Beaumard, the Parisian sommelier and director of Michelin-starred retaurant Cinq in Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris.

For guests in pursuit of cultural heritage, Ponant has partnered with Christies for the eight-day Masterpieces in the Adriatic cruise (June 20 through 27) from Venice to Athens aboard Le Lyrial. Dedicated to exploring the world of art, the trip will offer lectures with such industry experts as: Stephen Lash, Christies chairman emeritus; Brook A. Hazelton, president of Christies Americas; Marianne Hoet, Christies director head of Post-War & Contemporary Art for Northern Europe; and many more. During this incredible experience, guests will venture to renowned destinations like Palazzo Grassi and Venice Biennale; Rectors Palace, in Dubrovnik, and the town of Split (Croatia); Kotor, Montenegro; and the historic Parthenon.

Pricing for Le Soleal begins at $6,224 per person, while Le Lyrial begins at $4,312 per person. Air travel is not included in the pricing; although, Air France is offering a special package that includes transfers and other amenities for guests of the two Exclusive Collection cruises. (ponant.com)

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By Francois Murphy and Lesley Wroughton VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged U.N. nations on Friday to reach a deal to cut the use of a family of powerful greenhouse gases and take a big step toward keeping global warming in check. Officials from nearly 200 countries are meeting this week to hammer out an agreement to cut the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are used in refrigeration, aerosols and air conditioning, by amending the landmark Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol succeeded in slashing the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which damage the ozone layer. The HFCs that have often replaced them, while better for the ozone layer, are greenhouse gases far more potent than carbon dioxide. A deal to replace HFCs could avoid a global temperature increase of 0.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, officials say - a big step toward implementing the goal set in last year's Paris climate pact of a rise of less than 2 degrees. "I think that we probably all recognize that an awful lot of the world, most of the world, doesn't know this meeting is taking place," Kerry, the only foreign minister attending the meeting of environmental officials, said in a speech to delegates. "But the truth is our goal for these talks, amending the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFCs, is one of the single most important unitary steps that we could possibly take at this moment to stave off the worst impacts of climate change," he added. The Vienna meeting's objectives include agreeing on schedules for countries to reduce HFC use and on financial help for developing nations to cut their use. A final agreement is due to be reached at meeting in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, in October. "The goal of the meeting is to get as far as possible, but while it would be a wonderful outcome, I don't expect to complete the negotiations here in Vienna," a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. "We expect and hope that the parties will narrow the issues and reach agreement on some elements so that we are on track to finalize the amendment when parties reconvene in Kigali in October," the official added. Kerry said progress had been made toward overcoming resistance from hot and developing countries related to the difficulties and cost of switching to more environmentally friendly products. "In the last two days I have talked personally with his royal highness the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who agreed that we need to try to move forward and we had a good conversation about it, and we know we can do it with countries that have a high ambient (temperature) challenge," he said.
By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - The Environmental Protection Agency will as soon as Monday finalize a scientific finding that greenhouse gases from aviation endanger human health, obligating the United States to regulate emissions from commercial aircraft, sources told Reuters.

The EPA's "endangerment finding" requires the agency to implement greenhouse gas emission standards for U.S. aircraft, which accounts for 11 percent of U.S. transportation greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the largest sources of emissions not yet regulated.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is expected to sign the endangerment finding as soon as Monday, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters.

The EPA did not immediately respond on Friday to confirm the timing.

The United States has said it wants to align its aircraft standard with one being developed by the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

McCarthy told Reuters on Tuesday that the agency would finalize the finding "shortly" and that it would "send a signal that the U.S. can integrate (the ICAO standard) in our regulatory structure."

In February, after six years of talks, the ICAO agreed on a global standard aimed at makers of small and large planes, including Boeing Co, Airbus Group SE and Embraer SA that will apply to all new aircraft models launched after 2020.

The standard must still be approved by ICAO's governing council in Montreal in September-October.

The EPA and the Federal Aviation Administration represented the United States in the negotiations, where they pushed for more stringent targets than the European Union.

Estimates for carbon emission reductions from applying the new standards vary widely. The White House said in a fact sheet in February that it would reduce carbon emissions by 650 million tonnes between 2020 and 2040.

Green group Transport and Environment, however, estimated reductions closer to 300 million tonnes over the same period, while the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) projected the standard would only require carbon-dioxide reductions from new aircraft of 4 percent over 12 years.

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"The ICAO standard would not reduce that harm identified by the endangerment finding," said Dan Rutherford, ICCT aviation program director. "It's contradictory that EPA would adopt a rule that doesn't do that."

Vera Pardee, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the EPA to force it to develop a stringent standard, said the agency has a legal obligation under the federal Clean Air Act to devise a more "meaningful" requirement than ICAO's.

"ICAO standards are not worth talking about because they won't do anything," Pardee said.

(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Lancaster County leaders put the brakes Thursday on County Engineer Pam Dingmans ambitious plan to replace five bridges and pave 11 miles of county roads.

That plan, which also included 26 miles of pavement overlay, would have required a nearly $7 million infusion into the countys highway fund and bridge and road fund.

It cant be done, not without significant property tax increases, Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said. Property taxpayers are not going to support this.

Dingman had hoped to replace five aging and damaged bridges at a cost of $2.3 million. She said the county has 32 bridges that have suffered significant scouring and 76 bridges in need of replacement.

She also had hoped to pave 11 miles of roads at a cost of $5.4 million. She said the county has 38 miles of roads that meet traffic requirements to be paved.

Dingman had also requested funds to pay for 26 miles of pavement overlay, putting a small dent in the 90 miles of pavement in need of that work.

As an engineer, I will tell you that I do not sleep when it rains, she told county commissioners Thursday. During last years storms, which were bad, we were lucky. I would rather be smart than lucky.

Lancaster County leaders already faced a $3 million deficit in next years budget, not including Dingman's budget request.

The countys budget and fiscal officer, Dennis Meyer, told the County Board Thursday he had managed to close that gap to just $1 million and he expected a 2.75 percent increase in property valuations this year would erase the remaining deficit.

In addressing the county engineer's request, Commissioner Bill Avery asked Dingman to prioritize her list of projects for next year. However, Dingman declined, saying those projects were all essential.

Youre not going to get any support from me if youre unwilling to prioritize these projects, said Avery.

Im frustrated, too, because we are so far behind with the repair of our infrastructure, Dingman said.

Commissioner Deb Schorr proposed Thursday providing a $2 million increase to Dingmans budget for next year, using $1 million the county already had set aside for that purpose and another $1 million the county would save through a 1 percent across-the-board cut to all departments funded through the general budget.

I understand Pams needs and wanting to do more, Schorr said.

Her motion failed by a vote of 2-2.

Commissioner Roma Amundson then proposed providing Dingman a $1 million increase in her budget, which the board approved unanimously.

Dingman said the boards decision, essentially taking her request for construction funds from $9.1 million to $3.1 million, would almost entirely negate her ability to pave new roads and replace bridges next year.

She said each mile of new paving costs about $500,000 and a single bridge costs about $1 million to replace.

The proposed cut to the county engineers budget means the county will remain decades behind in construction, she said. It is a very sad day for the rural citizens of Lancaster County.

The County Board plans to vote on its final budget Aug. 30.
July 22(Reuters) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said on Friday U.S. regulators have raised concerns over a new eye drop manufactured at a Bausch + Lomb facility in Florida.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a complete response letter (CRL) regarding the eye drop for a type of glaucoma, raised concerns over Current Good Manufacturing Practice at the unit.

The letter did not identify any efficacy or safety issues with the eye drop, a latanoprostene bunod ophthalmic solution.

Valeant said it intends to meet the regulators and resolve these concerns, the company said in a statement.

Eye care unit Bausch + Lomb is one of Valeant's core assets and a frachise to build on, billionaire investor and Valeant board member Bill Ackman said last week.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)
BERLIN (Reuters) - The United Nations hopes to convene a new round of intra-Syrian peace talks in Geneva in August, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday. "We are determined to actually look for a proper date in August for relaunching the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva," de Mistura told reporters before a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The envoy said U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry and Russian officials had agreed to take some "concrete steps" in addressing the situation in Syria, which could be helpful. He said Turkish officials also assured him during a meeting in Ankara this week that they remained committed to working toward peace in Syria despite a failed coup attempt that has rocked Turkey. "The next three weeks are going to be extremely important to give a chance for not only intra-Syrian talks, but also for some possibility of reducing violence," he said. De Mistura said progress in U.S.-Russian talks on Syria would get the next round of intra-Syrian talks off to a good start and could help the warring parties take "credible, real steps in the direction of political transition." He said the situation in Aleppo was critical, with about 300,000 people facing the threat of another siege. Steinmeier also called for a return to political discussion among the warring parties in Syria. Without progress on the political front, a fragile ceasefire would be broken again and again, he said. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Andreas Rinke)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A final United Nations memo on Britain, Germany, Sweden and Jordan's withdrawals of police from a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan without telling the world body, left out draft language questioning Britain's Security Council veto power. The one-page confidential note to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous dated July 15 and seen by Reuters on Thursday, said the four countries would be barred from replacing the police once South Sudan's situation improves. The note to Ban was largely similar to a draft memo, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, but it did not have language questioning Britain's Security Council veto power when "they themselves are quick to abandon their post in challenging situations." When asked about the draft memo critical of Britain, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said: "I'm not aware that there is any sort of authentic memo." He added that his colleagues "looked all over their memos and there's no such document that they see." It was not immediately clear why the language on Britain's Security Council veto power was not included in the final memo, though some officials did note that the strong criticism was not a typical U.N. approach. Heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters raged in South Sudan's capital Juba for several days earlier this month between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing Vice President Riek Machar. At least 272 people were killed. A spokesman for the British U.N. mission said on Wednesday that Britain temporarily removed two unarmed police officers on July 13 "for the officers' safety" and had told the U.N. police adviser in advance. Ladsous' note to Ban said the departure of the police officers from the four countries had "affected the operational capability of the mission at headquarters level and has dealt a serious blow to the morale of its peacekeepers." The draft memo said the United States had also reportedly planning to pull out nine police, but a spokesman for the U.S. mission said there were no plans to withdraw police. The German U.N. mission confirmed that it had evacuated seven police serving with the U.N. mission, UNMISS, and said that the United Nations had been notified orally and in writing beforehand. The Swedish mission said it had repatriated three officers for medical reasons and that 15 officers remain in South Sudan. "Sweden has not, and will not, withdraw the police support to the UNMISS mission," it said. The Jordanian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to requests for comment. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is scheduled to meet Ban in New York on Friday during his first visit to the United States since being appointed last week. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool)
Residential real estate investment trust (REIT) UDR, Inc. UDR is scheduled to report second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 26, after the market closes.



Last quarter, the Denver, CO-based REIT reported in-line results. UDR boasts an average beat of 0.61% for the trailing four quarters. For second-quarter 2016, the company expects funds from operations (FFO) per share in the range of 4345 cents. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter FFO per share is currently pegged at 44 cents.



Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

UDR INC Price and EPS Surprise

UDR INC Price and EPS Surprise | UDR INC Quote

Factors to Consider



UDR has a vast experience in the residential real estate market. The company is expected to benefit from the strengthening multifamily fundamentals and favorable demographic trends. In fact, there is a demand for rental apartments from both new millennial households and empty-nesters. Coupled with this, the improving job market is driving demand for apartments. As such, UDR is expected to experience growth in same-store net operating income in the second quarter.



But supply is increasing and the company has already started to feel its impact. In fact, significant rent growth in the past made New York and San Francisco markets the most preferred ones among developers and landlords. As a result, in recent times, new construction activity soared in these markets. However, this elevated supply of new units curtailed landlords capability to demand more rents. This could lead to a pressure on occupancy while rent escalations might be limited.



Earnings Whispers?



Our proven model does not conclusively show that UDR will beat earnings this season. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or #3 (Hold) for this to happen. However, that is not the case here as you will see below.



Zacks ESP: Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 44 cents. This leads to an Earnings ESP of 0.00% for UDR, which represents the percentage difference between the two.



Zacks Rank: UDR currently has a Zacks Rank #3. Though a favorable Zacks Rank increases the predictive power of ESP, the companys ESP of 0.00% makes our surprise prediction difficult.



We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.



Other Stocks That Warrant a Look



Here are a few stocks in the REIT sector you may want to consider, as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post a positive surprise this quarter:



American Campus Communities, Inc. ACC has an Earnings ESP of +1.89% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company will report results on Jul 25.



Taubman Centers, Inc. TCO has an Earnings ESP of +7.22% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company will release results on Jul 28.



Regency Centers Corp. REG has an Earnings ESP of +1.25% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company will release results on Aug 2.





Note: FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income. All earnings per share numbers presented in this write up represent FFO per share.



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London (AFP) - New finance minister Philip Hammond will on Friday meet Chinese business leaders and officials to drum up support for Britain's economy ahead of talks with G20 counterparts in Chengdu.

Former foreign minster Hammond will be joined by business leaders as he seeks to reassure Chinese investors and politicians that "Britain is open for business" despite voting last month to leave the European Union.

China President Xi Jinping had said that he hoped Britain would remain in the bloc to promote the "deepening development of China-EU ties."

Hammond will visit Beijing and Hong Kong "to promote British business opportunities, with a strong emphasis on the financial services sector," the treasury said.

He will then meet finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the so-called Group of 20, which brings together the biggest industrialised and emerging economies, in Chengdu on Saturday and Sunday.

Senior figures from some of Britain's biggest financial services companies, including HSBC, Virgin Money, the London Stock Exchange and Standard Life will join the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Hammond "will make clear that the UK government wants to build on the 'golden era' declared during President Xi's visit to the UK last year, and the UK's decision to leave the EU will not affect the global partnership between the UK and China," the treasury said.

Britain receives more Chinese investment than any other European country, and exports around A18 billion ($23.7 billion, 21.5 billion) of products in return.

The visit is expected to kick-start a series of visits to Britain's key economic partners, "aimed at showcasing to foreign investors the new opportunities presented by the UK's decision to leave the European Union," said the statement.

Liam Fox, the minister charged with securing new trade deals for Britain, revealed that he had opened "very fruitful" trade talks with Canada on Friday, and was reported to be heading to the United States next week.

New Prime Minister Theresa May also discussed a trade agreement with Australia in a phone call with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, her Downing Street office said.

The G20 talks will likely be dominated by Britain's shock decision to leave the EU in last month's referendum.
LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Friday there had been almost 6,200 hate crimes reported in the last month following the vote to leave the European Union in a referendum where immigration had been a key issue. In the four weeks from June 16, police forces across the country said 6,193 offences had been reported, with the most common crimes being harassment, assault and other violence such as verbal abuse or spitting. Britons voted on June 23 to exit the EU following bitter and deeply divisive campaigning in which the control of immigration was one of the main arguments of those who supported leaving the bloc. Since the result was declared, Muslims and Eastern Europeans say they have been particularly targeted. The latest figures showed there were 3001 offences in the first two weeks of July, down 6 percent compared to the previous fortnight but still 20 percent higher than the same period last year. "Following increases in hate crime seen after the EU referendum, police forces have been taking a robust approach to these crimes and we are pleased to see the numbers of incidents have begun to fall," Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs' Council spokesman on hate crimes. "Clearly any hate crime is unacceptable and these numbers are still far too high." Critics of the "Leave" campaign say its focus on immigration helped stoke xenophobia and racism, an accusation its leaders reject. A week before the vote, opposition Labour lawmaker Jo Cox, a strong supporter of remaining in the EU, was shot and stabbed to death in her constituency in northern England. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Giles Elgood)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Friday endorsed plans to rid Libya of its chemical weapons and prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists like the Islamic State group.

Libya this week asked the OPCW chemical watchdog to draw up a plan for the destruction of the toxic agents that until recently were stored at the Ruwagha depot in southeastern Libya.

Libyan authorities moved the stockpile to another location in recent days and now want the OPCW -- the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons -- to help remove them from the country and destroy them outside Libya.

The council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on UN member-states to help Libya's UN-backed national unity government and the OPCW with "the elimination of category 2 chemical weapons safely and in the soonest practicable timescale."

The measure authorizes governments to take part in the operation, allowing them to "acquire, control, transport, transfer and destroy" chemical weapons to "ensure the elimination of Libya's chemical weapons stockpile in the soonest and safest manner."

Making his first visit to the United Nations, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the resolution "marks the beginning of the end of the Libyan chemical weapons program."

"We have reduced the risk of these weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and fanatics," he said.

The resolution invokes chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allows the council to enforce the measure through military force or sanctions.

Britain and Russia have raised concerns that Libya's chemical stockpile could fall into the hands of IS jihadists, who hold the key coastal city of Sirte and are active in other parts of the country.

Libya joined the UN convention on eliminating chemical weapons in 2004.
Lincoln business leaders Tom and Rhonda Peed have donated another $250,000 to the Food Bank of Lincoln.

In the past two years, the Peeds have donated more than $500,000 to the Food Bank.

In addition, they have made major corporate contributions of funds and food through Sandhills Publishing, Certified Piedmontese Beef and Smart Chicken. Those donations, bolstered by employees of those companies, have provided hundreds of thousands of meals to struggling Nebraskans, according to Michaella Kumke, communications director for the Food Bank.

The Peeds are longtime Food Bank supporters, and Rhonda Peed helped launch the Student Hunger Drive in Lincoln and area schools. That student-run food drive has raised almost 100,000 pounds of food in the last three years.

Officials said the value of the Peeds contributions to the Food Bank over the last several years exceeds $1 million.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Union Bank of India Ltd said on Friday one of the bank's offshore accounts was breached in a cyber attack, but the money trail was traced and the movement of funds was blocked. "There is no loss caused to the bank," the state-run bank said in a statement, adding it had informed authorities about the breach. Separately, Arun Tiwari, the bank's chairman, told Reuters that the breach of the "nostro" account - which a bank maintains with an overseas bank in foreign currency - took place in New York. A source familiar with the matter originally had said the breach occurred in Hong Kong. Tiwari declined to say how much money was transferred in the breach, but said the bank had already recovered 70 percent of the amount and the remainder was due to come back in the next few days. Following a recent cyber attack on a Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Federal Reserve, the Reserve Bank of India last month asked Indian banks to immediately put in place a cyber security policy. Some $81 million was stolen from the Bangladesh central bank account with the New York Fed in one of the biggest-ever cyber heists. "A cyber security forensic audit has commenced to identify, plug any gaps, and strengthen the system," Union Bank said in a statement to Indian stock exchanges. (Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Larry King)
By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The University of California could curb some of its 'study abroad' programs as the deaths of two UC Berkeley students overseas in separate terrorist attacks over a period of two weeks raised questions about the safety of such education trips.

The massive, 10-campus university, which sends thousands of students overseas each year, is moving quickly to assess the potential for unrest in the 43 countries where it has study abroad programs, a spokeswoman said.

The move follows the deaths of Nicolas Leslie in the July 14 Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, and Tarishi Jain on July 1 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

"We're working closely with our program leadership, faculty and risk managers to carefully assess the situation in France and elsewhere to see if any changes need to be made," said Claire Doan, a spokeswoman for UC President Janet Napolitano.

Amid concern from parents and students, the university is developing contingency plans that could include shutting down programs in places where student safety may be at risk and offering them alternative placements, Doan said.

Last spring, UC suspended its program in Turkey amid unrest in that country, which was also rocked by a military coup attempt a week ago.

"We've heard from some concerned parents and students, and are providing assistance to students who want to return," Doan said. Officials are also proactively contacting all families of students set to travel in the coming months, she added, to check whether they still wish to do so.

Nearly 305,000 U.S. students studied abroad during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA). But it is a rite of passage that can prove dangerous for some.

In addition to Leslie and Jain, a third U.S. student died abroad in recent weeks: the body of Beau Solomon, a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin, was pulled out of the Tiber River in Italy. Police there suspect he was murdered.

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Ros Thackurdeen's son Ravi, a student of Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College, was swept away by a rip tide and died in 2012 while the 19-year-old was studying in Costa Rica.

Thackurdeen, who co-founded the group Protect Students Abroad, said universities were not doing enough to keep their students safe overseas. She said they should train them better to avoid dangerous situations, as well as be prepared to pay costly medical evacuation bills if needed to save lives.

"Whenever we lose another student, I feel like I'm back in that place," said Thackurdeen, referring to her son's death.

EVACUATING STUDENTS

At the University of California, about 5,600 students take part in the system's main study-abroad program each year, Doan said, and thousands more take courses and internships overseas affiliated with their local campuses.

Reports by the UC Education Abroad Program showed that during the 2010-2011 academic year, 21 students were removed from Cairo amid security concerns in Egypt's capital, and one died in a fire while studying in France. That year, program officials reported 225 serious incidents, including minor and major injuries, and assaults on students.

In 2012-2013, the most recent year for which there is data, administrators listed 648 incidents, but did not break them down into serious and non-serious events, such as minor illnesses.

A spokesman for UC Berkeley, Roqua Montez, said Leslie and Jain were the only two of its students who have been killed in terrorist attacks over the nine years since the flagship campus established its own study abroad program.

Following the seaside massacre in Nice, where an attacker drove a truck through a crowd that was watching a fireworks display, 14 of the 85 Berkeley students there asked to leave, and the university has helped them return home, Montez said.

But Conrad Leslie, whose son Nicolas was killed, said he still believes in the value of an international education, and that he does not blame UC Berkeley.

"Terrorist attacks can happen anywhere including the USA and inside any university," Leslie said.

(Editing by Ben Klayman and Bernadette Baum)
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama on Friday flatly rejected reports that the United States had prior intelligence about or was involved in last week's coup attempt in Turkey, calling such suggestions "unequivocally false."

Obama also told reporters that Turkey's request for the extradition of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen -- blamed by Erdogan for the deadly unrest -- would be handled in accordance with US law and that "evidence" of wrongdoing by Gulen would be taken seriously.

"Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any US involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy, are completely false. Unequivocally false," Obama said.

Obama said that in order for the United States to consider extraditing Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, Turkey would have to provide evidence he was involved in last week's attempted coup.

Obama said he had spoken with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said as much to him.

"We would certainly take any allegations like this seriously," Obama said.
Washington (AFP) - The Islamic State group is using civilians as human shields in Syria, a US military official said Friday, at a time when the coalition has been accused of killing dozens of civilians in strikes near Manbij.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused the coalition of killing 56 civilians, including 11 children, as they fled Tuesday from a village near Manbij, a strategic waypoint between Turkey and the jihadist stronghold of Raqa.

The Britain-based rights monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

The coalition has opened an investigation of the matter.

The Islamic State "used civilians as human shields and as bait" in an effort to draw the fire of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) toward the civilians, Colonel Chris Garver, a coalition spokesman, said by video conference from Baghdad. The SDF is a US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance.

Garver said the attack Tuesday came after SDF fighters "observed a large group of Daesh fighters in a convoy who appeared to be readying for a counterattack" against SDF troops in the area. Daesh comes from the Arabic language acronym for the IS group.

"A strike was called in on Daesh. The strike was against both buildings and vehicles." Afterward, the spokesman said, the coalition received both internal and external reports "that there may have been civilians in the area who are mixed in and among the Daesh fighters."

Garver said the first phase of the investigation -- what he called a "credibility assessment" -- would take no longer than a week and a half. Coalition officials will then determine whether a more intensive inquiry is required.

The spokesman said the jihadists had been mounting exceptionally fierce resistance in Manbij, an IS bastion.

Fighting has grown more intense as SDF units move into the city, he said, "which is sort of different than what we saw in Ramadi and what we saw in Fallujah," Iraqi cities from which jihadists were ousted this year.

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"It's a fight like we haven't seen before."

Garver estimated that the SDF had taken back roughly half the city, an area still housing at least 2,000 civilians.

An SDF-allied unit said that on Thursday it had given IS fighters 48 hours to leave the city, but Garver said that "as of right now, I'm not confirming that."
As the idea of a President Trump has evolved from laughable to unlikely to oh-my-god-this-might-actually-happen, a debate has raged in Washington.

The debate is not over the man's fitness for office - few people privately will make the case that Donald Trump is qualified or temperamentally suitable to be commander in chief - but over how much damage he might do.

Some say that Trump could be more disruptive than any previous leader, including propelling the nation toward fascism.

But an anti-alarmist caucus responds that the U.S. system is stronger than any single person - that we could rely on the Constitution, on long-established checks and balances, on watchdogs in the press and elsewhere, and on leaders who would stand up for the rule of law.

For example, Trump has endorsed the torture of terrorism suspects and the punitive bombing of their innocent families. But if he tried to implement such illegal measures, the reassurers argue, military officers and civilian bureaucrats would refuse to obey. If he tried to round up and deport 11 million people without due process, judges would object. Congress, too, would check executive overreach.

I would like to believe this argument, but a time like this brings home how much the U.S. system relies not just on laws but also on habits of abiding by them: on an ingrained respect for norms, for democratic give-and-take and for civility.

That respect has been ebbing in recent years as partisanship has grown more poisonous. Republicans would argue that President Obama has pushed the envelope with executive orders that have ignored congressional intent and undercut the separation of powers.

But when judges declared that Obama had gone too far with his attempt to legalize millions of illegal immigrants, he stood down. He was bitterly disappointed, no doubt, but acceded to the judicial decision.

What if a president decided to ignore such a decision? What if he had appointed an attorney general, a budget director, a border chief or other bureaucrats eager to abet such defiance?

Imagine, for example, that judges told a President Trump that he could not turn the Southwest border region into "a police state," which the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union forecast in a recent Post op-ed would be the result of Trump's plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. Imagine that Trump and his administration continued building camps anyway. Given the contempt that Trump has expressed for the judiciary, and the ignorance he has displayed of the Constitution, that scenario is not so far-fetched.

At such a moment, laws could not save you; only people could. Would members of Congress, career civil servants and others stand up to Trump and for the rule of law - and could they oppose him while remaining true to principle and not descending to his level?

On the first question, the evidence from Trump's party is not encouraging. Republicans who months ago were clear about the danger that he represents have abjectly fallen into line, albeit with varying levels of enthusiasm. If House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., cannot disavow a candidate he has accused of racism, why would we think he would be firmer when that espouser of racism lived in the White House?

The second question - could Trump's opponents stay true to their own values? - is where Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's bout with Trump Derangement Syndromeis discouraging. Like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., with his playground taunts during primary season, Ginsburg let Trump drive her to behavior she must on some level have known was wrong, tactically as well as ethically.

The derangement is understandable. Trump is corrected by fact-checkers but just restates his fictions more loudly. He insults war heroes and pays no apparent price with veterans. Lies, conspiratorial insinuations, name-calling and behavior that would knock most candidates out of contention - concealing his tax returns, for instance - do not appear to harm him.

So the temptation is to match insult with insult, or (as some protesters did during primary season) violence with violence.

Trump brought the worst out in Rubio and Ginsburg. What will it look like if he draws out the worst in our country?
Upstream energy partnership Vanguard Natural Resources LLC VNR is set to release second-quarter 2016 results after the closing bell on Wednesday, Jul 27.



In the preceding three-month period, this Houston, TX-based oil and gas finder reported a massive positive earnings surprise of 133.33%. Coming to the earnings surprise history, Vanguard Natural Resources has a mixed track record. The partnership beat estimates in two out of the last four quarters.



Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.



Factors to Consider This Quarter



Vanguard Natural Resources is a firm in the oil and gas exploration and production industry, which makes its earnings vulnerable to commodity price fluctuations. Although oil prices rose from the mid-February lows, the pricing scenario was weaker than the comparable quarter last year. The picture was the same for natural gas as well.



However, the firm has hedged the majority of its production from this April to December at promising prices. It has hedged 89% of oil at $66.43 per barrel and 84% of gas at $4.17 per MMBtu. This should cushion Vanguard Natural Resources from the current volatile pricing environment.



During the quarter, the partnership completed the divestment of oil and gas resources in SCOOP/STACK region in Oklahoma. We appreciate the sale, as the proceeds will likely be utilized for repaying debt under the reserve based credit facility of Vanguard Natural.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Vanguard Natural Resources will beat estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to be able to beat estimates. That is not the case here as you will see below.



Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is -7.69%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate stands at 12 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged higher, at 13 cents.



Zacks Rank: Vanguard Natural Resources carries a Zacks Rank #2. Though this increases the predictive power of ESP, a negative ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.



We caution against Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the entity is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Story continues

VANGUARD NATURL Price and EPS Surprise

VANGUARD NATURL Price and EPS Surprise | VANGUARD NATURL Quote

Stocks to Consider



While an earnings beat looks uncertain for Vanguard Natural Resources, here are some companies you may want to consider on the basis of our model:



Anadarko Petroleum Corporation APC has an Earnings ESP of +1.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is likely to release earnings results on Jul 26.



Legacy Reserves LP LGCY has an Earnings ESP of +31.58% and a Zacks Rank #1. The partnership is expected to release earnings results on Aug 3.



Ring Energy Inc. REI has an Earnings ESP of +33.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is anticipated to release earnings results on Aug 8.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
PARIS  Vincent Bollore, the controversial boss of Vivendi and Bollore Group, is suing the France 2 television channel over the re-airing of an investigative documentary program on him and his Bollore Group that he says is defamatory. Bollore is claiming 50 million euros ($55 million) in damages.

Ironically titled Vincent Bollore, un ami qui vous veut du bien (Vincent Bollore, a friend whos here to help), the program depicts the billionaires reportedly rough management methods at Bollore Group and Vivendi-owned Canal Plus Group. Directed by Tristan Waleckx, Mathieu Renier and Mikael Bozo, the documentary notably features the recording of an off-the-record meeting during which Bollore fired several high-level executives in September.

The program initially aired on April 7 as part of a TV magazine series called Complement dEnquete. It was rebroadcast on July 21 France 2, a channel owned by French public broadcaster France Televisions.

This repeat showing, just a few weeks after the tendentious and totally biased program in question was first broadcast, demonstrates a proven desire to harm the Group by seriously discrediting it. This is undermining its commercial interests, said Bollore Group in a statement.

In order to put an end to this insidious campaign and to protect the interests of both employees and shareholders, the Bollore Group has summoned France 2 to appear before the Paris Commercial Court so that it can seek to obtain redress for the loss that it has suffered, which is assessed at 50 million euros, the statement said.

The portion of the documentary that reportedly drew the most objection from Bollore Group dealt with the work carried out by Socapalm, an industrial palm oil company owned by Bollore Group in Cameroon. The program denounced the alleged degrading conditions for workers there.

Following the initial airing of the documentary, Bollore said during Vivendis last shareholder meeting in June that one of the African workers interviewed had been paid to lie about his age and the labor conditions. However, Bollores accusations were quickly denied by the host of the documentary series with more interview footage.

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Meanwhile, the recorded meeting with Canal Plus underscored the iron-fisted personality of Bollore, who can be heard telling his employees Oh la la, you look serious. Dont worry, I will be very soft. () Im sorry for those who wont be part of my team. I have nothing against you, I dont know you.

Related stories

Vivendi's Bollore Suggests He'll Quit Canal Plus' Supervisory Board

Vivendi Chairman Vincent Bollore Says Company Wants to Increase Investment in French Films

Canal Plus Deal with BeIN Sports Struck Down by French Anti-Trust Board
* Q1 revenue rises 2.2 pct, beating forecasts of 1.9 pct

* Spain, Germany and Italy perform strongly, UK lags

* Shares up 4.5 pct (Adds CEO reaction, analyst reaction, shares)

By Paul Sandle

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Spain, Germany and Italy helped Vodafone to produce stronger than expected first-quarter sales growth despite a drag from European Union roaming charge cuts and a weak home market.

The world's second-largest mobile operator said on Friday Europe was stable, with three out of its four biggest markets doing well. Europe only returned to growth for Vodafone in the final quarter of 2015/2016 after five years of contraction due to sluggish economies in the region.

The notable exception was Britain, where Vodafone has been trying to fix problems encountered with a new billing system. The company also said it was too early to tell what Brexit would mean for Vodafone's business.

Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said the group was making good progress in Europe, led by Germany, Spain and Italy. "We are focused on improving our performance in the UK," he said.

Vodafone's performance marked an eighth consecutive quarterly rise in its main growth measure - organic service revenue.

"This momentum should steadily raise confidence in the sustainability of the recent return to growth, and underpins our belief that this growth profile is now top-tier amongst the incumbent Telco universe," JP Morgan Cazenove said in a note.

Shares in Vodafone topped the FTSE 100 gainers. They were trading up 4.5 percent at 235.5 pence by 0858 GMT.

Analysts at Citi said they saw the 2.2 percent rise in organic revenue to 12.3 billion euros ($13.55 billion) as a "modest beat". "The solid progress in Germany and Spain is encouraging."

Growth of 0.3 percent in Europe beat analysts' forecasts of a flat result. Sales in Britain fell 3.2 percent, more than expected.

Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific (AMAP) grew by 7.7 percent in the three months to end-June, also beating analyst forecasts for a 7 percent rise.

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"Our growth momentum in AMAP remains strong, with excellent performance in South Africa, Turkey and Egypt and ongoing recovery in India," Colao said.

He said a planned listing of Vodafone's Indian operation would provide clarity on its value, giving it more flexibility to pursue options like a deeper tie-up with Liberty Global , although no talks were ongoing or were planned.

LOOKING ABROAD

Vodafone has floated the idea of switching its home base to another European country after Britain voted to leave the European Union last month.

Colao said it was too soon to have any clarity on this. "Our position is we continue to care a lot for the single digital market," he said. "We believe pragmatic solutions will be found to make sure Britain does not get disadvantaged from not being part of it."

Vodafone has switched to reporting in euros from pounds - reflecting the relatively bigger size of its combined euro zone businesses, which make up about half of its sales.

In the short term, the company was seeing more shifts in traffic on its networks from the threat of terrorism in some tourist markets, Colao said.

Holiday makers from Britain and Germany have shifted from destinations like Turkey and North Africa this year in favour of perceived safer locations like Spain, holiday companies have said.

Vodafone is making less money from business and consumer calls when people travel after the EU cut charges at the end of April. Roaming charges will be abolished in June 2017.

But Colao said more than half of calls made when travelling were now included in bundles, a move that was boosting overall usage and helping to compensate for the roaming cuts.

The drag on revenue from roaming charges was 40 basis points in the quarter, although analysts at Mirabaud said they believed the changes would have a bigger impact in the second quarter.

Analysts had expected Vodafone to report organic service revenue growth of 1.9 percent, against underlying growth of 1.8 percent in the final quarter of 2015/16.

($1 = 0.9079 euros) (Editing by Kate Holton and Jane Merriman)
SEOUL/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) will suspend sales of most of its models in South Korea from July 25 as pressure builds on the company over its falsified emissions tests.

South Korea is the latest country forcing Volkswagen to take drastic measures to repair its image since the carmaker admitted to cheating U.S. diesel emissions tests and said that up to 11 million vehicles worldwide could be fitted with illegal software.

"We have decided to suspend sales of the affected models to reduce confusion among dealers and customers," a spokesman for Volkswagen's South Korean business said.

The move comes ahead of an environment ministry review this month or in early August on whether to revoke certification of the 32 vehicle types offered for sale by Volkswagen and its Audi brand, which would lead to a sales ban. Volkswagen is due to present its case on July 25.

South Korean prosecutors last month issued the first warrant for the arrest of a VW executive in connection with the emissions scandal.

Globally, the company has already set aside about 16.2 billion euros ($17.85 billion) to cover the cost of the scandal and this week said that it had set aside a further 2.2 billion euros.

"The latest costs show that the dieselgate scandal is far from dealt with," NordLB analyst Frank Schwope said.

Schwope raised his estimate for the cost of the scandal to between 25 billion euros and 35 billion euros, up from a range of 20 billion euros to 30 billion euros.

Volkswagen has been struggling with a sales slump in South Korea, Asia's second-biggest diesel car market. Sales of VW-branded cars in South Korea slumped 33 percent to 12,463 vehicles in the first half of this year, industry association data shows.

The group's top-selling vehicles in Korea last year were the Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI BlueMotion, with 9,467 vehicles, and the Audi A6 TDI, with 7,049 vehicles, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

German car sales in South Korea have soared since a 2011 free-trade deal eliminated duty on vehicles imported from Europe.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Edward Taylor; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David Goodman)
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc executives and directors persuaded a federal appeals court on Friday to reject shareholder claims that they permitted and then covered up pervasive bribery by officials at the world's largest retailer's Mexico unit. By a 3-0 vote, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld a lower court dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing the defendants, including former chief executives Mike Duke and Lee Scott, of breaching their duties in failing to stop alleged bribery at Wal-Mart de Mexico. Chief Judge William Riley said the claims "do not give rise to a reasonable inference that Wal-Mart's board of directors learned of the suspected bribery by Wal-Mex while the alleged bribery was being covered up and the internal investigation quashed." The decision could spell the end of derivative litigation, where shareholders seek to hold company officials liable for damages, stemming from the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer's 2012 bribery scandal. On May 13, a Delaware state judge dismissed a similar case, saying the April 2015 dismissal of the federal lawsuit by U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey in Arkansas precluded him from acting. Friday's decision upheld Hickey's dismissal. Judy Scolnick, a lawyer for the shareholders, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Wal-Mart's market value fell by roughly $17 billion over three days in April 2012, after The New York Times published a Pulitzer Prize-winning report saying the retailer paid bribes to Mexican officials to help it open stores faster. Shareholders claimed that Wal-Mart's board was put on notice about the bribery as early as 2005, when company investigators reported their early findings to audit committee chair Roland Hernandez. Riley, however, found no proof that the board knew or must have known about the bribery, no matter how pervasive it might have been, and even though Hernandez was "only a degree or two" removed from key directors. Applying Delaware law because Wal-Mart is incorporated in that state, Riley said the case "boils down to the same logic Delaware courts have consistently rejected, namely the inference that directors must have known about a problem because someone was supposed to tell them about it." Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove said: "We are pleased with the decision. As we have said all along, Delaware law gives authority to the board of directors, not individual shareholders, to manage corporate matters such as these." The case is Cottrell et al v. Duke et al, 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-1869. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
Donald Trump officially accepted the nomination for president at the Republican National Convention Thursday night, giving a speech that excited the crowd and bashed his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Who would have believed this? he asked as he took the stage.

Chants of Build the wall! punctuated his speech as he talked about the economy and security. He received big cheers as he declared, We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

We will be a country of generosity and warmth, but we will also be a country of law and order, he said.

Cheers of Lock her up! rose from the crowd when he talked about Clinton, to which Trump replied, Lets defeat her in November.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton  death, destruction, terrorism and weakness, he went on.

Trumps speech was largely focused on law and order. He also slammed Clintons association with big business, saying, She is their puppet and they pull the strings.

Mentioning the recent police shootings, Trump declared, An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans.

I will restore law and order to our country, he concluded.

Related stories

The Winners and Losers From the Republican National Convention

Donald Trump's Acceptance Speech Paints Apocalyptic Vision From a B-Movie

5 Surprising Moments from Donald Trump's RNC Speech
Late-night TV host Samantha Bee offered a special Full Frontal episode Wednesday night in honor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

As Bee and her staff are making their way from New York to the RNC (on a bus, the failed 2012 Republican candidate Herman Cains bus, to be exact), this episode focused on stops in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Scandal's Tony Goldwyn (who plays the president) drove the bus and was on hand to give Bee a pep talk.

After stopping in Altoona, Penn. at an establishment that claims to be Americas oldest gas station, Bee talked to one man who noted the states political divide while pointing out that there are Hillary Clinton supporters in that area. You are a battleground state for the first time since Gettysburg. You are the belle of the ball. Let me spin you! Bee told the young man, enthusiastically, before taking his hand and twirling him around.

At a county fair near the Mason-Dixon line though, a Full Frontal correspondent seemed to be overwhelmed by Donald Trump supporters, as interviewee after interviewee pledged their support for the GOP nominee over Clinton.

READ: Watch Samantha Bee Mock Pretty Much Everything about the RNC

One man who said he is voting for Trump said: I dont really see him as a racist, in my point of view, just because of people I know that consider themselves racist. Even the one Democrat the show spoke to at the fair (an older woman whose husband said he votes Republican) said she refuses to vote for Clinton.

Meanwhile, some people at the fair took issue with the fact that Clinton is a woman. One man told Full Frontal that he didnt think it would be a good idea to have a woman in the White House, and his female companion actually agreed with him wholeheartedly. The woman, who said she regularly faces misogyny in her job as a professional truck mechanic, still did not support the idea that a woman could hold her own in the White House.

Story continues

We dont need a woman as the president, she told Full Frontal. We really dont. Were too dramatic!

As the show neared Cleveland, Bee stopped in Beaver County, Penn. to talk to a local Republican politician about his reluctant support for Trump. State Representative Jim Christiana told Bee that, while he prefers a bipartisan approach to politics, he has to listen to his constituents and support Trumps bid. She asked him o say Donald Trumps name out loud without looking sad. It took him a few tries.

So, were stuck with this st sandwich, lets eat it, Bee said, offering her own summary of Christianas comments.

I think thats a fair characterization, he said.

Watch:

The next episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will air on TBS on Monday, July 25--the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
Donald Trump's eye-popping declaration that the United States may not be automatically bound by the NATO pledge to consider an attack on one country to be an attack on all is reverberating around the world.

Former deputy director for policy planning in the State Department in the George W. Bush administration, Kori Schake (who, although a Republican, recently announced she would back Hillary Clinton), told The Washington Post, "His endorsements of authoritarians and heedlessness about our alliance commitments strengthen our adversaries and frighten those who look to us for protection and to be a beacon of our values. America would be a worse place and the international order badly destabilized by his election." Schake, now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, adds, "He doesn't seem to care that there are real consequences to others for the reckless things he says and does."

Trump opponent Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., pointed out that the Trump interview with The New York Times makes Russian President Vladimir Putin "a very happy man."

The consequences in this case are immediate. Ana Catuna, adviser to the former minister of foreign affairs of Romania, tells The Washington Post's Right Turn, "NATO is one of the few institutions that bond America and Europe together. It needs fixing and a better burden-sharing, but alluding to its irrelevance is an open invitation for Russia and other global competitors of the Western democracies ?to redouble their efforts to redraw the spheres of influence." She adds, "A weakened NATO is a weakened West, an a weakened West is a weakened America. You don't make America great again by turning your back to your best and natural allies!" She concludes, "Russia will see this as a gesture of weakness and will act accordingly."

Estonia's president has expressed alarm that Trump would undercut the NATO alliance. Another news report tells us: "Eastern European NATO members, long in the habit of accusing Russia of aggressive plans to target them, were apparently given a cold shower by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who cast doubt over Washington's commitment to defend them." The report goes on to quote the Czech prime minister, who declared at a news conference, "NATO is the basis of our security. I expect that also in the United States, whoever wins the presidential election, I hope the United States will remain a solid NATO partner." If so, he had better hope Trump loses.

Latvia, another Baltic state living with the Russian bear at its doorstep, responded as well. Bloomberg News reports: "Trump's remarks are 'both dangerous and irresponsible,' Ojars Kalnins, who chairs the foreign affairs committee in Latvia's parliament, said in an interview with Latvian radio Thursday. This won't be good for NATO unity or the security situation. In principle, he is saying the U.S. will not fulfill its promises or obligations."

The Associated Press reports that the head of NATO was alarmed: "The dilution of long-standing policy on NATO earned Trump a rebuke from the alliance's head, Jens Stoltenberg, its secretary-general. He told BuzzFeed News: 'Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO. This is good for European security and good for US security. We defend one another.' "

Thorsten Frei, a member of the German parliament, tells Right Turn that "it is absolutely unacceptable if an American presidential candidate implicitly announces to discontinue the willingness to help in case of alliance. Who talks like that, constitutes NATO fundamentally in question? That is a fatal signal to Putin and will certainly not help to make the world safer."

In sum, even before leaving Cleveland, Trump has set off an international furor, shed doubt on his competency and proved Hillary Clinton correct: He is too dangerous, erratic and ignorant to be president.
From Delish

We're all for incorporating as much bacon into your life as possible. Like making a game-changing basket-woven BLT, wrapping it around corn, and even wearing undies that smell like the crispy stuff. But one old-timer has found a completely boss way to use the cured meat-fighting off a thief.

According to Time, an elderly woman used bacon to ward off a thief who tried to steal money from her. The Greater Manchester Police in the U.K. report that the woman was using an ATM before heading to the supermarket, where she was apparently followed. There, an unknown woman grabbed the 86-year-old's shopping cart and demanded she turn over the cash.

Instead of giving in, the older woman decided to "defend herself by repeatedly hitting the female offender over the head with a packet of bacon." Whether it was a hearty attack or pure surprise is still undetermined, but either way the bacon beating sent the thief fleeing. And that, my friends, is the best bacon story ever told.

Read the full report on the police department's Facebook page:

Follow Delish on Instagram.
(Photo: DreamWorks)

In the great toy-to-movie race, Warner Bros. has Legos, Paramount has Hasbro, Legendary has Pokemon, and DreamWorks has the Trolls. Cmon, dont pretend that you dont have a ton of Trolls stashed away in your house. The brainchild of Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam, these tiny dolls with the wild hair have been staples of American toy departments since the 60s. And this November, theyll headline their own animated moive featuring such A-list voices as Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel and James Corden. In addition to his voice-acting duties, Timberlake oversaw the films soundtrack as executive producer and contributed at least one original song.

Some of those stars were in San Diego this week for the Trolls Comic-Con International panel, where select scenes from the film were shown. Some of those same scenes comprised the 20 minutes worth of footage that Yahoo Movies recently saw, which points to how Trolls is seeking to separate itself from its toy-movie brethren like The Lego Movie. While that film was a relentlessly (and awesomely) self-aware joyride, Trolls appears to be a traditional animated fantasy, complete with a queen (voiced by Kendrick), a villain (the Troll-devouring Bergens, who were created for the film) and lots more singing and dancing. In addition to original compositions, the characters sing such familiar pop tunes as True Colors, Dream a Little Dream of Me and The Sound of Silence, the latter of which is sung by Kendrick in one of the standout musical moments included in the footage.

Watch the Trolls trailer:

Singing and dancing is de rigueur in Troll Village, where the residents are happy all the time. They have to be; whenever a Troll gets sad, their bright colors fade to a dingy grey. To avoid that fate, every Troll wears a special watch that reminds them to do something that makes them happy  sing a little song, do a little dance, give a little hug  every hour. And no one is happier than Queen Poppy (Kendrick), the peppy pink ruler of Troll Village. On the opposite end of the Troll spectrum, no one is grouchier than Branch (Timberlake), the one Troll who doesnt want to turn his frown upside down.

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The mismatched duo embarks on a heros journey together when the evil Bergens kidnap Poppys pals. In one extended sequence we were shown, Poppy bounds through a meadow filled with hungry critters, singing a happy (and original) song about falling down and getting back up again. Beyond Kendricks strong singing voice, this scene highlights the movies appealingly arts-and-crafty visual aesthetic: It almost resembles one of the scrapbooks that the heroine is so fond of assembling. At one point, Poppy falls through giant spiders webs that resemble strings of yarn, and shes surrounded by flora and fauna that look like theyre constructed out of cardboard and pipe cleaners. Theres also a prank-happy talking cloud (voiced by Walt Dohrn, who directed the film with Mike Mitchell) thats the spitting image of the puffy tufts of cotton glimpsed in so many elementary school shoebox dioramas.

(Photo: DreamWorks)

Once they arrive in grim and gritty Bergentown, even the always-ebullient Troll queen has trouble keeping her spirits up. In a later clip, Poppys skin has acquired a somber grey hue, which is when Branch finally steps up to raise her spirits with a little Cyndi Lauper, crooning the lyrics of True Colors solo until she joins in. As they sing, Poppys face, arms and torso reacquire their pinkish hue, while Branch turns a bright blue. Kendrick and Timberlake performed the song live when Trolls screened footage in front of audiences at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and their voices blend together beautifully in the film as well. (Their odd couple comedy routine onscreen is slightly less convincing, though.)

Musical moments like this one will almost certainly be a big source of Trolls appeal to families, and it helps that the movie is beating Universals own cartoon musical Sing  which also makes copious use of hit pop songs  to theaters by a full month. Trolls may be a more familiar toy story than The Lego Movie, but its colorful characters and handmade universe should leave younger viewers feeling in the pink.
Net CPO price received will likely be flattish.

Bumitama Agris (BAL) results for Q2 are likely to disappoint, say analysts, as weak output and heavy export levies weigh down on the firms profits.

According to a report by Maybank Kim Eng, Malaysia Palm Oil Board's spot crude palm oil (CPO) price averaged USD 650/t.

Taking into consideration the USD 50/t CPO export levy imposed by the Indonesian government since 16 July 2015, the net CPO price received will likely be flattish YoY, though it would reflect a 15% spike QoQ.

With BAL's low output, estimates place BAL's 2Q16 core net profit to come in at IDR 143b-172b, or roughly $14.79m-17.79m.

However, BAL may see a turnaround in H2.

Although we expect significantly better 2H16 output, there is risk that our 8% FFB output growth imputed forecast for 2016 may not be achieved. On the brighter side, its 2H16 forward sales to Wilmar equivalent to MYR2,450/t (gross) CPO price have locked in much of its 2H earnings visibility, Maybank Kim Eng notes.





More From Singapore Business Review


Leading oilfield services company Weatherford International Ltd. WFT is expected to report second-quarter 2016 earnings on Jul 27, 2016.

The company has a mixed earnings history. Weatherford beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three and missed the same in one of the trailing four quarters. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered a negative earnings surprise of 11.54%.

Factors at Play



The measures undertaken by Weatherford to reduce expenses, both through direct cost reduction in view of the major downturn as well as by restructuring its overall cost structure, should result in a more efficient and better run company going forward. With revenue trends projected to surpass its peers, the company appears to be well poised for improved earnings performance in the second quarter.



Weatherford is aligning its organizational structure to keep up with the changing market conditions, which in turn, should significantly aid financials. The company is planning to shut down and consolidate several of its operating facilities across North America.



Though we believe that expenditure on exploration and production activity levels are gaining traction, the improvement might be partially offset by competitive pricing and continued margin pressure from excess capacity. In addition, Weatherford could face a more adverse impact than its peers, if the North American market underperforms. This is because a significant portion of its revenues comes from this region. Weatherford believes that the depressed natural gas and oil price environment will further hamper its earnings growth.



Moreover, Weatherford's debt-heavy balance sheet, it's inability to generate strong free cash flow as well as competition from larger peers are causes for concern.

WEATHERFORD INT Price and EPS Surprise

WEATHERFORD INT Price and EPS Surprise | WEATHERFORD INT Quote

Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Weatherford is likely to beat on earnings this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here, as you will see below.



Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, stands at 0.00%.



Zacks Rank: Weatherford carries a Zacks Rank #3. However, a 0.00% ESP makes earnings prediction difficult.



We caution against Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Ranks #4 and 5) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Story continues

Stocks to Consider



Here are some companies from the same space, which according to our model, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



SunCoke Energy Inc. SXC has Earnings ESP of +400.00% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is expected to release earnings on Jul 28.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK has Earnings ESP of +12.50% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is anticipated to release earnings on Aug 4.

Spectra Energy Corp. SE has Earnings ESP of +40.00% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is likely to release earnings on Aug 3.

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By Herbert Lash NEW YORK (Reuters) - WeWork Cos, the office-space sharing start-up with an estimated $16 billion valuation, has demanded that one of its tenants take down a blog on a public website that suggests the rate at which members leave has surged in recent months. The posting on Tuesday by Justin Zhen, whose data analytics firm Thinknum operates out of a WeWork site on 42nd Street in Manhattan, also said that member engagement on WeWork's social networking platform is surprisingly low. The WeWork platform is seen inside the company as a key tool for creating a sense of community at WeWork locations. The company sees its fortunes tied to the premise that the entrepreneurs and young urban workers populating its workspaces will form lasting communities in part by being active on the network. WeWork is a rare "decacorn," a start-up valued at $10 billion or more. Zhen's analysis said WeWork's historical churn rate of 1.2 percent annually had shot up in recent months to 6 percent. The churn rate is a ratio of cancellations to total WeWork members. The analysis also said more than three-quarters of WeWork's members had never posted on the network. WeWork officials dispute Zhen's points and said his data is inaccurate or incomplete. "This company scraped incomplete data from our member network, which violated the rules of our community," WeWork said in a statement to Reuters. "The data they published and their associated conclusions are factually inaccurate and do not reflect our thriving business." More than 80 percent of WeWork members actively use the company's digital services each month, the company said. Lawyers for WeWork gave Thinknum until Saturday to remove the blog on online publisher medium.com and to delete all the data the firm had gathered from the network, which contains e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and dates for when members joined and left. A cease-and-desist letter sent to Zhen on Wednesday and viewed by Reuters said Thinknum agreed when becoming a member in April 2015 that it would not engage in scraping, spidering, crawling or using any other technology or software to access WeWork data. Thinknum also agreed not to collect e-mail addresses or other contact information, according to the letter signed by Douglas Curtis, a deputy general counsel at WeWork. Zhen said he does not believe he violated the terms of his WeWork membership when he used an application programming interface, or API, that he and his Thinknum colleagues found on the WeWork network to locate and analyze WeWork membership data. He said he was surprised the network, which contains member telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, among other details, was so accessible. "We couldn't believe the data was out there like that," Zhen said. "You shouldn't do this if you're a big company." WeWork said to Reuters the data Thinknum gathered was incomplete as some of its biggest customers restrict access to the network, and that certain profiles were created for testing purposes. In addition, Thinknum does not have access to certain data that better reflects a network that is thriving, WeWork said. Zhen's blog comes on the heels of a restraining order WeWork sought on Monday against a former employee it accused of disclosing unauthorized information. The disclosure, which showed WeWork had missed certain financial targets, caused the company "significant damage," it said in a lawsuit it filed against the ex-employee in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan last week. Thinknum said it created its analysis by tapping the software application that governs the network, which is used by members to communicate among themselves and with WeWork employees. Thinknum was founded in 2013 by Zhen and his former Princeton University roommate Gregory Ugwi. The firm supplies data about publicly traded companies to hedge funds and banks, including Goldman Sachs, which cited Thinknum in May in a research note showing loan origination by Lending Club Corp. was in decline. The company, which Zhen said is now profitable, employs 10 people, including six working at the WeWork location in mid-town Manhattan. (Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrew Hay)
A group of boaters received a special surprise when they were greeted by a humpback whale off the New South Wales coast.

In this video, uploaded on July 17, a whale breaches close to a small boat at Swansea Heads, before blowing water from its spout.

Humpback whales are migratory and between April and November, travel up to 10,000 kilometres to mate, give birth and travel back to the Antarctic.

According to the Australian Antarctic Division, the humpback is one of the most active whales, often exhibiting breaching, tail-slapping and exposing their fins. Credit: Erin Murphy
One spring evening in the mid 2000s, Jonathan Jackson and Andy Linscott sat on some seaside rocks near their college campus, smoking the kind of cigarettes reserved for heartbreak. Linscott was, by his own admission, emotionally spewing over a girl, and Jackson was consoling him.

Jackson had always been a particularly good listener. But in the middle of their talk, he did something Linscott found deeply odd.

He got up and jumped over to this much higher rock, Linscott says. He was like, Andy, Im listening, I just want to get a different angle. I want to see what youre saying and the shape of your words from a different perspective. I was baffled.

For Jackson, moving physically to think differently about an idea seemed totally natural. People say, Okay, we need to think about this from a new angle all the time! he says. But for me thats literal.

Jackson has synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon that has long been defined as the co-activation of two or more conventionally unrelated senses. Some synesthetes see music (known as auditory-visual synesthesia) or read letters and numbers in specific hues (grapheme-color synesthesia). But recent research has complicated that definition, exploring where in the sensory process those overlaps start and opening up the term to include types of synesthesia in which senses interact in a much more complex manner.

When he makes a choice, his gut feelings are visually laid out in front of him.

Jackson sees his thoughts as shapes. Every person he meets, every sentence he reads, and every decision he makes are presented as data points on a kind of continuously moving mental scatter plot, creating figures he compares to constellations. If he were to make a decision about whether to take a new job, for instance, those points might represent salary, location, and cost of living. The lines between them would change depending on how attractive they were to Jackson, creating a unique configuration for each option.

Story continues

For many people, decision-making is a murky, difficult process. Think it through, go with your gut, follow your hearttheres a reason the English language features so many ways to talk about groping around in the cellar of the conscience to find the light switch of intuition. But for Jackson, intuition is anything but blind. When he makes a choice, his gut feelings are visually laid out in front of him. He can choose among his options the way others might choose the reddest, glossiest apple from a bowl.

Recommended: How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

In 2014, Jackson, who now lives in Seattle, designed and released an app with the aim of helping others make decisions. Called ChoiceMap, it helps users weigh the factors in a given decision, using an algorithm to spit out a perfection score for each option. Cold hard numbers; no more groping in the darkness. The app, which was rebuilt and re-released in May, helps users view decisions through a mathematical prism. It also serves as a reminder of the distance between peoples perceptions that can never be fully crossedand as a testament to just how delicate and strange communication is in the first place.

* * *

Its possible that someone could know Jackson for years without realizing anything is different about him. Hes clean cut, with an open face that masks a steely, almost stubborn resolve. He plays guitar and goes for long walks in his free time.

Sometimes, though, as were talking, I see his eyes flit to the side or focus elsewhere. Thats when he says hes trying to translate his thoughts, from complex mathematics into something he might be able to convey in words. Early on, scheduling an interview, he explains that calls with strangers can be difficult. Without prior social context, his thoughts about a new person sometimes blurhe compares the experience to a nebula instead of a constellationand that makes it hard to concentrate. So, we Skype instead.

Little disconnects of this kind started early for Jackson. Just as he did in his late-night conversation with Linscott, he remembers climbing on furniture to look at the ideas in his schoolwork from a different angle as a kid. Since nobody else around him did that, he learned to hide it. For more than two decades, I didn't know why my brain worked differently than others, he says.

Jacksons visual field was so cluttered with ideas that he had to sit down, call his girlfriend, and ask for a ride.

A native Californian, Jackson went east to Massachusetts for collegethats where he met Linscott. From there, he moved to Princeton to study the cognitive science of religion, examining the ways the human mind acquires and shares religious belief. I wanted to understand how other people thought, he says. It felt like I had spent my life translating in one direction. This was before his diagnosis, when he was aware of a yawning gap between his thoughts and other peoples but could not explain it.

Trying to bridge that gap could be frustrating. Jackson seemed to do well at Princeton, but underneath a gregarious facade, he was struggling. At his lowest point, he was spending up to twenty hours a day in the library poring over cognitive science research, in search of an explanation for what made his, and all brains, work. By then it had become difficult to interact, he says. It exhausted a lot of people.

Recommended: Jon Stewart's Pitch-Perfect Rant on Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show'

Sometimes, walking home after a long study session, Jacksons visual field was so cluttered with ideas that he had to sit down, call his girlfriend, and ask for a ride.

The best metaphor I can give: When you were a kid did you ever just stare at a flashlight and turn out the light in the dark, and the light seems like its there flashing in front of your eyes? he says. Thats what its like, only with high-dimension geometry.

* * *

Jacksons difficulties reflect a larger issue in synesthesia research: the difficulty of translating, or even attempting to explain, individual perception. Trying to understand how someone else sees the world can be like picturing an animal youve never seen based only on that persons description. And that, unsurprisingly, can lead to misunderstanding.

For researchers, tackling this requires asking questions about biology and the building blocks of perceptual experience. Does synesthesia stem from something as fundamental as a sound wave hitting an eardrum, for instance? Or does it arise further along the thought assembly line, where our understanding of sensations is processed and expressed? This distinction can be traced to a foundational 1929 study that asked subjects to name and ascribe traits to two shapesone spiky and jagged like an uneven star, the other bulbous and blobby like a mutated flower. The study, and a follow-up performed in 2001, found that, given two name options, speakers across languages and cultures chose baluba in the earlier study and bouba in the later study for the curvy blob, and takete in the earlier study and kiki in the later study for the spiky star. And not only that, they also tended to agree on which shape would be nervous, which laidback; which high-class, which low-class; and a number of other traits.

Recommended: The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America

Today, nearly 90 years later, Danko Nikolic, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, draws from bouba and kiki to argue that it is the ideas synesthetes use to categorize sensory information that prompt synesthesetic experiences. Our ideas and our senses are inextricably linked, he says, and that means (at least in the case of synesthesia) that one cant exist without the other. He points to one study, in which synesthetes who see numbers or letters in specific colors were shown a shape that could be interpreted as an S or a 5 in a field of other symbols. When those symbols were numbers, most of them saw the shape as a 5; when the symbols were letters, that interpretation changed to an Sand the corresponding color changed with it.

Nikolic has worked with people who see time as a line, a spiral, or more complicated geometric shapes.

Other scientists see synesthesia as a crossing of wires at the most basic level. These scientists contend that synesthetes start processing sensory information differently from the very first moment of contactfor instance, before the brain can even name wavelengths of light that bounce into the eye as blue. Yet most researchers argue for a more ambiguous middle ground, in which both perception of a figures form and the act of naming it work together to create synesthesia. Yes, synesthetes respond to visual stimuli in fundamentally different ways than other people, they say. But because the brain is a natural predictor, it begins suggesting categories for those wavelengthsnames like blueat the very beginning of sensory processing. Perhaps the way ideas and perception interact cant be so neatly defined, after all.

* * *

That middle ground theory is also where science begins to explainand test formore complicated synesthesia like Jacksons. With simple synesthesia, such as grapheme-color, testing easily identifies synesthetes. One of the most popular assessments asks a subject to match the shade he or she sees in a letter or number using a computerized color palette. You come back as a surprise a month or six months later and say, Find your color again, and they pick the same one, Nikolic explains. A non-synesthete is hard pressed to do that.

For someone with more complicated synesthesia, testing is trickier. Nikolic has worked with people who see time as a line, a spiral, or more complicated geometric shapes. The key to testing them, he says, is asking for really, really fine details. You wait a long time, you surprise them, and then do it again.

Still, in discussing something as personal as perception, testing can only get you so far. Researchers focusing on more complex synesthesia must rely on subjective descriptions and observation from their subjects. In that vein, Jackson sends me to the website of Venezuelan artist Rafael Araujo, whose elaborate helix and nautilus drawings he compares to his own thought processes. People in Jacksons circle report a pattern of behavior consistent with the thinking he describes, including use of visually-oriented language, frequent discussion of ideas in terms of shape, and offering to rewind a conversation or reconstruct it in an explicitly visual way.

I can tell when hes paying close attention to his thought process and not paying as much attention to translating, his wife, Rebecca Jackson, says. Its the way his eyes focus. Sometimes theres hand movement.

Thats something I also see during our interactions. Once, during a Skype call, I notice Jacksons eyes moving to the side particularly frequently. Finally, we interrupt our conversation; a stray thought has him distracted, and its keeping him from the topic at hand. Its as though his thoughts are points moving in unison, a flock of abstract birds, and this distracting topic is an intrusive wedge flying across the plane. The thought-birds scatter in its wake.

* * *

As persuasive as the evidence supporting his synesthestic experiences may be, the truth, of course, is that no one else can see through Jacksons eyes. Ive never had anyone say No I dont believe you, he says. Still, when I ask whether people ever express disbelief at his abilities, he says, There arent a lot of moments of me saying, Hey, person I dont know very well, let me share this unique way my brain works and then have you be incredulous about it.

It took time for him to achieve that equanimity. He climbed out of his graduate school depression only with the help of Dick Fenn, a Princeton Theological Seminary professor. Fenn remembers a day in one of his seminars when Jackson, attempting to convey a complicated idea, drew some of his thoughts on the chalkboard. Instead of greeting Jacksons drawings with scorn or confusion, Fenn wanted to know more. He invited Jackson for coffee after class.

That connection with Fenn marked the beginning of a new chapter for Jackson. It flipped this switch for me, Jackson says. Now, the conversation was on his terms. He was deeply moved by Fenns attempts to engage in a way no one had before; Fenn even encouraged him to write his masters thesis in the style of his seminar drawing. Fenn was reaching out; he was trying to bridge the impossible gap.

At one point in our conversations, Jackson sends me a photo of his thesis, slightly blurry, but showing clearly the projects sheer size and complexity. The drawing fills three successive chalkboards with minute writing, numbers, symbols. Its organized around a kind of X-shaped axis, with bubbles and squares branching off, squiggly sections of ideas, tangents, roots, remarkable for what it is: human thought, cross-sectioned.

* * *

Jackson stresses that his synesthesia and ChoiceMap, his app, are independentthat he conceived of the idea separately and the apps algorithm is not based on his own decision-making process. He often notes that his team is only 25 percent synesthete, emphasizing that the app represents his colleagues collective work, not just his. ChoiceMap uses math, he says. Anyone can learn from and critique math. Thats the point; math is translatable.

Still, its hard not to see parallels. When making decisions with the app, ChoiceMap users are prompted to list the factors they are considering, weigh those factors on a scale of importance, then evaluate their options on the basis of each factor. The app breaks everything down using an algorithm and offers its perfection score for each possibility its users could choose. Few people might think to use high-level math in their decision-making; for some, even a pro-con list is a stretch. It may well take someone who sees data points in his thoughts to make that connection.

Since its release in 2014, thousands of users have tasked ChoiceMap with helping them decide where to live, what car to buy, or whether to break up with their partners. Its impossible to know whether they went through with those choices, but last summer Jackson did meet a baby who owed its existence to a ChoiceMap decision.

The newest version of ChoiceMap, released in May, includes many more decision decks available to the public, arrays of pre-set factors to help users choose between types of birth control or car models. Additionally, an add-on called ChoiceMap Medical is now in testing at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centers oncology department, inspired by emails Jackson and his team received from doctors using the app to make difficult decisions about their patients treatments. The new app helps oncologists and their patients consider factors such as memory loss, nausea, cost, and length of life when choosing cancer treatments.

Although the ChoiceMap Medical program is currently limited to patients with brain metastases, the team is working with multiple hospitals to expand coverage into general oncology, geriatrics, surgery, and beyond. Were switching to a healthcare focus, Jackson says. Its the most meaningful use case any of us can think of. Helping people choose which car to buy is fine, but there are harder decisions.

* * *

Any app is a literal brainchild of its designers; even Angry Birds is, in its way, a look into the mind of another human being. In that context, Jacksons point about ChoiceMaps use of math as translation is powerful. At root, every human interaction involves a similar transaction, however small: a shout across the chasm between minds, an imaginative jaunt into the great unknown outside our own brains. Following ChoiceMaps decision-making protocolsteasing out individual factors from the cloud of fuzzy values and hunches, putting a number to their importanceis one uniquely concrete way to see the world from another angle, to bridge the chasm.

Jackson has learned to love that space between. His synesthesia still frustrates him occasionallyYou dont get to switch that off on Friday night when youre sitting around shooting the shit, he saysbut with help from Fenn and a close-knit support network, he has embraced it as an asset.

Linscott not only sees how far Jackson has come since they were intense kids smoking cigarettes; he suspects the compassion he so values in Jackson is connected to his friends synesthesia. I can imagine how that would contribute to his ability to have deep conversation and to listen empathically, he says, because its not just words hes processing. Its something hes seeing, something he can engage with on multiple levels.

Despite all the times shes seen Jackson blinded by his thoughts or frustrated by difficult translations, Rebecca, his wife, feels similarly. She believes synesthesia contributes something essential to her husband. It means he can be more creative, more thoughtful, more decisive. He can interact with his ideas in a way that is impossible for others.

She knows its not her decision, but she cant help but wish: If were able to have a child, I hope our child has it, she says.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Amkor Technology, Inc. AMKR is expected to report second-quarter 2016 results on Jul 25. Last quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 100%.

Let us see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

AMKOR TECH INC Price and EPS Surprise

AMKOR TECH INC Price and EPS Surprise | AMKOR TECH INC Quote

Factors to Consider

Amkors first-quarter results were in line with management expectations driven by positive cash flows resulting from reduction in capital and operational budgets.

During 2015, Amkor made noticeable progress in some of its key areas. The companys System-in-Package (SiP) business grew significantly fetching revenues of $725 million. Automotive sales were up 10%. Furthermore, Greater China revenues grew 20%.

In December last year, Amkor completed the acquisition of J-Devices Corporation to strengthen its foothold in the automotive market. The acquisition made Amkor the worlds largest OSAT provider for automotive ICs. Management said that the acquisition would add $800 million to the companys revenue this year.

While end market demand is expected to remain stable with particular strength in China where the company is picking up market share, earthquakes in Japan have disrupted operations at Amkors Kumamoto factory. Repair work was expected to take 11 weeks, so results will also be affected this quarter.

The company expects second-quarter revenues in the range of $875 million. Operating expenses are expected to remain at around $100 million. Interest expenses are expected to be around $22 million a quarter for the rest of the year.

The Japan earthquake will have a $35 million impact on revenue, $20 million in additional cost related to repairs and damaged inventory and an 11 cent impact on second-quarter EPS. But management also expects insurance proceeds of $25 million in the second half when it will be set off.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Amkor will beat on earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Story continues

Zacks ESP: Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at - 8 cents. Hence, the difference is 0.00%.

Zacks Rank: Amkor carries a Zacks Rank #2, which increases the predictive power of ESP. But the companys 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies which you may consider, as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Open Text Corp. OTEX, with an Earnings ESP of +1.10% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is slated to release its earnings on Jul 27, 2016.

Charter Communications, Inc. CHTR, with an Earnings ESP of +404.76% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is slated to report second-quarter 2016 earnings results on Aug 9, 2016.

Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. BKFS, with an Earnings ESP of +3.45% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is set to report second-quarter 2016 earnings results on Oct 25, 2016.

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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Nebraska officials have been working for years to build ties with China. Theyve been successful. China is Nebraskas fourth-largest trading partner; last year China bought almost $500 million worth of Nebraska products. More than 1,000 students from China attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Now the national Republican Party and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump seem to be working at cross purposes to those efforts.

The Republican Party platform approved this week at the national convention uses strong language in criticizing China:

The liberalizing policies of recent decades have been abruptly reversed, dissent brutally crushed, religious persecution heightened, the Internet crippled, a barbaric population control two-child policy of forced abortions and forced sterilizations continued, and the cult of Mao revived.

The 2012 GOP platform also criticized China, but the criticism was tempered by other passages, such as one that said, The exposure of the Chinese people to our way of life can be the greatest force for change in their country. We should make it easier for the people of China to experience our vibrant democracy and to see for themselves how freedom works. We welcome the increase in trade and education alliances with the U.S. and the opening of Chinese markets to American companies.

The 2016 platform does not temper its harsh criticism to that degree, although it says it still welcomes Chinese students, tourists and investors, and adds, The return to Maoism by Chinas current rulers is not reason to disengage with the Chinese people or their institutions.

The new GOP platform also calls on American universities to disassociate themselves from academic or cultural operations under the control of the Chinese government, which the Los Angeles Times described as a reference to Confucius Institutes like the one at UNL.

On its website the UNL institute said it operates in accordance with applicable local rules and regulations with a board of directors that includes four Nebraskans and three representatives of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

A state-run Chinese newspaper that probably reflects the views of the Chinese leadership noted that China often is criticized in election years, but called the platform one of the harshest, saying that the GOP had given into Trump;s wackiness.

Ricketts and a trade mission including Nebraska business leaders is scheduled to leave for China the day after the Nov. 8 election. Thanks to the GOP platform committee, it looks like their job just got a lot tougher.
(Adds comment from Malaysian foreign ministry in pars 9-10)

WASHINGTON/KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 (Reuters) - The White House urged Malaysia on Thursday to demonstrate good governance and a transparent business climate, a day after U.S. prosecutors sued to try and seize $1 billion in assets they said were bought with money stolen from a state development fund.

The civil lawsuits present a potentially thorny issue for the two countries that have grown closer during the administration of President Barack Obama, who has visited the southeast Asian nation twice in the last two years.

The lawsuits will likely affect relations, but they did not come as a surprise, said a U.S. congressional aide. "It has been a concern of a lot of people for a long time. Corruption in Malaysia is a huge problem," the aide said.

No criminal charges have been filed in the scandal surrounding Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, which was overseen by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Obama spoke generally with Najib on a visit to Malaysia last year about the need for transparency and good governance, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

"For business interests who are considering doing business in Malaysia, they're going to be looking for signs that there is good business climate," Earnest told reporters.

The Malaysian government "should be conspicuous about making clear that they're committed to transparency and good governance, and the kind of rules that will encourage people who are considering investing in Malaysia's fast-growing economy to have confidence that they can do so fairly," Earnest said.

Najib said in response to the lawsuits that his government would give its full cooperation to international investigations of the 1MDB case.

Malaysia's foreign minister Anifah Aman met the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun on Thursday to discuss the lawsuits.

"Malaysia highly values its bilateral relations with the United States and calls on the U.S. to recognize the various steps taken by the Government of Malaysia to address the 1MDB issue," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday night.

Story continues

Malaysia's Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali, however, expressed "strong concerns at the insinuations and allegations" of wrongdoing against Najib in the lawsuits.

He said in a statement that none of the probes conducted by law enforcement agencies across the globe over the past year show that any funds were misappropriated from 1MDB.

The U.S. investigation is the largest set of cases brought by the Justice Department's Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which seeks the forfeiture of the proceeds of foreign corruption.

Targeting assets ranging from valuable paintings and a private jet to the 2013 hit movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" and rights to popular songs, the civil lawsuits said $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB.

1MDB said in a statement that it was not a party to the lawsuit, did not have any assets in the United States, "nor has it benefited from the various transactions described."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Susan Cornwell and Praveen Menon; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast)
WASHINGTON/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The White House urged Malaysia on Thursday to demonstrate good governance and a transparent business climate, a day after U.S. prosecutors sued to try and seize $1 billion in assets they said were bought with money stolen from a state development fund.

The civil lawsuits present a potentially thorny issue for the two countries that have grown closer during the administration of President Barack Obama, who has visited the southeast Asian nation twice in the last two years.

The lawsuits will likely affect relations, but they did not come as a surprise, said a U.S. congressional aide. "It has been a concern of a lot of people for a long time. Corruption in Malaysia is a huge problem," the aide said.

No criminal charges have been filed in the scandal surrounding Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, which was overseen by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Obama spoke generally with Najib on a visit to Malaysia last year about the need for transparency and good governance, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

For business interests who are considering doing business in Malaysia, they're going to be looking for signs that there is good business climate, Earnest told reporters.

The Malaysian government "should be conspicuous about making clear that they're committed to transparency and good governance, and the kind of rules that will encourage people who are considering investing in Malaysia's fast-growing economy to have confidence that they can do so fairly, Earnest said.

Najib said in response to the lawsuits that his government would give its full cooperation to international investigations of the 1MDB case.

Malaysia's foreign minister Anifah Aman met the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun on Thursday to discuss the lawsuits.

"Malaysia highly values its bilateral relations with the United States and calls on the U.S. to recognize the various steps taken by the Government of Malaysia to address the 1MDB issue," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday night.

Story continues

Malaysia's Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali, however, expressed "strong concerns at the insinuations and allegations" of wrongdoing against Najib in the lawsuits.

He said in a statement that none of the probes conducted by law enforcement agencies across the globe over the past year show that any funds were misappropriated from 1MDB.

The U.S. investigation is the largest set of cases brought by the Justice Department's Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which seeks the forfeiture of the proceeds of foreign corruption.

Targeting assets ranging from valuable paintings and a private jet to the 2013 hit movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" and rights to popular songs, the civil lawsuits said $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB.

1MDB said in a statement that it was not a party to the lawsuit, did not have any assets in the United States, "nor has it benefited from the various transactions described."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Susan Cornwell and Praveen Menon; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast)
Domestic oil and gas explorer Whiting Petroleum Corp. WLL is set to release second-quarter 2016 results after the closing bell on Wednesday, Jul 27.



In the preceding three-month period, this Denver, CO-based firm delivered a negative earnings surprise of 19.72%. However, the trailing four-quarter average beat for the company is 117.24%. Let's see what is in store for this quarter.



Factors to Consider This Quarter



As a leading upstream energy firm, Whiting Petroleums business is dependent on commodity prices.



Throughout the quarter under review, oil price improved significantly from mid-February when West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell to a 12-year low mark of $26.05 per barrel. Moreover, last month, oil prices settled above the psychologically important $50 per barrel level for the first time in more than 10 months. Despite these improvements, the pricing scenario of the commodity was weaker than the year-ago-comparable quarter.



On the production front, Whiting Petroleum projects second-quarter volumes of 12.212.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE), lower than 15.49 MMBOE output in second-quarter 2015.



Overall, both the output figure and crude prices, if compared with the AprJun period of 2015 are not in favor of the company.



Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that Whiting Petroleum will beat estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to be able to beat consensus estimates. That is not the case here as you will see below.



Zacks ESP: Whiting Petroleum has an earnings ESP of 0.00%. That is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at a loss of 51 cents.



Zacks Rank: Whiting Petroleums Zacks Rank #2 increases the predictive power of ESP. However, a 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.



The Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 or 5) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Story continues

WHITING PETROLM Price and EPS Surprise

WHITING PETROLM Price and EPS Surprise | WHITING PETROLM Quote

Stocks to Consider



Though an earnings beat looks uncertain for Whiting Petroleum, here are some companies that you may want to consider on the basis of our model, as they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:



Anadarko Petroleum Corporation APC has an Earnings ESP of +1.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is likely to release earnings results on Jul 26.

Legacy Reserves LP LGCY has an Earnings ESP of +31.58% and a Zacks Rank #1. The partnership is expected to release earnings results on Aug 3.



Ring Energy Inc. REI has an Earnings ESP of +33.33% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is anticipated to release earnings results on Aug 8.



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ANADARKO PETROL (APC): Free Stock Analysis Report



LEGACY RESERVES (LGCY): Free Stock Analysis Report



WHITING PETROLM (WLL): Free Stock Analysis Report



RING ENERGY INC (REI): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
The popular rum-maker Captain Morgan is proposing to eliminate any age requirements for citizens to serve as President of the United States. The ad stunt does raise a question with an interesting constitutional background.

William Jennings Bryan, the youngest major party candidate ever

The Captain Morgan campaign claims that Under 35s can do anything: Except be President, and it lists some very famous business people who currently cant run for President. The campaign also has a White House website petition asking President Barack Obama to call on Congress to address the age requirement necessary for presidential office with an amendment to the Constitution to allow adults under 35 to be President.

The Constitution clearly spells out three age requirements for public office. First, the President and Vice President must be 35 years of age or older when assuming office; a Senator must be 30 years of age, and a member of the House must be 25 years of age. There are no age requirements for Supreme Court Justices.

Those requirements havent changed since the Constitution was written in 1787 and went into effect in 1789. Prior to that, the Articles of Confederation didnt say how old members needed to be to serve in the Confederation Congress.

At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, there was little public debate about the age requirements and no discussion about the age requirement for the presidency.

The one discussion of note involved two important Founders: James Wilson, a future Supreme Court Justice, and George Mason, a constitutional dissenter. Mason, who was 62 years of age, argued that a requirement of 25 years of age was needed for the House because of his own experience. Mason said, if interrogated [he would] be obliged to declare that his political opinions at the age of 21 were too crude and erroneous to merit an influence on public measures.

Wilson, who was 45 years of age, said that any age limit on serving in public office would damp the efforts of genius, and of laudable ambition. There was no more reason for incapacitating youth than age, where the requisite qualifications were found. Wilson pointed to William Pitt the Younger, who served as British prime minister at the age of 24, and Lord Bolingbroke, who served in Parliament in his early 20s.

Story continues

In the end, Mason won the argument and the drafting committee approved age limits by a 7-3 vote. There was some insight later from James Madison, writing in The Federalist 62, about why Senators needed to be older than House members.

Madison talked about the need for senatorial trust which required greater extent of information and stability of character  that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages.

Madison also discussed some points that some scholars believe led to the age requirements: a distrust of foreign influence and a fear of families trying to put children in place in federal office to serve in a hereditary manner. He feared the indiscriminate and hasty admission of people to Congress that might create a channel for foreign influence on the national councils.

James Monroe also wrote about the presidential age requirement making it difficult for a father and son to serve in a dynastic way. The Constitution has provided, that no person shall be eligible to the office, who is not thirty five years old; and in the course of nature very few fathers leave a son who has arrived to that age, he said in A Native of Virginia, Observations upon the Proposed Plan of Federal Government.

One interesting comment came from a Continental Congress member who was in Philadelphia in 1787 but not a delegate at the Constitutional Convention: Tench Coxe.

Coxe wrote a newspaper essay defending the need for the Constitution right after the debates were concluded. In America, as the President is to be one of the people at the end of his short term, so will he and his fellow citizens remember that he was originally one of the people; and that he is created by their breath. Further, he cannot be an idiot, probably not a knave or a tyrant, for those whom nature makes so, discover it before the age of thirty-five, until which period he cannot be elected.

Ironically, 12 of the delegates at the Constitution Convention were under the age of 35, including Alexander Hamilton. Gouverneur Morris, who wrote the Preamble, was 35 years of age and James Madison was 36 years of age. Thomas Jefferson was also 33 years of age when he drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Today, the age limits on the presidency and Congress havent been successfully challenged in court. In 2012, Peta Lindsay challenged the presidential age restriction by running as a presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party candidate, at the age of 27, within the state of California.

In 2014, Federal appeals Judge Alex Kozinski and two other federal judges rejected arguments that Lindsays rights were violated under the First Amendment and the 14th Amendments Equal Protection Clause and that the 12th Amendments language didnt allow states to set age requirements.

Holding that [the state] couldnt exclude Lindsay from the ballot, despite her admission that she was underage, would mean that anyone, regardless of age, citizenship or any other constitutional ineligibility would be entitled to clutter and confuse our electoral ballot. Nothing in the First Amendment compels such an absurd result, wrote Judge Kozinski.

That doesnt mean that a few underage people havent been admitted to the Senate, despite the Constitutions intent. At least three Senators  Henry Clay, Armistead Mason, and John H. Eaton  took their Senate oaths before they were legally 30 years old. The oversights werent apparently noticed or challenged.

In 1972, Joe Biden, a 29-year-old candidate from Delaware, was elected to the Senate. Biden turned 30 just a few weeks after his election and well before he took the oath of office in January 1973.

And William Jennings Bryam was the youngest major party candidate to run in a general election. Bryan was just 36 years old when he opposed William McKinley in the 1896 election.

Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

Recent Stories on Constitution Daily

15 constitutional amendments proposed in Republican convention platforms

Constitution Check: Does spending on war amount to declaration of war?

The Scopes Monkey trial and the Constitution

Texas voter photo ID law nullified
Exchange-traded funds have stolen fizzy lifting drinks!

In appreciation for the untold billions of dollars in fees that investors have saved since ETFs' inception in 1993, the investing world has sent the industry's assets under management into the sky. Over the past five years alone, global AUM across exchange-traded funds more than doubled to nearly $3 trillion.

And if a new survey is any indication, ETFs have a long, long way to go before they'll run into any kind of ceiling.

Which is good, because it would have to be washed.

[See: Artificial Intelligence Stocks: 10 Companies Using AI Extensively.]

ETFs are expected to grow to $6 trillion by 2021. A new study -- "ETFs: A Roadmap to Growth" -- predicts that the industry will roughly double again over the next five years. Nearly 70 percent believe the ETF industry will reach $6 trillion or more by 2021, with 40 percent of respondents pegging that number at $7 trillion or more. The most optimistic respondents actually believe ETF AUM can hit 14 digits, estimating assets of $10 trillion or more in five years.

Even the remaining 30 percent fell into a basket consensus of "$5 trillion or less," so at least some of those respondents expect some measure of growth from the ETF industry.

The general air of bullishness on the industry comes in large part because there's no single thing pushing ETFs forward. Instead, experts point to a host of various drivers that collectively will attract those trillions of dollars in assets.

Institutional money. Many individual investors have been drawn into ETFs for their well-worn set of attributes, such as easy diversification and relatively low fees for index ETFs compared to actively managed funds (and even other index mutual funds).

But the use of ETFs is starting to pick up among big-money institutional investors.

"In addition to the outright purchase of ETFs from end investors, ETFs are increasingly being deployed in institutional strategies," says Karan Sood, CEO and co-founder of Vest Financial. "One well-reported usage that is driving assets and trading volumes is the growing use of ETF model portfolios by advisors in managing client assets.

Story continues

Nick Good, co-head of the Global SPDR Business at State Street Global Advisors, is seeing much of the same.

"I do think there are a number of big trends around institutional users, particularly insurance companies, increasing their usage, in some cases for core allocations, in some cases for satellite exposure," he says. "But also just as they are more and more capped for market instruments, they are replacing futures for ETFs, which is a big trade for many of our funds."

And why not? Just like individuals, institutional investors can benefit from many of the advantages ETFs offer.

"More and more institutional investors are saying they don't need that asset manager in the mutual fund form when they can get 95 percent of the same exposure and do it at half the cost and more tax-efficiently," says Reality Shares CEO Eric Ervin, who sees this shift as the primary thing pushing ETF assets ahead.

"It's intelligent people making intelligent decisions in the way they're allocating their capital."

[See: The 10 Best Materials ETFs We Could Dig Up.]

Smart-beta ETFs. Investors are plenty familiar with the old guard of the exchange-traded world -- the index fund. Rather than an active manager picking stocks, you have funds like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) that simply track a single index of holdings. These ETFs tend to beat out their actively managed counterparts, and because there's no manager and far less staff to pay, they typically charge much less in fees.

But index funds are becoming more complex, with ETF providers slicing and dicing indices to create more specific strategies, such as equal-weight funds and low-volatility ETFs, but still bypassing active management. And the experts think this area of the industry will do a lot of heavy lifting.

"We expect market-cap weighted passive ETFs to continue to drive some of the ETF growth across North America, Europe and especially in Asia," says Bill Donahue, managing director with PricewaterhouseCooper's asset management assurance practice. "However, smart-beta ETFs, which have been the fastest-growing ETF category for the last couple of years, will continue to drive a lot of the ETF AUM growth."

Ervin touts the idea that with smart-beta funds, you're essentially getting an active strategy without straining your pockets.

"I like taking all the rules of an active manager," he says. "Let's take the universe of large-cap companies, now let's take all the dividend payers, then let's take the lowest P/E, the best fundamentals. You no longer really need that active manager -- the ETF has 95 percent if not 100 percent of the benefit that the active manager was giving you, and you don't have to pay him."

Robo-advisors. Investors are increasingly awash in the rise of robo-advisors. Like index funds take out the human element from selecting fund holdings, robo-advisory services take out (or at least limit) the human element from constructing a portfolio.

So it just seems natural that they would have a pro-ETF bent.

"Many ETF sponsors have either acquired existing robo-advisor/online platforms or created their own service offerings over the last few years," Donahue says. "The robo-advisor/online platform provides for the ETF sponsors to potentially reach a broader investor base in a more efficient and cost effective manner. Robo-advisors and online platforms use ETFs as a significant part of the investment allocation strategies due to their low cost, transparency and liquidity."

More of the same. Lastly, experts expect the traits that made ETFs popular in the first place will continue to drive ETF assets as part of a trend that simply hasn't ended -- ETFs continuing to eat into mutual funds' lunch.

"I think the biggest driver is ongoing uptake as investors bring more of their assets into the market and ETFs take a disproportionate share of fund flows," Good says. "I think the drivers that have led to the growth have been there for a long time, and it takes a long time in the asset management industry for those trends to change."

That trend is increasingly in ETFs' favor. Thomson Reuters reported near the end of 2015 that mutual funds suffered $150 billion in outflows. ETFs? About the same amount in inflows.

Don't expect that to surprise the likes of Ervin.

[See: 11 Health Care ETFs for a Heart-Healthy Portfolio.]

"The ETF is a better vehicle," he says. "Had ETFs been around in the 1920s when mutual funds were invented, we probably wouldn't have a mutual fund industry."





More From US News & World Report


A blast of sweltering heat will sweep across the United States over the next four days, and some places will see temperatures as much as 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 to 8.3 degrees Celsius) above average for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.

Hot weather in July is to be expected, of course  after all, it's the middle of summer  but a so-called heat dome is kicking these hot and humid temperatures up a notch.

A heat dome happens when a "dome" of high pressure traps hot air underneath it, said Mike Musher, a meteorologist at the NWS' Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. In the coming days, an enormous dome will envelope much of the Midwest before moving toward the East Coast over the weekend, he said. [Roasting? 7 Scientific Ways to Beat the Heat]

This dome formed largely because the jet stream passing over the U.S.-Canada boarder is preventing cooler air from pushing southward, Musher said. "During the summer months, with the jet typically so far north and not much cold air to dig into the united states, it's natural for these large high pressure systems to develop," he said.

Much of the country will feel scorching temperatures over the next few days, according to weather prediction maps published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In Minneapolis, for example, the average temperature on July 21 is 84 degrees F (29 degrees Celsius), Musher said. But this weekend, it will be in the mid- to high 90s Fahrenheit (about 35 to 37 degrees Celsius), he said.

By this weekend, as the heat dome moves eastward, temperatures in parts of the Midwest will drop to the 80s, Musher said. But the heat will continue to sizzle some areas. On Sunday, temperatures are expected to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) in several states, including parts of Kansas, Texas, South Carolina and Georgia, NOAA's weather prediction maps show.

Story continues

Heat domes aren't rare, but this one appears to have produced the first sizable heat wave of the summer, Musher said.

Weather and government officials advised people to stay cool as the heat dome makes its way across the country. Even President Barack Obama tweeted, "This map says it all. Stay safe as it heats up: Drink water, stay out of the sun and check on your neighbors."

This map says it all. Stay safe as it heats up: Drink water, stay out of the sun, and check on your neighbors. pic.twitter.com/c1qFTmq2IV  President Obama (@POTUS) July 20, 2016

The White House issued a statement asking people to be watchful of heat exhaustion symptoms, including heavy sweating; skin that is cold and pale; nausea; or vomiting. Likewise, heat stroke symptoms include high body temperature; skin that is red, hot and dry; or even unconsciousness, according to the government.

Moreover, it's important to check on infants, young children and the elderly, who are less efficient at regulating internal body temperature than adults are, the statement said. But even adults should take care to wear light-colored and loose-fitting clothing, refrain from strenuous exercise, and drink plenty of water, the National Weather Service recommended.

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.
In light of the altercations between citizens and law enforcement over the past few years, I want to critique our criminal justice system from a more broad perspective than we usually see.

Why do officers encounter common citizens doing common things? Is this still the land of the free? A free society does not have armed government agents patrolling the area day and night; a nanny-state does.

A free society has a police department that does nothing until requested to do so by a victim of assault, theft, or fraud, kind of like a fire department responds to fires. We have allowed government to surveil us and ticket us for victimless crimes in order to fund their departments. This is only acceptable because weve been lulled into submission by decades of Big Brother government trampling our civil liberties.

Ask any reasonable police officer why did you become a police officer? The answer is never going to be, "to give broken taillight tickets, to conduct speed traps or to imprison pot smokers. Cops join the force to protect their fellow humans from assault, theft and fraud. I think its time we allowed them to focus on real crimes.

The Dallas police chief stated similar opinions on July 11, four days after his officers were killed in a deadly shooting, saying were asking cops to do too much in this countryEvery societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve.

John Keiser, Waterloo
Since founding Softbank in 1981, Masayoshi Son has been known to take enormous risks, most of which have paid off. Today, hes chairman and CEO of a global telecom and Internet giant valued at close to $60 billion and is the second richest man in Japan with a personal net worth of $17 billion.

On Monday, the company announced a bid which is probably the biggest bet of Sons life, its plan to acquire British microprocessor firm ARM Holdings for $32 billion. ARMs technology can be found in nearly every smartphone, tablet and mobile device on Earth. Its microprocessor has long been the gold standard for low power designs essential for mobile applications.

The question is, whats that got to do with Softbanks core business as a wireless and Internet service provider? Acquiring most of Sprint for $20 billion in 2013 was risky enough, but at least the goal was clear: to turn around the struggling company and gain a foothold in the U.S. wireless market.

Whats Sons plan with respect to the ARM deal? Where are the strategic synergies required for acquisitions to make sense?

Those questions clearly spooked investors, who drove shares of Softbank down more than 10% this week. There may not be synergies and the goal may not be obvious, but that doesnt mean Son doesnt have a bold vision of where the world is heading. And he aims to make sure Softbank is right smack in the middle of the action.

Son sees a future where machines are smarter than people and everything is connected. So hes betting big on artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). And he believes that ARMs ubiquitous microprocessor architecture is well positioned to dominate that brave new world and find its way into a trillion chips, someday.

Thats not as far-fetched as it sounds. ARM doesnt actually make chips, but licenses its microprocessor designs to a whos who of semiconductor and device makers, from Intel and Qualcomm to Apple and Samsung, for an average of about ten cents per chip.

Story continues

As a technology company with no manufacturing, ARM is enormously profitable and scalable. And Son plans to invest heavily to accelerate its penetration into exciting new applications like intelligent robots, smart cars and connected appliances.

Skeptical analysts have correctly noted that theres a lot of missing technology between a processor designer like ARM and a service provider like Softbank, but Son has been busy acquiring, partnering with and buying stakes in companies that are developing the core software, communications and security technology needed to fill those gaps and pull all the pieces of the puzzle together.

One of the sources of confusion over the ARM acquisition is its purpose. Some media outlets are reporting that Softbank is betting on IoT. Others describe it as a bet on AI. Son needs to do a better job of helping them connect the dots: IoT and AI are actually connected in a fundamental way.

IoT is about integrating tiny sensors, processors and radios into everything from livestock and thermostats to clothing and vehicles. A good analogy is that IoT is like the senses of the human body. AI, on the other hand, is about making machines capable of learning from the information they receive and making good decisions. AI is like the human brain. The human senses and brain work together.

Its the same in the physical world. After all, what would be the point of making billions of things smart enough to sense their surroundings and communicate that information to the cloud, the fog or wherever it needs to go, if machines arent intelligent enough to absorb all that big data and make smarter and faster decisions than humans can?

Autonomous cars will be far safer than those driven by people for one simple reason: the machine can assimilate real-time information from thousands of sensors communicated over its own high-speed network and make nearly instantaneous decisions much quicker and more accurately than a human can.

Hospitals will someday be able to detect, disinfect and if necessary, quarantine areas on their own. They will efficiently deploy surgeons, nurses and equipment because theyll know exactly where everyone and everything is at any given moment. And the implications for advanced surgical techniques are already being realized.

Those same advantages of billions, maybe someday trillions of smart things communicating information to machines with advanced learning and decision-making capability will find their way into every application you can think of, from agriculture and energy grids to smart highways and air traffic control.

And Son believes that, with his backing, ARM microprocessors will be well positioned to dominate those markets as it now dominates in mobile. The British companys technology is a key piece of the puzzle that comprises Sons vision of the future. Thats what Softbanks acquisition of ARM is about.

Related Articles
Vanguard Natural Resources, LLC VNR is an Oil-US Exploration and Production company that could be an interesting play for investors. That is because, not only does the stock have decent short-term momentum, but it is seeing solid activity on the earnings estimate revision front as well.

These positive earnings estimate revisions suggest that analysts are becoming more optimistic on VNRs earnings for the coming quarter and year. In fact, consensus estimates have moved sharply higher for both of these time frames over the past four weeks, suggesting that Vanguard Natural Resources could be a solid choice for investors.

VANGUARD NATURL Price and Consensus

VANGUARD NATURL Price and Consensus | VANGUARD NATURL Quote

Current Quarter Estimates for VNR

In the past 30 days, 2 estimates has gone higher for Vanguard Natural Resources while none has gone lower in the same time period. The trend has been pretty favorable too, with estimates rising from earnings of 11 cents per share 30 days ago, to earnings of 13 cents today, a move of 18.2%.

Current Year Estimates for VNR

Meanwhile, Vanguard Natural Resources current year figures are also looking quite promising, with 2 estimates moving higher in the past month, compared to none lower. The consensus estimate trend has also seen a boost for this time frame with estimates rising from earnings of 47 cents per share 30 days ago, to earnings of 53 cents today, a move of 12.8%.

Bottom Line

The stock has also started to move higher lately, adding 43.9% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are starting to take note of this impressive story. So investors may definitely want to consider this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock to profit in the near future.

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 >>



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VANGUARD NATURL (VNR): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
San Diego (AFP) - "Wonder Woman" star Gal Gadot shared the first poster of the movie on Friday, ahead of its highly anticipated introduction before fans at the San Diego Comic-Con convention.

The image features a profile of the Amazonian superhero in her famous red, blue and gold outfit, clasping a sword against a pink and blue sky, above the words: "Power. Grace. Wisdom. Wonder."

"A dream come true! Happy to finally share this with you all," the Israeli actress and model wrote alongside a post of the image on Twitter.

Many convention-goers see Saturday's "Wonder Woman" panel as the big event of Comic-Con. It is expected to premiere the first full trailer for the DC movie ahead of its release next summer.

Reaction to such new material is being watched carefully by industry analysts. "Wonder Woman" is the first modern superhero movie to focus exclusively on a female protagonist.

A misogynist social media backlash against the all-female "Ghostbusters" reboot shocked Hollywood, although much of the criticism arose from the fact that the leads in the original film were men.

The reaction to Gadot's tweet was mainly positive, with Chris Cabin of the Collider film blog calling the image "eye-catching in its use of color and shadow."

He added, however, that "part of me isnt entirely comfortable with the fact that the image blacks out her face and focuses entirely on her figure."

But fan account @dceufacts, which is devoted to news from the DC Comics Extended Universe, posted: "This is gorgeous! Best poster for a superhero movie in ages."

The DC Extended Universe films are distributed by Warner Brothers, which released a new poster on Friday for keenly awaited Harry Potter spin-off "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

"We're adding a little magic to (Comic-Con) with this new #FantasticBeasts art," the film's official Twitter account said of the poster.

It features Eddie Redmayne as "magizoologist" Newt Scamander, which is also the pseudonym under which J.K. Rowling wrote the book. A magizoologist, it seems, is one who studies magical creatures.

The poster's artwork highlights the Prohibition-era New York setting of the spin-off, which takes place some 70 years before the events of the Harry Potter films.
By Emily Stephenson and Steve Holland

CLEVELAND, July 21 (Reuters) - People seeking a deeper understanding of Donald Trump's economic policy came up empty-handed this week at the Republican National Convention.

Best known to Americans previously as a reality TV host and having never held public office, the New York businessman on Thursday accepted the party's nomination for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

The party establishment has fretted over some of his plans to curb illegal immigration, renegotiate trade deals and levy tariffs on China. Trump's skepticism about free trade puts him at odds with Republican orthodoxy. Wall Street investors are wary and confused.

In speeches from the main stage and in panel discussions on the sidelines, the four-day convention was notable for a paucity of policy details, the result perhaps of a desire to play down differences among the party faithful.

The lack of specifics was too much for one head of a multinational corporation, who complained at a business forum that he had no idea what to expect from Trump, a New York real estate developer.

"We feel anxious," said Michael Thaman, chief executive officer of Owens Corning, which operates in 25 countries. "In business, obviously details matter."

Trump offered little insight himself in his convention-ending acceptance speech. He spoke in broad, thematic strokes without much detail, sticking closely to positions he had outlined during 13 months of campaigning.

"Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo," Trump said.

HILLARY CLINTON THE TOP TOPIC

Speakers in Cleveland placed a greater emphasis on defeating the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, than on what Trump has called the failed economic policies of President Barack Obama.

On Tuesday night, when the theme was "Make America Work Again" and the economy was the designated topic, a rough search by Reuters of the prime-time speeches found some 80 mentions of the word "Clinton" compared to about 15 mentions of "economy."

Story continues

According to transcripts of the speeches delivered at the convention, only Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. mentioned Dodd-Frank, the financial oversight law many Republicans rail against.

Asked on Thursday, before the older Trump's speech, about the shortage of policy specifics, his campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said: "The campaign is pleased with the convention program, the content of which has been diverse and dynamic and we look forward to an exciting conclusion tonight."

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was chief economic policy adviser to Republican presidential nominee John McCain in 2008, was not satisfied with his experience.

He described taking part in a panel discussion on Wednesday with two Trump advisers, television commentator Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore of the conservative Heritage Foundation, that he said was light on details.

"'Isn't Mr. Trump bad on trade?'" he said someone would ask.

"'Yes, but we're going to fix it. Don't worry.'

"'Isn't his tax plan a problem that's going to lose $12 trillion?'

"'Yes, but we'll fix it. Don't worry.'"

Kudlow and Moore also appeared on Tuesday at an event hosted by conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, along with donor Andy Puzder, the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which owns fast-food restaurants Hardee's and Carl's Jr.

The group discussed trade and immigration policy, with panelists at times shrugging off Trump's lack of specifics. "All you really need to know is the alternative is Hillary Clinton," Puzder said at one point, reinforcing the week's theme.

UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION

Republicans typically use their nominating conventions to emphasize their candidates' main policy points. Think tanks and lobby groups hold panel discussions. Experts circulate white papers.

With Trump, the events were built more around his personality and the need for the party to unite behind him.

There were some such gatherings in Cleveland, but fewer than usual, Holtz-Eakin said.

Some advisers to past Republican candidates suspected Trump was not relying on a vast team of policy advisers.

Lanhee Chen, an adviser to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, sorted through convention speeches in 2012 before speakers delivered them because, he said, he wanted to make sure they hewed closely to Romney's positions.

"I imagine the Trump campaign doesn't have that process in place because they don't have a lot of policy to talk about," Chen said. "It just says that policy hasn't been a priority for them. You end up with a situation where the candidate is making pronouncements that don't seem particularly well informed."

Some delegates who spoke to Reuters seemed unconcerned by the policy-light approach to the convention, arguing that it was more important for the gathering to whip up enthusiasm among the delegates and forge unity.

"This is more of a party," said Ray Suttle, a 53-year-old lawyer and delegate from Virginia. "You don't like people talking shop at a cocktail party, do you?"

(Additional reporting by James Oliphant; Writing by Howard Goller; Editing by Ross Colvin)
Toilet not working? For most, the culprit is a broken chain, but for some Arizona residents this week, the drains were clogged with human flesh.

Officials from the Phoenix Water Services Department made the gruesome discovery Wednesday after receiving complaints from a local resident about a toilet that wouldn't flush.

Read: Body of Child Buried 145 Years Ago Found Perfectly Preserved in Casket Under Home

Phoenix police and other agencies spent roughly 17 hours extracting the remains from the sewers.

The body is believed to be that of an adult though police have not yet determined who the person was or how they got there.

This is a medical examiner's issue right now, Officer James Holmes of the Phoenix police told InsideEdition.com. We just dont know a whole lot about who this person is or what happened to this person. An autopsy of the remains is expected to shine more light on the cause of death.

In the meantime, local police have said they are treating the discovery as a homicide and have promised a full and complete investigation.

Read: Police Pull Body From Lake After Alligator Was Seen With Human Remains in Its Mouth

"There's loved ones out there missing someone," Holmes told the Arizona Republic. This has been, and will continue to be a long and complicated recovery effort."

A media release issued to InsideEdition.com stated that the situation was unprecedented for the citys homicide detectives and that the investigation was ongoing.

Officials have also stressed that potable water service to the community has not and would not be affected by the inquiry.

Watch: Searchers Get Emotional Finding Remains of Missing Hiker 2 Years Later

Related Articles:
Sometimes mergers go great. Peanut butter and jelly. Brooks and Dunn. Italian beef and provolone. Other times its a complete train wreck. Looks like Marissa Mayer finally found a big enough sucker, I mean suitor, to buy Yahoo (YHOO). Verizon (VZ) looks to be a buyer for about $5 billion. The deal would include Yahoos core internet business and real estate assets. The non-core sale of intellectual property assets will be sold separately.

The deal puts together two of the biggest companies of the 20th century, AOL and Yahoo. If this were before Y2K, the AOL chat rooms would be going crazy right now. Then again, youd be waiting an hour for your dial-up to download this video. Its so cheap, it cant be a bad deal for Verizon, right?

Ehhh. EBay (EBAY) paid $2.6 billion for Skype in 2005 then sold it four years later for $1.9 billion. Still scratching my head. Online auctions and video chats? Theres a reason why Sothebys (BID) never bought AT&T (T). Going once, twice, sold! But maybe the AOL side of this sweetens up the deal.

Then again, remember AOL Time Warner? Even the guys running the show over there knew they screwed up. $160 billion to create the worlds largest media company. Jerry Levin, who sold Time Warner to AOL was quoted as saying, I presided over the worst deal of the century apparently. Not mad at you Jerry, you still got paid. Here with Yahoo, there are some synergies.

There were also synergies when Sprint (S) and Nextel merged agreed to merge as a $36 billion deal in 2005. Shortly thereafter, people realized that walkie talkies are for fifth graders and summer camp slasher movies. Instead of buying Nextels, people made sure their next telephones were smart phones. Sprint shut down Nextels network in 2013.

Then theres Daimler Benz and Chrysler. Lets take the precision and quality of one of the most sought after car companies in the world and mix it with cheaply made, poorly designed, hot garbage. Talk about culture clash. Mercedes got worse and eventually paid $650 million for Cerberus to take Chrysler, which eventually made its way over to Fiat. Much better match.

Where this ranks in deal making history remains to be seen. I can tell you that Yahoo is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) right now with Value and Growth Style Scores of F. Last quarter the company reported a 5 cent loss, 7 cents worse than the 2 cents of earnings analysts were looking for. So if you waited Verizon, youd probably get it even cheaper.



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By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York pizzeria owner and his son were found guilty on Friday of importing over 50 kilograms of cocaine into the United States from Costa Rica, in a case born out of a probe into an Italian organized crime group's drug trafficking activities.

Gregorio Gigliotti, 60, and his son Angelo Gigliotti, 36, were found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn on various drug-related charges, including conspiracy to import cocaine, according to the son's lawyer.

The elder Gigliotti was also convicted on two firearm-related counts, while Angelo Gigliotti was acquitted on the gun-related charges he faced, according to Alan Futerfas, Angelo Gigliotti's lawyer.

"We're obviously disappointed in the verdict, and I'm sure the family will be appealing the verdict," he said.

A lawyer for Gregorio Gigliotti did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn had no immediate comment.

Both men were arrested in March 2015, two months before U.S. and Italian authorities said they arrested 13 people on related charges for participating in a drug trafficking ring in Italy's southern Calabria region.

The area is home to 'Ndrangheta, Italy's richest and most powerful criminal organization, which U.S. authorities say has conducted drug smuggling and trafficking in New York with members in Calabria and Toronto, Canada.

Prosecutors said Gregorio Gigliotti and his wife ran several businesses in New York used to facilitate drug trafficking, including Cucino Amodo Mio, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in the borough of Queens, and an import/export company.

In October and December 2014, authorities said they intercepted two shipments of cassava that contained a total of about 55 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside cardboard boxes of the starchy root.

Prosecutors have said some of the drugs imported to the United States were destined for exportation and distribution in Italy, and that the Calabria ring was operating on behalf of the U.S.-based defendants.

Jurors did not hear allegations of the Gigliottis' purported organized crime links, though they were informed that the case stemmed from a joint investigation by U.S. and Italian authorities, Futerfas said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
New York (AFP) - New York City on Friday announced its first baby born with Zika-related microcephaly, a permanent brain and skull defect that authorities said the child acquired due to infection with the mosquito-borne virus.

The infant's mother was infected with Zika "while in an area with ongoing Zika transmission," and the baby "is positive for Zika," said the New York City Department of Health.

As of mid-July, there had been 12 cases of infants born with Zika-related defects in the United States, according to the latest figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In New York City, officials said more than 41 pregnant women have tested positive for the Zika virus, which can cause microcephaly, a condition in which the child is born with a head that is smaller than normal.

"While not surprising, given the travel trends of our global city, this case is a strong reminder of the tragic consequences of the Zika virus," said New York City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett.

"I remind all pregnant women in New York City, and those trying to get pregnant, that they should delay travel to places where there is active Zika transmission. As we see today, the consequences for the child can be devastating," she said.

Zika can be spread via bites from an infected mosquito, or by sexual contact with a person who is ill with the virus.

The Zika outbreak has spread through much of South and Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the US territory of Puerto Rico, and is blamed for more than 1,000 confirmed cases of microcephaly in Brazil.

So far, all known cases of Zika on the US mainland have been brought in by travelers or acquired through sex with infected travelers.

US health officials recently reported a total of 1,306 cases of Zika in the continental United States and Hawaii.

Florida is currently investigating two possible cases of non-travel-associated Zika.
Phil Robertson, star of the A&E reality series "Duck Dynasty," spoke to Nebraska's delegation at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday morning.

America has "become so sinful," Robertson told delegates during a 3-minute speech live-streamed and recorded on his Facebook page. "Sin is lawlessness."

"We can pray for our country, but the last thing we want to do is sit home. We have to get rid of this politically correct crap and go back to biblical correctness," he said to applause.

Robertson, who posed for a photo with Gov. Pete Ricketts, also promoted his new faith-focused film, "Torchbearer," which is set for nationwide release in August.

Robertson was suspended by A&E for nine days in 2013 because of comments he made about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - Healthy people looking to enhance brain function with do-it-yourself electrical brain stimulation may encounter unexpected results, have difficulty predicting how they will react to the stimulation, and have long-lasting changes in function, according to a new editorial by neurologists. There are a variety of different devices, however the simplest and most common approach is to place two saline soaked sponges on the scalp and run a weak electrical current through them, senior author Dr. Michael D. Fox of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston told Reuters Health by email. It can be done at home with a couple of sponges and a 9 volt battery, which is why DIY tDCS exists. Whether it should be done is a different question. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can improve some brain functions, but most studies have focused on easing symptoms for patients with brain disease, said coauthor Dr. Roy H. Hamilton of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Transcranial electrical stimulation of the brain seems to be safe from experimental and clinical data we have available, at least at the levels that we administer it in research studies and clinical studies, Hamilton told Reuters Health by phone. At those levels and durations the side effect profile for tDCS is mild. Some people experience an itching or burning sensation at the stimulation site, some report headache or fatigue, but generally speaking there are no serious or adverse effects in medical settings, he said. The risks and benefits for healthy people will be different, Hamilton said. For individuals who are interested in enhancing their cognition, it does seem as though when applied transiently there is some gain there, he said. But electrical stimulation may affect other regions of the brain, beyond those directly beneath the electrodes. It may interact with ongoing brain activity if a user is active during stimulation, may improve some functions while hindering others, and effects may vary widely by individual, the authors write in the Annals of Neurology. Id estimate that there have been tens of thousands of devices sold in the last few years, though its not clear whether people purchase them and continue to use them, or whether they purchase them and throw them away, said Anna Wexler, visiting scholar at the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania who was not part of the new editorial. The strongest evidence indicates electrical stimulation can be effective for treating depression or pain, Wexler told Reuters Health by email. Its unclear whether or not the risk:benefit ratio is as favorable when youre talking not about undoing the effects of some injury or disease but taking normal individuals and enhancing them to a point above their normalcy, Hamilton said. Its unclear how much risk one ought to tolerate. He doesnt want to dissuade or encourage people to try this at home, he said. Theres no restriction that would preclude a person from purchasing a device online or going to local radio shack and creating one of these devices themselves, he said. I do think its important for them to have a sense of the kinds of things that are known or not known about stimulation, Hamilton said. And possible effects that stimulation might have that they may or may not be considering. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1WqYvtS Annals of Neurology, online July 7, 2016.
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  July 22, 2016  Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Hotels, part 2, including Hyatt Hotels Corporation (H), Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT), Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT), Marriott International, Inc. (MAR) and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation ( WYN).

Industry: Hotels, part 2

Link: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/86491/vacations-on-your-mind-invest-in-hotel-stocks

The hotel industry has been on the path of recovery for some time now, supported by stronger economic metrics and the increasingly positive employment scenario. Notably, despite economic and political upheaval in certain pockets around the world, demand remains strong and sales have been robust in the U.S. However, declining occupancy levels are a concern.

Nonetheless, on the brighter side, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the broader hotel industry over both the short and the long term. Below, we discuss what investors can look forward to in the coming years:

Demand Exceeds Supply : The recovery in the broader economy has been a boon for the hotel industry as it has perked up leisure and transient business travel demand. According toHyatt Hotels Corporation (H) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. ( HLT) , the supply-demand environment in the U.S. is favorable as demand growth is better than supply, which is below the long-term average. This would lead to an increase in rates, thereby driving revenue per available room (RevPAR).

We note that demand growth in the U.S. has outpaced supply growth each year since 2010. Meanwhile, though the gap between demand growth and supply growth continues to narrow and occupancy growth has slowed, higher rates are expected to keep driving RevPAR. Moreover, in spite of the large pipeline of hotels, Smith Travel Research (STR) expects the sectors demand growth in 2016 to be 2.1% in the U.S. with only 1.7% increase in supply.

International Expansion : Major hoteliers are exploring growth opportunities abroad, especially in the emerging markets and the outlying areas surrounding major cities. Despite the macroeconomic concerns in several of the emerging economies, hoteliers are forging ahead with expansion plans in markets with great long-term potential.

Story continues

A number of U.S.-based hoteliers are targeting the unsaturated markets in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Brazil, Russia and Africa. Within Asia, China promises lucrative growth opportunities, despite the economic slowdown, with visits expected to increase substantially in the second half of 2016. In fact, the country is a major revenue contributor for both Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT) and Marriott International, Inc. ( MAR) .

Apart from China, India is becoming a hot spot for U.S.-based hoteliers with its emergence as a global business hub. Although economic growth rates are slightly lower than China, the country has great long-term growth potential as a tourism market. Among others, Japan, Australia, Singapore and Thailand continue to attract travelers. Major players in the industry are also targeting the high-potential Middle East countries such as Turkey and United Arab Emirates (UAE) that offer strong infrastructure.

Meanwhile, growth in Brazil and Argentina continues to be sluggish, mainly due to economic slowdown in Latin America. However, Brazil is scheduled to host a mega sporting event -- the 2016 Summer Olympics in August -- which should boost tourism to a certain extent.

Meanwhile, Europe still remains an attractive market for hoteliers despite the repeated terror attacks and Brexit-induced uncertainties. Major players like Marriott, Hilton, and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (WYN) have a strong foothold in this region.

Brand Renovation to Boost Growth : Hotel chains are meticulously working on guest satisfaction via brand conversion and re-modeling to gain a competitive advantage. Remodeling mostly involves restoration of lobbies and other public spaces, preservation of decorative features if possible, and guestroom upgrades to make the brand more relevant. In fact, brand perception is likely to have a growing influence on the mass market as well as the luxury space. With the market becoming increasingly saturated, especially the luxury segment, hotels will have to differentiate themselves.

Brands that can offer something uniquely compelling are likely to grab market share and thus the ability to innovate will be the key to success.

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Paris (AFP) - The Zika virus has been found alive in a man's sperm after a record 93 days, according to a new report that adds to the many unknowns surrounding the foetus-harming germ.

The 27-year-old Frenchman's semen tested positive for Zika in March this year, three months after he experienced symptoms of an infection picked up while travelling in Thailand last October and November.

The case was reported in The Lancet medical journal this week.

The previous longest recorded virus survival in semen was 62 days after the onset of symptoms.

Benign in most people, Zika has been linked to microcephaly -- a shrinking of the brain and skull -- in babies, and to rare, potentially-fatal adult-onset neurological problems.

It is transmitted mainly though the bites of infected mosquitoes, in rare cases via sex, but also through the placenta to unborn children.

In an outbreak that started last year, about 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika in Brazil, and more than 1,600 babies born with microcephaly, according to the World Health Organization.

The new case highlights that people returning from areas where Zika is non-endemic, such as Thailand, can also be infected, said the report authored by health specialists from Toulouse in southern France.

The possibility of "protracted" virus presence should be kept in mind when people plan to have children, it added.

The existing six-month period for monitoring virus survival in infected people "should be expanded to patients returning from non-epidemic areas," wrote the team.
The Florida Department of Health announced Tuesday that it is investigating a Zika case that was not carried by a traveler. If confirmed, it would be the first time Zika virus has spread by mosquito bite in the continental U.S.

Up until this point, Zika has only affected those who had traveled to affected areas before returning to the states, as well as some of their sexual partners.

The Department of Health is working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether or not the patient contracted the virus by an infected mosquitoand if there is an infected mosquito population in Florida.

The case was reported in Miami-Dale county, where there have been 88 cases of Zika so far this year, all travel-related.

CDC officials have been preparing for small, local outbreaks of the Zika virus in southern states like Florida, Texas, and Louisiana because of their population of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito type that carries the virus.

CDC also reported Monday that a Utah resident was mysteriously infected with the virus after caring for a family member who had traveled to a Zika-affected area; they are still investigating the case.

Fortunately, the patient recovered quickly, and from what we have seen with more than 1,300 travel-associated cases of Zika in the continental United States and Hawaii, non-sexual spread from one person to another does not appear to be common, Erin Staples, medical epidemiologist for the CDC, said in a statement.

Zikas most common symptomswhich last up to a week but only appear in about a fifth of the people who contract the virusare fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes. However, it can cause serious birth defects if a pregnant woman becomes infected, and has also been linked to more serious immune system conditions.

Federal and local officials are working on mosquito control to reduce the number of mosquitos in southern states, including Florida. Residents and visitors should take precautions to protect themselves against the virus: cover bare skin, wear mosquito repellent and drain standing water.

Related Articles
Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwe's main opposition on Friday praised the country's war veterans for "finally seeing the light" after President Robert Mugabe's staunchest allies denounced him as "dictatorial".

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) "would like to whole-heartedly thank and salute (the) war veterans for publicly acknowledging that Robert Mugabe has outlived his relevance and should immediately proceed to resign," it said in a statement.

In a sign of growing opposition to Mugabe, the war veterans who have in the past supported the nonagenarian leader, on Thursday issued a strongly-worded statement denouncing Mugabe and his regime for brutal attacks on his opponents and for presiding over a failing economy.

The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association said they had noted "with concern, shock and utter dismay the entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the President and his cohorts which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle in utter disregard of the constitution".

The war veterans vowed not to support Mugabe if he seeks re-election.

A rare surge of public demonstration has forced many onto the streets of the southern African country in recent weeks, triggered by an economic crisis that has left banks short of cash and the government struggling to pay its workers.

The MDC called on the 92-year-old leader "to take heed of the very clear advice that he has been freely given by his erstwhile comrades, the war veterans".

"Mugabe remains the single biggest threat to Zimbabwe's national stability as well as economic prosperity," said the MDC.

Opposition to Mugabe's rule has grown in recent months as the countrys economic troubles mount while his ZANU-PF party is in turmoil over his succession.

- Reason to be afraid -

The country has been hit by protests including a stay-away strike called by an evangelical pastor Evan Mawarire which shut offices and shops and crippled the public transport system.

Story continues

Head of the Harare-based think-tank Southern African Political and Economic Series (SAPES) Ibbo Mandaza said Mugabe would be weaker without his once-dependable veterans who at times had resorted to violence to keep him in power.

"Mugabe and his cohorts have a reason to be afraid," Mandaza said.

The ageing leader's ZANU-PF party is divided over who will follow him, split between his wife Grace and vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is widely seen as his successor.

Mandaza said the veterans, who fought in the 1972-1979 war of independence "have made it clear that their anointed successor is Mnangagwa".

Independent political analyst Ernest Mudzengi, said the war veterans' rebellion was driven by the succesion struggle.

"They want to be influential in deciding who succeeds Mugabe, whom they think they made," said Mudzengi.

Starting in 2000, the war veterans led the seizures of white-owned commercial farms in what Mugabe said was a reversal of imbalances from the colonial era.

The land seizures have been blamed for the drastic slump in food production that contributed to the country's economic collapse.

A drought that has ravaged southern Africa has added to Zimbabwe's woes.

Charity Save the Children warned this week that thousands of children could "be facing starvation by Christmas" unless the country gets more help.
How a trip to Liberia with First Lady Michelle Obama changed what I post on social media

How a trip to Liberia with First Lady Michelle Obama changed what I post on social media

When you are asked if you would like to go to Liberia with Michelle Obama you say, Yes!

1

It doesnt matter if youre not up to date with your vaccinations, if you dont have a passport, or if you know very little about the area youre traveling to. You. Say. YES!

When I learned that I would be traveling to Liberia to meet First Lady Michelle Obama to work with her on her newest project, Let Girls Learn, I knew this would be a life-changing experience.

Let Girls Learn is the First Ladys initiative to give girls and women all over the world access to education.

As I waited for my documents, doctors appointments, and other travel related planning I read everything I could about Let Girls Learn and the phenomenal partnership with the Peace Corp in Liberia (who were hosting the camp Id be visiting) called GLOW. GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and this pro- woman educational summit was designed to bring girls from all over Liberia together to teach them everything from how to be a powerful leader to making reusable menstrual pads.

As well as access to feminine hygiene products.

Menstural Pads Peace Corps First Lady Michelle Obama BlaireBercy

Figuring out how to make a cool, reusable pad to many people in the U.S. might not seem to go hand-in-hand with education, but in other countries where women and girls are forced to miss at least one week of school per month because of their periods, a reusable pad can make all of the difference. Pads and tampons are expensive wherever you are but they should not cost you your career and education, which is why #LetGirlsLearn lent their support to help women and girls in Liberia get the access and resources they need to stay in school.

NYC Michelle Obama Blaire Bercy Liberia

As I sat on a 16-hour flight from New York to Nigeria I was beside myself with excitement and the importance of what I was about to be a part of set in.

Id never traveled this far and while I was overwhelmed by how fantastic the journey was, I read about how the Peace Corps volunteers from the camp Id be visiting (in Kakata) were forced to evacuate when Ebola hit this region and were able to return less than a year ago and eager to get back to work. They knew the time away from these girls could change the course of their lives. The volunteers had been working hard to educate and empower others, and now that they were back they were going to hit the ground running.

Story continues

Michelle Obama Blaire Bercy GLOW LetGirlsLearn Peace Corp

Another reason this trip was deeply meaningful to me was the fact I was given up for adoption by my birthmother.

She could not, and would not, give birth to me in Africa because of religious and cultural reasons. I was adopted by my mother  a first generation American  who had lived a full life of breaking stereotypes, risking her life to fight against racism and oppression and, at the time of my birth, decided to return to being an educator in the public school system where her masters degree and life experience would benefit the next generation of children.

Liberia Blaire Bercy Michelle Obama JFK

My mother instilled in me that school is very important  but what school does not, and will not, teach is equally important.

I was sent to summer camp with copies of Atlas Shrugged, required reading by my mother, and The Once and Future King, required school reading. She encouraged me to join multi-cultural groups and non-profits that taught leadership training, showed me how to find my own appreciation for art and literature from around and world, and to be truly proud to be a BLACK woman.

The GLOW camp I was about to visit in Liberia was an accelerated version of everything Ive known to be true and believed in. It was also the opportunity to listen to these young women share their truth and what they want from this world. Their goals and questions would be addressed and answered in a group of their peers and Michelle Obama! FLOTUS was coming to listen and learn with these young women and now with the First Lady attending they would have an audience far wider than before. What drew me in to the Let Girls Learn/Peace Corps curriculum the most is the importance to all areas of education. Not only what people in the U.S. would consider the standard classroom or university education, but all of the other aspects that help women find their voice and empower them to make educated choices for their futures.

Peace Corp Let Girls Learn GLOW Liberia Michelle Obama Blaire Bercy

My time in Libera.

The moment I landed in Monrovia I was taken directly to the Peace Corp camp in Kakata City. I was a little jet lagged but ready to meet the volunteers and girls who were preparing for the big visit the next day. Over the course of the hour-long drive, I got to see a good portion of the city, but the moment I got the camp I could feel the energy shift. We were still in Liberia, the rain was periodically pouring, it was still a steamy 97 degrees but everyone was buzzing at the excitement of the GLOW camp the next day and the special guest, First Lady Michelle Obama!

Part of the reason this Peace Corp camp was so special, protected, and sacred was that some of the volunteers, who were giving me a full tour, were volunteers who were evacuated due to Ebola and were now back to continue their work. Everyone I spoke to said that these girls and this community was their family. Not like family. They considered them their family-family. They were bonded together and they would have done anything to return to their family in Liberia after being evacuated and sent back to the U.S.

Can you imagine if you were ripped away from your siblings or family and told that there was not a definitive date on if or when you would ever see them again? Liberia is gorgeous and lush but this is not a region where girls are texting all day and sending snaps to friends who are far away. There is no way to Facetime with a member of your family or group to check in and see how everything is going. The determination of the volunteers and girls to return made this entire event feel more important. Everyone was so happy and appreciative to be together again and the girls were ready to meet our First Lady and proudly show what they have learned and have been working on.

Liberia Let Girls Learn Blaire Bercy

Liberia is BEAUTIFUL!

There was not a person at the camp that the gravity of this situation was wasted on. New Peace Corp volunteers to girls meeting for the first time, everyone knew that the First Lady coming meant business.

I think we are used to celebrities or people we admire to arrive and take up some of the space with their tremendous presence. This didnt happen. After giving many, many thanks to the young women attending, volunteers, and staff, our First Lady turned the floor directly over to these young woman to get the day started. She wanted to actively listen and be a part of the conversation. These girls needed every moment of this special opportunity and I was so surprised and moved to see how quickly our First Lady was to join the group let these girls get on with business.

Today was about these girls, focusing on community lead change and making their time here important.

After the introduction the Peace Corp leaders began the day and the stations, The First Lady participated in each, and some the girls even taught her what theyve learned. Each station had a specific focus designed to help these young women in every aspect of their lives. No matter what they decide to do with their lives they will move forward with the knowledge of the GLOW camp and the wise words of First Lady Michelle Obama.

FLOTUS Peace Corp CAMP LIBERIA Michelle Obama Blaire Bercy

Before we left the camp on this glorious day we were all given the chance to take a photo with the First Lady.

I was told we were going to do a selfie, and as someone who does NOT take selfies (you have my word and if we ever meet Ill gladly turn over my camera roll for you to see) this made me a little nervousokay a LOT nervous. Ive been watching the First Ladys official Snapchat account since she joined and for the past eight years Ive seen her gorgeous photos gracing covers of magazines and newspapers. I was hoping, at best, I could toss on a few filters and possibly cut myself out of the pic. I mean I was meeting her! She was the focal point of the image. I assumed that we would be introduced, *click *, then Id be quickly ushered to the area where I could pass out or cry from the overflow of emotions.

WRONG. That did not happen.

Throughout the day I met many members of her staff and they all felt this day in Liberia at the Peace Corp camp was just as important as everyone else. They wanted to talk about HelloGiggles and what we think young women and girls want to see and read about. So as I made small talk with them as I was about to meet our First Lady, I asked about protocol. Do I just walk up and smile? They suggested something that surprised me, they suggested that I actually speak to her! Aside from a thank you and a few arm selfie stretches I hadnt given a tremendous amount of thought to what I should say. So when it was my turn to take a pic, I told her my story, I told her everything in this post about my life and why this trip was important to me. I told her how (in another life) I could have easily been a young woman at the camp and not a visitor. Then SHE ASKED ME FOR A HUG.

THE HUG

THE HUG

Okay, now I was very nervous. It was roughly 90 degrees with 85% humidity and, on top of it, I was now nervous-sweating, while my First Lady embraced me. I offered an apology for my damp appearance and she immediately responded with, were all sweating, and we took our picture.

FLOTUSxHG HEARTS

Having my picture taken and riding the intense wave of emotion I got a rush of adrenaline clarity and as I was saying thank you and goodbye I asked Michelle Obama the one question I had, which was:

How do we, as women, as HelloGiggles, as a community continue to grow initiatives like Let Girls Learn and help?

Her response was simple and honest: we need to continue to do what weve been doing.

Covering the stories, publishing and sharing posts that have meaning for us. Shining the light on situations that we love. Speaking about the tougher issues that we might be afraid of, and perhaps diversifying what most of us share on our personal accounts. I, for one, will be skipping a food pic, or two, for something a little more important. An accomplishment of my own or someone elses that I am proud of or can learn from. An article I find empowering. A post by someone who is meaningful. Something inspiring. Not that a perfectly poached egg isnt gorgeous and wonderful, but if were all here to connect Id like to pass on more than a culinary humble brag. Not every time, just some of the time, which is not much to ask.

Like the girls who attended this Peace Corp x Let Girls Learn x GLOW camp Ive been changed and sent back home with the fire to inspire the women around me to have open and honest conversations about their goals and happiness. Leading by example is the best way.

Read about her entire Let Girls Learn trip from First Lady Michelle Obama herself HERE in her exclusive travel diary for HelloGiggles.

You can also watch our video with facts from whitehouse.gov, peacecorps.com, and letgirlslearn.gov:





The post How a trip to Liberia with First Lady Michelle Obama changed what I post on social media appeared first on HelloGiggles.
- By Nicholas Kitonyi





Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) is on a mission to become the world's largest company if it can manage to turn each and every letter of the alphabet into an entity. While some will be looking to see how those letters are turned into businesses, more scrutiny will be focused on how the company benefits by integrating its several business units.





Alphabet already faces stiff competition in the software industry with its Android OS for smartphone closely challenged by Apple's (AAPL) iOS in the US. This is despite the fact that Android is a freeware used by multiple smartphone manufacturers while iOS is only available on Apple devices. The company's search engine, Google, is pretty much a lone ranger with Facebook (FB) now being its closest challenger.

On the other hand, YouTube, its video streaming business continues to be the preferred streaming service for many people and companies while its mail service is still trying to make inroads into company offices.

Alphabet has excelled in many ways in the technology sector, but now it finds itself fighting against all odds to dislodge office support services leader Microsoft (MSFT) from the top of the pack.

Alphabet's ad-supported mail service, Gmail, has been one of the best internet mailing services since dislodging Yahoo! (YHOO) mail about a decade ago. However, its office service dubbed Google Apps for Work has failed to match the success of Microsoft office tools, with Office 365 still the undisputed leader in the market.

The company's cloud-based office services face various hurdles when compared to Microsoft's Office 365. For instance, every Office 365 subscriber gets a storage space of 1TB while for Google Apps for Work, storage space for an entry level user starts at 30GB. This is despite the fact that both services attract roughly the same fee of about $5 per month.

Story continues

Now, Gmail for work is one of the apps in Google Apps for Work that people gain access to once they subscribe via the packages offered. The company's service is common amongst individuals and small businesses.

This means that when you add this client base to the numbers the company attracts on other services, you have hundreds of millions that could come looking for Gmail technical support once something in their email account appears to be problematic.

So what does Google do to solve such problems? First, there is no official Gmail support number, but you can come across several of those, which are provided by various online support platforms. However, the company has developed a series of interactive FAQs that can be used to virtually find a solution to whatever problem a user is experiencing.

The company has been criticized on several occasion with regard to its stance on customer support, but from an investing perspective, there is no way that Alphabet would stand a chance against the likes of Microsoft and Apple if it chose to provide personalized support to each and every customer on their menu. Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) enjoy far better profit margins than Alphabet, whose revenues mainly come from advertising.

On the contrary, Apple sells smartphones and computers while Microsoft sells computing software alongside other office software applications, which yield good profit margins.

As demonstrated in the chart above, Apple and Microsoft have had operating margins better than Google's for most of the last five years. Apple remains the better performer of the three, while Alphabet only beat Microsoft in the last two years.

These numbers come despite the fact that Alphabet compromises very much on customer support in the process of eliminating a lot of SG&A costs.

Conclusion

Alphabet's office support services will continue to trail Microsoft's in the foreseeable future because as the name suggests, it's a support service, which requires a human touch in order to compete with the rest.

It appears that Alphabet deems this type of support as an impediment to the scalability of its business, especially given the thin profit margins it gets from its advertising network service. Publishers who display Google ads on their websites keep 68% of the revenue generated while Google takes home just 32%.

The bottom line is that Alphabet faces an uphill task to replicate its dominance in search and smartphone OS on Google Apps for Work, which currently trail Microsoft's Office 365.

Disclosure: I have no position in any stock mentioned in this article.

Start a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






OMAHA  Authorities are expected to resume their search of the Missouri River Friday for a teenager who went under while swimming on the north
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Trading on the London Metal Exchange's electronic platforms restarted just before 0400 GMT after technical issues delayed the start of trading for almost four hours on Friday. The delayed was due to technical issues relating to members' ability to connect to the market, a spokesman at LME-owner Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing said. LME copper traded down half a percent at $4,959 by 0404 GMT with still relatively low volume of around 100 lots. Traders said the outage dampened overall interest in metal markets. Copper traded on the Shanghai exchange edged down 0.4 percent. "The China currency fix has had a decent move this morning, so there may have been more enquiries," said a trader at a brokerage at Hong Kong. "We are getting some enquiries but people are holding back because they want to see a price on the screen." (Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Richard Pullin and Michael Perry)
After learning just how much data Windows 10 might be collecting from users, France's National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) has ordered Microsoft to comply with the French Data Protection Act and "stop collecting excessive data and tracking browsing by users without their consent" within three months.

READ MORE: Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Force Droid review

Shortly after the launch of the new operating system in July 2015, CNIL began investigating the software and questioning Microsoft on its privacy policy. During these observations, the group discovered that Windows 10 was collecting irrelevant and excessive data, providing a frightening lack of security for users, failing to obtain user consent before allowing first- and third-party apps to monitor browsing or offer targeted advertising and more. The list goes on.

"Given the above, the Chair of the CNIL has decided to issue a formal notice to Microsoft Corporation to comply with the Act within three months," writes the CNIL. "This proceedings only commits French Data protection authority. The other data protection authorities belonging to the WP29 Contact group are continuing their investigations within their respective national procedures."

As for the consequences of failing to meet these standards: "Should Microsoft Corporation fail to comply with the formal notice within the specified timescale, the Chair may appoint an internal investigator, who may draw up a report proposing that the CNILs restricted committee responsible for examining breaches of the Data Protection Act issue a sanction against the company."

Microsoft followed up with a response one day after the notice was issued:

Earlier today Microsoft received a notice from the French data protection authority, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes or CNIL, raising concerns about certain aspects of Windows 10. The notice gives Microsoft three months to address the issues. We built strong privacy protections into Windows 10, and we welcome feedback as we continually work to enhance those protections. We will work closely with the CNIL over the next few months to understand the agency's concerns fully and to work toward solutions that it will find acceptable. The CNIL noted that the Safe Harbor framework is no longer valid for transferring data from European Union to the United States. We fully understand the importance of establishing a sound legal framework for trans-Atlantic data transfers, and that is why Microsoft has been very supportive of the efforts on both side of the Atlantic that led to last week's adoption of the Privacy Shield. As the European Commission observed, Microsoft's January 2016 Privacy Statement states that the company adheres to the principles of the Safe Harbor Framework. Microsoft has in fact continued to live up to all of its commitments under the Safe Harbor Framework, even as the European and U.S. representatives worked toward the new Privacy Shield. As we state in our privacy statement, in addition to the Safe Harbor Framework we rely on a variety of legal mechanisms as the basis for transferring data from Europe, including standard contractual clauses, a data transfer mechanism established by the European Commission and approved by European data protection authorities, to cover data flows from the European Union to the United States. Microsoft will release an updated privacy statement next month, and that will say Microsoft intends to adopt the Privacy Shield. We are working now toward meeting the requirements of the Privacy Shield.

Story continues

Although Microsoft failed to explain why it continues to collect so much seemingly irrelevant data from users or even address the legitimate security concerns raised by CNIL, at least the company appears to be taking this seriously.

Trending right now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
DAVID E. SANGER: Youve seen several [members of NATO] come under Pokeattack, things that are short of war, [which] clearly appear to be coming from Russia.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, were under Pokeattack.

SANGER: Were under regular Pokeattack. Would you use Pokeweapons before you used military force?

TRUMP: Pokemon Go is absolutely a thing of the future and the present. Look, were under Pokeattack, forget about them. And we dont even know where its coming from.

SANGER: Some days we do, and some days we dont.

TRUMP: Because were obsolete. Right now, Russia and China in particular and other places.

SANGER: Would you support the United States not only developing as we are but fielding Pokeweapons as an alternative?

TRUMP: Yes. I am a fan of the future, and Pokemon Go is the future.
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, July 4, 2016. Picture taken on July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

By Se Young Lee and Donny Kwok

SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it sued Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] for patent infringements through multiple courts in China, escalating a legal conflict between the smartphone rivals.

The suits mark the latest salvo in a fight between the world's No. 1 and No. 3 smartphone makers, who compete fiercely across the world in an industry that researcher IHS says is worth $332 billion this year.

The South Korean firm sued Huawei in a Beijing court about two weeks ago for allegedly infringing six of its patents, a spokeswoman said. She did not elaborate on the types of patents or the other Chinese courts involved.

"Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property," Samsung told Reuters in a statement.

An intellectual property court in Beijing said on its official Weixin account that Samsung sued Huawei and a department store in Beijing and has claimed 161 million yuan ($24.14 million) in damages.

Samsung asked the two defendants to stop production and sales of products the South Korean firm says infringes on its patents, including Huawei's Mate 8 and Honor smartphones, the court said.

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies - also one of the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturers - said in a statement it had not received a "formal complaint" but would defend itself as necessary.

"In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve" intellectual property rights disputes, it said.

Huawei sued Samsung in the United States and China in May, accusing its rival of infringement on patents for fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software.

Chinese technology companies have often been on the receiving end of such lawsuits, so Huawei's U.S. litigation marked something of a reversal of roles reflecting its growing clout in the global telecommunications and smartphone markets.

Story continues

CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon said neither company was likely to be motivated by monetary compensation from the legal battle.

Huawei could be angling to boost its reputation by taking on the top smartphone player, he said, while Samsung's suit might be a maneuver to force Huawei to settle its claims as soon as possible.

"If you look at the patent battle with Apple (AAPL.O) and Samsung ... it ultimately created a lot of benefits for Samsung in a kind of an advertisement," he said.

"Huawei might also be trying to create some noise marketing for itself," he said, adding he expected the two firms to eventually reach a deal such as a cross-licensing agreement.

Huawei became the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones in a year in 2015 when a 44 percent jump in its shipments defied a market slowdown.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee in SEOUL and Donny Kwok in HONG KONG; additional reporting by Yimou Lee in HONG KONG; Editing by Stephen Coates)
The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

By Se Young Lee and Donny Kwok

SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it sued Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for patent infringements through multiple courts in China, escalating a legal conflict between the smartphone rivals.

The suits mark the latest salvo in a fight between the world's No. 1 and No. 3 smartphone makers, who compete fiercely across the world in an industry that researcher IHS says is worth $332 billion this year.

The South Korean firm sued Huawei in a Beijing court about two weeks ago for allegedly infringing six of its patents, a spokeswoman said. She did not elaborate on the types of patents or the other Chinese courts involved.

"Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property," Samsung told Reuters in a statement.

An intellectual property court in Beijing said on its official Weixin account that Samsung sued Huawei and a department store in Beijing and has claimed 161 million yuan ($24.14 million) in damages.

Samsung asked the two defendants to stop production and sales of products the South Korean firm says infringes on its patents, including Huawei's Mate 8 and Honor smartphones, the court said.

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies - also one of the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturers - said in a statement it had not received a "formal complaint" but would defend itself as necessary.

"In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve" intellectual property rights disputes, it said.

Huawei sued Samsung in the United States and China in May, accusing its rival of infringement on patents for fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software.

Chinese technology companies have often been on the receiving end of such lawsuits, so Huawei's U.S. litigation marked something of a reversal of roles reflecting its growing clout in the global telecommunications and smartphone markets.

Story continues

CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon said neither company was likely to be motivated by monetary compensation from the legal battle.

Huawei could be angling to boost its reputation by taking on the top smartphone player, he said, while Samsung's suit might be a manoeuvre to force Huawei to settle its claims as soon as possible.

"If you look at the patent battle with Apple and Samsung ... it ultimately created a lot of benefits for Samsung in a kind of an advertisement," he said.

"Huawei might also be trying to create some noise marketing for itself," he said, adding he expected the two firms to eventually reach a deal such as a cross-licensing agreement.

Huawei became the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones in a year in 2015 when a 44 percent jump in its shipments defied a market slowdown.

($1 = 6.6700 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Se Young Lee in SEOUL and Donny Kwok in HONG KONG; additional reporting by Yimou Lee in HONG KONG; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Verizon is closing in on a deal to buy the core Internet business of Yahoo, according to multiple reports Friday.

The two companies are in negotiations on a deal valued at around $5 billion, as first reported by Bloomberg News, beating out bids from a range of other parties. Verizon apparently sweetened its offer: The telco had previously put in a bid of $3 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For Verizon, buying Yahoo would potentially accelerate its ambitions of becoming an Internet-media juggernaut rivaling Google and Facebook. Last year, Verizon snapped up AOL for $4.4 billion and in the last 12 months has entered into other deals to build out its digital-media portfolio, as the telco has looked to diversify beyond its core telecommunications businesses.

The sale would essentially mark the end of the road for Yahoo, the pioneering Internet search and media firm. Founded in 1995 at the dawn of the web era, Yahoo has struggled for more than a decade, and CEO Marissa Mayer initiated the sale process earlier this year under pressure from investors, after her strategies for turning around the company failed to pan out.

A Verizon representative declined to comment. Yahoo didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

While Verizons talks with Yahoo are at an advanced stage, the deal is not sealed and could still fall apart. Even now, other entities bidders might reemerge , per the WSJ.

Other bidders that stayed in the hunt for Yahoo include AT&T and private-equity giant TPG, according to Bloomberg. Also in the fray was Quick Loans founder Dan Gilbert, whos also the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Verizons proposed deal for Yahoo would exclude the Internet companys patent holdings, according to Bloomberg. It also does not include Yahoos multibillion-dollar stakes in Chinese Internet powerhouse Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan.

If a deal with Verizon is consummated, Mayer is expected to exit as Yahoos CEO. She would receive a severance package worth about $55 million in the event she is terminated within a year of a change in control of the company.

Story continues

Verizon  which Wall Street has viewed as leading strategic buyer for Yahoo  is expected to merge Yahoos operations with AOL, headed by CEO Tim Armstrong. AOL has revved up revenues under Verizons wing, posting $669 million for the first quarter of 2016, its biggest Q1 top-line take in five years.

In addition to AOL, Verizon earlier this year formed a 50-50 digital-video joint venture with Hearst, and the JV subsequently bought Complex Media. Verizon also took a 24.5% stake in AwesomenessTV, majority owned by DreamWorks Animation and Hearst holding the remaining equity. And two years ago, Verizon bought Intels OnCue over-the-top video division, which formed the basis for its Go90 mobile-first entertainment service.

Mayer, on a call Monday with investors, said the company is deep in the process of discussions with prospective buyers and said Yahoo will provide an update as soon as it is prudent.

Yahoo this week reported declining sales and a steep loss for the second quarter of 2016, after it recorded charges totaling $482 million for Tumblr, the blogging site it acquired for $1.1 billion in 2013  the biggest deal under Mayers four years at the helm.

At the end of the second quarter of 2016, Yahoo had about full-time 8,800 employees, reaching its goal of cutting 15% of its workforce, down from about 11,000 in the second quarter of 2015. It seems clear that part of the reason for the layoffs was to position the company for a sale.

The financial structure of Verizons deal for Yahoo has not been revealed. The telco has about $4.5 billion in cash on hand.

During the second quarter, Yahoo set up a holding company, Excalibur LLC, to explore the sale of more than 4,000 non-strategic patents and pending applications.

Related stories

Marissa Mayer Touts Yahoo 'Progress' After Weak Q2 Earnings Report, Which May Be Her Last as CEO

Social Media Star Hayes Grier to Star in Comedy Docuseries 'Top Grier' on Verizon's Go90 (EXCLUSIVE)

As Pokemon Go Thrives, Verizon's Own Bid for Mobile Mania Falters with 'The Runner'
Authorities in Singapore and Switzerland have seized assets connected to Malaysian businessman Jho Low. He is at the center of yesterdays Department of Justice filing that also alleges Red Granite, a company that Low helped to finance through his alleged friendship with Riza Aziz, was used to launder funds illegally stolen from the 1MDB Malaysian investment fund. Among the assets seized today were a $35 million Monet painting.

The seizures come a day after the DOJ filed a major complaint relating to the scandal. Singapores Attorney General announced that assets worth over $175 million had been seized. Many below to Low, who received a special thanks credit on The Wolf Of Wall Street, the film that is at the center of the money laundering allegations. Low reportedly introduced Wolf lead Leonardo DiCaprio to Aziz, the co-founder of Red Granite and stepson of the Malaysian prime minister.

Swiss authorities, responding to a DOJ request, seized three paintings, among them the Monet and a Van Gogh.

Related stories

Red Granite Refutes DOJ Claims It Conspired To Use Laundered Money To Fund 'Wolf Of Wall Street'

Feds File "Kleptocracy Enforcement Action" To Seize Assets Of 'Wolf Of Wall Street' Producer Red Granite

'Wolf Of Wall Street' Producer Red Granite Now Cooperating In Federal Probe Into Funding
Residents of western Sarpy County should not be alarmed if they see a low-flying helicopter over mostly rural areas in August.

For up to four weeks, instruments mounted on the helicopter will collect and record measurements to learn more about buried groundwater aquifer materials such as glacial sand, gravels and sandstone.

Understanding the extent and makeup of these isolated aquifers will greatly improve management decisions to protect them and safeguard them as a source for drinking water, said Paul Woodward, ground water management engineer for the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District.

A coalition of six NRDs in eastern Nebraska planned the flights with grant assistance from the Nebraska Water Sustainability Fund.

The helicopter will fly a grid-like pattern over parts of western Sarpy County from approximately 96th Street to the Platte River.
15-year-old twins, Jessica Oduro and Jessilove Oduro, died at Asafo in Kumasi after inhaling a substance used to kill bed bugs in their house.

The mother of the two applied the substance in the house before leaving for the market and returned in the afternoon to open the door for ventilation, according to a report by Kumasi-based Kapital FM.

The twins are said to have gone to bed in their room at about 10pm that day but had vomited throughout the night.

READ ALSO: Photos : Movie stars mourn with President Mahama

By morning, they were said to have been very weak, with the elder twin dying at home and the younger one dying later at the hospital.

The former students of the Asafo M.A Basic School had completed their BECE and were awaiting their results.

READ ALSO: Find out why man sues friend who failed after 72 attempts to impregnate his wife

Their funeral which was held last Friday at the Asafo palace attracted many mourners, including former classmates, the report said.

Source: YEN.com.gh
August 5  Haymarket in White dinner and dance

The Lincoln Haymarket Development Corporation presents this second-annual event at Pinnacle Bank Arena, 6-11 p.m. Guests dress all in white, dine on gourmet picnic fare and dance through the evening. The event encourages the community to come together to celebrate Lincoln and the Haymarket. Cocktail hour, 6 p.m.; dinner, 7 p.m. Music performed by The 402. Two gourmet dinners are offered with one free signature cocktail during happy hour. Details/tickets: lincolnhaymarket.org/events/haymarket-in-white.html.

August 6  Railyard Beach Bash to benefit Make-A-Wish

The Corn Republic Parrothead Club is sponsoring an afternoon and evening of free live music, auction items and fun from 3-11 p.m. in the Railyard to raise funds for Make-A-Wish Nebraska. Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal will perform from 4-7 p.m., and Jimmy and the Parrots will play from 8-11 p.m. No admission charge; however, donations will be sought to benefit Make-A-Wish Nebraska. Event includes a photo booth, silent auction and special appearance by a Make-A-Wish recipient who will join the feature band on stage. Details: cornrepublic.com.

August 13  Raise the Roof

This fifth-annual fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln begins at 5 p.m. at the Nebraska Club, 20th floor, U.S. Bank building, 233 S. 13th St. Includes a bus tour that exemplifies Habitats mission. The evening will conclude with dinner overlooking the city from the Nebraska Club and a program to show guests what their support does for Habitat homeowners. Proceeds will help underwrite the cost of building materials and required subcontracted work. Tickets: www.lincolnhabitat.org or 402-477-9184.

August 20  Hops for Hope

Raise a pint to break the poverty cycle and provide a means for gifted scholars to turn their dreams into degrees at this fundraiser for Boys Hope Girls Hope  Hope College Center. A bus will run from Lincoln and Omaha to the event at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland. During enthusiast hour from 5-6 p.m., visit with local brewers, enjoy appetizers from local restaurants and receive a growler of beer to take home. General admission starts at 6 p.m. and includes a pint glass, a sample of each beer and a pint of your favorite. Food trucks will also be there. The museum will be open all evening for attendees to see. Tickets: https://boyshopegirlshopelincoln.org/hopsforhope/.

August 25  Colors of Hope

The Nebraska Cancer Research Center is planning the third annual Colors of Hope: Cancer Research Fundraiser at Chez Hay, 14th and P streets, presented by Southeast Nebraska Cancer Center. The event begins with a social hour at 5:30 p.m., followed by a meal catered by Chez Hay, a silent auction of desserts and other donated items, and a live auction of larger items that include vacation packages. Details: Kelly Madcharo, 402-327-6851 or see necancerresearch.org.

August 27  St. Monicas Amazing Chase

This 11th annual Lincoln adventure race, featuring teams of four searching for secret locations around Lincoln and performing zany challenges, benefits women and families overcoming addiction and mental illness at St. Monicas Behavioral Health Services for Women. For details, registration or to support an existing team, visit stmonicas.com or contact Valerie at 402-413-0327, extension 111, or valerie.murphy@stmonicas.com.

August 27  Prairie Jazz Festival

Enjoy an evening of jazz performed by Sarah Cosano & Cambia, the Jackie Allen Quintet, and Gulizia Brothers & Friends in the open-air surroundings of Lincolns rare tallgrass prairie at Pioneers Park Nature Center. Gates open at 3:30 p.m.; music starts at 4 p.m. Bring your own blanket or chairs. This Friends of Pioneers Park Nature Center event supports the Nature Center. Details/tickets: LNKnaturecenter.org.

August 27  Community Crops annual Feast on the Farm

This event features locally grown food prepared by local chefs, 5 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Prairie Pines, 112th and Adams streets. As you wander the Prairie Pines Training Farm, enjoy a complete dinner and drinks, live music by the Midnight Wanderers and tours while seeing how food grows on a sustainable farm. Details/tickets: communitycrops.org.
Austin Rowlett, son of Allen and Jodi Rowlett of Lincoln, was among 253 students from the United States and Canada chosen to receive an academic scholarship from the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation for the 2016-17 academic year.

Austin will be attending Hastings College. He is the son of an employee of Molex.

Scholarships are awarded yearly to applicants demonstrating a strong academic record, leadership, and extracurricular and community involvement. The recipients are selected by an independent panel of judges with expertise in the field of education.
Dear Doctor K: My brother has struggled with addiction for years. I've told my husband that addiction is a disease, but he claims my brother is weak and lacks willpower. Is he right?

Dear Reader: There is a lot of stigma and shame associated with addiction. But the truth is, people with substance-use disorders aren't simply weak or immoral. It surely is true that people who try out illegal addictive drugs for recreational purposes are breaking the law. In my opinion, they also are doing something profoundly stupid. But they're often teens, who tend to do a lot of stupid, impulsive things. Moreover, many people who become addicted to legal drugs were started on those drugs by their doctors.

The most important point is that addiction has a biological basis. Addiction impairs the brain in many important ways. I spoke to my colleague Dr. Michael Bierer, an internist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, about this topic. We discussed a recent review article in The New England Journal of Medicine about the "brain science" of addiction and its management.

Here are some of the highlights:

* An addicted person's impaired ability to stop using drugs or alcohol has to do with deficits in the function of the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain responsible for self-monitoring, delaying reward, and integrating messages from the intellect (reason) and libido (pleasure center).

* The prefrontal cortex is not fully developed in adolescents and is particularly vulnerable during this time. The earlier the brain is exposed to a drug, the greater the potential for damage. Adolescence is a time when caution and intervention may prove most valuable, but it's also the time when it's hardest to influence a person's behavior.

* Once addiction sets in, which may be very early in experimenting with an addictive substance, the emotional response when a person is deprived of the drug is usually extreme negative emotion, a reaction that is "hard-wired" in the brain.

* In a particular setting, the strong association of learned environmental cues (for instance, seeing the corner where a person's dealer can be found, or entering the doctor's office for re-evaluation of chronic pain) intensifies the craving for the substance.

* What's more, the brain releases a flood of intensely intoxicating brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, during drug use. This is called the "reward pathway." This makes the brain relatively insensitive to "normal" sources of pleasure, like a conversation with a good friend or a beautiful sunset. And it makes the brain focus all of its attention on obtaining the addicting substance.

This brain science is helping to shape treatment strategies. Medications such as methadone and buprenorphine can stabilize cravings. This gives the reasoning part of the brain a chance to get back in shape and kick in. Once cravings are under control, a person may be able to develop alternative sources of joy and reward in order to avoid the cues that set off cravings.
KENOSHA  Authorities were looking Friday morning for a minimum-security inmate from Kenosha Correctional Center.

Henry Hicks, 28, reportedly walked away from his work-release job site, according to a Wisconsin Department of Corrections press release.

The case has been referred to the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office.

The Department of Corrections described Hicks as a black man, 6-feet tall, 264 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.

Anyone with information regarding Hicks' whereabouts is asked to contact local law enforcement.
Editor's Note: Racine County GOP convention delegate Bill Jaeck will share his perspective on the convention and provide updates from Cleveland throughout the week. The Democratic National Convention is next week in Philadelphia.

Mid-Day Report

This afternoon Ted Cruz met with his state delegation and offered his clearest explanation yet of why he declined to endorse Donald Trump in his convention speech. He said, I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father. And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that Im going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say, Thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father. So now we know his rationale, case closed.

Evening Event

The theme of the evening was Make America One Again with Donald J. Trump accepting the nomination.

One of early speakers was Pastor Mark Burns from South Carolina. One remark received a thundering ovation. He said, Under a Donald Trump administration, all lives, (repeated four times) and that means black lives, white lives, Hispanic lives, Asian lives, Christian lives and Muslim lives. Say it with me, ALL LIVES MATTER.

Ivanka Trump introduced her father as a man of vision, passion and work ethic. "Real change is only going to come from outside of the system," she said, highlighting the fact that her father is not a career politician. She praised his fight during the Republican primary, saying that he was a "fighter" who "dug deeper" to prevail over a large field of candidates.

"I have seen him fight for his employees," she said. "Now, I am seeing him fight for his country.

She also described her father as an individual that will fight for womens rights. He will fight for equal pay and equal work" for women, she said, "and I will fight for it right alongside of him.

When Donald Trump took the stage the delegates and guests cheering created a deafening noise level that probably delayed his speech by three to four minutes. He delivered a contained  by Donald Trump standards  and aspirational message. He focused on safety, the economy, health care, rigged trade, terrorism, regulations, school choice, repealing Obamacare, supporting veterans, a conservative Supreme Court, the 2nd amendment and religious rights.

One yelling protester interrupted him for a minute as security had to remove her. With all of the security, Im wondering how she gained access?

Mr. Trump had so some many great passages that its hard to choose favorites, like this one, I will restore law and order. Believe me, in that race for the White House I will be the law and order candidate.

Here's another, An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end.

He provided statistics like this, In the president's hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 people have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 4,000 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office. The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year. I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country. Believe me. Believe me.

Then he said, I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore. So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week. Go there.

Another good one-liner was, A change in leadership is required to produce a change in outcomes.

On immigration he stated, My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian (refugees), think of this. Think of this, this is not believable but this is what's happening. A 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country already under the leadership of President Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from.

Again there were constant delegate cheers/applause for all the remarks above  and many more.

Finally, the traditional convention closing consisted of the Trump and Pence families enjoining on the stage for the confetti and balloon drops and it lasted over five minutes. For me personally, the convention was very rewarding and now the next pivotal date is Nov. 8, when voters decide.

In conclusion, I want to personally thank the management of the The Journal Times for publishing my reports, perspectives and discussions with key elected officials during this convention. Because July is one of the better outdoor months of the year, it can be arduous to watch all of this coverage on TV. I hope these highlights were newsworthy as well as informative.

Again we are the Republican party that believes in: 1) school choice for parents to decide where best to educate their children, 2) fiscal responsibility, 3) the rule of law applied equally to all, 4) national security, 5) the freedom of speech, 6) the right to bear arms, 7) limited federal government, 8) less regulations, 9) free trade (but fair trade negotiated by experts) and 10) the American dream where everyone can prosper by applying themselves through self reliance.
RACINE  The Racine Police Association and the Staff Officers Association Thursday evening said in a statement they are attempting to file an official complaint against Police and Fire Commissioner J. Mark Freeman.

The statement follows Facebook and Twitter posts by Freeman, a pastor at Second Missionary Baptist Church, which include a police officer wearing a pointed white hood while pointing a gun at a black youth.

The freedom to express diverse views is fundamental to our democratic system of government, and the dedicated men and women of the Racine Police Association (RPA) and the Staff Officers Association (SOA) fully respect the Constitutional right of free speech that is guaranteed to all Americans, the statement read. At the same time, expressions of speech by those entrusted to run our government which serves to denigrate anyone on the basis of their profession are extraordinarily troubling.

Bishop Mark Freemans social media postings which broadly portray law enforcement officers in a racist and vitriolic light are offensive, and the RPA and SOA have serious concerns about his ability to function as an objective member of the Racine Police & Fire Commission, as the law requires, the statement read.

The statement questions how such social media posts contribute to positive social conversation.

We would hope that the public officials empowered to oversee the police department would adhere to the same standard of care and conduct that is expected of its officers, the statement read. While the RPA and SOA greatly value the ability to maintain a community dialogue on issues of public concern, we fail to see how the widespread posting of photos that denigrate the service and sacrifice of the officers who work tirelessly to keep our city safe helps cultivate that discussion.

City Attorney Scott Letteney said that according to state statutes, Freeman could only be removed with cause, defined as inefficiency, neglect of duty, official misconduct or malfeasance in office, by three-fourths approval from the City Council. The RPA and SOA are filing a complaint to initiate that process, according to the statement.

The RPA and SOA are currently in the process of determining the necessary steps to file an official complaint with the City for the removal of a Police and Fire Commissioner, and have no further comment on this matter at this time, it read.
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Col Lama not to testify in UK court

Nepal Army Colonel Kumar Lama, who is facing trial in Britain on charge of torturing two civilians in Kapilvastu battalion in 2005, will not appear in the court to testify as planned apparently on the advice of his solicitors.
Dubby Bhagat dies at 73

Dubby Bhagat, one of the pioneers of Nepals tourism industry and a renowned food critic, died on Wednesday.
Fecofun against 20-yr integrated plan

The Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal has expressed concern over the governments decision to formulate a 20-year integrated plan for Chure conservation and management, stating that it curtails the rights of the local communities over natural resources.
Fine rains raise hopes of good paddy harvest

Continuous downpours across the country have brightened prospects for a good paddy harvest this fiscal year after two straight years of poor yields.
Forum for fresh students

The Kathmandu Post Career Edufair begins at Bhrikutimandap in Kathmandu on Friday. The Post caught up with Pankaj Jalan, director at the Lord Buddha Education Foundationthe title main sponsor of the eventto talk about the objectives of the three-day fair. Excerpts:
Govt scraps fuel permits issued to private firms

The government has rolled back its decision to issue petroleum import permits to private companies.
Govt team begins talks with Dr KC

The talks between a team of Dr Govinda KC and government representatives is underway on the thirteenth day of doctor KCs hunger strike on Friday. The meeting began at Health Ministry in Singha Durbar today morning.
Lull before the storm

Some worrying developments following Paris climate agreement could make its fate hang in the balance
MPs oppose Bill to allow wild animals to be raised as pets

Lawmakers have expressed reservations about the Bill formulated to amend the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 proposing a provision allowing wild animals to be raised as pets.
NC, Maoist, Madhes-based parties not to withdraw no-trust motion

A meeting of Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre) and Madhes based parties held on Friday decided not to take back the no-confidence motion tabled at the parliament.
One remanded to custody for further investigation

The District Court Lalitpur on Thursday issued orders to remand Chinimaya Tamang  accused of persuasion to change religion through human trafficking - in custody for further interrogation.
Parliamentary committee summons CIAA officials including Chief Commissioner Karki

Parliaments Good Governance and Monitoring Committee on Friday decided to summon all the officials of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) including CIAA chief Lokman Singh Karki for discussions. The meeting will be held on Sunday.
Parties agree to table budget bill before discussing no-confidence motion

Major political parties have reached an agreement to present the budget related bill at the Parliament before discussion on the no-confidence motion against the PM.
Binod Ghimire covers parliamentary affairs and human rights for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2010, he has reported primarily on social issues, focusing on education and transitional justice.
Pushpa Lal Memorial Day being commemorated

The 38th Memorial Day of Pushpa Lal Shrestha, the founder general-secretary of Communist Party of Nepal, is being observed on Friday by organizing different programmes.
Qandeel Baloch: Murdered Pakistan celebrity's parents speak of pain

The parents of Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch have spoken of their closeness to her and their bitterness towards their son, who has confessed to murdering her last week.
Saarc Industry Park to be set up

The Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), a business conclave of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), on Thursday announced that a Saarc Industry Park would be opened in each of the member countries.
Same as before

Discriminatory provisions in the constitution have led to endless agitation and unrest
Stage set for Kathmandu Post Career Edufair

The stage is set for The Kathmandu Post Career Edufair that kicks off in the Capital on Friday.
TEPC unveils list of CIP contenders

TEPC has given 15 days to claim and file complaints against listed companies and individuals
Three lawmakers register proposal at Parliament

Gagan Thapa, a lawmaker from the Nepali Congress, on Thursday registered a proposal of public importance in Parliament, seeking to hold discussion on the demands raised by Dr Govinda KC.
TRC comes up with criteria for shelving plaints

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has decided to shelve anonymous complaints.
Wounded snow leopard dies for want of treatment

A snow leopard, which was found in an injured state at Jhusang VDC-4 in Mustang on Monday, died at the Nepal Army High Altitude School in Jomsom on Wednesday.
Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 61F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 61F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 36F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 36F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
West Salem residents trying to escape the heat may want to take advantage of the Swarthout Pool before it closes July 30 for renovations and construction.

The pool, owned by the West Salem School District, was constructed in the late 1960s and has served the district well, but after almost 50 years of service, it was in need of a serious overhaul.

Its just time for a renovation, Superintendent Troy Gunderson said.

The latest damaged to the pool occurred two years ago when, during a particularly cold winter, several pipes burst, requiring significant repairs to be made.

According to Gunderson, the pool is expected to reopen in time for the next swimming season in May.

This project was part of a $1 million construction referendum passed this spring to rebuild the aging pool facility.

Initially, the district had planned only to repair the pool. They had planned to leave the bath house unchanged until a later date in order to to keep the cost of the renovation down.

This decision was later changed after the school board became aware of statutes that would require them to bring the building up to modern building code when they renovated the pool.

Gunderson said there is a lot of work just to get the pool ready for these repairs and the first thing people are likely going to notice is demolition of the pool bath house.

It doesnt happen instantaneously, he said.

However, Demolition wont begin until later this fall. The district will review bids for the demolition of the facility later this summer. Replacement of the pool itself will begin sooner, but work on this part of the construction wont be as visible from the street.

Gunderson said most of the construction will be completed before the onset of winter. Final repairs will be finished in the spring.

He said he expects construction costs to remain under the districts $1 million borrowing authority for this project. The school board asked school district members for up to $1 million to provide a reasonable overhead for unexpected expenses.

Board members wanted to avoid another situation like at the elementary school, when the district underestimated the cost of installing a secure entrance.

When the pool opens again next spring, it will be an entirely new facility and will feature a newly constructed bath house with better facilities and more privacy.

The Swarthout Pool is open daily from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
TAYLOR  Joyce E. Joten, 81, of Taylor died Wednesday, July 20, 2016, at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in Trempealeau Valley Lutheran Church in rural Taylor, with visitation one hour prior. Burial will be in Morken Cemetery in rural Melrose, at a later date. Jack Funeral Home in Blair, is assisting with arrangements.
WINONA, Minn.  A Fountain City man and former director of Habitat for Humanity of Winona-Fillmore Counties has been charged in Buffalo County Circuit Court with sexually assaulting a child.

Thaddeus Tad A. Powers, 56, is accused of second-degree sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy on June 27 in his home.

John Corcoran, Habitats acting executive director and construction manager, said in a statement Friday that Habitat for Humanity of Winona-Fillmore Counties is aware of the situation involving our now former executive director.

We are unable to comment on personnel or legal matters. Our board of directors is helping manage our day-to-day operations in the interim. We would like to thank the community and our volunteers for their continued support.

The incident was reported to the Buffalo County Sheriffs Department on July 7, and a sheriffs investigator spoke with the boy on July 11. The boy said he had gone to Powers residence, and while there Powers had put his hand in the boys pants and underwear, according to the complaint.

Powers was arrested July 15. An initial court hearing was held, release conditions set, and Powers was released from custody after posting a $10,000 cash bond.

Powers is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Buffalo County Circuit Court on Sept. 7. If convicted, under Wisconsin law he faces a potential 40-year prison sentence and mandatory lifetime supervision as a sex offender.

Powers came to the Winona area a few years ago from New Mexico and had served as Habitats director for a little more than two years after initially taking a part-time job with the organization.
We bid adieu to a longtime friend this week.

The VCR, age 60, died Thursday after an extended battle with digital video and Blu-ray discs.

The VCR, known for its ability to record videos on VHS tapes and play them at any time, was born in 1956 at Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Co., according to the New York Times. The machines were first sold at $50,000 a pop, which didnt stop 100 orders being placed in the week after their debut, mostly by television broadcasting companies.

The first VCR for home use, actually called a videotape recorder back then, was the Telcon by UK Nottingham Electronic Valve Co., released in 1963 at the modern-day equivalent of $1,600. Phillips released the first true VCR was developed in 1970, specially made for TV stations. Two years later, it was more widely available for home consumers.

Those consumers gobbled it up. By 1984, the Times wrote that analysts expected the technology to be in 15 million homes by the end of the year, a significant jump from the 5 million homes with VCRs in 1982.

The VCR was able to fight off encroachment by Sonys Betamax, which was apparently a thing even though hardly anyone will cop to owning one, and joined together with the video home system to play JVCs VHS tapes at home.

I was born at the height of VCR popularity, when the machines were in every home and every family had a collection of VHS tapes, both those purchased at the store and those with recordings made from TV.

The VCR is how I used to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart when I was probably too young to do so. In the days before DVR and TiVo, my parents used to record episodes on tapes with their VCR. Being old even back then, they couldnt stay up past 10 p.m. to watch Stewart metaphorically eviscerate politicians.

The VCR began its slow decent in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when DVD players began to oust them from peoples homes. The tape players fended off the attack of the disc players when they first debuted in 1997, but slowly lost ground as DVD players fell in price, dipping below $100 by the end of 2000.

While DVD players lacked the ability to record video like the VCR, the improved image and sound quality attracted silly people who actually care about things like that. DVD rentals exceeded those of VHS tapes in 2003.

DVDs have since been overcome by Blu-ray discs and players, with digital-only videos coming up fast on their heels.

After a brave battle against the competition, VCRs will pass peacefully into the world of nostalgia this month.

The Funai Corp. of Japan, the last company to manufacture the first technology to bring movie watching home for the masses, announced this week that it will stop making the machines at the end of July, citing the difficulty (of) acquiring parts. The company sold 750,000 units worldwide in 2015. The last new ones to be sold will be released this year.

Remnants of the old can still be found in thrift stores and the homes of those with a fondness for the past.

The VCR is survived by its parent, Ampex, which continue to manufacture technology and data recorders, and the TV stations which made it popular.

It was preceded in death by cassette tapes, 8-tracks and transistor radios.

Services for the VCR will be held privately at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests you stay out of the humidity, which contributed to the death of many a video tape.

Time and technology inevitably march on.

RIP VCR.
Prosecutors want the states highest court to uphold the convictions of a Minnesota man serving consecutive life terms for the 2012 murders of a father and son during a robbery at their downtown La Crosse camera store.

Jeffrey Lepsch, now 43, appealed the District 4 Court of Appeals decision in November to confirm his convictions for the killings of Paul Petras, 56, and his 19-year-old son, A.J., on Sept. 15 at the now-shuttered Mays Photo on Main Street.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will review a decision to deny the appeal. It will either affirm the Court of Appeals decision or grant Lepsch a new trial after hearing arguments from attorneys later this year.

Prosecutors Friday responded to Lepschs argument that nine of the 12 jurors either believed he was guilty before they heard the case or found law enforcement more credible than other witnesses. Lepschs attorney contends that the jurors did not meet the standard of impartiality required by the U.S. Constitution.

Lepsch also argued that he wasnt present when the clerk of court read an oath to jurors, a violation of his right to an impartial jury and public trial.

The jury, after a six-day trial in La Crosse County Circuit Court in July 2013, found that Lepsch shot Paul and A.J. Petras, then emptied display cases of 27 pieces of camera equipment worth $17,000 and walked from the store with four bags to his minivan at Fourth and Main streets.

Police found A.J. Petras body near the stores safe and his fathers in the bathroom hours later when Sherri Petras went to check on her husband and son.

Surveillance video, cellphone and vehicle records led investigators to Lepsch, a broke, unemployed hobby photographer living in Dakota, Minn., at the time of the killings.

Investigators traced every piece of equipment stolen from Mays to Lepsch  in his home, his van or sold online to support his family of five.

He is serving consecutive life terms without the possibility of release plus 30 years, the maximum possible.

Prosecutors argue Lepsch failed to show the nine jurors were either subjectively or objectively biased and that the trial court took extra precaution to ensure an impartial jury, beyond what it would do for most jury trials, according to their brief to the Supreme Court.

Lepschs argument that Wisconsin courts have ignored federal constitutional juror impartiality requirements for more than three decades is not likely, and, in this case, not true, prosecutors stated.

Prosecutors also argue Lepschs rights were not violated when potential jurors were sworn outside his presence because the administration of the oath is not part of jury selection under state statute.

Lepsch was not prejudiced by the administration of the oath to the jury venire outside of his presence, according to the brief. He could not have objected to the giving of the oath or gained any useful knowledge from observing the formality of having the jurors take the oath.
MOORHEAD, Minn.  Erik Runquist saw it for a moment. Then it was gone.

Walking a tract of Nature Conservancy-owned prairie outside Moorhead, Runquist caught a glimpse of a Dakota skipper, a thumbnail-size, orange and brown butterfly. It perched atop a coneflower before disappearing into the prairie grass.

Skippers are evasive. You may get only a few seconds to be able to find it before it zips off the coneflower, especially if its a windy day, said Runquist, the Minnesota Zoos butterfly conservation biologist. Once they get in flight, its almost impossible to find them again.

Fifteen years ago or so, it wasnt so hard to spot a Dakota skipper in Minnesota. But somethings changed. Butterflies that once numbered in the millions have virtually disappeared from Upper Midwest prairies.

Another once-abundant butterfly, the Poweshiek skipperling, has also vanished in that time. There hasnt been a sighting here since 2008. Its on the federal endangered species list.

Runquist and other scientists arent sure whats happening, but they worry the butterflies disappearance is an ecological warning shot, a sign of a larger environmental problem on the prairie.

Butterflies are tremendously sensitive to small changes in environmental conditions, he said.

Prairie butterfly populations naturally declined as Minnesota prairies were turned to farmland over the past century, but their dramatic decline in the past 20 years has scientists puzzled.

We dont have a cadaver to do post-mortem on, said Robert Dana, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources entomologist who searches for Poweshiek skipperlings and Dakota skippers at sites across the state every year.

Prairie butterflies began to disappear rapidly in the early 2000s, despite efforts to preserve and restore prairies, he said. Its very disconcerting to discover that after saving so many prairies, we are not yet on secure ground with the insects.

It doesnt help that Poweshiek skipperlings and Dakota skippers spend their lives in an area the size of a Walmart parking lot  bad weather at the wrong time in a the butterfly life cycle can wreak havoc on local populations.

Dana, though, says theres a long list of potential reasons the butterflies are in trouble.

Fragmented prairie habitat, invasive predators like the multicolored Asian lady beetle, climate change, and pesticides are a few of the possibilities.

Scientists are monitoring several prairie locations for pesticide contamination. They are also trying to get a better idea what prairie habitat gives the butterflies the best chance of survival.

Runquist has a federal permit to capture female butterflies. He keeps them in paper cups lined with grass for a couple of days while they lay eggs. He then returns them to the prairie.

Harvesting the eggs is part of an ambitious plan to save these once abundant species.

The Minnesota Zoo now has about 300 Dakota skippers bred in captivity. The zoo plans to do the same with the endangered Poweshiek skipperling, although theres no guarantee of success.
WHITEHALL  Whitehall Specialties announced Thursday the acquisition of the property, buildings and equipment of the former Castle Cheese manufacturing facility in Slippery Rock, Pa.

The acquisition represents the companys fourth processed cheese manufacturing facility. It is expected to be operational this fall and will provide additional capacity as the company meets the growing demands of its customer base both domestically and internationally. The plant location will make serving East Coast customers faster and more efficient while freeing up capacity at three Wisconsin facilities.

Karl Kramer, Whitehall specialties president and CEO, said, the expansive facilities and access to an ample, skilled workforce are ideally suited to support our future growth plans.

Whitehall Specialties is a leader in the custom non-standardized and processed cheese category, producing a broad line of substitute, imitation, blends and cheese products sold across the United States and in more than 30 countries worldwide.
CLEVELAND  Delegates to the Republican National Convention are divided this week over a crucial question:

Should Hillary Clinton be summarily executed? Or merely imprisoned without trial?

Most favor the latter position, judging from the nightly chants of Lock her up! from the convention floor and the regular calls from convention speakers to outfit Clinton in a jumpsuit or stripes and place her behind bars.

But a minority would deal more decisively with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. On Wednesday, word broke in Cleveland that New Hampshire state Representative and Donald Trump delegate Al Baldasaro, who has shared the stage with Trump at campaign events, said in a radio interview that Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.

The Republican nominee and his advisers themselves are split on the issue. Hillary Clinton has to go to jail, OK? She has to go to jail, the candidate declared last month. Shes guilty as hell.

But his longtime adviser Roger Stone has long argued for more. Hillary must be brought to justice  arrested, tried and executed for murder, he tweeted two years ago. Stone suggested anew this week (at a rally also attended by Baldasaro) that Clinton murdered her friend Vince Foster.

In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is imprisoning his foes without trial. In Russia, enemies of Vladimir Putin have been killed. But in America, we usually deal with political opponents in elections.

Those at Quicken Loans Arena had other thoughts.

Lock her up! said Michael Flynn, retired general and Trumps national-security adviser, chanting with the delegates. If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.

Lock her up, veteran Jason Beardsley, another convention speaker, concurred.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday night ignited the crowd by saying: If she were any more on the inside shed be in prison.

Darryl Glenn, Senate candidate and county commissioner in Colorado, told the convention-goers that she loves her pantsuits but she deserves a bright orange jumpsuit.

Chris Christie, in his Star Chamber presentation to the convention Tuesday night, held a mock trial to hold Hillary Rodham Clinton accountable.

Lock her up! the delegates chanted.

Were getting there, Christie replied.

He and the audience went on to convict Clinton on numerous charges, including being an apologist for an al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria, resulting in the capture of innocent young women.

Those surprised by this weeks vengeful words probably werent paying attention earlier.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen last month tweeted the allegation that Clinton murdered an ambassador. Corey Stewart, chairman of Trumps Virginia campaign, accused Clinton of essentially encouraging the murder of police officers. Rocker Ted Nugent, a prominent Trump supporter, said Clinton and President Obama should be tried for treason and hung.

Trump himself often speaks favorably of violence (Punch him in the face. ... Knock the crap out of them) and has talked of using presidential powers to torture suspects, target innocent relatives of terrorists, restrict press freedoms, go after a judge presiding over a fraud case against him, and get the Justice Department to investigate opponents.

Is it OK for political figures to talk this way?

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who previously represented Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and other strongmen, doesnt seem to mind.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday morning about how angry the convention has been, Manafort replied, The tone that I saw was of joy. Asked about the Lock her up chant, Manafort opined that it probably reflects the attitude of a lot of people in America.

Reflects? Or encourages those who have violent thoughts of extra-constitutional remedies?

Last week, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Mike Folk, tweeted that Clinton should be tried for treason, murder and then hung on the Mall in Washington.

At the Republican convention, sales of Hillary for Prison T-shirts were brisk. And the hateful felt emboldened: Officials shut down the chat function on the conventions live-stream after a barrage of anti-Semitic comments.

Will the cries for blood and vengeance cause a backlash outside the angry convention?

Hillary Clinton now belongs in prison? Cmon, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz, a Never Trump holdout, tweeted Tuesday night. We can make the case that she shouldnt be elected without jumping the shark.

Sorry, Fonzie. This shark was jumped many episodes ago.
The most famous Slovenian in the country, aspiring first lady Melania Trump, arrived in Cleveland to warmth reminiscent of home.

Slovenians are an active immigrant community in Cavalier Country. Proud of their roots, they celebrate their Central European culture and speak their native language, Slovene. Curiously, no one is asking them to erase the past or de-hyphenate their Slovenian-American personality. No one is calling for their deportation or questioning how work or tourist visas turned into permanent residency. In fact, city banners during the annual Kurentovanje festival proclaim: Cleveland celebrates its Slovenian community.

Cleveland is home to the largest concentration of Slovenians outside of Europe, between 80,000 and 100,000. Make that plus-two this week, given the presence of Melania and Barron, her 10-year-old son, who speaks fluent Slovene with his maternal grandparents.

In a nation of immigrants, the would-be first ladys status would be cause for applause  except that Melania Trump supports closing the door of privilege opened wide for her.

Shes standing by a man catapulted to the GOP nomination by a rabid anti-immigrant agenda.

Donald Trump opened his campaign with a rant against Mexican immigrants, casting them as rapists and drug dealers. He rode on the coattails of tea party hate speech that hijacked the Republican Party all the way to the nomination. Among the 16 other candidates he beat is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has a kinder view of immigrants as nation-builders and is boycotting the Republican National Convention in his city.

As it is in Trumps campaign, a convention theme Monday was to link immigrants to crime and violence. For such a disgusting purpose, the GOP used as speakers people whove had the misfortune of suffering a loss at the hands of someone who entered the country illegally.

Then came Melanias speech about her model-citizen husband, who in her view, oozes respect for others.

It was her moment to shine dressed in designer purity white, but Trump  its always about him  upstaged her by making a grand entrance, silhouetted by dramatic lighting, like a rock star opening a concert. Delegates went wild, as if he were the one singing Queens We are the Champions. On the other hand, the discomfort of some delegates with Melanias thick foreign accent was evident when cameras panned the crowd.

Melania noted in her speech that Slovenia had been a Communist stronghold, as if this were the political system she fled. But politics had nothing to do with her leaving her native land. In fact, her father was a member of the Communist Party, and although not rich, the family was well-off and enjoyed a better standard of living than most Slovenians.

Melania left her homeland  as did so many of the undocumented in the United States her husband wants to deport and wall off  to pursue dreams of a better life. In her case, being a jewelry and watch designer and a model in a country of 2 million people wasnt good enough.

The only difference between Melania and Mexicans and other Latin Americans is that the latter are often poor and fleeing for their lives, trying to get away from civil wars, gangs, and drug-trafficking (supported by U.S. consumption, I should add). And unlike the humble Latin Americans who seek refuge any way they can, Melania country-shopped plenty around Europe, even Germanizing her name from Knavs to Knauss.

According to a GQ profile, after Melania modeled in Milan and Paris, Paolo Zampolli, an Italian businessman who operates in New York, brought Melania to the U.S. with a contract and a work visa. Melania, then 28, met Trump, 52, at one of the parties Zampolli threw to promote his models during Fashion Week in 1998.

By 2005, she was Trumps wife, and a year later, a U.S. citizen. Her parents also now have emigrated and live by her in Trump Tower.

And here she is, vying to be first lady to complete her circle of privileged immigration.

That his third wifes convention speech was a riff off Michelle Obamas in 2008 is only another deceptive element of the Trump presidential candidacy. Shes a smokescreen for a GOP dead set on forgetting that, even in the heartland of Ohio, immigrant communities vote.
CLEVELAND  When Dwight Eisenhower accepted the Republican nomination in 1952, Carl Toepel was watching on TV.

At that moment, his political fixation began. Four years later, he was on the floor watching Eisenhower accept the nomination once more at the national convention in San Francisco.

Toepel, a Republican "for 77 years" from Howards Grove, worked at that convention, guarding doors and staffing the podium. This year, he's a delegate, attending for the eleventh time.

Since watching Eisenhower in 1952, Toepel has met every president except Lyndon B. Johnson. Along the way, he's amassed a substantial collection of political buttons as a member of the American Political Items Collectors.

This year, he sported pins with a new face: real estate mogul and newly minted nominee Donald Trump. He said Thursday he sees similarities between Trump and the country's 34th president.

"Eisenhower and Trump  they came from outside the political world, and we need that," Toepel said. "We need a businessman who knows how to run a payroll."

While he liked Trump from the onset of the 2016 race, Toepel said he voted for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin's primary. He was also supportive of Gov. Scott Walker's campaign, and appreciated Walker's eventual endorsement of Trump.

"Were on board because our governor is on board," Toepel said of the Wisconsin delegation's commitment to Trump.

Walker made the case for Trump to the convention audience on Wednesday, and again to the Wisconsin delegation Thursday morning.

The governor said he is backing Trump not for the sake of party unity, but because he believes it's the best thing to do for the country. He framed his endorsement as a choice between Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who he said is "unfit" to be president.

Charlotte Rasmussen, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women, praised Walker's remarks.

"I thought he really did a great job, and Im really happy that he came out strongly for our candidate," Rasmussen said, adding that when the delegation returns home, Wisconsin Republicans will be united behind Trump.

Kelly Ruh, a first-time delegate and first vice chairwoman of the Brown County Republican Party, argued the GOP has been united since day one of the convention.

There is too much on the line in 2016 to sit out the election or support a third-party candidate, Walker has argued, and Rasmussen agreed.

Following Walker's lead, Wisconsin Republicans plan to focus on the U.S. Supreme Court. Not only is there a vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, but the next president could have as many as four seats to fill in the next several years.

Walker argued throughout the week that Clinton would stack the court with liberal "activist" judges, and said he would have no part in her being elected.

State Rep. Paul Tittl, R-Manitowoc, agreed there is no way he'll vote for Clinton. But his journey toward supporting Trump was a slow one.

Tittl initially supported Walker's candidacy, then endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Once both candidates were out of the race, he refrained from another endorsement but supported Cruz in Wisconsin's primary.

"Im eating a lot of words," Tittl said. "Because I didnt think I would be sitting here, and I didnt think that he would be our presumptive nominee on this very night."

Tittl said he doesn't see his support for Trump as tying himself to the candidate, adding that he's not worried about political implications from voters who remain in the "Never Trump" camp.

In Brown County, Ruh said, the party office has even seen an uptick in membership and people signing up to volunteer because of conservatives' strong opposition to Clinton.

Toepel said he thinks Trump will help elect Republicans "from the courthouse to the White House."

In his speech to the state delegation, Walker said Thursday the "number one priority in the state of Wisconsin" is to re-elect Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who faces a tough challenge from Democratic former Sen. Russ Feingold.

Wisconsin delegates, as a general rule, were glad to see Walker back the party's nominee. Meanwhile, some "Never Trump" holdouts back in the Badger State expressed disappointment with the move.

But Ruh and Tittl both contrasted Walker's approach to that of Cruz, who declined to endorse Trump and encouraged delegates to "vote their conscience."

"I'm very disappointed in Ted Cruz," Tittl said. "He signed a pledge about a year ago. He didnt fulfill on his word, and I think in todays society, thats not a good example set for our young people."

Delegates on the floor were "anxiously awaiting" endorsements from party leaders, Ruh said, and were noticeably upset when they didn't hear one from Cruz. That said to her the bulk of the party is dedicated to electing Trump.

"There is a feeling of hope once again  not just in a desperate change needed in the White House  but in the long term strength and stability of the United States of America. This is not just a campaign; this is a movement," Ruh said. "This convention was a success and lit a fire under the many delegates and alternates who will now carry that message home and spread it like wildfire."
CLEVELAND  David Blaska, a Wisconsin delegate to the Republican National Convention, came here hoping to see the party nominate anyone other than Donald Trump.

But after a week of hearing speeches from top GOP brass and hobnobbing with fellow party members from across the country, he has come up with a justification for how hell vote in November.

Im going to vote for Pence, Blaska said, referring to the vice presidential nominee, which will effectively count as a vote for Trump. Im swallowing hard.

Blaska, a well-known conservative blogger and former Dane County board member, said the best things that Trump have going for him are Pence, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who Republicans fear will be replaced by a liberal justice, changing the composition of the court for decades.

That fear about the court lurching to the left was part of Gov. Scott Walkers message to the Wisconsin delegation Thursday. He said the three words that should instill absolute and total terror in your hearts and minds: Justice. Elizabeth. Warren.

Walker also provided a more detailed defense of Trump than he gave in his convention speech Wednesday night.

I believe that Donald Trump is fundamentally prepared to change Washington and take power out of that city and send it back to our states, Walker said. By putting Mike Pence out there as his (vice presidential) candidate, it should send a message: This is a guy whos ready to govern. Hes not just talking about shaking things up in Washington, hes prepared to do it.

Walker also noted Trump was not his first pick (I was my first pick, he joked), but while Trump may not be perfect, the last time there was a perfect person on this planet was 2,000 years ago.

The focus Wednesday night was supposed to be on Pence, but Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stole the spotlight by, rather than endorsing Trump, urging conservatives to vote their consciences in November.

Speaking with reporters Thursday, Walker reiterated that during a debate in Cleveland last August, he pledged to support the nominee and is endorsing Trump because he meant what he said. Walker declined to criticize Cruz for not endorsing, saying that voters will have the ultimate say on Cruz.

Vote your conscience was a rallying cry of the anti-Trump forces that unsuccessfully tried to change the rules of the convention to deny Trump the nomination. Although Cruz didnt criticize Trump, his pronouncement ripped the scab off the partys wounds, emboldening those like Bill Folk, an alternate delegate from Racine who remains anti-Trump and is considering voting for libertarian Gary Johnson.

Even if that means Hillary Clinton wins, so long as I dont vote for her, so be it, Folk said. The nation needs to grow up a little bit more in order to support the values I truly believe in as a Republican.

To be perfectly blunt, I dont know that (the convention) brought unity, Folk added. If I heard We must unite one more time I was going to pull my hair out.

A far greater number from the state delegation who responded to the State Journal supported Trump heading into the convention and said the event fostered unity.

Oh yeah, the convention is helping Republicans unite, said Keith Best, an alternate delegate from the 5th Congressional District.

The grassroots teams understand why we need to unite, said Sue Lynch, an alternate delegate from the 3rd congressional district and a past president of the National Federation of Republican Women.

Every delegate I talked with from other states  and I talked to lots of them  said they were supporting Trump, enthusiastically, said Bob Spindell, a delegate from Milwaukee.

Many delegates if not becoming pro-Trump, are really taking (seriously) the reality that we have to be anti-Hillary and that being anti-Hillary means voting for Donald Trump, said Brian Westrate, a delegate from Eau Claire.

He said for the most part he encountered two groups of Trump voters at the convention: People whose primary motivation is that they dont like Hillary Clinton and people whose primary motivation is they like Donald Trump.

If both of them go into the polling place in November and cast the same ballot we can win, Westrate said.

Roger Stauter, a delegate from Monona, said he still wont vote for Trump, especially after he made comments suggesting he would abandon the nations European allies.

Stauter said while he has seen some of the unification that tends to happen at conventions, there is an undercurrent of unease, which he described as regretful guarded hopefulness.

The regret is that everything was teed up for a Republican victory, Stauter said. The hopefulness is guarded because of the unfiltered comments Trump makes. There is a hopefulness because Hillary Clinton is carrying a ton of baggage as a candidate and may be very defeatable.
There has been a lot of talk around the country about how the Trans-Pacific Partnership is good for our agricultural economy. Im not buying it.

Over the last several decades, the story of trade agreements ratified by Congress has been one of broken promises. Backers of trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Korea Free Trade Agreement, promised U.S. farmers increases in farm income and more rural economic activity. These promises largely remain unfulfilled. In fact, agricultural imports have surged while exports have lagged behind under recent free trade agreements, hurting U.S. farmers.

Wisconsin Farmers Union believes that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a global trade agreement among 11 Pacific Rim countries, poses a serious threat to dairy farmers. Among other concerns, the agreement could lead to greater imports of milk protein concentrates, which displace demand for milk produced on U.S. farms. New Zealand, the leading exporter of concentrates, is a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Exchange rates are especially important when it comes to trade in agricultural commodities. When the value of the U.S. dollar is high, U.S. commodities are relatively more expensive to international traders, and traders will opt to buy commodities from other countries instead. Since U.S. negotiators failed to secure binding prohibitions on currency manipulation in the agreement, all of the supposed gains to agricultural exports under the deal easily could be wiped out by currency manipulation.

Another possible detriment to the agreement is that Canadas milk quota system is supposed to be phased out over the next decade. Will it still have the ability to protect its farm structure? And how will that impact our fragile U.S. dairy market?

Meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit continues to rise. Without some safeguards in place and a provision to address currency manipulation, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not going to be good for American agriculture.

Under the agreement, dairy prices will struggle; the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that imports will rise by close to 5 billion pounds by 2025. This is in comparison to less than 4 billion under current trade agreements.

But think of the exports, they say!

Were told exports will save us, but look at what has happened over the last 18 months  exports have fallen by nearly 13 percent in volume and 33 percent in value. That means there is less money returning to the local economy and more money leaving the U.S. to buy imports.

Additionally, dairy farm numbers in the U.S. have been declining for several decades now. In 1970, there were around 648,000 farms. In 2006, there were 75,000. We have fewer than 58,000 dairy farms across the country today. Wisconsin is losing one farm a day on average and California is losing up to two per week as a result of low milk prices.

With falling exports and rising imports, there will be pressure for prices to remain below farmers production costs. We cant risk another economic downturn like those weve experienced under previous trade deals. Wisconsin Farmers Union opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has urged our representatives to reject the agreement.

Where do our candidates and elected officials stand? President Barack Obama supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In contrast, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have voiced opposition to it. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says that he is undecided, even though the proposal was released in November of last year. Johnson did vote to authorize the president to fast-track the agreement. Johnsons Democratic challenger, Russ Feingold, opposes the deal.

While many in our agricultural community would have you believe that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is all sunshine and roses, past trade deals should give us serious pause. Dont believe the hype. Standing up for Wisconsin farmers means standing against the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Itll be all things potato with a visit from the Wisconsin Spudmobile at this years fair.

The mobile educational and interactive potato center features eight exhibits in the 37.5-foot RV, developed by the Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association.

Itll be at the fairgrounds during the day on Friday, July 29, and it marks its first visit to the Monroe County Fair.

Its Wisconsins traveling billboard for Wisconsins potato industry, said Dana Rady, promotions director for the WPVGA.

Its just a fun way to bring in and engage families. Its just really enjoyable to spread that education.

The Spudmobile, launched in August 2014, has traveled to more than 100 events, including school visits and industry-related and community events.

We continue to get a number of requests at various events in Wisconsin and the Midwest, Rady said. That tells me were accomplishing educating the consumer and the public ... about the potato industry and buying local.

Spudmobile visitors first will learn about potato farming practices and technology and how farmers are environmental stewards. They then can visit the Potato Variety and Recipe kiosk where they can get some potato recipes.

The Field to Fork exhibit is a Spudmobile favorite where visitors can play a game where theyll do everything from planting potatoes to serving them at dinner.

There is a map of Wisconsin that shows where fresh and seed potatoes are grown, and the TheaTater shows videos about growing practices, production and water use.

There also is a nutrition and fun facts wall as well as a history exhibit. Another favorite is the Interactive Touch Table with potato-related games, like Potato Ping Pong.

At some events local potato growers will join the Spudmobile to talk with visitors about the industry.

A lot of people nowadays care about how their food is prepared, so a lot of it is bringing people in and educating them about what our farmers do and (correcting) assumptions, Rady said.

Bringing people in the Spudmobile really gives us a chance to have a conversation and gives consumers an opportunity to meet the farmers.

Rady said a popular misconception of potatoes is that theyre unhealthy.

I think when you hear about a baked potato you think its automatically fattening, she said. But maybe instead of pounding on the sour cream and cheese, why not try salsa and taco meat, or barbequed chicken.

I think a lot of the overall assumptions are that potatoes are bad for you when it could be the way youre preparing them.

Rady said she hopes Spudmobile visitors leave having a better understanding of the popular Wisconsin vegetable and their farmers.

My hope would be that you walk away at least with the basic fact that Wisconsin is the third-largest potato-producing state, and that potatoes are healthy and can be prepared creatively and in a variety of ways, she said.

I would also hope people would walk away knowing that our farmers do care about our environment and do care about families and getting potatoes to their plate.
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

The board earmarked $1.54 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the dredge, designed to keep channels open and supply sand to nourish eroding beaches up and down the York County coast and beyond.
This week on our national parks journey, we visit a mountainous landscape on Americas east coast. Within the park are rocky peaks, rolling green hills, and spectacular waterfalls. It is also home to hundreds of black bears.

Welcome to Shenandoah National Park in the state of Virginia.

Shenandoah sits in the heart of Blue Ridge Mountains. The mountains are part of the larger Appalachian Mountain range. The parks hiking trails, waterfalls and wildlife appeal to nature-lovers and adventurers.

Driving on top of the mountain

Shenandoah National Park is perhaps best known for the road that goes through it: Skyline Drive.

Skyline Drive runs nearly 170 kilometers north to south. It is the only road in the park. There are more than 70 overlooks along the way, where people can pull their car off the road. These overlooks provide visitors with beautiful views of the Shenandoah Valley.

The road was built in the 1930s, at a time when the automobile was becoming popular.

Shenandoahs north entrance lies less than 120 kilometers from Washington, D.C. Early planners wanted a major national park like those in the American West here on the East Coast, close to big cities.

In fact, Shenandoah was described as an Eastern park in the Western tradition.

And, early park planners wanted Skyline Drive to be the single greatest feature of the park.

Denise Machado is a park ranger at Shenandoah. She explains that the park soon became a place for people to escape the noise -- and heat -- of big cities.

It was created just so people could kind of get away, a place to escape the big city hustle and bustle. Pre-air-condition days, this was the place to be. The temperatures were about 10 degrees cooler up here on the mountain.

But, Shenandoahs history is not without controversy. To create the place that park planners envisioned, many families were forced to leave behind properties in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Shenandoah National Park was formed from more than 3,000 individual land purchases. They were presented to the federal government by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Shenandoah officially became a national park in 1936.

Today, most of the buildings and structures that once stood in the area are long gone. But, you can find some signs of the past. A log building called Corbin Cabin still stands. George Corbin, who built the log structure, was forced to leave the land in the late 1930s, just after the creation of the national park. Today, the cabin is operated by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. The club permits people to rent the cabin.

Hiking Shenandoah

Shenandoah National Park has more than 800 kilometers of hiking trails. They take visitors to rocky mountain peaks, grassy meadows, and forested canyons. Hikers are especially drawn to the parks famous waterfalls.

The waterfalls are definitely the most popular. We have nine waterfalls. Dark Hollow Falls is our most popular. Its a beautiful waterfall, it's a 70-foot waterfall. It 1.4 mile hike round-trip. It follows along a stream. And youre right at the base of the falls and youre looking up and you can feel the spray. Its a really great experience.

Grace Williams hiked to Dark Hollow Falls with her daughter on her birthday.

My daughters gift for me to bring me to the national park. And its on my bucket list. I always love falls, I like the sound. The water is refreshing. So, they did tell us it's kind of like a moderate hike. I do have knee problems, but I just wanted to challenge it, and Im glad I came. Its beautiful.

Another of Shenandoahs famous hikes is called Old Rag. It is almost 15 kilometers long.

To get to the top of Old Rag Mountain, hikers must scramble up large rocks. It is a long and difficult hike. But, the views from the top bring hikers from all across the country and world.

Because it is close to many big cities, Shenandoahs trails are often crowded with people. More than 1 million people visit the park each year.

Although Shenandoah was created to be an easy escape from big East Coast cities, today it sees visitors from all over the world.

It's amazing how many people you meet that come from far-flung countries and corners of the world. We've had people from Africa. We get a lot of people from Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, so you just never know where they're going to come from."

Machado says summer and fall are the most popular times to visit the park. While summer is a good time to enjoy the waterfalls, the fall brings beautiful autumn colors. In the middle of October, the trees begin to lose their leaves. The leaves change from green to different shades of yellow, orange, and red as winter approaches.

On weekends in October it can take up to two hours just to get into the park.

Shenandoahs black bears

Visitors to Shenandoah National Park have a good chance of seeing a black bear. The park is home to between 400 to 600 black bears. It has one of the densest black bear populations of any national park.

Denise Machado knows a lot about these black bears. In fact, her nickname is the bear lady.

Well, I am known in Shenandoah as the bear lady. I see a lot of bears every season. I'm in the park early in the morning and late in the evening. I see anywhere from 400 or so bears every year. And, it's wonderful to see. I never get tired of seeing them. They are all different and they are all special.

Machado gives visitors advice for what to do if they see a black bear.

So, if you see a bear, you want to clap your hands, you wanna say Hey bear! Hey bear! They really dont like to be startled. You dont want to try to sneak up on them to get a photo or anything. You want to make sure that they are totally aware you are there.

Malachi and his older brother Brent visited Shenandoah National Park with their parents. The family traveled here from Cincinnati, Ohio. The family hiked the Little Stony Man Trail. Along the way, they came upon a black bear.

I really liked how we could see the animals. We saw a really big bear. And he was really friendly and he didnt do anything. And he was just eating.

The parks bears and other wildlife are a big part of what attracts so many visitors to Shenandoah. Carol Bair and her husband visited the park from York, Pennsylvania. She said visiting Shenandoah is like a breath of fresh air.

It's just quieter. You hear the birds. You look at trees different. The wind blowing through the fields, it's just really neat.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Adam Brock.

Ashley Thompson reported and wrote this story. Adam Brock was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

peak - n. the pointed top of a mountain

spectacular - adj. causing wonder and admiration

hustle and bustle - expression. busy and noisy activity

meadow - n. a usually flat area of land that is covered with tall grass

canyon - n. a deep valley with steep rock sides and often a stream or river flowing through it

bucket list - n. a number of experiences that a person hopes to do in their lifetime

moderate - adj. average in the level of difficulty

scramble - v. to move or climb over something quickly especially while also using your hands

recreation - n. activities done for enjoyment

dense - adj. having many of something in a certain area

startle - v. to surprise or frighten suddenly

sneak up - phrasal verb. to approach (someone) quietly and secretly in order to avoid being noticed
Ten London start-up businesses have made inquiries about moving to Berlin since Britain voted to leave the European Union.

The business development group Berlin Partner made the announcement Monday.

Each of the new businesses have between 10 and 18 employees.

These small businesses are concerned about issues such as the cost of commercial property, the labor market, and the availability of accommodations.

Berlin Partner Director Stefan Franzke spoke at a news conference. He said that financial technology companies, known as fintechs, have shown the most interest in moving to Berlin from London.

Along with other European cities, Berlin wants to attract companies in London's fintech industry. The German capital says it is an affordable and resourceful substitute to other cities.

Berlin's Senator for Economics, Technology and Research, Cornelia Yzer, has sent hundreds of letters to British firms. She also has travelled to a conference called London Fintech Week. Yzer wanted to encourage start-up leaders to move their businesses to Berlin.

Other companies, such as Berlin Partner, are also attempting to get start-ups to move to Germany from London. Berlin Partner has launched a website in English that has information about how to set up a business. The company is also going to open an office in London in October to try to woo more companies.

A report by the accounting company Ernst and Young said Berlin attracted more than $2 billion in investment capital for start-up businesses in 2014. That is more than London in the same year.

Franzke said that the cost of living, skilled workers and the widespread use of English give start-up businesses a reason to come to Berlin.

The German capital has about 100 fintech start-ups. These include German mobile financial services firm Number26.

Franzke said he expected Berlin also to get inquiries from foreign start-ups that were interested in London, but are now considering other countries.

The competition among cities that want fintech companies will be tough. Franzke says he considers Amsterdam to be Berlins biggest competitor. The Dutch city used to be home to a number of global banks and has fast data connections.

Im Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth.

This story was reported by Reuters news service. Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth adapted this story for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

start-up  n. a new business

inquiries  n. a request for information : an official effort to collect and examine information about something

accommodation  n. a place where people can live, stay, or work

affordable  v. to be able to pay for (something)

encourage  v. to make (something) more appealing or more likely to happen

woo  v. to try to attract (someone, such as a customer, voter, worker, etc.) : to attempt to persuade (someone) to buy something from you, vote for you, work for you, etc.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.


Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday and vowed to end growing violence in America if elected.

Trump spoke during the final day of the Republican Party convention in Cleveland. His speech outlined the policies he would pursue if he wins the presidency of the United States.

The speech was widely considered the most important of Trumps campaign and career. He began by stating that the convention was happening at a moment of crisis for the United States.

Law and order

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities, the billionaire businessman said. Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored. January 20 is the day the new U.S. president will be inaugurated.

Trump addressed recent killings in several U.S. cities involving police and civilians.

An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans, Trump said about police officers gunned down in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Trump said the administration of President Barack Obama has been weak on crime. In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate, he said.

He repeatedly criticized his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, including her tenure as Secretary of State. He said her policies have made America less safe.

Jobs and trade deals

The real estate businessman promised to create jobs for all Americans by cutting taxes and reducing regulations on businesses. Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned.

He said he would not adopt the kind of disastrous trade deals supported by Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and other leaders. My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class, he said. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great trade agreements.

The Republican nominee also addressed recent terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad.

Terrorist attacks

He said in last months Orlando nightclub attack, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. He pledged that if elected, he will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. LGBT is short for the words lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

He also spoke about the recent Nice, France truck attack that killed 84 people, and identified ways to battle terrorism.

To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside America: we are going to defeat the barbarians of (Islamic State) and we are going to defeat them fast. He pledged to fight terrorism by improving intelligence gathering and working with allies in the region to battle IS.

Lastly, and very importantly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. We dont want them in our country.

Trumps daughter Ivanka introduced her father before the speech. She praised her father as the peoples nominee and said he is someone who will fight for the American people.

Ivanka, who has worked alongside her father for more than 10 years, said he is "color blind and gender neutral" when it comes to his businesses. "He hires the best person for the job, period.

Hillary Clinton will be nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate at her partys convention beginning Monday July 25 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English, with additional information coming from Associated Press and Reuters. Hai Do was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

chaos  n. complete disorder and confusion

lesbian  n. a woman who is sexually attracted to other women

bisexual  n. a person sexually attracted to someone who is the same sex or the opposite sex

transgender  n. a person who expresses or identifies with a gender different from the one they were born with

We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on Donald Trumps convention speech? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
Board of Regents to vote on renaming Pacific Campus after civic leader Scott

By Emily Nohr

World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN The University of Nebraska at Omahas south campus could soon be named for one of its biggest benefactors.

The NU Board of Regents today will consider renaming UNOs Pacific Campus to the Scott Campus after Walter Scott Jr., one of Omahas most influential civic leaders.

NU President Hank Bounds and UNO Chancellor John Christensen already have approved the change in honor of Scott for his contributions to the campus, according to documents to be presented to the regents.

The agenda item is dated July 1, though it was not included in the Board of Regents full agenda, which was released last week. Instead, it was emailed to news media Thursday morning. The regents will meet at 8:30 a.m. today at Varner Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.

Scott has had a transformational impact on UNO, its students and the community, Bounds said in a statement.

The University of Nebraska exists to serve students, and Walter Scott recognizes that as clearly as anyone, he said. We are privileged to honor the contributions of a true friend and partner whose support has made a difference in the lives of countless numbers of young people.

NU Regent Hal Daub said he is very enthusiastically in support of naming the campus after Scott, a highly motivated and committed citizen who has made an immense impact on the city and state.

You always want to figure out meaningful ways to acknowledge

not just the financial contributions that a person might make to our post-secondary land grant school, but you want to acknowledge the person  that personality, that deep-seeded commitment that Walter Scott has had for decades, he said. Hes been involved. Hes been at the table. Hes been in a leadership role so many times to make sure we were moving.

Daub noted that Scott has a sustained interest in UNO.

He believes in UNO and engineering in particular, he said. Those are the seeds then that give rise to the internship, and that internship in turn leads to a job offer. That keeps a Nebraska kid in Nebraska. Walter Scott has always had the wisdom to understand that.

Regent Tim Clare said renaming the area as the Scott Campus is extremely appropriate.

We are so lucky, so privileged to have the relationship that we do, he said. I just think its a recognition of how great a partnership weve had.

Many UNO buildings on the south campus, which is in the Aksarben area, already carry the Scott name.

The Suzanne and Walter Scott Foundation has given more than $220 million in support of the university and the University of Nebraska Foundation since 1990, according to the university. The contributions have gone toward scholarships benefiting hundreds of students, new UNO residence halls and academic space, and the Peter Kiewit Institute.

Earlier this year, The World-Herald reported that NU has built about $691 million in new facilities without the university issuing public bids. All of the development work has gone to Tetrad Property Group, a firm chaired by Scotts son, David Scott.

Most of the construction management contracts have gone to Peter Kiewit Sons Inc., the Omaha-based Fortune 500 construction company that Walter Scott Jr. led for nearly two decades before retiring in 1998.

On the Pacific Campus, the Scott Foundation or its affiliates operate every non-academic building, including dorms, a cafeteria, a conference center, the technology center and the data center.

The university has no plans to change the names of the buildings at UNO already named for Scott, an NU spokeswoman said.

No other NU campus has named an entire campus after a person. UNL, for example, has City Campus and East Campus.

Christensen, UNOs chancellor, called Scott someone who has given tireless support to students, UNO and the community.

He has never forgotten us, and we will never forget him or his unwavering support, Christensen said.

Added UNO Student Regent Patrick Davlin: Walter Scott and his generosity have greatly enhanced the lives of thousands of UNO students, including mine, and I cant think of a more fitting way to recognize those contributions than by naming the campus he helped build after him.

The university is planning a public celebration of naming Scott Campus this fall, pending approval by the regents.

Contact the writer:

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

The Walter Scott Technology Center is one of many buildings on UNOs campus named for Scott.

A fitting recognition

Renaming a UNO campus for Walter Scott is an appropriate move. Editorial, Page 4B

Omaha World-Herald (NE)
Here's the Bay Area weather forecast for Friday and into the weekend:

Storms started along Nature Coast around noon



Temps tonight in the low 70s to 80



Above normal temps this weekend



Showers and thunderstorms got off to an early start today with development along the Nature Coast around noon. Expect numerous showers and thunderstorms to continue into the evening. Some could be heavy. Rain chances will gradually focus inland this evening.

Thunderstorms will move westward out into the Gulf of Mexico tonight with skies becoming mostly clear to partly cloudy overnight. Low temperatures will be in the low 70s to 80 degrees.

This weekend we can expect more scattered afternoon thunderstorms each day. Rain chances will be about 40% for both days.

Klystron 9 | 7-Day forecast | Local temperatures | Travel weather



WEATHER ON THE GO: Download the Bay News 9 app and get Klystron-9 alerts wherever you are.

GET WEATHER ALERTS: Sign up to receive weather text alerts from Bay News 9.

Saturday and Sunday the temperatures will remain near to a couple of degrees above normal with daytime highs from near 90 along the coast to the lower and mid 90s inland, while overnight lows will be in the 70s to around 80 degrees.

A tropical wave could bring rain chance back up again on Monday to around 50 or 60 percent.



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Donald Trump promised to restore safety to America as he accepted the Republican Party's nomination in Cleveland.

The bombastic real-estate mogul said "the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored," according to excerpts of his speech released by the campaign Thursday.

Trump is referring to the spate of violent attacks in the country over the last few years, from mass shootings to the terror attacks in San Bernadino and Orlando.

Trump also tied problems in the world to not only President Obama, but Hillary Clinton as former secretary of state.

This is not unusual. It's standard fare from Trump surrogates over the last few nights of the Republican National Convention.

Trump also bemoaned the attack at the Pulse nightclub last June in Orlando, and promised to prevent attacks against the LGBTQ community.



Trump is also promising to lower taxes, cut regulation and boost school choice.

If the last few nights were about crushing Hillary Clinton, Thursday night was about showing that the usually harsh Trump is a sweet guy.

People with close ties to Trump, like businessmen Peter Thiel and Tom Barrack, talked about Trump as a straight forward business man who cares about his workers.

Daughter Ivanka Trump called Trump "the people's nominee," in a speech with policy promises like wage equality and affordable child care, veering at times into Democratic ideology.

Donald Trump's acceptance speech

A Trump convention bump?

When the balloons fall after Donald Trump's acceptance speech tonight, the pollsters will get to work.

They will be looking for the convention bump or bounce, a term for the jump in the polls candidates get following the party's convention.

A bounce can give a candidate momentum going into the summer campaign season. It can also go away if the candidate is not helpful.

The bump is on average around five to six points, according to polling groups like Gallup.

So far Hillary Clinton holds a slight lead over Trump -- slight enough that Trump's numbers could jump over Clinton in some polls coming out of the RNC. But then Clinton will get her turn in Philadelphia to potentially get that convention bump and come out on top in the polls.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
There have been numerous writeups on Natalie Portman's directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness in which she also stars in a very important role. The most (in)famous one was the write up by The New York Times magazine where she "forgot" her pants for the photo shoot and where she talked about coming to terms with being an Israeli, and how it affects her identity in America.

The movie, set against the backdrop of Israel and Palestine seemed the like the best choice for her directorial debut. Based on the best selling book by Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a young boy is set towards the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel.

The film revolves around the boy's relationship with his mother, and his coming of age story in the hard atmosphere he lives in. The trailer alternates between shots of the young boy with his mother (Portman) and his journey to adulthood, which makes the trailer utterly confusing. It almost seems as if random scenes have been strung together to make sure Portman looks stunning enough to attract viewers. Though the story's dramatic arc doesn't seem as impressive as it should be, cinematography from Slawomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down, Gattaca) is just short of spectacular.

The camera shows landscapes and mansions that add to the grandeur and historical tone of the movie. Following a premiere at Cannes Film Festival last year, A Tale of Love and Darkness opens on 19 August in the US this year.
New York/London: An India link has emerged in the alleged $3.5-billion forex trading fraud case at British banking giant HSBC, where two senior executives have been accused of doing front-running by cheating a client that was selling part-stake in an Indian subsidiary.

The duo has been charged in the US of "conspiracy to commit wire fraud" while the client in question has been identified in media reports as Cairn Energy, which had sold an ownership stake in its Indian subsidiary Cairn India for $3.5 billion in 2010 and wanted to convert it into sterling to distribute cash to shareholders.

Cairn had selected HSBC to conduct the forex conversion transaction from amongst ten banks it had asked to bid for the right while asking them to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding the information about the transaction.

One of the two persons, HSBC Banks head of forex cash trading Mark Johnson, was arrested on Tuesday night at New York airport but was released on a $1 million bail amount Thursday.

Johnson has been charged for trading ahead of his client to make millions of dollars, while similar charges have been levelled on Stuart Scott, who formerly served as HSBCs head of forex cash trading for Europe, Middle East and Africa but left the bank in December 2014.

The US Department of Justice said in a statement that the two have been charged with conspiring to defraud a client of HSBC through a scheme commonly referred to as front running -- a practice in which traders fraudulently conduct trades with advance information about an impending deal.

While the Department did not disclose the name of the client, the British media reports identified it as Cairn Energy, which had indeed sold a majority stake in its Indian subsidiary to Vedanta Resources and was to distribute $3.5 billion worth sale proceeds among its shareholders.

As per the court documents made public by the Department, "In approximately 2010, the victim company entered into an agreement with another company to sell part of its ownership interest in an Indian subsidiary for approximately $3.5 billion.

"Execution of the sale was dependent upon regulatory approval in India. If the sale was approved, the victim company planned to convert approximately $3.5 billion in sale proceeds into Sterling, which it intended to distribute to its shareholders."

HSBC was later mandated by Cairn for carrying out the foreign exchange transaction and also signed a confidentiality pact, but the duo conspired to buy sterling "in advance of the transaction, knowing that the transaction would cause the price of sterling to increase, thereby generating substantial trading profits for HSBC and the defendants".

In the market parlance, this practice is called front running and is against the market regulations.

The two have also been charged of executing the purchase transactions in such a manner as to "cause the price of sterling to spike" at the expense of the victim company, which later sold sterling at the higher price.
New Delhi: Government's Rs 23,000-crore equity infusion will provide some respite to the public sector banks (PSBs), but their capital needs are significantly higher than the budgeted amount, Moody's Investors Service has said.

The firm estimates that the 11-rated PSBs need Rs 1.2 lakh crore capital to shore up their balance sheets, which far exceeds the Rs 45,000-crore budgeted for disbursal to the banks by March 2019.

"The capital infusion will provide some respite for the recipient banks, especially those with weak capitalisation," Moody's said, adding the infusion is positive for banks, but their capital needs remain elevated.

Earlier this week, the government announced a Rs 22,915 crore capital infusion into 13 PSBs. This is the first tranche of infusion and more funds would be provided based on their performance.

"The capital infusion is positive for weaker banks such as the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and Central Bank of India, which received a higher share of the capital allocation as a proportion of their share capital, and will help improve their capitalisation at a time when asset quality pressure and elevated provisioning costs have negatively affected their financial performance," it said.

Indian banks, especially PSBs, operate in a challenging environment.

The asset quality of PSBs is under pressure because they continue to recognise non-performing loans (NPLs) from the larger leveraged corporates, especially in the steel and power sectors.

"In addition, slippages from the restructured loan book will contribute to the rise in NPLs. As a result, provisioning expenses are likely to remain elevated, constraining profitability and limiting the banks' internal capital generation," Moody's said.

The government had last year announced it will infuse Rs 70,000 crore into state banks over four years while they will have to raise a further Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the markets to meet their capital requirements in line with global risk norms Basel-III.

In line with the blueprint, PSU banks are to get Rs 25,000 crore each in 2015-16 and 2016-17 fiscal. Besides, Rs 10,000 crore each would be infused in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Moody's said the external capital requirement of rated 11 PSU banks is about Rs 1.2 lakh crore as of the beginning of this fiscal year, which far exceeds the remaining Rs 45,000 crore the government budgeted for disbursal to the banks by March 2019.

"Therefore, unless the government increases the planned amount of capital for infusion, the capital needs of public sector banks remain significantly above the amount budgeted by the government," it said.

Out of the Rs 22,915 crore infusion, State Bank of India (SBI) received Rs 7,575 crore followed by IOB (Rs 3,101 crore) and Punjab National Bank (Rs 2,816 crore).
The Income Tax department has identified 90 lakh high value transactions without quoting PAN, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday asking tax evaders to own up and come clean on such transactions. As part of the scrutiny, I-T department will initially issue 7 lakh letters to those who have indulged in such transactions seeking their details.

The high-value transaction trails were detected following the departments drive to bring to book maximum amount of black money during the one-time compliance window closing on September 30. The department has details of about 90 lakh such transactions for the period 2009-10 to 2016-17, a Finance Ministry statement said.

It said the tax department, with the help of in-house computer techniques, grouped such non-PAN transactions and identified 7 lakh high-risk clusters having around 14 lakh non-PAN transactions and these are being scrutinized by the tax department closely.

The department will be issuing letters to the parties of these transactions requesting them to provide their PAN number against these transactions, the ministry said. The tax department has scrutinized the Annual Information Returns (AIR) for high value transactions which have divulged cash deposits of over Rs 10 lakh in a savings bank account, sale/purchase of immovable property valued at Rs 30 lakh or more, and many of these transactions do not have PAN linked to it.

Further, for convenience of people to whom letters have been issued, the department has developed a new functionality on e-filing portal wherein the such entities can own up transactions and provide structured response electronically.

The parties can log-in to their e-filing website and by quoting a Unique Transaction Sequence Number provided in the letter sent to them, can link their transaction with their PAN easily, the ministry said.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has been monitoring the progress of the ongoing four-month long Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) which opened on June 1. 25 per cent of tax and penalty on income declared is to be paid by November, another 25 per cent by March 2017, and the remaining by September 2017.
India has topped the chart denoting the progress made by countries on the financial inclusion front as around 20 crore people have "gained access" to financial services, according to a report by global consultancy firm BCG. However, the report said India and several other countries are not effectively converting their economic growth into well-being improvements for their citizens.

"India also produced strong ...improvements but converted its strong growth into well-being at a rate slightly below average," the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) today said in its report titled The Private-Sector Opportunity to Improve Well-Being: The 2016 Sustainable Economic Development Assessment.

The report noted that India also leads the pack in progress on financial inclusion as nearly 200 million people have gained access to financial services. The report uses the example of financial inclusion to highlight the critical role private-sector innovation can play in improving living standards. It measures the relative well-being of 163 countries through ten key areas, including economic stability, health, governance and environment.

The report said the United State's performance in converting both wealth and growth into well-being is below par globally, while Germany's performance is above par on both counts. Among the countries in Western Europe, those with high current levels of well-being (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway) are making greater progress than those with low current-level scores (Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain), particularly in employment and education.

"These countries, concentrated in southwest Europe, are performing particularly poorly in employment and are falling further behind the rest of the world in that area," the report said.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and a leading advisor on business strategy.
A large number of fresh engineering graduates will find it difficult to get jobs as established IT firms are going slow on hiring. Automation is making many jobs redundant for those who are working in IT firms.

Nasscom on Thursday said of the 16-odd lakh engineering graduates that pass out yearly, only 2 lakh will be hired by established IT firms this year. So where does that leave the large chunk of freshers?

According to a Centrum Broking survey, in 2015 the big five software companies in India, including Infosys, Wipro, TCS and HCL Technologies, have had fewer hires. The statistics are alarming: Nasscom report states that over 260 million are likely to lose jobs to automation by 2020, if not skilled in emerging tech skills, 50 percent of current IT workforce who lack new age skills is likely to become irrelevant in the next four years.

The last decade of hiring has largely been of core engineering graduates from top 50 colleges in the country. There are many who provide basic IT knowledge to the sector and come from tier 3 engineering colleges with a BSC Tech degree or diplomas and MCA, etc. These are all esoteric on paper but low on employability, points out Milan Sheth, partner  advisory services and technology sector leader, Ernst and Young.

Automation has taken its toll with jobs getting redundant. But Sheth points out it is not an overnight change. Automation started happening in 2013-14 and change will be seen in campus hiring by 2018, he says. By then most companies would be adopting technologies and automation. The only hope in India is that you can really use this opportunity to create more IPs and products for that will be become a new industry itself.

Automation will result in humungous amounts of data for which increased hirings of people would be required to meet the challenges of managing the data. Big data professionals and data analysts come in handy to make sense of all the data flowing from automation tools. As professionals, up-skilling in big data technologies is a sure-shot way of retaining your job, and even opening up new avenues of career growth.

One way out would be for startups to actively engage with engineers who graduate from tier-2 and -3 cities. Swati Dayal, co-founder and director of online social commerce platform, Sagoon, says that she has made it a company policy to hire only from tier-2 or -3 cities.

What Dayal finds lacking in most of these students is that they do not have good communication skills but more than make up for it with job skills. They have to be trained to what is required by us. We have found that most of them are enthusiastic and are willing to adapt.

Sagoon, which has an 18-member team as of now, will be soon expanding to a 60-member team of which all the hires will be fresh engineering graduates from small towns and cities.

Another reason for hiring from tier-2 and -3 cities is their stickiness to the job, which is longer than those from tier-1 cities, say some. This is especially so in the case of data analysts, says CoCubes Technologies  a hiring and skill assessment firm, that analysed results of 43,000 assessments conducted for top analytics companies in the country over last 12 months and collated a report titled Guidebook for Hiring Entry Level Analytics Talent.

The report mentions that data analysts at fresher level are earning an average annual salary of Rs 7 lakh as against Rs 3.2 lakh for software engineers. The compensation can go up to Rs 10 lakh per annum depending on the job profile and fringe benefits being offered.

The report states there are jobs in data analysis that dont require high cognitive abilities and client interaction and have more to do with data management and data warehousing. This is resulting in a relook at hiring strategy as such roles see high attrition if candidates are from tier-1 colleges. Multiple companies have, therefore, started looking at tier-2 and -3 colleges to map the right talent for jobs which dont require a high cognitive ability, it added.

Companies are also adopting up-skilling strategy for the existing talent to meet their work necessities instead of hiring people from outside. Over the last one year, a re-skilling approach has emerged in which firms are looking at internal resources and upskilling them for client and skill requirement rather than finding new resources with existing knowledge, the report states.

Commenting on the findings, Co-Founder and CEO Harpreet Singh Grover said the analytics industry in India is expected to double its turnover to $2.3 billion by 2017-18 from the current level. One of the key challenges in harnessing this opportunity is creation, development and retention of analytics talent. In the report, we have strung together the ways companies are overcoming this challenge. The report works as a guide to anyone looking at hiring data analysts.

The startup industry is facing a fund crunch and their ability to absorb freshers in large numbers is not feasible. Recent surveys and studies indicate that the funding for start-ups is likely to become a trickle with fund managers tightening the purse strings, say people in the start-up ecosystem. A joint report by KPMG and CB Insights recently revealed that the fund flow has nosedived by as much as 24 percent from the December quarter to $1.15 billion in the first quarter of this year.

One way out would be for freshers to look at becoming entrepreneurs themselves. Sashi Chimala, executive vice president, National Entreprneurship Network of the Wadhwani Foundation, says in the long run entrepreneurship is one of the solutions for job creation. Entrepreneurship does not mean Flipkart or a Food Panda. It is also about small and medium enterprises. It is not about becoming unicorns.

He says that when someone starts-up, he/she takes herself off the job queue and creates more jobs. Choosing entrepreneurship as a career would be a good option, he points out.

Chimala, a serial entrepreneur himself, feels what is lacking in India is mentorship in each city so that new entrepreneurs can be guided by the ones who have made it big. India is abysmally low in mentors. There is no thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem with mentors. We dont find a successful entrepreneur mentoring new start-up founders.

Known knowledge is getting outdated rapidly in an increasingly technology driven space where new technologies are replacing old ones. Industry sectors demand regular updation of knowledge and skills historically, whether this is because of new technology advancements or fundamental changes in business models. This is simply a business necessity, says Kaustubh Nande, Country Marketing Head, ANSYS India, a company that focuses on product-related startups and supports them by providing sotware, skills and technology-based training.

The curriculum must be in tandem with the needs of the industry, say some. Subrata Ghosh, CEO and Founder, Redstone Learning, a global professional learning company, says, "to help people prepare better, the education system needs to imbibe students with better problem solving skills and good reading habits  rather than rote learning. And working professionals of today need to stay abreast of new developments in their industry, and technological changes that are impacting it. This will help them prepare in advance and even use change to their advantage.
Shanghai: India has underlined the need for a judicious mix of fiscal, monetary and structural policies by major economies to deal with the heightened uncertainty on account of Brexit.

"Governments, Central Banks and regulators have to mitigate the pressure of such vulnerabilities through judicious mix of fiscal, monetary and structural policies," Jaitley said in his speech at the meeting of the Board of Governors of the New Development Bank (NDB).

In his speech, read out by Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry Raj Kumar, Jaitley said that Britain's decision to exit from the European Union, commonly termed as Brexit has further heightened uncertainty, market volatility and risk-averse behaviour.

Kumar represented India at the first annual general body and board of governors meetings of the NDB which took place in Shanghai yesterday, as Jaitley could not attend it because of the ongoing Parliament session back home.

Outlining the challenges, he said the current global economic context is far from being robust and is marked by a modest pickup in some advanced economies from their low levels of growth.

He also said that decline in growth in emerging markets and developing economies, increased financial sector volatility, and, in general, a downward revision of global growth projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also pose challenges.

IMF earlier this week has cut global growth forecast for 2017 by 0.1 percentage point to 3.4 per cent citing "substantial" increase in economic, political, institutional uncertainty on account of Brexit.

Jaitley said the structural problems of emerging markets and developing economies (EMDE) continue to affect their growth.

"The sluggish global trade and low commodity prices have also adversely affected commodity-exporting EMDEs, by aggravating their corporate and other economic vulnerabilities," he added.

India, Jaitley stressed, is following the approach of 'Reform to Transform' through far reaching structural reforms.

"We have taken several initiatives to boost investment climate and improve the ease of doing business," he said.

Referring to the initiates, he said setting up National Infrastructure Investment Fund would stimulate investment in infrastructure and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, for easier exit of companies have been passed by Parliament.

Besides, programmes such as Make in India, Start-up India, and Skill India are focused on encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship and job creation.

The government has launched a massive financial inclusion programme and more than 20 crore bank accounts have been opened for the unbanked persons.

"We are now using Aadhaar, a unique identification system with statutory backing, as backbone for targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies, benefits and service," Jaitley said.
New Delhi: Public investments in India rose 21 percent last fiscal while private sector funding, which forms 75 percent of overall investor demand, contracted, making the overall trends "uninspiring", says an HSBC report.

Public investments by central, state, local government and PSEs saw 21 percent rise in 2015-16, record growth in last two decades, while private investments (households and corporate) contracted 1.4 percent year-on-year, the worst performance.

"Since private sector forms 75 percent of India's investment demand, overall investment growth remained sluggish at 4 percent year-on-year (compared to the two-decade average of 8 percent)," HSBC said in a research note Friday.

On a more encouraging note, it added, "we don't think private investment will continue to worsen. Base effects are favourable. And more importantly, replacement capex needs, especially in a growing economy are likely to cap the downside in investment spending".

According to the global brokerage firm, private investments is not likely to contract going ahead, however "the recovery will be frustratingly slow", it said.

"...over time, other factors such as India's buoyant consumption demand and continued public capex could incentivise private investors. Indeed, stronger consumption growth (on the back of higher government wages and normal rains) is likely to close the slack in several sectors, incentivising private investment over 2018 and beyond," the report added.

Moreover, going by the budget documents growth in overall public sector capex will remain strong in the current financial year.

"Spending so far into 2016 has admittedly been weak, but going by the full year budget estimate, is likely to pick up in the second half," HSBC said, adding that "continued public capex should also help in eventually 'crowding-in' the private

sector".
ANKARA Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters on Thursday that there were significant failures in intelligence ahead of last Friday's attempted military coup and that the armed forces would quickly be restructured.

In his first interview since declaring a state of emergency following the abortive coup, Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible but would not be easy, saying "we are more vigilant".

"It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it. I told it to the head of national intelligence," Erdogan told Reuters in his palace in Ankara, which was targeted during the coup attempt.

He said there was no obstacle to extending the state of emergency beyond the initial three months if necessary.

Erdogan said the movement of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who he blames for masterminding the attempt to seize power, would be treated as "another separatist terrorist organisation", drawing a parallel to the state's fight against Kurdish militants over the past three decades.

"We will continue the fight ... wherever they might be. These people have infiltrated the state organisation in this country and they rebelled against the state," he said, calling the actions of Friday night "inhuman" and "immoral".

He said the death toll had risen to 246 people excluding the coup plotters and that 2,185 people were wounded. Soldiers used fighters jets, military helicopters and tanks to strike institutions including parliament, the intelligence agency and Erdogan's palace in Friday's violence in Istanbul and Ankara.

(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul, Nick Tattersall, Orhan Coskun, Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Tanya Manglik

On Thursday, the Supreme Court began hearing a petition by a 26-year-old-woman seeking an abortion in the 24th week of her pregnancy, considered too late by Indian law. In her petition, the woman also sought to challenge the validity of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP), 1971, according to which a woman is allowed an abortion only up to the 20th week of her pregnancy. Her case is one that should be followed with interest, especially as recent cases seeking permission for late abortions from Indian courts have met with differing outcomes: While in some cases courts have granted permission for an abortion, in others, women have been forced to go through with the pregnancy, even if it took place as the result of rape.

Currently, Section 3 of the Act only allows for termination of a pregnancy up to the 20th week when there is a danger to the life or risk to physical and mental health of the woman, on humanitarian grounds, such as when pregnancy is the result of rape, or if there is substantial risk that the child will be born with serious mental or physical abnormalities. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is representing the petitioner in the Supreme Court, said that the present case is urgent because the life of the woman is in danger. She has said that her ex-fiance raped her on the false promise of marriage. The foetus also has anencephaly, a birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the skull and brain. The woman, who comes from a poor family, argued that her physical and mental health was at risk, and in the petition contended that the 20-week ceiling was, unreasonable, arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory and violative of the right to life and equality. The petition also sought an order to set up expert panels at hospitals that provide abortions to pregnant women and girls who are survivors of sexual assault and have passed 20 weeks.

There have been other cases of rape survivors asking courts to allow an abortion after 20 weeks. In 2015, the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected the plea of a 14-year-old rape survivor to terminate her 24-week pregnancy, saying going ahead with the abortion put her life at greater risk than continuing with the pregnancy. In another judgment the same year, the Gujarat High Court rejected the abortion plea of a 24-year-old who was abducted from her village in Botad and raped. She escaped after six months, but her husband and in-laws refused to take her back. The male judge presiding over her case said there was no question of allowing an abortion as the seven-month foetus had a high chance of survival, going on to say, I know the pain, agony and stigma in this case Forced to give birth to her rapists child, the woman refused to keep it and handed over the newborn to the state government. In 2008, the Bombay High Court refused a petition by Niketa Mehta for abortion of a 26-week foetus with a serious heart defect.

However, the same Gujarat High Court that denied the 24-year-old woman an abortion in 2015 agreed soon after to grant permission for the termination of pregnancy in a 14-year-old girl whose plea for abortion had already been rejected twice. The girl, a rape survivor, was in the 24th week of her pregnancy, and doctors stated in a report that the girl was psychologically devastated and physically too weak to deliver a child.

Some medical experts in India have been recommending that abortions be allowed beyond 20 weeks. This is in line with the law in some countries like the UK and Singapore, where abortions are legal up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. In fact, in 2014, after pushing from doctors, activists and the National Commission for Women, Indias Ministry for Health and Family Welfare proposed amending the MTP Act to allow abortion up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. At the time, a doctor told DNA, We generally ask a patient to undergo tests around the 18th week to find abnormalities. Some reports take three weeks and we lose out on the MTP cut-off time. A little extension will be a boon to a lot of women.

In 2009, a Mumbai-based doctor sought amendment of the MTP Act, a case that the Supreme Court is still hearing. In 2014, a bench of the Supreme Court admitted a petition by the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) which challenged the constitutional validity of the 20-week limit on behalf of two women who were identified as Mrs X and Mrs Y, Mrs X was informed by her doctors that the foetus would not survive, but the court rejected her plea at 26 weeks of pregnancy, and she was forced to carry the child who died three hours after birth, and after three days of excruciating labour pains. Mrs Y was told in her 19th week that some of the foetuss brain tissue might have been missing and test results would only come out by the 20th week, so she was forced to terminate the pregnancy without full knowledge of the abnormality because of the deadline imposed by the MTP Act. HRLN argued that the 20-week limit violated Article 14 (Right to Equality), Article 19 (Right to Freedom), and Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution of India.

Currently, the law on termination of abortion pays more attention to childbirth than it does childhood or motherhood. But heres the part of the petition the Supreme Court is currently hearing that has wide significance: once more, it isnt just asking that the woman in question be allowed an abortion. Its challenging the very constitutional validity of the MTP Act, and asking that the section of the Act with 20-week limit be declared unconstitutional, or be read down.

The Ladies Finger is a leading online feminist magazine.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay, for now, the demolition of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society building in Mumbai and told the Military Defence Estate office to take custody of it.

Justices J. Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said an inventory of documents would be prepared under the supervision of the registrar of the Bombay High Court before being handed over to the office bearers of the Adarsh Society.

The handing over of possession has to be done on or before 5 August. The process will be supervised by Registrar General of Bombay HC or by his nominee Registrar.

"We will secure the building and there will be no demolition", Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told Supreme Court.

SC has asks Centre to take over possession and secure the controversial Adarsh society building in Mumbai.

The Bombay High Court had in one of its earlier hearing dating 2 May, 2016 had ordered the demolition of the 31 storey co-operative building.

The Court, while ordering demolition of the multi-storeyed Adarsh Housing Society, had squarely blamed its members for conspiring with politicians and bureaucrats to grab a plot "which was not in existence" in the development plan as a residential area.

It was "carved out" by eating into a road, it said.

Members of the Society happened to be close relatives of highly-placed bureaucrats and or related to politicians or ministers, said a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Rajesh Ketkar in the 223 page-judgement.

On 29 April, delivering the operating part, the HC had sought criminal proceedings against politicians and bureaucrats for "misuse" of powers, holding that the Society, originally meant for Kargil war heroes and war widows, was constructed illegally.

With inputs from agencies
A Kerala High Court ruling upholding the expulsion of a female college student by the college management for living with her lover has raised eyebrows among civil rights activists in the southern Indian state.

Human rights activists and lawyers have viewed the action taken by the Mar Thoma College of Science and Technology, Kollam as well as the high court verdict discriminatory and a violation of Supreme Courts July 2015 ruling that acknowledges live-in relationships as an acceptable norm of the modern times.

The 20-year-old girl, a fourth semester student of English Literature, and her 19-year-old lover, who was studying in the same college, were apprehended by police after their parents filed a missing person's complaints. The Christian college management expelled both terming their live-in relationship as a breach of college discipline.

The girl, who had scored 80 percent marks in the third semester, moved the court for a direction to the college management to re-admit her, considering her excellent academic record, but a single bench of K Vinod Chandran turned down her plea saying that she should have been prepared to face the consequences when she took a drastic step for the sake of love.

This isnt a mere case of falling in love; but two students taking a drastic step of eloping and living together without contracting a marriage. As consenting adults, they could act according to their volition. But, here they cannot even legally enter into a marriage, the court observed while pointing out that the male student was not of legally marriageable age.

The court also found merit in the college managements action saying that their concern of setting an example to the other students and ensuring maintenance of discipline in the educational institution cannot be easily brushed aside. Welcoming the verdict, college principal Prof K C Mathew said they could not compromise with discipline.

Advocate Sandhya Raju of Human Rights Law Network, Kerala said the action of the couple could not be viewed as a breach of discipline as they did not violate any college rules and regulations or resort to any sort of misconduct on the campus.

I do not understand why should the college be concerned how students live outside the college campus? The college management has no right to extend their authority outside the campus. The concern of the Mar Thoma College is apparently part of moral policing that is gaining traction in Kerala of late, says Sandhya.

She has also viewed the high court verdict as a moral policing act. The lawyer told the Firstpost that the judges concern about the marriageable age of the male student may have borne from the judges personal views about pre-marital sex. The judgment is apparently based on the judges presumption that the couple may have entered into a sexual relationship by living together.

The judge fails to appreciate that couple can live together without engaging in sex. Even if they go for sex, the court cannot do anything as consensual sex between adults is not a crime in the country. Justice Vinod Chandran has apparently viewed the case from moral angle. This will not stand before law as the Apex Court has ruled morality and criminality non co-extensive," Sandhya said.

The students counsel KV Anil Kumar said that his client was ready to leave the college if she was re-admitted to the fourth semester and then given a transfer certificate. He said that the girl will have to appear for the third semester examination once again if she goes to a new college for admission with the current TC.

The lawyer said they were planning to move an appeal against the single benchs order either in a division bench or the Supreme Court. Otherwise the judgment will affect the career of a bright student who scored between 80 to 85 percent marks in all semesters, he said.

Womens activists see the verdict as an infringement of the fundamental rights as well as privacy of the students. The court has questioned their decision to live together by citing the age of one of the students. If a person can vote after attaining the age of 18, he can live with a person of opposite sex, they pointed out.

Sandhya believes that the court had no reason to poke its nose into the private life of an individual. It doesnt come into the realm of the constitution, she says.

They also view the verdict as a statement against the live-in relationships gaining currency in the state of late. They say that the new generation was increasingly embracing live-in relationships as they are finding the wedded life unsustainable.

This is evident from the increasing divorce cases in the state in the last couple of decades. Data compiled by the Government of India shows that Kerala was top among 12 major states in the number of divorce petitions filed in a year. As per the data, over 47,500 cases were disposed of by the family courts in the state in 2014. This works out to over five divorces every hour and 130 every day.

The number of divorce cases filed in family courts in the state has been witnessing a steady increase in the last two decades. The number of divorce petitions increased from 8,456 in 2005 to 11,600 in 2009-10. According to the latest report released by the high court, the number of divorce petitions filed in 2015 was 19,208.

They feel that one of the major reasons for the new generation to walk out of marriage is the growing incompatibility between couple. A K Jayasree, a renowned feminist activist who embraced live-in relationship 32 years ago, says such a relationship can be a test of compatibility.

If the two find they can carry forward the relationship, there is no harm in legalizing the relationship. But I do not find it necessary for a successful live-in relationship. We have carried forward for 32 years without any problem. We have nothing to worry as our daughter has also followed our path, she added.

Jayashree, who is currently working as associate professor and head of department of the community medicine at Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur district, sees the rising live-in relationships as a rebellion against the traditional marriage that calls for lot of compromises.

She said she was personally against marriage as the system of marriage in India is heavily loaded against women. I find marriages that involve dowry and subjugation of women as one of the biggest social evils in the country today. The system needs change and I hope the rising trend of live-in relationships would trigger the change, Jayashree added.
Jammu: The annual Amarnath Yatra continued uninterrupted on Friday despite curfew in the Kashmir Valley as another batch of 1,200 pilgrims left Jammu.

"A batch of 1,208 Yatris left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu for the valley in an escorted convoy," a police officer said. "Despite curfew in the valley, the yatra is proceeding smoothly."

Officials of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) said over 198,000 Yatris had performed the pilgrimage that began on 2 July and will conclude on 17 August.

The pilgrimage is on from both the north Kashmir Baltal base camp and the traditional south Kashmir Pahalgam base camp.

While pilgrims have to trek 14 km from Baltal to reach the cave shrine, the distance from Pahalgam to the shrine is 46 km and pilgrims take three days to cover the distance.

Twelve pilgrims have died of natural causes this year.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convict in Pune German Bakery blast which claimed 17 lives in 2010, on a plea of the Maharashtra government against the Bombay High Court verdict that commuted his death penalty to life term.

A bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy issued notice to Baig and sought his reply on the plea of the state government.

The plea had challenged the 17 March, 2016 judgement of the high court which also acquitted Baig from serious charges under various sections of the Unlawful Prevention (Activities) Act and IPC, including sections 302 (murder) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

The high court had convicted 32-year-old Baig for offences under IPC section 474 (possessing a document knowing it to be forged with intent to use it as genuine) and under section 5(b) of the Explosive Substances Act relating to punishment for making or possessing explosives under

suspicious circumstance.

Baig, who was alleged to be a member of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, was arrested in September 2010 from Latur in Maharashtra for involvement in the blast at German Bakery, a popular eatery in Pune's Koregaon Park area, which killed 17 persons and injured 58, including some foreigners.

In 2013, the trial court had convicted and awarded him capital punishment.

The plea had claimed that the high court had not relied upon the evidence which showed that Baig had travelled from Latur to Mumbai and stayed at a lodge for the purpose of entering into a conspiracy or "for giving final shape to terrorist act or in furtherance of his terrorist activities".

"Prosecution witness 93 was the autorickshaw driver who saw the respondent (Baig) with the planter of the bomb which proves the last seen theory. In the test identification parade the autorickshaw driver identified the respondent (Baig).

"In spite of that, the high court held that the plea of the prosecution that the respondent was last seen with planter of the bomb does not get credence," it said.

The plea further said, "The high court does not consider that there was a definite connection between the explosive recovered from the possession of the respondent (Baig) and the explosive used in the bomb."
Islamabad: Upping the ante, Pakistan on Friday decided to approach the UN Human Rights Council over the Kashmir situation and request it to send a fact-finding mission there as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting which was dominated by the Kashmir issue.

"The Indian attempts to claim that the deteriorating human rights situation" in Kashmir is an internal affair of India is

"factually incorrect, legally untenable and a violation of international law and UNSC resolutions," Sharif was quoted as

saying in a statement issued by the Premier's Office.

The statement was issued after Sharif presided over a high-level meeting of the National Security Committee to discuss regional security, particularly the situation in Kashmir.

"The meeting resolved that Pakistan will approach the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on its own behalf and on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Kashmir to send a fact finding mission" to Kashmir for investigating the "slaughter of innocent civilians and impose a ban on the use of pellet guns for dispersing people exercising their right to protest," the statement said.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif also attended the meeting in which a briefing was made on the situation in Kashmir and Afghanistan by the Foreign Office.

"We have provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir

for the realisation of their fundamental right to self determination in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions," Sharif said.

The statement said during the meeting, it was unanimously called upon the international community to condemn "human rights violations by Indian security forces" and play its role in ensuring the realisation of UNSC resolutions.

It said the meeting expressed "grave concern" over the law and order situation in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul

Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The "continuing brutal oppression by the Indian security forces of the innocent Kashmiris who have been peacefully

protesting against the Indian violence in the region" was condemned during the meeting, the statement said.

"Brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people which no civilised society permits," Sharif said.

The Premier reiterated that the only solution to the Kashmir issue would be "early implementation of UNSC resolutionsa fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices".

Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Rashad Mahmood, National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz were among those who attended the meeting.
Senior BJP leader Vishwambhar Srivastava's memoirs that recall his 32-year-old association with LK Advani, the former deputy prime minister, has elicited silence from Advani. The Hindu reported that Advani has distanced himself from Srivastava.

The memoir, Advaniji ke saath 32 saal, which is being released on Friday, has been published against Advani's "wishes", said Deepak Chopra, secretary to Advani.

"It may be worthy to note that this book does not have the consent of LK Advani and has been published against his wishes," Chopra said in a statement.

The book reportedly has anecdotes relating to the BJP leader's political career, which Srivastava is said to have witnessed.

In the book, Srivastava claims that Advani was staunchly opposed to nepotism in politics and refused to field his son, Jayant, from the Gandhinagar constituency for the 1989 by-election, even though he was poised to win quite effortlessly, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Srivastava also wrote that Advani was not particularly happy at the sight of security by his side after he took the oath as the I&B Minister in the Janata Party on 24 March, 1977, the report added.

The book that is supposed to be released by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, according to The Hindu, also gives an account of the events surrounding the Babri Masjid demolition on 6 December, 1992.

Advani reportedly asked kar sevaks, who were raising the saffron flag on the domes of the Masjid, to come down once they were done.

But as they were Marathi speakers, as Advani later learnt, he sent Pramod Mahajan to address the issue. But by then the damage was already done and Advani's face fell and "he appeared distressed", the book notes.

According to another report in The Indian Express, the book was originally proposed to be released at the time of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but Advani is reportedly said to have suggested that it was not the right time.

With inputs from IANS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, where he has a packed itinerary. According to the official PMO Twitter handle, there are two foundation-laying ceremonies, a 'saint conference', a visit to the Gorakhsnath Temple, and a public meeting on the cards for this four-hour visit:

PM @narendramodi will lay the foundation stone of Gorakhpur Fertilizer Plant and AIIMS. These projects will benefit the people greatly.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 22, 2016

The Prime Minister has reached Gorakhpur, where he will join a wide range of programmes & address a public meeting. pic.twitter.com/oBaAygyzSd  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 22, 2016

On Wednesday, the government had cleared a proposal to set up a new All-India Institute of Medical Science (Aiims). Aiims, Gorakhpur comes hot on the heels of similar facilities being mooted for Nagpur, Kalyani (West Bengal) and Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh) last year. Under the purview of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, these new centres will attempt to address the problem of affordable and reliable healthcare not being available across the country.

The Gorakhpur Fertiliser Plant  for which Modi will also be laying a foundation stone  was shut down in 1990, leading to thousands of jobs being lost, according to The Pioneer.

With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections  arguably one of the most important ones before the 2019 General Election  on the horizon, the BJP appears to be rushing into action to deliver on two demands  the revival of a fertiliser plant and the establishment of an Aiims  that have been pending in Gorakhpur for over a decade.

It is at the fertiliser plant that Modi will be delivering his address, but unfortunately for the prime minister, thunderclouds appear to gathering above Gorakhpur. To compound matters, a cyclonic circulation is over Bihar and the adjoining Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, reports Sky Met Weather, adding that 'the axis of the Monsoon trough is running close to the foothills of the Himalayas'. All of these factors could see heavy rain in the region.

Will rain play spoilsport for Modi's big day in Gorakhpur?

We'll soon find out.
The missing Indian Air Force AN-32 aircraft on Friday over the Bay of Bengal on its way from Chennai to Port Blair brings back into focus one of the perennial issues that constantly plague the Indian defence establishment  slow up-gradation of military equipment.

Although directly linking the missing aircraft with the slow up-gradation programme immediately would be premature, a simple fact that an aircraft with advanced capabilities would have better safety features can also not be overlooked. From financial issues to bureaucratic tangles, the reasons for delay in defence up-gradation schedules are often many. However, the delay in getting the IAF AN-32 fleet has been for external causes, largely geopolitical, due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

News18, last year, reported that the IAF is overhauling its entire transport fleet with a vision of becoming more powerful in out-of-area operations besides supporting the Army's logistical requirements.

A DefenseNews report dated 28 March, 2015, details that India will have to look for other options, perhaps direct purchase as well, to support the fleet as the Ukraine conflict has "stymied the upgrade" of the AN-32 aircraft.

The last batch of five of the AN-32 aircraft that were to be completed by March 2014, according to an Economic Times report, have been in limbo, said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. However, due to the border conflict between Ukraine and Russia the project is going on forever.

Parrikar said that the last batch that was sent to Ukraine, as part of a $400 million deal to modernise the fleet and extend its life, were stuck because of the conflict and that officials were working on getting the aircraft back, according to the ET report.

The upgrade of the AN-32 by Ukraine involves shipment of parts from Russia, according to the website RT.

It was also speculated that the planes sent for upgrade were missing in Ukraine. However, the IAF in a statement rubbished the report and called it "baseless", according to a News18 report.

Instead, it attributed the delay in upgrade due to the non-availability of components thanks to the the ongoing geopolitical stand-off. As per a 2009 contract with Ukraine's state-owned Ukrspetsexport Corp, India was to send 40 aircraft for upgrade over four years, starting 2011, the website added.

The AN-32 forms the backbone of the IAF's medium lift capabilities, according to Bharat Rakshak, the consortium of Indian military websites.

The Telegraph writes that the IAF was the first purchaser of the Antonov-32 aircraft in 1976, a result of the strategy between then USSR (headed by Leonid Brezhnev) and India (headed by Indira Gandhi).

The AN-32 is technically a Cold War product, which then eventually became the on-call aircraft for IAF that used it in search, disaster-relief and rescue operations, The Telegraph said. As late as December 2015, the AN-32 aircraft was involved in recce missions during the Chennai floods. The aircraft was also used to distribute food supplies in Visakhapatnam after the Hudhud cyclone hit the city.

The Indian Air Force website describes the aircraft as a "twin-engine turboprop, medium tactical transport aircraft of Russian origin with a crew of five and capacity to carry 39 paratroopers or max load of 6.7 tonnes". The website notes that the aircraft has a maximum cruise speed of 530 km/hr.

The AN-32, also known as the 'Sutlej' in the IAF, is reportedly the workhorse of the transport fleet that travels to far off bases such as Leh, to deliver much-needed supplies to the Army outposts in the area. An estimated 100 aircraft are in service with the IAF.

The missing aircraft had 29 people on-board with the IAF, Navy and Coast Guard jointly mounting a massive search operation on the Bay of Bengal.

The Antonov AN-32 aircraft took off at 8.30 am from Tambaram in Chennai, and the last contact made was 16 minutes later, according to defence sources.
Muzaffarabad (Pakistan): "We are waiting for the day (when) Kashmir becomes (a part of) Pakistan," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Friday.

Sharif was addressing a public gathering on the occasion of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's win in the "Azad Jammu and Kashmir" assembly election on Thursday.

In his first public address following an open heart surgery earlier this year, Sharif urged Kashmiris "not to forget those in (Indian) held Kashmir who are sacrificing their lives for freedom".

The PML-N is set to form the next government in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, whose official name is "Azad Jammu and Kashmir".

New Delhi had accused Islamabad of arming and training militants fighting to secede Jammu and Kashmir from India. Pakistan said it only provides moral and diplomatic backing to the separatist campaign.
New Delhi: Seeking to turn the tables on BSP chief Mayawati, BJP on Friday asked her to tender an apology and take action against her party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui for his abusive language targeting expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's daughter.

The party said it took Singh's slur against Mayawati very seriously and expelled him from the party but she was "justifying" Siddiqui's use of derogatory language and her stand was condemnable.

"Siddiqui said Singh's daughter should be presented before the crowd. This is an insult to the woman; sisters and daughters. We condemn Mayawati's justification of it. She should not do politics over it and damage the state's social harmony in her greed for power.

"BJP demands that she offer an unconditional apology and take action against Siddiqui," its national secretary Shrikant Sharma said, noting that senior BJP leaders had regretted Singh's comments.

The BSP supremo had reportedly said that her followers treat her like a "deity" and were making angry statements due to Singh's comments against her.

The state's social cohesion had suffered due to the poor law and order situation under the Samajwadi Party government, he alleged, adding that Mayawati's stand can worsen it.

Questioning her commitment to the Dalit cause, Sharma said she did not visit the home of any Dalit woman who were sexually assaulted under the Samajwadi Party government.

"The cases of atrocities against women in UP are more than anywhere else. Did Mayawati visit any dalit victim?" he asked, saying over 1000 Dalits were killed when she was the chief minister and over 29000 cases of atrocities against them were registered.
Politics of gau and polemics of r**di are threatening to extract a huge price from the BJP. Call it the deserved fruit of bad karma.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fond of carrying the Bhagwad Gita around, gifting it to world leaders and friends like Barack Obama. His ministers and legislators often argue that the holy book be made part of school and college curriculum to make our future generations more sanskari.

But, has any of his followers ever read the Gita? Does the Hindutva brigade have an iota of knowledge of the basic tenet of Hinduism: The karma theory.

It is apparent that they don't. The Parivar that makes the loudest noise about Hinduism makes itself the most miserable by notching up bad karma and then paying a heavy price for it.

Much to the party's misery, many poll-bound states are on the boil because of the BJP's own karma. It is paying a huge price for its past follies of practising a polity that encourages communal agendas, hate speeches, brute majoritarianism and divisive symbolism.

To put it bluntly, it is paying for the sins of tolerating those who call gau a mother and then shamelessly abuse women as v**shyas and r****s.

In Gujarat, a massive uprising of Dalits has exposed the fault lines in the party's model of governance, threatening to strike at the very edifice of the Narendra Modi raj. In UP, in spite of the BJP's attempts to reach out to Dalits, artificially assimilate them into the folds of its Hindutva, a blowback by the community has led to panic among its leadership.

Such is the turmoil within many states that the BJP, whose supporters till recently assumed that its electoral march across was a fait accompli  an inviolable destiny  are wondering where the party will win an election next. Punjab? UP? Goa? Gujarat?

Remember what the karma theory says? What goes around, comes around. As you sow, so shall you reap. You can't avoid the deserved punishment for bad, selfish acts. Every time dharma is threatened, the Lord rises to punish perpetrators of injustice and adharma.

Let's begin with Gujarat. For the past several years, atrocities on Dalits have been on the rise in the state. Since 2014, crimes against Dalits rose nearly 20 percent, the highest in the country. There was, obviously, a groundswell of adharma on the ground, meriting the prophesied retribution.

To this tinderbox, the BJP added its own fuel, especially in the aftermath of Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad. Had the party been guided by the principles of Hinduism and humanity  penance, empathy, and love  and followed raj dharma, it would have immediately owned up its mistake in harassing and persecuting Dalits students, taken remedial measures. But, out of sheer arrogance and hubris, it took a series of decisions that reignited fears of the BJP being anti-Dalit, a party of Tilak, tarazu and talwar (Brahmins, Traders, and Rajputs).

This accumulated angst is now manifesting in the biggest mobilisation of Dalits in Gujarat. The conflagration that began in Hyderabad is spreading like wildfire in BJP's Hindutva laboratory, threatening to burn down its facade and expose the underlying hypocrisy, injustice, and contradictions.

The cows of bad karma have finally come home also because its chief ministers needlessly raised the political temperature of the country by turning gau into an emotive issue. Alarm bells should have started ringing the moment raids were carried out to check kitchens for beef when beef-eating hypocritic social media warriors of the Hindutva started feeding a frenzy on the issue. The madness should have been stopped when a group of loonies killed Mohammad Akhlaq on the suspicion of eating beef. But, the BJP tried to brazen it out, arguing the victim deserved to be lynched for his food habits.

Bad karma, as we all know, is a systemic disease of the mind. Once it sets in, it spreads itself insidiously, feasting on itself, thrives on the victim's arrogance of underestimating the imminent threat and the silence of those who ignore and endure it.

When politics of cow was claiming victims, the BJP adopted a strategic silence. Deep in its mind, it believed that the hysteria would help it create a communal divide and unite the Hindutva Parivar. This conspiracy of silence emboldened hoodlums and thugs who found a valid excuse for perpetrating crime and violence in the name of 'gau raksha'. Now this deranged beast is eating its own Hindutva tail.

A similar denouement has been brought about by the deafening silence on the politics of presstitutes and r**dis that became the preferred mode of polemic of many BJP leaders and supporters  an alphabet of their social media lingua franca.

Nobody uttered a squeak when General VK Singh, presumably an officer and a gentleman, castigated his critics in the media by calling them presstitutes. Nobody objected when trolls on the PM's Twitter list called their rivals r****s and v*****s. This conspiracy of silence created an impression that such filthy language is part of Indian sanskriti, the preferred language of its role models and proselytised a legion of uncouth, foul-mouthed trolls.

All of it adds up, bhakts. As Ida Maria once sang:

Bad karma (oh, yeah)

Baby that's what you got

Bad karma (oh, yeah)

Whether you believe it or not

The universe is gonna getcha

You'll be scratchin' the seven year itch

You know what I think?

Bad karma's a b**h

The BJP is today grovelling at Mayawati's feet for letting the discourse veer too far away from the tenets of civility. The cumulative bad karma of continuously chanting ''tu r**d, you presstitute" has thrown its poll strategy into disarray, energised its rivals and mobilised Dalits.

The b**h of bad karma has returned to bite it for the putrid politics of cow.

Somebody gift them a Gita, please!
BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's misogynist and derogatory attack on Mayawati has unleashed a revolting chain of events that culminated with an FIR being lodged by Singh's wife against the BSP chief.

While protesting against the foul language used by Dayashankar, thousands of BSP workers laid siege to Lucknow, issuing angry slogans against the now-expelled vice-president of BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit. They also targeted their ire against his wife and minor daughter, demanding that they be "handed over".

A despondent Swati Singh, while trying to console her traumatic 12-year-old who broke down frequently, told Times of India: "They (BSP) have lodged an FIR against my husband for what he has said. But now they have been openly demanding that my daughter and myself should be produced before them."

"What crime has my daughter committed that BSP workers are abusing us If the same words can hurt Mayawatiji, why will they not hurt us, particularly my daughter? She has gone through acute mental trauma after she heard the nasty words inflicted on her," said Swati, a former lecturer at Lucknow University.

"Even in school (she is a Class 7 student), the other kids pointed out to her the controversy. She is so disturbed that she is not leaving the house. Where are the women activists now?" she said.

WATCH: He got expelled,yet Mayawatiji not satisfied. She'll even demand that he be beheaded, says Dayashankar's wifehttps://t.co/5OT4DY9onh  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 22, 2016

A case has been registered at the Lucknow police station, based on the complaint of Dayashankar's wife and his mother under the sections 120b ( Punishment of criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (insulting the modesty of woman) of IPC. Mayawati and three other BSP leaders have been named in the FIR.

The BSP leader's response has been interesting. Subjected to vile abuse from the BJP leader, Mayawati had taken the moral high ground and had launched a savage attack on the BJP, asking the party to not just expel but also to arrest the leader. The Uttar Pradesh Police have since conducted several raids for the still elusive BJP functionary.

But when questioned about the abusive sloganeering against Singh's wife and minor daughter, a defiant Mayawati ruled out taking any action against her party workers and seemed to suggest that Singh's family members were themselves to blame.

"Why did his wife and daughter stay quiet when he made the statement in the first place? They should have condemned it while they could, maybe then they would not have been in this position," Mayawati told the media on Friday. "It was done so that they could feel the hurt when such comments are made against them," she added.

Meanwhile, BSP MLA Usha Chaudhary called the suspended BJP leader an 'illegitimate child' and that "there's something wrong with his DNA" while the party's councilor Jannat Jahan-Ul-has announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for "anyone bringing her the tongue of Dayashankar."

Amid the disturbing and violent turn of events that was triggered off by an abuse, it is pertinent to probe why politicians frequently fall back on abuse, expletives, profanities and sometimes even utterly sexist and misogynist comments to attack their rivals. And this malaise affects all.

Though Congress, the Left, BSP, Trinamool Congress and other sundry parties are busy pretending each is holier than the other, none of them have a clean track record. Cutting across the political divide, the discourse of Indian politics is vitiated with violent and abusive language.

In 2011, CPM MP from West Bengal's Arambagh, Anil Basu, had launched a crass attack on TMC chief Mamata Banerjee. Addressing a rally before the Assembly elections, Basu made references to Sonagachi  Kolkata's red-light area. "Where is she getting the money from?" he asked. "From which bhatar (Bengali derogatory slang for a woman's "illicit male partner") did she get Rs 24 crore to fund the Trinamool Congress' poll expenses?"

During the West Bengal Assembly polls this year, TMC leader Anwar Khan was arrested for urging partymen over the phone to "hit the Election Commission officer on his face with shoes".

In 2014, Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal threatened to rape women members of the Left. "If CPM tries to kill and intimidate our workers, here I will not spare them. I will ask our boys to go and rape CPM women if necessary. I carry a revolver myself. I shall pull the trigger myself," Pal said.

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid was recently found defending the appointment of Imran Masood as the UP state unit vice-president. Masood, had once threatened to chop Narendra Modi into neat little pieces during the 2014 election campaign. Khurshid, however, said he didn't really mean to harm Modi. Metaphors, these are metaphors and you cannot hold a person down for metaphors they speak and I am sure that he has been given guidance and counseling as far as this is concerned."

Examples are many. The short point is, politicians have, over the years, used abuse, expletives, and profanities as a political tool to galvanise their supporters and also to polarise opponents when they think it will work in their favour at the hustings.

Research on this subject indicates that a candidates use of swear words, far from being repulsing their target audience, creates a perception of language informality and improves their general impression and approval ratings.

Nasty words, write Nicoletta Cavazza and Margherita Guidetti in their paper Swearing in Political Discourse: Why Vulgarity Works, function as rhetoric tools used by the source in order to intensify the discourse, and to define an informal and friendly relationship with the receiver, thus reinforcing social connections.

Though vulgarity may not directly induce a voter to vote for the candidate, there is evidence of its positive effect in terms of persuasiveness. The researchers write that beyond the expressive function, people curse also because they have learned from experience that swear words may reinforce the effectiveness of a message.

But if media induces one to believe that there is a proliferation of swearing among politicians only now, that is wrong. Offhand remarks that might once not have been reported now get captured on video and posted online. As the viral video of Dalit youth being beaten up has shown, these media tools have the power to completely alter the discourse.
Lucknow: In a turn of events, the family members of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Dayashankar Singh filed an FIR against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati for the foul language used by the BSP members against the women members of Dayashankar's family, according to a report by CNN News 18.

The FIR has been filed in the Hazratganj police station, Lucknow, under section I20B, 540, 509, 506 and 153A of Indian Penal code.

Mayawati has been accused of criminal conspiracy, intimidation and promoting enmity, according to a report by CNN News 18.

Singh's family lodged the FIR against Mayawati, and were earlier quoted saying that this is a question about the integrity of women.

"My daughter, who is a minor, is in a state of shock after the incident. I will definitely lodge an FIR against Mayawati and other party leaders and fight a legal battle," Singh's wife Swati told reporters after BSP protests against Dayashankar.

"My husband is in politics, but we have no political connection. The manner in which BSP workers acted on Thursday and the language used by them during protest was derogatory," she said.

Swati said that her family was being dragged into the controversy unnecessarily.

"Why Mayawati is not taking action against Nassemuddin Siddiqui. Why he was not expelled from the party. I don't want to imagine what is the state of my 80-year-old mother-in-law," she said.

"While BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra said that nothing like this happened, but the entire country has witnessed and listened the foul language used by BSP workers during protest on Thursday. It is about the integrity of women," she said.

FIR against Amit Shah

A Bihar court on Friday ordered the filing of an FIR against BJP president Amit Shah and suspended party leader Daya Shankar Singh.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate in Hajipur, the district headquarters of Vaishali, has ordered the police to lodge a case against Shah and Singh.

The court's order was in response to a petition filed by a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Balinder Das, who filed a petition in the CJM court, seeking an order to file an FIR against Shah and Singh in connection with derogatory remarks made by Singh against Mayawati.

"I have approached the court as BJP leaders have hurt millions of Dalits, the backward community and poor by derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati," Das said in his petition.

Dayashankar still on the run

Raids were conducted by police on Thursday night to trace expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh.

Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Jha said that raids were conducted on Thursday night but there was no clue about Singh's whereabouts.

There were unconfirmed reports that Singh could surrender in the court in Lucknow.

The SP said that Singh's brother Dharmendra was detained for questioning, but failed to give any information.

"All he said was that Singh left for Gorakhpur on 21 July and there was no contact since then," he said.

Jha said that police raided the house of Singh's uncle at Bariya last night, but nothing was found.

"His mobile is switched off since 20 July night," he said.

Singh had sparked an outrage by his derogatory comments questioning the character of the BSP supremo. He had said that "Mayawati is breaking the dream of Kanshi Ram into pieces. Mayawati is selling tickets like a...

BSP workers held a protest against the derogatory remarks made by Singh. BSP workers, who staged a dharna in front of the Bhimrao Ambedkar statue in Hazratganj, had displayed banners with foul language printed on them on Thursday.

With inputs from agencies
Just about an hour after the then Uttar Pradesh BJP Vice-President Dayashankar Singh made the now infamous "prostitute" remark against BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday, the party's UP unit chief Keshav Maurya had already apologised.

Barely minutes after Maurya's apology, Singh himself issued an apology, but the damage was already done. With the Monsoon Session in Parliament currently on, Mayawati was quick to grab the opportunity and raised this issue, Maurya and Singh's apologies notwithstanding. Handed on a platter, the Opposition also reacted with unparalleled alacrity and immediately pushed the government to the wall. Caught unaware by the uncalled-for-insult by a fellow party leader, a beleaguered Arun Jaitley said that the party "shares her (Mayawati's) grief", and assured strict action against Singh.

It was around 4 pm on Wednesday when Jaitley had assured action against the Uttar Pradesh party vice-president. And by around 5 pm, Dayashankar Singh was no longer the vice-president of the BJP's UP unit.

On Thursday, the BJP expelled Singh from the party for six years.

The way the party proactively reacted to the whole situation, saying that it simply acted swiftly, would be an understatement. The party clearly wanted to send out the message that it will not tolerate any cheap remarks against women and Dalits.

But the fact that the BJP has failed to take such lightning fast action against several other leaders  both from within and outside UP  who have made some extremely controversial and communal remarks shows what the party actually cares about.

For example, BJP MP from Unnao, Sakshi Maharaj is known for his controversial remarks, which include advising Hindu women to have four children each to save Hinduism, comparing killing of cows to terror attacks after the Dadri lynching, and calling Nathuram Godse  Mahatma Gandhi's assassin  a "patriot".

Another BJP MP from UP, Yogi Adityanath had, in November 2015, compared Shah Rukh Khan to Pakistani terroirst Hafiz Saeed because the actor had simply said there was a climate of intolerance in the nation.

And who can forget Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's Ramzadon-Haramzadon remark in 2014? The minister had made a communal statement by asking voters to elect sons of Lord Ram (Ramzadon) and not "illegitimate sons (haramzadon)" at a BJP rally in Dwarka.

Another Union Minister Mahesh Sharma had earlier said that the Dadri lynching should be seen as an accident and that it should not be seen as a communal incident because "not a finger was laid on his 17-year-old daughter (of the victim)."

The action against Dayashankar Singh was taken hours after he made the sexist remark against Mayawati. But even several months after these other BJP leaders made provocative, communal and offensive remarks, no serious action has been taken against them yet.

Forget suspending these leaders from the BJP, the Modi government has not even removed people such as Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Mahesh Sharma from the Union Council of Ministers.

Does the BJP only get sensitive and concerned about the remarks made by its leaders when elections are around? If the sexist remark by Dayashankar Singh genuinely offended BJP to such an extent, that the party suspended him for nothing less than six years, what sort of immunity do people like Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath, Sadhvi Jyoti and Mahesh Sharma enjoy? Why are they still BJP leaders and union ministers?

Yes, Prime Minister Modi had addressed the Parliament after Jyoti's remark had caused uproar in the country. And yes, Sakshi Maharaj had reportedly been issued a show cause notice by BJP for his 'advice' to Hindu women to have four children, even though he denied having received any such notice later.

But lip service is very different from decisive action like expulsion.

And even the BJP knows this. The party knew that mere apologies from the UP unit's president and vice-president and words of sympathy from Finance Minister Jaitley would not be enough damage control. The party knew that if there was even a slight chance of its victory in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election 2017, it would exist only after Singh was suspended from the party.

And that's the whole point. BJP's actions against Singh are primarily motivated by vote-bank politics, not some new-found sense of morality.

Shah Rukh Khan is not a seasoned politician like Mayawati, who could largely affect the Dalit vote in an upcoming election. Suspending Adityanath for calling Khan a terrorist would have much less advantage than suspending Singh for comparing Mayawati to a prostitute. In fact, suspending Adityanath would have been detrimental for the BJP.

In a way, the ruling party has revealed something critical about itself by taking action against Singh, guilty of sexism and vulgarity, but ignoring the remarks of a person like Jyoti, who basically called everyone who does not consider himself or herself a child of Lord Ram, an illegitimate child.

And the revelation is that everyone is safe within the party as long as they do not harm the number of votes for BJP in an election.
At the receiving end of unprecedented, vociferous Dalit angst and attempts by various political forces to mobilise and exploit that anger, a nervous and edgy BJP has launched a desperate firefight.

Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Friday rally in Gorakhpur  one of the most important seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh with over 160 Assembly segments  was scheduled well in advance, the Dalit uprising has added to it an altogether different dimension.

The choice of location and the itinerary of the day provide an interesting glimpse into the way Modi-Amit Shah combine is planning to tackle the 2017 Assembly elections in India's biggest, most important and the most complex state.

However, if cracking the UP puzzle was tough to begin with, recent events have placed some seemingly insurmountable odds in Modi's path to replace Congress and consolidate BJP's position as the pan-Indian party.

From the very outset, since taking office, Modi has been clear in his mission of making BJP a truly national party with footprints across all major states. That must include wresting back power in Uttar Pradesh. The prime minister and party president Amit Shah's carefully constructed Dalit outreach programme was an important effort towards that end to break caste barriers  seen as a hurdle to Hindu consolidation  and expand the partys base among the poor, backward and Dalits.

However, that outreach now lies shattered and the entire effort stands nullified with now-deposed BJP UP vice-president Dayashankar Singh's sexist, misogynist statement against BSP chief Mayawati and the outrage in Gujarat over the public flogging of Dalit youth by members of the 'gau rakshak samity'.

Amid this backdrop, it will be interesting to see Modi's approach. Speculation is that it will be difficult for the Prime Minister to remain silent on the burning issue. Some say he may try to reach out to one of the most important segment of the society and issue conciliatory statements. That, however, seems unlikely.

Why?

It is instructive to note that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 66 out of 131 seats reserved for SC-ST candidates in Uttar Pradesh, which is the highest number of reserved constituency seats won by any single largest party ever, since 1991. The BJP retained almost 88 per cent of the seats it had won in 2009.

This happened despite the fact that the BJP has historically been seen as a 'savarna' or upper-caste party. The RSS, since its inception, had tried to dissolve caste barriers in favour of a 'virat Hindu' consolidation but as in the organization or its political arm, the upper-caste dominance has not converted into social inclusiveness in practice.

If that is the case, how did BJP win such a mandate in 2014?

That was possible largely because Narendra Modi's narrative of development trumped all other narratives, including Mayawati's focus on Dalit identity. The Prime Minister understands this better that anyone else and therefore, in Gorakhpur, one of the most important cities in eastern UP besides Varanasi, his focus is likely to be on the development narrative again.

In starting the revival of a fertiliser plant and laying the foundation stone of the Aiims in Gorakhpur  two demands which have been pending for over a decade  the Prime Minister will hope to achieve two goals. One, give a boost of development to one of UP's most backward areas and provide the healing touch to Dalits through action, not words.

The second-biggest industry in the Gorakhpur region after North-Eastern Railway, the fertilizer factory's sudden closure in 1990 rendered thousands of people jobless. The unit will have machines that will run on gas fuel to produce 3,850 tonnes of Urea per day against its earlier capacity of around 950 tonnes, an important statistic in a still largely agrarian area. The revival of the unit, therefore, uplifts the local economy by creating jobs and also sends across a powerful political message.

Healthcare is also another basic area of concern in Gorakhpur where the children of the poor fall prey and die in large numbers to a 'mysterious' mosquito-borne disease.

Job and health are two basic needs of common people. In one stroke, the NDA Government will provide these two to the masses of eastern UP. This will send positive signals and the party leaders will have something positive to talk about, SP Pandey of Govind Ballabh Institute of Social Studies, Lucknow, told Pioneer.

Politics is perception. Its the one thing that gets people elected and governments defeated. There is no more powerful agent of change.

Modi would know that BJP are fast losing the perception game when it comes to representing the oppressed and the backward classes. It is also the most politically sensitive segment of the society. His choice of Gorakhpur to kick off the election campaign and his likely harping on development narrative will be an attempt to reclaim it.
New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday threatened to move a privilege motion against two Congress parliamentarians for allegedly misbehaving with her in the Rajya Sabha.

Badal alleged that Congress members Renuka Chowdhury and Jairam Ramesh did not allow her to speak in the Upper House when she put up the matter of parliament's security in the wake of a video uploaded on social media by Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann on Thursday.

"I am astonished at the rudeness Jairam Ramesh and Renuka Chowdhury showed while speaking to me. They questioned me as to how could I come in the house when I was not its member and said I was disrupting the house proceedings," Badal told the media outside Parliament House.

She also alleged that Chowdhury called her kachra (trash).

"I am going to move privilege motion against them... this is not the way you behave with a woman and a minister," she said.

Badal is a member of the Lok Sabha but as a minister she can speak in either house of parliament. The Lok Sabha was on Friday afternoon adjourned till Monday following pandemonium over the video clip uploaded by Mann.

"For them, the lives of our jawans, our people hold no value. The video clip that has been uploaded could fall in wrong hands and the house should have discussed it," Badal added.

However, Renuka Chowdhury denied the allegations of misbehaviour and termed Badal's rant as "political drama".

"Where does the word 'kachra' crop up from? Either she has some problem with her English or with her hearing... I was speaking in English and not in Hindi," Chowdhury told TimesNow TV channel over phone.

"She is playing the victim card. They are losing in Punjab and are on the backfoot. If she wants to create a political drama as it can get her votes, then so be it," the Congress MP said.
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday effected a reshuffle in his cabinet by inducting one Cabinet-rank minister and two ministers of state with Independent charge, taking its strength to 14.

Faridabad MLA Vipul Goyal was inducted as a Cabinet-rank minister, while legislators Munish Grover from Rohtak and Banwari Lal from Bawal got the Minister of State rank with Independent Charge.

Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki administered oath to the three new ministers.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, state Finance Minister Abhimanyu and state Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma were present on the occasion.

However, the new ministers have not been allotted portfolios yet.

To accommodate the new ministers, Minister of State for Public Health Engineering Ghanshyam Saraf and Minister of State for Cooperation Bikram Thekedar have resigned from their posts.

Before the induction of the new ministers, the Khattar government had 13 ministers, including the Chief Minister.

Nine months after assuming office (in October, 2014), Khattar had expanded his cabinet for the first time inducting three new ministers.

Since then, apart from the Chief Minister, there were seven cabinet ministers, two ministers of state with independent charge and three ministers of state.

Besides, there were four Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. The state government can have a maximum of 14 ministers.

Meanwhile, Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki on Friday accepted the resignation of two ministers - Ghanshyam Saraf and Bikram Singh Thekedar.

After Fridays expansion of the Cabinet, apart from Chief Minister, there are eight Cabinet Ministers, two Ministers of State with Independent charge and three Ministers of State.

Later on, while interacting with media persons, the Chief Minister said in reply to a question concerning reasons for resignation by two Ministers that it is a general process.

As the number of Minister is limited in the Cabinet, replacement is the only option to give chance to other legislators.

He said that, if required, such changes would also be made in future.

In reply to another question he said that while acting swiftly, a Special Investigation Team has been constituted to further investigate the case of gangrape at Rohtak and the culprits have also been arrested by the police.

Investigation is in progress and the guilty would not be spared.
Panaji: Needling the Congress, which appears divided on the demand for forming an alliance with "like-minded" parties for forthcoming Assembly polls in Goa, an Independent legislator on Friday asked the opposition party to announce their Chief Ministerial candidate.

"The Congress should first speak in one tone. Their Legislature wing and the state party organisation speak in different voices as far as the issue of grand alliance is concerned," Vijai Sardesai, who represents Fatorda constituency, told reporters.

His comments came against the backdrop of several Congress MLAs recently raising the demand for a pre-poll tie-up with "like-minded" parties for 2017 elections, even as state unit Congress president has clarified that the call on forming such an alliance will be taken only in October.

"I challenge the Congress to announce their chief ministerial candidate for Goa elections and then talk about other issues. As the Congress is speaking in two different voices they should first reveal who are going to lead their party in the upcoming polls," Sardesai, flanked by two MLAs Naresh Sawal and Rohan Khaunte, said at the presser.

Several Congress legislators, including former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Vishwajit Rane, Pandurang Madkaikar,

Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Jeniffer Monserratte, have been demanding that the party should not go solo in the elections.

Congress fared badly in the 2012 polls bagging only nine seats, as the BJP romped home in alliance with the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to grab power in the coastal state.
New Delhi: AAP MP Bhagwant Mann was under attack not only for making video of Parliament but also alleged drinking, with the suspended member of his party and MP Harinder Singh Khalsa complaining to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan about it on Friday.

Khalsa wrote to the Speaker, requesting her that his seat in the Lok Sabha be changed as Mann, who sits next to him, stinks of alcohol.

Both Mann and Khalsa were elected on AAP tickets but the latter was suspended from the party over a year back.

Khalsa, Lok Sabha member from Fatehgarh Sahib, has seat number 495 allotted to him in the House while Mann's seat number is 496.

He wrote to the Speaker that he gets stink of alcohol everyday from the next seat.

"I am a practising Sikh who comes to Parliament after offering prayers and there I get the stink," said the 69-year-old MP.

He said the Speaker has assured him that his seat will be changed.

Mahajan, when asked by reporters about the issue, acknowledged receipt of Khalsa's letter.

Mann has already courted controversy for making a video of his route and entry to Parliament, giving details of the security arrangements. Several parties, including Akali Dal, BJP and Shiv Sena, are demanding stern action against him.
CLEVELAND Donald Trump on Thursday will vow to restore law and order to the United States and create new jobs if elected president, making a case for why Americans should choose him over Democrat Hillary Clinton in a speech accepting the Republican Party's nomination.

"Im with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you," Trump will say, according to speech excerpts released by his campaign.

Trump, in a speech at the Republican National Convention scheduled for 10:15 p.m. EDT (0215 GMT on Friday), will tell Americans that he will speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month.

Due to speak at the end of a four-day-old convention notable for a lack of policy details, Trump will offer a sampling of the policies he has said he will pursue if elected. Trump will speak in broad, thematic strokes without much detail, sticking closely to positions he has outlined over 13 months of campaigning.

"I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump will say. The winner of the Nov. 8 election takes office on Jan. 20.

Trump will also offer a searing indictment of Clinton, who was President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state, saying the United States is less safe and the world less stable since her time in that office.

"Hillary Clintons legacy does not have to be Americas legacy," Trump will say. "The problems we face now  poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad  will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."

He will say middle-income Americans and businesses will enjoy tax cuts and taxes will be simplified for everyone.

He would roll back federal regulations that he said cost the country $2 trillion a year, providing new wealth that will allow an upsurge in spending to repair roads, bridges, airports and tunnels.

"This, in turn, will create millions of jobs," Trump said.

Trump, a New York businessman who has never held elective office, needs a strong performance to improve his chances of getting a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own, more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia.

Trump and his aides have been unable to put to rest questions about whether they can mount a sophisticated campaign to take on Clinton's well-oiled operation. He currently trails Clinton, who is seeking to become the first woman elected U.S. president, in most opinion polls.

The speech will set the tone for Trump's next three months of campaigning, explaining why he feels Clinton is unfit to lead and why he would be better at improving the U.S. economy and handling the threat of Islamic State militants.

(Corrects number of officers killed to five from six, paragraph 3)

(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson, Angela Moon, Michelle Conlin and David Alexander; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney and Howard Goller)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: The president of Fox News, Roger Ailes, resigned as the network's chief after a number of female employees accused him of sexual harassment.

The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced his resignation on Thursday.

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organisation and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years," Rupert Murdoch, who will take over immediately as chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, said in a communique.

Ailes' resignation comes weeks after he was accused by former Fox 5 reporter Gretchen Carlson of having taken reprisals against her, including reducing her salary, after she refused to have sexual relations with him, EFE news reported.

In addition to the complaint presented by Carlson, this week Fox News channel anchor Megyn Kelly, who on 12 July said she had also been the victim of "unwanted sexual advances" by Ailes approximately 10 years ago.

After this latest revelation, 21st Century Fox launched an internal investigation and Ailes received an ultimatum from the corporate lawyers to resign before 1 August or be fired for justifiable cause.

Murdoch made no reference to these accusations or to the alleged ultimatum presented by the company to Ailes in the statement released on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ailes, 76 and the network's CEO since 1996, said in a communique sent to channel WNBC that Fox had become the No. 1 television network "because I consistently identified and promoted the most talented men and women in television, and they performed at the highest levels."

"I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry," he said.

The severance terms agreed to between Fox and Ailes were not disclosed.
PARIS French President Francois Hollande on Thursday told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas of his concern at the "fragility" of the situation in the Middle East in a context of mounting violence, the president's office said.

In a statement after the two leaders met in Paris, the French president's office said France was committed to leading international efforts to help secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

"While the latest report from the Quartet shows the two-state solution is under threat by continued settlement-building, there is an urgent need to recreate a political perspective," the statement added.

With U.S. efforts to broker an accord in deep freeze for two years and Washington focused on its November presidential election, France hosted a conference last month with the aim of breaking the apathy over the impasse and stir new diplomatic momentum.

(Reporting by Michel Rose)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
MUNICH Gunmen attacked a busy mall in the German city of Munich on Friday evening, killing at least eight people and sending shoppers running for their lives from what police said was a terrorist attack.

Authorities told the public to get off the streets as the city - Germany's third biggest - went into lockdown with transport halted and highways sealed off.

A police spokesman said three gunmen were on the run after the initial shooting subsided. The city was placed under a state of emergency as police hunted for them.

"We are telling the people of Munich there are shooters on the run who are dangerous," he said. "We are urging people to stay indoors."

Police said later that eight people had been killed and an undetermined number wounded. A ninth body had also been found and they were checking to see it was one of the gunmen.

Munich newspaper TZ said one of the shooters was dead. German news magazine Focus said a gunman had shot himself in the head. Reuters could not immediately confirm either report.

As special forces deployed in the city, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping centre which police said had been evacuated.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall.

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

A police spokesman said there was no immediate indication that it was an Islamist attack but it was being treated as a terrorist incident.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in which he killed 77 people. Breivik is a hero for far-right militants in Europe and America.

IS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated on social media.

"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read one Tweet.

Two witnesses told n-tv television that they saw a man dressed as Santa Claus walking away from the scene of the shooting with a crowd of people. One said the man had blonde hair, was not carrying a weapon but had a suitcase.

A video posted online  whose authenticity could not be confirmed  showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

A worker at a shop in the mall, Harun Balta, said: "We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we're waiting for the police to rescue us."

Police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded. They were treating it as a terrorist incident.

Witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets, he said.

Munich's main railway station was also evacuated. BR television said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train with an axe. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said on Twiiter: "Horrible killings in Munich. Taking place on the same day as we mourn & remember the appalling terror that hit Norway so hard five years ago."

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged support for Germany.

"We don't yet know exactly what's happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured," Obama said.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon, Andrea Shalal, Christina Amann, Karin Strohecker; Editing and writing by Robin Pomeroy and Angus MacSwan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Cleveland: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday targeted Democrat Hillary Clinton for leaving behind a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness" as former US secretary of state and blamed her "bad judgement" for disasters unfolding across the world.

The 70-year-old real estate tycoon said US President Barack Obama must be regretting his decision of putting Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness. America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets," Trump said in his acceptance speech here as the Republican presidential candidate.

"Her bad instincts and her bad judgement  something pointed out by (Vermont senator) Bernie Sanders  are what caused the disasters unfolding today," he said.

Reviewing Clinton's record, Trump said in 2009, Islamic State was not even on the map and the situation across the Middle East was stable.

"After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? Islamic State has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.

"Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before," he said.

Trump said Clinton's legacy does not have to be US legacy.

"The problems we face now  poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad  will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."

Trump said while Clinton's message was that things will never change, his message is that things have to change. "And they have to change right now," he said amid applause.

When a secretary of state illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so that authorities cannot see her crime, it puts the country at risk, Trump said, adding corruption has reached a level like never before.

"When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was "extremely careless" and "negligent" in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

"In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it 

especially when others have paid so dearly," he said.

"When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favours to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come," he alleged.
Beijing: Chinese official media on Friday dismissed a US think tank report that claimed China's policies in the northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have driven local Muslims to join the IS as "groundless".

The Washington DC-based New America Foundation on Wednesday released a report based on leaked registration documents of ISIS fighters provided by a defector from the jihadist organisation, which include 3,500 foreign recruits, among whom 114 came from Muslim-majority Xinjiang province.

The report said Xinjiang has become one of the main sources of ISIS fighters due to "significant economic disparities between the ethnic-majority Han Chinese" and the local Uyghur Muslim population, who are "subjected to substantial state repression through restrictions on Islamic practices like growing beards or wearing head coverings."

A report in state-run Global Times quoted Pan Zhiping, a research fellow at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, as saying that the report is groundless and illogical since the Chinese government never interferes in normal religious activities in Xinjiang, and both the Han people and Uyghurs enjoy holidays during Ramadan.

Pan said many ISIS fighters were found to have come from Western countries, including the US, the UK and France. Does it mean "they (the fighters) join the ISIS because of their governments' repression?" Pan asked.

According to the report, 37 fighters were from France, 53 from the UK, 24 from Germany, nine from the US and 194 from Russia.

Li Wei, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that people coming to Iraq or Syria to join the ISIS has become a global issue.

The UN has urged all countries to intensify efforts to stem the flow of foreigners looking to fight for ISIS and to prevent and suppress sources of funds for terrorism.

The US' excessive international military intervention is the main reason for the ISIS' rise, Li said, adding that the

US has become a troublemaker rather than a global defender of peace and stability, as it has been inciting disputes in the

South China Sea instead of fighting terrorism in the Middle East.
Islamabad: Pakistani social media sensation Qandeel Baloch's father said his son, who killed the model-cum-actress for honour, should be "shot on sight".

"I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one," Baloch's father Anwar Azeem said.

According to the News International report on Friday, Baloch's parents voiced their pain at the murder of their daughter by their younger son Waseem, who killed her for bold posts and pictures on social media sites.

"We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us," Azeem said.

Azeem said that his daughter was his "best friend" but claimed that his son Waseem had been "crazed".

Baloch's mother said she used to share all her secrets with her.

"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me 'Your daughter is working hard, she'll go far'," she said.

Qandeel's mother said she and Azeem were also drugged the night Baloch was first sedated and then strangled to death.

"My husband and I fell deep asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives," she said.

"In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfastbut she didn't get up."

Her mother, describing Baloch's corpse, said, "Her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips were black."

Baloch was killed on the night of 14 July by Waseem. He confessed to drugging her and then strangling her to death, for family honour.
Putrajaya: The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will be suspended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the ministers of the three countries conducting the operation announced Friday, possibly ending all hopes of solving aviation's greatest mystery.

"In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-square-kilometre (46,300-square-mile) search area," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts.

He said suspension of the search does not mean an end to it.

"Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," he said, reading from a joint statement. But it was clear that the searchers have given up hopes of finding the jetliner with less than 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) left to be searched.

In their statement, the ministers acknowledged that "the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading."

As Liow and the other two ministers were addressing the news conference, representatives of the passengers' families stood outside the building holding placards. "Find the plane, ease our pain," read one.

"We do not want it to be just a play of words. We don't want the suspension to be just a way to let everyone calm down and slowly forget about it," said Grace Subathirai Nathan, a Malaysian, whose mother Anne Daisy was on the flight. "We want them to be doing something in the interim to look for new information."

The Boeing 777 vanished more than two years ago while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March, 2014. It is believed to have turned back west and then south before dropping into the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where the search has been concentrated.

Liow said the current search is being hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, but still it would end by December. Although the ministers were at pains to say the search has not ended, it is evident that it highly unlikely to be resumed after December, given how few clues have emerged since the disappearance of the plane except for some debris that has been found off East Africa thousands of kilometers (miles) away.

Still, some relatives took the ministers' word for it and remained hopeful that the search will resume one day. "I feel encouraged. Fearing the worst, we now have something to hang on to," said KS Narenderan whose lost his wife Chandrika Sharma on the flight. "I read into it a commitment to stay engaged in the search and to hold themselves accountable to pursue the truth."

"You can suspend but don't stop there. Suspension can be five years, 15 years, 20 years .. it's a long wait, so go back to the drawing board," said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member on Flight 370.

The search has so far cost 180 million Australian dollars ($135 million)  the most expensive in aviation history.

Representatives from Voice 370, a group representing family members of the plane's 239 passengers and crew, met with Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and urged the governments to suspend the search until new funds can be raised. They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers.

The three governments are involved because the airline was Malaysian, most of the passengers were Chinese, and the suspected crash site is off southwestern Australia.

There have been several theories surrounding the disappearance and the final hours of the flight, including that the plane glided into the water and didn't dive in, indicating a controlled ditching.

"We do not have any evidence to confirm that it was controlled ditching," Liow said.

He said the plane debris found so far "did not identify the exact location of the aircraft" but the location of the debris is consistent with the drift modeling pattern done by Australia, which indicated a general search area.

A Western Australia University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi, who has done extensive drift modeling, said the plane could have crashed slightly north of the current search area.

"The best guess that we think is that it's probably around the Broken Ridge region, which is slightly to the north of the area that they're looking at," Pattiaratchi said.

Drift modeling was not used to define the search area because no parts of Flight 370 had been found before a wing flap washed up on La Reunion island off the African coast a year ago. The search area was determined by analysis of satellite signals that the plane emitted in its final hours.

But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has previously said wreckage found on the southwestern shores of the Indian Ocean was consistent with the plane crashing in the expansive search area.

Pattiaratchi's modeling was based on how long the first piece of confirmed Flight 370 wreckage took to reach La Reunion, an island where confirmed plane debris was found, and his team's calculations of the effects of currents, wind and waves on drifting debris put the crash site just north of the current search area.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said experts will continue to analyse data and inspect the debris.

"Future searches must have a high level of success to justify raising hopes of loved ones," he said.
CLEVELAND Donald Trump will accuse Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of being corrupt and ineffective and portray himself as a friend of the working class who will restore law and order in a speech on Thursday accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

"Im with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you," Trump will say, according to speech excerpts released by his campaign and a draft text circulating among news organizations.

The Trump campaign did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the draft of the speech Trump was scheduled to deliver at the Republican National Convention at 10:15 p.m. (0215 GMT on Friday).

The New York businessman, who has never held elective office, needs a strong performance to improve his chances of getting a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own, more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia.

In a contest that pits two politicians viewed as unfavourable by large segments of the American people, Trump will accuse Clinton of failures while serving as President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state and cite her use of a private email server and destruction of emails as evidence that "corruption has reached a level like never before."

Trump will also blame her policies for the rise of Islamic State militants, a situation many Democrats blame on Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, for launching the Iraq war. He will also criticise her willingness to bring in thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war.

"Hillary Clintons legacy does not have to be Americas legacy," Trump will say. "The problems we face now  poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad  will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."

Trump and his aides have been unable to put to rest questions about whether they can mount a sophisticated campaign to take on Clinton's well-oiled operation. He currently trails Clinton, who is seeking to become the first woman elected U.S. president, in most opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

CRIME ISSUE

In his speech, Trump will also raise the spectre of crime, saying gun violence is raging in many cities and that 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records "are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens."

Trump will tell Americans he will speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month.

"I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump will say. The next president takes office on Jan. 20.

Trump will also say that middle-income Americans and businesses will enjoy tax cuts and that taxes will be simplified for everyone.

He would roll back federal regulations that he said cost the country $2 trillion a year, providing new wealth that will allow an upsurge in spending to repair roads, bridges, airports and tunnels.

"This, in turn, will create millions of jobs," Trump said.

Trump will be introduced by his daughter Ivanka Trump who has been an important behind-the-scenes adviser. The remarks by Trump, 70, will close out a convention boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents.

Trump will present himself as someone who can solve problems that have proved difficult over the decades.

"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it," he will say.

CONVENTION DISCORD

The prevailing narrative at the Cleveland convention has not been about Trump's positions, but dominated instead by the failure of he party's various factions to unite behind Trump because of lingering concerns over his policy positions and temperament.

Trump wants to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, ban Muslims from war-torn Middle Eastern countries and renegotiate international trade agreements. He also says he would force U.S. allies in Europe and Asia to pay more for the U.S. defence umbrella. All those positions go against prevailing Republican beliefs.

"We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people," according to Trump's speech draft.

A series of distractions has largely thwarted a bid by the Trump campaign to show him as a caring father and magnanimous business leader who would bring greater prosperity and safety to the United States.

Trump's wife, Melania Trump, made the biggest strides toward that goal. But when it was discovered her remarks repeated lines from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic President Barack Obama, the uproar lasted for three days.

On Wednesday night, Trump's last major rival during the bitterly fought Republican primary battle, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, was booed off the stage for refusing to endorse Trump and urging Republicans instead to "vote your conscience."

The Cruz and Trump camps spent the day on Thursday exchanging insults, with Cruz saying he could not endorse a candidate who during the primary campaign had insulted his wife, Heidi, and suggested his father had some role in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson, Angela Moon, Michelle Conlin and David Alexander; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Howard Goller and Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
London: A Muslim television reporter for a British news channel on Friday filed a complaint against a columnist for Rupert Murdoch's 'Sun' newspaper who singled her out for wearing hijab while reporting on the recent terror attack at Nice in France.

Fatima Manji, Channel 4 News correspondent, was reporting on the Nice terrorist attack that killed 84 people from the channel's London studio earlier this month when Kelvin MacKenzie questioned in his column whether the Muslim presenter should have appeared on the bulletin.

Channel 4 News editor Ben De Pear said the channel would not "simply stand by when an employee is subject to an act of religious discrimination".

"Channel 4 News correspondent Manji made an official complaint to Ipso [Independent Press Standards Organisation]. ITN believes the article was in breach of a number of provisions of the Editor's Code, in particular discrimination, harassment by intimidation and inaccuracy," he said.

Ipso said it received some 1,700 complaints over MacKenzie's remarks after Manji co-presented the 'Channel 4 News' bulletin - produced by ITN - from London while Jon Snow reported from France during the coverage of the attacks in Nice on 15 July.

Pear said a "further complaint" had been made by ITN chief executive John Hardie "which fully supports and endorses the grounds and reasoning of Fatima's complaint".

He added: "ITN accepts and understands that our reporters and presenters are in the public eye and can expect criticism and comment from many quarters, including newspaper columnists.

THE TRUTH: I'm here to stay, Kelvin MacKenzie https://t.co/5cw82GpCKL  Fatima Manji (@fatimamanji) July 19, 2016

"What it cannot accept is an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion."

Mackenzie wrote that he "could hardly believe (his) eyes" when he saw "a young lady wearing a hijab" presenting from London about the lorry attack in the French beach town which killed more than 80 people.

In the latest edition of the 'Sun', MacKenzie said his question was a "simple" one and "a reasonable inquiry".

He wrote: "A reasonable inquiry, you would have thought with the sensitivities that currently exist in this nation and the rest of Europe. Then the Twitterati got involved and it became a national debate with a record number of complaints to the press regulator IPSO."

A spokesperson for the newspaper said it was making "no comment" on the issue.
MCALLEN, Texas and MCLEAN, Va. -- Embassy Suites by Hilton, a global brand of upscale, all-suites hotels from Hilton Worldwide (NYSE: HLT), announced today the opening of Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center. Situated in the heart of fast-growing McAllen, and just a short walk from the convention center for which it is named, the contemporary property offers the largest, full-service event space in the City of Palms.

Just three miles from McAllen Miller International Airport, and in close proximity to manufacturing facilities in nearby Mexico, Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center is a convenient respite for business travelers as well as tourists visiting the numerous Rio Grande Valley attractions. The hotel's contemporary design represents aspects of local culture, and several large art pieces capture the area's tropical environment. Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center is owned and managed by Perspective Hospitality.

"Our first Embassy Suites by Hilton in this growing region of South Texas provides business and leisure guests with a relaxed yet upscale experience," said Bill Duncan, global head, All Suites Brands. "With free made-to-order breakfast and other amenities, travelers to McAllen can enjoy the features and quality of service that have earned our brand worldwide acclaim."

Each of the 150 spacious two-room suites and studio suites is accentuated with modern decor. The living room has a sofa sleeper, work space and 55-inch HDTV, plus a kitchenette with microwave, mini-refrigerator, coffee maker and wet bar featuring gourmet coffee and teas from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The private bedroom has a king or two queen beds and an additional 55-inch HDTV. Guests can enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi in all suites, as well as in the hotel's public areas.

A particular highlight is the hotel's 12,000 square feet of attractive event space, ideal for conferences, weddings or holiday parties. The main ballroom may accommodate as many as 600 guests, and can also be divided into five smaller spaces.

Guests at Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center may enjoy the brand's signature amenities, including its free made-to-order breakfast and two-hour complimentary Evening Reception* with snacks and beverages. Also available is a Starbucks coffee bar. Brickstone Grill offers contemporary American cuisine, a la carte, for lunch or dinner, and cocktails. Menu mainstays include grilled meats and fish, fresh oven baked pizza, rotisserie chicken and more. Those preferring to dine in-suite may select room service or pick up snacks and sundries in the hotel's 24-hour convenience store.

Exercise enthusiasts may use the hotel's onsite fitness center featuring state-of-the-art Precor equipment, or relax in the outdoor heated pool and hot tub. Plenty of outdoor seating enables guests to comfortably enjoy warm Texas nights.

"Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center offers a distinctive lodging option for a wide range of guests," said Duvin Maldonado, general manager, Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center. "We look forward to providing a unique and comfortable experience, highlighted by the features and amenities that distinguish the Hilton brand."

Besides its large event space, the hotel is also ideal for smaller group meetings. It offers the Meetings SimplifiedTM by Embassy Suites by Hilton package from $80 per person, which includes the meeting room, basic meeting Wi-Fi, meeting room supplies including a flipchart, markers, extension and power cord, continental breakfast, a morning and afternoon snack break, lunch, and all-day non-alcoholic beverage service. Also available for business travelers is a 24-hour business center.

Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center participates in the Hilton HHonors loyalty program, which is open to all guests and free to join - visit here for enrollment information. HHonors members always receive the lowest price with Hilton's Best Price Guarantee, along with HHonors Points, free standard Wi-Fi access, digital check-in, Digital Key and no hidden fees, only when they book directly through Hilton. To celebrate the opening of the hotel, 1,000 bonus points will be offered on qualified stays from July 21 through October 21, 2016.

Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center is located at 800 Convention Center Boulevard, McAllen, Texas 78501. For more information, or to make a reservation, travelers may visit embassysuites.com or call +1 956 688 8329.

Media can access additional information - including downloadable images - on Embassy Suites by Hilton hotels at news.embassysuites.com/mcallenconvention. For development queries, please visit hiltonworldwide.com/development.

About Hilton

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 18 world-class brands comprising more than 6,800 properties and more than 1 million rooms, in 122 countries and territories. Dedicated to fulfilling its founding vision to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality, Hilton has welcomed more than 3 billion guests in its more than 100-year history, earned a top spot on the 2021 World's Best Workplaces list and been recognized as a global leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for five consecutive years. In 2021, in addition to opening more than one hotel a day, Hilton introduced several industry-leading technology enhancements to improve the guest experience, including Digital Key Share, automated complimentary room upgrades and the ability to book confirmed connecting rooms. Through the award-winning guest loyalty program Hilton Honors, the nearly 128 million members who book directly with Hilton can earn Points for hotel stays and experiences money can't buy. With the free Hilton Honors app, guests can book their stay, select their room, check in, unlock their door with a Digital Key and check out, all from their smartphone. Visit newsroom.hilton.com for more information, and connect with Hilton on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Kristen Wells

Senior Manager, Brand Public Relations - Hilton Worldwide

+1 703 883 5826

Hilton
GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here.
China has taken the first step to claim compensation from air polluters after a court in Shandong province ruled this week to impose an unprecedented penalty of nearly $3.3 million (22 million yuan) on a local glass manufacturer for its toxic emissions.

The countrys first ruling against air pollution has sent a warning across factories in China to better manage their emissions.

Yet the nations uphill battle against its massive air pollution crisis still has a long way to go, environmentalists say.

Pollution remediation

With a legal approach, it marks a great beginning for the pursuit of remediation in order to push forward the countrys containment of air pollution, said Ding Jie of Wuhu Ecology Center in Anhui province, expecting the first legal victory to ease difficulties in addressing the nations air pollution.

According to the All-China Environment Federation, which brought up the case, the court Wednesday found Shandong-based Zhenhua Limited responsible after its factory emitted exhaust gases containing more than 255 (metric) tons of sulfur dioxide, 589 tons of nitrogen oxide and 19 tons of dust between November 2013 and February 2015, one month before it was ordered to shut down.

The court not only ordered Zhenhua Limited to pay a penalty that is four times the estimated cost for restoring the damage it caused, but also demanded a public apology from the polluter.

The court denied, however, the environmental groups request to seek compensation for litigation fees from the polluter.

It is not yet known if the company will appeal the ruling.

War against air pollution

Dirty air in China is killing 4,000 people a day, accounting for one in six premature deaths, according to estimates released by Berkeley Earth late last year. The group found that 1.6 million people, or 16 percent of all deaths in China, die each year from heart, lung and stroke problems because of heavily polluted air, especially small particles of haze.

The studys lead author Robert Rohde concluded that 38 percent of the Chinese population lives in an area with a long-term air quality average that would be classified as unhealthy by U.S. standards.

China has stepped up efforts to combat its war on air pollution by amending its 15-year-old Air Pollution Control Law, which took effect earlier this year to deploy legal tools against the threat.

Prior to that, the State Council in late 2013 introduced an action plan that vowed by 2017 the level of fine particulates in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta would be cut by 25 percent, 20 percent and 15 percent respectively while banning new coal-fired plants in the key three city clusters.

As significant as Wednesdays legal victory is, the cuts over the last two years in coal consumption, which contributes to 80 percent of the nations carbon dioxide emissions, are even more important, said Li Shuo, a senior global policy advisor on climate and ocean at Greenpeace East Asia.

Coal consumption decline

Greenpeaces analysis found that, following a minor fall in 2014, Chinas carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1-2 percent in 2015 as a result of 2-4 percent decline in coal consumption and a 5.3 percent drop in cement output, partly due to a contraction in heavy industry such as steel and concrete.

The group says this has been a promising and sustainable decline, but the job to restore clean air is far from done, which requires the pace of carbon dioxide emission decline to accelerate.

Were talking about the 800 pound gorilla in the room This [(China) is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Li said.

I think everybody realizes, not only for the sake of climate change, but also for air pollution, [in] very local provinces, we need coal consumption to go down even further and more rapidly, he added.

Dirty air harm

Despite the overall coal consumption decline, one-third of Chinese cities saw their PM 2.5 level bounce back in the first half of this year as a result of coal consumption growth, which is alarming, Greenpeaces Li said. PM 2.5 refers to particulate matters (PM) found in the air that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter and are believed to pose the greatest risks to human health.

Li said the solution is clear: accelerating the nations energy transition away from coal and massive adoption of renewable energies.

Weve already accumulated so much deficit, so we really need non-linear breakthroughs. To really unleash the potential or to allow that kind of non-linear transformation to happen, a lot of deep policy reforms have to happen in this country, Li said, referring to the nations energy reform.

Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement

Before an energy reform is initiated, China also needs to "show teeth" in the enforcement of environmental protection measures, urged Zhang Jingning of the Wuhu Ecology Center.

The centers latest report found that the majority of the nations 231 waste incinerators have failed to make public their emission data for public scrutiny. And 30 of those 105 incinerators, which have fully disclosed their data, were found to have exceeded their safety limits by 4,682 accounts in the first quarter of this year.

Even if national limits are met, the amount of pollutants emitted from incinerators can be significant, including dust, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen oxide, Zhang said.
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican presidential candidacy Thursday night at the Republican Party national convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

He painted a picture of U.S. doom and gloom that he says the country has endured under President Barack Obama's administration.

Fact checkers from several journalistic publications say Trump played a little fast and loose with some of the "facts" in parts of his acceptance speech, sometimes bending the truth to fit his purposes.

Trump: "Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years."

Facts: This is misleading because homicides have been steadily decreasing in large U.S. cities since the early 1990s. However, there was a 17 percent increase last year, according to a study The Washington Post published in January.

Criminal experts are perplexed by the jump in killings. Some think it my be an anomaly, while others consider the increased killings may point to a more disturbing trend.

What Trump failed to tell his supporters was the statistical jump was so large because the homicide rate is so low. In the 50 cities in The Washington Post analysis, half as many people were killed last year as in 1991.

Trump: "Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when President Obama took his oath of office..."

Facts: Trump has called Mexican immigrants "criminals" and "rapists." There were some supporters holding Latinos for Trump signs at the convention. Many other Latinos have made it their mission to see that Trump is not elected president. The truth is the Latino population has risen, while their poverty level has fallen. The Pew Research Center said after the analysis of a 2013 Census Bureau statistics that Latinos are "the only major racial or ethnic group to see a statistically significant decline in its poverty rate."

Trump: "58 percent of African American youth are unemployed."

Facts: This is misleading. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 58 percent of African American youth between the ages of 16 and 24 were not working in June, but that figure included students and other people who are not looking for a job. The unemployment rate for African American youth in June was 22.4 percent; still, very high.

Trump: "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world."

Facts: Trump has said this repeatedly. However, according the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. collected 26 percent of its total economy in 2014 in taxes, one of the lowest rates among industrialized nations. The U.S. tax rate is far below Sweden, Britain and Germany; countries with more generous social welfare benefits for their citizens than the U.S.
A former member of the Jemaah Islamiah militant group says Islamic State leaders are calling for vengeance over Jakarta's recent killing of Indonesia's most wanted Islamist extremist.

Indonesian security officials on Tuesday confirmed that Santoso, also known as "Abu Wardah," died in a gunbattle with police on Monday. Santoso's body was positively identified after he and another militant were slain in the Poso region of the eastern island of Sulawesi, where police and military forces have been waging an intense manhunt for him for five years.

In an interview with VOA's Indonesia service, Ali Fauzi Manzi, a self-described deradicalized former militant, said Santoso's followers posted the Islamic State (IS) fatwa commanding retaliation on their Indonesian-language Facebook page. According to Ali, the edict was submitted by Syrian-based IS spokesman Syech Muhammad Al Adnani, shortly after the announcement of Santoso's death.

A former member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Filipino secessionist group based in Mindanao, Ali says both Philippines- and Indonesia-based radicals may be planning strikes on soft targets across the archipelago.

Certainly the target of the group is the police and the military, because of their anti-terror operation [in Poso]," he said. "Also, because its members are not only in Poso ... theres a possibility their members in Java would also retaliate. Members of Santoso group, such as Basri and Alika Lora, still exist, so I think thered be indiscriminate attacks by the group in various areas.

"Of most importance [right now] is being on alert," he told VOA, adding that "many of the Santoso group [members also] tweeted the latest fatwa."

The younger brother of two perpetrators of the 2002 Bali suicide bombing, Ali was arrested by the Philippines police and extradited to Indonesia in 2006, where, Indonesian officials say, he was deradicalized before joining Jakarta's Crisis Management Committee as an instructor for military counterinsurgency training in the Ambon and Poso regions.

Since 2009, he has served as a weapons and terrorism analyst for the Indonesian government. He is also a lecturer at an Islamic academy in Lamongan East Java, and serves as a guest lecturer in several universities in Indonesia.

His brother, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, was executed in 2008 for perpetrating the 2002 bombing. His other brother, Ali Imron, is serving a life sentence for the same crime.
While the Islamic State group continues to lose ground and fighters in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the militant organization is morphing into a different type of threat that likely will be more difficult to defeat.

Speaking at a meeting of Islamic State's foes Thursday, Kerry told foreign and defense ministers from more than 30 nations that "the tide has turned."

"Our coalition and our partners on the ground have driven Daesh out of nearly 50 percent of the territory that it once controlled in Iraq, and 20 percent of the territory [it formerly controlled] in Syria," Kerry added, using Daesh, an Arab acronym, to refer to the Islamic State group.

The world can look forward to a time when Islamic State is driven completely out of Iraq and Syria, the top U.S. diplomat said, and "the day that happens will mark a critical turning point in the fight against Daesh."

Even now, Kerry said, the U.S.-led coalition can welcome the fact that the IS fighting force is about one-third smaller than it was last year. Foreign fighters recruited by IS in the past have begun to drift away from the terrorists' front lines, since reduced revenue has slowed payment of their salaries, and the group's search for fresh recruits has become less effective.

Without a territorial base, Kerry said Islamic State will no longer be able to boast it is a new "caliphate" to which foreign fighters can flock.

The bad news, however, is that even when the coalition achieves its military goals in Iraq and Syria, the fight against the Islamic State group will be far from over. Kerry said IS is "resilient and realistic enough to know when it needs to change."

Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told VOA the Islamic State group is now much more willing to provoke terrorism than even al-Qaida was in the past.

We can contain it, we can limit it, we can defeat parts of it in detail, but none of it is going to go away, Cordesman said. He is a former senior U.S. government official and consultant with decades of experience on national-security issues.

What to expect

Islamic State is currently making a concerted effort to forge the remnants of its "caliphate" into a global network of murderers, "whose only real purpose," Kerry said, "is to kill as many people in as many places as possible."

Islamic State formerly relied on large sums of money, derived from illegal oil sales and "taxes" extorted from residents of the areas it controlled, to pay its foot soldiers. Even though those revenues have declined sharply, IS now needs relatively little money to inspire deadly attacks via social-media posts.

The Islamic State pattern of terrorism has been transformed, participants at Thursday's meeting said, from planning attacks meticulously to depending on attack plots that do not include an escape plan for those involved, because the extremists do not expect to get out alive and feel no need to conceal their identities.



Islamic State is now an organization trying to expand its reach by developing expertise in more languages, and by establishing contacts in additional countries and regions, U.S. officials say.

It is looking for areas of vulnerability, and it will be eager to try to exploit them, Kerry said.

How to stop it

Government officials and experts said wiping out the terror group starts with close communications, and by countering Islamic State's message.

Kerry called on representatives of other nations at the State Department meeting to emphasize that Islamic State actions have "no justification in religion, logic, history or law."

He also urged coalition members to increase information sharing and to break down bureaucratic barriers that make it difficult for authorities to identify potential terrorists before they can act.

The United States has information-sharing agreements with 55 international partners in the fight against terrorism, and at least 50 countries provide foreign terrorist fighter profiles to Interpol.

But even when authorities receive intelligence indicators about an attack, Cordesman said, those signals are sometimes lost in the flood of other data  literally hundreds of thousands of different indicators a day.

The CSIS expert called for careful, slow steps to improve communications coordination, while simultaneously sorting out and reinforcing the methods that work best.

Careful, cautious planning is critical," Cordesman said, "and rushing out to do anything, particularly after more than a decade of effort to find the quick and easy solutions, is probably going to do more harm than good."
With the August 1 target date for the Syrian political transition approaching, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is preparing to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov early next week on the sidelines at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Vientiane, Laos.

I think our next meeting will be on the side of the meeting in Asia. Ill see him in Asia, said Kerry during a roundtable meeting Friday with traveling press.

Earlier this week, Kerry said the U.S. and Russia had planned "concrete steps" for the direction they would take in Syria.

Were going to test this very carefully, based not on trust, based on specific steps, and we are talking about those steps right now, said Kerry, adding that so far it is proceeding constructively and with progress.

Those steps include bolstering the cessation of hostilities and strengthening the fight against Islamic State militants, as well as the al-Nusra Front.

Various reports indicated Washington sent a proposal to Moscow to share information about specific targets to strike in Syria. Such a plan faces pushback from the Pentagon and the intelligence community.

Opponents say the U.S. is not seeking information from Russia in return, and they assert that Moscow eventually would exploit any agreement to bolster the regime, while weakening Syrias beleaguered rebel fighters.

But thats absurd. Thats just not true," said Kerry. "I mean, you think grounding [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad is not asking something back?
The Obama administration is walking a fine line in the wake of the failed coup attempt in Turkey, as it seeks to support a key NATO ally in crisis and caution Ankara against actions that will undermine its democracy.



People all across the country are quite on edge and quite uneasy, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday. Its why the United States is going to closely monitor the situation moving forward.



Since the militarys attempted takeover on July 15, President Tayyip Recep Erdogans government has moved swiftly, rounding up nearly 10,000 people. Thousands of police officers, judges and educators have been suspended or ordered to resign.



The government has declared a 90-day state of emergency, giving the government a good opportunity to fight against coup plotters, according to Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmas.



The Turkish government has suspended the European Convention on Human Rights and Erdogan has accused former ally and Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the effort to oust him from power.

WATCH: Muslim Cleric Gulen Denies Coup Involvement



Gulen is living in self-imposed exile in a rural Pennsylvania town and the Turkish government has contacted U.S. officials about returning him to Turkey.



The White House said U.S. officials are still reviewing information Turkey provided about Gulen and whether the submission qualifies as a formal extradition request.

Support, concern

Some fear Erdogan is using the attempted coup to consolidate power.



In a phone call to the Turkish leader on Tuesday, President Barack Obama expressed U.S. support for Turkeys democratically-elected government, but also concern about Ankaras crackdown.



Its important for everybody to understand, including the president of Turkey, that the coup was repelled because of the countrys commitment to democracy, Earnest said.



The White House said Obama personally urged Erdogan to follow due process and protect Turkeys democratic institutions and constitutional rights.



Washington must speak out in support of the Turkish peoples original vision of a functioning democracy, said Robert Pearson, a scholar at the Middle East Institute who also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey from 2000 to 2003. But it also must express concern about what appears to be a considerable overreach by the current Turkish government.



While Earnest said the U.S. has sent a clear, unmistakable signal that it supports democratic institutions, it appears White House officials are uncertain about how Erdogan and his government will respond.

Given the tumultuous nature of events in Turkey over the last six days, that answer is well learn in the weeks ahead, said the spokesman. Thats why well be monitoring the situation.

Role in NATO

The Obama administration has said Turkeys role as a NATO ally is secure.



However, the battle between Erdogans government and the countrys secular military will hamper Ankaras contributions as a NATO member and U.S. coalition partner, Pearson predicted.



The Turkish military has been a bulwark for NATO and a symbol of Turkish strength, he said. I hope the government will not take measures that will further weaken Turkeys ability to protect itself against threats in the neighborhood, especially in Syria.



The U.S. and Turkey are expected to continue to focus on shared interests, countering Islamic State and ensuring Turkeys economy can withstand the economic pressure resulting from the crackdown, according to Pearson.



Turkeys economy is already weakened and they need capital, he noted. The Turkish government ought not to take steps that would make it more difficult to attract foreign direct investment, because they really need that.



As events unfold in Turkey, a key point to watch will be how Turkey handles the state of emergency.



The troubling part of it is a state of emergency can be extended time and again and therefore be made permanent, Pearson said. Concerns will mount about how its used and the extent to which it is curtailed as soon as possible.
The U.N.-brokered government in Libya denounced Frances military involvement in the country, shortly after the French acknowledged that their special forces were operating in the war-

wrecked North African nation.

France yesterday reiterated its support to the unity government in Tripoli, just a day after it had confirmed that three of its soldiers were killed in eastern Libya  the first time the French government had acknowledged its presence in the oil-rich country.

The acknowledgment was also an embarrassment for France because it exposed that the French forces are in eastern Libya, fighting alongside Brig. Gen. Khalifa Hifter  a bitter opponent of the Tripoli-based U.N.-backed unity government.

Hifter has also for the past two years has been fighting Islamic militias, including an al-Qaida-affiliated group in Benghazi.

On Tuesday, Libyan officials first told The Associated Press that an Islamic militia had shot down a helicopter near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing two French officers, in an area called al-Magrun, west of Benghazi. French and Libyan officials have not provided information on where the third officer died.

Ahmed al-Mesmari, the spokesman for Hifters forces, told reporters in Benghazi on Wednesday that the French were gathering intelligence on the Islamic State affiliate in Libya.

The deaths of the French officers reveal secretive Western military cooperation with the anti-Islamist eastern forces opposed to the U.N.-brokered government and underscored international communitys contradictions where foreign military forces are siding by rival militias and forces in Libya.

Also Wednesday, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Tripoli against Frances involvement in Libya, burning the French flag and calling for attacks on French business interests in Libya. Al-Sadeq al-Ghariyani, an ultraconservative cleric, denounced Frances involvement as foreign invasion.

Dodging an explanation as to why French special forces are operating in Libya, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said yesterday that support for the Government of National Accord is a priority for France.

France encourages all Libyan forces to be placed under the authority of the government to participate in the recovery of the country and the fight against terrorism, Nadal added.

After the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi by NATO-backed rebels, Libya slid into chaos and years later, it split into two governments and parliaments, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes. In December, a U.N. deal created a new unity government and presidency council, aiming to heal the rift and unite Libyan militias and forces under a joint command.

However, the new government has been facing multiple challenges and resistance from various groups. According to the deal, Libyas internationally-recognized parliament must give a vote of confidence to the new government but it has so far failed to do so, causing political deadlock. That parliament also supports the anti-Islamist forces under Hifters command.

For the past two years, foreign missions and military experts have joined the two rival sides.

Meanwhile, Libyas pro-government militias  mainly from the western city of Misrata  have been waging a two-month offensive against the Islamic State group in the militants last bastion in Sirte, a city on the Mediterranean. Reports have suggested that British forces are involved in the anti-IS assault while American warplanes have struck several IS positions in the western city of Sabratha and the eastern town of Ajdabiya. Rami Musa, Benghazi, AP
TWIN FALLS  The countys insurance premiums have increased dramatically because of lawsuit settlements paid by Idaho Counties Risk Management Program  most recently, a civil suit filed by former deputies against Sheriff Tom Carter.

The suit, filed by Susan Stringer and Becky White, claimed gender-related harassment and discrimination. The case was scheduled to go to trial in August, but the women have accepted a settlement offer from Twin Falls County, said their attorney, Jeffrey Hepworth of Twin Falls.

Neither side has publicly revealed the amount of the settlement, but the county acknowledges its insurance rates will increase because of it.

Twin Falls County commissioners met earlier this week with a representative of ICRMP.

We were concerned that the premiums were rising and rising, Commissioner Leon Mills said Thursday. He showed us the figures that justify the increase.

Its because of the lawsuit settlements, Mills said. ICRMP pays whatever the settlement is, then adjusts premiums to get their money back over time.

ICRMP pays both settlement costs and legal fees. As costs are incurred, premiums go up to cover the added expenses.

The countys insurance payments have increased 58 percent over the past five years, according to County Clerk Kristina Glascocks office, from $350,639 for the 2012 fiscal year to $553,114 for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

I heard (Twin Falls County) has gone from being awesome  the No. 1 county in ICRMPs eyes  to being their worst customer, Mills said.

ICRMP paid $1.35 million to settle lawsuits against Twin Falls County between 2012 and 2015, according to results of a records request made in May.

Most of the suits pertained to allegations of inmates mistreatment in jail, the records show.

Carter said lawsuits go with the territory at the jail.

Jail is the biggest liability you have in this business, Carter told the Times-News in May ahead of the spring GOP primary, which he won handily. He also insisted that he wasnt a misogynist.

But $500,000 of the $1.35 million was paid to settle sex discrimination lawsuits.

Stringer and White claimed they were bypassed for promotion and that Stringer was demoted from a staff sergeant position and replaced by a man; that they were paid less than the men and denied training opportunities the men had; and that there was a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment by Carter and other male managers, such as comments at staff meetings about menopause, about women being crazy and emotional, that they didnt need shotguns because they were females, that females, including themselves, were lying bitches, and offensive remarks about their sex lives, getting laid and whoring around, according to the complaint.

Rick Ferguson, executive director of ICRMP, declined over the phone to give the amount paid to Stringer and White and asked the newspaper to file a formal public records request. The Times-News will pursue the figure through the request. Meanwhile, Hepworth declined to comment until he alert his clients. And Carter declined comment until he has time to look over the settlement.
TWIN FALLS  Conservative author and activist Pamela Geller has canceled her planned visit to Twin Falls.

Geller, who co-founded the group Stop Islamization of America, had planned to attend a rally on Aug. 3 to support a 5-year-old girl who, authorities say, was sexually assaulted by three boys from Iraq and Sudan last month, and then was to speak at Canyon Crest Dining and Event Center that evening.

However, Geller will no longer be coming here because of security concerns. The event at Canyon Crest has been canceled, according to the event's Facebook page.

Act for America founder Brigitte Gabriel's visit and speech, planned for 7 p.m. on Aug. 4 at the John Roper Auditorium, is still on.
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Twin Falls police will have a new tool in their arsenal beginning next month beyond their guns and handcuffs: body cameras.

The City Council this week approved a $127,500 contract with the familiar Taser company, which will equip the department with 60 cameras. Several officers will begin wearing them next month.

Whats that mean for policing in Twin Falls? Depends on who you ask.

Police studied the potential effects for nine months, gathering feedback from departments that already use them and assessing what might change on the Twin Falls force should cameras be adopted. In the end, the department elected to pursue the cameras, saying theyll better help document evidence.

More important, perhaps, is the effect theyll have even when theyre not capturing footage of a criminal act. In theory, the cameras are expected to make officers more accountable, since they know the cameras are capturing every interaction. And theyre expected to make the public more civil in their dealings with police, for the same reason.

Still, cameras wont solve everything. Think about all the people shot by police in just the past few weeks, shootings that were captured on cellphone cameras even when police know they were being filmed. And cameras did nothing to stop the fatal shootings of police in Dallas and Louisiana.

Further, equipping officers with cameras raises a mountain of questions about access to the footage (can anyone request to see it, just like other public records?) and how it might be used to prosecute crimes. Police say the cameras will be rolling even when officers are on private property, without a warrant, say, in a home investigating a domestic dispute.

From now on in Twin Falls, anytime you see a cop, you can expect that youre being filmed.

Not surprising, not everyone is thrilled by that notion. Count Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs among the doubters. He says police camera footage might actually hurt as many cases as it helps. And he worries the cameras might harm the polices relationship with the public, especially if people are reluctant to talk with police because they dont want to be filmed.

Only time will tell.

In the meantime, we support the initiative by Twin Falls police to adopt the cameras. Well always advocate for having more information than less in criminal investigations, and we believe police when they say the cameras will help officers develop a more transparent, accountable and professional police force.

Again, we encourage the Idaho Legislature to take a leadership role and develop a universal policy for Idahos law enforcement agencies. Rules for cameras already differ from one city to the next, and its only a matter of time before agencies find themselves in court having to defend their camera rules.

Law enforcement agencies from across the state met late last year and called on lawmakers to move quickly.

Rather than allowing the courts to shape the law piecemeal, one case at a time, the Legislature should set firm the states rules on body cameras and what falls under the states open records laws, just as it has for other law enforcement tools.
President Sisi warned against the increasing assaults on Christians in the country and vowed that whoever made a mistake will be held to account by law, starting from the president because Egypt is a state of law.

He said during a military graduation ceremony that Egypts national unity, which has been the hallmark of the country for over two millennia and urged people to be wary of all attempts being made to drive a wedge between Egyptians because Copts and Muslims are equal in rights and duties. Some 90% of the countrys population are Muslim.

Lately, three people have been killed, several others assaulted and homes torched in mob attacks believed to be carried out by Muslim youths against Christians in the Minya governorate. At least a dozen people have been arrested. The increasing violence said to be motivated by sectarian views has led to public outcry.

Separately, President Sisi in a live broadcast on TV warned of the consequences of delays in achieving peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine as he pointed out that Cairos recent serious effort aims to break the deadlock that has hung over peace efforts. The Egyptian president said their efforts are geared towards making everyone face their responsibilities.

Egypt has been a principal mediator between Hamas and Fatah as well as between Palestinian Authorities and Israelis. Sisi is even seeking to play a much more significant role. He stated in May that there was a real opportunity for a peace deal which would also positively impact relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv and the Arab countries at large.

As part of the improving ties between Egypt and Israel, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited the Jewish State at the beginning of the month; the first such visit in nine years.

Israel has welcomed Egypts efforts but continues to maintain that the negotiations should be characterized by direct talks with the Palestinians without any preconditions.
After President Erdogan claimed that Fetullah Gulen, on a self-imposed exile in the US, is behind last weeks coup detat, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim wherein he gave assurances that Washington would work with the Turkish government on its request to extradite the alleged coup leader.

Turkeys extradition request is currently being reviewed by the U.S. State Department after Washington demanded proves of Gulens implication as alleged by Ankara.

Sources hinted that Biden informed Yildirim that the final decision is however to be made by U.S. courts.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Washington is proposing the setting up of a commission to examine the extradition which, he said, could take long before a decision is reached. If you want to draw out the Gulen extradition issue it can take years but if you are decisive it can be completed in a short period, he told state broadcaster TRT Haber.

Turkey is expecting the opposition figure, who has denied any role in the coup, to be extradited. Yildirim said they have been warning the U.S. administration of his harmful activities and terrorist organization. He accused him of running a parallel state in Turkey after embarking on a long-running campaign to overthrow the state by infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

More than 15,000, including around 6,800 army personnel, have been arrested or suspended from their activities since the coup failed. President Erdogan has promised a restructuration of the military within a very short period of time saying this will give the armed forces fresh blood. The decision is expected to take place next month during the Supreme Military Council meeting where appointments, dismissals and retirements of high-ranking military personnel are made.

Details of the restructuration are yet to surface but deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus noted that there were cases of personal and structural failures in intelligence during the coup attempt making analysts think that the top brass will be targeted following open criticism by senior government officials of their failure to prevent the coup, control the army and the headquarters.

Kurtulmus is optimistic that the three month state of emergency declared this week might not be extended. It will take a one or one-and-a-half month period at the maximum to return to normality, he said.
Senior Russian, American and United Nations officials are expected to meet in Geneva next week to discuss the war in Syria and special envoy Staffan de Misturas spokeswoman Jessy Chahine said our hope is that any discussions on Syria will help move forward the process so we can also get to starting the next round of intra-Syrian talks.

The meeting is expected to serve as a run-up to the resumption of talks between Syrian warring parties but Chahine declined to give details of the agenda and participants. However, both Russia and the U.S.-led airstrike campaign seem to be boosting and changing their strategy in the country as they continue to back opposing sides.

Moscow has reportedly appointed Col. Gen. Alexander Dvornikov as the new commander of the Russian operation in Syria according to sources. He replaces Lt. Gen. Alexander Zhuravlev who has been heading the operation since September 2015.

Observers think that the change of leadership could lead to a change of strategy after Russia withdrew most of its forces in March saying it has attained its objective.

In the U.S., defense and foreign affairs heads of members of the U.S-led coalition met to discuss plans to counter ISIS as Secretary of State John Kerry said even as it is losing ground in the Middle East, we know already that theyre going to try to transform themselves into (a) global terrorist organization. They discussed information sharing and real-time communication between countries to foil the extremist groups attack as they prepare for the assault on Mosul, ISIS main headquarters.
Ousainou Darboe, leader of the main opposition party, United Democratic Party (UDP) and 17 others were sentenced on Wednesday by the High Court in Banjul to three years in prison on several charges including unlawful assembly.

The defendants were arrested after demonstrations in April calling for political reforms and protesting against the death of an official of the UDP in custody.

I find you guilty of all charges except that of incitement to violence. That has been dropped, the judge read out the court ruling in Banjul.

The rights organization Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of the prisoners.

Ousainou Darboe and the other opposition (prisoners) should have never been arrested, let alone prosecuted. Amnesty sees as prisoners of conscience all those detained for peaceful protests in Gambia, the deputy director of the Right group for West and Central Africa, Stephen Cockburn said.

Less than five months before the presidential election, the Gambian authorities should take urgent measures for people who wish to speak to do so without fear of retribution. And if they do not, the international community should not look on, Stephen Cockburn said.

.

The United States also condemned what it calls the Gambian governments severe response to recent peaceful protests by the political opposition.

Recently, the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh told the french language magazine Jeune Afrique that no one can tell him what to do in his country.
Police in Zambia on Wednesday raided an opposition party leaders house and arrested 28 members of the party.

The Vice-President of the United Party for National Development (UPND), Geoffrey Mwamba said on Facebook that the police raided and fired tear gas in his home in Kasama (north) where his wife, children and grandchildren lived.

My small grandchildren have been taken to hospital as they have been victim of this barbaric act carried out by the police, Geoffrey said on his Facebook page.

According to the police, 28 supporters of UPND were arrested for destruction of posters of President Edgar Lungu and holding machetes and catapults.

We were left with no option but to follow them after they retreated and hid inside the house. We broke the door and fished out the ring leaders, Northern Province police Chief Bonnie Kapeso said. We had to use tear gas.

Kapeso said petrol bombs were also found, but Mr Mwambas party has said they were planted.

Lungu, who is standing for re-election, has been in power for just over a year after winning a closely-fought presidential race triggered by the death of predecessor Michael Sata in October 2014.

He and United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema are seen as front runners in the vote for president on August 11 when parliamentary and local government elections will also be held.

Several opposition figures were arrested in March on charges of training a militia to commit disruptive violence during the coming elections, charges which they denied.
The Malian government has declared three days of mourning following the death of 17 soldiers killed in recent attacks by armed men on pro-government forces.

The council of ministers that announced the decision also extended the state of emergency in the country by 10 days.

At least two groups have claimed responsibility of the Tuesday attack at the Nampala military camp in central Mali. The Islamist group Macina Liberation Front, which is linked to the jihadist organization Ansar Dine and the recently-formed group from the ethnic Peul community, calling itself the National Alliance for the Protection of Peul Identity and Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ).

Despite the actions of the state, the terrorist threat persists  as is evidenced by the recent attacks against the armed and security forces of Mali, the council of ministers said in a statement.

Despite 11,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed since the French intervention, militants still launch frequent attacks across Mali and its neighbors.

Last year, three different jihadist groups said they were behind a deadly attack on a hotel in the capital, Bamako.

Around three million people in Mali do not have enough to eat, and some 500,000 in conflict-hit areas in the north need urgent food aid, according to aid agencies in the region.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was worried about a lack of health care in northern Mali, where few health centers are functioning and an outbreak of malaria has led to one in two people being infected in some villages.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said his country has resumed diplomatic relations with Israel after 49 years.

The move follows the recent landmark visit of the Israeli Prime Minister to the continent.

During my visit to Africa I said that an African country would soon declare the resumption of relations  this happened today with Guinea, a tweet from the office of the Prime Minister read.

Netanyahu expressed hope that soon another state will announce the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel.

Between Israel and Guinea diplomatic relations were established in 1959 and severed in 1967.

The Foreign Ministry of Israel hailed the move, saying both countries have come full circle, and urged other African countries that do not have a relationship with Israel to follow suit.

Israel urged other countries that still have not restored relations, to follow the example of Guinea, so we can work together for the benefit of our region, The General Director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry Dore Gold said.

Israel is pursuing closer security and other ties with Africa, and it wants African states to support it at the United Nations, where Palestine was recognized as a non-member observer state in 2012.
The International Aids Conference in South Africa wrapped up Friday with calls for increased funding as the search for a cure continues and with HIV infections running at around 2.5 million a year.

"The work simply isn't done," incoming International Aids Society (IAS) president Linda-Gail Bekker told thousands of delegates at a closing ceremony.

"During the five days of this conference, 15,000 people living with HIV have died... and more than 28,000 have been newly infected with HIV, of which 1,500 were young people from this country alone.

"This makes me outraged and appalled and I see no room for complacency."

Around 15,000 scientists, campaigners and donors gathered in the South African port city of Durban to discuss the latest advances in tackling an epidemic that has claimed more than 30 million lives in 35 years.

But as the number of new infections has levelled off, funding has dipped.

A UNAIDS and Kaiser Family Foundation study presented at the conference this week pointed to a billion dollar drop in donor government funding, from $8.6 billion in 2014 to $7.5 billion last year.

"We're at a particularly critical moment for the future of funding," said Bekker, who is the first African women to lead the IAS.

The warning comes just over two months before the international financing organisation Global Fund's conference in Canada.

Founded in 2002, the fund was established to raise money in the fight against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

The Fund is asking for at least $13 billion from donor governments.

Failing to address the funding gap, would only cost more money, said the Global Fund Advocates Network earlier this week.

Critical moment for funding

A study released by the group this week warned of 21 million preventable Aids deaths and 28 million new HIV infections over the next six years if the Global Fund did not get the requested $13 billion.

"People, this is what it comes down to: whether people live or die in many countries, will depend on how donors respond to the Global Fund's call to action," said Bekker. "Lives depend on the Global Fund."

Some 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of these, only 17 million are receiving treatment.

But despite the dire warning, Bekker said she was optimistic about the future.

"I'm excited and optimistic about the future of the global HIV response," she said.

"The scientific insights and programmatic responses shared at this conference provide powerful evidence that we can beat this."

The conference returned to Durban this year 16 years after Nelson Mandela galvanised the world to take up the fight against AIDS, describing it as "one of the greatest threats humankind has faced".

The 2000 conference was a contentious affair, with South African activists angrily criticising then-president Thabo Mbeki, who insisted the disease was caused by poverty, not by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

But its emotional impact transformed the AIDS campaign.

"People at the last Durban conference came at a time when there was no hope," UNAIDS' deputy executive programme director, Mahesh Mahalingam told AFP.

"They came here (now) with hope, and they came here with results, results that showed that the glass was half full."

"But also what the conference did was tell the world that a glass half full is no longer acceptable."

"We need the glass completely fullwe need 30 million people on treatment," he said.

The United Nations has set 2030 as its deadline to end the Aids epidemic.

 2016 AFP
Since it was uploaded to YouTube, the video of Kimberly Turbin's 2013 episiotomy has been viewed more than 430,000 times. In the video, Turbin lies on her back in a hospital bed. Her knees are bent, her legs and feet are elevated above her in stirrups. She is trying to push the baby out.

"Push, push, push. Go, go, go," the nurse says.

A doctor walks into her room in Providence Tarzana Medical Center in California's San Fernando Valley. He pulls out a pair of sharp scissors.

"What are you doing?" Turbin asks, breathless, between contractions.

He tells her he is going to cut her perineum, a procedure known as an episiotomy.

"What? Why? We haven't even tried," Turbin cries. "No, don't cut me!"

"What do you mean, 'Why?'" the doctor responds, sounding increasingly irritated as Turbin continues to protest. "That's my reason. Listen: I am the expert here."

"You cannot fight with the doctor," Turbin's mother tells her daughter. "Just do it, doctor. Don't worry."

Then comes the audible sound of him snipping Turbin's flesh.

Episiotomy, a once-common childbirth procedure that involves cutting tissue between the vagina and anus to enlarge the vaginal opening, has been officially discouraged in most cases for a decade. Yet it is still being performed at much higher than recommended rates in certain hospitals and by certain doctors.

In 2006, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a recommendation against routine use of episiotomy, finding that it benefited neither mothers nor babies. In 2008, the National Quality Forum also endorsed limiting the routine use of episiotomies. The procedure is still supported for use in certain emergency situations.

Nationally, and throughout California, the use of episiotomies has dropped significantly since the official recommendations came out - from 21 percent of all vaginal births in the state in 2005 to less than 12 percent in 2014.

That overall drop masks some giant disparities. A majority of the state's hospitals now have rates under 10 percent, according to state data. But a few, including Whittier Hospital Medical Center and Beverly Hospital, in Los Angeles, are performing the procedure in more than 60 percent of vaginal births. Neither hospital returned calls for comment.

"If you perform an episiotomy, you're more likely than not going to cause more postpartum pain and discomfort," said Dr. Alexander Friedman, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center.

Friedman was the lead author of a 2015 JAMA report about the variation in episiotomy rates among hospitals nationally. While it's difficult to determine precisely what that rate should be, he said, it should likely be less than 10 percent.

As recently as the late 1970s, episiotomy was used in more than 60 percent of vaginal deliveries because doctors believed a clean incision made it easier to stitch up a woman and prevented overstretching of the muscles surrounding the vagina. In the past few decades, though, research began showing that the cuts were sometimes causing serious pain and injuries, including third- and fourth-degree lacerations, incontinence and sexual dysfunction. The cuts often proved slower to heal than a natural tear.

Armed with this information, many pregnant women started refusing the procedure, and most obstetricians stopped doing it routinely.

But some doctors are going against that trend.

Dr. Emiliano Chavira, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist at Dignity Health's California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, lists three main reasons why he suspects some providers continue to perform routine episiotomies: They've always done them, they lack awareness of best practices or they want to speed up deliveries.

"Certain segments of the obstetric community are very slow to modernize the practice," he said. "They're very slow to abandon procedures that are not a benefit and, in fact, may be harmful. And it's really disappointing."

Such variation exists not only among providers, but among hospitals. Case in point: The Los Angeles hospital chain AHMC Healthcare Inc. Each of its six hospitals has continued to do episiotomies in more than 29 percent of vaginal births, according to state data. Two of them - Garfield Medical Center and Whittier Hospital Medical Center - have episiotomy rates close to 60 percent. Representatives of the chain and its hospitals did not return repeated calls and emails requesting comment.

By contrast, Kaiser hospitals have seen huge reductions in use of the procedure since the Oakland-based managed care organization undertook an intentional effort to address overuse.

Dr. Tracy Flanagan, director of women's health and maternity at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, said her office began examining episiotomy rates at different hospitals four or five years ago. It first looked at rates at the hospital level, then at the physician level, she said.

"When we generated the data, we saw a lot of the variation and got to work on it," she said.

They sent the data to the individual hospitals. Then, doctors at each hospital who rarely performed episiotomies educated their colleagues about the appropriate use and risks.

Physicians tend to respond best if other physicians present them with a compelling argument to change their practices, Flanagan said. Reliable data, transparency and peer-to-peer education is a good recipe for narrowing variation, she said.

The average episiotomy rate for the Northern California Kaiser hospitals is now about 3 percent, she said. Zero percent would be too low, she added, since there are some cases where the procedure's use is indicated - if a baby's shoulder is stuck, if a baby's heart rate drops, or if the mother is exhausted and wants an episiotomy, for instance.

Dr. Elliott Main, medical director of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative at Stanford University, says the episiotomy data offer a lesson on how quickly practices can change. It also highlights the hospitals where doctors refuse to alter their ways, he said.

In the case of C-sections, doctors may be motivated to perform the procedures because they allow for faster deliveries or better pay, he said. But the main reason most doctors still perform episiotomies is because they always have done so, he said.

"It is always hard for people to relearn," Main said.

His organization is leading an effort to provide doctors and hospitals with data on certain childbirth practices to show them how they compare with their peers around the state. Beginning in 2010, they partnered with the March of Dimes to educate providers about the dangers of elective delivery prior to 39 weeks. Within three years, that practice had dropped off rapidly, he said. They are currently undertaking similar efforts related to C-sections.

Chavira, the maternal and fetal medicine specialist at California Hospital in Los Angeles, said he would like to see similar transparency with episiotomies.

"If you have a hospital where people are doing 5 percent episiotomies and one guy is doing 60 percent episiotomies, all of a sudden he sticks out like a sore thumb," he said.

A lot of women don't want the procedure, he noted, and doctors are supposed to honor their patients' wishes.

Turbin, a 29-year-old dental assistant who now lives in Stockton, is suing her former doctor, Alex Abassi, for assault and battery. In June, a judge ruled that the case could go to trial this fall. Citing cognitive impairment, Abassi surrendered his medical license last year. The executive director of the attorney's office representing Abassi declined to comment.

Since the episiotomy, Turbin said, "I had major, major, major, major pain."

She's afraid to go to the doctor now, she said, and she's terrified of getting pregnant again.

"If I go back to that day, there's nothing I could have done," she said. "That doctor was going to cut me no matter what."

Explore further Use of surgical procedure to facilitate child birth declines

2016 Kaiser Health News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Is empathy the result of gut intuition or careful reasoning? Research published by the American Psychological Association suggests that, contrary to popular belief, the latter may be more the case.

"Cultivating successful personal and professional relationships requires the ability to accurately infer the feelings of others - that is, to be empathically accurate. Some are better at this than others, a difference that may be explained in part by mode of thought," said Jennifer Lerner, PhD, of Harvard University, a co-author of the study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Until now, however, little was known about which mode of thought, intuitive versus systematic, offers better accuracy in perceiving another's feelings."

Individuals process information and make decisions in different ways, according to Lerner. Some choose to follow their instincts and go with what feels right to them (i.e., intuitive) while others plan carefully and analyze the information available to them before deciding (i.e., systematic).

Lerner and her co-author, Christine Ma-Kellams, PhD, of the University of La Verne, conducted four studies, involving over 900 participants, to examine the relationship between the two modes of thought and empathetic accuracy. The first determined that most people believe that intuition is a better guide than systematic thinking to accurately infer another's thoughts and feelings. The other three studies found that the opposite is true.

"Importantly, three out of the four studies presented here relied on actual professionals and managers. This sample represents a highly relevant group for which to test empathic accuracy, given the importance of empathic accuracy for a host of workplace outcomes, including negotiations, worker satisfaction and workplace performance," said Ma-Kellams.

These findings are important because they show that commonly held assumptions about what makes someone a good emotional mind reader may be wrong, said Lerner. "The many settings in which the value of intuition is extolledfor example a job interviewmay need to be reassessed with a more nuanced perspective."

More information: Christine Ma-Kellams et al. Trust Your Gut or Think Carefully? Examining Whether an Intuitive, Versus a Systematic, Mode of Thought Produces Greater Empathic Accuracy, SSRN Electronic Journal (2016). Journal information: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Christine Ma-Kellams et al. Trust Your Gut or Think Carefully? Examining Whether an Intuitive, Versus a Systematic, Mode of Thought Produces Greater Empathic Accuracy,(2016). DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2782596
Europe's medicines watchdog said Friday it has recommended the licencing of the first-ever AIDS prevention pill for the European Union.

Dubbed Truvada, the pill combines two drugs and is already used in Europe and elsewhere in the world as part of AIDS treatment, and is approved in the United States, Kenya and South Africa as a preventive "pre-exposure prophylaxis" or PrEP.

Now the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also "recommended granting a marketing authorisation in the European Union for Truvada... for pre-exposure prophylaxis."

The medicine must be used "in combination with safer sex practices to reduce the risk" of picking up HIV, it added.

PrEP is a way for people at high risk of infectionincluding men who have sex with men, and heterosexual couples of whom one partner has the virusto lower their chances of getting HIV.

Two recent studies had found "substantial reductions" in infection risk with Truvada, an EMA statement said.

In one study, risk was lowered by 42 percent in homosexual men, and another by 75 percent in heterosexual couples with one HIV-positive partner.

The recommendation of the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), will be forwarded to the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, for approval.

Each member state will then take a decision on price, and whether or not it will be covered by national health systems, said the EMA.

EU member France already announced last November it would make the drug available as PrEP for free, under a temporary national authorisation.

Truvada is manufactured by US pharmaceutical group Gilead.

With no vaccine or cure for AIDS, the focus remains on prevention.

Yet, a study released this week said about 2.5 million people a year are still becoming infected with the AIDS-causing virus.

 2016 AFP
University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists led a study that reports the first in vivo evidence that strains of chimpanzee-carried simian immunodeficiency virus can infect human cells. From left, Wenjin Fan, Qingsheng Li, Zhe Yuan and Guobin Kang. Li is an associate professor of biological sciences at UNL, Fan and Yuan are doctoral students and Kang is a research technologist. Credit: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

No one knows exactly how it happened. It may have entered through a cut or bite wound, the blood of a chimpanzee seeping into an exposed fingertip or forearm or foot.

But in the early 1900s, probably near a West African rainforest, it's thought that a hunter or vendor of bush meat - wild game that can include primates - acquired the first strain of a simian immunodeficiency virus that virologists consider the ancestor of HIV.

A new study led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has supported this hypothesis by reporting the first in vivo evidence that strains of chimpanzee-carried SIVs can infect human cells. They include the SIV ancestor of HIV-1 M - the strain responsible for the global HIV pandemic - and another ancestral strain of HIV found only among residents of Cameroon.

Yet the researchers further discovered that the SIV ancestors of two HIV strains not identified in humans also managed to invade human cells after multiple exposures in the lab.

"The question was whether SIV strains that have not been found in humans have the potential to cause another HIV-like infection," said senior author Qingsheng Li, associate professor of biological sciences and member of the Nebraska Center for Virology. "The answer is that, actually, they do. They get replicated at a very high level. It's surprising."

Li and his colleagues came to the conclusions after inoculating mice that were implanted with human tissues and stem cells, which stimulated the growth of other cells essential to the human immune system. To explore why humans have acquired certain HIV strains while avoiding others, the team injected low doses of the four SIV strains into separate groups of the mice.

The authors found that the inferred SIV forerunners of HIV-1 M and the Cameroon-specific strain required fewer opportunities to infect the mice than did the two SIV strains whose HIV descendants have not been found in humans.

According to Li, this may stem from the fact that the genetic makeup of the latter two strains differs more from HIV-1 M than does the Cameroon strain, which shares more genes with its pandemic cousin.

"Based on our experiments, we clearly see some differences between the strains," said Li, whose team collaborated with the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. "That implies that there might be differences in the likelihood of cross-species transmission when a person is exposed to one strain versus another."The team also found evidence for the long-suspected notion that SIV strains mutate upon entering cells to overcome human-specific barriers to infection. Within 14 weeks, the same viral gene in two different SIV strains - including the ancestor of HIV-1 M - regularly underwent mutations at two key positions on that gene.

Li and lead author Zhe Yuan, a doctoral student in biological sciences, said the recent outbreak of the Zika virus - which remained relatively quiet for decades following its 1947 discovery in a monkey - underscores the value of pre-emptively identifying viruses that can jump from animals to humans.

"The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases has become a constant threat to global health, social stability, safety and economic systems," Li said. "Bill Gates recently said that nuclear war is no longer the (biggest) threat to our safety; emerging infectious diseases are. That's probably true."

The experimental approach employed by the team could help assess the threat posed by additional SIVs and numerous other animal-carried viruses, Yuan said. This could prove especially vital given the dynamic nature of HIV and other zoonotic diseases, he said, many of which have caused new epidemics or even pandemics.

"I think this analysis of the disease is very important for public health," said Yuan, noting that a new group of HIV strains was discovered in 2009. "We want to explore this platform for evaluating new, emerging infectious diseases."

The team reported its findings in the Journal of Virology.

Explore further Immune-enhancing treatment may destabilize HIV reservoirs
UK policy makers must act against excessive energy drinks consumption by children and young people, argues a new report published by the Food Research Collaboration, an initiative of the Centre for Food Policy (City University London).

The paper, written by Dr Shelina Visram (Durham University) and Kawther Hashem (Action on Sugar, and Queen Mary University of London), reviews the worldwide evidence on energy drinks and their impact on health, and suggests possible measures for local and national authorities in the UK.

As outlined in the report, one survey involving 16 European countries including the UK shows that 68 per cent of adolescents (ages 11 to 18) and 18 per cent of children (age 10 and under) consume energy drinks, with 11 per cent of adolescents and 12 per cent of children drinking at least 1 litre in a single session.

European studies quoted in the paper link energy drink consumption to health complaints such as headaches, stomach aches and sleeping problems, while emergency department visits associated with energy drink consumption in the USA doubled between 2007 and 2011.

Consumption of energy drinks is also associated with risky behaviours such as binge drinking and drug use, according to data cited in the paper.

The UK government has already announced a tax on sugary beverages as a step towards tackling childhood obesity, but energy drinks usually contain high amounts of both sugar and caffeine.

As the report points out, more research is required on how these ingredients interact with each other and with other stimulants present in energy drinks, such as taurine and guarana.

A single can of popular brands on the market can contain around 160mg of caffeine, while the European Food Safety Authority recommends an intake of no more than 105mg caffeine per day for an average 11-year-old.

The authors of the briefing paper propose legislation against the sale of energy drinks to under-16s and a ban on marketing targeted at children.

Other potential steps include in-school interventions and the implementation of shared strategies on energy drinks and children by local and health authorities.

Other facts and figures from the report:

Sales of energy drinks in the UK increased by 155% between 2006 and 2014, from 235 to 600 million litres

Some brands on the market can contain 20 teaspoons of sugar per 500ml can

Energy drinks account for 13% of caffeine exposure in adolescents and 43% in children

53% of adolescent energy drink consumers reported co-consumption with alcohol

Adolescents in the UK consumed 3. 1 litres of energy drinks per month on average, compared to 2 litres/ per month for the other European countries surveyed in a cited EFSA study.

Dr Shelina Visram, Lecturer in public policy and health at Durham University, said:

"Youth energy drink consumption is a growing public health concern due to the high caffeine and sugar contents of these drinks. More research is needed to understand the short- and long-term effects in terms of health, wellbeing and educational outcomes. However, the available evidence indicates that these drinks are associated with a range of health complaints and risky behaviours in school-age children. Action is needed by local and national government to restrict the sale and marketing of these drinks to young people."

Kawther Hashem, Registered nutritionist and researcher at Action on Sugar based at Queen Mary University of London, said:

"Children and teenagers are being deceived into drinking large cans of energy drinks, thinking they are going to improve their performance at school, during sports, or even on a night out. In reality it is more likely increasing their risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental caries, which will have lifelong implications on their health. The government needs to set strict limits on added sugars in these products and ban the sale to children under 16 because of their high caffeine, calorie and sugar content."

Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City University London and Chair of the Food Research Collaboration, said:

"It's about time the British public had more information about the health effects of energy drinks. The evidence presented in this paper should make policy makers sit up and pay more attention to the rapidly rising consumption of energy drinks in the UK, especially among young people."

Explore further Latvia bans sales of energy drinks to under-18s

Provided by City University
New section of East-West highway opens in Georgia

A new section of Georgias main transport route has opened today, allowing cars to detour the town of Samtredia in the west and drive on a new, modern highway.The eleventh section of the East-West highway that connects Bashi to Dapnari and detours Samtredia was officially opened last week by high officials from the Georgian Government.This section of highway is part of a major road that is used by hundreds of cars every day. Commonly known as the East-West Highway or E-60, the road is the main route connecting east to west Georgia, but it also directs motorists from neighbouring Azerbaijan and Russia, and connects to Turkey and Armenia.Developing quality infrastructure is very important and developing transit roads will benefit the population. Everyone will be free to use this road  the local population, businessmen, and representatives from our partner and neighbour countries. This will bring more income to our people, said Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.Construction of the eleventh section of the East-West Highway was financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Investment Bank.The East-West Highway is deemed the countrys main transport route and covers the road from Tbilisi all the way to the other side of the country to the Black Sea resort town Batumi via Poti.Construction of the highway started in 2012 and to date 92km has already opened and in use.The highway is being upgraded section by section to ensure the road meets high European road standards. The road renovation is part of the Governments efforts to upgrade state infrastructure in Georgia.
EBRD Gives $100m Loan to MagtiCom to Fund Caucasus Online Deal

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has allocated USD 100 million as part of a loan for one of Georgias largest telecom operators, MagtiCom, to finance the acquisition of fixed-line broadband internet network platform from the countrys second-largest internet service provider Caucasus Online.MagtiCom and Caucasus Online signed an agreement in late May, according to which the former will buys the latters assets including infrastructure, equipment and network necessary to provide Internet, telephone and IPTV services to customers. MagtiCom said that the transfer of assets will be finalized in August.MagtiCom, a mobile phone operator, is a leader on Georgias pay-TV market with its direct-to-home satellite service, MagtiSat, while Caucasus Online is the second biggest IPTV service provider.The deal does not include all of the Caucasus Onlines assets  the company will remain in control of 1,200 kilometre undersea fiber-optic cable that runs across the Black Sea.The EBRD said that its loan to MagtiCom will help the company offer better and higher-speed internet services to its customers across the country, especially outside Tbilisi which suffer from a lack of telecommunications.Georgia is a growing economy wherein rural areas need greater connectivity, and this project is yet another example of the EBRDs efforts to support economic inclusion in the country, said Bruno Balvanera, EBRD Director for the Caucasus, Moldova and Belarus.Since last year, along with MagtiCom, Caucasus Online - owned by offshore registered companies - was also negotiating the sale of its assets with Georgias two other major telecom operators; Silknet, the largest internet and IPTV service provider, and Beeline, a mobile phone operator in which Russias VimpelCom holds controlling stakes. At one point, Beeline appeared closer to striking deal, but Caucasus Online announced in March 2016 that it was intending to sign a contract with MagtiCom.MagtiCom is owned by two companies registered in Delaware in the United States; among its main beneficial owners are Giorgi Jokhtaberidze, son-in-law of Georgias late former president Eduard Shevardnadze, and the family of the late tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili.
Students granted state scholarships for foreign education

By Messenger Staff

The International Education Centre of Georgia (IEC) has announced they will finance the foreign studies of 110 Georgian students, who will study for Masters and Doctorate degrees in foreign educational institutions.The IEC, established in 2014 with the aim to encourage the countrys economic, social and democratic advancement through supporting high-level education, said the financing would cover the 2016-2017 academic year.The Centre stressed the state fully or partially financed the education fees for the successful applicants, and/or their living expenses.Agricultural sciences, education, engineering, science, social sciences, humanitarian sciences, law, architecture, public management and management were the priority fields for the recent selection.The chosen students could continue their studies in British, American, Swedish, German, italian, Czech, Swiss, Hungarian, Estonian and Japanese, universities and institutes.The precondition for the state support was that after the graduation the students took responsibilities to return to Georgia and use the accumulated knowledge and experience in service of the homeland.Candidates were selected through a competition, where a special jury composed of staff from Georgias state bodies and foreign educational organistaions selected the winners.Since 2014, the Centre has issued about 270 scholarships.Georgia lacks qualified staff in many fields, and the state needs a higher quality of education.In the Soviet era and the years immediately afterwards, a university diploma was necessary both for men and women, as it was believed that without it one would not find a good job nor be able to get married; to some extent this stigma continues to the present day (and is even true in that those without a degree cannot find meaningful employment), but in years past, parents would simply pay money to receive degrees.This is one of the reasons why Georgia has had so many qualified people in various fields whose knowledge bares little resemblance to the gravity of their degrees..Fortunately, it is now practically impossible for someone to buy diplomas. But Georgia requires time and at least one generation of professionals to provide a higher level of education.In this context, such educational programmes and initiatives are essential.
@ByKristenMClark

Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton wants Democrat Alan Grayson to take down an online ad he launched this month that seems to imply the Orlando congressman has Sharpton's endorsement in Florida's competitive U.S. Senate race.

Ten days ago, Grayson posted on his Facebook page a video ad that shows Sharpton praising Grayson as a strong progressive. The 15-second spot includes undated footage from Sharpton's previous MSNBC show "PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton," which is edited so Sharpton says the following seamlessly:

"Now more than ever the Democrats need strong voices -- progressives, who are willing to fight for the causes they believe in. ... Joining me now is the man himself, Congressman Alan Grayson."

The footage seems to be a combination of two clips parsed from a single segment on Sharpton's show. The footage appears to be about three years old (a background graphic references the 113th Congress, which started in 2013).

Sharpton offered a stern rebuke to Grayson's ad.

Let me be clear, this video should not be viewed as an endorsement from me of Rep. Graysons campaign for the U.S. Senate in Florida," Sharpton said in a statement. "They did not contact me before posting this ad, nor did I endorse them implicitly or explicitly. I would appreciate it if they would take this video down as soon as possible to prevent any further confusion.

Grayson campaign spokesman Dave Damron told the Herald/Times that Grayson has Sharpton's personal phone number and that the congressman reached out to discuss Sharpton's concerns.

"The congressman has other videos similar in style to this one on his YouTube channel, and weve not heard concerns like this raised before," Damron said in an email. "Until Rep. Grayson can reach Rev. Sharpton, we will not be taking the video down."

Damron also added that Grayson "didn't claim an endorsement in the video, and it only excerpted comments aired throughout the country on Rev. Sharptons previous MSNBC show."

"Rep. Grayson appeared often on that show, and also at several public events with the Reverend," Damron said.

As of Friday afternoon, the web ad had more than 15,000 views on Grayson's Facebook page, and the ad previously showed up elsewhere on the site as "sponsored" content.

Here's the ad in question:
A somber Hillary Clinton met privately on Friday with family members of victims of last month's Pulse nightclub killings in Orlando and later held a roundtable with community leaders. Three days before the start of the Democratic National Convention, Clinton said the massacre of 49 innocent patrons at a popular gay club by an ISIS loyalist underscores the need for gun control and of the dangers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"It is still dangerous to be LGBT in America," Clinton said. "We have to stand against hate and bigotry ... We have a lot of work ahead of us." She added: "We have to take on the epidemic of gun violence ... and demand changes."

With Clinton setting the tone, the discussion focused on bigotry against LGBT people and gun violence more than the threats posed by terrorists that Donald Trump and others have emphasized.

The roundtable meeting at the Holden Heights Community Center included Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer; Orlando SWAT team commander Mark Canty; Carlos Guillermo Smith, a leader of Equality Florida and Democratic state House candidate; and Imam Muhhamad Musri, a pastor, senior imam and chairman of the board of the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

The outpouring of compassion and resiliency by Floridians after the massacre included mass donations of blood and money and a memorial on behalf of the victims. But Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan told the Democratic presidential candidate that there's still too much hate in America.



"We should not hate. Hating a Muslim person is the same thing as hating a gay person," Sheehan said, fighting back tears as a crowd of about 50 people applauded. "We have got to stop defining our community by who hates who."

Sheehan thanked Clinton for "waiting until we were ready" to come to Orlando, nearly six weeks after the shootings, which she said was a sharp contrast to other politicians -- none mentioned by name -- who she said "politicized" the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.



Clinton's two Florida appearances Friday, in Orlando and at the state fairgrounds in Tampa, were both in the heart of one of America's pivotal electoral battlegrounds, the I-4 corridor that slices across the state's midsection fom Tampa to Daytona Beach and as the gateway to Disney World, a highway that's familiar to tourists everywhere.

"The I-4 corridor has been important in every campaign when you look at Florida," said Amanda Renteria, Clinton's national political director. "You look at key battlegrounds and where campaigns are won and lost and the I-4 corridor is certainly one of those places."

The two most populous counties in the corridor, Hillsborough and Orange, have been trending Democratic for years. Both counties were critical to President Barack Obama's two Florida victories in 2008 and 2012. Other counties along I-4 -- Polk, Seminole and Volusia -- lean Republican.

Pinellas, though technically not in the I-4 corridor, matters in a big way because it's part of the Tampa television market and is the large county with the most competitive balance between the two major parties. Pinellas is the state's sixth most populous county, and on Friday there were 800 more Republicans than Democrats among a total of more than 600,000 voters.

Like much of the rest of the state, the I-4 corridor is getting more populous, younger and more diverse, with a steady influx of new Hispanic residents, especially in Orange and its neighbor, Osceola, home to increasing numbers of Puerto Rican voters.

The Florida politician with the longest political connection to the I-4 corridor is Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who was first elected as a state representative from Brevard County in 1972 and has won a half-dozen statewide elections as a Cabinet member and senator.

As the only Democrat who currently holds statewide office, Nelson thinks not just in terms of counties, but TV markets.

He said the combination of the Orlando and the Tampa-St. Petersburg markets (the state's largest TV market) account for 46 percent of the vote in a general election in Florida.

"It is the swing part of the state," Nelson said. "The person who carries the I-4 corridor will win the state."
@MichaelAuslen

For the second time, a computer glitch has caused U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson's Senate campaign to report incorrect fundraising information to the Federal Election Commission.

Between April and June, Grayson, D-Orlando, raised more than $1 million, his campaign said last week. But a filing with the FEC published online Friday shows a much lower number: $55,127.

"Im told there was some computer glitch and the totals are being corrected and will be re-filed," campaign spokesman David Damron said.

It's unclear at this time exactly what went wrong, but the incorrect form was digitally signed by treasurer Dustin Andersen and filed with the Senate and FEC.

An updated form will be filed with the FEC "as soon as we can," Damron said.

That form will show more than $1 million in contributions, Damron said, as well as a small loan from the candidate.

It also is expected to include details about how much Grayson's campaign spent in the second quarter. The current, incorrect filing shows $0 in spending, but the campaign employs several people and has traveled around the state for events as it drums up support for the Aug. 30 primary.

Grayson's chief opponent in the Democratic primary is U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

This isn't the first time Grayson's campaign finances have been upended by a computer glitch.

In October 2015, the campaign reported that a Chicago teacher named Jacqueline Kirley had donated to Grayson nearly 2,300 times totalling $37,600 -- well above the maximum donation allowed.

But Kirley had never heard of Grayson.

At the time, then-campaign spokesman Kevin Franck told the Times/Herald reporting software had mixed up Kirley's donor number and that for Act Blue, a group that helps Democrats raise money nationwide.

For some reason, the system thought Mrs. Kirley and Act Blue were the same, Franck said.

It took two months for the campaign to resolve the problem and file an updated report with the FEC.

The campaign believes the two glitches are unrelated.
@alextdaugherty

The District 38 state senate race is now hitting the airwaves.

Former prosecutor Jason Pizzo released the first TV ad in the race on Friday. The 30-second-spot, titled "Leadership," focuses on Pizzo's record as a prosecutor and highlights curbing gun violence as a major issue for his campaign.

"While gun violence continues to rip our communities apart, typical politicians do nothing," Pizzo says in the ad. The ad also makes a mention of providing a living wage.

Pizzo has a wide lead in the money race in District 38, which encompasses most of northeast Miami-Dade. He's raised almost $430,000, although $400,000 are loans.

The ad will air on targeted broadcast stations and cable networks as part of a "six-figure" buy, according to Pizzo campaign consultant Christian Ulvert.

Six Democrats are on the ballot for the Aug. 30 primary. Longtime senator Gwen Margolis dropped out of the race after referring to her opponents as "three Haitians, some teacher and some lawyer."
@alextdaugherty

Annette Taddeo says that former rep. Joe Garcia was one of "three or four" Democrats that voted "against Obamacare" eight times during Garcia's two years in Congress.

"Eight times my opponent voted against Obamacare with the Republicans," Taddeo said in a candidate forum on Tuesday. "Those votes had only three or four Democrats that voted with the Republicans and he was one of them. Let's check the record with Obamacare."

A check of the eight votes, which were referenced in a Taddeo campaign press release, shows that Garcia was joined by more than three or four fellow Democrats in voting to tweak portions of Obamacare.

In the most extreme case, 12 Democrats, including Garcia, voted to delay the penalty for not having health insurance to 2019. In another case Garcia was one of 67 Democrats to vote in favor of requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to report security breaches in the Obamacare system within two days.

The other six bills had between 22 and 39 Democrats on board, a long way from three or four.

"Accusing Joe of opposing Obamacare is completely untrue," Garcia spokesman Javier Hernandez said in a statement. "Joe has voted more than 20 times to support the Affordable Care Act."

President Obama opposed the eight bills that Garcia voted for. In one statement the president's budget office said H.R. 3522 "would roll back the progress made" on healthcare.

Garcia said on Tuesday that he doesn't go to Washington to represent the president.

"You saw the implementation problems Obamacare had," Garcia said on Tuesday. "I was on the floor of the House of Representatives. What we did was make it easier for people to subscribe to and expand Obamacare."

Taddeo's campaign manager James Strech characterized Garcia's votes as "repeatedly voting against voting against President Obama and with Republicans trying to weaken the Affordable Care Act."

The implementation of Obamacare was a well-publicized debacle for the Obama administration. The initial failed website resulted in $150 million in cost overruns.

See summaries of the eight bills in question here: H.R. 3522, H.R. 2667, H.R. 2668, H.R. 4118, H.R. 3350, H.R. 3362, H.R. 3811 and H.R. 4015.
One of every six voters in Florida, or more than 2 million, will receive a mail ballot in advance of the state's Aug. 30 statewide primary election, and the number will keep growing over the next month.

The state Division of Elections reported Friday that the requests so far total 2,062,551, with Republican voters outpacing Democrats by about 926,000 to 778,000. The growing number of requests shows the increased popularity of voting by mail, or what used to be known as voting absentee (the Legislature passed a law in 2016 removing the word "absentee" from the statutes).

To put that 2 million number in perspective, it almost equals the turnout in the last August primary in a presidential election year, when 2.3 million people participated.

Miami-Dade reports more than 218,000 requests and Broward more than 146,000.

Pinellas voters outpace all counties in mail ballot requests, with 247,653 as of Friday, or more than 10 percent of the statewide total. That's a reflection of the long-standing emphasis by Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark. Every Pinellas voter who gets a ballot in the mail can check a box on the ballot envelope that says, "I want to keep voting by mail," and many do, she said.

Clark's website explains the basics of voting by mail. The ballots themselves will go out in the mail beginning next Tuesday, July 26.
@ByKristenMClark & @MichaelAuslen

U.S. Senate candidates Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson have accepted invitations to participate in a Democratic primary debate next month on an Orlando TV station.

The debate is set to be a taped one-hour event sponsored by WFTV News. It is expected to air Aug. 12, with news anchor Greg Warmoth moderating.

It's not clear which other Democratic candidates were invited to participate. Also in the Democratic race are Miami labor attorney and former naval officer Pam Keith, former assistant U.S. attorney Reginald Luster of Jacksonville and California real estate developer "Rocky" Roque De La Fuente of Orlando.

The debate has yet to be announced by the station.

Florida's party primaries are nearly a month away.

Murphy, a congressman from Jupiter considered the frontrunner in the Democratic race, has vowed repeatedly to debate Grayson, his main primary rival and a fellow congressman from Orlando, but the candidates had -- until now -- failed to agree on an event ahead of the Aug. 30 primary.

Only one debate has been held so far during the 2016 U.S. Senate campaign -- but that April event was between only Grayson and Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly, who has since dropped out of the U.S. Senate race and is seeking re-election to the House.

As the Herald/Times reported last week, several TV and radio stations have been trying to organize primary debates for both the Republican and Democratic races, but the biggest obstacle has been the candidates themselves.

Murphy's campaign, in particular, has been called out for being difficult. Murphy declined to participate in both a Aug. 3 debate for Orlando public radio station WMFE and in the Grayson-Jolly debate. For the latter, Murphy's campaign contended he was never invited, but the debate sponsor provided emails that proved otherwise.

No debates have been scheduled on the Republican side, between incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio and challenger Carlos Beruff.

This post has been updated.
Donald Trump told the audience of the Republican National Convention that ISIS wasnt an issue before Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.

"In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map," he said July 21. "Libya was stable. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing, really a big big reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was somewhat under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world."

Trump made a similar claim pointing the finger at Clinton for the creation of ISIS in an interview that aired on 60 Minutes Sunday, a day before the convention began.

While the name ISIS (or Islamic State or Daesh, etc.) is relatively new, the leaders and founders have origins that pre-date Clintons time as the chief diplomat of the United States.

"There were evolutions that took place with some of the name changes," Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, previously told PolitiFact. (He has testified before Congress multiple times and works for a foundation focused on foreign policy and security.)

The roots of what today is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, trace back to 2004, when longtime Sunni extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi established al-Qaida in Iraq, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

Keep reading from PolitiFact.
With sometimes near-gothic-dark vocals, an unsettled post-punk energy and an album called "Separation Anxiety," it might come as surprise to see a show by Missoula rock band Wrinkles.

The band members are in their early 20s or younger. They might be wearing matching Hawaiian shirts. They're visibly having fun, and so is the audience. Post-punk or synth-rock, whichever you'd like to call it, is danceable after all.

"Because we always play at parties and we're all fairly upbeat people, the shows are lively," said Sanders Smith, who plays guitar and synth. "We're not really like a punk band. We all felt like it's pretty happy, positive music."

When the group went to record "Separation," a debut album of original songs, the recording engineer Chris Baumann helped bring out the darker tones to their music.

"He helped us realize there's a darker edge there. There's a lot of doubt, lyrically," Smith said.

***

"Separation Anxiety," their 10-track debut, is out on Friday, July 29, via their Bandcamp page and cassettes. After a local release show in Missoula next Thursday, they're embarking on a 35-day, 13-date tour.

The five-piece's members are Thomas Elsen (vocals, synth), Sanders Smith (guitar and bass), Jon Cardiello (vocals, guitar, synth), Markle Quinn (bass, synth) and Broderick Montgomery (drums).

Elsen and Sanders wrote almost all of the lyrics, but piecing the songs together was a collaborative effort. Almost all of them can jump onto another instrument.

"We've all written parts for each other, and had our own parts scrapped," Smith said. "There's very little ego involved with the songwriting process."

"It helps us look at a song as a cohesive, collaborative object: What do you think that song needs? Because we know that we have three people that could play a guitar part if we need it," Cardiello said.

The album was recorded in about two weeks at the local Black National Recording, a studio run by Chris Baumann, a DJ and bass player.

It's the first from the group, which started in 2012 in Helena, the hometown for most of the band members.

In the ensuing time period, they were often living in different cities, with some studying elsewhere and some traveling abroad.

Cardiello was attending Seattle University and would often drive back to Missoula. They'd practice for a whole day, and then play a house show the next night. The other band members would do the same for a show in Seattle, a market that dwarfs the tight-knit feeling of Missoula rock shows.

It was a reminder that "there's bigger cities where there's 50 times as many bands," Cardiello said. "I feel like that's helped us keep our scope on just getting better."

Because the group has been scattered in different cities, the album spans four years' worth of material. The second song, "Take Off Your Crown," is one of the first two Wrinkles tunes ever written.

"It's always been one of my favorites, in terms of having all of us interlocking together nicely but not overriding," Cardiello said.

With Cardiello's dry tenor and the quirky synth sounds, it shows their collective love of Wolf Parade, the Canadian band whose 2005 album, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" has remained a touchstone for rock groups with a passion for bouncy keyboards.

Elsen's vocal delivery has a more trembling desperation, and they have their own quirky way with keyboards. "Dinosaurs" is a fast-paced rock song built off an odd fragment of synth sounds. As in many songs, the guitar is used for spare, single-note lines and veer on surf at times.

The seven-minute long "Call Me a Fool," the longest song at nearly eight minutes, was one of the last songs written for the album.

It starts with a base of a faux-classical synth arpeggio derived from dance music. Dual vocals intone dark lyrics like these: "a pair of wings will get us here/we know how it ends but we just don't care/but you don't ever listen, do you?"

"Father J," another of the most recent tracks, is more of a guitar song  the Strokes' New York rock is as much an influence as synth groups like Hot Chip.

The song kicks off with vocals which Cardiello compared to "cult-like chanting," built on a solid foundation by Montgomery. It's worth mentioning that danceable rock isn't too successful without a good drummer, and Montgomery supplies fast, post-punk grooves through the record.

The penultimate track, "Wander in My Head," a mid-tempo number, has dovetailing vocal arrangements that underscore the questioning lyrics.

The album closes with "Outro," which is the length of a standard song. It's a mellow number, with delay-accented guitars and spoken-word ruminations.

They wanted the album to feel like "a collective experience," Cardiello said, with a tapering send-off.
Four Missoulians put their names forward to be on the November ballot for justice of the peace by the end of the filing deadline Wednesday.

In November, voters will decide which of them will serve the remainder of now-retired Justice of the Peace Karen Orzechs term, which ends in 2018.

Interim Justice of the Peace Landee Holloway, who took office in early July after being appointed by the Missoula County Commission late last month, had indicated since applying for the interim role that she intended to run in the fall.

Now that she is on the bench, Holloway, who worked as a state probation and parole officer with the Department of Corrections for more than two decades, said she is enjoying the responsibility, learning more about the court system and adjusting to the pace of the court. A member of the steering committee for the Missoula City-County Jail Diversion Master Plan, Holloway has supported many of its recommendations.

Its becoming more imperative that, although community safety is always at the forefront, finding the balance of having compassion and accountability and getting to the root of the problem is paramount to stop the revolving door for some people as they go through the justice system, she said.

Public defense attorney Robert Greenwell, one of the candidates who had also applied in the spring to be the interim judge, is also the only lawyer who will be on the November ballot. Greenwell has worked in the Missoula branch of the Office of the State Public Defender since July 2014 and the Ravalli office for more than three years before that, representing indigent clients in criminal cases held in Justice Court and District Court.

He said he had been contemplating going after the job of Justice of the Peace and had been encouraged by Orzech to put his name in for the interim position in the spring.

It was a difficult decision because I enjoy what I do, I enjoy being a defense attorney, I enjoy being in court, I enjoy being a lawyer, Greenwell said.

For the general election in November, Greenwell said he was recruited by a group of local attorneys to run. As a lawyer, he said he understands the sometimes complex issues that arise in court, including rules of evidence and how to interpret statute.

I think thats important and thats what were trained to do in law school is to properly interpret law, he said. Theres a lot of attorneys in town who feel that there should be an attorney in there.

***

Jack Metcalf said he too thinks he could put some of his professional experience to good use as justice of the peace. The 34-year-old splits his time between running the Real Good art space in Missoula, teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Montana, and working as a bartender at Als and Vics. He is also a board member of the North Missoula Community Development Corporation.

It was while working at the bar that Metcalf began talking to some of his friends who work as attorneys in Missoula, who told him about the open job and suggested he apply for it. Metcalf said he researched the role and feels its something he could be successful at.

Its a peoples court traditionally, and I consider myself a hardworking citizen of the community, Metcalf said. I love people, and in my job I work with a lot of people.

Metcalf said if elected, he would like to work on implementing more preventive measures to keep people out of court to begin with, adding that his time as a bartender has given him insight on the issue of DUIs in Missoula specifically.

My stance is going to be definitely as someone who works outside of the judicial system, he said.

***

Kari Wells filed to appear on the November ballot on Wednesday, the final day of the filing period. Wells, who works as a finance specialist for the Missoula Housing Authority, is married to current Missoula City Council member Harlan Wells, who had also run for justice of the peace in 2014.

When contacted by the Missoulian, Wells said that she would prefer to only respond to written questions based on my husbands experience.

In an email, Wells said she has been living in Missoula for almost a decade, and until she had filed for the justice of the peace position, her political career had consisted only of supporting her husbands campaign.

Looking at the city-county jail diversion master plan I realized that the Missoula Justice System is being hijacked by liberal progressives (legislators) who think drug dealers and career criminals only need a hug. It is my personal belief that most of them don't need a big hug, but instead a swift kick in the 'ass'  metaphorically of course, she wrote. As a citizen of Missoula, the last thing i want is for Missoula to be the dumping ground for Montana's riff raff.

Wells said she thinks the law should be applied impartially and consistently regardless of public opinion or personal preference, a phrase she credits to Great Falls attorney, University of Montana law professor and state Supreme Court candidate Kristen Juras, who Wells said she admires greatly.
A 57-year-old Frenchtown man is charged with three felonies after prosecutors say he pointed a handgun he kept under his pillow at his wifes children on Tuesday.

James Arthur Reedy, who faces two felony counts of assault with a weapon and another for criminal endangerment, is also accused of driving his truck at one of the children, allegedly slamming on his brakes and coming to a stop before hitting them.

According to a court affidavit, law enforcement had been called to a Frenchtown home around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday where a woman said Reedy, her common-law husband, had been arguing with one of her children.

The argument erupted after the child, who was grounded, went to Frenchtown Pond, prompting Reedy to cancel a family floating trip, the affadavit said.

The argument, which started outside, moved inside, where one of the childrens siblings, as well as their mother, intervened.

According to the affidavit, Reedy allegedly asked one of the children if they intended to fight him, adding Ill break your neck.

His wife reported that Reedy then went into the bedroom and grabbed a .357 revolver from under the pillow, unholstered it and began to wave it in the air. When one of the children asked if he was going to shoot them, Reedy allegedly replied Ill shoot you (expletive) (expletive).

The children and their mother left the house, followed by Reedy, who got into his truck. The affidavit said Reedy then drove toward the child he had originally started arguing with, accelerating as he got closer before he slammed on his brakes coming to a stop before hitting the child.

After arriving, sheriffs deputies found Reedy behind a nearby shed. He allegedly said he doesnt like kids and that the child who had been in the initial argument had been disrespectful. He said he had gone into the bedroom because he intended to gather his possessions to leave, and the the gun had fallen out of the holster. He said he had been waving it in the air, but denied making any threats.

Reedy allegedly told law enforcement after he got in the truck to leave, he heard the child talking mad shit and started pulling forward while the kid was standing in front of the truck. He said he had been traveling about 10 miles per hour when he braked and stopped.

A deputy found the revolver inside the house, and noted skid marks on the driveway.

In Missoula County Justice Court on Thursday, deputy county attorney Selene Koepke asked for Reedy's bail to be set at $30,000, saying that while he has minimal criminal history, prosecutors believe he is a potential danger to the community.

Justice of the Peace Marie Andersen chose to set bail at the $5,000 requested by public defense attorney Ted Fellman, who said Reedy has lived in the area for years.

Andersen said Reedy is not to contact the alleged victims in the case or return to the Frenchtown residence where the incident took place.
The Missoula Redevelopment Agencys board of directors moved forward on a number of major projects Wednesday, including approving $298,000 in public money to help construct a childrens nutritional education space inside the new Missoula Food Bank.

The MRA board also approved spending $25,000 to help the city hire a building design standards consultant to help prevent the kind of public outcry that resulted from the construction of the new neon-lit Verizon building on the corner of Madison and Broadway.

In addition, the MRA got an update on the progress of the Riverfront Triangle Project, a splashy $150-million proposed redevelopment of the old Fox Theater site on the corner of Orange and Front Streets.

Chris Behan of the MRA said that the city and the developers should have a development agreement in place by late August for that site and the process to rezone the property should begin soon.

After that, the board discussed the possibility of contributing millions of dollars in Tax Increment Financing to help a developer build public parking garages within a proposed $34-million downtown student housing project on Front Street.

Finally, the MRA got an update on the future of the site of the old Lucky Strike bowling alley on Dearborn Avenue. The developer who purchased that site, Woodbury Corp., has plans to sell a portion of the space to Les Schwab Tire Co. for a new facility. Woodbury Corp. also plans to build two other buildings on the site for two unnamed tenants. The site of the current Les Schwab tire shop on Brooks Street will go up for sale, and a representative for Woodbury, Kraig Erickson, said his company and many other developers would be interested in that site.

***

Mayor John Engen, who is traveling this week, appeared via videoconference to advocate for the city partnership with the Missoula Food Bank, which is constructing a new facility on Wyoming Street near Westside Lanes.

This is a partnership between the city and the Missoula Food Bank and the Redevelopment Agency that I think makes a ton of sense for the community and allows us to invest in some basic human services in ways we havent been able to, he said.

Essentially, the city funding would help purchase a portion of the Food Banks new building. Then the SpectrUM Discovery Area would lease the space and use it to educate kids who are waiting while their parents collect food. The goal would be to serve low-income kids who dont usually get access to science education.

If you are a young person at the Food Bank, what often happens is you stand around, Engen said. That time is largely wasted, and theres some stigma associated with the wait. The goal of SpectrUM and the Food Bank is to figure out how young people who might not have access to science education, which is the strength of SpectrUM, get that. I think this is incredibly cool.

The city would own the property so if SpectrUM morphs or goes away, there would be opportunities to find another partner. The new Food Bank is expected to open next April.

***

The city is also going to spend $160,000 to hire a consultant to develop building design standards and guidelines in the most highly-traveled areas of the city. Most of the money will come from the general fund. According to Ellen Buchanan, the executive director for MRA, Missoula stands out from other Montana communities because it does not have building design standards. Mayor Engen repeatedly referenced the public backlash over the gaudy Verizon store as the catalyst that sparked this discussion.

We are in a position to influence, within reason, the look and feel of our community, he said. To drive the future of the community that makes sense for all of us. The tool we are lacking is design standards. These can be Draconian or simple. Our goal is to find something in the middle that does not preclude development or redevelopment.

The Citys Development Services director, Mike Haynes, called design standards an enormous but priority project for fiscal year 2017.

***

The MRA board next got an update on the progress of the Riverfront Triangle Project. Chris Behan of the MRA said that the developers will probably be asking for public financing assistance. He said that there will be a lot of action involving progress at the site in the next couple months. The developers, which includes Farran Realty Partners in Missoula, are planning to construct a huge new hotel, a conference center, medical offices, retail space, restaurants, housing and green space. The site currently contains just a parking lot and some dilapidated buildings. It would represent the second-largest urban infill project in Montana history, second only to whats happening at the Old Sawmill District across the river.

Really in the last six months were starting to get into details, and the devil is in the details, said Jim McLeod of Farran Realty Partners.Its taking some time but I think were making great progress and were excited to get in front of the working committee.

McLeod also told the MRA board that because the price of steel is rising exponentially due to a tariff placed on China, the 488-bed student housing project Farran Realty Partners is proposing will need public financing if they are to build 300-parking spaces. He said that the project becomes more and more questionable the more time it takes. The city is interested in partnering with the developers to construct more parking because parking is one of the most pressing issues downtown, and a public/private partnership solves that issue without taking up an entire city block with a parking garage. The student housing project would be built on top of the city-owned parking spaces, and there would be retail space on the ground level.

***

Finally, Kraig Erickson of Woodbury Corp. said that his company will be seeking MRA funding to assist in razing the entire site of the Five Valleys Center, which included the Lucky Strike bowling alley on Dearborn Avenue. He said they already have an agreement to sell a portion of the land to Les Schwab Tire Co., which plans to build one of its new stores on the site. Erickson said the new Les Schwab store will look much more modern than the one currently located nearby on Brooks.

The Woodbury Corp. will also be building to new structures, but Erickson wasnt ready to say who the tenants will be.

We initially had a large national chain restaurant, but they decided not to expand in Montana because of the liquor laws, Erickson said.
This U.S. election season is heated. Angry protests have broken out across the nation and some Americans have even threatened to leave for Canada or Europe out of fear the national ship is going down.

But in Missoulas U.S. District Court Thursday, 25 people from 16 other countries embraced American citizenship and vowed to become active, patriotic participants in American democracy.

The courtroom pews were filled with more than 60 people at the start of the naturalization ceremony  the last step of the long process to becoming a U.S. citizen  and the friends and family of the soon-to-be citizens looked up proudly at their loved ones, taking photos on iPhones and waving.

The colors of the flag were presented and a rendition of the national anthem was played by young classical guitarists Riely Nielsen and Zoe Beck. An immigration services officer read each persons name as they stood, one-by-one, waving back to people in the audience.

Deputy Clerk of Courts Kelsey Hanly stood before the 25 and led the naturalization oath of allegiance. With their right hands raised, the 25 repeated after Hanly with smiles.

Those smiles faded for a brief moment when they heard themselves say, I will bear arms on behalf of the United States, when required by the law. But soon everyone was giggling about how out-of-sync they had spoken the line.

Among the group was the University of Montanas Micaela Downey. Downey, an adjunct instructor of modern and classical language and literature, was the only soon-to-be citizen who was born in Argentina.

The other home countries of the 25 included New Zealand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Poland and China.

Downey was the tenth person to leave her seat and receive a citizenship certificate from Hanly and a little American Flag from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her two young sons waved from their seats in the audience.

Three siblings who were born in Belarus, a small Eastern European country bordering Russia and Poland, still pine for the home they were forced to leave to escape religious persecution. But they were happy they will finally be able to vote.

Yuriy Chinikaylo, 23, said he and his siblings, Aleksandra Chinikaylo and Avenir Chinikaylo, have lived in Missoula since 1995. They said their parents eventually moved, too, to be closer to family.

Although Belarus is a third-world country, the Chinikaylos said they have all enjoyed their recent visits. Were from a little village and everyone knows our family there, Avenir said. Its a little more social for us there.

Yuriy Chinikaylo said the process of becoming a U.S. citizen took awhile.

I submitted my application and a few weeks later had to go to Helena to be fingerprinted and all that, Yuriy said. Then we got booklets that we studied for two months for the citizenship test, which I scored 100 percent on.

Representatives of Montana's Congresssional delegation  Sens. John Tester and Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke  read letters that welcomed the new citizens. A no-nonsense Boy Scout, Keifer Lorenzen, demanded everyone put their hands over their hearts and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Those in uniform, Lorenzen said, salute the flag.

Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch congratulated the 25 new citizens with a short speech that emphasized the importance of diversity in the United States. He borrowed quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, President Obama and Franklin Roosevelt to accentuate his point.

He also highlighted the country's need for informed voters, now more than ever. Voting and serving as a jury member, Lynch said, are huge responsibilities that will be new to the 25 naturalized citizens.

They waved their flags as he spoke.

You are now citizens of the United States of America, Lynch said, The greatest democracy in the world.
I couldnt believe my eyes and had to go back again to check it out!

Ryan Zinke, Montanas only congressman, apparently believes that America must be belligerent toward, not only ISIS, but also China and Russia. To quote him directly,  our adversaries and enemies (emphasis mine) like ISIS, China, and Russia , says it all. Its really too bad, however, that he neglected to include George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in his condemnation of our foreign policy, because, while Obama and Clinton may have perpetuated the disaster which is Iraq (and from which ISIS sprang), Bush and Cheney are directly responsible for initiating the whole mess. Heaven forbid, though, that any criticism of those two should come from a neo-con direction.

Personally, I shudder to think what might happen if America should happen to go head-to-head with an entity such as Russia. If there is one nation in this world which could seriously cause harm to America, it would be Russia. It has the nuclear capability to literally destroy this country and might resort to that should a shooting war begin. Deny it, if you will, but the possibility exists and it is extremely foolish and arrogant on the part of the US government to continually poke the bear, as Zinke has done.

Is Russia really our enemy? From everything I can see and read, it seems that the Russian government is doing what it can to avoid trouble with the U.S. and NATO, although it is certain that it will defend the homeland if necessary. Unfortunately, Zinkes comment doesnt help. It perpetuates the fallacy that only America can keep the world safe and free, that only America can create an environment of peace, and that the rest of the world is simply going to have to fall into line.

Roger Mitchell,

Stevensville
The Missoula Firefighters Local 271 would like to endorse Andrew Person for Montana House District 96. By doing so we have the opportunity to choose a candidate that has shown his support for our veterans and understands that the battle does not end when our service men and women return home. Rep. Person can empathize with all members in uniform whether it is fire fighters, police officers, or soldiers. Rep. Person served our country in the U.S. Army stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and understands the sacrifices that this commitment entails. Today Rep. Person continues to provide service to the citizens of Montana.

As a native Montanan he understands our concerns regarding public access to our streams and forests. While he is in office he will fight to keep public lands under the control of the state of Montana. Andrew has a proven track record as an incumbent and wants to keep transparency, honesty and integrity in government. Rep. Person intends to introduce legislation to keep accurate records of campaign donations that will allow us to better track the campaign finances of our elected officials. Rep. Person will continue to cross party lines and work on the important issues to the Montana working class, and that is why he is the candidate for Missoula Firefighters Local 271.
Recently, the media has reported as completed the bridge to Dockstader Island on the north shore of Flathead Lake, near Bigfork. On or before Aug. 15, Flathead District Court will rule on the validity of the permit that allowed the bridge to be built in the first place. This ruling will determine fundamentally whether Montanas Lakeshore Protection Act provides meaningful protection for any lake anywhere in Montana.

The Community Association for North Shore Conservation (CANSC) brought the lawsuit. Suing the county isnt a trivial matter. Its expensive, time consuming, and risky. CANSC did so because the county flatly failed to follow its own rules, and it cut the public out of an important decision affecting spectacular Flathead Lake.

Many hundreds of people from across Flathead County enjoy the north shore at all times of the year. This past Fourth of July weekend, scores of boats anchored offshore with people enjoying the shallow waters for swimming and recreating. Flathead Lake and its north shore are a priceless public resource to the people of Flathead County and beyond.

The Montana Legislature passed the Montana Lakeshore Protection Act in 1975. Republican legislator Bob Brown of Whitefish sponsored the legislation. The Act intends to protect the scenic and natural values of Montanas beautiful lakes. Without this act, no protections would necessarily exist for any Montana lake. Its the publics one tool to check unwise development that would harm our scenic and extremely valuable lakes.

If you care about protecting Flathead Lake, the members of CANSC invite you to attend our gala art event on Friday, July 29, at Venue 45 in Bigfork. This is an RSVP event only. Please visit our website at CANSCflathead.org or our Facebook page at facebook/CANSCflathead to learn more.

We cant emphasize enough how important the Montana Lakeshore Protection Act is for protecting the shorelines of Montanaa beautiful lakes that you value. Much is at stake.

Dave Hadden,

Bigfork

and 17 co-signers
Copyright  2022 HT Digital Streams Ltd All Right Reserved
On the night of 15-16 July, Turkey went through a cataclysm that stunned the world: a huge section of the armed forces of the country (TSK in its Turkish acronym) attempted to take power from the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP, came very close to its objective, but was ultimately defeated. Official statements of imperialist countries celebrate the triumph of democracy. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Furthermore, many commentators, remaining captive to the official explanation of the AKP government, point to the followers of Fethullah Gulen, a powerful imam who has been residing in the US for close to two decades now, as the culprit behind the coup. This is a mystification used by the AKP for various purposes, the most important being to ostracize the Gulenists and to hide from view that a much wider array of forces within the army have taken up arms. And on the left and far left, many are filled with excitement at the sight of civilians climbing over tanks and challenging with bare hands the heavily armed soldiers of the putschist forces. This, too, is a very distorted picture.

The correct characterization of the coup is not one of democracy defeating dictatorship. Two despotic forces faced each other and the more gradualist one won. Anyone who dares to talk about the triumph of democracy in Turkey is lying and deceiving the whole world. This episode was the result of a long-drawn out civil war between the two sides of what we as DIP (Revolutionary Workers Party) have been calling the (bloodless) civil war of the bourgeoisie. This war has now been soaked in blood and a 24-hour civil war has shaken the country. The civil war of the bourgeoisie has now gone into its 14th year and, expectably, some of the protagonists have shifted sides. This is what complicates the picture. But divested of all the complications and reduced to its kernel, this coup was a struggle unto death of, on the one hand, those forces within the Turkish ruling classes who choose to anchor Turkey strategically to the imperialist West as opposed to, on the other, the up and rising fraction of the Turkish bourgeoisie who have cast their fate with Erdogan and are looking for a future in which Turkey rules the Sunni Islamic world. This battle, as many of the previous ones, has been won by Erdogan and his followers. This means that the road has now been opened towards a much more repressive imposition of a new regime that would strengthen the hands of Erdogan, creating an autocracy of unimaginable proportions, at the side of which regimes like those of Russias Putin or Hungarys Orban would stand like shining examples of democracy. This is why the outcome of the 15 July episode was not democracy defeating despotism, but the victory of the more gradualist despotism in the face of a more abrupt repression of all democratic forms.

As opposed to the immediate ending of any semblance of democracy that the coup represented, Erdogans is a long-drawn-out strategy of infusing extremely anti-democratic substance into seemingly formal democratic structures. Or rather it was. Like the Reichstag fire in the case of Hitler, this incident will, in all probability, be used by Erdogan and the AKP as an excuse for throwing away all allegiance to democratic formalities. They have already started to do so, expelling at least 50,000 public employees from their posts in a matter of three days, with utter disregard for legal niceties. This orientation has already put to shame those who were vaunting the triumph of democracy in the aftermath of the failed coup.

In what follows we will try to answer three questions only. First, what was the array of forces that confronted each other in the putsch or, in other words, how did the civil war of the bourgeoisie play out in this episode? Second, how did this civil war have its refracted impact on the currents within the TSK (the armed forces) and what kind of place did this imply for the US vis-a-vis the coup? Third, what is the real role of the masses in the defeat of the coup? If we limit ourselves to these questions alone and also treat them in almost schematic terms, that is because the extremely complex nature of the dynamics of Turkish society in the recent period makes it impossible to take up all the questions relevant to the discussion of the coup. So we will not touch upon burning questions such as the relation of this process to the overall situation in the Middle East and in particular what we have earlier called the Syrianization of Turkey, the position of the Kurdish movement faced to the coup, the prevarications of many leading members of the bourgeoisie in this life or death struggle, and many others.

A War of Two Futures

Historically speaking, the Turkish bourgeoisie has been firmly committed to the so-called Western alliance. After World War Two, the country took its place as the only majority Muslim country in organizations as diverse as the European Council, the OECD, and NATO and has been desperately trying its hand at accession to the European Union (EU) for a full half century. This was very much in consonance with the orientation of the Kemalist republic established in 1923, which adopted a line that almost forcibly tore Turkish society from Islamic or oriental mores, customs, and culture and tried to make it a part of what Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the strongman of Kemalism, called contemporary civilization, i.e. the Western world. The unstoppable rise of the Islamist movement from the 1970s onwards was closely related to the profound reaction of the working masses and the poor of the country to this forcible move and the divide between them and the ways of the bourgeoisie not only socio-economically but also culturally. Having taken over the position of leadership in this movement from the historic leader Erbakan in the early 2000s, Erdogan, a capitalist merchant of humble beginnings, seemed to the masses as their man. This, in effect, explains an overwhelming part of his extremely charismatic popularity with half the electorate.

This, of course, is only half the story. The other part is the rise of what was a provincial bourgeoisie, aspiring to become rich and powerful like their earlier dominant Westernized class brethren, but, feeling like the underdog, produced a different kind of political movement which posed an alternative program of Islamic unity, not only politically but economically as well. This wing had grown beyond a provincial wing of the bourgeoisie into finance capital by the 1990s, and they strove for power. The AKP is the expression of this class fraction. However, since Erdogan is an extremely strong figure and has been so successful at the polls, many from the earlier Westernized wing have also joined him over time. Yet Erdogans obsession of becoming the Rais (Chief) of the Islamic countries of the Middle East and beyond has not subsided as a result, but on the contrary reached new heights.

So the AKP is incontrovertibly a party of the newly rising fraction of the Turkish bourgeoisie that draws its strength from the support extended to it by the poor masses, long time alienated by the Westernized wing of the same class. It must be added that the AKP is extremely hostile to the organized working class and has been administering the neoliberal class assault on behalf of the Turkish bourgeoisie all along. Naturally, it is not this aspect of its political practice that the Westernized wing detests, of course. It is Erdogans resolute drive towards Islamizing the country, the corollary of which is, in the last analysis, Turkeys divorce from the Western alliance that gives the Westernized wing chills. That is the logic behind the civil war of the bourgeoisie, which, despite several episodes of extreme tension, remained bloodless until 15 July.

The picture became further complicated in 2013, when from practically (though not literally) being informal coalition partners up until then, Erdogan and Gulen fell at each others throats. This was the civil war within the civil war. Gulen, under the guidance of the US, moved gradually into an alliance with other bourgeois forces opposing Erdogan and his single-handed domination of the AKP. Among these forces there are the CHP (Republican Peoples Party, supposedly social democratic) and the MHP (Nationalist Action Party, the home-grown fascist party of Turkey with half a century of history behind it), but also a growing wing of the former leaders of the AKP, most notably Abdullah Gul, the former president of the republic, before Erdogan took over in August 2014.

The Westernized wing of the bourgeoisie in its day-to-day dealings with the AKP government and Erdogan bows meekly and respectfully. However, the expression of its long-term interests is found in a coalition of the forces we have just enumerated. We at DIP have called this coalition project (no concrete expression of such a coalition has yet materialized) the American opposition. For two reasons, at least. One, the whole idea was whispered into the ears of the actors concretely by the then US ambassador to Turkey in 2013. Two, all of these forces are principled defenders of Turkeys alliance with the US and NATO, while Erdogan prevaricates between NATO and US protection, on the one hand, and an open break with the US in order to declare loud and clear his leadership of the Muslim world, on the other.

These are the two camps that faced each other in bloody confrontation on the night of 15 to 16 July. That battle was won politically and militarily by the Erdogan camp. Whether it will be the last battle is another story.

Pro-American, But (Probably) Not Made in the USA

The AKP government repeats to the point of nausea that this coup is the making of the Gulenists in the TSK. Even a cursory glance at the facts of the matter at this early stage would refute this dogmatically stated truth. An amazing figure of 102 generals and admirals have been taken under custody. This is fully one third of the entire population of generals in the TSK that head combatant units. The operations of the putschists, which for reasons of psychological warfare were presented on that night as localized to Ankara, the capital city, and Istanbul, in effect extended over the entire surface of the country, sometimes down to the smallest locality and, what is more surprising, even to Turkish Kurdistan, where, one would presume, security considerations would have overridden the struggle against Erdogan. The coup received support from all four forces: led by the air force, with its former commander, a four-star general, being considered the mastermind behind it, closely supported by the gendarmerie, present in the navy, it also included among its ranks a four-star general, commander of one of the four armies of the land forces. In short, considering that it was not organized along the chain of command, with the top brass remaining outside, it was an extremely powerful junta that emerged.

Now, if the Gulenists had been so powerful in the TSK, then Tayyip Erdogan would without any doubt not have been where he is currently. They would certainly have removed him from office sooner. On the other hand, the TSK itself would probably have expelled these officers from its ranks much earlier. In all likelihood, the Gulenists were a small minority of the officers who supported the putsch. Why is it, then, that Erdogan and the AKP government insist on such an implausible claim? That is because under Erdogans benevolent gaze, the Gulenists had, for a full decade, settled their people in positions of power in the judiciary, the police, the education establishment, and, to a lesser extent, the armed forces. They knew the ins and outs of Erdogans dealings and the corruption practices of the whole government. It is they who exposed him, his ministers, and his son in December 2013, when Erdogan came to the edge of the precipice. They have all the evidence of his culpability. So they must be crushed. A supplementary reason is to provoke the ire of secular forces, both in the TSK and society at large. After all, why would seculars support the politico-military coup of a religious fraternity, even if they are fierily fighting a government that constantly makes new moves against secularism? So the junta extended across a much broader spectrum of forces within the TSK than the sole Gulenists.

The AKP is probably only popular with the top brass in the armed forces. The TSK has been a NATO army for six decades and this is what distinguishes it from all other Muslim-majority-country armies, making the somewhat premature idea that Turkey has already undergone Pakistanization extremely shaky. (Whether it may and will in the future is a very relevant but quite distinct question.) There is one current in the TSK that stands in close alliance with Erdogan. Strange bedfellows, one is prompted to add instantly, since this current, generally recognized under the appellation Ergenekon, are the self-same people who were persecuted at the time the Erdogan-Gulen coalition was riding high, being tried and sent to prison pending trial. Now they have turned around to support their erstwhile executioner, since what they are after is to recapture the positions they had earlier lost to the Gulenists. In logical consistency, they stood up against the putsch. Other than the top brass, the authentic Erdoganists, and the Ergenekon, there remains a whole gamut of sensibilities in the armed forces which could be called pro-NATO and pro-US for that is the common denominator that brings them together. These officers have been educated by the NATO army to believe that Turkey can only be secure under US protection and the NATO umbrella. It is this quintessential officer typology that, in all probability, dominated among the putchists. So, interestingly, in a country that has been torn asunder for a decade and a half between Islam and secularism, it is an alliance of the pro-US seculars and the adepts of a religious fraternity under the protection of the US that led the putsch. There is evidence to show that the defeat of the coup owes, partially, to the seeds of dissension within this alliance contre nature.

At a deeper political level, the defeat appears to be the product of the contradictions of what we have above labeled the American opposition. Of the two foremost wings of this set of forces, the CHP (so-called social democrats) greeted the coup attempt, in the first few hours, with an extremely vague and ambiguous statement, one that could later be interpreted as either pro- or anti-coup. On the other hand, Abdullah Gul, leader of the oppositionists within the AKP and known for his earlier sympathy to Gulen, kept silent until the balance of forces changed against the coup, but did at that stage come out squarely on the side of the government. In parallel to Guls late intervention, the foremost TV channel of the secular camp, CNN Turk, moved from a midway position to one of open support to the government. So, from this evidence, one senses a sea change in the ranks of the American opposition at a certain stage, which roughly corresponds to the reversal of the fortunes of the two sides on the battlefront. It is difficult to conclude with certainty that the putschists lost as a result of the fact that they were abandoned by a wing (or wings) of the American opposition, but there seems to be a correlation, if not a causal link.

The relation of the US to the coup is, obviously, a question of utmost importance. US imperialism had supported the last big successful coup that the Turkish generals had carried out in 1980 whole-heartedly. There were even grounds, without going into extremes of conspiracy theory, to think that it was planned and organized at least within the knowledge of the long-time ally, if not with its complicity. This time around, it is perhaps too early to find evidence of the US being the accomplice or even the instigator of the coup. There is some speculation concerning the strange behavior of John Kerry, who was then in talks with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, the former cutting short their meeting upon receipt of news from Turkey. But this is easily explicable since it was exactly around that time when Turkish intelligence (the MIT) detected bad odor and moved to warn the TSK. No one in his or her right mind would doubt that that kind of intelligence sharing is bound to reach American ears as well. Turkey being a singularly important ally in the Middle East for the US, it is only natural that Kerry should be alarmed and cut a meeting short.

More generally, Turkey under Erdogan has been a difficult case for US policy makers. On the one hand, the US has had its share of problems with Erdogan. On the other, although they may be happy to see him go, nonetheless they realize that he is very powerful and they have to, in their own parlance, work with him. Moreover, these recent years have seen considerable erosion in the power that the US wields, in particular in its dealings with the Middle East. So it is perfectly reasonable to conjecture that the US sat on the fence until it became somewhat clear who would win. But the coup itself was through and through pro-NATO and pro-US, as is also made clear by the statement that was read from the occupied studios of state TV, when the putshcists were at the apogee of their power.

We cannot, however, leave this topic without mentioning the utter hypocrisy of the AKP government on the question of its relation to the US. One of the members of the government wrote a column in a mouthpiece of the AKP, explicitly accusing the US for the coup. Evidence also indicates that there was a lot of active participation in the coup on the part of Turkish officers within the Incirlik base, from which joint operations are carried out to the rest of the Middle East. So the most logical thing to do for the government would be to immediately shut down the Incirlik base. But no, it still will do no such thing. What it is trying to achieve is to consolidate the support it already receives from the people by harping on their anti-Americanism and also to raise the pressure on America for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen. For the rest, Erdogan and the AKP are pro-American as well. At least for the time being.

Reactionary Militia Versus the People

The third question we wish to take up is the excitement caused by the image of people swarming on top of tanks, which to the eye uninitiated in the intricacies of Turkish politics may seem as a great democratic reaction on the part of the people. To pose the question in the most blunt manner, this was not the people at large. These people were the supporters of the AKP, supported to a large extent by the rank and file of the fascist party, the MHP. People of other sensibilities, whether the social democrats or the Kurds or the Alevis (the minority religious denomination oppressed by the Sunnis) or the militants and sympathizers of socialist parties, were, as a rule, absent. This is not because these latter are less sensitive to democracy and freedom than the rank and file of the AKP and the MHP. Quite the contrary. They have (even some social democrats) in the past been at the forefront of the fight for all kinds of rights under the most difficult circumstances. The Kurds and the left were the main forces persecuted by the 1980 coup. If they did not stand up against this coup by going out on streets, that is partly a reflection of their concern that there would no place for them among the militant forces of the AKP and the MHP, whose violence can easily turn on them although they were protesting the coup. But that is only partly the reason. The real reason is that the supporters of the AKP were really not fighting for democratic rights but for the future autocracy that Erdogan and his followers dream of. To put it in even blunter terms, the fight being waged on the streets between the forces of the putschists and the followers of the AKP was not a struggle between democracy and dictatorship but one between military despotism and fundamentalist Islamist-sectarian despotism. The social democrats, the Kurds, the socialists, let alone the Alevis, who are directly targeted by that sectarian despotism, have no place in those crowds. Not everyone who climbs atop a tank is a democrat. One should remember Boris Yeltsin, for instance, who fought a military coup in person, but then amply proved in his capacity of the president of the Russian Federation that he was no democrat.

We should also look into the composition of the AKP crowd. A sizeable minority of these people were armed. All men, they had come to assist the police according to their own statements. In many buildings that had earlier been taken over by the putschist forces, the fight to drive them out was waged by a combination of police officers and these civilians. Their activity is in our opinion akin to the activity of the paramilitary branch of a political party, such as Mussolinis or Hitlers armed militia. This has to be situated within the context of a new orientation on the part of Erdogan. Ever since the Gezi uprising Erdogan has systematically been building an array of paramilitary forces, ranging from the so-called Ottoman corps through reactionary Kurdish forces being prepared to fight the Kurdish movement to hardly disguised relations with notorious figures of the crime world. The coup pushed these paramilitary currents to test themselves unexpectedly early. The results show that the years of preparation were not in vain. The foot soldiers inside putschist troops, absolutely bearing no responsibility in the planning of the coup and largely helpless in the face of their superiors directions, were in some localities subjected to blatant torture and in some cases to lynching, suffering death at the hands of these murderers of the AKP.

It is true that there was a larger component of the AKP crowd that did not display characteristics of a paramilitary force. But they were totally committed to a program that is ideologically and politically reactionary through and through. We are of the opinion that masses almost brainwashed by reactionary or fascist movements cannot be characterized as people or the masses without further specification. The latter can only be invoked when there is an element of spontaneity in the movement one is looking at (irrespective of whether some may belong to different organizations). The AKP masses were tightly disciplined partisans.

It is also important to note that the outpour of people was, at least partially, a result of imams calling out from mosques to the people to summon them, in the name of religion and fatherland, to the hotspots of action. The unusual experience of imams calling Muslims to the fight must have acted, in all probability, to increase considerably the numbers participating. Again, this shows that the crowds on the squares were not the people at large, but the militants of a political party. To speak in the abstract of the people, ignoring the many determinations that shape each particular group of people, is not in order. It cannot be forgotten that these were the very same people who surrounded Erdogan when he arrived in Istanbul in the midst of the Gezi uprising to chant Tell us to kill and we will/Tell us to die and we will! They are the sworn enemies of freedom!

We do not for a moment forget that a majority of the people were against the coup, even among those who have suffered so much under Erdogan. In that sense, what has happened has ironically set a precedent for the future. Never before in Turkish history had this happened. Thus, contradictorily, it will serve as an example to more noble causes for resistance to forces trampling on democracy.

The Coup Is Dead, Long Live the Coup!

The reactionary nature of what has been salvaged from the coup attempt of 15 July is evident from what has been going on since that day. At the very moment when these lines are being written, the National Security Council, a body that brings together government members and the top brass, has finished an extraordinary meeting, to be seconded by a Council of Ministers, all to decide on extraordinary measures. Among the measures mentioned is the imposition of a state of emergency, although the final decision has not been made public yet.

The state of emergency gives the government and, in particular, the president of the republic such extensive powers that it is difficult to imagine any method of open and legal opposition to the AKP government in the foreseeable future. The provisions of the constitution in effect, a legacy of the military regime of 1980-83, stipulates the limitation or even the stoppage of the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms, with barely exceptions for the right to life and the presumption of innocence. The section on the state of emergency, as many other parts of the constitution, was arranged so as to extend the powers of the head of the junta, who also had himself elected president of the republic in plebiscitary manner during the popular vote on the constitution in 1982. This fits Erdogans ambitions perfectly well. It will mean ruling as an executive president even before circumstances permit a change of the constitution  Erdogans main objective will thus be fulfilled.

Thus the defeat of the coup has created a situation in which the AKP and Erdogan are finally succeeding to impose their will on the peoples of Turkey. One coup may be dead, but the other one is well, alive, and kicking.

Sungur Savran is based in Istanbul and is one of the editors of the newspaper Gercek (Truth) and the theoretical journal Devrimci Marksizm (Revolutionary Marxism), both published in Turkish, and of the web site RedMed. This article was first published by RedMed on 20 July 2016; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.






Police reports

KNIFE ASSAULT

Police were called to a credit union on Grand Avenue around noon Wednesday on a report of a man threatening the manager. William Daniels, 39, of Butte told the manager to stop bugging his girlfriend for writing bad checks. By the time police arrived, Daniels was at the probation office on Broadway Street  high on meth and threatening his probation officer with a knife, police said. Probation and parole officers had handcuffed Daniels before police arrived. Daniels faces felony charges for intimidation, assault with a weapon, and violating probation.

FELONY JOYRIDE

A man is accused of stealing a new 2016 Dodge Challenger from Buttes Mile High Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Kia lot on Harrison Avenue around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Police said 56-year-old Frank Kennedy of Medical Lake, Washington, returned the Challenger before police arrived, saying he was just taking it for a test drive. As he was fleeing the dealership, employees subdued Kennedy, who was arrested and charged with felony motor vehicle theft. Police said during his arrest Kennedy told them he would steal the car again when he got out of jail.

WARRANTS ARREST

Police responding to a street argument near Montana and Park at 2 a.m. Thursday arrested two people on active warrants. Butte residents Shayna Lamping, 21, and Brett Steele, 37, were each arrested on misdemeanor criminal contempt warrants and released from jail two hours later.
DILLON  Montana Shakespeare in the Parks will perform Richard III in Dillons Jaycee Park at 6 p.m. Monday, July 25.

The performance is part of the theater troupes 61 community tour through Montana, northern Wyoming, eastern Idaho, western North Dakota and eastern Washington.

Richard III will fit right into what is already an active political year, reminding us how Shakespeare stays relevant even 400 years after his death, executive Artistic Director Kevin Asselin said.

The company features 10 professional actors selected from national auditions who tour without technical assistance to bring live theaterto mostly rural communities. This summer, 66 percent of the communities reached by the troupe have populations of 5,000 or fewer.

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is an outreach program of Montana State Universitys College of Arts and Architecture. Performances this summer are supported by grants and corporate sponsorships as well as hundreds of individual donors.

Audiences are encouraged to bring chairs, blankets and a picnic dinner to the evening performance.

In the chance of inclement weather, the show will take place in in the Keltz Arena on the University of Montana Western campus.

Other performances in the area this summer:

Aug. 2  Boulder, 6:30 p.m., Loafing Barn at fairgrounds, Richard III

Aug. 12  Anaconda, 6 p.m., Washoe Park Pavilion, The Comedy of Errors

Aug. 13  Philipsburg, 6 p.m., Winninghoff Park, Richard III

Aug. 15  Deer Lodge, 6 p.m., Old Prison Grounds, Richard III

Sept. 1  Butte, 6 p.m., Original Mineyard, The Comedy of Errors
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is alerting the public to fishing restrictions on the Big Hole River effective Saturday as a result of high water temperatures. Restrictions on other southwest Montana rivers are likely in the near future.

The restrictions beginning Saturday will close the sections of river to fishing daily from 2 p.m. to midnight until conditions improve.

 The Big Hole from Saginaw Bridge on Skinner Meadows Road to the confluence with the North Fork Big Hole River

 The Big Hole River from Notch Bottom Fishing Access Site to the confluence with the Beaverhead River

Regional Fisheries Manager Travis Horton says biologists are continuing to see flows decline as summer progresses and the return of hot weather has resulted in the need for further restrictions.

Water temperatures have once again began to reach critical levels while flows have continued to decline. Big Hole River flows have reached thresholds where the drought plan is beginning to be implemented.

The Big Hole Watershed committee has started to inform irrigators that flow levels are declining, and will likely soon ask irrigators to reduce their water use. Area fishing outfitters are also being asked from their leadership to reduce activities on the river. And in the spirit of shared sacrifice, FWP is asking general anglers to likewise reduce fishing pressure on this river during these critical times. Instead, FWP recommends anglers seek out opportunities for fishing waters less susceptible to fish kills (i.e. high mountain lakes and reservoirs).
A new proposed plan concerning removal of the Parrot tailings would put the waste dirt on privately owned Montana Resources land  and the save the state nearly $400,000.

The new proposal, discussed at Thursdays Butte Natural Resource Damage Council meeting, also addresses relocation of the county shops. The shops, east of the Butte Civic Center, sit upon the mining contamination Parrot tailings and must be moved, according to the state.

The latest idea  moving the shops across the street to an area occupied by ball fields  has received mixed reviews.

State representatives told The Montana Standard that moving the county shops across the street will save about $2.5 million. The highest cost element to the tailings removal project is the relocation of the shops.

Its not a decision where money is no object, NRD attorney Harley Harris said in an earlier interview with The Montana Standard.

The projects costs are expected to run between $18 million to $23 million. EPA and Atlantic Richfield Company  which is the responsible party for mining contamination on the Butte Hill  say the removal is not necessary, so ARCO does not have to pay for the cleanup.

The state wont know the exact cost until construction bids go out  and that wont happen until all the details of the plan are ironed out between all the parties.

Harris said that if the construction bid comes in over the amount the state is expected to have in place for the removal  about $18.5 million  the state has two options: broker a deal with ARCO or find additional restoration money from the NRD.

When the governor announced the project, he indicated that others contribute. He hasnt changed that expectation, Harris said.

NRD environmental science specialist Pat Cunneen presented another potential change to the Parrot tailings removal plan  where the dirty dirt will go.

The state changed the location for the waste dirt in early June due to safety concerns. Now, instead of burying the contaminated waste beside the Berkeley Pit, the state, if the proposal is agreed upon, will dump the dirty dirt and Parrot tailings on Montana Resources property behind its office on Shields Avenue. That plan came from Montana Resources in cooperation with ARCO.

MR will then haul the contaminated waste to a leach dump on its property.

Harris said the proposal will likely take a few more weeks of negotiation before a final agreement is reached between the state and the companies. Another public meeting also will be held to discuss the deal.

Cunneen said the Parrot tailings, precipitated in the early 1900s, contain only .01 percent copper. But the soil beneath the tailings has up to 1.0 percent copper, according to a Bureau of Mines 2010 study.

Cunneen said the soil does not leach easily, so MR wont see a return on leaching it for another 20 to 40 years.

Mark Thompson, MRs manager of environmental affairs, said via email that MR proposed the new plan because the mining company saw its potential to be a win-win for Butte.

As we worked with the state on the Berkeley Pit dump plan (the waste would have been buried at the edge of the pit), the proposed option became more attractive because it was less complicated and less costly, and we were assured that the money saved would go to more local projects, Thompson said.

MRs new proposed agreement estimates that the state would save approximately $400,000. Most of those savings are because the state would not have to build a dump site beside the Berkeley Pit and the haul route is shorter.

In return, MR asks that the state put that $400,000 savings toward a project in Butte.

Cunneen said the money would go toward either Blacktail Creek or Silver Bow Creek.

Cunneen also said the other part of MRs request, in exchange for the work, was to see Butte made whole for the loss of the ballfield at the Civic Center.

The ballfield behind the Civic Center, regardless of what happens with the county shops, will be removed.

NRD is try to fulfill those (MRs) requests, Cunneen said.
CLEVELAND -- Delegates to the Republican National Convention are divided this week over a crucial question:

Should Hillary Clinton be summarily executed? Or merely imprisoned without trial?

Most favor the latter position, judging from the nightly chants of "Lock her up!" from the convention floor and the regular calls from convention speakers to outfit Clinton in a jumpsuit or stripes and place her behind bars.

But a minority would deal more decisively with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. On Wednesday, word broke in Cleveland that New Hampshire state Representative and Donald Trump delegate Al Baldasaro, who has shared the stage with Trump at campaign events, said in a radio interview that "Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."

The Republican nominee and his advisers themselves are split on the issue. "Hillary Clinton has to go to jail, OK? She has to go to jail," the candidate declared last month. "She's guilty as hell."

But his longtime adviser Roger Stone has long argued for more. "Hillary must be brought to justice -- arrested, tried and executed for murder," he tweeted two years ago. Stone suggested anew this week (at a rally also attended by Baldasaro) that Clinton murdered her friend Vince Foster.

In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is imprisoning his foes without trial. In Russia, enemies of Vladimir Putin have been killed. But in America, we usually deal with political opponents in elections.

Those at Quicken Loans Arena have other thoughts.

"Lock her up!" said Michael Flynn, retired general and Trump's national-security adviser, chanting with the delegates. "If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today."

"Lock her up," veteran Jason Beardsley, another convention speaker, concurred.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday night ignited the crowd by saying: "If she were any more on the inside she'd be in prison."

Darryl Glenn, Senate candidate and county commissioner in Colorado, told the convention-goers that "she loves her pantsuits" but "she deserves a bright orange jumpsuit."

Chris Christie, in his Star Chamber presentation to the convention Tuesday night, held a mock trial to "hold Hillary Rodham Clinton accountable."

"Lock her up!" the delegates chanted.

"We're getting there," Christie replied.

He and the audience went on to convict Clinton on numerous charges, including being "an apologist for an al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria, resulting in the capture of innocent young women."

Those surprised by this week's vengeful words probably weren't paying attention earlier.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen last month tweeted the allegation that Clinton "murdered an ambassador." Corey Stewart, chairman of Trump's Virginia campaign, accused Clinton of "essentially encouraging the murder" of police officers. Rocker Ted Nugent, a prominent Trump supporter, said Clinton and President Obama "should be tried for treason and hung."

Trump himself often speaks favorably of violence ("Punch him in the face. ... Knock the crap out of them") and has talked of using presidential powers to torture suspects, target innocent relatives of terrorists, restrict press freedoms, go after a judge presiding over a fraud case against him, and get the Justice Department to investigate opponents.

Is it OK for political figures to talk this way?

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who previously represented Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and other strongmen, doesn't seem to mind.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday morning about "how angry" the convention has been, Manafort replied, "The tone that I saw was of joy." Asked about the "Lock her up" chant, Manafort opined that "it probably reflects the attitude of a lot of people in America."

Reflects? Or encourage those who have violent thoughts of extra-constitutional remedies?

Calls for killing Clinton have been heard before at Trump events. At an event this month, one man repeatedly shouted, "Hang that b----!"

Last week, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Mike Folk, tweeted that Clinton "should be tried for treason, murder" and then "hung on the Mall in Washington."

At the Republican convention here, sales of "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts have been brisk. And the hateful have felt emboldened: Officials shut down the chat function on the convention's live-stream after a barrage of anti-Semitic comments.

Will the cries for blood and vengeance cause a backlash outside this angry convention?

"Hillary Clinton now belongs in prison? C'mon," Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz, a Never Trump holdout, tweeted Tuesday night. "We can make the case that she shouldn't be elected without jumping the shark."

Sorry, Fonzie. This shark was jumped many episodes ago.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank.

(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
It has been just over six years since President Obama signed his sweeping health care legislation into law, subjecting every American to federal mandates. How is it working out? Are your insurance premiums lower? Are your deductibles lower? Is it easier to get an appointment to see a physician? Were you able to keep your same physician?

The legislation was passed in such a fashion as to strain the boundaries of the Constitution so severely that the Supreme Court had to decide if several of its components were legal, including whether the costs to implement the legislation were considered taxes or just fees.

Call them whatever you want, the American people and the people of Montana have been paying dramatically more for health insurance ever since the passage of Obamacare. The Montana auditors office (review online at CSIMT.gov) released the new rate requests from insurance companies, and rates are increasing yet again. The proposed rate increases range from a whopping 20 percent to an unbelievably high 108 percent. In simple terms, that means your already-high insurance premium could be twice as high next year.

While the auditors office does not set rates, they do set policy; that policy affects price. The current auditors office has been a staunch advocate of President Obamas nationalized health care agenda, which has been a disaster for the people of Montana. The auditors office has refused to support options such as primary care provider agreements, health care sharing ministries, and increased competition across state lines for insurance. I have worked tirelessly in an attempt to pass many of these reforms while serving as majority leader in the Montana Senate. I believe that providing options  not mandates  is the best way to reduce costs and improve the quality of our health care.

Meanwhile, insurance companies are guaranteed a profit and their executives are receiving huge bonuses. Who is really looking out for you?

Montana will not see any meaningful change in the cost and delivery of health care as long as the same people continue to play musical chairs in the offices that are charged with watching over it.

-- State Sen. Matt Rosendale, R-Glendive, is the Montana Senate majority leader and a candidate for state auditor.
Butte-Silver Bow officials say their new proposed site for the countys vehicle and maintenance shops north of the Civic Center leaves lots of room for trees, green space, and a public stream while maintaining logistical advantages as well.

But Chief Executive Matt Vincent said although the site makes sense for several reasons, he is not beholden to his staffs recommended location and wants to get more public input on the shops issue.

I am not going to reach a conclusion until I hear more from the people of Butte, Vincent said Thursday, the day after members of the Restore Our Creek Coalition told commissioners the new proposal was crafted without anyone consulting them.

There are folks who need to digest what is on the table, Vincent said.

A public meeting on the issue is set for 5 p.m. Monday, July 25, at the Butte Archives, 17 W. Quartz St., and Vincent said no decision on the next course of action would be made until after that.

Earlier Thursday, Planning Director Jon Sesso, Public Works Director Dave Schultz, and Butte architect Steve Hinick went over details of the plan with The Montana Standard. Sesso and Schultz spoke about some aspects of it before commissioners and the public Wednesday night.

The shops must be moved because they sit atop polluted Parrot mine tailings that are set to be removed, and county and state officials want to at least get started on that before warm weather goes away.

They said shops at their new preferred location, which is just across the street to the north from their current spot, would be surrounded by grassed areas and trees.

The new plan includes expanded parking for the Civic Center. The current site of the shops would become acres of open, green space where Silver Bow Creek could flow if an adequate water supply is identified and made workable.

It would also keep the shops in an ideal central location in Butte, where vehicles such as snow plows, sand trucks and street sweepers could hit most areas of the city quickly. That would cut down on gasoline and other operational costs the county will incur for decades to come, they said.

This is about balancing all of the priorities associated with this decision, Sesso said.

He sent a letter to commissioners late last week saying the councils previously chosen site for the shops near the Metro Sewer plant off Centennial Avenue had fallen through. The owner of that land, Jim Gilman of Gilman Construction Co., decided not to sell.

The letter also made a case for the new location, but members of the Restore Our Creek Coalition said the recommendation was made without their input. They want to see Silver Bow Creek become a clean stream running through the heart of town and say they were not consulted about the new plan.

Many voiced anger and frustration before commissioners Wednesday night, and some said that when the tailings are removed, they should not be replaced with an industrial operation.

Sesso acknowledged the rollout of the proposal could have been better, but he, Schultz and Hinick said the new plan could satisfy wishes of the county, state and creek coalition members and other citizen activists.

A lot of the input that has been coming forth through these meetings of Restore Our Creek  finds itself directly onto the designing table in anything we are doing anymore, Sesso said. There is a hardwire connection.

For example, they said, most of the area where the shops are located now would become green, open spaces coalition members say they want. The creek channel  which has been dry for years  could be widened.

All of that leaves a huge footprint for all kinds of things in the future, Schultz said.

The site to the north of the Civic Center would be excavated first and cleared of mine tailings, and after the shops were moved, the area to the south would be cleared.

Unlike now, the shops at the new location would be surrounded by trees and grass and be offset from Civic Center Road. A main office building would be the first thing people see at the main entrance point off that street.

What that building would do is give the whole facility a nice, modern, good office-building look, said Hinick.

Areas that abut the railroad tracks on the north and east sides would be sloped gradually so they could support grass and other plants.

The state, which is paying for the shops to be moved, is OK with the plan, Sesso said. And they all said it fits practical purposes for the county.

It could save costs because its possible, given the proximity, that some structures on the current side could be rebuilt on the new spot. The layout of the buildings would be similar to the current site because that was designed so well, Schultz said.

But perhaps most importantly, the central location would cut down on operational expenses and allow sand trucks and snow plows to get in and out quickly to improve road conditions in bad weather. So it would not only cost taxpayers less to operate, it would enhance public safety, Schultz said.

Vincent said his staff was top notch and the plan was a darn good one, but he wanted to hear more.

Lets talk and make sure we all feel comfortable, he said.
The Muscatine County Board of Adjustment will conduct a public hearing on Friday, August 5, 2016, starting at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Office, Muscatine County Administration Building, 414 E. 3rd St., Muscatine, Iowa, to discuss the following:

Case #16-08-01. An application has been filed by Chad D. Eichelberger, Record Owner. This property is located in Lake Township, South of 205th Street, in the SE of Sec. 28-T77N-R3W, 1878 205th Street, containing approximately 43.34 acres and is zoned A-1 Agricultural District. This request, if approved, would allow the Zoning Administrator to issue a Variance in order for Mr. Eichelberger to continue his trucking business, Thompson Trucking, at this location. On July 8, 2016, the applicant requested to have this case tabled due to not having a full board.

Case #16-08-02. An application has been filed by Mildred M. Hora, Record Owner. This property is located in Orono Township, 2222 Blue Heron Avenue, West of Blue Heron Avenue, Part of Parcel A, in the NW of Sec. 5-T76N-R4W, containing approximately 2.42 acres, and is zoned A-1 Agricultural District. This request, if approved, would allow the Zoning Administrator to issue a Special Use Permit in order for Jimmy Hora and his family to place a rural residence on this property. On July 8, 2016, the applicants representative asked to have this case tabled due to not having a full board.

Case #16-08-03. An application has been filed by Richard T. or Susan K. Jones, Record Owners and Cynthia Johnson, Applicant. This property is located in Pike Township, at the corner of Hwy. 22 and Iron City Avenue, in the NE of Sec. 20-T77N-R3W, containing approximately 4.16 acres, and is zoned A-1 Agricultural District. This request, if approved, would allow the Zoning Administrator to issue a Special Use Permit in order for Ms. Cynthia Johnson to place an RV camper on property for use as a Seasonal Recreational Cottage.

Case #16-08-04. An application has been filed by Dennis P. or Susan K. Boorn, Record Owners. This property is located in Moscow Township, in the NE of Sec. 9-T78N-R2W at the end of E. Hinkeyville Drive, zoned A-1 Agricultural District, containing approximately 45 acres. This request, if approved, would allow the Zoning Administrator to issue a Special Use Permit in order to build a year round residence on this property.

Any interested party may correspond with us in time for the hearing, request additional information, or attend said hearing to express their views.

MUSCATINE COUNTY

BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT

Eric S. Furnas, Planning &

Zoning Administrator

Muscatine County Building ~

Zoning ~ Environmental Office

3610 Park Avenue West

Muscatine  IA  52761

Telephone 5632630482

FAX 5632884338
The Muscatine County Zoning Commission will conduct a public meeting/hearing on Friday, August 5, 2016, starting at 10 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Office, Muscatine County Administration Building, 414 E. 3rd St., Muscatine, Iowa to discuss the following:

Public Meeting - Zoning Agenda Item #01. Tripar 5 LLC, Record Owners Paul Null, James Crowder and Mike Shield, by Attorney John Hintermeister, request preliminary approval to replat Lot 18 of Margate Addition Replat Kent Estates, into five (5) residential lots. This property is located Bloomington Township, North of Cranbrook Cross, in the NE of Sec. 22-T77N-R2W, Lot 18, Margate Replat, Kent Estates, containing approximately 3.25 acres and is zoned R-2 Residential District.

Public Hearing - Zoning Agenda Item #02. Gary M. or Agnes M. Johnson, Record Owners, request to rezone their property from the current A-1 Agricultural District to the proposed R-1 Residential District. This property is located in Sweetland Township, North and East of Geneva Hills Road, in the NE of Sec. 20-T77N-R1W, containing approximately 21.90 acres and is currently zoned A-1 Agricultural District.

Public Hearing - Zoning Agenda Item #03. Jeffrey A. or Pamela R. Turkle, Record Owners, request rezoning their property from the current A-1 Agricultural District to the proposed I-1 Light Industrial District. This property is located in Fulton Township, South of Iowa Interstate Railroad, West of Vine Avenue, adjacent to the City of Stockton, in the NE of Sec. 5-T78N-R1E, containing approximately 0.39 acres, currently zoned A-1 Agricultural District.

Any interested party may attend said meeting/hearing to express their views or correspond with us in time for the hearing.

MUSCATINE COUNTY

ZONING COMMISSION

By Eric S. Furnas, Planning &

Zoning Administrator

Muscatine County Building ~

Zoning ~ Environmental Office

3610 Park Avenue West

Muscatine  IA  52761

Telephone 5632630482

FAX 5632884338
MUSCATINE, Iowa The Muscatine City Council approved the first reading Thursday night of an amendment stripping the mayor of her power to nominate citizens for seats on boards and commissions.

Councilman Tom Spread first made the request back in April for the city attorney to research changing the appointment authority for boards and commissions to the city council and the ability to appoint and remove the fire and police chiefs to the city administrator, subject to the approval of the city council.

Currently, the mayor holds those appointment and removal powers, subject to the approval of the council.

City Attorney Matt Brick drafted the code changes, and said the council could establish a nominating committee consisting of two city council members, the mayor, and the city administrator or his appointee to suggest board and commission members if the first reading of the code changes was approved.

Council approved the first reading of code changes by a 5 to 2 vote, with Council members Bob Bynum and Allen Harvey voting no. Bynum said he was opposed to the changes before the vote was held, and suggested that Mayor Diana Broderson could be provided training.

Why do we need to change something that isnt truly broken? We have a new mayor, she should be entitled to a few stumbles, Bynum said.

The mayor stated in an interview that she plans to veto the change, and the city attorney stated during the meeting the council would have 30 days to override any mayoral veto.

After approval, several citizens spoke to the council.

Hal Green, of Muscatine, suggested the code changes go to a referendum, allowing residents to vote on the changes during the general election in November.

People could have opportunity to say if it aint broke dont fix it, he said.

Green said he was speaking as a neutral outsider, however, he felt citizens should have input.

I feel like I dont have a voice, he said.

His final statement was met with applause from many of the approximately 20 citizens in council chambers for the meeting.

Please dont change things. Grow up, get over it, work it out, dont change, Green said.

Jean Clark echoed Greens desire for a referendum, and said if the council were to approve a nominating committee to handle appointment recommendations, she would ask only at-large council members be included.

Theyre the only ones we all get a say on, she said.

The city council also approved appointments to several boards and commissions as part of the consent agenda. Councilman Michael Rehwaldt moved to pull the appointments of Henry Marquard to the Civil Service Commission, and Robert McFadden and Gary Mowl to the Zoning Board of Adjustment from the consent agenda.

Councilman Scott Natvig then made a motion to table the appointments and Councilman Phillip Fitzgerald seconded. During the comments section of the meeting, Councilman Spread said there was a gender balance issue with the appointments.

The mayor said she was aware of the issue, and unforeseen circumstances led to the imbalance, which she understood could be corrected at a later date.

Prior to the meeting, Clark discussed a proposed appointment to the Board of Water, Electric, and Communications Trustees at Muscatine Power and Water that was brought before the council earlier in the year.

The mayor nominated Susan Johannsen for a seat on the board. That nomination was not approved by the council. The council approved the appointment of Keith Porter to the MPW board Thursday night.

Clark said she disagreed with a suggestion that members of that board should be lawyers, CEOs, and people with corporate experience.

People in Muscatine who do not have a six-figure income are facility consumers too, they deserve representation on this board, she said.

Clark said having only those representatives on the board would be limiting the boards perspective.

In essence youre telling Muscatine citizens who dont have six-figure incomes theyre dumb... I plan to work to elect city council members who will change this kind of elitist attitude, she said.

In other business, the council approved an updated schedule for commercial dumpster pickup, following the recommendations made by a Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry committee that would correct variances in the price charged.

Councilman Rehwaldt suggested there may be no need for the city to be in the commercial dumpster business, and the council decided to investigate entering into an agreement with a business to take over commercial dumpster refuse collection.
MUSCATINE, Iowa Ernie Peniston, who was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, will perform from 6-9 p.m. today at Ardon Creek Winery, 2391 Independence Ave., Letts.

His concert will be held as a fundraiser for the Muscatine County Arts Council. Ed Chamberlin, president of the arts council, said the early evening performance will provide families a chance to see the blues legend.

"It really is the perfect opportunity. People can take kids, and it's an opportunity for people who may not be able to see him in a bar or other venue," Chamberlin said.

He said the concert will be a "perfect fit." Funds raised will go to support programs and events provided by the arts council, including the Second Sunday Concert Series and programs designed to help promote the arts across the county.

The council meets every second Monday at First National Bank in Muscatine.

"We're always looking for new people who would like to join our group, that's how we generate new ideas," Chamberlain said.

For more information about the concert, call Ardon Creek at 563-506-8044, and for more information about the Muscatine Arts Council visit www.muscatineartscouncil.org.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Vacation Bible School will be held at Shepherd of the Cross Lutheran in Muscatine from 6-8 p.m. Aug. 7-10.

The theme is "Blessed to Be." Children from 3-years-old through 4th grade will explore how God has blessed them to be a hero, a servant and forgiven.

The cost is $5. For registration information, please contact Shepherd of the Cross at 563-264-0784.
WAPELLO, Iowa  Renovation of the Fred T. Schwob Boat Access in Wapello could begin this fall, following the approval of a $20,141 apparent low bid by the city council on Thursday.

The city submitted a $15,623 application to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Water Recreation Access Program in January 2015 and was later awarded the grant, which must be matched by a $5,208 contribution from the city.

It recently sought bids for the work, which will include replacing the existing ramp and installing a new one. The proposed project also appeared to include improvements to the existing parking lot, but city officials indicated that part of the project could be rebid later because not all the contractors who bid on the ramp replacement included bids for the parking lot.

River Construction Company, Wapello, submitted the low bid, while two other companies also submitted bids.

Holmes Concrete, Wapello, submitted a bid of $26,074; and Hoekstra Masonry, Tipton, bid $38,688 for the work. Initially, council member Larry Wagg said he was concerned about the high cost of the replacement work.

If were just talking boat ramp, all of them are high, he said.

Other city officials agreed the bids exceeded the $12,700 engineering estimate developed by Louisa County Engineer Larry Roehl as part of the original grant application.

However, city clerk Mike Delzell pointed out Roehls estimate was developed in 2014 and the price of concrete had likely increased over the past two years.

Council member Brett Shafer, who operates a construction firm, said he was familiar with all three bidders and comfortable with their proposals.

I dont have any problem with any (of them). Just looking at the boat ramp replacement, they are apples to apples, he said.

Mayor Shawn Maine agreed and said the city needed to move forward with the work.

Weve been waiting on this for a long time and a lot of people have worked on it, he said in urging a vote.

The council then unanimously approved accepting the boat ramp replacement bid from River Construction Company.

In other action, the council agreed to transfer$20,361 from the citys sewer fund to its sewer sinking fund to cover a regular bond payment.

The council also agreed to table action on purchasing a new tractor so Delzell can contact local dealers for bids that would include a cab and loader.

Council member Eric Small also reported the fire department had recently received a $65,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to purchase two defibrillators.

Small said one of the defibrillators would stay with the fire department while the second would be transferred to the Wapello Ambulance Service. The grant required a 5 per cent match, but Small said both organizations already had the match.

Council member Gene Arnold also suggested the city investigate a possible fall festival. He recalled Wapello Pancake Days had been held several years ago before the free pancake serving was incorporated into the Chief Wapello Days event, which is celebrated in July.

Officials suggested Arnold talk to local volunteers who have worked on other events.

In final action, local businessman Dean Jensen requested the city allow him to close part of downtowns Second Street on Aug. 26 for a benefit fundraiser. No action was taken, but city officials indicated they supported the idea. Jensen was advised to submit paperwork for the required permit.
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With the roll-out of fibre and VDSL in South Africa, we are finally catching up with the rest of the world in terms of broadband speeds.

Higher speeds support a new wave of online streaming services, such as Netflix and ShowMax, and quicker file downloads.

This results in users burning through more data than ever before, and without affordable ISP packages, users will not be able to exploit the joys of higher line speeds.

Fortunately, uncapped products are becoming more affordable in South Africa.

Here are some of the top ADSL and VDSL bandwidth consumers in South Africa  also known as bandwidth hogs  and how much data they go through in a month.

Afrihost

Afrihosts Top Uncapped Data Users Account Type Amount Of Data Used 40Mbps Business Uncapped VDSL 4,730GB 20Mbps Premium Uncapped VDSL 4,543GB 20Mbps Business Uncapped VDSL 4,358GB 40Mbps Business Uncapped VDSL 4,062GB 20Mbps Business Uncapped VDSL 2,811GB

Axxess

Axxesss Top Uncapped Data Users Account Type Amount Of Data Used 20Mbps Business Uncapped 3,369GB 20Mbps Premium Uncapped 3,226GB 20Mbps Business Uncapped 2,977GB 40Mbps Business Uncapped 2,682GB 10Mbps Premium Uncapped 2,542GB

Cybersmart

Cybersmarts Top Uncapped Data Users Account Type Amount Of Data Used 10Mbps Uncapped ADSL 1,287GB 10Mbps Uncapped ADSL 983GB 20Mbps Uncapped VDSL 937GB 10Mbps Uncapped ADSL 933GB 8Mbps Uncapped ADSL 921GB

Webafrica

Webafricas Top Uncapped Data Users Account Type Amount Of Data Used 10Mbps Home ADSL Uncapped 1,500GB 10Mbps Business Uncapped ADSL 1,400GB 10Mbps Home ADSL Uncapped 1,300GB 10Mbps Home ADSL Uncapped 1,300GB 10Mbps Home ADSL Uncapped 1,300GB

More on ADSL

How much money your ISP really makes from an ADSL account

How much traffic Telkoms ADSL network handles
isoHunt is reported to have resurrected KickassTorrents in the form of a mirror, with files from the last 18 months.

This follws the arrest of the founder of KickassTorrents, Artem Vaulin of Ukraine, by US authorities  which resulted in the website being taken down.

Vaulin has been charged with copyright infringement and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Following the outage on the usual KickassTorrents domain, a new .website domain was launched with a mirror of the torrent site.

Kat.cr is a website we all know and love, and the world will never be the same without it, the new KickassTorrents website manifesto states.

Thats why before it will come back, weve made the mirror of Kat.cr with all the torrents we could find. Its not perfect, but if you want to save and archive something, now is the time.

The website warns users that it does not know how long the mirror website will remain up, but says it is at least something.

More on torrenting

Google does not have to hide torrent search results

NBC wants to track BitTorrent pirates in real time
If youre struggling to find a specific Pokemon, or just want to know the locations of the rarest pokemon near you, PokeVision may be the solution.

There are a large amount of different Pokemon GO maps in circulation, but most of these use community-provided data in order to determine hotspots and Pokemon locations.

This can be a problem for South African Pokemon Trainers, as not enough data is present to provide a detailed map of Pokemon locations.

PokeVision solves this problem by drawing data directly from Niantics API, meaning that it can provide players with real-time, accurate data without relying on community input.

PokeVision runs in a browser window and is currently not available as a dedicated app on iOS or Android.

To check out the PokeVision real-time map, click here.

More gaming news

Nvidia reveals monstrously powerful Pascal Titan X

This Pokemon GO app lets you chat with nearby players

Amazing tech and gaming deals
The Telkom DGL Masters Series kicks off today, featuring the best Dota 2 teams in South Africa.

The tournament will take place from 22  24 July, and will feature eight of the best South African teams competing for a prize pool of R100,000.

The event will consist of an eight-team knockout tournament taking place over three days, with the Grand Finals taking place on Sunday.

Check out the tournament structure and schedule below:

Bravado vs Flipsid3 (14:00 22 July)

vs (14:00 22 July) Damage Control vs Carbon (19:00 22 July)

vs (19:00 22 July) Aperture Gaming vs Xperts at Total Chaos (09:00 23 July)

vs (09:00 23 July) White Rabbit Gaming vs Veneration E-Sports (14:00 23 July)

vs (14:00 23 July) Semi-Final 1 : Winner of WB 1 & 2 (19:00 23 July)

: Winner of WB 1 & 2 (19:00 23 July) Semi-Final 2 : Winner of WB 3 & 4 (10:00 24th July)

: Winner of WB 3 & 4 (10:00 24th July) Grand Final: Winner of WB 5 & 6 (15:00 24 July)

The Dota 2 DGL Masters Series will be streamed live online, and viewers in Cape Town can also watch the tournament at Ster Kinekor Cavendish cinema

Viewers can watch the action live below, or head over to the official stream.

More gaming news

The biggest games still coming this Winter

Popular video game franchises we will never see again

Watch what happens when this skateboarder crashes into a R3,550,000 Maclaren
A 10-unit apartment complex has gained the citys blessing, surviving a neighbors appeal.

Where city leaders saw a pocket of land to build sorely needed housing, some residents instead feared a source of congestion and danger to drivers and schoolchildren in a north Napa neighborhood.

Developers of the Byway East Apartments, east of Highway 29 and just south of Salvador Avenue, are clear to start work after the City Council rejected an attempt by Marc Levin to reverse the Planning Commissions approval last month.

Officials had supported the effort by Joe Rossi and Mike DeSimoni Jr. to bring rental homes to a vacant half-acre near single-family homes, a public school and a roadside gas station. However, Levin, a neighborhood homeowner, filed an appeal 10 days after city planners yes vote June 2, claiming its scale and location would violate zoning and design standards  and put people in danger on local streets and sidewalks.

Housing density standards in the Napa general plan mark the property as appropriate for seven to 10 dwellings. But Levin argued that when combined with other local development plans  including more housing, an expansion of the nearby Chevron station and increased enrollment from Salvador Elementary Schools conversion to a middle school  a 10-unit complex will make traffic levels and collision risks unacceptable.

You do have the ability to not make problems worse, he told council members. If you dont look at (projects) collectively, youre creating a potential future disaster like that five-way intersection that youre trying to unwind now.

City staff already has studied traffic patterns and seen no special risk in adding 10 households to the neighborhood, said Senior Planner Michael Allen, who described Napas general plan as a guide to development but not a laundry list of conditions that have to be met.

In a written response to Levins appeal before the meeting, he added that simply asserting that a list of projects in the area may cause significant effects does not equal evidence that a project should be blocked.

Rossi, the apartments co-developer, declared his project is playing by city rules, saying the property has been zoned for multi-family housing since 1998 and pointing to a nearby hotel, Brazilian-style steakhouse and other apartments that already have increased the areas density over the years.

Im not asking for anything special, he said. Ive met all the goals that I could.

After hearing out Levins case against the apartments  a stance shared by several other neighbors Tuesday  council members let the project go ahead, describing higher housing density as inevitable for land-scarce Napa.

Ive tried to put myself in your shoes, ask myself why you would appeal this, Councilman Peter Mott told Levin. (But) this has been on the books for 18 years; I struggle with saying that we wont look at multifamily housing at all. We need housing in this community, and there are communities that wouldve been far more units on that property. Single-family (homes) just arent going to happen.

Earlier, the council denied Levin a two-week delay in his appeal into August, which he sought because he said audio-video problems at City Hall prevented him from quickly gaining a full transcript of the Planning Commissions approval last month.

Byway East plans call for all units to contain two bedrooms and two bathrooms, in layouts of either 992 or 1,016 square feet. Wood, stucco and matte-finished corrugated metal would make up the exterior, which is being designed by the Napa architect Chris Craiker.

Rossi predicted last November that rents at Byway East could range between $1,500 and $1,800 per month, below the countys average of more than $2,100 for similarly sized dwellings at the time.

The property gained its zoning for apartment projects while owned by the family of the late Evert deLaat, a painting contractor who moved from Los Angeles to Napa in the 1970s. Title company records list Kulbir and Rajinder Dhillon as the sites current owners.
A few Tuesdays ago, I picked up the Napa Valley Register and read with a heavy heart the headlines. County approves Walt Ranch (June 14). I was not surprised. I feel certain that the Halls had the best environmental impact report that money could buy, with mitigation's that would make Machiavelli proud. Mr. Morrison director of planning, building and environment has assured locals that the adverse effects stated in the Walt Ranch environmental impact report can be mitigated.

While the Walt Ranch environmental impact report is impressive, it is only a smokescreen for the actual damage that will be done to the watershed.

At first glance, the Walt Ranch vineyard may not sound like a big threat to the watershed. But the ecosystem that makes up the watershed is a fragile thing. In the web of life, all things are connected. The plants, the animals, the water and the humans must stay in balance in order to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

The restructuring of 500 acres is a large swath of land to dedicate to yet another vineyard development. To entertain the idea that this 500 acres would not affect both future vineyard developers and Napas already affected ecosystem is not debatable.

If the Halls Walt Ranch proposal is approved, it will set precedent for other vineyard developers to do the same. Every vineyard developer will want a slice of the Napa watershed pie. Remember the thousand acres of watershed already owned by the Hall family currently designated as open space? Down the line, that too can legally be sold in separate parcels; it will continue to have the potential for future development.

It is only a matter of time before the watershed will be too fragmented to function as nature intended.Our watersheds will gradually be whittled away, with a little bit here and little bit there. But the Walt Ranch is not just a little bit. Five hundred acres with more than 25,000 trees being cut down is a massive chunk of watershed.

At an April hearing, Katherine Hall made the following statement, This is a proposal to plant a vineyard in a county zoned area for agriculture in Napa Valley and nothing more. Maybe for Mr. and Mrs. Hall it is nothing more than that -- to cut down 25,000-plus trees and irreversibly alter more than 500 acres.

But for those of us who feel strongly about the watersheds and wish to preserve them in their natural state, the watersheds are much more than just another piece of land zoned for agriculture. Raping the hillsides in the name of agriculture may be legally permissible but it is morally wrong- a crime against nature.

Nature is fighting multiple offenses not only from man but from disease. Sudden oak death is a topic addressed recently by the Napa Valley Register. The Register quoted a UC Davis study: Tree disease might be unstoppable. Sudden oak death has surged beyond control in California ... the state should have started fighting it back in 2002 the report is not entirely hopeless (suggesting) fighting the disease on a small scale to slow its growth by focusing on restoring small local forests.

And what is Napa considering doing? It is considering permitting a large vineyard development in the Vaca watershed -- a development that proposes to remove many thousands of trees (e.g. the Walt Ranch.) Do people (the Halls) who propose these developments in our watersheds really care about the potential environmental impact they are making?

It makes one question whether the Halls are as environmentally sensitive as a neighbor of theirs indicated.

Some people do care about preventing that impact, as was shown by the initiative to protect these lands. It is sad that the proposed initiative to protect the streams and watersheds has been halted over a technicality. Hopefully, any technical issues can be resolved before November.

Thoreau had his Walden Pond to nourish his soul; let us have our watersheds to nourish ours. We can learn much mentally, physically and spiritually from our watersheds. Let them rest in peace.

With the bit-by-bit depletion of watersheds and natural habitats, Napa is losing its soul. Lets not turn it into just another glitzy tourist attraction.

Nadean Bissiri

Napa
Seeing a restored vintage travel trailer in the woods at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park just evokes memories, according to Dan Cutright, board member of the Napa County Landmarks.

Its even better when you can go in the trailers, look around and talk to the owners. You feel like you just stepped into a time-warp, Cutright said.

He is the event coordinator for a gathering of vintage travel trailers, to be held from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. Its sponsor is Napa County Landmarks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architectural treasures throughout the county.

Cutright said he expects 16 vintage trailers to show up for the event, and maybe one or two more. He said there will be a nice cross-section of model years and makes but also different styles of classic RVs.

There will be a couple of tear-drop trailers, he said, They are the little low-slung things you see, they are basically sleeping compartments on wheels, with an outdoor galley on the back. He is also expecting a classic tent trailer from the 1960s, a few classic Airstream trailers, with the oldest going back to the early or mid-1950s, as well as some from the 1960s.

One of the most unusual trailers that will be pulled to Bothe is a 1936 Covered Wagon, which is a brand name. This one belongs to a friend of ours and it is very original, he added. Its also unique in that it is 80 years old and as a wooden trailer, it still exists.

Cutright explains, A lot of trailers were made from wood and other materials. Over the decades, they stood out in fields and were exposed to the elements. They would not hold up, and would basically disintegrate.

In talking classic travel trailers, the names youll see include Airstream, obviously, because its the best-known, but also Liberty, Golden Falcon, Shasta Compact, Curtis Wright, Boles Aero, Aljoa, Bowlus and Traveleze. Other trailers coming to the rally include those in a category that is called canned hams. Again, Cutright explains, Imagine a canned ham put on its side with a set of wheels put on it. Our trailer is in that category.

Daniel and Susan Cutright have been a part of the vintage travel trailer scene for the past 15 years, which includes attending rallies all over Northern California. At first, they owned a 1954 Traveleze that was 15 feet long. They found it locally and had it restored in 2000 by a professional classic trailer restorer in Los Angeles.

Thats how we got into it, Cutright said. I spent less money doing that than it would have cost me to buy a new, cheap little Coleman tent trailer and I have something far more unique.

A year later, the Cutrights were on a weekend trip with friends and went through Bishop. Dan said he spotted an old trailer sitting on some property as they drove by. We recognized the graphics of the trailer and it turned out to be a 21-foot Traveleze, which has an important advantage over the smaller ones: It has a full bathroom.

In the vintage trailer world, you see a lot of canned hams from the early to mid-50s, but typically the 15-foot variety dont have bathrooms, Cutright said.

Long story short, they talked to the property owner and bought the trailer for $300. We had to go back there, get it tow-worthy and bring it home, Cutright said.

The larger Traveleze was called a park model, because it was originally designed to be hauled to a campground and parked. It actually has all the comforts of home, Cutright said. It has an apartment-size gas stove and oven, a very small full bathroom, a metal stall shower, sink and cabinet, an onboard electric water heater and electric refrigerator. All of the appliances in our trailer are original and they all work, which is unusual, he added.

After bringing the trailer to St. Helena, the Cutrights spent about 18 months restoring it. My wife and I put a lot of sweat equity into it. All of the system stuff was retrofitted and when we restored it and we added a holding tank and retrofitted the plumbing, effectively making it a weekender.

The metal fabrication was done by someone Cutright went to school with. He actually enjoys doing it, because its a break from what he normally does, which is building race cars.

The Cutrights go to three or four rallies a year, including one in Felton, and another at the KOA Park in Petaluma, where 150 to 200 trailers are on display. Usually, at multiday rallies, the public is welcome to come tour the trailers on Saturday.

People like to hang out, bring a picnic and walk around, he added. People just have an interest in old trailers, maybe they tried to acquire one, or they grew up camping in one, or they just are interested in the hobby and want to talk to the owners.

So, as an owner of a vintage trailer, does Cutright own a vintage tow vehicle as well? No, he said, he made that mistake once, when he owned a 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer.

It had the classic look, but we took it on a long road trip and I had all kinds of problems with it. My wife informed me that was the last time she was going in that vehicle. So now, I tow my trailer with a late-model GMC pickup truck, Cutright said. I like getting there and getting home.
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Using an Instagram post to bid farewell to his digital fans, Hubbard poured his soul out, explaining why he made the personal decision to no longer post on social media and will leave all public updates to the Florida Georgia Line and Kelley accounts. In relevant part, Hubbard assured his fans he is not stepping out of the spotlight; just logging off from this particular place in the worldfor now. buy albuterol online https://buyinfoblo.com/albuterol.html no prescription

I love my fans and promise Im not gone forever but Im taking some time to refocus on my relationships, the Lord, my marriage, my family, and my music.

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Five years ago today, former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland visited a dreary Utya Island. The ground was wet, so she borrowed the green rubber boots belonging to a young girl called Bano Rashid, a member of the Labour Partys youth wing. A simple and friendly gesture in the spirit of Utya.

Meanwhile, in the government quarter, men and women,

known for their expertise and competence,

were getting on with their important duties.

Utya was still the most peaceful place on earth.

Enthusiastic young people were discussing politics.

Minor injuries were dressed after fun and games.

Couples met and walked together on the path known as the Lovers Path.

***

Suddenly, the peace was broken. We were under attack.

First the government quarter, eight lives were lost.

While still in shock, we received the first messages from Utya.

The Labour Partys youth wing, the Labour Party and Norway all lost 69 lives that day.

Brutally gunned down and killed

The young people we lost had their whole lives in front of them.

Birthdays, marriages, children were still unwritten chapters.

They were going to fight for matters they believed in, experience both victory and defeat.

Lifes moments of joy and challenges were still on the horizon.

All torn away from them.

Families lost their loved ones.

Many of us lost our friends.

Norway lost 77 irreplaceable lives.

But the brutalities of that day also brought out the best in our country.

The volunteers who risked everything to save others.

The health services that saved the lives of so many.

The police and rescue teams who were faced with their most trying moments.

The judiciary who firmly believed in the rule of law in the difficult months that followed.

The bereavement support group who helped those who had lost their loved ones cope with the sorrow and anger with dignity and care.

The rose march tribute that brought Norway together and where sharing our sorrow and solidarity only made us stronger.

22 July brought forth what we want to be, individually and in concert.

Norway, our little country, passed the test.

Thank you all.

***

But the bitter and dearly purchased chapters are also part of history.

The descriptions we received of what and where we had failed were plain and honest.

The lessons learned bring with it an obligation.

***

Sorrow is a long road.

Wounds inflicted by terror never heal.

Scars never fade.

We never get over the pain of our loss.

But like our writer Lars Saabye Christensen wrote:

I see: the sorrow is of a solid material

We are the blacksmiths of sorrow, we hammer it,

We twist it, we bend it and we shape it.

Until we realise: the sorrow cannot diminish the past."

***

The terror hit innocent people.

Randomly, but not blindly.

It sought to undermine the core of our democracy.

The government quarter  the very symbol of our democracy.

Young politicians at a summer camp. What better way of depicting their involvement and social responsibility?

The next generation of political leaders.

It was an attack against a society built on trust and transparency.

***

22 July has left a permanent scar on our history.

But the brutal reality is that there are many more dates.

Brussels 22 March

Orlando 12 June

Nice 14 July

Paris 7 January and 13 November

Ankara 17 February, 13 March and 10 October

In Kabul and Baghdad nearly every week.

The terror shall be fought.

With intelligence, police and military force.

But also with values.

It will take time,

but we will win,

Because our values are supreme.

Freedom is better than unfreedom.

Tolerance is better than intolerance.

Respect for life is better than contempt for life.

***

After 22 July, we defended our open and democratic society.

It safeguarded us against violence.

It became our shield.

The values under attack were the same values that we wanted to protect.

They became our defence.

***

Before Mrs Brundtland left the island she returned the rubber boots to Bano.

Bano died on Utya, but she and the others continue to live within us  and with us.

We honour them by displaying even more openness and democracy.
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Emory alumnus and Dollar Shave Club co-founder and CEO Mike Dubin built his company on laughs. The companys viral videos use humor to drive consumers from drugstore aisles to the Internet for razor blades and other grooming products.

On Tuesday, consumer products giant Unilever announced its purchase of Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion.

It was a flight we didnt want to miss, Dubin told the Los Angeles Times.

According to the report, the company will maintain its autonomy and gain resources to expand beyond its current markets of the United States, Canada, and Austraila.

Dollar Shave Club is an innovative and disruptive male grooming brand with incredibly deep connections to its diverse and highly engaged consumers, said Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever North America, in a press statement.

Dubin was the keynote speaker at the first Emory Entrepreneurship Summit, organized and hosted by Goizueta Business School. He outlined the company vision, which goes beyond affordable mail order razors.

You might think of us as the company that ships affordable razors on the Internet, but that is not what we do, Dubin said at the summit. We actually help the world be better for guys by solving their problems.

Most people think shaving kind of sucks. Its not very fun. Our thing is lets make that as fun as possible, as painless as possible. In the same way that Starbucks took a ritual and built a culture around it, we want to build a culture around shaving.

Embracing that larger picture started early. While at Emory, Dubin took an early version of a course taught by Joey Reiman, who is considered the father of ideation, in the business school. The undergraduate program has subsequently produced countless students who have developed a keen understanding of the connection between business purpose and world needs by taking a version of the same class.
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BENGALURU: Infrastructure Company, Riverbed Technology expands its new global R&D team in Indiaat Bangalore. The largest hub outside the U.S., this new R&D center will be led byKartikSubbanna, Vice President of Engineering. The extended team will be dedicated in solving the fundamental challenges faced by the businesses associated with information technology (IT) performance across wide area networks (WANs). It also announces the three-fold extension of the local engineering team in order to accelerate delivery of next generation cloud networking and application performance solutions worldwide.

Commenting on the expansion, Jerry M. Kennelly, Chairman & CEO, Riverbed Technology, says, At our core,we are an engineering company that builds its own technology, and India is a central player in ourstrategy of global shared development. The availability of world class talent, advanced infrastructure andproximity to other fast-growing emerging markets of the world are key reasons behind this. Thedecision to open the new facility in Bangalore reinforces India as a global R&D hub for Riverbedone that will play a vital role in the future of the company.

2002 born Riverbed delivers the platform for the hybrid enterprises to ensure high performance of the applications which in turn gives competitive advantage to the businesses by maximizing employee productivity and leveraging IT to create new forms of operational agility. Since going private in April 2015, the company is dedicating 15 percent of its revenue in R&D for innovating new products to address the demand for a different approach in networking.

Speaking about current challenges & opportunities, NagendraVenkaswamy, Managing Director, India & South Asia, Riverbed Technology says, Starts are just aligned. Equipments of Riverbed are being used by Government Sector, Banking Sector and Healthcare Industry.The Government initiative in the field of digitization has played a crucial role

Presenting his views on the upsurge of cloud and hybrid IT environment, NandanNilekani, formerChairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, and co-founder & former chief executive of Infosys states, We live in an era of great disruption  and it is only through the strategic use of technology thatbusinesses can evolve at the speed and scale needed to thrive. Riverbed has embraced this change, and has transformed its own businessin order to help organizations better seize opportunities in the digital era.

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Recalling the historic month of July 1991 of "dramatic measures" to rescue India from balance of payments crisis, former Planning Commission Vice Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday said that as an economist, he was not for "big bang" reforms. "We are a large and democratic country and there is no harm in trying to build as much of a consensus as possible," Ahluwalia, who was commerce secretary at the time, said in an interview to Governance Now to mark 25 years of economic reforms. He cited China's former "paramount leader", Deng Xiaoping's dictum that "the best way of crossing a river is by feeling the stones" in this regard. Deng, who is considered the architect of a new brand of socialist thinking, combining Communist Party ideology with a pragmatic adoption of market economy practices, also famously said: "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice." Decrying what he called "opportunistic reform" or "reform by stealth", Ahluwalia also said democratic institutions should not be blamed for the failures in achieving consensus. "We need leaders who will try to explain the logic of what they are doing to the people. A more informed debate will produce better results," he said. On that July in 1991, Ahluwalia said it is difficult today to imagine the scale of that crisis. "The crisis was really severe. We had run out of foreign exchange, the rating agencies had downgraded us and imports had to be squeezed so severely that GDP growth dropped to 1.4 per cent in 1991-92," he said. Noting that speedy decision-making was the need of the hour, Ahluwalia said "a slew of drastic and dramatic measures were announced that July, allowing then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh to use the opportunity of the crisis to push structural reform". "Dr.Singh didn't just act to control the crisis. He rightly chose to pursue structural reforms, without which the economy would never be able to grow rapidly. "Most people have no idea what an absurd control system we were running, with the government interfering in all sorts of decisions which were better left to the private sector responding to the market," said Ahluwalia, who has also served as the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund. "The lesson is we need much faster decision making with less shuffling of files and ministers taking responsibility," he said. On July 1, 1991, the Reserve Bank of India announced a sharply lowered rate for the rupee at nine per cent lower than the previous day's levels. Two days later, the RBI devalued the currency by another 11 per cent, while the twin devaluation marked the beginning of a complete overhaul of the economy as also of the currency markets. "We had to tackle the exchange rate at the start because there was a lot of speculation on the rupee's future. And if we had not acted creatively then, the whole system would have been impacted with dire consequences," Manmohan Singh said in an interview later to the Indian Express. Twenty-five years on, India's current foreign exchange reserves stand at a record of over $360 billion, according to the RBI, while the country is now a $2 trillion-plus economy, which is more than six times the size it was in 1991. --IANS bc/vd ( 570 Words) 2016-07-22-17:46:00 (IANS)
Lok Sabha MP Bhagwant Mann's video on social media showing details of his entry into parliament was widely condemned by Rajya Sabha MPs on Friday, who demanded strict action against him. The issue led to a ruckus and adjournment in the upper house where members across party lines said it was a compromise with the security of Parliament. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP on Thursday shot a video clip of the journey from his residence to Parliament House, including going past the various security pickets, and uploaded it on the social media, drawing flak from various quarters for putting the security of Parliament House in peril. "He went through the security an put everything on social media," Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) member Naresh Gujral said. Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien pointed out that the member belonged to the Lok Sabha and that house should take up the issue. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Mann's action could give out details of Parliament security to terrorists. "You are giving all details to the terrorists... And he said he will post more such videos," said the minister. "This is not a technical issue it is an issue of national security. There should be action against the person who did this," he said. Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it was a "major threat" which should not be overlooked. Congress leader Anand Sharma said during the 2001 Parliament attack, the terrorists had lost their way. "Our Parliament has seen a dastardly attack. They came from gate number 12, but lost their way. Our watch and ward staff was alert and they shut the doors. The firing was on while the Prime Minister and whole Cabinet was in this house," he said. "The security procedures have to be a secret," he said, adding that the Lok Sabha should take action against the MP. Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said it was also a matter of breach of privilege. "It is also a matter of privilege. What I am saying in this house is also a privilege which is not to be disclosed in public unless decided so. Action should be taken and the chair should convey our sentiment to the other house," he said. The discussions led to a ruckus, and ruling BJP members then trooped near the Chairman's podium, after which Kurien adjourned the house till 12 noon. When the House met again, the scene was no different and Ansari then adjourned the House till 2.30 p.m. The video, posted by Mann on Thursday morning, shows him entering Parliament and he explains how the radio tag on his registered car allows him to enter the complex. He then shows his way inside to the notice office of Lok Sabha on the ground floor of Parliament complex, and the procedure of submitting and selection of questions. --IANS ao/bim/vm ( 491 Words) 2016-07-22-12:52:03 (IANS)
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thirumavalavan today wished that Chief Minister V Narayanasamy should win the by-election to become a member of the territorial assembly and rule Puducherry for complete five year term. Addressing a press conference here, Mr.Thirumavalavan substantiated his wish by stating that Mr.Narayansamy was a former Union Minister in the Prime Minister's office and Puducherry could flourish under his rule. Puducherry could prosper only with the assistance of Centre and Chief Minister was well aware on how to keep relationship with the Union Government, he added. Greeting Lt.Governor Kiran Bedi for her active functioning, the VCK leader said she had realized that her post was not a 'decorative' and if the situation prevails in other states, the governments could be a competent one, he said. Demanding that the Local Body election in the Union Territory be conducted forthwith, Mr.Thirumavalavan said the election in Tamil Nadu should be held by providing reservation on the basis of the 2011 census. He said Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments should release a list for the closure of liquor shops in a phased manner and added the announcement that a total prohibition is not possible in Puducherry is painful. He said on August 17, an "anti-communal" conference will be organised in Chennai. A demonstration will be held in Chennai on July 25 to condemn the BJP leader remarks against BSP leader Mayawathi and also the attack on four dalit youths in Gujarat. Mr.Thirumavalavan also demanded that the Tamil Nadu government should take steps for the waiver of the agricultural loans of farmers in the state. He said the Tamil Badu budget was 'disappointing' with no schemes for the welfare of downtrodden.UNI PAB CS 1250 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-849259.Xml
The government has set up a Registration Committee (RC) under Insecticides Act, 1968 which registers pesticides after considering the data on different parameters like chemistry, bio-efficacy, toxicity, packaging and processing to ensure efficacy and safety to human beings and animals, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. In a written reply, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Sudarshan Bhagat said, ''There are 272 technical pesticides registered under Insecticides Act, 1968 which has been enacted to regulate the import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides with a view to prevent risk to human beings or animals and for matters connected therewith.'' If pesticides are used as per approved label claims, they do not cause any hazard to human beings, live-stock among others, he said. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India fixes Maximum Residues Limits of specific crops. No pesticide is registered without fixation of "Maximum Residue Limit" for the crop on which it is intended to be used, Mr Bhagat informed. Also, the Central government has started a scheme "Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level" under which samples of food commodities are collected and analysed for the presence of pesticide residues, Mr Bhagat said. Implementation of the Insecticides Act , 1968 is the responsibility of both, Central and State governments. The Centre is responsible for registration of insecticides whereas, the state governments are responsible for enforcement of the provisions relating to sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides. The Central and state governments are jointly responsible for quality control, Mr Bhagat informed.UNI SY SB/RSA 1553 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0093-849576.Xml
After sacked BJP leader Dayashankar's wife accused BSP leaders of abusing and traumatising the family, Mayawati today defended her party workers 'wrath' saying it's only when BJP leader's kin felt the pinch,did they understand the pain caused by insult of woman. Talking to mediapersons outside the Parliament, the BSP Supremo said, she heard what Dayashankar's wife said, she asked her party workers to refrain from using any derogatory language against his family.However she said, "It is only when Dayashankar wife, mother and daughter were insulted did they understand the insult of women".Mayawati said that her party workers were forced to retort as they were agitated due to the silence maintained by Dayashankar mother, wife and daughter while she was being insulted and to make them feel the same her party workers retaliated.The family of Dayashanker Singh was agitated over the derogatory language used by the BSP leaders against his wife and daughter and they have announced to register FIR against the BSP leaders.Swati Singh,wife of Dayashanker, alleged "such threatening by the BSP against a woman and a girl also amounts to a crime like my husband did. BSP people are publicly making statements saying 'Unki patni, beti ko pesh karo' sending my daughter in a trauma," she said while announcing to lodge FIR against BSP leaders. "She also said that BSP president Mayawati should be held responsible for any mishappening on her family."My husband got expelled from party, FIR was lodged against him even after he apologised but still Mayawati ji is not satisfied," she told UNI questioning "what BSP leaders are saying, is it not condemnable? Shouldn't such people be also removed from the party?"UNI RG-RBE JW0235 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0427-849396.Xml
Aam Aadmi Party's Lok Sabha member Bhagwant Mann's video on social media showing details of his entry into Parliament House was widely condemned on Friday by Rajya Sabha members, who demanded strict action against him. The proceedings in the upper house were stalled for the day, as ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members trooped near the Chairman's podium shouting slogans and demanding Man's dismissal from the house. The AAP MP on Thursday uploaded a video clip of his entry into Parliament House, including going past various security pickets, and drew thick flak from various quarters for putting the security of Parliament House in peril. The controversial video was on Mann's Facebook page till Friday morning, and was removed later in the day. "He went through the security and put everything on the social media," Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) member Naresh Gujral said. Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien pointed out that the member belonged to the Lok Sabha and that house should take up the issue. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mann's action could give out details of Parliament security to terrorists. "You are giving all details to the terrorists... And he said he will post more such videos," said the minister. "This is not a technical issue. It is an issue of national security. There should be action against the person who did this," Naqvi said. Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it was a "major threat" which should not be overlooked. Congress leader Anand Sharma said during the 2001 Parliament attack, the terrorists had lost their way. "Our Parliament has seen a dastardly attack. They came from gate number 12, but lost their way. Our watch and ward staff was alert and they shut the doors. The firing was on while the Prime Minister and the whole Cabinet was in this house," he said. "The security procedures have to be a secret," he said, adding that the Lok Sabha should take action against the MP. Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said it was also a matter of breach of privilege. "It is also a matter of privilege. What I am saying in this house is also a privilege which is not to be disclosed in public unless decided so. Action should be taken and the Chair should convey our sentiment to the other house," he said. The discussions led to a ruckus, and ruling BJP members then trooped near the Chairman's podium, after which Kurien adjourned the house till 12 noon. When the house met again, the scene was no different and Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House till 2.30 pm. Post-lunch, as Deputy Chairman Kurien tried to take up the private members' bills, BJP members once again trooped near the Chairman's podium. Anand Sharma hit at the ruling party for disrupting the house, and said: "The leader of the house should inform what action is being taken. If he (the erring member) has to be arrested, it will be done by the government." Kurien also questioned why the ruling party members were disrupting the proceedings. "Treasury benches are obstructing (the proceedings)... usually it is the opposition. Today you are disrupting..." he said. As the protests continued, the house was adjourned for the day. The video, posted by Mann on Thursday morning, shows him entering Parliament House complex and he explains how the radio tag on his registered car allows him to enter the complex. He then shows his way inside to the notice office of the Lok Sabha on the ground floor of Parliament complex, and the procedure of submitting and selection of questions. --IANS ao/bim/vt ( 615 Words) 2016-07-22-16:24:01 (IANS)
"During routine patrolling along the India-Bangladesh border on early Friday morning, BSF jawans asked a group of cattle thieves to stop proceeding towards Bangladesh. The jawans opened fire when the smugglers didn't obey the order," a BSF official said.

The official said the woman's body was later recovered from Tarapukur village along the India-Bangladesh border.

On the other hand, villagers complained to police that some BSF men tried to molest Maya Khatun and later shot her dead.

"No written complaint has been received yet," an official of the Sonamura police station told IANS over phone.

Senior police and BSF officials rushed to the spot, 65 km south from here, to pacify a mob agitating after the woman's death.

Tripura has a 856-km long India-Bangladesh border, with a little over 85 per cent of it fenced.

--IANS sc/tsb/bg

( 190 Words)

2016-07-22-16:30:10 (IANS)
Dark Chocolate, directed by Agnidev Chatterjee,will be premiered at the Festival of Globe (FOG) in the SiliconValley, San Francisco, California on August 13.Produced by Pradip Churiwal, the movie is a fictional take on the gruesome murder of Sheena Bora.FOG is one of the biggest festivals for the Indian diaspora in the US. Organised by Festival of Globe and Federation of Indo Americans, a Non-Profit Organisation, FOG features the best of world cinema with agateway to Silicon Valley that fosters creative and technical talent.Actor Mahima Chowdhury, who will be the guest of honour at the premiere said, "Looking forward to seeing the movie being premiered at FOG. I am quite excited about the entire thing".Director Agnidev Chatterjee said: "It is a great honour to see themovie being premiered at FOG. It is one of the most prominentfestivals in America. I am hopeful that the people will love themovie. It is a take on lure of money, power and crime."Besides Mahima, Riya Sen plays a significant role in the movie, alongwith Rajesh Sharma, Mumtaz Sorcar, Indrashis Roy, Kaushik Sen and Sudip Mukherjee.UNI PC PL JW VN1603 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0138-849649.Xml
Kerala High Court Judges--- P K Ramachandran Menon, P N Raveendran and District Judge V Shircy today met the representatives of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) at Press Club here in connection with the assault on mediapersons at Vanchiyoor Court last evening. An understanding was reached against the yesterday's violent incidents besides opening of a media room inside the Vanchiyoor Court premises. The meeting also decided to form a permanent committee under the chairmanship of District Judge and members from journalists. The judicial team reached the capital city to investigate the violent incidents. They also met the office bearers of bar association to put an end to the violence. The team also visited the Medical College Hospital and met Vice-President of Trivandrum Press Club and Kerala Kaumudi Flash Bureau Chief P Rejeev, who had sustained serious head injury in the stone pelting by advocates at the Vanchiyoor Court, and took his statement. The clash broke out after the media persons reported the arrest of government pleader Dhanesh Mathew Manjooran, accused of molesting a woman. Following the attack by advocates, the Supreme Court Chief Justice directed Supreme Court Judge Justice Kurien Joseph to solve the issues. The Supreme Court also directed the Kerala High Court to open a Media Room inside the High Court premises.UNI DS CS 1655 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0324-849681.Xml
Spain, Germany and Italy helped Vodafone to produce stronger than expected first-quarter sales growth despite a drag from European Union roaming charge cuts and a weak home market.The world's second-largest mobile operator said on Friday Europe was stable, with three out of its four biggest markets doing well. Europe only returned to growth for Vodafone in the final quarter of 2015/2016 after five years of contraction due to sluggish economies in the region.The notable exception was Britain, where Vodafone has been trying to fix problems encountered with a new billing system. The company also said it was too early to tell what Brexit would mean for Vodafone's business.Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said the group was making good progress in Europe, led by Germany, Spain and Italy. "We are focused on improving our performance in the UK," he said.Vodafone's performance marked an eighth consecutive quarterly rise in its main growth measure - organic service revenue."This momentum should steadily raise confidence in the sustainability of the recent return to growth, and underpins our belief that this growth profile is now top-tier amongst the incumbent Telco universe," JP Morgan Cazenove said in a note.Shares in Vodafone topped the FTSE 100 gainers. They were trading up 4.5 percent at 235.5 pence by 0858 GMT.Analysts at Citi said they saw the 2.2 percent rise in organic revenue to 12.3 billion euros ($13.55 billion) as a "modest beat". "The solid progress in Germany and Spain is encouraging."Growth of 0.3 percent in Europe beat analysts' forecasts of a flat result. Sales in Britain fell 3.2 percent, more than expected.Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific (AMAP) grew by 7.7 percent in the three months to end-June, also beating analyst forecasts for a 7 percent rise."Our growth momentum in AMAP remains strong, with excellent performance in South Africa, Turkey and Egypt and ongoing recovery in India," Colao said.He said a planned listing of Vodafone's Indian operation would provide clarity on its value, giving it more flexibility to pursue options like a deeper tie-up with Liberty Global , although no talks were ongoing or were planned.LOOKING ABROADVodafone has floated the idea of switching its home base to another European country after Britain voted to leave the European Union last month.Colao said it was too soon to have any clarity on this. "Our position is we continue to care a lot for the single digital market," he said. "We believe pragmatic solutions will be found to make sure Britain does not get disadvantaged from not being part of it."Vodafone has switched to reporting in euros from pounds - reflecting the relatively bigger size of its combined euro zone businesses, which make up about half of its sales.In the short term, the company was seeing more shifts in traffic on its networks from the threat of terrorism in some tourist markets, Colao said.Holiday makers from Britain and Germany have shifted from destinations like Turkey and North Africa this year in favour of perceived safer locations like Spain, holiday companies have said.Vodafone is making less money from business and consumer calls when people travel after the EU cut charges at the end of April. Roaming charges will be abolished in June 2017.But Colao said more than half of calls made when travelling were now included in bundles, a move that was boosting overall usage and helping to compensate for the roaming cuts.The drag on revenue from roaming charges was 40 basis points in the quarter, although analysts at Mirabaud said they believed the changes would have a bigger impact in the second quarter.Analysts had expected Vodafone to report organic service revenue growth of 1.9 percent, against underlying growth of 1.8 percent in the final quarter of 2015/16. ($1 = 0.9079 euros)REUTERS PS BD1703 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-849767.Xml
Questioning the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the recent statement by China in which it expressed concern over the deaths in the violence in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress today said there is ''a lack of maturity in the Modi Government's diplomacy''. Talking to reporters here, AICC spokesperson Kapil Sibal said, ''for the first time in India's post independence history, China commented on the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said China has taken note of the relevant reports in Jammu and Kashmir. We are concerned about the casualties in the clash. We hope that it will be handled properly."''This is a direct comment on an internal issue of India. Yet, the Modi Government has taken no note of it. The statement was issued on July 19 and till date there has not been any statement from either the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister. A public statement must have been made by India. China should be told not to comment on any internal situation in India,'' Mr Sibal said.He said the lack of response from the Modi government to the statement by China was a reflection of a lack of maturity in India's diplomacy.''The Prime Minister should have told them (China) that they have no locus standi to interfere in the internal affairs of India. There is a lack of maturity in the Modi Government's diplomacy. The PM has not handled the situation with a sense of maturity,'' Mr Sibal said. Mr Sibal said the Prime Minister had promised that China would invest 20 million US dollars in India but there was no sign of that happening yet.He said the Congress would raise this issue in Parliament.''The Opposition will raise this issue in Parliament. The Prime Minister must inform the house about this issue,'' he said.More UNI AR AE SB 1831 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-849965.Xml
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday stoutly defended some of his cabinet colleagues accused of corruption by the opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party. Responding to a discussion in the assembly, Fadnavis also said that former Minister Eknath Khase, who resigned on June 4 following various allegations, had been given a "clean chit" in his aide's bribery case. He pointed out that Khadse has not been named in the Anti-Corruption Bureau's chargesheet filed against Gajanan Patil, who was alleged to be the former minister's personal aide. Patil was caught by the ACB on May 14 for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs.30 crore from Ramesh Jadhav, a social entrepreneur from Mumbai for clearing a land proposal. On Khadse's alleged links with the absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Fadnavis said that after he met a Vadodara-based "ethical hacker" Manish Bhangale on the issue, he ordered a Crime Branch inquiry. Similarly, Fadnavis said not a single criminal charge has been lodged against Minister of State Jaykumar Rawal. He also came to the rescue of Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar, who was allegedly close to a company listed as a willful defaulter by Bank of Maharashtra. The minister had acted as a guarantor on a loan which was declared NPA and later as a "fraud account" with outstandings of Rs 49 crore to Bank Of Maharashtra and Union Bank Of India. After discovering tampering with mortgage deed papers, the banks lodged a cheating case and the Central Bureau of Investigations filed a chargesheet in the matter. "The Opposition targeted 20 ministers just before our government completed 20 months in office," Fadnavis said, referring to the Congress-NCP's allegations against 20 of his colleagues on Thursday. Later, former Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan told media persons that when Khadse was asked to resign after the allegations, then why should there be different yardsticks for the other ministers. NCP legislator Jayant Patil said Fadnavis has not yet cleared Khadse in the MIDC landscam of Pune, and accused the government of shying away from a debate on the tainted ministers. --IANS qn/vd ( 355 Words) 2016-07-22-19:24:00 (IANS)
Seven persons from Dalit community today attempted suicide by consuming poison or self-immolation bid as part of the ongoing protests against atrocities committed on Dalit youths at Una in Gujarat on July 11. Three persons of Ranpur village in Botad , one youngster in Porbander and one in person in Jamnagar tried to commit suicide in support of demand for speedy justice for lynched Dalit youth in Una. The state, that has been witnessing series of protests across, has seen over 30 attempted suicide cases in last one week. The dalit youth in Jamnagar, however, was learnt to have attempted suicide apparently to protest against work conditions and behaviour of his higher ups in local self government body where he is employed. Later, reports of two women trying a self-immolation bid came in from Than in Surendranagar. These women were part of the 150-strong crowd that had gheraoed police station seeking immediate release and withdrawal of cases against protestors who were booked for rioting early this week. Seven from a dalit family were attacked, with four of their youth being paraded half naked in Una town and beaten in public view on July 11, for skinning a dead cow. This sparked wide spread protest across the state. The protest rallies on the issue continued across the state today too, with dalit community taking out rallies in Bhachau town of Kutch, in Patan, Anand, Mansa, Viramgam and Vadodara in Central and North Gujarat. A rally of over 6000 Dalit members was also taken out in Vadnagar, home town of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Most of these protests were relatively peaceful, barring a few instances of stone throwing. The Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, has issued a notice to district collector and district police head to provide details of Una incident and action taken. Meanwhile, the stream of high profile political visitors to Mota Samadhiyala village continued today with Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal visiting the family of the victims. Mr Kejriwal also visited a youth who tried to commit suicide at Rajkot civil hospital. Speaking to mediapersons, Mr Kejriwal hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the state and at the Centre. "The BJP first sends goons to beat up people and police remains a mute spectator. When entire Dalit community comes out to protest, the state government tries to suppress their voices and register false cases against them and puts them behind bars," he said. He also alleged that BJP was trying to protect its "goons" as only 16 arrests have been made for Una incident, when over 40 persons were involved. "They must all be arrested and given exemplary punishment so that no one dare commit such a crime ever again," Mr Kejriwal said. "Yes, we are doing politics on the issue. But our politics is for justice to Dalits and BJP's politics is about suppressing Dalits," Mr Kejriwal said in reply to a question whether all the visits were political. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, meanwhile, reacting to spate of visits by high profile political leaders to Gujarat on the issue, said, "We can only hope that the people of the state would not listen to them but keep faith in their own government." UNI ND RP1950 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-850242.Xml
The much-awaited new team of BJP President Amit Shah has been delayed apparently due to continuing deliberations within the party and the RSS over the role of its two Rams - Ramlal and Ram Madhav. Shah is not keen to have them in his new team, but the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has not yet given its green signal to exclude them, informed sources told IANS. Ramlal has been holding the important post of General Secretary (Organisation) in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2006. This post is held by a RSS representative in the party to work as a bridge between the two. Sources in the BJP said that Amit Shah is of the view that since Ramlal has been serving in the post for long, a new face should be given an opportunity. Four names are doing the rounds for the next General Secretary (Organisation). They are V. Satish, Shiv Prakash, Saudan Singh and B.L. Santosh. They are all joint general secretaries under Ramlal. Sources said that Amit Shah is in favour of V. Satish while the RSS is keen on Shiv Prakash as the replacement of Ramlal. Ram Madhav is a RSS man and party General Secretary in Amit Shah's present team. Sources said that Shah was not happy with Madhav as the latter had managed to create an impression that the party's victory in Assam was due to his strategy. After the BJP's two-third majority in Assam, it was widely reported in the media that a team of experts headed by an IIT-ian Rajat Sethi, under Madhav, played a key role in the BJP's success. Even after a series of meetings and deliberations among the BJP and the RSS leadership, the issue of new names in the party has not been sorted out. According to sources, Shah on Thursday evening discussed the issue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. A meeting was also held on Friday at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence, which was attended among others by Shah, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and RSS Joint General Secretary Krishna Gopal. Sources said it will not be an easy task for Shah to replace both the Rams as both have strong RSS backing. "RSS will take a final call on this," a BJP insider told IANS. BJP president Amit Shah is likely to announce his new team next week as the rest of the names have been almost finalised. According to sources former Union Ministers Ram Shankar Katheria and Prahlad Patel, former Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Laxmikant Vajpayee and former Kerala state unit head Murlidharan may be inducted as new faces in Shah's team. Two other names doing the rounds are of Arjun Munda, former Jharkhand Chief Minister, and D. Purandeswari, former Union Minister. Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former party leader late Pramod Mahajan, is likely to replace Anurag Thakur as Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president. (Brajendra Singh can be reached at brajendra.s@ians.in) --IANS bns/rn/bg ( 506 Words) 2016-07-22-21:04:01 (IANS)
BJP state president V Saminathan today said Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy should not adopt a stance to criticise Lt Governor Kiran Bedi. Apparently referring to the remarks made by Mr Narayanasamy in the inter-state council meeting in New Delhi recently,Mr.Saminathan said among the Lt.Governors in the union territory after Puducherry attained freedom,Mr.Chethilal only strived to resolve the issues of the problems of the poor and down trodden people here.The present Lt.Governor Kiran Bedi is also adopting the pattern of Mr.Chethilal . He said at the instance of Dr.Bedi several tanks and lakes in Puducherry were desilted before the onset of monsoon,boat service started at Velrampet lake ,mini-buses introduced from Railway station to prevent the "looting" by autorickshaw drivers,solid waste management scheme among others were introduced in Puducherry. Puducherry did not flourish as the previous governments failed to fulfill the requirements of the public,he said adding that the functioning of Dr.Bedi was widely accepted by the people.hence,Mr.Narayansamy should stop criticizing the Lt.Governor and indulge in people's works failing which the public will 'reject' the government.Politicians should attain a tendency to accept those who is doing good for the people. The Lt.Governor is functioning in such a way to ensure the development of the union territory and all people here should get the benefits of the schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. He said the BJP would submit a memorandum to the Lt.Governor seeking action against those who indulged in corruptions and irregularities in the past. He also said that the Lt.Governor is functioning within the framework of the constitution and no one could prevent it.UNI PAB CJ AE 2108 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850418.Xml
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav accused BJP-led NDA government of not releasing funds for Uttar Pradesh, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused state for not utilising funds released by the Union Government. Mr Yadav is vocal in blaming Centre for not releasing funds for health, irrigation and power sector saying BJP government was partisan against non-BJP state governments. "The 14th Finance Commission has deprived state of over Rs 10,000 crore revenue. Prime Minister should intervene and provide additional funds to the state government," he said. In recent past Chief Minister has written series of letters seeking funds for various projects. In his letters on June 22 Akhilesh Yadav has asked PM to provide subsidy on coal freight. On March 15, Yadav asked for another subsidy on food grains for drought hit people Bundelkhand while on January 29 he wrote a letter seeking a fund of Rs 1500 crore under National Rural Water Mission. On November 11, 2015 Chief Minister has asked for funds under Pradhan Mantri Gramon Sadak Yojana. But in Gorakhpur today, Prime Minister was critical on Samajwadi Party Government for non-utilisation of funds to improve the health system. "The Centre had provided Rs 7,000 crores but till date UP government has spent just Rs 2,850 crores which shows it is not concerned about development of the state," Mr Modi said. Union Health Minister J P Nadda, accused UP government in lagging behind in spending Central funds. "We have given Rs 875 crore to the state but they are yet to spend it.'' Mr Rajendra Chaudhury, cabinet minister in Akhilesh Yadav government said that allegations levelled by Prime Minister were far from truth. "The truth is Union Government stopped funds for 102/108 ambulance services because state government's work has won laurels across the world. This is also true state government extended help to farmers who lost their crop due to rains from its own coffer. We did not wait for central assistance and when it came it was not enough," he said. About particular allegations on health sector, Chaudhury said he was not aware of special grant of Rs 7000 crore. To the best of my knowledge money centre has sent has been utilized, he said.UNI MB CJ SHK 2133 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850429.Xml
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said his government was committed for transferring full powers to village courts for speedy disposal of cases related to minor disputes.Addressing Sarpanchs and Panchs through webcasting at conference hall of main secretariat here, Mr Kumar said that village courts (gram kutcherys) would be fully empowered by transferring all powers to them. He said that police superintendents had been given responsibility to ensure that all such powers, which village courts were authorised to exercise, should be transferred to them. He said that if police stations cooperated with village courts, cases pertaining to minor disputes could be disposed off speedily. He said it would also help reduce the workload of police stations.Mr Kumar said Sarpanchs and Panchs should exercise their legal authority so that petty disputes could be disposed off speedily. He said Gram Panchayats and Gram Kutcherys would function at "Panchayat Sarkar" buildings. He said the state government had sanctioned construction of more than 1400 "Panchayat Sarkar" buildings, fixing the target to construct 8400 such buildings. He also asked authorities concerned to make "Panchayat Sarkar" buildings fully operational.UNI DH CJ AE 2142 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850462.Xml
Media observers in Hong Kong have noticed a palpable uptick in Chinese propaganda aimed at discrediting the South China Sea verdict delivered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on July 12th. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and state media are being blamed for attributing statements supportive of Beijing's claims to various South East Asian countries, which later turn out to be false. Chinese state media had reported a week ago that Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, during his meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the ASEM meeting in Mongolia, had conveyed that he "respects" China's position on the South China Sea arbitration. The news item added that the Vietnamese Prime Minister had instead conveyed that the two sides should seriously implement agreements between senior leaders of both countries, including the agreement on the basic principles guiding the settlement of the issues at sea, signed in October 2011. The news report mentioned above was a manufactured story, with Vietnam's state news agency saying Vietnam, "Declares it refutes untruthful coverage by Chinese media regarding the East Sea issue from the meeting." The statement contained Vietnam's preferred term for the South China Sea...The East Sea. This is not the first instance of Chinese disinformation regarding the South China Sea issue. In April this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, after a visit to Brunei, Cambodia and Laos, had claimed that all three countries had agreed to a four-point consensus, which included concurrence with China's approach in settling the South China Sea dispute. While Brunei and Laos have not publicly reacted to their so-called support to the Chinese line, diplomats of Brunei in Beijing have confirmed that no such consensus was reached between the foreign ministers of China and Brunei. Sri Lanka too has not been spared by China's "stretching of the truth". According to a Bloomberg report, China's Foreign Ministry said July 9 that Sri Lanka "understands and applauds" China's stance on the waterway, citing a meeting between the countries' foreign ministers in Colombo. But Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview in Singapore on Sunday that the use of "applaud" was not correct. "We understood, I think they just corrected to say we understood." Meanwhile, post the South China Sea verdict by the PCA in The Hague, diplomatic relations between The Philippines and China has been considerably strained with Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay turning down a Chinese proposal to start bilateral talks between the two nations. According to The Philippines, the Chinese had inserted a rider on the meeting that the bilateral meet would not discuss the recent verdict on the South China Sea, which turned out to be unacceptable to The Philippines. China's attempt at imposing its will on ASEAN stakeholders is being met with stiff opposition, say media observers in Hong Kong, and will lead to China's further isolation in the region. "By pushing these countries into the U.S. strategic embrace, it will only be causing lasting and long-term damage to its own interests in the region," said one media observer, who wished to remain unnamed in this report for fear of reprisal by the Chinese authorities. (ANI)
A final United Nations memo on Britain, Germany, Sweden and Jordan's withdrawals of police from a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan without telling the world body, left out draft language questioning Britain's Security Council veto power.The one-page confidential note to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous dated July 15 and seen by Reuters yesterday, said the four countries would be barred from replacing the police once South Sudan's situation improves.The note to Ban was largely similar to a draft memo, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, but it did not have language questioning Britain's Security Council veto power when "they themselves are quick to abandon their post in challenging situations."When asked about the draft memo critical of Britain, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said: "I'm not aware that there is any sort of authentic memo." He added that his colleagues "looked all over their memos and there's no such document that they see."It was not immediately clear why the language on Britain's Security Council veto power was not included in the final memo, though some officials did note that the strong criticism was not a typical UN approach.Heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters raged in South Sudan's capital Juba for several days earlier this month between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing Vice President Riek Machar. At least 272 people were killed.A spokesman for the British UN mission said on Wednesday that Britain temporarily removed two unarmed police officers on July 13 "for the officers' safety" and had told the UN police adviser in advance.Ladsous' note to Ban said the departure of the police officers from the four countries had "affected the operational capability of the mission at headquarters level and has dealt a serious blow to the morale of its peacekeepers."The draft memo said the United States had also reportedly planning to pull out nine police, but a spokesman for the US mission said there were no plans to withdraw police.The German UN mission confirmed that it had evacuated seven police serving with the UN mission, UNMISS, and said that the United Nations had been notified orally and in writing beforehand.The Swedish mission said it had repatriated three officers for medical reasons and that 15 officers remain in South Sudan. "Sweden has not, and will not, withdraw the police support to the UNMISS mission," it said.The Jordanian UN mission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is scheduled to meet Ban in New York today during his first visit to the United States since being appointed last week. REUTERS SDR 0416 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-848970.Xml
US officials called on partners in the coalition against Islamic State to increase intelligence sharing as the militant group morphs to focus on attacks beyond its shrinking self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria."Even as it is losing ground in the Middle East, we know already that they're going to try to transform themselves into (a) global terrorist organization," US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday after a meeting of defense and foreign affairs chiefs from about 40 nations in the US-led coalition."We talked about the importance of real-time communication between countries, information sharing" about militant suspects, he said.Kerry said that issue dominated the afternoon's discussions, which for the first time included the international police organization Interpol.He and other officials suggested that wresting control of Islamic State's major remaining strongholds in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria is only a matter of time.Brett McGurk, the United States' envoy to the coalition, told the meeting that the liberation of Mosul "is now in sight."But a spate of recent attacks globally claimed or apparently inspired by Islamic State, such as a truck attack in Nice, France, that killed 84 people last week, formed a grim backdrop to two days of Washington meetings aimed at combating the group.The meetings were meant as a show of unity in the coalition, whose members have sometimes differed on strategy. But last weekend's coup attempt in Turkey has raised questions about that key country's focus on the fight.Turkey's foreign and defense ministers did not attend the sessions, but Kerry said a top official from Ankara assured the group that Turkey's commitment to the fight against Islamic State would not be affected.In the wake of deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels, in particular, the United States has pushed allies to share more information on suspected militants, some of whom have easily crossed intra-European borders.Kerry said breaking down bureaucratic barriers was crucial to allow more sharing of information about threats as Islamic State seeks to boost recruitment by adopting new languages and moving into new territories.While improvements have been made, "it is also clear now that we have to do more," he said.The goal, Kerry said, is "that a border guard in southern Europe has the same data about a terrorist suspect as an airport security officer in Manila."Iraqi and US officials have not announced a timetable for an expected assault on Mosul. But a senior Baghdad-based diplomat told Reuters that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wants to advance the start of the campaign to October.US, Iraqi and UN officials have warned that the battle will unleash a flood of displaced Iraqis, necessitating a massive effort for short-term aid and longer-term stabilization.Hinting at another complication, the defense and foreign ministers warned against abuses once Islamic State is ejected from Iraqi cities. Members of independent Shiite militias have been accused of abuses against Sunni Muslims in cities such as Tikrit and Falluja."Popular Mobilization Forces and similar groups operating in Iraq should be under the firm control of the Iraqi government," they said in a statement. "Every effort must be made to prevent arbitrary detention and irregular screening procedures, while holding violators to account."Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said less than 10 per cent of Iraqi territory remains in Islamic State's hands, but battlefield advances have not been matched by security gains.A suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State this month which killed at least 292 people in central Baghdad in one of the worst such attacks since the US-led invasion in 2003 was a "stark example" of that failure, he said in a tweet from Washington.German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier said that driving Islamic State out of Mosul could strengthen the US-led coalition's efforts in Syria."The group's structures in Syria and Iraq are intertwined, so that a defeat for Islamic State in Mosul would undoubtedly have consequences for the situation in Syria," he said. REUTERS SDR 0436 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-848973.Xml
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that Turkey should not be using democratic institutions to undercut human rights following a failed coup."We are making it very clear to our Turkish friends - we are fully behind the institutions, the democratic institutions, the legitimate institutions," Mogherini said yesterday after remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "But there is no excuse, there is no way in which the reaction can undermine fundamental freedoms and rights."Mogherini added "what we're seeing especially in the fields of universities, media, the judiciary, is unacceptable." REUTERS SDR 0442 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-848975.Xml
Stevedore Crawford strode onto the plaza at Cleveland's Public Square, not far from this week's Republican National Convention, pulled two brightly colored toy guns from his pants, waved them around and then threw himself onto the concrete.Crawford, 53, was evoking the 2014 fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy, by a white police officer."They never kill the people like me," said Crawford, who described himself as a former pimp who served time for shooting a cop. "They never kill the thugs, because they fear the thugs."Crawford's demonstration was one of the most powerfully emotional protests in what shaped up as a spectacle of free speech that turned Cleveland's Public Square - a 10-acre downtown park - into the unofficial public square of the Republican National Convention.Demonstrators came to protest for and against Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Others had civil justice or public safety on their minds after recent police shootings of African-Americans in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the Minneapolis area, followed by the killings of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge.With more than 3,000 police from across the country looking on, the activists spoke forcefully, creatively - and mostly peaceably. There were just 23 arrests over the four-day convention that came to a close on Thursday. Authorities had prepared for as many as 1,000 arrests each day.In the end, the cacophony of causes was a carnival of free speech.A liberal Jew dressed in traditional Muslim garb carried a rifle and spoke against religious intolerance. A retired US Army veteran who said he had been in the Special Forces spoke on behalf of a veterans group that aims to "take back the country from leftists and Muslims." A group of conservative preachers showed up wherever gay-rights activists appeared, while dozens of African-American demonstrators had a direct rejoinder to Trump's slogan, "make America great again.""America was Never Great!" their signs read.A young man who did not appear to be a billionaire had a simple message opposing Trump's plan for a US-Mexico border wall: "Build a Wall Around Trump," his sign read. "I'll Pay for It."One man walking through Public Square on Thursday seemed to have tired of the nonstop debate. His sign read, "God Hates Signs."LINCOLN-LIKE DEBATEIn contrast to the bitter rhetoric and personal invective on the campaign trail, the free-for-all in Cleveland was at times even charitable.Apropos of a Republican convention, one demonstrator simply dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the party's first elected president. "I'm here to spread the message of Lincoln, because it is one that still applies," said Robert Ginzu, 55.A group of several dozen motorcyclists calling themselves "Bikers for Trump" came to help convention-goers pick their way through crowds outside the fenced-off convention area."We want to show that Trump supporters are law-abiding citizens," said Daryl Rembowski, a 52-year-old carpenter and member of the group.Bob Kunst, 74, an openly gay advocate for Jewish causes, came from Miami Beach to rally for Trump. In 2008, he campaigned for Hillary Clinton, and still considers himself a Democrat.But Kunst believes Trump would be more effective fighting Islamic State than Clinton would be. "If we don't get a handle on ISIS, nothing else is going to matter," Kunst said. "We are in crisis situation."Stacia Huyler, 45, came as an alternate convention delegate from Rhode Island. But she wound up holding a pro-Trump banner in Public Square. Her motivation: seeing a man dressed as a Muslim holding a sign that said, "Ban Trump Supporters, not Muslims.""So here I am," said Huyler, as nearby Trump proponents and opponents yelled at each other through bullhorns. REUTERS RSD PR1005 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-849056.Xml
A North Korean Air Koryo airplane made an emergency landing in China's city of Shenyang due to a fire, China's official Xinhua news agency said today.The plane from North Korea's national airline, which was flying from Pyongyang to Beijing, made a forced landing in the northeastern Chinese city after it caught fire, Xinhua said, citing a passenger.It gave no further information. REUTERS RSD PR1025 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-849071.Xml
"The army will get fresh blood," Xinhua news agency quoted Erdogan as saying on Thursday.

The President underlined significant deficiencies and failure in the country's intelligence agency.

"No need to hide or deny. I told it to the Undersecretary of National Intelligence Organisation," he said.

"I hardly had contact with the prime minister," Erdogan said as he was not able to reach the chiefs of intelligence agency and the general staff during the coup attempt.

"A new coup attempt is possible but not easy. We are more vigilant now," the President said.

At least 10,400 persons were detained out of which 4,060 of them were arrested, according to figures given by the President. About 100 generals were arrested, he confirmed.

Erdogan said they would extend the state of emergency for three more months if needed. The government had declared a state of emergency for next three months on Wednesday, which the Parliament has approved Thursday.

The failed coup attempt, which began last Friday, was crushed the next day; at least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters" were killed, authorities said.

The Turkish government claimed the failed coup was organised by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric.

--IANS sm/ksk/vm

( 229 Words)

2016-07-22-13:26:02 (IANS)
All high-ranking people do not always turn out to be selfish jerks. Some become generous, especially those who do not feel their status is fair and equitable, a study says. The researchers found that people with high social status who did not believe they earned that status were much more generous than high-status people who felt they deserved the respect and admiration of others. "The effects of social status on generosity are contingent on deservingness, meaning that high-ranking people don't always behave selfishly, as a significant amount of research suggests, but do indeed care about whether or not they deserve their position," said lead researcher Nicholas Hays, Assistant Professor of Management at Michigan State University in the US. Prominent people who don't feel their status is fair and equitable become more generous with others to alleviate that sense of inequity, he explained. The findings were published online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Previous studies had found that powerful people tend to become more selfish regardless of fairness or equity. In separate studies with more than 1,200 total participants, Hays and Steven Blader, Professor at New York University, examined the effects of social status on generosity. The researchers found that while high-status people who felt worthy of their rank were indeed less generous, high-status people who felt unworthy were actually more generous. Prior research has also found that generosity often leads to high social status. The current study takes that a step further by considering what happens after people have attained high status. "We demonstrate that generosity may not persist once people achieve that high status," Hays said. "It depends on whether they feel that status is deserved," he explained. --IANS gb/vt ( 295 Words) 2016-07-22-13:54:00 (IANS)
More than three-quarters of Germans believe their country will soon be the target of terrorism, a survey showed today, after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a train in an axe attack claimed by Islamic State.Seventy-seven percent expect an attack to happen soon, up from 69 per cent two weeks ago, according to the survey compiled by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF.Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said investigations suggested he was a "lone wolf" who had been spurred into action by Islamic State propaganda.The axe rampage came days after a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing 84 in an attack also claimed by the jihadist group.German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's today's edition that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".The survey of 1,271 respondents, which showed 20 percent do not expect an attack soon, was conducted during the three days following the train attack.It also showed 59 per cent think enough is being done to protect them from terrorism - almost twice as many as think they should be better protected.REUTERS PS VN1516 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-849524.Xml
A North Korean Air Koryo airplane made an emergency landing in China's northeastern city of Shenyang today after smoke appeared in the cabin, but there were no injuries, airport authorities and the official Xinhua news agency said.The plane, belonging to the North's national carrier, was flying to Beijing from Pyongyang when it made a forced landing because of the smoke, the airport said in a short statement on its microblog.The aircraft made a safe emergency landing, and "nothing abnormal" was found in its condition, although an investigation was underway, it added.Xinhua, which had initially reported a fire, cited a passenger as saying the smoke appeared about 30 minutes after takeoff, and flight crew told passengers not to panic as the plane landed."Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin," Xinhua said, adding that the plane landed 10 minutes later and no one on board was injured.Fire trucks were dispatched and the aircraft was "smoking" when ground staff examined it, but no obvious fire was spotted, the passenger told the agency, which added that rain in Shenyang at the time of the landing may have averted a fire.An airline staff member at Pyongyang airport told Xinhua the plane had suffered a "malfunction," but more investigations were needed to determine what happened.An Air Koryo employee reached at the airline's Shanghai office told Reuters no company representatives were available, and she was unaware of the situation. The Beijing office could not be reached.Independent ratings website Skytrax lists Air Koryo as the world's only 1-star airline for poor quality standards, though it does not measure safety.Few North Koreans are allowed to travel outside their isolated country.The North Korean state-owned airline uses mainly Russian-built Tupolev aircraft on international flights but older, Soviet-era aircraft are used within the country.The aircraft, operating flight JS 151, was a Tupolev TU204-300, plane tracking website flightradar24.com showed.REUTERS PS BL1521 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-849526.Xml
Bulgaria is bracing for a potential rush of migrants on its southern border following an attempted coup in Turkey, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said today.Patrols on the border with Turkey have been bolstered and 150 to 200 migrants a day have been detained since the failed coup, Borisov said."The situation at the border is much more dramatic," Borisov told local media. "We prepare for a severe problem with the refugees ... The army, police and gendarmerie, they are all working."Borisov said he would meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Aug. 24 in Istanbul. Yesterday, he met Bulgaria's top military personnel to discuss the measures the government and security services were taking.After the meeting, he said events in the coming weeks might require rapid reactions from the military officers, the government and citizens, to guarantee the security of the country.Borisov said that Sofia should aim to keep the balance and maintain communication with Turkey, but he criticised some of Erdogan's moves."We do not understand the arrests of journalists, judges, teachers," he said.Migrant flows into Bulgaria had been easing slightly before the failed coup. The country detained about 14,000 migrants in the first six months of the year, compared with 21,000 in the same period last year.Few migrants want to stay in the European Union's poorest state, preferring to journey onwards to wealthier EU countries like Germany and Sweden. REUTERS PS BL1523 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-849536.Xml
A US District judge will hear arguments today over whether to dismiss a 2013 fraud lawsuit against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stemming from his Trump University real-estate seminars.Trump's lawyers will also ask federal judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego to decertify the class action, which would force students to file individual lawsuits rather than pursue their fraud cases together.The lawsuit, one of at least three over the defunct Trump University, was filed on behalf of students who paid up to 35,000 dollars to learn Trump's real estate investing "secrets" from his "hand-picked" instructors.The cases against Trump University have regularly cropped up during the presidential campaign. Trump ignited a firestorm of criticism in May when he accused Curiel, who is of Mexican descent, of being biased against him because of the candidate's pledge to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.Curiel, who was born in Indiana, is presiding over two of the cases, with one set for trial in late November. A separate lawsuit by New York's attorney general is pending in that state.Trump's lawyers say Curiel should toss the 2013 California lawsuit on the grounds that Trump, though personally involved in developing the concept and curriculum, relied on other executives to manage Trump University by the time the plaintiffs purchased their seminars.In addition, Trump's lawyers claim references in marketing materials to "secrets," "hand-picked" instructors or "university" were mere sales "puffery." According to the defense, there is no evidence Trump intended to defraud students.Lawyers for the students have rejected those arguments, saying the New York developer conducted the marketing for Trump University more than anyone else, starring in and approving promotional materials.They claim Trump University instructors were high-pressure sales people, not "professors and adjunct professors" as Trump touted, and that New York authorities told Trump back in 2005 to stop calling his unaccredited venture a university.Trump owned 92 percent of Trump University and had control over all major decisions, plaintiffs' court papers say, and should be held liable under a statute targeting racketeering.The court papers also say Trump confessed to misrepresentations in sworn testimony, and that evidence of his intent to defraud is "overwhelming."REUTERS PS AN1554 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-849593.Xml
An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel today urged the European Union to suspend accession talks with Turkey over a purge launched by the government against suspected plotters of last week's failed coup.European officials have called on the Turkish government to respect the rule of law in a sweep against soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers, who have been suspended, detained or investigated over today's attempted putsch."If one sees how Turkey is dismantling the rule of law ...then these (EU membership) negotiations must be stopped immediately," said Horst Seehofer, who heads the Bavaria-based sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU)."No democratic constitutional state acts like this," the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party told the Funke Media Group in an interview.Merkel told President Tayyip Erdogan during a phone call on Monday that Turkey cannot join the EU if it reinstates the death penalty, which has been advocated by members of his AK party.Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004, allowing it to open EU accession talks the following year, but the negotiations have made little progress.The EU struck a deal in March to reward Turkey for preventing migrants from crossing to Greece by channeling aid to Syrian refugees in the country, reviving accession talks and scrapping visas for Turks wishing to visit Europe.The deal has not been finalized.A spokesman for Merkel told a news conference today that Germany was monitoring developments in Turkey and that any decision on the course of accession talks would be a collective EU decision.REUTERS PS AN1741 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-849916.Xml
Turkey's crackdown on government opponents and the imposition of a state of emergency following the abortive military coup last week has tempered hopes of a swift settlement on divided Cyprus.Nicosia is watching with increasing trepidation how the fallout could hit reunification talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.Turkey provides military and financial support to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus. The turbulence in Turkey has so far not touched the enclave, home to at least 30,000 Turkish troops since Ankara invaded the island 42 years ago in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup.But Turkey's crisis is unsettling for interlocutors hoping for a deal by the end of 2016, or at least before talks are hijacked by elections scheduled in the north and the south of the island in 2018.Diplomats have previously said the current round of peace talks is the best chance in generations for ending a conflict that has become a perpetual irritant between NATO allies Greece and Turkey, and an obstacle to Turkey joining the European Union."Nobody actually knows if it will have an effect," said one official close to the peace process. "But it is overshadowing negotiations ... There are elements that are big unknowns."Turkey's input is vital for solving the Cyprus conundrum, one of Europe's most enduring conflicts."We are talking about a system that will make all Cypriot citizens safe," said Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kassoulides. "In such a system there is no room for treaties of guarantee or the presence of Turkish troops," he told reporters in Athens.Under a treaty which granted the former British colony independence in 1960, Britain, Greece and Turkey have intervention powers to restore constitutional order.Among others, Ankara needs to agree to a pullout of Turkish troops, adjusting military-controlled boundaries between the north and south and writing off an estimated 18.8 billion dollars it considers as Turkish Cypriot debt to Ankara."If they don't write that off there is no way there can be a settlement," said the official.Cyprus, whose Greek Cypriot-led government represents the whole island in the European Union, required an international bailout in 2013. An assumption of legacy Turkish Cypriot debt could financially smother the republic, which just emerged from the bailout programme, the official said.LOOSE CANNONThis week, air raid sirens marking the 1974 events in the north pierced the silence at dawn in the mainly Greek, southern parts of Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots, who call the invasion a "peace operation", celebrated a national holiday.For James Ker-Lindsay at the London School of Economics, Turkey's crisis should be an impetus to islanders to sort out the conflict as soon as possible."Its a wake-up call for both sides...it doesn't appear like Turkey has any anchor to the West anymore. All the logic, seen from the outside, is that they (Cypriots) should get a solution, get a solution now," he told Reuters.Although Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had been "by and large constructive" on Cyprus, he is extremely unpredictable, said Hubert Faustmann, a political analyst."That's the problem. This guy can get up tomorrow morning and do a 180 degree turnaround," Faustmann said.Cypriot reunification talks have typically floundered on issues ranging from re-drawing of boundaries between the two sides to property rights of thousands of displaced persons, or the status of tens of thousands of mainland Turks transferred to northern Cyprus after the war, a source of resentment to some Cypriots.For a young family of Turkish mainlanders strolling in the scorching Nicosia heat, their allegiance was unmistakeable; taking turns, two youngsters, a boy and a girl, embraced a Turkish flag hanging outside a store.The similarly designed but different in colour Turkish Cypriot flag hanging on the door front of the shop next door was ignored. REUTERS PS BL1825 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-849971.Xml
An American man who died fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish fighters to oust Islamic State from the northern Syrian city of Manbij has been named as Levi Jonathan Shirley.Shirley, who adopted the Kurdish name of Agir Servan, was killed on July 14, the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) said in a statement posted on its website yesterday.The YPG is part of a US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters called the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which launched an offensive in May to seize the last territory held by Islamic State insurgents on Syria's frontier with Turkey.The YPG has attracted foreign fighters from around the world, including Britain, Germany, Canada, Australia and Turkey. A YPG official said in February that seven Westerners had died fighting with the group.In May, the YPG said a Portuguese national had died, also fighting in Manbij.The SDF has largely avoided fighting forces allied to Syrian President Bashar al Assad and has focused on battling the hardline Islamic State militants in Syria's five-year-old conflict.REUTERS PS RAI1841 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-850016.Xml
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan today called on gunmen occupying a Yerevan police station to lay down their arms and release four hostages they seized in a bid to have a jailed opposition leader released.The gunmen seized the station and hostages in the capital on Sunday, killing a police officer and wounding two others. They released two hostages on the same day and three more on Monday.Police clashed on Wednesday with hundreds of demonstrators showing support for the gunmen, firing tear gas and detonating smoke grenades after protesters pelted them with stones at them.About 140 people were detained and 51 were injured, including 29 policemen."I call on the armed group to lay down their arms as soon as possible. We acted and still act very patiently because the life and health of each citizen is very valuable to us," Sarksyan said in a statement.He set no deadline or state what steps the authorities would take if the gunmen refused to surrender, saying only that the authorities had decided not to use force to try to release the hostages in the hope this would "sober up the gunmen"."This situation has lasted longer than we can afford," he said. "We don't have the right to allow our society to become a hostage of this situation."The hostage-takers' main demand is the release of Jirair Sefilian, an opposition leader accused by authorities in the ex-Soviet state of plotting civil unrest. Sefilian was jailed in June over allegations of illegally possessing weapons.Sefilian, a former military commander, has accused Sarksyan of mishandling a long-running conflict between pro-Armenian separatists and the breakaway Azeri region of Nagorno-Karabakh.A Moscow-brokered ceasefire halted four days of violence in the South Caucasus region on April 5, the worst flare-up in years, but sporadic shooting persists at night and some deaths have been reported."There are many people in Armenia who are dissatisfied, but no one should think that they can take an advantage of this situation and undermine our statehood," Sarksyan said. REUTERS PS AS1849 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-850028.Xml
During Rice's stay, the Chinese and US officials will exchange views on bilateral ties, the upcoming G20 Summit and other major issues of common concern, Xinhua news agency reported.

This year's G20 summit will be held in Hangzhou city in September.

--IANS sm/py/dg

( 72 Words)

2016-07-22-19:38:04 (IANS)
Senior government officials from both side are likely to participate in the talks.

A delegation led by Home Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan will be on a three-day visit to India beginning from July 27, an official statement said.

The two sides held the last such talks in India in December, 2012, and in Bangladesh in January 2013.

--IANS sk/rn/bg

( 92 Words)

2016-07-22-21:12:00 (IANS)
Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila issued a raft of pardons on Friday, including to several pro-democracy activists detained after calling for the president to stand down.Kabila, in power since 2001, is required by the constitution to leave office this year after a scheduled November election. But the government says logistical and budgetary constraints make it unrealistic to hold the vote on time.Opposition leaders accuse him of trying to delay the presidential election to hang onto power beyond his mandate.The government has arrested dozens of political opposition leaders, pro-democracy activists and human rights advocates over the last two years on what the United Nations and rights groups say are politically-motivated charges.On Friday, Kabila granted pardons to six members of the youth activist group Struggle for Change (Lucha), arrested in February as they prepared for a general strike calling on Kabila to step down this year.The six were convicted in March of incitement to revolt and sentenced on appeal to six months in prison.Kabila also pardoned all prisoners who are female, handicapped, 65 or older, 30 or younger, or who were sentenced to less than three years, with the exception of fugitives and people convicted of serious crimes such as rape, murder, corruption, treason and genocide.There is also an exception for the crime of "association with criminals", a charge levelled against a number of people considered by rights groups to be political prisoners. The government denies the country has political prisoners.The pardons only apply to people who have already been convicted, excluding many who have languished in prison for months awaiting court judgements.Kabila has encouraged opponents to participate in a national dialogue to clear the way for eventual elections. After initially rejecting the proposal, many opposition leaders have expressed openness but have made the release of political prisoners one of their preconditions.Opposition leaders could not be immediately reached for comment.The pardons come the day after a visit to Congo by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein who called on the government to release political prisoners.The director of the U.N. human rights office in Congo, Jose Maria Aranaz, called the pardons "a decision in line with the request by the High Commissioner" but added his office would be monitoring whether the government takes further steps. REUTERS CJ GC2240 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850516.Xml
A suspected people smuggler who alleged he had been mistakenly arrested and extradited to Italy is indeed the man prosecutors had sought, Palermo magistrates said after investigating his identity.Sudanese witnesses and the man's lawyer have said the suspect, who was initially identified as Medhanie Yehdego Mered, is not the smuggler sought for running a human trafficking network that sent thousands of migrants to Europe and many to their deaths at sea.But Palermo prosecutors listed a series of reasons in a document seen by Reuters that they say show him to be the man they consider to be the smuggling kingpin who goes by the nickname "the General"."There are many factors that confirm that the person we wire tapped, investigated in 2014, and sought to arrest for international people smuggling in 2015 is the same man who was arrested in Sudan and extradited to Italy," a prosecutor told a closed hearing on Thursday, according to a judicial source.If his identity is confirmed by the court, it would be the first time a suspected trafficking kingpin has been tracked down in Africa and brought to face justice in Italy since Europe's immigration crisis started almost three years ago.Prosecutors however admit that they may have got his name wrong, and they also say that the picture that had been circulated of their suspect, which bears little resemblance to the man arrested, was discovered to be of someone else who had nothing to do with the case.The suspect's lawyer, Michele Calantropo, told Reuters his client's real name was Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe. He said he had been living in Khartoum as an Eritrean refugee when he was arrested in May, and had no ties to people smuggling."We are also continuing our own investigations and we will show our results to the judge at the next hearing on Sept. 21. The wrong man is in prison," Calantropo said.At a hearing on Thursday, prosecutors presented the results of their investigation to the judge who will decide whether the suspect must remain in prison or not.The case underscores the difficulties in fighting people smuggling to Europe from Africa. Both Italy and Britain, whose National Crime Agency helped coordinate the man's arrest with Sudanese authorities, have a lot riding on the case.If it turns out that the wrong man was seized, it would be a huge blow in their battle against traffickers who have shipped more than 400,000 migrants to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea since 2014.NAME DISCREPANCYIn a 27-page document Palermo prosecutors Calogero Ferrara and Claudio Camilleri list 17 elements that they said proves the suspect in custody is the man they had sought.The reason for the name discrepancy was due to the fact that prosecutors had to deduce his identity from wiretaps, the document says. The suspect used different names on each of his multiple social media accounts.A cell phone Medhanie was carrying when arrested had accessed the same Facebook account as the man investigated in 2014, and had spoken to some of the same people.Medhanie was carrying the phone number of a man whom he had spoken with on 78 occasions during the original investigation, which was launched after a shipwreck that killed more than 360 people near the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.A voice recognition specialist also compared wiretaps and said there was a similarity between the voices, but could not say with certainty it was the same man.Medhanie originally volunteered to allow authorities to record his voice in prison to help improve the accuracy of the voice recognition test, but refused when technicians came to make the recording, the court document said.REUTERS CJ RAI2255 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850527.Xml
Up to 20 people were killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.The Tuareg-dominated Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival Gatia militia fighters, who had peacefully shared control of the town of Kidal since February, clashed for a second day on Friday before pro-government fighters withdrew.Both groups signed a United Nations-backed deal a year ago with the government in Bamako, the capital in southern Mali, that was meant to end a decades-long cycle of uprisings and let the army focus on defeating jihadist groups in the desert north.A nurse at the main health centre in Kidal, one of the largest towns in northern Mali, said she had seen about 20 dead, both at the clinic and on the town's streets."There are wounded people everywhere. Forty wounded, with four bad cases. One of them was shot in the throat, another in the back, another in the abdomen," a doctor at the health centre told Reuters by telephone, asking not to be named.Red Cross volunteer Ahamed Ag Mohomedine said he had counted over 15 bodies, adding many wounded had been taken to the Kidal base of Mali's U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.Both armed groups gave death tolls from the fighting that were lopsided in their own favour and could not be independently verified.Mali's government, which has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, urged both sides to end the fighting."The government of the Republic of Mali considers that the situation created by these clashes constitutes a serious threat to the implementation of the peace accord," it said in a statement.MINUSMA said it had stationed troops in heavily populated areas to protect civilians.The U.N. also deployed drones to monitor the fighting, and a regionwide French counter-terrorism mission used helicopters to patrol the skies above the town, said MINUSMA spokeswoman Radhia Achouri."Our main concern is that civilians are in the line of fire," she said, adding that some town residents had taken shelter inside the MINUSMA camp overnight.The gunfire had largely subsided by mid-afternoon on Friday, as the CMA claimed to have driven Gatia fighters from Kidal, a traditional stronghold of the Tuareg separatist movement."We control the town in its entirety along with the surrounding areas. Calm has returned," said CMA spokesman Almou Ag Mohamed.Two officers in the pro-government militia confirmed that Gatia had withdrawn from the town."We decided to draw back from Kidal, but we are in the process of reorganising," one of the officers said, asking that his name not be used for his protection.The U.N. called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and said that it is working with leaders of both groups to mediate the conflict and resume the peace processREUTERS CJ RAI2257 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850534.Xml
CNN said three people are dead.

A big operation is underway in Munich. Police have told people to stay at home and avoid the streets.

Several people have also been injured at the shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.

According to reports, there is one attacker.

Some shopworkers are reportedly unable to leave the building.

The security forces have been on alert after an Afghan teen attacked and severely injured five people with an axe on a train in Bavaria on Monday.

The authorities had warned of the danger of further attacks.

--IANS rn/vd

( 128 Words)

2016-07-22-23:26:01 (IANS)
Gunmen went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday, killing many people, police said.Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside.A Munich police spokeswoman said mulitple people were killed or wounded."We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said.More than one gunman was believed to be involved and no one had been arrested, she said.NTV television reported that German police special forces had arrived at the scene.It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-weilding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone."Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich."All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive,""We have no further information, we're just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet."Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.There was, however, no immediate word that the attack was politically motivated.Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.REUTERS CJ RAI2321 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850542.Xml
Britain's Foreign Office issued an alert warning British citizens in the German city of Munich to follow the instructions of the authorities, after police there reported many people had been killed in a shooting at a shopping centre.A Munich police spokeswoman said she believed they were dealing with a "shooting rampage"."There are reports of an incident at the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre. You are advised to avoid this location and follow the advice of local authorities," the Foreign Office said in updated travel advice on Germany. REUTERS CJ RAI2322 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850544.Xml
President Barack Obama on Friday said the United States strongly supports Turkey's democratically elected government, but that any extradition request for a US-based Muslim cleric accused of being involved in last week's attempted coup will have to go through normal channels.Obama, speaking at a news conference, said he told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a call earlier this week that the United States had no prior knowledge of the failed military coup."Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false," Obama said, warning that such rumors threatened "a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey."He said he also told Erdogan his government must present evidence of cleric Fethullah Gulen's alleged involvement in the abortive coup and that an extradition request targeting him would receive the review required by the Justice Department and other government agencies just like any other petition."America's governed by rules of law, and those are not ones that the president of the United States or anybody else can just set aside for the sake of expediency," Obama said. "We've got to go through a legal process."REUTERS CJ RAI2335 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-850556.Xml
Gunmen went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich today, killing and wounding many people, police said.It was the third major act of violence against civilian targets to take place in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.Munich police said they suspected it was a terrorist attack.Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside. Munich's main railway station was also being evacuated.A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded. No suspects had been arrested yet, she said."We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said.Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall.NTV television had reported the Bavarian Interior Ministry as saying three people were dead, but the ministry said later it would not confirm this.More than one gunman was believed to be involved, the police spokeswoman said."We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 pm, the shooting apparently began at a McDonald's in the shopping centre. There are still people in the shopping centre. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them," she said.Police special forces had arrived at the scene, NTV said.Munich police said on Facebook that witnesses reported three different people with weapons. Shooting was also reported on Hanauer Street and Ries Streetet, near the mall.The police told people to stay in their homes or take cover in buildings. Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall. But many others were hiding inside, an employee told Reuters by telephone."Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall."All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive,""We have no further information, we're just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet."Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.IS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATEThere was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the rampage on social media."Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men," read one tweet."The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read another.Today's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's today edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.Today is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.The Munich assault was also reminiscent of Islamist militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 and on a hotel in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.REUTERS SDR 0015 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-850569.Xml
Supporters of the Islamic State militant group celebrated on social media a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich today that killed and wounded many people."Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men," read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favours the radical Islamist movement."The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read an Arabic-language tweet on another account also known to support Islamic State.The attack was the third major act of violence against civilian targets in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by Islamic State and Munich police said they suspected the latest assault was a terrorist attack.Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall in the Bavarian capital but many others were hiding inside.A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded. "We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said.Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. NTV television reported the state's interior ministry as saying three people were dead, but the ministry said later it would not confirm this.It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train, wounding four people before he was shot dead. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. REUTERS SDR 0026 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-850573.Xml
Policemen escort Turkish military officers, who fled to Greece in a military helicopter on Saturday after the failed coup in Turkey, out of a court in Alexandroupolis, Greece, on July 18, 2016.(Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The eight Turkish military officers who fled to Greece after last Friday's failed coup attempt were found guilty of illegal entry in Greece on Thursday, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported.

The local court at the northern city of Alexandroupolis where they landed on Saturday in a Turkish military helicopter sentenced them to two months in prison.

They faced up to five years imprisonment but the Greek judges acknowledged they acted under special circumstances in fear for their safety.

The eight men claimed that they fled to Greece issuing a false distress signal to secure permission for emergency landing fearing for their lives when their helicopter came under fire by Turkish police on Friday night.

Turkish officials have branded them traitors and said their extradition will be requested.

The officers deny any involvement in the coup attempt and have filed claims for asylum request.

The process was expected to start with their interviews before the local asylum agency on July 27 and may last two to three months, according to their lawyers. Until then they will remain in custody.

During Thursday's trial outside the courthouse a small group of local Greek Muslims were demonstrating against the "traitors" and in favor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Israelis wave their national flag and a rainbow flag during a celebration following the annual Gay Pride march inJerusalem on July 21, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, July 21 (Xinhua) -- More than 20,000 Israelis marched in the Jerusalem Pride Parade under heavy security on Thursday, a year after an Orthodox zealot killed a teenage parader.

Organizers of the event called the 15th annual parade the "biggest" Pride Parade in Jerusalem.

The parade this year was held under heavy security, with over 2,000 Israeli policemen and border police guards securing it. The Israeli police had set up barriers and operated two security checkpoints to the designated perimeter of the march.

The unprecedented security in central Jerusalem follows a deadly attack in the 2015 Pride Parade in Jerusalem, in which an Orthodox Jew, Yishai Shlisel, killed 15-year-old Shira Banki and injured five others.

Marchers laid flowers in the spot where Banki was stabbed last year, and her parents are set to speak at the parade's closing rally.

Politicians from the center-left Zionist Union Party, the left-wing Meretz Party and the center Yesh Atid Party also took part in the parade.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the parade on Thursday, saying in a video posted on his Facebook page that the march symbols "unity," calling for Israelis to "accept one another with respect and equality" without regard to "religion, race or sexual preference."

Soon after the parade's kickoff, the Israeli police arrested 30 suspects for allegedly planning to obstruct the proper course of the parade, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

Police officers recovered knives from two of the suspects, Samri added.

Earlier on Thursday, the police said it had arrested Yishai Shlisel, who is currently serving life in prison for Banki's murder, on suspicion of conspiring to carry out another attack this year with his brother from his prison cell.

His brother Michael was arrested on Wednesday by the Israeli police, who denied the allegations leveled against him.

Police had also ordered Shlisel's family members to stay away from Jerusalem on the day of the parade.

Another person, member of an extremist right-wing organization, was arrested by the Israeli police on Thursday morning after he posted inciting remarks on his Facebook page.

Other than the high level of security amid last year's attack, the parade received great attention this year over controversial statements against homosexuals made by Israeli orthodox rabbis.

The Israel Defense Forces' recently-nominated chief Rabbi, Col. Eyal Karim, said gay people are "sick and disabled," whereas prominent rabbi Yigal Levinstein, who heads a religious pre-military academy, said they are "deviants."

Israel is perceived to be a tolerant nation towards the LGBT community, with the Tel Aviv annual Pride Parade attracting thousands of visitors from around the world each year.
ATHENS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The eight Turkish military officers who fled to Greece after last Friday's failed coup attempt on Thursday expressed gratitude to Greek people for their support, sorrow for the current situation in their country and asked forgiveness for the turmoil caused.

Katerina Dapoudani, one of the three Greek attorneys representing them, issued a statement shortly after the officers were found guilty of illegal entry and sentenced to two months in prison by the local court at the northern city of Alexandroupolis. They landed there on Saturday in a Turkish military helicopter.

"We thank Greek people for the support. We ask forgiveness for the turmoil we have caused to the Greek state, but we had no other option," read the press announcement distributed by Greek national news agency AMNA.

"We believe in the democratic principles and human rights. We had no involvement in the coup attempt. We are Turkish military officers and we are proud of this. We are sorry for the current situation in Turkey," the statement said.

According to Dapoudani, the eight officers also made a plea to NGOs for support.

During Thursday's court session, the defendants insisted that they had no idea about the coup attempt and that they had received orders by their superiors to transfer injured people, the lawyer said.

When their helicopter came under fire and they were alerted by relatives on the dramatic developments they feared for their lives and decided to flee to Romania or Bulgaria initially. But due to fuel shortage, they eventually opted for Greece issuing a false distress signal for emergency landing, they told the Greek court.

Under Greek legislation, they face up to five years imprisonment. But the Greek judges acknowledged they acted under special circumstances in fear for their safety and handed down sentences suspended for three years.

Turkish officials have branded them traitors and said their extradition will be requested. The eight officers have meanwhile filed claims for asylum.

The process was expected to start with their interviews before the local asylum agency on July 27 and may last two to three months. Until then they will remain in custody.

Speaking to Xinhua, two of their attorneys stressed the eight men fear for their safety and that of their families. Although Turkish officials have reassured that they will get fair treatment.

During Thursday's trial outside the courthouse, a small group of local Greek Muslims were demonstrating against the "traitors" and in favor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The case of the military officers is testing bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries who for decades have had disputes over borders.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and cabinet ministers have stressed numerous times that Greece supports democracy and constitutional order in Turkey and will fully observe international law on asylum and extradition regarding the case.

One of the lawyers, Lia Marinaki, told Xinhua that in case the process in Greece will end inconclusively, the eight officers intend to claim asylum in other countries.

Meanwhile, according to Vima (Tribune) daily, Greek Navy and Coast Guard were on alert in the Aegean islands close to Turkish shores after Turkish media reported that other Turkish plotters may attempt to cross over to Greece in boats. Enditem
LONDON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield, famed for its steel industry, announced here Thursday a 60-year partnership with Sichuan Guodong Construction Group, one of the largest companies in China's Sichuan Province.

The city council officially announced the deal on its website Thursday following the return to the city of the council leader and deputy leader from a visit to Chengdu, Sheffield's sister city.

"We are today announcing a 60-year partnership agreement with Sichuan Guodong Construction Group worth over 1 billion pounds (1.32 billion U.S. dollars)," said the council in its announcement.

The first tranche of funding associated with the agreement is worth 292 million U.S. dollars and will fund four or five Sheffield city center projects over the next three years, the council said, adding the exact projects that the investment will fund are yet to be determined.

Councilor Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, said it is the biggest Chinese investment deal to be made by a British city outside of London.

"This is a real partnership. The projects funded by this investment will be determined by Sheffield City Council, and the 60-year commitment secures a stream of investment into our city for the next generation, and means a whole range of projects become viable because of the long-term nature of the relationship," she said.

"We are clear that this will create hundreds, if not thousands, of additional jobs for the people of Sheffield. The investment comes from China, but the workforce on these projects will be British," said Councilor Leigh Bramall, deputy leader of Sheffield City Council.

"This agreement is ground breaking. It will see the resources made available to deliver the vibrant, growing city center our city needs. This will make Sheffield even more attractive to inward investment, create jobs and enable us to compete with other big cities," he added.

Sheffield City Council has also recently signed co-operation trade agreements with Daqing, the leading center for the oil and gas industry in China, and the city of Nanchang, to boost trade between local companies in the Yorkshire city and China.
KAMPALA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan government has started the process of reviving the country's national airlines that has been grounded for about 15 years, local media reported here on Thursday.

Addressing parliament on Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Ruhakana Ruganda told legislators that efforts to revive Uganda Airlines, which government liquidated in 2001 have kicked off, the state owned New Vision reported.

"In order to meet the economic and other strategic demands, responsible agencies have been tasked to come up with complete guidelines on putting up a national airline," Rugunda, told Parliament.

The government in the wake of liberalization in May 2001 liquated Uganda Airlines after being indebted to a tune of 6 million U.S. dollars, down from 12 million dollars and its ground handling operations taken over by a private firm, depriving the airline of a key revenue source.

Ugandan Airlines was established in May 1976 and started its operations in 1977 with its hub at Entebbe International Airport, about 40 kilometers south of the capital, Kampala under the regime of former President Idi Amin.

By 1978, the national carrier had at least a fleet of 15 aircrafts fully owned by the East African country government.

The reviving of Uganda airlines is part of the efforts by President Yoweri Museveni to achieve the much anticipated middle income status by 2020.

The revival also follows October 2015 British Airways suspension of its flights between Entebbe International Airport and Heathrow, London, airport on grounds that the flights are not "commercially viable."

The British Airways had operated in Uganda for 24 years after re-launching its flights to the country in 1991.

At his new cabinet inaugural address last month, President Museveni announced that the government will in the next five years encourage the setting of the national carrier.

The president, who has been in power since 1986, described the lack of the national airline as big shame and directed the works and transport ministry to urgently conclude discussions with prospective investors to start the process of setting up national carrier.

Experts believe the revival and establishment of the national airline will reduce the travel costs and employment opportunities for Ugandan citizens. Enditem
KIEV, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine plans to undertake a second attempt to auction off its largest state-owned chemical producer Odessa Portside Plant (OPP) as the first one was unsuccessful, the country's Economic Development and Trade Minister Stepan Kubiv said on Thursday.

"We plan to hold the auction in October," Kubiv told reporters during a media forum in Kiev.

In an effort to woo investors to participate in the auction, Ukraine is considering a possibility to reduce a starting price for the OPP, which was previously set at 13.175 billion hryvnyas (about 531 million U.S. dollars), the minister added.

The previous attempt to hold the public sale of the plant has failed as Ukraine received no bids from potential buyers before the deadline on July 18.

According to local analysts, the reason for the first failed sale is the lack of investor interest caused by an overestimated starting price for the OPP and challenging political and business environment in the East European country.

Located in Ukraine's southern Black Sea Port of Odessa, the OPP produces about 1 million tons of ammonia and about 800,000 tons of carbamide annually and exports chemicals to more than 30 countries. The government owns 99.6 percent of shares of the plant.

The next auction will take place only if at least two potential buyers, one of which is a non-resident of Ukraine, submit bids. Enditem
CAPE TOWN, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Thursday voiced grave concern over the killings of South Africans who have been nominated by their parties as candidates for the upcoming local government elections.

The government "condemns this in the strongest terms" and call for peace and tolerance, the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs said in a statement.

A number of politicians have been killed in the run-up to the elections, scheduled for August 3.

"Government calls on all parties particularly in KwaZulu-Natal to ensure that the killings come to a stop and to cooperate with the political and law enforcement structures in place in the province and who are already hard at work to root out this evil", said Des Van Rooyen, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The government calls on all political parties and independent candidates to uphold the Electoral Code of Conduct, Van Rooyen said.

He said the government will continue to ensure that the local government elections environment is free, fair and peaceful. Enditem
ISTANBUL, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- People attend a rally at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 21, 2016. Thousands of Turks gathered on Thursday night on the bridge in Istanbul to denounce a failed coup attempt that killed at least 242 people and wounded 1,440 others last week. (Xinhua/He Canling)

ISTANBUL, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Turks gathered on Thursday night on a bridge in Istanbul to denounce a failed coup attempt that killed at least 242 people and wounded 1,440 others last week.

People waved flags, chanted slogans and held banners that read "No To Coup D'etat" on the Bosphorus Bridge linking the city's Asian and European parts, where heavy gunfire erupted between the military plotters and police on Friday night, killing at least 30, including civilians.

The sudden appearance of tanks and soldiers on the bridge that night signaled the start of the coup, which prompted many Turks to go there to block the plotters and their tanks.

On Thursday, increased security measures were observed in front of Istanbul police headquarters and some military barracks, according to media reports.

Two heavy construction vehicles were deployed to Istanbul Ataturk Airport as well, the Sozcu daily reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Wednesday night a three-month state of emergency across the country.
NAIROBI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has called on African governments to find new revenue sources to finance various development projects instead of relying on external debts.

A report launched on the sidelines of the UNCTAD conference in Nairobi calls on the African governments to take action and prevent rapid debt growth from becoming a crisis as experienced in the past three decades.

"Between 2006 and 2009, the average African country saw its external debt stock grow 7.8 percent per year, a figure that accelerates to 10 percent per year in the years 2011-2013 to reach 443 billion U.S. dollars or 22 percent of gross national income by 2013," says the report.

This year's UNCTAD report, Economic Development in Africa 2016 finds that the continent's external debt ratios appear manageable, but warns that debt looks unsustainable in some countries.

It says the governments should consider remittances, public-private partnerships, and a clampdown on illicit financial flows as revenue sources to finance development.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said majority of African countries have begun to shun a dependence on official development aid, looking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with new and innovative sources of finance

"Borrowing can be an important part of improving the lives of African citizens. But we must find a balance between the present and the future, because debt is dangerous when unsustainable," Kituyi said.

The report argues that African countries should look for complementary sources of revenue, including remittances, which have been growing rapidly, reaching 63.8 billion dollars to Africa in 2014.

The report discusses how remittances and diaspora savings can contribute to public and development finance.

According to the report, at least 600 billion U.S. dollars will be needed each year to meet the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa.

This amount, the report says, equates to roughly a third of countries' gross national income. Official development aid and external debt are unlikely to cover these needs, the report finds.

The report says Africa in partnership with the international community must also tackle illicit financial flows, which can be as high as 50 billion dollars per year.

"Between 1970 and 2008, Africa lost an estimated 854 billion dollars in illicit financial flows, roughly equal to all official development assistance received by the continent in that time," it says.

It calls on governments to be vigilant of the borrowing risks as public-private partnerships have also started to play a more prominent role in financing development.

"In Africa, public-private partnerships are being used especially to finance infrastructure. Of the 52 countries considered during the period 1990-2014, Nigeria tops the list with 37.9 billion dollars of investment, followed by Morocco and South Africa," it says.

The report finds that several African countries including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia have also borrowed heavily on domestic markets.

"In some countries, domestic debt rose from an average 11 percent of GDP in 1995 to around 19 percent at the end of 2013, almost doubling in two decades," finds the report. Enditem
KAMPALA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Thursday said over 10,000 people from the troubled South Sudan have fled into neigbouring Uganda in the last two days.

In a statement issued here, UNCHR said a total of 7,000 and 3,200 refugees from South Sudan crossed into Uganda on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, bringing the total of new arrivals to 15,984 in the previous five days alone.

Just 1,326 people crossed into the East African country between last Friday and Saturday, with 1,633 more arriving on Sunday. Prior to Friday, the average daily rate was 233.

At least 18,149 South Sudanese refugees have fled to Uganda since fighting between forces loyal to President Kiir and those loyal to First Vice President Machar began in the capital, Juba on July 7.

UNHCR said the influx continues to be characterized by a high proportion of women and children, which accounts for more than 90 percent.

"The influx is severely stretching the capacity of collection points, transit centres and reception centres. Elegu collection point is full to the extent that it is not possible conduct a head count," said UNHCR in a statement.

UNHCR said it expects more people to flee to the East African country, especially now that the 200-kilometre Juba-Nimule road, linking the South Sudan capital to Uganda, has been cleared of checkpoints. The border was previously closed on the South Sudan side, but restrictions have been eased.

The people reportedly are arriving in Uganda are tired, hungry and others are suffering from malnutrition after walking without food for days while carrying belongings.

The UN has said that at least 300 people were killed and over 10,000 fled their homes after the recent fighting between two rival army factions in Juba.

"There are reports that armed gunmen continue to loot properties, forcibly recruit boys and young men, and murder civilians in Magwi," said UNHCR.

Although a fragile ceasefire has held since last Monday, the UN has warned of the possibility of fresh fighting in the capital, Juba.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump smiles after speaking during his walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, U.S., July 21, 2016. (REUTERS/Rick Wilking)

By Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump needs a bump in his numbers to win the White House, and he is looking to the Republican National Convention (RNC) to make that happen, experts said.

"I think what we're trying to figure out is when we leave the convention, how big is the bounce going to be in the polls," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua via phone from the convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Currently, Trump is neck-in-neck with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, with Wednesday's Real Clear Politics' poll average showing Clinton ahead by a hair, leading by 2.7 points - a mere sliver given that the margin of error is 2 points.

Trump is gambling that he can get around 91 or 92 percent of Republican voters to cast their ballots for him, which he needs to clinch the election victory.

Strategists say that galvanizing rank-and-file Republican voters is Trump's best chance to win, as the bombastic candidate has sparked much controversy during his campaign and turned off many independents.

The anti-establishment real estate tycoon has compared Mexicans to rapists and has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country - statements unpopular for many voters who are on the fence.

"Usually you get an eight to ten point bounce coming out of a convention... But the question is going to be will Hillary also get eight to ten points, because if she does (after the Democratic convention) we're going to be right back to where we were," O'Connell said.

In order to get a major bounce from white working class Americans - his bastion of support - Trump will have to hit the ball out of the park in Thursday's acceptance speech. And that means not only making a clear case for his candidacy, but also explaining why rival Clinton would be bad for the nation.

"He wants to instill confidence (in voters) that he's going to govern reasonably as an agent of change," O'Connell said. "If he gets that point across, I think a lot more people will feel comfortable with him."

TRUMP NEEDS TO UNIFY PARTY

Ralph Winnie, an alternate delegate for the state of Hawaii, told Xinhua that Trump needs to get over 90 percent of the Republican vote.

"If he does that, it doesn't matter that the Bushes or Romney or others don't have a presence of the convention," he said via phone from the convention, referring to former President George W. Bush and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney who refused to attend due to their disagreement with Trump.

Trump "needs the rank and file to come out and support him," Winnie said.

"Pence was a great choice for (as a running mate)," he said, referring to Trump's choice of Indiana Governor Mike Pence for vice president, who boasts solid conservative credentials and is much more reserved than the bombastic Trump.

"That solidifies support with the conservative wing of the party," he said.

Establishment Republicans have slammed Trump for not being, in their opinion, a true conservative.

The U.S. liberal media does not like Trump, but Winnie said Pence may help engage with the media, and Pence has the credentials to do that.

Moreover, while Trump struggled to gain favor with evangelicals - an important Republican voting bloc - during the primaries, Pence will help solidify support among that group, he said.

"Mike Pence has tremendous respect and credibility with the evangelical movement," Winnie said.
by Larry Neild

LONDON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday he would end the party's current civil war if he is re-elected leader, by holding out a hand of friendship to his estranged MPs.

In what has become a highly public battle between Corbyn and the majority of MPs, the leader is going head to head in a challenge to his leadership that could determine the future of the party.

Corbyn has huge support among ordinary rank and file members across the country, with a high chance he could be declared the winner when the result of the new leadership contest is revealed at the party's conference in Liverpool in September.

Some MPs have already said they would decline front bench jobs if Corbyn remains in charge.

Announcing his leadership manifesto in London, Corbyn said he would "hold out the hand of friendship" to MPs after the leadership contest is over.

"I have an ability to conveniently forget some of the unpleasant things that are said, because it is simply not worth it," he said. In a message to MPs he said that after the result is declared, it will be "the job, the duty, the responsibility" of every Labour MP to "get behind the party".

Corbyn faces Welsh MP Owen Smith in the leadership contest after many Labour MPs announced their support for Smith.

Corbyn added that if he becomes prime minister in the 2020 general election he will draw inspiration from Labour MPs who in the post-war 1940s were the founding fathers of Britain's welfare state.

Corbyn vowed to tackle what he described as the "five ills of 21st Century Britain", inequality, neglect, prejudice, insecurity and discrimination.

He also promised to tackle workplace discrimination by forcing all businesses employing 21 or more people to publish information about pay, working hours and the grades of every job. The measure, said Corbyn, would highlight the extent to which female, disabled and black and minority ethnic workers remained unfairly treated 40 years after the British government passed it equal pay laws.

Corbyn said the Labour party is stronger with him as leader, adding he was proud of what has been achieved in the last 10 months.

One of the latest polls, published this week by YouGov puts Corbyn's support at 56 percent and Smith's at 34 percent.

Many MPs, especially those critical of Corbyn, fear they will be sacked if a re-selection process is handed to local constituency parties, many now dominated by Corbyn supporters.

The government is planning to review boundaries, including a reduction of the total number of MPs from 650 to 600. It would mean every MP having to go through a selection process. Currently sitting MPs are usually selected without having to fight to stay on as an MP. Some fear Corbyn supporters would use this as a "back door" method of ridding the House of Commons of anti-Corbyn MPs.

Corbyn's team denied the leader is threatening to de-select sitting MPs, but setting out selection processes.
WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government will award a combined total of 60 million U.S. dollars to states and territories to fight the Zika virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.

The announcement came as health officials in Florida said they were investigating what could be the first Zika infection from a mosquito bite in the continental United States.

The CDC said in a statement the new money aimed to help protect the health of the American public, especially pregnant women, support epidemiologic surveillance and investigation, improve mosquito control and monitoring, and strengthen laboratory capacity.

It will also support participation in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry to monitor pregnant women with Zika and their infants, as well as Zika-related activities in U.S.-Mexico border states.

"Local, state and territorial health departments are on the front lines in the fight against Zika," the statement quoted CDC Director Tom Frieden as saying.

"These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat for pregnant women and babies."

U.S. President Barack Obama has requested 1.9 billion dollars to combat Zika, but the budget has not been approved by Congress.

The new funding will be available to jurisdictions on Aug. 1 and is in addition to 25 million dollars awarded on July 1 as part of CDC's preparedness and response funding to states, cities, and territories in areas at risk for outbreaks of Zika, the agency said.

The CDC said it also will award another 10 million dollars on August 1 for states and territories to quickly identify cases of microcephaly and other birth defects linked to Zika and to refer affected families to services.

Zika spreads to people primarily through mosquito bites, and it can also be spread sexually.

As of July 20, more than 1,400 cases of Zika have been reported in the continental United States, but none of these have been the result of local spread by mosquitoes, according to the CDC.
Turkish policemen attend the funeral ceremony of special forces police officer Meric Alemdar killed during the failed July 15 coup, at the Kocatepe mosque in Ankara on July 21, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

ANKARA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish military will be restructured in a short time following a failed coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

"The army will get fresh blood," Erdogan said in a televised interview in Ankara.

The president underlined significant deficiencies and failure in their intelligence gathering about the July 15 coup attempt.

"No need to hide or deny. I told it to the undersecretary of national intelligence organization (Hakan Fidan)," he said.

President Erdogan said he was not able to reach the chief of intelligence agency and the general staff at the night of July 15. "I hardly had contact with the prime minister," he said.

The army should take a serious lesson from this incident, he noted.

"A new coup attempt is possible but not easy. We are more vigilant now," the president said.

Some 10,400 people were detained, 4,060 of them were arrested, according to figures given by the president. About 100 of the arrested were generals, he said.

Erdogan said they will extend the state of emergency for three months more if needed. The government has decided to declare three months of state of emergency on Wednesday, which the parliament has approved Thursday.

The president also criticized Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade Turkey's credit rating from "BB+" to "BB" on Wednesday with a negative outlook.

It was a political decision, Erdogan said, stressing that the economy of Turkey is strong with no problem in liquidity.

The failed coup attempt, which began last Friday, was crushed the next day; at least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters," were killed, authorities said.

The Turkish government claimed the failed coup was organized by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric.
BUENOS AIRES, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Argentinean President Mauricio Macri on Thursday met with the chairwoman of Chinese telecoms giant, Huawei, Sun Yafang, who expressed her decision to expand Huawei's footprint in the country.

In a statement, the president's office said "Huawei is evaluating more investments in the country and is planning to open a Training Center."

During the meeting with the president and a number of advisers, Sun stated that "Huawei is evaluating moving part of its operations center to the Technological District (in Buenos Aires), created during Macri's time as mayor of the city," read the statement.

In the statement, Horacio Reyser, the president's advisor on foreign investment, said that Huawei is also seeking to open in Argentina a regional training center, which will seek to train over 500 employees, local partners and industry collaborators in its first phase.

In a second phase, the Argentinean government hopes Huawei will build a full-blown research and development center to offer a range of services across Latin America. Huawei has 8 such centers in Germany, Sweden, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, India and China.

"This is important, not only in terms of jobs, but also for the high level of expertise needed to run such program and for the great horizon this opens for technological innovation and the creation of new products and solutions," added Reyser.

Sun also invited Macri to visit Huawei's principal research center in Hangzhou, China, when the head of state visits the city in September for a G20 Summit.
NEW YORK, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Media Tycoon Rupert Murdoch will assume the role of Chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network as Roger Ailes has resigned from the company, announced 21st Century Fox Inc. on Thursday.

Roger Ailes, who has been head of fox news for over 20 years, was reportedly under sexual harassment accusations leveled by several anchors at the company.

Rupert Murdoch, the founder and Chairman 21st Century Fox, said in a statement on Thursday that "Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country." and that "To ensure continuity of all that is best about Fox News and what it stands for, I will take over as Chairman and acting CEO."

21st Century Fox is home to a global portfolio of cable and broadcasting networks and properties, including FOX, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, National Geographic Channels, film studio Twentieth Century Fox Film and many others.

According to local media, 21st Century Fox' s cable networks took up as much as half of the company' s total revenue last year.
UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to take personal responsibility for immediately sanctioning the soldiers responsible for these unacceptable acts of sexual violence, a UN spokesman said here Thursday.

UNMISS "notes that it is following up on the deeply disturbing reports of sexual violence reported earlier, including the rape and gang rape by soldiers in uniform of a number of civilians, including minors, around UN House as well as in several neighborhoods of Juba," the capital of the world's youngest country, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

The mission reported that the number of victims could be in the dozens and that these acts have taken place since the start of the current spate of violence in Juba two weeks ago, Haq said. "The mission's human rights team is currently documenting these cases, which may constitute a war crime."

Meanwhile, the UN mission has stepped up its patrols in and around its Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites as well in Juba city, although with restrictions, and is taking measures to provide the required safety to women who need to go out of the PoC sites to collect firewood and procure other non-food items, he said. "The situation in the country remains tense and volatile."

In response to a question on access to PoC sites, the mission noted that protection of civilians, including in its PoC sites, is its main concern, he said.

Given the intense fighting that occurred close to the sites, extensive safety and security operations, including operations to clear any unexploded ordnance and weapons searches in both PoC sites, were the priorities for the mission in the sites during the first week following the fighting, he said.

"During this time, to minimise security risks, only the most critical UNMISS and humanitarian staff were allowed to enter the PoC sites," he said.

In the days since the conflict subsided, internally displaced people have been freely moving in and out of the sites whenever they deemed the situation safe enough. No displaced person has been stopped from speaking to the media outside the sites, he said.

"Given the continued volatile situation, the mission is evaluating the security situation on a daily basis and expects that media will be able to visit the PoC sites again in the coming days," Haq added. Enditem
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump smiles after speaking during his walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump needs a bump in his numbers to win the White House, and he is looking to the Republican National Convention (RNC) to make that happen, experts said.

"I think what we're trying to figure out is when we leave the convention, how big is the bounce going to be in the polls," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua via phone from the convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Currently, Trump is neck-in-neck with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, with Wednesday's Real Clear Politics' poll average showing Clinton ahead by a hair, leading by 2.7 points - a mere sliver given that the margin of error is 2 points.

Trump is gambling that he can get around 91 or 92 percent of Republican voters to cast their ballots for him, which he needs to clinch the election victory.

Strategists say that galvanizing rank-and-file Republican voters is Trump's best chance to win, as the bombastic candidate has sparked much controversy during his campaign and turned off many independents.

The anti-establishment real estate tycoon has compared Mexicans to rapists and has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country - statements unpopular for many voters who are on the fence.

"Usually you get an eight to ten point bounce coming out of a convention... But the question is going to be will Hillary also get eight to ten points, because if she does (after the Democratic convention) we're going to be right back to where we were," O'Connell said.

In order to get a major bounce from white working class Americans - his bastion of support - Trump will have to hit the ball out of the park in Thursday's acceptance speech. And that means not only making a clear case for his candidacy, but also explaining why rival Clinton would be bad for the nation.

"He wants to instill confidence (in voters) that he's going to govern reasonably as an agent of change," O'Connell said. "If he gets that point across, I think a lot more people will feel comfortable with him."

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addresses the (AFSCME) American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees at their conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center July 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. / AFP PHOTO / John GURZINSKI

TRUMP NEEDS TO UNIFY PARTY

Ralph Winnie, an alternate delegate for the state of Hawaii, told Xinhua that Trump needs to get over 90 percent of the Republican vote.

"If he does that, it doesn't matter that the Bushes or Romney or others don't have a presence of the convention," he said via phone from the convention, referring to former President George W. Bush and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney who refused to attend due to their disagreement with Trump.

Trump "needs the rank and file to come out and support him," Winnie said.

"Pence was a great choice for (as a running mate)," he said, referring to Trump's choice of Indiana Governor Mike Pence for vice president, who boasts solid conservative credentials and is much more reserved than the bombastic Trump.

"That solidifies support with the conservative wing of the party," he said.

Establishment Republicans have slammed Trump for not being, in their opinion, a true conservative.

The U.S. liberal media does not like Trump, but Winnie said Pence may help engage with the media, and Pence has the credentials to do that.

Moreover, while Trump struggled to gain favor with evangelicals - an important Republican voting bloc - during the primaries, Pence will help solidify support among that group, he said.

"Mike Pence has tremendous respect and credibility with the evangelical movement," Winnie said.
NEW YORK, July 19, 2016 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on July 16, 2016 shows Donald Trump speaking during a campaign event in New York, the United States. New York billionaire Donald Trump clinched enough delegate votes to be officially selected as Republican presidential nominee Tuesday evening in the roll call voting at the ongoing Republican National Convention. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

By Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is gearing up for a big night on Thursday, as he will give a speech that could well make or break his bid to clinch the White House.

The speech to accept the Republican Party nomination at the Republican National Committee is the most important of his life, and Trump needs to hit the ball out of the park in order to unify the party and get the vast majority of rank-and-file Republicans to cast their ballots for him.

"Trump needs to close the convention strong to get a polling bump," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

Indeed, Trump is running neck-in-neck against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton - with Clinton ahead by a hair - and needs a boost in his polling numbers in order to clinch the White House.

"The first two days have been rocky and are not likely to generate a large bounce for him. He could recover from this by giving a strong speech and answering critics who say there is no substance behind his candidacy," West said.

West said that Trump needs to convince party leaders that he has mastered the mechanics of the election and has the organizational skills to wage a credible campaign.

While the brash businessman has shored up many white working class voters who are fed up with what they describe as incompetent and apathetic Washington elites, the candidate also needs to persuade those on the fence to vote for him.

Trump has over the past year grabbed global headlines by making over-the-top statements that have sparked controversy not only with Americans, but also with allies abroad.

The bombastic Trump has compared Mexicans to rapists, and has called for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States, raising red flags with many independent voters and also with establishment Republicans.

Trump has galvanized many white working class Republicans, but has left other Republicans on the fence, and he will need to tweak his tone and rhetoric in Thursday night' s speech in order to win their support.

"Trump will attempt to use Hillary Clinton to unify Republicans around him. That will work with a sizable number of party folks," West said, referring to the tactic of hammering Clinton for her many scandals, such as when she was U.S. Secretary of State.

"But the remaining ones need assurance on policy matters to rally to Trump," he said.

For these individuals who worry that Trump is not a real conservative, he will need to provide substantive clues regarding his views on taxes, trade, immigration, and foreign policy, West argued.

"So far, he has not provided many details on policy issues so this will be a big challenge for him," West said.

Content and tone will be important in Trump's acceptance speech, which needs to be focused and positive. It also needs to convince Americans that he will revive the economy and reestablish America' s standing in the world, which many believe is diminishing, analysts say.

Trump will also need not only to clearly outline his intentions, but must weave into the speech comments that make the candidate seem credible, likable and capable.

Indeed, the brash billionaire is seen by many as hot-headed and impulsive, and viewers will be looking for a candidate who is calm and cool under pressure.

Related:

Profile: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump

Spotlight: Party unity remains elusive as Republicans gather for 2016 convention

CLEVELAND, the United States, July 20 (Xinhua) -- One of the themes of 2016 Republican National Convention is to "Make America One Again." Ironically, three days into the convention, even party unity still remains elusive despite Republican presidential nominee for 2016 U.S. election Donald Trump's effort to put on a unity show.

Relations between Trump and party leaders were constantly strained during the chaotic primary season where the bombastic and bellicose candidate hurled insults at party establishment and alienated a wide swath of constituencies with controversial remarks. Full story

Donald Trump officially wins Republican presidential nomination

CLEVELAND, the United States, July 19 (Xinhua) -- New York billionaire Donald Trump was officially declared as the U.S. Republican Party's presidential nominee on Tuesday.
RABAT, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan government expressed Thursday "deep concerns" over the course of action following a failed coup against the government in Turkey, an official statement said.

In a statement following a cabinet meeting, Moroccan government said while the kingdom was among the first nations to denounce the attempted coup, it is very concerned about the large scale arrests of teachers and judges in Turkey.

Morocco called for protecting the constitutional order and institutional legitimacy and preserving unity and social cohesion in this brotherly Muslim country, the statement said.

Since the coup failed on last Saturday, over 9,000 people have been arrested facing court decisions, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who declared state of emergency for three months on Wednesday. Enditem
TRIPOLI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Libyan officials said on Thursday that French warplanes have bombed sites just outside of eastern Benghazi, killing 16 militants.

The bombing forced the militants to retreat to nearby Edjabia, according to the officials.

The French government on Wednesday announced that three French soldiers were killed in Libya, shortly after revealing for the first time, since the military campaign against the late Muammar Gaddafi' regime, that French forces are engaged in military operations in Libya.

"At this moment we are carrying out dangerous intelligence operations (in Libya)," said French President Francois Hollande, confirming that three French soldiers were killed in a helicopter accident.

Western countries have expressed support for the UN-backed unity government of Libya in the fight against the Islamic State.
DAMASCUS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan capitalized on the coup attempt in Turkey to implement a "radical agenda."

In an interview with a Cuban news agency, al-Assad said the agenda Erdogan implemented is the one by the Muslim Brotherhood, adding that such an agenda is dangerous for Turkey and neighboring countries.

The Syrian president was referring to the mass arrests in Turkey and the heightened rhetoric of Erdogan following the failed coup attempt earlier this week.

"How did they took such a decision," al-Assad said of the mass arrest campaign.

"What's the relationship between the universities and civil society with the coup," he questioned.

The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as one of the staunchest opponents to the government of President Bashar al-Assad throughout Syria's five-year-old conflict.

The Syrian government released endless statements, accusing the Turkish government of supporting the terrorist groups in Syria.

Turkey, under Erdogan, has allowed foreign fighters to cross its territory to reach Syria, with arms and ammunition being smuggled through the Turkish borders into Syria.
PARIS, July 21, 2016 (Xinhua) -- French President Francois Hollande(R) and British Prime Minister Theresa May attend a press conference after their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on July 21, 2016. French President Francois Hollande on Thursday called on Britain to prepare for talks to leave the European Union(EU) as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Alan Wilson)

PARIS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- French President Francois Hollande on Thursday called on Britain to prepare for talks to leave the European Union(EU) as soon as possible.

Attending a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris, Hollande said France respected Britain's decision to leave the EU, but the sooner to open a negotiation on Brexit the better.

"There cannot be discussions, pre-negotiations before the negotiation but there can be preparation for this negotiation. We do understand that your government, which has just been formed, needs time. (But), the sooner the better for the common interest," Hollande told May.

Warning of the "uncertainty" as a result of Brexit, Hollande stressed that Britain should respect free movement of EU citizens if it wants to remain part of the free-trade union.

May said she wanted "to ensure that the negotiations for Britain leaving the European Union are done in a calm and orderly and constructive manner."

"I hope that we can all make the most of the next six months to prepare for these discussions in a constructive way so we maximize the opportunities for both the UK and the EU," she added.

May also expressed determination "to maintain the closest possible economic relationship" between London and Paris after Britain's referendum on its EU membership.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump waves as his campaign manager Paul Manafort (2nd R) speaks with Trump's daughter Ivanka (R) during Trump's walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

By Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is gearing up for a big night on Thursday, as he will give a speech that could well make or break his bid to clinch the White House.

The speech to accept the Republican Party nomination at the Republican National Committee is the most important of his life, and Trump needs to hit the ball out of the park in order to unify the party and get the vast majority of rank-and-file Republicans to cast their ballots for him.

"Trump needs to close the convention strong to get a polling bump," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

Indeed, Trump is running neck-in-neck against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton - with Clinton ahead by a hair - and needs a boost in his polling numbers in order to clinch the White House.

"The first two days have been rocky and are not likely to generate a large bounce for him. He could recover from this by giving a strong speech and answering critics who say there is no substance behind his candidacy," West said.

West said that Trump needs to convince party leaders that he has mastered the mechanics of the election and has the organizational skills to wage a credible campaign.

While the brash businessman has shored up many white working class voters who are fed up with what they describe as incompetent and apathetic Washington elites, the candidate also needs to persuade those on the fence to vote for him.

Trump has over the past year grabbed global headlines by making over-the-top statements that have sparked controversy not only with Americans, but also with allies abroad.

The bombastic Trump has compared Mexicans to rapists, and has called for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States, raising red flags with many independent voters and also with establishment Republicans.

Trump has galvanized many white working class Republicans, but has left other Republicans on the fence, and he will need to tweak his tone and rhetoric in Thursday night's speech in order to win their support.

Pamela Nicolay and her 14 year-old daughter Danielle, both from Placerville, California, hold a banner in support of Donald Trump near the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., July 20, 2016. Picture taken on July 20. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

"Trump will attempt to use Hillary Clinton to unify Republicans around him. That will work with a sizable number of party folks," West said, referring to the tactic of hammering Clinton for her many scandals, such as when she was U.S. Secretary of State.

"But the remaining ones need assurance on policy matters to rally to Trump," he said.

For these individuals who worry that Trump is not a real conservative, he will need to provide substantive clues regarding his views on taxes, trade, immigration, and foreign policy, West argued.

"So far, he has not provided many details on policy issues so this will be a big challenge for him," West said.

Content and tone will be important in Trump's acceptance speech, which needs to be focused and positive. It also needs to convince Americans that he will revive the economy and reestablish America' s standing in the world, which many believe is diminishing, analysts say.

Trump will also need not only to clearly outline his intentions, but must weave into the speech comments that make the candidate seem credible, likable and capable.
A combination picture created on July 21, 2016 shows the 12 announced candidates for the post of UN chief. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The president of the UN Security Council told reporters here Thursday that all the 12 announced candidates for the post of UN chief will be informed of the outcome of the first round of a secret straw poll by the 15-nation council.

"The first straw poll to select the next secretary-general has taken place," Ambassador Koro Bossho of Japan, this month's president of the Security Council, said outside the council's chamber less than two hours after the polling started at 10:00 a.m. local time (1500 GMT).

"The candidates will be informed of the results through the respective permanent representatives (ambassadors) of nominating (UN) member states," he said.

"The president of the General Assembly (PGA) was informed," he said. "That is my report."

Bossho later explained he gave the PGA the same information he gave reporters, in other words, no indication of the standings of the candidates.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 21 (Xinhua) -- A 20-month experiment by Large Underground Xenon, or LUX, has come to an end, narrowing the search for, but failing to find, an elusive particle that should be everywhere.

The experiment operated beneath a mile, or 1.6 kilometer, of rock at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in the former Homestake gold mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Its mission: to detect so-called weakly interactive massive particles, or WIMPS, that some physicists think comprise the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85 percent of all the matter in the universe.

If the WIMP hypothesis is correct, billions of these particles pass through our bodies every second, as well as Earth and everything on it. But because WIMPs interact so weakly with ordinary matter, this ghostly traverse goes entirely unnoticed.

Despite the LUX team' s non-discovery, the researchers have narrowed the mass-range in which the putative particle can exist, focusing future searches within that range.

"The extra experiment gave us more sensitivity in searching for high-mass dark matter particles," Daniel McKinsey, a University of California, Berkeley, professor of physics and senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and co-spokesperson for LUX, was quoted as saying by a news release from the school on Thursday. "Many theorists think that the dark matter mass will be high, around a thousand times the mass of a proton."

The experiment provided about four times better sensitivity to high-mass particles than earlier underground experiments that began in 2013. LUX' s sensitivity far exceeded the original goals for the project, according to McKinsey, which makes the team confident that if dark matter particles had interacted with the LUX' s xenon target, the detector would almost certainly have seen it. That enables them to eliminate many potential models for dark matter particles, offering guidance for the next generation of dark matter experiments.

Key to the improved sensitivity was a calibration technique that allowed the researchers to remove sources of noise caused by electrons building up on the inner Teflon coating of the tank holding a third-of-a-ton of cooled liquid xenon. If a WIMP collided with of a xenon atom within the tank, sensors inside would detect the tiny flash of light and electrical charge created.

"Teflon is a terrific reflector of light, but it builds up electrons, which distort the electric field we use to detect the effects of dark matter," McKinsey said. "So we relied on our calibrations to compensate. That was fairly tricky and took a lot of effort."

The data analysis alone took more than 1,000 computer nodes at Brown University' s Center for Computation and Visualization (CCV) in Rhode Island and the advanced computer simulations at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory' s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in northern California.

While the experiment eliminated a large swath of mass ranges and interaction-coupling strengths where WIMPs might exist, the WIMP model itself "remains alive and viable," said Rick Gaitskell, a professor of physics at Brown University and co-spokesperson for the LUX experiment. "LUX was racing over the last three years to get first evidence for a dark matter signal. We will now have to wait and see if the new run this year at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN will show evidence of dark matter particles, or if the discovery occurs in the next generation of larger direct detectors."

CERN, short for European Organization for Nuclear Research, is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

First constructed in 2011, LUX completed its final search in May, and now will be upgraded to a more sensitive experiment called LUX-ZEPLIN that draws in researchers who built a similar underground dark matter detector in the United Kingdom called ZEPLIN.
UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday held its first straw poll on candidates vying to become the next UN secretary-general but made no announcement of the results.

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday held its first straw poll on candidates vying to become the next UN secretary-general but made no announcement of the results.

After the secret balloting, Japan's Ambassador Koro Bessho, also the Security Council president for July, told reporters here that "the candidates will be informed of the results through the respective permanent representatives of nominating member states."

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, the Security Council, particularly its five permanent members, will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

Before the final decision comes out, several rounds of straw polls would be held among the 15 Security Council members. Bessho explained to reporters that the straw poll is "an indicative vote."

He said the poll is to inform the candidates of where they stand in the race and also inform the council members how the race might go on from here.

So far, 12 candidates have been competing for the post of the next UN chief: half of them are women; eight are from the eastern European nations. Among them are former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, UN cultural agency UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, etc.

In Thursday's balloting, Security Council members have voted "encourage," "discourage" or "no opinion expressed" for each one of them.

The second round of straw poll has not yet been scheduled.

The incumbent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is going to conclude his term at the end of 2016. The council's decision to select the top leader of the world organization shall come later in the fall.

Ahead of Thursday's confidential poll, the UN 193-member General Assembly has held public informal dialogues with every secretary-general candidate, during which the candidates were asked to submit their resumes and answer questions from UN member states as well as the civil society.

The procedure is widely seen historic, yet not decisive. President of UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft who initiated the procedure has said it is to find the best person who is the moral authority and is capable of leading the UN with political and diplomatic skills.

Regarding other UN member states, there has been a widespread call to select a woman as the world's top civil servant ever since the selection process was set in motion; it is also expected that the next secretary-general shall come from eastern Europe due to an unwritten rule of regional rotation in UN chief selection.
CANBERRA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has on Friday said it was "probable" that a terror attack would occur on Australian soil in the near future, as the threat from terrorists, particularly lone-wolf terrorists, was constantly changing.

Turnbull said the nation's counter-terrorism teams were "very mindful of the changing threat" posed by extremists, and added he had talked with French President Francois Holland about how Australia can best avoid a situation similar to that which occurred in Nice.

Earlier this month, more than 80 revelers celebrating Bastille Day in the city were killed.

"It's probable," Turnbull told Macquarie Radio of a terror attack on Australian soil, "the threat level has been, for some time now, probable."

"We have security measures in place, but to take the example of Nice, if there are going to be large numbers of people in a place, then we have to think about what we do physically to prevent, for instance, a vehicle getting access."

Despite the threat of terrorism in Australia, Turnbull said he was confident that police and counter-terrorism forces would continue to foil any threats before they can affect the public, and added that it was important that Australians continue to live their day-to-day lives.
CANBERRA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian ambassador to the United States, Kim Beazley believes the viability of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's bid to become United Nations (UN) secretary-general was questionable, and said circumstances within the UN would count against the former Labor leader.

Beazley, who was federal Labor boss before Rudd took over in 2007, said a lot of things would have to "fall into place" for Rudd -- a male candidate from the Asia-Pacific region -- to be properly considered, as the incumbent Ban Ki-moon was also a male from the area.

"In the same way there's never been a woman, there's never been an eastern European in the position," Beazley told News Corp on Friday.

"I don't know if it would be a sensible thing to stand against that and force through a candidate and not reflect all those things."

"This doesn't go to anything to do with Kevin Rudd's capacity -- it just goes to the times and the times would make it a difficult one to (further) his candidacy."

The Turnbull government is yet to endorse Rudd's bid, a requirement for Rudd to be in the running, while there had previously been doubts about a Liberal-National government supporting the bid of a former Labor politician.

Beazley said the government could not "half-heartedly" endorse Rudd as only fierce support would get him over the line.

Beazley's comments come just days after the country's former ambassador to the UN, Richard Woolcott urged the government to get behind an Australian bid.

The government confirmed it had received a request from Rudd last week; it is yet to comment on whether or not Prime Minister Turnbull will support the bid.

Current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is set to step down later this year for the next candidate to take office on Jan. 1, 2017.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. drone strike strategy has once again exposed its hypocritical double standard on human rights. The Obama administration, concerned only about minimizing the casualties of U.S. soldiers, have turned a flagrantly deaf ear to the heartrending loss of civilian rights to life in other countries affected by this technology.

The White House recently released a report, indicating that from 2009 to 2015, some 100 civilians were killed during 473 U.S. drone strikes in regions where the United States is not at war. Human rights groups following the case suggested that the real casualty figures are far more underestimated.

A recent report from the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a non-governmental organization, shows that the United States has launched 424 drone strikes in Pakistan alone since 2004, killing 424 to 966 civilians, including about 200 children. According to its calculation, U.S. drones have caused 492 to 1,100 civilian deaths in Pakistan and other countries since 2002.

It is sarcastic to see that President Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, endorsed the drone strike strategy, which has claimed hundreds of innocent lives outside his country. The bloodbaths of civilians conducted by the United States during his eight-year term have engraved a stain on Obama's forehead that he could never wipe away.

Ever since the U.S. troops were authorized to use the lethal weapon, the controversy over its legitimacy has haunted the "World Police." Worldwide criticism against its aggravating mass killings of innocent civilians in other countries runs higher, due to the lacking of effective supervision and transparency in the whole procedure.

Besides, the U.S. military has often conducted rash air strikes, sometimes based on unbelievably irresponsible excuses. In a targeted drone strike in Afghanistan launched in February 2002, the Central Intelligency Agency killed three junk collectors, only because "one of the targets has similar height as Bin Laden."

Although U.S. high-ranking commanders argued that drone strikes would only be used when the targeted people could not be captured or posed "an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States," a secret government memorandum noted that it "does not require ... clear evidence" for the U.S. military to take drone strikes.

In the worst scenario, the document said, the U.S. military can order any drone attacks against anyone without proof that the person concerned is dangerous.

Moreover, the procedural justice that the Americans have boasted of has also been neglected in those merciless drone strikes. "We have killed ... 2,300 to 3,300 people using drone strikes ... and we are now being jury, judge and executioner without any legal ramifications," said Paul Kawika Martin, a senior expert with Peace Action, the U.S. largest grassroots peace network.

Perhaps the most ironic part is the counterproductive result of the U.S. "unconstrained and unreviewable power to kill people" in other nations in the name of counter terrorism.

Former Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant, who operated drones for the U.S. Air Force Predator program between 2007 and 2011, noted that using the drone-killing strategy to fight against terrorism might actually instigate retaliation and therefore intensify terrorism.

They might have killed four terrorists, but at the same time they created 10 more, the former airman said.
CANBERRA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- An 1,800-year-old stone Buddha which featured in Canberra's National Gallery of Australia (NGA) is on its way home to India, after it was found to have been purchased from an illegal antiquity trafficker.

The second-century statue stands at 1.3 meters tall, and was purchased from Asian art specialist Nancy Wiener by billionaire Ros Packer, on behalf of the NGA, in 2007.

However documents revealed that NGA staff simply accepted Wiener's story of how she came to be in possession of the antiquity, unaware that it was in fact stolen from an archaeological site in Mathura, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradhesh.

NGA director Gerard Vaughan told News Corp on Friday that the sculpture would likely be returned to Indian government officials when they visit Australia for an Indian cultural festival in September.

"There is a high-level delegation coming in September so we're investigating whether that will be the moment of handover," Vaughan said.

"Or (we) simply come to an agreement with India, because it is no longer our property, whether it can just be sent back to India."

The condition of the statue was so good that it was initially thought to be a fake, though when experts from the Archaeological Survey of India examined the piece, it was revealed to be genuine.

"One of the reasons was because it's of great age and was in very good condition. Good condition can denote a fake," Vaughan said.

"It was good for them to come back to us and say it was authentic and certainly something that should be returned to India," he said.

According to Vaughan, the NGA would be reviewing all 5,000 Asian antiquities in its collection due to the "culture" of failing to adequately check the background of its dealers.

The news follows the arrest last month of one of the gallery's main suppliers, Subhash Kapoor, who was charged with illegal trafficking of antiquities.
ISLAMABAD/NEW YORK, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States has recently issued its first report on the civilian casualties of the strikes by the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which, however, has aroused immediate suspicion and strong criticism from home and abroad.

The White House said earlier this month that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed in 473 U.S. strikes between 2009 and 2015 in Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa, where the United States is not at war.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were not included in the report, the first U.S. public assessment of its kind in the counterterrorism campaign.

SUSPICIOUS DATA

The released numbers have been widely attacked for being far too low to be accurate.

"A lot of these places are remote, hard to count, and there's a big issue of what do you count as a combatant; a lot of times they have a tendency to count someone as a combatant when they are not, and these numbers are very far off from third parties," said Paul Kawika Martin, a director with Peace Action, the largest U.S. grassroots peace network.

The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which provided a complete set of data on all known U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, said the strikes have killed between 424 and 966 civilians, including about 200 children. According to its calculation, U.S. drones have caused 492 to 1,100 civilian deaths in Pakistan and other countries since 2002.

"But the trouble is far too often, we do not know who has been killed by drones, so we don't know if they're an innocent civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time," Jack Serle, a reporter for the Bureau, told Xinhua.

Saeed Chaudhary, director of the Independent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues in Islamabad, said that the drone report from the U.S. government is "sheer nonsense," adding that the U.S. drone campaign has killed more than 3,000 innocent civilians and handicapped hundreds.

Shahzad Akbar, a lawyer, is leading the legal battle for the civilians killed in the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions.

In October 2006, many civilians, including nearly 80 children, were killed in a U.S. drone strike on a religious school in the Bajaur tribal area, Akbar said. Some 60 people lost their lives when drones rained missiles down on a funeral in South Waziristan in June 2009.

In March 2011, 40 people were killed when U.S. missiles struck a "Jirga" or assembly of tribal elders in North Waziristan, Akbar said.

"There are a lot of similar incidents," said Akbar, noting that the above-mentioned ones are just three well-documented cases among numerous tragedies in which civilians were hit by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan.

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Apart from the erroneous report, the United States has mostly been covert about its drone campaigns.

"We don't know actually what the exact formula is when they make a decision for drone strikes. But they do know that there are civilians there," said Martin.

"And, typically there may be a rule of thumb that it's okay to kill five civilians, if we get the one high-level target. So, sometimes we do know that they are there, and we are killing them on purpose," Martin added.

Actually, the United States claims that if confronted with imminent dangers, it can launch drone strikes against any targets in the absence of clear evidence, the American Broadcasting Corporation quoted a document about the instructions on the use of drones from the Obama government as saying.

But if there was no clear evidence, how could the U.S. decision-makers define imminent dangers?

Rosa Brooks, a former legal adviser at the Pentagon and now a law professor with Georgetown University, said at a Congress hearing that the sitting U.S. executive departments proclaim that they are entitled to drone striking anyone in any corner of the world just on the grounds of confidentiality. Moreover, the decision to carry out drone strikes could be made by officials who demand anonymity and through secret procedures. All these, she said, were terrifying.

UNJUSTIFIABLE

The drone war, initiated in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack by then U.S. President George W. Bush, has often been used by the incumbent President Barack Obama in his two terms as one of his government's trump cards.

But the questions are: How can the drones tell the civilians from the terrorists, and are the drone strikes justifiable?

Abdul Karim Khan, a native of Mirali in North Waziristan in Pakistan, lost his son Zahinullah and brother Asif Iqbal to a December 2009 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone strike. Both of Khan's family members had died while sitting at home.

"The American leader has in fact used armed drones for assassinations," said Akbar.

On July 2, Pakistan demanded an immediate cessation of U.S. drone strikes in its territory, terming them a violation of "territorial integrity and sovereignty of states."

American citizens have also fallen victim to the drones. Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. His 16-year-old son, a U.S. citizen with no links to terrorist groups, was also killed in the attack.

Even those taking part in the U.S. drone program have raised concerns about the U.S. drone policies.

It's reported that last November, four former American drone operators held a press conference in New York, saying the strikes had caused the deaths of a large number of civilians and had cultivated a hardened institutional culture toward the victimized children and adults.

Using drones to murder innocent civilians is intensifying terrorism. The drones might kill four terrorists, only to create 10 more, former Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant, one of the operators, was quoted as saying.
WELLINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand researchers said on Friday that there is strong evidence that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer.

A review of epidemiological evidence supported a causal association between alcohol consumption and cancers at seven sites in the body: oropharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, rectum and female breast, said Prof. Jennie Connor, a University of Otago researcher.

While there was a long-recognized association between alcohol and cancer, a "causal association" meant there was evidence that alcohol consumption directly caused cancer, Connor said in a statement.

The causal link was supported by evidence for a dose-response relationship, at least partial reversal of risk when alcohol consumption was reduced, statistical adjustment for other factors that might explain the association, and specific association with some cancers and not others.

The review cited evidence that alcohol caused approximately half a million deaths from cancer in 2012, or 5.8 percent of cancer deaths worldwide.

The highest risks were associated with the heaviest drinking, but a considerable burden was experienced by drinkers with low to moderate consumption.

The review also found the evidence that moderate drinking provided protection against cardiovascular disease was not strong.
MEXICO CITY, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto travels to Washington on Thursday to discuss a wide range of issues with his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, officials said.

The meeting between the two leaders represents a unique opportunity to revise the state of the bilateral agenda ahead of the imminent change of administration in the United States, Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told a news conference.

"The results that they will obtain from this visit will represent a very important step in order to expand and deepen dialogue with the United States," said the foreign minister.

Eduardo Sanchez, spokesman for the Presidency Office, said Pena Nieto and Obama will mainly discuss climate change, energy, regional cooperation and border issues.
CAIRO, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Dancers perform dragon dance during the opening ceremony of the 1st Afro-Chinese Arts & Folklore Festival in Cairo, Egypt on July 21, 2016. The 1st Afro-Chinese Arts & Folklore Festival, from July 21 to July 26, kicked off on Thursday in Cairo.(Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

CAIRO, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Egypt launched on Thursday its first Afro-Chinese Arts & Folklore Festival in a bid to draw tourists back to the North-Arican country.

Some 18 African countries participated in the festival, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. During the opening ceremony held in Cairo's Mohammed Ali Palace, a number of bands from several African countries and China performed folkloric and musical shows.

Chinese ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo told Xinhua that the event is good "because it not only introduces Chinese culture to Egypt, but also enhances bilateral understanding."

"It is a difficult time for Egypt's tourism, so the event is even more timely," he added.

The six-day event aims to strengthen ties between African countries and China, and will celebrate the cultural heritage of the participating countries.

The festival includes film screening, folkloric dance performance as well as cuisine from the different countries and handicrafts.
CLEVELAND, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Donald Trump takes the stage on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, July 21, 2016. New York billionaire Donald Trump officially accepted the presidential nomination of the U.S. Republican Party Thursday night on the final day of the Republican National Convention. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

CLEVELAND, the United States, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Donald Trump had officially accepted the presidential nomination for the U.S. Republican Party on Thursday night, announcing a plan that will "put America first."

It was the biggest night so far for the New York real estate mogul and final night of the 2016 Republican National Convention held at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland in the State of Ohio.

Trump formally accepted the party's presidential nomination, saying "I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States."

In a rarely used teleprompter speech, Trump covered issues including law and order, national security, immigration, trade, tax-cut and the threat of terrorism. He then proclaimed that "I am your voice" to the American people.

Trump also launched a series of attacks on his Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton, accusing her of keeping "our rigged system in place" and leaving "death, destruction and weakness" as her legacy.

The speech marked the end of the bumpy convention and the start of the uphill battle for the 270 electoral votes he needs in November.
PYONGYANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A flight of Air Koryo, the national flag carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which was en route from Pyongyang to Beijing, on Friday made a forced landing in China's northeastern city of Shenyang because the plane caught fire, a passenger on board told Xinhua.
VANCOUVER, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Fort McMurray, the fire-ravaged city in Canada's western province of Alberta, will witness the largest building boom in decades when the reconstruction begins in the coming days, Canada's federal housing agency said.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) said in a new report released on Thursday that 2,500 houses will be built in the next few years, which is expected to be the highest new home construction activity Fort McMurray has seen in 20 years.

A wildfire in early May has destroyed nearly 10 percent of the buildings in Fort McMurray, or 2,400 buildings. Of those, nearly 1,800 were single-family homes.

Neighborhood clean-up efforts began last week, where most homes were destroyed. The municipality said it hopes to have the most heavily affected areas cleared by the end of September.

CMHC said returning homeowners can rent houses or condos while waiting to see when their homes can be rebuilt.

Municipal crews have also repaired much of the damage to underground infrastructure such as sewage systems and have restored water services to most neighborhoods.
LIMA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Peru will host the International Glacier and Mountain Ecosystems Forum next month to discuss the effects of global warming on food and water sources.

In the lead up to the event, a leading researcher warned that the country has lost 40 percent of its mountain glaciers over the past 40 years, from 2,042 to 1,290 square km.

Global warming is causing the deterioration of the glaciers, which will impact the amount of water that flows toward the coast from the snow-capped mountain peaks, Benjamin Morales, president of the National Research Institute in Glaciers and Mountain Ecosystems, told in a press conference Wednesday.

The loss of these water reserves is worrying as more than 50 percent of the population is concentrated in the arid Peruvian coast.
SYDNEY, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Australian billionaires are increasing investments in their next cash cow as demand for resources comes off the boil, instead focusing on high-growth potential areas to capitalize on Asia's emerging middle class.

Australia's richest woman, mining billionaire Gina Rinehart on Friday increased her holdings of Australian farmland, purchasing two cattle properties off Indonesian importer Japfa for an undisclosed sum, following in the footsteps iron ore boss Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest and media mogul Kerry Stokes.

All three billionaires have been heavily expanding farmland portfolios in northern Australia, while Twiggy has also increased investments into key groundwater exploration and exploitation ventures.

"Hancock continues to make significant investments to grow our beef operations and to build a dynamic diversified agricultural profile in Australia," Hancock's chief executive Garry Korte said in a statement on Friday.

"We plan to invest further to grow our herd numbers on Hancock cattle stations and are just beginning to develop the 2GR beef brand to capture additional value."

Fairfax Media reported exports for Australia's beef into China may rise by as much as 1 million live cattle next year to meet its growing gastronomical demand for meat.

The first shipment is expected to arrive in China early next year, Fairfax reported, potentially driving up the Australian cattle prices further from the current record high sale yard price. Australia's national herd is being restocked from a 20-year low, while increasing competition with a hungry Indonesia -- Australia's largest beef market -- who have already upped demand for both live cattle and packaged meat is likely to further drive up prices.

Industry experts however are sceptical demand can be met as only 1.1 million head of live cattle in 2016 is slated for export. Meat exporters are also facing the pinch as only 7.4 million head of cattle is set for slaughter from a national herd of 26 million.

"Long-term biosecurity and animal health programs in Australia, the live cattle export protocol and ChAFTA (China-Australia Free Trade Agreement) place Australia in pole position in the Chinese market," Australia-China Relations Institute deputy director James Laurenceson told Xinhua in a statement.

"(But) understanding the dynamics, nuances and the heterogeneous nature of the Chinese cattle and beef industry will be critical if the Australian industry is to make the most of the opportunities."
HANOI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- "I am planning to send my son to study overseas and China is certainly topping the list of choices," Duong Xuan Hang from Vietnam's capital city Hanoi told Xinhua.

After touring the Guangxi-China Education Fair in Vietnam's capital city on Thursday morning, the 40-year-old mother picked up a handful of materials introducing a variety of educational opportunities at universities and colleges in China's Guangxi.

Located close to Vietnam, Guangxi has become a popular destination for Vietnamese students.

According to Lan Tianli, vice chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, educational cooperation between Guangxi and Vietnam was established in the 1950s when Vietnamese schools were set up in China.

Over the past years, educational cooperation between Guangxi and Vietnam has developed comprehensively, Lan said.

So far, as many as 40 universities and colleges in Guangxi have established ties with some 60 universities and colleges in Vietnam. More than 3,000 Vietnamese students studied in Guangxi in 2015.

In 2015, there were also nearly 1,000 students of Guangxi studying in Vietnam.

Talking about Guangxi, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Pham Manh Hung, said, "China's Guangxi has beautiful scenery and very friendly people. It also has a high-quality and advanced educational system."

As Vietnam and Guangxi border each other, the convenience in transport has contributed to the development of bilateral cooperation in education, according to the Vietnamese official, adding that these advantages have made Vietnam become a country with the highest number of overseas students in Guangxi.

"China's education, including that of Guangxi, is developing so fast that it stands at the same level with Western countries. So what are the other points that make China a favorable destination for Vietnamese students? It is the two countries' cultural and historical similarity that helps students of the two countries better understand each other," Hoang Anh Tuan, vice rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Vietnam's National University, told Xinhua.

The geographical proximity and the development of Chinese education are among the reasons inspiring Hang, the 40-year-old Vietnamese mother, to select Guangxi for her son's education.

"China is close to Vietnam and traveling between Guangxi and Hanoi is very convenient. I want to send my son to study abroad so as he can experience a new educational environment."

"My son is going to graduate from high school next year and the information and materials I have collected from this education fair will help him and my family have a better understand about studying in Guangxi," Hang said.

For Phung Minh Toan, a 20-year-old Vietnamese student, becoming a Chinese language teacher in Vietnam is her dream.

"I want to go to China to study as I love Chinese culture and Chinese language. I want to become a Chinese language teacher in Vietnam. I will work as a bridge to connect the people of both countries and help Vietnamese people to understand more about Chinese culture."

"This will be the next step in the ladder of realizing my dream," the young Vietnamese student told Xinhua, while pointing at the booth of China's Guangxi Normal University at the fair.

"I have collected information about Guangxi Normal University and I will go there to study," Toan proclaimed confidently.

Since 2014, the Guangxi-China Education Fair has been held six times across Vietnam. The 2016 fair in Hanoi drew the participation of 24 universities and colleges from Guangxi and the attendance of hundreds of representatives from Vietnamese universities, including students and visitors.

During the fair, eight universities and colleges from Guangxi have signed cooperation agreements with Vietnamese universities and colleges.

"This kind of education fair should be held more regularly to promote the introduction of China's education and bring more educational opportunities to Vietnamese students," Nguyen Van Chinh, Dean of Faculty of Linguistics under the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi, told Xinhua.
NEW YORK, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Donald Trump on Thursday officially accepted nomination as the Republican presidential candidate, but the historic moment for the New York billionaire was somewhat overshadowed by his "air kiss" to his running mate.

Many described the scene as awkward, noting that Trump's attempts to show affection for Indiana governor Mike Pence was met with obvious resistance.

"Forehead access denied. LOL," appeared repeatedly among comments of the GOP Convention drama, and here are some of the witty responses by Twitter users:

Ronan Farrow:

When you move a little too fast on the first date.

Natalie Iran:

My biggest fear is that Donald Trump tries to kiss me ... Mike Pence, I will pray you get through this.

Tall Maurice:

It's dope that conservative are down with the male-on-male air kiss. Trump always zigging when they zag.

Adam Penenberg:

That awkward air kiss may haunt my dreams tonight.

Tristan Walker:

They have zero chemistry. It's hysterical.
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia has deployed a multifunctional mobile field camp for 2,500 soldiers in Trans-Baikal region in the Far East, Interfax news agency reported Friday.

Some 120 automobiles and special equipment were involved in camp supply, Col. Alexander Gordeev, press head of the Eastern Military District, was quoted as saying.

There are also stations for equipment storage: ammunition, fuel, and lubricants; as well as stationary and mobile field canteens.

The Eastern Military District is one of the Russia's four military operational strategic commands.
PYONGYANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A flight of Air Koryo, the national flag carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), on Friday made a forced landing in China's northeastern city of Shenyang after the plane caught fire, a passenger aboard told Xinhua.

The passenger said smoke appeared in the cabin about 30 minutes after takeoff from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport. The passengers were told that they should not panic and that the plane would temporarily land in Shenyang.

Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin. The plane made a forced landing in Shenyang 10 minutes later.

Chinese ground staff said that the plane had caught fire. Passengers held up in Shenyang can either choose to check out from the airport or wait for Air Koryo to send another plane to pick them.

The plane was destined for Beijing.
Jemaima Esteban and her mother (Provided by Tongji Hospital)

WUHAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A Philippine college student who has suffered from leukemia for nearly two years is recovering at a Chinese hospital after treatment elsewhere failed.

Jemaima Esteban, 21 years old, is now in stable condition with no leukemia cell in her body, according to Zhou Jianfeng, a doctor with Tongji Hospital in central China's Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Jemaima Esteban is receiving medical examination in Tongji Hospital. (Provided by Tongji Hospital)

Jemaima Esteban was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2014, a nightmare for the happy family who have immigrated to Dubai.



She had her first operation in India in 2015 but the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from her brother failed.
SHENYANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A passenger plane with Air Koryo, the national carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), made a forced landing in Xiantao International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday.

The flight en route from Pyongyang to Beijing made the landing safely at the airport. No one on board was injured, according to the airport authority.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China's working age population would fall more than 23 percent to around 700 million by the year 2050, according to data released Friday by a human resource official.

The working age population, those aged 16 to 59, has been on decline since 2012, and it is expected to reach 830 million in 2030, Li Zhong, spokesperson of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, told a press conference.

The figure will see a "sharp decline" after 2030, shrinking 7.6 million each year on average, Li said, without further elaboration.

China's working age population dropped by 4.87 million to 910.96 million in 2015, up from the previous year's drop of 3.71 million, according to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Amid growing pressure from an aging population and a decrease of people of working age, China abandoned its decades-long one child policy in 2015, allowing all couples to have a second child.
NEW DELHI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- As many as 32 airports in India are still non-functional though adequate infrastructure is in place, Indian government has said.

Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has said that airlines are reluctant to fly to many airports despite the government has provided adequate infrastructure there.

"Airlines are like a horse. We can take them to the water but can't force them to drink," he told the Indian Parliament Thursday.

"There are 32 airports under the Airports Authority of India, which are non-functional. Our constant effort is to increase the number of airports and regional connectivity," he added.

The minister also said that the Civil Aviation Ministry has granted in-principle approval to 15 new airports, including Mopa in the western state of Goa and Kushinagar in northern India's Uttar Pradesh.
YANGON, July 22(Xinhua) -- A journalist from BBC Myanmar-language service, who was sentenced to imprisonment in late June, has been freed by the Myanmar authorities, official media reported Friday.

Nay Myo Lin was released on Thursday as the court accepted his appeal against his three-month sentence with rigorous labor.

He was convicted the controversial sentence for allegedly striking a policeman when he was covering the demonstration of students against an education bill in Mandalay in late March.

The local court accepted his appeal and reduced the sentence from three months to one and half months.
SHENYANG, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on July 22, 2016 shows an Air Koryo passenger plane (R) that has made a forced landing at Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province. The passenger plane of Air Koryo, the national carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was forced to land in Shenyang Friday. The JS151 flight, which was en route from Pyongyang to Beijing, made the landing safely at the airport at 8:50 a.m.. No one on board was injured, according to the airport authority. Smoke was seen from a compartment when the plane landed. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

SHENYANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- An Air Koryo passenger plane, the national carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was forced to land in Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday.

The JS151 flight, which was en route from Pyongyang to Beijing, made the landing safely at the airport at 8:50 a.m.. No one on board was injured, according to the airport authority.

Smoke was seen from a compartment when the plane landed. There were 60 passengers and 15 crew on board.

The airport authority immediately despatched a team to help check the plane.

The passengers were transferred to another flight to Beijing. The plane remains at the airport.

No details on the cause of the incident have been released yet.
SHIJIAZHUANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Water supply in the urban area of Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, was disrupted from Thursday night, after flood water was found to have contaminated the city's drinking water.

Shijiazhuang's water supply firm said Friday that supply would be back to normal in about five days.

Torrential rain in north China's Hebei Province since Wednesday morning has left 35 people dead and 77 missing, according to the provincial civil affairs department on Friday. About 211,642 people have been evacuated over safety concerns.

The supply issue was caused by floods disrupting sediment in two reservoirs that supply water to six districts in Shijiazhuang.

The water company said it was limiting water supply for industrial users, pumping out underground water and dispatching water tankers to provide drinking water for residential use.

From Friday, water will be delivered three times a day, for two hours each time.

The city is among the worst-hit in the province during the recent bad weather.

Relief supplies including tents, quilts and clothing have been distributed to those in need.

The National Commission for Disaster Relief and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have sent staff to assist the relief work.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- "The more construction projects we secured, the more loans we got and the snowball kept rolling -- it just got out of control."

Recalling the bankruptcy of the Wenzhou Zhongcheng Construction Group, former deputy manager Pan Xueping reflected on what he had learned.

The company in eastern China's Zhejiang Province witnessed explosive growth between 2002 and 2012, but had to resort to filing for bankruptcy late in 2013.

Its failure epitomizes the chronic problem of high leverage in many sectors of China's economy, which brought about severe credit risks and forced the government to make changes.

On several occasions, the government has made deleveraging one of its major tasks to ward off systemic financial risks, forcing companies and banks on a painful path dotted with new opportunities.

"Looking in from the outside, hefty debts crushed some companies, but delving deeper, the fundamental reason for their failure was a false development philosophy that drove them to blind expansion," said Guo Tianyong, a professor with the Central University of Finance and Economics.

A major direction of the country's deleveraging efforts concerns reducing corporate debts, especially in sectors that rely heavily on capital and those with severe overcapacity, such as coal and steel.

For that reason, commercial banks moved to tighten lending to overcapacity-stricken and high-leverage sectors.

Jiang Zhongmin, chairman of Eastran Group, a Jiangsu-based steel company, told Xinhua that one bank was planning to cut lending to the company by 30 percent.

In the past three years, Eastran pushed to increase the added value of its products. In a joint venture with an Italian company it produces elevator guide rails with its own steel products, which improves efficiency and profits.

"We are not going to complain. Still being active proves that we are capable and will become even better," Jiang said.

China's deleveraging efforts have begun to take effect. The ratio of liabilities to assets of major industrial companies dropped to 56.8 percent by the end of May from 57.3 percent a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Medium- to long-term loans to industries with overcapacity had dropped for four-consecutive months year on year by the end of June 2016.

But for commercial banks, the deleveraging process requires that they replace high-leverage sectors with new outlets for lending.

Liu Xiaochun, president of China Zheshang Bank, said deleveraging was forcing commercial banks to make active changes.

The bank has decided not to limit its business to receiving deposits and making loans, but to coordinate credit, capital and foreign exchange markets with a view to provide diversified financing channels, Liu said.

Banks should reflect on their existing business model, and provide specialized financial services rather than their previous homogeneous services, a banking insider said.

For instance, a regional bank in the central city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, increased lending to a local tractor company that had been exploring the technological upgrade of its farm machinery.

Its peers, however, chose to withdraw all lending to the company.

An extensive investigation revealed healthy prospects, so the bank designed tailored financial services for the company to reduce its burden.

The right path for banking development is long-term rational growth, instead of short-sighted expansion, analysts say.

Pan Xueping agrees.

In April 2016, the bankrupt Wenzhou Zhongcheng Construction Group was renamed Wenzhou Chengjian Group after its reorganization.

"Our lesson from the bankruptcy is that we must seek steady business expansion on the basis of sufficient cash flow," Pan said.
CLEVELAND, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Donald Trump takes the stage on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, July 21, 2016. New York billionaire Donald Trump officially accepted the presidential nomination of the U.S. Republican Party Thursday night on the final day of the Republican National Convention. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

CLEVELAND, the United States, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Donald Trump has officially accepted the presidential nomination for the U.S. Republican Party on Thursday night, announcing a plan that will "put America first."

It was the biggest night so far for the New York real estate mogul's campaign and final night of the 2016 Republican National Convention held at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland in the state of Ohio.

Trump made his entrance with patriotic music playing in the background and a crowd chanting "Trump, Trump" after his eldest daughter, Ivanka, introduced him.

"When you have my father in your corner, you will never again have to worry about being let down," Ivanka Trump told the American people in her speech.

In her speech, Ivanka focused on advocating for women's rights including equal pay and maternity leave, as an attempt to appease the women voter base Trump had previously alienated.

Trump formally accepted the party's presidential nomination, saying "I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States."

The theme of the night was "Make America One Again," but Trump would have to first try to unite the divided party for a chance of winning in the coming general election.

In a heavily scripted speech, Trump covered issues including law and order, national security, immigration, trade, tax cuts and the threat of terrorism. He then proclaimed that "I am your voice" to the American people.

Trump also launched a series of attacks on his Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton, accusing her of keeping "our rigged system in place" and leaving "death, destruction and weakness" as her legacy.

According to a leaked draft speech transcript published by the website Politico.com, Trump seldom went off script and when he did, he often repeated what he had just said and added an exclamation point.

Trump's speech was consistent with the theme of many of his previous speeches, where he painted the current state of the country as bleak, dangerous and constantly under attack, and saying only he could solve the various problems if elected president.

But he again failed to provide any detailed policies to explain how he would manage to realize all his promises.

There were also notable different talking points from speeches made by previously nominated Republican candidates, including protecting the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and little mention of his faith and religious beliefs.

The speech also deviated from his routine rhetoric in several points. He did not resort to calling his opponent degrading nicknames, he did not reiterate his proposal of a total ban on Muslims into the country, and he did not echo the crowd's chants of "lock her up" when talking about Clinton, but said "We'll defeat her" instead.

The longer-than-usual speech marked the end of a year-long dramatic nomination campaign journey and the start of the uphill battle for the 270 electoral votes he needs in November.

Eleven months ago, Trump descended on an escalator inside his Fifth Avenue Trump Tower in New York to announce his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination. Nobody had thought he could go this far.

In the months after that, he managed to constantly make inflammatory remarks against women, Muslims, Mexicans, foreign countries, belittle his opponents by calling them "Lying Ted," "Little Marco" and "Crooked Hillary," and still plowed through all the controversies that ensued.

On Tuesday, Trump was officially declared the party's presidential nominee after a state-by-state vote.

But the win had come at the cost of a seriously divided Republican Party, where many prominent figures of the party, including two previous Republican presidents and two previous Republican presidential nominees refused to attend his crowning party.

In the four-day event, anti-Trump factions in the party tried to push through a roll call vote to change convention rules, which would allow some of the delegates who had voted for Trump to recast their votes to other candidates.

On Wednesday, Texas Senator and former rival Ted Cruz publicly refused to endorse Trump and told voters instead to "vote your conscience," a move local newspapers deemed a "civil war."

The division has been alarming to the establishment members of the party.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spoke at the event, applauded traditional Republican values and called for party unity by saying "let's stand united as Republicans, let's get to work to expand our Republican majorities."
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with a Cuban news agency in this handout picture provided by SANA on July 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

DAMASCUS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan capitalized on the coup attempt in Turkey to implement a "radical agenda."

In an interview with a Cuban news agency, al-Assad said the agenda Erdogan implemented is the one by the Muslim Brotherhood, adding that such an agenda is dangerous for Turkey and neighboring countries.

The Syrian president was referring to the mass arrests in Turkey and the heightened rhetoric of Erdogan following the failed coup attempt earlier this week.

"How did they took such a decision," al-Assad said of the mass arrest campaign.

"What's the relationship between the universities and civil society with the coup," he questioned.

The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as one of the staunchest opponents to the government of President Bashar al-Assad throughout Syria's five-year-old conflict.

The Syrian government released endless statements, accusing the Turkish government of supporting the terrorist groups in Syria.

Turkey, under Erdogan, has allowed foreign fighters to cross its territory to reach Syria, with arms and ammunition being smuggled through the Turkish borders into Syria.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends an interview with Reuters at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, July 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

ANKARA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkish military will be restructured in a short time following a failed coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

"The army will get fresh blood," Erdogan said in a televised interview in Ankara.

The president underlined significant deficiencies and failure in their intelligence gathering about the July 15 coup attempt.

"No need to hide or deny. I told it to the undersecretary of national intelligence organization (Hakan Fidan)," he said.

President Erdogan said he was not able to reach the chief of intelligence agency and the general staff at the night of July 15. "I hardly had contact with the prime minister," he said.

The army should take a serious lesson from this incident, he noted.

"A new coup attempt is possible but not easy. We are more vigilant now," the president said.

Some 10,400 people were detained, 4,060 of them were arrested, according to figures given by the president. About 100 of the arrested were generals, he said.

Erdogan said they will extend the state of emergency for three months more if needed. The government has decided to declare three months of state of emergency on Wednesday, which the parliament has approved Thursday.

The president also criticized Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade Turkey's credit rating from "BB+" to "BB" on Wednesday with a negative outlook.

It was a political decision, Erdogan said, stressing that the economy of Turkey is strong with no problem in liquidity.

The failed coup attempt, which began last Friday, was crushed the next day; at least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters," were killed, authorities said.

The Turkish government claimed the failed coup was organized by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric.
SHENYANG, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on July 22, 2016 shows an Air Koryo passenger plane (R) that has made a forced landing at Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province. The passenger plane of Air Koryo, the national carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was forced to land in Shenyang Friday. The JS151 flight, which was en route from Pyongyang to Beijing, made the landing safely at the airport at 8:50 a.m.. No one on board was injured, according to the airport authority. Smoke was seen from a compartment when the plane landed. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

PYONGYANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A flight of Air Koryo, the national flag carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which was en route from Pyongyang to Beijing, Friday force-landed in China's northeastern city of Shenyang because of smoke in the aircraft, a passenger told Xinhua.

Smoke appeared in the cabin about 30 minutes after the plane took off from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, said the passenger. Flight attendants told the passengers not to panic and that the plane will temporarily land at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport.

By that time, oxygen masks dropped down automatically and several passengers started to have difficulty breathing because of oxygen shortage in the cabin. The plane eventually force-landed in Shenyang after another ten minutes in the air.

Fire trucks were sent to the airport to deal with a possible fire. The aircraft was smoking when ground staff examined the plane, but no clear fire was spotted, the passenger said.

There was moderate rain in Shenyang when the aircraft force-landed, one of the possible reasons the smoke failed to turn into a fire.

No casualties have been reported so far.

A staff member at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport told Xinhua that the plane made the unscheduled landing because of a "malfunction," but more investigation is needed before determining the cause of the incident.

Air Koryo has sent an airplane to Beijing to fetch the passengers who are scheduled to board the force-landed plane to fly to Pyongyang. The fetched passengers are estimated to arrive in Pyongyang at around 7 p.m. local time (1030 GMT) Friday.

The airplane that force-landed in Shenyang is a Russian-made Tu-204. It took off from Pyongyang at 8:30 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) and was scheduled to arrive in Beijing in one and a half hours.h Air Koryo is the DPRK's only national airline company. Most of its fleet were made in Russia or the former Soviet Union.
KUDNUZ, Afghanistan, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Up to 22 people including 18 militants have been killed as clash erupted in Qala-e-Zal district of the northern Kunduz province on Friday, an army official Brigadier Mangal Rahat said.

"A total of 18 Taliban rebels have been killed as security forces mounted pressure against militants in Qala-e-Zal district Friday morning," Rahat told Xinhua.

Several more militants have been injured, the official asserted.

The official, however, avoided commenting on security forces casualties.

Meantime, an official on the condition of anonymity said that four security personnel have been killed and six others injured.

Clash for the control of Qala-e-Zal district along the border with Tajikistan has been continuing since Sunday and government forces have been doing their best to dislodge militants from the area.
NEW DELHI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane with 29 people on board has gone missing in the Bay of Bengal probably due to bad weather, said officials.

The IAF's AN-32 plane took off from Tambaram in Chennai in southern India for Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the southeast of the Bay of Bengal, when it lost radar contact around 08:45 a.m. local time. Its estimated time of arrival in Port Blair was 11:30 a.m. but the plane failed to show up.

The Navy, the Coast Guard and the IAF have launched a joint search and rescue operation, said officials.
JINAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Private oil refineries in Shandong Province on east China's seaboard brought in 8.36 percent of all the crude oil imported to China in the first half of 2016, as they capitalized on the government's decision to give them green light in such imports, Xinhua has learned.

These refineries in Shandong imported 15.61 million tonnes of crude between January and June, which cost 27.77 billion yuan (4.16 billion U.S. dollars) and accounted for 70.2 percent of the province's total crude imports, officials with the provincial department of commerce said.

The nation as a whole imported 186.53 million tonnes of crude in the period.

It was only last year that the central government gave private refineries permission to import crude.

The permission, in the form of import and processing quotas, was a big boost to Shandong, an economic powerhouse in the country and also home to the majority of China's private refineries.

Under the rules set by the government, the refineries have to be granted a quota for crude imports from the Ministry of Commerce, as well as a quota to process imported crude from the National Development and Reform Commission.

Eleven refineries in Shandong have secured import quotas, totalling 41.43 million tonnes, which makes up 75.9 percent of all the quotas granted to private refineries across China. They imported 7.488 million tonnes of crude in the first quarter of the year, accounting for 8.2 percent of the country's total crude import in the period, according to the department of commerce.
WASHINGTON D.C., June 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund(IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde reacts during a press conference in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 22, 2016. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday cut its forecast for the U.S. economic growth in 2016, saying that longer-term challenges might threaten its strong and sustainable growth. (Xinhua file photo/Yin Bogu)

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its growth forecast for China in 2016 due to the country's "determined and decisive" implementation of reforms and the "steady" support for the economy, said managing director Christine Lagarde here on Friday.

Lagarde made her remarks when she met the press together with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and other five chiefs of international financial institutions after a round-table meeting at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

She said the IMF had increased the growth forecast for China in 2016 by 0.1 percentage point to 6.6 percent for two reasons; "First of all, we have witnessed the determined and decisive implementation of reforms; and second, there was also support given to the economy in order to encourage growth to go forward."

"On the latter point, it did not take the form of vast fiscal stimulus but simply some solid and steady support in order to make sure that growth was indeed sustainable," she added.

The IMF on Tuesday revised down its forecast for global growth in 2016 and 2017, due to the uncertainty surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union (Brexit).

The IMF expects the global economy to grow 3.1 percent in 2016 and 3.4 percent in 2017, both 0.1 percentage points lower than its forecasts in April, according to its updated World Economic Outlook report.

Meanwhile, the IMF revised China's economic growth forecast this year to 6.6 percent from its April's forecast of 6.5 percent, saying that the near-term outlook has improved due to recent policy support.

Lagarde said the IMF's new forecast was now within the government's range of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent.

"This is clearly an achievement and I'm very pleased to acknowledge this," she said.

Lagarde said she would have revised upward the forecast for global growth for the first time in six years as China, Japan and the Euro area were doing better than expected. However, she failed to do so due to Brexit.

"What is even more disappointing is that we have conducted some scenarios. Under our severe scenarios, the global growth for next year would be reduced by 0.5 percentage point," she said.

This is the first time a "1+6" round-table meeting has been held in China. The theme of the meeting was "promoting strong, sustainable, and balanced growth of the Chinese and global economy."

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim; World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevedo; International Labor Organization Director General Guy Ryder; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-general Angel Gurria; and Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney also attended the meeting.

According to a joint press release issued after the meeting, the participants of the meeting agreed that the round-table should become a regular mechanism to strengthen ties between China and international organizations, deepen communication and cooperation in the international economic and financial arena and jointly explore responses to global economic challenges.
MOSCOW, July 22 (Xinhua)-- Russia on Friday restored regular flights to Turkey, which had been restricted earlier due to a coup attempt in Ankara.

"As a result of Turkey's guarantees of additional aviation security measures, effective from 12:01 a.m. July 22 (2101 GMT July 21), Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) lifted all restrictions on regular passenger service between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Turkey...," said a statement released by Russian flag carrier Aeroflot.

Russia on July 1 lifted restrictions on tourism to Turkey, including a ban on charter flights, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the downing of a Russian plane near the Syrian-Turkish border in November 2015.

But on July 16, Moscow imposed a travel ban to Turkey for Russian citizens shortly after the July 15 coup attempt in Ankara, which forced Russian air carriers to cut flights and only allow those available for foreigners.

The Turkish government crushed the coup in which at least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters," were killed, while Turkey's parliament on Thursday passed a bill to introduce a three-month state of emergency.
SYDNEY, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A failed attack on an Australian police station by an elderly man using an improvised car bomb was resultant from a family dispute, and not terrorism, authorities confirmed on Friday.

Peter Zhurawhel, 61, after setting himself and his car filled with gas cylinders alight on Thursday night, crashed his car into the Merrylands police station's car park barrier, before being arrested and transferred to hospital in a serious condition.

New South Wales (NSW) state police assistant commissioner Denis Clifford told reporters outside the Merrylands police station on Friday "there is a matter before the court in relation to a person in his family", dismissing ongoing theories the attack was terror related.

Zhurawhel was due to face a Sydney court related to an alleged domestic dispute with a family member, believed to be his brother.

Australia, a staunch ally of the United State's war against terrorism in Iraq and Syria has been on heightened alert for homegrown terrorists since 2014, with the Merrylands station in particular subject to multiple threats.

Given the heightened atmosphere, NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione praised the actions of his officers, particularly a young policewoman who was among the first to run out to the car.

"She is the epitome of what we could say is a really good cop," Scipione told reporters outside the station on Friday.

CCTV footage showed the car arriving into the station's driveway before being set alight from the inside. The footage then shows officers running towards the burning car to save Zhurawhel before it rammed into the barrier.

"The officers are coping very well considering what they've experienced," Scipione said.

"A lot of people would run away from that situation - they ran towards it."

In light of the situation and the improvised 'car bomb' attack, Scipione said security would be reviewed at all police stations despite already being extremely high.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Friday that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation for peaceful cross-Strait ties, urging Taiwan to adhere to the one-China principle.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), made the remarks in response to a question asked by a journalist regarding the Washington Post's recent interview with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen.

"Only by sticking to the 1992 Consensus and its core meaning -- that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China -- can the two sides ensure the peaceful and stable development of cross-Strait ties," said Ma, adding that the mainstream public opinion on both sides of the Strait wanted to maintain peaceful ties.

Ma said that the liaison and communication mechanism between TAO and Taiwan's mainland affairs authority, and the consultation and negotiation mechanism between the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, had been established upon the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus.

"Only by recognizing this political foundation that embodies the one China policy can institutional communication between the two sides continue," Ma said.
PHNOM PENH, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn flew to the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Friday afternoon for ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting and related meetings to be held from July 23 to 26.

The minister will take part in the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting, 17th ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers' meeting, 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' meeting, and 23rd ASEAN Regional Forum among others, said a foreign ministry statement.

"The 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting and related meetings aim at strengthening the ASEAN Community building and the central role of ASEAN in the evolving regional architecture as well as deepening ASEAN cooperation with partners and friends with a view to further maintaining peace, security, stability, and prosperity in the region and beyond," the statement said.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Prak Sokhonn will hold bilateral meetings with foreign ministers and heads of delegation of some countries, it said.

Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Lai Derong, senior political advisor of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) after he was found to have flouted austerity rules.

Lai has also been removed from his post as vice chairman of the Guangxi regional committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and will now serve as an ordinary member of government staff, according to a statement posted online by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Friday.

The commission's investigation found Lai attended feasts paid for with public funds, violating central authorities' "eight-point rules" on austerity.

He also abused his power to seek profits for others regarding official selection, and further broke Party rules by accepting gifts and money and participating in gambling overseas, according to the commission.
MOGADISHU, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has called on Somali government to protect children deprived of liberty in situations of armed conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui, who has wrapped her six-day visit to Somalia, however lauded Mogadishu and Puntland authorities for their efforts to improve the conditions of children in armed conflict.

"We need not only to get them out of death row, we need to give them to child protection actors and to work with them, if some need psychosocial treatment, if they need to be helped to return to the community," Zerrougui said in a statement received on Friday from UN Mission in Somalia.

"Whatever we can do, we can work together on that and assure the government and the authorities that we will do our best to support their initiative," she added.

The UN envoy's remarks came after Puntland security forces in March captured and detained dozens of child soldiers after defeating an attempted incursion by Al-Shabaab militants.

Zerrougui said she received assurances from Puntland authorities that 12 child soldiers who were captured and later sentenced to death will not be executed.

Zerrougui also visited children in detention centers in Garowe and Bossaso, and she urged authorities throughout Somalia to treat captured children as victims and not as criminals.

"I would like to emphasize the importance of the reintegration. When something wrong happens we need to make sure that we fix the problem and deal with the children in a way that when they return to the community, they are not stigmatized, they are not abused and they are not left on the streets," she said.

Zerrougui called on authorities to integrate former child soldiers into the community and address the stigmatization.

Her visit to Somalia comes ahead of the presentation of the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, which is due on Aug. 2.
TAIPEI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A preliminary investigation into a fatal tour bus accident in Taiwan has found evidence to suggest the fire began in the vicinity of the driver's compartment and the driver had no criminal record related with driving, a local prosecutor said Friday.

Wang Yi-wen, deputy chief prosecutor of Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office told Xinhua that the autopsy results revealed that the driver had sustained severe burns. The results of alcohol and drug tests have not yet been returned.

Prosecutors say they found no evidence of any CCTV cameras on board the bus, which was badly damaged in the fire, according to Wang.

Twenty-six people were killed when the tour bus crashed into a highway barrier and caught fire near Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan on Tuesday. They included 23 tourists and a tour guide from the Chinese mainland, a local driver and a local tour guide.

No time frame has been released for the investigation, as the process has been made more complicated by the fact there were no survivors to recount the incident, according to Wang.

"The next stage of our investigation will concentrate on finding out what really happened and how the fire started," the prosecutor said.
JUBA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency said on Friday that more than 26,000 people have fled to neighboring Uganda over uncertainty and fighting in South Sudan.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said 26,468 people have crossed into Uganda's northern region, including 24,321 in the previous six days alone since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.

"Yesterday (Thursday) an estimated 8,337 refugees crossed in to Uganda from South Sudan, a new record high since the influx began in 2016," UNHCR said in a statement received in Juba.

"An estimated 6,500 crossed in Elegu, 659 in Moyo, 156 in Lamwo and 642 in Oraba while 380 arrived in Kiryandongo Reception Centre," it said, adding that the influx continues to be characterized by a high proportion of women and children, which is more than 90%.

The statement comes after President Kiir called on his deputy to return to Juba by Sunday to take part in the implementation of a peace deal signed in August 2015.

Machar fled his base in Juba after more than four days of heavy fighting between his forces and those loyal to Kiir, leaving the peace pact in the balance.

The security situation has been unstable in Juba and elsewhere since the recent fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) loyal to Kiir and the SPLA in Opposition backing Machar.

According to UNHCR, new arrivals in Adjumani report continued fighting between forces loyal to President Kiir and those loyal to Machar.

"There are reports that armed gunmen continue to loot properties, forcibly recruit boys and young men, and murder civilians in Magwi," it said.

Some 272 people, including 33 civilians, have been killed and at least 36,000 civilians displaced.

The UN refugee agency said the influx is severely stretching the capacity of collection points, transit centres and reception centres, noting that Elegu collection point is full to the extent that it is not possible to conduct a head count.

"New arrivals figures in Elegu are based on an analysis of trends throughout the day. On Wednesday night, more than 7,000 people slept at Elegu collection point, significantly beyond its 1,000-person capacity," it said.
SANAA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's dominant Shiite Houthi rebels warned that continuing airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition would certainly fail the UN-brokered peace talks underway in Kuwait, according to a statement released Friday.

The warning came a day after Kuwait set a deadline for delegations of Yemeni warring parties to deal or depart.

"In an escalating move, the Saudi-led aggression has intensified its military operations in several Yemeni provinces, including over 75 airstrikes on Thursday and overnight," said the statement.

It stressed the airstrikes targeted civilians, as well as the joint truce committee in Saada province during a mission with Saada governor, causing critical injuries.

"We emphasize that the Saudi-led military escalation is serious as it breaks the ceasefire reached on April 10 and is certainly to fail the talks underway in Kuwait, or any possible political compromise and peace to Yemen," said the Houthi statement.

The Saudi-led coalition, mostly from Arab countries, started intervention in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to restore power to internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iranian-allied Houthis backed by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh stormed the capital Sanaa and forced Hadi with his government into exile in 2014.

The warring parties have been holding peace talks in Kuwait since April under auspices of the United Nations to seek political compromise to end the civil war.

The war has killed more than 6,400 people, half of them civilians, injured more 35,000 others and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian aid agencies.

Yemeni pro-government media reported late Thursday evening that Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched four airstrikes targeting a convoy of armed Houthi fighters in Majaz district in the far north Saada province, the main stronghold of Houthis near Saudi southern border.

It said the convoy contains Houthi leaders including Mohammed Jaber Awadh, whom Houthi group has appointed as Saada governor.

Media also reported that Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces advanced overnight into Haradh city of the nearby northwest Hajja province, also bordering Saudi Arabia.

The forces backed by Saudi fighter jets tightened siege on Haradh's northern outskirt, driving Houthi fighters into the center of the city after fierce battles since early Thursday, the media cited Yemeni government military officials.

They said the military push on the strategic city is continuing as dozens of Houthi fighters were killed or injured after being weakened by tens of airstrikes.

The airstrikes were also reported around the Houthi-held capital Sanaa and other provinces of Marib, Taiz and al-Jawf, according to officials and residents.

Kuwait, which has been hosting the peace talks since April 21, has issued a deadline to the warring parties to reach a deal within 15 days or leave.

The UN-brokered talks in Kuwait failed to achieve progress with both sides holding firm to their positions in the past three months.

"We have provided another 15 days for Yemeni sides to resolve all the issues," Kuwait's state news agency KUNA reported late Thursday, quoting Kuwaiti deputy foreign minister Khaled al-Jarallah as saying.

"If the matters are not settled before the deadline, our brothers will have to excuse us for not hosting the talks any more," Jarallah said.

The UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said last Saturday that the talks would last for another 15 days and warned that the two weeks may be Yemen's last chance for peace.
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China will not give up hope in finding the whereabouts of Flight MH370 once a multinational operation covering the current search area in the Indian Ocean is completed, said a Chinese official on Friday.

Minister of Transportation Yang Chuantang made the remarks here at a press conference where he and his counterparts from Malaysia and Australia announced the joint decision to suspend the search operation if the remaining less than 10,000 sq kilometers is scoured and no new evidence emerges.

"Suspension does not mean a termination of the search work. In the future, should key information leading to the location of the aircraft emerges, it will be assessed to determine our next steps," said Yang.

Yang said China is willing to extend the operation time of the sonar ship Dong Hai Jiu 101 after it offered 20 million Australian dollars last year to help maintain the search. "Currently, the crew of Dong Hai Jiu 101 is still on the search mission in the Indian Ocean."

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them being Chinese nationals.

China, Australia and Malaysia had previously agreed to comb a search area of 120,000 square kilometer, which has the highest possibility finding debris belonging to the plane.
Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi (C) delivers a speech to army commanders and local officials during a surprise visit to inspect troops in Yemen's loyalist-held eastern city of Marib, on July 10, 2016. Hadi threatened to boycott peace talks with Iran-backed rebels if the UN envoy insists on a roadmap stipulating a unity government that includes the insurgents. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

SANAA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's dominant Shiite Houthi rebels warned that continuing airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition would certainly fail the UN-brokered peace talks underway in Kuwait, according to a statement released Friday.

The warning came a day after Kuwait set a deadline for delegations of Yemeni warring parties to deal or depart.

"In an escalating move, the Saudi-led aggression has intensified its military operations in several Yemeni provinces, including over 75 airstrikes on Thursday and overnight," said the statement.

It stressed the airstrikes targeted civilians, as well as the joint truce committee in Saada province during a mission with Saada governor, causing critical injuries.

"We emphasize that the Saudi-led military escalation is serious as it breaks the ceasefire reached on April 10 and is certainly to fail the talks underway in Kuwait, or any possible political compromise and peace to Yemen," said the Houthi statement.

The Saudi-led coalition, mostly from Arab countries, started intervention in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to restore power to internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iranian-allied Houthis backed by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh stormed the capital Sanaa and forced Hadi with his government into exile in 2014.

The warring parties have been holding peace talks in Kuwait since April under auspices of the United Nations to seek political compromise to end the civil war.

The war has killed more than 6,400 people, half of them civilians, injured more 35,000 others and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian aid agencies.

Yemeni pro-government media reported late Thursday evening that Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched four airstrikes targeting a convoy of armed Houthi fighters in Majaz district in the far north Saada province, the main stronghold of Houthis near Saudi southern border.

It said the convoy contains Houthi leaders including Mohammed Jaber Awadh, whom Houthi group has appointed as Saada governor.

Media also reported that Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces advanced overnight into Haradh city of the nearby northwest Hajja province, also bordering Saudi Arabia.

The forces backed by Saudi fighter jets tightened siege on Haradh's northern outskirt, driving Houthi fighters into the center of the city after fierce battles since early Thursday, the media cited Yemeni government military officials.

They said the military push on the strategic city is continuing as dozens of Houthi fighters were killed or injured after being weakened by tens of airstrikes.

The airstrikes were also reported around the Houthi-held capital Sanaa and other provinces of Marib, Taiz and al-Jawf, according to officials and residents.

Kuwait, which has been hosting the peace talks since April 21, has issued a deadline to the warring parties to reach a deal within 15 days or leave.

The UN-brokered talks in Kuwait failed to achieve progress with both sides holding firm to their positions in the past three months.

"We have provided another 15 days for Yemeni sides to resolve all the issues," Kuwait's state news agency KUNA reported late Thursday, quoting Kuwaiti deputy foreign minister Khaled al-Jarallah as saying.

"If the matters are not settled before the deadline, our brothers will have to excuse us for not hosting the talks any more," Jarallah said.

The UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said last Saturday that the talks would last for another 15 days and warned that the two weeks may be Yemen's last chance for peace.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice will visit China from July 24 to 27, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

During Rice's stay in China, the Chinese and U.S. sides will exchange views on bilateral ties, the upcoming G20 Summit and other major issues of common concern, spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press release.

This year's G20 summit is scheduled to be held in east China's Hangzhou city in September.
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Up to three dozens of people, including 30 Taliban fighters, have been killed over the past two days as fierce fighting has been continuing for the control of Qala-e-Zal district along the border with Tajikistan in the northern Kunduz province, officials said Friday.

In the latest blow inflicted to the Taliban, 18 insurgents were killed on Friday as government troops pounded Taliban positions, an army official Brigadier Mangal Rahat said.

According to the official, six more Taliban fighters had been killed on Thursday as their battle tank was destroyed in air strike.

Six more militants had also been killed on the same day Thursday in the neighboring Dasht-e-Archi district, the security official asserted.

Taliban militants who had briefly captured Kunduz provincial capital the Kunduz city in last September have intensified activities in Qala-e-Zal, Dasht-e-Archi and Khawja Ghar district since Sunday and so far, according to some villages.

Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Majahid in contact with media has claimed taking large swathe areas in Qala-e-Zal and Khawja Ghar districts.

However, Kunduz police chief Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh refuted Taliban's claim, saying the Taliban offensive has been repulsed.

He also stressed that reinforcement reached to Qala-e-Zal district Thursday night, forcing militants to flee.

Meanwhile, locals in talks with Xinhua said that clash for the control of Qala-eZal district is continuing.

The ongoing fighting in Qala-e-Zal district has forced hundreds of people to leave their homes for safer places.

"More than 200 families have already left their homes for safer places," an elder from Qala-e-Zal, Hajji Mohammad Hassan told Xinhua.

Hajji Hasan also confirmed that the government forces were able to repulse Taliban offensive in Qala-e-Zal and retook the district headquarters in Aqtapa area on Thursday.

Meantime, a local analyst Mohammad Rafiq Kakar in talks with local media warned that overlooking the fragility of the situation in Qala-e-Zal and adjoining districts by government would enable enemies to destabilize more areas.
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and Afghanistan will hold a high level meeting in Kabul on July 26 to discuss a border mechanism to check the illegal cross-border movement, officials said on Friday.

Pakistan introduced a new mechanism from June 1st that makes it obligatory for every Afghan to carry legal travel documents for entering Pakistan.

Earlier, thousands of Afghans, living near the border, would enter Pakistan without passport and visas. Pakistani officials insist that the militants would take advantage of the loose border control and would move on both sides for terrorist acts.

Afghanistan had complained that Pakistan introduced the new system without consulting it.

Both sides last month involved in border clashes over the construction of a gate on the Pakistani side of the border. Later the two countries agreed on a ceasefire and a joint committee to address to the border disputes. Pakistan and Afghanistan have nearly 2600 km border, mostly porous.

"The first meeting of Afghanistan-Pakistan joint technical working group under the high level consultation mechanism for coordination on border management and related security issues will be held in Kabul on 26 July 2016," the Foreign Ministry said in Islamabad.

Pakistan delegation to this meeting will be led by Director General Military Operations and include representatives of the concerned Ministries and Departments, a statement said.

On the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tashkent on 24 June 2016, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and the Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani had agreed to constitute a high level bilateral mechanism at the level of Foreign Ministers and include two National Security Advisers for consultation and coordination on issues including security, movement of people and vehicles between the two countries and other related issues.

It was decided that the mechanism will also have a joint technical working group to deal with the mutual concerns.
BISHKEK, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The second exhibition-fair of Silk Road countries, aimed at further promoting trade and economic cooperation, kicked off Thursday in Kyrgyzstan's capital.

The four-day exhibition-fair of Silk Road countries will serve as a good platform for the exchange and cooperation on trade and technologies of the countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt, said the co-organizer of the exhibition.

Kyrgyzstan attaches great importance to helping implement the projects to restore the Great Silk Road, said Muhammetkaly Abulgaziev, first vice prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Thursday.

"Today we became a witness of the restoration of the Great Silk Road, which for centuries has linked the West and the East, especially Kyrgyzstan and China, with trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian, political and diplomatic links," Abulgaziev said in his speech.

Abulgaziev also highlighted the joint projects of strategic importance for the country, which have been implemented within the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Vice-Governor of China's Shaanxi Province Wang Lixia briefed the participants of the event on the representing province.

"Shaanxi Province pays constant attention to cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in the trade, economic and investment spheres," she said.

Wang also said she is confident that the exhibition will boost mutual understanding and friendly cooperation between China and Kyrgyzstan.

The exhibition is one of the concrete measures to implement the One Belt and One Road Initiative and a good platform for Chinese producers to learn about the trade and economic conditions of Kyrgyzstan, said Sun He, commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan.

There are more than 80 stands in the exhibition hall, which is over 3,000 square meters. Products exhibited include consumer goods, household appliances, textile accessories, shoes and many others.

Kyrgyz businessman Kuban Kenzhebaev, who came to the exhibition looking for partners, told Xinhua that the exhibition is a good platform to get acquainted with the newest Chinese technology and equipment.

He said he was very pleased because only after five minutes, he found something interesting for his company and has already discussed the delivery of water purification equipment with Deland company from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Representatives of government departments and the business community of China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries also attended the exhibition.
ISTANBUL, July 18, 2016 (Xinhua) -- People participate in a rally in support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, July 18, 2016. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the failed military coup has left at least 290 people killed and more than 6,000 have been detained so far due to their involvement in the coup. (Xinhua/He Canling)

ISTANBUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkey is in the limelight after an unexpected coup attempt and the ensuing crackdown, and for how the country shall move on.

All are pinning their hopes on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the helmsman whose popularity has soared after foiling the coup bid in hours by early Saturday morning, to put the country on the right path.

"Where will Turkey go from here? Well, this is a major watershed event that will change everything," Mustafa Akyol wrote in the Hurriyet daily.

The ongoing crackdown is expanding, implicating tens of thousands from the military, the police, the judiciary, civil service and academia, with the reintroduction of death penalty not ruled out and a state of emergency nationwide declared on Wednesday night.

"The threat of the coup is not over yet, there could be some more sleeping cells within the army," observed Ismail Hakki Pekin, a retired general and former director of the intelligence department of Turkish Joint Chief of Staff.

"We can see the assassins come into play, we can see an increase in bomb attacks and sabotage," he said, adding they may collude with radical Islamist groups in Turkey as well as terror groups like Nusra Front and the Islamic State.

In Akyol's view, the government "certainly has the right to purge and prosecute everybody involved in the plot."

"But there is also a major risk of a huge witch-hunt," the columnist wrote.

The past decade witnessed a once success story in Turkey, made possible with a booming economy, a proactive foreign policy and progress toward the European Union membership, degenerated now into one with frequent terror attacks, rising polarization, deepening diplomatic isolation and a flagging economy, noted Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish parliament.

"Ankara urgently needs to reverse course," he asserted, calling for "an incrementalist approach to overcome social polarization and political impasse."

Semih Idiz, another columnist, noted that many Turks believe Erdogan has put the interests of the republic aside in favor of the ideological interests of his Islamist party.

"This is what lies at the root of much of the social tension we have," he wrote in Hurriyet. "It will be hard for Turkey to return to even a semblance of normality if he can't make himself the president of the whole nation."

"This coup attempt is ultimately the product of the chaos Turkey has been allowed to drift into," he added, urging Erdogan to help promote the unavoidable debate about who is responsible for the chaos.

The columnist warned of another coup attempt in months or years to come if the president "can't win over his instinct for vengeance."

Erdogan has climbed to "the strongest point" in his political career, "the shape Turkey will take moving forward" depends on how he decides to use it, said Mehmet Yilmaz, another columnist.

"It would be good for the future of our country and our democracy if the wise people within the Justice and Development Party who we hope exist assist him in his decision," he wrote.

Berat Bekir Ozipek, a scholar from Medipol University, said he expected the president to adopt more comprehensive policies in addressing the problems facing Kurds and other minorities in the country.

Cuneyt Akalin, a scholar from Arel University, called for a new approach to foreign relations as he saw a "new horizon" for Turkey.

He referred to the fact that many in Turkey has realized the strategic partnership with the United States is against the country and that Turkey's relationship with the EU is also weakening.

Pekin echoed this sentiment and urged a new approach as well, saying that the U.S. and Turkish interests "do not fit each other," and Ankara needs neither the NATO nor EU.

Ozipek, referring to lingering doubts in Turkey about the U.S. role in the coup attempt, spoke of a short-term negative impact on ties between the NATO allies.

"But I do not expect a U-turn in the long run," he added.
SINGAPORE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Singapore government has banned "Al Fatihin", a newsletter published by a media agency affiliated to terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), announced the Ministry for Communications and Information (MCI) in a statement on Friday.

MCI said that ISIS poses a serious threat to the security of Singapore, and that the affiliated newsletter was one way the terror group is spreading extremism in Southeast Asia.

"Al Fatihin is yet another step by ISIS to spread its propaganda abroad, with a clear intention to radicalize and recruit Southeast Asians to join ISIS," said MCI, "Singapore government has zero tolerance for terrorist propaganda and has therefore decided to prohibit Al Fatihin in Singapore."

The newsletter was gazetted as a prohibited publication under the Undesirable Publications Act, which restricts publications that the government considers contrary to public interest. This means individuals are not allowed to possess these publications and they cannot be distributed or sold in Singapore.

MCI added that those convicted of an offence could be liable to a fine, imprisonment or both.
Pro-government demonstrators take part in a march over the Bosphorus Bridge, from the Asian to the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, July 21, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

ISTANBUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkey is in the limelight after an unexpected coup attempt and the ensuing crackdown, and for how the country shall move on.

All are pinning their hopes on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the helmsman whose popularity has soared after foiling the coup bid in hours by early Saturday morning, to put the country on the right path.

"Where will Turkey go from here? Well, this is a major watershed event that will change everything," Mustafa Akyol wrote in the Hurriyet daily.

The ongoing crackdown is expanding, implicating tens of thousands from the military, the police, the judiciary, civil service and academia, with the reintroduction of death penalty not ruled out and a state of emergency nationwide declared on Wednesday night.

"The threat of the coup is not over yet, there could be some more sleeping cells within the army," observed Ismail Hakki Pekin, a retired general and former director of the intelligence department of Turkish Joint Chief of Staff.

"We can see the assassins come into play, we can see an increase in bomb attacks and sabotage," he said, adding they may collude with radical Islamist groups in Turkey as well as terror groups like Nusra Front and the Islamic State.

In Akyol's view, the government "certainly has the right to purge and prosecute everybody involved in the plot."

"But there is also a major risk of a huge witch-hunt," the columnist wrote.

The past decade witnessed a once success story in Turkey, made possible with a booming economy, a proactive foreign policy and progress toward the European Union membership, degenerated now into one with frequent terror attacks, rising polarization, deepening diplomatic isolation and a flagging economy, noted Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish parliament.

"Ankara urgently needs to reverse course," he asserted, calling for "an incrementalist approach to overcome social polarization and political impasse."

Semih Idiz, another columnist, noted that many Turks believe Erdogan has put the interests of the republic aside in favor of the ideological interests of his Islamist party.

"This is what lies at the root of much of the social tension we have," he wrote in Hurriyet. "It will be hard for Turkey to return to even a semblance of normality if he can't make himself the president of the whole nation."

"This coup attempt is ultimately the product of the chaos Turkey has been allowed to drift into," he added, urging Erdogan to help promote the unavoidable debate about who is responsible for the chaos.

The columnist warned of another coup attempt in months or years to come if the president "can't win over his instinct for vengeance."

Erdogan has climbed to "the strongest point" in his political career, "the shape Turkey will take moving forward" depends on how he decides to use it, said Mehmet Yilmaz, another columnist.

"It would be good for the future of our country and our democracy if the wise people within the Justice and Development Party who we hope exist assist him in his decision," he wrote.

Berat Bekir Ozipek, a scholar from Medipol University, said he expected the president to adopt more comprehensive policies in addressing the problems facing Kurds and other minorities in the country.

Cuneyt Akalin, a scholar from Arel University, called for a new approach to foreign relations as he saw a "new horizon" for Turkey.

He referred to the fact that many in Turkey has realized the strategic partnership with the United States is against the country and that Turkey's relationship with the EU is also weakening.

Pekin echoed this sentiment and urged a new approach as well, saying that the U.S. and Turkish interests "do not fit each other," and Ankara needs neither the NATO nor EU.

Ozipek, referring to lingering doubts in Turkey about the U.S. role in the coup attempt, spoke of a short-term negative impact on ties between the NATO allies.

"But I do not expect a U-turn in the long run," he added.
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's top sovereign wealth fund, announced Friday that its total assets had grown to over 810 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2015, from 200 billion U.S. dollars of registered capital in 2007 when it was founded.

The annualized growth rate of the company's state-owned capital reached 15.3 percent over the eight years, according to the company's 2015 annual report released on Friday.

This is the first time for the wholly state-owned company, also one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, to have disclosed the cumulative growth rate of its state-owned capital since its inception.

Headquartered in Beijing, CIC was established as a vehicle to diversify China's foreign exchange holdings and seek maximum returns for its shareholders within acceptable risk tolerance.

The government injected 49 billion dollars in additional funding to the company in 2011.

In 2015, a challenging year for CIC and the global economy, the company prudently coped with challenges by exploring new business opportunities and refining its corporate governance, thereby renewing progress in overseas investment and management, Ding Xuedong, chairman and CEO of CIC, was quoted by the report as saying.

In CIC's overseas investment portfolio, public equity, fixed income, absolute return, long-term assets, and cash products accounted for 47.47percent, 14.44 percent, 12.67 percent, 22.16 percent, 3.26 percent respectively, according to the report.

Due to volatility in global financial markets and foreign exchange losses triggered by an appreciating U.S. dollar, CIC's overseas investments generated a U.S. dollar-denominated net return of negative 2.96 percent in 2015, said CIC, adding that it had enjoyed a net cumulative annualized return of 4.58 percent in overseas investments.

CIC also said it ramped up investments in assets that generate stable returns such as real estate and infrastructure in 2015.
YINCHUAN, July 20, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with local muslims at Xincheng Mosque in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, July 19, 2016. Xi made a three-day inspection tour in Ningxia.(Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping was on the frontlines of the country's war against poverty this week in northwestern China.

This time, the battleground was Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, an under-developed area with a high concentration of ethnic minorities.

Ningxia has some 580,000 people that receive less than 2,300 yuan (about 345 U.S. dollars) in annual net income, according to latest figures. The number is considerably lower than a decade ago, when one million people in the autonomous region lived under the poverty line.

But the task to lift all out of poverty and build a "moderately prosperous society in an all-round way" by 2020 remains daunting.

During his Ningxia trip, Xi visited villages to inspect poverty alleviation work. He talked with villagers about their lives, and urged Communist Party of China (CPC) cadres to take the lead in poverty reduction.

In Guyuan City, one of the most impoverished localities in China, Xi visited the Yangling Village Monday.

"He came into my house, sat on my bed, and together with my folks in the village, we made plans to shake off our 'poverty hats,'" said villager Ma Kejun of the Hui ethnicity.

"He showed particular interests in how many cows I raised, how I feed them, and how much land I farm," Ma recalled. Xi's visit, he said, was more of one of belief than of relief.

China is striving to become a "Xiaokang," or a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way by 2020, just before the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

One aim is to make sure that those yet to be lifted out of poverty join the well-off society with the rest of the nation.

In Xi's own words, "No one should be left behind."

"There are still some 50 million Chinese struggling with poverty, and by 2020, they must be all lifted out of poverty. This is my top concern now," Xi said during his Ningxia tour.

Poverty relief is indeed a priority on the policy agenda.

It is not difficult to fathom how much Chinese leaders are committed to the task. For four years in a row, Xi's lunar New Year inspection tours have involved him inspecting the country's poverty reduction efforts.

In March, Xi brought up poverty alleviation during the annual session of the National People's Congress with national lawmakers from the northwestern province of Qinghai.

Targeted measures should be taken and the role of education be emphasized in poverty relief to ensure the people will not return to poverty, he said during the session.

Infrastructure in ethnic regions will be improved and industries with local characteristics and competitive edges will be encouraged, to facilitate self-development, Xi said.

The country's 13th Five-Year Plan, which outlines priorities for national development from 2016 to 2020, also proposes support for poor villages to develop signature products and services.

In addition to self-sustaining development, China also encourages more-developed regions to form partnerships with less developed ones, to lend a hand with infrastructure and investment.

At a national conference this week on poverty alleviation through east-west cooperation in Ningxia's capital city Yinchuan, Xi urged developed regions in the east to help their partner regions in the west better fight poverty.

China has used the strategy for 20 years, and the widening gap between the east and west has been curbed, said the president, hailing "significant progress" in poverty alleviation in poor western areas and old revolutionary base areas.

"Cooperation between paired eastern and western regions in poverty alleviation must continue for a long time," said Xi at the meeting.

While in Ningxia, the president also inspected an incubator park, a cooperation between Ningxia and Zhejiang Province, which encourages enterprises to join poverty relief efforts in western China.

Xu Yaotong, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance, said Xi's visit schedules in recent years, including the one this week to Ningxia, are signaling the new leadership's governance focus on impoverished and underdeveloped regions.

"Xi is first and foremost concerned with 'Xiaokang' of all Chinese people," said Xu.

"If we compare China's development to a bucket and the amount of water a bucket can hold is determined by its shortest plank," Xu continued, adding that poverty is one of the short planks.

"To build a comprehensively 'Xiaokang' society, the country must fix those short, weak planks," Xu said.

Related:

Xi urges inclusive development on Ningxia tour

YINCHUAN, July 20 (Xinhua) -- No region or ethnic group should be left behind in China's drive to build a moderately prosperous society by 2020, President Xi Jinping said during a tour of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region that ended on Wednesday.

Xi spent three days in Ningxia, a less developed area with a high concentration of ethnic minorities in northwest China. Full Story

Xi highlights new development concepts, environmental protection

YINCHUAN, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping underscored the implementation of the nation's new development concepts of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared growth, while urging improved environmental protection during a trip to northwestern China.
BRUSSELS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The air forces of Romania, Greece and the United States took part in the annual multinational air exercise "Thracian Star 2016" in the Bulgarian skies, NATO said in a press release Friday.

Led by the Bulgarian Air Force, the 11-day flying activity during the exercise concluded Thursday.

The main exercise objectives are to achieve greater interoperability in operations and to further improve capabilities and skills of operators in a NATO environment.

The Thracian Star multinational exercise series has been held annually under an agreement on defense cooperation between the United States and Bulgaria. The event has been expanded to include Bulgaria's neighboring countries.

Multinational exercises of allies highlight forces that are capable of operating alongside each other during combined operations, the security organization said.
South Sudan civilians settle down at UN house in Juba, South Sudan, July 12, 2016. Tense calm returned to South Sudan's capital after the two leaders called on ceasefire and ordered all commanders to lay down arms and report to their unit bases. (Xinhua)

JUBA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's Abraham Malut graduated in 2012 after having acquired a degree in finance and accounting at the University of Juba. However, the 32-year-old still lacks a job despite adding a diploma in information technology to his budding resume.

"I have tried to look for a job but failed. Most people here employ only their close relatives and friends," Malut told Xinhua in an interview on Thursday. Malut, with frustration by the unsuccessful chase for a job has retreated to his home in Jonglei state.

South Sudan became independent in 2011, marking the end of one of the longest conflicts in recent sub-Saharan African history and ushering in hopes of a more peaceful and prosperous future for its citizens.

However, this optimism was punctured by the onset of internal conflict in December 2013 and the resumption of conflict in July despite the warring parties have signed the August peace agreement to end more than two years of civil conflict.

The country is faced with a worsening humanitarian crisis, political and economic fragility after conflict displaced more than 2.3 million people, and in addition about 36,000 have been displaced in Juba alone after recent fighting.

And despite oil resource contributing 98 percent of revenue to the fiscal budget, subsistence agriculture remains the dominant sector for household livelihoods.

About 78 percent of the households in South Sudan derive their livelihood from agriculture. There are few alternative sources of employment as the formal sectors are yet to develop.

Another unemployed youth, Lodule Bosco, 28 told Xinhua he is a trained teacher but due to low wages, he abandoned teaching and resorted to riding commercial motor cycle (boda boda) on the streets of Juba to fend for his young family.

He disclosed that there are many professional teachers and police officers who have abandoned duty for commercial motor cycle business, due to meager pay that often delays for months.

Lodule said his story has epitomized the massive unemployment in a country that can barely feed its 12 million people, with goods ranging from tomatoes, onions, vegetables to grains still being imported from East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia.

"There are teachers, police officers I know who have abandoned their duties to do boda boda business. If there is capital one can begin a business," he explains.

A handout photograph released on July 12, 2016 by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan showing Internally Displaced People taking shelter and refuge due to heavy clashes at the UN base in Tomping, Juba, South Sudan, 11 July 2016.

It is the same case with Thomas Benedicto, 30, who is a qualified electrician but opted to ride commercial motorcycle due to failure to land his dream job, after he applied several times for jobs advertised by Non-Governmental Organizations in Juba.

He says he has managed to fend for his family due to the lucrative business but he still hopes to get chance to practice his profession.

In the aftermath of conflict, many big foreign owned companies that employed big number of South Sudanese like South African brewer, SABMiller have shut down operations and Kenyan banks like KCB, Equity and mobile telecom giant MTN have downsized staff due to economic hardship, leaving many nationals out of jobs.

Edmund Yakani, a policy analyst with Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, told Xinhua that unemployment is a public policy and structural problem in the country that has been ignored for long by authorities with dire consequences on the economy.

"The government has no scheme of creating jobs. It has its own limited jobs that are institutional, designed by frameworks for state building. They have done less in creating jobs as they have failed to secure peace and security to attract investments," he explained.

He added that the government also doesn't have policies that are geared toward boosting entrepreneurship. And that being the largest consumer it leaves the private sector starved of capital to help create jobs.

"Instead of looking entirely at oil, we need to look at the agriculture, mining sector and you cannot invest in these without peace and security," he said.

Dr. James Alic Garang of the Ebony Center for Strategic Studies said the government should boost non-oil revenue collection through the newly enacted national revenue authority and also invoke departure tax at Juba airport to widen its shrinking revenue base.

"Unemployment is a danger in radicalizing youth, as they resort to gun culture as a way of survival. They start developing militia groups, cattle raiding and we have seen this in South Sudan," Yakani said.

Political analyst with Sudd Institute local think tank, Augustino Ting Mayai, said it's impossible to imagine a stable South Sudan amid massive youth unemployment.

"It is what has driven the majority of them to join various rebellions in the country side," he noted.
by Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Marking two years of the 50-day large-scale Israeli military offensive waged on Gaza in 2014, Hamas movement organized an exhibition in Gaza city, including a tour into underground tunnels for children's summer camps.

Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas armed wing, organized the activity at al-Shuja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. The neighborhood suffered intensive Israeli airstrikes and shelling, where hundreds were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed.

Hundreds of al-Shuja'eya residents visited the exhibition to see the weapons and the rockets the armed wing of the movement used against the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, as well as parts of the damaged armored vehicles and tanks, and drones the group seized from the Israeli army.

A 200-meter training tunnel is included that the group has dug only for the exhibition. The tunnel shapes the real ones the group had used against the Israeli army during the 2014 offensive, where two Israeli soldiers are still considered missing.

Mohamed Helles, one of Hamas supporters from al-Shuja'eya who visited the exhibition, said "one of the amazing stuff is the rocket that managed to reach Tel Aviv and the rocket R160 that reached Haifa in northern Palestine."

Inside the tunnel and on its concrete walls, Hamas put the pictures of its dead militants during the Israeli offensive with dates and caption on how, when and where they were killed.

The exhibition also showed the Hamas-made drone "Ababeel" which was designed by al-Qassam Brigades militants and flew over the southern Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon during the Israeli offensive. A captured Israeli army drone was also shown in the exhibition.

Abdullah, a 38-year-old man from Gaza, visited the exhibition with his wife and three children, saying it is his first time ever getting into a tunnel similar to those used against Israel.

"I always thought it is scary to walk a long distance in a tunnel while the enemy is on the ground, but now I don't feel scared," he added.

Besides firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, Hamas used long underground tunnels to enter Israel, through which Hamas militants carried out dozens of attacks.

"I think Hamas decision to allow ordinary people to get into the tunnels aimed at removing the fear and also change the impression on the tunnels by those knew nothing about Hamas military activities," said Mahmoud.

Masked Hamas militants, holding rifles and wearing the Islamic movement's uniform, were welcoming the visitors and explaining the exhibition with each piece of the weapons used either by Hamas or Israel during the war.

Israeli media, deeply concerning Hamas activities in the Gaza Strip, reported the exhibition about showing visitors tunnels, rockets and weapons.

The media also slammed Hamas for training teenagers and schoolchildren from the Gaza Strip with military activities, saying Hamas is establishing schools of terrorism.

However, Hamas officials announced that the summer camps for Gaza children aim at "being prepared for any future Israeli assault on Gaza."

Hamas is training around 50,000 children and teenagers all over the Gaza Strip, who are divided into two groups, one with children under 13 only receiving sports, culture and religious education, the other with those over 13 also taking paramilitary activities.

"Hamas has to be always on alert and well-prepared because the enemy can never be trusted and it may carry out another war on the Gaza Strip anytime," said Abu Mohamed, one of the organizers of the exhibition and the summer camps.

Hamas movement, which doesn't recognize Israel and the Middle East peace process, had violently seized control of the Gaza Strip following weeks of internal fighting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the summer of 2007. Since then, the movement has been unilaterally ruling the coastal enclave.
MANILA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. will join his other southeast Asian counterparts in their meetings in Laos from July 23 to 26, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.

Yasay's attendance to the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) and Related Meetings will be his first ministerial meeting since he was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to the post.

Aside from AMM, Yasay will also attend the Ministerial Meetings of the ASEAN Plus Three, ASEAN Regional Forum, and East Asia Summit (EAS) including the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference with Dialogue Partners such as China, India, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

He will also attend the Meetings of the South East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Commission, AMM Interface with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission for Human Rights Representatives, and the Southwest Pacific Dialogue.

At the sidelines of the AMM, the DFA chief will have bilateral meetings with several counterparts to exchange views on matters affecting bilateral relations and common concerns on global and regional issues.

The AMM is the second regular Meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers this year under the Chairmanship of Lao PDR, after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Retreat in February.
NAIROBI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Trade ministers from 194 countries on Friday agreed to strengthen the mandate of the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to effectively deal with matters affecting trade, foreign investments and the fight against poverty.

Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed who chaired the talks said the deal reached in Nairobi and named the "Nairobi Mafikiano" (Consensus) offers a direction on the role of UNCTAD and the programs to be undertaken by UNCTAD for the next four years.

"We have a deal done. It is a good day and a win for multilateralism," Mohamed told reporters.

The new deal proposes sweeping powers to be granted to UNCTAD to deal with the issues affecting investments by both local and international corporations, governments and the private sector.

"We have an outcome we are proud off. The eight days have shown the world what Kenya can offer," Mohamed said after announcing the agreement on the role of UNCTAD in managing trade and other emerging issues such as the Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and the fight against poverty.

The Nairobi talks were held amid complaints from the civil society groups from Kenya, South Korea and Zimbabwe, who complained the trade liberalization talks were meant to rip poor Africans by giving more powers to foreign cooperation to acquire firms in new destinations and hurt the poor.

"We are here to raise our concerns against the wrongs underlying the treaties we have today. The foundations of these treaties were established based on consumers and producers," said Dr Justus Juma, Founder and Coordinator of a civil society coalition campaigning against trade in food.

"Africa is seen as a continent without the capacity to produce. We do not benefit from the massive resources we have," Juma told Xinhua, while leading a civil society protest against the UNCTAD talks.
LHASA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Sixteen national social organizations announced Friday they will launch support programs and provide donations worth 162 million yuan (24 million U.S. dollars) in Tibet for the next year.

According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, the money will be mainly used to support groups including people with serious diseases, infants and children, the disabled and the poor across Tibet.

A Beijing-based spinal health public welfare foundation will pair orthopaedic surgeons and experts with patients to offer free surgeries and donate rehabilitation equipment to poor rural areas.

There is a high incidence of cleft lip and palate in Tibet. China Charities Aid Foundation for Children donated 850,000 yuan to provide free surgery for 300 children with the condition.

Sangye Rinchen, head of the civil affairs department of Tibet, said social organizations are an important force in the region's poverty relief and will improve the lives of poor Tibetans.
People take part in the Labor Day parade in Paris, France on May 1, 2016. Protesters made a new push to force the French government to drop a draft bill to reform the country's labor code. (Xinhua/Zheng Bin)

PARIS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- French lawmakers on Thursday officially approved contested new labor rules after the government used constitutional powers to approve the reform after bypassing parliament.

After long and stormy debate and violent street protests, the government's proposal to implement labor reform became law as no party had submitted a motion of censure.

On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls passed the reform without lawmakers' approval.

With the use of constitution power, the government risked a no-confidence vote if opponents deposed a motion of censure in 24 hours.

To bring down unemployment claims in France, the government proposed making layoffs easier, reducing overtime pay and economic redundancies and opening to negotiation working hours and holidays.

However, critics say such reform would create more low-paid jobs and further weaken workers' earnings.
JUBA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Friday refuted claims of a subtle plot to replace First Vice President Riek Machar after he fled Juba in the wake of resumption of intense fighting on July 8 between his forces and those loyal to President Salva Kiir.

Presidential adviser, Ateny Wek Ateny on Friday denied existence of the alleged scheme to replace the former rebel leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-in opposition (SPLM/A-IO) with his compatriot Taban Deng Gai, the minister of mining in the transitional unity government.

But despite the denial, Ateny contradicted himself by revealing that they may still invoke article 7.3 of chapter 1 of the agreement on resolution of conflict to replace Machar within his armed opposition.

Article 7.3 says that in the event that the post of vice president falls vacant during the Transition Period, for any reason, including mental infirmity or physical incapacity, the president shall appoint a replacement, as per the terms of the amended 2015 Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan.

"We do not know the whereabouts of Machar up to now. The last time he talked to the president was on Thursday at 1: pm. If he does not come, that can push us to invoke the article of the peace agreement to replace him," he disclosed.

However, Machar's spokesman James Gatdet Dak said the first vice president will only return to Juba after deployment of a rapid-response African standby force agreed upon recently at the African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

"Machar will return to Juba once a third party force is deployed. President Salva Kiir's 48 hours ultimatum is unnecessary," he wrote on his social media.

Dak added that Machar has instructed his SPLA-IO commanders to disassociate from general Taban and his followers.

"Machar has directed all SPLA-IO commanders and units to cut off communication with mining minister, General Taban Deng and a few individuals with him who are behind a conspiracy engineered by president Kiir's faction to divide the SPLM/A-IO and dismantle the August 2015 peace agreement," he said. Enditem
MANILA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Friday he is eyeing former Interior and Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan as special envoy to China in the event that former president Fidel Ramos turns down his earlier offer to head the team that will kickstart bilateral talks with Beijing.

"If President Ramos tells me that he is not available then I'll appoint Alunan. He's good. He is a colonel in the reserved force. He knows his business," Duterte said in a speech before Army troops in Maguindanao Province in the southern Philippines.

Alunan served as interior secretary under Ramos. He ran for senator last May but lost.

On July 14, Duterte bared his plan to send Ramos to Beijing. However Ramos has allegedly expressed reluctance to accept the role citing health reasons and possible conflict of schedules.

The Philippine new government under Duterte has expressed its willingness to mend relations between the Philippines and China, which have been strained over disputes in the South China Sea in recent years. Enditem
SHANGHAI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The black box of an amphibian plane that hit a bridge in Shanghai Wednesday, killing five on board, has been found and sent for analysis, local civil aviation authority said.

The investigation team has completed evidence collection, including retrieving the wreckage from the water, registration and weighing salvaged items, as well as video recording of the scene and data collection.

The black box has been sent to China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology for analysis.

The B-10FW plane, carrying 10 people, was on its maiden flight from Shanghai's Jinshan District to Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, when it hit the bridge around midday on Wednesday.

The other five people are still receiving hospital treatment.

The plane is owned by AVIC Joy General Aviation Co. Ltd., which is the first amphibian plane operator approved to carry passengers in east China. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for better supervision of reform efforts.

Xi made the remarks at the 26th meeting of the Leading Group for Overall Reform, which he heads.

The meeting was also attended by deputy heads of the group Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli. Other members of the group and officials from related central departments also attended the meeting.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over the meeting. He said supervision is aimed at ensuring that reform will not deviate from the direction that the CPC Central Committee has decided on and reform efforts will not fail.

Supervision should target major reform tasks, progress and effectiveness. It should also supervise the officials' awareness of reform, their division of duties and work styles, according to a statement released after the meeting, where a report on supervision of reform efforts in all departments was approved.

Inspection and supervision should be carried out in order of priority, importance and difficulty of reform measures, the statement read.

Efforts should be made to spot common problems in the implementation of reform measures while paying attention to problems of strong public concern, it said, urging supervisors to get to the root of problems and work out solutions.

"Those who have achieved tangible and effective results in reform should be praised while those who have failed to perform their duty and implement reform measures well should be punished," it read.

Attendees of the meeting also approved a plan for the pilot reform of poverty alleviation in less developed areas by exploring hydroelectric and mineral resources, a guideline for strengthening development of industry associations in cultural sectors, and a pilot reform plan for a system of leniency for suspects who plead guilty.

According to the statement, developing hydroelectric and mineral resources is a major systemic innovation for poverty relief, and its goal is to increase incomes for the poor.

The statement noted that the development of various associations in the cultural industry should focus on public interest and rely on both active guidance from Party committees, effective governmental supervision and strict management in accordance with the law.

"Cultural associations should be guided to make full use of their functions to serve cultural groups and talent, boost the industry's development, enrich people's cultural life and stimulate cultural creativity," it said.

It stressed that this development must stick to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The statement also noted that the leniency system for guilty pleas must be improved to clarify the legal basis for using the system during investigation, prosecution and judgement.

It stressed that procedures prior to and during trials should be regulated and legal aid services should be improved.

A guideline for creating a disciplinary system for judges and procurators was approved at the meeting, as was a pilot reform guideline for monitoring and law enforcement administrative systems for environmental protection at the sub-provincial level.

A disciplinary system for judges and procurators is important in encouraging them to use power in accordance with the law and ensuring social fairness and justice, according to the statement.

China will also pilot a vertical management system for environment monitoring agencies below the provincial level, under which local governments will have less interference in agencies to make them more independent and authoritative, according to the statement.

Local authorities should shoulder more responsibility in environmental protection, it said.
By Ndumiso Mlilo

DURBAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- On the final day of the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban on Friday, delegates called for focus on preventing new infections and targeting women and children.

Many expressed satisfaction with the conference. South African Deputy Minister of Social Development Henrieta Bogopane-Zulu told Xinhua that the conference met the expectations.

She said, "We are happy as South Africa to be given another chance to redeem ourselves, share our best practice, learn from others and benchmark best practices. I am impressed with the researches which came up at this conference. It shows that an AIDS free generation is possible."

Malebona Precious Matsoso, Director General of the SA Department of Health, called on all stakeholders to address some of the issues which came out in the conference if the epidemic is to be defeated.

She said, "We need to prioritize areas and financial mechanism need to be explored. We need to make sure there is access to vaccines, even in emergency situations. The ambitious targets of 90-90-90 will not be possible unless we are innovative."

The UNAIDS fast track strategy seeks to ensure that 90 percent of HIV-positive people know their status, 90 percent are able to access antiretroviral treatment (ART), and 90 percent of those on treatment attain viral suppression, by the year 2020.

Concerns were also expressed during the conference about the attempt by the U.S. working with pharmaceutical companies to pressurise India to allow them stakes in medicine production in the Asian country.

Matsoso said there should be competition in the drug manufacturing companies to reduce the prices of HIV generic drugs.

She stated that competition has reduced the HIV drugs by 53 percent.

Matsoso also called for a strategic package in responding to HIV, saying, "We have to address the deadly duo of HIV and tuberculosis. We need to also address tuberculosis because we cannot end HIV while ignoring tuberculosis. We have seen that putting people early on antiretroviral reduces chances of tuberculosis."

As from September 2016, South Africa will put all HIV positive people on treatment on a program called Test and Treat.

While 17 million people are on ART treatment world-wide, about 20 million HIV positive have no access to treatment.

There was a call to also ensure that all HIV positive people access treatment.

Matsoso said South Africa is at an advanced state towards attaining the AIDS free generation by 2030 if they remove some remaining barriers like new infections.

South Africa now invests about 1.5 billion dollars per annum in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The country is now using over 80 percent of its resources to combat AIDS.

The conference also dealt with the issue of donor funding to boost the fight against AIDS.

There have been concerns that the continuing reduction in funding will make it difficult for low poor countries to fight the pandemic.

Addressing the delegates, Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary General of the UN, said, "When we just need to front-load our investments, donor funding has declined - 13 of the 14 donor governments have cut their funding in the past year."

Sidibe said the world should guard against complacency but build on the success made so far.

Some achievements have been made in the last 16 years. In the year 2000, only 770,000 people were on the ART, but now the number increased to 17 million.

Mahesh Mahalingam, UNAIDS Director, in the office of the Deputy Executive Director Programme, told Xinhua that in the past 15 years, funding has been reduced yearly by 1 billion dollars.

He said the conference stressed the urgent need for more money to respond to HIV.

Mahalingam said there was a call to make sure that the 30 million people who are HIV positive in the whole world are put on treatment and that new infections be attended to.

Mahalingam said, "We have to stop new infections. Infections on children were reduced by 60 percent but on adults for the past 5 years, there have been two million infections per year. From Durban we have to make sure each day counts. There is no room for complacency. Let us build on the achievement. Let us have maximum impact on the money invested. The glass is half full and that is not acceptable, the other half needs to be filled."

Now only 150,000 babies are born with HIV, while 500, 000 were born infected in the year 2000, the conference revealed.

Christian Hui, 37, an HIV positive form Canada told Xinhua that he is happy about the conference.

He said he enjoyed the vibrant debates and researches which were unveiled at the conference.

He said he was also pleased to see the coming together of 300 HIV positive people to share knowledge at the conference.

"It was great meeting 300 HIV positive people connecting, sharing experience and hope. There was a call to re-think about how we address HIV," he said.

Related:

AIDS 2016 ends with awarding of five prestigious prizes

DURBAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) concluded on Friday with the awarding of five prestigious scientific awards recognizing exceptional research.
BANGKOK, July 23, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Police investigate the crashed sedan on the scene at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, Thailand, July 22, 2016. Six people were injured on Friday evening after a car crashed into the fence of the Erawan Shrine, the popular tourist attraction in central Bangkok, local media reported. (Xinhua/Lin Xiaopei)

BANGKOK, July 22 (Xinhua)-- Six people were injured on Friday evening after a car crashed into the fence of the Erawan Shrine, the popular tourist attraction in central Bangkok, local media reported.

The accident took place at around 8:20 p.m. local time when a light blue Toyota sedan lost control and veered off the Ratchaprasong intersection. The car hit the fence and slammed into the Erawan Shrine, a Hindu shrine hit by a fatal bombing last August.

From the video went viral online just an hour after the crash, worshippers run in all directions in panic when the car suddenly ploughed into the shrine. Six people, including the driver, were hurt and hospitalized, most of whom are foreigners who came to worship the shrine, according to Mathichon.

Police said initial investigation shows that it was an accident caused by the 54-year Thai woman driver who had a seizure and lost her control of the car. She was accompanied by her daughter.

It's unveiled that the other five injured are Indonesians and Singaporeans.

The crash in Erawan Shrine comes less than one year after the shrine was targeted in a blast shocking the country which killed over 20 people, most of whom were Chinese tourists.
KATHMANDU, JULY 22 (Xinhua)-- Foreign television channels operating in Nepal will have to transmit their television contents without advertisements after Nepal's cabinet on Friday decided to implement 'Clean Feed Policy' in foreign TV channels.

This is expected to boost Nepal's advertisement market and help Nepalese media to get more advertisements because foreign advertisers willing to cater Nepali consumers will have to invest in Nepal.

Currently, several foreign channels, mostly Indians, are transmitted in Nepal and they also transmit advertisements along with TV programs. Nepalese advertising agencies had long been demanding that such policy be introduced.

Dinesh Thapaliya, secretary of Ministry of Information and Communication said that new foreign television channels willing to enter Nepal have to remove foreign advertisements from the beginning but those which have already been telecasting in Nepal would get certain time for implement to remove advertisements.

"We have plans to implement this policy fully from the next fiscal year which begins in mid-July 2017," he said.

Nepalese advertising agencies have welcomed the government's decision.

"The implementation of Clean Feed Policy will boost the advertisements not only for domestic television channels but also other media because foreign advertisers will seek to promote their products and services thorough various media," said Advertising Association of Nepal, in a press statement. Enditem
HARARE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China and Zimbabwe on Friday initialed two agreements on urology cooperation and enhanced maternal and child care in Zimbabwe, further boosting cooperation between the two countries on health delivery.

China will provide technical assistance and equipment to help Zimbabwe establish a cutting-edge urological centre at the country's biggest referral medical institute Parirenyatwa Hospital, while carrying on programs to reduce Zimbabwe's high maternal mortality rate which now stands at 651 per 100,000, a rate the authorities aim to lower to 326 per 100,000 in 2020.

Currently, 31 percent of deaths occurring among women aged between 20 and 24 are maternal, and the project is thus strategic to the improvement of maternal health delivery.

China's Deputy Director of National Health and Family Planning Commission Liu Qian and Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Aldrin Musiiwa initiated the agreements, which are the follow-ups to Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Zimbabwe last December.

Musiiwa thanked the Chinese government for its continued support of health programs in Zimbabwe, adding that the technical expertise to be imparted by Chinese medical personnel to locals would go a long way in improving the capacity of health delivery in the country.

Nine Chinese specialist doctors and one logistics person are working in the country and doing "very commendable" work, Masiiwa said.

"The work they are doing is so valued that Zimbabwe is requesting for more specialists from China," he said.

He also noted that Zimbabwe was benefitting from a 100 million US dollar Zimbabwe-China Medical Equipment Loan Facility granted through the China Eximbank in 2011 and so far equipment worth 77 million dollars had been delivered and was being installed in 90 hospitals and clinics across the country.

"We hope the remaining 18 percent is going to be expedited," he added.

Musiiwa also lauded the Chinese government for building the 130-bed Mahusekwa Hospital -- otherwise known as the China Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital - in rural Marondera district under the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to help improve health provision in rural areas where 70 percent of the population lives.

The construction and supply of equipment at the hospital took two years, and the 6 million dollar hospital was commissioned in 2013.

It was part of the 30 hospitals China pledged to build, along with 30 malaria control centers across Africa at the first FOCAC summit in 2006.

Musiiwa added that Zimbabwe had also tendered proposals under FOCAC for the construction of two central hospitals in Harare and the second biggest city of Bulawayo, and three other provincial hospitals.

Health has become a significant part of cooperation between China and Zimbabwe with 137 physicians having been sent to Zimbabwe so far, and the relationship between China and Zimbabwe is seen as a good model of relations between China and Africa as a whole. Enditem
ANKARA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Authorities have issued warrants for the arrest of 300 members of Turkey's Presidential Guards in the aftermath of a failed coup, local media reported Friday.

CNNTurk said 283 of the guards have already been arrested and that the operation is ongoing. Enditem
ACCRA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has lauded China's initiative to provide care and support to children orphaned by AIDS through its summer camp.

Hellen Atieno Odido, Investment and Efficiency Adviser at the UNAIDS office in Ghana, said the camp was an opportunity for children living with HIV and those affected by it to see the world and to expand their view beyond their problems.

The "Love Under the Sun" camp is an initiative of the Chinese association of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS prevention and control.

It aims to open the children's view through sightseeing tour and interesting training activities which will make them relax, feel others care for them and improve their mental and physical health.

Odido said the seven-day visit would send out messages of hope to the children for them to know that they had a future beyond HIV.

"So, this is a show of love to children who have not seen love for a long time," she told Xinhua in an interview on Thursday after a send-off ceremony for the delegation at the residence of the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana.

"I will tell Ghanaians that we have these children in Ghana who have no parents, no love, who are affected by HIV. They have a lot of needs out there. Let us try and show love to all of them," she said.

"If the Chinese can give our children this kind of opportunity, why can't we do it in this country? There are a lot of people in Ghana who have resources and love who can do the same," she told Xinhua.

Salome Amenyah, one of the delegates, thanked the Chinese government for the gesture.

She hoped to meet new friends in China, learn more about Chinese culture and also tell them about the Ghanaian culture.

Chelsea Eldridge Tuffour, a representative of the team, said they hoped to build a life-long friendship with young Chinese people during their seven-day visit to the country.

The Ghanaian delegation for the camp includes 10 children, two teachers and one official.

The summer camp has successfully been held for six times since 2010 and this is the first time foreign delegations from Africa will be attending the camp. Enditem




People attend a rally at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 21, 2016. (Xinhua/He Canling)

ANKARA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has issued arrest warrants for 300 members of the Presidential Guards after a failed coup attempt, CNNTurk reported Friday.

It said 283 of the guards have already been arrested and that the operation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, over 10,000 passports have been reportedly cancelled "due to flight risk."

Latest figures reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency Friday show that more than 44,000 employees of state institutions have been suspended amid a nationwide probe into the July 15 coup attempt.

They were accused of alleged links to the failed coup and U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of plotting the coup.

The Education Ministry announced the suspension of 21,738 civil servants, 21,029 of them teachers.

The Defense Ministry said 262 military judges and prosecutors had been sacked.

Trials for the suspects will take place at civilian courts in the Sincan district of Ankara, said Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag.

Related:

U.S president denies involvement in failed coup attempt in Turkey

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said the U.S. had no knowledge or involvement in the failed coup attempt in Turkey.

"Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false," Obama said in a joint press conference here with visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Full story

UN chief urges Turkey to ensure full respect of constitutional order, human rights law

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged the Turkish authorities "to do their utmost to ensure that the constitutional order and international human rights law are fully respected, in line with Turkey's international obligations."
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Friday called on Lebanese leaders to convene urgently a parliamentary session and proceed to the election of a president.

On July 13, the Lebanese parliament failed for the 42nd consecutive time to elect a new president due to lack of the constitutionally required quorum.

In a presidential statement adopted here, the 15-nation council expressed deep concern at the parliament's repeated inability to form a quorum and elect a president, noting that the two-year-long vacancy in the presidency has impaired Lebanon's security and economy.

In this regard, Security Council members stressed that the election of a president, the formation of a unity government and the election of a parliament by May 2017 are critical for Lebanon's stability and resilience to withstand regional challenges.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of former president Michel Suleiman ended on May 25, 2014 and the sharp political division among the Lebanese parties hindered the country's presidential elections. Enditem
(Xinhua file photo)

by Larry Neild

CARDIFF, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Britain's deal to exit the European Union (EU) should first be ratified by the country's four parliaments, the First Minister of Wales said Friday.

Carwyn Jones was speaking after a meeting in Cardiff Friday of the British Irish Council. The extraordinary meeting of the council took place in the Welsh capital to discuss the decision by Briton's in the June 23 referendum to leave the EU.

As well as the Westminster-based British parliament, Jones wants the Scottish and Welsh parliaments as well as the Northern Ireland Assembly to be involved in the Brexit decision making.

Jones said: "Any future deal the UK agrees should be ratified by all four parliaments in order to get greatest buy-in."

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness were at the council meeting, along with Prime Minister of the Irish Republic Enda Kenny and representatives of the governments of the Isle of Man, and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. The British government delegation was led by Alun Cairns, Secretary of State for Wales, and Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire MP.

Sturgeon described the emergency meeting as one of the most important ever for the council, coming in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the EU.

The SNP politician has pledged to protect Scotland's links with the EU. In the referendum Scottish voters voted to remain in the EU by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent.

Sturgeon said Friday in Cardiff: "Scotland voted overwhelming to remain within the European Union and that democratic choice by the Scottish people will guide us as we seek to maintain our relationship with the EU."

Last week Sturgeon held a meeting in Edinburgh with British Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss Scotland's response to the Brexit vote.

Jones said he called the special session of the council to discuss the implications of the Brexit vote, including how EU funding will be replaced. He also wanted council members to discuss the question of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Currently there is no land border between the two parts of the island of Ireland, but once Britain leaves the EU, the Irish border will become a border of the EU.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, on Friday, Jones said the three devolved governments should need to give permission before the formal process of Brexit begins.

Jones said there would be "fundamental changes" as a result of the EU referendum, adding: "During this tumultuous time, it is more important than ever to maintain the strength of this relationship and work together to map out a successful way forward."

In an official communique, the council said later: "The council noted that there are a number of priority areas where implications arise, in particular: the economy and trade, the Common Travel Area (which allows the free movement of people and goods between Britain and the Irish Republic), relations with the EU and the status of all citizens affected by the change.

"During discussions, ministers collectively reaffirmed the importance of the Council as a key institution and an important and unique forum to share views, enhance cooperation and strengthen relationships. They reiterated their commitment to facilitating harmonious and mutually beneficial relationships among the people of these islands."

At the meeting Northern Ireland Brokenshire repeated prime minister Theresa May's message that "Brexit means Brexit", adding that May's new Conservative administration was "in a listening mode".

The council will meet again in November, also in Cardiff.

Related:

EU says Brexit vote to worsen UK, EU economic outlook

BRUSSELS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) downgraded its economic outlook for the United Kingdom and the rest of the bloc on Tuesday, saying the Brexit vote ushered in uncertainty and would weigh on growth.
GENEVA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- More people continue to flee uncertainty and fighting in South Sudan, with 26,468 people have crossed into Uganda's northern region, including 24,321 in the previous six days alone, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

UNHCR spokesperson Andreas Needham told a press briefing that since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, the influx continues to be characterised by a high proportion, more than 90 percent, of women and children.

"Yesterday, an estimated 8,337 refugees crossed in to Uganda from South Sudan, a new record high since the influx began and in 2016," the spokesperson said.

He added that an estimated 6,500 crossed in Elegu, 659 in Moyo, 156 in Lamwo and 642 in Oraba while 380 arrived in Kiryandongo Reception Centre on Thursday.

"The influx is severely stretching the capacity of collection points, transit centres and reception centres," he noted, adding that on Wednesday night, more than 7,000 people slept at Elegu collection point, significantly beyond its 1,000-person capacity.

Fresh fighting broke out in Juba on July 7 as the world's youngest country marked its fifth anniversary, and initial government figures reported that at least 272 people have been killed, including 33 civilians. Enditem
KIGALI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) have emphasized the need to take firm action against the persistent abuse of women on the African continent.

Rwanda hosted a two-day meeting of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians from East Africa sub-region on July 21-22, which focused on sharing information and best practices towards elimination of violence committed against African women.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the forum Friday, Lindiwe Maseko, a member of CWP from South Africa called on African leaders and policy makers to be firmer in ensuring policy implementation measures that advocate for the empowerment and protection of gender.

"African women have suffered a lot from crazy, harmful African culture and traditional malpractices such as female genital mutilation, child marriage and domestic violence among others. Together we must put an end to this," she emphasised.

The Commonwealth Women Parliamentary (CWP) Association was formed to discuss ways to increase female representation in Parliament and work towards the mainstreaming of gender considerations in all Commonwealth Parliament Association (CPA) activities and programmes.

Maseko's words were echoed by Donatille Mukabalisa, speaker of Rwanda parliament who emphasised the need to end the impunity that allows women rights violations to continue.

"We appreciate valuable initiatives carried out by the African nations to eradicate all forms of negative practices and discrimination that are harmful to women, but now is the time for stronger action," she added.

Mukabalisa stated that violence against women has negative consequences to communities, nations and societies and if left unaddressed, they can pose serious threat to current and future generations.

Fifty-three countries are members of the Commonwealth spanning from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. Enditem
NICOSIA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities of Cyprus continued their reunification negotiations on Friday, allaying anxiety that the abortive coup in Turkey last week would scuttle a year-long effort to reach an agreement on the issue.

After a three-hour meeting on governance, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci reported important progress on the issues of the legislative and the judiciary and some progress on the executive.

"I can say that we almost completed agreement on the legislative and the judiciary but there is still disagreement on a demand by the Turkish Cypriot side for a rotating presidency," said Anastasiades.

Akinci also stated that though progress was made on the executive power, there are still open issues on the rotating presidency.

The negotiations aimed at reunifying Cyprus under a federal system. The eastern Mediterranean island has been partitioned since 1974 after Turkey occupied its northern part, reacting to a coup engineered by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

There was concern after the start of the attempted coup in Turkey on July 15 that developments would impact the Cyprus negotiations.

Both the United Nations that broker the talks and the community leaders said the failure of the coup helped put the negotiating process back on track.

However, sources said that both President Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci share worries that unforeseen developments in Turkey could impact their negotiations.

The sources said that the uncertainty put additional pressure on the two leaders to proceed speedily with their negotiations.

Anastasiades said that the coup issue was discussed at a private meeting with Akinci before the United Nations delegates joined them for the discussion of the regular agenda.

They did not say what was said at the meeting, but he stated that the recent developments in Turkey do not seem to affect the Cyprus talks for the time being.

However, Anastasiades has repeatedly stated after the coup that developments in Turkey have added more credibility to his case that the presence of Turkish troops in Cyprus and guarantee rights held by Turkey, Greece and Britain are a source of danger and must come to an end.

Turkey keeps 43,000 troops in the occupied part of Cyprus, which the island's government says are a constant source of worry and uncertainty.

Anastasiades said the issue of security and territorial adjustments which include the withdrawal of occupation troops and the guarantees issue will come up for the first discussion in general terms at a meeting on July 29. Enditem
RABAT, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's agricultural production this year plummeted 70 percent due to drought, local media reported on Friday.

Harvest so far this year stood at 33 million quintals (3.3 billion kg), down from 115 million quintals (11.5 billion kg) posted for the same period of last year, a news portal, medias24, said, quoting a Ministry of Economy and Finance statement. Enditem
DAMASCUS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and 30 others wounded Friday in a public park in a rebel mortar attack on Syria's northern city of Aleppo, a well-informed source told Xinhua.

Three women were among those killed in the attack, the latest in an endless cycle of mortar shelling by rebels against government-controlled areas in Aleppo, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The fresh shelling came a day after rebels in Aleppo detonated a bomb in a tunnel under a police station, killing an undisclosed number of government officers.

The blast destroyed parts of the building of the police station in the al-Hal area, said Sham FM radio.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once an economic hub, has recently witnessed intensified fighting between an array of jihadist groups and the Syrian army.

Last Sunday, government troops fully severed the last supply route connecting rebel-held areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo and those areas inside the eastern part of the city.

Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, has been a focal point of clashes between the Syrian army and the rebels.

In the summer of 2012, thousands of armed militants stormed residential districts of Aleppo from its countryside, striking the economic nerves of the Syrian government, which has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting the rebels for undeclared interests in Aleppo.

The rebels captured several districts in east Aleppo and tried repeatedly to expand their presence to government-controlled areas in the west.

The rebels laid siege to western Aleppo districts after cutting the international road to Aleppo in 2014, a siege broken later by the Syrian army, with the help of Hezbollah. Enditem
Photo taken on July 17, 2016 shows a deepwater fish farming base near Meiji Reef of the Nansha Islands of China. Since fishery expert Lin Zailiang started a fish farm in Meiji Reef of South China Sea nine years ago, the deepwater fish farming cages have increased to 62 by now. Rare commercial fish cultured here are sold well both home and abroad. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China has always maintained that negotiation and consultation are the most feasible and effective ways to resolve the South China Sea dispute, the Chinese Embassy to the U.S. said Friday.

Zhu Haiquan, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy, made the statement in a letter to the editors of the Washington Post, which published it Friday.

In reaction to the Post's July 14 editorial entitled "A fateful choice for China," the letter said China rejected the July 12 award issued by an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, because the tribunal "exceeded its own jurisdiction."

"Without China's consent, the arbitration initiated by the former government of the Philippines violates the practice in international law that arbitration be premised on each state's consent," Zhu said.

Moreover, the South China Sea issues are territorial disputes which are not subject to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and China has made an optional exceptions declaration in accordance with UNCLOS to exclude issues such as maritime delimitation from processes such as this arbitration, Zhu said.

"This arbitration case damaged international law and may open the door for abusing arbitration procedures, undermining the authority and effectiveness of international law," Zhu said, adding that by rejecting the arbitration, China defends its interests and advocates international justice through the true spirit of international law.

The spokesman criticized the U.S. for resorting to "military coercion" by sending warships and warplanes to the South China Sea, which escalated tensions and weakened diplomatic negotiation.

"China has always maintained that negotiation and consultation are the most feasible and effective ways to resolve the South China Sea dispute," Zhu said.

He pointed out that China has resolved boundary issues with 12 of its 14 land neighbors and part of maritime delimitation in the Tonkin Gulf with Vietnam, an unmatched record.

"We have confidence in addressing the issue of the South China Sea by negotiation and consultation and hope the Philippines will return to the right track," Zhu said.

He urged the U.S. to make the right choice, refrain from provocative military operations, facilitate diplomatic efforts and not let this issue define the relationship between the two nations.
BERLIN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The police called the shootout in Munich as an "acute terror situation", German news television N-TV reported on Friday, citing an official announcement of the Munich police.

German local media Focus Online reported that at least six people were killed in the shootout in the German city of Munich on Friday evening.

As N-TV reported, the central train station of Munich has been evacuated due to a police operation.

Munich police reported on early Friday evening that they were carrying out a large-scale operation in a Munich shopping center due to a shootout.

At the moment, the police ask people to stay away from public places, because the attackers are still on the run.

"Situation around the mall is still unclear. There are several injured people," local police said on its Twitter account.

"Please avoid the area around the mall," Munich police said, adding "stay in your homes and leave the road."

The report of local media Antenne Bayern that there was a second shootout in the city center, has been denied by the Munich police who said there is no shootout in the city.

In addition, the police ask people to stop posting information of police operation on social media, otherwise it would help the attackers.
ACCRA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China is prepared to participate in the economic development of Ghana and the West African sub-region, Sun Baohong, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, said here on Friday.

Addressing the one day Ghana-China Investment Forum, the ambassador urged the Ghanaian side to roll out more preferential policies, and create a more congenial environment for business activities to attract more investors.

"China is willing, under the framework of FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation), to focus more on requirements of Ghana; explore multiple ways of cooperation and make full use of the tool of investment, vigorously participate in Ghana's industrialization," she said.

The ambassador added that China will also play a part in the country's agricultural modernization and overall regional development as well as implement more projects in Ghana and enhance its capacity for sustainable development.

She called for exchange of ideas and experiences between China and Ghana and on governance with the two jointly building their capacities to pave the way for the integration of their policies and development strategies, calling for peaceful resolution of problems arising between the two.

"As our cooperation goes wider and deeper, some problems will arise inevitably. Just as a proverb goes, 'the teeth sometimes bites the tongue'. In dealing with these problems emerging in the course of progress, we should abide by the spirit of mutual respect and win-win cooperation and solve them through friendly negotiations."

"Just as the Chinese President His Excellency Mr. Xi Jinping said during his visit to Tanzania, 'There will always be more opportunities than challenges and more solutions than difficulties' as long as our two countries make concerted efforts we can resolve any problem we meet and do anything we want," Ambassador Sun stressed.

The Ghana-China Investment Forum, an initiative of the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Embassy of China in Ghana, seeks to stimulate development and strengthen business relationship between China and Ghana.

Vice President of Ghana, Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur who opened the forum, said that the stock of Chinese investment in Ghana has increased to 1.3 billion U.S dollars, ranking 14th in that of Africa and the office of China Africa Development Fund (CADFund) has opened in Ghana's capital to cater for West Africa.

"We accept the endorsement of China that Ghana is indeed the gateway to West Africa. It is in the light of the growing trade and future prospects that the government decided to organize this forum," he stated.

Amissah-Arthur said the economic gains of Ghana will not have been possible without an impressive track record in democratic governance.

"Investors feel that the social and political stability are even more important than we've put in point. Social and political stability have provided the anchor for the growth of our economy, and we plan to keep Ghana as the most peaceful; the most stable; the most friendly; the most accommodating and the most well governed country in Africa."

The Vice President maintained that the West African country was not looking for charity, but, "we are looking for potential investors whose investment will be beneficial to the two sides." Enditem
Christine Lagarde (Xinhua file pic)

PARIS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- France's Court of Cassation on Friday ordered Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to stand for trial over her role in handling the Tapie case in 2008 after rejecting her appeal, local media reported.

France's Court of Justice of the Republic, a special body for the trials of government officials, decided on December 2015 to call IMF head to stand trial as part of the investigation for "complicity in forgery and embezzlement of public funds" in the Tapie case, two months after prosecutors demanded that the charges against her should be dropped.

She appealed the court decision, maintaining her innocence since the investigation began in 2011.

The probing focused on Lagarde's role in the awarding of financial compensation of about 400 million euros to businessman Bernard Tapie in his dispute with Credit Lyonnais on the acquisition of Adidas in 2008 when Lagarde served as French finance minister.

In May 2013, Lagarde was named as "assisted witness," in the corruption probe, which means there is a possibility for her to be charged later. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollar)
GENEVA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) trade policy review of China came to a close here on Friday, with members highlighting the vital role played by the country in the global economy as well their desire to see deeper reforms in a number of areas.

"China being the biggest merchandise trader in the world, one of the largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the top trading partner for over 120 countries and regions, its policies can have a huge impact on the global economy," said Irene Young, Chairperson of WTO's Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB), in her concluding remarks.

"Hence, members call upon China to assume the increased responsibility linked with being a major player in the multilateral trading system," she added.

The changes undertaken by Asia's economic powerhouse were laid out by Wang Shouwen, head of the Chinese delegation and China's Vice Minister of Commerce, when the biennial review kicked off on Wednesday.

The official briefed trade representatives on China's economic development, progress in the trade and investment sector, major reform measures and opening-up steps, participation in the multilateral trading system, and assumption of the role as a responsible major country.

A collective evaluation of the reforms launched by Beijing was conducted over two sessions, giving representatives the chance to review the full range of China's trade policies and practices and their impacts on the functioning of the multilateral trade system.

"China has emphasized again and again its determination to undertake structural reforms which are ongoing in various respects," Young explained.

"Members do recognize that China has made progress in this direction and that they are expecting to see more extensive and quicker reforms in many of the areas," she added.

The creation of three additional Pilot Free Trade Zones in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian was appreciated by members, Young noted, as were improvements made on the protection of intellectual property rights and the streamlining of custom-related procedures.

Members did call however for increased reforms to make China's FDI regime more predictable and open.

This would particularly benefit China's fast-growing services sector as a driver of growth and development, Young noted.

China's role as one of the world's biggest trading nations was also lauded by members.

"China was congratulated on having opened its market to products from Least Developed Countries, and for its leading role in South-South cooperation," Young said.

"Members also commended China for its participation in the expanded Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations, and looked forward to the implementation of its commitments under the expanded ITA and the Trade Facilitation Agreement," she added.

Some 1,800 written questions were sent by 34 WTO members, setting a new record for China's trade policy review which will conclude in a month's time when China provides answers to all outstanding questions.

Trade policy reviews are an exercise mandated by WTO agreements, in which member's trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals.

Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored.

All WTO members are subject to review, with the frequency of review depending on the economy's size.

The United States, China, the European Union and Japan are reviewed every two years.

Related:

WTO starts two-yearly review of China's trade policy

GENEVA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The World Trade Organisation(WTO) kicked off a regular review of China's trade policy on Wednesday, enabling members to examine China's trade policy and practices over the past two years.

Wang Shouwen, head of the Chinese delegation and China's Vice Minister of Commerce, briefed trade representatives on China's economic development, progress in the trade and investment sector, major reform measures and opening-up steps, participation in the multilateral trading system, and assumption of the role as a responsible major country. Full story

China's raw material export controls conform to WTO rules: MOC

BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- China's duty and quota requirements on the export of 11 raw materials conform to WTO rules, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a statement Tuesday.
LAGOS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- There were no urgent need to evacuate Nigerians in South Sudan as there are no immediate threats to their lives and property, the government said Friday.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who disclosed this to reporters alongside the concluded African Union (AU) meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, said Nigerians in Juba were not under any threat, as contacts with them are made regularly and situation being assessed.

The minister said most Nigerians doing businesses in the crisis-ridden country have returned to their location due to the ceasefire agreed upon by the warring parties.

"We got in touch with National Security Adviser and the Ministry of Defense to explore the options in evacuating some of our citizens," he said.

"And of course, we are in touch with the Nigerian embassy in the country, there is a relative calm and peace in the country because the parties involved in the crisis have agreed to a ceasefire," he added.

According to him, Nigerians held up in the embassy have now gone back to their normal businesses and we were advised by the embassy that the war had passed and it was no longer necessary to take such drastic steps.

Onyeama said although the situation could degenerate again, the situation was being monitored adding that Nigerians in Juba will be protected.

Fighting broke out on July 7, in Juba, South Sudan, the world's newest country.

Hundreds of people, mostly soldiers, have been reportedly killed in the fighting between rival armed groups since then, raising fears of a slide back into all-out conflict.

Uneasy calm has returned to South Sudan's capital, Juba, last Tuesday after five days of fierce fighting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar.

The relative calm comes after the two leaders ordered a ceasefire and directed all commanders to lay down arms and report to their unit bases.

More than 270 people were killed in the renewed fighting that threatened to plunge the world's youngest nation into war. Enditem
the_guitar_mann/iStock/Thinkstock(ALEPPO, Syria) -- The civilian death toll from suspected U.S.-led airstrikes in northern Syria earlier this week is rising sharply because of a lack of medical facilities to care for those wounded near the besieged city of Manbij, an observing group has warned.



The Syrian Institute for Justice, a nonprofit group that observes and documents cases of human rights violations in Syria, said it initially knew of about 90 civilian deaths resulting from Tuesdays raids. But since then, many more have died, and the number of fatalities due to airstrikes on Manbij's al-Tukhar village is now at least 210, said Yousef Houran, a co-founder of the group and a resident of nearby Aleppo.



"The number is increasing because of the lack of hospitals or clinics," Houran told ABC News. "Most of the wounded civilians are dying because of the siege."



He said that civilians in the area had relocated to al-Tukhar to seek shelter from airstrikes in Manjib, where some 2000,000 civilians are believed to be living under siege. Some were afraid to sleep in their homes and were sleeping in vehicles when they were killed in the airstrikes, he said.



Nearly two months ago, the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance, a U.S.-backed group of Arab and Kurdish fighters, launched an offensive against ISIS in Manbij and has besieged the town in an attempt to retake it from ISIS. Thursday, U.S.-backed Syrian rebels gave ISIS 48 hours to leave Manbij, according to the AFP news agency.



Airwars, a nonprofit project that aims to document the international air war against ISIS and other groups in Syria and Iraq, listed on its website that 73 to 212 civilians were reported killed in the attack on al-Tukhar.



The numbers make the incident the largest loss of civilian life due to U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria, according to Amnesty International.



"One concern is that usually one would expect that a party to a conflict would be able to improve its civilian casualty, but it looks like the U.S.-led coalition is worsening, particularly in the Manbij area," Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International's lead researcher on Syria, told ABC News. "That's not acceptable. We have laws of war, and the U.S., like everyone else, must do all it can to abide by those laws. They must take all precautions to check if civilians are there and should not use weaponry which is likely to cause damage to areas where more civilians are likely to be killed. They should more closely check information that they are given about presence of civilians and not just assume that if they can't see civilians in a picture from the sky, there are no civilians there."



Amnesty International looked into 11 U.S.-led airstrikes over the last two years and found that they resulted in the killing of 250 to 300 civilians, but the U.S. recognized only five civilian deaths in those incidents, he said. In the past two years, at least 700 civilians have been killed by U.S.-led airstrikes, according to Sammonds, who said that the U.S. recognized only 24 civilian deaths by U.S.-led airstrikes for the same period.



In a statement to ABC News, U.S. Central Command said that it will investigate the reports of civilian deaths.



"We are aware of reports alleging civilian casualties near Manbij, Syria, recently. As with any allegation we receive, we will review any information we have about the incident, including information provided by third parties, such as the proximity of the location to [coalition] airstrikes, and any other relevant information presented. If the information supporting the allegation is determined to be credible, we will then determine the next appropriate step. We take all measures during the targeting process to avoid or minimize civilian casualties or collateral damage and to comply with the principles of the Law of Armed Conflict," the statement read.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
LAGOS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- At least 700 Nigerian military personnel would be deployed to Liberia for peacekeeping operations, the country's Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Tukur Buratai said Friday.

The deployment was being undertaken by the Nigerian Army Peace Keeping Center (NAPKC) in northern city of Jaji in Kaduna, Buratai said during the Graduation Ceremony of Nigerian Army Battalion (NIBATT) 38 United Nation Mission in Liberia, (UNMIL).

The Army chief warned the officers and soldiers to avoid untoward incidents that could tarnish the image of the Nigerian Army in particular and that of the nation in general.

He said the Nigerian Army would not accept any situation where its troops were seen as soft targets or conducting themselves in unprofessional manner such as engagement in dealing with illicit substances.

"I must also remind you of the United Nations zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse," he added, noting that the Nigeria Army and indeed the Nigerian Government will not tolerate the contravention of these policies and directives.

"You must respect the culture and religious sensitivity of the people of Liberia," Buratai said.

Earlier, the Commandant of the NAPKC, Brig Gen, Adamu Dauda, urged the troops to always be good ambassadors of the Nigerian Armed Forces in particular and the nation in general.

Dauda said the NIBATT 38 UNMIL commenced the Pre-Deployment Training four weeks ago which the training was intensive and comprehensive. Enditem
PRAGUE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- In reaction to Friday's shooting in Munich, Czech police will preventively guard shopping centres in the country.

The police will also strengthen patrols near the border with Germany to prevent a possible escape of any of the still unknown shooters, said Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec on Czech Television on Friday night.

Chovanec said he is in contact with the secret services and police who are waiting for the latest news from Germany. He will gather intelligence group, representatives of the secret services, police and other security forces at the weekend.

According to Chovanec, there is no information about any attack threatening in the Czech Republic.

He said he has received no piece of information that would indicate any of the shooters would try to leave Germany and cross the border to the Czech Republic. Czech police officers will be relocated closer to the border, if needed, the Czech police are ready to help their German colleagues to search for the shooters.

Czech Police Presidium said that Czech police has already adopted security measures after the terrorist attacks in Brussels in late March, now they started patrolling shopping centers and other places with a high concentration of people.

A police helicopter and other reserve forces are prepared for action. "In the event that there is any development or change of the security situation, we are ready to respond immediately and ensure the safety of citizens of the Czech Republic," Czech Police President Thomas Tuhy was quoted as saying.

Random checks will be carried out at the Czech-German border, spot checks will focus mainly on border crossings with Bavaria. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- In light of recent sex abuse scandals involving UN peacekeepers, mainly in Africa, the United Nations on Friday announced an online learning program for all civilian and military personnel in all six official languages on how to conduct themselves, especially to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.

In another move triggered by the scandal, the UN Department of Field Support (DFS) also said India, one of the largest troop-contributing countries in peacekeeping operations, had announced Thursday it donated 100,000 U.S. dollars for the Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, becoming the fund's first contributor since its inception at the end of March.

So far this year, there have been 50 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, compared to 52 such reports in 2014 and 69 for all of last year and for all categories of personnel, including military, police, civilian staff, UN volunteers, contractors and consultants, according to statistics from the Office of Internal Oversight provided by the UN Conduct and Discipline Unit.

The DFS announcement said the "new mandatory e-learning program (is) for all uniformed and civilian personnel to strengthen training on the standards of conduct, as well as the expectations of accountability and individual responsibility in matters of conduct and discipline, with a special focus on sexual exploitation and abuse."

"The new online learning program was developed with the generous funding of the government of Japan," the DFS said in a Note to Correspondents from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman. "The training is currently being piloted at UN headquarters and to select uniformed and civilian peacekeeping mission staff."

"The rollout to all field missions, as well as all peacekeeping and field support personnel in headquarters, will be completed by the end of 2016," it said. "The program will be available for all Secretariat personnel in early 2017."

"The new e-learning program is an important step in reinforcing our prevention efforts against misconduct by UN personnel," said the UN under-secretary-general for field support, Atul Khare, in the Note to Correspondent. "We are very grateful to the government of Japan for funding this initiative, which is critical to our efforts to address sexual exploitation and abuse."

"The self-paced program uses scenarios based on case studies and short videos to educate and sensitize personnel," the announcement said. "It includes short quizzes and a final assessment."

It also said the course and the program "will be translated into all UN official languages, as well as languages of troop and police contributing countries."

India, the Trust Fund's first contributor, "is currently ranked as the second largest contributor of military and police personnel," DFS said.

"With this contribution, the government of India has illustrated its strong commitment to our victim-centered approach in addressing sexual exploitation and abuse by UN civilian and uniformed personnel. We are extremely grateful for this contribution," said Khare. The UN Secretariat had requested voluntary contributions to the fund when it was established some three months ago, the announcement said. However, the UN General Assembly approved "the transfer of withheld payments to the fund in substantiated cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by civilian, military and police personnel."

Norway and Cyprus have pledged resources to the Trust Fund over the last few months, DFS said. Enditem
WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice is to visit China from July 24-27 to prepare for Obama's attending the G20 summit in September, the White House said Friday.

Rice will visit Beijing and Shanghai during her upcoming fourth trip to China as National Security Advisor, the White House's National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

While in Beijing, Rice will meet with senior Chinese government officials, including State Councilor Yang Jiechi, "to consult on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues" in advance of Obama's travel to China in September for the G20 leaders summit, the statement said.

In Shanghai, Rice will meet with business executives to discuss conditions for U.S. businesses operating in China. While there, she will also interact with private Chinese citizens, it said.

"Throughout her visit, Ambassador Rice will underscore the United States' commitment to expanding practical cooperation and constructively managing differences with China," it added.

The 2016 G20 summit is to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 4 to 5.

Related:

Senior Chinese, U.S. officials discuss economic ties, G20 issues over phone

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Sunday exchanged views by phone with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on economic relations between the two countries and economic issues related to the Group of 20 (G20). Full story

G20 to support low-income countries to participate in global value chains
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian Federal Police announced on Friday that the 10 people arrested on Thursday for supposedly planning a terrorist attack in the upcoming Olympic Games were transferred to a maximum security prison in Mato Grosso do Sul state, in the country's midwestern region.

The Campo Grande Federal Prison, Brazil's most secure prison complex where some of Brazil's most dangerous criminals, such as Rio drug lord Fernandinho Beira-Mar, are serving their sentences.

Local press reported the names of the 10 accused: Antonio Andrade dos Santos Junior, Levi Ribeiro Fernandes de Jesus, Marco Mario Duarte, Matheus Barbosa e Silva, Mohamad Mounir Zakaria, Oziris Moris Lundi dos Santos Azevedo, Daniel Freitas Baltazar, Hortencio Youshitake, Israel Pedra Mesquita and Vitor Magalhaes.

According to daily O Globo, Antonio Andrade dos Santos Junior is known for his openly radical views and was expelled from Muslim groups in the past due to his radicalism.

Police said that all the 10 accused were part of a plot to carry out terrorist attacks in Rio, and were arrested when they changed from simply praising the acts and violent positions of the so-called Islamic State to starting actual preparations for an attack, such as taking steps to purchase a rifle.

According to prosecutor Rafael Brum Miron, there is sufficient evidence to indict the men according to Brazil's new anti-terrorism law.

"The evidence collected so far allow for the indictment of the investigated men in at least, the crimes of promoting or integrating terrorist organizations," he said.

The accused communicated through the internet, using mostly messaging apps like Whatsapp and Telegram. According to the prosecution, they engaged in promotion of extremist acts, as well as religious, racial and gender-based persecution. Enditem
WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Health officials in Florida are investigating a second possible Zika case spread by locally infected mosquitoes in the continental United States, the state's Department of Health said Friday, days after it reported the first potential case.

The new "possible non-travel related Zika" case occurred in the state's Broward County. The investigation into the first possible case in Miami-Dade County is still ongoing.

"To date, approximately 200 people have been interviewed and tested as part of the department's investigations and we await additional lab results," the department said in a statement.

The department also said it's conducting door-to-door outreach with mosquito control in the areas surrounding the residences, work places and frequently visited locations of both suspect cases.

"Residents and visitors are urged to participate in requests for blood and urine samples by the department in the areas of investigation," it said. "These results will help the department determine the number of people affected."

Meanwhile, a medical epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Marc Fischer, arrived in Florida Friday to assist in the department's investigation with mapping and testing methodology

Zika spreads to people primarily through mosquito bites, and it can also be spread sexually.

More than 1,400 cases of Zika have been reported in the continental United States, but nearly all are travel-associated cases, only a few acquired the virus through sex with people who contracted it while traveling abroad.

Related:

U.S. awards 60 mln USD to states, territories to fight Zika

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government will award a combined total of 60 million U.S. dollars to states and territories to fight the Zika virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.

The announcement came as health officials in Florida said they were investigating what could be the first Zika infection from a mosquito bite in the continental United States. Full story

U.S. probes possible first case of Zika virus spread by local mosquitoes

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. health officials are investigating a possible case of Zika virus spread by local mosquitoes in Florida on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama pledged to provide the state more money to fight the mosquito-borne virus.
This photo taken on June 22, 2011 shows the Baochu Pagoda of West Lake in the sunset inHangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice is to visit China from July 24-27 to prepare for Obama's attending the G20 summit in September, the White House said Friday.

Rice will visit Beijing and Shanghai during her upcoming fourth trip to China as National Security Advisor, the White House's National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

While in Beijing, Rice will meet with senior Chinese government officials, including State Councilor Yang Jiechi, "to consult on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues" in advance of Obama's travel to China in September for the G20 leaders summit, the statement said.

In Shanghai, Rice will meet with business executives to discuss conditions for U.S. businesses operating in China. While there, she will also interact with private Chinese citizens, it said.

"Throughout her visit, Ambassador Rice will underscore the United States' commitment to expanding practical cooperation and constructively managing differences with China," it added.

The 2016 G20 summit is to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 4 to 5.
People participate in a rally in support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, July 18, 2016. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the failed military coup has left at least 290 people killed and more than 6,000 have been detained so far due to their involvement in the coup. (Xinhua/He Canling)

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said the U.S. had no knowledge or involvement in the failed coup attempt in Turkey.

"Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false," Obama said in a joint press conference here with visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Obama said rumors like that puts Americans at risk in Turkey and threatens a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey.

The Turkish government has accused followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup attempt, and has requested the U.S. for his extradition.

Obama said he had told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey should present evidence about Gulen's involvement and the U.S. would process that according to law.

"It is not a decision that I make, but rather a decision that our Justice Department and investigators and courts make alongside my administration in a very well-structured and well-established process," Obama said.

The U.S. president also expressed the hope that as the dust settles in Turkey, there is not an over-reaction that would curtail civil liberties or weaken the ability of legitimate opposition.

"One of the challenges of a democratic government is making sure that even in the midst of emergencies and passions, we make sure that rule of law and the basic precepts of justice and liberty prevail," Obama said.

Turkey, a NATO ally for the U.S., is a major member of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group.

In wake of the coup attempt, Turkey temporarily closed the airspace of the Incirlike Air Base, from which the U.S.-led coalition launches airstrikes against IS militants.

The airspace was reopened Sunday to resume the air operations against IS.

Obama said as the air base is up and running again, the U.S. will continue to work with Turkey to keep the momentum of weakening IS in Syria.
KIEV, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko said on Friday that the recent murder of a well-known Ukrainian journalist was committed by a group of assailants.

"The only thing I can make public now is that the killer was not alone. There was a group," Lutsenko told reporters, while commenting on the progress in investigating the murder of Pavel Sheremet.

Sheremet, who wrote for the online investigative media outlet Ukrainska Pravda, was killed Wednesday morning in Kiev on his way to work when an explosion ripped through the car he drove.

According to the Interior Ministry, the device, equivalent to 400-600 grams of TNT, was planted near the driver's seat.

Earlier on Friday, the Ukrainian website Obozrevatel released the surveillance video footage, which claims to show the moment of placing an explosive device underneath the car in the night before the incident.

The video showed a woman carrying a bag, who approached the car, hunkered down near the driver side of the vehicle and quickly left.

The footage, which authenticity has not been confirmed by the authorities, also showed that the female suspect had a male accomplice, who talked to her and followed her on the way towards the car.

The 44-year-old Sheremet was a Minsk-born journalist and political analyst who had worked in Belarus and Russia before moving to Ukraine five years ago.

Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said earlier that Sheremet' s professional activities as a journalist are examined by the investigation as a primary motive for his murder. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations announced on Friday that basic relief items including food, education materials, water and sanitation have been delivered to 32,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Qalaat al-Madiq in Syria's Hama Governorate.

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing that an inter-agency convoy delivered the assistance, but some surgical and medical items had been removed during the loading process.

"The United Nations continues to call on all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, to allow for all necessary humanitarian aid, including medical supplies and surgical items, to be allowed onto the convoys," said Haq.

Amid a stalled political peace process compounded by protracted fighting, hundreds of thousands of Syrian people are living in besieged areas and are in need of aid. Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly called for unhindered access of humanitarian aid to all besieged Syrian cities.

Earlier this month, the UN has said more than 978,000 Syrians in hard-to-reach areas have received UN assistance since the beginning of 2016. However, humanitarian access to many of these areas continues to be constrained by increased fighting and insecurity. Enditem
HAVANA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Cuba and the United States will meet next week to discuss mutual compensation for economic losses, announced Josefina Vidal, the director of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, on Friday.

Writing on Twitter, she said the authorities of both countries will meet on July 28-29 for the second meeting on mutual compensation.

The two sides first met in Havana last December to discuss issues of compensation relating to losses caused by the conflicts between two neighbors over several decades.

Two separate types of losses are under discussion. For the U.S. side, these losses refer to losses for American companies and citizens when Cuba nationalized their properties. The U.S. side is seeking just under 9 billion U.S. dollars for this. However, this is far less than the damages being sought by Cuba due to the ongoing embargo, which reaches 121 billion U.S. dollars in economic damages and 181 billion U.S. dollars in "human damages".

Vidal also announced that representatives of the two countries had met in Havana this week to sign an agreement to jointly fight drug trafficking.

On July 20, the U.S. and Cuba celebrated the first anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations.

Related:

News analysis: Cubans remain cautiously optimistic after one year of diplomatic ties with U.S

HAVANA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- One year after re-establishing diplomatic relations, Cuba and the U.S. still face many challenges, especially as ongoing mistrust between both governments has led to limited results in the last 12 months.

Out in the streets of Havana, Cubans have remained very cautiously optimistic, after both nations formally reestablished diplomatic ties on July 20, 2015, after five decades of enmity. Full story

Interview: One year on, Cuba-U.S. economic relations still stagnant: Cuban expert

HAVANA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Almost a year after restoring diplomatic ties, Cuba-U.S.economic ties have been stagnant due to the complex legal framework of the blockade which Washington still imposes on the island, a Cuban expert has said.
BERLIN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- German President Joachim Gauck expressed his dismay after the attack in Munich with at least nine deaths on Friday night.

"The murderous attack in Munich shocked me deeply," Gauck was quoted in a press release of the Presidential Office.

His thoughts are with the victims and all those who were mourning or fearing for a loved one, it said. "And I feel connected with all that are in operation in order to protect people and save lives."

"Our thoughts are with the victims of the attack, and even with the police officers who are defending our freedom and security," also said Peter Altmaier, head of German Federal Chancellery, to German ZDF public television on Friday night over the attack in Munich.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is kept informed, Altmaier said, adding that competent ministers are on the way to Berlin. "We will discuss the situation tomorrow in the German federal security cabinet."

Meanwhile, as German media Zeit Online reported, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has canceled a trip to the United States immediately after the shootout in Munich.

The number of the people died in a shootout in a Munich's shopping mall rose to nine, according to the latest update Munich police announced on their Twitter account on Friday evening.

After the police firstly announced eight fatal casualties on Twitter, they updated with another Tweet saying that the police is verifying the possibility of another dead person they had found "being involved in the shooting".

In addition, the policed confirm "several injured, whose number is not yet known yet" in a latest press release.

At the moment, no perpetrator could be arrested. The search for them is running at full speed, said the police.

A spokesman of Munich police said on Friday evening that the investigators assume three perpetrators, for whom the police is searching in the whole urban area of Munich.

However, the spokesman couldn't confirm rumors about the alleged death of a perpetrator.

The police called the shootout as an "acute terror situation" in Munich, as German news television N-TV reported earlier, citing an official announcement of Munich police.

Due to the still unclear situation, the police asked all people in Munich's urban area to stay at home or to search protection in nearby buildings.

The operation of the public transport system in Munich is currently suspended, according to the press release.

Munich police reported earlier that they were carrying out a large-scale operation in a Munich shopping center due to a shootout.
LONDON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson Friday said that he was shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich.

In a statement, Johnson said: "My thoughts are with those injured and the families of those killed. We stand ready to assist our friends in Germany."

The number of the confirmed death during a shootout at a shopping mall in the German city of Munich has risen to nine, according to Munich police's latest update on their Twitter account Friday evening.

The police also confirmed in the latest press release that several were injured.

Due to the situation, local police has asked people in Munich's urban area to stay at home or seek for protection in nearby buildings.

"Our travel advice to UK nationals in the area tonight is to stay indoors and follow the advice of the local authorities," said Johnson. Enditem
BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The following is the full text of the joint press release of China's Premier Li Keqiang, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, IMF (International Monetary Fund) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, WTO (World Trade Organization) Director-General Roberto Azevedo, ILO (International Labor Organization) Director-General Guy Ryder, OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Secretary-General Angel Gurria and FSB (Financial Stability Board) Chairman Mark Carney on the occasion of their meeting in Beijing, July 22nd 2016.

The global economy is sluggish and faced with downside risks and uncertainties. Recently, the IMF has lowered slightly its global growth forecast and flagged rising downside risks arising from higher economic and political uncertainty and increased volatility in some market segments. The World Bank lowered its forecast for global economic growth in 2016, and emphasized the need for greater urgency in implementing structural reforms to counter stronger downside headwinds. The WTO has indicated uncertain near term global trade growth prospects and a challenging international trade policy environment with rising protectionist measures, despite some positive developments. The ILO expects the expansion of the global economy to be too weak to close the employment and social gaps left by the international financial crisis. The OECD has pointed to declining productivity trends and uncertainties besetting future global growth. The FSB has noted that global economic and financial difficulties were increasing and structural challenges became more pronounced. Against this backdrop, it is critical to enhance international economic policy coordination. Taking the opportunity of holding the G20 presidency this year, China is committed to fostering innovation and other new growth engines, deepening structural reform in particular on the supply-side, promoting investment and infrastructure development, implementing financial reform, advocating growth in trade, adding more and better jobs, advancing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and addressing other global challenges, in a bid to achieving stronger, sustainable and balanced growth for the global economy. During this process, we welcome stronger policy communication and ongoing cooperation between China and the World Bank Group, the IMF, the WTO, the ILO, the OECD and the FSB in the relevant areas. China and international organizations participating in the Round-table (hereinafter referred to as "we") reached the following consensus:

1. On the macro economy. We recognize that aggregate demand will remain weak in the short run, and it will take time for supply-side policies to show effects, so a comprehensive package of policies are needed to strike a good balance between short-term and long-term goals. Strong, combined and coordinated efforts are needed, including use of all policy tools - monetary, fiscal and structural - to deal with risks and uncertainties in the world economy, safeguard financial stability and support economic growth. Monetary policy should continue to support economic activity and ensure price stability. Fiscal policy should be flexible to promote growth, job creation and confidence, while ensuring fiscal sustainability. Moreover, where fiscal rules and frameworks allow, fiscal policy should be used to support structural reforms while preventing and mitigating fiscal risks. Structural reforms should be tailored to country needs-including their income levels, cyclical positions, and available policy space-and operate along with other policies to support growth. Implementation of agreed financial reforms remains important to boost the resilience of the financial system. Well-calibrated and effective communication of policy stances will help to boost confidence, enhance policy effectiveness, and limit negative spillovers. China has taken the initiative to adapt to and guide the economic New Normal. While supporting aggregate demand, China continues to strengthen the structural reform, especially the structural reform on the supply-side, break a path for growth, accelerate the shift of growth models from emphasizing size and speed to quality and efficiency, and boost sustained driving forces for growth. Against the backdrop of global economic slow-down, China maintained steady growth during the first half of 2016, registering 6.7% year-on-year. Economic structure has been improved, and consumption and the service sector have become the major driving forces of the Chinese economy. The new economy featuring new technology, new products, new industries and new business models is growing rapidly, and industrial transformation and upgrading is advancing fast. We believe that the fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain positive in the long run. With deepening reforms, and implementing tasks of reducing overcapacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing cost and shoring up weak spots, the Chinese economy will achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and make a continuous contribution to global economic growth.

2.On structural reforms. We recognize the importance of structural reforms in dealing with the slowdown of global productivity growth and promoting steady, durable and inclusive recovery of global economy, which is also essential in realizing the ambition of the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth introduced by Chinese Presidency of G20. While country circumstances differ, there are shared directions of reform in general terms, including deregulation, enhancing competition, encouraging innovation, promoting fiscal reform, promoting trade and investment, strengthening the financial system, advancing labor market reform, improving infrastructure, enhancing environmental sustainability and promoting inclusive growth. The OECD and the IMF fully support the enhanced structural reform agenda as one of the priorities identified by Chinese Presidency of G20 this year. The international organization (IOs) also support G20 members' efforts in developing a set of priority areas and guiding principles for structural reforms, as well as an indicator system to further improve assessing and monitoring of the progress of structural reforms and their adequacy to address structural challenges, and welcome the substantial progress that has been made in this regard. The OECD, the IMF and other IOs will continue to contribute proactively to the work streams under the G20 Growth Framework, and tap into their expertise to provide valuable policy analysis and recommendations for G20 structural reforms. China will strengthen the cooperation with the IOs to jointly support the G20 plays an important role in further promoting the policy actions on structural reforms at both country and global level.

3.On innovation. We need to make efforts to foster new sources of growth such as innovation, new industrial revolution and the digital economy. We support the G20 developing action plans and guiding principles in these areas, and based on these working out the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth to foster new drivers of the growth of the world economy. We also encourage G20 Task Forces covering the above areas to continue their work in this regard in order to maintain continuity. Sound framework conditions and structural reforms are essential for rebalancing the Chinese economy and transitioning to a more sustainable, consumption-led and knowledge-based economy. On this basis, more efforts are needed to harness the development opportunities presented by the new industrial revolution and make more people benefit from it. Actions in the intertwined areas of innovation and the digital economy, including investing in the new technologies and skills in the direction of future development, can provide valuable support for new sources of growth -- boosting productivity gains, opening new markets, meeting unaddressed needs and tapping into new sources of human endeavor. Innovation is a key driver of productivity, growth and wellbeing: in a context of demographic change and diminishing returns on capital, it will become even more important in the future as a source of long-term growth, while digitalization is reshaping economies and offering new ways to spur efficiencies and improve services across all facets of life. The OECD will continue to support the delivery and implementation of an innovation-driven growth path.
SEOUL, July 21, 2016 (Xinhua) -- People from Seongju county hold the national flags of South Korea and banners to protest against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), during a rally in Seoul, capital of South Korea, on July 21, 2016. More than 2,000 people from Seongju county, where one THAAD battery will be deployed, gathered at a square in Seoul for a rally on Thursday, to protest against the deployment of THAAD. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)

Related:

News Analysis: THAAD in S. Korea to negatively affect peace in peninsula, region, world

SEOUL, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on South Korean soil will negatively affect peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as regional and global security as it breaks strategic balance and boost arms race, experts here said Thursday.

"THAAD is an issue to have a big negative impact on the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and the world peace as well as South Korea," Cheong Wook-sik, director of Peace Network and co-chair of steering committee of Civil Peace Forum, said during a press conference with foreign correspondents in Seoul. Full story

News Analysis: South Korean gov't exploits THAAD deployment to draw public attention on security threats

SEOUL, July 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's decision to comply with the U.S. Pivot-to-Asia strategy by deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system may help the government draw public attention on security threats, experts here said.
Police seize ganja, destroy marijuana field

According to reports at about 5 am yesterday, the heavily armed police and soldiers focused on the Maracas St Joseph/Bangladesh and Tunapuna districts as part of an anti- crime exercise aimed at ridding the Northern Division of illegal arms and ammunition, drugs and rounding up persons of interest.

During the exercise which was under the direct supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad, Senior Superintendent Rajkumar, Superintendent Hendron Moses and Inspector Mark Maraj, a marijuana field was destroyed in the Wharf Trace, Maracas/ St Joseph area, while a quantity of cured marijuana was also seized in an abandoned house.

Officers searched several homes and detained 20 persons for a series of offences including robberies, woundings and outstanding warrants.

Several stop and search exercises were also carried out during the eight-hour operation and tickets issued. Also yesterday, Deputy Police Commissioner Harold Phillip called an emergency meeting of officers from the nine police divisions and instructed that additional patrols be carried out in all divisions in a bid to deal with crime.

Deputy Commissioner Phillip is expected to take over the helm of the TT Police Service from August 1, when Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams proceeds on three months vacation leave.
Paedophile gets reduced sentence

The 33-year-old father of three was sentenced to life in prison with a declaration that he is not to be released before serving at least 15 years. But yesterday, appellate court judges, Justices Alice Yorke- Soo Hon, Rajendra Narine and Mark Mohammed, held that while the offence was egregious, the life sentence was unduly severe as he offence committed could not be described as the worst of the worst, to justify such a sentence.

Instead, the appellate judges reduced Ramlochans sentence to ten years hard labour. Ramlochan, who was having drinks with the boys father, pushed the boy on the bed and told him to perform oral sex on him. The boy managed to push off Ramlochan, who had turned up the music in the house and latched the front door after the boys father left the house for five minutes, while he went nearby for something.

Ramlochan then struck the boy in the mouth, pulled down his pants, turned him over and inserted his finger into the childs anus, repeatedly. The victim testified that he was in pain, as he relived the ordeal of being assaulted by Ramlochan. When the boys father returned, he found the front door locked and heard the loud music playing.

After calling out to his son to open the door, he heard Ramlochan tell his son to pull up his pants, but not open the door.

Eventually someone opened the door and the father saw his sons mouth bleeding and asked him what happened. His son told him of the incident and he grabbed a cutlass which he used to planass Ramlochan, who eventually fled the house.

The father and his son went to the police station where they made a report. Police were unable to find Ramlochan, but two months later he surrendered and told officers, Boss I do it. In his defence, Ramlochan claimed the boy fabricated the accusation and alleged that it was the boy who attempted to assault him. He said he and the boys father were drinking and he decided to leave because his head was bad, and was told to go lie down and take a rest. Ramlochan was represented by Daniel Khan, Ula Nathai-Lutchman and Ria Mankee-Sookram
Doctor spends night in jail

Reid, who was arrested in Macoya on Wednesday by members of the Fraud Squad, which included Snr Supt Totaram Dookie, appeared yesterday before Magistrate Christine Charles charged with issuing a dishonoured cheque to Keegan Constantine, in the sum of $4,900, on September 25, 2015.

Reid, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, began to tell the magistrate the allegation against her was not true, but was prevented from doing so and was told by one of her attorneys she could only enter a plea.

Her own bail was sought and while there was no objection to bail being granted, Magistrate Charles said she wanted the issue relating to Reids primary residence rectified before bail could be granted.

The magistrate was told that enquiries were made at the address given by Reid at Carmody Drive, St Augustine, but police were told she did not reside there.

In court, Reid explained through her attorney Chris Selochan that the St Augustine address was that of her fianc? and the father of one of her children, while she lived at Timberland Park, DAbadie.

It was also advanced that Reid is a single mother of three aged five, 12, and 13; had strong ties to the community, was the owner of the Sureway Weightloss Clinic in Tunapuna, is a qualified medical doctor and registered member of the Medical Board, as well as a member of Miracle Ministries in Chaguanas.

Selochan also noted that his client had no criminal record and he was concerned that his client, a person of good character, would be made to spend another night in custody.

He also mentioned that Reid had been previously held by police for five days in June, and later released with no charges being laid.

Charles said while she had no difficulty in granting bail, it would not be done until the issue of her address is sorted out since the police did not have the DAbadie address on their records and she wanted inquires conducted to ensure Reid did reside there.

Charles has given the police until today to have the information available and ordered that Reid appear this morning in the Tunapuna Magistrates Court.

Also appearing for Reid are attorneys Bindra and Tamara Dolsingh.

WPC Lizanne Lazarus of the Fraud Squad laid the charge.
Robbery at Mayaro bar caught on video

A manhunt has since been launched for the four men whose faces were shown in the video.

According to police reports at about 9.30 pm, four men armed with guns stormed into the Merrymens Bar, located along Manzanilla Road in Mayaro, and announced a hold-up. At the time there were several patrons liming in the bar.

The men proceeded to beat up the proprietor and his wife as well as patrons demanding that they hand over cash and valuables.

They grabbed a vault containing $20,000 in cash. A roulette machine containing over $1000 in cash as well as a gaming machine containing over $1500 were also taken away by the thieves.

Reports are that before escaping, the men also attempted to destroy the CCTV cameras.

WPC Sookhoo of the Mayaro Police is continuing inquiries.
State to pay $375,000 for wrongful arrest

They will each receive $125,000.

Justice Peter Rajkumar made the order in the San Fernando High Court yesterday, in an oral ruling.

The three, Ricky Lane, Stephanie Dickson and Jesse Choon, had sued the State following their arrest in 2007. At about 5 am on March 27, Dickson and Choon were at Laynes home at Cachipe Village, Moruga. Another man, Darren Richards, who is now deceased, was also present.

They were all asleep when police officers confronted them by shouting, Ricky! Ricky! A dog began to bark and Layne switched on the gallery light. Upon seeing police officers, he opened the door. All four were arrested and taken to the San Fernando Police Station although the Princes Town Police Station is the designated station for the Moruga district. But while on their way, other persons were arrested and taken into custody.

Lane, Dickson, Choon and Richards, were placed in cells and were told that they were being detained for enquiries.

They were each subsequently charged with possession of marijuana, however, they were not taken to the Princes Town Magistrates Court, but instead, to the San Fernando Magistrates Court some six days later while they remained in custody. Dickson, who testified that she was experiencing her menstrual cycle, was not allowed to take a bath for three days. The others were not allowed to bathe for the entire six days.

On the morning of April 2, they were escorted through the busy Knox and Court Streets, to the San Fernando Magistrates Court. They pleaded not guilty to the charge. At their trial, only one police officer testified. Senior Magistrate Debra Quintyne dismissed the case against all of them.

Attorney Cedric Neptune, instructed by attorney Dane Halls, successfully argued before Justice Rajkumar, a lawsuit for malicious prosecution on behalf of the Lane, Dickson and Choon, filed last year. The attorneys argued that the presiding magistrate held that the police fell short in its responsibility in proving the guilt of the accused four.

Firstly, the search warrant allegedly used to conduct the search of the house, was obtained from a Justice of the Peace in the Victoria West district who obviously had no jurisdiction to issue such a document for the conduct of a police search in Moruga which falls in the Victoria East district.
Williamsville man pleads guilty to 25 kgs of weed

After awaiting trial since 2004 when he was charged, the father of two was yesterday remanded into custody to await his sentence.

Baptiste pleaded guilty yesterday in the San Fernando High Court before Justice Hayden St Clair Douglas, having been out on bail in the sum of $150,000 while awaiting his trial.

The facts of the States case, in which Senior State Attorney Trevor Jones is prosecuting, contends that on April 6, Baptiste was driving a white Royal Saloon motorcar along the Bonne Aventure Road, Gasparillo.

Acting on a tip-off, members of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit, based in Port of Spain, intercepted the vehicle.

The police vehicle was driven by Inspector Michael Seales who is president of the Police Social & Welfare Association.

Seales was present in court yesterday for the hearing.

St Clair Douglas heard from the prosecutor, that when Baptistes vehicle was searched, police officers found in the front seat a total of 24 packets inside a crocus bag.

Asked about it, the court heard, Baptiste had told police officers, Boy, a man give me $200 to collect that greens for him. PC Montrichard laid the charge.

Attorney Subhas Panday, who represented Baptiste, was told by the judge that on Monday, he would present a plea in mitigation on behalf of Baptiste.

The State is expected to reply to the submission, which would involve the likely sentence the court should impose on the accused based on whether he has any previous criminal record.
Retrial for one, conviction upheld for the other

Darryl Bissoon will face a retrial for the murder of Colin De Landro, who was killed in front of relatives at a family gathering in 2005, while is co-accused Anderson Weasel Mapp lost his appeal against conviction.

Appellate court judges, Justices Paula Mae-Weekes, Alice Yorke- Soo Hon and Mark Mohammed upheld one ground of appeal advanced by Bissoons attorneys who argued that the jury had been mistakenly informed that he threatened De Landros relatives while they were testifying at the preliminary inquiry at the magistrates court.

On October 2012, Mapp and Bissoon were convicted of murdering De Landro at his home at Prizgar Lands in San Juan. A third man, Ryan Stephens, was also on trial for the crime, however the 12-member- jury could not arrive at a unanimous verdict for him and a retrial was ordered.

According to the evidence presented at their trial, De Landro was shot eight times, including four times in the head, when three gunmen raided a family lime on May 28, 2005. One of De Landros sisters were shot at and another wounded. They later identified Mapp, Bissoon and Stephens at a police line-up. De Landro died at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, one week after he was shot. Mapp was represented by attorneys Israel Khan, SC, and Daniel Khan, while attorneys Sophia Chote, SC, and Trevor Clarke appeared for Bisson. Trevor Ward, QC, represented the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
30 inmates graduate

This marked the first time that any course offered inside of the prison consisted of 85 percent remanded inmates who took the course with convicted inmates and officers.

Most courses in the past have been offered only to convicted inmates. The course had been initiated and organised by the Wishing for Wings Foundation. The Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts sponsored the tutor for the programme and the former Ministry of Justice sponsored the material and equipment for inmates to make beds, tables, chairs, love seats and book shelves in the course.

Students learned to design the furniture that they made. Prison officials including Port-of-Spain Prison Superintendent Fabien Alexander, representatives of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts and family members of inmates attended the award ceremony which was held in the courtyard of the prison facility.
Harris finds her Tribe

Simone Harris is a Jamaican finding her way.

A country that sometimes hits headlines for its stance on LGBTQ rights and the ensuing vitriolic artistic expression to members of that community proved the perfect place for her to find sanctuary.

Harris, a seventh generation maroon, calls her new-found support system her Tribe, but she wasnt always interested in the solace of a federation.

Instead she kept herself at arms length, an island surrounded on all sides by a sea of negativity.

I had isolated myself, I lived in America in a state for almost ten years and today I have no friends there, how does that happen?! I was a mean person, I had a chip on my shoulder, I had a sense of entitlement because of who me did dey wid and all the ting where me did have, she relates in a mixture of Jamaican patois and the Queens that was sheer bull**** she admits.

Caught up in the maelstrom of a high profile, jet-setting romantic relationship, she couldnt see, past her upturned nose, the way her attitudes toward the world affected her own quality of life. A break-up was only the beginning of her ongoing moment of clarity.

She describes her fall off her high horse as feeling like I drop in this hole. However, at the bottom of that pit she found what she needed to grow toward her light; I became open to love and to light and to positivity and that is what I began to attract.

Part of my self-discovery, really, was that I had to get mash down to the ground to find myself, she says. She gave away all the trappings of her affluence, cut her dreadlocks and stopped performing.

The Tribe, a mixture of friends and family who Harris explained isnt necessarily friends with each other banded together to help her find her way.

Its a construct she believes is available to everyone; Most people already have (a Tribe) we just dont know how to tap into it. During the opening night discussion at the two-day exhibition of the eight-piece show at Alice Yard in Woodbrook, Harris shared her experiences and fielded questions about the pros and cons of the Tribe.

In response to a member of her intimate audience relating how she took the decision to maintain her distance from relationships, she shared her renewed outlook.

I believe in the mirror I believe that if Im sitting here and Im giving off negative vibes you are going to give it back to me, she said I can only speak for myself, I feel like there are no toxic relationships because these people are there for me in ways that are 95 percent positive.

So I feel like the energy that I started giving off led these people to me, led me to discover them so that they could help me cuz I was open and I wanted support and I needed to feel like I was worth a damn. Cuz normally me dont feel like nothing, like nobody. Sitting on the Yards concrete floor, baring her soul to a crowd that included Trinidad and Tobago based allies and former classmates at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Harris talk included an apology to a young lady she had a rough ting with, she implored her audience to start their process and find their version of the Tribe.

Its not a blueprint for everyone, everybodys journey is different, this is mine, but the common denominator is looking at yourself, she said.

The photographs, a mixture of black and white and earthy toned colour shots were taken by Jordan Morris, a second year photography major at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica.

I remember going to the riverside and seeing this hillside and I saw a Nanny - a female maroon warrior, protector of runaway communities and Jamaican national heroine - and I knew what I wanted the pictures to look like, the picture of the tribe. She says making the photographs has been therapeutic, causing her to take a closer look at herself literally and figuratively.

In late June Harris showed her photos at Nuit Rose a satellite art and performance showcase at Toronto Pride while also sharing the message of the Tribe to an often-beleaguered LGBTQ community.

Shes scheduled to shoot part two of her personal journey in Jamaica sometime this month.

Asked if she still danced, the former professional dancers answer was decidedly Trini.

I have a strange relationship with soca and thats when I dance, soca is ritual for me, my mouth would water (before performing), and that doesnt happen anymore, now I get excited about the next photo-shoot.
RESCUED FROM GRAVE

Shevon Veris believes were it not for the flashing blue lights of a police vehicle which was cruising nearby, the man would have made good on his promise.

Fearing that the police were near, the man ran off leaving Veris in the grave. Her screams later alerted two grave-diggers who ran to the spot and rescued the terrified woman. A report was then made to the police and the woman was taken to the Arima District Health Centre.

According to a police report, Veris was walking along a track near Flamingo Avenue in La Horquetta when at about 7.30 pm she was grabbed from behind, blindfolded, lifted bodily and place into a car. In the vehicle, Veris was beaten by the man whom she later recognised as being her ex-boyfriend.

Veris later told police she taken to the Tunapuna cemetery where she was robbed of a Samsung phone valued $3,000, a pair of gold earrings valued $800 and 1,000 in cash from her wallet.

The man then threw Veris into the grave which had been dug hours earlier in preparation for a dead whose funeral was scheduled for yesterday. It was Divine intervention that the police happened to be on patrol at the time, Veris told Newsday. A Northern Division Task Force vehicle with officers was on patrol relative to a report of a vehicle being stolen in the area near to the cemetery.

Realizing that her attacker was gone, Veris began screaming which alerted the attention of grave diggers identified as Harold and Ricardo Dude Alvarez who pulled Veris out of the grave and brought her to safety. I thought I was going to die. I thought my unborn child was going to die. But when help came I knew that it was Divine intervention, Veris said.

Interviewed yesterday at the cemetery, grave digger Alvarez told Newsday yesterday that this was so bizarre and was a first for him.

Alvarez said that he and the other grave digger comforted Veris and accompanied her to the nearby priority bus route where a maxi-taxi was flagged down and taken her to Arima.

During the interview, Alvarez busied himself by digging a grave.

He said the entire incident has left him traumatised. To hear that kind of screaming from the cemetery at night...that has left me totally shaken, Alvarez said.

Veris said she met the 29-yearold suspect online and at first, he appeared normal. Two weeks into the relationship, he began abusing her about messages on her phone, prompting her to buy a cheaper phone with no features, just to appease him. However, Veris said the man began to physically assault her. She ended the relationship a year ago and became romantically involved with another person.

Although I told him I had a new boyfriend, he continued stalking me, insisting he wanted to get together again. I made reports to the Tunapuna police about the stalking, Veris said. She added that her ex-boyfriend would often call her on the phone and threaten to bury her alive if she did not reconcile with him.

According to Veris, while she lay inside the freshly dug grave, her ex-boyfriend used her cellular phone to contact her relatives and then her current boyfriend telling him she was with him (the ex-boyfriend), they had just made love and she was taking a bath. This man really had my boyfriend convinced that I was with him, but it was my mother who realised something was wrong and they kept praying for my safety. After she was met by her relatives at the health centre, Veris was taken to the La Horquetta police station where a report was made.

Right now I am hoping everything goes well with my pregnancy and I am just happy to be alive.

I want the police to find this man and bring him to justice so I can resume my life without fear, Veris said. She advised young women to exercise extreme caution before establishing relationships with persons they meet online. She thanked the grave diggers, police and relatives for their love and support at this time.

Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Northern Division Surujdeen Persad along with Snr Supt Rajkumar launched several searches for the suspect. ACP Persad assured the police will be relentless in their efforts to apprehend the suspect and called on members of the public who may know of his whereabouts to inform the nearest police station.

Newsday understands that the suspect constructs headstones for graves at the Tunapuna cemetery.
Colm: GATE $700M is stress

Imbert could not immediately give a definite time-line of implementation of a raft of proposals in relation to the programme, but urged the population to await Cabinets decision within the next couple of weeks, as well as his Budget presentation due later this year. The country cannot afford to spend $700 million with oil at US$45 per barrel in the foreseeable future, Imbert told reporters at a post-Cabinet media briefing held at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.

I would ask you to hold your fire until the Budget presentation. Imbert, who also was the PNM minister who oversaw the introduction of accreditation measures for tertiary education institutions, said the original aim of GATE was to raise the level of enrolment. He said that level moved from about 11 percent to 65 percent between 2004 and 2015. So we have reached the target, the Minister said. He expressed surprise, however, that the programme had been expanded to cover even non-accredited institutions.

It has gone way beyond its original purpose, Imbert said. I am surprised non-accredited institutions were authorised to receive GATE funding. I think that is one of the recommendations in the report that I think is worthy of consideration.

Why would you want to fund non-accredited institutions? Of the Cabinets approach, Imbert said, We are going to be practical, sensible and compassionate. We are not going to do anything whimsical or irrational. We are not going to do anything that is going to hurt anybody. We are going to make GATE fit for purpose while ensuring nobody wrongfully benefits. He said the Cabinet task force report on the matter was simply a recommendation.

The objective of the reform is to cut out the abuse and waste but to also ensure no one is denied tertiary education simply because of their inability to pay for it, the Minister said. On the time-line of implementation, the Minister said, We still hope that within the next couple of weeks (there will be a decision) and then perhaps something will be implemented for this academic year. This is the beginning, this is not the end. There has been a lot of abuse over the years. The Minister also said when he was at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 1975, tertiary education was free.

Under the Eric Williams PNM, university education was free and you did not have to pay for it, Imbert said. So it is a fallacy for any political party to say they were the first ones who sought to assist university students with their education.

That is not true. That is a legacy of the PNM under the first prime minister Dr Eric Williams.
PM: Ramadhar made a contribution

Speaking at a news conference at Piarco International Airport yesterday, with Ramadhar looking on, Rowley said the former Congress of the People (COP) leader, is a very experienced lawyer. After saying Ramadhar is also, a very experienced parliamentarian, the Prime Minister disclosed, I could tell you, that at critical moments in our discussions in Jamaica, his input was very valuable as a member of the delegation of TT. Asked if this meant other Opposition parliamentarians would be invited to join government delegations on future overseas missions, Rowley did not rule out the possibility. He explained that if invitations are extended to the Opposition and they accept, they would be included on such delegations.

He added that if such invitations are declined, the delegations would go without Opposition members. Ramadhar accepted an invitation from the Government to be part of Rowleys delegation while United National Congress (UNC) Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial declined the same invitation.
Gopeesingh hits Garcia on education

At a news conference at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port-of-Spain, Gopeesingh, a former education minister, highlighted several areas of concern.

He alleged that under Garcia the Ministry has ceased distribution of laptops to new secondary school pupils, cut coursework from the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SE A) exam, failed to supply school textbooks, shut homework centres in 400 schools, reduced the supply of free school meals, dismissed all On The Job (OJT) staff including trainee teachers, ceased construction of 60 schools, and not paid contractors.

He later said the OJT trainee teachers have reportedly not had their contracts renewed.

Academic performance if falling, charged Gopeesingh, alleging a seven percent drop in this years SE A results.

Gopeesingh stood by his decision to distribute 95,000 laptops.

He said his governments use of information and communications technology (ICT) in schools was praised by a 2014 education symposium run by the Organisation of American States (OAS), while several world studies indicated increased success by the use of ICT. Gopeesingh refuted any idea of a poor provision of training, laptops or internet access to schools.

He said 95 percent of schools had internet connectivity, some 70 percent of pupils use laptops for homework and virtually all teachers use laptops to prepare lessons.

Some 100,586 people at homes helped pupils with homework using the laptops, some 6000 principals and teachers were trained in ICT, and those laptops were the only electronic devices in the homes of 4172 pupils. Dr Gopeesingh urged the Government to bring back the laptops this years.

Some 2954 teachers per year were trained in ICT over five years, allowing them to infuse ICT into the school curriculum, even as otherwise 7000 pupils wrote ICT as a CSE C He accused Garcia of being unable to cope with his job and of not levelling with the population.
Khan: I am fine

Well-placed sources told Newsday that following an examination by doctors, five blockages were discovered in Khans arteries and veins and five stents had to be placed to relieve the pressure on his circulatory system.

Contacted yesterday, Khan said he was feeling fine. The minister added that he was rested and recuperated and back out to work. Asked if he has adjusted his schedule in light of his recent medical procedure, Khan said, Not really but Im initially pacing myself for the next couple of weeks. Khan is overseeing work on local government reform legislation which is expected to come to Parliament ahead of local government elections which are constitutionally due later this year. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Khan have said those elections will be held when they are due.

Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon,who had an emergency appendectomy performed at a private medical institution on July 2, is also back out to work. Gopee-Scoon yesterday said she was feeling, pretty good. Last Friday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh was discharged from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital after being admitted there last Wednesday to undergo blood tests and other investigations plus monitoring to ascertain the cause of fever and fatigue.

A statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister last Friday, indicated that Deyalsingh was discharged as his condition had significantly improved.
Update Company Registry records

After all, we have $3 billion in suspicious transaction reports at the Financial Intelligence Unit and a whopping $250,000 in forfeitures. Al Rawi made the statements while addressing participants at a forum, The Fourth Round Mutual Evaluation Report  Enabling Stronger Action and Coordination to Reduce the Threats of Money Laundering and Terrorist Risks to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, held by the Association of Compliance Professionals of Trinidad and Tobago at the Westmoorings headquarters of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

He said it had become necessary to clean up the Companies Registry because of an incident in December 2013 when U.S Customs and Border Protection agents discovered and seized $600 million worth of cocaine concealed in cans of Trinidad Orange Juice at the Port of Norfolk, Virginia, the biggest drug haul in the ports history.

He said investigations revealed that criminals used a defunct company which was still on the Companies Registry to smuggle the cocaine. The cans were discovered in a shipping container headed for New York.

Al Rawi said the governments legislative agenda included proposals for amendments to the Companies Act; the Law of Trust; the Financial Intelligence Unit Act; the Exchange Control Act; and the Customs Act. He said that in the case of the Companies Act, the amendments will include measures to force disclosure of the beneficial ownership of both public and private companies. You no longer will be permitted to have your legal ownership only set out in the companies register.

The proposal in law is that persons who hold shares in trust, or who are the legal owners but the beneficial ownership lies somewhere else, will be required to tell the companies that they are a part of that there are in fact beneficial owners involved in the arrangement  who the real owner is. And then there is a positive obligation on the company to report that to the Companies Registry. The Attorney General said, Think about it, where do the proceeds of crime lie? Are they in our banking system in cash? Are they under our mattress? Are they potentially invested in properties, shares, bearer bonds and insurance? He added that if the proceeds of crime are, in fact, invested in properties and shares in companies, then it is critical to know who the beneficial owners behind properties are. Dawne Spicer, the Deputy Director of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) told the forum that the Fourth Round Mutual Evaluation Report on Trinidad and Tobago conducted by the CFATF, found that there have been no arrests for standalone money laundering, that investigation of money laundering is not properly prioritised; there have been no convictions so there have been no court-applied sanctions and therefore that money laundering is not a priority of the court system.

It also found that confiscation was not treated as a priority and there were no confiscation proceedings relating to money laundering.

While the report concluded that terrorist financing as an offence had been adequately criminalised, it said there was no indication that it was criminalised and properly investigated and there was no comprehensive policy with regard to proliferation financing. Proliferation financing is defined as the act of providing funds or financial services which are used, in whole or in part, for the manufacture, acquisition, possession, development, export, transshipment, brokering, transport, transfer, stockpiling or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery.
August talks on US/IRS tax law

Unless the arrangements are implemented, he said, we are going to have serious difficulty in doing business in Trinidad and Tobago. August has within recent years become a contentious matter for politicians who have invariably complained about being summoned to deal with legislative matters during that month, as was the case in relation to the Runoff Bill in 2014. Imbert expressed optimism that he would be able to arrange talks and could then table legislation later on, perhaps in September.

I will meet with them, which I hope to do in August, which may be difficult because people tend to go on vacation in that period, Imbert said at a post-Cabinet media briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair. I intend to meet with them in August and show them the draft Bill and point out to them that this requires a collective effort.

It is not political. If we dont get this done, then we are going to have serious difficulty in doing business in Trinidad and Tobago. Imbert said the issue relates to an inter-governmental agreement which is due to be signed later this year.

We have to sign an inter-governmental agreement with the United States, agreeing to share with them information on US taxpayers or US companies and persons who are doing business in Trinidad, the minister said. The Attorney General (Faris Al-Rawi) gave me the allclear last week to sign the inter-governmental agreement. I have asked my Treasury solicitor to contact her counterpart in the US Department of State to let them know that as Minister of Finance I am ready to sign the intergovernmental agreement after it has been vetted. Imbert said because this year is an election year for the US things may tend to slow down.

But he said he was confident he would be able to push the matter up the queue.

I dont anticipate any problems, he said in relation to talks with the Opposition. If we dont get this done, what will happen is that when money is transferred, the US would automatically deduct withholding tax of 30 per cent. The IRS (US Internal Revenue Service) would not be able to distinguish between a payment of something or repatriation of dividends.




China's Global Newspaper





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Improving the Performance of the Steel Industry in The Country: Chaudhary Birender Singh

New Delhi, Fri, 22 Jul 2016 NI Wire

SAIL Must Leverage Its R&D Strengths to the Fullest for Improving the Performance of the Steel Industry in The Country: Chaudhary Birender Singh

The Minister of Steel, Chaudhary Birender Singh reviewed the performance of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) today at Steel Ministry in Udyog Bhawan New Delhi. The Minister of State for Steel Shri Vishnu Deo Sai, the Secretary Steel, Ms. Aruna Sundararajan, senior officials of the Ministry, Chairman SAIL, Shri P.K. Singh, Directors & CEOs of SAIL were present on the occasion.

The Steel Minister mentioned that the present steel market is challenging and while appreciating SAILs efforts to reduce cost of production asked the Company to further intensify its efforts in further cost reduction by focusing on increasing process efficiencies and higher utilisation of new units installed under SAILs Modernisation & Expansion Plan. Expressing belief in the abilities of SAIL he said, I believe SAIL can leverage its R&D strengths to the fullest for improving the performance of the steel industry in the country. He advised SAIL to use design & product engineering to promote steel consumption by establishing steels cost effectiveness, quality & durability as a material for construction in sectors like infrastructure, transportation and urban development. He also exhorted that all initiatives to promote use of steel must be rolled out at the earliest as time is of essence in the fast changing business scenario.

Chaudhary Birender Singh further advised SAIL to increase its exports as now SAIL has significantly enriched its product portfolio by adding new profiles and grades.

The Minister in his address advised the SAIL collective to harness the full potential of its human resources by making the employees more efficient & purposeful. He expressed confidence that the present management has the will and the ability to come out of the present crisis being faced by the steel industry.

He expressed optimism that India which has emerged as the third largest producer of steel in the World will soon attain the position of second largest producer. All efforts will be made by major players like SAIL to achieve this goal. While modernizing steel plants, SAIL should also take steps to modernize its townships for its employees and their families, he said.

Source: PIB
China is not betting solely on the Shenwei chips (used in worlds fastest supercomputer- 93 petaFLOPS), and apparently has plans to build three different pre-exascale systems with three very different architectures, according to some Tweets put out by James Lin, vice director for the Center of HPC at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The three-way horse race for exascale machines in China will set up a horse race between three different organizations to build pre-exascale clusters based on ARM, Shenwei, and AMD (presumably Opteron) technologies. The first pre-exascale machine is being created by NUDT and will use ARM-based processors and will be deployed at the national supercomputer center in Tianjin where the Tianhe-1A CPU-GPU hybrid was deployed in 2010 and gave China its first top spot on the Top 500 rankings of supercomputers. There is no mention of using the Matrix2000 DSP accelerator with this system, but unless NUDT plans to create its own ARM chip with a homegrown floating point accelerator and embed it on the die, it stands to reason that this first pre-exascale machine will be an ARM-DSP hybrid.

The second pre-exascale machine is being developed by the same people who put together the Sunway TaihuLight system, and it will be deployed in the national supercomputing center in Jinan, where its predecessor, the Sunway Bluelight system, currently runs.

The third pre-exascale machine, and perhaps equally interesting, will be built by Chinese system maker Sugon and will employ an X86 processor licensed from AMD. We presume this is a licensed variant of the future Zen Opteron chip, due in 2017 for servers. It is not clear who is doing the licensing of the X86 technology from AMD, but back in April, AMD announced that it had inked a deal worth $293 million to license X86 chip technology to Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co, which is itself an investment consortium that is guided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In May, China committed to delivering an exascale-class machine by 2020 with 10 PB of memory, exabytes of storage, and 30 gigaflops per watt efficiency (about five times better than the new Sunway TaihuLight system), and greater than 60 percent efficiency on the Linpack Fortran benchmark test.

Shenway supercomputer

See more 3 prototype systems for exascale will be ready by end of 2017 in China. Each has ~2.5PF in Peak and ~500-600 nodes.  James Lin@SJTU (@jameslinsjtu) July 11, 2016

See more The winner will be chosen to build the exascale system in peak performance by 2020.  James Lin@SJTU (@jameslinsjtu) July 11, 2016

See more One is by NUDT with ARM approach to be deployed in Tianjing national center, where hosts Tianhe-1A.  James Lin@SJTU (@jameslinsjtu) July 11, 2016

See more Another is by Taihulight team with the next generation SW CPU to be deployed on Jinan national center, where hosts Sunway bluelight.  James Lin@SJTU (@jameslinsjtu) July 11, 2016

See more The third is by Sugon with AMD licenced x86 CPU to be deployed in both Shanghai supercomputer center and Shenzhen national center.  James Lin@SJTU (@jameslinsjtu) July 11, 2016

SOURCES- Twitter, Nextplatform
In 2014, I gave a talk at Transhuman Visions in 2014 where I said older Tiger Moms would be the driver of early adoption of genetic intelligence enhancement after the lifting of the One child policy in China.

Chinas One child policy was lifted just as embryo selection based upon intelligence for invitro fertilized (IVF) babies becomes possible and we are on the cusp of genetic engineering. Women in China who are now older were banned from having babies but now will be allowed to have children. Many will not be able to conceive naturally and will use IVF. I see IVF going from 400,000 per year worldwide to 2-8 million per year over the next 10 years. IVF babies are more easily embryo selected and accessible for genetic modification. This would provide an economic boost to China in 20-30 years and the beginnings of a significant societal shift.

* Older women use IVF more than younger women

* Societal shifts that cause more older women to use IVF to have children means more opportunity for embryo selection and genetic intelligence enhancement.

* Countries that permit embyro selection and genetic intelligence enhancement provide the opportunity for IVF to be used for enhancement

* Medical tourism to permissive countries is another means for older women to use IVF in combination with embryo selection or genetic enhancement.

IVF up over 50% in China since one child policy change

By December, 2015 there has been a 50 per cent jump in IVF consultations since the one-child policy announcement.

China is set to be the biggest IVF market in the world, probably within the next couple of years. Chinese couples who have the financial means often go abroad to the United States, Australia, Thailand and Vietnam for IVF. Rising Chinese demand for fertility treatments is also increasing IVF demand overseas clinics such as Australia-based Monash IVF Group and Virtus Health or Superior A.R.T. in Thailand, where 30-40 per cent of patients come from China.

Patient numbers are still climbing too. There were nearly half a million treatment cycles in 2013 at 356 approved clinics, compared with just under 200,000 cycles that year in the higher-value US market. Those levels were before the lifting of the one child policy.

Older women going for IVF

A 61-year-old woman has became what is believed to be Chinas second oldest mother, according to media reports, in a growing trend of older births among desperate couples who have been left childless by Beijings draconian one-child policy.

The baby was born six days after media reported that another Chinese woman, 54-year-old Liu Hongmei, gave birth to a boy through IVF following the loss of her son in a traffic accident two years ago.

China reformed its strict family planning laws last October, but there are an estimated million Chinese families who have lost the only child they were ever allowed to have  including 335,000 mothers over 49.

Genetic screening embryos

A chinese woman gave birth to baby girl using an embryo frozen 18 years ago

Until recently fertility experts were only been able to judge the health of an embryo by its appearance.

A new test called Comprehensive Chromosomal Screening (CCS) is allowing fertility specialists to determine with much greater accuracy which embryos in IVF have the normal number of chromosomes and are the most likely to result in a successful pregnancy.

Studies have shown that IVF with CCS can achieve

 Pregnancy rates as high as 70%

 Miscarriage rate as low as 10%.

 A very low risk of chromosomal problems such as Downs syndrome (diagnostic accuracy of CCS is about 99%)

To further improve on the results of CCS, Olive Fertility is pioneering another technique for screening embryos with mitochondrial DNA quantification.

It appears that around a third of embryos with the correct number of chromosomes still fail to lead to a successful pregnancy. Recent studies have shown that embryos with a higher concentration of mitochondrial DNA have a reduced chance of implantation. Mitochondria are the energy producing engines within our cells, but surprisingly, an abundance of mitochondria appears to be associated with lower implantation potential.

The engineering is intended to switch on the immune response to attack cancer. In the pharmaceutical industry, antibody drugs directly blocking the PD-1 protein including Merck & Co.s Keytruda and Opdivo sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. have become new growth engines for the companies.

A study from the University of Oxford, which was recently presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Helsinki, suggested that screening embryos for their levels of mitochondrial DNA could help doctors select those that are most likely to result in a healthy pregnancy.

With CCS, an egg is fertilized in the laboratory and the embryo is grown for 5 days at which point 5-10 cells are taken from the part of the embryo that will form the placenta (thus leaving the cells that are destined to become the fetus untouched).

The embryo is then frozen and the biopsied cells are sent to a specialized laboratory for testing. The results usually return in 10-14 days identifying which embryos are chromosomally normal. A healthy embryo can be transferred in the next menstrual cycle.

Illumina offering pre-implantation next generation sequencing

Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) determines the chromosomal status of an embryo by screening all 23 chromosome pairs prior to transfer in an IVF cycle. PGS enables the selection of embryos for transfer that are most likely to be free of chromosomal problems.

PGS is described in 8 pages and details how it is compatible with WHOLE GENOME sequencing and screening

Gene editing on humans

Chinese scientists are embarking on what appear to be the first human trials with the Crispr gene editing tool, the latest effort by the countrys researchers to master a technology that might someday be a potent tool in developing therapies worldwide.

Nature  Chinese scientists to pioneer first human CRISPR trial

Chinese scientists are on the verge of being first in the world to inject people with cells modified using the CRISPRCas9 gene-editing technique.

A team led by Lu You, an oncologist at Sichuan Universitys West China Hospital in Chengdu, plans to start testing such cells in people with lung cancer next month. The clinical trial received ethical approval from the hospitals review board on 6 July.
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Five people arrested for alleged link with Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel; the Nice lorry driver who killed 84 people on Frances National Day, have been formerly charged by French justice.

The suspects were arrested following the attacks and are reportedly members of Bouhlels entourage.

The prosecutors office on Thursday held three suspects, namely Ramzi A., 21, Chokri C,37, Mohamed Walid G, 40 as accomplices in murder by a group with terror links, reports say.

The two others have been charged with breaking the law on weapons in relation to a terrorist group.

Seven people were initially arrested in link with Bouhlel a week ago. One was later released. According to media reports, some of the suspects exchanged text messages with Bouhlel, hours before the attack.

Francois Molins, state prosecutor also on Thursday suggested that the killer had planned the heinous attack for several months.

French Le Monde reports that Bouhlel reportedly sent at 5pm on July 14 an audio message to Chokri C, 37, born in Sousse in Tunisia. Chokri C is among the suspects charged with acting as accomplices.

The message according to Le Monde read: Chokri and his friends are ready for next month; they are now at Walids.

Bouhlel reportedly also sent another text message at 10:27 few minutes before the attack to Ramzi A: I wanted to say that the gun you brought for me was very good, so lets bring 5 from your friend. It is for Chokri and his friends.

French investigators also believe that aside from the text messages, Bouhlel harbored plans to perpetrate the attack. They claim they saw photos of articles in the attackers cell phone which infer that he was inclined to commit attacks.
A senior official in the Libyan army has confirmed the presence of troops from more than one Western country but minimized their role in the fight against the Islamic State. Air Force commander Saqr Geroushi said around 20 foreign troops from France, UK and the US are at the Benina air base in Benghazi monitoring the movements of the Islamic State jihadists and how they store ammunition but there are no (foreign) pilots fighting in the place of our pilots and fighters.

Commander Geroushi claimed that foreign military personnel can be found at other military bases and towns across the country including Tripoli and Misrata where they are carrying out similar tasks.

This week, there have been protests in several Libyan cities and many officials condemned the presence of foreign forces in the country after three French special forces were killed during the weekend by the Defend Benghazi Brigades.

The tension could increase after reports that French warplanes bombed sites just outside the eastern city of Benghazi killing 16 militants and forcing the militants to retreat to nearby Edjabia.

France confirmed the presence of its troops in Libya at the beginning of the week and Pentagon stated in May that it has a small presence to help it scout militant groups to ally with in the fight against IS while the British Defense ministry said its air force regularly facilitates visits by diplomatic and military advisers to Libya after recordings of conversations at the Benina airbase air traffic control surfaced last week.

With the country divided between several political authorities claiming legitimacy and having control over some of the territories with the help of their loyal militia factions, it will be difficult for Libya to stop foreign troops from playing a role in the conflict especially in the fight against IS because they need their expertise and probably access and supply of weapons and ammunitions as the country continues to be under a UN arms embargo.

A source told Libya Herald that there are UAE military personnel in Benghazi and the number of foreign troops would increase as several Russians arrive.
Chinese carmaker Yang Tze will establish a factory to produce electrical cars and busses near Tangier for a total investment of 1 billion dirhams ($101.6 million.)

This was announced by the Chinese groups CEO Wu Tian CAI following a meeting in Tangier with the President of the Tangier-Tetuan- Alhuceima region, Ilyas EL Omari.

The new plant, part of Moroccos environmental commitment, will generate 2000 jobs and will be built in line with environment-friendly and energy-efficiency norms.

The Chinese carmaker is looking forward to capitalizing on Tangiers automotive industry infrastructure and the trained workforce as well as the citys location at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, Tian Cai told the press.

Morocco has become North Africas automotive industry hub following PSA Peugeot Citroens opening of a factory near Kenitra as Europes second-largest carmaker seeks to emulate Renault.

Renault factory opened in 2012 and produced 229,000 cars in 2015, up from export 174,000 the year before. The plant is the largest in Africa with capacity to produce 340,000 vehicles annually. The bulk of its output is destined for Spain, France and Germany.

Morocco plans to attract further investments with the aim to create 90,000 jobs by 2020 in addition to the 100,000 that already exist.

The automotive industry is one of Moroccos big success stories with 4.8 billion in exports value in 2015.
More countries have joined the group of 28 member states of the African union, which addressed last Monday a motion to the AU chair expressing support to Moroccos return to its African family and demanding the suspension of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Republic from the pan-African organization.

In this vein, Egypts Ambassador in Rabat, Ihab Jamaleddine said his country welcomes and supports the will of brotherly Morocco to join the African Union and to resume its role in African bodies.

The diplomat also expressed Egypts hope to see Morocco regain its role within the African family as soon as possible, adding that there is a permanent coordination on this issue between the two countries.

Madagascar has also expressed support to Moroccos legitimate return to the African Union.

An official statement, initialed by President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, states that Madagascar welcomes Moroccos decision and will work to ensure that this legitimate return be effective as soon as possible.

Madagascar warmly welcomes the message sent by King Mohammed VI to the 27th Summit of the African Union, the statement said.

The President of the Republic of Madagascar, while being aware of the particular circumstances in which the SADR was admitted to the Organization of African Unity, has decided to take action to enable the African Union play a constructive role and contribute positively to UN efforts for a final and mutually acceptable settlement of the regional dispute over Sahara, said the statement.

Last Sunday, Morocco officially requested to regain the African Union after 32 years of an empty seat policy within the pan-African organization.

Today, Morocco wishes resolutely and unequivocally to regain its place within its institutional family and to continue to live up to its responsibilities, with even more resolve and enthusiasm, King Mohammed VI said in a Royal message addressed to the 27th summit of the African Union held in the Rwandan capital Kigali on July 17.

The following day, 28 member states of the African union welcomed in a motion Moroccos decision to rejoin the African Union, and pledged to work so that this legitimate return be effective as soon as possible.

The 28 signatories of the motion also promised to act for the immediate suspension of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from the activities of the African Union and all its bodies, to enable the AU to play a constructive role and contribute positively to UN efforts for a final settlement to the regional dispute over the Sahara.

Several African heads of State applauded Moroccos decision to reintegrate the African Union, stressing that Moroccos place is within the African Union.

Morocco is a great African country that has been contributing much to security and prosperity in the continent, but also to diplomatic relations and cooperation, said President of Cote dIvoire Alassane Ouattara. Within our grouping, this will only strengthen its role, its place and its leadership, said the Ivorian Head of State.

Rwanda also expressed its strong and unequivocal support to Moroccos return to the African fold hailing the move as extremely positive and beneficial for the Kingdom and for Africa after an absence of 32 years.

Without Morocco, the African unity lacks an essential component, said Rwandan Foreign Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo at a press conference, at the end of the AU summit.

I speak on behalf of my country and I can speak about this specific question on behalf of several other African countries, who attended the Summit, Morocco is welcome within the AUIt would be shameful to continue to see Morocco outside the AU, she insisted.

Outside the continent, France has also encouraged Moroccos return to the African Union, deeming that this decision constitutes an important contribution to the growing integration of the African continent.

Moroccos return to the African Union would make an important contribution to the growing integration of the African continent, which France is encouraging, French Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Romain Nadal, said at a press briefing.

A united Africa is indeed a factor of peace, stability and development for the continent and the rest of the world, he stressed.

The motion addressed to the AU acting Chairman was signed by Presidents of Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, the Congo, Cote dIvoire, Djibouti, Eretria, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sau-tome, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo and Zambia.
Security stands in front of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes as he leaves the News Corp building, July 19, 2016. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Roger Ailes, the powerful and controversial CEO of Fox News, is out of a job. Ailes, who started the network and spent 20 years at its helm, stepped down Thursday after an internal investigation and weeks of sexual-harassment allegations sparked by a lawsuit filed by former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson. Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, will take over as acting CEO.

Roger Ailes, the powerful and controversial CEO of Fox News, is out of a job. Ailes, who started the network and spent 20 years at its helm, stepped down Thursday after an internal investigation and weeks of sexual-harassment allegations sparked by a lawsuit filed by former Fox News personality Gretchen Carlson. Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, will take over as acting CEO.

Ailess ouster seemed imminent before the formal announcement Thursday as the investigation into the sexual-harassment claims heated up and more accusers stepped forward, including from Fox News biggest new star, Megyn Kelly. Kelly, who said Ailes harassed her as a young Fox New correspondent, also encouraged at least one colleague to come forward. Ailes wasnt likely to escape the fallout this time, as New Yorks Gabriel Sherman reported earlier this week:
A selfie of the Nice attacker and an alleged accomplice in the truck used to murder scores.

A week ago, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel plowed a semi-trailer truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing more than 80. Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Nice resident of Tunisian descent, was the lone driver steering the truck, but French officials said Thursday authorities had taken five people into custody whom they consider accomplices in the attack. Prosecutors also say Bouhlel was plotting the rampage for many months.

Despite this new evidence, prosecutors still have not found a direct link between Bouhlel and ISIS, though ISIS channels praised the Nice massacre and the attacker. Yet the electronic evidence reveals that Bouhlel had likely espoused radical ideology longer than authorities first believed. Authorities also raided Bouhlels apartment and confiscated and scoured his computer. The Guardian reports investigators found searches about Osama bin Laden, the mass shooting in Orlando, the cop killing in Dallas, and information about Nices Bastille Day fireworks celebration.
Donald Trump Jr. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Tuesday night in Cleveland, Donald Trump Jr., in what was possibly the rhetorical high point of his star performance, promised a prime-time audience that his father would look out for all Americans, not a special class of crony elites at the top of the heap. Wednesday and Thursday, Eric and Ivanka delivered testimonials to their fathers character, the latter laced with social liberalism bizarrely dissonant with the official platform. (She promised her father would provide universal child care, an issue that appears nowhere in his platform.) It was the junior Donald who identified an ideological bridge between the Trump name and the old party, and who may have discovered a version of Trumpism that can survive past a potential election defeat.

The younger Trumps denunciation of cronyism seemed anodyne and unobjectionable because it harked back to a familiar brand of conservatism. The identification of activist government with cronyism formed the primary theme for the 2012 Republican convention, which used Solyndra (one of the few green-energy firms subsidized by the stimulus that went under) in roughly the same way the 2016 one has used Benghazi. Years of right-wing rhetoric have axiomatically identified in the right-wing mind conservative economic policy with an attack on a corrupt elite. The free market is an open system that gives people on the bottom a chance to improve their lot, the thinking goes, and they are held back by the powers of the state, which enrich the powerful. You can find this premise unspooled at greater length in such Obama-era books as Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses, by Timothy Carney, or Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, by Michelle Malkin. It is true that even good-intentioned or well-run government programs usually benefit people who are not especially deserving. Subsidizing health care or food for the poor will fill the pockets of agriculture or health-care providers; regulating carbon pollution will enrich owners of green-energy firms; and so on. Viewed in this light, conservatism is the ideology of upward mobility.

The trouble with this strain of thought is that it misdescribes the actual sources of conflict in American politics, which revolve around the transfer of resources from the rich to the poor via taxes and spending, and regulations that business interests mostly want to undo. For instance, conservatives have attacked Dodd-Frank, the 2010 regulations on finance, as actually offering a benefit to Wall Street by making too big to fail firms eligible for a bailout. Donald Jr. echoed this argument by calling the law consumer protection for billionaires. In reality, Wall Street fought the law bitterly, has lobbied to weaken or repeal it, and shifted its donations overwhelmingly from Democrats to the Republicans beginning when the law took shape. The designation of a firm as too big to fail is not a financial boon firms see as profitable and seek out. On the contrary, they have lobbied to avoid it, and have even broken themselves up to avoid the designation.

When you attempt to superimpose the libertarian-populist frame onto a prospective Trump administration, it devolves into utter absurdity. As Politico reported in April, Trump staffed his campaign up and down with lobbyists, beginning with his campaign manager and lobbyist for the scum of the Earth, Paul Manafort. Lobbyists appear to be among the party constituency most comfortable with Trump. (At a gathering in Cleveland, Nick Confessore reports, some influence-peddlers sported Make Lobbying Great Again stickers.) Chris Christie, the leader of the transition team, told a meeting of donors, according to Reuters, that as president, Trump would change civil-service rules to allow the easy firing of permanent employees so they could be replaced with Republican loyalists. (This would come as no surprise to anybody who watched Christie take over the patronage machines in New Jersey and use the government to reward friends and punish enemies.) He likewise promised to let businesspeople serve in government part-time without having to give up their jobs in the private sector.

The reason the current rules dont let you run a business while working part-time for government is that such double duty might present a conflict of interest. The very notion of conflict of interest between the public interest and the private seems to strike Trump as an oxymoron. When asked last fall if he would place his business interests in a blind trust, the branding mogul replied in the affirmative, and then explicated that he would have his children run the business for him. Trump was describing the kind of private-public nexus found in a post-Soviet kleptocracy, which also happens to be among his preferred business destinations. Enriching a special class of crony elites is not a potential risk under a Trump presidency  its a solemn promise.

Yet Donald Jr. offering up his fathers administration as an assault on cronyism proved to be a highlight of the convention. Even bitter critics of the father found themselves starstruck. He fleshed out the image of his Dad as a working class billionaire and hit populist notes, although in the context of a surprisingly conservative framework, wrote National Review editor Rich Lowry, whose magazine published a special issue denouncing Dad. This may be reading too much into it, but you could see the outlines of a conservative-populist synthesis in the speech. Kristen Soltis Anderson, a moderate Republican pollster, wrote, Trump Jr. may or may not be a reformicon at heart, but Tuesday nights speech gave us the first hints that the movement might have an ally within Trump Tower after all. Meeting reporters the next day, Donald conceded that, yes, he is considering a future run for office.

The younger Trumps appeal lies in his promise that he can refine the passions unleashed by the father, and steer them in a more manageable direction, away from the demographic abyss into which they appear headed. The first night in Cleveland presented a vision of this abyss, especially in the form of a speech by Willie Robertson, the Duck Dynasty star. In his open collar, hair pouring out in all directions, Robertson boasted he grew up among rednecks, and associated Trumps penchant for giving offense to minorities with his father, Phil Robertson, who, among other comments, has attacked homosexual behavior and asserted African-Americans were happier before they had civil rights.

Donald Jr. seems to grasp the softer version of cultural backlash politics. He hunts promiscuously and presents himself sweating alongside his fathers workers. Im a 5th Avenue redneck, he told the media. If you doubt that a billionaires offspring could sell himself to America as an authentic man of toil, consider son-of-a-president George W. Bush, who enriched himself through his fathers power and built a successful brand as a ranch owner. Or perhaps the more precise parallel would be Marine le Pen, the French far rightist whose father, Jan-Marie, was too extreme and bigoted to win the presidency, but who, by sanding off his roughest edges, may well succeed where Dad failed. The future of Trumpism may lie in the oily, articulate, politically-incorrect-but-not-too-politically-incorrect, economically populist but not frightening to his partys donor class candidates namesake. Call it Schmuck Dynasty.
MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

New York has obtained a confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that shows that the planes captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide.

The document presents the findings of the Malaysian polices investigation into Zaharie. It reveals that after the plane disappeared in March of 2014, Malaysia turned over to the FBI hard drives that Zaharie used to record sessions on an elaborate home-built flight simulator. The FBI was able to recover six deleted data points that had been stored by the Microsoft Flight Simulator X program in the weeks before MH370 disappeared, according to the document. Each point records the airplanes altitude, speed, direction of flight, and other key parameters at a given moment. The document reads, in part: >

MH370s presumed flight path is in yellow. Zaharies simulated suicide flight is in red.

New York has obtained a confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that shows that the planes captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide.

The document presents the findings of the Malaysian polices investigation into Zaharie. It reveals that after the plane disappeared in March of 2014, Malaysia turned over to the FBI hard drives that Zaharie used to record sessions on an elaborate home-built flight simulator. The FBI was able to recover six deleted data points that had been stored by the Microsoft Flight Simulator X program in the weeks before MH370 disappeared, according to the document. Each point records the airplanes altitude, speed, direction of flight, and other key parameters at a given moment. The document reads, in part: >

Search officials believe MH370 followed a similar route, based on signals the plane transmitted to a satellite after ceasing communications and turning off course. The actual and the simulated flights were not identical, though, with the simulated endpoint some 900 miles from the remote patch of southern ocean area where officials believe the plane went down. Based on the data in the document, heres a map of the simulated flight compared to the route searchers believe the lost airliner followed:

Rumors have long circulated that the FBI had discovered such evidence, but Malaysian officials made no mention of the find in the otherwise detailed report into the investigation, Factual Information, that was released on the first anniversary of the disappearance.

The credibility of the rumors was further undermined by the fact that many media accounts mentioned a small runway on an unnamed island in the far southern Indian Ocean, of which there are none.

From the beginning, Zaharie has been a primary suspect, but until now no hard evidence implicating him has emerged. The Factual Information report states, The Captains ability to handle stress at work and home was good. There was no known history of apathy, anxiety, or irritability. There were no significant changes in his life style, interpersonal conflict or family stresses. After his disappearance, friends and family members came forward to described Zaharie as an affable, helpful family man who enjoyed making instructional YouTube videos for home DIY projects  hardly the typical profile of a mass murderer.

The newly unveiled documents, however, suggest Malaysian officials have suppressed at least one key piece of incriminating information. This is not entirely surprising: There is a history in aircraft investigations of national safety boards refusing to believe that their pilots could have intentionally crashed an aircraft full of passengers. After EgyptAir 990 went down near Marthas Vineyard in 1999, for example, Egyptian officials angrily rejected the U.S. National Transport Safety Board finding that the pilot had deliberately steered the plane into the sea. Indonesian officials likewise rejected the NTSB finding that the 1997 crash of SilkAir 185 was an act of pilot suicide.

Previous press accounts suggest that Australian and U.S. officials involved in the MH370 investigation have long been more suspicious of Zaharie than their Malaysian counterparts. In January, Byron Bailey wrote in The Australian: Several months after the MH370 disappearance I was told by a government source that the FBI had recovered from Zaharies home computer deleted information showing flight plan waypoints  my source  left me with the impression that the FBI were of the opinion that Zaharie was responsible for the crash.

However, its not entirely clear that the recovered flight-simulator data is conclusive. The differences between the simulated and actual flights are significant, most notably in the final direction in which they were heading. Its possible that their overall similarities are coincidental  that Zaharie didnt intend his simulator flight as a practice run but had merely decided to fly someplace unusual.

Today, ministers from Malaysia, China, and Australia announced that once the current seabed search for MH370s wreckage is completed, they will suspend further efforts to find the plane. The search was originally expected to wrap up this month, but stormy weather has pushed back the anticipated completion date to this fall. So far, 42,000 square miles have been covered at a cost of more than $130 million, with another 4,000 square miles to go.

I must emphasise that this does not mean we are giving up on the search for MH370, Malaysian Transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said. Officials have previously stated that if they received credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search could be expanded.

But some, including relatives of the missing passengers, believe that that evidentiary threshold has already been past. Recent months have seen the discovery of more than a dozen pieces of suspected aircraft debris, which analyzed collectively could narrow down where the plane went down. (The surprising absence of such wreckage for more than a year left me exploring alternative explanations that ultimately proved unnecessary.) The fact that Zaharie apparently practiced flying until he ran out of fuel over the remote southern Indian Ocean suggests the current search is on the right track  and that another year of hunting might be a worthwhile investment.
Peter Thiel speaks during the Republican National Convention. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

When a trimly besuited Peter Thiel strode onto the stage at the Republican National Convention, he might as well have been a Martian.

Thiel  PayPal founder, Facebook investor, Palantir chair  is a coastal elite, whereas Trump is virulently anti-elite (though he grew up rich in New York himself). Thiel is an actual billionaire, whereas Trump is a fake one. Thiel is an openly gay man, though the party platform explicitly defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. He is an immigrant, and thus perhaps a criminal, and one way or another responsible for Americas economic decline, in Trumps telling. Thiel is a titan in the technology industry, whereas Trump is a painted showman. And he is a libertarian, whereas Trump is a big-government populist.

And Thiels impassioned, if quick, talk felt like it was to a crowd on a different planet than the round one we are all sitting on.

The great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom, he said, speaking to a party that has lost its mind debating and legislating over which bathroom transgender individuals should use. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares!

We dont accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government! Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East! he said, speaking to the party that invaded Iraq for no good reason at all.

Fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline! And nobody else in this race is being honest about it except for Donald Trump! he said, speaking to a base that has been explicitly revved up by the idea of white decline, and whose candidate uses the state of the economy as a racist dog whistle.

He talked about increasing funding for basic scientific research to a party that has repeatedly gutted that part of the budget. He cautioned against intervening in Libya, though both Trump and Clinton have pushed to do so. I could go on.

We media watchers came to the speech puzzling over the Thiel enigma. How could such an evidently brilliant man support a bigoted candidate, one who has promised to preserve big government and make policy on the fly?

Maybe it was pure self-interest, argued J.K. Trotter in a smart essay at Gawker. The through-line that animates all of Thiels ideas is a profound distrust in the notion that equality itself is a worthwhile end, he writes. It takes just a bit of imagination to game out his anti-death campaign  Thiel wants to live forever via some future technological assist  into the ultimate inequity  unequal distribution of access to life itself.

Perhaps it was a simple quirk. Take the Recode analysis of Kara Swisher, perhaps the best-sourced journalist in the northern half of California. Peter is Peter, said another person who knows Peter well, as if the Peter-ness of it is perfectly clear. Peter is Peter is Peter is Peter is Peter, she wrote. Whether it is the really intense libertarianism, the Captain Nemo seasteading scheme, the Peter Pan college-bashing, the popping off of controversial sentiments (the women voting thing was misconstrued, but he definitely set himself up, perhaps on purpose), there is no one comparable to Thiel in far-out notions. And the life extension stuff, most of all.

Or maybe it was a moonshot attempt to undermine democratic government entirely. It sounds crazy, but bear in mind were talking about someone who thinks theres a real possibility he will never die; who pays college kids to drop out; who wants to establish a colony at sea free from the laws of any nation; who thinks capitalism and competition cant coexist. If it doesnt sound crazy to someone, its probably too quotidian to have issued from the mind of Peter Thiel, wrote Jeff Bercovici at Inc. I think Peter Thiel supports Donald Trump because he believes its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to weaken Americas attachment to democratic government.

Having actually listened to our Martian, though, I think it was something simpler. Thiel is a troll, a rabble-rouser, someone who delights in lifting a middle finger to the Establishment, and who wants to be contrarian for its own sake. It wouldnt be the first time. This is the man who wrote that women getting the vote somehow helped to make the phrase capitalist democracy an oxymoron.

Somehow, in his brain, the party that cuts basic-science funding will bring back basic-science funding. The man who argued for intervening in Libya would never intervene in Libya. The party that has stoked the culture wars will quiet them.

That he supports Trump does not make a lick of sense. And perhaps that is the point.
Theresa (left) and Lisa (right) Golt, with Chili Thompson (center). Photo: Rebecca Traister

Cleveland is currently flooded with vendors selling an array of potty-mouthed T-shirts, but I was struck on Wednesday evening by a pair of similarly coiffed blonde women in matching hot-pink shirts, enthusiastically negotiating the purchase of one of the conventions most ubiquitous shirts, the one that reads Hillary Sucks But Not Like Monica on the front and Trump That Bitch on the back. I wanted to know what had brought them to this moment.

Theresa and Lisa. Photo: Rebecca Traister

But, I argued, given that they were purchasing a garment depicting Hillary Clinton as a subpar fellator, their political leanings might not remain secret for long.

True enough, they agreed. But they were, in fact, buying the shirt for a friend and bounty-hunting competitor, whom they described as a male Hispanic, age 71, named Richard, who loves Trump and hates Hillary; hes going to love this shirt so much.

Did they love Trump so much? Yeah, said Teresa. Hes a dick and an asshole, but we need him. Lisa agreed: You need a president to be a dick sometimes.

But, I said, so many people consider Hillary Clinton to be, for the sake of parity, a dick. Did they not think she was up for the job?

No, shes a murderer, a fake, and a phony, said Lisa.

I asked the women if, despite their loathing for Clinton, they had any reservations at all about buying a shirt that demeaned and reduced women so crudely. Well, were not going to wear it! said Lisa. This shirt is only for a guy, said Teresa. Its about sucking a guys dick. Yeah, said Lisa, if we wore it people might thing we were lesbos.

As the Golts walked off with their purchase, I turned to the purveyor of the shirt in question. Chili Thompson, who used to play fullback at Duquesne and was a DJ in the 80s, now runs this T-shirt business. I love this job, Thompson said, because if people dont have a sense of humor, they dont have shit.
Its my party now. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

The first three nights of the Republican convention turned in a halfhearted and largely unsuccessful effort to draw Donald Trump closer to the party he conquered. Here are speeches about the bills from Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell he will sign, the right-wing judges he will appoint, not to mention testimonial from women and minorities he has never harassed or offended. The final night is the one in which Trump fully consummated his conquest.

Trumps acceptance speech is one of the most memorable and important ones ever delivered at a convention, because it reflects a conscious effort to alter the ideological orientation of its party. The speech bears the heavy imprint of its reported author, Stephen Miller, a very smart, renegade Republican staffer who advocates what he calls nation-state populism. Pat Buchanan, a sympathetic observer from a previous era, has described the ideology somewhat more bluntly and pithily as ethnonationalism. Ethnonationalism is a form of conservatism, and overlaps with standard-issue Republican conservatism in several ways, but the two philosophies diverge in ways that can leave their adherents bitterly at odds. (Buchanan worked for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but ran as a primary opponent of George Bush and Bob Dole, and left the party altogether to oppose George W. Bush.) Programmatically, ethnonationalists differ from standard issue Republicans like George W. Bush or Paul Ryan in that they oppose free trade and immigration. Their orientation is nostalgic, rather than glitter-eyed about the future. Like traditional conservatives, they distrust federal power, but extend their circle of rhetorical enemies to include the corporate elite. Most important, unlike standard conservatives, who tend to disregard race, ethnonationalists have a deeply, explicitly, racialized view of the world.

All those ideological markers appeared in Trumps address. The speech focused on four issues: crime, trade, immigration, and terrorism. The first three are issues most Republicans have de-emphasized, or moved in the opposite direction advocated by Trump. The last, terrorism, he presented less as a foreign-policy problem  as Republicans usually do  than as an outgrowth of an immigration policy he believes should exclude Muslims. Virtually the entire speech was therefore consumed with what, from the standpoint of almost any traditional Republican leader, would be heresy.

The most important divergence was the question of race. Trumps speech could be compared in some ways to Pat Buchanans 1992 address, which famously (or notoriously) cast the country as divided into a culture war. But unlike Buchanans speech, Trumps contained hardly any sexual or religious component. Family life and the transmission of social values through parents and communities  hardy social-conservative themes  were nowhere to be found. Indeed, Trump reached out to LGBT citizens, as victims of Islamic terrorism, placing on the us side of his fence a group Buchanan had identified as one of them. Instead, Trump defined the culture war almost entirely in racial terms.

Trump fixated on preliminary evidence of a rise in violent crime, which has risen over the last year, after a quarter-century fall. If the longstanding drop in violence does reverse itself in a sustained way, a trend that can only be intimated now, it would merit real concern and potentially justify a reexamination of policies. But the preliminary spike in crime is Trumps point of departure for full-scale hysteria  violence in the streets, chaos in our communities. Nor does he draw upon any theory of criminology, or offer tangible solutions of any kind. The solution, simply is the replacement of President Barack Obama with President Donald Trump, at which point, Beginning on January 20, of 2017, safety will be restored.

Why would the mere presence of Trump in the White House, absent any policy revolution he can promise, restore safety? Because Trump ascribes the recent rise in violence to Obama. Here is the most nakedly revealing sentence in Trumps speech, and the axis upon which most of his argument turns: The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly I have ever seen. Factually, this is preposterous. Obama does not denigrate white people, who supply most of his votes. The presidents rhetoric and policy on race are relentlessly inclusive, to the frequent frustration of the left. Whats more, Trumps chronology does not make sense. If Obamas rhetoric has caused crime to rise in his eighth year, why has crime fallen through the first seven?

But the imagined role of Obama as racial provocateur is the fantasy that holds Trumps worldview together. Unlike Obama, who balances sympathy for victims of police violence against sympathy for police, Trump does not mention the recent spate of police shootings of African-American men who had surrendered and posed no threat, nor to the long history of excessive violence against, combined with under-policing of, African-American neighborhoods, nor to the existence of racism at all. When he does portray nonwhite Americans as victims and not just perpetrators, they are victims of Obama and the global elite.



Trumps treatment of immigration is equally raw. He fixates on a handful of murders committed by undocumented immigrants, falsely implying that people here illegally are more likely to commit crimes. Again, the absence of programmatic detail is telling. Trump does not explain how he will locate and round up the 11 million people in the country without authorization. Nor does he explain how he will screen out the Muslim immigrants with hostile beliefs. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people, he says, Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be. So the test is to ask every refugee or immigrant if they endorse violence?

There is hardly any more meat on the bones of any of the rest of Trumps promises. He promises that new trade agreements will be with individual countries, not with more than one country. But the most harmful trade measure was a series of bilateral agreements with China. Trump insists no one from our country even reads or understands trade agreements, probably because the notion of anybody reading something long and detailed is unfathomable to him. The rest of his promises are empty to the point of comedy, conjuring trillions of dollars for tax cuts and new infrastructure by magic.

Trump famously elides any specific objection to his grandiose promises by offering his own alleged business genius as the cure-all, and he did so again tonight. This fantasy megalomania, Trump as the magical savior, is the most ridiculous feature of Trumps candidacy. What makes his acceptance speech new and different is that he offers more than just himself as the solution. He offers his supporters a restoration of the social order Obama inverted. Trumps election will not only make Trump the president, it will represent white America attaining the necessary level of collective consciousness, rising as one.
President Vicente Fox. Photo: Susana Gonzalez/ 2014 Bloomberg Finance LP

In his speech accepting the GOPs presidential nomination tonight, Donald Trump reiterated his longstanding campaign promise to either renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA, calling it one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country  or, frankly, any other country. In an interview with the New York Times this week, he affirmed that he would pull out of the trade deal in a split second.

This pledge, part of Trumps notable break with the Republican Partys longstanding support of free trade, is part of an effort to court white working-class voters in Americas industrial heartland, including Bernie Sanders voters. NAFTA, in particular, is blamed for having relocated many American manufacturing jobs to Mexico, so opposition to the agreement jibes well with Trumps general dislike of anything traversing our countrys southern border.

But according to former Mexican president Vicente Fox, if the U.S. were to withdraw from NAFTA under a prospective President Trump, it wouldnt make much difference to Mexico. Speaking to CNNs Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, Fox said his country could find plenty of other trade partners if the U.S. were to pull out of the agreement.

There are a lot of great friends around the world, like China, like Japan, like Asia, like Latin America, where Mexico can do business. If [the] United States would not like to do business with Mexico, we can do it somewhere else, he said, stressing that the U.S. would be the main loser.

Mexico imports from [the] United States over 750 billion U.S. dollars every year. We import, we buy from [the] United States. That means over 10 million jobs for U.S. citizens. So you dont lose jobs by trading. You gain wealth and opportunities to your people.

Fox also, unsurprisingly, expressed opposition to Trumps proposal to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, and urged American voters to reject the Republican candidate, whom he described as a false prophet who is cheating people.

Earlier this month, Mexicos current president Enrique Pena Nieto begged to differ from Trumps insistence that Mexico could be cajoled into paying for the proposed border wall. Earlier, Pena Nieto had compared Trumps rhetoric about Mexican immigrants  whom he has characterized as criminals, drug traffickers, and rapists  to that of Adolf Hitler.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose country is the other party to NAFTA, has been mostly quiet about the election in the U.S., declining to take sides or react to campaign rhetoric. In March, Trudeau commented that he wasnt worried about the little spikes of protectionism that happen during elections and didnt expect talk of reopening NAFTA negotiations to pan out.

The challenge is once you reopen it a little bit, they all tend to unravel, and its too important for both of our economies to continue to have a strong trading relationship, he said.
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

When Donald Trump picked the Mulan-hating, Titanic-loving gubernatorial goober Mike Pence to be his vice-presidential pick, he said that it was about party unity. And indeed, as the flopping of the Never Trump movement at the Republican National Convention shows, the GOP has indeed rallied around Trump  why else would Ted Cruz get booed offstage for withholding his endorsement?

Its a fascinating display of what political psychologists have come to call shared reality theory. Similar to how some people need certainty more than others, researchers have found that people are more or less motivated to get their beliefs reconfirmed by the people around them. Sharing reality functions as a sort of social glue, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign psychologist Chadly Stern and Stanford University researcher Robb Willer write in a new column for the Washington Post, without which we would be unable to communicate, work in teams and achieve shared goals. When you have a strong sense of shared reality, it helps you to come to think that your beliefs reflect objective reality and that theyre shared by your friends and family.

As you may surmise by the way fans of right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh refer to themselves as dittoheads, studies indicate that conservative people have a higher need for shared reality. Liberals, on the other hand, tend toward the opposite  rather than wanting to share the same reality with their kin, theyre more motivated to be unique, agreeing with statements like in group activities, Im somewhat of a nonconformist, while conservatives are more likely to agree that its important to them to see the world in a similar way as others do. And in matters both political (abortion) and nonpolitical (coffee) conservatives are more likely to overestimate how much their beliefs match those of their fellow conservatives, while liberals underestimate how much their beliefs are like other liberals. And guess what: According to Sterns research, people who report that they think their peers share their beliefs with them are more likely to vote.

Therein lies the difficulty of organizing liberals, which Stern and Willer compare to the proverbial herding of cats in their Post column. The liberal impulse to nonconformity may be what drives social progress  but it also makes it harder for the party to unify, the Democratic Party, to be precise. Its a fascinating irony: Liberals might be theoretically more collectivist, pushing for policy that benefits the public good, but their individualism makes it harder to build a coalition. Just ask your nearest Bernie bro.
Milo Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

On Tuesday, Twitter permanently banned the account of Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) for violating its hateful conduct policy. Milo  he goes by just the single name  was busted for trolling Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Although the offending tweets were not unusual by the low standards of Twitter (or of Milo himself), this was not the first time that he had gotten in trouble with the company, and by picking a fight with Jones he made her a target of even worse racist abuse from his followers. Thats the official explanation, at least, although it may give Twitter too much credit for having and enforcing a coherent policy.

Milo may have been one of the most egregious and consistent offenders of [Twitters] terms of service, but he was also one of the social-media platforms most skilled manipulators. He established himself as a right-wing celebrity by mastering the arts of calculated provocation and self-promotion, developing a particular talent for loudly violating politically correct speech taboos in ways maximally calculated to rally the faithful while baiting his liberal and leftist adversaries into hysterics. A sample headline from directly after the Orlando shooting gives an idea of the genre: THE LEFT CHOSE ISLAM OVER GAYS. NOW OVER 100 PEOPLE ARE KILLED OR MAIMED IN ORLANDO. Its thrust may be abhorrent, but as a headline its brilliant  and it plays well on social media.

Milo is also a number of things that most conservative journalists are not. He knows his memes. He calls Donald Trump Daddy. He openly affiliates with the neo-monarchists and open racists of the alt-right, which he depicts as a happy-go-lucky band of internet tricksters out to poke fun at liberal pieties for the lulz. Hes gay, too. Fabulously gay. Not the sort of dignified bourgeois gay that the Republican Party has spent years begrudgingly accommodating itself to; no  Milo is a self-described based faggot who flirts with racism even as he tweets about his love of black cock; hes the millenial gay best friend who says the most outrageous things: for instance, that gay liberation was a bad idea and its time to get back in the closet. With his legions of online followers and savants knowledge of Pepe the Frog memes, Milo seems like a singularly contemporary thinker. Yet he has also revived an older trope, which may be more indicative of our current moment: the decadent, gay, fascist sophisticate.

The subject of the gay fascist is, unsurprisingly, a sensitive one. Real-life fascist regimes mercilessly persecuted homosexuals, and any empirical connection between homosexuality and fascism is tenuous, despite what Christian conspiracy theorists and gay contrarians might have you believe. The gay fascist is a real historical figure  for instance, the French critic Robert Brasillach or the SA leader Ernst Rohm  but, more significantly, its a cultural trope, familiar from films such as Luchino Viscontis The Damned and novels such as Jonathan Littells The Kindly Ones. In these works of fiction, the gay fascist, who is generally debonair, witty, and well-read, is meant to stand in for the cultural afflictions of the society that produced him: decadence, cynicism, sadism; the narcissism and aestheticism of over-civilization; the worship of death and the loss of hope in the future (associations all courted by Milo with his Twitter name, Nero).

Theres a sort of deconstruction-by-numbers which holds that the gay fascist trope is indicative of irrational fears of disordered sexuality, or else is a way for ordinary people to comfort themselves with the belief that fascists were moral and sexual deviants, rather than what they were: ordinary people. Both those things may well be true. But Milos ability to reinvent and inhabit the trope suggests something simpler.

In its contemporary usage, fascism designates roughly any political ideology to the right of Joe Scarborough. As any college professor or message-board pedant will tell you, thats a mistake. As an intellectual movement, fascism defined itself against 19th-century European liberalism  which espoused beliefs that 21st-century American liberals might well regard as fascist. It held (with some exceptions) that men were naturally superior to women, whites were superior to blacks, and Saxons and Teutons superior to Latins and Celts. It regarded democracy with contempt.

The point is not that this liberalism was therefore illiberal. Rather, its that whatever its considerable flaws, this liberalism was in its heyday the ideology of a successful ruling class that was able to provide ever-increasing prosperity, individual autonomy, and social peace to the nations in which it ruled. Fascism is what came after, when the pointless massacre of the First World War, the economic devastation of the 1930s, and the persistent inability to resolve long-simmering social tensions discredited the European elite and its ideas. Reducing fascism to some vague idea of extreme conservatism, which in its American context essentially means angry old white people, misses the sense in which fascism prospered because it was something young, cool, transgressive, and new. For fascist intellectuals, at least, the liberal bourgeoisie was their enemy as much as were communists or Jews, and it was precisely because the bourgeois were old, self-righteous, and boring. Fascism was sexy and fun.

Milo gets this. Hes not the angry, downwardly mobile Iowan that is still the ideal-typical Trump voter. Hes young, hes smart, hes good-looking; his entire identity is a mockery of the family-values conservatism that until recently dominated right-wing politics in America. And hes mastered the art of the exciting transgression. Bigoted views are bigoted views. But its also true that a flailing American elite has elevated a corporate-diversity-training version of multiculturalism into one of the primary justifications for its continued rule. (At one point last fall, I attended a function at Brown University  endowment $3.3 billion  at which the keynote speaker closed with: Im a queer black survivor, and Im going to work at Goldman Sachs next year! The room exploded.) Milo exploits to great effect the perception among his disaffected, youthful fan base that liberal pieties about diversity and anti-racism are just the moralistic droning of an elite losing its grip on power.

Trumps success has raised among liberals a fear that the far right has made itself respectable. Milos success at creating a following for a figure like himself  limited as it might be  suggests that the bigger fear should be that the far right might make itself cool.
Peter Thiel at the Republican National Convention Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Whatever else Peter Thiel was doing last night, he was disappointing journalists. Since it was announced last week that the PayPal founder and early Facebook investor would speak at the Republican National Convention, a sense of anticipatory excitement had descended on the technology writers whod been covering his secret, recently revealed decade-long crusade against Gawker Media. The prospect of a tech investor whod seemingly embraced his status as a Hearstian billionaire super-villain, speaking just two slots before a presidential candidate with whom he shares  if nothing else  a flair for the dramatic pronouncement, was too good not to milk.

Columnists speculated on Thiels motivations for supporting Trump, and wondered if hed use the stage to advance tenets of his bizarro-libertarian politics. This was the man, after all, who had a tendency for advancing genuinely shocking political arguments like I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible and the extension of the franchise to women [] rendered the notion of capitalist democracy into an oxymoron. Given a national stage like the RNC, what would he say then? Would he disparage multiculturalism? Advocate seasteading? Dismiss the idea of a free press? Would he, from the stage in Cleveland, between the G.E. Smith band and Ivanka Trump, command the wholesale and fiery destruction of liberal democracy?

As it turns out  No. Anyone hoping for the rise of a theatrical new public figure or looking for an alt-right manifesto  or even just a nod toward some of Thiels more outre beliefs  was treated instead to a straightforward business-leader endorsement, filled with lamentations about misplaced priorities (Instead of going to Mars, we have invaded the Middle East) and corny jokes (Wall Street bankers inflate bubbles in everything from government bonds to Hillary Clintons speaking fees). The most interesting moment of the speech was Thiels announcement (to cheers!) I am proud to be gay  which he moved on from by dismissing his partys institutional hostility to that pride as fake culture wars that distract us from our economic decline. The Bond-villain super-genius version of Thiel that animated columns and op-eds  the one who sued Gawker into bankruptcy and tried to build a libertarian nation at sea  was replaced by a goofy, nervously enthusiastic businessman talking about how America was better when we went to the moon. The dangerous and fascinating Peter Thiel gave a boring speech.

In fact, this was the greatest effect of the speech, and almost certainly one of its intentions: to diffuse the mad-libertarian image that had attached itself to Thiel, and recast him as a boring, more-or-less acceptable Republican  someone other tech investors might disagree with, but a man well within the boundaries of normal. Thiel was able to support his preferred candidate (for whatever reason you prefer to believe he does) without alienating his friends and business partners in Silicon Valley, and his earnest, vague case for Trump  and the acknowledgment that his sexuality puts him at odds with his party  made his public persona human, and even reasonable, in a way that it hasnt in months.

That might be disappointing to people who like their industrialists to inveigh publicly as they do privately, but its heartening to at least one person: Mark Zuckerberg. After a brief scandal earlier this year over the unlikely possibility that Facebook had institutionally censored or suppressed conservative news on the site, Thiels presence as the sole conservative on Facebooks board is important to the company  so long as Thiel can maintain his status as an acceptable conservative, rather than a power-mad oligarch. This speech, in which he praised government technology programs of the 20th century, more than sufficed. Thiel emerged not as the neo-reactions first true public figure but as a boyish space enthusiast who just wants to get his country back on the right track.

So those of us hoping for a little more anti-democratic fire and quasi-fascist brimstone will just have to deal with our disappointment. But maybe not for long: Thiel is speaking next month at the conference of the Property and Freedom Society in Turkey  a gathering that attracts, in the words of Towleroad, white supremacists and their fellow travelers, including libertarian extremists whose ideology creeps right up to crypto-Nazism. Maybe hell be a little more forthcoming then.
Indiana governor Mike Pence. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

BuzzFeed has uncovered an enlightening piece of information about Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence from a 2002 interview. The pro-life governor of Indiana thinks condoms are useless.

In 2002, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell caused a bit of a kerfuffle among conservatives when asked during an MTV forum if he supported the Popes stance against condom use. Specifically, Powell, a Republican, said he supported  nay, encouraged  condom use among people who are sexually active to help prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The dogma of the George W. Bush administration had been abstinence-only education, but the White House supported Powell.

CNN asked then-congressman Pence to appear alongside Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Illinois for a discussion. When Wolf Blitzer asked Pence what he thought of Powell endorsing condom use, Pence had this to say:

Well, Wolf, I think it was  given the enormous stature that Colin Powell rightly has, not only in America but in the world community, it was a sad day And the truth is that Colin Powell had an opportunity here to reaffirm this presidents commitment to abstinence as the best choice for our young people, and he chose not to do that in the first instance, but  and so I think its very sad. The other part is that, frankly, condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases, and in that sense, Wolf, this was  the secretary of state maybe inadvertently misleading millions of young people and endangering lives.

Uh-huh. Condoms, the physical barrier which the CDC says are highly effective at preventing STDs, offer poor protection, according to Mike Pence, M.D. But he didnt stop there:

I just simply believe the only truly safe sex, Wolf, as the president believes, is no sex. And we ought to, with leaders of the stature of the secretary of state, we ought to be sending a message to kids across the country and the opportunity had across the world that abstinence is the best choice for young people. But lets be clear, last year, the National Institute of Health, Wolf, and some 28 separate experts said at least a half dozen to ten sexually transmitted diseases for which condom use has zero preventative value. The secretary of state is simply wrong.

Did the NIH really say that? In a word, no. A 2001 report said condoms clearly prevented the spread of HIV and gonorrhea but there was insufficient evidence that condoms offered protection against human papillomavirus, chlamydia, syphilis, chancroid, trichomoniasis, and genital herpes. But it does not mean that they dont work; it means that more research is needed. As someone close to the report told the Washington Post: It is extremely important that the public understand the difference between data being inadequate and condoms being inadequate. It is definitely not zero protection.

Pence finally admitted that he wasnt comfortable with Powells response, because it was too modern and liberal. The problem is it was too modern of an answer, Wolf. It was  it truly was a modern, liberal answer to a problem that parents like me are facing all over America, and frankly, all over the world.

Thats right, just pretend your kids will never have sex so you dont have to talk to them about condoms.
Our overlord Donald Trump. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Last night Donald Trump gave an acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that was riddled with false claims and designed to scare people into voting for him  in other words, it was pretty much what weve come to expect from him. His hysterical statistics about crime, job loss, and trade were all par for the course, but about two-thirds of the way into his speech, he threw in one unexpected sound-bite: a perceived message of support for the LGBTQ community.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist, he said, choosing to ignore the fact that the shooters ties to ISIS were tenuous at best. He went on, This time, the terrorist targeted the LGBTQ community. No good. And were going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me!

When his remarks drew loud cheers from the audience, he added, And I have to say as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you. Its true: this sort of response from delegates at the RNC wouldve been unthinkable even four years ago, and its evidence of the growing faction of Republicans that support LGBTQ equality. But although its tempting to see Trumps words as a hallmark of progress, when compared to his partys openly anti-gay platform, they ring hollow.

As has been widely reported, this years official Republican party platform supports the dangerous practice of gay conversion therapy  specifically, it says that Republicans Support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. It also condemns redefining sex discrimination to include sexual orientation or other categories and calls for the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states:

Our laws and our governments regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society. For that reason, as explained elsewhere in this platform, we do not accept the Supreme Courts redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal, whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the states.

Interestingly, though, Trumps defense of the LGBTQ community doesnt address the issues mentioned in his platform  in fact, it skates over anti-LGBTQ domestic policy altogether. Far from defending the rights of LGBTQ Americans, Trump merely stated the obvious: that gay people do not deserve to be gunned down by terrorists. But if they try to reverse the homophobic legislation put in place by, say, Trumps vice-presidential pick, they seem to be on their own.
mmm this looks dramatic.

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JGL is a joke of an actor. Such a try hard loser.

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That deeper voice. So method.

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The voice just kills me.

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I wanted to believe this was a parody because the accent was so bad.

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The deeper voice is distracting.

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lmao his attempts at ~becoming the character are a mess



this voice

that mess of a movie where he tried to be french

cgi bruce willis

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Dat my bb daddy

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did anyone watch The Walk? It was so bad.. his accent was hilarious

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lmao I was gonna go see it just for him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

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I dare u to watch!

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I watched 5 minutes and then could not get through it lmao, it was terrible, that accent. wow. especially next to actual french people.

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I thought about streaming it, but then i watched the man on wire documentary instead and it was so good that i don't want to ruin it by watching jgl murder a french accent.

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It wasn't worse than his accent on don jon. That movie was such a mess

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can't wait, love whisleblower bae

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Someone who is incredibly overly informed about all things Snowden (surely someone here must be, this is ONTD, there's someone overly informed about everything)... is this looking to be a massively dramatised actiony version of real life events, or would you say more accurate to what went down?



From what we know so far, I mean...

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from what I know...which feels like enough but probs isnt even close, this seems highly dramatized. but thats because it shows nothing of his escape out of the country. from what I gather, his country hopping to seek asylum was pretty Bourne-ish.

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They should just have gone full Bourne with this. Why go half way? Go hard or go home, Stone.

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Not well informed but I watched the documentary and like why is this movie necessary at all? The documentary was pretty decent and Oliver Stone just likes to make unnecessary movies.



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I haven't seen him mention this like AT ALL on Twitter, so imo that says something.

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I really like JGL as an actor. I'll probably go see this.

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I do too! Good taste bb

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this looks melodramatic af no thx

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I FINALLY watched Citizenfour recently and thought it was kind of a fascinating document. I'm not sure Snowden should be hailed as the hero some people think he is, but the situation was genuinely impossible and the worldwide public needed that information.

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Curious why you think he shouldn't be considered a hero? I know a bit about him, but not much.

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your last statement basically confirms he should be considered a hero then...

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lol mte

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honestly I would be here for this but JGL does TERRIBLE...I mean, TERRIBLE accents/voices in films. I have no fucking idea why the director or studio's want him to do a voice like Snowden's when it sounds so fake and forced and ridiculous when he could have just used his actual fucking voice and it wouldnt have taken away from the film.



its not like you hear their doing an edward snowden movie and go "well, I hope they get the voice right!"

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exactly. I like snowden voice. I love it when I hear interviews. I dont need JGL to copy it.



I was good with the documentary tbh

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lol whyyyyyyy did he do that with his voice. It's so distracting. Shailene playing older is as believable as jlaw playing middle aged. Just watch the doc it's probably more interesting and informative and iirc is on Netflix.

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he's serving some Batbale realness with that voice drop

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Does he normally sound like that???? Like I noticed while yelling his voice shot up like 6 octaves, tf?

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no, he is changing the pitch of his voice for this film. it sounds weird

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i follow snowden on twitter, it made me grow to like him.



why is shailene woodley still in everything.

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snowden's irl girlfriend is gorg tho damn https://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/this-might-be-the-girlfriend-edward-snowden-left-behind?utm_term=.crNrmRelN#.brMNY3Dz6

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ya she is GORG.



I think she lives with him in Moscow now though, but idk for sure.

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appaz she is with him now in russia. good for them

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don jon was such a shitty fuckin movie



male "screenwriters" make me wanna vom

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i loved don jon ngl. especially julianne moore's character

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she was the only thing I liked about it. all the other characters were so underdeveloped

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Don Jon wasn't good but it wasn't bad either.

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i kept thinking about his voice because it was so different instead of paying attention to the trailer. i kept wondering if it was easy or it hurt his throat or if he had to practice or tried different voices before finding "his" voice for this.

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i just tried to change my voice for like, 6 words. need a glass of water.

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Yeah great too bad they cut it.



Edited at 2016-07-22 01:29 am (UTC)

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that's sad they couldn't find anyone for the part if that was really the case :( i thought the reveal of sulu's family was done nicely. it wasn't too heavy handed. i liked the movie alright.

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I haven't seen it, but doing "the reveal" of his fam should definitely not be a big deal. I loved the way they showed the same sex couple in Frozen. They didn't make a big deal of it, they just treated them like any other family!

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there wasn't a same sex couple in frozen

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...it was his wife unfortunately. that's why everyone was losing their shit over Disney including a lesbian couple in Finding Dory...

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They were looking in Dubai and having trouble

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that's weird. isn't there an asian gay character on how to get away with murder (just off top of my head). i feel like producers and castings agents did the bare minimum.

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i thought i originally heard they cast someone and they had to drop which is why the screenwriter stepped in?? i'm confused tbh.

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Because they are wankers lbr

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I like to pretend I do

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probably so the movie wouldn't get banned in china

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Studio pressure I'm guessing, aka cunts

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yeah, I went to the source and read the rest of the interview. really disappointing that they couldn't find an actor for the part so that the screenwriter had to step up. :(

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tbh this sounds like BS to me? like how hard is it to find one single asian man willing to appear in a major movie, a lot of people would kill for that opportunity.. am i missing something here



Edited at 2016-07-22 01:57 am (UTC)

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IA. I thought I'd read that another actor pulled out and the screenwriter filled in last minute. Maybe "couldn't find an East Asian actor for this bit part" = "didn't really try all that hard to find an East Asian actor for this bit part."

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IA it seems like a last minute thing where they didn't bother searching for an actor.



They could have literally pulled some guy off the street lol

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I think they were filming in Dubai and it was just going to be one scene so they were looking for an East Asian actor in Dubai so they don't have to fly anyone out there specifically for that and from what I understand being openly gay in the UAE is literally a crime.

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i agree, "couldn't find an east asian actor to play the part in dubai" is not the same thing as "couldn't find an east asian actor." and, to be honest, it sounds like they didn't try very hard.

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i agree, that makes no sense at all.

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I miss Selfie. It was amazing.

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Of course it was cut. Smh.

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:(



oh ffs we can't even get a quick peck on the lips?

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Of course it was. Fucking cowards.

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Oh of fucking COURSE they did.

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I love that John pushed for an East Asian actor for the role. there's still so much progress to go in the community. :(



ohhhh I don't watch that show but that vid! <3

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Oh, for fuck's sake. I saw it last night & was kind of irked that they just put their arms around each other, but then I figured it was fine because it's not like there's a ton of gratuitous hetero romance in the movie either; it just comes off as a very sweet, natural moment without any fanfare, which is what John said he wanted from it. But if they actually deliberately cut it...come the fuck on.

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and no one was surprised :|

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i don't think they did, though. i think chris pine shirtless was the most this movie got in the way of partial nudity. unless i missed it.

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That John Cho interview with Vulture was amazing. There were so many points that I could relate to. The part where he talks about having thoughts of "If I were white..." as a young person and talking about how heartbroken he would be if his son ever thought that way, I related so much.



Like as a young Asian girl all I had was Mulan, Cho Chang and Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels and that was pretty much it. And I wanted to be Hermione or Belle or a lot of other characters but they were all white.



And I really liked how he touched a bit about how the Asian-Asian industry doesn't recognize a lot of the struggles the Asian American community face because there is a disconnect there which I hope can be worked on.



It was also kind of a bummer they couldn't find an Asian actor to play Sulu's husband, but it's nice they got the co-screenwriter in the end. Very proud that the film was co-written and directed by Asian men. It sucks that they cut the kiss, probably a studio decision?



Edited at 2016-07-22 01:42 am (UTC)

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It's kind of funny (and sad) that we all had the same figures growing up, Lucy Liu, Mulan, the yellow power ranger etc because there's just so few people we can relate to.

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It is. And then you have the inevitable thought "if only i were white... i could be in all these stories too..." and it sucks.

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Sigh, the Yellow Ranger. When I was younger every time I played with my neighbours I wanted to be the Pink Ranger but they were always like "no! You have to be yellow! You look like her!!"



And even anime shows like Sailor Moon which were from Japan but Serena was a blonde so I just really clung to Mars.

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oh I didn't even think about it being co-written and directed by asian men! and I knew Justin Lin was behind this but it didn't register completely.

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yes, same on all points.

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yep. esp about the mulan/lucy liu etc thing.

and even now there is still barely nothing.



Edited at 2016-07-22 05:57 am (UTC)

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off a cliff.

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LMAO petty!

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man lilo delivered so much for me as a tween. everyone today is so boring.

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That's not Lilo

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lmao

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lol sis I admire your persistence

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she is so strong

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My gosh.

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Heartwarming to see this liar having a friend in her darkness!

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you do not get nearly enough credit for your dedication

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lmao, you should be part of TayTay's squad.

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ily

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I can't believe you Legolas. You have been kicked out of the Fellowship.

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She's got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire

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lmao this martyr, queen of overcoming challenges

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Taylor is such a gift for her fans. She shows all the haters just how brave she is. 



Edited at 2016-07-22 06:59 pm (UTC)

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you are iCONIC

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proved you right proved you right when she proved them wrong!!!





Edited at 2016-07-22 09:19 pm (UTC)

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lmao the comments on the tweet have me rolling...'she looks soooo happy :)'

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If this relationship really is a PR thing, hiddleston really got screwed over, lol. Now hes stuck. If they break up taylor will again make herself out to be the victim, make him out to be an even more of a joke.

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I hope that's exactly what happens. I hate fake people.

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That's what he gets for being thirsty

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yeah he's got to stick through this for a least another month or two to make it look like a ~natural~ breakup. either that or it'll all blow over and they can get engaged at Christmas like the initial contract stated!

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okay now i'm so used to swiftmas in july '16 that i legit thought that you'd misspelled christmas... this fake relationship is making me dumb.

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That's amazing. Don't get me wrong I'm not rooting bad things for him, but at the fact that Taylor still gets her narrative regardless. La Diabla Blanca indeed.



Tom brought this on himself.



Edited at 2016-07-22 04:16 pm (UTC)

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I mean, that would have happened no matter what.

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yep! lmao what bad timing.

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That's what he gets

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lmao I'm praying tbh

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this is what he came for....

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Her team obviously conned his about exactly what sort of PR spin she's aiming for with this showmance, because I doubt her team actually told his there's an incriminating recording of her floating around that might get released. He def got played.

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The nerve! She has no shame!

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well im glad the moulting process is finally over









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lol shameless swift

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The title reminded me of this.

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lol

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lmao

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Hahahahahaha I love SpongeBob.

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I love this episode

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LMAO

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Spongebob, I'm a BIG BIG man! I WANT THE WARM NOW!



I'm DIRRTY.mp3 DAN!



an Iconic Spongebob episode tbh.

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Well, she is wearing black, in mourning for the death of her career.

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lmao first thing I noticed too!

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Let us all have a moment of silence.

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i was gonna say lmao

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lol

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she so reads ontd.

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She's probably stans for herself here.

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she's obv taylegend

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she has to; yesterday we were just saying where have all the "canidid" photos of hiddleswift been

ask and you shall receive i guess lmao

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my phone didn't load the whole page and got stuck at 'taylor swift comes out' and i got super excited for a minute.

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LOL the internet would explode

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lol well that would certainly be a fun way to distract from this ~scandal!

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I think we could all just pack up and go home if that happened.

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lol she would never, but that post would break ontd.

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I mean, what a way to get people back on her side though...

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i would die tbh

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LOL that would've been a fun post

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Lol that would have been amazing

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now I want it to happen :/

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She would never, unless she could make up a whole new, super vague category of sexuality like EquaHetarians ("I'm an equal amount of each sexuality. But straight")or Squadbiens ("every gender is bien & a possiblity...no, no, not bisexual, I don't label myself")



Edited at 2016-07-22 06:54 pm (UTC)

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the only way to save her career tbh

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Taylor the Manipulator is cooking up a comeback. Anyone who doesn't believe that clearly hasn't been following her closely all these years.

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That's what I'm thinking too. Weird that all of this happened right before TS6 ~techincally~ should be coming out..

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there's no way she's putting out an album this year

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I thought she was taking a break?

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Can she write some Lemonade/Famous vicious come back though?

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Yeah this is her biggest fuckup yet but trust, she'll turn this ship around.

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She is wearing all black to hide her baby bump (and/or mourning the death of career)

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i like her hair color here

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yeah, but ME-OW to the body-shaming on Hiddleson, With the appearance of Tom Hiddleston's receding hairline to boot. lol. how quickly they turn





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who is turning? the vast majority of users here didn't find him attractive before this shit happened

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OH NO NOT BODY SHAMING A MAN!!!

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Her next album will have to be AMAZING to get me to forget this embarrassment, tbh.

She won't be able to castaway another Style.

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kinda wanted her to get with michael sheen tbh. they are hilarious together.

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they really are but i love him and sarah silverman together tbh

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lol i can't stand her and it makes me wonder if sheen is secretly unbearable too.

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Can you suggest an interview or any video with the two of them being hilarious together? Thanks.

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Ummm... This was unexpected.

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considering she secretly dated matthew perry for a decade i would only be surprised by her s.o. if if it was michael jackson from an alternate timeline, tbh.

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how... random? but i love her and if she's happy, i'm happy

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Watched Mean Girls the other night. It's fantastic as fuck every time.

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i won mean girls trivia a few nights ago!

i remembered more than i thought.

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Honestly, I really don't understand getting married unless it's for a tax-break or citizenship.

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Unless one spouse doesn't get a paycheck (in school or stay-at-home) most couples end up paying more in taxes when they get married.

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only if they file jointly, if you file as an individual it's pretty much the same as being single if i recall correctly.

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Some people (like me) like the definite, public, permanent commitment that comes with a legal marriage. Is it for everyone ? Of course not. If you prefer to Goldie Hawn it, though, whatever floats your boat

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If you live in the United States, it means only one person has to work for a job with a good healthcare benefits package. Even with Obamacare, these types of job benefits are much better cost wise than all other alternatives present currently.

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or healthcare, or parental rights or inheritance or love or just because it may sound weird to introduce someone as your boyfriend/girlfriend after 20 years of being together if you have the option not to and that was a total tangent i didn't anticipate.



Edited at 2016-07-30 09:02 pm (UTC)

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everyone is getting engaged so quickly lately. and I'm over here 4 years in like, I deserve a ring for handling you

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I recall always wanting to watch Da Vinci's Demon's but I never actually got around to it

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shes so hot. idky i thought she wasn't straight.

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You mean you wish she wasn't straight? (unless you're a dude, lol)

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did my like quadruple negative confuse you haha



i just have a massive crush on her and i am a girl SO that's why i said it

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oop I just posted this !



I'm happy for her tbh, she seems like the SMG type, stay out of the limelight as much as possible and just live her life. I hope they make it <3

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Wait, really?? Damn, she's good at low-key relationships. I had no idea about her & Matthew Perry for years, and now I didn't know about this. Do you, girl.



(But I too wanted her with Michael Sheen. Even though MoS got v annoying last season)

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I always think it's kinda :/ when these news sources cite some really old project an actor worked on



But congrats to her anyways

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I mean I get why they do it but I still think it's kind of :/ like they could at least mention more than one work

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oh, he played wickham in the bbc show lost in austen. good for them! :-)

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how was that show? feeling lame and wanting something like austen.

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it's not the best, but it's fun and puts a spin on austen. i definitely recommend it if you want something cute and fun to watch.

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omg i thought she was married to matthew perry? fuck i'm out of the loop

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iirc they broke up because he didnt want to get married but they dated for super long. one of the most random celeb couples for me

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So her bad taste in men is not a recent thing

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Awwww best luck to them! Love her



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Crude is heading lower into the weekend as supply glut fears persist, while further endorsement of a sell-off is provided by a stronger dollar. Hark, here are seven things to consider in crude markets today:

1) While the latest OPEC monthly oil market report shows Iranian oil production at over 3.6 million barrels per day  up to pre-sanction levels  our ClipperData show a surprising drop in crude loadings in June after exports reached a post-sanction high of 2.6 million bpd in May. As our floating storage volumes show no material build in barrels last month, the excess must be finding its way into onshore storage it would seem.

2) According to Bloomberg Intelligence, there were 4,230 DUCs in the U.S. at the beginning of April  a number little changed from January. But as prices have clambered higher into forty dollardom in the second quarter, the tapping of these DUCs has been incentivized.

While Permian saw the biggest jump in DUCs in the first quarter (by 12 percent), it is also expected to lead the drop as prices become more accommodative. It is estimated that a price at $40  $50 should clear the fracklog of DUCs in the Permian by the end of next year, while 70 percent of Eagle Fords DUCs are also expected to be cleared.

(Click to enlarge)

3) Japan is the worlds leading consumer of LNG, accounting for approximately 35 percent of global demand. Given its reliance on imports, it has entered into agreements to receive at least 1.46 billion metric tons from 2017 to 2040. The concern is that two-thirds of these contracts restrict the re-selling of these LNG volumes, and not only have they been agreed at higher prices, but all the volumes may not be needed.

Japans fair trade commission is investigating whether this restricted re-selling is impeding competition laws; if so, these existing contracts may be renegotiated, significantly boosting the buying power of Japanese LNG importers. It also would turn them into international sellers; after all, the country is forecast to have a surplus of LNG to the tune of 12.2 Bcm in 2017, 8.1 Bcm in 2018, and 8.6 Bcm in 2018.

(Click to enlarge)

4) While on the topic of natural gas, the chart below highlights how natural gas demand from the power generation sector has reached an all-time high this month amid scorching temperatures across key demand regions of the U.S. Related: China Cleaning Up Its Air With Natural Gas Vehicles

This heat has coincided with a tick lower in natural gas production, leading to a mere 34 Bcf injection from yesterdays weekly storage report. Natural gas storage is now only at a 16 percent surplus to last year, after being 69 percent higher in March.

(Click to enlarge)

5) Schlumberger has followed hot on the heels of Halliburton in declaring that the only way is up for the U.S. oil patch. Signs of life from the rig count and hopes for increased drilling activity going forward is spurring on confidence in the oil services sector. Despite Schlumberger reporting a surprise $2.16 billion loss in Q2, better times are apparently ahead, as it looks to renegotiate contracts with oil prices recovering from lows earlier in the year.

6) This chart (via @CapEconUK) illustrates divergence at its best, as the flash UK composite PMI (manufacturing + services) heads south, while the FTSE charges higher. As markets try to weigh up the ramifications of a Brexit, the equity market seems to be considerably more optimistic than the current reality.

(Click to enlarge)

7) Finally, ClipperDatas Troy Vincent was out on CNBC India this week, discussing current oil prices and where they could be headed. You can see the clip / read part of the interview here.

By Matt Smith

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Three export terminals on Russias Arctic coast shipped an average of 230,000 barrels of crude in the second quarter of 2016. This figure is almost equal to Libyas total daily exports, according to Bloomberg calculations, and it is also a twofold increase from the initial 130,000 bpd handled by Lukoils Varandey, and Gazprom Nefts Prirazlomnoye and Arctic Gate.

Plans for the future are ambitious  Arctic oil and gas exploration is a clear priority for the Kremlin. A couple of weeks ago, Russias Natural Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy wrote on his Facebook page that the Arctic shelf, despite some project delays related to oil prices, remains a strategic direction for development.

He added the government has introduced tax relief for companies involved in Arctic exploration and development as a way of stimulating these activities.

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Rogozin announced the government is working on a comprehensive standard for Arctic exploration that will seek to establish the most appropriate technology and equipment to be used in the development of oil and gas deposits in the region. This also includes the design of new equipment to suit the needs of different fields. In short: Russia is looking North.

Most of the countrys current crude oil output comes from giant fields across Siberia, which were discovered decades ago and are now depleting. Russia is much behind the U.S. and Europe in terms of technological advancements in the oil and gas industry, especially in shale, so it would need to rely overwhelmingly on imported equipment if it wants to explore its shale resources. Until these imports can be restarted, however, shale reserves could be difficult to tap.

There are three potentially giant fields in Russias Arctic that are currently being developed: the onshore Kharyaga, Trebs and Titov, and Prirazlomnoye. Kharyaga was considered a very promising deposit initially, and companies such as Total and Statoil were quick to get on board. Now, however, the reserves of the field have been revised down from 125 million tons to 29 million tons, and Total is out of the picture as operator, transferring this role to Russian Zarubezhneft.

A total of 29 million tons may not be as good as more than 100 million, but its by no means a small amount. According to Bloomberg estimates, Kharyaga will yield 200,000 bpd in four years. Related: Saudi Arabia Offers Hope For An Oil Price Rally

Gazprom Nefts Prirazlomnoye, according to the company, holds over 70 million tons of crude in recoverable reserves and can yield 5.5 million tons annually. By 2020, Bloomberg estimates, the field would produce 125,000 bpd.

The third field, which is actually twin fields Trebs and Titov, is operated by Lukoil and Bashneft, where production started three years ago. The current year is the first to see commercial-scale output and by 2020, Trebs and Titov should yield 100,000 bpd.

These figures may not sound very impressive right now, but they will enable Russia to maintain its record-high output as its most mature fields yield less and less. And then, when the Western sanctions are lifted  and they will be, sooner or later  Arctic exploration will get another major boost from foreign operators.

If all goes as planned, the Arctic could help Russia surpass Saudi Arabia and the United States as the worlds largest oil producer by a large margin. That is, if all goes as planned.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A common complaint about technological progress over the last few decades is summed up in the phrase we were promised flying cars and got 140 characters. There is certainly an element of truth in that view  after all, the Concorde aircraft started flying at supersonic speeds in 1976 with flight times between New York and London of 3.5 hours. Fast forward 40 years and not only are flights from JFK to Heathrow not faster than 3.5 hours, but they are in fact slower and the Concorde is no longer in service.

Yet there is hope for the future of flight and it presents opportunities in the long-term for energy investors. The Concorde in some respects was ahead of its time. The plane suffered from high costs of operations and serious fuel consumption, which led to extremely pricey plane tickets and limited its ability for mass adoption. Add to that the fact that the jet created a sonic boom that vastly annoyed residents living under the flight path near its takeoff destination, and the plane was always going to face an uphill battle. Up to 45 percent of residents in DC suburbs reported being very annoyed by the cupboard rattling thunder of the Concorde when it took off from nearby Dulles Airport. For future supersonic transportation to have a role in mass transportation, it needs to avoid the problems of the Concorde.

None of that means that the planes of the future cant be faster than the planes of today. The Concordes final flight in 2003 was not the end of the desire of humans to spend less time going from place to place. Boeing has developed the X-51A Waverider for instance. The vehicle relies on riding its own shockwaves for compression lift and set a record in 2013 for longest air-breathing propelled flight at hypersonic speed. Over time, Boeing hopes to use that tech to develop a mass market space plane. Related: China Cleaning Up Its Air With Natural Gas Vehicles

Similarly, Boeing competitor Airbus filed patents last year to support the invention of a commercial aircraft that would travel at Mach 4.5, getting passengers from New York to London in just an hour, though it is unclear at this point how Airbus plans to ameliorate the issue of sonic booms associated with the planes launch.

Even NASA is getting into the act, working on a Quiet Supersonic Technology project which is designed to take the sonic boom and turn it into something more like a sonic thump according to Peter Coen who is the NASA project manager for the technology project in Langley, VA. This is accomplished in NASAs design by modifying the shape of the plane to cancel out the highest pressure sound waves that come off of the aircraft as it accelerates. The NASA design will fly at around Mach 1.4  slower than the Concordes Mach 2, but with potentially a less intrusive impact on residents in the area of the flight path.

The planes of the future will probably also look a lot like Boeings Dreamliner  composite materials, greater fuel efficiency, and of course modern amenities for passengers. Still energy investors should not be worried about the obsolescence of jet fuel anytime soon. The reality is that for all of the advances of battery technology, energy storage density is still extremely impractical for powering aircraft at this stage. Hydrogen fuel presents an alternative option  hydrogen was the fuel specified in Airbus Mach 4.5 aircraft patent filing  but hydrogen fuel is highly volatile and combustible.

Biofuels offer some potential but the capital expenditure costs associated with making large amounts of biofuel are astronomical, meaning that large upfront contracts would have to be arranged with major airlines long before any fuel was ever developed or the facilities themselves were ever built.

For the next few decades then, it seems that at least one area of the plane will remain decidedly old-school  the use of Jet Fuel A.

By Michael McDonald of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Canadian media are quoting oil and gas company Husky Energy as having told authorities that a leak from a pipeline has spilled between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude into the North Saskatchewan River. The leak has now been stopped with the pipeline shut down.

The company then deployed an emergency team and contained the spill with berms. The town nearest to the leak is Maidstone, about 220 km northwest of Saskatoon. Currently, the company and the authorities are building another berm downstream. Samples form the water are being taken regularly, and cleaning efforts are underway in hopes of containing the spill before it reaches the town of North Battleford, which draws its water from this river.

A spokesman for Husky Energy was quoted by CBC as saying the pipeline carried heavy crude from Huskys fields to the companys processing facility in Lloydminster. The heavy crude was mixed with a diluent, a hydrocarbon to ease the flow of the heavy crude.

Husky Energy is set to announce its second-quarter earnings results today. Analysts expect it to book a loss of US$0.20 per share. Like its peers, the Canadian company has been battling the fallout of the oil price crisis, selling assets and suspending its dividend earlier this year. Now, according to some observers, the company may restart dividend payments. Over the first half of the year, Husky sold US$1.14 billion worth of pipelines, plus assets in southwestern Saskatchewan worth US$454 million and a portfolio of royalty-carrying land property worth US$124 million.

Earlier this month, the company reported a new partnership with two other firms, which generated US$1.7 billion in proceeds. The partnership, called Husky Midstream Limited Partnership, includes Husky with 35 percent, Hong Kong-based Power Assets Holdings with 48.75 percent, and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings with 16.25 percent. The new entity will operate some Huskys midstream assets in the region of Lloydminster.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
(Based on an exclusive interview given by Nqobile Zungu, and her doctor Dr Samele Madela to CNS -- Citizen News Service)

I met 37-year-old Nqobile Zungu at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) that is being held in Durban. And yes, her looks were deceptive in the sense that one could never guess that her outwardly healthy body and cheerful attitude masked not one but three diseases. Now a mother of two kids, aged 12 and 8 years, Nqobile suffered from asthma from early childhood. In 2002, when she was 23 years old, she was diagnosed with diabetes. She went to a clinic and reported her symptom of itching in her private parts, but did not think it important enough to tell that she was also urinating frequently. The medication she got did not improve her condition.

"Two weeks later I went to a family planning clinic where I came across a pamphlet with signs and symptoms of diabetes. When I read that, I said this is myself. I went to the healthcare worker to check me for diabetes. My blood-glucose levels were very high and could not be controlled with oral medication. I was admitted in a hospital for two weeks. There I was given insulin and that made me feel better. Since then, I have been taking insulin twice daily."

But this was not the end of Nqobile's woes. In 2004, at the time of her first pregnancy, she tested positive for HIV. This was a devastating blow to her. She had contracted the virus from her partner who continued to remain in a state of denial. She delivered a baby boy through a C-section as the baby was too big because of her diabetes.

"Fortunately my baby was negative. My partner was positive but he had hid that fact from me. I did not know his status at that time. When I told him about my status he lied to me that he had gone to the clinic and tested negative. It was only later that I found he was positive. Things did not work out well between us and we parted ways. I later found another partner who was HIV positive but he was honest with me and we are happy with each other."

Nqobile started on anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in 2012 on the insistence of her doctor. Her CD4-cell count was 586 at that time and she was not feeling sick at all. But Dr Samele Madela did not want to take any chance, as she also had diabetes, and put her on ART right away. She was tested for TB also but thankfully did not have it.

"I am on medication for three chronic diseases. My asthma, diabetes and HIV treatment are all free under the government programme--I get the drugs for them on the same date at the same health facility which is at walking distance from my place. I am fine now, as you can see."

(Yes, indeed! When CNS met Nqobile, she looked fit as a fiddle and her smiling face radiated joy and self confidence.)

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By the end of this section, you will understand Islamic terrorism better than most analysts. Where it came from, where it's going, who's driving it there will be to a large degree answered. The background detail makes this poignantly clear.

Can we trust American politicians that already know these things, like the idea of them, and throughout the primary cast their Super-Delegate vote to make sure terrorism becomes a fixture in our world? How about in our own country?

Can we trust "party delegates" or presidential candidates that openly welcome known terrorists to their presidential conventions as honored guests, bomb innocent people for them, and give a green light to genocide and breaking federal laws because their bloc votes and money elect the next president?

Will the "Super Delegates" vote YES to more terror against Americans and the world? What am I talking about?

Come on, we've all heard of the Albanian power bloc vote haven't we? Albania is sometimes known as America's 51 st state and boy do they take the elections seriously. Their bloc vote concentrated in a few geographic areas makes a big impact.

" ...will be seeking to convince more than 400,000 Albanian Americans to vote for the Illinois senator...The Albanian American community lives in states such as New York, Massachusetts, Florida and Michigan, and the candidates are not leaving anything to chance considering that the 2000 presidential elections were decided by only 561 ballots from Florida.

Today according to their representative lobby, the AACL, that number has increased to 750,000 bloc voters in those four states and California. Who are the Albanians?

In their own words the AACL "has been devoted to educating the public, the press, and the parliaments of the world about the unique role that Albanians played in rescuing every Jew who either lived in Albania or sought asylum there during the Nazi Holocaust."

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Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump - Caricatures

(Image by DonkeyHotey) Details DMCA



Caricatures of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Is there any doubt things are politically "surreal" in the US.

The people running for president from the two major political parties are the two most hated candidates ever to be nominated. Is that not "surreal"?

Yet-the "Donald" Trump just officially given the nod by the Repubs or the "Hillerator" Hillary Clinton, about to be officially coronated next week by the Dems-one will become the next president of the US.

Is that not a "surreal" nightmare dream?

Maybe we deserve this surreal outcome as we've allowed the unbounded financial corruption of both parties to culminate in the surreal spectacle unfolding before our eyes.

The corruption is such Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino impresario "hinted he'll contribute more than a hundred million to the Trump campaign if he likes what he sees". [1]

There's hardly a need to be clandestine about corrupting the political process any longer. SCOTUS took care of that little obstacle with the "Citizens United" decision in 2010 permitting an avalanche of dark money to completely corrupt the political process.

Sure there's been opposition and a push to get a Constitutional amendment to overturn "Citizens United". Most people in the US are aware of the corruption of money.

But significantly that awareness has not triggered the widespread demand necessary to overhaul the current political process and get money out of politics.

The hypothesis here; there's been no formidable grass roots political action taken place to overhaul our corrupt political system because the progressive groups who would take action are one or two issue groups seemingly too disparate and separate from each other. They coalesce around their issue rather than sublimating that issue and banding together with the other groups to become a formidable, focused political force realizing the corrupting influence of money prevents not only their issue from being corrected but EVERY other issue as well.

So whether it's environmental groups, LGBT, against the TPP and TTIP, Black Lives Matter, the $15 minimum wage, Medicare for all, BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) of goods made in West Bank Israeli settlements, anti fracking, opposition to the Keystone XL, Veterans against War-to name a few that come to mind-they need to be brought together and coalesce around a priori #1 fundamentally changing the political process demanding money out of politics-something truly revolutionary.

Simply put, as long as money controls the political process nothing of consequence will ever change and the issues of these disparate groups will never be dealt with.

Only something truly revolutionary in the US will stop endless war, force an apartheid Israel to cede its occupation of the West Bank and strangling the Palestinian's in Gaza, where trade deals like NAFTA are never enacted into law, where fracking and deep water drilling are prohibited, ACD, Anthropogenic Climate Disruption is fully acknowledged and real corrective measures taken.

The political process that exists now is a joke where voting for the lesser evil is the primary basis for most people to vote.

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"I don't know..."



That's what a police officer, who shot a caregiver who was doing his job as a behavioral therapist, gave as a reason for taking the ultimate sanction, after shooting that behavioral therapist. This occurred the afternoon of Monday, July 18.



Thank God Charles Kinsey is still alive. Kinsey was lying on the ground with his hands up in the air. The cops had their rifles and handguns pointed at Kinsey as they stood behind their vehicles. Kinsey was trying to explain to the North Miami police that he was having trouble with a 23-year-old autistic patient who escaped from a group home for the emotionally disturbed who ran away and was wandering around in the street with a toy truck in his hand.

There was a definite communication problem, too. In the video Kinsey is attempting to explain what is happening. You can hear a man's voice yelling "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Who would be yelling such a thing except one of these heavily armed bullies in blue? In the video, police also order Kinsey to lie on his stomach. How much more innocuous can Mr. Kinsey be lying flat on his back with his hands in the air? Why even order him to lie on his stomach?!

Of course, Mr. Kinsey is an African-American, middle-aged man. Black guys seem to have a target on them these days and it's open season on them every day of the year, day and night.



And Mr. Kinsey told reporters from his hospital bed that the fact the police shot him was not what upset him the most. What really inflames him is that the North Miami police shackled him with several sets of handcuffs as he was lying on the ground supine while the mentally disturbed jaywalker sitting on his haunches next to him was the only reason Kinsey was in this sordid scene in the first place. And Mr. Kinsey was bleeding profusely by this time, as well, making a very ugly situation even more horrid.







Does it look like this unarmed behavioral therpaist who was doing his job trying to get a patient back to a group home is a threat to anyone? Well the police must have thought so - they shot him, then handcuffed him.

(Image by The Root) Details DMCA



The sad truth is, saying that "Any Lives Matter" is stark and sobering enough. We are now living in a militarized police state. Might is right and the badge and the gun trump everything. Even a professional doing his job as a caregiver who was "accidentally" shot by North Miami cops has a giant bull's eye on him.

Meanwhile, "Rivera offered an explanation Thursday, saying that the police officer opened fire because he thought the white individual, whom they later learned is a man with autism, was going to harm Kinsey," according to CNN.

"'This wasn't a mistake in the sense that the officer shot the wrong guy or he thought that Kinsey was the bad guy,' (Rivera) said in a press conference Thursday," CNN reports.

"'The movement of the white individual made it look like he was going to discharge a firearm into Mr. Kinsey and the officer discharged trying to strike and stop the white man and unfortunately, he missed the white male and shot Mr. Kinsey by accident,'" Rivera said in the CNN article.

Rivera said that the video footage of the incident was 'being portrayed poorly," according to CNN.



What? It is a video. It catches real life in real time. What appears on this video is a man laying on the hard street with his hands in the air. A confused young man who the guy in the bright yellow shirt tells police is not holding a gun, but a toy truck, seems harmless enough and is not acting erratically or violently. The guy in the bright yellow tee-shirt also screams that he is unarmed and is this man's caregiver and works at a group home. And also caught in this video are policemen pointing some type of rifles at the guys in the street. According to reports, it all started when someone called 911 and reported that a man was wandering around in the street brandishing a firearm and threatening to commit suicide, according to media reports.

"My mother had the talk with me when I was 18. After years of just the two of us in the house, I was leaving for college and would no longer be under her watchful eye," writes Lawrence Ware on The Root.

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It's certainly true that when GOP presidential contender Donald Trump shouts repeatedly that he's the "law and order candidate" he is simply pilfering the line and pitch that would-be GOP and even Democratic presidential candidates George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton worked to death during their White House bids. It's also been amply established that the law and order line is top heavy with wink and nod racially loaded code visions of rampant black crime, and this is a sure fire vote pander to fearful suburban whites. But Trump actually has his own history separate and apart from presidential racial scare politics of being a self-styled tough guy on crime. The start point was the now infamous Central Park Five case in 1989. The five were young African-American and Latino youths charged with the rape and beating of a white female jogger in New York's Central Park. They were convicted and imprisoned for more than a decade. The five were innocent. Their alleged confessions were obtained illegally, through two days of non-stop police intimidation, coercion, and lies. There was no physical evidence to connect them to the crime. The actual assailant eventually confessed and the city settled a multi-million wrongful imprisonment lawsuit with the five. Trump sniffed an inflammatory opening with the case. With much fanfare when the case hit the news, he shelled out $85,000 to four newspapers to splash an ad demanding the death penalty for the five. Trump made clear that he was not just outraged over the brutal rape and assault but that the case typified a city under siege from lawlessness and that it was time to crack down. The heavy handed welding of the death penalty was the only way to send the get tough message to criminals. He minced no words in his ad, "I want to hate these muggers and murderers." The ad was a not so subtle effort to prod state legislators to override then New York Governor Mario Cuomo's annual veto of a proposed law to reinstate the death penalty in the state. Trump did not budge one inch from his tough guy stance on crime even after the admission that the Central Park Five were innocent. There were no apologies, no recriminations, no second guesses from him about the horror that if New York had had the death penalty at the time and the five men had been executed at his prodding, that he would have had the blood of innocent men on his hands. Instead, he doubled down and lambasted the city's pay-out to the men as a disgrace and politics at its lowest form. The bald implication was that the men were still guilty and got a reward for their crime. Trump returned to his death penalty tout again last December when he screamed to a meeting of the New England Police Benevolent Association that one of the first things that he'd do if elected would be to sign an executive order urging judges and juries to automatically slap the death penalty on anyone who kills a cop. It was pure hyperbole since only states can apply the death penalty for the murder of local police and the federal government has jurisdiction over the death penalty in a limited number of proscribed federal cases. But Trump wasn't finished. He solemnly pledged that he'd never let police officers down and that he'd do everything he could to get the police even more military-style equipment and vehicles. This was an obvious slap at the increasing call by many civil rights and civil liberties advocates and even a promise by President Obama to review the heavy duty surplus military armor and weapons that police departments have gotten free or at bargain basement prices from the Defense Department. Trump masterfully played to the law and order crowd with the death penalty and further militarization of police department to make the political point that he was the candidate who'd crack down on crime and violence. He got the full throated backing of the New England police group. The San Bernardino massacre, the murder of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge are simply the horrid backdrop to the line that Trump has honed over time about America supposedly under siege from lawlessness in the streets and the need for someone to say it is time to do whatever it takes to stop it. Trump didn't need Wallace or Nixon to know that the law and order pitch can potentially pay rich political dividends. He first touched a nerve with it in New York decades ago and he'll play hard on it again and again in the fall, again paint a picture of streets in anarchy, and tar Clinton and the Democrats as softies on crime. It's a scare tactic he's no stranger to. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Let's Stop Denying Made in America Terrorism, (Amazon Kindle) He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.
PML-N won AJK polls

MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is set to form the next government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir as unofficial results of general elections for 41 direct seats of the AJK Legislative Assembly on Thursday suggested a landslide victory for the party.



In a sharp contrast to the earlier speculation about a split mandate, the PML-N almost wiped out its major rivals  the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)  in most of the districts.



Among the party presidents, Raja Farooq Haider of the PML-N, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan of the Muslim Conference (MC) and Sardar Khalid Ibrahim of the Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) managed to secure their seats. PTI president Barrister Sultan Mahmood was said to be losing at the hands of PML-N candidate Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed, while PPP president Chaudhry Abdul Majeed had a small lead over his rival.



Barrister Mahmoods brother-in-law, Chaudhry Arshad, also lost his seat to a PML-N candidate, according to unofficial reports.



Rivals PPP and PTI wiped out in most districts in elections

In Bhimber district, PML-N senior vice-president Chaudhry Tariq Farooq and the party nominee Col Waqar Noor had won from Bhimber city and Barnala, respectively. There was, however, a neck-and-neck fight between independent candidate Ali Shan Soni and PTIs Chaudhry Razzaq in Samahni.



Of the 10 seats in Poonch division, nine were bagged by the PML-N and its ally JKPP. In Kotli district, the PML-N was leading in three of the five constituencies.



Of the seven seats in Muzaffarabad division, unofficial results from five suggested victory for the PML-N, while results from the remaining two were awaited till late night.



Of the 12 constituencies of Kashmiri refugees in Pakistan, nine were reportedly clinched by the PML-N, two by the PTI and one by the PPP.



The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which had been winning both seats in Sindh, also suffered a setback.



Earlier in the day, polling was held in all constituencies smoothly, unlike previous elections, which were mired in allegations of rigging mainly due to flawed electoral rolls and poor law and order arrangements. Polling began at 8am and the turnout remained low during early hours because of hot and humid weather. However, the rush of voters was witnessed in the afternoon until the closing time of 5pm.



The voters who were inside the polling stations by 5pm were allowed to cast their votes. The highest turnout at any polling station was 77 per cent and the lowest 30pc, officials said.



The AJK Election Commission had deployed more than 32,000 law enforcement personnel  17,000 from the army and the rest from the Frontier Constabulary and Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and AJK police  to maintain law and order and provide a fear-free atmosphere to the voters.



It was for the first time that the army had taken an unusual interest in the AJK elections, with its top brass holding meetings and paying visits to oversee the arrangements vis-a-vis deployments.



Army and police personnel deployed inside and outside the polling stations did not allow entry to any person without seeing his computerised national identity card (CNIC) presentation of which was a must to obtain ballot papers.



In Mirpur, a sitting judge of the AJK Supreme Court was denied ballot paper by the presiding officer after he failed to produce his CNIC.



Although the elections were by and large peaceful, in some areas minor incidents of violence were reported, where rival activists scuffled with each other. According to police sources, about 12 people suffered minor injuries in the clashes.



In two areas, use of firearms was also reported. The officials said one Hafiz Nadim Mir was arrested in Flangar village of Haveli district for resorting to firing into the air. He was sent to jail for three months after a summary trial.



In Kot Tirhala village, some people also resorted to firing, but they escaped arrest.



An official at the election cell told media men they had received over 150 complaints about minor issues, such as change of serial numbers of their names in voter lists or disagreement over appointment of polling agents. These were settled immediately.



The Election Commission had banned appointment of polling agents not belonging to the same constituency.



Among some other unfortunate incidents, one Iftikhar Hussain, 35, who was standing in a queue to cast his vote in Dadyal (district Mirpur) lost his life due to sudden cardiac arrest. Another person was killed and five others were wounded when a vehicle carrying voters to a polling station in Khun Banway village, near Muzaffarabad, overturned.



During a visit to a polling station, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal said he was pleased to see the untiring efforts of the officials concerned had borne fruit to the expectations of the public at large.



I am sure these elections will be remembered as the most transparent and memorable activity, he said.



The CEC also flew to Rawalakot and Mirpur and expressed similar views while talking to journalists there.
Farming is currently left out of the ETS. Credit: University of Auckland

A new, powerful way of modelling the impact of carbon pricing has been developed by University of Auckland doctoral researcher Sina Mashinchi. It shows how a carbon tax targeting emissions-intensive industries, along with a revamped Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), could boost economic growth, with the extra tax generated used to cut GST from 15 percent to 12.5 percent.

"I wanted to show that we could move closer to our Kyoto emission targets and still have good economic growth," says Mr Mashinchi.

A signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, New Zealand is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by five percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by half by mid-century. But in 2013, our emissions were up 21 percent from 1990 levels.

Currently, the ETS is the main economic tool in use here to lower carbon emissions. Industries start with a set number of carbon credits, and when they use them up through generating greenhouse gases, they have to buy more. This is meant to encourage practices that will lower emissions.

Critics argue that the ETS is hamstrung by its lenient application. The government gives freebies and two-for-one deals to many industrial emitters. And even though agriculture is responsible for half of New Zealand's emissions, it's entirely exempt from the scheme (which is true across the world). New Zealand has also bought many "junk" fraudulent credits from Eastern Europe.

It's widely recognised that the price of carbon credits, currently sitting around $17 per tonne, is too low to change behaviour. But the new modelling shows that even if the price was gradually raised to $300, we still wouldn't crack our 2050 target with the ETS alone.

Mr Mashinchi argues there's another basic problem: the ETS is based on a weak and ill-fitting model. The model he helped develop is more sophisticated and finely tuned to real New Zealand experience. He purchased rights to develop a model created by Cambridge Econometrics, and fed in 45 years of economic, environmental and energy data from New Zealand, spanning 1970 to 2014. By contrast, the model used for the ETS used only one year of data.

"It shows how New Zealand reacted to global events such as the oil shocks and the Great Financial Crisis," Mr Mashinchi says.

It also shows how New Zealanders responded to past policies, he says  not always as an economist might expect. The model that the ETS is based on assumes people act rationally, responding to policies and trends in predictable ways, "but people don't always act rationally".

Mr Mashinchi experimented with mixes of a beefed-up ETS and a carbon tax. He found if the price of carbon credits increased to $75 right now, and rose by $20 a year from now on, and a carbon tax for non-ETS sectors was introduced and set at the same levels, the government could use the extra tax take to lower GST by 2.5 percent to 12.5 percent.

A business would either pay for carbon credits or pay a carbon tax  not both.

According to the modelling, this would stimulate the economy, encouraging investment in new technologies, energy efficiencies and public transport, which would create jobs. GDP would rise by an average 2.2 percent per year from 2016-2050, while emissions would fall 14.2 percent from current levels in 2030.

"This still falls short of our Kyoto target, but it's a lot better than emissions going up," says Mr Mashinchi.

Mr Mashinchi's work was supported by the Energy Centre at the Univeristy of Auckland Business School.

Introducing a carbon tax is known as Environmental Tax Reform (ETR), something being trialled in some form or another in places such as the UK, Germany, and Scandinavian countries.

"The idea behind ETR is very simple," he says. "It's about shifting tax from 'good' things to 'bad' things  from labour, income and investment to pollution and waste. This modelling shows it's possible to boost GDP and the employment rate, and lower GST, through ETR in New Zealand."

Despite the challenges ahead, Mr Mashinchi is upbeat. "We can't blame our government over the ETS failing, because similar policies failed everywhere, and some countries haven't even started. We should be optimistic about the future. This modelling shows us one economically viable way forward."

Explore further EU says emissions down, but pollution scheme falters
Best Buy wants to go deeper into customers' homes.

Its Geek Squad agents already make house calls to install and fix things. And experts from its high-end Magnolia Design Center will come out to suggest pricey ways to deck out home theater rooms.

Now the electronics retailer, headquartered outside Minneapolis, is testing in a handful of markets a new in-home consulting service. Armed with a tablet, the adviser helps customers troubleshoot issues such as improving their wireless speed for faster streaming and can also recommend a whole host of products for the kitchen or throughout the home.

They could, for example, help people figure out how to stream music throughout the rooms of their house by using wireless speakers and a mobile device or set up a system of connected devices that can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet.

The in-home consultation business is one of several pilot programs Best Buy is launching this year to grow sales and enhance its service offerings in order to give customers another reason to go to Best Buy instead of a host of other websites and retailers that peddle the same products.

The Best Buy consultant is tasked with creating a personalized technology plan and helping coordinate with cable, internet and home security providers, staying in touch with the customer throughout the process. The service is free, but the hope is that customers will purchase recommended products from Best Buy.

"When it comes to adding tech to your home, picking the right products and getting everything working together can be a little overwhelming," a narrator says in a video on Best Buy's website explaining the service. "So let Best Buy make it easy with a free, in-home consultation."

As part of its advertising for the service, Best Buy is using the slogan, "You'll be surprised what your home can do."

As it expands its array of services, it's facing increased competition on that front, including from startups such as Enjoy, launched by Ron Johnson, the former J.C. Penney and Apple executive. Enjoy experts deliver tech products to customers' homes and then help them set up and personalize the devices.

-

Best Buy Chief Executive Hubert Joly told analysts in May that this will be a year of "exploration and experimentation" to find ways to help "unlock growth." Finding new sources of revenue is a pressing issue for Best Buy, which has seen its sales slip in the last few quarters and has forecast no sales growth this year amid declining demand for new smartphones.

Best Buy executives have been fairly tight-lipped so far, though, on the details of these new initiatives, saying they don't want to tip off their competitors.

"I won't get into specifics, but we're going to become America's best friends in terms of learning about and enjoying technology," Joly said during a recent conference call.

He ended up spilling the beans about the in-home consulting service during the company's shareholders meeting in June when asked for specifics on the company's strategy for growth.

"We find that if you're going to look to find a solution for your technology needs in your house, exploring online is one thing; exploring that in the store is another thing," he said. "Having somebody, an expert, come to your house and be able to identify your needs, how your family is using technology, but also your constraints ... and then designing a solution for you and becoming a resource for you over time."

-

The in-home consulting program launched in recent months in San Antonio, Austin, Texas, and Atlanta.

"We will learn from these markets over time before making any decisions on expanding to other markets," Best Buy spokesman Jeff Shelman said in an email.

Best Buy says there's no obligation to buy anything.

"It's an interesting model," said Jason Goldberg, senior vice president of commerce at Razorfish, a digital consulting firm. "It's kind of like the next generation of Geek Squad, if you will."

In some ways, he said, it's similar to the babyproofing industry, which sends a consultant to people's homes for free to suggest ways to make their houses safer for little ones with the hope that customers will then buy those products from them.

"We've evolved from products to systems of products, and the decisionmaking process has gotten much more complex," Goldberg said. "It's very smart of them to try to invent services to address that."

The challenge, he said, will be trying to scale it nationwide in terms of finding and training good employees to fill these consultant roles.

Best Buy also will likely figure out from the pilot whether the payoff from it warrants keeping it free or whether to charge a fee for it in the future.

"If you can make money doing it for free, you'd much rather do that because your market would be larger," Goldberg said.

Explore further Best Buy reports weak holiday shopping results, outlook

2016 Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Prof. Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky and Prof. Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia in the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. The monitor in the background displays the measurement in excess of 1 terapascal.

An international team of researchers headed by Prof. Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia and Prof. Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky of the University of Bayreuth has succeeded in creating a pressure of 1 trillion pascals in a laboratory. A study published in Science Advances is opening up new research prospects in physics, solid state chemistry, materials science, geophysics, and astrophysics.

The extreme pressures and temperatures that can be achieved and controlled with great precision in a laboratory are ideal objects of investigation in physics, chemistry, and materials science. They allow the structures and properties of materials to be explained, new materials to be synthesized for industrial applications, new material states to be discovered, and a deeper understanding of materials to be achieved, thereby yielding insights into the structure and dynamics of Earth and other planets. For this reason, scientists around the world have a strong research interest in continuing to increase the amount of pressure generated in laboratories for purposes of material analysis.

Until now, the 1-terapascal mark  i.e. 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) pascals  was considered a magic threshold. That's three times higher than the pressure found in Earth's core. As a point of comparison, it can be thought of as the pressure that would be exerted on a single penny if 100 Eiffel Towers were stacked on top of it.

It is this threshold which the international team of researchers headed by Prof. Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia and Prof. Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky of the University of Bayreuth have now reached and even exceeded. The scientists have now revealed how they were able to break this record in the research magazine Science Advances.

International Research Cooperation

In addition to the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry & Geophysics (BGI) and the University of Bayreuth's Laboratory of Crystallography, numerous other research partners were involved: the Center for Advanced Radiation Sources at the University of Chicago, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, the University of Antwerp, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad. Key experiments were carried out by Bayreuth scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory, a research institute in Chicago under the leadership of the US Department of Energy.

Synthesized in the lab: ultra-hard diamond spheres

Spherical nano-crystalline diamonds have opened a door to a new dimension of materials research. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth synthesized these transparent spheres, each with a diameter of 10-20 micrometres, in a laboratory. As it turns out, they exhibit a highly unusual resistance to pressure due to their unique texture. They are extremely robust when external pressures are exerted on them.

The members of the research team exploited this property for the purpose of creating pressure in excess of 1 terapascal for experiments in materials science. Using a focused ion beam, they first split the ultra-hard diamond spheres in two. The two halves were then installed in a double-sided diamond anvil cell. With the material samples wedged in between being exposed to increasing pressures, they were x-rayed at the electron synchrotron facilities in Chicago. The diffraction pattern yielded by these technologically demanding investigations revealed that the threshold of 1 terapascal had been reached and even exceeded.

Inside the diamond anvil cell: materials tested at extremely high pressures

Diamond anvil cells have been used in high pressure and high temperature research for quite some time. In such research, the sample of the material to be investigated is placed between the two diamonds. These diamonds squeeze the material sample together from both sides resulting in pressure of up to 250 gigapascals.

A few years ago, this research technique was extended in a crucial way at the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry & Geophysics (BGI) and the University of Bayreuth's Laboratory of Crystallography. The double-sided diamond anvil cell constructed here enables much higher pressure levels to be achieved. This is due to the half nano-crystalline diamond attached to each of the two diamonds in the cell. The heads of the hemispheres are positioned exactly opposite one another. This allows them to transfer the extreme pressures exerted on them from the outer edges of the larger diamonds to the material samples between them without being destroyed. The key feature of this two-step process is that the pressure transferred to the material sample is multiplied. For the heads of the hemispheres that touch the material sample have a considerably smaller surface than their circular lower surfaces with which they are attached to the larger diamonds.

A key source of pressure resistance in nano-crystalline diamonds is their particle size. The nano-crystalline diamonds with which compression pressure in excess of 1 terapascal was achieved in two-step cells are between 2 and 15 nanometres.

Liquid and gaseous samples also investigated

The research finding that have now been published do not open up new possibilities in physical, chemical, and geo-scientific materials research solely in virtue of having exceeded the 1-terapascal mark. Special seals the scientists installed in the double-sided diamond anvil cell allow not only solid bodies, but also material samples in their original gas or liquid states to be analysed at pressures in excess of 1 terapascal.

Future research prospects

"We are very pleased that we  together with our research partners  were able to contribute to international high pressure and high temperature research in this way," Prof. Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia said. The newly published research findings are expected to be highly relevant to many different branches of research, especially physics, solid state chemistry, materials science, geophysics, and astrophysics. Industry is also expected to benefit from the findings, for example in the development of new hydrogen technologies or high-performance superconductors.

From 4 to 9 September 2016, the European High Pressure Research Group (EHPRG) will convene at the University of Bayreuth for the organization's annual conference. "New research prospects will, of course, also be a topic at the conference," Prof. Dubrovinskaia said.

More information: N. Dubrovinskaia et al. Terapascal static pressure generation with ultrahigh yield strength nanodiamond, Science Advances (2016). Journal information: Science Advances N. Dubrovinskaia et al. Terapascal static pressure generation with ultrahigh yield strength nanodiamond,(2016). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600341

Provided by University of Bayreuth
Banks were the first to teach us that we couldn't live without passwords. Now they're showing us that we can.

Big banks increasingly are offering customers the option of using fingerprints, voices, retina scans and other biometric technologies to access their accounts instead of passwords.

Convenience for customers and better security in a time of rampant data breaches are fueling the switch.

Biometric authentication is "difficult to mimic and easy for people to use," said Tom Trebilcock, senior vice president of digital at Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, where customers with Apple iPhones equipped with Touch ID have the option of ditching passwords for fingerprints.

"Looking out years from now, I expect the days for passwords are numbered," he said.

PNC has been offering fingerprint access to mobile banking customers through its virtual wallet mobile app since September, and to its other iPhone-equipped customers since June.

Citizens Bank, based in Rhode Island, offers a similar service, while First National Bank of Pennsylvania, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is set to launch its iPhone-based verification service later this year.

"It's been pretty popular," PNC's Trebilcock said of fingerprint access, declining to disclose the number of customers using it. For now, only customers with iPhones can use the service, but the bank is exploring the addition of Android-based phones.

In part, passwords have been done in by their ubiquity. With so many passwords to remember, many people resort to using simple letter or number sequences - such as "123456," "qwerty" (the first six letters on a keyboard) or "password." That makes passwords easy to remember, but also makes it easy for cybercriminals armed with valid email addresses to crack accounts by guessing.

"Using biometrics is clearly a higher level of security," said Doug Johnson, senior vice president of risk management for the American Bankers Association in Washington, D.C.

At PNC, customers using Touch ID to sign in to their accounts can check balances and perform most other mobile banking transactions, but they must use passwords when transferring money out of their accounts, such as when paying bills.

Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bank is planning to roll out Touch ID log-ins using thumbprints by this fall, according to payments and channels director Mark Sheehan. Customers will have full access to Huntington's mobile banking services, including bill pay, he said.

"We had a lot of feedback from customers that this is something they would like to see," he said.

The bank also is experimenting with voice recognition technology that could be used to verify customers when they call customer service. The company currently is conducting a test pilot with employees.

For now, the use of fingerprint IDs and the like aren't for everyone. Some consumers are reluctant to embrace the technology because of concerns that thieves will devise ways to steal and use biometric data, too.

The American Bankers Association's Johnson pointed out that no actual fingerprints or eye patterns are being stored. Instead, a digital code is created using a series of 1s and zeros used to match each unique finger or retina pattern.

"The ones and zeros don't access the account. It's pressing the finger to the phone," he said.

In addition, experts noted that extra safeguards are in place behind the scenes for added security.

For example, some banks employ geolocation tracking. If an account holder's phone is out of its normal range, a password is needed to access the account.

Eye scan systems often require the person to blink to prevent thieves from using a photograph for authentication, while voice recognition systems may use certain prompts to ensure a live person is on the line instead of a recording.

As biometric verification becomes more common, some people are pushing for federal standards to clarify the rights that citizens have in protecting the use of that data.

The premise is that passwords and Social Security numbers can be changed if they're stolen, while fingerprints, retinas and other biometric markers can't. In the forefront of that movement are a handful of lawsuits filed recently by consumers challenging facial recognition software used by Facebook and others for online photo tagging.

In Johnson's view, biometrics will continue to gain momentum. And the day will come when passwords will be as passe as old rotary telephones.

He said biometric data, along with dynamic authentication using numbers that change with each transaction represent the future.

"Static numbers are what get us into trouble," he said.

2016 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The flash-drive-sized device contains two layers of human cells that model the interface between mother and fetus. Credit: University of Pennsylvania

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed the first placenta-on-a-chip that can fully model the transport of nutrients across the placental barrier.

The flash-drive-sized device contains two layers of human cells that model the interface between mother and fetus. Microfluidic channels on either side of those layers allow researchers to study how molecules are transported through, or are blocked by, that interface.

Like other organs-on-chips, such as ones developed to simulate lungs, intestines and eyes, the placenta-on-a-chip provides a unique capability to mimic and study the function of that human organ in ways that have not been possible using traditional tools.

Research on the team's placenta-on-a-chip is part of a nationwide effort sponsored by the March of Dimes to identify causes of preterm birth and ways to prevent it. Prematurely born babies may experience lifelong, debilitating consequences, but the underlying mechanisms of this condition are not well understood due in part to the difficulties of experimenting with intact, living human placentae.

The research was led by Dan Huh, the Wilf Family Term Assistant Professor of Bioengineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Cassidy Blundell, a graduate student in the Huh lab. They collaborated with Samuel Parry, the Franklin Payne Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Christos Coutifaris, the Nancy and Richard Wolfson Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine; and Emily Su, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Anschutz Medical School of the University of Colorado Denver.

The study was published in the journal Lab on a Chip.

The researchers' placenta-on-a-chip is a clear silicone device with two parallel microfluidic channels separated by a porous membrane. On one side of those pores, trophoblast cells, which are found at the placental interface with maternal blood, are grown. On the other side are endothelial cells, found on the interior of fetal blood vessels. The layers of those two cell types mimic the placental barrier, the gatekeeper between the maternal and fetal circulatory systems.

"That barrier," Blundell said, "mediates all transport between mother and fetus during pregnancy. Nutrients, but also foreign agents like viruses, need to be either transported by that barrier or stopped."

"One of the most important function of the placental barrier is transport," Huh said, "so it's essential for us to mimic that functionality."

In 2013, Huh and his collaborators at Seoul National University conducted a preliminary study to create a microfluidic device for culturing trophoblast cells and fetal endothelial cells. This model, however, lacked the ability to form physiological placental tissue and accurately simulate transport function of the placental barrier.

In their new study, the Penn researchers have demonstrated that the two layers of cells continue to grow and develop while inside the chip, undergoing a process known as "syncytialization."

"The placental cells change over the course of pregnancy," Huh said. "During pregnancy, the placental trophoblast cells actually fuse with one another to form an interesting tissue called syncytium. The barrier also becomes thinner as the pregnancy progresses, and with our new model we're able to reproduce this change.

"This process is very important because it affects placental transport and was a critical aspect not represented in our previous model."

The Penn team validated the new model by showing glucose transfer rates across this syncytialized barrier matched those measured in perfusion studies of donated human placentae.

While useful in providing this type of baseline, donated placental tissue can be problematic for doing many of the types of studies necessary for fully understanding the structure and function of the placenta, especially as it pertains to diseases and disorders.

"The placenta is arguably the least understood organ in the human body," Huh said, "and much remains to be learned about how transport between mother and fetus works at the tissue, cellular and molecular levels. An isolated whole organ is an not ideal platform for these types of mechanistic studies."

"Beyond the scarcity of samples," Blundell said, "there's a limited lifespan of how long the tissue remains viable, for only a few hours after delivery, and the system that is used to perfuse the tissue and perform transport studies is complex."

While the placenta-on-a-chip is still in the early stages of testing, researchers at Penn and beyond are already planning to use it in studies on preterm birth.

"This effort," Parry said, "was part of the much larger Prematurity Research Center here at Penn, one of five centers around the country funded by the March of Dimes to study the causes of preterm birth. The rate of preterm birth is about 10 to 11 percent of all pregnancies. That rate has not been decreasing, and interventions to prevent preterm birth have been largely unsuccessful."

As part of a $10 million grant from the March of Dimes that established the Center, Parry and his colleagues research metabolic changes that may be associated with preterm birth using in vitro placental cell lines and ex vivo placental tissue. The grant also supported their work with the Huh lab to develop new tools that could model preterm birth-associated placental dysfunction and inform such research efforts.

"Since publishing this paper," Samuel Parry said, "we've reached out to the principal investigators at the other four March of Dimes sites and offered to provide them this model to use in their experiments."

"Eventually," Huh said, "we hope to leverage the unique capabilities of our model to demonstrate the potential of organ-on-a-chip technology as a new strategy to innovate basic and translational research in reproductive biology and medicine."

Explore further New placenta model could reveal how birth defect-causing infections cross from mom to baby

More information: Cassidy Blundell et al. A microphysiological model of the human placental barrier, Lab Chip (2016). Journal information: Lab on a Chip Cassidy Blundell et al. A microphysiological model of the human placental barrier,(2016). DOI: 10.1039/C6LC00259E
Codex Forster III folio 72r. Credit: V&A Museum, London

A new detailed study of notes and sketches by Leonardo da Vinci has identified a page of scribbles in a tiny notebook as the place where Leonardo first recorded the laws of friction. The research also shows that he went on to apply this knowledge repeatedly to mechanical problems for more than 20 years.

Scribbled notes and sketches on a page in a notebook by Leonardo da Vinci, previously dismissed as irrelevant by an art historian, have been identified as the place where he first recorded his understanding of the laws of friction.

The research by Professor Ian Hutchings, Professor of Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College, is the first detailed chronological study of Leonardo's work on friction, and has also shown how he continued to apply his knowledge of the subject to wider work on machines over the next two decades.

It is widely known that Leonardo conducted the first systematic study of friction, which underpins the modern science of "tribology", but exactly when and how he developed these ideas has been uncertain until now.

Professor Hutchings has discovered that Leonardo's first statement of the laws of friction is in a tiny notebook measuring just 92 mm x 63 mm. The book, which dates from 1493 and is now held in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, contains a statement scribbled quickly in Leonardo's characteristic "mirror writing" from right to left.

Ironically the page had already attracted interest because it also carries a sketch of an old woman in black pencil with a line below reading "cosa bella mortal passa e non dura", which can be translated as "mortal beauty passes and does not last". Amid debate surrounding the significance of the quote and speculation that the sketch could represent an aged Helen of Troy, the Director of the V & A in the 1920s referred to the jottings below as "irrelevant notes and diagrams in red chalk".

Professor Hutchings's study has, however, revealed that the script and diagrams in red are of great interest to the history of tribology, marking a pivotal moment in Leonardo's work on the subject.

The rough geometrical figures underneath Leonardo's red notes show rows of blocks being pulled by a weight hanging over a pulley  in exactly the same kind of experiment students might do today to demonstrate the laws of friction.

Professor Hutchings said: "The sketches and text show Leonardo understood the fundamentals of friction in 1493. He knew that the force of friction acting between two sliding surfaces is proportional to the load pressing the surfaces together and that friction is independent of the apparent area of contact between the two surfaces. These are the 'laws of friction' that we nowadays usually credit to a French scientist, Guillaume Amontons, working two hundred years later."

"Leonardo's 20-year study of friction, which incorporated his empirical understanding into models for several mechanical systems, confirms his position as a remarkable and inspirational pioneer of tribology."

Professor Hutchings's research traces a clear path of development in Leonardo's studies of friction and demonstrates that he realised that friction, while sometimes useful and even essential, also played a key role in limiting the efficiency of machines.

Sketches of machine elements and mechanisms are pervasive in Leonardo's notebooks and he used his remarkably sophisticated understanding of friction to analyse the behaviour of wheels and axles, screw threads and pulleys, all important components of the complicated machines he sketched.

He wanted to understand the rules that governed the operation of these machines and knew that friction was important in limiting their efficiency and precision, grasping, for example, that resistance to the rotation of a wheel arose from friction at the axle bearing and calculating its effect.

"Leonardo's sketches and notes were undoubtedly based on experiments, probably with lubricated contacts," added Hutchings. "He appreciated that friction depends on the nature of surfaces and the state of lubrication and his use and understanding of the ratios between frictional force and weight was much more nuanced than many have suggested."

Although he undoubtedly discovered the laws of friction, Leonardo's work had no influence on the development of the subject over the following centuries and it was certainly unknown to Amontons.

Explore further Leonardo da Vincithe first systematic study of friction

More information: Ian M. Hutchings, Leonardo da Vincis studies of friction, Wear (2016). www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/  Friction_2016_v2.pdf Ian M. Hutchings, Leonardo da Vincis studies of friction,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.wear.2016.04.019 A general article on tribology that discusses its importance in modern engineering can be found at: www.ingenia.org.uk/Content/ing  ssue66/hutchings.pdf
Moneris Delivers New Tools and Resources for Developers

Developer Portal updated to help enable easier payment integration for eCommerce and mobile applications

TORONTO, ON  July 20, 2016  Moneris Solutions Corporation (Moneris), one of North Americas leading credit and debit card processors, introduced new and improved resources for eCommerce and mobile application developers seeking payment integration tools. The Moneris Developer Portal provides easy access to information and tools businesses need to add payment capabilities to their applications.

The Moneris Developer Portal complements Moneris Gateway, a payment processing platform that allows businesses to securely complete transactions. The improved Developer Portal offers easier access to information, full search capabilities, interactive knowledgebase and regular blogs. Existing Application Program Interfaces (APIs) have been improved to support payments from across North America and a new Software Development Kit (SDK) offers more flexibility to developers when integrating in-app payments.

As more businesses move online and into mobile applications, payment integration has to be made easier for developers. Our goal with the Moneris Developer Portal is to provide effective tools and resources that make their work easier, said Rob Cameron, Chief Product Officer at Moneris. Giving developers flexibility in how they can add payments to their applications means they can get solutions to market faster to meet their customer needs.

With the redesign of the Developer Portal, Moneris now supports in-app payments by offering API and SDK information for Apple Pay integration. This type of payment support is critical to companies like Tacit Innovations, the creators of maegan, a mobile ordering platform designed for restaurants and other hospitality venues. Using the tools within the Moneris Developer Portal, maegan is able to integrate into point-of-sale (POS), Payment and Loyalty solutions for seamless operation.

Developing a custom restaurant solution that improves the customer experience while making it easy for operators means it has to cover all aspects of their encounter with a business, including payments, said Cris Jucan, CEO of Tacit Innovations. Moneris is the biggest processors in the country and used by many of our customers, so being able to easily integrate payments through their gateway was critical to maegans success. The Developer Portal gave us the right tools and resources to add these capabilities in our app and were excited to start using new tools like their SDK for in-app payments.

The redesign of the Moneris Developer Portal goes beyond the portal itself. As one of the most trusted brands in payments in Canada, Moneris is committed to delivering tools and resources for businesses and developers in a convenient and effective manner. As part of the update, APIs and the SDK are now available on GitHub, making access to critical development tools more open and easier to find. Additional improvements include:

Interactive knowledge base where the developer community can collaborate on solutions with input from Moneris technical resources

Updated APIs that offer unified payment integration for North American-focused payment acceptance and improved shopping cart plug-in instructions

Support of Apple Pay in-app payments with more payment options to be included as they are introduced to market

Developer Portal blog offering tips and advice on new features and how best to take advantage of them

Personalized user experience that delivers API information in preferred programming languages, country preference and more

Individual testing environments where developers can leverage reporting to track test transactions

In addition to these enhancements, Moneris will host events such as training boot camps for developers focusing on best practices for payment integration, fraud prevention and more. For more information on Moneris developer solutions visit www.moneris.com/developers.

About Moneris

As one of North Americas largest providers of payment processing solutions, Moneris Solutions Corporation (Moneris) offers credit, debit, wireless and online payment services for merchants in virtually every industry segment and processes more than three billion transactions, annually. Moneris offers electronic loyalty and stored-value gift card programs. With more than 350,000 merchant locations, Moneris provides the hardware, software and systems needed to improve business efficiency and manage payments. For more information please visit www.moneris.com.



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Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over a symposium on poverty alleviation in Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, July 20, 2016.[Photo/Xinhua]

YINCHUAN - Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged developed regions in the east help their partner regions in the west better fight poverty.

Xi made the remarks at a national conference on poverty alleviation through east-west cooperation in Yinchuan, capital city of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Wednesday, according to an official statement released Thursday.

Pairing and cooperation between eastern and western regions in poverty relief is conducive to coordinated development and common prosperity, according to Xi, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

China has used the strategy for 20 years, and the widening gap between the east and west has been curbed, said the president, hailing "significant progress" in poverty alleviation in poor western areas and old revolutionary base areas.

"Cooperation between paired eastern and western regions in poverty alleviation must continue for a long time," said Xi at the meeting.

Eastern regions should make more efforts to aid western regions, which should have a sense of urgency and be proactive in the fight against poverty, he said.

Local Party chiefs and government heads in both east and west should personally push for poverty alleviation and consider it a major task. Eastern regions should gradually increase financial aid to the west.

Counties in the east should be paired with counties in the west, said Xi, also encouraging partnerships between townships and villages.

Industries in the east should be gradually moved west to help alleviate poverty, according to Xi.

Xi stressed precision in targeting and helping the poor, not only financially, but also in education, culture, health, science and technology.

Officials will be assessed not only on how much effort they make, but also whether their measures are effective, said Xi.

Poverty alleviation tasks should be clearly divided, and officials should be held accountable and punished for any failures, he said.

At the end of 2014, China had 70 million people living below the nation's poverty line of 2,300 yuan (about 343 U.S. dollars) in annual income in 2010 constant prices. Almost all of them live in the countryside, particularly in the west.

China aims to eliminate poverty by 2020, when its 13th Five-Year Plan is completed.
As Rudy Giuliani was leaving the hotel in Cleveland Friday morning after the Republican National Convention, he stopped at a table in the lobby that was selling Trump campaign merchandise.

The mayor went to the table and bought sleeves of hats and shirts and pins and he walked outside and gave them to law enforcement and hotel staff to say, Thankyou for their service and their hospitality,  said Rachel Seeber of Queensbury, a delegate who was staying at the same hotel. It was really very nice and a touching moment.

Seeber said the convention was a memorable experience.

At moments it left me speechless, she said in a telephone interview from her bus trip back to Queensbury. It really was an amazing moment for our country.

Seeber said she was impressed with the array of Trump family members and business associates that spoke at the convention.

Were just seeing so many different examples of what he has been able to accomplish in his life, said Seeber, an at-large supervisor from Queensbury and convention delegate from the 21st Congressional District.

She said it was a proud New York moment when the states delegation cast the deciding votes to nominate Trump.

We stood as one. We were united, she said. We were New York strong.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefaniks campaign on Friday criticized Democratic opponent Mike Dericks campaign for republishing on its campaign Facebook page a newspaper letter to the editor that called Stefanik a soulless Wall Street errand girl and questioned if she is seeking proximity to the cologne zone of dream date Paul Ryan.

Lenny Alcivar, spokesman for the Stefanik campaign, who contacted The Post-Star, said it Derrick campaign showed "poor judgment" when it republished the full text of a completely sexist letter.

The letter originally was published in The Press-Republican of Plattsburgh.

Everyone can have their own views, but a candidate for Congress has to have judgement about the dialogue they have with voters, Alvicar said.

Drew Prestridge, Derricks campaign manager, said the Stefanik campaigns complaint is an attempt to distract from issues in the race.

 What is surprising, however, is that Congresswoman Stefanik wants to blame someone else for the fact that voters have had enough of their lack of leadership. Maybe its time for her to listen to voters instead of pointing the finger somewhere else.

Asked to respond specifically to the Stefanik campaigns claim it was inappropriate for Derricks campaign to republish the letter, Prestridge said, These are not words from the campaign. It simply was a public letter that was published in a newspaper.
Demonstrators outside the Glens Falls office of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, on Thursday evening chanted, "Reject Trump! Reject Trump!"

Dan King, a member of the newly-formed Warren County Libertarian Party chapter, showed up with a clip board and offered an alternative to Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

King was circulating nominating petitions to get Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson and VP running mate William Weld on the ballot in New York.

"It just says you think a third voice should be on the ballot," he said to demonstrators, who appeared to be ignoring him.

King was not discouraged. He staked out a spot next to the demonstration and waited for pedestrians to pass by.

"We're working on getting these petitions signed so we can make sure that the Libertarian candidates are on the ballot. And them from there we're going to be doing some fundraising," said Adam Pensel, chairman of the chapter. "And we're also going to be doing an evaluation of the Warren County budget as a party and making some recommendations in terms of reduction in taxes and spending."

The anti-Trump demonstration was organized by a coalition of advocacy groups including Citizen Action and NextGen Climate.
QUEENSBURY  Davidson Brothers Brewery on Route 9 has been sold for an undisclosed price to Northern Eagle Beverages, which is headquartered in Oneonta.

John and Rick Davidson are the owners of Glens Falls Brewing, which owns the Route 9 brewery the brothers opened two years ago and which brews most Davidson Brothers products.

Northern Eagle was founded by the great-great-grandson of Adolphus Busch, founder of Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis. It will be expanding the local operation after the sale closes, which is expected to happen Aug. 18.

As a result, area residents who spend winters in Florida will soon be able to buy Davidson Brothers beer in the Sunshine State.

The new market for the locally brewed beer is among the business growth opportunities of the pending sale.

The new owners plan to add lagering tanks, a canning line and new craft soda and bottled coffee products.

Lagering is a process that involves brewing beer at cold temperatures.

The tanks will enable the brewery to diversify into other types of specialty beers.

Seven full-time employees who work at the Queensbury brewery will remain employed by the new owner, which plans to hire more employees in the coming months.

Double it is our goal, and possibly more, said George Allen, president of Northern Eagle.

Davidson Brothers will continue to own and operate its restaurant and micro-brewery in downtown Glens Falls, and Rick Davidson will stay on as manager of the Queensbury brewery.

The sale provides the opportunity to expand the Davidson Brothers brand in an increasingly competitive craft beer market, Rick Davidson said.

We were the 22nd craft brewery in New York state, he said. And now there are hundreds and hundreds.

Davidson Brothers, which started in Glens Falls, brewed 300 barrels of beer in 1996, its first year in business, and now brews well beyond 5,000 barrels a year.

Davidson said a confidentiality agreement with Northern Eagle Beverages prohibits him from disclosing the exact production.

Lou Hager Jr., the Busch descendant, founded Northern Eagle Beverages in 1986.

The company distributes Genesee, Anheuser-Busch and Heineken brands in Otsego, Chenango and Delaware counties.

In recent years, it has expanded into craft beverages, including distribution of Davidson Brothers beer in the three counties since 2012.

In 2012, Northern Eagle bought Cooperstown Brewing Co., a craft beer company, and owns the largest hops processing operation in the state.

The Queensbury brewery has already been brewing the Cooperstown brand for Northern Eagle.

Buying the brewery gives Northern Eagle a production plant, the missing link in its multifaceted operation, Allen said.

We use the term dirt to lips down here, so we do everything from the hops all the way to drinking the beer, he said.

In March, the company entered a contract for distribution of its craft beer in Florida.

Our goal is to produce bottled, packaged and canned beer in Glens Falls and ship that down to the Florida market and eventually along the East Coast, Allen said. Were kind of just scratching the surface and we knew going ahead we were going to need a facility to expand out this brand.

The company also will be contracting to brew and package beer for other microbreweries and soda companies.

A specialized packaging line will put a brand sleeve on a generic can, enabling canning of small batches of craft beer at a reasonable price.

This is a significant transaction that will continue the efforts in furthering the Lake George region as a leader in the craft brewery industry, said Edward Bartholomew, president of EDC Warren County.

A tax abatement plan Davidson Brothers received will carry over to the new owners, Bartholomew said.

He said Davidson Brothers never used a $50,000 state grant it qualified for to open the brewery.

We have offered to provide any assistance to the new company as it relates to expansion, Bartholomew said.
In a P.S. item last week, it was pointed out that bottled water from the new Lake George Water Co. had showed up at the head table of the Queensbury Town Board meeting.

One reader believed it was Queensbury at-large Supervisor Rachel Seeber who brought the water, hoping to get some free advertising for her company. It turns out, while Seeber was at the meeting, it was Town Board member Doug Irish who brought the water and placed it on the head table.

Seeber said she attended a gathering at Irishs house and brought water for his personal use. Irish in turn brought it to the Town Board meeting without Seebers knowledge.

 Ken Tingley

Mountain bike park?

A 207-acre piece of land off Route 8 in Brant Lake may become the home of a mountain bike park next year.

Drew Cappabianca, owner of The Hub bike shop/restaurant & bar, announced on Facebook this week that he had purchased a piece of land near his business to transform into Brant Lake Bike Park. The goal is to create a top-notch mountain biking trail system that uses land around 1,400-foot-tall Bartonville Mountain, northwest of Brant Lake.

Buying the land is just the tip of the iceberg of work ahead of us, he wrote. If youre interested in being a part of Brant Lake Bike Park please drop me a line. Were going to need all the help we can get!

Cappabianca said in a video posted on Facebook that he hoped to open in 2017. Don Lehman

Showing support

The recent round of ambush deaths of police officers has prompted outpourings of support from local residents to local police agencies.

Hudson Falls Police received a letter from 12-year-old Mikenzie Garvin this week, thanking them for protecting the people of Hudson Falls and expressing sorrow for the shootings of police in Dallas.

I wish that all of the violence would stop, she wrote.

Hudson Falls Police Chief Randy Diamond hand-delivered a thank you letter to Garvin and brought her a box of chocolates.

It just struck me that we had a 12-year-old who was concerned about the safety of our police, Diamond said. I wanted to let her know she is safe here. She is a great kid. We were very appreciative of what she wrote.

Glens Falls Police, South Glens Falls Police, Warren County sheriffs officers, Washington County sheriffs officers and local State Police have all been treated to meals, thanks to donations from local residents and businesses over the past 10 days.

A rally was also held Wednesday night at Glens Falls City Park, which drew dozens. Posters were drawn and signed and presented to local police agencies afterward.

 Don Lehman

Starry-eyed surprise

Members of Lake George Youtheatre, a four-week summer workshop in which children ages 11 to 18 perform three Broadway shows, got a big surprise Thursday, the second day of performances.

The students, who are performing Manuel-Lin Mirandas In the Heights, were greeted by video by Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman. Brightman wished them well in their upcoming shows, which include School of Rock, in which Brightman is the originating lead Dewey in the Broadway production.

Brightman also starred in Adirondack Theatre Festivals 2011 production of Hello Out There and wrote Everything in its Place: The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, which will be staged at ATF from Aug. 10 to 13.

Each student also received a letter from Brightman. The cast was busy Friday at a performance and then a day of rehearsals, so they werent available for interviews, but photos shared on Youtheatres Facebook page when the students got Brightmans message show a lot of smiling faces.

 Rhonda Triller
"It is also one of a number of Cape Town conventions which were recently rectified and [seeks] to bring better financing to the airlines including our domestic airlines; they will now have more access to funds to acquire new aircraft and better equipment.

For passengers, we have other conventions, which have to do with compensations for the kind of troubles they have to go through when they travel by air. Passengers are assured of compensations where they suffer delays, damage or cancellation of flights, and they could also get compensation for the destruction of their baggage or loss of the baggage and cargo."

The Act also empowers the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority to prosecute unruly passengers.
The report, Economic Development in Africa Report 2016, said domestic resource mobilization on its own cannot resolve all of Africa's financial needs.

"Given the complexity of Africas development challenges, scale of its development finance needs and severity of its capacity constraints, domestic resource mobilization on its own cannot resolve all of Africas financial needs. In addition to fiscal resources and domestic savings, it is optimal, and inevitable, that African countries leverage alternative sources of finance," the report said.

The report highlighted the need to explore new revenue sources such as remittances and publicprivate partnerships, and clamp down on illicit financial flows.

"In deficit-driven economies, remittances thus ease the balance-of-payments gap and result in less need for debt to finance the deficit," the report said.

The report argues that African countries should look for complementary sources of revenue, including remittances, which have been growing rapidly, reaching $63.8 billion to Africa in 2014.

Borrowing can be an important part of improving the lives of African citizens, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said in a press statement on the report. But we must find a balance between the present and the future, because debt is dangerous when unsustainable.

At least $600 billion will be needed each year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, according to the report which is subtitled Debt Dynamics and Development Finance in Africa. This amount equates to roughly one third of countries gross national income. Official development aid and external debt are unlikely to cover those needs, the report finds.

In addition, the report said a decade or so of strong growth has provided many countries with the opportunity to access international financial markets. Between 2006 and 2009, the average African country saw its external debt stock grow 7.8 per cent per year, a figure that rose to 10 per cent per year in 20112013 to reach $443 billion or 22 per cent of gross national income by 2013.

Several African countries have also borrowed heavily on domestic markets, the report finds. It provides specific examples and analyses of domestic debt in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. In some countries, domestic debt rose from an average 11 per cent of gross domestic product in 1995, to around 19 per cent at the end of 2013, almost doubling in two decades.

Many African countries have begun the move away from a dependence on official development aid, looking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with new and innovative sources of finance, Dr. Kituyi says.
The one-day summit brought together key stakeholders to deliberate on the Sub-regions industrial development to enhance the socio-economic wellbeing of citizens.

The summit was held under the theme: "Protecting investment to accelerate the industrialisation of the West African sub-region" at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Participants discussed key issues such as standard industrial policy among member states, challenges in the pharmaceutical industry, automotive industry in the region and the export potential of the textile and garments industry.

The Chairman of the summit, Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio advocated for the removal of intra-trade barriers in the sub-region.

Quartey-Papafio said this could be achieved through close collaboration of member states.

President John Mahama in a speech read on his behalf by Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Ekow Spio-Garbrah, called for increased intra-Africa trade before we think of global supply chain nexus.

"Our industrialisation effort has to keep a regional market focus through increased intra-African trade before we think of global supply chain nexus."

President Mahama further called for ways to remove industrialisation gabs in the sub-region.
CHASS earlier this week threatened to close down Senior High Schools (SHS) nationwide for the 2016/2017 academic year if the government fails to pay subsidies owed schools across the country.

But the General Secretary of GNAT, David Ofori Acheampong, argued that even though CHASS has taken an unfortunate stance, the subsidy is also needed to keep the schools running properly. Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, he explained that they would support CHASS in any action they take if the GES does not pay the subsidy arrears by September.

Weve gone past the era where we should be embarking on nationwide strikes because of salary. If the kind of logistics that we need to perform our jobs efficiently is denied us, why should we sit in the classroom? We are daring them that we are going to meet them and put up our statement. We are daring the Director General of the GES that if it comes to September and these things are not available to the schools; well fully support them [CHASS] as an association.

In response to CHASS, the GES held a press conference Thursday and blamed the untimely release of feeding grant to second cycle schools on the 'lackadaisical attitude' of some school heads in the submission of data. The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service Mr Jacob Kor threatened to query headteachers who have not submitted their details for processing.

I have the list of schools that have not submitted data for the data we are processing now. How do we process some and leave others? I will query all those heads who as at now have not submitted the data for the processing of the subsidy, he said.

READ ALSO: GES director general warns CHASS against closure of schools

Nonetheless, David Ofori Acheampong believes the reaction of the GES to the press conference of CHASS is unfortunate.

The response of the Director General is unfortunate. When there are problems and the problems are not being resolved, the only avenue is to bring it to the court of public opinion that these are the challenges that confront us and therefore if nothing is done about it, we are unable to carry out our responsibilities as expected of us. I believe it should have created a platform for the Director General to have met them to see the way forward, he suggested.
Shatta Wale, in his latest interview on The Delay Show,listed Tic Tac, Ex Doe, KK Fosu, and Kokoveli on his list of four veteran musicians who didnt make good use of their fame

Reacting to this, the Kangaroo hitmaker in an interview with KMJ on Hitz FM Friday July 22, said "Shatta Wale should show some respect to his name".

You have seen me doing some sort of businesses so in the end, that should tell you that he [Shatta Wale] is just picking on people. He is the type who likes to talk about fellow artistes in the way he did," said Tic Tic.

He continued I have disclosed my achievements in many interviews so I dont repeat myself. My style is not to try and be on air always and blow my horn."

He said per his achievements in showbiz, he doesn't fall in the list Shatta Wale created.

I find it [Shatta Wales list] a bit weird to come on TV without checking his facts properlyPer his definition of smartness, I dont fall in that," he quizzed.

He finally noted that he wasn't personally affected by Shatta Wale's submission, but he is a brand so Shatta should show him some respect.

If Shatta had said anything to me (personally), I wouldn't mind but hey, I am a brandhe should respect me, he concluded.

Tic Tac is currently involved in a campaign with the United Nations in Sierra Leone and Ghana alongside Ramsey Nouah and Ozwald Boateng, as part of the WFP raising funds for children.
The master organist and music expert known as the One Man Orchestra due to his versatility and creativity performed an array of pieces from renowned local and foreign composers including Messiah by George Frideric Handel much to the amazement of world renowned musicologist and composer, Prof. J.H Nketsia, Gender and Social Protection Minister, Nana Oye Lither and a host of other dignitaries at the auditorium on the night.

Speaking about the show and what customers and patrons should expect, Head of Customer Experience at Airtel Ghana  Frank Gyan said We partnered one of Ghanas finest performers to provide an exceptional experience to our Premier customers and classical music patrons as we promised. At Airtel we believe in providing consummate telecom and lifestyle solutions for our customers. We know from our engagement with our high value customers that most of them are classical music enthusiasts hence our decision to partner Addaquay to entertain them with the finest performance.

On his part, Addaquaye, the Classical music expert said, I deeply appreciate the effort Airtel Ghana is making to promote classical music in Ghana. I thank the Smartphone Network for the partnership and I hope patrons enjoyed the performance.

In 2006, Addaquaye who was then 20, composed, arranged and recorded a first of its kind in Ghana Oratorio comprising of 32 classical songs which he named "Laudate" and had the first live performance of his "Laudate" at the auditorium of the University of Cape Coast in March that year where the premiere lasted two hours. Since then he has performed both locally and internationally to highly excited audiences who gave him standing ovations.

An Oratorio is a large musical work, which contains a succession of choruses, arias (solos), duets and recitatives with orchestral accompaniment. It is also a musical drama in which the choruses and duets serve as commentary while the narrator's recitative relates the story and connects one piece with another.
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!
A technical committee set up by the government to look into the cancellation of nursing trainees allowance recommended that the students receive a monthly allowance of GHc 150.

However, the students argue that the recommended amount is woefully inadequate per the memorandum of understanding signed between the trainees on one hand and the Ministry of Health on another in 2014.

In a statement signed yesterday [Thursday] by the Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia, he said 34,500 nursing students who are currently pursuing various levels of health professional training across the country would be paid GHC150 a month.

The statement further indicated that the payment amount would serve as a bridging mechanism pending the amendment of the Students Loan Trust Act, to enable students in non-tertiary Health Training Institutions access loans to support their education.

But speaking to Accra-based Citi FM, President of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association, Godwin Asabire Akazeem, said they demand an increment of the stated amount.

As for the 150 Ghana cedis, we dont see it as something we have to accept. Because per the memorandum of understanding we signed in 2014, we were made to understand that if that 40 percent service allowance is going to be expressed in monetary value and given to us, it should be 50 percent the current amount of money they are taking now he said.

Akazeem mentioned that the money supports the students in diverse ways hence the need for the increase.
The two Kofi Agayre, popularly known as Bongo, and Iddrisu Yahaya who is also known as K2, were sentenced to three years each in jail.

READ ALSO: Six suspects break jail

Six suspected criminals escaped from the custody of the Abofour Police on Tuesday (July 19, 2016). Subsequently the District Police Commander Superintendent Michael Boateng gave a 10-day ultimatum to the security personnel on duty to produce the escapees. The command also mounted a search for them. This led to the re-arrest of the two who have been sentenced today.

READ ALSO: Two Abofour jail breakers arrested
The military was invited following the failure of the police in the region to contain violent clashes between two royal gates in a chieftaincy dispute.

Residents are said to be fleeing the area to safety as a mob of agitated youth from adjourning communities are moving into the conflict zone to support their loyalist.

The two communities have been fighting over the supervision of mining activities after two chiefs were enskinned by the Yabonwura and Bolewura.

Addressing Journalists at Bole, the Northern regional Police Commander DCOP Ken Yeboah said

The area is inaccessible, and that makes it difficult for the security to go there, it is very difficult to go there using a vehicle, you have to go there on a bike hence the need for us to strategise before dispatching security personnel to the area.

So as I speak to you now, military troops have been dispatched to the area to restore peace. We need to be a little more patient and strategies, .

He added that the Police do not have accurate information on the exact casualty hence, its inability to comment on the matter.
The timetable for the current load shedding also called dumsor is ready but the president says we should not publish it, the workers told Daily Guide newspaper.

Samuel Tetteh Agbetor, chairman of the Western Regional Workers Union of ECG, said: Dumsor is back, and the government should be bold enough to allow ECG to announce the timetable for load shedding.

According to him, the current energy problem has to do with generation by the Volt River Authority (VRA) adding that:we the staff of ECG will not sit down to be blamed or allow anyone to put our lives in jeopardy.

Background

President John Mahama recently maintained that the country is not back to the protracted energy crisis, popularly known as Dumsor.

We are not declaring load shedding; I believe things will normalize but we are taking steps everyday to ensure that Ghana has security when it comes to power," the president said.

But the NPP in a statement said government should stop the denial and listen to the cry of the industries and Ghanaians, and stop the inexplicable denial and immediately publish a time table /schedule for the ongoing Dumsor.
Read also:Chieftaincy Clash

Residents are said to be fleeing the area to safety as a mob of agitated youth from adjourning communities are moving into the conflict zone to support their loyalist.

District Chief Executive for Bole James Jaga, who confirmed the incident said he was on his way from Tamale to the place to assess the situation.

Read more:Renewed clashes in Bunkprugu
Consequently any failure to pay for the supply of these components results in an immediate halt in power supply to many parts of the country.

The concern, however, is the fact that the Power Ministry, government and President John Dramani Mahama do not seem to be telling Ghanaians the truth that governments poor decision making, like the bizarre contract signed between the Power Ministry and the West African Gas Pipeline Company, are the reasons why the countrys energy crisis still lingers, and would likely not end soon.

1. WAGPco. Contract and why dumsor will not end soon.

Some parts of the contract signed by the Power Ministry for the delivery of 120,000MBTU of gas from the West African Gas Pipeline daily, has come up for serious questioning given they constitute a blatant rip-off that is likely to condemn Ghanas power sector into further chaos.

The Power Ministry is being charged US$3.3 per one million British Thermal Units, the highest in the West African region with no breakdown of the price components.

2. Restrictions on how purchased gas can be used

The West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPco) also puts a restriction on what and in what plants the gas can be used. The reason for this condition has not been given.

According to the contract, gas supplied cannot be used for any other power plant apart from those under governments direct control. Neither can it be exported outside Ghana. Should the government decide to fuel other thermal plants apart from its own, the Ministry will have to pay more for the gas supplied.

This is in contradiction to the countrys aim of attracting Independent Power Providers into the country, especially if government cannot pass on excess gas supply to them. While the reason for this condition is unclear, why the Power Ministry will agree to such a condition is equally confusing.

3. One-Sided Letter of Credit

Again, the Power Ministry is required to provide a letter of credit that insulates WAPco from sharp increases in international oil prices, should prices go 10 percent above the price of $50, the buyer (Power Ministry) will be required to establish a new letter of credit to reflect the increment.

However if the price of fuel on the international market falls, the agreement says nothing about reducing the letter of credit.

4. Repercussions of the contract

About two years on, the Power Ministry and the Volta River Authority have failed to pay N-Gas, providers of the gas that is transported by WAPco. This is hard to believe because oil prices had fallen as low as 25USD a barrel in the two-year period.

Governments failure to pay N-Gas the accumulated debt of $103 million by the end of the 17th June deadline culminated in the disruption of gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline Company on the 17th of June, 2016, and checks by Pulse.com.gh reveal that no gas has been supplied by N-Gas since, neither has WAPco transported gas.

The fact that VRA now relies on supply of light crude oil from Sahara Energy instead of gas from WAGPco, is testament to the fact that gas supply from WAPco has ceased and the monies owed N-Gas still remain unpaid.

Here is a copy of the letter of termination

WAPCo's Notice of Suspension of Gas Transmission under the Takoradi GTA (1).pdf
He explained that since he won the primary last November, the party members in his constituency have not been united making it difficult for him to campaign.

In an interview with Accra based Citi FM he said "it all stems from the fact that after the declaration of the primary results, last year in November, I started getting some negative sentiments whereby they were creating some divisions in the constituency within the NDC."

Though it is unclear what divisions he is refering to he said he did all he could to get every member on board for a successful campaign but to no avail.

As much as I tried to bring the party together, the divisions were getting deeper and deeper. Weve got only four months to the election, andt with this division, it was difficult for me to even start my campaign. I have tried, I have brought in elders, everybody to help but still it was not working, he added.
According to him, many of the majority members of Parliament have failed to build consensus around the issue ever since the process to change the election date began on the floor of the House.

READ ALSO:Election 2016

The bill could not get the backing of 184 Members of Parliament.

125 MPs voted for the bill while 97 voted against it.

The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, before the secret vote made a passionate appeal to the House to pass the bill.

She said: One of the main advantages is that, holding [the] election in November will allow for sufficient time between an election and the handing over of power to an incoming government. This [is] important to ensure adequate preparation and a smooth transition and eliminate situations where former Ministers of State are recalled to provide information to an incoming government on matters of state.

But the Minority Spokesperson on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Joe Osei Owusu, in his submission doubted the readiness of the Electoral Commission.

READ ALSO: Parliament fails to pass Bill to change election date

According to him, changing the date from December to November could create a tight calendar for the EC.

Many have suggested that the Minoritys decision not to accept the new election date is deliberate.
The only thing we have to do now is to alter our timetable to take into consideration the December 7 date now because we had altered so that our programmes will be towards November 7. Now that the elections is going back to its old place, then it means that we have to alter our timetable, he told Radio Ghana.
On Thursday, July 21, 2016, out of 230 Members of Parliament, 125 voted for the bill with the remaining 97 voting against it.

The National Democratic Congress needed the support of the minority to pass it, but in Ghanas parliament. which is deeply polarized, the bill was never going to see the light of day.

Unlike the incumbent government's MPs who were all for the bill, the minority NPP kept changing their position on the decision about November.

Initially, the parliamentary front of the party was all for it but appears to have been pressured into backing the official party position which was echoed by the campaign chairman, Peter Mac Manu.

Mac Manu, at a public forum on the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill organised by parliament last week Monday, said the EC has failed to resolve some key issues that would enable smooth running of the election.

In addition to his concerns, the minority used voting on the bill to protest against the posture of EC, especially the chair, Charlotte Osei.

According to the deputy minority leader, Dominic Nitiwul, Mrs Osei's posture does not support consensus building, which could result in problems in the processes toward changing the date from December 7 to November 7.

Before voting commenced in parliament, the minority spokesperson on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Joe Osei Owusu, expressed his doubts on the readiness of the EC in his submission.

According to him, changing the date from December to November could create a tight calendar for the EC. He said the commission is overwhelmed by events such as the voter register exhibition exercise, training of election officers and procurement of election materials.

His position was backed by Hon. O.B. Amoah (NPP-MP) who said changing the date for this year's election will create some challenges.

Its clear the NPP never wanted the election date to be changed but were not bold enough to reject it in public.

In many media appearances prior to the vote, key NPP members kept emphasizing the unpreparedness of the Electoral Commission even though, Charlotte Osei has maintained that her outfit was ready to hold the election on November 7.
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!
SWEC, through its member-based group structure, the club aims to create a community of women who are empowered and positioned to succeed through the provision of capacity building seminars and workshops, mentorship opportunities with established business leaders, access to financing and potential investors as well as networking and business support services tailored to suit specific business requirements.

SWEC will provide the following commitment and services to its members all for FREE:

1. Brand visibility to consumers and targeted audience through business profiling, business fairs and marketplace alliances etc

2. Free or discounted capacity building opportunities with business leaders and industry experts

3. Mentoring and networking opportunities with established business leaders

4. Business advisory services and support

5. Access to financing and financial products

6. Discounts on services and products

Application form can be downloaded via this link: http://goo.gl/forms/SqUwzro59m5D0r1v1

15 lucky members who join SWEC before the 28 th of July will be chosen to join our 4 month Business Plan Accelerator Programme- Scale UP! program in Lagos. This 4 month programme will include in-depth capacity building session from established business leaders, one on one mentorship opportunities with successful female business owners, media profiling to raise awareness of their businesses, as well as networking opportunities with female entrepreneurs and business leaders. The winner of the competition will also receive seed financing for their business.
The commands spokesperson, SP Dolapo Badmos, told newsmen on Thursday in Ikeja that the 22 teenagers were arrested for alleged robbery, stealing and indulging in cult activities around Agege area.

``The two leaders in the first gang, which consist of eight members, were arrested on Thursday July 14, at about 11.30 p.m. in Mulero, Agege.

``They assaulted and robbed one Aladegbo Abidemi with axe and snatched her Blackberry Z10 mobile phone, she said.

``The second gang, consisting of 10 male and four females, were picked-up at Abattoir on Monday at about 2.35 a.m, after three of them had earlier been arrested at Computer Village, Ikeja.

``The suspects stole mobile phones. It was gathered that three of the suspects entered a phone stall and pretended they want to buy a phone.

``They walked out again after inspecting the phone, only for the stall owner to realise that two phones were missing.

``They were, however, caught on their way out. Their ages are between 15 and 19 years old, she said.

Badmos said that the state Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni had summoned the parents of the suspects to his office.

She said that all the suspects had been transferred to the State Police Command, Ikeja, for further investigations.

``The commissioner has also ordered that the teenagers be sent for rehabilitation without delay.
The Commissioner, Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, said that the babies were rescued on Thursday at Oyingbo area of the state.

She said that two women, Hadiza Nosiru and Salamotu Salisu, who were arrested in the process, were natives of Jigawa State.

Akinbile-Yussuf said that the infants were rescued during a routine operation carried out by the ministrys Rescue Team.

She said that the women had been taken to Rehabilitation and Training Centre at Majidun, Ikorodu for shelter, while investigation was ongoing and possible legal action may be taken.

According to her, the infants were not the biological children of the accused but taken from their parents for use to raise alms for themselves.

``Preliminary investigation revealed that these women are not the biological mothers of the babies.

``The babies were given out to them by their parents who later get paid everyday on each baby, she said.

Akinbile-Yussuf expressed disappointment at what she called the heartless practice of using newborn babies to beg.

She said the practice had denied the babies of proper care, breastfeeding and exposed them to hazards on the streets.

She called on members of the public to join hands with the state government in eradicating the menace.

``The ministry has observed that the incident has been a recurring issue among some female beggars in the state and we promise to pay deeper attention to the issue.

``Necessary legal actions will be taken against the parties involved to serve as deterrent to others and those planning to perpetuate any form of child abuse and inhuman act against innocent children.

``The state government will continue to intensify efforts to get rid of street begging in all areas of the state.

``And we urge individuals willing to show generosity to do so through established orphanages and rehabilitation homes in the state, she said.

Speaking to journalists, one of the biological mothers of the infants, who was paraded at Alausa, Ikeja along with the three infants identified herself as one Tawa Aregbesola from Ibadan.

She also confessed that she had an agreement with one of the women arrest by the team.

ALSO READ: IDPs resort to street begging in Hadejia

Aregbesola said she gave out her baby for alms begging between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. daily on conditions that the sum of N1,000 or N1,500 be paid her as returns.

Aregbesola, who said she had four other children, claimed that she did not have an idea of where her baby was usually taken to for alms.
This laughable incident happened in Lagos State after the criminal had raided a house in the Okota area of the state, carting away valuables including the phone, a Note 5, laptops and expensive jewelry.

A sister of the victim, Folawale Ariran, posted the Internet-crazy thief's picture on Instagram with the following appeal to members of the public for assistance to apprehend him:

"Good morning everyone. Please, this person just robbed my brother's house last night. He stole phones, laptops and expensive jewelry at Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos.

He used one of the phones, - a note 5 -, to post on Instagram about three hours ago. Apparently, he doesn't know how it works because he posted his selfie through my brother's account."
Speaking to Reuters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Gates said the foundation planned to spend $5 billion in Africa in the next five years. The Horn of Africa country is one of the biggest recipients of funds from the foundation.

"Our big priority is health and there is still a lot to be done. The child mortality rate came down from 1990 to the present - it was cut in half, which is fantastic. But that still leaves far too many children dying," he said, referring to pneumonia, diarrhoea and other illnesses.

Turning to HIV/AIDS, Gates said much had been achieved such as an increase in the number of people under treatment for the disease to 12 million globally. But he noted two-thirds of new HIV/AIDS infections continued to take place in Africa.

"It is a mixed situation," he said. "We have a challenge to bring the numbers down."

The philanthropic organisation formed in 2000 by the world's richest man has an endowment of more than $40 billion. It distributed grants of nearly $4 billion in 2014.

Slumping commodity prices have posed serious challenges to economic and political stability in some African countries, and have slowed the momentum of poverty reduction.

But Gates said infrastructure, education and health investment during the boom years had laid solid foundations.
Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), Counsel to Agbele, who has been in EFCC custody since June 27 over allegations of money laundering, had approached the court for the enforcement of his client's fundamental human rights.

The lawyer told the court that the EFCC illegally arrested and continued to detain Agbele on the premise that it is investigating over N1.3 billion that was allegedly traced to Fayoses personal bank account.

Ozekhome also prayed the court to award N500 million to his client as compensation for his unlawful arrest and detention.

In his judgement, Justice Adeniyi condemned the action of the EFCC, saying it was unlawful and unconstitutional to have detained Agbele beyond the period stipulated by the law, adding that his continued detention without trial or a valid court order was in breach of his fundamental human rights.

The judge consequently imposed a fine of N5 million on the anti-graft commission, and ordered that the money be paid to Agbele as compensation for his illegal arrest and detention.

Reacting to the ruling, the EFCC described it as "shocking", saying it would appeal against it and file for a stay of execution.

The Commission said it is "curious for Justice Adeniyi to grant bail to a suspect who is being investigated for a range of financial crimes bordering on fraud and money laundering."
Following his removal on Wednesday, July 30, Jibrin on Thursday said he was removed becuase he did not yield to the request of the Speaker and three other principal members of the House "to allocate to themselves N40 billion out of the 100 billion allocated to the entire national assembly.

But Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman for the House said Jibrin accused the principal officers because he was removed as the committee chairman, querying why he did not come forward with the allegations before he was relieved of his duty.

We wish to say that it is the prerogative of the Selection Committee of the House to appoint and remove Committee Chairmen. That power has been so exercised in the case of Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin as chairman of Appropriation Committee, Namdas said in a statement.

If he had all these facts before, why didnt he make them public? Why is he doing that now?

Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, like any other member of the House, knows that there are conventions and precedents as it relates to budgets and projects for principal officers of the National Assembly. Why is he making it an issue now? In any case, he is entitled to his opinion as a Nigerian and as a legislator while acting within the laws of Nigeria and rules of the House.

We must make it abundantly clear that he was not removed because of his support or otherwise on immunity bill. After all, he is not the only one who opposed the bill.

The spokesperson advised Jibrin to keep his personal issues to himself and not bother Nigerians and the House with it, as there are more important matters begging for attention in the country.

The Nigerian people are simply not ready to waste their time on personal issues and personal egos of our leaders. We should face the urgent tasks before us for which we were elected," he said.
The Speaker said he was deeply affected by the news of his sudden death.

Oluwatayo, who represented Ifako/Ijaiye Federal Constituency of Lagos state on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was found dead in his Abuja home on Thursday, July 21.

The late Hon. Elijah died when his services to the nation was most needed, Dogara said.

We mourn our fallen colleague as one who gave his best in service to God and humanity. He was a committed and hardworking member who championed the cause of his people.

Our hearts goes to his immediate family, the people of Ifako/Ijaiye Federal constituency and Lagos state over this great loss.

I pray God almighty to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. We will surely miss him in the Green Chamber.

Oluwatayo was special adviser on education in Lagos state between 2009 and 2011, and chairman, electricity board, between 2004 and 2007.

--------------------------------------------------
Speaking on Thursday, July 30, during the signing of the front-runner Power Purchase Agreements between the Federal Government and 14 solar power development and promoting companies in Abuja, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babtunde Fashola, commended NERC for appealing the judgement.

I must say that as all of these are happening, the Nigerian government has demonstrated that it will play by the rules, especially in the power sector. I must, therefore, commend our regulators, NERC, for the position that they have taken regarding the judgement. The commission has shown that although it disagrees with the judgement, it is challenging it as the law allows," Fashola said in his address.

To me, it is a positive sign for our power sector. The decision of NERC to respect the court is a sign that conflicts and interests in the power sector can be resolved in a democratic environment. These are the hallmarks of a good economic and investment-worthy destination. There are silver linings in the cloud of the setback, which the judgement appears to represent."

Fashola explained that electricity tariffs will always go or down depending on dynamics of the economy - as the raw materials for generating power increases in price, electricity rate would also increase, and vice versa.

Let us use this opportunity to enlighten the public that tariff can never be permanently fixed, because it must be always subject to the dynamics of the economy. Therefore, if the raw materials go up, tariff must follow at the same time; in the way that if it comes down, tariff will also come down, the minister said.

The Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc, Mr. Waziri Bintube, signed the Power Purchase agreements on behalf of the Federal Government, as the NBET is the agency of government saddled with the responsibility of signing PPAs for the country.

Speaking on the agreements, Fashola said it will not automatically begin to yield stable electricity, but would do so over the next 18 months.

He said, the PPAs are the heart and soul of financing power projects. They do not automatically on their own mean that we will have electricity tomorrow, but they indicate that within the next six, nine, 12 or 18 months, depending on the speed of each promoter and developer, we will begin to see incremental delivery of electricity.
The Magistrate, Mrs B. Folarin-Williams, who gave the order, also directed that the case file should be duplicated before sending it to the DPP.

Folarin- Williams adjourned the case to Aug. 8 to await the advice.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Chinese, Zhen Zhen and Leo Feng, were on Wednesday arraigned for allegedly setting a hotel valued at N17.8 million ablaze.

Zhen, 47 and Feng, 41, are facing a two-count charge of arson and wilful damage.

Both men had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecutor, Sgt. Olatunde Kehinde, had told the court that the defendants committed the offences in June, 2016, at Bamishele St., Allen Avenue, Ikeja.

"The accused had lodged in the hotel and were cautioned to stop smoking in the premises to avoid starting a fire.

"This had annoyed the duo, who angrily went to their room and set the hotel ablaze, raising down a huge part of the building," he said.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 339 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The magistrate granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N2 million, with two sureties in like sum.She ordered that one of the sureties must be a naturalised citizen, who must show evidence of regular tax payment.
The claims were made by President Muhammadu Buhari who also said that oil companies were negotiating with the militants on the governments behalf.

The group however issued a denial via a statement released by spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo on Friday, July 22, 2016.

The statement reads:

Our attention has been drawn to media report that the President is in touch with Niger Delta agitators including the Niger Delta Avengers but the truth is that we are not aware of any peace talk.

If there is any such peace talk, it means the President is talking to their mercenaries set to disturb the genuine struggle of the agitators. President Buhari led government is not sincere to the Nigeria people and their foreign allies.

ALSO READ: Militants warns foreigners to leave oil fields
The NNS DELTA Commander, Commodore Joseph Dzunve, stated this on Thursday at the Warri naval base.

Dzunve, who assumed duty as base commander in July, said four pipeline vandals, apprehended at different illegal refineries spots within the Delta creeks, were among the suspects.

Another suspect, identified as Ebiye Ozano, is an alleged kidnapper, alleged to have masterminded the killing of one naval officer in the creeks of the Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta.

He also said that the other two suspects were allegedly involved in supplying explosives items to the Niger Delta Avengers.

''The two Avengers suspects are identified as Prince David (avengers mechanic) and Felix Ebiador (avengers supplier).

''The avengers were arrested by my personnel during a trip to deliver batteries, cables and other explosives to their colleagues in the creeks.

''Ebiador was arrested with explosive cables, batteries and other devices, while David was the mechanic that repairs their (Avengers) boats whenever they have problems."

ALSO READ: Presidency says oil companies are negotiating with Avengers

Earlier on Thursday, the command destroyed two illegal refineries around Asosolo and Ogbosede communities in the Warri South West Local Government Area.
According to a report by PM News, the kidnappers, who whisked away the first class traditional ruler in Lagos, have demanded the sum of N500m Lagos for his release.

It was also reported that the Lagos monarch, whose guard was killed while the gunmen whisked him out of the Palace on Saturday, July 16, 2016, at about 11.30pm, was taken away through the waterways.

However, the monarchs younger wife and two other persons, who were reportedly shot during the incident are recuperating at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, SP Dolapo Badamus, had said that "the police are on the trail of the suspects but no arrest has been made yet.

In recent time, kidnapping has become one of the numerous crimes giving the Nigerian Police sleepless nights.
For today, July 22 2016:

THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Appeal Court okays use of hijab in Lagos schools

A five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, Lagos yesterday set aside the October 17, 2014 judgment by Justice Modupe Onyeabor of an Ikeja High Court banning the use of hijab in public primary and secondary schools in Lagos State. READ MORE

Nigeria in recession, says Adeosun, Udoma disagrees

Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who briefed the Senate on the state of the economy was blunt. She told the lawmakers yesterday that the countrys economy has entered a recession stage. But her Budget and National Planning counterpart, Udoma Udo Udoma, tried to keep hope alive, saying a recession is still far away. READ MORE

Principal officers padded budget by N60b, Jibrin alleges

Barely 24 hours after he was relieved of his appointment as chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumuni Jibrin has opened a can of worms, indicting some of the principal officers of the lower legislative chamber.

THE VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

Its official: Economy in recession  FG

ABUJA MINISTER of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, yesterday, painted a gloomy picture of the economy when she appeared before the Senate, saying the country was already in recession. READ MORE

Sex scandal: US Ambassador has no evidence  Minister

ABUJA  THE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, said, yesterday, that there had been no sufficient evidence to prove that the three members of the House of Representatives accused of sexual misconduct really committed the crime. READ MORE

Why Court granted Fayoses aide, Agbele, N50m bail; fined EFCC N5m

ABUJAJustice Olukayode Adeniyi of an Abuja High Court at Maitama, yesterday, admitted an aide to Governor Ayodele Fayose, Mr. Abiodun Agbele, bail to the tune of N50 million. READ MORE

THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Sex scandal: US envoys allegations lack evidence, says minister

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, on Thursday, said the outgoing United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, did not have any credible evidence to prove the allegations of sexual misconduct against three members of the House of Representatives. READ MORE

11 die as commercial bus explodes in Lagos

About 11 persons were killed on Thursday after a commercial bus with 14 passengers on board went up in flames on the Otedola Bridge in the Berger area of Lagos.

Dogara demanded N40bn padding in budget, says Jibrin

A former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, opened up on Thursday on why the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, sacked him on Wednesday. READ MORE

THE NATION NEWSPAPER

Elujoba is OAU acting VC

A SIXTY-eight year-old professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ife, Anthony Elujoba, yesterday is the universitys acting vice chancellor. READ MORE

Govt: economy in recession

Nigerians yesterday got a piece of bad news  the economy is in recession. But, there is no need to panic because it will be short, according to Finance Minister Mrs Kemi Adeosun.

Were in talks with militants, says Buhari
The legislators, Mohammed Garba Gololo, Samuel Ikon and Mark Gbillah were alleged to have committed the offences during an official visit to the US in April 2016.

He [Entwistle] did not present any corroborative evidence and did not give the impression that there was any, Onyeama said on Thursday, July 21, according to The Nation.

He did not make any allegations against the members, he was just saying allegations were made and he confirmed they were made. The house keeper (who claimed a member grabbed her in the hotel) refused to testify further.

ALSO READ: US Ambassador fails to appear before House of Reps to provide evidence

I was surprised the main complainant failed to testify when approached by her government, he added.
A police source at the scene who spoke to Pulse said: "We learnt that the black Honda car driver is a young guy in his early twenties who just arrived Nigeria from England. He was coming from Sheraton turn driving in speed towards National Mosque.

"In the Navy blue car is mechanic who was on his way to deliver to the car to the owner while the Honda (silver), is a young man and his wife were coming from the national hospital.

"As you can see, this accident was caused by over speeding. The victims have been taken to the hospital and we're doing our best to move these vehicles from here," he said.
Such misconduct from Dino has not only brought disgrace to his constituents, but to the National Assembly, the groups coordinator, Mr Leke Richard said.

Enough of this national and global embarrassment from this lawmaker, who does not know how to fight for the interest of his constituents but against his fellow lawmakers.

We want him to be suspended first while we fast-track the process of his recall from his senatorial district," he added.

ALSO READ: Dino Melaye refuses to apologize to Remi Tinubu
Pulse recalls that the Federal Government slammed forgery charges on the Senate President, his deputy, the immediate past Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and his deputy Benedict Efeturi.

They were accused of forging the 2015 Senate Standing Rules used for their election over a year later.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Friday, July 22, 2016, Senator Marafa (APC, Zamfara) said: "We didnt go to court because we did not like the face of those that emerged, but this is the will of our party. If the party says withdraw the case, we will on to withdraw the case.

"During the 7th assembly, we accorded the ruling party at that time the utmost cooperation and we knew the committees that we were given that time.

Speaking on the reshuffling of committee leaders in the Red Chambers, Marafa said: "I think reshuffling of committees is not new in any parliament. What made that of yesterday a little new is the circumstances of the emergence of this leadership and what followed.

"What happened yesterday is a result of the efforts the party has been putting in for reconciliation in the last few days," he added.
This view has stood the test of time, but it looks like this is about to change, thanks to a Christian minister in Chicago.

According to Bromleigh McCleneghan, an associate pastor at Union Church, believers can have 'good Christian sex', ReligionNews reports.

In her new book, "Good Christian Sex: Why Chastity Isnt the Only OptionAnd Other Things the Bible Says about Sex", she urges Christians to let go of the shame associated with premarital or extramarital sex and simply enjoy the act.

She uses personal stories and examples to show the need to let go of this deep-rooted belief, in an effort to show sex, as a powerful and holy act.

McCleneghan also urges Christians to break free of this shame by talking about their bodies, sensuality, and desires.
Support for Skype on iOS 8, Android 4.03 and Windows 10 mobile will still be continued, Microsoft says, according to Innovation Village report.

The Redmond-based company has also previewed its new, much more modern Universal Windows Platform (UWP) for ots Skype client, hence users of Skype on Windows 8 and older Android versions will no longer receive access to the latest versions of Skype.

Asides from supporting Windows 10 Mobile, UWP has been given a huge upgrade as Microsoft continues to rebuild Skype's client functionality with the new app itself.
Morocco quit the AU in protest in 1984 after the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was accepted as a member, but its monarch said Sunday that it hopes to rejoin the bloc.

Morocco regards the former Spanish colony as its sovereign territory, but a local independence movement -- backed by Algeria -- has long fought for self-determination.

On Sunday Morocco's King Mohammed VI told AU leaders his country wants to rejoin the union, but said recognition of a "pseudo state" is "hard for the Moroccan people to accept".

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told journalists outside parliament on Thursday that reconsidering Western Sahara's status was "impossible".

"If Morocco wants to join the AU without preconditions, Algeria will have no problem, but there are procedures to follow," he said.

Morocco's return to the AU would need to be validated by a vote.

In 1991, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire between Moroccan troops and Sahrawi rebels of the Algerian-backed independence movement the Polisario Front but a promised referendum to settle the status of the desert territory has yet to materialise.

"The position of Algeria is clear and constant: we support the UN solution and respect for international law," said Sellal.

Algeria has "no problem with the Moroccan people or Morocco in general," he said.

He said Algeria was ready to re-open discussions on bilateral cooperation. Algeria has kept the land border between the two countries closed since 1994.

In a message sent to an AU summit in Kigali and quoted by the MAP Moroccan news agency, King Mohammed VI said that although Morocco had left the club, "it never quit Africa".
Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Searchers led by engineering group Fugro have been combing an area roughly the size of Greece for two years.

That search, over 120,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia, is expected to end in three months and could be called off after that following a meeting of key countries Malaysia, China and Australia on Friday.

The three countries agreed in April 2015 that should the aircraft not be located within the search area, and in the absence of any new credible evidence, the search area would not be extended. So far, nothing has been found.

"If it's not there, it means it's somewhere else," Fugro project director Paul Kennedy told Reuters.

Kennedy does not exclude extreme possibilities that could have made the plane impossible to spot in the search zone, and still hopes to find the craft. But he and his team argue another option is the plane glided down - meaning it was manned at the end - and made it beyond the area marked out by calculations from satellite images.

"If it was manned it could glide for a long way," Kennedy said. "You could glide it for further than our search area is, so I believe the logical conclusion will be well maybe that is the other scenario."

Doubts that the search teams are looking in the right place will likely fuel calls for all data to be made publicly available so that academics and rival companies can pursue an "open source" solution - a collaborative public answer to the airline industry's greatest mystery.

Since the crash there have been competing theories over whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked - or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water. Adding to the mystery, investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the plane's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles.

The glide view is not supported by the investigating agencies: America's Boeing Co, France's Thales SA , U.S. investigator the National Transportation Safety Board, British satellite company Inmarsat PLC, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

CARRY ON

The meeting between officials from China, Australia and Malaysia is expected to discuss the future of the search. The three governments have previously agreed that unless any new credible evidence arises the search would not be extended, despite calls from victims' families.

Any further search would require a fresh round of funding from the three governments on top of the almost A$180 million ($137 million) that has already been spent, making it the most expensive in aviation history.

Deciding the search area in 2014, authorities assumed the plane had no "inputs" during its final descent, meaning there was no pilot or no conscious pilot. They believe it was on auto-pilot and spiralled when it ran out of fuel.

But Kennedy said a skilled pilot could glide the plane approximately 120 miles (193 km) from its cruising altitude after running out of fuel. One pilot told Reuters it would be slightly less than that.

For the aircraft to continue gliding after fuel has run out, someone must manually put the aircraft into a glide - nose down with controlled speed.

"If you lose all power, the auto-pilot kicks out. If there is nobody at the controls, the aircraft will plummet down," said a captain with experience flying Boeing 777s - the same as MH370. Like all pilots interviewed for this story, he declined to be named given the controversy around the lost jet.

Fugro works on a "confidence level" of 95 percent, a statistical measurement used, in Fugro's case, to indicate how certain the plane debris was not in the area they have already combed, a seabed peppered with steep cliffs and underwater volcanoes.

"The end-of-flight scenarios are absolutely endless," Fugro managing director Steve Duffield said. "Which wing ran out of fuel first, did it roll this way or did it tip that way?"

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency coordinating the search, has consistently defended the defined search zone. It did not immediately respond to questions over whether it was assessing the controlled glide theory.

Authorities used data provided by Inmarsat to locate the likely plunge point through communication between the plane and satellite ground station.

"All survey data collected from the search for missing flight MH370 will be released," an ATSB spokesman said.
The convictions of the United Democratic Party (UDP) supporters comes just a day after another group of 18 party members were jailed on similar charges.

Those convicted on Thursday participated in an April 14 march near the capital, Banjul, and refused to defend themselves before the court or participate in their trial.

"I therefore hold that the prosecution has proved the ingredients of the case beyond all reasonable doubts. I therefore hold all the accused persons guilty," Justice Simeone Ateh Abi announced in the court.

Each of the defendants was convicted on seven separate counts. The sentences for the individual charges ranged from monetary fines to three years in prison, with the combined sentences totalling 18 years imprisonment.

It was unclear, however, whether the accused would be allowed to serve those sentences concurrently.

Another group of 21 UDP supporters is still on trial.

The protests were a rare instance of open opposition to the iron-fisted rule of President Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the tiny West African country for two decades after seizing power in a bloodless coup.

Rights groups accuse him of cracking down on political opponents figures as he eyes a December election, where he will seek his fifth term, after he scrapped term limits.
Until 2014, Ghana had one of Africa's fastest-growing economies based on its exports of gold, cocoa and oil. Growth has slumped sharply since and any threat to the IMF programme will hit the confidence of domestic and foreign investors.

"The finance committee is of the view that the zero financing provision as contained in the Bill should be amended to a 5 percent limit and that is what we are recommending," chairman James Klutse Avedzi told Reuters.

If the bill passes with the 5 percent amendment it would likely make it harder for the Fund's Board to approve disbursement of the next tranche of balance of payment support.

ALSO READ:Aborted babies found floating in Ghana flood

The Fund said in a document issued in Dec. 2015 that Ghana should: "Submit to Parliament a revised Law that strengthens the functional autonomy of BoG (and) sets a zero limit on monetary financing to the government and public institutions.

One economist close to the process said it is "absolutely central" to the whole IMF deal.

TIMING CRUCIAL

The finance committee's amendment comes in the context of an apparent delay on a decision by the IMF Board on whether to disburse the next tranche of aid to Ghana following the third staff review of the programme in May.

The Board will now complete its review after that recess and only if the government undertakes certain steps, including passage of the law to back zero central bank financing, said the Fund's Ghana representative Natalia Koliadina.

"The completion of prior actions is not unusual in Fund programs and, while their implementation takes time, they need to be met before the board meeting," she said in an email to Reuters, adding that the programme is "broadly on track."

"Subject to this work being completed and prior actions met IMF staff will finalise the preparation of the required documentation for the Executive Boards consideration of the review," she said.

The uncertainty is more acute because Ghana will hold an election in December when President John Mahama is expected to face a close race against opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo. Parliament rises on July 29, thus the bill must pass by then.

Parliamentary sources said the central bank wants the amendment but MPs in the ruling party say it could tie the government's hands in the run-up to the election.
Indonesia imposed a moratorium on executions for five years before resuming them in 2013. It provoked international outrage in April last year with the execution of eight drug traffickers, seven of them foreigners.

After the outcry, authorities said they were postponing executions while the government focussed on reviving he economy. But President Joko Widodo's administration has this year pledged to resume executions by firing squad.

A Philippine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, got a last-minute reprieve last year, following a request from Manila after an employment recruiter, whom Veloso had accused of planting drugs in her luggage, gave herself up to police in the Philippines.

"Not yet," Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told reporters when asked about Veloso.

"We are still waiting on the legal process in the Philippines, which we have to respect."

Prasetyo has said 16 prisoners will be executed this year, including nationals from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, but has declined to give a specific time frame. That number will be more than doubled next year, he said.

Indonesia has declared a "drug emergency" and vowed no mercy for drug traffickers.
A government official at the Benghazi Medical Centre said on condition of anonymity on Friday that the handcuffed bodies, which were found on Thursday, bore signs of torture.

He confirmed that the 14 were killed in execution style with shots to the head, adding that beyond that, the circumstances of the alleged executions were not immediately clear.

Benghazi was the birthplace of the 2011 armed revolt that toppled long-time dictator Moamer Gaddafi.

The city has since seen a series of deadly attacks and abductions.

In recent months, Libyan forces led by powerful military chief Khalifta Haftar have intensified their attacks to dislodge Islamist insurgents from Benghazi.
Two armed groups claimed to have carried out Tuesday's raid on a military camp in Nampala, central Mali, which also left dozens wounded.

A day after declaring a 10-day state of emergency, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita paid his final respects to the dead in the presence of bereaved families in Segou, the capital of the region where the attack happened.

A previous state of emergency in place since April had only been lifted the week before.

"We are mourning today in Segou, crying for our children fallen in battle. Some were 20 years old, others 40. Not every life has dignity. Theirs did," Keita said at a military camp.

Keita said he had moved "heaven and earth" in attempts to persuade allies to provide air support to the struggling Malian forces. "We need true solidarity," he added.

Both France and the United Nations have stationed troops in Mali in an attempt to curb the country's prolonged insecurity.

The president was also due to visit some of the 35 wounded troops still receiving care.

Earlier Thursday the justice ministry said prosecutors had opened a terrorism probe into the Nampala attack and called on Malians to "inform the judicial authorities of anything that can help to advance our inquiries."

- 'Heavy weapon fire' -

Malian jihadist organisation Ansar Dine claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, along with the recently-founded National Alliance for the Protection of Peul Identity and Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ).

The military camp massacre was just the latest in a series of assaults on security forces in Mali, and was condemned as a "coordinated terrorist attack" by the government.

Meanwhile, in a show of Mali's growing instability, clashes were reported in the restive northern city of Kidal between pro-government and former rebel groups both based there since February.

An unnamed local official described "violent street battles" between the heavily armed factions, with residents barricaded in their homes.

"All civilians are indoors. Heavy weapons are firing all over the place, especially in centre of town," said the official.

Another official said the fighting stemmed from a struggle between rival Tuareg clans over control of the town.

There was no immediate information about casualties.

Mali has seen repeated violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012, including Ansar Dine.

Attacks are now becoming more frequent in the country's centre, close to its borders with Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger, both from criminal and jihadist elements.
"Everyone is hiding inside. We are hearing the sounds of gunfire. There's small arms and heavy weapons fire," one resident told Reuters, asking not to be named out of fear of reprisals.

Tensions have been building for several days in Kidal, one of northern Mali's main towns, between the Tuareg-dominated Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival Gatia militia fighters, leading to sporadic clashes.

A peace agreement signed last year by the government, its militia allies and the Tuareg separatists was intended to ease tensions between armed groups in the north and allow the army to concentrate on fighting Islamist militants.

However the deal is fraying.

The government of neighbouring Niger attempted to mediate between the groups in Kidal, and representatives of the pro-Bamako militia and the rebels signed a truce on Sunday.

------------------------------------------------
"French, American and British soldiers are in the Benina base" near Benghazi, said air force chief Saqr al-Jaroushi, whose forces are allied with a government based out of the eastern city of Tobruk that is not recognised by the international community.

He said around 20 soldiers at the base were charged with "monitoring the movements of the Islamic State jihadists and how they store ammunition."

"There are no (foreign) pilots fighting in the place of our pilots and fighters," he said.

He added that other foreign military personnel were carrying out similar tasks at other bases and towns across Libya, including the capital Tripoli, Misrata, 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the east and Tobruk in the far east of the country.

Jaroushi commands the air force that forms part of the forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar and the House of Representatives in Tobruk, a rival to the Government of National Unity (GNA) that operates out of Tripoli.

France, Britain and the US recognise the GNA as the legitimate government of Libya.

Jaroushi's remarks come a day after the GNA criticised the presence of French troops in the chaos-wracked country, as President Francois Hollande confirmed France has soldiers there after three died in a helicopter crash.

The soldiers were carrying out a reconnaissance mission alongside Haftar's troops.

The presence of the troops in Libya was a "violation" of the nation's sovereignty, the GNA said on its Facebook page following Hollande's announcement.

The Pentagon said in May that it has a "small presence" in Libya tasked with trying to identify which groups might be able to assist the United States in its mission to combat IS.

- Battle for Sirte rages on -

For two months, pro-government forces have been fighting fierce clashes against IS jihadists in their stronghold of Sirte in central Libya.

On Thursday, the troops claimed they had secured "advances... on two fronts" in Sirte, after pounding jihadist positions with aerial and heavy artillery raids.

Twenty-two pro-government troops were killed in the fighting on Thursday and another 175 were wounded, a Misrata hospital official said.

A total of 280 troops have been killed and 1,500 have been injured since the bid to recapture Sirte was launched in May.
Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside.

The Bavarian Interior Ministry said three people were dead, NTV television reported. A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded.

"We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," the spokeswoman said.

ALSO READ: Employees still hiding out inside Munich Shopping Mall

More than one gunman was believed to be involved and no one had been arrested, she said.

"We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 p.m., the shooting apparently began at a McDonald's in the shopping centre. There are still people in the shopping centre. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them."

Police special forces had arrived at the scene, NTV said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich.

"All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn't survive,"

"We have no further information, we're just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet."

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

There was, however, no immediate word that the attack was politically motivated.
The whereabouts of Machar, the rebel leader who was reappointed vice president as part of a peace deal to end almost two years of bitter conflict, are not known.

"I am appealing to Dr Riek Machar to return back to Juba so that we can continue with the implementation of the peace agreement (which) ... needs the two of us to implement," Kiir said in a statement.

He said he pledged his "100 percent commitment" to ensuring Machar's security while in Juba, following the intense fighting that erupted between rival troops just as the two men were meeting in the capital on July 8.

"I will be expecting a response... within 48 hours so that we establish contact and continue building and promoting peace amongst our people now suffering because of this uncalled-for conflict," Kiir said.

Machar has not been seen since he left Juba after days of fierce fighting that claimed the lives of at least 300 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing, many to Uganda.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war first erupted in December 2015 when Kiir accused Machar, then his vice president, of plotting a coup.
In his first interview since declaring a state of emergency following last Friday's abortive coup, Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible, but would not be easy, saying "we are more vigilant".

"It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it. I told it to the head of national intelligence," Erdogan told Reuters in his palace in Ankara, which was targeted during the coup attempt.

Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic U.S.-based cleric and former ally, of masterminding the plot, which crumbled early on Saturday. In a crackdown on Gulen's suspected followers, more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and educators have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation.

Erdogan said a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS), the top body overseeing the armed forces, which had been due on Aug. 1, may be brought forward by a week to oversee the restructuring. The Council is chaired by the prime minister, and includes the defence minister and the chief of staff.

"They are all working together as to what might be done, and ... within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging. With this new structure, I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood," Erdogan said.

"After all that has come to pass, I think they must now have drawn very important lessons. This is an ongoing process, we will never stop, we will continue very actively, we have plans."

Erdogan, the most dominant political figure on the Turkish stage since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern republic, and who has had a winning streak of more than 10 election victories, has been at war with his former ally for several years.

Asked whether the abortive coup had derailed his plans to change the constitution and bolster his powers by making Turkey a full presidential system, he avoided a direct answer, but said a "more limited" package of constitutional amendments could be agreed with the opposition.

He said the fact that some of members of parliament had not voted in favour of the state of emergency, despite the difficulties in the country, was "food for thought", and showed the need for building consensus with opposition parties.

"If we can achieve consensus ... we might take it to the people in the form of a referendum", he said of a possible package on constitutional reforms.

---------------------------------------------------
The men - three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors - landed in the northern border city of Alexandroupolis on Saturday after issuing a distress signal. They were arrested and charged with illegal entry, and have sought political asylum.

"They believe that, one way or another, they will lose their lives (in Turkey)," said Vasiliki Ilia Marinaki, a lawyer representing four of the men, as they appeared in court with their faces covered.

"Regardless of whether the death penalty is imposed or not, they believe that in the end they will be killed," she said.

Turkey has branded the men "traitors" and "terrorist elements" and has asked Greece to extradite them. Greece says it will examine their asylum requests quickly.

Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004 but President Tayyip Erdogan has told crowds of supporters chanting for the death penalty that such demands may be discussed in parliament.

The soldiers say they did not know a coup was under way and they were obeying orders by their superiors to transport the wounded from the streets to ambulances, their lawyers say.

They decided to flee when their Black Hawk helicopter came under fire by police. "They were in a state of emergency and that is why they entered Greek territory," Marinaki said.
Lighting the way to McAfee Pass a waning moon led 21 locals the 10.7 miles that climb almost 3,000 feet to the top of the Silver Peak Range on their way from Fish Lake Valley to the Old School Saloon terminus 34 miles away in Silver Peak for the 22nd annual Silver Peak or Bust hike.
Chinese students celebrate their graduation from Columbia University on May 20. [photo/Xinhua]

There has been an exponential increase in the number of Chinese overseas students applying for jobs in the country, said a human resources manager in Shanghai.

"Twenty out of 100 resumes are submitted by Chinese students studying abroad," said Zhang Zhuoya, human resources manager of a financial institute in Shanghai, adding that there were only five or six overseas students sending their resumes out of 100 three to four years ago.

According to Xinhua, there were 144,000 Chinese students abroad in 2007 and 44,000 came back to China, making the return rate 30.5 percent. Whereas, last year the number of overseas students was 523,700 and returnees 409,100, pushing the return rate to 78.1 percent.

Although one of the reasons for the jump in numbers is that more Chinese are going abroad for studies, another crucial factor is that China is offering more job opportunities and better growth development.

He An, 30, studied in Switzerland for three years and worked there for two years before coming back to China in 2015 at the cost of giving up "Green Card" application. He is now in charge of marketing at an online-to-offline food delivery company in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province.

He said the social environment of Western countries has been stagnant for decades, but in China changes are happening enormously, offering many commercial opportunities.

"Most of my overseas classmates have come back to seek better opportunities, said He.

The tough visa process and work permit are also the reasons why many are choosing to come back.

Zhou Yijing, who graduated from a university in France three years ago, planned to work for several years in Europe to gain some experience before going back to China. But after the 2007 financial crisis, countries such as France and the UK tightened the issuance of work visa to foreign students in order to save job opportunities for citizens.

"There were a dozen of Chinese students with me that year, all were forced to come back except one who married a French man," Zhou said.

The Chinese government has also recently rolled out policies to attract talent by launching such programs as "Recruitment Program of Global Experts" (1,000 talent plan) and setting up "overseas students pioneer parks" (overseas students start-up business incubators).

The number of high-level talent returning reached 44,000 since 2009 through talent plans, with the year of 2015 alone attracting 7,542, Xinhua reported citing Tang Tao, vice-minister of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Till now, 67,000 returnees are working in 321 "overseas students pioneer parks" across the country, according to Xinhua.
A series of articles on the history of the Python programming language and its community.
The city of Davenport is developing a movable food program that would allow mobile vendors to set up and serve customers on public property downtown.

City officials have heard significant interest from potential vendors who want to work downtown, but current ordinances prohibit food trucks, trailers and pushcarts from operating on public property.

The city wants to change that.

I think its obvious that (a food truck culture) wants to be here and there are plenty of people that are ready to make that happen, Kyle Carter, director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership with the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce, said. "The way it is now, a scene can't happen."

After hearing from more than 10 active mobile businesses over the last month, Mallory Merritt, Davenport's budget management analyst, said it was time to put a plan together.

We see them everywhere, so you can definitely tell its a new thing," she said. "It's happening all sorts of places, from Des Moines to California."

During Thursday's public meeting at the chamber offices, city staff proposed pieces of an ordinance to several business owners, food vendors and city council members.

Under the proposed program, trucks would be required to pay fees, operate in specific zones and set up at least 100 feet from any open brick-and-mortar restaurants. No alcohol sales would be permitted.

The four public zones included:

K-Square: Plaza area on East 3rd Street between Duck City Bistro and the Davenport RiverCenter

The riverfront

West 2nd Street across the street from the Ground Transportation Center

East 2nd Street in the Bechtel Park area

For the public zones, proposed fees include $200 for a mobile-vendor license, $100 for an inspection by the fire department and $500 for a zone permit. That fee structure would go into effect March 1. On private lots, a $50 registration fee was proposed.

Dan Bush, who opened Static Melt, a grilled cheese food truck last week, said that high fees would discourage food trucks from moving downtown. In order to set up shop, Bush and other food truck owners have reached agreements to park on private properties.

I love that the mayor (Frank Klipsch) is behind getting a food truck culture, but it almost seems a little bit backwards, he said. There is no scene. How many food trucks do you see in downtown Davenport? You just dont see them. To me, this is a deterrent."

Alderman Bill Boom, 3rd Ward, said there should be a way to keep track of where food trucks are operating, whether on public or private spaces.

When a food truck lands on a private lot, I get a lot of phone calls, Boom said. What is this person doing here? Are they sanctioned? Is it safe?

"I think we need to know where theyre at and when."

A movable food program would help create a structure for food trucks to "happen and thrive," Alderman Jason Gordon, at large, said.

We dont have anything that says what you can or cant do, he added. "It's pretty nebulous."

From here, city officials said the ordinance will be presented to aldermen at a future city council meeting. Merritt and Carter hope to launch a pilot program in September and establish a permanent program by March.

They'll make changes to the proposal and hold a second public input meeting during the first week of August.

The dream is that by early next year, we have a really well-vetted, functional system thats fair to the mobile vendors and brick-and-mortar stores, Carter said. Weve barely started and I think were very close to that.
CLEVELAND  Some Iowa delegates who backed Sen. Ted Cruz in the Feb. 1 caucuses expressed disappointment Thursday that the Texas senator did not fulfill a pledge to endorse rival Donald Trump as the 2016 GOP presidential nominee  a defiant move that may impact his political future.

Cruz went from hot to cold in delivering a fiery call Wednesday at the Republican National Convention for defending freedom and advancing conservative goals before seeing cheers to turn to boos when he urged fellow Republicans to vote your conscience in November without giving his stamp of approval to a unified effort to elect Trump.

He was my guy, but my guy made a pledge to endorse the nominee, said David Chung, a Cedar Rapids delegate who came to Cleveland hoping to be part of an insurgency to get Cruz nominated if Trumps support faltered. But he didnt keep his pledge. Disappointment is the kindest way I can put it.

Cruz backer and Norway delegate Loras Schulte said the Texas senator missed an opportunity to establish himself as the partys go-to conservative in 2020 similar to Ronald Reagan turned a 1976 defeat into his 1980 presidential win by putting aside a bitter primary fight to lock GOP arms.

I understand it was a tough campaign, a personal campaign, but there is a greater good here, from my perspective, and that would be a Republican winning the White House and making those appointments to the Supreme Court, he said. I would have thought long term that he might have endeared himself a little bit more to other sections of the party.

Other Cruz backers came to his defense Thursday. Kay Quirk, a Cruz supporter from Alta, said she found no fault in the Texas senator's speech while delegate Bob Vander Plaats of Grimes praised Cruz for delivering a powerful message about conservatism but is still on a journey toward embracing Trump similar to other Republicans.

"I dont see anything wrong with saying vote your conscience, Quirk noted. I think everybody should do whats right for them and I think they should be encouraged to be true to themselves.

"Things have been said on both sides and there have been no apologies given. I would find it hard in my heart to wholeheartedly endorse somebody who made comments about my family, derogatory things, she added.

Quirk also objected to the way the end of Cruz's speech has been portrayed.

He didnt get booed off the stage. He finished his speech. He walked off. Thats what I saw. To read that he got booed off the stage, thats not what I saw."

Cruz defended himself Thursday, telling members of the Texas convention delegation that he wasnt going to go like a servile puppy dog and embrace someone who had insulted his wife and father during the primary campaign.

Vander Plaats said Trump helped himself by the way he handled the situation  allowing Cruz to address the convention without stipulating an endorsement and later tweeting that it was no big deal when he didnt get one from the Texas senator.

Cruz is a big boy. Hes 44 years old. He made a big-boy decision last night. Im not saying thats the one I would have made but thats the one he made, Vander Plaats said.

Ted Cruz has not been one to just fall into line, so no one should be real surprised by that, he added. Its never fun to see a friend have a mixed reaction or get booed but I think he did what he needed to do.

Vander Plaats said he is in the same place where he plans to vote for Trump but not necessarily endorse him publicly. Thats why they booed because they want him to get their quicker than what he is, Vander Plaats added, saying it remains to be seen if it hurts Cruz standing in the party going forward.

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, said there were a lot of positives that came out of the convention  especially a strong introductory performance by vice presidential nominee Mike Pence of Indiana. But, he said, unfortunately, the positives were overshadowed by Cruzs disruptive, self-imposed negative unity.

I think he missed a golden opportunity, I really do, Kaufmann told reporters. There are going to be people who remember that moment. You dont get many moments in life like that one, and so I mean he gave up the best moment but that wasnt the only moment.

Donna Robinson, an alternate delegate from Marengo and a Cruz supporter, said the Texas senators decision not to deliver an anticipated soft endorsement was a big disappointment in a night at the convention that otherwise was pretty doggone awesome.

I was terribly disappointed that he didnt keep his pledge. He pledged to support the nominee and he needed to say that, said Robinson, who added that she understood why some delegates booed. He wasnt beloved before and thats kind of why I liked him is because the powers that be didnt like him, so he was my guy.

Gov. Terry Branstad said Cruz did a good job in delivering his remarks, but I think he made a mistake by not going one step forward and actually doing the endorsement. I didnt boo but a lot of people did.
Edgerton Womens Health Center (EWHC) will close its books by the end of this month. This stand-alone, not-for-profit corporation served the community for 44 years, providing quality obstetric and gynecologic care. All have been welcomed, regardless of health insurance or no insurance.

In the 1960s, the Davenport Visiting Nurses Association provided prenatal/postpartum care to uninsured patients. Deliveries for the uninsured were at the University of Iowa. Many showed up at local hospitals in labor.

Dow Edgerton, MD, and Jim Stuhler, chief executive officer at St. Lukes Hospital, were leaders in opening Maternal Health Center (MHC) in 1972, with new federal programs helping make this financially possible. Title XIX helped start Iowa Medicaid, providing funding for medical care and Title X, providing family planning.

In 1973, Tom Fedje led the organization for the 41 years. With Dr. Edgertons leadership, the program grew. In 2001, MHC moved to the Genesis East Campus. In honor of Dr. Edgerton, the new facility was named EWHC.

With recent changes in health care, it became financially impossible for EWHC to carry on. EWHC worked with Community Health Care (CHC) and Genesis Health Care administration to transfer the program to CHC, resulting in a mostly seamless transition. On April 1, the mission of EWHC became part of CHC.

I am honored I had the opportunity to work with MHC/EWHC. CHC will continue quality compassionate care for all. Thank you to board members, providers, and administrative staff who worked at EWHC for the past 44 years. You have done a great job.

Dr. Jeffrey N. Maurus

Rock Island
Four years ago, Davenport resident Dennis Moore, 67, met his wife, Grace, 51, when she was working as a masseuse at Lido Plage in Nice, France. That same location was targeted by terrorist last week.

On the evening of July 14, while Grace was working in Nice for the summer and her husband remained home, he received this chilling text message:

"I love you, terrorist attack. Your Grace"

Luckily however, Grace was unharmed, Moore said earlier week from France, where he has traveled to be with his wife. He said Lido Plage was around 650 feet from where the truck that had plowed into a crowd and killed 84 people had stopped.

"It was terrifying," Moore said when he received Grace's text message. "She had said in the past that the newspapers were saying that there was going to be a terror attack on the beach, but she didn't believe it would happen, and I didn't, either."

Before stopping to watch fireworks at the Promenade, Grace, her daughter, Agata Gmyrek, 24, and her daughters fiance, Baptiste Bureaux, 27, decided to have dinner, Moore said.

She was OK because she wasnt exactly on the promenade walking. They had planned to be there, but their meal came late, so they hadnt gotten there yet, he said.

Moore said his future son-in-law, a police officer, took control of the chaos in the restaurant when the attack occurred. He had the manager lock the doors, turn out the lights, and usher everyone into the basement of the restaurant.

Moore said he was not prepared for the scene in Nice, where he arrived on Sunday.

"It was just very emotional walking along the promenade from the airport, it was accidental because we had planned to take the bus, but because transportation has been a mess right now, we decided to walk. It's a three-mile walk," he said.

"Once we got to the place where the attacks occurred, we started seeing all these flowers, momentos, pictures, drawings, and candles in piles where people had been killed."

Although Grace managed to find cover, many others weren't so lucky. Three Americans, Texas natives Sean Copeland, 51, and his son Brodie, 11 and 20-year-old Californian Nick Leslie, died during the attack, the New York Times reported.

The attack in Nice comes after a series of attacks in France for the past two years.

In November last year, terrorist had targeted Paris and killed at least 89 people. Previously, terrorist had killed 12 people during a massacre involving satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Its very sad, its this kind of situation that will be in the heart and probably mind forever, Grace Moore said.
The Brissman Foundation has Black Hawk College two donations totaling $45,000 to fund scholarships for Milan students who study at the Quad-City campus in Moline.

The Brissman family wants to encourage people from Milan to get a good education and have the opportunity for education locally, said Kelly Thompson, director of programs at the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend, which administers the Brissman Foundation

This new Brissman Scholarship was awarded to a student for the 2016-2017 school term.

With these endowed funds, we will be able to provide numerous scholarships each year for years to come, said Jessica Malcheff, executive director of the Black Hawk College Q-C Foundation.

For more information about the Black Hawk College Quad-Cities Foundation, visit http://foundation.bhc.edu. And for information about Brissman Foundation, go to www.cfgrb.org/foundations/brissman.html.
Tyson Foods Inc. has donated $1,000 to the Rock Island County Civil War Soldiers Monument Restoration Project. The donation raises contributions to the project to $24,500.

The goal is to have the monument restored and have a rededication ceremony in April of 2019, which marks the monuments 150 year anniversary. More than $100,000 is needed to restore the monument.

The Union soldier that once rested atop the monument on the Rock Island County Courthouse ground was taken down for safety reasons. The soldier is in need of refurbishing;the nose has eroded, the gun is missing the barrel, and both of the hands need to be resculpted due to missing fingers.

The monument pillar has several fractures, possibly compromising the integrity of the monument. Many of the soldiers names have eroded making them unreadable.

Donations may be made by check should be to the Rock Island County Historical Society and mailed to Civil War Soldiers Monument, Restoration Project, P.O. Box 3384, Rock Island, IL 61204.

A public presentation of the monument project will be 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Rock Island Library.
Globe and Mail is being evacuated and police have closed off Front street and Wellington.

 Dave McGinn (@Dave_McGinn) 22 juillet 2016
Brie Wangsness just loves to bake.

She beams when she talks about her cheesecake brownies.

They are my specialty, she said.

Growing throngs of customers at BakeWorks!, a newly opened downtown Rapid City bakery, would tend to agree, if only they can get there before the rich, mouth-watering treats are all gone for the day.

They are one of our top sellers, bakery manager Nik Harr said of Wangsness brownies. I cant keep them in the case long enough to show them off to people.

Wangsness is one of eight aspiring Black Hills Works bakers who are learning the trade at BakeWorks!, 519 Mount Rushmore Rd.

Black Hills Services chief executive officer Brad Saathoff said the idea of opening a bakery grew out of Black Hills Works mission. The nonprofit helps people with developmental and intellectual disabilities learn new skills with the goal of helping them to make a living and gain their independence.

We had a common theme of people wanting to work in a bakery setting, so we looked at what the possibilities were with the resources we have, Saathoff said.

One of those resources is the Suzie Cappa Art Center, originally opened in 2001 at the Black Hills Works campus on Range Road in west Rapid City.

The art center, named in memory of aspiring artist Suzie Cappa, who received services from Black Hills Works from 1975 until her death in 1997, expanded to 722 St. Joseph St., in 2013.

BakeWorks! opened its doors quietly in renovated space around the corner from the art center in May.

Word spread quickly among downtown employees and shoppers. Walk-in customers began quickly snapping up muffins and scones and coffees from the shops full espresso bar, enjoying salads and sandwiches from a limited lunchtime menu, and taking advantage of four rent-able meeting rooms.

Weve had a great response. Ive seen a ton of return customers in here almost every morning. There hasnt been a climb and then a plateau. Its been busier and busier in here every day, Harr said.

Saathoff said the bakery aims to avoid competing with nearby doughnut and bagel shops. Instead, it offers a niche of European-style breads and baked goods, along with standard American favorites  oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies, crumb cakes and danishes.

The European focus fell right into line for baker Theresa Dante, who brought her years of family heritage and training from four different culinary schools in New York City.

Dante moved to Rapid City from the East Coast two years ago and was already volunteering with the Cappa Center when the bakery beckoned.

Im still a cookbook junkie. I really love working with the people and teaching them and seeing their satisfaction that they made something, Dante said Tuesday, using a toothpick to check a batch of lemon breads.

Its nice to the see people gaining skills and confidence, she said.

Harr boasts 17 years of culinary experience, ranging from working in small coffee shops and fine restaurants.

He became familiar with the artistic capabilities of people with disabilities also while volunteering at the Cappa Center.

I dont see them as disabled artists. I see them as brilliant artists. Theres some of the coolest stuff over there, he said. I get to do the same thing over here. Our canvas is just bakery pans.

Most of the Black Hills Works clients had previous experience with food preparation or had expressed a desire to learn how to cook and bake, Saathoff said.

Wangsness was at the top of the list. She already had three years of experience working at Ellsworth Air Force Bases Bandit Inn, taking over baking duties when service members deployed elsewhere.

BakeWorks! was a natural fit. Wangsness was immediately offered the position of assistant baker.

Marty (Krause, Black Hills Services vice-president) pretty much kidnapped me, because he remembered my dream, Wangsness said. I never had an interview or nothing.

The bakery hopes to rise to the demand for quantity baked goods and breads around the area. Ideally, the bakery will serve as a pipeline for those who want to make the culinary arts a career, Saathoff said.

Im certain theres going to be people with disabilities that are going to like this and just not want to leave, and for whatever reason they will be there for a long time. Im also certain there will be people who will build up skills and want to go to the next level, Saathoff said.

Wangsness dream indeed includes taking her growing skills to that next level.

I've always wanted to own my own restaurant. This is a stepping stone, I think, she said.
PINE RIDGE | Funeral services are pending for the 13-year-old victim of a gun shooting in Pine Ridge on Wednesday.

The Sioux Funeral Home of Pine Ridge is handling funeral arrangements for TeCa Clifford. She was walking home with friends when the Wednesday morning shooting happened, an Oglala Sioux Tribe spokesman said.

Two men suspected in the case were in custody. Federal and Oglala Sioux Tribe authorities on Thursday did not return calls seeking updated information about the shooting on the main street in Pine Ridge.
Around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, police sirens wailed at the Rapid City Club for Boys. Two squad cars, an ATV and a patrol bike had pulled up at the club building on North Fourth Street. Several dozen boys, ages 10 and older, lined the entrance.

Five police officers approached them, and started handing out $10 Jimmy Johns gift cards.

I think its really cool that theyve given us gift cards, said Cole Kieffer, 16, an incoming high school junior. Its not something that happens very often.

Kieffer said he plans to use the gift card to buy a sandwich with a lot of meat.

Roman Carpio, 12, said he intended to give his gift card to his father. My dad, he works hard all day, and I want to thank him, the middle school student said.

On Thursday morning, the Rapid City Police Department received 115 of the restaurant gift cards from the RCP&E railroad company. The cards were the latest tokens of gratitude local police received from area residents following the fatal shootings of five Dallas officers on July 7. Rapid City police also have received flowers, meals, thank-you cards and cupcakes.

Local police have a policy preventing officers from accepting gratuities, so the department donated the Jimmy Johns cards to Boys Club members.

We saw it as a way of paying it forward, said Assist Police Chief Don Hedrick, a club board member. This is a way for us to put the kids first.

The nonprofit Rapid City Club for Boys started in 1963 to help combat juvenile delinquency. Young people then didnt have much to do outside school. The club offers members ages 7 to 18 a safe place to hang out and meet friends; participate in sports, nature activities and volunteer work; develop their academic or creative skills; and receive free meals.

After about 60 members received the gift cards Thursday, officers invited the boys to check out the police vehicles. The children didnt need further encouragement.

They crammed into the squad cars, turning on sirens and honking horns. They examined the two-way radios, consoles and built-in laptops. One boy took selfies.

When asked how it felt to be in the drivers seat of a police car, one boy said: It feels weird  There are too many buttons.

Some climbed aboard the police ATV, while others admired the patrol bike. A few played with the officers handcuffs. A while later, the curious came back with arms outstretched, asking to be unlocked.

Theres a real desire by kids to do things with police officers, said Mark Kline, the clubs assistant executive director and a former club member. Theyre still heroes, larger than life for some of the kids.

The visit also was a way for the boys to see police in a positive context, Kline said, since their interaction with law enforcement often occurs when adult family members commit offenses.

Anytime we can build those positive relationships  thats a good thing, he said.

The boys were having so much fun with the officers that only the promise of ice cream lured them out of the 90-degree heat and back to the club building.

The officers next stop: the local girls club.
SHEFFIELD, England | A three-year, $10 million search to find elusive dark matter, which comprises more than four-fifths of the universe, has yet to detect any, but has resulted in scientists creating the quietest place on earth nearly a mile underground in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Scientists collaborating on the Large Underground Xenon experiment, or LUX, at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead announced at a conference in England on Thursday that their silent search for the missing matter of the universe has not conclusively proven its existence. However, it has advanced techniques and equipment for the next generation of experiments.

Nobody has ever looked for dark matter with this degree of sensitivity, Brown University physicist Rick Gaitskell, one of two LUX spokesmen, said by phone from England on Wednesday. Weve had to create a very quiet atmosphere, the quietest verified place on earth, and weve achieved that by going deep underground, by surrounding the experiment with ultra-purified water, as well as xenon.

The experiment made its first run in 2013 at the 4,850-foot level of the Sanford Lab, the former Homestake gold mine that operated for 125 years. Gaitskell said the depth was critical to shielding the experiment from natural radiation of the earths atmosphere. On Thursday, collaborators presented the results from the detectors final 20-month run from October 2014 to May 2016.

Gaitskell said he and his fellow LUX scientists were not disappointed in their findings, and were encouraged by the advancements they had made in calibrations and sensitivity of their detection devices.

Weve made the LUX detector a factor of four better than the original project specifications required, said the physicist, who has been searching for dark matter for the past 28 years. It would have been marvelous if the improved sensitivity had also delivered a clear dark matter signal. However, what we have observed is consistent with background alone.

The Sanford Labs LUX experiment is one of three places looking for dark matter. Another is on the International Space Station and a third is an effort to create dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider, run by the European consortium near Geneva, Switzerland, that found the Higgs Boson particle.

Its important to understand that in the search for dark matter, the LUX was a major step forward, Gaitskell said. In the 28 years Ive been at this, weve already improved by a factor of 100,000 in sensitivity.

And bigger steps are in store, the scientist said.

Work has already begun preparing another underground site at the Sanford Lab for a larger $50 million, higher-tech version of the LUX called the LZ, slated to go online in 2020.

The LZ will be 30 times bigger and 70 times more sensitive than the LUX and will employ multiple models, Gaitskell said. This big detector will prove to have self-shielding properties and the mass will allow for easier detection of backgrounds. Its complex enough to keep 50 scientists working.

And, even though the LUX experiment didnt detect weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPS, which would produce a flash of light when they bounced off the super-cooled liquid xenon, Gaitskell said the collaborating scientists were still leading the race in the search for dark matter.

Simply put, we are looking for the missing mass of the universe, he said. Its the question we have to ask, and well do everything we can to answer that question. The whole point is, its science. There is no guarantee we will find what we are looking for. But we wont give up.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is giving South Dakota $382,000 to fight the mosquito-carried Zika virus.

The new funding will help surveillance and investigation, strengthen laboratory capacity, and improve mosquito control and monitoring. It will also support South Dakota's participation in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry.

The new Zika funding is being distributed through CDCs Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement (ELC).

South Dakota will receive an additional $1.4 million through ELC funding to help detect, prevent and respond to the growing threats posed by infectious diseases, including foodborne and vaccine-preventable diseases and to deal with antibiotic resistance.

The CDC is currently awarding about $60 million to states, cities and territories to battle the Zika virus.

Public health experts identified $1.9 billion is needed to combat Zika and protect the country, according to the CDC. The Obama administration requested that amount, but the budget has not been approved by Congress. CDC Director Tom Frieden said they cannot wait to provide funds even though the funding is not yet available.

"These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat, Frieden said in a press release Thursday.
A right turning lane would sure be nice at the corner of Haines Avenue and Disc Drive. Too many drivers use the existing right lane to turn left, which holds up the drivers that are turning right onto Haines.

If you believe that drug and alcohol addiction is primarily a law enforcement issue, then running a "drunk tank" under the auspices of the County Sheriff makes sense. If you believe that addiction is primarily a public health (or mental health) issue, then we should go to a treatment model, under the auspices of Behavior Management Systems, our publicly-funded mental health agency.

A man has been found guilty of hitting and suffocating a resident in Sturgis Regional Senior Care and his sentence is reduced to 10 months! What a travesty of justice.

Someone asked why can't people take responsibility for themselves and their children ... the answer, they don't have to. We'll feed their children, we'll take care of them, they don't have to work, they can be on welfare, they don't have to be responsible.

John Thune should be ashamed of himself for not attending the Republican Convention. He needs to start working for South Dakota.
Alleged Russian spy Fishenko sentenced to 10 years in U.S. prison

MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI, Vladimir Yaduta)  Alexander Fishenko, main defendant in the criminal case over illegal export of microelectronic components from the United States for use by Russia's military was sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to the press-release of the U.S. Ministry of Justice.

According to the ruling of the U.S. court, Fishenko will have to forfeit more than $500,000 in criminal proceeds.

In October 2012, FBI made public the fact that eight people had been arrested on charges of unlawfully exporting high technologies to Russia for needs of the Russian military and special services. Four employees of Arc Electronics, a private Houston-based company, were arrested alongside the companys co-owner Alexander Fishenko.

The firm took part in transactions aimed to purchase electronic components from US manufacturers and consequently sell these components to Russian firms. As the case material show, the customer of Fishenkos company was Apex System having connections to a number of Russian enterprises.

There are a total of 11 defendants in the case, three of them have been placed on the wanted list. Four of the eight arrested - Viktoria Klebanova, Alexander Fishenko, Alexander Posobilov and Anastasia Dyatlova - have U.S. and Russian passports. According to newspaper Huston Chronicle, Taghiyeva has entered the USA on a student visa to study at the University of Huston.

Fishenko pleaded guilty to the entire indictment in September of 2015. In particular, he agreed in his guilty plea that he violated United States law by selling electronic components to Russia without required licenses. He also pleaded guilty to ancillary money laundering, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and being an unregistered foreign agent.

Fishenkos defense asked him to be sentenced to a prison term not exceeding 50 months (about 4 years), whereas the prosecution demands Fishenko to be sentenced to at least 121 months (about 10 years) in prison.

Earlier this month, one of the defendants in the case Sevinj Taghiyeva was sentenced to time served. She voluntary self-deported from the United States, her lawyer Sarita Kedia told RAPSI.
Defense of high-ranking investigator appeals his detention in corruption criminal case

MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Defense of the head of Russian Investigative Committees Internal Securitys Directorate, Mikhail Maksimenko, suspected of receiving large-scale bribe, has appealed his detention, RAPSI learned from the Lefortovsky District Court of Moscows press-service.

On Wednesday, deputy head of the Investigative Committees Moscow Directorate, Denis Nikandrov, along with several of his high-ranking colleagues, including Maksimenko, were detained for one month and 27 days. Earlier, they have been arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of receiving a large-scale bribe.

According to the official website of the FSB, the agency, along with the Investigative Committee, is carrying out a probe into the criminal case against the suspects over alleged abuse of office and receiving bribes from some representatives of the criminal community.

On Tuesday, various media outlets reported that Nikandrov and his colleagues were arrested by the FSB as a part of the investigation into the criminal case over extortion of 8 million rubles ($127,000) that involved gang leader Zakhariy Kalashov also known in the criminal world as Shakro Molodoi.
While snow was reported in the mountains above 6,500 feet elevation, much of Wyoming experienced warmer and dryer than normal conditions in early July.Thirty-two out of 34 stations reported above average temperatures ahead of the July 9-10 weekend. All 34 stations reported below normal moisture, according to the Mountain Regional Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA.Its been pretty variable here in Wyoming, like it always is because of how the mountains run, said Windy Kelley, University of Wyoming weather specialist out of Laramie.Our higher elevations have seen snow as well as some areas have picked up some moisture and weve had frost and freeze warnings. It is certainly getting cooler, which helps with slowing down some of the run-off going down the mountains from previous years snowpack, she continued.There is still some snow up in the mountains and the cooler temperatures help slow that down, and that is going to help more with your irrigation water and managing it.As of July 10, 98 percent of first cutting alfalfa was complete, compared with 74 percent for the five-year average. One percent of second cutting was completed.Farmers had also put up 78 percent of first cutting (other) hay, compared with 48 percent on average.For barley, 28 percent was coloring, 70 percent was headed and 96 percent was booted, well ahead of the five-year-average of 84 percent coloring, 62 percent headed, and 84 percent booted.Two percent of the states corn crop was producing silks, on par with the five-year average.Only 3 percent of the dry edible beans were blooming as of July 10, compared with 22 percent on average.Oat production was ahead of normal  with 20 percent coloring, 60 percent headed, and 97 percent booted compared with the five-year average of 6 percent coloring, 45 percent headed, and 73 percent booted.Spring wheat was making good progress, with 20 percent coloring, 66 percent headed, and 94 percent booted by July 10, compared with 10 percent coloring, 39 percent headed, and 77 percent booted for the five-year average.Winter wheat harvest had begun, with 32 percent of the crop mature as of July 10, compared with 24 percent on average. Winter wheat percent coloring was 56 percent, compared with 66 percent on average. Eighty-five percent of the crop was headed, compared with 97 percent on average.With dryer conditions, sugarbeets were slightly stressed with 87 percent good and 13 percent in fair condition, compared with 90 percent good and 10 percent fair the previous week.Pasture and range was rated 7 percent excellent, 58 percent good, 21 percent fair, and 14 percent poor to very poor. Conditions were virtually unchanged from the previous week.Livestock was rated 7 percent excellent, 78 percent good, 13 percent fair and 2 percent poor. The livestock rating improved slightly from the previous week, when ratings were 6 percent excellent, 79 percent good, 13 percent fair and 2 percent poor.Stock water supplies across Wyoming were rated 5 percent surplus, 77 percent adequate, 14 percent short and 4 percent very short.Topsoil moisture declined slightly during the first full week of July, with 11 percent surplus, 54 percent adequate and 35 percent short to very short. Topsoil moisture at the end of June 2016 was just slightly better with 11 percent surplus, 56 percent adequate and 33 percent short to very short.Subsoil moisture was rated at 67 percent surplus to adequate and 33 percent short to very short, compared with 69 percent surplus to adequate and 31 percent short to very short the previous week.A high temperature of 103 was recorded in Torrington, and the temperature reached 101 degrees at Lance Creek and Wheatland  all in District 5 for the week ending July 9-10.A low of 34 degrees was recorded at Big Piney in District 3, and also at Lake Yellowstone in District 1. Portions of Western Wyoming received a frost, although it was not considered threatening for the crops.Seventeen stations recorded 95 degree temperatures or higher.Nine stations reported at least 0.1-inch of rain, including Powell, Big Horn, Newcastle, Sundance, Big Piney, Buford, Cheyenne, LaGrange and Lance Creek. Sundance received the most rain, 0.34-inch.Beartooth Pass  a 68-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 212  was briefly closed on July 11 due to a July snowstorm in northwest Wyoming.
Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney visited two companies in the Bitterroot Valley on Thursday, which highlighted new developments, programs and jobs.

FreightMonster Inc. in Hamilton and B.E. Forest Products in Stevensville are growing with new developments.

Larry Lockhart Jr. is president of Freight Monster Inc. on Old Corvallis Road. The remodeled facility has room for 120 employees and partner companies FreightMonster, TechMonster, Streamline LLC, Western Data Recovery and they just added Griz Wireless. Freight Monster has nearly 20 employees paying $15.82 per hour in Hamilton.

On Thursday, FreightMonster hosted an open house to let the community know they are in Hamilton, open for business, hiring and expanding.

We are in the trucking industry, Lockhart told Cooney. It all started with heavy haul and full load. It progressed into building custom software for that business. We got programmers, developers and designers and were about to unveil a pretty large program that connects the heavy freight. There isnt really anything like this.

FreightMonster hauls machinery and full loads of lumber to 200,000 pounds.

Thats our forte, Lockhart said. Our industry is a third party business and after doing this for 20 years and seeing what is out there to connect the drivers, companies, brokers and everybody else together it is flawed. It is behind the times and I built my first custom software 10 years ago.

FreightMonster started building the new software two years ago.

Money is a lot of the reason why production is not where it needs to be on the program, he said. We got a good team and were quality. That will really create a fair amount of jobs. Our industry is based on phone  you cant do everything online. We are trying to mesh them, which is good. We can connect real people to real jobs and get technology where it needs to be.

Cooney suggested looking at the model by the Department of Labor of an apprenticeship program.

Cheryl OBrien, in accounting, said the open house was to show the community the facility and its capabilities.

We have partnered with the Montana Grizzlies, Lockhart said. Go Griz! We are going with Griz Wireless. We are partners to the Grizzlies everything. We can use Griz colors and insignias because we are partners with the Montana Grizzlies.

It will help us expand our market into Missoula and beyond, OBrien said. That would help with any of our other divisions that we have. We have additional made-in-Montana clothing, like 406 just to bring in local flavor.

All our clothing will have something to do with Montana and how we support our state, Lockhart said.

Also, they are building custom computers in the FreightMonster building.

We are hoping to fill a need, OBrien said. If someone needs a small work computer or a student computer, people should come see us. These are reasonably priced, used in-house and we back them up. Whatever people need they can come see us and well make it.

Grants Bureau Chief State of Montana Department of Commerce Jennifer Olson presented a check to Freight Monster for $625,000. The Community Development Block Grant was $400,000 of the funding and $225,000 came from the Big Sky Trust Fund grant based on hiring new IT and fulfillment specialist workers.

The FreightMonster open house had prizes, food, tours and lots of community visitors.

We needed everyone to know our local business is here, Lockhart said. Were off the beaten path.

Cooney also toured B. E. Forest Products in Stevensville, in the Light Industrial Tax Increment Finance District (TIFD). B.E. Forest Products started their business two years ago with seven employees. They have 15 employees and project 30 total.

Julie Foster, executive director of the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority said B.E. Forest is really growing.

B. E. Forest Products have wages over $15.28 per hour, Foster said. They also pay 75 percent of their employees health care. The company has some exciting programs in place that will be generating even more jobs in the near future.

B.E. Forest Products produces custom lumber products by using cutting edge manufacturing technology. Their target market is professional contractors, architects, and do-it-yourselfers throughout the world.

B.E. Forest Products is owned and operated by Jim Edinger, Nathan Bean and Lindsy Bean.
Sagarmatha Network Pvt. Ltd. is the organization dedicated in the field of printing, publishing service since 2001. As part of media, we've been publishing Review Nepal, an English medium weekly registered at District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu with registration number 130-162-163 and reviewnepal.com as an online digital newspaper, with registration number 849-075-076 at Department of Informational and Broadcasting (DIB) from Kathmandu, Nepal since 2003.
Guwahati, July 21 : A total of 239 one horned rhinos were poached in Assam in past 16 years.

The Assam forest department had disclosed the information on the floor of Assam assembly during the budget session on Thursday.

Replying a question of Congress MLA Ajanta Neog during the question hour in assembly, Assam forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma said that poachers killed 239 rhinos in the state from 2001 to July 2016.

'The moral of the forest staff is very low. We have yet to adequate amenities. But we have took possible measures to protect wild animals including one horn rhino in the state and also been taken stern action

against poachers,' Brahma said.

The Assam forest minister said that the equipments like .303 rifle is so old technology equipped by the forest staff to fight against poachers and many times there is scarcity of bullets.

We need to modernize equipment, to give uniforms, shoes to frontline forest staff,aA the minister said.

The minister also said that the state forest department has decided to probe the rhino killing incidents and to give all rhino killing cases to National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The minister said that, 661 poachers who involved in rhino killing incidents were apprehended during the period.*

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Vice-minister gives details of the difference the funding plan is making on the continent

More than half of the $60 billion in support China has promised Africa will go to building infrastructure, Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said on Friday at a media briefing on the coming China-African Cooperation meeting in Beijing.

Zhang used two Chinese proverbs to explain why most of the money goes to infrastructure.

"Want riches? Build the road first," Zhang said citing the Chinese slogan created in 1982 amid China's reform and opening-up campaign. "To attract the phoenix, build the nest first."

Zhang said infrastructure construction is essential for economic development, according to China's experience in the past 40 years of development.

On July 28 and 29, representatives of China and about 30 African countries will review the three-year (from late 2015 to 2018 ) funding plan initiated during the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-African Cooperation in December.

During that summit, President Xi Jinping announced assistance and loans totaling $60 billion for Africa$5 billion in grants and zero-interest loans, $35 billion in loans with more favorable terms and an export credit line, and $20 million added to funds for development and production capacity cooperation.

Zhang said that some projects have already been completed and details would be revealed at the meeting next week, where more contracts are expected to be signed between Chinese and African representatives.

"We are very careful and responsible with the money. Every penny spent has been well considered and examined, and every project promises economic and social benefits," said Zhang, adding that the Chinese government and financial institutions are taking the responsibility of supervising the projects.

He Wenping, a researcher at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that by providing, amid the global economic slowdown the largest funding to Africa in history, China shows its determination to support development on the continent.

The fund is 1.5 times the amount of the Silk Road Fund, a Chinese investment fund in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative area.

In his speech in December, Xi announced 10 major plans to boost bilateral cooperation in areas such as industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial services and green development.

"The fund is planned in detail for certain areas of infrastructure, industry, and production capacity cooperation. It's foreseeable that the projects will make great differences in these fields in Africa in the three years (of the funding plan)," said He.

He said that the funding fills the urgent financial needs of African countries and absorbs the overcapacity of China, and brings opportunities for companies from both sides.

Contact the writers at yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn
Guwahati, July 21 : Assam police had foiled a bid of Paresh Baruah alias Paresh Asom led ULFA(I) after apprehending a hardcore militant of the outfit group in Upper Assam's Dibrugarh district on Thursday.

Based on intelligence input, police had launched operation at Duliajan area in the oil rich Dibrugarh district and nabbed a hardcore ULFA(I) militant.

The nabbed militant was identified as Babul Dihingia and security personnel had recovered two powerful hand grenades in possession from him.

A top police official said that, ULFA(I) had sent a militant group including Babul Dihingia from Myanmar to Assam to trigger major explosions, attack in the Upper Assam districts ahead of Independence Day.

We have alerted all police stations in all districts and launched massive operation against the militants across the state,aA the police official said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Kathmandu, Nepal: the government has on Friday decided to shift the Nepals oldest hospital, Bir Hospital, at Duwakot in Bhaktapur.

A cabinet meeting held on Friday took the decision to shift the hospital. It is said that a spectacular building will be constructed there for Bir Hospital in the area stretching over 700 ropanis of land.

The government had pledged to upgrade Bir Hospital to the level of international standard through the Fiscal Budget 2016/17. However, the decision taken from the cabinet to shift at Duwakot of Bhaktapur is taken importantly.

Likewise, the meeting has also passed the National Mass Communication Policy 2016.
Kathmandu, Nepal: The Parliament meeting held on Friday has disapproved the fiscal budget of 2073/074 BS except the regular expenditure.

Three bills were disapproved after the main opposition party Nepali Congress and on e of the major government ally CPN Maoist Center stood against the bills.

Three bills- Financial Bill, National Debt Recovery Bill and Debt and Guarantee Bill- tabled by the finance minister Bishnu Poudel were rejected by the majority members of the parliament.
Contact Us

monty@salida.com

Salida Colorado Recommended Restaurants With so many Rocky Mountain activities to experience, it is no wonder that a wide variety of dining options are present in the Salida area. After all, visitors work up a healthy appetite in our Arkansas Valley region. There is a treasure trove of options to choose from, anything from a robust cup of coffee and warm pastry to the tantalizing flavors of a gourmet meal. Make sure to save room for dessert, though, since there are plenty of mouth-watering options as well. The following comments were borrowed from the tourist reviewed websites "TripAdvisor" and Yelp and may be helpful in making your dining decision. TripAdvisor has far more reviews than does Yelp, however in some cases we added a few of the comments from the latter site for a more robust review and to represent a wider collection of tastes. For TripAdvisor reviews, we chose from 2017 postings in which the reviewer has contributed 20 or more reviews. We also listed a Newbie section since these new-to-Salida restaurants havent been around long enough to garner lots of reviews. This page does not represent a full-scale Salida Colorado dining review, but it should give some perspective of the more popular dining options. Keep in mind that no matter how good the restaurant may be, there will be times when it may not meet everyones expectationswe all have our bad daysbut these types of reviews keep it real. The TOP TEN Restaurants in Salida Colorado Amicas Pizza, Microbrews & More

136 E 2nd Street

Salida, Colorado 81201

Phone: (719) 539-5219

www.amicassalida.com Comments: casual Italian foodgreat place apres skimost popular pizza is margaritaplace where locals golots of microbrews to choose from. The Good: excellent oven-fired pizzagood beerfun, laidback atmospheredelicious pollo pizza and calzonebetter choices than Pizza Hutour group found better restaurants in Salida, but this one was good, cleanantipasta tasted very freshpizzas, salads, sandwiches were really goodhomemade root beer very good. The Bad and the Ugly: very noisy when crowdedpizza was just okaylogistics can be a bit confusing since you must order at the counter and then wait to be seated and servedexpect a wait, especially during the busy timeslasagna was boring. Our Take: Amicas is a favorite of locals and tourists alike, oftentimes noisy and crowded with a wait to be seated, but a fun and laidback atmosphere with food that is very good overall and microbrews and homemade root beer that are popular with guests. Buffalo Smokehouse Barbecue

4710 E Hwy 50

Salida, CO 81201

Phone: (719) 539-8508 Comments: set up in a converted garage, museum of antiques and motorcycles; good bbq, with vinegar base. Our Conclusions: Buffalo Smokehouse Barbecue fills a niche in the Salida region since there is no great barbecue restaurant around town. The sauce is smokin good and the meats are tasty and tender. The location along Highway 50 East and at the beginning of Bighorn Sheep Canyon is one that is away from the hustle-and-bustle of downtown Salida and far removed from any bar scenes. The restaurant is owned and operated by a family who seems to be off to a great start with their food quality and selections. Patio Pancake Place

640 E Rainbow Blvd

Salida, Colorado 81201

Phone: (719) 539-9905 http://patiopancakeplace.com Comments: families, Western guys, all kinds of clientelepopular spot to eat breakfast all daytry the omelets, breakfast burritocome earlyhuge servingslocals eat herecomfort food, buckwheat pancakes. The Good: great service and foodfriendlybest breakfast in towneggs just as you like themawesome pecan wafflesbest-ever multigrain wafflerepeat customer, prices are goodbest breakfast in town. The Bad and the Ugly: not sure why this place is so popularsimple, ordinary breakfasts but parking lot always fullbecoming pricey, huevos rancheros price raised to almost $15. Our Take: Patio Pancake is a local haunt located alongside Highway 50 that has been in business for a few decades and is known for its generous portions and standard breakfast fare offered at reasonable prices, in general. Open only for Breakfast and Lunch. But, please be aware that there is NO patio! Currents

122 North F Street

Salida, Colorado 81201

Phone: (719) 539-9514 Comments: a local hangout. The Good: friendly and professional serviceartichoke dip very goodgenerous portions of fish & chips busy restaurant with excellent food, huge portionsstrawberry shortcake was excellentlarge salads, great beers buffalo brat was very tasty, best-ever friesexcellent NY steak, unique choicesfriendly Western bar, good foodtasty Cajun sea bass and smoked salmonfair prices, good ambiance, live musicgets better and better every day. The Bad and the Ugly: noisy and just ok. Our Take: Currents is located on the main drag in downtown Salida and is known for its seafood and consistently good meals. The prices are reasonable, the service is usually friendly and good and they have live music on some evenings. A solid choice. Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub

242 F Street

Salida, Colorado 81201

Phone: (719) 539-4277

http://moonlightpizza.biz/press/ Comments: locally made microbrewsoutdoor tables with umbrellasopen lateeclectic...will deliver. The Good: fantastic pizza that is the best in Salidakick-back atmosphere with genuine folkspizza is one of bestcheese steak sandwich with tasty meat, delicious sauceclean bathrooms, fantastic service, great with kids, very reasonableour kids designed their own pizzas, outstandingpatient, pleasant waitstaff. The Bad and the Ugly: busy and noisy. OurTake: Moonlight Pizza is a small, eclectic sort of hole-in-the-wall place where customers can choose their pizza creation and enjoy a laid-back Salida experience. Out of 112 TripAdvisor reviews, 106 were either very good or excellent, suggesting that their fare is consistently pleasing its customers. Shallots Restaurant and The Alley Bar -- TripAdvisor #7 of 50 Restaurants

137 E 1st Street

Salida, CO 81201

Phone: (719) 539-4759

http://www.shallotssalida.com Comments: inventive drinkspassionate about what they serve. The Good: excellent tapascocktails highly recommendeddelicious whole grain blueberry pancakes, fantastic coffeegreat atmospheregood food, good prices. The Bad and the Ugly: relatively small menu. Our Take: Shallots has been open just a few years, is located in downtown Salida just like many of the good restaurants and thus has some stiff competition. The building is old-time Salida with exposed brick, high ceilings; the cocktails are obviously crowd pleasers and the food is good as well. Ferraros

216 North F Street

Salida, CO 81201

Phone: (719) 530-9463 (WINE)

artferraro@gmail.com or emferraro@gmail.com Comments: daily specialsItalian comfort food. The Good: best ever meat lasagnatop dining experiencehomemade pasta is greatartichoke appetizer with several dips was spot on, de-boned filet of trout topsgood food. The Bad and the Ugly: billing problematic (couldnt do separate checks). Our Take: Ferraros is located downtown and across the street from Riverside Park, serves good Italian comfort food, is a great choice for those who want authentic Italian food downtown and near the Arkansas River, but away from the riverside bar scene. The Firefly Restaurant

142 W Hwy 50

Salida, CO 81201

Phone: (719) 221-6170

http://www.thefireflyrestaurant.com Comments: The Firefly opened in 2013 and thus has very few reviews. Of the 2 reviewers with more than 20 reviews under their belt, both rated this newbie 5 stars: wonderfulfresh ingredients, unique specials, firefly salad a favoritemenu is not extensive but has nice kids menu. Our Take: Newbie that seems worth checking out.
The city of Santa Maria will recognize Ralph Martin for his years of service as the police chief, his service to the community and his dedicat
Celebrating its 65th edition, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has revealed its full program. With the festival now less than a week away, let's take a look at the highlights, some personal recommendations, and ScreenAnarchy reviewed gems from festivals during the year past.

The Closing Night film has been revealed as Cannes contemporary cowboy hit Hell or High Water (above), directed by David Mackenzie (Starred Up) and written by Sicario scribe Taylor Sheridan,

Our own Ryland Aldrich saw it and in his review called it "something that feels simultaneously classic and fresh".

The Kids Gala returns with the red-carpet Australian premiere of the 3D film, Kubo and the Two Strings. It's an animated film featuring the voices of Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey and Rooney Mara; Travis Knight, the Oscar-nominated animator of Coraline, directed. Joe Cinque's Consolation, already sold out, is based on Helen Garner's award-winning book; an emotionally complex and chilling true-crime drama. US director Matthew Jones will also be in town on behalf of The Man from Mo'Wax, a no-holds-barred insight into the extraordinary James Lavelle and the record label he co-founded with Tim Goldsworthy.

Headliners, a brand new section celebrating festival hits and award-winners includes Terence Davies long awaited passion project, Sunset Song (above), featuring a career-making performance from model Agyness Deyn.

Dustin Chang called it "glorious" in his praise-worthy review, and it is certainly highly anticipated, considering Terence Davies himself will be a guest of the festival. It is curious then why his latest feature A Quiet Passion is strangely absent from the program. Here's our interview with the director discussing both films.

Also screening in Headliners is Ben Wheatley's High Rise, a dystopic psyhological thriller starring Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons; Kurt saw the film and called it "triple distilled satire, to be served cold with a garnish of mania in his review.

Continuing the Headliners lineup is Bruno Dumont's Slack Bay, a whimsical farce starring Juliette Binoche and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women, starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart as three women trying to sustain love and find connection; and the Cannes hit Paterson, a tender portrait of a bus driver poet.

The Documentaries program including Tickled (above), which starts as an investigation into the world of 'competitive endurance tickling' and soon takes a darker turn. The film's director David Farrier will be a guest. Other documentary highlights include Cameraperson, taking viewers inside the global career of cinematographer, Kirsten Johnson; and The Eagle Huntress set in the mountains of Mongolia where a teenage heroine learns the ancient - and previously male-only - art of falconry.

Elle (above), one of Cannes' most talked-about and psychologically complex films, featuring a standout performance from Isabelle Huppert, was reviewed by Jason and called "a masterwork by a master filmmaker". Julieta, the 20th film from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar is referred to as Banal in Shelagh's less than impressed review

Christine also joins the lineup; starring Rebecca Hall in her career-best portrayal of Christine Chubbuck, the real-life television journalist who committed suicide on air. In Ben's very entertaining and mysterious review, he calls Christine a film he will be living with for months. Needless to say I highly recommend this film.

The festival will also be showing Kate Plays Christine, the Special Jury Award-winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which follows actor Kate Lyn Sheil as she prepares to play journalist Christine Chubbuck. Director Robert Greene will be a festival guest. In the new program strand Dance on Film. Director Celia Rowlson-Hall, no stranger to working with filmmakers Lena Dunham and Gasper Noe, will be a guest of MIFF with her debut feature Ma - a contemporary, choreographic road movie re-imagining the Virgin Mary's story. Seeking Refuge films include the survey on the European refugee crisis, Fire at Sea, which won the Golden Bear for Best Film, the Amnesty International Film Prize, and the Prize for the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale.

Culinary Cinema returns with a spread of film delicacies including Bugs, in which Nordic Food Lab chef Ben Reade takes an entertaining journey through one of the last culinary taboos in the west; Sour Grapes, featuring a good humoured take on one of the most impressive wine frauds in modern history; and Barista (above), providing an enlightening and intense glimpse into the art of producing a flawless cup of coffee.

Night Shift will keep horror fans and night owls on their toes with a line-up including The Lure, Poland's first vampire mermaid musical. The Eyes of My Mother, directed by music-video prodigy Nicolas Pesce, who carves his name indelibly into the psyche with one of the most memorable horror films in recent memory; and Under the Shadow, from first-time feature film director and MIFF guest, Babak Anvari. Turkish horror Baskin, which Ryland calls a midnight movie "through and through" in his review, is accompanied by I Am Not a Serial Killer (Peter's review here), The Love Witch (above); an ultra vibrant trip into sexy exploitation cinema, Train to Busan, the Cannes hit that's just opened to record seats in South Korea, and a film Pierce called in his review "a tense and inventive mix of genre thrills and social anxiety." The Devil's Candy also joins this list, a film that Todd Brown precisely reviewed, calling it "worth the wait" in reference to the Directo's last great film, The Loved Ones, a cult classic.

The 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival runs 28 July - 14 August. The full program is now available online.



Dustin Chang, Ryland Aldrich, Kurt Halfyard, , Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Benjamin Umstead, Peter Martin, Pierce Conran and Todd Brown contributed to this story.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.


50 years ago next month, a group of pissed off trans women and hustlers who frequented Gene Compton's Cafeteria at the corner of Turk and Taylor Streets in the Tenderloin revolted against police and rioted, smashing windows and breaking dishes and furniture in the country's first noted revolt by LGBTQ people. This was August 1966, three years before the Stonewall Riot in New York, and like Stonewall it came in reaction to police harassment, it spread over more than one day, and it became a formal protest in a neighborhood known to be the city's only haven for gay and trans people at the time.

The exact date of the riot, because it was not covered in the media and was not formally recorded by the SFPD, is actually lost to history, but some of the women who were there tell first-person accounts of that legendary night in a documentary airing on KQED this weekend called Screaming Queens: The Riot at Comptons Cafeteria. The film actually premiered at Frameline in 2015, at which point NPR picked up the story and spoke to several trans women who frequented Compton's at the time. It was known to be a nightly gathering spot for trans sex workers in particular who weren't welcome in gay bars, because it was open 24 hours.

Resistance was in the air that summer in San Francisco and anti-war protests were ramping up, and a picket at the cafeteria had already occurred on July 18, 1966 after management at the cafeteria  which was one of a chain across town  began kicking trans women out. Police were called to the place one August night after a report of people being rowdy, and one trans woman, tired of being threatened with arrest, threw a cup of coffee in a policeman's face, setting off a riot that would be repeated the following night with Compton's plate glass windows getting smashed twice.

In the trailer below you can hear from Amanda St. Jaymes, a trans woman who ran a residential hotel near the cafeteria and who talks about getting arrested multiple times by police despite the fact that she wasn't a sex worker. "If we had lipstick on, if we had mascara on, if our hair was too long, we had to put it under a cap," she says. "If the buttons was on the wrong side, like a blouse, they would take you to jail because they felt it was female impersonation." At the time, any type of female impersonation was considered a crime  something that led local activist Jose Sarria to make pins for drag queens to wear one Halloween that said "I'm a Boy" on them, in an effort to skirt the law.

Director Susan Stryker calls the riot "the transgender community's debut on the stage of American political history," and she was inspired to track down members of the community who were there after finding that so few details of the event had been recorded.

A longer trailer, below.




The common wisdom has been that Silicon Valley billionaire, Facebook board member, Paypal cofounder, and noted Libertarian person Peter Thiel hated Gawker media because they'd outed him to the public as gay. That logic was reinforced when Thiel called the website's tech coverage "the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda," and the thinking went that it was a grudge over all this that lead Thiel to secretly fund Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker.

But Thiel is very confusing! In fact, Thiel is proud to be gay, as he'll tell Trump supporters, other Republicans, and the world tonight at the party's national convention, where it was announced last week he would be speaking, the same night that Trump himself takes the podium. CNN writes that according to "a source familiar with Thiel's remarks he will be the first speaker in the history of the party to speak openly about his LGBT experience at a convention. It will also, CNN emphasizes, provide an opportunity for Thiel to address his critics in Silicon Valley. "In the tech industry," the New York Times wrote recently, "his appearance at the convention is being greeted with more apprehension than excitement."

Thiel is also expected to admonish the Republican party for their staunchly anti-LGBT platform, and for "fighting unnecessary culture wars," according to CNN's source.

Returning to that Gawker piece, which was published a decade ago on the company's site Valleywag, Owen Thomas, a current San Francisco Chronicle staffer has said that "I did discuss his sexuality." The piece, for the record was called Peter Thiel is Totally Gay, People.

"[It] was known to a wide circle who felt that it was not fit for discussion beyond that circle. I thought that attitude was retrograde and homophobic, and that informed my reporting. I believe that he was out and not in the closet."

This is all so confounding because Thiel's politics are somewhat contradictory. This is the man who coauthored a book called The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford in which, as many including Gawker have pointed out, he and his co-author defend a law school student who yelled, on Stanford's campus, Faggot! Faggot! Hope you die of AIDS! and Cant wait until you die, faggot! It was just some sort of free speech demonstration that, in Thiel's words, "challenged... taboos."

You know, I can think of one presidential candidate who isn't "afraid" to do that either. Thiel will speak at 7 p.m. ET according to the Republican National Convention website. CNN has him going on at 9 p.m. ET, however.

Previously: VC Billionaire And Facebook Board Member Peter Thiel To Speak At Republican Convention

Openly Gay Venture Capitalist Peter Thiel Comes Out As Trump Supporter


A 15-year veteran of San Francisco's public school system is facing federal felony charges, after he was allegedly found in possession of at least one image of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Christian Lancaster, who the Ex says taught at Thurgood Marshall High School in the Bayview "from at least 2002" until January 8, 2016, "was charged in a July 14 federal grand jury indictment with one count of knowingly possessing and gaining access to one or more images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct," Bay City News reports.

According to the indictment, which wasn't unsealed until his initial court appearance Thursday, Lancaster "had or accessed at least one image of prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct for an unknown amount of time until last September," the Ex reports.

San Francisco Unified School District spokesperson Gentle Blythe tells the Chron that Lancaster had no record of wrongdoing during his lengthy career at the school, and "had passed background checks prior to being hired."

According to Lancaster's bio on the Thurgood Marshall site (which has since been removed), the former Government and Economics teacher was born in Stockton and had lived in San Francisco for nearly 20 years.

His fascination with history and government is equaled only by his commitment to challenging students to learn about the world around them, his bio read.

At his appearance before U.S. Magistrate Donna Ryu in Oakland Thursday, Lancaster surrendered and was taken into custody. He'll remain there until at least July 27, the date of his bail hearing.

U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch says that Lancaster's defense attorney has yet to be named. If convicted, Stretch says, Lancaster could face a fine as high as $250,000 and up to 20 years in prison.
Johnny Depp is in town while touring with his new band The Hollywood Vampires  the supergroup that Alice Cooper formed last year along with Joe Perry named for a drinking club Cooper started in the 70's that had John Lennon and Keith Moon as members. The band is playing shows tonight, July 22 in Rohnert Park, July 24 in Saratoga, and July 25 in Paso Robles, but on Thursday Depp and photographer Kyler Clark took a tour of Alcatraz where Depp posed in the lighthouse with the SF skyline in the background.

As the Examiner reports, Depp also visited the cell that once housed Whitey Bulger, whom he portrays in 2015's Black Mass.

Meanwhile, soon-to-be ex-wife Amber Heard, with whom Depp just formally filed divorce papers last week, was spotted in Miami with none other than Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.

According to sources who spoke to Page Six, Musk and Heard had separate rooms but were seen going in and out of the same room at all hours  including a mention of Musk doing a "walk of shame" one morning out of Heard's room at the Delano South Beach.

Musk's reps deny all this, and say he was in Cape Canaveral, three hours away, for a SpaceX rocket launch all last weekend. Sources close to Heard tell the gossip rag that she and Musk have been friends for four years, and that he was simply letting her and her sister use his poolside bungalow at the hotel.

Believe what you will.

Related: Elon Musk Wants To Send You To Mars By 2024
SIOUX CITY | Ode presents an evening of true stories, told live at Vangarde Arts, 420 Jackson St. on Saturday. Admission is $10 cash at the door.

Happy hour starts at 5:30 p.m. outside, where gumbo and pulled pork sandwiches can be ordered from Delicious Depot, one of the Food Truck Fridays vendors. Cash bar inside.

The show opens at 7 p.m. with music by Melanie Mergen. Storytellers will delve into the theme of "Why do we tell stories?"

Ode is a storytelling series where community members tell true stories on stage to promote positive impact through empathy. Sioux City Journal features reporter Ally Karsyn is the founder, producer and host.

For more information, visit facebook.com/odestorytelling.
Just by counting the number of assistants the cast got, you can tell a lot of money was spent on the new Ghostbusters film.

Theres a herd of special effects experts, too, and more hairstylists than youd find at a Kardashian family reunion. But all the excess doesnt make this installment any better than the one that came in 1984.

Indeed, a simple twist  making these four the offspring of the originals  could have given the franchise purpose and, hopefully fueled more jokes than this does. Now, it finds its humor largely from Kate McKinnons improvisations and Chris Hemsworths willingness to look dumb. Theyre pulled into the ghostbusting business after a book written by two other paranormal experts gets online attention.

Kristen Wiig plays a university professor whose tenure is threatened when the news becomes public. She confronts her co-author (Melissa McCarthy) and quickly finds herself out of a job and looking. In less time than it takes to say, Who you gonna call? she and McCarthy make nice, start the business and pull in McKinnon, an equipment expert, and Leslie Jones, a subway attendant who spotted suspicious activity below New York City.

The hunky Hemsworth merely applies for the job and gets it, simply because he looks so good.

Once the team is set, director Paul Feig puts them on the trail of a terrorist (Neil Casey) whos eager to bring the spirit world into some kind of vortex that could unleash the underworld. Using McKinnons inventions, the four figure out how to trap ghosts (at an Ozzy Osbourne concert, no less) and prove the phenomenon actually exists.

This draws plenty of attention and gets the mayor (Andy Garcia), his assistant (Cecily Strong) and a ghost expert (guess which star it is) to weigh in.

By the time the Ghostbusters (not Ghost Jumpers, a rival group) get to the terrorist, all sorts of green things have jumped out at the audience (particularly in 3D).

Most of the original actors get puny cameos and theres no real attempt to connect the original film with this one. Worse, the script isnt all that funny or involving. Considering McCarthy and the Saturday Night Live grads could improvise something better, thats a real let-down. The best lines go to everyone who isnt a Ghostbuster.

Because hes like a big puppy, Hemsworth snares mores than his share of laughs and merits an extended dance sequence over the credits. (Hes not bad at dancing, either.)

Easily, more thought should have gone into the premise.

McCarthy gets a Rick Moranis moment but it only manages to remind us of the previous film, not the direction where this is headed.

A new Ghostbusters sequel is likely (theaters were packed the first week), but itll need something more than desire to work. When messing with something this iconic, script writers should have gotten the first call.
Bethany Lutheran hosts VBS

SIOUX CITY | Vacation Bible School for elementary age children will run from 5:30-8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday at Bethany Lutheran Church, 1201 Dubuque St. This year's theme is "Barnyard Roundup -- Jesus Gathers Us Together," focusing on Psalm 23.

There will be dinner and a snack for children. All denominations are welcome. Call 712-940-8213 to register and for additional information.

Buchanan Avenue Baptist celebrates 30 years

SIOUX CITY | Buchanan Avenue Baptist Church, 1567 Buchanan Ave., will celebrate its 30th anniversary at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. For more information on events, call 712-276-0675.
Im too young to remember the duck and cover drills at school, but over the years Ive seen the iconic film footage.

Theres a flash from an atomic bomb. Children dressed in nice school clothes get out of their desks, duck underneath and cover their heads with their arms. Theres a catchy, perky little ditty that goes with the ducking and covering. It almost seems like a party.

Theres also a cartoon. Bert the turtle, wearing a helmet, is walking down the street. A monkey with a stick of dynamite appears. Bert knows hes in danger so he ducks and covers inside his turtle shell. Hes safe inside his shell. The same cannot be said for the monkey holding the lit dynamite.

This memory came back to me recently during the first news reports on the attempted coup in Turkey. Americans were being told not to go outside but instead to shelter in place. Thats what Bert the turtle did. Stay where you are. Duck and cover inside your home. Its safer than venturing out where its not safe.

Theres so much going on in our country and in our world that sometimes I feel like sheltering in place. I think that many of us feel like ducking and covering during this presidential campaign. There seem to be a lot of monkeys running around with lit sticks of dynamite. That might just be a little cynicism leaking out of a pretty non-cynical person. Desperate times can do that.

But there have always been desperate times. All you have to do to realize this is to read the Bible. I remember many years ago I was reading the Bible for long periods of time. Suddenly one day I thought to myself, Gee, there seems to be this theme here.

God blesses his people. Life is good. The people drift away from God. They disobey God. They worship idols. God lifts his hand of protection from his people. They are captured. Enslaved. Oppressed. They cry out to God in their misery. They repent. They come back to faith. God helps them. Theyre thankful. They worship God. And the cycle repeats itself. Over and over again.

Sound familiar?

Over and over again the people in the Bible (and we) have to learn one important lesson. The Lord is our shelter in times of storms. He is our strong tower. He will hide us under the shelter of his wing.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust. (Psalm 91:1-2).

Ive read that this was Casper ten Booms favorite scripture. He hid it in his heart. When he was arrested along with his family for hiding Jews in their home in Holland during World War II, this is the scripture he turned to.

He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you...

"Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone...

"Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation." (Psalm 91:4-16).

Instead of ducking and covering and sheltering in place, lets put our trust in the one who is our true and only shelter, the Lord. Let us dwell in Him.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7).

Kathy Yoder is a devotional writer. She may be reached at kathyyoder4@gmail.com.
CHEROKEE, Iowa | Matthew Kollbaum, Peyton Harris and Josh Frederick rose at 4 a.m. on Thursday and headed to the Cherokee County Fair in Cherokee, determined to wash and water their hogs for the Cherokee County 4-H Swine Show.

The show began at 7 a.m., one hour earlier than advertised, moved up as the heat index on Thursday was to rise to 111 degrees, perilous for people and pigs. In fact, county fair officials decided to release hogs on Friday, the first "hot-weather early-out" for swine in decades.

The pigs didn't wallow in the hot slop at this fair, though. Most of these porkers sucked down fresh water and relaxed in bedding kept dry thanks to 60 watering systems built and put in place by Kollbaum, Frederick and Harris, members of the Tilden Tillers 4-H Club, a project rooted in the heat of the county fair one year ago.

"We put up four watering units like this in the Cherokee County Fair Swine Barn last year," said Jeff Kollbaum, Matthew's father. "The boys liked they way they worked."

So, the trio hatched a plan to raise money to make watering units out of PVC pipe that could attach to pig gates throughout the barn. The boys explained their mission to their local 4-H club before making a presentation to the Cherokee County Fair Board, which had to approve the proposal.

They received permission to move forward in April, and sent letters seeking funding support this spring. To date, they've raised more than $7,000. Excess funds have be used to purchase watering cans, a step stool and wheelbarrow for hauling H2O.

Monies left over may be used after the fair to buy oscillating fans for the Swine Barn, finish concrete around the wash rack, put in additional electrical outlets in the Swine Barn and more.

"We hoped to raise $2,000," said Harris, 12, who, like his peers, has been amazed at the level of support, which may ultimately quadruple their initial target.

"We wanted to build this watering system all around the barn," said Kollbaum, 12. "We built them from 120 feet of pipe. Each one has two caps and two nipples. We used water clamps to tighten each one to the fence."

In the past, Kollbaum said, pigs would often stand in or tip over water troughs, soaking the bedding and making a mess of the pens and areas walked by the general public and 4-H participants. Those days may be long gone thanks to this effort.

"The boys have put feed pans under the waterers, so when the water drips it goes into the feed pans and makes a slop the pigs like," Jeff Kollbaum said.

Frederick's father, Jeff Frederick, of Frederick Welding in Marcus, Iowa, used his talent to create a template for the boys to follow as they drilled and connected pieces for each unit, doing many hours of assembly work at TopLine Feed & Supply in Marcus.

The PVC pipe came from Kevin Mouser of Mouser Well Digging & Plumbing in Remsen, which is in Plymouth County. The boys sent letters of solicitation across county lines as customer bases and the school districts now share communities such as Marcus and Remsen. Matthew Kollbaum, for example, will be a middle school student at MMC-RU in Remsen in a few short weeks.

"I'd say 30 to 40 percent of the businesses and people that received letters gave to this project," said Kristin Kollbaum, Matthew's mother.

The three boys will make a presentation about this leadership project at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in the 4-H Building. After that, they'll prep for the Marcus Fair, the Clay County Fair, the AKSARBEN Stock Show, and, with some luck, the Iowa State Fair.

I imagine they'll consider other possibilities, too, seeking ways they can build upon their success this summer, a bit of a watershed moment in their time as 4-Hers.
SIOUX CITY | For eight days, Dave Wilder and his family saw pictures and heard testimony from the hours leading up to the murder of his son, Dustin Wilder.

And, after just less than an hour of jury deliberations Friday, an answer was given.

Timothy Schroeder, 30, of Sioux City, was found guilty of first degree murder in the shooting death of Wilder, 29, in his Sloan, Iowa, home in January 2015.

"I hope no family has to go through this," Dave Wilder said after the verdict was read at the Woodbury County Courthouse Friday afternoon. "When your family is together, always remember to show love and pray together."

The jury found Schroeder guilty of first-degree murder, going armed with intent and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

In Iowa, a first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In the early hours of Jan. 9, 2015, Wilder left the Sloan Tap with Schroeder and his wife, Amanda Schroeder. Amanda later told investigators she and her husband were in the home at 621 Buckley St. in Sloan when Wilder was shot. Wilder was found unconscious later that morning by a dog sitter and authorities declared him dead at the scene.

Earlier Friday, closing arguments presented by both the state and the defense focused on statements given by Amanda Schroeder.

Defense attorney Jennifer Solberg argued that Amanda, who has been identified as the only other person at the scene at the time of the shooting, cannot stick with a consistent story. Under oath, Solberg argued, Amanda has said she both had never seen the gun and that she had test fired the gun with Schroeder a couple of days before the murder.

Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Jill Esteves, however, rebutted that Amanda showed deputies exactly where the gun had been test fired on a gravel earlier. Had she not led officers to the empty casings, they would have been unable to find it.

Esteves also pointed out that Amanda said she gave the gun to a friend, Carlos Reynosa-Mendez, who then transported the gun to a trailer park where it was found by law enforcement on a search warrant.

Solberg, in her closing arguments, said there was no way to piece together what happened between the hours when the Schroeders took Wilder to his home in Sloan from the Sloan Tap to when his body was found later that morning.

Between the lack of evidence and unreliable testimony of Amanda Schroeder, Solberg said there wasn't enough to convict Schroeder.

Esteves said comments Schroeder made to Amanda and friends about only going back to prison for "something big," as well as obtaining a handgun from friend Corey O'Neill showed he had intentions to inflict harm on someone "all because the defendant wanted to be the big dog in the prison yard."

Solberg and Esteves were not available for comment following the verdict.

In a written statement after the verdict, Wilder's sister, Amy Schable, said though the trial has ended, the pain the family has endured for nearly a year and a half will not disappear.

"For a year and a half, we waited for justice and today, we have received it," she said in the statement, read by Dave Wilder. "Words can't express the pain we've endured.

For the rest of our lives, we will mourn," she added in the statement. "All we have left of him are our memories."
SIOUX CITY | Attorneys for the state and defense rested their cases Thursday in the Timothy Schroeder murder trial as the jury spent most of the final day of testimony watching an interview between Schroeder and a law enforcement officer soon after his arrest.

Schroeder, 30, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, going armed with intent and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is accused of the Jan. 9, 2015, shooting death of Dustin Wilder, 29, of Sloan, Iowa.

According to court documents, Wilder left the Sloan Tap early in the morning with Schroeder and his wife, Amanda Schroeder, who told investigators that they were in Wilder's house at 621 Buckley Street in Sloan when Wilder was shot. Wilder was found unconscious later that morning by a dog sitter and was declared dead at the scene.

In the video played for the jury Thursday, Schroeder explained that he and his wife went to Sloan to meet a friend of Amandas. They then went to the Sloan Tap around midnight. At 2 a.m., Schroeder said he encountered a man at the bar, who was later identified as Wilder. In the video, Schroeder said Wilder was intoxicated and he offered to drive him home.

After entering Wilder's home in Sloan, Schroeder said he and his wife helped Wilder locate his cell phone and then left after about 20 minutes.

Schroeder insisted several times that was all that happened in the house.

The Woodbury County Sheriff's Office detective who questioned Schroeder in the video, however, informed the then-suspect that several witness testimonies placed him at the scene at the time of the shooting.

Earlier that day, the jury also listened to an audio recording of Schroeder's phone conservation, from jail, with Amanda Schroeder.

The recording was one of the last pieces of evidence presented to the jury.

After the state rested, the defense moved for acquittal on all three charges, saying there was no sufficient evidence to convict Schroeder of the crime.

District Court Judge Jeffery Neary denied the motion.

The defense then rested its case.

The court will reconvene at 10 a.m. Friday for closing arguments. The jury is then expected to begin deliberations.
SIOUX CITY | A man who belonged to the same gang as Jamal Dean was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for lying while testifying at Dean's sentencing hearing.

A jury in April found Cesar Ramos, 27, of Sioux City guilty of three counts of making false material declarations. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 24 months for each count at the U.S. District Court in Sioux City. The sentences will be served concurrently.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ramos and Dean were in the same gang, and Jaime Espinoza was in another gang. According to statements Ramos gave to investigators, he drove Dean away from near the scene where Espinoza was shot.

When asked about the incident during Dean's sentencing, Ramos said he didn't remember. The jury found that Ramos' statements in the courtroom amounted to perjury.

Dean, 24, of Sioux City, was sentenced to life in prison in January 2015 after being found guilty in federal court of several charges in connection with two separate robberies of cash, drugs and cars from drug dealers in April 2013. He's also serving 25 years in prison on a state charge of attempted murder for the April 29, 2013, shooting of Sioux City police Officer Kevin McCormick.
NORFOLK | Yesterday, Norfolk Police Officers were dispatched to an apartment building for a report of a fight between a male and a female.

A witness stated that he saw the male and female pushing each other around and yelling.

The witness approached the male and confronted him, asking why he was hitting a female. The suspect then proceeded to pull out a knife and exclaim, "I'm going to cut you." A second witness confirmed the story.

The male was identified as Maurice R. Blacktaildeer, 27, of Norfolk. Blacktaildeer was arrested for terroristic threats and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Blacktaildeer is currently being held in Madison County Jail.
I think enough is enough. I don't care what the NRA thinks, but assault weapons belong in the military or with our law enforcement departments. Donald Trump says that President Obama is too weak, but it is the Republicans who are weak to stand up to the NRA.

Background checks should be stronger to make sure that anyone who has a mental problem or is on the do-not-fly list does not get any type of weapon. This includes from a gun shop, gun show or private party. Maybe criminals will still get them, but law-abiding citizens can still get a weapon for self-protection, hunting or target practice.

The administration has not called for all weapons to be banned. It is time to start using common sense - Republicans and everyone else.

Black lives matter, but so do the lives of police officers. Where are all the protesters for these senseless killings? - Marvin Nelson, Sioux City
Renting your first office space can be an exciting turning point for your business. But choosing just any office would be a mistake. You need to make sure that your office is one that will support your team and allow you to grow and thrive. Below are things to consider before renting your first office space.

Tips for Renting Your First Office Space

Decide If You Really Need One

Businesses used to need dedicated offices in order to survive. But plenty of entrepreneurs today do just fine working from home offices or even co-working spaces. If your business could function in one of these alternative environments, you could save yourself a lot of time and money.

Choose a Location Near Your Team

If it is absolutely essential for you to have a dedicated office space, then the location is likely your most important consideration when renting your first office space. You first need to ensure that the office will be close enough for your team members to commute. Or if you dont have a team just yet, choose an office that close enough to an area thats populated with potential talent.

Ensure That it is Easily Accessible for Others

You also have to keep clients in mind when choosing a location. Is the office building youre considering easily accessible from freeways or public transportation? Will they be able to find it easily?

Think About What Amenities You Want Nearby

Another factor when renting your first office space that could impact your location decision is the nearby amenities. Your team will likely appreciate an office thats at least somewhat close to restaurants and coffee shops. And if there are certain places you need to visit regularly for business purposes, like meeting spaces or banks, youll want those to be nearby as well.

Have a Strict Budget in Mind

After location, cost is likely your next big concern. Dont choose an office that is going to put your business too far into debt and stunt its growth. Crunch the numbers before you even start looking to find a budget that will allow you to operate comfortably.

Account for Extra Expenses

There are a lot of expenses that go into renting an office space. The actual rent is just part of it, when it comes to most properties. And those extra expenses can really add up if you dont account for them in your original budget.

Paul Miller, brokerage vice president for Office Services Group in Dayton, Ohio said in an email to Small Business Trends, Make sure you understand what is included (and not) in the quoted rent. Does the Landlord want you to pay for your utilities? Phone and data? Snow and ice removal? Make sure its clear, and that its spelled out clearly in the Lease.

Make Sure the Lease is Clear

Just knowing whats included is one thing when renting your first office space. You need to also make sure that all of those provisions are clearly spelled out in the lease. You dont want to just take your landlords word that some utilities are included only to be charged for them later since that wasnt officially stated in your lease.

Find Out Who is Responsible for Repairs

Repairs for your space can also represent a significant expense. If your landlord is responsible for those expenses, make sure they are willing to take care of them in a timely manner. But if you are, make sure theres some wiggle room into your budget.

Get Help From an Expert

The process of looking for office space can be overwhelming for a newbie. But if you find a commercial real estate agent or broker who is familiar with the properties in the area, they can make the whole process a lot easier. Ask around or search on an online portal like Colliers International to find someone in your target community.

Find a Secure Building

The building itself should offer some amenities as well. To keep you, your employees and your equipment safe and secure, find out if the building has a security guard, manned entry way and after-hours security.

Choose a Space That Fits Your Team

Of course, you will need a large enough space for the members of your team to each have a desk or place to sit. But you dont want something so large that youre paying for entire rooms that you never use.

But Leave Some Room to Grow

However, a bit of extra space can be a good thing, especially if you plan to grow within the length of your lease. Even a few extra cubicle spaces or some room to add a few desks can be helpful.

Decide How You Want the Office Laid Out

Do you want an open concept or more closed-off work spaces? Different bosses and teams have different preferences. So think about what style would suit your team best and choose an office that lends itself to your preferred layout.

Know Exactly in What Condition Youll Receive the Space

Some offices dont always come as advertised. And some might require a bit of work before you actually move your things in. If you want to know exactly what the space will look like if you actually decide to rent it, you have to ask those questions. Miller says:

Make sure you understand how the space will be delivered. Do you require improvements like paint and carpet, or do you need walls and doors moved or added? Who will pay for these improvements?

Consider Parking and Bike Storage

Parking is another important factor that might be overlooked when renting your first office space. You need to make sure there are enough parking spaces nearby so that your team can actually get to work on time without much hassle. A secure parking lot or dedicated area is a plus. Or if youre in an area where there are more bikers, make sure theres a rack or enough space somewhere in the building for employees to store their bikes.

Think About How the Office Will Appear to Others

Like it or not, your office sends a message to others about your business. If you choose a building thats falling apart, that could tell clients that youre struggling. But if you overextend your budget with a lavish space for your first office, they could think that theyre paying you too much.

Have a Place to Meet

Aside from just desks or cubicles, youll need to think about some other spaces that could be useful to your team. Do you need a dedicated conference room or a few smaller meeting rooms? Do you need a kitchen or any other specific types of spaces?

Know What Youre Allowed to Customize

You likely want to make your first office your own. But most landlords probably dont want you knocking down walls and completely changing their buildings. So before you sign anything, see what youre allowed to do to the space without them charging you for damages.

Consider the Lease Length

The length of your lease can be another important factor in your decision when renting your first office space. For your first office, you might not want to get tied into a really long-term commitment. You dont want to be stuck with an office space if your business folds, sells or outgrows the space.

Have Confidence in Your Business Moving Forward

For that reason, you really have to think about where you see your business at the end of that time period. If its a five-year lease, where do you see your business in five years? And do you have an actual plan to get there?

Have Provisions in Place for an Early Exit

Just in case, you should know what might happen if you have to break your lease. Make sure that youre comfortable with any fees or other penalties just in case something changes throughout the course of your lease.
Billions of connected devices will lead to unbelievable amounts of data which can lead to new business opportunities for companies agile enough to take advantage of the situation. Jason Mann, director of emerging solutions and product management for SAS, a leading provider of business analytics software and services, shares how companies can capitalize on Internet of Things (IoT) opportunities from both efficiency and revenue generating perspectives.

Below is an edited transcript of the conversation. To hear the full interview click on the embedded player at the bottom of this page or see the video interview here:

* * * * *

The Internet of Things (IoT) and IoT Data

Small Business Trends: Give us a little bit of your personal background and then give me your definition of Internet of Things.

Jason Mann: It really is sourced from the origins of the data; device level data. The idea of monitoring devices, measuring devices and their connectivity to the Internet. And the ability to to pull that data in for additional assessment and analytics.

We also have a perspective of continuing to push decisioning and analytic insight closer to the edge and the source of the data and will do that as we continue to see the measurement devices and aggregation devices expand with respect compute storage capacity.

Small Business Trends: You have thousands of customers and theyre focused on marketing and analytics. When it comes to IoT data where do you think they are currently and where you think they should be?

Jason Mann: I think you see a vary greatly by industry. You have some industries that have a long history and experience with device level data, with monitoring data in motion or streaming data; industries like energy for example where the focus on grid reliability have driven the need to monitor the stability throughout the entire grid in close to in real time as possible. So those industries are more mature. They have a broader competency in dealing and finding insights from streaming data.

You have some people that are just starting to enter the space; retailer is a great example of that. Everyones familiar with some of the new beacon technology thats out there and maybe even encountered it within the stores. So that technology is continuing to expand; the technology surrounding the beacons with the ability to identify unique signature to a customers mobile device. They talk about a digital fingerprint from your MAC ID, from your Bluetooth, from your wifi signals from the phone. So theres a lot of forward looking capabilities of being able to consolidate an omni channel view to your consumer. But then link that to a locational awareness for your consumer as well to help with realtime promotions or message interaction to a customer.

So you see it at different ends of the spectrum. And if we look out two or three years youll see wider adoption and deployment. And then for those that that have existing capabilities or existing experience theyll continue to refine and expand and find new use cases. I think that is the critical element though for all the industries that are looking to leverage the opportunity that is IoT is to define use cases because its only there that youre able to provide a return, provide an improved customer experience, customer satisfaction, efficiencies that IoT promises  that everyone hears is really rooted in specific industry level use cases.

Small Business Trends: Is it being driven by looking for efficiency gains? Is it being driven by actually trying to improve customer experience. Is it both?

Jason Mann: Youll see a mix of that and again youll see variation across industry. Another example that I use is I think everyone by this point has encountered the insurance commercials that talk about attaching a dongle and theyre able to evaluate your driving habits.

I have an 18-year-old and its a huge upside for me to be able to track his his driving habits. But thats a new business model for them; it provides an additional insight that three years ago wasnt available, wasnt even a concept that they could consider. So not only does it bring the ability to engage their consumer more directly in the fact you get sticky because they can reduce their rates, they have better insight to their overall projections for risk assessment. So in those cases you have both sides of the equation, an opportunity for some top line growth and opportunity for efficiencies within the business model. But then you do have some of the industrial markets that you see utilizing IoT data today. It really can be focus on quality or yield improvement or manufacturing processes that seems to be the bulk or at least the majority of the initiatives in the retail. Again going back to the early example, it can be about top line growth generating that promotion, squeezing out a bit more revenue from the existing customers based on your understanding of their buying habits, and then adding that additional last mile IoT provides knowing where they are within the store or along the road in proximity to your route.

Small Business Trends: What kind of companies tend to see initial benefits of IoT first?

Jason Mann: As everything with IoT we see a mix there. If you think about those fast movers, innovators, you look at it wearables, you look at the smart home and all the devices that are trying to push there. You have a lot of players that are trying to monetize that with things like Google Nest; and your cable provider is looking to provide some additional services that may be attached to security or insurance within the home. Most recently we were just talking to a customer that has been making power panels for the home. But what they found is that they can generate additional insight from just the current that moves the line, about the preventive maintenance of the devices themselves. Potential issues with failures of the electrical system resulting in home fires. Theyre even looking to be the hub of that home monitoring service. So theres new companies that are moving quickly into the space with wearables or smart devices within the home. And then theres older companies that are mining for additional top line revenue opportunities as well. It truly is a mix.

Small Business Trends: How quickly do companies have to start not just thinking about this but actually implementing IoT technology and strategy before they get left behind?

Jason Mann: I think if youre not thinking about it now you are being left behind. In 2014 IoT was at the pinnacle of hype but even at that point the projection is within five to seven years for real revenue returns within the space, and I think theyll adjust that over time because I think if its moving a bit more rapidly. So if youre not starting on the journey now its going to pass you by in two to five years. And I do believe that just given the pervasiveness and the deployment that were seeing with respect to these devices and the expansion of capabilities of measurement within mobile devices companies will be forced into that. especially on the consumer the consumer side.

Small Business Trends: Consumers adopt technology at much higher rates. They adapt their lives to take advantage of it. And companies not on board with that trajectory stand the best chance of being disrupted.

Jason Mann: I certainly think thats the case and the insurance example is a great one. So they didnt just go to the car manufacturers and say wed like to work with you to get access to data that we think is important. They totally bypass that infrastructure by connecting into the car, or having their consumers opt into linking into their mobile device and immediately without a lot of technical infrastructure a lot without a large ecosystem. They were able to affect their business vision and I think thats an example that other companies should evaluate. Reduce the ecosystem that you can impact immediately and bring your offering to market.

Small Business Trends: How ready are companies. Not from a technology standpoint. But from a perspective of corporate culture and strategy.

See Also: How to Pick the Best Business Partner for You

Jason Mann: It is a truly new way to do business for many of the industries that are starting to adopt that. Certainly theres an infrastructure requirement theres a resource requirement where those things are limited youre seeing services pop up some of the early deployments of IoT that present true value will be a cloud element associated with that to reduce the overall infrastructure cost. Theres services or services based options that reduce the requirement to staff up significantly on the resource side. The critical element is lets think about this in a new way and then well find a way to execute against that because there are a lot of options that are out there available to to our customers today.

Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more?

Jason Mann: SAS.com/IoT.

This is part of the One-on-One Interview series with thought leaders. The transcript has been edited for publication. If it's an audio or video interview, click on the embedded player above, or subscribe via iTunes or via Stitcher.
Avalon Building Supply owner Mary Bohanan and McCormick Paint representatives at the McCormick Paint store in Waldorf.

HOLLYWOOD, Md.

(July 22, 2016)Avalon Building Supply was recently awarded two contracts; one to provide materials to the State of Maryland and the other to provide materials to C. W. Wright Construction Company.In the first contract, Avalon, along with McCormick Paint Company of Rockville, were awarded the BPO (Blanket Purchase Order) to supply paint and sundries to any Maryland state or county agencies, State Highway Administration, non-profit organizations, public schools, fire and rescue departments and any agency supported by the State of Maryland. These agencies will be able to take advantage of the State's purchasing power to get the lowest possible prices.It is a one year contract with the option to renew for two more years.According to Avalon owner Mary Bohanan, she is the only independent retailer who is able to sell under the contract. Qualified agencies also have the option of purchasing from any McMormick Paint retail location throughout the state. The only retail McCormick location in the tri-county area is in Waldorf. The next closest locations are in Capitol Heights and Annapolis, leaving Avalon a significant territory to service.Bohanan says McCormick reached out to her because Avalon is one of two Md. Office of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) paint suppliers on the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs (GOMA) listing. "DGS [Md. Dept. of General Services] encouraged me to market myself to all the bidders, but because McCormick reached out to me, I felt a sense of loyalty to them."Bohanan believes the annual overall value of the contract could be worth up to $864,000 just for paint, not including sundries. The value to her store alone would depend upon the actual sales that come through her door as opposed to a McCormick retail location.In a second award, the small Hollywood-based company was the successful bidder to provide $108,000 of environmental protection filter sock material to the C. W. Wright Construction Co., based in Virginia, for work being performed on the Eastern Shore.Avalon is a small business with over 33 years of experience that has been certified in the State of Maryland as a MBE, SBE and DBE. Avalon is also a certified WOSB (Woman Owned Small Business)."We are specializing in providing reliable, on-time delivery of building materials to businesses and government customers who are looking to partner with small businesses," said Bohanan.Avalon is located at 43915 Commerce Ave., 1C, Hollywood, MD 20636 and can be reached at 301-373-9500.Updated 26-JUL-2016 to provide more details about the state BPO.
LEXINGTON PARK, Md.

On top of his junior level course load, Yu continued to put in hours of work each week towards the completion of his project, which included creating a detailed display to showcase the extent of his research during the months leading up to his first science fair of the year.

(July 22, 2016)Winds turbines can be seen popping up around the world. From the tops of mountains to the Earth's many oceans, engineers are locating the perfect areas to place these highly efficient electricity producers. But what happens when an object collides with the turbine? How long does it go unnoticed, causing large amounts of damage or diminishing efficiency? Jonathan Yu, a rising senior at Great Mills High School (GMHS) found the answer to these problems with his award winning science fair project.Yu first became interested in science fairs during his 6th grade school year. His first project was a simple physics problem involving a bumper test as an object fell down an inclined plane.This year, Yu's junior year at GMHS where he participates in the STEM Academy, he presented a project titled "Wireless Sensing of Blade Impacts." Unlike freshman and sophomores, juniors in the STEM Academy are not required to enter the science fair, but Yu felt that something was missing and "just wanted to do it again", he said, "Other students always find science fair as a burden, but I see it as an opportunity to do better."Yu figured out a way to narrow down the search for damaged spots on turbine and helicopter blades, damages that could be caused by birds, bats or debris from taking off and landing. Usually, inspectors need to look closely over an entire blade to scout for signs of damage that might need repair; and that's not only time-consuming, but also costly, Yu noted.At first, Yu placed two sensors on each blade, one located near its base and the other near the tip. The sensors would detect vibrations created as objects slammed into the blade, allowing Yu to measure when the first vibrations reached each sensor, much like a seismometer pinpointing an earthquake. But when Jonathan ran tests on his scale models of helicopter blades, he noticed that he could pinpoint the impact by simply analyzing the shapes and sizes of the vibrationsnot the timing, meaning he would only need one sensor located near the base of the blade.To collect the data, signals from the sensor could be sent wirelessly to a recorder on the aircraft, or those signals could be sent to instruments on the ground. In either case, the data could be preserved and analyzed in the event a blade is struck and damaged.At the Great Mills High School Science Fair, Yu's project was awarded first place in physics and astronomy. At the St. Mary's County Science and Engineering Fair, Yu received a number of awards, including the 2016 Unmanned Systems Chief Engineering Award presented by TPP and the 56th Annual St. Mary's County Science and Engineering Fair Grand Award.Following the county science fair, a select group of students were invited to participate in the Prince George's Area Science Fair. Again, Yu received a list of awards and took First Place in Physics and Astronomy, as well as the 68th Annual Prince George's Area Science Fair Grand Award.For most students this is where the science fair season ends, but Yu had one more stop before his season was over, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF).The Intel ISEF is the world's largest international pre-college science competition. Approximately 1,750 high school students from more than 75 countries, regions, and territories are awarded the opportunity to showcase their independent research and compete for approximately $4 million in prizes.This year's Intel ISEF was held on May 13 in Phoenix, AZ. For Yu, this was his second Intel ISEF competition, first competing in Pittsburgh as a sophomore in 2015. Although Yu's 2015 project did not receive any awards, he was able to learn from the experience and gain valuable knowledge to aid his efforts during the 2016 competition.At the 2016 Intel ISEF, Yu was selected as a 2016 finalist and received the 2016 Special Award from Drexel University, which includes a full, four-year scholarship. Yu was one of eight students from around the nation who received the special award.The future is bright for this young engineer. Although he now has a full scholarship to Drexel, his destination for college still remains open. This year, Yu will be putting the science fair scene aside as he prepares for college and applies to his selected schools, which he says includes University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University.Yu is planning to major in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science, and is even playing around with the idea of completing a dual degree in both. He is also planning to minor in business administration helping to round out his education and inspire entrepreneurship.This summer, Yu will be participating in the supercomputing internship program at Pax River. He hopes that the internship will provide him with information allowing him to gauge his interest in computer science.For now, Yu will remain busy as he devotes more time to robotics and captains the GMHS VEX and Botball teams in the coming school year.
CLEVELANDWhile Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was the headliner of the third night of the GOP convention, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's refusal to endorse Donald Trump consumed the day-after conversations among the delegates from Marylandand every other state.Cruz, Trump's former rival for the nomination, sought to defend his snub at a Texas delegation breakfast Thursday, but seemed unable to stem the backlash and disappointment among Republicans at a time when the party is traditionally focused on uniting behind its candidate."It demonstrates what we already knew about Ted Cruz," said Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh. "He is self-centered and a self-promoting politician who is already scheming to set himself up for the next election by torpedoing Donald Trump."Cruz's speech emphasized the need for a divided America to "return to freedom" and unify behind a leader. And while he openly denounced presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he did not encourage voters to cast their ballots for Trump, but instead to "vote your conscience.""He could've picked a better arena to have a tantrum or a meltdown than the middle of the convention," said Shannon Wright, a Maryland delegate from Baltimore. "That's not the time to work out your demons."Some Marylanders said the speech was the best of Cruz's careerthat is, until the very end."Like, 98 percent of the speech was fantastic," said Maryland State Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings, R-Baltimore County. "It was wrong that he did not just come out and say 'Vote Donald Trump.' It's only three words."Other members of the Maryland delegation said Cruz placed unitya key objective for Republicans during the conventionon the back burner."We need to come out of this convention united," said at-large delegate and Trump supporter Dwight Patel of Bethesda. "And basically, he just threw his entire party under the bus."On Twitter, Patel wrote: "Was ashamed I ever supported Ted Cruz for Pres."But some delegates said Cruz's defiant move has resulted in exactly thata unity among party members in supporting the nominee."It's that crucial time when you say, 'We fought the good fight, we gave it our all and we didn't win,'" said Citizens United President and Maryland National Republican Committeeman David Bossie, of Montgomery County, who is chairing the state delegation. "And the American people have spoken, and now we must all band together to defeat the evil one, Hillary Clinton."But rather than pro-Trump sentiments, anti-Clinton rhetoric has dominated the convention.In the speeches delivered on Tuesday night, themed "Make America Work Again," the words "Hillary" and "Clinton" were the two most often used, while "Donald" was fourth, "Trump" was fifth, and "work" was tied for 10th, according to a FiveThirtyEight.com analysis.During his speech, Cruz aligned with other Republicans in denouncing President Barack Obama, "a man who does everything backwards" and criticizing Hillary Clinton's decisions in the Benghazi scandal and the Iran nuclear deal as "madness."But it is the next stepcommunicating Trump's vision and plans for officethat needs to be emphasized in order to build a successful campaign, Maryland delegates said."(Most) of the folk here are all in agreement with 'not Hillary,' (and) we need to take that negative and leave that where it is and build on 'why Trump,'" Wright said. "If we're going to be talking about uniting now, let's talk about that. Let's not dig out of the garbage anymore."
Sketch of Joshua Barney circa 1800. Barney (6 July 1759  1 December 1818) was an American Navy officer who served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War. He later achieved the rank of commodore in the United States Navy and also served in the War of 1812. He was born in Baltimore. Wikipedia

PATUXENT RIVER, Md.

(July 22, 2016)Archaeologists from Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) surveyed several sites on the Patuxent River in Maryland over the past 1-1/2 weeks in search of ships from Commodore Joshua Barney's scuttled flotilla, concluding field work July 20.During the War of 1812, Barney organized a plan to defend Chesapeake Bay from British raids along its banks. After assembling about 16 vessels comprised of armed barges and gunboats, he met the Royal Navy on the Patuxent. The flotilla was successful in diverting the British for several weeks, but ultimately Barney was ordered by Secretary of the Navy William Jones to scuttle the ships to prevent them from falling into the hands of the British.Fast forward 202 years. The area has flooded several times, the river channel may have migrated, the banks have eroded, and two centuries of sediment have built up on the river bottom. The historic flotilla rests in a complex riverine system of wide marshes to narrow multi-channel river inlets. Analysis of existing maps and charts indicates the strong likelihood of continued change. Much like the Navy and society itself, the river of today is not the river of yesterday. Up to now, only one ship is believed to have been foundthe sloop Scorpion.UAB hopes to change that with continued field work, but given the conditions, they understand they can't be sure of what they'll find."Archaeological research is a laborious multi-phase process," said George Schwarz, an underwater archaeologist with NHHC's UAB. "Archival research exploring the history of the site, past investigations, environmental information, and logistical planning ultimately led to the field research phase."The search for the rest of the scuttled flotilla is a continuation of research conducted by NHHC and partners, including the state of Maryland, initiated in 2009 with Scorpion.With support this year from Maryland's Patuxent River Park and Naval Historical Foundation, this third field season saw UAB investigating targets detected during the previous two summers' remote-sensing work in attempts to find the remainder of the flotilla.In 2014 and 2015, UAB used marine magnetometer, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and sediment cores to examine areas of interest. Using a hydro-probe, which simply provides a steady flow of water through a pipe to loosen sediment layers, they probed around magnetic anomalies in a gridded pattern this summer."[With the hydro-probe], depending on the density of the material the probe runs against, we are often able to tell whether there may be buried wood or metal at the location," said Schwarz. "When we systematically collect data points and plot them on a grid, we can start to determine if a pattern emerges of what is buried below the surface; if we're lucky, we might get the outline of a hull."However, it will take the UAB some time to thoroughly analyze and interpret the data they collected. If the data indicated the presence of manmade materials, they'll need to determine if they have found something insignificant, like old industry materials, or if they have found parts of a ship. That determination will influence whether it is appropriate and necessary to further excavate the site.For more on the toughness of the Chesapeake flotilla's Sailors, read how, after abandoning their ships, they defended Washington, D.C. as the British closed in on the capitol ( usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/peoplematter-as-others-ran-sailors-and-marines-make-a-stand-at-bladensburg/ ). They also saw further action as Baltimore's Fort McHenry was bombarded by the British ( usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/through-rockets-red-glare-flotilla-sailors-stand-strong/ ).The Naval History and Heritage Command, located at the Washington Navy Yard, is responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage. It provides the knowledge foundation for the Navy by maintaining historically relevant resources and products which reflect the Navy's unique and enduring contributions through our nation's history, and supports the fleet by assisting with and delivering professional research, analysis, and interpretive services. NHHC is composed of many activities including the Navy Department Library, the Navy Operational Archives, the Navy art and artifact collections, underwater archeology, Navy histories, nine museums, USS Constitution repair facility and the historic ship Nautilus.For more news from Naval History and Heritage Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/navhist/
Was the gunman at Pulse Orlando gay? I havent heard someone generate so much speculation about their sexual orientation since Jodie Foster or Anderson Cooper.

It sounds like middle school gossip, but the question has far greater implications. Were really asking: did someone murder LGBT people because he hated himself? The FBI announced theres no conclusive evidence the gunman who opened fired at Pulse Orlando last month was gay. I, as a lesbian woman, should be thrilled. But its not that simple.

The Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University linked rejection to LGBT teen suicide and lower self-esteem. While the gunman may not have been gay, self-hatred in the LGBT community can lead to violence against oneself or others. Amidst discussing the harm of permitting assault weapons, we must discuss the harm of criminalizing queerness, especially through statutory rape laws. We rarely discuss statutory rape laws in the context of anti-LGBT discrimination.

The most notable example was the 2013 case of Kaitlyn Hunt, an 18-year-old charged with statutory rape in Florida for having sex with her 14-year-old girlfriend. Hunts mom told Raw Story the parents of Hunts girlfriend saw being gay as a sin and wrong, or in other words, homophobia led to Hunts arrest. In 2013, when my fellow LGBT rights activists circulated petitions to free Hunt, I argued Hunts case wasnt different from cases involving straight teens. As a lesbian sexual assault survivor still trying to come to terms with my assault, it was too easy to identify with Hunts victim.

As I argued in a Facebook post, There is no such thing as consensual sex between an adult and a minor in Florida. Its that simple. However, statutory rape laws arent equally applied to straight and LGBT teens like I assumed they were. Hunts case actually highlights how statutory rape laws are used to call LGBT teens dangerous, adding to a long history of conflating queerness and sexual deviancy. Take Floridas Romeo and Juliet statute, which allows courts to grant teens convicted of statutory rape exemptions from registering as sex offenders if theyre close in age to their partners. Sounds useful, right? Well, one study of 167 voter-eligible adults found 47 percent of those presented with the case of a gay 16-year-old who had sex with his 14-year-old partner thought he should register as a sex offender online. In contrast, only 24 percent of those presented with the case of a straight 16-year-old thought he should register online.

Maybe Floridas statute isnt that useful for Romeo and Romeo after all. Anti-LGBT discrimination also carries over to arrests. One survey evaluated all statutory rape reports made in 35 states and Washington D.C. from 2003-2010 involving two teenagers within four years apart in age. It found gay boys were four times more likely and lesbian girls were 16 times more likely than straight boys to be arrested for the statutory rape of a partner. Theres little conversation about why the criminal justice system disproportionately targets lesbian girls. Initially, the discrepancy between arrests for lesbian girls and gay boys appears at odds with the widespread popularity of lesbian porn. If lesbian pornhowever high-heel-filled and made for straight male consumptionis so popular, how can lesbian girls, even including girls like Hunt who conform to mainstream (white, feminine) representations of female queerness, be so threatening?

Maybe LGBT girls are punished because of our general condemnation of female sexuality. Then again, the 2003-2010 survey found straight girls were less likely than straight boys to be arrested for statutory rape. Perhaps, then, the answer lies in the idea that girls belong to men; lesbian girls like Hunt could thus be criminalized for being explicitly unavailable. The discrepancy certainly merits further discussion. The discriminatory application of statutory rape laws has drastic consequences. Often teens convicted of statutory rape must go through sex offender treatment. The National Institute of Justice explains teen sex offender treatments include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to address the irrational thoughts and beliefs of offenders that led them to engage in antisocial behaviors.

The quality of this therapy varies. According to a March 14 article in The New Yorker, one manual asks teens to masturbate while thinking about something deviant, then about something they detest like Brussels Sprouts. Putting aside that this may lead to vegetable-focused Fifty Shades of Grey spinoffs, anything intended to change healthy same-sex attraction sounds like conversion therapy, a practice outlawed against minors in many statesand potentially against foster children in Florida soon thanks to a proposal by the Florida Department of Children and Family Servicesbecause its harmful and can lead to the level of self-hatred we feared the Pulse Orlando gunman felt. Why are we allowing this to occur daily in juvenile detention centers? Honestly, my 2013 self was tremendously privileged in being able to ignore how statutory rape laws target LGBT teens. But now, I wonder when well fully address how our criminalization of queerness can lead to violence.

Decriminalizing consensual sex between teens close in age is a small step in combating homophobia and transphobia, but its a crucial start.

Amelia Roskin-Frazee is the Founder & President of The Make It Safe Project, serves on the National Advisory Council for The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, and was one of The Advocates Forty Under 40 LGBT Activists in 2012. Her writing has previously been published in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Feministing.
The South Florida AIDS Network (SFAN) functions as the networking and advisory body for the Florida-Department of Health, Ryan White Care (FL-DOH RWC) grant in Broward County.

Its monthly meetings are open to the public.

This meeting discussed changes in FL-DOH RWC, and heard a report from Broward RWC (Ryan White Care).

Justin Bell, Florida Department of Health Broward (FL-DOH), reported on changes to its bus pass program. Rather than a monthly bus pass, it will provide a daily bus pass for each day with an appointment for RWC services. Legally, RWC cannot pay for a service if some other payer could pay for that service. Broward County has a daily bus pass program

Josh Rodriguez, FL-DOH, reported on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) program. Florida has again selected CVS as the Pharmacy Benefits Manager for ADAP, but now CVS will allow other pharmacies to join its network.

Rodriguez clarified pharmacy complaint procedures. If RWC clients have problems with pharmacy services, they should complain to the pharmacy manager. If RWC clients have problems with their insurance payments, they should complain to their insurer. If ADAP pays their pharmacy bills and they have payment issues, they should contact Rodriguez at 954-467-4700 ext. 2530.

CVS will no longer process United Health Care (UHC) claims. If RWC clients with UHC have paid their out-of-pocket maximum, they can go to any pharmacy. If RWC clients with UHC have not yet paid their out-of-pocket maximum, they should go to the DOH pharmacy on 2421 SW 6th Ave, Fort Lauderdale at SW 24th St.

Rodriguez also reported that a pilot program will pay for two HEP C drugs, Viekira Pak and Harvoni. Eligible people must be ADAP eligible, non-cirrhotic and co-infected with HIV and HEP C (Genotype 1a and 1b). Their physician has to request their entry to this program.

Mara Michniewicz, Florida HIV Prevention Program Manager, phoned in from Tallahassee. She discussed HIV Prevention funding. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a 5-year cooperative agreement with Florida. It pays Florida $34.8 million per year to prevent new HIV cases. Florida also receives an additional $4.3 M in HIV prevention funding. This state manages 89 HIV prevention contracts.

Michniewicz noted major problems with Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) among providers and emergency rooms. They lack knowledge about PEP. She stressed the need to educate these groups to increase use of PEP.

Leonard Jones reported on Broward.RWC. While 7,962 clients had enrolled in Contract Year (CY) 2014/2015, only 7,782 clients had enrolled in CY 2015/2016. Jones attributed the decline in enrollment to the Affordable Care Act moving people from a public program, RWC, to private insurance.

Jones reported that Broward RWC would have its own chapter in the statewide Integrated HIV Prevention/Treatment Plan, due this September. He will post the Broward Chapter on the Internet in August for public comment. Joey Wynn stressed that while it was too late to be part of the planning process for this year, SFAN expects to be part of next planning process. Wynn emphasized the necessity to bring all the stakeholders to the table. Jones said that the issue was goals and objectives and how we move forward with meaningful implementation.

SFAN has one representative and one alternate to the statewide Florida Comprehensive Planning Network (FCPN). The current representative is Kim Saiswick, and the alternate, Joey Wynn. Saiswick serves as the chair of FCPN as well as the Broward representative. SFAN will elect, at its August meeting, its representatives for the next term.

Next SFAN Meeting: Friday, August 5, 2016, at 10:00 a.m., at the Holy Cross Healthplex, 1000 NE 56th Street, Ft. Lauderdale. Newcomers are encouraged to attend.
HBO's fascinating, sometimes touching new documentary "Suited" dispels numerous myths about transgender people  the film might even open a few doors for this newly emerging community.

The trans and genderqueer people in Jason Benjamin's film are ready to deal with their insecurities, to face the world and to succeed in life. "Suited" is currently airing in rotation on HBO and sister channels HBO2 and HBO Signature. The film can also be viewed online at HBO.com

"Suited" begins at "Bindle and Keep," a custom tailoring firm with a seemingly unusual clientele  co-owners Daniel and Rachel seek to design suits made to fit the sometimes less than traditional body contours of trans and gender non-conforming people. The company was born in the aftermath of Rachel's difficult search for a suit that she herself could wear. Rachel, who also uses the name Ray, is a transgender gender nonconformist who is comfortable with either name, and with both male and female pronouns.

RELATED: A Safe Space For UnConventional Appearances

Rachel's business partner Daniel is a straight cisgender male who takes great pride in his work  he admits on camera that his life has been far more interesting since Rachel introduced him to this world.

As "Suited" progresses, we meet seven of their clients, all of whom courageously reveal their private lives not only to Ray and Daniel, but to Benjamin's camera.

Derek is a straight trans man who needed a suit for his upcoming wedding. The filmmaker drives back to the rural Pennsylvania home of Derek's parents, who share photos of his childhood, when he was still considered female. Mom and Dad admit that their son's transition was a difficult adjustment for them, but as the mom points out, your child is your child and you love them no matter what.

Viewers will also meet Jillian, an attorney, who, in her pre-transition life, seriously considered becoming a rabbi. Jillian needs a suit to wear to an important case where she needs to impress the judge. The conservative world of the legal profession is underscored by the story of Everett, a recently transitioned trans man who attends law school in Georgia. Everett admits to being the only Queer person in his school  he needs a suit that will impress his professors and potential employers at law firms.

One of the most touching stories is that of Judy, a lesbian grandma who travels all the way from Arizona to help her transgender grandson choose a suit for his Bar Mitzvah. Though she is not transgender, Judy still understands what her grandson is dealing with since she herself falls under the LGBT umbrella.

What makes "Suited" so moving is the non-judgmental, casual manner in which filmmaker Benjamin introduces the seven "Bindle and Keep" clients who agreed to appear in his film. We learn not only their personal stories but also a great deal about the transgender phenomenon  for many, life is far more complicated than "I'm male" or "I'm female." Some are somewhere in between.

Ray and Daniel listen to each of them intently  there's more to meeting client needs than just taking measurements. Their dedication to customer satisfaction is a lovely thing to see.

"Suited" emerges as a number of things. It's a human-interest piece, an education, and an uplifting look at how some people live their lives.


In the wake of Peter Thiels support for Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, people on social media are promising to cancel their PayPal accounts.

Every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American, said Thiel in his speech to the convention. I urge all of my fellow Americans to stand up and vote for Donald Trump. He added that he doesnt agree with every Republican platform but called for an end to fake culture wars, such as the controversy over transgender bathroom use.

The response by many on social media didnt take long.

Time to cancel my #PayPal account. #RNCinCLE, wrote @cdeanbrown on Twitter.

@peterthiel You are quite blind. GOP was never kind to the LGBT community. Sad. Not going to use #PayPal #peterthiel, wrote @sfcalling85.

But the anger at PayPal may be misdirected.

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal with Tesla founder Elon Musk, sold the company to eBay in 2002. Peter Thiel was one of PayPals founders, but he is no longer associated with the company in any way, wrote a PayPal representative in an email to SFGN.

In April, PayPal announced it had cancelled its expansion plans in Charlotte, North Carolina over that states controversial transgender bathroom law. Dan Schulman, PayPals president and CEO, said a global operations center, and the 400 jobs that go with it, would be located elsewhere.

The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPals mission and culture. As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte. This decision reflects PayPals deepest values and our strong belief that every person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect. These principles of fairness, inclusion and equality are at the heart of everything we seek to achieve and stand for as a company. And they compel us to take action to oppose discrimination, wrote Schulman in a statement.

On Facebook, David Jobin also stated he had cancelled PayPal.

Asked if he knew that Thiel was no longer part of the company, Jobin responded, I was aware of it. But I still think that it makes a statement given his high profile, roots and identification with the company. I am furious that the GOP tried to assuage LGBT folks on the last night of the convention with Thiel's speech and Donald's LGBTQ reference about keeping us safe from foreign terrorists. It's the domestic terrorists that we fear most who are trying to strip us of our human rights.
Philadelphia Gay News:

You have one of the most unique positions to see what the LGBT community has been through politically: from being a grassroots political activist in Missouri, coming to D.C. as an out gay politico, helping to create Victory Fund  which was the first organization to actually try to be a candidates college  to the White House to the DNC and now being an exec of the Democratic National Convention. Tell me about what its been like on that journey.



BB:

Probably the most inspiring moment Ive had in a while was literally watching the platform process in Orlando a couple weeks ago. The appreciation and inclusion of the LGBT  and I emphasize transgender  support that was within the standing-committee delegation was amazing. You know as well as I do the long journey that has been going on for a very long time to get to the point where its not just whether LGBT issues are included in the platform, but how much to include or tweaking certain words. It was just amazing to see how embraced the community is, especially in this last platform process.

PGN:

I did an outline where weve been with the Democratic Party that goes back to 1976, when Jimmy Carter for the first time tried to get an LGBT plank in. Carters team scoffed at that. Today we have probably most progressive LGBT platform weve ever had. Can you explain what that feels like seeing that genesis and it being in your ballpark?



BB:

As I was watching the platform process, I was thinking back. I truly stand on the shoulders of many, including you Mark on the agenda youve pushed over the years, especially broader than just political and social. But I think people like Jean OLeary from California who passed away several years ago, and others led these very fights for this platform. It was never an issue of inclusion than it was our issue to take us out of the shadows and out of the closet and include us in the process visibly. That transition has been happening. I think of 1992 when nominee Clinton actively began that process and I remember to this day when he said the words gay and straight at his acceptance speech and the crowd went nuts.

PGN:

Youre a pioneer whos been through that entire time period. We dont have anyone today who was there then and now and gone the full route. You realize of course that in a sense you are the political role model that young LGBT people will be looking at in years to come.

BB:

I think role models are those people on streets and in the states doing this work every day. We do have an amazing platform. We are a part of the fabric of that document. One of the things the platform points to is all the work we still need to do in the states to ensure full equality. It also includes electing Secretary Clinton as the next president of the United States, taking back the Senate and House and turning some of the state legislatures and governorships over so we can pass a more progressive agenda. That doesnt mean as a community we wont have to continue to push but at this point weve got to build the base to elect candidates that will work toward the goals of that platform.

PGN:

Im now speaking with one of the director of the DNC who once was the guy trying to get gay people elected throughout the country. When you look at this convention and the overwhelming number of LGBT delegates, the largest trans delegation weve ever had, can you say, Job done?

BB:

I can never say, Job done. I remember working with Rick Stafford in 92 to try to get us over the 200 mark in delegates, standing committee-members and alternates. We did that. That education process, while a little nerdy, of working with state delegations is a crucial part of integrating LGBTQ individuals into the party structure in larger policy discussions. Having people like Rick Stafford, Raymond Buckley and others work with supportive state chairs, who have lots of priorities to make sure were included in the process during delegate selection, brings new leaders into the party.

PGN:

We were starting at 0 or 10 percent and we were looking to expand our community and its fight for rights. Now we have young millennials entering the LGBT community who want to see change immediately. What do you say to them?

BB:

From day one of President Obamas administration, he encouraged people to push collectively to do better. It is activists job to bring issues to the forefront and push. I think thats an important component of this. We have to have people both working on the inside and the outside to bring about real change, which is what this community has done very effectively.

PGN:

You have been the go-to out gay man in the White House during probably the most pivotal administration for the LGBT community, the Obama administration. What was one of the hardest issues for you to deal with?

BB:

I think the hardest issue to deal with was peoples expectation of how fast things could move or not move. The president couldnt just wave a magic wand. I think the president used exactly the right strategy to ensure [the repeal of] Dont Ask, Dont Tell was not only enacted as law but also to ensure that the armed forces were in a space to embrace and move forward. People want change quickly, and sometimes it doesnt happen quickly. But if you look at what the president said in his first Pride event, he said, Dont judge me today, judge me at where we end up at the end of this administration. I could not be prouder of Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the entire staff of the Obama administration for moving the ball forward. I would add electing Secretary Clinton as the next president is crucial to keep progress moving forward, especially involving some of the executive orders.

PGN:

What surprises do the LGBT delegates have in store for them this week?

BB:

This is probably the most forward-thinking and inclusive convention we have had as we journey down this path of equality. I expect people to enjoy themselves but also hopefully leave feeling extremely proud of the party and motivated on the work we have ahead to get the job done to get sec Clinton across finish line in November



PGN:

If youre talking to a young LGBT delegate this week whos charged up to fight for Hillary, what do you tell that person they should be doing after November?

BB:

The first priority is to elect a president who cares about us and will fight and continue the progress weve made. And then Id tell them to take that energy and continue to mobilize and use the relationships they built in this campaign to continue the discussion and build out a stronger program. Let me be clear: Many states have amazing programs, we just need more activists, more people, helping to get the issues across the finish line and educating legislators or changing legislators, if were going to bring about real progress.

PGN:

What will be the LGBT issues facing the new administration?

BB:

Hmmm. I cant answer that. I feel very confident where the administration will lead us on LGBTQ rights. I think what she is going to need is a legislature, a Congress, that will help her to do so. I think that challenge is figuring out how now to focus on the election and turn the Senate and House and state bodies.

PGN:

Youve seen the nation change tremendously and one of the changes was President Obamas second inauguration speech. That changed this country more than anything else, and put our civil-rights struggle equal with other civil-rights struggle. Who is responsible for that line: Through Seneca Falls, and Selma and Stonewall  ?

BB:

In any number of speeches and I honestly give the president responsibility for that. He understands the role he has played in our progress.



PGN:

What was your feeling when heard him say that line?

BB:

It was extremely powerful, especially for those kids in states around the country for them to hear the president in front of the world in his second inaugural speech to include us as part of the fabric. What has been accomplished over the last seven years and what will be over the next eight truly can save and change lives.

PGN:

What was most emotional moment for you as out gay man while working in the White House?

BB:

The moment that touched me the most was when the president was taping his It Gets Better video. In the middle of his taping, he stopped the camera and said, Lets go back. Its really important for me to talk directly to the kids here. At that point, I somewhat lost it. I believed in him from the beginning but it was clear that, as a parent and leader of the free world, he knew his role in saving lives and lifting people up. I will be grateful to him for that for rest of my life.

PGN:

Theres going to be many LGBT delegates, but some people might not know the number of LGBT people whove been working on the convention committee itself. Youve created an incredible group of millennials who are so full of energy and you were polite enough invite me to come in and do a gay Pride lunch and talk, and I was overwhelmingly impressed. Do they ask u about what it took someone like you to get to the position youre in?

BB:

I dont think weve had time to do that. Theyre pretty busy. I do need to commend Leah Daughtry who has made a commitment to ensure her staff at the convention looks like America. You saw the sampling in room that she has done that for the LGBT community, from leadership through every department of the DNC committee. I also do want to say when I talk about the work we have to do in the states that we still have so much to do within the trans community, but also within our own community to ensure it looks like the community  that it is diverse, broad and has so many gifts. I think we elders, if you will, of the party and the community, have a responsibility to work hard every day to ensure the LGBT community is representative of the broader community. That is work that definitely has to continue if we are to ensure peoples voices are heard.

PGN:

How was it for you, knowing your boss, President Obama, was there 100 percent on all the issues but at times politically had to navigate them, while millennials, wanting things instantaneously, and bloggers and LGBT media were harassing you on what the holdup was?

BB:

I knew where we were going to end up and we had to keep pushing. The president said point blank, Push from the outside, but at the same time there has to be a realization you cant wave a magic wand. I think collectively the inside game and outside game are extremely important to move the ball forward. We never lost faith in the president to get this done. It also helps when you have advocates in the White House like Valerie Jarrett, who from day one understood the dynamics of electing the first black president of the U.S. and the empowerment of that, yet at the same time saw what happened in California when marriage rights were taken away all in one night. She grasped that from the beginning, which is why I think we had such an incredible champion in her last the last seven years. I truly believe electing Secretary Clinton is extremely important to keep progress moving forward.



PGN:

This Last question is one that haunts me to some extent often. You and I have been at the beginning stages of creating LGBT community, in this regard LGBT political community. In an interview we did with Barney Frank, he talked about how he always wanted to go into politics but because he was gay and in the closet he thought he never could. It was banged home to him when he went to work for President Kennedy. In the office, hed often hear queer and faggot tossed around. He thought he would never have a political career. Weve gone from that to the point where were at now where not only is the president of the U.S. positive on gay issues, one of the people running the convention  you  is gay and we have gay people running a presidential campaign. From 1976 to now, we have gone from almost 0 to almost 100. How do you explain that success to people?

BB:

I think at the end of the day we all want to be treated equally and we want to be judged on our merits. I think we are not 100-percent there yet but when you have people like Robby [Mook, Clinton campaign manager] in the role he has and many others around country, the number of LGBT elected officials, those barriers are coming down. Theyre not done but theyre coming down. At the end of the day, we should be judged on our merits. Thats our ultimate goal of where were headed.



BB:

Heres one thing I should mention. President Obama placed a very strong emphasis on his HIV/AIDS strategy, so continuing that work and not allowing HIV as an issue to fall by the wayside is important to me personally, as somebody whos positive, but also for kids out there who we still need to continue to educate.

PGN:

Thats one of many issues deal with, alone with the endangered seniors living in housing who are harassed every day. Theres still a big agenda out there and we still have to kill racism, sexism in our own community. Youve handled all these issues during this time and knowing you were a grassroots worker out there and seeing you today, I have love in saying that. I am proud to say its been wonderful to be on this road with you and, Brian, you have a lot more miles to be traveling in the next few years.

BB:

Were not done yet.
Business is booming for male prostitutes -- and it's all thanks to the Republican National Convention.

According to the NY Post, mostly-married RNC attendees have been utilizing the services of the male escorts in the Cleveland area.

Business has been way better. Ive seen ten clients so far, a male escort told the NY Post. Most of them were first-timers. You could tell they were nervous, but once they became more comfortable, they seemed to be having a good time.

Whereas one particular male prostitute would make between $200 and $300, he's now already made $1,600 since Monday.

This surge in male escort profits marks a stark contrast to the anti-LGBT message expressed at the RNC so far.

When it comes to anything people arent supposed to be doing, they like to do it, an escort told the NY Post, implying that many of the men openly oppose same-sex marriage. The Republicans have a lot of delegates in the closet, lets put it that way.

In contrast, the NY Post reports that female escorts are actually making much less money than usual.

Business is slower than usual, one said. I havent been getting any calls.
On the final night of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump made history with an explicit pledge to protect LGBTQ people during his speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump made the remarks while invoking the mass shooting last month at a gay nightclub in Orlando, saying the 49 left dead at the hands of a shooter who pledged allegiance to Islamic extremists were wonderful Americans.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Fla., 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist, Trump said. This time, the terrorist targeted the LGBTQ community. No good, and were going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.

The audience at the Quicken Loans Arena applauded those words, a stark contrast to the Republican National Convention in 1992 when attendees chanted Family Rights Forever/Gay Rights Never during a speech delivered by anti-gay conservative leader Pat Buchanan.

In response to the applause, Trump ad-libbed: And I have to say, as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you.

Those words mark the first time a Republican presidential nominee invoked the LGBT community in a positive way during an acceptance speech at a GOP convention. In 2012, then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney took the opportunity of his acceptance speech to honor the institution of marriage at a time when the LGBT community was seeking the legalization of gay nuptials.

Ric Grenell, a gay Fox News commentator and delegate from California pledged to Trump, told the Washington Blade on the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena he doesnt think anybody is surprised by Trumps inclusion of LGBT people in his acceptance speech.

Trump has always made perfectly clear that he has a lot of gay friends, that he is totally for equality, Grenell said. And for me, its actually, I know we have a lot of work to do within the Republican Party on gay rights, but its really emotional for me to be here on my seventh convention.

Recalling being present in 1992 listening to Buchanan, Grenell said, To be here and to really see the acceptance, we made dramatic progress in four years. I just think its time that the gay left leadership in Washington, D.C. realize that we can remove this issue from being a partisan issue.

But Trumps pledge to protect LGBT people against terrorism stands in contrast to positions on LGBT rights he has staked out on the campaign trail.

Related: Day Four: Thiel Declares I am Proud to be Gay at GOP Convention

Although Trump hasnt had as much vitriol for LGBT people as he has had for other minority groups, Trump has told social conservatives to trust him to oppose same-sex marriage, said he would strongly consider appointing U.S. Supreme Court justices who would reverse marriage equality and offered conditional support for the First Amendment Defense Act, a federal religious freedom bill that would enable anti-LGBT discrimination.

Moreover, Trump delivered the LGBT-inclusive speech in the same week delegates at the Republican National Convention ratified a party platform considered the most anti-LGBT in history. Among other things, the platform seeks to overturn the Supreme Court decision for same-sex marriage through either judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment.

On Twitter, Hillary Clinton pointed out when Trump thanked his audience for supporting LGBT inclusion in his speech the Republican platform indicates support for widely discredited ex-gay conversion therapy.

Later in his speech, Trump undercut his goodwill toward the LGBT community by recommitting himself to appointing conservative justices  a move critics contend could led to a reversal of the Supreme Courts decision on same-sex marriage.

Related: Undocumented Immigrant: Trump, GOP Platform Could 'Incite' Violence

We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution, Trump said. The replacement of our beloved Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views, principles and judicial philosophy. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election.

Trump also singled out evangelical Christians  a group that has historically opposed the LGBT community  to thank them for helping him win the Republican presidential nomination, saying, the support theyve given me, and Im not sure I totally deserve it, has been so amazing, and has been such a big reason why Im here tonight.

To assist the evangelical community, Trump said hed work very hard to repeal the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Undoing that language would protect free speech for all Americans, Trump said.

Trump also stoked fears about undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Related: Caitlyn Jenner Denounces Anti-Trans Bills at Big Tent Event

Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border, Trump said. These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them, or share in their pain.

Invoking the names of individuals who were allegedly killed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities, Trump renewed his pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and said Clinton wants to pursue a policy that amounts to mass amnesty, mass immigration and mass lawlessness.

We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities, Trump said.

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, pointed out on Twitter Trumps attacks on other minority groups are still attacks on LGBT people.

LGBTQ people ARE women, Muslim, Latinx, Jews, Black, immigrants, those w/ disabilities. @realDonaldTrump has attacked & maligned all of us.  Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin) July 22, 2016

Trumps pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was apparently the source of ire for a Code Pink protester who made it into the Quicken Loans Arena with a banner reading, Build Bridges Not Walls. As she was being escorted out, Trump said, How great are our police and how great is Cleveland?

But the newly anointed Republican presidential nominee generally strived for a tone of inclusion throughout his speech. Although he maintained his priority would be struggling citizens, he said hed be considerate and compassionate to everyone.

Related: Gays for Trump Denounce Radical Islam

Introducing him on stage was his daughter Ivanka Trump, who made the case her father would champion gender equality.

There have always been men of all backgrounds and ethnicities on my fathers job sites and long before it was commonplace you also saw women, Ivanka Trump said. My father values talent. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is colorblind and gender-neutral. He hires the best person for the job.

Closing his speech, Trump returned to the slogan that helped propel him to the Republican nomination.

So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: Im with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you, Trump said. To all Americans tonight, in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I make this promise: We Will Make America Strong Again. We Will Make America Proud Again. We Will Make America Safe Again. And We Will Make America Great Again.
At the New York City LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street, I attended the May 1 New York City premiere of the fascinating Australian documentary film, Gayby Baby which tracks the lives of four same-sex couples with children at the precarious age between childhood and adolescence.

Guess what? Gay parents are just as imperfect and loving as straight ones, and their 12 year-old children are just as wonderful or exasperating as are those of opposite-sex couples. One lesbian mother depicted has issues with men and her sons obsession with professional wrestling. Another is something of a stage mother, hoping her daughter will have a singing career, and a third has a problem with her young sons proclamation that he does not believe in god.

The male couple is frustrated by their unsuccessful efforts to deal with the learning disability of their son. The difficulties faced by each of the four families make you want to laugh or cry at the inevitably twisted paths every child must take to adulthood and to reconciliation with the parents life has handed them.

One of the children, a blonde boy named Gus who is a born performer and a sly charmer, steals the show and makes the audience demand a series of sequels just so we may follow the life of an extraordinary youngster who is more than a handful for his two mothers.

In discussion with the films producer Charlotte Mars and director Maya Newell, I learned that Gayby Baby had been scheduled to be screened in 80 Australian schools before a prominent newspaper took the position that the film was propaganda for the gay lifestyle and ought to be kept out of schools. As a result, the showings were prohibited. The argument about the educational value of Gayby Baby continues to rage in Australia where LGBT rights are not yet secure. Newell noted that there is optimism that next years voting will result in the election of more liberal leadership for Australia.

Mars and Newell talked about the crowd-sourcing they used to get the film made and about their selection of which couples to feature. The many people who funded the film knew that it would celebrate the idea that same-sex couples with children ought to be accepted, and integrated. In addition, Mars and Newell wanted to depict the chosen families without scrubbing. Youll see parents who smoke around their children, for example. Those cigarettes could have been edited out but were not. Interestingly, Newell says she let the four sets of parents have a say in what eventually made it into the final cut and what was discarded. This is an unusual approach to documentary film-making where, all too often, a director steals intimacies granted by the subject and absconds with footage that will be valued according to its sensationalism. Newell and Mars cared about these four families and deliberately asked for their participation in the portrayal of their private lives.

The film has an almost brutal honesty about how families gay or straight navigate themselves, and an admirable honesty about how parents and children overcome their own flaws when overriding love is the centerpiece of the family. Anyone should, upon viewing this engrossing film, be pleased to have any of these beautifully and naturally imperfect families as next-door neighbors.

As I watched Gayby Baby I thought about the several same-sex couples I know who have chosen to become parents via adoption, surrogacy or ex-spouses, and I was reminded that children brought into this world willingly have a head start, but will still have to deal with the inevitable foibles of their parents. Gayby Baby shows us that kids are as resilient as weeds. Given some love, they will do just fine.

Gayby Baby is exactly the kind of film that can change the hearts and minds of those who harbor unnecessary fears about the safety and destiny of the children of same-sex couples. If you are already convinced about LGBT equality, Gayby Baby will introduce you to some loveable parents and children and will entertain you with the stories of their lives that are extraordinary just because they are so terrifically ordinary.

For more, TheGaybyProject.com
Askaryan Radio Array University of Kansas

In the second it takes to read these words, 65 billion neutrinos will shoot through every square centimeter of your body.

Luckily, these infinitesimal particles dont do any harm  they pass through us, as they do with most everything, without stopping or interacting.

Partly because its so tiny, a neutrino has this unique property  its able to penetrate through matter very easily, said David Besson, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas. A neutrino produced in the center of the Sun can typically require a light years worth of solid lead to stop that neutrino, whereas light, in the form of photons from the Sun, you can block out easily with dark sunglasses.

According to Besson, the ability of neutrinos to pierce through anything and keep on moving makes them ideal cosmic messengers.

The fact that neutrinos are so penetrating makes them interesting to astrophysicists, he said. Huge and cataclysmic stellar explosions that wed like to understand produce lots of particles, but most of them will be absorbed by material in the interstellar medium before getting to our observatories. But neutrinos, because theyre so penetrating, can carry info from much farther away  much more than a photon, for example.

Yet, neutrinos are tricky to detect precisely because they dont interact with matter.

Today, Besson is part of a multinational research effort at the South Pole to build and operate the Askaryan Radio Array, a large-scale radio-detection instrument that will identify radio waves cast off from high-energy neutrinos far underneath the Antarctic ice shelf. Eventually the array will be composed of 37 antennae stations that effectively will transform hundreds of cubic kilometers into a colossal neutrino detector.

The ARA team recently published a performance review of the first two stations to come online in the peer-reviewed publication Physical Review D. Their findings showed great potential for the detector to push forward understanding of the cosmos once its fully operational.

The first two stations are showing a lot of promise of detecting neutrinos, Besson said. Radio transparency within the ice is very high. We measured at this at the South Pole and were able to send radio waves through about 4 miles worth of ice. So thats pretty transparent, and it means you can bury an antenna in the Antarctic ice and scan for several kilometers around for potential neutrino interactions.

Besson performs data analysis and serves as a spokesman for the ARA group. He said once the array is fully operational, it could produce information from neutrinos that would shed light on the state of the current universe and also the universes origins.

Neutrinos tell us something about cataclysmic explosions that happen today or within the recent history of the universe, he said. But also, because they can reach us from very farthest periphery of the distant universe, they carry an imprint of processes that occurred in early universe. If you can accumulate enough data from them, you can test theories of evolution of the cosmos.

While scientists are learning secrets of the universe, KU undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to learn about neutrinos and neutrino detection via the array. Moreover, two of the graduate students will travel to Antarctica to engage in research this October. Their route will take them from Lawrence to Kansas City, Los Angeles, New Zealand, McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and finally to the South Pole aboard a C-130 military jet.

Theres a particle astrophysics group here at KU  they work on radio-wave detection of cosmic rays, Besson said. That group includes four graduate students and three undergraduates.

Further, Besson is working with high school students at KU this summer, including soon-to-be Jayhawks.

Two of them are coming here as undergrads in the fall, he said. The nice thing about radio waves, unlike gamma rays or x-rays, is theyre familiar to people, and the equipment you need to send and receive radio waves are just antennas, and it doesnt take much work to get to point where you can design and build and test your own antennae.

The National Science Foundation funds research at the Askaryan Radio Array. Other support comes from the Taiwan National Science Councils Vanguard Program, the Belgian F.R.S-FNRS and the National Research Nuclear University Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.
galaxy cluster Abell S1063 STSCI

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the TV series Star Trek has captured the publics imagination with the signature phrase, To boldly go where no one has gone before.

NASAs Hubble Space Telescope doesnt boldly go deep into space, but it is boldly peering deeper into the universe than ever before to explore the warping of space and time and uncover some of the farthest objects ever seen.

When Star Trek was first broadcast in 1966, the largest telescopes on Earth could only see about halfway across the universe  the rest was uncharted territory. But Hubbles powerful vision has carried us into the true final frontier.

This is epitomized in the latest Hubble image released today in time for the new motion picture Star Trek Beyond. The Hubble image unveils a very cluttered-looking universe filled with galaxies near and far. Some are distorted like a funhouse mirror through a warping-of-space phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago.

In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther.

Thanks to Hubbles exquisite sharpness, the photo unveils the effect of space warping due to gravity. The huge mass of the cluster distorts and magnifies the light from galaxies that lie far behind it due to an effect called gravitational lensing. This phenomenon allows Hubble to see galaxies that would otherwise be too small and faint to observe. This warp field makes it possible to get a peek at the very first generation of galaxies. Already, an infant galaxy has been found in the field, as it looked 1 billion years after the big bang.

This frontier image provides a sneak peak of the early universe, and gives us a taste of what the James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of seeing in greater detail when it launches in 2018.

The cluster contains approximately 100 million-million solar masses, and contains 51 confirmed galaxies and perhaps over 400 more.

The Frontier Fields program is an ambitious three-year effort, begun in 2013, that teams Hubble with NASAs other Great Observatories  the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory  to probe the early universe by studying large galaxy clusters. Identifying the magnified images of background galaxies within these clusters will help astronomers to improve their models of the distribution of both ordinary and dark matter in the galaxy cluster. This is key to understanding the mysterious nature of dark matter that comprises most of the mass of the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

To learn more about Hubbles impact on our pop culture, and how you can get involved with #spothubble, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2016/spothubble
Ukiah, California, isnt known for much.

Its a small community, almost 18,000 residents, just a stop-over town in the heart of Ukiah Valley, and considered by many to be the urban heart (such as it is) of rural Mendocino County, 2 hours north up the coast from San Francisco. Youve probably only ever visited as a place to fill-up on gas on your way to Oregon.

Maybe you know it because of its vineyards, row after row in every direction, which supply some of the regions biggest wine producers with grapes. Or maybe you know this region for its hundreds of weed farmssmall to large to enormoustucked away out of sight in the rolling hills surrounding the town, helping to supply marijuana enthusiasts in California and beyond. What you dont know it for, as of now, is coffee. Up until recently if you were up north, you might stop in Healdsburg for a cup of Flying Goat Coffee, or if youre smart, pack a thermos of whatever you drink at home, and pray that it lasts you the three to five hour haul to the border of Oregon. With the opening of Keith Feigin and Jon Frechs Black Oak Coffee Roasters in Ukiah though, there is now a coffee destination, for both travelers and locals alike.

Black Oak Coffee is on Ukiahs Main Street, a rectangular building that has the sort of blocky architectural stylings of a 1960s mechanic shop. Prior to Feigin and his business partner Frech buying it in 2014, it had been a string of coffee shops, the best known among them was called The Coffee Critic. Feigin was born and bred in Ukiah, the product of a family that had lived in the area for generations and had owned businesses there for almost half a century. I grew up going to this coffee shop as a kid, Feigin recalls, we came here every day and wed sit out on the patio and smoke clove cigarettes and not buy anything. Feigin and his wife, Kate, own Lovers Lane Farmnamed after his familys ranch where they, their kids, and his parents livea successful honey company, but after years of debilitating drought, Feigin was looking for a backup. Being an agricultural producer is really volatile, Feigin says, during dry spells, it can just be months and months of no income.

Jon Frech is an East Coast transplant whod migrated west in his 20s to try farming in the fertile valleys of Northern California. He and Feigin bonded over ranchingspecifically goatsand a friendship quickly grew, with Frech helping out with business aspects of Lovers Lane. Feigin had been researching the profitability of owning a coffee business, and when he decided to make the first step, Frech came aboard as his partner. Problem was, neither knew anything about roasting coffee. Enter Steve Ford.

If youre keen on the coffee industry, Steve Ford might be a name you know. He spent years as Ritual Coffee Roasters roaster before recently taking over as Head Roaster at Counter Culture Coffees massive roasting expansion in the Bay Area. He also grew up in Ukiah and has been one of Keith Feigins best friends for most of his life. Steve really saw the value of what we had here, Feigin says, and him and Jon and myself started meeting over the campfire and talking about coffee and our business model. The day before Thanksgiving 2011, Frech and Feigin purchased the former Coffee Critic space. With Ritual Coffee helping to train their employees and get the coffee tech side of things ordered and calibratedmother-henning them as Frech puts itBlack Oak opened its doors in December of 2012.

It wasnt easy at first. The Ukiah community wasnt ready for the nuanced flavor profiles of the micro-lots Frech and Feigin were selling when they opened the door. We had no blends when we opened, Frech says, and people were complaining that the coffee tasted like acid and that it was bitter. Frech and Feigin know that the success of their coffee shop is entirely dependent on pleasing the Ukiah community, so, without sacrificing their own ideals, theyre creating a menu that plays towards the wants of their customersa primarily working class town. Its a smaller market, Feigin says, all of our customers are either locals or regulars, so we have to be more customer-friendly. Light roasted coffees from individually named co-ops are our passion, but youre going to see a large range of roast levels and a large range of drink options here.

Black Oaks Black Bart blenda dark roast named after a notorious highwayman who terrorized the area in the 19th centurywas introduced six months after the store opened and quickly became its most popular coffee. And, to be frank, its good: a big, chocolate-y roast with just enough nuance to elevate it to a higher level. Same goes for the specialty drinks on the menu, in particular the Lovers Lane Latte, a latte infused with a shot of Lovers Lane Honey and then garnished with a crust of bee pollen. It could be just another shockingly sweet drink, but the earthy pollen dust and the espresso offset the herbal sweetness of the honey. To be honest, Frech says, I dont think people need coffee education. If someone tastes something they like, theyll want it. Thats our job, make it delicious and then the journey begins.

Frech and Feigin want Black Oak to be a coffee shop as good as any in the Bay Area, but one that doesnt sacrifice the small town, communal aspects of Ukiah in the process. You can feel the combination of hip Bay Area cafe and community coffee hangout as soon as you walk in. It has refurbished hardwood, stylishly vintage furniture, and a gleaming La Marzocco GB5 espresso machine, but its also huge and decked out with comfortable-looking couches and big tables that beckon you to meet a friend or plug-in your laptop and stay for awhile. I want it to be a place where you can go and say, Im going to stick around here for a while, drink my coffee, and look out the window, Feigin says, When I was growing up, I wanted that community coffee shop. Its about discovery, and bringing these coffees to Ukiah, and if I can facilitate that, it is very satisfying.

Frech and Feigin wouldnt object to more stores, but their focus, for the moment, is on Ukiah. That means building not only a stellar coffee program but also creating a place where people want to be. And who knows? Maybe a little further down the line, folks in Ukiah can expand the way they interact with coffee. In the meantime, Feigin and Frech will take the small victories and keep moving forward. When customers walked into Black Oak, there used to be a sign that read, Why isnt my coffee hot? with an explanation of the proper way to serve a milk-based drink. Two years later, that sign has disappearedits no longer necessary.

Noah Sanders (@sandersnoah) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in San Francisco, and a contributor to SF Weekly, Side One Track One, and The Bold Italic. Read more Noah Sanders on Sprudge.
"Extreme care must be taken under humanitarian law in such situations" by air forces tasked with such operations, he cautioned.

To date the United States has said only that it is investigating whether civilians were killing in the bombing. All participants in the hostilities in Syria must assess in advance of bombing what civilians may be affected and must desist from bombing where civilian casualties are likely.

Photographs taken in Toukhan Al-Kubra after the air strike revealed the dead bodies of children, no more than three years old, lying under rubble.

The US Department of Defense will investigate recent reports that US-led coalition airstrikes killed civilians near the Syrian city of Manbij, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
The musician was scheduled to perform in New York City on July 23 during Festival Warm Up 2016, held under the auspices of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).Emerson Martins, Bin Ladens promoter and personal assistant, told Sputnik that his client wont be able to attend the event because the US consulate in Brazil suddenly demanded that the musician undergo a toxicology test, the results of which werent ready by the time of departure.

"This is very sad. This is the second time that we've had such treatment, despite the fact that this time we had recommendations from MCs Skrillex, Diplo, and Red Bull. They sent us a letter; they know what kind of good work we do. It wouldve been a positive development for the entire [Brazilian] funk movement. At first they gave us a visa. Immediately after returning from our European tour, we went to the consulate to sign the necessary papers. On Monday we thought that everything was done, but they told us to come back on Tuesday. And the next day they said that a medical test was needed, which is unusual, not to mention that signing up for one isnt that simple, and the results wont be available immediately," Martins explained.

The promoter remarked that now Bin Laden will be forced to sit the festival out, even though his songs do not promote violence and his name is more or less a joke. According to Martins, the officials at the US consulate in Brazil turned out to be very difficult people.
Earlier this week, the residents of Novosibirsk were in for a somewhat spooky experience when the city authorities decided to test the local public broadcast system during heavy rain.

But if you thought that a siren wailing amidst the rain and the fog was creepy enough, then you got another thing coming. A local resident named Konstantin Kovalenko took footage filmed during that test and used his computer graphic expertise to add a little extra to it  namely, a Martian tripod from War of the Worlds.

According to Russian netizens, the alien war machine fit perfectly into an already eerie scene.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to The Japan Times, Okinawa residents fear aviation accidents and want the base out of the prefecture.

In late October, the Japanese government resumed construction of a new base for the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, having negated a regional government veto on its relocation from Okinawa's highly-populated district in the city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area of Nago city.

At Takae, protesters against helipads for US military Osprey sing Give us back Okinawa! pic.twitter.com/Xk6QsMxFKw via @abehorobos  Jon Reinsch (@JonReinsch) 20 July 2016

The Okinawa prefecture primarily seeks to prevent landfill work in the Henoko coastal area, intended for use as an airstrip.
During his recent visit to Russia, Naidu pitched that he will provide all the necessary infrastructure for the establishment of nuclear power plants in his state. The delegation to Russia was led by Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Chandrababu Naidu also met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Another Russian nuclear power project to build six VVER reactors in Haripur, West Bengal is likely to be moved to Andhra Pradesh due to protests by local residents.

"1,200 MW VVER Nuclear Reactors will be constructed there (Andhra Pradesh) with the safest, most up-to-date technology. Currently the location of one more site for the construction of six new Russian-designed nuclear reactors is being considered by India. We hope to get more information about the new site soon," sources in Rosatom told Sputnik.

Apart from Westinghouse, another US-Japanese company, GE-Hitachi, was aslo allocated a site in Andhra Pradesh to build six Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactors. However, the project has been put on hold as India is wary of GE- Hitachi nuclear reactors as they have not been tested before.

Therefore, if everything goes according to plan, Andhra Pradesh will be home to more than a dozen nuclear reactors.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague's ruling in favor of the Philippines' case challenging China's South China Sea claims has forced Beijing to prepare for a dialogue with Manila on disadvantageous terms, Vasily Kashin, military expert and a senior researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, told Sputnik.

China is not the first nation which refuses to recognize the arbitration court decision, he added; however, the US is trying to use this to mount more pressure on Beijing.

The last thing the Chinese want in this situation, the expert says, is to seem weak. It appears that from a technical point of view, the preparation for creating an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea was completed long ago.
TOKYO (Sputnik)  The construction, which was suspended two years ago, resumed on Friday morning, according to media reports.

It has started! The bulldozing for new US Helipads and roads in #Yanbaru forest, #Takae #Okinawa. Photo: S Hanashiro pic.twitter.com/YSn0VtbyWd  Per-Erik Schulze (@PerErikSchulze) 22 July 2016

The local residents are concerned that helipads could be used by the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, considered to be defective by its opponents.

The residents of Takae only want to merely live calmly. Please don't bully. Please help us. #HRCpledging #Okinawa pic.twitter.com/hsOyfbOcKP  Ma (@ma_ahiru) 22 July 2016

In exchange for construction of six helipads, the United States agreed in 1996 to return to Japan almost half of the 17,500 acres of land in the Yanbaru jungles, used by the US forces as a training camp. The Japanese government had built two helipads but construction of the remaining four was halted in 2014 due to the protests.
Baldwin Street in the southern New Zealand city of Dunedin, was recognized as the world's steepest residential street back in 2009, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. However, its extraordinary and charming beauty only captured the attention of the world relatively recently, with the rise of Instagram.

Tourists are crowding to capture an amazing optical illusion, created with a slight slope of the camera.

  Nathan Timblin (@nathantimblin)  19 2016  5:27 PDT

It is quite a climb to the top: the street runs at a gradient of 1:2.86m (or a 35% slope), which means that for every 2.86 meters you travel horizontally, the elevation changes by one meter.

  tn00747148 (@rex_iaoyu)  15 2016  2:40 PDT

The Steepest Street Gift Shop is to be found at the base of Baldwin Street, where "climbers" can purchase certificates commemorating the achievement of having walked up the street, signed personally by the shop's owner. Alas, that means you need to go back down to the bottom of the street in order to reach the shop after having gotten to the top; fortunately the descent is always easier.

gogogo #Guinness   Yuqi Zhu (@caley.yu)  20 2016  7:10 PDT

In addition, the World's Steepest Street hosts the annual Cadbury Jaffa Race, a fun charity chocolate competition. As Dunedin is home to one of the two Cadbury chocolate factories in the world, the confectionery company organizes the Chocolate Carnival, and the race is a part of it.

Jaffa race 2, happy bouncy yellows take flight #jaffarace2016 #baldwinstreet #steepeststreetintheworld   GJ (@imthegj)  21 2016  9:07 PDT

Jaffas, named after the Jaffa orange fruit, are small round sweets consisting of a soft chocolate center and a hard orange-flavored covering, common in Australia and New Zealand.

  GJ (@imthegj)  21 2016  9:04 PDT

   (@melody_0106)  22 2016  1:59 PDT

The race raises money for charity by selling numbered Jaffas for 1 New Zealand Dollar each. During the 15th Cadbury Jaffa Race, held on July 22, 2016, 75,000 chocolate balls were rolled down the street. The owner of the first Jaffa to cross the finish line wins a prize. Three charities: Make a Wish Foundation, Parents Centre and Surf Lifesaving New Zealand  receive 25,000 New Zealand Dollars each (US $17,500) from the competition's proceeds. The race has been held since 2001 and has raised more than a million New Zealand Dollars (US $780,000) for charities.
Multiple methods are being used to protect China's newest UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Shennongjia, a forest area in central Hubei province, was the most recent to be listed as a World Natural Heritage Site on July 17. The zone covers a 73,300-hectare area with another 41,500-hecatre buffer zone.

According to Ai Weiying, deputy head of the Shennongjia Forestry District government, the number of annual visitors will be capped at 798,000 annually - 14 percent more than last year - as the number of visitors is expected to increase as a result of the area's placement on the list.

"The quota was set based on a comprehensive analysis of the environment and the capacity of our tourism infrastructure," Ai said.

He added that more eco-friendly shuttle buses will be introduced at the site to better manage the tourists, who will only be allowed to follow preplanned itineraries within the zone.

"Drones will patrol around the area to keep a close eye the whole site," said Wang Daxing, director of the Shennongjia Natural Reserve Administration. "A monitoring system has been established."

Shennongjia is the biggest primary forest in Central China, the only intact subtropical forest ecological system in the world's middle latitude regions and home to many rare wild animal species, including more than 1,300 golden monkeys.

Xie Zongqiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said Shennongjia's outstanding biological diversity and significant indication of ecological processes are key reasons it became a World Natural Heritage site, so the protection of the living environment for animals remains a focus.

Zhang Linwei, deputy director of the ministry's urban construction department, said satellite sensing technology will be used to monitor not only Shennongjia but other World Natural Heritage Sites in China. The technology will help spot possible hazards and changing conditions.

"High-tech approaches are necessary for the protection over these sites," Zhang said. "However, the public's participation and supervision cannot be ignored. The title of World Heritage is not the goal. This is a chance to educate and nurture people's consciousness safeguarding those places."

He added that combining protection and utilization of resources at the heritage sites is a significant innovation.

In 2015, China's previous World Natural Heritage sites received 180 million visitors, took in 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) in revenue and offered 90,000 job opportunities to local communities, which is a crucial way to develop the economy for some poverty-stricken areas, he said.

"But, reasonable plans and sound rules have to be made before development," Zhang said.

China now has 11 World Natural Heritage Sites, second in the world after Australia, and four mixed cultural and natural sites.

wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn

Scenery at Shennongjia, a forest area in Hubei province, which was recently listed as a UNESCOWorld Natural Heritage. Du Huajun / Xinhua

(China Daily 07/21/2016 page5)
MOSCOW (Sputnik) The ambassador noted that the Russia-Slovenia relations had a positive dynamics even under such circumstances and the situation "would become better" in two or three years.

"Only due to [Russia's] ban on supplies of milk and dairy products, Slovenia lost about 10 million euro as direct losses. Of course, the problem lies in the absence of long-term money at the Russian enterprises. If there was a 'live capital,' the total figure, probably, would be less," the ambassador stated in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper, published on Friday.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik)  Indian Railways has finalized a grand plan to modernize its railway infrastructure; it seeks to modernize its railway stations in a way that would place them on a par with the best transit hubs in the world. To achieve its objective, the state-owned company has sought help from China, France, Belgium and Germany.

Indian Railways Spokesperson Anil Saxena told Sputnik that, "Indian Railways has plans to modernize its railway stations. Some of the countries such as France, Germany, China, and Belgium have expressed their keen interest in cooperating with Indian Railways to develop modern infrastructure."

Indian Railway Station Development Corporation, in cooperation with China Railway Construction Engineering Group, will develop the New Bhubaneswar railway station and the Byappanahalli (Bangalore) railway station.
WASHINGTON ((Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, a French court rejected Lagardes appeal in the corruption case, referring her to the Court of Justice of the Republic.

"The [IMF] Executive Board has been briefed on recent developments related to this matter, and continues to express its confidence in the Managing Director [Lagarde]s ability to effectively carry out her duties," Rice stated.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The city of North Battleford in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan had to shut down its water intake plant after tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil from the power company Husky Energy spilled into the North Saskatchewan River, City Operations Director Stewart Schafer said on Friday.

"This morning they [Husky Energy] saw the sheen downstream from us," Schafer said as quoted by The Toronto Star. "Husky reported to water security that theysaw a sheen and so everything gets shut right down.

North Battleford has a backup supply of water to last for about three days as well as a ground treatment plant, Schafer explained.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The suspects were detained for "complicity in murder" and "participation in a terrorist criminal association," the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday, as quoted by Le Republicain Lorrain.

According to Molins, there has been significant progress in the investigation into the Nice attack.

Earlier on Thursday Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said that the perpetrator of the Nice truck attack could have been planning it for months and had accomplices.
The draft bill was supported by Greeces ruling left-wing Syriza party but was heavily criticized by the opposition. It aims to cancel the 50 bonus seats given to the party that wins the most seats in the national elections and lowers the voting age by one year, to 17.

Syriza promised to cancel the 50-seat bonus in the run-up to the previous elections in Greece.
According to Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, the Turkish ambassador has been summoned to Austria's Foreign Ministry. Kurz told reporters that the ambassador would be asked whether Turkish officials encouraged thousands of people in Austria to take to the streets during the failed coup, in support of President Recep Tayiip Erdogan.

"We have evidence that the demonstrations for Erdogan that have taken place in Vienna were called for directly from Turkey and that, of course, is absolutely untenable and we want to protest against that," he said.

"We want to clarify which direction Turkey is going to take," he added during an interview.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The European Union is 20-40 years behind the United States in the field of defense innovation, what is partly because of the European Defense Agency, Fallon noted.

"We see huge opportunities here [in the defense sector] for innovation and further matching the kind of success youve [the United States] had over here," Fallon was quoted as saying by the Defence News outlet Thursday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to Le Figaro newspaper, the refugees, mostly men from Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan were evacuated from the vast encampment consisting of hundreds of tents located on Boulevard de la Villette.

The evacuation reportedly began early in the day with immigration authorities officials present at the scene. The refugees will be taken away to emergency shelters on 36 buses, the newspaper reported. The authorities have reserved 1,500 accommodation places for them, including 800 at Ile-de-France region gyms.

.@opalayo on #Periscope: Paris refugee camp! 700+ asylum seekers sleeping



literally in the middle of the street?! https://t.co/QnrkOq0bPP  Tishy (@LeslieTindel) 21 July 2016

A first bus, carrying women and children, has reportedly already left the camp.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  Earlier the European Parliament foreign affairs committee has held emergency talks over the failed coup in Turkey, amid concerns that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reaction to the event in the past days will stall negotiations over Turkey's EU accession.

"There is very high probability the European Parliament will vote against granting Turkey a visa-free regime," the source said.

Turkey suspended the European Convention on Human Rights on Thursday after a 1.5-month state of emergency entered into force.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Ukrainian government continues to display unwillingness to fully implement a set of measures aimed at resolving the conflict in the countrys southeast, Russian envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich said Friday.

"The problem is still in Kievs unwillingness to carry out in full the Minsk agreements and follow its action plan. It should be reminded that the Minsk package of measures requires Kiev to conduct direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk on all aspects of the settlement. Such a willingness is still not seen from Ukraine," Lukashevich said at the OSCE Permanent Council session.

He voiced particular concern with the increasing number of "hotspots" and the surge in violence that led to civilian casualties this month in southeastern Ukraine.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Polands Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) objected to the establishment of a joint venture for the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany, UOKiK said Friday.

UOKiK has issued objections to a concentration in which six firms would form a joint venture responsible for construction and operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the regulator said in a statement.
Asked to comment on Soros' pseudo-proposal, political commentator Armen Gasparyan told the online newspaper that in a situation where Ukraine is overrun by armed ultranationalist volunteer battalions, many of them now officially integrated into the country's security services, it's unlikely that these forces will simply accept the idea of placing hundreds of thousands of non-European refugees in their country.

As for Soros' comments, Gasparyan suggested that the billionaire is simply protecting his business assets. "He has invested huge sums in Ukraine through his various [civil society] funds, going back all the way to the early 1990s. And the events of 2014 were a golden period for Soros  his Klondike."

"How can Soros protect his assets? Only through promotion. Because there is nothing else for Ukraine to offer Europe today; its industry is destroyed, the country is in a dire economic and political situation, and continues to be in a state of warWhat's left? What's left, forgive me for being rude, is to create a reservation."

Still, Gasparyan noted, if that is what Soros was implying with his commentary, it's unlikely that his plan will succeed. "Because when Ukraine's population finds out that someone intends to move half a million Arabs into their country, it will result in an immediate social explosion. Integrating even ten people into a society with very different beliefs, a different religion, a different weltanschauung, is incredibly difficult. And here we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people."

Ultimately, the commentator recalled, Soros' main goal through all his initiatives is to preserve and grow his capital. "What happens in Ukraine  in Poltava, Sumy, or Kherson, is not his concern. He's not going to live there in twenty years, or have to sort through the ethnic clashes which would be guaranteed to take place there" if his plans materialized.

In any case, Gasparyan noted, European officials are unlikely to agree to such plans anyway. "Europe is already exhausted by Ukraine," and will not be willing to finance refugees' presence on Ukrainian territory. "If the EU has no money for Italy, Portugal, Greece and others, where is it going to find money for Ukraine?" the commentator concluded.
In a statement, EU High Representative and Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn said:

"We are following the developments regarding the State of Emergency Turkey has declared after the attempted coup, which the European Union condemned, very closely and with concern."

#Turkey  EU calls authorities to respect rule of law, human rigths and fundamental freedoms under any circumstances https://t.co/2tqMJlXFAn  Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) July 21, 2016

"This declaration comes in the wake of the recent unacceptable decisions on the education system, judiciary and the media. As outlined in the conclusions of the Council and in the discussion of the European Commission this week, we call on Turkish authorities to respect under any circumstances the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right of all individuals concerned to a fair trial."
"The future Daesh terrorists are 'brainwashed' there and they also learn Arabic and study the Koran, something that is followed by so-called 'combat practice' training, headed by former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They typically teach the rookies to wage guerrilla warfare and handle guns, among other things," according to the source.

"In addition, each camp has several Daesh terrorists who decide on sending the rookies to the war or preparing them for the role of suicide bombers," the source said, citing about 70 Kosovo Albanian families who decided to join Daesh.

The source also warned of the possible spread of such camps to Macedonia and in Bosnia, where about 800 jihadists arrived during the wars in the 1990s. As far as Macedonia is concerned, the country is just beginning to grapple with the problem, the source said, referring to Macedonian villages which were earlier KLA centers and which have already been turned into Daesh training camps.

In 2013, the Western Balkans Security Issues news website warned of the territory of Kosovo and Albania being used for Daesh training camps, something that was recognized by Kosovo authorities only a year later.

Meanwhile, the source has told Sputnik that the training process dates back to 1999, when al-Qaeda terrorists were involved in training the KLA militants in Kosovo.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Wednesday, reports emerged that Turkish soldiers who allegedly participated in the attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would try to enter Greece to escape punishment in their state.

Some Turkish military personnel are reportedly hiding near the sea and land borders with Greece and Bulgaria, intending to cross the frontiers.

Earlier on Friday, the Greek Defense Ministry decided to launch patrols of air, sea, and land from islands of Evros to Kastelorizo, the Independent Balkan News Agency said. Pentagon sources confirmed that six Apache attack Boeings had already been deployed in the Dodecanese islands, the agency added.
In the run-up to the British In-Out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, there had been warnings that the special arrangements  whereby British border controls are on French soil  to prevent a vast influx of migrants into the UK would be withdrawn in the event of Brexit.

In a special agreement with the French  known as the Le Touquet treaty  the UK Border Agency processes migrant applications on French soil, which means that  when they are refused permission to travel to the UK by train or ferry  they remain in France.

It is at that point that many migrants have made their way to the freight terminal at Coquelles, near Calais, where they have repeatedly cut through security fences and stormed the freight terminal, causing the rail services to be canceled  which, in turn, has caused massive delays and traffic chaos either side of the English Channel.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moreover, 58.4 million euros are awarded to the Greek Ministry of Defense to provide migrants with urgent shelter, accommodation, catering, health care and transportation, the statement continued.

Commission awards additional EUR 82.6 million in emergency funding to Greece https://t.co/q4y5hZW5Bu #MigrationEU pic.twitter.com/j3Xqx71goA  European Commission (@EU_Commission) 22 July 2016

"Through AMIF [Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund], emergency funding of EUR 24.2 million is awarded to the Greek Ministry of Health, for increasing the capacity to provide primary health care to migrants and refugees. It aims to provide primary health care services (medical and psychosocial services) at refugee accommodation centres, and to strengthen the capacity of the public health system and epidemiological surveillance structures," the statement said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) warned on Friday of a threat of new attacks on railway passengers, local media reported.

On Monday, an Afghan refugee attacked train passengers in southern Germany with an axe and wounded up to five people. The police shot the attacker dead.

The BKA said that there is high level threat of attacks on German trains, the Focus weekly magazine reports. The agency noted that German security services would focus on security threats for German railways.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Danish aid budget in 2015 amounted to $2.6 billion, or 0.85 percent of the countrys gross national income (GNI), surpassing an international donor commitment of at least 0.7 percent of GNI.

"Yet Danish ODA [official development assistance] is programmed to fall back to 0.7% of GNI from 2016. This budget reduction, along with staff cutbacks, organisational changes and an expected tripling in spending on refugees in Denmark in 2016will put pressure on development programmes and aid planning," the OECD said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The number of migrants living in a refugee camp in the French town of Calais is expected to rise to 10,000 by September, the vice president of local charity LAuberge des Migrants told Sputnik on Friday.

"About 50 to 70 people arrive daily, most after coming through the Mediterranean and Italy. In total, the camp population increases by about a thousand people per month. It is expected [there will be] 10,000 people in September," Francois Guennoc warned.

In Guennoc's words, the camp mainly consists of people aspiring to go to Britain. Other people come to Calais in order to claim asylum here as "the acceptance rate is a bit higher for 'Calaisiens' and processing time is shorter" there if compared to the same procedure in other regions of France
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Deployment of NATO troops in Poland gives tangible guarantees of the country's security, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said on Friday.

According to Waszczykowski, NATO collective defense does not work automatically as ways of response to aggression against a bloc's member state vary.

"That is why Poland is seeking deployment of NATO as well as US troops on its territory," Waszczykowski said, as quoted by PAP, adding that military presence was the only tangible guarantee of security.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic filed 50 grounds of appeal against his war crimes conviction with a UN tribunal on Friday, saying the trial ended in a "miscarriage of justice," according to his lawyer Peter Robinson.

The motion to overturn the 40-year prison sentence comes four months after it was handed down to him by the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The 71-year-old was found guilty in March of crimes against humanity and breaching laws of war.

"President Karadzic did not receive a fair trial," the filing made public by the lawyer stated. It criticized the Trial Chambers "double standard" in handling his case and its reliance on "debatable inferences, instead of solid evidence."
The purge that followed the failed coup has resulted in the dismissal of 2,700 judges and 9,000 state employees from the police force and government ministries.

More than 15,000 state education employees have been suspended, and the higher education council has demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans. The licenses of 21,000 teachers working at private institutions have been revoked.

While EU chiefs such as European Parliament President Martin Schulz have criticized the crackdown, accusing Turkey of carrying out "revenge," other European officials are keen to take advantage of the situation.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Belobradek, who is also Minister of Science and Research, has suggested that fired Turkish academics come and work in the Czech Republic instead.

Belobradek made a post on Facebook, in which he said he would shortly be contacting Czech universities to see if they could offer the Turkish lecturers a place.

"They could become valuable experts in Middle East studies, Islamic studies, even technical fields," Belobradek wrote.



It is unclear how the fired Turkish professors would be able to travel to the Czech Republic, because the Turkish government has banned them from traveling abroad while the investigation into the failed military coup is ongoing.

His post got a mixed reception from Facebook users, one of whom recommended that Belobradek "be offered a place in a psychiatric ward."

Another Facebook user said he thought Belobradek was being inconsistent: "Are you going to invite the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt? There are oppressed generals there, too," he asked.

However, Czech newspaper Novinky.cz reported that the suggestion was somewhat better received by universities.

The country's oldest university, Charles University in Prague, reported its willingness to employ some Turkish academics.

"Charles University, like other universities in the Czech Republic, is open for students and teachers from around the world. Of course, this also applies to academics from Turkey who are subject to persecution," the university responded.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The decision by French lawmakers to extend the state of emergency in the country erodes the rule of law and the French government must implement measures to ensure the emergency powers are used only when absolutely necessary, Human Rights Watch said in a release on Friday.

"The decision by Frances parliament on July 21, 2016, to expand and prolong the countrys state of emergency for six months undermines human rights and the rule of law," the release stated. "The government should strengthen safeguards to ensure that the emergency powers are applied only to the extent strictly required."

Human Rights Watch also urged the French parliament to "carefully scrutinize the use of the emergency powers" in the months ahead, including any allegations of misuse by authorities.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian Embassy in Berlin said Friday it has not received any reports so far about possible casualties among Russian citizens in a shooting at a Munich shopping center.

"At this point, we have not received any information in that respect," embassy spokesman Sergei Belyaev told RIA Novosti.
She stressed that the principle of checking whether a refugee poses a threat to national security and public order is equally applied to all migrants, irrespective of their religion and country of origin.

"None [of the measures] are designed for or applied specifically to persons from Muslim countries or of Muslim origin," she said, referring to the fact that most recent attacks  like the one in Germany and Nice  were perpetrated by Muslims claiming ties with the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia).

In her words, before starting the asylum procedure, every applicant entering the country is identified, registered and screened by relevant experts of the police or border guards. Applicant's passports are checked for authenticity, names are run through databases and travel routes and motives for coming to the country are analyzed, in addition to language analysis.

"Also mobile phones may be screened as well as activity on the Internet and social media of the person in question," the spokeswoman added.

In mid-July, the National Coordinator for Terrorism and Security Dick Schoof said that the threat level for the Netherlands was still on "substantial" level 4 (out of total 5 levels), with a "real" possibility of a terrorist attack in the country, though with no concrete evidence that an attack was being planned.

Following numerous deadly attacks in Europe many experts on terrorism suggested that new attacks could be avoided if social accounts of migrants and radicalized citizens were better scrutinized.

On Wednesday, the Bavarian local parliament called on the government to provide police with more powers to follow Facebook, Twitter accounts and mobile phones of the asylum seekers. Currently, the German police are not authorized to do that.
UPDATE: Police confirm that there are at least 10 people dead in the Munich shooting attack reports RIA. The body of one of the deceased, found 1 km (0.6 miles) from the scene of the attack, is believed to be that of the shooter, who committed suicide. Police say there is a high probability that he acted alone, and has been identified as being 18 years old and a German citizen of Iranian origin. Police say he used a pistol, despite earlier reports that a the shooter was seen with a long rifle.

Bavarian broadcaster BR reports that the dead man found near scene of shooting had a red backpack similar to that used by the shooter at McDonald's. Police bomb squad units used a robot to investigate the backpack, but no explosives were found.

Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Reports initially stated that there were as many as three gunmen.
A second shooting has also been reported at Marienplatnz Station, along with Twitter posts about shots heard at Isartor station near the city's center. But these have not been confirmed.



German newspapers have confirmed that at least one of the shooters has committed suicide, and authorities are saying it's highly likely that there is only one shooter. The hashtag, #Offenetur, translates to "Open Door".



 Daughter of the wind (@thulemin) July 22, 2016

 Maha El Hissy (@mahaelhissy) July 22, 2016





Police are still cautioning that there is an active shooter situation in Munich, and continue to search for other suspected terrorists.

 Mark Bridgman (@markb79) July 22, 2016

 Karolin Bierbrauer (@karo2204) July 22, 2016
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the Focus newspaper, the elite German counter-terrorism, hostage rescue and special operations unit is on its way to the city.

Helicopters of the German border patrol will also be engaged in the search for Munich shooters.According to BR radio broadcaster, helicopters are already on their way.

Earlier in the day, media reports emerged claiming that at least 15 were killed in a shooting in the Olympia shopping center in the Moosach borough of Munich. Later reports claimed that consequent shootings were taking place all over the city.
"Up for now nothing has changed," Remarker said.

The Czech Foreign Ministry is waiting for the official information on the shooting incidents that took place in the German city of Munich earlier in the day to reassess security measures in place in the Czech Republic, the ministry's press service told Sputnik on Friday.

"We are still waiting for some more information about the victims, whether there were Czech citizens. It is too early to speak about security measures because we still don't know what has actually happened in Munich, was it a terrorist attack or was it just a person," the press service said.

"We are in contact with our general consulate in Munich and according to the information that we have at the moment the German police has not communicated the numbers of injured or victims of the attack," the press service added.

Earlier in the day, media reports emerged claiming that at least 15 were killed in a shooting in the Olympia shopping center in the Moosach borough of Munich. Later reports claimed that consequent shootings were taking place all over the city.

Interior Minister of Germany's Bavaria Joachim Herrmann confirmed that three people were killed.

Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboek told Sputnik earlier in the day that the Austrian authorities were in touch with Germany over the shootings and that extra police patrols were deployed at the border area between the two countries.
STOCKHOLM (Sputnik)  Supporters of the Turkish government urged Turks residing in Sweden to inform on the members of the opposition Gulenist movement, media reported on Friday.

"We encourage everyone to inform on the individuals, organizations and institutions that are supporting or financing Fethullah Gulens terrorist organization, both domestically and abroad," a post on the Facebook page used by supporters of Turkeys ruling AKP party in Sweden was cited by Sveriges Radio as saying.

On July 15, the coup attempt took place in Turkey and was suppressed the following day. Over 240 people were killed and more than 2,100 injured during the failed coup excluding the victims among the coup plotters, according to the country's authorities.
EKO COBRA took part in such incidents as the prevention of the hijacking of an airborne aircraft in 1996, support in the solving of the kidnapping known as the Flick Case, resolving the spectacular hostage situation in the prison facility of Graz-Karlau, and in other cases of extortion, kidnapping, hostage taking, and serious violent crimes.

Earlier in the day, media reports claiming that there were multiple deaths in a shooting in the Olympia shopping center in the Moosach borough of Munich. Later reports claimed that concurrent shootings were taking place in several locations in the city.

Interior Minister of Germany's Bavaria Joachim Herrmann confirmed that at least nine people have been killed.

Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboek told Sputnik earlier in the day that Austrian authorities were in touch with Germany over the shootings and that extra police patrols had been deployed on the border area between the two countries.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere interrupted his holiday after the shooting occurred and is returning home.

According to Munich police, on Friday, at least eight people were killed in a shooting at the Olympia shopping center in the German city of Munich.

Another body was found not far from the site of the shooting and police are investigating whether it could be that of one of the attackers.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that there is contradictory evidence about the Munich attack and the motive has not been determined.

A special operation is underway to capture the shooters.

According to the German Bild newspaper, German nationals dissatisfied with the migration policy could have been involved in the attack, as one of the videos of the shooting captures a man shouting "I am German."
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik)  The United Nations strongly condemns the deadly Munich shooting that took the lives of at least eight people on Friday, Deputy Spokesman for the UN secretary-general Farhan Haq said.

"We condemn the killings of innocent civilians," Haq told RIA Novosti when asked to comment on the Munich shooting.

On Friday, at least eight people were killed and at least ten others were injured in a shooting at the Olympia shopping center in the German city of Munich, according to city police.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The so-called Syria Democratic Forces said in its statement, cited by the New York Times newspaper, that Daesh fighters would be allowed to take only light weapons with them.

The ultimatum came two days after reports of civilian killings by US-led coalition airstrikes near the Daesh stronghold. On Wednesday, National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces called on the anti-Daesh coalition to halt the airstrikes amid the alleged killing of "over 125 civilians."

The coalition of more than 65 Western and Arab nations has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State, outlawed in multiple countries including the United States and Russia, since the summer of 2014.
"Of course, this coup attempt is horrible and the people who staged it need to be found and prosecuted, but it is also very important that it should be done within the frame of the law so that it could not be turned into a collective punishment," she said.

When asked about whether the Gulen movement could really be behind the attempted coup, Ozyurek said that the issue is first and foremost related to the mood currently in place in the Turkish army.



According to her, "for us social scientists the army has always been a sort of a black box, they have never talked to social scientists and it's quite difficult to know what is going on between the doors."

"It's hard to understand what brought these people to try to stage the coup. Gulenists might be powerful in the army, but I also can imagine that there might be other officers unhappy about what was going on in Turkey, namely, it might be a coalition of different forces in the army," she said.

The July 15 coup attempt left nearly 300 people dead and over 1,000 injured, and has been blamed on the movement of exiled religious and political leader Fethullah Gulen. Ankara has requested Gulen's extradition from the US.
Earlier in May, the Pentagon confirmed that one service member, probably a special operations soldier, was hit by indirect fire such as a rocket or mortar strike while operating north of the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Daesh's self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Another soldier was also hit by indirect fire outside Irbil, a city in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan.

The announcement came as the first official recognition of a US service member being wounded in Syria. However, according to publicly available data from the Pentagon, there have been 14 service members wounded in Iraq and Syria since the start of the US-led mission there in 2014.

The problem with such clandestine interventions is that they often disregard the law and have no public oversight, Stop the War Coalitions Chris Nineham told RT.

They are not backed by the UN, these interventions. They are not checked anywhere. They are just unilateral acts of military aggression, he added.

Chris Nineham earlier also commented on the UKs participation in the US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria when it was revealed after a freedom of information request by the campaign group Reprieve that around 20 British military personnel have been embedded within coalition forces in the country.

The coalition then claimed that Syria has consequently "turned out to be David Camerons secret war."

Chris Nineham reiterated these concerns, and condemned the historical instinct to dominate the Middle East which Cameron, Michael Fallon and others plainly demonstrate, according to a statement on the Coalitions website.

Meanwhile Pentagon keeps reiterating that its service members were not engaged in active combat and were behind the lines operating in advisory roles when they came under fire.
More than 15,000 state education employees have been fired, and the higher education council has demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans.

The Turkish government says it has evidence that US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was involved in the coup attempt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously accused Gulen supporters within Turkey of constituting a threatening "parallel state."

"I'm sorry but this parallel terrorist organization will no longer be an effective pawn for any country," Binali Yildirim, Turkey's new Prime Minister, said after the coup.
BERLIN (Sputnik)  The introduction of a state of emergency in Turkey grants the opportunity for further governmental repressive measures against citizens, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Friday.

The state of emergency, which gives Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the ability to enact new laws by decree bypassing the nations legislature, was declared earlier this week following a failed coup attempt.

"The introduction of a state of emergency, of course, facilitates the further repressive measures," Seibert told reporters.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) carried out 17 airstrikes against the terror groups positions in Syria and Iraq on Thursday, the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve said in a press release.

"In Syria, coalition military forces conducted eight strikes using attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL [Islamic State] targets," the release stated on Friday.

One airstrike near the city of Abu Kamal destroyed an Daesh workover rig, according to the coalition. Additionally, seven strikes near Manbij hit seven Daesh tactical units and destroyed six fighting positions and an artillery piece.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The US support to the Syrian rebel groups, such as Nour al-Din al-Zenki, should be stopped, as they have nothing to do with "real opposition" willing to achieve a political transition and use terrorist methods of fight against the authorities, Mais Krydee, one of the leaders of the so-called Hmeymim internal opposition group told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said the United States would reconsider providing aid to Syrian rebel group Nour al-Din al-Zenki if reports are confirmed that members of the faction beheaded a child. The Free Syrian Army (FSA), Toner said, was putting together a commission to investigate the incident.

"The United States supports all the time some kind of rebel groups, and they call it opposition. This is not opposition. Because the opposition believes in dialogue and it is able and ready to engage in it. Any opposition with weapons means that they will continue terrorism in Syria. The US must stop supporting them. We must reach the political solution and support war against terrorism, instead of supporting groups related to terrorism," Krydee said.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group with embarked Carrier Air Wing 3 carried out its first mission in support of the US-led coalition operations against the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) from the Persian Gulf, the US Navy said in a press release on Friday.

"The efforts of the 'Ike-Battle Axe' team have and will continue to be instrumental in the fight against ISIL [Islamic State]," Carrier Air Wing 3 commander Capt. Jeffrey Anderson stated.

Between June 28 and July 8, Carrier Air Wing 3 completed 116 sorties from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in support of coalition operations, the Navy noted.
Alanyali said that the discovery of a brothel at the site, while an interesting archaeological find, has hampered the search for sponsors for the work.

"Sometimes we find ourselves in interesting situations. For example, there is a brothel structure at the ancient site of Side. When those who are thinking about sponsoring us ask about the purpose of the structure in ancient times, they change their minds when we say it was a 'love house' [brothel] or a 'toilet,'" Alanyali stated.

The resort town of Side is located on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast, and is one of the country's best-known classical sites. The ancient city was a prosperous Aegean trading center in Hellenistic and Roman times, and a base for Cilician pirates in the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE.

Its ancient architecture includes the Temples of Athena and Apollo which were erected in the 2nd century AD, and a Roman theater which was built in the middle of the 2nd century AD, on the site of an earlier, Hellenistic, theater.
A Russian serviceman has been killed in Syria while escorting a humanitarian convoy in Aleppo province, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

According to the ministry, Nikita Shevchenko was in a vehicle escorting a convoy of trucks carrying food and water supplies to local residents when an improvised roadside bomb exploded at the entrance to a settlement.

"Russian doctors treated him on site, but failed to save his life due to grave injuries that he had suffered," the ministry's press service said in a statement.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Under the contract, SAIC will be providing logistics support for chemicals and fuel to the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies, the Defense Department explained.

"SAIC [of] Fairfield, New Jersey, has been awarded a maximum $53.5 million contract for three months for logistics support for chemical and petroleum products," the announcement stated on Thursday.

The contracting government body to oversee and administer the contract is Defense Logistics Agency Aviation in Richmond in the US state of Virginia, the announcement added.
India is also targeting the repair of offshore platforms and larger vessels. Captain Khurana stated that this would create lot of economic dividends for India and that the shipbuilding industry would get a boost. Cochin is very close to the international shipping lane which passes south of Sri Lanka. Cochin has tremendous potential for servicing foreign ships, which may also seek to get repaired and refitted at the proposed dock.

Captain Khurana explains another strategic value of the proposed dry dock. "We also may be building some LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) carriers. LNG also has strategic needs. We have no LNG carrier and the energy demand of the country is growing like anything. So it is always good for strategic reasons, in case there will be war tomorrow, to have our own LNG carrier rather than using foreign ships for carrying strategic cargo."

India imports 14.6 million tons of LNG per year. India's demand for LNG is reportedly growing at rate of more than 40% annually. The Indian government is pushing hard to get a maximum amount of cheaper LNG available in the global market.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russias Pacific Fleet troops fired the first Bastion coastal defense mobile anti-ship missile systems in the Far East Primorsky Territory, the Eastern Military Districts Pacific Fleet spokesman said Friday.

The Pacific Fleet coastal forces missile formation troops conduct the first launch of a new Bastion missile system that entered service in 2016, Vladimir Matveev said, adding that he expects the new system to enter combat duty next month.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Earlier on Friday, US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt welcomed the dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island to Ukraine in a Twitter post.

"The USS Ross looks forward to turning into the Bosphorus Straits once again to participate during this years iteration of Sea Breeze," Commanding Officer Russell Caldwell stated.

Sea Breeze is an annual air, land and maritime exercise designed to improve maritime safety, security and stability in the Black Sea, according to the US Navy.
"As for the 57 Tu-95MS-16, that plane has four nodes on its external suspension equipped with missile and bomb weapons. In addition, in place of the two AM-23 aircraft cannons, these planes have two double-barreled GS-23L 23 mm cannons, along with improved cabin ergonomics."

The Tu-95MS-16 is capable of carrying 16 Kh-55 cruise missiles of various modifications, including a nuclear-armed missile with a 200 kiloton yield, and a strike range of between 2,000-3,500 km.

"Currently," the expert noted, "Russian long-range aviation includes 60 Tu-95MS and Tu-95MSM (the so-called missile carriers having undergone upgrades). Three of them, as well as 580 Kh-55 cruise missiles, were purchased from Ukraine as barter repayment for Russian natural gas supplies. Shortly following the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine inherited 23 Tu-95MS aircraft. The US demanded that Ukraine destroy most of the rest; two became museum pieces, and two missile carrier variants disappeared during the Yanukovych years."

The missile carrier version received new instrumentation in the 1980s, as well as a new engine  the NK-12MP, created at the Samara-based Kuznetsov Design Bureau. That engine design is an upgraded version of the NK-12MV used by the Tu-95, featuring higher reliability and ease of maintenance.
The United States had also orchestrated the bombing of Syria by countries uninvited by the Syrian government, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Flounders pointed out.

The United States has been "arming and funding the extremist forces including through Saudi Arabia The only solution for this war is for the United States to get out, to stop all of the bombing and its support of covert radical opposition groupings," she said.

The US government, Flounders explained, was arming and funding "what they call a moderate opposition, they are not moderate at all  they are not moderate in any way whatsoever  and forces of the Islamic State. So you have tens of thousands of mercenary and reactionary forces just ripping Syria apart."

The war funded and fanned by the United States had so far displaced a third of the population of Syria, Flounders noted.

"That is staggering for any country. [Washington] is determined to continue this policy until the government of Syria collapses. The Syrian people have shown great determination to resist this effort to pull their country apart," she said.
UPDATE: The shooter has been identified as being 18 years old and a German citizen of Iranian origin. Police confirm that at least 10 people are dead and 20 injured from the shooting attack reports RIA news. Public transportation has been reopened.

Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Whlie initial reports indicated that there three shooters, police now say there is a high probability that there was only one attacker who killed himself near the scene.

Officials scoured the city of Munich on Friday, looking for potential terror suspects who may have been involved in the attack.
The conflict in evidence creates a tense environment for police and authorities, worrying about misdirected reprisals against the Muslim community in a German society that has grown increasingly hostile to followers of Islam, notably after the country has taken in nearly 2 million Syrian refugees. Authorities have warned the public, the media, and elected officials not to jump to conclusions until an investigation was conducted to determine the shooters motives and identity.

Britains newly-minted Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, a leader of the Brexit campaign, who has referred to the sitting Turkish President as a "goat f---er," and who accused US President Barack Obama of harboring a part-Kenyans "ancestral dislike for the British empire," and said of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that she is "like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital," also chimed in.

In a statement that immediately sparked international condemnation, Johnson speaking before the United Nations in New York, said in the early hours of the attack that:

"If, as seems very likely, this is another terrorist incident, then I think once again that we have a global phenomenon now and a global sickness that we have to tackle both at the source  in the areas where the cancer is being incubated in the Middle East  and also of course around the world."

New Europeans (@NewEuropeans) July 22, 2016

Proving that he is not the adult in the room, the Johnson belligerently ensured that the job of police and security officials in Germany would become more complicated, increasing the likelihood of wrongheaded acts of violent reprisal against innocent people.

By comparison, in a show of proper diplomatic decorum German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the motive for the deadly shooting attack in Munich on Friday remained unclear.

"The motives for this abhorrent act have not yet been completely clarified  we still have contradictory clues," Steinmeier explained in an emailed statement.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Speaking through an interpreter, Ayrault admitted that his concerns are not popular with Turkeys government and that he had been told, presumably by Turkish officials, to mind his nations own business.

"We are going through a time when the risk is that the Turkish government might take advantage of what has happened, or what was attempted, to set up a regime that could become an autocratic regime," Ayrault said on Thursday.
NEW YORK (Sputnik)  Russia and the United States brokered a ceasefire in Syria on February 27. The number of settlements that have joined the ceasefire regime in Syria has since increased to 206.

"It is key that US and Russia work as much as possible closely together, including military to military cooperation, because they are the key actors on the ground that can have an impact on the cessation of hostilities [in Syria]," Mogherini stated on Thursday.
CLEVELAND (Sputnik)  On Wednesday, Trumps top military advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn told Sputnik that he did not intend to "telegraph" Trumps Russian strategy to the world.

"He wants to be more like Putin," Gohmert said of Trump on Thursday.

Gohmer explained that Putin "makes moves he didnt really announce," citing the Russian leaders response to the Ukraine crisis and surprise military engagement in Syria last November.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Wednesday, India's Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj told the lawmakers that India will not sign the NPT.

"It is worth mentioning that China does not make the rules for how to become new members of the group. The international community has forged a consensus long ago that the NPT is the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime. No country should or can put itself opposite to the NPT," Lu Kang was cited as saying by The Times of India.
CLEVELAND (Sputnik)  Trump has been a vocal critic of the NATO alliance, which he has said relies too much on US financial support. In Warsaw, NATO announced a number of initiatives to combat terrorism, deemed a sharedl security threat to the alliance.

"Recently I said NATO was obsolete because it didnt properly cover terrorismShortly thereafter it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism, a true step in the right direction," Trump said in his Thursday nomination speech.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Commenting on the planned US-Russia-UN meeting in Geneva, Kirby added that humanitarian issue in the region will be addressed as well.

"We are committed to moving forward on the steps agreed to by Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov in their meeting last week," Kirby said.

The United States and Russia routinely discuss means of strengthening the ceasefire in Syria, efforts to improve humanitarian situation in the country and find a political solution to the crisis, he added.
Professor Cohen also stressed that Russo-American cooperation on Syria remains the focus of worldwide attention.

As Turkey has stepped aside, nothing could seemingly prevent Moscow and Washington from solving the Middle Eastern crisis. However, there are forces in the US opposing the effort propelled by US Secretary of State John Kerry. These forces claim that instead of partnering with Moscow in Syria, the President should authorize air strikes against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

However, there are pretty good reasons for the US to team up with Russia in Syria.

In any event, Washington has no choice but to cooperate with Russia, since Moscow has more leverage with Damascus than the United States ever had, as US analyst Daniel R. DePetris noted recently.

There is yet another problem: because of Washington's assertive activity under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Libya in 2011 and covert support for the Ukrainian coup in February 2014, Russia has nearly lost its trust in the US.

"Kremlin, under Putin, has had a really bad history with American presidents and particularly with Obama. Repeatedly they thought they had an agreement and then they didn't. And we know, Putin has spoken of this, he regards Obama, as he says, as a good, well-intended man but not a strong leader in the sense that when one makes a commitment in international politics he is obliged to keep it," Cohen noted.

According to the professor, the Kremlin has adopted the "trust but verify" approach in its communications with the White House.

However, the leaders' decision to combine forces in Syria is an "enormous breakthrough" that may help Washington and Moscow to also de-escalate tensions in Eastern Europe and find a way out from the Ukrainian crisis. Cohen stressed that Ukraine remains "the epicenter" of the new Cold War.

"At the moment, each side [the US and Russia] is delivering what they promise. If the United States does what it says it's going to do in Syria, yes, Russia will trust [Washington] and will act on it," Professor Cohen emphasized, commenting on the prospect of the Russo-American collaboration.
DVORIKI (Russia) (Sputnik)  Russia believes that only Syrian people should choose their leader, through fair and democratic elections, and nobody guarantees that Iraqi or Libyan scenario will not repeat in Syria in case of Assad's ouster, Lavrov said.

"John Kerry has recently visited us. They [Russia's partners] say that maybe it is worth to join forces in the fight against terrorism but first we need to agree on removal of Assad," the minister said.

According to the minister, after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had been overthrown, the country became "a breeding ground for terrorism" and "Libya has not existed as a united country" since that time. Iraq found itself in the same situation, Lavrov added.
For his part, the Chinese Foreign Minister has also repeatedly stressed that the missile defense system's deployment would aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula. "We are expressing serious concern in connection with US intentions to deploy the [THAAD] system in South Korea. The move goes far beyond actual defense necessities and damages the strategic security of China and Russia," Wang said earlier this year.

Bortsov, meanwhile, warned that the Pentagon's drive to deploy missile defense may have ulterior motives, which were explained almost a decade ago by Russian military officials.

"The GBI anti-missile missiles are created on the basis of the Minuteman medium range ballistic missile, even using the same launchers," the analyst recalled. "Back as 2008, Colonel Vladimir Vasiliev pointed out that there was no mention in the [US tech] about an In-Flight Interceptor Communications System, without which it was not possible for it to work as a missile defense system. But launching the missiles to strike at ground targets is entirely within the realm of possibility."

In other words, Bortsov noted, both Russia and China are aware that the US systems may in fact be offensive in nature. In the meantime, NATO officials continue to claim that the systems are defensive.

Commenting recently about the start of construction of the US ABM base at Redzikowo, northern Poland, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that this system is "in no way directed against RussiaSo any action from Russia will be absolutely without reason. It will be unjustified because they know that this is not directed against them."

Meanwhile, Bortsov commented, "for some reason this 'long term investment' is persistently being built right next to Russia. For example, in Poland everything has been agreed upon. The US missile defense base in Redzikowo, to be completed in 2018, is only 150 km from Russia's Kaliningrad region."
DVORIKI (Russia) (Sputnik)  Lavrov mentioned how important it was to cooperate:

"Restoring the trust to its former state is too abstract a category. Everything will hinge on our approach to cooperation and contacts how we are going to trade with each other build things together, implement joint investment projects and, largely, on how we will cooperate on the Syria peace process," Lavrov said at a youth forum held near Russia's city of Vladimir.
Last year Sweden refused to renew a Saudi arms agreement concluded back in 2005, while the UK canceled its 5.9m contract to provide a training program for Saudi Arabia prisons. Belgium and the Netherlands have taken steps to diminish or halt weapons sales to Riyadh, Schwartz notes.

Furthermore, back in February 2016 the European Parliament voted for an EU-wide ban on arms sales to the Gulf monarchy, citing the "disastrous humanitarian situation" in Yemen, the Guardian reported.

Meanwhile, the release of the 28 pages indicated that some of terrorists involved in 9/11 had ties to Saudi Arabia. That prompted the families of the 9/11 victims to seek the enactment of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act  legislation that would allow them to sue foreign governments, most notably Riyadh, for supporting extremism.

The bill was passed by the US Senate in May 2016 but the House of Representatives has yet to act on the legislation.

"We are here today to call on the United States House of Representatives to act now so these families canhold accountable the Saudi government for possibly aiding and abetting the hijackers," Senator Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday, as quoted by Hartford Courant.
NEW YORK (Sputnik)  Churkin said in a letter to the UNSC that the latest developments in the situation in Donbas, including increased shelling of settlements controlled by Donbas militia, show that Kiev is not making concrete steps aimed at deescalation of tensions and demilitarization of area along the separation line.

"On the contrary, there is clear evidence that the Ukrainian military is preparing a military operation there," Churkin wrote.

Russia calls on all international partners to convince Kiev to prevent such a disastrous development of events, Churkin added.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US Special Envoy for the coalition against the Islamic State Brett McGurk will travel to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to meet with senior officials about efforts against the terror group and to coordinate the next steps in the campaign, the US Department of State said in a statement on Friday.

"During his meetings, Special Presidential Envoy McGurk will discuss continuing cooperation and engagement to further the coalitions campaign to ensure a lasting defeat of ISIL [Islamic State] in Iraq and Syria, as well as efforts to counter ISILs affiliates and support networks," the statement noted.

McGurk will travel to Abu Dhabi and Jeddah from July 22-26, the statement pointed out.
The process of Lybian chemical weapons destruction will take place under the supervision of the secretariat and the member countries of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

On July 20, the OPCW decided to support Libya in the attempt to develop a plan for the destruction of toxic agents. The UN Security Council resolution 2298 supported the OPCW's decision support.
David Duke, a former chief of the openly racist Ku Klux Klan group, who got Republican candidate Donald Trump in hot water earlier this year, has announced a bid for the US Senate in Louisiana, amidst brewing racial tensions in the state, following the unjustified police shooting of Alton Sterling and last weekends police killing spree, both in the city of Baton Rouge.

Duke fancies himself a "pioneer," and claims Trump, who last year was slow to refute the support of the infamous hate speech proponent, appropriated his "America First" slogan from Dukes 1992 foray into US politics. Duke staked a claim to the origins of Trumps political platform as well, adding, "I am overjoyed to see Donald Trump."

The former KKK boss said that he "believes in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans, however what makes me different is that I demand the rights and respect of European Americans." Duke stated that whites "need one man, one man in Congress who will defend their rights and heritage" against what he fears is a "massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America."
On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" host Eugene Puryear is joined by Ria Thompson Washington, National Vice President at National Lawyers Guild to discuss a National Day of Action by BYP100 and Black Lives Matter activist and organizers around the country and your rights while protesting.

Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, and Nino Brown, Mass Action Against Police Brutality join Eugene in part two to discuss the shooting of an unarmed black therapist who was attending to a patient as well as another crazy night of rants from the RNC in Cleveland.

And in a special segment Micah McCoy, Communications Director at the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico discusses the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's $475,000 settlement with a New Mexico woman for illegally subjecting her to vaginal and anal searches after she was detained at the Cordova Bridge point of entry in El Paso.
The question is why is Turkey, which once was a progressive country and strove to fuse Islam and modern European democracy, is now returning to clericism.

There is a deeply conservative deep state, which has always been very Islamic, and Erdogan has managed to exploit thisThere appeared to be a conflict with this deep state in the context of Turkeys application to join the EU, which amongst other things, involved the abolishment of the death penalty but now Erdogan doesnt really care about the EU.

Turkeys attitude to Turkey is indicative of Turkeys underlying attitude to the Kurds, Margaret stresses: There is a lot of evidence that has been gathered by journalists who are now in prison, about Turkeys close relationship with ISIS. We know that there are ISIS cells all over Turkey, that Turkeys hospitals look after ISIS fighters, but worse still, we know that when NATO supported Turkey, to fight ISIS, in fact more attacks by Turkey were focused on the Kurds in Northern Iraq and the PKK than ISIS. There are lots of questions about oil revenues and the border being used to smuggle arms over to the ISIS troops and so on. We often say that Turkey is using ISIS to do its dirty work against the Kurds.

As far as NATO is concerned, Margaret is unequivocal:

Many of us think that it is a paradox, an anomaly, that Turkey is a member of NATO, and of the Council of Europe. Both these organizations consider the rule of law and democracy to be fundamentally important.When thousands of people are being suppressed it is extraordinary that Turkey is able to use NATO support to get at the Kurds. The US needs its airbase in Turkey, and it is interesting that the US is using that to support the Syrian Kurds in their attacks on ISIS whereas we [the EU] are not. A lot of us are saying that at least we should start considering the process of expelling Turkey from NATO, to try to bring Turkey to heel. We are supporting an autocratic, murderous, Islamist dictatorship, because what Erdogan really wants to do is to bring back the next Ottoman Empire and be the next Caliph.

Did the UK and the US governments know about this, and if so, surely they have blood on their hands? Margaret answered: Yes, I think they knew everything, and Gulen has nothing to do with it.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik)  Russia calls on its international partners to put pressure on Kiev in order to avoid full-scale war in southeastern Ukraine, Russian envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said in a letter addressed to the UN Security Council on Friday.

"Ukrainian military provocations in the southeast should not be allowed to escalate into the full-scale fighting along the whole 'front' line. A relapse to war could bury the peace process. In this context, we urge all international partners to influence Kiev, in order to prevent such a disastrous scenario," the letter reads.

Earlier in the day, Russian Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich said that the Ukrainian government continued to display unwillingness to fully implement a set of measures aimed at resolving the conflict in the countrys southeast.
The theft was revealed in US federal court records, obtained by McClatchy. Identified as Kosovo-born Ardit Ferizi, the hacker traveled to Malaysia to get better bandwidth access to carry out his exploits. From Singapore, Ferezi was extradited to the US, where he signed a plea agreement in which he admitted to hacking and providing material support to terrorists.

It is unknown how much was given, or promised, to Ferizi in exchange for the stolen data.

The theft points to a growing concern for cybersecurity experts.

"Their capabilities are 1,000 times what they were four years ago," one expert told McClatchy, speaking on condition of anonymity.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Facebook has been working on Aquila Project with leading experts in aerospace and communication technologies, from NASA's jet propulsion lab to a small UK firm that created one of the worlds longest flying solar-powered drones.

Today we're proud to announce the first test flight of Aquila  it flies on roughly the power of three blowdryers! pic.twitter.com/qN8U5kj4uf  Facebook (@facebook) July 21, 2016

After two years of development, the unmanned aircraft took to the skies before dawn on June 28 in Yuma, Arizona. It stayed aloft for 96 minutes, although the aim is to have it up for months at a time.

The drone has a wingspan wider than the Boeing 737 but weighs less than 1,000 pounds, which is the same as a grand piano, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
In the meantime, the vehicle has already passed through Rasht, Qazvin and Tehran (through Partisan Park, Vali Asr Street and the territory of the charity foundation Kahrizak), added Abri Niya. The aim of its journey is to introduce Iranian citizens to the vehicles inventor and the cars creators.

Our journey will give Iranians the opportunity to learn more about modern scientific discoveries, which are developed by students. They will see that universities, in addition to educational activity, work towards environment protection, Abri Niya said.

On July 19, the vehicle arrived in Yazd and stopped near by the citys local university. Then everyone had the opportunity to look at the solar car near Jamia Mosque.

     

    https://t.co/b1kpHiqano pic.twitter.com/aqnxCcqAGf    (@SharghDaily) 25 October 2015

Abri Niya explained that it is not a coincidence that the tour began at the Caspian Sea, as for Iran it is a significant ecological zone, and the Gazelle III is designed to protect the environment.

During the day, the vehicle gets its energy from the sun. If there is not enough energy, then the solar car gets its energy from an electric engine.

Many Iranian roads are not suitable for the solar cars travelling mission. For this reason alone, Gazelle III was not able to get permission from the traffic police to move along the planned path. Therefore, the solar car can only take permitted paths, in many cases through cities.

According to the creators, the Gazelle III, which is capable of reaching a top speed of up to 140 km per hour, is the first two-passenger electric car in the Middle East.

In 2015, during the World Solar Challenge competition in Australia, the Gazelle III was ranked third in speed and seventh in terms of the distance it covered.
"The first task of our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens our communities," it reads.

Trump blames this lack of order on his presumptive Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

"America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy," the draft claims. "I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgement  something pointed out by Bernie Sanders  are what caused the disasters unfolding today."

Trump is expected to deliver his speech at approximately 10:00 p.m. (2 a.m. GMT), local time.
The incident occurred in December 2012, when a drug-sniffing dog jumped on the 54-year-old woman, a US citizen, at an El Paso, Texas, checkpoint. According to a 2013 lawsuit, the unnamed woman had just returned from Ciudad, Juarez, Mexico, where she was a visiting a friend who had recently been deported.

The women was strip searched and had cavity searches performed on her by agents but no drugs were found, according to court documents.
A group of eight police organization chiefs, including Pasco and Johnson, met with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to urge them to review the ban, as a means of increasing safety for police in the wake of Dallas shooting.

The White House officials say the current rules ensure the police get "the tools that they need to protect themselves and their communities while at the same time providing the level of accountability that should go along with the provision of federal equipment."

However, after three police officers were killed last week in Baton Rouge, President Obama issued a request for White House chief legal counsel Neil Eggleston to review the ban.
CLEVELAND (Sputnik)  Trump stressed on Thursday that illegal border crossings will stop if he becomes president.

"We dont want them [immigrants] in our country," Trump said adding "I only want to admit individuals to our country who will support our values and love our people."

Trump stressed that the US immigration system must work for the American people.
CLEVELAND (Sputnik)  Donald Trump has been officially been nominated by the Republican Party as its 2016 US presidential nominee, despite a last-ditch effort by #NeverTrump delegates.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton  death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland after accepting the Republican partys nomination for president.

"America is far less safethan when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of American foreign policy," Trump stressed adding "I am certain that it is a decision that President Obama regrets."
Trump said he will be US citizens "champion in the White House."

'I am The Voice of American workers'

Accepting the US Republican partys (GOP) nomination for president, Trump stressed "I have no patience for injustice" and said that he has no sympathy for leaders who do not stand for their citizens.

Trump emphasized that he will put Americans first, not globalism, and that he will be the voice of workers who have been neglected.

"I am your voice," the billionaire said.

Trump critiqued the Obama administration for the current economic situation, saying that corruption is as high as ever in the United States.

"My message is that things have to change and they have to change right now," Trump said, also emphasizing that "crime and violence will soon end" and "peace and prosperity" will be restored in the United States.

According to Trump, he has seen firsthand how "the system is rigged."

The billionaire spoke against trade deals that have stripped US citizens of their wealth.

"We are going to fix the system so that it works fairly and justly for each and every American," Trump said.

We are going to win fast against terrorists

Donald Trump has also promised to defeat Daesh terrorists if he becomes US president.

"We are going to win fast."
CLEVELAND (Sputnik)  In an hour-long nomination speech, Trump addressed major US domestic and foreign policy, emphasizing law and order, job creation, curbing immigration, and national defense. The Thursday speech was the first major policy discussion in the course of the four-day convention.

"There was a real shift in focus from the beginning of the week, when it was all about tearing down [likely Democratic nominee Hillary] Clinton, to tonight where its all about building up what Trump is planning to do for America," a Republican from Washington, DC told Sputnik after Trumps major Thursday address.

A number of delegates, though enthusiastic Trump won the partys nomination, were cautious about his ability to deliver on all of his promised.
Prospective voters appear discontent with the presidential options presented to them by the mainstream parties, according to data from Google Trends which shows a spike in searches for a third-party candidate this week.

On Thursday, Republican Donald Trump accepted his party's nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is set to do the same next week at her party's convention, having been endorsed by rival Bernie Sanders last month.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan and US Congressman, announced in a statement on Friday he will run for the US Senate in order to put a stop on the ethnic cleansing of Americans of European ancestry.

"We must stop the ethnic cleansing of people whose forefathers created America," Duke stated.

European Americans need someone in the US Congress who will stand up for their rights and heritage, he maintained.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump condemned Fridays attacks in Munich, Germany and said terrorism must be stopped before it reaches US shores.

"Our prayers are with all those affected by the horrible attacks in Munich," Trump stated in a post on Facebook. "This cannot continue. The rise of terrorism threatens the way of life for all civilized people, and we must do everything in our power to keep it from our shores."

Earlier in the day, media reports emerged claiming that at least 15 were killed in a shooting in the Olympia shopping center in the Moosach borough of Munich. Later reports claimed that consequent shootings were taking place across the city.
It would also be within his power as president and I think it would prove very popular, Giraldi stated.

However, if elected president Trump would face a great deal of opposition in US Congress and from special interests in the US military-industrial complex who profit off wars, Giraldi warned.

Giraldi said he supported Trumps commitment to prevent admitting thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States but warned that diplomatic challenges could hinder this policy.

I agree that allowing the entry of thousands of refugees from war zones is dangerous because the United States has no good means to vet them regarding their potential as security risks. he noted. But the United States is obligated to accept refugees through the UN and it would be difficult to rearrange that.

However, Giraldi expected that Trumps efforts to curb uncontrolled immigration, including that of refugees would be strongly supported by the US public.

Most Americans do indeed want to sharply limit immigration and to begin deporting everyone who is here illegally. It is a view I share and if Trump is elected his margin of victory will be due to the immigration issue, he stated.

Philip Giraldi is executive director of the Council for the National Interest, a group that advocates more even-handed US government policies in the Middle East.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  A proposed new bill to protect whistleblowers exposing corruption and lawbreaking in US government contractors would be almost completely ineffective if passed into law, AT&T/National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Mark Klein told Sputnik.

"Such bills are almost worthless because the protection of whistleblowers, especially in national security agencies, is a political decision which the top leaders of the two parties do not want to take," Klein said on Friday. "So this latest bill is just for show and does not touch upon real requirements."

On Thursday, a bipartisan group of US House of Representatives members unveiled a Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act (H.R. 5920), following movement last month on a similar bill in the US Senate.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  The United States offered to dispatch a team to Turkey to help Ankara in processing its request to extradite, US Department of State spokesperson John Kirby said in a Thursday briefing.

"We are ready to participate in the work of the commission to return Gulen as suggested by the United States. We hope to get a positive result. After all, when it comes to cooperation in the fight against terrorism, there should be concrete results," Cavusoglu told TRT broadcaster.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Malaysian, Australian and Chinese ministers met in Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur earlier Friday to discuss search operations across a 120,000-square kilometer area (over 74,500 square miles).

"Ministers agreed that should the aircraft not be located in the current search area, and in the absence of credible new evidence leading to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search would not end, but be suspended upon completion of the 120,000 square kilometer search area," the message read.

The aircraft vanished while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The jet is believed to have crashed somewhere in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia`s west coast.
"All the permanent members have their own criteria, but in general they all are pragmatic, and they are unwilling to see a strong independent UN chief who could interfere with their own influence," Le Nouvel Observateur pointed out.

France, for example, wants the future UN chief to speak French, while Russia points to the unwritten tradition that each new UN Secretary-General should come from a different part of the world, including Eastern Europe. The General Assembly, in turn, requested that this time the United Nations chief should be a woman.

"As a result, the ideal candidate for this position could be Irina Bokova, although some other candidates in the list are also good chances," according to Le Nouvel Observateur.

Bokova is currently the head of UNESCO and is a former Bulgarian MP; she also served as acting Bulgarian Foreign Minister between November 13, 1996 and February 12, 1997. She studied at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations in the mid-1970s.

#Education is the most powerful way to fight against child marriage, against early pregnancy, against gender-based violence #askwith @hgse  Irina Bokova (@IrinaBokova) 1  2016 .

Aside from Bokova, the candidates' list includes former Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand, who previously refused to send her country's troops to Iraq and "proved her independence from the United States, Britain and Australia," according to Le Nouvel Observateur.

#Bokova  very confident performance, on top of @UN agenda, fluent in English, French, Spanish (@RussiaUN should 've asked a Q in Russian).  Pavel Andreev (@pavelandreev) 12  2016 .

Also on the list are United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, a former PM who is popular in his native Portugal; Kevin Rudd, a former Australian PM who steered his country clear of the world economic crisis in the late 2000s, as well as the UN representatives of Australia, Costa Rica, Moldova, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia, Le Nouvel Observateur recalled.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The past few weeks have been rocked by a string of deadly shootings of African-American men by police in the states of Louisiana and Minnesota, followed by targeted killing of police officers in the cities of Dallas and Baton Rouge.

"What is happening with police violence against blacks and their response against law enforcement agencies is a serious call. This has forced [US President Barack] Obama to speak about this publicly. The Americans are yet to comprehend this," Lavrov said at the "Territory of Senses in Klyazma" forum.

The shootings of African-American Alton Sterling by two policemen in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 5 and another African-American man, Philando Castile, who was killed by police in the state of Minnesota the following day, have provoked public outrage across the country. A Black Lives Matter demonstration against police brutality toward African Americans took place in Dallas, Texas, during which five police officers were killed in a sniper attack on July 7.
Thus, Abzalov said, they will in every way support him in power, turning a blind eye to every single thing which goes on in the country under his rule.

At the very same time, the political analyst explains, the West no longer holds the appeal that it once did for Erdogan.

There is no previous unity in European society; different elections are set to take place in a number of countries, including presidential elections in the US, and it doesnt have a positive impact on the policy of leaders of different states.

Hence Dmitry Abzalov is convinced that while maintaining partnership with the Western world, Erdogan will likely in parallel adopt new foreign policy priorities for his home country. Russia and China are likely to become his potential geostrategic partners.

His view is echoed by the head of the Center for Middle East and Central Asia Studies, Semyon Bagdasarov, who is convinced that Erdogans post-coup foreign policy towards the West resembles a sort of blackmail.

The speculation of the countrys media that Turkey might withdraw from NATO, break off its relations with the US and move closer with Russia and Iran is nothing more than blackmail, he told RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Friday announced the allocation of 60.5 million pounds (approximately $80 million) to support the Iraqi authorities in fight against the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) terrorist group, also known as Daesh in Arabic.

"The UK has announced 60.5m of new funding to #SupportIraq in #DefeatingDaesh," the Foreign Office said on its Twitter page.

The UK has announced 60.5m of new funding to #SupportIraq in #DefeatingDaesh pic.twitter.com/BTmVTPEjD5  Foreign Office (FCO) (@foreignoffice) July 22, 2016

The new funding includes $66 million for humanitarian aid "to save lives and alleviate suffering," $7.3 million to counter "hazards," including improvised explosive devices, $2.3 million to support operations in Mosul and $4.3 for additional spending.
BAKU (Sputnik)  Azerbaijan is willing to grant wider autonomy to the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region as part of its plan to preserve territorial integrity, the Azeri parliaments deputy speaker said Friday.

Azerbaijan lost control over the Armenian-dominated mountainous area after an armed conflict in the late 1980s-early 1990s, which ended in 1994 ceasefire. The row flared up again in April 2016 and continued beyond the April 5 truce.

"Baku is ready to grant Nagorno-Karabakh the widest autonomy possible within Azerbaijans borders. This is our final decision," Ziafet Askerov was quoted as saying by the Azeri news agency APA.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag will travel to the United States next week to discuss possible extradition of opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey, NTV televison reported Friday citing a government source.

Ankara accuses Gulen, 75, who has been residing in self-exile in the US since 1999, of masterminding last Friday's failed military coup that killed more than 246 people and injured over 2,000.
In late January 2016, a prominent Syrian sculptor created a bust of the late Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov, whose warplane was downed by a Turkish jet fighter over Syria last year

Eyad Albelal said that by creating the bust, he was extending his condolences to the family of the deceased pilot and expressing his gratitude to Russia for its fight against Daesh terrorists in Syria.

He told Sputnik at the time that it took him a month and a half to finalize the bust, which is made of clay and bronze.

After the beginning of Russia's air campaign against Daesh in Syria, some Middle Eastern news channels repeatedly tried to present the public with a deceptive narrative of the conflict, depicting it as a struggle between Christians and Muslims.

Notably, these media outlets did not make similar attempts earlier when an international coalition, consisting mainly of Western countries, began its anti-terrorist operation in Syria and Iraq.

Since 2011, Syria has been mired in a civil war, with the country's government forces fighting numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations, including Daesh and the al-Nusra Front.
Activities of the Russian-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, formed in 1992, were suspended in November, 2015, by a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin following the downing of a Russian Su-24 combat plane over Syria by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet.

The same decree suspended the negotiation and drafting process for the bilateral Agreement on Trade in Services and Investments and the Middle-term program for economic, trade, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation for 2016-2019.
The UN-backed proximity negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition factions were put on hold for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in June after the previous round ended in April.

"The situation can be described as anything but satisfactory," Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin. "There has been no return to Geneva [talks] yet."
WASHINGTON, July 22 (Sputnik)  The United States urges the Nour al-Din al-Zenki opposition faction in Syria to conduct a transparent probe of the beheading of a child, a US Department of State official told Sputnik on Friday.

"We encourage al-Zinki [sic] to investigate the incident and expect all parties to comply with their obligations under the law of armed conflict," the official stated. "We note that al-Zinki has said they will investigate this incident, and we hope they do so thoroughly and transparently."

The official also declared that the US does not support Syrian opposition groups that condone such barbaric acts.
US President George W. Bush (L) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair walk together from their meeting at the US Embassy in Brussels in this February 22, 2005 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

An inquiry conducted by former British civil servant John Chilcot into the United Kingdom's role in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq blames Tony Blair, then British prime minister, for dragging the UK into the war in Iraq on the basis of flawed intelligence. The 2.6-million-word inquiry report says the Blair government overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, then Iraqi president, took military actions before diplomatic alternatives were exhausted and had "wholly inadequate" plans for the aftermath.

The report, however, does not comment on the legality of the conflict, which was waged without the authorization of the United Nations Security Council.

Although promising to "take full responsibility for any mistakes, without exception or excuse", Blair insists his decision to take the UK to the war in Iraq has made the world "better and safer".

The truth is, the war claimed the lives of 179 British soldiers, thousands of American soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, dividing the country into factions and causing endless unrest. Worse, the so-called weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.

The war also failed to "remold" Iraq as an exemplary democracy in the Middle East, as tensions between disputing forces remain high and the political vacuum has given rise to terrorist groups like the Islamic State. Moreover, the ouster of the Saddam Hussein government, which left more than 1 million Iraqis (mainly civilians) homeless, could be seen as a major cause of the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

Although investigations have been launched in Britain and elsewhere into allegations against the British troops' role in Iraq, which are basically about genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, they are unlikely to hold all the culprits accountable.

The Iraq Historic Allegations Team, an organization formed by the British government in 2010 to investigate allegations of abuse and torture by British soldiers in Iraq, is reportedly reviewing more than 300 allegations of murder and over 1,300 serious sexual harassment and abuse cases. The International Criminal Court, too, is considering launching a formal investigation into Britain's alleged war crimes.

But whether the British soldiers who committed crimes in Iraq will stand trial at home or in the ICC remains unclear, because the ICC only plays a supplementary role in Britain's domestic criminal jurisdiction. In other words, the ICC can only intervene when Britain is unwilling (or doesn't have the capability) to investigate or prosecute the wrongdoers.

Holding accountable former state leaders such as George W. Bush, then US president, and Tony Blair is even trickier. Apparently, by invading the country without the consent of the UN Security Council, they violated the ban on the use of force and threat against another country, which is a core principle of the UN Charter, and committed the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC.

But both Bush and Blair are unlikely to face criminal charges. US soldiers will enjoy the same immunity, because Washington has not ratified the Rome Statute and signed immunity agreements with some countries.

It is a shame that no oneas yethas been held responsible for the Iraq war, arguably the most blatant violation of the rule of law in the post-Cold War era, although hundreds of thousands of people have fallen victims to the whims of Blair and Bush.

There is a lesson in all this for countries in the Asia-Pacific, including both China and ASEAN countries, that is, they should stay alert to US intervention in regional affairs.

As the Chilcot report shows, the US may resort to similar lies to instigate conflicts and clashes in China's neighborhood to propel its "pivot to Asia" strategy. To prevent the US from succeeding in its dirty designs, all countries in the Asia-Pacific need to make peace and stability their priority instead of picking sides over security issues.

Liu Haiyang is a research fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies of Nanjing University, and Zhao Yishui is a research fellow with the South China Sea Institute of Xiamen University.
It was a night designated for fillies Thursday evening at Mohawk Racetrack, as trotters battled in a trio of OSS Grassroots divisions and pacers waged war in the opening leg of the Whenuwishuponastar Series.

Only eight pacing fillies entered the opening round of the Whenuwishuponastar Series, and that number was reduced to seven with a scratch. The betting public was on the bandwagon of Candlelight Dinner, and the 1-9 favourite didnt disappoint. Fresh off a 1:54.1 score in her debut, the daughter of American Ideal-Time N Again cruised to a six-length triumph in Thursdays $14,000 assignment.

Jonathan Drury had her third and parked at the quarter pole, but they gained the lead in the backstretch. The filly hit the half in :58.3 before giving way to Touching Thought as the group headed toward the final turn. Candlelight Dinner was back out and moving coming out of the final turn, and little separated her and Touching Thought at the three-quarter pole in 1:27. A :27.2 closing frame helped Candlelight Dinner cruise to the facile win over Black Jack Pat and Moment To Ponder.

Casie Coleman trains the precocious pacer for Mac Nichol, Let It Ride Stables Inc and Howard Taylor. Purchased for $110,000 from last years Lexington Select Yearling Sale, the filly has banked $14,000 to date.

Inner Drive hauled home the first piece of OSS hardware thanks to a maiden-breaking triumph in her $18,000 division. The homebred daughter of Kadabra-Urge To Splurge got away second for driver Paul MacDonell before marching to the lead in the backstretch. She hit the half in 1:00 before turning over the top spot to Hab Faith as the field headed towards the final turn. Hab Faith hit the three-quarter pole in 1:29.1, but she passed in the closing strides by the rallying Inner Drive. Her :30.1 closing speed helped propel her to the 1:59.4 score over Hab Faith and Parkhill Nocredit.

The victory improved the youngsters record to 1-1-0 from three tries for the partnership of Robert McIntosh Stables Inc, C S X Stables and Dave Boyle. The Bob McIntosh-trained lass is the first foal out of a half-sister to Text Me (1:54.3 - $931,853).

Powerful Mission rallied to an easy win in the second division despite being asked to do the first-over work. Phil Hudon angled her off the rail in the backstretch and asked her to go after Whole Lot Of Sugar who supplied fractions of :29.2, 1:00 and 1:30.2. Powerful Mission dug in down the lane and used her :28.4 closing speed to win by three-lengths over race favourite Man Shes Hot in 1:59.2. Whole Lot Of Sugar settled for third prize in the $18,000 affair.

Kevin St. Charles trains the daughter of Manofmanymissions-The Power Of Magic for E C S Racing LLC of Rockford, MI. The filly has banked $9,700 to date.

Anikadabra powered to the lead from Post 7 and went coast-to-coast for driver Rick Zeron in 1:59.3. The Rob Fellows trainee carved out panels of :28.4, :59.2 and 1:29.4 before sailing home in :29.4 to win by three lengths over race favourite P C Pipe Dream. Third money was earned by the pocket-sitting Late Shift.

The daughter of Kadabra-Anikawiesahalee is a homebred owned by Edward Wilson of Seagrave, Ont. and Michael Pozefsky of Saratoga Springs, NY. The lions share of the loot lifted the rookies bankroll to $10,440.

To view results for Thursday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Thursday Results  Mohawk Racetrack.
The Hambletonian is taking on the bright lights of the big city.

Millions of New York City commuters and tourists have been exposed to harness racing thanks to a massive billboard in Times Square that advertises The 91st Hambletonian, which will take place at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Saturday, August 6.

The billboard is at 42nd Street and Broadway, across from the busiest subway station in New York City. It is estimated that approximately two million people will see the billboard leading up to Hambletonian Day.

The image was designed by Meadowlands graphic artist Kathleen Estes. The location was secured by the Meadowlands and its media buyer.

An image of the billboard appears below.

(Meadowlands Racetrack)
Following a pair of victorious qualifiers at the Meadowlands, Kenneth Jacobs's Walner made his pari-mutuel debut a winning one, vaulting clear off a second-over trip in his $38,000 New York Sire Stakes event for two-year-old trotting colts and geldings on Thursday evening at Vernon Downs.

Tim Tetrick floated forward with the son of Chapter Seven-Random Destiny from the outset, but was parked through the initial stages at Meetmeinthemiddle (Jeff Gregory) worked clear from Post 9 in a :28.4 first quarter before ultimately yielding to both Top Flight Angel (John Cummings, Jr.) and Money Macintosh (Andy Miller). Meetmeinthemiddle re-emerged to push the pace after a :59 half mile, and Walner latched onto second-over cover through the far turn. While Money Macintosh dug in to stave off Meetmeinthemiddle, Walner got the jump on them both, vaulting off dueling leaders in upper stretch and powering clear by 4-1/4 lengths to a sparkling 1:55.4 victory for trainer Linda Toscano.

Two other New York Sire Stakes divisions were part of the 12-race card at the Miracle Mile, with Stick With Me Kid ($16.00) and Such An Angel ($6.00) both proving victorious via extended first-over bids.

Stick With Me Kid made his move on the far turn, wearing down Optimist Blue Chip (Jim Morrill, Jr.) and subsequently holding off late charges from the second-over Annapolis Hall (Ray Schnittker) and odds-on favourite Devious Man (Andy Miller), who shook free from the pocket to give chase. Chris Lems drove Stick With Me Kid, a son of Deweycheatumnhowe and Chelsea Hall, to a 1:56.2 triumph for trainer George Ducharme.

Such An Angel used similar tactics in his 1:56.1 victory, but commenced his bid a fair bit earlier to overcome a mid-pack dispatch. John Campbell started to progress with the son of Credit Winner-Michelles Angel just before the completion of a :58.2 half mile, and the Paul Kelley trainee maintained steady progress all the way to a mid-stretch lead over favoured pacesetter Barn Winner (Jeff Gregory). Such an Angel dug in stoutly to hold off a late bid from Patton (Lems), who slip-streamed the eventual winner off the far turn.

Racing returns to Vernon Downs on Friday evening, with post time at 6:45 p.m.

(Vernon Downs)
The Meadows Standardbred Owners Association has announced the winners of its 2016 collegiate scholarships.

This year, a total of over $15,000 is being awarded to seven students that are sons and daughters of MSOA members.

The $6,300 Western Ideal/Hanover Shoe Farms/MSOA Scholarship will be divided between Sierra Manzi-Owens and Sara Zidek. Manzi-Owens will be a freshman this fall at Otterbein University, while Zidek will be a freshman at the College of Wooster.

The $5,000 Meadows Standardbred Owners Association Scholarship will be split between Grace Paver and Brett Schoeffel. Paver attends Temple University, while Schoeffel is a student at Butler County Community College.

This years $2,500 CSC Insurance/MSOA Scholarship will be shared by Cody Walters and Casey Hite. Walters will continue his education at Rosedale Technical School, while Hite will be a freshman at Bethany College.

The $1,000 Dr. Barry C. Betts Memorial Scholarship, presented by LCM Nutraceuticals and the MSOA, has been awarded to Hunter Adams and Kassie Adams. Hunter is a sophomore at Otterbein University while Kassie attends Waynesburg University.

The $580 Winning Key Farm/MSOA Scholarship has been awarded to Ryan Zidek. He will be a senior at Saint Vincent College this fall.

The MSOA would like to not only congratulate this years deserving winners, but we would also like to thank all of our partners in helping us have a record year in terms of the number and amount of the scholarships we have been able to award, said Rich Gillock, MSOA president. Thanks to breeding donations and the generosity of all involved, we are able to assist these fine young men and women in their pursuit of a higher education, and we are proud to continue our program again this year.

The recipients will be honoured in a winner's circle presentation at The Meadows Racetrack on Adios Day (Saturday, July 30).

(MSOA)
Trot Insider has learned that longtime horseman Brian Hodgson of Woodstock, Ont. passed away on Wednesday, July 20 at the age of 64.

A popular trainer and driver in Southwestern Ontario from the late 1970s through the 1980s, Hodgson shifted shifted his focus to mostly training around the start of the 2000s. As a driver, Hodgson won more than 1,100 races (the majority of which came prior to 1996) with horses earning more than $2 million.

Horses trained by Hodgson won 427 races and earned more than $2.1 million. His most recent standout was Open class pacing mare Pink Kangaroo, who co-held the track record for older pacing mares at Mohawk Racetrack in 2009 by virtue of her 1:49.3s lifetime best score.

Trot Insider will post a full obituary with service details and arrangements when available.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Brian Hodgson.
In conjunction with the successful Bring A Friend promotion that took place across Canada last weekend, the I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club planned a contest giving industry participants and their guests an opportunity to win some great prizes.

Each of the eight tracks that participated in the Bring A Friend promotion offered a registration table for their members and guests to register for the event. Each member and friend who registered at their tracks on-site registration table were entered into a draw for a chance to win one of two prize packages, which consist of a $100 gift card to a Canadian harness racetrack of their choice and a $50 gift card to the I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Clubs online store.

Over 300 members and their friends registered at one of the eight participating racetracks, and two of them were the lucky prize draw winners.

Barry Martin of Calgary, Alberta attended Century Downs Racetrack & Casino on Sunday, July 17 with his friend Kevin Clyde for the Bring A Friend promotion. Both Barry and Kevin registered for the event at the on-track registration table where they received a free t-shirt! Martin said that the races that afternoon were great!

I always enjoy my time at the track; its so nice to have a track back in Calgary because there wasnt one to go to for so long.

Elaine Newman of Hanover, Ontario joined her friend Susie Donaldson at Hanover Raceway for her first time this past Saturday (July 16) for the Bring A Friend promotion. Elaine recently moved to Hanover and explained that it was her first time attending the Hanover circuit.

I had a wonderful time, it was fabulous to be there and the races were great.

Although it was Elaines first time at the raceway, harness racing isnt anything new to her. I had a Standardbred at one point, he was really special, these horses have awesome personalities -- I absolutely loved mine!

The I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club would like to thank all industry members and fans who brought a friend to the track to be an ambassador and promote our sport!

DONT FORGET TO SUBMIT PHOTOS FOR JULY ZOOM: FRIENDS AT THE RACES

Did you bring your friends out to the races for the annual Bring A Friend event? Did you get some awesome shots of your friends learning the ropes of harness racing? Then dont forget to submit your photos, because the Fan Club wants to see how much fun you and your friends had!

The I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club chose Friends at the Races as Julys Zoom Challenge theme to celebrate the Bring A Friend promotion that took place this past weekend.

We asked for photos of you and your friends trackside during the Bring A Friend promotion. Show us the shots you got of you and your friends hanging out in the grandstand, cheering on a horse to victory or taking part in any of the fun activities that your track had to offer. We are looking for a shot of anything that captured your Bring A Friend experience.

Please e-mail all entries to [email protected].

Two photo submissions permitted per entrant. The deadline to enter is July 25.

A committee will select a handful of the best entries, which will be included in a poll on SCs website. Readers will then have the chance to vote for the photo they like the best.

Not a fan club member? Click HERE to join!
The cost to fish for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River would more than double under Washingtons draft license fee increases for 2017-19.

Most of the increase would come through charging $17 for both separate salmon and steelhead catch-record cards, which currently are issued free with purchase of a fishing license.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife initiated its Washingtons Wild Future program in 2015, which included a series of public meetings around the state to determine the priorities for the agency over the next several years.

The process also involved meetings with advisory committees, legislators and review of thousands of emails, social media posts and online comments.

Identified are a variety of priorities for the department to improve fishing, hunting and protection of the resource, plus a draft proposal to help pay for it through hunting and fishing license fee increases.

A public meeting to discuss Washingtons Wild Future initiative will begin at 6 p.m. Aug. 8 at the Water Resources Education Center, 4600 S.E. Columbia Way, Vancouver.

The fee increases would be the first since 2010 and structured so the participants in high-cost programs  such as salmon and steelhead management  pay more.

A key goal of the proposal is to set fees that more accurately reflect fisheries management costs, including the relatively high cost of managing salmon, steelhead and other fisheries in waters where some fish are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, said Jim Unsworth, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Overall, the fishing fee increases would generate about $12 million per year.

Under proposals for 2017-19, an annual freshwater fishing license would increase from $29.50 to $34.12 and the Columbia River endorsement would increase from $8.75 to $9.75.

However, the now-free catch record cards would be $17 for salmon, $17 for steelhead, $11.50 for sturgeon and $11.50 for halibut.

What it means for a typical Columbia River angler is todays cost to fish of $38.25 ($29.50 for a freshwater license and $8.75 for a Columbia River endorsement) would double to $77.87 ($34.12 freshwater license, $9.75 Columbia River endorsement, $17 for salmon catch card and $17 for a steelhead catch card).

CCA has not yet taken a position on the increase, but our membership is understandably concerned, said Nello Picinich, executive director for the Coastal Conservation Association in Washington.

He said commercial fishermen need to contribute equally to the Department of Fish and Wildlifes costs and that the bistate reforms eliminating gillnetting in the mainstem Columbia River need to be implemented fully in 2017.

Proposed commercial fishing license fee increases will be added to the package, likely this week, said Bruce Botka, a department spokesman.

Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, said her group appreciates the active outreach by the department under Unsworth to ask what sportsmen want.

Wed all love a Mercedes (lots of improvements), but its a question of how we get to the right place, Hamilton said. A doubling of the fees is really out of the question. Theres a fair number of dedicated users whod pay double, but we cant price families out of fishing. Weve got to listen and figure out whats affordable.

An annual razor clam license would increase from $17.10 to $24.

A three-day razor clam license is proposed to jump from $9.70 to $18.50, a two-pole endorsement from $14.80 to $16.50 and a one-day fishing license from $11.35 to $19.82.

Senior citizens would qualify for a discounted license at age 65, instead of the current age 70.

Hunting licenses are proposed for a 10 percent increase in 2017-2019.

A big-game license, which includes deer, elk, bear and cougar, would increase from $95.50 to $104.85.

Another hunting fee change would include a hunt-by-reservation fee, a modest charge to offset the cost of managing the Hunt by Reservation program, which enables hunters to reserve a space on selected private land.

The migratory bird permit fee is proposed to increase from $17 to $28. This money is used to buy and develop bird habitat.

An administrative penalty would be applied for each species to encourage harvest reporting. Currently, a hunter failing to report across all tag types is assessed a single penalty.

Hunters and fishermen are not the only ones who will be asked to pay more to conserve fish and wildlife.

Washington has funded programs for non-hunted wildlife through the sale of personalized license plates, plus a specialty plate featuring the image of an orca.

But revenue from these sources is expected to fall short of current levels in the 2017-19 budget period by $1.2 million.

The agency will seek $1.2 million from the states general fund for 2017-19.

Obtaining general fund budget increases will be difficult for all agencies next year, Botka said. But WDFW delivers programs and services that benefit the entire state, so there is a strong rationale for using general tax dollars.

Law enforcement and habitat conservation activities that support clean water and a wide range of ecological benefits are enjoyed by all residents, not just sportsmen.

Some of our responsibilities are not connected to hunting and fishing opportunities, he said. So it would not be appropriate to ask hunters and anglers to shoulder the whole funding burden.

Botka emphasized the proposals are in draft form. There will be public workshops in early August to get feedback.

State agencies have a deadline of Sept. 9 to submit their proposals to the governor and the Office of Financial Management.
BEND, Ore.  A queen-sized bed. Wi-Fi. A home-cooked breakfast.

These amenities arent usually found at the average campground, where campers are often responsible for bringing their own toilet paper and are lucky to access a shower.

But in the midst of peak summer tourist season, property owners are pitching luxury tents, teepees and campers on private property and offering them to Bends tourists. The rentals cost anywhere from $15 to well above $100, with some that boast comforts such as heated massage beds, tribal rugs and feather pillows.

In Oregon and throughout the rest of the country, glamping, or glamorous camping, is a growing trend, with luxury tent rentals and resort campgrounds popping up in several states. From a $2,476-a-night tent with an adjacent teepee in Utahs desert to a safari-style tent for $1,155 a night on a Montana cattle ranch, people are paying hundreds of dollars to camp without the discomforts of setting up a tent or starting a fire.

But theres only one problem  its not legal to live in tents, teepees, yurts or mobile homes in the city of Bend, let alone rent them out as vacation rentals, according to city planners. Deschutes County generally doesnt allow it either, with the exception of RV parks, permitted campgrounds and for those experiencing medical hardships.

It just doesnt meet our code in any way, shape or form, said Rachel Ruppel, an associate planner in Bends Community Development Department.

Even if zoning laws allowed people to live in tents or trailers in Bend, property owners would still be required to get an operating license from the city to open a vacation rental, she said.

One of the things of being in a tourism-dependent economy is that people are often trying to make ends meet, Ruppel said. So theyre like, Oh, this could be a really low-cost way for me to get into the long-term or short-term rental market.

An Airbnb spokeswoman said the company asks all its hosts to comply with local laws when they sign up for Airbnb. Right after property owners select the location of their listing, theyre provided with links to webpages on complying with local laws and how to be a responsible host.

Its also in HomeAways terms and conditions that people follow local laws when listing properties as vacation rentals, said Adam Annen, a spokesman for company. But because HomeAway.com works like an advertising agency, it doesnt keep track of clients booking records and whether each one is complying with local laws, he said.

Still, several Deschutes County property owners are offering up their land, tents and trailers for rent to visitors, with more than a dozen listings on websites like Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO. With names like CAMPTIQUE, boutique camping, Tipi to the Sun and The Chief Deschutes, the listings say visitors can expect an experience more similar to staying in a hotel than roughing it in the wilderness.

About an hour drive north of Bend, visitors can pay between $450 and $750 a night at Panacea at the Canyon, a luxury tent resort in Terrebonne. The resort was opened to serve as a sanctuary for those looking to unplug from cellphones and computers and reconnect with nature, said owner Darren Kling, who started planning the resort with his wife nine years ago.
Editors This is the final part of our two-part series profiling the four candidates running to replace Commissioner Ned Piper on the Cowlitz PUD board. Profiles of candidates Lonnie Knowles and Dan Clark appeared Thursday and can be found on TDN.com.

Mike L. Kayser

Mike Kayser considers himself a political junkie. The Castle Rock chicken farmer has run unsuccessfully for many offices, including the Port of Longview in 2007, Cowlitz County commissioner in 2014 and the Legislature in 2002 and 2003. He says hes grateful for the experience. Hes currently a fire district commissioner and a five-term precinct committee officer for the Democratic Party.

Politics are in my blood, Kayser said.

Throughout the years, people nudged him seek a spot on the Cowlitz PUD board.

Ive been asked to do this for 12 years, and I kept saying no, he said. He declined because did not want to run against Commissioner Ned Piper, whom he considers a friend.

Yet a few years ago he started attending PUD meetings to complain about rising rates. Since then, he represented small businesses on the utilitys citizens panel that oversees electricity rates.

Kayser himself is sensitive to the effects of high energy costs for businesses. He was sued by his credit card company for running up $22,000 in debt and interest after he missed payments between 2003 and 2007, according to court records. Kayser said he had used the card to pay for propane used by his business. The debt was paid off by 2009.

If elected, Kayser said his big priority is to improve the integrity and transparency of the board. To that end, he wants to be open and honest by explaining his votes to constituents rather than offering just a cookie-cutter answer.

Controlling costs is another key issue for Kayser. But he stopped short of promising to lower rates.

If you want me to say that, find somebody else because Im lying to you if I say that, he said.

The PUD buys about 90 percent its power the Bonneville Power Administration. When the federal agency increases its rates, the PUD has to pass those costs to its customers. The Bonneville contract doesnt expire for another 16 years.

Kayser said examining other costs and paying attention to the details when making policy can help.

Kayser said he wanted to take a closer look at why the utilitys two Central Washington wind farms are costing the utility about $1 million a month.

Theyre planting wind mills still in Iowa and Texas as fast they can put them in the ground. Why are our wind mills such a loser?  Theres a disconnect there somewhere.

At the same time, he did not call for the utility to sell the wind farms because the utility has to meet increasing renewable energy requirements under Initiative 937.

While making those decisions, Kayser said his experience on the fire district has trained him to think of the PUDs customers first.

My duty is to the (people) of the district  not the employees and not the volunteers. Its the ratepayers, he said.

Dave F. Quinn

Rates, Bonneville, transmission lines  none of them is new for Dave Quinn, a engineer with 40 years of experience in the utility industry.

After 30 years at Cowlitz PUD, Quinn retired in 2006 and went on to work for other utilities and establish his own consulting business.

He argues his background lends him an edge over the other candidates, who arent as familiar with the ins and outs of the utility. One of his competitors, candidate Lonnie Knowles, has suggested Quinns background would predispose him to old ways of thinking, but Quinn doesnt see it that way.

The experience in the industry tells you what not to do again, and thats an important thing to have, he said. He also pointed out that the existing board members, Kurt Anagostou and Dena Diamond-Ott, are still relatively new.

If elected, his top priority is enhancing community relations. As an operations manager at the PUD, Quinn said he tried to meet with customers in person. He wants to bring that personal touch again as commissioner.

Re-establishing community support is paramount to Quinns other goals to play a more active role in negotiating a better contract with Bonneville Power Administration.

We cant engender the kind of support we need with the associations at state and federal level unless we have strong community backing, Quinn said.

The utility also will need to work to strengthen the PUDs esteem in the industry.

I think Cowlitz has lost some of that. At one point Cowlitz had a very dominant leadership role in the industries and could help shape the directions and policy, he said.

He wants to lobby the Legislature to revise rules surrounding renewable energy, including re-categorizing hydropower as a renewable resource and postponing deadlines under I-937.

Divesting from the wind farms probably wouldnt be realistic, he said, because the utility would lose money and it needs to comply I-937. To meet the states renewable energy goals, Quinn suggested the utility diversify into other resources such as solar energy and other renewables.

While working on a better deal with Bonneville is a long-term goal, Quinn said that changing regulations and cutting costs will be the best approaches to managing rate hikes.
The girlfriend of Brent Luyster, the man suspected in a triple homicide in Woodland, was present at the time of the fatal shooting and drove Luyster away from the scene, according to court records.

Andrea Sibley, 27, of Woodland appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree rendering criminal assistance stemming from the July 15 shooting and subsequent daylong manhunt for Luyster.

Luyster, a former Vancouver resident with numerous white supremacist tattoos including the word skinhead, is accused of fatally shooting three people and wounding another at a rural home southeast of Woodland. He was apprehended Saturday afternoon on Ocean Beach Highway, west of Longview.

Luyster is facing three counts of first-degree murder. He is being held in the Clark County Jail without possibility of bail.

On Friday, Judge Derek Vanderwood set Sibleys bail at $400,000. She will be arraigned Aug. 1, on the same court docket as Luyster.

Shooting reported

Clark County sheriffs deputies were dispatched about 10:30 p.m. July 15 after a woman with a gunshot wound to the left side of her face came to a convenience store in Woodland and asked employees to call for help. The woman, identified in court records as Breanne L.A. Leigh, 31, told authorities that she and three others had been shot at a residence at 4006 N.W. 417th St.

A SWAT unit responded to the house and found the bodies of Joseph Mark Lamar, 38, and Zachary David Thompson, 36, lying in the gravel driveway. Both men had been shot in the head. A woman, identified as Janell Renee Knight, 43, was found on the living room couch. She also died from an apparent gunshot wound to the head, according to a probable cause affidavit. Officers said they found shell casings, likely from a .45 caliber, next to the bodies.

Leigh was taken to a hospital where a bullet was recovered from her head, court records show. She was unable to initially speak with deputies but communicated by writing on paper, the affidavit states.

Leigh wrote that she and her boyfriend, Thompson, picked up Luyster from a house in Vancouver and drove him to the house in Woodland, where Lamar and Knight lived. Sibley was also at the Vancouver house but stayed behind, court records said.

Two to three hours later, Sibley arrived at the Woodland house, Leigh told deputies, but she stayed outside in a gold-colored Ford SUV, according to court documents. Luyster, Thompson and Lamar were all outside on the porch. Leigh said she went inside with Knight.

She said she heard two shots and walked toward the front door to investigate. Luyster came into the house, held up a handgun and shot her in the face, without warning. Leigh passed out, and when she came to, she found Knight dead on the living room couch. Luyster and Sibley were gone, according to the affidavit.

Leigh army-crawled away from the house, she said, and flagged down a motorist who gave her a ride to Woodland, the affidavit states.

She told deputies that Thompson had posted Luysters bail in a pending Cowlitz County case from May. She added that Luyster is also in trouble with the feds, court records said.

An FBI agent confirmed Luyster is facing charges in federal court for unlawful possession of a firearm based on the Cowlitz County case, according to court documents. Luyster is accused of pistol-whipping his former girlfriend and faces charges of assault, harassment and illegal firearm possession. His trial in that case is set for October.

According to court records, Luysters former girlfriend told Washougal police June 22 that Luyster had directed relatives and other people to find her and their 5-year-old son. The woman said she believes Luyster is going to hurt or kill her and take their son.

Manhunt

On Saturday afternoon, Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies located Sibleys 1998 Ford Explorer at a gated pull-off on Abernathy Creek Road, off the Ocean Beach Highway, new court records show.

Deputies yelled out to any occupants in the vehicle, and Luyster responded from outside the vehicle that he was unarmed and surrendering. He emerged from a brushy area with his hands up. Sibley was also there, according to a probable cause affidavit. The two appeared to be camping in the area.

Luyster requested a lawyer and was taken to the Clark County Jail.

In an interview, Sibley told detectives that she and Luyster have been dating on and off for eight years. During that time, Luyster fathered a child with another woman, who is now his former girlfriend. Sibley said Luyster is involved in a criminal case with that woman, the affidavit states.

Sibley told detectives that she didnt know what happened the night of the shooting. She said Luyster decided he wanted to go camping and told her, lets go and to get in the car. They had gone fishing earlier in the day, she said, and Luyster had been drinking all day, court records said.

Sibley said she didnt know where she went that evening but was pretty certain bad things happened, according to court documents.

Detectives seized Sibleys clothing and purse. They reportedly found red stains that appeared to be blood on both of her shoes. Detectives also found a red stain, thought to be blood, on the inside drivers door handle of Sibleys vehicle. The drivers door window was broken out and that glass appeared to match fragments found in the gravel driveway at the Woodland house, the affidavit states.

Detectives later searched Sibleys storage unit and found firearms paraphernalia to manufacture an AR-15, items without serial numbers, receipts and packing materials for two firearms that Sibley purchased earlier this year from a store in Oregon  a .380 caliber semi-automatic handgun and .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun. One of the handguns was transferred to Clark County in March, court records show.
Rainier School District Superintendent Michael Carter will not face driving under the influence of intoxicants charges, according to the Clatsop County District Attorneys office.

Carter was pulled over early in the morning on June 24 on U.S. Highway 101 and Seventh Street in Seaside after an officer observed him driving several blocks without the vehicles headlights on.

The officers assessment at roadside was that he thought [Carter] was impaired, Clatsop County Deputy District Attorney David Goldthorpe said.

Carter admitted to the officer that he had been drinking earlier that evening. However, when tested his blood-alcohol level was .01 percent, well below Oregons standard of intoxication of .08 percent.

Though Carter was cited, he was not held in jail, according to Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe said there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges,and the case will be dropped.
tech2 News Staff

The Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup (TEGC) returns to India with a schedule spanning almost 6 weeks and as many cities. The prizes total Rs 5 lakhs and the cities include Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

The TEGC is a gaming tournament executed by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (Taitra) and is meant to celebrate the excellence of Taiwans manufacturing industry. Taitra has organised the gaming tournament every year since 2013. This years event will be the largest yet, they claim, owing to popular demand.

Whatever the motivation, this is a gaming tournament and one that revolves around one of the most popular games in the world, Dota 2. The event schedule is as follows:

Elimination Rounds

Delhi: 29  31 July, 2016

Hyderabad: 5  7 August, 2016

Mumbai: 12  14 August, 2016

Bangalore: 19  21 August, 2016

Chennai: 26  28 August, 2016

Kolkata: 2  4 September, 2016

Grand Finale

Mumbai: 16  17 September, 2016

The competition will follow the usual esports rules pertaining to Dota 2 and will involve teams of 5 facing off against each other in Captains Mode. 12 teams will qualify for the finale. The winning team will take home Rs 2 lakh, the team in second place will take Rs 80,000 and the third and fourth place holders will take home Rs 40,000 each. The prizes then taper off till finally, the last set of teams go back with Rs 12,500 each.

The entire event will be streamed live on Twitch.

Taitra will use the event to showcase Taiwanese products, this includes brands like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc.

To register for the event, teams will have to register on http://www.tegamingcup.com
hidden

Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, has become China's richest man with a fortune estimated at $25 billion, underscoring the ascension of tech tycoons over real estate peers in the world's second biggest economy.

Ma knocked Wang Jianlin, head of the Wanda property group, into second place with $24.2 billion, according to this year's list of China's super-rich published by Hurun Reports Inc.

Tech billionaires accounted for half of the top 10 names and included Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) founder Pony Ma in fifth place with a $18.1 billion fortune and Baidu (BIDU.O) CEO Robin Li in sixth position with $17.5 billion.

Making the top 10 for the first time were cellphone company Xiaomi Inc [XTC.UL] co-founder Lei Jun and e-commerce entrepreneur Liu Qiangdong who led JD.com (JD.O) to a New York listing this year - in ninth and tenth position respectively.

While six real estate developers occupied the top 10 places in 2013, just two made the cut this year, a reflection of a Chinese housing market that has stalled for several quarters.

Although the vast majority of the roughly 1,100 people tracked by Hurun saw their wealth grow, it's tense times for the Chinese elite as President Xi Jinping's administration continues its far-reaching corruption crackdown in both the public and private sectors.

According to Hurun, five members of its rich list are under investigation, two have been imprisoned, two are awaiting sentencing, one has been sentenced to death, while one - the flamboyant Sichuan businessman Li Yan - has disappeared altogether.

Hurun said it counted a record 354 U.S. dollar billionaires in mainland China, up 13 percent from last year and which compares with just 65 billionaires in 2012.

"The entrepreneurial spirit that has caught China seems not to be abating, with eight self-made individuals born in the eighties making the list," said British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher.

Hurun said its rankings were accurate as of mid-August. It was not immediately clear what valuation it used for Alibaba. A record-setting IPO this month catapulted Alibaba's valuation to well over $200 billion. Ma owns 7.8 percent of Alibaba and also made gains of some $850 million by selling shares in the offering.

Despite the size of Alibaba's IPO, only one other Alibaba shareholder, Simon Xie, made Hurun's list, coming in at No. 177. Xie is an Alibaba vice president and co-founder who holds significant shares in the company alongside Ma.

Reuters
tech2 News Staff

There is no doubt that technology has become a crucial aspect for human beings. We are surrounded by it all the time, when we are at work, travelling and when we go to sleep. This also means that technology has a lot of wealth behind it, like a LOT. Tech companies around the world are probably one of the richest firms and here are the top ten richest people in tech.

1. Bill Gates (60 years)

No brainer as to who is on the top of the list, yup it's Mr. Microsoft himself. He is not only the richest man in tech, but is also the richest man on the planet with a net worth of close to $90 billion. Bill Gates started earning money at an early age and became a billionaire just at the age of 30 when Microsoft went public. After running the company for many years he stepped down as CEO in 2000. While he retains a position on the company's board, he is more focused on philanthropic work.

2. Jeff Bezos (52 years)

According to Bloomberg, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos' total net worth hit $65.05 billion on just a day back which also makes him the second wealthiest person in the world. Apart from having one of the biggest online markets in the world, Bezos also owns the Washington Post newspaper and the space rocket company Blue Origin.

3. Mark Zuckerberg (31 years)

Owner of the worlds biggest social network, all of Mark Zuckerbergs $46.7 billion comes from Facebook. The Harvard University dropout has been one of the most influential people on the internet and has pledged along with his wife to give away 99 percent of their wealth in their lifetime, and regularly contribute money or Facebook shares to causes and communities.

4. Larry Ellison (71 years)

Co-founder of Oracle Corp, which largely deals in Database software for businesses and government and workplace efficiency software, Ellison was one of the most highly paid CEOs in the world at one point of time. He currently has a net worth of $46.1 billion, owns a Hawaiian island (Lanai) and has been married and divorced four times.

5. Larry Page (42 years)

Co-founder of Google and the current CEO of Alphabet (Google's new parent company), Page had a major role in creating the algorithm of Google's search engine. He became a billionaire at the age of 30 and now has a net worth of $37.8 billion. In 2001 he stepped down as CEO of Google in favour of Eric Schmidt and later re-assumed the role in April 2011.

6. Sergey Brin (42 years)

Closely behind Page is Sergey Brin who co-founded Google in 1998. Today many of Googles products are built on the foundation that Brin and Page created back in the late '90s. Brin has a net worth of $ 36.2 billion and is currently is a part of Alphabet focusing on new ideas including Project Loon to provide Wi-Fi to rural communities through high-altitude balloons.

7. Jack Ma (51 years)

Founder of Chinas biggest online store Alibaba, Jack Ma is also called as Jeff Bezos of China. Alibaba has become China's equivalent of Amazon's online store and the company went public in 2014 with the world's largest ever stock offering of $25 billion. The founder currently has a net worth of $26.3 billion.

8. Steve Ballmer (59 years)

Steve Ballmer dropped out of business school at Stanford in 1980 to join Microsoft owned by his friend Bill Gates. He became the companys first business manager, earning a $50,000 salary and a stake in the company. He later went on to become CEO during his time at Microsoft. Ballmer is now only the second person to ever become a billionaire from employee stock options. His net worth is now close to $26 billion.

9. Michael Dell (51 years)

The name just gives it away. Michael was a pre-med student at the University of Texas in 1984, when he founded a company called PC Ltd. which later became Dell. He dropped out of college to build computers full-time to make one of the worlds biggest PC brand. At the age of 23 his company went public and raised $30 million out of which $18 million of it went to him personally. Currently he has a net worth of $18.9 billion.

10. Pony Ma (44 years)

No he is not related to Jack Ma in any way but he is wealthy. Ma Huateng (Pony Ma) started a company called Tencent with his college friends. The company's first major product was a messaging service in China named QQ which became a standard in early online messaging services. Ever since the company has started investing in a variety of different businesses including music distribution and video game studios like Riot Games. His net worth today at the age of 44 is $18.2 billion.
Aditya Madanapalle

US authorities seized the domains of one of KickassTorrents and shut it down. Artem Vaulin from Ukraine is the alleged owner, and he was arrested in Poland based on a complaint filed in Chicago. The charge was criminal copyright infringement. TorrentFreak reports that the incriminating evidence for the arrest was produced with the help of Apple, who provided the IP address information that Artem Vaulin used to make a legal iTunes purchase. He then used the same IP address to login to the Facebook page of KickassTorrents. This has led to speculation that maybe even Facebook supported the law enforcement officials.

But wait, wasn't Apple championing the protection of the data of its users, that too with Facebook's support? The encryption battle was a heated episode where Apple went toe to toe with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a mass shooting perpetrator in San Bernardino. Apple refused to create the tools necessary to unlock the terrorist's iPhone. Tim Cook wrote an open letter explaining the stance of the company. The Government dropped it's efforts at persuading Apple, after they managed to unlock the phone without Apple's help.

Has Apple revealed it's two-faced nature here? Does Apple have some kind of ulterior motive when it supports the US law enforcement authorities when it comes to the private data of pirates, but refuses to budge when it comes to the private data of terrorists? Apple's law enforcement guidelines for government information requests offers some clues, on what information is available to it, and what information it makes available to law enforcement authorities on request. Well, it depends on the operating system version, and the kind of data that the authorities want access to. If the data is encrypted using a key that Apple does not possess, Apple has made it clear that it will not take any measures to extract that data.

"For all devices running iOS 8.0 and later versions, Apple will not perform iOS data extractions as data extraction tools are no longer effective. The files to be extracted are protected by an encryption key that is tied to the users passcode, which Apple does not possess."

The data collected from Apple accounts, device registrations, and iTunes transactions, are however treated differently. Apple has clearly mentioned that it can, and does give access to enforcement authorities on request. In fact, it even mentions what kind of request is necessary to access this kind of information.

"A search warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause is required for Apple to provide the specific content purchased or downloaded."

The difference is between cracking encrypted data stored on a user's phone, for which Apple has no decryption key, and making available store transaction information, data which Apple has. In the San Bernardino case, Apple had provided law enforcement officials the data it had in it's possession. Tech giants in silicon valley supported Apple in the way it handled the requests of the law enforcement officials. The owner of a major torrenting site should have known this. It is just so ironic that the alleged owner of a Torrent site was busted after legally downloading a song from a legitimate digital delivery service. This was an amateur mistake. Read the fine print. Limit your exposure. Sandbox your illegal pursuits. Hide behind seven proxies and Norton. Because if you are engaged in criminal activities, Apple and Facebook will co operate with law enforcement officials around the world.
tech2 News Staff

Samsung's plans of making a standalone headset that doesn't require connections to smartphone or PC are known to all. Now leaked trademark filings in Korea (via SamMobile) reveal that the upcoming device will be named Odyssey.

The company filed for the registration of the device name as well as two logos showing VR written in stylised letters. The description reads 'virtual reality game headsets' and 'virtual reality game software'. Besides these details, not much is known about the headset or how it compares to the current Gear VR, Oculus, Vive and others. But, it is known that the next-gen Gear VR is in the pipeline.

A lot has already been said and written about how 2016 is the year of virtual reality. Strategy Analytics revealed that global virtual reality revenues are expected to reach $895 million this year. The report adds that out of the overall revenue, 77 percent will come from Oculus, HTC and Sony. However, the trio will account to only 13 percent of the volumes, says the report. It is the low-priced smartphone based VR systems that will dominate the space. Apart from leading tech giants, companies known for superior features at affordable prices, are also looking to churn out VR headsets. Xiaomi is reportedly working on a VR headset that is reportedly slated to launch sometime in August.
Nimish Sawant

It hasn't been long since smartwatch as a category entered the technology world. But in under 5 years, the category has already started showing signs of decline. According to IDC, smartwatch shipments have fallen from 5.1 million units shipped in Q2 2015 to 3.5 million units shipped in Q2 2016. This equates to a 32 percent drop in shipments.

As seen from the chart above, Apple has seen the largest decline as compared to its competition. Falling almost 25 percent in terms of units shipped year on year. However, Apple still leads the category, even with shipments being halved to 1.6 million. One of the reasons for the drop could be the fact that Apple Watch is almost a year old now. It is also the most expensive watches in the list depending on the category you select. Another reason is that watchOS 3.0 is expected to start rolling out later this year, and it is a major upgrade in terms of user experience and features added.

Samsung has entered in the double digits with a 16 percent market share and a 9 percent jump in year on year shipments. With a 200,000 unit jump in its shipments, Samsung has seen the highest growth in this quarter. A lot of credit for which has to go to the Gear S2, which is easily Samsung's best smartwatch to date. According to IDC, a large credit also goes to American telecom companies which have been pushing Samsung's smartwatches as an alternative to the Apple Watch. Also the fact that Samsung Gear S2 can work independent of the smartphone, has attracted a lot of potential buyers to it.

Lenovo has seen a minor bump in its shipment numbers, thanks to Motorola's refresh of the Moto 360. Motorola also introduced the Moto 360 Sport, which is targetted at fitness enthusiasts. According to IDC, Moto 360 Sport has been met with mixed results as the device still lacks some of benefits that can be had with fitness-first smartwatches from the likes of Fitbit, Garmin, TomTom and so on.

LG Electronics and Garmin have almost doubled their market share in the last one year, but in terms of numbers they are still 300,00 and 100,000 odd units.

iCharts For a category as young as the smartwatches, a decline so early on is not really a good sign. One message it sends across clearly is that people are not as kicked about the smartwatch segment as they were of say mobile phones. A lot of smartwatches need to be tethered to some smartphone or the other, which really does put a question mark on a compelling use case for smartwatches. Sure, we know that a smartwatch is supposed to be a companion to your smartphone and bypass the need to use the smartphone as often. Clearly seems like people are on the fence about taking the plunge with just this incentive on offer.

According to Jitesh Ubrani, senior researcher analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers, "Apple still maintains a significant lead in the market and unfortunately a decline for Apple leads to a decline in the entire market. Every vendor faces similar challenges related to fashion and functionality, and though we expect improvements next year, growth in the remainder of 2016 will likely be muted."

Absence of traditional watch makers is also being quoted as one of the major reasons why smartwatch sales have seen a decline. Watch makers such as Casio, Fossil and Tag Heuer have been releasing smartwatches but their sales haven't been enough to ensure that any of them featured in the top 5. According to IDC, one of the main criteria that the traditional watch makers bring to the table, which is still a matter of debate when it comes to smartphone players, is design, fit and functionality. "Combine these with the brand recognition and distribution these brands already have, and it's reasonable to expect the smartwatch market to grow from here," said Ramon T Llamas, research manager for IDC's Wearables team.

Irrespective of the decline in smartwatch sales, it is too early to write off the segment. With product refreshes, the category should ideally see a jump again, but according to IDC that jump shouldn't be expected anytime this year. Vendors need to be able to find a compelling use case for smartwatches, and of course better designs, hints the IDC report.
hidden

By Muqbil Ahmar

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar recently said that defence procurement from SMEs will register growth of 6 percent this year over the previous year. Last year, procurement reached 9 percent, and in the current year, it will reach 15 percent. As the volumes increase from Rs 40,000 crore in 2014, to Rs 52,000 crore in the current year, there is more scope for SMEs. It was unheard before, he said. In addition, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) also aims at 7 percent indigenisation by the year 2027.

There is a context to the statement. India is the worlds largest defence importer and has steadily held this position for the previous 5 years. It is also the sixth biggest defence spender internationally and the second largest spender in Asia. There has also been consistent criticism of Indias defence offsets policy and the lack of participation of the local industry in the defence sector. For the realisation of key government initiatives such as Make in India, there is need for a robust offsets policyone that would aid the flourishing of the local defence enterprises.

Indias defence offsets policy

In order to leverage Indias huge defence import and bolster the local arms industry, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has in place an offsets policy, which lays down the ground rules for the implementation of offset agreementsarrangements in which the seller of a defence product or service agrees to buy products or services from its client as an inducement. These agreements are legal trade practices in the aerospace and military industries. The offsets policy was made part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) in 2005 for the first time and has seen several changes since then. It permits foreign vendors to realise their offset obligations through a blend of two key provisions: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian companies and purchase of certain products/services from qualified Indian enterprises.

Criticism of Indias defence offsets policy

The offsets policy has often been the target of criticism, with experts saying that it has been inadequate in compensating for Indias huge purchasing power and also that its implementation has been woefully insufficient. They also claim that it has not led to any substantial growth of indigenous industries. The criticism is not without reason.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the body entrusted with auditing the implementation of the offsets arrangements and which has audited several offset contracts, has been unforgiving in its assessment of the policy and its implementation. In a report submitted to Parliament in November 2012, it pinpointed a number of weaknesses in the policy, including zero value addition, equipment transfer, invalid selection of the Indian Offset Partner (IOP), and a weak monitoring mechanism.

Moreover, the Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) 2016 has elevated the offset threshold limit to Rs. 2,000 crore (around US$ 305 million) from Rs. 300 crore. No reasons have been given for the hike. Industry experts believe that it may have stemmed from the ministrys difficulty in executing the existing offset contracts. Whatever might be the case, the hike is flawed on two main accounts: (a) it goes against global practices followed by other countries and (b) it is self-defeating for initiatives such as Make in India. According to global practices, offset threshold is as low as USD 515 million in several countries such as Australia, Brazil, and Israel. Furthermore, states usually tend to lower the threshold overtime as they gain in experience.

The increase in the threshold limit means that a smaller number of arms import contracts would now be qualified for offsets. This translates into a setback for indigenous enterprises, specifically local manufacturers of components that have been exploiting the existing policy for boosting their own exports. In the process, enterprises have been able to set up their own capabilities and bolster initiatives such as Make in India. Although, the DPP has a clear emphasis on Make in India and self-reliance, with the introduction of a new category of procurement and increased localisation in the existing categories, the hike in the offsets threshold limit negates the thrust on indigenisation.

The biggest weakness of the policy is the freedom given to foreign companies to choose offsets they want to deliver. Obviously, they have so far chosen offsets, which do not add to the capability enhancement of the local industry. The policy should clearly focus on technology acquisition and high quality and sustainable manufacturing work for the industry, which would go a long way in strengthening the indigenous capability", said Laxman Kumar Behera, author of the book Indian Defence Industry: An Agenda for Making in India and a research fellow at the MoD-funded think-tank Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).

India can learn from Japan and Brazil

The Japanese vision has been fairly simple: there cant be real security unless the nation is self-sufficient with respect to technology and arms production. This has been coupled with the belief that the absorption of defence technology and the creation of indigenous arms production capacity will have significant spill-over effects on the growth of civilian commercial technologies, eventually making Japan an industrial and technological superpower.

During the post-World War II period, Japan used its relationship with the USA to develop its local defence sector. Its industrial policy too has been based on technology transfer from the Westfirst emulating the techniques and eventually overtaking them. This principle has been key to Japans quick, resilient and diversified industrialisation. In fact, a major source of the technology inflows into Japan came from defence offsets.

According to defence expert Anuradha Mitra, more than 90 percent of Japans requirements for military products are now met within the country. There have been a number of important developments in the aerospace sector. For the F1 fighter there was a Japanese fire control design; for the T4 intermediate jet trainer the fuselage and engine were developed in Japan; 80 per cent of the materials and systems for the P3-C Orion are sourced from within the country; the FS-X advanced fighter bomber has been built indigenously with Mitsubishi as the prime contractor in collaboration with General Dynamics (later Lockheed Martin).

Similarly, Brazil always viewed the growth of arms industry as a significant long-term goal. The Brazilian government has been able to leverage its defence buys to get state-of-the-art military technology from outside through licensed production and joint ventures.

Technology transfer has always been a key requisite in all Brazilian arms procurements. The state has also been willing to invest a good deal of resources in the indigenous projects. Embraer Corporation, the Brazilian aeronautics major proved to be leader in the absorption and indigenisation of technologies. In the early 1970s, Embraer had a technology transfer agreement with Piper of the USA for manufacture of the Piper Seneca light aero-planes. In 1975, when 49 F-5 aircraft were purchased by Brazil from Northrop of the US, Embraer was involved in the manufacture of several fuselage components, explains Mitra.

Indias defence industry is largely public sector

The Indian defence sector is largely dominated by public sector units (PSUs) and ordnance factories, which together make up approximately 90 percent of the indigenous defence manufacturing output.

There is an urgent need for a vibrant SME sector in the defence sector. According to a survey conducted by Deskera, an IT firm working in the SME sector, 65 percent SMEs want a greater role in the defence sector. Greater indigenisation will not only make India self-reliant in the defence sector, it will also help in creating huge employment opportunities for young engineers, operators and the labour force in general.

Although 100 percent localisation could be the ideal aim in a strategic industry such as defence, it is not achievable because of globalisation of the supply chains and issues related to economies of scale. Right now, even 15 percent indigenous content promised for this year looks like a long shot.

The author is Senior Editor, Deskera (Run Your Business).
Pranjal Kshirsagar

ToneTag founder Kumar Abhishek was working on core banking implementations in Singapore, when a friend asked him Why is it in India we get candies instead of balance cash? The question sparked the desire in him to create a better way to pay. He started doing extensive research on the viability of digital payments in India and returned to the country to study the market, the usage patterns of people and the problems they faced during payments. I met people from urban as well as rural India, which gave me tremendous insights of the pain points of payments and how we can solve it. In a country like India, where cash is the most used payment method, millions are locked out of formal financial services, says Abhishek.

After extensive research Abhishek, with his friend Vivek Singh established their venture to provide contactless payments facility in India that they called ToneTag. We experimented with various existing payment technologies such as NFC, QR codes etc., but we came across many issues with them, primarily the high cost of deployment and lack of interoperability. This was why we chose sound waves as a way to make payments happen. The technology developed by ToneTag was interoperable and hardware independent, as it just needed a speaker and microphone to work. This reduced the costs associated with digital payments, making the technology viable not just for the young urban crowd but for everybody we met during our journey, says Abhishek explaining the technology behind ToneTag. Apart from contactless payments, ToneTag also provides other proximity communication solutions such as location based customer engagement service.

Working with a team of around 36, ToneTags revenues are based on the licensing fee they charge to their partners for the use of their technologies. The company also charges a small fee on every transaction through their platform. Going forward, ToneTag aims to increase their revenues primarily through transactions, shares Abhishek.

Abhishek also explains how they aim to make customer and merchant interactions more meaningful by enabling operational and transactional interactions to go invisible. This opens up a lot of future use cases and possibilities. All our merchant touch points could potentially become beacons, that can transmit messages, providing a great real time tool to brands and marketers, he explains. ToneTag currently provides Big Data analytics based real-time loyalty, in-store payments, omni-channel customer engagement, invisible payments and brand and service discovery. Abhishek believes since their sound based technology is completely hardware independent, it is highly accessible. He thinks the ease of making one-click payments from the phone will drive consumers to adopt ToneTag.

A unique feature about ToneTag is its use of blockchain technology to detect and prevent fraud in payments. ToneTag was one of the first to introduce blockchain technology to contactless payments globally. While paying through ToneTag, customers can identify whether the merchant outlet they are dealing with is exposed to risks or if it has witnessed any fraudulent transactions in the past. Similarly, merchants can ensure whether a customer is genuine or not. They can detect if the transaction is unusual or if the customer was involved in fraudulent transactions earlier, since all transactions are validated via public ledger. No party has the upper hand when all the transactions are recorded in a blockchain, providing unprecedented security to contactless and peer to peer payments, shares Abhishek.

ToneTag had received series A funding from Reliance Capital in 2015. They also received funding from some angel investors. Speaking about growth plans, Abhishek says that they aim to deploy their technology at most POS terminals around the world. We were the first and only company on this planet to enable contactless payment acceptance on EDC machines using sound waves. Being the first mover, ToneTag is poised to be a leader in sound based contactless payment. Well be working towards establishing a wholesome ecosystem for contactless acceptance through our partners in the issuing and acquiring side, says Abhishek.

Speaking about competitors in the same space, Abhishek explains that ToneTag being a software element is non-competitive to device specific payment instruments or any banking app or mobile wallets. We are providers of the technology and the ecosystem that will enable contactless payments. ToneTag can enable payments without any hardware updates can deliver value and reduce costs for everyone in the payment ecosystem, adds Abhishek.

ToneTag is already working with 21 issuers, acquirers, banks, payment service providers, and tech companies in South East Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Canada, Australia and USA. They also have global SI partners who are building service offerings over the ToneTag technology for their global and Indian customers as they have the capability to do the heavy lifting of pan-country roll outs. Their immediate focus is to assist these pan-country rollouts on the issuer and acquirer side.
Huawei India R&D Center announced that its employees undertook a campaign to provide books and other stationery material to the students of Nallurahalli Government School in Whitefield, Bengaluru.

The R&D center which employs nearly 3000 engineers conducted a campaign among its employees to collect books, clothes, toys, etc to be given away to needy children, as a part of employee volunteerism. The employees made generous contributions with large quantity of books and other stationery items such as pencil boxes, colour pencil sets, sketch pens, geometry boxes, drawing books, etc being collected during a 2-day campaign. The items were donated to the Nallurahalli Government School which is situated near Huaweis new R&D campus in Whitefield, Bengaluru.

Shri Arvind Limbavali, ex-Minister for Higher Education and MLA of Mahadevapura Constituency was the Chief Guest at the donation activity which was conducted at the school. The school which has primary and middle sections has a strength of 236 students. Every student received a set of books and stationery items.

William Zhao, Chief Operating Officer of Huawei India R&D Center, who was also present at the donation ceremony said Huawei advocates community development and encourages its employees as well in contributing to the betterment of under-privileged children. We believe that sustainable development is possible only when organizations align their corporate goals to social developments of societies that they operate in.

In line with the core values of Huawei globally, Huawei India has actively participated in the development of local communities. Since its inception in 1999, Huawei India has always been in the forefront, lending a helping hand during natural calamities, funding education of under-privileged children, and has been working with various NGOs across the country to support different causes. Huawei India has recently signed a MoU with Akshaya Patra Foundation in Bengaluru to support the organization with their mid-day Meal programme for over 15,000 children. The company will also support Akshaya Patra with food distribution vehicles and a kitchen upgrade programme.

Huawei is a proud member of the UN Global Compact and is committed to fulfilling its responsibilities as a good corporate citizen. The company is actively involved with trying to promote equal access to telecommunications and in helping to bridge the Digital Divide between developing and developed nations. In addition, Huawei continues to implement its flagship CSR program, Seeds for the Future, to facilitate global knowledge transfer, support local training, and increase digital inclusion. Thus far, Huawei has partnered with more than 150 universities to implement the program in 67 countries. About 15,000 students from five different continents have benefited from the program, including more than 1,700 who studied at Huaweis headquarters in China. The most outstanding participants have since joined the ICT industry, and are actively contributing to its development.

@Technuter.com News Service
Indian air force plane with 29 missing over Bay of Bengal

Indian Air Force: The Indian air force operates more than 100 Antonov-32 aircraft

The Indian air force Friday lost contact with a transport plane carrying 29 people to islands in the Bay of Bengal, the defense ministry said. The AN-32 aircraft took off from the southern city of Chennai at 8.30 a.m. and was flying over the bay to the city of Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, said Nitin Wakankar a spokesman for India's defense ministry. The flight, covering 1,375 kilometers (854 miles), was supposed to last three hours but there was no contact for nearly three hours beyond its arrival time. Indian air force spokeman Anupam Banerjee told reporters that the last communication from the aircraft was about 15 minutes after take-off. Wakankar said the Russian-made aircraft could go for four hours without refueling. A massive search by the air force, navy and coast guard has been launched for the missing plane. No other details were immediately available. -- New Delhi, July 22 (AP/UNB)
India imposes media blackout in Kashmir, says RSF

An Indian Paramilitary soldier stops a Kashmiri Muslim man in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir on Friday.

Dawn.com, Washington :

Reporters Without Borders, an international media advocacy group, blamed India on Thursday for imposing a 'media blackout' in held Kashmir.

"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a media blackout imposed in India-held Kashmir and the harassment of journalists by local authorities since July 8," says a statement issued in Washington. On July 8, Indian security forces killed a Kashmiri leader, Burhan Wani, triggering widespread protests. India responded with a military crackdown.

The statement points out that at least 45 civilians have been killed and more than 1,600 injured, including women and children, in protests and clashes. "We urge the Indian government to stop using security and law and order as pretexts for cracking down on the media," RSF said.

The organisation noted that local media outlets, which were discharging their professional duties of reporting facts from ground zero, were now under severe attack.

The RSF statement included reports from various Kashmiri media outlets, pointing out that during the night of July 15, police raided the offices and printing plants of Kashmir newspapers, including Kashmir Times, Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Observer and Rising Kashmir, and seized a large number of printed copies. During the raids, 50,000 copies of the daily Kashmir Uzma were seized.

Authorities on Saturday midnight gagged Greater Kashmir by raiding its corporate office at Rangreth on city outskirts. Police arrested Greater Kashmir printing press foreman Biju Chaudary and two other employees.

Police also seized copies of Rising Kashmir early on Saturday and raided its press at Sheikhpora in central Kashmir's Budgam district. "The government of the chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed, must stop justifying its flagrant violations of press freedom on the pretext of security," said Benjamin Ismail, head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific Desk.

"The media are not behind these disturbances and even less are they a destabilising influence in the region. The authorities cannot restore peace in the region by eliminating criticism of the government, which will always find a means of expressions,'' he added.

"The refusal to understand this is an admission that there is no genuine policy in place to restore peace. Moreover, the curfew now in force should not affect the work of the media."

The statement pointed out that in an attempt to prevent the dissemination of news and information, the government has cut mobile internet access since July 16, and the private mobile network was cut from July 14 throughout the region.


RANGPUR: Sultana Parveen, Deputy Director , Local Government , addressing a press conference arranged by the Fisheries Directorate in Rangpur in observance of the National Fisheries Week on Tuesday.
RAKUB's role vital for women entrepreneurship: Chairman

Rajshahi, Correspondent :

Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) has a vital role towards promoting women entrepreneurship for the sake of bolstering the rural economy.

All the branch level officials and other field staffs of the bank should discharge their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty. As a whole, they should be committed to reach the banking services to the doorsteps of the potential women to attain the cherished goal.

Board of Directors of the bank made these observations at RAKUB's 444th board meeting held at its board room here on Thursday afternoon with Chairman Prof Dr Shah Newaz Ali in the chair, RAKUB sources said on Friday.

RAKUB, headquartered in Rajshahi, has been operating its banking activities as the largest development partner in all the 16 northwest districts of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions targeting its agricultural sector and all its sub-sectors. The meeting puts emphasis on increasing funding to women entrepreneurs, with innovative strategies and diverse products.

It also mentioned that Bangladesh Bank assured all scheduled banks of providing necessary support for funding women entrepreneurs.

The meeting noted that the bank's administrative and operational activities must be more transparent and accountable alongside farmers- friendly for boosting agricultural production.


Multinational cos to go under NBR's tax scanner

Economic Reporter :

The Transfer Pricing Cell, formed three years back to prevent tax evasion cases by multinational companies through misuse of transfer pricing system, is going to start work in January next.

"We've collected reports of multinational companies. We'll start the auditing in full swing in January 2017," a senior official at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) told NN.

Transfer price is the price at which divisions of a company transact with each other for goods or services. It usually takes place when two related companies, like parent company and subsidiary, or two subsidiaries controlled by a common parent, engage in international trade with each other for goods and services.

According to international laws, transfer pricing is not illegal, but 'transfer mispricing' is. Sometimes, related entities of a multinational firm show artificially high prices for an imported product or service in an attempt to evade taxes. This practice is known as 'transfer mispricing'.

Convoluted rules and legal loopholes allow multinational companies to manage their tax arrangements in such a way as to minimise their tax liabilities depriving developing country governments of vital revenues, according to a report titled 'Getting to Good: Towards Responsible Corporate Tax Behaviour'. The report was released here in April last.

In February 2014, the NBR formed the cell and in April 2015 it appointed seven transfer pricing officials to examine and audit the statements of international transactions of the multinational companies to find out whether the statements are accurate and the companies evade taxes through such transactions.

Later, in September last year, the TPC asked the field-level income tax offices to provide the copies of such statements submitted by multinational companies (MNCs) to their respective tax offices.

There are some 175 MNCs operating in Bangladesh which would come under TPC scanner.

Meanwhile, the NBR last year issued rules along with a prescribed form for the MNCs to submit details of their international transactions with the tax returns.

According to the rules, the prescribed form should be signed and verified by the person authorized to sign the return on income. Their accounts and records will be maintained separately as prescribed.

The Transfer Price Cell would handle tax files of the taxpayers involved in international transactions.

The Cell officials will determine the price and send a report to the circle office to complete assessment on the basis of decision by the official concerned.

According to the rules, the multinational companies' international transactions will be "monitored and assessed carefully" by an expert group of taxmen.

The Deputy Commissioner of Taxes (DCT) may impose a penalty equivalent to a maximum one per cent of the value of each international transaction in case of failure to keep, maintain or provide information, documents or records to him or comply with the notice.
Matters related to undelivered notice be adjudicated by taking evidence through trial

High Court Division :(Criminal Miscellaneous Jurisdiction) Md Shawkat Hossain JMustafa Zaman Islam JJudgmentJanuary 11th, 2015Firoz Alam (Md)... Accused-Petitioner (both the petition)vsState and another.............. Opposite-PartiesCode of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898) Section 561A Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 Notice to the petitioner company had returned undelivered with the endorsement "party was absent every time". Whether the accused petitioner received the legal notice or not, these are disputed question of fact which can only be adjudicated by taking evidence through trial. .........(11) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 All legal formalities as laid down under section 138 of the Act have been complied with. It appears that company is not a made party in the proceedings. This is a criminal case not a civil case, in fact, civil case is required to be party but there is no defect of party or necessary party is required for criminal justice system therefore, the question raised by the petitioner is not correct proposition of law. .. .... (12) Zahed Hossain vs State, 61 DLR 386; Shamsul Alam vs State, 60 DLR 677; Nizam Uddin Mahmood vs Abdul Hamid Bhuiyan, 60 DLR (AD) 295; Soumitra Sankar Das vs State 33 BLD 91; Soumitra Sankar Das vs State, 33 BLD 91; and Arifuzzaman vs State, 17 BLC (AD) 167 ref. Rezaul Karim with Md Asaduzzaman, Advocates--For the Petitioner. Khan Khalid Adnan, Advocate--For the Opposite Party) No.2. Judgment Mustafa Zaman Islam J : Since these applications involve common facts as well as questions of law, they are taken up together for hearing and disposed of by this single judgment and parties being same. 2. In Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 9334 of 2011, this rule was issued, on an application under section 561A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, at the instance of the accused petitioner Md Firoz Alam, calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the proceedings of the Metro Sessions Case No. 1386 of 2009 arising out of CR Case No. 446 of 2008 under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, now pending before the 3rd Court of the Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Dhaka should not be quashed and/or such other or further order or orders passed as to this Court may seem fit and proper. 3. Even the background facts are identical. We shall refer to the facts in Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 9334 of 2011 as illustrative. Short facts leading to this rule are that the opposite party No. 2 as complainant filed a petition of complaint before the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka alleging inter alia that on 12-10-2004 the Accused-Petitioner as the Managing Director of Ibrahim Textiles Mill Limited had entered into an agreement with the Complainant opposite party No.2 for selling 600 metric tons of Cl Sheet valued at Taka 1,20,00,000 (one crore twenty lakh only) and the said amount was taken in advance. The accused petitioner failed to supply the goods to the Complainant for which he demanded return of the advance and for paying the said advance the petitioner issued an account payee cheque being No. AWCD/B 0361312 dated 3-9-2007 for an amount of Taka 25,00,000 (twenty-five lakh only) from his current account being No. 13300006464 with Social Investment Bank Limited, Dhaka. The Complainant placed the said cheque for encashment with the Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Moulvibazar Branch on 1-11-2007 which was dishonored for the reason "insufficient fund". The Complainant then through his lawyer issued a Legal Notice dated 28-11-2007 demanding the payment of Taka 25,00,000 (twenty-five lakh only) within 30 days. The notice was returned on 5-12-2007 stating, on it that since the recipient i.e. the instant petitioner was absent every time, the notice is returned undelivered. Without having money in the account, cheque was issued by the Petitioner and hence the offence was committed in relating to punishable under section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Ad, 1881. The learned Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka upon recording the statement made by the complainant under section 200 of the Code of Criminal procedure and took cognizance of the matter on 24-1-2008 and issued summon against the petitioner. The petitioner having been informed about the case voluntarily surrendered on 15-9-2008 before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and obtained bail. When the case is ready, and the case was sent to the Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Dhaka for trial and disposal and the same was registered as Metro. Session Case No. 1386 of 2009 ultimately the case was sent to the Court of 3rd Additional Metro Session Judge, Dhaka for trial and disposal. Meanwhile, the petitioner filed an application under section 265C of the Code of Criminal Procedure for discharging him from the charge. After hearing the parties, the learned Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge rejected the application and charge was framed under section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881.4. In Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 19002 of 2010, this rule was issued, on an application under section 561A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, at the instance of the accused petitioner Md Firoz Alom, calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the proceedings of CR Case No 445 of 2008 under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, now pending before the 4th of Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Dhaka should not be quashed and/or such other or further order or orders passed as to this Court may seem fit and proper. 5. The petitioners are same in both the Criminal Miscellaneous case and facts are almost same but the law point is common. It has been commonly argued in the above mentioned cases. 6. We have heard Md Asaduzzaman, the learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner in both applications in support of the rules, submit that the impugned proceedings has been taken against the petitioner admittedly without serving any notice upon him which is clear in the petition of complaint itself and, as such, taking cognizance and continuation of the proceedings without serving any notice is against the provision of section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881 as such, the proceeding. is liable to be quashed. The learned Advocate for the petitioner has argued that in the light of the facts and circumstances, the cheque was issued by the company but the company or its directors have not been notified or served notice or made accused in the proceedings which is a requirement of section 140 of the Act 1881 and, as such, without complying with such provision of law initiation or continuation of proceeding with be nothing but an abuse of the process of the Court which is liable to be quashed. He further submit that if the allegation brought against the petitioner is taken into consideration at its entirety, it does not constitute an offence under the Act, 1881 in as much as no offence is said to have been committed without serving any notice upon the petitioner and the instant case admittedly the notice has not been served therefore, the proceedings of the case is liable to be quashed. Last but not least, he submits that under the definition of the provision of section 5, 6 and 123 (A) of the Act, 1881, an account payee cheque ceases to be Negotiable and therefore, if an account-payee cheque is not a cheque in the eye of law for the purpose of section 138 of the Act, 1881, for ends of justice the proceedings should be quashed. 7. Mr Khan Khalid Adnan, the learned Advocate for the opposite party No.2 on the other hand opposes the rule by filing counter affidavit submits that notice under section 138 of the Act 1881 was duly served upon the accused petitioner but non service of notice raised by the petitioner is misconceived one as because notice was served upon the petitioner within the statutory period with registered A/D and hence the presumption of proper service of notice under section 27 of the General Clauses Act becomes operative in favour of the opposite party No.2 and therefore, accordingly to the postal endorsement on the said cover, the notice would be deemed to have been served under section 27 of the General Clauses Act, therefore, the Rule is liable to be discharged. He next submits that section 140 of the Act 1881 is not a mandatory provision of law and also that the company from whose account the cheque was issued needs not be mandatorily made a party in criminal proceedings as such, the rule is liable to be discharged for ends of justice. The learned Advocate has relied in his submission. placed before us in the case of Zahed Hossain (Md) vs State reported in 61DLR 386, Shamsul Alam alias Babul vs State reported in 60 DLR 677 and Nizam Uddin Mahmood vs Abdul Hamid Bhuiyan reported in 60 DLR (AD) 295.8. We have gone through the application under section 561A of the code of criminal procedure, petition of complaint along with other material record and heard the submission for both parties. 9. In this regard, the facts and circumstance, the question that requires to be answered in the case in hand is whether the holder of a cheque i.e complainant can initiate the proceedings for an offence relating to punishable under section 138 of the Act 1881 for its dishonour of the cheque for non service of notice upon the petitioner. 10. The above question came up for consideration that three points are to be looked into-- (i) Whether the complainant has placed the cheque within specified time, (ii) Whether he has given notice of demand within specified time with acknowledgement due, and (iii) Whether he has filed the case within prescribed time mentioned in the statute. 11. It appears from the petition of complaint it was stated that on 1-11-2007 the opposite party No.2 as complainant presented the cheque with the Bangladesh Commerce Bank for encashment and the same was dishonored on the same date with remark for insufficiency of fund of the account of the petitioner. On 28-11-2007 demand notice was served upon the petitioner through his lawyer. The learned Advocate for the petitioner gave emphasis that the petitioner company or its Directors admittedly have neither been notified nor been made parties in the proceedings as such no cause of action has been disclosed. Once again, on the plea that the statutory demand notice under Section 138 of the Act 1881 was never on him. Notice to the petitioner company had returned undelivered with the endorsement "party was absent every time". But in the instant case, it is not in dispute that the notice was sent by registered post to the correct address. It was held to be a fit case to presume the due service of notice and also that the petitioner deliberately evaded to receive the said notice to escape from the liability to pay the cheque amount. It would be mentioned here that whether the accused petitioner received the legal notice or not, these are disputed question of fact which can only be adjudicated by taking evidence through trial Court. 12. The learned Advocate for the opposite party No.2 has drawn our attention that as per section 27 of the General Clauses Act the notice will be deemed to have been served and the petitioner could not be allowed to escape liability. That proposition of law is very much applicable in the instant case. So, we find that all legal formalities as laid down under section 138 of the Act 1881 have been complied with. Further, it appears that company is not a made party in the instant proceedings. This is a criminal case not a civil case, in fact, civil case is required to be party but there is no defect of party or necessary party is required for criminal justice system therefore, the question raised by the petitioner is not correct proposition law. It would be profitable to mention in the case of Soumitra Sankar Das vs the State reported in 33 BLD 91 wherein observed that-- "In the light of the discussion made above and having regard to the facts and circumstances of the instant case, we are led to hold that the petitioner being admitted signatories to the bounced cheque may be proceeded against under section 138 even in the absence of the company (actual drawer) and their liability is covered by the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 140 of the Act of 1881".13. Now, another pertinent A question arises that under sections section 5,6 and 123A of the Negotiable Instrument Act 1881, an account payee cheque cases to be a cheque and therefore, it is not a cheque in the eye of law. But the same question raised earlier by this Court in another case and it is well settled by our Appellate Division that section 123A of the Act, is no way, create any bur in proceeding with a case under section 138 of the Act 1881. In support, reliance was placed in the decision of our Appellate Division in the Case of Arifuzzaman vs State reported in 17 BLC (AD) 167 their lordships held that -- "Moreover, section 138 of the Act 1881 which has defined "Negotiable instrument" has not made any distinction between crossed cheque "account payee" or cheque of other kind such as bearer cheque as we ordinarily mean. Thus, we find that section 123A of the Act, in no way creates any bar in proceeding with a case under section 138 of the Act, 1881".14. The ratio of the above case by now has been applied in the instant case. 15. We find great deal of force and logic in those decisions. As a matter of fact, we are in respectful agreement with the views and observation of above decisions. We are unable to agree with the contentions advanced by the learned Advocate for the petitioner, This case is a classic example to initiate or constitute the proceedings under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, by the complainant. 16. From the foregoing discussion and in the facts and circumstances of the case, We find that no reasonable grounds has arisen for quashing the proceeding of the case pending in the court below. It necessarily follows that the initiation and continuation of the proceedings of the cases pending in the lower Court are not abuse of the process of the Court. In this perspective, the question of quashing the proceedings of the cases are out of the question. The rules, therefore, fails.17. Accordingly, the rules are discharged Stay orders passed in connection with rules stand vacated. The trial Court shall proceed with the cases in accordance with law.Communicate the order at once.
A city within the city not answer to security concerns

NEWS reports said Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is going to restrict plying of public transports in Gulshan, Baridhara diplomatic zones from next month to ensure safety of people, mainly the foreigners living in the area. The measure is coming into effect following the militant attacks on Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic zone with heavy death casualties involving foreign nationals with another follow-up attack in few days at Sholakia Eidgah ground in Kishoregonj district. These attacks have terribly shaken the confidence of foreigners and we understand that there must be distinctive safety measures for diplomats, foreign aid workers and buying house operators living in those areas. It appears that the latest measure seems to be one more such steps to make the diplomatic zones foolproof. But questions have arisen whether such restriction would eventually isolate the areas and its businesses from the reach of the common people. We don't want a prohibited city within the city. We believe much more need to be considered before such steps were put in place. A National daily on Friday made the disclosure saying that DMP would allow 30 air-conditioned buses and 500 CNG driven auto-rickshaws to ply in the Diplomatic Zones. As far as public safety, we have full support behind every police action but we also assert that such decisions must be easily implementable with less public harassment. Two questions immediately hit the public mind. The first one is whether the smaller number of transports would be enough in view of the huge number of people living around the area and daily visiting the down town to attend office and businesses. Such restriction is bound to create chaos in city streets for passengers bound for those areas. The fare of the air-conditioned buses may not be affordable to many. Auto-rickshaws may not be available instantly and may also exorbitantly charge to add to the people's suffering visiting the area.Moreover, road check-posts and search of vehicles are time consuming and have already drastically reduced visitors to eateries and shopping malls in those areas. Business has already plunged to the brink. Further restriction of public transports may in a sense isolate those areas; which can't be the objective of strengthening of security. Blocking militants does not mean to restricting access of common people to those areas and business. We would ask the DMP to recheck the whole idea. The new arrangement suggest that some buses would carry passengers on Natun Bazar-Kakoli route while some other would run from Niketan point to Gulshan-2. Auto-rickshaws would have distinctive colour and bus drivers have their new identity cards. Police are not for running the country, asking them to do so is to prove their own failure.
Plans to destroy Sundarbans

Staff Reporter :The signing of a coal based power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat district would be remembered as a sad day in the history of Bangladesh,' said Emajuddin Ahamed, former Vice- Chancellor of Dhaka University.The signing is a part of international conspiracy to destroy the lone mangrove forest of Bangladesh, he said. A round table discussion on "Sundarbans is one: Our responsibility to protect" was organized by Save the Sundarbans Foundation at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium in the city on Friday. Professor Emajuddin passed the remark as the chief guest, while Dr Sheikh Faridul Islam, Chairman of the Foundation, presided over the programme.Syed Tosharaf Ali, Secretary General of Manik Mia Foundation, Dr Abdul Matin, General Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA) and Advocate Humayun Kabir Bulbul delivered lectures. "The agreement of setting up of a coal-based power plant at Rampal adjacent to the Sundarbans will clearly destroy the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. People are not aware of the deal's lasting consequence, Emajuddin said. The plan came from beyond the international borders. It will be implemented under the supervision of foreigners. So, it is clear that it is a conspiracy to destroy the Sundarbans, he added. The power plant should be shifted to another place for saving the nature, the environment and the ecological balance, he suggested. Syed Tosharaf Ali said, the Sundarbans is being affected in several ways. A joint venture initiative should be taken by India and Bangladesh for protecting the ecological balance. Environmentalists from the both countries should arrange bilateral meeting in this regard above politics, he opined. The Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd signed the agreement with India's state-run Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) on the 13th July 2016.
Black man 'shot at by police' while helping patient in US

Al Jazeera News :

A black therapist in the US state of Florida trying to calm a man with autism in the middle of the street says he was shot by police, even though he had his hands in the air and repeatedly told them that both were unarmed.

The moments before the shooting on Monday were recorded on cellphone video, showing Charles Kinsey lying on the ground with his arms raised, talking to his patient and police

throughout the standoff with officers, who appeared to have them surrounded. "As long as I've got my hands up, they're not going to shoot me. This is what I'm thinking. They're not going to shoot me," he told WSVN-TV later from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. "Wow, was I wrong."

The shooting comes at a time of growing tensions and increased protests against the disproportionate number of African Americans killed by the police. North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene said on Thursday he had asked Florida state officials to lead the investigation into the shooting.

Eugene said officers responded to a 911 emergency call about an armed man threatening suicide, but the chief told reporters no gun was recovered at the scene. Kinsey said he was trying to calm his 23-year-old patient who had run away from the group home where he works. "All he has is a toy truck in his hand," Kinsey can be heard saying in the video, speaking of his patient, who was holding a toy. "That's all it is. There is no need for guns."

Al Jazeera's Andy Gallacher, reporting from North Miami, said: "The video at that point goes black, but we are told that a police officer fired three rounds towards Kinsey, one of them striking him in his leg.

Gallacher said the incident came "at a very sensitive time" in the US. "We had recently two officer-involved shootings of African American men, and eight officers targeted by other gunmen who allegedly were going after them in response to those shootings." Baton Rouge, in the US state of Louisiana, recently became the scene of large protests against police brutality after officers shot dead 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5 outside a supermarket, claiming he had a gun. The father of five had been selling CDs.

Footage of the moment Sterling was killed was also captured on a mobile phone and circulated online, sparking outrage and then protests. Sterling's killing was followed the next day with another police shooting. An officer killed a 32-year-old black man, Philando Castile, at a traffic stop in the midwestern US state of Minnesota. The aftermath of the shooting was also captured on video and streamed live by Castile's girlfriend on Facebook.

The deaths sparked outrage and protests in many cities across the US. Just days later, five white police officers were shot dead at one such protest in Dallas, Texas. Police identified Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, as the suspect and said he had set out to kill white people. Police shot and killed Johnson after the incident.

The Black Lives Matter movement - which campaigns against police killings of African Americans - disavowed the killing of the officers and said in a statement it stands for "dignity, justice and respect".
`IS` threatens to kill Imam in Pirojpur

Security measures beefed up around the mosque across the country. This photo was taken from in front of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque during the Juma prayers yesterday.

UNB, Pirojpur :Islamic State, Middle-East-based militant group, has allegedly threatened to kill a mosque imam of Kaukhali upazila.The threat was issued to Omar Faruque, imam of Dakkhin Bazar Central Jam-e Mosque in the upazila headquarters, through a letter that was found in the mosque on Friday.Jahangir Hossain, officer-in-charge of Kaukhali Police Station, said someone dropped the letter, sent in the name of IS Kaukhali branch, in the mosque in the morning. The letter reads, "You don't want that Islami caliphate is established in Bangladesh. You are disinclined to discuss jihad. Your killing will be Shariah worthy. Get ready for death. You'll be slaughtered in your room". Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in the mosque following the death threat. Contacted, the imam told UNB that he would lodge a general diary in this regard today (Saturday).
13 killed in road accidents

Staff Reporter :At least 13 people were killed and 40 others injured in separate road accidents across the country on Friday. The districts are: Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Kushtia, Mymensingh, Bogra and Dhaka city.Six persons, including a child, were killed and 15 others seriously injured at Lohagora Upazila beside the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar highway on Friday afternoon. Highway police of Dohazari police camp said, "Two buses collided head-on at Chunt Khandigirpar resulting the death of three passengers on the spot. The accident took place when a Chittagong bound Shah Amin Paribahan bus collided with a Cox's Bazar bound Mahfuza Paribahan bus. Several passengers were seriously injured and were admitted to Lohagora Upazila Health Complex where the on duty doctors declared death three of them. The identity of the deceased, including a six months old baby, could not be known immediately, said the police. Two persons were killed and four others injured at Tarakanda in Mymensingh district when a truck rammed into a auto-rickshaw on Friday afternoon. The injured were rushed to Fulpur Upazila Health Complex. The identity of the deceased was not known instantly. Two persons were killed and 20 others injured at Doulatpur Upazila in Kushtia when a passenger bus hit a tree after the driver lost control over the steering at 10:00 am. The deceased were identified as Babu Mia, helper of the bus, and one Palash from Pabna. The accident occurred when a Al Amin Paribahan bus while trying to overtake a Nosimon, a local made engine run vehicle, at Koipal hit a nearby tree. The helper of the bus and a passenger died on the spot. The Fire Service rescued team took the injured to the nearby health complex. Afterwards, they were taken to Kushtia Medical College Hospital. At least 15 people were seriously injured when a passenger bus fell into a nearby ditch at Mathpara of Dhunot in Sherpur district on Friday at 10:am. The injured were identified as Rita Khatun,25, her son Rifat Hossain,8, from Rangamati village, Maznu Mia, 45, from Ulurchapar, Nipu Kumar,30, from Bilkajuli village, Ataur Rahman Bablu, 65, from Kantanagar, Mahbub Hossain,25, from Banshpata village, Suvash Chandra,70, from Choubaria of Sherpur, Nurul Islam,55, and his son Sabbir Ahmed,20, from Bagra village, Abul Kalam Azad, 58, a school teacher from Chakpota village and Sathi Khatun,24, from Kusumbi village. They all were brought to Bogra Shahid Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital. A garment worker died in a road accident in the Abdullahpur-Baipail area on Friday morning. Deceased Hasna Begum worked at a Readymade Garment in the Kuturia areas. She was standing in front of Natural Garment at Tongibari of Ashulia at 10:00 am. Just then, a cattle loaded truck ran over her. Her child Ashamoni,8, was seriously injured. Ashamoni was released after treatment. The truck was seized and a case has been filed in this regard. An unknown person was killed in a road accident near the Banani flyover in the Dhaka city in the early morning on Friday. The identity of the deceased was not known immediately. The body was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for post mortem.
Govt to sit with public varsity heads today

Staff Reporter :

Government is going to sit in a crucial meeting with the heads and representatives of public universities at International Mother Language Institute under Dhaka University in the city today [Saturday].

The Vice-Chancellors, pro Vice-Chancellors, Presidents and General Secretaries of Teachers' Associations, senior teachers, and President and Secretary of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Associations will attend the meeting. Home Minister Asaduzzamn Khan Kamal will address the meeting as chief guest while Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid will be in the chair. The Ministers are expected to elaborate the government's latest stance about the issue in the meeting. In an invitation letter, the University Grant Commission [UGC] on Friday said the meeting will be held apparently to ensure proper teaching and learning atmosphere in the educational institutions. In the wake of terror attacks in Gulshan and Sholakia, the government took decision to bring all the private and public educational institutions under the scanner of intelligence agencies when several students have reportedly been joined in different Islamist terrorist outfits.

At the same time, the government also instructed the concerned security agencies to bring teachers of educational institutions under round-the-clock surveillance. Besides, the government had planned to conduct a massive awareness programme in the Bengali and English medium educational institutions across the country involving the teachers, administrative officials and guardians to give focus on negative impact of militancy. It is worth to mention that, a number of students of public universities, including Chittagong University, Rajshahi University and Islamic University, were arrested earlier by the law enforcement agencies for their alleged link with militant outfits.

Not only that, several high-profile private educational institutions, such as North South University, BRAC University, Scholastica and Turkish Hope have earned blame for nourishing the students who are allegedly involved in terrorist activities.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had said, "The government has taken initiatives to save students from the clutches of militancy. Same types of meetings will also be held with all other educational institutions across the country accordingly. The teachers and administrative staff will also be brought under close surveillance. We'll see what they are teaching and what their activities are."

"If any students stay absent in the educational institution for ten days, it should be informed to his guardians. It will also be informed to the government in written. Here, the guardians will have to take responsibilities. We've sent notice to all educational institutions asking the heads to take it seriously," the Minister said.


VIP areas under strict vigil

Security in city's gateways, KPIs intensified

Stringent security measures have been taken at VIP areas like Minto Road and Bailey Road as law enforcers thoroughly searching vehicles. This photo was taken from in front of Officers Club in city on Friday.

S. M. Mizanur Rahman :Capital Dhaka's VIP residential areas have been brought under complete security blanket following the alerts from the intelligence agencies that terrors may carry out attack on any Cabinet members as well as government high ups anytime, anywhere. Apart from the diplomatic zones, Minto Road and Bailey Road, the most posh areas of city surrounded by the Ministers' residences on one side and Chief Justice's residence, judges complexes and high government officials' flats on the other are completely under police control, where special police force personnel are checking each and every vehicles thoroughly. Everyone in the city, whether a Minister, lawmaker, law enforcer or a lawyer, a judge or a government official, is in the grip of constant fear of fresh terror attacks. A high up of the police department told The New Nation on Friday that the Law enforcers have been asked to strengthen the security of eminent personalities, including VVIP, VIPS, high dignitaries, political leaders, and other threatened persons. "These areas are being monitored and patrolled and CCTV systems are being checked and monitored regularly. While reiterating the strict vigil in high footfall areas," the official said. Besides, NAM Bhaban where the lawmakers live in the flats of six buildings on Manik Mia Avenue and four at Nakhalpara, also have come under security blanket. Referring to the security alert that had sent Dhaka into a tizzy, the police official stated in view of the input, the police heightened its vigil in and around the residences of Ministers, judges and government high ups. "Besides, security arrangements have also been stepped up near important malls, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities in the city," the police official added.Apart from these, constant vigil in busy markets, railway stations and other such areas is urgently called for.Security is also being intensified in city's different strategic points like important gateways -- Abdullahpur, Gabtoli and Chittagong Road, Key Point Installations (KPIs), and Airport -- as country's people and foreigners travel through these ways.The government also took tight security measures in and around the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque and other big mosques in the city following the threat. Security personnel allowed people to enter the mosque for Juma prayers after searching them with metal detectors on Friday. In a bid to raise awareness among people from all walks of life about extremism and terrorism, imams of the country's many mosques, especially in urban areas, followed the common khutba (sermon) delivered at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, during the Juma prayers on Friday.Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque at a function in Rangamati district on Friday said panic and fear rein across the country following the militant attacks in city's Holey Artisan Bakery and Sholakia Eidgah. "Although many militant activists either were arrested or killed in shootouts. But militants' mayhem has not been declined. We are urging people to cooperate with the police to curb militancy and terrorism from the country," he said.Food Minister Qamrul Islam on Friday said those, who will not follow the Islamic Foundation instruction for delivering common Khutba, legal steps will be taken against them. "Khutba is being monitored at all mosques. The imams, who rejected Islamic Foundation's instruction, action will also be taken against them," he said at a function held at National Press Club yesterday. Meanwhile, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed at his Constituency in Bhola on Friday said the Law enforcers have identified the militant operatives.When this reporter on Friday travelling through these areas found security men with most modern weapons are on duty operating in groups. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia has ordered all units of the police force to step up security across the city after an intelligence alert that terrorists might strike on Ministers and government high ups.According to the alert, operatives of militants and terrors may again launch attack in the city, particularly on Ministers. The DMP Commissioner asked the police force to keep a vigil across the capital to thwart any untoward incident.Police are also ensuring that CCTV cameras at all places with high footfalls like popular markets and metro stations are functional. Patrolling across the city has been intensified.Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime of the DMP have been briefed about the input separately, so that activities of gangs operating in and around the city and elements with suspected terror links can be monitored.
Replacing the highly competent Katie Anderson, who was terminated at the end of May, is Yvonda Bean.

Yvonda Bean

Floyd Duran, who oversees the Lafayette Housing Authority as receiver for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced Thursday afternoon that Yvonda Bean will take over as executive director of the local agency. She replaces Katie Anderson, who was abruptly terminated as ED after her annual contract expired in May.

HUD has held the LHA in receivership since 2011, taking over its operations after widespread corruption and mismanagement led to the dismissal, federal criminal charges and eventual conviction of its former director, Walter Guillory. In the wake of the scandal, City-Parish President Joey Durel refused to bring the agency back under local control.

Durels successor, however, has made resuming local oversight of the LHA a priority of his administration; in May Joel Robideaux appointed the following advisory board of commissioners:

 Mark Becnel, Employee Management Solutions, owner

 Kim Boudreaux, Catholic Services of Acadiana, executive director

 Shelton Cobb, former member of the Lafayette Parish School Board

 Monica Gibbs, Department of Health and Hospitals/Office of Public Health, retired

 Polly Williams, Lafayette Parish School System, reading tutor

The advisory board members played no role in the selection process for a new executive director  HUDs Duran made the decision  and it remains unclear whether Robideaux and HUD intend for these advisory members to stay on as permanent board members.

Katie Anderson

Anderson, a highly respected housing authority executive who was brought in five years ago to clean up Guillorys mess and by just about any measure was doing an excellent job, was not given a reason for her dismissal. Anderson had been working on a year-to-year contract.

HUD also refused to answer The INDs questions about why Anderson was being replaced and even declined to release the names of the applicants for the ED post.

Bean, who has never run a housing authority, will assume her new role Aug. 1. She most recently was the executive director of Preferred Properties in Toledo, Ohio, where she administered HUD low-income elderly and disabled housing programs and the low income housing tax credit program in Northwest Ohio. Before that, she was the director of administration/operations for the Housing Authority of the City of Aiken, S.C., and prior to that served as the community development corporations initiatives manager for the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

"Filling this position puts us one step closer to regaining local oversight of the Housing Authority, which best serves the people of Lafayette, Robideaux said in the press release announcing the Bean hire.

Read more about Bean's experience and education here.
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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?

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French President Francois Hollande(R) and British Prime Minister Theresa May attend a press conference after their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on July 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande on Thursday called on Britain to prepare for talks to leave the European Union(EU) as soon as possible.

Attending a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris, Hollande said France respected Britain's decision to leave the EU, but the sooner to open a negotiation on Brexit the better.

"There cannot be discussions, pre-negotiations before the negotiation but there can be preparation for this negotiation. We do understand that your government, which has just been formed, needs time. (But), the sooner the better for the common interest," Hollande told May.

Warning of the "uncertainty" as a result of Brexit, Hollande stressed that Britain should respect free movement of EU citizens if it wants to remain part of the free-trade union.

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The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

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JONESBORO  Bills in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives that could boost tourism in Southern Illinois are advancing. The companion bills, S.2608 and H.R.2879, would add the cities of Jonesboro and Freeport and Livingston County to the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.

Weve been hoping for this for about eight years. said Linda Hileman, president of Union County-based PAST (Promoting Appreciation of Structural Treasures).

The Lincoln Heritage Area covers 42 counties across Illinois. The additional cities and county would mean that all the sites of Lincolns legal career and all Lincoln-Douglas debate sites would be included in the heritage area.

The Abraham Lincoln National heritage area was formed in 2008, the year of the sesquicentennial of the Lincoln-Douglas debates," Hileman said. "They left us out, as well as Freeport."

She added that the 42 counties in the area are in central Illinois and are all contiguous. The area includes five of seven debate sites.

It would be a tremendous boost to Jonesboro and Union County. They award grants to the sites in the heritage area. It also is connected to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Hileman said.

The museum has brochures available about the heritage area. Hileman said that would expose Jonesboro to a statewide audience, as well as to visitors from other states. According to Sarah Seiler Watson, executive director of Looking for Lincoln, this designation would give Jonesboro permissions to use federal resources for programming, preservation and education.

Jonesboro has several sites visited by Abraham Lincoln in 1858, including Lincoln Memorial Picnic Grounds, the site of Lincolns Sept. 15, 1858, debate with Stephen A. Douglas; the courthouse site, which was on the Jonesboro square; and a privately owned house where Lincoln stayed with his friend, D.L. Phillips, while he was in town for the debate.

PAST Heritage House in Jonesboro has a room dedicated to the Lincoln-Douglas debate and events surrounding it that features artifacts and memorabilia. The room also contains displays from C-Spans 1994 re-enactment of the debate in Jonesboro and a 2008 re-enactment commemorating the sesquicentennial of the debates.

Hileman said members of PAST recently learned that Mary Todd Lincolns half-sister, Martha White, and her husband moved to Anna after the Civil War in 1868. She also died in Anna.

We just keep finding more and more Lincoln history in the county, Hileman said.

The bills are sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk and were sent for full consideration by the Senate on July 13. Reps. Mike Bost, John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Cheri Bustos and Rodney Davis sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives.

For more information about the history of Union County and Lincolns visit to the county, stop by the PAST Heritage House at 102 S. Main St. in Jonesboro from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. each Sunday through October.
The start of the school year is just around the corner, and a number of local businesses and agencies are offering free supplies and services to help students get ready.

According to research by the National Retail Federation, families with children in grades K-12 can expect to spend an average of $673.57 in 2016 on back-to-school items, including school supplies, clothing, shoes, accessories and electronics.

For local families already living in poverty, thats a significant financial burden.

The list of school supplies needed continues to grow, and as funding is cut, schools are forced to kind of put that onto the families, said Lindsay Stockhecke, development specialist at the Womens Center. That puts a huge burden on families that do have lower income levels, so we try to assist as much as we can.

The Womens Center, Back to School Bash

The Womens Center is one of several local organizations stepping up to relieve the back-to-school burden. It is currently collecting donations for its annual Back to School Bash, which will take place on Aug. 13 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Eurma C. Hayes Center, located at 441 E. Willow St. in Carbondale.

We provide school supplies for up to or over 500 children, depending on how many donations we receive, and we give each child that we have items for a backpack filled with a variety of supplies, Stockhecke said.

Donations can be dropped off at the Womens Center, located at 610 S. Thompson St. in Carbondale, or at the African-American Museum or JCPenney, both located in the University Mall. Donors can also contribute directly to the cause on the organizations Facebook page.

In addition to the backpacks, eventgoers can receive free haircuts, dental exams, beauty shop vouchers, food and clothing. There will also be information about employment opportunities.

Theres just a ton of activities going on as well as providing those supplies to those that really need it in that community.

Last year we had 500 backpacks, and there were still people that were showing up and unfortunately we werent able to give everyone with a need a backpack. We do have really high attendance, a lot of support for this event, but theres just such a huge need that even 500 doesnt reach everyone that needs it, Stockhecke said.

United Way, Stuff the Bus

United Way has partnered with local businesses to coordinate the 10th annual Stuff the Bus campaign and is collecting school supply donations through the beginning of August. The items will be delivered directly to schools in Jefferson County, where they will be distributed to students from low-income families.

The poverty rate on average in Jefferson County is about 85 percent, so that means theres about eight out of 10 kids who go back to school in the fall who cant afford to purchase all the supplies they need to go back to school and to learn and to succeed, said Jen Miller, Executive Director of United Way of South Central Illinois.

These supplies help students be able to go back to school with not only the confidence, so theyre not worried about not having the things that the other kids in the class have, but theyre ready to learn. Theyre ready to do their homework and take their tests, she said.

More information can be found at www.facebook.com/StuffTheBusJeffCo.

The Du Quoin Ministerial Alliance, Back to School Blessing

The Du Quoin Ministerial Alliance will host an annual Back to School Blessing on Aug. 6 at Liberty Church, located at 680 W. Main St. in Du Quoin. Beginning at 8 a.m., members will distribute 300 backpacks filled with new school supplies.

Its not simply the Ministerial Alliancethe whole community is really onboard, because we receive donations from the community to buy all the supplies. So its really more than a Ministerial Alliance project, its a community project, said Lon McPherson, pastor and founder of Liberty Church.

I personally have been there a number of times when we hand them out, and for the most part, theyre people that really need them, he said. A very, very high percentage of people would not be able to purchase them if we were not doing this.

The HUB Recreation Center, Back 2 School Bash

The HUB Recreation Center will host its first-ever Back 2 School Bash on July 30 at 917 W. Main St. in Marion.

Heartland Regional Center will be providing $10 physicals. There will also be free haircuts available, along with low- to no-cost dental screenings and cleanings.

Its just kind of a day to help kids get ready all in one place, said Marketing and Business Development Director Hilary Holdinghausen.

Each person in attendance will be eligible to win a $250 back-to-school voucher at Target, Holdinghausen said. Potential new members will be able to look at the HUB facility, and new membership enrollment fees will be 50 percent off.
Since the first two cave men decided to have a contest over who could throw a rock the farthest, winners have been gloating. In todays world, that gloating sometimes gets elevated to an art form. So, where do we draw the line?
To the Editor:

Our culture is plagued with stressful problems in many arenas. Here is some practical advice concerning them from the greatest book ever written.

If people would imitate the ant and store up their goods for the future, there would be less poverty.

If husbands would love their wives as Christ loved the church, there would be less abuse of women.

If fathers would raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, there would be fewer homes where babies have no daddy.

If citizens would forgive those who trespass against them, there would be less violent crime.

If citizens would submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, the prisons would be less crowded.

Ironically, words from this book are permanently etched into the Capitol building Prayer Room window, but words from this same book are banned in courthouses across our land.

Public school teachers cannot display scenic posters in their rooms of words from this book are on them, even in small print.

Letters to the editor in some newspapers will not be accepted if they contain words from this book.

These things indicate willful ignorance, or abject rebellion, to the greatest book ever written and the God Who inspired it.

He is the "God-Who-Forgives", and it is time for repentance. He is the God Who loves us, and it is time to follow the practical wisdom from His book.

It is time to turn to God.

Stanley A. Tucker

Carbondale
Pastor Dr. Shane Wall of The Feast of the Lord Church in Orangeburg is being featured on WGN America at 7 a.m. every day this week.

WGN America is airing Walls interview with Sid Roth, host of the show "Its Supernatural." Since its premiere debut in February, the interview has reached millions on cable TV and Internet channels.

The 30-minute interview includes topics like seeing angels, receiving Gods understanding and opening up to the supernatural realm.

Wall, who has seen angels since the age of 5, says he discusses supernatural topics to help Christians enhance their supernatural abilities as followers of Christ.

I didnt realize that through my personal supernatural experiences that thousands would consider me an authority on accessing and operating in the supernatural, he said.

I dont have a sense of pride from their consideration, but rather a strong sense of responsibility to teach and otherwise share everything I know so others can have the same or similar experiences for the betterment and understanding of their lives and the lives of their loved ones, Wall said.

In the interview, he notes that anyone can learn to see angels. He said he believes Christians often have supernatural experiences without realizing it. Wall said he hopes the interview will help Christians better understand the supernatural experiences in their lives.

So many people are interested in supernatural happenings in their lives ... many people say that their name has been called when everyone around them denies speaking their name," the pastor said. "Others literally swear they saw something in their peripheral and if they focused their full attention on the object, it disappeared These and other events have been tucked away in the minds of millions because people do not understand the supernatural realm."

Because WGN America is not Christian-oriented, Wall says he hopes the shows debut on the network will allow more people who dont watch Christian television  to know a greater depth of living the Christian life -- that there is more involved than just attending church services and trying to treat everybody right.

Since the shows premiere, Wall has received thousands of emails, phone calls, comments and other forms of communication from all over the world. His website, www.shanewall.com, has been visited by people from more than 120 countries this year alone, he said.

With all the newfound attention, Wall said he has only been blessed with fame to give God glory.

To me, fame simply means that a lot of people know about me, and what they really want to know is what God has shown me and said to me," he said. "Im excited that God is using my fame to bring people closer to Him, because I can guarantee that people will be extremely close to God if they incorporate into their lives what Im teaching."

Wall is the author of "The Supernatural Guide to Understanding Angels" and "Understanding: All Success is Attained by It."

He says he hopes to team up with another bestselling author to conduct monthly supernatural boot camps in major international cities.

To contact him, visit www.shanewall.com.
T&D Correspondent Yon Line visited her home in Pusan, South Korea, for the first time since 2008.

She returned with the following story and photographs:

When I saw my mother and sisters for the first time in eight years I had tears of joy and happiness.

It is overwhelming. Pusan has changed so much from when I was living there.

There are so many beautiful big buildings, hotels, condos and office buildings. The stores are modern, just like in the U.S. There are still some markets where they sell live fish, squid and octopuses.

I did have some octopus and it was still squirming around when we got it and my first piece was still moving when I put it in my mouth, but after my first bite it tasted really good and chewy.

They sell all kinds of homemade blankets, baskets, Korean clothes and so much more.

The family treated me to a traditional meal of rice, kimchi and fresh fish for each meal with side dishes of seaweed, sliced radishes, bean sprouts, dried fish and a few other dishes.

It is a lot of fun to shop at the open-air markets because you can find so many different things being sold, including fresh live fish, big squid and other live creatures.

It is fun to watch the people dicker over the prices. You can just about find anything at these wonderful old markets, but I am afraid they are dwindling down in numbers.
Several people with ties to The T&D Region will speak at the Democratic National Convention next week.

South Carolina officials slated to appear are S.C. Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison, Sixth District Congressman James Clyburn, former state representative Bakari Sellers and Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.

Sellers called it an awesome opportunity.

The Republican National Convention seemed to focus on the negatives in America, he said.

Were going to talk about the hope, Sellers said.

The DNC will be held in Philadelphia July 25-28. The party faithful plan to formally nominate Hillary Clinton as their candidate for president.

Sellers, a Denmark native, became the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and also the youngest African American elected official in the nation in 2006.

After learning of being chosen to speak at the convention, he tweeted out, Excited does not encapsulate how I feel about the opportunity to speak next week at the #DNCinPHL!!!

I just want to make my parents proud, he said.

Harrison describes himself as a little boy from Orangeburg who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.

Im extremely honored, Harrison said. Its a really amazing thing, a blessing.

He said his speech will focus on investing in schools and infrastructure.

You cant expect a child to do well in school if theyre hungry, he said.

Harrison said his focus is making sure opportunities are extended for all and not just a select few.

He said that the convention will be a platform to show the world how great the Democratic Party is.

Youre going to see a great contrast with what weve been seeing with the Republicans, he said. Youre going to see a unified party.

Clyburn is a South Carolina State University graduate whose congressional district covers much of the region.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a member of the Democratic National Committee, said The T&D Region should be beaming with pride to see representatives from the region up on the national stage.

I think that is fantastic that we have that many South Carolinians, she said.

Cobb-Hunter wants to see the Democratic Party continuing to work hard ahead of the election.

I am not convinced like some (that) its going to be a slam dunk. It will require a lot of work on our part, she said.

What I hope to see come out of the convention is a party focused on November and doing everything we can to make sure that Hillary Clinton becomes the next president of the U.S., she said.
Orangeburg Department of Public Safety officers have arrested a sixth suspect in a bank fraud case.

Teira Lacynthia Fields, 26, of 2163 Flora Drive, North Charleston was charged with forgery of less than $10,000 and bank fraud this week.

Bond was set on Fields at $5,000 surety for the two charges.

According to arrest warrants, between Nov. 13 and Nov. 16, 2015, Fields allegedly wrote three counterfeit checks drafted from an account belonging to Titlemax of Georgia for $1,000 each at the Bennett Street BB&T.

The incident was captured on the bank's surveillance system.

The teller who cashed these checks admitted that she had knowledge these checks were fictitious, the warrant says. Digital snapshots of this incident, statements from the teller, copy of returned checks and other supporting documents were logged into evidence.

Others who have been charged with forgery and bank fraud in this case include: Lashandra Andreal Washington, 26, of 134 N. Romney Street, Apt. D, Charleston; Quintrell Dechane Hills, 25, of 1911 Coulter Road, Orangeburg; Jen Norris Antwain Byrant, 25, of 176 Seacrest Lane, Branchville; Maleiah Asakee Phason Clayton, 23, of 173 Raymond Court, St. Matthews; and Orlandra Karmesha Mimi Lloyd, 22, of 2614 South Allen Drive, North Charleston.

The bank reportedly lost a total of $19,000 through the scheme, which authorities say involved nine people.

ODPS Investigator Delores Felder said there are two more subjects at-large.
The advantages of living in South Carolina include our pristine coast, often pleasant weather (though not necessarily in July) and mostly friendly people.

But before counting our state's distinction of having the nation's lowest gas prices last week as an untainted benefit, consider a contributing  and ultimately self-defeating  factor in that illusory bargain.

While being No. 1 in cheap gas sounds positive, that status stems in large part from the overall negative  and perilous  policy of having one of the nation's lowest gas taxes.

And despite continued common-sense appeals to finally raise that tax to address dangerous funding shortfalls in road maintenance and construction, the Republican-dominated General Assembly again refused this year to take that overdue course.

Thus, our state gas tax is stuck at its 1987 level. Thus, our state's roads and bridges are still stuck in continuing decay.

According to a study last year by The Road Information Program (TRIP), a national transportation research organization, that deteriorating road system imposed annual additional expenses of $1,200 to the average S.C. driver.

The researchers who produced that report, "South Carolina Transportation by the Numbers: Meeting the State's Need for Safe and Efficient Mobility," found that 46 percent of our major roads and highways were in poor condition. This reflects a steep  and continuing  climb from the already-risky 32 percent level in 2008.

The TRIP study also documented that a fifth of South Carolina's bridges were "functionally obsolete."

That alarming reality was reconfirmed when the Rock Hill Herald reported recently:

"Drivers heading from York and Chester counties to Union County on S.C. 9 and S.C. 49 will have to take a 35-mile detour for almost a month as the S.C. Department of Transportation makes repairs to a bridge crossing the Broad River at the small town of Lockhart."

State Transportation Secretary Christy Hall said in a written statement: "This bridge is an example of the type of concerns that we have raised regarding the infrastructure crisis we are facing here in S.C. A long-term, sustainable funding solution must be found in order to address the years of deferred maintenance on the existing road and bridge network for our state."

And the toll taken by our failing road system transcends financial measure. The TRIP study ranked South Carolina as tied with West Virginia for the highest overall traffic fatality rate in the nation. Analysts persuasively cite our bad roads as a crucial contributor to that deadly ranking.

Yes, last month state lawmakers did pass, and Gov. Nikki Haley did sign, a bill that will provide $2.2 billion in road funding over the next decade. But the bill relies on bonds  in other words, borrowing. And the amount of money coming, while significant, falls far short of covering the state's infrastructure needs.

Meanwhile, a practical source of revenue remains untapped by a gas tax that's no higher than it was way back when Ronald Reagan was still president.

That's a foolishly stubborn manifestation of a knee-jerk, anti-tax mentality in a state where 30 percent of the gas tax  in effect, a user's fee  is paid by non-residents.

So sure, at first glance it looks nice to have the nation's lowest gas prices.

But look more closely, and you'll see that it would be much nicer to have a safer, sufficient and sustainable state highway system.

This editorial is from The Post and Courier of Charleston via The Associated Press.
Frederick Stephenson, Minister of National Mobilisation, Social Development and the Family, identified a real need for more facilities to cater to caring for boys and girls who have crossed the law.

The country lacks proper facilities to deal with some of the issues affecting young males and females.





So said Minister of National Mobilisation, Social Development and the Family, Frederick Stephenson at Tuesdays unveiling ceremony of the refurbished building that houses the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home for Girls at Cane End, in the Marriaqua Valley.





According to Stephenson, there was a lot of truancy in the country, particularly among the young female population.





He spoke of the recent refurbishment of the Liberty Lodge Boys Training facility for young boys who have come into conflict with the law.





"But we have to, because there are still a few boys who are around Kingstown, not like how they used to be some time ago with the street boys, we do not have as many as we did before, but there are still some on the streets, Stephenson said.





A facility needed to be constructed to deal with this problem, the minister said, as he pointed to a new trend of many young girls coming into conflict with the law.





Offences committed by some of these troubled girls include theft and burglary, and according to Stephenson, many of them often got involved in fights.





"I believe, as I speak, there are six of them housed at one of the police stations. They are young girls who have come into conflict with the law and have offences of a violent nature, he said.

"So we need more homes like the Guadalupe Home for Girls. It is my hope that we can identify a portion of land somewhere, he said.





The home was officially opened in 2007, two years following the death of Sr Patricia Ann Douglas, who has been credited with the idea of starting such a facility for at risk girls.





Sr Pat, as she was affectionately known, was also credited as the one to give teenaged mothers a second chance to an education.





Stephenson lauded the Catholic Community for the work, saying that perhaps they can collaborate in the future on one of the projects about which he spoke. (DD)
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders summit in Georgetown, Guyana in July said the pull out of U.S. banks is the biggest risk facing their nations. (Photo Credit: caricom.org)

If the Miami Herald is correct, at least 16 banks across five Caribbean countries have had banking ties cut with American Banks since May.





It is a case, according to the Herald, of not continuing relationships or face the cost of hefty fines for US Banks.

All of this follows on the perceived role of Caribbean banks in money laundering and the US banks withdrawal of the so-called correspondent banks, which handle international bank-to-bank transactions in U.S. dollars, like credit card charges at hotels, remittances and payments related to trade and finance.





The concern was one of the leading discussion items during CARICOMs recent summit in Guyana.

"Without correspondent banking services, there are significant implications for trade, investments, and even humanitarian consequences, said Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne during that summit, calling it "perhaps the single, largest risk facing Caribbean countries.





Nowhere in the region is the impact being felt as strongly than in Belize, where only two banks have managed to retain full banking services with commercial U.S. banks.

"We cannot in fact do business in U.S. currency because banks in the United States simply wont entertain our overtures to process our documents, credit card payments, foreign payments, confirmed Wilfred Elrington, the foreign minister of Belize.





U.S. banks argue that, given the Caribbeans small size and the hefty fines now being imposed by regulators trying to stem terrorism financing and money laundering, the risks of clearing checks or transferring money as intermediaries just isnt worth it.

But that argument, Caribbean leaders say, doesnt take into consideration the unintended consequences.

In the Caribbean, some local banks have been forced to close their doors after having ties cut, and money transfer operations have closed after being prevented from opening U.S. bank accounts.

Warren Smith, president of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank, said, while some island-nations do need to strengthen their money laundering laws, U.S. and Canadian banks have made a financial decision that could force people to find other ways to move money, defeating the intention of the tighter controls.

In fact, Saint Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet is on record as saying, "There are some countries right now that are actually chartering planes to fly cash.. . Its ridiculous.

So far, Caribbean leaders havent had much success. Gaston Browne, the Antigua Prime Minister, is said to have personally written to Obama, to no avail.





Earlier this year, Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. regulators, both on behalf of himself and CARICOM. The bank exits, he told them, were hurting his poor, English-speaking Central American nation, which was finding it increasingly difficult to engage in trade.

"The regulators all agreed that, absent a solution, our economies, our societies would go belly up, Barrow told leaders as he recalled the visit. However, outside of "tea and sympathy, Barrow said he didnt get much else.

Still, leaders agreed to step up lobbying efforts and say they plan to hire a U.S. lobbying or law firm. They also are planning a conference in the region later this year to discuss the ramifications of U.S. bank withdrawals. (Source: Miami Herald)
The Cobblestone Inn is one of the few historical structures that remain in capital Kingstown





Evidence has surfaced here showing that there was indeed a bidding process for the Cobblestone Inn, contrary to what Prime Minster Ralph Gonsalves has said.





According to a letter dated 1986 and signed by then Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell, a bidding process did take place, and was eventually won by Basil Charles and Ann Joshua, in a joint tender.





The letter addressed to one Mr. Hughes, Chairman of the National Hotel Limited read, inter alia:

"There does not appear to be a substantial difference in the two leading bids. The Da Silva/Grant offer seems to be conditional on a survey, and there are no such conditions on the Charles/Joshua offer.





"Charles is known to have valuable experience in restaurant management and Joshua is experienced with Cobblestone.





"Government is satisfied that the Charles/ Joshua bid is appropriate and that they would provide what is needed at this point of time.









"I therefore approve the lease for Charles/ Joshua on the terms indicated. Please contact the Solicitor General, and have Mr. Lewis and Mr. Pardasani cooperate in the transfers.





The letter is in stark contrast to what the Prime Minister had said on various radio programmes. In a call to WE FM last Sunday, the Prime Minister asked, "How it is that somebody could be having the rental for government property for 30 years?





He continued, "As far as I know, when Ann (Joshua) got the property first, there was no open tendering process, and when we came to office, she was in the building and she was simply kept there.





Political activists and persons in general have leveled criticism of the government notice of eviction, denouncing it for what they say is an act of victimization, after Graham Bollers, Lawyer for the National Properties Limited (NPL), the state owned entity that has jurisdiction over Cobblestone Inn, wrote to the operator of the hotel, Ann Joshua, giving her two months notice to vacate Cobblestone Inn.





The notice, according to reliable information, was predicated on a situation of rental arrears by the occupant.

Indications are that subsequent to receipt of the letter, Ms. Joshua made a payment against the arrears.

Leader of the New Democratic Party - Arhnim Eustace, speaking on his weekly radio programme, described the act to evict Joshua as, "one of the nastiest acts ever committed by a government against its own people.

However, the Prime Minister downplayed the issue of victimization, noting that Joshua was his first cousin. He said that Joshua was being evicted so that a tenant could be selected via an open and transparent bidding process.

Indications are that the matter of eviction is still on the table, and that the NPL has all intentions of proceeding with a bidding process, to which Ms. Joshua is invited to avail herself.

The building known today as Cobblestone Inn is one of the few remaining buildings in Kingstown, of historical charm and significance.





It was originally built in 1945, and served as a sugar warehouse and was later used to store arrowroot.

It has undergone extensive renovation through the years to facilitate its use as a hotel, and has grown to be popular with business travellers and Caribbean nationals.





Those responsible for its renovations have ensured that the building retains its Georgian architectural features, making it a picturesque standout among the more modern structures that surround it today.

It is, in more ways than one, a sort after commodity.
Top Left: Dr Miriam Sheridan - member of the Board of Directors, recognised the initial steps taken by Sis Patricia Ann Douglas to establish the home. Bottom Left: Digicels Country Manager, John Gidharry, described the undertaking as in keeping with his companys commitment to give back in a big way to the communities that it serves. Right: Digicel has ensured that sleeping accommodation is adequate in the newly refurbished Our Lady of Guadalupe Home for Girls.

It all got started with a handwritten note, sent by Sister Claire Harris - Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Home for Girls, to the Chairman of Digicels Foundation, Denis OBrien.





He responded favourably through Digicels Country Manager, John Gidharry, and on Tuesday, July 19 the result of that favourable response, EC$150,000 in investment to ensure that the experience of those who inhabit the facility is a life changing one. was ready to be unveiled to the general public.





"The little story of how this got started is a showing of how God does not sleep, and answers our prayer, said Dr Miriam Sheridan - member of the Board of Directors of the facility which is aimed at assisting at risk girls.

"And today marks the product of this, she continued.

Sheridan said in her presentation that the home followed in the tradition of the Order of the Sisters of Cluny pushing for education at all levels, and reaching out to the less fortunate in society.

The idea of such a home was that of the late Sr Patricia Ann Douglas, former principal of the St Josephs Convent Marriaqua.

But the work would be carried on by others, including Sr Claire.





Digicel makes the difference





Country Manager John Gidharry, in his address at the unveiling, explained how he received a response from Chairman OBrien, including a post it which read, "Please help as soon as possible.

According to Gidharry, "On Digicels part, we tend to give back in a big way in the communities that we serve; it is one of the things that we live by.





He went on to say that the work at the Home was in keeping with the ideals of Digicels chairman, and what they tend to do not only in St Vincent and the Grenadines, but throughout the territories where they operate.

And so, Digicels undertaking commenced with visits to the Home in Cane End, Mesopotamia, and meetings with the Board.





Gidharry recalled that there were a few concerns, including safety, food storage/safety, plumbing and a number of other areas that needed some attention.

The telecommunications company has ensured that the occupants have adequate bed space, linen and private closet space; the rest room facilities have been refurbished, the lighting and outlets have been checked.

The issue of safety was addressed, and burglar bars installed and barbed wire fencing placed along the perimeter of the property. Significant work was carried out in the kitchen, including the purchase of a freezer to allow for the storage of food items.





The building received a facelift with the interior and exterior walls being painted.

Moreover, as disclosed by Gidharry, as of Monday July 18, Digicel had paid all the utilities for the Home and had established a fund to allow for the bills to be paid on time. Digicel has also committed EC$1,000 monthly in cash towards the sustainability of the home.

A lot of truancy





In giving the final presentation, Minister of National Mobilisation, Social Development and the Family Frederick Stephenson lauded the work of the Catholic Church, and for the vision that Sr Patricia Ann Douglas had in providing such a facility.





Stephenson said that there was a lot of truancy in the country, and that while the Liberty Lodge Boys Training School served as a place for boys in conflict with the law, there was no facility for those young males who take to the streets at night, nor is there any facility for young girls that have come in conflict with the law and who have offences of a violent nature and those related to burglary and theft.

"So we need homes like the Guadalupe home for girls, Stephenson said. (DD)
Camillo Gonsalves, Minister of Labour, urged Public Service Unions to remember that they are servants of the public and faces of the national government.

The Caribbean Public Service Unions have a particularly difficult task relative to other public service entities around the world.





This is the opinion of Minister of Labour, Hon. Camillo Gonsalves, one that he voiced while addressing the Opening Ceremony of the 46th Annual Conference of the Caribbean Public Service Association (CPSA), held on July 17 at the Russells Auditorium, Stoney Ground, Kingstown.

The task facing the Public Service Unions was amplified by the "outsized role that Caribbean governments play in the development of a country.

"We are small countries, we have civil services that tend to be larger than normal; we have demands on the state and on the government that are different, greater than the demands on state and the government in other countries, the Minister said.

He noted, however, that there was an expectation that governments in developing countries be aggressive in achieving the development aspirations of its citizenry so, "we have to play an outsized role in development, in the economy, in keeping the social fabric of our countries together, he claimed.

But the reality, the Minister continued, was that these governments for the most part were cash strapped, burdened by the effects of globalisation, climate change and also the global economic meltdown.

"Challenges are real, and public servants and unions have to navigate this difference between their outsized presence and maybe undersized resources, he proffered.

He, however, observed that this was something that Caribbean Governments, Caribbean Public Service Unions have done with some degree of success over the years, and urged that "that continued success is essential to the progress of all of our countries.

He appealed to the Unions to "have not only a unity of purpose in pursuit of your individual goals, (but also) unity of purpose in the realisation that you are all servants of the public and faces of the national government, and have a role as the implementing agency of the publics will.

"A divided public service either against itself or its brother unions in other countries cannot achieve optimal development in any single one of our countries, he cautioned.
Ms Kyla Da Silva accepts her copy of the 2016 CARNIVAL SOUVENIR MAGAZINE from Cyp Neehall, Editor of THE VINCENTIAN.

The 2016 edition of THE VINCENTIAN CARNIVAL SOUVENIR MAGAZINE is on the market. It is the fourteenth edition to be published to date.





What began as an exploratory venture in 2003 and an attempt to fill a void, has grown into a fixture of the Carnival landscape in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.





The void created by an absence of detailed information on the official carnival activities is filled, and the annual CARNIVAL SOUVENIR MAGAZINE is now anticipated with ever increasing expectations.





Though they would seldom admit it, the Magazine has served journalists here and across the region in good stead. In fact, journalists and readers as far away as Taiwan, the UK, Europe and North America make use of it as a one-stop reference for matters related to our carnival culture.





With consummate ease, they find exact records of winners and losers, and immerse themselves in the spirit of the festival as captured in high gloss print.

The Magazine has met its own challenges, moreso because it attempts to be politically correct about who and what it features.

The most contentious component of the work is the decision that the Editorial Staff makes, as far as the cover is concerned. That has become a mark of recognition for carnival makers, and each component of our Carnival expects that its contribution would be featured on the cover.





This year, the Editorial Staff took an earlier decision to feature pan, as the Magazines cover attraction.

We were pleased to present the first copy of the 2016 CARNIVAL SOUVENIR MAGAZINE to Ms. Kyla Da Silva, a pannist with the Sion Hill Euphonium Steel Orchestra, who graces the cover of our 2016 edition.

Ms Da Silva from Cane End, Marriaqua, has been an active member of that Steel Orchestra for two years, and is also a model with Image Modelling Agency.





We thank her for gracing the cover of our 2016 CARNIVAL SOUVENIR MAGAZINE.





The Magazine is now available for sale at a number of outlets throughout SVG. We urge you to get your copy today.
Thomas Letang, General Secretary of the CPSA, reminded his colleagues that as public servants they are paid to provide a service to the citizenry.

The 46th Annual Caribbean Public Services Association (CPSA) conference was officially opened on Sunday evening at the Russells Auditorium, Stoney Ground, Kingstown .





This years theme, Building stronger public service union through solidarity and unification, was seen as timely by most union representatives who gave greetings on behalf of their respective unions.





In a statement read by General Secretary of the CPSA Thomas Letang, on behalf of Public Service International (PSI) Sub-Regional Secretary Sister Sandra Massiah, she recognized that trade unionists knew the value of working together. "We know that even when we do not initially agree, we must work harder to find common ground to reach mutual agreements for the benefits of all, the statement read.





She further expressed, in her statement, the hope that the weeks activities would be a testimony to that spirit of unity to which previous reference was made.





Speaking in his capacity as General Secretary, Mr Letang said this years theme was selected cognizant of the many herculean tasks or challenges with which trade unions, in particular public sector unions, are faced.

He encouraged his Unions members to not only be united when addressing the things that affect them (public servants), but also in their efforts to bring much needed improvement to the public service in general.

To him, public servants are paid to provide a service to the citizenry, and in that regard, the quality and efficiency of public services cannot be compromised by reporting late for work, tardiness on the job and exercising discourtesy to clients.





He continued; "Very often, we say what is needed, what is required, but we sometimes have to search our own selves and find out where is it that we are going wrong, because our respective countries belong to us, it is not owned by any one person or any one group; and therefore we have to understand that we owe it to our citizens to provide a service to them.





Towards this end, the CPSA General Secretary committed the regional organisation to working together with the policy makers to ensure a better public service.





In his address, President of the CPSA - Mr Elroy Boucher implored workers to understand that "workers issues are workers issues, not partisan political issues, and therefore as workers,  we have to stand with each other.

The conference was expected to climax today, Friday 22.




Allianne Ariel (centre) receives her first cheque from Christa Wilson, Managing Director of Wilson Enterprises Inc. (left) in the company of her mother, Marion Thomas.

The management of Wilsons Enterprises Incorporated has once again come to the assistance of its employees.





In a short presentation ceremony at the Wilson (SOL) Service Station at Villa on Friday 15th July, one full scholarship and two bursaries were presented to children of employees of Wilson Enterprises.





Allianne Ariel received a scholarship valued at EC$1,000 annually for the duration of her secondary schooling, beginning September 2016, at the St Josephs Convent Kingstown.





Basil Clarke and Lamar Jack received one-time payment of EC$250 each.

Elvis Dublin, Manager of the Service Station, said that the gesture was in keeping with a company decision to assist its employees in some tangible way.





"And it was narrowed down to offering a scholarship to the top CPEA performer of an employee, Dublin explained. That gesture was first realised two years ago.





Because there were several creditable performances this year, the decision was taken to offer one full scholarship and additional two bursaries for the first time, Dublin explained.





"This is another way of helping to ease the cost associated with a secondary school education. That is the aim and objective of the whole exercise, Dublin said. (DD)
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/By Azernews/

By Nigar Abbasova

Angolas Sonangol Hidrocarbonetos Internacional oil and gas company is interested in cooperation with Azerbaijans state energy giant SOCAR.

SOCAR reported that the issue was on the highest agenda during the meeting of Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR with Federico Domingos, Director General of Sonangol Hidrocarbonetos ?nternacional and Filomena Oliveira, Deputy Director General of the company.

The representatives of the Angolan delegation expressed their interest in cooperation with SOCAR.

Abdullayev, in his turn, said that great opportunities and a favorable investment climate have been created in Azerbaijan for the operation of international companies. He also mentioned that cooperation with the Angolan company is expected to make a great contribution to the development of relations between the two countries.

SOCAR expanded its presence in Africa in 2015 by buying a 20 percent stake in Benin's Octogone Stockage de Produits Petroliers that engaged in crude storage.

Angola is considered to be one of the largest oil producer as well as the 5th largest economy in Africa with the GDP of $129.785 billion.

Sonangol Hidrocarbonetos ?nternacional Company is a sole concessionaire for exploration of oil and gas on the subsoil and continental shelf of Angola. The company is engaged in the exploration, production, manufacturing, transportation and marketing of hydrocarbons in Angola.

Being a wholly state-owned company and headquartered in Baku, SOCAR produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. The company continuously looks for favorable opportunities for investment in the oil and gas industry.
Armenian armed forces have 10 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry July 22.

Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the Berkaber village of Armenias Ijevan district, on nameless heights and in the Mosesgekh village of the Berd district opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located in the Gizilhajili village of Azerbaijans Gazakh district, Munjuglu and Alibayli villages of the Tovuz district.

Azerbaijani troops also underwent fire from the positions located near the Seyidahmadli village of the Fizuli district and on nameless heights of the Goygol and Goranboy districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
During the negotiations in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, the sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict achieved certain results, Matthew Bryza, former US assistant secretary for South Caucasus and former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, told reporters July 22 in Baku.

The talks not only reduced tension on the contact line of troops, but also led to the beginning of discussions on the conflicts political points, said Bryza.

Azerbaijani foreign ministers statement after negotiations in Vienna and Saint Petersburg also demonstrates that some progress has been achieved during the negotiations, he added.

A presidential meeting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, was held on May 15 in Vienna, Austria.

Another presidential meeting was held June 20 in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the mediation of Russias President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking about Russias role in solving the conflict, Bryza said President Putin is really concerned that the April crisis was very serious and poses a great threat to the outbreak of a war, which is unfavorable for Russia.

The diplomat also noted that Putin can play a role of a peacemaker in this conflict.

Commenting on statements of some political analysts that the five Armenia-occupied districts may be returned to Azerbaijan until late 2016, Bryza said he did not think it could happen so quickly.

Such statements are a pressure on the process, said Bryza, adding he thinks it is not real to realize this step within several months.

Bryza also shares the views of some political analysts that the recent events in Armenia are aimed at disrupting the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

An armed group seized the headquarters of the police and interior troops in Erebuni, Yerevan, July 17, demanding the release of the participant of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, coordinator of the oppositional Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan. He was arrested for illegally purchasing and storing weapons. The government officials are holding talks with the armed groups members.

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.
President Ilham Aliyev has today signed an order providing one-time financial assistance to newspapers published in Azerbaijan.





Under the order, one million manat will be allocated from the President`s Contingency Fund to the State Fund for Support of Mass Media Development for paying one-time financial assistance to local newspapers.




Douglas Emmett, a real estate investment trust (REIT), has announced the acquisition of a key office property in Los Angeles in joint venture with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).



The 365,000-sq-ft Class "A" property, located at 12100 Wilshire Boulevard in the Brentwood submarket of Los Angeles, was acquired for $225 million, or $616 per sq ft.



12100 Wilshire Boulevard represents a classic Douglas Emmett acquisition of a multitenant building in a premier West Los Angeles submarket, said a statement.



Including known move-outs, the property will be 77 per cent leased, significantly below the 97 per cent average of Douglas Emmett's existing Brentwood portfolio, providing an opportunity to add meaningful value through lease-up, it said. The acquisition increases Douglas Emmett's ownership share of the Brentwood Class "A" office market from 50 per cent to 61 per cent, it added.



Douglas Emmett will manage the joint venture and expects to retain a 20 per cent to 30 per cent equity interest, with the remainder held by institutional partners. Due to the below market occupancy of the property, it was acquired using a new secured, non-recourse $90 million interest only loan that matures in July 2019. The loan bears interest at a floating rate of Libor plus 1.55 per cent.



For QIA, this joint venture represents another step in its plans to significantly expand its US investment portfolio, and follows other large investments in real estate, such as the Manhattan West project in New York City last year and the acquisition of the Westwood Office portfolio in Los Angeles earlier this year with Douglas Emmett as its partner. In 2015, QIA announced plans to invest $35 billion in North America over five years. - TradeArabia News Service


The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it had received reports of a "potential, imminent threat" against US citizens in areas of the city of Jeddah frequented by Westerners.



The notice on the embassy's website provided no other details.



"It's a security message, not a travel warning, that our consulate put out in Jeddah. Obviously, our consulate felt that the information they had was credible enough, serious enough to warrant sending that message out immediately," State Department spokesman John Kirby told a briefing.



"There is a potential specific threat to Americans travelling to Jeddah, and in particular, public venues in Jeddah," Kirby said. "So it's very specific to the location and it makes it clear that this is a potential threat to Americans there."



On July 4, a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the US consulate in Jeddah. It was the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom.



The same day, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb near the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, killing four security officers. A third attack took place in the eastern city of Qatif. - Reuters
Vapors leaked from an abandoned gas line Thursday at the Sinclair refinery in Evansville, the company said.

No injuries have been reported, and the seepage has since stopped, said Clint Ensign, senior vice president of government relations for the company.

Workers were excavating on the refinery property when they discovered the unused line. During an attempt to remove the line, employees detected escaped vapors.

Sinclairs emergency response unit was called, entry to the refinery was shut down and a passing freight train was held up, Ensign said.

The Salt Lake City-based company is meeting with Tall Grass Energy, a nearby company, on Monday to address the abandoned line.

The Evansville refinery has not had a lost time injury for about four years, refinery manager Jim Ruble told the Star-Tribune in April. The facility opened in 1923.

Sinclair was fined by the Wyoming Occupational Safety and Health Administration multiple times between 2012 and 2014 after a number of safety violations, explosions and fires at the companys Rawlins refinery.
Helping Others

Stuff the Bus with school supplies

Each year, it costs families between $60 and $100 for basic school supplies for one child. Common supplies include pencils, crayons, highlighters, permanent markers, colored pencils, markers, dry erase markers, binders, safety scissors, erasers, notebook paper, glue sticks, spiral notebooks, composition notebooks, pocket folders, white school glue, backpacks and a plastic supply box.

The Casper Area Education Foundation (CAEF), the Natrona County School District (NCSD), and The Salvation Army have once again partnered to conduct the annual Stuff the Bus drive; a community-wide school supply drive to benefit students in need. The campaign encourages the community to donate simple school supplies at local businesses. Donations will be distributed to families in need at a School Supply distribution event prior to school starting in August.

Donations can be dropped off around town at Reliant Federal Credit Union (Plaza Drive and Landmark Drive branches) ; Platte Valley Bank, 3131 SW Wyoming Blvd ; NCSD Central Services, 970 N. Glenn Rd. ; SunSations Tanning Salon, 1220 W. Collins Dr. ; Keefes Flowers, 632 CY Ave l Foxhill Apartments, 1900 S. Missouri  Office Bldg. 30.

Cash donations are also accepted at casperedfoundation.org

Make fleece blankets

The Fleece Blanket Project provides a time of fun and fellowship while working on a community service project to benefit others. The group will be meeting at First Christian Church, 520 CY Avenue, Saturday, August 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Saturday, September 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This informal group welcomes volunteers of all ages from churches, agencies, and groups, as well as anyone who would like to help cut and tie fleece to make blankets to be given to the homeless and those in need in Natrona County.

To date, volunteers have made 190 blankets which were given to individuals and agencies that provide help to those in need of warmth and comfort. In addition to volunteering your time, you may donate fleece (2 yards each of two complementary colors/patterns). Bring sharp scissors if you have them or just come and tie! Parking is in back of the church. If you have any questions, please call First Christian Church at 234-8964.

Blood donors have chance to win Ranger

Blood Donors who give at United Blood Services blood center or blood drives through September 9, 2016, will be automatically entered to win a 2016 Polaris Ranger 900XP in the Rollin Up for a Ranger Giveaway.

We are excited to offer this giveaway particularly now because donations have been down, said Jennifer Bredahl, regional donor recruitment cirector, United Blood Services. We encourage new and existing donors to participate in this fun promotion to ultimately save lives and to ensure our supply is strong enough to respond to any emergencies or traumas.

To make an appointment please call 877-827-4376 or go to www.UnitedBloodServices.org.

To save time, donors can now fill out their Fast Track Health History Questionnaire online at www.UnitedBloodServices.org the day of their donation. To donate blood, volunteers must be at least 16 years old (16 year old donors need a minor donor permit which is available online) and be in good health. Must be 18 years or older to win. Offer applies to participating United Blood Services blood centers and mobile blood drives operated within Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana.

Thanks to Blue Envelope

Pathfinder Boat and Fishing Club would like to thank Blue Envelope Health Fund for their donation of an AED. This piece of equipment will be housed at Pathfinder Marina and would be used in a life saving event. The board and members of Pathfinder Boat Club thank you for your generosity.

Suggestions for food bags

The Wyoming Food for Thought Project is now providing weekend food bags to nearly 600 children in Natrona County weekly. While all donations are appreciated and used, this year the staff has compiled a list of things to donate monthly, in order to stock the shelves of the pantry at the program center.

Here is a list of suggestions for the entire year: July, canned vegetables; August, Chef Boyardee products; September, pork and beans; October, cereal; November, soup; December, canned chili.

Donations can be dropped off any time at Food for Thought drop site locations, which include Great Harvest Bread, eastside WAC, Reliant FCU, Mary Ann's Beans, Casper College Library, Aspen Ridge Dental, and the Food for Thought Program Center, 900 St. John St.
Grownup Stuff

Patio talks at trails

The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center (NHTIC) is once again hosting summer afternoon programs on pioneer and Wyoming history. These short interpretive programs, ranging from 20-45 minutes, are free and open to the public.

July 24, 1 p.m. Navigating the Plains in the 1800s: Join us as Kevin Reddy, Living Historian and re-enactor, shares the intricacies, methodology and science of land navigation in the 1800s. Kevin will provide a sound perspective of the transportation corridors, including migration and commerce along the pioneer route known as the Great Platte River road.

July 30, 1 p.m. Native American Spiritual Traditions: Stop in and help us welcome back Willie Leclair, Wyoming's resident ambassador for the Eastern Shoshone people! Willie brings articles of worship and describes their significance as he explains a Shoshone spiritual perspective on the world and the human being's place in it. This is a wonderful opportunity to interact with a Shoshone cultural interpreter!

July 31, 1 p.m. Pioneer Doll Making: During the early days of America, children often played with dolls. Dolls could be soft and cuddly, such as a rag doll or made from other items found in the home. Dolls were easy to make and were generally made from scraps of fabric already available. Since these dolls were homemade, surely no two were ever the same! Join NHTIC volunteer Jean Smart as she illuminates the most popular of these early American pastimes.

For more information, please contact Jason Vlcan at (307) 261-7780.

Four Casperites in state Dem delegation

Four Casper Democrats will be among the 18 Wyoming delegates attending the National Convention in Philadelphia July 24-28. Michael Bond, Natrona County educator, Mary Hales, Wyoming national committee woman, Brenna Cain and Matthew Frias (alternate) were chosen at the State Convention in Cheyenne on May 9 to represent Wyoming.

Of the 18 delegates going, seven represent Hillary Clinton, seven represent Bernie Sanders, and the four super delegates represent Clinton. The super delegates are from the Wyoming Democratic Partys elected leadership; they are State Chair and Vice Chair, National Committee Woman and National Committee Man.

Wyoming will be represented on three national DNC committees during the convention. On the Platform and Credentials committees, representing Bernie Sanders, will be Richard Kusaba and Michelle Argento, respectively, while Bonnie Brown Koelb will be on the Rules and ByLaws committee, representing Clinton.

Ana Cuprill, Wyoming Democratic state chair, said the states 2016 Platform adopted at the May 9 convention will be considered along with those from all other states during the National Convention.

Republican legislative and commissioner debate

The Natrona County Republican Party and the Natrona County Republican Women will be hosting a Republican primary Legislative and County Commissioner debate on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at the Ramkota in the Theatre Room.

It is open to the public. The doors will open at 6 p.m., and the debate will start at 6:30 p.m. We will be doing the Legislative Debates first for House Districts 37, 56, 57 and 58; followed by the County Commissioner candidates. Each House District will take approximately 30 minutes and the commissioner candidates will be 30 minutes and start approximately at 8:35 p.m.

Questions can be submitted to chairman@natronagop.com or there will be an opportunity to drop them in a basket the night of the debate. No questions from the floor and no personal attack questions -- issue questions only. The moderator will be Brian Scott Gamroth, Natrona County state committeeman.

Monthly vets service July 29

The Natrona County United Veterans Council and the staff of the Oregon Trail Wyoming State Veterans Cemetery conduct a monthly memorial service for those known Wyoming veterans who have died since our last memorial service which was held on June 30, when we honored 58 Wyoming veterans.

This months memorial service will be held at noon, Friday, July 29, in the Tom Walsh Chapel at The Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery. All are welcome to attend.

This memorial service is provided on behalf of a grateful state and nation as an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by each of these veterans.

The veterans name, Wyoming community and branch of service is read at roll call. There is a rifle salute, taps, and the folding of a flag.

Date Night at the Museums

The Casper Museum Consortium is holding its 6th annual Date Night at the Museums on Friday, July 29, 2016. A ticket to Date Night means VIP tours at four museums in Casper, transportation all evening, catered gourmet food at all the sites, and a cash bar with specialty drinks, all for only $90 per couple.

This is your chance to escape the ordinary date night and do something fun and unique, says Rachel Hedges, Marketing Coordinator for the Consortium. This is great for couples who have been together 50 years, or this is the perfect first date.

The caterer, Flat Iron Grill, will be serving a Caribbean-inspired menu at each location throughout the evening. We will begin at The Science Zone at 5:30 p.m., where we will enjoy some appetizers. The Science Zone Explainers will be on hand to show you animals in the Zoo Zone and let you play with their current exhibit Design Zone. Then we hop on the Casper College bus and go The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center for the main course and a special presentation by historian Bruce Berst that is perfect for this election year.

Back on the bus, we will go to The Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum on the grounds of the WWII Army Air Base, where experts and historians will tell stories of Wyomings military heroes and showcase an exciting recent addition to their collection.

Finally, we get to enjoy our Caribbean dessert at The Werner Wildlife Museum. We will visit the new Taxidermy area, the new Childrens Area, and all the animals on display where you can get up close to the Grizzly Bear, Bison, and Polar Bear.

Register via PayPal at our website: www.caspermuseums.org, or in person with cash or check at The Science Zone, 111 W. Midwest. Space is limited.

Last chance for ghost tours

Casper Theater Company will host the downtown Casper Ghost Tour on Thursday and Friday, July 28-29. This will be the last week of the tour until next summer. We have done more research, added some new stories, and a new tour guide. This tour will excite you with creepy stories from business owners and employees of downtown businesses, on sightings of the paranormal. You can bring your cameras and as you pass through the alleys take photos, and find the phenomenon not found by the naked eye. Reservations are required for this tour by calling 267-7243, where you can find out times, ticket location and starting point of the tour. The cost is $25 per person and is filling up fast. Please come join us for a summer tour to intrigue your senses and make your skin crawl!

Wyoming Blues Challenge

Calling all Wyoming Blues Bands and Solo/Duo Blues acts. Here's your chance to represent Wyoming in Memphis at the International Blues Challenge. Prelims will be held on August 7 at the Alibi Pub in Laramie and August 20 at the Attic above the World Famous Wonder Bar in Casper. Finals will be held on September 18 in the ballrooms at the Parkway Plaza. If you think you have what it takes, contact Rick Davis at wyomingblueschallenge@gmail.com to get rules and receive your entry information.

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

Submit to miniature show

ART 321/Casper Artists Guild would like to invite all artists to submit entries in our 22nd Annual International Miniature Art Show 2016. You can find the specifications on entries and entry forms by visiting our website at art321.org and looking under Exhibits.

Fees and entries are due July 30, 2016. The show opens to the public on August 4, 2016, and closes August 27, 2016.

Cash awards and ribbons will be given. Size of cash awards will depend upon number of entries.

Dr. Valerie Innella Maiers is the show judge. She teaches art history and museum studies in the Visual Arts Department at Casper College.
LOVELL  For portions of the past two summers Kacia Cain  an otherwise easygoing high school biology teacher in Des Moines, Iowa  has discovered her wild side in the dry foothills of north-central Wyoming.

Id never done anything at all like this, she said, noting that camping in an RV at a KOA used to be her idea of roughing it. But this was such an opportunity to come out and dig in an ice age cave.

Cain, 51, is one of several volunteers who have devoted part of their summers to helping researchers uncover fossils in Natural Trap Cave, located about 25 miles northeast of here. Just getting to the campsite and cave at the base of the Big Horn Mountains was an adventure for the Corn Belt educator used to flatter lands.

I didnt think it counted as a road, Cain said of the rocky and rutted route that requires a four-wheel drive vehicle. Then we had to make decisions on the flats about which road to take. It seemed to me that there could be some bad decisions made.

The worst was yet to come, though. After finally arriving at the remote site the reality of rappelling 85 feet to the bottom of the cave roused Cains adrenaline, nearly overwhelming her.

I was terrified every time I went over the edge, she said.

Nightmares

In that respect she was not alone.

Paleontologist Jennifer Cavin of Bend, Oregon, used a portion of her vacation to visit Natural Trap Cave last week. Descending into a 40-degree cave and mucking around in coveralls on her hands and knees in the dirt and mud in search of fossils may not seem like a holiday to most folks.

What was I doing? she questioned jokingly. But its not as dark as I thought it would be and theres no bats, which is nice.

She had to admit the descent into the cave, and the ascent using a confusing array of climbing gear, has made the project especially challenging.

My nightmares last night all involved hanging and not being able to get out, she said.

It was up to Juan Laden to ease everyones climbing fears. He volunteered as the lead climbing instructor and safety guru after hearing about the project from friends. Tanned and weather beaten, Laden said that although the attachments to the climbing harness may look like spaghetti, each piece plays a role in safely entering and leaving the cave.

Dropping mom

Camp coordinator Cory Redman of Des Moines University even talked his 60-year-old mother  Marynell Oechesner  into climbing into the abyss when she visited from her Powell home.

She loved it, he said. The hardest part is stepping off that ledge the first time. It gets easier the more you do it.

Unlike some of the other volunteers who were fearful of descending into the cave, Redman saw the activity as an attraction.

I actually had never done any cave paleontology, but when someone gives you the opportunity to rappel 85 feet  hell yeah, sign me up, he said.

Sucked in

Now that shes a veteran of several descents and ascents into and out of Natural Trap Cave, Cain said she has a bit of fun dangling 85 feet in the air. After that as a start to the work day, everything else may seem pretty dreary, especially in the cool dimness of the cave. But Cain said even scratching in the tan clay in search of fossils contains moments of joy.

Its amazing to uncover these creatures that havent been uncovered since the ice age, she said.

Cain got sucked into the project after meeting one of the group leaders, professor Julie Meachen, a paleontologist at Des Moines University. Some of Cains students volunteer as fossil cleaners at Meachens laboratory.

I wanted to show students that there are other places to use physiology and anatomy, Cain said. I think a lot of the kids dont realize this kind of work still goes on.

If she was going to try and interest her students in the work, Cain felt obligated to check it out for herself. Thats how she ended up in a Wyoming cave kneeling on a blue foam rubber mat, wearing a helmet and headlamp while scraping away dirt far below the caves yawning mouth.

I figured I couldnt sell it really well if I didnt do it myself, she said.

It worked. Her enthusiasm for the project has rubbed off on her students, and three times as many volunteered at Meachens paleo lab last school year  the maximum amount.

Regression

Despite her journey into the Wyoming backcountry, which has included tent camping and rappelling into the depths of a musty cave where a colony of mice and packrats live while a bull snake circles the opening, Cain said the adventurousness hasnt extended into other parts of her life.

It hasnt changed me into a caver or a camper, she said, although it has made her more interested in going on an adventure if the opportunity presents itself.

Her family remains fascinated by her fearlessness but confused by Cains desire.

This is all really very cool to them, but they would never do it, she said.

Maybe it is because in some respects Cain has regressed during her Wyoming adventures.

We know its time to go when the sun hits the rock over here, she said pointing her trowel toward a large mound. I guess that makes this seem even more primitive, telling time by the sun.
A man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old Casper boy has no prior convictions on his record for sex-related crimes, a police official said Friday.

Joshua Winters has had prior contact with law enforcement, but nothing like this, said Casper police Sgt. Mike Ogden.

Authorities charged Winters, 33, on Wednesday after the boy was discovered Monday evening more than an hour after going missing from El Mark-O bowling alley. The boy, who was found near the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds, told police Winters had sexually assaulted him. Winters faces charges of aggravated kidnapping and sexual abuse of a minor.

Winters had come to Casper to work as a food vendor at the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo, court documents show. He worked for a man who contracted with Crabtree Amusements, the company that puts on the carnival at the fair. A woman who works for Crabtree said Thursday that Winters went through a background check in Austin, Texas, and did not have a criminal record.

We are tracking where hes been, Ogden said.

A website for the Ada County Sheriffs Office in Boise, Idaho, shows Winters has an active warrant for failure to appear. That warrant stems from an arrest for misdemeanor battery, Ogden said. Idaho officials do not wish to extradite Winters on the warrant, he said.

Winters is expected to appear in the upcoming weeks in Natrona County Circuit Court for his preliminary hearing. During that hearing a judge will decide if there is probable cause for the case to proceed to trial.
A carnival worker accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Casper boy went through a background check before starting work and had no criminal history, an amusement company employee said Thursday.

Authorities charged Joshua Winters on Wednesday for the abduction, which allegedly took place two days earlier at an arcade at a local bowling alley. The boy later told police Winters sexually assaulted him, according to court documents.

Sarah Bertozzi, who works for Texas-based Crabtree Amusements, the company that puts on the carnival for the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo, said Winters worked for a man who contracted with Crabtree. The court documents state Winters was a food vendor at the carnival.

Bertozzi said a background check was completed in Austin, Texas, on Winters and no criminal record was found.

Winters, 33, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. He was being held Thursday in the Natrona County Detention Center. Winters is expected to appear in the upcoming weeks in Natrona County Circuit Court for his preliminary hearing. During that hearing a judge will decide if there is probable cause for the case to proceed to trial.

Police began investigating the alleged kidnapping about 7 p.m. Monday after the victims mother reported the boy had gone missing after walking to the arcade at the El Mark-O bowling alley with two older brothers and another child, the court documents state.

At about 8:15 p.m., a woman brought the victim to the Mills Police Station, according to the court documents. She said she had found the boy at an intersection, which is redacted in the documents, and the boy had been alone and crying.

Police said Tuesday the boy had been found near the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds.

The boys clothes were wet and his left cheek appeared swollen, the documents state. He also had a large amount of sand on his clothing, arms and legs. When asked by police if he was all right, the child said Im not OK, the documents state. He said he left the arcade with the guy that gives me things. He also said he and the man went by the river so the man could show me his camp.

When officers asked the boy if anything happened at the river, the boy said the man touched him inappropriately, according to the documents. The child also said the man told him if he screamed or told anyone what happened, the man would kill him, the documents state.

Authorities arranged for the victim to be interviewed at the Childrens Advocacy Project, the documents state. During the interview, the boy said he had been stolen by a man he did not know. He also described how the man sexually assaulted him.

The boy was taken to Wyoming Medical Center and was seen by a sexual assault nurse examiner, according to the documents.

Officers were able to identify Winters as a possible suspect through employees at the bowling alley, according to the documents. He had bowled a game with a group of carnival workers and had also purchased drinks at the bar and had showed the bartender an ID card, the documents state. Police contacted the manager of the carnival workers and were able to locate Winters.

Three carnival workers who were with Winters at the bowling alley said they saw Winters playing games in the arcade with a child, according to the documents. One of the witnesses said they saw Winters leave through the parking lot with a kid and that the child appeared to be leaving willingly.

Police also viewed security footage, which showed a man fitting Winters description being followed by a male fitting the description of the victim, according to the documents.

Winters told police someone stole money from his wallet while at the arcade, the documents state. Winters said he and a child left the arcade in order to recover the missing money. However, the boy jumped or fell into the North Platte River and Winters went in to save him from drowning.
CHEYENNE  The Federal Election Commission has raised concern about information missing for several of U.S. House candidate Leland Christensens donors including his own campaign treasurer, an issue records show has persisted through two quarterly campaign finance reports.

Meanwhile, the campaign was a week late Friday filing information including Christensens income sources with the U.S. House Ethics Committee. Christensen plans to file the information immediately and pay a late fee, campaign spokeswoman Kristin Walker said by email Friday.

Christensen, a state senator from Alta, said Thursday he was unaware of the FEC concerns but would consult with the Virginia firm handling his finance reports.

This is new to me, Christensen said. Just so we wouldnt have FEC issues, we went with a firm that came highly recommended as the best in the business.

State Sen. Ogden Driskill, a fellow Republican who is treasurer of Christensens campaign, also said he was unaware the FEC two months ago requested additional information on the occupations and employers of several donors. The campaigns first-quarter report, electronically endorsed with Driskills name in typeface, instead reported that information was requested per best efforts for 38 donors.

The donors included Driskill himself, a state senator and rancher in the Devils Tower area who gave $1,500 to the campaign in February, according to the report. Im sure its just oversight. Lelands about the most upstanding and honest guy Ive ever met. Its certainly not anything I knew anything about, Driskill said.

Reporting that information had been requested per best efforts is unacceptable without documentation of efforts that comply with federal campaign finance laws, FEC senior campaign finance analyst Robin Kelly wrote in a May 23 request for additional information.

Christensens campaign resubmitted its first-quarter report in response to the FEC letter. The campaign also filed a letter explaining its best efforts included following up with donors by mail seeking the missing information.

Yet the resubmitted report still omitted the occupations and employers of Driskill and 14 others including Bill Winney, a retired U.S. Navy submarine commander from Bondurant who sought the Republican nomination for U.S. House in 2008.

The campaigns second-quarter report, due July 15, omitted the occupations of Driskill, who made a $500 in-kind contribution in June, and 10 others, including state Sen. Drew Perkins, a Casper attorney; and state Sen. Curt Meier, of LaGrange, who works in his familys agribusiness.

Christensen identified the firm handling his finance reports as Compliance Consulting. The company did not have a listed number, and Christensens campaign did not immediately provide one when asked Thursday and Friday.

FEC officials said they could not comment on specific campaign finance issues with candidates. The Christensen campaign currently is in good standing with the FEC and has received no new notices to the contrary, Walker said.

Through the end of June, Christensen had raised $107,488, spent $64,291 and had $43,196 remaining. The other top money-raising candidates among the nine Republicans running were Liz Cheney, who raised $1.1 million and had $640,917 left; and Tim Stubson, who raised $199,629, including a $60,000 loan to himself, and had $82,780 left.

Cheneys finance reports list employer and occupation information for all her donors. Stubson has reported that information for all donors except one in the second quarter who listed both as N/A or not applicable.
Descendants of Northern Cheyenne tribal members who fled Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in 1879, returned recently to dedicate a memorial thats been 15 years in the making.

More than 200 members of the tribe gathered around the four-sided pyramid-shaped monument inlaid with precisely cut slabs of red pipestone. A brass plaque on each side is inscribed with historic words of the Northern Cheyenne. The 15-foot-high, 22-ton monument is 20 feet tall, including the two-dimensional stainless steel Morning Star designed to appear straight on from all angles.

The dedication began July 14 at Fort Robinson as people joined together to walk the 2 miles to the monument, turning off of Highway 20 onto a new road leading up to the site. Above the monument are skyscraping cliffs where archaeologists have uncovered clues that skirmishes with soldiers took place there after the escape.

This is a healing event, said Jay Mullins, an engineer who has been working on the project for more than a decade. His remark echoed the sentiments heard over and over from speakers during the dedication.

The idea for the memorial came in 2001 after Edna Seminole, then 75, made the pilgrimage from Montana to Fort Robinson with others to visit the site where her ancestors had made a heroic, desperate escape from Army imprisonment during the freezing Great Plains winter. She, Rosie Eaglefeathers and others left in tears, heartbroken.

There was no tangible recognition of the Fort Robinson Outbreak, in which 149 escaped and 61 were killed in their efforts to reach freedom.

There was an old wood sign with bullet holes through it. Thats all, Seminole said. How could this be, they wondered, during the long drive home. Their thoughts then turned to What can we do about it?

Determined to get a proper memorial erected on the site, Seminole and Eaglefeathers began fundraising on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.

They began with $200 from Seminoles son Vincent Whitecranes employer, Western Energy. With the money they bought the best cuts of meat, and their meat bingo games were wildly successful. From their small apartments at the Heritage Living Center in Ashland  an assisted living facility funded solely by private donations  they brainstormed.

Then there was a breakthrough with the land. A Nebraska rancher and friend of the Cheyennes, T.R. Hughes, had always believed there needed to be a monument. His and his wife Kays land surrounded the site. When the land the monument sits on today came up for sale, he bought it and donated 350 acres to Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer.

Another friend who had received a rare permit to pull stone from the Pipestone rock quarry in Pipestone, Minnesota,  the only place on Earth where geology has formed the red soft rock  determined he would help, a lot. Rick Hall, a Northern Cheyenne, mined the massive slabs for the monument, noting the specific grade and thickness required was 12 feet below ground. Machinery is not permitted in the quarry. Shovel, slegehammer and buckets, he said. Hall eventually moved to Crawford, Nebraska, a few miles from the monument.

A huge development came when a Wisconsin engineer spoke with Seminoles brother Ralph in the early 2000s. Mullins threw in and brought a contractors arsenal of equipment and labor every summer to the site beginning in 2004. The structure began to take shape.

Then we ran out of money, Seminoles son Vincent said, who by then was fully invested in the project.

David Sands runs a private land conservation organization out of Lincoln, Nebraska. They had it three-fourths finished but needed money for the professional services they couldnt do, he said.

The road, plaques, trimming would require $150,000. Sands and others facilitated behind-the-scenes fundraising and discovered there were many in the Lincoln area who loved the project. In two years they had they money.

Looking over the scene Friday one couldnt help but sense a feeling of pure joy and satisfaction. Few Indians came here before this (to Fort Robinson), said pipestone supplier Hall. Now they will.

Hughes died before he could see it completed. His wife, Kay, was at the dedication.

Four teepees were positioned a hundred yards or so from the monument forming the corners of a rectangle. Bison grazed in an adjacent field on Fort Robinson State Park land. Overcast skies turned sunny and an eagle appeared overhead.

The monument is on private land and unaffiliated with state or government operations. However, park services have endorsed and supported the project from the beginning.

The thing is, we are all from here, Whitecrane said, meaning those on the reservation today are all descendants of the men, women and children in a single wooden army barracks 137 years ago, breaking out into the winter.

Eaglefeathers died in 2013. Seminole, now 89, saw it through.

A dozen speakers took turns speaking. Clearly there were many people, subcommittees and organizations who contributed to getting the monument built. From Mullins perspective, theres only one reason its there.

She was firm and determined. She made staunch decisions. No question, its Edna.
A Utah prosecutor said he can't file anything tougher than misdemeanor assault charges this week against two Wyoming men accused of attacking two gay Salt Lake City men because the state's hate crimes law is too broadly written and needs to be strengthened to include LGBT protections.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Thursday that he didn't file misdemeanor assault charges until Wednesday in the 2014 attack because his office spent a lot of time trying to see if federal prosecutors could build a case against the men, or if his office could charge the duo under Utah's hate crimes law, which he calls vague.

The two men who prosecutors say were attacked, Rusty Andrade and his friend Maxwell Christen, spent time at Utah's Capitol earlier this year advocating for lawmakers to pass a new hate crimes law.

According to court documents, Andrade and Christen were outside Andrade's house on the night of Dec. 21, 2014, when they hugged and were approached by the two Wyoming men, Chad Ryan Doak and Eric Levi Johnson.

Doak and Johnson made homophobic comments and used gay slurs before attacking the two men, according to prosecutors.

Doak punched Andrade several times in the face and they fell to the ground in the struggle, while Johnson attacked Christen, pulling him to the ground by his neck, according to court documents.

A neighbor and a bouncer at a nearby gay bar tried to intervene and the two Wyoming men fled.

After the fight, Andrade had a cervical strain, head trauma, a rib contusion and several teeth knocked loose. Christen had a sore neck and face and chin bruise, police said.

Johnson, a 26-year-old from Rock Springs, and Doak, a 25-year-old from Green River, did not yet have listed attorneys to comment on their behalf. Johnson had no listed telephone number and a number for Doak was disconnected Thursday.

A judge issued arrest warrants for both men, who are believed to be in Wyoming, Gill said.

He said it's up to Wyoming police to arrest the men and he did not know whether that could happen anytime soon. He said if the men were arrested, he'd try to extradite them to Utah.

Andrade and Christen both lobbied for Utah to pass a stronger hate crimes law earlier this year, something legislators rejected. Gill said that had the legislation passed, it wouldn't have applied in their case because the law change would not have been retroactive.

But Gill said Thursday that the case shows why Utah needs a change.

Utah is one of 15 states with hate crime laws that lack protections for sexual orientation and identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Utah's law does not spell out any protected traits, such as religion or race, but instead speaks generally about crimes that cause a person to fear they cannot freely exercise their constitutional rights.

"It is one that is so difficult to access and apply," Gill said.

Earlier this year, Utah lawmakers rejected a bill to toughen the hate crimes law and allow higher penalties if a crime was motivated based on a victim's race, religion or sexual orientation, among other things. Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, sponsored the bill and said it was "effectively snuffed out" by the Mormon church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement urging legislators not to upset a balance between religious and LGBT rights. Mormon church officials declined to elaborate on the statement, but its comments had an impact on lawmakers, most of whom are members of the faith.
CHEYENNE  Its official  Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.

While some of Wyomings top elected officials dont necessarily agree with everything Trump does or says, theyre supporting his bid for the nations highest office.

In an interview this week, Gov. Matt Mead reiterated that while hes not on board with all of Trumps actions, he thinks the billionaire is the best of the Republican and Democratic choices.

I think its important for the party to support our nominee, he said. While I certainly have disagreements with Donald Trump  I just think Donald Trump would be better for Wyoming than Secretary Clinton.

I am going to be voting for our nominee, he said.

Mead said he was pleased to see Trumps selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.

Pences experience in Congress and as a governor make him a good fit for the vice presidency, Mead said.

Mead said he has known Pence since Pence was elected in 2012, and the two have spent time together.

He is a gentleman, and Ive enjoyed the times he and I have had to visit together over the years, he said.

Other Republican governors have also had positive words about Pence, such as Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, the Tennessean reported.

Mead plans to be in Cleveland today for the final day of the Republican National Convention. Hell attend two Republican Governors Association events, as well as the convention itself.

Im hoping to be there at a time when I can hear both Mike Pence and Donald Trump speak, he said.

Mead said he hopes future presidential debates improve from where they were during the primary process.

I wish the debates wouldve been elevated beyond what they were, he said. I think they digressed into areas not relevant to the country.

U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, said through a spokesman he will back Trump in the general election.

The Republican nomination process allows the people to choose the candidate that will represent them and the party in the presidential race, he said. They made it clear that Donald Trump was their choice, and I support that choice.

I have already announced my support of Donald Trump, Enzi said. You dont become a success in business without weathering the downs.

Enzi criticized President Barack Obamas handling of the economy and said Democratic candidates are not prepared to handle the countrys finances.

We dont want more of the same, he said. The other partys candidates dont know business. They know how to spend money, but not where it comes from. It would be good to have someone who understands jobs and the economy. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I can tell you that our budget outlook is not good. We need someone who will take a look at old programs that arent working and eliminate them.

Trump has been criticized for his business practices. Four Trump-owned corporations have filed for bankruptcy, and several other business ventures folded within a few years of being created.

A USA Today investigation also found hundreds of people who said Trump didnt pay them for work they performed.

Joe Spiering, a spokesman for Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, said Lummis also supports Trumps presidential bid.

Rep. Lummis supports Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president, he said. After serving eight years in Congress and facing off daily against the Obama administration, Rep. Lummis understands how eight more years of the same administration under Hillary Clinton would be disastrous.

Though Rep. Lummis doesnt agree with Donald Trump on everything, a Trump presidency will offer far more opportunities to advance Wyomings interests, while a Clinton presidency would continue and expand Obama administration policies that hurt jobs and families in Wyoming, he said.
At one time in my life my husband and I and our children lived a few miles south of Lopez Lake, California. A woman from town came to visit once. She did not stay long, saying she could not imagine dwelling in a place like ours. Id be scared the dam would break. The waters would rush down and sweep my house away, drowning everyone inside.

Similar apprehensions appear to exist among the residents of Rock Springs, as concerns subsidence. At least thats how J.J. Anselmi explains the hopelessness and despair of the many suicides and substance abusers in his autobiography, Heavy.

He was 9 when his dads best friend shot himself with a 12-gauge shotgun. Another of his fathers friends killed himself in 2006. A couple of uncles did themselves in. Meanwhile, all through his and his sisters childhood, Anselmi Sr., as described by his son, was a habitual drunk and pot user stoned out of his head. The friends were users of pot, heroin, and alcohol.

(A word to the squeamish: The author makes liberal use of the f word, beginning with the subtitle.)

After explaining that, between 1875 and 1930, Rock Springs produced more coal than any other town connected to the Union Pacific Railroad  Rock Springs still proudly identifies itself as a mining boomtown, and an old town sign describes the city as home of coal  Anselmi delves into the underbelly of coal companies take on capitalism: the subsidence holes that appear when mine shafts cave in.

These holes have showed up in Rock Springs since the early 1900s. They are still an issue because mine owners often lied about the square footage of their mines.

The companies sought to avoid tax increases that were calculated by the size of the mines. Their lies resulted in unreliable and incomplete coal mine maps that cause problems to this day.

Built on top of an old mine shaft, the foundation of East Junior High cracked when the shaft caved in. The only solution was to destroy the school, he writes of his schooldays. Earlier, During Sunday Mass at the downtown Catholic church in January of 1949, a massive patch of street suddenly caved in, creating a sixty-by-eighty foot maw directly in front of the church. ... Several voids opened under a small neighborhood in 1968, severely damaging ten houses.

In the early 70s, the city tried to deal with subsidence by pouring massive amounts of sand and water into those mines it was able to pinpoint. But the water destroyed the support beams in the mines, mostly just causing more subsidence holes. ... In 2007, twenty- and thirty-ton weights were smashed into the ground to cave in mines, and thus avoid unforeseen subsidence.

Unfortunately, the planners failed to consider the vibrations from this process, which damaged homes in nearby neighborhoods; additionally, previously unknown mines opened up beneath houses. Peoples walls cracked. Floors and driveways sunk. Window and door frames warped. A few people got carbon monoxide poisoning from gas that was trapped underground.

The latest attempt is injecting grout into several sections of a mine, which creates stabilizing columns. Of course, this can be done only insofar as a mine is known to exist.

In the past 30 years alone, Wyoming has spent over $160 million on these efforts, observes Anselmi.

Did the coal companies who created the problem help finance the burden? I doubt it. The corporate way is to sell a company to a competitor who then claims that the problem was none of its doing.

Another ugly outcome of railroad-and-coal capitalism was the Rock Springs Massacre.

In 1885,150 white railroad workers slaughtered twenty-eight Chinese immigrants, wounded fifteen, and forced several hundred others out of town.

Anselmi believes the reason for the pogrom was Chinese willingness to work for lower wages. Werent the pitiful wages were forced upon them by the railroad bosses? Immigrants with non-white complexions were cheated twice. Sometimes they were cheated out of their very lives. Yet still we celebrate the march of capitalism.

Its high time Wyoming planned for a future without coal. Relying on this industry is like booking a ticket on the Titanic, writes Jackson Hole resident Griffin Post in a recent issue of Powder River Breaks. Coal mining is more than ugly. Coal is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change and jeopardizing our bountiful snowpack, our winter tourism industry, and our childrens future. He highlights renewable energy as the job-creating opportunity of the next several decades.

While electricity generated with coal may be the least expensive source of power, its damage to the environmentand to the human spirit, as detailed by Anselmiis immeasurably costly.
Once again, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves in a bind after a surprise attack lands them in hot water on a new planet.

The film is screening at most theaters in Tucson starting this weekend.
Detectives Jeered By Prisoners Held For Running Blind Pigs

Roar of Derision Interrupts Court; Baker Guilty in two Cases

A demonstration by prisoners in the county jail against Detectives Tom and Allen Love, who have been instrumental in working up evidence against some of the defendants in Bootlegging cases on the docket of the present session of the superior court, occurred yesterday afternoon during the trial of Charles Phillips and Hannah Phillips, colored, charged with bootlegging.

The detectives were waiting in a room on the second floor of the court house, waiting to be called to the witness stand. When one of them appeared at an open window overlooking the jail court, shouts of derision went up from the prisoners assembled in the court below. The demonstration followed, it is said, when John Baker, who had just been convicted in the second case against him charging bootlegging, called attention to the detective in the window.

The windows in the back of the court room were open and the chorus of jeers that came up from below came near disturbing the procedure of the Phillips case. Several person rushed to the window to learn the cause of the disturbance, some thinking that a free-for-all fight had been started in the jail.

The two detectives were employed by the board of supervisors to ferret out blind tigers. They were assigned by the Thiele Detective Agency, of Los Angeles, and spent about two weeks in the city in the early part of June. They are brothers and near enough alike to be twins. They are young, well-dressed and nice appearing.

Baker was convicted in the second case against him about noon yesterday. He will be sentenced by Judge Frank Baxter, presiding, this afternoon at 2 oclock and the four remaining cases against Baker will be tried next week, beginning Monday. Interruption of the trial of the remaining cases was caused by lack of a sufficient number of veniremen to form a jury and an extra venire of twenty was called.

The case of the state against Charles and Hannah Phillips, charged with violating the prohibition law, was taken up. The state put on the stand three witnesses who testified to having purchased whiskey from a club operated by Phillips and his wife on South Main street. The case will be resumed this morning when court meets.

A sensational moment came on the second Baker trial yesterday morning when the defendant, John Baker, being cross-examined by Judge John Campbell as to what Gay Alley was, answered that the judge should know as he once, with Benton Dick as once district attorney in Arizona. Judge Campbell declared that was an imputation on his honesty while serving as federal judge in Arizona and hotly demanded what Baker meant and who told him.

Baker responded that someone, he did not know who, told him that Judge Campbell had received #400 for keeping the alley open.

He stated that he did not know the mans name but could identify him. Judge Campbell denounced the imputation as a lie and declared that as soon as he got off the bench he had brought injunction proceedings to close the alley. In his address to the jury he asked them if they could believe such an imputation and several audibly answered no.
It was a single word, said Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash, that turned him against Ted Cruz.

One of the most powerful men in the RNC, Ash said Cruzs speech before the Republican National Convention was a very disappointing message.

The word, in case you were wondering, was conscience.

Dont stay home in November, Cruz said on Wednesday. Stand and speak and vote your conscience.

All he had to do was say Trump and he used the dog whistle for conscience, Tucsonan Ash told reporters shortly after the speech.

Award to Melvin usually given posthumously

The problem with a posthumous award is that you dont get to enjoy it.

Well, unless you are former state Sen. Al Melvin.

Melvin, now a candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, was honored for his service in the U.S. Naval Reserves in SaddleBrooke last week, receiving an honorary Arizona Gold Star Military Award.

A gift from the man who filled Melvins seat after he retired, state Sen. Steve Smith.

However, the award is usually awarded to veterans only after their death. This is why it is an honorary award.

Miller: public records require a quorum

Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller gave an unusual answer earlier this week on why she is refusing to turn over private emails related to several public-records requests: They arent considered public since she wasnt corresponding with her colleagues.

Miller told KVOA that her Yahoo.com emails with her staff were off-limits to the public because the conduct of county business requires the engagement of at least two other supervisors which is necessary, she argues, for a quorum.

The District 1 supervisor has conflated public-meetings rules with public-records laws, which do not include a quorum requirement.

The Republican supervisor now could now be facing legal scrutiny from the state Attorney Generals Office.

Accusations she mishandled public records have been forwarded to the attorney general by the Pima County Attorneys Office. County prosecutors cited a conflict of interest in handling allegations by Republican Ray Carroll that Miller was violating the public-records law.

Challenger Feinman gives LaWall an assist

Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall wont debate her Democratic challenger, Joel Feinman, but she will endorse him as a good Samaritan.

She recently went on to Facebook to thank Feinman for coming to her rescue after her cars battery gave out at a forum in Arivaca.

Joel Feinman graciously stayed and used his jumper cables to help re-start my cars battery. Thank you, Joel.
A missing Amado man was found Thursday by Santa Cruz County authorities and taken to a hospital to undergo treatment for exposure.

Francisco Rodriguez, 75, who has memory issues and can become confused, was separated from his wife on a trip near Nogales, Arizona late Tuesday afternoon, said Deputy Courtney Rodriguez, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman.

He was found south of the Pima County line by Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol, Rodriguez said.

No further details to where he was located, or if he was in his pickup truck were released.

On Wednesday, authorities asked the public for help in locating Rodriguez. He was last seen driving a beige Ford F150 crew cab pickup truck through a Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 19, heading toward Tucson shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday.
The Vietnam embassy and its consulates in China have dismissed reports that Chinese mainlanders'applications for tourist visas to Vietnam have been suspended, saying on Friday that they are dealing with the applications normally.

It has been reported that some Vietnamese consulates in China have stopped accepting tourist visa applications from Wednesday to Friday, for unknown reasons. It was also suggested the Nanning consulate cancelled more than one thousand visa applications in one day.

An anonymous employee told China Daily that there was no such suspension, and the reported cancellation of applications in the Nanning consulate "was absolutely untrue".

"The fact is the Vietnamese government is currently regulating the procedures of tourist visa applications, which would require more information including specific traveling itinerary to be provided upon application, in order to "better serve Chinese tourists," the employee said.

Travel agencies have already been informed of the changes, which took effect in June, but they haven't filed applications as required, he said.

However, he noted that since the regulation has to some extent affected the time limit of issuing visas, it is true that some tourists have voluntarily given up applying, but the changes are not something targeting the Chinese mainland.

"We really welcome Chinese tourists to travel in Vietnam," he added, saying that the only difference now is that applicants have to fill more sheets and submit more information than before.

The embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shanghai are currently accepting applications and issuing tourist visas as usual, their staff said.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

Kozhikode: The protests in Kashmir and the manner in which the Indian Army has handled these protests has angered a number of citizens in the country, and over the past week, there have been several meetings organised by concerned citizens in various parts of the country to condemn the human rights violations in the region. However, people who have voiced opinions against the security forces are now in the firing line of the right-wing Hindus, and in Kerala, they have zeroed in on Roopesh Kumar, a Dalit documentary maker.

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Kumar, who is also an activist, told media persons that he had fallen victim of the hate campaign initiated by Hindu extremists in social media after he attendeded a protest meet in solidarity with Kashmir, which was organised by a Facebook collective in Kannur on July 17.

Messages saying I am puppet of Islam and organizing militant training at Pzhayangadi in Kannur are circulating in social media, he said.

Roopesh along with Afthab Ellath and 15 other activists were arrested by Kerala Police following the protest meet.

Kumar has decided to take legal action against the campaigners citing they were intolerant towards the democratic mode of protests and alleged that the campaign kick started after a conspiracy.

Meanwhile, police and intelligence continue to haunt the protestors. One of the protestors Afthab was called by the police saying IB demanded his personal details. Besides, the police arrived his home at Thalassery while he was absent. Activists allege that the police were trying to portray the activists terrorists in the name of expressing solidarity for Kashmir.

Afthab, while talking to a local online portal, alleged that even the police case was based on a visibly Hindutva goons request and they blindly acted on it without verifying any fact, even without asking any other witness available on the scene. He denied the claims that there were anti national and anti army slogans. It was a cultural program meant to create a democratic dialogue regarding the human sufferings going on in Kashmir, he said.

Afthab alleged that the police was biased and one of the policemen threatened the protesters of booking them under UAPA. One of the reason was his assumption that we were all Muslims. So when he found the name of Akhil he exclaimed in surprise, asking if he was not a Muslim? This is the dangerous bias of the police that Kerala public sphere should seriously discuss about, he said.
Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

Srinagar: Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) Jammu and Kashmir has conducted a survey on the intensity of the security forces brutality on people in Kashmir during last two weeks of unrest by visiting the families of slain and have concluded that government forces were targeting the vital parts of protestors.

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Led by Advocate Zahid Ali, the delegation visited families of almost all the persons who were killed during continuing unrest after the death of young militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 this month.

The delegation visiting the victim families noted that most of the victims have received bullets and pellets on their vital parts above the legs, which led either to their death or permanent disability. Besides, most of the people killed were teenage youth and three women.

The Indian forces and SOG of police have crossed all limits of oppression and in order to terrorize people have killed these youth and women in cold-blood without any justification at all and as such have committed heinous offences of the massacre of unarmed civilians violating all norms of humanity blatantly and brazenly demonstrated their barbaric face and inner hatred towards Kashmiri Muslims, the statement issued by Jamaat says.

While denouncing the use of brutal force by the security forces against the civilians, Jamaat said, The world has witnessed the determination of the Kashmiris will to achieve their birth right at any cost. Those who are trying to befool them in the name of restoring peace are destined to meet utter failure.

Jamaat has further requested the international human rights organisations and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to come forward and take serious note of the prevailing situation.

The unjustified use of state force by government of India against the civilians and indiscriminate firing by automatic and pellet guns causing irreparable and grievous injuries to thousands of youth who were peacefully protesting against the illegal occupation and non-fulfilment of the pledge to hold a public referendum regarding the political future of Kashmir under the control of UNO, Jamaat said.

Meanwhile, the death toll in ongoing unrest continues to rise, as another youth from Kokernag area of South Kashmir, who was injured after hit by bullet fired by security forces ten days ago, succumbed to injuries at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura in Srinagar. The death toll currently stands at 48, along with thousands injured.
Help India!

By TCN News,

Kishanganj (Bihar): Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) has established its first distance learning centre in Seemanchal region here at ITI Ground, Tauheed Educational Trust (TET) Campus, Kishanganj Bihar.

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The centre was inaugurated on Sunday at the hands of Prof. Talat Ahmad, VC of JMI in the presence of many dignitaries including Dr. Ashok Chaudhary, HRD & IT Minister, Bihar, Dr. Mujtaba Khan, Director Arjun Singh Centre for Distance Learning JMI, Minnat Rahmani, President of Bihar Pradesh Congress  Minority Dept.), Parvez Akram Siddiqui, Community Leader & President of JMI Alumni- UAE and Prof. MJ Warsi ,Washington DC.

The program was attended by large number of intellectuals, academicians, socials activist and youth from Seemanchal region.

Mohammad Aslam Alig, President Human Chain President congratulated TET Chairman for opening the Distance Learning Centre of JMI and thanked JMI VC and Director Distance Education JMI. He also requested JMI VC to allow B.Ed course at this Centre in near future. Jamia VC assured him that he shall take necessary action in this regard

This Centre is the outcome of continuous effort and follow up by Human Chain Team with Director of Distance Learning, JMI and Honorable VC Prof. Talat Ahmed, Alig said.

Prof. Talat fulfilled his promise to open Distance Learning Centre in Kishanganj which was announced by him in an Educational Conference organized by Human Chain at Madrassa Aisha Niswan, SehraTola, Purnea. Human Chain is also committed to take initiatives to open the Distance Learning Centres of JMI in all the MCDs of North India with the help of Jamia administration, he added.

Pointing out the need of establishing new university he said, There is not a single Private or Govt. University in this region except a newly established APJ Kalam Agriculture University which is not enough to cater the needs of Seemanchal students.

Motiurrahman Madni, Chairman of Tauheed Educational Trust, Kishanganj expressed his gratitude and thanked Jamia VC Prof. Talat Ahmed for approving the center in a very short span of time and for coming again at TET Campus for Inauguration.

He also expressed his commitment to run this center with excellence in order to convert it into a grand University. Madni also sought support from Dr. Ashok Chaudhary to establish a Private University in TET Campus.

In his address Dr. Ashok Choudhary promised to provide all kind of support in Education Sector for Kishanganj and Seemanchal Region. He also promised to meet Parkash Javadekar, HRD Minister, Govt. of India with the delegation of Human Chain to resolve AMU Kishanganj fund issue requested by Mohammad Alam Alig.

He also responded positively to the urging of Mohammad Aslam Alig and assured to look into the matter of establishing a new University in Seemanchal region.
Help India!

By TCN News,

Hyderabad: Taking Kashmirs ongoing turmoil into account that may have restricted Kashmiri students from traveling to the University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) has extended admission date for these students.

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MANUU has decided to permit the Kashimiri students who are selected for various UG, PG and Research programs to take admission till July 29, 2016.

According to Prof. P. F. Rahman, Chairman Central Admission Committee, all those Kashimiri students who are selected for various UG, PG and Research programs of MANUU are requested to take admission by 29th July 2016, a statement from MANUU reads.

It also added that the students may approach Head of the concerned department at Hyderabad campus of MANUU between 10 am to 4.00 pm on working days.
The underdog of politics.

Jeremy Corbyn has always been something of an underdog.He was the underdog in last year's Labour leadership election, yet he defeated the odds with 60% of the vote. He has become an underdog with the press, which predominantly showcases his critics and focuses on his shortcomings without letting his voicebe heard. Heis the underdog even now, with many people believing he is not electable.

They say he is destroying the Labour party by refusing to turn it over to the more centralist/Blairite members, and that his type of politics had its heydey years ago and has no place in today's society.

But this underdog status, this idea thatJeremy Corbyn isn't 'like' other politicians and the fact that the establishment refuses to accept him, is precisely why his followers to like him. Because he isn't just an underdog himself, but he speaks for underdogs all over the country.

Other politicians let us down.

It is easy to underestimate how many people are sick of the establishment. People are tired of the shiny-faced, spin doctor-politiciansand the champaign socialists of the Labour Party. Politicians who appear to have no contact with or interest inordinary people. People are also tired of mainstream media, believing it biased and full of half-baked and ill-formed opinions. So if the politicians people have grown to hate and the very press that they don't trustdislike Corbyn so much that they seem desperate to be shot of him ...then he must be doing something right.

Perhaps it is a hatred of other politicians more than a love forJeremy Corbyn that compels people to vote for him.

What is it about Jeremy Corbyn that his supporters like so much? Rather than focus on his policies, many of which are admittedly controversial, people tend tofocus on Corbyn's personality and treatment of ordinary people.

Why would anybody vote for Jeremy Corbyn?

Many responses focused on how 'real' and 'genuine' Corbyn appears: "He (Jeremy Corbyn)seems like he doesn't know how to pretend or lie at all, which is extremely rare in mainstream politics." Another response explained:"Corbyn's not perfect. Sometimes he says the wrong thing, or doesn't say enough ,or dresses odd.and stutters because when he speaks it's not from a prompt.

But that's his appeal to me."

Some people focused on Jeremy Corbyn in his constituency and what Corbyn has done for regular people. "He supported someone (in Islington) who was applying for British citizenshipand then went to the citizenship ceremony. My MP would never do that." Jeremyalso appears to make quite an impression in person: "he came across as so genuine and actually caring about the people he was talking about that he seemed like a leader who would do Britain well."

For his supporters, JeremyCorbyn is a breath of fresh air. He is real, genuine and principled. He cares about real people, he cares about his principles, and he's not going to change for anything. Like him or loath him politiciansneed a new approach, and perhaps Jeremy can start us off.
After three hectic days at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump took the stage at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday night and accepted the Republican nomination for president. While Trump might have gotten those in attendance to cheer, fact-checkers weren't fooled.

Trump debunked

It started with Melania Trump being accused of plagiarizing for her convention speech, as experts quickly proved that she had lifted parts of Michelle Obama's DNC speech in 2008. On Wednesday night, the convention continued its controversy when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz refused to endorse Trump when he appeared on stage, leading to members of the audience attempting to attack his wife, Heidi Cruz, who was sitting in crowd.

When the billionaire real estate mogul finally gave his convention acceptance speech, he delivered information that didn't hold up to fact-checkers, as reported by The New York Daily News on July 21.

We fact-checked Donald Trump's leaked speech. Here's all his lies in advance: https://t.co/p73FMYDMZe pic.twitter.com/6FKVWi8mgM  New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) July 22, 2016

After a unknown Republican leaked the final draft of Trump's speech to the press, it was only a matter of time before the public knew what was inside. In his prepared remarks, Trump claims that "decades of progress" involved with limiting crime has been the victim of President Obama's "rollback of criminal enforcement," However, fact-checkers show that the violent crime is actually at it's lowest rate in over 45 years, to which they cited statistics from the FBI.

Donald Trump: "This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" #RNCinCLE https://t.co/p2fGbhxkAN  CNN (@CNN) July 22, 2016

Trump continued his theme of violence, stating that murders in Washington, D.C. "have risen by 50 percent." That number is also wrong, as local police reports show that killings in D.C.

have gone down, falling 9 percent over the last year.

Donald Trump on ISIS, Libya and Egypt: wrong, wrong, and wronghttps://t.co/BkJsgGmEb0 #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/cnN72FxK0I  New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) July 22, 2016

Other failed statements

The former host of "The Apprentice" then went on to blame Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), saying that before Clinton became Secretary of State in 2009, "ISIS was not even on the map." Once again, Trump was misleading in his statement as ISIS was originally formed in 2004 as part of al Qaeda in Iraq, and renamed in 2006.

Turning his attention to economics, Trump made what many are considering his biggest "whopper" of the night. The GOP nominee said that the United States was "one of the highest-taxed nations" in the entire world. Fact-checkers listed over 30 nations where taxes are higher than in the U.S. Trump continued his speech, as many other claims failed to hold up to fact-checking.

Election outlook

Despite failing to earn a passing grade from fact-checkers, the majority of Republicans praised Trump's speech, and the crowd was enthusiastic about the upcoming general election. Current poll numbers show a tight race, as Clinton has a slim advantage of just under five points. Trump's biggest issues are with minority voters, where he will be forced to quickly make-up ground if he plans to move into the White House next January.
The Republican National Convention didn't start off well, as allegations of plagiarism against Melania Trump kicked the week off for the GOP. After Texas Sen. Ted Cruz refused to endorse the billionaire real estate mogul on night three, Donald Trump took to the stage on Thursday night and delivered one of the longest nomination acceptance speeches in recent memory.

Duke on Trump

Despite the controversy throughout the week, all eyes were on Trump shortly after 10 p.m. local time. The former host of "The Apprentice" spoke for nearly and hour and a half, in what many considered a well put together speech, though fact-checkers have since debunked many of his claims.

As expected, the right-wing media embraced the speech, while the left criticized it. However, one controversial figure praised Trump's words, as former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Grand Wizard David Duke celebrated on Twitter on July 22.

Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldn't have said it better!  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 22, 2016

"Great Trump Speech," Duke tweeted out moments after the conclusion of Trump's speech. "America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade!," Duke continued ending with, "Couldn't have said it better!"

This was a scary speech, by a scary man, who needs a scared electorate to have any chance to win: https://t.co/8I0ubd9da1  Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 22, 2016

This isn't the first time that Duke has expressed his joy for Trump, as he offered his endorsement earlier in the year.

Trump was roundly criticized for taking days to disavow the support from the former Klansman, and when he did, appeared annoyed in having to do so. Since that time, local KKK groups around the country have thrown their support to the offical GOP nominee, as Republicans continues to fight back allegations of racism within the party.

Election time

With the convention now in the rear view mirror, Trump, along with his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, will now get ready to take on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Much of Trump's speech put a negative focus on Clinton, as he hammered home his previous theme of the former Secretary of State's untrustworthiness. According to recent polls, Clinton's lead has dropped to just five points nationally, but Trump's struggles with minority voters continue to make her the odds on favorite in November.
Netflix has ordered a second season of their hit documentary series,Making a Murderer, from creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. Ricciardi and Demos producedand directed the original documentary over the course of ten years, chronicling thebizarre storyof Steven Avery of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.

Steven Avery spent his adult life in prison for a sexual assaulthe didn't commit until finally being released in 2003 after DNA evidence exonerated him. But in 2005, he was arrested for murder -- along with his nephew Brendan Dassey. Making A Murdererdocumentsthe caseitself,theirfamilies, and most importantly,the trial in which Avery and his lawyers argued that hewas framed by the police.

Upon release,Making A Murderer was immediately well-received. Ricciardi and Demoswere highly sought-after as soon as the series premiered, even talking with George Clooney about producinga TV series together. It should come as no surprise that Netflix wants more of them and their work.

TheMaking A Murdererboom:

Making A Murderer was not Netflix's firstbig hit, but it mayhave been the biggest surprise. A ten-part "true crime" documentary could have easily slipped under the radar of pop culture, butMaking A Murderer became one of the most discussed and acclaimed series in recent memory.

Part of the broad appeal ofMaking A Murderercomes in the form of Avery's defense lawyers, Dean Strang and Jerome Buting, making a very compelling case that he was framed -- as do Demos and Ricciardi withtheir masterful direction.

The documentary helped gain enormouspublic support for Avery;grassroots petitionsfor him to be pardoned have accumulated hundreds of thousands of signatures.

WhereMaking A Murdererleft off:

[SPOILERS]

Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were convicted of the murder of Theresa Halbach, and are currently serving life sentences, but both are actively involved in legal battles toappeal their cases.The second season of the series is expected to chronicle this complicated, ugly appeals process.Steven Avery's new lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, filed an appeal of his case in January 2016, working with the Midwest Innocence Project to prove thatSteven was framed.

Zellner isconfirmed to be featured in the upcoming season.Brendan Dassey also has a new legal team working to overturn Brendan's conviction on grounds that the investigation and trial were conducted improperly. Brendan's appeal hinges on the claimthat he was manipulated and bullied into a false confession.

The future ofMaking A Murderer:

The complicated, ugly appeals processes will be the focusof the second season ofMaking A Murderer. The series will presumably alsogive viewers an update onthe lives of the Avery/Dassey families as well as the Manitowoc County community as a whole.No premiere date has been announced, but patience is a virtue. The original documentary was a ten year process, and Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demoshave made clear the importance ofboth attention to detail and respect for their subjects. But whenMaking A Murdererreturns, there is no question that it will be well worth the wait.
Greece to apply in August to join Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: official Updated: 2016-07-22 09:59 (Xinhua)

ATHENS - Greece will apply to participate in the share capital of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Government Council on Economic Policy decided on Thursday, in a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis.

In an e-mailed press release, Dragasakis' office said the decision was part of the government's "general strategy to develop collaboration with international collective investment institutions, with the aim of security financing for high-added value investment plans."

Greece's official request to participate in the AIIB will be submitted by the finance ministry in August, with Professor Panagiotis Roumeliotis acting as the negotiator and representative of the Greek side, the press release said.

Some 17 European countries, as well as states on other continents, participate in the AIIB, which is empowered to finance projects in the region of Asia or projects on other continents that help link them with Asia.

"AIIB will be able to finance projects by Greek companies in the Middle East, China and the rest of Asia, as well as projects in Greece carried out by companies based in Asian countries," according to the press statement.

Greece was expected to participate in the share capital with about 10 million euros ($11 million), the announcement read.

"Should the Greek request will be approved during the meeting of AIIB's board of directors on September 26, 2016 then the contract between Greece and AIIB will be soon submitted to parliament for ratification," the statement concluded.
China urges US to take heed of plea on antidumping determination Updated: 2016-07-22 10:01 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued a statement Thursday, urging its American counterpart to take heed of what enterprises have to say about a preliminary antidumping measure.

The US Commerce Department made a preliminary antidumping determination Wednesday regarding imports of washing machines from China.

In its preliminary results, the Commerce Department found an antidumping margin for washer imports from two joint ventures in China ranging from 49.88 percent to 111.09 percent.

An unnamed official from the MOC Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau disputed the method by which the US Commerce Department calculated its antidumping margins in this case, saying that it obviously did not tally with the facts as it used the surrogate cost of production method.

The MOC urged the US side to listen to the enterprises' plea earnestly and correct the wrong practices.

The large multinational corporations involved in this case will continue to speak for themselves through a legal approach, the MOC learned.

The official hoped both sides could address the concerns through dialogue and negotiations and avoid possible escalation of disputes.
42 dead, 74 missing in central, north China storms Updated: 2016-07-22 08:04 (Xinhua)

SHIJIAZHUANG/ZHENGZHOU - Rainstorms have caused severe disruptions across north and central China since Wednesday morning, causing casualties, traffic chaos and the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Torrential rain in north China's Hebei Province since Wednesday morning has left 30 people dead and 68 missing, according to the provincial civil affairs department on Thursday. About 163,900 people have been forced to leave their homes.

The department has received reports of floods and landslides damaging more than 47,713 houses and 354,600 hectares of crops, causing traffic chaos, power outages and wreaking havoc with communications.

As of Thursday noon, direct economic losses from the rain-triggered disaster reached 4.75 billion yuan(711 million U.S. dollars).

Relief supplies including tents, quilts and clothing have been distributed in the worst-hit cities including Handan, Xingtai and the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang.

In neighboring Henan Province, 12 people were confirmed dead with six unaccounted for, the provincial flood control headquarters said. Storms forced the evacuation of 105,000 people, levelled 2,110 homes and damaged 20,720 hectares of crops.

The extreme weather caused two dikes to collapse in the city of Anyang on Wednesday. Soldiers and rescue workers are attempting to close the breach.

The direct economic losses in Henan are estimated at 477 million yuan.

The National Commission for Disaster Relief and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have sent staff to assist the relief work.
Flurry of meetings planned for FM Updated: 2016-07-22 07:58 By Mo Jingxi(China Daily)

Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to Laos on Sunday for a series of annual regional meetings, an occasion observers said to enhance maritime cooperation and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

The visit follows Beijing's rejection last week of the ruling in the arbitration case unilaterally brought by the Philippines that challenges China's sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Wang will take part in the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ASEAN-China, Japan and South Korea Foreign Ministers Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ministry announced on its website on Thursday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will be in the Laotian capital of Vientiane for the ASEAN Regional Forum and related ministerial meetings.

Japan's KyodoNews Agency has reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will also attend ASEAN-related meetings and meet with Wang.

Chinese experts say it is possible that Wang will meet with Kerry and Kishida on the sidelines of the meetings, but the Foreign Ministry has not confirmed that.

The US and Japan have engaged in a series of provocations since the July 12 arbitration ruling in The Hague, in an attempt to pressure China into accept the result.

"It is necessary for highlevel officials from Beijing and Washington to continue communicating with each other and to boost mutual understanding," said Jia Duqiang, a senior Southeast Asian studies researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Stop groundless anti-China accusations, US Republicans told Updated: 2016-07-22 07:58 By Wang Qingyun(China Daily)

China urged the United States Republican Party, which is holding its national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, to "stop groundlessly accusing China and interfering in China's domestic affairs".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment in response to the platform adopted by the party on Monday, in which it targets China's domestic affairs and levels accusations at China's policies regarding the South China Sea, Tibet, Taiwan and trade.

"Any party in the United States should view China's development objectively and reasonably, and should correctly understand issues related to China-US ties," Lu said.

"We hope these parties will stop groundlessly accusing China and interfering in China's domestic affairs, and that they will do more to promote trust and cooperation between China and the US," he said.

"Promoting stable development in China-US ties is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries and is conducive to peace and development of the Asia-Pacific region and even the world. It is the right direction that both countries should stick to," Lu said.

Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the parts of the platform concerning China are not reasonable and "reflect neither the mainstream nor the official US policies".

Ruan said the Republican Party and the Democratic Party share the notion that China-US ties are important, and will become more so, and that developing cooperation with China benefits the US.

"There are indeed problems in China-US ties. But we shouldn't be misled by them," Ruan said. "China and the US both value the bilateral ties and don't want to see them go backward."

Zuo Xiying, a researcher of US foreign policy at Renmin University of China's National Academy of Development and Strategy, said the platform reflects the Republican Party's attitude toward China, but there is no need to take the "campaign language" too seriously.

If the Republican Party wins the presidency, Zuo said, the new president will still concern himself with national rather than Republican policies.
Photofairs Shanghai sees increasing global interest Updated: 2016-07-22 16:48 By Lin Qi(chinadaily.com.cn)

Photofairs Shanghai will be held from Sept 9 to 11 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Photofairs Shanghai is becoming more international as galleries from South Korea, Belgium, Israel and Iran will make their debuts at the annual photography art fair being held from Sept 9 to 11 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

A total of 50 galleries from 15 countries will participate in the fair's third edition, and one-fourth of them have never shown in China.

The featured artists will include 19th century photographers Gustave le Gray and Elliott Erwitt, and leading figures in international photography like Mona Kuhn and Cai Dongdong.

Fashion photography will also find a place at the event.

Chinese collector Jin Hongwei, whose Cipa Gallery will be at the fair, says: "Financially speaking, good photography  on the whole  is more accessible than blue chip paintings. It is therefore an interesting way into the art market."

Former photojournalist Liu Heung Shing, who founded the Shanghai Center of Photography, says the fair serves as a window for a large pool of would-be collectors.

"This potential cannot be underestimated given the size of China and the fact that it will be the world's largest economy in the next 10 years."

Related:

Images tell stories of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou
Chilcot report a warning against US designs Updated: 2016-07-22 08:09 By LIU HAIYANG/ZHAO YI SHUI(China Daily)

US President George W. Bush (L) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair walk together from their meeting at the US Embassy in Brussels in this February 22, 2005 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

An inquiry conducted by former British civil servant John Chilcot into the United Kingdom's role in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq blames Tony Blair, then British prime minister, for dragging the UK into the war in Iraq on the basis of flawed intelligence. The 2.6-million-word inquiry report says the Blair government overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, then Iraqi president, took military actions before diplomatic alternatives were exhausted and had "wholly inadequate" plans for the aftermath.

The report, however, does not comment on the legality of the conflict, which was waged without the authorization of the United Nations Security Council.

Although promising to "take full responsibility for any mistakes, without exception or excuse", Blair insists his decision to take the UK to the war in Iraq has made the world "better and safer".

The truth is, the war claimed the lives of 179 British soldiers, thousands of American soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, dividing the country into factions and causing endless unrest. Worse, the so-called weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.

The war also failed to "remold" Iraq as an exemplary democracy in the Middle East, as tensions between disputing forces remain high and the political vacuum has given rise to terrorist groups like the Islamic State. Moreover, the ouster of the Saddam Hussein government, which left more than 1 million Iraqis (mainly civilians) homeless, could be seen as a major cause of the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

Although investigations have been launched in Britain and elsewhere into allegations against the British troops' role in Iraq, which are basically about genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, they are unlikely to hold all the culprits accountable.

The Iraq Historic Allegations Team, an organization formed by the British government in 2010 to investigate allegations of abuse and torture by British soldiers in Iraq, is reportedly reviewing more than 300 allegations of murder and over 1,300 serious sexual harassment and abuse cases. The International Criminal Court, too, is considering launching a formal investigation into Britain's alleged war crimes.

But whether the British soldiers who committed crimes in Iraq will stand trial at home or in the ICC remains unclear, because the ICC only plays a supplementary role in Britain's domestic criminal jurisdiction. In other words, the ICC can only intervene when Britain is unwilling (or doesn't have the capability) to investigate or prosecute the wrongdoers.

Holding accountable former state leaders such as George W. Bush, then US president, and Tony Blair is even trickier. Apparently, by invading the country without the consent of the UN Security Council, they violated the ban on the use of force and threat against another country, which is a core principle of the UN Charter, and committed the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC.

But both Bush and Blair are unlikely to face criminal charges. US soldiers will enjoy the same immunity, because Washington has not ratified the Rome Statute and signed immunity agreements with some countries.

It is a shame that no oneas yethas been held responsible for the Iraq war, arguably the most blatant violation of the rule of law in the post-Cold War era, although hundreds of thousands of people have fallen victims to the whims of Blair and Bush.

There is a lesson in all this for countries in the Asia-Pacific, including both China and ASEAN countries, that is, they should stay alert to US intervention in regional affairs.

As the Chilcot report shows, the US may resort to similar lies to instigate conflicts and clashes in China's neighborhood to propel its "pivot to Asia" strategy. To prevent the US from succeeding in its dirty designs, all countries in the Asia-Pacific need to make peace and stability their priority instead of picking sides over security issues.

Liu Haiyang is a research fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies of Nanjing University, and Zhao Yishui is a research fellow with the South China Sea Institute of Xiamen University.
Wide-ranging cameraman chronicles modernity's encroachment on Nature

Dan Lin is well on his way to becoming a citizen of the world.

The Honolulu, Hawaii-based photographer, who has traveled extensively, wears many hats: He is a regular contributor to National Geographic and The Associated Press, a crew member for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, a fellow of the Explorers Club, and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's special group on cultural and spiritual values of protected areas.

All these activities stem from Lin walking away from his Wall Street finance job without hesitation seven years ago.

Lin, who was born in 1987 in Fuzhou in Southeast China's Fujian province, is the son of intellectual parents. They moved to the United States and later brought Lin to New York when he was 5.

Growing up in New York, Lin said he always had a yearning to run away and live in the woods. The romantic idea of being lost in nature and away from civilization started then and has stayed with him to this day.

"However, instead of experiencing that feeling of escape, the best I could do was pretend to have a back yard that served as a gateway into the wilderness. I would imagine a world where I would climb each tree, name each rock, and swim in each river," Lin wrote on his blog.

Shortly after receiving a bachelor's degree in finance and economics from the University of Connecticut in 2009, Lin realized he didn't want his life to be as regimented as working on Wall Street

"Also at that time, the market had still not recovered from the financial crisis, so I decided to leave for two years and then come back to finance," he said.

Lin left "civilization" and moved to the outer islands of American Samoa.

"When I moved to Samoa, there was no internet, and the only way to connect to communicate is sending letters," Lin told China Daily.

"But everything there was so different, so unique and so beautiful, so I started to take pictures as a way to document, to show my families and my friends what I've seen and how I live my life there," Lin added.

Lin's photos unexpectedly generated much buzz online.

"I realized images are easier to tell a story with, to showcase the examples of my travels and my life, and also to make people care about certain issues that I care about," he said.

"If you live in a city, you don't feel nature very well, and therefore you don't think about the consequences that development has toward the environment, which is the most dangerous thing. People don't feel the connection, don't care about the choices they make no matter as individuals or as corporations or as governments," Lin said.

"I've seen sea levels rise in islands, coral has been dying... I realized that the health of our planet is really connected to the health of our environment, especially our oceans," Lin said.

Dan Lin with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon aboard Hokule'a at the UN Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Conference in Samoa in 2014. Photos Provided To China Daily

"I started to ask myself as a photographer, how can my work and my policy be used toward helping people understand what I learned?" Lin said.

Today, Lin travels throughout the Pacific Islands and Asia working on issues related to climate change, culture and youth.

Through his photography, Lin hopes to bring about awareness of issues and help raise the collective social consciousness of the public.

Lin said that the more he traveled and listened to stories of place, the more he understood what his role as a photographer should be.

Last year, Lin covered post-earthquake life in Nepal and post-super typhoon living in Saipan.

"The whole island was wiped out, and all the houses were blown down, and all the power is gone. I was sleeping out in the trunk of the rental car... everything is so devastated," Lin recalled.

Dan Lin hikes in Hawaii in 2014.

"The reason I was there is because I was trying to help by telling the story and getting people's attention to this: When you are suffering, when you are struggling, you are watching people under such a disaster, it makes me feel stronger, more mentally and emotionally tough and more committed to people," Lin said.

"It really showed me the best side of human beings, since after all the disasters, people were still trying to work together to make everything a little bit better. I really admire those experiences," Lin added.

Lin's focus sometimes extends to the modern world.

When Lin visited his hometown in China last December, high rises and construction cranes seemingly everywhere in the rural areas caught his eye.

He took pictures of the scenes and named the photos Us Against Modernity: China.

Lin said that over the past decade, China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth. Urbanization is happening quickly in rural areas.

"A great deal of people in China have benefited from the changes to the country's economy. But not everyone welcomes this change. Some people, primarily in the older generation, prefer the traditional ways of living that they have been accustomed to for so long," Lin wrote.

Lin used his camera to record the divide between the two worlds, and the few people who still resist the encroachment of modernity.

Living on an island 8,000 miles away from home and jumping on a canoe and sailing across the ocean at any time, Lin said that of course his parents are worried about his safety.

But Lin's father, who is a marine biologist, told him, "It is not about what career you choose, it's just about sticking with it."

"And that's definitely what I've been trying to do," Lin said.

"I mean I may make less money than when I worked in finance, but every day I wake up I'm excited because I chose to do this work," Lin said, to audible birds singing in the background.
Trump speech hits China on economic issues Updated: 2016-07-22 11:14 By Paul Welitzkin And Wang Linyan In Cleveland, Heng Weili In New York And Reuters(China Daily)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland , Ohio, on Thursday, in screen shot.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had some harsh words about China's economic conduct in his acceptance speech at the GOP national convention on Thursday night.

"We are going to enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against any country that cheats," Trump said in the speech, which made its way through various media outlets on Thursday afternoon. The Trump campaign also released excerpts of the speech.

"This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation," he said. "Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we'll walk away if we don't get the deal that we want."

Trump also teed off on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (of which China is not a part), accusing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton of supporting it.

"The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments," Trump wrote. "I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries.

"My opponent  has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement), and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organization.  another one of her husband's colossal mistakes."

Immigration and terrorism were major themes in the speech; corporations and the media also were targets.

"We are going to build a great border wall (along Mexico) to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. "To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside America: we are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS," Trump says. "Once again, France is the victim of brutal Islamic terrorism.

"Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place," Trump said. "They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings."

"We can't have the next four years be like the last eight years," Jason Chung, director of Asian Pacific American Initiatives for the GOP, told China Daily earlier on Thursday.

Although it appeared Republicans would leave Cleveland on a somewhat discordant note after Texas Senator Ted Cruz unapologetically did not endorse Trump on Wednesday, most of the faithful are expected to rally behind him, united by their disdain for Clinton.

Republicans were no fan of Clinton's husband, Bill  the nation's 42nd president and that antipathy has carried over to his wife's campaign as she seeks to become the first woman president. The GOP also sees a Clinton victory as a proxy for a third term for President Barack Obama, whom Trump also criticizes in the speech.

"President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing," Trump says. "Yet, what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in Third World condition, and 43 million Americans are on food stamps," Trump said.

"The media tends to overplay mistakes," Tom Mechler of Amarillo, Texas, chairman of the Texas delegation, said. "I would like him to talk more about being a leader and having the courage to make the tough decisions a president must do."

GOP National Committee member George Leing from Colorado, a first-generation Chinese American, said Republicans' message must differ from the Democrats'.

"A lot of people are worried about terrorism, and we need to speak about making our country secure," Leing said. "We have a focus on this issue that is different from the last eight years."

While the Cruz controversy may have projected a divided image to those outside of the party, Nevada delegate Lee Hoffman said the GOP will be more practical when it comes to the election. Trump, who has never held elective office, was looking to get a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own, more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia.

The speech also raises the specter of crime, saying gun violence is raging in many cities and that 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records "are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens".

Trump tells Americans he will speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month.

"I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored," the transcript said.

Trump said he would roll back federal regulations that he said cost the country $2 trillion a year, providing new wealth that will allow spending to repair roads, bridges, airports and tunnels.

On the Supreme Court, Trump says: "We are also going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution.

"The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles.

"This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment. I, on the other hand, received the early and strong endorsement of the National Rifle Association and will protect the right of all Americans to keep their families safe."

Reuters contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at wanglinyan@chinadailyusa.com
GOP convention seen as 'circus' by foreign press Updated: 2016-07-22 11:14 By Paul Welitzkin And Wang Linyan In Cleveland(China Daily)

Press passes rest on a table inside of The Trump Museum near the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday. Some 15,000 journalists descended on Cleveland for the Republican National Convention. Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Reporters from foreign news outlets covering the Republican National Convention in Cleveland cited a consistently chaotic atmosphere when asked to describe their impression of this quadrennial hallmark of the American political system.

Oliver Laughland, a reporter with The Guardian, a United Kingdom-based newspaper, called the convention "completely chaotic and contradictory with no clear narrative."

"It's a circus for someone coming from abroad," Karlijn van Houwelingen of the newspaper AD (Algemeen Dagblad), based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said in an interview. "It's where democracy is from the ground up."

Noting the passions that have been stirred up by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Jose Lopez of the Mexican News Agency, who is covering his fourth convention, was struck by how relatively calm Cleveland has been this week in terms of protests and demonstrations.

"I thought there would have been more of a ruckus and a bigger number of demonstrators," he said.

Laughland sees Trump as a dominating presence at the convention. "His personality has infused the convention every night. One of the interesting elements is how it's about him and not the party," he added.

Van Houwelingen called Trump interesting and unconventional. "No one really knows what he would be like as president. The people of the Netherlands are concerned and very interested because he is so unconventional and the US is a very important ally for the Netherlands," she said.

Many of the Republican Party's so-called establishment are not enamored with Trump. Ohio Governor John Kasich, a one-time GOP presidential contender, has avoided the convention, as have other party heavyweights like former President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb.

"The Republicans support him but I don't see a lot of enthusiasm for him," commented Lopez. "They seem resigned to the fact that he will be the nominee."

"The Republican Party doesn't seem to have gotten the message that the US has changed," said Lopez.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com
Pure charm - Washington Children of the Chinese embassy's Sunshine School perform a dance during a reception at the Chinese embassy in Washington on July 15. It marks the 60th anniversary of Sister Cities International, a nonprofit citizens diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between communities in the US with other countries. Chen Weihua / China Daily
Trump would drop TPP, adviser says Updated: 2016-07-23 03:05 By Li Xiaokun(China Daily)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, if elected, would shelve US participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of his advisers said.

"The TPP will no longer exist in the world of Trump," Peter Navarro, an adviser and economist, told the Chinese website of BBC in Cleveland, Ohio, where the Republican National Convention was held this week. The story was published after the party's convention concluded on Thursday.

The TPP, seen by many as a tool for containing China, is a pact among a dozen Pacific Rim nations that aims to boost the countries' economic ties. It currently awaits ratification.

On Trump's China policies, Navarro said that unlike US President Barack Obama, who has pushed forward a high-profile, so-called pivot to Asia strategy, Trump would keep a low profile in his China policies and be respectful toward the country.

Still, Trump on Thursday harshly criticized China on such issues as intellectual property rights protection, "illegal product dumping" and "currency manipulation".

He spoke as he accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination in Cleveland.

Trump said he would renegotiate trade deals, specifically mentioning China's World Trade Organization accession agreement.

The Republican criticisms of China are contained in the party's policy platform, which was adopted at the convention. It refers to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea as "preposterous".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that promoting stable Sino-US relations is in the interests of both countries, the Asia-Pacific region and the world in general.

"It is the right direction that both countries should stick to," he told China Daily on Thursday when asked to comment on the platform.

Teng Jianqun, director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said that due to Trump's commercial background and lack of public service experience, the nominee's focus on China-related issues is mainly limited to the business and trade field.

"He is very clear that the TPP is targeted at China and is hard to push forward any further now," Teng said, adding that quitting the TPP would herald an end to the pivot-to-Asia strategy.

By putting the pivot strategy aside and taking a low-profile policy toward China, Trump would be answering calls in the US to review Obama's foreign policies, Teng added. "Many believe one of the largest mistakes Obama has made is to challenge China and Russia at the same time."

Fan Jishe, a US researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the US presidential candidates' harsh remarks do not necessarily mean they would adopt harsh policies toward Beijing after taking office, as history has proved.

"It still needs some time to tell what Trump's actual stance is on China," Fan said.

Douglas Paal, vice-president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in Beijing earlier this week that US National Security Advisor Susan Rice will visit China soon to "help Beijing and Washington smoothly go through" the coming transition of US administrations, according to Chinese media.

Agencies contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2016  After a long delay, the European Union has approved three biotech soybean traits for import and processing, according to the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

The stacked even ts are:

 Monsantos Roundup Ready 2 Xtend (MON87708 x MON89788, with dicamba and glyphosate tolerance. It is approved in China and is being planted by U.S. farmers.)

 Monsantos Vistive Gold (MON87705 x MON89788, the product is high-oleic with glyphosate tolerance and is being grown by U.S. farmers to provide trans-fat free soybean oil for the food industry.

 Bayer CropSciences Balance GT (FG72, with isoxaflutole and glyphosate resistance. The product is a soybean being grown for seed increase multiplication with an expected commercial launch this fall.

"The EUs approval of these events is welcome news for U.S. soybean farmers," USSEC chairman Laura Foell, a soybean grower from Schaller, Iowa, said in a release. Were happy that we can supply our European customers with a reliable supply of safe food.

In April, the American Soybean Association sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman urging the Obama administration to press the European Commission  the EUs executive arm -- to approve the products, pointing out that they had been waiting final approval since January. The applications were submitted to the European Food Safety Commission in the summer of 2011.

In the letter, ASA said approval was needed for the EU Commission to have any semblance of a working biotech approval process. It also noted that timely approval would avoid the risk of unnecessary costs and disruption to the essential supply of feedstocks needed by the EUs livestock, poultry and feed industries, which are more than 70 percent dependent on imports of protein.

In a news release, Monsanto said the EU approval of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend follows Chinas import acceptance in February.

With both the EU and Chinese import approvals and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the final stages of review for over-the-top use, Monsanto can now look forward to a full system launch in the United States in 2017 and continues to be in a strong position to supply roughly 15 million U.S. soy acres when the selling season arrives, the St. Louis-based company said.

Weve seen great demand from growers for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, said Monsanto CEO Brett Begemann. Farmers are telling us theyre looking forward to the benefits of the full Xtend Crop System, including over-the-top use of dicamba and glyphosate. Were excited to give Canadian growers this opportunity in 2017, along with US growers pending final EPA approval.

Watching for stories about biotechnology? Sign up for an Agri-Pulse four-week free trial subscription to stay on top of this and other ag, rural policy and energy issues.





Miriam Paris, Monsantos U.S. soybean marketing manager, reminded growers that at this time, there are still no dicamba formulations registered for in-crop use in Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans or Bollgard II XtendFlex in the United States.

The approvals for in-crop use of dicamba are in the late stages of review by the EPA and are tracking for a late summer, early fall approval. Pending dicamba over-the-top approval, growers will continue to maximize their yield opportunity through the weed management recommendations and incentives provided by Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions.

USSEC says Europe is one of the largest customers of U.S. soybean farmers with over 165 million bushels of soybeans in exports already this year.

(This story was updated at 10 a.m. to include Monsanto comment.)

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HCM CITY  Experts from Australias Department of Agriculture and Water Resources have been on fact-finding tours of HCM City and Long An, Tien Giang and Binh Thuan provinces to evaluate their dragon fruit production, packaging and exports.

It was one of the final steps before Australia opened its doors to fresh dragon fruit from Viet Nam, according to the Plant Protection Department.

The Australian experts had greatly appreciated the production, growing and packaging processes of Vietnamese dragon fruit, it said.

The Australian Government would release a draft report on the evaluation outcomes at the end of this year for stakeholders benefit, and possibly allow the import of Vietnamese white and red dragon fruits by the end of this year or early next year, it said.

It has also worked with Japanese authorities and Vietnamese fresh dragon fruits could be exported to that country in the near future, it said.

Fruit exports to several demanding markets had increase in 2016, it said, with exporters shipping more than 4,608 tonnes to the US, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 81 per cent.

Australia market

According to the Viet Nam Trade Office in Australia, Australia imports fruits and vegetables worth US$1.7-2 billion from other countries, with imports from Viet Nam accounting for a miniscule part.

According to the General Department of Viet Nam Customs, total exports to Australia were worth over $1.3 billion this year, with fruits and vegetables accounting for a mere $10.3 million.

Explaining why the exports of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables to Australia remain modest, experts pointed to the stringent quarantine system there.

Exporters need to obtain a permit from the Australian Government.

Thus far Australia has granted import approval for Vietnamese lychee, and more than 10 tonnes of Luc Ngan lychees have been shipped.

It has also completed risk assessment of mangoes and work is going on to finalise trade arrangements, the trade office said.

Viet Nams frozen, dried and processed fruits and vegetables also have great potential to be exported to Australia, experts have said.

Australia imports $22-27 million worth of processed pineapple products annually, but only $0.3-0.7 million from Viet Nam, they said.

Its imports of dried vegetables from China are worth $8-10 million a year, but only $20,000-$30,000 from Viet Nam.

The experts urged the agricultural sector to focus more on improving hygiene and food safety during the production, harvest and processing of fruits and vegetables.

Once a product is allowed to enter the Australian market, doors would open for it in other markets too, they said.  VNS
HCM CITY  The chairman of HCM City Peoples Committee has called on Singaporean businesses to pour more investment into the citys transport, urban development and flood prevention projects.

Nguyen Thanh Phong spoke on Monday at a reception held in HCM City for Josephine Teo, the Singaporean Senior Minister of State who is in charge of the Prime Ministers office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Transport.

Teo was on a working visit in Ha Noi and HCM City from July 17 to 20.

Singapore is HCM Citys largest foreign investor, with over 850 projects worth more than US$5 billion.

Phong said that HCM City and Singapores cooperation in recent years had flourished, with two-way trade reaching more than $3 billion last year.

Viet Nam and Singapore are members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the ASEAN Economic Community, both of which are expected to deepen trade ties among the region.

Teo said that Singapore hoped HCM City authorities would create more incentives for financial and banking investors, as large Singaporean banks want to set up branches in HCM City.

In Ha Noi, Teo discussed regional opportunities for expanding bilateral and regional cooperation with Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh.

Teo also met with the citys Secretary of the Party Committee, Hoang Trung Hai, and chairman of the Peoples Committee, Nguyen uc Chung, to identify priority co-operation areas in urban development, landscaping and sustainable development for Ha Noi in the next five years.

Teo also met with Singapore business representatives based in Ha Noi and HCM City.

Her visit coincided with the Viet Nam  Singapore Business Forum held on Wednesday in HCM City, which attracted 200 business leaders, industry experts, policymakers and government officials.

The forum, organised by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was held to enhance trade links and co-operation opportunities for Vietnamese and Singaporean businesses.  VNS
HA NOI  The Governments establishment of a special committee to manage capital at State-owned enterprises (SOEs) is necessary, but it is likely to face significant challenges in its work, experts said.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has drafted a decree on the establishment of the committee, which will help remove conflicts among State functions by separating State ownership performance from policy making and market regulation.

Official data released earlier this year showed that companies wholly owned by the State or in which it has a major stake have a combined asset value of about VN5 quadrillion, or US$222.2 billion. These companies are currently administered by ministries and sectors.

According to the draft decree, ministries and provincial or municipal peoples committees are to transfer the ownership of 30 SOEs in various areas soon, such as in electricity, oil and gas, aviation and maritime and telecommunications, to the special committee.

The 30 companies, mentioned in the box, reportedly account for more than 80 per cent of the total value of State capital and assets.

The special committee will be regulated by the law on management and use of State capital at enterprises, with three major tasks:

- Monitor and assess investment capital and asset portfolios of the State in companies; and analyse and forecast the market situation for State investments.

- Perform all rights of State ownership in the role of an owner or a shareholder in companies.

- Advise the Government and the Prime Minister on using and managing capital for production and business activities of enterprises.

Nguyen inh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, told local reporters that the committee would operate like a business and its establishment plan was scheduled to be discussed in the National Assembly in the third quarter of this year.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung told Phap luat Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (HCM City Law) newspaper that such a committee was necessary to handle weaknesses in State management mechanisms for businesses.

Ministries and sectors currently perform the rights of ownership in enterprises, but they are not responsible for the business results. This led to inefficient use of State capital and assets, he said.

Practical measures

Nguyen Hoang Hai, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Financial Investors, said the newly drafted decree was full of practicality.

It would enable ministries and sectors to give their whole minds to State management affairs, and a single committee would find it easier to supervise SOE operations, he told Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times).

However, Hai said ministries and sectors might delay passing SOEs to the committee, like they did with the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), for certain interests.

The SCIC, a strategic investment arm of the Government, was established more than 10 years ago to manage State interests in companies and projects. But ministries and sectors still assume a dominant role in administering State utility firms.

Without drastic action, there is a possibility that very few SOEs will be transferred from ministries and sectors to the committee, even dozens of years after the decree takes effect, Hai said.

Le ang Doanh, former director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, agreed that it would not be easy to detach SOEs from the governance of ministries since economic groups and corporations were considered a big pot of rice for them.

He said besides building the committee, the best way to promote the operational efficiency of SOEs was to accelerate their equitisation process.

Equitisation of SOEs

Only with equitisation can the problem of privileged groups be solved. With the Prime Minister showing determination in resolving this, I hope we will be able to prevent situations where a minister can appoint his daughter or son [to a position in a company], he said.

Handing over enterprises is not as easy as moving vases of flowers from a table to one another, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said on condition of anonymity.

The official said it took the MoIT at least six months to transfer a business with transparent financial situation to the SCIC, so it would likely take several years for ministries to transfer 30 businesses to the committee.

Therefore, the time for establishing the committee should be scrutinised because immediate establishment may slow down or interrupt the SOE equitisation process.

The official also said the committee must have the organisational structure of a super-ministry in order to manage various sectors ranging from manufacturing, construction to trading. This may add to the burden of the State budget, while the Government is trying to cut down personnel.

A leader of the Viet Nam National Petroleum Group, who wanted to remain anonymous, said as either ministries or the committee managed SOEs, it was important that the authorities used their power and responsibility well.

They are to create conditions for enterprises to reach their business goals, with transparent mechanisms based on market developments.

Whats important is the efficiency of management methods, o Ha Nam, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Coffee and Cocao Association, told the local press.  VNS

In box:

Thirty SOEs are expected to be managed by the special committee:

1. Viet Nam Textile and Garment Group

2. Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group

3. The Electricity of Viet Nam

4. Viet Nam National Chemical Group

5. Viet Nam National Coal  Mineral Industries Holding Corporation

6. Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group

7. Viet Nam Rubber Group

8. Viet Nam National Petroleum Group

9. Bao Viet Group

10. Viet Nam National Coffee Corporation

11. State Capital Investment Corporation

12. Viet Nam Railways

13. Viet Nam National Shipping Lines

14. Vietnam Airlines

15. Viet Nam Northern Food Corporation

16. Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation

17. Viet Nam National Tobacco Corporation

18. Viet Nam Paper Corporation

19. Viet Nam Steel Corporation

20. Shipbuilding Industry Corporation

21. Song a Corporation

22. Housing and Urban Development Corporation

23. Viet Nam Multimedia Corporation

24. Airports Corporation of Viet Nam

25. Viet Nam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation

26. Viet Nam Urban and Industrial Zone Development Investment Corporation

27. Viet Nam Forest Corporation

28. Viet Nam Pharmacy Corporation

29. Sai Gon Beer  Alcohol  Beverage Corporation

30. Ha Noi Beer  Alcohol  Beverage Corporation
NGHE AN  Prolonged drought in the central Nghe An Province has left rice fields fallow and local residents without water.

Yen Thanh Districts agriculture and rural development sector said that according to their estimates, about 1,500ha in the district were unable to be cultivated, and 3,000ha of summer-autumn rice were left unwatered. Forty to 60 per cent of households in mountainous communes were lacking water for daily usage because wells had dried up.

Le inh Hung, vice chairman of the Peoples Committee of Hung Thanh Commune in Yen Thanh District, said farmers could not grow rice in 234ha in the commune because all eight reservoirs in the commune had run out of water.

More than 30 households in the commune had to dig new wells over the past month to seek new sources of water.

The cost for this work increased because water could only be found at a depth of 50-60 metres, instead of 30-40 metres as usual.

The surging demand for new wells also made it difficult to hire people to do this work, said Nguyen Viet Tan, head of Son Thanh hamlet.

My family has waited for 15 days, but is still unable to hire people to dig a new well, Tan said.

He said drought was not a new phenomenon in his locality, but it was so severe that people could not grow rice for the summer-autumn crop this year, which was unusual.

Yen Thanh Districts Peoples Committee has decided to support local residents with VN3-5 million for every new well to ease the burden.

Severe water shortages have also affected nearly 2,000 households with 9,000 people in the mountainous Nghi Van Commune in Nghi Loc District.

Nguyen Thi Thom in hamlet 20 said her family had to sell their only cow to get money to dig a new well.

For the past month, we have had to ask for water from other people in our hamlet for cooking. But water sources in the hamlet are also drying up, so we have to spend VN16 million to get a new well, Thom said.

Cao Cu ang, vice chairman of Nghi Vans Peoples Committee, said the commune authority had asked local residents to share water with each other and use it economically to cope with the situation.  VNS
GIA LAI  This Central Highland provinces steering committee met leading experts in water management, forestry and power plants on Friday, to discuss measures to deal with drought in the region and water reserves.

The one-day workshop looked at the causes and impact of the average annual loss of 51,200ha of forests as well as the impact of power plants dams and reservoirs built on Srepok and Sesan on local livelihood, environment and water resources.

The participants at the workshop also had a closer look at the fast and unplanned growth of plantations of commercial trees such as pepper, rubber, coffee and cashew, which had led to increased deforestation in the highlands over the past few decades.

All the three above-mentioned causes had converted areas such as the Central Highlands that once had plenty of water into drought-hit regions that face a crisis every year.

This years drought is the worst in 20 years, which has made rivers, streams and underground water sources to dry up, experts said at the workshop.

A report released by the agriculture and rural development ministry in April this year said 160,000ha of plants faced critical shortage of water, causing economic losses of about VN100 billion each in Gia Lai, Kon Tum, ak Nong and ak Lak, besides Lam ong.

Panel discussions focused on climate change and the impact of the El Nino phenomenon and possible threats to the region in the coming years.

The meeting of 150 participants, including local residents and representatives from Electricity of Viet Nam and the Viet Nam Rubber Corporation, aimed to reach conclusions that could help to enhance water security in the region.

The steering committee for the Central Highlands is a central government body that specialises in monitoring the political and socio-economic balance of the region.  VNS
NGHE AN  A forest fire broke out yesterday in Nghi Loc Districts Nghi Kieu Commune in the central province of Nghe An, destroying dozens of hectares of forest.

Local residents told the Giao Thong (Transport) newspaper that the fire started at about 10am yesterday and quickly became uncontrollable. Local communal authorities have mobilised hundreds of people to put out the fire.

It took nearly three hours to get the fire under control, as hot weather stoked flames in the highly flammable pine forest, local authorities said.

Also yesterday, a fire broke out at Rong Mountain in Quynh Luu District, affecting 5ha of pine forest.

Earlier, the northern province of Thanh Hoa reported two fires, destroying 10ha of pine forest.

The causes of the fires are being investigated.  VNS
HA NOI  An exhibition entitled Noi trong bong toi (Speaking in the Dark) by two artists Truong Hong An and Ngo Ngoc Huong will take place at Nha San Collective, Luong Yen Street, Hai Ba Trung District on July 24.

The exhibition, which introduces the latest works of the artists, explores themes such as belonging, language and memory using their families history as part of the Vietnamese expat community. Via their video, photographic and arrangement works, they study the way identity is affected by the shifting notions of time.

Ans work raises the questions about the true nature of memory, especially when the language used is often fragmented. She uses photography and cinema to explore the powerlessness of language in the aftermath of mental trauma.

Her works have been displayed at the International Center of Photography, Art in General, Smack Mellon, the Kitchen and other art destinations in New York.

Voices: A work by Ngoc Huong.  Photo soi.today

In 2013, she received the sponsorship of Art Matters, along with the scholarship of Franconia Sculpture Park Jeromy fellowship and Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist fellowship. She has stayed at Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2015. An is now taking part in the Open Session Program and is assistant professor at North Carolina University.

Huongs work centres on the research of the voice as it plays a role in both means and storage, in order to study the line between private experience and community, the fact and fiction during the process of finding herself.

She is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied Art and Technology, and was a studio art fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program. She was recently awarded the prestigious Fulbright US Scholar Grant in Viet Nam to continue a research-based project in France.
An increase in the regional minimum wage in 2017 has not yet been finalised because of differing opinions on how much wages should be raised.  Photo laodong.com.vn

HA NOI  An increase in the regional minimum wage in 2017 has not yet been finalised because of differing opinions on how much wages should be raised.

At a meeting of the National Salary Council, held in Ha Noi on Wednesday, members of the council discussed issues relating to workers living standards and forecast the basic needs of workers and their families.

Le inh Quang, deputy head of the Labour Policy Department under the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), said the technical body proposed three options for a regional minimum wage hike at the meeting.

The first option is for the regional minimum wage to increase by VN250,000-350,000 (US$11-15.7), or about 10 per cent. Another proposal suggested an increase of VN230,000-300,000 ($10.3-13.4), while a third proposed an increase of VN100,000-200,000 ($4.5-8.9).

The VGCL, which represents employees, recommended that the Labour Ministry increase the regional minimum wage by VN250,000-400,000 ($11-17.9) per month, or an 11.11 per cent rise.

The salary hike was expected to meet 88.5 to 92.85 per cent of minimum acceptable living conditions, said Mai uc Chinh, vice chairman of VGCL.

The VGCL put forth the proposal after surveys conducted by VGCL showed that only 8 per cent of workers earned incomes that could cover their demands while also allowing them to save some money; about 20 per cent of the workers had incomes that did not meet their living standards, and the rest were struggling to make ends meet, he said.

At the meeting, the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), which represents employers, proposed an increase of VN100,000-180,000 ($4.5-8), or a 4.62 per cent hike for each minimum wage level for all four of the countrys wage zones.

The adjusted rate was being made to offset currency depreciation, said a VCCI representative.

Surveys conducted by VCCI pointed out that despite 54,500 new enterprises being registered in the first six months of this year, they met a lot of difficulties in their operations. The number of enterprises that dissolved or temporarily halted their operations reached 36,626. These enterprises account for two-thirds of the total number of registered ones, marking an increase of 17 per cent compared with the same period last year.

A minimum wage increase would not only meet labourers basic living costs, but also ensure the development of enterprises, said the VCCI representative.

If the wage is raised too high, enterprises will have to face an increase in expenditure, particularly expenses for social insurance and labour costs, and be at risk of bankruptcy, he said, adding that it would also hurt their competitiveness in the region.

The National Salary Council is expected to meet again in early August so that concerned parties have time to consider the proposals and reach a consensus before submitting a final plan to the Government for approval.

Last year, the Government decided to raise the regional minimum wage in 2016 by 12.4 per cent.

Accordingly, from January 1, 2016, minimum wages range from VN2.4 million to 3.5 million (US$108-157), depending on geographical zone.

The wage hike was agreed upon after several negotiations between VGVL, which requested a 16.8 per cent increase, and VCCI, which asked for a hike of no more than 10 per cent.  VNS
HA NOI -- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved a special mechanism for completion of Ha Nois Cat Linh-Ha ong urban railway project in an effort to overcome numerous delays and cost overruns.

Under the mechanism, proposed by the Ministry of Transport, the main contractor (China Railway Sixth Group) will be authorised to make decisions, especially on buying equipment, without having to seek time-consuming permission from State authorities. However, the contractor must ensure that prices do not exceed those set out in the signed contract.

The project was supposed to be completed by the end of this year. However, only 74 per cent of the railway project has been completed since it broke ground in September 2010, according to the projects management unit.

The investment in the project increased from a projected US$542 million in 2008 to $892 million in 2014.

Regarding the selection of foreign contractors for safety assessments, the Prime Minister has agreed in principle that contractors will be chosen in accordance with Article 26 of the Law on Bidding, ensuring that selected contractors are qualified, have adequate experience and meet the requirements of the tender package.

On additional loans for the project, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance were urged to promptly work with the Chinese side on reaching agreement on supplement preferential loans for the project.

The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Transport to review the preparation and implementation of the project as a lesson for the next steps of the project and other projects to ensure the efficiency, quality assurance and construction progress.  VNS
Trung Yen temple in Hoan Kiem District, Ha Noi.  Photo bnews.vn

HA NOI  Thousands of residents living next to or in proximity to historic relics in Ha Noi are waiting for relocation following plans to restore the sites while local authorities are still trying to find solutions amid a lack of finance and land funding.

Ha Noi has a dense network of historic relics but the high population density at historic sites has badly affected the space and landscape around these relics as well as hindered the protection and restoration efforts of local people.

According to figures from the municipal Department of Culture and Sport, up to 166 historic relics in the capital city share space with over 1,200 households.

ong Quang pagoda in ong a District, for example, is surrounded by 16 households while the group of Quang Hoa-Thien Quang-Phap Hoa pagodas in Hai Ba Trung District is jostles for space amongst more than 40 households.

The situation has existed since the 1960s. Many people returned to Ha Noi after migrating to other regions to work in the middle of last century and moved close to pagodas or temples as a result of land scarcity. The inhabitants became even more crowded when people living near the Hong (Red river) Delta escaped flooding and resettled near historic relics in the 1970s.

An additional factor that is not mentioned is that a number of schools and headquarters of Peoples Committees of some wards are located in the precinct of historic relics due to the lack of land.

The inhabitants, however, have affected the landscape around historical relics and caused difficulties for relevant agencies in preserving and restoring these relics. Many ancient structural buildings are being invaded by tea shops, food stalls, living quarters and vehicles. It is hard for people to find Ha Vy temple in Hoan Kiem District, whose entrance gate is being almost covered by a house. Meanwhile, its yard is used by some food stalls to keep tables, chairs and cooking utensils.

Vu An Toan, who takes care of the temple, said it was difficult for people to enter the temple because of the narrow entrance. I asked owners of these food stalls many times to tidy up their belongings but it still happens again, he said.

Deputy director of the municipal Department of Culture and Sport, Truong Minh Tien, said the municipal authorities had directed relevant agencies to zone off and relocate these households for many years but the situation had yet to be improved due to the huge amount of residents needing to be relocated.

According to the Ha Noi Historical Relic Management Board, the city has relocated residents at 21 relics and invested in restoring these relics.

Hoan Kiem District relocated ten households from ong Thanh temple in the Old Quarter in 2012 and invested VN15 billion (US$672,000) in restoring and upgrading the temple.

Vice chairman of the district Peoples Committee, Pham Tuan Long, said the district had relocated 200 households with 1,000 residents at 10 historical relics since 2008.

However, thousands of residents still needed to be relocated from historical relics in the capital city. Inner districts of Ha Noi started the relocation task 10 years ago but they had so far only relocated residents from 20 out of 166 historic relics.

Not only local authorities, but many residents also want to move away from historical relics because of poor living conditions.

Le Thi Ngoan, a member of one of seven households living in the precinct of Lien Phai pagoda in Hai Ba Trung District, said her five-member family had lived for 25 years in a three-storey house with each storey having a total area of 4 sq.m.

It is too tight. Not only my family, but other households also wish to be relocated soon, she said.

Le Thi Thanh Vi, who lives under Trung Yen Temple in Hoan Kiem District, said her family had to live in a small house of several sq.m without space to hang the washing and they even had to share a toilet with other households. We want to move out of here as soon as possible, she said.

However, the key problem is the lack of finance and land funds. The city budget is not enough to meet real demand. It costs around VN1.5 billion ($67,200) for the relocation of each household, according to Long from Hoan Kiem District.

Pham Thi Hien, head of the Culture and Information Bureau of Hai Ba Trung District, said apart from the district budget, many pagodas had to mobilise capital themselves to help households relocate.

Deputy director of the municipal Department of Culture and Sport, Truong Minh Tien, said the relocation depended on budget and land fund of each district. The city would gradually relocate these households to protect and restore historical relics but it would take time due to limited capacity, he said.  VNS
QUANG NAM  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered an investigation into the destruction of po mu trees (Fokienia hodginsii) in military sub-zone 351 belonging to Nam Song Bung protected forest in the central province of Quang Nam.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Public Security to co-ordinate with the Ministry of National Defence and the Peoples Committee of Quang Nam Province to provide clarity on the incident and strictly deal with violations.

The instruction follows the report that some local residents on July 9 found 280 logs of po mu wood, equalling 28cu.m, hidden near a border guard station of the ac Oc border gate. It was about 100m from Laos.

The police from Nam Giang District have decided to initiate a lawsuit on the case and assigned its staff to begin an investigation.

On July 14, police discovered 60 po mu trees that had been chopped down while exploring military sub-zone 351.

Expanding their investigation, the districts police uncovered 115 logs of po mu wood on the premises of the Nam Giang border gates customs agency and 25 logs concealed at a house of a local resident near the area, as well as two wood storage yards hidden in bushes near the customs office and border guard station. The total po mu wood seized is estimated at 45cu.m.

Deputy Chairman of Quang Nam Province Peoples Committee, Le Tri Thanh, on Wednesday led a working group to the scene.

It was there that the working group saw a lot of felled po mu trees, which were at least a hundred years old.

Thanh said this was a serious violation of the forest protection law and it might have been the result of organised crime.

He urged concerned agencies to probe the incident in an urgent manner and apply tough penalties should the violators be caught.

Because the deforestation occurred in an area bordering Laoss Sekong Province, the provincial authority has sent a document requesting the Laotian side to co-ordinate, so that individuals and organisations responsible could be punished soon.

In related news, Director General of the Vietnam Customs, Nguyen Van Can, on Tuesday asked the head of Quang Nam Provinces Customs Department to suspend Le Trung Thinh, head of the customs agency, for suspected involvement in the incident.

Nguyen Hoang, head of the customs control team will take over Thinhs post until the case is made clear.

Po mu is considered valuable wood because of its unique scent and eye catching wood texture, as well as its unusual weight and high resistance to termites. It was listed in Viet Nams red book in 1996. It is used to make furniture, decorations and planks.

As many as 725 po mu trees, which are each between 300 to 1,000 years old, in Quang Nam Provinces Tay Giang District have recently been recognised as a national heritage feature.  VNS
SYDNEY  Terror links were on Friday ruled out after a man set his car alight and rammed it into a police station in Australia, as officials vowed to review security after the scare.

The man was seen parked in the driveway of the Merrylands Police Station in Sydneys west late on Thursday with the car going up in flames when officers approached.

It was then driven into an underground carpark security door.

Police said petrol and a gas bottle were found inside by officers who risked their lives to extinguish the blaze and pull out the man, who suffered serious burns. No one else was injured.

A motive has yet to be established but terrorism was ruled out.

"It is the first thing we always go to in terms of our thinking these days unfortunately," said New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

"But the reality is on this occasion, what I can say is this event is not in any way linked to a terrorist attack based on the briefings I have received this morning."

The man, who is under police guard in hospital, was known to officers and reportedly had a history of mental problems. The Australian Broadcasting

Corporation said he was a Czech national.

The Australian government lifted its terror threat level to high in September 2014 and recently said nine terror events had been prevented since then.

But several have taken place, including the terror-linked murder of a police employee in Sydney in October.

Scipione said security had already been beefed up at police stations across New South Wales state, and it would be looked at again after Thursdays incident.

"Security at this police station is already very, very high," he said, adding that ballistic glass was recently installed and cages put around key areas.

"But we will go back again and have a look at this because we will never stop in doing all we can to secure our police stations for our police."

Attorney-General George Brandis urged caution against every act of violence being seen as a possible terrorist attack, after early reports of the incident suggested a link.

"From what police can determine there is no reason to believe that the event at the Merrylands Police Station last night was a terrorist event and its important to bear this in mind," he said.

"Not every act of violence, even a pre-meditated or carefully planned act of violence, is an act of terrorism."  AFP
The Centre is planning to change the to empower state governments to regulate taxi aggregators like Uber and Ola. This will also allow states to cap fares and end surge pricing.
Fighting has broken out in northern between a coalition of Tuareg rebels and a Tuareg group allied with the government of the West African country.

A spokesman for the rebel coalition, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, told The Associated Press today that fighting was under way in the city of Kidal. There was no immediate information on any deaths.

The fighting was between the government-allied militia group GATIA and the Coordination of Azawad Movements, a coalition of groups seeking autonomy in northern that includes ethnic Arabs and Tuaregs.

Ramadane said the fighting began when a convoy of GATIA vehicles entered the city and started firing on the homes of coalition leaders.

But a GATIA spokesman, Fahad Ag Al Mahmoud, said coalition members had started firing on the GATIA convoy. Both of the groups had signed on to a peace deal in June 2015 between Mali's government and armed groups in the northern part of the country.

Tuareg separatists took hold of Mali's north in 2012 before al-Qaida-linked militants took control. French forces pushed them out of their strongholds in 2013. Since then, the north has remained on edge, with more than 11,000 United Nations soldiers and thousands of Malian troops maintaining an uneasy peace.
German police said today a gunman who went on a shooting rampage at a busy mall in Munich likely acted alone, and then committed suicide after killing nine people in cold blood.
The authorities in said on Thursday that they had identified significant lapses in anti-money laundering controls at three banks tied to a global investigation into money from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
The president of the UN Security Council told reporters on Thursday that all the 12 announced candidates for the post of UN chief will be informed of the outcome of the first round of a secret by the 15-nation council.

"The first to select the next secretary-general has taken place," Ambassador Koro Bossho of Japan, this month's president of the Security Council, said outside the council's chamber less than two hours after the polling started at 10:00 am local time.

"The candidates will be informed of the results through the respective permanent representatives (ambassadors) of nominating (UN) member states," he said.

"The president of the General Assembly (PGA) was informed," he added.

Bossho later explained he gave the PGA the same information he gave reporters, in other words, no indication of the standings of the candidates.

A second has not yet been scheduled.
Shut up and play sport: Piers Morgan responds to Socceroos statement Piers Morgan has lashed out at the "virtue signalling" Socceroos after squad members called for Qatar to improve its disastrous human rights record in a ground-breaking video posted to social media.

Show the footage: Albanese rubbishes claims he bullied female Coalition MP Anthony Albanese has fired back at bullying accusations from a female Coalition MP who insisted she was "screamed at" by the Prime Minister during Question Time, which left her feeling "humiliated by him and the Labor Party".

Flood-prone region offered buyback scheme in joint $800m scheme A New South Wales region that has repeatedly copped the brunt of flood events will be given an option to raise or fix their properties under a new $800 million joint program with the state and federal government.
The power of prayer

A 28-year-old woman, unnamed in news reports, veered off the road and into a house in the Florida panhandle town of Mary Esther on July 7. She apparently was free of drug or alcohol influence, but readily explained to police she must have gone through a stop sign and left the road when she closed her eyes to pray as she drove. The house was damaged, but no one was injured.

Loose change

The Transportation Security Administration announced in May it had collected $765,000 in loose change left behind in airport scanner trays during 2015  an average haul for the agency of $2,100 a day (numbers assuming, of course, that TSA personnel turn in all of the money they find). Los Angeles and Miami airports contributed $106,000 of the total.

Long rap sheet

Mark Herron, 49, of Sunderland, England, was arrested again in May, his 448th arrest on alcohol-related charges. The year started well for Herron, with only 14 collars through March, and he cleaned up briefly before a family bereavement sent him spiraling downward again. His current lawyer admitted his client has been in court more often than he himself has.

Do not call

In a June verdict still reverberating through the telemarketing industry, a jury in Utah found that three companies run by Forrest Baker III had illegally made 99 million phone calls to consumers on the Do Not Call Registry and an additional 18 million calls telling people they were merely doing surveys when the purpose was hawking their family-friendly movies. Both charges are violations of the Federal Trade Commissions Telemarketing sales rule. Although the total fine and damages have not been decided, the law provides that the most serious offenders could be assessed $16,000 per phone call, for a maximum of almost $1.9 trillion.

Bad bridge

The family of a Virginia Tech student missing since 1998 was notified in March the mans remains and ID had been found in a wooded ravine 700 feet below the New River Gorge bridge near Beckley, W. Va., in an area the mans vehicle tracker had long identified for potential searching. A West Virginia State Police sergeant told reporters in the years since the student disappeared, the remains of 48 other bodies had been found underneath the bridge.

Chinese social media

A recent study by a Harvard University data scientist estimated the government of China funds the creation of at least 488 million bogus social-media posts a year. The report refers to a rumored government-sponsored arrangement that pays people the equivalent of 8 U.S. cents per post of news for the purpose of distracting social-media users and channeling them to subjects preferred by the government (such as successes of the Communist Party).
WATERLOO  Police were called to Court Avenue and Hogle Street Thursday night for a report of shots fired.

Police were called to the area at about 11:13 p.m.

Officers there found four shell casings at the intersection but didn't find anything damaged by bullets. Police have no suspects or suspect descriptions.

The location is not far from the Cedar River, downstream and across Vinton Street from the old Rath Packing Co. site.
WAVERLY  An Iraq war veteran has been selected to head up the new Waverly Area Veterans post set to open this fall.

She is Sara Stephens, a native of Cedar Falls and a 2000 graduate of East High School in Waterloo. She has been employed 10 years with CBE Cos. in Waterloo as a project coordinator and is pursuing a degree in business administration at Upper Iowa University.

Stephens joined the U.S. Army in 2003 as a Reservist in a military police unit  the 339th Military Police Co. based in Davenport  which was deployed to Iraq in 2004, serving one year. She remained in the Army Reserve until 2010. She and her husband Cory, a Waverly police officer, East High classmate and fellow Iraq veteran, live in rural Waverly with their two sons. He is an Army Reserve career counselor.

She was interested in the WAVP job, she said, because Something close to home, something serving my community, is what I want. And because it is so close to home, its a bonus.

Like the posts organizers, Stephens wants the post to be a place where veterans of all eras, including her own, can come and find relaxation, solace or help.

Ive been there, said Stephens, who has service-related injuries. I know what youre going through. Ive been through it myself and I got the help I need. I know that its possible to feel better. ...

I truly know how it feels to feel lost and not know what to do  and knowing that its not weak to ask for help. Its pretty darn brave to ask for help. This is pretty close to my heart.

My injuries were more than physical, she added. Shes open about it because it may help others. Theres a stigma attached to mental health problems. Ive experienced how real they are, and I just want others to know its okay to be vulnerable and to ask for help.

WAVP chairman Darrell Blasberg said, We are delighted to welcome Sara to our team. With her background and expertise she will be a excellent complement as we lead our organization to its next level.

The post is anticipated to be open by late summer or early fall. A grand opening is scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 8. The $3.6 million post, built largely with private donations, is a combined effort of various Waverly-area veterans organizations and designed to provide a myriad of services for current and returning veterans of past and present conflicts, as well as social gatherings and special events.

Donations are still being accepted. Information is available online at www.waverlyvets.us.
WATERLOO -- As delegates in Cleveland prepared for nominee Donald Trump to take the stage and close the Republican National Convention, U.S. Rep. Rod Blum, R-1st District, passed his day in the hot, humid, Cedar Valley.

He says theres no place hed rather be.

Im sure the conventions fun, but I enjoy being in Iowa a lot more than Cleveland, Ohio, or Washington, D.C., Blum said at a veterans' care fair he held in Waterloo on Thursday.

Blum was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1996 and felt hes been there, done that.

Im not making some statement like Im boycotting the convention, not at all, not at all. Im just back here doing my job, Blum said.

Thursday included one of his favorite parts of the job -- delivering war medals to veterans or their spouses. At the end of the veterans' fair, he surprised Mable Heath with a short ceremony to posthumously award her husband, Lawrence, seven World War II medals he earned as a U.S. Navy veteran.

He spent most of two hours visiting with about a dozen vendors there to help veterans navigate services, find work or connect with local service organizations.

Blum planned to knock on doors to meet voters in Jesup following the fair. Democratic opponent Monica Vernon, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, also spent the week campaigning in Iowa. The Democratic National Convention is next week in Philadelphia.

Vernons stops included a general election kick-off in Waterloo.

Campaigning kept Blum from watching much of the convention on television. Hes kept up through the late-night reports.

While he praised nominee Donald Trumps children for their messages, Blum said he wished U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had given a similarly positive speech.

Cruz, who fought Trump for the Republican nomination, did not endorse Trump in his prime-time speech, instead telling Republicans to vote your conscience.

I wish Senator Cruz had gotten behind our nominee, Blum said.

"I guess at the end of the day I think he should support our partys candidate, because the alternative, once again, the Supreme Court is hanging in the balance, he said.
A roundup of news items from the 2016 Republican National Convention this week in Cleveland:

CONVENTION CASUALTY: It's no secret unity was elusive at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Another sign Thursday: An Iowa delegate at the forefront of an effort to find somebody other than Donald Trump to be the GOP presidential nominee left the party.

Cecil Stinemetz of Urbandale sent an email with the subject line: "Why I walked out and leaving the Republican Party."

Stinemetz accused the party of "thuggery" in connection with Monday's floor fight over whether to vote on convention rules. It appeared a sufficient number of states wanted a vote, but a handful of those states withdrew their request, prompting a demonstration.

He referenced "threats and intimidation from those who want to keep a tight grip on power so that only a few can tell everyone else what to do and what to think and how to vote."

Farewell rally

Gov. Terry Branstad used the last day of the GOP national convention to turn the focus of Iowa's delegates to the work that awaits them at home.

"We need to motivate the grassroots," Branstad told the 30 delegates and alternates at a breakfast meeting-turned pep rally.

The six-term governor called on Republicans to support Donald Trump and Mike Pence at the top of the ticket and work to get U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley and Iowa's three GOP congressmen re-elected, retain control of the Iowa House and win a majority in the Iowa Senate for the first time in a decade.

"Usually the difference between winning and losing is hard work," Branstad said.

That meeting also featured Republican pollster and consultant Frank Luntz, who told Iowa delegates Thursday if the election were held today, Democrat Hillary Clinton would win.

"You have to understand that, Luntz said. "I'm not telling you she's going to win. I'm telling you she's in the lead."

According to his analysis, Luntz contends only about 11 percent of voters nationally are up for grabs, 4 percent undecided and 7 percent don't support Clinton or Trump. Republicans spent much of the convention criticizing Clinton, but Luntz said the GOP needs to do more to sell Trump.

"If you really want to win this election, it's about why Donald Trump is qualified," Luntz said.

Forty-four percent of those Luntz surveyed believe the nation's best days are behind it and more than half think their children's generation will be worse off.

Rock on

Iowa delegates got a look at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday, in particular an exhibit that traced music's relationship with politics.

On display were the "censored" T-shirt and sleeveless denim jacket worn by Twisted Sisters' Dee Snider when he was called before the Senate Commerce Committee in 1985 investigating music lyrics.

A number of displays show politicians with musicians: George W. Bush and Bono, Barack Obama and Beyonce, Dwight Eisenhower and Mahalia Jackson.

A 10-minute video included the history of rock musicians trying to stop politicians from using their music on the campaign trail. Delegate Randy Feenstra, a state senator from Hull, confided he sported a mullet and liked metal bands like Motley Crew and Guns 'N Roses during his youth. Former Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz of Truro liked U2; U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Sen. Jake Chapman of Adel all professed to be Elvis fans.

Branstad toured the museum. He recalled a Buffalo Center musical family who did a song for his first campaign in 1982. He could't recall the name of the tune, but did remember a song for Iowa Gov. Bob Ray called "Step to the Rear (and Let a Winner Lead the Way.)"

"They used it again and again and again, even in his fifth term when I was running for lieutenant governor I think they still brought Marylin Maye back for the inauguration," he said. "If you talk to older people in Iowa, they'll remember it."
WATERLOO  The city wants its flood control system returned to a federal repair program.

Waterloo City Council members voted unanimously this week to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for two years to rectify issues that led to the Cedar River and Black Hawk Creek flood levees to be dropped from the program.

The most important thing about this is (to get) all of our levee system back in the rehab program so that if we have any flood events and damage to that system that the Corps will reimburse us for that repair, said City Engineer Eric Thorson.

A routine inspection in October found problems that led the federal agency to drop Waterloos levees from the repair program.

The main concern was inoperable sanitary sewer gatewells in the levees that are designed to close if a sewer line breaks to prevent flood waters backflowing into homes and neighborhoods.

City officials have estimated it will cost $3.5 million to replace the sluice gates in all 43 gatewells. Plans call for the city to borrow those dollars from a state revolving loan fund and repay them with sewer user fees.

The system-wide improvement framework letter of intent approved by council members also details ongoing efforts to fix other deficiencies in the flood control system, which includes removing trees and vegetation and other levee encroachments.

While the levees were dropped from the Corps repair program they are still shown on Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance rate maps.

City officials have cautioned a failure to address deficiencies over time could eventually cause FEMA to decertify the levees. Such a move would put downtown and many neighborhoods in a flood plain, which can carry flood insurance requirements.
Like partners in a shotgun marriage, Donald Trump and the Republican Partys establishment have been preaching unity this week in hopes of enabling their uneasy new partnership to thrive.

But many well-known members of the family stayed away from the party and remain unreconciled to the union. And not all celebrants seem focused on its principal goal, producing the next president.

Both House Speaker Paul Ryan  who acknowledged just Monday that Trump is not my kind of conservative  and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell concentrated Tuesday night speeches on their legislative agendas before declaring Trumps presidency would speed their enactment.

None of this will happen under Hillary Clinton, said Ryan. Only with Donald Trump and Mike Pence will we have a chance to get A Better Way, referring to his recently unveiled program.

With Donald Trump in the White House, well build on the work weve done, echoed McConnell, who, unlike Ryan, mostly denounced Clinton.

In fact, the evening took on a fiercely anti-Clinton tone that seemed to acknowledge opposing Clinton drives GOP unity more than supporting Trump. It was exemplified by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christies fiery speech prosecuting her for alleged personal and political misdeeds, sparking chants of guilty and lock her up throughout Quicken Loans Arena.

And it underscored the official Republican line  the election is, as Ryan says, a binary choice, and Trump needs to be elected. Still, the convention has repeatedly displayed the discord that plagued the GOP throughout its acrimonious nominating battle  and since.

One of its few totally positive presentations  Monday nights well-received speech by Trumps wife, Melania  was overshadowed by controversy over inclusion of two paragraphs from a similar 2008 speech by Michelle Obama.

Displays of disunity surfaced even before the first gavel fell, as Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort trashed the host governor, Ohios John Kasich, as an embarrassment for refusing to back Trump or appear at the convention. Kasichs response? I laughed, the popular governor told NBC News Lester Holt.

Manafort also labeled the most prominent absent family members part of the past, presumably its two living ex-presidents, George H. W. Bush and son George W. Bush, and most recent presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain.

But absentees also included many governors besides Kasich and most GOP senators facing tough re-election races. Most prominent Republican minority office-holders  Govs. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Susanna Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina  are not speaking at the convention, though Wednesday nights program included Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the latter by video.

Discord flared 15 minutes into Mondays opening session when many delegates shouted no on a vote confirming McConnell as temporary chairman; a day later, he was welcomed with audible boos.

Then, party leaders bungled their quashing of a revolt by conservative Trump critics on the rules, angering the insurgents, mostly conservatives who backed Cruz. Former North Dakota Republican Chairman Gary Emineth quit Trumps National Finance Committee. Colorados Kendal Unruh, chief advocate of a move to let delegates vote their conscience, said she would boycott both nominees and vote for Ronald Reagan.

Later, poor schedule management pushed Iowa Sen. Joni Ernsts speech out of prime television time.

On Tuesday, things went more smoothly. Tiffany Trump and Donald Trump Jr. made strong cases for their father. But a subdued reaction greeted Trumps formal nomination, and the roll-call vote illustrated the extent of division: 721 delegates voted for Cruz, Kasich and four other former Trump rivals.

Also, party leaders angered Alaska, Utah and District of Columbia delegates by ruling their votes must be cast for Trump, even though their Republican voters opposed him.

Besides anti-Clinton sentiment, the most evident unifying factor is Trumps seemingly reluctant choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate, confirmed Tuesday without dissent. Ryan said he helps tremendously in solidifying support from social conservatives.

But there has been no effort to reach out beyond the partys base, especially given a platform reiterating traditionally conservative positions opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage while adding support for some Trump stances like building a wall to block illegal immigration.

As a result, despite the positive internal impact of Pence and the visceral opposition to Clinton, even a great Trump acceptance speech probably wont prevent him from leaving Cleveland with a still shakily united family and a lost opportunity to expand it.
With precious little attention, the Republican Partys attitude toward international trade has officially shifted. Gone is the 2012 platforms strong endorsement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and trade in general. Instead, the new platform reflects Donald Trumps more skeptical attitude toward trade deals (Trump has referred to the TPP as a rape of our country).

I expected it to be contentious, and it wasnt, said a co-chair of the platform subcommittee on the economy. People all seemed to be going toward the same goal here, which is to get the candidate elected.

A minor thing. Unless you are actually an economic conservative who cares anything about jobs and economic growth. A commitment to free trade is not an extraneous add-on to conservative economics; it is the application of conservative economics on a global scale. What Trump has proposed, according to GOP strategist Vin Weber, is to reverse a Republican stance taken since WWII and embrace the notion of a state-planned economy. In threatening a 35 percent tariff on many goods imported from Mexico and a 45 percent tariff on imports from China  and by pledging to punish specific American businesses for behavior he doesnt approve of  Trump is attempting to assume Hugo Chavez-like powers over global commerce.

What would be the result? A massive tariff is the equivalent of a massive, regressive consumption tax. Prices would rise for just about everything  especially the kind of products sold to working- and middle-class people at Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Since about half of American imports are supplies used by firms to make other things, economic activity would slow. American jobs would be lost. (Some economic models predict Trumps tariffs could cost upward of 1.4 million jobs over the next four years.) And the imposition of high tariffs would almost certainly provoke a broader trade war, which is a proven and reliable method to cause a global recession.

In the parlance of economics, this policy approach is bonkers. According to many economists, the prime culprit in the decline of manufacturing jobs is technology rather than global trade. And Trumps promise to reverse globalization through his awesome negotiating skills is magical thinking, distracting attention from actual policies that might help educate and train American workers for a 21st-century economy.

Republican leaders  at least those with ambitions in the age of Trump, such as Mike Pence and Newt Gingrich  have been quick to shed decades of economic conviction. (Pence was a champion of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, arguing the the right course is not to turn back the clock, to close our borders, but to recognize trade means jobs.) And the current attitude of the party itself can best be described as supine. Some of the most basic conservative economic views, it seems, are expendable to get the candidate elected.

This is the story of the Cleveland convention so far. Trump has pushed. Republicans have generally caved. Those who havent  like a few on the convention rules committee  have been crushed without even the pretense of magnanimity.

The fate of those who come around to Trumps way of thinking is not much better. Trump used the announcement of Pence as his running mate as an opportunity to remind America his pick had caved to establishment pressure and endorsed Ted Cruz during the primaries. It was as if Trump were saying he knows what weak men are like and enjoys seeing them finally crawl. Gov. Chris Christie has had his early loyalty to Trump rewarded with a handful of humiliation (including a joke about Oreos). Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus have been serially embarrassed in spite of their support. All these leaders have been miniaturized by their contact with Trump. Which seems to be part of the purpose. Trump not only wants his former opponents to renounce past skepticism, but also to pay for it.

Its almost  in some ways, like, Im running against two parties, Trump explained last month. In Cleveland, one senior Republican official told me, Trump is still settling scores. His goal is not party unity, unless it is the unity of unconditional surrender. On some issues, like global trade, this has involved the surrender of principle, with hardly a yelp of protest.

Meanwhile, Republicans are being asked to pretend everything is normal, even as their leaders are being belittled and some defining Republican convictions abandoned. The balloons will drop as usual  but on a different and diminished party.
Plagiarism is a firing offense in journalism and academia. It has ruined illustrious careers, including that of the late World War II historian Stephen Ambrose. Then-Sen. Joe Bidens 1988 presidential ambitions never recovered from a 1987 speech in which he plagiarized British politician Neil Kinnock.

After GOP presidential candidate Donald Trumps wife, Melania Trump, plagiarized parts of a 2008 Michelle Obama speech before the Republican National Convention on Monday, a campaign spokesman dismissed the controversy as absurd. Wrong answer. But just like every other egregious misstep in the Trump campaign, the notion of a heartfelt public apology is out of the question. A speechwriter later took the blame for using parts of Michelle Obamas speech.

Even worse, Melania Trump spoke Obamas words while extolling the very virtues she was sullying. Growing up in Slovenia, she claimed, her parents instilled in her certain important traits, among them their integrity, compassion and intelligence.

My parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect, Melania Trump said.

They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son, and we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

In her own speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention speech, Obama said of her mother: One of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

Citing the values she was raised with, Obama said, You work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say youre going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect. She and her husband learned to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children  and all children in this nation  to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

Similarly troubling is author Tony Schwartzs lament in this weeks New Yorker magazine about having ghost-written Trumps best-selling book, The Art of the Deal. Trumps exploits and accomplishments are so exaggerated they bear little resemblance to reality, Schwartz said. I put lipstick on a pig, he told writer Jane Mayer.

The GOPs apparent goal in Cleveland is to dazzle the voting public with booming voices, flashing lights, smoke and eye candy. Emerald City beckons. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
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.
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"It is flattering to see that the XQ Super School jury has found our vision for public education to be promising - Weston noted, "we are encouraged and invigorated!"

EASTPORT, ME, July 22, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In a high-profile national contest to "rethink high school," the odds were not on the side of Eastport, Maine -- a remote rural community with a population of 1,294 and a high school enrollment of 103.



Yet in the early hours of July 21st, the easternmost city in the United States received a welcome message from the XQ Institute, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs: Eastport's proposed Pacific Atlantic Community Technology (PACT) school was chosen as one of 50 finalists nationwide. To get there, XQ Super School Project jurors ranked the PACT proposal above hundreds of competing concepts from larger urban school districts and specialized charters.



As smoke from the semifinal round clears, Eastport's PACT stands alone in the state of Maine as it vies to become one of five winning teams to be be announced in early August -- each of which will receive $10 million over five years to build a Super School tailored to its students' needs.



A Cinderella story? Not really, says Paul Theriault, Eastport School System's Principal. "Being small and far from a large city does not mean we are starved for good ideas," Theriault said. "Our schools are full of creative problem-solvers, because we have to confront big challenges without big funding every day."



As a result, the unconventional thinking required by the XQ Super School Project did not throw Theriault's volunteer project team off balance.



"We saw our community rally around this chance," said Shead H.S. history teacher and PACT project spokesperson Damon Weston, "and when we needed something that we could not find locally, far-flung friends and advisors assisted us at every turn. Parents, students and school staff here seem to agree that rural education could benefit from offering a radically different approach."



That approach is encapsulated in the PACT school proposal, which invites participating students to join a "campaign" team, then tackle a problem comprehensively -- rather than attend conventional classes. In this more open-ended, exploratory format, students and teachers are "co-investigators" who explore the real-world problems, devise practical responses, and present their findings publicly.



To overcome the limitations inherent to its rural setting and small student body, the PACT school was imagined from the outset as a bi-coastal program headquartered in Maine with students, instructors, and other resources pooled between partnering schools. If launched with XQ Institute funds, two high schools in the Silicon Valley region of California will collaborate with Eastport's Shead High through PACT campaign teams. These teams will be in the field more than in the classroom, and they will go wherever anchoring questions point them.



The PACT itself would be a modular, optional pathway within the existing partner high schools -- not replacing the existing curriculum, but expanding and strengthening it. The expectation is that students eager to join a PACT research and learning campaign team will opt into the program from throughout eastern Maine, northern California, and well beyond.



As for the competition ahead, the PACT working team based in Eastport is excited, hopeful and confident.



"It is flattering to see that the XQ Super School jury has found our vision for public education to be promising," Weston noted. "We are encouraged and invigorated across the whole Eastport community, and will work to provide our students with this kind of opportunity because the challenges and possibilities are exciting both to them and to us."



Five final contest winners will be announced nationally on 4 August 2016. The "XQ: The Super School Project" CEO and founder is Russlynn Ali, former Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, notes that "Everyone involved in the XQ movement believes that high school education is fundamental to a vital nation. We are awed by the enthusiasm, optimism and renewed respect for public education reflected in so many of the applications. No prize, no matter how large, can create that kind of authentic renewal of faith and hope. XQ didn't make that, this challenge is only a vehicle for teams and communities to do it themselves."



Inquiries about the PACT school and its progress through the XQ Institute contest may be directed to project spokesperson Damon Weston, [email protected], mobile (207) 214-4164.



# # #
Jul 22, 2016 | By Benedict

A team of scientists in China has developed a metal 3D printing technology called smart micro casting & forging. The technology combines 3D printing and forging, uses metal wire 1/10 the cost of AM powders, and could be used in the aerospace, automotive, and molding industries.

Under the leadership of Zhang Haiou, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Huazhong University of Science, a team of scientists in China hasafter 10 years of researchdeveloped what could prove to be a game-changing form of metal manufacturing. A combination of 3D printing, casting, and forging, the new method claims to have broken the biggest obstacle facing the 3D printing industry, bringing a disruptive technological innovation to global machinery manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing is becoming a more and more popular choice for metal parts across a wide range of industries, but doubts remain over the structural integrity of certain 3D printed components. Advocates of traditional manufacturing methods cite the porosity, lack of fusion, and other problems associated with 3D printed parts as a reason to stick with casting or forging techniques.

The Micro Forging & Casting Sync Composite Device, a new product developed by Zhang Haiou and his team, offers an alternative to metal 3D printing methods like selective laser melting and sintering, combining 3D printing, casting, and forging in one. This amalgamation of techniques contributes to increased part strength and toughness, improved product lifecycle, and higher reliability. According to its developers, the technology can also be used to create thin-walled metal components while eliminating excess material and equipment costs.

The all-in-one micro-casting-forging-milling manufacturing equipment currently being developed by the scientists will be capable of producing metal forging parts up to 5.5  4.2  1.5 m in size, with a surface roughness of 0.02 mmthe level of general machining processing. The team has, however, already developed a machine capable of 3D printing in eight kinds of materials, including titanium alloy, for aircraft and marine use, and steel, for use in nuclear power stations. This machine has built a part 2.2 m long and weighing 260 kg. It has also successfully 3D printed a forging part measuring 1800  1400  50 mm.

In traditional mechanical manufacturing, cast metal can not be directly processed into high-performance parts. Its internal structure must be improved through forging, while molding problems also need to be solved. Large forging machinery can be costly, however, and implementation of such equipment results in a long production process, huge energy consumption, serious pollution, and serious waste. Furthermore, it remains difficult to produce functionally gradient material parts. As a burgeoning technology, conventional metal 3D printing technology can solve the above shortcomings of the traditional system, making it a valuable technology in the aerospace, automotive, and molding industries.

Zhang Haiou commented: In the past, conventional 3D printing has been fatally flawed in the following areas: first, without forging, metal parts have a serious chance of wearing; second, the performance of 3D printed parts has not been high; a third problem is the presence of pores and unfused portions; and the fourth is that using a laser or electron beam as a heat source is very costly.

Experts have verified that parts made by 3D printing, casting and forging all-in-one technique are more stable than those made by traditional casting. Furthermore, the Chinese scientists say that the new technique is 80% more efficient than SLM 3D printing, with material costing around one-tenth that of metal additive manufacturing powders. The material used in the forging and casting technique is a kind of metal wire, which is heated by an energy-efficient electric arc which uses one-tenth the energy of a laser beam. This method, which can simultaneously control the size and shape of performance parts, can reportedly save time as well as energy, with two-ton metal castings taking only 10 days to produce, previously three months.

The casting and forging process has already been used to create a titanium 3D printed joints for a new fighter aircraft, which would have been impossible to create as a single piece using any subtractive manufacturing technique. In the past, the only method was to reduce the design standards, split it into multiple parts, and then assemble it, affecting the performance of the fighter and shortening its life cycle. Zhang Haiou and his team have used their new technology to 3D print TC4 titanium alloy parts whose tensile strength, yield strength, ductility, and toughness are much better than the traditional forging parts.

A number of experts, including former Chinese Minister of National Aerospace Lin Zongtang, have suggested that the technology could feature in the Made in China 2025 initiative, a national project inspired by Germanys Industry 4.0 scheme which will attempt to comprehensively upgrade Chinese industry. The initiative will focus on promoting technology and equipment in aerospace, military and civilian planes, nuclear power applications, ships, high-speed rail and other key areas, so that the technology can improve the country's manufacturing capacity and defense strength.

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Matt wrote at 7/24/2016 7:43:29 AM:Wish that we could get some more details about this... Sounds like a MIG welding type process, perhaps with some post processing done by milling, but the forging aspect has me puzzled, unless that is done on a separate machine.Jack wrote at 7/23/2016 8:32:55 PM:Interesting




Jul 22, 2016 | By Alec

The future of 3D printing is looking bright. Especially the industrial 3D printing revolution is picking up speed, as more and more corporations are adopting 3D printing for a variety of applications. While this level of progress is quickly turning industrial 3D printing into a multi-billion dollar industry, it also highlights several material problems. For various tools, adhesives, paints and other materials that are used for conventional components might not be perfectly suitable for 3D printed alternatives. German international product developer Henkel has therefore begun developing very appealing adhesives for 3D printing applications, which could make the technology even more appealing in industrial circles.

Henkel, of course, is a renowned German product developer that employs 50,000 people all over the world. Though focused on both the industrial and consumer markets, they are especially known for operating in three business units: laundry & home care (with products like Persil and Fa), beauty care, and adhesive, coating and sealing solutions for industrial clients.

But the growth of the 3D printing sector has not escaped their eye either. And as the company reveals, they were particularly surprised by the fact that about 70 percent of all 3D printers sold over 2015 went to consumers. These are most likely to be small, low-cost units with relatively limited capabilities, they conclude. While the industrial-level 3D printers are still number one when it comes to actual sales value, Henkel believes that the popularity of industrial 3D printing can certainly increase when new ways are found through which 3D printers can be introduced into the value chain on a large scale.

While numerous companies are working hard to improve technologies and lower their cost, Henkel instead turned to their own expertise in the fields of adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, and is now working hard to develop advanced material solutions that enable functional prototypes to be created through 3D printing and help industrialize the technology in manufacturing, they say. In particular, they are focusing on adhesives that can be used for 3D printed components made for the construction, furniture and automotive industries, and they are working with a network of partners and startups in those fields already.

And they have found remarkable successes already. Several of Henkels adhesive solutions are already being used in construction projects that involve 3D printing, such as the Europe Building in Amsterdam  a mobile conference building 3D printed for the occasion of the Dutch EU Council Presidency. The temporary conference center was created as a collaborative effort between a group of tech and design firms. Henkel contributed to the ecosystem by partnering with leading 3D print designers, DUS Architects, to provide the hotmelt adhesive formulation for creating the impressive front facade of the building, Henkel reveals.

But their adhesive solutions are used in other sectors as well. Several furniture partners, the company reveals, are already using Henkel hotmelt adhesives to create industrial 3D printed prototypes. Among others, a whole first generation of 3D printed furniture  including stools, chairs and lamp shades  have already been assembled with this custom adhesive solution.

But Henkel is perhaps most proud of their achievements in the automotive industry, where the Heidelberg Competence Center for the automotive industry has already been using their UV curable adhesives to develop complex 3D printed parts for various international car developers. In particular, they are using the adhesives to assemble functional prototypes that can be tested in a variety of ways. In the process of realizing automotive concepts from sketches, UV curable adhesives enable 3D printing with different materials, they say.

Whats more, these initial applications have shown that Henkels adhesives save a lot of time when it comes to assembling automotive prototypes  enabling engineers to quickly test and refine new designs. It allows the prototypes to be delivered within hours or days, the company said.

But Henkel is also looking to the future, when final parts might be increasingly 3D printed in new materials -which would need new adhesives. Henkel is developing adhesive solutions which enable the usage of new materials, breakthrough finishes and shorter lead times in 3D printing. These innovations will pave the way for 3D printing technology to be more closely integrated with the automotive manufacturing process, for example in the creation of 3D printed cars and spare parts, they say. It just shows that 3D printing innovations alone are not enough to create a revolution. The whole production process and all its accessories must adapt to 3D printing as well, and Henkel is working hard to make that possible.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jul 22, 2016 | By Alec

3D printers are rapidly finding their way into the engineering faculties of universities all around the world, but the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Australia has just brought 3D printing to a completely different faculty as well. Starting next year, archeology students will also be able to benefit from all the advantages of 3D printing. Specifically, these services are intended for off-campus students who are unable to attend the university to gain access to archeological artefacts, and will instead be able to study full-color, highly accurate 3D printed replicas.

Despite the fact that 3D printing is as futuristic as it gets, this is by no means the first historical or archeological project to rely on 3D printing. In 2015, an Irish archeologist developed a 3D printed replica of a bronze age artefact to prove that it wasnt actually a spear butt, while UNESCO is using the technology to preserve Middle Eastern archaeological sites. And just a few months ago, British archeological institute Wessex Archaeology turned to 3D printing to reconstruct two shipwreck sites in British waters.

But it is unusual to see it implemented on such a large scale. As USQ professor Bryce Barker revealed, it is simply crucial for a new course that will be taught next year, called Archaeological Laboratory Methods: Analysis and Interpretation  during which students will be working directly with components from archaeological records. To do this, students need to handle material that has been excavated and identify it. For example, we might have unearthed a skull and by looking at the teeth, we can identify what animal it is, its age, and other features, he explains.

But the problem is that the University of Southern Queensland also has many students studying off campus  sometimes as far away as Christmas Island. For those students, 3D printing would be a fantastic opportunity to get the same hands-on experience as the students on-campus. It would also be essential for developing the necessary skills to be an archeologist. Without 3D printing, those students might have to travel thousands of miles for intensive courses to acquire those skills.

However, as Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Jan Thomas explained, this is also just the next step in using innovative technologies to enhance the learning and teaching processes. The project itself is part of USQs ICT Technology Demonstrators Project. The demonstrator process is 90 days and is a trial of a product that will improve an educators professional practice and ultimately motivate and provide significant enhancement to the student learning journey, Professor Thomas said. Simply, Technology Demonstrators are looking into the classroom of the future. We continuously seek to explore and drive innovative, evidence-based approaches to the facilitation and delivery of learning and teaching so that all our students receive quality learning experiences and graduate as pioneering connected professionals.

As such, 3D printing is part of USQs plans for the future. According to professor Ken Udas, similar high-tech innovations, such as animal dissection, teaching space evolution, and the educational application of robotics,3D printing, apps and e-books are also being studied. We have adopted a low barrier, low cost, iterative, time-bound, and failure-free approach that is yielding positive results. We believe that this model is transferable to a rather wide-range of our experimental and innovative activities, he said.

For this particular archeological innovation, the replicated artefacts  including skulls, bones and ancient tools  will be 3D scanned with a laser scanner and 3D printed in full color by Australian 3D printing service Ellipsis Media. The company has been offering these services for two and a half years and use a 3D Systems Projet 660Pro 3D printer, as well as Artec Eva, Structure Sensor and the NextEngine Ultra HD laser scanners.

According to Ellipsis Media Manager Robert Keanalley, their technologies are perfect for such artefacts. With archaeology, anthropology and museum specimens, we can non-invasively laser scan objects ranging in size from 5cm up to the size of a passenger car, he said. Its perfect for capturing specimens imbedded in rock that traditional methods of plaster casting for replication may otherwise damage or destroy the original relic. Educational 3D printing, it seems, is finally becoming a reality.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Cedric Johnson in Jacobin:

Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the supreme booster of broken windows policing, was quick to attack Black Lives Matter activists, claiming that BLM is inherently racist because, number one, it divides us. He also chastised activists for allegedly ignoring violence within black communities and suggested that they were responsible for civilian-police conflicts because their criticism puts a target on the backs of police officers.

Other conservatives have echoed claims that the Obama administration and Black Lives Matter protests have created dangerous conditions for police officers. They are wrong. Policing is not the most hazardous occupation in the United States. In fact, it is not even in the top ten.

And contrary to the claim that the Obama administration  no unwavering supporter of antipolice brutality efforts  has enabled anti-police sentiment, violence against police officers has decreased during Obamas tenure, especially when compared to the George W. Bush years. Over 70 percent of the violence against law enforcement that has occurred so far this year has been carried out by white men.

Finally, antipolice brutality struggles should not be reduced to the movement for black lives. Surely the hashtag and slogan, and the network of activists who align with BLM, have been instrumental in drawing national and international attention to the issue of police violence, but on the ground, protests are comprised of all manner of people representing victims families, traditional civil rights organizations, neighborhood and community groups, labor unions, civil liberties advocates, youth and student organizations, various left political tendencies, and solitary actors. And organizing against police brutality has a much longer lineage, one that certainly predates the birth of BLMs millennial spokespersons.

In the hands of conservatives, Black Lives Matter has become an easy foil for dismissing a longer-standing set of struggles against police violence and mass incarceration.

More here.
Ed Yong in The Atlantic:

In 1995, if you had told Toby Spribille that hed eventually overthrow a scientific idea thats been the stuff of textbooks for 150 years, he would have laughed at you. Back then, his life seemed constrained to a very different path. He was raised in a Montana trailer park, and home-schooled by what he now describes as a fundamentalist cult. At a young age, he fell in love with science, but had no way of feeding that love. He longed to break away from his roots and get a proper education.

At 19, he got a job at a local forestry service. Within a few years, he had earned enough to leave home. His meager savings and non-existent grades meant that no American university would take him, so Spribille looked to Europe.

Thanks to his family background, he could speak German, and he had heard that many universities there charged no tuition fees. His missing qualifications were still a problem, but one that the University of Gottingen decided to overlook. They said that under exceptional circumstances, they could enroll a few people every year without transcripts, says Sprirbille. That was the bottleneck of my life.

More here.
Sara Chodosh in Scientific American:

Think about the first time you met your college roommate. You were probably nervous, talking a little too loudly and laughing a little too heartily. What else does that memory bring to mind? The lunch you shared later? The dorm mates you met that night? Memories beget memories, and as soon as you think of one, you think of more. Now neuroscientists are starting to figure out why. When two events happen in short succession, they feel somehow linked to each other. It turns out that apparent link has a physical manifestation in our brains, as researchers from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto (SickKids), the University of Toronto and Stanford University describe in this weeks Science. Intuitively we know that theres a structure to our memory, says neuroscientist Paul Frankland, affiliated with both the University of Toronto and SickKids. These experiments are starting to scratch the surface of how memories are linked in the brain.

In your brain, and in the brains of lab mice, recollections are physically represented as collections of neurons with strengthened connections to one another. These clusters of connected cells are known as engrams, or memory traces. When a mouse receives a light shock to the foot in a particular cage, an engram forms to encode the memory of that event. Once that memory forms the set of neurons that make up the engram are more likely to fire. Furthermore, more excitable neuronsthat is, brain cells that activate easilyare more likely to be recruited into an engram, so if you increase the excitability of particular neurons, you can preferentially include them in a new engram. The question was, did that principle apply to two memories that happen close together in time? Neurons in a newly formed memory trace are subsequently more excitable than neighboring brain cells for a transient period of time. It follows then that a memory formed soon after the first might be encoded in an overlapping population of neurons, which is exactly what Frankland and study co-lead author Sheena Josselyn, found.

More here.


Altech - Capital Raising Update

Perth, July 22, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Altech Chemicals Limited (Altech/the Company) ( ASX:ATC ) advises that further to the suspension in trading of the Company's securities on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) pre-open this morning.



Perth stockbroking firm DJ Carmichael Pty Ltd (Lead Manager) and Hong Kong stockbroking firm Empire Capital Partners (Co-Manager) are arranging a placement of fully paid ordinary shares of the Company to a variety of professional and sophisticated investors (the Placement).



Funds raised by the Placement will be applied to the detailed design of the Company's proposed high purity alumina (HPA) plant at Johor, Malaysia, the completion of debt financing for the project and for general working capital purposes.



As the Company has recently conducted a share purchase plan (SPP) (March 2016), the Company will not be making an SPP offer to existing shareholders (annual limit of $15,000 SPP per 12 month period). Please direct any inquiries about the Placement to the Company Secretary Mr Shane Volk, or DJ Carmichael in Perth.





About Altech Chemicals Ltd





Altech Chemicals Limited (ASX:ATC) (FRA:A3Y) is aiming to become one of the world's leading suppliers of 99.99% (4N) high purity alumina (Al2O3) through the construction and operation of a 4,500tpa high purity alumina (HPA) processing plant at Johor, Malaysia. Feedstock for the plant will be sourced from the Company's 100%-owned kaolin deposit at Meckering, Western Australia and shipped to Malaysia.



HPA is a high-value, high margin and highly demanded product as it is the critical ingredient required for the production of synthetic sapphire. Synthetic sapphire is used in the manufacture of substrates for LED lights, semiconductor wafers used in the electronics industry, and scratch-resistant sapphire glass used for wristwatch faces, optical windows and smartphone components. Increasingly HPA is used by lithium-ion battery manufacturers as the coating on the battery's separator, which improves performance, longevity and safety of the battery. With global HPA demand approximately 19,000t (2018), it is estimated that this demand will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% (2018-2028); by 2028 HPA market demand will be approximately 272,000t, driven by the increasing adoption of LEDs worldwide as well as the demand for HPA by lithium-ion battery manufacturers to serve the surging electric vehicle market.
A mosquito species capable of transmitting the Zika virus has been found for the first time in Roosevelt County, on New Mexicos eastern border, the state Department of Health announced Thursday.

The finding brings to four the number of New Mexico counties where at least one of the two species of Aedes mosquitoes have been trapped this summer, the agency said.

Researchers at the New Mexico State University are mapping the range of two species under a $90,000 contract from the New Mexico Department of Health.

Two species of mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus  Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus  are known to thrive in the southern U.S., including New Mexico.

The species trapped in Roosevelt County was an Aedes albopictus mosquito.

Researchers plan to place mosquito traps in 24 of New Mexicos 33 counties this summer. The work is intended to help health officials plan for the possibility of local Zika infections and reduce infection risks.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes already had been found this summer in Dona Ana, Eddy and Chaves counties in southern and southeastern New Mexico.

Also Thursday, New Mexico was awarded a $1 million federal grant for Zika preparedness and response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.

The award is New Mexicos share of about $60 million the CDC will award to states, cities, and territories to help protect Americans from Zika virus disease.

Earlier this year, Zika was linked to a Brazilian epidemic of microcephaly, a severe birth defect marked by an underdeveloped head and brain.

Three Zika cases have been reported in New Mexico, all acquired outside the U.S.

As of Thursday, 1,404 travel-associated cases of Zika infections had been reported among U.S. residents, all acquired in other countries. No local infections have occurred within the continental U.S.
As a newfound entrepreneurial mindset takes hold in Albuquerque, the University of New Mexico and high school educators are working to guide enthusiastic students into creative, business-oriented pathways.

This fall, UNMs Anderson School of Management is launching its first Introduction to Entrepreneurship course for undergraduate freshman and sophomores. At the same time, the universitys Innovation Academy, which opened last fall, is bracing for a surge in enrollment, from about 280 this past year to 500 by December.

And, this August, Siembra Leadership High School  the first new charter approved by Albuquerque Public Schools in seven years  will initiate classes Downtown, offering students hands-on entrepreneurial skills, knowhow and experience as they prepare for college and careers.

Theres so much buzz going on, and students want to know what its all about, said Stacy Sacco, lecturer and director of UNMs Small Business Institute. We want to open the door to provide them an initial gateway to entrepreneurship.

Sacco and distinguished Anderson professor Sul Kassicieh will teach the new introductory course, which they created because of surging student interest. A New Venture Strategies class for juniors and seniors, for example, saw enrollment more than double from less than 20 in recent years to nearly 40 today.

Theres clearly much more awareness about entrepreneurship, and thats key to New Mexicos future, Kassicieh said. As educators, its incumbent on us to help guide students forward.

Overall, enrollment at Anderson increased to 1,819 students this past year, up 3.7 percent from the previous academic year, said Dean Craig White. But while general interest in the business school is up, growth is especially noticeable in entrepreneurship courses.

Were seeing some classes expand by double digits, White said. Its a hot area that students are interested in.

Thats particularly evident at the Innovation Academy, which offers students direct experience and real-world skills in entrepreneurship through internships and projects. The Academy is part of the new Innovate ABQ initiative to develop a bustling center for startup businesses in Downtown Albuquerque.

Were seeing more young people who say they want to be self-employed and have control over their own careers and future, said Academy director Robert DelCampo. We want to teach them the skills and knowledge they need to do it.

Andersons new introductory course will teach the very basics of what launching a business is all about, to encourage students while also showing them the challenges involved.

Its a reality check, Sacco said. We want students be realistic, because its not just build it and they will come.'

Siembra Leadership High School, meanwhile, will target students at even younger ages. The school, located in the Anasazi building, is deliberately located near the Innovate ABQ site at central and Broadway to immerse students in Albuquerques emerging Innovation District. All students will be required to form their own business, nonprofit or social enterprise as a capstone project for graduation, said Siembra director of community engagement Jessica Aranda.

We want them to learn the underlying mindset of entrepreneurship, Aranda said. That includes taking risks and maybe failing, but in a nurturing atmosphere where they can benefit from the learning opportunities connected to those failures. All that is part of the entrepreneurial concepts that are gaining real momentum in Albuquerque right now.
CLEVELAND  Ted Cruz, vanquished presidential candidate, coughed up the name of the man who defeated him for the Republican nomination precisely once in his convention speech Wednesday night. I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination, the Texas senator managed to choke out.

Then, in a line not contained in the prepared text, And like each of you I want to see the principles that our party believes prevail in November.

From there, Cruzs speech was notable not for the predictable attacks on President Obama and Hillary Clinton  indeed, by the lock-her-up standards of the Republican convention here, Cruz sounded positively, uncharacteristically mild  but for its resounding silence on his partys nominee, a man he had described as a pathological liar, a narcissist and utterly amoral.

If anything, the speech was pregnant with implicit nose-holding, if not tacit condemnation, of Trump.

As in: Were fighting, not for one particular candidate or one campaign, but because each of us wants to be able to tell our kids and grandkids  that we did our best for their future and our country. Um, so would that be voting for President Trump?

As in: We deserve leaders who stand for principle, who unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love. That is the standard we should expect, from everybody. Um, so Trump lived up to that standard, or not?

As in: And to those listening, please, dont stay home in November. If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution. Um, so would you include Trump in that, Sen. Cruz?

Magnanimous this was not. Graciousness is not a quality normally associated with Cruz, but, then again, Trumps primary campaign behavior, baselessly insinuating that Cruzs father was associated with Lee Harvey Oswald, was so despicable as to evoke that rarest of sentiments: sympathy for Cruz.

Yet if Cruzs inability to go beyond the most perfunctory of congratulations was understandable, more befuddling was the Trump campaigns willingness not only to tolerate this behavior but also to feature it in prime time.

Indeed, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort told reporters earlier in the day that while he hadnt yet seen Cruzs remarks, his words will leave no doubt that he wants Donald Trump to be president of the United States. Not exactly.

This convention has been notable for the awkward lukewarmness with which party leaders have treated Trump. Still, the Cruz non-endorsement was a remarkable departure from standard operating procedure for a defeated candidate.

Compare and contrast the remarks of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who preceded Cruz: A vote for anyone other than Donald Trump in November is a vote for Hillary Clinton, he said.

Compare and contrast even the video remarks  make that video snippet  from Liddle Marco Rubio. The time for fighting each other is over, the senator from Florida said, ticking off the fundamental policy differences between Trump on one hand and Clinton/Obama on the other.

Except you dont have to be Machiavelli to understand that President Trumps taking the oath of office in January 2017 would interfere with the prospect of President Cruz doing the same four years later. It was impossible to watch him as he prepared to speak Wednesday night and not imagine the thought bubble hovering above his head: Coulda. Shoulda. Maybe still could.

At the start, the delegates seemed to love it. By the time Cruz got to his call to back candidates up and down the ticket without a mention of Trump, boos had erupted in the hall.

If Cruz had imagined a reception akin to what greeted Ronald Reagan when he non-endorsed Gerald Ford at the 1976 convention but hailed the party platform of bold, unmistakable colors, he was sorely disappointed. Mr. Popularity in the Senate wasnt winning that contest in Quicken Loans Arena either.

The morning after, Cruz wasnt any more conciliatory. I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father, he proclaimed, which raised the question: so what was he doing there, exactly?

And, again, what were the Trump people thinking, to allow this to happen, and upstage the message of their vice presidential nominee? This was an episode in which both sides  Cruz and Trump  lost.

From my point of view, not a bad outcome.

Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.
The Diocese of Gallup drives a hard bargain  one in which truth is a casualty.

In the case of the $21 million settlement to victims of priest sexual abuse its a deal that essentially re-abuses the victims by making them fear they might lose their hard-fought settlements if they reveal details of their abuse. In one case, a victim was so afraid of court sanctions he did not dare to look at the one record that pertained to his abuse.

The court-approved settlement agreement allows a victim just a one-time eyes only access to a single file pertaining to that victims abuser. It strictly prohibits sharing or duplicating the password-protected electronic contents, which will be destroyed after a year.

The diocese threatened to withdraw the settlement when attorneys for the victims sought to have the church publicly release personnel files of accused priests.

Such a bully tactic certainly seems to indicate a lack of contrition. But it appears to be business as usual for the church, whose leadership for years kept hidden from its faithful members the abuse visited on innocent children by some clergy.

Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, whose areas of oversight includes the Gallup Diocese and who has said he wont tolerate abuse, should use his influence to correct this poor treatment of past victims.

The church routinely stakes out what it believes is the high moral ground on issues ranging from abortion to immigration to end of life. Thats not the case when it comes to the past misdeeds of its clergy and the impact on finances. Its position on these records shows that maintaining secrecy about abuse and how it was handled are its top priorities.

An undated letter posted on the dioceses website from Gallup Bishop James S. Wall states his ongoing commitment to protection of children and to further my goal of transparency within this Diocese, we have determined that there are additional priests against whom there have been credible allegations of child abuse who worked in various places within the Diocese. It states that their names, places and dates of service and those of previously named priests will be posted on the website.

Walls letter also states that the survivors who have come forward should be commended for their bravery and courage, and I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who violated the trust of the survivors and the parishioners within the Diocese by committing these terrible acts.

Despite those promises of transparency and support for victims, the dioceses hypocritical take-it-or-leave-it deal is punitive, essentially re-abusing the victims. So when Bishop Wall ascends to the pulpit to lecture on the moral topic of the day, he should reconsider the churchs policy of continuing to conceal decades of predatory criminal activities.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Each time Edward Padilla puts on his play Fallen Guardian Angels, it takes him back to when he wrote it.

Padilla wrote the basis for the play in 1985, when he was asked by a friend to write a eulogy.

After he read it, he told me I had to expand it, Padilla says.

Padilla says productions of Fallen Guardian Angels through the years has allowed its audience to experience the AIDS epidemic during its early years.

The play is a time capsule capturing the spirit of the epidemic in 1985 through the backstage banter of six actors and their stage manager before the opening of an unseen stage show. Padilla has each of his actors step out from their anonymity to tell powerful stories of how AIDS affected their lives.

I think it really hit the cast a few days ago, he says. They were reading their lines, and I told them that these are the actual words people I knew said. I didnt take any liberty with it. These stories are all from interviews I did for the play. The characters do not speak of AIDS in flashback. The play was written three years into this new epidemic, but the words have become, as I am told, timeless.

Padilla says he wrote the script to be ethnically diverse and introduces the audience to the straight man, played by Omar Vigil, the straight woman, played by Jenelle Baptiste, the gay man without the disease, played by Tony Reo, a lesbian in deep denial, played by Maria Teresa Herrera, a religious zealot with a not-so-wholesome past, played by Madyson Turner, and a man with secrets, played by Kyle King, which must be revealed for him to embrace the enormity of the world crisis.

After more than 30 years, its still the same, he says. Its gone from saying dying from AIDS to living with AIDS. Hopefully, this will bring more attention the AIDS crisis and start the conversation again.

Padilla says all the proceeds from the show will be donated to the University of New Mexico Truman Health Services, which specializes in HIV/AIDS treatment.
Home, Food and Bed/Casa, Comida y Cama by Jose Esquivel, 2015 acrylic on canvas. (Courtesy of Jose Esquivel) Author Sandra Cisneros will have a few public events in New Mexico. (Courtesy of Alan Goldfarb) Mustard House/La casa mostaza by Ana Serrano, 2012, cardboard & cut paper. (Courtesy of Ana Serrano) The House on Mango Street (1st ed. cover illustration) by Alejandro Romero (Chicago), watercolor & ink painting. (Courtesy of National Museum of Mexican Art/Michael Tropea) Prev 1 of 8 Next

In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.

These are the words spoken by Esperanza Cordero in Sandra Cisneros 1984 classic The House on Mango Street.

The coming-of-age novel cemented Cisneros place in the literary world.

The novel followed Experanza, a young Latina who is determined to say goodbye to her impoverished Latino neighborhood in Chicago.

More than 30 years later, Cisneros says the problems Esperanza faced exist in todays world.

I actually finished the book in 1982, she says. The sad part about all this ringing true is at the time, I wrote the book because I thought there would be a better day. It hasnt happened. Especially right now. Were in turmoil.

Cisneros is coming to the Land of Enchantment and will have public engagements in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

She will deliver the keynote address at the 18th annual UNM Summer Writers Conference in Santa Fe.

The Summer Writers Conference, which had been held in Taos for nearly two decades, has moved to Santa Fe and renamed the University of New Mexico Summer Writers Conference. The gathering runs from Sunday, July 24 through July 31 and is expected to draw writers from around the country.

Each year, the conference invites agents, editors and publishing professionals to consult with conference participants. Daily round tables and faculty readings round out the conference experience.

USA Today named the event one of the top 10 writers conferences in the country.

She then will read pieces from her works at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 24, at the Drury Plaza Hotel in Santa Fe.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 27, Cisneros and Tey Marianna Nunn, director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, will conduct an intimate and personal tour of The House on Mango Street: Artists Interpret Community.

The exhibit, organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, uses Cisneros The House on Mango Street to address issues surrounding childhood, growing up, community and identity.

The visual artists featured in the exhibition explore experiences prevalent in working-class neighborhoods from various cities, ethnic backgrounds and walks of life to identify commonalities in their coming-of-age experiences. The works of art feature major themes of the book, including hope, personal dreams, hardship, disillusionment, family, community, home, identity, relationships, independence, coming of age and storytelling.

This event costs $25 and is limited to 40 participants.

The second NHCC event will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 28. Cisneros will have a reading and book signing. This is a free ticketed event, and tickets are available one hour before the show.

It will be held in the Bank of America Theatre at the NHCC.

The talk with Tey is something different, she says. This was something we didnt do in Chicago, and it will make it exciting.

Her latest book is the memoir A House of My Own: Stories From My Life, released in 2015.

Cisneros is living in Mexico now and says shes in a transition period in her life.

Im right in the beginning of what Im going to do next, she says. Im always a little hesitant when it comes to writing. I wish I could pound out something in every situation. I wish I was that kind of writer.

Cisneros is paying attention to the global climate and says its going to get worse before it gets better.

Its a delicate time, but I want it to be a fun and exciting day on the planet, she says. Change starts with one person, and art can make that change. When people say that art cant make change, I beg to differ. I see people who have changed their lives, and it takes a lot of hard work. This is the struggle that every one of us has to go through. I get those testimonials from readers all the time.

Looking back at The House on Mango Street, Cisneros says the book was created from a place of powerlessness.

I want to continue to work from that place, she says. I wasnt trying to do something grandiose. I was trying to go to sleep, and I was trying to figure out how I could get to sleep without pain. Thats how the book developed. It was an act of transforming darkness to light. Its an alchemy.

And the author is looking forward to getting back to New Mexico.

I feel like in New Mexico and Mexico, we are connected to the spirit world, she says. Its a place where inspiration will hit me.
New Belgium Brewing Co. of Colorado is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the help of some its brewery friends from around the country.

The Fat Tire & Friends CollaBEERation Pack was created to commemorate the occasion. The CollaBEERation features new spins on Fat Tire from Californias Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Colorados Avery Brewing Co., Oregons Allagash Brewing Co. and Hopworks Urban Brewery, as well as Ohios Rhinegeist Brewery.

Geckos Bar & Tapas in Nob Hill will be serving five of the CollaBEERations on Sunday, July 24, according to Christopher Jewell, general manager at Geckos Bar & Tapas in Nob Hill.

New Belgium is one of Jewells favorite breweries, and he is excited to share these CollaBEERations with Geckos patrons. These CollaBEERations are not normally served on tap at Geckos and are limited to Sundays event.

Geckos will be offering Fat Tire 25th Anniversary, which is the perfect balance of bisquity malt flavor and hoppy freshness, according to New Belgium tasting notes. Fat Sour Apple Ale, which is the CollaBEERation with Hopworks, also will be on tap. This CollaBEERation is a slightly sour homage that starts out with a snap of tartness, courtesy of lactobacillus and apple juice. It is balanced by Fat Tire-inspired malty sweetness and a slight herbal bitterness, according to the tasting notes.

Another CollaBEERation beer being offered is Fat Funk Ale, created with the help of Allagash. This beer takes Fat Tire back to its Belgian roots with a De Dolle House Belgian yeast strain, which adds pear, banana and spice to Fat Tire, according to the tasting notes.

Also on tap will be Fat Hoppy Ale, the CollaBEERation with Firestone Walker, which created an assertive hop presence. Lager yeast was then added to create a hoppy amber lager version of Fat Tire with an amplified American hop aroma, as described by the tasting notes.

Last but not least is the Fat Wild Ale. It is the CollaBEERation with Avery that is an unbashedly tropic take on Fat Tire. Avery took a dose of Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Drie to create this version with a malty backbone fruity hop aroma and a tropical pineapple layer, according to the tasting notes.

For more information on these CollaBEERations, visit newbelgium.com/beer/fat-tire-and-friends.
A state senator is asking Attorney General Hector Balderas to investigate the June 11 traffic stop of Sixth Judicial District Attorney Francesca Estevez, who wasnt given a field sobriety test by Silver City and State police officers even though a motorist had reported her erratic driving and one of the officers said she appeared loaded.

I am very concerned that special treatment was afforded to an elected official, Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, said in a letter to Balderas.

Morales also said he believes the district attorney abused her power by trying to intimidate one of the officers.

State Police and Silver City Chief Ed Reynolds, who stopped at the scene briefly, have announced that no charges will be filed against Estevez and issued apologies to the public about the way the situation was handled by officers from both departments.

Estevez was video recorded swerving on U.S. 180 as she approached Silver City, crossing the center median line and driving onto the road shoulder by another motorist who notified police dispatch of what he believed to be a drunken driver.

The motorist lost contact with Estevezs vehicle in town but found it a short time later parked with a flat tire near some local government buildings.

Police responded to the scene where Estevez parked the vehicle. They were also shown the video the motorist had recorded of Estevez driving into town shortly after noon.

While police are heard on body camera tapes saying Estevez was loaded, she was never given a sobriety test and officers spent most of their time helping her arrange to change the flat tire on the government car she was driving.

On the recordings, she appears distracted and gives contradictory answers. She has problems using her phone and appears to have difficulty walking heel to toe while talking on her cellphone.

At one point, she appears to fall back into her car. She called the vehicle a Ford when it was a Dodge Charger.

Officers said they didnt smell alcohol but commented that could have been because of heavy aroma of perfume.

Estevezs attorney Jim Foy has said she doesnt drink and the flat tire caused her erratic driving.

In the letter requesting a review by the attorney general, Morales said he has three issues with what happened: was Estevez given preferential treatment, did Estevez tarnish her office and was there abuse of power that could force her resignation.

Most of the interaction with Estevez was videotaped by officers, but the cameras were turned off and on. Their conversation with Reynolds was not recorded.

Morales said the abuse of power occurred during the incident when Estevez mistakenly identified one of the Silver City officers, a new recruit undergoing training, as having been involved in racist activity while he was in high school.

She had no basis or reason to bring this issue up with a law enforcement officer trying to do his job in a difficult situation, Morales wrote. This was yet another example of the intimidation and harassment tactics she rendered toward officers for her own personal benefit.

Morales also wants Balderas to look at what protocols need to be changed and what additional education of officers is needed.

State Police and Silver City Chief Reynolds said any discipline would be handled internally and officers would not be fired. Both agencies said the incident was not handled correctly, and Reynolds said Estevez should have been given a field sobriety test before being allowed to leave.

Reynolds apologized to local residents in a news conference earlier this week.
Angele Kunkowski says little has changed in the racial tension in this country since people took to the streets to protest the policies that segregated blacks and whites in the 1950s and 60s, and she believes the way to change that is to try to achieve a better understanding of one another.

The 32-year-old African-American Santa Fe resident was one of about 60 people who held a demonstration at the intersection of Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive Thursday afternoon.

The gathering was part of the Movement for Black Lives national day of action. There were demonstrations in about 80 cities across the country Thursday, according to local organizer Chad Jones, and Twitter was abuzz with the tag #FreedomNow.

Kunkowski said black people now face systematic racism perpetuated by the way theyre portrayed in media. She said the media image creates a fear of African-Americans.

Nothing has changed very much, she said, since segregationist polices were defeated in the 1960s with the demonstrations and struggles of both blacks and whites to denounce the atrocities that happened.

We now face systemic racism. Systemic racism deals with peoples hearts and attitudes, and their fears towards things. Fear is a potent controller of people.

Claire Gallinghouse, one of many white protestors, said people need to realize that there is still oppression in America and that whites in particular need to see whats really going on.

An important piece that often gets overlooked is that white people need to do their internal work and really recognize the privilege that is afforded to us and work to share the privilege, Gallinghouse said. People dont even see it. Sharing it means not playing into the stories that were told about who people are based on their skin color.

We need to understand that someone whos different than you can be your friend, and someone thats different than you has value, Kunkowski said. I bet if we actually turned off the TV and spent time talking to one another as human beings, it would improve things dramatically.
IDAHO

What do guns and sewing machines have in common? Not all that much, youd think, but in Grangeville, Idaho, population 3,100, theyve been paired for an unusual shopping opportunity. Think of it as a BOGO  buy one, get one free  though the freebie in this case has the power to blow your head off. If you purchase a sewing machine of a selected brand at Jody Hooglands Home Grown Quilt shop this month, you get a muzzleloader thrown in for free.

Thats right, says the Idaho County Free Press, this benefits both the men and the women, making this the perfect time to make everyone happy and satisfied, ready for sewing season, as well as hunting season. We dont know what doodads make an Epic or Sapphire brand sewing machine deluxe, but B&B Bargain boasts that its stainless steel/black muzzleloader comes equipped with fiber-optic sights.

UTAH

You have to admire the leopard who not only escaped from his cage at a Salt Lake City zoo, but then started tweeting about his experiences: Former tenant@HogleZoo. Out exploring the city and all it has to offer. Yet the wonderfully spotted 4-year-old Amur leopard didnt wander very far from the Hogle Zoo; he simply jumped eight feet up to a beam just a couple of feet away and lay there, supine, watching the humans fuss.

A zoo visitor spotted him and handlers restored the leopard to its enclosure. An hour later, human visitors were again free to roam. The leopard continued to communicate, however, assuring visitors that his escape was totally not a ploy to trap people in the gift shop for an hour.

THE WEST

Lets hope its just a flurry of bad behavior and not a lasting trend, but reports of vandalism in public places are mounting. In Utah, at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a sandstone wall of Zebra Slot Canyon was defaced by Kenny and Aryn, a couple who incised their names and the date inside the shape of a heart. Kenny and Aryn are not unique in their desire to leave their mark outdoors; last year, reports the Salt Lake Tribune, monument patrols had to restore 1,234 square feet of rock that had been chiseled by visitors.

And in Grand Canyon recently, a visitor at the South Rim saw a couple spray-painting graffiti on rocks, tagging Evans 16 before rangers could nab them. An anonymous tip line, 888-653-0009, is the place to call with any leads.

Those annoying Canadians have still not returned to Yellowstone National Park to face charges of tampering with an iconic hot spring by deliberately leaving the boardwalk and dipping their hands in the water. The Guardian reports that the four men, who post online as High on Life Sunday Fundayz, have a history of flaunting their sabotage of public places.

Wearing animal-pattern onesies, for instance, they posted videos of themselves this spring on wakeboards as an RV dragged them across the wet Bonneville Salt Flat. Louise Noeth of Save the Salt, an advocacy group for the regions racing community, said she was astonished to see video of these knuckleheads, and I think the damage is pretty bad. It broke my heart. It creates ruts and mud that can take decades to heal, if ever.

The men have also posted videos of themselves ignoring an agency ban to swing on a rope from Corona Arch in Utah, and they have allegedly entered prohibited areas at Machu Picchu in Peru and climbed atop monoliths at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

The men have a slew of followers, though one critic, Bryce Dodson of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., says he got so angry at the Yellowstone and Bonneville insults that he created the Facebook page Stop High on Life.

Meanwhile, the U.S. attorneys office in Cheyenne, Wyo., has issued arrest warrants for the men, who sport distinctive names: Hamish McNab Campbell Cross, Charles Ryker Gamble, Alexey Andriyovych Lyakh and Justis Cooper Price-Brown.

WYOMING

Occasionally, a moment of thoughtlessness can end in tragedy. Colin Scott, 23, recently strayed off a boardwalk at Yellowstone National Park and, once on the fragile crust, he slipped and disappeared into a hot pool. Only his flip-flops could be retrieved by rangers.

A different kind of tragedy resulted when a man and his son picked up a newborn bison and put it in the back of their SUV. They were demanding to speak with a ranger, said a visitor who saw the incident. They were seriously worried that the calf was freezing and dying. After wildlife officials restored the calf to its herd, reports The Associated Press, the animal found itself firmly rejected. Ultimately, it had to be put down because it continually approached people and cars along the roadway.

Betsy Marston is the editor of Writers on the Range, the opinion service of High Country News (hcn.org). Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared, betsym@hcn.org.
A new privilege is now available at the airports in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Denver and 13 other cities in the United States, and more opportunities are on the way. You can now buy the right to cut the security lines. Some people might call this bribery; I know I do.

This shortcut isnt for everyone, naturally. Its off-limits to anyone with a criminal history and you must be willing to have your fingertips scanned or the pupils of your eyes photographed.

But it allows you to avoid the time and hassle of waiting in long lines to have your boarding pass and identification checked by the Transportation Security Administration people, although you still have to take off your belt and shoes, and remove your laptop.

But for a bribe of $179 per year, paid to a company called CLEAR, you can cut in front of the hoi polloi who were slogging through the endless line when you got there and go directly to be scanned. Yes, this is a government-sanctioned service. Notoriously corrupt, underdeveloped Third World countries have nothing on us.

Chatting with an employee of the company in Denver, I was told that the proceeds will be split between the company and the TSA. Or maybe it was the airport; Im not sure. But whoever gets the money, its just plain wrong. After all, these are public enterprises selling private privileges.

I understand the concept of paying extra for enhanced service and I have no problem with it. On planes, first-class travelers sprawl, taking up as much space as Wyoming, while those of us in economy get to inspect the skin pores of people in adjacent seats.

And, at a restaurant, you can buy a cheap glass of wine that smells like nail polish or splurge on one with the kind of fragrance that will have your date starry-eyed. We all understand that such things have a price.

But going through security is not an elective. This is a federal requirement. There should be no opportunity for somebody to be able to cut the line. Bribery shouldnt be flagrantly promoted.

Something of the same sort occurs at ski areas. Nearly all of the ski areas across the West are on public land, operating under permits from the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service thinks of itself as a partner with private companies in providing public recreation. As such, the private companies are allowed to charge for various services. The key charge is for being transported uphill.

Im OK with that, and with $12 hamburgers, for that matter, and $300-per-day ski instructors. Youre still free to throw a bologna sandwich in your pack, and you can teach yourself to ski.

But not all customers are equal. At some ski areas, for an added fee, you can get first dibs on untracked powder in the morning, before the regular lift service starts. The Forest Service and its partners provide access to recreation, but those with more money get more access.

Then theres the custom of cutting lift lines. Ski instructors commonly go to the front of the line and politely inquire if they and their customers can cut in. But theres an underlying economic component. People pay handsomely for ski instructors to teach them how to ski better and select appropriate terrain.

But, for many customers, the ski instructors key value lies in not having to wait in line. This is the equivalent of cutting to the front of the lunch line in middle school, even if its done more politely. If ski areas were barely meeting payroll, you could argue that selling these special privileges was justified.

But most ski areas are extremely profitable. So what is the rationale for offering such preferential treatment to people with deep pockets?

Some people see tolled highway express lanes in the same way. If you want to avoid the creepy-crawling congestion in the other lanes, you can hop into the express line and scoot along  for an added cost. I think this is different, though. Because we refuse to raise gas taxes, the express lanes provide a way of paying to fill the potholes in the many roads that all of us use.

In a bizarre way, resentment of this kind of privilege was a common theme overlapping the political campaigns of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. (That might be the nicest thing I can find to say about Donald Trump.) They came at it from different angles, though. Each tapped a sense of dissatisfaction with various systems  including political parties  that are often perceived as rigged.

Petty bribery in less-developed nations seems to be a way of life. There, they do it with a wink as cash passes under the table. Here, its something thats advertised.

Allen Best is a contributor to Writers on the Range, the opinion service of High Country News (hcn.org). He writes in the Denver area.
SANTA FE  The state Senates financial guru says New Mexicos finances are in crisis, and he is prodding the governor and legislative leaders to start planning for a special session to fill holes in the state budget before they get any deeper.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said Thursday that the state is facing a deficit of more than $150 million for the budget year that ended June 30, along with prospects of a shortfall in the new budget year of between $300 million and $500 million.

Smith has urged Republican Gov. Susana Martinez to talk to legislative leaders to begin to outline solutions.

He suggests holding a special session as soon as August.

I understand the rub with the election year  and I dont think anybody wants to have a special session, but we have to have a balanced budget, Smith said at a news conference.

The governor and a GOP legislative leader, however, noted that the numbers are preliminary and advised taking a deep breath.

The final figures for the 2015-16 budget year, which ended June 30, wont be available for a few more weeks.

Martinez is happy to discuss the states budget outlook with legislative leaders, but will insist that we move forward in a cautious, diligent and responsible way that protects New Mexicos taxpayers, her spokesman, Michael Lonergan, said in a statement that did not directly address Smiths proposal for a special session.

Yes, we need to be talking about it. We need to be looking at it, said Smiths counterpart in the Republican-led House, Appropriations and Finance Committee Chairman Larry Larranaga, R-Albuquerque.

But once final numbers are in for the year just ended, wed have all the information together and then we could decide how to approach this in the best manner, he said.

Preliminary figures released this week indicate that the state took in almost 10 percent less revenue  $543.3 million  in the first 11 months of the just-completed fiscal year than it did during the same period in the previous year. The state dipped into its reserves to cover $400 million of that, and is projected to have just $63 million in its primary cash reserves in the current budget year.

The state is on track to take in a little over $5.7 billion for the just-completed fiscal year, according to the report from the Legislative Finance Committee.

A budget of $6.2 billion was approved during this years legislative session for the fiscal year that began July 1, but officials say revenues are likely to fall well short of that.

Smith said he doesnt think the final numbers for the year that ended June 30 will show enough of an uptick to avert the need for a special session, and he said waiting until the regular legislative session in January 2017 to make significant adjustments would create a real convulsion within government.

He proposes diverting money from the $230 million Tobacco Settlement Permanent Fund  fed by lawsuit settlements from tobacco companies  to plug the gap for the 2015-16 budget year and to at least make a dent in the projected shortfall in the 2016-17 year.

That money is intended for tobacco education and health-related initiatives, but it has also been used by the Legislature in the past to shore up other programs.

But Smith said the tobacco money likely wouldnt be enough, and all remedies  not just cuts, but new revenues, should be on the table.

State government is spending more money than it is taking in, and by law, we cannot do that, he said in a statement.

Plummeting oil and gas prices have caused the problems, and recent increases arent enough to offset that, according to state officials.

Through April, gross receipts tax revenue was down 7.5 percent from the previous budget year and corporate income tax revenue was down more than 50 percent, according to the Legislative Finance Committee.

That accounts for most of the expected shortfall in the just-ended budget year.

When oil and gas prices are down, it also directly and indirectly affects manufacturing, construction and other industries as well, said the statement from Martinezs office.

While energy prices are rising slowly once again, it will take time for production and employment to ramp back up, the statement said.

State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn said Thursday that for the budget year that ended in June, the State Land Office took in about $495.5 million in royalties and leases, primarily from the oil and gas industries, down about 32 percent from the $739 million collected in the previous fiscal year.

To me, you have two issues  you have to plug last years budget and address this years, Dunn said in an interview. Its probably going to have to be a combination of revenue enhancements and additional spending cuts.

About 12.5 percent of the states direct general fund revenue stems from the oil and natural gas industries, according to the Department of Finance and Administration, although the figure is much higher when indirect revenue is factored in, including annual distributions from the states Land Grant Permanent Fund.

State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg said he told the state Board of Finance this week that from July 2015 to July 2016 expenditures have exceeded revenue by $600 million, reducing the pool of state money available for investing from $1.7 billion to $1.1 billion.

He said thats a concern because it reduces the amount of money available for long-term investments.

Journal staff writer Dan Boyd contributed to this report.
When Tom Guralnick was booking acts that would appear at the Lensic as part of the New Mexico Jazz Festival, he thought he was scheduling only one Jazz Master.

But, as it turns out, two of the other performers he booked were dubbed Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts recently, leaving the Lensic with three of the honored all-time greats appearing over the next seven days.

Were going for big-name acts  people that we have hopes will fill the Lensic, said Guralnick, festival organizer and executive director of the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, which also hosts festival acts, along with the Route 66 Summerfest in the Duke City and other venues.

The Jazz Masters headed to Santa Fe include Dave Holland (Sunday), Charles Lloyd (July 29) and Dr. Lonnie Smith (July 30). Rounding out the Lensic performances will be Lisa Fischer, who was featured in the documentary film 20 Feet From Stardom. That movie will be screened at 1 p.m. July 31 and Fischer will perform with Grand Baton at 7:30 p.m. that same day.

While both Holland and Lloyd have played many times in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, this is the first time theyll be performing as part of the summer jazz festival, Guralnick said. This also will mark Smiths and Fischers first appearance with the festival.

A lot of American jazz musicians go to Europe for summer festivals there, Guralnick said of his attempts to schedule some popular acts for the New Mexico Jazz Festival in July. As it turns out, Holland and Lloyd both were available this summer; both will be heading to Rhode Island after their appearance at the Lensic to take the stage July 31 at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Lloyd was the musician Guralnick specifically targeted as the NEA Jazz Master to appear at this years festival. The NEA defines those individuals as living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz. A.B. Spellman, retired NEA deputy chairman, will have a conversation with Lloyd at a free Meet the Artist event at 2 p.m. July 29.

Lloyds concert will be dedicated to Judith McBean, a California native who moved to a ranch in northern New Mexico and had been a good friend of Lloyd and his wife. McBean died in 2014.

She was helpful in bringing him to New Mexico, Guralnick said.

Hes a great saxophonist, composer and improviser, he said of Lloyd. He has really a sound of his own, a unique sound. Lloyd had the first million-selling jazz album in the 60s, recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, according to Guralnick. He also is known for incorporating non-Western styles of music into his jazz.

Holland and Smith were named NEA Jazz Masters for 2017.

Dave Holland is one of the great modern jazz bass players, Guralnick said. He has a long history in world jazz. He played with Miles Davis in the 60s and with many others, often taking his jazz in the direction of funk, he said. Hes an amazing composer and bandleader in his own right.

The NEA Jazz Masters program calls him one of the most versatile bassists in jazz, working across different styles seamlessly, from traditional to avant-garde jazz to world and folk music. He performed at the Lensic last year with Indian musician Zakir Hussain.

Smith performs on what many people might not think of as a jazz instrument: the organ.

But theres a whole tradition of the Hammond B3 organ in jazz, Guralnick said. The form, of which Smith is recognized as a master, often went into soul, funk and blues sounds, he added.

The NEA program calls Smith one of the premier purveyors of funk/soul jazz. He has recorded tributes to Jimi Hendrix and Beck, and covered artists such as the Beatles and Eurythmics, while hip-hop musicians often have sampled his sounds.

Overall, Guralnick said, I think this is the best festival ever. There really is a lot of variety, a lot of acts that people really want to come out for.
An article published in last Sundays newspaper featuring two local police officers describing racism in Santa Fe provoked a huge response on social media, probably more than any story ever generated by the Journal Norths staff.

The story by reporter Edmundo Carrillo  in which officer Anwar Sanders, a native of New Jersey, described Santa Fe as probably one of the most racist places Ive ever been  reached more than 100,000 people on the Journal website or Facebook and generated more than 2,200 comments, reactions or shares.

The comments are across the spectrum, and most of them go far beyond whether there is bias against African-Americans in Santa Fe. A lot of it veers into the difficult corners of our local divisions, issues not often discussed frankly in the public square or in political discourse  separation by class, a lack of welcome to outsiders coming into the areas 400-year-old Hispanic culture, displacement of the historic population by newcomers and Anglos saying theyve faced race hatred. And what about being taken over by rich snobs, the arts crowd and tourists?

That said, there are also plenty of defenders of Santa Fe and New Mexicos famous diversity.

I love NM, the people and the culture, one poster said. I dont want to live in any other state. I think it takes a while to be accepted by people, of different cultures or races, but given time, it typically turns into a good relationship. Of course Ive seen some people of different races be closed off to others, simply due to race, (not just one race), but for the most part I know a lot of accepting and warm people. We have a long way to go in America, but we all have to make the effort.

Some posters said Sanders was too vague about what he perceives as racism when he referred to looks thrown his way and seeing disgust and disappointment on the faces of the people he pulls over.

Hey officers, how about you take a Tent Rocks hike this weekend, appreciate the awesomeness that NM has to offer, and quit your gd bitching about how the locals treat you, a Rio Rancho resident wrote.

Others said Sanders has mistaken an anti-outsider vibe for racism or should know that, as a cop, hes going to get a lot of guff and called every name in the book  chubby cops get called Fat Pig, black cops get a racial slur.

One Facebook poster who said hed spent 28 years as a Santa Fe cop suggested that Sanders, with three years of law enforcement experience, needs some retraining because you got 17 more yrs of name calling and dirty looks to get used to. Another comment was: This state hates cops  has nothing to do with the color of your skin.

But theres also been blow-back against the critics of Sanders and the other officer who spoke out, the Santa Fe Police Departments Jacquaan Matherson. A native New Yorker, Matherson  while not making general statements about the City Different  said he hears the N word a lot, and is called gorilla and a monkey during arrests, and was called shadow man by a mere passerby.

One poster said: In response to these men describing their personal experience, comments abound with people stating either or both of these men are attention seekers, full of crap, have a rejection complex, intolerant, guilty of racism on both sides, and projecting own baggage. Finally, the sentiment that best confirms the officers accounts is  if he doesnt like it, leave and why arent they both in a black neighborhood. 

A black Santa Fe woman who has run an eatery here posted that she was confused by the irritation set off by Sanders, who gained national attention by writing about his dual experience of being a cop and young black man in America, and was interviewed by CNN and NPR in the wake of the recent fatal shootings of police officers.

It seems over the top, the woman wrote. The officer is explaining his reality as an officer in blue and a black man in life  good bad or indifferent hes still living here  so obviously there are things that are working right, but why cant one strive to make things better no matter where one lives. Santa Fe is great  I love it here, I can also say that theres a lot of racism, xenophobia and willfull ignorance  just like anywhere else. Empathy goes a long way  just sayin.

Members of black community speak

As a follow-up to Carrillos article, I reached out to a few members of Santa Fes small African-American community to hear what they might say about being black in Santa Fe.

Doris Fields, now retired from working at the state Department of Health in Santa Fe and living in Placitas, said she couldnt comment on how anyone else feels. But she said, My experience in working in Santa Fe was that I was subject to peoples racist comments, statements and actions on a daily basis. Usually not just once a day.

Fields remains active in the local NAACP, teaches at UNM, helps organize the annual Martin Luther King Day event at the Roundhouse and served as temporary director of the state Office of African-American Affairs. I would say that there are many, many wonderful people in Santa Fe, she added. I had and still have friendships there with many people of all different cultural backgrounds. But is there racism in Santa Fe? You bet.

Asked for an example, she told how her boss in state government once told her to get rid of a young black man who worked under Fields by telling Fields to hang him. She said there was an atmosphere where that kind of thing was accepted.

Santa Fe attorney Roderick Thompson, a Michigan native who has lived in Santa Fe for about 10 years, said he has experienced very little racism here. In my job, I run into people much better behaved with no chip on their shoulder, who arent intoxicated, he said I can understand how the officers would have a very different experience. He said racism certainly exists here, but Ive never been to a place where it didnt.

I have never been stopped by an officer without justification, he added. I have certainly met some rude cops but nothing worth complaining about. He said that, as both a public defender and private attorney, he has had clients of just about every race and very few of them ever had a problem going forward with me.

Thompson, who has served on several city government boards or commissions, said he has seen explicit racism in Detroit and its suburbs. Here, no one seems to care if theres a mix of white people and Hispanics in a neighborhood, he said. Detroit, he added, is one of the most segregated places in the country  black, white, Arab, just a mess of people hating each other. That would never happen here.

Thompson said he doesnt want to come off as saying everything is perfect in Santa Fe. Mine may still be coming, he said.

Architect Gregory Waits, who has lived in Santa Fe since 2004 and finds it a great place to be, said there are so few blacks here, Youre sort of an exotic object  your numbers are so low, youre not a threat. And he hasnt had any problems being part of an inter-racial couple with his blonde girlfriend of Irish descent. With so few black people around, Here in Santa Fe, its almost expected. Who else are you going to date?

I think some people have a racist attitude, but youll find that anywhere you go, he said.

He presents a nuanced perspective on racial issues in Santa Fe, saying the city has a number of cliques or clans. Its a cliquish place, and its almost like the cliques have to compete one against the other to survive. He said theres a strong good old boy network that is not going to work in my favor  I can feel the lack of numbers (for African-Americans). He said his sister married a Sanchez and the surname makes it a little easier to move.

Richard Bell, president of the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance who helps organize the citys gay pride events, said no one should be shocked to hear theres racism in Santa Fe. Its everywhere, he said.

In his experience here, Bell said, Its not overt. Its very subtle, like someone seeming surprised that a black man is articulate or asking Bell if he washes his dreadlocks. I would never ask anyone if they wash their hair, he said. Bell added, I believe that people can say thoughtless and racist things, and it doesnt make them racist. They can be misinformed.

He said the comments of the black police officers shouldnt be discounted. If someone is saying thats my experience, lets not dismiss it, Bell said. Lets have a conversation.
Despite nothing in the Santa Fe National Forests current forest plan that allows it, widespread opposition against it, and no input from the firm that triggered the entire process, U.S. Forest Service officials are following through with a years-long undertaking of evaluating whether 136,650 acres of forest land surrounding the Valles Caldera National Preserve is suitable for geothermal energy exploration and development.

Two community meetings meant to get the word out about a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and the deadline for public comment were held this week in Jemez Springs and El Rito. One other meeting was held in Santa Fe earlier this month.

Just prior to the deadline for this story, the National Forest announced that another meeting would be added in Albuquerque and that the comment period, originally set to end Aug. 22, would be extended to an as-yet-undetermined date.

In general, the feeling is that everybody is opposed to it here. Everybody thinks its a good idea somewhere else, Larry Gore, a Santa Fe National Forest geologist leading the process, said in summarizing the input he has gotten so far.

The process were in right now is asking the public  as individuals and groups  to look at the draft EIS and see if we have adequately addressed their concerns. If they dont feel comfortable with whats in there, they need to submit a written comment.

The critics dont think its a good idea at all and especially not in one of the most alluring parts of New Mexico for recreationalists, with a dormant volcano nearby, in a zone already considered at risk for earthquakes and with the presence of a nuclear weapons facility less than 20 miles away.

Those were some of the concerns submitted during the scoping period for the environmental assessment last year. Its a disaster waiting to happen, if you begin to mess with the earths surface, warned one person who identified themselves as a retired citizen of Jemez Springs and a lover of the exceptional beauty and pristine wilderness that surrounds us.

The All Pueblo Council of Governors  with a special interest in preserving cultural and religious properties in the area  a consortium of environmental and wildlife preservation groups, and dozens of citizens have expressed opposition to geothermal energy development.

Gore acknowledged that, through the 2015 scoping period  during which more than 200 individuals or groups provided more than 900 comments  and the draft EIS evaluation process so far, no one has come forward to express support.

But because an out-of-state firm nominated the lands in the area for competitive geothermal leasing five years ago, the evaluation process continues.

Thats whats driving the process, Gore said of the expression of interest Ormat Technologies filed in March 2011 with the Bureau of Land Management, the agency with the authority over subsurface minerals.

Ormat Technologies, based in Reno, Nev., has not submitted any information in support of geothermal drilling throughout the process, Gore said.

During scoping, we did check in with them to make sure they were interested in proceeding. It would seem pointless to go ahead otherwise, said Gore. At that point, they still thought the claims would be viable.

Ormat officials did not respond to multiple phone and email messages from the Journal this w eek.

Generating jobs

According to the companys website, Ormat is the only vertically integrated geothermal company with expertise in all aspects of the geothermal project development process, including seeking and obtaining land to funding, lease purchasing, permitting, exploration, drilling, and the development and operation of geothermal power plants.

It describes itself as a pioneer in the geothermal renewable energy systems that supplies geothermal power to 23 countries. It reported revenue of $151.6 million during the first quarter of 2016.

In 2008, Ormats president told The Associated Press that the geothermal industry should do more to promote itself.

I dont know if we have failed, but we certainly have not succeeded until now to capture the imagination of other people on the public relations level, said Yoram Bronicki, who resigned as president and CEO of the company in November. Everybody else looks at the wind turbine as the staple of renewable energy.

The Geothermal Research Council, an industry group, touts the benefits of geothermal energy as an economic driver, and a clean and sustainable energy resource.

Specific to New Mexico, the councils website says that developing the states available geothermal resources can create thousands of jobs  5,200 construction jobs and 1,840 full-time positions in operations. Developing geothermal resources for direct use could also reduce carbon emissions by 1 million metric tons per year, according to the group.

Geothermal resource sites within the state are already in use in Catron, Dona Ana, Otero and Sierra counties.

SFNF said about $709,000 has been spent on the evaluation so far, with about $180,000 more needed to complete the process. More than half the funding was provided through the Engery Policy Act, while $425,000 is from the SFNF budget.

As explained in the impact statement, geothermal resources are reservoirs of hot water, steam or dry hot rock below the earths surface. It sometimes comes to the surface naturally in the form of steam vents, geysers or hot springs. Jemez Springs is named and known for its hot springs.

Geothermal energy is captured by tapping the reservoirs or hot rock by drilling wells and extracting energy as fluid or steam, which can then be converted to electricity.

But critics say geothermal energy isnt all that clean and can lead to other problems. Extracting energy from hot rock usually involves injecting water at high pressure from the surface, a controversial technique commonly known as fracking. Studies have shown increased seismic activity in areas where fracking occurs.

The draft EIS notes that the area under study lies above several faults, and that 54 earthquakes have occurred within the vicinity of the Santa Fe National Forest between 1964 and 2014, the largest with a magnitude of 3.5. The nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory has been required in recent years to shore up its defenses in a case of a seismic event.

The probability of an earthquake exceeding magnitude 5.0 in the project area in the next 20 years ranges from 3 to 15 percent, according to the document, which notes that a 5.0 earthquake would do little or no damage to well-constructed structures.

Dirty, wet steam

George Diesel is an opponent of developing geothermal energy in the area with a unique perspective. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he worked as a field engineer for a private company that, in association with the Department of Energy and PNM, explored geothermal resources on what was then the Baca Land and Cattle Company, later sold to the U.S. government and converted into the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

It was a doomed project; it wasnt going to work, Diesel, who now lives in Albuquerque, said in a phone interview.

In the simplest of terms, Diesel said the extracted steam was not of the type that would make mining geothermal energy financially viable.

In some places in the U.S., the steam is clean. In the Jemez, its not clean. Its dirty and wet, he said.

And the liquids pumped to the surface contained solids that would clog the pipes in a short amount of time, he said.

Ive seen a 24-inch pipe get closed off in less than a week. It builds up and becomes extremely expensive. There is no way to scrub it clean, he said.

Diesel had numerous other concerns, including threats to water quality, depletion of water reserves and the environmental disruption geothermal exploration would cause, including the construction of new roads to access areas and bring in equipment.

They drill with a huge oil drilling rig. It takes hundreds of truckloads to stockpile material and transport it just to do one well. Its a big stress on the environment, he said.

A paper published in 2002 by Fraser Goff, a Los Alamos lab scientist who provided comment during the scoping period, supports Diesels assessment.

This project, which was supposed to showcase development of liquid-dominated geothermal reservoirs, became extremely frustrating, expensive, and non-productive, he wrote of the same project Diesel worked on.

Goff concluded that it was highly likely that costs to produce geothermal energy in the Valles Caldera would be considerably higher than elsewhere. He wrote that generating geothermal power in the area only makes sense if the cost is subsidized.

Gore said the National Forest is basing its criteria for viability on a U.S. Geological Survey study that identified 195,000 acres in the Coyote, Cuba, Espanola and Jemez ranger districts as being potentially suitable for geothermal development. Almost one-third of that area is owned privately or by the state or pueblos, leaving a little more than 135,000 acres for potential development.

Gore said great strides have been made in the geothermal technology since Goffs paper was written and the studies cited therein were done.

And its not up to the U.S. Forest Service to decide determine the feasibility.

All were doing is saying either, Yes, this land is available for geothermal leasing, or no, its not available,  he said. Its up to the company to do their own study to determine the feasibility, knowing what restrictions we are putting on development.

One persons decision

Diesel and others have also been critical of the evaluation process. He attended the community meeting in Jemez Springs on Tuesday and said he left feeling frustrated. The presentation was fraught with what he considered assumptions and misconceptions about geothermal development almost to the point of ridiculousness, he said.

He also complained that the process culminates with a decision by just one person, Forest Supervisor Maria Garcia, whose decision is expected to come some time in 2017. One person shouldnt have that kind of power, he said.

The forest supervisor can decide to take no action, which would still allow for applications to be considered on a case-by-case basis: Accept proposed action, which would identify some areas as open to leasing with constraints, or close to leasing, which would exclude development.

Judy Calman, staff attorney with the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, has also complained about the process, last week sending a letter to Gore complaining about SFNFs outreach efforts during the evaluation period. She was one of only five people who attended the meeting in Santa Fe, although more people were at the other two public hearings.

It appears (whether this was SFNFs intention or not) that SFNF was attempting to advertise a public meeting in the way which garnered the least amount of public participation as possible, she wrote.

The email announcing the July 7 meeting was sent out the Friday afternoon before the Fourth of July weekend, a letter her group received announcing the meeting was postmarked the day before the meeting and the announcement did not have a prominent presence on the SFNFs website, she said. They have not handled this great, Calman said of SFNF during a phone interview this week. We complained about these things last year and they just do it again.

In response, National Forest said Thursday that it would add a public meeting in Albuquerque in August. A date and location have not been determined. The public comment period is also being extended, most likely to a date in September.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

People who knew Daniel Gutierrez during his years of government service in Bernalillo County say they expected the Albuquerque native to run for elected office one day.

Nobody, including Gutierrez himself, expected that he would be elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

Its funny, because the bishop is elected by the clergy and the laity of the Episcopal Church, Gutierrez said in a phone interview from Philadelphia, where he was consecrated Saturday as bishop.

People called me through the voting process, said Gutierrez, who grew up in Albuquerques South Broadway neighborhood.

The diocese Gutierrez now leads is the second-oldest Episcopal diocese in the U.S., founded in 1784, with 44,000 members in Philadelphia and four surrounding counties.

The election makes Gutierrez the only U.S.-born Hispanic leading an Episcopal diocese today, and among the first in the churchs history.

His rise in the Episcopal Church has been nothing short of meteoric. Gutierrez, 51, was ordained as a priest only eight years ago, in December 2008.

After several years, I could see that someday he would be chosen as a bishop, said Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande Bishop Michael Vono, who tapped Gutierrez in 2011 as Canon to the Ordinary, Vonos chief of staff.

Until then, Gutierrezs career had been all government.

He served as an administrative assistant to Mayor Martin Chavez from 1993-97, then as director of Bernalillo Countys economic development department from 1998 to 2011.

In his days as a Bernalillo County official, Gutierrez regularly commented in Journal stories about issues such as infill development and efforts to lure industry to the county.

Ultimately, he wanted to follow his calling and left government service to become a priest, Bernalillo County Commissioner Art De La Cruz said of his longtime friend.

He left a good job to become a priest, De La Cruz said. He wanted to be able to serve people. He wanted to minister. He had that calling.

Gutierrez grew up off Williams SE right near the railroad tracks where they filmed a lot of Breaking Bad,  he said.

A 1982 graduate of St. Pius X High School, Gutierrez eventually earned his masters degree in public administration at the University of New Mexico.

He married Suzanne Fletcher Gutierrez in 1991. They have a son, Jude, 18.

Gutierrez said he expects his background in economic development and administration to help him lead a large, urban diocese.

With my political background, I am willing to walk the halls of government, meet elected officials, offer up our churchs programs to work cooperatively with city and state government, he said.
WASHINGTON  Alarm and condemnation erupted Thursday from European capitals, the White House and leaders of Donald Trumps own party after the Republican presidential nominee suggested the United States might abandon its NATO military commitments if he is elected president.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who backed Trump at the GOP national convention only two days earlier, said he totally disagreed with the statement, but was willing to chalk it up to a rookie mistake.

McConnell called NATO the most successful military alliance in the history of the world in a Facebook interview with The New York Times.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance agreement was crystal clear: We defend each other.

I will not interfere in the U.S. election campaign, Stoltenberg said, but he added, Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States.

Secretary of State John Kerry said, This administration, like every single administration, Republican and Democrat alike, since 1949 remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments under Article 5, which is absolutely bedrock to our membership and to our partnership with NATO.
CLEVELAND  After a slow start, big money is flowing toward efforts to help Donald Trump.

Super PAC side meetings during the Republican National Convention have yielded millions of dollars in financial commitments, their leaders said, although some of the wealthiest and best-known donors remain uncomfortable with a presidential nominee whom they call divisive and light on policies.

A group called Rebuilding America Now landed a $3 million donation on Monday and made a pitch to about 25 donors Wednesday at a Ritz Carlton gathering that featured Trump campaign officials, said Laurance Gay, the groups director. With the fresh infusion of cash, the group is set to air anti-Hillary Clinton and pro-Trump television advertisements next week during the Democratic National Convention.

Donors left our event feeling much less confused about the super PAC situation, Gay said. If theres a time to begin giving, its now.

Another super PAC, Great America PAC, has been working in Cleveland to woo donors, including multimillionaire investor Foster Friess and oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm. Trump advocates Ben Carson and Dorothy Woods, a widow of one of the four Americans killed in the Benghazi, Libya, attacks, spoke to about 100 people who attended a Great America PAC meeting on Monday, said the groups co-founder, Eric Beach.

Both groups need new money: Theyre facing pro-Clinton efforts with more than $130 million. And FEC filings in recent days showed Great America PAC began the month with less than $1 million in available cash, and Rebuilding America Now with just over $500,000.

Donors have been slow to engage with pro-Trump super PACs partly because the candidate spent months criticizing such groups as corrupt and ridiculing those who give money to politicians as puppet masters. Others arent sure yet where he stands on policies they care about.

One holdout is the DeVos family, major Republican donors in Michigan who founded Amway. Betsy DeVos, in Cleveland as a delegate, said that while her family wouldnt preclude helping Trump, theyre concerned they havent heard more from him on issues such as school choice. Theyre also not happy with his tone and language.

A lot of the things he has said are very off-putting and concerning, DeVos said.

Another complication has been the pileup of potential groups to help Trump  with at least six super PACs in the mix. The uncertainty has left some, including oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson, holding off.

Hes not giving to any of them right now, said Andy Abboud, Adelsons political adviser, who posted on Twitter a photograph of Trump with Sheldon and Miriam Adelson Wednesday night at the convention arena.
PARIS  The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five people facing terror charges.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said the five suspects in custody faced preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack in the southern French city.

Molins office, which oversees terrorism investigations, opened a judicial inquiry Thursday into a battery of charges for the suspects, including complicity to murder and possessing weapons tied to a terrorist enterprise.

Details about the investigation came as Frances interior minister faced criticism that a faulty security plan may have opened the way for the truck attack and as France extended its state of emergency for six months.

The prosecutor said the investigation has made notable advances since the Bastille Day attack by Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had been living legally in Nice for years. Bouhlel was killed by police after barreling his 19-ton truck down Nices famed Promenade des Anglais, mowing down those who had come to see holiday fireworks.

The detained suspects are four men  two Franco-Tunisians, a Tunisian and an Albanian  and one woman of dual French-Albanian nationality, Molins said. One had previous convictions for drugs and petty crime.

People close to Bouhlel said he had shown no signs of radicalization until very recently. But Molins said information from Bouhlels phone suggested he could have been preparing an attack as far back as May 2015. One photo in his phone, taken May 25, 2015, was an article on Captagon, a drug said to be used by some jihadis before attacks.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though authorities say they have not found signs the extremist group directed it.

The probe, which involves more than 400 investigators, confirmed the attack was premediated, the prosecutor said. Telephone records were used to link the five to Bouhlel and allegedly to support roles in the carnage.

Bouhlel and a 30-year-old French-Tunisian with no previous convictions had phoned each other 1,278 times in a year, Molins said. The prosecutor said a text message from the same man found on a seized phone said: Im not Charlie; Im happy. They have brought in the soldiers of Allah to finish the job.

The message was dated three days after the January 2015 massacre at Charlie Hebdo, the satirical publication in Paris, and referred to the worldwide phrase of solidarity for the victims Im Charlie.

Hours after the July 14 attack in Nice, the same man filmed the bloody scene on the promenade.

The aftermath of the Nice attack has seen France being torn by finger-pointing and accusations that security was wanting, despite the state of emergency in place since the Paris attacks last November.

French officials defended the governments security measures in Nice on the night of the attack, even as the interior minister acknowledged that national police were not, as he had claimed before, stationed at the entrance to the closed-off boulevard.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuves clarification comes after a newspaper accused French authorities of lacking transparency in their handling of the massacre.
ANKARA, Turkey  Turkey will be able to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees without parliamentary approval under a three-month state of emergency approved Thursday by lawmakers following last weeks attempted military coup.

Parliament voted 346-115 to approve the national state of emergency, which gives sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been accused of autocratic conduct even before this weeks crackdown on alleged opponents. Erdogan has said the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy.

Even without the emergency measures, his government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and the closure of hundreds of schools. Erdogan said the new powers would allow the government to rid the military of the virus of subversion, blaming the coup attempt on a U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The cleric has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.

This is a state of emergency imposed not on the people, but on (the state) itself, declared Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. We will, one by one, cleanse the state of (Gulens followers) and eliminate those who are trying to harm the country.

The government hopes the state of emergency will be lifted within 40 to 45 days, said Yildirims deputy, Numan Kurtulmus.

Turkey immediately said it was partially suspending the European Convention on Human Rights, allowing it more leeway to deal with individual cases, by invoking an article most recently used by France and Ukraine. The Council of Europe said it had been informed of Turkeys decision, and that the convention will still apply, but that individual exceptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Meanwhile, video emerged of soldiers firing at crowds who rushed to defend the government during the failed coup. Footage from CCTV cameras above the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul showed soldiers shooting at a man who had his hands up as he approached tanks that were blocking traffic. Other footage, obtained from the Turkish Dogan news agency, showed a mob attacking surrendering soldiers on the bridge after daybreak.

On Thursday, thousands of people again gathered at the bridge to protest the failed coup. Waving Turkish flags, the crowd walked across the bridge linking the European and Asian sides of the city, some defiantly chanting, Our martyrs are immortal, our nation cannot be divided!

Since the July 15 coup attempt, the government has arrested nearly 10,000 people. More than 58,880 civil service employees  including teachers, university deans and police  have been dismissed, suspended, forced to resign or had their licenses revoked for allegedly being Gulen followers.

Turkish state media said Thursday that another 32 judges and two military officers had been detained by authorities.

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, slammed the state of emergency move.

Speaking ahead of the vote, CHP lawmaker Ozgur Ozel said the decision would amount to a civilian coup against Parliament and was a display of ingratitude to all the legislators who had gathered in the assembly Saturday to oppose the coup attempt.

Amnesty International said it recognized that the government had to take measures to prevent another coup attempt, but warned that under the state of emergency, dismissed civil servants would not be able to challenge the decrees in administrative courts and detention periods would be extended.
CLEVELAND  Donald Trump accepted the Republican Partys presidential nomination Thursday night and promised a dramatic overhaul of U.S. foreign and domestic policy, vowing to build a border wall, scrap trade agreements, reduce government regulation, slash taxes and make America great again.

The New York real estate developers speech  on script and delivered uncharacteristically with the help of a teleprompter  electrified an audience of thousands in the Quicken Loans Arena. Delegates frequently broke into chants of USA, USA, USA  and Trump joined in, flashing a thumbs-up gesture to loud applause.

The Republican presidential nominee, who struggled to win over many Republicans during a long and bruising GOP primary fight, had the arena in Cleveland firmly on his side Thursday.

Who would have believed when we started this journey on June 16 of last year  and I say we because we are a team  would have received almost 14 million votes, the most in the history of the Republican Party? Trump asked at the outset of his 45-minute nomination acceptance speech.

Together we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity and peace, he added.

John Podesta, chairman of the campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, described Trumps vision of America as dark and called him unfit to lead.

Tonight, Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline. And his answer  more fear, more division, more anger, more hate  was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President of the United States, Podesta said in a statement.

New Mexicos Republican delegates and alternate delegates to the national convention celebrated Trumps nomination in a shower of confetti and balloons at the end of his speech, dancing in the aisles to All Right Now, by the classic English rock band Free.

Ben Spencer, an alternate delegate from New Mexico, said he did not initially prefer Trump for president but has grown to appreciate his plans for America. He said Trumps speech Thursday solidified his support.

He was much more presidential than he has been, and his comments were succinct and to the point, Spencer said.

Trump assailed Clintons tenure as secretary of state and blasted a nuclear agreement with Iran that promised America nothing.

On Jan. 20, 2017, when I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced, Trump said. We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone, but my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens.

Trump also vowed to enforce laws and support police, describing America as being at a volatile and dangerous point.

Trump also repeated his pledge to build a great border wall along the Mexican border. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but works for the American people, Trump pledged, noting that he has received endorsements from U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Nothing has affected me more than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost children to violence spilling across our borders.  We have to solve it, he added.

Trump was introduced by his eldest daughter, Ivanka. Susan Throckmorton, a delegate from Albuquerque, said Trump hit all the high points and she was glad that his daughter spoke to challenges women face.

She hit hard on womens issues, equal pay and child care, Throckmorton said.

Overseas U.S. allies as well as voters at home were closely watching Trumps Thursday night address, which comes the day after his suggestion that he might not defend Americas NATO partners as president.

The Republican nominees comments only added to the chaotic nature of Trumps nominating event, which has been consumed by a plagiarism charge, unusually harsh criticism of Clinton, and Sen. Ted Cruzs dramatic refusal to endorse the GOP nominee from the convention stage.

Trump said Americans deserve tax relief and he will provide it.

Middle-income Americans and businesses will experience profound relief, and taxes will be greatly simplified for everyone, he said. America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world.

Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. We are going to deal with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all, he said.

Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it, Trump said. With these new economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country.

Our country is going to start building and making things again, he said.

And the Republican nominee also promised to take the fight to Democrats in November.

I will fight for you, and I will win for you, he vowed.


LAS CRUCES  The Mesilla Valley DWI Resource Center on Friday will unveil a new crash-mapping application designed for Dona Ana County law enforcement agencies to use in preventing DWI crashes, according to a news release.

The application is an updated version of an application developed by the DWI Resource Center in Albuquerque, the release stated. The MVDWIRC spent an estimated $35,500 to update and enhance the application for law enforcement agencies in Dona Ana County.

The application uses data from previous crashes over a period of years, applies a formula and produces results to visually show intersections or stretches of highway that are at high risk, or hot spots, for crashes occurring on a particular day of the week and time of day, the release stated.

Law enforcement agencies will test the application for four months for efficacy and utility in reducing DWI in Dona Ana County.

The MVDWIRC and the Albuquerque center say they will pursue additional funding to enable the continued use of the application beyond the initial four-month period, according to the release.

The New Mexico Department of Transportations Traffic Safety Division has expressed interest in providing continued funding the application for Dona Ana County law enforcement agencies, the release said.

The application can be found at www.nmcrashmaps.com



2016 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)

Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____
PEARSALL, Texas  To reach the U.S. and claim asylum, all Maissoun Hanaa Halawi had to do was cross a continent by foot.

Her one choice: Traverse the remote, roadless, impenetrable Darien Gap, a 10,000-square-mile tropical forest and swampland along the border of Colombia and Panama that separates the two continents.

Halawi, her husband and a group of about 20 Indian, Middle Eastern and other asylum seekers faced a harsh reality. Not only do jaguars, scorpions, poisonous frogs and insects lie crouched in the shadows, paramilitary groups, traffickers and guerillas hide under the thick canopys shelter in this dangerous jungle.

In the jungle, the fear  you cant imagine it, Halawi, a Syrian, told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/29iZfj3 ) in her accented but fluent English. You dont want anything except to get out. Theres no food. Its a savage, wild jungle. We took our chances.

She and her husband, a Syrian surgeon, knew the risks. But as refugees fleeing a war-torn country infiltrated by violent militant groups, the six-day journey wasnt a choice. Halawi, her husband and the other desperate men and women paid the smuggler $500 a head. Before they set off into the Darien Gap, he gave them a final warning.

Every time Ive made this trip, I must lose one person, Halawi remembered him saying as she wiped back tears.

There was no going back.

Through these doors enter the finest ICE, DHS & GEO staff in the nation.

Those words are posted at the entrance of the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, just 60 miles southwest of San Antonio. The complex is owned by The GEO Group Inc. under contract by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.

Behind the barbed wire fence and through security checks at the entrance is a sprawling 238,000-square-foot complex that houses up to 1,904 men and women. Some are awaiting deportation. Others are stuck in limbo, counting the days for their asylum cases to be processed by ICE agents and the courts.

Thats where Halawi has been detained since Dec.??22, almost six months after turning herself over to border patrol agents at an international pedestrian bridge in Eagle Pass, two hours south of Pearsall. She was taken into custody alone.

The average length of stay in the Pearsall detention facility is, at most, 65 days, according to ICE.

A detention officer unlocks a heavy metal door. A slight woman with short brown hair and bright eyes enters the white cinder block room. Though she wears a hopeful smile, her face is creased with anxiety. A 46-year-old Halawi takes a seat at the metal table, yellow legal pad papers in one hand and a thick, brown accordion folder in the other.

When the revolution started, I was first happy because I thought we would finally change the government that was ruling the country, Halawi said of the Syrian government headed by President Bashar Al-Assad. I didnt know it would end in a sea of blood. Even today, I cant believe whats happened in Syria.

An immigration judge will have the last word on whether to grant asylum or hand down a deportation order, and Halawi said she cant face the thought of returning to Syria.

I came here asking for help, Halawi said. Im not a criminal.

In a post-Paris attack world, European and U.S. governments are wary of refugees flowing from areas where the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, is active. U.S. governors of 31 states released public statements to the White House in November refusing to accept refugees, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been vocal about refugee vetting protocols and has publicly said that any incoming Syrians could be connected to terrorism.

Even with Abbotts refusal of Syrian refugees, 152 were resettled in Texas between October and May????31 of the 1,865 Syrian refugees across the country, according to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Between October 2014 and Sept. 30, 185 Syrian refugees were resettled in Texas.

Since the U.S. requires refugees to be outside of the states when filing a claim, Halawi is considered an asylum seeker. She is one of more than 1,000 Syrian nationals who have attempted to claim asylum since 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Only 248 of those cases were granted asylum by the end of the 2015 fiscal year.

Asylum seekers must prove they have a credible fear to be granted asylum, which includes a significant possibility of torture or a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group if returned to their country of origin.

There are no words to describe the pain and fear we were living under. We hoped we would change the government, but then (ISIS) came into Aleppo, and there was no food or water, Halawi said, recounting the years in an increasingly hostile Syria.

Halawi is also a Druze, which is an ethnic and a religious minority in Syria.

As the conflict in Syria has spread, Druze civilians have increasingly been under fire by radical militants. At least 20 were fatally shot by the al-Qaida affiliate Nusra Front in Idlib province in June 2015.

The casualties of the Syrian war are high. An estimated 400,000 Syrians were killed, according to the U.N. special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura. In addition, 4.8 million Syrians were registered as refugees in the Middle East and North Africa, and more than 1 million have sought asylum in Europe, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

After fleeing violence and bombardment in Aleppo, Syria, Halawi and her husband moved to Libya in late 2013. The plan was to put Halawi on a boat across the Mediterranean to Europe, and her husband would fly to Europe and meet her on the other side, since he had a German passport.

They called it the boat to death. Since the start of 2016, at least 2,510 refugees and migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration. Those who attempt to cross the sea have usually done so on small boats or dinghies packed beyond capacity.

When I saw the boat, I couldnt do it. Im scared of water too much, Halawi said.

She backed out as she was making arrangements with the smuggler. So the couple lived for a year in Libya, where she taught English at a local school. She said she was later kidnapped from the doors of that school. When she was let go by her assailants, she was treated by Doctors Without Borders. The incident prompted the couples decision to leave Libya.

Since Halawi speaks four languages, including Spanish, the couple flew in late 2014 to Ecuador, one of a few countries that dont require a visa for Syrian citizens. Then, they emigrated to Venezuela and, finally, arrived in Colombia in September. Thats when they attempted to cross the Darien Gap into Panama, where they initially hoped to settle down.

On the second day of her journey in the gap, Halawi was prepared to die. She was terrified, tired and hungry. Her legs were giving out as she struggled to push herself forward through the unrelenting jungle. That morning in September, Halawi asked her husband to carry their belongings. She didnt want to be left behind, but if she did, at least her husband would have what little was left.

As the smuggler led his 20-person group up the mountain, she focused on pushing herself forward. One moment, her husband was behind her. The next moment, he was gone.

I heard him shouting behind me, Halawi said, unable to hold back tears. He fell on the rocks. I could see from above the blood on the rocks. I think his head was broken.

He fell to his death from a mountaintop in the Colombian jungle. There was no way to go back for her husband. And he had carried almost all of their belongings.

Halawi was too distraught to go any farther. She pleaded with them to send her back to the mainland because she didnt have the strength to go on. The smuggler put her on a boat, fearing that she might report the group to authorities in Panama, Halawi said. But she would return to the Darien Gap to make the journey again with another group. After two days, one woman was left behind. On the fifth day, Halawi couldnt keep up.

The group wanted to leave me, but the smuggler said he would get me there even if he had to carry me. He could have raped me and killed me, but he didnt, and thank God, I reached Panama, Halawi said in a declaration that was compiled by attorneys in support of her parole.

After Panamanian authorities detained and interrogated her, she filed for asylum there but discovered that refugees are ineligible for work permits.

How could I eat if I could not work? Halawi said.

Knowing that shed be dependent on the government and unable to care for herself, she decided to keeping going north.

She crossed through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, mostly by bus. While in Honduras, she was detained in November for illegally entering the country, according to several news reports. Her journey from Colombia to Texas spanned about three months. Halawi applied for asylum in Mexico, Ecuador and Panama before finally making it to the U.S.

Though Halawi is far from the daily bombardment and violence in Syria, she thought that if she reached America, the war would be behind her. She couldnt predict the intense political climate and debate surrounding Syrian refugees in the U.S and abroad.

Halawi was denied parole twice by ICE officials, once on Feb. 17 and finally on May 18. Both times, she said she was not given a parole interview to discuss the merits of her case. ICE declined to comment on the case due to privacy concerns.

ICE makes civil enforcement determinations on a case-by-case basis with a priority given to serious criminal offenders, recent border entrants and other individuals who meet the threshold set in the following civil immigration enforcement priorities memo issued by DHS Secretary Johnson in November 2014, ICE said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle.

According to the denial letter she received, Halawi was rejected based on four factors: She did not establish her identity to the satisfaction of ICE. She did not establish that she was not a flight risk. She did not establish that shes not a danger to the community or to U.S. security. And lastly, her case was denied because there were no additional documentation or changes in circumstance that would alter ICEs initial decision to deny parole.

Weve had cases where ICE in their definition someone is a national security risk, whereas in reality, theyre not. Weve had the same problem with the Central American families for a year-and-a-half, said Mohammad Abdollahi, the advocacy director at San Antonio-based nonprofit RAICES, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, which has taken her case.

Halawi believes ICE is purposely detaining her because of her nationality. ICE declined to comment on agency policies for processing and detaining Syrian nationals.

If they have something against me, then show it to me, she said. I have done nothing wrong, so you dont have to keep me here.

Fleeing violence and losing her husband have taken a toll on Halawi. She takes a handful of medications, two of which are used to treat anxiety, depression and, potentially, post-traumatic stress disorder, according to ICE records released by her attorney to the Chronicle.

At the detention facility, Halawi has voluntarily spent the last four months in segregation, which is similar to solitary confinement. She stays in her room 23 hours each day with just one hour to enjoy the sun and fresh air.

In segregation, shes alone with her thoughts and inner turmoil.

Ive started to feel like Im a burden, Halawi said. I cant get out.

Theres been no time to stop and grieve. She hasnt been given that time in detention, Abdollahi said.

Her asylum case will be heard in the courtroom of San Antonio immigration judge Meredith Tyrakoski, who was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in January.

If Tyrakoski denies Halawis asylum claim, she could appeal the decision within 30 days or face deportation. But the Board of Immigration Appeals, the first of three appellate bodies for asylum claims, could take up to a year to render a decision. Without parole, Halawi would remain indefinitely detained while in legal limbo.

This is my only hope now, Halawi said.

___

Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com

Editors note: This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Houston Chronicle.
WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto reaffirmed the importance of the US-Mexico relationship Friday, promoting the benefits of trade and friendship in an election year that has sometimes stressed that alliance.

In a news conference with Pena Nieto at the White House, Obama said trade with Mexico brings important investment and jobs to the U.S. He said the United States sells more to Mexico than to China, India and Russia combined.

Obama said he has worked to deepen the relationship during his presidency.

Were not just strategic and economic partners, were also neighbors and were friends, Obama said.

The news conference came the morning after the closing of the Republican National Convention and a speech by GOP nominee Donald Trump, whose demands that Mexico pay for a U.S. border wall and descriptions of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists has offended the neighboring country.

Pena Nieto said a good relationship with the United States is essential for his country and said he looks forward to a frank, open dialogue with whomever is elected. Pena Nieto avoided questions about the wall, but has previously said that Mexico will not pay for the wall Trump proposes.

The two men also endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that both countries have signed on to, saying it would make the relationship between their countries even stronger. They said they have learned from the two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has heavily criticized.

Obama said the global economy is a fact, and were not going to be able to build a wall around that.

The visit comes less than a month after Pena Nieto and Obama met in Canada during a summit of North Americas leaders. Obamas meetings with visiting foreign leaders are usually announced weeks in advance, but this visit was announced just last week.

The White House shrugged off suggestions that the visit was timed to highlight differences between Democrats and Republicans, particularly on attitudes toward Latinos.

I think its fair to say that almost anything that President Obama did on Friday would be viewed as a sharp contrast to the agenda thats being put forward by the other side, said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. But in this case, its been a while since the president has hosted the president of Mexico here at the White House.

Trump has also said Mexican immigrants have lots of problems and when they come to the U.S. theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
WASHINGTON  The Latest on Campaign 2016 between the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions (all times local):

10:40 p.m.

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention are giving mostly positive reviews to Hillary Clintons choice for vice president, saying he will appeal to moderates but do little to soothe disenchanted Bernie Sanders supporters.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is receiving praise for his wide-ranging experience, even as many delegates acknowledge he wont generate the level of enthusiasm or party unity as a progressive or a first-ever Latino pick. Sanders delegates in particular had hoped for the selection of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who aligns more closely with Sanders on positions such as regulating Wall Street.

Sanders endorsed Clinton last week.

Clinton superdelegate Katie Naranjo says that while Kaine may seem like a conventional choice, he will balance the ticket well for the general election.

__

10:25 p.m.

Donald Trumps campaign already has a nickname for Hillary Clintons new running mate: Corrupt Kaine.

The Trump campaign calls Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine ethically challenged, citing a Politico report that he accepted $160,000 in gifts from 2001 to 2009, when he was Virginias lieutenant governor and governor.

Trumps senior communications adviser Jason Miller says the Status Quo ticket of Clinton-Kaine wants us to believe in a rigged system that enriches them at your expense.

Earlier Friday, Trump sent supporters a text calling Clinton, Kaine and President Barack Obama the ultimate insiders.

Clinton announced Friday night that Kaine would join her ticket. The running mates will campaign together in Miami on Saturday.

__

7:30 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says in a text message to supporters that shes picked Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine to join her on the Democratic ticket as their partys nominee for vice president.

In the message, Clinton says: Im thrilled to tell you this first: Ive chosen Sen. Tim Kaine as my running mate.

Kaine is expected to join Clinton at a rally in Florida on Saturday.

A favorite since the start of Clintons search for a running mate, Kaine is a former governor of the battleground state and former mayor of Richmond.

Kaine won election to the Senate four years ago after serving as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Clinton is choosing Kaine from a group that included Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

__

6:05 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is calling the Republican convention perversely flattering, saying the speakers spent more time talking about her than the problems facing the country.

I never thought Id say these words but Ted Cruz was right, Clinton said Friday at a campaign rally in Tampa. In this election, do the right thing and vote your conscience.

Cruz refused to endorse Trump during his remarks at the convention Wednesday, prompting boos and jeers from the Republican crowd.

Clinton says Trumps convention address offered a dark and divisive vision of the future. Her GOP opponent, she says, offered fear and anger and resentment but few solutions to the problems he highlighted in his Thursday evening speech.

He doesnt speak for anyone who thinks our country should be standing together, she says.

The comments mark Clintons first extended remarks on the GOP convention and came as her campaign was expected to announce her running mate.

__

6 p.m.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has issued a statement lamenting Fridays deadly shootings in Germany.

Reports that at least eight people had been killed in a Munich shopping center shooting prompted Trump to release a statement offering condolences.

It states: Our prayers are with all those affected by the horrible attacks in Munich. This cannot continue. The rise of terrorism threatens the way of life for all civilized people, and we must do everything in our power to keep it from our shores.

Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination Thursday night.

__

3:21 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is making an impromptu stop at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the site of the deadly shooting rampage that killed 49 people.

Clinton was joined by Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, first responders and community residents at the makeshift memorial outside the club.

She placed a bouquet of white flowers at the site next to a candle and a framed picture of a cross.

Clinton made the brief visit after a somber meeting with community leaders and family members who were affected by the shooting.

___

2:46 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says that Americans must confront hate and bigotry particularly against LGBT and minorities. The Democratic presidential nominee says during a visit Friday to Orlando, Fla., that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are more likely to be victims of a hate crime. She says: It is still dangerous to be LGBT in America.

Clinton is meeting with religious, government and social services leaders in the city, which was the site of a deadly shooting last month in a gay nightclub. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 injured by a shooter who pledged fidelity to Islamic militants. Most of the victims were LGBT and Latino.

Clinton is promising to promote the kind of changes that would prevent future attacks, including banning assault weapons and dismantling online terrorist networks that radicalize Americans.

Shes speaking a day after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised to do all he can to protect LGBT Americans.

___

2:09 p.m.

The nations largest gay rights group is accusing Donald Trump of pandering to gay voters in his convention speech by denouncing violence and oppression against the LGBT community.

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin says its bizarre that Trump is being praised. He says Trump referenced gays and lesbians for his own selfish, political advancement. Griffins group has endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.

In his speech, Trump noted the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida and pledged to do everything possible to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.

Before Trump spoke, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel became the first person to say hes gay in a GOP convention speech.

___

1:39 p.m.

Hillary Clinton will reveal her vice presidential choice on Friday in a text message to supporters and then appear with her running mate for the first time at a rally in Miami on Saturday.

Thats according to a person familiar with the process who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to discuss publicly the campaigns internal plans.

The person did not say who Clinton would name as her running mate. The timing was first reported by NBC News.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as the leading contender to become Clintons vice president, according to Democratic sources familiar with her plans. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is also under consideration, among a few others.

Clinton was kicking off a two-day swing through Florida on Friday with stops in Orlando and Tampa.

___

12:33 p.m.

President Barack Obama is dismissing any perceptions that the country is on the verge of collapse.

Obama was responding to questions Friday about whether he watched the Republican National Convention, something he said he was too busy to do.

But the president responded to a litany of statistics that GOP nominee Donald Trump laid out at the convention and pointed out that illegal immigration and violence are less of a problem today than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

He spoke Friday during a joint news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

___

12:20 p.m.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says that he will not get involved in the American electoral process but hes looking forward to a frank, open dialogue with whomever is elected.

Pena Nieto joined President Barack Obama in a joint White House press conference Friday. The two leaders outlined their commitment to strong bilateral relations between the two nations.

Pena Nieto avoided questions about Donald Trumps vow to build a wall between the two countries and make Mexico pay for it. He has previously said that Mexico will not pay for the wall should Trump become president.

___

12:05 p.m.

Major loser, total lightweight and fat pig are among the Donald Trump phrases Facebook users can brand themselves with using a new app from Hillary Clintons campaign.

The Democrat launched the Trump Yourself app Thursday. It allows users to place one of 15 filters containing an insulting phrase from the Republican presidential nominee over their profile pictures. The pictures appear similar to special ones created by Facebook to show support for various causes.

Clintons Twitter account promoted the app Thursday with a tweet, discover what @realDonaldTrump thinks about people like you.

To use the app, users must give the campaign contact information through Facebook, including e-mail addresses. Users immediately receive an e-mail thanking them for registering for an account on the campaigns website.

___

11:41 a.m.

Ivanka Trump is using her big speech introducing her father at the Republican convention to promote her clothing line. The oldest daughter of GOP nominee Donald Trump says in a tweet from her official account: Shop Ivankas look from her #RNC speech.

The Ivanka Trump sleeveless sheath dress in light pink sells at Macys for $138.00.

___

11:30 a.m.

Donald Trump says people who want a conservative justice to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court have no choice but to vote for him.

Trump on Friday said if hes elected he will nominate someone with views as close as possible to those of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

He says no matter what people think of him as a Republican, If youre a great believer in the Constitution, you have no choice.

Trump in May released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he plans to vet to fill the seat. The list was meant to ease concerns about his conservative credentials in the Republican primary.

.
BATON ROUGE, La.  When protests erupted here over a black mans killing during a struggle with two white police officers, Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald made a promise to an old friend who urged him to be careful.

Im going to do what I got to do to keep you all safe, old boy, Gerald told Dave Mulkey, his childhood friend and former roommate.

That text message was the last Mulkey received from Gerald before a lone gunman enraged by recent police shootings killed the 41-year-old rookie.

Thats what Matt did. He went toward the danger, along with his fellow officers, Mulkey told more than 2,000 mourners at Gerald funeral on Friday, the first for the three officers who were shot down before the attacker was killed.

Baton Rouges mayor and police chief hailed Gerald as a hero who proudly served his country during three tours in Iraq before joining the police force nine months ago.

The mayor and chief also issued broad appeals to respect police and heal wounds opened by the death of Alton Sterling, a black man whose shooting by police was videotaped and posted online, prompting widespread protests.

After nearly 200 arrests in three days in Louisianas capital, tensions seemed to be easing before the surprise Sunday morning ambush.

Mayor Kip Holden said people must avoid an us versus them mentality and recognize that police officers are here for all of us.

The men and women who put on those uniforms, they respect you. Respect them, Holden said.

Chief Carl Dabadie Jr.s voice cracked as he strayed from his prepared remarks to respond to critics of policing. Departments across the country have been scrutinized after a steady stream of videotaped killings and mistreatment of black people.

The media has blasted us for what we do and how we do it, basically portraying law enforcement as these band of bullies who go around and beat people up, the chief said. Were not bullies. We are protecting our communities. And they throw us under the bus for it. And thats wrong.

Geralds Army and Marine uniforms hung next to his flag-draped casket as photos on a big screen showed moments from his 11 years in the military, his fledgling police career and his family life.

Dechia Gerald, now a widow with two young girls, called him my blue-eyed rock in a written tribute, expressing hope that his legacy will bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for.

Funerals for sheriffs deputy Brad Garafola and police officer Montrell Jackson are set for Saturday and Monday. They, too, were slain by Gavin Long, an Army veteran from Kansas City, Missouri, whose rambling videos urged violence in response to what he considered oppression.

Gerald joined the Baton Rouge police as an enthusiastic rookie after four years in the Marines and seven years in the Army, where he served as a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief.

J.D. Leach, commander of the police academy, recalled asking Gerald why he was joining the force at his age.

Ive been serving my country and now its time to serve my community,' Leach recalled Gerald telling him.

Gerald was partnered with Cpl. Lester Mitchell, an 11-year police veteran. The two officers, white and black, began riding together on July 1, days before Sterlings death.

We talked about the madness, how much it was putting a strain on the community, police relations, Mitchell said during an interview before the funeral.

Mitchell said they were writing reports at police headquarters Sunday when Gerald said he was going for an energy drink at the B-Quik store less than a mile away.

Someone at the store approached Gerald, saying an armed man was walking through the area, Mitchell said. Gerald radioed for help, and Mitchell was among the officers who raced to the scene, hearing gunfire as they arrived.

We were right in the middle of the firestorm, he said. He had already been shot when we got there.

The many mourners Friday included Sheriffs Capt. Tom Cox from Knox County, Tennessee. He said he attended all five funerals for the officers killed by a sniper in Dallas this month, and planned to attend all three of the funerals in Louisiana.

Its numbing, with this many in such a short period of time, Cox said. We hope this isnt some trend.

___

Kunzelman can be reached at @Kunzelman75 on Twitter.
LONDON  Russia faces being kicked out of the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in the latest disciplinary action by a sports body infuriated at growing evidence about the countrys state-sponsored doping program.

The International Paralympic Committees decision Friday to start suspension proceedings against Russia came two days before IOC leaders decide whether to exclude the countrys entire team from the Olympics next month in Brazil.

The IPCs strong condemnation of Russias years of doping deception, including the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, pulls back on the support it gave the country last month. It follows the publication of a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren into Russias state-backed doping which found samples from Paralympic athletes were made to disappear or were swapped.

The report revealed an unimaginable scale of institutionalized doping in Russian sport that was orchestrated at the highest level, IPC President Philip Craven said. McLarens findings are of serious concern for everyone committed to clean and honest sport.

The IPC decried a prevailing doping culture endemic within Russian sport at the very highest levels and said the countrys Paralympic body appears unable or unwilling to ensure compliance with and the enforcement of anti-doping measures. The IPC is sending 19 samples from the Sochi Paralympic Winter Games for immediate further analysis after McLarens investigators said they could have been doctored by Russian authorities.

Russia finished second in the medal standings at the 2012 London Paralympics and has 267 athlete slots for Rio in 18 sports.

A decision is expected in the week commencing Aug. 1 whether to ban Russia from the Sept. 7-18 Paralympics. Russia would have 21 days to appeal.

We have started proceedings to consider the suspension of their membership of the IPC, Craven said. This decision was not taken lightly but  Russia appears unable to fulfil its IPC membership obligations in full.

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Craven with Russias Order of Honor after the March 2014 games.

___

Rob Harris can be followed at www.twitter.com/RobHarris and www.facebook.com/RobHarrisReports
FORT WORTH, Texas  Southwest Airlines said it canceled an additional 300 flights on Friday as it attempts to get its operations back on track following a computer outage on Wednesday.

The Dallas-based carrier said its technology systems have been fully restored but it has displaced flight crews that led to the additional cancellations. The airline canceled 1,150 flights Wednesday and Thursday.

We extend a heartfelt apology to our employees and our customers who are inconvenienced by the disruption in service, the carrier said in a statement. We appreciate their patience as we continue our work to make this right.

Southwest said it has extended its flexible travel accommodations for passengers who have tickets to travel between Wednesday July 20 and Tuesday July 26. Those customers have two weeks from their original departure date to rebook their trips at no additional cost.

On Wednesday afternoon, Southwest had multiple computer systems go down as a router failed and then the backups failed as well, the carriers chief executive, Gary Kelly, told investors on Thursday. Customers were unable to check in for flights or print luggage tags from self-check-in kiosks at airports. The airlines website was also unavailable for most of the day.

The carrier canceled 700 flights on Wednesday and another 450 flights on Thursday as it dealt with the outage, and hundreds of flights were delayed.



2016 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Visit the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at www.star-telegram.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____
Officer Daniel Webster was the kind of person who wanted to build an obstacle course in his backyard.

More than one person said Friday that if Webster had survived the shooting that ended his life last year, hed soon be 48 going on 12.

So it was fitting, they said, that a new childrens park in the heart of his old beat  near Wyoming and Copper NE  will bear his name forever.

Dan was such a big kid, Michelle Carlino-Webster, his widow, said Friday during a news conference.

She joined Mayor Richard Berry, City Councilor Pat Davis and neighborhood and law-enforcement leaders Friday morning to celebrate the start of construction on a $5 million park  the first phase of which should be done in December. It will be called the Officer Daniel Webster Albuquerque Childrens Park.

When we have an officer that is lost in the line of duty  who gives their life for us and our community  there is no way ever that we can pay back that debt of gratitude, Berry said, but we do the best we can.

The park is unusual because it will be built with an eye toward making children in wheelchairs or on the autism spectrum feel comfortable. A ramp will allow wheelchairs to roll to the top of the play structure, and there are little cubbies built for children who want a safe, small space.

The park will have a xylophone-like wall that allows kids to play music, and tactile areas with interesting things to touch.

Children in wheelchairs may, for the first time in their lives, be able to look down instead of up into the apparatus, said Barbara Taylor, Albuquerques director of parks and recreation.

The first phase will cost about $1.2 million, with funding from the voter-approved bond program, including discretionary money set aside for the district of Davis and his predecessor, Rey Garduno. Funding for the remaining phases hasnt been identified yet.

Its going to be a unique park for some very special kids, Davis said Friday. There will be nothing like this in the city of Albuquerque.

The land for the park, behind the old armory on Wyoming, was donated to the city by the federal government.

Webster, 47, an Army veteran, was shot during a traffic stop in October as he tried to handcuff a suspect near Central and Eubank. He died about a week later in the hospital.

The day after the shooting, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint charging Davon Lymon, 34, with being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection. He is awaiting trial.

Federal prosecutors want to present evidence that Lymon asked police officers to tell Websters family he was sorry and hoped Webster recovered.
TEMPE, Ariz.  A lawsuit filed by eight current or former Arizona State University police employees against the school has been dismissed by a federal judge.

The employees alleged they were retaliated and discriminated against after they spoke out about problems within the ASU police department.

The suit alleged employees were directed to change crime statistics to make ASU appear safer.

It also alleged that university employees violated the police employees freedom of speech, forced some of them into retirement and created false internal investigations to punish people.

The civil suit was filed earlier this year in Maricopa County Superior Court and later transferred to federal court.

It sought punitive damages and attorney fees.

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that the plaintiffs claims are vague and overly broad.
NEW ORLEANS  Louisiana officials have agreed not to enforce several new restrictions on abortion pending a judges decision on whether to block the laws.

The restrictions include a requirement for a 72-hour waiting period for many women, and a ban on a common second-trimester procedure called dilation and evacuation. They were to take effect Aug. 1.

Two clinics and three doctors filed a July 1 lawsuit against the new laws.

In court records filed last week, the state sought more time to evaluate the lawsuit and agreed it wont enforce the restrictions until a judge decides whether to grant a preliminary injunction blocking the law. That decision is months away. Baton Rouge-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Bourgeois Jr. signed an order Friday giving Louisiana until Dec. 16 to respond to the lawsuit.

Legislative supporters of the new laws say they were meant to safeguard womens health. Opponents say they are unconstitutional hurdles for women seeking abortions.

The lawsuit was filed after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to impose medically unnecessary rules that place an undue burden on access to abortion. That decision overturned a Texas law requiring hospital admitting privileges for abortion doctors.

In Louisiana, the new laws would extend a 24-hour waiting period to 72 hours, although the 24-hour wait would remain for women living 150 miles or more from the nearest abortion provider.

The laws would ban dilation and extraction, a procedure used to avoid complications in second-trimester abortions, unless its deemed necessary to prevent serious health risk to the woman.

Other new rules would:

 require doctors who perform abortions to be either board-certified or certifiable in obstetrics and gynecology, or family medicine.

 require abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains.

 prohibit state and local government agencies from funding an abortion clinic or any entity that contracts with abortion clinics.
MIAMI  Authorities say three Florida men planned to travel to Syria and become fighters for the Islamic State.

Federal prosecutors said in a news release Friday that 52-year-old Gregory Hubbard, 31-year-old Dayne Christian and 50-year-old Darren Jackson of Palm Beach County are charged with conspiring to join the Islamic State. They were arrested Thursday.

An FBI report says the three told an informant last year about plans to go to Syria, and spoke approvingly of terror attacks in Orlando, San Bernardino, California, and elsewhere. It also says they talked about attacking the White House or Pentagon but took no specific steps.

The three are being held pending arraignment.

A woman who answered the phone at the Federal Public Defenders office Friday said she had no record of the defendants.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended EFP Rotenberg LLP and an accountant at the firm for failing to detect fraud in the audit of a public company client, ContinuityX Solutions.

As part of the settlement, the firm agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty, while the accountant, Nicholas Bottini, agreed to pay a $25,000 penalty, the SEC said Friday. Bottini has been permanently suspended from appearing and practicing before the SEC as an accountant, barring him from participating in financial reporting and audits of publicly traded companies. The New York-based firm has been suspended for one year and can only resume public company audits next year if an independent consultant certifies it has fixed the causes behind its failure to detect to the fraud.

The failed audit involved ContinuityX Solutions, a public company based in Metamora, Ill., which claimed to sell Internet services to businesses. The SEC has since charged ContinuityXs executives alleging it engineered a scheme to inflate the companys revenue through fraudulent sales.

The SEC said EFP Rotenberg and Bottini failed to perform enough audit procedures to uncover the fraud in ContinuityXs financial statements. The firm and the accountant also didnt get enough evidence about revenue recognition and accounts receivable to support its audits, according to the SEC, nor did it identify related-party transactions, investigate claims from company management that contradicted evidence found during the audit, perform procedures to resolve and document those inconsistencies, or exercise due professional care.

Auditors are supposed to act as gatekeepers to protect the integrity of our markets, but EFP Rotenberg and Bottini failed to live up to their professional obligations, said David Glockner, director of the SECs Chicago Regional Office, in a statement.

EFP Rotenberg issued a statement in response to the settlement: The ContinuityX audit and related issues covered in the SEC settlement with EFP Rotenberg LLP took place in 2012. Nick Bottini, the engagement partner overseeing the ContinuityX audit, was dismissed from the firm in March of 2014. The firm has cooperated fully with the SEC during the process and we are pleased to reach this agreement. Now that the settlement is behind us, we will continue to focus on meeting the needs of our clients and the communities we serve.

Both EFP Rotenberg and Bottini agreed to cease and desist from violating the securities laws without admitting or denying the SECs findings.
Ranjit Thakur, President & Founder, Krian Media, has unveiled his new venture  Media Konnect, which is touted as the only exclusive global media exchange and collaboration platform that content creators across the globe will be benefit from in several ways. Media Konnect seeks to provide end-to-end solutions for anyone who wishes to create any type of content, bringing together talent exchange, collaboration or increased revenue opportunities to the entire industry.

The core idea of Media Konnect was born out of addressing key industry challenges, observed and experienced by the pioneers, and now, the younger generation, who are aspiring to be part of this vibrant and exciting industry. The biggest challenges in the industry today are the cost of content creation, losses due to lack of market understanding, distribution limitations, and an absence of actual ground intelligence. For most filmmakers, the biggest challenge lie in the inability to identify, connect and collaborate with talent across different specialisation at commercially viable terms needed to turn an idea into reality that can actually be profitable. Media Konnect looks to address these issues by giving a platform for professionals across a variety of specialisations to connect, discuss and transform the filmmakers idea into a film.

Thakur commented, I have been fortunate to have been part of this country for more than two decades across both the Indian and international film communities. The basic premise of Media Konnect is for industry professionals around the world to firstly connect with each other, subsidies/ grants to be explored in each country, content to be created at lower costs without compromising creativity and ultimately the revenue opportunities to be exploited to its maximum potential.

He further said, Media Konnect is not a casting agency, instead it covers the entire spectrum of global connections in the content creation and collaboration space. Its versatility stretches from getting subsidy from any country required to make a film to selling the remake rights of a script, to a language a producer would have otherwise never thought of. In the end, Media Konnect will be an online film market with more versatility and flexibility than any film festival in the world.

Media Konnect will be available globally as a web-platform, App on iOS and Android, with phased launches in French, Spanish and Chinese over the next quarter and major film markets like in India, China, Mexico, France, the US and the UK, and already has participation intent from many major Hollywood and other international studios.
Panasonic has rolled out a new TVC for its new language phone, Panasonic P66. Conceptualised by Chapter Five, the TVC celebrates the power of our local language, which connects us emotionally, strengthening our relationships with our loved ones. The TVC has been developed for Panasonic Smartphones under the aegis of Shashin Devsare, Executive Director Jaina India.

India is one of the worlds most linguistically diverse countries, where dialect changes every few kilometres. Our local language contributes immensely to our mannerisms and personality and gives us a sense of kinship with same language speakers in the sea of humanity. A translation can never fully do justice to the essence of whats been said in ones native language. For instance, a Punjabi joke will lose most of its humour when translated in some other language, similarly Tagores poetry could only be best enjoyed in Bengali.

The ad film is a montage of intimate moments spent alone or with friends, made memorable by the emotional connect brought by ones own language with a powerfully moving voice over by actor Piyush Mishra. The film portrays various situations where people are using their phones and in different languages while driving home the fact that the most important things are always expressed best in ones own language.

Link to ad films:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEXAE-hHZAc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAXRBsNhO8

Elaborating on the campaign, Shashin Devsare, Executive Director, Jaina India, said, India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries, boasting of 22 official Indian languages and thousands of other local languages and dialects. With the growing smartphone adoption amongst non-English speaking population, Panasonic P66 with 21 Indian languages is a celebration of the rich language heritage of the country. Our native language forms an innate part of our personality defining our mannerisms and speech. It also binds us emotionally enabling us to bond with our loved ones. The TVC is a creative rendition of the idea of language as a connector, which binds us to our roots and helps us forge a sense of kinship in the sea of humanity. The powerful voice of theatre and film personality Piyush Mishra further adds to the earthy appeal of the commercial highlighting how the real essence of our thoughts, emotions and even intellect is best expressed through our local language.

Prateek Srivastava, Creative Director, Chapter Five, added here, Language forms an integral part of our cultural heritage. We shape our thoughts in our mother tongue before articulating them in words. Thus, the possibility of substance of our thoughts getting lost in translation is palpable. With this idea in mind, we created the latest TVC for Panasonic P66 Smartphone, which is a montage of everyday situations  friends sharing jokes, a boy serenading his beloved and a grandmother reciting the poetry of Tagore for her grandkids, expressing how all the little joys of life are best enjoyed and cherished when shared in ones native tongue without which the essence of that moment is lost.
Growlers soar with B-1s around Ellsworth AFB

Navy EA-18G Growlers have joined B-1 Lancers during the past several weeks in the skies around Ellsworth Air Force Base for electronic attack training.



This marked the first time the Navys Electronic Attack Squadron 129 (VAQ-129), stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, traveled to Ellsworth AFB to conduct training in its local airspace. The training was conducted in June and is also taking place from July 11-22.



Navy pilots and electronic warfare officers utilized the unique components of the Powder River Training Complex airspace to help accomplish its role as the fleet replenishment squadron for the EA-18G.



We are one of two aircraft in the U.S. military inventory that is capable of accomplishing the electronic attack role, said Navy Lt. Matthew Galamison, an EA-18G instructor. Its very important that our aircrew get the training and range that they need with the proper emitters in order to practice against threats that are out there.



Part of the Growlers mission in combat is to deny, degrade or delay the enemies ability to acquire and engage friendly air forces and also give bombers or fighters access to those targeted areas, Galamison said. During the EA-18Gs time at Ellsworth AFB, B-1 bombers have joined the Navy aircraft to train to these sorts of mission sets.



The lethality of worldwide anti-access and area-denial capabilities and the need to operate in a contested electromagnetic spectrum shows the necessity for electronic warfare missions.



This training is unique, said Air Force Lt. Col. Allen Geist, the 390th Electronic Combat Squadron commander. The Growler community is the one community that strategically looks at using electronic warfare, an ability that allows our aircraft to access denied environments.



VAQ-129 has the distinct role of providing airborne electronic attack training for both the Air Force and Navy. Its home station, NAS Whidbey Island, also hosts the 390th ECS, the Air Forces sole AEA unit at NAS Whidbey Island, as part of the Joint Airborne Electronic Attack Program. The 390th ECS is a geographically separated unit of the 366th Operations Group out of Mountain Home AFB, Idaho.



Historically, the Air Force had its own dedicated electronic warfare aircraft that flew escort for large strike packages. They would crack open bristling networks of search-and-track radars, surface-to-air missiles, and anti-aircraft artillery batteries, collectively known as integrated air defenses.



In 1995, after the Air Force divested its AEA aircraft, the Office of the Secretary of Defense directed electronic warfare Airmen be embedded with the Navys EA-6B Prowlers, and now EA-18G. Under a memorandum of understanding between the Air Force and Navy, select Air Force EWOs and pilots continue to embed on Navy electronic warfare missions through a competitive exchange program.



The Air Force has always been interested in maintaining a knowledge of airborne electronic attack, Galamison said. There are more capable threats with new tactics emerging, which is why the exchange program between the Air Force and Navy exist so both B-1 and F-15 (Eagle) aircrew can come to Whidbey for one to a couple of years to learn how airborne electronic attack operates.



Galamison added with the exchange program, Air Force aircrews can take the knowledge they have learned on AEA and bring it back to the Air Force to make integration of other aircrews easier during large force exercises, such as those held in the Powder River Training Complex.



The great thing about coming out to Ellsworth to use the Powder River Training Complex is its size and threat emitters that we can utilize, said Geist, a former B-1 weapon systems officer. It gives us a great training opportunity and definitely builds the foundation for the electronic weapons officers to have the expertise to take down enemy integrated air defense systems.
Slovak and US Armed Forces join together honoring war hero

Members of the U.S. and Slovak armed forces hold a memorial service for Slovakian war hero, Capt. Edward Baranski, during Operation Atlantic Resolve at Sliac Air Base, Slovakia, July 15, 2016. The memorial included static displayed aircraft, as well as a flyover of two A-10C Thunderbolt IIs and a MiG-29 aircraft. Airmen of the 163rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron have been taking part in OAR to conduct training and familiarization events alongside the Slovak armed forces, a NATO ally. They will also participate in cross-boarder training with other deployed U.S. military and NATO aircraft in the area. (U.S. Air National Guard photo/Staff Sgt. William Hopper)
A KC-10 Extender manned by a crew from the 70th Air Refueling Squadron departed Travis Air Force Base, California, July 11, 2016, and traveled across the Atlantic to escort three F-35A Lightning II models back to the United States.

The fighters had just finished participating in the worlds largest airshow at Royal Air Force Station Fairford in Gloucestershire, England. The F-35s performed in a Heritage Flight and were displayed as static aircraft. Their arrival in Fairford marked the first transatlantic flight for the aircraft model.



Because of its location on the West Coast, Travis AFB is usually regarded as the Gateway to the Pacific. A mission across the Atlantic provided new and unfamiliar challenges to the crew. The flight route across the North Atlantic Tracks, or NATS, was a new structure of flight routes for the pilots.



NATS is like a highway in the sky, said 2nd Lt. Chris Riessen, 70th ARS copilot. There are planes coming from Europe, planes coming from America, and (NATS) makes sure no one collides.



Throughout the mission, which spanned from England to Washington D.C. to Arizona, the KC-10 Extender provided 10 aerial refuelings to each fighter. In summation that is approximately 125,000 pounds of fuel supplied to the fighters from the KC-10, according to Tech. Sgt. James Whittaker, 70 ARS boom operator.



Because the F-35As are built for stealth and speed, they carry a maximum fuel load of 18,000 pounds. This fuel capacity requires regular aerial refuelings from tankers to safely travel long distances. The A model, which is part of the Air Force fleet, requires a boom for refueling, whereas the Marine Corps B model and the Navys C model are refueled by a drogue. The KC-10 Extender is unique among other refueling platforms because it is capable of performing both types of refueling without modification.



But fuel was not the only support capability the tanker provided for the fighters. Thirty thousand pounds of F-35 cargo and 5,000 pounds of F-35 crew support passengers were transported in the KC-10 as well.



As far as getting all your gear, getting all your gas, and getting all your people in one spot, the KC-10 definitely does it best, Whittaker said. You name it, we do it.



Riessen finds this dual role mission to be the unique force multiplying capability for the Extender.



The dual role aspect is one thing our airplane can do that no other airplane can do, he said. The KC-135 can fuel fighters and take them across the ocean, but our aircraft can fuel fighters and take cargo. Thats something that separates us from other aircraft.



Once the KC-10 departed Fairford, the aircraft underwent aerial refueling from both ends. After completing one set of aerial refuels for each fighter, the KC-10 took on 90,000 pounds of fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker.

Every day, the flying crew chiefs are the first ones out to the jet, the last ones to leave, and are called upon to provide maintenance during the flight to keep the mission moving on time.



Minutes before take off from Joint Base Andrews, Washington D.C. to Luke AFB, Arizona, the KC-10 experienced a hard no-fly maintenance issue. Fail lights indicated that the EHSI (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicators) were not working properly. EHSI is a digital platform essential for determining critical flight positioning information.



We were able to make sure the KC-10 was able to complete the mission and stay on schedule by resetting the circuit breakers and fixing the (EHSI) problem, said Senior Airman Nicholas Porter, 749th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief.



While the flight marked the return of the first F-35A transatlantic mission, it was a flight of firsts for many of the aircrew as well. Porter had never been on an Air Force mission to England. Riessen attained his title of copilot just hours before the mission started. First Lt. Justin Greenway, 70 ARS pilot, refueled F-35s for the first time in his career. Additionally, this mission was his qualifying flight for the role of aircraft commander.



There are 59 KC-10s left in the Air Force fleet; one-third of the fleet is at a deployed location at any given time, and the aircraft is expected to be phased out in the next 10 years. These limiting factors make every flight in the Extender a significant one for Greenway.



Every time I fly in this airplane, I pinch myself because I cant believe Im flying a legacy, former wide-body airliner, and Im refueling jets that are 15 feet from me, he said. Im also on the receiving end, taking gas from aircraft that are 15 feet from me. To do that successfully is very rewarding.



After dropping off the F-35As at their home station at Luke AFB, the KC-10 and crew returned to Travis AFB, mission complete.
Linguists harness hidden 'superpower'

Speaking another language is like having a hidden superpower.



By that definition, the Air Force Reserve linguists operating under the 16th Intelligence Squadron are full-on superheroes with a combined capability to speak more than 45 languages and dialects.



As part of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance enterprise, linguists provide a vital role in harnessing information and making it useful to commanders.



The day-to-day mission of a linguist focuses on translation, but their skills encompass a lot more than just interpreting documents. They also have an understanding of the subject from having studied the historical and political context of the culture.



Many of our linguists hold advanced degrees, and almost all of them have prior operational experience, said Senior Master Sgt. Jaimee. Our linguists have a depth of understanding that comes from years of experience.



Currently, the Air Force Reserve acts as a catchers mitt for linguists leaving active duty. Language learning is a long and intense process and has a high attrition rate. By catching those linguists who have previously served, the Reserve is then able to use the knowledge and skills that has already been invested in someone.



According to Col. John D. McKaye, 655th ISRG commander, the Air Force Reserve recognizes a savings of more than $1 million in training funds when they hire someone who is already fully equipped from active duty service.



We reap the benefit of all the training that's been invested in people, said Master Sgt. Amanda. We get to continue developing them and help them become experts in their language through the unique opportunities we have here in both Air Force and national missions.



The Reserve recognizes and specifically seeks out the nine big languages, which are the primary focus for the Air Force. However, many linguists are capable in multiple languages and/or dialects.



Most of the linguists arent native speakers of the languages they have been assigned or even from a family background, known as heritage speakers, in that language.



Most linguists were assigned this job. Their language and their success is directly related to the effort they make to improve, said Amanda. The non-native linguists are some of the most dedicated professionals I know, and we are really proud of how hard they work to maintain and improve their language skills.



Language proficiency is measured on a scale of one to five as developed by the Department of State. Level one is an elementary understanding of a language and level five is considered an educated, Ph.D. level, native speaker of the language.



Even native speakers of a language can struggle with the upper level (4/5) Defense Language Proficiency Test. The goal for most linguists is to hold a 3/3, a professional working proficiency, in both reading and writing. Linguists are tested every year by the DLPT to determine their rating.



For people of this capability, language is like a superpower, said Amanda. They can do things that directly affect our nations policies, strategies and the way we negotiate with other countries.



The Air Force Reserve invests in its people by helping them maintain their fluency. They have requirements to train in their primary language at least 45 days every 18 months.



I think there's a misconception that once you reach a 3/3, you're good. You're done, said Amanda. But that's not the case, because you have to maintain it, and of course you want to improve as well, and get as close to native proficiency as possible.



Our people are motivated and passionate about their languages and they want to keep it up, said Jaimee.


Research, technology aid effort to help TBI patients

Since the Vietnam War, doctors have seen an increase in service members returning from combat with traumatic brain injuries from blasts. At the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), a directorate of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, doctors and therapists use research and technology to help service members with TBI in their recovery.



Dr. Louis French, the centers deputy director, said NICoE uses this research and technology to study the structure and metabolic activity in the brain, how it metabolizes glucose, where the blood flow is, and the electrical activity in the brain.



All of those things we want to know go into this idea of function, and we want to visualize those better, he said. And the techniques we have developed, there are ways of better visualizing abnormalities in the brain. Once we gain better insight into what these abnormalities are, then we can find ways of targeting treatments better.



MEG



NICoE is the only clinic in the nation to have a magnetoencephalography scanner, or MEG, dedicated to the treatment of TBI, said Dr. John Hughes, a neurologist and the director of the MEG lab. Its really unprecedented that an institution can have this dedicated to one disorder, he added.



The MEG is a technique used to measure and record the brains magnetic fields during its normal activity and provide insight into how the brain is functioning, Hughes said. NICoE uses it to study the electrical oscillations in a mildly traumatic brain as well as the physiology of the cortex of the brain and the psychological issues related to it, he said, noting that there are only 40 MEG labs in the country.



The fact we have an MEG lab thats really dedicated to understanding traumatic brain injury is a wonderful opportunity for all of our active-duty members and veterans to help us understand these disorders, he said. This is a pretty unique situation. Its very sophisticated instrumentation.



The MEG requires liquid helium that goes over more than 300 sensors placed just above the scalp to keep the sensors very cold.



Im thrilled to be able to apply this technology to this specific problem, Hughes said. He said the MEG is similar to the electroencephalography, or EEG, used to record the electrical component of brainwaves, but the magnetic fields require the more sophisticated instrumentation.



If we continue to study traumatic brain injury with MEG, we cant fail to make significant insights into understanding the physiological basis of symptoms of TBI, and well reap huge benefits in terms of developing therapies specific to those physiological issues we can discover with MEG, he added.



ActiGraph



Another device NICoE uses is the ActiGraph watch, used to record sleep patterns. Similar to a fitness tracker, patients can wear it instead of needing the sensors used in a traditional sleep study to be attached to their heads, said Dr. Tony Panettiere, a neurology sleep medicine physician.



Most people whove had traumatic brain injury who we see often have neurological complaints such as headaches, memory dysfunction, irritability, focus attention issues and sleep issues, Panettiere said. During a sleep study, he said, the device measures brainwaves, muscle relaxation, how a patient is breathing and heart rhythm. Technicians can tell if a person has sleep apnea or a limb movement disorder.



Panettiere said the advantage of the ActiGraph is that the results are less artificial than theyd be if the patient had to sleep with all of the wires attached as they do in a traditional sleep study. Theyre back in their own bed, and we even do it a couple weeks with them wearing the watch if theres any information thats contrary to what weve found in the lab, he said.



Research, imaging devices



French said the research goes primarily in two directions. The first is in the characterization of patients -- understanding the symptoms they have after theyve been injured through advanced neuroimaging.



NICoE also has PET CT, CT, 3 Tesla MRI, a magnetic resonance spectroscopy and a number of other dedicated imaging devices for traumatic brain injury patients, said Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Grant Bonavia, interim chief of the research department and chief of neuroimaging and measurement devices.



We have a group of researchers who are looking at techniques and modalities that are not necessarily well described yet, but theres hope that using these advanced technologies that one could find abnormalities that may be there just below the threshold of standard neuroimaging that would be done at outside institutions, he said. So weve looked into functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging, which are advanced techniques. We also have PET data from a large number of patients that were analyzing. And the MEG, which is also a very advanced device, has a lot of potential to assist in diagnosis in following the patients response to therapies.



French said hes the principal investigator on a congressionally mandated 15-year mandated longitudinal study, which will study the effects of TBI and the expression of symptoms over time. Our goal is to follow people for 15 years and find out how their symptoms change over time, how they do after having had a brain injury in a military situation, and understand how the brain injury recovery may intersect with the aging process, he said.



French said NICoE is working in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, which is giving the center access to some specialized researchers and techniques with these characterization studies.



Research, treatment



NICoE also is exploring new treatment options, French said. Currently, he noted, NICoE offers animal-assisted therapy, assistive technology, audiology and vestibular services, a brain fitness center, driving assessment and rehabilitation, a computer-assisted rehabilitation environment, family education and art therapy.



We have treatments we provide for people here, and we see those techniques work for people, but we dont always completely understand them, French said. So we want to know a little bit more about. Why do they work for some people and not as well for other people? Is there an optimal time that you should start these treatments? Is there an optimal intensity or dosage that we do for these kinds of things?



Those are fundamental questions that have not always been asked, the doctor continued, and we want to understand more about what were doing. We want to make sure theres a firm scientific foundation for all the clinical work we do so we can conduct studies in that regard.



Some of the treatments NICoE uses are complementary and alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and art therapy.



We use a lot of (those) therapies here at NICoE that have evidence-base that also help these service members improve, said Dr. Gene Casagrande, team coordinator and primary care physician. To watch a headache improve without narcotics and to watch patients relax and sleep better with just breathing, to me, thats very important. Were doing a lot of different things here at NICoE that havent been introduced in the past at their home station.



Sleep and nutritional education play important roles in some of his patients lives, he added.



System of care



French, whos been working with TBI care for 16 years, said the military went from being behind the curve to establishing a care system at every major troop center at every major military treatment facility today. He said Intrepid Spirit Centers are being built around the country and will share lessons learned with NICoE.



Were trying to develop a national care system thats all linked together so we can communicate about best practices, he said.



Inpatient screening and consultation services are available at Walter Reed, French said.



We continue to provide and have assets related to the long-term care of people, he said. We have some of our services over in the hospital. We have our brain fitness center, which is our computerized cognitive remediation program, which is a program that works in conjunction with the speech pathologists and the occupational therapists and the neuropsychologists to focus on trying to improve cognitive dysfunction, memory intention, language and problem solving.



French said NICoE wants to ensure patients have access to all aspects of the health care system.



NICoE is the centerpiece of our care system for traumatic brain injury, he said. But think about NICoE as a concept and a system, rather than just this building. Its way more than just this building.



Bonavia said the research and technology at NICoE is vital.



Its a clinical institute that allows clinicians as well as researchers to be under the same roof to collaborate and to take care of patients and to discuss findings, he said. We can talk about modalities that may be more effective than others for therapy and talk about the future for TBI and psychological health care going forward at one site.



The centers location on the Walter Reed campus allows access to a number of different resources, he said, and being across the street from the National Institutes of Health provides easy access to a significant presence in researching and taking care of patients with TBI and psychologic health problems.



What were doing for the patients were putting into the research side of things so were able to analyze whats working and whats not and bring that to the next person who comes a week later, a month later, a year later, Panettiere said. So were better now than we were even five years ago when I started here.












Webb takes command of AFSOC

Lt. Gen. Brad Webb took command of Air Force Special Operations Command during a change of command ceremony here July 19.



Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein presided over the ceremony where Webb replaced Lt. Gen. Brad Heithold, who will go on to serve as the principal deputy director of cost assessment and program evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.



Goldfein said he has a special place in his heart for air commandos, who helped saved him after his F-16 Fighting Falcon was shot down while flying a combat mission over Serbia in 1999.



If it werent for the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron and the 55th and 21st Special Operations Squadrons pulling me out of Serbia, I wouldnt be standing here today, he said. Our nation has no idea how good AFSOC is on the battlefield  but I do. And, I want to say thank you.



Navy Vice Adm. Sean Pybus, the deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, also participated in the ceremony. He said air commandos are indispensable to SOCOMs efforts to win and influence operations around the world.



Todays special operations are about shooting, moving and communicating faster than our adversaries, he said. (We) have come to depend on AFSOC to provide a great degree of that shooting, moving and communicating with the worlds best joint special operations force.



Goldfein welcomed Webb, who previously served as the commander of NATO Special Operations Headquarters in Mons, Belgium.



"When it came time to pick the next AFSOC commander, we scanned the entire general officer corps to find another officer named Brad, Goldfein said. In all seriousness, General Brad Webb was the obvious choice.



Heithold agreed. During his final remarks as the AFSOC commander, he spoke highly of Webb.



This is a Distinguished Flying Cross recipient. This is a man who understands battle. This is a man who has been there. This is a man, an Airman, who has led multi-ship formations deep into Iraq, Heithold said. General Brad Webb is a person who has earned his spurs. Hes commanded at all levels, and hes exactly the right person to take command.



Then, Heithold thanked his air commandos.



I am humbled to have served with you, he said. Thank you to each and every one of you in the formation and in the audience today. Thank you for your dedicated and selfless service to our country. It was truly a privilege to serve as your commander.



AFSOC's mission is to present combat-ready forces to conduct and support global special operations missions. The command consists of highly trained, rapidly deployable Airmen, conducting global special operations missions ranging from precision application of firepower to infiltration, exfiltration, resupply and refueling of special operations forces' operational elements.



Webb, now the 11th commander of the organization, inherits a command with more than 19,000 air commandos worldwide.



Our challenges today run the continuum of the spectrum of conflict, Webb said. AFSOC will tirelessly seek to strike the balance of these myriad of challenges.



"And, we will always have our most important asset  our people, our Airmen and families, in mind, Webb continued. As Orde Wingate said, I will (go) with you boys any place, anytime, anywhere.
One would find that the scenario for women seems grim indeed and this will continue so long as the basic social and economic structures remain unchanged and the law and order agencies show indifference. Public display of big hoardings only serves to excite the young minds. Laws alone cannot put an end to evils that are endemic in the social structure; the government can at least make some attempt to take its own enactments seriously.

Our presumption that stricter laws will bring down crimes against women stands negated. The real problem is ineffective policing. As long as criminals do not get swift and severe punishment, such crimes will continue to be committed. Police reforms should be implemented, the force insulated from political interference, and professionalised. We need not only stringent police reforms but also a deep insight into the fulfilment of community responsibility on the part of citizens. If we fail to educate our children, then we have failed in the most basic of tasks as a society.

Making tougher laws will only be as effective as its implementation. Violent assaults, rapes and murders of women are symptomatic of a deep societal dysfunction. Any new law on rape should include the conduct of the defence lawyer and bar unethical questions against the rape victim. If an FIR is registered against a person in a rape case, he should be automatically disqualified from contesting elections. The prosecution for rape and sexual harassment should have toughest lawyers pleading the case to have 100% conviction and not one in over 1000 cases. Before the dignity of more women is sacrificed, we need to have a real change for the better democracy, greater freedom, full transparency, strict law enforcement, and mandatory punishment for heinous crimes against them.

Crime is endemic to the human condition, but a crime specifically directed at one sex is most despicable and unfortunately, the one that is punished least. According to the Governments statistics twenty five rapes are committed in the country everyday but the unofficial record is in very large number. One would find that rape is a sexual as well as cultural attack which has become a great social problem today. There are many rape cases which have grabbed headlines of the leading newspapers but timely actions are not taken. One should see that by giving a deterrent punishment to the rapist this evil of rape would not be solved. Once it is proved that the person is guilty of rape he should be hanged. For defending themselves women should learn the art of Karate, Judo and if not they should carry chilly powder in order to escape from the rapist.

Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
According to them the government has taken this decision in haste and should have taken citizens into confidence.

Mumbaikars and Petrol Dealers Association are unhappy with the Mahara-shtra Governments decision to deny petrol to helmetless two wheeler drivers and pillion riders at petrol pumps. According to them the government has taken this decision in haste and should have taken citizens into confidence. The new rule will be enforced in the state from August 1. A constable will be posted at all petrol pumps across the city and they will urge two wheeler riders to wear helmet. Initially, they will request them to wear safety gear and create awareness among them. After August 1 riders will have to pay fine if they violate the rules. Citizens are worried that they might be harassed by the police and it will cause huge inconvenience to them especially while commuting to work. On the other hand, petrol pump dealers are bothered that the new rule might have adverse impact on their business.

I dont know how the state government will impose this rule as they lack the necessary manpower to keep a vigil on petrol pumps. Moreover, if police is posted at petrol pumps then there is a possibility of huge wastage of time as they will keep an eye on each and every driver arriving there for refuelling their vehicle, said Amit Bhandari, a call center employee.

Instead of asking citizens to compulsorily wear helmets the government must first repair the potholes which are creating more troubles for motorists. Few days back, I had noticed a woman whose vehicle had slipped due to the presence of potholes. Luckily, she escaped unhurt as people came forward to help her. During that time people were blaming the civic body which had failed to repair potholes, said Sudeep Singh, a businessman from Malad.

I have noticed that often people listen to music while wearing helmets and indulge in reckless driving which may result into accidents. How can a person concentrate on driving when he is listening to music, said Vivek Bhalerao, a college student.

According to me the government must not enforce this rule and focus on those offenders who jump traffic signals, ride vehicles without carrying license, insurance and PUC certificates. Strict action must be taken against those who violate traffic rules, said Nitin Bhedse, a shopkeeper from Kandivali.

Its the duty of the government to enforce traffic rules and citizens should adhere to it. On other hand, the helmet rule should not cause inconvenience to us and it should not have any impact on our business, said a petrol pump dealer from Borivali (W).

Poona Petrol Dealers Association spokesperson Ali Daruwala said, It will be impossible for dealers to implement this law. If the government wants to enforce this law, it should implement it on the public roads. People move on roads and come to petrol pumps to fill petrol once a week. If the Government continues in the same vein, it may even disallow sale of petrol to those who dont possess a pollution-under-control certificate or driving license.

State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote told the House that the decision has been taken to promote safety on roads. Supplying fuel to riders not wearing helmets is seen as encouraging riding without helmets, Raote said in a statement.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convict in Pune German Bakery blast which had claimed 17 lives in 2010, on a plea of the Maharashtra government against the Bombay High Court verdict that commuted his death penalty to life term.



A bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy issued notice to Baig and sought his reply on the plea of the state government.

The plea had challenged the March 17, 2016 judgement of the high court which also acquitted Baig from serious charges under various sections of the Unlawful Prevention (Activities) Act and IPC, including sections 302 (murder) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

The high court had convicted 32-year-old Baig for offences under IPC section 474 (possessing a document knowing it to be forged with intent to use it as genuine) and under section 5(b) of the Explosive Substances Act relating to punishment for making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstance.

Baig, who was alleged to be a member of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, was arrested in September 2010 from Latur in Maharashtra for involvement in the blast at German Bakery, a popular eatery in Punes Koregaon Park area, which killed 17 persons and injured 58, including some foreigners.

In 2013, the trial court had convicted and awarded him capital punishment.

The plea had claimed that the high court had not relied upon the evidence which showed that Baig had travelled from Latur to Mumbai and stayed at a lodge for the purpose of entering into a conspiracy or for giving final shape to terrorist act or in furtherance of his terrorist activities.

Prosecution witness 93 was the autorickshaw driver who saw the respondent (Baig) with the planter of the bomb which proves the last seen theory. In the test identification parade the autorickshaw driver identified the respondent (Baig).

In spite of that, the high court held that the plea of the prosecution that the respondent was last seen with planter of the bomb does not gets credence, it said.

The plea further said, The high court does not consider that there was a definite connection between the explosive recovered from the possession of the respondent (Baig) and the explosive used in the bomb.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday accused Hillary Clinton of leaving behind a legacy of death, destruction, terrorism and weakness as former US secretary of state and blamed her bad judgement for the rise of IS and chaos in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt.



This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness. America is far less safe and the world is far less stable than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets, the 70-year-old real estate tycoon said in his acceptance speech as the Republican presidential candidate.

Her bad instincts and her bad judgement  something pointed out by (Vermont senator) Bernie Sanders  are what caused the disasters unfolding today, he said.

Reviewing Clintons record, Trump said in 2009, IS was not even on the map and the situation across the Middle East was stable. He blamed Clinton for giving rise to the IS and for sowing chaos in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt.

After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? IS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.

Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before, he said.

He said Clintons legacy does not have to be US legacy.

The problems we are facing now is poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad and this will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them, added Trump.

Trump said while Clintons message was that things will never change, his message is that things have to change. And they have to change right now, he said amid applause.

Clinton fired off an icy rebuke on Twitter during Trumps speech, telling him: We are better than this.

Countering Trumps attack, the Clinton Campaign accused him of painting a dark picture of an America in decline and said that his speech was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President.
Hope of finding flight MH370s final resting place is fading and the massive three-nation search for the doomed jet will be suspended if nothing turns up in the suspected crash zone, Malaysia, Australia and China said Friday.



With the designated search area due to be fully scanned within weeks, transport ministers from the three countries held talks to discuss the future of the unprecedented deep-sea sonar hunt for the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

Ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved, the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after the talks in the countrys administrative capital Putrajaya.

He was joined by Australias Darren Chester and Chinas Yang Chuantang.

Unless credible new evidence is found by the current operation, the search would not end, but be suspended until solid new information pointing to a crash site emerges, Liow said.

The use of the term suspended was an apparent nod to anguished families who have stepped up pressure on authorities not to declare efforts to locate the aircraft completely abandoned.

The suspension does not mean the termination of the search, the joint ministerial statement said.

Ministers reiterated that the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned.

The Boeing 777 vanished for unknown reasons on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, mostly Chinese nationals. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led operation is scanning the seafloor at forbidding depths within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) area  nearly the size of Greece.

Search authorities say satellite data indicates the plane went down somewhere in that remote and stormy part of the southern Indian Ocean far off Western Australia.
Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr just gave the biggest surprise to her fans when she announced her engagement with Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel.

The 33-year-old model announced the big news on her Instagram by sharing a picture of a diamond ring, using a Snapchat filter and captioned it as, I said yes!!!, reports Channel.24.

The Victorias secret model and Spiegel began dating in 2015 after they met at a dinner organized by Louis Vuitton in New York in 2014.

This will be the second marriage of Kerr, who was previously married to actor Orlando Bloom with whom she shares five-year-old son.
Maharashtra government will seek legal opinion on whether action could be initiated under the stringent MCOCA against officers, contractors, consultants and third party auditors in the Mumbai road repairs scam, the state Assembly was informed here today.



Minister of State for Urban Development Ranjit Patil informed the Lower House that views of the law and judiciary department will be sought on whether action could be initiated under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against officers, contractors, consultants and third party auditors in the scam.

The minister was replying to a query by BJPs Ashish Shelar. Shelar said while contractors and officers have been arrested, the police machinery hasnt yet reached erring consultants and third party auditors.

Patils statement came after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday suspended two executive engineers and initiated a departmental inquiry against four sub-engineers who were reportedly found to have colluded in assisting contractors indicted in the scam get bail by imposing and receiving fine after the registration of an FIR in the case.

Last week, the civic body had issued show-cause notices to six engineers seeking explanation for collecting fines from the contractors named in the Rs 352-crore road repairs scam.

The two executive engineers  V V Achrekar and K H Yeerme  from western suburbs were suspended on Tuesday and a departmental inquiry was ordered against all six engineers.

So far, police have arrested 25 people in all, including a contractor and two chief engineers, in connection with the scam.

Following an inquiry into the 34 roads, the BMC had registered an FIR with the police, which set up a special investigation team to probe the scam.

The civic body had named six contractors and two-third party auditors in the FIR.

The contractors are RPS Infraprojects, KR Construction, Jay Kumar, Relcon Infraprojects, RK Madhani and Mahavir Infrastructure.


By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Let me tell you what I believe to be the long-term strategy of the pharmaceutical industry in regards to vaccinations. First, they want to establish by law the precedent that a parent cannot refuse a vaccination for their child, or they will face the draconian penalty of that child being forced out of the public school system. It's the dry run for what they want to try next, the forced vaccination of adults as a precondition of employment.

It really is that simple and that horrible, which is why what's happening in California should both terrify people, as well as have them sitting on the edge of their seat as to what will happen next.

As for the horror, I'm sure that most readers are aware of California Senate Bill 277, which was passed last year and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown which provides that this academic school year, 2016-2017, starting in the lower grades, children in kindergarten and the seventh grade will need to have a certain number of vaccinations in order to attend school. All religious and philosophical exemptions are gone and only medical exemptions will remain, but you can be sure they'll try to bully physicians into not granting them. It is REALLY bad.

But what should have you sitting on the edge of your seat is a lawsuit filed by some real legal heavyweights, including a former member of Nader's Raiders, which seeks to stop SB 277. As an attorney I have to say I am impressed by the filing and believe it has a good chance of success. During the years I have been in this struggle I've been frustrated as to how little reason has been deployed in the debate. I credit much of that to the terrible 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act which removed vaccines from the traditional civil justice system. But the pharma minions were not content with that victory and wanted to go even further. Tyrants usually set themselves up for failure when they try to do too much. The reason pharma has tried to weasel out of the traditional civil justice system is they don't want to argue the merits of what they are proposing.

Here are some of the arguments our side is making that pharma and which pharma will be forced to respond:

Violation of the California Constitution - Access to public education is a fundamental right under the California constitution, which means that any abridgement of that right must be viewed with great suspicion. The defendants must show there was an overwhelming need for the abridgment of this right and that the abridgment is narrowly tailored. Furthermore, this proposed law discriminates on the basis of wealth, as more affluent parents are more able to homeschool their children. It also discriminates on the basis of English language fluency as California law states that any parent who wants to homeschool their child must be fluent in English.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is to offer a non-stop passenger aircraft connection between Singapore and the UKs Manchester Airport from late October 2016.

The non-stop SingaporeManchester service will be operated five times a week from October 30. The aircraft will then continue on to Houston, which is currently served by SIA via Moscow.

With the launch of the new SingaporeManchesterHouston rotation, SIA will terminate the current Moscow  Houston and Munich  Manchester services.

Both Munich and Moscow will continue to be served, however, on a non-stop basis to and from Singapore. Services to Munich will be operated daily, while services to Moscow will be operated four times a week.

The carrier has also confirmed that it will operate daily non-stop flights between Singapore and San Francisco from October, using Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the lane.

And, in other changes to be made as part of the carriers Northern Winter Schedule, services to Adelaide, Christchurch and Kolkata will increase in frequency during peak periods, while seasonal services to Sapporo will be flown during December 2016.

The service to Adelaide will be operated 10 times a week between December this year and January 2017, up from the current seven times a week frequency.

The frequency of services to Christchurch will also increase from seven times a week to 10 times a week, in the case of this service between November 2016 and February 2017.

Services to Kolkata will increase in frequency to four times a week in December, up from the current three weekly flights.

To cater to peak winter demand, SIA also intends to operate seasonal services to Sapporo between December this year and January 2017. A total of 24 round-trip flights will be operated during this period.

These changes are subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.

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DHL Global Forwarding has inked a three-year global freight forwarding agreement with Ambatovy, a joint venture between Sherritt International Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Korea Resources Corp.

The deal encompasses two contracts, according to which the freight forwarding division of Deutsche Post DHL will provide onshore and offshore services for Ambatovy.

For the onshore contract, DHL became responsible for providing import customs clearance for airfreight shipments of mining spare parts into Madagascar, with delivery from Antananarivo to the Ambatovy mine site at Moramanga and the plant at Toamasina by means of daily shuttle services.

For the offshore deal, DHL will handle international air and ocean freight importing of mining equipment to support Ambatovys nickel, cobalt and ammonium sulphate production, consolidated at key DHL hubs in the US, Europe and China.

DHLs Material Management System (MMS), an in-house information management system that shares information and controls business processes, will be helpful in this area, the integrator said.

Through the MMS, Ambatovy will have real-time visibility of its shipments during any movements.

All the work involved with the deals will be handled by DHL Global Forwardings Industrial Projects team, which is a specialist in very large breakbulk and complex project logistics.

Nikola Hagleitner, chief executive of industrial projects, DHL Global Forwarding, remarked: This agreement is especially meaningful as it enables DHL to help Ambatovy manage its supply chain in order to sustain its operations in Madagascar.

Our partnership will enable Ambatovy to tap into our global expertise in project forwarding, and extensive network spanning over 220 countries and territories  enabling us to operate efficiently even in challenging and remote locations, and more importantly, facilitate global trade flows and the development of infrastructure globally.

Steven Cox, Director, supply chain management for Ambatovy, commented: It is critical we have direct access to our global suppliers in order to keep the operations up and running.

With their track record in these areas, we are convinced they are the right partner to drive improvements in our supply chain and business.

Ambatovy is a nickel and cobalt mining enterprise, which at full capacity expects to produce 60,000 tonnes of refined nickel, 5,600 tonnes of refined cobalt and 210,000 tonnes of ammonium sulphate fertilizer each year.
July 22, 2016

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, has been released from jail in Zintan, a town in western Libya, after spending nearly five years there since his capture in November 2011. After his father was killed on Oct. 20, 2011, by rebel groups that captured his hometown Sirte with NATO help, Seif tried to leave Libya.

In August 2015, the young Gadhafi was sentenced to death by firing squad by a Tripoli-based court. However, the sentence was not carried out and was condemned by Human Rights Watch that accused the self-proclaimed government of politicizing the courts.

Seif never attended the courts hearings, as he did not fall under the authorities in Tripoli because he was jailed in Zintan, whose local authorities and militias are allied with the Tobruk-based government that consider themselves part of the Libyan Armed Forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter. Fearing for his safety, he did not attend his trial. Instead he spoke to the court via video.

The Tobruk-based government is the elected government of Libya and recognized internationally; however, it was forced to flee the capital in August 2014 when Islamist-led militias proclaimed their own government in Tripoli.

In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Seif, his father and Gadhafis chief of intelligence Abdallah Sanusi. The ICC dropped the case against Gadhafi after his death and accepted that Sanusi be tried in Libya.

In 2015, one of Seif's regular visitors told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the only obstacle for his release is his safety once he leaves prison. Keeping him in Libya requires huge security arrangements, and taking him abroad will mean that he will have little influence on events inside the country, the source said.

His release was legally based on the general amnesty law passed by the internationally recognized Libyan government and enacted by the Zintan court. His defense team announced July 6 that he had been released April 12 and that for security reasons the news had not been made public. It was decided that it would be in Seif's best interest to remain in Zintan, which pledged to protect him as long as he stayed in town. Karim Khan, who led Seif's defense team, announced that his team of lawyers will ask the ICC to drop the case against Seif, since he has already been tried in Libya for the same crimes and thus cannot be tried again.

Now that Seif has been released, the question is what role he could play in the war-torn country. Sources close to him have informed Al-Monitor that he has already started contacting people inside Libya and abroad who are supporting him, trying to come up with his own plan to salvage the country.

He is positioned to play a role within the tribal structure in Libya. The majority of tribes that supported his father in the 2011 civil war see him as a savior, and they are willing to support him as their de facto leader in any political process to bring about national reconciliation and reunify the country. This is especially true since the United Nations-brokered political dialogue and the Government of National Accord have so far failed to deliver stability and security, let alone anything tangible to alleviate the hardships Libyans are facing on a daily basis, which include power cuts, shortage of money in the banking system and soaring prices.

Al-Monitor learned, by having been part of these discussions, that tribal leaders who support Seif are willing to accept him as their only representative, or what is known in tribal customs as next of kin. This means he will be the only person responsible for accepting any terms of a reconciliation accord that might be reached in exchange for agreeing to forgive crimes committed by the rebels since 2011, such as murders for the sake of national reconciliation.

Politically and in the face of the deteriorating security and economic situation in the country, many Libyans are looking to Seif as a potential positive player, given the failure of the successive governments that have run the country since October 2011. In fact, those who supported his father make up the majority in absolute numbers, and if organized behind an effective leadership with certain tribal and political credentials, they could be a very effective force that will be hard to ignore.

Also, the tribal forces in the country have largely been sidelined by the successive UN envoys to Libya who tried  and so far have failed  to make any tangible progress in saving the country. One of the reasons for this has been the lack of organization of the tribes within one political entity that could be taken seriously as a credible negotiating partner. Indeed, tribes opposing the so-called February 17 Revolution have organized themselves in what is known as the Supreme Council of the Libyan Tribes, but it lacked political coherence and strong leadership backed by a clear mandate to lead. This role could well be played by Seif, as he enjoys wide public support and clear tribal credentials starting with his own Gadhafa tribe.

In a tribal society like Libya, tribes  particularly the major ones such as Warfalla and Tarhuna  are the cornerstone of any future settlement in the country, and without involving them, little can be achieved, as has been the case for the last five years. Successive UN mediators have so far failed to do much in solving Libyas political turmoil, mainly because they ignored the tribal base of the country. In this context, Seif could play a major political role.

Seif's release also coincided with the recent release of six high-ranking officials from his fathers regime who were in jail in Tripoli. The released officials include Mohamed al-Zwai, the last parliament speaker under Gadhafi, and former undersecretary Mohamed al-Sharif. The move appears to be a step on the long road of reconciliation in Libya without which no side could solemnly rule the country, let alone help it heal its wounds.
July 22, 2016

GAZIANTEP, Turkey  The regulatory committee of the Rojava-Northern Syria Democratic Federal System Constituent Assembly has approved the final draft of an 85-article "social contract" that would serve as a constitution for Syria's Kurdish regions.

The Constituent Assembly met June 27-28 in al-Malikiyah ("Derik" in Kurdish) in the countryside of Hasakah province, northeast Syria, to examine the draft document. During the meeting, final amendments were introduced and the constitution was approved.

At a March 2016 conference in Rmeilan, in the countryside of Hasakah province, the Syrian Kurds declared a federal system in the areas under their control. The Constituent Assembly of Rojava elected the 31-member regulatory committee tasked with the implementation of the Rojava-Northern Syria Democratic Federal System constitution.

The name Rojava-Northern Syria Democratic Federal System was chosen from among three proposed names, including Rojava-Kurdistan Democratic Federal System Marbo Beth Nahrin and Northern Syria Democratic Federal System. The regulatory committee members have indicated in previous statements that the Constituent Assembly is based upon the Swiss model.

According to some media analyses, the Kurds prepared and approved the draft constitution too soon. Article 5 specifies that the federation shall have an independent flag, and Article 66 paved the way for the establishment of diplomatic relations with foreign countries, despite the Syrians having yet to agree on the form of the future Syrian state. The majority of them fear that the declaration of the federation would be the beginning of a project to divide Syria, since it would be made by the Kurds and the Kurdish self-administration, which the Syrians view as enemies.

Article 76 requires young Kurdish men to join the Syrian Democratic Forces. Mansour Salloum, the co-chair of the Rojava-Northern Syria Democratic Federal System Constituent Assembly, told Al-Monitor, Military service is the duty of every man who wants to live in a safe country. We have many enemies and we are facing the Islamic State [IS]. We must defend our land if we want to safeguard it. We are not imposing military service to invade other countries. We do not seek wars. All we want is to build a state based on education and culture.

Salih Muslim, the co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, told Al-Hayat July 3 that his party will not abandon the idea of forming the Rojava federation and sooner or later will connect the northern Syrian regions (al-Jazeera's Kurdish areas) to Afrin in the countryside of Aleppo. The co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council, Ilham Ahmed, also told Al-Hayat, Superpowers cannot stand against a leading power like us, which played a major role in defeating IS.

Anas al-Abda, the head of the Syrian National Coalition, issued a statement in March rejecting the declaration of the federation and the approval of its constitution, describing these actions as unilateral and pre-emptive procedures and calling them null and void.

The approved constitution includes 11 chapters, divided into four sections. The preamble stated, We, the people of Rojava: Northern Syria, Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians, Chechens, Circassians, Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and various others, are aware that the nation-state has brought our people problems, acute crises and tragedies.

Salloum pointed out that the federation chose to distance itself from the concept of a nation-state since such states have been shown to fail. According to him, the leaders of these states have entrenched notions of exclusion, marginalization and authoritarianism, and also prevent citizens from building a democratic and pluralistic participatory society. Federalism does not represent the Kurds only, but all of the components of the region, he said.

Akram Hasso, the former head of the Executive Council of al-Jazeera Canton, posted on Facebook July 3, If the constitution stated that the federation should distance itself from the nation-state, why did it mention national identities?

The preamble also stated that the contract is based on what it called the "culture of Mother Goddess  a reference to religious diversity  and on the humanitarian and moral legacy of the apostles and prophets. Salloum said, We are striving to build a democratic society that gives the individuals and society the freedom to choose their religion without coercion. We believe in building a secular society."

Speaking to the All4Syria news website July 4, Syrian opposition member Mohammad Habash criticized the constitution's reference to the Mother Goddess. He said the idea of a Mother Goddess is mere mythology and unimportant to the Kurdish people, arguing that the inclusion of such a symbol in a human rights and legal charter will further religious polarization in a region already plagued by ethnic and sectarian conflicts.

Qamishli was chosen as the capital of the federation following a referendum that Salloum described as transparent. He said the historical city was chosen because of its diversity. He added that the declared federation will have a non-nationalist geographic social foundation.

Salloum said the Constituent Assembly of the Rojava-Northern Syria Federal System is open to dialogue, even with those who refuse and oppose this project  on condition that their refusal be justified.

The constitution directly addressed several issues, including ensuring womens rights in Article 15, social freedoms and rights in Article 16, the right to life and ending capital punishment in Article 17, protecting human dignity and preventing physical and psychological torture in Article 21, and guaranteeing free education in Article 40.

Syrian opposition member and lawyer Ghazwan Kronfol told Al-Monitor, The constitution includes several texts on respecting the rights of all national components in the region that was called Rojava. The problem is not the text and the wording, but the fact that these texts are not abided by. This is related to the circumstances under which the text was drafted, the legitimacy of the authority that produced it and the extent of the legitimacy of said authoritys representation of the national components.

He asked, Are these texts an expression of the peoples free will, free from dictates or armed coercion, or are they a result of choices made by some categories that managed to seize the opportunity and grab a surplus of power that they exploited to draft texts most convenient for them and their interests?

Kronfol explained that federalism is not necessarily a bad choice and may be in many cases an ideal and viable solution for numerous national problems. However, he said, This requires objective circumstance, from my point of view, that must be accepted and approved at the national level.

He added, Federalism must not be a solution put together by a majority or a group that has a surplus power, but rather a national choice that may be built on and that must be subject to a national agreement. [Decisions] that are subject to national consensus will last, since they offer the best option for all of societys components, and respect the rights, choices and wills of everyone."

The federations options are not set in accordance with religious, ethnic or sectarian foundations, but according to the national and development-related necessities and needs. Therefore, the federation solution is a project of unification and not of division.

Other Syrians have yet to warm up to the Kurds declaration of a federal system in Syria, and the Kurdish Federation is still seen as an attempt to divide the country. Although the regime and the opposition both reject this system, the Kurds are adamant about moving forward with the establishment of their federation at the political and military levels.
July 22, 2016

As of July 21, 124 Turkish generals and admirals have been detained on charges of participating in the failed coup of July 15. This will significantly affect the integrity and performance of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), as the TSK's total number of generals and admirals was 358. In other words, almost 35% of all TSK generals and admirals are in detention for participating in a coup attempt outside the armed forces hierarchy.

The air force and gendarmerie forces played key roles in the uprising. The coup attempt launched by generals calling themselves "Peace in the Country Council" was planned at the Gendarmerie General Command Headquarters in Ankara. Akinci air base, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city, served as the coup's operations center. In addition to several armored units in Ankara and Istanbul, assault and general-purpose helicopters of the army aviation units supported the coup attempt.

Rumors suggest the most hawkish elements of the army fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeast were on hand at the coup operations center.

A striking development was the arrest of four-star Gen. Adem Huduti, the commander of the Malatya-based second army, which conducts operations in Diyarbakir and Sirnak, the main fronts of the battle that devastated those towns with tank and artillery fire. Leaders of commando brigades at Sirnak and Hakkari were detained on charges of joining the coup attempt.

An overview of the attempt shows that this was a widespread uprising with nationwide tentacles. Immediately after the collapse of the coup attempt on the morning of July 16, military units loyal to the civilian regime and police were already rounding up coup plotters in more than 30 provinces.

Although it might be impossible so soon after July 15 to accurately calculate the extent of coup supporters in the TSK, it would not be an exaggeration to estimate that between one-third and one-half of forces on the ground had joined the uprising at various levels. The Turkish navy was the only branch that the Peace in the Country group could not sign up for the uprising in any significant manner.

Government spokesmen have been insisting that the coup plotters constituted "only a small minority" of the TSK. But even a cursory review of the list of commanders in custody shows that this wasnt a tiny minority at all.

Those spokesmen, however, are justified in saying that those known to be affiliated with the Gulen movement, or the Congregation, have been organizing inside the army for decades. Though the movement's leader Fethullah Gulen denies any knowledge of the coup attempt, Gulenist officers were the brains behind the coup and backbone of the operation.

This socio-political Islamic movement that emerged in the early 1970s and takes its name from Gulen, a Sunni Turkish cleric, sought to infiltrate the agencies and institutions of the Turkish state. Although Gulen has been living in the United States since 1999, he and Erdogan were allies until 2013. The pair formed an alliance against the secular military and civilian bureaucracy. That allowed for easy penetration by Gulenists. It was well-known that Gulenists were particularly active in the national police agency and the judiciary. Although there was much speculation, the level of the Gulenists' TSK penetration wasnt really known.

The Erdogan-Gulen alliance purged Kemalist (followers of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic) and secular generals they saw as their common enemy. The backbone of this political movement was the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon operations and related mass trials. The Erdogan government provided needed political and moral support while the action was carried out by Gulenists, who by then had reached key positions in the judiciary and police.

Their allegation was that Kemalist generals were plotting coups against the Justice and Development Party rule. Their charges were "backed" by fabricated evidence and secret witnesses. A total of 400 serving officers, including 37 generals and admirals, were arrested. At the beginning of 2013, more than 10% of generals and admirals were in prison.

The Ergenekon and Sledgehammer operations eradicated the military tutelage that deemed itself duty-bound to protect the secular characteristics of the rwepublic against "Islamist bigotry" and intervened in national politics when it was deemed necessary.

However, the alliance of convenience between Erdogan and Gulen eventually became an increasingly venomous power struggle. Gulenists wanted a bigger share of state governance, but Erdogan adamantly refused. The strife between them first emerged in 2012. In December 2013, the tension became an outright confrontation when the Gulenist judiciary and police launched corruption operations against Erdogan, his family and close business associates. To terminate the activities of what it called the Fethullah Terror Organization and parallel state structure in the economy, education and media, the government adopted strong measures. Gulenist networks in the judiciary and police were banished. The only ones left untouched were Gulenists in the military.

The earlier purges in the TSK through the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon operations had implications for the July 15 coup attempt: This was a coup of brigadier generals.

Of the 124 generals and admirals detained, 83 are brigadier generals and rear admirals. As far as can be determined, about half of them were promoted to the rank of brigadier and rear admiral in 2013 and later. This indicates that most of the generals who today are accused of coup plotting were promoted to fill the ranks vacated by their colleagues who were purged in the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon cases. It can't be a coincidence that they constitute the majority of the plotters of this failed coup.

We now understand that the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon operations designed by Gulenist prosecutors and police did not seek to eliminate only Kemalist officers. It was designed to ensure that Gulenist officers who joined the military after the mid-1980s would be promoted to higher ranks. These are the officers who are now accused of plotting the failed coup.

The July 15 coup caused major damage to the TSK's upper command that will take many years, if not decades, to repair. An army with a mass of generals who take their orders not from their superiors but from imams in the political and religious Congregation should already be considered crushed. Turkey and the rest of the world learned this bitter truth when those taking their orders from imams tried to stage a coup.

We also realize now that Gulenists who attempted a coup in Turkey could also have manipulated Turkey's international operations or could have joined and influenced their outcome. This TSK, infested with Gulenists, was not the national army of Turkey. The Congregation had become an army within an army. In addition, the TSK is a NATO army. Any crisis, any weakness in its command and performance would also be a NATO crisis.

The TSK is in a historic crisis and decline.

By opening fire and dropping bombs on civilians who took to the streets on Erdogan's call, the institution that until July 15 enjoyed the highest prestige in the eyes of the people is now suffering a phenomenal loss of reputation and legitimacy that could take generations to overcome.

The TSK once added value to Turkey's foreign relations. Not anymore. Its deterrence potential suffered a severe blow, and the loss of confidence by its allies can't be avoided.

The severe weakness and demoralization the army is now experiencing will inevitably damage its effectiveness in the war against the PKK.

Because of the coup attempt, the police and military have been at odds, and the police will no doubt be on alert to prevent another coup attempt. The Islamic State, as much as the PKK, benefits from the near paralysis caused by a police force that watches its own army  an army that is coming apart.
July 22, 2016

IZMIR, Turkey  The Turkish coastal city of Izmir and the nearby Greek island of Lesbos have become the final resting places of refugees whose desperate journeys to Europe ended in tragedy in the Aegean Sea. The plot of land where Lesbos buried refugees ran out of space earlier this year, and a second plot of land was opened. In Izmir, wooden signs inscribed with numbers mark the graves in a potter's field converted into a refugee cemetery.

Izmir has been one of the main departure points for refugees seeking to cross from Turkey to Greece. Syrian families sleeping in parks and traffic islands had become a common sight across the city in the crisis days that led up to the Turkey-EU agreement to stem the flow in March. A refugee industry flourished in the city, including underground workshops manufacturing dinghies  often unseaworthy  and fake life jackets filled with nonbuoyant material. Even shops on main streets sold life jackets and other supplies the refugees needed for their journeys, as Syrian child beggars became a fixture in the streets and better-off Syrians sent rental prices soaring.

Those sights have now disappeared, with Turkey tightening control on its Aegean coastline since signing the deal with the European Union. For many refugees, however, Izmir has become a final resting place.

In a large cemetery in the district of Dogancay, a plot adjacent to the potters field is being used as a burial ground for refugees. Hakan Yildirim, who has worked as a grave digger here for the past six months, was the first person Al-Monitor met upon entering the ground. Yildirim, 17, recalled how bodies used to come every day in the winter months. One day 12 bodies were brought at once. They were said to have drowned when their boat sank. The bodies had been washed and shrouded. The imam said prayers, and we buried them. There was no one else. There were three kids among the dead, and my heart went out especially for them, Yildirim said. The arrival of bodies, he added, has phased out in the past several months.

The cemeterys manager, Imam Mustafa Ozer, told Al-Monitor that 158 refugees had been buried so far, including 62 men, 41 women, 30 boys and 25 girls. The ground was bedecked with greenery a few months ago, and each grave was tidily encircled with tiles and garnished with flowers. Hence the exemplary cemetery label it has earned from some Turkish media.

Ozer explained the bodies were brought for burial after no one claimed them during a 15-day waiting period at the Forensic Medicine Institute. We performed the funeral prayers, but there was no funeral congregation for any of them, he said.

Adults and children are buried in separate sections. Grave digger Erdem Isik, who has dug the graves of dozens of refugees, pointed somberly to the childrens section and said, I felt so sad while burying the children. They were just kids unaware of what they were going through. They probably saw everything as a game, even when their boat was sinking. So blameless and innocent they were.

The nameless graves have wooden signs inscribed with consecutive numbers. Refugee number 42277 lies next to refugee number 42278 and so on. Only two proper marble tombstones stand out, reading Diana Nazari from Afghanistan and Meryem Ahmedi from Afghanistan. According to Isik, the graves belong to two girls, ages 4 and 8, who died in the hospital. An association helping refugees took care of them while they were hospitalized and later had the tombstones erected. No relative has since come to visit the graves. And who is supposed to come anyway? Their families have probably all perished, he said.

Several other graves are also identified with names inscribed on metal signs. Souad Saleh Farran from Syria, for instance, was among 31 refugees who drowned in a boat that sunk in the Aegean Sea Jan. 5. According to her cousins, who managed to locate the grave months after the tragedy, Farran was a mother of four, who got divorced six years ago because of persistent domestic violence. She then enrolled at Damascus University to study law, but the war disrupted her aspirations. She died while trying to reach Germany, where her son was a university student. Farrans relatives identified her from pictures kept at the local prosecutors office. The metal sign was the best they could do to pay a final tribute.

Ozer showed Al-Monitor another section of the burial ground that had served temporarily as a final resting place for refugees who died fleeing the war in Iraq. After the war in Iraq ended, people came and identified [the graves of] their relatives from records at the prosecutors office. One by one, they took the remains back home, the imam said. No Iraqi refugees are buried here any longer. He believed the Syrians would do the same. People will come when the war comes to an end, which I hope will happen soon, he said.

Ozer explained the prosecutors office kept files of the dead, including pictures, which helped relatives to identify graves. Yet only a handful of dead people had been located in this way so far.

As Al-Monitor was leaving the cemetery, Yildirim, the young grave digger, came over, eager to say something else. I forgot to tell you, he said, I buried two Syrian babies here three weeks apart this month. But the funerals were not without congregation. Their mothers were there. I was told they had died from hunger and destitution.
The manager of a maternity and breastfeeding store in south Huntsville is hopeful new signage along Memorial Parkway will improve sales at her business.

Amanda Argo, who helps run A Nurturing Moment on 7540 S. Memorial Parkway near Rosie's Mexican Cantina, said sales have dropped since construction began along the highway in 2015. She said customers are concerned about access to and from the shopping center, which is difficult to maneuver in such heavy traffic.

"Traffic's constantly flowing at such a backed up pace that it's hard for them to safely get through without risk of being hit," Argo said. "With our demographic being moms, they don't want to take a risk and pull in and risk their car getting hit with their kids in the car."

New access signs, which will be installed by the Alabama Department of Transportation, will direct motorists to nearby businesses so they know where to safely turn into shopping areas. While it may take drivers some time to recognize the blue signs in the sea of orange construction cones, officials are confident they will make a difference.

Councilwoman and South Huntsville Business Association founder Jennie Robinson said signals at Charlotte Drive and Main Street South were removed recently, creating a tremendous change in the traffic pattern along South Parkway.

"That's good news and bad news," she said. "The good news is traffic is flowing smoother along South Parkway than it has for months. The bad news is it has created some challenges for business access."

The new signs, which were produced by the city in response to the traffic issues, will improve access and promote businesses in that area, she added.

ALDOT spokesman Seth Burkett said the highway project was about 30 percent complete at the end of June at about 15 percent of the contract time. Based on how work is going so far, he said the agency anticipates early completion.

"The railroad bridge on Martin Road is halfway complete, traffic was switched to it last week, and they are currently demolishing the old railroad bridge," he said. "The first half of the Martin Road bridge over South Memorial Parkway is nearing completion. They have begun processing the area for the southbound service road."

He said paving on the northbound service road will likely begin next week, adding traffic may shift to the northbound service road from the south end of the project to Boulevard South in August.

The first phase, which includes the Martin Road bridges and Parkway service roads, must be complete by Dec. 1, 2017. Burkett said contractors could receive an incentive of up to $2.5 million if they finish by Sept. 1 that year.

"The deadline for completion of the second and final phase (Parkway mainline and overpasses at Byrd Spring and Logan/Lily Flagg) is June 1, 2019, with another maximum incentive of about $2.5 million for completion by March 1, 2019," he said. "There are corresponding disincentives for late completion on both phases."

The city's Traffic Engineering Division made 11 business access signs at about $10 or less each and can produce more if needed.

While the construction is inconvenient, Mayor Tommy Battle said they are doing everything they can to ensure the process goes "as seamlessly and as easily" as possible. The road work is also just the beginning of many more projects to come in Huntsville.

"These next five years, we will see a lot of construction across the City of Huntsville as we build our infrastructure to keep up with our growth and the growth that we're having in the community," he said.
An Athens State University graduate will work with a variety of North Alabama clients in his new leadership role with ServisFirst Bank in Huntsville.

Bob Thompson.

Bob Thompson, the former vice president and commercial relationship officer for Renasant Bank, is now ServisFirst's new vice president of commercial banking for the Huntsville market.

Thompson, who has more than six years of experience with commercial lending, is a Decatur native and alumnus of the Leadership Huntsville/Madison County Connect Program. In his new position, he will serve both commercial and real estate customers.

The full-service bank is a subsidiary of ServisFirst Bancshares and specializes in commercial and correspondent banking, cash management, private banking and the professional consumer market. Founded in 2005 in Birmingham, ServisFirst has had a presence in Huntsville since August 2006.
Six days a week, promptly at 8 a.m., Isaac White Sr. opens the door of his White's Barber College, on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Mobile. At 96, he is "still teaching people how to cut hair to this day," said his niece, Lonna Steele, who works with him.

"He does this out of the kindness of his heart."

On Sundays, White drives to Stone Street Baptist, the church he has attended since 1945. This past Sunday, he was surrounded by an entourage of about a dozen students from his barber college, each wearing the school "uniform": a black lab jacket made of material that has white scissors all over it.

White, a deacon in the church, was among some 30 "senior saints" - those over 80 years old - recognized at Stone Street's 210th anniversary celebration on Sunday morning. The students came to show support for their beloved mentor.

"I forgot my lab coat this morning," said Timothy Edwards, just before the service began. "He made me go all the way home and get it, and tuck my shirt in."

Slightly built and sharply dressed, White moved quickly and nimbly through the maze between the church's fellowship hall and the sanctuary. "He moves faster than we do," observed another student, Deon Ponquinette, noting that White is the same way at the barber college.

"He's a hard worker. He keeps us in line," Ponquinette said. "It's a safe haven for me to go to his school every day. He's a blessing to us."

'Don't catch the devil's ball'

White was born to sharecroppers in Wilkerson County, Mississippi, in 1919. During the Great Depression, he joined President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps and became a truck driver.

At a work site in Georgia, he started cutting hair in his spare time. Eventually, he had his own tent where other men would come for a haircut.

He moved to Mobile in 1942 and went to work as a truck driver at Brookley Air Force Base, working at a barber shop on the side. After a couple of years, he opened his own shop, with just one chair. In 1960, he started his barber college.

Today, 56 years later, about 32 students are enrolled at White's, said his niece, who manages the office.

At midday Wednesday, five students were hard at work giving haircuts in well-worn barber chairs at the college, which is located in the same place where it was established in 1960.

White's favorite saying is, "Don't catch the devil's ball. He'll strike you out every time." He wants his students to stay focused on their goals, not giving in to any temptations that might impede their progress.

Though he speaks softly and has a gentle manner, White practices tough love. He has three rules: Come to school, follow instructions and be honest.

Recently, when a student strolled in at 9 a.m., an hour late, White sent him home. "I'm trying to train them for a better life, and to be successful," he explained. A customer won't keep coming back to a no-show barber.

When he was young, White promised God that if he would free his soul from the gates of hell, White would "serve him until I die," he said. "The only way to serve him is through people. He made it possible for me to establish this school."

He considers his work with the students at his barber school as the God-given mission of his long life. "He put me in a position to work with these young people and turn their lives around," he said. "The joy I get is seeing them make a U-turn."

White likes to say that the only three jobs that "never play out" are "barber, beautician and mortician."

"My objective is to put lifetime security in their hands," in the form of the tools of a barber's trade: a comb, scissors, a razor. Once they know how to use them, they'll always have a job.

Lifetime security

White said that when students have to take out loans to finance their education, they're "behind the eight ball before they start." So at his school, he offers each of his students a conditional grant.

The students are responsible for paying for their supplies plus $100 per month in tuition, while White absorbs $575. After they complete the 1,500-hour course, they must secure a job and turn in three work report cards signed by their supervisor over the first three months of their employment. If the reports are satisfactory, he forgives them their debt to him; otherwise, they owe him the full amount he has financed for their training, which comes to $8,100.

"He's investing a lot in every person who comes through here," said Steele. "I don't know anywhere where you can get a skill for $25 a week."

Successfully completing the three months of reports is the students' way of thanking him, she said.

Every day, White drives to work from his nearby home, dressed in a coat and tie. His son, Isaac White Jr., works as an instructor at the school. His wife of 52 years, Carrie, passed away two years ago.

He's almost always the last one to leave the building at 9 p.m., Steele said. "He wouldn't have it any other way. That's what keeps him young."

Though he wears a hearing aid, White said he has "no aches and pains." He still drives, usually just to work and to church, and he cooks for himself. He eats beans every day.

"He still tries to keep his independence as much as possible," said Steele.

"I thank God for the opportunity to minister this way," White said. "I couldn't have done this myself - I'm from backwoods Mississippi. God gave me what I need. I just thank God for it, and for these students under my supervision."
For two days in September 1996, Huntsville, the Rocket City was renamed Star Trek, Alabama by proclamation of Mayor Steve Hettinger as members of the original cast of Star Trek came to Huntsville to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show. Named Star Trek 30: One Weekend on Earth, the event was held September 7-8, 1996 at the Von Braun Civic Center. Speed limits in town were changed to Warp 5 (unless otherwise posted) during the convention.

According to The Huntsville Times - "Not since proud Huntsvillians carried rocket pioneer Dr. Wernher Von Braun on their shoulders downtown to celebrate the 1969 moon landing has the city saluted space with such hoopla." Thousands of fans from all over the South and as far away as Australia showed up Saturday morning, standing in line for over two hours to purchase tickets.

Roughly 150 reporters from 70 media outlets were in town to cover the event. Mike Jerrick from the Sci-Fi Channel said, "The scope of the convention here is impressive both for the turnout and the number of stars attending."

Seven members of the original cast made appearances including William Shatner (Capt. James Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Commander Spock), James Doohan (Commander Scott), Walter Koenig (ensign Checkov), DeForrest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (Lt. Commander Sulu) and Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura). Cast members from Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Next Generation and Deep Space Nine also attended.

In addition to the cast members from Star Trek, Apollo astronauts Alan Shepard, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, Edgar Mitchell, Alan Bean and Fred Haise also attended the event. The astronauts signed autographs and participated in panel discussions regarding real vs. fictional exploration of space.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, widow of the late series creator Gene Roddenberry was also on hand for a NASA tribute led by NASA Administrator Daniel Golden. Golden said the show " "impacted the space program in a very major way" and inspired him as an engineer.

Fans came dressed as Klingons and wearing Spock ears. T-shirts for sale included slogans "Spock: Beam Me Down to Huntsville" and "Kirk and Spock in 96."

Seminars at the convention included "Creating Star Trek Stunts", "Klingon Kulture", "Star Trek Salutes Apollo Astronauts", The Aliens of Star Trek" as well as retrospective footage from films, the series and never before seen footage called "Star Trek: The Lost Series." There was also a sneak peak at the new Star Trek movie "First Contact."

Did you attend Star Trek 30 in 1996? If so leave us a comment about your experience. Have any photos of the event? Send them to bgathany@AL.com and I'll add the to the gallery.

In addition to Star Trek 30: A Weekend on Earth, Star Trek cast members have visited Huntsville on other occasions. LeVar Burton who stared as Lt. Commander George La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation attended Parent-Child Space Camp in August 1991 with his son. Nichelle Nichols who stared at Lt. Uhura in the original Star Trek series spoke to Space Campers in August 1992.

In April 2003 Leonard Nimoy was the guest speaker at the National Space Club's 15th Annual Dr. Wernher Von Braun Memorial Celebration in Huntsville. In June 2007 William Shatner was the keynote speaker at the first Space Camp Hall of Fame ceremony at the Von Braun Center.

So if you attend the opening of Star Trek Beyond this weekend, remember how much Huntsville has been a part of both the science fiction and real aspects of space travel - "Where no man has gone before."
In my list of the 15 wonderful and weird things I love about the Star Trek universe, there was (for the purposes of this column) one notable exception: comics. That absence is primarily because Star Trek has not always been treated kindly in comic books, with the license bouncing from DC to Marvel then back to DC and now, finally, IDW. And IDW is focused primarily on "Kelvin timeline"/J.J. Abrams universe exploits with their current ongoing series, leaving classic Trek somewhat neglected. (The publisher has, however, announced "Star Trek: Waypoint," an anthology miniseries that will pick up Original Series and Next Generation stories.)

So what are some great prime universe Star Trek comic stories? There have been some good ones recently ("Star Trek: Hive," a miniseries in which a future Picard/Locutus tries to alter the past and prevent the Borg from conquering the universe, and a Star Trek/"Planet of the Apes" crossover come to mind) but for my gold-pressed latinum, DC's "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" series in the 90s were super.

Two stories from the Next Gen series specifically stick out. The first, a four-part arc covering issues #47-50, was titled "The Worst of Both Worlds" and examined an alternate universe in which the Enterprise failed to rescue Picard from the Borg, who went on to assimilate 90 percent of Earth. When the prime Enterprise is sucked into this hellish nightmare, it joins forces with an eye-patched Riker to once again end the existential Borg threat.

"The Worst of Both Worlds"

While "The Worst of Both Worlds" (which sounds like but is not connected in any way to "Hive") is collected digitally in IDW's "Star Trek Archives," the second stellar tale from DC's series is a bit harder to find in 2016. "The Gift," written by actor John de Lancie and published in 1990 in "Star Trek: The Next Generation Annual" #1, is a similar story to what would eventually be the sixth season episode "Tapestry," in which Q (it's de Lancie, of course) allows Picard to change something from his past. In the comic, it's not about Picard altering his reckless youth (like in "Tapestry") -- rather, Q allows Picard to save the life of his brother Claude, who died when he was 6. But the "joke" is on the captain when, in an altered timeline, Claude grows up to be the supreme leader of a darkly fascist Federation.

Oops.

I read "The Gift" 20 years ago, and it flipped my little lid. If "Waypoint" can be half as good, we'll have some classic stories come September.

This week in Bat books

For DC this week, "Batman" continues its strong (but curious) start, and "Justice League" #1 thoroughly impresses.

BATMAN #3. DC. Written by Tim King. Art by David Finch, Matt Banning, David Miki and Jordie Bellaire.

Three chapters into his run on "Batman," I'm convinced that writer Tom King knows what he's doing with the Caped Crusader, and I can get behind the story he's telling--for the most part. My only trepidation stems from my continued belief that Batman should be at least a little skeptical in regard to Gotham and Gotham Girl, two superpowered titans who simply appeared in the city, and in the order in which King is filling in the details on the new heroes. I think this chapter, which told the story of two children growing up enamored with Batman and preoccupied with the desire to help others, would have been better served running in place of #2, but again, I like most of the overall story here -- especially the lingering mystery of how these two otherwise normal individuals were given the ability to fly and super strength. (So far, all we know is that it cost a lot of money.) Perhaps in #4 we'll get some of Batman's trademark distrust, but I'm not exactly holding my breath.

Generalized Unique Emoticon Scientific Score: :-), :-/, -\(deg_deg)/-

BATMAN #3. DC. Written by Tim King. Art by David Finch, Matt Banning, David Miki and Jordie Bellaire.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1. DC. Written by Bryan Hitch. Art by Tony Salvador Daniel, Sandu Florea and Tomeu Morey.

In a befuddling twist, "Justice League" #1 told more or less the same story as "Justice League: Rebirth," and yet the former managed to be as epic, engaging and enjoyably breathless as the latter was forgettable. Maybe it was the Lois and Clark "Rebirth" interludes that the broke up the action, or perhaps it was the consequence-free conceit of the relaunch storytelling structure -- whatever it was, this was simply a better, more interesting look at a world in peril and the League's attempts to do as much good for as many people as possible. With the new Supes more or less on his own, everyone else (save Batman, really) had a moment to shine, including Flash, the new Lanterns, Cyborg and Wonder Woman. After "Rebirth," I could have taken or left the League's exploits, but this solid #1 has me rethinking that position.

GUESS: (0 0), ("."), :-)

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1. DC. Written by Bryan Hitch. Art by Tony Salvador Daniel, Sandu Florea and Tomeu Morey.

This week in Marvel

The Civil War is in another one of its lulls this week with only a few ongoing series tie-ins to hold us over to next week's installments of "Civil War II" (which I hope will be better than the last one) and "Civil War II: Choosing Sides." Yet there's one Marvel book out this week that's more than worth your time.

SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL #7. Marvel. Written by Gerry Duggan. Art by Scott Koblish.

The "lost inventory issue" premise of "Spider-Man/Deadpool" #7 isn't exactly new (writer Duggan deployed it for several issues on his "Deadpool" run with co-writer and comedian Brian Posehn that were specially collected for a "Flashbacks" trade) but that doesn't make it any less funny or enjoyable. The main idea here is that #7 is a faux issue from the 1960s (specifically from 1968) that details Spider-Man and Deadpool's exploits at that year's notoriously violent Democratic National Convention. Of course, it's really just an excuse to deploy a bunch of Donald Trump jokes and play with the retro art style, but again, just because the jokes are easy doesn't make this any less fun. It's not anything you're going to brood upon or even think twice about once you're done, but in the moment, it was absolutely a pleasure to read.

GUESS: X-D, :-P, *5

SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL #7. Marvel. Written by Gerry Duggan. Art by Scott Koblish.

Other new and notable books of the week

SOMBRA #1. Boom!. Written by Justin Jordan. Art by Raul Trevino.

What if you took the geopolitical nightmare of the Mexican drug trade and mixed it with the power and seduction of "Heart of Darkness"/"Apocalypse Now"? Then you'd pretty much wind up with "Sombra," a compelling new miniseries from Boom! that touches on all sorts of interesting themes. Lead protagonist Danielle is a DEA agent who's desperate to go after Conrad Marlowe, a rogue agent now fighting his own demented, gruesome war against the cartels. And if that wasn't complicated enough, Marlowe just happens to be Danielle's father. This first issue doesn't do much more than introduce all the players, but it's certainly intriguing enough to pick up and continue.

GUESS: (#_#), :&, :-O

SOMBRA #1. Boom!. Written by Justin Jordan. Art by Raul Trevino.

LUCAS STAND #2. Boom!. Written by Kurt Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge. Art by Jesus Hervas.

A third of the way into its six-issue run, "Lucas Stand" is a riveting mix of time travel and the occult while also examining a deeply-flawed protagonist who kicks ass as easily as he makes bad decisions. The premise, laid out in last month's #1, is that Stand is a career soldier who came back from Afghanistan a physical and emotional wreck and uses alcohol and drugs to cope. But when his altered state causes the death of an innocent family, he commits suicide -- only to find himself drafted into a war against the Tempters, demons who prey upon humanity and seek to upset Hell's status quo. In this issue, Stand both learns the true nature of his new job (hint: turns out it's not exactly a "Heaven vs. Hell" kinda thing) and finishes up his first mission in World War II-era occupied France. I dig the idea -- to borrow the gimmick from the last review, this is like "Quantum Leap" with a healthy dose of "Spawn" -- and the dark, gritty art is a perfect tonal match to the book. With #3 off to Deadwood and the Old West, this is a series to read.

GUESS: :-OOOO, }:-), *fire emoji*

LUCAS STAND #2. Boom!. Written by Kurt Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge. Art by Jesus Hervas.

Something to look out for

With the San Diego Comic Con this week, every publisher seems to be announcing something or other, but there are few projects that have me as interested as "Warlords of Appalachia," a new dystopian/post-apocalyptic-ish miniseries from Boom! Studios set in the aftermath of the Second U.S. Civil War. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson (who has experience in the "depressing future" genre after his first miniseries "Last Sons of America"), the story, as reported by Bleeding Cool, will feature a former National Guard medic and MMA fighter who's pressed into service as the first feudal warlord of Kentucky (which doesn't recognize the authority of the U.S. government) after his son is taken by forces commanded by the U.S. president.

Sounds bleak as hell. I'm all over it.

Picks for next week

"Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps" #1, "Nightwing" #1, "Hot Damn" #4, "Mechanism" #1, "Civil War II" #4, "Civil War II: Choosing Sides" #3, "Captain America: Steve Rogers" #3, "Crossed: Badlands" #100
Authorities have released the name of a man killed early this morning in a hail of gunfire at a Birmingham intersection.

Birmingham police identified the victim as Terrance Killings Kidd, 25. He was one of two men shot inside a vehicle at the corner of 12th Street and Graymont Avenue West. Kidd previously spent three years in prison for shooting a man in 2009 while that man was riding in a vehicle, court records show.

In today's incident, Kidd was a passenger in a sedan that was fired on about 4 a.m. Police say the victims were driving westbound when they got to a traffic light at the intersection. A vehicle pulled up beside them, likely on the passenger's side, and opened fire. Roughly 10 shots were fired, and the vehicle sped away.

Kidd was pronounced dead on the scene, still in the vehicle's passenger's seat. The driver, whose name hasn't been released, ran at least a block for help. Paramedics responded to his location and took him to UAB Hospital. Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said that victim is listed in stable condition.

Police said they were able to speak briefly with the surviving victim, but said he wasn't able to provide any suspect information. A motive wasn't immediately clear. "This incident does not appear to be a random shooting,'' Edwards said.

Kidd lived in Birmingham's New Hill community. Court records show he was convicted in 2009, when he was just 18, of first-degree assault in the shooting of another man on Interstate 65 North at the Interstate 59 interchange. The victim in that case, who survived, was also shot while riding in a vehicle.

Kidd was sentenced to 10 years in prison with three to serve.

Kidd is Birmingham's 55th homicide this year. Of those, five have been ruled justifiable and and therefore are not deemed criminal. Additionally, two of the deaths were police-involved shootings from outside agencies: Shelby County Sheriff's Office and Irondale Police Department.

The last homicide in the Birmingham was 18 days ago, when Tim Cooks was killed outside of a west Birmingham convenience store just hours after funeral of his cousin, also a murder victim.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 80 homicides in 2016.
The judge who chairs the Jefferson County advisory committee over the office to provide legal services to poor criminal defendants hopes a new public defender can be named by Labor Day.

"That office needs to be under stable management," said Presiding Jefferson County Circuit Judge Joseph Boohaker, who also chairs the county's indigent services advisory committee.

The job of leading the Jefferson County Public Defender office - or Community Law Office - is now open after the departure Thursday of Kira Fonteneau, the former director of the office. Fonteneau said she was terminated, while the state's acting finance director said she resigned.

Fonteneau and the officials in Montgomery would not discuss the reasons behind her departure. But the advisory committee, in a statement earlier this week said there was a dispute between Fonteneau and her appointing authority, the Office of Indigent Services, "over the best means of managing and administering the Public Defender's Office and the funds made available to it through the Alabama Department of Finance, the Fair Trial Tax Fund and the General Fund of the State."

Boohaker said that he had notified the four other members of the advisory committee on Friday morning that Fonteneau was no longer there and that they needed to meet in the next seven to 10 business days to develop the process for recommending who will take Fonteneau's place.

Boohaker said the process the committee will likely follow is this:

The job will be advertised with a cutoff date for applications

Applicants will be vetted

One candidate will be nominated for the job to the state's director of indigent services, Chris Roberts

Roberts is not required to follow the committee's recommendation, but probably would, Boohaker said.

By Friday morning, less than a day after Fonteneau's departure, he had been contacted by about six attorneys interested in the job, Boohaker said.

The person selected would fill the remainder of Fonteneau's current three-year term, Boohaker said. She had been approved for a second three-year term in October, he said.

Jefferson County created a public defender's office in 2012 and hired Fonteneau as its first director. Prior to that date, all poor criminal defendants were assigned private practice attorneys, who were reimbursed by the state for their work.

The plan was for the public defender's office to take all indigent cases, except for those in which conflicts arose. However, some judges have kept appointing private attorneys, particularly on serious felony cases such as murder and capital murder, because they did not feel the assistant public defenders were qualified to handle the cases.
Kira Fonteneau, the first director of the Jefferson County Public Defender's Office in Birmingham, has departed her job, AL.com confirmed Thursday.

But did she resign or was she fired?

The Office of Indigent Services has refused over the past week to take calls from The Birmingham News and Al.com regarding Fonteneau. Employees referred calls to Alabama State Finance Director Bill Newton, who stated Thursday that "she has resigned from her state position."

Newton declined comment on the reasons for Fonteneau's departure.

Fonteneau, however, in an email to AL.com on Thursday states she was fired but she did not cite the reasons for her termination. When asked about it, her attorney also stated Thursday that they would have no further comment.

"I am deeply saddened by the Director of Indigent Defense Services' (Chris Roberts) decision to terminate my employment," Fonteneau stated in the email to Al.com. "When I accepted the position of Jefferson County Public Defender in December of 2012, I did so with the understanding that transitioning from a purely appointed system to a public defender system would be difficult for members of the private bar and to some extent, the judiciary."

"Establishing a public defender system necessarily reduced appointments available for private attorneys who depend on such work, and that transition no doubt engendered discontent among some," Fonteneau stated. "However, from the very beginning, I understood that my duty as a lawyer, and as the Jefferson County Public Defender was to safeguard the interests of the nearly 5,000 people each year charged with crimes who do not have the means to pay for counsel."

"Then, as now, my primary goal has been to provide the highest quality defense to each and every client we served," Fonteneau stated. "To that end, I presented the local board with a plan for our office and set about turning it into reality."

Questions about the status of Fonteneau's employment had been swirling for more than a week.

A statement issued Monday by the Jefferson County advisory committee for indigent services stated there was a dispute between Fonteneau and her appointing authority, the Office of Indigent Services, "over the best means of managing and administering the Public Defender's Office and the funds made available to it through the Alabama Department of Finance, the Fair Trial Tax Fund and the General Fund of the State."

The five-member committee, however, did not provide details of that dispute.

A few issues have also arisen concerning the office in the past year. More than a half dozen attorneys and staff have left. And in several cases public defenders have been removed from cases, or were never appointed in the first place, by judges.

For example, in a recent theft by deception case a judge appointed a private attorney to represent the defendant who was without funds. "It also is this Court's opinion that the Office of the Public Defender/Community Law Office does not have enough qualified attorneys to adequately represent this defendant on this charge," the judge stated in the order.

The public defender's office also was removed in October from a case after a motion by prosecutors in the case of Aubrey Williams, who is charged with attempted murder of two Birmingham police officers. Authorities declined at the time to say why the office was replaced with a private defense attorney.

In her email to Al.com Fonteneau also stated that the Community Law Office - as the public defenders' office is known - accomplished much of what it set out to do. "During the last three and a half years, my team and I worked tirelessly to level the playing field for poor people who were charged with crimes in Jefferson County. To do that, we sought the help of many of the leading voices in indigent defense from across the country."

"We also hired talented people, with degrees from institutions like the University of Alabama, Harvard, Yale, Cumberland, and the University of Virginia, who fight vigorously for our clients," Fonteneau stated.

The fact that Fonteneau had hired young lawyers with educations from outside Alabama had privately been a point of contention among some local attorneys.

"I am pleased to say that during the first two years of the office, those talented people were able to achieve dismissals in 20% of the cases in which we were appointed and acquittals, mistrials, and not guilty verdicts in 66% of the cases that went to jury trial," Fonteneau stated. "My departure, even under these circumstances, should not distract from the quality work that they have done on behalf of the poorest of our fellow citizens."

Fonteneau stated there were other accomplishments under her tenure in her statement.

"As we set up the office, I saw the need to address some of the practices that impacted our clients negatively. After three years of advocacy and the help of the Sixth Amendment Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, we were able to reach an agreement that ensures that all people who are detained have an opportunity to get a bail hearing within 72 hours of arrest. We made our office telephone line a free call so that people who were in jail could call a lawyer if they did not get a hearing in a timely fashion. This simple act helped us to discover and secure the release of several people who were lost in the jail for months without counsel or hearings. We argued that the defense should be given the same opportunity to view the list of prospective jurors as the prosecutors, who are getting a copy directly from the courts for use in jury selection. We became the first Public Defender office in the state to bring on a criminal-immigration attorney to ensure that our clients had legal advice that took into account all of the potential collateral consequences of convictions. We also provided our lawyers and other lawyers from all over the state more than 100 hours of Continuing Legal Education during the last three years, more than three times the amount required by the Alabama State Bar.

"In addition, we built relationships to try to better our clients' lives. To that end, our office helped hundreds of people get into substance abuse and mental health treatment so that they could address the underlying needs that sometimes cause people to be involved in the criminal justice system. We also helped many others get access to employment, identification and other benefits so that they would be better able to disentangle themselves from the criminal justice system. I am proud of the accomplishments of our office and profoundly saddened by the Director's decision. As I move forward, I can only hope that the hard working people of the CLO are allowed to continue ensuring that poor people in Jefferson County can meet the considerable power of the state with a vigorous and effective defense."

The committee also reaffirmed in the statement that the Community Law Office will "continue in operation as the primary means for delivering legal representation to indigent defendants in the criminal justice system."

The committee also stated that the current director - Fonteneau - "is an excellent attorney, dedicated to providing legal representation to the indigent defendants in the Birmingham Division of this circuit and has done so to the best of her ability."

Fonteneau's contract had been renewed last October for another three years.
Robertson.jpg

Birmingham businessman William Robertson was killed and two others injured when they were cycling in Blount County in August 2015. (Special to AL.com)

A man who crashed into three cyclists almost a year ago - killing one of them - when he reached for a pack of cigarettes has now been indicted.

A Blount County grand jury indicted Nathan Oliver Brown, 34, on one count of criminally negligent homicide and two counts of third-degree assault. The indictments were issued in April, and made public this week. Criminally negligent homicide is a Class A misdemeanor.

The crash happened Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015, on Alabama 75 about four miles south of Oneonta. Well-known Birmingham contractor William Robertson, 57, was killed. Injured were 52-year-old Demetrius White and 52-year-old Tracey White, both of whom were airlifted to UAB but survived.

Authorities have said Brown was driving a pickup truck when he took his eyes off the road momentarily to retrieve his cigarettes.

Robertson was a prominent businessman, and as a contractor had recently worked on the Negro Southern League Museum and the Westin in Birmingham's Uptown area. All three of the cyclists were members of a local group called Black People Run Bike and Swim.

Robertson's wife in March filed a wrongful death suit against Brown. That suit claims that "negligent or wanton conduct" caused Roberson's death. The suit seeks punitive damages.
A toddler girl left in a hot car for up to four hours Thursday remains in the Intensive Care Unit at Children's of Alabama.

"Last night was extremely challenging for the baby girl but she is a fighter,'' said Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards, who visited the parents at the hospital this morning. "I spoke with both parents and they are experiencing a lot of emotion right now. The lobby was filled with family and friends so it appears they have a great support system."

Birmingham police and fire officials said the 1-year-old girl was found unconscious after noon Thursday at her father's business in the 2400 block of First Avenue South. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the girl's father had already pulled her from the car and was holding her. Authorities asked him what happened and he replied, "I left my baby in the car.''

Edwards has previous said it appears the father dropped the mother off at work and then went on to his office, where the baby was left in the car seat until she was found hours later. The girl was in a rear-facing car seat in the back seat of the Volkswagen Jetta. The front passenger's window was rolled down.

The father was questioned at Birmingham police headquarters Thursday, but Edwards said it doesn't appear any charges will be filed. Efforts to reach Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls were unsuccessful. Authorities have not identified the family.

"Accidents do happen, but absolutely it's a serious matter," Edwards said.

The National Weather Service in Birmingham issued a heat advisory for part of central Alabama on Thursday, saying that the heat index could hit 105-107.

There have already been 19 heatstroke deaths of children in hot vehicles this year, including one in Monroeville, AL on April 29th, according to Jan Null, a certified consulting meteorologist at San Jose State University. Last year, there were a total of 24 juvenile vehicular hyperthermia deaths nationwide, though none were in Alabama, she said. Since 1998 at least 680 infants and children have died in hot vehicles in the United States and 14 have been in Alabama.

With an outside air temperature in the mid-90s, the inside air temperature of the car could have been in excess of 140 degrees. Objects or a person inside the car in direct sunlight would have been significantly hotter.
A downtown Decatur business owner was denied bail Thursday in the shooting death of a Army veteran, according to court documents.

Scott Dutton, 33, was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly killing Josh McLemore, 27, on June 21. Investigators said there was an argument between the two men over a woman at Dutton's home in southwest Decatur. Dutton then shot at McLemore's feet before shooting him in the stomach, investigators said.

Dutton has been in Morgan County Jail on no bail since his arrest.
At last night's Huntsville school board meeting, Eddgra Fallin was removed by school officials and police after she began livestreaming the meeting on Facebook with her phone.

The video has since been viewed nearly 5,000 times on Facebook.

"As I indicated last night, I was not violating any written rules, nor did I violate any law," said Fallin this morning. "The board room was practically empty. Prior to me being kicked out, aisles were full of people taking pictures and video of the college academy presentation and they were invited and encouraged to do so."

The citizen comments portion of the public meeting had just started and three citizens, including Fallin, were scheduled to speak, she said.

In the video, the first speaker, a representative from the Von Braun Astronomical Society, begins to talk about an upcoming event when Huntsville City Schools officials, including security officers and district spokesman Keith Ward ask Fallin to sit down, and then leave.

"I am not doing anything," Fallin tells them. "No, I don't want to have a seat. Do I have to sit down, officer?"

Security officers and eventually at least two members of the Huntsville Police Department escort Fallin out of the room.

Fallin said she feels her civil rights were violated. "It's a public meeting. The Open Meetings law allows for meetings to be recorded."

Fallin is a member of Huntsville United, a grassroots organization that focuses its attention on Huntsville City Schools. Huntsville United members have been videoing or live streaming the citizen comments at each of the past three board meetings as a "public service," said Fallin. While the school board meetings are recorded and broadcast on a local access channel as well as streamed online, the cameras are turned off before the citizen comment time at the end of each meeting.

Scott Seeley, a member of Huntsville United, said he recorded citizen comments at a meeting a few weeks ago with no trouble. Members of the group post the videos to the Huntsville United Facebook page so that people who were unable to attend the meeting can see what was said.

Schools spokesman Keith Ward, who is the first official who appears in Fallin's video, said he came down from the board room's media control booth to ask Fallin to sit.

"I had gone out to say, 'You can tape but you need to sit down,'" he said. "I was whispering to her, trying to be discreet about it. I asked her twice; she simply refused to do so. Then security came in and asked her to sit down; she still refused to comply. At that point is when she was asked to leave."

Board President Laurie McCaulley had stepped out of the room to take care of personal business just before the citizen comments began, so she missed the commotion.

However, she was adamant that anybody is allowed to video at meetings.

"We do not tell them they cannot record," said McCaulley, who said she had seen the video and spoken with those who were in the room. "What they said to (Fallin) was that she must stay in her seat and record. Eddgra refused to sit down."

Fallin has a history as a vocal critic of Huntsville City Schools. In the late 1990s, she began pushing for racial quotas to be loosened at the city's court-ordered magnet schools. In the early 2000s, she battled the school system over cheerleader selection methods and threatened the school board with legal action after her daughter's poem was withheld from Lee High School's literary magazine because it contained controversial wording regarding race relations. She ran for a seat on the school board in 2004.

Earlier this week she testified at a hearing in the longstanding federal desegregation case against Huntsville City Schools. At the hearing she spoke about an incident on July 15, when she videoed school board candidate Pam Hill being removed from a press conference held by the Desegregation Advisory Committee to refute claims the DAC are "servants" of the superintendent.

"This is them attempting to put me in my place and in retaliation for my testimony in the federal deseg case on Monday," she said. "This is not the first time they have tried to kick me off of school property."

This also isn't the first time a citizen has been removed from a Huntsville school board meeting after filming a meeting. In 2012, a school district security officer stopped a parent and local education blogger from recording video at a board meeting with his iPad.

Fallin maintains she was not violating the law or school board policy regarding her behavior. Being removed from the meeting also meant she did not get to deliver her prepared comment, which was about the renaming of Johnson High School.

"I cannot believe this is the United States of America," she said. "(At the meeting) they spent over an hour talking about the behavioral learning guide, which outlines consequences for students when they violate the law or break policy. But who's going to hold them responsible when they violate the law and break policy? What happens when the adults aren't being held responsible?"

Fallin said she is "exploring options" regarding her reaction to last night's incident.

"I do intend to do something because this is not acceptable," she said. "This time it's me; next time it'll be somebody else."
craig ford.JPG

State Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, said he would pre-file two lottery bills for any special session called by the governor or next year's regular session.

( )

The leader of the Democratic minority in the Alabama House of Representatives said he will pre-file two lottery bills in anticipation of a special legislative session and for the 2017 regular session.

State Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, said one bill would propose a lottery only, while the other would propose both a lottery and casino gambling.

Under both proposals, all the lottery revenue would go to the education budget for scholarships for public universities and community colleges.

Any student admitted to a public college or university would be eligible for the scholarships, which would fund only the first two years of college.

To legalize a lottery or casino gambling, the Legislature would have to pass a proposed constitutional amendment by a three-fifths vote in the House and the Senate.

That would put the issue on the ballot for voters statewide.

Ford has proposed lottery bills for years but they have not advanced in the Republican-led House.

Gov. Robert Bentley has said he is considering calling a special session later this summer or fall to address the state General Fund and funding for Medicaid.

Ford said voters would not support a lottery for the General Fund.
A Troy man was sentenced on Thursday to 17 1/2 years in federal prison for receipt of child pornography.

Douglas Edward Hale, 39, pleaded guilty on the charge on March 11, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

Federal prosecutors say Hale had a collection of child pornography that contained images of child sexual abuse.

The images were sent to him by a victim that Hale knew was under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Hale reportedly requested the images despite knowing the victim's age.

Following his release from prison, Hale will be on supervised probation for the rest of his life.

Hale is currently in federal custody of the United States Marshals Service pending placement by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
convention

California delegates cheer during the second day session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Tuesday, July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Danny Cords of Seattle was only 14 when his parents enrolled him in three years of gay conversion therapy, seeking to tame his homosexual urges with Bible verses, a pocket cross and a motto that reminded him that "all things are possible through Christ."

He also kept a rock in his shoe, stepping on it as he walked to school, with the pain aimed at removing any temptation to have sex with a man and "not to think about gay things."

"None of it worked, not even for a second. ... We all should be ashamed that it's legal," said Cords, who's now 29 and says he's happily married to a man.

While gay conversion therapy for minors has been banned in five states and in Washington, D.C., backing for the practice is alive and well, with gay rights advocates accusing Republicans of endorsing the idea at their party's national convention in Cleveland.

On Monday, delegates voted to approve a platform that backs the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. The platform makes no specific mention of gay conversion therapy, but critics say that passage is aimed at accepting the notion that one's sexual orientation can be changed.

Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest GOP organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender conservatives, said he was "mad as hell" over the platform, calling gay conversion therapy a debunked psychological practice to "pray the gay away."

Of the five states that have banned gay conversion therapy, California went first, in 2012. Since then, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont have followed suit, along with New Jersey, where Republican Gov. Chris Christie backed the prohibition.

In Washington state, a bill to ban the practice, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Marko Liias of Lynnwood, failed last year.

Supporters say that gay conversion therapy works.

"It is possible to minimize sexual response to others of the same sex and maximize sexual response to the opposite sex, and if that's what you want to do you should be absolutely free to do it," said Rich Wyler, founder and director of People Can Change, a Virginia-based organization that offers support to men who want to "transition away from unwanted homosexuality."

Wyler said it would be "absurd and unconstitutional" not to allow "straight-affirming therapy," since there's no proof that it's harmful: "I know from firsthand experience that I've benefited greatly from it and I know hundreds of men who would say likewise."

Gay rights supporters note that one prominent Republican who appeared to back gay conversion therapy in 2000 was Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. That's based on a statement from his website, where Pence said that money for an HIV/AIDS program should also to go organizations that wanted to help people change their sexual behavior.

Pence's selection as Donald Trump's running mate, combined with what Angelo calls "the most anti-LGBT platform" in the 162-year history of the GOP Party, assures that gay rights will be an explosive issue in the 2016 election.

On Capitol Hill, two Washington state Democrats, Rep. Suzan DelBene and Sen. Patty Murray, are pushing bills that would crack down on advertising for gay conversion therapy. They want to classify it as fraudulent under the Federal Trade Communication Act.

President Barack Obama called for an end to gay conversion therapy last year after Leelah Alcorn, a transgender 17-year-old from Ohio, killed herself by jumping in front of a tractor-trailer. She left a note saying that religious therapists tried to make her go back to being a boy.

Both the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association oppose conversion therapy, saying it's based on the idea that homosexuality is a disorder and can harm patients.

The GOP platform ignited an immediate firestorm among Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. On Twitter, she called it "disgusting" that Republicans want to overturn gay marriage and back gay conversion therapy.

With Republicans seeking to avoid divisive social issues at their convention, party Chairman Reince Priebus told The Associated Press that conversion therapy was "not in the platform."

Technically, he's correct: The plank says only that "we support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children."

But Angelo isn't buying it.

"Look, I saw the plank as it was drafted -- you have some eyewitness testimony here," he said. "I don't think it's an accident: The only movement we have had in this country over the last two to three years to ban any sort of therapy for minors is specifically and exclusively about conversion therapy."

Meanwhile, Cords, who grew up in Renton, Wash., has forgiven his parents, saying they acted out of ignorance and fear by sending him to gay conversion therapy. He said "it was really scary for them" when he decided to come out of the closet at such a young age.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Cords said. "I don't hold this against them."

Cords said he tried hard to change in therapy but that he only learned that he was "utterly repulsive to God" and to other people.

"I wanted this to go away -- I prayed," he said. "But overcoming it meant having successful intercourse with a woman. As crass as that sounds, there's no other way to spin it -- that's their goal, to get you married and have babies. ... It tore my life apart."

Cords said he ran away from home at age 17 and that his life turned around only after he tried to kill himself and then found support from other gay people.

He said it's good that Republicans have chosen to put a national spotlight on the issue, calling it the "silver lining in a crap storm" that could lead to more public debate.

"There's a blessing in that people are going to get educated now with what this is," Cords said. "I hope they really tune in. ... Why are we allowing this to happen?"

Article by McClatchy Washington Bureau. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A Chicago police officer was wounded and a suspect is dead following a shooting in the Near South Side area of the city on Thursday, Chicago Tribune reported.

Police said the officer, who is a 17-year veteran of the force, will recover from the gunshot wound in the leg.

Authorities said the officer, who was assigned to bike patrol, was shot by a person who was "acting erratically" at a park Thursday night, according to a 911 caller.

Officers responded to the scene to find the suspect on his cell phone. When the officers told him to get off the phone, the suspect reached in his backpack for a gun and started firing at the officers. The officers shot back and hit the suspect.

The officer shot taken to the hospital by his fellow officers.

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the suspect was killed in the crossfire.

"People like to second-guess, but these officers have a split second to decide whether to use deadly force," Johnson said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited the injured officer in the hospital. He later released a statement after the shooting, saying the officer is "an example the courageous and selfless men and women in the Chicago Police Department who do difficult and dangerous work every day, often with little fanfare."

"Amy and I are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery, and our thoughts are with the officer's family, friends, and his fellow brave men and women in uniform," the statement continued.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will announce Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate tomorrow, according to reports.

The announcement is expected during a Clinton campaign stop in Florida.

Kaine, 58, is a Harvard-trained attorney who is the former mayor of Richmond, Va. and the state's former lieutenant governor. He was elected governor of Virginia in 2005 and then as the 51st chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012 to replace retiring incumbent Jim Webb.

Kaine serves on the Armed Services, Budget and Foreign Relations committees.

On Thursday, Kaine took to Twitter to blast Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Trump chose to fill #RNCinCLE with rhetoric that tears us apart, instead of plans that would bring us together #BetterThanThis  Tim Kaine (@timkaine) July 22, 2016

Kaine is one of two names to emerge as the leading VP candidates among Democrats, with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also a finalist. Other reports said Clinton was also considering Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker or Sherrod Brown.

The Democratic National Convention is planned for July 25-28 in Philadelphia. Clinton is scheduled to speak on the convention's closing night.
More than 10 million Americans receive Social Security disability, with recipients including disabled workers, some widows and widowers and other qualifying adults.

In all, Social Security Disability Insurance payments total more than $11.4 billion per month nationwide.

The number of disability beneficiaries varies from state to state, as 24/7 Wall Street found during a recent analysis of the most recent data. West Virginia has the highest rate of beneficiaries in the nation, at 8.9 percent of working age residents (people age 18-64.)

Alabama came in at number two on the list.

According to the figures, 8.5 percent of those living in Alabama receive disability benefits, with total monthly payments of $294 million.

Here's the top 10 states where the greatest number of people receive disability payments:

West Virginia - 8.9 percent Alabama - 8.5 percent Arkansas - 8.5 percent Kentucky - 8.2 percent Mississippi - 7.9 percent Maine - 7.7 percent Tennessee -6.7 percent Missouri - 6.4 percent South Carolina - 6.4 percent Michigan - 6.3 percent

You can compare those figures to the two states with the lowest disability rates - Hawaii and Alaska - each at 2.8 percent.

Welcome to Friday's Wake Up Call. Let's see what's going on:

An era is over...

The last-known maker of VHS video cassette recorder is ending production.

Funai Electric, a Japanese consumer electronics company, said it will no longer produce VHS VCRs after the end of July. The company cited declining sales and difficulty in obtaining parts.

The company's VCRs were sold under the Sanyo brand in the U.S.

At its peak, Funai Electric sold as many as 15 million VCRs per year. Last year, that number topped out at 750,000.

Trump delegate gets booted for posting racial slur

A Trump delegate from Chicago has had her credentials stripped by the Illinois Republican party after she posted a racial slur on social media.

Lori Gayne, a mortgage banker, was in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention when she posed with police officers. She captured the photo "Our brave snipers just waiting for some "n---- to try something. Love them."

She later apologized for the statement.

The chairman of the Illinois GOP said Gayne's credential have been revoked and the party has "zero tolerance" for racism and threats.

Chemical weapon left in Walmart

A man Los Angeles man faces criminal charges after police said he brought a chemical weapon to Walmart.

Martin Reyes brought a chemical weapon that was capable of creating a dangerous gas to the store on June 18. The store was evacuated for about six hours while a hazmat crew secured the scene.

Reyes, who was being held in jail on unrelated charges, now faces additional charges of unlawful possession and manufacturing of a chemical weapon of mass destruction.

Reyes said he learned to make the device on the internet.

Trump raises $3.5 million in 24 hours

The last 24 hours were good for Donald Trump.

The Trump campaign raised $3.5 million in online donations in the last day. The donations came as Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, delivered his address to GOP delegates in Cleveland.

The campaign said it gained more than 750,000 new donors since the start of its online funding campaign 30 days ago.

Until tomorrow.
Jim Zeigler with Doyle Fuller and Susan Copeland.jpg

State Auditor Jim Zeigler, seated, with attorneys Doyle Fuller and Susan Copeland at a news conference in Zeigler's office on Friday, July 22, 2016.

(Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)

State Auditor Jim Zeigler has filed a lawsuit seeking to void a state contract for a financial software system, alleging it was not done in compliance with the competitive bid law.

The system, called the State of Alabama Accounting and Resource System, STAARS, has run into problems during its implementation.

The lawsuit, however, is not about the performance of the system, but the way it was sold to the state, said Doyle Fuller, an attorney who filed the case for Ziegler.

Zeigler sued in his official capacity and is asking the court to make the case a class action on behalf of Alabama taxpayers. The case was filed Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Defendants include Gov. Robert Bentley, Finance Director Bill Newton, Attorney General Luther Strange and the contractor, CGI Technology and Solutions, Inc., a Virginia corporation.

The lawsuit alleges that the state awarded the contract for STAARS by amending a 1982 contract and without using competitive bids.

According to the lawsuit, that contract had expired in 1997.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the contract and amendments void and to order the governor and Finance Department to rescind them.

Newton said today the Finance Department would defend its position in court, as with any lawsuit, and declined any further comment.

On Thursday, Newton said problems reported about the implementation of STAARS have been fixed and that the system is on schedule for full implementation and will be a major upgrade to the state's financial transaction systems.

Susan Copeland, an attorney for Zeigler, said part of the argument in the lawsuit is that STAARS is not an upgrade to an old system but an entirely new system. The lawsuit quotes a section from "frequently asked questions" on the STAARS website that describes STAARS as a "new state-wide software platform."

Zeigler said STAARS also continues to have operational problems, saying it has reached "a new level of dysfunction."

On Wednesday, Zeigler said the State Board of Adjustment tentatively approved three payments from one state agency to another because STAARS could not process the transactions.

The BOA is a panel set up to hear claims against state agencies because they cannot be sued.

Yasamie August, spokeswoman for Bentley, released a statement today about STAARS, saying that problems with paying vendors on time and other issues that surfaced in adjusting to the new software last fall have been fixed.

"The issues encountered that prevented payments from processing timely were resolved months ago, and there are no processing backlogs causing delayed payments today," August said in the statement. "With the new system, payments can now process faster than prior to implementing STAARS."

The state has used STAARS to make more than 475,000 payments to more than 31,000 vendors and to successfully process 1.6 million financial transactions, she said.

Zeigler said taxpayers are not paying for the lawsuit. Fuller said he paid the filing fee. The lawsuit asks the court to award "attorney fees and costs as may be appropriate."

Updated at 5:23 p.m. to add statement from Gov. Bentley's office. Edited at 7:56 p.m. on July 23 to correct sentence about Board of Adjustment to say that it was set up because state agencies cannot be sued.


An Oklahoma police officer shot and killed a family dog with a high-powered rifle while serving a warrant, according to a report.

It all happened while Eli, who called the dog his best friend, was celebrating his fifth birthday with cake and ice cream, Fox 25 reported.

Children ran out of the Wynnewood, Okla. home after hearing gunshots. They found Opie, a 3-year-old American bulldog and Pitbull mix, kicking and gasping for air.

Dog owner Vickie Malone told the news station that the police officer, who fired several shots in front of the children, told her the dog had lunged at him.

"I respect what the police do, but this was senseless, but he didn't show any remorse and didn't even act like he was sorry or anything," Malone told Fox 25.

Wynnewood Police Chief Ken Moore said the officer reported that the dog was vicious and attacked him. He said the officer tried to kick him off before firing his weapon.

The officer was reportedly on the property in an attempt to serve a warrant on a previous occupant of the residence.

Eli said he misses Opie and made a wooden cross for his grave.
A second former University of Mississippi student was sentenced on Thursday for tying a noose and Confederate flag around the neck of a statute of the school's first black student.

Austin Reed Edenfield, of Kennesaw, Ga., was sentenced to 12 months probation and 50 hours of community service, the Oxford Eagle reported. He was also ordered to obtain substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Edenfield pleaded guilty on March 24 to one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees because of their race or color.

Another defendant, Graeme Phillip Harris, pleaded guilty to the same charge in June 2015 and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Prosecutors recommended probation for Edenfield because he cooperated in the investigation and admitted to tying the noose that ended up around the neck of the Ole Miss statue of James Meredith in February 2014. A former Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem was also placed on the statute.

Edenfield, Harris and a third man, who wasn't charged, came up with the plan during a night of drinking at the Sigma Phil Epsilon fraternity house. Harris was accused of expressing ill will against black people and said the act would cause a sensation: "It's James Meredith, people will go crazy."

Meredith, a Civil Rights activist, sought legally to become the first black student admitted to Ole Miss. He was admitted in 1962 amid rioting that was suppressed by federal troops.

All three students withdrew from Ole Miss, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity closed its chapter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Residents of a small Colorado town near Denver were told not to drink the water because of THC contamination, CNN reported.

THC is one of the main chemicals in cannabis that produces the high.

The 730 residents of Hugo, located 100 miles from Denver, received a 911 call about the issue.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office was alerted about the problem and bottled water is coming to the town.

Colorado allows the recreational use of marijuana. The sheriff's office said there has not been any symptoms in the residents so far.
convention

California delegates cheer during the second day session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Tuesday, July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Winners and losers from the final night of the Republican National Convention...

Winners

Presidential moment: No name calling - no Little Marco, no Lyin' Ted, not even a Crooked Hillary - and no rambling stream of consciousness. Donald Trump's acceptance speech had a presidential moment, albeit it one he stretched into a speech that lasted 1 hours, 15 minutes.

He was less the showman, less the television reality star and more focused on the issues facing the country. Instead, he presented his case for president in a coherent, organized presentation.

It was not the Trump that stormed around the country during the primary season. Whether this can be an interpretation of what a Trump presidential persona can be remains, of course, to be seen.

Trump for president: Forget Donald. We're talking about Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany - Trump's children who spoke throughout the convention.

Ivanka introduced her father - repeatedly referring to her dad, in a somewhat odd way, as "Donald Trump" - and dazzled the audience just as her siblings did on previous nights.

"When my father says he will make America great again, he will deliver," Ivanka said.

Love The Donald or hate him, his kids certainly impressed.

LGBTQ rights: Trump made promises about just about everything in the speech (see more about that below) but he gave what appeared to be a sincere endorsement for LGBTQ rights.

Trump referred to the massacre earlier this summer at the Orlando night club that catered to a gay clientele.

"Forty-nine wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by Islamic terrorist," he said. "This time the terrorists targeted the LGBTQ community - no good and we're going to stop it. I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens form violence and oppressions of hateful foreign ideology. Believe me."

The audience at the convention responded with a lengthy ovation.

"As a Republican, it is so nice to hear you doing that for what I just said," Trump said. "Thank you."

Peter Thiel, an openly gay Silicon Valley millionaire, was among the speakers in the lineup before the Trump grand finale.

"I am proud to be gay," he said. "I am proud to be a republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American."

The thumbs-up: Not since The Fonz in the 1970s has the thumbs-up been so popular. Throughout appearances at the convention, Trump utilized the thumbs-up to acknowledge supporters.

Then Thursday night, delegates in the audience were returning the thumbs-up.

Next up: crew-cuts, leather jackets and jeans.

Losers

Promises, promises: In giving the longest convention acceptance speech in at least 40 years, Trump obviously talked a lot. And made a lot of promises.

Lots and lots of promises.

From replacing and repealing Obamacare to creating "millions and millions of jobs" to even repairing the TSA, there was no doubt a promise uttered by the Republican nominee you wanted to hear.

Now, delivering on all of those promises...

Warm-up acts: There were good speeches (U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn) and some not-so-good (Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin) and historic speeches (Thiel).

Through the good and the not-so-good, it seemed as if it didn't matter. Thursday night was all about Trump and the anticipation of his speech sucked the oxygen out of the room.

It was sort of like a series of opening acts for Springsteen. No one's really listening and all they're thinking is "We want Bruce!"

Plagiarism, Part III: The charges of plagiarism - finally acknowledged a day light by a Trump employee - that maligned Melania Trump's speech on Monday night, had to come to mind instantly after hearing Trump speak these words Thursday:

"We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else."

Hmm...OK. Got it.
Jeremiah Hunter, a former eighth-grade science teacher at Hankins Middle School, has been convicted of federal charges of possessing child pornography.

Hunter was convicted after just 10 minutes of deliberations on Friday. A judge scheduled his sentencing for Oct. 20, when the man could be sent to prison for nearly 20 years.

Hunter was also arrested and charged with second-degree stalking in February when Mobile County Sheriff's deputies executed a search warrant at his Theodore home located on the 6100 block of Magnolia Trace.

However, the state charges were later dropped.

In Hunter's home, officers found a photo of Hunter and the victim beside his bed.

"(The photo) looked like it may have been taken in a school setting," Mobile County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant of Investigations Paul Burch says.

When given a subpoena to seize electronic items from Hunter's home, investigators asked Hunter to provide passcodes for a laptop and phone. The numbers in both codes corresponded to the victim's date of birth, Burch says.

In early March, federal allegations were filed, including an affidavit that detailed Hunter's sexually oriented conversations with a student. Those communications included several explicit photos that depict Hankins Middle School and Theodore High School students, according to the affidavit.

In the affidavit, an FBI agent writes that he visited Hunter and presented him with evidence of the text communications. In that visit, the agent says Hunter identified the minors in the photos and admits to participating in the exchange. The agent also visited the father of one of the students in the photos. During the visit, the father identified his son and allowed the agent to see the bathroom where the photo of his son was taken. The agent matched items in the bathroom with those in the photo.

Efforts to reach Hunter's attorney were not immediately successful.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
black bears at Birmingham Zoo.JPG

Donald Trump prepares for his debate with Hillary Clinton.

(TAMIKA MOORE )

If you're going to wrestle a bear, preparation is a good idea. Let's start with the basics:

Most large bears are stronger than you. They have large teeth, powerful jaws, and sharp claws. You do not. Even the most sensitive bear has a hide thicker than yours. You are likely smarter than the average bear.

Unless intelligence inherently overcomes the ability of a bear to eat your face, you're probably at a serious disadvantage in a confined space.

Hillary Clinton can't avoid wrestling a bear, and he isn't the Vermont teddy bear she just bested. If Clinton's camp were warming her up to the prospect, I imagine the pep talk would sound something like this:

"He hasn't been fed, we're pretty sure he has rabies, and he has absolutely no fear of humans. The good news is that you have a couple of months to get ready."

Wrestling isn't the best way to take out a bear if you have a choice. It's far more efficient to take a shot from a distance or set a series of traps. That's the tactic Clinton wisely prefers.

"Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different -- they are dangerously incoherent," she has said, "They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies."

Her campaign ads are poignant and well constructed. She's turned Trump's miscues into powerfully manicured narratives about his impact on children and our nation's future.

But as much as she'd like to snipe at Trump from a distance, she can't avoid the close encounter any more than Trump's primary victims could.

Clinton is as much a part of America's political establishment as any candidate this cycle. A dynastic network and name certainly didn't do much for Low-energy Jeb Bush. She's tremendously polished in delivering her perspectives. That failed Little Marco Rubio. She has a coherent, albeit liberal, policy agenda for America. The best ideas Lyin' Ted Cruz put together couldn't stop Trump. He made them all look silly. Where? On that debate stage.

All the preparation, all the political skill, all the background about Donald Trump won't amount to much when Clinton is on stage facing a political animal focused on dismantling her.

She's a legacy politician in a nation that's fed up with soft served talking points, sterilized mannerisms, and a sense of political entitlement.

Every political foul committed by Trump or one of his surrogates during the primary has been given the worst spin possible and put through a megaphone. He's combative with the media, he isn't going to apologize, and Trump's negatives are through the roof.

That's all true, much of the criticism is fair, and yet Donald Trump has almost completely erased Clinton's lead in the polls.

Putting her on a debate stage with him isn't going to do her any favors. Even if she's composed, she can't help throwing around her condescending scoff that doesn't settle well with voters. More importantly, she'll come across as the plastic candidate in comparison to Trump. If she tries to brawl with him, she's out of her element. She'll point out all the ways he's a dangerous bear; he'll simply agree and try to maul her.

If Clinton can't handle Trump's bearish style on the debate stage, her presently thin lead won't be enough. Trump won't beat Clinton because he's a better politician; he'll beat her because he isn't.

Cameron Smith is a regular columnist for AL.com.
Genuflect before your king, Alabama.

He can do no wrong. Even when his wrongs are splashed out there for all the world to see.

And hear.

Such is the nature of sovereign immunity, that philosophy that trickled from European royalty into American common law. That concept holding that some people, because of their office, are simply too important to answer to the law. Some are above it. Like the King.

Like Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.

Bentley, in response to questions asked in discovery by a lawyer for fired Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Director Spencer Collier, refused to answer anything.

"Defendant objects to all of Plaintiff's discovery requests on the ground of sovereign immunity," his lawyers predictably wrote in a filing this week. Because they don't want him to talk any more. And they sure don't want him to fall back on Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

So the questions that Collier and all Alabamians want to ask go unanswered. For now.

Who paid Rebekah Mason to be your Senior Political Advisor?

Nothing.

Did you ever ask any persons, firms, corporations or other entities to contribute money to ACEGOV?

Crickets.

Provide the number and provider for each cell phone you used from January 1, 2010 to present.

Forget about it.

Lawyers for Collier - who say he was wrongfully fired by Bentley with the help and encouragement of Mason -- asked all those questions and more. They asked about finances and personal relationships, about the workings of government during the time Mason and Bentley were said to have an improper relationship. They are questions relevant to Collier's own suit, of course, but they are relevant to the people too.

But Bentley will not answer.

Not a peep. His lawyers don't want to him to open his princely mouth.

Even though it was Bentley who - when placing Collier on medical leave described it as punishment for the way Collier cooperated in an investigation of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard against the governor's wishes. Even though Bentley said Collier was fired for cause after he revealed the nature of a relationship between Bentley and Mason. Even after Bentley's office told the world Collier had been involved in financial wrongdoing at ALEA.

Collier lawyer Kenny Mendelsohn asked Bentley to back up what he said publicly in the statement announcing Collier's firing.

Robert Bentley behind Spencer Collier

"In that Statement you are quoted as saying 'After placing Spencer on medical leave a few weeks ago to allow him to recover from back surgery, Acting ALEA Secretary Stan Stabler identified several areas of concern in the operations, policies and procedures at ALEA.' State each of the areas of concern that ... Stabler identified to you and whether any documents were provided to you to support Stabler's concerns."

The governor says nothing.

Or as his lawyers put it in the "Objections and Responses" to Collier's questions: "Because sovereign immunity relieves Defendant not only from liability but also from the burdens of litigation, Defendant will not respond to any of Plaintiff's discovery requests."

His Imperiousness, Robert the Lying Hearted, will not be made to answer. Yet.

Mendelsohn will have to make his case that laws surrounding sovereignty are murky, and that Bentley's actions are egregious enough to forfeit the protection. And a judge will have to rule.

The courts will decide if Bentley really is above the law, if Alabama truly honors a system - as it has in the past -- that puts elected leaders above citizens, that with a nod of the royal head sends the notion of equal protection to the gallows.

Off with your heads!

His majesty has spoken. Or in this case not.
On April 26, 2018, pursuant to Sec. 46.1 of the Police Act, Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was directed to investigate allegations of assault and sexual assault from an event on Aug. 4, 2017. One Lethbridge Police Service officer was designated as a subject officer in ASIRTs investigation, which is now complete.
In a world of no boundaries, Roya Mahboob aims to bridge the gap between school-based education and real jobs.

Roya Mahboob knew that she wanted to build a career in technology from the first time she set her eyes on a computer in the only internet cafe in Herat, Afghanistan, when she was 16 years old.

In 2010, at the age of 23 she became the first tech chief executive in Afghanistan when she founded Afghan Citadel Software (ACS) with the aim of involving more women in her countrys growing technology business.

We are not thinking, we are not supposed to do critical thinking, says Mahboob, discussing the way she and many women grew up in Afghanistan.

Mahboob was born in Iran to Afghan parents as one of seven children. Her parents had travelled to Iran during the Soviet invasion, and the family moved back to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban government in 2003, where she began her university studies and learned English.

Along with some of her siblings, including her sister Elaha as her partner, Mahboob established ACS shortly after.

I think digital literacy can give women a voice in our global conversation. Then, they can find different skills and get their financial independence, she says.

The entire generation of youth in Afghanistan deserves to gain control over their futures. by Roya Mahboob, chief executive of Afghan Citadel Software

She recalls the day when she and a friend walked into the Internet cafe. They were the only two women in the room and many of the men stared at them. Without allowing this to bother her, Mahboob immersed herself in the world of digital technology from that day on.

I saw the incredible power of social media and technology in my life, and I saw how it connected me to the world, and that I could work from home, and grow my business, Mahboob says.

Afghanistan currently has 6.4 Internet users per 100 people, and the number has been growing exponentially in the past 10 years.

A tool to surpass obstacles

In Afghanistan, women often stay inside their home, only interacting with family members and close friends. We dont do social things. It is also supposed that [a woman] should not laugh a lot, it is considered bad for a girl.

Mahboob says that she wanted to give women the tools to educate themselves and find the skills needed to create financial opportunities from their home, and the only way to do that was online.

Afghan society is male dominated, she says. It is a society where women are only taught to listen to their teacher, to the mullah during prayer time, and to their parents.

We had to take the risk. We needed to know at least what was going on, she adds.

Although women are participating in the economy more and more in Afghanistan, Mahboob thinks there is still much to do, and that many women are overshadowed by their husbands.

Technology and the internet are a door to the rest of the world in a society where women are given a very narrow vision of the world, she says.

Technology has opened a lot of doors for me, and I want to give girls and women the same tools that I had. They can become digital citizens, where there is no border, no society to limit them, she explains.

Obstacles of a conservative society

Mahboob recalls the many obstacles she faced in Afghanistans deeply conservative society when she started Afghan Citadel. There were uncountable challenges, a new drama every day, Mahboob says.

One of the major challenges we faced was that we could not get clients, mainly because we were women. They didnt trust us, did not know what IT was, or wanted to pay us less.

Someone would try to stop her and her colleagues at every step, she says. They put spies on my walls, they threatened the women not to work with me, they threatened me 

Outside Afghanistan, she reflects, there is a common thought that the main problems in the country are caused by the presence of groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group also known as ISIS) or the local Taliban.

Yes, they are hated, not only by me but any woman who works in the society. But you also have the very conservative people, that are all around you  your neighbours, or in your workplace.

Mahboob explains that dealing with these kinds of individuals is difficult because they are prolific in the government and the private sector, which makes it difficult to go around them.

After failed attempts at finding business locally, Mahboob devised an alternative plan to build her business. Through social media, she contacted different companies, asking if they were willing to outsource services to a company in Afghanistan run only by women.

I reached around 500 companies outside and was very persistent, she laughs. Through her work, she expanded her network and met Francesco Rulli, an Italian businessman and philanthropist based in New York. These contacts developed into more fruitful projects. With the help of Rulli, she founded the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), a non-profit company that helps women and girls in developing countries gain access to technology and connect with the rest of the world.

DCF has built 11 Technology Centres in 11 schools, two stand-alone Media & Innovation centres and has trained 8,000 female students in digital literacy. They are currently planning to expand their programme to Mexico, and train 5,000 more girls.

For those in the prime of their formative and creative years, the Internet is a world of opportunity. It is also an ideal platform for learning the skills that empower them to become more independent and self-sufficient. The entire generation of youth in Afghanistan deserves to gain control over their futures, she adds.

Mahboob was forced to leave Afghanistan in 2014 because she received constant threats which, she says, also put her family in danger. She now lives in New York. But, despite the distance, she was able to stay close to her projects and the girls and women she was teaching through her very own technology innovations.

Mahboob says that through her local company, she and other women are developing a software called Edy Edy, a system that allows schools and business to be connected. This will help pupils acquire practical training and apply skills that will make them employable in the private sector.

My mission is to bridge the gap between school-based education and real local jobs, she says.

The Afghan economy is highly dependent on international aid, with 61 percent of the countrys operating budget funded by foreign donors.

Youth unemployment makes children vulnerable to being recruited by armed groups, while a brain drain drives young people out of the country in search of better economic opportunities elsewhere. In 2016 alone, more than 50,000 Afghans left the country.

Mahboob thinks that employment opportunities are critical for the development of her country and sees a huge benefit in providing useful and applied skills to overcome youth unemployment in Afghanistan.

She knows that technology will lead the way to this better future. And for the women of Afghanistan, Mahboob says that her mission is to empower women and children through digital literacy, and connect them to a world beyond their borders.
Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan  Every three days in Afghanistan theres an attack affecting hospitals, health workers and patients, even though medics are supposed to be protected in conflict zones.

On October 3, 2015, during a lull in fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces, a hospital in Kunduz run by Doctors without Borders (MSF), was bombed for one hour and destroyed by the US army. Many have described the incident, which killed more than 40 civilians, as a war crime. The US military denies that and calls the incident a mistake.

Seven hundred kilometres away, in southern Afghanistans Helmand Province, lies the MSF-supported Boost Hospital.

The news from Kunduz shocked the staff there.

From all sides, health workers are supposed to be protected all over the world. I knew some of the workers in Kunduz, so when we lost them, I was upset, said Dr Saeed Abbas Sadat, who has worked in Boosts emergency room for five years.

Medics at Boost Hospital are inundated. Hundreds of new patients can be admitted in one day, and the paediatrics ward is particularly busy treating malnourished babies and those born prematurely  the youngest victims of Afghanistans war. Doctors say it can take time to reach the hospital because of fighting and attribute a high prevalence of premature births to the stress of living with conflict.

Like the destroyed Kunduz trauma centre, Boost is dangerously close to the battlefield.

The hospitals medics treat anyone who walks through the door, working hard to save lives, despite fearing for their own.

In Afghanistan: Medics Under Fire, 101 Easts Karishma Vyas meets the dedicated medics at Boost Hospital, and investigates the dangers facing health workers on the frontline in the wake of Kunduz.
How quickly many European countries have forgotten what Russia has done to Ukraine  and they could be next.

Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian security at a Washington DC based think tank. He previously served as a special adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the United States army.

Many European countries depend on economic trade and close energy links with Russia. This makes agreeing European sanctions against Moscow difficult and makes it even harder to keep these sanctions in place for any extended period of time.

Broadly speaking, there are two sets of economic sanctions against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine. First, there are sanctions linked to Russias 2014 illegal invasion and occupation of the Crimean peninsula.

Secondly, there are sanctions linked to the Russian-backed war in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.





It is the latter that support across Europe is starting to erode.

Lowest common denominator

The current debate around maintaining these economic sanctions against Russia is indicative of the shortcomings of EU foreign policy making.

Due to the consensus-based and lowest common denominator approach required by the EU, all it takes is for one member in the organisation to slow, water down or veto sanctions altogether.

Russia knows this and uses a divide-and-conquer technique to take advantage of this flaw in EU foreign policy making. This explains why Moscow maintains close links to EU countries such as Cyprus and Greece, for example. The Kremlin is hoping to have a sympathetic voice inside the EU arguing against sanctions.

READ MORE: Russias emerging naval presence in the Mediterranean

The lowest common denominator approach taken by Brussels is another reason why Britain will probably be more assertive on the world stage once it finally leaves the EU.

Many countries in central and eastern Europe with the most to lose are some of the strongest supporters of continued economic sanctions. This is because they know what it is like to live under Soviet domination... by

The UK, the worlds fifth largest economy and permanent member of the UN Security Council, will no longer be constrained by the national interests of the other 27 EU members and will be free to act independently.

Disunited for Ukraine

In June, the EU voted to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months. While this is good news, there is cause for concern for the long-term future of these sanctions. It is becoming clear that the facade of European support for sanctions is starting to crack.

In April, the French National Assembly passed a resolution calling for economic sanctions against Russia to be lifted.

For those advocating for the lifting of sanctions in France, the main concern was the impact the sanctions were having on the French economy, in particular the agriculture sector. Although this resolution was non-binding, it is illustrative of a prevailing mood sweeping across some corners of Europe.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently suggested that the threshold for lifting sanctions should only be progress towards implementing the Minsk II ceasefire agreement and not a full implementation of the agreement as originally stated. Some business advocacy groups representing as many as 800 German companies have also called for an end to sanctions.

Non-binding resolutions have been passed in legislative assemblies in the Veneto, Liguria and Lombardy regions of Italy calling for the sanctions to end.

The Hungarian and Greek governments have also urged caution against automatically renewing economic sanctions against Russia. It is well known that Greeces Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, has cozied up to Moscow ever since taking office on the back of the anti-EU sentiment that has rocked Athens.

It is not just the economic sphere where Europe is disunited for Ukraine. The Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg has suggested that NATO-Russia talks may soon resume after having been frozen since 2014. This is a complete reversal of NATOs previous policy.

READ MORE: Predicting Putins next move

Greece, Spain and Malta have allowed Russian warships to call into their ports to get refuelled and resupplied, even with economic sanctions against Moscow in place. NATO and EU member Spain is the worst culprit, giving succour to the Russian Navy 22 times since Crimea was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

What do all of these countries have in common? They all have close links to the Russian economy and depend on Moscow for much of their energy needs.

Remain steadfast

Many countries in central and eastern Europe with the most to lose are some of the strongest supporters of continued economic sanctions. This is because they know what it is like to live under Soviet domination and they are not keen to relive the experience.

Estonia is a great example.

In 2014 the Estonian economy, especially the farming sector, was hit by the sanctions. Thankfully its government made an effort to diversify its exports away from Russia and to other parts of the world.

For example, the EU became the destination for approximately 95 percent of the total export of Estonian dairy products last year, compared with just 74 percent in 2013.

Europe needs to remain firm on its economic sanctions until the terms of the Minsk II ceasefire agreement are met and Crimea is restored to Ukraine.

It is extraordinary how quickly many European countries have forgotten what Russia has done to Ukraine and how they could be next. As Winston Churchill once said: An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian security at a Washington DC-based think-tank. He previously served as a special adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the United States Army.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policies.
Instead of a unequivocal condemnation of the coup attempt, what we see is politicised comments and baseless accusations.

Ayse Sozen Usluer is the head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Turkish Presidency.

When military vehicles blocked the entrance to the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul on July 15, Erol Olcak was at home with his family.

Soon Turkish citizens realised that this was a coup attempt, and the only way thwart it was to take to the streets and express the will of the people.

Olcak, living near the bridge, took his 16-year-old son and rushed out the bridge to resist the military forces. They had no guns, and nothing to shield them from any attack.

It was with profound sadness and shock that we learned he was killed by the traitors within the first hours of the coup attempt, only because he stood for what he believed in: freedom, democracy and the will of the people.

Olcak was not only a close friend of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but also a strategic and important figure in his political movement for more than 20 years.

As the party publicist, he prepared all the election campaigns that were pivotal for the Justice and Development Partys (AK party) success.

He was creative and bold, planning one of the best campaigns in the political history of Turkey. So why would Erdogan let him die?

A conspiracy?

This is a very surprising question, and it may sound preposterous. But there is a conspiracy theory being circulating in the social media that it was Erdogan who initiated the coup against himself.

Even putting these words on paper feels ridiculous but some international media have already picked up on it.

Why he would do that, you might ask. Well, according to this claim, hed do that to consolidate more power; as if he is not a leader who has not lost a single election in the past 15 years.

The brutality of the coup attempt, bombings of strategic institutions of this country, loss of innocent lives remain largely untold. by

For a deeper understanding, we should remember what happened on that fateful night. A faction within the Turkish Armed Forces broke the order of command chain and attempted a military coup in Turkey.

Istanbul and Ankara were the focus: in Istanbul, the Asian entrances of the Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges were blocked by military vehicles, and the Ataturk International Airport and Istanbul Police Force headquarters were surrounded.

In Ankara, strategic security institutions such as the headquarters of the National Intelligence Organization, Police Force and the Special Forces were bombed. The headquarters of the Turkish army chief of staff was under siege.

OPINION: Turkey coup attempt  What happened that night?

The attacks included civilian targets as well. The Turkish state broadcaster TRT offices in Istanbul and Ankara were raided, and a statement declaring the coup was read live on TV, stating that the military had seized power, and martial law and curfew would be enforced throughout the country.

The Turksat satellite and Turkish Telekom offices were also attacked. Turksat was bombed so that television broadcasts to the entire country could be cut. The coup plotters had only one aim: to cut off all the communication channels of the entire country.

The president and the prime minister appeared on national TV channels, defying the attempt and calling citizens out to the streets to resist it.

Peoples resistance

By then people had already started to gather in protest. Just as Olcak, who was one of the first to reach the bridge, nobody had any weapons  just their bodies and voices against the coup attempt.

The peaceful resistance was, however, met with gunfire and bombings. At the end of this tragic night, the country lost 241 civilians, and 1,537 more were injured.

The conspiracy theorists also refer to the people who took to the streets as Erdogans sheep.

One wonders how these mere sheep could have stood up against tanks and would not move one inch when helicopters kept firing from above.

Or how President Erdogan could let fighter jets bomb the parliament while there were many MPs from all parties inside.

The failure of the international media

While such baseless and illogical claims found expansive coverage in the international media, what actually happened that night seems to not interest them as much.

The brutality of the coup attempt, bombings of strategic institutions of this country, and loss of innocent lives remain largely untold.

Most failed to stand with Turkish democracy and its people, rather preferring to follow a wait and see policy.

OPINION: The lessons to be learned from Turkeys failed coup

Instead of a straightforward and unequivocal condemnation of the coup attempt, what we mostly see is politicised comments and baseless accusations.

There are even opinion pieces implying that a military coup would be better than the rule of democratically elected officials, while little was said about the true perpetrators of the coup and the terrorist network lying behind it.

Thankfully, all the Turkish media  regardless of their political stance  resisted the coup, broadcasting the truth and keeping the citizens aware and alert of the threat our country faced.

The stance of most international media, on the other hand, comes across as a big insult to the Turkish people who repelled a brutal coup attempt.

In the end, the peaceful resistance of ordinary people proved to be stronger than bombs and guns.

Erol Olcak and his son were among the first martyrs of this coup. Their memories and sacrifice will always be remembered and cherished.

People are still in the streets and squares, continuing the resistance, proving the martyrs did not die in vain.

What began as a dark and tragic night ended up as the day when ordinary citizens saved their country and democracy.

Ayse Sozen Usluer is the head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Turkish Presidency.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
This coup attempt was defeated by the citizens of Turkey, regardless of their political affiliation.

Kani Torun is an AK party member of the parliament and Deputy Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee.

We are witnessing extraordinary events in Turkey. Including this latest one, there have been five military coups in the past 60 years. However, this one was different.

Previously, coups were carried out by Kemalist officers in the military circles, but this time it was said to be Gulenist officers, followers of the self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Who are these people? What is their aim? Gulen was a cleric for a long time in Turkey. He was following Said Nursis teachings but later became a cult figure for his followers who believe he is the Mahdi.

Over the years, this cult infiltrated government institutions, in particular the education ministry, security services and judiciary.

Gulenists disguised themselves in a discreet manner, making them almost impossible to be identified.

Although Gulen has been using religious rhetoric to exert his influence and collecting money through this influence, his cult members presented themselves as non-religious in their workplaces.

They lived parallel lives. In the army and judiciary, they consumed alcohol, didnt fast during Ramadans or adhere to other Islamic principles outwardly.

At home they followed their cult orders. They set up a parallel hierarchy in government institutions, and followed its orders for a long time. Their main aim was to take over the government when the time has come.

How did the Gulenists infiltrate?

One of the main differences between this group and the mainstream Islamist movement is that Gulenists have been very pro-United States and pro-Israel.

Gulen presented himself as a symbol of moderate Islam and got a very warm welcome from the West. He chartered schools in 140 countries and used these schools as his recruitment ground.

The turning point was Erdogan's television appearance ... He said the military's activity was an illegal action against the democratically elected government and urged people to take to the streets and protest against the coup attempt. by

After the election of the Justice and Development Party (AK party) in 2002, Gulenists had developed a special relationship with the government and used this link to strengthen their influence in the government institutions.

They were instrumental in orchestrating the campaign against some army officers between 2007 and 2013  namely Ergenekon, Balyoz and the Izmir military espionage cases.

It was through these cases that they strengthened their hold on the army and promoted their officers above others.

After 2011, the self-confidence of the movement grew with a belief that they could take over the state.

They attempted to instigate a civilian coup on December 17 and 25, 2013, during the so-called corruption probe, but they failed.

After this attempt, the government, and particularly the prime minister of the day, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, initiated legal actions against this group.

READ MORE: Turkey: Plotters acted early in fear of arrests

In the past four elections in the aftermath of the December 2013 investigation, Gulenists supported opposition parties against the AK party.

They used their propaganda machine against Erdogan and the AK party but they failed again with the ruling party, receiving 49.5 percent of the votes and the majority seats in the last elections.

Through their links in the West, the Gulen movement has conducted a very aggressive PR campaign against the AK party government.

They portrayed the Turkish government as autocratic and President Erdogan as a dictator. This propaganda was particularly very effective in the West, and has been consumed by Western media in the past three years.

While they have carried out their campaign, the government has tried to remove the group members from government institutions.

This was not an easy task as it is nearly impossible to find concrete evidence owing to the secretive manner in which they operate.

The government transferred some members in attempts to pacify them, but this was not sufficient to thwart their efforts to undermine the government.

In the meantime, the aforementioned cases were overturned by the Supreme Court when the conspiracy was revealed.

OPINION: People defeated the coup in Turkey

Then the courts began to open cases against this group. Recently some of the Gulenists were arrested in relation to these cases.

In particular, the court dealing with the Izmir military espionage case had begun the process of sending arrest warrants for some high-ranking officers just before the coup attempt.

Another development was due to take place during the Supreme Military Council (YAS) annual meeting in August.

Many newspapers revealed that during this meeting the majority of officers belonging to this group were to be sacked.

On the night of the coup attempt

These last two developments made the Gulenists act early  and rather prematurely.

They had planned to launch the coup on Saturday, July 16, at 04.00 local time, but as of July 15, at 16.00, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) acquired credible intel about the coup.

They informed the Turkish Armed Forces chief of staff. Both chiefs met to stop the coup and prepared an action plan involving sending military units to halt the attempt.

However, the Gulenist clique within the military was so well organised that even the private secretary of the chief of staff was one of them.

OPINION: The lessons to be learned from Turkeys failed coup

That action plan never reached the units. Instead the Gulenists found out that the government was aware of their plans and so they started the coup early.

They tried to eliminate the MIT, Police Special Operations Department and some other strategic units. In the meantime, they sent a team to eliminate the president in his holiday resort.

These actions failed, but the Gulenists managed to kidnap the army leadership and gain control of some areas.

The turning point was Erdogans television appearance. He was on CNN Turk through Facetime and he sent his message.

He said the militarys activity was an illegal action against the democratically elected government and urged people to take to the streets and protest against the coup attempt.

After that call, millions of people were on the streets and even though they were under fire, they did not turn back and kept resisting. The opposition party leaders joined the condemnation of the coup.

This coup attempt was defeated by the citizens of Turkey, regardless of their political affiliation. It was a victory for Turkish democracy.

Kani Torun is a Justice and Development Party member of the parliament and Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Turkish parliament.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Khaled Akils project showing fun characters amid woeful scenes is a reminder that war goes on as the world turns away.

As his home city of Aleppo continued to wane at the hands of the five-year-civil war, Khaled Akil wondered what it would be like to hunt for the Pokemon characters amid the rubble in Syria.

In the Syrian artists latest project, a series of photos from AFP posted to his website show the catchable monsters amid scenes of despair.

The project is titled, Pokemon Go In Syria  Part 1. The result is eerie.

The animated figures watch on in the aftermath of a bomb blast; stare into the camera as a child walks between crumbled buildings; creep out from a burst pipe as young boys swim in dirty water and squat atop a tank with fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Being an avid follower of news and global social trends, I found this unnerving contradiction between the playfulness of the Pokemon world and the danger which Syrians and Syrian children live through every day, he told Al Jazeera.

I wondered what it would be like to hunt for a Pokemon character among the rubble in Syria, and how a virtual game attracts more attention than the atrocities committed daily in real-life Syria.

The artwork, he added, is not meant to point fingers but rather highlight the crisis.

This project is not to blame people for not paying attention for Syria at all, it is just a spotlight on what is happening there.

Born in Aleppo, 30-year-old Akil travelled to Istanbul in 2012 to attend his solo exhibition, but was forced to stay in the Turkish city as the war at home escalated.

Many of his family members still live in Syria and refuse to leave.

They are there on the hope that the war will someday end and they will be there to welcome us, the ones who fled, he said.

In a recent article for the New York Times, Akil wrote about the woes of now trying to travel as a Syrian  he was rejected entry to the US to attend an art event because there was war in my country.

After five years, sadly I think what going on in Syria is a proxy war, and its like a game for some very evil players, he said of his recent work, to Al Jazeera.

Unfortunately, and like any other war, after a while people grow either bored, or too used to the news of death and destruction, and they get on with their lives. This might ultimately be a gentle reminder-poke, excuse the pun.

Like millions of others of Syrians, he has one simple dream: that the streets of his home city are peaceful once again.

While the [Pokemon] game is largely successful, I truly wish I can stroll down the streets of Aleppo without a phone nor a Pokemon, just me and the once-beautiful city, he said.

The Syrian civil war has claimed more than 250,000 lives and displaced millions, with most taking refuge in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

An activist-led project has also played on the Pokemon phenomenon in Syria. In recent days, photos with children holding up posters with the colourful characters are adorned with the #PokemonInSyria hashtag.

The free-to-play game, which was released on July 6 and has swept the gaming world, has added billions of dollars to the value of Nintendo  which owns a large stake.

Follow Anealla Safdar on Twitter: @anealla
Businessman vows to restore law and order and vanquish threats abroad as he formally accepts presidential nomination.

Cleveland, Ohio  Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has officially accepted the Republican party presidential nomination, promising safety and security to Americans and suggesting the world they live in is more dangerous than ever before.

Referencing recent attacks, he promised law and order would be restored as he addressed delegates and supporters in the US city of Cleveland for more than an hour.

The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored, he said, without elaborating.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

In the longest acceptance speech at a party convention since former President Bill Clintons to his Democratic party in 1996, Trump reiterated a pledge to build a wall on the border with Mexico, saying it was needed to stop gangs, violence, drugs from pouring into our communities.

Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens, he said.

Trump said the Republican National Convention was being held at what he called a moment of crisis that included attacks on police, terrorism in our cities.

READ MORE: A Muslim woman takes in the Republican convention

The property mogul linked domestic events with foreign policy by pledging that he was the candidate who would keep US citizens safe from harm both at home and abroad.

In a speech frequently interrupted by cheers and standing ovations, he said  in claims challenged by fact-checkers and opponents  that when presumptive Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, Egypt was calm, Iraq was recovering from violence, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group was not on the map, and Iran was under sanctions.

Stoking fears

Iraq is in chaos, Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons, Syria is engulfed in a civil war, and a refugee crisis now threatens the West, Trump said.

After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness, he added.

He blames all these wars on Hillary Clinton and Obama, Said Arikat, a political analyst and former UN spokesman, told Al Jazeera.



Who is Donald Trump?

He says that his opponent will continue the same policy that Obama did. This really is not new rhetoric to the Republican Party, which has always talked about law and order, a strong foreign policy.

As he spoke, Clinton said in a tweet: We are better than this.

Al Jazeeras Alan Fisher, reporting from the convention centre, said the speech was an opportunity for Trump to present specific policies to the American people  something critics said had been lacking in his campaign to become the nominee.

He didnt deliver on that front, Fisher said. We certainly know what the problems facing America  and the view of the Republicans  are. We certainly know the failings of Hillary Clinton. What we dont know is how Donald Trump will fix it, beyond the fact that he says he will.

READ MORE: He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth

Some Republican strategists downplayed the focus on law and order as a strategic ploy aimed at uniting a fractious party, divided after a bitter nomination campaign.

This is typical of convention speech, Joe Watkins, former White House aide to President George H W Bush, said. You would need a bounce in the polls coming out of the convention, and for that you have to do something to excite your base. And that includes stoking fears of Clinton and her presidency.

Follow Dalia Hatuqa on Twitter: @daliahatuqa
Foreign minister urges US to speed up consideration of whether businessman blamed for failed coup should be extradited.

The United States does not need to take years to extradite a US-based businessman accused by Turkey of masterminding a failed coup, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said.

Fethullah Gulen condemned the attempt to topple the government and denied any involvement.

Washington has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of Gulens involvement and lawyers have said any extradition process could take years.

If you want to draw out the Gulen extradition issue it can take years, but if you are decisive it can be completed in a short period, Cavusoglu told state broadcaster TRT Haber on Friday.

Cavusoglu also urged Athens to extradite soldiers who fled to Greece after the coup attempt failed. A Greek court handed down a two-month suspended sentence to the eight Turkish personnel on Thursday.

Turkey has branded the men traitors and terrorist elements. Greece has said it is considering asylum requests from the men and pledged to come to a decision quickly.

READ MORE: Turexit  Should Turkey leave NATO?

The soldiers will be interviewed by immigration authorities on July 27 for the second time.

Separately, Bekir Bozdag, Turkeys justice minister, said on Friday in an interview with CNN Turk that any decision to bring back the death penalty should be considered from a legal standpoint and not based on European Union opinion.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in the wake of the coup attempt that reinstating the measure was being considered. Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 under reforms aimed at obtaining European Union membership.

Any reinstatement would create further issues between the EU and Ankara in already stalled membership talks.
Pro-government militia and Tuareg rebels clash in northern town of Kidal, raising fears for a fraying peace agreement.

Fighting between pro-government militia and Tuareg rebels has continued for a second consecutive day in northern Mali, raising fears for a fraying peace agreement.

The Gatia militia group and a coalition of five separatist rebel factions, known as the Coordination of Movements for Azawad (CMA), clashed on Thursday in the town of Kidal with heavy weapons, including mortars, the UN Mission in Mali said in a statement on Friday.

A Kidal resident told the Reuters news agency that fighting had erupted again in the early hours of Friday.





The sound (of gunfire) is more intense than yesterday, the resident said, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals from the armed groups.

State of emergency

Malis north has been volatile since separatist rebel groups and later al-Qaeda associated fighters took control of the region in the wake of a military coup in 2012.

A peace agreement signed last year by the government, its militia allies and the rebels was intended to ease tensions in the north and allow the army to concentrate on fighting armed groups.

Talk To Al Jazeera: Peace process wont be derailed, says Malis president

The CMA and the pro-government militia had peacefully shared control of Kidal since February, and signed a truce mediated by the government of neighbouring Niger several days before the fighting broke out.

There was no immediate information on what precisely caused the fighting in Kidal.

The latest bout of violence erupted on the same day Mali declared a 10-day state of emergency and a three-day national mourning period after 17 Malian soldiers were killedand 35 others wounded in an attack on a military base in the town of Nampala in central Mali.
French president announces plan to send artillery, but no ground troops, to combat ISIL in Iraq in August.

French President Francois Hollande has said that France will send heavy artillery to Iraq to support the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Hollande announced the plan on Friday, saying the artillery equipment will be in place next month.

Ground forces will not be deployed in the country, Hollande said, following a high-level security meeting in Paris, his fourth since the ISIL-claimed lorry attack in Nice on July 14, which killed 84 people.

OPINION: The real reason behind Nice lorry massacre

The president also reiterated that the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle would be deployed in the region in late September to help in ongoing operations against ISIL, also known as ISIS.

An aide to the president told the AFP news agency that France would also send military advisors to train Iraqi forces in using the artillery.

Frances air force is currently participating in strikes against ISIL as a part of US-led operations in Syria and Iraq.

Special forces in Libya

Elsewhere, protests erupted in Libyas capital, Tripoli, on Thursday following confirmation by Hollande that French special forces are operating in the country and that three French officers had been killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Libya while an intelligence-gathering mission.





It was the first official confirmation that members of Frances special forces were engaged in operations in the North African country.

Al-Sadeq al-Ghariyani, an ultraconservative Libyan cleric, denounced Frances involvement as foreign invasion and protesters called for attack on French business interests in the country.

Libyas UN-backed government in Tripoli also condemned Frances military action in the country.

After the 2011 ousting of Muammar Gaddafi by NATO-backed rebels, Libya slid into chaos and years later, it split into two governments and parliaments  each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes.
Police say at least 10 people, including a possible suspect, killed in a shooting attack on Munich shopping centre.

A man suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting attack in the German city of Munich killed himself, and likely acted alone, police have said.

At least 10 people, including the possible suspect, were killed in Fridays attack at the Olympia shopping centre, a police spokesman said early on Saturday.

A body found about 1km from the scene was that of the shooter, who appeared to be the sole attacker, officials said.

Earlier on Friday, police had said they were looking for up to three suspects, citing eyewitness accounts.

We found a man, who killed him himself.

We assume, that he was the only shooter. #gunfire #munich  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

A massive police operation was launched in the Bavarian capital following the attack, with authorities telling residents to stay indoors. Special forces hunting for suspects were deployed in the streets, while bus, tram and metro services were also suspended.

IN PICTURES: Manhunt under way after Munich shooting

Al Jazeeras David Chater, reporting from Munich, said the Bavarian capital had been placed under a state of emergency.

The city is in a complete state of lockdown, he said.

There was no information about the possible motive of the attack, in which at least 10 people were wounded.

In a statement on Facebook, Munich police said reports came in shortly before 6pm local time (19:00 GMT) about a shooting incident near Hanauer Street, which then progressed to Ries Street and the Olympia shopping centre.

The police statement added that witnesses had reported three different shooters with semi-automatic weapons.

Authorities asked that no photographs or videos of police operations to be posted online.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was being regularly briefed on the attack, Peter Altmaier, her chief of staff, said.

All that we know and can say right now is that it was a cruel and inhumane attack, he said on German public channel ARD.

The motives for this abhorrent act have not yet been completely clarified, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an emailed statement. We still have contradictory clues.

Germanys interior minister Thomas de Maiziere cut short his holiday in the United States to go back to the capital, Berlin, late on Friday to meet with security officials.

In the US, President Barack Obama pledged to provide Germany with whatever help it might need to investigate the shooting.

A wide area around the busy shopping centre was closed off as special forces rushed to the scene.

The police was just flying by  another car about every 15 or 30 seconds, Ryan Sink, who was passing by the shopping centre, said.

No one really knew what was going on, Sink told Al Jazeera.

We were all pulling over frantically and watching them set up a perimeter  Police were telling people passing by to get out of the way and away from the buildings.

In response to the attack, Facebook activated its safety feature , allowing Munich residents and visitors to let their friends know they were unharmed.
French court rules IMF chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial for her handling of a massive state payout in 2008.

Frances highest appeals court has ordered Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to stand trial over her role in a massive state payout in 2008, when she was the French finance minister.

The court dismissed on Friday Lagardes challenge against a judges order in December to try her for negligence in her handling of a dispute between a state-owned bank and controversial business tycoon Bernard Tapie.

Tapie walked away at the time with $445m of taxpayers money in compensation after Lagarde ordered the long-running row over the sale of his stake in sportswear giant Adidas to be resolved by arbitration.

READ MORE: Lagarde questioned in French fraud probe

Lagardes lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve expressed regret over Fridays decision, saying he was convinced that Lagarde would be absolved of all responsibility.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said that its executive board had been briefed on the matter and continued to have confidence in Lagardes capacity to carry out her functions.

IMF chiefs on trial

Lagarde, 60, will be the third successive IMF chief to face trial.

Her predecessor, compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned from his IMF post in 2011 to fight sexual assault allegations in the United States.





Spains former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato has also been ordered to stand trial for misusing funds when he was head of Spanish lender Bankia.

Al Jazeeras David Chater, reporting from Frances capital, Paris, said Lagarde, if convicted, could face a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euro.

The question now is what will she do  will she copy Strauss-Kahns example and stand down while she tries to clear her name? Chater said.

That is the main question being asked in Paris at the moment.

Long-running row

Fridays ruling means Lagarde will go before a special tribunal that hears cases against government ministers accused of wrongdoing in the discharge of their duties.

The row goes back to when Tapie sued the state for compensation after selling his stake in Adidas to Credit Lyonnais in 1993. He claimed the bank had defrauded him after it later resold his stake for a much higher sum.

The case against Lagarde stems from her decision to allow the row be settled by arbitration instead of by the courts, which would likely have resulted in a much smaller bill for the state.

Prosecutors have also questioned her failure to challenge the massive award.

A court has since found the arbitration to be fraudulent because one of the arbitrators had links to 73-year-old Tapie, a controversial figure who served as cities minister in the 1990s and has also dabbled in acting.

Lagarde has denied any wrongdoing or that she acted on orders from then president Nicolas Sarkozy, of whom Tapie was a supporter.

The ruling comes just days after Lagarde, who has long been touted as a potential future French president, began her second term as head of IMF.
UN envoy dismayed as hospital says it received 14 bodies bearing shots to the head, signalling summary execution.

A hospital in Benghazi said it had received the bodies of 14 people killed execution-style, in what the UN envoy to Libya said was a war crime.

The unidentified bodies were found on Thursday and brought to the Benghazi Medical Centre by members of the Red Crescent, a doctor at the facility told the AFP news agency on Friday.

The bodies bear shots to the head, which could mean they were executed, said the doctor who declined to be named.

Martin Kobler, the UN envoy to Libya, denounced the killings, branding them a war crime in a message posted on his Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/KoblerSRSG/status/756414596416729089

Kobler said he was utterly shocked and dismayed by the summary execution of a number of people in Benghazi.

He also called for an investigation into the murders and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

https://twitter.com/KoblerSRSG/status/756414961350475776

Benghazi has seen bloody battles for more than two years between forces loyal to the internationally recognised parliament and armed groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have regained several districts of Benghazi in recent months but have yet to retake the whole city.

The doctor told AFP that the 14 bodies were found in areas under the control of Haftars men.

Security officials in the eastern city of Benghazi contacted by AFP declined to confirm or deny the killings.
Up to 20 people have been killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.

The Tuareg-dominated Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival Gatia militia fighters, who had peacefully shared control of the town of Kidal since February, clashed for a second day on Friday, the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said in a statement

Both groups signed a UN-backed deal a year ago with the government in Bamako, the capital in southern Mali, that was intended to ease tensions and let the army focus on defeating other armed groups in the desert north.

READ MORE: Armed groups kill 17 soldiers at Mali base

A nurse at the main health centre in Kidal, one of the largest towns in northern Mali, said she had seen about 20 dead, both at the clinic and on the towns streets.

There are wounded people everywhere. Forty wounded, with four bad cases. One of them was shot in the throat, another in the back, another in the abdomen, a doctor at the health centre told the Reuters news agency by telephone, asking not to be named.

Red Cross volunteer Ahamed Ag Mohomedine told Reuters he had counted over 15 bodies, adding many wounded had been taken to MINUSMAs base in Kidal.

Both armed groups gave death tolls from the fighting that were lopsided in their own favour and could not be independently verified.

Malis government, which has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, urged both sides to end the fighting.

The government of the Republic of Mali considers that the situation created by these clashes constitutes a serious threat to the implementation of the peace accord, it said in a statement.

Talk To Al Jazeera: Peace process wont be derailed, says Malis president

MINUSMA said it had stationed troops in heavily populated areas to protect civilians.

The UN also deployed drones to monitor the fighting, and a regionwide French counter-terrorism mission used helicopters to patrol the skies above the town, MINUSMA spokeswoman Radhia Achouri told Reuters.

Our main concern is that civilians are in the line of fire, she said, adding that some town residents had taken shelter inside the MINUSMA camp overnight.

We control the town in its entirety

The gunfire had largely subsided by mid-afternoon on Friday, as the CMA claimed to have driven Gatia fighters from Kidal.

We control the town in its entirety along with the surrounding areas. Calm has returned, said CMA spokesman Almou Ag Mohamed.

Two officers in the pro-government militia confirmed that Gatia had withdrawn from the town.

We decided to draw back from Kidal, but we are in the process of reorganising, one of the officers said, asking that his name not be used for his protection.

The UN called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and said that it was working with leaders of both groups to mediate the conflict and resume the peace process.

The latest bout of violence erupted on the same day Mali declared a 10-day state of emergency and a three-day national mourning period after 17 Malian soldiers were killed and 35 others wounded in an attack on a military base in the town of Nampala in central Mali.
The search for missing Malaysian jet will be suspended if plane not found in initial search zone, authorities say.

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if the plane is not found in the suspected crash zone, the three-nation search team of Malaysia, Australia and China has announced.

Close to $135 million has been spent since on a massive underwater search, spanning 120,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean, since the plane disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people onboard en route from Malaysia to China.

In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 km search, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said, emphasising that suspending the search did not mean completely stopping it.

The flaperon, a part of the aircrafts wing  was found on Reunion island off the coast of Madagascar. It had been the only confirmed piece of wreckage from the aircraft to be found until March 2016 when another piece of debris was discovered.

READ MORE: Families wait in anguish for answers to MH370 mystery

With less than 10,000 square kilometres of the high priority search area remaining to be searched, ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading, a joint statement said.

The use of the term suspended at the conference was an apparent nod to anguished families who have stepped up demands recently for authorities not to fully abandon efforts to locate the aircraft.

I dont think I can accept they want to stop searching. I think we, on our own, will try to initiate something. Even if Malaysia does not want to continue maybe some one else will step up and take the position that Malaysia should have taken, Grace Subathiran Nathan, whose mother was on the flight, told Al Jazeera.

Grey area

It is unclear what steps would be taken once the search was suspended.

There is this grey area: What happens once you search 120,000 square km, which could end between October and December? What the ministers were saying is that they will reassess all the debris that has been found, Al Jazeeras Sohail Rahman, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said.

This includes the very important flaperon that was nearly a year ago in Reunion island. It is still with the French authorities. The details and the analysis on that flaperon have not been made public.

The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with mostly Chinese nationals abroad, in what remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led operation is scouring the seafloor of the Indian Ocean where authorities believe the jet went down.

In March 2016, on the two-year anniversary of the flights disappearance, international investigators said they were yet to arrive at a conclusion about what happened to the jet.
Interior ministry announces takeover of key security force from army in wake of failed coup.

Turkish authorities have announced a shake-up of the security forces a week after a section of the army attempted to overthrow the government in a failed coup.

In the most significant institutional changes since the coup attempt, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Friday that the gendarmerie would in future fall under the interior ministry and not the army.

The gendarmerie, which is responsible for public order in rural areas that fall outside the jurisdiction of police forces, as well as assuring internal security and general border control, had always been part of the military and its removal is a blow to the armed forces clout.

The gendarmerie will definitely be dependent entirely on the interior ministry, Ala said, in an interview with the Turkish news broadcaster NTV.

Claiming that the coup threat is not yet over, Ala also disclosed that authorities had cancelled a total of 10,856 passports due to flight risk.

Turkey also detained 283 members of the presidential guard, an official later told Turkish media. There are at least 2,500 members of the guard.

Turkey coup attempt: What happened that night?

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused exiled Turkish businessman and cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the violence and is demanding that the US extradite him.

Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, denied any involvement and condemned the coup attempt.

State of emergency

The Turkish government imposed a state of emergency on Thursday, strengthening powers to round up suspects behind the failed coup and suspending the European human rights convention.





The European Union on Thursday urged Turkey to respect under any circumstances the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms,

In a joint statement, foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn criticised as unacceptable the sacking or suspension of tens of thousands of people in the education system, judiciary and the media, adding that they were monitoring the state of emergency with concern.

Ala, on the other hand, claimed that the state of emergency would not have any substantial effect on Turkish citizens lives.

[The] state of emergency gives several additional powers to the government, but it does not mean that the government is going to use these powers.

This is a mechanism that will allow the government to swiftly make decisions. Our citizens should be calm.

Danger has not ended

Meanwhile, Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned of a possible second coup attempt in speeches after the first Friday prayers since last weeks failed coup.

Yildirim said the risk of another coup had not disappeared, adding that the government was in control of the situation.

He urged Turks to stay calm and said: The danger has not ended but our citizens should not be anxious.

After attending Friday prayers near the presidential palace in Bestepe, Erdogan also told his supporters the coup threat was not yet completely over.

Our solidarity, our stand is going to continue, he said. Stay together, he added. God willing, the believers will win.

READ MORE: Turkey declares state of emergency after failed coup

Up until yesterday there were clashes between the police and members of the military. There are some military bases and installations that have people in support of the coup held up in them, Al Jazeeras Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from the capital, Ankara, said.

This operation by no means is over yet.

Second coup attempt unlikely

However, several Turkish commentators said that the Turkish authorities claims about the possibility of a second coup attempt were not realistic.

If you look at the political domain in Turkey and the societal domain, and if you look at the dynamics with in the Turkish military at the moment, I think a second coup attempt is highly unlikely, Metin Gurcan, a Turkish military analyst and columnist for Al-Monitors Turkey Pulse, told Al Jazeera.

Turkey: United against a coup, divided on the future

Gurcan explained that along with Erdogan and the government, Turkeys opposition parties and citizens were also taking a firm stance against the coup attempt.

At the political level, we have no room for another coup attempt, he said.





I had a chance to speak to high-level commanders yesterday, and I saw that they also consolidated their full control.

As long as they preserve their poise another coup attempt is highly unlikely.

Some critics of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suggested that the government and Erdogan may be emphasising the possibility of a second coup attempt in order to legitimise their crackdown on Turkish opposition.

But, Gurcan said that, at least for the moment, the Turkish government deserved everyones support and Erdogans actions can be judged after the country fully recovers.

Turkey needs more time to recover from this deep shock, he said.

After that the civil society in Turkey, including me, will be very critical of Erdogan when and if he makes mistakes while managing the very delicate situation.

I call all investors to continue investing

Later on Friday Erdogan addressed the parliament for the first time since the coup attempt and thanked all political parties in parliament for backing his decision to declare a three-month state of emergency.

Some thought the economy would collapse if a state of emergency was declared  I call on investors to continue investing [in Turkey] as the public will move forward with major projects, he said, to loud applause from lawmakers.

Turexit: Should Turkey leave NATO?

Erdogan previously insisted democracy would not be compromised and pointed out that France also declared an emergency in the wake of a series of bloody attacks on its citizens.

Erdogan said 10,410 people had so far been detained, with 4,060 of them remanded in custody, including more than 100 generals and admirals.

Turkey has started to close down schools run by Gulens organisation and may set up special courts for coup plotters and restructure the MIT intelligence service, the Hurriyet and Sabah newspapers reported, citing government sources.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag also told CNN-Turk that the period of pre-charge detention would be lengthened.
Noppawan Ploy Bunluesilp questioned by police following a raid on her home in Bangkok

Police questioned the wife of a British journalist after he shared unflattering photos on social media alleged to be of Thailands Crown Prince.

Noppawan Ploy Bunluesilp, 39, the Thai wife of former Bangkok-based correspondent and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall, was questioned for several hours after officers searched her family home in Bangkok on Friday morning.

Marshall, who covered Thailand for many years and is author of A Kingdom in Crisis, which is banned in the country, shared photos on Thursday from German newspaper Bild that claimed to show Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, 63, sporting tattoos and wearing tight jeans and a vest t-shirt at an airport in Germany.

Marshall, a staunch critic of Thailands monarchy who has not lived in the country for several years, said in Hong Kong on Friday that his wife had nothing to do with his work.

Ploy has never been involved in my journalism, Marshall said in a video posted on Facebook.

Following his wifes release, Marshall said he was very concerned that she has faced this ordeal.

It is very important for the international reputation of the Thai Junta and the Thai authorities they do not persecute innocent people simply because they happen to be related to me.

Critics targeted

Thitirat Nongharnpitak, commander of the Central Investigation Bureau in Bangkok, said the photos of the Crown Prince were altered.

The culprit is Andrew MacGregor Marshall, who has violated lese majeste laws for several years, he said, adding he has acted from overseas to attack the royal family.

Marshall said that he had only shared the photographs from the German newspaper on social media and had nothing else to do with them.





Thai authorities regularly sentence people to lengthy prison terms under the countrys draconian lese majeste law, which carries terms of up to 15 years for comments or actions deemed insulting to the countrys royals.

Local and foreign media based in Thailand routinely self-censor to avoid falling foul of the law.

Marshall is a robust critic of the royal family and the Thai military, which seized power two years ago and has targeted critics and curbed free speech.

As the health of Thailands revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej wanes, there is particularly sensitivity surrounding the Thai monarchy, particularly succession which directly involves the Crown Prince.
Can you guess the world's most popular skin-care brand? Go ahead, hit us Jeopardy style. OK, we'll tell you: Estee Lauder. And the most talked-about product from the most popular brand: the

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II

.

Refinery29 teamed up with Social Context Labs to find out the most popular beauty companies around the globe, as well as each company's most popular products. (How else will we know what the next big Korean product will be?)

Estee Lauder scored the top spot, with the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, United States, and more showing love for the brand. It hit the top five in more than ten other countries. Hey, when something works, it works, right?

Some surprises on the list: Nivea clocked in at number two, with countries including Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Argentina, and more raving about the body lotions and creams.

It's not surprising to see Shiseido on the list at number three. The sunscreen was the most talked-about item from the Japanese company.

Rounding out the rest of the list are Lancome, L'Oreal, Neutrogena, La Roche-Posay, Clarins, Pond's, and Clinique. But there are brands on there that you may not have heard of yet, so now's your chance to check them out. Sweden's Luna facial brush (by Foreo) tied for number nine with Clinique. Italy's Borghese tied for tenth place with South Korea's LG (The History of Whoo is the top product) and Indonesia's Citra.

There's something comforting in knowing our beauty choices are the same around the world. Day cream, sunscreen, body lotion, cleansers, serums and anti-aging products keep the world beautiful. And that's no small thing.

h/t: Refinery29
           2005     ..        
Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Strategic hiring: What's a few jobs among friends? JPMorgan Chase is expected to settle a probe in coming months over alleged efforts to hire the children of powerful Chinese officials and executives in state-owned firms to drum up new business. The bank is expected to pay as much as $200 million and may admit wrongdoing, though it is unlikely to be criminally charged. Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg

Pay 'pals': PayPal and Visa have struck a deal that will allow shoppers to use PayPal on their smartphones at stores and give them the ability to directly withdraw money from PayPal's apps using a Visa debit card. The deal ends "long-simmering competition" and "a year of tense negotiations" between the two firms. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times

Wall Street Journal

Watch out, bankers: Amazon is taking a small step toward financial services in a partnership with Wells Fargo. Borrowers will get a break on their student loan rates if they belong to Amazon's "prime student" service, an annual membership that comes with expedited shipping and other benefits.

Decent showing: Capital One reported Thursday afternoon that its second-quarter earnings rose 9% from a year earlier to $942 million, on revenue of $6.25 billion.

24/7: The Federal Reserve is now keeping its account-services hotline open all day, seven days a week, after hackers make off with tens of millions of dollars from Bangladesh's account earlier this year.

Private equity: Goldman Sachs is launching a corporate-buyout fund worth as much as $8 billion. "The effort shows Goldman's commitment to a corner of Wall Street that many rivals have abandoned," the paper says. "But it also looks very different than Goldman's past funds, and reflects the impact of regulators, who have tried to discourage banks from risky investing."

New York Times

Ulterior motive?: In addition to the high legal bar and the challenges of proving individual misconduct at an enormous firm, is it possible the Justice Department had another motive for not bringing more cases against bankers for the financial crisis? A column written by former banker William D. Cohan explores whether officials were worried about misapplying a 1989 law known as FIRREA, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989.

Hindsight: A Johns Hopkins economist has argued the Fed could have saved Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy. "After what seems an exhaustive review of a now voluminous record of transcripts, exhibits and other evidence from multiple official inquiries, Professor [Laurence] Ball concludes there is 'no evidence' that the decision-makers 'examined the adequacy of Lehman's collateral, or that legal barriers deterred them from assisting the firm,'" the paper says.
Dozens of businesspeople wore hard hats. Yellow caution tape was draped around the event space. The drift was that the 10 fintech startups demonstrating their products would take a figurative wrecking ball to old, inefficient industry processes.

"Fintech is destroying legacy systems and legacy attitudes," declared Jesse Podell, the emcee and managing director of startupbootcamp FinTech New York, bounding on and off the stage in high spirits.

Despite the demolition motif, the lineup at the Wednesday event reflected a recent shift in the fintech world toward collaboration. In the past year, technologists have pivoted from taking on established players to trying to help them run more efficiently.

Five of the 10 graduates from the startupbootcamp accelerator program pitched technology designed to be used by traditional banks. A characteristic example was AlphaPack, which offers banks a "sandbox" for testing fintech partners' software. As part of the 13-week program, startupbootcamp had matched the entrepreneurs with 350 mentors, some from financial institutions like Rabobank, Santander and Deutsche Bank. (The banks were among the program's sponsors.)

"These are some of the cleanest value props I've seen in a while," tweeted Bradley Leimer, head of fintech strategy at Santander U.S.

Some of the young firms, like Seal with its mobile app for legal agreements, offer something that isn't available today. Only a few, mostly purveyors of blockchain technology, truly aim to disrupt facets of banking like lending and alternative asset trading.

Here's a rundown of the presentations.

The Collaborators

AlphaPack's product, Sandbox, gives banks a safe place to try out new technologies from fintech partners.

"Imagine you're swimming in a river, you have a 100-pound weight on your shoulders, and you're struggling to keep your head above water," said Ravi Balasubramanian, AlphaPack's CEO. "That's what it feels like to be a business unit leader or innovation leader at a financial institution that's trying to work with fintech startups right now."

The lead weight represents two concerns, he said: security and systems integration, both of which his firm aims to provide. Digital Credit Union in Marlborough, Mass., has already begun piloting it.

Fluent, a startup that began in Kentucky and is migrating east, has a blockchain-based platform for the $6 trillion trade finance space.

"This market is enormous," said David Sutter, chief operating officer and co-founder. "One third of trade in the world uses trade finance."

Yet it's a technological backwater, he said. "The financial and IT systems that support it today are extremely antiquated, largely paper-based and disconnected. It makes them slow, costly and rife with fraud."

Fluent uses distributed ledger technology to automate and streamline settlement, reduce fraud risk, increase transparency and drive automation and asset transfer. The platform is API-driven and includes a payments engine, a supply chain finance platform, a peer-to-peer receivables marketplace, supplier management tools like e-invoicing and purchase order management, and a developer toolkit.

"For banks, this platform is meant to slash back office costs and drive new revenue streams for some of their biggest commercial customers," Sutter said. "For buyers and suppliers, it's meant to be a secure, intuitive and seamless platform for transacting and optimizing working capital."

RepreZen set out to solve a longstanding problem for banks: data integration.

Developer teams at large banks struggle to pull market and reference data from different places, said Ted Epstein, RepreZen's CEO. "All of which weren't built to a common standard, weren't built to work together in a single application," he said. At large banks, he said, data integration accounts for 30% of typical IT spending.

RepreZen provides an API Studio that can be used to create connection points between applications and databases.

"This is not a quick fix, not a Band-Aid," Epstein said. "We work with companies that have a commitment to solving the problem through digital transformation programs or enterprise data governance." This summer, the company worked with Rabobank to integrate loan and facilities data to other systems in a few weeks.

VendorMach provides what it calls an "early warning system" for vendor risk management. The software is designed to monitor banks' vendors for signs of liquidity risk, data breaches and other potential issues.

"We're the smoke detector for supply chain trust," said the firm's CEO, Chaney Ojinnaka. "We can help large enterprises that have thousands of suppliers avoid the overhead and lost money due to manual information updating and compliance auditing." VendorMach is courting retail banks, marketplace lenders and insurance companies.

Visualize Wealth has created white-label software for banks to embed in their mobile apps, to give their customers a view of their investments and an objective sense of how those investments are performing.

"In the '80s, people didn't know what was in their food. It wasn't until nutrition labels came out in the '90s that people could get a clear, consistent understanding of what was in their food," said Benjamin Gross, the firm's CEO.

Similarly, in the $47 trillion investment management industry, "you cannot get a transparent, objective view of what's inside your portfolio. Anybody who's offering you an analysis of your investments is also an asset manager, they're not objective."

The Disruptors

CFX has built an online trading platform for private real estate investment trusts, a market the startup pegs at $84 billion, with 1.2 million retail shareholders.

"One problem every investor has, one that stops them investing through a portal is, 'How can I access the cash I've invested if I need it?' " said Jordan Fishfeld, CEO. "The traditional answer has been, 'you can't.' Sponsors would put their hand up and say, 'That's not my problem.' Even if they wanted to help, they were limited to the network of buyers the sponsor or issuer defined or the seller. You didn't have great transaction or historical data around the asset, and then you had to deal with the transaction process itself. This is all very time consuming."

CFX says its platform provides transparent pricing as well as banking, compliance, and document management. Since the start of Startupbootcamp, it's handled one million transactions.

Factury has a blockchain-based lending platform. "The lending industry is filled with fraud and inefficiency at every level," said Arturs Ivanovs, Factury's chief marketing officer. "It's mostly driven by paper-based processes and human labor. Only 7% of this industry is digitized." Distributed ledger technology will be the fundamental infrastructure for the lending industry, he said.

Consumer-Facing Plays

Seal has built mobile payments into its app providing professional agreements.

"Losing money is a problem for the 53 million self-employed people in this country," said Seal's CEO, Oliver Lehtonen. "They lose income because they don't legally protect their work."

token says it's working to make credit card fraud a thing of the past. "Our credit cards get stolen every day when we shop online," said Yana Zaidiner, token's chief operating officer. The firm's mobile app lets people use a pseudo credit card and payment identity while keeping their real payment information hidden, similar to another startup called Privacy.com.

Lawnmower.io made a pitch that's even more meta and of-the-moment than AlphaBox's: a mobile app for investing in blockchain assets.

Unlike cryptocurrency wallet apps, which are designed for storing digital cash and sending payments, Lawnmower's is billed as "an investment account" with research and portfolio benchmarking tools. (The company partners with Coinbase, a long-running bitcoin wallet provider and exchanger, which handles trades and custody.)

Pieter Gorsira, Lawnmower's founder and CEO, did not shy from appealing to the audience's fear of missing out.

"I ask you to ask yourself, 'Why didn't I buy any bitcoin when it was only $30?' " he said. "Maybe at the time you'd never heard of bitcoin. Maybe you'd heard of it but didn't understand it  crazy hacker currency  or you understood it but didn't believe in the hype."

Other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, Ripple's XRP and a Johnny-come-lately called Steem, have been rallying since the end of the year, Gorsira pointed out.

"It's clear we're witnessing the advent of a new asset class, the blockchain asset class," he said. "There's a problem. If you want to put money into these assets, it's a super painful process." Lawnmower's app, he said, "makes it super easy to learn about and invest in blockchain assets."

Just be careful out there. Please.

Editor at Large Penny Crosman welcomes feedback at penny.crosman@sourcemedia.com.


WASHINGTON  Two top Senate Democrats are calling on financial regulators to examine the role of financial technology firms and how their activities interact with the existing regulatory structure.

In a letter to the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said it is critical that fintech firms be subject to rules similar to those that long-standing financial services firms face.

"As we think about the role of fintech, we must be mindful that some of these products, activities and business models may be new and innovative, while others may largely resemble those of existing, federally regulated firms," the letter said. "These companies are changing financial services, and it is vital that the regulators and Congress understand all the impacts and take actions as appropriate."

Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Merkley, the ranking member of the panel's Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection subcommitee, specifically sought details on fintech business models, the regulatory oversight of third-party service providers and protections for consumers and small businesses.

Among the activities outlined as of particular interest were marketplace lending, consumer lending, alternative payments, crowdsourcing, personal finance management, virtual currencies, blockchain and distributed ledger, as well as "your views on the impact of these firms on the institutions you regulate."

The letter also highlights the relationships that federally insured depository institutions have with nonbank technology firms that originate loans. Recent tumult in the industry  most notably at Lending Club, whose chief executive resigned earlier this year after some third-party investors said they would no longer purchase its loans  has made the relationships between the firms and third parties all the more pertinent, the letter said.

"Recent event raise questions about the relationship between regulators, financial institutions and third-party service providers, specifically the policies and internal controls put in place to address possible risks associated with certain lending practices and transactions with financial institutions," the letter said.

Regulators have increasingly turned their attention to the role that technology is playing in driving innovation in the financial services industry, with Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry saying last month that the office was examining whether it has the statutory authority to offer a limited charter to technology firms. The Treasury Department and CFPB have also taken steps to examine the issue.

But the senators' letter suggests that Congress might be gearing up for a more coordinated examination of fintech companies. Earlier this month the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the role of fintech companies in the financial sector.


WASHINGTON  A progressive group is up in arms against Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., after the possible Democratic vice presidential nominee signed letters calling on regulators to tailor rules based on bank size and complexity.

On Monday, a group of 70 Democratic and Republican Senators, including Kaine, sent a letter urging Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray to spare credit unions and community banks from the raft of regulations the bureau has promulgated since its inception. The Virginia Democrat also signed a separate letter that calls on the Federal Reserve Board and other banking agencies to ease up on liquidity rules for regional and midsize banks.

The liberal group slammed Kaine for both letters, arguing he should not be considered by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton when she chooses her running mate.

"It should be disqualifying for any potential Democratic vice presidential candidate to be part of a lobbyist-driven effort to help banks dodge consumer protection standards and regulations designed to prevent banks from destroying our economy," Charles Chamberlain, the executive director of Democracy for America, wrote in a statement Thursday.

He said "our presidential ticket cannot beat the billionaire bigot by simply being not-Donald Trump."

To win, he added, the Democratic nominees need to have demonstrated "unquestionably strong record in the fight against income inequality."

Chamberlain also criticized Kaine for backing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "Making Senator Tim Kaine our vice presidential candidate could be potentially disastrous for our efforts to defeat Donald Trump this fall," Chamberlain said.

Kaine's position is hardly a radical one. The CFPB letter was signed by more than two-thirds of the Senate, including many Democrats. And many regulators, including Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Gov. Daniel Tarullo, have repeatedly stated their preference that regulations disproportionately affect the largest and riskiest banks.

The second letter, sent July 18, was addressed to the Fed, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and was co-signed by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Gary Peters, D-Mich. In it the lawmakers call on the agencies to reconsider the asset-based mechanism for certain rules, particularly the liquidity coverage ratio and the so-called "advanced approaches" framework.

It notes the distinction that regulators had already made between regional banks and large, complex institutions, but said that those distinctions have been "applied unevenly." It asks the agencies to "consider altering the reporting requirement" for the LCR, which is due to be fully implemented later this year.

The advanced approaches framework was initially developed as a mechanism that the agencies have used post-crisis to allow bank with more than $250 billion in assets and more than $10 billion in overseas assets to use internal models rather than generic models developed by regulators for risk management and capital adequacy. As of last September, there were 10 bank with approved advanced approaches models: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, U.S. Bancorp and State Street.

In recent months, however, agencies have used the advanced-approaches criteria as a basis for determining which banks might be subject to certain regulatory requirements, notably in the net stable funding ratio proposed in April and the countercyclical capital buffer rule proposed last December.

The lawmakers' letter says that when the advanced-approaches framework was initially proposed in 2003, the asset threshold applied primarily to the largest and most internationally active banks, which was whom it was meant to capture.

"In the last 13 years, the U.S. financial system has transformed and grown significantly," the letter said. "However, advanced approaches has not been revisited as the financial system and our regulatory structure have evolved, and as a result now captures many regional banks that do not share the same risk profile or complexity as their larger, systemically important brethren. Additionally, reliance on internal models often obscures a bank's financial status and we believe the regulatory regime should move away from such methodologies."

A spokesperson for Warner's office said that the letter is aimed in part to discourage the agencies' reliance on asset size as the criteria for regulatory requirements, favoring instead risk-based criteria that consider individual banks' business models. Moreover, the letter is meant to highlight the shortcomings of the advanced approaches framework because of its reliance on internal modeling rather direct oversight by the regulators  reliance that bank might be able to use to their advantage.
Banc of California's second-quarter profits soared on stronger lending and credit quality.

The $10.2 billion-asset company's net income rose 66% from a year earlier to $26.5 million, it said in a news release Thursday.

Net interest income rose 50% to $81 million as total loans increased 39.4% to $6.2 billion. The biggest gains came in multifamily, construction, commercial-and-industrial and single-family mortgage lending.

Meanwhile, the provision for loan losses fell to $1.8 million from $5.5 million.

Deposits rose 55.3% to $7.9 million.

Those positives were offset by a 1.6% dip in noninterest income to $65.6 million, and the net interest margin fell to 3.39% from 3.64%. Moreover, noninterest expenses rose 13.8% to $100 million.

Banc of California, based in Irvine, has plans for further growth. It started units to specialize in health care, municipals and nonprofit banking that are expected to start operations the second half of the year.

The company raised $100 million in a secondary offering, redeemed $85 million of senior notes and increased its line of credit to $75 million in the second quarter, the release said.


Here is a safe bet. Nobody at the Democrat party convention will be invited to make a speech wherein they refuse to endorse Hillary Clinton and instead urge the delegates to vote their conscience. For all the controversy and hot air that Ted Cruzs convention speech has generated, it also demonstrates a fundamental difference between the Democrat and Republican parties, even in the age of Trump. Republicans, Trump included, more so than Democrats, are open to uncomfortable ideas, willing to evaluate evidence, and suspicious of dogma. Democrats on the other hand regard leftist dogmas as inviolate, reject objective evidence that contradicts it, and consider uncomfortable ideas akin to violent physical aggression. Regardless whether Donald Trump cleverly set up Ted Cruz to deliver his non-endorsement speech, the fact that Trump and the Republican Party allowed it at all is commendable, and almost certainly something we will not see next week in Philadelphia.

Cruzs refusal to endorse Trump is either commendable or vain and disloyal depending on ones view. NeverTrumpers are hailing Cruz as a hero of sorts, despite his many flaws. The Weekly Standard calls it a stand for constitutional conservativism, to which Im sympathetic, but it is water under the bridge. Republican voters thought otherwise, Hillary is the alternative, and thats the end of it. And of course, they must explain away and excuse Cruzs early support of Trump, at a critical time when had he attacked Trump as he did at the convention, the businessmans campaign might have foundered. Cruz is attacking a phenomenon he helped create out of political expediency -- now and then.

Now imagine if a speaker at the Democrat convention urged delegates to vote their consciences, in the traditional meaning of the word, based upon universal ethical principles, e.g., it is wrong to lie, to steal, to bear false witness, to covet. Would Hillary get a vote?

But two things protect her. Firstly, Democrats in general, and particularly Democrat activists, reject traditional principles of morality, embodied as they are in archaic ideas that the unenlightened masses cling to, like religion. Leftists fundamentally reject traditional moral principles as they interfere with the amassing of power.

Of course, it is true that throughout much of history entrenched aristocratic elites used religion and supposed moral prerogatives to maintain power and enrich themselves. A bad answer to this problem was the annihilation of traditional elites and with them religion and traditional ideas of morality, which happened in much of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This solution generally only brings greater tyranny and suffering to the masses, but which is the preferred doctrinaire leftist approach.

More inventive Western societies, led by the United States, have managed, however imperfectly, to reconcile traditional morality with personal liberty and democracy. That sticks in the craw of the left, which in its modern American form uses the liberty and the power balances of democracy to undermine it at every turn. In this endeavor, the personal foibles of committed ideologues, particularly those who are adept at manipulating the levers of power, mean little or nothing.

The chief moral principle of the doctrinaire leftist, which is to say the Democrat party in its current form, is achieving power and placing the levers of power in the hands of properly indoctrinated elites. These elites will then instruct the masses as to what is best for them collectively. That is their overriding ethic. By this standard it doesnt matter whether the elites in question themselves abide by traditional ethics -- in fact doing so is regarded as transgressive. Part of the Clintons very attraction to the left is their moral corruption, which offends the masses, but which more sophisticated people regard as a nuisance at worst, bohemian joie de vivre at best.

The second reason nobody will urge a vote of conscience at the Democrat convention is related to the Clinton quality that the left respects the most -- that they indeed have their fingers on the levers of power and money, and are ruthless in their use.

Donald Trump may or may not have ambushed Cruz with the kind of reality television psycho-drama in which he is well practiced. But even assuming that is the case, it takes a kind of personal and intellectual tolerance to pull it off. Trumps comment after Cruzs speech was that it was no big deal, and whether he meant it or not, pulled it off easily, despite accusations that Trump is thin skinned.

Try to imagine Hillary Clinton doing the same thing in the wake of such a speech at the Democrat convention. What difference does it make? she might whine, but in doing so revealing that in fact it does make a big difference.

But of course it will not happen. While it is true that most Democrat convention delegates would not let their consciences, such as they are, interfere with a vote for Hillary, such a speech would still be extremely awkward and uncomfortable for the Democrat, in ways that it is not for Trump. And while Bernie Sanders erstwhile supporters are arguably further left than Hillary, they are also generally younger, more naive, and less inured to the uncomfortable reality that their party leaders are, for the most part -- how can I put it delicately -- money-grubbing liars and cheats. Being reminded of that by a prominent speaker in their own house is far too dangerous, indeed unthinkable.

Plus, even the Democrat-supporting mainstream media would not be able to avoid critically reporting such a comment in an important speech. They have been quite questionably trumpeting Cruzs comments as a disaster to party unity, with more openly left-leaning outlets calling it (inaccurately) humiliating. As such, they could not credibly downplay such a comment as anything less than that for Hillary, at a time when her campaign is already flagging.

To ask Democrat delegates to vote their consciences would be, to use a generally meaningless throwaway phrase that the left is fond of -- to speak truth to power. But in that situation it would actually have some very specific meaning and potential consequence. So it will never happen.
Have you ever had a crazy boss who just happened to be a woman? Someone who micromanages, lashes out uncontrollably, and is just simply unpleasant? God forbid our country should be on the verge of getting such a boss. Hillary Clinton is supposed to represent the proposition that women are indeed qualified for leadership every bit as much as men, and are just as logical and cool-headed. Her little meme is that she offers calm, steady leadership. It is ironic, then, that Hillary is not exactly a calm person to deal with.

There are many examples of Hillary Clintons erratic behavior as First Lady, such as throwing large items at Bill Clintons face, and not allowing Secret Service to look her in the eye. Also, there is the now famous greeting of the Secret Service officer: Good morning Maam. Fuck off, replied Hillary. You could never picture Donald Trump this unhinged, whom we are supposed to now regard as dangerous. And Bill Clinton is reputed to have been perfectly amiable with Secret Service and other workers. But lets focus on Hillarys more recent career. These examples are culled from Edward Kleins Unlikable. The thesis is that Hillary has a congenital unlikable quality, which cannot be fixed.

Micromanaging: According to a Foreign Service officer who served while Clinton was Secretary of State, It soon became apparent that Hillarys people were going to turn the place upside down and try to micromanage everything to save Hillarys ass. If you worked in the State Department under Hillary, you werent allowed to do your job, your input was not sought, and you were not respected as a professional. That might sound familiar to anyone who has had a boss of this variety. Instead of having a leader focused on the big picture, theyre breathing down your neck, neurotically second guessing every step you take. And indeed, Clinton had no imprint on the big picture during her stint at the State Department.

To be fair, the White House didnt really let her make substantive decisions as Secretary of State. Apparently she was only appointed in the spirit of keep your enemies closer. The White House itself was in effect managed by women too, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor; and yes, Michelle Obama, who has stuck her nose into matters well outside the purview of the First Lady, a tradition started by Hillary herself. Jarrett is seen by many as the real power behind the presidential throne. And Michelle and Jarrett do not like Hillary. Michelle pursued her catty vendetta against Hillary throughout; so behind the curtain, there was basically an epic catfight brewing in the federal government from 2008-2012.

Hubris and Arrogance: Hillary threw her weight around in an unseemly manner at the State Department. One staffer described her as acting like, the boss of bosses, trying to intimidate everyone in sight, which stood in opposition to pervious Secretaries of State, who show a decent respect for the opinion of the permanent bureaucracy and ask for help to find their way around. Women sometimes go overboard trying to assert their authority, and in doing so create a tense vibe.

Incidentally, Chelsea Clinton is also a handful: Chelsea was her mothers daughter in a number of ways. Like Hillary, she had a hair-trigger temper and flew into a rage at the slightest provocation. A taste of power only seemed to whet her appetite. Chelsea is as volatile as her mom, and would frequently engage in screaming matches with her parents. With Chelsea you have this odd sense of entitlement, as evidenced by her domineering manner at the Clinton Foundation; and she certainly hasnt paid her dues. Working under Chelsea sounds thoroughly unpleasant. So both mother and daughter have inadequate control of their emotions, although they can usually conceal their true nature from the public.

One of the many reasons that the MSM is hysterical about Trump is that he is unapologetically male. This means that he is direct and to the point, yet he has a sense of humor to smooth out the edges. Hillary cannot smooth out her rough edges as a boss. Hence there is no respite from a tense work environment, which Clinton surely created as both First Lady and Secretary of State.

Trump is not putting on a mask for the public; whereas Hillary literally received likability lessons from Steven Spielberg. Ultimately these lessons failed. Trump has no problem calling attention to the special brand of crazy associated with Hillary. He even called her out on her annoying voice, though the media has inculcated us with this belief that shrill is a seriously offensive word.

Not all females have this type of neurotic behavior. But it needs to be said, and even some women will admit: there is a certain type of compulsive, overbearing boss that is unique to the female gender. Hillary certain has these qualities, and therefore it is fair to say that if she were elected, the entire country would become a hostile work environment.

Contact Malcolm Unwell
Conservatives frequently say we must appoint conservative judges who dont make law, but interpret the law. This sounds great, but a close analysis shows why it doesnt work out the way we want.

We believe that a judge who is conservative will rule in a manner that is politically conservative. But judges who are conservative do not predictably rule in a politically conservative manner. Conservative judges usually believe in stare decisis, which means to follow legal precedent, and believe in deference to the legislative process. This means they believe that the legislature make the laws, and it is not the job of judges to second guess the legislature.

Judges such as Holmes, Bork, and Frankfurter said it doesnt matter if the law is dumb or stupid. They will reverse only if the law violates a specific right in the Constitution. They believe that if a law can be found constitutional under any argument, then it should be ruled constitutional. This is the rationale of Justice Roberts to uphold Obamacare. He ruled that Congress didnt have authority under the commerce clause but had authority under the power to tax to rule that the individual mandate is constitutional.

Following the ratification of the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional various laws, such as minimum wage, minimum hours, and other social welfare legislation as violating the liberty of contract. The progressives/liberals of the day attacked the Court, saying the Court should defer to the legislatures and not substitute its judgment for the legislature. This was because the laws that were invalidated were laws supported by the progressives/liberals.

Justice Holmes was the leader of the judicial deference school of legal thought. For example, Holmes upheld a state law allowing for the sterilization of mentally challenged women and upheld the convictions during WWI of those who criticized the war. Holmes was appointed by Teddy Roosevelt, who wanted a reliable vote to upheld government legislation.

Now it is conservatives who say judges should defer to the legislatures. This is because the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional state laws on abortion, marriage, sodomy, contraceptives, and other social issues where conservatives supported the laws.

Now progressives/liberals want judges who will not defer to the legislatures when the law at issue deals with economic activity, such as Obamacare, but want judicial activism when the law at issue deals with social issues of abortion, marriage, etc.

This distinction in how the Court reviews laws dealing with constitutional issues came about in the famous footnote 4 in Carolene. The Court stated that it would analyze economic legislation under a rational test but would apply strict scrutiny to laws affecting constitutional rights. In other words, it would uphold most laws regulating economic activity but would substitute its judgment for laws affecting constitutional rights.

The battle then developed to what constitutional rights are. There are specific rights under the Bill of Rights, and then there are other rights that the Court has discovered under the 14th Amendment, such as the abortion, gay marriage, and privacy rights.

Today, judges who are progressive/liberal favor judicial deference for laws that deal with regulation of the economy. This supports the growth of government and the regulatory bureaucratic state.

But conservatives who want judges who are not activists unwittingly are helping the progressives in expanding government power.

The Court should treat all constitutional rights, economic and personal non-economic, the same to require the government to prove the necessity and reasonableness of the law, and strictly scrutinize the governments reasons.

The policy of deference to the legislature has contributed to the explosive growth in the federal governments power because the Court has deferred to Congress, allowing laws that regulate all economic activity.
Hillary Clintons status as the presidential candidate of her party is totally due to the national party organization. Unlike Donald Trump, who earned the votes of 14 million primary voters without any help from his party, Hillary is totally dependent upon her partys vast national political infrastructure. Because her status is totally dependent upon her party she is now totally beholden to it.

This dependence upon the party means that she must do what the party wants, and must refrain from doing what the party doesnt want. And for the Democrat Party what they dont do is just as, if not more, important than what they do. This is because the Democrat Party practices what may be called palliative politics, particularly with regard to social issues. They go after symptoms not underlying causes.

This explains the paradox of Democrat Party legislation. On the one hand Democrats are known for relentlessly creating new programs to regulate the production of energy, business, and behavior at all levels and society. But the party infrastructure has become so dependent upon these foci that they are now dependent on the existence of the problems. Simply put, Democrats do not want to solve any social problems because then theres no need for the party anymore. This is best illustrated by an example.

Recently the terrorist act in Orlando was used as an opportunity for Democrats to bring up the issue of assault weapon control. So-called assault weapons were once banned but the ban expired in 2004. And, curiously, when Obama took office in 2009 the Democrats had big majorities in the House and Senate as well as control of the White House. So one may reasonably ask why they didnt permanently ban alleged military-type guns in 2009 or 2010 when Republicans had no political power to stop them. Republicans never did try to stop them in 2009 and 2010.

This would seem to have been a good test of their devotion to the assault weapon ban yet somehow the issue never came up. The same is true of the minimum wage issue. Democrats have been discussing the minimum wage issue for decades and in 2009 they could have raised that to fifteen dollars an hour. But somehow they werent interested. The reason they werent interested is that their 2008 campaign was over, it had achieved its goal of placing a Democrat in the White House.

The reason they werent interested in solving these two issues should be obvious. The assault weapon ban is a campaign issue. It serves the strategy of attracting discussions during campaigns. Nothing more. So if Democrats truly ended the existence of military style assault weapons they would also eliminate it as a campaign issue.

Gun control has been an issue ever since JFK was assassinated with a rifle in 1963, so no one can argue that Democrats are only recently concerned with gun control. They boast that they are the only party that is concerned. What they will not say is that now they are dependent upon gun violence as a campaign issue.

A similar issue is the minimum wage. They had the opportunity to raise the minimum wage in 2009 but refused to do so. Once again this is because the minimum wage needs to be preserved as a campaign issue. The last thing Democrats want is to shorten their list of campaign topics.

This line of analysis also applies to wage equality for women. And tragically, the same thing applies to race. President Obama only gained the White House with the black vote. Its important to note that he only brings up the issue of race use it to say the nation needs a conversation on race. He does not implement solutions. The biggest problem in black communities is the lack of good public education, yet one of the first things President Obama did was stop, by executive order, the ability of black parents to have school choice in Washington, D.C.

President Obama will go out of his way to talk about gun violence in the black community but only when he can blame it on the culture of racism in law enforcement. Oddly, the culture of racism in the Democrat Party, the party which created and maintains all the black ghettoes in the nation, never comes up. Democrats fought the emancipation of slaves and the 1871 Civil Rights Act. They used Senator Robert Byrd, who once was a leader in the violently anti-black KKK organization, to filibuster the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Republicans voted to stop the filibuster and, against the will of the Democrat Party, passed the Civil Rights Act.

Any time a Democrat brings up an issue such as minimum wage, income equality, or taxing the rich, they need to be asked why they didnt do it in 2009 when they had the power. Its not a matter of power, its a matter of politics. In 2009 the Democrats had the means and the opportunity to solve many issues but not the motive. Democrats need to never solve issues because they use these issues to market themselves to voters. While they play identity politics they do not want to solve any social issues because then there will be no reason to vote for Democrats.

Theres another side to this strategy. Democrats also need to constantly say that Republicans will never solve these issues. But voters must think about voting for Hillary knowing that her party, when they had the opportunity, did nothing to solve them. And if voters are really concerned that someone needs to ban assault weapons, they now know that as a fact Democrats will never do it. Democrats have little incentive to solve issues and great incentive to not solve them.

Another thing Hillary will not do is balance the budget. She has not said she will do so. This is because the budget deficits finance the partys infrastructure, the infrastructure that got Hillary into the position as presidential candidate. Dedication to the party is the most important thing. This infrastructure is very expensive. Its important to note that Hillary doesnt need the approval of Congress to engage in another, much bigger Quantitative Easing program. Obama also didnt consult with Congress, as the Constitution demands.

Hillary has never promised to balance the budget because that act would jeopardize her partys national infrastructure and their public sector union campaign donations. She is beholden to her party and its policies, which will never solve problems because they need these problems in order to keep in power.

Hillary and her surrogates attack Trumps personality and predict that he will be destructive. Voters should measure these predictions against the realities of what the Democrat Party does, and has done, for over one hundred years, to minorities. At some point American voters may come to realize that enough is enough, that theyve suffered enough taxation and empty Democrat Party promises, and are tired of having their valid concerns manipulated to keep Democrats in power.
I can't wait for those Iran sanctions to "snap back" into place. Can you?

The top leadership in Iran has instructed its atomic research organization to prepare to reopen nuclear sites shuttered by the nuclear agreement.

If Iran goes through with this, it will scuttle the agreement and force President Obama to reimpose sanctions.

Or not.

Washington Free Beacon:

Ali Larijani, the leader of Irans parliament, requested this week that the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization prepare a plan to reopen nuclear enrichment facilitates that had been shutdown as part of the effort to limit Tehrans research into nuclear weapons technology, according to comments carried in Irans state-controlled media. Iranian leaders are displeased with a recent United Nations report chastising the Islamic Republic for violating international agreements prohibiting the countrys work on ballistic missiles. The U.N. described these repeated test launches as not consistent with international accords. Iranian leaders dismissed the report as biased. Iranian lawmakers recently passed legislation in June 2015, mandating the country preserve its nuclear infrastructure if more sanctions are placed on the country. It is necessary for the Atomic Energy Organization to act in compliance with the law passed on the reopening of the nuclear plant to enrich uranium proportionate to the countrys needs and prepare a plan and keeps the [parliament] posted on it, Larijani said. The Iranian leader further chided the United States for pursuing diversionary actions aimed at undermining the nuclear agreement. While regretting the U.N. secretary generals move, the Majlis warn the U.S. administration, the House of Representatives, and the Senate that diversionary actions against the nuclear deal have reached a point where Iran has no other option but to retaliate, he said.

It may be a bluff to get the Obama administration to roll over on the ballistic missile tests. Or the Iranians have accurately gauged the mood of the Security Council, where the idea of reimposing sanctions on Tehran is a non-starter. So Iran would be able to continue with its bomb research while enjoying the benefits of the lifting of most international sanctions.

Here's Rep. Peter Roskam on the implications of the recently revealed documents showing that Iran will be able to vastly upgrade its centrifuge program years ahead of where the administration claimed it could.

Secret documents obtained by the Associated Press show that key restrictions on Irans nuclear procurement efforts will be lifted in a decade, putting Iran within six months of a nuclear bomb. The Washington Free Beacon disclosed on Wednesday that lawmakers critical of the administrations diplomacy with Iran were kept in the dark about the agreement. The documents also call into question public claims made by Obama administration officials about the methods by which Iranian enrichment activities would be curtailed. Of course the administration has not told lawmakers this and of course its sadly predicable, Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) said to the Free Beacon on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday. Theres no celebration in the fact that the administration has gotten this [deal] wrong at conceivably every level. It is severe news and it has to be dealt with. Roskam went on to state that these documents invalidate the entirety of the nuclear deal.

In a less partisan world, Democratic senators who kept the Senate from voting the treaty down should be livid at being lied to by the president. But while the secret documents have roiled Washington, most of the media has ignored them and continues pushing the narrative that the deal is the best thing since sliced bread. Democrats don't even have to comment about the issue, because no one will be asking them about it.

The Iranians may or may not blow up the agreement by reopening closed facilities. But it's absolutely clear who has the upper hand, and it isn't President Barack Obama.
Judge Andrew Napolitano has put together a compelling case that a massive cover-up took place in the FBI investigation of Hillary Clintons emails. He writes it cleverly, with each sentence beginning, What if? so as to be able to present hypotheses.

It really deserves to be read in its entirety at The Washington Times. But here is a sample:

What if, when Mrs. Clinton suggested to the president that the United States wage a secret, undeclared war against Libya, the president went along with it as a no-lose proposition? What if he assumed that if her secret war succeeded hed get the credit, and if her secret war failed she would get the blame? What if the means of fighting the secret war consisted of employing intelligence assets rather than the U.S. military? What if Mrs. Clinton concocted that idea because the use of the military requires a public reporting to the entire Congress but the use of intelligence assets requires only a secret reporting to a dozen members of Congress? What if Mrs. Clinton expanded her war by permitting American and foreign arms dealers to bypass the NATO arms embargo on Libya by selling heavy-duty, military-grade arms directly to militias in Libya? What if this was Mrs. Clintons dream scenario  an apparent civil war in Libya in which the victorious side was secretly armed by the United States, with democracy brought to the country and Mrs. Clinton the architect of it all? What if the CIA warned Mrs. Clinton that this would backfire? What if the CIA told her that she was arming not pro-Western militias but anti-American terrorist groups? What if she rejected all that advice? What if providing material assistance to terrorist groups is a felony? What if the Department of Political Justice actually obtained an indictment of an American arms dealer for going along with Mrs. Clintons schemes?

One figure is missing in this account: James Comey. I suspect that is because Judge Napolitano can't quite make up his mind what Comey was doing with his statement. My guess is that Comey felt a ton of presure and decided to provide the ammo and let others pull the trigger. But that's just me.
Shortly after VA secretary Robert McDonald proved to the world that he is in a Disneyland state of mind by comparing lethal wait times for treatment to the lines in the amusement park, Barack Obama gave him a strong backup. This time we were to be taken for a ride without having to stand in a queue. Obama stated: I think Secretary McDonald has done a terrific job, as if scandals and the VAs despicable treatment of veterans were not enough to manifest the contrary.

If the results of Mr. Terrific (officially handpicked in June 2014) are said to be great, then what exactly was expected of him?

McDonalds self-promotion campaign takes after a disinfectant claiming our product kills 99.9% of germs and inevitably brings to mind debatable accuracy of the ad.

In his remarks (United Veterans Committee of Colorado, April 10, 2016), the VA secretary affirmed: And real-time customer-satisfaction feedback were gathering with Vet Link  our kiosk-based software-tells us that about 90 percent of Veterans are either completely satisfied or satisfied getting the appointment when they wanted. But about 3 percent told us they werent satisfied, so we have more work to do.

According to a VA I.G. report, more than 300,000 American veterans died while waiting for health care. Are we talking success?

Assuming that thousands of our homeless veterans have all the reasons to be in the tiny 3 percent dissatisfied group, it is doubtful that they were given an opportunity to express themselves.

Robert McDonald has some presumably great news for them: Weve made important progress ending veteran homelessness. Twenty-five communities and two states have ended veteran homelessness.

Two states only? Veteran homelessness was to end in 2015, wasnt it? Lets do the math: two states since 2014, one year per state...it means that the Obamas administration, including the VAs Mr. Terrific, would need 50 years to end veteran homelessness. The argument that fighting poverty is a grueling mission doesnt work if paired with the easy task of blowing billions. How about misspending $6 billion annually or creative misuse of $5.2 million for a botched VA marketing campaign while our veterans lives are endangered?

Secretary McDonald seems to have no problem adding a few zeroes on the taxpayers tab, but he just cant separate from professional zeroes in the VA. Even if you cant fire your way to excellence, you can save veterans lives by getting rid of evidently harmful elements.

While commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, McDonald sermonized: Please take advantage of the opportunity this commemoration presents to express your gratitude for the service of this generation of American service members. Thank a Vietnam veteran, and welcome them home!

Interestingly enough, the Los Angeles VA harasses whistleblowers who served in the Vietnam era. Elderly veterans are continuously stalked and charged with idiotic offenses such as hanging the American flag, which, according to the VA, is a crime of displaying placards. According to Robert McDonald, embracing our Vietnam veterans and their families are in keeping with the intent and spirit of our MyVA transformation, focusing on our customers and improving their experience with the VA. Are embracing our elderly veterans with handcuffs and calling the American flag a placard parts of the transformation?

VA workers are quick to label our veterans as potentially dangerous PTSD carriers, but it seems they are unwilling to get accustomed with the World Health Organizations definition of elder abuse, and they are absurdly clueless about honoring veterans. How many stars and stripes for the VAs customer service?

Over the last few years, many of our veterans, no matter if in their 20s or 90s, have proven to be true guardians of our values and our freedom. Many have lost their jobs in order to keep the oath. Many have never really retired and have been standing sentinel to protect the truth.

Secretary McDonald has misspoken on several occasions, embellishing his military record and magnifying the number of unfit employees who were fired, but this is the biggest lie of them all: Still, simple words from West Points Cadet Prayer guide me  choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.
The Clinton campaign has invited family members of the victims of police shootings but will not invite relatives of murdered police officers.

This prompted the local Philadelphia police union to fire off a blistering statement heavily criticizing the candidate.

Washington Times:

John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said the union was shocked and saddened by the planned choice of speakers at the convention, which opens Monday in Philadelphia. The Fraternal Order of Police is insulted and will not soon forget that the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton are excluding the widows and other family members of police officers killed in the line of duty who were victims of explicit and not implied racism, Mr. McNesby said in a statement. He said its sad that to win an election Mrs. Clinton must pander to the interests of people who do not know all the facts, while the men and women they seek to destroy are outside protecting the political institutions of this country. Mrs. Clinton, you should be ashamed of yourself, if that is possible. The Clinton campaign has scheduled former President Bill Clinton to speak Tuesday night with members of Mothers of the Movement, a group that includes relatives of black men killed by police such as Eric Garner of New York and Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri. Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who said the nation is a powder keg over the police-involved shootings and assassinations of officers, is also scheduled to speak. Clinton campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Formas told the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, As Hillary Clinton has said, we need to support heroic police officers who put their lives on the line every day as well as listen to the voices of mothers who have lost their children. We look forward to highlighting the courageous efforts of law enforcement with speakers at our convention, including from Pennsylvania, and praising their work to keep our communities safe.

It would have been acceptable not to invite either the families of the victims of police shootings or the families of slain police officers. But to invite one and not the other is taking sides.

The Clinton campaign has come out in favor of anarchy and anti-police violence. They can issue pious statements about how much they love the police and appreciate what they do from now until the election, and it won't change the stark fact that they telegraphed which side they are on by snubbing the families of slain cops.

There's a chance that if the murdered policemen's families had spoken, they would have been booed. Reason enough according to the thinking of the Clinton campaign not to have a potential embarrassment during the convention.
It was not a polished speech delivered by a politician.

It was plain-spoken by former U.S. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.

If you saw it, you know why Texas is proud of Luttrell, the man whose actions in Afghanistan are portrayed in the movie Lone Survivor.

Luttrell was born (1975) in Houston, Texas and joined the U.S. Navy in 1999. He served eight years on active duty and became a Hospital Corpsman First Class.

Here is a brief summary of the event that led to his notoriety:

He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 with SEAL Team Ten as part of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One (SDV-1). While in Afghanistan, he was involved in Operation Red Wings, during which the four-man Special Reconnaissance element with SDV-1 was discovered by local herdsmen, subsequently ambushed, and all killed except Luttrell. Luttrell was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the operation. The team knew the local herdsmen might reveal their whereabouts to Taliban fighters but, because they were not armed combatants, the team allowed the herdsmen to leave despite the risk to themselves and their mission.

On Monday, July 18, 2016, after a four-minute introduction by former Texas governor Rick Perry, Luttrell addressed the convention for six minutes (YouTube).

Among many clear and fine words, Luttrell said that his father raised him and his twin brother to be patriotic and to love this country and its people, more than we loved ourselves.

If Texas U.S. senator Ted Cruz heard Luttrells speech, he may have missed that line about loving country more than self. Or, perhaps, Ted does not align with that particular belief.

Because later, Cruz had an opportunity, in his speech on July 20, to become a living illustration of Luttrells words and be remembered for his selflessness as long as the history of American politics is studied.

But the junior senator from Texas chose to take a converse path that leads to consequences yet to be seen.
Bank of America has been teasing a complete redesign of their app, over the past few weeks. And today, they pulled the trigger and made it official. This brings it to version 7.0, and as youd expect, it is a pretty big update for the app. The Bank of America app is still free in the Google Play Store, and it adds all kinds of new features for Bank of America customers. The big features include an option to switch over to Spanish, an important one since Spanish is the second most common language spoken in the US. Bank of America card rewards redemption are now available within the app and finally, you can access your FICO score. A feature that many credit card apps have already included.

In their press release, Bank of America quotes that the latest redesign of their app  for both Android and iOS  uses the latest in app designs for the respective platforms. And that it creates a more intuitive, seamless user experience. The Android app is not a rip off of the iOS app and vice versa. Bank of America optimized the apps for their platforms. When it comes to credit card rewards redemption, it was one of the most requested features for the app. Now those that have the BankAmericard Cash Rewards and BankAmericard Travel Rewards credit cards can see their rewards and travel purchase points within the app. They also have the ability to redeem them through the app.

Finally, FICO Score Access was another big requested feature for Bank of Americas app. Now credit card users will be able to see their FICO Score within the app. Customers will also be able to see what factors are influencing their credit score and also see how their score compares to local and national averages.

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The new Bank of America app is available in the Play Store right now. It doesnt appear to be a staged roll out, so just hit the button below and get to downloading. Its a fairly big update to the app, and may take some time to get used too.
BlackBerry released their first official Android-powered device towards the end of last year, the BlackBerry PRIV, a high-end device based around a QHD resolution 5.4-inch AMOLED display, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. At the time there were persistent rumours that the company was set to release two or three devices in 2016 and since then, these rumours have gradually solidified. Yesterday, the BlackBerry Hamburg also known as Neon device popped up at the FCC, fleshing out some of the detail surrounding the handset. We had already seen the manufacturer, TCL, linked with BlackBerry and looking through the specification of the new BlackBerry Neon, this appears to be either a lightly modified or a rebranded Alcatel Idol 4. As such, the BlackBerry Neon does not have a keyboard but is instead reliant on the touchscreen. This should be no great hardship given BlackBerrys standard keyboard as included on the device.

Another BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry Rome, has now appeared on the Geekbench 3 website. The Rome has the model designation STV100-3, setting it apart from the PRIVs STV100-1 and the Neon with STH100-2. The Rome will include a physical keyboard and a chipset that will contain six processor cores, that in terms of specification do look similar to the PRIV, but the benchmark scores are inferior. The BlackBerry Neon is based around an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-series chipset, either the 615 or the 617, which uses the lower powered ARM Cortex-A53 cores. The BlackBerry Rome might use a higher grade Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-series processor, the 650. This particular chipset is based around a two tier big.LITTLE architecture with a quad core 1.4 GHz lower tier of 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53s and a higher performance dual core cluster of 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 units. It is also possible that the reported chipset as seen by Geekbench 3 is incorrect. Whatever the chipset that the BlackBerry Rome has, it will be supported by 3 GB of RAM, and will run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

At this juncture, we do not have any additional information regarding these follow up Android-powered devices such as market availability, colours, pricing and release dates although we believe BlackBerry will discuss their new devices next week. As soon as we receive any additional details we will let you know.
Samsung is looking to announce their next flagship, the Galaxy Note 7, at Unpacked on August 2nd in New York City. There have been rumors that the device would go up for pre-order the same day that it is announced. However, a rumor surfacing this morning shows that the Galaxy Note 7 may open up for pre-orders on T-Mobile USA even before the device is made official. According to SamMobile, T-Mobile may begin pre-orders next week. The publication notes that their source has said T-Mobile will be releasing the device on August 2nd. Instead of pre-orders beginning that day, it appears customers will have the device in hand by then.

Obviously, this is all unconfirmed right now. Meaning that well need to take this information with a grain of salt for now. However, if pre-orders are opening up at some point next week, T-Mobile will be making an announcement regarding them in the next few days. So it shouldnt be long before this information is confirmed as true or untrue. Additionally, its unlikely that T-Mobile would be the only carrier opening up pre-orders next week  seeing as its doubtful that Samsung would give them an exclusive on their flagship. This means that all four US carriers  AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon  should have the device up for sale as soon as August 2nd. Definitely beating Apple to store shelves with their upcoming iPhone, which should be unveiled in September.

As far as the rumor mill goes, the Galaxy Note 7 is supposedly going to sport a 5.8-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display, powered by either the Snapdragon 820 or 821 processor (both have been rumored), and of course the Exynos 8893 for other markets. Other specs have included 6GB of RAM and at least 32GB of storage. On the camera side of things, it looks like Samsung hasnt changed the camera very much, giving us another 12-megapixel camera. Likely the same sensor from the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, which have both received great reviews from both reviewers and consumers alike.

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If pre-orders do open up next week for the Galaxy Note 7, itll be interesting to see what information the carriers share. Since the device will still, technically, be unofficial.
There was a time when Samsung Electronics and Apple were constantly throwing lawsuits at one another, but a couple of years ago the two giants have decided to set some of their differences aside in favor of nurturing their own businesses. However, this doesnt mean that the tech world is now free of lawsuits, and more recently, Huawei and Samsung seem to have become more aggressive towards each other. Back in May 2016, Huawei filed a patent lawsuit against Samsung in both China and the United States, and earlier this month the same company followed with yet another lawsuit against Samsung, this time only in China. Today, in a twist of events, Samsung Electronics announced that it sued Huawei Technologies for patent infringements, once again, in China.

According to a Reuters report, Samsung Electronics is suing Huawei through multiple courts in China. A couple of weeks ago the company sued Huawei in a court in Beijing and claimed that the Chinese smartphone maker has infringed six patents. Apparently, Samsung Electronics has claimed 161 million Yuan ($24 million) in damages and has asked Huawei to stop manufacturing and selling the products said to infringe on Samsungs patents. According to the court in Beijing, this includes products such as the Huawei Mate 8, and other smartphones bearing the Honor moniker. Samsung Electronics told Reuters that Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property. On the other hand, Huawei Technologies claims that it has yet to receive a formal complaint, but that the company will defend itself, should it be necessary.

Interestingly enough, however, CIMB analyst, Lee Do-hoon, is of the opinion that neither Samsung nor Huawei are motivated by the monetary gain of their actions. Reportedly, Huawei Technologies might be looking to increase its reputation by challenging the worlds No. 1 smartphone manufacturer through patent lawsuits, whereas Samsungs recent lawsuit might be part of a strategy to force Huawei to settle its claims. The analyst drew a parallel between Samsung and Apple, saying that if you look at the patent battle with Apple and Samsung, it ultimately created a lot of benefits for Samsung in a kind of an advertisement. Huawei is currently the worlds 3rd largest smartphone maker following Apple and Samsung.
(ANSA) - Rome, July 22 - Europe "must prepare to receive Turkish refugees" following what appears to be a "civilian coup" in the country, Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini said Friday. Boldrini expressed her "solidarity" and "proximity" to the Turkish people in light of the political purges underway since last week's failed military coup against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.

The Lower House Speaker also said the EU-Turkey deal on migrants had been a "mistake".

"The EU must not do deals on the cheap" especially "with countries that do not respect the rule of law," Boldrini told Rainews24.

"Negotiating with Turkey on migrants was a mistake because it did not have the civil requisites," she continued.

"In fact what should have been guaranteed to migrants is no longer guaranteed even to its own citizens," Boldrini said, calling for the EU to take a collective stand against what is happening in Turkey.

Boldrini called Friday for "collective action from the EU in defence of rights".

"With the pretext of the military coup it looks as though Erdogan is pursuing a pre-established political design," Boldrini said. "We should have understood" what Erdogan is like from the way he "limited press freedom" and quashed demonstrations of protest, she added.


Libya: bodies of 14 people tortured and executed found In Benghazi. Kobler, 'shocked, war crime'

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JULY 22 - The bodies of 14 people were reportedly found in a Benghazi dump, near the headquarters of the Fund for special insurance. They had been tied up, tortured and then killed with a gunshot to the head. The victims have not been identified yet, according to a medical source in Benghazi.



According to the source, an investigation was opened immediately and there is a lot of tension among residents, who have reportedly recognized some of the victims.



The UN envoy in Libya, Martin Kobler, expressed shock for the executions, calling them a ''war crime'' and urging an immediate probe to bring those responsible to justice. (ANSAmed).




Work on Brenner barrier completed Border management 'indispensable', police chief

(ANSAmed) - BOLZANO, JULY 22 - Austria has completed ''border management'' work at the Brenner Pass, Tyrol police chief Helmut Tomac said Friday.



Infrastructures to tighten checks at the border Austria shares with Italy are ''indispensable'', Tomac said.



Austria has said it may erect the barrier - a 370-meter-long net - in case of need.



The barrier can reportedly be set up in two days.



''Border management'' is reportedly conceived in the event of up to 1,200 migrant arrivals in 24 hours.



Between 160 and 240 police officers will be reportedly deployed at the border and could be supported by soldiers.



(ANSAmed).




PARIS - France has called up 15,000 reservists in the wake of the 14 July attack on Nice, French President Francois Hollande said Friday.



Hollande said in a solemn statement at the Elysee Palace that 15,000 police and gendarmerie reservists will be mobilized by the end of the month in addition to the security officials already deployed across the country.



''We will complete these human means by calling up army reservists'', continued the head of state in the statement that closed the fourth defense council he summoned since the deadly attack in Nice. ''Together with the government of Manuel Valls, I have decided to bring up during the summer period to 10,000 the number of armed forces to protect celebrations, events and amusement places - all places where French nationals and the foreign tourists we must welcome will be''.



France will shed ''full light'' on the July 14 attack, the president vowed. ''The terrorists want us to renounce to freedom and the rule of law, they are testing us in this area, so that there will be discord, confrontation and stigmatization of a religion, in particular Islam, that has its place in the Republic, while Islamism and fundamentalism are our enemy'', concluded Hollande.
(ANSAmed) - Istanbul - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said a state of emergency declared in the country in the wake of last week's failed coup could be extended, if necessary.



In an interview with Reuters news agency following last Friday's coup attempt, Erdogan said there is ''no obstacle in terms of prolonging it''. Turkey's Parliament on Thursday approved a bill declaring a state of emergency for three months and informed the Council of Europe of a partial withdrawal from the European convention on human rights.



''Initially of course it is three months but after three months we can ask for a second three month period and extend it'', the president said.



In the interview, Erdogan also spoke about intelligence failures in the run up to the coup, saying he had tried to call his intelligence chief as the coup attempt was ongoing on July 15 but was unable to contact him.



The president said a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS), the top body overseeing the military, originally scheduled on August 1, may be brought forward by a week to oversee a restructuring of the armed forces.



A reported 246 people died in the coup attempt, excluding the putchists, while 2,185 people were injured, Erdogan said Friday.(ANSAmed).
(by Cristoforo Spinella) (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JULY 22 - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last night sent his crowds to the Bosphorus bridge, where a week ago tanks sought to topple him, to 'oversee democracy'. In Taksim square, once a symbol of Gezi Park protests, only demonstrations that have been approved by him are allowed. And no opponents can be found on the streets of Istanbul. After rejecting the coup attempt, Erdogan is taking back the streets of Turkey. Only crowds of supporters can be found from sunset until late at night (''let's remain vigilant'', the president keeps saying). It is a show of force, for Turks and the world eyeing him, by someone who has the country in his hands.



An unprecedented and uncontainable crowd last night gathered on the Bosphorus bridge, asking for it to become ''of the martyrs''. Holding torches in their hands, amid Turkish flags and calls to Allah, the people of Gezi Park crossed it, like three years ago. One of the symbolic images of the protest against Erdogan, is now reversed by his supporters who are chanting ''you are the chief, you are the army''.



Fireworks shine above their heads.



But the real show of force is probably forthcoming. Sunday, in Taksim square, hundreds of thousands of people are awaited.



For the first time in years, a demonstration called by the Social Democratic opposition will take place in a symbolic scenario.



Banned during normal times, it was allowed in spite of the state of emergency because, in the meantime, Erdogan has also conquered the square that used to belong to others. His AKP party will be present - also a choice with few precedents - for a day of national unity slated to become a triumph for him and a public humiliation for the military, who have also been dumped by the kemalist opposition. (ANSAmed).


In a statement that airline said: Turkish Airlines played an important role to terminate the malevolent illegal attempt on the evening of 15th July 2016.



The three-month state of emergency declared by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an action called in order to enable the Republic of Turkey take all necessary precautions. All state and government authorities have also confirmed that it is a precautious action to protect the country from all possible threats; maintain all democratic rights and the continuation of all basic rights and freedoms.

In due course, all Turkish Airlines operations and flights are proceeding uninterrupted and will continue to do so. As Turkeys flag carrier that flies to more countries than any other airline, serving 290 destinations in 116 nations across the globe; Turkish Airlines as until today, will continue to make the world closer for all its passengers around the world with the supreme flight experience.
The 13th annual Arab Film Festival Australia opened last night in Sydney showcasing diverse films from Australia, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine and Syria.



The festival programme ranges from a powerful story of a mother searching for her son who is missing at war to a comedy about a couple on a mission to stop each others snoring.

The festival will travel to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth over the next three weeks.



Etihad Airways senior vice president marketing, Shane OHare, said Arab Film Festival Australia was an important part of Etihad Airways Australian sponsorship portfolio.



As the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways is committed to promoting a deeper appreciation of modern Arabian arts and culture.



As the Principal Sponsor of Arab Film Festival Australia, the airline plays an important role in bringing stories from the Arab world to Australian audiences.



This years festival will reach thousands of filmgoers in four Australian cities - including Perth for the first time ever.



Arab Film Festival Australia Co-director Fadia Abboud said the festival was delighted to partner with Etihad Airways for the ninth year in a row.



It is our objective to present amazing stories from the Arab world by capturing authentic voices, unique communities and current issues with sophistication and sensitivity.

Etihad Airways helps fulfil this objective by connecting the festival with the best talent in contemporary Arab cinema.



The airlines support has enabled the festival to bring Assad Fouladkar - the acclaimed director of Halal Love - to Sydney as the special guest for this years opening night.

Director of Halal Love Assad Fouladkar at Arab Film Festival Australia opening night in Sydney.
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim held a phone talk with Vice President of the United States Joe Biden during which they discussed the extradition of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who is blamed by the Turkish leadership over initiating the military coup attempt in Turkey, reports CNN Turk.

Biden said first of all the US independent courts must make a decision over this issue. At the same time Biden emphasized that the US is ready to work with Turkey over this issue.

In his turn, the Turkish PM recalled that they have already sent a request to the US over Gulens extradition. He expressed hope the United States as their ally will extradite Gulen to Turkey.

On July 15 a group of rebels initiated a military coup attempt in Turkey. They took under their control several strategic objects in Ankara and Istanbul, but after few hours the rebellion has been suppressed.

According to the recent information provided by Erdogan, 246 pro-governmental people were killed, 2185 are wounded, 10410 have been arrested, 4060 are imprisoned from which 103 are generals.

More than 100 coup attempt participants were killed.

The Turkish leadership believes Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the founder of the Hizmet movement, is behind the failed military coup attempt.
The aggressive development of this aesthetic was not fully organic, but in fact developed with a global wink, as part of Japans plan to build cultural cachet overseas.  The government has embraced the designation, eager to rebrand the worlds perception of a staid culture characterized by honor and samurai to a more playful, feminized Japan.
by Nirmala Carvalho

"Our Asian pilgrims not only bring the grandeur, the vitality and beauty of Asia, but also the multi-cultural diversity, pluralism as well as Asian values of hospitality and family and, of course, the Church of the young. Asia youth come to discover Krakow and the charisma of John Paul II, founder of the WYD.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  The large contingent of young Asians to World Youth Day in Krakow "is the springtime of the Church". They bring not only Asias size, vitality and beauty, but also its multi-cultural diversity, pluralism, values of hospitality and family, said Card Oswald Gracias, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops (FABC) who spoke to AsiaNews about the upcoming event.

"Thousands of our Young Asians are pilgrimaging to Krakow filled with gratitude to John Paul II and for love of Pope Francis, the prelate said. Most of our Asian delegates have seen Saint Pope John Paul II and loved him and felt loved by him. They knew they were loved by Pope John Paul II and were endeared by Saint John Paul IIs support and love for Asia, which were especially obvious with Pope John Paul II and many visits to Asian countries. World Youth Day in the Philippines witnessed some 5 million participants, the biggest crowd assembled for a Eucharistic celebration in all history and this is Asias treasured gift to the Universal Church.

"The massive contingent from Asia to Krakow is the springtime of the Universal Church. Springtime, because besides the delegates from the various dioceses, many ecclesial realities and movements are bringing our Young Asian to WYD.

"Our Asian pilgrims not only bring the grandeur, the vitality and beauty of Asia, but also its multi-cultural diversity, pluralism and the Asian values of hospitality and family and, of course, the Church of the young.

"For our Asian pilgrims, this journey is not for herself or himself alone. Her or his life of prayer and friendship with God affects the lives of countless others. The meeting with other youths, from other parts of the world will mutually enrich lives and mission, the sharings, the exchange of ideas and stories and above all, the Unity in love for Jesus and the Faith, this will be a Joy and Encounter to enrich the Church. We are strengthened by seeing the youth all over. The dynamism and generosity of the youth of the world to embark on this pilgrimage to the World Youth Day."

John Paul IIs love for Asia

"The love of John Paul II for Asia has generated generous and mutual enthusiasm for young Asians. Saint John Paul II liked Asia and our young people know this in their heart of hearts. Pope John Paul II visited Asia several times: in 1981 he was in the Philippines, in Goa, Japan and Pakistan. In 1984, he was in South Korea and Thailand. In 1987, he was in Bangladesh and Singapore. In 1989, he was again in South Korea and also in Indonesia, East Timor and Mauritius. In 1985, he was in Sri Lanka and again in the Philippines for the World Youth Day and in November 1999 he returned back to Asia for the publication of the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Asia.

"Now as our Asian pilgrims travel to Krakow for World Youth Day, they will experience the place where in a certain way, the roots of the World Youth Day emerged. They are going to touch the sacred soil from which Saint John Paul came (Krakow), and this is significant for our young Asians. For our intelligent and insightful Asians, they will see in Auschwitz, the experiences of the time, the history, sufferings of his people that shaped and moved the heart of the Holy Father John Paull II. This encounter will enrich the lives of our Asian pilgrims. The Shrine of St Faustina, who had the revelation of the Divine Mercy devotion, will leave a deep and lasting impression on our youth. And filled with this Joy of Mercy, our Asian youth will return home, enriched and enthused to carry on in the mission of sharing God's unfailing love and mercy.

Pope Francis's invitation to friendship with God

"Pope Francis repeatedly speaks of encounter, a call for an intimate friendship with God. My prayer for our Young Asians is that this encounter will be shared with their families, community, society, nations so that they can become youthful messengers of Gods Divine Mercy.

"All this shows how the mission and blessings of Christ in Asia are continuing through the presence of the successors in the chair of St Peter, our beloved Pope Francis, who is loved by all, across faiths, and cultures, nationalities and transcends everything. Pope Francis is calling on the Church to show the face of Mercy. Pope Francis attracts all to Jesus and His Divine Mercy.

"Asia is the hope of the future, to give light to the world, youthfulness and fidelity to the faith and Church so that the Holy Father will revitalise the Church."
by Kamran Chaudhry

A delegation of 11 people will come from Pakistan, including five youth leaders, like Viviana Natalie Rodrigues, 26, and Zeeshan Bais, 25. The first set up her parishs Facebook page and will post pictures and comments from Poland during the whole week. The second is making a spiritual journey in preparation for the trip.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  A delegation of 11 people from Pakistan will participate in the next World Youth Day in Krakow, scheduled for 25 to 31 July. Among them are five youth leaders, eagerly waiting to make the first trip outside of the country and meet Pope Francis.

AsiaNews has met two of them, Viviana Natalie Rodrigues and Zeeshan Bais. The first, a 26-year-old free-lance journalist, leads a youth group at Karachis St Lawrence Church. She has collected information from those who participated in previous World Youth Days, and is now ready to go.

"My heart and mind are all empty, she said. I am ready for a new experience of life and excited to meet pilgrims and new friends from all over the world.

Viviana plans to document the pilgrimage in Poland, and is preparing everything to take pictures.

"This is the opportunity of a life time. I plan to continue applying the catechesis in my life and inspire my local youth group with the new knowledge.

She has been drawing banners for her parish since she was 13. After graduation she decided to create the Facebook page of her church.

After just over a year, "we reached 1,500 likes. Our friends will be able to experience the special moments of World Youth Day throughout the week."

Zeeshan Bais, 25, comes from the diocese of Hyderabad and is making a spiritual journey in preparation for the trip. He leads the youth group of St John Church in Larkhana, an old city in the southern province of Sindh. He cannot wait to meet the pope.

Both he and Viviana will be waiting for him at one of the stations of the Cross.

This is a big opportunity for a guy from an impoverished region. I hope to renew the spirit of our youth and help them realise their purpose in Church, Zeeshan said.

The Pakistani delegation will leave this Sunday (24 July) led by Mgr Sebastian Shah, archbishop of Lahore. It will include Pervez Roderick, secretary of the National Association of Catholic Youth, four priests and five youth leaders.

One of the boys will be holding our flag at opening ceremony, another will share the experience of being a youth in Pakistan during a session, while a priest from Faisalabad diocese will be one of those concelebrating at the concluding mass, Roderick said.

In the meantime, Faisalabad diocese plans to launch a year-long pilgrimage of the Cross for youth to mark WYD in each of its 23 parishes. Archbishop Joseph Arshad is behind the initiative.

Todays youth must become irresistible bearer of the Cross in order to uphold the Catholic teachings in the world against the current problems of materialism, extreme ideologies, militant tendencies, faithlessness, pornography and negative broadcasts by electronic-print media and social media, the archbishop said.
Arshid Qureshi is the public relations manager with the Islamic Research Foundation. He is accused of having converted 15 young people of Kerala to Islam, who then disappeared from home to fight with the Islamic State. Circle tightening around Salafi preacher Zakir Naik, after ban on his television programs in Bangladesh.

Mumbai (AsiaNews / Agencies)  Kerala police, in conjunction with the Maharashtra anti-terrorism agency, have arrested Arshid Qureshi, an employee of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) of the television preacher Zakir Naik. The man is accused of having radicalized and recruited at least 15 young people who have since disappeared from Kerala to join the militants of the Islamic State.

Meanwhile, the controversial Islamic preacher accused of having influenced the young people who carried out the Dhaka massacre, continues to declare his innocence. He is in Saudi Arabia, and made it known that he will not return to India until at least next year.

Intelligence agencies have begun to tighten the circle around Naik. Qureshi's arrest took place in the early hours of yesterday but the news was released only today. The man was taken from his apartment in Nerul, residential area of Navi Mumbai, in Maharashtra. Yesterday he appeared before a judge, who set his custody for four days. He will be heard by the authorities of Maharashtra and then transferred to Kerala.

Since 2004 he has managed the public relations of the Naik Foundation, which is based in Mumbai. The investigations against him date to last month in Kerala, after the complaint of the parents of 15 young people who have disappeared. They accuse him of having converted and their children to Islam to have them recruited to fight for the Caliphate.

The preaching of Zakir Naik, among the best known television faces in South Asia and the Middle East, are being studied by investigators both in India and in neighboring countries. The Bangladeshi authorities have established a direct link between him and one of the bombers of the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe in Dhaka. The Bangladeshi government has banned his "Peace TV channel", through which he spreads the most radical ideas of Salafi Islam. The leadership of the Catholic Church of Pakistan demanded that Islamabad must do likewise with the Urdu-language broadcasts.
The center houses up to 10 thousand Tibetan and Chinese people. The authorities want to reduce the number of monks and nuns. They suspect that the monastery has ties with "separatist forces in exile". Religious freedom shrinking since Xi Jinping became president. Similar to case of Zhejiangs crosses and churches.

Dharamsala (AsiaNews) - Chinese workers, accompanied by police, soldiers and government representatives, started demolishing the residences of monks and structures of the Buddhist center of Larung Gar, Sertar County (Kardze, Sichuan). The demolition began on July 20 at 8 am (click to see video)

Larung Gar is the largest institute of Tibetan studies in the world, with a population of over 10 thousand people, Tibetan and Chinese.

The Chinese authorities have justified the destruction as a safety measure because the place is overcrowded and to make way for a road. The decision was not, however, previously agreed with inhabitants.

Last June, the authorities issued an ordinance calling for the reduction to 5 thousand the number of people in the monastery (1500 monks and 3500 nuns before Oct. 2017). The order dated October 30 this year for the beginning for the relocation of residents and demolition. The order also detailed a series of punishments if residents failed to obey, including the complete demolition of the monastery.

Many believe the order is unjust and another way to reduce - and possibly eliminate - the center suspected of having links with "separatist forces in exile".

A young student, a resident of the monastery, tells Free Tibet the order is contradictory: "If the only way to solve overpopulation is destroying the houses, why is the same policy not applied to Chinese cities where the population is overcrowded? Where is the equality, the rule of law, the public good, religious freedom and equal rights for all (as they say), if you destroy the homes of innocent faithful who live their simple life? ".

Meanwhile, Khenpo Tsultrim Lodroe and Khenpo Rigdar, two eminent religious figures of the center, have asked students to "remain calm", "continue their studies" and to "avoid making demonstrations."

Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok, vice president of the Tibetan Parliament in exile accused China's leadership: "Since Xi Jinping became President of China religious freedom in Tibet has visibly deteriorated.

The demolition of Larung Gar closely resembles the demolition of crosses and churches in Zhejiang and other Chinese provinces, designed to put under control the effervescence of the Christian communities marked by rapid growth.
Guangzhou (AsiaNews) - The former village chief of Wukan (Guangdong), famous for his struggle against unjust land requisitions, has been formally arrested for corruption. Lin Zuluan, who was elected leader in an election in 2012, appeared on TV, where he confessed to taking bribes. But the people of Wukan do not believe this and continue to demonstrate for his release and against party corruption, waving their own red flags of China.

Lin was arrested in June, a few days before he was to launch a campaign of demonstrations against a new series of land expropriations in his village. According to locals, his confession broadcast on live TV, was extorted by force and threats.

Tens of thousands of social protests take place each year in China against local authorities, accused of illegally enriching themselves through the sale of land, while the central government is not criticized.
The three were detained for criticizing the government and the ruling Communist Party while working in Thailand. The police detained them earlier this year when they returned home to renew their passports. Increased censorship ahead of ASEAN foreign ministers summit.

Vientiane (AsiaNews) - Locked in solitary confinement in a Vientiane jail awaiting trial; unable to receive visits from relatives and friends: This is the fate of three Laotian citizens arrested last March for criticizing the government and the ruling [Communist] party on social media while they were in Thailand for work.

Local sources interviewed by Radio Free Asia (RFA) report that Somphone Phimmasone, 29, his girlfriend Lod Thammavong, 30, and the 32 year-old Soukane Chaithad disappeared earlier this year, after returning to Laos to renew their passports.

In May, after months of mystery over their fate, the authorities admitted to having arrested them in a police operation in Khammouane province. Later the three were transferred to a prison in Vientiane.

"We can bring them food," says the father of Soukane, "but we are not allowed to meet them. Visits will be allowed "only in the coming months," he adds, "after they are convicted and sentenced".

Police and government sources maintain strict confidentiality and do not want to comment on the affair. Even journalists have received threats and warnings.

Meanwhile, security and censorship are being tightened in Laos, in conjunction with the 49th Summit of ASEAN Foreign Ministers (An association that brings together the 10 countries of South-East Asia), to be held in Vientiane July 21 to 26. "There are obvious limits to the freedom of the press," said a source, and "all the news must be based on ministerial press releases.

After the Communists came to power 1975, foreign missionaries were expelled, and Christian Laotians have been subjected to strict controls and clear limitations to the practice of worship. Most of Laos's six million people (67 per cent) are Buddhist. Christians are about 2 per cent with Catholics at 0.7 per cent. Religious persecution touches Protestants more than others. Rights groups have focused on Laos more sharply since popular civil society leader Sombath Somphone vanished after being stopped in his vehicle at a police checkpoint in the capital Vientiane on 15 December 2012. Government-linked organisations are thought to be responsible for his disappearance. The government has never given information about him.
by Sr Marie Gemma, Ocd

Starting now, the memory of St. Mary Magdalene is raised to the level of celebration, by expressed wish of Pope Francis. Sr Marie Gemma, Carmelite prioress in Baroda, explains the value of this saint, the first who announced the resurrection, a sign of the greatness of the feminine genius.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  Starting this year, by expressed wish of Pope Francis, the Vatican congregation for divine worship has decided that the memory of Mary Magdalene should be celebrated as a feast. This way the genius of women in the Church can be given more importance.

Mary Magdalene was among the first to receive the mercy of Jesus and was the first to announce the resurrection. Sr Gemma Marie, prioress of the Carmelite monastery of Baroda (Gujarat) offers her reflection.

Could it be a contradiction to ask what this new development would mean to a cloistered contemplative since Mary Magdalene went rushing out to meet Jesus?

It certainly would not because primarily a contemplative is one who having experienced God becomes a medium that communicates God to every person she meets. It is only a contemplative heart who would go rushing out in the thickest dark just before dawn to embalm the body of the One with whom she was connected with Love-bonds that nothing could sever.

Here I am reminded of an image that St. Teresa of Avila gives in her book the Interior Castle. It is the image of the silkworm. Speaking of the deep union of love that is effected in the soul she says it is indeed a death to self and a birth into the likeness of Christ. The silkworm spins its own cocoon in which it is to die, only to emerge as a bright and beautiful butterfly. So God himself becomes the house in which the soul dies, entering into the darkness of Christs own suffering and death, to be transformed into the new life of the spirit. This transformation brings with it the impetus to serve, to move ever deeply into the world of the spirit and to share in the redemptive love of the Saviour. The annihilation of the cross releases the power of the resurrection.

St. Mary Magdalene truly experienced this when she dared to stand at the foot of the Cross. This partaking of His death enabled her to be drawn by love to the tomb where she met Him. She experienced the power of knowing that HE, her love is Life; that He is God leading her to a new relationship, Do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father. Transformed herself she became the medium, the apostle to the apostles.

Only a contemplative could do this  be it a contemplative in the world or a contemplative in a cloister. A true contemplative is passionate, daring, tenacious, open to being drawn by love always, and ever going out of herself.

And so this raising of the memoria of St. Mary Magdalene to the ranks of a feast is the exaltation of the conviction that one is loved by Him no matter what. It is the exaltation of being contemplative, it is the exaltation of being a woman with the dignity given her by the One who created, saved and beautifies her to be the eternal Bride.

We feel delighted and proud that Holy Father is able to perceive the wonderful gifts that are the legacy of every woman.
Apostolic Constitution "Dei Vultum quaerere  Seeking the Face of God" indicates 12 "themes of reflection and discernment" on womens contemplative life in general. Yes to social media, but not as a means of "wasting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in community". No to "recruiting" sisters to avoid closing monasteries. Prayer must enlarge your heart to embrace all humanity, especially those who suffer and not close monastic life in on itself.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Being "beacons of light" that guide and accompany the journey of humanity, "sentinels of the morning" to indicate Christ, "way, truth and life" to the world. Women who devote themselves to contemplative life are an "invaluable and indispensable gift" for the Church, according to the Apostolic Constitution "Dei Vultum quaerere  Seeking the face God", made public today, but signed by Pope Francis on June 29 .

The 18 page document indicates 12 "themes of reflection and discernment" for the women who choose consecrated life in general, inspired by the need to weave a dialogue with contemporary society, while safeguarding "the core values" of the contemplative life whose characteristics - silence, attentive listening, the call to an interior life, stability can and must challenge the contemporary mindset". A mindset that can present temptations and the document stresses that " Among the most perilous temptations faced by contemplatives is that which the Desert Fathers called the midday devil; it is the temptation to listlessness, mere routine, lack of enthusiasm and paralyzing lethargy".

In a world that seeks God, even unknowingly, consecrated persons must "become wise interlocutors" to "discern the questions posed to us by God and the men and women of our time.

With this objective and to "help the contemplative to understand your particular vocation ", the first theme proposed is formation. A process aimed " at configuration to the Lord Jesus," - specifically nine to twelve years - that "requires a constant conversion to God." Hence, the call to the monasteries to " to pay great attention to vocational and spiritual discernment, without yielding to the temptation to think in terms of numbers and efficiency". The second theme chosen by the Pope is prayer: "the core of consecrated life," a living as a " must enlarge your heart to embrace all humanity, especially those who suffer and not close monastic life in on itself". Pray and intercede for "the future of humanity," the Pope writes to the contemplative. In this way, communities will become "real schools of prayer", fueled by the "scandalous beauty of the Cross".

The centrality of the Word of God is the third theme of reflection. It is the "first source of all spirituality and principle of communion for the communities", it is explicit in the lectio divina which helps to switch "from the biblical text to life", to " bridge the gap between spirituality and daily life, between faith and life," leading "from hearing to knowledge, and from knowledge to love". The entire day, both personal and in community, ought to be organized around the word of God, helping, thanks to "a kind of supernatural intuition", to "discern what is of God and what we can take from him." Finally, Francis recalls that lectio divina must become action, that is become "a gift for others in charity".

The fourth point indicated by the document is the importance of the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. It is suggested to "extend the celebration with Eucharistic adoration" and live the practice of penance as a "privileged occasion to contemplate the merciful face of the Father." Experiencing God's forgiveness, in fact, contemplative can become "prophets and ministers of mercy and reconciliation, forgiveness and peace" of which the world today is in "special need".

The fifth theme is the one of the fraternal life in community, understood as a "reflection of God's self-giving way" and "the first form of evangelization." For this reason, the Pope stresses the need for "a continuous process of growth of community life" leading to a "genuine fraternal communion". "A community exists as it is born and is built with the contribution of all", young and old.

The sixth issue is the autonomy of the monasteries: if, on the one hand, autonomy favors stability, unity and contemplation of a community, on the other it "must not mean independence or isolation. The contemplative are urged to not fall prone to being self-referential. Closely related to this is the seventh issue, in which the Pope recalls the importance of the Federations as "structures of communion between the monasteries who share the same charism." Aimed at promoting the contemplative life in the monasteries and support in formation and practical needs, the Federations " ought to be encouraged and increase in number ".

The eighth issue, however, is relative to the cloister. " a sign of the exclusive union of the Church as Bride with her Lord, whom she loves above all things", it is divided in various forms, from the "papal" that "excludes apostolic external tasks" to the "common" which is rather "not closed." However, this plurality, within the same Order, must be considered "an asset, not an obstacle to communion".

As the ninth point, the Pope indicates work: keeping in mind the Benedictine motto "ora et labora", the contemplative are encouraged to work " carefully and faithfully, without yielding to the present-day culture and its mindset of efficiency and constant activity, finding the right balance between seeking the Absolute and commitment to your daily chores, between the peace of contemplation and the effort expended in work".

Silence is the tenth issue. It should be seen as "listening and rumination of the Word", "emptiness of self to make room to receive", silence "listens to God and to the cry of humanity."

As the eleventh theme Francis speaks of modern forms of communication the result of social changes and the "digital culture" that "has a decisive influence in the formation of thought and way of relating to the world." "Useful tools for training and communication", but which call for "a prudent discernment" so they do not become a means of "wasting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in community".

The twelfth and last theme is dedicated to asceticism which consists of "sobriety, detachment from worldly things, delivery of themselves in obedience and transparency in" community relations. As the choice of a life of stability asceticism also becomes an "eloquent sign of faithfulness" in a globalized, rootless world, as an example, for "humanity marked and torn by so many divisions," of how "to be close" to the next even in the face of diversity, tensions, conflicts and fragility. Asceticism is not an escape from the world "out of fear" because the nuns "continue to be in the world without being of the world." Their prophecy, then, will be to "constantly intercede for humanity" with the Lord, listening to "the cry" of those who are "victims of a culture of waste". Thus, in "profound communion with the Church", the contemplative will be the "ladder" through which God comes to meet man and man to God.
Six People Reported Dead In German Mall Shooting

Trending News: Gunmen Kill At Least 6 In German Shopping Mall

Why Is This Important?

Because this is the second attack in Germany this week.

Long Story Short

One or multiple gunmen are on a rampage in Munich, Germany at a local mall, with six people reportedly dead.

Long Story

Munich police are reporting that multiple people are dead and wounded following a shooting that began around 6pm local time, at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall. Police spokespeople did not provide any figures on the dead and wounded, but German public broadcaster BR is saying that six people have been killed Other reports list the death toll at three.

If you've been offline, watch this to get caught up on the #Munich attacks Details here: https://t.co/VFyKZiTUJV pic.twitter.com/LQROhsqpvm  Harlan Hill (@Harlan) July 22, 2016

It is unknown whether one or multiple shooters are involved, and they are still on the loose according to police. Officials from the Bavarian capital are pleading with residents to remain indoors in the meantime, to steer clear public spaces, and to avoid sharing any images of police operations in Munich on social media.

UPDATE: Police are asking people to leave highways near Munich after shooting, local broadcaster reports. pic.twitter.com/WLckGmGp7W  Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 22, 2016

German security officials have been on alert since Monday, when a teenage Afghan refugee wielding a knife and axe attacked passengers on a train in the Bavarian state, two of whom are currently in intensive care. Multiple reports suggest that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for this attack, but German authorities believe the teen acted alone. There were also reports of a mass shooting earlier in June at a German theatre that took many by surprise.

.@POTUS: "Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured...it's an active situation" #Munich https://t.co/iweRFUKp0v  BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) July 22, 2016

Across the border, the southern French city of Nice was subjected to a terrorist attack last week during national Bastille Day celebrations, when a truck rammed through a crowd, killing 80 people and injuring over a hundred.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

What can people do to feel safe in their own communities?

Disrupt Your Feed

I totally didnt see this coming in Germany, of all places.

Drop This Fact

The EU had 211 terror attacks in 2015, a record number for the region.
Facebook Inc has hired Baker & McKenzie as the worlds largest social network is being investigated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over possibly minimising the value of intangible assets it transferred to its holding company in Ireland in 2010.



According to a Law.com report, Baker & McKenzie partner Scott Frewing filed court papers on Monday on behalf of Facebook at the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Frewings bio on the Baker & McKenzie site notes that hes defending technology companies from IRS adjustments of more than $1 billion concerning intangible property transfers, the publication notes.



Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice sued to enforce IRS summonses served on Facebook which seek to surface documents related to an ongoing probe of Facebooks 2010 tax liability, a Reuters report noted.



That year, Facebook recorded royalty income from transfers of intangible assets to Facebook Ireland Holdings Unlimited for the rights to exploit the Facebook platform except in the United States and Canada. The holdings company then leased those rights to Facebook Ireland Ltd, Reuters said.

The IRS is investigating whether the assets transferred were unreasonably cheap, which reduced taxable income in the US which has a tax rate of at least 35 percent. Ireland has a tax rate of 12.5 percent.



Also involved in the issue is Ernst & Young which determined the price of the assets in question acting as Facebooks tax adviser.



"The IRS examination team's preliminary positions suggested that the E&Y valuations of the transferred intangibles were understated by billions of dollars," the lawsuit said, according to Reuters.

Facebook said in a statement that it complies with all applicable rules and regulations in the countries where we operate.


Partners continue to leave King & Wood Mallesons ( KWM ) and the firm has also asked partners in Europe and the Middle East for capital contributions to boost capitalisation.Bloomberg Law counted five partners who have left or have announced they are leaving the global firm just in the month of July.Jeremy Cross, KWMs former finance chief for Europe and the Middle East, was hired by Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft early this month.Covington & Burling has landed Elaine Whiteford, commercial litigation partner, and Greg Lascelles, disputes parter, from KWM.Also this month, K&L Gates was reported to be the destination of Hilger von Livonius, investment management partner, as well as counsels Philipp Riedl and Michael Harris.Meanwhile, dispute resolution partner Paul Stothard is joining Norton Rose Fulbright Nonetheless, Bloomberg Law also noted that KWM hired real-estate partners Simon Burson and Jeremy Brooks from Eversheds this month.The notable turnover at the global firm comes as they issued a cash call to partners in Europe and the Middle East.According to a report from Legal Business, partners in said regions have been asked to contribute between 80,000 and 240,000 based on their points in the firms compensation ladder which doubles each partners capital contribution to the firm.Moreover, each salaried partner has reportedly been asked to contribute 60,000 into the firm, a first for the global firm.London-based funds veteran Michael Halford is behind the plan after he led an evaluation of the KWMs capitalisation in the region.Legal Business noted that the move follows frequent delays in quarterly profit distributions and an increase of the firms Barclays loan facility from 20m to 25m.
Most law firms ignore value of client feedback

Client feedback is a valuable commodity that is too often dismissed by law firms according to a new survey.



In the poll by client satisfaction service Legally Better, 85 per cent of legal service providers fail to use customer satisfaction to develop and market their business.



The report says that as a result of the lack of value placed on this feedback, firms do not create case studies which explain the services they provide to clients; important aspects of multi-channel marketing.



Withers promotes three in Asia

International law firm Withers has promoted 7 lawyers to its partnership including 3 in Asia. In Hong Kong, family lawyer Samantha Gershon and wealth planning specialist Laurence Ho become partners; in Singapore, Lim Hui Ying makes partner in the litigation and disputes practice.



South Korea puts Google in anticompetitive spotlight

South Korea is the latest jurisdiction to question whether Google is engaging in anticompetitive behaviour. The firms Seoul offices have been searched by regulators, the Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.



The Korea Fair Trade Commission is investigating whether Googles Android smartphone operating system unfairly prohibits manufacturers from including non-Google software. The Commission looked into the forced inclusion of Googles search app in 2013.



FBI sued for allegedly being over secretive

It may seem par for the course of a law enforcement agency that it would keep certain aspects of its operations under wraps but one national security researcher disagrees.



Ryan Shapiro has filed a lawsuit against the FBI claiming that the agency uses an antiquated system to search for documents requested under the US Freedom of Information Act rather than more modern software it has available.



This, says Shapiro, means that documents are frequently not found which he says is the FBIs reason for using the old software. The FBI denies the allegations and countered that the results of document searches are the same whichever system it uses.


From one of my scrofulous novels:



I am slaying myself and here is a chicken rancher,

who knows nothing about computers, and he has scored

without getting his hands dirty. She has done him proud too.

I was dying to ask the obvious question, but it is not a

subject to discuss with Middle Americans. He seemed

pleased as a rooster, so it must be possible-tread gently.

What would he have done if she were unfitted?



Dear Sir,

The enclosed goods do not satisfy the requirements

of my order number xyz and were apparently shipped in

error.

Yours faithfully



Chicken ranchers can be quite ruthless when

necessary, and told me that there is a statutory period to

make up your mind. If you opt to cull you don't need to get

blood on your hands, immigration does it for you. The

ultimate in consumer protection. I scan my memory and

recover the unsavoury term mail-order-bride buried next to

equal rights for the AIDS virus and a pledge to foul one and

fund the other.



Having purchased a spouse, what can you say when

you are asked-How did you meet your wife? Theodore had

no difficulty. He told me before I asked. He ordered in good

faith and got what he paid for. That's better than I have been

able to do with all the game theory that takes hours of

computer time, and having candidates investigated back to

the day they were born.
The exclusive showroom showcases the brands entire range of superbikes; bookings and deliveries open.

DSK Motowheels has inaugurated an exclusive showroom for the Italian superbike brand Benelli in Jalandhar under the dealership of SM Automobiles. Located at new Jawahar Nagar, near Apex hospital, the showroom has on display the entire range of DSK Benelli superbikes ranging from 250cc to 1,131cc, including the TNT 25 at Rs 1.75 lakh, TNT 300 at Rs 3.05 lakh, TNT 600i (ABS) at Rs 5.77 lakh, TNT 600 GT at Rs 6.05 lakh, TNT 899 at Rs 9.59 lakh and TNT R at Rs 11.94 lakh (all prices, ex-showroom, Jalandhar).

Speaking at the launch, Shirish Kulkarni, chairman, DSK Motowheels said, It gives us immense pleasure to be associated with SM Automobiles. The philosophy with which we operate is in tandem with the ethos of our Jalandhar dealer. The employees at DSK Benelli, Jalandhar have been provided with specialised training in management of sales, service, spare parts and customer service, to ensure that customers can enjoy best-in-class ownership experience. Kulkarni added that all the DSK Benelli showrooms across India, including the one at Jalandhar, meet the international CI standards of Benelli global showrooms.

DSK Benelli currently also offers 24x7 on call breakdown service and a four-year unlimited kilometre extended warranty on its entire range of superbikes.
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways also asked Tesla to make India the Asia manufacturing hub.

Ten months after prime minister Narendra Modis visit to Tesla's manufacturing facilities in San Jose, California, Minister of Road Transport, Highways & Shipping Nitin Gadkari visited the EV makers plant on July 15.

The visit assumes importance given the Indian governments sharp focus on electric vehicles, eco-friendly fuels and higher spend on transportation infrastructure. While at the Tesla plant, Gadkari offered to promote joint ventures between the global leader in electric car manufacturing and the Indian automobile OEMs with a view to introduce pollution-free road transport in India, especially commercial and public vehicles.



He said the Indian government is committed to encouraging alternate modes of pollution-free transport in the country by providing incentives to biofuel, CNG, ethanol and electric vehicles. He put forward a proposal to the senior executives at Tesla to make India the Asia manufacturing hub, and offered land near major Indian ports to facilitate export of the EV maker's vehicles to South and Southeast Asian countries.

What Tesla said:

The senior executives acknowledged the fact that a new manufacturing hub has to be outside the US to cater to global markets, and appreciated the Indian offer of cooperation, which will be considered at an appropriate time in the future. They said India will definitely be a market for their next-generation, low-cost Model 3 which has seen record bookings of over 4,00,000 units, including some from India.

Replying to specific queries from Gadkari regarding the manufacture of electric trucks, buses, and two-wheelers, the Tesla team said that while they have future plans for trucks and pick-up vans, buses and two-wheelers are not on the cards.

Gadkari, accompanied by a team of Tesla officials, was taken on a visit to the manufacturing plant which employs cutting-edge robotic automobile assembly operations.
However, European car companies are facing much tougher emissions regulations in the next few years, which requires them to integrate more advanced exhaust filtration systems, better cylinder heads and add ever more turbochargers.Rather than give up on the V8 completely, Audi and Porsche collaborated on a brand new one which went into the 2017 Panamera, followed by Bentleys and the next RS cars. But that's it! Volkswagen Group says it's not going to develop any more V8s.So what's BMW to do with its 4.4-liter twin-turbo, which many view as a core part of the brand? Well, we know that that there are new versions already developed for the 550i and M5. But according to a rumor from Automotive Magazine, the Bavarians are in the middle of a negotiation with Jaguar Land Rover. It too is a company known for its V8s.But there are two parts that don't make a lot of sense. For starters, all the most famous Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles use the 5.0-liter supercharged engine. We don't imagine the British engineers will be too pleased if BMW sticks its nose into SVR vehicles.Something else that's off is the fact that the report claims the 4.4-liter twin-turbo BMW engine will be replaced by a 4.0-liter one. From what we've been hearing, the next 5 Series and M5 will keep the 4.4L displacement, so something doesn't add up.Maybe that's why negotiations are still ongoing. Still, it's not like two companies haven't collaborated in the past. For example, BMW called on British expertise when developing the first-gen X5, which used the Hill Descent System and Off Road Engine Management system from the Range Rover of that time.Mercedes is downsizing and moving back to inline-6 units, big luxury sedans are starting to use 1.5-liter engines and now this; it's clear that governments are forcing the segment to change at the fastest pace ever.
AMG

With BMW not looking like it wants to hand it over without a fight, Mercedes-Benz has had to give it its best - and the latest models to come out of Stuttgart do a very good job of reflecting that. Despite having almost every possible niche covered, this new Mercedes-Benz isn't the type of manufacturer to sit idly and wait to see what happens.These recent years have proven that it can play on all fronts, from small family cars to the madness that is the Mercedes-AMG GT R . A recently revealed product plan for the next year shows that this incessant activity is hardly going to stop, making 2017 almost just as busy as the current year.You've already seen most of the planned models in spy shots wearing different levels of camouflage, but the chart does hold one big surprise. We're talking about the GLA Coupe, a car that is going to open up a new niche, taking further down the model range the trend started by the GLE Coupe, with the link between the two provided by the GLC Coupe.With the GLA already looking like a very sporty crossover, it's hard to imagine there is any real need for a coupe version, especially since the interior and trunk space aren't exactly stellar to begin with. The GLA Coupe will be joined by the E-Class All Terrain , a model that has just shown up in the first spy photos, and immediately spawned what looks like an AMG performance version as well.The long-touted Mercedes-Benz pickup truck looks set to make its official appearance as well, together with the production start of the Mercedes-AMG GT R and electric versions for the smart fortwo cabrio and smart forfour. The twoGT versions, the Roadster and the Coupe, also feature in the scheme, both with a "C" suffix which could stand for a new sub-model, since a facelift is a bit unlikely after just three years from launch.It looks like the varied range of vehicles currently offered by Mercedes-Benz is going to become even more varied, which is good news for everyone, except BMW. And those who can't make their minds easily.
TDI

After Volkswagen had agreed to pay $14.7 billion in the United States of America over the emissions issue related to 2.0-engined cars, the German juggernaut now faces the wrath of South Korea. And yes, thats the good Korea, not the one with a chubby sociopath filling the role of supreme leader.As per a report published by Automotive News , the Volkswagen Group will suspend sales of most of its vehicle models in South Korea from July 25, as pressure builds on the automaker over its falsified emissions tests. This is not good news for the German manufacturer, partly because South Korea is the second-biggest market in Asia for diesel cars. Heck, a Volkswagen executive in South Korea was arrested last month over the Dieselgate scandal The stop-sale centers around 32 models equipped with TDI turbo diesel engines, models which could lose certification if the South Korean prosecutors want so. The biggest issue South Korea has with the Dieselgate mess-up is that Volkswagen South Korea is said to have fabricated documents on emissions and noise-level tests. In other words, Volkswagen lied and cheated.Its up to the Volkswagen Group to decide if its wise to take legal action against the allegations made by South Koreas Ministry of Environment. The German manufacturer can do so after Volkswagen presents its case to the higher-ups in the ministry on July 25. My gut tells me that wont be the case.A spokesman for Volkswagen South Korea told Automotive News that it would take three months to achieve certification again for the models. If Volkswagen wanted to continue selling those 32 models in South Korea, the manufacturer would have applied for certification many months ago.
As per a release published by the Ohio-based company, Battelle has been awarded a second contract worth $170 million. The truth is, Battelle goes a long way back with the armed forces of the U.S. From tank armor in WW II to armoring trucks for the SOF, the peeps at Battelle have lots of experience.Are you curious what vehicles Battelle will be working on? Prepare to be surprised: Toyota Hilux Toyota Land Cruiser, and the Ford Ranger . Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, two of those models are not on sale in the United States of America. Under the terms of the $170 million contract, Battelle will armor these vehicles yet retain the original appearance. More than that, the vehicles will be re-engineered with crew protection, enhanced suspension for improved off-road mobility, and a reinforced chassis for durability.The contract has been awarded for a period of five years, during which Battelle will build the U.S. Special Operations Forces-spec vehicles at its manufacturing facility in West Columbus. If all goes well, the contract can be extended for two more years through an option worth $60 million.Battelle has a proven track record of performing sophisticated systems integration for military and commercial applications, declared Fred Byus, vice president of Battelle Mission and Defense Technologies. Under this contract, our vehicle systems team will execute on its custom designs and integrate complex systems to meet mission requirementsat a competitive cost.In numbers is what youre most interested in, the contract is for 556 vehicles, of which 396 armored. Most of these heavy-duty, action-ready machines will come in the form of the Toyota Land Cruiser 76 and 79 Series.
Photo of 2017 Genesis G80 courtesy of Hyundai.

Hyundai's Genesis will offer complimentary maintenance, loaner cars, and a valet service with its 2017 G90 and G80 luxury sedans in hopes of luring buyers to the new brand, Genesis announced.

The vehicles will arrive with 3 years or 36,000 miles for both services. Genesis will also offer complimentary "connected services," SiriusXM traffic and data, and enhanced roadside assistance with concierge services.

Additionally, Genesis will offer vehicle towing around the clock. The models will arrive with a warranty of 10 years or 100,000 miles.

Genesis has also released new details about its rear-wheel G80 model that will be sold with a 3.8L V-6 or 5.0L V-8. All-wheel drive is optional.

The G80 will arrive as the mid-size model to compete with the BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and Lexus ES models.

Standard safety technology on the G80 includes automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist and blind spot detection.
The 2016 Toyota Prius is now available for rent at all Hertz locations in Mexico City. Photo courtesy of The Hertz Corp.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has announced that its Hertz Green Collection  which includes fuel-efficient cars, hybrids, and electric vehicles  has been launched in Mexico with a fleet of 2016 Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles.

Hertz Mexico is the first car rental provider in Mexico to add hybrid vehicles in support of sustainable mobility, according to the company.

The 2016 Toyota Prius is currently available for rent at all Hertz locations in Mexico City. These cars are exempt from the city's driving limitations in force for improving the quality of the air.

"Leading the car rental industry in offering a fleet of hybrid car rental vehicles in Mexico supports our commitment to the environment," said Moises Behar, chief executive officer of Hertz Mexico. "After seeing the popularity of the Hertz Green Collection in other countries, we are convinced that this eco-friendly choice will be equally well received in Mexico City."

In addition to its regular fleet and the recently launched Green Collection, Hertz Mexico offers the Prestige Collection and the Adrenaline Collection.
The search for MH370, the Malaysia Airlines jet that vanished in March 2014, will be suspended by the end of the year when crews complete their current phase of operations in the Indian Ocean, officials announced Friday. Unless new information comes to light to help direct the search for the Boeing 777, the ships hired to scan 100,000 square kilometers of the rugged ocean floor are expected to cease their work between October and December as conditions allow, CNN reported. This does not mean we have given up on looking, Malaysian officials said. The flight, carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, dropped from radar over the ocean. All are presumed dead and while pieces of debris believed to be from the jet have been found, investigators have had little to go on in determining what happened  fueling a range of conflicting theories.

Meanwhile, a Dutch company leading the search in the targeted area has raised the possibility that the jet glided under control farther beyond the search area instead of crashing into the waters where crews have been looking. If its not there, it means its somewhere else, the project director for Fugro told Reuters this week. If it was manned it could glide for a long way. Investigators, including those from the NTSB, dont support that theory and the coordinating agency, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, has said evidence points to the jet crashing within the search area. All survey data collected from the search for missing flight MH370 will be released, the bureau told Reuters.
Facebooks new high-altitude drone flew for the first time and its mission, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is nothing short of changing the world. But first the frail high-altitude solar electric aircraft had to get off the ground. Zuckerberg was in Yuma, Arizona, on June 28 when Aquila, riding a dolly down the runway, was cut free by some pyrotechnic straps and climbed to 2,150 feet. It was this incredibly emotional moment for everyone on the team whos poured their lives into this for two years, Zuckerberg told The Verge. The plan is for fleets of the ancestors of Aquila to bring really high-speed internet to every corner of the world. Its as ambitious as it is audacious but its also essential, Zuckerberg said.

I just felt this is such an important milestone for the company, and for connecting the world, that I have to be there, Zuckerberg said. The idea is that thousands of relatively inexpensive drones will act as repeaters for the internet and beam AVweb, along with a lot of other stuff, to anyone who wants it for low cost. Zuckerberg said the information and education possibilities will lift billions of people out of poverty and enable the distribution of Facebooks artificial intelligence and virtual reality products. As for the drone, its designed to cruise on sun power at about 70,000 feet and operate as a flying router, using laser signals to get the bandwidth to the ground, and it seems likely that a company with Facebooks resources will be able to make it work.
22 July 2016 10:26 (UTC+04:00)

Armenian armed forces have 10 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported on July 22.

Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the Berkaber village of Armenias Ijevan district, on nameless heights and in the Mosesgekh village of the Berd district opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located in the Gizilhajili village of Azerbaijans Gazakh district, Munjuglu and Alibayli villages of the Tovuz district.

Azerbaijani troops also underwent fire from the positions located near the Seyidahmadli village of the Fizuli district and on nameless heights of the Goygol and Goranboy districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
22 July 2016 13:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The seizure of a police station in the Erebuni district of Yerevan continues for the sixth day. The Sasna Tsrer, an armed group that attacked the building, still keeps four people in hostage. Not getting any sane response from the authorities during the last day, the rebels repeated their demands on a telephone call in a more rigid form.

That was caused by the yesterdays brutal dispersing of the protests, coupled with the complete absence of any attempts of negotiations from the authorities.

Last day, Pavel Manukian, one of the groups members, contacted Armenian media on the phone and repeated the demand on release of opposition activist Jirair Sefilyan, who was arrested nearly a month ago on charges of illegal possession of arms. He then urged people to further support Sasna Tsrer in its confrontation with the Armenian government.

The overthrow of the criminal-oligarchic regime and returning power to the people are our main and final requirements. He claimed that the release of Jirair Sefilyan and other political prisoners will become possible only after the government changes.

Currently, several hundred activists are standing in the Khorenatsi street of the Armenian capital, expressing their support to the attackers in their demands on the resignation of the present Armenian government.

Armenian activists protesting on Khorenatsi street argue that 20 residents of Sari Tagh district of Yerevan have been stolen by the police during the day. In addition to the old requirements for the release of the already detained citizens, they claim to release the Sari Tagh residents and close the criminal cases against the detainees. They will come again in the night, Manukian said on the phone call about the recent dispersion of activists.

Armenian authorities fail to conduct negotiations with the attackers for the sixth day. It got so bad that the government urges some authoritative political and public figures to negotiate with Sasna Tsrer, Armenian Zhoghovurd newspaper states. Speaking on the silence of the Armenian President, Manukian claimed: And when he is not silent? Especially in times of conspiracy.

From the morning of July 17, a group of armed men seized the police station and took hostages demanding release of opposition activist Jirair Sefilyan, who was detained on charges of illegal possession of arms. After the authorities allegedly uncovered a plot to seize several buildings and telecommunication facilities in Yerevan. The attackers also demand resignation of the Armenian president.

During the seizure, one Armenian police officer was killed and four were injured. Currently, four hostages are held in the building, including the deputy chief of Armenian police major-General Vardan Yeghiazaryan and the deputy chief of Yerevan police, Colonel Valeri Osipyan.

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22 July 2016 14:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The Sasna Tsrer armed group that seized the police building in Yerevan continues to receive support from the population.

Hundreds of people went to streets in Yerevan, mainly gathering in the Freedom Square, supporting the group's antigovernment position.

The protesters believe that 'brave Sassoon', as they call the attackers, are not terrorists as they were named by the Armenian authorities.

They are heroes and should not be considered as terrorists. It is necessary to expand the information access of the armed group, to provide its members with Internet and also make the negotiation process open for the public, the protesters claim.

Recently, the activists were able to force the government to provide the attackers with food.

It is obvious that the members of the Sasna Tsrer group are respected by the Armenian society and enjoy their sympathy, which surely threats the countrys authorities.

Jirair Sefilyan, who is demanded to be released by the government, has fought long against the Sargsyan regime through holding antigovernment events and rallies. Following the seizure, the number of Sefilyans supporters has increased markedly.

Following the recent rallies, which degenerated into riots between citizens and the police, the Investigative Committee of Armenia opened a criminal case.

The Committee claims that the opposition members were destroying the police property and committed violence against police officers. According to the criminal code of Armenia, the detainees are threatened by imprisonment for a term of 3-8 years.

Meanwhile, many Armenians claim that the clashes were caused by the latter. Throwing stones into people is in style of the Armenian government, said Anahit Bakhshyan, head of Hello Yerevan faction. All these mean that Armenia is a police state, she added  Official bodies of the country, including the President, do not even try to resolve the situation.

On July 17, a group of armed men entered the territory of the Armenian police patrol department in the Erebuni district of Yerevan and took several people hostage. The attackers demand the release of Armenian opposition figure Jirair Sefilyan, who was arrested nearly a month ago on charges of illegal possession of arms. They also claim resignation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

The police states that during the seizure of the building one policeman was killed and four were injured. Currently, the attackers hold four policemen in hostage, including the deputy chief of Armenian police major-General Vardan Yeghiazaryan and the deputy chief of Yerevan police, Colonel Valeri Osipyan. The armed group refuses to lay arms down and surrender to the authorities.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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22 July 2016 18:34 (UTC+04:00)

By Javier Solana

When problems accumulate, as in Europe  where the failed coup in Turkey comes hard on the heels of the United Kingdoms decision to leave the European Union  attention is often focused on the most recent issue to arise. Earlier problems, now seeming less urgent, are neglected. For many years, we Europeans have seen how this plays out: in the end, none of the problems ever seems to be resolved.

The Turkish coup appears now to be resolving itself, though no one yet knows what long-term implications it will have for that vital country. Brexit is, without doubt, a veritable blow to the European project. A member state has regrettably chosen to move ahead alone. But this mustnt lead the EU into the most damaging situation of all: paralysis.

The many issues that the Union must still resolve wont disappear merely with the passage of time. And one of the most urgent is Europes security: each day that passes without taking joint action is an opportunity lost and leads to greater risk.

Addressing such issues effectively, rather than falling into the trap of the immediate, requires adhering to accepted strategies. By identifying challenges, establishing long-term objectives, and designing collective action to achieve those objectives, strategies provide a framework for initiatives to address problems in a more far-sighted, coherent way.

With this in mind, Federica Mogherini, the EUs high representative for foreign affairs, and her team have designed and presented a Global Strategy for European security that has clearly defined aims befitting conditions both within and beyond our borders. Many observers have indicated that now is not the best time to elaborate a vision that assumes that all Europeans are united by common interests. But, as the strategy clearly declares, cooperation is no longer a question of principle; it is an existential imperative.

That is why I disagree with those who call the Global Strategy ill-timed and even useless. Even though it was presented to the European Council a week after the Brexit referendum, its aim is to implement the provisions foreseen in the Treaty of Lisbon, seven years after the treaty entered into effect. It is also the result of a June 2015 mandate from the European Council itself. And it aims to develop a policy to strengthen the EU, which many citizens want. To remain immobile would have been a grave error.

The Global Strategy defines clear objectives, considers the mistakes of the past, and is deeply anchored in the EUs present-day reality. It calls for a more responsible, united, and credible EU  the only response capable of overcoming Euroskepticism. It defines the actions Europe must take and the capacities it must have for its own defense and security. It takes into account the long-term effects of its actions and understands that the development of the EUs member states is essential to conflict prevention. And it recognizes that only greater unity will enable Europe to confront the challenges of terrorism, migration, and climate change.

A fundamental fact should be borne in mind when assessing the Global Strategys usefulness: The threats to Europes security are not common because some treaty or intergovernmental consensus has said so. They are common because we are neighbors, and because, like it or not, the world around us is irremediably global.

One consequence of a document like the Global Strategy is the creation of a common discourse. In 2003, Europeans also needed to unite behind a common foreign policy, following the differences created by the intervention in Iraq. But the problem today is on a very different level: the European project itself is being questioned. Revealing the EUs capacity to act effectively would help to confirm the necessity of its existence.

The Global Strategy can be useful here. European citizens perceive terrorism and the refugee tragedy as questions of vital importance and want the EU to play a greater role in addressing them and other global issues. A Pew Research Center study in ten European countries (including supposed bastions of Euroskepticism like the UK, Poland, and Hungary) found that an average of 74% of those polled supported more decisive action by the EU abroad.

In recent years, we have seen how internal and external security conditions are closely linked. That is why, in the interest of safeguarding internal security, the Global Strategy emphasizes the need for more and improved external action. It is also why the EU requires an integral approach to conflicts and crises that uses every available instrument and policy. Moreover, the manner in which we conduct external action characterizes us as Europeans. In the field of human security, few organizations can deploy missions and operations as complete as the EUs, combining military and civilian elements, such as police or judges.

Much has changed since the European Security Strategy of 2003: Europe must now find its place amid the competition of great powers and negotiate the conflicts and instability on its eastern and southern flanks. There have been important changes within Europe as well, and opposition to strengthening the EU seems to be on the rise, as evidenced by the Brexit vote and the position recently expressed by the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia).

With the presentation of the Global Strategy, those in favor of moving the European project forward have placed an initiative on the table. Without it, only proposals for less Europe would have been heard. Over the coming months, we must move our foreign and security policy forward, in order to implement the strategys objectives. Those of us who are in favor of continuing to advance cannot remain silent.

Copyright: Project Syndicate: The EUs Bold New Strategy

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22 July 2016 15:39 (UTC+04:00)

By Kevin Hjortshj ORourke

In the sad state of affairs following the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, former Remainers  those who wished to stay in the EU  seem to have given up altogether on fighting for the future of their country. Worse still, many seem to have accepted the fundamental premise of the anti-EU Leave campaign: that there are too many Europeans in Britain.

This has changed the terms of the debate for the worse, and has led to hopelessly wishful thinking: Perhaps the UK wont actually lose much market access if it imposes immigration restrictions on EU nationals. Perhaps the EU itself will abandon free labor mobility in an attempt to appease the UK. Perhaps the EU will make special exceptions to protect the British university sector, or treat the UK like Liechtenstein, a microstate with access to the single market.

In fact, with Remainers accepting the argument that Britain should keep Europeans out, the UK  or at least England and Wales, if pro-EU Scotland and Northern Ireland leave  is headed for a hard Brexit, not just from the Union, but from Europes single market. If this happens, it will cost the country dearly. The full extent of the fallout is unknown, but we can expect it to be painful for many people and damaging to many institutions.

Is there any merit to the claim that the UK has become flooded with newcomers from other EU member states? The following chart shows the percentage of EU immigrants in each EU country. The UK is at the upper end of the distribution, but it is on par with many other EU members, and it is far from having the most EU immigrants per capita. In fact, the share of EU immigrants in the total population is twice as high in Ireland.

As British policymakers navigate the post-Brexit landscape, they should consider the Irish example, given the similarities between the two countries.

Ireland and the UK both have housing shortages, especially around metropolitan centers such as Dublin and London. And they both have public services that leave something to be desired  in fact, Irelands are much worse than Britains.

While the Irish are not British, they are closer culturally than other Europeans. As we saw in 2008, when Irish referendum voters refused to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon, there is a potential anti-immigrant voting bloc in the poorer parts of Dublin. These are the same kind of voters who turned out for the UKs Brexit referendum  poorer people who have not felt the gains from globalization.

The question, then, is why the Irish havent developed UK levels of animosity toward EU immigrants, especially given the appalling way in which the country was treated by European institutions in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Surely, the British media bear considerable responsibility for the difference. Ireland has nothing like the mendacious, jingoistic gutter press that thrives in the UK.

Much of the blame, however, lies with British political leaders. One the one hand, there are those who have made careers out of attacking the EU, often on entirely specious grounds. On the other, there are lukewarm Remainers, such as former Prime Minister David Cameron, who never made a strong case for continued membership in the EU. Now, even committed Remainers are failing to make the case for continued two-way labor mobility between the UK and the EU, and for membership in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Ireland hasnt had this problem. Notably, Sinn Fein, Irelands nationalist party and the former political arm of the Irish Republican Army, has not indulged in the kind of xenophobic rhetoric used by the UK Independence Party. In fact, to its immense credit, Sinn Fein has gone out of its way to adopt a progressive stance on the issue of immigration from the EU and elsewhere.

Many commentators have correctly pointed to the economic effects of globalization to explain anti-immigrant sentiment. The fact that globalization produces both winners and losers certainly explains much of the anti-globalization backlash now apparent in the UK and elsewhere. But other things matter, too, such as cultural chauvinism. Put plainly, English animosity toward the presence of fellow Europeans has a lot to do with some of the worst aspects of English society.

Addressing shortfalls in public services can help to mitigate economic concerns about immigration, and about globalization more generally. Just as important, former Remainers must continue to explain to the English why the free exchange of goods, services, and people with Europe is good for Britain.

The UK voted to leave the EU, but Brexit comes in two flavors: membership in the EEA, with access to Europes single market and free movement of people, or an exit from the single market, followed by unpredictable trade negotiations. There is still a huge amount to play for: we dont know which of these two outcomes English voters would choose.

Unfortunately, it looks as though the UK is now headed for the second option  a hard Brexit  by default. For Remainers not to make the case for EEA membership, when they had previously been in favor of remaining in the EU, is an astonishing abdication of responsibility.

Copyright: Project Syndicate: Deserting the Battle for Britain

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22 July 2016 14:22 (UTC+04:00)

AZAL, the biggest Azerbaijani airline and national flag carrier, and Russian Ural Airlines will start operating joint flights on Gabala-Moscow-Gabala route from July 31.

Under the code-share agreement, flights of Ural Airlines on this route will be operated under the codes of both airlines.

Direct flights en route Gabala-Moscow-Gabala will be operated every week on Sundays.

Departure from the Domodedovo International Airport (DME) is at 11:30 in the morning (Moscow time), arrival at the Gabala International Airport (GBB) is at 15:15 local time. Departure from Gabala will be at 16:25 local time, arrival in Moscow will be at 18:20 local time.

Flights from Gabala to Moscow will be operated with Airbus A320 airliners, which have economy and business class cabins.

Tickets can be purchased at AZAL sale offices and booked on the website www.azal.az.

To purchase tickets and for more information, please contact: (+994 12) 598-88-80; *8880.

Azerbaijan Airlines is a major air carrier and one of the leaders of the aviation community of CIS countries. AZAL with the newest airplane fleets, consisting of 25 airplanes, does not have a single old plane.

The total route network of AZAL, one of the aviation community leaders in the CIS area, includes 40 destinations in 19 countries.

Being an important member of the International Civil Aviation Organization Council, for its services AZAL received a prestigious "4 Stars" from the leader in air transport research, the world-famous British consulting company Skytrax last June.

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22 July 2016 17:07 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The Azerbaijani Economy Ministry is currently considering issuance of a document of the investment incentives for realization of projects worth over 1.7 billion manats ($ 1.08 billion).

The issue was mulled at the meeting of the Board of the Ministry dedicated to the implementation of the presidential orders.

Under the document of investment incentives, half of the revenue of an individual entrepreneur, profits of legal entity are exempted from income tax for seven years.

The projects are expected to open about 1,200 new work places.

Certain documents for the implementation of different projects worth 193.7 million manats ($ 123.4 million) in the regions of the country have already been presented.

Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, addressing the meeting, reminded that President Ilham Aliyev has recently stated that 2016 will be a year of deep economic reforms.

Highlighting the measures realized in this direction, as well as socio-economic indices in the first half of 2016, the minister said that tasks assigned by the president are considered to be a program for strategic development, which will provide for socio-economic development of the country in a difficult external-economic situation.

The meeting participants noted that the policy of industrialization gave an impetus to creation of enterprises engaged in the production of export-oriented goods as well as diversification of non-oil sector of economy.

Azerbaijan has managed to expand the range of industrial production due to creation of new enterprises, which are based on the use of brand-new technologies and best practices in the sphere.

The meeting participants also discussed the issue of state support in the sphere of industry and agriculture.

Development of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan remains a priority for the authorities. The government has set a goal to attract more investors to its non-oil sector and develop the local production.

The country is working to create a more attractive business environment, and become more alluring for foreign investments, as it aims to reduce its dependence on oil revenues and diversify economy.

Simplification of the licensing procedures has allowed the companies and entrepreneurs to get licenses in a simple way, which in its turn positively affected business environment.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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22 July 2016 16:08 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development's (EBRD) Board of Directors has postponed the pending decision on raising the banks stake in the equity capital of Holcim Azerbaijan OJSC up to 20 percent but retains plans to double its participation, according to the bank's message.

The issue is scheduled to be discussed by the EBRD's Board of Directors on September 7, 2016.

Main objective of the project is supporting the company in the improvement of energy efficiency through the introduction of alternative fuels in its fuel mix.

Previously, the consideration of the issue was scheduled for July 20.

The amount of EBRD shares in Holcim Azerbaijan amounts to 10 percent while the share of Holcim Auslandbeteiligungs GmbH and individuals amount to 10 and 14 percent respectively.

Lafarge Holcim, which is considered to be the world's most advanced group in the industry of building possesses the largest volume of share capital, which amounts to 66 percent.

The company is engaged in the provision of managerial, technical and commercial resources. The company acquired a controlling stake in Holcim Azerbaijan, formerly known as Garadagh OJSC, after a privatization process in 1999.

Holcim Azerbaijan which is a part of Holcim Group (Switzerland) is considered to be one of the largest cement and clinker producers in Azerbaijan. The company has a production capacity of 1.7 million tons per year.

Some 40 percent of the cement market in Azerbaijan accounts for Holcim Azerbaijans products.

The support of EBRD to the company is considered to be a sign of its continued commitment to the non-oil sector of the country.

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22 July 2016 14:26 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijans Armed Forces are fully adhering to ceasefire and are complying with humanitarian norms and principles of international law. They do not target Armenian civilians and facilities.

Azerbaijans Defense Ministry made the statement on July 22 while answering reports of Armenian media outlets.

Aiming to divert the attention of its population and international community from the ongoing clashes in Armenia, that countrys authorities have once again spread false information saying that allegedly Azerbaijani armed forces broke the ceasefire and fired at the Armenian civilians, the ministry said.

The Ministry is sure that the Armenian authorities, through spreading such information, seek to exacerbate the situation along the line of contact and justify their planned provocations beforehand.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.

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By Gunay Camal

The sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict achieved certain results during the peace talks in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, believes Matthew Bryza, the former US assistant secretary for South Caucasus, ex US ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Bryza, talking to reporters in Baku on July 22, said that the talks not only reduced tension on the contact line of troops, but also led to the beginning of discussions on the political points of the conflict.

He added that the Azerbaijani foreign ministers statement after negotiations in Vienna and Saint Petersburg also demonstrates that some progress has been achieved during the negotiations.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has met Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan twice since the April escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh, first in Vienna in May, and the second time in St. Petersburg in June along with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Experts have positively assessed the intensification of talks, along with the signs of more constructive spirit of the talks.

Speaking about Moscows role in solving the conflict, Bryza said President Putin is really concerned that the April crisis was very serious and poses a great threat to the outbreak of a war, which is unfavorable for Russia.

The diplomat also noted that Putin can play a role of a peacemaker in this conflict.

Russia, a big global player and a member-state of the OSCE Minsk Group established to mediate between the parties to the conflict, recently intensified its efforts in this regard.

Moscow hopes to more clearly define the further steps towards the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said FM Sergei Lavrov in Baku recently, mentioning that President Putin is satisfied with the negotiations.

Bryza, commenting on statements of some political analysts that the five Armenia-occupied regions may be returned to Azerbaijan until late 2016, said he did not think it could happen so quickly.

Such statements are a pressure on the process, said Bryza, adding he thinks it is not real to realize this step within several months.

For over the past 20 years the OSCE-led Minsk Group is dealing with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged in 1988 as a result of Armenia's illegal territorial claims on 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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22 July 2016 15:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

In these hot summer days, thousands of Azerbaijani citizens and guests of the country come to the Absheron beaches to relax and swim in the Caspian sea waters. Therefore, beach owners should be ready to provide their visitors with safe and healthy conditions. To check the current situation on the beaches, the Main Police Department of Baku allocated several squads to beaches, malls and other public places of recreation of the capital.

They have inspected 86 facilities for the observance of sanitary-hygienic and epidemiologic norms and legal requirements on industrial and domestic waste, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

The audits resulted in drawing up of records regarding 16 object owners in Khazar and Sabunchi, and four in Surakhani districts under Article 211 of the code of administrative offences (violation of legal requirements on industrial and household waste). Moreover, three other object owners were penalized under Article 266.3 (dumping of waste in inappropriate places).

In order to protect the health of citizens, prevent infectious diseases and eliminate the unsanitary conditions at beaches, Baku Police will continue audits to the end of beach season.

Recently, Baku city Executive Power tasked the heads of Binagadi, Sabail, Khazar, Sabunchu, Surakhani and Garadagh districts Executive Powers to create all necessary conditions for efficient relaxation of the population. In particular, they were instructed to make sure that the beach areas and coastal zones of Baku are in appropriate conditions, and to keep the territories clean.

The important moment is that the entrance to the beaches and coastal area is free, and the Baku districts Executive authorities have been entrusted to monitor their compliance with this requirement.

Moreover, almost all the Azerbaijani beaches were declared suitable for swimming by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. It assured that monitoring of the coastal water will be held systematically throughout the whole vacation season to ensure the safety and healthcare of visitors.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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22 July 2016 11:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

On 22 July, the Azerbaijani national press celebrates its 141st anniversary, commemorating the first release of the Akinchi (The Plowman) newspaper.

The press plays a unique and crucial role in the progress of every nation and in the process of awakening a national consciousness. The Azerbaijani national press also has a particular role in the country's public life, thus fulfilling a very important function.

The first national Azerbaijani-language newspaper Akinchi which was founded by Azerbaijani journalist, teacher and scholar Hasan Bey Zardabi went to print in 1875. The newspaper which promoted educational and democratic ideas played a paramount role in the formation and development of the Azerbaijani national press. The newspaper flocked around many influential people such as Mirza Fatali Akhundov and Najaf Vezirov who were at the forefront of late nineteenth century Azerbaijani literary development.

Several national newspapers published after Akinchi further helped to develop Azerbaijani national conscience and identity.

Newspapers like Shergi-Rus (1903-1905), Hayat (1905-1906), Molla Nasreddin (1906-1931), Fuyuzat (1906-1907), Shalale (1913-1914), Igbal (1912-1915), Dirilik (1914-1916), Achiq Soz (1915-1918) reflected social and political events in the country, and promoted the thoughts and views of intellectuals. A number of satirical magazines dealt mainly with educational issues as well as raised some issues concerning gender equality.

Molla Nasraddin, the eight-page weekly, satirical magazine which was founded by Jalil Mammadgulizade, also played an invaluable role in the history of the Azerbaijani press. The magazine mainly focused on such issues as corruption, snobbery, ignorance, religious fanaticism, equal rights for women as well as freedom of expression and preservation of national language and traditions using a sense of humour as a weapon against injustice.

Azerbaijani press has played a special role in strengthening the national and spiritual values and preserving the purity of the Azerbaijani language. Having a huge influence on the formation of national self-consciousness the press also played a huge role in the establishment of the first democratic republic in East and making Azerbaijan the first secular state of the Islamic world as well as the first country in the East that granted women the right to vote.

The Azerbaijani national press gained almost complete freedom after the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Kaspi, Istiqlal, Hurriyyat, Ovragi-nafisa, Azerbaijan and other papers published a wide range of articles on politics, science, education, culture, health and promoted thoughts and ideas of famous intellectuals.

Although following the dissolution of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic the Azerbaijani national press faced a decline, it managed to preserve the traditions established by the early newspapers and magazines.

Since gaining its independence in 1991, Azerbaijan has continuously worked to foster a system of free press. The rights to free speech and free press are protected under the constitution. A Special Fund was established to support the independent press and many newspapers now receive financial assistance from the State.



In 1998, Azerbaijan's National Leader Heydar Aliyev abolished censorship. Anti-censorship decree as well as a variety of other government documents gave a stimulus to the further strengthening of independent mass media in Azerbaijan.

Today, the development of an independent press in Azerbaijan continues, with over 4,500 registered press bodies, most of which are newspapers and magazines, over 30 news agencies, and 44 electronic media outlets. The Press Council of Azerbaijan was founded on March 15, 2003 with the aim to enforce public oversight of the profession, strengthen the relationship between the government and the press and ensure freedom of press. Bureaus of several media outlets function in foreign countries.

Azerbaijani press which is considered to be a leading in the region is developing steadily. The distinctive feature of the national press is that it is often presented in at least 3 languages Azerbaijani, Russian and English and is accessible to a wide range of audiences.

Azerbaijans national press, possessing rich historical traditions, contributed greatly to the realization of freedom goals, the preservation of moral values, and the founding and development of Azerbaijan as an independent state.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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22 July 2016 09:54 (UTC+04:00)

A new print edition of the AZERNEWS online newspaper was released on July 20

The new edition includes articles about: Azerbaijan celebrates National Press Day, Presidential Administration: Azerbaijani women play an important role in civil society, Shaki sweets attract all those who have a sweet tooth, SOFAZ has no plans to up its gold reserves.

AZERNEWS is an associate member of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The online newspaper is available at www.azernews.az.
22 July 2016 10:17 (UTC+04:00)

The House of Commons of the British Parliament has hosted a presentation ceremony of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim (ICPHH) historical cemetery and venue, Azertac reported.

Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva attended the event.

The participants in the event included Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Tahir Taghizade, MP Matthew Offord, First Deputy Mayor of the city of Jerusalem Rabbi Yosef Deutsch, member of the Yugoslavian royal family, wife of the heir to the throne Princess Katherine, leaders of the Jewish community, representatives of non-governmental organizations and organizations in the field of religious tolerance.

Azerbaijan's achievements in the field of religious tolerance, particularly attention to the Jewish community in the country were hailed.

Taghizade highlighted the history of cultural diversity and harmonious coexistence of different religious and ethnic communities in Azerbaijan.

"Jewish community has lived in peace and tranquility in Azerbaijan for centuries," he said.

The diplomat underlined Leyla Aliyeva's participation in the ceremony, hailing the Foundation's projects implemented both in Azerbaijan and abroad.

The ambassador also highlighted the Heydar Aliyev Foundation`s projects in the fields of multiculturalism, protection of cultural heritage and religious tolerance.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation aims to support socio-economic and humanitarian development within the country and abroad. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation also places special emphasis on the mutual enrichment of various cultures and civilizations, the expansion of dialogue among nations, and the preservation of the traditions of tolerance.

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22 July 2016 10:51 (UTC+04:00)

The meeting of the Constitutional Court for adopting a decision on the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan will be held on July 25.

The Constitutional Court announced about this on July 22. The meeting of the Constitutional Court will start at 10:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours).

President Ilham Aliyev signed this week a decree proposing changes to the Constitution.

It is proposed to establish first vice-president and vice-president positions in Azerbaijan. First vice-president and vise-presidents are appointed and dismissed by Azerbaijans president.

It is proposed to remove not younger than 35 in Article 100 on requirements to candidates to the post of the president of Azerbaijan: Citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic not younger than 35, permanently living on the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic longer than 10 years, possessing voting right, without previous conviction, having no liabilities in other states, with university degree, not having double citizenship may be elected the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Moreover, it is proposed to make amendments to the part 1 of Article 101 on procedure of elections of the president of Azerbaijan, according to which it is planned to extend the office term of the president from 5 years to 7 years.

At the same time, it is proposed to add the following words to the part 1 of the Article 101: Azerbaijans president can declare extraordinary election of Azerbaijans president.

Moreover, the following amendments have been proposed:

To replace within three months with during the period of 60 days  in Article 105 on implementation of powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic on his resignation: Whenever the President of the Azerbaijan Republic resigns from his post ahead of time, extraordinary elections of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic are held within three months.

To replace prime minister with first vice-president in the following sentence: In such case, until new President of the Azerbaijan Republic is elected, the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic will carry out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.

To replace prime minister with first vice-president in the second part of this article: If during said term the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic carrying out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic resigns, becomes incapable of carrying out his powers due to illness, Chairman of Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan Republic will carry out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.

At the same time, according to the amendments to this article, if the first vice-president resigns, becomes incapable of carrying out his powers due to illness, vice-president of Azerbaijan gets the status of the first vice-president and carries out duties of the president.

Additionally, according to the proposed amendments, persons who have the right to participate in the elections (at the age of 18) can be elected to Milli Majlis. Previously, persons no younger than 25, had the right to be elected to the parliament.

It is also proposed to add an article on dissolution of parliament, rights to conclude interstate and intergovernmental international agreements, responsibilities of municipalities and others.

Deputy executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, MP Siyavush Novruzov earlier noted that referendum on the changes can be held in 2016.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
22 July 2016 16:31 (UTC+04:00)

A closing ceremony of the 10th Baku Energy Summer School was held on July 22.

The summer school was organized by the Caspian Center for Energy and Environment of ADA University in partnership with Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR), BP, and ExxonMobil.

The project brought together 46 students from 17 countries, Azertag reported.

During the trainings they were informed about the energy policy of Azerbaijan and the Caspian littoral states. Senior officials and a group of experts and analysts delivered lectures at the trainings.

Rector of ADA University, academician Hafiz Pasahayev, addressing the event, hailed the importance of the project.

Speaking about the activities of the University, Pashayev described the Baku Summer Energy School as one of the first training programs which was carried out by ADA University. He underlined that this project promoted various aspects and features of the energy sector in Azerbaijan.

Founded by the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry and chartered by a presidential decree, ADA University is dedicated to training innovative global leaders and promoting useful collaborative research on diplomacy, public and international affairs, business, humanities and sciences, information technologies, and system engineering.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
22 July 2016 10:19 (UTC+04:00)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised interview late Thursday that the military will be restructured in a short time.

Erdogan also added that there were significant failures in intelligence ahead of last Friday's attempted military coup.

President further stated that he gave a call but could not reach the head of National Intelligence Agency (MIT), Hakan Fidan during the night.

In his first interview since declaring a state of emergency following the abortive coup, Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible but would not be easy, saying "we are more vigilant".

"It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it. I told it to the head of national intelligence," Erdogan told Reuters in his palace in Ankara, which was targeted during the coup attempt.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
22 July 2016 13:46 (UTC+04:00)

Iran is in talks with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Total SA as part of its push to attract $60 billion in foreign investment to more than double the countrys capacity to produce petrochemicals over the next decade, Bloomberg reported on July 21.

State-run National Petrochemical Co. plans to increase output capacity to 150 million metric tons a year by 2026, Managing Director Marzieh Shahdaei said in an interview with Bloomberg at her office in Tehran.

That means completing 55 unfinished projects and 28 new production facilities, said Shahdaei, who also serves as deputy oil minister.

If it succeeds, Iran would be producing more than twice the current output of Saudi Basic Industries Corp., known as Sabic, the worlds second-biggest petrochemical maker by sales.

Iran is seeking to upgrade and expand its energy industry, including petrochemicals, in a drive to rebuild its economy after the easing of international sanctions in January. The Persian Gulf nation has boosted crude output since then to near pre-sanctions levels and ramped up production of natural gas. Iran holds the worlds largest reserves of gas, a raw material for petrochemicals.

Dollar Transactions

A number of these projects have had problems that go back to sanctions and financing, Shahdaei said Wednesday. Although most of the restrictions on Iran were lifted under last years nuclear accord, some U.S. sanctions remain in place, prohibiting transactions in dollars and keeping large international banks at bay.

The government presented about 60 projects to potential investors in December at an event in Tehran with companies including BASF SE, the worlds largest chemical company by sales.

Irans current production capacity is 60 million tons a year, up about a third since the end of the last Iranian year on March 20, when it stood at 46 million tons, Shahdaei said. Sabic, by comparison, produced 69.7 million tons annually as of the end of 2014, according to the Saudi companys website.

Iran generated $14 billion from petrochemicals produced in the last Iranian year, including $9.4 billion from exports, mostly to China and Europe, Shahdaei said.

A $10 billion credit line from Japan to Iran, announced last month, could facilitate the petrochemicals business, she said. In addition to Mitsui and Total SA, NPC is in talks with several German, Italian and Spanish companies, Shahdaei said, declining to identify them because they havent signed memorandums of understanding with Iran.

Companies that ignored us for years are now getting up and coming here, she said. Its similar to starting a race. They are positioning themselves in the starting blocks so that as soon as the barriers are removed, they can get working.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
22 July 2016 17:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Rosaviation, Russias Federal Air Transportation Agency, has lifted its temporary ban on flights to Turkey. The ban was earlier imposed to ensure safety after the failed military coup in Turkey.

The agency reported that it got necessary assurances over provision of sufficient security measures all over the country.

Aeroflot, national carrier of Russia, is expected to reopen the sale of airline tickets to Istanbul and Antalya from July 22.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Adjar, a tourism and culture manager in Antalya Resort, said that all necessary safety measures are totally ensured in Turkish resorts and Russian tourists may enjoy their vocations with no worry, Ria Novosti reported.

Antalya is totally safe. There is no link with the attacks that hit Ankara and Istanbul. The state of emergency has no connection with day-to-day life and tourists. Security is fully ensured, he added.

The July 15 coup attempt in Turkey has affected the tourism sector of the country and frightened certain number of potential visitors to the country. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a nationwide three-month state of emergency in the country.

Turkey that has long ago established its position as a top summer destination, attracting more than 37 million tourists per year, faced with certain problems. Foreign Offices of certain countries made travel warnings and suggested to reconsider travels to Turkey.

Nevertheless, Turkey still remains one of the must-see destinations due to high-quality and inexpensive vacation that the country offers to many international tourists as well as exceptional friendliness and hospitality of the Turkish people.

Currently, the government is taking steps to provide high level security across the country.

Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan Ismayil Alper Coskun earlier said that the state of emergency declared in Turkey would not constrain the freedom of Turkish or foreign citizens, and wont create any obstacles to their travels.

At least 246 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred during the failed putsch, and over 1,500 others were wounded as they protested it. Turkey's government has said the attempted coup was organized by Fethullah Gulen.

--

Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
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A 30-year-old Oildale man who gunned down his uncle and a family friend last month was an ISIS sympathizer who referred to family members as i
Top 13 dealer tricks

Most car dealers arent really out to rip you off, but keep in mind that car dealerships are for-profit entities.
A Pasco County man pretended to be another man for more than 20 years, and his wife didn't even know, Pasco County deputies say.

Authorities say Richard Hoagland took on false identity

He remarried and put down roots in Zephyrhills

Hoagland faces ID theft, other charges

Richard Hoagland, 63, decided not to be Richard Hoagland in 1992 after two failed marriages and four children, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said. His second wife said he just disappeared one day.

"Linda states that Richard Hoagland had three businesses that were related to insurance," Sheriff Chris Nocco said. "She states that he embezzled over $1 million."

Investigators said Hoagland ended up in Palm Beach and began living with a man whose son was deceased. He found his death certificate and assumed Terry Symanksy's identity, according to authorities. Symansky died in August 1991.

"He uses the death certificate to apply for a new birth certificate from Ohio; Ohio gives him the birth certificate," Nocco said. "He uses that birth certificate to apply by mail for a driver's license in Alabama; he then gets that Alabama driver's license and uses it to apply for a Florida drivers license."

A few years later, he remarried and put down roots in Zephyrhills. His neighbors knew him as their landlord  he owned several homes surrounding his. But they knew him as Terry.

"We've been personal with him quite a bit, and Terry's the nicest guy anyone could ever meet," said one of his tenants, Gregory Yates.

Hoagland, his wife and teenage son lived on the property.

"He's a really nice guy, and he's a really good landlord. Never would have known this, couldn't imagine this was happening," said another tenant, Dean Lockwood.

Hoagland was found out because a nephew of Symansky was doing research on Ancestry.com. He then found more information about his "uncle" on Google  including that he was now a pilot.

The family called police, who then contacted the Pasco Sheriffs Office.

Detectives showed up at Hoaglands home Wednesday, and thats when his wife learned everything.

"For 20 years, she's been lied to, so now she doesn't know what she has to do as far as whether her marriage is even legal  what's going to happen to all the properties they own, their bank accounts. The son has the last name Symansky," Det. Anthony Cardillo said.

It's not just his family wondering what's next.

"I like it here, so I don't know what's going to happen now," Lockwood said.

Hoagland has been charged with identity theft, but the Sheriffs Office said it has notified federal agencies, and more charges may be coming.



Investigators said Hoagland admitted to using a false identity for over 20 years. He said he ran from his old life because he didn't want to go through another divorce.
Tampa police say about 150 people were caught trespassing Thursday night at a Tampa park.

Police found 150 people trespassing at Ballast Point Park, playing Pokemon Go

The group was asked to leave; everyone complied except David Mastrototaro-Baermude

He was arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting arrest



At about 10:30 pm., officers responded to a complaint of a large group at Ballast Point Park after closing time.

When officers arrived, they say the group was in the park playing Pokemon Go. Police instructed the group to leave and everyone complied except one person, 20-year-old David Mastrototaro-Baermude.

Mastrototaro was asked to leave the park several times, but he refused, police said.

When officers tried to arrest him trespassing, he allegedly grabbed an officers arm. According to police, Mastrototaro continued to resist, almost pulling one officer to the ground.

One officer used his Taser in order to arrest Mastrototaro, according to the police report.

Mastrototaro was charged with trespassing after warning and resisting arrest.

Tampa police offered a few safety tips for those playing Pokemon Go:
Wild 'n Wacky on Oregon Coast: Freaky Facts, Fossils, Rumors

Published 07/21/2016 at 5:31 PM PDT - Updated 07/21/2016 at 6:21 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff







(Oregon Coast)  Call it a latter day Believe It Or Not, without Robert Ripley. From fact to fairly fiction, Oregon's coastline is chock full of these. Fossil finds, bizarre plants, broken records to a curious if not laughable claim about a battle off these beaches, here's a potpourri of funky facts that will surprise.





Bizarre Bulbous Bulbs. What are those huge tube-like creatures on the beaches of the Oregon coast? They're actually plants, sort of. They're called bull kelp and they are a large, brown algae that grow in "forests" near the shore.

According to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, these kelp are annuals, completing their life cycle in one season, and can grow up to 20 meters (60 feet) in one year. At the bottom, their branching "holdfasts" anchor the kelp, although some are torn free in storms. Their long stipes (stems) tangle together to form large piles, as you see in the photograph. Their floats have a high proportion of carbon monoxide and to keep the blades (leaves) near the surface for photosynthesis. Their smooth, roundish shapes, when bobbing in the ocean, are sometimes confused with seals. Full story here.





Beach Fossil Madness. It's illegal to cut anything out of the rocks of the Oregon coast, but if you want to go hunting for ancient critters frozen in time that have been shaken loose by the tides, most beaches have something. It's easier to find in winter, however, when sand levels get really low and expose bedrock and agate beds, however. (Above: Strawberry Hill).

According to local experts, Oregon's "beaches are home to one of the heaviest concentrations of 15- to 30-million-year-old fossils in North America." Some of the greatest shell locations are at Charleston, north of Florence at Strawberry Hill, the small parking lot north of Seal Rock and the section of beach just north of Ona Beach State Park (near Waldport.)





Broken Records of the Oregon Coast. There is a lot of complexities and twists and turns when it comes to these claims. Many just aren't true.

One that definitely is true resides just north of Florence. Sea Lion Caves is the largest sea cave in the world The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed that in the '90s, noting the cave clocked in at 310 feet long, 164 feet wide and about 50 feet high.





In the '90s, Lincoln City had a claim that the D River was the shortest in the world. But news stories circulated that Guiness and its world records organization wound up having to share that record with a river in Montana.

According to the Guiness organization  which Oregon Coast Beach Connection contacted in the 2000's  this is not true. That official designation was never given to either the D River or Montana.

And whats the shortest lighthouse on the west coast? That's Cape Meares, near Tillamook, clocking in at a stumpy 38 feet high. Size doesn't matter here, however, as it stands on a 217-foot-high cliff.





Wild 'n Wacky World War II Claims. Crazier still is the now-legendary and mysterious story of a patrol boat that got into a skirmish with two, maybe more submarines about ten miles off of Cape Lookout. The incident, rather hotly debated, actually involves Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in command of the vessel. The event itself is unproven, however, and largely deemed as made up. Still, it's rather amusing.

It was a sub chaser called SC-536, stationed out of Astoria, that was sent to investigate radar pings of at least one submarine off the Oregon coast on May 19, 1943. Accompanying it were two military blimps. All crews involved that night swear they had sunk a Japanese sub, and even witnessed the resultant oil slick and blood on the sea.

However, upon return to base, a higher-up general denied their written report and claimed it never happened. The military apparently still sticks to that view today, in spite of considerable written testimony by witnesses.

At the time, the only explanation for the cover-up seemed to be a matter of bad publicity and scaring those on the West Coast. This is not without precedent, as the government withheld for decades the fact German submarines were known to make maneuvers off New York and the East Coast. But why a cover-up regarding the Cape Lookout incident would continue now is unknown. Oregon Coast Hotels in these areas - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours



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Udated: Two Youths Rescued from Seaside's Surf, N. Oregon Coast; One Dead

Published 07/21/2016 at 7:51 PM PDT - Updated 07/22/2016 at 3:02 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Seaside, Oregon)  UPDATED:on Conditions, Names. Two young males were rescued from the surf on the north Oregon coast Thursday, after lifeguards at Seaside beach noticed them struggling in the water.

City of Seaside spokesman Jon Rahl said the two youths, 13 and 14 years of age, were rushed to the hospital.

Seaside Fire & Rescue along with the U.S. Coast Guard responded to the scene to assist with the rescue. The first victim, Carter Moore, 14, of Kingston, Oklahoma was pulled from the water a short time later. A second victim, Conner Moore, age 13, of Tulsa, Oklahoma was located from the air by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Having entered the water, a Coast Guard swimmer requested assistance from Seaside Lifeguards to bring the second victim to shore. Both victims were transported to Providence Seaside Hospital (PSH).

Conner Moore was pronounced deceased at PSH. Carter Moore was life-flighted to a Portland area hospital on Thursday evening and released late Friday morning.

The two cousins were traveling with many other family members from out-of-state and in Seaside for the Moore Family Reunion.

Both victims were transported by Medix to Providence Seaside Hospital.

Rahl said additional details will be released as they become available. As of last night, the conditions of both boys were unknown. Rahl was informed Friday morning that one had passed away.

The cause of the incident is not yet known, but that area of Seaside  near the Seaside Turnaround  can produce rip currents. Warmer-than-usual waters this time of year are also causing more people to enter the breakers. Even summer's calmer conditions can produce hazardous waves and debilitating cold temperatures.

In spite of this incident, Seaside is still one of the safest beaches in Oregon, because it is so broad, waves can be some of the calmest, and there are many eyes on the beach here because of so many businesses on the Prom and people strolling it.

Every summer at least a few individutals require rescuing while attempting to swim or surf in ocean waters they're not quite ready to handle.

Even beachcombers face possible dangers while walking on the sand. There are sneaker waves, even in summer, and these can pull you out into rip currents.

More commonly, according to OPRD, sneaker waves can surge up the beach and inundate your clothing with sand, which can further weigh you down.

Standing on rocks just beyond the tide line is also never a good idea. Keep clear of rocky shelf areas like those at Yachats and Depoe Bay: and stay well back from the waves are washing over. Do not ever stand on or near logs in the surf. It does not take much water to lift them and roll them onto you.

Always stay off jetties, OPRD advises.

More on Oregon Coast Beach Safety. More on Seaside below:



















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In a traffic stop, don't be surprised if the officer who pulls you over looks around more than usual or asks more questions than you might think necessary.

These days, heightened awareness helps to increase an officer's safety, according to local police chiefs. The new normal is for officers to focus not only on what is in front of them, but to each side and in back of them.

After the recent murderous attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge and with tension between police and the communities they are sworn to protect, officers feel more vulnerable, said Beaumont Police Chief James Singletary.

"We're not taking any drastic measures, but in some cases, more officers are dispatched," he said.

As shifts begin, supervisors instruct patrol officers to be mindful of "set-ups," Singletary said, though he declined to describe what that might look like.

Police have had to be aware of "set-ups" in the past and will in the future because it goes with the job, he said.

"I've told them not to worry about calling for back-up," Singletary said.

A small department, like Nederland's, also must stay aware, said Chief Darrell Bush.

"We're supposed to be vigilant anyway," he said.

Nederland will have three to five officers on patrol for each shift," he said. "We tell our officers not to hesitate to do what they have to to stay safe. We don't want them to be scared by circumstances. We're going to be here and do our job."

Nederland's police department also enjoys good relations with its residents, Bush said. As an example, a church group is bringing lunch for the department on Monday, he said.

The shocking attacks haven't altered how police are doing their jobs, Singletary said.

Most of the time, Beaumont police patrol in one-officer units. In some situations, police will patrol in pairs.

"Safety for my officers is my main concern," Singletary said. "If we can't protect our officers, we can't protect the public. Safety is brought up at every meeting for patrol. If you're a police officer, you could be a target."

While Beaumont police have been involved in fatal shootings of citizens at least twice in the past two years, it hasn't erupted in the kind of anger that has boiled over in other cities.

"In the last three or four years, we've been blessed to have good relations with the community," Singletary said.

On July 8 and again on Tuesday, crowds came to Beaumont police headquarters to pray with police for peace after the murders of five officers in Dallas and three officers in Baton Rouge. Several other officers were wounded in the ambush attacks, viewed as reprisals for police-involved shootings in various cities across the country.

Most of the incidents involved white officers shooting black men.

An officer in New York killed a black man who was selling individual cigarettes on a street corner. A university police officer in Cincinnati shot and killed a black motorist driving the wrong way on a one-way street. An officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed an 18-year-old black man after a shoplifting incident.

In Beaumont, Singletary said officers review videos of police-involved stops and try to learn from them. "You try to make a positive out of it and make it a learning experience," he said.

"The job is now more difficult than ever," Singletary said. "In the last several months, the public here has been very supportive and we're grateful."

The public also has a responsibility in contributing to safety, he said.

"Officers are being more meticulous. Always do what the officer asks. Be a little more patient and don't make it worse," he said.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/dwallach
With the conclusion of the Republican national convention last night and the start of the Democratic national convention just three days away, voters are more focused on politics than usual. They're watching the speeches, reading about the issues and discussing all of it among themselves. That, of course, is exactly what our Founders intended when they began this wonderful experiment in democracy.

In Texas, however, this spike in attention has been overlaid with an unusual twist. The state's voter ID law has been struck down by a federal appeals court. A lower federal court in Corpus Christi has been ordered to come up with a temporary fix that will be used for the November elections. A permanent change will come in 2017, either from the courts or the Legislature.
The following hospitals announced plans to expand, upgrade or renovate their facilities in the last week.

1. Methodist Hospital unveils $90M expansion

Omaha, Neb.-based Methodist Hospital will open 15 new operating rooms next month. The new rooms are an integral part of a larger $90 million construction project, according to Live Well Nebraska.

2. McLaren Port Huron opens $25M cancer center

The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute opened at McLaren Port Huron (Mich.) July 18, less than one year after construction commenced.

3. Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican breaks ground on Nevada hospital

Construction started on a new neighborhood hospital in Las Vegas, according to KTNV.

4. Des Moines VA opens new emergency department

Des Moines-based VA Central Iowa Health Care System opened a $9.5 million emergency department July 14, according to The Des Moines Register.

5. $80M expansion at Mercy Health's Jewish Hospital unveiled July 21

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of Cincinnati-based Mercy Health's Jewish Hospital $80 million, ultra-modern expansion took place July 21, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier.

6. Adventist plans HQ expansion

Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System unveiled plans to expand its national headquarters, including a new office building and multi-story parking garage, according to the Orlando Business Journal.

7. Advocate Medical Group proposes building medical facility on vacant lumber site

Chicago-based Advocate Medical Group is proposing building a new medical building over the vacant Beatty Lumber property in Oak Lawn, Ill., according to the Chicago Tribune.

8. Redlands Community Hospital plans surgery center

Redlands (Calif.) Community Hospital will build a surgery center to meet operating space demands and improve technology, Redlands Daily Facts reported.

9. North Kansas City Hospital plans medical office park

North Kansas City (Mo.) Hospital will build a medical office park with five buildings totaling 100,000 square feet, The Kansas City Star reported.

10. NYC Health + Hospitals wins approval to build affordable housing unit

NYC Health + Hospitals received approval from city council to build affordable housing at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull in Brooklyn as part of its efforts to address housing instability.

11. ProMedica opens outpatient surgery center

Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica is opening a new outpatient surgery center and medical office building July 18, The Blade reports.

12. Florida Hospital Flagler breaks ground on $4.5M cancer center

Florida Hospital Flager in Palm Coast broke ground on July 11 on a $4.5 million construction project that will expand its cancer center by 2,000 square feet, according to the Palm Coast Observer.

13. Cleveland Clinic plans to build Express Care facility downtown

Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic will open a small medical office and Express Care facility downtown, according to Cleveland.com. The Clinic signed a 10-year lease on the space.

14. After opening $45M cancer center, Munson Medical Center eyes phase 2 of expansion

Following the recent unveiling of Traverse City, Mich.-based Munson Medical Center's $45 million Cowell Family Cancer Center, hospital leaders appeared before Traverse City planning commissioners to present additional expansion plans, according to the Traverse Ticker.
St. Luke's Cornwall (N.Y.) Hospital's board of trustees voted Thursday to close the Littman Center for Emergency Medicine at its Cornwall campus.

St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital is part of a two-hospital integrated care network based in Newburgh, N.Y. Board members decided to shutter the department as utilization of its emergency services has steadily declined during the past seven years, according to the hospital's website.

The Cornwall ED treated an average of fewer than two patients per hour in 2015. Of those patients, fewer than one in ten required hospitalization, which occurs on the hospital network's main campus in Newburgh.

Hospital network officials estimate the closure could improve its bottom line by $3.2 million.

The emergency department is slated to close Oct. 1.
Paul Taylor, CEO of the Springfield, Mo.-based Ozarks Community Hospital health system, is fighting back against CMS' recent decision to terminate the Medicare agreement for the organization's Springfield facility.

Mr. Taylor on Thursday outlined the events leading up to CMS' decision, which has forced OCH to close its Springfield inpatient unit, surgery and emergency departments, affecting 200 employees. He also defended the hospital, saying it is a safety-net facility providing an efficient and needed service to southwest Missouri.

"There was a reason for us to be here, we were meeting a need," Mr. Taylor said during a call with media. "A need that could only be met by a small hospital."

Mr. Taylor opened the Springfield hospital in 2000. Over the last 16 years, he indicated the hospital responded to industry pressure and has done what it could to maintain inpatient services within the parameters dictated by CMS.

But he said industry pressures such as the lack of Medicaid expansion in Missouri and CMS's Recovery Audit Program have affected the hospital's organizational restructuring in recent years.

And now, CMS has determined the Springfield hospital does not satisfy the federal definition of a hospital.

Mr. Taylor believes small hospitals are being examined closely for outpatient growth, as the healthcare industry advocates for reduced inpatient admissions and promotes primary care initiatives.

"That's the warning to the other health systems," he said.

Mr. Taylor said a CEO from a small out-of-state hospital called him in tears worried that she's next. He said she's been similarly focused on increasing primary care, as it's what she thought she was supposed to be doing.

"That's the irony of this. We've got healthcare responding to evolutionary pressures," Mr. Taylor said.

OCH intends to appeal CMS' decision.

In the meantime, United States Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has sent a letter to CMS, asking the agency to delay terminating Medicare payments for OCH.

Sen. McCaskill in her letter asks that CMS allow OCH to maintain its current Medicare provider agreement status until a final determination is reached.

"This will allow the community of Springfield to continue to receive the care it needs while CMS reviews OCH's case," she added.

OCH plans to suspend its Springfield hospital license as of July 29. OCH's Springfield clinic campus remains open, as well as its hospital in Gravette, Ark., and additional clinics located throughout southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. The Springfield clinic campus will also continue offering outpatient services including radiology, lab, cardiopulmonary, respiratory therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

More articles on finance and revenue cycle management:

New physicians enrolling in debt forgiveness program

7 quick facts about Medicare spending

Senator asks CMS to delay ending Medicare payments for Ozarks Community Hospital
An infectious disease research institute under the Danish health ministry inadvertently sent a letter containing health information on nearly the entire Danish population to a Chinese visa office in Copenhagen, reports Reuters.

The Serum Institute is a public enterprise within the Danish health ministry. The institute sent two unencrypted CDs with "very comprehensive" data on 5.3 million Danes to the country's statistics office. However, the CDs ended up at the ChineseVisaApplicationServiceCenter in Copenhagen, which is close to the statistics office, according to the report.

The CDs and the letter contained information on cancer, diabetes and psychiatric diagnoses, in addition to some demographic information of individuals living in Denmark between 2010 and 2012, Reuters reports.

The mistake was reportedly realized when an employee at the Chinese Visa office, which contracts work to a private firm, opened the package, and upon realizing she was not the intended recipient, gave the package to the statistics office, reports CSO.

More articles on data breaches:

Maryland court dismisses CareFirst data breach lawsuit citing insufficient demonstration of injury

Providence notifies 5,400 patients of insider breach

Ultrasound unit thefts breach PHI of 1,100 Kaiser patients
The vastness of the internet is both a blessing and a curse for healthcare stakeholders. It can be a research tool where users can find answers and be more informed about matters regarding their health, for instance. But widely available clinical information can come at the cost of misinformation and misdiagnoses if individuals rely solely on information found online, and some experts argue excluding providers as an information resource threatens the art of medicine.

Healthcare organizations and search engines have proactively tried to eliminate any misinformation and ensure the quality of online information is high. Last February, Google worked with physicians from Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic to fact check the results of 400 health-related web searches. More recently, Google rolled out its "symptom search" feature. With the help of Boston-based HarvardMedicalSchool and Mayo Clinic, Google created "digital cards" that will appear at the top of search results when somebody enters a health-related search. The cards will mention if the patient can self-treat the ailment or should seek professional medical care.

Patients seeking answers to health questions on their own is generally a positive thing, but when they diagnose themselves using the internet, it can turn dangerous, says Michael Warner, MD, CMO of digital health platform Ask The Doctor.

"Patients using [the internet] to self-diagnose should tread carefully. There is no substitute to having a physician assess a patient's story and provide a diagnosis or list of potential diagnoses," Dr. Warner said in emailed comments to Becker's Hospital Review. "Patients may misdiagnose themselves and may even demand investigations or treatments based on their self-diagnosis without taking into consideration other potentially important symptoms or past conditions."

Dr. Warner says tools like symptom search still carry an "unknown degree of accuracy" but patients view such tools as an alternative to a physician assessment. Google doesn't seem to have a solid stance on this issue. On one hand, Google says in a post announcing symptom search it offers information on self-treatment options, but on the other hand, the company says symptom search and all other medical information on Google is for informational purposes only, and individuals should always consult a physician for medical advice.

Self-diagnosing or self-treating can be potentially harmful to patients who may land on an incorrect self-diagnosis or run the risk of confirmation bias. And, solely relying on the internet to do so threatens the practice of medicine and diminishes the expertise with which clinicians examine and diagnose patients, Dr. Warner says. "The art of medicine includes having a doctor ask iterative questions to create a prioritized list of potential diagnoses, then order the appropriate investigations to determine the most likely diagnoses," he says. "If too much emphasis is placed on what Google pulls up as a result rather than this process, the patient has a chance of being misdiagnosed."

If the art of listening to patients to arrive at a diagnosis is what is missing in health-related internet searches, that is what Dr. Warner's company Ask The Doctor wants to restore. The platform seeks to personalize healthcare interactions on the internet to provide advice and answers to patients.

Patients submit questions and any supporting information and documentation online to a physician who reviews the information and responds via email. Ask The Doctor combines the convenience of the internet with the personalized attention and expertise of a care provider.

But Dr. Warner says Ask The Doctor is not another telemedicine platform seeking to eliminate travel time and make access to care more convenient; rather, it aims to enhance the interaction between patient and provider.

"We do not focus on making the traditional doctor-patient encounter more convenient. Instead we focus on helping patients who are not serviced well by the traditional doctor-patient encounter or the telemedicine alternative," he says.

Traditional encounters between physicians and patients tend to be transactional, whether done via telemedicine or face-to-face, Dr. Warner says. As such, they don't serve the patients seeking information or advice from a physician, which is what Ask The Doctor intends to do.

The company is essentially a humanized Google. Sending a question to an Ask The Doctor provider can be equated to typing a query in the Google search bar. Physicians working for Ask The Doctor don't write prescriptions or make referrals; rather, they simply give advice, offer insights into diagnoses, provide clinical information and can help interpret test results.

But Dr. Warner acknowledges the powerful role of the internet and that people will continue to turn to Google for answers and information. And he says the internet can be an "excellent source" to glean information if patients use reliable and validated resources. Google has been mindful of that, evidenced by its partnership with Mayo Clinic for symptom search.

Healthcare is in a dichotomous era of digitization and patient engagement. While new technology enables remote monitoring and telecommunication, stakeholders are renewing efforts to connect with and engage patients. While technology can eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction, especially with consumers' growing on-demand mindset, there's still a case for human touch in healthcare.

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In addition to her role at the helm of The Huffington Post, media magnate Arianna Huffington is also a sleep champion, as evidenced by her recently released book, The Sleep Revolution.

Ms. Huffington, president and editor-in-chief at The Huffington Post Media Group, is passionate about sleep  she gets at least eight hours per night  and she aims to convey the importance of sleep to others. In particular, busy executives often let sleep fall to the wayside in order to work longer hours. And society in general doesn't value sleep enough. According to Ms. Huffington, this element of the American ethos could date back to Thomas Edison, who she said is "the one person who most embodies our sleep delusion," according to Entrepreneur.

"He was convinced that sleep was unnecessary," Ms. Huffington told Entrepreneur. "He once said, 'Nothing in this world is more dangerous to the efficiency of humanity than too much sleep.'"

We know now this is untrue  our bodies require sleep to maintain both cognitive and physical health.

In addition to advocating for making changes to school schedules to enable children to get more sleep, Ms. Huffington says the business world must also make changes to allow employees to get adequate rest. The change will come from shifting values, and this should come from the top down, she said.

"There is a founder myth that if you are starting a company you can't afford to get enough sleep," said Ms. Huffington, according to the report. "But in reality three-quarters of startups fail, and perhaps if these founders were getting the sleep they need they'd have a higher likelihood of succeeding."
Stay in the know with Becker's Hospital Review's weekly roundup of the nation's biggest healthcare news. Here's what you need to know this week.

1. Gunman kills 2 at Parrish Medical Center

A man entered a patient's room at Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Fla., early Sunday and opened fire, killing an elderly female patient and a hospital employee in what appears to be a random attack, authorities told CNN. Following his arrest, the attorney of the 29-year-old suspect, David Owens, said he is severely mentally ill and incompetent to stand trial.

2. Miami may have first case of locally acquired Zika in US

On July 19, the Florida Department of Health announced it is conducting an epidemiological investigation in collaboration with the CDC into a possible non-travel related case of Zika in Miami-Dade County.

3. CMS to withdraw Medicare funding for Texas psychiatric hospital

CMS notified Behavioral Hospital of Longview (Texas) it will terminate Medicare funding to the facility due to alleged deficiencies that jeopardize patient health and safety, reports Longview News-Journal.

4. CMS reveals new cardiac, stroke innovation model

CMS unveiled the participants July 21 of a new innovation model aimed at reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, which cause 1 in 3 deaths and result in $300 billion of healthcare costs annually. The new program  dubbed the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model  is a five-year, randomized controlled trial.

5. ProPublica posts HIPAA violation notification letters in ongoing patient privacy series

Not all data breaches are reported or penalized equally. While some organizations face multimillion dollar fines for alleged HIPAA violations, HHS' Office for Civil Rights resolves thousands of complaints of potential violations without notifying the public, according to an investigation by ProPublica.

6. CMS releases some overall star ratings data: How many hospitals have 5 stars?

Although CMS has not yet released its full Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program to the public, on July 21 it released some data from the program, including the national distributions of the stars measuring hospitals on multiple facets of quality.

7. Feds to give Calif. $1.8B in uncompensated care funding

CMS updated California's 1115 waiver by upping its uncompensated care funding to public hospitals by $472 million annually for the next four years.

8. Kaiser Permanente nurses to picket at 7 California hospitals

Nurses affiliated with Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente picketed July 20 at seven Kaiser hospitals in California over what they say is unsafe staffing and eroding standards of patient care, California Nurses Association officials announced this week.

9. 3 Next Generation ACOs head for the door

Out of the original 21 participants in CMS' Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model, 18 remain after roughly seven months in the program, Healthcare Finance reported.

10. Hospital cleared of wrongdoing after releasing patient hours before fatal rampage

State officials cleared Taunton, Mass.-based Morton Hospital and a contracted employee of any wrongdoing after a patient killed two people and injured five just hours after his discharge, according to the Boston Herald.
Coral Gables-based Baptist Health South Florida will offer a voluntary separation program for certain eligible workers, according to a Miami Herald report.

Here are four things to know about the program.

1. Baptist Health South Florida did not reveal its goal for workforce reduction to media.

2. Only some system workers will be eligible for the buyout. Workers excluded from the program include physicians and nurses involved in direct patient care, temporary workers and anyone hired after June 30, the Miami Herald reports.

3. Adriene McCoy, corporate vice president and head of human resources, said terms of the separation program will depend on each employee's level and length of service, according to the report.

4. Ms. McCoy also said in the report that money saved through the buyouts will be reinvested in growth areas, such as the new Miami Cancer Institute, enhanced technology and an expansion of primary care and outpatient services. "Our goal is to increase efficiencies while maintaining high levels of quality patient care and service," she added. "Once we determine the number of employees who choose to participate in this program, we will be able to better evaluate our next steps."
Two Florida paramedics have been arrested over allegations they participated in a selfie competition by taking pictures with incapacitated patients being transported to hospitals, reports The Times-Picayune.

Kayla Dubois and Christopher Wimmer face multiple counts of interception and disclosure of oral communications, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said in an prepared statement. Mr. Wimmer also faces a misdemeanor battery charge for holding open the eyelid of a sedated patient.

Forty-one patients are pictured in the selfies, some of whom were unconscious, according to the article. Three patients apparently agreed to the photos, police told The Times-Picayune.

Members of the sheriff's office began investigating the pair in May following complaints from other emergency personnel.
A physician from Jackson, Miss., pleaded not guilty this week to six counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud in connection to a prison bribery scandal, according to a report from WAPT News.

Carl Reddix, MD, 57, allegedly paid bribes and kickbacks to former Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps to secure more than $29 million in medical contracts at several correctional facilities in the state, according to the report.

Dr. Reddix's attorney, Lisa Ross, said he was a victim of a shakedown, according to the report. Dr. Reddix will go on trial Oct. 3.

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Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Fla., is taking a closer look at security after a gunman fatally shot two people there Sunday, according to a Florida Today report.

PMC this week increased security in its emergency department waiting area and at its main entrance. Now, the hospital is considering installing metal detectors and enhanced protective equipment for its currently unarmed security officers, according to the report. Other potential security enhancements include additional restricted entry points, random bag checks, "enhanced security resources" at all Parrish healthcare sites, and other "enhanced detection devices  to identify prohibited items," the report states, citing a "security reminders" memo Parrish officials distributed to staff.

The discussion of heightened security follows Sunday's fatal shootings at PMC.

Authorities told CNN the 29-year-old suspect, David Owens of Titusville, entered a patient's room at PMC and opened fire, killing an elderly female patient and a hospital employee in what appears to be a random attack. Two security guards restrained the shooter moments after he opened fire around 2 a.m. Sunday. The guards were not armed and held the suspect down until police arrived to take him into custody, according to CNN.

The victims are 88-year-old patient Cynthia Zingsheim and hospital employee Carrie Rouzer, who was sitting in Ms. Zingsheim's room, according to an Associated Press report published by WWSB. As of Monday, Mr. Owens was being held without bond in the Brevard County Jail on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder. Mr. Owens is claiming mental illness.

The fatal shootings have also prompted other hospitals to look into security. Florida Today reports that Health First, which operates four hospitals in Brevard County, on Thursday began arming some of its security officers, and plans to implement other security changes.

Also, Wuesthoff Health System, which operates Florida hospitals in Melbourne and Rockledge, is looking into changing its security protocol, according to Florida Today.
Officials at Lincoln Community Hospital in Hugo, Colo., said no patients reported any adverse affects after the Hugo Public Works Department discovered THC in the town's local water supply, according to an NPR report.

The Lincoln County Sherriff's Office said the public works department detected "evidence of THC" in the local water supply but residents did not exhibit any symptoms. Subsequent testing by multiple agencies found "no levels of concentration," according to NPR.

Lincoln County Health officer John Fox, MD, updated residents through the organization's Facebook page. He stated that it would take "more product than any of [the residents] could afford to contaminate a city water supply to the extent that people would suffer any effects."

Dr. Fox also recommended that until the department received the additional test results, it is "reasonable [for residents] to avoid drinking or cooking with town water" but that "washing hands, toileting, bathing and showering" with town water are acceptable, according to the Facebook post.

Several health experts told The Denver Post that the town's fears are unfounded because THC is "relatively insoluble in water."

Concerns about the water were first raised by an unidentified Hugo-based company conducting "field tests" to check employees for THC, according to the Denver Post. When tests results came back inconsistent, company officials decided to test a vial of tap water. The water tested positive for THC.

LincolnCounty officials later isolated the results to a single well a mile away from downtown Hugo. County officials also said the well exhibited signs of forced entry, but officials are unclear when the damage occurred, according to the Denver Post.

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In a review of Medicare beneficiaries discharged from rehab hospitals, HHS' Office of the Inspector General found 29 percent of patients examined in the study experienced an adverse event such as bed sores, infection or medication error. Reviewers determined 46 percent of these events were preventable.

For the study, physician reviewers examined records on 417 patients from rehab facilities that were not associated with traditional hospitals. Patients at these facilities are considered to be healthier than patients in hospitals or nursing homes. Reviewers found nearly half of the 158 adverse incidents detected among the Medicare beneficiaries were preventable. Medical errors included deficient treatment, inadequate patient monitoring and failure to provide necessary treatments. Medication errors like bleeding from gastric ulcers due to blood thinners and issues linked to narcotic pain killers made up the bulk of the preventable adverse events.

"This is the latest study over a long time period now that says we still have high rates of harm," David Classen, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City and developer of the analytical tool used to identify preventable errors in the study, told NPR. "We're fooling ourselves if we say we have made improvement. If the first rule of healthcare is 'Do no harm,' then we're failing."

Approximately one-quarter of the patients that experienced adverse events were sent to acute-care hospitals for treatment. The estimated cost of these events to Medicare was $7.7 million for the month analyzed.

The report recommends CMS and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality collaborate to improve patient safety by compiling and disseminating a list of adverse events common to rehab hospitals. According to the report, both agencies have agreed to adhere to this recommendation.

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Few surgeons apologize to patients after a mishap occurs during surgery, according to a new study published in JAMA Surgery.

More than 60 surgeons at three different Veterans Affairs medical centers completed a web-based survey for the study. The majority of surgeons surveyed said they followed most of the recommended disclosure practices regarding medical errors.

However, only 55 percent said they apologized to the patient or discussed whether the error was preventable.

Researchers also found that those who failed to mention preventive tactics and who commented on the seriousness of the error were negatively affected by the experience and were more likely to exhibit anxiety before or after an operation.

Medical errors as a whole are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., topped by only cancer and heart disease.
On Thursday, the Florida Department of Health launched an epidemiological investigation into a possible case of Zika detected in Broward County not associated with travel. On Tuesday, the department announced a similar investigation underway in Miami-Dade County. If either are confirmed, they would be the first locally acquired cases in the U.S. and establish that Zika has infiltrated the Floridian mosquito population.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary culprit in the Zika outbreak that has disseminated across Latin America. According to NBC News, Florida is 1 of 26 states where Aedes mosquitoes have been detected. But finding infected mosquitoes to confirmation these suspected locally acquired cases can be challenging.

"It's a needle in a haystack," Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, dean of tropical medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told NBC News. "Just because they don't find Zika in an Aedes mosquito doesn't mean there is no [local] transmission."

Though preliminary evidence suggests these cases of Zika are homegrown, investigators are not ruling out other possibilities.

"We continue to investigate and have not ruled out travel or sexual transmission at this time," a spokesperson from the Florida Department of Health told NBC News.

Health officials, as they have in Miami-Dade, are making Zika prevention kits for pregnant women and mosquito repellent available for pickup at the county health department. The kits are also being distributed to local OB-GYNs. Florida health officials are collaborating with the CDC in both investigations.

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What's worse: importing drug ingredients from a Chinese factory with known quality control issues or experiencing a shortage in the U.S. of crucial cancer drugs?

In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration issued an indefinite ban on a drug plant owned by Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., one of China's largest exporters of pharmaceutical products, according to Bloomberg.

To prevent drug shortages, the FDA allowed the factory to continue exporting approximately 15 drug ingredients to the U.S., nine of which are key components for cancer medications.

The FDA told Bloomberg that while U.S. manufacturers are not required to publicly disclose where they get their ingredients from, they are responsible for testing the purity, strength and quality of imported products exempted from the ban.

Not all U.S. companies are doing that, said Robert Fish, former head of the FDA's domestic and internal investigations. It costs money.

The FDA relies on an honor system to ensure the quality of drug imports and declined to comment on whether companies receiving exempted drug ingredients from the Chinese plant are performing the testing. Instead of doing the testing themselves, the agency also allows drugmakers to rely on tests done by component suppliers to ensure ingredient efficacy.

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A federal jury in Boston convicted two former executives at Acclarent  a unit of Johnson & Johnson  of illegally marketing a medical device, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The jury found William Facteau, former CEO of Acclarent, and Patrick Fabian, the company's past vice president of sales, guilty of 10 counts of misdemeanor for introducing adulterated and misbranded medical devices into interstate commerce.

The jury acquitted the two men of 15 felony counts, including conspiracy and wire fraud.

Mr. Facteau and Mr. Fabian were indicted in April 2015 for attempting to market a sinus-opening device for use that was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

They were also accused of conspiracy to commit securities fraud since they did not tell Johnson & Johnson about the alleged activities when the healthcare giant acquired Acclarent for $785 million in 2010.

Mr. Facteau and Mr. Fabian's lawyers both plan to file appeals to overturn the convictions. The maximum sentence for their misdemeanor charges is one year in prison per count.

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Belfast continues to be the main draw of Northern Ireland tourism, with visitor numbers increasing significantly.

The city, along with the Giant's Causeway and the stunning north coast, is responsible for pulling in huge numbers, according to the latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

While the overall number of tourists visiting Northern Ireland remained largely flat in 2015, falling by a marginal amount year-on-year, almost a third of all overnight trips were to Belfast.

The city saw its number of visitors rise to 1.36 million, while almost 4.7 million visited Northern Ireland as a whole.

Spending across the region's destinations during the period rose by 1.2% to over 760m.

The Giant's Causeway remains our most popular single attraction, with 850,000 visits last year. Close behind, with around 620,000, was Titanic Belfast.

Visit Belfast chairman Dr Howard Hastings said the city was "really asserting itself as a destination on the rise for business, leisure and cruise tourism".

"Belfast continues to the be engine room of Northern Ireland tourism, driving tourism numbers and visitor spend to the wider region," he added.

Lord Mayor Brian Kingston claimed the latest figures "confirm the growing popularity of Belfast as a break destination".

"This year we have around 80 cruise shops docking in Belfast Harbour, and we have growth in the number of conferences and conventions coming to Belfast, particularly with the opening of the new conference centre at the Waterfront Hall - that has directly stimulated the growth of new hotels in Belfast," he added.

"We take pride in seeing big international events coming to Belfast and Northern Ireland, and I hope these figures will be an encouragement to all those who are contributing to our tourism economy."

And Doreen McKenzie, owner of Knock Travel, explained that with a weak pound she expected a rising number of European and US tourists.

Northern Ireland could be in line for a greater number of EU tourists this year thanks to new air routes, some from Ryanair's base at the International Airport.
The low-cost carrier said bookings were down around 10% since the UK's decision to leave the EU

EasyJet said it was facing the most difficult summer holiday season for years, as it revealed bookings have fallen after the Brexit vote, and passenger confidence has been knocked by political turmoil in Turkey and recent terrorist attacks.

The low-cost carrier said bookings were down around 10% since the UK's decision to leave the EU.

Boss Carolyn McCall said the group was battling against the toughest period in her tenure at the helm, following two months of turbulence, and the EU referendum.

She said the pound's plunge after the Brexit vote had seen a 40m currency swing against the group, while holidaymaker confidence has also been impacted by sterling's weakness, as well as last week's massacre in Nice and the attempted coup in popular sun-seeker destination Turkey.

The group said revenues dropped 2.6% to 1.2bn in its third quarter, after being knocked by traffic control strikes, runway closures at Gatwick Airport and severe weather.

Shares dropped 6% after the gloomy update. EasyJet has seen its stock tumble after warning last month that it would take a 28m hit to profits following two months of turbulence, and cautioning that Brexit would have a negative impact on the airline.

The group is also drawing up plans to potentially move its legal headquarters out of the UK and into Europe if the Government cannot negotiate to retain the status quo in the aviation market, which allows operators to fly across the continent in a deregulated environment.
Pre-tax profits at Northern Ireland construction giant Graham has more than doubled to 17m, its latest results show.

And John Graham Holdings also said it was still delivering "robust" performances after turnover climbed 3% to 507.9m in the year to March 31, 2016.

Its results were published as the Northern Ireland Construction Bulletin revealed an increase in output of 3.4% during the first three months of this year.

Graham operates across the UK and Ireland on projects from university buildings - including an arts building for Norwich City College - to roads.

It recently finished work on the 32m A138 Chelmer viaduct in Essex and won a deal to work on the Scottish Canals.

Its subsidiaries specialise in building and civil engineering, fit-out, project investment and asset management.

The family-run company, which is based in Dromore, Co Down, said the results were "satisfactory".

A directors' report filed with the accounts said: "Overall, our group businesses continue to deliver robust performances in a market that shows strong signs of growth, with investment in infrastructure a key focus area for both the public and private sector.

"Our four main business units provide us with a well-balanced service offering within the group, and are all underpinned by a healthy forward order book."

And Graham's directors also expressed confidence in the future. "The group has considerable financial resources together with long-term contracts with a number of customers and suppliers across different geographic areas and industries," they said.

"As a consequence, the directors believe that the group is well-placed to manage its business risk."

Closer to home, Graham has worked on the 12.4m Queen's Elms student village.

Meanwhile, the construction bulletin from the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (Nisra) said output was up 3.4% on the last quarter of 2015, and up 2.3% on the first quarter of 2015.

The expansion in the province was mainly due to 12.9% growth in repair and maintenance.

But there was a fall of 1.6% in housing output - echoing a drop in new housing starts in the first quarter, from 777 to 651, recorded by the National House Building Council.

However, the bulletin does not include the work carried out by Northern Ireland firms such as Graham in Great Britain, where companies compensate for a lack of work at home.

Gavin McGuire, Northern Ireland director of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), said the figures showed the progress the sector had made in the last few years. However, it also showed "what is at risk if any sense of uncertainty is allowed to linger in the wake of Brexit".

"It's hard to overstate how challenging trading conditions were for firms of all sizes in the years following the financial crisis, but in particular for SMEs," he said.

The growth in repair and maintenance was positive as it showed homeowners had the confidence to invest in their homes. But he added: "It's critical we maintain this momentum. Brexit has the potential to sap the confidence from a sector that is very reliant on sentiment, which is why the Executive must show bold leadership by committing to a programme of capital investment.

"The Finance Minister has so far suggested he is receptive to the idea, and given the importance of construction to the wider economy, we hope to work closely in making sure that the results from the first quarter of this year are the norm, not the exception."
A top trader at banking giant HSBC has been released on bail after he was arrested by FBI agents and charged with fraudulently rigging a $3.5bn (2.6bn) currency exchange deal.

Mark Johnson, the bank's head of global foreign exchange cash trading, was arrested by federal agents at New York's JFK International Airport on Tuesday evening as the US Department of Justice continues its long-running probe into foreign exchange trading.

Mr Johnson (50), who is a UK citizen but lives in America, was released on a $1m (755,000) bail after appearing on Wednesday at a Brooklyn federal court charged with allegedly conspiring to defraud an HSBC client through a "front running" scheme.

Stuart Scott (43) - HSBC's former head of foreign exchange cash trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, who lives in the UK - has also been charged. A warrant has been issued for Mr Scott's arrest.

The two men are accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud between November and December 2011 after "misusing information" from a client that hired HSBC to carry out a foreign exchange transaction linked to the sale of a foreign subsidiary.

It is alleged the two men "caused the $3.5bn (2.6bn) foreign exchange transaction to be executed in a manner that was designed to spike the price of the pound, to the benefit of HSBC and at the expense of their client".

Mr Johnson reportedly said on a telephone call to Mr Scott "Ohhhh f****** Christmas" when the full order for the amount was authorised.

The "front running" enabled them to generate $8m (6m), some of it illegally, to the benefit of HSBC and at the expense of their client, it is alleged.

Robert Capers, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said: "As alleged, the defendants placed personal and company profits ahead of their duties of trust and confidentiality owed to their client, and in doing so, defrauded their client of millions of dollars."

Defence lawyer Frank Wohl declined to comment after Mr Johnson was released on bail following an initial court appearance before a magistrate in Brooklyn.
Northern Ireland is continuing to experience slow growth with the latest data casting a "sober perspective" over the economy here.

The economy grew by 0.7% during the first quarter of the year, based on the same period a year earlier.

The increase was led by a 1.2% boost in the services sector and a small increase of 0.2% in construction.

But they were offset by a reduction in public sector headcount, and production, which includes the manufacturing sector, according to the latest Northern Ireland Composite Index.

The public sector suffered a fall of 2.2% over the same period.

And while PwC's chief economist Esmond Birnie said it was "good news" that the economy was growing, it is still lagging behind the rest of the UK.

The UK's GDP grew by 2% over the year to quarter one.

"We are still 7.3% below the pre-2008 banking crisis peak level of output in the Northern Ireland economy," he said.

"So, in that sense, while the economic recovery and employment growth over the last few years has been welcome, it has also been incomplete.

"The figures also confirm that the Northern Ireland economy has been slowing down for some time.

"The data indicated growth of 0.7% in the year to Q1 2016, but in the year to Q1 2015 the pace of growth was nearly three times greater, at 1.9%."

Meanwhile, economic output increased by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2016.

Danske Bank's chief economist Angela McGowan said the findings are "consistent" with its own view on economic activity at the beginning of the year.

She said the figures "demonstrate that the local economy was showing signs of relatively strong private sector growth in the early part of this year".

"However, we have to be realistic about the economic consequences of Brexit, particularly for investment and overall confidence levels," she added.

"Annual forecasts have therefore been revised down accordingly to around 1% for this year and 0.2% in 2017.

"We must also bear in mind that any new slowdown in the economy will be met with both monetary and fiscal responses from policy makers and this should help to mitigate some of the economic stresses arising from Brexit-related uncertainty."

Economy Minister Simon Hamilton said that while the statistics "show a moderate overall increase in the Northern Ireland economy, it is nonetheless welcome that it is the private sector that is once again leading the way in growing our economy".

"Our recovery is characterised by strong employment growth. This was demonstrated by the recent labour market statistics showing the number claiming unemployment related benefits has fallen by over 7,000 people in the year to June 2016," he said.

"My number one aim as minister is to transform Northern Ireland into a globally competitive economy. I want our economy to continue on the present path of constant improvement, growing in size and rebalancing from the public to the private sector."
Tobermore man Lyle Watters has been appointed to a prestigious post at motoring giant Ford.

Mr Watters will become president of the company's operations in South America and a vice president of the international car company.

He will take up the roles on August 1, moving from his position as Ford of Europe chief financial officer.

In his new position, he will be responsible for all the car company's operations in South America.

The father-of-two, who is from Tobermore in Co Londonderry, has described some of the tough decisions he's had to make in the course of his European job.

In an interview with the Irish Times in 2014, he described how he'd set about reducing production capacity at Ford.

"In 2013, we closed Southampton, we closed Dagenham stamping and tooling, and we took the decision to close Genk in Belgium.

"That took about 18% capacity out of Europe for us and we expect it to generate gross savings in the order of $400-500m annually."

Before working for Ford in Europe, he was chief financial officer at Ford South America.

He was born in May 1965 and graduated from Queen's University in Belfast with an MBA in 1987. He studied accountancy before his MBA.

Mr Watters joined Ford of Britain in 1987 and spent seven years working in finance before moving to global headquarters in Michigan.

He is one of seven children from a well-known family in the Co Derry town.

His parents, Desmond and Marian, run a funeral directors in the village, D Watters Funeral Services. The family grew up in a house next to the funeral parlour.
The Republic's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has created new commercial posts in a number of non-European locations in a bid to boost Ireland's trading partnerships.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan announced the move after a special meeting of the Export Trade Council yesterday.

The posts will be in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia as well as Romania.

Mr Flanagan said the move was taken to enhance market diversification and access for companies as part of the department's new economic diplomacy strategy. The minister convened a special meeting of the Export Trade Council focused on the Brexit referendum.

The council is made up of senior ministers with an economic focus, the heads of the Republic's agencies involved in promoting trade, tourism, investment and education abroad with the support of the embassy network.

"In previous discussions at the council, we identified market diversification as key mitigating factors in regard to risks to our economy," the Minister said.

"That indeed was reaffirmed at our discussions today, with particular reference to Brexit.

"In line with the intensification of this government policy, I have recently created new commercial attache posts in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Romania, to enhance market access for Irish companies as part of my department's new economic diplomacy strategy."

The Minister said he believed the Republic was in good shape to respond to the challenges of Brexit.

"Ireland has shown great discipline and agility in response to the 2008 crisis and our recovery stands us in good stead.

"We must now show a similar determination and agility again."

And he said the next meeting of the council would focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Sainsbury's 1.4 billion takeover of Argos owner Home Retail Group has been approved by the competition regulator.

The supermarket chain welcomed the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority on Friday to "unconditionally" clear the acquisition.

The (CMA) had said it was looking into whether the tie-up with Home Retail could result in a ''substantial lessening of competition''.

The approval comes after an eventful start to the year for Home Retail, which sold off its DIY chain Homebase to Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers for 340 million in February and agreed the takeover by Sainsbury's a month later.

Argos posted its best sales performance for two years last month, with total sales rising 2.6% to 868 million, thanks to a surge in online sales.

Home Retail chief executive John Walden will leave the group once Sainsbury's seals its acquisition, currently expected in the third quarter of this year.

Sainsbury's said its swoop for Home Retail Group will still need the approval of the Financial Conduct Authority and the backing of Home Retail's shareholders during a court and general meeting on Wednesday.

It now expects the tie-up to be complete by early September.

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said: "We are pleased that the CMA has unconditionally cleared our proposed acquisition of Home Retail Group.

"The combination of both businesses will create a multi-product, multi-channel proposition with fast delivery networks, giving customers what they want, whenever and wherever they want it."

Sainsbury's won its takeover tussle to snap up Home Retail Group in April after fending off the pursuit of South African retailer Steinhoff International.

It said the deal would c reate a business with around 2,000 stores, concessions and click-and-collect outlets.

The British grocery sector continues to be locked in a supermarket price war, which has seen the Big Four supermarkets slash their prices to protect market share from the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Sainsbury's reported a 0.8% drop in like-for-like sales excluding fuel for the 12 weeks to June 4.

The fall marked a setback after a return to quarterly like-for-like growth for the first time in more than two years the previous three months, when sales edged 0.1% higher.

The supermarket announced on Thursday that it would create 900 jobs and trial a same-day delivery service to meet the growing demand for online shopping in the UK's fiercely competitive grocery sector.

The supermarket giant said it will start the same-day service at three stores, before rolling it out to 30 stores by Christmas, to keep pace with a rise in online orders across London.
The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary.

The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary.

The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary.

The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary.

The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary.

Strabane's renowned gay bar - The Central - is to feature in a short documentary for Channel 4.

The bar opened as a gay establishment in April 2008.

And - as the documentary explores - the watering hole has become more of a regular hunt for the locals of Strabane, rather than solely for the Co Tyrone town's gay population, or what there is of it.

Featured is bar owner and father-of-four James McCarron who talks of his experiences running what was thought to be Ireland's first gay bar outside a major town over the past eight years.

Stephen, a resident of Strabane, also talks of his time in the town and the abuse he has suffered for being a gay man.

Another - Matthew - talks of the lack of a gay scene in Strabane before his move to Dublin and on how he took part in Mr Gay Ireland as a Tyrone representative. The only entrant from the county.

Regulars also talk of how the bar is "full of straight people" and how it would "struggle" without them.

"We need the straights unfortunately," says one regular.

While some of the heterosexual customers talk of how they've found love in the bar.

The eight minute piece has been produced and directed by London-based journalist Vik Patel.

"It's a documentary about contradictions," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"James opened a gay bar in a place where it shouldn't have worked - and eight years later it has."

"Ok there are probably more straight people that go to it than gay, but James has made it work by creating a welcoming and safe place for gay people, but also somewhere that is fun - there is a lot of dancing on the furniture.

"It's not a revolutionary place, but it helps improve the visibility of the LGBT community.

"And although a lot of gay people think of the place a safe haven, there are those who don't like that straight people go to it - there are plenty of contradictions.

"They did attempt a 'gay only' night earlier this year but they couldn't get enough people to come and kept having to turn straight customers away, so they abandoned it. Just another layer in the contradictory but still inclusive nature of that gay bar.

"There certainly is nothing like it."

Vik found Strabane presented challenges in making his documentary.

He added: "Finding gay people to talk openly in a small town was tough.

"I've always been fascinated on how gay people in small towns find love. Compared the likes of a big cosmopolitan city, they get it tough.

"People may think James has done well to make a gay bar work - but also the question has to be asked why wouldn't it work in 2016.

"For me, I just wanted to show the contradictions and the inclusiveness of the bar and I think it goes someway to undermining people's perceptions.

"Strabane is a place with scares from the past, it's had it pretty rough. There are bomb scares and graffiti saying 'join the IRA' and yet in that political environment, here is a bar that shows progress is possible."

The documentary, produced by Vik Patel, Nicola Morgan and Anna Leach will be available on Channel 4's ondemand service All 4.
Bob Geldof criticised revellers for wearing Primark clothes as he unleashed an expletive-filled tirade at a music festival.

Appearing on stage with his punk rock band The Boomtown Rats at Brentwood Festival on Sunday, the 64-year-old appeared unimpressed with the audience's attire.

Video footage shows him telling the crowd: "Brentwood, we are the Boomtown Rats.

"We are mega. And you are Brentwood. How do we know that you are Brentwood and we are mega?

"Because I, for one, am wearing a f**k off pretend snakeskin suit."

He said his band mates were "wearing f**k off cowboy shirts even though they live in London", adding that the group's bassist Pete Briquette was wearing "a f**k off purple suit with an elasticated waistband so that when he gets even f*****g fatter you won't notice."

Addressing the audience, he continued: "On the other hand Brentwood, you are wearing wall to wall f*****g Primark.

"This is a rock and roll festival. When you come to a rock and roll festival, dress for a rock and roll festival."

Other acts at the music festival in Essex included Tony Hadley, ABC and Soul II Soul, with The Boomtown Rats headlining at 9.30pm.

Geldof, who campaigned for Remain before the European Union referendum, then turned his attention to politics.

He said: " That song we just did was written at the end of 1975 when Margaret Thatcher became leader of the opposition.

"What are you booing for?

"We're in f*****g Brexit land here guys. Yeah, we're Irish, we're still in Europe.

"It's just as well we wrote that song because this year is about Theresa May. She's gonna do you in."

Local paper the Essex Chronicle reported that many festival-goers had walked out.

Twitter user @LydzOldershaw wrote: " Bob Geldof swearing and going mental at Brentwood festival was so inappropriate ... telling the crowd off for wearing Primark."

"We left after 2 songs couldnt bear to listen to anymore," @Chutzie_ commented.

But @r_hume tweeted: " I thought Geldof was superb. A little swearing at a concert. Worse things to worry about."

Festival co-ordinator Laurie Edmonds said: "We deliberately put The Boomtown Rats on post-watershed in case there was any adult language.

"The comments about Primark are a well-known, tongue-in-cheek part of their act and were not deliberately aimed at our Brentwood crowd."

She added: "We are genuinely sorry if anyone in the audience was offended by Sir Geldof's words.

"Although some people left early, thousands of festival-goers stayed until the end of The Boomtown Rats' set, asking for encores at the end."

Geldof's representatives declined to comment.
Women will be able to take up previously prohibited roles in the armoured corps, cavalry and infantry

An Army regiment headquartered in Scotland will be the first in the UK to offer frontline close combat roles to women.

The Edinburgh-based Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry (SNIY) will make the new positions available from November, following the announcement earlier this month that the ban would be lifted.

The Army will review the new SNIY frontline troops after six months before rolling the offer out across the Royal Armed Corps, of which the regiment forms part.

The change will apply to infantry, Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force Regiment by the end of 2018.

Women will be able to take up previously prohibited roles in the armoured corps, cavalry and infantry.

An Army spokesman said: "This move by the MoD to allow women to apply for employment in all jobs in the British Army - and Royal Marines and RAF Regiment - means that we are able to maximise talent and choice, both for women who already serve and new applicants.

"The fact that we have a brand new regiment in Scotland and Northern Ireland, The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry - an army reserve unit which is part of the Royal Armoured Corps - which can start implementing this new policy from November is excellent.

"We always strive to be at the cutting-edge of training and will be able to offer young men, and now young women, a chance to train for and to serve in exciting and varied roles."

The regiment formed in 2014. Its headquarters are at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh and there are also bases in Cupar, Ayr, Belfast, and Coleraine. It f ormed in October 2014
Sammy Wilson of the DUP objects to women wanting to breast feed in the House of Commons Chamber as 'exhibitionist'

Women who want to breastfeed in the chamber of the House of Commons when other alternatives are available are exhibitionists, East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson said.

The practice should be done where possible in private parts of Parliament, the senior Democratic Unionist added. He said the confrontational atmosphere was unsuitable for children.

An independent report said MPs should be allowed to breastfeed in the chamber, enabling all members to fully participate in parliamentary business.

Mr Wilson said: "In the House of Commons there are plenty of places where women if they want to breastfeed their children can do it without being under the glare of the cameras in the Commons chamber, bringing children into the Commons chamber."

The veteran parliamentarian has faced calls to withdraw his comments.

He initially described breast feeding as "voyeuristic" before changing the word to "exhibitionism" after he was challenged during a radio programme.

He told the BBC's Nolan Show: "This kind of voyeurism to an extent that is how it would be viewed in some cases.

"If you have somewhere else to go why do you have to come into the House of Commons chamber, have it on film and everything else, when there is somewhere else you can give your child its needs?"

"It's voyeuristic if you have got an opportunity to do it somewhere which is much more private away from the glare of the public and the cameras etc.

"To me, anyone who chooses to do it in the chamber rather than who do it in the quietness of their office, is doing it for reasons other than simply feeding the child, to make a point."

He was challenged on his use of the word voyeurism.

"Exhibitionism then, if you want me to use another word."

The review was conducted by Sarah Childs, a professor of gender and politics at Bristol University, who was seconded to Parliament for a year to address the issue of sexism in Parliament.

It said advocates hold that babies should be fed whenever they are hungry, wherever that may be, while critics believe what is inappropriate for the supermarket is inappropriate in the Commons.

It added: "This move would enable all members to fully participate in House business. Members may well sit in the chamber and in committees for a number of hours either listening to a debate or waiting to speak.

"In addition to allowing members to carry out their representative functions, permitting entry to infants would have symbolic benefits - showcasing the Commons as a role-model parent-friendly institution. It is accordingly recommended."

Mr Wilson said serious debates were held in the Commons about the laws of the country.

"Because of the confrontational nature of the debates, it is not a place you want to bring youngsters into anyway."

A DUP spokesman said his comments represented a personal view.

"We recognise that the benefits of breastfeeding are well established, with a positive impact on both babies and mothers.

"It is vital we continue to promote breastfeeding and ensure adequate public awareness of its benefits."

Ulster Unionist Stormont assembly member Jo-Anne Dobson said Mr Wilson should withdraw his comments.

"Sammy Wilson needs to stop acting like a teenager giggling at the back of biology class and grow up."
The thugs - one with a baton and another carrying a suspected firearm - forced their way into the property in Carryduff on Wednesday evening

Terror came to a quiet suburb when five armed and masked men broke into a house on a private estate and tied up the residents before robbing them.

The thugs - one with a baton and another carrying a suspected firearm - forced their way into the property in Carryduff on Wednesday evening.

They assaulted a terrified young man and woman who were inside the house before tying them up.

As the criminals ransacked the home, another man and woman called at the door and were assaulted and tied up by the gang members, who made off with a sum of cash.

All four victims, who were treated at the scene by paramedics, were aged between 18 and their early 20s, a police spokesman said.

The attack is believed to have taken place in the Muskett area of Carryduff, but last night people in the area who spoke to the Belfast Telegraph said they had seen and heard nothing.

"I heard about it on the radio at tea-time," explained a charity canvasser who did not want to be named.

"I've been calling around these streets for more than five years, and I've never heard of anything like this happening around here before."

Local politicians told of a climate of fear in the tranquil residential streets of the south Belfast suburb, where the city gives way to the fields of Co Down.

South Castlereagh Alliance councillor Vasundhara Kamble told the Belfast Telegraph: "This is very scary - very traumatic.

"Local people are very angry about incidents like this. They are happening too often. The police should be more active against these kinds of crimes. Something must be done. People are scared - I'm scared."

Speaking last night near the scene of the incident, local DUP councillor Nathan Anderson condemned the vicious burglary - and the criminals who carried it out. "This attack is very shocking for the whole community," he said. "Carryduff is a very peaceful area. Community relations here are very good, and this attack is completely out of the ordinary.

"The whole community have come together and united in revulsion towards this despicable act. This is not representative of our community. Many people are distraught, and some of them are very worried about the whole situation.

"The incident in very disturbing, not only for the victims, but also for elderly people who live in the area."

Mr Anderson explained that while house burglaries were not unknown in the area, they have in the past tended to be opportunistic.

However, Wednesday's attack, which involved five men, marked a new low, he added.

"With so many burglaries going on in the area, some people are wondering if this kind of thing is the next step - an escalation," he said.

"I want to extend my heartfelt sympathies to the people who have been caught up in this shocking incident.

"And I would appeal to anyone with information to contact the PSNI immediately, so that these criminals can be brought to justice."

The DUP councillor additionally called on local residents to remain vigilant in the wake of the terrifying aggravated burglary.

His advice to householders was to increase their security and ensure that all doors and windows were locked.

The PSNI, meanwhile, last night issued an urgent appeal for information about the burglary and urged anyone who knows anything to come forward.

Detective Inspector Cummings said that anyone with any information that may be able to assist the investigation into the incident should contact detectives at Lisburn Police Station on 101, quoting the reference number 1304 of 20/07/16.

Or if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details, they can disclose what they know to the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The union said equality, a rights-based approach and a commitment to adequately funded public services should be at the forefront of government

The Northern Ireland Executive's approach to government could encourage privatisation, a union claimed.

Unite said the draft Programme for Government (PFG) should be partnered with a long-term public investment strategy.

Regional secretary Jimmy Kelly said it "undermines wider social engagement in the consultation process and threatens to open the door to low-cost, corner-cutting approaches to delivery, such as outsourcing and privatisation".

He said there was a lack of proposals in the draft PFG surrounding manufacturing and no target for research and development, productivity or the proportion of workers being paid a living wage.

"At a time when Northern Ireland faces the challenges associated with Brexit and our economic output in real terms remains smaller than it was eight years ago - such absences are both inexplicable and inexcusable."

Mr Kelly added: "The principles of equality, a rights-based approach and a commitment to adequately funded public services must be included as cross-cutting priorities.

"We also believe that any programme for government should be brought forward alongside a long-term public investment strategy necessary to underpin future regional competitiveness and growth."
Greenan Generation Limited, which is based on the Carnmoney Road near Eglinton, Co Londonderry, pleaded guilty to discharging polluting matter into a tributary of the River Faughan on May 22 last year and to discharging effluent sewage on October 21 last year

A renewable energy company set up by farmers has been fined 4,000 after it admitted polluting a river.

Greenan Generation Limited, which is based on the Carnmoney Road near Eglinton, Co Londonderry, pleaded guilty to discharging polluting matter into a tributary of the River Faughan on May 22 last year and to discharging effluent sewage on October 21 last year.

Five other related offences were withdrawn by a solicitor acting for the Public Prosecution Service.

The lawyer told District Judge Barney McElholm at Londonderry Magistrates' Court that in October 2014 water quality inspectors from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency examined the beauty spot.

The officers found a quantity of fungal matter and silage close to a drain leading from the company's plant. Following a meeting between the inspectors and directors of the company, a follow-up examination was carried out in May last year, during which silage effluent was again detected.

Last July, dye was poured into the drain leading from the plant, and it was later seen in the river, along with fresh fungus and silage effluent.

A pump in the plant was subsequently found not to be working as effectively as it should have been.

The solicitor said the pollution occurred in an area of special scientific interest, and that the effluent discharged into the river was both poisonous and noxious.

A solicitor for Greenan Generation Limited said the renewable energy project stemmed from a farming diversification plan, and that the company's directors were all local farmers.

He told the court a digester filled up last year at a time when the volume of grass in the pits on the site was high. The solicitor added the system was unable to work properly because the density of grass was so great.

He explained that remedial works carried out by the directors following the incidents had rectified the problem, which included a failure in the plant's pumping equipment.

The solicitor also indicated that a firm of independent consultants oversaw the remedial work, which cost 4,000, and was satisfied with the results.

"This was a significant investment to upgrade the design purpose building," he said.

"What happened were teething problems in an industry which should have a positive environmental impact."

The District Judge said that the Planning Service and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency should in future work more closely with one other in terms of the designs of these types of projects.

"A stitch in time would have saved nine," he added.

Before he fined the company 4,000, Mr McElholm said that the maximum fine was 20,000 and that there was a maximum prison sentence of three months.
Flowers at the scene in Colin Glen Forest Park where she was struck by a scrambler motorbike

Flowers at the scene in Colin Glen Forest Park where Valerie Armstrong was struck by a scrambler motorbike

The grieving family of the mum who died after a dirt-bike crash were yesterday preparing to bring her home for a final time.

Valerie Armstrong (35) passed away on Wednesday night after being struck by a scrambler bike as she walked her dog in Colin Glen Forest park in west Belfast on Tuesday evening.

Fr Vincent Cushnahan, from the Church of the Nativity in Poleglass, where she lived, said Valerie's husband, Seamus, and her three children "were still in a profound sense of shock and disbelief" over her death.

The family plan to hold a private wake in their home, with a funeral service to be held early next week.

Relatives have also confirmed that Valerie's organs will be donated to help save people on the waiting list.

A post-mortem examination is also to be carried out.

A GoFundMe page that was set up yesterday to help the family has so far raised 740 of its 5,000 target.

Yesterday morning, a 17-year-old male, who for legal reason cannot be named, appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

A 15-year-old arrested in connection with the incident has been released on bail.

Fr Cushnahan said it was still too soon for the family to think about a court case.

"I think they aren't really focused on the circumstances of the incident," he explained.

"They're just dealing with the palpable grief of losing Valerie, despite the surrounding court case going on. I think that would not feature with them."

Michael George, a community safety worker in Poleglass, said Valerie and her husband were "a lovely couple bringing up three fantastic kids".

"I've been talking to the sister-in-law and some of the family, and they're holding up well," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"It's obviously still traumatic for them, but they're dealing with things as well as people could expect under these tragic circumstances.

"The family attended all the Colin neighbourhood events, - they had a community allotment up to a while ago.

"Valerie was very proactive in our community events and in taking part in anything that was going on."

Valerie's colleagues in Belfast's Cafe Vaudeville, where she worked as a waitress, paid an emotional tribute to their friend.

A statement read: "It is with heavy hearts that all of us at Cafe Vaudeville have taken the news of our friend and colleague Valerie Armstrong's tragic death.

"The outpouring of shock, love and sympathy we have received from past and present staff, customers and well-wishers is a testament to the wonderful person, wife and mother you were.

"From your Cafe Vaudeville family, to Seamus and family, know that Valerie will forever be in our thoughts and prayers."

Co-worker Michaela Edmondson added in a Facebook post: "I was lucky enough to work with Valerie for four years.

"Us girls working the restaurant were a family. We had so many laughs and were always there for each other.

"She was just an incredible mum-of-three and such a beautiful person.

"The world is a very cruel place and will never be the same without you.

"My heart is breaking for you and your beautiful family. Love you, Val."

Sinn Fein MLA Jennifer McCann also offered her sympathies to the bereaved family.

"The community has been shocked by what happened to this mother of three young children," she said.

"My thoughts and those of the entire local community are with the family and friends of Valerie Armstrong at this sad and difficult time.

"There is a clear need to address the problem of scrambler use, and I will be meeting with the PSNI and have requested a meeting with the Justice Minister to discuss the current legislation and enforcement in relation to these machines.

"I will also be meeting with the Minister for Infrastructure to discuss the need for an awareness campaign in relation to the dangers scramblers and quads present when used outside of designated places established for their use."

Readers wishing to donate money to the GoFundMe appeal to help Valerie's family can do so by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/rzvfnwk4
The PSNI are appealing for information

Two men - one armed with a gun - forced their way into a parochial house in west Belfast and threatened a priest before making off with cash.

The aggravated burglary took place at St Michael the Archangel on Finaghy Road North at around 7.50pm on Friday evening.

Detective Sergeant Michael Hawthorn said the priest was left badly shaken by his ordeal.

"Our inquiries are at an early stage, however at this time we believe the pair threatened a priest who was inside the property before fleeing with a sum of money and a set of keys," he said.

"The priest has been left badly shaken by his ordeal and we are appealing for the public's help in identifying the perpetrators of this crime."

The PSNI has urged anyone who witnessed the incident to come forward.

Sinn Fein west Belfast MLA Alex Maskey described the robbers as "despicable thugs".
A mother-of-two is about to embark on a challenge that has not been completed since 1929 - the arduous 13-mile swim from Donegal to Portstewart.

Heather Clatworthy, who grew up in Portstewart, hopes to match the marker laid down by open water swimmer Mercedes Gleitze more than 85 years ago.

"I grew up playing in the sea every day, and I always wanted to swim over to Donegal because I could see it," she said.

"When I was older, I was in the lounge of my grandparents' house, reading a local history book, and I read about a girl who once swam from Donegal to Portstewart. I said to myself, 'I could do that one day'."

Two years ago, Heather set herself the same challenge. It was only afterwards that she discovered that Mercedes Gleitze, the only person to officially complete the route, in 1929, was one of the world's most renowned swimmers and the first British woman to swim the Channel. She was also the first person to swim the Strait of Gibraltar.

"The Portstewart mayor asked her to come over to do it as a tourism event in 1929," Heather explained. "It was such a big thing at the time, and she is officially the only person to have swum the route."

Mercedes set off from Portstewart, but was forced to give up after a six-hour struggle against heavy rain and headwinds. The next day, she attempted the challenge once more, only the other way round - from Donegal to Portstewart - and swam her way to glory.

Heather decided to go ahead with her attempt with help from the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association. She will be accompanied by a boat and five people, and is only allowed a swimsuit, cap and goggles.

"I've had to try so hard all winter to accustom myself to the cold water," she explained.

"It's 13 miles as the crow flies, but it will be more like 15 miles with tides, currents and sandbanks. It could get windy and choppy, which will make it difficult, and there are also the lion's mane jellyfish. When I was swimming in Torbay, they were absolute hell. It was the longest I've swum. I got stung so many times, and they are so massive.

"The cold is the worst thing because I've had to get used to staying in the cold water for nine to 11 hours. I've no idea if anybody has done this since 1929."

Heather will prepare for the feat by covering her skin in a mixture of lanolin and Vaseline.

"That helps to slightly reduce the effect of jellyfish stings, but only slightly," she said. "It also reduces the effect of salt chafing - salt water is very abrasive."

Heather, a manager at an equestrian charity who is married to Ian and is mother to Lilly (5) and two-year-old Basil has had to fit training around her family. "I practice in the evenings once the children are asleep," she explained.

The mum will set off from Moville lighthouse at Stroove Beach at noon on July 27, but has allowed a three-day window in case of bad weather. She is raising money for the RNLI and her charity, the Portstewart Recreation Fund, administered by Outdoor Recreation NI.

"I'd like to thank the local people on both sides of the water who have helped me plan this, and the crew on the day," she said.

More information on Heather's challenge is available from www.swimforportstewart.com and from the Twitter account @seaswimheather
A judge has described conditions on a Co Antrim farm as "looking like a battlefield, with dead animals lying all over the place" as he sentenced a man for animal welfare and food hygiene offences.

Judge Des Perry described the horrific conditions on 29-year-old Ryan Murphy's farm at Glarryford as "the worst case of animal mistreatment I have ever seen".

And he handed the Tullyreagh Road farmer a sentence of three months imprisonment, suspended for two years, as well as a five-year ban on keeping animals.

The prosecution arose after Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) officials had made a number of visits to the farm and found a catalogue of horrors - including 15 animal carcasses lying among living cattle.

The young farmer had been looking after the spread for his uncle, who had become seriously ill - but it was evident that Murphy was out of his depth, the court heard.

Among the offences discovered were:

Causing unnecessary suffering.

Failure to provide appropriate feeding arrangements.

Failure to dispose of animal carcasses.

Failure to comply with a food hygiene notice.

Failure to ensure that milk was protected against contamination.

According to the Ballymena Times, a DARD vet told the court Murphy had failed to carry out even the most basic requirements.

"There was no reaction at all when we were serving notices, or explaining things," the animal welfare professional said. "There was just no knowledge of the seriousness of any illness."

Passing sentence at Ballymena Magistrates Court, Judge Perry told Murphy: "You are not going to be back farming, ever."
A lost cat has been reunited with his owner after turning up in England 18 months after disappearing from his Belfast home.

Julie Blair thought her beloved pet was gone for ever when he vanished last year.

But she was stunned to receive a phone call from an animal rescue charity this week telling her that the cat was alive and well - and in Liverpool.

She travelled over yesterday to be reunited with him.

Exactly how the cat, named Danny Boy by his rescuers, arrived on Merseyside is unclear.

"We've absolutely no idea how he got to Liverpool," Julie told the Belfast Telegraph.

The dark grey and white cat was spotted near a busy road last week trying to get left-over food from a takeaway. Locals said he had been there for several weeks.

Rachel Foster, a volunteer with Garston Animal Rescue, a charity which looks after abandoned animals, picked the stray cat up.

Bizarrely, even though they did not know he was from Northern Ireland, staff nicknamed him Danny Boy.

After checking his microchip, they were astonished to learn his owner was from Belfast.

Despite being missing for 18 months, the cat was very healthy.

"I've had him since he was a kitten, but he disappeared about 18 months ago and I assumed the worst," Julie said.

"Then a few days ago I got this lovely phone call out of the blue to say the cat had been found.

"I think they presumed I had moved to Liverpool.

"I had noticed the caller had a bit of an accent, so I asked where she was from, and she said Liverpool - I couldn't believe it."

Julie got the ferry over yesterday to collect the cat and bring him back to Belfast.

She said she wanted him back immediately, no matter what it would cost.

"To get a call to say he had turned up in Liverpool was just brilliant," she added.

"I wouldn't allow the charity to re-home him. I wanted him home, absolutely - whatever it costs. I got the boat over yesterday to collect the cat and am coming straight back."

Julie is a big animal lover and is involved with a charity in Belfast that rescues Cavalier King Charles spaniels. She even used her unexpected trip to Liverpool to bring over two dogs, Bella and Jasmine, to meet up with their new owners.

"I do rescues, and I know that anything is possible," she explained. "I've another cat who I call Lagmore Larry because he was found in Lagmore and he disappears from time to time. A while ago he disappeared for six months and turned up at Crumlin Road Gaol."

She is mystified as to how her other cat ended up in Liverpool.

"He's a big, fat boy - as fat as when he left us," Julie said.

"I'm presuming that he went missing in Belfast and some nice family rescued him and didn't think to check his chip.

"Perhaps they moved to Liverpool and took him with them - I really haven't a clue."

Nancy Lindsay, the trustee and founder of Garston Animal Rescue, said it was possible the cat had sneaked onto a lorry bound for England.

"We got a call to say that there was a stray cat hanging around on the busy Speke Hall Road trying to get left-over food from a nearby takeaway, and that he'd been there for some weeks," she explained.

"So one of our volunteers, Rachel Foster, picked him up for us and got him to safety.

"We got him settled in, fed him and gave him a comfy bed for the night.

"We called him Danny Boy and thought no more about it. We were just glad that he was safe and away from the traffic.

"We then checked him to see if he had a microchip, so then we'd be able to reunite him with his owner.

"To our astonishment we found that his owner lived in Belfast. Julie was just as shocked as we were to find that he was safe and well, and somehow he'd got himself to Liverpool."

Nancy added that staff were looking forward to reuniting owner and cat.

"We keep telling him that his mum is coming for him, just as soon as she can get a boat over," she explained.

"But how he got here - and when - is something that only Danny Boy knows. And so far, he's not telling us.

"We're happy and glad to be able to get him back to his home, safe and sound. Everyone here has fallen in love with him. He's such a gorgeous, friendly cat."
Police are no longer treating the death of Newtownards woman Joanne Thompson as suspicious.

Police are no longer treating the death of a mother-of-four at her Newtownards home as suspicious.

Joanne Thompson (33) was found by a relative at her home in Old Mill Court in the town on Wednesday July 13.

Police appealed for witnesses to a fight at a bonfire in the West Winds estate on the Eleventh Night, which they thought may have been connected to the death.

But on Friday July 22, 2016 police said they were no longer treating the death as suspicious.

A spokesman said: "Police are no longer treating the death of Joanne Thompson in Newtownards last week as suspicious following the results of a number of tests."
Some of the pictures of Hank his owner has shared online

Leonard Collins and Joanne Meadows at home after their dog Hank was seized by Belfast City Council

Owners of Hank the dog say he is a Staffie/Labrador cross but dog wardens maintain they think he might be a pit bull which is a banned breed

A petition to save a dog seized by Belfast City Council because it looks like a pit bull has passed 100,000 signatures in just five days.

People around the world have joined the campaign to help Hank. The dog was removed from his east Belfast home last week by a team of police officers and council officials.

An online petition started by his devastated owners Leonard Collins and Joanne Meadows has triggered a wave of support.

The number of backers reached the six-figure mark yesterday, and last night the total was approaching 110,000.

One of those to have signed it is ex-Big Brother star Rebeckah Vaughan, who told her 250,000 followers: "Please help #savehank."

Nicole Williams, a model who stars in the reality TV series WAGs, also lent her support.

She tweeted: "Belfast: Save Hank," adding: "Please can all my followers sign this to help get Hank back!!"

Boxer Carl Frampton, in the United States ahead of next weekend's mega-fight with Leo Santa Cruz, has also signed the petition.

A crowd-funding page set up to help pay legal costs had raised 13,765 yesterday.

And a Save Hank Facebook page has almost 50,000 "likes".

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Hank as a pup Hank the dog with owner Joanne Meadows Leonard Collins and Joanne Meadows with Hank the dog Kevin Scott / Presseye Joanne and Leonard Collins with rope Hank liked to chew on Kevin Scott / Presseye / Facebook

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The row, which has echoes of the 2012 Lennox case, began last Thursday when Mr Collins returned home to find Hank gone.

A warrant pinned to his front door said he had been taken into the care of Belfast City Council under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

Hank was seized on suspicion of being a pit bull terrier - a breed which is banned in Northern Ireland. Mr Collins said he believes the animal, who is neutered, insured and micro-chipped, is a Staffie-Labrador cross.

The controversy made national TV yesterday when Leonard and Joanne appeared on ITV's This Morning.

Vet Roger Mugford told This Morning's Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that he believes it is unlikely that Hank is a pit bull-type dog. "We believe from studies done with DNA, studies in the United States, that barely a quarter of all the dogs that are seized or said to be pit bull-types have any relatedness to a pit bull," he said. While accepting that councils must try to uphold existing laws, he believes the legislation itself is flawed and that decisions should be guided by temperament and behaviour rather than looks. He described the current law as having "no basis in science".

The council and PSNI have been criticised for their heavy-handed approach when seizing Hank.

Police yesterday refused to comment on one claim that officers arrived with riot gear and body shields.

Chief Inspector Robert Murdie said: "PSNI officers provided assistance for council staff to execute a warrant for the seizure of an animal under The Dogs (NI) Order 1983 as amended."

Belfast City Council said: "Two wardens initially attended - council dog wardens work in pairs. However, upon assessment, the wardens requested additional support."

Asked was it usual procedure to arrive without warning a pet owner, a spokesperson said: "The council attended the property on two previous occasions, but there was no one available."

The council said no other dogs had been removed from their homes in the last year.

Belfast City Council said: "The council has a statutory duty in relation to the enforcement of the Dogs (NI) Order 1983 as amended.

"The dog known as Hank has been taken in for assessment, and it would be inappropriate to comment further.

"We would like to assure those who have expressed concern about the dog's welfare that he is being well looked after and his needs are being met."
A PSNI unit has vented their disbelief after a person was reported "racing about" the Falls Road on a scrambler just a few days after mother of three Valerie Armstrong was killed by a similar bike.

A PSNI unit has vented their disbelief after a person was reported "racing about" the Falls Road on a scrambler just a few days after mother of three Valerie Armstrong died after being hit by a scrambler.

Ms Armstrong died on Wednesday night after being struck by a scrambler motorbike while she was walking her dog in Colin Glen Forest Park on Tuesday.

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A youth wept as he was remanded over her death.

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Yet on Friday night a person was seen "racing about" on a scrambler in the Lower Falls area, where there were numerous children and people out walking.

The PSNI in west Belfast took to Facebook to express their shock at the report.

"It absolutely beggars belief that after the completely tragic events this week that we have some eejit in the Lower Falls area racing about on a scrambler, in a built up area where there are children and people out walking," they posted.

"The sheer stupidity and insensitivity of this goes without saying. Take a look at yourself and wise up before someone else gets hurt.

"We would appeal to residents in the area to call us immediately if this vehicle is seen in the area. Do the right thing."
It was opened in a hail of publicity as the first gay bar outside a major town or city in all of Ireland - but eight years on The Central bar in Strabane has become a popular watering hole for people of all persuasions in the Co Tyrone town, as a Channel 4 documentary has found.

The short production The Only Gay Bar in the Village tells of the highs and lows and many contradictions of the pub.

Owner and father-of-four James McCarron talks of how he spotted a gap in the market for his establishment in 2008.

"When I opened a gay bar, I didn't see it as anything big," he tells the programme.

"It was a normal thing for me to do, but there was a lot of interest in the media on it.

"At the time, Strabane was said to be one of the top five worst places to live in the whole of the UK.

"I just thought there was a market for a gay bar in the town and that nobody was catering for demand, so I thought, 'Why not?"

The documentary features past and present residents of the town and regulars of the pub.

Local Stephen describes his time in the town and the abuse he previously suffered for being a gay man.

Another - Matthew - talks of the lack of a gay scene in the town and how he moved to Dublin, where he took part in the Mr Gay Ireland competition as the only entrant from Tyrone.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary. The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary. The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary. The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary. / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Central bar in Strabane is the subject of a new documentary.

Regulars also tell how the bar is "full of straight people" and how it would struggle without them. "We need the straights, unfortunately," says regular Aileen.

The documentary also see heterosexual customers disclose how the have found love with the opposite sex in the bar.

The eight-minute short was directed by London-based producer Vik Patel, who told the Belfast Telegraph: "The film is about contradictions. James opened a gay bar in a place where it shouldn't have worked - a rural place with regular bomb scares and 'join the IRA' graffiti on the walls - and eight years later, it works."

"Okay, there are probably more straight people than gay people that go to the pub, but James has created a welcoming and safe place for gay people and also somewhere that is fun - there is a lot of dancing on furniture.

"But while some gay people think of it as a safe haven, there are also those who don't like that straight people go to it.

"They did attempt a gay-only night earlier this year, but they couldn't get enough people and had to turn straight customers away, so they abandoned it. (It was) just another layer in the contradictory but still inclusive nature of the gay bar.

"It's not a revolutionary place, but it helps improve the visibility of the LGBT community. There certainly is nothing like it."

Vik found that filming in Strabane presented its own unique challenges.

"Finding gay people to talk openly in a small town was tough," he explained.

"I've always been fascinated by how gay people in small towns find love. Compared the likes of people a big cosmopolitan city, they get it tough.

"People may think James has done well to make a gay bar work, but also the question has to be asked, why wouldn't it work in 2016?

"For me, I just wanted to show the contradictions and the inclusiveness of the bar in a place like Strabane.

"Those contradictions go some way to undermining people's perceptions, and they show that in a place like Strabane, this can work."

The short documentary, which was produced by Vik Patel, Nicola Morgan and Anna Leach, launches on Channel 4's on demand service, All 4, today.

To watch the documentary, visit www.All4.com/programmes/the-only-gay-bar-in-the-village
Five homeless families at risk of eviction from a hotel used for emergency accommodation are being told they will not be turfed out on to the street.

Lynam's Hotel on Dublin's O'Connell Street is in receivership and the owners have been told it must be vacant by August 1.

Up to 11 families were being put up in the hotel under emergency accommodation and five remain.

Two families were due to leave on Friday but Dublin City Council said they turned down offers of alternative arrangements in other hotels in the capital.

In a statement the city council said: "The Dublin Region Homeless Executive and Dublin City Council are currently in negotiations in relation to Lynam's Hotel. All families have been offered suitable alternative accommodation."

It is understood families are remaining in the hotel while negotiations on extending their stay continue.

A council spokeswoman said they had private talks with each family individually in recent weeks to try to reach a deal on new accommodation and that efforts would continue.

One family complained that the offer of new accommodation, including for their two children with asthma, was a basement room and a room beside a bus stop and where people smoked.

Lynam's has been under the control of receiver Aiden Murphy of Crowe Horwath since last September.

The loans taken out on the property were transferred to Nama but it has no control over how the property is managed or the receivership.

A High Court order in April cleared the way for the receiver to take vacant possession of the buildings on August 1.

It is understood negotiations also involve extending the deadline.

A spokesman for Nama said the city council was told there would be no-one running the hotel as a business from that date and other arrangements should be made for people in emergency accommodation.

Thomas Pringle, Independent TD for Donegal, raised the plight of families in the hotel.

He said one woman and her 18-month-old daughter were made homeless in March this year and have moved between hotels and B&Bs since then.

Another family is forced to take their children to the suburbs in Dublin 15 every morning to get to school.

There were no cooking or laundry facilities for the families to use in the hotel.

Dublin City Council said 939 families are in emergency accommodation in the capital, including more than 600 in hotels.
The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in the village of Bridgend, Co Donegal

Following calls for a border poll in the wake of the EU referendum result, we asked if you thought it was time to have a vote.

Republic of Ireland political leaders have joined with Sinn Fein to call for a border poll after Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union while the UK as a whole opted to leave.

The DUP branded the calls " pathetic and deliberately mischievous".

More:

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So we decided to hold a poll on if the time was right to have a vote - yes a vote on a vote, just what we in Northern Ireland love.

And in the first 24 hours 7,645 votes were cast with the majority - 73% - saying the time was right for a poll.

We also asked a second question on what way people would vote.

And 70% said they would vote for a united Ireland in the first day of our online vote.

You can continue to vote below.

Meanwhile, the head of the EU's policing agency has said he does not believe there would be an increase in violence if a vote for a united Ireland was passed.

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said Ireland had "come a long way since the Troubles" and that he was "rather optimistic" reunification would not lead to a return of terrorist activity.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, Mr Wainwright warned that Brexit had potential implications for the sharing of intelligence on organised crime.

But he said he did not have any specific concerns about the prospect of a united Ireland.

"The issue is entirely a political one of course," he added. "Again, it's for the governments of Ireland and the UK to deal with that and comment on it, and certainly not for me."

He also indicated that Northern Ireland and the Republic were very different places than 30 years ago.

"Would there be a concern?" he asked. "I'm not sure. I think we have come a long way since the Troubles.

"The Ireland that we see today is very different to what we saw all those years ago.

"I hate to think that we would slip back into something like that, and I am rather optimistic that we wouldn't."
Prince Harry has warned the fight against HIV faces the threat of complacency as he followed in the footsteps of his mother Princess Diana in the battle against the disease.

Speaking at a summit in Durban, South Africa, he said: When my mother held the hand of a man dying of AIDS in an east London hospital, no one would have imagined that... treatment would exist that could see HIV-positive people live full, healthy, loving lives. But we now face a new risk  complacency.

AIDS is a topic that has drifted from the headlines. And with that drift of attention, we risk a real drift of funding.

We cant lose a sense of urgency, because, despite all the progress, HIV remains among the most pressing and urgent of global challenges.
An independent review said MPs should be allowed to breastfeed in the chamber.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson has described women who want to breastfeed in the House of Commons as "exhibitionists" saying the practice should be done in private as it would attract voyeurs.

The comments were made on the BBC Stephen Nolan radio show during a discussion about an independent review that said MPs should be allowed to breastfeed in the parliamentary chamber.

The East Antrim MP questioned women's "motives" for wanting to breastfeed in the chamber. He initially described it as "voyeuristic" before changing the word to "exhibitionism".

The DUP distanced itself from Mr Wilson's comments saying they represented a "personal view".

<<Scroll down for reaction>>

Mr Wilson also spoke more broadly on the topic and said that mothers should seek to find a more "private" place to feed their children as "the woman has to expose her breasts".

Speaking to Stephen Nolan on the BBC, he said: "In the House of Commons for women who want to breastfeed their children, they can do it without being under the glare of the cameras in the Commons Chamber.

"There are plenty of opportunities to do it elsewhere and I don't think it's appropriate.

"This kind of voyeurism, to an extent that is how it would be viewed in some cases. If you have somewhere else to go why do you have to come into the House of Commons chamber, have it on film and everything else, when there is somewhere else.

"It's voyeuristic if you have the opportunity to do it somewhere that is much more private away from the glare of the public, the cameras etc.

"For me anyone who chooses to do it in the chamber rather than the quietness of their office, is doing it for reasons other than simply feeding the child."

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He added: "If people want to choose to do that you have to ask, is it appropriate to bring the child in, and if you decide it is appropriate and you want to do it in the Chamber, have you got a motive other than to feed the child."

'Exhibitionism'

When asked if he stood over the term "voyeurism" he gave an alternative.

"Exhibitionism then, if you want me to use another word," he responded.

"If there are no other alternatives, and the child needs fed that's fine. My generation regard it as a very private thing, if it can be done privately it should be done prviately."

Mr Wilson also spoke more broadly on the topic and said that women outside of the chamber should also seek to find a more "private" place to feed their children as "the woman has to expose her breasts".

'A more private action than public'

"I would prefer that something like that would be done more privately than in a public place," he said.

"I think the very nature of the action is something that should be a more private action rather than a public.

"Simply first of all because the woman has to expose her breasts, secondly for many people, and more of my age, for many people it's not regarded as something you would normally expect to see happening in a public place.

"And for all of those reasons I think it should be done more in a private capacity."

"There may be occasions where it can't be and there aren't private opportunities to do it and if the baby needs fed you have to make allowances for that.

"Where it is possible it should be a private action."

'No time for prudish attitude'

Commentator, mother and Belfast Telegraph columnist Fionola Meredith also spoke on the Nolan show and said she was "depressed" listening to the debate.

"I have no time for this prudish, squeamish attitude from a lot of men and indeed women of an older generation who disapprove in some kind of moral sense of women doing the most natural thing.

"I find it extraordinary that Sammy seems to think that women who choose to breast feed in the House of Commons are some kind of exhibitionists wanting to flaunt their boobs to the nation. This is crazy stuff."

She added: "All this about naked bits of the body.

"No-one will see anything naked, the child will be fed. Breasts can be sexual but they can also be for feeding kids and both is ok."

Reaction

A DUP spokesman said: "We recognise that the benefits of breastfeeding are well established, with a positive impact on both babies and mothers.

"It is vital we continue to promote breastfeeding and ensure adequate public awareness of its benefits."

For those asking, no I don't agree with Sammy's comments. Party & I recognise importance of breastfeeding. #i'll sort him  Pam Cameron MLA (@PamCameronMLA) July 22, 2016

Ulster Unionist Stormont assembly member Jo-Anne Dobson said Mr Wilson should withdraw his comments.

"Sammy Wilson needs to stop acting like a teenager giggling at the back of biology class and grow up," said the UUP MLA.

Mr Wilson's Wikipedia page was also edited and screengrabs were shared online.
Theresa May is set to make her first visit to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister next week, it can be revealed.

The new premier is expected to hold talks with First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and the main focus is expected to be the fall-out from the EU referendum.

Mrs May is due to be accompanied by the man she appointed Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, who visited the province briefly earlier this week. Mr McGuinness revealed the plans for the visit by Mrs May yesterday.

Mrs May has indicated she does not intend to trigger the two-year period of negotiations on the UK's departure from the EU - Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - until next year. But Mrs Foster and Mr McGuinness remain on opposite sides of the debate, after a majority in Northern Ireland (56%) voted to remain within the EU, while the UK as a whole opted narrowly to leave.

A final Executive session to discuss the way forward is also expected next week, before ministers take their usual August break from meetings.

Alliance MLA Stephen Farry last night challenged Mrs May to meet the First and Deputy First Minister together to allow them to jointly put the case for "special recognition" for Northern Ireland to the PM.

"While the Prime Minister visited the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales, our leaders continued to squabble, seemingly not caring that we will be more adversely affected than any other region by a Brexit," he said.

"The Prime Minister should insist on meeting both Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness in the same meeting as joint leaders of the Executive, instead of the individual leaders of the DUP and Sinn Fein.

"Therefore a united voice can be presented to her, one that recognises Northern Ireland voted to remain within the EU and which puts across the unique circumstances in which we find ourselves."

Last night, Mrs May was told by French president Francois Hollande that Britain needs to trigger Brexit negotiations as soon as it can to avoid the "danger" of uncertainty. At a joint press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Mr Hollande said it was a case of "the sooner the better" regarding when Britain invoked Article 50.
A Yemeni man inspects the damage at a site reportedly hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images

The civil war in Yemen has killed more than 5,800 people since March (AP)

Yemeni blind and disabled people shout slogans during a demonstration to protest after a centre for the blind was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP/Getty Images

A Yemeni man inspects the damage at a site reportedly hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images

Yemeni blind men hold a banner during a demonstration gathering disabled people to protest after a center for the blind was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images

TOPSHOT - Yemeni construction workers walk with their rollers for painting in the the capital, Sanaa, on January 5, 2016. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images

A man uses his mobile to take pictures of the rubble of the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

An employee inspects a room inside the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Employees walk on the rubble of the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Yemenis look at destruction in the street following air strikes on the capital, Sanaa, on January 5, 2016. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images

A general view shows the rubble of the building of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry which was destroyed during air strikes on the capital, Sanaa, on January 5, 2016. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images

Yemeni blind men shout slogans during a demonstration gathering disabled people to protest after a center for the blind was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. AFP/Getty Images

The British government has quietly issued reams of corrections to previous ministerial statements in which they claimed that Saudi Arabia is not targeting civilians or committing war crimes

The autocratic petro-state is currently engaged in a bombing campaign in Yemen where it has blown up hospitals, schools, and weddings as part of its intervention against Houthi rebels.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UNs high commissioner for human rights, has said that carnage caused by certain Saudi coalition airstrikes against civilian targets appear to be war crimes.

Britain has been a staunch defender of the dictatorships assault, with UK arms companies supplying billions in weapons and ministers staking their reputation on the conduct of the Saudi Arabian armed forces.

However as MPs went back to their constituencies for recess on Thursday the Foreign Office admitted six ministerial statements from the past year did not fully reflect the real situation.

In many cases ministers had denied war crimes were being committed  statements the FCO now believes went too far. Instead, ministers were meant to only say that they had not actively confirmed that war crimes were being committed.

In February then Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had said we have assessed that there has not been a breach of international humanitarian law by the coalition, the Foreign Office noted.

It added: However, these should have stated  we have not assessed that there has been a breach of IHL by the coalition.

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On another occasion, the FCO noted, Mr Hammond, who is now the Chancellor, had said:

The MOD assessment is that the Saudi-led coalition is not targeting civilians; that Saudi processes and procedures have been put in place to ensure respect for the principles of international humanitarian law; and that the Saudis both have been and continue to be genuinely committed to compliance with international humanitarian law.

The correction continued: This should have said, The MOD has not assessed that the Saudi-led coalition is targeting civilians. We have assessed that Saudi processes and procedures have been put in place to ensure respect for the principles of international humanitarian law; and that the Saudis both have been and continue to be genuinely committed to compliance with international humanitarian law.

The UK has repeatedly refused calls from the European Parliament and House of Commons international development committee to stop selling weapons to the autocratic monarchy.

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty UKs Arms Programme Director, said: This is jaw-dropping stuff. The government has admitted grossly misleading parliament no fewer than six times on issues as serious as the deaths of civilians in Yemen.

The government has spent most of this year telling us that assessments had been conducted and it was confident that no breach of international law had occurred - when its now apparent no specific assessment of Saudi operations had been done whatsoever.

It appears that what the UK government is admitting is to only having reviewed general Saudi procedures rather than investigating the many actual reports of unlawful attacks.

Its staggering that such a shameful admission is made at the eleventh hour on the last day of parliament. Its not even doublespeak, its just plain wrong.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade, which has led calls for a boycott, said: This is a stunning piece of back-peddling, and the timing feels very cynical.

The corrections reveal that Philip Hammond's original statements were either totally wrong or outright distortions.

UK arms have been central to the devastation inflicted on Yemen and it's time for the government to come clean about its role.

Official figures reported by The Independent in January this year show sales of British bombs and missiles to the country increased 100 times in the three-month period since the start of the attacks on Yemen. The sales jumped from 9m in the previous three months to 1bn.

Mr Cameron, who stepped down as PM this week following the election of Theresa May to leader of the Conservative party, said in January that Britains relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security.

Last week The Independent reported that the UK government had refused to rule out re-electing Saudi Arabia to a key UN human rights council.

Independent
A man who admitted hacking hundreds of email accounts and stealing explicit photos from several celebrities has been sentenced to six months in US federal prison.

US District Judge John A Kronstadt sentenced Andrew Helton, from Astoria, Oregon, to the prison term and two years of supervised release.

Helton pleaded guilty in March to stealing 161 nude or explicit photos from 13 people, including unidentified celebrities.

Authorities have said they do not believe any of the images he stole were publicly released.

Helton's lawyer said he should not receive a prison sentence because the phishing technique he used was not technologically sophisticated.

Helton said his arrest had forced him to confront his mental health issues and change his life.

Prosecutors said his actions caused significant emotional harm to his victims.
Prime Minister Theresa May upon her arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday

French President Francois Hollande walks with President of Ireland Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at Aras an Uachtarain

The Irish border will be a special case in the Brexit negotiations, French president Francois Hollande has claimed.

Mr Hollande, in Dublin for talks with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, called on Britain to begin its separation from the European Union sooner rather than later, and for the discussions to be as short as possible.

Amid concerns the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic could be replaced with customs and immigration checks, the French leader said he understood the concerns about the peace process.

"I do recognise there is a special situation here for Ireland," he added in a Press conference.

"It's a special situation and it has to be found a special place in the negotiations."

Mr Hollande's trip to Dublin was arranged before last Friday's Bastille Day atrocity in Nice.

Eighty-four people were killed when Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel drove a truck into crowds enjoying celebrations and fireworks over the Promenade des Anglais. Another 15 people remain critically ill in hospitals.

On the ramifications of Brexit for the soft border between Northern Ireland and the South, the Taoiseach reiterated that the UK-Ireland Common Travel Area and freedom of movement should remain.

"We do not favour a hard border," he said. "Obviously, we do not want to see a European border from Dundalk to Derry - that would not be acceptable. We'd be vigilant with people moving through who might ... be involved in terrorist activities."

Mr Kenny added that the French leader was aware of the importance of the crucial role the EU played in cementing the peace process.

"Europe has contributed greatly to the support of the Good Friday Agreement in putting that fragile peace together," the Taoiseach explained. "We see, as a country with a land border here, that this peace process is absolutely essential."

Later, following talks with Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris, Mr Hollande warned that Britain would not remain in the single market unless it accepted freedom of movement.

The French president said the thorny issue of migration would be the "most crucial point" of the UK's negotiations to leave the bloc, but indicated he would not agree to major concessions.

After talks at the Elysee Palace, the Prime Minister insisted that the Government would deliver on voters' demands for "some controls" on movement between countries.

Discussions continued over a dinner of lobster, veal and vanilla mousse.

Mr Hollande urged Britain not to delay triggering the Article 50 process of negotiations to pull the country out of the bloc, insisting: "the sooner, the better."

Asked about Britain's future in the single market, Mr Hollande replied: "It's the most crucial point. That's the point that will be the subject of the negotiation.

"It will be a choice facing the UK - remain in the single market and then assume the free movement that goes with it, or to have another status. That will be the subject of the negotiation."

Mrs May said the referendum result had been a "very clear message that we should introduce some controls to the movement of individuals from the countries of the European Union into the UK".

"Obviously, looking at that issue will be part of the negotiations," she added.

"I'm clear that the Government should deliver and will deliver on that for the British people, but we also want to get the right deal on the trade in goods and services, and I think this is important economically, not just for the UK, but for other countries within the European Union as well."
A police officer walks outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A police officer aims his submachine outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Special police forces prepare to search a neighbouring shopping centre outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Public figures have offered their condolences to people in Munich following the shopping centre shooting.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson issued a statement which said: "I am shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich, and the loss of life.

"My thoughts are with those injured and the families of those killed. We stand ready to assist our friends in Germany.

"Our travel advice to UK nationals in the area tonight is to stay indoors and follow the advice of the local authorities."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: "Shocking news from Munich - my thoughts are with the people of the city at this time."

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron tweeted: "My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Munich tonight. All of Britain stands with you."

US president Barack Obama said: "Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. It's still an active situation and Germany is one of our closest allies so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances."

He said it was a "good reminder" that people's "way of life, our freedoms, our ability to go about our business every day" was dependent on law enforcement.

Charlie Flanagan, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, said he was "horrified" by the attack.

"Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of anyone affected by this horrific event, and we extend our deep condolences to the German people.

"My department is monitoring the situation and is in close contact with the Irish Embassy in Berlin. At this time we are not aware of any Irish citizens having being caught up in this evening's incident.

"I urge any Irish citizens in the area to follow the German authorities' advice to avoid public areas and to stay indoors."

German president Joachim Gauck said: "I am deeply shocked by the murderous attack in Munich.

"My thoughts are with all the victims and all those who are grieving or fearing for a loved one. And I feel a bond with all those who are working to protect people and save lives."

Hillary Clinton tweeted: "Monitoring the horrific situation in Munich. We stand with our friends in Germany as they work to bring those responsible to justice."

Donald Trump posted on Facebook: "Our prayers are with all those affected by the horrible attacks in Munich. This cannot continue. The rise of terrorism threatens the way of life for all civilized people, and we must do everything in our power to keep it from our shores."
Police in Munich, Germany respond to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Friday July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/APTV)

Armed police move past onlooking media responding to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, Friday July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/APTV)

Police walks near a shopping mall amid a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Police and firefighters are seen near a shopping mall amid a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

In this frame grab taken from video, people run from the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 (Thamina Stoll/UGC via AP)

Police secures the area inside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images

Police secures the entrance to a subway station near a shopping mall where a shooting took place on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Police secures the area inside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images

Police secures the area outside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images

Police officers respond to the shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Marc Mueller/Getty Images)

Police officers respond to the shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Marc Mueller/Getty Images)

Police officers respond to a shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

Police officers respond to the shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Marc Mueller/Getty Images)

A police officer responds to the shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Marc Mueller/Getty Images)

Police walks inside a subyay station Karlsplatz (Stachus) near a shopping mall following a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

A police helicopter patrols over a shopping mall following a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Heavily armed police officers with weapons prepare to respond to a shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

A policeman stands with a gun near a shopping mall following shootings on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Police secures teh area of a subway station Karlsplatz (Stachus) near a shopping mall following a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Police cars stand outside the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Marc Kleine-Kleffmann)

Policemen patrol th Stachus square following shootings at a shopping mall on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Policemen arrive at a shopping mall following shootings on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Policemen are seen following shootings at a shopping mall on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Armed policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

Heavily armed police forces stand outside the Olympia shopping centre where several people have been killed in a shooting in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

In this grab taken from video, armed police walk in the area of the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. A manhunt was underway Friday for a shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich, killing and wounding several people, a Munich police spokeswoman said. The city transit system shut down and police asked people to avoid public places. (AP)

Evacuated people from the shopping mall walk with their hands up in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting earlier. At least one person has been killed and 10 wounded in a shooting at a shopping centre in Munich on Friday, German police said. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGERSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Police evacuates people from the shopping mall in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting earlier. At least one person has been killed and 10 wounded in a shooting at a shopping centre in Munich on Friday, German police said. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGERSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: An armed police man guards the downtown pedestrian zone near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest a man whose identity and role was not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: An armed police man guards the downtown pedestrian zone near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 22: Police arrest three men, whose identities and roles were not yet confirmed, near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. Several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ). (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

An armed police man guards the downtown pedestrian zone near Marienplatz square following a rampage shooting in the city on July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Police escort evacuated people from the shopping mall (the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shootings earlier. AFP/Getty Images

Police officers guard with guns as other officers escort people from inside the shopping center as they respond to a shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

Police officers secure evidence from a flat in Dachauer Strasse after a shooting the day before leaving nine people dead on Saturday, July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Tobias Hase/dpa via AP)

Police officers secure the area around the shopping mall Olympia Einkaufzentrum OEZ in Munich on July 23, 2016, a day after a gunman went on a shooting rampage, killing eight people in a suspected terror attack. The southern city was in lockdown after the shootings, which saw panicked shoppers fleeing the Olympia mall as armed anti-terror police roamed the streets in search of assailant. / AFP PHOTO / Christof StacheCHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images

Flowers were laid near a mall where a shooting took place leaving nine people dead the day before on Saturday, July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: A mourning woman waits with flowers and candles outside the OEZ shopping center, the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: The father of one of the victims is showing flowers and a picture of his son (on the picture his son is named as Zabergja Dijamant) as he arrives outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: The father of one of the victims carries flowers and a picture of his son (on the picture his son is named as Zabergja Dijamant) as he arrives outside the OEZ shopping center and becomes help by a crisis intervention team the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: A small boy places a candle outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: The father (C) of one of the victims carries flowers as he shows a picture of his son (on the picture his son is named as Zabergja Dijamant) as he arrives outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: Police and fire services clean the area the shooting occured outside the OEZ shopping center, the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 23: A woman and her children lay flowers and candles outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to police an 18-year-old German man of Iranian descent shot nine people dead and wounded at least 16 before he shot himself in a nearby park. For hours during the spree and the following manhunt the city lay paralyzed as police ordered people to stay off the streets. Original reports of up to three attackers seem to have been unfounded. The shooter's motive is so far unclear. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

Policemen stand in front of an apartment building in Munich's Dachauer Strasse street on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich. Police were probing the motives of the lone teenage German-Iranian gunman who went on a deadly rampage at a busy Munich shopping centre, the third bloody attack on civilians in Europe in just over a week. Nine people were killed and another 16 wounded as the black-clad gunman brought terror to Germany's third largest city on Friday evening, July 22, 2016, before committing suicide. / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Tobias Hase / Germany OUTTOBIAS HASE/AFP/Getty Images

A little boy puts down flowers near a mall where a shooting took place leaving nine people dead the day before on Saturday, July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)

Policemen stand in front of an apartment building in Munich's Dachauer Strasse street on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich. Police were probing the motives of the lone teenage German-Iranian gunman who went on a deadly rampage at a busy Munich shopping centre, the third bloody attack on civilians in Europe in just over a week. Nine people were killed and another 16 wounded as the black-clad gunman brought terror to Germany's third largest city on Friday evening, July 22, 2016, before committing suicide. / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Tobias Hase / Germany OUTTOBIAS HASE/AFP/Getty Images

A woman stands near a mall where a shooting took place leaving nine people dead the day before on Saturday, July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)

Policemen stand in front of a cordoned-off underground station near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping centre in Munich, southern Germany, on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich. Police were probing the motives of the lone teenage German-Iranian gunman who went on a deadly rampage at a busy Munich shopping centre, the third bloody attack on civilians in Europe in just over a week. Nine people were killed and another 16 wounded as the black-clad gunman brought terror to Germany's third largest city on Friday evening, July 22, 2016, before committing suicide. / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / Germany OUTKARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Policemen patrol through a pedestrian area in Munich, southern Germany, on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich. Police were probing the motives of the lone teenage German-Iranian gunman who went on a deadly rampage at a busy Munich shopping centre, the third bloody attack on civilians in Europe in just over a week. Nine people were killed and another 16 wounded as the black-clad gunman brought terror to Germany's third largest city on Friday evening, July 22, 2016, before committing suicide. / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Daniel Karmann / Germany OUTDANIEL KARMANN/AFP/Getty Images

Police stand at a the crime scene where a shooting took place in front of a fast food restaurant leaving nine people dead the day before on Saturday, July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A woman lights a candle at an underground station near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping centre in Munich, southern Germany, on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

Two young women mourn at an underground station near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping centre on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich, southern Germany. AFP/Getty Images

A woman cries at a make shift memorial site near the Olympia shopping center where a shooting took place leaving nine people dead the day before on Saturday, July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Police cars are parked near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping centre on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich, southern Germany. AFP/Getty Images

Young people mourn at an underground station near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping centre on July 23, 2016, one day after the attack at the shopping centre in Munich, southern Germany. AFP/Getty Images

People lay flowers and candles outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

A candle with the words "Warum? Pourquoi? Why?" written on it is placed outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Police secure the area around the McDonalds Restaurant and OEZ shopping centre the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

People lay flowers and candles outside the OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Police men guard the crime scene at OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Police men guard the crime scene at OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Police men guard the crime scene at OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Bavarian state governor Horst Seehofer, Munich's lord mayor Dieter Reiter and members of the Bavarian state government attend the crime scene for wreath-laying ceremony at OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

In this Friday, July 22, 2016 photo provided by Wael Ladki a police officer shows the way to people fleeing after a shooting in a shopping mall in Munich, southern Germany. (Wael Ladki via AP)

In this Friday, July 22, 2016 photo provided by Wael Ladki heavily armed police officers sit in the trunk of the SUV as they are on the hunt for possible fugitives after a shooting in a shopping mall in Munich, southern Germany. (Wael Ladki via AP)

Police men guard the crime scene at OEZ shopping center the day after a shooting spree left nine victims dead on July 23, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

In this Friday, July 22, 2016 photo provided by Wael Ladki people take shelter as armed police officers are on the hunt for possible fugitives after a shooting in a shopping mall in Munich, southern Germany. A gunman killed 9 people before killing himself. (Wael Ladki via AP)

Nine people have been killed, possibly including the gunman, in a shopping centre shooting in Munich, police said.

An unknown number of others were injured after multiple shots were fired on Hanauer Street before the attack moved to the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre in the south German city at about 6pm on Friday.

It remains unclear whether other attackers are on the run, after reports that at least three gunmen were involved.

Unverified video footage appeared to show a man opening fire at people outside a McDonald's restaurant near to the shopping centre.

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A Northern Ireland holidaymaker was caught up in the chaos.

Jerome Burns, who is on holiday with his wife, was in a railway station when news of the shootings broke.

"We were buying train tickets when suddenly there was a massive alert," he told the BBC.

"People were running all over the place.

"We were all bundled out, down a back door into the bottom of the railway station, where we were kept for about half an hour.

Shooting in #Munich shopping mall #OEZ!! People running away to seek shelter!! pic.twitter.com/PB189s6RQy  Thamina Stoll (@thaminastoll) July 22, 2016

"The station, at that stage, was closed - all the public transport was closed - and we were told to get back to our hotel as quickly as we could.

"We didn't really understand what was being said.

"It was really manic coming out of the station, police everywhere, stations absolutely evacuated, ambulances and lights all over the place."

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Police secures the area inside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Police secures the area inside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Police secures the entrance to a subway station near a shopping mall where a shooting took place on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police secures the area inside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images

Mr Burns said he and the other guests were "in a state of shock".

The sound of multiple shots being fired can be heard as shoppers and passers-by run for cover.

People were seen fleeing from the building in another video posted on social media.

Munich Police confirmed on Twitter that there had been eight deaths and an unknown number of injuries.

Police are urging people to avoid public places and said that they could not confirm if there were other crime scenes apart from Hanauer Street.

The force also tweeted: "Please don't take Fotos or Video of Police Action in order to avoid any helpful Information for the suspects."

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Armed police move past onlooking media responding to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, Friday July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/APTV) AP In this frame grab taken from video, people run from the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 (Thamina Stoll/UGC via AP) AP / Facebook

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Whatsapp Armed police move past onlooking media responding to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, Friday July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/APTV)

Police have responded to the attack in large numbers. Dozens of vehicles can be seen lining the street outside the shopping centre, and a number of armed officers and a helicopter are at the scene.

A cordon was put in place and the area has been evacuated.

Rail travel and public transport in the city has been stopped and Munich's central station has been closed, according to local media.

Drivers have been urged to clear the motorways around Munich, and nightclubs in the city will remain closed on Friday night, local media said.

Refuge has been offered to people stranded around the city via social media, under the hashtag #OffeneTur - or #OpenDoor - inviting people to stay if they are unable to get home.

Facebook's Safety Check feature has also been activated so that people can let friends and family know that they are safe.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Police walks near a shopping mall amid a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Police secures the area outside a shopping center in Munich on July 22, 2016 following a shooting. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Police and firefighters are seen near a shopping mall amid a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Police in Munich, Germany respond to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Friday July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/APTV) AP Munich: Reports of a shooting at a shopping centre (Image: Google Maps) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police walks near a shopping mall amid a shooting on July 22, 2016 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

The shopping centre in the northern part of Munich is not far from the city's Olympic stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital.

British nationals in Germany are being advised to comply with instructions from local authorities.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are urgently seeking further information following the ongoing incident in Munich. We are in touch with the relevant authorities."

Monitoring the horrific situation in Munich. We stand with our friends in Germany as they work to bring those responsible to justice. -H  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016

"I live in Munich, near #OEZ shopping mall. All hell is breaking out. Police, fire fighters, helicopters in the air" https://t.co/jmoEuweA7y  Henri, Rawlins (@neoreaction77) July 22, 2016

Shocking news from Munich - my thoughts are with the people of the city at this time  Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) July 22, 2016

Munich Police previously said in a statement: "At around ten to six today there were witnesses who called the police and said there was a shooting at the Hanauer Street.

"The shooting moved from that street to the shopping centre. The witnesses said there were three different people with weapons."

The attack took place on the fifth anniversary of the lone wolf terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in which 77 people were killed.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: "I am shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich, and the loss of life.

"My thoughts are with those injured and the families of those killed. We stand ready to assist our friends in Germany.

"Our travel advice to UK nationals in the area tonight is to stay indoors and follow the advice of the local authorities."
Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, d eclaring America in crisis and promising its people they will be safer and richer if he is elected in November.

The billionaire businessman pledged to curb immigration, build a wall along the border with Mexico and save the nation from Hillary Clinton's record of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness".

The 70-year-old spoke for more than an hour, with his address on the closing night of the party convention marking his highest-profile opportunity yet to heal Republican divisions and show voters he is prepared for the presidency.

Ever the showman, he fed off the energy of the crowd, stepping back to soak in applause and joining the delegates as they chanted: "U-S-A."

Mr Trump declared the nation's problems too big to be fixed within the confines of traditional politics.

"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," he told delegates in Cleveland, Ohio.

He said: "O ur convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country."

Underscoring his unorthodox candidacy, Mr Trump set out the hardline immigration policies that fired up conservatives in the Republican contest, but broke with many in his party by promising protections for gays and lesbians.

As the crowd, fiercely opposed to Mrs Clinton, broke out in its usual chant of "lock her up," he declared: "Let's defeat her in November."

Yet he also accused her of "terrible, terrible crimes" and said her greatest achievement may have been avoiding prison for her use of a private email and personal server as secretary of state.

The speech was strikingly dark for a celebratory event and almost entirely lacking in specific policy details. Mr Trump shouted throughout as he read off a teleprompter, showing few flashes of humour or even a smile.

He accused Mrs Clinton, his far-more-experienced Democratic rival, of utterly lacking the good judgment to serve in the White House and as the military's commander in chief.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," he said.

"But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy."

In a direct appeal to Americans shaken by a summer of violence at home and around the world, Mr Trump promised that if he takes office in January, "safety will be restored".

As he moves into the general election campaign, he is sticking to his most controversial proposals, including building a wall along the entire US-Mexico border and suspending immigration from nations "compromised by terrorism".

He took the stage in Cleveland facing a daunting array of challenges, many of his own making.

Though he beat 16 primary rivals, he is viewed with unprecedented negativity by the broader electorate, and is struggling in particular with younger voters and minorities, groups Republican leaders know they need for the party to grow.

The first three days of the convention bordered on chaos, starting with a plagiarism charge involving his wife Melania Trump's speech.

And his former White House rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, was booed when he dramatically refused to endorse him from the convention stage.

Then, Mr Trump sparked more questions about his Oval Office readiness by suggesting in an interview that the US might not defend America's Nato partners with him as president.

The remarks deviate from decades of American policy and seem to reject the 67-year-old alliance's bedrock principle of collective defence.

Mr Trump reinforced his position in his speech, from the convention stage, saying the US has been "picking up the cost" of Nato's defences for too long.

He had promised to describe "major, major" tax cuts. But his economic proposals were vague, with unspecified plans to create millions of jobs.

He promised a "simplified" tax system for the middle class and businesses, fewer regulations and renegotiation of trade deals that he says have put working class Americans at a disadvantage.

Senior Clinton aide John Podesta attacked Mr Trump for offering little more than "prejudice and paranoia" and promised she would set out a more positive vision for America when she accepts the party's nomination at its convention next week in Philadelphia.

AP
A number of Ulster-Americans made their way to the Presidency of the United States of America

I have to confess that I am very fond of tomato ketchup - whether on a wide range of sandwiches, on chips, or even a fish supper. Now that may seem a strange way to start a newspaper column, but recently I came across an article about the origins of tomato ketchup.

The first-known published recipe for the sauce was written by Dr James Mease in Philadelphia in 1812, just over 200 years ago.

He had thought for some time that tomatoes and ketchup were a natural combination and he came up with a recipe for what has become a very popular sauce.

The success of tomato ketchup took off after the American Civil War and towards the end of the 19th century the New York Tribune declared that it was America's national condiment and "on every table in the land".

That is interesting, but it took on an added significance when I recalled that Mease was one of the most prominent citizens in Philadelphia and belonged to an Ulster-American family, which had already made its mark.

He was the son of John Mease, who was a shipping merchant and had emigrated from Strabane to America in 1754. John Mease, his brother James Mease and other members of this Ulster-American family, were strong supporters of American independence and gave generously to advance that cause. Some of them even fought in the ranks of the American Army.

So, there is an Ulster connection with something that is today as universal as a popular sauce.

Earlier this week the United States of America celebrated the Fourth of July as Independence Day, remembering July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress adopted the American Declaration of Independence.

So, this is a good time to reflect on Ulster-American connections. The secretary of the Congress was Charles Thomson, an Ulster-born Presbyterian, and the declaration was printed by another Ulster-born Presbyterian, John Dunlap. Thomson was from Maghera and Dunlap was from Strabane.

A number of Ulster-Americans also made their way to the Presidency of the United States of America and, as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, the Ulster-American Folk Park has an exhibition of drawings of some of these Presidents by the Belfast artist Frank McKelvey.

They stretch from President Andrew Jackson, with family roots in east Antrim, through to President Woodrow Wilson.

However, the Ulster influence in America stretches far beyond Presidents and pioneers.

In almost every part of the United States and in almost every area of life, we can trace the influence of Ulster emigrants - men and women who were part of an Ulster diaspora.

Much of the Ulster diaspora can be traced back to the 18th century when a quarter-of-a-million Ulster folk emigrated from here to America. They were almost entirely Protestant in faith and they were predominantly Presbyterian Ulster-Scots.

In the 19th century there was another diaspora, this time from across Ireland and predominantly, though certainly not entirely, made up of people from a Roman Catholic background.

The influence of the diaspora can be seen in America, but it can also be seen in other countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. There are major international companies which were founded by people who were born in Ulster or were of Ulster descent.

James Gamble from the Graan near Enniskillen was one of the founders of Proctor and Gamble, and Sun Life Insurance was founded in Montreal by Matthew Hamilton Gault, a Canadian businessman from Strabane.

The concept of "soft power" was introduced in the 1980s by Dr Joseph Nye, an American political scientist, and refers to ways in which a country can promote itself and influence others while avoiding what is termed "hard power".

I think we should look at the Ulster diaspora as a source of "soft power" for Northern Ireland.

It is an opportunity which, as yet, Northern Ireland has not fully recognised and utilised.
Might I respectfully suggest that Enda Kenny is woefully mistaken if he believes that the majority of the population of Northern Ireland are prepared to consider a 32-county republic in an effort to remain within the EU.

The two issues are not complementary by any means. We may, as a region, have voted to remain within the EU. But a clear majority of UK voters - of which we are but a small part - voted to leave and we have to respect that.

Better the devil you know.

GARETH JAMES

Greyabbey, Co Down
Nowhere on the referendum voting paper did it mention anything about a border poll in Northern Ireland, or Scotland, breaking away from England if the result was not to their liking.

The choice on the voting paper was quite clear: do you want the UK to remain in Europe, or leave. The choice was to leave by a majority of the UK electorate.

It seems Martin McGuinness has a problem with democracy when he doesn't get the result he voted for. Tough, just lump it.

As for Scotland, Sturgeon has had her referendum over leaving the UK, and the result was 28 council areas in favour of remaining part of the UK and only four for independence.

That is democracy. Now she wants a re-run after telling the electorate it would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become independent. I wonder how long she considers a lifetime to be?

As for Enda Kenny of the Republic of Ireland, we don't need any comments from him while his country depends on the European begging bowl.

PANORAMA

Carryduff, Co Down
The German poet, playwright and exile from the Nazis, Bertolt Brecht once wrote: "Unhappy is the land that needs heroes." These words are uttered by Galileo in Brecht's play about the life and torments of the Italian Renaissance genius, but they can arguably apply to post-Troubles Northern Ireland too.

In certain parts of this society a generation growing up without any first-hand experience of life during the 1969-1997 conflict is surrounded by the iconography of "heroes".

On walls, posters, badges, scarves - even imprinted onto dinner plates - there are images of men (usually men) who have given all for "the cause".

In certain areas, particularly loyalist redoubts, the men in woolly faces, brandishing guns, are lionised and even ridiculously compared with the true heroes of global conflicts, like those from Ireland who died on the Western Front; this conflation a moral and political category mistake if ever there was one.

We are long ago "heroed-out" in this part of the world - especially those of us who enjoy the relative normality of life that the peace process and power-sharing have created over the last two-and-a-half decades.

Yet, perhaps Brecht (via Galileo) was wrong in one sense regarding heroes: sometimes the truly "heroic" are those who would never regard themselves as paragons of valour and whose small acts of mercy, kindness and humanity make them the true heroes of a fractured society.

When you search for those types of heroes you think of Gordon Wilson, who reached out to the organisation responsible for his daughter's murder in the Enniskillen atrocity of Poppy Day 1987, or Michael McGoldrick snr, whose son Michael was murdered by a sectarian killer less than a decade later. In this newspaper yesterday Bridie McGoldrick, the widow of Michael snr and mother of Michael, spoke movingly about the murder 20 years on. She revealed that she and her husband discussed a suicide pact after their son was shot dead by the Loyalist Volunteer Force in July 1996 at the height of the Drumcree marching dispute in Portadown.

However, instead of being driven to the edge, the couple decided to channel their grief into helping others - namely the poor children and the destitute of Moldova, a poverty-ridden state of the former Soviet Union, and Romania.

For the remainder of his life Michael snr worked with United Christian Aid, travelling every eight weeks to the far edge of Eastern Europe, putting roofs over the homes of poor families, raising money for projects to bring electricity to villages, putting in new roads and building bridges. As Stephanie Bell reported so movingly, Michael snr actually died from septicaemia on one of those mercy missions; he died while selflessly helping others.

It is worth rolling back to the time before Michael snr passed away when, in 2003, he had to sit listening to the trial of former loyalist supergrass Clifford McKeown, who was later found guilty of his son's murder. The victim's father had these words to say after McKeown was convicted at Belfast Crown Court: "The hurt in our country has to stop. At the time I forgave those that murdered Michael - and I still forgive them."

One of the most perverted facts to emerge from McKeown's trial was that the former informer and ex-Ulster Volunteer Force member claimed he had selected Michael McGoldrick as a target as a "birthday present" for LVF founder Billy Wright.

To "celebrate" someone's birthday by cold-bloodedly firing five bullets into a defenceless man's body has to be one of the most nauseating moments among many these other so-called "heroes" have been responsible for during the Troubles.

Of course, some in mid-Ulster are still lionising people like Wright, who never sought to distance himself from the McGoldrick murder and, indeed, according to McKeown's trial testimony, was planning to kidnap three Catholic priests who were then to be killed unless the Orange Order was allowed to pass down the Garvaghy Road in that terrible summer of 1996.

Wright's admirers have strung up banners across parts of Dungannon praising 'King Rat' and his gang's exploits in mid-Ulster and north Armagh, which included shooting young teenage girls at point-blank range in a mobile shop in Lurgan and firing a pistol into the body of 18-year-old Catholic Bernadette Martin at her Protestant boyfriend's home in Aghalee - the murder weapon being the same gun McKeown had used in the McGoldrick murder three years earlier.

Incredibly, a senior PSNI officer said the police could not take the pro-Wright banner down, because a section of the community in Dungannon might agree with the slogan on it, quoting 'King Rat' claiming a UVF shooting in Cappagh in 1991 was his "greatest work".

Even if three of the four men shot dead by the UVF in Boyle's bar belonged to the Provisional IRA, it matters not.

While there is ample evidence that the State continually subverted the rule of law - especially through its use of informant-killers in all the major paramilitary organisations throughout the Troubles - the principle of the rule of law had to remain the same.

The idea that no one beyond the lawmakers and the civil power can carry out retribution is a fundamental tenet of a democratic, civilised society.

The LVF - just like the UVF at Cappagh, or the IRA at Enniskillen - were judge, jury and executioner.

They had no legitimate right to wage war on anyone's behalf, or attack any quarter - including each other - whether at Cappagh or anywhere else.

Aside from principles like the rule of law, the right to a fair trial, legal representation and being innocent until proven guilty, there are other core elements that are needed to stop a society sliding into Thomas Hobbes' state of nature, where life will always be "nasty, poor, brutish and short".

One of those principles, or rather ways of being, which underpin a free, civil society is the humble virtue of quiet respect, tolerance and care for others.

Bridie McGoldrick's testimony to both her son and her husband illuminates that necessary virtue in every way.

"Unhappy is the land that needs heroes"?

Well, that depends on what kind of heroes you look up to. When it comes to the likes of Gordon Wilson or Michael McGoldrick, we need more such heroes to point us towards a better future.
Elon Musk introduces the Dragon V2 spaceship at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California

Elon Musk with the Model X car at the Tesla headquarters in Fremont, California. (AP)

Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, car sharing and solar energy systems.

In a blog post titled "Master Plan, Part Deux," Musk sketched a vision of an integrated carbon-free energy enterprise offering a wider range of vehicles, and products and services beyond electric cars and batteries.

The newest elements of the strategy included plans to develop car and ride sharing programs as well as commercial vehicles - businesses where other companies already compete, and in some cases have ample head starts on Tesla.

The new vehicles range from a commercial truck called the Tesla Semi to a public transport bus, a "new kind of pickup truck" and a compact SUV. The vehicles will be unveiled next year alongside Tesla's existing fleet of electric cars.

Musk restated his argument that Tesla should acquire solar panel installer SolarCity, where he is a major shareholder, and said he aims to make Teslas Autopilot self-driving system 10 times safer than cars that humans drive manually.

The plan did not detail how the new projects would be financed at a time when Both Tesla and SolarCity are burning through cash.

Musk summarized the plan saying Tesla aimed to "create stunning solar roofs (for homes) with seamlessly integrated battery storage. Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments. Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning. Enable your car to make money for you when you aren't using it."

Musk said he envisions Tesla owners allowing others to use their vehicles through a smartphone application. He indicated there will be a "Tesla shared fleet," but did not offer details of how that fleet would be managed.

Rival automakers are pursuing some of these goals as well.

In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are, he said. Such a service would put Tesla in competition with ride hailing services such as Uber or Lyft.

Musk said all future Tesla products will have fully self-driving capability, including trucks and buses.

He vigorously defended Tesla's decision to offer what he described as a "beta" system to allow partial autonomy in its vehicles, a system called Autopilot. Federal regulators are investigating Autopilot after a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S operating with the system engaged.

"When used correctly, it (Autopilot) is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves," he wrote.

Musk did not say when fully autonomous Teslas would be ready, but indicated it could require roughly five years of additional testing.

Most major automakers, as well as internet search company Alphabet Inc, are investing heavily in automated driving technology.

Germany's Daimler AG is working on automated heavy trucks and electric commercial vehicles. General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp are among the auto companies working on car sharing and forging alliances with ride hailing companies.

On June 21, Musk proposed Tesla buy SolarCity. He outlined a combined company that could provide consumers with the tools for a largely carbon-free lifestyle - electric cars recharged with electricity generated by SolarCity solar panel systems, or stored in the home using battery packs produced by Tesla's battery Gigafactory under construction near Reno, Nev.

Musk owns 22 per cent of SolarCity's shares, and has outlined plans to offer buyers of Tesla electric vehicles a solar power generation and battery storage system.

To fund projects Tesla in May sold about $1.7 billion in new shares. Much of that will be used to accelerate development of its new Model 3 car lineup and reach a production pace of 500,000 vehicles a year by 2018.

On Monday, SolarCity said it raised $345 million to fund projects, and increased its debt facility by $110 million.

Irish Independent
Falling for ISIS Propaganda About Christians

( Getty Images) That Middle Eastern Christians--along with Yazidis and others--face genocide by ISIS was officially recognized earlier this year in a designation of the U.S. Secretary of State, and in resolutions of both Houses of Congre ss . Yet, a prominent international voice is now denying this, asserting that ISIS, rather than aiming to eradicate Christians, offers to protect and respect them through a traditional Islamic tax option, or jizya. These findings seem preposterous to anyone familiar with ISIS's worldview--recall the 2015 ISIS videos of its beheadings of the Coptic Orthodox and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians in Libya. Nevertheless, they are gaining traction to the detriment of the affected Christian communities and to the world's understanding of ISIS's ideology. In a June 15 report concerning ISIS's genocide in Iraq's Nineveh Province, a small but highly influential international group, the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, insists that ISIS does not intend to destroy the Christian community, which would mean that, under the genocide convention, the terror group has not waged genocide on that minority. The report confidently declares that ISIS unconditionally recognizes Christians' "right to exist as Christians," including those within its territory, "as long as they pay the jizya tax," because, it suggests, the terror group respects Christians (and presumably Jews) as "People of the Book." Another unsubstantiated and insupportable claim is that there are "Christian communities still living in ISIS-controlled territory." The report even denies that the ISIS attacks against the Christian minority are religious, asserting instead a political motivation for its violence against that minority--to punish them for getting too close to "non-aligned forces." Apart from its footnote-free, summary conclusion, the Commission report, entitled "They came to destroy": ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis, is silent on the Christians. Here is the conclusion in its entirety:

While the Christian communities still living in ISIS-controlled territory live difficult and often precarious existences, are viewed with suspicion, and are vulnerable to attack if ISIS perceive they are seeking protection from non-aligned forces, their right to exist as Christians within any Islamic state existing at any point in time is recognised as long as they pay the jizya tax: Under ISIS's radical interpretation of Islam, however, it is impermissible for Yazidis to live as Yazidis inside its so-called caliphate because they are not People of the Book.

Nineveh Province, Iraq

O

There are no more Christian families in Mosul...only a few individuals who were unable to escape.... Fifty disabled Christians are left at a medical facility because they were unable to escape...[and] it has been impossible so far to rescue them. Some Christians abducted by Daesh [ISIS] are still being held, but no family.

That night I was married to eight different men and divorced eight times. Each man raped me three or four times. When all this was over, we were taken back to the room where all the girls were being held. They made us walk naked through the big room where all the men were sitting. We were barely able to walk. This scenario was repeated every week--it was like a nightmare.

Raqqa and Qaryatayn, Syria

R

[T]here are no images whatsoever of what could be described as normal Christian life in ISIS-controlled territory--no functioning churches, no monasteries or working priests, and no Christian families or Christian schools--all of which had existed throughout Islamic history.

The pact seems more aspirational, and more about preparing the stage for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis assuming the mantle of the Caliph, which happened only four months later, than a real document regulating the life of an actual community. Just as the Caliph Omar in the 7th century produced an agreement to regulate the life of a protected minority, so would the Caliph-in-Waiting do the same. The only thing missing were actual Christians.

The Caliph of the Muslims displayed kindness and generosity, and agreed to accept their jizya tax, and to allow them to live under the rule of the Caliphate as part of the dhimma contract."

As it pertains to the Christians, this conclusion is demonstrably false. No one denies that the Yazidis face ISIS genocide but the idea that "Christians and Jews" do not because they have ISIS's respect as "People of the Book" first surfaced in a report by the U.S. Holocaust Museum genocide prevention office during the debate leading up to the official U.S. genocide designation last winter and was refuted by the evidence then. Its adoption by the Commission now gives what is essentially unexamined ISIS propaganda new currency in international circles, with significant implications. Internationally, the Commission is considered a highly respected authority. It was established in 2011 by the United Nations Council on Human Rights to advise the world's preeminent human-rights body. It counts among its four commissioners such notables as Karen Koning AbuZayd, an American who served for as Deputy Commissioner General of UNRWA, a controversial UN body for Palestinian refugees with a reputation, including under her leadership, of abetting Holocaust denial and Hamas terror , but which allowed her to obtain the rank of UN Under Secretary General of the UN. Already the research library of the British Parliament has cited the Commission as its principal source on the plight of Christians in ISIS's territory, and adopted the Commission's conclusion in the library's July 15, 2016 briefing paper on "Religious Persecution in the Middle East." If allowed to stand unchallenged, the Commission's conclusion can be anticipated to influence policymaking within and outside the United Nations. A review of the evidence and interviews with the Christian leaders directly involved reveals that ISIS' claims of a jizya option are a deception and a propaganda ploy. ISIS's demands for payments, which it calls "jizya," are actually examples of extortion. Under traditional Islam, there was a conceptual distinction between the two that made an enormous difference for the survival non-Muslim minorities. Under what is called the Pact of Omar (named after a 7-century Caliph), there was an arrangement for coexistence with Jews and Christians as respected "People of the Book." Men or their community paid a progressive tax, or jizya, in exchange for the protection of their families' lives and property and for their religious rights. They did not have religious freedom, were harshly discriminated against, and were compelled to adhere to Muslim mores in ways would be seen today as flagrant human-rights violations. Yet for 1,300 years, from the Muslim conquest of the region in the 7century until the mid- 19, Christianity was practiced and perpetuated in this region under such arrangements. ISIS has never offered a traditional jizya option to any of these Christians, at any time. Neither protection nor religious rights are assured under the pseudo-caliphate of the Islamic State. Today there is a complete absence anywhere in ISIS-controlled territory of functioning churches, active clergy, and intact Christian communities. As shown below, in the three major areas--Nineveh, Raqqa and Qaryatayn--where ISIS claims to have "offered a jizya option," the offer has always, within a short time, been followed by the rape, murder, kidnapping, enslavement, and dispossession of Christians--all acts evidencing the crime of genocide.n July 17, 2014, twelve days before Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his caliphate from Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, ISIS first raised the jizya issue in Iraq. The group summoned Mosul's Christian leaders to the city's civic center purportedly to set out its demands. The Reverend Emanuel Adelkello, a priest with the Syriac Catholic Church (the largest in Northern Iraq) had direct dealings with ISIS on behalf of the Christian community. He wrote to me that the Christian leaders throughout Nineveh consulted among themselves and decided it was a "trap." Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshi wrote that it required too great a leap of faith: They could "never trust Daesh [members] no matter how many good intentions they try to show." Reverend Adelkello states they were specifically fearful that ISIS intended to "keep women there so that they could be taken freely by the ISIS fighters [since they] had made public statements that according to the Koran it was their right to take the Christian women as they pleased." He writes that the Christians also "believed they would likely be killed if they showed up." None did. ISIS then broadcasted from mosque loudspeakers an ultimatum to the Christians: Leave by July 19 or face death or forced conversion to Islam. The Archbishop says that ISIS also spread the "lie" that he had signed a jizya agreement with ISIS. He believes this was done to deceive Christians into staying in order to hold them for ransom and sexual abuse. Virtually all the Christians who could do so fled. In Mosul, ISIS destroyed or shut all 45 churches, confiscated Christian homes--which they had already marked with the red letter "N" for Nazarene--and manned checkpoints to steal possessions and cars from the fleeing Christians. A Sunni imam of Mosul who protested their treatment was killed. Following an ISIS blitzkrieg, the terror-driven mass exodus of Christians was repeated less than three weeks later throughout the rest of Nineveh Province. ISIS made no further jizya announcements in Iraq. The Holocaust Museum report recounts an interview with one Nineveh Christian man, who said he tried to pay jizya so that he could stay with his businesses but ISIS refused, confiscating his businesses after he fled. The Commission of Inquiry characterized those Christians who didn't make it out of Nineveh as having chosen to live under ISIS and pay jizya. The Christians on the scene refute this and describe a dire situation. Only 25 to 50 Christians, nearly all reported to be elderly or suffering from infirmities that prevented them from making the trek out, remained behind in Mosul. They are now barred from leaving. Church leaders are adamant that these Christians don't pay jizya; ISIS has robbed them of all their wealth and otherwise fails to protect or respect them. The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, who was among those deported from Mosul, is categorical in asserting that no Christian community, or even family, remains in Mosul to pay jizya, and disputes Kurdish media reports that families remain in the city and are paying an annual jizya of $170. On May 11, 2016, the Patriarchate said Assyrian Iraqi parliamentarian Yonadam Kanna agrees and adds that elderly Christians who stayed were forcibly converted. The Iraqi Chaldean priest Reverend Douglas Bazi, who aids refugees in Erbil, says that one Mosul family with disabled members was told they could remain Christian if each family member paid $8,000, each month, which was so exorbitant they could not exercise the "option." Other exiled Church leaders report that the Mosul Christians are now destitute, starving and dying from neglect, isolated in their houses. Needless to say, they can't go to church, since none remains. When in the first two weeks of August 2014 ISIS stormed the towns and villages of the Nineveh Plain, there were several thousand Christians who didn't evacuate in time and they were shown no mercy. An unknown number of the very young and very old died during this escape and, in the panic, were left where they fell. Others, ISIS killed outright. Washington's Cardinal Theodore McCarrick told me that he spoke with an Iraqi Christian woman, now displaced in Kurdistan, who witnessed jihadists crucifying her husband on their home's front door. A Sunni tribesman told of the fate of one senior left behind, an 80-year-old Nineveh Christian woman whom ISIS burned alive last year for not following its sharia. Aggregate numbers have yet to be collected for any ISIS depredations. Nineveh's Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Amel Nona estimates that a "huge number of Christians" who could not get out when ISIS invaded his diocese were killed. Syriac Catholic Patriarch Younan reported that ISIS killed over 500 Christians, all civilians, but the number could be much higher. Using a State Department questionnaire from the Darfur genocide, the Knights of Columbus interviewed several hundred (out of 120,000) Christian refugees in Kurdistan. As its March 9, 2016 Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East Report documents, survivors reported that their sons, cousins, fathers, or brothers went missing after being led away by Isis jihadists. Based on relatives' testimony, KofC lawyer Scott Lloyd says: "Dozens and perhaps hundreds of Christians, mostly men, were demanded as hostages in exchange for their families' [freedom] to leave. They haven't been seen since." While ISIS's practice of sexual slavery mostly targeted the Yazidis, Archbishop Moshi states that over 20 Christian girls and women were captured and remain held, despite Church ransom offers of $30,000--far above the slave prices on the ISIS-published list. One was three-year-old Christina, whom, her mother learned from a cell phone call from another captured Christian woman, was sold at a Mosul slave market. In another case, three months after being kidnapped, a daughter called her mother to say that she had been "converted" to Islam and "married" to a Muslim man. A Christian mother who managed to escape told of horrific abuse at a sex-slave detention center, under the direction of a sheikh who performed "marriages," in accordance with ISIS's strict rules. She told Minority Rights Group International Author Mindy Belz interviewed several Nineveh Christians escapees. She relates: "One father described being tortured while his wife and two children were threatened after the family refused to deny their faith." ISIS militants raped the mother and 12-year-old daughter of another family, causing the father, who was forced to watch, to commit suicide. Father Bazi says that many Christian women and girls were raped but are too shamed to reveal it. Forced conversion to Islam was so prevalent that special ministries were established in Kurdistan to counsel escapees burdened by the guilt. In September 2014, a family of 12 Assyrian Christians who spent a month under ISIS in Bartella reported being robbed, forcibly converted before a sharia court, and put under house arrest for 17 days without food. They told of seeing a badly beaten Assyrian man who refused to convert being bound and driven off in a truck--to be killed, they assumed. In another report , 14 men in a group of 48 Christians who had been held hostage for two weeks converted to Islam after ISIS militants tried to rape the girls, including a 9 year old. By August 2014, Patriarch Younan had begun pronouncing the Christian situation a "genocide." Virtually the entire Christian population, and every trace of its unique 2,000-year-old civilization, has been eradicated from the ISIS-controlled Nineveh Province, the historic homeland of Iraqi Christianity. The vast majority of Nineveh's Christians--like the vast majority of Yazidis--has been completely dispossessed and driven from their homes into Kurdistan or across the borders.aqqa is upheld as the prime example of an ISIS-controlled area implementing a jizya arrangement with Christians, due to a dhimmi contract posted on the Internet in February 2014 that set out the purported jizya terms. But, as evidenced by the blurred-out signatures of some 20 Raqqa Christians at the bottom, only a few dozen Christians had survived the prior seven months of ISIS occupation and al-Nusra's before that. As in Mosul, when ISIS raised the jizya issue, the Christian community was already virtually extinct. Their numbers have dwindled since, and now the dozen or so left are all elderly, held as captives, and used as human shields. The dhimmi document presumed the existence of churches with its detailed list of forbidden things to do involving them: bans against ringing bells, displaying crosses, and making repairs. Yet ISIS had destroyed all the churches and none was open. The last cleric left when ISIS arrived. It is in Raqqa where the Italian Jesuit Reverend Paolo Dall'Oglio was presumably murdered by jihadis the year before. The State Department's former counterterrorism expert Ambassador Alberto Fernandez describes the Raqqa jizya document as essentially a pathetic "Salafi Caliphate publicity stunt":Reports in spring 2016 state that the few remaining Christians were under house arrest. Voice of America mentions the dhimmi contract but then states: IS has also confiscated their land and used them as human shields to deter international coalition and Syrian warplanes from hitting its positions in Raqqa and elsewhere. Fernandez explains that ISIS's leader raised the jizya issue in Raqqa to appear more "Caliph-like."The respected outlet "Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered" that monitors ISIS in its "capital" also repeats the jizya terms but makes clear that these payments did not spare the city's Christian minority from ISIS's brutal bigotry. "Christians are the most vulnerable group in the country," observes the group's Hussam Issa. John was a college-age Christian whose family agreed to the "jizya" arrangement. He related that he survived for 18 months by carrying an official ISIS protection document obtained by extortion payments, which, using ISIS's terminology, he called "jizya." John described living in "constant fear," forced to conform to ISIS haircut and dress codes and behavior rules. While he was able to meet socially with other Christians, he was unable to go to church or receive the sacraments. He relates how he once watched a street demonstration with crowds shouting "Allahu Akbar": "But when an IS [Islamic State] man saw me being silent, he stopped the car. I had to say 'Allahu Akbar' too." He made his secret escape one night in early 2016--the last young Christian to leave. Raqqa's female Christians faced an even tougher fate. ISIS defectors report that the rape of Christian "infidels" was common and approved by the ISIS sharia court. Some were girls as young as 12 years old. The touted Raqqa "jizya" arrangement proved to be a deception. Last October, ISIS made a similar propaganda show in Qaryatayn. ISIS's publicity campaign surrounding the dhimmi contract signing there was extensive, as detailed by MEMRI. In an ISIS video of the signing, the narrator proclaims:There, too, ISIS claims were false. That fall, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Jean Kawak attested that the Qaryatayn Christians were being "treated like slaves." He said they were held there against their will. The facts revealed in April 2016, after the town's liberation, support those assessments. As reported by Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, the 300 Christians remaining in the city after ISIS captured it were immediately subjected to abuse and violence by the jihadists. He said 21 were killed trying to escape, or refusing to convert to Islam or submit to the "caliphate's" rules. In October 2015, with Muslims' help, Qaryatayn's Christians set up an underground railroad and began escaping in small groups to Homs. They sent out the young girls first after being warned that jihadi leaders desired them as "wives." Their priest Jacques Mourad was imprisoned and tortured and the town's 5-century Mar Elian monastery and churches were demolished. The bishops continue to try to ransom a group of the town's Christians, whom ISIS imprisoned elsewhere last fall.The Commission takes ISIS propaganda at face value and asserts, without evidence, that "Christian communities" are living under ISIS today and paying jizya. It mistakenly credits the terror group with making an exception from its standard ultra-violence for the Christian minority, out of respect for "People of the Book," and seeking to coexist with them through traditional jizya arrangements. It accepts as fact that ISIS does not intend to destroy the Christian community. It offers unfounded reassurances that ISIS attacks against "vulnerable" Christians are not religiously motivated. And its unsupported summary conclusion, laden with such false premises, precludes any finding that ISIS is waging genocide against Middle Eastern Christians. It only refrained from repeating the ISIS video's praise of al Baghdadi's "kindness and generosity." In truth, there is a complete absence of intact Christian communities in ISIS territory, which is prima facie evidence that there was no jizya option for the Christians. Testimony and reports from the Christian survivors and their clergy confirm this. What ISIS refers to as "jizya" is extortion and ransom from a few disabled or elderly individuals, and others who did not escape in time. Those who did not escape have been killed or forced to become jihadi "brides," human shields, slaves, hostages, or Muslims against their will. They are barred from practicing their Christian faith. ISIS not only intends to destroy the Christian communities under its control, it has done so, and should be held accountable for the genocide against the Christians, as well as for that against the Yazidis. The Commission of Inquiry needs to answer why, in its conclusion on the Christians, it obscured the dangerous ideology of the Islamic State and served as an echo chamber for its propaganda.
Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks to reporters in Kuala Lumpur about U.S. lawsuits seeking more than $1 billion in assets taken from state fund 1MDB, July 21, 2016.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday that his administration was serious about good governance, as at least two countries began seizing assets linked to money misappropriated from beleaguered state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib spoke in Kuala Lumpur, a day after the United States Justice Department (DOJ) filed a dozen lawsuits seeking the forfeiture and recovery of over $1 billion in assets allegedly paid for with stolen 1MDB money.

Although the U.S. lawsuits did not name Najib, he has been scrutinized for the past year over alleged corruption associated with the state fund. The prime minister was behind the launch of 1MDB in 2009, an investment vehicle that was established to spur development in Malaysia. He chaired the funds advisory board until its dissolution two months ago.

The U.S. authorities linked Najib indirectly to questionable dealings associated to what they called a global conspiracy to launder money stolen from 1MDB.

A person involved with the U.S. investigation told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday that Najib was in fact Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) who figured prominently in court papers filed by the DOJ.

Nearly $700 million from a bond sale by 1MDB in 2013 (1MDB) was transferred to a bank account held by "Malaysian Official 1," according to court documents.

On Thursday the prime minister urged people not to jump to any conclusions, adding it was important to note that the lawsuits were civil, and no criminal charges had been filed.

Those people involved will have their say through the process in the United States, Najib told reporters. I want to say categorically that we are serious about good governance so anything that is against the law, we want the process to take its course.

Elsewhere, authorities in Singapore announced Thursday that they had seized assets totalling $240 million (U.S. $177 million)  of which $120 million (U.S. $88.5 million) was from a close ally of Najibs, Low Taek Jho and his immediate family.

Appropriate actions will be brought against those who have broken Singapores laws, the Singaporean Attorney Generals Chambers, the Commercial Affairs Department of Singapore police, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said in a joint statement.

In Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice announced that it had some valuable works of art that had been identified in the U.S. lawsuits as being linked to laundered 1MDB money, Reuters reported. The works seized by Swiss authorities included a drawing by Van Gogh valued at $5.4 million, and two paintings by Monet valued at $92.5 million.

Malaysia will always uphold the rule of law

In Kuala Lumpur, a spokesman for Najib said the Malaysian government would cooperate with international investigations into the 1MDB case.

As the prime minister has always maintained, if any wrongdoing is proven, the law will be enforced without exception, Tengku Sariffuddin said in a statement.

Separately, Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali came to Najibs defense.

I wish to clarify that at no point in the civil claim filed by the U.S. Department of Justice is the prime minister named as a defendant or has been alleged to have committed any criminal wrong, he said.

In January, Apandi cleared Najib of any wrongdoing over $681 million that was transferred into the prime ministers personal account in March 2013.

According to a statement issued from Apandis office, he also expressed his strong concerns at the insinuations and allegations that have been made against the prime minister of alleged criminal wrong doing in relation to the U.S. lawsuits, adding that a Malaysian police investigation into alleged mismanagement at 1MDB was ongoing.

As the public prosecutor, the attorney general will not hesitate to initiate proceedings against the perpetrators of criminal acts provided there is sufficient evidence to do so. Any wrongdoing must and will be punished. Malaysia will always uphold the rule of law, the statement from the AGs office said.

Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar, who heads a special-task force investigating 1MDB, declined to comment on the lawsuits but said that police had nearly finished the first phase of their investigation, including taking statements from more than 25 people.

For the second phase, we will send our officers overseas to obtain documents, to record statements from witnesses who are outside of the country and it will take time, Khalid told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

For its part, 1MDB issued a press release saying that U.S. justice officials and investigators from other foreign agencies had not contacted it over their investigations, but that would fully cooperate with those probes subject to international protocols.

Among a web of allegations contained in the U.S. lawsuits, the DOJ said it had traced funds that flowed between an account held by MO1 and Tan Kim Loong, a business associate of Low. Also identified in the lawsuits was Najibs stepson, Riza Aziz, the founder of movie company Red Granite Pictures.

To Red Granites knowledge, none of the funding it received four years ago was in any way illegitimate and there is nothing in todays civil lawsuit claiming that Red Granite knew otherwise, the company said in a statement.

Red Granite continues to cooperate fully with all inquiries and is confident that when the facts come out, it will be clear that Riza Aziz and Red Granite did nothing wrong.

The Swiss government says it has seized this painting by Monet, valued at $57.5 million, and two other major works of art following an announcement that the U.S. government sought to recover assets valued at more than $1 billion, and which was allegedly paid for with money stolen from Malaysias 1MDB. [Courtesy U.S. Department of Justice]

Malaysians react

Malaysian opposition figures Thursday seized on the news of the lawsuits filed by the U.S. government.

Najibs fiercest critic, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, called for a referendum and rally to demand Najibs removal from office because, he said, Malaysias current leader had refused over the past 12 months to give in to such popular calls.

Malaysians are timid. In other countries, millions would take to streets, Mahathir told a news conference. I think we should have a peaceful rally to demand his removal.

Opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail called on the Malaysian cabinet to advise the king to order a royal commission of inquiry into the allegations around 1MDB.

I believe the Malaysian people want Najib to go on leave as prime minister to avoid suspicion of abuse of power to halt or hinder the full investigation on this very serious issue, said Wan Azizah, the president of the Peoples Justice Party (PKR) and wife of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Calls for Najibs ouster have grown since the Wall Street Journal broke a story in July 2015 about $681 million of 1MDB-linked money ending up in Prime Minister Najibs personal bank accounts. Since then, the WSJ and other media have reported on lavish spending linked to the prime minister.

Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Bersih 2.0, a grassroots coalition advocating clean government, urged Najib to resign immediately to allow for independent investigations to be held without executive interference.

Dzulkefly Ahmad, director of strategy for the National Trust Party, urged the supreme council of Najibs party, the United Malays National Organization, to save the UMNO they claim to love and save the nation by sacking the prime minister.

If you disappoint and fail the nation again, rest assured that you will be assigned to the dustbin of history as the traitors of the nation, Dzulkefly told BenarNews. The supreme council is the last bastion to get rid of Najib, the man who single handedly usurped all powers and is responsible for bringing this failing nation into a tail-spin and to the abyss of self-destruction.

Haireez Azeem Azizi contributed to this report.
British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall holds up a photo of himself with his wife, Noppawan Bunluesilp, and child, while staying in a Hong Kong hotel, July 22, 2016.

Thai police Friday questioned the wife of a British journalist over defamatory photos of Thai royalty that her husband had allegedly shared on social media, even though he was not in Thailand and lives abroad.

Noppawan Ploy Bunluesilp, a Thai national married to Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a former correspondent for Reuters who is based in Scotland, was taken in and questioned for four hours at the police Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in Bangkok and then released, her lawyer told BenarNews.

The Kingdom of Thailand has strict laws guarding against royal defamation  known as Lese-Majeste. Cases where people have been arrested or prosecuted for publishing pictures, comments or other content perceived as slights against the royal family have increased sharply since the Thai military seized power two years ago.

First-time offenders can face up to 15 years in prison. Repeat offenders can be sentenced to longer terms.

Police took Noppawan, her father, and 3-year-old son in for questioning after officers raided her fathers home in Bangkok and seized her computer, iPad, passport and other items, said her attorney, Weeranan Huadsri.

They were released and there were no charges pressed. All confiscated items were returned, Weeranan told BenarNews, noting that police denied him access to his clients while they were being questioned.

Noppawan lives in Scotland with her journalist-author husband, who lectures in journalism at Edinburgh Napier University. Marshall, who was visiting Hong Kong on Friday according to reports, issued a statement saying he has been unable to visit Thailand because his writings on the Thai monarchy have been banned under Lese-Majeste.

Invited for questioning

Noppawan and her son Charlie were visiting relatives in Thailand.

The incident with police occurred a day after unflattering pictures appeared on Marshalls Facebook page that showed Thai Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn on the tarmac of Munich Airport. The photos had been published in Bild, a German tabloid, on Wednesday.

Pol. Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nongharnpitak, commander of the polices Central Investigation Bureau, the central investigation police, which oversees the CSD, told reporters that the photos were doctored and deemed as insulting to members of the royal family.

Police learned that Andrew and two Thai companions joined a syndicate to produce fake information to post on social media. So police sought a search warrant from Thonburi court and invited his wife for questioning and chatting, Pol. Lt. Gen. Thitiraj said according to local news reports.

Upon learning of his wifes trouble, Marshall posted a video clip online pleading for the release of Noppawan, their son and his father-in-law.

I am confident [that] when the police look through the computer they confiscated, they will be able to see clearly that Ploy has never been involved in my journalism. The family has never been taken part in my journalism, Marshall said, using his wifes nickname Ploy.

His wife had been a journalist for Reuters and NBC, he said in a separate statement issued to the media.

There is no reason for police to detain her. If Thai police believe that I have broken Thai law they should seek my extradition to Thailand via legitimate international legal channels. It is unacceptable to harass an innocent woman simply because she is married to me, he said.

Marshall is the author of the controversial book, A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailands Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, which was published in January 2014.

The book was banned in Thailand because it touches on uncertainty throughout the kingdom over the question of who will succeed Thailands ailing king, 88-year-old Bhumipol Adulyadej (Rama IX), after he dies.

After police released family, Marshall posted another clip online.

They questioned her to see if she was involved in any illegal activities linked to me. It seemed they decided she was not, which is quite correct and they let her go. So I would [like to] say thank you to the Thai authorities for acting in a professional manner, he said.
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First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

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Sub-Saharan Africa is developing fast, with infrastructure roll-out across the region, unprecedented urbanisation and a fast-growing middle class.These developments set the scene for huge FMCG sector growth in the short to medium term, says Adam Molai, southern African FMCG entrepreneur, who is positioning his business holdings to capitalise on the coming boom.

Image by 123RF

His holdings, which include tobacco and soft drinks concerns, are modernising FMCG manufacturing, distribution, pricing and marketing models to meet the expected boom in demand.

As Molai says: The current buying power for FMCG is strong and there's growing consumerism in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries. This augers well for manufacturers of FMCG products. Given the very youthful market in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, FMCG demand is forecasted to grow rapidly. African city populations will increase by 25 percent by 2025, while by 2050, 60 percent of Africas population will reside in urban areas; and urbanisation is linked to an increased demand for FMCG.

FMCG demand is already on the upswing, but markets in the region remain relatively price sensitive at this stage. This has informed the development of products that offer high quality at a competitive price, while still delivering good margins to retailers, says Molai. He notes that local manufacturers can compete effectively with international monopolies on price and quality  with Savanna Tobaccos phenomenal growth a case in point.

Molai concedes there are challenges in marketing and distribution in the developing economies of the region. However, he prefers to see these challenges as opportunities to innovate and corner the market.

He explains: Retail channels in Zimbabwe were historically very formalised, but the economic decline of the 2002-2009 period resulted in a significant informalisation of the market. This has necessitated building of new channels, and in 2014 saw us licensing over 1,000 vendors to facilitate distribution of our products at the lowest level of the market. So, as the markets in Africa evolve, we redesign our channel strategies to suit market conditions.

Molais businesses, while headquartered in Zimbabwe, extend into South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi and DRC. He predicts rapid growth in intra-regional trade in future, and is positioning his own businesses to step up trade across borders.

Cross border logistics remain a challenge currently, with cyclical pricing based on demand for various products. A case in point would be the increases in logistics costs in transporting Pepsi from Zambia to Zimbabwe given that most transporters were moving grain from Zambia to Zimbabwe on short term contracts at a price that was preferential to the long term contracts for moving drinks. This then creates supply bottlenecks and affects viability, he explains.
A new fleet of mobile clinics will be rolled out to the remotest regions of the Western Cape in the next few months.

The City of Cape Towns Health Directorate has spent R2m to acquire four new IVECO midi-buses in April this year. The refurbishment of the vehicles is set to cost just over R1m and will commence once the tender process has been finalised.

Three of City Healths eight sub-districts use mobile clinics to reach clients in areas not situated close to existing health facilities. These are the northern, eastern and southern sub-districts. The northern district requires two mobile clinics due to the demand in the area.

Our current fleet of mobile clinics is nearly two decades old, so we are very excited about the new vehicles. Im hoping that the refurbishing of the vehicles will be finalised as quickly as possible so that we can hit the road and deliver even better services to our clients, says the citys mayoral committee member for health, Councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli.

The refurbishing of the vehicles will include:

Removing the bulkhead of the vehicle

Levelling the floor

Fitting filing cabinets and a fridge for vaccines

Private changing cubicles for patients

A portable toilet and washing basin with a fitted water reservoir

Examination bed

Lighting, air conditioner and generator

A useful middle road

The mobile clinics will provide traditional primary healthcare services, if the professional nurse deployed with the vehicle is trained in all disciplines. This includes immunisations, family-planning services, HIV and TB testing and treatment, as well as basic antenatal care (BANC).

These mobile clinics are crucial to our efforts to make healthcare accessible to all who need it. City Health is not in a position to build clinics at the rate of the public demand because we are an unfunded mandate. Mobile clinics, therefore, provide a useful middle road. However, these too have been a long time in the making and I am confident that they will be a valuable resource to help us build healthier communities, says Councillor Mamkeli.
Margarine and cooking oil maker Sime Darby Hudson Knight agreed to pay a R35m fine for colluding with Unilever, the Competition Commission said on Thursday.

 Rene van den Berg  123RF.com

After raiding Unilevers offices in Durban and Sime Darbys offices in Boksburg in 2014, the commission said it discovered they had entered into a collusive agreement whereby Sime Darby would focus on large industrial customers, leaving retail customers to Unilever.

The parties agreed Sime Darby would not sell margarine in pack sizes less than 15kg, or edible oils in bottles smaller than 25 litres.

As part of its settlement with the commission, Sime Darby has agreed to invest R135m in packaging and warehousing facilities to enable it to compete with Unilever for retail customers, and to appoint a black economic empowerment (BEE) distributor.

Using a BEE company for some of its distribution requirements would ensure Sime Darbys reliance on its potential competitors for distribution of its products came to an end, the commission said.

"This cartel is more harmful because it denied end consumers choice of edible oils and fats at the retailers shelves and the benefit of lower prices," commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said in the Competition Commissions statement.

"We are happy now that Sime Darby Hudson has owned up and committed to enter the market to supply retailers with edible oils and fats in competition with Unilever."

The commission said its investigation followed complaints it received in 2012 that Sime Darby and Unilever were colluding.

"The commissions investigation uncovered evidence which shows that between 2004 and 2013, Unilever and Sime Darby engaged in the prohibited practice of market division by allocating customers and specific types of edible fats and oils to each other," Thursdays statement said.
As a low CO 2 emitting, affordable carbon fuel source, natural gas features strongly on the government's energy agenda, with the minister announcing plans for a gas-to-power programme recently...

 Ying Feng Johansson 123RF.com

Within the Southern African context, natural gas is used in domestic, commercial, industrial and specialised environments. Established in 2009, the pressure equipment regulations (PER) was introduced in South Africa to the natural gas market with the expectation that this regulation will ensure safety of use and good practise. PER regulates natural gas, amongst other gases and this regulation requires all equipment to be verified by a designated institution before placing in the market.

Safety agencies

There are two institutions that verify natural/methane-rich gas and liquefied petroleum gas equipment - the Southern African Gas Association (SAGA), and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Safety Association of Southern Africa (LPGSASA).

While LPGSASA focuses on lower volumes of use found typically in domestic and commercial installations, SAGAs mandate is to regulate the safety of natural/methane-rich and liquefied petroleum gas in industrial installations with gas volumes above a threshold of 0,5 gigajoules per hour or 10kg per hour in terms of LPG, or 140 kilowatts per hour in terms of heat.

South African regulation role players

In order to enforce the regulation issued through the chief inspector of the Department of Labour (Dol), SAGA has created policies and rules that govern safe gas handling for natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. In an essence its illegal for a company to install, sell or take to market any natural gas/liquefied petroleum gas product, if the equipment is not registered or verified by SAGA.

This regulation scheme is further aided by SAGA on ground level, ensuring that natural gas practitioners, users and providers adhere to the PER.

Operating under regulation for the safety of all.

Supply chains

As South Africa has limited access to its own natural gas reserves, the country becomes reliant on importing. Majority of the natural gas available in South Africa is supplied from a few key import sources. Mozambique, for example, contributes to a significant amount of natural gas via pipeline.

Another example is through the network of South African harbours. Transporting natural gas via shipping is envisaged to explode into a rapidly expanding industry. As the demand increases, a large amount of new importers from Asia and Europe are entering the market. These importers largely participate in good practise of safe handling, but there are suppliers importing equipment that does not comply with the pressure equipment regulations.

In 2009 South Africa consumed 191 Bcf (5,4 Bcm) of natural gas, and this figure has grown substantially over the last seven years. It is up to SAGA to ensure the safe handling of natural/methane-rich gas and liquefied petroleum gas from import to installation. Companies that work with gas should operate under regulation. This is vital as serious harm could be caused by negligent gas practise or handling.
The Seda Nelson Mandela Bay ICT Incubator (SNII) has announced it is ready to team with various stakeholders in finding solutions to reduce cost of telecommunications and internet access for people living in rural areas.

Peter Wollinga via 123RF

Phumza Mfenyana, executive manager of SNII made the announcement during the third Forum for Universal Affordable Access to Communications in South Africa held at SNII in Newton Park earlier this month. The event was hosted by the Right to Know Campaign and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and included discussions on the creation of a coalition to work towards Universal Affordable Access to Communications in South Africa. The event held in Port Elizabeth is the third one after similar meetings which were held in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Strength in collaboration

Carlos Rey-Moreno, from UWC, who chaired the meeting at SNII said the forum was an exploratory exercise to see whether there is a willingness between institutions and businesses in the Eastern Cape to collaborate and engage in such a coalition. For instance there are examples in the province like Zenzeleni Networks Mankosi that is offering lower call rates are charged for people living in its communities. The Zenzeleni Network is a good example to follow where communities can replicate the model to make communication more affordable.

Zenzeleni, or do it for yourselves in isiXhosa, is the result of a partnership between UWC and the Mankosi community in rural Eastern Cape. The community, with help from researchers, created and owns its own telephone and internet company. The business model is designed so that local calls are free and calls to other networks cost half of what they would normally cost to other networks. Data costs have also been reduced and users pay a tenth of the market price.

Mfenyana said SNII provides services to a wide range of companies within the ICT sector. Our strategic direction as an institution is to do things that are relevant to the industry we are working in, which include focusing on township economy supporting industrialisation, women in ICT, and access to information for rural areas. To do this we have to partner with organisations that think alike, so our services are part of a bigger collective. People here (at the meeting) can contribute significantly to the potential work similar to the Mankosi project where jobs are being created and there is access to information, he said.

Masbulele Siya, the local person driving the Zenzeleni Networks Mankosi said there was a lot of potential to grow from this project. There is an urgent need of internet and communication connections for rural communities. This is a project by the community and for the community, Siya said.

Zelalem Shibeshi, a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Fort Hare, added that universities have a major role to play in rolling out the plans of the forum. The University of Fort Hare, together with Rhodes University, runs a large and long-term multidisciplinary project called Siyakhula Living Lab. The project, whose main site is on the Wild Coast, in Transkei, focuses on deploying the internet and computing infrastructure in schools for the benefit of the schools and the communities surrounding them. The main problem addressed is to make the infrastructure financially sustainable. For that reason, a software system, called Teleweaver, is being developed across the two universities.

Fertile ground

South Africa, being among the most unequal countries in the world, is fertile ground for such projects, Rey-Moreno said: This inequality is reflected in almost every aspect of daily life. The fact that most innovations are driven by economic purposes means that intellectual capital is directed to design solutions for those who can afford them. This is particularly evident in the access to electronic communications, where rich people are enjoying state-of-the-art bandwidth rates and services, while others cannot even afford to make a call.

Mfenyana echoed that South Africa strives to be a competitive country in a globally competitive world but this is not possible if there are so many who are deprived from having access to communication and information services living in rural areas and some townships.

We have to stop working in silos. Our education has to be of such a nature that primary schools are communicating and connected to universities to discuss programmes. The involvement of higher education institutions such as UWC, University of Fort Hare and Rhodes University is crucial. Because economic development and global competitiveness has to be underpinned by good research and development which higher education institutions can provide.

It is anticipated that the Eastern Cape Forum for Universal Affordable Access to Communications in South Africa will be held regularly, provided there is funding with a commitment from SNII and Fort Hare to host it before the end of the academic year.
There is a famous saying taught to lawyers: if you have the law, hammer the law. If you have the facts, hammer the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table.

Nowadays it doesnt have to end with just hammering the table for a lawyer.

In the States. there is a product which provides litigation protection insurance, offering lawyers a lifeline if they crash and burn their case. The hope is, it will level the playing field when poor litigants take on large corporates. It's marketed as a solution to the inequities that typically exist in litigation.

David vs Goliath

They provide coverage for litigation disbursement costs that have been incurred, in the event that the case is lost at trial. Very recently we have seen how Nkosana Makate won his Please Call Me case against Vodacom. This was despite mobile company using their considerable financial means to drag the matter out right up to the constitutional court in order to discourage Makate.

Generally speaking, a poor litigants only chance of obtaining justice against a corporate in court, is to find a lawyer who is willing to take their case on a contingency fee basis. This means that the litigant will not pay the lawyer any fee unless the case is won. Lawyers will make a detailed study of the merits of a matter before taking it on contingency.

Covering disbursement

They will look at how complex the issues are and what the value of the payout would be. High-value payouts are more attractive cases as they increase the amount of contingency fee that the lawyer would be entitled to earn. Typically cases involving personal injuries, medical malpractice and sexual harassment lend themselves to contingency fee arrangements. This type of insurance would cover disbursement costs typically incurred in contingency matters like expert fees, deposition transcripts and travel spent directly on the case and excludes the lawyers fees.

Financial risk

There are financial risks which must be taken into account when a case is taken on contingency. This means that only the stronger cases with a higher percentage of a win/ bigger payouts are taken on by lawyers. A similar insurance will change the playing fields once it becomes available in South Africa. Lawyers would be able to take on more contingency matters if the financial risk can be transferred to an insurance provider.

This could increase access to justice for the man in the street in South Africa.
Cash-strapped homeowners with mortgages, who are faced with inexorably rising consumer costs across the board, will be relieved at the Monetary Policy Committee's decision on Thursday, 21 July, to keep the repo rate steady.

Against the backdrop of a sharp spike in global political and economic uncertainty, including fallout from Brexit, comparably, South Africas outlook is encouraging. Just this week Bloomberg reported an inflow of investment of a record R85.7bn in the countrys stocks and government bonds in June  a trend which has continued in July.

Despite economic pressures, South Africas housing market continues to reflect an ongoing demand for homes to buy and rent, with stock shortages still evident in sought after hubs and growth nodes. There is no doubt that an increasing focus on smaller, more affordable and conveniently located residential accommodation will continue to fuel the demand for sectional title living, whether for investment, primary residential use or to rent.

It also appears likely that new homeowners will remain a dominant force in the national housing market in general, and in the lower-price band below R1m in particular, for the foreseeable future.

National sales up

Notably, Pam Golding Properties sales nationally have increased by 14% in June 2016 compared with June last year (2015), while our financial year-to-date sales for the March to June period are 12% up on the previous year.

Globally, there is no sign that the push into property is slowing. While individuals may favour the stability and steady income streams offered by property investments, the worlds largest investment funds are increasing their investments in property in an attempt to improve the performance of their funds.

Here in South Africa we find that not only do investors favour real assets such as property during periods of economic uncertainty, there is also a desire to diversify into international markets. These include Mauritius, which enjoys a vibrant growing economy and low taxation rates, as well as no housing or property tax, no inheritance tax on properties purchased and no capital gains tax.
South African Airways (SAA) has terminated its deal with BnP Capital, a "boutique" financier appointed to help the airline restructure its R15bn debt and to raise funds in return for a R256m success fee.

The airline also said on Thursday that it had appointed Michael Kleyn as acting group treasurer. Cynthia Stimpel has been suspended as treasurer.

SAA said last week it had placed the deal with BnP on hold following legal threats by lobby group, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which also said the Financial Services Board (FSB) had revoked BnP Capital's operating licence shortly before its deal with SAA.

In addition to being appointed transaction adviser, BnP Capital had also been appointed to source funds for the airline to avoid it defaulting on debt. SAA had R7.2bn in loans maturing at the end of June from different lenders.

SAA said on Thursday that BnP Capital was appointed after a potential lender withdrew from the deal before an agreement had been signed following a "procurement process".

"SAA was faced with a predicament and had to consider on an urgent basis other alternatives to mitigate its risks associated with loans that were maturing within a month," the airline said in its statement.

It followed a process allowed for in the supply chain management policy and recognised by National Treasury, which allowed for a deviation from a tender process "and go on a confinement process", it said.

BnP Capital had originally been selected from seven bidders that had responded to SAA's request for proposal for a transaction adviser to help it restructure its debt.

Two companies were disqualified during the process, SAA said, "as they failed to meet the critical criteria, being the existence of a valid and current Financial Services Board issued licence".

Last week Business Day reported that SAA had suspended its Treasurer Cynthia Stimpel, who had objected to the airline's appointment of BnP Capital.

On 20 May, Stimpel sent an e-mail to SAA acting chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi saying the airline would be paying at least three times more than it needed to for BnP Capital's services. She had recommended an open tender process.

However, on Thursday SAA again denied that Stimpel's suspension was related to the deal. The airline said in its statement on Thursday that Stimpel's suspension remained as she had been suspended for "misconduct".

The airline said it had taken the decision to terminate the deal with BnP on Wednesday following submissions from BnP Capital to questions raised over its licence.

The airline said that on 7 July it had received correspondence from law firm Webber Wentzel, representing Outa, stating concern about a "range of issues" pertaining to BnP's appointment.

"The concerns were individually considered fully, including whether or not BnP Capital was in possession of a valid FSB licence as a financial service provider," SAA said.

It also said it had contacted BnP Capital the day after receiving correspondence from Webber Wentzel and "BnP Capital duly responded to SAA enquiries".

"On July 20 2016, after considering all relevant information received from BnP Capital, SAA management took a decision to terminate all BnP services to the airline as a prospective financial service provider in relation to SAA's initiative on debt consolidation. No payments had been made to BnP Capital," said SAA.
South African Airways (SAA) is facing added pressure to fly on the loss-making Durban-Cape Town route after the KwaZulu-Natal government asked the national carrier to increase capacity on the route, using its own aircraft.

Simisa via Wikimedia Commons - Aerial view of Durban

SAA closed the route in 2010 after the airline bled more than R90m in losses. The airline said at the time that the route catered mainly for tourists, making it "price sensitive". It also said that SAA's low-cost subsidiary Mango was better suited for the route. Mango frequencies on the flight route have been increased to meet demand and South African Express began flying the route in 2011.

Bheko Madlala, the spokesman of KwaZulu-Natal MEC for economic development Sihle Zikalala, the ANC chairman in the province, confirmed that the provincial department had "ongoing engagements" with SAA about the airline flying the Durban-Cape Town route, using its own aircraft. "However, until these discussions have yielded results, we are unable to comment further," said Madlala.

SAA chairwoman Dudu Myeni has been particularly aggrieved by the route's closure. In November 2015, Myeni told Business Day in Parliament that the airline's board was challenging "past decisions", such as the closure of the Durban-Cape Town route, which "merely served to downscale the airline and inhibit its return to profitability".

Market size on route increased

SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said that the national airline was not aware of the KwaZulu-Natal government's request for the carrier to fly the route. Tlali did say, however, that the market size on the route had increased 13% and serviced 900,000 passengers annually. SAA used a "standard route matrix" to decide which routes to fly. This included market demand and supply, yield potential and profitability forecasting, he said.

"We do not operate on the route. However, should we reinstate the service we will deploy aircraft that will match the demand," Tlali said. "SAA has options on aircraft choice with requisite capacity to service the route. A narrow body aircraft could be used. Capacity changes are always made based on demand," he said.

Reinstating the route would require approval from SAA's executive committee and board.

Technically insolvent

The airline is unable to table its 2014-15 results because it is technically insolvent and needs a R5bn government guarantee to retain its status as a going concern. An internal document showed that the airline's auditors found that it had made a R648m loss in the first six months of the 2015-16 financial year.

In July, it emerged that SAA had appointed unknown "boutique financier" BnP Capital to advise it on restructuring its R15bn debt and to raise the funding, in return for a R256m success fee.

The carrier said last week it had put the deal on hold after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said that BnP Capital's licence had been suspended by the Financial Services Board. Outa has warned the national airline that it not "simply put the deal on ice", as BnP Capital had been appointed unlawfully. Outa has asked SAA to cancel the deal or the organisation would lodge an urgent application to interdict the deal.

Tlali said SAA was seeking clarity from BnP Capital and expected a response from the company this week.

Source: Business Day
SYDNEY - The break-up of Australian logistics giant Asciano between local and international suitors cleared a key hurdle on Thursday after the nation's corporate regulator approved their Aus$9.05bn (US$6.78bn) bid.

AFP/File | The takeover announced in March will see Asciano's assets split between Canada's Brookfield Infrastructure Group, Australia's Qube and other consortium members.

The takeover announced in March will see the rail, freight and ports operator's assets split between Canada's Brookfield Infrastructure Group, Australia's Qube and other consortium members, including a Chinese sovereign wealth fund.

The consortiums now need a sign-off from Australia's foreign investment advisory body after the decision by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

"After careful consideration, the ACCC has concluded there is not likely to be a substantial lessening of competition in any market," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

The bidders restructured their proposal after the regulator in May raised concerns about reduced competitions at ports.

Qube's managing director Maurice James welcomed the decision as a "major milestone" and said he expected the acquisition to be completed in mid-August.

Shares in Asciano rose 0.88% to Aus$9.12 in afternoon trade in Sydney. Qube stocks lifted by 3.39% to Aus$2.44.

The announcement came more than a year after Brookfield made a Aus$8.8bn offer for Asciano. Qube led a consortium in October to challenge the bid, before the two parties submitted a joint application in March.

Asciano specialises in bulk and container shipping and transportation, with port and train operations across Australia. It handles nearly half of all container traffic entering or leaving the country.

Brookfield's initial bid came during a flurry of acquisitions in Australia's transport sector, including Japan Post Holdings' purchase of Toll Holdings, amid a softening local currency and Canberra's push for infrastructure spending.
Authorities in South Sudan should immediately and unconditionally release South Sudanese journalist Alfred Taban, the Committee to Protect Journalists said this week. Taban, editor-in-chief of the independent English-language daily Juba Monitor, has been held without charge since July 16, according to colleagues and media reports.

The day before his arrest, Taban published a column calling on President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar to step down from power.

Anna Nimiriano, the paper's editorial director, who was summoned to security headquarters on July 16 alongside Taban, told reporters that members of the National Security Service said that a column Taban published was incitement. Taban has not been charged, Nimiriano told reporters.

"We urge South Sudanese authorities to release Alfred Taban immediately and allow the Juba Monitor to publish freely," said CPJ Africa program coordinator Angela Quintal. "It is unacceptable that Taban is in jail for publishing his view of current events, which is the media's role."

Nimiriano said that officials from the National Security Service called her early on July 16 to say they were looking for both her and Taban. When the two editors arrived at the security service headquarters in Juba, Taban was immediately detained, Nimiriano told the Sudan Tribune. Nimiriano said she was neither questioned nor held, but was asked to leave without her colleague, Radio Tamazuj reported.

Authorities also ordered editors at the paper to stop publishing, according to media reports. CPJ was unable to determine the details of the order forcing Juba Monitor to cease publishing. The newspaper announced on its website that it would resume publication tomorrow, but provided no further details.

The day before his arrest, Taban published a column calling on President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar to step down from power for failing to improve the security situation in the capital Juba, reports said. The column came in the wake of unrest. Dozens of people were killed and thousands have been uprooted from their homes in a renewed round of fighting between supporters of Kiir and Machar on July 11.

The power struggle between the president and vice-president set off a civil war in 2013. After a peace deal was signed in December 2015, Machar recently returned to his role.

CPJ has reported on efforts by the government in South Sudan to muzzle the press this year, including the beating and arrest of journalists and the closure of several newspapers.

CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organisation that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.
Burson-Marsteller has been selected as the PR communications agency for AfricaCom, taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 14-18 November 2016. The relationship will be managed by its Johannesburg office, with support from its Cape Town team and its extensive African affiliate network covering 52 of the 55 African countries. Burson-Marsteller will work with KNect 365 TMT to extend the reach of its messaging throughout Africa.

AfricaCom, a B2B tech event in Africa, previously attracted over 10,000 people annually from the entire digital ecosystem spanning the telecoms, media and ICT industries. For more information, click here.
Earlier this month, research from The Rubicon Project found that mobile is set to play a significant role in back to school shopping this year. They found that this was particularly true among parents of freshman students.

According to Dallas Lawrence, chief communications officer at Rubicon Project, what is really exciting is that we are seeing 60% of parents turning to their mobile devices for at least some back-to-school shopping, with 30% of parents planning to do at least a quarter of their total shopping on mobile. And this is especially true for parents of college freshmen who are significantly outpacing K-12 parents in using mobile devices for some of their back-to-school shopping.

New research, this time from Retale, a location-based mobile ad platform, looked at the back to school purchasing behavior of parents with school-aged children grades K-12. They, too, found that mobile would be used to help shop during the back to school season. Just 15% said they would not be using a smartphone to aid in this shopping event.

Among the 85% who said they would be using mobile to shop for back to school items, the most common activity was comparing prices (65%). Meanwhile, 62% would use mobile for searching out coupons and deals, 53% to create shopping lists, 52% to check out store opening hours, 49% researching products, 48% searching out nearby store locations and 43% to check out product reviews.

Four in 10 said they would be using their mobile device to make purchases, up five percentage points from last year, and the biggest rise among mobile activities. However, physical stores remain the go-to place for back to school shopping. Eighty percent of the parents surveyed said they plan to make 70% of their purchases in-store, down two percentage points on last year. Just 5% said they plan to make less than 50% of their purchases in-store.

Smartphones are the go-to shopping tool for parents to research, plan and organize their back-to-school purchases, said Pat Dermody, President of Retale. Retailers need to keep up with mobiles rise in consumer shopping behavior, incorporating relevant and engaging mobile content to drive visits and purchases. If they dont, parents will simply shop elsewhere.
Mobile is pushing into the back to school shopping season. Thats the takeaway from new Retale data which shows that most (85%) of back to school shoppers are using smartphones to help them find items on their lists. Those using smartphones are comparing prices (65%) and looking for deals (62%) but are also creating shopping lists (52%). Shoppers are also using mobiles to research, access coupons and product reviews before buying.

Most (89%) also say they are picking which stores they frequent based on deals/coupons that are available.

The use of mobile to help with back-to-school shopping has risen nearly 10 percentage points year-over-year, according to our data, said Pat Dermody, President of Retale. Its clear that the omnichannel customer journey continues to define the way most people approach their purchases, and people continue to discover the advantages of leveraging mobile in their shopping.

Meanwhile, Offers.com is reporting that the overall back to school spend will likely be up this year, and many will be use coupons to help their dollars go farther.

Our survey revealed that families are looking for ways to save money on school supplies this year, with 64% responding that they will use a coupon or look for deals, said Offers.com Savings expert Howard Schaffer.

The Offers.com data suggests the average shopper will spend $350 on back to school items.
The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels.



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The use of Spanish throughout the day is encouraged with many creative activities like games, songs, arts and crafts, photography, video editing, theater, dance and more.

!Aventuras descubriendo el Mundo Hispano! is a Spanish Immersion Summer Camp for kids from 6 - 11 years old. Our Camp starts on July 11th through the 29th (3 weeks). Schedule: Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Cost: Sliding Scale, you decide how much you can pay between $349-$749. Spots available. Call 505-724-4777 or e-mail us adxabq@cervantes.es Visit our website: http://albuquerque.cervantes.es

The use of Spanish throughout the day will be encouraged with many creative activities. Our Spanish Summer camp has a total of 45 spots available for children aged 6 to 11. Children are divided into 3 groups with one teacher and one assistant per 15 children. Six to eight year old children are generally grouped in the same class.

From 9am to 3pm, children will be involved in a variety of classroom and outdoor activities including games, songs, arts, crafts, photography, video editing, theatre, dance and much more! Lunch is taken from 11:30am to 12:30pm and also includes a fun activity. In the first week of camp, each class will take one of the major activities listed below and then will alternate weekly.

Story building through video animationArt and designMusic and movement

In the story building group, our Spanish teacher will work with students to create short animated scenes in Spanish, with narration as well as using theatre based games and activities. Our teacher has a background in dance, performance and art and has been teaching with the Instituto Cervantes for 5 years.

The art and design class will focus on building basic design skills, drawing, building props and integrating them with our story building activities. Our art teacher is an architect with several years of experience teaching Spanish and art classes to children and adults alike.

Our music and movement class will focus on developing rhythm with hands, feet, and voice. The class will be taught by professional dancers at Casa Flamenca. This class proved popular in 2014, providing both exercise and coordination of both upper and lower body in an environment facilitating the acquisition of Spanish.


The surface-launched LRASM test in 2013. A Lockheed photo

ORLANDO (BNS): Lockheed Martin has recently conducted a successful controlled flight test of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) surface-launch variant from a US Navy ship at Pt. Mugu Sea Range, California.



The latest test is the third successful surface-launched LRASM test. The previous two tests have been conducted in 2013 and 2014.



The latest test has proved the missile's ability to load mission data using the modified Tactical Tomahawk Weapon Control System (TTWCS+), align mission data with a moving ship and launch from the MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) of the ship, Lockheed said on July 21.



The company had invested internal funds to provide an operational LRASM and to refurbish the test ship's MK 41 vertical launcher.



"This demonstration from a moving ship in a dynamic at-sea environment was a critical step in proving the maturity of the surface-launch variant of the weapon. LRASM was also tested successfully from a ground-based MK 41 VLS "Desert Ship" in 2013 and 2014," the company said.



Integrating LRASM with the VLS will provide every Aegis destroyer and cruiser with a long-range, survivable anti-surface warfare distributed lethality capability, it added.



The LRASM is a precision-guided anti-ship missile leveraging on the successful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of US Navy and Air Force warfighters in a robust anti-access/area-denial threat environment.



The surface-launch LRASM variant was built on the same production line as JASSM, JASSM-ER and LRASM air-launch weapons, and delivers the same long-range, precision capability.




A file photo.

BEIJING (PTI): Keeping a close watch on reported deployment of battle tanks in Ladakh by the Indian Army, China on Thursday said the two countries should abide by pacts to maintain peace in border areas even as its media warned that the move may affect flow of Chinese investments into India.



"There have been a series of significant agreements and consensus reached between China and India on upholding stability of the border area," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said here, reacting to reports of deployment of T-72 tanks in the Ladakh sector.



"The two countries should abide by relevant agreements and consensus, work in concert to maintain peace and tranquillity of the border area and create a favourable environment for improving bilateral mutual trust and bolstering the proper settlement of the boundary question," he told PTI in a written response to a question on the reported deployment.



"The China-India border area has long been peaceful and stable. The two countries are committed to resolving territorial disputes peacefully through negotiation, and agree to jointly manage disputes and maintain peace and tranquillity of the border area pending the final settlement of the boundary question," he said.



However, an article in the state-run Global Times said the tank deployment may upset flow of Chinese investments into India and called for joint efforts to clear misunderstandings.



"A media report stating that nearly 100 Indian tanks have been positioned near the Indo-China border to counter any possible threat grabbed people's attention as more Chinese firms are looking to increase their investment in India," the article said.



"However, it is puzzling that while deploying tanks near China's border, India still strives to woo Chinese investment," it said.



"The deploying of tanks near the Indo-China border may hit a nerve within the Chinese business community, causing investors to weigh the threat of political instability when they make investment decisions," the article said.



The article refers to reports of Indian army deployment of tanks in the Ladakh border to catch up with China's aggressive military and infrastructure build-up across the border.



China too reportedly has major mechanised units on its side of the border and tank deployment was aimed at ensuring parity, the reports said.



The article said, "China and India share a large potential for economic and trade cooperation, and while this may make Chinese enterprises enthusiastic about investment opportunities in the Indian market, those firms should remain calm in the face of investing risks".


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/07/2016 (2289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Come see what our reserve is all about, what us Dakota people do, invited Jamie Hall, a member of the Dakota Hotain drum group.

He and his family are one of two host drums at this years Dakota Oyate Wacipi, Sioux Valley Dakota Nations annual powwow.

The three-day event starts Friday at 7 p.m. with the grand entry at the Sioux Valley powwow grounds and will feature a second host drum, Riverside Dakota, and Mato Pezuta, a drum group from the Santee Nation in Nebraska.

The days will feature dancing of the traditional, fancy shawl, jingle, and grass styles, and are an opportunity to see the reserves white buffalo. Powwow grand entries will take place at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Its a big celebration, Hall said.

Come take a peek at what our reserve has to offer.

Sioux Valley Chief Vince Tacan said the reserve will host approximately 5,000 people this weekend, and hes happy to see the number of non-aboriginal guests grow each year.

Its not just for our community, its for everyone. You know, we welcome all our neighbours to come in and check it out, the chief said.

Sioux Valley also organized a youth conference in advance of the powwow. A move towards working with (their) young people in Tacans eyes, the conference will see about 200 minors from Birdtail Sioux, Waywayseecappo and Pipestone participate in its workshops.

Mental health, language, sexual education and holistic healing are only some of the workshops included in the event, which started Wednesday and will run until Friday.

Then, the celebration starts.

(The powwow) is showcasing the culture and primarily the dance and songs that we have, so it should be a good weekend, Tacan said.

 aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @AAntoneshyn
There has been a surge in students applying for courses in construction, according to this year's CAO figures.

That means third level points are due to go up next month in higher degree studies linked to the built environment.
Sometime you need to see things through someone else's eyes to really appreciate them.

Photographer Karol Kachmarsky, who specialises in landscape and time-lapse photography, has put together this video that truly captures the atmosphere of Cork city and the surrounding areas.
Have you always wanted to get a tattoo but arent sure if you're ready? This video might help you decide.

It's a fascinating look at the Cork tattoo scene, the people who create them and those who get them done.

Trish, a tattoo artist at Lose This Skin started tattooing 23 years ago and says the most important change has been the advancement in tools and equipment, which has improved the quality of tattoos.

She also notes how the industry in Cork has changed over the years with more tattooists now coming from an art background.

Video by Steven Power

And there's some useful advice for anyone considering going under the needle - for Dairin Barrett, it's important that it means something.

"I think once they have a meaning you're less likely to get sick of them.

"Someone gave me a piece of advice - carry the picture of the tattoo around with you for a couple of months before you get it and look at it as often as you can. And if you're still not sick at the end of that, then it's probably a good idea."
Animal rights activists are in a flap after confirmation that a trapped pigeon was shot where Corks legal eagles dare, writes Eoin English.

The Irish Courts Service confirmed an animal control expert had to use an air pellet gun to shoot the bird when it became distressed, after spending several hours trapped in the dome area inside the citys main courthouse building on Washington St.

John Carmody, of the Animal Rights Action Network, described it as a very sad situation which could have been prevented.

I think it was a lazy, cruel thing to do, to shoot this animal down, he told The Opinion Line on Corks 96FM.

There are always other options. There was no way that poor bird had to be blasted out of it. Pigeons are clean, highly sociable animals, they are complex and intelligent animals.

Its understood the bird became trapped in the building late one evening last week, and was discovered by courts staff the following morning.

A spokesman for the courts service said the pigeon positioned itself around the dome of the building, over the courts main public area, for the entire day.

The pigeon was suffering from being trapped indoors, and was not responding to any attempt to lure it down and out of the building, he said.

As the courthouse dome is approximately 60ft from the ground floor, it was impossible to catch the bird.

The bird became distressed and an animal control specialist team were sent for. They had no option but to humanely use an air pellet to put the bird out of its misery.

A spokesman for the CSPCA said: We dont endorse the shooting of any animal but in the case, shooting the bird was probably their last resort.

It would have been quick and relatively painless.

This article first appeared in the Read More: Irish Examiner.
The Taoiseach Enda Kenny will attend an extraordinary meeting of the British Irish Council in Wales today, where he will meet the First Minister for Wales, Carwyn Jones.

The implications of Britain leaving the European Union will top the agenda.

Political leaders from Ireland and Britain will convene in Cardiff today for the key talks.

The British-Irish Council (BIC) summit was called for by Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones and will see officials discuss the implications of Brexit.

The meeting will be attended by leaders and ministers from the eight BIC member administrations: the Irish and UK governments, the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Speaking ahead of the event, Mr Jones said: "I called for and convened this summit so leaders and ministers from across Britain and Ireland have the opportunity to discuss the fundamental changes that will be brought about by the result of the EU referendum.

"The council plays a unique and important role in developing positive relationships between its members.

"During this tumultuous time, it is more important than ever to maintain the strength of this relationship and work together to map out a successful way forward."

The BIC was established under the Belfast Agreement of 1998, which set out the basis for the Northern Ireland peace process.

The council develops links between the member administrations and provides a forum to exchange information and foster collaboration across the islands.

Among those at the meeting today will be Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire.
Update - July 23, 2016: Aaron Lysaght has been found safe and well.

Earlier: Gardai are asking for the publics help in finding two missing men tonight.

Aaron Lysaght, 21, is missing from Prospect, Coolcullen, Co. Kilkenny

Aaron, who was reported missing yesterday, is described as being 6ft, thin build and with short fair hair.

Anyone who has seen Aaron or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Castlecomer Garda Station on 0564440650, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.

Separately, gardai are also looking for 36-year-old Michael Sheridan, who is missing from the Longford area.

Michael had been working in England and had just returned to Ireland on the day he was last seen.

Michael was last seen yesterday in the Ferefad area of Longford.

He is described as being 510 to 511, average build and with short greying hair. When last seen he was wearing grey/green jeans, navy/blue top and Adidas runners.

Anyone who has seen Michael or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Longford Garda Station on 0433350570, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
A post-Brexit "hard" border between the Northern and the Republic of Ireland must not be allowed to happen, political leaders from both countries have warned.

People and goods going between the two nations have been able to move freely thanks to the Common Travel Area (CTA).

The open borders agreement, set up in the 1920s, has been strengthened by both Britain and Ireland's European membership.

However, questions and concerns have been raised about what this means for the CTA and for both economies in the wake of the UK's Leave referendum result.

The issue was one of the hot topics discussed at an emergency meeting of the British Irish Council in Cardiff - which was called by Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones.

Among heads of government attending the talks were Ireland's Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as well as Northern Ireland political heavyweights Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness.

Mr Kenny said it was vital there would not be a return to the days of "checkpoints, towers and customs".

He said: "There are modern ways of not having hard borders.

"I can tell you that hard borders would not be accepted in the south or the north.

"The best possible outcome for everyone is a UK that's prosperous and has the closest possible links with the European Union.

"For us in Ireland, that means access to the single market.

"And it's been made perfectly clear by the EU Council that if that is to happen, then the respect has to be there for the freedom of (movement of) people.

"We have difficulties but I expect us to retain the Common Travel Area.

"It's a fundamental part of who we are."

Leaders and ministers from eight BIC members - the UK and Irish Governments, devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man - met in the Welsh Government's Cathays Park headquarters on Friday.

Welsh Labour leader Mr Jones said he called an extraordinary meeting of the council at short notice because of the "tumultuous" political landscape after the EU referendum.

He said: "The council plays a unique and important role in developing positive relationships between its members.

"It is more important than ever to maintain the strength of this relationship and work together to map out a successful way forward."

Also heralding the talks as the council's most vital to date was Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister and Sinn Fein MLA Mr McGuinness.

The 66-year-old said he had "no faith" in a Conservative Government in Westminster to replace any money lost by being out of the European Union.

He also said he remained concerned by Theresa May's comments last month about the possibility of a new border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

In June, during a Remain vote campaign, the then home secretary said it would be "inconceivable" for there not to be border controls when going between the two countries.

Mr McGuiness added: "I have since spoken to (Northern Ireland Secretary) James Brokenshire, who appears to have a different position. But it will be important to find out the British Prime Minister's view, because if her position is still the same it represents a very serious issue."

Northern Ireland First Minister Mrs Foster argued that the establishment of checkpoints in the 1970s had been due to terrorist threats - but said she believed a Common Travel Area would still be possible even with the UK out of the EU.

She said: "It's not only vital to Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, but also (other home nations such as) Wales too." this email

The council's debate over the Common Travel Area come after Francois Hollande's said on Thursday that he was prepared to recognise Ireland's "special" circumstances.

The French president had also urged Britain not to delay the process of negotiations to pull the country out of the bloc - a sentiment echoed by Taoiseach Mr Kenny.

Wales' First Minister Mr Jones said Article 50 must be triggered before next summer - or there would be a real a risk Leave voters would think the referendum result was being ignored.

However, the former barrister said there were still a lot of issues to resolve first.

He added: "There are some issues - like farming or fisheries - where in policy terms there is no UK. It's all entirely devolved.

"So any devolution in those fields, the UK Government can't negotiate or agree on behalf of the devolved governments.

"Yes, people did vote to Leave in Wales, and that's not going to change. But the reality is we still have issues we need to resolve.

"We are going to lose 600 million a year of European funding. A promise was made by some in the Leave campaign that that would be made up. Well, we've not got that money yet nor the promise of it.

"I want to make sure we continue talking to the European Commission and try to get the best deal for Wales, bearing in mind that the people of Wales voted to Leave.

"People voted to Leave. They didn't vote to be done over financially."

Ms Sturgeon described the talks as very "frank and very robust" and said she would ensure Scotland played a full part in the Brexit discussions.

She added: "We are in unprecedented times. And I think that we have to be prepared to think about unprecedented solutions to the circumstances we found ourselves in.

"If there's not a way of doing that within the UK, then it sends the message to people in Scotland that our voice doesn't matter and can be ignored.

"The UK is a multinational state and if it's not able to demonstrate that the voices of the different nations can be heard and listened to, then certain conclusions will be drawn from that.

"There's an onus (on the UK government) to demonstrate to the rest of the United Kingdom that solutions can be found.

"If that doesn't happen, then for Scotland other options will have to be considered."
Easyjet has been named the airline with the most delays and cancellations so far this year, followed closely by Ryanair.

Ryanair dismissed the figures as "bogus".

Adeline Noorderhaven from compensation company EUclaim helped compile the figures, and said passengers were being left frustrated.

"They're not being provided with information, nor with re-routing at the earliest opportunity, and that's causing frustration and the large amount of complaints we're getting." she said.

Ryanair has rounded on the company, calling them "ambulance chasers" whose data doesnt stand up.

In a statement, the airline said: "We do not believe any statements made by ambulance chasers like EUclaim, who charge excessive fees for the non-existent service they claim to provide, and whose "internal data" is totally unsubstantiated.

"Given that Ryanair carried over 55m customers in the first half of 2016 even these bogus figures (Ryanair received just over 500 claims from this company which is an average of 1 for every 110,000 passengers carried) show just how satisfied Ryanair's customers have been."
Scientists have discovered a genetic switch which could pave the way for preventing asthma at the origin of the disease.

The research carried out at the University of Southampton, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) Insight, analysed the impact of the gene ADAM33, which is associated with the development of asthma.

ADAM33 makes an enzyme, which is attached to cells in the airway muscles.

When the enzyme loses its anchor to the cell surface, it is prone to going rogue around the lung causing poorer lung function in people who have asthma.

The studies in human tissue samples and mice, led by Hans Michel Haitchi, associate professor in respiratory medicine, suggests that if you switch off ADAM33 or prevent it from going rogue, the features of asthma - airway remodelling (more muscle and blood vessels around the airways), twitchiness and inflammation - will be reduced.

Prof Haitchi said: "This finding radically alters our understanding of the field, to say the least. For years we have thought that airway remodelling is the result of the inflammation caused by an allergic reaction, but our research tells us otherwise."

The first study showed that rogue human ADAM33 causes airway remodelling resulting in more muscle and blood vessels around the airways of developing lungs, but it did not cause inflammation.

When a house dust mite allergen was introduced, which is a common human allergen, both airway remodelling and allergic airway inflammation were more significantly enhanced.

In another study, remodelling of the airway was shown in mice that had ADAM33 switched on in utero.

The gene was then switched off and the airway remodelling was completely reversed.

They also studied the impact of house the dust mite allergen on asthma features in mice which had the ADAM33 gene removed.

Airway remodelling and twitchiness as well as airway inflammation rates were significantly reduced by 50% and respectively 35% in mice which did not have the rogue gene.

Prof Haitchi, whose research was primarily funded by a Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship, said: "Our studies have challenged the common paradigm that airway remodelling in asthma is a consequence of inflammation.

"Instead, we have shown that rogue human ADAM33 initiates airway remodelling that promotes allergic inflammation and twitchiness of the airways in the presence of allergen.

"More importantly, we believe that if you block ADAM33 from going rogue or you stop its activity if it does go rogue, asthma could be prevented.

"ADAM33 initiated airway remodelling reduces the ability of the lungs to function normally, which is not prevented by current anti-inflammatory steroid therapy.

"Therefore, stopping this ADAM33-induced process would prevent a harmful effect that promotes the development of allergic asthma for many of the 5.4 million people in the UK with the condition."

Dr Samantha Walker, Asthma UK's director of research and policy, said: "This is a really promising avenue of research that we have already agreed to help fund to its next stage, which is to understand exactly how this gene causes the changes seen in the lungs that lead to asthma.

"This will hopefully bring us even closer to stopping asthma attacks and finding a cure for the one in 11 people with asthma in the UK.

"Each day three people die of asthma attacks. Research like this is a step in the right direction although much more investment is needed.

"There are hundreds of thousands of people in the UK for whom current treatments don't work and they struggle to breathe every day.

"Research like this will give us better avenues to explore why this is the case and to develop treatments that work."
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial in France over a 2008 arbitration ruling that handed 400m to a politically connected business magnate, France's top court has ruled.

Ms Lagarde, who was French finance minister at the time of the deal in favour of tycoon Bernard Tapie, is accused of negligence in the case.

She has denied wrongdoing.

A special court ruled in December that Ms Lagarde should stand trial, but she appealed. France's Court of Cassation has rejected the appeal.

Ms Lagarde's lawyers did not immediately respond to the decision.

Ms Lagarde, who was in China on Friday at a G20 summit, has said she had acted "in the best interest of the French state and in full compliance with the law".

The unusually generous 2008 arbitration deal, paid from public funds, prompted years of legal disputes that remain unresolved.

The investigation began in 2011, soon before Ms Lagarde was named to head the IMF in the wake of sexual assault allegations against her predecessor, French economist Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The executive board of the IMF has expressed confidence in Ms Lagarde despite the investigation.

The decision last year to send her to trial came as a surprise because a prosecutor had earlier argued that the case against her should be dropped.

Negligence by a person invested with public authority carries a risk of up to a year in prison and a 15,000.

She will be tried at the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special body that tries government ministers for alleged wrongdoing while in office. A date has not been set for the trial.

The case is part of a larger legal saga centering on Mr Tapie, a flamboyant magnate and TV star who had sued French bank Credit Lyonnais for its handling of the sale of his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas in the mid-1990s.

With Ms Lagarde's approval, a private arbitration panel ruled that he should get 400m in compensation, including interest.

The deal was seen by critics as a sign of a too-close relationship between magnates and the French political elite.

Mr Tapie was close to then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, Ms Lagarde's superior.
Multiple deaths are reported in a shooting at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany.

Update 1.26am: An 18-year-old Iranian from Munich is thought to have been the gunman who shot nine dead and injured 10 others before killing himself, police in the city said.

Update 12.50pm: Police in Munich have given a "cautious" all-clear after identifying a dead suspect believed to be the gunman who killed nine people and injured at least 10 others.

The attacker is believed to have acted alone when he opened fire near in a shopping centre near to the city's Olympic Stadium on Friday night, sending crowds running for their lives.

Multiple shots were fired on Hanauer Street before the attacker moved to the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre in the south German city at about 6pm.

We found a man, who killed him himself.

We assume, that he was the only shooter. #gunfire #munich  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

It was earlier feared that there were up to three gunmen at large as the situation unfolded, sending the city into lockdown.

People were urged to find refuge and there were reports of people near the scene locking themselves in shops.

Munich police gave a "cautious" all-clear at around 1.30am local time.

The police said in a tweet: "We found a man, who killed him himself. We assume, that he was the only shooter."

Footage of the attack appeared to show a man opening fire on shoppers near a McDonald's restaurant, sending bystanders running for their lives.

In another video posted on social media people were seen fleeing from the shopping centre close to the Olympic Stadium as shots rang out.

Munich police spokesman Peter Beck said 10 people died, including the likely attacker, in the shooting in the Bavarian capital.

Images posted online appeared to show dead victims lying where they fell, prompting condemnation from Munich police who appealed the photos are not shared or reproduced.

They tweeted: "To all, who publish pictures of victims: STOP DOING THIS! Please show more respect!"

Update 11.47pm: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to chair a meeting of the government's security council on Saturday.

Update 11.30pm: Munich police said at least ten people had been injured, adding: "Police operations are still running. The situation is still not clear."

Update 10pm: A ninth person was confirmed dead by Munich Police, who said they are checking whether the person was one of the attackers.

Update 9.34pm: The number of dead following the shooting attack in Munich has risen to eight, a police spokesman said.

Update 8.37pm: Six people were killed and an unknown number were injured in the gun attacks in Munich, the city's police force tweeted.

[1/1] Unknown number of injured victims - sadly there are six fatal casualties #gunfire #munich  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Update 8.20pm: US president Barack Obama said: "Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. It's still an active situation and Germany is one of our closest allies so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances."

He said it was a "good reminder" that people's "way of life, our freedoms, our ability to go about our business every day" was dependent on law enforcement.

JUST IN: Obama comments on Munich shooting; says hearts go out to people, don't know exactly what is happening pic.twitter.com/9kBVo6mQkp  CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) July 22, 2016

Update 8.07pm: If you have concerns about an Irish citizen in Munich contact the Deptartment of Foreign Affairs on 01 408 2000.

Nightclubs in Munich will be closed on Friday night, a local television network reported.

This is what we know so far about the #Munich shooting at the #OEZ shopping centre https://t.co/Djhv5jqnss https://t.co/hsDBKZ5AYP  Sky News (@SkyNews) July 22, 2016

Drivers have been urged to clear the motorways surrounding Munich, the newspaper Abendzeitung said.

Update 7.58pm: Munich Police said they are treating the gun attack at a shopping centre as "suspected terrorism".

Update 7.45pm: Munich's main railway station has been evacuated and rail travel and local public transport in the area has been stopped, according to Bavarian radio station Antenne Bayern.

Update 7.30pm: Six people were killed during the shopping centre shooting in Munich, German public broadcaster BR reported.

.@SkySWashington in #Munich: "in all my years of coming here, this is not something people have been expecting" https://t.co/PsJN0zuqPi  Sky News (@SkyNews) July 22, 2016

Update 7.27pm: There are unconfirmed reports of shootings in other parts of the city, Munich Police said.

It tweeted: "Unconfirmed reports of more violence and possible #gunfire in the City Center. Situation is unclear. Please avoid public Areas."

Munich Police said in a statement: "At around ten to six today there were witnesses who called the police and said there was a shooting at the Hanauer Street.

"The shooting moved from that street to the shopping centre. The witnesses said there were three different people with weapons."

The police said that they did not have any details about the number of victims or injuries and that no arrests had been made.

They said that the Metro system is not working at the moment and urged people to stay at home or inside nearby buildings to seek shelter.

Update 7.20pm: Munich Police tweeted: "The suspects are still on the run. Please avoid public places."

The force added: "Please don't take photos or video of Police Action in order to avoid any helpful Information for the suspects."

In unverified footage, a man with dark hair, wearing a black t-shirt and denim trousers, appears to take aim at people outside a McDonald's restaurant near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum metro station.

He raises his arms, apparently holding a shotgun, and appears to fire at people outside the restaurant, who can be seen running for cover.

The sound of multiple shots being fired can be heard as shoppers and passers-by run for cover.

People were seen fleeing from the building in another video posted on social media.

In a picture posted online a person can be seen lying on the ground covered in blood.

Police have responded to the attack in large numbers. Dozens of vehicles can be seen lining the street outside the shopping centre, and a number of armed officers and a helicopter are at the scene.

A cordon appears to be in place and the area has been evacuated.

The shopping centre in the northern part of Munich is not far from the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital.

The number of casualties or any fatalities have not yet been confirmed by authorities.

Update 7.00pm: There are "several dead and wounded" following an attack at a shopping centre in Munich and gunmen are on the run, police said.

Multiple shots were fired on Hanauer Street before the attack moved to the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre in the south German city at around 6pm on Friday.

Witnesses told police there were three gunmen, who are now on the run.

Update 6.36pm: A number of people are feared dead after a shooting at a shopping centre in Germany.

Shots were fired at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall in Munich, police said.

Here's what we know so far about the shooting in the #OEZ shopping centre in #Munich: https://t.co/ztmLDZ8JrW pic.twitter.com/yDnLA285mI  Sky News (@SkyNews) July 22, 2016

Munich Police told the dpa news agency in Germany they expected "several dead".

The force tweeted that the situation is "confusing" and warned people to avoid public spaces in the city.

The number of casualties or any fatalities have not yet been confirmed by authorities.

Update - #Munich Police says it believes more than one gunman is involved in the shopping centre shooting and no one has been arrested yet  Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) July 22, 2016

Update 6.05pm: Various reports have put the death toll from the shooting as high as 15, others claim one person has died.

Germany's @Abendzeitung reports up to 15 killed in the Muncich shooting  Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) July 22, 2016

UPDATE: Staff still hiding out in Munich shopping center after shooting - Employee by phone  Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) July 22, 2016

Earlier:

Shots have been fired at a shopping centre in Munich, police said.

The Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre was targeted, but police have not given any confirmed details about casualties.

Police are responding in large numbers.

#BREAKING One dead, 10 injured in shooting at Munich shopping centre: police source  AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 22, 2016

UPDATE: Several dead in shooting at Munich shopping center, according to German media  Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) July 22, 2016

The shooting is the second attack in Germany in less than a week.

On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan wounded four people in an axe and knife attack on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, and another woman outside as he fled.

All survived, although one man from the train remains in life-threatening condition.

The attacker was shot and killed by police.
Authorities in Nice have refused a request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of last week's deadly truck attack, amid growing questions over the scale of the police presence at the time.

The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency saying images of the July 14 attack should be destroyed, an official at Nice City Hall said on Friday.

The city is filing a legal complaint instead, arguing that the images could constitute evidence in the case, said the official.

The letter did not provide a reason for the request, the city official said, but Le Figaro newspaper said national police are concerned that the images would leak out and be used for jihadi propaganda.

The request comes as the government faces growing criticism over security measures the night of the attack, and the cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

Top regional official Christian Estrosi, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, had argued for tougher security for Nice's Bastille Day fireworks celebrations.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged on Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the beachfront promenade in Nice when driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over 84 people. Mr Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched. And President Francois Hollande is holding a special security meeting on Friday.

Five people were charged with terrorism offences late on Thursday night in connection with the attack. The Paris prosecutor says Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of the suspects.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of several nationalities, as were the more than 300 people wounded in the attack.
Refuge is being offered to people stranded near Munich through social media.

Several people are feared dead and many are thought to have been injured in a gun attack near the Olympia shopping centre, prompting the closure of transport links across the city. Munich Police have urged people to avoid public places.

In response, hundreds of people have taken to Twitter using the hashtag #OffeneTur - or #OpenDoor - inviting people to stay if they are unable to get home.

Facebook's Safety Check feature has also been activated so that people can let friends and family know that they are safe.

It was most recently used in the wake of the Nice attack earlier in this month.

People also opened their homes under the hashtag #PorteOuverte during the Nice attack and Paris attacks in November to help people find safety.
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A group of Australian men whose brawl caused a Phuket-bound Jetstar flight to divert to Bali are returning to Melbourne.

Three of the six men boarded a flight on Friday afternoon. They are due to land at 10.10pm.

It is understood Jetstar is considering seeking costs, which could run into the tens of thousands of dollars, for the diversion.

Flight JQ27 departed Sydney at 2.25pm on Wednesday and was mid-flight when a fight broke out between six men - all known to each other - seated in row 53.
National Australia Bank is vowing to sharpen its focus on domestic businesses and consumers after a restructure merging its wealth and retail banking arms, which has resulted in the departure of three top executives.

Chief executive Andrew Thorburn on Friday said a restructured division targeting small and medium enterprises (SME) would allow the bank to put more emphasis on NAB's "heartland," where credit growth is being helped by demand from the services economy.

The bank is also forming a new arm combining wealth and retail banking, to be led by wealth boss Andrew Hagger - a move aimed at increasing the cross-selling of financial products to consumers.

Retail banking boss Gavin Slater, group executive for enterprise services Renee Roberts and the group executive for governance and reputation, Michaela Healey, will leave the bank after the leadership shake-up announced on Friday. Ms Healy, 49, intended to retire, NAB said.
Pauline Hanson, the leader of the One Nation Party, on the ABC's Q&A on July 18. Is this a threat to the nation, or an opportunity? Pauline Hanson's is a voice of the old Australia. She took much of her political outlook from her grandmother, as she once said, and that explains a great deal. Because it was only a couple of generations ago that the White Australia immigration policy was the law of the land. The first restrictive law was passed by the colony of Victoria in 1851. White Australia was first relaxed in 1958 but only formally disbanded in 1972, and the Racial Discrimination Act was passed as recently as 1975.

Hanson is the contemporary vessel for Australia's echoic memory, appealing to voters seeking the false assurance of a Utopia of nostalgia. Her return to elected office is an opportunity for Australia. It's an opportunity for us to look at our progress, our problems, and our policy choices. The White Australia era, the era of the early Australian nation, was "shaped by an underlying sense of national insecurity," in the words of the Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. It was a small, white European population feeling under threat of inundation by the "yellow peril". Hanson rekindled this fear two decades ago in her first adventure into Australian politics. Australia was being "swamped" by Asians, she said, as she called for a halt to Asian immigration.

But the Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Korean communities that have developed in Australia have, by and large, grown into pillars of national strength. In general, they study hard, work hard, start new businesses energetically and, over time, integrate well. The same is broadly true of the Indian and other South Asian communities. Not a peril, a pillar. So it's no surprise that Hanson has had to find a new fear to kindle. "Ms Hanson, you have been in politics a long time now and you know exactly what you are doing," said a Labor senator from NSW, Sam Dastyari, during the QandA panel when he addressed the woman sitting on his left: "Twenty years ago, it started off blaming indigenous Australians, then it became about we are being swamped by Asians, now it's about blaming the Muslim and the Muslim community." Hanson today proposes a ban on Muslim immigration, a halt to the building of new mosques, installing surveillance cameras in existing ones, a royal commission into Islam and a ban on the burqa.

"It's the politics of fear and division and, Ms Hanson, you are incredibly good at it." Hanson's simple riposte demonstrated how good: "You are saying the terrorism on our streets, that's not happening?" Dastyari's dissection of Hanson is accurate. But her rejoinder is a powerful one. She points to a real problem, and challenges the establishment parties to deny it. Of course, she unfairly blames Islam and all Muslims by association, when the real culprits are a small minority of fanatics. But it's powerful populist politics nonetheless and the sentiment she represents, however wrongheaded, cannot be wished away. When Turnbull dismissed Hanson as unwelcome in the Parliament, his words generated a flurry of anxious phone calls among Coalition MPs. Turnbull, by dismissing her, would only inflame her followers, was the concern. The Coalition would lose votes to her One Nation party on the right.

When it was clear she'd won a Senate seat, Turnbull phoned her and offered his congratulations. He told her that she "had every right to take up my place in Parliament, which [was] pleasing to hear," Hanson told reporters. Fear is always the spark that kindles angry intolerance in all its forms, racism, nativism, and fascism. Look across the Western world. Fear is afoot, and Donald Trump in the US, UKIP in Britain, and the fast-rising parties of Europe's far right are riding it to political power. This is Australia's opportunity. To recognise the fear, solve the underlying problems, and avert an ugly, intolerant future. It's also Australia's threat. The risk is getting it wrong and following the US and Europe into the dead end of destructive politics.

So how should the political system respond to the recrudescence of Hanson and the constituency she represents? We've seen this movie before. We don't need to guess; John Howard deflated and defeated her and her party. He left a guidebook for today's politicians. When she was disendorsed by the Liberal party but elected to the House nonetheless, Howard's response was threefold. First, despite urgings to the contrary, he was firm but not furious in dealing with her. He did not single her out for regular attack. To do so would only have inflamed her supporters. Second, he did what he could to address the grievances of her supporters. All far-right politics feeds on economic suffering and insecurity. It was no coincidence that the rampant fascism of the 1930s followed the Great Depression that started in the 1920s.

Nor is it coincidence that Trump and UKIP and the far right in Europe are rising after the long stagnation of the living standards of the working and middle classes in their countries. Howard addressed specifics, visiting Queensland pig farmers to talk about their problem of imported pork products, for example. But he also acted on broader generalities. This clashes with the Labor narrative but it's a fact that income inequality narrowed during the Howard-Costello years. He was the father of the family payment system, for instance, that redistributed income to the lower middle class. It was immeasurably important, of course, that the economy continued to grow throughout his time. Today's problem-solving agenda must also include the defeat of terrorism on the streets. Australia is doing well on this, but can do better. Third, Howard co-opted some of her support with policies that appealed to her constituency. His asylum seeker policy and turning back boats was central to this. Tony Abbott contributed to the larger project by pursuing Hanson in person through the courts, but that's another story.

The government needn't pander to Hanson nor demonise her, but, when her policies are raised, the onus is on the main parties to explain why they are wrong. Sky's David Speers this week asked Barnaby Joyce about Hanson's proposal to ban Muslim immigrants. He might have begun by pointing out that the constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of religion. But his answer was solid nonetheless: "What happens when we turn that on its head and start banning people because they're Catholics or because they're Protestants or because they're Jewish?" And he made the broader point about blaming an entire church for the action of some extremists: "Every group has their ratbags, even Catholics. We had in the past the IRA. But if someone says every Catholic's a member of the IRA, I'd say no, no we're not. They're lunatics. Lunatic crazy criminals who want to kill people. Got nothing to do with the belief I practice." But Australia's response can't be left to the political class alone. This is an opportunity for Muslim Australia. A Pakistani American hedge fund manager, Mansoor Ijaz, this week wrote in London's Financial Times: "Silence and inaction are inexcusable in the face of the scourge of radicalism. Muslims citizens everywhere must stand together to douse the flames of hatred fanned by those who love chaos and terror, not liberty and freedom." It's not just Islam's fight either. The fight for equal treatment of all is a central principle and everyone, including every religion and every ethnic group, should speak up for it. The German Protestant pastor Martin Niemoller's poem is the last thing that visitors to Washington's Holocaust Museum see as they leave:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist. "Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Trade Unionist. "Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. "Then they came for me  and there was no one left to speak for me." Better by far is Noel Pearson's unifying vision of an Australian nation in three parts: the ancient indigenous heritage; the British inheritance; and the multicultural achievement.
Britain's foreign office regards Australia as a strong and stable presence in the Asia-Pacific and vitally important in safeguarding the stability of the region.

Having already exchanged text messages, Ms Bishop said she raised with Mr Johnson Australia's hopes of striking a free trade agreement with the European Union. Trade Minister Steven Ciobo also says Australia is interested in striking a trade agreement with Britain but will need to wait until the United Kingdom has formally left the EU - a process which could take at least two years.

In the meantime, Australia wants to formally begin talks with the EU. Ms Bishop sought Britain's support for the move. Mr Johnson indicated Britain would be seeking its own trade deal with Australia.

As the leader of the official and successful Vote Leave campaign for Britain to leave the EU, Mr Johnson commonly referred to Australia as one of the economic powerhouses around the world that Britain could strike a trade deal with, if it were allowed to leave the EU, which strikes trade deals on behalf of the single market. But Australia is expected to face tough protectionist tendencies from EU member countries, including from Ireland over beef and France and Italy over canned tomatoes.

Free trade agreements have been at the heart of the Coalition's foreign and economic policies since winning office in 2013. Under former prime minister Tony Abbott and the now retired trade minister Andrew Robb, Australia finalised trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea.
Graphic CCTV footage taken outside Merrylands police station shows the moment a Sydney man's car erupts into a fireball in what police initially feared was a possible terrorist attack.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said.the footage showed the driver, now identified as 61-year-old Peter Zhurawel, had "detonated and self-immolated inside the vehicle" on Thursday night, causing flames that Mr Scipione described as "quite devastating".

Just seconds after the bright flash erupted from the Hyundai Getz, officers are shown in the footage running out of the police station and towards the car as it rolled down the driveway in flames just after 7pm.

The vehicle crashed into a wall before hitting the door of the underground garage, Mr Scipione said. The officers extinguished the blaze and dragged Mr Zhurawel, who was believed to be unconscious, from the car. They also removed an open gas bottle and petrol from the vehicle.
Wickham Street at Fortitude Valley has reopened three hours after a truck crashed into a tree, blocking the road and injuring a pedestrian on Friday morning.

EARLIER

Trees were knocked down on Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley. Credit:Harrison Saragossi

A truck has hit a tree in Fortitude Valley, causing major delays and injuring a pedestrian.

Police were called to Wickham Street near Brookes Street just after 9am after a truck struck a "very large tree", causing it to fall over into the middle of the road.
A woman who was working across the road from Arundel State School when a school bus burst into flames on Friday morning has told of the moment when she knew something was wrong.

Parkwood Medical Centre receptionist Angie Nissel said she had heard a large bang about 8am and went outside to see what was going on.

The rear of the bus has been destroyed. Credit:Carrie Greenbank

"I heard a large bang and we ran out and we saw this bus coming down Napper Road; there was smoke coming from the bus," she said.

"We saw 35 kids on the bus, it was a full bus.
A man has been injured after six people narrowly escaped a fire which burned a house boat down to the waterline at the Gold Coast on Friday evening.

Initial investigations suggest a faulty generator started a fire about 6.40pm on the 49-foot commercial house boat, which was anchored in a waterway off the Horizon Shores Marina on Cabbage Tree Point Road at Woongoolba.

A fire has burned a house boat down to the waterline at Woongoolba on the Gold Coast on Friday evening.

All six occupants escaped in a dingy, but a 54-year-old man sustained burns to his shoulder and hands and was transported to Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment.

Water police transported Queensland Fire and Rescue Services personnel to the boat and they managed to extinguish the fire about 8.30pm.
Crime "The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 per cent, compared to this point last year." My hero: a delegate wears a Trump cape on the convention floor. Credit:Bloomberg This is wrong. The number of law enforcement officers killed on the job has increased 8 per cent compared to this point in 2015. Moreover, the overall number of police deaths has decreased in the past two decades. For the past 10 to 15 years, traffic-related incidents (including pursuits and instances in which officers are intentionally struck) have been the leading cause of death among police officers.

A protester is taken away as Donald Trump speaks. Credit:AP Overall, police are statistically safer on America's streets now than at any time in recent decades. For example, the 109 law enforcement fatalities in 2013 were the lowest since 1956. "Homicides last year increased by 17 per cent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation's capital, killings have risen by 50 per cent. They are up nearly 60 per cent in nearby Baltimore." "Nobody knows the system better than me ... which is why I alone can fix it." Credit:AP Trump cherry-picks data to paint an alarming picture of homicide trends, when in reality, the homicide rate has been declining for decades.

In 2015, there was an uptick in homicides in 36 of the nation's 50 largest cities. The rate did, indeed, increase nearly 17 per cent over 2014, and it was the worst annual change since 1990. The homicide rate was up 54.3 per cent in Washington, and 58.5 per cent in Baltimore. But the percentage increase was large because the number of homicides in 2014 was relatively small. Meanwhile, homicide trends have been split in the major cities so far this year: Out of 63 agencies reporting to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, 32 cities saw a decrease in homicides in the first quarter of 2016, and 31 cities saw an increase. Immigration "Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens." This number sounds much worse than it really is. In fiscal 2015, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported nearly 140,000 convicted criminals, but ICE has estimated that nearly 1 million non-citizens with final deportation orders remain in the United States.

Of those, 182,786 have been convicted of crimes, and about 6000 have been detained. The actual crimes committed by this group are not documented, however, so Trump cannot easily claim that all of these illegal immigrants "threaten peaceful citizens". A significant percentage of their crimes involve immigration violations and non-violent offences, according to historical records. "The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources." This is another cherry-picked number. From October to June, just over 50,000 families were apprehended at the south-western border, up from about 40,000 in all of the previous fiscal year, according to US Customs and Border Protection. But overall apprehensions, including of unaccompanied minors, are running only slightly higher than in 2015 and remain far less than in 2014, 2013 and 2012. Many of the Central American families arriving at the US-Mexico border are being allowed into the country pending review of their cases in immigration court. If they are being released, it is typically because they have requested asylum because they are fleeing extreme violence, instability and endemic poverty in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Furthermore, the pace of releasing immigrants is driven not by the Obama administration, but by a court ruling. A federal judge ruled last year that the government couldn't hold parents and children in jail for more than 20 days. An appeals court partially rolled that back earlier this month, saying that parents could be detained but children must be released. "Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers." This claim is quite convoluted. First, Trump makes no distinction between legal and illegal immigration. The flow of legal immigrants has increased over the past four decades, stabilising at roughly 1 million people obtaining lawful permanent resident status every year since 2001. The unauthorised immigrant population increased from about 4 million in 1990 to about 12 million in 2007. But researchers estimate that the number of illegal immigrants has been essentially stable since then because of the large number of unauthorised immigrants who left the country during and after the Great Recession of 2008.

In general, economists have found that immigration benefits the US economy and most workers. The slight negative effects are felt most strongly by less-educated and low-skilled workers. Economy "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world." The US tax burden is actually the fourth lowest among the 34 developed and large emerging-market economies that make up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Taxes made up 26 per cent of the total US economy in 2014, according to the OECD. That's far below Sweden's tax burden of 42.7 per cent, Britain's (32.6 per cent) or Germany's (36.1 per cent). Only three OECD members had a lower figure than the US: Chile, South Korea and Mexico. "Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office."

Trump is being misleading here, turning a good news story into something negative. From March 2009 to March 2014, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the number of Latinos in poverty increased by 750,000 people, according to the US Census Bureau. But the overall number of the Latinos grew by nearly 7 million. So the percentage of Latinos living in poverty declined from 25.3 per cent to 23.6 per cent. "Household incomes are down more than $4000 since the year 2000 - 16 years ago." This is a stale statistic, based on 2014 Census data, which ignores the fact that incomes have risen sharply in the past two years. A more up-to-date figure comes from the non-partisan economic consulting firm Sentier Research, which produces a monthly report using data from the Census Bureau's monthly household survey.

The most recent report, released on Thursday, hours before Trump's speech, shows median annual household income was $US57,206 in June, down slightly from January 2000, when it was $US57,826 in 2016 dollars. So household income is essentially flat, not down $US4000. "Forty-three million Americans are on food stamps." Trump's point is that America's economy has suffered under the Obama administration. But he fails to mention that this is the lowest number of people receiving food stamps since the program reached its peak in 2013, a sign that the economy is finally improving enough to help the desperately poor families who depend on it. "Fifty-eight per cent of African-American youth are not employed." The official unemployment rate for black youth is about half of what Trump says it is.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among blacks 16 to 19 years old was 31.2 per cent in June. This official unemployment rate refers to people who are actively looking for work, as a percentage of the total available workforce. "Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely." This is misleading for three reasons: The US population has increased in that time; the country has aged and people have retired; and younger people are staying in school longer for college and advanced degrees, so they're not in the labour force, either. The number of people who have left the workforce has certainly increased since 2009, though this is usually expressed as a decline in the labour participation rate, which is the portion of people older than 16 who are employed or actively seeking employment. The labour participation rate has dropped under Barack Obama, from 65.7 per cent in 2009 to 62.7 per cent. However, experts say about half of the decline in the labour participation rate since 1999 is due to the retirement of the baby boomers. Economists estimate just 15 per cent of the drop in the labour force involves people who want a job and are of prime working age (25 to 54).
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The sisters are doing it for themselves.

A group of Brooklyn women will showcase their female-focused magazine Got a Girl Crush at the Petes Mini Zine Festival in Williamsburg on July 30. The 95-page magazine, by and about women, may be slicker than the usual stapled zines at the annual backyard gathering, but it started with the same do-it-yourself spirit, according to its founder and editor-in-chief.

We started the print magazine mostly for me to have a personal outlet to photograph people and approach other women I admired, said Meg Wachter, a Bedford-Stuyvesant photographer.

The latest issue of Got a Girl Crush  its fourth  features interviews with 13 women, including former Daily Show correspondent and comedian Jessica Williams, a taxidermist, and a member of the Peace Corps, who in turn interviewed a Ugandan farmer and teacher. The only rule to choosing subjects, said Wachter, is that they be interesting and inspiring to her, her contributors, and subjects.

I always have a running list in my head, with every issue before we start we ask our previous contributors and features, Who are you really inspired by? and our circle expands every issue, she said.

Got a Girl Crush also exists as a blog, but Wachter says that creating a print magazine gives the interviews more impact.

Theres something to be said about having a tangible thing you can take with you rather than sharing a link on Facebook that is easily forgotten tomorrow, said Wachter. And were able to focus on people that arent really shared about online  we dont have to cater to the expectations of whats cool.

That devotion to the print format is a staple of exhibitors at Petes Mini Zine Fest, said the events co-founder.

Its a lot like when you made a mix-tape on cassettes  its an opportunity to share something you made at a low cost. People really appreciate the work you put into it, said Andria Alefhi. The value is that its in print  thats the entire point, its handmade and in some cases literally hand-copied and hand-stapled.

In addition to the Girl Crush team, 24 other publishers of comics, art books, and traditional zines will set up inside the bar and in the backyard of Petes Candy Store. The mood is laid back, and the annual mini fest is big enough to give visitors plenty to look at, and small enough that they can get personal with publishers and fest-goers, Alefhi said.

You can buy a zine, drink a beer, and relax  theres certainly enough going on to spend hours and hours there without feeling overwhelmed, she said. Its just the right size for people to meet and have conversations.

Petes Mini Zine Fest, at Petes Candy Store [709 Lorimer St. between Richardson and Frost streets in Williamsburg, (718) 3023770, www.petes candy store.com ]. July 30, 27 pm. Free.

Reach reporter Dennis Lynch at (718) 2602508 or e-mail him at dlync h@cng local.com .
Was there a murder 100 years ago at Yardley's Continental Tavern?

Frank Lyons began excavating the basement of the Continental Tavern in Yardley. He found a gun, bloody corset and part of a woman's purse.
Opioids and primary care: Physicians are encouraged to attend program about inherited patients with chronic pain

Providers who participate will receive continuing medical education credit

We have to deal with chronic pain as part of medical practice, using pain specialists as consultants but not as a dumping ground. This public health crisis was a wake-up call for all of us. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Patients with chronic pain are an increasingly challenging population to care for, especially as physicians and local governments confront the opioid crisis.

On Saturday, July 30, local primary care physicians and providers are invited to attend Primary Care and the Opioid Crisis in WNY: Inheriting the Pharmacotherapy of Patients with Chronic Pain, from 8 a.m. to noon on the University at Buffalo South Campus. The program will focus on how to deal with patients with chronic pain that providers inherit from other practices.

Its an issue that more primary care providers locally and nationally may find themselves dealing with, according to Nancy Nielsen, MD, PhD, senior associate dean for health policy at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and a member of the Erie County Department of Health Opioid Task Force.

Nielsen has experienced firsthand the challenges of working with inherited patients suffering with chronic pain.

Recently, thousands of patients with chronic pain in Western New York became medical refugees, unable to get ongoing care after a busy pain practice suddenly closed, she said.

Primary care physicians, emergency department physicians and other pain practices would not or could not care for them. We have to deal with chronic pain as part of medical practice, using pain specialists as consultants but not as a dumping ground. This public health crisis was a wake-up call for all of us.

Speakers will include Judith Feld, MD, medical director of provider engagement and practice innovation at Independent Health; Doug Gourlay, MD, educational consultant for pain and chemical dependency, Wasser Pain Management Centre, Toronto; and Paul Updike, MD, medical director, chemical dependency, Sisters of Charity Hospital, Buffalo.

Feld, who will serve as the program's moderator, praised the collaborative efforts of the various organizations involved in the program. The number of organizations involved shows how important this topic is, and its been a privilege to help organize this remarkable and timely collaboration of all our community stakeholders, she said.

The program will address:

the opioid pain prescription problem in Western New York

strategies and practical approaches for handling the inherited patient

methods of managing care in difficult situations, including patients on high dose regimens, polypharmacy and urine drug testing refusal

identifying and managing patients struggling with, or at high risk for, dependency and addiction

Physicians who attend will learn about supportive resources in the community, including pain management specialists, addictionologists, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, and local pharmacists. They will learn about concepts, such as desperation pharmacotherapy from the perspective of the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and about the pharmacology of withdrawal.

Interested participants should register by July 27 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IHFCME2016. Information is available at http://medicine.buffalo.edu/news_and_events/upcoming_events/event.html?eventid=41745&eventtype=S.

The program is sponsored by a coalition that includes:

the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB

the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

the Erie County Department of Health

Independent Health

Kaleida Health

The Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation

Fidelis Care

ECMC Corporation

Catholic Medical Partners

Optimum Physician Alliance

Medical Society of the County of Erie

BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York

YourCare

Univera Healthcare

Catholic Health

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and Independent Health Foundation. The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences designates this live activity for a maximum of 4.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Talks on metaphysics of pregnancy, harm after death highlight UB philosophy conference

Were all friends, but we also disagree all the time.

BUFFALO, N.Y.  If life is a closed system, with no afterlife offering the possibility of either misery or bliss, then death should be the ultimate protection from harm.

But David Boonin a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of its Center for Values and Social Policy thinks otherwise, and he will explain his views on posthumous harm as part of the University at Buffalos fourth annual PANTC conference, a free three-day exploration on bioethics and the philosophy of medicine to be presented by the universitys Department of Philosophy, July 28-30.

Boonin, author of A Defense of Abortion and The Problem of Punishment, delivers the first of PANTCs two keynote addresses on July 29 at 4:30 p.m.

The following day, July 30, at 3:15 p.m. Elselijn Kingma, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton, England, will present the events second keynote on the metaphysics of pregnancy.

Kingma is the principal investigator on five-year project funded by the European Research Council to develop a philosophically sophisticated account of human pregnancy and birth, based on an empirical understanding of human reproduction.

There will also be talks on abortion, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, transgender issues and when human beings come into and go out of existence, says David Hershenov, a professor in UBs Department of Philosophy.

All the conferences talks are open to the public and will take place in 280 Park Hall on the University at Buffalo North Campus. A complete schedule is available online.

PANTC is a reading group that began in 2012, bringing together philosophy professors and graduate students from UB, Canisius College, Fredonia and Niagara University.

Named as a symbolic satellite of Platos famous Academy, PANTC  or Platos Academy North Tonawanda Campus  has held monthly meetings and presented an annual conference on bioethics and the philosophy of medicine.

This is an event that is certainly for people in the medical field, but its also for anyone interested in public policy, says Hershenov. These are the hot-button issues that are being covered in the news.

PANTC has inspired loyal and noteworthy followers since it was first organized.

Christopher Boorse, whose contributions to the theory of disease have established what is now one of the most respected paradigms within the sphere of the philosophy of medicine, has twice delivered PANTC keynotes, even inviting himself back for the second lecture, according to Hershenov.

Boorse recommended that we invite Elselijn Kingma this year, says Hershenov. He praises her work and Boorse doesnt give praise easily.

Kingmas research on the metaphysics of pregnancy in part probes the relationship between the fetus and the mother. Her views are quite critical of SUNY Distinguished Professor and PANTC member Barry Smith, who will deliver his response immediately following Kingmas talk.

Smith believes that the relationship between the fetus and mother is not that of a part to a whole, says Hershenov. But rather that of occupant to a niche. Just as you are an occupant and not part of the bedroom that you sleep in, Smith argues that the fetus is an occupant within the mothers womb, but not literally a part of the mother.

Kingma on the other hand views the fetus as part of the pregnant woman. For her, this presents a dilemma implying that either one human being can be a part of another human being or that the fetus doesnt become a human being until separated from the mother.

She favors the latter view which has dramatic implications for reproductive ethics.

Kingmas presentation is the philosophy of medicine part of the conference, says Hershenov. David Boonin will speak in the bioethics section.

Hershenov calls Boonin, who is writing a book on posthumous harm, one of the nations leading applied ethicists.

The idea of posthumous harm asks how, from a secular humanist outlook, anyone could be harmed after death.

Harm implies a drop in well-being, says Hershenov. In death, harm does not seem to exist because it has no subject.

But Boonins approach sees the subject of harm as the living person who is harmed by the future. When certain things do not occur as a person desired, such as a sullied reputation, an improperly executed will or the collapse of lifelong plans, theyre harmed in the present, according to Boonin, by what happens later on.

An analogy might be the person who doesnt know theyre in a relationship with an unfaithful spouse, says Hershenov. Would people say that unknowing person has been harmed? Have the persons desires been frustrated even though they dont know it?

Hershenov says each year, the PANTC conference is a good show with good debates.

Were all friends, but we also disagree all the time, says Hershenov.

Its always lively.
Campus News

Program to address opioids and inherited patients

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM

We have to deal with chronic pain as part of medical practice, using pain specialists as consultants but not as a dumping ground. 

Patients with chronic pain are an increasingly challenging population to care for, especially as physicians and local governments confront the opioid crisis.

On July 30, UB will host a program for local primary care physicians and providers on how to deal with patients with chronic pain that providers inherit from other practices.

Primary Care and the Opioid Crisis in WNY: Inheriting the Pharmacotherapy of Patients with Chronic Pain will take place from 8 a.m. to noon in 190 Kapoor Hall, South Campus.

The program addresses an issue that more primary care providers locally and nationally may find themselves dealing with, according to Nancy Nielsen, senior associate dean for health policy at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and a member of the Erie County Department of Healths Opioid Task Force.

Nielsen has experienced firsthand the challenges of working with inherited patients suffering with chronic pain.

Recently, thousands of patients with chronic pain in Western New York became medical refugees, unable to get ongoing care after a busy pain practice suddenly closed, she says.

Primary care physicians, emergency department physicians and other pain practices would not or could not care for them. We have to deal with chronic pain as part of medical practice, using pain specialists as consultants but not as a dumping ground. This public health crisis was a wake-up call for all of us, Nielsen says.

Speakers will include Judith Feld, medical director of provider engagement and practice innovation at Independent Health; Doug Gourlay, educational consultant for pain and chemical dependency, Wasser Pain Management Centre, Toronto; and Paul Updike, medical director, chemical dependency, Sisters of Charity Hospital, Buffalo.

Feld, who will serve as the program's moderator, praised the collaborative efforts of the various organizations involved in the program. The number of organizations involved shows how important this topic is, and its been a privilege to help organize this remarkable and timely collaboration of all our community stakeholders, she says.

The program will address:

The opioid pain prescription problem in Western New York.

Strategies and practical approaches for handling the inherited patient.

Methods of managing care in difficult situations, including patients on high-dose regimens, polypharmacy and urine drug testing refusal.

Identifying and managing patients struggling with, or at high risk for, dependency and addiction.

Physicians who attend will learn about supportive resources in the community, including pain management specialists, addictionologists, physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, and local pharmacists. They also will learn about concepts, such as desperation pharmacotherapy from the perspective of the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and about the pharmacology of withdrawal.

Among the program sponsors are the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Independent Health, the Erie County Health Department and Kaleida Health.





Those interested in attending should register by July 27. More information is available online.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Robert Mugabe's administration has been warned of impending civil unrest if he does not urgently address the current instability in the country.In a scathing joint statement yesterday, several church organisations the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Catholic Bishops Conference, Habakkuk Trust and Christian Alliance lashed out at Mugabe's brutal reaction to the #ThisFlag campaign led by cleric Evan Mawarire.They further said Zimbabweans had lost confidence in Mugabe's rule.Mugabe seemed to stoke anti-Mawarire sentiments while addressing mourners at the burial of national hero, Charles Utete on Tuesday and accused the #ThisFlag founder of being foreign-funded.
News / Regional

by Walter Nyamukondiwa

British Ambassador Catriona Laing's visit to Kariba ended abruptly on Wednesday morning after her aides allegedly assaulted a Kariba-based freelance journalist.Laing arrived in Kariba on Tuesday and reportedly held a meeting with some non-governmental organisations representatives in the dead of the night.The agenda of the meeting was not immediately confirmed, but sources said it was aimed at getting information on the needs of NGOs in the town and surrounding areas to effectively complement the efforts of anti-government protesters.This is said to be part of an elaborate plan that will see NGOs in remote areas giving feedback on their limitations and possible assistance they need when protests occur.The journalist, Edmore Mbonda got to the hotel where the ambassador and her entourage were booked and sought clearance from one of her aides who consented."I got to the hotel around 7am after picking information that the ambassador was in town. I wanted to ask her questions and therefore made an appointment with one of the aides. He told me that the ambassador was having tea so I waited near her room," said Mbonda.However, two men reportedly came and ordered him to leave despite protestations that he had been cleared for an interview by one of the aides.The men allegedly told Mbonda that the visit did not need media coverage before ordering him to leave. One of them manhandled him and pushed him away before the other one kicked him on his right leg causing him to fall."I immediately got up and started running for dear life after realising that they could inflict more harm," said Mbonda."I returned about an hour later, but was told that they had already checked out of the hotel."Mbonda went to the clinic yesterday complaining of pain in his leg and arm.The ambassador, according to sources in the NGO sector was scheduled to meet them later on Wednesday afternoon.Said a source: "We were asked to present current challenges hampering active participation in any anti-government demonstration considering that small towns and outlying areas did not participate."Participants are said to have indicated that they needed communication technology such as internet access, laptops and vehicles among other things.The move is aimed at ensuring that demonstrations are spontaneous thereby rendering the country ungovernable.Kariba was found to have a disorganised NGO sector that dealt with "soft" issues and would not help the regime change agenda, said the source.A report of the assault was made to the police who said consultations are underway to find the way forward.Although confirming that Ambassador Laing was in Kariba on Tuesday and Wednesday, the British Embassy dismissed the allegations as fictitious arguing that the ambassador does not have aides or bodyguards."This is ridiculous, the ambassador does not have security details. This is a fabrication," said embassy communications officer Busi Ndlovu yesterday.
What you need to know to sign up for NJ Obamacare this year
French energy giant EDF will make its long-awaited final investment decision on the planned nuclear power station at Hinkley Point near Burnham-On-Sea next week.

The company announced on Thursday night that it has called a meeting of its board of directors in a weeks time on Thursday, 28th July.

The agenda includes the final investment decision for the construction of two reactors at Hinkley Point C.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said: New nuclear is an essential part of our plan for a secure, clean and affordable energy system that will power the economy throughout this century. This is a welcome decision from EDF, and we look forward to the outcome.

An EDF spokesman said: The Hinkley Point C project is a major element of the Groups CAP 2030 strategy. The two EPR reactors at Hinkley Point would strengthen EDFs presence in Britain, a country where its subsidiary EDF Energy already operates 15 nuclear reactors and is the largest electricity supplier by volume.

Hinkley Point C would also enable the Group to mobilise all its significant nuclear engineering skills following the final investment decision. The first concrete of reactor 1 of Hinkley Point C, scheduled for mid-2019, would coincide with perfect continuity with the start-up of the EPR at Flamanville, scheduled for the end of 2018.

This project has been the subject since 2013 of a significant sharing of information with employees and their representatives, illustrating the commitment of the company to quality social dialogue.

In line with this, EDF announced on April 22, 2016, that the Central Works Council would be consulted on the terms of the partnership with the CGN Group for the Hinkley Point C project, in the framework of an information and consultation process which began on May 2 and which concluded on July 4, 2016.

The final decision has been repeatedly delayed amid doubts over the viability of the project, even as the utility formed a partnership with China General Nuclear Power Corp and secured guaranteed power prices from the UK government at about twice the current market rate for 35 years.

Earlier this month, EDF said it was still backing the project despite Britains decision to leave the European Union. The then Secretary of State for Energy Amber Rudd also confirmed the project would still go ahead after talks with EDF.

But doubts have dogged the plans for the 18 billion project and several delays to a final decision have raised further questions. Hinkley Point C would be a crucial part of the UKs future energy mix, providing 7% of the countrys total electricity needs when up and running in 2025. It is expected to create 25,000 jobs.
The expectations from Kabali are as high as the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the setting for almost 80% of the movie, not least because it's a Rajinikanth movie. The reasons are varied: the audience need a taste of the Rajinikanth of yore, not a do-gooder Samaritan (Lingaa) or a CGI generated version of a warrior Prince (Kochadaiiyaan). Thalaivar fanatics just wanted him to have fun, which was rarely the case ever since Sivaji. The teasers of suggested Rajinikanth is back to his glory days of Basha, Padayappa and Pedarayudu.

You wanted badass, you get industrial levels of badass in this Pa Ranjith movie. His previous film Madras had a delightful off-kilter sensibility. Sadly, here he spends too much time deifying his larger-than-life protagonist. And that makes the movie a giant 150-minute slog.

It opens with the erstwhile gangster getting released from a Malaysian prison after spending 25 years there. As soon as he steps out, he's apprised of how his rival gang (consisting of Kishore and Winston Chao) has grown from strength to strength and has turned the city into a teeming hub of drug abuse and prostitution.

starts cleaning up right away, while getting reunited with his daughter and wife along the way. You have to be punch drunk on Rajini mania to sit through the movie without dozing off or trying to play Pokemon GO at the cinema itself. The only saving grace is the man himself. The wizened visage hasn't lost a bit of its grace and infectious scowl.

His gait is intact and so is the swoonworthy style. If only Ranjith had paid some attention to the script that has more holes than any Swiss cheese worth its name. It's a rehash of typical 80s Tamil movies. There's mindless revenge, the man expounds on rights for outsiders in a foreign land, wife and husband have a teary reunion after more than a couple of decades. The flashback sequences are even worse. Earlier Rajinikanth movies would like the audience to suspend their disbelief when he used to defy gravity, albeit in a stylish way; now, his directors expect to still keep that disbelief suspended when ridiculous scenes are strung together for a long stretch. Talk about getting trapped in ones image as an actor.

Among other actors, Radhika Apte does her bit well, especially as an aged woman. After Ramyakrishna in Padayappa, here's finally an actress who looks like a perfect fit next to Rajinikanth. Dhansika as, (SPOILER ALERT!!), Kabali's gun toting daughter with a crew cut is a decent example of inspired casting. The villains are their cardboard selves.

G Murali's wide-lensed cinematography shows Kuala Lumpur in its complete glory and Santhosh Narayan's music is largely functional but he deserves appreciation for the virulently catchy staccato rock beat that keeps playing in the background.

The love people have for Rajinikanth is like an axe. It cuts deep. But even their patience is running thin now. I knew the movie was on a slippery slope after the first utterly fabulous ten minutes, when the fans at the 6 a.m. screening in Mumbai went uncharacteristically silent until the last ten minutes when their demigod returns to his element.

The action sequences are a crashing bore. There are enough unimaginative shootouts to make the movie look like a protracted ad film for National Rifle Association of America. Barring one fight in the beginning and one in the second half in Pondicherry, the others look grindingly dull.

If you want a taste a sliver of that illustrious career on big screen, you ought to watch it in Tamil. English subtitles are being beamed across the world. His sonorous Malaysian gangster baritone was music to my ears even though I don't know any Tamil.

This is one of those movies that tells the millennial "believe the hype that this man generates" but it'll definitely not find itself getting canonised. The rest will be wallowing in nostalgia and raiding YouTube and torrent sites. L P Hartley once said The past is a different country. They do things differently there. Not on Planet Rajini though.
Leela Hotel scion Amruda Nair's new venture is entering in India with 1000 rooms in total. The first property will be operational by end of this year with Aiana Munnar, a premium property owned by Alex and Tsarina Vaccha, an NRI couple based in Dubai.

Aiana Hotels is a 50:50 joint venture company between Qatar's eminent businessman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman of Al Faisal Holding and Amruda Nair.
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The words India First, Indianness, foreign subjugation resounded through Kolkatas Science City Auditorium many times, as Y C Deveshwar spoke for the last time at ITCs annual general meeting in his capacity as executive chairman and chief executive officer, here on Friday.
Engineering and Construction Services Company Limited has received a letter of acceptance (LoA) from Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation Limited, a joint venture of Government of India and Maharashtra government for Rs 532.67 crore.

The project involves construction of seven elevated metro stations, and three At-grade stations.

The project is to be completed in 110 weeks from the date of issue of LoA.



The company is currently executing four metro rail projects worth around Rs 1,100 crore in Bangalore, Gurgaon, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.



In the past Engineering Services has executed phase one of Gurgaon Rapid Metro Rail Project involving the construction of elevated viaduct including six elevated station buildings.
German internet firm has written down the valuation of Global Fashion Group by 68 per cent, from EUR 3.1 billion in July 2015 to EUR 1 billion today, when it announced a $330 million fund raise by the fashion group.
Accusing the government, over failure of foreign policy matters, the on Friday questioned its silence on China's comments on the Kashmir issue.

The opposition party said the communist country's comment was "direct interference" in India's internal matters but Prime Minister Narendra Modi or External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were yet to utter a word.

"It is a direct interference in the internal matters of India by China. What is surprising is that the government did not take note of it," senior leader Kapil Sibal told the media at Parliament House complex here.

A media report said China had expressed concern over the casualties in clashes between protesters and security forces in Kashmir and hoped the situation in the Kashmir Valley will be "handled properly" and relevant parties will address the issue peacefully through dialogue.

"Neither the Prime Minister nor the External Affairs Minister expressed concern over the statement (by China)," he said.

The leader said Modi should have made a public statement on the issue so that it was made known to China that it does not have any business to interfere in India's internal matters.

"This is very serious," he said, adding the situation arose due to "lack of experience" of the Modi government in foreign policy matters.

Recalling the rule of the previous Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, Sibal said: "We kept a fine balance in relations with the US and China, knowing that both were important for the development of the region."

Sibal also said: "Of late China has started mentioning Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as Pakistan's".

"I would request the Prime Minister to stop his light and sound show and start working on issues like these," he said, taking a dig at Modi's public meetings.

The Congress leader said the issue of China commenting on India's internal matters will be taken up in Parliament on Monday.

He also accused Modi of keeping mum on atrocities against Dalits across the country.

Asked what the Congress' stand was on the GST bill, the Congress leader said: "GST will happen only if MST ('meri suno toh') happens."
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who met the victims of the family at Una in Gujarat on Friday said that the Gujarat government is 'anti-Dalit'.
An Indian Air Force AN-32 with 29 people on board went missing over the Bay of Bengal on Friday. The aircraft was flying from Chennai to Port Blair. Those on board included six crew members.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark II with weather satellite INSAT-3DR in August. The space agency is also looking at increasing the frequency of launch to 12-18 a year, said A S Kiran Kumar, chairman of ISRO.

Speaking at a meeting of the Madras Institute of Technology Alumni Association, he said that the INSAT-3DR is getting ready for launch next month, in the rocket.
Nearly 160 fans of actor Rajinikanth, travelling on AirAsias special flight from Bengaluru to Chennai to catch the first show of Kabali, were disappointed as the airline changed the venue at the last minute.
Superstar Rajinikanth-starrer Tamil action drama "Kabali" released smoothly on Friday amidst fanfare.

The earliest show in the city started around 4 AM.

For the first show in the city, hardcore superstar fans assembled outside cinema halls even before midnight to celebrate the release of the film.

"We spent the whole night outside. As early as 11 PM, we gathered at the theatre to raise banners and huge cutouts of Thalaivar," Madhan Kumar, who watched the first show at Kasi theatre, told IANS.

It was a sleepless night for most fans as they waited with bated to watch their 65-year old matinee idol on screen on Friday

"It's not everyday you get to watch Thalaivar's film. Hence, the excitement to watch the first day, first show of the film. These last few days have been crazy, with hardly any sleep," Sumanth, a third year Engineering student who watched the first show at Rakki cinemas, told IANS.

In other parts of Tamil Nadu such as Madurai, the first show of "Kabali" started around 3 AM, In the opening weekend in the city, the film reportedly will have over 300 shows across theatres.

Directed by P A Ranjith, the film features Rajinikanth as a don who fights for Tamils in Malaysia.

On Thursday night, the film had its world premiere in Malaysia and Singapore, followed by Dubai and some parts of the US.

According to the film's US distributor CineGalaxy Inc, the film has already raked in over $1 million from its pre-sales from the premieres.

The film has also been released in Hindi and Telugu, apart from its Tamil version. The dubbed Malay version is slated to release on July 29.
Union Home Minister will visit Kashmir for two days from Saturday in a bid to calm down tension that erupted following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, with clashes between protesters and security forces in the Valley leaving 45 dead.

Singh, who will reach Srinagar around 11 am, will first interact with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior officials and review the law and order situation in Kashmir Valley.

After that, he will meet representatives of political parties, social organisations and leading citizens to get their feedback about the Kashmir situation as well as future roadmap, official sources said here.

Singh will stay at Nehru guest house in Srinagar, where he will meet the public representatives.

The Home Minister had said in Parliament on Thursday that he would visit Kashmir and stay in a guest house to talk to people from all walks of life there.

"We are sure that we will succeed in improving the condition in Kashmir," he had said.

The Home Minister has already announced setting up of an expert committee to recommend alternative to pellet guns, amid strong criticism of the use of weapon for mob control in Kashmir.

Describing the youth of Kashmir as "patriots", he had said "there is an attempt to misguide some" of them and a "mindset that stokes baseless anger against India."



Singh said Pakistan played a "key role" in fuelling tension and that the situation was "normalising" gradually.

He also reached out to other political parties, saying the government alone cannot solve problems in Kashmir and all parties would have to work together.

The Home Minister had described Wani, whose killing in an encounter sparked the recent protests, as a "tech-savvy terrorist of new generation" who had exploited social media platforms to lure youths into picking up the gun.

At least 45 youths have lost their lives during violent protests following the killing of Wani, even as curfew remained in force in all 10 districts of the Valley due to apprehension of law and order problems in view of large gatherings for Friday prayers.
Panun Kashmir, an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, on Friday said the Centre should recognise the "fundamentalist upsurge" in Kashmir and take immediate steps to prevent the region from becoming another "Islamist-controlled territory like Pakistan and Syria".

It also said the central government should come out with a white paper on atrocities inflicted on Hindus in the Valley during the unrest over killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani.

"We urge the central government to take immediate steps to prevent Kashmir from becoming another Islamist-controlled territory like parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq," the organisation's convener Agnishakher told reporters.

"The government should remove the blinkers and recognise the fundamentalist upsurge in Kashmir and parts of Jammu as a part of the global jihad," he said.

The organisation also denounced the political parties in the Valley for "hiding the religious, fascist nature of the unrest".

"It is unfortunate that NC, PDP, Congress and BJP have allowed themselves to be reduced to mere over ground support structures for fundamentalists waging a war of jihad in the state," Agnishakher said.

Chairman of Panun Kashmir, Ajay Chrungoo, claimed "mobs indulged in attacks on Hindus in Kashmir and Amaranth pilgrims. It is shameful that the Union government and the members of Parliament are yet to inform the nation of these grave communal offences."



"Panun Kashmir demands that the Indian government come out with a white paper on the atrocities inflicted on Hindus in Kashmir during the unrest and take administrative and legal action against people indulging in seditious activities in the state," he said.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the central government to take over the land and 30-story building of Adarsh Society in Mumbai, but not to demolish it as ordered by the Bombay High Court in April.
To promote sustainable development in and allied sectors with technological innovations and high yielding practices, the government of Rajasthan is organising Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet 2016 (GRAM 2016) in Jaipur between November 9 and 11, 2016.

The three-day event is being organized in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
Roger Ailes on Thursday resigned as chairman and chief executive of Channel following allegations of sexual harassment, an abrupt end to his 20-year rule over America's most lucrative and powerful cable news channel for conservatives.

Rupert Murdoch, 85, the executive chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox, the parent of Fox News, will assume the role of CEO and Fox Business Network on an interim basis, the company said on Thursday.

Ailes, who will serve as an informal adviser to Rupert Murdoch and no longer have an official role at the company, will receive a severance package of about $40 million, according to a source familiar with the situation, who asked to remain anonymous.

In his resignation letter to Murdoch, Ailes did not indicate he had done anything wrong.

"I take particular pride in the role that I have played advancing the careers of the many women I have promoted to executive and on-air positions," Ailes wrote in the letter, which his lawyer Susan Estrich provided to Reuters.

However, he added: "I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that and Fox Business continue to lead our industry."

The resignation marks a swift downfall for Ailes, the 76-year-old media executive who advised several US Republican presidents, including George H.W. Bush, and turned Fox News into the most-watched US cable news channel.

His departure comes on the final and biggest night of the Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump will formally accept the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump tweeted on Thursday, "Roger Ailes just called. He is a great guy & assures me that 'Trump' will be treated fairly on @FoxNews. His word is always good!"

Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson sued Ailes earlier this month, claiming sexual harassment. Ailes has denied the charges. Fox hired a law firm to conduct an internal investigation.

New York magazine followed up with reports of other women who said they had been harassed by Ailes. On Tuesday, the magazine said that popular Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly had told investigators hired by Fox that Ailes "made unwanted sexual advances toward her" about 10 years ago.

Ailes, who founded the cable channel in 1996, did not sexually harass Kelly, according to a statement attributed to his lawyer in the New York Times on Tuesday.

The resignation comes as Fox News, known for a lineup of politically conservative commentators including

best-selling author Bill O'Reilly, is drawing record viewership. The network is the most-watched channel in all of basic cable television this year with an average of 2.2 million prime-time viewers, according to Nielsen data through June.

Challenges Ahead

Whoever replaces Ailes faces the twin challenges of retaining Fox News' established on-air stars such as O'Reilly and Kelly, while making the network attractive to younger viewers, a demographic it has consistently missed.

O'Reilly and Kelly's contracts are up in 2017, and stars including Greta Van Susteren and Sean Hannity all have clauses in their contracts that allow them to leave the network if Ailes departs, according to media reports.

New management will also have to win over the many Ailes loyalists left in the ranks.

"Roger Ailes is the best boss I have ever had. I admire him professionally," Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said in an email. "And I love him personally. I am heartbroken he is gone."

Murdoch, who built his father's Australian newspaper business into one of the world's most powerful news and ntertainment conglomerates, has always been fiercely loyal to Ailes and cut his vacation short in the French Riviera with his wife Jerry Hall to handle the resignation.

The media mogul may be better positioned than anyone to keep morale up and persuade talent to stay, said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group: "Fox News was as much his baby as it was Ailes' baby. I think it's a great short-term solution."

Nevertheless, Fox would be wise to work quickly to find a new CEO, said Merrill Brown, a former media executive who helped launch MSNBC. "It is a good choice if its length is measured in weeks."

Ailes' long experience as both a television producer and a Republican strategist helped him to formulate a winning strategy: hire charismatic talent to appeal to a conservative audience.

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country," Murdoch said in a statement.

"Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organisation and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years."

Critics said Ailes pushed a Republican agenda under the oft-repeated slogan "Fair and Balanced." His fans said he smartly recognised that conservative TV viewers were not seeing their viewpoints reflected on Time Warner Inc's CNN or major broadcast networks. Fox News Channel went on the air in 1996, just before Bill Clinton was elected to a second term as president, with Ailes as founding CEO.

While Ailes' departure may not come at an ideal time for Fox News, the momentum of record ratings amid the most sensational US presidential election in decades may give the cable network some breathing room to recover, media buyers and Wall Street analysts have told Reuters. And some of them say this could be an opportunity for

Fox News, whose median age of viewers is over 65, plans to focus on getting younger fans.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday expressed concern over the law and order situation in during a high-level meeting in Islamabad to discuss regional security.

In the meeting, Sharif and Pakistan Army chief General Raheel Sharif, were briefed on the situation in Kashmir and Afghanistan, Dawn quoted senior Foreign Office sources as saying.

The meeting condemned the oppression of the Indian security forces over innocent Kashmiris protesting against the violence in the region, a Prime Minister's House statement said.

Sharif said the brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people which no civilised society permits.

Sharif maintained that the Indian attempts to claim the situation in Kashmir as an internal matter were factually incorrect, legally untenable and a violation of law and the UN Security Council resolutions, the statement said.

The only solution to the Kashmir issue was an early implementation of the UNSC resolutions, a fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices, he said.

The statement said Pakistan will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self-determination.

The meeting resolved to approach the UN Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir to investigate the slaughter of innocent civilians and impose a ban on the use of pellet guns for dispersing people.

It called upon the community to condemn human rights violations by Indian security forces.

The meeting comes a day after India slammed Pakistan over its deplorable meddling in the internal affairs of the country and asked it to vacate its illegal occupation of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan observed "Kashmir's Accession to Pakistan Day" on July 19, followed by Black Day on July 20 over the killing of Hizbul Mujaheedin commander Burhan Wani. India in a statement on Thursday also strongly condemned the encouragement and support which terrorists and their activities receive from Pakistan's state.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in following the July 8 killing of Wani in a gunfight with the security forces.
Saudi authorities on Friday executed a national convicted of murdering a compatriot, in the 101st execution of the year in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.

Fahad Abdulhadi al-Dusari was found guilty of shooting dead Mubarak bin Mohammed al-Dusari following a dispute, the ministry said in statement carried by SPA state news agency.

He was executed in the region of Riyadh, it said.

On Thursday, authorities carried out the 100th execution in the capital, putting to death a Saudi convicted of shooting dead a compatriot.

imposes the death penalty for offences including murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy.

Most people executed are beheaded with a sword.

There were no beheadings during the Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, which began in the kingdom on June 6.

However, executions resumed on Sunday when authorities put a Saudi murderer to death.

Human rights group Amnesty says the kingdom carried out at least 158 death sentences last year, making it the third most prolific executioner after Iran and Pakistan.

Amnesty's figures do not include secretive China.

The London-based watchdog says the Saudi rate of executions this year is "higher than at the same point last year".

Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions, although 47 people were put to death for "terrorism" offences on a single day in January.

They included prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution prompted Iranian protesters to torch Saudi diplomatic missions, leading Riyadh to sever relations.
British Prime Minister Theresa May today said she was committed to obtaining restrictions on EU migration in her negotiations with the union on leaving the bloc.

"The message the British people gave in their vote for the UK to leave the EU had a very clear message that we should introduce some controls to the movement of individuals from EU countries into the UK.

"I'm clear the government should deliver, and will deliver on that for the British people," she said after talks in Paris with French President Francois Hollande.
has rallied 11% to Rs 102 on the BSE in early morning trade after the company announced that its board will meet on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 to consider buy back of equity shares of the company.
recouped intra-day losses to end marginally higher on reports that the GST constitutional amendment bill has been listed for discussion in the Rajya Sabha next week.
An American volunteer fighting alongside Kurdish troops in Syria has been killed fighting the ISIS militant group.

According to a statement from the official website of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, it said that Levi Jonathan Shirley, a volunteer also known as Agir Servan died on July 14 in Manbij city northern Syria, reports CNN.

In February 2015, Shirley first traveled to Syria joining the YPG in Rojava. He returned Syria in January 2016, after short trip to the United States and started fighting in Al-Jazira and Kobani before the offensive to recapture Manbij.

Shirley's mother Susan Shirley, said her son always wanted to join the U.S. Marine Corps but his eyesight was not good enough.

"He was born with very poor eyesight..He had surgery as a teen. Even so, it was not enough to join the Marines," CNN quoted her as saying.

Shirley's death was notified to the family by the U.S. Consulate in Turkey, his mother said.

According to reports, dozens of Americans and other Westerners are fighting in Syria, mainly with Kurdish groups.

The YPG is a Kurdish group of some 30,000 fighters and is the senior partner in the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Issuing a stern warning to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann, who has come under fire for live-streaming a video revealing several security spots of the Parliament, Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday that such an incident should not be repeated, adding committing offence and arrogance cannot go together.

"It's against parliamentary rules and regulations to videograph sensitive areas of the Parliament. At time when the terrorists are looking for opportunities to attack, giving out such sensitive information is dangerous. If he commits such an act again then he will have to go to jail," Naqvi told ANI here.

Hitting at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Naqvi questioned the former's silence on this matter.

"Where is Arvind Kejriwal ji now? Why is he quite? He raises questions on every issues, why is he silent on this," he added.

Demanding action against Mann, the Minority Affairs Minister dubbed the act to be against parliamentary norms.

"The Parliament was attacked earlier also and the Rajya Sabha was on target at that time. He comes as a parliamentary member and he breached the security," he added.

The AAP MP yesterday posted a video of Parliament's security positions and details on the social media.

Mann, however, clarified his act after severe criticism from the opposition parties.

"My only intention was to tell the procedure (during the Zero Hour). I have done nothing to risk the security of the Parliament," he said.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Toiba leader Hafiz Saeed on Friday said he had received a call from Asiya Andrabi, the founder of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, seeking his help to resolve what she called the crisis on the Indian side of Kashmir.

Addressing a rally here, Saeed said, "The way Indian security forces are engaged in bloodshed in Kashmir; my sister Asiya Andrabi cried for 15 minutes and told me over phone that my brothers where are you?"

"I am telling my sister Asiya that 'my sister, we are coming'. This act of violence will come to end and nobody can stop Kashmir from becoming independent," he added.

Saeed further said that he had also received a call from Burhan Wani (Hizbul Mujahideen militant), wherein he had said that "his (Wani's) last wish was to talk to me (Saeed)".

"Few days before his death, Burhan Wani told me over a phone that it was my desire to talk with you. Now my desire has been fulfilled, and now, I am waiting for martyrdom," said Saeed in an event organized to express solidarity with both Andrabi and Wani.

"I want to assure the people of Kashmir that if you are in the field, we are also with you," said the Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader.

He also warned India that this was its last chance to accept separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's four-point formula on Kashmir and to withdraw security forces from the Valley, else the decision will be taken in battlefield.

"We have to give a message to India to stop and withdraw forces and accept Geelani's four-point formula immediately, because, this is the last chance, and hereafter, the matter will be decided in the battlefield," said Saeed during his 'Kashmir Caravan' in Gujranwala.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah leader organised a "Kashmir Caravan" from Lahore to Islamabad.

The caravan, comprising of trucks and buses, stretched for several kilometers, and passed through many cities, including Gujaranwala, Jhelum and Gujarat.

His rallies were attended by federal ministers and religious leaders of various organisations.

The Pakistan's Government direct links with Hafiz Saeed has been further exposed by Islamabad allowing him to lead an anti-India rally on the Kashmir issue.

Saeed led a Pakistan Government call to Observe July 19 as a Black Day, apparently to draw attention to the "burning issue of Kashmir."

The Obama Administration has been taken aback by this event.

The U.S. has designated both the Laskkar e Toiba ( LeT ) and the Jamaat ud Dawa ( JuD ) as foreign terrorist organisations.

Saeed has also been listed by the UN Security Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.

South Asia watchers in Washington say that by allowing a terrorist to take up a government sponsored cause the Pakistan Government has bared it's selective approach towards terrorism.

When banned outfits are allowed to openly hold rallies in Pakistan at the behest of the Government the allegations about Pakistan using terror as state policy appears to gain ground.

Experts say had Pakistan banned Saeed from holding this rally and had instead placed someone else in charge of the July 19 protests then that would have been understandable.

The question arises why Saeed - is it because he is a terror asset which the state cannot do without, wonder South Asia analysts.

They question is Saeed so important that Islamabad is risking an important relationship with the United States.

Pakistan's irrevocable links with Saeed have disappointed the Obama Administration but have not shocked officials.

It was always known in Washington's South Asia circles that Hafiz Saeed is an asset that the Pakistani State will always protect not standing the fact that he is a designated global terrorist.

The LeT remains active and open in Pakistan and just recently had the audacity to attack Medina in Saudi Arabia in which 12 of its suspected members were arrested.

This connection was also highlighted by a European Parliament Report by Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki where he pointed out how the Falah e Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), a charity front of the LeT was radicalising the Pakistani Diaspora and the state was a mute spectator.

The July 19 Kashmir Rally is certain to be brought up on Capitol Hill where proposals are afoot to cut financial aid to Pakistan in the absence of complete and verifiable de-linkage with terror groups.

While the Obama Administration has been supporting Pakistan as an important ally in the war against terror, this July 19 rally, where a wanted terrorist has been given state patronage, is certain to raise questions and embarrass Washington.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's assertion on Friday that he is 'waiting for the day' when Kashmir becomes Pakistan certifies that Islamabad has officially abandoned the position that it supports 'azadi' (independence) for Kashmir or the Kashmiris.

In his first public address post his return from London after undergoing an open-heart surgery in May, Sharif, according to the Dawn, urged Kashmiris not to forget the sacrifice of those people, who had given up their lives in the cause of freedom and right to self-determination.

Thanking the people for their support in the wake of the PML-N achieving a majority win in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Sharif lashed out at those engaging in "negative politics" against his party.

Asserting that the PML-N is setting a new record for progress in Pakistan, he said, "You cheer for me because you know Nawaz Sharif will build motorways."

The PML-N is set to form the next government in the Pakistan administered Kashmir as the unofficial poll results indicate that it has won 41 seats.
The Home Minister level talks between India and Bangladesh will be held on July 28 in the capital.

A delegation led by Home Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzamman Khan Kamal will be on a three-day visit to India beginning from July 27.

Security Advisor, Union Home Secretary, Director General, Border Security Force and Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau are also likely to participate in the talks.

As per reports, Asaduzamman Khan Kamal will discuss the recent Dhaka terror attack apart from issues related to the growth of Islamic State (IS) in the region, cooperation in counter-terrorism and border management with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh.

The last home ministerial level talks in India were held in December, 2012 and in Bangladesh in January, 2013.

Four people, including two policemen died in the attack near Sholakia field of Kishoreganj town where hundreds of thousands had gathered for Eid congregation on July 7.

The attack came two days after the terror attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's upscale Gulshan area, claimed 22 lives, including 17 foreigners. The attacks drew worldwide condemnation.
The Supreme Court will next week hear the plea seeking direction for Jammu and Kashmir governor N N Vohra to take over the administration of the state in the interest of security, safety and fundamental rights of the Indian citizens residing in the Valley.

The J&K Panthers Party had filed a petition in the apex court seeking direction for the Governor to intervene under section 92 of the Constitution of J&K and take over the administration.

The petition also says that the Governor of J&K may also be directed to dissolve the assembly of the state, which has failed to discharge its duties and functions which is evident from the present situation.

Meanwhile, the state government may be directed to lift ban on the movement of the Yatra to the holy shrine of Shri Amarnath cave in the valley.

The Supreme Court directed the state government and the Centre to ensure safety and security of all citizens of India residing in J&K at all costs.

Yesterday, in the wake of the prevailing situation in violence-hit Kashmir, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav called on Governor Vohra and discussed recent developments in the Valley, a day after he met Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

The Valley has erupted into violent protests after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr just gave the biggest surprise to her fans when she announced her engagement with Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel.

The 33-year-old model announced the big news on her Instagram by sharing a picture of a diamond ring, using a Snapchat filter and captioned it as, "I said yes!!!, reports Channel.24.

The Victoria's secret model and Spiegel began dating in 2015 after they met at a dinner organized by Louis Vuitton in New York in 2014.

This will be the second marriage of Kerr, who was previously married to actor Orlando Bloom with whom she shares five-year-old son.
To end the current political impasse, senior Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel has floated a four-point proposal, aiming a "package deal" among major parties.

Thursday's Parliament meeting was postponed until Friday as the governing alliance led by Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli maintained that three bills related to the budget should be discussed first in the Parliament while, the NC and the Maoist Centre have been insisting that a no-confidence motion registered against the Prime Minister should be the priority, reports the Kathmandu Post.

To this, Poudel proposed a middle path during a top political meeting, in which he has outlined four points: withdrawal of the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Oli, resignation of the Prime Minister, sorting out constitutional complexities for the election of (new) prime minister and (parties) working in tandem for the implementation of the constitution.

The ruling alliance has indicated that it "is open to discussing the proposal".

The proposal comes in a line with PM Oli's stand that the NC and the Maoist Centre should withdraw the no-trust motion for him to resign.

"I have proposed (that) we reach a deal in a package, as it could give us a long-term solution to the current stalemate," said Poudel.

Speaker Onsari Gharti has postponed Parliament meeting until 2pm Friday after major parties sought more time to find a meeting point.

The parties are scheduled to sit for talks again on Friday at noon.

NC leaders, however, said discussion on the no-confidence motion will move ahead on Friday if parties fail to reach an agreement before the House meeting, scheduled for 2pm, starts.

The ruling parties have also indicated that they would obstruct House proceedings if the no-confidence motion is tabled for discussion before the budget-related bills.
Lashing out at Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz for calling upon the international community to take appropriate steps to fulfil its commitments towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the UNSC resolutions, former union minister and senior Congress leader on Friday, said this is extremely unacceptable as Islamabad has been taking unpleasant interest in imposing upon India their vicious motives through the acts of terrorism.

"We do not expect it from anyone least of all from Pakistan, which has been seen in taking unpleasant interest in imposing upon India their vicious motives through acts of terrorism. And I think this is extremely unacceptable and in a very bad taste for Pakistan to be doing this," Khurshid told ANI.

"Whatever Sartaj Aziz has tried to attempt to say is totally unacceptable. He should concentrate and comment on his country, what happens here is none of his concern," he added.

Aziz on Thursday, said that Pakistan has provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for realisation of their fundamental rights to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.

He also mentioned Prime Minister Sharif's statement on the developments on the Indian side of Kashmir and the fact that Pakistan had lodged its protests with the Indian High Commissioner on the situation prevailing across the border.

He said that Pakistan has written letters to the UN Secretary General, President of the Security Council, OIC Secretary General, High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Foreign Ministers of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir (Azerbaijan, Niger, Saudi Arabia and Turkey) on the recent situation in Kashmir and called upon the international community to take appropriate steps to fulfil its commitments towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the UNSC resolutions.
Major political parties have reached an agreement to present the budget related bill in Parliament before taking up discussion on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister K.P Oli Sharma.

The understanding by Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and Communist Party of Nepal -Maoist Center reached an understanding to table the budget-related bill first during a meeting at Parliament building in New Baneshwor.

Nepali Congress leader Bimalendra Nidhi confirmed that the three parties decided to first table the budget bill to vote, after which the House will take forward the no confidence motion Oli-led government.

He said that Nepali Congress and CPN -Maoist Center will vote against the budget bill.

But the House will continue and a no-confidence motion against Oli government will be presented.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to take over the Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai within a week, saying that its present incumbents would not be allowed to deal with its administration or other matters related to it.

Expressing its annoyance over the delay in resolving the controversy surrounding membership allotment in the society, the apex court ruled, "We will not permit you (Society) to deal with it anymore."

The Supreme Court also fixed August 5 as the next date of hearing of the case.

The Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society had moved the Supreme Court against a Bombay High Court verdict of April this year, directing the demolition of the society.

It may be recalled that the Bombay High Court had ordered the Union Environment Ministry to demolish 31-storey society, but entertained and accepted a plea from the counsel representing the society to give the latter a 12-week stay on the demolition order to enable it to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Maharashtra Government and environment authorities had then objected to the high court's stay order.

The high court had then also directed the state government to initiate criminal prosecution against officers involved in the scam and to restore the plot.

Its order to raze the building came after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) passed an order to demolish the scam-hit society in 2011, following which its members approached the Bombay High Court challenging it. The ministry had on January 16, 2011 said that the society must be demolished within three months as it was unauthorised and in violation of coastal regulations.

The high court had also then directed the defence ministry to conduct a departmental enquiry against its officers for not taking action earlier.

The society was originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and war widows, but was converted into a 100-metre-tall building with politicians, bureaucrats and army officers allegedly conspiring to get flats allotted to them in the cooperative society at below-market rates.

The scam was unearthed in November 2010 which forced the then Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan to resign.

The matter even went to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and notices were issued by the environment ministry which led to multiple cases in the Bombay High Court. A criminal case was also filed in a special CBI court. In 2010, Maharashtra and the civic administration revoked the occupancy certificate granted in September 2010 as well the water and electricity supply to the building where members were yet to start residing.

The state also set up a two-member judicial panel to probe various issues related to the alleged irregularities, including the title of the plot and allotment to members. The HC had in December 2010 questioned the conduct of the IAS officers, a finding that is prominent even in the final report by the two-member HC judicial panel.

The panel however held that the land belonged to the state government and not the defence ministry as the ministry had claimed.

Earlier this week, the army instituted a Court of Enquiry to probe alleged lapses by former General Officers Commanding of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa Area (MG&G Area) in not filing a writ petition in the Bombay High Court "at the earliest available opportunity".

According to media reports, a major general has been appointed as presiding officer of the Court of Enquiry and two Brigadiers have been named as its members. All three officers are from a formation located in the area of responsibility of the Southern Command and have moved to Mumbai for the enquiry.

The army said that it is in the process of implementing the Bombay High Court's directions on a petition filed by it.

Media reports quoted sources, as saying that the Court of Enquiry will seek to find out whether the GOCs of the Area between 1999 and July 13, 2010 - Major General A R Kumar, Major General V S Yadav, Major General T K Kaul, Major General Tejinder Singh and Major General R K Hooda - compromised security while allotting flats in the society building.

The Adarsh scandal first surfaced in 2003 when it was reported that a high rise building was coming up in Colaba, close to military installations, overriding objections. Subsequent probes revealed the involvement of then Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who had to resign when it was found that he accorded approval to the project as Revenue Minister and his relatives had flats in the society building.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to take over the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society within a week and ensure that no demolition took place while securing the 31-storey Colaba building located next to defence installations.

Directing the society that they will not be permitted anymore to deal in the matter, the apex court gave the reigns to the government.

This comes as a major blow to the society which was hoping for an intervention by the Supreme Court, after it lost its battle against an order of demolition issued by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) for environmental zone violations

Earlier, the Army has instituted a Court of Inquiry to probe alleged lapses by former General Officers Commanding of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa Area (MG&G Area) in not filing a writ petition in the Bombay High Court "at the earliest available opportunity" in the matter of the housing scandal.

The High Court had directed the Ministry of Defence to order an inquiry into alleged lapses on part of its own officers.

In its order, the High Court said: "Ministry of Defence is. directed to hold an in-depth inquiry for finding out lapses or reasons on the part of its officers for not instituting writ petition at the earliest available opportunity as also finding out whether these GOCs compromised security of Colaba Military Station (CMS) in lieu of allotment of flats in the building of the society."

The Adarsh scandal first came to notice in 2003 when it was reported that a highrise building was coming up in Colaba, close to military installations, overriding objections.

The society which was promoting the venture had a large number of senior military officers, politicians and bureaucrats as its members, even though it was meant to be for war heroes.
The governments of Malaysia, Australia and China announced on Friday that search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 would be suspended upon completion of the current search area.

The ministers from Malaysia, China and Australia today met in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the future of the search in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries, reports abc.net.au.

In a statement issued to the victims' next of kin, they said the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be 'suspended' if the plane is not found in the current search area.

The statement added that the ministers had agreed if the plane was not found in the current search area then the search "would not end but be suspended" in the absence of new credible evidence on its location.

So far, the reports suggest that almost $180 million has been spent on an underwater search spanning 1,20,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean.

The search, originally scheduled to end in June, has been hampered due to bad weather.

MH370 disappeared en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014.

The joint search effort, so far, has not yet found the main body of the aircraft in the south Indian Ocean, where it is presumed to have ended its journey.
The resumption of school session after Eid has been delayed and security has been tightened at several missionary and English medium schools around Dhaka, amid threats of attack.

Police sources and authorities said that some schools received threats of attack. However, the school authorities denied having received any such threats and said they were delaying the resumption of school session to ensure safety of the students, reports the Dhaka Tribune.

Many schools are also working on installing additional security measures on the campuses, as a precaution.

However, a teacher at a renowned English medium school said that their school was second on the list of schools that have been threatened.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police has also increased monitoring at educational institutions, especially at the missionary and English medium schools, but they say it is due to the current situation in the city following the recent terror attacks.

While police denied the claim that some schools received threats, only Mirpur police confirmed that a threat had been reported to them after a missionary school principal filed a general diary with them on July 18 for receiving a death threat.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has summoned a meeting of his National Security Committee (NSC) on Friday, as he returned to the capital Islamabad after an absence of nearly two months.

The meeting is expected to be attended by the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, chiefs of all three arms of the military, DG Inter Services Intelligence, important cabinet members including ministers of finance, interior, defence and information who are part of this committee, reports the Express Tribune.

Reports suggest that key advisers to the Prime Minister on foreign affairs and national security are also expected to attend the meeting.

Prime Minister Sharif's office said the committee, the highest forum for civil-military coordination on security issues, is likely to deliberate on important internal and regional security issues today.

Nawaz had last summoned a meeting of the National Security Committee back in April.

Since then several developments have taken place in the country including the escalation in tensions about the Kashmir issue with India.

The National Security Committee is also expected to review National Action Plan, the lapse of Protection of Pakistan Act, hurdles in extending the tenure of paramilitary forces in Karachi and progress of the ongoing military operation Zarb-e-Azb.
Criticising Pakistan's politicization on Kashmir unrest Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Shaina NC on Friday said that talks between India and Pakistan will only take place on the issue of terrorism and not on Kashmir and the government will not compromise on this sensitive issue.

"Prime Minister has said time and again that dialogue with Pakistan will not be about Kashmir, it will be about terrorism and there is no compromise that is ever going to happen," she said.

Responding to Pakistan's Foreign Affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz's comment on unrest in Kashmir Shaina said that, "Sartaj Aziz can say what he wants but do we want to trust Pakistan. It is for our Prime Minister and security agencies to work in collusion with the government of the day to decide what is the best approach to delink with Pakistan because as they say once bitten twice shy."

"One side we have Indian and on the other the people who divide India, and Kashmir is not up for bargain or for sale," she added.

Aziz on Thursday, said that Pakistan has provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for realisation of their fundamental rights to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.

He also mentioned Prime Minister Sharif's statement on the developments on the Indian side of Kashmir and the fact that Pakistan had lodged its protests with the Indian High Commissioner on the situation prevailing across the border.
Fancy sleeping next to a chicken? It may sound like a 'fowl' suggestion, but it turns out, this poultry bedfellow can actually protect you from malaria.

For the first time, scientists have shown that malaria-transmitting mosquitoes actively avoid feeding on certain animal species such as chickens, using their sense of smell. Odours emitted by species such as chickens could provide protection for humans at risk of mosquito-transmitted diseases, according to a study.

Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia found that Anopheles arabiensis, one of the predominant species transmitting malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, avoids chickens when looking for hosts to feed on. This indicates that, unlike humans, cattle, goats and sheep, chickens are a non-host species for An. arabiensis and that the mosquitoes have developed ways of distinguishing them from host species.

Corresponding author Rickard Ignell said: "We were surprised to find that malaria mosquitoes are repelled by the odors emitted by chickens. This study shows for the first time that malaria mosquitoes actively avoid feeding on certain animal species, and that this behavior is regulated through odor cues."

To find out which species the mosquitoes prefer, the research team collected data on the population of human and domestic animals in three Ethiopian villages. They also collected blood-fed mosquitoes to test for the source of the blood that the mosquitoes had fed on. People living in the areas in which the research was conducted share their living quarters with their livestock.

The researchers found that while An. arabiensis strongly prefers human over animal blood when seeking hosts indoors, it randomly feeds on cattle, goats and sheep when outdoors, but avoids chickens in both settings, despite their relatively high abundance.

Since mosquitoes select and discriminate between their hosts mainly based on their sense of smell, the researchers collected hair, wool and feathers from potential host and non-host species to analyze the odor compounds present in them. Identifying certain compounds that were only present in chicken feathers, the researchers used these and other compounds obtained from all species to test their ability to repel mosquitoes from mosquito traps. The traps were set up in 11 thatched houses in one of the villages for a total of 11 days. In each of the houses, a single volunteer aged between 27 and 36 years slept under an untreated bed net.

The researchers found that significantly fewer mosquitoes were caught in traps baited with chicken compounds than in control traps. Suspending a living chicken in a cage next to a trap had a similar repellent effect.

Because it feeds indoors and outdoors on various host species, An. arabiensis is difficult to control with existing methods, according to previous research. The results of this study suggest that, in combination with established control methods, the odors emitted by chickens and other non-host species could prove useful in controlling An. arabiensis.

Rickard Ignell said: "People in sub-Saharan Africa have suffered considerably under the burden of malaria over an extended period of time and mosquitoes are becoming increasingly physiologically resistant to pesticides, while also changing their feeding habits for example by moving from indoors to outdoors. For this reason there is a need to develop novel control methods. In our study, we have been able to identify a number of natural odour compounds which could repel host-seeking malaria mosquitoes and prevent them from getting in contact with people."

The study appears in the open access Malaria Journal.
Flood warning has been issued in the low lying areas near Cauvery river in Salem district of Tamil Nadu.

The South west monsoon has brought in heavy rain in catchment areas of Cauvery river.

As the water level is rising, more than 6,000 cusecs of water is being released from KRS and 2,500 cusecs of water is being released from Kabini dam in Karnataka.

Water is gushing out through Hogenekkal falls as inflow into Cauvery has increased.

The Salem district administration has issued flood warnings to nine villages including Cauverypuram, Chinna Mettur,West Konur.

People are being advised not to bathe in Cauvery river and allow cattle to graze in river beds as water may gush in suddenly.

As per reports, the water inflow into Mettur Dam in Salem has increased to 9,048 cusecs because of rain in catchment areas in Karnataka.
Britain has listed the Pakistan-based East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organisation, a move likely to please China, which has demanded Western support for its fight against a group it says seeks to split off its western region of Xinjiang.

In London, the Home Office on Friday designated ETIM, which it also called the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), as an "Islamic terrorist and separatist organisation" trying to create an "independent caliphate" in Xinjiang, reports The Nation.

The United States and the United Nations have listed ETIM as a terrorist group, though there is some discrepancy internationally over whether ETIM and TIP are the same entity as China claims, and experts have questioned their cohesiveness.

The addition of ETIM to the list of proscribed organisations comes as leaders from China and Britain have proclaimed the countries are enjoying a "golden age" in relations. Inclusion on the list criminalises association with the group, according to the Home Office website.

Criteria for the listing of a group include factors such as the "specific threat it poses to the UK" and "the need to support other members of the international community in the global fight against terrorism".

The Home Office said the group is based in tribal regions of Pakistan, had claimed responsibility for attacks in China, "maintained an active and visible presence in the Syrian war" and had detailed its "jihad against the Chinese authorities". China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately offer a comment on the designation.

Hundreds have died in violence in recent years in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people. Beijing blames the bloodshed on Islamist militants and separatists, though rights groups say the unrest is more a reaction to repressive Chinese policies.

Western countries have long been reluctant to share intelligence with China or otherwise cooperate when it comes to counterterrorism in Xinjiang, saying China has provided little evidence to prove ETIM's existence and citing worries about possible human rights abuses.
Issuing a fresh warning to its citizens travelling to Saudi Arabia, especially Jeddah, the United States has advised them on the potential security issues, urging them to be vigilant as they travel.

The US State Department said on Thursday that the information of 'potential, imminent threat' was 'credible' and 'serious' enough to issue a security message.

The US embassy in Saudi Arabia has received reports of a "potential, imminent threat" against the US citizens in areas of the Jeddah city frequented by westerners.

"It's a security message, not a travel warning that our consulate put out in Jeddah. Obviously, our consulate felt that the information they had was credible enough, serious enough to warrant sending that message out immediately," the State Department spokesman, John Kirby, told a briefing.

When asked about the specific time period for which the warning has been issued, Kirby said, "There wasn't a time limit put on it, nor do I think we would want to do that right now, just as we continue to try to get more situational awareness on the threat. But we felt that the information was credible enough and specific enough that it warranted an immediate security message.
Researchers in Brazil have announced the "presence of the Zika virus" in Culex mosquitoes, the common house mosquito in the eastern city of Recife.

The statement was released yesterday with word of caution, saying "the obtained data will require additional studies in order to assess the potential participation of Culex in the spread of Zika and its role in the epidemic," reports CNN.

The researchers found the virus in three pools of 500 mosquitoes.

Zika was thought to solely by carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, before this study was completed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).

The Fiocruz is a public institution attached to the Brazilian Ministry of and is one of Brazil's oldest and most respected care institutions.

Tom Skinner, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's Senior Press Officer said the study would need to be replicated to have a better understanding of possible implications.

"Body of scientific evidence to date clearly points to Aedes being the primary vector implicated in Zika outbreaks," CNN quoted him as saying.

A US study published earlier this week found a different type of Culex mosquito was not capable to transmitting the in a lab setting. The study concluded that this type of mosquito is unlikely to transmit the virus in the US.
ITC rose 1.24% to Rs 253.75 at 9:25 IST on BSE after net profit rose 10.09% to Rs 2384.67 crore on 8.61% increase in total income to Rs 13673.58 crore in Q1 June 2016 over Q1 June 2015.

The result was announced after trading hours yesterday, 21 July 2016.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 36.72 points, or 0.13%, to 27,734.41.

On BSE, so far 1.15 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 7.14 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 256 and a low of Rs 251.90 so far during the day.

ITC delivered steady performance in Q1 June 2016 despite a challenging operating environment marked by continuing pressure on legal cigarette industry volumes and persistently sluggish demand conditions prevailing in the FMCG industry. Operating conditions in the hotels and paperboards, paper and packaging segment also remained subdued. Revenue from operations rose 8.3% to Rs 13156.68 crore in Q1 June 2016 over Q1 June 2015.

Total Comprehensive Income (TCI) rose 17.6% to Rs 2448.24 crore in Q1 June 2016 over Q1 June 2015. The higher growth in TCI relative to net profit is attributable to a positive swing of Rs 148.34 crore in other comprehensive income primarily on account of favourable movement in fair value of the company's strategic investments in equity.

The performance of the cigarette business during the quarter remained subdued on account of continued pressure on the legal cigarette industry in India. Over the last 4 years, the incidence of excise duty and VAT on cigarettes, at a per unit level, has gone up cumulatively by 118% and 142% respectively thereby exerting severe pressure on legal industry volumes even as illegal trade grows unabated. High incidence of taxation and a discriminatory regulatory regime on cigarettes in India have over the years led to a significant shift in tobacco consumption to lightly taxed or tax-evaded tobacco products like bidi, khaini, chewing tobacco, gutkha and illegal cigarettes which presently constitute over 89% of total tobacco consumption in the country. Besides adversely impacting the performance of the legal cigarette industry, this has led to sub-optimisation of the revenue potential from the tobacco sector.

ITC is a diversified company, with presence in cigarettes, hotels, paperboards & specialty papers, packaging, agri-business, packaged foods & confectionery, information technology, branded apparel, personal care, stationery and other FMCG products. ITC is a market leader in cigarettes.

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Held on 21 July 2016

Diamond Power Infrastructure announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 21 July 2016, inter alia, has discussed and approved/recommended following items:

1. Approval of SDR proposal initiated by the Banks. The Board of Directors, approved the invocation of SDR by Lenders in the Joint Lenders meet held on 29 June 2016. The Lenders will be allocated shares which aggregate to a minimum of 51% of the companies paid up capital. The Board of Directors recommended to have an enabling resolution to the shareholders in the ensuring 24th AGM for empowering the board of directors with suitable power to execute the transaction.

2. Approved, subject to the approval of the Shareholders in their general meeting, increase in the authorized capital of the Company from Rs. 80,00,00,000 (Rupees Eighty Crores Only) divided into 7,58,58,500 (Seven Crores Fifty Eight Lacs Fifty Eight Thousand Five Hundred Only) Equity Shares of Rs.10/- (Rupees Ten) each and 41,41,500 (Forty One Lacs Forty One Thousand Five Hundred Only) Preference Shares of Rs. 10/- (Rupees Ten) Each to Rs. 2,00,00,00,000 (Rupees Two Hundred Crores Only) divided into 19,58,58,500 (Nineteen Crores Fifty Eight Lacs Fifty Eight Thousand Five Hundred Only) Equity Shares of Rs.10/- (Rupees Ten) each and 41,41,500 (Forty One Lacs Forty One Thousand Five Hundred Only) Preference Shares of Rs. 10/- (Rupees Ten) Each ranking pari passu in all respect with the existing Shares.

3. Reconstituted Audit Committee of the Company.

Future Guidance for the Shareholders of the company regarding investor Induction on the company.

a) The Company has identified Jiangsu Longzhe Trade & Technology Company as an Investors and given a Proposal to the lenders on April 23, 2016 for induction of new investors and re-alignment of debt.

b) The Companies lenders have invoked SDR, with a view to convert a substantial portion of the debt into equity, with an objective to moving the Company to have a sustainable debt and also compensate the banks present sacrifices to future gains in equity.

c) The lender has appointed Ernst and Young to carry out a Transparent and open process of Investors induction mandate of which is presently under execution by them & is expected to be concluded at the earliest possible time.

d) Upon Conclusion of the process & approval of the lenders the best offer received by them, will be selected for sale of at least 26% Shares, the incoming lender will be required to buy another 25% into the company directly.

e) Pursuant to Purchase of 26% from the lenders the incoming investors will be making an open offer, to the Shareholders of the company to comply with the regulatory guidelines as mandated by SEBI.

The offer received from Jiangsu Longzhe Trade & Development Company, Nanjig, PR China is considered at the Base Minimum while carrying out the above process by Lenders through E & Y, any better then it will be considered.

The Company presently estimates to complete the entire process in 90-100 days.

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To carry out defence and commercial shipyard activities

Reliance Defence & Engineering has signed Sub-Concession Agreement with Gujarat Maritime Board and Gujarat Pipavav Port at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The SCA is for a period of 30 years expiring in June 2046.

The SCA inter alia grants sub-concessions, right and authority to Reliance Defence & Engineering to build, operate and manage Defence / Commercial Shipyard Activities on the terms and condition mentioned therein.

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Actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who has created waves with his acting and singing talent in Bollywood, says the growing rage of actors trying their luck in singing is a "very good trend".

Asked about actors exploring singing, Ayushmann told IANS: "I think our cinema is evolving...In the west actors only lip sync to their own song, music and vocals...this happening in India is a very good trend."

The 31-year-old actor feels that that people consume music visually in our country.

"So, whenever they see the video they like the song more...When you see the favourite actor singing, giving their own voice...I think its just helps the song and the music as well," he added.

On the work front, Ayushmann will next be seen sharing screen space with actress Parineeti Chopra in "Meri Pyaari Bindu".

--IANS

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Bangladesh has handed over blood samples of the Gulshan cafe terror attackers to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for testing, police here said on Friday.

The samples were handed over on Friday morning, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune.

The doctors collected hair and blood samples from the bodies of the six men who laid siege to the cafe to ascertain whether they had been under the influence of drugs during the attack on the cafe, the Daily Star reported.

A forensic team of Dhaka Medical College Hospital collected the samples on request of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The move came amid media reports that militants, especially members of the Islamic State, are known to be popping addictive pills which help "fuel their fury" before carrying out terror attacks.

The six terrorists, who were shot dead on July 2 by security forces, include the cafe's pizza chef Saiful Islam, who investigators say was one of the attackers. His family has claimed he was innocent, the Daily Star reported.

Blood samples of the family members of the six men were also collected on Wednesday at the lab of the Criminal Investigation Department in the capital.

On July 1, terrorists stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the high security diplomatic zone in Gulshan, killing 20 hostages, mostly foreigners and including an Indian woman. Two police officials were also killed.
An AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 29 people on board went missing over the Bay of Bengal on Friday, Defence Ministry sources said.

The aircraft was flying from Chennai to Port Blair. Those on board included six crew members.

"The aircraft departed at 8.30 a.m. and was due at Port Blair at 11.30 a.m. The aircraft has not reached. Search operations are on," a senior IAF official told IANS over telephone from New Delhi.

"We have deployed Coast Guard aircraft and ships to search for the plane," a Coast Guard Official told IANS.

Officials said it was a "courier flight" with service personnel on board.

A major search and rescue operation has been launched by the Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal.

Navy officials said a P-8I surveillance aircraft, a Dornier and four ships had been deployed in the search and rescue operation.

--IANS

vj-ao/rn/mr
Efforts are on by Indian seismologists and geologists to jointly carry out studies with Bangladesh and Myanmar and form a common geodetic network to verify fresh data and sort out discrepancies over earthquake-related research in the region.

In a recent paper in Nature Geoscience, a group of scientists published new evidence of the increasing strain building beneath Bangladesh, where two tectonic plates underlie the vast delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, one of the most densely populated regions in the world.

They estimate that at least 140 million people in the region could be affected if the boundary ruptures.

However, a section of Indian experts has expressed reservations over some of the details discussed in the paper.

"The Indo-Bumese arc, the north-south oriented mountain chain, passes through Bangladesh and a major portion of India and Myanmar. When the countries work in isolation, things fall apart. The idea is to let all the countries join together. There is some discrepancy in some of the numbers. So we feel let's sort it out together," Vineet K. Gahalaut, Director of the National Centre for Seismology under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, told IANS.

"We will design a common network and plan in such a way that we can answer many questions related to the plate margin," said Gahalaut, who is aware of the latest publication.

In the paper, lead author Michael Steckler, a geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the US, claims Bangladesh and its neighbourhood including India may be hit by a huge earthquake -- although not imminent -- that could reach a magnitude of nine on the Richter scale.

Southern Asia is composed of three major plates: the Indian Plate, the Australian Plate and the Sundaland Plate. The Indian and Sundaland plates abut in Myanmar.

Steckler and colleagues claim 10 years of data show that eastern Bangladesh and a bit of eastern India are pushing diagonally into western Myanmar at a rapid rate -- 46 millimetres, or about 1.8 inches, per year.

But Gahalaut and his colleagues were of the view that "the India-Sunderland motion is about 36 mm/year."

This "extra 10 mm/year" is "bothering a section of Indian researchers, including Gahalaut and Bhaskar Kundu of Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela.

Kundu said he "does not completely agree" with the findings.

"Our work says that the plate boundary is predominantly aseismic in the Indo-Burmese Arc region, northeast India and such aseismic motion on the plate boundary fault significantly lowers the seismic hazards," Kundu told IANS, adding it is difficult to justify the findings of the new paper based on the models used.

According to Gahalaut, the 46 mm/year number needs to be further confirmed.

"We need to better constrain it by taking more measurements from Myanmar. This is the reason we are planning a common seismological and geodetic network which will span the entire Indo-Burmese arc," he said.

The idea is that scientists will approach their own governments and get funding, explained Gahalaut, who is spearheading the collaboration on the Indian side.

This would also enhance data-sharing, including the results, he said, stressing that at this point in time, real-time monitoring is not required.

"There is no doubt that a large magnitude earthquake occurred in the coastal regions of (what is now) Myanmar and Bangladesh in 1762, known as Arakan earthquake. So this is true that this region is susceptible to large earthquakes. But how big it could be is a bigger question," contended Gahalaut.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)

--IANS

sgh/ssp/vm/ky/tb
India has been commended for its support in improving Ghana's internal security, with the West African nation saying this has been part of the two countries cooperation in international security.

"Ghana and India are cooperating in the area of international security. India has agreed to support Ghana in the field of security," Vice President Amissah-Arthur said when he received outgoing Indian High Commissioner Jeeva Sagar at the Flagstaff House here on Friday.

India's cooperation with Ghana in security and national defence dates back to the 1960s when military officers were sent to India for training. A number of police officers have also benefitted from training in India.

Trade between the two countries has also hiked over the past few years through the deepening of bilateral relations -- to $7 billion from $3 billion over the past two years.

Amissah-Arthur said that with the current expansion of relations between the two countries, "Ghana would continue to cherish its friendship with India," adding that prior to Ghana's independence, India provided tremendous support in various sectors, which led to the shared principles of non-alignment and non-interference in the affairs of other countries.

The vice president said the level of economic cooperation between the two countries had deepened during the Sagar's tour of duty and mentioned, in particular, Indian investments in agriculture and sugar production.

Sagar who has ended his three-year tenure, Indian investments in Ghana have already exceeded $1 billion and attributed this to the belief the two countries have in democracy and the rule of law.

He said geographical locations have not affected the cordial relations between the countries, adding that it was for this reason that India is prepared to support the Kofi Annan ICT Centre with a$1 million grant to enable it add to its current programmes.

He said India is prepared to assist Ghanaian exports with value addition for the country to reap maximum returns.

Sagar said the recent state visit by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has given a further boost to deepen ties between the two countries, which has also improved partnerships between Ghanaian and Indian businesses.

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com)

--IANS

francis/vm
Superstar Rajinikanth-starrer Tamil action drama "Kabali" which released across 306 screens in Kerala on Froday, literally kept many awake to watch it as early as 5 a.m., when the screens came alive.

Incidentally, the Kerala release is being done by the distribution company of superstar Mohanlal and his close aide Antony Perumbavoor.

And when the film was over, many felt it was worth it to keep awake.

"Super, excellent, Rajni has not failed us, definitely there has and must be a sequel to it... Then only it will be complete," were some of the first reactions across the state.

At Palakkad, the district bordering Tamil Nadu, fans burst crackers and distributed sweets.

In the state capital alone, eight screens showed the much awaited film and long queues was seen by those who could not get a ticket for the opening show.

Yesteryear actress Maneka, recalling her experience acting alongside the great Rajinikanth in the Tamil film "Netrikann", said simplicity is his hallmark and that's what has made him great.

"I was hugely fortunate to act with him and the shooting took place at Ooty. When I faltered in my act, he came to me and tapped my shoulder and said, 'Please do not be worried', and said that 'When someone says something to you, if it suits you take it, if not let it out through the other ear'.

"That day Hindi superstar Dharmendra was also shooting there and for dinner, even though I was not invited he came to my room and said, 'Maneka, you please join us for dinner'," she said.

"I acted with him more than 30 years back and last year when I knew he will be here in the capital city for shooting, I felt a desire to meet him and wrote a letter to him. There was no reply him for a few days, then one day I got a call and the caller introduced himself saying 'Maneka, am Rajni' and I immediately jumped up from my seat as a sign of respect.

"He said he will be here for five days and on the fifth day, we will meet. My daughter who was studying in Chennai flew down and we both went and saw him at his room and I just could not imagine his simplicity. He remembered me even after 30 years. No wonder he is loved, adored and respected," said Maneka, who added that she is booked to watch a 6 p.m. show of "Kabali" here.

Popular media critic Fakrudhin Ali said that even while everyone knows what one sees in Rajinikanth's film is beyond comprehension, it's his stardom that has catapulted the great actor to great heights.

"It's the acceptance of Rajni as a simple person that helped him to reach here and this status can never be achieved by our own superstar Mammootty or Mohanlal and even Kamal Haasan," said Ali.

--IANS

sg/rb/vm
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met Dalits who were thrashed by members of a Hindu "cow protection group" and blamed the Gujarat government for their misery.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader demanded strictest punishment to the guilty.

After meeting the four victims at the Civil Hospital here, Kejriwal told the media: "The culprits must get such punishment that it should shake them to the core. An example must be set."

He said the Gujarat government did not act in time because the attack on the Dalits was blessed by people at the top.

"They were thrashed in full public view. If such an incident is happening in the presence of the administration, it means those culprits were backed by higher powers. It shows the government was involved," Kejriwal said.

He accused the Gujarat government of being "anti-Dalit".

Four Dalit youths were stripped above the waist and beaten mercilessly with iron rods in Mota Samadhiya village by a cow protection group for skinning a dead cow.

The video of the thrashing went viral, sparking outrage nationwide.

Kejriwal separately described the cow protection groups that have sprung up in recent times as "BJP goondas unleashed by the top BJP leadership to polarise society and create fear in the minds of people".

A day earlier, Kejriwal said an atmosphere of "oppression" prevailed across Gujarat and people of all communities were feeling threatened.

In a video message, he asked people to unite and raise their voice against what he called the oppression of the state.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited Una and met the family of the victims on Thursday.

--IANS

kd-am/mr
Delhi Chief Minister met the Dalit victims at a hospital in Una on Friday and attacked the Gujarat government for not taking appropriate action.

"Those culprits must be punished in such a manner that it should shake their hearts. An example must be set here," Kejriwal said after meeting the four victims of flogging at Civil Hospital, Una.

He further took on Gujarat government stating that the administration did not act at time because it was hinted from "above".

"They were thrashed in full public. If such incident is happening in the presence of administration then it means that those culprits were backed from higher powers. It hints that the government was involved," Kejriwal said.

He added, "Gujarat government is anti-Dalit".

Four Dalit youths were flogged in full public view at Mota Samadhiya village in Una, by a self proclaimed cow protection vigilantes for skinning a dead cow. The video of flogging appeared on July 11, that sparked uproar among the Dalit community in the state.

Prior to his visit, Kejriwal on Thursday said an atmosphere of "oppression" prevailed across the western state and that people of all communities were threatened.

Kejriwal in a video message released here asked the people to "unite" and raise their voice against what he called the oppression of the state.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had also visited Una district to meet the family of victims.
Film: "Madaari"; Director: Nishikant Kamat; Cast: Irrfan Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Vishesh Bansal, Tushar Dalvi, Nitish Pandey, Ayesha Raza; Rating: ****1/2

"Madaari" is the moving tale of a distraught common man, a single father Nirmal Kumar (Irrfan) who has lost his son under tragic circumstances, owing to negligence and corruption in the system.

How he resorts to a desperate measure to make his voice heard, in a bid to seek justice, forms the crux of the film.

Exposing the malaise of deep-seated corruption, government apathy and the power of social media in reaching out to people, the film is both, disturbing and hard-hitting. It is a reality check for the electorate and sends out a strong message that the "ideal voter" in India will perhaps no longer tolerate government indifference and demands accountability.

Unlike, other political satires, "Madaari" takes the route of a strong emotionally-packed narrative, well-told. And that, is what perhaps pierces your heart, making you connect immediately. You empathise with the father, even not having experienced his predicament.

Irrfan, as the anguished father, is brilliant. His eyes, with their vacant expression, convey his pain and frustration, with ease. As an actor, he is in absolute command, reliving the grief effortlessly. His pain is palpable. The last scene where he finally severs physical ties with his son's belongings, is heart-wrenching.

Vishal Bansal, as the Home Minister's son, Rohan, is a treat to watch. A combination of spontaneity and restraint, the child exudes a maturity as an actor, far beyond his years. Their bond which builds, gradually, is heart-warming. Equally fun to watch, is their repartee, with startling wise statements made by the child.

Tushar Dalvi as the Home Minister, seen after a long hiatus in Hindi films, is competent, but not extraordinary.

Jimmy Shergill as Nachiket, the Investigating officer, is once again his usual self. A feeling of deja vu pervades you when you see him on screen -right from his physical persona, to his character. Yet, that does not take away his ability as an actor, in performing sincerely.

Ayesha Mishra as the mother, is convincing and delivers what is expected of her.

The rest of the actors too, essay their roles effectively and leave an impact, however limited their screen time, especially the actor playing Chiku's father.

Directed astutely by Kamat, the film is compact and never digresses from the core subject. It is engrossing and powerful. The screenplay is taut and the characters well-etched and real.

"Masoom sa" rendered powerfully by Sukhwinder Singh is emotionally disturbing. It drives home the message of the father's irreversible loss and captures the mood of the film.

The unhurried pace of the narrative, does not seem out of place and in fact gives ample time to let the plight of the father grow. The final face off, although overtly dramatic would incite and appeal to the common man.

With a wide range of lenses, cinematographer Avinash Arun brilliantly captures the locales and finer nuances of the performances.

Overall, "Madaari" is an absolute treat both for cine-goers and every citizen of India, who is concerned about his country.

--IANS

toy/nv/vm
The death of at least 20 children due to malnourishment in Nagada village in mineral-rich Jajpur district in the last four months may have exposed the development claims of the Odisha government.

The acute poverty and lack of basic welfare services in the inaccessible village, inhabited by Juang tribes, came to fore only after the loss of precious human lives. The death of malnourished children has proved that several flagship schemes have been inaccessible to the community, which comes under particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG).

The state administration rushed to the village to provide health service and food grains to the people.

"The officials of the district administration are there. We have made provision to provide take home ration cards and chhatua to each family of the village through Anganwadi workers. Besides, two mini Anganwadi centres would be set up," said Women and Child Development Minister Usha Devi.

She, however, said the death of the children occurred as there was no family planning among the Juang tribe.

"As per the survey conducted by my department, 24 families in this village have 122 children. Such disturbing phenomenon is due to lack of awareness among the Juang tribals," said the minister.

However, the opposition parties trained their guns at the government for its failure to ensure the development of the tribals.

"Nagada has opened everybody's eyes to the true state of affairs in the tribal areas. The death of children due to malnourishment has brought to the light the falsity of claims made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik about the development taking place across the state in the past 16 years," said Opposition leader Narasingha Mishra.

BJP MLA Pradeep Purohit said it exposed the state government, which has been claiming that they have carried out development in the last 16 years.

Even as the Sukinda Valley in Jajpur is known for its abundant minerals and large industries, the irony is that the people are deprived of all basic amenities, be it road connectivity, health care or food security, said the BJP MLA.

Notably, Nagada is situated on the hilltop in a dense forest under the Sukinda block. The children of three villages including Nagada and Guisala, are affected by malnourishment.

The average household population is 8-9 members, who stay in thatched houses in unhygienic condition, depending on forest produce, with no drinking water. The villages have no road, clean water or electricity.

The villages also do not have PDS shops.

However, the malnutrition in children is not limited to Jajpur district.

In Odisha, 45 per cent of under-five children suffer from chronic under-nutrition. Among them, tribal children bear maximum brunt with 57 per cent of the tribal under-fives being chronically undernourished, according to a UNICEF report.

The situation among Odisha's rural tribal children aged 18-23 months is even more serious with the prevalence of stunting (low height for age) as high as 83 per cent, said the report.

(Chinmaya Dehury can be reached at chinmaya.d@ians.in)

--IANS

cd/bim/ky/tb
The government is not in favour of compulsory military training to youth in the country, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The Minister was responding to a question by BJP member Ram Charan Bohra, who asked if the government proposed to impart compulsory military training to the youth in the country.

"The government is not in favour of making military training compulsory," the minister said in a written reply.

Asked about details of any proposals that had been made on the issue, the minister listed three private members' bills presented to the house between 2012 and 2015.

The first bill, brought by Rajya Sabha member Avinash Rai Khanna in December 2012, sought to provide military training to youth.

The second private member bill was brought by Lok Sabha MP Bhola Singh in February 2015 for providing military training to all able-bodied citizens.

The third bill, presented in the Lok Sabha by B.C. Khanduri, who also heads the parliamentary panel on defence, sought compulsory military training to gazetted officers of central government.

None of the private members' bills, however, found favour with the respective houses.

--IANS

ao/pgh/dg
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay, for now, the demolition of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society building in Mumbai and told the Military Defence Estate office to take custody of it.

Justices J. Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said an inventory of documents would be prepared under the supervision of the registrar of the Bombay High Court before being handed over to the office bearers of the Adarsh Society.

--IANS

pk/bim/mr
The forthcoming winter-festive edition of Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) will host the first ever plus-size model hunt for males and females, curated by designer Shilpa Chavan of Little Shilpa in association with the plus-size store, aLL.

The creations showcased on runways are meant for the everyday consumers who seek high-fashion designer-wear but are often restricted by available size options. Bearing this in mind, aLL has collaborated with LFW to break thought patterns and present a collection that will be showcased at the upcoming edition.

The auditions will be held at St. Regis on July 29 for plus-size men and women who would like to walk the ramp.

This hunt is a precursor to the first plus-size show to be held during the upcoming LFW at St. Regis here from August 24-28, said a statement.

The show will represent the inclusive spirit of fashion, and will open up a host of options for every individual looking for fashionable choices irrespective of their shape or size.

Jaspreet Chandok, Vice President and Head-Fashion, IMG Reliance Pvt. Ltd, said: "We believe that fashion should embrace diversity and cater to all body types. The Lakme Fashion Week will continue to push the boundaries of fashion and break stereotypes and this is another step in that direction."

Purnima Lamba, Head of Innovation, Lakme added: "Fashion and beauty in India must reflect our diversity.

"At Lakme Fashion Week, we are very excited to present our first plus sized fashion show in association with Little Shilpa. Redefining the future of fashion yet again, Lakme Fashion Week always strives for a more inclusive future for us all," she added.

--IANS

nv/nn/dg
In order to attract investment to Odisha, the state government on Friday decided to hold an Invest meet in Bengaluru on August 26.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will attend the event and hold one-to-one meetings with investors.

A high-level preparatory meeting was held on Friday under the chairmanship of the Industries Minister Devi Prasad Mishra Bhubaneswar.

"We have requested the Chief Minister to grace the occasion. The Ministers and secretaries of concerned departments would also have discussions with the industry players," said Mishra.

He said around 50 large and medium industries have been enlisted basing on their interest for investment in Odisha, and are from sectors like engineering, IT, hardware, aviation, textiles, medical devices, lubricants, aerospace, beverages, telecom, defence, transport and consumer durables, etc.

Besides, a number of events and interactions would be organized on this occasion to attract more investment to .
Over 3,500 women officers are serving the armed forces at present, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday, adding that "further possibilities" for women in combat roles were being examined.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Parrikar said the army has 1,514 women officers, the navy has 439, and the air force has 1,584 women officers. The number totals up to 3,537.

These numbers exclude the medical and dental branches.

Barring the IAF which recently inducted three women fighter pilots, women are not in combat roles in the Indian armed forces.

While the exact strength of Indian forces are not revealed due to strategic reasons, it is said to be around 1.3 million active personnel. The number of officers is, however, far less.

The authorised strength of officers in the army is 48,000, for the navy it is 9,000 and for the air force it is 12,000.

The information furnished by the minister said between 2013-15, 303 women officers were inducted in the army, while in 2016 so far, 67 women officers have been taken in.

The navy inducted 142 women officers between 2013-15, and the IAF inducted 522.

In 2016, the navy has inducted 20 women officers so far and the IAF 85 till the beginning of July.

In response to a question on the process of inducting women in combat roles, the minister said the administration "has inducted three women Short Service Commission Officers (SSCOs) in IAF into the fighter stream".

He reiterated that it was an "experimental entry scheme", and will be valid for "five years from the date of issue of Government of India letter dated 02.12.2015".

The minister added: "Further possibilities are being examined".

President Pranab Mukherjee, in his speech to the joint sitting of parliament's two houses at the beginning of budget session this year, had said the government would soon be allowing women in combat streams in all three forces.

"My government has approved the induction of women as short-service commission officers and as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force. In the future, my government will induct women in all the fighter streams of our armed forces," President Mukherjee said.

--IANS

ao/pgh/vt
Pakistani social media sensation Qandeel Baloch's father said his son, who killed the model-cum-actress for honour, should be "shot on sight".

"I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one," Baloch's father Anwar Azeem said.

According to the News report on Friday, Baloch's parents voiced their pain at the murder of their daughter by their younger son Waseem, who killed her for bold posts and pictures on social media sites.

"We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us," Azeem said.

Azeem said that his daughter was his "best friend" but claimed that his son Waseem had been "crazed".

Baloch's mother said she used to share all her secrets with her.

"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me, 'Your daughter is working hard, she'll go far'," she said.

Qandeel's mother said she and Azeem were also drugged the night Baloch was first sedated and then strangled to death.

"My husband and I fell deep asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives," she said.

"In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... but she didn't get up."

Her mother, describing Baloch's corpse, said: "Her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips were black."

Baloch was killed on the night of July 14 by Waseem. He confessed to drugging her and then strangling her to death, for family honour.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition by NGO Arrive Safe Society seeking action against Bollywood star Aamir Khan for allegedly misusing the national emblem in his programme "Satyamev Jayate".

Dismissing the plea, the bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur said that there was no merit in it.

As Chandigarh resident Harman S. Sidhu, representing the NGO, told the court of alleged misuse of the national emblem by the actor, the bench said that if he had any specific grievance, then he can go to police.

As Sidhu addressed the court on his plea, the bench asked him: "Who are you? What are you doing for your livelihood?"

When the he told the court that he was software engineer, the bench told him: "Why don't you go to police"?

The NGO had challenged the November 3, 2015 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had while dismissing the plea said: "The issue raised is with regard to improper use of national emblem. Such use is already prohibited under the law. If any individual has improperly used the national emblem, it will be open for the petitioner to initiate appropriate action against him/her in accordance with law."

--IANS

pk/vd
The UN Security Council held its first secret poll on candidates vying to become the next Secretary General but has made no announcement of the results.

After the secret ballot, Japan's Ambassador Koro Bessho, also the Security Council president for July, told the media here on Thursday that "the candidates will be informed of the results through the respective permanent representatives of nominating member states."

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, the Security Council, particularly its five permanent members, will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

Before the final decision comes out, several rounds of secret polls would be held among the 15 Security Council members.

So far, 12 candidates have been competing for the post of the next UN chief: half of them are women; eight are from the eastern European nations. Among them are former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, UN cultural agency UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

In Thursday's ballot, Security Council members have voted "encourage", "discourage" or "no opinion expressed" for each one of them.

The second round of secret poll has not yet been scheduled.

The incumbent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is going to conclude his term at the end of 2016.

--IANS

ksk
Six people were killed and eight others were injured on Friday in a collision between a vehicle supplying newspapers and a truck in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh, police said.

The injured have been admitted to various hospitals. Four of them are in a serious condition, Digora police station chief Waheed Khan told reporters.

The collision took place near Barmatal village while the newspaper supply vehicle, also carrying a large number of people, was travelling from Jhansi to Tikamgarh, Waheed Khan said.

--IANS

sp/kb/vt
It was an emotional reunion after 28 years as two daughters from Dubai finally traced their Indian mother thanks to the help from the Hyderabad police.

Tears rolled down the eyes of Ayesha Rasheed Eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed Eid Obaid as they embraced their mother Nazia Begum in the office of Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana in the old city of Hyderabad on Thursday.

"We never thought we would meet our mother in lifetime. Allah had fixed the meeting and we are glad that we got to see our mother after 28 long years," said Ayesha, who along with her sister had been making frantic efforts to trace their mother for several months.

Nazia, now 60, was married to a UAE national Rasheed Eid Obaid Rifaq Masmari in 1981 at a Qazi's office here.

He took her to Fujairah province in UAE. As he was already married, the Hyderabadi woman faced problems in living there.

She lived in UAE for four years and had two daughters Ayesha Rasheed Eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed Eid Obaid.

Nazia was divorced by her husband following some dispute. He sent her back to India but did not allow her to take her daughters along.

After two years, Nazia's parents married her to a fruit vendor from Bidar in Karnataka. She now has two sons and a daughter from the second marriage.

While she was living with her family in Bidar, her two daughters Ayesha RashedA and Fatima Rasheed who are now aged 29 years and 26 years respectively came to Hyderabad in search of their mother.

In January, they approached the DCP with a photograph of their mother.

Pamphlets and posters were printed and circulated all over the south zone. Television channels aired stories about the plight of the two women who were desperate to meet their mother.

During meeting with old qazis, police got a small clue. Police made strenous efforts for six months to trace Nazia.

Nazia had thin memories about her daughter because she saw them around 30 years ago. All she could remember was her younger daughter had six fingers. The police cross checked the identity mark and after the confirmation arranged their meeting.

--IANS

ms/sku/vm
Curfew and separatists-called protest shutdown marred life across the Valley for the 14th day running on Friday.

Authorities imposed curfew in all the 10 districts of the Valley on Friday making announcements on loudspeaker mounted on police vehicles and asked people to remain indoors.

"People are asked to remain indoors," said one such loudspeaker mounted on a police vehicle in north Kashmir's Ganderbal district.

Sources in the state administration said curfew will be strictly enforced to prevent post Friday prayer violence in the Valley.

Separatists have already extended their protest shutdown call up to Monday.

State Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday visited bereaved families in south Kashmir Anantnag district whose members have been killed in the ongoing violence that has claimed 45 lives.

The chief minister also met families members of those who have been injured during protests those began on July 9, a day after Hizbul commander, Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with the security forces.

Authorities had announced opening of schools in four districts of Baramulla, Badgam, Bandipora and Ganderbal on Thursday.

Due to prevailing tension and continuing curfew in these districts, the decision to re-open schools failed to encourage parents to send children to schools.

Encouragingly, no major incident of violence took place anywhere in the Valley.

Mufti also chaired an all party meeting held in Srinagar on Thusrday. The regional Conference (NC) boycotted the meeting while the Congress, CPI M and Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) attended it.

The meeting condemned violence while condoling the killing of people in violence.

Separatists had asked people to resume normal activities of life from 2 PM onwards for the remaining portion of the day on Thursday.

The authorities enforced curfew more strictly during this period to shoot down the intended message that the separatists were calling all the shots in Kashmir.
A woman has been arrested for suspected involvement in the terror attack on a cafe here that killed 22 persons including an Indian, the media said on Friday.

Ruma Akhtar, 22, was picked up on Thursday by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on charges of her involvement in the attack, bdnews24 reported.

Biju Mia, father of Ruma Akhtar, told the media that detectives took her away from their house saying she was a suspect in the July 1 attack.

"We have heard about the detention of one Ruma from (residents)," a local police official said.

--IANS

ask/rn/mr
As the sleepy town of Una emerges as the epicenter of over 'atrocities against Dalits', the cavalcade of leaders descending upon this west Gujarat town continues. After Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the town this week, senior leaders from CPI, CPI(M) and JD(U) would be visiting the victims in the coming two days.

Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, CPI's D Raja and CPI(M) Lok Sabha member P K Biju would reach Una tomorrow. They would be followed by BSP leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Sunday, July 24. As per unconfirmed reports, senior leaders of the Trinamool Congress and Prakash Yashwant Ambedkar (grandson of Baba Saheb Ambedkar) are also likely to visit Una. Dates for their visit, however, are not confirmed yet.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Friday defended some of his cabinet colleagues against whom the Opposition Congress and NCP have levelled allegations of corruption.

Replying to a discussion on 'tainted' ministers, in the Lower House, the CM also made it clear that former Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse -- who resigned recently in the wake of series of allegations against him -- has been given clean chit in the PA bribery case.

Khadse's name does not figure in the Anti-Corruption Bureau's (ACB) charge sheet in the case of graft by Gajanan Patil, an alleged personal assistant of Khadse, Fadnavis said.

Patil was trapped by the ACB on May 14 for allegedly demanding Rs 30 crore from a Mumbai-based social entrepreneur Dr Ramesh Jadhav.

Fadnavis said Vadodara-based hacker Manish Bhangale had met him with alleged call records from Dawood's Karachi residence to show that Khadse was in frequent touch with the underworld don.

"When Bhangale met me, I immediately asked the Crime Branch to conduct an inquiry," Fadnavis said.

"No charge has been proved against minister Jaykumar Rawal," he said. Similarly, there is not a single crime registered against Minister of State Ravindra Chavan, he added.

Fadnavis also defended minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, who has been found to be closely associated with a company listed as a wilful defaulter by the Bank of Maharashtra.

Nilangekar, Minister for Labour, Earthquake Rehabilitation and Ex-servicemen's Welfare, is a guarantor for a loan that was a non-performing asset (NPA) and declared as a "fraud account" with an outstanding balance of Rs 49.29 crore owed to two state-owned banks - Bank of Maharashtra and Union Bank of India.

Further, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last year filed a chargesheet in a case of cheating lodged by the banks after finding that the mortgage deed papers for the loan had been tampered with.

"As the matter pertains to a national bank, the inquiry is being conducted by CBI," Fadnavis said. Nothing more should be read into it, he added.

"The Opposition zeroed in on a figure (of ministers to be targeted). Just because our government completed 20 months, 20 ministers were targeted," Fadnavis said.

Meanwhile, former CM Prithviraj Chavan told reporters later that CM sought Khadse's resignation after allegations.

"Why should there be one yardstick for Khadse and a different one for other ministers," Chavan said.

Talking to reporters, NCP MLA Jayant Patil said Fadnavis has yet not given clean chit to Khadse in the MIDC land purchase at Bhosari in Pune.

"The CM says the case is subjudice. Cases against some ministers are also subjudice but they continue to remain in the ministry," Patil said.

"Why should there be a different criterion for Khadse and other ministers," Patil said.

Both Chavan and Patil alleged that the government shied away from debate on the 'tainted' ministers. Patil said the presiding officer wound up the House proceedings in a huff.
The Manohar Lal Khattar government in BJP-ruled Haryana, which claims to provide a clean government after ten years of mis-rule and rampant corruption by Congress-led BS Hooda government, is caught on the wrong foot for delaying the investigation in the alleged of Rs 10,618 crore in the state.
An FIR with lodged with Lucknow Police today against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president by the family of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dayashankar Singh for alleged disparaging remarks against the latter's female relatives by the BSP leaders and workers.
Three persons have been arrested in China for staging protests outside the US fast-food chain KFC over America's backing for an international tribunal's verdict rejecting Beijing's claims over strategic South China Sea.

The public security bureau of Puyang in central China's Henan Province detained three protesters on Wednesday for illegally gathering outside two branches of KFC, state-run Global Times reported today.

Police said Li, 33, Yuan, 36, and Liu, 41, organised protests outside KFC restaurants in the Lianhua mall and on Huanghe Road in Puyang on Tuesday and disturbed public order.

The protesters, carrying banners reading "Support domestic products, love our country, boycott goods made in Japan, the US and South Korea," blocked the restaurant's doors and disturbed its normal business, police statement said.

Li received 15 days in detention, while Yuan and Liu will be detained for 13 days each, according to the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, the Global Times reported.

Chinese police have been taking action to contain scattered protests calling for a boycott of US products, especially fast-food restaurants like KFC and McDonalds.

In a widely circulated video, a woman in Tangshan walked into the restaurant and told customers that it is they who pay for the bullets for the US.

Dozens of people gathered outside a KFC in Qinhuangdao in Hebei Province on Tuesday waving banners that said "Boycott the US, Japan and South Korea; Boycott KFC and McDonalds! Wake up fellow citizens," according to photos and videos uploaded on social media.

The protesters also attacked a police officer who was trying to take away their banners, according to a report.

The mob shouted "Patriotism is not illegal" at him.

Chinese police and state-run media have called for "rational patriotism" after sporadic protests against the US.

In a statement on Tuesday, Puyang public security bureau said it was illegal for residents to organise protests without getting permission from the local public security bureau.

The bureau also warned that patriotism is not a valid reason for breaking the law.
As many as 337 foreign companies were registered in the country in last two years with Maharashtra and Delhi together accounting for nearly 200 of them.

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Lok Sabha today that there were 4,358 foreign companies doing business in the country as on July 14.

In 2014 and 2015, a total of 337 foreign companies were registered and out of them 96 were in Maharashtra. As many as 93 such entities were registered in Delhi during the same time, according to Meghwal.

Out of the 337 companies, 206 were registered under the business services sector.

To a query on whether registration rules for foreign companies have been relaxed in the last three years, Meghwal replied in the negative.

In a separate written reply, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said the Market Research and Analysis Unit (MRAU) of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has submitted "five reports covering 196 companies during 2015-16" to the Ministry.

"Investigation has been ordered involving 16 companies," he said.

MRAU prepares research reports based on information received from various resources.

The minister also said a number of measures have been taken to check recurrence of corporate frauds.

These include "increasing application of technology for early detection of frauds through data analysis, surveillance and usage of forensic tools," he added.
At least 51 civilians, including 15 children, were killed in bombardment of several rebel-held areas across Syria today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The group said at least 13 people, including three children, were killed in government air strikes and shelling on the Eastern Ghouta area outside the capital Damascus.

Among the areas targeted was Douma, where the central market was hit, an AFP photographer said.

Government bombardment also hit two neighbourhoods of the rebel-held east of Aleppo city, where 15 people were killed, among them six children, the Observatory said.

Opposition-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo have been effectively under siege for the past two weeks, after government forces advanced to within firing range of the only remaining supply route into the east of the city.

Since then, government forces have seized part of the road, completely severing the east of the city from the outside world.

The Observatory also reported that 23 civilians were killed in strikes and shelling in different parts of the northwestern province of Idlib.

It said 17 people, including five children, were killed in strikes on the town of Tal Manas but it was unable to confirm if the raids were carried out by the Syrian government or its Russian ally.

The monitor -- which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information -- says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.

A key ally of the Syrian government, Russia began carrying out air strikes in the country in late September.

Elsewhere in Idlib, the monitor said three people had been killed in government shelling on the town of Badama, and another three people, including a child, in government air strikes on the town of Sarmada.

More than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria, and more than half the country displaced, since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said that language schools should contribute more to extensive research activities of research chairs already set up in various universities in the state.

The chief minister was presiding over a meeting to review the functioning of various state academies here, an official release said.

The academies are Haryana Sahitya Academy, Haryana Granth Academy, Haryana Punjabi Sahitya Academy, Haryana Sanskrit Academy and Haryana Urdu Academy.

He exhorted the functionaries of the academies to make efforts to promote literature and facilitate the litterateurs.

He said the state government was committed to promote literature, language and other literary activities.

The work to be undertaken by all academies should be visible in such a manner that everyone realises that Haryana, which is known for its brave soldiers, is also a frontrunner in promotion of literature and allied activities, he said.

Khattar asked them to work for preparation and compilation of good literature.

Deputy chairmen and directors of the academies showed a brief presentation of the new initiatives to be taken by them to preserve the state's heritage and promote and preserve literature and languages.
Over 250 advocates today staged a demonstration near the District Court Complex here, seeking immediate withdrawal of the amendments to the Advocates Act.

They raised slogans against the Act and wanted its withdrawal, police said.

Placards like 'Advocate Amendment rule is Draconian rule' and 'injustice to advocates is injustice to common man,' under the banner of Coimbatore Bar Association, they said.

A large number of police personnel were deployed in and around the venue of demonstration.

The Madras high court had recently issued a notification making amendments to existing rules under the Act with a view to ensure peaceful conduct of court proceedings and suggesting disciplinary action to be taken against erring advocates.
Roger Ailes, who built Fox into a popular and politically powerful cable network that help redefine US television news, has resigned under the cloud of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

He was replaced by Rupert Murdoch, head of parent company 21st Century Fox and founder of the empire that includes Fox.

The company said in a statement that the resignation was effective immediately and that Murdoch, 85, would take over the roles of chairman and acting chief executive of Fox Channel and Fox Business Network.

The comes two weeks after Ailes was named in a lawsuit by the popular Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who claimed she was fired for rejecting his sexual advances.

The company statement made no mention of the lawsuit or its review of the allegations.

The move represents tremendous turmoil at Fox, built by Ailes and Murdoch two decades ago into the leading cable news channel, drawing praise especially from conservatives and criticism from the political left.

With the change, Rupert Murdoch returns to a bigger role a year after handing over more control of operations to his two sons.

"Roger Ailes has made a remarkable contribution to our company and our country," Murdoch said in the statement.

"Roger shared my vision of a great and independent television organisation and executed it brilliantly over 20 great years."



Murdoch said he and Ailes created a network that stands "in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterises far too much of the media."



"I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice," he added. "Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country."



Murdoch, who cut short a vacation on the French Riviera to return to New York, according to the Guardian newspaper, said he was taking the reins at Fox "to ensure continuity of all that is best about Fox News and what it stands for."



At 21st Century Fox, which also includes a major Hollywood studio and television network, Rupert Murdoch had taken the role of executive chairman with his son Lachlan, and with James Murdoch as CEO.

The two sons said in the statement that "we join our father in recognising Roger's remarkable contributions to our company," but also hinted about the accusations against him.

"We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect," the brothers said. "We take seriously our responsibility to uphold these traditional, long-standing values of our company."



A former consultant to Republican presidents, Ailes, 76, had been a key figure in the media empire and a longtime Murdoch ally.
Assam Assembly today unanimously appealed the state government to provide 'Z+ Security Cover' to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who earlier refused to accept it.

"I will convey the message of the House to the Chief Minister and request him on behalf of all parties to accept the Z+ Security," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said.

He informed the House that as per intelligence and police input, Sonowal was offered 'Z+ Security' after he became Chief Minister.

"However, he refused to accept it although he needs it," Patowary said.

BJP MLA Padma Hazarika raised the issue in the House and it was supported by all other parties, including the opposition.
Floods today engulfed more districts in Assam amid heavy deluge and pouring waters of overflowing rivers in the state affecting three lakh people even as the Army swung into action in Chirang district for rescue works.

The state continued to be under the grip of floods with the deluge today spreading to nine districts from yesterday's seven, Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.

The affected districts are Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Morigaon, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Sivasagar, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Bongaigain where three lakh people in 464 villages are affected by the swirling flood waters, it said.

Overflowing water of the swollen Brahmaputra and its tributaries has overrun roads in many areas snapping surface communication, breached embankments and caused large scale erosion in many areas, ASDMA said, adding the deluge has also submerged over 25,000 hectares of agricultural land damaging standing paddy crops there.

Based on a call for help from the local people, the Army today sent its four teams in the Khungring area of Chirang, rescuing 30 people who were trapped in their marooned village, a Defence spokesman said here.

The Army deployed its boats to reach the marooned people and rescued them making several trips against swift currents to save them and took them to relief camps, he said.

The spokesman said the Army is dedicated towards the safety of the people and despite all odds, is standing by to save people amid concerns of rising water levels in Assam.

The Army Flood Control Centre at Tezpur is also functioning round the clock to monitor the flood situation and coordinate relief and rescue efforts wherever required.

All units under the Area of Responsibility of the Gajraj Corps (4 Corps) are fully alert and geared up to react swiftly to any flood related contingency, he added.

The Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger mark at



Nematighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur and Dhubri district, Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat district, Jia Bhorali at N T Road Crossing in Sonitpur district, Beki at Road Bridge in Barpeta district and Sangkosh in Golakganj district, ASDMA said.

The district administrations in Bongaigaon, Morigaon and Barpeta have pressed 20 boats into service to rescue and evacuate the marooned people.

Twenty-seven relief camps and seven relief distribution centres have been opened to provide shelter to 12,428 flood-hit people, ASDMA added.
The Privilege Committee of the Maharashtra Legislative Council has recommended no action be taken against two senior TV journalists for their remarks against presiding officers, Chief Minister and members of the legislature in 2013.

The matter relates to an incident during the 2013 Budget session when traffic police inspector Sachin Suryavanshi was beaten up by some MLAs on the legislature's premises for allegedly using foul language against the legislators earlier.

The incident shocked the state and the legislators were criticised roundly by the media.

Congress's Ashok Jagtap later moved a privilege notice against senior TV journalists Nikhil Wagle and Rajiv Khandekar for their remarks on the episode.

The committee, headed by senior Shiv Sena leader Neelam Gorhe, in its report tabled before the House today, noted the two editors had made objectionable remarks and committed a breach of privilege of the legislature.

However, the two had appeared before the committee and clarified they had not made remarks against all the members, it noted.

While the committee accepted the freedom of expression of media, it felt this freedom should not be misused.

Gorhe further stated that taking note of cooperation given by Wagle and Khandekar no further action should be taken against them.
Austria has "significantly" tightened security measures along its border with Germany and put an elite police force on high alert following the Munich mall attack, a government security chief has said.

Germany and Austria share hundreds of kilometres of frontier, including along the state of German Bavaria, where the attack occurred.

"Police have significantly increased security measures so they are poised and fully ready to act," public security chief Konrad Kogler told state broadcaster ORF, without elaborating.

He added that 42 elite so-called "Cobra" officers have been dispatched to Munich to assist police in their hunt for gunmen who killed at least eight people in a shooting rampage at a shopping centre in Munich.

"The entire Cobra team has been placed on high alert so that they are ready to jump into action," Kogler said.

He added there were "no concrete indications" of an imminent threat in Austria and the current terror threat level has not been increased.

The country has been on raised alert since last January's deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly offices in Paris.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern expressed shock over what he called "harrowing, dramatic hours" after the Munich shootings.

"My biggest respect goes to the police and rescue workers, who are working to protect people in Munich," he said in a Facebook post.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka cut short his holiday to return to Vienna after news of the attack in Bavaria broke.

"Austria has taken all the measures necessary in the situation. But it's very difficult to protect yourself against these kinds of terrorists or criminals," Sobotka said. "This could also happen here.
Bangladesh police today handed over to the FBI for testing blood and hair samples of militants who carried out the country's worst terror attack in which 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.

"Hair and blood samples from the five gunmen and their suspected aide have been given to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for testing," said Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman.

Immediately after the attack on July 1, US Secretary of State John Kerry called Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and offered her assistance from American law enforcement agencies, including FBI.

The counter-terror unit asked for hair and 20 mililitres of blood to be collected from the bodies for a second time, Soheil Mahmud, assistant professor of Forensics Medicine at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital said.

Doctors on Wednesday collected hair and blood samples from the bodies of six "terrorists" to ascertain whether they had been under the influence of drugs while "carrying out" the attack on a Gulshan cafe, Dhaka Tribune reported.

The autopsy will check if they were under the influence of amphetamine-based drugs, namely Captagon, that the IS uses to create 'super soldiers', Mahmud said.

A forensic team of Dhaka Medical College Hospital collected the samples on request of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The move came amid media reports that militants, especially members of the Islamic State, are popping addictive pills, which help "fuel their fury", before attacking the victims.

The gunmen, mostly in their 20s, seized the upscale cafe, where they shot and slaughtered 22 hostages, including an Indian.

Two police officers also died during the attack, for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility.

The government said six attackers were killed by army commandos, who stormed the cafe the next morning.

Among them, five were members of the banned Jama'aatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), according to the police. They maintained that the sixth person, the restaurant's chef, Saiful Chowkider, "was assisting the killers".

The remains of the attackers and their alleged aide were at the mortuary of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka.
Seeking to turn the tables on BSP chief Mayawati, BJP today asked her to tender an apology and take action against her party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui for his abusive language targeting expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's daughter.

The party said it took Singh's slur against Mayawati very seriously and expelled him from the party but she was "justifying" Siddiqui's use of derogatory language and her stand was condemnable.

"Siddiqui said Singh's daughter should be presented before the crowd. This is an insult to the woman; sisters and daughters. We condemn Mayawati's justification of it. She should not do politics over it and damage the state's social harmony in her greed for power.

"BJP demands that she offer an unconditional apology and take action against Siddiqui," its national secretary Shrikant Sharma said, noting that senior BJP leaders had regretted Singh's comments.

The BSP supremo had reportedly said that her followers treat her like a "deity" and were making angry statements due to Singh's comments against her.

The state's social cohesion had suffered due to the poor law and order situation under the Samajwadi Party government, he alleged, adding that Mayawati's stand can worsen it.

Questioning her commitment to the dalit cause, Sharma said she did not visit the home of any dalit woman who were sexually assaulted under the Samajwadi Party government.

"The cases of atrocities against women in UP are more than anywhere else. Did Mayawati visit any dalit victim?" he asked, saying over 1000 dalits were killed when she was the chief minister and over 29000 cases of atrocities against them were registered.

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Meanwhile, in Lucknow the UP unit of the BJP today strongly condemned slogans raised by BSP workers against women family members of expelled leader Dayashankar Singh during yesterday's dharna and announced that the BJP will stage dharna at all district headquarters tomorrow.

"The manner in which BSP workers led by Naseemuddin Siddiqui tarnished the image of women community is highly condemnable," BJP UP president Keshav Prasad Maurya said in a statement issued here.

He said that it would have been better if Mayawati herself would have lodged an FIR against her leaders and workers and expelled them, but instead of doing so she was giving logic to protect them.

Maurya demanded that if even a bit of respect for women is left in Mayawati, she should expel Siddiqui from the post of Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council and national general secretary.

He said that if BSP workers were not arrested, BJP would take to the street for the respect of a girl.

He announced that BJP would stage demonstrations at all district headquarters demanding arrest of BSP workers and submit a memorandum to the Governor.
A hospital in Libya's second city Benghazi said today it had received the bodies of 14 people killed execution-style, in what the UN envoy said was a "war crime".

The unidentified bodies were found yesterday and brought to the Benghazi Medical Centre by members of the Red Crescent, a doctor at the facility told AFP.

"The bodies bear shots to the head which could mean they were executed," said the doctor who declined to be named.

UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler denounced the killings, branding them a "war crime" in a message posted on his Twitter account.

Kobler said he was "utterly shocked and dismayed by the summary execution of a number of people in Benghazi."



"This is a war crime," he said in the tweet, calling for an investigation into the murders and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Benghazi has seen bloody battles for more than two years between forces loyal to the internationally-recognised parliament and armed groups including the jihadist Islamic State group.

Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar have regained several districts of Benghazi in recent months but have yet to retake the whole city.

The doctor told AFP that the 14 bodies were found in areas under the control of Haftar's men.

Security officials in the eastern city of Benghazi contacted by AFP declined to confirm or deny the killings.
Government bonds (G-Secs) firmed up following heavy demand from corporates and banks, and the interbank call money rates ended higher due to good demand from borrowing banks amid tight liquidity in the banking system.

The 7.59 per cent government security maturing in 2026 climbed to Rs 102.30 as compared to Rs 102.22 previously, while its yield inched down to 7.25 per cent from 7.26 per cent.

The 7.59 per cent government security maturing in 2029 spurts to Rs 101.61 from Rs 101.57 previously, while its yield edged down to 7.39 per cent from 7.40 per cent.

The 7.88 per cent government security maturing in 2030 went up to Rs 104.1750 from Rs 104.1525 previously, while, its yield ruled stady at 7.39 per cent.

The 7.68 per cent government security maturing in 2023, the 7.72 per cent government security maturing in 2025 and the 8.27 per cent government security maturing in 2020 were also quoted higher at Rs 102.5775, Rs 102.5750 and Rs 104.11 respectively.

The overnight call money rates finished higher at 6.20 per cent from Thursday's close 6.10 per cent. It resumed higher at 6.55 per cent and moved in a wide range of 6.60 per cent and 5.25 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), purchased securities worth Rs 88.74 billion in 20-bids at the 3-days repo auction at a fixed rate of 6.50 per cent as on today, while its sold securities worth Rs 74.78 billion from 37-bids at the overnight reverse repo auction at a fixed rate of 6.00 per cent as on July 21.
CBI today arrested a man and his accomplice for allegedly forging the signature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

CBI sources said Swaraj Kumar Roy and his accomplice Suvendu Kumar Barman were arrested after questioning.

A CBI spokesperson said a case was registered against Roy, a resident of Bokaro in Jharkhand, for allegedly forging Modi's signature.

"The allegations pertain to forgery of signatures of the Prime Minister of India on a letter purportedly issued by the PMO to the said accused for arranging classical music programme on upcoming Independence Day (2015)," she said.

Roy had allegedly forged the signature and sent the letter to the Prime Minister's Office, which swung into action and referred the matter to CBI, the sources said.

"Searches were conducted in Bokaro (Jharkhand) and Bishnupur of Bankura district (West Bengal) at the premises of the accused which led to the recovery of large number of incriminating forged documents and articles relating to forgery of the signatures of the Prime Minister of India," she said.

"The arrested accused were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Saket Courts, New Delhi and were remanded in police custody till July 27, 2016," the spokesperson said.
China today commended Britain's decision to list a group advocating independence for the far-western region of Xinjiang as a terrorist organization, a step that bolsters Beijing's claim that it faces an organized violent separatist movement.

China welcomes moves by the international community to recognize the danger posed by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

"We are willing to work with relevant parties including the UK to enhance pragmatic cooperation on anti-terrorism," Lu said.

Resource-rich Xinjiang is home to the Turkic Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) people, many of whom chafe under heavy-handed Chinese rule that they say has marginalized them economically.

China blamed a string of bloody attacks in Xinjiang, western China and Beijing over recent years on the ETIM, also known as the East Turkistan Islamic Party and the Turkistan Islamic Party.

The British Home Office made the listing this week, citing a number of attacks within China claimed by the Pakistan-based group and saying it was also active in the Syrian conflict.

"TIP is an Islamic terrorist and separatist organisation founded in 1989 by Uighur militants in western China. It aims to establish an independent caliphate in the Uighur state of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of northwestern China and to name it East Turkestan," the office's notice said.

Some foreign scholars and terrorism experts have questioned whether the ETIM has sufficient influence and organizational capability to direct attacks within China. However, the presence of Uighur fighters in Syria has been reported by multiple sources.

The Home Office gave no explanation as to why Britain was moving to proscribe the group now. China and Britain have sought to strengthen economic ties since a "golden era" in their relations was announced during a visit to Britain by Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.

The announcement also came ahead of a visit to China by British Treasury chief Philip Hammond and follows the British vote to leave the European Union that has thrown its trading relationship with the continent into question.
Chinese officials have begun dismantling buildings at Larung Gar, one of the world's largest centers of Tibetan Buddhist learning, according to overseas-based Tibetan groups.

The London-based Free Tibet group said government workers began removing residential buildings and evicting residents at the site in western Sichuan province yesterday.

Several exile Tibetan groups in recent weeks have said local authorities distributed an order in June to reduce the number of monks and nuns living there by half to 5,000, citing overcrowding concerns.

The order also sought a clear separation between genuine monks and nuns studying at the site and lay people residing there, according to pro-Tibetan groups, which have characterized the government move as an attempt to better manage religious activity in the area.

A Sertar County government official said by telephone Thursday that police were not demolishing buildings but rather renovating them, but gave no further details.

The official gave only her surname, Zhang, because she was not authorized to speak to the media. The county's press office was "not reachable" on its telephone line on Friday, according to a recorded message.

Founded in 1980, the mountainside academy attracts thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns for short and long-term study in the religion's more esoteric aspects. They typically stay in a sprawling mountainside settlement made of thousands of log cabins.

Government teams previously evicted thousands of monks in 2001, but the site has continued to swell significantly in the years since.

Tsering Tsomo, director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala, India, said monastery leaders including the abbot Tsultrim Lodroe have opted to keep a low media profile while appealing for "restraint and sobriety" among their followers for fear of escalating tensions with authorities.

"The gist of what they (monastery leaders) are calling for is to let the authorities proceed with the partial demolition, as it would only cause loss to some practitioners and their dwellings," Tsering said. "Because the continued survival of the Larung Gar itself is more important."



The expulsions came on the day that China's hand-picked Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, presided over a four-day Buddhist ritual called the Kalachakra initiation at his home monastery in southwestern Tibet. It was the first time the ritual was carried out in Tibet in 50 years and attracted 50,000 Buddhists, according to the official Xinhua agency.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said today that climate change is as dangerous as, if not more than, the threats posed by the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

Speaking today in Vienna at an international climate change conference, Kerry said the issue might not get as much public attention as terrorism but that the meeting is as important as a Thursday gathering he hosted in Washington on combatting the Islamic State.

"What you are doing here right now is of equal importance, because it has the ability literally to save life on this planet," Kerry told the conference of parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a global treaty to end the use of many chlorofluorocarbons from aerosols and refrigerants that deplete the ozone layer.

Treaty members have claimed some success including a healing of an ozone hole over Antarctica but they are now trying to adopt an amendment that would phase out substances that replaced chlorofluorocarbons hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Participants in the Vienna meeting hope to find consensus on an amendment that could be adopted at the next meeting of the parties in Kigali, Rwanda, in October.
The government has formed a committee headed by a top Health Ministry official to look into the instances of assault on doctors and the need for a central legislation to provide protection to them.

Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said that the the inter ministerial committee was formed following a representation by the Indian Medical Association to them and it has also submitted its report.

"Yes. The government has received the representation from IMA. An inter ministerial committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of additional secretary (health)...

"...Comprising representatives from Law and Justice ministry, department of Consumer Affairs, Home Ministry, Medical Council of India and three representatives from IMA to examine the issues raised by IMA," the Minister said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The Terms of Reference (TOR) of the inter ministerial committee include frequent instances of assault on doctors and clinical establishments across the country and the need for a central legislation for providing protection to the same.

The ToR also include urgent amendments in the PC and PNDT act to ensure that strict penalties are imposed only on actual act of sex determination and not for clerical errors in maintenance of registers.

"The IMA is also of the view that registration should be of ultrasound machine and not of doctors not doing pelvic ultrasound," the minister said.

The other ToR include suitable amendments should be made in the consumer protection act for capping the compensation amount as the current practice apart from being very high at times was also tilted in favour of persons with higher income.

The ToR also include that non MBBS and non BDS doctors should not be allowed to prescribe medicines under modern system and other stream practitioners like AYUSH doctors should not be allowed to practice through bridge courses and government orders.
Congress today questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on China voicing concern over Kashmir violence and said it is due to the "lack of maturity" in the government's foreign policy that led to Beijing's "direct" interference in India's internal affairs.

Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said it was expected of the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister to make a statement on the floor of the House expressing concern over China's remarks that did not happen, but hoped they would do so on Monday when opposition raises the issue in Parliament.

"For the first time in India's post-independence history, China has commented on the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. This is a direct interference in the domestic affairs of India and what is surprising is that Government of India has taken no note of it. This is very serious and this is the result of a lack of maturity in our foreign policy," he told reporters.

Sibal said it has been reported that a spokesperson for Chinese Foreign Ministry had on July 19 said, "China has taken note of the relevant reports in Jammu and Kashmir. We are concerned about the casualties in the clash. We hope that it will be handled properly".

The Congress leader said neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Minister expressed concern over the remarks. He said a public statement should have been made by the Prime Minister on the Floor of the House.

He said the Prime Minister should have expressed both concern and response to Chinese government, telling them that "they should not fish in troubled waters and that they have no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India".

Sibal said when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, "we kept a very delicate balance between our relationship with the United States and with China and considered both of them as partners in the progress of this region."



"The present Prime Minister has not handled the situation with any sense of maturity," he alleged.

Sibal added that when the opposition raises the issue on Monday, the Prime Minister should inform the House about his position in the matter.

"I am sure that the House will unanimously express concern over the statement but we don't expect the Prime Minister and the Foreign Ministry to keep quiet for two days on a matter," he said.

Sibal also said that after 100 tanks were deployed by India in the Ladakh region, China reacted, saying investment in India cannot come at a time when normal political ties are not there, even as it referred to 'Pakistan Occupied Kashmir' as territory 'administered by Pakistan' for the first time.

He said Frontier Defence Regiment of People's Liberation Army in Xinjiang along with Border Police Force from Pakistan will carry out a joint patrol along the China-Pakistan Border.

"Now they consider that as the China-Pakistan Border and not an administered territory of Pakistan. In a sense they have recognized (Pakistan's claim over PoK)," he said.

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"I will urge the Prime Minister to stop his sound-and- light show, stop swinging and take the advice of your Ministry and stop your e-visa and evolve your foreign policy with fresh thoughts after taking everyone along, including national and opposition parties, as done in the past," Sibal said.

The Congress leader said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's statement that they are engaging China and will be able to convince it on NSG membership was lamentable.

He said China has stated that they do not frame rules for NSG membership and will move as per international rules asper which only those countries who have signed NPT will become members of NSG.

Noting that the Prime Minister thinks that any country's foreign policy can change by merely embracing their leader, Sibal said diplomacy is far serious a matter.

On deteriorating ties with China, he said, "It is sad that China, with whom we had developed close ties, now feels the need to comment on India's internal issues."



The Congress leader also expressed concern over China and Pakistan carrying out joint border patrols.
Congress today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "silence" on the Kashmir unrest and also demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each victim of violence in Gujarat's Una besides action against guilty policemen.

"The Prime Minister is in Gorakhpur today and talks big. But he did not talk of Kashmir or Dalits, as he normally speaks on almost everything.

"Today people of Kashmir are waiting for the Prime Minister to make a statement to show that he is concerned about Jammu and Kashmir and is applying balm on their wounds," Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said.

He said that Modi, who speaks on almost everything, is silent on the issue.

"Why is the Prime Minister silent? Such a big incident happened where there is your government? All that has happened in Kashmir is under his government and the Prime Minister has not spoken anything in Parliament our outside," he said.

On the issue of rising atrocities on Dalits, Sibal questioned the Prime Minister's silence and said, "Shouldn't he have apologised to Mayawati ji?"



Regarding the violence in Una, he said an independent team of Dalit Adhikar Manch has claimed that the police was aware of the violence that took place there.

They have also said that there should be action against the erring policemen, compensation of Rs 10 lakh be given to each of the victims of atrocities and book all those involved.

"Congress party agrees with them as it is a serious issue and not an isolated incident. We demand that compensation of Rs 10 lakh be given to all the victims of atrocities in Una, their statements be recorded in court under section 164 CRPC and all guilty cops be booked and all 30 persons involved in the incident be booked," Sibal said.

"It took the police 6 hours to file an FIR. Nearly 30 people were allegedly involved, yet less than a third were arrested and only 8 were booked in the FIR," he wondered.

He also took a dig at Modi, saying he is taking swings in Gujarat and speaking in Gorakhpur. "I wonder if the country will have an NRI Prime Minister for the first time in its history," he said.
Congress today decided to showcause its senior leader Manas Bhuniya after he steadfastly refused to step down from the post of chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal Assembly despite repeated requests by party leaders.

"It has been decided that a showcause notice will be served to Bhuniya," state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said after his meeting with AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.

"I have apprised Rahul Gandhi of Bhuniya's refusal to resign from the PAC chairman's post. Gandhi said that indiscipline in the party will not be tolerated and asked us to serve a showcause notice to Bhuniya," he said.

Earlier, 39 Congress MLAs had jointly appealed to Bhuniya to resign from that post.

Not only did Bhuniya not resign from the PAC chairman's post, he convened a meeting of the committee, which PAC members belonging to Congress and the Left did not attend.

Bhuniya had asked Chowdhury to let him work as PAC chairman for a year.

Congress had wanted to give the PAC chairman's post to CPI-M together with which it had contested the West Bengal Assembly election.
A special court today extended interim bail till August 3 to graft accused Director General Corporate Affairs B K Bansal to attend the last rites of his wife and daughter, who allegedly committed suicide.

Special CBI Judge Gurdeep Singh granted the relief to Bansal after his counsel sought extension of bail on the ground that he was required for several customs related to the death of his wife and daughter.

The application, however, was opposed by the counsel for CBI who said that if the accused is required for any custom this court may pass orders in this regard at the appropriate time.

On July 20, the special court had granted two-day interim bail to Bansal to attend the last rites of his wife and daughter.

Bansal's wife Satyabala (58) and daughter Neha (28) allegedly hung themselves from ceiling fans in two separate rooms at their residence in Nilkanth Apartments in east Delhi's Madhu Vihar on July 19.

Both the women left separate suicide notes, saying the CBI raid had caused "great humiliation" and they did not want to live after that. They, however, held nobody responsible for their deaths.

Bansal, an additional secretary-rank officer in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, was arrested by CBI on July 16 for allegedly accepting bribe from a prominent pharmaceutical company. CBI had carried out searches at eight locations in connection with the case during which the agency had claimed to have made cash recoveries.
The interim bail granted to graft case accused Director General Corporate Affairs B K Bansal, whose wife and daughter had allegedly committed suicide, was today extended till August 3 by a Delhi court before which he alleged that CBI had compelled them to take the extreme step.

During the arguments on bail application, Bansal's counsel claimed before Special CBI Judge Gurdeep Singh that after his client was arrested, the agency had not allowed anyone to meet his family due to which they were "isolated" and committed suicide.

"No relatives were allowed to meet them (Bansal's wife and daughter) that's why these ladies committed suicide. This is a fact. They were isolated. They (CBI) are threatening his son not to say anything otherwise he will also be implicated," senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Bansal, said.

At this juncture, Bansal who was present in court and was seen sobbing, said, "Sir, my son will also commit suicide."



Gupta told the court that Bansal should be granted bail as he has to perform the rituals related to death of his wife and daughter and he himself was having medical problems.

CBI, which said they have "full sympathy" with Bansal, opposed his bail plea contending that probe into the case was going on and if Bansal was required for any rituals, the court may pass order at the appropriate time.

Bansal's counsel termed this submission as "inhuman" and said that CBI was opposing the bail despite knowing the facts and circumstances of the matter where two family members of the accused had committed suicide.

The court, after hearing the submissions, extended interim bail granted to Bansal which noting his "traumatic state" due to "unfortunate deaths of his wife and daughter".

"...On account of two unfortunate deaths of his wife and daughter which have taken place in his family, the accused is in traumatic state, I am of the opinion that ends of justice would meet in admitting the accused to interim bail till 3 August," the judge said while granting him the relief on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of the like amount.

Bansal, an additional secretary-rank officer in Ministry of Corporate Affairs, was arrested on July 16 for allegedly accepting bribe from a prominent pharmaceutical company.

His wife Satyabala (58) and daughter Neha (28) allegedly hung themselves from ceiling fans in separate rooms at their residence in Nilkanth Apartments in east Delhi's Madhu Vihar on July 19.

Both the women have left separate suicide notes, saying the CBI raid had caused "great humiliation" and they did not want to live after that. They, however, held nobody responsible for their deaths.

During the hearing, Bansal's counsel referred to multi



crore scam case like Bofors, 2G and Commonwealth Games and said that even in these cases most of the accused were not arrested by the agency before filing of charge sheet.

"He (Bansal) can be sought for the investigation whenever required during the period of his interim bail," he said, adding that, "Bansal has already suffered a lot."



He argued that raids have already been conducted and recoveries have been made in the case so there was no need for sending the accused in custody.

The defence counsel also opposed CBI's submissions that accused might tamper with the evidence.

CBI prosecutor told the court that they had not opposed Bansal's interim bail earlier keeping in view the incident that had occurred in his family.

While granting bail, the court imposed several conditions on Bansal, including that he would make himself available before CBI during the period of his interim bail, if he is required for the purpose of investigation.

It also asked him neither to influence witnesses or visit his office during the period nor to leave the country.

CBI had earlier carried out searches at eight locations in connection with the case during which the agency had claimed to have made cash recoveries.
Jammu and Kashmir unit of CPI(M) today expressed concern over the continuous curfew in the Valley and urged the government to relax the restrictions so that people get some relief.

"I urge the government to take effective measures to relax curfew and restrictions so that people are provided a little relief," CPI(M) leader and MLA Kulgam, M Y Tarigami said here.

Tarigami said there are reports of scarcity of ration, cooking gas, kerosene oil, food items, especially baby food, and drinking water in the whole Valley and more so in far flung areas.

The administration must come out of the "slumber" and ensure that essential services are restored immediately so that the miseries of the people are minimised, he said.

The CPI(M) leader asked the government to urgently take immediate steps to provide ration, food items and essential commodities to the people in far-flung areas.
The Cycle Valley at village Dhanansu will have all ultra modern facilities and infrastructure, Punjab Principal Secretary (Industries) Anirudh Tewari today said.

He said this today during his visit to the site where a Cycle Valley is to come up.

He was accompanied by Amit Dhaka, Managing Director, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC), Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat and other senior officers.

Tewari said that this Cycle Valley would attract more entrepreneurs as village Dhanansu is located in the vicinity of Ludhiana which in turn will provide alternative business activities to the existing units running in the residential areas thereby reducing pollution in the city.

He informed that Dhanansu village would be developed as a model village having all basic amenities including a by-pass for better access with the national highway, and many others.

He said the existing connecting roads would be widened as well as strengthened. They also interacted with the Panchayat of village Dhanansu, which assured the officers of all possible support for the coming up of this Cycle Valley.

Before visiting the site of Cycle Valley, the officers interacted with the people at village Chahlan near Samrala, where they reviewed the ongoing welfare schemes of the Punjab government.

The villagers raised several issues to which Anirudh Tewari assured them that all their issues would be redressed on priority basis.
Violence has erupted in the northern suburbs of Paris for a third night in a row, with 15 cars set ablaze by residents furious over the death of a young man in police custody.

The unrest began on Tuesday night after it emerged that Adama Traore, 24, had died shortly after being arrested in the town of Beaumont-sur-Oise.

Authorities said an autopsy revealed he was suffering from a serious infection at the time of his death and that his body showed few signs of violence.

He was taken into custody after interfering in the arrest of his brother in an extortion case, said a source close to the investigation.

Local prosecutor Yves Jannier said Traore "fainted during the ride" to the police station, and paramedics were called immediately but were unable to revive him.

Jannier said the infection was "very serious" and had "impacted several organs", while the medical examiner had found scratches but no "marks of significant violence" on the man's body.

However, Traore's family said it would seek an outside expert's opinion before his burial.

"The infection that Adama Traore may have been suffering from does not explain the causes of his death," said the family's lawyer Karim Achoui.

Traore's twin sister, Hawa, said she did not believe the autopsy findings were accurate, but called for calm.

"We will find the truth. Calm down," she told AFP, addressing those on the streets in support of her brother.

On Tuesday night five members of the paramilitary police were injured in clashes, and nine cars set on fire, while several public buildings were damaged. One person was arrested.

The unrest continued on Wednesday night in a series of villages situated near each other some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Paris, where 15 cars were set ablaze and protesters tried to set a mayor's office and a preschool on fire.

"Eight people were arrested. Some for throwing incendiary devices at security forces, others for trying to set a public building on fire," said local government official Jean-Simon Merandat.

Youths in the suburb say they are convinced that police are responsible for Adama's death.

"He was healthy, a tall, sporty, stocky guy," said Sofiane, 30.

"We know it is going to be covered up. We know if things don't burn nothing will come of it, that is how we feel," said Ornel, 24.

The violence comes as security forces are stretched to their limit, after months on high alert for terror attacks, and violent anti-government protests in which police have become a target of hatred.

In 2005, when two teenagers were electrocuted after hiding in an electricity substation while being chased by police, sparking weeks of massive riots.

The violence was seen as an urban revolt against the system from France's "ghettos" with their grim high rise buildings, high levels of poverty and unemployment and populations of first and second generation immigrants who feel marginalised by society.
The Supreme Court today sought a response from the Election Commission on a PIL alleging that despite the ruling of the apex court, elected lawmakers continue to enjoy their status as MPs and MLAs for quite some time after their conviction in criminal cases.

Initially, a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices FMI Kalifulla and A M Khanwilkar was reluctant to issue notice on the PIL of NGO 'Lok Prahari' by saying, "It is for the Election Commission to act in this matter as the law has been laid down by the court."



The plea, filed through S N Shukla, the secretary of the NGO, alleged that though the law has been settled by the apex court in its 2013 judgement that a lawmaker stands disqualified on conviction, but due to the delay in the notification on the part of legislative Secretariat, the convicted MLAs keep enjoying fruits of the office.

It has sought a direction to the Registry of all the high courts that the certified copy of the judgements convicting lawmakers, be made available to legislative Secretariat within 24 hours so that a disqualification notice can be issued at the earliest.

The bench then issued notice to the poll panel on the PIL and asked as to why it has not taken steps even after three years of the apex court judgment to implement it.

In a landmark judgment, passed on a PIL filed by the same NGO, the apex court had held that chargesheeted Members of Parliament and MLAs on conviction for offences, will be immediately disqualified from holding membership of the House without being given three months' time for appeal, as was the case before.

Prior to 2013, a lawmaker could continue as an MP or MLA on filing of an appeal against conviction in higher courts.

The apex court struck down section 8(4) of the Representation of People Act leading to immediate disqualification of MPs and MLAs upon conviction in an offence.
The world should not pin its hopes on China to be the sole engine of growth, Premier Li Keqiang said today, underlining that his country cannot shoulder major responsibilities of the world economy post Brexit downturn.

"China is still a developing country. We cannot shoulder the major responsibilities of the world economy," Li said at a rare round table talk with six global trade and finance leaders, including heads of IMF and the World Bank.

Li said world economic recovery should not be driven by mainly China, but in concert with many countries.

"Given the financial fluctuations as a result of Brexit, China will advance market-based reform of its exchange rate. We will not engage in a trade war or currency war," he said.

Li's comments came days after the IMF forecasted that uncertainty created by Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation European Union would slow the world economy into next year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its growth forecast for China in 2016 due to Beijing's "determined and decisive" implementation of reforms and the "steady" support for the economy, said managing director Christine Lagarde here.

Chinese economy posted 6.9 per cent growth rate last year and the government has fixed the target between 6.5 to 7 per cent this year.

Lagarde told the media later that IMF had increased the growth forecast for China in 2016 by 0.1 percentage point to 6.6 per cent from 6.5 per cent.

"First of all, we have witnessed the determined and decisive implementation of reforms; and second, there was also support given to the economy in order to encourage growth to go forward," she was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua agency.

"On the latter point, it did not take the form of vast fiscal stimulus but simply some solid and steady support in order to make sure that growth was indeed sustainable," she added.

This is the first time a "1+6" round-table meeting has been held in China. The theme of the meeting was "promoting strong, sustainable, and balanced growth of the Chinese and global economy".

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, World Trade Organisation Director General Roberto Azevedo, International Labor Organisation Director General Guy Ryder, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-general Angel Gurria and Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney also attended the meeting.

The meeting was held ahead of the G20 central bank governors' meeting in Chengdu tomorrow.

According to a joint press statement issued after the meeting, the participants of the meeting agreed that the round-table should become a regular mechanism to strengthen ties between China and international organisations, deepen communication and cooperation in the international economic and financial arena and jointly explore responses to global economic challenges.
Former Bihar minister Baidyanath Sahni today lodged an FIR against the in-laws of his widowed daughter for killing her to grab her property.

Sahni alleged that her daughter Sangeeta Kumari (32) was killed by her in-laws for grabbing her share of property at Baragaon village under Khodavandpur police station in Begusarai district.

Sahni has lodged an FIR with Khodavandpur police station against seven persons from her in-laws' family, Khodavandpur police station SHO Rubikany Kachhap said.

After getting information that his daughter had a quarrel with in-laws for property, he along with his relatives went to his daughter's village Baragaon on July 20 where he saw that her parents-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law were trying to snatch 300 grams of gold jewellery which he had given to his daughter on her marriage, Sahni complained.

The in-laws were also demanding Rs 5 lakh from his daughter but she refused to oblige, he said in the FIR.

On this, Sangeeta's brother-in-law Pankaj Kumar hit her with a large stone on the chest injuring her seriously, Sahni said.

He took his daughter in his vehicle and admitted her to a private clinic in Samastipur in a critical condition, from where the doctors referred her to a Begusarai hospital for better treatment.

But she died yesterday evening while being taken to Begusarai, the former minister said adding that he has kept his three grand children (three sons of Sangeeta) with him as there is danger to their lives.

The SHO said the matter is being investigated.

Sangeeta's husband Santosh Sahni died a year ago due to illness.

Shahni was a JD(U) leader and Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister. He joined the BJP in October last year.
A fire forced a flight from North Korean flag-carrier Air Koryo to land in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang today.

The scheduled flight from the North Korean capital to Beijing was forced to divert and land in Shenyang "because the plane caught fire," China's official Xinhua agency said, quoting a passenger on board.

The cabin filled with smoke around 30 minutes after the flight left Pyongyang and passengers were forced to use oxygen masks, it quoted the passenger as saying.

Airport authorities said the plane had made a safe landing and no one aboard was injured, Xinhua said.

Although Air Koryo regularly occupies bottom spot in the Skytrax star rating system for commercial airlines, it has a decent safety record with just one fatal accident in more than 30 years.

However, critics point out that the record is built on an extremely limited service which currently comprises regular flights to just three destinations in China, and Vladivostok in Russia.

The Pyongyang-Beijing service uses a Russian Tupolev Tu-204 -- a twin-engine medium-range jet airliner that carries about 140 passengers.
A second case of virus possibly acquired locally is being investigated in Florida, just days after the first potential case was announced in Miami, officials have said.

Until now, there have been hundreds of cases of virus in Florida but all involved people who were infected while travelling to areas where the mosquito-borne virus is spreading.

If confirmed, the Florida infections would mark the arrival of the homegrown virus on the US continent for the first time.

can be spread by mosquito bites or by sexual contact, and can cause birth defects if women are infected while pregnant.

"The Florida Department of Health announced that it is conducting an epidemiological investigation into a possible non-travel related case of Zika virus in Broward County," said a statement, referring to the county just north of Miami, which includes Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

Health officials are working with "mosquito control to ensure trapping, reduction and prevention activities are conducted in the area of investigation," the department added.

The department urged people living in the area and visiting to respond to requests for blood and urine samples.

"These results will help the department determine the number of people affected," it said.

Regarding the possible non-travel case of Zika in Miami-Dade county, a health department spokeswoman told AFP the investigation is ongoing, and that sexual transmission "related to travel has not been ruled out."



Few other details have been released about that possible case, which was first announced Tuesday. The Zika infection has been confirmed, but the mode of transmission has not.

As of yesterday, mosquitoes in the Miami area have tested negative for Zika, the spokeswoman added.

Zika virus has spread through dozens of countries in Latin America. One way it could arrive in the United States is if a person who was infected with Zika while travelling elsewhere comes into the country and is bitten by a mosquito, which then bears Zika and bites another person, spreading the infection.

As of mid-July, there have been 1,306 cases of Zika in the continental United States, nearly all involving people who had travelled to areas in Latin America and the Caribbean basin that are affected by the current outbreak.

Fourteen of the cases were transmitted by sexual contact between those who had traveled and their US-based partners.

Earlier this week, a case emerged in Utah in which a caregiver appeared to have been infected by an elderly patient, though the exact route of transmission remains unknown.

President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Florida Governor Rick Scott on Wednesday and said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be sending another $5.6 million to Florida for Zika funding, in addition to $2 million in federal funds the southern state has already received.
French President Francois Hollande told Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris that his country is committed to leading international efforts to help secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hollande confirmed "France's commitment to building on the momentum created" on June 3, when Paris hosted senior diplomats to work towards organising an international conference to reboot talks by the end of the year.

The French leader "expressed his concern over the the fragile situation in the Middle East and escalating violence", a statement from the presidency said yesterday.

"While the latest report from the Quartet shows the two-state solution is under threat by continued settlement-building, there is an urgent need to recreate a political perspective," Hollande added.

The diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- earlier this month warned that Israel's settlement expansion and confiscation of Palestinian land were eroding the possibility of a two-state peace settlement.

The Quartet also called on Palestinians to halt attacks and incitement to violence.

"France will spare no effort to mobilise the international community into reviving the peace process," he said.

Peace talks have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
The Supreme Court today sought the response of Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convict in Pune German Bakery blast which had claimed 17 lives in 2010, on a plea of the Maharashtra government against the Bombay High Court verdict that commuted his death penalty to life term.

A bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy issued notice to Baig and sought his reply on the plea of the state government.

The plea had challenged the March 17, 2016 judgement of the high court which also acquitted Baig from serious charges under various sections of the Unlawful Prevention (Activities) Act and IPC, including sections 302 (murder) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

The high court had convicted 32-year-old Baig for offences under IPC section 474 (possessing a document knowing it to be forged with intent to use it as genuine) and under section 5(b) of the Explosive Substances Act relating to punishment for making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstance.

Baig, who was alleged to be a member of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, was arrested in September 2010 from Latur in Maharashtra for involvement in the blast at German Bakery, a popular eatery in Pune's Koregaon Park area, which killed 17 persons and injured 58, including some foreigners.

In 2013, the trial court had convicted and awarded him capital punishment.

The plea had claimed that the high court had not relied upon the evidence which showed that Baig had travelled from Latur to Mumbai and stayed at a lodge for the purpose of entering into a conspiracy or "for giving final shape to terrorist act or in furtherance of his terrorist activities".

"Prosecution witness 93 was the autorickshaw driver who saw the respondent (Baig) with the planter of the bomb which proves the last seen theory. In the test identification parade the autorickshaw driver identified the respondent (Baig).

"In spite of that, the high court held that the plea of the prosecution that the respondent was last seen with planter of the bomb does not gets credence," it said.

The plea further said, "The high court does not consider that there was a definite connection between the explosive recovered from the possession of the respondent (Baig) and the explosive used in the bomb.

(Reopens LGD26)



Besides Baig, Qateel Siddiqui was also arrested in the case, but he had died in Pune's Yerawada jail following a scuffle with other inmates.

The other wanted accused are Indian Mujahideen operatives -- Mohsin Choudhary, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Ismail Bhatkal, Fayyaz Kagzi and Sayyad Zabiuddin Ansari.

Yasin Bhatkal,, who had allegedly planted the bomb in the eatery, was arrested in August 2013. The case against him is pending before the trial court.
German President Joachim Gauck today said he was "horrified" by the "murderous attack" in a Munich shopping centre which left at least eight people dead.

"I am with all the victims in my thoughts and all those who are mourning or fearful for loved ones," he said in a statement, adding that his "solidarity" was with emergency services personnel trying to "protect people and save lives".

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to the New York when the shooting rampage began, will immediately return to Germany, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
The Madras High Court today directed the Tamil Nadu government to give the amicus curiae a copy of the report of the Tuticorin District Collector in cases of alleged illegal beach sand mining in the southern parts of the state.

The high court had in January, 2016, appointed advocate V Suresh as amicus curiae to assist it in the case.

Suresh filed a memo today before the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, seeking some documents, including the report forwarded to the government by the collector after inspecting areas leased out for mining in the district, when a suo motu PIL came up before it.

The HC heard his arguments that the inquiry cannot be confined to only monazite and directed the government to furnish it with the order to enable the amicus curiae assist the Court in the matter.

Earlier, the high court had dismissed a PIL alleging that rare earth beach minerals worth over Rs one lakh crore had been plundered by some private companies in Tamil Nadu and that the government had allowed a Tuticorin-based firm and others to export 4.55 lakh metric tonnes of placer minerals like garnet, radioactive monazite, zircon, leucoxene and sillimanite by modifying 16 existing mining leases without any reference to the Centre.

But taking note of the seriousness of the case, the court took up a PIL suo motu and appointed Suresh as amicus curiae.

When the matter came up today, Suresh submitted a memo seeking various documents, including the Collector's report, saying it is necessary to study the papers so that the issue can be comprehensively dealt with and finality reached.

The Bench, which passed an interim order, directed the government to make available the report. It also granted leave to amicus curie to inspect all records so he may categorise the matters dependent on the prayers made.

Additional Solicitor General G Rajagopalan submitted that the Centre alone has the right to grant permission for monazite mining and that as a policy, no such permission was being granted.
Amid mounting pressure of the opposition and the complaints filed in Lokayukta, Goa tourism department today said it is mulling to scale down the price of the controversial beach cleanliness contract.

Goa Lokayukta is already hearing a complaint filed by Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte and social activist Aires Rodrigues over alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 14 crore in tendering of beach cleanliness.

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which conducted an inquiry into the matter, recently gave a clean chit to state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar.

"We are waiting for the order from Lokayukta. The department has already decided to scale down the contract price when it would be renewed again," he said.

The minister said the scope of work for the contractor has decreased drastically due to the commissioning of garbage treatment facility at Saligao.

"Now they have to just lift the garbage from the beaches and send it for processing at the treatment plant. On their part, they don't have to treat it," Parulekar said.

The existing price of Rs 14 crore per year would be scaled down to Rs 8 to 10 crore annually during renewal, he said, adding the new guidelines would be issued after the Lokayukta pronounces its order.

"Till then we have to maintain status quo," he said.

The tourism department has awarded the contract of cleaning the beaches to two companies, which, according to Khaunte, are owned by the same person.

The Porvorim MLA said that his demand for action against the minister concerned (Parulekar), officials and the companies would continue.

"Our demand is that bank accounts of both the companies be frozen and the money paid to them recovered by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar," Khaunte said.

"If the Chief Minister fails to act, I will be forced to write to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in the case to issue necessary directions to the state government.

"In this beach cleaning case, the government has completely misused the police machinery (ACB) to institutionalise corruption by giving clean chit to Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. We have produced all the facts and figures to prove that it is a scam," the MLA alleged.
Greek lawmakers voted to amend electoral law to lower the voting age by a year to 17 and eventually eliminate a 50-seat bonus for the winning party.

While the drop in voting age will take effect in the next election, the seat bonus will only be scrapped in two elections from now.

This was because the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was unable to muster yesterday the required support of two thirds of parliament, or 200 lawmakers, for scrapping the generous 50-seat bonus.

The lower voting age however did not require an enhanced majority to be passed.

A total of 179 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, with 86 against and 16 abstentions.

Critics say eliminating the bonus will make it more difficult for a single party to have an overarching majority and could cause political instability.

Even with the bonus in place, back-to-back elections were required in 2012 to form a government, plunging the debt-laden country into political uncertainty for months.

Tsipras won the last election in September, and the next polls are due in 2019.

Introducing proportional representation had been a long-standing pledge of his Syriza party.

However, Tsipras' coalition government rests on a fragile three-seat majority and it is widely assumed that he will be unable to complete his four-year term.

Tsipras' popularity has waned after he was forced last year to accept an unpopular EU bailout to keep Greece in the eurozone.

He now lags behind in the polls to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the conservative New Democracy party.
The Madras High Court today granted time till October 31 to the Tamil Nadu Government to complete all the deficiencies that were pointed out by two-member Advocate Commissioners in the Rs 179-crore Anna Centenary Library here.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan granted the time after the government sought time to complete the deficiencies pointed out by the Advococate Commissioners.

The High Court had on February 26, directed the Commission members P T Asha and P Sunder to visit the library to verify the factual position on the alleged deficiencies in the Rs 179 crore library and submit a report on a PIL by one S T Manonmani.

Stating that it will order for further inspection by the Advocate Commissioners after rectification of all the deficiencies, the bench posted the matter for further hearing to November 4.

The AIADMK government had proposed to convert the library, built by the previous DMK regime, into a Super Specialty Hospital for children.
Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to take a decision within three months on a PIL seeking setting up of an "effective, impartial, independent and strong" Lokayukta in all the states of the country.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked the Ministry of Law and Justice to treat the petition as a representation and to take a decision within three months.

It also asked the government to communicate its decision to the petitioner, advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who was given liberty to approach the court if he was aggrieved by the outcome.

With these directions the court disposed of the matter.

The court's order came after Central Government standing counsel Jasmeet Singh said that Upadhyay's representation has been received by the ministry and the issue raised by him is under consideration.

The government counsel sought time for arriving at a decision.

Apart from seeking setting up of Lokayuktas in all the states, for ensuring redressal of citizens' grievances in a time bound manner, Upadhyay has also sought implementation of the 'United Nations Convention Against Corruption' and the 'Sense of the House Resolution-2011'.

In his plea, Upadhyay, who is also a BJP spokesperson, has sought enactment of a Lokayukta Bill as a model legislation so that there is a strong Lokayukta in all the states of the country.

He has contented that Parliament, on August 27, 2011, had unanimously adopted the Sense of the House Resolution as per which it was agreed to put in place a Citizen Charter, to bring the lower bureaucracy under Lokpal through an appropriate mechanism, and to establish Lokayukta in the States.

"An effective impartial independent and strong Lokayukta in States is necessary to curb corruption and redressal of citizen's grievances related to corruption in a time-bound manner," he said in his petition.

He also said in his plea that a representation was sent by him to the government but no decision has been taken till date on that.
Incessant downpour over the past couple of days has triggered landslides and floods in several districts of Arunachal Pradesh throwing normal life out of gear.

Besides damaging culverts and some buildings, the floods and mudslide submerged low-lying areas and a rural link road and disrupted power supply.

Seijosa and its adjoining villages in East Kameng district remained cut off from the rest of the state due to landslides triggered by torrential rain.

The rains also caused landslides at many places at Talom Riktak village under Taliha Circle of Upper Subansiri district, an official report from Daporijo said.

The flood situation was grim in Namsai district with Noa Dihing and its tributaries flowing above the danger mark, DC R K Sharma said.

In Lohit district, though all the rivers were flowing turbulently yet they were below the danger level, DC Danish Ashraf said.

Renu Kino, Anchal Samiti chairperson of Seijosa and adjoining villages of East Kameng, said that huge debris deposition caused by the rainfall has damaged many culverts and constructions.

With the PWD having no earth movers and loaders, it was former minister Atum Welly who pushed in two heavy earth movers and loaders (JCB) to clean the blockades from check gate to Goloso, Kino said.

The landslides at Upper Sbansiri district also caused damage to one government building besides a garage, official reports said.

Many domestic animals were also reported to be washed away in the mudslide, the report added.

A report from Tezu, Lohit district headquarters, said many low lying areas in the district were submerged by flood water.

The Lohit DC has directed all administrative officers, Water Resource Department (WRD) officials, state police and the disaster management cell to keep strict vigil on the flood situation.

According to the report, electricity lines at Changliang from Durra Nala micro hydel project have been damaged while the PWD rural link road was eroded threatening Changliang village which falls under Tezu circle of Lohit district.

Restoration of power supply was taken up on war footing by the electrical department while man and machinery under the supervision of WRD were also pressed into service to plug in the over-flooding of Durra river towards Changliang village but due to inclement weather, restoration work could not materialise, the reports said.
Republican presidential candidate today targeted Democrat Hillary Clinton for leaving behind a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness" as former US secretary of state and blamed her "bad judgement" for disasters unfolding across the world.

The 70-year-old real estate tycoon said US President Barack Obama must be regretting his decision of putting Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness. America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets," Trump said in his acceptance speech here as the Republican presidential candidate.

"Her bad instincts and her bad judgement  something pointed out by (Vermont senator) Bernie Sanders  are what caused the disasters unfolding today," he said.

Reviewing Clinton's record, Trump said in 2009, ISIS was not even on the map and the situation across West Asia was stable.

"After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos."



"Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before," he said.

Trump said Clinton's legacy does not have to be US legacy.

"The problems we face now  poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad  will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."



Trump said while Clinton's message was that things will never change, his message is that things have to change. "And they have to change right now," he said amid applause.

When a secretary of state illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so that authorities cannot see her crime, it puts the country at risk, Trump said, adding corruption has reached a level like never before.

"When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was "extremely careless" and "negligent" in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

"In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it  especially when others have paid so dearly," he said.

"When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favours to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come," he alleged.
An animal protection body has urged the External Affairs Ministry to expedite the process of rescuing a wild elephant which got washed away in the Brahmaputra river into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Humane Society International-India has written a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to expedite the permissions required by the rescue team which has been formed by the Environment Ministry.

The body said the Environment Ministry has formed a four-member rescue team and has issued directions to the state Forest departments of Assam and Meghalaya to coordinate rescue efforts.

"We have also learnt that the Environment Ministry has been in contact with its Bangladeshi counterparts. It has received consent from the Bangladeshi Government for the rescue team to travel to Bangladesh and undertake rescue efforts.

"However, we are given to understand that the request for permissions for the team's travel and action plans are pending approval with the Ministry of External Affairs. Hence, we sincerely request you, as the Minister of External Affairs, to expedite the permissions required by the rescue team for this case," HSI India said in the letter.

It said that the elephant has reportedly become feeble due to the lack of food and its rescue at the earliest is "necessary" to prevent further distress to her as well as the locals living in the region.

"We are confident that your involvement will help bring this stranded elephant safely back to India. We look forward to your swift action in the matter," the body wrote in the letter.

According to reports, the elephant has reached a sandbar in Bangladesh's Kurigram district.

Kurigram is the nearest district in Bangladesh from Dhubri in Assam.

Till last week, information from Bangladesh said, the elephant was found on sandbars in Chikajani union in Jamalpur district, after the female elephant swam through Brahmaputra (known as Jamuna in Bangladesh) from Kurigram's Chilmari sub-divisional area, reports said.
Hundreds of protesters from across the US marched through the streets of Cleveland, demonstrating against the policies of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as the four-day came to an end.

"The US is under grave threat as the emergence of Donald Trump on national stage has given dangerous rise to anti-Muslim and racial sentiments in the country, which will take it towards a downward path," said Terrey Kaye, a retired teacher who joined the protests here yesterday.

Last afternoon, hours before Trump was scheduled to deliver his speech to accept the nomination of the Republican presidential candidate, Kaye was out on Public Square  the most popular place in downtown Cleveland  a few blocks away from there with a placard to vent his anger.

"Ban all Trumps not Muslims," read the handwritten placard in black and white. He had covered his face and dressed like a Muslim from West Asia.

"This is my humble way to protest against the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Trump," he told PTI.

Kaye said he is protesting on his own, to vent his feeling against the prevailing sentiment in the country. But he was not alone, several hundred people like him from across the country landed in Cleveland, Ohio to protest against the policies of Trump.

"Chumps: Make America Racist Again," said the placard being displayed by another lone protester Briandon Arapes, who works as a customer service provider in Cleveland. I am asking people not to vote for Trump. He has bankrupt ideas," he said.

But there were scores of people who have come to this city in groups. Toni Rozsahezyi of a non-profit organisation had a group of protesters who were dancing on a set of music and were dressed pink.

"We are here to protest against the war and drones," she said. Next week, the group plans to hold a similar protest in Philadelphia, the city that hosts the Democratic National Convention.

"We will be in bigger size there," she said, adding that Clinton has been a supporter of drones and war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Yesterday, as the four-day convention came to an end, Cleveland experienced one of the largest anti-Trump protest this week. The city was on its edge, with police officials and security personnel from as many as 37 agencies deployed for the week, several days.
Needling the Congress which appears divided on the demand for forming an alliance with "like-minded" parties for forthcoming Assembly polls in Goa, an Independent legislator today asked the opposition party to announce their Chief Ministerial candidate.

"The Congress should first speak in one tone. Their Legislature wing and the state party organisation speak in different voices as far as the issue of grand alliance is concerned," Vijai Sardesai, who represents Fatorda constituency, told reporters here.

His comments came against the backdrop of several Congress MLAs recently raising the demand for a pre-poll tie-up with "like-minded" parties for 2017 elections, even as state unit Congress president Luizinho Faleiro has clarified that the call on forming such an alliance will be taken only by October.

"I challenge the Congress to announce their chief ministerial candidate for Goa elections and then talk about other issues. As the Congress is speaking in two different voices they should first reveal who are going to lead their party in the upcoming polls," Sardesai, flanked by two MLAs Naresh Sawal and Rohan Khaunte, said at the presser.

Several Congress legislators, including former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Vishwajit Rane, Pandurang Madkaikar, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Jeniffer Monserratte, have been demanding that the party should not go solo in the elections.

Congress fared badly in the 2012 polls bagging only nine seats, as the BJP romped home in alliance with the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to grab power in the coastal state.
International health experts, including from the UK, will meet here this month to deliberate on raising awareness about 'Health Technology Assessment'.

Saumya Swaminathan, DG Indian Council of Medical Research, said the main objective of the international consultative workshop - organised by the Health Ministry - is to increase awareness about HTA and its role in priority setting.

"The workshop will also aim to consult key stakeholders from government, academic, public health, and private health providers on how MTAB can be most effectively and comprehensively established," she said.

It aims to gain the support of policy and decision-makers in India towards the formal adoption of HTA and to initiate national and international collaboration and networking on it.

The consultative workshop on HTA will also deliberate on plans of the Department of Health Research's proposed Medical Technology Advisory Board (MTAB).

The need to establish such a board was discussed and recommended by the 12th Plan Working Group on Health Research.

The workshop will be organized on July 25 and will have presentations, discussions, and evidence consideration on HTA.

Health Minister J P Nadda will deliver the inaugural address at the workshop attended by officials of Indian, the UK, and Thailand governments.

HTA is a method of synthesis that considers evidence regarding clinical effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness and, when broadly applied, includes social, ethical, and legal aspects of the use of health technologies.

During the workshop, international delegates from Thailand's Health Intervention Technology Assessment Programme, The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) International of UK, University of York in UK and the World Health Organisation South-East Asia regional office will give presentations.

(REOPENS DEL43)



Using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) study between 1990 and 2015, Stephen Lim from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues estimated the current status of 33 of the 47 health-related SDG-indicators



To enable easier comparison, they created a health- related SDG index (with a rating of 0-100) that combines these 33 health-related indicators to measure progress for 188 countries between 1990 and 2015.

"With more than 1,870 individual collaborators in 124 countries and three territories, our independent analysis identifies high and low-performing countries to help guide national policies and donor investments and provides a strong basis for monitoring progress towards the health-related SDGs for 188 countries over the next 15 years," Lim said.

Despite creating a single measure of health (the SDG- index), the authors note that the findings are based on available data, estimates, and modelling.

The authors called for more investment in high-quality data collection systems including censuses and vital registration and health management information systems, to ensure progress towards the SDGs can be properly monitored.

The study said over 60 per cent of countries have already met the 2030 targets on reducing maternal (less than 70 deaths per 1,00,000 live births) and child mortality (25 deaths per 1000 live births).

No country has met any of the nine targets on the full elimination of diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, or reducing prevalence of health outcomes like childhood overweight incidences and intimate partner violence to 0 per cent, it said.

The authors warned that given the modest progress in HIV and tuberculosis over the last 25 years, the vision of ending these epidemics in the next 15 years is highly unrealistic.

"A substantial change in the current trajectory of HIV and tuberculosis incidence will be needed-likely requiring major technological leaps coupled with universal delivery-to meet this target," the authors said.

The study said less than a fifth of countries have met the 2030 target to eliminate stunting and wasting in children under five.

Only around a quarter of countries have achieved the target to substantially reduce exposure to household air pollution and less than a fifth of countries have achieved universal access to safe and affordable water and sanitation, it said.
A 22-year-old woman got burnt badly and was unable to open her eyes after a man and his sister allegedly hurled acid at her for refusing his marriage proposal in east Delhi's Gandhinagar area, police said today.

The girl has been admitted to GTB hospital with 30 per cent burn injuries and is recuperating.

Radhe and sister Anita, residents of Ghaziabad, are known to the victim. He befriended the girl in Haridwar last year during a visit, said a police officer.

Radhe developed a one-sided affection for the girl and proposed to her. The proposal was, however, reportedly turned down, police said.

Infuriated by the rejection, the accused with the help of his sister, allegedly threw acid on the victim at around 9.30 PM yesterday, said the officer.

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal visited the victim.

"Maliwal met the Medical Superintendent to access the status of the victim and found shockingly that her care had been neglected. It was learnt that her bandages had not been changed since 10 PM last night," said a senior DCW officer.

After the Commission's intervention, the victim was shifted to a private ward. The Commission shall ensure that the victim gets proper treatment and that due justice is served, said a senior DCW official.

"Girl burnt badly, eyes not opening. Met MS GTB, hv got girl shifted to private ward. DCW will ensure proper treatment to the girl n justice," Maliwal later tweeted.
Filmmaker JJ Abrams and the team of "Star Trek Beyond" paid tribute to one of the cast members, Anton Yelchin, who died last month after a freak automobile accident at his home in Studio City.

The film's team was present at the San Diego Comic-Con and after it took to the stage, Abrams said "something was missing", according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"There is something missing tonight. There is someone missing tonight," said producer Abrams, standing alongside stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana.

Yelchin played Chekov in three of the films in the rebooted franchise.

"As wonderful as this is to be here with all of you and to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, there is something wrong tonight," said Abrams, who directed Yelchin in the first two Star Trek films, released in 2009 and 2013, and produced Beyond.

On stage the "Star Trek" alums were joined by newcomers Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella and director Justin Lin, all of whom also honored the late 27-year-old actor.

"Anton Yelchin should be here," Abrams continued. "Anton's parents are here - Irina and Victor. We love their son, and if I could ask everyone to have a moment of silence for our dear friend Anton."



Following the moment of silence, the San Diego Symphony began to play a medley of Star Trek theme music. During the performance, a light show appeared above the audience's heads while fireworks exploded over the marina.

Quinto, who plays Spock in the series, also said a few words for the late Leonard Nimoy, who died earlier this year.

"I just want to take a moment to honor him, to acknowledge him, to celebrate him and to love him. We all carry him with us in our hearts tonight," Quinto said.

"Beyond" sees the crew of the USS Enterprise separated following an attack lead by the the dictator Krall (Elba) that leaves them stranded in a hostile, mysterious world. The movie hits the US theatres today.
The brother of Kolkata girl, Judith D'Souza, who was abducted from Kabul six weeks ago, met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Delhi today and appealed to her to ensure his sister's safe return.

"I met her at her home in Delhi today. She has assured that the ministry has been trying its best to bring back Judith. Her assurances give us hope that she will be home soon," Jerome told PTI from Delhi.

40-year-old Judith, who was working for Aga Khan Foundation as a senior technical adviser, was kidnapped by suspected militants from outside her office in the heart of Kabul on June 9. She was scheduled to return home this week.

Her family has already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to do his utmost to secure her release.
Karnataka government today banned with immediate effect nylon threads commonly known as 'Chinese dor' or 'Chinese manja' used for kite flying, saying it causes grievous injuries to birds, animals as well as human beings.

"Ban has been imposed on procuring, stocking, sale and use of nylon thread commonly know as Chinese Dor or Chinese Manja or other synthetic (Non bio-degradable) threads coasted with glass or other harmful substances used for kite flying or other purposes likely to cause grievous injury and inconvenience to birds, animals as well as human beings," an official release said.

The ban is with immediate effect in the interest of public, it said.

Ecologists and bird watchers have been demanding the ban citing its negative affects on the environment, birdsand animals.

Requesting public to cooperate with the governmentand the law enforcement authorities, the release said thethreads also adversely affect soil, water, cattle and damagethe environment.

Those violating ban can be booked under various acts like Karnataka forest, wild life (protection) and environment (protection) acts.
Alleging Gujarat government's collusion in the Dalit thrashing incident, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today dubbed it "anti-Dalit" and accused the ruling BJP of "trampling" upon the depressed sections.

Kejirwal targeted the BJP after meeting the victims in Rajkot civil hospital first and visiting Mota Samadhiyala village in Una to meet their family members, a day after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi met the victims.

Seven persons of Dalit community were brutally thrashed by cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on July 11, triggering nationwide condemnation.

The AAP chief also alleged that the Gujarat government first allows crimes be carried out on Dalits and then slaps false cases on people who come out in protest on streets. He alleged that the dalit victims were beaten up at the behest of the administration.

"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police, with police batons...It means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is police silent ? Why is it involved ? This means there is some direction from the top administration," he told reporters.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, it is anti-Dalit," he said.

"The BJP first sends its goons to beat dalits, and when their community members come out on the streets to protest, false cases are filed against them," Kejriwal alleged.

Kejriwal also rubbished BJP's contention that leaders are making a beeline to Gujarat only to make political gains.

"Our politics is for justice of Dalits, while BJP's politics is for trampling upon them," Kejriwal said in reply to a question on politics behind the visit.

Apart from Rahul Gandhi and leaders of other non-BJP parties, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel had visited the victims day before yesterday.

A Trinamool Congress parliamentary delegation is slated to come to Rajkot and Una tomorrow and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is also expected to meet the victim's family.

Kejriwal also questioned the state government's intent to carry out investigation without showing bias against Dalits.

He said only 16 persons have been arrested while 40-50 people were involved in the incident. "Why are others not held so far? The victims told me that the accused were members of Shiv Sena. The government is trying to save them," he alleged.I



Kejriwal also triggered a controversy by meeting a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes.

It evoked strong reaction from BJP, whose Saurashtra- Kutch spokesperson Raju Dhruv said the Delhi CM's aim was to make "personal and political gains.

Kerjiwal demanded exemplary punishment for those involved



in the crime so that in future nobody dares to commit such crimes again. He also demanded jobs for victims' kin and proper compensation for them.

He claimed that it was not an "isolated" incident and "atrocities" on Dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be "taught a lesson" by members of all communities if it does not end its "oppression".

He said those who attempted suicide told him that "atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day in Gujarat".

"I asked them why they are committing suicide. They said atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day. Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together," Kejriwal stressed.

Till now, 20 people have attempted suicide during the protest on violence against Dalits.

The incident of flogging of Dalits has sparked protests by community members across the state, which continued for days causing loss of public property.

Sixteen people have been arrested so far in connection with the assault on Dalits, while four policemen have been suspended for dereliction of duty.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal today refused to answer a question on his party's MP Bhagwant Mann who landed in trouble for filming the Parliament complex and sharing it on social media.

When a reporter asked for his comment, he evaded the question.

Kejriwal was on one-day visit here to meet the family members of Dalit youths who were beaten up by a vigilante group for allegedly skinning a cow on July 11.

In the nearly 12 minute video that Mann shared live on Facebook, he filmed his vehicle crossing security barricades and entering Parliament yesterday.

Both houses of Parliament were rocked by uproar over his act as MPs across party lines demanded action against him.

While Mann said he was ready for any probe after tendering an unconditional apology, AAP rallied behind him, saying BJP was trying to hype up a "non-issue" to deflect attention from attacks on Dalits in Gujarat.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today stoked a controversy when he met a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes.

Kejriwal arrived at the airport here this morning and went straight to Rajkot civil hospital, where he met two Dalit victims of the Una thrashing incident and several others who attempted suicide to protest against it.

The AAP national convener also met Kanti Mulji Vala, accused of killing a police constable, who is also being treated at the Rajkot civil hospital.

Vala is one of the accused in the murder of Amreli's head constable Pankaj Amreliya. The policeman was killed in stone-pelting a couple of days back during the protest by Dalits against the Una incident.

Kejriwal assured the murder accused of "all possible support to fight for justice".

Vala, however, maintained that he was innocent and had not killed the policeman.

When asked about the reason behind meeting a murder accused, Kejriwal evaded a straight reply and instead said that he will also meet the family members of the deceased policeman in Amreli today.

However, the meeting evoked strong reaction from BJP.

The ruling party's Saurashtra-Kutch spokesperson Raju Dhruv condemned Kejriwal's meeting with Vala and described the Delhi CM as a person who can do anything for political gains.

"He (Kejriwal) is a person who can do anything for his personal political gains. He deceived Anna Hazare and now tries to defame Gujarat," Dhruv alleged.

"By meeting the murder accused, Kejriwal has proved that he does not have any concern for Dalits or constable Amreliya who sacrificed his life in the line of duty," he said.

"Kejriwal believes in cheap politics," he said.

The AAP chief is on a one-day visit to the state to meet the Dalits who were thrashed for skinning a dead cow and their family members at Mota Samadhiyala village in Una town of Gir Somnath, where the brutal assault took place on July 11.

The incident sparked statewide protests by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.
Terming the BJP government in Gujarat as "anti-Dalit", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused the state administration of colluding in the incident of attack on dalit men by cow vigilantes as he met the victims and their families.

The Aam Aadmi Party Chief claimed that it was not an "isolated" incident and "atrocities" on dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be "taught a lesson" by members of all communities if it does not end its "oppression".

"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police...It means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is the police silent? Why is it involved? This means there is some direction from the top administration," Kejriwal told reporters after visiting the victims of the July 11 incident at Rajkot civil hospital.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, (it) is anti-Dalit," alleged Kejriwal whose visit cames a day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi meet the victims. Two days back, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had also visited the place.

The Delhi Chief Minister also questioned the state government's intent to carry out an unbiased investigation into the matter.

The AAP national convener said only 17 persons have been arrested when about 40-50 people were allegedly involved in the July 11 incident, and pointed out that no charge sheet has yet been filed in the 2012 killing of Dalits by police at Thangadh in Surendranagar district.

Three Dalits were killed in the police firing in 2012.

"People apprehend that the arrests could be an eyewash and the accused may be allowed to go scot-free later," Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal also stoked a controversy when he met Dalit youth Kanti Mulji Vala, arrested for the murder of head constable Pankaj Amrelia, at the Rajkot civil hospital where he is admitted.

Asked why he meet a murder accused, the Delhi CM said he will also meet the family members of the constable at Amreli.

He said those who attempted suicide told him that "atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day in Gujarat".

"I asked them why they are committing suicide. They said atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day. Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together," he stressed.

He demanded compensation and government jobs for the victims and the youths who had attempted suicide.

Kejriwal also pressed for swift action against all the accused.

"I have been told that false cases are being lodged against the (dalit) youths who are agitating by the authorities as they did during the peaceful Patidar quota agitation," Kejriwal claimed.

After meeting the victims of the beating incident and people who attempted suicide during the protest, Kejriwal will also visit the victims' families at Mota Samadhiyala village, where the incident of brutal assault on Dalits for skinning a dead cow took place on July 11.

The thrashing incident had sparked a statewide protest by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.
Startup Village, the country's first public-private partnership business incubator, has been named India's best startup incubator.

Startup Village is ranked number one in a first-of-its- kind comprehensive ranking by the India edition of Entrepreneur Magazine of the 100 best startup incubators in India (25 across sectors and 75 sector specific), a release said here.

Last week, Startup Village entered its second phase with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launching the online platform SV.CO that aims to provide a fully digital incubation framework to five million students in 3,500 engineering colleges across the country, it said.

"SV.CO is the next big iteration of Startup Village, to give a world class student startup ecosystem to all 5 million engineering students India, who will build the future of our nation," Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar said.

India's leading startups Ola, FreeCharge, Tally, FreshDesk and Citrus Pay are already supporting student startups through SV.CO.

"The PPP model of Startup Village gives its tremendous ability to create deeper impact and it has been changing the whole culture of student entrepreneurship across the nation," said H K Mittal, Head of the National S&T Entrepreneurship Development Board.

More than 50 startups have graduated from Startup Village's Physical and Virtual Incubation Programme and eight startups from Digital Incubation.

Sixty startups collectively raised funds to the tune of Rs 46.53 crore during or after the 6-month incubation programme.

Since 2012, Startup Village has supported nearly 590 physical and virtual incubatees in Kochi and 200 in Visakhapatnam.

"It is a great honour for Startup Village to be named the country's best incubator just as it gears up for even bigger challenges in its search for a billion dollar campus startup," said Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys Co-Founder and Chief Mentor of Startup Village.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today effected a reshuffle in his cabinet by inducting one Cabinet-rank minister and two ministers of state with Independent charge, taking its strength to 14.

Faridabad MLA Vipul Goyal was inducted as a Cabinet-rank minister, while legislators Munish Grover from Rohtak and Banwari Lal from Bawal got the Minister of State rank with Independent Charge.

Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki administered oath to the three new ministers.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, state Finance Minister Abhimanyu and state Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma were present on the occasion.

However, the new ministers have not been allotted portfolios yet.

To accommodate the new ministers, Minister of State for Public Health Engineering Ghanshyam Saraf and Minister of State for Cooperation Bikram Thekedar have resigned from their posts.

Before the induction of the new ministers, the Khattar government had 13 ministers, including the Chief Minister.

Nine months after assuming office (in October, 2014), Khattar had expanded his cabinet for the first time inducting three new ministers.

Since then, apart from the Chief Minister, there were seven cabinet ministers, two ministers of state with independent charge and three ministers of state.

Besides, there were four Chief Parliamentary Secretaries.

The state government can have a maximum of 14 ministers.

(REOPENS DES 63)



Meanwhile, Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki today accepted the resignation of two ministers - Ghanshyam Saraf and Bikram Singh Thekedar.

After today's expansion of the Cabinet, apart from Chief Minister, there are eight Cabinet Ministers, two Ministers of State with Independent charge and three Ministers of State.

Later on, while interacting with media persons, the Chief Minister said in reply to a question concerning reasons for resignation by two Ministers that it is a general process.

As the number of Minister is limited in the Cabinet, replacement is the only option to give chance to other legislators.

He said that, if required, such changes would also be made in future.

In reply to another question he said that while acting swiftly, a Special Investigation Team has been constituted to further investigate the case of gangrape at Rohtak and the culprits have also been arrested by the police.

Investigation is in progress and the guilty would not be spared.
A Kolkata-based businessman was today allegedly abducted by unidentified persons while he was going to visit his textile plant near Sundergarh town here, police said.

Pratik Patodia, who is said to be in his 40s, got down at Jharsuguda railway station this morning.

Police said he was supposed to go to Ashok Multi Yarns Limited near Kirei in Sundergarh. Though he got down from the train at 9.30 AM, he reportedly moved in a van driven by his driver Rohit Tanty.

As his employees at the factory inquired about his arrival, they launched a search operation. His vehicle was found near Beramahal, on the State Highway-10, few kilometres away from the Sundergarh-Jharsuguda border.

Sundergarh Superintendent of Police Nikhil Kanodia went to the spot and found that the vehicle was left abandoned.

There was no trace of the driver and Patodia. Police recovered the sun glasses of Patodia.

Kanodia said, "We got the information around mid-day about the abduction of the businessman".

He said two teams have been formed to look into the case.

"We have some definite clue on the crime and we are working on it," Kanodia added.
Sri Lanka has invited the diaspora groups, including Tamils, to make submissions for advancing the task of reconciliation following the country's three-decade-long civil war that ended in 2009.

The Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) through the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington has called for submissions from diaspora organisations on the design of structures, processes and measures for truth, accountability, reparations and non-recurrence.

The diaspora can make submissions on Office on Missing Persons, an Office on Reparations, a Judicial Mechanism with a Special Counsel, a Truth, Justice, Reconciliation and Non-Recurrence Commission and any other mechanisms, processes or measures for advancing reconciliation.

The submissions can be madeuntil July 28.

These mechanisms will be evolved through a process of wide consultations involving all stakeholders, including victims, the notice said.

The Tamil diaspora groups in the West were generally regarded as sympathisers of the LTTE during the armed separatist conflict.

The report of the CTF will be handed over to the government at the conclusion of the consultation process.

"It is expected that the Report, upon conclusion of consultations in August 2016, will be handed over in September 2016, the notice said.

The government has already noticed parliament on the Office of Missing Persons which has been criticised by the Sinhala majority nationalists as a move to betray the government troops who defeated the LTTE.

According to the UN figures, up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by security forces during Rajapaksa's regime that brought an end to the nearly three decades-long war with the defeat of the LTTE in 2009.
Meghalaya government today directed the Uranium Corporation of India Limited to "keep in abeyance" its recent tender notice for expression of interest (EOI) and all pre-uranium mining activities in the state.

The decision was taken at a meeting with over 15 NGOs, which comprise of the anti-uranium mining groups and pro-road project groups, convened by Chief Minister Mukul Sangma here.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Sangma said "Instructions have been given to UCIL that all exercises pertaining to the EOI must be kept in abeyance."



Stating that the state government has been consistent in its approach towards the issue, Sangma said "In view of the collective concern and decision of the people and until and unless the people are convinced on proposed uranium mining, there will be no action for pre-mining activities in the state."



"We will also communicate to the Centre about the need to ensure that UCIL do not resort to any action which may lead to doubts until such time we are to convince ourselves and that the people of the state are taken on board," he said.

According to the Chief Minister, there clarity was needed on the stand of the state government and the people in respect to pre-mining activities by UCIL and other developmental programmes, which include road infrastructures.

Earlier, the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) had also accused the government for leasing land located at Mawthabah, an area in South West Khasi Hills district, rich in uranium deposit, to the UCIL for 30 years.

On this, Sangma said "The 2009 cabinet decision has been kept in abeyance and was never implemented as the stand of the state government is uranium mining can take place only after all stakeholders are taken on board."



"We have laws in place to protect the interest of the people and it is not easy for UCIL to go ahead with uranium mining or pre-mining activities. Land has to be given to UCIL based on laws," he said.

Seven out of eight projects under SARDP-NE earmarked for Meghalaya at a cost of Rs 2,977 crore, are waiting for NOCs from the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC).

These include the 68km two-lane Nongstoin to Mawthabah road, which has witnessed stiff opposition from anti-uranium groups who maintain, it is for facilitating uranium mining.

The chief minister said the state government has decided to seek a clarification from the Centre on the objective of the road.

"The matter will be taken up with the Centre to seek clarification on the objective of the road to insulate people from such apprehension," Sangma added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene her security council today to address the deadly shooting rampage in Munich, her chief of staff Peter Altmaier said.

Altmaier told ZDF public television yesterday that Merkel was being "constantly briefed" on developments in the southern city, where police say at least eight people were killed and up to three gunmen were still at large.

"The cabinet ministers concerned are on their way to Berlin," he added.

Beyond the chancellor and her chief of staff, the German security council includes the ministers for foreign affairs, defence and interior affairs as well as other top officials.

Altmaier said the council would "compile all information available and evaluate it".

"We are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany," he said.

"Our thoughts are with the victims of the attack, with their loved ones and also with the police who are defending freedom and security."



Merkel had been due to start holidays in the Alps, while her Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, on a flight to New York when the shootings began, was heading back to Berlin.
Hope of finding flight MH370's final resting place is "fading" and the massive three-nation search for the doomed jet will be suspended if nothing turns up in the suspected crash zone, Malaysia, Australia and China said on Friday.

With the designated search area due to be fully scanned within weeks, transport ministers from the three countries made the announcement after discussing the future of the unprecedented deep-sea hunt for the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

"With less than 10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles) of the high priority search area remaining to be searched, ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading," said a joint statement after the meeting in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya.

Unless "credible new evidence" turns up by the time the current operations are completed, "the search would not end, but be suspended" until solid new information pointing to a crash site emerges, they said.

"The suspension does not mean the termination of the search. Ministers reiterated that the aspiration to locate has not been abandoned," said the statement read out by meeting host Liow Tiong Lai of Malaysia as Australia's Darren Chester and China's Yang Chuantang looked on.

The Boeing 777 vanished March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, mostly Chinese nationals, in what remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led operation is scouring the seafloor within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) belt of remote Indian Ocean far off Western Australia, where authorities believe went down.

The use of the term "suspended" was an apparent nod to anguished families who have stepped up pressure on authorities not to completely close the book on efforts to locate the aircraft.

Some relatives have raised doubts over whether the right area is being searched and have called for a thorough reassessment of satellite data used to determine the suspected crash zone.

Several next-of-kin who turned up for a press briefing by the three ministers told reporters they welcomed the official statement.

"This means authorities are committed to finding answers and not just quitting. This is to be welcomed," said KS Narendran, a business consultant in Chennai, India, whose wife Chandrika Sharma was on board.

Several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres toward the African coast have been identified as definitely or probably from the Boeing 777 but have shed no light on where exactly the plane went down or why.
Police in Munich said they suspected "terrorism" in a shooting rampage today that left several people dead.

"We suspect terrorism," he said, citing witness accounts. Police have not released an official toll but a police source earlier spoke of "at least six dead".

agency DPA had earlier quoted police as warning of an "acute terror situation" with three assailants at large armed with "long guns".
Criticising Republican leaders for singling out American Muslims, US president has said the minority community has always been a part of America and what worries them is the fear of being blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent their faith.

"Like all Americans, you worry about the threat of terrorism. But on top of that, you fear that your entire community will be blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent your faith," Obama said at an Eid event at the White House yesterday.

"Singling out Muslim Americans, moreover, feeds the lie of terrorists like ISIL that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents. That's not smart national security," Obama said in an apparent criticism to Republican leaders who have been calling for banning the entry of Muslims and increased monitoring and even racial profiling.

"In fact, it is ISIL and al Qaeda, and organisations like those that are waging war on Muslim communities, even during the holy month... And discriminating against Muslim Americans is also an affront to the very values that already make our nation great," Obama said.

"Muslim Americans are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family," he said.

"And whether your family has been here for generations or you're a new arrival, you're an essential part of the fabric of our country," he added.

Muslim Americans, he said have to reject hatred.

"Muslim Americans  and all Americans  have to reject discrimination. Muslim Americans  and all Americans  have to answer those who would peddle hate, or suggest that somehow their interpretations of their faith justify violence," Obama said.

"All of us have those obligations  whether we are Christian, or Jew, or Hindu, or Muslim, or of no faith at all. We have to reaffirm that in this country, it is our obligation to abide by the law, to look out for each other, to be part of a single community  and that we can still appreciate our differences and retain those things that are essential to our identities, and still strongly affirm our commitment and our faith in this country," said the US President.

"The celebration of Eid at the White House, he said, is another reminder that Muslims have always been a part of America. In colonial times, many of the slaves brought over from Africa were Muslim. We insisted on freedom of religion, in Thomas Jefferson's words, for, "the Jew and Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan.''



"For more than two centuries, Muslim Americans of all backgrounds -- Arab and Asian, African and Latino, black and white  have helped build America as farmers and merchants, factory workers, architects, teachers and community leaders," he said.

"Muslim Americans have enriched our lives every single day. Muslim Americans help keep us safe," he said.

Muslim Americans aren't just heroes in real life, he said.

"One of today's most popular comic book superheroes is a Pakistani American girl named Kamala Khan, also known as Ms Marvel," he said amidst applause.

"I'm a comic book fan. But it's important that our children see positive, rich portrayals of all people, including Muslims, from all walks of life  not just in the national security context... In the news and TV and movies, the diversity and depth of the Muslim American experience needs to be portrayed," said the US President.
Seventy-five people onboard North Korea's national carrier Air Koryo had a lucky escape today when a fire broke out mid-air forcing the plane to land in China's northeastern city of Shenyang.

The JS151 flight, en route from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to Beijing, made a safe landing at Shenyang airport at 8:50 AM. No one onboard was injured, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Smoke was seen from a compartment when the Russian made Tupolev Tu-204 plane, with 60 passengers and 15 crew aboard, landed at the airport.

The cabin was filled with smoke around 30 minutes after the flight left Pyongyang and passengers were forced to use oxygen masks, Xinhua quoted a passenger as saying.

The airport authority immediately dispatched a team to help check the plane.

The passengers were transferred to another flight to Beijing and the North Korean plane remains at the airport.

No details on the cause of the incident have been released yet.
The nondescript hilltop Nagada village in Odisha's mineral-rich Jajpur district would soon get urban facilities, the state government said today, amid criticism from various quarters over the death of at least 19 infants allegedly due to malnutrition.

The official announcement came a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said all steps are being taken to avoid repetition of malnutrition cases.

Though the state government has identified about 20 malnourished children at the village, it is yet to admit that the 19 kids died due to lack of nutritious food within three months.

"The government has already opened a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre at the village where 25 children along with their mothers are being provided special care and treatment," Agriculture Secretary Manoj Aghuja told reporters after meeting Chief Secretary A P Padhi here.

Besides Ahuja, Agriculture Commissioner P K Meherda also visited the affected village yesterday.

Stating that a Health Camp would operate from tomorrow at the foot of the hill, Ahuja said all inhabitants of the village would undergo health check ups.

As malaria appeared to be the main disease there, all the 85 families living in five sectors of Nagada village would be provided medicated mosquito nets, he said.

Claiming that one anganwadi centre has been operating there, Ahuja said the government has sanctioned three more mini-anganwadi centres for the 85 juang tribe families.

All the families are covered under the food security programmes and they are being given food grains, he said.

On communication, Ahuja said efforts are being made to build two roads -- one from Jajpur side and another from Dhenkanal side -- to the village as the tribals are reluctant to come down from their habitation on the hill top.

The government has also decided to install a solar panel at the hill top for lighting the village, he said.

This apart, Ahuja said, "One VHF set has already been installed at the village and plans are there to provide two more VHF sets for easy communication with the plain".

The state government is also working on a plan to provide piped water to the villagers, he said, adding that officials will visit Nagada regularly to monitor developmental works.

Meanwhile, Jajpur district collector S K Mallick said the number of children hospitalised in Kaliapani has increased to 22 from 19 yesterday.

The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has asked the state government to submit an action-taken report within three weeks over the incident.
The Scheduled Tribes students of Nagaland pursuing different courses in various colleges and universities outside Nagaland today staged a sit-in-protest at the State Civil Secretariat demanding release of their full scholarship for 2015-16 by the state government.

On behalf of the aggrieved 329 Naga students, T Thomas Konyak said the state government was yet to release their full scholarship for the last academic session, because of which they were unable to clear the fees of the institutions where they study as most of them were financially weak.

These students were to receive Post-Matriculation Scholarship Scheme (PMSS) of the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which was released by the Centre, but was allegedly pending with the state government.

"Admission for the new session has commenced, but because of the non-release of pending scholarship, students are unable to clear fees of the last session and are getting delayed for the new admission," Thomas said.

Meanwhile, the aggrieved students submitted a memorandum to the Directors of Higher Education and Technical Education Departments requesting the government to bail them out of the critical situation.

The Post Graduate students who were also affected by non-payment of the scholarship were unable to receive their pass certificates and mark-sheets, Thomas alleged.

Expressing that students from other states were enjoying the Centre's PMSS implemented through the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the students demanded that the same facility should be made available for students in Nagaland.

The 329 aggrieved students are pursuing studies in institutions at Uttar Pradesh, Rajashthan and Haryana.
Narada CEO Mathew Samuel is unlikely to appear before Kolkata Police in connection with probe into the Narada sting operation within seven days as he has been directed by the force.

"The matter is sub-judice. I am consulting my lawyers but if you ask me for my opinion I am unlikely to appear before the investigation officer of Kolkata Police," Samuel, who is currently abroad, told PTI over the phone.

"I do not want to break the law. Calcutta High Court is looking after all the aspects of the matter and if I appear before Kolkata Police that will be a contempt of court which I will not do," he added.

On sleuths of Kolkata Police unearthing his bank accounts showing transactions with a political leader based in Madhya Pradesh, Samuel said, "Eight years ago after my father's demise I sold 1.5 acres of agriculture land in my native place (Kerala) to some real estate people. One of them was a BSP leader in Madhya Pradesh who had contested state Assembly elections and all the transactions happened through the bank.

"I want to make it clear it was not a huge amount," he said, adding, he did not know where the BSP leader is now.

"While I was with Tehelka, I used to get my salary, which was around Rs two lakh, debited to my account," he added.

The Narada CEO also said he does not have any investments nor any life insurance and he has not inherited any property from his parents.

According to sources in Kolkata Police if Samuel fails to appear before them within seven days' time "required legal steps will be taken against him".

A city court, which had been moved by Kolkata Police, had yesterday directed Samuel to appear before Kolkata Police within seven days in connection with the ongoing probe into the sting operation.

Earlier, the force had sent two summons to Samuel asking him to appear before it and both times the Narada CEO had requested it to withdraw the same because the case was sub-judice.

(REOPENS CAL8)



Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on June 17 ordered a police probe into the sting and had claimed that Trinamool Congress had not taken "a single penny" from anyone in the Saradha chit fund scam and the Narada sting operation.

A special investigation team under Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar was formed to conduct the probe.

The next day, an FIR was filed against Samuel who was then booked under IPC sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 500 (defamation), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 171 (G) (false statement in connection with an election) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy).

The Kolkata Police SIT questioned TMC MLA Iqbal Ahmed and IPS officer S M Hussain Mirza, both of whom were shown on the Narada footages purportedly accepting money.

The sleuths had recorded their statements and also videographed the questioning.

An investigation into the Narada sting operation is also underway by Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, while a case on the issue is pending in Calcutta High Court.
Controversial preacher Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation today admitted that Arshi Qureshi, who was arrested from Navi Mumbai yesterday by a joint team of Maharashtra ATS and Kerala Police for allegedly radicalising a Kochi-based woman, has been associated with them but denied any "terror encouragement" by their staff.

In a statement issued here, an IRF spokesperson said Qureshi is a "Guest Relations Officer" with the organisation, but denied any "encouragement" on part of their staff to make anyone join terrorist organisation, ISIS.

"Dr Zakir Naik and IRF have repeatedly condemned ISIS for being anti-Islamic. No staff of IRF will ever encourage anyone to join 'AISIS' (Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)," the statement said.

Qureshi was picked up from his Navi Mumbai residence last night and placed under arrest in connection with a case registered in Kochi on July 17.

The case was registered, days after at least 21 youths from Kerala were reported missing and suspected to have joined Islamic State, against Yahiya, the husband of Kochi-based Merin alias Mariyam, who went missing in the Middle East about a month ago, and Qureshi, on a complaint by her brother.

In his complaint with Palarivattom police station in Kochi, Merin's brother alleged that his sister was trapped and converted to Islam and radicalised by Yahiya, a Christian from Palakkad who had embraced Islam, and Qureshi during her stay in Mumbai in connection with her job last year, police had said.

Her brother also alleged that the duo also compelled his sister to join IS. He had accused the duo of trying to convert him to Islam and compelling him to join the IS during his stay with his sister in Mumbai.

A case under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between groups) as well as under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was registered in Kochi.

Meanwhile, IRF said, "Dr Naik had held a staff meeting a year ago condemning 'AISIS' and warned its people not to get misguided by those who support 'AISIS' which is actually the Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who wrongly call themselves ISIS."



A local court in Navi Mumbai yesterday granted Kerala Police Qureshi's transit remand till July 25.

Naik, a city-based televangelist who also runs Peace TV, has been under scanner of various agencies after one of the attackers involved in the Dhaka terror strike posted that he had been influenced by the preacher.

(Reopens BOM10)



In another statement issued in the evening, the



spokesperson said, "As a Guest Relations Officer, Arshi Qureshi meets several people who visit IRF. However, it may not be possible for him to recall who all he has met over the years."



"Dr Zakir Naik and IRF have repeatedly condemned AISIS for being and it is unthinkable to assume a staff of IRF will ever encourage anyone to join AISIS," it said.

"In its history, IRF has never been involved in forced conversions. It is a research body and publishes literature on Islam. People interested in Islamic literature and information contact IRF from time to time," he said.
Accusing the Aam Aadmi Party of abetting the suicide of one of the party's woman activists, the National Commission for Women has demanded security for her family.

"We strongly condemn the AAP party for neglecting to take action against the perpetrators of this terrible crime and thereby indirectly abetting this tragic loss of life," a NCW statement said.

"NCW demands that protection to the family of the deceased should be provided so that they are able to state the facts in the court without any fear for their lives and property," it said.

Lalitha Kumaramangalam, NCW Chairperson, had also hit out at Delhi Commission for Women, where 28-year-old Soni had filed a harassment complaint, for "not taking swift action".

She said, "Had DCW taken a strong step and provided her security, may be Soni would have been alive today."



The woman had filed a complaint against party colleague Ramesh Bharadwaj for allegedly touching her inappropriately and a case of molestation was registered in June and the accused was arrested.

The woman had committed suicide in Narela area of outer Delhi on July 19, with her family members claiming that she had gone into depression after her alleged molester was released on bail. She had alleged that the accused was being protected by the local MLA.

The woman consumed poisonous substance at her home in the afternoon and died during treatment at LNJP Hospital.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Soni's family a day after his government ordered a magisterial inquiry in to the case even. BJP, however, has demanded a CBI inquiry in to the case.
Nepal Parliament today started a three-day discussion on the no-confidence motion filed against embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli after all the three bills related to the annual budget were rejected by majority vote.

Speaking in the 598-member House, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' sought the support of the lawmakers for the no-confidence motion.

The no-trust motion was registered by the largest party in the parliament Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-United.

They have been demanding that Oli should resign to clear the way for formation of a new government.

281 parliamentarians of 13 parties have supported the motion. The parliament will hold discussions for three days on the motion.

Earlier in the day, the parliament rejected all three budget-related bills by majority vote.

Nepali Congress and Maoist had decided to table the bills before tabling the no-trust motion as per the request of the ruling parties, but they voted against it.

The parliament meeting has been postponed till tomorrow morning.

Oli, who became prime minister last October heading Nepal's eighth government in the past 10 years, has been facing a no-trust motion after the Maoists withdrew support from the coalition government last week.

Nepali Congress and the Maoists tabled the no-trust motion against Oli, accusing him of not honouring his past commitments.

Oli has refused to step down, despite the fact that the coalition government led by him is in minority after the Maoists withdrew their support to the coalition government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today to offer condolences on the death of his brother.

Abbas' brother Omar died in Qatar yesterday, with the funeral taking place today.

He had been suffering from cancer according to Israeli media reports.

The official, in the Israeli prime minister's office, said Netanyahu called Abbas today but that the conversation was "only to offer condolences."



No other topics were discussed, he said.

Palestinian state media confirmed the call.

Relations between the two men are frosty, with Netanyahu accusing Abbas of libelling the Jewish people last month after he suggested some rabbis had called for Palestinian wells to be poisoned.

Abbas and Netanyahu shook hands at a climate summit in Paris in November, but held no significant talks.

The last substantial public meeting between them is thought to date back to 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

Israel has called for direct peace negotiations without preconditions, but the Palestinian leadership prefers a multilateral approach -- saying Israel's leadership has failed to abide by previous agreements.
President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto reaffirmed the importance of the US-Mexico relationship today, promoting the benefits of trade and friendship in an election year that has sometimes stressed that alliance.

In a conference with Pena Nieto at the White House, Obama said trade with Mexico brings important investment and jobs to the US. He said the United States sells more to Mexico than to China, India and Russia combined.

Obama said he has worked to deepen the relationship during his presidency.

"We're not just strategic and economic partners, we're also neighbors and we're friends," Obama said.

The conference came the morning after the closing of the Republican National Convention and a speech by GOP nominee Donald Trump, whose demands that Mexico pay for a US border wall and descriptions of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists has offended the neighboring country.

Pena Nieto said a good relationship with the United States is "essential" for his country and said he looks forward to a "frank, open dialogue" with whomever is elected.

Pena Nieto avoided questions about the wall, but has previously said that Mexico will not pay for the wall Trump proposes.

The two men also endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that both countries have signed on to, saying it would make the relationship between their countries even stronger. They said they have learned from the two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has heavily criticized.

Obama said the global economy is a fact, and "we're not going to be able to build a wall around that."



The visit comes less than a month after Pena Nieto and Obama met in Canada during a summit of North America's leaders.

Obama's meetings with visiting foreign leaders are usually announced weeks in advance, but this visit was announced just last week.

The White House shrugged off suggestions that the visit was timed to highlight differences between Democrats and Republicans, particularly on attitudes toward Latinos.

"I think it's fair to say that almost anything that President Obama did on Friday would be viewed as a sharp contrast to the agenda that's being put forward by the other side," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

"But in this case, it's been a while since the president has hosted the president of Mexico here at the White House.
US President today rejected Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's claim that America is in deep crisis, asserting that it does not jibe with facts as violent crime and illegal immigration have plunged during his leadership to their lowest rates in last three decades.

"We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact," Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto.

"America is much less violent than it was 20, 30 years ago. Immigration is much less a problem than it was not just 20 or 30 years ago, but when I came in as president. That doesn't mean we haven't solved those problem, but those are facts," Obama said in response to a question.

Obama said he did not watch the convention, but has a broader idea of what was discussed during the four-day event in Cleveland.

"I don't think that's a surprise. I've got a lot of stuff to do and they are pretty long events. But I did read some of what was said, and the one thing that I think is important to recognise is this idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people," he said.

"I think it is important, just to be absolutely clear here, that some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just don't jibe with the facts. So let's take two specific examples. When it comes to crime, the violent crime rate in America has been lowered during my presidency than anytime in the last three, four decades," he said.

Acknowledging an uptick in murders in some US cities this year, he said the violent crime rate is still far lower than when Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s.

"Although it is true that we've seen an uptick in murders and violent crime in some cities this year, the fact of the matter is that the murder rate today, the violence rate today is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president and lower than when I took office," he said.

"We've just gone through a tragic period where we saw both tragedy in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, and then the insanity and the viciousness of people targeting police officers. And we are all heart broken by that and we're all troubled by how we can rebuild trust, support law enforcement and make sure the communities feel that they are being fairly policed," he said.

"The fact is that the rate of intentional killings of police officers is also significantly lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. Those are facts. That's the data."



On immigration, he said illegal migration into the US today is lower by two-thirds than it was when Reagan was president.

"When it comes to immigration, I think Americans expect that our immigration process is orderly and it is legal. And we have put unprecedented resources at our border," said the US President.

"Well, it turns out that the rate of illegal migration into the United States today is lower by two-thirds than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. We have far fewer undocumented workers crossing the border today than we did in the '80s or the '90s or when George Bush was president. That's a fact," he said.
At least one person was killed and 10 were wounded in a shooting at a shopping centre in Munich today, German police said.

The mall near the southern German city's Olympic stadium was surrounded by police after shots were fired.

"There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre," Munich police said on Twitter, urging people to avoid the area.

Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as passers-by looked on.

The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany, injuring five people.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" attacker who appeared to have been "inspired" by the Islamic State group but was not a member of the jihadist network.

It also follows a truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice after Bastille Day fireworks last week that left 84 people dead.
The Narcotics Cell of Nagaland Police arrested one person along with one kg of brown sugar worth Rs one crore, the police said today.

SP (Crime) and PRO of Nagaland Police, M Tungoe said personnel of Narcotic Cell manning Khuzama Interstate Check Gate detected the contraband concealed in a Bihar bound bus and arrested one person in this connection on July 12 last.

The accused has been identified as Raman Kumar, who hails from Motihari district of Bihar.

On being interrogated the accused revealed the consignment was to be collected by an unknown person once the bus reached its destination.

A case has been registered and thorough investigation was being conducted, the police added.
At least one security personnel was killed and five others injured today in two remote-controlled blasts at a scenic valley in Pakistan's restive northwestern Khyber Pakthunkhwa province.

The security official was killed in the second blast when police teams rushed to the spot to collect evidences from the site of first blast in scenic Kalam valley of Swat District wherein the car of Tehsil Nazim Sayed Salar Jahan was targeted, police said.

Jahan was injured along with two others in the remote-controlled blast.

The police teams and security officials rushed to the site of the first blast but in meantime another blast took place that killed a security officer and injured two other troops.

Two back-to-back blasts occurred within an hour triggering fear and panic in the area, police said.

Security forces have sealed the area. A search operation in a nearby settlement is underway, police added.
Opposition parties are attacking the Modi government on the issue of alleged atrocities on dalits as they feel the crucial voting bloc was slipping away from them and going to BJP, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.

The HRD Minister also defended the government's handling of unrest in Kashmir and accused Pakistan of encouraging disturbance in the state.

"Actually dalits are coming to BJP in large numbers so there are some 'thekedars' (political contractors) who think they are losing their grip (on the dalit votebank). So they are attacking the government," Javadekar said in an interview with Karan Thapar of India Today TV.

When asked about the Dayashankar Singh episode, in which the UP BJP vice president allegedly used derogatory words for BSP supremo Mayawati, inviting outrage, and dalit protests in Gujarat against assault on people from the community for skinning a dead cow, he said since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking all sections along. "People who think their bastions are threatened are getting affected," he said.

When asked why BJP did not register an FIR against Singh, as demanded by Mayawati, Javadekar said, law and order is a state subject and "there is an FIR". "Law enforcement machinery has to take action. Gimmicks won't work and real action has to come from state administration," he said.

Attacking the Congress, he said the party said nothing when "atrocities were committed in Haryana or a dalit girl was raped in Kerala" under its rule.

Javadekar said the BJP government in Gujarat had taken "prompt action" when dalits were beaten up by cow vigilantes.

Asked about opposition criticism of the government's handling of the situation in the Kashmir Valley following the encounter killing of militant commander Burhan Wani, the Minister blamed Pakistan for the unrest.

"There is role of our neighbour in many things which happen along the border and in the country. We know how terrorism or how this tendency...Stone pelting... It has been happening for years now," Javadekar said.

He claimed the situation in the Valley was much better during the current spell of unrest than on previous occasions as both the Centre and state government were more "active".

The NEET examination for admission to MBBS and BDS courses was being held in Srinagar, Javadekar said, adding the government was taking the right steps to ensure the situation improves in the long run.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone for a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,011 crore to provide super-specialty health care and create a large pool of doctors in Uttar Pradesh.

"It is a very important day for eastern Uttar Pradesh. We are thankful to the Prime Minister for giving an AIIMS. He had said we will change the face and destiny of this region. The Prime Minister took special interest in this project and it is a major step towards serving humanity," Union Health Minister J P Nadda said addressing a rally here.

With next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on BJP's mind, Nadda stressed that the Prime Minister has given special focus to development of health facilities in the state.

The AIIMS will directly benefit the residents of 14 districts of eastern UP and neighbouring districts of Bihar, the minister said.

It is aimed at correcting the regional imbalances in availability of affordable and reliable tertiary level healthcare.

The AIIMS here, which will be spread in a total area of 112 acres, will be completed in 45 months and there would be 750 beds besides 300 super-speciality-beds in the hospital.

Every medical batch will have 100 students while nursing batch will have 60 students.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Modi had recently given its nod to the setting up of the AIIMS under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

The government had said that the establishment of new AIIMS will serve the dual purpose of providing super-specialty health care to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and health workers that can be available for primary and secondary level facilities being created under National Health Mission (NHM).

The new AIIMS, once established will also conduct research on prevalent regional diseases and other health issues and provide for better control and cure of such diseases.

The hospital will also include emergency or trauma and AYUSH sections.

There will be an administration block, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, hostels and residential facilities. The cost estimate of Rs 1,011 crore does not include recurring costs -- wages and salaries and operation and maintenance expenses.

"This recurring expenditure will be met by the respective new AIIMS from their annual budgets through grant-in-aid to them from Plan Budget Head of PMSSY of the Health Ministry, the government had recently said.

"The setting up of AIIMS under PMSSY aims at correcting the regional imbalances in availability of affordable and reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country and to augment facilities for quality medical education in under-served or backward states," it had said in an official statement.

Under this scheme, similar health facilities have been established in Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jodhpur, Rishikesh and Patna while work on AIIMS, Rae Bareli is in progress.

Three new AIIMS at Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kalyani (West Bengal) and Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh) have been sanctioned last year.
Poland's right-wing dominated parliament today recognised as "genocide" a massacre of 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists seven decades ago, in a move that quickly drew criticism from Kiev.

"The victims of the crime committed in the 1940s by Ukrainian nationalists were not duly commemorated, and the mass murder was not defined as genocide in accordance with the historical truth," said a resolution adopted by 432 lawmakers in the 460-seat parliament.

Ukraine has refused to recognise the crime as genocide and its President Petro Poroshenko today to expressed his "regret" over the Polish move, warning it could be used against his crisis-hit country.

Between 1942 and 1945, members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) hacked Polish victims to death and drowned women, children and the elderly in wells in the Volhynia region of what is now northwest Ukraine.

The UPA's main objective was to win Ukraine's independence by ousting Nazi and later Soviet occupiers and to clear Poles from territories that were historically Ukrainian land.

The killing provoked bloody reprisals by Polish partisans grouped in the anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet Home Army (AK). They killed 20,000 Ukrainians.

Today's resolution also recognises these crimes saying: "Nor can one dismiss or downplay acts of Polish revenge on Ukrainian villages, during which civilian populations also perished."



It also "expresses Parliament's respect for and gratitude to Ukrainians who risked their lives to save Poles".

Poroshenko, meanwhile, invoking the teachings of late Polish-born pope John Paul II, called on people to "forgive and ask for forgiveness" while cooperating in order to "determine all the facts of this tragic page of our joint history".

The so-called Volhynia massacre was shrouded in silence during the communist era of 1945-1989, with regime authorities in Warsaw wanting to maintain ties with Ukraine, a Soviet republic until 1991.
RP Sanjiv Goenka Group flagship CESC Ltd is expecting acquisition opportunities in the power sector to get cheaper over the next 12 months.

"Opportunities will come cheaper in a year or so. This is our articulated calculation for it," the group's Chairman Sanjiv Goenka said here today on the sidelines of the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM).

He was responding to questions on acquisition of stressed assets in the power sector.

"A dedicated team is working towards identifying stressed assets and we have well articulated principles laid down for it. We look only at assets which are completely viable in terms of inputs and output.

"Unless the basic operation of an asset is profitable, we are not interested even if it comes cheap," he said, adding that the power ministry has sorted out several issues facing the sector.

In 2009, CESC acquired Dhariwal Infrastructure Ltd's 600 MW Chandrapura thermal project in Maharashtra.

However, the project now has accumulated losses of Rs 600 crore but is expected to turn revenue positive once a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 150 MW is signed over the next three months.

"We have so far tied up for almost 300 MW and another 150 MW is expected over the next three months. With this, our total PPA for Chandrapura will be 450 MW, out of 540 MW effective capacity. Annual revenue will be about Rs 600 crore and with this, we will be profitable," Goenka said.

Haldia Energy, which operates a 600 MW thermal power plant at Haldia, has achieved 100 per cent ash utilisation and is exporting ash to Bangladesh for cement making.

Speaking on the group's retail arm Spencer's, Goenka said it is expected to achieve Rs 2,200 crore revenue in the current fiscal.

"Online ordering and home delivery will begin soon and this will help in higher revenues," he said.
BJP senior leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today alluded to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi while extolling the virtues of direct transfer of funds to the needy under the DBT scheme.

"A former Prime Minister of India said when we send Re 1 from Delhi only 15 paise reaches on ground. Can we today ensure, with help of DBT, that if we send Re 1 from Delhi to states then benefit reaches in same proportion to beneficiaries?," Prasad said while addressing representatives from states as well as the central government.

Inaugurating National Workshop on Direct Benefit Transfer, he appealed to the representatives to convince their "political bosses" to implement the DBT platform.

"India is going to be 70 year old on this Independence Day. In 70 years, we owe to poor and marginalised to ensure them that they will get benefit directly without any kind of middlemen," Prasad said.

DBT scheme, with the help of Aadhaar, has led to savings of about Rs 36,500 crore of both state as well as central funds in 2 years, he said.

"For me in plain terms DBT means undeserving must be excluded from system and deserving should be included. If this is the saving you could do in 2 years, then imagine the savings that you can do by using DBT in long term," he added.

He said that country has missed industrial revolution but it will not miss digital revolution.

Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha said that 74 DBT schemes from 17 ministries are available on this platform under which Rs 1.2 lakh crore in benefits have been disbursed to about 30 crore people.

"Government of India is considering special incentives for those states which have prevented leakages in the system," Sinha said.

He appealed to state governments to adopt DBT platform by March 2017 as it can lead to huge savings.
Government's Rs 23,000-crore equity infusion will provide some respite to the (PSBs), but their capital needs are significantly higher than the budgeted amount, Moody's Investors Service has said.

The firm estimates that the 11-rated PSBs need Rs 1.2 lakh crore capital to shore up their balance sheets, which far exceeds the Rs 45,000-crore budgeted for disbursal to the by March 2019.

"The capital infusion will provide some respite for the recipient banks, especially those with weak capitalisation," Moody's said, adding the infusion is positive for banks, but their capital needs remain elevated.

Earlier this week, the government announced a Rs 22,915 crore capital infusion into 13 PSBs. This is the first tranche of infusion and more funds would be provided based on their performance.

"The capital infusion is positive for weaker such as the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and Central Bank of India, which received a higher share of the capital allocation as a proportion of their share capital, and will help improve their capitalisation at a time when asset quality pressure and elevated provisioning costs have negatively affected their financial performance," it said.

Indian banks, especially PSBs, operate in a challenging environment.

The asset quality of PSBs is under pressure because they continue to recognise non-performing loans (NPLs) from the larger leveraged corporates, especially in the steel and power sectors.

"In addition, slippages from the restructured loan book will contribute to the rise in NPLs. As a result, provisioning expenses are likely to remain elevated, constraining profitability and limiting the banks' internal capital generation," Moody's said.

The government had last year announced it will infuse Rs 70,000 crore into state banks over four years while they will have to raise a further Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the markets to meet their capital requirements in line with global risk norms Basel-III.

In line with the blueprint, PSU banks are to get Rs 25,000 crore each in 2015-16 and 2016-17 fiscal. Besides, Rs 10,000 crore each would be infused in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Moody's said the external capital requirement of rated 11 PSU banks is about Rs 1.2 lakh crore as of the beginning of this financial year, which far exceeds the remaining Rs 45,000 crore the government budgeted for disbursal to the banks by March 2019.

"Therefore, unless the government increases the planned amount of capital for infusion, the capital needs of remain significantly above the amount budgeted by the government," it said.

Out of the Rs 22,915 crore infusion, State Bank of India (SBI) received Rs 7,575 crore followed by IOB (Rs 3,101 crore) and Punjab National Bank (Rs 2,816 crore).
The brother of slain Pakistani social-media sensation Qandeel Baloch has told the police that two other relatives helped him in the "honour killing" of his 26-year-old model-actress sister, officials said today.

Muhammad Waseem, who allegedly drugged and then strangled his sister to death for the "honour of the family", underwent a polygraph lie detector test here and told the police that two other men were involved in Qandeel's killing.

Waseem said he made the plan to kill Qandeel with the assistance of a relative, Haq Nawaz, who was present when he strangled his sister while another relative Basit waited outside the house in a car, police said.

Wasim said that after killing Qandeel he and Haq Nawaz had fled in Basit's car to Dera Ghazi Khan from where he was arrested.

Police are said to be probing at least seven people in the killing of Qandeel who made headlines last month during the month of Ramazan when she posted suggestive videos and pictures of herself with a well known cleric, Mufti Abdul Qavi on her social media accounts.

Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Police said they had also detained two sister-in-laws of the slain model from Dera Ghazi Khan and also recovered her mobile phone from their ancestral home.

The government through the police have also instituted state cases against Wasim which bars Qandeel's family from forgiving her killer(s) which is the usual practice in honour killing cases in Pakistan.

Qandeel's 'honour killing' has sent shockwaves across the country and has led to fresh calls from civil rights and women's rights activists and the media to pass bills to protect women against violence and to classify honour killings as a capital crime.

Belonging to a working-class rural family from southern Punjab, Qandeel was an instant hit on television channels and social media with her provocative posts and sexually suggestive talk.

She faced regular insults and threats on her social media accounts from people, mostly men, offended by her independent assertions online.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she, spoke of trying to change "the typical orthodox mindset" of people in Pakistan.
The father of slain Pakistani social-media sensation Qandeel Baloch has said that his son, who killed the 26-year-old model-actress for 'honour', should be "shot on sight" for murdering his daughter.

"I say he should be shot on sight! He suffocated my little one. We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us," Qandeel's father Anwar Azeem said.

Qandeel, Azeem said, was his 'best friend' but claimed that his son Muhammad Waseem had been 'crazed'.

Qandeel's mother also shared the pain of loosing their daughter.

"We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me - 'Your daughter is working hard, she'll go far," her mother was quoted as saying by BBC Urdu.

Qandeel's mother also said that she and her husband were also drugged by Waseem the night Qandeel was first sedated and then strangled to death.

"My husband and I fell deeply asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives. In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... But she didn't get up," she added.

Police had arrested Qandeel's brother Waseem last week. He has admitted to strangling his sister to death for the "honour of the family". Waseem said he gave her a tablet to subdue his sister and then strangled her in their family home over the weekend.

Waseem said he killed his sister due to her social media activities, which included a series of risque video posts with the prominent cleric, Mufti Qavi.

Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Qandeel's mother had accused Qavi, her daughter's former husband Ashiq Hussain, and a man name Shahid of being involved in the murder.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she, spoke of trying to change "the typical orthodox mindset" of people in Pakistan. She faced frequent abuse and death threats but continued to post provocative pictures and videos.

The so-called 'honour-killing' has sent shockwaves across the country and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media for Baloch.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will interact with office-bearers and booth-level workers of the party here in the state capital on July 29.

He will have a one-on-one interaction with them at Ramabai maidan to collect their feedback on the party's organisation ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, said a Congress spokesman, adding that workers will have to register beforehand to get a chance to interact with the party vice president.

Meanwhile, the spokesman said newly-appointed state Congress chief Raj Babbar will not be appointing the state executive anytime soon and the existing one will continue to work till further orders.

Additional responsibilities will be given to "active and energetic" workers, he added.

The Congress yesterday announced a three-day bus yatra from Delhi to Kanpur slated to commence on July 22.
Rajasthan Police today announced cash rewards of Rs one lakh each for information leading to the arrest of five wanted accomplices of absconding criminal Anand Pal Singh.

"DG has announced the cash reward on heads of Rupendra Pal Singh, Devendra Pal Singh, Balbeer Singh, Mahipal Singh and Azad Singh who are wanted in the case of escape of Anandpal Singh," ADG ATS Umesh Mishra said.

They are the accomplices of Anand, who escaped from police custody while being taken back to Ajmer central jail from a court in Nagaur last year.

Anand was the head of a gang that is accused in multiple cases of robbery and extortion in Nagaur district and other parts of Rajasthan.

Anand carries a cash reward of Rs five lakh on his head. Initially, the reward on Anand was Rs one lakh which was later increased by the state government to Rs five lakh.
After outrage in Tamil Nadu over the statue of Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar lying in a state of neglect in a Haridwar park, Uttarakhand government today decided to install it inside a government building in the temple town.

"The Chief Minister wants the process of the statue's installation to be expedited. I am going to Haridwar today to identify a suitable site where the statue could be installed at the earliest," senior IAS officer and Vice Chairman of the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority R Meenakshi Sundaram told PTI.

When asked how much time will be required for the process, he said a suitable spot will be finalised after taking Ganga Sabha and Akhil Bahratiya Akahara Parishad representatives into confidence and a pedestal will be built for placing the statue there.

A function will be held at the site to unveil the statue jointly by Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Governor K K Paul, he said.

Sundaram said the decision to install the statue in Mela Bhawan is final. However, a spot inside the Bhawan needs to be decided for installation.

The Bhawan is a government building located on the banks of the Ganga which works as the administrative control room for the Kumbh mela.

Sundaram, who himself hails from Tamil Nadu, denied there was any opposition from seers to the installation.

"They were never opposed to installation of Thiruvalluvar's statue. They were opposed to its location on Har Ki Pairi ghat where only statues of Hindu deities have been installed so far," he said.

Their apprehension was that installing Thiruvalluvar's statue on the ghat might give rise to similar demands from different groups following different icons, the official said.

The statue is now unwrapped and standing on the Mela Bhawan grounds.

A newspaper picture of the statue wrapped in black plastic sheet had triggered outrage in Tamil Nadu from where the poet hailed.

Chief Minister J Jayalalitha had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to expedite the process of the statue's installation.

In an initiative to introduce Northern India to the great literary legacy of the Tamil poet, former BJP MP Tarun Vijay had decided to bring his 12-foot statue to Haridwar and install it in the city.

"Vijay didn't take the local priests and saints into confidence before his decision to bring the statue. Nonetheless, we have now decided that the statue will be installed at Mela Bhawan," Chief Minister Harish Rawat said, adding, he wanted thestatue to be installed within this week.
Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams' actress daughter Zelda today paid him a touching tribute on his 65th birth anniversary.

The 26-year-old "Where the World Mine" star shared her childhood picture with her late father and siblings on Instagram and wrote an emotional post.

The American-born actress turned nostalgic while writing series of messages along with the photograph.

"Still not really sure what to do on days like today... I know I can't give you a present anymore, but I guess that means I'll just have to keep giving them in your name instead," she wrote.

While mentioning about the noble causes, she had donated for in the name of her father, the actress wrote, "This year, I tried to help three causes you cared about in one; rescue dogs, people suffering from disabilities, and our nation's wounded veterans, so I donated to freedomservicedogs.Org."



"They rescue pups from shelters and train them so that they can be paired with someone in dire need of their help and companionship," Zelda continued.

In a hope to fulfill Robin's wishes, she went on writing, "Thought you'd get a kick out of furry, four legged friends helping change the world, one warrior in need at a time. rescue dogs, people suffering from disabilities, and our nation's wounded warriors."



She ended her post by wishing her father with a sweet message, "Happy birthday Poppo. Shasha, Zakky, Codeman and I all love you and miss you like crazy. Xo.
A tussle has erupted between Pakistan's powerful military and the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over a sprawling piece of land in the garrison city of Abbottabad where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived and was killed in 2011.

While local authorities want to construct a children's playground there, the military wish to build a graveyard, the BBC reported today.

The two sides have tussled over control of the land - and on Wednesday the military erected a wall around the site, surprising local authorities, the report said.

Bin Laden, 54, was killed in a US raid on his hideout on May 2, 2011. He had been living there in secret, in a three- storey building behind high walls, for several years before his death.

After his death, the land was handed over to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province which tore down the structure and its boundary wall, to prevent the place from becoming a site of pilgrimage for jihadists and their sympathisers.

Since then the land has been lying unutilised amid a growing neighbourhood.

Now, the local government and military authorities are in a dispute over how to use the land - and who should control its future, the report said.

The military-run Cantonment Board of Abbottabad (CBA) moved to occupy the area in May, erecting a rope-fence around it. But they removed it after the provincial authorities intervened.

This time the CBA was more decisive - building a one metre wall around the sprawling grounds, and catching the local government by surprise.

A member of the CBA council, Bashir Khan, said the military had decided to convert the land into a cemetery.

"It is needed because there is no graveyard nearby for the local population," he told the BBC.

But KP Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani dismissed the plan, saying the grounds were in the middle of a populated area and "not fit for a graveyard".

"Besides, the cantonment authorities have built the wall on land that belongs to the provincial government," Ghani said, adding that the CBA had said they build the wall "to prevent encroachments".

The provincial government hoped to turn the land into a playground for children, Ghani said.

The dispute looks set to continue - and local residents have their own ideas too, with some demanding that the land should be used to build a girls' school.

Some other military officials have mooted plans to build a revenue-generating amusement park on the land.

What everyone seems to agree on is that any project should be chosen with care so it could not be easily associated with the name of Bin Laden - something which could become a source of continuing embarrassment for the military, the report said.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will have to shell out Rs 392 crore and Oil India Ltd over Rs 1,100 crore after the government ordered them to pay royalty at gross crude oil price and not the net rate they actually realise.

"We have to pay a total of Rs 392.50 crore to implement the order to pay royalty to state governments on revised terms from back date of February 2014," a senior official said.

Of the Rs 392.50 crore, about Rs 300 crore would go to Assam and another Rs 91.86 crore to Andhra Pradesh.

is already paying royalty at revised terms to Gujarat  the third major oil producing state.

For Oil India Ltd (OIL), which produces most of its crude oil in Assam, the liability would be Rs 1,100 crore to Rs 1,150 crore.

As per government mandate, and OIL offers discounts on crude oil to make up for a part of the losses refiners suffer on selling cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at government controlled rates. These discounts also covered diesel till October 2014 when the price of the fuel was deregulated.

So in effect, ONGC/OIL would raise a gross bill based on the prevailing international oil price but their actual realisation was less than that after accounting for the subsidy discount.

However, producing states felt ONGC and OIL need to pay royalty on gross billing. Gujarat High Court in November 2013 ruled in favour of the state government and ONGC was asked to pay about Rs 10,000 crore in past royalty dues.

This prompted other oil producing states, particularly Assam, to demand a similar treatment. Till the time Congress ruled Assam, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan maintained that the state government will have to approach the judiciary to get similar relief.

Now with a BJP government coming to power in the state, his ministry last week issued orders asking ONGC and OIL to pay royalty at pre-discount rates effective February 1, 2014.

"It has been decided that ONGC Ltd and Oil India Ltd will pay royalty to all similarly placed crude oil producing states at pre-discount prices effective February 1, 2014, pending the outcome of the Special Leave to Appeal (Civil)... Filed by ONGC Ltd before the Supreme Court (against the Gujarat High Court order)," the ministry order said.

With this order, Assam stands to get more than Rs 1,400 crore as additional royalty from ONGC/OIL. Andhra Pradesh will get about Rs 92 crore extra royalty from ONGC due to this decision.

According to the Oil Field Act, ONGC/OIL are required to pay 20 per cent royalty on price of crude oil it extracts from onland oil blocks to the state governments.

ONGC till 2004 paid royalty on gross billing. But, in 2004, the Union government asked it to provide crude to refiners like Indian Oil Corp Ltd at discount as per burden  sharing mechanism.

Since then ONGC paid royalty on discounted price, resulting in reduction of royalty paid to Gujarat and other states. The state also complained to the Centre in this regard.

Gujarat government in 2011 filed a petition before the High Court, stating that it should be paid royalty at market rate and the difference in royalty payment since 2008 at pre- discount rate (in comparison to market rate) was computed at Rs 9,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore. The High Court ruled in its favour in November 2013.
State Bank of India (SBI) today tied up with IRCTC, a public sector undertaking of Railways, and Aditya Birla Group to enable their customers to make payments using the Government lender's mobile wallet Buddy.

The bank also launched its mobile wallet as a payment option at over 2,500 institutions through its Multiple Option Payment System (MOPS).

"Our vision is that we must take India towards a more digital and a less cash society. Such tie-ups will increase ease of payment. The whole matter of convenience is brought to the customers' finger tips," SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya told reporters here.

The tie-up with Madhura Fashion and Lifestyle, Aditya Birla Group's apparel retail company, will help customers to buy brands like Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England across the company's 1,200 plus stores in the country through Buddy.

Bhattacharya said the bank will very soon launch Buddy for feature phones as well.

"We are working and very shortly we will launch Buddy on phones that are not smartphones but which are Java- enabled. We will undertake development for a feature phone with a wallet and that will come in the next few months," she said.

Currently, there are 34 lakh customers of SBI's Buddy.

Soon the lender will connect Buddy to its 67,000 business correspondents and to its cash deposit machines to make easier for customers to load money into the mobile wallet.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) handles catering, tourism and Internet ticketing activities and the tie-up with help customers availing these services to make payment through the SBI's mobile wallet.
The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to take possession and secure the 31-storey controversial Adarsh apartments in Mumbai and issued notices to various stakeholders on pleas challenging the Bombay High Court order asking civic bodies to demolish it.

The Centre gave an assurance to the court that the building would not be demolished.

"We will secure the building and the land and there will be no demolition," Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre assured the bench when the counsel for the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society sought a stay on the demolition order of the High Court.

A bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre also asked the Registrar General of Bombay High Court to ensure that either he, or a registrar nominated by him, oversee the handing over of possession of the building on or before August 5.

The bench asked the Registrar of the High Court to ensure that all the documents and records pertaining to the society are inventorised and handed over to the housing society simultaneously when Director of Military Estate or his nominee takes over the possession of the building.

"Issue notice. There shall be no interim order... Except the fact that the Government of India will take possession of the building in question within one week from today," the bench said.

However, later it extended the time for taking over the possession of the building till August 5.

Earlier on April 29, the Bombay High Court ordered demolition of the 31-storey scam-tainted Adarsh apartments in the heart of Mumbai and sought criminal proceedings against politicians and bureaucrats for "misuse" of powers, holding that the tower was illegally constructed.

However, on a plea made by the Adarsh Housing Society, a division bench later stayed its order to pull down the building close to the sea at Colaba for 12 weeks to enable it to file an appeal in the Supreme Court, despite the Maharashtra Government opposing it.

In its order, the division bench had asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to carry out the demolition at the expense of petitioners (Adarsh Society).

The HC had also asked the Centre and Maharashtra



Government to consider initiating civil and criminal proceedings against bureaucrats, ministers and politicians for misuse and abuse of power to get plots under the scheme, originally meant for Kargil war heroes and war widows.

The Adarsh scam kicked up a huge political storm after it surfaced in 2010, leading to the resignation of the then Congress Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

In February this year, the Maharashtra Governor accorded sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code in the case.

In 2011, the state government had set up a two-member judicial commission headed by Justice J A Patil to inquire into the scam.

After probing the issue for over two years, it submitted its report in 2013, which found that there had been 25 illegal allotments, including 22 purchases made by proxy.

Later, the CBI, the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also investigated the scam.

In January 2011, the union ministry of environment and forest had issued a demolition order mainly on the ground that the society did not have CRZ clearance.

Adarsh Society had filed a petition in 2011 in the Bombay High Court challenging the demolition order issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The Defence Ministry also filed a petition in the high court seeking implementation of its demolition order, besides filing a title suit in the high court claiming that it was the owner of the plot on which the plush Adarsh Society building stands in South Mumbai.
The 31-storey scam-tainted Adarsh apartments, built at Colaba in posh South Mumbai locality for Kargil war heros and war widows, will not be demolished for the time being with the Supreme Court today asking the Centre to secure it after taking its possession from the housing society by August five.

On being persisted by the Adarsh Housing Society that the Bombay High Court decision ordering demolition be stayed, a bench comprising Justices J Chelemeswar and A M Sapre said that the word "secure" meant that there will be no razing.

"We will secure the building and the land and there will be no demolition," Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, assured the bench which also issued notices on a batch of pleas, filed against the High Court order, by the housing society and some allottees.

"Issue notice. There shall be no interim order... Except the fact that the Government of India will take possession of the building in question and secure it within one week from today," said the bench and later extended time till August 5 saying the possession be handed over on or before the date fixed.

It asked the Registrar General of the Bomay High Court to ensure that either he or other Registrar, nominated by him, supervises the handing over of the possession of the building.

Simultaneously, an inventory of documents of the Housing Society pertaining to the apartments be prepared and be handed over to the housing society to enable him to pursue its legal battles in various courts of law, the bench said.

Earlier, the High Court had ordered demolition of the apartments and had sought initiation of criminal proceedings against politicians and bureaucrats for "misuse" of powers, holding that the tower was illegally constructed.

During hearing senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the society, today pleaded for the stay on the High Court order saying that at present, the building is "un-inhabitable" as the water and electricity supply have been cut.

"I am willing to argue it out today itself and would show as to where the High Court has gone wrong," he said, adding that the case may be heard next Tuesday.

"We are sorry. The case will be heard on its turn. It will have to wait for final hearing," the bench said, adding that it will not allow the Housing Society to "handle" the affairs of apartments.

The bench further said, "We will say that the Government



of India will take control of the building and ensure that nobody enters inside so that the building is secured."



The Solicitor General said that the building in question is built on Defence land and the Director of Military Estate or his nominee will take over its possession.

The High Court, while ordering demolition, had stayed the operation its order to pull down the building close to the sea at Colaba for 12 weeks to enable the Housing Society to move the apex court with the appeal.

In its order, the HC bench had asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to carry out the demolition at the expense of petitioners (Adarsh Society).

It had also asked the Centre and Maharashtra Government to consider initiating civil and criminal proceedings against bureaucrats, ministers and politicians for misuse and abuse of power to get plots under the scheme, originally meant for Kargil war heroes and war widows.

The Adarsh scam kicked up a huge political storm after it surfaced in 2010, leading to the resignation of the then Congress Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

In February this year, the Maharashtra Governor accorded sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code in the case.

In 2011, the state government had set up a two-member judicial commission headed by Justice J A Patil to inquire into the scam.

After probing the issue for over two years, it submitted its report in 2013, which found that there had been 25 illegal allotments, including 22 purchases made by proxy.

Later, the CBI, the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also investigated the scam.

In January 2011, the union ministry of environment and forest had issued a demolition order mainly on the ground that the society did not have CRZ clearance.

Adarsh Society had filed a petition in 2011 in the Bombay High Court challenging the demolition order issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The Defence Ministry also filed a petition in the high court seeking implementation of its demolition order, besides filing a title suit in the high court claiming that it was the owner of the plot on which the plush Adarsh Society building stands in South Mumbai.
Seers and the various religious orders can play a major role in making India modern and prosperous, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said, noting that many of them have taken up public welfare works like building toilets and providing health care facilities.

"It is the demand of time that lakhs of saints, thousands of orders and hundreds of mathas (monastic establishments) can play a critical role in making India modern and prosperous, in cultivating good values among its people.

"Many are doing that. It is a good force for the country's future," Modi said after unveiling a statue of Mahanth Avaidyanath, the guru of Hindutva leader and party MP from here Yogi Adityanath.

Avaidyanath, a four-time BJP MP, had been in the forefront of the Ayodhya Ram temple movement. He passed away in 2014 and the government had released a stamp to mark his first birth anniversary last year.

Ahead of the crucial UP assembly elections, the Prime Minister is launching a number of developmental projects here.

Noting that all the systems in the country have undergone timely changes, Modi said many sages who were devoted to religious and spiritual works have nowadays attached themselves to cleanliness, building toilets, running eye surgery centres and keeping animals healthy.

Avaidyanath worked for the welfare of society and Adityanath was keeping up with his good works, Modi said.

The statue is housed at the Gorakhnath Temple, of which Avaidyanath was the chief priest and has been succeeded by Adityanath.

"My association with Mahant Avaidyanath ji goes back to the time when I was not in active politics. Heard from him the work done here," the Prime Minister tweeted.

"Our saints and seers, they are very noble and have always been compassionate towards society and the poor," Modi said.

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar accompanied Modi at the event held inside the temple premises.

(REOPENS DEL15)



"The saints can play and many of them are even playing crucial role in making country modern and developed. Besides carrying forward traditions and their religious activities, the role of saints in working for society is commendable," he said.

Adityanath, in his address, lauded the Prime Minister for the steps taken to "carry forward" THE ancient traditions and culture.

"The PM is doing a commendable work, which no one had done in the past in carrying forward ancient traditions. Pursuading UN to declare International Yoga day on JunE 21 is one such exmaple," Yogi said.
A Rajya Sabha Select Committee examining an anti-corruption amendment bill was today granted extension till the next session of Parliament to submit its recommendations.

The term of the Committee, which was to submit its report on the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2013 during the current session, extended till the winter session.

BJP's Bhupender Yadav moved a motion in Rajya Sabha for extending the time for presentation of the report "till the last day of the first week of the next session," which begins November end. The motion was then carried by voice a vote.

The amendment includes a provision for CBI or the police to obtain prior sanction before initiating action against alleged corrupt officials, both serving and retired.

The Bill was referred to the Select Committee in December 2015 in the wake of objections by some members.

The Bill, which seeks to amend the Anti-Corruption Act of 1988, provides for enhancing penalty for graft to a maximum of seven years from the present five years.

Originally, the 23-member Committee was to present the report by the last day of the first week of the budget session of Parliament. Its tenure was then extended till the monsoon session and now further till the winter session.

The Select Committee was headed by BJP MP Anil Madhav Dave. But with Dave being appointed the Environment Minister, the job went to Yadav.

The proposed legislation has a provision that "no police officer shall conduct investigation into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant" under the PC Act, where the alleged offence is relatable to any recommendation made or decision taken by such public servant in the discharge of his official function or duties without the previous approval of Lokpal (for central government staff) and Lokayuktas (for those working under state governments).

The Centre is yet to set up the institution of Lokpal and Lokayuktas--as mandated under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act.

The Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha on December 1 last year and moved for consideration two days later when members raised objections over certain clauses in it, arguing these overlapped with provisions of the Lokpal Act and more clarity was needed on them.

The Bill, pending before the Rajya Sabha for long, provides for more stringent punishment for offences of bribery, both for the bribe giver and the bribe taker, by amending the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

It also seeks speedy disposal of corruption-related cases providing that trial should be completed within 2 years.

It proposes to extend the protection of prior sanction for prosecution to public servants who cease to hold office after retirement or resignation.
Power equipment and pipe maker Skipper today announced its debut in Southern India by setting up its new manufacturing plant in Hyderabad.

Spread over nearly 2.25 acres, the plant will have a manufacturing capacity to produce 6,000 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of both plumbing and agriculture pipes.

"At Skipper Ltd, we are constantly in pursuit of innovation and have dedicated our resources to expand our cutting-edge products and value added propositions to the rest of the country," Skipper Ltd Director Devesh Bansal said.

* * * * * *



Evolusolve Tech launches zero-commission wealth management app * Evolusolve Technologies, fintech start-up, today announced the launch of zero-commission wealth management application, a move which will help large number of investors.

'Wealth Management App' will help investors in managing their wealth and provides an option to invest in 'Direct Plans' of over 6,000 mutual fund schemes of 25 different fund houses at zero commission, the company said in a statement.

Investors with an existing mutual fund portfolio can switch to zero commission in a few seconds, without any paperwork, through WealthTrust App. The App removes the hassles of filling up multiple forms and slips for account opening and transactions.

* * * * * *



Reliance Nippon Life launches money back plan * Reliance Nippon Life Insurance today launched an insurance plan with a guaranteed income at regular interval.

Increasing Money Back Plan is a non-linked, non-participating life insurance plan that provides periodic, guaranteed and incremental money back payouts along with a life cover for the entire policy term.

The increasing guaranteed pay out provides the additional support to match the increasing expenses and to fulfil the goals for the family, the company said in a statement.

ProHealth Asia launches physiotherapy, rehab centre in delhi



* ProHealth Asia launched its specialised high-end ProHealth Asia Physiotherapy and Rehab center in New Delhi today.

Spread over 4200 sq ft, the new facility is modeled on ProHealth Asia's clinics in Hong Kong for over two decades. ProHealth Asia provides high-end, modern and well-appointed clinics for patients to relax in a private environment to evaluate and assess symptoms prior to treatment.

ProHealth Asia Physiotherapy and Rehab Centre in New Delhi, specialises in problems like chronic neck and back pain, sports injuries and a wide range of condition from post-surgery rehabilitation, postural workstation ergonomics and women's healthcare.

*** *** ***



AlphaGrep Holding HK divests 40% in 3 subsidiaries * Coffee Day Enterprises today said its step-down subsidiary AlphaGrep Holding HK has divested over 40 per cent stake in its three subsidiaries, of which nearly 30 per cent has been bought by Fenix Ventures pte Ltd.

The subsidiaries are Lighthouse Financial Technologies and its another subsidiary Lighthouse Financial HK Ltd alongwith Lighthouse Financial trading.

"The step-down subsidiary of the company AlphaGrep Holding HK Ltd has divested 4,050 (40.5%) shares in its subsidiary namely Lighthouse Financial Technologies Ltd (formerly known as AlphaGrep Technologies Ltd (AG TECH) and its subsidiaries Lighthouse Financial HK Ltd (formerly known as Alpha Grep HK Ltd (AG HK)] and Lighthouse Financial Trading Ltd (formerly known as AlphaGrep Trading Ltd (AG TL)] wef February 21, 2017," the company said in a regulatory filing.
At least 73 Indian fishermen held by Sri Lanka for allegedly fishing in their waters will be released, fisheries ministry officials said here today.

The ministry has made the necessary recommendations for the release of the fishermen following interventions by the Indian High Commission here, officials said without indicating when they would be freed.

They had been held for allegedly poaching in violation of the Sri Lankan side of International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between July 6-21.

Fisheries minister Mahinda Amarasweera had yesterday said that none of the Indian boats would be released despite the release of the fishermen.

Lanka has also denied reports that it would allow restricted fishing in the Sri Lankan waters as part of the measures to counter bottom trawling by the Indians.

Amaraweera said any decision in this connection would be reached only after consulting the local fisher community who are aggrieved by the constant poaching by Indians in Lankan waters.
Still smarting under his 'forced' exit from Madhya Pradesh cabinet, senior BJP leader Babulal Gaur today sought to corner his party's government on floor of the Legislative Assembly over Bhopal and Indore metro rail projects, which are likely to be completed by 2022.

"Urban Administration and Development Department prepared a project to run metro rail in Bhopal and Indore around 6-7 years ago. Thereafter, E Sreedharan of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) visited two cities, but since then the project couldn't kick off as required due to indifference and red-tapeism," the 86-year-old politician said.

Gaur had to resign as Home Minister in a recent rejig of cabinet, apparently due to his advanced age which is beyond the cut-off at 75 years adopted by the BJP.

Replying to Gaur's call attention motion in the House, Urban Administration and Development Minister Maya Singh contended that it was not true that her department had prepared the metro project 6-7 years ago.

She said her department had taken the decision to carry out Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) of the metro train operation with the help of DMRC, following which the work to go for a detailed project report (DPR) began.

"In accordance with the interim report of the DPR, MP Metro Rail Company was formed in July 2015. Right now, the DPR is with the Centre for approval and efforts are on to get funds from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project," she added.

However, Gaur shot back, saying, "I pity the reply given by the Minister. The delay on the part of government in the project is the proof of government's incompetence," he said.

He said the work on metro rail project for Bhopal and Indore had started along with Jaipur and Lucknow.

"...The metro rail service has already started in Jaipur while a huge part of work to run this service is over in Lucknow whereas in Madhya Pradesh it's 'just being looked into'," said Gaur who had served as Chief Minister of state between 2004 and 2005.

Continuing his diatribe, Gaur said the officer of Bhopal Metro Rail Company "does not have any knowledge of railway".

To this, Singh replied a team of JICA has visited Madhya Pradesh and that the first phase of the metro will commence in 2016.

"The metro railway project in two cities will be completed in 2021-2022," she said.

Replying to this, Gaur, while looking at senior BJP MLA Kailash Chawla, said in a lighter vein that "by that time you (Chawla) and I won't be there."



The Speaker then asked Gaur to take the (written) answer of his question from the minister, to which he remarked, "I am disappointed and I don't want the answer."



Meanwhile, taking a potshot at Gaur over his age, State Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava said, "You are going to become Governor of Uttar Pradesh".

To this, Gaur said, "I will leave...If you make me to".

"Had the metro rail project of Indore and Bhopal been given to Railway Ministry, it would have been completed (by now)," Gaur added.
Biocon's contract research arm Syngene International has lined up USD 200 million (around Rs 1,342 crore) capex to bolster its manufacturing capabilities over the next three years.

The company plans to invest USD 100 million (around Rs 665.27 crore) in a greenfield facility at Mangalore, the first phase of which would be operationalised by financial year 2018-19.

Besides, it has also earmarked another USD 100 million to create additional infrastructure at its existing facility at Bangalore.

"We have acquired a site at Mangalore. We plan to come up with a manufacturing base there in line with long term strategy of the company. The unit, when functional, would support our existing Bangalore complex," Syngene International Ltd CEO Jonathan Hunt told reporters during a conference call.

The first phase of the facility is expected to be completed by 2018-19, he added.

Syngene offers integrated drug discovery and development services with capabilities in medicinal chemistry, biology and toxicology.

Yesterday, the company had reported a 28.32 per cent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 59.8 crore for the quarter ended on June 30, 2016.

When asked about the product pipeline, Hunt said the company has a "healthy high single digit" product pipeline which is in various stages of development."



In 2015-16, Syngene serviced 256 clients including 8 of the top 10 global pharma companies.

Shares of Syngene International were trading 0.65 per cent up at Rs 430.55 apiece on BSE.
The birth anniversary of renowned Bengali poets Ravindra Nath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam was jointly observed with fervour here in the Nepalese capital today.

Songs based on the poems of Tagore and Islam were presented by noted Bangladeshi musicians during a programme organised by the Bangladesh Embassy in Kathmandu to celebrate Rabindra-Nazrul Jayanti 2016.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Nepal Army chief Rajendra Chhetri were among the dignitaries, who attended the cultural show hosted by Bangladesh ambassador Ms Mashfee Binte Shams.

On the occasion, ambassador Shams said that both the great Bengali poets Tagore (1861-1941) and Islam (1899-1976), also known as the 'National Poet of Bangladesh', have great place in the hearts of Bangladeshi people.

"This year, the deadly terrorist attack in Bangladesh overshadowed the celebrations of these poets in the country," she said.

"Both of the poets stood for the cause of humanity, peace and freedom," she said.
Taxi and autorickshaw unions in Delhi Friday threatened to go on an indefinite from July 26 if their demand for banning the app-based cab services in the city is not met.

"If the Delhi government does not pay heed to our demand immediately, all yellow-black taxis and autorickshaws will go off the roads from July 26," said Rajendra Soni, the General Secretary of Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh and Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union.

"The app-based private taxi services violate rules and are affecting our business. The then Transport Minister Gopal Rai had on April 17 given a written assurance to rein in app-based taxi services, but the government has done nothing so far," Soni said, adding 18 transport unions have agreed to participate in the .
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump today vowed to bring back jobs to the US and make it rich again through a "new, fair" trade policy while putting a stop to massive trade deals with many countries and taking actions against China's theft of intellectual property.

"I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat," Trump said while formally accepting the Republican nomination as the presidential candidate.

"It's been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office," he said.

The 70-year-old real estate tycoon said he has made billions of dollars in business making deals - "now I'm going to make our country rich again".

"I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones. America has lost nearly one-third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill (Bill Clinton) and Hillary Clinton.

"It was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country," he said, adding this will never happen again.

"I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and to America - and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences," he said, adding his opponent Hillary Clinton, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying the middle class.

"She supported NAFTA, and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organisation - another one of her husband's colossal mistakes.

"She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments," he said.

Trump said he will never sign any trade agreement that hurts US workers, or diminishes its freedom and independence.

"I will make individual deals with individual countries. No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long - and which no one from our country even reads or understands," he said.

The US, under his presidency, will enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against any country that cheats, Trump said.

"This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation.

"Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we'll walk away if we don't get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again," he said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump today attacked China over "outrageous theft" of intellectual property and unfairly manipulating its currency as he vowed to bring back jobs to the US and make it rich again through a "new, fair" trade policy.

He also said if elected as the next US President, he would put a stop to massive trade deals with many countries.

"I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat," Trump said while formally accepting the Republican nomination as the presidential candidate.

"It's been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office," he said.

The 70-year-old real estate tycoon said he has made billions of dollars in business making deals - "now I'm going to make our country rich again".

"I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones. America has lost nearly one-third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill (Bill Clinton) and Hillary Clinton.

"It was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country," he said, adding this will never happen again.

"I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and to America - and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences," he said, adding his opponent Hillary Clinton, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying the middle class.

"She supported NAFTA, and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organisation - another one of her husband's colossal mistakes.

"She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments," he said.

Trump said he will never sign any trade agreement that hurts US workers, or diminishes its freedom and independence.

"I will make individual deals with individual countries. No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long - and which no one from our country even reads or understands," he said.

The US, under his presidency, will enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against any country that cheats, Trump said.

"This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation.

"Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we'll walk away if we don't get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again," he said.
A top Turkish official today accused the United States of "standing up for savages" by not immediately handing over a US-based Muslim cleric who the government claims orchestrated last week's failed coup.

Speaking in Washington, President Barack Obama said there was a legal process for extradition and encouraged Turkey to present evidence.

In a sign of increasing tension, Turkey said it was dispatching its justice and interior ministers to the United States next week to push for the extradition of the cleric, Fethullah Gulen.

The two NATO countries are allies in the fight against the Islamic State group; American military jets have been flying missions against extremists in Iraq and Syria out of the Turkish air base at Incirlik.

US officials said Friday that electric power was restored to the Incirlik base, which had been operating on a backup generator since July 16, when power was shut off at all military bases in Turkey following the failed coup.

Meanwhile, Turkey's prime minister, Binali Yildirim, warned that coup plotters still at large might stage attacks, saying there is "a remote chance some madmen might take action, acting out of a sense of revenge and defeat."



Turkey has launched a sweeping crackdown following the failed July 15 insurrection, declaring a three-month state of emergency and detaining or dismissing tens of thousands of people in the military and other state institutions.

In the latest measures, the government revoked nearly 11,000 passports and detained 283 members of the presidential guard, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.

Turkey alleges that the coup attempt by some military units was conceived by Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s. Gulen has denied any prior knowledge of the coup attempt.

Yildirim criticized the United States for failing to hand over the cleric, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's most dominant political figure for more than a decade.

"Stop standing up for savages who run over citizens with tanks, who strafe people from land and the air," Yildirim said.

Some Turks, possibly influenced by traditional mistrust of US policy in the region, have speculated that the United States is protecting Gulen and knew about the plot to overthrow the Turkish government.

In his comments today, Obama said any reports that the United States had previous knowledge of the coup attempt or has been anything other than supportive of Turkey's government are "unequivocally false.
Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party strongly opposes the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but will keep up its opposition to the "oppression" of the Turkish strongman, its leader says.

Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), told AFP in an interview there was no contradiction between strongly opposing last week's putsch as well as Erdogan's rule.

The HDP is highly suspicious that a state of emergency declared by the authorities could be used for a wider crackdown beyond the coup plotters, he said.

Demirtas added that the chances of resuming the peace process to end the over three-decade insurgency of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are weak so long as its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan is sidelined.

"In Turkey, we never have never seen a coup bring stability and democracy. All coups are bad and damaging for the country," Demirtas said, speaking at HDP headquarters in Ankara.

"Turkey was already afflicted by Erdogan's oppression and the putsch would only have made things worse."



Demirtas and the HDP turned into a major headache for Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), with his natural charisma helping scoop over 13 percent of the vote for the HDP in June 2015 legislative polls.

In a snap re-run of the elections in November the same year, the HDP's share of the vote fell to under 11 percent, with Erdogan targeting the party and accusing it of being the political wing of the PKK.

"In the face of the coup, we supported democracy," said Demirtas.

"But we have not supported Erdogan nor their (the AKP's) policies. In reality, we think that it is the errors made by Erdogan that led to the realisation of this coup."



The coup came almost a year to the day after the breakdown of a truce declared by the PKK that had held for two and a half years. There has been no let-up in the fighting since.

The violence -- which has seen almost 500 members of the Turkish security forces killed in a year -- brought to an end a peace process that had raised hopes for a final deal to end the conflict.

The PKK wants greater autonomy and rights for Turkey's estimated 20 million Kurds. Erdogan has described the peace process as now being in the "freezer".
Turkish authorities today announced a shake-up of the security forces one week after the botched coup attempt, as Ankara vowed not to seek revenge despite a growing crackdown.

Supporters are celebrating the coup's failure to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but the Turkish strongman faces growing global criticism over the mass detentions and sackings of tens of thousands of people.

Erdogan blames the coup, which saw seized fighter jets bomb Ankara and tanks run amok in Istanbul, on loyalists of the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. Turkey has demanded his extradition.

In the most significant institutional changes since the coup, powerful Interior Minister Efkan Ala said the gendarmerie would in future be part of the interior ministry and not the army.

The gendarmerie, which looks after domestic security, had always been part of the military and its removal is a blow to the armed forces' clout after the coup.

"The gendarmerie will definitely be dependent entirely on the interior ministry," Ala said, quoted by the state-run Anadolu agency.

Erdogan was meanwhile meeting the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MIT) Hakan Fidan at the presidential palace, Turkish television said.

Fidan, a key figure in modern Turkey, is under pressure after Erdogan repeatedly identified intelligence weaknesses during the coup.

On Wednesday, the president admitted there had been "intelligence failures", saying he learned about the coup from his brother-in-law.

Authorities imposed a state of emergency on Thursday, strengthening powers to round up suspects behind the failed putsch and suspending the European Convention on Human Rights.

The European Union urged Turkey "to respect under any circumstances the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms", in a joint statement from foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn.

They slammed as "unacceptable" the sacking or suspension of tens of thousands of people in the education system, judiciary and the media and said they were monitoring the state of emergency "with concern".

Turkey's Western allies have been watching with alarm the turmoil in the key NATO member state, which has also been reeling from a wave of bomb attacks by Islamic State group jihadists and Kurdish rebels.
A Maoist wanted in connection with a landmine blast that killed eight policemen in the district along with another rebel surrendered before the Superintendent of Police in Bihar's Aurangabad district.

The two Maoists, who surrendered yesterday were identified as Naresh Mistry alias Dadan, one of the accused in Jehanabad jail break and Sanjay Singh, wanted by the police in connection with a landmine blast in which eight policemen of the district were killed, Superintendent of police Babu Ram said.

While Naresh was a resident of Pratappur village, Sanjay was a resident of Ganu village, he said.

Both of them were influenced by the community campaign launched under 'Operation Vishwas' and surrendered before the police, the SP claimed.

Meanwhile in another incident, suspected CPI (Maoist) cadre torched the camp of a solar power company at Bakhsividiya village of the district late last night, the police said today.

As per the employees working in the solar power camp, some armed Maoists suddenly appeared at the camp and put the company's vehicles on fire, Kasma police station SHO Narottam Chandra said.

They put on fire two JCB machines, two mixer machines and five tractors of the company, Chandra said



No employee or any other person was injured in the incident.

Though, they have not left any pamphlet demanding levy, the SHO said prima facie it seems to be the work of the Maoists.

He said that police are investigating the matter besides conducting raids to nab those involved.
Two servitors were today arrested for allegedly abusing Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal during the Niladri Bije ritual of Lord Jagannath on July 17, said SP Sarthak Sarangi.

With these arrests, the number of servitors held in connection with irregularities in the annual Ratha Yatra (car festival) has gone up to eight.

Earlier, police had arrested six servitors on charge of physically assaulting journalists covering the Niladri Bije ritual. A total of 15 servitors have so far been identified for their involvement in the journalist attack case, Sarangi said.

Those arrested today have been identified as Surya Naryan Pratihari and Raghunath Khuntia, the SP said.

The servitors had allegedly attacked media persons for airing live the family members of certain priests climbing the chariots defying Orissa High Court's ban.

On the complaint of Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal two FIRs were lodged against six servitors who had allegedly misbehaved and abused him using foul language and threatened to kill him during the ritual.
Uttarakhand government today decided to install the statue of Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar in the lawns of Haridwar's Mela Bhawan on the bank of the Ganga with Chief Minister Harish Rawat writing a reassuring letter to his TN counterpart in a bid to assuage hurt sentiments.

A team of senior IAS officials sent by Chief Minister Harish Rawat to Haridwar finalised a spot inside the Mela Bhawan lawns where a pedestal is being built to install the statue of the great poet,Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority Vice Chairman Meenaskshi Sundaram told PTI.

The lawn where the statue is being installed is bigger and adjacent to the one where it was kept temporarily, the official said, adding the area is being beautified to hold a glittering function to mark the installation of the statue.

Asked when the installation will take place, Sundaram said the tentative date suggested by the Chief Minister was July 26 but Haridwar district administration is of the view that the ceremonial installation of the statue on July 26 will coincide with the peak of the ongoing Kanwar mela and it would be better to hold the function after the conclusion of the fair on July 31.

"We shall discuss the date with the Chief Minister and do as he instructs us to do. However, in our opinion the first week of August will be the ideal time for this," he said.

Meanwhile, Harish Rawatwrote a reassuring letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalitha telling her that installing the statue of Thiruvalluvar is his state's proud privilege and it will be done with all the fanfare and dignity that the occasion requires.

"The saint poet from Tamil Nadu has always been a source of great inspiration for people from all walks of life across the country ... It's a proud privilege for Uttarakhand that a statue of the legendary poet is being installed in the holy city of Haridwar.

"People who visit the city from all over the world will now have a chance to get a glimpse of the revered poet," Rawat said in his letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart.

He hoped that the statue will soon become an integral part of the city and fall in sync with the rest of the places of spiritual and tourist interest spread over it.

With pictures of the ancient Tamil poet's statue lying in a state of neglect in Haridwar causing outrage in the southern state, Rawat sprang into action today sending a team of senior IAS officers to Haridwar to identify a suitable spot inside Mela Bhawan for its installation.

"The Chief Minister wants the process of the statue's installation to be expedited," MDDA Vice Chairman R Meenakshi Sundaram said.

Sundaram who himself hails from Tamil Nadu denied there was any opposition from saints and seers to the installation of the saint poet's statue.

"They were never opposed to installation of Thiruvalluvar's statue. They were opposed only to its location on Har Ki Pairi ghat where only statues of Hindu deities have been installed so far.

"Their apprehension was that installing Thiruvalluvar's statue on the ghat might have given rise to similar demands from different groups following different icons," he said.

The statue is now unwrapped and standing on the Mela Bhavan grounds.

A newspaper picture of the statue wrapped in black plastic sheet and lying in a state of neglect on the Mela Bhawan premises had triggered considerable outrage in Tamil Nadu from where the poet hailed with Chief Minister J Jayalalitha writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to expedite the process of the statue's installation by Uttarakhand's Harish Rawat government.

In an initiative to introduce Northern India to the great literary legacy of the Tamil savant, former BJP MP (Rajya Sabha) Tarun Vijay had decided to bring his 12-foot statue to Haridwar and install it in the city.

The delay in the statue's installation and the initial opposition of the saints and seers of Haridwar to its location is also being attributed to the BJP MP's failure to take them into confidence and familiarise them with the southern saint-poet's great legacy before going ahead with his plan.

"Vijay didn't take the local priests and saints into confidence before his decision to bring Thiruvalluvar's statue to Haridwar. Nonetheless, we have now decided that the statue will be installed at Mela Bhavan," Rawat said adding that he wanted thestatue to be installed within this week.
Three more Dalit youths allegedly attempted suicide on Friday in Botad district of Gujarat even as the situation in most parts of the state returned to normal after witnessing three days of violent protests by community members over beating of Dalits for allegedly skinning a dead cow in Gir Somnath.

At Ranpur village of Botad district, three youths attempted suicide by drinking poisonous substance, to protest the Una incident, police said.

"Villagers informed police that three youths from the same village had tried to commit suicide to protest the after which they were taken to nearby hospital and then referred to Bhavnagar hospital for treatment," Botad Superintendent of Police, Saroj Kumari said.

As the news of the suicide attempt spread, hundreds of Dalits gathered at the hospital to show solidarity with the cause, Kumari said.

So far, more than 20 youths have attempted suicide during the ongoing protest.

Members of Congress party blocked a highway in Vadodara by burning tyres that caused traffic jam. Police managed to clear the road and detained five persons in this connection.

Protest rallies were taken out in some parts of Ahmedabad district and Patan, as Dalits in Ahmedabad's Viramgam came out in hundreds and submitted memorandum to local administration demanding justice.

A protest march was carried out in Patan as well. While in Modasa in Arvalli district, markets continued to remain closed for the second day as local businessmen protested damages done to their shops and establishments by Dalits during the ongoing agitation.

Businessmen demanded action against vandals who damaged several shops causing loss of property.

District administration in Gir Somnath  where Mota Saladhiyala village is located  imposed Section 144, which prohibits gathering of more than four persons, to avoid any untoward incident by preventing gathering of people to protest.

"We imposed Section 144 last evening which will remain effective till July 31, in order to keep the situation under control," Collector Ajay Kumar said.
Chinese official media today dismissed as "groundless" a US think tank report that claimed China's policies in the northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have driven local Muslims to join the ISIS.

The Washington DC-based New America Foundation on Wednesday released a report based on leaked registration documents of ISIS fighters provided by a defector from the jihadist organisation, which include 3,500 foreign recruits, among whom 114 came from Muslim-majority Xinjiang province.

The report said Xinjiang has become one of the main sources of ISIS fighters due to "significant economic disparities between the ethnic-majority Han Chinese" and the local Uyghur Muslim population, who are "subjected to substantial state repression through restrictions on Islamic practices like growing beards or wearing head coverings."



A report in state-run Global Times quoted Pan Zhiping, a research fellow at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, as saying that the report is groundless and illogical since the Chinese government never interferes in normal religious activities in Xinjiang, and both the Han people and Uyghurs enjoy holidays during Ramadan.

Pan said many ISIS fighters were found to have come from Western countries, including the US, the UK and France.

Does it mean "they (the fighters) join the ISIS because of their governments' repression?" Pan asked.

According to the report, 37 fighters were from France, 53 from the UK, 24 from Germany, nine from the US and 194 from Russia.

Li Wei, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that people coming to Iraq or Syria to join the ISIS has become a global issue.

The UN has urged all countries to intensify efforts to stem the flow of foreigners looking to fight for ISIS and to prevent and suppress sources of funds for terrorism.

The US' excessive international military intervention is the main reason for the ISIS' rise, Li said, adding that the US has become a troublemaker rather than a global defender of peace and stability, as it has been inciting disputes in the South China Sea instead of fighting terrorism in the Middle East.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi today urged the Puducherry government to enforce the Right to Education (RTE) Act in Puducherry.

Addressing reporters here VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan said he would present a detailed memorandum to Lt Governor Kiran Bedi seeking the expeditious implementation of the RTE Act.

"The Act would enable the children from poor families to get access to education without any impediments," he said.

He also sought the financial assistance meant for poor dalit families to replace huts in Puducherry, to be hiked to Rs 10 lakhs from the present 4 lakhs.

Reacting to former Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Dayashanker Singh's comments agianst BSP supremo Mayawati, he said, his party would hold a demonstration in Chennai on July 25 to condemn it as well as the attack on Dalit youths in Gujarat.
British telecom major Vodafone today reported a 3.4 per cent decline in its India revenue at 1,519 million pound for the first quarter ended June 2016.

The figure stood at 1,573 million pound in the same period a year ago.

Revenue of Vodafone India, however, in local currency terms grew 3.92 per cent to Rs 11,477.5 crore (at exchange rate of Rs 75.56) in the reported quarter, from Rs 11,016 crore (at Rs 70.21) a year ago.

"The slower pace of growth mainly reflects the reversal of the leap-year effect and lower intra-circle roaming revenues. Data browsing revenue growth of 22.3 per cent slowed from the pace of prior quarters, reflecting lower customer growth," Vodafone said in a statement.

The company said its organic growth of its service revenue was around 6.4 per cent.

Vodafone said it had over 199 million users in India at the end of the reported quarter. The active data customer base grew to 69.7 million, from 66.8 million a year ago.

The average revenue per user of Vodafone India declined to Rs 176.36, from Rs 183.5 a year ago.

According to the company, preparations are on for a potential IPO for its India unit. However, it preferred to stay cautious on expansion of 4G network rollout in India.

"In India, we have launched 4G in five circles, covering 45 per cent of data revenues and expect to reach over 60 per cent in the current financial year (ahead of spectrum auction). Given the high cost of spectrum, we intend to take a disciplined approach to further 4G rollout," Vodafone said.

The company claims to have installed 9,700 mobile sites for 4G services as of now. It said the company added 3,300 new 3G sites in the quarter, taking the total number to 59,000, covering 96 per cent of its targetted urban areas.

The 3G and 4G customer base rose 46 per cent to 32.3 million.

"Voice revenues returned to growth as competition eased despite lower average minutes of use per customer," Vodafone said.

The voice call usage on its network increased to over 187 million minutes during the 2016 June quarter as against 180 million minutes in the previous fiscal.
One of the 36 gates of Valmki Nagar barrage on the Gandak river in Bihar's West Champaran district was partially damaged due to pressure of water discharge from Nepal and repair works are underway.

Water Resources Department (WRD) Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh today said, gate number 33 of the barrage on Gandak river was partially damaged last night when all the gates were being opened to regulate discharge of 2.70 lakh cusec water by Nepal following heavy rainfall in catchment areas of various rivers.

"However, there is no need for panic by people residing in the low lying areas of West Champaran and other districts as the other 35 gates are functioning normally and regulating discharge of river water from Nepal," he said.

Singh said the barrage had discharged 1.69 lakh cusec water during the day yesterday, but the discharge level suddenly jumped to 2.7 lakh cusec in the night due to heavy rainfall in the catchment area in Nepal. The Valmiki Nagar barrage has water discharge capacity of 8.5 lakh cusec.

While WRD engineers were deputed permanently at the barrage, a private maintenance team is working overtime to repair the damaged gate, Singh said, adding a team of engineers have been rushed to Valmiki Nagar to supervise repair and restoration works of the barrage gate.

A probe has been ordered and the WRD chief engineer at Muzaffarpur and the chief engineer of mechanical department at the state headquarters have been sent there, he said.

The WRD minister said they have been asked to submit a report by tomorrow so that stringent action can be initiated against the engineers responsible for lapses, if any.

West Champaran district magistrate has ordered a simultaneous probe to find out any criminal lapse by engineers deputed at the barrage for maintenance of the gate, Singh added.
The Bombay High Court today issued a contempt notice to an officer of the Women and Child Welfare Department for not deciding the remuneration of office bearers of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights despite an earlier order.

Division bench of justices Abhay Oka and A A Sayed asked Vinita Singhal to file an affidavit by August 10 explaining why action for contempt of court not be taken.

The court, while hearing a public interest litigation, had asked the government to fix the remuneration of the chairperson and members of the Commission and then issue an advertisement for their appointment.

However, the government issued the advertisement without deciding the remuneration first.

The high court was of the opinion that unless the remuneration was decided, better and experienced candidates would not apply.

Public Prosecutor Purnima Kantharia said the government had taken steps to increase the remuneration of office bearers, and sought time to formulate a scheme in this regard.

The judges refused to give time to the government to formulate a scheme and instead issued a contempt notice to the officer of Women and Child Welfare Department.
Filmmaker Prakash Jha today said he derives a lot of inspiration from the North East and Bollywood filmmakers like him will feel privileged to work with people from the region.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 4th edition of the Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival (BVFF) here, Jha said, "I derive a lot of inspiration from the North East region. There is something about Brahmaputra which draws me personally.

"This festival is a window which gives us a peek into the rich heritage and culture of Northeast. Hindi cinema is just commercial cinema. Don't give too much value to it. Filmmakers like us from Mumbai will feel privileged to work with people from Northeast," he said.

Zualaa Chhangte directed Mizo film "Kima's Lode Beyond the Class" that explores the journey of a young boy in Mizoram and which won the award for best Mizo film at the 63rd National Film Awards, was the first feature film to be screened today.

The day ended with the screening of another National Award Winning movie "Eibusu Yaohanbiyu", which was named best Manipuri film.

"1962: My Country Land", an English feature film based on the Sino-Indian war of 1962, will premiere at the Film Festival tomorrow for the first time in India.

The Brahmaputra Valley Short Film Competition is one of the highlights of the festival and the top 15 entries from this year's competition were screened for the audience.

These films which have been made by budding filmmakers from all across the northeast received overwhelming response.

Tanushree Hazarika, Managing Director of Eclectic Group and Festival Director of BVFF said, "What germinated as an idea among a couple of friends turned out to be a full-fledged initiative. This is part of our effort to bridge the gap between mainland India and Northeast."



Assam Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development K V Eapen was the Guest of Honour at the function where Bollywood sound designer Amrit Pritam, who hails from Assam, was also present as Special Guests.
Ahead of the two-day visit of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to the Kashmir Valley, BJP today did not rule out talks with separatists and said it would do "whatever is necessary" to restore peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Whatever is necessary for restoration of peace will be done," BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal said.

Lal was asked whether there will be talks with the separatists to end the ongoing unrest in the Kashmir Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8, which has claimed 45 lives.

"The coalition of BJP and PDP was formed for peace and development of the state and we would ensure that there is peace and development," he said.

Lal met party leaders and discussed various issues, including the prevailing situation in Kashmir. "Several issues concerning the party were discussed in the meetings and the feedback will be conveyed to the party leadership in Delhi," he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh parried a direct reply to the question whether the government will hold talks with separatists to end unrest in Kashmir.

"Our priority is to bring normalcy in the valley, that is our priority and after that we will see...," he said when asked whether the government will holds talks with the separatists.

Asked whether such talks would be held in future as the 'Agenda of Alliance' between BJP and PDP states that dialogue would be held with all the stakeholders including separatists, Singh said, "When the time will come, definitely."



Asked whether the Home Minister would meet the separatists, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "I don't think right now he is going to speak (to them), he is going to meet the people who want to meet him."



The Deputy Chief Minister also dismissed the demand of an inquiry into the killing of Wani. "I don't think there is a demand from PDP and the state government does not subscribe to the view (of holding an inquiry)," he said.

The Union Home Minister will visit Kashmir for two days from tomorrow in a bid to calm down tension in the valley.
A woman was arrested for her alleged involvement in the murder of a 52-year-old councillor who was mercilessly battered to death by around four persons here, police said today.

Chotey Lal of Nagar Nigam ward number 18 was sleeping outside his house due to electricity failure when the accused mercilessly thrashed him with iron rods on the intervening night of July 20 and 21.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital from where he was referred to GTB hospital in Delhi. Lal yesterday succumbed to his injuries he had received in his skull.

His brother Satyendra alleged that Lal was attacked by Raju Sharma, Rahul, his wife Shabana and her sister Afsana alias Andhi.

Police said that the motive behind the murder was not immediately known.

Afsana has been arrested while the other accused are absconding, police said.
Health Ministry has proposed to seek assistance from World Bank in introduction of new vaccines and modernisation and expansion of their storage and supply chain management, the government today said.

Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste, in a written reply in Lok Sabha, said financial assistance from World Bank for strategic interventions for newborn infants is being conceptualised.

He also said setting up of a "centre for excellence" for newborn care has also been proposed under this.

"Financial assistance from the World Bank is being conceptualised for newborn infants. Interventions related to new born infants are a part of the proposed project 'strategic interventions to enhance maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health outcomes in India'," the minister said.

He said, as per the proposal prepared by the Health Ministry, the areas related to newborn and infant health which have been proposed for assistance include introduction of new vaccines and modernisation and expansion of vaccines storage and supply chain management.

"In addition to this, setting up of a centre for excellence for newborn care is also proposed," he said.

Kulaste further said the World Bank had provided financial assistance of SDR 245 million, for the period of 2006-2012, for improvement of essential Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) services, technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation and polio eradication.

He said the RCH-II comprised of various activities which were directly and indirectly contributing to population stabilisation and the performance of RCH II was satisfactory.
By Libby George

LONDON (Reuters) - Crude futures remained on track for weekly losses on Friday as investors reassessed U.S. data on oil stocks and excesses in oil products in Europe and Asia.

While many expect global oversupply of oil to ease in the near term, huge amounts of crude are languishing in vessels at sea and storage tanks on land as the rebalancing takes longer than some had anticipated.

"The narrative of a balanced oil market (in the second half of 2016) has so far been an illusion," UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

"Supply might actually increase in the near term with the further return of disrupted production and higher Middle East production, while demand growth is set to slow in emerging Asia."

Brent crude fell to a more than two-month low of less than $46 per barrel, but were trading at $46 as of 1329 GMT, down 20 cents. The contract closed 2.1 percent lower in the previous session, and is on track for a decline of more than 2.5 percent for the week.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate traded as low as $44.25 a barrel and was currently fetching $44.52, down 23 cents from the previous close. It ended Thursday down 2.2 percent and is on track to close the week also more than 2.5 percent lower.

"It's been pretty volatile," said Richard Mallinson, analyst with Energy Aspects, adding that low trading volumes in Europe during the summer holidays can "accentuate swings even if there isn't a major catalyst".

Iraq's oil exports are set to rise in July, according to loading data and an industry source, putting supply growth from OPEC's second-largest producer back on track after two months of decline.

Falling prices in the United States have also encouraged traders to send U.S. oil to Europe, adding to supply in the region.

This has helped counterbalance disruptions in Nigeria, where two of the largest crude streams are under force majeure and pipeline attacks have cut some 700,000 barrels per day from production, according to state oil firm NNPC.

While U.S. production has been falling, crude inventories are at 519.5 million barrels, historically high for this time of year, the government's Energy Information Administration said this week.

Inventories of oil products have also been climbing worldwide. Data from energy consultancy FGE on Friday showed that oil product stocks in the United States, Europe's Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub and Singapore posted a second consecutive build this week of 2.35 million barrels.

(Additonal reporting by Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson and Jason Neely)
By Patrick Graham and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Barclays global head of electronic trading Tim Cartledge is seen as a leading contender to take the helm at EBS BrokerTec after Thursday's announcement that Chief Executive Gil Mandelzis will step down, sources close to EBS said.

Cartledge has been chief strategy officer at EBS since November 2015.

Interdealer broker ICAP Plc said in a statement on Thursday that Mandelzis decided to leave EBS, a unit of the London-based company.

ICAP said Mandelzis will leave New York-based EBS "in due course" without giving a reason for his departure. Mandelzis has been in the job since 2012.

ICAP CEO Michael Spencer said the company was considering internal and external candidates.

Two industry insiders with close ties to EBS said the company has cherry-picked a number of senior staff from banks to refresh a business that dates to the early days of electronic trading in the early 1990s.

As the head of Barclays' fixed income, currencies, and commodities electronic trading, Cartledge helped build the British bank into one of the big three global banking players in foreign exchange, a position it has relinquished since he left early last year.

"I know that Tim Cartledge is seen by everyone inside EBS as being in pole position to take over," one of the sources, a former EBS employee who still works closely with the company, said.

A second source said: "They have surrounded Gil with talent from banks which seems like a fairly healthy thing. It is natural that you replenish the talent base from time to time and natural that someone like that take over when Gil leaves."

A spokeswoman for EBS declined to comment on whether Cartledge was likely to be appointed chief executive.

Speculation about Mandelzis leaving the company had swirled for many weeks.

Like its competitors, which include Thomson , EBS has been struggling to combat a slide in volumes over the last three years, as the currency market struggled with changes in regulation and a market manipulation scandal.

EBS forex volume for the first six months of the year totaled $105.3 billion, down 15 percent from a year earlier.

A research note from Citi said Mandelzis' departure is a "disappointing development" for EBS.

"Mr Mandelzis has been a key driver of innovation at EBS BrokerTec, both in terms of product development but also in terms of driving a more collaborative approach across different parts of the business."

The company has appointed head hunters Korn Ferry to run the recruitment process and a third source close to EBS said the selection was still in its early stages.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Patrick Graham in London; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Tom Brown)
Industrialist Adi Godrej may soon offer an initial public offering (IPO) of its agri-business subsidiary Godrej Agrovet to cash in on India's craze for milk, world's largest milk-drinking country.

The billionaire, however, didn't divulge information on the timing or valuation of the IPO.

Godrej Agrovet may be listed in the future, group Chairman Godrej said in a recent interview in Mumbai to Bloomberg.

Temasek Holdings-backed Godrej Agrovet Limited is a diversified, research & development agri-business company, which is a leading market player in the different businesses in which they operate - animal feed, oil palm plantations, agri inputs, hybrid seeds, dairy and processed poultry.

The company, if listed, will also benefit the stock of Temasek as the company holds 20 per cent stake in the Agrovet. Another stock to receive good response would be Godrej Industries as Agrovet contributes as much as 20 per cent to its enterprise value.

Godrej Agrovet will compete with Parag Milk Foods, which recently launched an IPO to raise Rs 300 crore. Parag Milk received modest response from investors on the day of listing and listed at Rs 217.50 on NSE, a mere 1.16 per cent premium to its issue price of Rs 215.


BBC Global News CEO Jim Egan talked to Business Today about the lurking threat of ad blocking for content publishers and combating the rise of native advertising.

Ad blocking is becoming a major concern for publishers. What is your view on this?

In the UK, the industry is completely obsessed with ad blocking and it is becoming one big strategic issue. There are certain parts of publishing industry that are getting affected by it very profoundly. Those would be people who have very cluttered and busy properties for the user.

With ad blocking getting adopted at the device or network level, whether it is a good publisher or not, everyone will get caught up by it. We are seeing more and more publishers such as New York Times reminding readers that good content doesn't come for free and has to be paid for.

At the moment, at BBC we are talking about it rather than doing anything about it. Till date, it has had limited financial impact on us. It might be because we have a relatively low ad to content ratio on our site. We don't have a fixed percentage of ads to content but you tend not to see BBC page that is choc-a-bloc full of ads.

We are looking at what others are doing but we are not yet at that stage of saying that please remove the ad blocker. The big debate, however, seems to be that publishers are recognising that audiences have had enough of bad ads and are seeking to reset their relationship with them.

With native advertising on the rise, how do you ensure journalistic content is separate from sponsored content.

We work on that in a very literal way. We have different teams for each. Both are BBC expert content producers but there is never any confusion about the nature of content they are working on. That's from the production perspective. From the point of view of how it gets to the audience, it is always clearly marked.

Last year we launched BBC StoryWorks - a content marketing team lead by a former BBC journalist with over ten years' experience. The team brings newsroom values to content creation - spotting compelling narratives that will engage audiences and deliver for brands. Earlier this year, we conducted some research into the emotional impact of content-led marketing by measuring consumers' subconscious reaction to campaigns on BBC.com through facial coding. The study, called the Science of Engagement, showed that, when well executed and clearly labelled, content-led marketing is considered trusted and persuasive and has a powerful emotional impact for the brands involved.



Have there been cases where you have been asked by advertisers to make the branded content subtle so it comes through as editorial content.

Intelligent advertisers understand that they have a very carefully-developed corporate reputation and so does BBC. Our corporate reputation rests on the trust the audience have in us and as a result they understand that it is not in our interest and it is not in theirs either. We tend not to have these awkward conversations where advertisers say, can you slip in the reference in the content or talk a bit more about our fantastic product.

There are certain advertisers we tend not to work with for very long. We have this kind of approach, but I am afraid I am not going to give you any names.

Indian news channels are moving from studio news to having a debate in the news rooms. Is BBC also thinking of introducing this strategy?

I think in some ways this is something BBC can learn from because those channels are certainly engaging and lively and there is a lot of energy in them. And, they would make sense for news organisations to do news this way. It is not how BBC does it nor I ever will be able to pass judgment on the way news channels do news here.

We have our own particular style that works for us. Some people may find it a bit dry and arid. It is not our goal to be boring but if you watch BBC World News there is a single ticker running across the screen. We don't overload the screen with graphics all the way through to the editorial treatment of stories. This reflects BBC's lifelong commitment to impartiality and giving a balanced view. We believe our audience is intelligent and we leave it to them to make up their own mind and just give them the different specs on it rather than provide the answers.

I don't think we will have newsroom debate just like that but there is always a row for dynamism, personality and colour and those are the things we are having more in the channel. But that doesn't mean 9 pm at BBC will all of a sudden become a lot like 9 pm on other channels.



Can you share an example of a crisis situation in the recent past and how did you handle it?

There was a recent issue around a programme on politics in Russia that we broadcasted. It was regarded very unfavourably by the Russian authorities and we were under a lot of pressure on not broadcasting it in Russia.

In such situations, one thing I have learnt is remaining calm and when the pressure is on never to send an angry email. I wrote that angry email and saved it in drafts folder and then came back the next morning and decided whether I wanted to send it or not. Generally, I never want to send it when I come back after a night's sleep. The other thing I believe is in the old saying: experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Normally, when you look back at these experiences they are quite a rich source of learning for next time round.



What are the top revenue generating countries for BBC?

Those would be countries like the US, Canada, Japan and Australia. India is in and around in the top five revenue generators for us but it varies from quarter to quarter. It is a mix of advertising on TV, BBC.com and also the subscription revenue from Indian Pay TV.


Facing heat from rival Air India, which is offering last minute ticket prices equivalent to AC II tier fares of Rajdhani trains on 11 domestic routes, private carrier Jet Airways also plans to roll out a new ticket pricing structure to give more choices to customers from next month.

Jet Airways will offer a total of eight new 'Fare Choices' across economy and premiere class of travel, allowing fliers to tailor their bookings to their individual needs, the airline said in a release on Thursday.

These fare choices will be available to customers from August 17, Jet Airways said.

As part of this, economy class passengers will have the option of choosing fares from the Deal, Saver, Classic or Flex fare categories.

Likewise, premier class fares includes Saver, Classic and Flex, while in first class there will only be one fare "family - First," it said.

In a move that check-mated its rivals like Jet Airways and Vistara on the pricing front, national carrier Air India had early this month announced dropping of its last minute fares to the level of AC II tier fares of Rajdhani trains on four trunk destinations from Delhi--Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, to begin with.

Later it extended the offer on seven other routes, giving jitters to the private airlines, which jack up their last minute fares to astronomical sums.

Gaurang Shetty, Wholetime Director, Jet Airways, said: "The new fare structure being introduced by Jet Airways will offer distinct features in each category as well as greater choice to our guests. Ultimately, this is about providing choice."

The new flexible 'Fare Choices' will be available on all domestic and international routes through all of Jet Airways' booking channels, the release said.

Besides, the various fare categories are differentiated based on the changeability and refund of a ticket, mileage accrual, upgrade eligibility, priority check-in and lounge access, it added.

The baggage allowance for the bookings availed under these fare choices is differentiated according to routes based on piece and weight and the same will reflect on the e-ticket, Jet Airways said.
The Reserve Bank of India will shortly start monitoring banks on issues relating to customer rights in five broad areas, a senior official said on Thursday.

The areas on which the regulator will be conducting surveys and supervision at various banks are - right to privacy, right to fair treatment & transparency, fair and honest dealing, right to suitability and right to grievance redress & compensation.

"RBI had asked the banks to have their board-approved plans in place by June 30. Now we at RBI will start monitoring and supervising the banks on issues relating to customer rights," RBI Executive Director U S Paliwal said in Mumbai.

"We have our own mechanism to see how banks are doing on the five fronts relating to customer rights and the monitoring will be done on those fronts," he added.

RBI had put out a charter of customer rights in public domain sometime back, asking banks to implement it after their board's approval.
IT body NASSCOM on Thursday said fresh hiring in the current financial year may be lower than last year as IT companies are facing pressure on margins, besides focusing on automation of jobs.

"Hiring activity in the year before last was 2.20 lakh (new jobs were created in IT sector). Last year, (FY 2015-16) there were about two lakh additions. This financial year, we are expecting it to be on the lower side of that", National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) President R Chandrashekhar told reporters here.

Declining to give an exact figure, he said, "I cannot reliably predict what is going to happen. These are trends".

Explaining about the decrease in hiring activity, he said, fresh hiring is either static or gently declining. It is not as if overall hiring is going down. It is not going to be in the same pace as it was, he said.

Chandrashekhar attributed the companies' focus on automation and pressure on margins for the decrease in hiring activities.

"They (IT companies) are adopting higher productivity by reducing the strength and focusing on automation. For a country like India, automation works differently as cost effectiveness on automation is different because our economic levels are different," he said.

While certain jobs within the industry may be automated, those which are off-shored are actually coming in to India.

There is a loss of jobs because of automation within India and also because of a new set of jobs which are coming due to off-shoring and technology changes, he said.

"In short, for the next two years, we are still quite optimistic. Our fundamentals are stronger than others (countries)", he added.
IT body NASSCOM on Thursday said that the industry needs to wait and watch, rather than panic, on the outcome of the US Presidential elections, though it warned of lasting impact of 'Brexit' on India.

Republican candidate Donald Trump is a frontrunner for the US President's post and is widely feared in India for his stance on the outsourcing industry and existing immigration policies.

"You see, IT industry does not have a view on candidate Donald Trump. But President Trump is a different matter", National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) president, R Chandrashekhar said here, to a query on how the domestic IT industry was looking at Donald Trump.

"There is a big difference between candidate (Donald) Trump and incumbent (Trump). When a President becomes incumbent, the real world, governance come into picture", he told reporters.

"Indian IT industry actually helps create jobs even ostensibly in United States. This lead us to believe that we can afford to sort of wait and see the circumstances.

But we do not need to panic, for sure", he said.

Meanwhile, speaking on the impact of Britain exiting from the European Union, Chandrashekar said that it may reflect in the second or third quarter results of the domestic IT firms.

"The impact may show up in next two or three quarters and it will roll out over a much longer period.

"First and foremost, till December 2016 itself, UK said they will not invoke Article 50. So, from a technical stand point they have not started exiting by the end of calendar year 2016. After that, it may take up to two years, of exiting from European Union", he said.

However, he clarified that soon after Britain decided to exit the European Union, there was "knee-jerk" reaction as the value of currency and shares fell very dramatically.

"Short term impact for India are largely negative.", he said, adding, if the currency (Pound) depreciates further, current IT contracts, if not re-negotiated would either become loss making propositions or would not yield the same kind of margins.

"In terms of large contracts made by big companies, the decision-making will slow down. Impact on some of the large deals could get impacted. Lot of Indian companies used London as base. So that will get re-evaluated", he said.

On the longer term point of view, Britain exiting from UK holds opportunities for India, he said.


New Ireland Assurance have been announced as the exclusive sponsor of the IMI National Management Conference 2016, taking place on September 29th at the IMI campus in Sandyford, Dublin.



The conference theme, Managing Disruption, Seizing Opportunity, will provide over 250 of Irelands C-Suite audience with the latest insights from local and global thinkers and leaders who have driven business success in disruptive environments.



CEO of the IMI, Simon Boucher commented, "We are delighted to announce New Ireland Assurance as official sponsor of the IMI National Management Conference 2016. The IMI remains the leader in business management and executive education in Ireland."

He added, "This years conference will ensure Irish business leaders can equip themselves with the necessary tools and insights to manage disruptive environments, and identify and seize all opportunities to succeed."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Sinn Fein Finance Spokesperson, Pearse Doherty has today claimed publication of data on the use of exceptions under the new mortgage rules as he had requested from the Central Bank shows that the banks used only 30% of the permitted 35% leeway allowed.



Doherty said that the real story in the data is that supply remains the issues not demand and that this new evidence should make the government think again about a help to buy scheme.



According to Deputy Doherty, "By using only 30% of the permitted leeway, the banks are not using the full leeway available to them. In fact, that 5% would mean that an additional 129m could be loaned outside the caps. It is very noticeable that for First Time Buyers the average loan to value has not changed dramatically. It is now 78.7% for those that fall within the rules compared to 80.7% for those that fell outside. That is only a minor change and when we consider that there is another 5% of lending that could potentially be used outside these caps the effect of these rules on First Time Buyers is quite limited."

He added, "Overall, the picture is one of supply still being the issue. In light of this data, the government must take second look at the proposed help to buy scheme. There is simply no evidence that these rules have created a need for such an expensive scheme."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
One of the most exciting accommodation spaces these days is the emerging poshtel products that are cutting into the cookie cutter hotel mold and gathering followers.

Today the traditional hostel model is out the window and in comes poshtels which offer not only the traditional shared rooms but a hybrid that also has private rooms with ensuite bathrooms, co-working and social spaces, and a mix of interesting travelers who want to get out of the box.

Thailands Narai Group is quicly expanding their Lub d brand now to Phuket and onward outside the country in the Philippines and Cambodia.

They have broken the hostel mold by using international designers and brought in key features in the Patong property which include an indoor Muay Thai facility, see-though pool and a number of other features.

With 286 rooms the hybrid offering will appeal to a broad platform from the hostel sector, through the economy segment and also the emerging friends and family segment.

Poshtels are a fast emerging trend globally and C9 Hotelworks has published a market overview on Southeast Asia CLICK.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is giving Utah $934,000 to help the states efforts to fight the Zika virus.

The agency said Thursday the money is the states share of $60 million awarded to states, cities and territories to protect people from the virus and its effects, which can include serious birth defects.

The money will go toward studying the disease, improving mosquito control and participation in a registry to monitor pregnant Zika-infected women and their babies.

There have been eight cases of Zika reported in Utah, including a Salt Lake County man who became the person in the continental United States after contracting the virus. His son who took care of him was also infected in a case thats raising new questions about how the disease is transmitted.
The nocturnal creatures on the beach in Port Aransas July 30 will include runners and walkers taking part in the Sand Crab 5K, 10K & Kids Mile Nighttime Beach Run.

The event is hosted by Run in Texas, a San Antonio-based race production company that has the philosophy of putting on a good run followed by a good party. That is the plan in Port Aransas, according to race director Bill Gardner.

"Port Aransas is such a cool place, we figured it would be a good spot to make this happen," Gardner said.

The course will begin and end at IB Magee Park, taking an out-and-back route south on the sand. The run will be chip timed by IAAP. Run in Texas became known in the San Antonio area and beyond for hosting races including the Chupacabra Night Trail Run, which has attracted groups from Corpus Christi in the past.

The company has since branched into craft beer runs. The Sand Crab will provide finishers with a selection of two regionally brewed beers from Goliad Brewing Company: the Golden Ale and Redfish IPA. After launching Sand Crab runs in South Padre Island and Galveston, the July 30 event will be Run in Texas' third one scheduled for Port Aransas. The first took place in 2014, and heavy rains caused cancellation of last year's.

Run in Texas will donate a portion of proceeds to Friends of the ARK, a nonprofit organization that supports the Animal Rescue Keep's mission of rescuing and rehabilitating injured and ill wild animals.

"At all of our events we try to team up with a local nonprofit, and that was the name that came up the most when we asked around," Gardner said.

Alissa Mejia's column focuses on running and fitness. Contact her at freestylesail@gmail.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Port Aransas Sand Crab 5K, 10K & Kids Mile Nighttime Beach Run

When: 8 p.m. July 30

Where: IB Magee Park, Port Aransas

Cost: 10K: $60, or $65 on race day. 5K: $55, or $60 on race day. Kids mile: $20, or $25 on race day.

UPCOMING EVENTS

For the Health of It 5K water run/walk & kids run: 8 a.m. Saturday, Dick Kleberg Park, Kingsville.

Slurry Scurry 5K run & walk: 8 a.m. July 30, Cole Park.

Da$h for Ca$h 5-mile, 5K & kids 1K: 8 a.m. Aug. 13, Oso Creek Park behind Bill Witt Park.

Details and registration available via www.corpusroadrunners.com.
SHARE Dougherty was indicted in June on one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

A former priest denies accusations he sexually assaulted a girl.

Stephen Tarlton Dougherty, 59, appeared before a Bee County judge Thursday after a grand jury last month indicted him on a first degree felony of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Dougherty and his lawyer, John Pinckney of San Antonio, declined to comment outside the courtroom but referred to a court document in which the former priest and philanthropist pleaded not guilty.

During the brief hearing, Pinckney requested a list of the grand jury members that indicted Dougherty. He is expected to present case law that he says supports the release of the usually secret information at the next hearing Aug. 18. The trial is slated for Sept. 12.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi stripped Dougherty of his duties in 2011 after receiving a sexual misconduct allegation on Dougherty. Last year, Bee County law enforcement officials contacted the diocese about another accusation.

Following the indictment, a lawsuit was filed July 12 in Nueces County Court against the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Dougherty and the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. The diocese and the religious order are accused of not doing enough to protect the victim.

Dougherty's family first came to South Texas in the 1800s and has long been active in the Catholic church, according to Caller-Times archives. Dougherty's father, Dudley Dougherty, traveled to Rome in 1963 to attend the coronation of Pope Paul VI and received the papal honor of Knight of the Holy Sepulcher.

Dougherty was accompanied in court by his cousin, Frances Tarlton "Sissy" Farenthold, a former state legislator and gubernatorial candidate.

Twitter: @CallerKMT Staff writer Fares Sabawi contributed to this report.
Natalia Contreras/Caller-Times San Domingo Cemetery officials in Normanna, about 10 miles outside Beeville, settled a lawsuit Friday with the American GI Forum of Texas, Inc.

SHARE

By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

A South Texas cemetery discriminated and violated Latinos' rights by burying only whites, according to court documents.

Lawyers for Normanna Cemetery Association and the American GI Forum of Texas, Inc. agreed to settle a lawsuit the forum filed against the cemetery and its board member, Jimmy Bradford, after they refused to bury Normanna resident Pedro Barrera.

The cemetery association must not refuse to bury anyone on the basis of race or national origin or treat anyone differently because of their ethnicity, according to the agreement.

In U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos' court Friday, the lawyers said they agreed on all issues except for attorneys' fees. The judge will determine the lawyers' fees later.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of the GI Forum in April after Dorothy Barrera said Bradford turned her away from the San Domingo Cemetery because of her husband's ethnicity. Bradford's daughter, a spokeswoman for the board, told the Caller-Times in March the incident was a misunderstanding. The cemetery originally belonged to a family and was meant for the descendants of the town's founders, who were mostly white, she said. She said the board's decision was because Pedro Barrera was not a descendant and didn't fit the criteria because he'd been a resident about 15 years.

The decision was reversed in early March and Pedro Barrera, who died Feb. 10 at age 70, was allowed to be buried in the cemetery. As of Friday, his ashes were not placed in the cemetery but were in an urn with Dorothy Barrera, the widow's lawyer, Sid Arismendez, said. Arismendez and Dorothy Barrera are not part of the American GI Forum's lawsuit and Arismendez said his client likely will file her own suit in the next few weeks. He said they wanted to wait until the Forum's lawsuit was resolved. Dorothy Barrera's lawsuit will seek compensation for mental anguish, her lawyer said.

"My client suffered severe emotional distress when they treated her in the manner they did and spoke to her in the manner they did," Arismendez said.

The incident drew the attention of civil rights leaders and legislators. Members of the American GI Forum and the League of United Latin American Citizens marched outside the cemetery for equal rights. Normanna, which has a population of about 100, is about 10 miles north of Beeville in Bee County.

Twitter: @CallerKMT Staff writers Fares Sabawi and Natalia Contreras contributed to this report.
Edgar De La Garza/Special to the Caller-Times Jesse (center) and Tina Gonzalez receive information from Officer Eryca Gonzalez during the Tip-A-Cop fundraiser Thursday, July 21, 2016, at Texas Roadhouse.

SHARE Edgar De La Garza/Special to the Caller-Times Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle speaks to Gabriel Grande during the Tip-A-Cop fundraiser Thursday, July 21, 2016, at Texas Roadhouse. Edgar De La Garza/Special to the Caller-Times Officer Cris Salazar shows a T-shirt to Jose Aguilar during the Tip-A-Cop fundraiser Thursday, July 21, 2016, at Texas Roadhouse. Edgar De La Garza/Special to the Caller-Times Officer Cris Salazar speaks to Dallas Cummings during the Tip-A-Cop fundraiser Thursday, July 21, 2016, at Texas Roadhouse. Related Photos 2016 Tip A Cop

Corpus Christi police officers and Law Enforcement Torch run members fundraised for Special Olympics Texas on Thursday at the annual Tip A Cop event at Texas Roadhouse. The volunteers served dinner to patrons at the restaurant and donated their tips to Special Olympics Texas to fund training and programming for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in South Texas.
SHARE

An exhaustive study of one billion votes cast nationwide since 2000 found only 31 legitimate cases of in-person voter fraud. But there were at least 608,000 reasons to strike down Texas' discriminatory voter identification law.

That number, 608,000, is how many registered voters U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi cited as lacking any of the law's seven accepted forms of photo ID when she ruled in 2014 that the law was discriminatory. Unfortunately the law remained in effect while state officials spent the intervening two years and millions of tax dollars delaying the justice that Ramos' ruling would have dealt.

On Wednesday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals restored a modicum of justice, ruling that the law had a discriminatory effect against black and Hispanic voters who were more likely to lack the required forms of ID. The law, passed in 2011, has been in effect since 2012. The state still can require identification, as long as its discriminatory effect is eliminated. For the November election, that could mean that voter registration cards, which don't include a photo, could serve as legal ID  as they did before the law was passed.

Discriminatory effect is an important nuance. The court took issue with Ramos' finding that the discrimination was intentional. She will have to revisit that issue after the election and will need more evidence than the exhaustive, powerful, overwhelming evidence upon which she relied. One ray of hope is that the appeals court showed an interest in the lack of evidence that in-person voter fraud exists. The state can offer no more than foot-stomping insistence that it does.

Establishing what's in people's hearts when they do what they do is no easy task. But there's a palpable ugliness to the way the law's proponents insist angrily that voter fraud exists, and can't prove it  yet willingly disenfranchise hundreds of thousands to prevent it. And those hundreds of thousands overwhelmingly are black or Hispanic. Ramos shouldn't need to re-explain the obvious.

The state hasn't indicated whether it would appeal to the Supreme Court. But the tone isn't promising. Gov. Greg Abbott, whose history of defending the law goes back to when he was the attorney general, insisted Wednesday that the court was wrong, that "voter fraud is real," that he should know because he prosecuted voter fraud cases, and that "Texas will continue to make sure there is no illegal voting at the ballot box."

Donald Trump has a nickname for people other than himself who perpetuate disproved hoaxes such as the in-person vote fraud fairy tale. Showing up in person isn't how vote fraud is done. Ballot-stuffing is done by the people who count votes, not the ones who cast them. It's done by forging mail-in ballots or jimmying the computers  none of which is addressed in the law.

It's worth noting that the 608,000 disenfranchised voters were not undocumented immigrants, convicted felons, or anyone else whose vote would amount to fraud. They were 608,000 U.S. citizens who were legally registered to vote. It's also worth pointing out that, according to expert testimony, black people are three times more likely than non-Hispanic white people to lack any of the acceptable forms of ID and Hispanics are twice as likely to lack them. There's the discriminatory effect. The discriminatory intent was in choosing not to accept more easily attainable forms of photo ID such as student and employee IDs. Requiring voters to show a photo ID is not inherently unreasonable.

It's our hope that the state can work out a reasonable settlement that does not impose undue expense and hardship upon registered voters  and that the state will stop appealing. The registered voters who don't have the right IDs are real. Continuing to deny them their voting rights to hunt hobgoblins is indefensible. The governor should do what he can to encourage rather than discourage voting.
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Teachers and pupils in Cambridgeshire have been given an end-of-term kick in the teeth  with the news that the Government is shelving plans for fairer school funding.

New Education Secretary Justine Greening has revealed that plans to bring in a fairer system in the 2017-18 academic year are being put on hold.

The announcement, made in parliament yesterday, is a major blow to Cambridgeshire, where schools get an average of 4,200 a year to spend on each pupils, as against an average of 6,300 for the highest-funded areas.

Through its Fair Deal For Our Schools campaign, backed by politicians, heads and unions, the News has been battling to get the cash formula changed  and last November, then-Chancellor George Osborne said the Government had agreed to take action and overhaul the system.

Ms Greening told MPs yesterday: The Government is firmly committed to introducing fairer funding for schools, high needs and early years. This is an important reform, which will fairly and transparently allocate funding on the basis of schools' and children's actual needs, rather than simply on historic levels of funding tied to out of date local information"

But she added: I am also confirming that, for 2017-18, we will retain the current minimum funding guarantee for schools, so that no school can face a funding reduction of more than 1.5% per pupil next year in what it receives through the local authority funding formula.

To ensure that local authorities can start planning their budgets for next year with certainty, I do not intend to proceed, for 2017-18, with proposals to create a new central schools block, allow local flexibility on the minimum funding guarantee or to ring-fence the schools block within the dedicated schools grant.

These will be covered, for 2018-19 and beyond, in my response to the first stage consultation in the autumn."

Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner, who has backed the News campaign, said there would be widespread anger about the delay, which he said was prompted by Brexit.

He said: Cambridgeshire MPs, parents and teachers have been fighting to obtain this for years. Currently the funding shortfall leaves Cambridgeshire as one of the worst-funded local education authorities in the country with local pupils receiving around 2,000 less than the highest-funded areas.

"After the fantastic Cambridge News campaign we made progress. But this announcement is a blow to pupils and teachers. The fallout from Brexit continues and local children will suffer another year of chronic under funding.

I can think of plenty of things the Government should backtrack on, but not the long-term change that will correct once and for all Cambridgeshire's school under funding."

School funding campaign group f40 welcomed the commitment to fairer funding, but expressed concern at the delay.

Its chairman Ivan Ould said: "We are disappointed that the process of change is being extended yet again. We are facing a delay in implementation to 2018-19  a year later than promised.

As we have been campaigning for a fairer funding system for over 20 years we can handle this delay, though many schools will feel cheated as they were anticipating a funding lift in the next financial year. They will now need to take urgent action to find ways of managing with insufficient funding for a further year. The existing arbitrary and unfair system has disadvantaged hundreds of thousands of children for too many years."

Stuart Lock, head of Cottenham Village College, said: "I'm furious, because it means at least one more year to wait, and one more year of our pupils getting less money spent on them, just because of where they live.

"I can't now see fairer funding being high on the agenda as we get nearer another general election.

"Teachers in our school are having to work longer hours than others elsewhere because of funding issues, and it is very difficult for us to keep class sizes at the level we want."
CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: Resolution of the National Executive Committee, (NECO) and National Council of the Southern Cameroons National Council, (The COUNCIL)

The National Executive Committee, (NECO) and National Council of the Southern Cameroons National Council, (The COUNCIL) met respectively on July, 15 and 16, 2016 in Bamenda. It examined and deliberated on the life of the movement at home and the Diaspora, state of the nation and international scene and took the following Resolutions.

THE LIFE OF THE MOVEMENT

From the County Chairpersons reports, The Council noted that due to crushing poverty and general hardship, Grassroots structures were no longer as viable as before.

Council also received Diaspora report from Mr Albert Zama, the representative from SCNC  USA Chapter who actively participated and made profound contributions to the debates.

Council received from the National Chairman fraternal warm greetings and brief report from Mr Cletus Fondo, representative from Canada who due to time constraint regretted his inevitable departure to catch his return flight.

Considering the challenging task at hand, The Council directs as follows;

a) That the redynamisation of Grassroots structures  the Precincts, the LGAs and the Counties should be completed and lists submitted at next National Council meeting.

b) That the Secretary General should finalise arrangements and organise fresh elections to replace the deceased County Chairperson of Ngoketunjia County and report at next Council meeting.

c) That County Chairpersons as a nationalistic duty should build bridges with all the vital forces within their respective areas of jurisdiction.

d) That Diaspora Chapters should be all inclusive, serving as the British Southern Cameroons sanctuary for national renaissance, be redynamised to effectively assume their ambassadorial role and intensify their lobbying roles as well as contribute materially, logistically and financially towards the realisation of the ultimate goal of the struggle, namely, national independence and sovereignty.

e) That Diaspora Chairpersons should communicate more frequently with the National Secretariat to keep abreast with authentic information to avoid being misled with distorted information.

f) That counting the odds all members should rededicate themselves to being the barefoot soldier and should carry out effective education of Southern Cameroonians to know the legal truth, their legal rights for once they are empowered they will become more assertive and properly defend their collective identity. To this effect Council lauded the efforts of the National Chairman and the staff of the National Secretariat in constantly producing sound educational materials. Council graciously received the 2nd edition of National Renaissance which was launched by Mr. Albert Zama and called on all to read and spread the political gospel for national rebirth.

LIFE OF THE BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS NATION

COUNCIL PAINFULLY NOTES

a) That the annexationist ruling clan piloted by an ethnic oligarchy persists in its oppressive, exploitative determination to extinct British Southern Cameroons from the map of Africa for the prestige and grandeur of la Republique du Cameroun.

b) That the Yaounde regime is determined to annihilate all the Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage while paying lip service to unification to deceive and mislead the gullible Southern Cameroonians and those with weak spines.

c) That the annexation and assimilation agenda has no room for dialogue, negotiation and compromises for these are predicated on respect and equal standing of the partners concerned.

d) That Yaoundes bold-attack on our inherited Anglo-Saxon educational system and the Common Law under the pretext of harmonisation and recent decree on the nationalisation of the CDC and transfer of its headquarters from Bota  Victoria in British Southern Cameroons to la Republique du Cameroun, must be seen as a sharp knife the annexationist regime wants to drive through our heart.

THE COUNCIL

-Takes judicious note of the growing nationalistic consciousness in Southern Cameroonians thanks to the educational materials issued by the SCNC, other patriots, and the good work of the print media and the audio and calls on all vital forces, the youths, the women and men to strengthen the patriotic bonds of unity and defend our inherent right to a sovereign homeland. He who fails to defend his self worth and identity but depends on and slavishly serves his slave master to attain a subordinate status will remain a serf forever.

-Congratulates the Common Law Lawyers, the various Teachers Trade Unions, the Education Forum on the Anglo-Saxon educational heritage for the good work courageously initiated. The drive from all angles should be towards the liberation and restoration of the sovereign statehood of British Southern Cameroons. Harmonisation is assimilation for the consolidation of annexation and colonial occupation, thats total annihilation of the British Southern Cameroons nation.

-Salutes the Bamenda Market Women, the Buyam Sellam, the Petty traders for rising up to say NO to the intensification of exploitation, over taxation, economic genocide visited on Southern Cameroons, for the glory of the Yaounde oligarchy and its mentor Paris.

-Calls on the total mobilisation and organisation of all the vital forces for national liberation, the key to our collective dignity, progress and prosperity.

-Assures the Bamenda Market Women and all the petty traders that removing the current Government Delegate and replacing him with another, changes nothing. The problem is with the system which is anti-people, insensitive, nonchalant and inherently corrupt and irredeemably autocratic. Under Yaounde British Southern Cameroons will forever remain a farm and a mine for mindless exploitation and plunder.

-Reminds the dynamic mothers and youths of our beloved Fatherland, British Southern Cameroons, abundantly blessed by God, that British Southern Cameroons is not an integral part of la Republique du Cameroun. We are a separate nation and a distinct people under international law entitled to sovereign independence. This is our inherent right and in unity under the Lord of Justice, we will triumphantly restore our Government in Buea-the key to our political salvation, economic development and progress.

-Reiterates SCNCs irrevocable commitment to national restoration and calls on all forces to jump on the SCNC liberation train for a holistic approach for a permanent solution of rebuilding the British Southern Cameroons nation on constitutional democracy, effective separation of powers, rule of law, participatory democracy, where those in authority rule by the consent of the governed and remain transparent and accountable to the ruled in whom resides popular sovereignty.

-Calls on all Southern Cameroons political and economic elites, the intelligentsia, Common Law Lawyers at home and abroad, Traditional Rulers, Religious Authorities to put an end to playing the ostrich game and understand that what took place in Wum was not against the victims nor is the plan to transfer the CDC Headquarters to a town in la Republique du Cameroun an affront or attack on the Bakweri or a matter for Fako County. What became of the CamBank and the Produce Marketing Board nationalised and transferred after the 1972 fraudulent referendum? While the Wum Saga demonstrates the impunity of the Yaounde regime against us, the planned transfer of the CDC Headquarters which confirms Dr. Endeleys prediction, stands as the last straw to break the camels back which must be resisted energetically by all us. To pretend to be indifferent is to deny your roots and betray Gods will.

-Reaffirms that the CDC, its headquarters in Bota, Victoria is to British Southern Cameroons what Fako Mountain, Victoria natural deep seaport, Kupe Manenguba Mountain, Kilum Mountain is/are to British Southern Cameroonians; inseparable and in transferable. We have had enough of Yaoundes arm twisting aimed at the consolidation of annexation, annihilation and assimilation of our Fatherland, British Southern Cameroons. The will of the people through collective resistance for national rebirth must triumph for their dignity. Rebellion against foreign aggression in collective national self-defence is neither a crime nor a sin for as God created Mt Fako as part of this our heritage; the CDC was established by law in 1947 for the defined purpose of the development of British Southern Cameroons. It is our heritage!

ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE, THE COUNCIL;

1. Disturbed by grave sufferings of the innocent Africans within the Lake Chad Basin due to Boko Harams menaces, the growing waves of insurgencies on the African continent and in the world at large,

2. Grieved by the constant numerous deaths of Africans in the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea in their desperate efforts to flee from oppression and economic misery perpetrated by the tyrants on the African continent,

3. Cognisant of the persistent depletion of the limited resources of African nations by their Presidential Monarchs and their cronies which are stored in safe havens in Europe, the Americas and West Indies,

4. Mindful of the holding of the 2016 AU Summit in Kigali, Rwanda,

5. Considering the referendum in the UK on Brexit and the appointment of a new Prime Minister,

6. Conscious of the UNs founding mission to humanity and the prevention of wars that cause human suffering,

THE COUNCIL

1 (a)- Salutes the joint task force fighting the Boko Haram insurgents and appeal to the international community to intensify their support in the resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced people to enable the affected rebuild their lives.

(b)- In acknowledging and commending the efforts at fighting terrorism in Africa and the world at large, prays due attention should be given to finding out the root causes of terrorism  the growing threat to global security and human development.

2.(a)-Mourns with the affected families and calls on Africans in general to rise up and enthrone democracy and the rule of law the sure guarantor of peace and unity based on justice and enduring economic development and human progress.

(b) Calls on western nations to stop collaborating with African dictators at the detriment of Africa and cooperate with all Africans in their legitimate efforts to attain both political and economic freedom and independence.

3. a)- Makes a special appeal to western democratic nations to assist African nations in recovering looted funds by corrupt African leaders.

b)- Calls on western nations to adopt legislation making it a crime for any bank to assist in hiding looted funds for as corruption, embezzlement are responsible for Africas underdevelopment, refugees will continue to invade the shores of Europe and America. Corruption and embezzlement of public funds in Africa is contagious. African democracy, the rule of law and development will enhance global development and stability.

4. a) -Congratulates the Government and people of Rwanda for playing host to the AU Summit of July 2016.

b)- Warmly salutes the AU Commission and the AU Summit for adopting an African Common Passport which will greatly facilitate trade, services and tourism within the African Continent and boost the drive towards African Unity.

c) - Reminds African leaders that till date the Constructive Dialogue approved by the AU Summit of 2009 under the Good Offices of the African Commission between Southern Cameroons leaders and the Government of President Paul Biya of la Republique du Cameroun has not taken place.

d) - Calls on the AU Summit to take all necessary disposition and ensure the holding of the Constructive Dialogue in the AU Headquarters, Addis Ababa, within a specified time frame. But should President Paul Biya continue to with impunity ignore the AU Summit approved Ruling and recommendation, the continental body through the Chairperson of the AU Commission should table the British Southern Cameroons Question at the UN under Article 35 of the UN Charter.

5. a)-Takes judicious note of the will of the British people expressed through the ballot box.

b) -Congratulates the British people in expressing their inherent and eternal right of self-determination and their decision to exit the European Union which is now subject of negotiation to determine the future relationship between the U.K. and E.U.

c)- Congratulates the new Prime Minister, The RT. HON. THERESA MAY on her deserved election to this prestigious post.

d)- In congratulating and welcoming Mrs. Theresa May to this prestigious post, Council draws her High attention to Britains unfinished task in the UN Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons under UK Mandate in that botched decolonisation facilitated annexation and colonial occupation for UK failed in

her sacred responsibility- moral and legal- to ensure the implementation of UN Resolution 1608 of April 21,1961.

e)- Calls on PM Theresa May, that as a mother and Chief negotiator on Brexit and in view of the error of 1961, she should write her name in gold in the sands of history by leading her government place the British Southern Cameroons Question on the agenda of the UN for peaceful exit of British Southern Cameroons from annexation and colonial occupation of la Republique du Cameroun.

6.a)- Draws the attention of the UN to the fact that the UN Trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under UK Administration is the only Trust territory which unlike all others that graduated from trusteeship to sovereign independence; the Southern Cameroons, due to non- implementation of UNGA Resolution 1608 of April 21, 1961, descended into annexation and colonial occupation and assimilation under another former UN Trust territory, la Republique du Cameroun, which had its independence from France on January 1, 1960.

b) Mindful of UNs declaration of annexation as a crime against humanity and threat to world peace, calls on the UN to listen to the legitimate cry of the British Southern Cameroonian people and apply the very measures that were applied in similar circumstances such as in Namibia, East Timor, among others, to free the people from the consequences of UNs failure to respect Art. 76(b) of UN Charter and UNGA Res. 1514 of 1960, and save Africa from genocide. One more genocide that the UN could have avoided, will be genocide too many for the African continent and an irremovable scar on the UN.

Done in Bamenda, this 16th July, 2016.

NFOR, N. NFOR

National Chairman (SCNC)
Dr Besong Laura, Inspector of Service Number 3, Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, MINEPIA, talks on the challenges of being a female Veterinary Doctor in Cameroon.

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How did you become a Veterinary Doctor?



I became a Veterinary Doctor by Divine providence. I wanted to be a Medical Doctor, but because we had no counseling, I did not know how to go about it. As a result, I wasted almost three years after the GCE Advanced Level certificate trying to get into Medical School. The competition for admission to Medicine for foreign students was very stiff in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I was offered admission in Dentistry, but I turned it down. Finally, I went in for Veterinary Medicine.



After the orientation programme by a renowned Professor of Veterinary Anatomy, I saw the openings in the profession and developed liking for it. I eventually completed my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in February 1997 due to the student strikes then. I am also holder of a Masters degree in International Animal Health, with specialty in Epidemiology, from the University of Edinburgh, UK. I did a Post-graduate Diploma in Veterinary Communication and Extension with the University of Pretoria, South Africa.



After years of practice, would you say you are fulfilled?



I am fulfilled to some extent. When I treat someones animal, help a farmer to overcome a problem on their farm or I teach them something new which helps to boost production, I feel fulfilled. I find joy in carrying out veterinary public health activities. However, there are times I feel frustrated as its not easy to be a woman in a mans world. I have not been able to practise a tenth of what I learnt in school. And this is not fulfilling at all.



What does it take to become a Veterinary Doctor?



It takes hard work and discipline to make it. When taught properly, Veterinary Medicine is one of the most voluminous and difficult courses in the sciences. As there is a wide variety of animal species, so also is the volume of work. We started 120 in my class in the first year. By the second year, only 60 were left. At the end, only 35 graduated, including those we met on the way.



What are the challenges of being a female Veterinary Doctor?



As a woman in a male-dominated profession, the challenges are enormous. Being a wife, mother and career woman, is not easy. These are some of the constraints we face in our profession, especially when it comes to appointments to certain positions. Also, the absence of a career profile sometimes makes assertive female Veterinary Doctors to suffer in the hands of their male colleagues. Moreover, women are not always given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowhow. For example, they are sometimes not accepted by some farmers for religious and cultural reasons.



What advice would you give to young girls aspiring to become Veterinary Doctors?



My advice is that Veterinary Medicine is a lucrative profession they should not shy away from. There are very many openings in the profession. It is very challenging and demanding though, but with determination and focus, you will succeed. When we were in school, there were no special considerations for female students. We were told that a Veterinary Doctor is a Veterinary Doctor. We did what the boys did and most times, even better, though we were fewer.

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The civilians evacuated from the capital Juba included Ugandan, Kenyans, Rwandans and people of other nationalities.

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Fighting that broke out between government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and forces loyal to ex-rebel leader and now First Vice President Riek Machar, has reportedly abated but with one of the major consequences being the evacuation of foreign nationals from the capital, Juba the scene of the fighting.



The Ugandan army said on July 20, 2016 that it evacuated 38,000 civilians caught up in the fighting, Mail Online reported. Army spokesman Paddy Ankunda is quoted as saying that "the total number of civilians evacuated from South Sudan by road under protection of the UPDF (Ugandan army) since the start of the operation has reached 38,000". He further reportedly said that most of those taken across the border were Ugandans but "they were joined by hundreds of Kenyans, Rwandans among other nationalities who wanted to leave South Sudan for their safety."



The Ugandan army's rescue operation involved a heavily protected convoy of 30 vehicles which have been ferrying people 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Juba to the Ugandan border. Mail Online further, cited Paddy Ankunda as saying that once the evacuees safely reach Ugandan territory, helicopters take young children, the sick and pregnant women to a hospital in Gulu, in the north of the country.



The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Pulse newspaper reports, estimated that 10,300 South Sudanese found refuge in Uganda between Friday, July 15 and Tuesday, July 19, 2016.

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UN peacekeepers are said to be involved in cases of rape and circulation of pornographic films.

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The United Nations Organisation whose Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission (MINUSCA) has been actively leading the peacekeeping and maintenance activities in the war-torn Central African Republic is determined to find out the details on scandals allegedly committed its peacekeepers in the country and punish those found guilty.



In this connection, MINUSCA officials are currently investigating rumours of pornographic film scandal involving its peacekeeper in the town of Batangafo in the central western part of the country. Reports indicated the Mayor and Subdivisional Officer of Batangafo had already been interrogated in the course of the investigation, as well as the same officials in Kabo, located some 55 kilometres from Batangafo. In a release issued by MINUSCA, non of the officials interrogated nor local residents have been able to furnish concrete evidence on the alleged pornographic film scandal levied on the UN civilian peacekeeper.



News agency reports say that on September 12, 2015, MINUSCA was informed of the scandal of sexual exploitation involving one of its civilian staff. MINUSCA officials immediately contacted the Central African Republic authorities and Internal Control Services Office of the UN in order to investigate the accusations in compliance of the policy of zero tolerance put in place by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon concerning acts of sexual exploitation and rape.



As the investigation continues, guilty perpetrators of such acts will face the wrath of Ban Ki-moon. He said last Thursday that he will not hesitate to repatriate any UN peacekeeper found guilty of sexual scandal and on whom his country of origin has meted out no sanctions. He further stated that such countries would have their deployment in the MINUSCA terminated.

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| BY Lynchy |

Australian Bureau of Statistics is encouraging people to take a short moment to pause and help shape the future of the nations health, education, transport and infrastructure, with its new campaign for Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2016 Census via BWM Dentsu, Melbourne.

The campaign will run from this Sunday across digital, OOH, cinema, TVCs, radio, and a variety of social platforms.

Every year, 24 million different stories play out in Australia. This year, the 2016 Census, which plans to capture critical information about Australias population and their housing, is supported by an inclusive and forward-facing integrated communications campaign.

BWM Dentsu collaborated with Dentsu Mitchells, Posterscope and Etcom in the multi-faceted campaign. It consists of four phases: an approach phase, the countdown, the Census night itself, and a post-Census reminder phase. The approach phase launches Sunday.

BWM Dentsu has used innovative digital elements in the campaign to amplify the fact that, this year, more than 65% of the population are expected to complete the Census online. These digital components include the MyCensus real-time website and #MyCensus social platform, which will uncover how Australians live, laugh and love on and around Census night.

Says Duncan Young, Program Manager, Australian Bureau of Statistics: With this campaign, BWM Dentsu has illustrated the modernised process of the Census. Weve updated our systems to connect with Australians on a primarily digital level, and BWM Denstu has highlighted this change, demonstrating the ease of the new process in the advertising.

The use of the pause mnemonic device symbolises the brief pause required to complete the Census. This is a key feature throughout the campaign that reinforces the option to complete the Census online. The campaign also showcases Australians of all backgrounds and life stages taking part in the Census.

The pause device marks a consistent theme throughout each element of the creative, illustrating the campaigns all-inclusive promise, that it is our moment to make a difference.

Says Mark Watkin, Managing Director, BWM Dentsu Melbourne: We wanted to evoke the modern nature of this years Census and reflect the importance of Census data to all aspects of Australians lives. Census is so much more than numbers summed up in a spreadsheet. Its a multitude of moments.

The Census has evolved and is aligned with Australias progressive values and attitudes. Weve upped the ante with the use of the digital elements in the campaign to help the ABS achieve high engagement and get all Australians involved.

Creative Agency: BWM Dentsu, Melbourne

Ed Carveth  Creative Director

Brent Liebenburg  Creative Director

Mikael Perhirin  Digital Experience Director

Mac Wright  Junior Planner & Consumer Experience Analyst

Mark Smith  Lead User Experience Architect

Sonia Mclaverty  Senior Onscreen Producer

Mark Watkin  Managing Director

Belinda Murray  Client Services Director

Brioni Pickhaver  Senior Account Director

Kate Langley  Account Manager

Sally Cunningham  Account Director

Richard Edmunds  Account Manager

Harpreet Kalsi  Executive Officer

Production Company: Photoplay

Director  Scott Otto-Anderson

DoP  Russell Boyd

Executive Producer  Oliver Lawrance

Producer  Emma Thompson

Post Production Company: Blackbird

Dentsu Aegis Network Companies:

Haystac

Dentsu Mitchell

Posterscope

Client: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Michelle Howe  Director, Census Communications
| BY Lynchy |

To help launch the new Activity Chair from Herman Miller Asia Pacifics youth brand POSH, Sydney-based Engine Room Productions spent some time with Sydney artist James Lesjak-Atton (aka Aquaman), who, using the chair, shared his story and process while creating a mural in his studio.
Givit chief executive Juliette Wright said Givit operated as a "virtual warehouse", linking people who had items to give with people who had urgent need. It was now talking with the ACT about a formal agreement to manage donations for ACT charities, focusing initially on domestic violence and scaling up to manage donations in times of emergency or crisis.
"I'll probably do some further study after that following the science path, but I'm hoping to look at disruptive technologies and innovative industries particularly power in Australia [and] energy consumption because there's so much potential in Australia for development in sustainable energy that just isn't either being utilised or people don't hear about it," she said.
Mr Miziner said he could go to Hong Kong and marry his fiancee there, but believed the process to get her a visa could take two years. He said he was a carer for his frail mother in Sydney and could not leave her for that long.
In what is likely to be one of many election pitches to come during the next three months, Mr Barr said there was "only one party in this city that cares about providing better health services for all Canberrans, not just those that can afford it".
Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper.
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.

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On account of alleged question paper leak of TS EAMCET-II, Telangana Police Chief on Wednesday ordered a CID probe. Following a request of EAMCET convenor N.V. Ramana Rao, the Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Sharma asked the Crime Investigation Department (CID) to hold an inquiry into large scale of irregularities took place.

About TS EAMCET II Exam:

The phase 2 of TS EAMCET 2016 was held on July 9, 2016. About 50,964 candidates have appeared for the TS EAMCET-II-2016 examination out of the 56,153 registered.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad conducts TS EAMCET on behalf of the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) for admissions into various MBBS and BDS courses offered for the academic session 2016-17.

Deputy Chief Minister K. Srihari, said, that a department inquiry has also been ordered. The action came into light after parents and students' groups staged a protest demanding probe by the CBI.

The students' groups and parents raised doubts after many meritorious students failed to get good rank while students who did not perform well in EAMCET-I secured top ranks.

Deputy Chief Minister K. Srihari, who holds the education portfolio, and Minster for Medical and Health C. Laxma Reddy said a departmental inquiry had also been ordered following the complaints.
Hyundai has spun off the Genesis into a standalone brand and its next move to better rival the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz is a dealership network.



The first step is the opening of a dedicated store near Seoul, South Korea, over the next months. According to Reuters, the location has been selected at what will eventually become the countrys biggest shopping mall, Starfield Hanam.

Currently, it will display just two models, the G80, which replaces the Hyundai Equus, and the G90. Soon, though, they will be joined by an additional four models.

These include a BMW 3-Series rival, expected to wear the G70 moniker, that was previewed by the New York Concept, a sport coupe and two SUVs.

The future looks promising for the Genesis brand, which could also tackle the electric vehicle segment with a dedicated model, while PHEVs and N high-performance versions are also on the cards.

PHOTO GALLERY
Despite her delicate features and voice, Disney expects us to believe that Mulans ingenuity and courage were enough to carry her to military success on an equal basis with her cloddish cohorts, wrote Pence. Obviously, this is Walt Disneys attempt to add childhood expectation to the cultural debate over the role of women in the military. Obviously.

After a discussion of the Tailhook scandal, Pence concludes that Many young men find many young women to be attractive sexually, and Many young women find many young men to be attractive sexually. This leads to Pences final verdict: Women in military, bad idea.

Pences full thoughts on why Mulan is a massive cinematic failure can be read below:

Just spent a memorable Fathers Day, like so many other all American Hoosier dads, with my kids at the new Disney film entitled, Mulan. For those who have not yet been victimized by the McDonalds induced hysteria over this film, Mulan is a fictional account of a delicate girl of the same name who surreptitiously takes her fathers place in the Chinese army in one of their ancient wars against the Huns. Despite her delicate features and voice, Disney expects us to believe that Mulans ingenuity and courage were enough to carry her to military success on an equal basis with her cloddish cohorts. Obviously, this is Walt Disneys attempt to add childhood expectation to the cultural debate over the role of women in the military. I suspect that some mischievous liberal at Disney assumes that Mulans story will cause a quiet change in the next generations attitude about women in combat and they just might be right. (Just think about how often we think of Bambi every time the subject of deer hunting comes into the mainstream media debate.)

The only problem with this liberal hope is the reality which intrudes on the Disney ideal from the mornings headlines. From the original Tailhook scandal involving scores of high ranking navy fighter pilots who molested subordinate women to the latest travesty at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, the hard truth of our experiment with gender integration is that is has been an almost complete disaster for the military and for many of the individual women involved. When Indiana Congressman Steve Buyer was appointed to investigate the Aberdeen mess, he shocked the public with the revelation that young, nubile, 18 year old men and women were actually being HOUSED together during basic training. Whatever bone head came up with this idea should be run out of this mans Army before sundown. Housing, in close quarters, young men and women (in some cases married to non-military personnel) at the height of their physical and sexual potential is the height of stupidity. It is instructive that even in the Disney film, young Ms. Mulan falls in love with her superior officer! Me thinks the politically correct Disney types completely missed the irony of this part of the story. They likely added it because it added realism with which the viewer could identify with the characters. You see, now stay with me on this, many young men find many young women to be attractive sexually. Many young women find many young men to be attractive sexually. Put them together, in close quarters, for long periods of time, and things will get interesting. Just like they eventually did for young Mulan. Moral of story: women in military, bad idea.
Photo: Facebook - UBC Okanagan

UBC Okanagan cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent between 2014-15, a reduction of 524 tonnes of greenhouse gasses.

The reduction was largely achieved by reducing energy demand by increasing the efficiency of buildings on campus.

The reduction in emissions is equivalent to taking 111 vehicles off the road for a year.

UBCs commitment to sustainability has achieved ambitious emissions reductions that support federal, provincial and municipal climate and sustainability goals, said Deborah Buszard, UBC deputy vice-chancellor and principal of the Okanagan campus.

Futhering their GHG reduction goals, the university has contributed $2.3 million in land for a new campus transit exchange.

Transit improvements are key to further reducing GHG emissions and UBC Okanagan is an important transit hub for the region, Buszard said.

In 2015, the university began replacing aging water heating equipment, retrofitting lighting and switching more to digital from paper technology, all with the goal of coninuing to reduce the school's GHG emissions.

Moving forward, we will focus on our whole systems goals, which will help us further reduce energy demands and GHG emissions., said Leanne Bilodeau, associate director of sustainability operations.
Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet File Photo

There is a connection between Kelowna's increasing crime rate and the growing unemployment rate.

That connection was made by Mayor Colin Basran, a day after a Statistics Canada report cited the Central Okanagan had the second highest crime rate among the 33 metropolitan areas with a population exceeding 100,000 in Canada.

"We know that unemployment and crime rates tend to be related ... and we have seen the unemployment rate rise in our community," said Basran.

"I would say in large part due to the fact we do have people who call Kelowna home, but work in Alberta where we have seen the rise in our unemployment rate."

The link is not a new notion.

Kelowna's top cop, Supt. Nick Romanchuk, has made the same connection between the economic downturn in Alberta reflecting on Kelowna's unemployment and crime rates.

Basran said the city is trying to turn that situation around by working with the Economic Development Commission to try and create employment opportunities.

It's part of what he calls a holistic approach by city council to fight crime.

One of those is a Housing First strategy the city is working with senior levels of government on.

"We know if you don't have a home and your don't have steady employment, there is a temptation to turn to crime to make ends meet, so to speak."

Basran also pointed to a group of repeat, prolific offenders within the community, a handful of petty criminals who are responsible for a large majority of crimes being reported.

"The RCMP did a sweep of our downtown core before the summer which resulted in numerous arrests," said Basran.

"The unfortunate part is a large majority of those people will probably be back on our streets before the end of the summer, and out doing their petty crimes. That's a real source of frustration for council, and I'm sure for the RCMP."

Basran did point out the crime stats are for the entire Central Okanagan region, not just Kelowna.

The Census Metropolitan area, which encompasses the statistical area, also includes Peachland, West Kelowna, Westbank First Nation lands, regional district lands and Lake Country.

He was also puzzled by the fact a recent citizen survey showed Kelowna residents said they feel safe and that Kelowna is one of the fastest growing communities in the country.

"To say it isn't safe really doesn't jive with the stats that say we are one of the fastest growing areas in all of Canada."

The Kelowna RCMP has yet to comment on the latest crime numbers.
Photo: City of Kelowna Dr. Keith Culver

Kelowna city council will be looking far into the future next week as part of a new planning initiative.

Imagine Kelowna will welcome several prominent locals to council to share their expertise on future trends and help plan for the future.

On July 25, Dr. Keith Culver, professor of management at UBC Okanagan, will talk to council about how to plan for an uncertain future.

Culver grew up in the Okanagan, and worked for 20 years around the world with major firms in the energy, transport and construction sectors. He moved back to the Okanagan in 2011 to teach.

Other speakers will also present to council over the next several months.

Culver will present to council at 1:30 p.m. July 25.

A live stream of the presentation can be found on Castenet Monday.
Photo: Google Street View

Production crews will be setting up in various locations throughout Kelowna this weekend, filming and taking photos.

While no road closures will be in place, it may cause some minor traffic delays.

From 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Saturday, parking stalls in the Queensway parking lot will be blocked off and used exclusively for filming. On Sunday from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., there will be single-lane road closures on Saucier Road and Takla Road. At least one lane will remain open at all times during filming.

Motorists are asked to plan their route accordingly to avoid delays.
Download, log in and get hiking.

The City of Kelowna is making Knox Mountain a lot more interesting thanks to an app that lets you explore the outdoors in an interactive way.

Launched as a project through the brand Active by Nature, event development supervisor Mariko Siggers says the app QuestUpon lets people come together and try something new.

There are two adventures to try, the Knox Challenge is about getting to the top as fast as you can, timing it and challenging your friends, Siggers explains. The Knox your Sox Off is a lot more interactive, more playful.

"It gets you to learn about the park itself, the community, the history, some of the fun things you might find throughout the different seasons here.

Started just over a year ago, Active by Nature was designed to reduce barriers to physical activity and get you to explore the outdoors.

We just want everyone to get out and see our own backyard. It is beautiful here and so accessible.

QuestUpon is available for download on both iphone and Android devices. It was designed by a local company that is associated with PlayMobility.

Along with these quests, the city has also launched a two-week contest for anyone who completes the Knox Your Sox Off and/or the Knox Challenge quests, which take place along the Apex Trail.

From July 21 to Aug. 4, anyone who completes either of the quests will be entered into a draw to win one of two Fitbit watches.



For more information and to give feedback about the app, visit kelowna.ca/activebynature.
Photo: Facebook - Stephen Fuhr CD MP

A town hall meeting on electoral reform was well-attended with engaged Okanagan residents, according to local MP Stephen Fuhr.

The Liberal MP says the Monday night event had one of the better turn outs for town hall meetings on this issue across the country.

Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to the minister of democratic institutions, also attended the event and was pleased with the voter knowledge, according to Fuhr.

There were less questions about process at this meeting, because there has been a lot of controversy about the process, explained Fuhr.

The initial committee was put together on traditional composition and we amended that to allow parties with nonofficial status to join, such as the Greens and the Bloc.

Fuhr says once the public understood how the committee would function it made way for a more educated discussion.

Other town halls have asked questions such as, how did you make up the committee? How long will the committee sit? How long will they report?, said Fuhr of the past town hall meetings that have taking place around Canada.

The event that took place Monday at UBC Okanagan, focused on opinions on the outcome of electoral reform.

People expressed how they felt about mandatory voting, electronic voting, the different types of electoral reform such as proportional representation.

To be fair, said Fuhr, the committee process hadnt been as widely discussed before town halls that might have taken place in weeks past. .

Each week that goes by, the committee makeup and process is becoming more familiar, said Fuhr.

Regardless of the information now available, Holland tells Fuhr that the Kelowna town hall was outstanding.

He does a lot of these town halls and he was very encouraged not only by the attendance, but the involvement of opinion of what Canadians want.

Given the success, Fuhr does not know if he will hold another town hall meeting on electoral reform, saying there are many more issues he would like to discuss in the meantime.

This event went very well and given the outcome I would have to see what the demand would be in order to put it before another issue.

Fuhr explains that the electoral reform committee has to deliver a product by December of this year, that will then be tabled in parliament where recommendations will be made and debated on.
The founders of Hello Kitty have launched its first app in partnership with Kelowna-based gaming studio, Hyper Hipppo Games.

Sanrio Inc. and Hyper Hippo have launched 'hello sanrio: say hello!', now available on both Android and iOS after launching at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday.

Hyper Hippo is thrilled to be working closely with Sanrio on such a globally recognized brand. Say hello! is just the beginning of new and innovative ideas that will help connect friends and make more smiles around the world, says Lance Priebe, CEO of Hyper Hippo.

The app is set to bring together Sanrio fans to share their love of Hello Kitty and all of her friends in a unique and safe environment.

Hyper Hippo partnered with Sanrio last fall to develop a suite of lifestyle apps themed to the new hello sanrio brand that celebrates Sanrios core foundation of social communication.

The digital initiative supporting hello sanrio explores the world of Sanrio through Hello Kitty and multiple characters from Sanrios design legacy including Keroppi, Chococat, Badtz-Maru, My Melody, Pompompurin, Gudetama and more.

Hello sanrio marks the first time that the company has premiered a new multi-character brand via digital content.

The introduction of hello sanrio marks an exciting evolution in Sanrios history, a history thats rooted in fostering social communication, connecting people, and nurturing friendships, says Jill Koch with Sanrio, Inc.

Hello sanrio adds to this rich history by creating a world in which Sanrios fans can engage and interact with one another and with our expansive roster of characters through a suite of apps, unique digital content and 'supercute' products.

Available as of Thursday, say hello! is the first app to officially launch the hello sanrio suite of lifestyle apps.

The app offers fans an immersive social experience on mobile devices while bringing fans together, giving them a place to connect, discover, express themselves and experience the world of Sanrio in a new way.
An Ontario woman believes she may have discovered Ogopogo on Google Maps.

Marlene from Hamilton, Ont., emailed Castanet this week after she felt compelled to check Google Maps for proof of the lake monster's existence.

I was watching one of those monster shows on TV and they were talking about Ogopogo and how people had spotted it around Rattlesnake Island there, explains Marlene.

So I thought 'I am going to look around Rattlesnake Island myself.'

She says she noticed lots of obvious streams in the lake from behind boats, but one particularly large stream caught her attention.

I thought hmm, hmm, says Marlene. I zoomed in closer and I thought 'Oh my God, that looks like flippers on that thing.'"

She waited to show her daughter her discovery later that day and her daughter agreed it did look like it could be flippers, so she kept investigating.

She looked at the same spot in the lake at as many angles as Google Maps would allow.

I was really excited, says Marlene, who felt compelled to alert local Okanagan media. She remembered from her last visit to the Okanagan in 1981 that Ogie is important to the community.

Marlene claims she used the measurement on Google Maps to estimate the serpent's size.

She says the Ogopogo on film is about 52 feet long with a flipper span of about 10 feet.

Marlene also posted it to Facebook and showed it to friends and family to get some feedback.

My boyfriend says it's just a big boat, but I said 'It's not a boat, it's got flippers, man'. Another friend wrote on Facebook that it is from the Pokemon Go game, laughs Marlene.

I mean who knows right?

Her curiosity is not just hers alone. A group visiting from Calgary was hiking to Paul's Tomb on July 11 when members saw something odd in the lake.

You can check that video below and decide for yourself, but they tell Castanet it almost looked as if a large serpent-like creature was moving through the lake dipping in and out of the water.

Despite whether you believe the legend or not, over the years Castanet has received hundreds of tips on Ogopogo sightings.

Do you think the mythical creature exists? Let us know why or why not, and send a letter to [email protected].
Photo: The Canadian Press

A town hall meeting on electoral reform was well-attended with engaged Okanagan residents, according to local MP Stephen Fuhr.

The Liberal MP says the Monday night event had one of the better turn outs for town hall meetings on this issue across the country.

Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to the minister of democratic institutions, also attended the event and was pleased with the voter knowledge, according to Fuhr.

Read more.
Premier Christy Clark has accepted Castanet's 'One Bag Challenge' nomination.

Castanet reporter Wayne Moore issued the challenge to the premier yesterday, after he was nominated by Kelowna Coun. Maxine DeHart.

Earlier this week, Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran started what is quickly becoming the city's version of the ice bucket challenge.

Proud to take part in the #onebagchallenge benefiting the Central Okanagan Food Bank, writes Clark on Facebook.

Thanks to Wayne Moore from Castanet for nominating me.

She accepted the challenge from the premiers meeting in Whitehorse.

I couldn't be there in person, but my fantastic constituency assistant Becky has dropped off groceries on my behalf at the food bank, says Clark.

The One Bag Challenge came about as a way to help stock the barren shelves at the Central Okanagan Community Food Bank.

Basran initially challenged five people to purchase a bag of food and donate it to the food bank.

Clark has now challenged West Kelowna Coun. Rick de Jong, Caroline Grover from the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr, Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Norm Letnick and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

He is the worst, says Wall about himself with a laugh at the end of video above.

This is a great initiative benefiting a fantastic organization in our community. I hope others will consider donating as well, adds Clark.
Photo: Nicholas Johansen

UPDATE 6:15 p.m.

Kelowna RCMP are searching for a specific suspect in connection with an arson behind the Central Kitchen and Bar Friday.

The Kelowna Fire Department contained the fire to the rear of the building.

The investigation to date reveals that the fire was intentionally set directly below the gas metre on the outside of the building. The gas line had also been cut, to release the gas.

Police are looking for a man seen in the area at the time. He is described as:

Caucasian

Approximately 6 feet

Heavy set

Black hair

Wearing a red bandana with a white pattern that covered most of his face

Carrying a large hiking backpack

Wearing a blue over gray hooded rain type jacket

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300. Remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, leaving a tip online at www.crimestoppers.net or by texting your tip to CRIMES (274637) ktown.

UPDATE: 1:33 p.m.

Kelowna RCMP are calling the fire behind Central Kitchen + Bar "suspicious."

"This investigation is in its infancy and more information will be released as it becomes available." said Const. Tania Carroll in a press release.

Kelly Stephens, platoon captain of Kelowna Fire Department, said there was no extension of flames or heat into the interior of the building, and there were no injuries reported.

UPDATE: 12:50 p.m.

Central Kitchen + Bar wasn't the only business affected by a gas fire at the back of their building.

"When I looked, our building had fire all over it, it may have been blowing from the other side," said Darrin Caruso, at ChainLine Cycle. "Probably six feet (high), it was like a blowtorch."

ChainLine Cycle was evacuated during the fire, but are now back up and running.

UPDATE: 12:20 p.m.

Employees of Central Kitchen + Bar say a small fire appeared to be intentionally set Friday underneath the gas meter of the building.

A chef told Castanet a flammable material appeared to have been set ablaze below the gas meter.

A table (customers) saw a man running away and asked us if he worked here, explained the chef. They told us the man was wearing a bandana over his face.

Jared Lee, co-owner of Central Kitchen + Bar, said the gas was ignited by the fire, causing flames to shoot out like a "flamethrower" against the side of the building.

The blaze has been extinguished and Platoon Capt. Kelly Stephens says the flames did not extend into the building.

Everyone is safe, but we dont know what caused it, said Stephens. Our fire investigator is coming to look at it and let us know what caused it (the fire).

The Central sports club and restaurant were both evacuated.

Its unclear when the business will reopen as FortisBC and fire investigators remain on scene.

ORIGINAL

A downtown pub and sportsplex have been evacuated after a reported fire.

Emergency crews are on scene at the Central Kitchen + Bar and Central Sportsclub, located on Ellis Street near Prospera Place.

More to come.
I could not agree more with visitor Charlene Wallis. The policies regarding pets in our regional parks need to change.

The latest statistics suggest that 35% of Canadian households have at least one dog. I'd wager that in an outdoor playground like the Okanagan, our rate of dog ownership is even higher than the national average.

I understand that the City of Kelowna has made an effort to provide accessible dog parks throughout the city, and I commend that effort. However, there are absolutely no spaces in the area accommodate both humans and dogs. I can't go for a picnic in a dog park, and my dog is not allowed to come with me to the beach, even while leashed.

I don't expect the city to create an off-leash free-for-all out of any of our popular beaches, but it would be nice if we could bring the whole family with us on our outings, even if one of them has to be leashed. After all, our pooches want nothing more than to simply be with us.

Given the rate of dog-ownership, it's about time that the regional district creates a space for dog owners. After all, we do account for over one-third of the tax-paying population, so why shouldn't we be accommodated?

Ally Turner
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
China National Building Materials (CNBM) - July 2016

All eyes will be back on China National Building Materials (CNBM) as the country announces the latest deal in its drive to consolidate its cement sector. Beijing-based cement producer and building materials supplier, Beijing Building Materials Group (BBMG) Corporation is planning to sell stakes in 31 cement-related units to Jidong Cement. The deal is reported to be worth US$2.3bn. As part of the company restructuring following the transaction, Tangshan Jidong Cement will become a unit of BBMG.

To continue reading this story and have 100% free access to the CemNet.com website, please Register for a subscription to International Cement Review or Login
EBRD postpones its decision on 20% stake in Holcim Azerbaijan

22 July 2016

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development's (EBRD) Board of Directors has postponed the pending decision on raising the banks stake in the equity capital of Holcim (Azerbaijan) OJSC up to 20 per cent but retains plans to double its participation in the cement producer.



"Now the consideration of this matter is scheduled for 7 September 2016," said the EBRD. Previously, the matter was expected to be considered on 20 July by the Board of Directors.



The bank aspires to continue supporting Holcim (Azerbaijan) to improve energy efficiency through the introduction of alternative fuels in its fuel mix.



LafargeHolcim owns more than 80 per cent of the companys share capital and provides managerial, technical and commercial resources.

Published under
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Its a sign weve entered a new era in America when people can openly walk in and out of stores selling legal marijuana. With Colorado and Washington having originally legalized marijuana by voter initiative in 2012  at the state level, its still federally prohibited  the very first legal cannabis shops soon followed. Now, Oregon and Alaska have followed suit, and there are hundreds of storefronts where people can shop for cannabis, and even look for the best marijuana prices.

Yes, the free (well, freeish) market is now playing a hand in the ebbs and flows of marijuana prices. In some places, prices are astronomical. In others, theyre practically giving the stuff away. But where can you find the cheapest marijuana in America?

Marijuana prices in legal states

Now, legal marijuana technically only exists in four states right now  and Alaska has yet to establish a formal market, so our search for the cheapest marijuana prices is limited to Washington, Colorado, and Oregon. In order to get pricing data, we worked with our friends at Wikileaf  a marijuana pricing site that collects data from all over the country. Wikileafs system allows you to check out and compare cannabis prices in a number of places, and their team assisted us with prices in the three aforementioned states.

With data from Wikileaf, here are the 10 cities where you can find the cheapest legal pot.

* A note from Wikileafs team: All prices are for 1/8 oz. This is the most frequently purchased amount of cannabis.

10. Colorado Springs, Colorado

Avg: $47

Lowest 1/8 price: $40

Highest 1/8 price: $60

A note from the Wikileaf team about Colorado Springs:

Colorado Springs, the second largest city in Colorado by population, is a very conservative town and doesnt actually allow recreational stores within the city limits. So there are a small handful of rec shops that actually operate right outside of town, mostly in Manitoba Springs. Very little competition between dispensaries, thus prices remain quite high.

9. Seattle, Washington

Avg: $45.50

Lowest 1/8 price: $21

Highest 1/8 price: $62

Seattle is an expensive city, and as such, marijuana prices reflect it. Higher costs for store fronts, employees, and the state taxation system combine for higher overall pot prices, though you can still find good deals around town. If you head outside of the city and downtown core, youre likely to find lower prices.

8. Fort Collins, Colorado

Avg: $41.25

Lowest 1/8 price: $30

Highest 1/8 price: $55

Located 65 miles north of Denver, off of I-25, Fort Collins is a growing college town, and home to Colorado State University. Its also home to some relatively well-priced pot, with an average price for an eighth of an ounce ringing up at just over $41, in mid-2016.

7. Boulder, Colorado

Avg: $37.70

Lowest 1/8 price: $20

Highest 1/8 price: $50

Boulder is, in many ways, a mirror image of Fort Collins  its located northwest of Denver, and is home to the states other big college: The University of Colorado. But you can find cheaper marijuana in Boulder than in Fort Collins, with average prices for an eighth coming in at a little less than $38. More competition and closer proximity to Denver may be the reason.

6. Eugene, Oregon

Avg: $36.20

Lowest 1/8 price: $20

Highest 1/8 price: $70

Of the bigger cities in Oregon, Eugene has the most expensive pot; though its still priced rather fairly. In Eugene (home to the University of Oregon), the average eighth costs $36.20. With a friendly cannabis culture and plenty of college-aged consumers, Eugene-based pot stores are likely doing quite well.

5. Tacoma, Washington

Avg: $35.40

Lowest 1/8 price: $20

Highest 1/8 price: $62

Located south of Seattle, and a major hub in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, marijuana can be purchased for much less (on average) in Tacoma than in Seattle. Average prices for an eighth land at $35.40. There are a lot of neighboring cities and suburbs in which better prices can likely be found, but even within the city limits you can find a good deal.

4. Denver, Colorado

Avg: $32.60

Lowest 1/8 price: $20

Highest 1/8 price: $45

If youre looking for marijuana in Colorado, Denver is the main hub. It has the cheapest average prices  likely due to strong competition among numerous shops. Youll also find the most variety in strains and everything else, simply because there are more places to choose from.

3. Portland, Oregon

Avg: $31.60

Lowest 1/8 price: $15

Highest 1/8 price: $55

Portlanders are enjoying cheap pot like never before, with average prices for an eighth coming in at less than $32. Wikileafs data even shows eighths available as low as $15  which some people may end up paying for a single joint or gram in certain shops. Like Denver, Portland is a bigger city that allows for plenty of competition between shops and growers.

2. Spokane, Washington

Avg: $29.20

Lowest 1/8 price: $15

Highest 1/8 price: $50

Spokane is Washingtons second-biggest city, located on the Idaho border. Its also home to some extraordinarily cheap cannabis, with average eighth prices landing at less than $30. Though its not as big as Seattle, Portland, or Denver, Spokane is a regional hub, meaning lots of growers and sellers are looking to make deals with consumers.

1. Springfield, Oregon

Avg: $29

Lowest 1/8 price: $17

Highest 1/8 price: $40

Springfield is a small town that is adjacent to Eugene in central-western Oregon. Its home to the cheapest legal marijuana as well, with average eight prices coming in at $29. Youre really not going to beat that, and in terms of prices in legal states, its the absolute best according to Wikileafs data.

Check out Wikileaf for more marijuana pricing information, and to compare prices near you.

Follow Sam on Facebook and Twitter @SliceOfGinger

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Evonik Industries put its precipitated silica production plant in Americana (Sao Paulo, Brazil) into operation on July 20, 2016. This high-growth silica is used mainly for low rolling resistance tires. In addition, by building this new silica production plant, Evonik is also catering to the needs of the growing regional business in specialty segments in South Americas food, animal feed, and agricultural industries. This is the first plant for easy dispersible silica (HD silica) to come on stream in South America. Evoniks investment for this plant is in the mid-double-digit euro range.

Ralph Sven Kaufmann, Executive Board member and Chief Operating Officer of Evonik Industries: "With this investment in Brazil we are strengthening our position in South America as a global provider of high-quality silica for resource-conserving applications. We are also consolidating our leading global market position in silica."

The tire industry in the region profits from the growth in the automotive industry, which has recorded considerable increases in sales in South America over the past years. The market for low rolling resistance tires and, consequently, for HD silicas, has been growing much stronger than the market for conventional tires in South America. Evonik expects additional demand because of the planned labeling of the energy efficiency of tires in Brazil.

The use of silica in combination with silanes means that tires can be produced with a much lower rolling resistance, which can reduce fuel consumption by up to eight percent (compared to conventional automobile tires). Consequently, low rolling resistance tires contribute towards climate protection. Johannes Ohmer explained: "We are the only manufacturer that offers both components and are thus an expert partner for high-performance tire compounds for our customers in the tire and rubber industries."
ExxonMobil plans to increase its global Santoprene elastomers capacity by 25 percent with an expansion at its specialty elastomers plant in Newport, Wales.

ExxonMobil announced today plans to expand its specialty elastomers plant in Newport, Wales. The company said the project, expected to be completed in late 2017, will result in a 25-percent increase in its global capacity to manufacture Santoprene thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV), high-performance elastomers used for automotive, industrial and consumer applications.

ExxonMobil is the worlds foremost supplier of engineered thermoplastic elastomers, said Kurt Aerts, specialty elastomers and butyl rubber vice president at ExxonMobil Chemical. Our investment in this expansion strengthens our leadership position and reflects our continuing commitment to help customers around the world manufacture high-performance products that require both flexibility and durability.

Santoprene elastomers perform like vulcanized rubber and process like plastic for applications in diverse markets. Like plastic, Santoprene TPV can be extruded, molded or thermoformed easily and economically into a variety of shapes. Like rubber, it is resilient, flexible and resistant to heat, fluids and chemicals. Santoprene elastomers provide manufacturing flexibility, ease of processing and consistent product durability. ExxonMobils Vistalon synthetic rubber is a critical raw material in Santoprene TPV.

Manufacturers using Santoprene TPV can reprocess scrap materials and overruns, which yields an environmental benefit through reduced energy use and waste. Santoprene elastomers have been successfully used for decades in a wide range of applications from health care devices to a variety of automotive components, including weather seals. The lower density of Santoprene TPVs, compared to thermoset rubber and other thermoplastic elastomers, contributes to reduced part weight.

We are committed to providing our customers with premium products and outstanding technical service backed by decades of expertise and leadership, Aerts said. ExxonMobil offers innovative design and performance solutions that help customers differentiate their products and grow new market opportunities for them and for us. Santoprene TPV complements our specialty elastomers portfolio that includes both conventional and metallocene products.

Experts from ExxonMobil Chemical work closely with customers to design parts and evaluate performance characteristics and service life. The companys technology centers offer prototype part and tooling development and testing support.

ExxonMobils specialty plants in Newport, Wales and Pensacola, Fla., supply Santoprene TPV to customers around the world. Vistalon rubber raw material is produced at ExxonMobil plants in Baton Rouge, La., and Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France.
Coding Dojo, a coding school, offers onsite and online boot camps, as well as intro workshops and evening courses, (Coding Dojo photo )

Bellevue, Wash.-based Coding Dojo has selected a Near North Side location to open its first branch in Chicago.

The coding school is set to hold its first class at 213 W. Institute Place on Aug. 15, said Jeremy Peters, Chicago community manager.

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Coding Dojo offers a 14-week, immersive boot camp, as well as online options, intro workshops and evening courses.

"You've got this huge kind of quiet tech scene here in Chicago," Peters said. "As programming becomes more approachable and more scale-able and the technology continues to evolve, there's going to be an increased demand for people to learn new tech."

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It joins an already populated market of coding schools in Chicago.

Some programs have been bought up by larger institutions  including Dev Bootcamp, which Kaplan Inc. acquired in 2014, and Chicago-based Starter League, which Fullstack Academy acquired earlier this year.

Last week, Northwestern University announced it's launching a coding boot camp geared toward working professionals. Tuition for that program is $9,500.

At the same time, New York-based boot camp General Assembly announced layoffs this week  50 of its more than 700 employees nationwide. It was unclear how the cuts would affect the Chicago location.

Tuition for the first two cohorts of the 14-week Onsite Flex Bootcamp in Chicago is set at $12,995. Online courses cost $7,500, and four-week evening courses cost $950. Four-week Dev Accelerators, which teach one stack, or data type, are $5,000, and day-long intro workshops are $50.

Scholarships are available to cover parts of tuition. Coding Dojo recently announced that it has awarded more than $1 million in scholarships to its students since the company launched in 2013.

"We're seeing a lot of people from all walks of life passionate about making the switch (to a career in tech)," Peters said. "We want to help people make that transition, and if that means we need to take a cut on our end, that's all the better."

Coding Dojo launched in 2013 and has locations in Dallas, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle and San Jose.

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amarotti@tribpub.com

Twitter @allymarotti
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits declined slightly last week, falling to the lowest point in 13 weeks.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly benefit applications dipped by 1,000 to 253,000, the lowest level since it stood at 248,000 for the week of April 16. The weekly claims applications had been at 254,000 for the previous two weeks.

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Weekly claims, which are a proxy for layoffs, have been below 300,000 for 72 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch since 1973. Despite this prolonged low level, there had been worries that employment growth was slowing after weak reports in April and May. However, the anemic increase of 11,000 jobs in May was followed by a gain of 287,000 in June, easing fears that the country's job machine might be sputtering.

The less volatile four-week average declined to 257,750, down from 259,000 the previous week.

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"Claims continue to signal strength, even if the last few readings have been exaggerated on the low side by seasonal adjustment issues," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. He said the level of benefit applications in recent weeks was evidence that there has been no significant slowdown in employment growth this summer.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macro, said that the continuing low level of benefit applications was good news but was not likely to remain at such low levels. He said the current weekly readings were being distorted by auto plant shutdowns for the annual model year change-overs.

Even with the strong June increase in jobs, the trend in job gains has been slowing from the sizzling pace set last year. That development had been expected given that the economic expansion has now entered its eighth year.

Economists are encouraged that layoffs have not been increasing. They view that as evidence that businesses are confident that the economy will continue growing at a solid pace in the face of unexpected bumps such as the June 23 vote in Britain to leave the European Union. That development sent temporary shockwaves through global financial markets.

The U.S. economy has turned in anemic growth rates for the past two quarters, expanding at a modest pace of just 1.1 percent, as measured by the gross domestic product, in the January-March quarter. Analysts believe GDP accelerated to growth above 2 percent in the just-completed April-June quarter.

Associated Press
Regular customers hold down the bar at Gene & Georgetti in 2012. This weekend, the steakhouse celebrates its 75th anniversary with a special menu. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune)

Gene & Georgetti, one of Chicago's most iconic steakhouses, celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend with a special menu, available now through Saturday.

For $75 per couple, diners can choose two appetizers (bacon-wrapped scallops, fried ravioli, Italian sausage and peppers, roasted beet with goat cheese or the signature Garbage Salad), two entrees (eggplant parmigiana, braised short rib or bucatini carbonara), two side plates and two desserts. Individual diners can pay $39 for one app, one entree, one side and one dessert. In both cases, the anniversary price excludes tax and gratuity.

Reservations are required, and the dress code is business casual, though the restaurant anticipates many regulars will show up in cocktail party attire, says a spokesperson.

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The anniversary menu is available at lunch and dinner at both Gene & Georgetti locations. At the downtown location, it's the only dinner menu available until service goes back to normal Monday. Both locations are closed Sundays.

All proceeds from the anniversary menu will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

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Gene & Georgetti, 500 N. Franklin St., 312-527-3718; 9241 W. Higgins Rd., Rosemont, 847-653-3300, www.geneandgeorgetti.com

lchu@tribpub.com

Twitter @louisachu






After five years gone, the penguins' return to Lincoln Park Zoo is imminent.



At a hard hat tour Thursday of a new zoo habitat for a new species of penguin, the North Side free zoo set an opening date of Oct. 6 for the mostly outdoor penguin area.



"We're planning to open with about 15 birds and breed the population up to 24 or 25," said Megan Ross, the zoo's senior vice president.



The birds will be African penguins, an endangered species native to the coasts of South Africa and neighboring countries, chosen both for conservation reasons and because they can do well outside in Chicago's wide-ranging weather.

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The zoo last had penguins, Antarctic-native rockhopper penguins, indoors in the well-refrigerated Kovler Penguin-Seabird House. That facility closed in December 2011 to make way for the Regenstein Macaque Forest, part of a makeover of the zoo's north side.



Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove and the adjacent Walter Family Arctic Tundra, which will bring polar bears back to the zoo later this fall or winter, will provide 45,000 square feet of habitat and are being built at a cost of $22 million.



In the penguin exhibit, the flightless birds "will dive and play in the pool fronting the habitat's rocky cliffs," the zoo says on its website. "Nest boxes behind the scenes will give the bird a cozy space to pair up in."

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sajohnson@tribpub.com

Twitter: @StevenKJohnson

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
Writer-director Michael Smith on Fullerton Avenue near the Bourgeois Pig Cafe Monday, July 18, 2016 where he often works on his feature "Mercury in Retrograde" which begins filming soon. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

Summer in Chicago tends to be a busier time than usual for indie filmmakers, including Michael Smith, who is gearing up to start shooting his second feature "Mercury in Retrograde."

A blend of comedy and drama about three couples who take a short trip to a Michigan cabin, Smith compared his script to the talk-focused Julie Delpy-Ethan Hawke movies of Richard Linklater "in terms of the naturalism in the dialogue and the performances. I'm not interested in making plot-driven films. I'm basically only interested in making films about people and relationships."

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The cast includes actors from Chicago (including Steppenwolf ensemble member Alana Arenas, who starred in the company's production of "Marie Antoinette" last year) as well as parts elsewhere (the French actress Roxane Mesquida, so good in the 2001 coming of ager "Fat Girl" and more recently in porn-and-sex-ring character drama "Malgre la nuit").

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Here's Smith: "They all go on a weekend getaway to a lakehouse. One couple has been happily married for a decade. Another has been together for five years and they are miserable because their relationship is long past its sell-by date. And the third couple is the youngest, they just got together and there's a sense that they could go either way."

It is the female half of that last couple who is new to the group. "She is the surrogate for the viewer, so we get to know all the other characters as she gets to know them."

Thematically, the film is a follow-up to Smith's first feature, "Cool Apocalypse," which cut between two Chicago couples  one just getting to know one another, the other passive-aggressively ending theirs for good  who all end up around a dinner table by the movie's climax.

It is a small film, both in scope and execution, but its size allows it to focus on the kind of conversational tics and meandering nothings that seem to tumble out of our mouths whenever sexual tension is the subtext. You can catch a screening of it coming up next month as part of the city's Movies in the Parks series on Aug. 31 and again on Sept. 2.

Filming on "Mercury in Retrograde," Smith said, begins in two weeks: "The first two days we're going to be shooting in Chicago for the apartment scenes, before the characters leave to go on vacation. Then we'll be shooting in southwest Michigan for 10 days. And then we're back to Chicago to shoot for two days for a bar scene at Archie's Iowa & Rockwell Tavern in the Ukrainian Village."

The Michigan portion will be filmed in Fennville. "We found a cabin on VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), which is basically Airbnb for vacation spots. It's the most beautiful lakeside cottage. It actually looks like somewhere you want to go."

Did producers have to inform the owner that they would be filming there rather than vacationing?

"Yeah, you have to. There were a lot of things we needed to negotiate with them. We're bringing in RV's to park outside for the actors to use as a dressing room and we're also bringing in a Porta-Potty as well because there's only one bathroom in the cabin and we're going to have a cast and crew of 20-some people.

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"Fortunately they didn't jack up the price. I was scared about that, but I was straight up: 'We're making a low-budget film. We can afford to pay your nightly rate, but not more.' I personally will be sleeping there every night, as will one of the producers, because I'm never going to stop working.

"But everybody else will be staying at a hotel because you don't want them to sleep where they work all day. You don't want them to sleep on the set."

Writer-director Michael Smith's first feature, "Cool Apocalypse," screens as part of the Chicago Park District's Movie in the Parks series Aug. 31 at Palmer Square Park and again on Sept. 2 at Pulaski Park. Go to www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/events/chicago-onscreen-schedule/.

nmetz@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @NinaMetzNews

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
Donald Trump on Thursday night accepted the nomination of the Republican Party to be president of the scorched hellscape that is the United Yet Cowering States of America.

That, at least, is the interpretation of his speech offered by the late-night shows that had the courage  and the sense of comedic obligation and, dare I say it, patriotic duty  to do their shows live, after Trump gave Cleveland a warm farewell and America an ominous hello.

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Not among those shows, strangely, was the one ABC actually calls "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Maybe it's pronounced "live," like the verb.

But: the Trump speech. What may not have been the most sunny, optimistic and encouraging hour-plus of oratory for people watching at home was great fodder for those charged with writing jokes about it. (And watch this space next week, too, where I'll be tracking the shows' attempts to squeeze comedy from the Democratic National Convention.)

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"It's official: Donald Trump just accepted the Republican nomination for president, and so I urge you to live every day like it's your last," said Trevor Noah of "The Daily Show," who was sharp for the second night in a row from Cleveland, this time in his first live show.

"Just moments ago," Noah added, "Trump finished delivering a speech that was half angry rallying cry for bringing what he called 'law and order' to a country in crisis and half  well, that was the other half, too."

"It was a great performance, I've got to give that to him," said Stephen Colbert of CBS's "The Late Show," whose decision to be live all week paid off in reminders of how good he can be at satirizing politics. "It really fired up the room and finally answered the question, What if Frankenstein's monster was in charge of the angry mob?"

"Lo, it has come to pass," Colbert also said. "A day long foretold: The Trumpening."

Seth Meyers on NBC's "Late Night," live for the first time ever, offered a sort of New York in-joke: "Trump said 'law and order' more times tonight than an actor's biography section of a Broadway Playbill."

The TV show "Law and Order" shot in New York, see, and employed a lot of actors during its long run. Along similar lines, Meyers addressed Trump directly: "Hey, if you've going to give a 76-minute speech that late at night, maybe don't mention other things people could be watching."

Colbert took note of Trump's direct appeal to Democratic primary voters who backed the runner-up, Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Makes sense. If his supporters can't have Bernie, they'll go to Trump. Kind of like if you ask for a Coke but they don't have it, you say, 'Then just fill my mouth with bees.' "

That was odd, but funny. Later, Colbert turned his desk over to Jon Stewart, former host of "The Daily Show," back from his off-duty exile for a second time in the week. This time, Stewart delivered a monologue that was more angry but funny, a kind of Howard Beale take on the Republican convention (and a role he is welcome to return in anytime).

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 160 With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Stewart lauded the GOP's "clear plan": "One, jail your political opponent. Two, inject Rudy Giuliani with a speedball and a Red Bull enema. And three, spend the rest of the time scaring the bejeesus out of everybody."

In his conclusion, mad as hell and not taking it anymore, he objected to what he saw from Cleveland. "You don't own patriotism," Stewart said. "You don't own Chistianity. You sure as hell don't own respect for the bravery and sacrifice of military, police and firefighters."

Neck and neck with him in the righteous ire department was Bill Maher, doing a live extra edition of his HBO show "Real Time" for the second night in a row. Maher, though, mostly seasoned the ticked off with some funny.

Trump's speech was dark, Maher said: "It was so depressing, Melania started plagiarizing a suicide note."

But, he noted, the convention had answered two important questions: "Could another Nazi Germany happen here? And whatever happened to Scott Baio?"

And he had a question for a particular group of people: "After this embarrassing Third World catfight that we just saw, this noxious gathering of short-bus lynch-mob people  are you Bernie people voting for Hillary now?"



Among those who weren't live, ABC's Kimmel (again, the show is called "Jimmy Kimmel Live") made what, in the context of things, seemed a reasonable guess: "Trump arrived atop a gold-plated elephant firing bedazzled Make America Great Again T-shirts into the crowd."

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It wasn't quite that, but Trump did talk about "humbly" accepting the nomination. This notion, Noah pointed out, was somewhat undercut by the night's stage dressing: "Yes, nothing says humble like turning the stage gold and having your name in 9,000-point font. Even the Goodyear Blimp was like, 'Jesus, Trump, we get it.' "

But Larry WIlmore, on the "Nightly Show," handled not being live most artfully: "Earlier this evening," he said, "Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination to be president of the United States. Now, we taped our show before this happened so we don't know if anyone is receiving this transmission  as the Earth may already be a singed wasteland at this point."

So, yeah, all in all, the comedians mostly put aside the standard Trump jokes about bad hair and orange skin to talk about what mattered: what his nomination might mean in terms of biblical prophecy.

Speaking of the Bible, the night's other dominant joke topic was Ted Cruz, who, the evening before during his keynote address to the convention, drew catcalls from delegates for refusing to endorse Trump and urging Republicans to vote their conscience.

"Boo," said Noah. "We don't want to vote our conscience. We want to vote for Trump."

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The overt snub from Cruz, Republican primary runner-up to Trump, impressed the "Daily Show" host, he said: "Like that pizza with the hot dogs for a crust. I couldn't tell what it was. I couldn't quite understand. But I knew America was the reason behind it."

Cruz explained on Thursday that he would not endorse a man who had attacked his family in the primary campaigning. "How dare he not support the guy who berated him for months and insulted his wife and suggested his father may have murdered JFK?" said Kimmel, on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (not live).

Hearing Cruz's reasoning, Wilmore reacted: "This is a beef!? Is this the RNC or the VMAs?"

Well, Larry, come to think of it, there was that actual moment Wednesday when  shades of Britney and Madonna  Trump sort of moved in to kiss his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence 

How will the Democrats be able to top such a carnival next week in Philadelphia? It is surely their hope and their plan that they will not, but I'm still going to keep my fingers crossed for, at a minimum, one soap-opera star and one from reality TV.

sajohnson@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @StevenKJohnson

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
A new study suggests that being in good health well into your 90s is a realistic goal, especially if your genes cooperate. (Lucia Lambriex / Getty Images)

What if you could live well into your 90s and still be in good health?

A new study suggests that may be possible, particularly if you have good genes.

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"Chronic disease is not an inevitable part of aging," said Dr. Sofiya Milman, an assistant professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. "An extended period of good health can accompany a long life span and is an achievable goal."

Milman is one of the authors of a U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded study on aging.

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Americans are living longer than ever. In 2014, the average life expectancy at birth had reached nearly 79 years, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. A century earlier, it was just slightly over 54 years.

But gains in health span  the period of time that people live in good health  have not kept pace with longevity, the study authors noted. Rather, longer life expectancy has been associated with greater disability.

Of course, some people are beating the odds. How do they do it?

Using data from two previous studies, researchers from Albert Einstein and Boston University examined whether people experienced similar delays in the onset of disease and disability before death.

One study, the Longevity Genes Project, included Ashkenazi Jewish people who at age 95 were living independently. For comparison, the study also included a group of somewhat younger Ashkenazi Jews with no parental history of longevity.

The research team also drew data from the New England Centenarian Study, which included 100-year-olds living in eight towns in the Boston area, as well as in England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It also included people without a family predisposition of exceptional longevity for comparison.

Researchers then compared the health of 439 long-lived people and their 696 somewhat younger counterparts, ages 53 to 93, from the Longevity Genes Program with the health of 1,498 long-lived participants and 302 comparison participants, ages 49 to 89, from the New England Centenarian Study.

Researchers tracked people's ages at the onset of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and stroke. Alzheimer's disease wasn't included because the Longevity Genes Project does not collect that data.

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Remarkably, the long-lived participants in each study experienced disease and disability later in life, resulting in a shorter period of illness before death, compared with the younger adult groups.

The researchers assessed disease-free survival years by approximating the prevalence for each disease in older adults. Take cancer, as an example. Cancer prevalence is 20 percent for people ages 65 to 80, the study authors said.

For people in the Longevity Genes Project, the age at which 20 percent of the long-lived individuals had developed cancer was delayed to 96 for both men and women. Twenty percent of their younger counterparts, however, experienced cancer by age 78 for men and by age 74 for women, the findings showed.

"A lot of concern is that, well, if you live a long time, you're just going to be bedridden. And what they're showing is that's not true. The people who are living longer are living healthier," said Dr. Anne Newman, director of the Center for Aging and Population Health at the University of Pittsburgh.

Genetic factors that appear to slow aging and/or protect from diseases are thought to play a big role, according to Milman. Environmental factors  at least among these long-lived people  seem to be less important, she noted.

"Our centenarians were not practicing particularly healthy behaviors: 60 percent of men and 30 percent of women were smokers, less than half exercised regularly, and approximately 50 percent were overweight or obese," Milman said.

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The report was published online in July in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

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It was a rainy Friday in July, and a group of girls huddled onstage at City Lit Theater's space in Edgewater running their lines for "Twelfth Night," one of several Shakespeare plays they've spent the summer studying and adapting.

"It's kind of saying, 'In your face, Shakespeare' because his plays were originally for all boys," Sophie Harris, 13, told me.

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"If you think about it, it was boy actors pretending to play girls, who were pretending to be boys," added Claire Sandberg, 11.

The Viola Project, which takes its name from a character in "Twelfth Night" brings together girls ages 10-16 and immerses them in Shakespeare as a way of teaching them to own and use their voices. The nonprofit offers yearlong workshops and an annual summer camp.

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This year, as part of arts festival Shakespeare 400 Chicago, the Viola Project is partnering with Chicago Shakespeare Theater to offer free workshops at Chicago Public Library branches in Auburn Gresham, Portage-Cragin and Chinatown during July and August.

"We work with girls at a time of their lives when they stop advocating for themselves," said Skyler Shrempp, Viola Project's artistic director.

Schrempp teaches coed drama courses at Rowe Elementary Charter School in the city's West Town neighborhood. Girls in fourth grade, she said, are still bubbly and loud. By seventh and eighth, they often edit themselves to the point of silence.

Deirdra Brown reads from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Viola Project ensemble member Evelyn Gaynor. Viola Project leads workshops for girls ages 10-16 to help them explore their voices through Shakespeare's work. (Erich Schrempp)

"They're terrified of saying the wrong thing or appearing ugly or stupid," Schrempp said. "We're working with girls with this really strong text at a time when they stop offering their voices in the conversation. Shakespeare characters use 100 percent exposition  they say exactly what they're going to do, exactly how and exactly why. We like giving girls access to these fantastic texts at a time when they start holding all of that stuff inside."

But why Shakespeare, I wondered? Why an author who looked and lived nothing like these girls, and wouldn't have allowed them on his stages had he met them?

"I can see a lot of people feeling like this English man from 400 years ago has nothing to do with me," said Doreen Sayegh, Shakespeare 400's festival producer. "But what Shakespeare did so well was talk about human emotion and humanity. Those relationships, those feelings, those situations  everyone can recognize them. We all feel love and hate and jealousy and anger."

And there's a power in taking a piece of work that seems impenetrable, at first, and finding a way in.

"People approach Shakespeare's text thinking, 'This is super foreign. This has nothing to do with me. And it's hard,'" Sayegh said. "That can be daunting, and it can quell your self-esteem. But when you break down both the text and the message, when you understand the words you didn't before and use them to say something that you've kept quiet, that's a gift that the Viola Project gives to girls."

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Elissa Szymczak, from left, Audrey Jacobs, Kel Hamik and Claire Sandberg rehearse at City Lit Theaters Edgewater space. (Haley Knudsen)

In addition to performing Shakespeare's plays as he wrote them, the girls learn to adapt his works and use them as springboards for conversations about body image, peer pressure, social media and more. The day I observed camp, "Much Ado About Nothing" had been adapted to take place at a New York City magazine beset with scandal and intrigue over a young couple in love, a pop star and a doctored photo.

The workshops also offer girls a chance to respond to some of Shakespeare's messages that don't sit well with them.

"We don't sanitize anything," Schrempp said. "We're not into cutting out all the bad stuff and pretending it wasn't in the text to begin with. We want to teach girls to start seeing that stuff, and then showing them they have the power to change it."

After studying "The Taming of the Shrew," the girls wrote responses to the controversial ending. In another exercise, they wrote letters to Juliet, offering the love-struck teenager wisdom from their 2016 perspectives.

"We're really into giving girls opportunities to explore narratives that don't include marriage being the final goal, or love being the final goal, or having a baby being the final goal," Schrempp said.

"It's powerful," 13-year-old Harris told me. "Because people are constantly like, 'You can't do that. You're a girl.' And that's basically what Shakespeare was saying."

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"I'm just really loving this experience," Lily Stern, 11, told me. "I love Shakespeare, and I really like how this camp sort of switches the whole rule that only boys could act."

And I love that they're learning to abandon the role of outsiders peering into a world that talks about them but never with them. We're all better for it.

hstevens@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @heidistevens13

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Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence stands with his family after delivering his speech during the third day of the 2016 Republican National Convention on July 20 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (Shawn Thew / EPA)

Chicago indie rockers of a certain age might have spotted a familiar face in an unfamiliar setting if they tuned into the Republican National Convention this week  former "Green" bassist Ken Kurson, sitting center stage in the Trump family's private box.

Kurson, 47, is now the editor of the New York Observer, owned by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump.

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His decision to locate himself in the Trump enclosure during Tuesday and Wednesday's proceedings upset some of his rival journalists who grumbled about the optics of appearing alongside the candidate's family at such a nakedly political event.

But Kurson, who attended Glenbrook North High School and was with "Green" during their late 1980s heyday as the darlings of the Chicago alternative rock scene, told Chicago Inc. he was "just a humble journalist" and added that was untroubled by the attack on his ethics.

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"I sat in six different boxes yesterday," Kurson said as he prepared to hear trump's big speech Thursday. "Journalism is about getting as many credentials as you can  if Hillary Clinton invited me into her private box at the Democratic convention, you'd better believe I'd sit there, too."

Kurson long ago progressed from the rock world into journalism and conservative politics. He co-wrote former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's best-selling book "Leadership" and helped run Giuliani's unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign.

Working as the conservative editor of a Manhattan newspaper was  like being a conservative Chicago hipster in the late 80s  "lonely," he said.

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"I'd guess just about all of my staff are probably Bernie (Sanders) supporters," he said.

And while the debauched lifestyle of a rock star might seem at odds with conservatism, Green's band members "were never successful enough for us to trash a hotel room," he said.

Besides, he added, it is a "myth" that either side of the political spectrum enjoys itself more than the other. "From what I've seen here in Cleveland, partying is pretty much a universal human need," he said.

Kurson still plays in a band with other editors of New York publications, including Gawker executive editor (and former Chicago Tribune reporter) John Cook, and he is plotting a return to Chicago in 2017 for a one-off 25th anniversary with another of his bands, "The Lilacs," he said.

"I'd like to do one epic, life-changing show at The Metro."

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kjanssen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimjnews
Kurt Hausbeck waves to the crew of the Draken Harald Harfagre as it sails through Independence Bridge, departing Bay City on the Saginaw River on July 20, 2016. (Jacob Hamilton / AP)

When the captain of the world's largest Viking warship is accusing you of rudeness, it might be time to check your manners.

That's the unmistakable message for U.S. authorities from Bjorn Ahlander, captain of the Draken Harald Harfagre, a fearsome historic 115-foot wooden longship that crossed the Atlantic from Norway and is now bearing down on Chicago.

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Ahlander and his crew say they are upset that they were invited to make the harrowing three-month voyage to compete in next week's Tall Ships festival at Navy Pier, only to be told once they arrived in U.S. waters that they could not sail on the Great Lakes without a $400-an-hour licensed pilot.

"We find it a little impolite," Ahlander told the Tribune from a bar in Alpena, Mich., where he and his crew were relaxing Wednesday night. "It will cost us about $400,000. We are not making any money, and that is a lot for us."

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But Todd Haviland, director of pilotage for the Great Lakes for the U.S. Coast Guard, isn't having it. He said Ahlander and his crew were told in the fall, long before they set out on their epic voyage, that federal laws required them to pay the pilot fees. "They even asked for an estimate so they knew how much to charge their crew," Haviland said.

Patricia Lock, a director with Tall Ships America, agreed that the Norwegians were told about the fees but said there was "a misunderstanding and maybe a little wishful thinking" after Canadian Great Lakes officials told the crew they would not need to hire a pilot in Canadian waters.

Still, what Ahlander described as a shock expense has spurred a frantic fundraising effort by the Sons of Norway heritage group, which has so far cobbled together more than $61,000  enough to get the Draken to Chicago but not for it to race once it arrives, as the crew had planned.

It remains unclear whether planned stops in Green Bay and Duluth, Minn., will go ahead, as the high cost of pilots means the crew must now rush from port to port as fast as possible to reduce pilot fees. The Draken, described on its website as "world's largest Viking ship sailing in modern times," is forced to pay the same high pilot fees as much larger commercial tankers, Ahlander said.

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"The American people we have met have been very, very welcoming," Ahlander said, adding that the fees mean fewer stops and, as a result, fewer people will get to see the replica ship or learn about the trans-Atlantic voyages that Vikings made hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus.

After surviving rough seas around Iceland  the Draken has an open deck, and the crew sleeps in shifts in a tent  sailing on Lake Michigan has been "very warm and not that challenging, but you should always have respect for any water," the captain added.

"We have no problem with the pilots. They are just doing their job and they have been very nice and one even brought a bottle of whiskey onboard."

The softly-spoken Ahlander joked that while his ship is historically accurate, the behavior of his crew is not. They do not drink on board and "we try to behave," he said.

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http://www.drakenexpeditionamerica.com/

kjanssen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimjnews
With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

CLEVELAND  There was only one thing missing as Donald Trump stood before the cheering multitudes, the balloons falling on him and the true believers shouting his name.

He had just delivered his anti-establishment indictment of the causes of ugly threats abroad and at home. It was heavy on populism, on his "America First" economic nationalism, on calls for that wall on the border and for law and order.

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"The forgotten men and women of our country  and they are forgotten, but they're not going to be forgotten long. These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice," he said.

But what was missing was another voice, that of a trusted friend to stand next to the brash billionaire and whisper four words into his ear:

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"You didn't build that."

Because he didn't.

The phrase was directed at entrepreneurs and small business owners years ago by President Barack Obama, and quite stupidly. What does a silky Chicago Way pol who lived his life on the public payroll know about running a business? Absolutely nothing.

But Trump knows how things are built, and so he should realize that he's not all that responsible for the politics that led him  and the nation  to this moment in Cleveland.

Because he didn't build it.

He simply stepped into the void left by what the Republican corporatist establishment had torn apart.

And perhaps long after the glittery media sirens stop singing his praises and condemning his sins, history may tell you so.

But I don't think you should wait. So I'll tell you now.

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They don't want to take credit for it, they'll spin and cajole their way around it, but the Republican establishment is responsible for Trump, and not because they built anything.

Their greed destroyed what they had, by breaking faith with grass-roots voters, year after year after year, until finally all that remained was grass-roots cynicism and exhaustion.

Out of that grew anger, and Trump fed on it.

Now the GOP establishment fears and loathes Trump, and elements of the old Republican coalition flock to the new establishment queen, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Wall Street sweetens her tongue, the neocons who sat at the feet of Republican kings pushing wars in the Middle East now list toward Hillary, the ruling federal bureaucracy cleaves to her: the regulators, the lawyers and all others who make up the new Clinton economic order.

And now Trump and Clinton face off in November.

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But with so much gossip and buzz in the air, and talk of personality politics and ego and who has the nicer family and who said what about the other guy's wife, let's remember how Trump got here.

For years, the GOP establishment talked of Americans pulling themselves up by their bootstraps even as trade deals shipped capital and jobs overseas and destroyed entire communities here.

The establishment talked of patriotism and sent American kids to fight endless wars and sent out their media meat puppets to condemn any critics as dangerous "isolationists."

The establishment barked about fiscal responsibility while members of Congress sat in the laps of K- Street lobbyists. Even the so-called "conservative" media lost its way for a time, embracing and applauding what former President George W. Bush called "compassionate conservatism" and his newfound hobby of nation-building.

Under Bush, the federal leviathan grew, and when Obama came in it continued to feed, growing even larger as the GOP establishment rolled over on the debt ceiling, and now it's at $19 trillion and growing still.

The GOP establishment gave lip service about strengthening the borders while shepherding cheap, unskilled foreign labor  from undocumented aliens  that lowered American wages and took American jobs.

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It bent other immigration laws to ease highly skilled IT and other workers out of their careers and replace them with cheaper contract employees who rotated in and out every few years.

The American people can withstand a lot, including lies and tax hikes and the warm, moist winds of political promises.

But when their wallets become empty and the jobs and their lifestyles disappear and they're mocked and denounced as racists for wondering why, and their kids come home from the wars and can't find jobs, something happens.

People get angry.

And Trump sensed this, moving into that angry void, bringing with him his genius for marketing and branding and his guts and force of will and just took it.

Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, was poised to take advantage of the void.

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He had the young vote with him, and his candidacy on the right would have mirrored socialist Bernie Sanders on the hard left, but Paul didn't want to fight wars in the Middle East.

And so he was denounced as dangerous.

Fox News was the moth to Trump's flame, and the network became the 24/7 Trump News Channel, and Paul was asphyxiated by lack of media oxygen. But the GOP chiefs and the money guys didn't mind Paul gasping for air like a fish on the floor. They wanted him gone. And if Trump helped them accomplish this, so be it.

Trump trounced the others too.

They tried to start a fight with an alley fighter, and after they got kicked a few times, knocked to the pavement on their knees under a streetlight, they thought there were rules.

There are no rules.

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Ask Hillary. The Clintons know this. They're alley fighters too.

jskass@chicagotribune.com

Twitter@John_Kass
When a few police cars pulled up outside Daniel Alcantara's West Side residence last summer, the gang member dashed into his home.

From outside his window, the officers asked him to come out and talk. They weren't there to arrest him, they explained, but to warn him: They believed he was at a high risk to go to prison  or to the grave. It was time to give up the gang life, and they were there to help him, they said.

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Daniel Alcantara, a gang member in Chicago, was shot and killed in June. (Family photo)

The warning proved prophetic. Last month, Alcantara, 20, was gunned down in the Logan Square neighborhood, another victim of escalating gang wars.

With violence raging in Chicago at levels unseen since the late 1990s, the Police Department's strategy to combat it relies heavily on so-called predictive policing, which aims to figure out who is most prone to violence  either as a criminal or victim  and intercede.

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Chicago police investigate a fatal shooting in the 2900 block of West Armitage Avenue in Logan Square on June 3, 2016. Daniel Alcantara was pronounced dead at the scene, and a 21-year-old man was wounded. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

After taking office in March amid one of the most tumultuous times in department history, Superintendent Eddie Johnson bluntly said, "We know who they are." He was referring to the approximately 1,400 individuals, many of them gang members, whom the department put on a list of those they say are most likely to commit or be targeted by violence. Those on that list, Johnson said, are driving the killings and shootings.

Indeed, officials said 85 percent of the more than 2,100 people shot so far this year had been placed on what police refer to as the "strategic subject list."

When the department carried out two huge roundups in recent months, arresting scores of people over a few days, including at the start of the Fourth of July weekend, most of those arrested were on the list. Officers arrested more than 225 people since May in the two raids  all but 37 of them on the strategic subject list.

The intent was clear: Get as many of those behind the violence as possible off the street.

"We want to send a message to violent offenders that we won't tolerate the violence," the superintendent said in an interview about the raids.

Johnson said the list isn't used to target people for arrest but said the fact that many of those who were brought in during the recent raids were on the list is proof that they are at high risk for crime.

"The thing about the strategic subject list is it just helps us identify people that would be party to violence," Johnson said. "It's just telling us that we are targeting the right people."

The strategy's role in preventing violence, however, is unclear. Over that recent holiday weekend, 66 people were still shot, five fatally.

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The strategy's long-term success is just as opaque. The arrests appeared to pull people off the street for just a short time. A Tribune analysis of the 88 individuals arrested on mostly narcotics and gun charges in the raid before the Fourth of July weekend found that almost a third  27  had already bailed out of Cook County Jail as of mid-July.

In an interview Thursday, Johnson acknowledged the strategy has its challenges but believes that long-term it will have an impact.

"I know that if we hold repeat offenders accountable, (we'll) see a lot of that crime decrease," he said. "I think we have to start somewhere, and the dialogue is where we start."

How the strategy works

In his few months in office, Johnson has largely stuck to strategies first implemented under predecessor Garry McCarthy. But pressure is mounting as violence continues to surge. With more than 330 homicides, slayings have risen 43 percent and shooting incidents 50 percent through July 10, the department said. Homicides are on a pace to top 600 for the first time since 2003.

Targeting those on the strategic subject list is among the key elements of the department's overall antiviolence strategy, which includes seizing illegal weapons, and is geared at gang factions police say are responsible for much of the rise in violence.

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Police, with the assistance of county and federal authorities and the Illinois Department of Corrections, also host "call-ins"  meetings at which gangs are warned they will be singled out if more violence occurs, but gang members also are offered help to change their way of life.

Gang members may be required to come to the meetings as part of conditions for their parole or probation. So if they don't attend, they could be sent back to prison or Cook County Jail.

The strategic subject list approach includes door-to-door visits, dubbed "custom notifications," in which police officials, clergy and community leaders warn about the dangers of a criminal lifestyle, while offering social services to help steer them away from trouble.

Critics have questioned the department's secrecy over what factors go into the computerized algorithm used to come up with the list.

Johnson said that race and gender are not factors in deciding who is at risk.

"It's not based on race, ethnicity or geographic location," he said. "We don't use it to target certain individuals other than we pay a visit to their residence to offer them services to get out of the (gang)."

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But a California-based group that defends civil liberties in the digital world raised concern that the arrest data that goes into it could be inherently biased against African-American and other minorities.

"Until they show us the algorithm and the exhaustive factors of what goes into the algorithm, the public should be concerned about whether the program further replicates racial disparities in the criminal justice system," said Adam Schwartz, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Karen Sheley, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, also expressed worries about the inability of the public to scrutinize the strategic list, considering the consequences for those on it.

"You don't have to use race in your formula to end up with an outcome that disproportionately affects people on the basis of race," she said.

Police data strategy evolves

For decades, police departments across the country have been trying to use data to fight crime. Jonathan Lewin, deputy chief of the Chicago Police Department's technology and records group, recalled reading an article on crime prevention from a department publication from the 1960s that showed a map with push pins highlighting locations of incidents.

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By the early 2000s, with the help of computers, the techniques had grown far more sophisticated. In 2003, Chicago changed its approach to fighting violence, adopting a model similar to New York's CompStat program, which analyzes crime statistics to help determine where officers are needed most. The strategy still remains and was refined in 2011 under McCarthy, a former NYPD deputy commissioner.

At weekly meetings, top Chicago police brass would hold commanders accountable for crime in their districts. Under Phil Cline, who led the department from 2003 to 2007, hundreds of officers moved from beat patrols to roving specialized units that parachuted into neighborhoods experiencing spikes in violence.

Computerized data from the department's Deployment Operations Center  which mapped crimes each day in known gang territories  determined the daily assignments of officers assigned to the Targeted Response Unit. Officers from the Special Operations Section hit the same areas hard, looking for narcotics and illegal guns.

The results were dramatic. By the end of 2004, homicides fell to 453, down almost 25 percent from 2003.

But a series of police scandals, including numerous robberies and home invasions involving crews of SOS officers, led to the shutdown of the aggressive specialized unit. By 2008, homicides topped 500 for the first time in five years.

Then-Superintendent Jody Weis responded by forming the Mobile Strike Force, a roving specialized unit with the same purpose as SOS but whose officers were said to be given better supervision and better training.

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With Rahm Emanuel's election in 2011, McCarthy took over as superintendent and disbanded the Mobile Strike Force and the Targeted Response Unit over concerns that their aggressive styles further divided police and minority communities. The officers moved to beat patrols amid hopes of improving interactions with residents. But that strategy appeared to backfire when homicides again exceeded 500 in 2012, leading McCarthy to reverse course by bolstering roving saturation teams and sharply boosting overtime pay so hundreds more officers could work the most dangerous neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, Chicago had begun experimenting in the late 2000s with predictive policing, a scientific approach to figuring out which "hot spots" would see spikes in violence so more officers could be deployed to help out. When Chicago became the only big-city department to win the second phase of a National Institute of Justice grant, police placed increasing emphasis on who was causing the violence.

The idea was inspired by the research of Andrew Papachristos, a Yale University sociologist whose five-year study of violence in Chicago's Harrison patrol district on the West Side showed its homicide rate to be more than three times worse than Chicago's average. Many of its homicide victims, he learned, often shared similar backgrounds: lengthy arrest records, victims themselves of past shootings and arrests with others who also had been shot.

Papachristos' ideas eventually led to the formation of a strategy that would first become known as "Two Degrees of Association." At its origin in 2013, it was a list of about 420 people the department considered to be at-risk. Police started visiting their homes with a two-fold message: warnings that police were on to their criminal activity and offers of a better life with the help of social services, ranging from substance abuse counseling to job training.

The list, now the strategic subject list, is in its fourth variation. Its algorithm  developed by an engineering professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology  has been refined for better accuracy, according to Lewin.

Police score people on the list for a variety of risk factors, with ranges of zero to more than 500. The final number represents the degree to which they are in danger, as compared to the average Chicago citizen. So, a person with a score of 500 is that many times more likely to be involved in violence than the average resident.

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The department has not said how many people in total are on its strategic subject list, but it said it is focusing on the 1,400 people on the list whose overall scores are between about 400 to more than 500.

The department will not reveal all the risk factors that go into the algorithm or the weight given them, saying to do so would allow criminals to undercut its effectiveness. But at police headquarters in mid-July, Lewin discussed some of the key factors: an individual's criminal history, especially any weapons offenses or crimes of violence; their age at their first arrest; whether the nature of their arrests escalated over the years; if they had been the intended targets of shootings or the victims of violence; and if those they've been arrested with had themselves been shot.

At the beginning, more than 50 variables had been considered, but a much smaller number proved to be more meaningful, Lewin said.

In defending the list against accusations it may unfairly target people, Lewin said the effort is focused on prevention, not profiling.

"If you look at how the highest risk people in the model unfortunately reflect people that are being killed in Chicago, it's a proven predictive model. So if the data was suspect, it wouldn't be proven to work," Lewin said. "Each subject on this list is a person whose life we're trying to save."

Offering a way out of gangs

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Nearly 850 individuals have been contacted at their homes since the list's start three years ago, and 144 of them have received follow-up visits, said Christopher Mallette, the executive director of Chicago's Violence Reduction Strategy, which is working with Chicago police on this strategy.

Mallette says the strategy is working. More than half of the 846 people contacted had been victims of violence themselves before police visited them, yet just about 11 percent of them had been victimized again by violence since being contacted by police, according to Mallette. One-fifth of the 846 people had been re-arrested for a violent offense since the visits, he said.

About one out of four asked for help for themselves or people they knew, Mallette said.

As for the call-ins, there have been about 70 such meetings in almost six years, attended by more than 2,100 gang members. Only 5 percent became victims of violence after the call-in, Mallette said, while 12 percent were re-arrested for a violent offense. More than half reached out for assistance, Mallette said.

"They may be dangerous people, but they're logical and rational-thinking human beings," said Mallette, who's affiliated with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "The key to all of this is ... if you have the right people offering the support, if you have the right tone and tenor with which you engage people, then the door is open."

Clergy, concerned residents and representatives of social service agencies attend both the custom notifications and gang call-ins, offering "anything and everything" gang members need to make the transition, Mallette said.

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Johnson said the effort is focused on holding repeat offenders, particularly those with gun violations, accountable for failing to change their lifestyles. He also said that the strategy could be more successful if lawmakers and the judiciary worked harder to keep repeat offenders in jail.

"The challenge is to try to get them out of the gang, to hold them accountable," he said. "I am convinced that we are getting better and better at identifying the people that will be problematic ... the challenge is holding them accountable, and ... CPD is doing their part."

Experts debate strategy's worth

Crime experts say research shows that "hot spot" policing can help reduce violence, but that remains to be seen with programs like the strategic subject list. Chicago's program is being evaluated by the RAND Corporation, a public policy think tank that does statistical analysis, which will present its findings in the coming months, Chicago police said.

David Klinger, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, said the approach is worth trying because of the "huge overlap" between the pools of victims and those who commit crimes.

"If the police can start something where conversations are going on, even with hard-core offenders, if there is any notion of deterrence, 'Hey, we're watching you,' that could have an effect," said Klinger, a law enforcement expert. "Knowing that the police are out there focusing on the bad guys ... might be something that would more generally deter people and lead them to make other choices."

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But deeply rooted distrust of cops among some groups and elevated tension across the country between law enforcement and minorities in light of high profile use-of-force incidents captured on video may make it even more difficult for police to enact change, Klinger said.

Ronald Safer, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, also said the strategy may be hampered by distrust of police.

"The idea is good in that prevention is far better than enforcement," said Safer, who prosecuted the Gangster Disciples in the 1990s. "The problem, at the moment, is that the police have no credibility."

"I know firsthand the impossibly difficult and dangerous job these officers have," he said later. "But the fact that 98 percent of them are well-intentioned and well-meaning is not enough. The police have to change their approach with the community."

Schwartz, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is concerned that the data going into the algorithm can be reflective of police unfairly targeting African-Americans and other minorities, who are arrested at disproportionately higher rates than whites.

Any strategy that involves "machine learning," the foundation for predictive policing, is only as good as the data that is entered, Schwartz said.

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"You put this all together and the result is bias in and bias out," he said.

He thinks the algorithm for the strategic subject list should be made public to alleviate concerns about its fairness.

"When the government is identifying a small number of people who are going to get extraordinary scrutiny from the police, the government should be transparent about how they're selecting those people," Schwartz said.

Sheley, of the ACLU, said she was skeptical that the offer of social services, which could be anything from counseling for drug and alcohol abuse to job training, would significantly alter these people's lives.

"Are you honest and serious about wrapping them in the kinds of social services that will take them out of a situation, which is violent, with all the cards stacked against them?" Sheley asked.

Marquis Henderson, a 22-year-old who has been arrested about 50 times, has a score of 445 on the Police Department's strategic subject list. He was among the 140 people arrested by police in May on the West Side.

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The charges against him were later dropped. In an interview outside an apartment building on Roosevelt Road, he said he has never been visited by police with an offer of social services.

Selling drugs isn't a choice for some, he said, but the result of few economic options in his community. It's hard to get a job, he said, when you don't have money to begin with.

"If you've been doing something illegal, it's hard to stop because this is what you've, this is how you've been surviving," he said. "So you mean to tell me I've been surviving like this all my life, and I'm gonna just stop today and get up and go down here and go sign an application?"

Henderson said he didn't expect to ever get out of the marijuana business  too many people want to buy drugs for him to turn the money down.

"I'm gonna sell drugs the rest of my life," he said. "Even if I have job and a degree and everything, I'm gonna still sell weed."

Asked if he feared for his life, he said "not me personally" but then added, "I ain't gonna lie, sometimes, sometimes.  This is Chicago. Anything could happen."

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On Thursday night, Henderson was shot in the Austin community, a graze wound he shrugged off.

'It's the police. When do they want to help?'

Police say they visited Daniel Alcantara last Aug. 13 because of his score of 500-plus on the strategic subject list. Mallette said Alcantara was "a known shooter" for his gang, then in the midst of a conflict with rivals.

When police arrived at his home at Augusta Boulevard and Harding Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, Alcantara ran inside. He refused to answer the front door, but the commander reassured him, saying, "If we were going to serve a warrant, do you think we'd be knocking and talking to you right now?" according to Mallette. Alcantara laughed, Mallette said, and talked to police through an open window.

Alcantara's younger brother, Rafael, 17, recalled the visit.

"Danny looks out through the window and was like, 'What's going on? Do you have a warrant for my arrest or something?' " his brother said during an interview in his mother's West Side apartment. "And they're like, 'Can you just step out? ... We promise it's nothing. We just want to talk to you.' "

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Officers told him he was on a list "of being like endangered, like being murdered in a way," his brother said. "And they were just saying how they want to help him because his name was on that list."

According to his brother, Alcantara was skeptical and thought the visit was "weird."

"Why would they pick me out of hundreds off this list?" his brother remembered Alcantara saying later. "We didn't see it as they really wanted to help. ... It's the police. When do they want to help somebody?"

Mallette, however, said that about a month after the visit Alcantara reached out for help in obtaining a high school equivalency degree.

But Alcantara still had too many enemies.

'I don't want to die'

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On Feb. 7, Alcantara was outside his home when he was wounded in a shooting that left another man dead. Shot in the eye, Alcantara was rushed to Norwegian American Hospital by his sister, Areli Alvarez, 28, who recalled speeding down streets to get help.

"He was like, 'Be careful. I just want to make it to the hospital. I don't want to die,' " his sister recalled.

He survived, but four months later, on June 3, was shot again while visiting his old neighborhood.

His longtime girlfriend, Janessa Arocho, 21, recalled finding him in the street, shot in the chest. She recalled cradling his bleeding body in her arms until he died.

"He had a really good sense of humor, a good heart," she said in his mother's kitchen, where a photo of Alcantara from his childhood hung on a wall. "He was really smart."

She said Alcantara was well aware of the risks of gang life.

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"He knew what the life he was living was going to bring him. He would say it himself," Arocho said. "He said ... he knows there's people out there that don't like him."

His brother said Alcantara joined a gang because that's what all their friends did growing up. He said his brother warned him away from joining, but that Alcantara was too tangled in the life to move on.

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"He just wouldn't be him no more," he said. "I don't think he'd want to go somewhere else and be a new person."

His sister said he had briefly stayed with her when she lived in a safe, quiet neighborhood on the Northwest Side. But he'd always return to their old Logan Square neighborhood, to old friends, to his lifelong ties.

"I used to get mad at him like, 'Why are you going where you're not supposed to be? You're supposed to be here. Just stay here. There's no danger for you here,' " Alvarez said.

Alvarez said her brother just laughed off her worries and told her, "I'll be back."

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Chicago Tribune's Steve Schmadeke contributed.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @JeremyGorner
Ready to jump in the lake or cannonball into the pool to cool off from the sweltering heat?

You're not alone. Swarms of people are expected to gather at the city's beaches and pack public pools seeking relief during a heat wave that's forecast as an excessive heat risk through Sunday. Temperatures are expected to reach up to the mid-80s along the lakefront Friday and as high as the lower 90s inland. The heat index, which measures how the temperature and humidity make it feel, indicated it will be more like 90 degrees on the lakefront and 98 to 103 farther inland, meteorologists said.

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Thursday's storms, which lowered humidity levels and temperatures, led forecasters to downgrade the excessive heat warning to a heat advisory Friday because the heat index was unlikely to reach at least 105 degrees for a second consecutive day.

Park District officials have prepared for big turnouts this weekend.

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"We think we're going to see larger crowds than normal, which is what we're prepared for at all times," said Eric Fischer, manager of beaches and pools for the Chicago Park District.

The city's 1,000 lifeguards, split between beaches and pools, routinely scan the crowds from their perches on the tall white stands while on duty. "We staff our beaches with enough lifeguards to handle large crowds so we won't have to adjust too much," Fischer said.

More lifeguards are typically scheduled to work on the weekends because beaches and pools tend to be busier, he said. With temperatures expected to be in the mid-80s on the lakefront and the low 90s inland on Saturday and low 90s on Sunday, lifeguards were instructed to make sure they stay hydrated and were allowed to skip in-service training so they can take more water breaks, Fischer said.

Also, they were advised to be on the lookout for symptoms of heat exhaustion and sun stroke when they're monitoring the crowds, he said.

Over the weekend, the heat index is expected to be high. It could feel like it's in the low to mid-90s on the lakefront and upper 90s to 105 degrees inland Saturday and even warmer Sunday, feeling like as high as 100 to 105 degrees, said Ricky Castro, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

At North Avenue Beach on Thursday, lifeguards made sure swimmers stayed out of the water when there was lightning coming from a dark cloud looming over the lakefront. At one point, beachgoers sought cover at the beach house when it started raining. Shari Stover, along with her daughter and nieces, took shelter although she said the raindrops were a welcome reprieve from the muggy weather.

Her plan to cool off over the humid weekend was two-fold: Hit the beach or crank the air conditioning inside. But temperatures hovering around the 90-degree mark don't bother her. "It's better than our winters. I'll take this over winter any day," said Stover, 29, of Evanston.

Ten minutes after the stormy weather, people returned to the sand and set up their beach blankets and chairs again. Patricia Edwards waited to get the OK to enter the water as her three children and nephew built sand castles. She had packed a cooler of snacks and drove her family from Humboldt Park to the lakefront, arriving at the beach about 15 minutes before the rain fell. It was just enough time to get her feet wet in the water. "It feels good once you get in," said Edwards, 33. In the summer, she usually heads to her neighborhood park so her children can run through the sprinklers.

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After showing her children the weather forecast, she said she came up with a different plan to stay cool on Friday. "We're going to sit in, watch movies and order out rather than cooking," Edwards said. "I don't think we want to be in that (heat)."

On the South Side, dozens of day campers splashed in the water and took turns heading down the water slide at Washington Park pool.

At neighborhood pools, park supervisors have the liberty to adjust programming schedules at pools, for example, to turn a teen swim into an open swim, like at River Park pool in Ravenswood where all ages can swim and float in the pool during a social, non-instructional time Friday.

"We want to make sure the public has an opportunity to cool off when it's hot outside," Fischer said. "We want them to cool off and stay hydrated and apply sunscreen and reapply after going in the water and coming out a lot."

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The Park District would only extend hours at the pool if there is a heat emergency declared, he said. Most outdoor pools are open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

There won't be any changes to water quality testing, according to Fischer. At pools, park engineers routinely check on water quality throughout the day, but bigger crowds can mean more sunscreen and hair products mixing in the pool and the water might need extra attention, he said. At beaches, flags are used to notify swimmers if there are any swimming restrictions due to water quality or weather. Real-time water quality testing is done at nine beaches. Traditional tests for E. coli are conducted at all beaches, but those results take up to 18 hours. The Park District also uses weather data to predict bacteria levels.

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Some lakefront concessions that rent out watercraft at beaches are preparing their staff and customers for the heat wave. At Kayak Chicago, which has locations at Montrose and North Avenue beaches and on the Chicago River near North Avenue, there's plenty of cold water on site for staff and guests, said owner Dave Olson in an email.

He said his staff has been briefed about staying out of the sun for extended periods and taking breaks in the shade throughout the day. Guides will have extra water in their boats and frozen bottles to quickly cool down people if needed, he said.

"During our orientations, we have added an excessive heat warning talk and are making sure that all guests going out on the water are aware of the heat warning and are prepared with plenty of water, a snack, a hat, skin protection and know not to stay out too long and understand the warning signs of becoming over heated," Olson said.

lvivanco@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lvivanco
A plane takes off from Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling on Jan. 14, 2015. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The directors of a northwest suburban airport have again rejected pilots' request for self-serve fuel, continuing a stalemate over high gas prices during a continued decline in small plane flights.

The board of Chicago Executive Airport voted 5-0 Wednesday against offering self-service aviation gas, despite a petition from nearly 200 pilots asking for it.

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Board member William Kearns said he welcomes small planes, "but ... we service many masters."

If the airport were to install its own self-serve fueling stations, he said, it would be competing with its own major tenants: companies that provide a variety of services including gas-pumping for both small planes and larger corporate jets, the latter of which generate much of the revenue at the field.

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Members of the Chicago Executive Pilots' Association, which made the request, were disappointed but not surprised. The debate over allowing self-serve fuel has been raging for more than a decade at the airport, which is located in and jointly owned by Wheeling and Prospect Heights.

As an alternative, Signature Flight Support, one of the three fixed-base operators which provide fuel at the airport, offered to provide fuel to the pilots' group for $4.45 a gallon, plus a $30 annual fee, for a nine-month test period.

Madeleine Monaco, president of the pilots group, rejected the offer, saying it would do little good for non-members, including all the airplane owners who fly in from other airports.

"If they'd offer it to everybody," she said, "we'd line up."

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In a recent survey of gas prices conducted by the pilots using an airport database, 100 octane aviation fuel cost $6.29 per gallon at Chicago Executive, compared with an average price of $4.36 at the 16 closest airports. Most of the airports offer self-service fuel.

The debate comes as general aviation, which includes all civilian flying except scheduled commercial airlines, has seen a significant in decline recent years, both nationwide and at Chicago Executive, which used to be called Palwaukee Municipal Airport.

Last year there were about 75,000 flights in and out of the airport, down from 180,000 in 2000.

Board member Neal Katz urged the board to find another way to satisfy the pilots' request.

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"We as a board need to stand up and say, 'What can we do to make this a competitively priced product?' "

rmccoppin@tribpub.com

Twitter @RobertMcCoppin
A city of Chicago public notice is posted March 27, 2015, at the entrance to a residential building that houses the Skybox on Sheffield rooftop club behind Wrigley Field. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

A federal jury Friday convicted the onetime owner of a rooftop club across the street from Wrigley Field of hiding more than $1 million in revenue to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties owed to the Cubs as well as state and local taxes.

After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated about 4 1/2 hours over two days before convicting R. Marc Hamid of multiple counts of mail fraud and illegal bank structuring. The most serious counts carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.

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Dressed in a dark suit and glasses, Hamid, 47, showed no reaction as the verdict was read in U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin's courtroom. After the jury left, Hamid sat with his wife on a courtroom bench and mopped his face with a handkerchief while she wiped tears from her eyes. The couple left the courthouse without comment.

A sign advertises the Skybox on Sheffield rooftop club behind Wrigley Field on March 27, 2015. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Hamid's lawyer, Chris Gair, told reporters he was disappointed by the outcome but thought jurors "did the their best with very complicated evidence." He said he plans to dispute the total loss amount to the Cubs in advance of Hamid's Dec. 6 sentencing hearing, which could affect how much prison time is recommended.

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"This is a very traumatic moment for anybody," Gair said. "It's not easy when the verdict slaps you in the face."

Hamid was the longtime owner of Skybox on Sheffield, a rooftop club beyond the right field wall, as well as two ticket brokerages called Just Great Seats and Just Great Tickets.

From 2008 to 2011, Hamid under-reported attendance and revenue at Skybox on Sheffield through a variety of schemes, including "zeroing out" invoices and charging customers through one of his brokerages instead of the rooftop business itself, according to the charges. The phony numbers meant the Cubs did not get as much in royalty payments as they should have under terms of the rooftop owners' agreement with the team.

According to prosecutors, Hamid then submitted false sales tax returns to the state of Illinois and amusement tax returns to Cook County and the city of Chicago for those years, failing to report about $1.5 million in sales. Hamid allegedly used some of the unreported money for personal and business expenses, including payments on luxury cars.

At the trial, Gair argued that Hamid was simply a bad businessman who had hired sloppy bookkeepers, not someone who orchestrated a fraud scheme.

Gair also accused several witnesses of lying, including former Skybox on Sheffield manager Richard Zasiebida, a former Oak Park cop who admitted on the witness stand he'd abused alcohol and cocaine and pocketed cash at the door from fans who wanted a seat for the game.

Zasiebida, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and is awaiting sentencing, is a man who "lies to get what he wants," Gair said in his closing argument Thursday.

"And what does he want? He wants to skate. He wants to avoid going to jail," Gair said.

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But prosecutors presented emails, bank statements, game day records and other evidence that they said showed what Hamid did wasn't a simple mistake  it was greed.

"This wasn't an accident," Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas said in his closing remarks to the jury. "This was a deliberate scheme that went on for four years. ... By diverting the funds, he cheated the Cubs, he cheated the city and the county, and he put more money in his pocket."

Prosecutors also presented evidence of the bad blood between the Cubs and rooftop owners, a tense situation that had escalated after the Ricketts family bought the team in 2009.

In one email, when asked whether the latest revenue estimates should be sent to Cubs business President Crane Kenney or some other team executive, Hamid wrote back, "Just write to (the) resident (expletive) and they can figure it out."

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When the criminal case against Hamid was unveiled in March 2015, Skybox on Sheffield was one of two rooftops involved in a federal suit accusing the Cubs of violating a contract struck a decade ago when it planned to erect a 2,250-square-foot right field video board and other signs. The owners said the signs would block their views.

A week later, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall denied a request to order the Cubs to halt construction while the lawsuit was pending, effectively ending the litigation. The Ricketts family has since purchased several of the rooftop businesses in its ongoing effort to transform the neighborhood around the ballpark.

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Opened in 1993 and completely renovated five years ago, Skybox on Sheffield once touted gorgeous sightlines from just inside the right field foul pole to home plate. To maximize views of the action on the field, the four-story building was outfitted with a three-tier outdoor roof deck that seats 150.

But with the right field video board now blocking the view, Skybox's website instead promotes the "energy of the area" around Wrigley.

"Skybox on Sheffield is all about the experience of the Wrigleyville atmosphere and the celebration of Chicago," the website states. "We don't have a view of the infield, but our offerings are well beyond just the game."

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jmetr22b
A father and son from Chicago face criminal charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a student in an Illinois State University residence hall during a gathering of incoming students on campus for orientation.



Shawn Childs Jr., 19, is charged with four counts of criminal sexual assault of a woman who also was on campus for orientation, which ISU calls Preview.



His father, Shawn Childs Sr., is charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver for allegedly putting ecstasy in the woman's soda during the alleged incident that happened between 10 and 11 p.m. Tuesday at Hewett Hall in Normal.



According to a statement read Thursday in McLean County Circuit Court by First Assistant State's Attorney Adam Ghrist, the father and son came into the residence hall with other students who were on campus to learn more about the university ahead of the start of classes in August.



The group was together in one of the dorm rooms, where students were staying during the two-day Preview that ended Thursday.



The elder Childs offered to go out and purchase alcohol for the students who were minors, and returned with alcohol from a nearby store, said Ghrist. The alleged victim told police she saw Childs Sr. put a pill in her soda that she then drank.



The alleged victim, whose hometown was not disclosed, left the gathering and returned to her room after she felt ill. She told police she was sexually assaulted by Shawn Childs Jr. who followed her into the room. In her description of the assault, the woman said the suspect raped her twice and barred her from leaving the room, Ghrist said in court.



She reported the alleged attack the following morning.



The prosecutor added that Childs Jr. admitted to police that the victim was "messed up" when the incident occurred.



ISU Chief of Staff Jay Groves said the incident "has nothing to do with mischief and everything to do with terrible criminal behavior on the part of adults."



Preview "is a 50-year-old orientation program at ISU that has been wildly successful for freshmen and their families," added Groves and has never been marred by criminal activity.



Parents who attend the event stay on separate floors of Hewett Hall from their children, said Groves.



Preview gives incoming students the chance to meet with academic advisors, register for classes, and meet other students, faculty and staff.

The father and son were arrested Wednesday at Uptown Station as they were getting ready to board a train back to Chicago. Childs Sr. had 22 ecstasy pills in his pocket when he was arrested, said Ghrist.



Childs Jr. is being held in lieu of $10,035; his father must post $20,035 to be released. The son has no prior criminal record, but his father has previous convictions for attempted murder, domestic battery and unlawful use of weapon, according to Ghrist.



A July 29 arraignment is scheduled for both men.

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William Ross, on trial in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, took the stand Thursday and repeatedly denied knowing how the woman's body ended up in a sealed-off room in his McHenry County home.

Testifying against the advice of his lawyer, Ross tried to suggest several other scenarios for how Jacqueline Schaefer's skeletal remains came to be found in his home in 2013, months after he left town and instructed a friend to watch his house but to never enter it. Among his theories was that she was killed by a motorcycle gang or a family member and that he had been set up as the fall guy.

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Prosecutors and expert witnesses said Ross, 64, killed Schaefer, 49, by shooting her in the head and the back sometime in the fall of 2011. Authorities said he continued to live in the house, with the body there, for several months before sealing the remains in a bedroom with caulk, nails and wood trim and leaving town.

Schaefer's body was discovered in November 2013, months after a pipe burst in the home and the friend went in to check for damage.

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On Thursday, Ross remained calm on the witness stand as he denied playing any part in Schaefer's death but said he had "an idea" about who was responsible.

Ross said he met Schaefer when she answered an ad to rent an upstairs apartment and they soon became a couple.

Repeating what he told investigators after his arrest in Las Vegas in 2013, Ross asserted that Schaefer had left for Missouri in September 2011 while he was away on business. He said he decided to go on an extended trip the following year because he was retired and wanted to visit friends and family. Before leaving, he testified, he secured the windows and exteriors doors of his house along the Fox River to deter break-ins, but he denied that he sealed up the room where Schaefer would eventually be found.

Ross also admitted to being a heavy drinker and said he believed the real killer intentionally tried to make Ross look responsible.

During a heated cross-examination by McHenry County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Combs, Ross said he didn't know why his DNA was found on caulking around the bedroom door but that he believed it had been planted there to frame him.

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Ross described Schaefer as an alcoholic and a drug user who made many enemies, including a supposed drug-dealing boyfriend from Missouri, members of a motorcycle gang and relatives. Ross said Schaefer's relatives  some of whom were in the courtroom  had wanted her dead to collect on an insurance policy. Ross even sought to point the finger at the friend whom he'd asked to watch his house and who eventually found Schaefer's body.

When Combs asked Ross why he was so adamant about not letting the friend enter his house, Ross said he feared she would steal things, create a mess, have parties and "do illegal things."

Combs scoffed at that, noting that the house was already in serious disrepair, and asked Ross why, if he had so little faith in his friend, he had asked her to look after his house at all.

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Ross responded that it was cheap to hire her and she knew the property. "I took my chances," he said.

Ross also denied that he had ever hurt Schaefer, despite having been arrested twice in 2007 for abusing her, according to court documents and officials.

Ross was the last witness for the defense; closing arguments are expected to take place Friday and then the case will go to the jury.

Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
In a ruling that could significantly expand the use of medical marijuana in Illinois, a judge has ordered state officials to reconsider adding migraine headaches to the list of conditions that qualify a patient to buy the drug.

Cook County Circuit Court Associate Judge Rita Novak overturned Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Nirav Shah's denial of a petition to add migraines to that list.

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The judge ordered Shah to reconsider evidence presented to the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board before its members voted to recommend approval of marijuana to treat migraines.

The court ruling came in response to a suit filed by a man whose name was kept secret because he already has been using marijuana to treat his headaches, his attorneys said. Since adolescence, the middle-age man has suffered migraines up to three times a week, lasting from several hours up to three days, attorney Robert Bauerschmidt said.

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The man has tried triptans, the most common treatment for migraines, but they didn't work well. He tried narcotic painkillers but had a bad reaction that keeps him from using them, the attorney said.

"He's been through everything," Bauerschmidt said. "Marijuana doesn't cure it, but he finds the pain less severe and believes the headaches are less frequent when he's using it."

Though federal law still prohibits marijuana possession, state law allows it for patients who have any of about 40 specific medical conditions, including cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis. Patients may buy the pot only from state-approved dispensaries.

The latest ruling comes after another judge last month ordered the state to add post-traumatic stress disorder as a qualifying condition for medical pot. That ruling has been rendered somewhat moot, since Gov. Bruce Rauner recently signed a law adding PTSD and terminal illness as qualifying conditions.

But taken together, the separate rulings by different judges suggest that judicial review may further expand the program.

Attorney Mike Goldberg, whose firm handled the two prior cases, has pending lawsuits asking to add six other conditions: irritable bowel syndrome, chronic postoperative pain, osteoarthritis, intractable pain, autism and polycystic kidney disease.

"It's a potential game-changer for the industry," Goldberg said.

But Annie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois attorney general's office, which represents the state in court, emphasized that the ruling does not require adding migraines to the list. It instead orders the director to reconsider within the parameters of the law and the judge's findings.

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Joe Wright, the former director of the state's medical cannabis program, agreed that the case is not a done deal.

"I'm not sure that means you'd necessarily have to add it," he said. "That means they have to look at it again in light of what the advisory board considered."

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If migraines and other conditions are added, Wright said, "That would open up the patient population fairly sizably."

Wright, an attorney, left his job as director of the state program in June, saying he was considering private sector opportunities. State law prohibits Wright from working in the same industry he oversaw for a year, but he said he could work in the industry out of state.

If the director adds migraines as a qualifying condition, that could greatly enlarge the number of patients. Migraines are a widespread condition, occurring in about 16 percent of Americans, according to two surveys cited by the American Headache Society.

Because there is no widely accepted blood test or brain scan to verify migraines, they typically are diagnosed by medical history, symptoms and a physical and neurological examination, according to the Mayo Clinic.

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Typically Migraines occur repeatedly to the same patient, involving moderate to severe head pain that last for hours or days, nausea or vomiting and sensitivity to noise and light.

rmccoppin@tribpub.com

Twitter @RobertMcCoppin
Chicago's police oversight agency on Thursday ruled two shootings unjustified amid the ongoing controversy over how officers use force against residents and how those incidents are investigated.

In both cases, the Independent Police Review Authority ruled police fired into vehicles though the officers were in no serious danger.

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With the decisions, IPRA has ruled more shootings by officers unjustified over the past 1 1/2 months than it had in the previous nine years  a reflection of the systemic upheaval that led Mayor Rahm Emanuel to appoint a new chief for the agency and call for IPRA to be abolished.

In one case, a Chicago police officer shot Ryan Rogers to death in East Hazel Crest in 2013 while the officer was on a special assignment investigating robberies of Radio Shack stores in the city and suburbs, records show. The officer told IPRA investigators that he fired four times because Rogers drove an SUV at him, but IPRA's ruling said the evidence showed that at least one shot was fired after the officer was no longer in peril.

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In the other case, two officers shot and wounded a man who drove off in his SUV as the police tried to stop him after an alleged drug transaction on the South Side in 2015. IPRA ruled that both officers were out of the vehicle's path when they fired.

IPRA did not name the officers, but they are named in other city records connected to the shootings. Officer Daniel Smith shot Rogers; the officers who shot the other man, Antwon Golatte, are Harry Matheos and Jaime Gaeta, according to various city records.

Neither the officers nor Golatte could be reached for comment.

The agency made no recommendation as to any potential punishment for the officers in the shootings it ruled unjustified.

The agency also ruled five shootings justified.

The rulings represent a shift for an agency in transition. As of early last month, only two of more than 400 police shootings had been ruled to violate the city's use-of-force policies since IPRA's inception in 2007. Since early June, the agency has ruled three shootings unjustified.

Those rulings have come since Emanuel in December forced out the agency's chief, Scott Ando, and replaced him with former federal prosecutor Sharon Fairley. The mayor made that move as he sought to contain public outrage following the release of video showing a white officer, Jason Van Dyke, shooting a black 17-year-old, Laquan McDonald, 16 times. McDonald died in the shooting. Van Dyke has been charged with murder.

The location on 171st Street in East Hazel Crest where a Chicago police officer working an investigation fatally shot driver Ryan Rogers, 27, as he accelerated his SUV toward police. (Warren Skalski, for the Tribune)

A recent Tribune investigation detailed IPRA's many shortcomings, including superficial investigations, a lack of independence from the Police Department and a tendency to call for light discipline in the tiny fraction of misconduct cases it has upheld. Fairley has acknowledged her agency's failings and enacted some reforms even as the future of the police oversight system remains uncertain. Emanuel has yet to provide details of what will replace IPRA.

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Rogers' case is illustrative of issues that have sparked criticism of IPRA. Former IPRA supervisor Lorenzo Davis found the shooting unjustified, but Ando declined to follow his recommendation and the case remained open, according to an email from Ando to City Hall officials that the Tribune obtained through an open records request. Davis has sued the city, alleging he was wrongly fired last year for refusing to change his findings in shooting cases he considered unjustified.

"It wasn't closed, no doubt because Scott Ando did not want to close it with a sustained finding," Davis said in a recent interview.

Ando declined to comment Thursday night.

Smith told IPRA investigators, records show, that he was doing surveillance in the south suburbs, trying to catch robbery suspects, when he approached an SUV driven by Rogers, who drove at him. IPRA ruled the officer might have been justified when he started firing, but the last shot was fired after the SUV was pulling away from him. The lethal bullet entered Rogers' back, according to IPRA's ruling.

Earlier this year, the city settled a lawsuit filed by Roger's family for $1 million.

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Similarly, IPRA faulted the officers in the other case for firing at a vehicle as it moved past them. The driver, Golatte, was charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. That case is still pending, court records show.

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IPRA also cleared an officer of wrongdoing in a fatal shooting from August 2012 connected to an off-duty motorcycle accident. In that case, the officer tried to avoid a 4-year-old girl who ran across a Maywood street but skidded into her. The girl's cousin and father attacked the officer when he tried to help the girl, and the officer shot the father after he punched and threw the officer to the ground, the IPRA ruling states.

IPRA ruled that there was an "abundance of evidence" that the officer was being beaten when he fired his gun, and he reasonably thought his life was in danger. But IPRA's ruling suggested the officer might have avoided killing the man if he had first warned he was going to shoot.

That suggestion goes along with IPRA's recent recommendations for changes in the Police Department's use-of-force rules. IPRA has recommended that the department encourage officers to warn people before shooting, when possible.

Chicago Tribune's Jodi S. Cohen contributed.

dhinkel@chicagotribune.com

jrichards@chicagotribune.com
A Chicago police officer has been released from the hospital after he was wounded in an exchange of gunfire that killed a man who had been "acting erratically" at a park in the Prairie District neighborhood on the Near South Side, according to authorities.



Police took the officer to Northwestern Memorial Hospital after he was shot in the leg at Battle of Fort Dearborn Park in the 1800 block of South Calumet Avenue around 8 p.m. Thursday, police said. He was released overnight.



The man killed by police was identified Friday morning as Derek Love, 50, of Chicago. He was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 8:49 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Family members said he had been visiting his mother, who lives nearby, and was headed to his home in Bronzeville about two miles away.



The shooting occurred after bicycle officers were told by someone that a man was "acting erratically" in the park, according to police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, speaking outside the hospital. Officers went to the park and found Love on his cellphone.



The officers asked him to get off the phone and talk to them, but instead he reached into a backpack and started firing, Johnson said. The officers returned fire, hitting the man, Johnson said.



The wounded officer was able to apply a tourniquet to his leg with the help of his partner, probably saving his life, Johnson said. The officer had received training in emergency medical treatment, Johnson said.



The wounded officer is a 17-year veteran of the force assigned to bike patrol in the Central District, Johnson said.



"People like to second-guess, but these officers have a split second to decide whether to use deadly force," Johnson said.



At the scene, several squad cars, marked and unmarked, sat in the street near the park, which was cordoned off in yellow tape. The area of 18th Street and Calumet Avenue in the historic Prairie Avenue District is dotted with townhomes and some high-rises.



A police command van sat at 18th and Calumet, where a police-issued light truck also sat, shining a white beam onto the a grassy area of the park.



Uniformed officers and detectives could be seen in the park. Detectives were also seen walking through a nearby tunnel, which leads to a Metra train station and Soldier Field.



Bicyclists traveled through the tunnel as pouring rain, strong wind gusts and booming thunder hit the area. Two soaking wet, uniformed officers sought refuge in the tunnel, checking out their cellphones as large puddles started to form.



On Calumet before the rain, several onlookers, including one with a dog, gazed at the police activity. Pat Christophersen and her daughter, Carly, were among the small crowd. They curiously walked down the block from their high-rise.



Pat Christophersen said her son and his girlfriend had just left her building, rode their bicycles toward the park and saw someone lying on the ground.



She said lots of people walk their dogs around there, including her. That's where she usually takes her boxer, Molly. She's also used to seeing lots of police officers around, as well as Bears fans walking to and from Soldier Field.



Aside from warnings she's received from her building about garage burglaries in the neighborhood, she knows the shooting of the officer was an isolated incident.



With the recent shootings of police officers all over the country, Christopherson, 60, said that Thursday night's shooting couldn't have come at a worse time.



"The cops are here to protect us," Chistophersen said, as blue lights from a nearby squad car flickered on her face. "They're not here to be on the defensive."



Dozens of police officers were outside Northwestern Memorial in the immediate aftermath following the shooting, with a number of them leaving before 9 p.m.
Authorities at the scene of a standoff July 20, 2016, in the East Side neighborhood that resulted in the surrender of 19-year-old Manuel Gama, who has been charged in a crime spree that ended with the fatal shooting of a gas station clerk in Summit. (Reader-submitted photo)

A man captured following a standoff in the East Side neighborhood Wednesday faces murder and other charges connected with a crime spree that started with a South Side carjacking and ended with the killing of a gas station clerk in Summit, police said.

Manuel Gama, 19, was arrested following a standoff Wednesday near 103rd Street and Avenue G, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, in an email. Gama faces a first-degree murder charge in the killing of Ghassan K. Abujeries, 34, at a Shell gas station, 7200 W. 63rd St. in Summit, July 6. Gama was ordered held in without bail in a hearing midday Friday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago--not $1 million bail, as earlier reported.

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Police obtained a warrant for Gama's arrest on armed robbery charges on July 11 in Bridgeview Branch Court, according to court records. The warrant carries a $300,000 bail and Gama is due in court on Friday. A 15-year-old boy arrested soon after the crimes is expected in court next week in a juvenile case related to the same crime spree.

Police are seeking charges against the boy of aggravated vehicular hijacking in the robbery and shooting at a Mobil gas station, 8903 S. South Chicago Ave., about 7:25 a.m. July 8, which began the spree. He shot a 27-year-old man in the leg, breaking his femur, and then he and Gama stole the man's silver Pontiac Grand Prix.

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About five minutes after the carjacking, the two robbers  driving the stolen car  shot a 24-year-old man in the 8400 block of South Mackinaw Avenue, police said. Responding officers used bandages from their first aid kit to control the bleeding until paramedics arrived, police said. The victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

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Twenty minutes later, about 7:50 a.m., the suspects were involved in a hit-and-run crash in the 5700 block of South Lake Shore Drive, police said. No shots were fired, but the stolen car sustained front-end damage.

The two continued to Summit, where they robbed a Shell gas station, 5344 S. Harlem Ave., at gunpoint about 8:35 a.m., police said. Fifteen minutes later they robbed the second Shell gas station, on 64rd Street and Harlem, where Abujeries was killed.

The robbers then fled in the stolen Pontiac.

Police held a news conference and released surveillance photographs of the robbers in Summit. Detectives tied the two shootings in Chicago to the robberies and killing in Summit, and South Chicago District tactical officers were able to locate the boy, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, in an email. Detectives from Chicago, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, Summit and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force worked to find Gama, whose last known address, according to police records, was in the 9500 block of South Avenue L.

Police tracked Gama to the East Side on Wednesday, and found he had barricaded himself in an apartment, Guglielmi said. SWAT officers were sent to the scene and Gama gave himself up, said Guglielmi.

Gama is set to appear in court Friday, and the 15-year-old has a juvenile court date set for July 29.

The Chicago Tribune's Liam Ford contributed.
James Bryant, 40, is charged with murder in the killing of Kyra Newell, 26, of the 6500 block of North Ashland Avenue. (Chicago Police Department)

A man has been charged with first-degree murder after he fired shots into a car in West Rogers Park, fatally wounding a 26-year-old man in the passenger seat early Wednesday, police said.

James Bryant, 40, of the 6500 block of North Claremont Avenue, fired shots from the sidewalk about 12:25 a.m. Wednesday into a car traveling east in the 2300 block of West Arthur Avenue in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, Chicago police said in a news release. Kyra Newell, 26, of the 6500 block of North Ashland Avenue, was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m. Thursday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

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Police identified Bryant as one of two attackers who fired shots at the vehicle.

The passenger was shot in the head and transported to Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in critical condition.

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Bryant was taken into custody soon after the shooting, police said. He is due in bond court Friday.

meltagouri@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @marwaeltagouri
Teachers demonstrate at the Thompson Center in Chicago as Gov. Bruce Rauner holds a news conference to sign education bills. He also apologized for a 2011 email saying many CPS teachers were "illiterate." July 22, 2016 (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday publicly apologized for writing a 2011 email in which he asserted that half of Chicago Public Schools teachers "are virtually illiterate," saying the comment was "inaccurate and intemperate" and he regrets writing it.

The apology came moments after half a dozen or so teachers interrupted a bill-signing ceremony at the Thompson Center in the Loop, reading statements that criticized the governor for his comments and for his handling of state government more broadly.

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"The remark I made in that email five years ago was both inaccurate and intemperate," Rauner said. "And I apologize. I am a strong advocate for teachers. Always have been, always will be."

The offending comment was part of an email exchange between Rauner, who was a private citizen at the time, and fellow affluent school reform activists involved with the nonprofit Chicago Public Education Fund.

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"Teacher evaluation is critically important, but in a massive bureaucracy with a hostile union, where 50% of principals are managerially incompetent and half of teachers are virtually illiterate, a complete multi-dimensional evaluation system with huge subjectivity in it will be attacked, manipulated and marginalized  the status quo will prevail," Rauner wrote in a December 2011 email in which he argued for stronger evaluations of teachers and principals.

As the Chicago Tribune broke the news of Rauner's comments, which were contained in a court-ordered release of emails by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration, a Rauner official issued an apology on the governor's behalf late Thursday afternoon.

What followed Friday was competing attempts to play to television cameras. Rauner held a bill-signing ceremony to highlight his support for education, inking his approval to two bills relating to standardized testing. The Chicago Teachers Union dispatched members to call the governor out for his comments.

As Rauner was delivering prepared remarks from a lectern, a man stood up in the audience and began shouting at him.

"Gov. Rauner, we are teachers and we are not illiterate. We challenge you to a readout  books and literature on educational justice and civil rights," the man said. "Will you accept that challenge? It's important that we educate you about what we really do every day, 'cause obviously you don't really know."

That protester was followed by about half a dozen others, each of whom read passages from books or statements criticizing Rauner. One by one, they were escorted from the room.

Once the protesters had cleared out, reporters asked Rauner to respond. Instead, he proceeded with his remarks, signed the standardized testing bills and then began fielding questions. That's when the apology came.

"Let me be very clear, I apologize for the statement that I made in that email in 2011," Rauner said. "The remarks there were inaccurate and intemperate. And I apologize to the teachers, and I regret those comments."

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The protesters who had been removed from the event said afterward they were offended by Rauner's comments and unsatisfied with his response.

"I don't accept his apology. I think he needs to show a lot more and not just apologize to CPS teachers and principals, but he needs to apologize to the city of Chicago, to our parents, to our students," said Arathi Jayaram, a kindergarten teacher at Schubert Elementary on the Northwest Side. "Because if he's questioning my ability to read, what is he saying about our students and the students that we are teaching every single day."

Among the comments Rauner wrote in his 2011 email was a complaint that wealthy donors had "wasted" $200 million trying to improve public schools. Asked about that Friday, Rauner said he felt that "the pace of change is too slow."

"I have spent much of my life, both my time and my resources, trying to improve public education," Rauner said. "It's important, we can't give up, but the pace of change is too slow."

Ironically, Rauner also noted that some of his wealth can be traced back to his work in the business world involving teacher pensions.

"I've primarily worked for teachers my whole life, getting a better retirement for them, investing their pension assets, and did a terrific job, and I'm proud of that," Rauner said. "Made a lot of money doing it, and with the money we've made, we've given back, funded teacher training, teacher education, scholarships, principal development, charter schools, early childhood education."

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kgeiger@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimgeiger
Gov. Bruce Rauner and first lady Diana Rauner visit the Mary Crane Center-Molade/Austin Center on July 21, 2016, before the governor signed an early education bill. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.

Topspin

Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois first lady Diana Rauner made a rare joint appearance in Chicago on Thursday. Given the state's circumstances, the scene was a bit awkward.

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The governor is at the center of a Springfield stalemate that's caused chaos for Illinois social services and left major decisions on the direction of the state's budget until after the November election at the earliest. The first lady's own not-for-profit advocacy organization, an Ounce of Prevention, is part of a host of not-for-profit groups that provide state-subsidized services to low-income families and have sued the Rauner administration for nonpayment of bills.

And so when the two appeared together at an early childhood education bill signing ceremony, they were asked about the situation.

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Diana Rauner said her organization had joined the lawsuit "as a business decision, to support and serve the organizations that we work with."

"I share the governor's frustration with the lack of a balanced budget and the structural reforms, and hope that we can get to a position where all programs for vulnerable families are supported appropriately and all agencies are paid in a timely fashion," she said.

But when the first lady was pressed to weigh in on whether too much damage had already been done to social services, the governor stepped to the microphone instead.

"There are many, many human services, many social service agencies supporting our most vulnerable families that have not received the support they deserve. And that's a tragedy," the governor said. Then he moved on to a new question.

The bill the governor signed into law sets aside at least 20 percent of early childhood education funding for programs aimed at infants and toddlers.

"This is one of the things that we can be most proud of, that in a time of tremendous strife, this is something we can all come together on," said Diana Rauner as she introduced the governor. (Kim Geiger)



What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel has no public schedule.

*Gov. Rauner will sign legislation about teacher training and school testing. This comes less than 24 hours after a spokesman issued an apology for Rauner's email characterization of half of CPS teachers as "virtually illiterate."

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*U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk along with Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer will be on the West Side for a news conference about the upcoming launch of a mortgage assistance program.

What we're writing

*Rauner apologizes for 2011 email in which he called half of CPS teachers "virtually illiterate."

*Trump cites Chicago gun violence in nomination speech.

*Illinois Republicans to leave Trump convention lacking unity.

*Giuliani says Emanuel needs to have Chicago cops' backs.

*Webb report recommends dozens of changes at Emanuel's Law Department.

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*Budget cuts, federal funds challenge CPS principals.

What we're reading

*Illinois man awaits Pence response on historic pardon request.

*Roger Ailes, one of the most powerful people in media, resigns amid sexual harassment allegations.

*NBA moves All-Star Game out of Charlotte, citing transgender restroom law.

From the notebook

*Duckworth's Dem speaking slot: U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, who is trying to oust Sen. Mark Kirk, will address the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week, tentatively on its closing day, an official from her campaign says.

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For Duckworth, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates who lost both legs in the Iraq War in 2004, it's the third consecutive national nominating convention she's gotten a speaking slot.

In 2008, she had a spot at the podium as she led the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs. In 2012, she gave a speech while running for the U.S. House. She went on to win that November, defeating controversial one-term Republican Rep. Joe Walsh, who's now a radio talk-show host.

This time around, Duckworth is challenging Kirk, a Republican from Highland Park who stayed away from his party's convention this week in Cleveland and has said he will not vote for GOP nominee Donald Trump.

More than 60 federal, state and local officials will address the four-day convention that opens Monday, organizers said Thursday.

Among them is Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat. First elected to Congress in 1992, Gutierrez is a leading advocate for immigration reform.

Other members of the U.S. House and Senate, governors and several mayors made the cut. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a past convention speaker, was not on the list released Thursday.

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Nor was Duckworth on the list, though organizers said more speakers will be announced in coming days. (Katherine Skiba)

*GOP's data gathering efforts: Illinois Republican Chairman Tim Schneider had a rough morning Thursday, but it had nothing to do with the booing that happened on the floor of the Republican National Convention the night before.

Rather, the culprit was an evening of partying, as the Illinois delegation had the run of Cleveland's famous Lola Bistro, which is run by Michael Symon, a chef known for his TV appearances on the Food Network.

"I am reminded why Monday and Tuesday night I didn't go to the after-party this morning," Schneider quipped to the sparse breakfast crowd. "Geez, it was a late night last night, let me tell you.

"Hopefully everyone had a good time yesterday," Schneider added. "From what I remember, I had a great day too."

Schneider then got down to business, telling delegates about the organization Republicans have been able to build in Illinois due to the influx of money and support under Gov. Rauner. Schneider said Republicans used to be behind Democrats in gathering data about voters but have since turned that around, joking about the GOP's previous strategy of bombarding "hard Republicans" with mailers during campaign season.

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"Stupid us," Schneider said. "They are going to vote for us anyway."

Schneider said the organization is now targeting "low-propensity voters" who are "high-propensity Republican."

"We know more about you, I hate to say it, than you think," Schneider said. We get the information from your credit cards ... what cable TV stations you watch. That information is powerful," Schneider said. "That's how we turn elections around." (Monique Garcia)

*The Sunday Spin: On this week's show, Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson will review the GOP convention and preview the Democratic convention with Mark Fratella, a Donald Trump delegate from Elmhurst; and Pat Brady, a former state Republican chairman and delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The Sunday Spin airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-720 AM.

Follow the money

*Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash

Beyond Chicago

*Trump pledges law and order, accuses Clinton of crimes in nomination speech.

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*Cruz not backing down on not endorsing Trump.

*Trump sets conditions for defending NATO states, NYT says.

*Kaine emerges as leader in Clinton veep search, sources tell AP.
With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

CLEVELAND  Donald Trump faulted President Barack Obama for failing the nation's inner cities and cited Chicago's history of gun violence as an example of that as he accepted the Republican nomination Thursday night.

"I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20 of 2017, safety will be restored," Trump told delegates.

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"The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead," he said.

Trump, who has billed himself as a "law and order" candidate, contended homicides jumped by 17 percent in the nation's largest cities, calling it the biggest increase in 25 years.

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"In the president's hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 people have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And almost 4,000 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office," Trump said.

"Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administration's rollback of criminal enforcement."

A Tribune review of shooting incidents in the city showed more than 2,200 people had been shot this year as of July 20. The number of deaths since Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, was not immediately available.

Trump was correcting an earlier misstatement. During a July 12 rally near Indianapolis, Trump gave a larger, inaccurate homicide number for Chicago during the Obama presidency.

"Look at Chicago, look at what's going on," he said. "Since President Obama became president, almost 5,000 killings in Chicago and nobody talks about it. Well, we're going to start talking about it."

Also Thursday, Trump pledged to put "the American people" first with a plan to "begin with safety at home," including "safe neighborhoods."

"This administration has failed America's inner cities," he said. "It's failed them on education. It's failed them on jobs. It's failed them on crime. It's failed them in every way and at every single level."

rap30@aol.com

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mcgarcia@chicagotribune.com
A Cook County judge has dismissed many of the claims by retired city workers who are trying to stop Mayor Rahm Emanuel from cutting off their health care benefits in a case likely headed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Judge Neil Cohen ruled the only retirees who can continue to argue it is illegal for the city to diminish their health care subsidies are those who were hired before August 1989 and who retired after that date. That's because subsequent amendments to the state pension code were for set periods of time, so later city workers had no right to assume their retiree health care deal would be guaranteed for life under the state constitution, Cohen ruled.

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That still leaves several thousand retirees with the right to contest the reduction of their health care deals.

Other counts, including that the city breached a contract with the retirees by cutting the benefits, were dismissed.

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Attorney Clint Krislov, who's representing the retirees, said he will seek to have the case immediately moved to appellate court rather than continuing in front of Cohen, in the hopes of getting the ruling reversed.

And he also will ask the court to stop the city from continuing the phaseout while the case is ongoing. "There's urgency to it because if nothing's done, people will lose their health care at the end of the year," Krislov said.

A group of retirees sued after Emanuel announced in 2013 that he intended to phase out the retiree health care benefits in a move the administration said could save hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, city retirees would have to buy their own insurance or move onto health care offered through the Affordable Care Act. The change affected more than 30,000 retired city workers.

The city has been gradually reducing the benefits since then, with the final portion to be ended in January 2017. City Hall has continued to provide full health care benefits for city workers who retired prior to August 1989.

An Emanuel-appointed panel issued a report in 2013 that said without changes, enrollment in the city-run retiree plan was expected to grow to more than 47,000 in the next 10 years, which would increase costs to $541 million.

As with court cases in which city workers are fighting Emanuel's attempts to reduce their pension benefits, the health care case is destined to end up before the state Supreme Court regardless of which side prevails in the lower courts.

In a statement, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said the health care changes were among the "difficult decisions" Emanuel has made to fix the city's finances. "The decisions may not have been easy, but they reflect the reality of our finances and they are right for taxpayers," Collins said.

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @_johnbyrne
MIAMI  The North Miami police officer who shot an unarmed mental health worker caring for a patient actually took aim at the autistic man next to him, but missed, the head of the police union said Thursday.

It was a stunning admission from the police officer and from John Rivera, who heads Miami-Dade's Police Benevolent Association. But it was one meant to calm the fears of a nation besieged with cellphone videos of police shooting and sometimes killing unarmed black men.

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In this case, Rivera said, the officer ended up wounding the man he was trying to save.

"I couldn't allow this to continue for the community's sake," Rivera said Thursday during a hastily called news conference at the union's office. "Folks, this is not what the rest of the nation is going through."

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North Miami police and investigators have been tight-lipped since the Monday shooting, even as video of most of the encounter has been released. The story gained international attention and public pressure for answers mounted.

Earlier Thursday, North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene spoke briefly for the first time, but said little other than that no weapon had been found and that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had taken over the investigation. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said her office would wait for the findings of the investigation before determining if the officer should face criminal charges.

North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene speaks at a press conference regarding the shooting of Charles Kinsey by police on July 21, 2016, in Miami. (Carl Juste / Miami Herald)

The chief didn't take any questions and refused to name the officer. The city said he is a 30-year-old Hispanic male who has been on the force for four years.

Rivera called the officer who shot Charles Kinsey "decorated" and said he was a member of city's SWAT team. The name of the autistic man hasn't been released. He appears to be white or Hispanic on the video.

Rivera, at the end of his news conference Thursday, read from a statement he said was from the officer who shot Kinsey.

"I took this job to save lives and help people," the officer said. "I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something that I'm not."

Thursday night, about 40 Black Lives Matter protesters stormed into the North Miami Police Department demanding that the officer who shot Kinsey be fired.

'Mr. Kinsey did everything right'

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On Monday, a North Miami police officer shot Kinsey, 47, after, police said, the officer mistakenly believed that Kinsey was going to be killed by the 23-year-old autistic man playing with a toy truck who was sitting on the ground next to him. Rivera said the officer feared the autistic man had a weapon.

Police raced to the scene after receiving a 911 call saying there was a man in the roadway with a gun who was going to kill himself. When they got there, they found the man sitting on the ground with his truck and Kinsey, who was trying to coax the man back inside the nearby group home.

You arrive on scene and a guys playing with a toy truck. Why do you bring out the assault rifle? Its a good thing he was obviously a lousy marksman.  Robert Hoelscher, retired firearms expert and police officer

When police barked orders for the two to lie down with their hands up, Kinsey complied.

"Mr. Kinsey did everything right," Rivera said.

The autistic man ignored the orders of police yelling for the men to lie down, though it's not clear whether he understood them. Some of the officers were behind poles on the street. Others were behind their patrol vehicles.

Then, while Kinsey was lying on his back, head raised, with his hands in the air and the autistic man sat beside him, an officer fired three rounds from a rifle, according to North Miami police. One bullet found a target  Kinsey.

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He was shot in the leg and transported to an area hospital where he continues to recover. He is expected to be released this week.

According to a law-enforcement source, the officer who shot Kinsey was taking cover behind a squad car and fired from at least 50 yards away. He shot after another officer, in a radio transmission, suggested the autistic man was loading his weapon, which turned out to be the toy truck, the source said.

A screengrab from a July 20, 2016, local news report shows Charles Kinsey, 47, explaining in an interview from his hospital bed in Miami what happened when he was shot by police. Kinsey, a therapist who was trying to calm an autistic patient in the middle of the street, said he was shot even though he had his hands in the air and repeatedly told the police that no one was armed. (WSVN via AP)

In interviews, Kinsey said he repeatedly told police while he was lying on the ground that there was no weapon and not to shoot. Rivera said North Miami police couldn't hear his cries. The union president didn't know how far the police were from Kinsey.

Most of the confrontation was captured on a cellphone camera and the video has caused a buzz around the world. It was released to the Miami Herald by Kinsey's attorney Hilton Napoleon. The attorney didn't say if portions of the video were edited out. The footage doesn't show the actual shooting. Calls and texts to Napoleon were not returned Thursday.

On Wednesday, only two days after the shooting, Napoleon said he was already in settlement discussions with North Miami's manager.

The shooting took place about a block from the MacTown Panther Group Home where Kinsey worked. At one point Thursday a blue minivan filled with special-needs folks pulled up and workers escorted them by hand into the home. Neighbors say it's not uncommon for adults to go on walks around the neighborhood, often in groups and always with a caretaker.

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Retired firearms expert Robert Hoelscher, who spent 50 years with the Miami-Dade Police Department, said it's hard to perceive how the situation was misjudged, but it was  grossly.

"I wish there was something positive I could say. You arrive on scene and a guy's playing with a toy truck. Why do you bring out the assault rifle?" Hoelscher asked. "You can't get enough training when you're dealing with lethal force. This is as bad a situation as I've ever seen. It's a good thing he was obviously a lousy marksman."
With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

CLEVELAND  Declaring America in crisis, Donald Trump pledged to cheering Republicans and still-skeptical voters Thursday night that as president he will restore the safety they fear they're losing, strictly curb immigration and save the nation from Hillary Clinton's record of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."

Confidently addressing the finale of his party's less-than-smooth national convention, the billionaire businessman declared the nation's problems too staggering to be fixed within the confines of traditional politics.

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"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump said.

The 70-year-old celebrity businessman's acceptance of the Republican nomination caps his improbable takeover of the GOP, a party that plunges into the general election united in opposition to Clinton but still divided over Trump. Underscoring his unorthodox candidacy, Trump doubled down on the hard-line immigration policies that fired up conservatives in the primary but broke with many in his party by promising protections for gays and lesbians.

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His address on the closing night of the convention marked his highest-profile opportunity yet to heal Republican divisions and show voters he's prepared for the presidency. Ever the showman, he fed off the energy of the crowd, stepping back to soak in applause and joining the delegates as they chanted, "U-S-A."

As the crowd, fiercely opposed to Clinton, broke out in its oft-used refrain of "Lock her up," he waved them off, and instead declared, "Let's defeat her in November." Yet he also accused her of "terrible, terrible crimes" and said her greatest achievement may have been avoiding prison for her use of a private email and personal server as secretary of state.

The more than hour-long speech was strikingly dark for a celebratory event and almost entirely lacking in specific policy details. Trump shouted throughout as he read off a teleprompter, showing few flashes of humor or even a smile.

He accused Clinton, his far-more-experienced Democratic rival, of utterly lacking the good judgment to serve in the White House and as the military's commander in chief.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," he said. "But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy."

In a direct appeal to Americans shaken by a summer of violence at home and around the world, Trump promised that if he takes office in January, "safety will be restored."

As he moves into the general election campaign, he's sticking to the controversial proposals of his primary campaign, including building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border and suspending immigration from nations "compromised by terrorism."

But in a nod to a broader swath of Americans, he said young people in predominantly black cities "have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child in America." He also vowed to protect gays and lesbians from violence and oppression, a pledge that was greeted with applause from the crowd.

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"As a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said," he responded.

Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, who announced a childcare policy proposal that the campaign had not mentioned before.

"As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time when women weren't a significant portion of the workplace, and he will focus on making quality childcare affordable and accessible for all," she said.

Trump took the stage in Cleveland facing a daunting array of challenges, many of his own making. Though he vanquished 16 primary rivals, he's viewed with unprecedented negativity by the broader electorate, and is struggling in particular with younger voters and minorities, groups GOP leaders know they need for the party to grow.

The first three days of this week's convention bordered on chaos, starting with a plagiarism charge involving his wife Melania Trump's speech and moving on to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's dramatic refusal to endorse him from the convention stage.

Then, Trump sparked more questions about his Oval Office readiness by suggesting in the midst of the convention that the U.S. might not defend America's NATO partners with him as president. The remarks, in an interview published online Wednesday by The New York Times, deviate from decades of American doctrine and seem to reject the 67-year-old alliance's bedrock principle of collective defense.

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Trump reinforced his position from the convention stage, saying the United States has been "picking up the cost" of NATO's defenses for too long. He also disavowed America's foreign policy posture under both Democratic and Republican presidents, criticizing "fifteen years of wars in the Middle East" and declaring that "Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo."

"As long as we are led by politicians who will not put 'America First,' then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect," he said.

He had promised to describe "major, major" tax cuts. But his economic proposals Thursday night were vague, centering on unspecified plans to create millions of jobs. He promised a "simplified" tax system for the middle class and businesses, fewer regulations and renegotiation of trade deals that he says have put working class Americans at a disadvantage.

Top Clinton aide John Podesta panned Trump for offering little more than "prejudice and paranoia" and promised she would offer a more positive vision for America when she accepts the party's nomination at its convention next week in Philadelphia.

Clinton is on the verge of naming a running mate to join her in taking on Trump and his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, in the general election. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as her top choice.

Associated Press
BERLIN  An 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire in a crowded Munich shopping mall and a nearby McDonald's Friday night, killing nine people and wounding 16 others before killing himself, the chief of police in the Bavarian capital said.



Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told a news conference early Saturday that the suspect was a dual citizen from Munich and his motive was still "fully unclear." He said it was too early to label the attack an act of terrorism; earlier police said they had no indication of Islamic extremism.



"The question of terrorism or a rampage is tied to motive, and we don't know the motive," Andrae said.



Police gave a "cautious all clear" in the pre-dawn hours Saturday, more than seven hours after the attack began and brought much of the city to a standstill as all public transit systems were shut down amid a massive manhunt. They said a body found near the scene was that of the shooter and he appeared to have acted alone and killed himself as he fled.

Andrae said the suspect's body was found about 2 1/2 hours after the attack and was determined to be the shooter based on witness statements and closed circuit television footage of the attack. The shooter, whose name wasn't released, was not previously known to police and there was no evidence of any links to terrorist organizations, Andrae said.



"We can't question the suspect so this is all a little more difficult," he said.



A cell-phone video posted online showed the suspect dressed in black standing on a rooftop parking area of the mall yelling back and forth with the person filming, saying at one point "I'm German" and eventually firing shots. Andrae said police believe the video is genuine.



Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, but Andrae said two other people who fled the area were investigated but had "nothing to do with the incident."



The police chief said the nine fatalities included young people and children were among the 16 wounded, three of whom were in critical condition.



After gunfire broke out at the mall, one of Munich's largest, the city sent a smartphone alert declaring an "emergency situation" and telling people to stay indoors, while all rail, subway and trolley service was halted in the city.



It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. The previous attacks, in the French resort city of Nice and on a train in Bavaria near the city of Wuerzburg, were claimed by the Islamic State group.

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The attack started shortly before 6 p.m. at a McDonald's across the street from the mall, which was filled with people doing their weekend shopping. As dozens of shots rang out, terrified shoppers ran from the scene, some carrying babies and pushing strollers.



Video obtained by The Associated Press from German news agency NonstopNews showed two bodies with sheets draped over them not far from the fast food restaurant. Another video posted online showed a gunman emerging from the door of the McDonald's, raising what appeared to be a pistol with both hands and aiming at people on the sidewalk, firing as they fled in terror.



Witness Luan Zequiri said he was in the mall when the shooting began and "there was a really loud scream," he told German broadcaster n-tv.



He said he saw only one attacker, who yelled an anti-foreigner slur and was wearing jack boots and a backpack.



"I looked in his direction and he shot two people on the stairs," Zequiri said. He said he hid in a shop, then ran outside when the coast was clear and saw bodies of the dead and wounded on the ground.



Germany's Interior Ministry said Munich police had set up a hotline for concerned citizens. Residents of Munich opened their doors to people seeking shelter using the Twitter hashtag #opendoor.



Germany's interior minister cut short his holiday in the United States to go back to Berlin late Friday to meet with security officials.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel was being regularly briefed on the attack, said her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier.



"All that we know and can say right now is that it was a cruel and inhumane attack," he said on German public channel ARD. "We can't rule out that there are terrorist links. We can't confirm them, but we are investigating along those lines too."



Altmaier noted that Friday was the fifth anniversary of the massacre in Oslo, Norway, by a far-right extremist who killed 77 people, 69 of them at a youth summer camp.



"You can only have absolute security in an absolute surveillance state, and nobody wants that, it would be the opposite of our free western European way of life," he said. "But, and this became clear again today, we can't talk down this danger. It's a danger that many countries are exposed, especially in the west, and that's why it's important to give our security agencies the instruments they need."



Police responded in large numbers to the mall in the northern part of Munich, near the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital. In all there were 2,300 officers involved, including the elite GSG9, and SWAT teams from other German states and from neighboring Austria.



It was also not far from where Palestinian attackers opened fire in the Olympic Village in 1972, killing 11 Israeli athletes. Five guerrillas and a police officer were also killed. The GSG9 anti-terrorism unit was created after that attack, though the city saw a worse one in 1980, when 13 people were killed and more than 200 injured at the city's annual Oktoberfest in a bombing blamed on a student with ties to a neo-Nazi group.



It was the second attack in Germany in less than a week. On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan wounded four people in an ax-and-knife attack on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, and another woman outside as he fled. All survived, although one man from the train remains in life-threatening condition. The attacker was shot and killed by police.



The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teen likely acted alone.



Gun attacks in Germany are uncommon. Firearm ownership is widespread but they are strictly regulated, with purchasers first having to take training courses in order to be granted a permit to own one. Many types of firearms are banned.



In the U.S., President Barack Obama pledged to provide Germany with whatever help it might need to investigate the mall shooting.

Associated Press
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 20: A delegate holds up a sign that reads "Hillary For Prison" on the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

CLEVELAND  Delegates to the Republican National Convention are divided this week over a crucial question:

Should Hillary Clinton be summarily executed? Or merely imprisoned without trial?

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Most favor the latter position, judging from the nightly chants of "Lock her up!" from the convention floor and the regular calls from convention speakers to outfit Clinton in jumpsuit or stripes and place her behind bars.

But a minority would deal more decisively with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. On Wednesday, word broke in Cleveland that New Hampshire state representative and Donald Trump delegate Al Baldasaro, who has shared the stage with Trump at campaign events, said in a radio interview that "Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."

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The Republican nominee and his advisers themselves are split on the issue. "Hillary Clinton has to go to jail, OK? She has to go to jail," the candidate declared last month. "She's guilty as hell."

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 160 With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

But his longtime adviser Roger Stone has long argued for more. "Hillary must be brought to justice  arrested, tried and executed for murder," he tweeted two years ago. Stone suggested anew this week (at a rally also attended by Baldasaro) that Clinton murdered her friend Vince Foster.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is imprisoning his foes without trial. In Russia, enemies of President Vladimir Putin have been killed. But in America, we usually deal with political opponents in elections.

Those at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena have other thoughts.

"Lock her up!" said Michael Flynn, retired general and Trump's national security adviser, chanting with the delegates. "If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today."

"Lock her up," veteran Jason Beardsley, another convention speaker, concurred.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday night ignited the crowd by saying: "If she were any more on the inside she'd be in prison."

Darryl Glenn, Senate candidate and county commissioner in Colorado, told the convention-goers that "she loves her pantsuits" but "she deserves a bright orange jumpsuit."

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"Hillary for prison! She deserves to be in stripes," Pat Smith, the mother of one of the Benghazi victims, declared from the podium.

Patricia Smith, the mother of a Benghazi survivor, criticized Hillary Clinton and blamed the Democratic presidential candidate for the death of her son during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 18, 2016. (Washington Post) (Washington Post)

Chris Christie, in his Star Chamber presentation to the convention Tuesday night, held a mock trial to "hold Hillary Rodham Clinton accountable."

"Lock her up!" the delegates chanted.

"We're getting there," Christie replied.

He and the audience went on to convict Clinton on numerous charges, including being "an apologist for an al-Qaida affiliate in Nigeria, resulting in the capture of innocent young women."

Why lock her up? Because she's the "enemy." Pastor Mark Burns, in the convention's first moments, said in his opening benediction that "our enemy is not other Republicans but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party."

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Those surprised by this week's vengeful words probably weren't paying attention earlier.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen last month tweeted the allegation that Clinton "murdered an ambassador." Corey Stewart, chairman of Trump's Virginia campaign, accused Clinton of "essentially encouraging the murder" of police officers. Rocker Ted Nugent, a prominent Trump supporter, said Clinton and President Barack Obama "should be tried for treason and hung."

Trump himself often speaks favorably of violence ("Punch him in the face. ... Knock the crap out of them") and has talked of using presidential powers to torture suspects, target innocent relatives of terrorists, restrict press freedoms, go after a judge presiding over a fraud case against him and get the Justice Department to investigate opponents.

Is it OK for political figures to talk this way?

As members of the GOP call for Hillary Clinton to be put in prison, Rex Huppke investigates Hillary hatred at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. July 19, 2016. (Chicago Tribune)

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who previously represented Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and other strongmen, doesn't seem to mind.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday morning about "how angry" the convention has been, Manafort replied, "The tone that I saw was joy." Asked about the "Lock her up" chant, Manafort opined that "it probably reflects the attitude of a lot of people in America."

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Reflects? Or encourage those who have violent thoughts of extra-constitutional remedies?

Calls for killing Clinton have been heard before at Trump events. At an event this month, one man repeatedly shouted "Hang that b----!"

Last week, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Mike Folk, tweeted that Clinton "should be tried for treason, murder" and then "hung on the Mall in Washington."

This week, Duane Flowers, a county commissioner in Ohio, said at a public meeting that Clinton "should be hanging from a tree."

At the Republican convention, sales of "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts have been brisk. And the hateful have felt emboldened: Officials shut down the chat function on the convention's live-stream after a barrage of anti-Semitic comments.

Will the cries for blood and vengeance cause a backlash outside this angry convention?

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"Hillary Clinton now belongs in prison? C'mon," Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a Never Trump holdout, tweeted Tuesday night. "We can make the case that she shouldn't be elected without jumping the shark."

Sorry, Fonzie. This shark was jumped many episodes ago.

Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist.

Washington Post Writers Group

Twitter @Milbank
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers his address during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21, 2016. (Michael Reynolds, EPA)

Nearly 50 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Harlan Cleveland wrote a book called "NATO: The Transatlantic Bargain."

It still is a bargain, but apparently Donald Trump doesn't know a deal when he sees one. The Republican candidate for president, whose world view is bound by balance sheets, has said that he might not come to the defense of the Baltic states or other NATO allies against a Russian attack because they aren't spending enough on defense.

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This is called breaking a promise. The NATO treaty, signed in 1949, obligates all NATO members, including the United States, to defend any member that comes under armed attack. Period. No qualification or clauses. No cost-benefit analysis. We signed an obligation and Trump proposes to renege on it.

With the presidential campaign now in full cry, it's a good time to look at what we get from NATO. It's no charity, but an investment that has paid dividends for nearly 70 years. In language that Trump should understand, it's a good deal.

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Accepting the GOP nomination in the final night of the Republican National Convention July 21, 2016, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump offered himself as a "law and order" candidate and made a direct appeal to blue-collar Americans who have felt left behind in the 21st century. (Washington Post) (Washington Post)

In a rambling interview with The New York Times, Trump said: "If we cannot be properly reimbursed for the tremendous cost of our military protecting other countries, and in many cases the countries I'm talking about are extremely rich ... with massive wealth. Massive wealth. We're talking about countries that are doing very well. Then yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, 'Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.'"

The Times asked him to be specific. If Russia attacked Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, all NATO treaty members, "would you come to their immediate aid?"

"You can't forget the bills," Trump said. "If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes."

In other words, not necessarily.

During the Cold War, the U.S. promised to defend its allies. Would we actually have gone to war to defend Germany, say, or Norway? We'll never know. But we had promised, and no Soviet leader was willing to bet that we were kidding. Now Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, but he is keeping his hands off Poland and the Baltic states, which are. That NATO-based promise says we will come to their aid if Putin attacks. The Russian president clearly thinks we might mean it.

Yet here comes Trump saying, in effect, maybe yes and maybe no.

This mutual-defense pledge, enshrined in NATO's Article 5, is the heart of the alliance. So it's fair to ask, as Trump has, what do we get out of it?

NATO is more than a defense alliance. It is the only permanent treaty link between the United States and Europe. It is the way to talk with our best friends. All manner of trans-Atlantic issues, not just defense, are discussed and decided within NATO's North Atlantic Council in Brussels. The U.S. and its allies agree that, having fought two terrible wars in Europe in the past century, we have a proper role to play in Europe's peace and prosperity. NATO embodies that agreement.

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Without NATO, we lose our leverage in Europe. At a time when immigration and other pressures are straining European unity, anything we do to help the Europeans also helps us.

Within this framework, the U.S. and Europe have done a lot together. From the start, NATO provided the security framework that enabled old enemies  and more recently, former Soviet satellites such as Poland  to restore their shattered political and economic lives. The alliance won the Cold War. Some NATO allies such as France tried to talk us out of invading Iraq  if only we had listened!  but the alliance led the Western operations in Afghanistan for 11 years. NATO allies, especially France, were at our side in the first Gulf War and throughout the war in Kosovo. More recently, NATO allies have collaborated on sanctions against Russia and in establishing a presence in Poland and the Baltics.

But what about those bills that so bother Trump? What about the imbalance in spending?

It's real, and it's a long-running sore spot. NATO's total defense spending is $918 billion, and the U.S. accounts for $664 billion of this, more than twice as much as the other 27 members combined.

But this imbalance has existed from the start. The U.S. always has had an outsize defense budget and has always nagged its allies to pay more. This issue is called "burden-sharing," and is such a hardy perennial that, when over the many years I covered NATO, I just shortened it in my notes to "bs."

The Europeans probably should pay more. But one result is that because Washington pays the piper, it calls the tune. Over the years, NATO has enabled us to do things  the Gulf War and Kosovo, for instance  that we would have done on our own, but more expensively.

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The U.S. and its NATO allies share history, goals and values. We have one another's backs. In a cold and tough world, what price tag do we put on this friendship?

The U.S. and its NATO allies "fulfill their obligations" daily. So yes, it's still a bargain. It's a good deal.

Richard C. Longworth, a former chief European correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, is a retired fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
To get to her summer job at an academic testing center in Naperville last year, teacher Antonia Flynn left her house in the Washington Heights neighborhood at 5 a.m., then took two buses and two Metra trains  a 2 1/2- hour commute that wore her down: "I'd get home at 8 p.m. All I did was travel. The pressure on my body was ... I can't explain it." This year, she decided to not take the Naperville summer job  it wasn't worth the physical and psychological wear and tear.

There's a name for the geographic affliction sapping the energy of Far South Siders. They're stuck in transit deserts  city neighborhoods and suburbs poorly served by mass transit. These places are often predominantly African-American, low income and jobs-starved. For many workers on the Far South Side and in suburbs like Matteson or Richton Park, their jobs are a wearisome crosstown trek away, reached only after a long train ride or two, and one or more bus transfers.

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"On the North Side, there are many (transit) options," says Andrea Reed, executive director of the Greater Roseland Chamber of Commerce. "Why don't we have that on the South Side? The resources don't come down this far."

That has to change.

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The Regional Transportation Authority  the umbrella agency for Chicagoland transit systems  is studying an idea that could provide a lifeline to workers marooned in the Far South Side's transit desert: converting the Metra Electric District line, which runs from downtown to south suburban University Park, from commuter rail to rapid transit.

It's an idea that's been talked about for years, but it has resurfaced thanks to a strong dose of advocacy from a coalition of South Side and south suburban community and business groups.

How would it help? The line would run with CTA-like frequency  trains every 10 to 15 minutes, and more stops  with connections to CTA and Pace bus routes.

Integrating the different fare systems that the CTA and Metra use would be tricky. The CTA operates on a flat rate, while Metra's fares are distance-based. But the group, which calls itself the Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric, thinks it could be done by adding "tap-on, tap-off" turnstiles at Metra Electric train stops, allowing South Siders with CTA Ventra cards to use them on the distance-based Metra system.

Metra says it's currently studying the cost and benefit of about 30 possible expansion projects; among them is the conversion of the Metra Electric, including its Blue Island and South Chicago branches. A 2009 proposal, made when the city was assembling its bid for the 2016 Olympics, put the cost at $159 million.

That's far less than the CTA's planned Red Line South extension, which would run from 95th Street to 130th Street. The price tag for that project is more than $2 billion.

The region's transit systems have many more billions in unmet capital needs, and funding is scarce. But expanding service to the South Side and south suburbs should be a high priority.

Transit deserts are self-perpetuating  when companies, jobs and people began leaving the South Side, ridership went down and service was cut back. To reverse the trend, frequency of trains needs to be ramped up.

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Giving low-income neighborhoods better access to mass transit isn't just about giving South Siders a better conduit to job centers downtown, on the North Side and in the suburbs. Better transit options would bring businesses and jobs.

Make it easier for people to get from A to B and you'll likely entice restaurants, retailers and other businesses to see those neighborhoods as new markets.

"For this part of town, economic development is a matter of life and death," says the Roseland Chamber's Reed. "We see it every day. People are dying, getting shot and killed. ... How can we become one city where there's opportunity for everybody?"

Improving mass transit on the Far South Side isn't a cure-all. Schools need to improve. Police interaction with South Siders? We know that's got to get better. But getting around, getting to jobs with commutes that aren't extraordinarily onerous? That's something most people on the North Side take for granted, something people on the South Side pine for  and deserve.
CLEVELAND  Well, that was strange.

I realize that's not deep political analysis, but it's a reasonably accurate summation of the four-day Republican National Convention, the coronation of Donald Trump as the standard-bearer of a party that often seemed reluctant to have him.

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Many things went wrong. Plagiarism, D-list celebrities making kooky comments, an anti-Hillary Clinton rage that often seemed unhinged. Trump bizarrely giving television interviews while his own convention was airing. Trump sparking a mild international incident with reckless comments about NATO. The Trump campaign repeatedly showing its ineptitude, ham-handedly reckoning with the plagiarism issue and allowing a copy of Trump's nomination acceptance speech to leak to the media hours ahead of time.

Ivanka Trump introduced her father as the "the people's nominee" on the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 22, 2016. (Washington Post) (Washington Post)

And some things went right. The Trump children  particularly Donald Trump Jr.  gave strong speeches that managed to partially humanize their often-cartoonish father. Republican leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to deftly toe the line between supporting Trump  who both have struggled to embrace  and focusing people on overarching conservative priorities.

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The security in Cleveland was outstanding, and there were few incidents at an event many expected to be chaotic. And the people in attendance who I had the chance to speak with  people who I disagree with on most policy issues  were, to a person, kind and thoughtful.

That's an unfortunate element of the broadcast spectacles that today's political conventions have become. The viewers receive a largely monolithic message, one that doesn't represent the diversity of views held by the thousands in attendance.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 160 With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

It will be the same at the Democratic National Convention, which starts Monday. If you're a conservative, most of what hits your ears will be written off as nauseating liberal pablum. But if you pulled a Democratic delegate or two aside, you'd likely find a more nuanced take on the world, just as I did with many Republicans in Cleveland.

Republicans like Mike Lachs, a delegate from New Jersey who voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the primary but has fallen in line behind Trump. Lachs is a pro-choice Republican who has found his party to be more open to different thinking than its reputation might suggest.

"People will tell you that all Republicans are the same way," Lachs said. "But they're not. You don't have to agree on everything, not at all. I feel like with a lot of liberals, if you don't accept certain core principles, you have to kind of hide it."

He has a point. At the very least, each party has a central core that clings to orthodoxy.

But what about Trump? Isn't he a bit extreme for a reasonable person like Lachs?

"He's not a regular politician," he said. "He's a man who is used to saying what he thinks. Sometimes that's good, sometimes it's not. But I think he'll learn to adjust."

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Lachs said he was impressed with Trump's children, which reassured him about the real estate mogul's behind-the-bravado character. And he feels confident that Trump will appoint Supreme Court justices based on their intelligence rather than their ideology.

At the end of the day, Lachs wants someone who will end the political gridlock that has plagued Washington, D.C., and he thinks Trump is better prepared to do that than Clinton.

"I'll settle for someone who can get something done," Lachs said. "And I think he will."

For Glen and Alice Rekeweg, delegates from Texas, the choice for Trump is rooted in the Supreme Court picks.

"I survived eight years of Obama, I can survive four years of Trump," Glen Rekeweg said. "But I can't survive a lifetime of liberal Supreme Court justices."

If you don't like Trump, you can hoot and howl about how Lachs and the Rekewegs are accepting the candidate's xenophobia and other troubling traits. But I can tell you from spending time with these folks that they're not mean or unreasonable or unkind. They just see things differently than I do.

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Lachs and I had a great conversation, and the Rekewegs gave me a pin in the shape of the state of Texas and recommended a nice restaurant they had tried in Cleveland's Little Italy. We all got along great.

I think that's an important takeaway from the GOP convention, and something Democrats should be mindful of going into their big event.

Candidates aren't an accurate reflection of their supporters. They're an amplified personality that pulls from wildly varying opinions.

This doesn't mean I'll be getting friendly with Donald Trump, or that I'd expect any Republicans to cozy up to Hillary Clinton.

It means we should remember that nobody speaks for us in the same way we speak for ourselves. And while we go after the candidates we fear or dislike, it's worth keeping in mind that their followers aren't clones  they're good people, most of them anyway, who happen to think about things differently.

There was a darkness and negativity that came from the stage at the GOP convention. It often felt mean, and I think the people in the room wound up guilty by association, which isn't quite fair.

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Democrats would be smart to keep the rhetoric at their convention more uplifting and to remember that the people listening  people who might technically be the opposition  deserve to be acknowledged and not demonized.

It's just a thought, and maybe it's too hopeful. But that's where my mind is at in the wake of four very strange days.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RexHuppke
Accepting the GOP nomination in the final night of the Republican National Convention July 21, 2016, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump offered himself as a "law and order" candidate and made a direct appeal to blue-collar Americans who have felt left behind in the 21st century. (Washington Post) (Washington Post)

CLEVELAND  The Republican Party was seriously wounded Thursday night by an orange-hued heathen who, after months of battering conservatives with divisive, xenophobic and often nonsensical rhetoric, dropped the once-proud party of Lincoln to its knees by accepting its nomination for president.

It remains unclear whether the GOP will recover, but is said to be under sedation and planning to spend more time with family.

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Before delivering his final blow in a prime-time acceptance speech at the GOP national convention, real estate mogul and master egotist Donald J. Trump derailed any hope the Republican Party had of broadening its appeal to a wider base of American voters. Trump's co-conspirators, who remain on the loose, have been identified as "millions of predominantly white voters who feel left behind in a demographically changing America."

Trump's initial assault on the party came about a year ago when he announced a bid for the presidency by describing Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, sucker-punching the GOP's hopes of winning over Latino voters. That anti-immigrant stance grew into the promise of "a big, beautiful wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border, one that would be paid for by Mexico via Trump's self-proclaimed negotiation skills and sheer toughness.

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Proof of those negotiation skills and toughness could not be independently confirmed, and Mexican officials have repeatedly denied a willingness to pay for any such wall.

Few in the Republican Party considered Trump a threat, writing off his initial attack as a publicity stunt by a reality show fabulist. But with promises to ban Muslims from entering the country and speeches painting America as a dystopian place ruined by "others," the billionaire's aggrieved posse grew.

In May, with the GOP nomination all but clinched, Trump's campaign was described by the New York Times as "a hostile takeover of one of America's two major political parties." The paper noted that some party leaders feared "a historic cleaving between the familiar form of conservatism forged in the 1960s and popularized in the 1980s and a rekindled, atavistic nationalism, with roots as old as the republic, that has not flared up so intensely since the original America First movement before Pearl Harbor."

Seemingly stunned by those initial blows and unable to escape the clutches of Trump's notably small hands, the party relented, eventually inviting the enemy into its den  this week's Republican National Convention.

Donald Trump speaking during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Carolyn Kaster / AP)

As Trump and his minions held GOP stalwarts like Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and House Speaker Paul Ryan hostage  their fear visible in televised speeches possibly delivered under duress  witnesses reported baffling scenes of disorganization and ineptitude.

An underwear model, Antonio Sabato, took the stage then later told reporters he was convinced President Barack Obama is a Muslim. Neither Sabato nor his underwear could be reached for comment.

Trump's wife, Melania, delivered a speech that contained plagiarized passages. Former presidential candidate Ben Carson linked presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to Satan, prompting Underworld officials to demand an immediate apology.

Speakers routinely tossed red meat to bloodthirsty audience members who, according to observers, were not allowed to bring their sense of decency into Quicken Loans Arena. Delegates lustily booed any mention of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and chants of "Lock her up!" shook the floor, giving viewers of the televised event a rare look at the destruction of a once-great party.

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Before delivering his most injurious blow and accepting the nomination, Trump seemed to mock the party he had hijacked by creating an international incident that revealed his slim qualifications for the presidency.

In a New York Times interview, Trump said he would not necessarily send U.S. forces to assist fellow NATO members who come under attack. That statement caused numerous foreign policy experts to nearly choke on their breakfast scones and led NATO officials to release a statement assuring that solidarity is key to the military alliance's success.

Trump's opponent, Clinton, could not be reached for comment because she was busy laughing hysterically and picking out drapes for the Oval Office.

Having embarrassed the GOP sufficiently and cast out its elders  the Bush family, the Romney family and enough veteran members of Congress to fill a separate convention schedule  Trump took the stage Thursday night.

He painted a bleak picture of an America with crumbling infrastructure, airports in "Third World conditions" and surging crime. Earlier in the day his campaign spokesman pushed back on the fact that crime statistics in America are actually at historic lows, presumably because math is hard.

After sufficiently terrifying all Americans, Trump said: "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." No evidence to support that assurance was provided.

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Wrapping up his speech with a con man's swagger, Trump punched the Republican Party and knocked out its last bit of relevancy.

Investigators say Trump and his followers may one day be held responsible, but not until after Nov. 8.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com
Accepting the GOP nomination in the final night of the Republican National Convention July 21, 2016, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump offered himself as a "law and order" candidate and made a direct appeal to blue-collar Americans who have felt left behind in the 21st century. (Washington Post) (Washington Post)

CLEVELAND  Where's the pivot?

That's what I was wondering throughout Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's lengthy and surprisingly humorless acceptance speech Thursday at the Grand Old Party's national convention in Cleveland.

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Ever since Trump won enough delegates to clinch the nomination in May, I've been waiting to see if and when Trump would make "the pivot."

That's today's fashionable term in political circles for a campaign strategy that President Richard Nixon used to describe as more of a pendulum: You swing toward your party's base to win their nomination, then swing back to the center to attract the independent voters that decide general elections.

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Timing and managing your pivot as a candidate is tricky but crucial. But, with barely more than 100 days left to the November elections, Trump sounded like a guy who ain't about to pivot.

Quite the opposite, Trump sounded like he's doubling down on his efforts to rouse the conservative and largely blue-collar and middle-class base that has turned out in huge numbers, as he puts it, at his rallies.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 160 With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

That's quite the opposite of the outreach to minorities, women and millennials that was recommended by the Republican National Committee's post-2012 "autopsy" report.

There always has been a lower-profile but widespread grass-roots faction in the Grand Old Party that believes in doubling down instead of watering down their conservative agenda, especially in big, crucial rust-belt swing states like Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere that failed to show up for Mitt Romney in 2012.

"I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals," Trump said in his convention speech. "These are the forgotten men and women of our country, and they are forgotten, but they will not be forgotten long. These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice."

He gave a lot of emphasis to those last four words. His me-against-the-world message seemed to reveal something important about the inner Trump. Leadership usually means sharing the struggle with those whom you wish to lead. Trump implies he can do it all himself.

"Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it," he said. "I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against (former Democratic candidate) Bernie Sanders." How? Trump did not say. He didn't have to. He apparently figured it was enough that he extend the olive branch to disappointed Sanders voters.

Instead of the "Morning in America" politics of optimism that Ronald Reagan perfected and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama emulated, Trump preached doomsday darkness  be afraid, very afraid.

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If there was a pivot in Trump's speech, compared to what we have heard on the campaign stump, it was in his pivot toward that dark side. The world's going down the tubes, he emphasized, all because of  guess who?

"The irresponsible rhetoric of our president," he shouted, as if he did not know how microphones work, "who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than, frankly, I have ever seen and anybody in this room has ever watched or seen."

He went on to claim that the Obama "administration has failed America's inner cities" and described the problems of "Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Ferguson" like every other self-styled expert who has spent little or no actual time in the communities he was talking about. Thanks for the thoughts, Mr. T, but where are your remedies?

The same goes for his daughter Ivanka Trump, who delivered more effectively than her dad a message of hope, particularly to women and her fellow millennials  two groups in which Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton holds double-digit leads over Trump.

Ivanka Trump introduced her father as the "the people's nominee" on the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 22, 2016. (Washington Post) (Washington Post)

Trump's speech lasted an hour and 15 minutes, the longest in more than 40 years, but for all its scary litany of problems  which have given professional fact-checkers much to debunk  Trump offered no solutions.

He promises to destroy ISIS and "do it quickly," he says. But how? He'll tell us after he's elected, he says. "Believe me."

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He says that a lot. But as I learned long ago, when someone says "believe me" all the time, you probably should not believe them.

There's nothing new about the use of doomsday rhetoric in politics. Check out historian Richard Hofstadter's classic 1964 essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics."

Trump apparently follows the Machiavellian view that you can win more supporters with fear than with love. But in one authoritarian regime after another, we have seen how the politics of fear often leads to more problems that people should be fearful about.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
Ted Cruz was booed off stage during the Republican National Convention's third night on July 20 2016.

Even as chaotic, disorganized and occasionally hapless as Donald Trump's campaign team has been all along, there's no way they were caught off-guard or even disappointed by Ted Cruz's speech to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night.

Cruz, the GOP senator from Texas who finished second to Trump in the grueling race for the party's presidential nomination, began his 23-minute prime-time address to the delegates with a pro-forma congratulation to his opponent and then never mentioned his name again.

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Toward the end of his remarks, about where an endorsement ought to be, Cruz urged Republicans everywhere to "vote your conscience." It echoed the failed "Never Trump" effort to change convention rules so as to allow delegates to ignore primary and caucus results and vote for the candidate they felt best represents party values. And it prompted boos and catcalls throughout the arena.

Did Cruz "go rogue," as some pundits maintained in the tumultuous aftermath? Not at all!

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He'd long been signaling that he wasn't going to endorse Trump. The National Review reported online Tuesday that Cruz wasn't going to endorse Trump. And advance copies of the speech that were widely disseminated Wednesday evening revealed that he wasn't going to endorse Trump.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walks from the podium after speaking during the Republican National Convention, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in Cleveland. (Evan Vucci / AP)

This was no "Whoops, parts of Melania Trump's speech were plagiarized!" moment, no "Golly, Ben Carson departed from his prepared remarks and linked Clinton to Lucifer" embarrassment.

Team Trump could have made Cruz's invitation to speak contingent on an endorsement. They could have kept Cruz away from the podium up until the last minute.

They didn't. The only logical conclusion is that they wanted Cruz to create a scene, and that Cruz, who has his faults but is nobody's stooge, was more than happy to comply.

The advantage for Cruz is clear.

By refusing to join the ranks of craven wheedlers in the field of former candidates who placed their principles and their spines into gift boxes and handed them over to the crude former Democratic populist whose absurd promises won him the Republican nomination, Cruz keeps his reputation for ideological purity intact.

Though his apostasy is currently being harshly criticized by his fellow Republicans  even some former supporters  it will serve him well if Trump goes down in defeat in November. He will be better positioned to make a presidential run in 2020 than any of those who opportunistically embraced the loser they once and rightly reviled. Today's disloyalty stands to become tomorrow's bravery.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 160 With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

And it has the added advantage of a certain nobility. Trump's attacks on Cruz during the primary season were as harsh and repellent as intraparty criticism gets. Trump linked Cruz's father to the assassination of President John Kennedy and derided the appearance of Cruz's wife, to name two prominent insults  and some of us admire Cruz's refusal to shrug off such vitriol as just part of the rough and tumble of politics.

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People say voters are sick of name-calling in politics. I doubt that's true. Trump's astonishing success was built on relentless personal verbal assaults. But they are sick of insincere name-calling  invective that is hurled and later disavowed in the name of unity. They are sick of candidates not meaning what they say.

Overall, failing to offer even a grudging endorsement was a gamble worth taking for Cruz. If Trump wins in November, it will be his GOP at least through the 2020 election cycle, with little room for a hard-shell social conservative like Cruz. And by the 2024 presidential race, no one will remember or care what he said or didn't say at that crazy convention in 2016.

The advantage for Trump of the raucous scene Wednesday night is also clear.

Allowing Cruz to deliver an off-message, even rebellious speech and then reacting to it with serene nonchalance showed Trump to play, for once, the bigger person, the adult in the room.

Yes, coverage of the Cruz controversy overshadowed the first major national speech by vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. I was so absorbed myself in the social media explosion over Cruz that I only listened with half an ear to what sounded like a serviceable address, and Thursday morning's news coverage suggested I wasn't alone.

But drawing attention to Pence was less important to Trump than making conservative holdouts feel listened to and unifying his convention in the belief that his former chief rival is a rude, selfish ingrate.

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With luck, Cruz and Trump will go down in history as big losers. But Wednesday night was a win for them both.

Twitter @EricZorn
A Dodge Durango blew a stop sign and collided with a minivan as the SUV driver tried to escape gunfire coming from another vehicle Wednesday in Aurora, according to police.

Police say the incident was apparently gang-motivated.

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Aurora police responded to Benton Street and Union Street about 1:25 p.m. Wednesday, where the 18-year-old male driver of the Durango reported someone in another vehicle had been following him as he drove eastbound on Benton, the department posted to its Facebook page Thursday. An unidentified suspect shot at the Durango several times when it was just west of Union Street, police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said in an email.

The Durango collided with a southbound minivan driven by a 48-year-old woman when the SUV ran the stop sign at Union Street, according to police. The force of the crash sent the Durango into two unoccupied parked vehicles, according to police.

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The only injury was to the Durango driver's 13-year-old passenger, who sustained minor bumps and scrapes from the crash, according to police. Neither the driver nor his sole passenger was hit by gunfire, according to police.

The Durango driver was ticketed for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, Ferrelli said.

Police declined to answer further questions about the incident, citing the integrity of the ongoing investigation.

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call Aurora police investigators at 630-256-5500 or Aurora Area Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and qualify for a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to any arrests. People also can submit tips through the Aurora Police Department's free My PD app available through iTunes, the Android Market or Amazon App Store.

hleone@tribpub.com

Twitter @hannahmleone
Hannes Dekeyser is a program coordinator at the European Institute for Asian Studies. The 26-year-old Belgian took part in the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists and was passionate when talking about his ambitions to master the Chinese language as soon as possible, to catch up with the rest of the crowd. This year, 31 Sinologists from 26 countries participated in the program and most of them speak fluent Chinese.

Hannes Dekeyser attends a lecture in Beijing during the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists. [Photo / Chinaculture.org]

My personal profile might be a bit different from the other people in this program. I have not pursued a major in Chinese language, nor in Chinese culture, (yet).

Back in 2012, I finished a degree in Tourism Management with particular attention to the BRICS tourism industries, and especially to China.

For this study, I decided to embark on a one semester internship in China. I was welcomed by a dynamic Chinese tourism marketing company in Beijing, where I was given the responsibility to build bridges between foreign destination representatives and the booming Chinese outbound travel industry.

Being the only foreign colleague in the office, I was immediately and spontaneously immersed in the local business culture, and of course the fabulous and fascinating culture of China.

It is an understatement to say that I absolutely loved my life in Beijing. Its food, its people, its way of life. I had never been in a place so different from home. Very soon, though, I felt like this place had become home. Moreover, like most of the first time visitors, I was intrigued to witness the enormous scope and pace of China's development.

The vast ambition and the optimism of the people I met just astonished me, and in particular the enormous contrast with the prevailing uncertainties and pessimist growth predictions in Europe at the time. All of this took place in a country with a culture and a political system distinctly different from the form of governance that I was used to.

China's meritocracy and its development model are indeed subject to criticism in Europe, but the time in Beijing has opened my mind and convinced me that every form of governance has its merits, which also counts for China.

This fascination never let me go. Ever since, I have been observing political and socio-economic affairs in China. Once back in Belgium, I pursued a Master of Science in International Relations, with a particular focus on China's Foreign Policy.

In this context, I was given the opportunity to lead a delegation of Belgian university students to Sichuan University in the summer of 2013, for a four-week experience of cultural exchanges and academic in-depth debates between Chinese and European scholars on EU-China relations.

I currently work as a Program Coordinator for the European Institute for Asian Studies, also known by its acronym EIAS. This think tank, located next to the Belgian parliament in the heart of Brussels, was founded in 1989 with support from the European Commission. Our core mission is to promote the understanding between the European Union and Asia through a wide range of projects and initiatives including policy research papers, conferences, seminars and training programs.

At EIAS, my research mainly relates to China's Foreign Policy, EU-China Relations and actual Socio-Economic and Political Developments in China.

In a nutshell, my personal story about China and me. I am aware that I am still in a rather early stage of my career so to end up, these are my main ambitions for the future:

First, I want to contribute to the mutual understanding and dialogue between Europe and China through my work at EIAS and for Atlas, and by continuously trying to provide a balanced and nuanced perspective on China.

Second, language. I currently follow Mandarin classes at a Belgian Confucius Institute, but the hustle and bustle of our work in Brussels hinders me to have full attention. Learning the language will however be one of my key ambitions for the months and years to come.

Third, despite the contemporaneity of our policy research and activities at EIAS, I find it crucial and relevant to take the historical and cultural context of a certain subject into account. Therefore, I want to immerse myself more in these matters.

I'm convinced that this visit to China and the interactions with colleagues and experts will definitely contribute to my research and my work for the European Institute for Asian Studies.
Photofairs Shanghai is becoming more international as galleries from South Korea, Belgium, Israel and Iran will make their debuts at the annual photography art fair being held from Sept 9 to 11 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

Photofairs Shanghai will be held from Sept 9 to 11 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. [Photo / China Daily]

A total of 50 galleries from 15 countries will participate in the fair's third edition, and one-fourth of them have never shown in China.

The featured artists will include 19th century photographers Gustave le Gray and Elliott Erwitt, and leading figures in international photography like Mona Kuhn and Cai Dongdong.

Fashion photography will also find a place at the event.

Chinese collector Jin Hongwei, whose Cipa Gallery will be at the fair, says: "Financially speaking, good photography  on the whole  is more accessible than blue chip paintings. It is therefore an interesting way into the art market."

Former photojournalist Liu Heung Shing, who founded the Shanghai Center of Photography, says the fair serves as a window for a large pool of would-be collectors.

"This potential cannot be underestimated given the size of China and the fact that it will be the world's largest economy in the next 10 years."
Leaders of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield, famed for its steel industry, announced here Thursday a 60-year partnership with Sichuan Guodong Construction Group, one of the largest companies in China's Sichuan Province.

The city council officially announced the deal on its website Thursday following the return to the city of the council leader and deputy leader from a visit to Chengdu, Sheffield's sister city.

"We are today announcing a 60-year partnership agreement with Sichuan Guodong Construction Group worth over 1 billion pounds (1.32 billion U.S. dollars)," said the council in its announcement.

The first tranche of funding associated with the agreement is worth 292 million U.S. dollars and will fund four or five Sheffield city center projects over the next three years, the council said, adding the exact projects that the investment will fund are yet to be determined.

Councilor Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, said it is the biggest Chinese investment deal to be made by a British city outside of London.

"This is a real partnership. The projects funded by this investment will be determined by Sheffield City Council, and the 60-year commitment secures a stream of investment into our city for the next generation, and means a whole range of projects become viable because of the long-term nature of the relationship," she said.

"We are clear that this will create hundreds, if not thousands, of additional jobs for the people of Sheffield. The investment comes from China, but the workforce on these projects will be British," said Councilor Leigh Bramall, deputy leader of Sheffield City Council.

"This agreement is ground breaking. It will see the resources made available to deliver the vibrant, growing city center our city needs. This will make Sheffield even more attractive to inward investment, create jobs and enable us to compete with other big cities," he added.

Sheffield City Council has also recently signed co-operation trade agreements with Daqing, the leading center for the oil and gas industry in China, and the city of Nanchang, to boost trade between local companies in the Yorkshire city and China.
Chinese coal producer Shenhua Group on Thursday dismissed media reports about reorganization with another state-owned enterprise (SOE).

"Shenhua is not engaged in merging and reorganization with China General Nuclear Power Corporation and has received no related information from any government agencies," said a post on the company's Sina Weibo account.

The notice came following reports that the two SOEs are seeking a merger to create a conglomerate with total assets of 204 billion U.S. dollars, but have yet to gain support from authorities.

Analysts believe the merger is unlikely as the two giants have completely different main business, focusing on coal production and nuclear power, respectively.

Rumors about SOE mergers are on the rise as the central government tries to encourage mergers and acquisition of torpid SOEs to improve their competitiveness.
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has urged the European Union (EU) to terminate an old practice in anti-dumping investigations of Chinese products by the end of this year.

The "surrogate system" adopted by the EU is set to expire in December, according to a protocol of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on China's accession 15 years ago, an MOC statement said on Thursday.

All WTO members should abide by the protocol, regardless of their domestic standards or any other issues, including industrial overcapacity, said the statement.

Under the current anti-dumping probe method, the EU uses costs of production in a third country to calculate the value of products from countries on its "non-market economy" list, which includes China. The practice allows the EU to easily levy high tariffs.

The statement came after the European Commission held a second orientation debate on the treatment of China in anti-dumping investigations, considering the option to abolish the list and set up a new "country-neutral" method.

China will closely watch the progress and assess the results, the statement said.
Sedans may no longer be the automobile of choice for Chinese families who believe they need more seats to fit in more family members now that the one-child policy is a thing of the past.

At an ongoing auto expo in northeastern Chinese city Changchun this week, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) and seven-seat SUVs are the stars of the show.

At the Toyota booth, its Highlander SUV is the most sought-after model. A sales assistant told Xinhua that the seven-seat model outsells the five-seat.

Supply of the model in Changchun is unable to meet demand. The earliest delivery of the model is the end of the year, at a 30,000 yuan premium over the original price.

"Many buyers are newly-weds looking for more spacious vehicle to fit their children and parents," said Wang Wei of Mercedes-Benz.

Domestic automakers are launching budget MPVs.

"The MPV could grow into a sizable segment of the auto market in countries where there are two or more kids in the family. China is getting there as couples are allowed to have two children." said Li Wei of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, the Korean automaker's joint venture in China.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, MPV sales grew by 10 percent last year to 2.1 million. During H1, sales growth accelerated to 18 percent.

General Motors said of 60 models it plans to roll out for the China market in the next five years, around 25 will be SUVs or MPVs.

"MPV could be the new 'car of choice' for the average Chinese family," Mercedes-Benz's Wang said.
Argentinean President Mauricio Macri on Thursday met with the chairwoman of Chinese telecoms giant, Huawei, Sun Yafang, who expressed her decision to expand Huawei's footprint in the country.

In a statement, the president's office said "Huawei is evaluating more investments in the country and is planning to open a Training Center."

During the meeting with the president and a number of advisers, Sun stated that "Huawei is evaluating moving part of its operations center to the Technological District (in Buenos Aires), created during Macri's time as mayor of the city," read the statement.

In the statement, Horacio Reyser, the president's advisor on foreign investment, said that Huawei is also seeking to open in Argentina a regional training center, which will seek to train over 500 employees, local partners and industry collaborators in its first phase.

In a second phase, the Argentinean government hopes Huawei will build a full-blown research and development center to offer a range of services across Latin America. Huawei has 8 such centers in Germany, Sweden, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, India and China.

"This is important, not only in terms of jobs, but also for the high level of expertise needed to run such program and for the great horizon this opens for technological innovation and the creation of new products and solutions," added Reyser.

Sun also invited Macri to visit Huawei's principal research center in Hangzhou, China, when the head of state visits the city in September for a G20 Summit.
American fast food chain, McDonald's, announced on Thursday that it was temporarily suspending the sale of Big Mac hamburgers in Venezuela, due to "difficulties" with the supplier.

"McDonald's Venezuela is working to resolve this temporary situation. Along with our provider, we are evaluating the best options to keep offering quality products," said the company in a statement.

However, it said that it was working with suppliers to keep offering other products, such as the Quarter Pounder, the CBO, or the McNifica.

Between January and November 2015, McDonald's was already forced to suspend the sale of French fries in Venezuela, stating the impossibility of importing pre-cooked potatoes.

It began offering French fries in November with ingredients "made 100% in Venezuela" but at a higher price.
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China's political advisors on Thursday put forward proposals on enhancing the country's anti-drug efforts.

The conference was presided over by Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

The advisors suggested that social organizations and communities should play a bigger role in drug control education and the rehabilitation of drug users, calling for enhanced professional training of social workers, volunteers and psychological consultants.

More emphasis should be given to the rehabilitation of drug addicts and the role of the Internet in the campaign against drugs, according to a statement from the meeting.

The attendees also called for improved laws and regulations related to drug control, and made proposals on identifying new types of drugs as well as on linking drug control with poverty relief.
The first Kalachakra instructions delivered by the 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu have formally begun, with some 40 monks beginning a closed-door observance Thursday morning.

The 11th Panchen Lama, Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu (above), greets followers at the opening of his Kalachakra instructions on Thursday in Xigaze, the second-largest city of the Tibet autonomous region. An estimated 50,000 devotees are expected to attend the fourday ritual. [Photo/Tibet Daily]

The monks, from Labrang Lamasery in northwest China's Gansu Province and Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery in Xigaze, Tibet Autonomous Region, will perform the ritual every morning during the four-day event.

The Kalachakra (the wheel of time) ritual includes a series of teachings and initiations that are given by gurus to help Buddhists through the cycle of life.

This is the first time in 50 years that the ritual has been performed in Tibet.

To embrace the grand event, Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery, the home temple of Panchen Lamas, started preparations one month ago. In Zhaxi Lhunbo last December, the 11th Panchen Lama celebrated the 20th anniversary of his enthronement.

Currently serving as vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, the 11th Panchen Lama has received some 1,000 initiations and performed head-touching blessings for about 1.5 million Buddhists.

Latest statistics showed more than 100,000 people have attended the ritual held in the New Palace of Panchen Lama near Zhaxi Lhunbo, including 5,000 monks and nuns and 100 lamas.

After overnight rainfall and intermittent drizzling, the meadow in the New Palace of Panchen Lama turned muddy and slippery. Still, people swarmed into the venue at noon to hear the public instruction and initiations scheduled each afternoon.

Before the afternoon session started, monks in crimson-colored robes carried dozens of huge kettles to pour hot tea for participants to help them dispel the cold. Barley biscuits were also distributed by monks to the excited crowd.

A volunteer put cypress branches and barley powder brought by devotees into a yellow stove and burned them to pray for an auspicious ritual.

After the 11th Panchen Lama ascended to his silk-covered throne in the afternoon, senior monks from the Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery presented traditional Tibetan offerings to him.

The 11th Panchen Lama then led the chanting of scripture, with 100 senior monks kowtowing in front of the throne.

The crowd of pilgrims started to throw hada, a silk cloth, toward the 11th Panchen Lama as a greeting. Quickly, hadas piled up in front of the crowd.

In his opening remarks, the 11th Panchen Lama called the rainfall "an auspicious sign," mentioning that it also rained once when the 10th Panchen Lama held a ritual.

At that time, the 10th Panchen Lama explained that the rain indicated purification, said the 11th Panchen Lama, reminding the elderly to keep warm on the rainy day.

Sitting on the ground and with prayer beads in hand, Tsering Wangla from Geding Township of Sagya County, Xigaze, said that the cold and drizzle were "not hardships at all," and he rejoiced at the event "from the bottom of his heart."

The 41-year-old farmer woke up at half past five on Thursday morning to prepare for the excursion. It was also his first time to participate in such a ritual.

Tsering, 20, a driver from Namling County, Xigaze sat in the back. He took two days off so he could attend the ritual, which lasts until July 24.

Hearing the Kalachakra first from his parents when he was small, Tsering said he had wished to hear the precious teaching for a long time and was very happy to join in the ritual.

"I didn't expect there to be so many people, and I have to watch from the distance," he said.

Aga, a 51-year-old herder from Nagqu in northern Tibet, listened attentively to the instructions of the 11th Panchen Lama.

"Receiving the Kalachakra initiation from Panchen Lama is really a hard-won blessing," he said.

Monk Shera Phuntsog from Hao Lamasery in Xigaze also treasured the instructions of the 11th Panchen Lama.

He said that the first-day instruction was very important as it addressed the proper motivations followers must have when seeking dharma from teachers as well as the commandments they must keep.

To ensure the smooth operation of the grand event and offer convenience for participants, a dozen temporary water stations and toilets have been built.

Some 50 doctors and nurses from local hospitals have been assembled in 11 medical squads to provide emergency aid when necessary and manage sanitation control.

No major emergency treatment was performed on the first day, according to Sogdoi from the Xigaze Health Bureau.
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A former Communist Party of China chief of Wukan Village in south China's Guangdong Province was arrested for accepting bribes, according to a local procuratorate Thursday.

The procuratorate of Lufeng City said Lin Zulian, former head of Wukan, is suspected of taking a substantial amount in bribes from village livelihood and procurement projects since 2012.

Lin admitted to accepting bribes in a video released by the procuratorate last month.

Home to 13,000 residents, Wukan was thrown into the international spotlight in 2011 when residents protested for months against the village committee's illegal land grabs, corruption, and violations of financing and election rules. Lin was appointed the new CPC chief of the village after the event.
Shanghai municipality and Xiamen, Fujian province, have been ranked as the most developed and convenient cities for public transportation, according to a report issued by amap.com on Tuesday.

Twenty big cities were evaluated based on factors such as the number of bus stops and subway stations, trip cost, the total number of bus and subway lines and the density of the public transportation network.

Shenzhen, Guangdong province, was next in the rankings, while Beijing was ranked fifth. Chongqing came in last, according to the Public Transport Report of Big Chinese Cities in the First Half of 2016, compiled by map and navigation service provider amap.com.

Shanghai boasts the most developed subway system with the highest density and longest total length, with more than 600 km of track, followed by 554 km in Beijing and 278 km in Guangzhou, the top three among the 26 cities in the country with subways. Passenger capacity of Shanghai's subway system exceeded that of buses for the first time in 2014.

"Metro lines will measure 800 km in 2020 and there will be more than 500 stations on 18 routes, making Shanghai the defending champion with the most developed underground traffic system in the country," said Sun Jianping, director of Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission.

Years of investment in the public transportation system has yielded rewards. The average mileage of a private car in the city was 32 km per day last year, an 18 percent decrease from 2009, according to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau.

The report said that Shanghai also has the most reasonable distribution of bus stops. More than 53 percent of Shanghai's residents are within 500 meters of a bus stop, which compares with 37 percent in Beijing and just under 3 percent for Chongqing. Similarly, 73 percent of Shanghai's residents are within 1 km of a bus stop, which compares with 64 percent in Beijing, and 5 percent for Chongqing.

Still, some internet users complain about traffic congestion in Shanghai.

Second-tier cities, such as Shijiazhuang; Hebei province; Chongqing, Xi'an, Shaanxi province; and Jinan, Shandong province have surpassed the major cities in terms of congestion, according to a report earlier this month by Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing business.
China's civil aviation authority has grounded all aircraft belonging to Joy General Aviation yesterday after one of its seaplanes crashed in the waters in Jinshan District in Shanghai on Wednesday, killing five people.

Wreckage of the 9-seat Cessna 208B propeller seaplane is being salvaged after its fatal crash during maiden flight today in Jinshan District, leaving 5 on board killed. [Photo/Xinhua]

The plane's in-flight recorder, or the "black box," has been found and is being analyzed, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said yesterday.

The CAAC has ordered an investigation into the crash.

The East China Regional Administration under the CAAC has sent teams of experts to investigate the crash. They will probe flying safety, flight operation, aircraft maintenance, airport operation and public security, it said in a statement.

Joy General Aviation, which is based in the Zhoushan Archipelago, is also being probed for its operation, personnel, flying licenses, airworthiness and security, the statement said.

A customer service manager of Joy General Aviation said they had not received any notice to suspend flights but the company had already stopped selling tickets.

The administration had issued the commercial operation certificate to the carrier only last April.

Five people, including the copilot, were killed after the seaplane, a US Cessna 208B, crashed into the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway No. 7835 Bridge at 12:20pm on Wednesday as it was taking off from the sea near Jinshan City Beach.

Five other people onboard the craft were injured and recovering, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission said yesterday.

The plane's captain Zhang Fuquan had a surgery on his right leg but his condition remains serious, said Shen Jie, a doctor at Jinshan Hospital. Zhang remains in intensive care unit.

The other injured passengers are also in the ICU.

Song Wanjun, who had the presence of mind to help passengers get out of the craft after the crash, is suffering from severe celiac hematoma, Shen said.

The other injured passengers are also suffering from short-term amnesia due to injuries on their head.

A reporter and a cameraman with Shanghai Television Station, who were on the ill-fated seaplane, have been moved to Ruijin Hospital in downtown.

The cameraman, Wu Liangliang, suffered multiple fractures on his arms, ribs and legs.

Joy General Aviation was established by Joy Air in May 2014. It describes itself as China's first and biggest seaplane carrier and operated sightseeing routes among islands in the archipelago. It owns a fleet of 14 Cessna 208B seaplanes, including the one that crashed.

The carrier had previously said that it plans to expand its fleet to 100 within five years. Tickets costs from 700 yuan to 1,600 yuan.

The Joy Seaplane Airport near Jinshan Beach was closed yesterday. A Cessna 208B seaplane which completed a return flight between Jinshan and Zhoushan's Shengsi County was berthed at the airport.
Xu Jiru, a postgraduate of the Kennedy School of Harvard University, gained popularity when her speech, aired by the Beijing TV Station a couple of weeks ago, inspired a growing audience regarding how she feels proud to be a Chinese citizen.

Xu Jiru, a postgraduate of Harvard University, rose to fame in a speech delivered at a program called "I'm a speaker" aired by the Beijing TV Station, a couple of weeks ago.

She delivered her speech, which lasted no more than 20 minutes, entitled "Young people grow to be strong when their country flourishes" at a talent show called "I'm a speaker".

"Actually, one cannot discover how brilliant China is until he or she goes abroad," she said in her speech.

As a postgraduate from China, Xu has always been asked by her mentor to make presentations on the major issues of China, such as, "the 13th Five Year Plan", "the Belt and Road initiative" and the "second child policy". There are always talks about China in classes even though the Chinese students like her cannot often ensure that their language is intact and their opinions are extraordinary.

Her Syrian classmate once told her that she is envious of her identity as a Chinese citizen who sounds much better than a status as a refugee, as Syria is suffering a civil war.

"One of the most obvious differences between being a citizen and a refugee is that the former has sufficient rights to choose and can choose freely," Xu said, "that is one of the best gifts a country can present to its young people when it remains stable."

"The world is so big, so I'd like to travel, and my home is so sweet that I can come back anytime as long as I'm willing," she explained.

In her speech, Xu recalled an unusual trip she took to Israel during which an Israeli security officer grilled her for more than half an hour, asking her to give her name, nationality, school, job, the countries she has visited as well as her dream and her dissertation at the airport. Xu felt she was much offended, but an Israeli classmate told her it is merely a routine to ensure the safety of the country which has been prone to terrorist attacks since its establishment in 1948.

They opt for the slowest but safest way because there are too many attacks of which the country is too small to withstand, the classmate continued.

Xu also noticed that when the plane landed at the Israeli airport, almost all the passengers onboard applauded. It was strange to Xu who couldn't understand why they were celebrating when the trip showed no signs of danger, not even any turbulence.

Her classmate told her that their parental generations used to be on their way to escape from the persecution of Jews since the massacre of Hitler's Nazis during the Second World War. They were either killed or forced to leave as refugees during this dark history, which has affected their sense of safety, so their mission now is to rebuild a safe land for their citizens.

"His remarks made me feel how a country and its citizens can be so overwhelmed by the worries of safety issues. The loss of security can hardly assure people to take it for granted," she said.

The sense of safety that a country brings to her young people abroad can protect them from the troubles of being questioned about the legitimacy of their countries, lessen their slightest worries about territorial issues and assure them not to evade to other countries from the war-torn land of their home countries, Xu said in her speech.

She also recalled a famous slogan initiated by the late prestigious thinker and reformer Liang Qichao who advocated for "an audacious and undaunted young generation for the sake of China's rejuvenation".

"There are people at every corner of the country striving for the safety of the country," Xu said.

"Although China today is strong enough, her young people should grow even stronger to meet the expectation of Mr. Liang who made his wish some 100 years ago."
Recently, a delegation from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park of Co-operation between Guangdong and Macao(GMTCM Park) visited the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Portugal, with an aim to promote the progress of the "Belt and Road international window for traditional Chinese medicine industry and culture."

The industrial park has widened and deepened its knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine's current application status and prospects in European countries. Additionally, it has made a preliminary exploration of the working direction for the design of overseas traditional Chinese medicine, and strengthened the cooperation with relevant Portuguese government departments in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.
A preliminary investigation into a fatal tour bus accident in Taiwan has found evidence to suggest the fire began in the vicinity of the driver's compartment and the driver had no criminal record related with driving, a local prosecutor said Friday.

Wang Yi-wen, deputy chief prosecutor of Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office told Xinhua that the autopsy results revealed that the driver had sustained severe burns. The results of alcohol and drug tests have not yet been returned.

Prosecutors say they found no evidence of any CCTV cameras on board the bus, which was badly damaged in the fire, according to Wang.

Twenty-six people were killed when the tour bus crashed into a highway barrier and caught fire near Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan on Tuesday. They included 23 tourists and a tour guide from the Chinese mainland, a local driver and a local tour guide.

No time frame has been released for the investigation, as the process has been made more complicated by the fact there were no survivors to recount the incident, according to Wang.

"The next stage of our investigation will concentrate on finding out what really happened and how the fire started," the prosecutor said.
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The Japanese government said Thursday that it will file a fresh lawsuit against Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga over the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma base within Okinawa.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga notified Onaga in a meeting Thursday in Tokyo that the government would file the suit with the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court on Friday.

The government aimed to seek the court's confirmation that Onaga acted illegally in not complying with a state order to retract his revocation of the former governor's permission for the landfill work of the air base relocation, said Suga at a press conference.

Onaga told reporters later that a fresh lawsuit would be "extremely deplorable" and that Okinawa "will consider what to do as soon as we receive the complaint."

Onaga, firm on his electoral stance, revoked last October his predecessor's permission for the landfill work of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma's relocation from densely-populated Ginowan to Henoko coastal area of Nago within the prefecture.

Political wrangling escalated since then, with the central government suing Okinawa and the latter in turn counter-suing, until a settlement deal was reached in March under mediation of the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court.

According to the settlement deal, the construction work related to the relocation was halted, while the central and prefectural governments held talks and awaited a final ruling to be made by an arbitration panel under the internal affairs ministry.

However, the panel issued its judgment in June with no clear conclusion, only urging the two sides to hold more "sincere discussions."

Following the panel's judgment in June, Okinawa Prefecture has said it would not file a fresh lawsuit against the central government.

Onaga, along with the majority of people in Okinawa, called for the Futenma base to be moved outside the southern island prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.

The central government, however, said that relocation to Henoko within the prefecture is the only way to eliminate the hazards of the densely-populated Ginowan location while maintaining the Japan-U.S. security alliance.
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Some 1,055,575 civilians living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria have received life-saving assistance since relief operations kicked off in February this year, the senior advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria reported Thursday.

"Altogether, 100 convoys have been able to reach besieged and hard-to-reach areas so far in 2016, compared to only 45 convoys in the whole of 2015," Jan Egeland indicated.

"We've reached 18 out of 18 besieged areas, so of course there has been noticeable progress because the diplomats have helped us in 2016," he added.

According to the latest UN figures, 68 percent of the population living in besieged locations have been provided with assistance since February.

Only 12 percent of those living in hard-to-reach areas have received much needed aid, however.

Ongoing fighting between warring factions is one of the main reasons why aid convoys are unable to access trapped populations, the diplomat explained.

This is the case in Madaya, Az-Zabadani, Foah and Kafraya which have not received assistance since April.

The Norwegian called for a new initiative to ensure that convoys are able to assist populations in need, in a bid to overcome the violence hampering relief operations in the country at war since 2011.

"A humanitarian truce could work in the following manner: we get a 72-hour notice to go and get a pause in the fighting for 48 hours. That is what it takes to have a life-line to places where people are on the brink of starvation," he said.
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The Sri Lankan government will look to expand trade ties with China in the future, the Sri Lankan president's office said on Thursday.

The president's office quoted foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera as saying that while Sri Lanka is working on trade agreements with India and Pakistan, it is also looking to expand its trade relations with China in the future.

Samaraweera made the comments at a ceremony attended by President Maithripala Sirisena to welcome a group of new foreign envoys to the country.

Speaking to the diplomats, the president said the foreign policy of Sri Lanka is to be friendly to every country in the world.

Sirisena further said that Sri Lanka is determined to achieve development and end poverty, which he said would help ensure reconciliation in the country.

He was speaking after accepting credentials from new ambassadors of Portugal, Ireland, Mexico and Greece.
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Somali National Forces (SNA), backed by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops, killed three Al-Shabaab militants during a security operation in Jubba region in southern Somalia on Thursday.

AMISOM Force spokesperson, Joe Kibet told Xinhua over phone that the operation in Buurkoy location was special one and targeted Al-Shabaab militants' checkpoints in the area.

"Somali National Army and AMISOM troops carried out an operation in Buurkoy location in Lower Jubba region early Thursday. It was a checkpoint for the militants, the joint forces killed three of Al-Shabaab members there," Kibet said.

The AMISOM spokesman added that there were no casualties on SNA and AMISOM sides during the operation.

The latest security operation comes amid reports of airstrikes which were conducted in Bula-guduud area, 30 kilometers north of Kismayo, the administrative of Jubbaland at the same region.

The American special jets strategically bombarded Al-Shabaab positions enabling security forces to overrun the militant group's compounds.

The insurgents later cut off Wirkoy Bridge near Buuloguduud to hinder the advancement of the security forces. The militants reportedly suffered heavy casualties.

The locals said the insurgents later detonated explosives on a local bridge in a bid to cut off transport. No details on the number of casualties on both sides have been established.

The joint forces have stepped up their onslaught on Al-Shabaab militant group which has been targeting the AU and the SNA bases including major hotels and eateries in Mogadishu and its environs.
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China will continue to support the European integration process, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said on Thursday.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi (R) meets with visiting Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn in Beijng, capital of China, July 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

"China will remain committed to deepening China-Europe relations and practical cooperation," Yang said when meeting with visiting Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.

Both sides should take the opportunity of the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations next year to consolidate trust and cooperation to usher in a new era of bilateral relations, Yang said.

China is an important partner, Asselborn said, adding that Luxembourg is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China and support mutually beneficial cooperation between Europe and China.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Asselborn earlier Thursday.
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A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that China's assistance to Cambodia has no political strings attached.

Lu Kang made the remarks to refute a report by the Associated Press.

According to the AP, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that China will give his government nearly 600 million U.S. dollars in aid to support the country's election, infrastructure, education and health.

"In return, Cambodia supports China in international forums, including in Beijing's ongoing dispute with other Southeast Asian countries in the South China sea," said the AP.

Lu said China hopes relevant sides will not view China's aid to Cambodia through tinted glasses and hype up the event.

As developing countries, China and Cambodia are close neighbors and strategic cooperative partners, with long-term sincere cooperation and mutual support, he said.

In recent years, China has provided assistance and financial support to Cambodia within its capacity to help the country accelerate development and improve people's livelihood, said Lu.

The aid has mainly been used for social projects in areas such as health care, agriculture, water conservation, culture and education, which have been welcomed by the Cambodian people, he added.
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China on Thursday applauded Britain's ban on joining or supporting the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), after Britain listed ETIM as a terrorist organization.

The Parliament of Britain on Friday added ETIM as an "Islamic terrorist and separatist organization" to the list of proscribed organizations.

"China applauds Britain's updated terror list, which includes ETIM," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, adding that China welcomes a clearer understanding of the violent and terror nature and the actual harmfulness of ETIM by other countries, including Britain.

Stressing that ETIM is generally recognized as a terrorist organization by the international community, Lu said terrorism is "the public enemy of all mankind, and anti-terrorism has no national boundaries."

"China would like to work with all parties concerned, including Britain, to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation, fight international terrorism and jointly safeguard global and regional peace, as well as the security of people's lives and property," he added.
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Libyan officials said on Thursday that French warplanes have bombed sites just outside of eastern Benghazi, killing 16 militants.

The bombing forced the militants to retreat to nearby Edjabia, according to the officials.

The French government on Wednesday announced that three French soldiers were killed in Libya, shortly after revealing for the first time, since the military campaign against the late Muammar Gaddafi' regime, that French forces are engaged in military operations in Libya.

"At this moment we are carrying out dangerous intelligence operations (in Libya)," said French President Francois Hollande, confirming that three French soldiers were killed in a helicopter accident.

Western countries have expressed support for the UN-backed unity government of Libya in the fight against the Islamic State.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan capitalized on the coup attempt in Turkey to implement a "radical agenda."

In an interview with a Cuban news agency, al-Assad said the agenda Erdogan implemented is the one by the Muslim Brotherhood, adding that such an agenda is dangerous for Turkey and neighboring countries.

The Syrian president was referring to the mass arrests in Turkey and the heightened rhetoric of Erdogan following the failed coup attempt earlier this week.

"How did they took such a decision," al-Assad said of the mass arrest campaign.

"What's the relationship between the universities and civil society with the coup," he questioned.

The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as one of the staunchest opponents to the government of President Bashar al-Assad throughout Syria's five-year-old conflict.

The Syrian government released endless statements, accusing the Turkish government of supporting the terrorist groups in Syria.

Turkey, under Erdogan, has allowed foreign fighters to cross its territory to reach Syria, with arms and ammunition being smuggled through the Turkish borders into Syria.
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French President Francois Hollande on Thursday called on Britain to prepare for talks to leave the European Union(EU) as soon as possible.

Attending a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris, Hollande said France respected Britain's decision to leave the EU, but the sooner to open a negotiation on Brexit the better.

"There cannot be discussions, pre-negotiations before the negotiation but there can be preparation for this negotiation. We do understand that your government, which has just been formed, needs time. (But), the sooner the better for the common interest," Hollande told May.

Warning of the "uncertainty" as a result of Brexit, Hollande stressed that Britain should respect free movement of EU citizens if it wants to remain part of the free-trade union.

May said she wanted "to ensure that the negotiations for Britain leaving the European Union are done in a calm and orderly and constructive manner."

"I hope that we can all make the most of the next six months to prepare for these discussions in a constructive way so we maximize the opportunities for both the UK and the EU," she added.

May also expressed determination "to maintain the closest possible economic relationship" between London and Paris after Britain's referendum on its EU membership.
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At least 42 Boko Haram insurgents were killed during a clearance operation at Garere village in restive northeast Nigeria's state of Borno, the Nigerian Army said Thursday.

Some 80 hostages comprising 38 women and 42 children were rescued during the operation late Tuesday evening, the Army spokesman, Col. Sani Usman, said in a statement made available to Xinhua.

He said the operation followed an intelligence report on the convergence and massing up of the insurgents in the area.

He said the intelligence report indicated that the insurgents were planning attacks on communities in the area.

Usman said the women and children were taken to the military medical facility in Baga for checks.

According to him, the patrol team also recovered 504 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) ammunition; 162 rounds of 7.62mm (Special) ammunition; one Land Cruiser Jeep; 34 Jerry cans of PMS and AGO.

Usman said 55 Motorcycles used by the insurgents were also demobilized during the operation.

He said the troops had continued to intensify vigilance and maintained high level of alertness to clear the remnants of the terrorists in their area of responsibilities.

In a related development, Usman said troops have arrested a suspected supplier of fuel to Boko Haram terrorists in Borno.

The Army spokesperson said the suspect was arrested at Molai check point in the outskirt of Maiduguri at about 8 a.m, local time on Tuesday.

He added that the suspect was arrested with a truck loaded with 25 jerry cans of petrol and other goods cleverly covered in cartons.

Usman said preliminary investigation indicated that the suspect had for long engaged in supply of fuel and other goods to terrorists in Sambisa.

According to him, authorities in the region had banned the purchase and transportation of petrol in containers in Borno and its environs.

He said both suspects and the exhibits had been handed over to Joint Interrogation Center for further investigation.
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Uganda's notorious rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), is on resurgence in Central African Republic (CAR), abducting at least 344 people in the first six months of 2016, a Midyear Security brief report said late on Wednesday.

The Midyear 2016 Security Brief, issued by a group of two U.S non-governmental organizations monitoring activities of the rebel group shows that the LRA whose leader Joseph Kony is wanted by International Criminal Court for war crimes, abducted 344 Central Africans in the first six months of 2016, posing a resurgent threat to civilians.

In total, LRA abducted 498 civilians and killed 17 others during 122 attacks from January - June 2016, with nearly all attacks in eastern CAR and northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), according a new LRA Crisis Tracker report released Wednesday by charity organizations, Invisible Children and Resolve.

For the first time, there were two exceptions attacks in Sudanese-controlled areas of the Kafia Kingi enclave; the first credibly reported LRA attacks on civilians there since the group established a presence in the area in 2010. Since then, the Kafia Kingi area has regularly served as a safe haven for Kony and other top LRA commanders.

Among the LRA abductees in eastern CAR were 65 children, 39 of whom remain in captivity or are otherwise unaccounted for. Many of the children were reportedly abducted on direct orders given by warlord Kony in late 2015.

"The international community must do more to protect civilians in eastern CAR from the LRA and other armed groups. Failure to keep civilians safe will only embolden spoilers to peace," said Sean Poole, Director of International Programs at Invisible Children.

In DR Congo, LRA attacks and abductions have been on the rise in recent months in northern part of the country. After abducting 44 civilians during 19 attacks in DR Congo from January - March 2016, LRA groups abducted 109 civilians during 37 attacks from April - June.

The increase was due in part to the presence of an LRA poaching group in DR Congo's Garamba National Park, said the report.

At least 38 long-term LRA dependents, women and children who have spent at least six months in LRA captivity - escaped the LRA in the first six months of 2016. They included 15 teenage boys, as well as 12 women and young children who were released near Bangadi, DR Congo.

"LRA defectors consistently report that morale is at an all-time low within the rebel group," said Paul Ronan, director of The Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative.

"Donors should invest heavily in efforts to encourage LRA members to defect, as well as programs to help communities rebuild and accept returnees," he said.

The increase in LRA violence comes as Uganda considers withdrawing troops deployed in eastern CAR from the African Union Regional Task Force beginning October, according LRA Crisis Tracker report.

The UN Security Council is also expected to renew the mandate of the UN peacekeeping operation in CAR (MINUSCA) this week.
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The UN Security Council on Thursday held its first straw poll on candidates vying to become the next UN secretary-general but made no announcement of the results.

After the secret balloting, Japan's Ambassador Koro Bessho, also the Security Council president for July, told reporters here that "the candidates will be informed of the results through the respective permanent representatives of nominating member states."

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, the Security Council, particularly its five permanent members, will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

Before the final decision comes out, several rounds of straw polls would be held among the 15 Security Council members. Bessho explained to reporters that the straw poll is "an indicative vote."

He said the poll is to inform the candidates of where they stand in the race and also inform the council members how the race might go on from here.

So far, 12 candidates have been competing for the post of the next UN chief: half of them are women; eight are from the eastern European nations. Among them are former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, UN cultural agency UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, etc.

In Thursday's balloting, Security Council members have voted "encourage," "discourage" or "no opinion expressed" for each one of them.

The second round of straw poll has not yet been scheduled.

The incumbent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is going to conclude his term at the end of 2016. The council's decision to select the top leader of the world organization shall come later in the fall.

Ahead of Thursday's confidential poll, the UN 193-member General Assembly has held public informal dialogues with every secretary-general candidate, during which the candidates were asked to submit their resumes and answer questions from UN member states as well as the civil society.

The procedure is widely seen historic, yet not decisive. President of UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft who initiated the procedure has said it is to find the best person who is the moral authority and is capable of leading the UN with political and diplomatic skills.

Regarding other UN member states, there has been a widespread call to select a woman as the world's top civil servant ever since the selection process was set in motion; it is also expected that the next secretary-general shall come from eastern Europe due to an unwritten rule of regional rotation in UN chief selection.
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The Turkish government notified the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe (CoE) on Thursday that it intends to temporarily suspend the European Convention on Human Rights in the country.

Officially, the Turkish authorities have notified CoE Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland that Turkey will "notify its derogation" under Article 15 of the Convention.

The possibility of temporarily suspending the convention is provided for by Article 15 in times of public emergency "threatening the life of a nation". It has been used in the past by other member states, most recently by France and Ukraine.

However, there are conditions that must still be met, including the right to life, and a prohibition against torture and inhumane treatment. Also, no punishment can be issued without due legal process.

The CoE said it was important to note that the human rights convention will continue to apply in Turkey.

"Where the Government seeks to invoke Article 15 in order to derogate from the convention in individual cases, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will decide whether the application meets the criteria set out in the convention, notably the criteria of proportionality of the measure taken," a CoE statement said.

Turkey first joined the CoE, which oversees the ECHR in 1950, making it one of the oldest signatories among the 47 members.

Jagland said the Turkish government would continue to inform him about the measures taken.

The move follows the attempted coup on Friday. Military and police personnel, as well as thousands of civil servants and teachers, have either been arrested or removed from their posts since the failed coup.
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Turkish military will be restructured in a short time following a failed coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Turkish policemen attend the funeral ceremony of special forces police officer Meric Alemdar killed during the failed July 15 coup, at the Kocatepe mosque in Ankara on July 21, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

"The army will get fresh blood," Erdogan said in a televised interview in Ankara.

The president underlined significant deficiencies and failure in their intelligence gathering about the July 15 coup attempt.

"No need to hide or deny. I told it to the undersecretary of national intelligence organization (Hakan Fidan)," he said.

President Erdogan said he was not able to reach the chief of intelligence agency and the general staff at the night of July 15. "I hardly had contact with the prime minister," he said.

The army should take a serious lesson from this incident, he noted.

"A new coup attempt is possible but not easy. We are more vigilant now," the president said.

Some 10,400 people were detained, 4,060 of them were arrested, according to figures given by the president. About 100 of the arrested were generals, he said.

Erdogan said they will extend the state of emergency for three months more if needed. The government has decided to declare three months of state of emergency on Wednesday, which the parliament has approved Thursday.

The president also criticized Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade Turkey's credit rating from "BB+" to "BB" on Wednesday with a negative outlook.

It was a political decision, Erdogan said, stressing that the economy of Turkey is strong with no problem in liquidity.

The failed coup attempt, which began last Friday, was crushed the next day; at least 290 people, including more than 100 "coup plotters," were killed, authorities said.

The Turkish government claimed the failed coup was organized by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric.
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As South Sudan searches for solution to its nascent fragile peace that suffered a setback in recent fighting in July, the underlying problems in the oil-rich impoverished country go beyond President Salva Kiir and his erstwhile rival first Vice President Riek Machar.

UN peacekeeper helps South Sudan civilians settle down at UN house in Juba, South Sudan, July 12, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Analysts interviewed by Xinhua said the problems that threaten to make the country ungovernable emanate from as far as during its struggle for independence from Sudan, and the failure to undertake reforms in the aftermath of signing the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) in 2005.

This they say has given birth to militia groups, unconstitutionalism and impunity as the then guerrilla Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) disavowed dissent within its ranks, leading to splits that took on ethnic tendencies.

Ideological disagreements within the SPLM/A led to incidents like the 1991 Bor massacre, after Machar and Lam Akol now minister of agriculture in the transitional unity government broke away from the late John Garang and formed the SPLA/ Nasir.

Its failure to build consensus that is an eye opener into the inner workings of the political establishment and recent violence within the more than two years since independence in 2011 from Sudan.

One scholar that captured the underlying fault lines in South Sudan is Professor Mahmood Mamdani, who was part of the African Union five-member investigations panel led by former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo.

The panel investigated the causes of conflict and human rights violations in the aftermath of the fighting in 2013, between forces loyal to President Kiir and Machar.

Despite the two parties inking the now shaky August peace deal to end more than two years of civil conflict, fresh fighting in July has opened up the complexities pertaining the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-brokered peace agreement.

But the question is how can the war-torn country get back to order?

"South Sudan needs a second transition, instead of giving political power to those with the gun, this transition will seek to forge a political compact both at the level of society and that of the political class. It will seek to combine political justice with political reform," Mamdani wrote in an Opinion in the East African Weekly.

He added that the transition that was the CPA failed and that it fed the worst anti-reform tendencies in the SPLA and turned into a breeding ground for the violence that erupted in December 2013.

"The obvious dilemma with this agreement is that those likely to be tried are the same as those who hold power," he added.

Edmund Yakani, the director of Community Empowerment for Progress organization, a civil society organization, said the country's problems is divided into three layers that include leadership, structural and identity crisis.

"There is absence of proper governance will among the liberation leaders. So the nation of South Sudan is absent. The ruling party assumes that they liberated the people and the country, and it's only them to define what the state of this country looks like," Yakani said.

"Without strong institutional, legislative reforms, forget about South Sudan improving," he added.

Yakani also explained the need to build a strong army with national character that cuts across the more than 60 ethnic groups in the country.

Economist, Lual Deng of the Ebony Center for Strategic Studies, said the army is predominantly made up of the two largest ethnic groups of Dinka and Nuer which needs to change as requested in the peace agreement.

"South Sudan has more than 60 tribes and yet the army is dominated by Nuer and Dinka. If you want to reform the army and get it out of the ethnic and political maneuvering, co-opt other ethnic groups," Deng told Xinhua.

He said the signed peace agreement that must first be implemented calls for security, economic and political reforms.

"There is no peace agreement where trust and confidence building is undermined like the South Sudan peace agreement is suffering," Yakani said on the need to build trust between the two protagonists to the agreement.

Meanwhile, Augustino Ting Mayai of the Juba-based Sudd Institute told Xinhua, that the recent fighting proved IGAD and other peace monitors wrong because it's very difficult for two rival armies to co-exist within an already tense capital Juba.

"The previous conflict was generated by political disagreement within the party which was mismanaged. What about now having two belligerent armies within one city," Augustino wondered.

He called for the revisiting of some clauses of the agreement especially on the security sector.

Augustino related the sporadic fighting in Yei and Torit areas as reaction from the July 8 and 10 fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Army-in opposition (SPLA-IO) and the South Sudan army (SPLA) which left about 300 people killed.

"There cases of violence taking place in Torit, Yei due to what happened in Juba. They are basically interlinked," he observed.

He disclosed that in case the two parties refused to adhere to the peace agreement, the government would be starved of badly needed finances from the international community.

The transitional unity government is faced with financial difficulty and it has not even elected its speaker and parliamentarians needed to undertake reforms enshrined in the peace agreement.

"Without streamlining the security sector due to its hugeness, we won't have a national army and there is need to strengthen accountability and justice sector," he noted.
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The United Nations humanitarian chief Thursday expressed grave alarm over developments in the eastern part of Aleppo city in Syria, where civilian, humanitarian and commercial movements have been effectively cut off following the closure of the last remaining access route in and out of the area.

"Our highest priority is to re-establish access to eastern Aleppo city, through both cross-line convoys and cross-border operations from Turkey, so that we can replenish critical life-saving assistance like food, medical supplies and fuel, and assure the continuation of basic services," said Stephen O'Brien, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, in a statement released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Noting that an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people are at risk of besiegement, Mr. O'Brien said that humanitarians have not been able to reach eastern Aleppo since clashes started on 7 July between the Government of Syria forces and non-state armed groups, which rendered Castello Road impassable.

Hundreds of mortars, missiles and projectiles were launched on both eastern and western Aleppo in the past weeks, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, including several children. Hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have also been affected by the fighting.

On 16 July, for example, a hospital in eastern Aleppo city was reportedly hit, and a number of medical staff injured. It was the third time the facility was hit in the past two months.

Mr. O'Brien  who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator  reiterated that the humanitarian community has repeatedly stressed that medical staff and facilities must not be targeted, as international humanitarian law clearly states.

"I call on all parties to the conflict to immediately enable unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to the millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria," he said, urging them to lift all sieges, respect the safety of medical and humanitarian workers, and ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The Under-Secretary-General added that while the UN and its partners still have some stocks to respond to humanitarian needs, food in east Aleppo is expected to run out by the middle of next month.

In other news today, UN Senior Adviser Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva that while July was the best month ever in terms of permissions granted by the Government of Syria for access to besieged areas, it has been far from what was hoped.

"The fighting is the main reason for why we are not going to all of these places," he said, emphasizing the need to "regain momentum," such as by a humanitarian truce.

"A humanitarian truce could work in the following manner: We get 72-hour notice to go and we get a pause in the fighting for 48 hours. That's what we need, that is what it takes to have a lifeline to places where people are at the brink of starvation," he added.

Emphasizing that the "clock is ticking," Mr. Egeland concurred that there are only a few weeks of supplies remaining.

"The homework we have given as humanitarians to the co-chairs, which are the United States and Russia, and to other members of the ISSG [International Syria Support Group] is the following: give us 48 hours every week to be able to go to eastern Aleppo where there is a quarter of a million civilians and they have no other lifeline than this Castello Road, and that we can get in cross-border, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and UN and cross-line, UN, Red Cross and Red Crescent," he said.
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A United Nations human rights expert Thursday urged the Government of South Sudan to immediately release Alfred Taban, a prominent journalist and chief editor of the daily English newspaper, Juba Monitor.

Mr. Taban was arrested on 16 July by National Security Services agents, one day after the publication of an editorial article in which he called for the removal of the South Sudan President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar, criticizing them for their unsuccessful implementation of the August 2015 peace agreement. He is currently being held without charges.

"It is crucial for a country seeking to establish peace and stability that it takes active steps to encourage freedom of expression for everyone," said David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, referring to the recently installed transitional Government. "Any pressure against journalists based on the content of their reporting represents regressive steps that South Sudan cannot afford to take."

Mr. Taban's opinion piece came as a response to the violent clashes in Juba on 7 July, between government forces loyal to the President Kiir and those loyal to the First Vice-President Machar, leaving hundreds of people killed. The incident was recently described as a clear breach of the peace agreement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani.

"The arrest and detention of Mr. Taban are unlawful as they are directly linked to the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression," said Mr. Kaye in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The Special Rapporteur noted that the detention of Mr. Taban is the latest in a series of attacks against journalists and media in South Sudan, which have been on the rise since the beginning of the mid-December 2013 conflict. Several journalists have reportedly been killed or detained without trial, and a number of newspapers have been ordered to shut down.

Mr. Kaye urged South Sudanese authorities to halt the targeting of journalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed to everyone under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

His statement has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst; and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
That would not be an ideal situation. BCL has about K138 million in funding and it holds the drilling data for the Panguna ore body as well as all other records of the company.

As mining minister, I firmly believe that if the 17.4% of shares taken up by the national government-owned company Petromin on 30 June are not transferred to the ABG, I will have no choice but to cancel the exploration licence.

PRESIDENT Momis has made clear that it is completely unacceptable to the people of Bougainville that the PNG national government have an equal shareholding in Bougainville Copper Ltd with the Autonomous Government of Bougainville.

Clearly it will be best if all of that can be kept together by the same company that holds the exploration licence. We will do all we can to keep that all together.

If the national government refuses to transfer the 17.4% of shares to us, it will clearly be important that the ABG does take up the 36.4% on offer from the Trust set up by Rio Tinto.

In that way we will be in the strongest position to sort out what happens to the BCL cash and records.

But if the national government refuses to transfer its shares to the ABG, and we do terminate the BCL exploration licence, the ABG will then be free to seek other possible developers.

We would probably make use of the provisions in the Mining Act empowering the ABG to put exploration licences up for international tender. In other words, we would invite international tenders for an exploration licence holder over Panguna.

We would then be able to test the interest in the mining industry. We would be able to get the best technical experts to evaluate applications. We would be able to raise revenue through the process of tendering the licence.

In relation to Rios refusal to accept responsibility for Panguna environmental damage and other legacy issues, the ABG must initiate a major international campaign against Rio Tinto. I am proposing that the ABG establish a task force to initially develop and coordinate that campaign. Amongst other things that will need to be examined in developing such a campaign will be:

the possibilities of legal action against Rio Tinto, internationally, and (or alternatively) in the PNG courts  we have already obtained some preliminary advice on such a course, and while the issues are complex, there are some important possibilities to explore; action to get international organisations that maintain indexes of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development to make adverse findings against Rio Tinto, as that action can result in ethical and principled investors (including major retirement and other investment funds) refusing to invest in Rio Tinto, and that can result in damage to its share price  for we must remember, the only thing that matters to Rio is making money, and when its share price falls, even its shareholders start to put pressure on a company to behave ethically.

We will need to explore other possible ways of putting pressure on Rio.

To do that, we need a unified approach from the ABG, from the landowners, and from Bougainville as a whole. We need the active involvement of all Bougainville interest groups, of all major Bougainville organisations.

For example, we need the churches involved. And in that connection, I am very much encouraged to hear that already the Bishop of Bougainville, Bishop Bernard Unabali, is preparing to make known his views about the need for action here.

We face huge challenges in dealing with the Rio decision. We must also all put our heads together and consider the various options for the best ways of dealing with the issues involved here.

What I have outlined to you are just some of the possibilities available.
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A flight of Air Koryo, the national flag carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), on Friday made a forced landing in China's northeastern city of Shenyang after the plane caught fire, a passenger aboard told Xinhua.

The passenger said smoke appeared in the cabin about 30 minutes after takeoff from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport. The passengers were told that they should not panic and that the plane would temporarily land in Shenyang.

Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin. The plane made a forced landing in Shenyang 10 minutes later.

Chinese ground staff said that the plane had caught fire. Passengers held up in Shenyang can either choose to check out from the airport or wait for Air Koryo to send another plane to pick them.

The plane was destined for Beijing.
He has been fighting a warrant for his arrest on official corruption charges for two years, saying the allegations against him are politically motivated.

The vote came after two months of protests and demands by students, pilots, port workers, doctors and other health workers who had called upon ONeill to resign over a long-running corruption case.

FORCED by the Supreme Court to a parliamentary vote of no confidence yesterday, prime minister Peter O'Neill survived in his job by a comfortable 85-21 majority.

During debate on the motion, his government was accused of corruption, interfering with the processes of parliament and not listening to the people.

"To make the wrong decision here would be a mistake," he said. "Today it is up to us on the floor to make a change," deputy opposition leader Sam Basil told parliament.

Basil told parliament PNG needed change and under O'Neill's leadership the country had nothing to show from the riches that had flowed from the exploitation of its rich resources.

"Papua New Guineans are poorer today than they were at the start of 2014 because the prime minister's (corruption), mismanagement and unilateral decision making," he said.

He accused O'Neill of destroying PNG's economic base and government finances and of spending too much on unproductive infrastructure in Port Moresby.

In reply, the government accused the opposition of attempting to create instability by means of a malicious motion.

Morobe Governor Kelly Naru said it would be premature for parliament to throw out the government.

"We must exercise restraint, be patient and allow justice according to law to prevail in the case against the prime minister," he said.

"The prime minister remains innocent until proven guilty."

He argued the people will decide on the government's fate at next years election.

Former minister Ben Micah, who joined the opposition ranks just a week ago, said the government's days were numbered despite the vote.

"Today you can hold your numbers, but you cannot run away from the truth that your government is not going to last long," he said.

"And you know why it is going to collapse? Because it is full of men and women who are not telling the truth."

Micah said the government should not hide behind lies.

"Government has become oblivious, arrogant, insensitive to what our real responsibility should be," he told parliament.

Finance minister James Marape said he was concerned that PNG's image had been tarnished internationally because of the motion.

When the motion was voted upon and lost, Speaker Theodore Zurenuoc adjourned parliament until 9 August.

There is a heavy police presence in Port Moresby and some community groups are planning to continue civil disobedience and protest activities.

Sources: ABC, AAP
There's a crowded field for the Republican nomination in the 54th Senate District race, but the state Conservative Party has already decided which candidate it will support to succeed retiring state Sen. Michael Nozzolio.

After recommendations from local Conservative Party leaders, the state party's executive committee voted to endorse Canandaigua Supervisor Pam Helming.

Helming, who received the Republican designation at a gathering of local party leaders in May, is one of seven candidates vying for the GOP nomination.

Greg Rigby, chairman of the Cayuga County Conservative Party and vice chair of the state Conservative Party, said Helming will bring a fresh perspective to Albany.

"Pam's decades of experience in the private sector and more recently, local government, combined with her insight, friendly demeanor and energetic work ethic makes her the most qualified candidate in this year's election," Rigby said in a statement Friday.

Rigby added, "As a resident of the 54th Senate District, I know Pam will provide exceptional constituent service and will represent the district and New York state with honor and dignity. New York's Conservative Party is fortunate to have a candidate with Helming's qualifications and qualities and that her beliefs align with those of the Conservative Party's."

The Conservative Party's support is the latest endorsement for Helming. In addition to the local GOP backing, she is also supported by the state Independence and Reform parties.

In a statement, Helming said she's grateful to receive the Conservative Party's endorsement.

"I am proud to support common sense measures that will lead our region to prosperity while also protecting our constitutional rights as Americans," she said.

"These measures include: a ban on unfunded mandates, supporting the full repeal of the SAFE Act, adopting a state spending cap, cutting taxes to make New York more competitive and create jobs and supporting comprehensive ethics reform for elected officials."

Helming and six other GOP candidates will square off in the GOP primary on Sept. 13. The winner will face the Democratic nominee in the general election.

Democrats have their own primary in the 54th District race. Rose Supervisor Kenan Baldridge and Ontario County Supervisor Charlie Evangelista are vying for the Democratic nomination.

The 54th Senate District includes all of Seneca and Wayne counties, plus portions of Cayuga, Monroe, Ontario and Tompkins counties.
Bob (Xiqiu) Fu is one of the leading voices in the world for persecuted faith communities in China. Fu was born and raised in mainland China and was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 1989. Fu graduated from the School of International Relations at the Peoples (Renmin) University in Beijing and taught English to Communist Party officials at the Beijing Administrative College and Beijing Party School of the Chinese Communist Party from 1993-1996.Fu was also a house church leader in Beijing until he and his wife, Heidi, were imprisoned for two months for illegal evangelism in 1996. Bob and Heidi fled to the United States as religious refugees in 1997 and subsequently founded ChinaAid in 2002 to bring international attention to Chinas gross human rights violations and to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China.As president of ChinaAid , Fu has testified before the Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (USCHR), the Foreign Press Association, the European Commission and European Union Parliament.Fu regularly briefs the State Department and Members of Congress, including Members of the International Religious Freedom Caucus, on the status of religious freedom and the rule of law in China. In 2008, Fu was invited to the White House to brief President George W. Bush on religious freedom and human rights in China, and in 2011, the Nobel Prize Committee recognized Fus efforts with an invitation to attend the award ceremony for Nobel Laureate Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.Fu graduated with a Ph.D. from St. Johns College at the University of Durham in the U.K. in the field of religious freedom and from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate degree on Global Christian Leadership from Midwest University, where he served as a distinguished professor on religion and public policy.
Kenyan workers at the construction site of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway, contracted by China Communications Construction Company Co Ltd. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Incorporating Chinese standards into infrastructure projects in Africa is the key to sustainable development on the continent, said the top executive of China Communications Construction Co Ltd.

"In the globalization process, we need to introduce Chinese standards overseas and integrate them into the local projects. Localization is the prerequisite for real sustainable development," said Sun Ziyu, president of CCCC.

CCCC is a State-owned enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that has businesses designing and building transportation infrastructure plus manufacturing dredging and other heavy machinery. It has more than 200 projects overseas, including railways, roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and harbors.

CCCC began its Africa work in the 1970s in Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania. Now it has projects in more than 50 countries in Africa, including the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway, the Addis Ababa-Adama Expressway in Ethiopia, and Kribideep Sea Port in Cameroon.

One of CCCC's largest projects in Africa is the standard gauge railway from Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The railway will eventually extend to neighboring countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

The annual throughput of the port of Mombasa is 25 million tons.

But, the existing railway has an annual transport capacity of only 1 million metric tons because it is a narrow-gauge, one meter width, track built more than 100 years ago during British colonial rule. The rest of the goods have to be transported by road.

The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR line, which will be the standard 1.435-meter width, will allow a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour for passenger trains and 80 kilometers per hour for freight trains, and will have an annual capacity of 25 million tons.

The biggest infrastructure project in Kenya since independence, it will shorten passenger travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi from more than ten hours to a little more than four hours. Freight trains will complete the journey in less than eight hours.

On May 11, 2014, Kenyan and Chinese leaders signed agreements for the construction of the project, which is now about 65 percent finished. A trial run is expected in early 2017. Construction of the 472-kilometer line began in October 2013 and is scheduled to be completed by early 2018.

The Mombasa-Nairobi phase of the project is estimated to cost 327 billion Kenyan shillings ($3.8 billion).

The Export-Import Bank of China will provide 90 percent of the financing while the remaining 10 percent will be contributed by the Kenyan government.

"The construction of the railway will create 30,000 jobs for the country. It is estimated to boost the GDP growth rate of Kenya by 1.5 percentage points. More than 90 percent of the workers will be local people," said Liu Qitao, chairman of CCCC.

"The rail line is constructed completely under Chinese technological standards. We are introducing Chinese capital and managerial expertise to the continent. It will provide faster, safer and more reliable modern transport in Kenya," he said.

The railway circumvents wildlife habitats as much as possible. In the National Park of Nairobi and Tsavo National Park, pathways for wild animals will be built to guide the animals to cross the railway.

Culverts will also be built for animals such as zebras to get water.
A steel dome is hoisted onto the No 1 reactor at Haiyang nuclear power plant in Shandong province in March. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Chinese coal producer Shenhua Group on Thursday dismissed media reports about reorganization with another state-owned enterprise (SOE).

"Shenhua is not engaged in merging and reorganization with China General Nuclear Power Corporation and has received no related information from any government agencies," said a post on the company's Sina Weibo account.

The notice came following reports that the two SOEs are seeking a merger to create a conglomerate with total assets of $204 billion, but have yet to gain support from authorities.

Analysts believe the merger is unlikely as the two giants have completely different main business, focusing on coal production and nuclear power, respectively.

Rumors about SOE mergers are on the rise as the central government tries to encourage mergers and acquisition of torpid SOEs to improve their competitiveness.
Workers unload freight for SF Express at Xingdong Airport, Nantong, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

Global logistics companies are battling in China's skies alongside the booming air express industries. And, the growing demand for speedier delivery is driving logistics development across China, including its smaller and more far-flung towns and cities.

China's civil aviation authorities have approved the plans of industry leader SF Express Group Co, established 23 years ago by Shun Feng Airlines, to build an airport in Ezhou, a city in central China' s Hubei province, that will be the world's fourth international air logistics hub and the first in Asia.

The firm, which had set up a strong air cargo transport net-work by 2009, has 30 aircraft, including China's first wide-body Boeing 767. And, it is set to expand its fleet as it aims to become a global logistics enterprise.

Both SF Express and Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co Ltd, the second Chinese private express firm to acquire an aircraft fleet, are also facing competition from global giants such as the US-based Fed-Ex Corp.

According to the China Express Association, business volume last year hit 20.6 billion deliveries and total revenue was 276 billion yuan ($41 billion)-a year-on-year growth of 48 percent and 35 per-cent, respectively. Since 2011, the express sector has grown at an average annual rate of more than 50 percent. Air freight has increased rapidly and now accounts for more than half the total volume of express delivery-sometimes up to 70 percent.

"The pursuit of speed is the mission of the express industry. So, its development is tied to the development of air transport," said Zhang Yuzhou, director of industry development at the association.

International giants, domestic enterprises, e-businesses, aviation companies and investors are targeting the China logistics market.

But, China's vast territory requires the industry to build air transport infrastructure to serve the more remote areas of the market. The development of FedEx in the United States is often cited as an example for China, as both countries have huge territories.

The government has issued guidelines on promoting the development of the general aviation industry. They outline how China will build more than 500 airports by 2020 to ensure that all major and prefecture-level cities have access to general purpose air transport.

"China's central and western regions and many second-and third-tier cities are a rising market for short and medium-distance air express," said Bill Schultz, senior vice-president, business development China, for NewYork-listed aircraft maker Textron Inc. "Small and medium-sized general aircraft, especially multipurpose aircraft, are better for transporting cargo to these cities."

Zhong Guoyi, vice-president of international express of FedEx China agreed, saying the logistics giant has a 24-hour North American air transport network with a well-serviced fleet of major air-craft and small and medium-sized cargo planes.

"We have fleets of aircraft and cooperate with independent operators to service different markets," he said.

FedEx has shown that success in logistics depends on an airport net-work in different regions, including different-sized airports for general aviation, said Professor Jeffery Towson from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University.

"The one who builds networks of airports and various runways suitable for the different aircraft will take the initiative," said Towson. "As a result, express will drive economic development with the improvement of air transport."

Xinhua
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Auburn will host a Blessing of the Pets at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at the church, 17 William St., Auburn.

The event will be blended into the church's morning worship on the front lawn. All animals  two, four or no feet, paws, claws, talons or other  are welcome, so long as they're on leashes or in carriers.
China's financial leasing companies are enhancing their competitiveness in the global markets to give stronger support to the overseas expansion of Chinese companies and the exports of high-end equipment.

"International development has become an essential feature and core competence of our company," said Zhao Guicai, president of ICBC Financial Leasing Co Ltd, in Beijing on Friday.

By the end of 2015, total assets of the company reached nearly 300 billion yuan ($45 billion), with businesses in 40 countries and regions. Among the total, 40 percent was international business and 50 percent was denominated in US dollars.

ICBC Financial Leasing had signed contracts worth more than 70 billion yuan, which are associated with Chinese companies' efforts to go global, as of Dec 31. The value of leasing contracts related to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative accounted for 33 percent of the total.

Earlier this year, ICBC Financial Leasing signed contracts with Chinese shipbuilders to build a fleet of 14 very large ore carriers worth nearly $1.4 billion, and confirmed that it has signed a 27-year iron ore transport deal with Brazilian mining conglomerate Vale SA.

Starting from the first half of 2018, ICBC Financial Leasing will transport about 16 million metric tons of iron ore annually for Vale from Brazil to China.

"By signing these contracts, we are effectively pushing forward the domestic high-end shipbuilding industry to go global," Zhao said.

Ever since ICBC Financial Leasing was established in Tianjin in 2007, Tianjin has developed into an innovation base for China's financial leasing industry.

So far, eight financial leasing companies have opened for business and one company was approved for establishment in the city, with their assets totaling 520 billion yuan at a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent.

As of the end of June, airplane and ship-related assets took up more than 20 percent of the total leasing assets of financial leasing companies in Tianjin. The number of airplanes under management of financial leasing companies surpassed 700, serving various airlines in 40 countries and regions, with their total leasing assets exceeding 100 billion yuan.

Wang Wengang, deputy director of the Tianjin Office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said: "In the next stage, we'll keep guiding financial leasing companies to further strengthen their support to the high-end equipment industry and improve business models that serve China's 'Going Global' strategy as well as the Belt and Road Initiative."
The annual passenger throughput of the Dalian Port International Cruise Liner Center is expected to reach 200,000 in three years, a senior manager said on Wednesday.

Royal Caribbean International's Legend of the Seas cruise ship carrying about 2,000 tourists left Dalian for Sasebo and Kagoshima in Japan on Wednesday, meaning that Dalian is now a port of departure for international cruise liners.

"With the opening of the Dalian Port International Cruise Ship Center, tourists from Northeast China will take cruises from Dalian," said Zhang Tie, general manager of the passenger transport company Dalian Port Group.

Zhang said, after this trip, Legend of the Seas will embark on another three voyages from Dalian. And MSC Cruises' Lirica is scheduled to depart from Dalian for five trips in August.

Dalian Port Group started construction of the center in October.

Except for the newly completed berth with a capacity of 70,000 tons, another berth of the same size and two 150,000-ton berths are under construction.

According to Liu Wei, who is in charge of the construction, the berths will become operational by the end of 2017.

She said the terminal hall, which could guarantee the customs clearance of two 225,000-ton cruise liners at the same time, will be completed by 2020.

Dalian Port Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement last month with the local port authority, tourism administration and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

According to the agreement, they will jointly promote Dalian's cruise sector and build it into a cruise port in Northeast Asia.

Liu Bin, an economist with Dalian Maritime University, said many cities in China, including Guangzhou, Qingdao and Shanghai, are building cruise ports.

International cruise ship giants are working hard to enter the Chinese market.

"It is a good choice to cooperate with international giants. They have seasoned experience and rich resources," he said. "But the management and service quality need to be improved."

Dalian is one of China's first ports to accept visiting cruise ships. In the past decade, a dozen cruise ships visited Dalian annually.
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV won US antitrust approval for its takeover of SABMiller Plc, after the maker of Budweiser agreed to give up ownership of the Miller brand and open the door to greater competition from craft beers.

AB InBev will sell SABMiller's stake in MillerCoors LLC, separating the two brands, and refrain from practices that restrict distribution of smaller rival brews, thus protecting the ability of craft and import beers to compete, the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday. The settlement will prevent any increase in concentration in the US beer industry, according to the statement.

"The two largest US brewersABI and MillerCoorswill now remain independent competitors after the deal," Sonia Pfaffenroth, a deputy assistant attorney general at the antitrust division, said in the statement.

Distributors that sell AB InBev beer "will have the freedom to sell and promote the variety of beers that many Americans drink".

The agreement to allow the brewing juggernauts combine runs counter to the government's recent moves against other big dealsthe Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have killed proposed tie-ups in the cable, office supplies and oil drilling industries, among others. In this case, the companies proposed asset sales from the start that helped resolve antitrust officials' concerns.

AB InBev, already the world's largest brewer, struck the 77 billion pounds ($101 billion) deal because it wanted to gain SABMiller's access to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa.

Following divestitures, the deal will keep Budweiser, Beck's and Stella Artois under AB InBev's roof, while ceding control of brands such as Miller in the US and Peroni and Pilsner Urquell in Europe.

"With today's agreement, we have taken a significant step forward on the transaction, which will create the world's first truly global brewer," AB InBev Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said in a statement.

Bloomberg
BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued a statement Thursday, urging its American counterpart to take heed of what enterprises have to say about a preliminary antidumping measure.

The US Commerce Department made a preliminary antidumping determination Wednesday regarding imports of washing machines from China.

In its preliminary results, the Commerce Department found an antidumping margin for washer imports from two joint ventures in China ranging from 49.88 percent to 111.09 percent.

An unnamed official from the MOC Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau disputed the method by which the US Commerce Department calculated its antidumping margins in this case, saying that it obviously did not tally with the facts as it used the surrogate cost of production method.

The MOC urged the US side to listen to the enterprises' plea earnestly and correct the wrong practices.

The large multinational corporations involved in this case will continue to speak for themselves through a legal approach, the MOC learned.

The official hoped both sides could address the concerns through dialogue and negotiations and avoid possible escalation of disputes.
LONDON - Leaders of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield, famed for its steel industry, announced on Thursday a 60-year partnership with Sichuan Guodong Construction Group, one of the largest companies in China's Sichuan province.

The city council officially announced the deal on its website Thursday following the return to the city of the council leader and deputy leader from a visit to Chengdu, Sheffield's sister city.

"We are today announcing a 60-year partnership agreement with Sichuan Guodong Construction Group worth over 1 billion pounds ($1.32 billion)," said the council in its announcement.

The first tranche of funding associated with the agreement is worth $292 million and will fund four or five Sheffield city center projects over the next three years, the council said, adding the exact projects that the investment will fund are yet to be determined.

Councilor Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, said it is the biggest Chinese investment deal to be made by a British city outside of London.

"This is a real partnership. The projects funded by this investment will be determined by Sheffield City Council, and the 60-year commitment secures a stream of investment into our city for the next generation, and means a whole range of projects become viable because of the long-term nature of the relationship," she said.

"We are clear that this will create hundreds, if not thousands, of additional jobs for the people of Sheffield. The investment comes from China, but the workforce on these projects will be British," said Councilor Leigh Bramall, deputy leader of Sheffield City Council.

"This agreement is ground breaking. It will see the resources made available to deliver the vibrant, growing city center our city needs. This will make Sheffield even more attractive to inward investment, create jobs and enable us to compete with other big cities," he added.

Sheffield City Council has also recently signed co-operation trade agreements with Daqing, the leading center for the oil and gas industry in China, and the city of Nanchang, to boost trade between local companies in the Yorkshire city and China.
China's Premier Li Keqiang speaks at the '1+6' roundtable in Beijing, July 22, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Premier Li Keqiang on Friday met with six international financial chiefs and held a roundtable discussion in Beijing.

The following is the full text of the joint press release of China's Premier Li Keqiang, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria and FSB Chairman Mark Carney.

The global economy is sluggish and faced with downside risks and uncertainties. Recently, the IMF has lowered slightly its global growth forecast and flagged rising downside risks arising from higher economic and political uncertainty and increased volatility in some market segments. The World Bank lowered its forecast for global economic growth in 2016, and emphasized the need for greater urgency in implementing structural reforms to counter stronger downside headwinds. The WTO has indicated uncertain near term global trade growth prospects and a challenging international trade policy environment with rising protectionist measures, despite some positive developments. The ILO expects the expansion of the global economy to be too weak to close the employment and social gaps left by the international financial crisis. The OECD has pointed to declining productivity trends and uncertainties besetting future global growth. The FSB has noted that global economic and financial difficulties were increasing and structural challenges became more pronounced. Against this backdrop, it is critical to enhance international economic policy coordination. Taking the opportunity of holding the G20 presidency this year, China is committed to fostering innovation and other new growth engines, deepening structural reform in particular on the supply-side, promoting investment and infrastructure development, implementing financial reform, advocating growth in trade, adding more and better jobs, advancing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and addressing other global challenges, in a bid to achieving stronger, sustainable and balanced growth for the global economy. During this process, we welcome stronger policy communication and ongoing cooperation between China and the World Bank Group, the IMF, the WTO, the ILOthe OECD and the FSB in the relevant areas. China and international organizations participating in the Round-table (hereinafter referred to as we) reached the following consensus:

1. On the macro economy. We recognize that aggregate demand will remain weak in the short run, and it will take time for supply-side policies to show effects, so a comprehensive package of policies are needed to strike a good balance between short-term and long-term goals. Strong, combined and coordinated efforts are needed, including use of all policy tools - monetary, fiscal and structural  to deal with risks and uncertainties in the world economy, safeguard financial stability and support economic growth. Monetary policy should continue to support economic activity and ensure price stability. Fiscal policy should be flexible to promote growth, job creation and confidence, while ensuring fiscal sustainability. Moreover, where fiscal rules and frameworks allow, fiscal policy should be used to support structural reforms while preventing and mitigating fiscal risks. Structural reforms should be tailored to country needsincluding their income levels, cyclical positions, and available policy spaceand operate along with other policies to support growth. Implementation of agreed financial reforms remains important to boost the resilience of the financial system. Well-calibrated and effective communication of policy stances will help to boost confidence, enhance policy effectiveness, and limit negative spillovers. China has taken the initiative to adapt to and guide the economic New Normal. While supporting aggregate demand, China continues to strengthen the structural reform, especially the structural reform on the supply-side, break a path for growth, accelerate the shift of growth models from emphasizing size and speed to quality and efficiency, and boost sustained driving forces for growth. Against the backdrop of global economic slow-down, China maintained steady growth during the first half of 2016, registering 6.7% year-on-year. Economic structure has been improved, and consumption and the service sector have become the major driving forces of the Chinese economy. The new economy featuring new technology, new products, new industries and new business models is growing rapidly, and industrial transformation and upgrading is advancing fast. We believe that the fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain positive in the long run. With deepening reforms, and implementing tasks of reducing overcapacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing cost and shoring up weak spots, the Chinese economy will achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and make a continuous contribution to global economic growth.

A roundtable discussion was held by Premier Li Keqiang and six international financial chiefs in Beijing on July 22, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

2. On structural reforms. We recognize the importance of structural reforms in dealing with the slowdown of global productivity growth and promoting steady, durable and inclusive recovery of global economy, which is also essential in realizing the ambition of the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth introduced by Chinese Presidency of G20. While country circumstances differ, there are shared directions of reform in general terms, including deregulation, enhancing competition, encouraging innovation, promoting fiscal reform, promoting trade and investment, strengthening the financial system, advancing labor market reform, improving infrastructure, enhancing environmental sustainability and promoting inclusive growth. The OECD and the IMF fully support the enhanced structural reform agenda as one of the priorities identified by Chinese Presidency of G20 this year. The international organization (IOs) also support G20 members' efforts in developing a set of priority areas and guiding principles for structural reforms, as well as an indicator system to further improve assessing and monitoring of the progress of structural reforms and their adequacy to address structural challenges, and welcome the substantial progress that has been made in this regard. The OECD, the IMF and other IOs will continue to contribute proactively to the work streams under the G20 Growth Framework, and tap into their expertise to provide valuable policy analysis and recommendations for G20 structural reforms. China will strengthen the cooperation with the IOs to jointly support the G20 plays an important role in further promoting the policy actions on structural reforms at both country and global level.

3. On innovation. We need to make efforts to foster new sources of growth such as innovation, new industrial revolution and the digital economy. We support the G20 developing action plans and guiding principles in these areas, and based on these working out the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth to foster new drivers of the growth of the world economy. We also encourage G20 Task Forces covering the above areas to continue their work in this regard in order to maintain continuity. Sound framework conditions and structural reforms are essential for rebalancing the Chinese economy and transitioning to a more sustainable, consumption-led and knowledge-based economy. On this basis, more efforts are needed to harness the development opportunities presented by the new industrial revolution and make more people benefit from it. Actions in the intertwined areas of innovation and the digital economy, including investing in the new technologies and skills in the direction of future development, can provide valuable support for new sources of growth  boosting productivity gains, opening new markets, meeting unaddressed needs and tapping into new sources of human endeavor. Innovation is a key driver of productivity, growth and wellbeing: in a context of demographic change and diminishing returns on capital, it will become even more important in the future as a source of long-term growth, while digitalization is reshaping economies and offering new ways to spur efficiencies and improve services across all facets of life. The OECD will continue to support the delivery and implementation of an innovation-driven growth path.

4. On trade and investment. Trade can play an enhanced role in creating jobs, sustaining economic growth and prosperity. We call upon members to keep RTAs transparent, inclusive and open to participation by others. They should ensure that their RTAs are not only consistent with WTO rules, but also help to strengthen the overall trading system. The multilateral trading system should maintain its role as the main channel for trade liberalization and facilitation, with the WTO promoting coherence across the global system.

We welcome the success of the WTO Bali and Nairobi Ministerial Conferences and urge rapid implementation of the outcomes, in particular the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the elimination of agricultural export subsidies. We strongly support advancing post-Nairobi negotiations on remaining Doha issues, with development at its centre and in a spirit of solidarity and mutual trust. We encourage WTO Members to explore new issues where further cooperation could contribute substantially to global trade and prosperity, including those brought by changing business models and technical development.

China's Premier Li Keqiang speaks at the '1+6' roundtable in Beijing, July 22, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

We welcome continuous progress made by G20 in trade and investment areas, including stronger functions of G20 in coordinating trade and investment policy. We also welcome the first release of World Trade Outlook Index by the WTO at the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting, as well as the monitoring reports by WTO, OECD and UNCTAD on trade and investment measures taken by the G20 members. We note with concern that trade-restrictive measures continue to rise in the context of global trade slowdown and urge to step up vigilance against protectionism.

5. On labour and employment. The current global outlook for jobs is mixed with slower growth leading to weaker prospects for employment and wages in many countries. Rising inequality and the risk of setbacks to the global drive to reduce poverty, make policy initiatives to increase opportunities for decent work a priority. Labour market developments were more positive in China and some other large economies than the rest of the world. Structural changes in employment continued and could accelerate as a result of technological innovation, increased interdependence and the need for environmental protection. Policies that promote strong, sustainable and balanced growth play a vital role in managing adjustment and will remain key drivers in mitigating adverse and maximizing positive effects of labour market changes. The prominence accorded to decent work and inclusive growth in the 2030 Agenda means the multilateral system must further strengthen the coherence of its policies for jobs and growth to reach Sustainable Development Goals.

China's economic growth has now entered the phase of New Normal, and needs to address the structural mismatches in employment. Upholding the conviction that employment is the foundation of the livelihoods of the people, the Government of China is implementing the Employment First Strategy and more active employment policy, forgoing ahead with continuous reforms to streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services, and promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation. The Government is also working hard to develop vocational education and training and improve the social protection system. Along with sustaining a medium-high growth rate and upgrading the economy to the medium- and high-end in China, the Government has created more jobs, and improved job structure. Together with its social partners, the Government of China has made positive contributions to international labour governance and the south-south cooperation of the ILO. The Government stands ready to strengthen cooperation with the international community including the ILO, and will play an even bigger role in realizing inclusive growth and decent work for all.

6. On financial regulatory reform. Notwithstanding the improvement in resilience brought about by post-crisis financial reforms, the global financial system faces pronounced risks, which could be amplified by the slow-down in global growth. Therefore, China, as a member of the FSB, will continue to firmly support the FSB's efforts in maintaining the stability of the global financial system, improving the financial regulation coordination framework and enhancing global financial system resilience. We call for full, consistent and timely implementation of agreed reforms, which are aimed at delivering an open and resilient system able to fund investment, trade and growth. We look forward to the coordinated work by the IMF, FSB and BIS to take stock of international experience with macro-prudential framework and tools, to help promote effective macro-prudential policies. The increase in market-based finance and the emergence of the digital economy have the potential to be an engine of productivity, international connectivity and growth. We strongly support the work of the FSB to identify new and emerging risks and their efforts to promote international cooperation such that the potential of innovations can be realized in a stable and resilient fashion.

China's Premier Li Keqiang and six international financial chiefs pose for pictures during the roundtable held in Beijing on July 22, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

7. On sustainable development. The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is a critical component of promoting inclusive, sustainable growth. We call for countries actively design and implement country plans based on their respective national conditions. Economic growth is the foundation to end poverty and hunger. For growth to be sustainable, all members of society must share in the benefits of growth. Ensuring rapid economic growth requires: promoting economic transformation and upgrading; implement policies to maintain macroeconomic stability policies; proper and effective investments in infrastructure; and improving business environment for private enterprise to thrive orderly and create jobs. In addition, countries should adopt other policies including greater investment in education and health, to ensure that benefits reach all segments of society by promoting equal opportunityincluding gender equity. With rapid technological change, early childhood education takes on particular importance, as it will determine the capabilities of future workers to thrive in a labor market likely to be very different from that of today. A judicious use of safety nets not only protects those that cannot benefit from current growth, but also help the poor build the assets they need for future prosperity. We applaud and support China's efforts, as the G20 presidency, to promote the development of action plans to implement 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, launch the industrial initiative to support African and least-developed countries, so as to help developing countries to achieve inclusive growth. To achieve SDGs, all parties should take prompt efforts to address increasingly pronounced global challenges, including pandemics and other global public health risks (e.g. Zika; Ebola; and antimicrobial resistance), conflict and forced migration, and climate change/weather-related calamities.

8. On global economic governance. We acknowledge the need to, with the developments of world economy, continuously improve and reform international economic governance system and to increase the representation and voice of emerging economies and developing countries. During this process, the IOs welcome China continue to play a constructive role. Global challenges, global public goods and coordinated global action require global governance and effective global organizations suited for their tasks.

We reaffirm our commitment to maintain a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF. We support a fully equipped IMF for it to fulfill its responsibilities in this very uncertain financial and economic time. The implementation of the 2010 Reforms early this year marks an important milestone in moving forward the IMF's quota and governance reform. It significantly increased the IMF's core resources, and also improved the IMF's governance by better reflecting the increasing role of dynamic emerging and developing countries in the global economy. More than 6 percent quota shares shifted to dynamic emerging market and developing countries and also from over-represented to under-represented members. We look forward to the completion of the 15th General Review of Quotas by the 2017 Annual Meetings, including a new quota formula. We reaffirm that any realignment in quota shares under the 15th review is expected to result in increased shares for dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy, and hence likely in the share of emerging market and developing countries as a whole. The IMF should continue exploring ways to strengthen the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN), with the IMF at its center, including through more effective cooperation with regional financing arrangements and improving its lending toolkit. We support the examination of a broader use of the SDR to enhance the resilience of the international monetary system (IMS). We look forward to the outcomes of the World Bank Group's shareholding review in accordance with the roadmap and timeframe agreed at the 2015 World Bank Group Annual meetings.

We agreed that this meeting was constructive and fruitful. The participants agreed that the round-table should become a regular mechanism, so as to strengthen ties between China and international organizations, deepen communication and cooperation in the international economic and financial arena, and jointly explore responses to global economic challenges. We agreed to hold the 2nd round-table at an appropriate time and place.
BEIJING - "The more construction projects we secured, the more loans we got and the snowball kept rolling -- it just got out of control."

Recalling the bankruptcy of the Wenzhou Zhongcheng Construction Group, former deputy manager Pan Xueping reflected on what he had learned.

The company in East China's Zhejiang province witnessed explosive growth between 2002 and 2012, but had to resort to filing for bankruptcy late in 2013.

Its failure epitomizes the chronic problem of high leverage in many sectors of China's economy, which brought about severe credit risks and forced the government to make changes.

On several occasions, the government has made deleveraging one of its major tasks to ward off systemic financial risks, forcing companies and banks on a painful path dotted with new opportunities.

"Looking in from the outside, hefty debts crushed some companies, but delving deeper, the fundamental reason for their failure was a false development philosophy that drove them to blind expansion," said Guo Tianyong, a professor with the Central University of Finance and Economics.

A major direction of the country's deleveraging efforts concerns reducing corporate debts, especially in sectors that rely heavily on capital and those with severe overcapacity, such as coal and steel.

For that reason, commercial banks moved to tighten lending to overcapacity-stricken and high-leverage sectors.

Jiang Zhongmin, chairman of Eastran Group, a Jiangsu-based steel company, told Xinhua that one bank was planning to cut lending to the company by 30 percent.

In the past three years, Eastran pushed to increase the added value of its products. In a joint venture with an Italian company it produces elevator guide rails with its own steel products, which improves efficiency and profits.

"We are not going to complain. Still being active proves that we are capable and will become even better," Jiang said.

China's deleveraging efforts have begun to take effect. The ratio of liabilities to assets of major industrial companies dropped to 56.8 percent by the end of May from 57.3 percent a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Medium- to long-term loans to industries with overcapacity had dropped for four-consecutive months year on year by the end of June 2016.

But for commercial banks, the deleveraging process requires that they replace high-leverage sectors with new outlets for lending.

Liu Xiaochun, president of China Zheshang Bank, said deleveraging was forcing commercial banks to make active changes.

The bank has decided not to limit its business to receiving deposits and making loans, but to coordinate credit, capital and foreign exchange markets with a view to provide diversified financing channels, Liu said.

Banks should reflect on their existing business model, and provide specialized financial services rather than their previous homogeneous services, a banking insider said.

For instance, a regional bank in the central city of Wuhan, Hubei province, increased lending to a local tractor company that had been exploring the technological upgrade of its farm machinery.

Its peers, however, chose to withdraw all lending to the company.

An extensive investigation revealed healthy prospects, so the bank designed tailored financial services for the company to reduce its burden.

The right path for banking development is long-term rational growth, instead of short-sighted expansion, analysts say.

Pan Xueping agrees.

In April 2016, the bankrupt Wenzhou Zhongcheng Construction Group was renamed Wenzhou Chengjian Group after its reorganization.
Brian Wallace (left), chief marketing officer of Magic Leap, and Dong Benhong (right), chief marketing officer of Alibaba, talks at the Taobao Maker Festival in Shanghai. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The US-based Magic Leap Inc is likely to launch augmented reality glasses as its first product according to an executive from the tech startup's key investor, Alibaba Group.

Dong Benhong, chief marketing officer of Alibaba, said on Friday that Magic Leap was likely to launch light, easy-to-wear AR glasses as a new product.

"And it hopes to invite you to become the first to try out the product," he told an audience attending the Taobao Maker Festival in Shanghai after completing a dialogue on stage with Brian Wallace, the chief marketing officer of Magic Leap.

Magic Leap announced earlier this year $793.5 million in new funding, led by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba. The company, which is yet to launch any product, is valued at $4.5 billion.

Wallace, who visited China for the first time, said he was very excited about the market potential for his company in the country. "What I am seeing here today is the spirit of creation and entrepreneurship," he said.

He demonstrated how Magic Leap's technology was going to change people's shopping behaviors, in a short video.

The video, which was shown to the public for the first time on Friday, showed a pregnant woman who wanted to decorate her nursery room could use voice control to choose whatever she wanted to buy.

By giving a voice order, she could actually see a digital light on the real desk, so that she could be sure whether or not the item she wanted to buy could match the entire decoration style in the room via augmented reality technology.

The AR technology of Magic Leap is only one part of Alibaba's inaugural Taobao Maker Festival. The three-day event in Shanghai aims to celebrate online merchants by showcasing creative ideas and designs to the world, including cutting-edge gadgets, fashion and high-tech products.

The festival is Alibaba's latest effort to engage young people on its online shopping ecosystem. Zhang Yong, Alibaba's chief executive, said in a previous event that the event was dedicated to those young people who enjoyed innovation, creation and who were eager to put their ideas into action.

"Users of Alibaba are becoming younger and younger. By leveraging new technology and new models, we want to encourage young people to create and innovate more," he said.
Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture held a press conference in Beijing on July 11 to announce the coming China ethnic culture tourism conference, which will take place on July 24. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The China ethnic culture tourism conference will be held in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture on July 24, discussing methods to develop such tourism and promote the prefecture's extensive ethnic tourism resources.

Feng Shiwen, head of the Qiandongnan government, said at a recent press conference in Beijing that the event was held in the prefecture in Southwest China's Guizhou province due to its rich ethnic culture and ecological environment.

The area boasts outstanding examples of ethnic buildings, clothes, songs and dances, as well as festivals. It is also home to the Grand Song of the Dong ethnic group, which the Dong call Ga Lao, meaning "Grand Tradition."

Ga Lao is performed without the aid of musical instruments and would be called a cappella in the West. Ga Lao was inscribed in 2009 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The prefecture has a forest coverage of 65 percent and is among the country's 28 major forest areas. It has 27 national and provincial-level natural protection areas as well as a national geological park.

Qiandongnan, located in southeastern Guizhou, possesses a natural foundation that will allow it to develop into a notable ethnic culture tourist destination, Feng said.

The conference comprised six themed activities. One forum featured presentations on how the prefecture tackled poverty by developing ethnic culture tourism and discussed how such tourism could further address the problem of poverty.

A development forum on ethnic culture tourism promoted projects related to Qiandongnan's ethnic tourism resources and discussed ways in which businesses can aid in the protection and development of such resources.

Many internationally renowned organizations and experts on ethnic culture tourism will come to the conference to learn about Guizhou, and especially Qiandongnan. The conference will also help promote the prefecture's ethnic cultural tourism industry, develop the province and improve the livelihoods of local people, the organizers said.

The prefecture has taken a range of measures in recent years to promote its tourism sector. It has further promoted and developed the cultures of the Miao and Dong peoples to boost tourism.

Some local villages including the One-Thousand-Household Miao Village of Xijiang, known as the biggest Miao village in the world, have become more popular; ethnic festivals such as the Miao Sisters Festival in Taijiang county have also helped to boost Guizhou's tourism industry.

The prefecture has also combined tourism with other industries including mountain agriculture, sports, ethnic medicine and e-commerce.
An upcoming cruise ship building forum has been hailed by the China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA) as a "baby step" in filling gaps after 10 years of rapid development in the industry.

The forum will be held for the first time during the 11th China Cruise Shipping Conference & International Cruise Expo in September, focusing on the future plan for "made in China" cruise ships.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China State Shipbuilding Corporation will join the meeting in Tianjin, which the association says shows the government and corporations are in an "advancing mode".

It is estimated that about 1.112 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas via cruise ships in 2015, which increased 5460.5 per cent compared to 2006, the year the first cruise ship docked in China. But for the past ten years, the cruise ship building industry has stagnated.

This year, a company in Shanghai locked down a contract to build cruise ships with Italy, which means China is partnering with a fifth country that can build cruise ships after Germany, France, Italy and Finland.

Zheng Weihang, Vice President of CCYIA, said "Shanghai had made the first step in the industry, and as the northern port of China, Tianjin could make full of use of its advantages and start with cruise maintenance and modifications."

Zheng also welcomed visitors to check out the exhibition showcasing the world's largest private-run hospital ship, which was built by Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co, Ltd. for Mercy Ships, operated by an American charity during the expo.

Tianjin, which is hosting the expo for the fourth time, has Asia's largest homeport. In 2015, Tianjin embraced 96 international cruise ships, an increase of 74.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.

He Zhineng, Vice Director of the Tianjin Tourism Administration, said "Tianjin is aiming to build a cruise city out of our homeport which includes cruise tourism, cruise logistics, talents cultivationand cruise building and maintenance."
July 22, 1936

Drought, the withered remains of Central New York agriculture in its grasp, strode onward yesterday to choke water-powered Industry and hint at strangulation of Barge Canal traffic. In its path, industrial workers joined stricken farmers as their means of livelihood were imperiled.

State Public Works Department officials said they believe the canal system can "hold out" three or four weeks more without rain. After that, there will not be enough water to float the carriers.

July 22, 1961

Kathy McLane, 11-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William McLane of 27 Tuxill Square swam across Owasco Lake yesterday afternoon. The time for the swim between Wycoff Station and Koenig Point was forty-three minutes. She was accompanied across the lake by her father and John O'Connell, of Sennett, who were in a boat. Kathy is a member of the Auburn YMCA girls swim team.

July 22, 2006

Everything was buzzing and wild with activity as faculty and performers alike made last minute preparations for Friday night's "A Day in Dance" performance at the New York Institute of Dance & Education. The performance was the culmination of an intense week of classes covering a wide variety of performing arts from various styles of dance such as hip-hop, modern and jazz to acting and singing. This was all part of the 2006 New York Dance week, which was founded by NYIDE president Sean McLeod to give aspiring performers access to a wide variety of information from top notch performers.

Many students have been dedicated to the institute for years, so much so that some, like Jamie Beth Wiegand, made a point of returning for Dance Week from as far away as North Carolina. For others this was their first time with the institute and Dance Week and has proven for many to be something of an inspiration.

July 22, 2011

Renovations are complete and the Skaneateles Artisans group is moving into The Old Stone Mill at 3 Fennell St. this month. They're calling their new location The Gallery Under the Stone. Formed in 2007, most of them live in the Finger Lakes region. This month, the works of two of their artists  Linda Bishop-Surbeck and Ed Levine  are being featured. Both have local connections.

Many of Levines watercolor paintings depict startling, emotional scenes along Skaneateles Lake. Bishop-Surbeck grew up in Skaneateles, and except for a short time in the late 80s when she lived in Moravia and worked at the Groton Nursing Home, shes never left her hometown.
CHANGCHUN - Sedans may no longer be the automobile of choice for Chinese families who believe they need more seats to fit in more family members now that the one-child policy is a thing of the past.

At an ongoing auto expo in northeastern Chinese city Changchun this week, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) and seven-seat SUVs are the stars of the show.

At the Toyota booth, its Highlander SUV is the most sought-after model. A sales assistant told Xinhua that the seven-seat model outsells the five-seat.

Supply of the model in Changchun is unable to meet demand. The earliest delivery of the model is the end of the year, at a 30,000 yuan premium over the original price.

"Many buyers are newly-weds looking for more spacious vehicle to fit their children and parents," said Wang Wei of Mercedes-Benz.

Domestic automakers are launching budget MPVs.

"The MPV could grow into a sizable segment of the auto market in countries where there are two or more kids in the family. China is getting there as couples are allowed to have two children." said Li Wei of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, the Korean automaker's joint venture in China.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, MPV sales grew by 10 percent last year to 2.1 million. During H1, sales growth accelerated to 18 percent.

General Motors said of 60 models it plans to roll out for the China market in the next five years, around 25 will be SUVs or MPVs.

"MPV could be the new 'car of choice' for the average Chinese family," Mercedes-Benz's Wang said.
China urged the United States Republican Party, which is holding its national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, to "stop groundlessly accusing China and interfering in China's domestic affairs".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment in response to the platform adopted by the party on Monday, in which it targets China's domestic affairs and levels accusations at China's policies regarding the South China Sea, Tibet, Taiwan and trade.

"Any party in the United States should view China's development objectively and reasonably, and should correctly understand issues related to China-US ties," Lu said.

"We hope these parties will stop groundlessly accusing China and interfering in China's domestic affairs, and that they will do more to promote trust and cooperation between China and the US," he said.

"Promoting stable development in China-US ties is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries and is conducive to peace and development of the Asia-Pacific region and even the world. It is the right direction that both countries should stick to," Lu said.

Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the parts of the platform concerning China are not reasonable and "reflect neither the mainstream nor the official US policies".

Ruan said the Republican Party and the Democratic Party share the notion that China-US ties are important, and will become more so, and that developing cooperation with China benefits the US.

"There are indeed problems in China-US ties. But we shouldn't be misled by them," Ruan said. "China and the US both value the bilateral ties and don't want to see them go backward."

Zuo Xiying, a researcher of US foreign policy at Renmin University of China's National Academy of Development and Strategy, said the platform reflects the Republican Party's attitude toward China, but there is no need to take the "campaign language" too seriously.

If the Republican Party wins the presidency, Zuo said, the new president will still concern himself with national rather than Republican policies.
Three men have been detained for organizing protests to impede the operations of US fast-food chain KFC in Henan province, police said.

The men "illegally organized netizens to block two KFC restaurants" on Tuesday, according to the Puyang police micro blog.

The post said a man surnamed Li was placed under administrative detention for 15 days, while the other two, surnamed Yuan and Liu, were detained for 13 days each.

The incident was apparently triggered after a tribunal appointed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case against China over the South China Sea.

Photos showing people holding red banners reading "Boycott United States, Japanese and Philippine products", "Refuse the foreign rubbish food", and "Be a patriotic Chinese" outside a KFC were also posted with the announcement of the punishment.

In an earlier post on Tuesday, the Puyang police said they had noticed posts on messaging app WeChat inciting people to demonstrate against and boycott KFC. The post warned that anyone disturbing a company's production and operations would be punished under Chinese law.

"It's laudable for people to show patriotism, but it must be done without breaching the law," the post said.

Li Junfu, associate professor of sociology at Beijing University of Technology, said the punishment for the three is "appropriate" as their behavior resulted in losses to the two KFC restaurants' legal operations, and the punishments could warn others not to take similar actions.

He also said that people with poor education and limited sources of information are more likely to resort to such extreme behaviors.

There have been sporadic protests against the United States across China following the ruling.

Video clips posted online since Monday showed protesters who believe the US was behind the ruling demonstrating outside KFC restaurants in Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hunan provinces.
Travel agencies and tour guides should be required to give safety briefings to their customers, a tourism industry expert said this week.

"The tourism industry has developed so fast, coupled with so many uncertain factors, we must improve safety awareness to better protect tourists," said Liu Yuanchen, director of the Tourism Development Institute at Shenyang University in Liaoning province.

The past decade has seen a dramatic boom in China's tourism industry. But people's safety awareness is lagging, Liu said.

He suggested the National Tourism Administration, the industry watchdog, should learn from the airlines and require that safety education be provided to tourists.

"Tour guides should provide safety notices, broadcast a video, show where emergency exits are and how to use the glass-breaking hammer in case of emergency," Liu said.

"These things are vital for overseas travelers who may not understand the language and security notices in the destination country," he said.

"It is easy to deliver five minutes of safety information at the beginning of a tour. But it could save many people's lives," he said.

The cause of the recent Taiwan tour bus accident that killed 26 people is still under investigation, but industry insiders said the absence of safety education may have contributed to the tragedy.

A sample contract issued by the tourism administration and State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 2014 requires tour guides to provide qualified service and "education about local cultural and taboos".

However, there's no clear requirement for safety education - what to do in case of an emergency.

A travel agency manager who asked that her full name not be used told China Daily that the agency did pay attention to safety.

"Both the guide and the bus driver have an obligation to remind tourists of possible dangers," said the woman, surnamed Wang, noting that it's not compulsory. "Most of the time, it is up to the guide," she said.

Shenyang University's Liu noted, moreover, that the qualifications for tour bus drivers had decreased from five years' experience to two years in 2015.

"It seems nobody understands that travel is not just happiness and leisure but also has potential dangers," he said.

Zhang Tongtong contributed to this story.
Safety inspectors check a tour bus in Taipei, Taiwan, on Thursday in the wake of a fire that killed 26 people, including 24 mainland tourists, on Tuesday. Zheng Rennan / For China Daily

Passengers trapped because emergency exit door was locked, investigation finds

A preliminary investigation shows that the fire that engulfed a tour bus in Taiwan was caused by electrical short-circuits near the driver's seat, prosecutors in the island's Taoyuan district said.

According to local media, an initial autopsy showed that the driver's respiratory tract was burned, a sign that he possibly inhaled high temperature smoke. The prosecutors said the driver was possibly poisoned by carbon monoxide and became unconscious, losing control of the bus.

The bus caught fire and crashed into a highway barrier en route to Taoyuan International Airport on Tuesday. All 26 on board, including the driver, a tour guide and 24 mainland tourists, were killed.

One of the major reasons for the heavy casualties was that the left-rear emergency exit failed to open. Investigators found that the exit had a lock system that should not have been there.

They also discovered a similar lock system on another bus from the same company. Prosecutors said they would further investigate the buses.

Liu Kezhi, secretary-general of the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits, said the mainland was extremely dissatisfied with Taiwan's safety measures for visiting mainland tourists.

The mainland requests that Taiwan thoroughly investigate the accident and complete the work necessary to receive victims' family members, Liu told reporters outside a temporary shrine for the victims in Taoyuan's Zhongli district. Relatives of the deceased were taken to the shrine by Taiwan officials.

In response, Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng said Taiwan would work hard to raise the quality of its tourism services and examine problematic parts of the sector.

A charter flight with about 40 family members arrived in Taipei on Thursday afternoon, accompanied by about 20 personnel from government institutions in Dalian, Liaoning province, where 21 of the victims were from.

"We hope related departments in Taiwan can ascertain the true facts as soon as possible and handle the compensation work well, thus comforting those who have lost their loved ones," said Luan Xusheng, head of Dalian's working group for Taiwan and director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of Dalian.

"Staff from our community and various government institutions came to help us after the accident," said a woman surnamed Yao, who lost her nephew Jiang Xin in the fire.

Yao said Jiang, 30, and his wife, Gao Ling, 28, were on their honeymoon.

"It's really hard to accept the fact. They had lived in their new home for only three days," she said.

China Post contributed to this story.
Measures to boost global growth amid rising uncertainties will be the focus when G20 ministers meet this week in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Policy response to Brexit is expected to be one of key issues to be discussed during the meeting, as the referendum result would add long-term uncertainties to the faltering global economy, according to Lian Ping, chief economist with Bank of Communications.

G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meetings, which are scheduled to be held in Chengdu, Sichuan province on Saturday and Sunday are the first minister-level financial meeting held after the British referendum.

Central bankers and financial ministers are expected to reiterate the importance of providing sufficient liquidity to avoid market volatility, to support globalization of trade and investment, and to refrain from competitive devaluation, according to a report by China International Capital Corp (CICC) released earlier this week.

The CICC report followed earlier argument made by Gerry Rice, director of Communications Department with International Monetary Fund, who stressed the importance of decisive policies at a news conference last week, and that there should be something we would expect the G-20 to be seized off in regard of potentially negative impact on growth for the global economy.

G20 ministers have reached the agreement to enhance coordination of policy making and to inform one another of policy decisions that could lead to currency devaluation during the G20 meeting held in Shanghai in February.

As for whether China would devalue the currency, the report said that China would not trigger the currency war to squash global demand that remains to be weak, despite short term depreciation pressure exists.

Policy makers would stress the importance of structural reform, to use multiple tools to strengthen growth and to enhance financial sector reform, the report said.
Children at a summer camp for autistic children in Zhengzhou, Henan province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

When Zhao Hua's daughter Yi Jia was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 1998, there weren't any doctors in Zhengzhou, the city in Henan province where she lived. She had to travel all the way to Beijing to find a doctor who could tell her what was wrong with her child.

"When Yi Jia was young, no school would take her so I had to give up my job to look after her," says Zhao. "Even ten years ago, I wouldn't have thought things would improve so much." Since 2013, students with disabilities can no longer be rejected by public schools.

"The general level of awareness about autism has risen a lot. Back then, my friends and colleagues thought her behavior was due to me not disciplining her properly, so I faced a lot of pressure. At least now most people have heard of autism, and thanks to exposure in the media and information from other countries."

Improved conditions for children and adults living with ASD are due to changes both from top down  the government and policymakers - and bottom up  thanks to activists and parents' groups.

"Ever since China ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008, things have improved a lot," said Lian Jinhai, 38, another father of a child with ASD in Zhengzhou. "At least the government has to present a report every few years about what they are doing for people with disabilities, and people are learning that disabled people have rights too."

Much of the impetus for local change has also come from the bottom up, through parents' organizations and groups that have raised awareness among educators and government officials about the needs of this marginalized group.

Lian, who worked at a Henan TV station, is involved in advocacy for better conditions for autistic people in China, particularly for inclusion education, in which children with disabilities are educated alongside normal children in regular schools, but with special needs teachers to support their learning.

"Social media has been instrumental in raising awareness of the need for inclusion education," said Lian, who runs a WeChat group for media professionals interested in Special Needs education.

He has also helped organize information sessions with overseas experts brought into Zhengzhou to speak on ASD to educators, government officials and parents about the condition.

However, many misconceptions about people with ASD are still being perpetrated in society. For example, Lian cites an article in the local Zhengzhou media that called autistic children "emotionless".
SHIJIAZHUANG -- Water supply in the urban area of Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, was disrupted from Thursday night, after flood water was found to have contaminated the city's drinking water.



Shijiazhuang's water supply firm said Friday that supply would be back to normal in about five days.



Torrential rain in North China's Hebei province since Wednesday morning has left 35 people dead and 77 missing, according to the provincial civil affairs department on Friday. About 211,642 people have been evacuated over safety concerns.



The supply issue was caused by floods disrupting sediment in two reservoirs that supply water to six districts in Shijiazhuang.



The water company said it was limiting water supply for industrial users, pumping out underground water and dispatching water tankers to provide drinking water for residential use.



From Friday, water will be delivered three times a day, for two hours each time.



The city is among the worst-hit in the province during the recent bad weather.



Relief supplies including tents, quilts and clothing have been distributed to those in need.



The National Commission for Disaster Relief and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have sent staff to assist the relief work.
Ayigulzeli Turson, 11, from Xinjiang, plays a hand clapping game with a friend at Peking University on July 22, 2016. She translated a Uygur jingle into Mandarin and taught it to her playmates. A total of 217 left-behind children, 9 to 17 years old, from Heilongjiang and Shanxi provinces and Xinjiang region, were invited by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions to tour Beijing for a week, free. The parents of these children are migrant workers who've left their hometowns to earn money to support their families, so the youngsters end up with the moniker 'left-behind'children.[Photo by Zou Hong/chinadaily.com.cn]
SKANEATELES  When David and Kristi McBride left their home in Texas last week for a tour in central New York, they weren't sure what to expect.

"From Texas, we're thinking busy, big high-rise buildings," David said. "But then we come to Auburn and we take off driving through the rural areas and it's all farming. We had no idea New York was like this."

The couple drove more than 1,000 miles to the Finger Lakes region for the Model T Ford Club International's 60th Annual Summer Tour. Starting Sunday, the tour attracted nearly 300 Model T cars from across the country, including the McBrides' 1926 Model T Roadster Pickup.

"We came a long way, but it was worth it," David said smiling. "It was the trip of a lifetime."

Robert Stauffer also came out for the tour, bringing his 1922 Model T Touring from his home in Illinois. He said it was his first time in the Finger Lakes area, which turned out to be the perfect place for a drive.

"There's just a lot of nice scenery up here around the lakes ... and we like going out in the country," Stauffer said, noting the area's hills and gravel roads really added to the tour. "The folks are really friendly around here and it's just a nice place to drive these old cars."

Hannibal couple Dan and Ellen Killecut hosted the tour in Auburn this year, organizing several scenic drives and tourist stops for the long line of Model T's. The tour averaged 100 miles a day from July 17 through July 22 and, according to Model T member Corey White, the Killecuts did a great job planning the event.

"Some of these roads, you'd think you went back 100 years," said White, who drove his 1915 Model T from his home near Canandaigua. "You're chasing chickens and ducks off the roads. It was such a great ride."

Still, while some visitors pointed out the museum tours and antique stores on the trip, the McBrides said there was something they found even sweeter.

"There is some of the best ice cream in the world here," David said laughing. "I assume it must be because there's so many dairy farms in the area, but it's some of the best ice cream I've ever had. And overall, we're really going to miss it here."
Overseas students still favor the first-tier cities when they come back hunting for jobs, a report said.

About half of the overseas students who returned for domestic jobs are expecting to find jobs in advanced cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guanghzou and Shenzhen, according to a report released by the Ministry of Education.

An insider in the education field said the first-tier cities not only have more opportunities for overseas returnees who mainly study in finance and high technology but there are more headquarters of companies there which may offer higher salaries to their employees.

Wei Zhihua, a postgraduate majoring in radiation monitoring coming back from Sweden, thinks he's lucky to find a job in Shanghai after nine months of searching.

He said it's difficult for him to find a job that is related to his major as less than 100 people have such jobs in Shanghai, let alone in lower-tier cities.

But the situation has been changing gradually.

Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), said back in 2009, only 2 percent of returnees worked in central and western regions.

It is said in recent years the middle and western regions are putting in more effort to attract the returned talents through beneficial policies.

The report said above 10 percent of people choose to work in cities like Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan and Hangzhou in 2015.

The overseas students have even participated in the selections of ground-level officials or village heads since Beijing includes overseas returnees in the selection pool of college students to apply to be village heads in 2011.

Four out of twenty applicants who graduated from overseas universities have been offered the jobs.

In the following year, Changsha county, Hunan province attracted over 110 returnees to sign up for government service and only ten people have passed the selection and been assigned to work as ground-level officials in the county for three years.

These returnees apply what they learned overseas to their public service positions.

Qing Yuefei, born in the 1980s in Chongqing, has worked as the head of Hejiashan village, Hengshan county, Hunan province after graduating from Yale University in 2011.

He managed to raise more than 800,000 yuan in one year for local infrastructure through applying the experience he got at Yale.

Three years later when his contract was up, he was transferred to another village as the chief.

There he started up the philanthropic organization Heitumantian (black earth and cornfield) as a platform helping graduates who work as village officials and makers with innovative ideas in the village.
China has been ranked eleventh out of the world's 19 largest economies for child wellbeing, boasting strong outcomes in health, gender and employment dimensions relative to its peers.

Save the Children's latest Child Prosperity Index ranks Germany first for the second consecutive time, while France was second and Japan third.

The index, released Friday and designed by the leading international children's organization, scores each of the G20 nations in eight areas: health, education, gender equality, safety, employment, environment, income and infrastructure.

China ranked in the middle of all G20 countries for the first five out of eight areas, and towards the bottom for environment, income (which includes inequality), and infrastructure.

Compared to other middle-income countries, China recorded lower child mortality rates and high life expectancy at birth. These strong outcomes placed China above Turkey and the US in the health category.

Improvements in China's gender equality performance over the past couple of years have also contributed to a better quality of life for Chinese children since the Index was last published in 2014.

The environment is an area in which China has a lot of room for improvement, with below average performance on CO2 emissions and air pollution inhibiting children's prosperity.

The report also highlights concerns for universal education. Findings show that while almost all children complete primary school, there is a large gap in average years of schooling between children in urban and rural areas, as well as challenges for those with disabilities.

This year's index has been launched to mark the meeting of G20 finance ministers in Beijing, which is a powerful opportunity for the world's economic and political leaders to improve the lives of children in their own nations and across the planet.

Save the Children is asking the G20 governments to take action for children in the following three areas: adopt progressive national tax systems to make finance fairer, remove social and economic discrimination and legal barriers for every last child, and properly track how their countries are progressing.

"Few would argue that a child's life chances should be determined before they are born," said Wang Le, Interim Country Director of Save the Children in China.

"Yet our analysis shows that even among the world's most developed, powerful and rich economies, there can be vast disparity in how children are treated and how prosperous their futures appear to be. Growth does not necessarily deliver equality of life chances between children," she stressed.

"Countries like China need to think about measuring their progress by viewing economic growth as a means to an end  an end that delivers social, environmental and economic prosperity for all, especially children.".

This is the second Child Prosperity Index that has been published by Save the Children. It provides a snapshot and comparison of a child's life chances across all G20 countries.

Notable country findings in the 2016 Index include:

Germany ranked first, followed by France (2nd) and Japan (3rd)

Canada, ranked equal fourth overall, was the best performing nation on education indicators.Brazil dropped in the rankings to 17th, but topped the results for protecting the environment.

The United States were placed only 9th despite being the largest economy in the world.
A sacred ritual hosted by the Panchen Lama in Xigaze, Tibet, has attracted a large number of Han Chinese devotees to hear him speak  a sign of the growing popularity of Tibetan Buddhism among the country's urban residents.

An estimated 100,000 devotees of Tibetan Buddhism took part in the Kalachakra initiation by the Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu during the first day of the four-day event on Thursday, according to the government news office the Tibet autonomous region. The initiation is regarded by believers as the highest of teachings.

Many of the Han devotees had undertaken long journeys, overcoming altitude sickness and other obstacles, to take part in the event, which is held near Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the Panchen Lama's traditional seat.

The Kalachakra is a ritual that aims to initiate and empower disciples. The Panchen Lama continued the Kalchakra  meaning "wheel of time"  on Friday as he was joined by at least 5,000 monks and nuns.

Chen Zijuan, a 50-year-old devotee from Shanghai, said she saw news of the event on social media and quickly decided she had to attend at all costs.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the Panchen Lama giving his first Kalchakra," she said.

Chen, who was converted to Tibetan Buddhism by a guru, is part of a group of devotees in Shanghai that meets once every two weeks.

"We use the opportunity to reflect upon whether we have broken our vows during the period, and we remind ourselves of the teachings of our guru," she said.

Chen said she traveled frequently to a monastery in Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province to visit a senior guru and hear his teachings.

"I told our guru that we would go to the event, and he offered a blessing that helped us overcome mountain sickness," she said.

Li Jianing, a 23-year-old from Jinan, Shandong province, who has just completed her bachelor's degree at University of California Los Angeles, was also among the devotees at the event. Converted to Tibetan Buddhism four years ago, she said it has helped her go through a difficult period in her life.

"I thought taking part in the ritual would plant a seed in my heart, and the seed would accompany me through the circles of life," she said.

She spent two hours a day studying Buddhism during her college days, she said.

"The chanting of scriptures helped me obtain peace of mind," she said.

Zhou Yuquan, a 40-year-old from Weihai, Shandong province, said he took an interest in Tibetan Buddhism because it offers a range of practices and rituals that are believed to help followers reach enlightenment faster.

"I think we can find in Tibet a sound preservation of Buddhist teachings and Buddhist monasteries," he said. "There is no match anywhere."

Contact the writer at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn
World organization chiefs at roundtable are upbeat about China's performance

Premier Li Keqiang attends a roundtable dialogue with the heads of six major international organizations in Beijing on Friday. [Wu Zhiyi/China Daily]

The fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain positive for the long run, the chiefs of major international organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund agreed on Friday.

The consensus was reached at a roundtable dialogue that Premier Li Keqiang hosted in Beijing, the first of its kind in China.

The participants believe that China's economy will achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, and will make a continuous contribution to global economic growth, according to a statement issued after the dialogue.

The task will be achieved by deepening reforms, reducing overcapacity, destocking, reducing costs and shoring up weak spots, it said.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who attended the dialogue, said the IMF has increased its forecast for China's GDP growth for this year by 0.1 of a percentage point, to 6.6 percent.

"We did so ... because we witnessed China's determinant and decisive implementation of reforms and the support given to encourage growth going forward," Lagarde told a joint news conference after the dialogue.

China "did not take the form of vast fiscal stimulus, but simply some solid and steady support, in order to make the growth indeed sustainable", she said.

Premier Li called the participating organizations important rule-makers for the international community, leading think tanks for the world's development and pillars for the global economy. "This dialogue not only boosted cooperation but also contributed to recovery of the world economy," he said.

During the first half of the year, the country's exports declined and put a drag on GDP growth, Li said.

However, according to the statement, China's economic structure has improved, with domestic consumption and the service sector being major driving forces.

The new economy, featuring new technology, new products, new industries and new business models, is growing rapidly, and industrial transformation and upgrading are quickly advancing, the statement said.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the country maintained steady growth, with a year-on-year increase of 6.7 percent during the first half of the year.

Amid the global economic slowdown, such a goal was very difficult to achieve, the premier said.

Therefore, China has been a driver for the world economy within a reasonable range of growth between 6.5 and 7 percent, he added.

The new economy has helped to create new opportunities for employment and to increase incomes while the GDP rose, Li said.

The country saw 12,000 newly registered market entities each day during the first half of the year, the premier said.

Also present at the dialogue were World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo, International Labour Organization Director-General Guy Ryder, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Secretary-General Angel Gurria and G20 Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney.
The government has reiterated in a new regulation that airlines are not obliged to provide free accommodations and food to passengers if flights are delayed or canceled because of uncontrollable situations, such as bad weather.

But the Ministry of Transport said the carriers should nonetheless help passengers with accommodations and food, although the expenses will have to be paid by passengers.

Civil aviation experts said reaffirmation of the rule is intended to make the public aware of the practice and reduce disputes, which are frequent during the rainy season.

More than 31 percent of all flights in China failed to fly on time last year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Less than 20 percent of those flight delays were caused by airline companies, with the rest caused by factors such as air traffic control problems and bad weather.

The regulation, which will take effect on Jan 1, also includes new rules that require airline companies to inform passengers of a delay less than 30 minutes after it has been confirmed.

Additionally, airline companies must arrange for passengers to disembark a plane if the delay is to last more than three hours, it says.

Conflicts between passengers and carriers are common in China.

"I often see people get angry with ground staff members of airline companies during delays. Now they should know some of their demands on the airline companies are not reasonable," said Cheng Zhonghong, 30, who flew about 40 times domestically last year on business trips.

Professor Li Xiaojin at the Civil Aviation University of China said that despite the regulation, many airline companies already provide free water and food in all circumstances, out of concern for passengers.

Wang Yanan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said that airline companies should provide free accommodations and food for passengers if airplanes land at alternative airports or after long delays caused by mechanical problems.

"Disputes, or even violence, between passengers and airline companies during delays are often caused by those who are not aware of the policy, so the ministry put it in the latest regulation to make a statement," he said.

YANG LIU/CHINA DAILY

Factors that caused flight delays in 2015
Fleece sold for only $5 a kilogram and a jacket made of the wool can fetch $5,000

After three days of heavy snowfall and bone-chilling temperatures, Mateo Mullisaca watches as one of his alpacas falls to the ground in agony on his farm almost 5,000 meters high in Peru's Andes.

"Without water and without food, the weak ones die," the 62-year-old shepherd said as the animal takes its final breath with vultures lurking nearby.
Iryna Yaremchuk (left) attends a program in Beijing for young Sinologists organized by the Culture Ministry. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Iryna Yaremchuk is in Beijing on a visiting program for young Sinologists that has been organized by the Culture Ministry and the think tank Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"It's a very good chance to meet Sinologists from different countries. We know our problems and learn from each other during such exchanges," says the 36-year-old Ukrainian linguist.

The program, which began on July 3 and ends on Friday, aims to assist foreign Sinologists with their research work as well as let them experience Chinese culture.

It also includes lectures by well-known Chinese scholars such as Liu Xinwu.

Yaremchuk, who has been studying Chinese culture, history and literature, says she was intrigued by Liu's talk, which focused on the Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions.

"The book is very interesting, and I really like his (Liu's) way of explaining culture," she says, adding that Liu helped her appreciate the traditional culture depicted in the book.

Yaremchuk, who teaches Persian and Ukrainian languages at the Ivan Franko Lviv State University in Ukraine, says her dream is to become a translator of Chinese literary works for readers back home.

She chose translation of Chinese literature as her project for the visiting program, partnering with the Beijing Language and Culture University for research.
A Tibetan antelope at the Kekexili Nature Reserve. [Photo/Xinhua]

With the Shennongjia in Hubei province and Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape in Guangxi province added to the world heritage list recently, China now boasts 50 world heritage sites, ranking second in the world.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Kekexili in Qinghai province will apply for the world heritage next year and preparatory work is now underway.

Zhang Linwei, deputy head of urban construction under the ministry revealed that it's certain that the Kekexili project will reach the next stage of application. He said, "The experts from International Union for Conservation of Nature are examining the project and will submit to the UNESCO World Heritage Center later."

Except for the Kekexili project, there are several other projects with applications for world heritage underway.

In November of 2014, China started preparations to apply for Kekexili to join the world heritage list. The Kekexili in Qinghai province, also known as Hoh Xil, is a 45,000 square kilometer reserve that encompasses China's largest area of uninhabited land. It is home to several endangered species, including the Tibetan antelope.
Sinologists pose for a photo at the end of the Xidi village tour, July 18, 2016. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

The 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists concluded on July 22, with a closing ceremony attended by Minister of Culture Luo Shugang and deputy dean of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Cai Fang.

During the past 20 days, 31 Sinologists from 26 countries conducted research and studied at several institutes in Beijing and travelled to Anhui province to study local culture and history.

Hosted by the China Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the program aims to provide a platform for young Sinologists to better understand China and meet scholars in the same areas.

Let's hear what some of the Sinologists have to say about what they learnt from the program.

Hannes Dekeyser attends a lecture in Beijing during the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

Hannes Dekeyser (Belgium), programme Coordinator, European Institute for Asian Studies

"During the program, I got access to Tsinghua University. If I go there independently, it won't be very easy for me to knock on the door of famous professors like Hu Angang, and have a personal conversation. Another benefit from the trip for me was that I was able to meet people all around the world working on the similar issue. And it is good that Sinologists from the trip can exchange views and have different perspectives of China. Anhui, for foreign tourists, is less known than other parts of China, but I think it is something that should and could be visited more. I had a short but very positive impression. It's nice in the trip to meet people who have initial focus on Chinese language and culture, because they show to me that it is interesting, important and valuable to master the language."
Xiang Yu Shu (), a book written by Huang Zifa in the Tang Dynasty, collects many experiences and information on weather forecasts before the Tang. [File photo]

Where do you get the latest weather forecasts, from apps on your cell phone, or the Internet?

In ancient China, when people had no satellites, they relied on their direct observation and experiences.

And through years of observation, they accumulated a systematic knowledge of the relations between clouds and weather changes.

In The Book of Songs, the earliest collection of Chinese poems that were created from the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC) to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), it is recorded that if it will snow, the clouds in the sky often have the same color and similar thickness.

Thick and dense clouds in summer often herald the coming of heavy rain.

Li Zhao, an officer from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), used "artillery prime mover" to describe the clouds before the storm. He noted this kind of cloud has a flat bottom and a bumped top that looks like many steep hills.

There is also a saying, "when the clouds in the sky bear a shape of a castle, heavy rain will fall on the ground". The castle-shaped cloud also foretells the coming of a storm.

Sunny days can also be predicted from the clouds. Ancient Chinese believed clouds that look like scales indicates a nice day is coming.

Xiang Yu Shu (), a book written by Huang Zifa in the Tang Dynasty, collects many experiences and information on weather forecasts before the Tang. The book points out that if two colors, black and red, both appear in the clouds, it will hail. This description is still used by modern day forecasters.

Without the help of satellites, ancient Chinese also painted many "cloud charts". The earliest cloud pictures Tian Wen Qi Xiang Za Zhan () were painted on silk, unearthed from the Mangwangdui Han Tombs. Zhan Yun Qi Shu (), found in Dunhuang in Gansu province, is a book of cloud pictures finished in the Tang Dynasty.

In Bai Yuan Xian San Guang Tu (), completed in the Ming and Qing Dynasty (1368-1911), there are 132 delicate cloud pictures. Each illustration takes the sun, stars, moon, and Milky Way as the background, and adds text explanations alongside the clouds. Most of these pictures follow the basic principles of modern meteorological observation.
WASHINGTON  It has occurred to me, during this hot summer week, that perhaps we are finally seeing what my beloved mother used to say occasionally  that the world really would be better off if women were to run things.

No, she wasn't a feminist. She was not much of a critic of men. Her words would just suddenly come forward, as out of nowhere, when she was feeling sad about some tragedy or angry about something that should never have happened.

Yet, it seems to me that we are finally seeing a time when women ARE taking a number of leadership positions, and they may, eventually, be able to give us a reading on my mother's idea. WOULD women really do better things if there were enough of them in positions of power to make a fair judgment? That is the question.

Of course, we have Hillary Rodham Clinton waiting in the wings to be named the Democrats' presidential candidate. Then, just a week ago in London, we had Theresa May, who overnight was made both the leader of the Conservative Party and the government. And of course we have the indefatigable Angela Merkel, in charge of Germany and more and more of the world, as well as Christine Lagarde at the International Monetary Fund, and Janet Yellen, head of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Although she is of a different genre, being the wife of the presumptive Republican candidate for the presidency, Melania Trump also belongs here, if only because her opening speech at the Republican National Convention gives her such importance.

Perhaps Melania's position on my growing list of prominent woman would still be a tenuous one, despite everything, were it not for whatever happened with her speech and its alleged borrowing of phrases from Michelle Obama. But that assured Melania a real, if questionable, place in history.

(Not to speak of my own writer's thoughts: Hey, there are so many words in the dictionary, why would you need to plagiarize from anyone, particularly one of your husband's political opponents' wives?)

But, back to the fact that so many leading positions are being held by women. Is this the promise of things to come, a world in which women leaders would be more humane and un-warlike? Or only a warning of more disappointments on the horizon, where women leaders would be no different from men, or even more aggressive and warlike?

Let's take a couple of recent case studies:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been known for her political expertise, both inside Germany and outside, as leader of a re-unified Germany and the putative leader of Europe. She has seemed to harmonize the best in male leadership (toughness, fairness, honesty) and the best in female leadership (sympathy, empathy, hopefulness)  until this winter.

The strange thing is that Merkel's biggest mistake came because of a decision that might well have been seen as the result of feminine feelings. That mistake, of course, was to announce to the world that Europe would take virtually every refugee, immigrant or lost person, supposedly from the wars in the Middle East.

When millions responded, from as far away as Afghanistan and Niger, it became commonly said in Europe that this was her un-finest hour.

The new prime minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, is also a bag of contradictions when it comes to supposed male/female traits in leadership.

In her other government leadership positions, she has shown deep concern over social welfare problems, and she was a founder of Women2Win, an effort designed to elect more conservative women. But when she was grilled in Parliament as to whether she was "prepared to authorize a nuclear strike that could kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children," she simply answered: "Yes!"

In a Financial Times article, "March of the Sisterhood  From Brexit to the White House," writer Roula Khalaf found U.N. data showed that in 2015, only 11 women served as heads of state and 10 as heads of government. Women also lag behind in filling cabinet positions, she wrote, with only 17 percent of women being ministers.

And yet, there are real changes occurring. For a long time, there were women in high positions, as in India and Sri Lanka, but they were almost always being rewarded for coming from prominent leadership families, as did Indira Gandhi. Today, women are making it on their own, and to have elected women in leadership positions in countries such as Great Britain and the United States is bound to be of enormous consequence elsewhere.

Only then will we be able to see whether women can change the world.
Tian Yusheng. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A nationwide program to discover young script writing talent was launched on July 18 in Beijing.

The program, titled "Jubenhui", or Script Collecting, has been launched by New Saint, a Beijing-based startup owned by Huayi Bros., one of the country's largest film studios, and electronics giant Xiaomi.

New Saint, which mainly focuses on the script-writing business, will run the program for seven months in its hunt for original tales from young talents aged between 18 and 35.

Tian Yusheng, the founder of New Saint and a veteran scriptwriter, says the program has invited 12 veteran directors to be judges.

Up to 1 million yuan ($150,000) will be awarded to three winners, and the program will cover 100 colleges across the country.

Speaking of his expectations from the program, Tian, who is known for his 2013 hit EX-Files, says: "We hope it can link potential authors and eager investors."

Wang Zhonglei, the co-founder of Huayi Bros, says: "More than 700 new productions were launched at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival. But some of them did not even have completed scripts."

He hopes that the program will help uncover more young blood to expand the country's script-writing talent pool.

Related:

'Cold War II' continues to lead Chinese box office
Vases made by Clare Twomey [Photo provided to China Daily]

An exhibition that was inspired by the beauty of a 13th-century Chinese bowl is proving a big hit with visitors in the UK.

Made in China, an installation by British ceramic artist Clare Twomey, is currently on display at The Harley Gallery at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire.

It features 79 giant red and gold vases made by a factory in the Jiangxi province city of Jingdezhen, renowned for its pottery, and just one made by Royal Crown Derby, the Derby-based UK manufacturer.

The exhibition aims to contrast Chinese and British manufacturing methods and techniques.

Twomey, 47, got the idea for the work while working as an artist-in-residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

"There was a display that was examining what was happening in terms of ceramics in both Europe and China in the 13th century," she said.

"There was this beautiful bowl made in Jingdezhen that exemplified the wonderful skills that existed in China. The things being made in Europe at that time did not have that incredible delicacy."

Twomey came up with the idea for an installation that would contrast what was now being made in Jingdezhen, still a center of ceramic manufacturing, and in Europe.

She searched the internet for a manufacturer in Jingdezhen that could make something for her that was typical of today's production.

"I found this manufacturer that made big vases. We agreed on a surface design that was one of a plethora of standard designs they offered. I acted like I was a hotel or any other purchaser and asked them to make 80 of them. They said they could make them in just three weeks," she said.

"It was clear I don't actually want to go to Jingdezhen and fall in love with the place as I might have done in the 13th century to see who was making what. Part of the conversation of the installation was to reflect the modern world and do everything virtually on the internet.

Meanwhile Twomey asked for blank vases from the Jingdezhen factory, which she could have decorated in the UK to show a contrast with European techniques.
Models wear creations by Grace Chen during a runway show in Lancaster House in London in June. Photos by Eliska Kyselkova/Seth Powers/Anton Phatianov, Provided to China Daily

Chinese-American Grace Chen has been offering women in China clothes that blend glamour, authoritativeness and cultural identity for years. Now she wants tomake a bigger impression. Sun Yuanqing reports.

For China's political and entrepreneurial women elites, it's not easy to find a look that balances glamour, authoritativeness and cultural identity. But for years, Chinese-American couturier Grace Chen has been offering just that. Well-known among the well-heeled, Chen is now making a bigger splash both in China and overseas.

Earlier this month, Chen opened The House of Grace Chen in Shanghai.

Located in a heritage villa built in the 1920s in Shanghai's former French Concession, the three-story mansion designed by Italian firm Kokaistudios incorporates a showroom, fitting salons, an art gallery, a library, a fashion lounge and a VIP suite.

It also displays all of Chen's previous collections, including her Little Red Dress from 2013, Little Romance from 2014 and Little Story from 2015.

"This is not just a physical space. It's a sharing space for people who have the same tastes and ideas," says Chen.

Following her shows in Paris, Moscow and Brussels, Chen held a runway show in Lancaster House in London in June, as part of the celebrations of the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II.

The show saw more than 40 gowns presented by professional models, socialites and aristocrats, a runway tradition for the Grace Chen brand.
The high-protein grain quinoa is finding its way to some of the world's trendiest restaurant plates. Photos provided to China Daily

As Peru prepares to celebrate its national day next week, a diplomat heads to China to explain how what we eat can bring people and nations together. Mike Peters reports.

When Guillermo Gonzales Arica became Peru's ambassador to Honduras, his main objective was to strengthen commercial and economic relations with that already-friendly Central American country.

He looked for help from some surprising allies: about 1,300 chefs.

"I believe that the importance of gastronomic activity goes beyond the idea of tasting diverse and marvelous flavors," says Gonzales. "It involves an economic chain of value, which begins with the farmers, the fishermen and ends in the promotion of a country brand. This chain of value represents 11 percent of the Peruvian GDP, according to studies made by the Peruvian Society of Gastronomy, APEGA."

It hasn't always been that way.

"Thirty years ago, the quinoa grain, which has a very high component of proteins, was not really well-known and consumed (even) by us," he says. "Nowadays, quinoa is used in a lot of gourmet menus inside and outside of Peru in the best restaurants. This situation benefits the farmers in Peru, who cultivate this grain specially in the Andean region of my country."

Gonzales was confident that such success was transferable to Honduras and other developing nations. He also realized it could be a collaborative tool for achieving South-South Cooperation and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2030 recently approved by the United Nations in the quest to eliminate poverty.

Working with the public and private sectorsand two Peruvian chefs on his embassy staff, his team trained 1,300 chefs from almost every part of Honduras in Peruvian gastronomy between 2013 and 2016.

"We developed workshops that lasted nine hours during three days, where local chefs will learn about Peruvian culinary techniques, Peruvian cocktail preparation, sanitary principles of food preparation, the best presentation of different plates and how to organize a small culinary enterprise."

At the end of each workshop, they organized a festival with each local government, inviting the small enterprises and producers of original foods product to participate.
Former State councilor Dai Bingguo delivers a speech at China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks on July 5 in Washington. Photo by Ji Tao/China Daily

The frequency and destructiveness of terrorist attacks have increased. The world was still reeling from the devastating Istanbul airport attacks which killed at least 43 people on June 28, when just a few days later, Baghdad became the target of terrorists again as suicide bombings on Sunday killed some 250 people and wounded 200 more.

The Islamic State terrorist group, which is rampant in Iraq and Syria and responsible for a great number of terrorist attacks happening across the globe this year, has claimed responsibility for masterminding both attacks.

A stronger political will and greater cooperation from the international community have become the only hope for the world to eliminate the IS group, or at least to keep its threat at bay.

Last month, Iraqi officials announced they had retaken the city of Fallujah from the IS fighters after a month long military operation backed by US-led coalition airstrikes. The battle marks a turning point in the international campaign to fight the terrorist group.

In Syria, similar progress has also been made, although not as much as in Iraq, amid the Syrian government's efforts to reduce the sphere of influence of the IS group.

Yet, what we have seen these days tells the hard truth that IS terrorists may be contained in Iraq and Syria, but they are capable of wreaking havoc elsewhere and sowing the seeds of fear and panic in many places around the world.

So many innocent lives have been lost, and so high a price has been paid with the rise of the IS group. There is no reason why the world should not unite and concentrate on the anti-terrorism campaign, because terrorism and extremism have no boundaries and no country could remain immune from the scourge.

In the anti-terror campaign, the United States has played an important role, spent a lot of money and even made sacrifices. But, at the same time it is also under constant criticism for not devoting more energy and resources to fighting the terrorists in the Middle East.

If traced deeper, of course, the chaotic situation in some Middle East countries today has been the result of the US-led West's intervention policy in the region in recent years.

Some in the world arena believe US President Barack Obama, who will leave office in a little more than six months, will step up anti-terror efforts in the Middle East so as to leave it as part of his legacy as president. As the world's sole superpower, the US seeks to maintain a leading role in the Middle East, so if he is to leave the White House with a better record in the Middle East, he should coordinate more with Russia and all other forces that are fighting with the IS group now.

More importantly, the US itself should adjust its strategy. For one thing, Washington still lacks a comprehensive plan and both long-term and short-term aims for the war against the IS group.

But its constant meddling in the South China Sea issue has raised tensions in the region and offers proof for the rest of the world to recognize the US' real intention: It now has far more interest in stirring trouble in the waters of the South China Sea than helping the world make a major breakthrough in the war against terror.

The maritime disputes have nothing to do with the US, and there is no single case in which freedom of navigation has been impeded in anyway. Hence, the more the US involves itself in the South China Sea issue, the less people will believe the US remains committed to world peace and stability.

The author is deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily Asia Pacific. jasmine@chinadailyhk.com
On July 1, the first day of Japan's one-month presidency of the 15-member United Nations Security Council, Japanese Ambassador to the UN Koro Bessho voiced "deep concern" about maritime disputes between China and some of its neighbors. He also said the Security Council would take up issues on the request of its members or other UN members. This shows Japan's eagerness to raise the so-called South China Sea issue on the international stage.

Unlike the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing have a dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, Japan has no territorial claims in the South China Sea. Nevertheless, Japan, like the United States, is fueling and exploiting the tensions in the South China Sea to advance its own economic and strategic interests in Southeast Asia.

In January, Japan's Ministry of Defense announced the rerouting of its military aircraft returning from anti-piracy operations in the Horn of Africa. Instead of refueling at their traditional stopovers like Singapore and Thailand, the two P-3 Orion maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft landed in countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. Those aircraft carried highly sophisticated equipment, designed to monitor and track vessels, including submarines.

In April, two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force warships made a historic port call to Vietnam's strategic Cam Ranh Bay port, which faces the South China Sea. In fact, many US analysts believe the Japanese military's new refueling stopovers are clearly part of a broader plan to establish a more permanent Japanese presence in Southeast Asia.

In March, Tetsuo Kotani, a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo that Japan and other countries should join the US to carry out freedom-of-navigation patrols in the South China Sea, claiming the rise of China is the most serious challenge for Japan.

In response, speaking at the Japan's National Press Club in Tokyo on June 24, Yu Tiejun, associate professor at the School of International Studies of Peking University, warned that Japan's intervention in the South China Sea will make the issue more complicated and dangerous. That the Chinese and US militaries, according to the Chinese expert, have experienced 10 face-offs from May 2015 to May 2016 gives an idea of the gravity of the situation.

Yu said China and Japan, as well as the US have more important areas to put their efforts and energies in, but the South China Sea is not one of them. Since the South China Sea is not part of China-Japan relations, Tokyo has every reason to stay away from it.

"Japan's involvement in the South China Sea is not in anyone's interests," Yu said. "It is posing new challenges to the strategic mutual trust China and Japan are trying to build." Playing host to the summit of the world's seven most industrialized nations in May, Japan put the South China Sea issue on its agenda and orchestrated a closing statement from G7 that, without mentioning China by name, said countries should refrain from taking "unilateral actions which could increase tensions" and should avoid using "force or coercion in trying to drive their claims".

After assuming the UN Security Council presidency for one month, Japan is once again trying to internationalize the South China Sea issue in the world body. But its efforts will not bear fruit.

The author is China Daily Tokyo bureau chief.

caihong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/13/2016 page9)
At the end of one of the country's longest and closest elections in half a century, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared victory on Sunday. His stay in power could be a good omen for China-Australia ties, which gathered robust momentum after their historic free trade deal came into effect at the end of last year.

To continue to maintain that momentum in bilateral interactions, Turnbull needs to be politically pragmatic and flexible, especially because the South China Sea issue has put him to immediate test. The South China Sea disputes between China and some of its Southeast Asian neighbors should not have become a concern for Australia had it stayed true to its claim of neutrality.

But just one day after the arbitral tribunal passed an utterly one-sided ruling in the case initiated by the Philippines against China in the South China Sea dispute, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told ABC Radio that China's reputation would suffer if it ignores the ruling, and called on both Beijing and Manila to respect it.

If this is the stance Australia has to take in order to show its allegiance to its long-time ally the United States, it is also enough to infuriate its biggest trading partner, China, which believes the arbitral tribunal's ruling has no legal basis at all.

Australian leaders may want to draw reference from a recent TV program jointly produced by China Central Television and Sky News Australia, in which experts from the two countries discussed Beijing-Canberra ties. The South China Sea issue featured prominently in the debate broadcast by CCTV News on July 4 and provided clear evidence that the maritime disputes, which do not concern Australia, have become a sticking point in bilateral ties.

Telecast just two days after Australia's national elections, the program drew a lot of attention from both sides, testifying to the rising importance of China-Australia ties and concerns over the effect of the South China Sea issue on them.

During the debate, Chinese experts said they were puzzled by Australia's involvement in the maritime disputes, which is what many Chinese and Australian people also feel. Explanations that Australia relies heavily on the shipping lanes in the South China Sea to justify its involvement in the disputes seem superficial after John Russell with the North Head Communications, admitted during the debate that Canberra's role in the South China Sea is just a political contribution to Washington's stance on the issue.

Obviously, the US-Australia military alliance, forged some 60 years ago, continues to influence Canberra's stance on many key political and strategic issues even today.

In response, Zhu Feng, director of the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University, said he respects Australia's history and believes China does not seek to weaken the alliance, but he earnestly hopes Canberra develops an independent policy toward Beijing that truly reflects its importance in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the South China Sea issue, the wise choice for Australia would be to stay neutral because the sea, thanks to the US' meddling, has become increasingly volatile.

Against the healthy background of bilateral trade, flow of tourists and students, and increasing cooperation in other fields, Australia could risk casting a shadow on bilateral ties by meddling in the South China Sea issue.

Therefore, compared with domestic challenges, the one posed by the South China Sea issue can be more difficult for Turnbull to deal with. Turnbull should understand it would serve Australia's interests, too, if it does not jump on the US bandwagon so eagerly to fish in the troubled waters of the South China Sea.

The author is deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily Asia Pacific. jasmine@chinadailyhk.com

(China Daily 07/15/2016 page9)
Politicians' decisions today will be judged by generations to come - leaders such as Obama should bear this in mind

With the aftershocks of the EU referendum result still reverberating, the UK has this month been confronted with the findings of the Iraq war inquiry, which criticized the Blair government for joining the US in launching military action against the Middle Eastern country.

The two events are phenomenal, but for different reasons.

The Brexit decision on June 23 came from a democratic exercise that has had mostly negative consequences for the EU, UK and other global players in the short term. The long-term impact is still unforeseeable.

Yet the Iraq Inquiry, published on July 6 by a committee led by Sir John Chilcot that probed the UK's first invasion and full-scale occupation of a sovereign state since World War II, has positive messages, although the war itself was merciless.

Chilcot has been paid about $1,000 a day since 2009, when he was appointed as the committee chairman, and his team has also been well paid. It was value for money.

In the lengthy report, Chilcot concludes that the UK chose to back the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. It says military action at that time was not a last resort.

The inquiry also concluded that judgments made about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction were presented with unjustified certainty. In addition, despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated and the planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate.

The findings in this report, which was started in 2009 as the UK withdrew its combat forces from Iraq, have been hotly debated, while the Iraqi people continue to suffer the aftermath of this conflict through bombings, shootings, hatred and separation.

There is much debate in the UK about preventing further mistakes in the government's decision-making process. However, the goals are too limited.

The UK has been a global player for years, and following in the steps of its ally, the United States, has got involved in conflicts in several countries. Britain should carefully review its decisions on invading countries and instead bolster a peace-loving culture among the public.

Of course, a similar inquiry on the Iraq war ought to be conducted in the US, which masterminded the invasion irrespective of United Nations resolutions. George W. Bush, who served as US president from 2001 to 2009, should face stern questioning, too.

Going beyond the content of the Chilcot Report, it offers a wake-up call for the world amid rising geopolitical concerns in many regions.

On July 8, when NATO leaders met in Warsaw, the BBC reported that a 500-strong British army battalion is to be deployed to Estonia, while 150 troops will be placed in Poland as part of the response to concerns over Russia.

Bloody actions, mainly because of a US presence, are also still happening in many places in western parts of Asia and North Africa.

The US has stood behind Japan, the Philippines and other Asian countries to trigger rising security concerns in the Asia-Pacific area since deciding to return to the region. Plus, the US and South Korea have decided to deploy the Terminal High-Attitude Area Defense, which was announced on July 8.

All these actions have unfolded mainly due to the competitive military capacities of the US and its longstanding hegemonic foreign policy. Just count how many wars the US has engaged in together with its allies since WWII. By contrast, China, the world's second-largest economy, has never invaded another country.

Quite the opposite, China has become more active in peacefully engaging with the world, even in finding solutions to disputes. It has been trying to create a chessboard on which all the players are winners.

The Chilcot Report reminds us that those politicians who resort to war are wrong and unwise.

Politicians' decisions today will be judged by generations to come. Outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama should bear this in mind.

If the fate of Blair is to be avoided, politicians in the West should not jump to the easy conclusion that "if you don't agree, I will kill you". That logic is not viable in a changing world.

The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau. Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
When the European Union foreign ministers hold their regular monthly meeting in Brussels on Monday, they will have many pressing issues to discuss.

One of which, the United Kingdom's severing of ties with the bloc, will be highlighted by the attendance of the UK's new foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, who was a key supporter of the campaign to leave the EU.

But it's not just the fast-changing political landscape in the UK that the EU foreign ministers will be concerned about. They will also have the failed military coup in Turkey and the bloody terrorist attack in France to discuss.

After the terrorist attack in Nice on Thursday, the latest in a series of violent attacks by extremists in the country, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France must now live with terrorism, which has become an increasingly serious threat to western European countries as the Islamic State group loses ground in the Middle East and urges its supporters in Europe to attack where they are.

The worsening security situation within and around Europe coupled with the high level of immigration from countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which is exacerbating the unemployment in some countries, particularly among young people, is making for difficult times for the bloc.

In addition, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague issued a justice-damaging ruling on Tuesday, supporting the Philippines in its dispute with China.

When the EU foreign ministers meet on Monday, they will discuss their strategy toward China in the wake of the ruling. At this juncture, what Brussels needs most is a visionary and pragmatically ambitious foreign policy toward China.

The ministers should carefully review the constructive and friendly messages Beijing has repeated at China-EU summit and the Asian-European Leaders Meeting.

EU leaders concluded talks with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing before they flew to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to participate in the two-day ASEM, which began on Friday.

Speaking in an informal meeting during the summit, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China had exercised its right in accordance with international law not to participate in the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines and neither accepts nor acknowledges the ruling.

He said, China remains committed to settling the South China Sea disputes via dialogue and consultation with the countries directly involved.

Regarding the EU's stance on the South China Sea, Brussels says it does not take sides in the sovereignty disputes but it urges Beijing "to obey" international rules. The reality is that the EU leaders preoccupied with all the other issues they face, are not willing to engage with the rules related to the disputes and are looking to take the easy option of following the United States' lead.

In light of the fast-evolving circumstances, US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to have a breakfast meeting with the EU foreign ministers on Monday before they get down to discussing their agenda.

Beijing has repeatedly criticized Brussels for looking to Washington for guidance when it comes to the EU's China policy. Although it is still unknown how Kerry will exert influence at the breakfast meeting it is likely that the South China Sea will be a topic for discussion.

Facing all the complex problems that threaten to tear the bloc apart, the EU leaders should change tack when dealing with China. This should include granting China market economy status, getting down to talks on a free trade area, materializing setup of joint funds to fund each other's mega projects and encouraging people-to-people exchanges.

The list of course is even longer, but that would be a start.

The author is the deputy bureau chief for China Daily in Europe.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 07/18/2016 page12)
I came to work in Hong Kong at a sensitive moment: The somewhat tense atmosphere between this international cosmopolitan city and the mainland has been lingering for a while, drawing increasing concerns from people on both sides.

Even so, I still felt surprised when I asked my son, a senior high school student in Beijing, whether he would like to join me in Hong Kong and pursue his college education here in two years' time. "That's out of the question. Everybody knows Hong Kong people hate mainlanders," the boy said bluntly.

As a journalist who has lived in this bustling city for several months, I know it is not true if someone simply jumps to such a conclusion that many Hong Kong people hate mainlanders.

Upon my arrival, I thought my ignorance of Cantonese could bring a lot of inconveniences to my life in Hong Kong. After wandering in this impressive city for one month speaking with the locals either in Mandarin or English, such concerns of mine were totally dispelled. I must say most Hong Kong people I have come across are polite, good-natured and friendly.

True, incidents in which some Hong Kong people displayed open hostility against mainland tourists in recent years have tainted the city's image as one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world and fueled undesirable sentiments between the two sides. But we are a family in which blood is thicker than water, and through more exchanges between Chinese on both sides I believe misunderstandings and misconceptions can be mitigated and even removed.

So I have made up my mind to invite my son over during his summer vacation so he will discover a real Hong Kong, which should be different from his impression now. And tours to famous Hong Kong universities will certainly serve as an important part of his trip, as I still think it would be a good idea if he could come and study here in the near future.

Until recently, Hong Kong was a hot destination for mainland students as its prestigious higher education institutions, such as the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), had more often than not won the upper hand in the competition to take in a large number of the best-performing students in the national college entrance examinations.

A considerable number of mainland students, even some from famous middle schools in Beijing, would shun such mainland elite universities as Peking and Tsinghua universities to embrace their competitors in Hong Kong, thanks to the latter's international fame and generous offers of scholarships. Stories like this used to make newspaper headlines on the mainland.

Unfortunately, such a tendency, which is obviously in favor of Hong Kong universities, has turned a corner now that the popularity of Hong Kong universities on the mainland is waning due to such concerns as Hong Kong university students' involvement in politics and the unfriendly sentiments harbored by some Hong Kong people toward the mainland.

It seems similar concerns have also begun to sink in and influence local people's opinions toward universities in Hong Kong.

A local opinion poll released by education website Education18.com earlier this month found HKUST has for the first time replaced HKU to receive the highest public opinion score in the annual ranking in the last 15 years. HKU's political controversies are perceived as a possible reason behind the slide.

Still, there are positive developments going on which help propel education exchanges between the two sides. Media reports show there is a notable trend now in which an increasing number of Hong Kong students go north to study on the mainland and start their own business there after graduation.

Tendencies like this need to be nourished, and both official and non-official efforts need to be made in such fields as education and culture exchanges so a cordial atmosphere can be revived at an early date.

(HK Edition 07/18/2016 page10)
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Adlai Stevenson ran for president, lost twice, and the Democratic Party's profile hardly changed between 1952 and 1960. Richard Nixon ran for president three times, won twice and lost once, and there was barely any difference between the Republican Party that gave him the nomination in 1960 and the one that re-nominated him in 1972.

Major American political parties are stable institutions. Warren G. Harding can come and go, and he's succeeded by Calvin Coolidge and then Herbert Hoover, and you would need an electron microscope, which was invented in the Hoover years, to discern the difference between the party in the 1920 election cycle and the 1932 cycle.

This is why Donald J. Trump  "an agent for change," former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called him from the convention podium  is such a remarkable, formidable and possibly transformative Republican presidential nominee. He has the potential to change everything  the presidency, the way aspiring nominees campaign for the job, and the Republican Party itself, which this year is celebrating its 160th birthday and is older than both the Canadian Liberal Party and the British Labor Party.

That potential lingers in the air here like the humidity that this week rendered the slightest movement uncomfortable. The GOP is undergoing a profound change that has within it the possibility of altering American politics for a decade, if not a generation.

There are three scenarios, each in its own way terrifying to many of the party leaders who have gathered here, and to the many more at home who find Trump's nomination offensive and dangerous.

One scenario is that Trump wins in November and the whole architecture that has sustained the Republican Party since the Nixon years collapses. Another scenario is that he is defeated and the party reverts to a Republican restoration, with the 2020 nominee looking like the lost little brother or sister of Mitt Romney or former Gov. George Pataki of New York. A third is that his defeat leads to a GOP Kulturkampf, with Tea Party hardliners, strengthened because they are re-elected in safe House districts in the fall, having a larger proportional role in a vastly diminished Republican coalition.

If Trump does become president, he may play the role of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 and Ronald Reagan in 1980, both of whom transformed the demographic profile of their respective parties. Both appealed to blue-collar workers, with FDR bringing the working families of European immigrants into the Democratic Party and Reagan attracting many of the older brothers and sisters of the Trump coalition. The difference in 2016 is that these new Republicans possess anger and alienation of a sharply different character than the rump of the party they are joining.

Establishment Republicans and Tea Party conservatives have little in common besides their contempt, part substantive and part stylistic, for Trump's brand of politics. Neither group has any affinity for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but neither group has a stake in Trump prevailing. Both look forward to a Trump collapse as an opportunity to pick up the pieces  the establishment Republicans hoping to return to the regular practice of nominating worthy Republican governors with solid records, and the Freedom Caucus Republicans hoping to purge the party from its "me too" attitude and imposing a rigid conservative orthodoxy.

The perils here were on full display this week when House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin met with a group of reporters and sought to stress party unity and to look beyond a party nominee whose views and manner are at odds with his own. "I think (Trump) has changed the party but I don't think any one person possesses this party," Ryan said. "I really don't see it that way. I think this party is going through creative change. I think he's brought a lot to this party. I think he's brought a lot of new people to this party."

That's why Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Trump's running mate, was such a balm to the party. Trump partisans like him because their candidate covered him with stardust, the regulars because he has conventional experience in the House and as a governor, and the conservatives because he is one of them. In his time as head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, Pence referred to himself as "Rush Limbaugh on decaf." The conservatives liked the first two words, the regulars the last two.

The Pence selection is far more important for the internal politics of the Republican Party than for its external effect. Only one vice presidential selection since 1988, Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee, prompted as much as a third of the public to say it was more likely to support a party ticket. Only 14 percent of those surveyed said they were more likely to support a ticket that included Joseph R. Biden Jr. (2008) or Richard Cheney (2000).

Trump carried 36 states and won 13.4 million votes on his way to the GOP nomination, but he took a smaller percentage of primary and caucus votes than Romney in 2012 or Sen. John McCain of Arizona in 2008. Yet for all Romney's business orientation and McCain's maverick streak, neither possessed the potential, ability or inclination to change the Republican Party.

Trump, who speaks of making America great and is in the process of remaking the GOP, possesses all three, and he takes them into a race essential for the Republican Party, which has been shut out of the White House for eight years. Back in October, Republican chairman Reince Priebus, worried that the GOP does well in midterm elections but is endangered in presidential elections, said, "We're cooked as a party for quite a while if we don't win in 2016."

Trump is one of those rare presidential nominees who has the potential of winning the White House but also of being defeated decisively. A defeat would warn the Republicans away from nominating a candidate like Trump again. A victory would remold the party in Trump's image  and the long-term effect of that cannot be predicted.
At a working conference of the State Council, China's Cabinet, Premier Li Keqiang advocated fostering "Internet Plus" logistics, so as to promote the upgrading of China's logistics industry, which will benefit China's economy as a whole.

Li said it is necessary to further promote the efficiency of the logistics industry by more deeply applying internet technologies.

In recent years, logistics costs as a percentage of China's GDP have been reduced from 20 to 16 percent, but that's still higher than the global average.

The logistics industry is of special importance to the economy, not only because it helps other industries develop, but also because it offers large numbers of jobs that help stabilize the labor market.

Li said, government agencies should render more support to the logistics industry, especially smaller enterprises, by simplifying administrative approval procedures. Banks are also to be encouraged to issue loans to them so as to help the industry prosper.
Former State councilor Dai Bingguo delivers a speech at China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks on July 5 in Washington. Photo by Ji Tao/China Daily

It's no exaggeration to say China-US relations have in recent times been hijacked by the South China Sea issue, at least in the headlines. Some Chinese and US think tank experts I talked with blamed the media for making the situation worse by portraying a picture very different from reality. Despite being a journalist, I agree with them even though a few think tanks in Washington have also fanned the flames for their ulterior motives. In Washington, many people know exactly which ones I mean.

Indeed, many people fail to see the wood for the trees in the hugely consequential Sino-US relationship. Many aspects of that relationship hardly make headlines, especially in the mainstream US media. It's just like the way they have been covering the 2016 US presidential election.

Last Friday, I attended a breakfast meeting of the US-China Strong Foundation, which re-branded itself just a month ago from the original 100,000 Strong Foundation. After accomplishing its early goal of sending 100,000 US students to China, an initiative taken by US President Barack Obama in 2009 and fully supported by the Chinese government, the foundation is now expanding its mission, which includes the 1 Million Strong-to help increase the number of US K-12 students learning Mandarin to 1 million by 2020 from the present 200,000. This ambitious initiative was also proposed by Obama during President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington last September.

Travis Tanner, president of the foundation, is actually in Beijing now and will be based at its China office. CEO Carola McGiffert and her small team are all amazing people. I had a chat with Morgan Jones, its chief operation officer, in Shanghai dialect. Hannah Kerne, the associate director of programs and communications, spent three years in China, during which she also taught students in rural Yunnan province.

More exciting is their passion for the cause of investing in a new generation of leaders who have the knowledge and skills to engage with China. Such a generation would not be easily misled by sensational headlines and presidential campaign rhetoric when it comes to China-US relations.

On Friday evening, I attended a reception at the Chinese embassy in Washington to mark the 60th anniversary of Sister Cities International, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that was set up under the citizen diplomacy initiative of former US president Dwight Eisenhower. The 400 participants from dozens of countries were enthusiastic about the sister-city relationship.

President Xi is a prominent member of that group, as Mary Kane, president and CEO of SCI, noted that Xi first visited the US in 1985 as part of an agriculture research group to Muscatine, Iowa, under a sister-city relationship between Iowa and Hebei province.

Xi revisited Iowa in 2012 as vice-president and he went to Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington, a sister city of Fuzhou, Southeast China's Fujian province, last September as China's president. Xi worked as Party secretary of Fuzhou in the early 1990s and later as governor of Fujian province.

Chinese cities and provinces have sibling relationships with 258 US cities and states. The China-US relationship at the sub-national level certainly looks healthy and exciting. More US governors and mayors are embarking on regular trips to China, a major trade partner and growing investor form any US cities and states. The 300,000 Chinese students studying in US colleges and universities and the 2.67 million Chinese who visited the US in 2015 thanks to a bilateral visa extension program in late 2014 have injected positive momentum to the relationship.

This is just a one small part of the positive side of the China-US relationship. It is a pity then that many people still can't see the wood for the trees in this relationship.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Chinese PresidentXi Jinping(2nd R, front) meets with European Council President Donald Tusk (3rd L, front) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (2nd L, front) in Beijing, capital of China, July 12, 2016. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

The decision by the European Commission on Wednesday to abolish its "non-market economy" list, which includes China, is a halfway house, if not a means of expediency, when it comes to trade relations with China.

By introducing a new anti-dumping methodology, the executive arm of the European Union claims that the bloc will now treat all World Trade Organization members equally in trade disputes, which may bode well for better trade relations between China and the EU.

The EU says the new "country-neutral" method is a "huge change" to the bloc's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy laws. And the move does mark progress compared with the non-binding decision of the European Parliament in May not to grant China market economy status.

Yet the EU has still failed to deliver on its WTO obligations. According to the accession protocol China signed when it joined the world trade body in 2001, the country should automatically be granted market economy status when the so-called surrogate country approach expires on Dec 11.

It is noteworthy that even as it outlined the new trade policy, the EU still vowed to work out plans to "maintain a strong trade defense system".

Thus it remains likely that the EU, still struggling with the fallout from Brexit and a slow economic recovery, will resort to more trade protection measures against China.

This expectation is not unfounded given that the EU already has a track record of resorting to protectionism against Chinese products.

China has been recognized as a market economy by about 100 countries. Whether to give it a market economy status or not will do little to compromise its role as one of the strongest proponents of globalization and free trade.

Even without being granted that status by the EU, China has been able to increase its exports to Europe by more than 11 percent a year over the past 15 years, making it the bloc's second-largest trading partner after the United States.

The EU should realize that protectionist measures to make Chinese imports more costly are not the solution to its woes. Its problems stem from the declining competitiveness of its enterprises and its need for economic structural adjustments.

Trade serves mutual benefits, and market economy status is not a favor given to China. The EU should bear that in mind when handling trade relations with China.
Yellow flowers are laid next to blood stains on the attack scene at the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, July 16, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The UK's Home Office recently listed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as an Islamic terrorist and separatist organization.

At a time when Europe faces an increasingly difficult anti-terrorism situation, the move by the United Kingdom, although belated, is of positive significance. It demonstrates that the UK and possibly other Western countries have realized the threat of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement to the security and stability of not only China, but also the Western world.

In an attempt to solicit support and sympathy the East Turkestan Islamic Movement "presents" itself to the world in the disguise of "non-violence", "human rights" and "religion". But in the past years, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement has not only carried out terrorist attacks in China that have caused huge civilian casualties, it has also taken advantage of the changed geopolitics after the Cold War to accelerate colluding with other international terrorist organizations.

As early as 2002, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement was listed by the United Nations as a terrorist group. The UK's move shows it too has recognized the organization's true nature.

Unfortunately, some Western countries and organizations still fail to see the true nature of the organization. Instead of regarding the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist group, they have even chosen to offer it aid as a card to play against China.

Any form of terrorism is a tumor to human civilization. In identifying terrorist groups and terrorist activities, Western countries should abandon their biased geopolitical and ideological considerations. Western countries should refrain from using "double standards". They should strengthen their cooperation with China, as combating the East Turkestan Islamic Movement constitutes an indispensable part of the international anti-terrorism campaign.
A taxi and pedestrians make their way in a flooded street in Beijing, July 20, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

After heavy rain throughout Wednesday, posts about Beijing's flooded subway stations and water-logged roads were quickly forwarded on social media. Yet some of the information spread via social media was fabricated. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

Such fictional exaggerations, distortion of the facts and concocting of sensational rumors are usually produced intentionally, whether for grandstanding, venting negative emotions or just as a stimulating pursuit.

All the unconfirmed information on social media about the flooding in the city heightened the anxieties of its residents. To control the flooding is one of the municipal government's duties as is controlling fabricated rumors with the release of timely information. And to deter people from fabricating rumors and false information, and to punish those that do so, laws and regulations with clear penalties should be implemented and enforced.

With more heavy rain forecast, the authorities must ensure they use all possible means to ensure residents are aware of the true situation. The public should also shoulder its responsibility and only forward official information released by the relevant departments. They should not spread hearsay and rumors. We must be cautious and careful, to avoid becoming loudspeakers for fabrications and rumors.
A report on trends in education in the year ahead finds that 26.8 percent of Chinese students who plan to study abroad prefer US schools because of their educational quality. Zhang Yang / for China Daily

Statistics show that last year, most Chinese students studying abroad who finished their studies chose to return home to pursue their career goals. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

The backflow of overseas students, on the one hand, should be able to contribute more intellectual resources to China. On the other hand, it also indicates that against the backdrop of globalization and industrialization of higher education, students who pursue overseas education are no longer rare. They too have to take part in the tight competition for jobs and some have lost their elite status in the eyes of many.

In 2007, among all Chinese students who studied abroad (over 144,000), about 44,000 returned home after they finished their studies. However, at least 400,000 of the about 523,700 overseas students who graduated by 2015 have returned to China.

The fact that not all Chinese graduates can guarantee a decent job does not necessarily mean overseas higher education is not worth pursuing. Many Chinese students are still inclined to apply for overseas universities for further education, because they believe that studying abroad is a worthwhile investment that will benefit them greatly in the near future.

Apart from the unbalanced allocation of quality educational resources, students' higher expectations of college education as a springboard for their future have also fueled the studying-abroad fervor in the country. They pursue not only good jobs and decent salaries after graduation, but also opportunities to improve their English and way of thinking, as well as expanding their academic horizons while in college.

In this sense, overseas education's attraction to Chinese students should prompt the country to make concrete efforts to expedite education reform.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) greets a child during his visit at the municipality-run refugee camp of Kara Tepe on the island of Lesbos, Greece, June 18, 2016.[Photo/VCG]

The ongoing refugee crisis and migration issue was at the heart of last months historic Brexit vote, and will continue to be one of the biggest challenges for European countries and societies in the upcoming years. While the EU and its member states are at the forefront of dealing with this overwhelming crisis, the issue also has an international dimension where the international community, including China, has a stake and thus need to tackle this challenge together.

At the recent EU-China Summit concluded on 13th of July, China agreed to tackle the migration crisis at the global level which is different from one year ago. This is undoubtedly a sensible gesture as China does have an important stake in the European refugee crisis.

In the first place, China is not immune to refugee crisis. Historically China received Jewish refugees during the WWII. Nowadays Chinas neighborhood is still prone to potential conflicts or destabilization, in particular in the Korea Peninsula, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Central Asia. Engaging appropriately in refugee governance will provide China valuable experience and expertise needed once such a scenario rises at its door.

The refugee crisis also provides an opportunity for China to substantiate the strategic partnership with the EU. Based on the EU-China cooperation on anti-piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Iran nuclear issue, the refugee crisis might be a bigger step forward for building trust and strategic partnership considering the far-reaching impact and comprehensive approaches at all-side levels.

From a humanitarian perspective, contribution to the refugee issue would foster Chinas image as a bigger responsible player in the international community.

Undoubtedly, there are cultural differences and societal obstacles behind Chinas attitude towards the current refugee crisis. But China should play a bigger role on this issue as its expected to contribute more to global governance in accordance with its position.

A first option would be to engage more proactively with the international regime governing the refugee and migration issues, including the UNHCR, ICRC, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) etc. In fact, China has recently made a positive move to formally apply for membership in the IOM, a signal of Chinas intention to play a bigger role in this field.

The upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou this September serves as another important platform for China to discuss the issue with other stakeholders. If progress could be made on solving this pressing global issue, it would be a great achievement for China as a host of G20 for the first time.

Yan Shaohua, PhD candidate of European Studies at the University of Hong Kong.
[2017-12-05 07:46]

Nearly six out of 10 Africans today are below the age of 25 and by the middle of this century, one in four people in the world will be an African. But last year, about 5,000 migrants, mainly Africans, drowned in the Mediterranean on their way to seek shelter in Europe.
Japanese military authorities are trying to play up the China threat theory as an excuse for the country's military expansion, Chinese experts said after a media report on Japan's forthcoming defense white paper.

The white paper, to be submitted to the Japanese Cabinet for approval early next month, is expected to say that Beijing's activities in the South China Sea are making its territorial claims a fait accompli, according to Kyodo News, which said it had obtained an outline of the paper.

"We have noticed the report, and the situation still needs to be verified and considered," the Ministry of National Defense told China Daily on Wednesday.

The outline, according to the report, says China's activities are intensifying near the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

A Chinese navy ship last month sailed in a "contiguous zone" just outside territorial waters around the Diaoyu Islands, Kyodo quoted the outline as saying.

The outline also says that the number of times that Japan has scrambled fighter jets against Chinese aircraft approaching its airspace has risen sharply, according to Kyodo.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that Japanese military authorities have been trying to play up China's threat in recent years, and the white paper "is telling the same lies" as before.

China's military drill in the South China Sea, lasting from Tuesday to Thursday, took place on China's own maritime territory and is done for self-defense purposes, he said.

"The recent Japan-Philippine military exercise took place in the South China Sea, quite far from Japanese homeland, so who on Earth is flexing muscles?" he said, adding that most of Japan's military drills targeted China as a potential enemy.

The Japanese Navy carried out a joint military exercise with the Philippines on July 13, the day after the announcement of the ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal of The Hague.

Jin Yong, a professor of international relations studies at Communication University of China, said that through exaggerating China's military threat, Japan is "playing the trick of a thief crying 'Stop, thief'!"
City

 Robert P. Rahrle, 26, 27 E. Genesee St. Apt. 4, Auburn, was charged July 21 with two counts of second-degree menacing.

 Mitul Y. Patel, 26, 1 Patriot Way, Auburn, was charged July 21 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

 Cleveland E. Boswell, 47, 83 Grove St., Union Springs, was charged July 21 with second-degree burglary, first-degree criminal contempt, fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree obstructing government administration.

 Veruona R. Salemi, 39, 21 Gaylord St., Auburn, was charged July 21 with second-degree criminal trespass.

 Kacee J. Blasko, 23, 16 East Austin St., Skaneateles, was charged July 18 with petit larceny.

 Robert J. McDermott, 48, 36 Franklin St., Auburn, was charged July 18 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

 Jason T. Fields, 31, 5 Church St., Auburn, was charged July 18 with resisting arrest.

 Alan J. Aroneck, 73, 6497 County Line Road, Skaneateles, was charged July 18 with driving while intoxicated first offense.

State

 Patricia A. Bort, 33, Auburn, was charged July 19 with prostitution.

 Dale R. Gamba, 51, Victory, was charged July 19 with fourth-degree grand larceny.

 Sean E. Gaines, 28, Auburn, was charged July 21 with first-degree possession of prison contraband.

 Uvaldo Gonzalez, 33, Auburn, was charged July 21 with two counts of second-degree assault and first-degree possession of prison contraband.

 Joseph J. Lazore, 32, Jordan, was charged July 22 with third-degree menacing and criminal obstruction of breath.

 Michelle A. Raymond, 49, Martville, was charged July 22 with third-degree criminal mischief.
Brazil's Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes attends a press conference on arrests made in at least two states before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in Brasilia July 21, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's federal police have arrested 10 people for allegedly planning terrorist attacks during next month's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes described the group as "absolute amateurs", adding that their detention was a preventative measure.

Officials said the suspects had tried to make contact with Islamic State, but were not members of the organization.

The arrested people were all Brazilian citizens and were detained in 10 different states. They had been in contact via mobile messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram, police said.

Thursday's developments came a week after 84 people were killed, including scores of children, when a truck ploughed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French city of Nice.

Brazil's institutional security minister, Sergio Etchegoyen, said after the Nice attack that security would be raised to "another level" for the August 5-21 Games.

Brazil's federal police are understood to be monitoring 100 people for possible links to terrorist groups. Meanwhile intelligence agencies are stepping up security and tightening checks in the tri-border region with Argentina and Paraguay.
A file picture dated September 11, 2014 shows an Air Koryo plane landing at Incheon International Airport, Seoul.[Photo/IC]

PYONGYANG - A flight of Air Koryo, the national flag carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), made a forced landing in Xiantao International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday after the plane caught fire.

A passenger said smoke appeared in the cabin about 30 minutes after takeoff from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport. The passengers were told that they should not panic and that the plane would temporarily land in Shenyang.

Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin.

The flight en route from Pyongyang to Beijing made the landing safely in Shenyang at 8:50 am. No one on board was injured, according to the airport authority.

Chinese ground staff said that the plane had caught fire. Passengers held up in Shenyang can either choose to check out from the airport or wait for Air Koryo to send another plane to pick them.

Air Koryo operates mainly Russian TU-204 and AN-148 planes. The international destinations to which it flies regularly include Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang in China and the Russian port of Vladivostok.

The Pyongyang-Beijing service uses a Russian Tupolev Tu-204 - a twin-engine medium-range jet airliner that carries about 140 passengers.
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (C) poses for a group photo. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Hubei cuisine prepared by Zhang Hui, a cooking instructor in China, stunned Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn during a reception on July 16 hosted by the Chinese ambassador in Thailand, reported Chutian Golden News.

Princess Sirindhorn has visited Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province several times and has a special affection for the city.

Wuhan's specialty, hot dry noodles and Hubei's lotus root starch jelly are the two main courses specially requested by the princess.

Zhang spent four and a half hours preparing the 10 courses for the reception, of which four represented Hubei cuisine, namely Hubei-style steamed lotus root roll, three-color lotus root starch jelly, clear fish ball soup and hot dry noodles. The lotus root roll, which was made with 1 kg of lotus root, took Zhang more than two hours to cook.

"The stuffing is a mixture of shrimp meat and mushrooms, which is full of traditional Hubei flavor," the chef said. Zhang was inspired by Tangxun Lake fish balls, a popular snack in Wuhan, when cooking the clear fish ball soup with local sea bass and water chestnuts as major ingredients.

Zhang creatively added chunks of dragon fruit, mango, and kiwi fruit into the lotus root starch jelly to make the dish both tasty and eye-catching.

Princess Sirindhorn singled out the jelly for praise and asked for the chef's name after tasting it.

Zhang brought the ingredients for hot dry noodles, such as the sesame paste and noodles, from Wuhan to Thailand. Although the noodles were among the last few courses to be served, the princess ate the entire bowl of noodles and was amazed by Zhang's culinary skill.

As a long-term promoter of China-Thailand friendship, Princess Sirindhorn learned Chinese more than 30 years ago and is known as a China hand.

Sirindhorn was appointed as professor emeritus at Wuhan University in 2005 and translated Chinese author Chi Li's novel, Her City into Thai.
Police secure a street near to the scene of a shooting in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BERLIN -- The number of the people died in a shootout in a Munich's shopping mall rose to nine, according to the latest update Munich police announced on their Twitter account on Friday evening.

After the police firstly announced eight fatal casualties on Twitter, they updated with another Tweet saying that the police is verifying the possibility of another dead person they had found "being involved in the shooting".

In addition, the policed confirm "several injured, whose number is not yet known yet" in a latest press release.

At the moment, no perpetrator could be arrested. The search for them is running at full speed, said the police.

A spokesman of Munich police said on Friday evening that the investigators assume three perpetrators, for whom the police is searching in the whole urban area of Munich.

However, the spokesman couldn't confirm rumors about the alleged death of a perpetrator.

The police called the shootout as an "acute terror situation" in Munich, as German news television N-TV reported earlier, citing an official announcement of Munich police.

Due to the still unclear situation, the police asked all people in Munich's urban area to stay at home or to search protection in nearby buildings.

The operation of the public transport system in Munich is currently suspended, according to the press release.

Munich police reported earlier that they were carrying out a large-scale operation in a Munich shopping center due to a shootout.
 Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization

Francisco Chicano, Bin Hu, "Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization: 16th European Conference, EvoCOP 2016, Porto, Portugal, March 30 - April 1, 2016, Proceedings"

2016 | ISBN-10: 3319306979 | 280 pages | PDF | 12 MB

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization, EvoCOP 2016, held in Porto, Portugal, in March/April 2016, co-located with the Evo*2015 events EuroGP, EvoMUSART and EvoApplications.The 17 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The papers cover methodology, applications and theoretical studies. The methods included evolutionary and memetic algorithms, variable neighborhood search, particle swarm optimization, hyperheuristics, mat-heuristic and other adaptive approaches. Applications included both traditional domains, such as graph coloring, vehicle routing, the longest common subsequence problem, the quadratic assignment problem; and new(er) domains such as the traveling thief problem, web service location, and finding short addition chains. The theoretical studies involved fitness landscape analysis, local search and recombination operator analysis, and the big valley search space hypothesis. The consideration of multiple objectives, dynamic and noisy environments was also present in a number of articles.
CLEVELAND -- Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Arizona delegates Thursday that the Grand Old Party needs to focus less on the old if it hopes to remain relevant in the future.

Luntz, speaking at a delegation breakfast on the last day of the Republican National Convention, said the partys problems range from its inability to embrace social media to a focus on name-calling and class politics that does not relate party priorities to the everyday lives of voters.

Without those changes, Luntz said, the GOP will not be able to attract the independent and millennial voters it now lacks.

For the most part, I thought a lot of what he said was true, said Amanda Flores, 18, one of the youngest delegates from Arizona.

I thought he made a lot of good points, she said. He said a lot of things about the power of social media, millennials, the role of politicians and Wall Street.

Luntz delivered a serious message in a lighthearted manner, punctuating his address with jokes and asides that drew laughter from the dozens of delegates and alternates at the breakfast. When he asked how many in the room had an online presence, only a meager number of hands went up.

But those in the room sat up straighter when Luntz told them that, if the presidential election were held today, likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would beat newly selected Republican nominee Donald Trump. Luntz said Clinton held a marginal lead in recent polls.

Luntzs message was clear: The GOP needs to rally those who are on their and keep them, in addition to gaining new voters, if they have any chance of keeping Arizona red in November. He also criticized the party for the divisiveness that has been on display this week at the national convention, telling delegates that if party members have this attitude then Hillary Clinton is your next president.

Jason Rose, an Arizona political consultant, echoed Luntzs call for unity and reform, saying he wants to see the party use better tactics to gain forward-thinking voters and keep everyone together.

The question is can the Republican party put Humpty Dumpty back together again? Rose asked, referring to the feuding that has plagued the convention.

Rose said the party needs to become more open on issues of interest to millennial and independent voters like medical marijuana and sustainability. He praised the Arizona Republican Partys recent moves to embrace the sharing economy -- services like Uber ride-sharing, Airbnb and crowdfunding sites -- as a step in the right direction.

If the Republican Party were to extend itself with its Uber-like position to these other positions, I think it would be hipper. It would be cooler. It would resonate more, Rose said.
A ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the recommissioning of the USS Coconino County took place July 15 on the Coconino County courthouse lawn. The event was a gathering of Vietnam-era crew members to honor the anniversary and to turn over ship memorabilia to its namesake county.
(Photo : Jared West) Passenger Jared West documented smoke-filled cabin after an engine malfunction forced a JetBlue flight bound to Austin, Texas to land back to Long Beach, California.

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A JetBlue Liner passenger plane made an emergency landing at a Long Beach, California airport on Thursday after a problem occurred with one of its engines shortly after taking off.



JetBlue Liner flight 1416 bound to Austin, Texas landed back at a California airport at around 9:30 a.m. when the cabin was filled with smoke, forcing passengers to make an emergency exit through the plane's slides.



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A few of the 142 passengers were taken to a local hospital for evaluation after some complained about medical issues after the plane landed.



According to Cassie Perez-Harmison, the spokesperson for the airport, a crew announced the emergency landing due to an "overheat warning" for one of its two engines.



Passengers claimed hearing a popping noise followed by an unusual vibration and a foul smell when they were about 10 minutes in the air.



"Smoke came billowing out of the air vents and filled up the cabin in about 10 to 15 seconds," Dean Delbaugh, who was supposed to visit his in-laws in Austin, told the Associated Press.



Fifty-seven-year-old Laura Andreasen, who was travelling to Orlando with her husband, pregnant daughter and disabled son for a Disney cruise, expressed her relief upon landing after feeling unsure about whether or not they would survive.



Meanwhile, Twilight actor Jackson Rathbone, who was aboard the plane during the incident, Tweeted about how the cabin was filled with smoke after the right engine exploded.



"The stewardesses yelled for us to get out and as far away from the airplane as possible. I grabbed my son and jumped down the inflated ramp, my wife following. We left all our personal effects onboard," he wrote.



During the incident, oxygen masks were manually deployed by the cabin crew members as they were only designed to automatically drop upon depletion of pressure inside the cabin.



A representative from JetBlue declared that an investigation into what caused the engine to malfunction is underway.



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TagsJetBlue Liner, airplane, engine malfunction, overheat, emergency landing, california, Texas, austin, Long Beach, jet blue, Twilight, jackson rathbone
(Photo : Reuters) China is the source of the biggest source of Qualcomm's revenue.

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Qualcomm has released its new forecast for the current quarter, predicting that China will have the strongest demand for its mobile chips.



The world's largest chip maker also expects to sign more licensing deals with the Chinese government as the company gets a majority of its profit from patent licensing.



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The company is extending its reach into China, the worlds largest smartphone market, which translates into heftier royalty payments. In the chipset business, Chinese handset makers and Samsung have gained share against Apple, helping boost demand for Qualcomms processors and modems. China also provides the company with the biggest slice of its revenue, Bloomberg reported.



It was a really strong quarter -- it was strong in both businesses, in particular, the license business. We got some money a little earlier than we would have thought. In China, the chipset business has done a good job of growing. Were on track and executing, Chief Executive Officer Steve Mollenkopf said.



The company's revenue increased to $6.04 billion in the quarter that ended on June 26 from $5.83 billion a year earlier. Excluding items, Qualcomm earned $1.16 cents per share, compared with analysts estimate of 97 cents. During the quarter, the company returned $781 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and $100 million in share repurchases. Its quarterly dividend was $0.53 per share.



Qualcomm said that it is expecting a fiscal year revenue from its high-margin licensing business that would be between $7.4 billion and $7.8 billion.



Its next big bet is the fast next-generation 5G technology, a wireless service that is expected to be 100 times faster than the current 4G networks, Reuters reported. The company said it now expects to gain traction in the 5G technology by 2018-2019.



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(Photo : Reuters) Midea and Huawei are collaborating to develop smart home appliances.

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Chinese home appliance corporation Midea Group has signed a strategic partnership agreement with tech giant Huawei Technologies, China's largest manufacturer of smartphones. This new alliance comes just a few weeks after Midea Group, in a somewhat controversial move, won majority control of German robotics company Kuka.



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The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed to the public. However, Midea Group and Huawei will work together in developing smart home appliances and devices, as well as expanding their Internet of Things platforms.



Midea has long been involved in the smart appliances industry. In 2014, the company signed a partnership with Chinese smartphone tech manufacturer Xiaomi to develop smart home products, according to Forbes. However, through the years, Huawei has surpassed Xiaomi in terms of market share on the domestic front.



According to China Tech News, the newly formed partnership will take advantage of Huawei's strong connectivity services and valuable experience in the smart devices market. Midea's experience in the home appliance market will also come to play in the agreement. The two companies aim to develop a platform that will usher in a new era of smart home technology in China.



Midea Group chairman Fang Hongbo said that the important aspect of the company's strategy is to focus on smart home development and improvements. Through its partnership with Huawei, Midea Group aims to provide a better smart home experience for Chinese consumers.



Aside from smart home devices, Huawei and Midea Group also said that they would develop microchips that will have application in the Internet of Things platform. The companies also plan to develop operating systems, security protocols, and data sharing platforms.



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Fresh off a trip to Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, U.S. Senate hopeful Kelli Ward addressed a crowd of 11 diners at Mike and Rondas The Place Thursday morning, campaigning on the premise that fresh perspectives are needed in the legislative branch.

You would think 30 years in the Senate would be more than enough for anyone, Ward said of her Republican opponent, incumbent Senator John McCain.

Ward is one of four candidates on the Republican ballot for the seat, one write-in candidate has also been approved for the primary election. U.S. Representative Ann Kirkpatrick is the only candidate on the Democratic primary ballot for that seat, and Democratic and Libertarian write-ins have been approved.

Even people who have been in Washington for a long time realize we need new eyes to look at the issues, Ward told the group at the restaurant. Every sign points to me being victorious in the primary.

Ward, who worked as a physician and served as a state senator, criticized McCains voting history, including approving "liberal-leaning" judges, voting to increase the debt ceiling, his stance on gun control and actions hes taken on military spending. McCain originally backed a bill proposed after the shooting in Newtown, Conn., that would have expanded background checks for potential gun buyers.

Last month, McCain also supported a plan that would allow a delay in gun sales to people found guilty of terrorist acts or found by a court to be suspected of likely committing terrorism in the future. Ward said she does not support a ban on sales to people on terrorist watch lists.

There is no due process for how a person gets on those lists, Ward said. If there was a due process we could have a more rational discussion, but it is infringing on a persons Second Amendment right to ban the sale.

Ward, a Donald Trump supporter, said she rejects the notion that Trump and his message are demeaning to women, and said the businessman has hired female employees.

Donald Trump has empowered many women to rise to the top in positions that are not dominated by women, like construction and real estate, she said.

Ward said her first priority if elected would be securing the border, which she compared to a leaky faucet.

You have to fix the leak and add border security before you can clean up the mess that is illegal immigration, she said.

Ward said she would support some sort of barrier in some places along the border, but said she also wants to use technology and increased Border Patrol force to slow illegal border crossing.

Deportation has to be a possibility, she said.

Ward also blamed lax immigration enforcement, as well as a focus on nation-building abroad, on terrorism attacks within the United States.

I dont think we learned our lesson in Iraq, she said. We have intervened in Middle Eastern countries to take out very tyrannical leaders, but we have left a vacuum. We saw it in Libya and now were seeing it in Syria, and the vacuum has been filled with more and more radical leaders.

Ward said she would support extra vetting for Muslim people attempting to immigrate to the United States from countries known for radical Islamic terror.

I would like to see us prioritize Christians fleeing from places where they are being persecuted, she said.

Ward said her second priority, if elected, would be to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

According to her website, Ward has come up with her own healthcare plan, which she calls The Patient Power Plan, which would give an insurance tax credit to citizens without access to employer-provided healthcare. The credit could be used to buy health insurance from any provider. Under her plan, states could redesign their Medicaid systems as well as create an uninsurable risk pool to provide for those with high cost illnesses.

Ward said her third priority would be to change the tax code in the United States by making it lower and flatter.

Her plan includes a 15 percent flat tax rate for individuals and businesses. According to her website, this tax would be applicable to wages, capital gains, dividends, rent, interest and all individual income.

Ward said the notion that a flat tax is a regressive tax, meaning one that hits the poorest people the hardest while greatly lowering the tax rate on the wealthiest, is a misconception.

A flat tax rate would actually benefit the poorest of the poor because it would give corporations an incentive to come to the United States and create jobs, she said.

According to her website, the plan would include a standard deduction of $12,500 for each family member, and specifies that households making under $50,000 would not pay taxes.

Ward said her fourth priority in office would be support for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We have to honor our veterans, she said. We have created so many hoops for them to jump through that many die waiting in line.

If elected, Ward said she would like to continue to celebrate successes in Arizona, including tourism and higher education, as well as build on relations with indigenous leaders.

I would like to continue to build on the great relationships we have with the Navajo Nation, she said. Im glad to see many of them are coming out of the doldrums of being Democrats and seeing that the Republican Party is the party of freedom, the party of opportunity.
(Photo : Getty Images.) China and Pakistan troops have conducted joint patrols near the border of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) connecting with Chinas Xinjiang province.

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China and Pakistan recently carried out a joint army patrol near the border of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) connecting with China's Xinjiang province.



People's Daily Online on Thursday published several photos of the Chinese and Pakistani armies carrying out joint patrolling near China-Pakistan border, which runs through Gilgit-Baltistan region in disputed territory of POK. The joint patrol was carried out by defense regiment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and border police force from Pakistan.



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The state-owned online website did not give extensive details about the joint patrol, or what prompted the joint military activity. Reports in other Chinese media suggest that the joint patrol may have been carried to control insurgency among Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang region. Over the years, the region has witnessed heightened insurgency among resident Uyghur Muslims.



US think-tank New America Foundation on Wednesday claimed that 114 Uighurs Muslims have sneaked away from Xinjiang region to join Islamic terrorist organization ISIS, according to Times of India.



India Won't Be Amused With Joint Patrolling Report



India is likely to be irked by the report of the joint patrol of the Chinese and Pakistani armies near POK, as India is laying claim over the Himalayan region. Traditionally, New Delhi has been critical of close ties between Beijing and Islamabad.



Analysts in India claim that latest joint military exercise clearly conveys China's intent to increase its influence in POK. China is already in the middle of increasing its footprint in the disputed region with the ongoing construction of a $46 billion corridor. New Delhi has complained about the ambitious project.



The China and Pakistan's Fresh military initiative near POK also comes in the wake of growing unrest in Indian-administrated Kashmir. The Indian government has directly blamed Pakistan and its intelligence agency ISI for the latest unrest in Kashmir.



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Tagschina, China and Pakistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, India
(Photo : Getty Images) An Air Koryo plane with Premier Kim Yong II arrives at the Beijing International Airport on March 17, 2009 in Beijing, China.

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A North Korean airliner was forced to make an emergency landing in northeastern China on Friday after a fire erupted onboard the aircraft.



A passenger on the plane told China's Xinhua News Agency that the Air Koryo flight travelling from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to Beijing had to ground the aircraft in Shenyang, which is located in China's Liaoning Province, according to the South China Morning Post.



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At approximately 8.30 a.m., Air Koryo Flight 151 made contact with air traffic controllers at the Shenyang Taoxian International Airport to report the emission of smoke in the aircraft cabin.



"Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin," according to Xinhua (via Reuters). The pilot diverted the plane and made the emergency landing 15 minutes later.



Sixty passengers and 15 crew members were on board the aircraft. No injuries have been reported in the incident but an investigation is being carried out to determine the source of the fire.



Air Koryo is the only airline that has a one-star rating on SKYTRAX, the internationally recognized commercial airline rating system. However, the carrier has an impressive safety record with only one fatal accident in more than three decades of service.



The state-owned airliner's fleet comprises of Russian-made TU-204 and AN-148 aircrafts and its international destinations include several Chinese and Russian cities. The airline also operates charter flights to airports in China, Pakistan and Kuwait. Kuwait.



Watch the video below for more details on the airline dubbed as the "world's worst airline."







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TagsNorth Korea, Air Koryo, china, Air Koryo emergency landing, Shenyang, Pyongyang, Beijing
(Photo : USAF) Space Mission Force: manual for protecting U.S. satellites

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The growing anti-satellite (ASAT) missile arsenals of both China and Russia have prompted U.S. Air Force Space Command to develop a new and tougher system for training its military satellite operators.



The system, called the Space Mission Force (SMF), aims to better prepare satellite operators to operate military satellites in a threatened environment and includes tactics to respond to threats. It's based on a white paper prepared by General John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command.



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SMF supports the U.S. Air Force's new space strategy aimed at protecting its "freedom of action in space." This necessarily means protecting U.S. military satellites and other orbital facilities used in reconnaissance and surveillance.



SMF will subject the Air Force's aerospace units such as the 21st Space Wing, the 50th Space Wing and the 460th Space Wing to "demanding training ... focused on improving combat capability against everincreasing threats and complex scenarios," said Gen. Hyten.



The U.S. "space soldiers" will receive intensive training lasting from four to six months. This will be followed by four to six months where they will put their newly learned skills to the test by having experienced and rookie operators work side-by-side.



Operators from the 50th Space Wing that manages Air Force satellites have begun SMF training. The 21st Space Wing, which is responsible for the Air Force's space situational awareness ground stations and radars, began training in July. The 460th Space Wing, which manages the Air Force's missile warning satellites, will transition to SMF in 2017.



Gen. Hyten said the training and skills that sustained U.S. space operations for the last several decades are not the same skills it needs to fight through threats and win in today's much tougher environment.



"My intent is to transform our culture by implementing the Space Mission Force, a new advanced training and force presentation model that prepares our space forces to meet the challenges of today's space domain, while ensuring we continue to provide vital space capabilities for the Joint Forces now and in the future," he wrote in "Space Mission Force: Developing Space Warfighters for Tomorrow," an eight-page white paper.



"We need to fight through threats to win in today's contested, degraded and operationally-limited environment."



He said securing "our right to use space is simply an extension of an age old principle to guarantee use of global commons" such as space.



"Our space forces must demonstrate their ability to react to a thinking adversary and operate as warfighters in this environment," said Gen. Hyten.



To attack U.S. satellites, China can deploy the Dong Neng-2 (DN-2), Dong Neng-3 (DN-3) and the HongQi-19 (HQ-19) ASATs. All these missiles were developed as ASAT missiles under the guise of anti-ballistic missile systems.



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TagsU.S. Air Force Space Command, anti-satellite missile, General John Hyten, Space Mission Force
(Photo : Twitter/FreeTibetOrg) Parts of the Larung Gar monastery in Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region, Sichuan province has been demolished as part of a government plan to renovate the learning center.

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China has demolished the Larung Gar monastery in Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region in Sichuan province.



The Larun Gar monastery is one of largest Tibetan Buddhist study centers in the world. Established in 1980, the Lanur Gar is also largest Buddhist education institute in Tibet.



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Tibetan activist groups confirmed the destruction saying that the destruction was part of a governmental plan to reduce the size of the monastery and institute. Last month, authorities announced a plan to reduce population of the monastery by half (i.e. 5000).



"At around 8 a.m. (local time) yesterday, a Chinese work-team arrived at the monastery, accompanied by officials, police and members of the armed forces dressed in plain clothes," London-based Free Tibet organization said in a statement on Thursday. "They brought bulldozers and other demolition equipment. Upon arriving, they began to pull down residences belonging to the monastery."



The group also shared a video and pictures of demolition on its social media accounts.



A senior official of the Tibetan Parliament in exile has accused the Chinese government of interference in Tibet's religious affairs. "It is indeed sad and unfortunate news. It is also a fact that since Xi Jinping became the President of China there has been a noticeable deterioration in the religious freedom inside Tibet," deputy speaker of Parliament-in-exile Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok said. Other Tibetan groups have also lashed out at the Chinese government.



Chinese authorities, on the other hand, have defended the demolition drive saying that the move is part of the Lanur Gar monastery renovation plan.



Watch the video of Lanur Gar demolition here.







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(Photo : Getty Images) Donald Trump is known for his anti-China rhetoric.

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U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has once again criticized Beijing's trade policies.



Trump on Friday slammed China for unfair trade practices like manipulating its currency and allegedly stealing copyrights.



While formally accepting the Republican nomination as Presidential candidate, Trump made it clear that he would take a tough stand against countries like China, which engage in unfair trade practices.



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"This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation," he said. He also promised a fair trade policy that protects U.S. jobs and stands up to 'countries that cheat.'



"Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we'll walk away if we don't get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again," he stated.



Trump's remarks came a day after Beijing accused the Republican Party of interfering in the domestic matters of the country. China on Thursday slammed the GOP for making 'groundless' accusations against the country on its party platform.



The U.S. party on Tuesday approved a report, which is strongly critical of China. The policy document lashed out at China' ruling Communist party for the recent crackdown on dissent and its assertive policies over Tibet and South China Sea.



Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, in a statement, said that we hope relevant parties stop their groundless accusations against China and interference in China's domestic affairs and contribute more to bilateral trust and cooperation.



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Tagschina, donald trump, Republican Party, Trade Policy, Copyright
Ocean of Storms (dark grey area)

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China's Chang'e-5 surface sample return mission will land on the Moon's Ocean of Storms in the second half of 2017, revealed Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's Moon Exploration program.



This vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon is the resting place of the Soviet Union's Luna 9 and Luna 13 lunar probes, as well as Surveyor 1 and Surveyor 3 from the United States. Apollo 12, the second American manned spacecraft to land on the Moon, also touched down on the Ocean of Storms, otherwise known as Oceanus Procellarum.



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Wu said the Ocean of Storms is a huge region and China wants to avoid having Chang'e-5 touch down on the landing spots of the Soviet and American spacecraft. He admitted China is looking for an "unprecedented landing site" for Chang'e-5 but wouldn't be more specific.



Chang'e-5 will blast-off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan as the payload aboard a Chang Zheng 5 (Long March 5) launch vehicle. It will be China's first sample return mission to the Moon.



Once it touches down on the Ocean of Storms, the lander will dig and collect rock sample from up to two meters below the lunar surface. It will attempt to recover at least two kilograms of lunar soil and rock samples.



The lander will then lift-off and automatically rendezvous and dock with the return module in lunar orbit before returning to Earth.



China successfully landed Chang'e 3 on the Moon in December 2013, becoming only the third nation after the United States and Russia to land on the Moon.



The success of Chang'e-3 means its successor, Chang'e-4 (a lunar rover), is being reconfigured so it can undertake a more comprehensive mission. Chang'e-4 will become the first spacecraft to land on the dark side of the Moon. This historic feat is expected to take place in late 2018.



Chang'e-4 will land on the Aitken Basin to study geological conditions on the far side of the Moon.



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After tearful testimony in U.S. District Court on Thursday, forest protester J.D. Protiva pleaded guilty to blocking a forest trail to delay a mountain bike race last August and agreed to five years of unsupervised probation.

And after decades of dramatic, unconventional and sometimes dangerous and illegal actions that got him numerous citations from the Forest Service, Protiva told U.S. Magistrate Judge John Buttrick that he was done with his old ways.

I will not violate any Forest Service rules in the future, he said.

My word is my bond and Im through, he said outside the courthouse.

The conditions of the plea deal also require the 82-year-old Protiva to write a letter of apology to the U.S. Forest Service and the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona, which organized the downhill race, and agree to not engage in any protest on the Coconino National Forest and not impede, obstruct or interfere with any events held on the forest. The deal also bans Protiva from any trails used for Mountain Bike Association of Arizona events for one week before the event through its end.

If he violates the terms of his probation, Protiva could face 30 days in jail or be banned from the Coconino National Forest for the remainder of his probationary period. The two other charges against him, damaging a trail and cutting any standing tree without authorization, were dismissed as part of the deal.

Protiva acknowledged that some of his past protest decisions have been knee-jerk retaliations.

I was obnoxious and overreaching, I admit that, he said about blocking the trail.

At the same time, though, he said history has shown that on many issues he fought for, from integration in schools to increased government extraction fees on tribal land, his stance was legitimized.

I have spent my life making kooky assertions that in time have proved to be prudent, Protiva said in court.

In August, it was endangered Mexican spotted owls that motivated Protiva to take his two horses and two mules up Little Elden Trail and refuse to move for the start of a downhill mountain bike race. The race was organized by the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona and was permitted by the Forest Service.

Protiva had situated himself on a blind corner with no way to avoid him, so if a rider was coming down the trail at speed, their only option would have been to hit Protiva, his horses, or ride down into a ravine, Jon Shouse, race director, said in August. Protiva eventually moved when he found out a law enforcement officer had arrived on scene.

Protiva said he was protesting the race as a large, commercial event being held in Mexican spotted owl habitat during breeding season, which goes through August. At least a portion of Little Elden Spring Trail cuts across the owls habitat area, and a 2003 biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that increased recreation could have an adverse impact on the birds, citing evidence of owls changing behavior or flying from the nest in response to recreationists.

Protiva said he worked with the owls at the Rocky Mountain Research Station, describing to the court details of seeing them up close, their tiny heart racing...fierce black eyes burning their way into my heart.

If you had had that experience you, too, would be kooky and speaking out, Protiva said.

For his day in court, Protiva wore a gray and red-striped bathrobe, a move he said wasnt intended to offend the judge, but instead was an attempt to make a point about the many recent conflicts across the country that seem to arise from differences in appearance.

We are at each others throats, he said, over what he called superficial differences in skin color, dress, politics and religion.

The essence is of importance, not the appearance -- the content of the character, as Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently said, Protiva told the court.

The robe, he said, was his closest approximation to Muslim dress in recognition of the persecution those people face.

He also wore a black armband as an homage to the 1969 Tinker vs Des Moines Independent Community School District Supreme Court case that affirmed the First Amendment right of students to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.

In speaking to the court, Protivas attorney Mik Jordahl outlined what he said was a lifetime of service and working on social justice issues. Protiva was in active duty in the Army, was a teacher in Missouri and then Leupp, and most recently he worked as a ruins stabilizer at Wupatki National Monument, Jordahl said.

The octogenarian was involuntarily dismissed from the monument job after protesting the U.S. invasion of Iraq by hoisting himself in a boat up a flagpole and hanging an effigy of George Bush off the edge. Nine days before the Schultz Fire, he went to jail after protesting the Forest Services allowance of unrestricted campfires in the area.

Protivas past violations include two citations in 1997 for being in a closed area, for which he was sentenced probation and a fine, according to court records. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to three counts of endangerment after stringing metal cables and moving forest debris across motorcycle trails on the San Francisco Peaks in an attempt to stop motorcyclists from using the route. One motorcyclist hit one of the cables and was thrown from his bike. He avoided jail time, instead being ordered to perform community service and stay out of the forest during his sentence.

In explaining Protivas sentence on Thursday, Buttrick said the case was not about compromising Protivas First Amendment rights, but about public safety and the rules over how public lands can be used.

Public lands belong to everyone but in some sense they belong to no one, Buttrick said. If each of us can decide individually how public lands should be used then we will have chaos or warfare on public lands... everyone will be frustrated.
Cross of Christ is the banner that unites races, Dallas pastor says 22 July, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

DALLAS (Christian Examiner)  If America's preachers were preaching biblical truth above tradition, the problem of racism in America would have been cured long ago, the Rev. Tony Evans  pastor of the 10,000 member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas  said in a sermon July 17.

That sermon, "A Biblical Response on Race," is now lighting up social media. It has been viewed 135,000 times since it was posted.

Evans's church is predominantly black by virtue of its location in a predominantly black community. Evans does not see a congregation of mostly "black Christians," however. He sees one made up of many Christians who happen to be black.

That is true, he said, because he believes Christians are not defined by how they created  as black, white, yellow or red. They are instead defined by who created them, he said.

God has a kingdom. It's made up of citizens. Some black, some white, some red, yellow, Spanish backgrounds. His intention was never that the individual uniqueness would cause them to lose sight of the flag flying over them.

"Truth overrides tradition. Truth overrides color. Black is only beautiful when it's biblical," Evans told the congregation.

"You must be Christian first ... it doesn't take 240 years to fix this. It takes about two minutes and 40 seconds."

"If you have a mist in the pulpit, you've got a fog in the pew ... If our pulpits were right we would have solved this problem of racism a long time ago. Slavery would have been solved, Jim Crow would have been solved, segregation  all of this would have been solved," Evans said.

"But because the pulpits were anemic and allowed to take place this evil in America, we are still fighting that evil today. Because pulpits were silent biblically on this issue, maintaining a manifest destiny ideology that was in contrast to biblical theology. But that also explains why the Civil Rights movement was able to change it, because the church got out in front of it."

Evans began his sermon by speaking of the Olympics where athletes gather every four years to compete under the flag of their country. When they win, their country wins because they are not wrapped up in their individual identities, he said.

"It's not just about them," Evans said.

"God has a kingdom. It's made up of citizens ... some black, some white, some red, yellow, Spanish backgrounds. His intention was never that their individual uniqueness would cause them to lose sight of the flag flying over them."

He said the flag flying over Christians is the cross of the crucified Christ. It is under that banner that that people of God are able to discern from Scripture that all lives  because they are created by God  matter.

That doesn't mean that there aren't inequities to be addressed.

"For example, the life of the unborn matters. And so there is this emphasis on injustice in the womb. But that injustice in the womb must be under the umbrella that all life matters. Black lives matter, as a subset of all lives matter. So any injustices to a particular group must be addressed specific to that group but under the banner that all life is created in the image of God," Evans said.

"Once you extract any specific scenario and remove it from the umbrella of God's creation, you create your own independent cause. There is no discussion of sociology that, at least from a Christian point of view, shouldn't be plugged into theology."

Evans preached from John 4 in which Jesus is described as ministering to a Samaritan woman  an act that broke through multiple cultural and societal barriers. Jesus, he said, reached out to another race to spread the gospel, but he didn't cease being a Jew to do it.

"In other words, Jesus didn't stop being who he was to reach somebody else. He didn't find out how to speak Samaritan and find out how they dress. He was able to maintain his racial and cultural identity, even though he didn't let it get in the way of doing what his Father called him to do. And that is to reach across the railroad tracks to reach someone who was different from him who the rest of his culture would not reach out to," Evans said.

He added that God expects Christians to reach out to others different than them, but to never see themselves as something other than how they were created. That doesn't mean according to their race, he said.

"It is technically incorrect, technically, to call yourself a 'black Christian,' or a 'white Christian,' or a 'Hispanic Christian.' Then you make your color or culture an adjective. It's the job of the adjective to modify the noun. If you put Christianity in the noun position and your color or culture in the adjectival position you have to keep shaping the noun so it looks like the adjective that describes it. So if your color stays in the adjectival position you got to keep shaping Christianity to look black or to look white or to look red," Evans said.

The truth of Scripture, Evans said, is the standard by which God's people must operate, instead of by the traditions of a cultural subset, a history or an ethnic background.

"The truth is an objective standard by which reality is measured; it's God's point of view on any subject. Just because you were raised a certain way. Once how you were raised disagrees with what God says, how you were raised was wrong," he said.

Evans told his congregation that the problem of race is not just in the white community. He told the story of a longtime church member who expressed discomfort at white people  "Anglos," the man called them  joining the church. He said the man told him the white people would try to take over.

"I could tell he had some bad experiences. I said, 'Then you better keep winning blacks to Christ so we outnumber them!"

The man then said, "Well, I don't know if can stay here."

Evans then said he told the man, "Bye."

"That didn't take long," the preacher said.
A new Pew Research Center study said that those Christian Republicans who were opposed to Donald Trump in the primary season are now supporting him in the general election.

The telephonic survey conducted in June showed that 78 percent of white evangelicals and a majority of evangelicals want to vote for Trump this year.

In an April survey, Trump received 34 percent of votes from practicing Christians, which included 15 percent of the firm supporters who backed him in all three polls by Pew in December 2015, March 2016, and April 2016.

Around 57 percent of the churchgoing Republicans had not supported Trump in any of the three surveys. In April, 66 percent of them were "skeptical" of him. However, 50 percent of the Christians who attended church less than once a week supported him then.

Evangelicals were the most skeptical of Trump in the primaries, irrespective of their consistency in attending church services. About 50 percent of the white evangelical Republicans, GOP voters, and white Protestants did not support him in the primaries.

Republican Catholics were more likely than Protestants and evangelicals to support him in the previous three polls. Over 60 percent of the Republican Catholics and religious "nones" had expressed support for Trump at least once between December 2015 and April 2016.

But as the general election closes in, more practicing Christians and Catholics have come into the Trump camp.

In the June survey, as many as 94 percent Republicans who attend church weekly said that if elections were held "today," they would vote for Trump. Among them, 40 percent said they supported him "strongly."

Among those Christians who attend church less frequently, 84 percent said they supported Trump, and 41 percent of them were "strongly" behind him.

About 88 percent of the white mainline Protestants and 81 percent of the Republican Catholics supported him.

About 2,240 American adults including 1,655 registered voters were interviewed for the survey over cellphone and landline telephones between 15 and 26 June.
An elderly, bearded, white man dressed in ancient Middle Eastern garb, turban and all, stood on a stage in the middle of a field in Williamstown, Kentucky, and played a tune on what appeared to be a wooden flute. It was July 5, and I was watching him online from the comfort of my in-laws home in Memphis. Two minutes into his solo, the Williamstown High School band joined in, marching in formation through the crowd of 7,000 people who had come to bear witness to the ribbon-cutting of Ark Encounter, a Christian theme park featuring a replica of Noahs ark built using the dimensions God gave to Noah in Genesis 6.

Ark Encounter has captivated my interest and curiosity since Answers in Genesis (AiG) announced the colossal project in 2010. AiG is the popular young-Earth creationist apologetics organization led by Ken Ham, well-known for the 2014 Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate. My interest in Ark Encounter stems not from the desire to see a particular worldview defended or rebuffed, but simply from the fact that Im fascinated by some of the quirkier ways fellow Christians express their faith. On AiGs website Ham described the opening of Ark Encounter as a historic moment in Christendom. I knew I had to see it for myself, and I was pleased when CT asked me to report on the opening. That is how, in the 24th year of my life, in the 7th month, on the 7th day of the month, I set out on a journey to visit Ark Encounter with one question in mind: What are we, evangelical Christians, to make of this?

The first hints that a major tourist attraction had landed in these Kentucky fields were signs on the highway warning motorists to expect ramp delays at the exit leading to Ark Encounter. Traffic jams, I imagine, ...

1
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.
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Image: laura.h / Shutterstock

Last night in his speech accepting the Republican party nomination for president, Donald Trump again called for a repeal of Lyndon B. Johnsons ban on tax-exempt groups endorsing political candidates.

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community, who have been so good to me and so supportive, Trump said. He went on:

They have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits. An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans.

In an unusual move, Politifact rated Trumps claim as true.

Trump first announced his intention to repeal the amendment in February, and reiterated it to about 1,000 evangelical leaders last month.

I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianityand other religionsis to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it, said Trump at the event. People walking down the street have more power than you, because they can say whatever they want.

Repealing the amendment figured prominently in Trumps platform meetings, Time magazine reports.

They understand the importance of religious organizations and nonprofits, but religious organizations in particular, which is what the Johnson Amendment affects, to have the ability to speak freely, and that they should not live in fear of the IRS, Tony Perkins, president ...
Next Generation Alliance Connects in DC



PORTLAND, Ore., July 21, 2016 /



Speakers included Jose Zayas, a pastor from Portland, Oregon, and founder of Jose Zayas Evangelism International, speaking on Engaging Churches. York Moore, National Evangelist for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship USA, spoke on Engaging Culture, and Kevin Palau, president of the Luis Palau Association, challenged attendees on the topic of Engaging Cities. A panel centering on Engaging for Change included Jessica Fick of Stonecroft Ministries, JA Perez of the JA Perez Evangelistic Association, Sammy Wanyonyi of Shine in the World Ministries (SHINE), Frazier White of Faith Tabernacle UHCA and Zoro, of Zoro International Ministries.



The weekend culminated in conference attendees' participation in Together 2016, the Saturday rally event on the National Mall which drew thousands to pray and worship. Together 2016 organizer Nick Hall, founder of PULSE Outreach and the primary force behind Together, is also an NGA cabinet member.



Of the Connect Conference event, one participant commented, "I met incredible brothers and sisters in Christ and I was encouraged by what they shared and imparted as well as the time for me to discuss the ministry where I advance Jesus' name."



Another young participant said, "Being 25 years old...I received so much insight and wisdomand ideas on how to be more effective and engaging."



One of the primary core values of NGA is collaboration, and the annual Connect Conference can be a way for NGA members to network and learn how they can partner together. A post-conference survey indicated eight out of ten attendees planned to pursue collaboration with someone they met at the conference. Nine out of ten indicated they were able to make meaningful connections with other evangelists and evangelistic ministries.



Next Generation Alliance, founded in 1998, exists to identify, affirm, equip, and mobilize an international fellowship of evangelists. A ministry of the Luis Palau Association, NGA has grown in its 18-year history to a fellowship of over 630 members, a diverse network emphasizing the idea of "one message, many expressions" in the spread of the Gospel.

Share Tweet Contact: Betsey Kost, 503-614-1500PORTLAND, Ore., July 21, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Over 140 members and guests of Luis Palau Association's Next Generation Alliance (NGA) gathered for the Connect Conference in Washington DC July 14-16, 2016. Participants, coming from across the United States and around the world, met to network, share ideas on evangelism and ministry, and hear from speakers on the theme of Engagement.Speakers included Jose Zayas, a pastor from Portland, Oregon, and founder of Jose Zayas Evangelism International, speaking on Engaging Churches. York Moore, National Evangelist for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship USA, spoke on Engaging Culture, and Kevin Palau, president of the Luis Palau Association, challenged attendees on the topic of Engaging Cities. A panel centering on Engaging for Change included Jessica Fick of Stonecroft Ministries, JA Perez of the JA Perez Evangelistic Association, Sammy Wanyonyi of Shine in the World Ministries (SHINE), Frazier White of Faith Tabernacle UHCA and Zoro, of Zoro International Ministries.The weekend culminated in conference attendees' participation in Together 2016, the Saturday rally event on the National Mall which drew thousands to pray and worship. Together 2016 organizer Nick Hall, founder of PULSE Outreach and the primary force behind Together, is also an NGA cabinet member.Of the Connect Conference event, one participant commented, "I met incredible brothers and sisters in Christ and I was encouraged by what they shared and imparted as well as the time for me to discuss the ministry where I advance Jesus' name."Another young participant said, "Being 25 years old...I received so much insight and wisdomand ideas on how to be more effective and engaging."One of the primary core values of NGA is collaboration, and the annual Connect Conference can be a way for NGA members to network and learn how they can partner together. A post-conference survey indicated eight out of ten attendees planned to pursue collaboration with someone they met at the conference. Nine out of ten indicated they were able to make meaningful connections with other evangelists and evangelistic ministries.Next Generation Alliance, founded in 1998, exists to identify, affirm, equip, and mobilize an international fellowship of evangelists. A ministry of the Luis Palau Association, NGA has grown in its 18-year history to a fellowship of over 630 members, a diverse network emphasizing the idea of "one message, many expressions" in the spread of the Gospel.
On the Republican side of the race for Coconino County Supervisor, voters will have a choice between a retired cowboy focused on rural issues and an accountant passionate about economics who believes in free market policies.

Jim Parks and Josh Collier are vying to represent District 4 on the board of supervisors, a district that stretches across the western part of the county, from north of U.S. Highway 160, to Doney Park, to the far southern edge of the county. The position pays an annual salary of $63,800.

The district is currently represented by Mandy Metzger, who announced in February that she would not run for reelection for family reasons.

Parks, who spent years as a cowboy on local ranches, touts his diverse experience, from serving in the Vietnam War to managing a ranch to holding the role of president of the Coconino County Farm Bureau and Cattle Growers Association, as giving him the know-how to fill the supervisor seat.

For Collier, its his passion for economics and his work in accounting at a local heating and cooling company and as treasurer for the Flagstaff Liberty Alliance that he said qualifies him for the job.

If elected, Collier said he will focus on expanding transparency in government. Right now, its difficult to get information about the boards activities without reading hundreds of pages of the agenda packet, he said. Collier said he would use his own website, the countys website and social media to better publicize upcoming votes, other issues the supervisors are working on and the results of important meetings with explanations about why officials voted the way they did.

Collier also thinks nonbinding resolutions that the supervisors approve to express their stance on an issue are a waste of time,

When it comes to regulations and policies, Collier said he will scrutinize the ways they may hinder business and result in unintended consequences.

I think most people are more worried about how do we fix this with government and I think I bring a different perspective in that way, he said.

He would, on principle, oppose any county budget that increases taxes on citizens.

Parks, on the other hand, doesnt disagree with the countys recent practice of approving an annual 2 percent property tax levy increase allowed by state statute, as long as citizens are made aware of that action and given a chance to comment on it. He was on the committee that helped formulate the countys 2014 road maintenance sales tax proposal and pushed for it to be a sales tax, rather than a property tax or a fuel tax, which he said would burden people who need to commute long distances. He said he believes the tax increase was a good idea in general.

Parks said that if elected, one of his first major initiatives will be to create a Coconino County veterans memorial that would name all those killed in action. He also believes more emphasis should be put on agriculture in the county and would work to get a stronger sheriffs office presence and improve road access on the Navajo Nation.

Collier also has transportation-related goals, saying he would like the county to explore extending bus service outside of Flagstaff to areas like Kachina and Doney Park, as long as it was supported by user fees. Hed like to see the sheriffs office begin using body cameras as well.

In terms of regional issues, both candidates support transferring more federal public lands back to the state.

Speaking as a cattleman, Parks is against the federal Mexican wolf recovery programs releases of captive animals into the wild to bolster the population.

I would just as soon that the wolves were eliminated from this country for a reason and that is they did not play well with civilized people, Parks said.

Hes also against a proposed Grand Canyon National Monument, saying it would eventually remove ranchers from those lands around the Grand Canyon and close roads in the area.

Those are all rural issues, but the problem is that often, the people making decisions about them live in the city of Flagstaff, Parks said.

They dont understand what those programs are doing to rural people, he said.

Collier didnt have knowledge of the monument proposal. He instead emphasized his goal of looking at the supervisor position through a lens of liberty.

I will be trying to look for solutions that aren't just that the government needs to make a new law or new policy. Sometimes that becomes overburdensome, he said.
home Faith 32 delegates express 'lack of confidence' in Church of England's synod over gay marriage issue

The expressed lack of confidence by at least 32 of its member delegates became the latest sign of tension for the Church of England as it mulled over the contentious issue of gay marriage.

The Anglican Church continues to face the strain of the contentious stance on same-sex marriage as conservative members released a short statement to express their lack of confidence in the Shared Conversations.

"Whatever their stated purposes, the outcome has not led to a greater confidence that the Church will be guided by the authoritative voice of the Scriptures, and its decisive shaping of traditional Anglican teaching, in any forthcoming discussions," read the statement published on Anglican Mainstream on Wednesday.

One of the signatories maintained that his experience of participating in the church discussion was "generally positive" but expressed dissatisfaction with the way the conversations were handled. He said it was "unbalanced" and that it needed "fuller engagement."

"I do not feel that overall things were moved forward much, if at all," Clive Scowen told Christian Today.

He added that the only consensus gained from the conversations pointed to the fact that the church wanted to be welcoming to all people regardless of gender preferences.

At least 10 delegates chose not to participate in the General Synod as they refused to compromise the church's position on same-sex marriages.

"I think there is a shared concern that in six months time, if we do take part, there will be an assumption we can find a compromise that everyone can live with," said Charlie Skrine, one of the ten who boycotted the Synod.

It's widely believed that Archbishop Justin Welby would aim to find a compromise during the conversations so as to prevent a significant number of church members from splitting over the gay marriage issue.

Skrine believes there are simply some issues that the Church can't compromise on and he contends this is one of those.
home US Americans want new president to address global Christian persecution

No matter who wins as president of the U.S. in the coming election, most Americans want that person to address the persecution of Christians happening around the world, according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by nonprofit organization Open Doors USA, found that 76 percent of survey respondents said it was important that the next U.S. president help in addressing the persecution of Christians globally.

"It is important to me that the next U.S. President be committed to addressing the persecution that some Christians face around the world (e.g., imprisonment, beheadings, rape, loss of home and assets)," read the statement which majority of the poll respondents agreed with, according to Charisma News.

Open Doors, an organization that helps persecuted Christians through different programs and trainings and works to raise awareness about such issues, launched an online petition calling for both candidates to provide a "plan of action" that will help those who are suffering from persecution.

According to the petition, in the past year alone, 7,000 Christians were killed for worshiping Christ.

A study released by Pew Research Center last month identified Christians as the most persecuted religious group in the world. Pew Research Center also reported that more than three-fourths of the world's population reside in places with severe religious restrictions.

The organization's president and CEO, David Curry, said that Christian persecution has "grown exponentially" in the last few years.

He also said in a statement that many governments are "clamping down on religious freedom of expression," causing massive displacement, imprisonment and sometimes death of believers, reported Charisma News.

"Americans are looking to each presidential candidate for clear and decisive plans to address this growing global crisis," he said.

Curry added that the campaign is meant to nudge the presidential candidates to formulate a specific plan of action against increasing religious persecution.
home World Anglican churches provide aid to thousands of victims of South Sudan's civil war

The Anglican community extended assistance for thousands of those who are affected in the devastated Juba region of South Sudan that recently escalated in its state of unrest.

According to the Anglican Communion News Service, Sudra (the Sudanese Development and Relief Agency) announced Tuesday that it planned to extend its food assistance to around 14,400 internally displaced people from the affected areas of Juba, Kajo Keji, Yei, Lainya, and Rajaf.

This comes only a few days after Sudra and the leaders of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan (ECSSS) agreed during a conference call with the Anglican Alliance to support at least 200 families in the All Saints' Cathedral Compound.

The U.S.-based Episcopal Church, Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD), also assists Sudra in caring for these families.

Nagulan Nesiah, ERD's senior program officer for disaster response and risk reduction, noted the heightened violence in the area around the church grounds during the weekend but that "the Cathedral itself is able to provide some security to about 1,000 people."

"We are keeping the Church and Sudra in our thoughts and stand ready to offer additional assistance as needed," Nesiah told ACNS.

ECSSS also reported during the conference call that most of the estimated 42,000 internally displaced people in Juba turned to the churches for safety. Despite the ceasefire that's been announced recently, people are hesitant to return home for fears of violent outbreaks that erupted in Lainya, Yei, Kajo Keji, and Wau.

Revd. Rachel Carnegie of Anglican Alliance said that while the violence sent most in the international agencies back to their countries, the local churches stood their ground to protect the "most vulnerable."

"It is inspirational to witness the courage and commitment of the bishops and provincial team responding so quickly and effectively to the crisis when many of them have themselves been driven from their homes by the violence," said Revd. Carnegie. "We urge prayer for peace and for protection of the Church and communities. The Anglican Alliance also commends support to the Church's humanitarian response."
home World Caste discrimination in India Catholic Church exposed as Church remains silent over kidnapping of low-caste bishop

A group of Catholics charged the official Catholic Church in India for harboring caste discrimination as it remained silent over the kidnapping of its low-caste bishop.

According to UCA News, the South India Dalit Catholic Association released a statement last Saturday attacking the official Catholic Church in the country for keeping silent over the case of a Dalit or low-caste Bishop of Cudappa Prasad Gallela.

Officials arrested 14 individuals, including three of the diocese' upper caste priests for the kidnapping and assault of the 54-year-old bishop and his driver Vijay Kumar in April after the bishop denied them personal appointments. The attackers demanded a 50,000 ransom and took away the bishop's ATM cards, silver chain and iPhone. They released the two captives the next day after Bishop Gallela agreed to pay them 20,000.

An estimated 1,500 Catholics, including 10 priests and eight religious sisters, staged a rally in Kadapa on May 16 to protest against the Indian Catholic Church's deafening silence on the case that only reflected an existing caste prejudice even within the Church itself.

The Jesuit Father A.X.J. Bosco, also the adviser to the rally organizers "Citizens Forum for Justice," wrote an open letter addressed to Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of India's Catholic Bishops' Conference, to criticize and question the Church's hushed response.

"The sad and criminal event has been published in the media," wrote Fr. Bosco, as reported by Crux "[but] no significant response [from Church leadership] condemning the culprit priests or supporting Gallela has been in the national media."

Fr. Bosco then questioned the Church for their credibility.

"Is the Church leadership afraid of their caste communities; or do they not care about the Dalits even if they happen to be bishops?" he asked.

He also warned that the Church leadership's chosen response would not be left unnoticed by the Dalit Catholics.

"We know that there is caste discrimination in the Church, and it is a great challenge to the Christian Community in India," he said. "The question to ask is a If Jesus were here, what would he have done?"
home Faith Cave inscriptions reveal how early Christians evangelized natives on Caribbean island

Inscriptions found in a cave on a Caribbean island give clues as to how Christians shared the message of the gospel to the island's inhabitants despite the language and cultural barriers.

The drawings, discovered in Mona Island by archaeologists from the University of Leicester and the British Museum, showed how Europeans communicated to the local inhabitants regarding spiritual truths.

Mona Island, which is no longer inhabited, lies about 40 miles west of Puerto Rico. It has an intensive cave system composed of about 200 caves. Of these, 70 have been explored by archaeologists, who reported seeing various figures drawn on the cave walls using fingernails or sharp-edged tools.

"These finger-fluted designs reflect the spiritual beliefs of the indigenous people," Jago Cooper from the British Museum said, according to National Geographic.

Archaeologists also found more than 30 inscriptions of Spanish and Latin phrases. One of the inscriptions read, "God forgive you." Another one said, "God made many things."

A Latin inscription was lifted from the Vulgate and quoted a text from John 1:14: "And the Word was made flesh [and dwelt among us]."

Some of the inscriptions were abbreviations of the name of Jesus. Drawings of Christian crosses were also found.

"What we are seeing in this Caribbean cave is something different," Alice Samson from the University of Leicester said, according to The Guardian. "This is not zealous missionaries coming with their burning crosses, they are people engaging with a new spiritual realm and we get individual responses in the cave and it is not automatically erasure, it is engagement."

The names of the persons who wrote the inscriptions were also found on the cave walls. One of the names was that of Francisco Alegre, a Spaniard from Puerto Rico who was in charge of several royal estates including the island.

The discovery is "truly extraordinary," according to Cooper. He said the drawings and inscriptions were "proof" that early Europeans had an encounter with an indigenous worldview.

As reported in the journal Antiquity, the researchers said the spiritual encounters documented in the cave give a new insight about "intercultural religious dynamics in the early Americas."
home US Chick-fil-A shows love, serves free drinks to 'Black Lives Matter' supporters protesting against their CEO's support for 'Blue Lives Matter'

A Tennessee branch of Chick-fil-A showed love to supporters of Black Lives Matter who are protesting against the chicken restaurant's President Dan Cathy's support for Blue Lives Matter.

Around 100 members of the Tri-Cities Black Lives Matter movement lined up the West Market Street in front of the chicken restaurant Chick-fil-A in Johnson City, Tennessee on Saturday night, July 16 to protest against the restaurant chain's stand on counterpart Blue Lives Matter.

"It's not that no other race matters, we are just saying we are the ones under fire right now," protester Brianne Murray told WJHL.

The local franchise's owner and operator Darrell Fowler, together with the restaurant employees, responded the next day by passing out lemonade to the protesters who stood drenched under the rain.

David Tomita, Johnson City's vice mayor, captured the scene and uploaded the photos on Facebook that garnered 1.7k likes and were shared 1,000 times in just a day.

The protesters clarified they're against the national gesture made by the chicken restaurant and not specifically targeting the restaurant in Johnson City.

"We want to raise awareness especially with the blue lives matter campaign, which was a way to silence the black lives matter movement," said protest organizer Whitney Prater. "That is one of the reasons that we chose to have it at Chick-Fil-A. We are not targeting that Chick-Fil-A specifically. The national Chick-Fil-A started that campaign."

While the Black Lives Matter movement resulted from the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of white police officers, the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement came about from the targeted deaths of police officers in New York two years ago.

A Chick-Fil-A branch in The Woodlands, Texas posted photos online last year that showed employees and patrons wearing T-Shirts that read "Back the Blue" and "Go Blue or Go Home."

Restaurant Manager Eli Advincula told The Blaze they meant to "show our support for police" since "they are out on our streets every day."

The chicken restaurant that's well-known to close business on Sundays in observance of Christian values, also made headlines before for its conservative stand on marriage and homosexuality.
home World China to block Christian students from entering college unless they give up church

Christian students who refuse to stop going to church are prohibited from going to college or joining the military, according to authorities in Guizhou, China.

Local officials reportedly sent a notice to parents last month warning them that if their children continue to attend house churches instead of the Three-Self Church, they will not be allowed to enter college.

Such students will be prohibited from taking college entrance examinations and will not be admitted into military academy, according to nonprofit organization China Aid, which seeks to expose religious freedom abuses in China.

The new rule also states that teens below 18 years old are not allowed to have any kind of religious education. Those who violate it will be subject to a lawsuit, the officials further warned.

"This notice was sent to all of the schools in Huaqiu," Mou from the Huaqiu Church said. "They (public security) intend to cleanse us and ask us to join the Three-Self Church."

Members of Huaqiu Church were forced to sign an agreement that they will stop bringing their children to church, or else their children will face the consequence for violating the new rule.

Apparently, church meetings are also not allowed. Mou asked a local government official to explain the basis for not allowing church meetings, but he was told that the local government is just following orders.

"The higher level leadership ordered us to do this; we are just doing [as they say]," the official told him.

China continues to crack down on house churches all over the country. In Zhejiang province, churches are forced to surrender their tithe collection to government officials, according to another report from China Aid.

Additionally, the church demolition and cross removal campaign continues in the province. In April, a woman was buried alive when she tried to stop the demolition of the church.

Ding Cuimei and her husband Li Jiangong, who led Beitou Church, stepped in front of the bulldozer to prevent it from destroying the property..

The demolition team leader gave the command to bury them both, and the bulldozer pushed them into a pit and covered them with soil. Jiangong managed to get out but his wife died.
home World Christian churches targeted in Turkey during failed military coup

Christian churches in the predominantly Sunni Muslim country with a long history of Christian persecution became targets of violence as army coup threatened Turkey on July 15.

The Christian rights advocates group based in the Middle East, Middle East Concern (MEC), reported at least two cases of violence targeting Christian churches during Friday's failed military coup. Each targeted church also brought back memories of past violence against Christians.

One of the attacks happened in Trabzon. A group of 10 people attacked Santa Maria Church with paving stones and hammers to smash the windows and attempted to break in until Muslims in the neighborhood stopped them and drove them away.

This church at Black Sea town also witnessed a decade ago how an ultra-nationalist teenager shot Fr. Andrea Santoro at the back of the head as the Catholic priest prayed.

The Malatya province also witnessed the brutal murder of three Christian workers nine years ago. This time, the Malatya Protestant Church became the target as attackers shattered the church windows and managed to break in. The church's pastor, Tim Stone, said the suspect might have only been one person acting on vengeance against the church.

Canon Ian Sherwood of The Crimea Memorial Church in Istanbul said many Christians are fleeing the country for safety.

"I'm not optimistic about the plight of Christians in Turkey," he told The Spectator. "Bear in mind we've had a Roman Catholic Bishop murdered, we've had clergy threatened, we've had one priest murdered 10 years ago. Any Christian leader, if they're being honest, would say that some of what's going on is quite alarming."

The British chaplain expressed his hope that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also champions the rights of Christians in a country where 99 percent of its people identify as Sunni Muslim.

"We wish Turkey peace and tolerance a the same tolerance that most societies west of Turkey enjoy," he said.
home World Christian father shot dead by Muslims in Pakistan after trying to rescue 14-Y-O daughter from forced Islamic marriage

Pakistani Muslims abducted and forced a teenage Christian girl to marry the man she worked for as house servant and then shot dead her father who tried to rescue her.

Mehwish, a 14-year-old Christian girl who worked as part-time domestic servant to 20-year-old Zahid Iqbal, an Islamic man at Shadab Colony in Faisalabad, did not return home after Iqbal's family asked her to work the whole day on March 12. Days after, her family received a letter with a copy of their daughter's marriage certificate to Iqbal.

According to a report by the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), Christian minorities in the country suffer continued persecution in the forms of violent assaults, kidnapping, forced marriages, forced conversion to Islam and charges of blasphemy.

Christian girls as young as 12 years old face the threat of abduction and forced marriage and subsequently a domestic life of sexual and domestic abuse and even forced prostitution and human trafficking.

Mehwish's father, 42-year-old rickshaw driver Tanveer Masih, sold their house in the Faisalabad slum of Khalid Colony to fight for his daughter's legal freedom.

Iqbal's 35-year-old cousin, Ayub, then arranged a meeting with Masih on May 31 and asked Masih to bring the legal papers as he promised to return Mehwish if he dropped the charges. On his way to meet Ayub, two gunmen shot Masih and stole the legal papers.

"The police have not done anything substantial to help my daughter, we now have no money to defend our rights and without my husband we have no voice," Najma Bibi, Masih's wife, told BPCA. "We live in a hopeless situation, we need help. I pray that my daughter will continue to place her hope in Jesus Christ."

Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of BPCA, said the impoverished family did everything they could within their means to attain justice but the loss of their home and family patriarch meant the cost was "extremely heavy."

"I understand why so many choose to do nothing bearing the pain to save what is left of their families," said Chowdhry.

"Now they need our support. I hope Christians across the world choose to remember this family in their prayers as they continue to fight the good fight," he added.

BPCA aims to raise 4000 to resettle the bereaved family and assist with their immediate needs.
home World Persecution in Vietnam: Christians face imprisonment and possibility of being poisoned in jail

Vietnam puts behind bars Christian leaders and sometimes punishes an errant prisoner by food poisoning, said an Evangelical leader.

According to Christian Aid Mission, the Southeast Asian country's 2013 religion law prohibits its people from any forms of "manipulation of freedom of belief and religion" that are perceived to "undermine national unity."

The communist country also tries to control its people's religion by forcing house churches to consolidate with its state-backed church and to conduct services only in a designated premise that could only hold up to 500 members.

"The government wants to combine them to limit their growth and have more control," revealed a Christian leader identified as Su in an interview with the non-profit organization.

He added that pastors are forced to sign in agreement to avoid being physically assaulted or sent to prison.

Su himself spent seven years and two months of his life behind bars from 1975 to 1985 that's marred with torture and near execution. He said he got arrested because he associated with foreign missionaries whom authorities suspected to be working undercover for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

He shared that authorities treat and label Christian prisoners not as religious detainees but as political convicts and send them to labor camps. Su described the first five months in prison as confinement to a small room with no windows, continuous torture, and intense interrogation.

"They're very smart a they know that they will lose if they try to tell you to deny Christianity," said Su. "They will never win. So the purpose of putting the Christians in prison is they want to know what organization they work with, so they can arrest more people."

He added that errant detainees also get fatally punished.

"If you do not strictly follow the rules, they can put poison in your food," said Su. "So you take a little bit, and if you feel something or want to vomit, you stop eating. A few people have died."

Su still leads a ministry team where he directs the discipleship and training on evangelism and leadership for underground Christians in the country. He said his ministry aims to reach villages and unreached tribes to spread the gospel of Christ.
home US Satanic invocation interrupted by Christians with Lord's Prayer at city council meeting in Florida

Voices praying the Lord's Prayer drowned out a Satanic invocation during a city council meeting in Pensacola, Florida last week.

The invocation was recited by David Suhor from the West Florida Satanic Temple, who requested to deliver it as a representative of the Satanic Temple, according to Christian News.

As he began his invocation, many people in the room also started to pray the Lord's Prayer, drowning out his chants.

City council president Charles Bare commanded order in the room and warned that those who would not keep quiet would be escorted out.

Some people left the room while others stayed and prayed silently with their hands lifted in worship to God as Suhor sang a Satanist song: "That which is destroyed by truth should never be spared. Its demise, it is done. Hail Satan!"

"Quit pushing Christian privilege as we've seen with the Bayview cross and so many other issues and instead go to a moment of silence, that lets everybody pray or not according to their own conscience," he said when the invocation was done.

Council meetings are usually opened with a prayer. Usually, the city clerk chooses from a list of local clergy and invites them to lead the prayer.

However, last month, Suhor filed a request to be allowed to give the invocation, on the basis that the Satanic Temple is, technically, a church. Suhor reasoned that all churches should have equal opportunity to deliver invocations and the local government should not favor one religion and discriminate against others.

Bare granted his request, fearing Suhor would pursue a lawsuit if his request is denied.

"My overall message about all these invocations is that the Supreme Court is clear," Suhor said last month when he was requesting to deliver the invocation. "You cannot discriminate who gives them a it has to be all or none a otherwise you have the government religiously discriminating."
home Faith Former Muslim confesses he wanted to die after converting to Christianity

Global speaker Dr. Nabeel Qureshi confessed he asked God to just kill him soon after leaving Islam for Christianity.

The international speaker with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) made his public confession to thousands of Christians gathered at the National Mall in Washington D.C. Saturday, July 16 for the Together 2016 event.

"When I became a Christian, it was the most painful thing I ever did. I wanted to die," confessed Qureshi.

"I asked God to kill me because I lost my family. I lost my friends in the mosque. I lost all the people who loved me the moment I became Christian," he explained.

Qureshi, who also wrote three books titled "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity," "Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward" and "No God But OneaAllah or Jesus," grew up an Ahmadi Muslim and traces his roots to Pakistan.

The predominantly Muslim nation reportedly persecutes its minority Christian population at an alarming rate raising concerns among human rights advocates. According to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), Christians suffer persecution with impunity in a variety of ways, including sexual violence, kidnappings, forced conversions and charges of blasphemy.

"I said, 'God, why won't You kill me?'" shared Qureshi.

He said God responded, "Because this wasn't about you, it's about Me."

Qureshi considered his conversion 11 years ago as the most difficult and greatest decision in his life. He described himself as a "proud Muslim." In his own words, that meant someone who was not "looking for love" nor someone "looking for help."

He recounted when a Christian friend reached out to him during his freshman year in college. Qureshi said he debated with this friend as he didn't trust the Bible's credibility nor understand the concept of the Holy Trinity.

He changed his mind four years later.

Now he told the crowd of young Christians that God has a plan to heal the world that has seen violence almost everywhere. He challenged Christians to change this world.

"It can only happen through His hands and His feet and that is us," said Qureshi. "That's why you are alive. To share this message and transform this world by the Holy Spirit living inside you."
home US Franklin Graham: Recent gun shootings could lead to anarchy for Americans

America's wicked ways and recent gun shooting tragedies that targeted and killed police officers could lead towards anarchy, said evangelist Franklin Graham, who prayed for Republican leaders and Divine intervention.

The 64-year-old son of the famed preacher Billy Graham and now president of the organization his father founded, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, hosted a Facebook Live event this week to pray for troubled America and its leaders.

On Graham's account of the nation, he said Americans removed God out of the equation and consequently led the nation towards a perilous path.

"Our country is beginning to implode. We are on the precipice of anarchy," said Graham in a Facebook video.

He also spoke out against the most recent racially-driven act of violence against white police officers in Texas, where five officers died, and in Louisiana, where three more law enforcers also died. He said there's just no excuse for the shootings and denounced them as acts of "lunacy."

"To think that we can have some kind of justice by going out and killing innocent policemen who are doing their job to protect us, this is crazy," he said.

The president of Samaritan's Purse also painted a bleak picture of America and so urged the need for Christians across the country to unite humbly in prayer to ask for God's healing.

"We are in desperate need of Divine intervention. We need healing," explained Graham.

Graham believes only God could save the country now. However, he also asserted that Christians still need to pray for their leaders because God uses them as instruments of His will.

"God uses politicians and we pray for the politicians, that they will listen to God's voice and that they will hear His voice," said the evangelical leader.

As he led Christians to prayer, Graham asked God's forgiveness for America's idolatry on materialism and pleasure and for its pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage legislations.

He then prayed for God's guidance for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Vice Presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Graham also scheduled to pray for the Democratic National Convention on a Facebook Live event the following Monday.
home World Munich shopping mall terror attack news update 2016: Gunmen kill at least eight in Germany, shooters on the run

Gunmen attacked a busy mall in the German city of Munich on Friday evening, killing at least eight people and sending shoppers running for their lives from what police said was a terrorist attack.

Authorities told the public to get off the streets as the city - Germany's third biggest - went into lockdown with transport halted and highways sealed off.

A police spokesman said three gunmen were on the run after the initial shooting subsided. The city was placed under a state of emergency as police hunted for them.

"We are telling the people of Munich there are shooters on the run who are dangerous," he said. "We are urging people to stay indoors."

Police said later that eight people had been killed and an undetermined number wounded. A ninth body had also been found and they were checking to see it was one of the gunmen.

Munich newspaper TZ said one of the shooters was dead. German news magazine Focus said a gunman had shot himself in the head. Reuters could not immediately confirm either report.

As special forces deployed in the city, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping centre which police said had been evacuated.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall.

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

A police spokesman said there was no immediate indication that it was an Islamist attack but it was being treated as a terrorist incident.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in which he killed 77 people. Breivik is a hero for far-right militants in Europe and America.

ISIS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated on social media.

"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read one Tweet.

Two witnesses told n-tv television that they saw a man dressed as Santa Claus walking away from the scene of the shooting with a crowd of people. One said the man had blonde hair, was not carrying a weapon but had a suitcase.

A video posted online a whose authenticity could not be confirmed a showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

A worker at a shop in the mall, Harun Balta, said: "We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we're waiting for the police to rescue us."

Police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded. Thye were treating it as a terrorist incident.

Witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets, he said.

Munich's main railway station was also evacuated. BR television said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train with an axe. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said on Twiiter: "Horrible killings in Munich. Taking place on the same day as we mourn & remember the appalling terror that hit Norway so hard five years ago."

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged support for Germany.

"We don't yet know exactly what's happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured," Obama said.
home World Muslim women in India break tradition, train to become judges

Women in India's largest religious minority are poised to break tradition by training to take on a role that's only been performed by Muslim men before.

Dissatisfied with their own lack of representation in court settlements and from being discriminated, Muslim women decided to empower themselves as the country allows a separate civil code among Muslims.

So the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) prepares these women to be "qazis" or judges through a year of training that will equip them with knowledge in Koranic law, constitutional law, and gender rights.

"There are many grave injustices against Muslim women, and we deserve a say in matters that concern us," one of the female trainees, Safia Akhtar, told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Akhtar also thinks it's not impossible to take on such an important role as a "qazi" when the country already had a female prime minister before.

The Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband attested that the Islamic faith itself does not discriminate against women as the seminary defended the appointment of India's first female qazis Afroz Begum and Jahan Ara.

"Islam empowers women through knowledge. Nobody has any right to prevent women from becoming a Qazi or a Mufti," Maulana Ashraf Usmani, spokesperson of the seminary, told The Hindu.

Usmani added that anyone could be a religious leader and scholar so long as they're equipped with expertise, knowledge, and training.

The seminary spoke out after protests against the female qazis were voiced out by Rajasthan's conservative religious clerics.

Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a non-governmental institution, spoke out against the female qazis.

"Women don't have the right to be a qazi," said Mahali. "Besides, there is no need a there are enough men who are qazis. So it's completely unnecessary,"

Zakia Soman, co-founder of BMMA, thinks otherwise.

"It's important to have women hear and represent women who are in a vulnerable position. Besides, there is no bar on women qazis as per the Koran," Soman said.
home World Nigerian Christians have been 'forgotten' by western churches, says Frank Wolf

Former Congressman Frank Wolf urged the U.S. government to look back on the Nigerian Christians, who felt abandoned and forgotten by the West, including Christian churches.

"People of faith, Christians, feel very much forgotten. Nigeria is fractured and is breaking down in so many ways, and it seems that the world has forgotten about it," the retired legislator told The Christian Post in a phone interview.

"They feel abandoned by the West, and by the Church in the West," stated Wolf. "You are not hearing many in the West advocating (for them). They would expect that the faith community in the West, Europe, would be advocating, speaking out."

Wolf, Virginia's longest serving congressman, visited the African country in February as part of a delegate team of religious freedom advocates and as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative.

Wilberforce, which aims to promote religious freedom across the globe, exposed the alarming conditions of Nigeria in its report "Nigeria: Fractured and Forgotten."

Among the recommendations to address the insurmountable plight of the Nigerian people is to include the need for a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region. According to the report, this envoy should be adequately staffed and resourced as it would serve as the key interlocutor, engage in multi-stakeholder agreement and handle the vast issues of refugees, IDPs, economic development, security, justice and peacebuilding.

The report also slammed Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's claims that his government already defeated Boko Haram, the militant group that even surpassed the Islamic State terrorist group as the most destructive last year. The world's fourth most destructive terrorist group, the Fulani militant herdsmen, also belongs to Nigeria.

Church leaders and human rights groups already raised concerns that the incessant attacks by the Muslim Fulani herdsmen, widely-believed to be buoyed by Boko Haram, on Christian villagers may soon erupt into a state of civil war.

Wolf warned it would be catastrophic to neglect the largest African country with 180 million in population.

"The impact for the rest of the world will be unbelievable," said Wolf.
home World North Korean former prisoners share testimonies on plight of those suffering under hermit regime

Former prisoners in North Korea traveled to the U.S. to share their experiences in the hope of letting more people know about the plight of those who are living inside the country.

The group consisted of 29 refugees who are now staying in Seoul, South Korea. Their trip was made possible by the Hometown Mission Association for North Korea in Seattle together with the Korean Churches Council of San Francisco, SFGate reports.

The group is the third wave of delegations who went to the U.S. for the purpose of raising awareness about what's going on in North Korea.

Their trip was organized by Pastor John Yoon, who has been living in the U.S. for more than 30 years after escaping North Korea in 1950.

Yoon organized the group's travel to let them know more about the U.S. and also to help others know more about North Korea.

One member of the group, Yu Sunhui, described through an interpreter how she got out by taking a train. She would jump off when the train approached a checkpoint to avoid detection.

She was able to reach China by swimming through a river. Unfortunately, when she got there, she was sold to human traffickers. Eventually, she was able to reach South Korea in 2010.

Yu's sister, who was pregnant at the time, was not able to make it out. Authorities took her and her husband, and they both died in prison. The baby died, too.

Ju Yeongsun, another member of the group, fled North Korea in 1997 after her husband, children and mother-in-law all died from hunger. She said that despite the painful experiences she had, her trust in God remains.

There have been more than 300,000 North Koreans who defected to other countries since the 1950s because of harsh conditions in the country.

Many of them refuse to go public out of fear that the family members they left behind would be harmed.

North Korea tops the World Watch List of the countries where Christians are most persecuted. According to the organization Open Doors, it has claimed the top spot for 14 years in a row.

Many Christians in the country keep their faith secret in order to avoid being sent to labor camps. Some Christian parents also do not raise their children as Christians to keep them from being caught by the authorities.

In spite of this, an estimated 200,000 Christians worship Christ secretly.
home Entertainment Hollywood's true attitude toward Christianity - poll seeks answers

Is Hollywood biased against Christianity? A new poll sought to find the answer.

"What is your opinion of Hollywood's treatment of Christianity?" the poll question asked respondents.

The results showed that about a third, or 32 percent, of Republicans believe Hollywood often portrays Christianity negatively. On the other hand, only 5 percent of Democrats shared the same sentiment.

The poll was conducted by the Barna Group as commissioned by the makers of the movie "God's Not Dead 2." Its results were announced during a screening of the movie in Cleveland ahead of the Republican National Convention.

A worship service was held before the screening, which was a first in GOP conventions.

Pat Boone, who starred in the film, said he was not surprised with the poll's results. He said movies that do not show restrictions based on moral values bring profits.

"Hollywood doesn't like it when people tell them to stick to moral rules because it makes a lot of money breaking those rules. Orgies, vampires, zombies, debauchery of all forms. Anything goes, and it is liberal Democrats who are making these films. Depravity is profitable," Boone told The Hollywood Reporter.

David A. R. White, who also starred in the movie, said the poll shows the reason why he started Pure Flix.

"That's one of the reasons why we started Pure Flix over 10 years ago because we wanted to make positive uplifting life affirming content that ultimately catered to the morals and values of what our society and culture was built on," he told Fox News. "I think obviously a third of the Republicans said Christianity was not fairly portrayed in films, and I think we have seen that."

Commenting on a billboard company's recent rejection of the "God's Not Dead 2" banner for being "too political," White said the issue shows the true condition of the present American culture.

He said Christians who face such controversies should not say they are being discriminated against but should make it their goal to stand up and speak out for what is right.
home Faith Russian Orthodox Church: Boycotted Crete Council is not 'Pan-Orthodox', but is an 'important event'

The Russian Orthodox Church recognized the Crete Council as "important" but said it couldn't be taken as "pan-Orthodox" after four churches boycotted the event.

At least 10 out of 14 patriarchates of the Eastern Orthodoxy participated in the historic Holy and Great Council in the Greek island of Crete on June 20-25. The event was 55 years in the making, and it was the first of its scale since the year 787 before the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in 1054.

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow missed the Council which it later regarded as of great significance.

Interfax-Religion quoted Vladimir Legoyda, the head of the Synodal Department for Church, Society and Media Relations as saying that the Crete Council "was an important event in the history of the Orthodox Church council process."

Moscow's Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission would also study the documents discussed and approved by the Crete Council then submit their findings.

The churches of Bulgaria, Antioch, Serbia, and Georgia decided early on not to attend the Council owing to unresolved differences and complaints.

The Patriarchate of Antioch also released an official statement that undermined the Crete Council as only a "preliminary meeting towards the Pan-Orthodox Council" and does not consider its documents as final.

The Moscow Patriarchate, representing two-thirds of the Orthodox population and substantial financial capacity, announced it would not attend the major meeting only days before its scheduled opening. It cited then that the Council "will not be pan-Orthodox in nature and will have no authority" because of the absence of the other sister churches.

"The Holy Synod determined that the Council, which took place in Crete, cannot be regarded as pan-Orthodox, and the documents it approved as expressing a pan-Orthodox consensus," said Legoyda, as reported by Interfax-Religion.

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the churches of the Eastern Orthodoxy are self-governing or "autocephalous" although it recognizes Patriarch Batholomew of Constantinople as the "first among equals."

The 10 Council participants agreed to meet again in a summit after seven years.

"There will no doubt be more opportunities for such councils," council spokesman Rev. John Chryssavgis told Religion News Service. "Hopefully these will not take as long to prepare and organize," he added.
home US Transgender teenager who ran for 'Prom King' sues school district for discrimination over bathroom policy

A transgender high school student filed a lawsuit against a Wisconsin school district for alleged discrimination over bathroom use policy.

Ashton Whitaker, 16-year-old incoming senior, claimed Kenosha school district authorities had been making his life "miserable" because they would not allow him to use the boys' bathroom at Tremper High School.

He also said security guards were ordered to conduct a daily surveillance of his bathroom use.

Whitaker claimed school officials proposed that transgender students wear bright green wristbands to identify them and make it easier to see if they are following the school's bathroom policy.

"The school administrators have made my life miserable every school day since this spring, when they told me I could no longer use the boys' restrooms, which I'd been using with the support of my classmates for months," Whitaker said in a statement.

He also complained that school authorities continue to address him by his birth name and use female pronouns in referring to him.

Whitaker, who was born female, now identifies as a boy. In April, he gained public support when he decided to run for prom king.

The school initially told him he was not allowed to run for prom king and encouraged him to run for prom queen instead. However, through an online petition signed by thousands of people and the support of his peers at school, Whitaker was able to reverse the school's decision.

Kenosha Unified school district said it is reviewing Whitaker's complaint, adding that some of the student's allegations were "patently false."

"The District does not have a practice or policy requiring any student to wear a wristband for monitoring any purpose or for any reason whatsoever. The District has worked diligently with transgendered students and their families to address their unique needs and accommodations, including the family named in the suit," the district said in a statement to Fox 6.
Channel 4 News presenter complains to press watchdog over hijab row

The Channel 4 News presenter Fatima Manji has complained to the press watchdog over comments made by Kelvin MacKenzie in his column for the Sun questioning her suitability to co-present the programme wearing a hijab during the Nice attack.

MacKenzie caused controversy when he wrote in the Sun on Monday: "With all the major terrorist outrages in the world currently being carried out by Muslims, I think the rest of us are reasonably entitled to have concerns about what is beating in their religious hearts. Who is in the studio representing our fears? Nobody." He said he could "hardly believe my eyes" when Manji appeared onscreen during the Channel 4 News programme on 15 July. "Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim?"

He has since defended the remarks as "reasonable".

But the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) said it received more than 2,000 complaints over the remarks, and the programme's editor, Ben de Pear, said: "Yesterday, Channel 4 News correspondent Fatima Manji made an official complaint to Ipso. ITN believes the article was in breach of a number of provisions of the Editor's Code, in particular discrimination, harassment by intimidation and inaccuracy."

He added that he "cannot accept ... an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion [and] subject to act of religious discrimination".

In his latest column today, MacKenzie blamed the "Twerperati" for "accusing me of Islamaphobia (yawn! yawn!)" and repeated the controversial point. He said: "All I did was ask a simple question, was it appropriate for a hijab-wearing presenter to front the Channel 4 News on the night they were covering the Nice massacre by a Muslim? A reasonable inquiry you would have thought with the sensitivities that currently exist in this nation and the rest of Europe. Then the Twerperati got involved and it became a national debate with record number of complaints to the press regulator Ipso."

He went on: "Should presenters be allowed to wear artefacts which advertise their religion? If, for instance, one of the regular presenters was a Christian (I'm joking since at C4 you wouldn't get an interview) would they be allowed to wear a huge cross outside of their shirt or blouse to the same prominence as a hijab?"

The National Union of Journalists general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, said: "To suggest that a journalist is incapable of reporting on a terrorist outrage because of the colour of her skin, her religion or the clothes that she wears says all you need to know about the contemptible views of Kelvin MacKenzie."

The Sun has said it is making "no comment" on the matter. The tabloid deleted a tweet promoting the column on Monday and later printed a separate article for online only which said that the "fact that Fatima can present a news bulletin and also wears a headscarf shows how great Britain is".
Child abuse, the Church and the Goddard inquiry: Why we should all pray it succeeds

A year after it opened on July 9, 2015, the Goddard inquiry into institutional child sex abuse has spent nearly 18 million on highly-paid lawyers and setting up regional offices, but has still not heard any actual evidence. The inquiry is gradually creeping toward the point where it will, however, and next week there will be preliminary hearings about organisations including the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.

This inquiry seems to have been going for ages already.

Not really. But it seems like it because it was first mooted after revelations about the scope of Jimmy Savile's offending in 2012. It was actually set up in 2014, but two people appointed to chair it, Baroness Butler-Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf, resigned in succession due to perceived conflicts of interest. Former home secretary and now PM, Theresa May, eventually settled on New Zealander Dame Justice Lowell Goddard.

So, we aren't looking at another Chilcot?

The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war took seven years. Justice Goddard has said hers will take five, so think 2020.

Just explain why it's so complicated.

The Savile case was one of several that exposed just how widespread the abuse of children in institutional settings really is. The Goddard inquiry has set up investigations into 13 areas and organisations, including the internet, Anglican Churches in England and Wales, the Roman Catholic Church, Lambeth Council and Westminster. The latter will look at allegations prominent people including Members of Parliament, senior civil servants, government advisers and members of the intelligence agencies were involved in child sex abuse. A separate inquiry will look at Lord Janner, a senior MP who was accused of child sex abuse over a long period but not prosecuted because of his advanced Alzheimer's disease.

What's going to happen next week?

Not much, really. It's an update on progress on seven of the investigations including the one into Lord Janner  it's postponed for six months  and the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.

What are the issues for the Anglicans?

The inquiry's going to look at its child protection policies to see that they're up to scratch, which they probably are. It will also look at the past case reviews carried out in England and Wales, in which the Churches have tried to go back and find abuse cases they might have missed during the last few decades. It will look at the Diocese of Chichester, where there have been "multiple allegations of sexual abuse", and the case of former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball. In that case the inquiry will consider "whether there were inappropriate attempts by people of prominence to interfere in the criminal justice process after he was first accused of child sexual offences". The Ball case is also the subject of a separate review set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

And the Roman Catholics?

Again, the inquiry will look at how their child protection policies are working now, with further investigations into specific cases as required. The first case study will look at the English Benedictine Congregation, which has been the subject of several abuse allegations, and how orders like the Benedictines relate to the wider Roman Catholic Church.

It all seems quite chilly and legal.

Yes. But part of the inquiry is a Truth Project, for which survivors of child sexual abuse are encouraged to share their stories. The inquiry wants to hear from anyone who was sexually abused as a child in an institutional setting like a care home, a school or a religious organisation, or reported sexual abuse as a child and found the report was ignored or not properly acted on. People who want to talk about what happened to them will be able to attend a private session to share their experience with a member of the inquiry. It says: "Their accounts will not be tested, challenged, or contradicted. The information supplied will be anonymised and will be considered by the Chair and Panel members when reaching their conclusions and making recommendations for the future. As part of the Truth Project, victims and survivors will be given an opportunity to write a message to be published together with the Inquiry's annual reports."

Anything else?

There will be a Public Hearings Project where witnesses give evidence on oath and are subject to cross examination. The subjects of the hearings might be individuals who've abused children in institutional settings, or the institutions themselves. These should start later this year.

Just how important is this?

As important as it gets. The abuse of children by people who ought to be caring for them is the ultimate betrayal. Justice Lowell wrote in a Guardian article: "The sexual abuse of children over successive generations has left permanent scars, not only on the victims themselves, but on society as a whole. It is the inherent right of every child to experience a childhood free of sexual abuse and intimidation  to be allowed to grow and develop without trauma.

"There is no doubt that the inquiry's task is immense. But the scale and magnitude of the problem of child sexual abuse means there is no easy fix. This is the opportunity to get to the heart of one of the biggest challenges for our generation. I truly hope that, through our work, we mark the beginning of a new era in child protection."

It is a lasting shame that some of this abuse has been within the Church. It mustn't be allowed to happen again.
China bans churches 'to create safe environment' for G20 summit

Chinese authorities have banned churches "to create a safe environment" when world leaders arrive in the eastern city of Hangzhou for the G20 summit in September, according to local reports.

Global heads of state will fly into the capital of Zhejiang province for the annual two-day meeting which will be hosted by Chinese president Xi Jinping. Officials have declared a week long public holiday over the event to reduce congestion but religious worship has also been barred.

The Global Times, a tabloid run by the ruling Communist party, said large-scale religious meetings had been blocked "to create a safe environment for the meeting".

The US-backed Radio Free Asia reported that the city's unofficial churches had also been told to stop meeting. "They have been forcing house churches not to meet ahead of the G20 summit," said Zhang Mingxuan, the president of China's House Church Alliance.

But there is suspicion this move has more to do with China's targeted crackdown on churches in the Zhejiang than with the world leaders' arrival.

"I cannot understand why they have done this... Worshipping God has nothing to do with the G20 summit," said Li Guisheng, a Christian human rights lawyer, who added the move had no basis in Chinese law.

More than 1,200 places of worship have been attacked and had their cross removed in the province, which has the largest Christian population in the officially-atheist communist state.

A number of opponents have been detained amid the ongoing dispute. One well-known pastor, Gu Yuese ,was only recently released after being arrested in January for criticising the cross-removal campaign.

The UK Foreign Office has admitted China's house churches have faced "sustained pressure" from the Chinese government in a report on Friday.
Christian woman gives Muslim butcher 1,000 after attack which left him seriously injured

A Christian woman in Bradford gave a Muslim butcher a cheque for 1,000 enclosed in a note about the teachings of Jesus after the butcher suffered serious injuries and the loss of 3,000 when his shop was robbed.

Mohammed Riaz, 58, was left with a suspected broken jaw, loosened teeth and cuts and bruises after the attack at his shop, The Meat Hut, on 3 July, ahead of Eid celebrations.

Riaz and his family have been moved by the response of the local community. In particular, they were touched by the letter from a woman only identified as Jane. It read:

"Dear Mr Riaz,

I was so sorry to read in (local paper) the Telegraph and Argus of the attack on your shop. I am a Christian, and Jesus Christ taught that when we see someone in trouble we should not walk by without helping. Please accept this cheque [for] 1,000 to contribute to your Eid celebrations.

With good wishes,

Jane"

Riaz's daughter, Nafeesa, 26, told the Huffington Post: "This woman's kindness had us all in tears. We were so touched by the letter and cheque which we received. This amazing lady was a Christian, and we are Muslims. She doesn't know us nor does she live in the area. What she did for us was such a kind and caring act. It just goes to show that regardless of our race or religion, we are all one. My family will be meeting her on Friday to thank her in person."

Riaz was reportedly back to work the day after the attack in order to make sure he did not let down customers during Eid, with local well-wishers visiting the shop with gifts, flowers and cards.

Riaz's brother-in-law told the Telegraph and Argus: "He has been so touched by people's kindness he has been in tears. He wants to publicly give a big thank-you to everyone who has been so supportive. He is still in a lot of pain from his ribs and he will have X-rays for that. But it can take much longer for the psychological scars to heal than the physical ones. All this support has put him back on his feet psychologically."

Three men were arrested in over the incident: Leonard Brown, aged 24 of Tamar Street, Bradford, was charged with robbery and appeared at Bradford Magistrates on 7 July before being remanded in custody for a date to be fixed to appear at Crown Court. Another 20-year-old man from Bradford has been bailed pending further enquiries and a 27-year-old man also from Bradford was released without charge.
Coptic Church head urges unity in Egypt following sectarian violence

Egyptians must unite in the face of violence, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church said on Thursday, following a series of sectarian attacks in which a number of Christians have been killed and others had their homes torched.

Pope Tawadros II was speaking after a meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, during which the country leader urged all Egyptians to unite against "evil forces".

"We should not give the opportunity to those who exploit the events in a society which has 90 million people, and suffers from financial difficulties and shortage in financial resources, to affect our national unity because their goal is the destruction of our country," the Pope said.

The President had earlier warned against "attempts to drive a wedge" between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.

"When we talk about being partners, this means that we, as Egyptians, are equal in rights," he said during a military ceremony in Cairo.

"All of us are partners in this country. It is not appropriate to say this is an Egyptian Muslim and this is an Egyptian Christian. The rule of law is in place. Anyone who makes mistake will be brought to account by means of law, starting with president of the republic."

On July 16, five Christian homes were set alight in an village in Minya province after rumours spread that a church was to be built in the area.

A day later, a Muslim mob attacked two priests in Tahna El-Jabal village in Minya following a disagreement between Muslim and Christian children. A 27-year-old man died in the incident.

Recent weeks have also seen the assault on homes of Christian families in the village of Karm el Loofy, the burning of a kindergarten run by Christians in Minya, and the murder on June 30of Rafael Moussa, a Coptic Orthodox priest of the church of St. George. ISIS took responsibility for his murder, describing Moussa as a "disbelieving combatant".

Christians make up about one in 10 of Egypt's population of 90 million mainly Sunni Muslims
Evangelising children: Gospel imperative or just manipulation?

Should Christians evangelise children? For some, the answer's obvious  of course we should. The Archbishop of Kenya has just announced a campaign of child evangelisation aiming to "inculcate good morals and Christian faith to children", and many churches in the UK and around the world would applaud this sort of initiative. After all, we run Sunday schools and holiday clubs, and Christian parents hope their children will follow them in the faith. Most mainline denominations practise infant baptism on that assumption.

For others, the answer's just as clear: no, we shouldn't. Campaigners like Richard Dawkins, for instance, think children need to be protected against being "indoctrinated" by their parents. He wrote in a Time magazine article last year that "there really is an important difference between including your children in harmless traditions, and forcing on them un-evidenced opinions about the nature of life or the cosmos". Young children shouldn't be raised as Christians or Muslims any more than they should be "raised ornithologist" or "raised stamp collector".

Dawkins' name is a red, atheist rag to the Christian bull. However, disregard the source of the argument, and evangelicals at least are forced to admit he's identified an issue. Because at the heart of evangelicalism is the belief that faith is not something done to you. No one can make you a Christian without your consent. Your baptism as an infant doesn't get you to heaven any more than your baptism as an adult does. What counts is your own faith, your personal appropriation of the sacrifice of Christ for yourself. So no matter how a child is raised, sooner or later he or she will have to decide what to do about faith.

But for some, child evangelism  whether it's directed at children outside the faith community, who might turn up to a holiday club because their parents need them out of the house, or children who are brought to church every week by faithful parents  is still problematic. Can young children really make a "decision for Christ"? At the age of four or five, can they make an informed choice about the shape of their lives?

So how do we think through the ethics of evangelising children? According to a paper for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, it ought to be done, but done very thoughtfully and carefully. Its 'Charter of best practice in children's evangelisation' stresses points like "holistic evangelism": "The child is not a 'soul to be saved,' but a person who needs to experience the love of Jesus in a tangible way." It talks about making genuine efforts to understand children, the importance of relationships and of not reducing the Bible to a list of rules.

Another practitioner, Compassion International's Dan Brewster, writes for the European Evangelical Alliance about the importance of transparency and involving parents. Speaking particularly of cultures where Christians face discrimination, he says: "It is improper and may be unethical to guide children to become Christians in instances where they do not have a proper understanding of what it entails." Drawing on Elmer Thiessen's The Ethics of Evangelism, he writes of the importance of protecting a child's dignity, caring for the whole person and of humility: "Proselytizing becomes unethical when it becomes arrogant, condescending, and dogmatic in the claims being made."

So how might these insights translate into the work of the local church? Here are three suggestions.

1. Give children a foundation for life

Teaching them Bible stories and helping them learn from what the Scriptures say about how to live well and how to treat each other is a good thing. Even if they don't, as far as we know, end up giving their lives to Jesus, they've still received a great gift.

2. Treat them as part of the community

The church is a place where people get to know Jesus. A first-time decision to follow him is important, but it's not the only thing a church does. Children learn about Jesus through seeing how faith works in the lives of the people they meet in church.

3. Don't abuse their trust

Young children generally believe what they're told by an adult. But teaching is different from indoctrinating. We can say, "We believe this is true and we hope you'll see this too." We can't say, "This is true and you mustn't question it." There's a balance between being positive about our own faith and encouraging them to share it, and acknowledging they might choose a different path. Offering them freedom to walk away is hard, but a faith that's built on manipulation or coercion isn't going to last long anyway.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Hints of shift in government refusal to declare ISIS genocide

The UK government may re-consider its refusal to recognise ISIS atrocities against Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities as genocide.

The new foreign secretary Boris Johnson has said the UK would lead a campaign to bring the terror group to justice as he urged allies fighting Islamic State to do more to gather evidence of war crimes.

Under Johnson's predecessor Philip Hammond, the UK government pointedly refused to label ISIS crimes as genocide, despite the White House and the EU Parliament making such a declaration. But one MP at the heart of the campaign to recognise genocide told Christian Today she was hopeful Johnson would be able to invoke a change.

The former Mayor of London has previously said it was "baffling" that for some "reason the Foreign Office still hesitates to use the term genocide". In an article for the Telegraph he said ISIS' crimes "can only be called genocide".

On Friday he told foreign and defence officials from around 30 nations fighting ISIS there was an urgent need to gather evidence and witnesses of ISIS crimes so they could be prosecuted. "We've got to deal with the whole cancer and its ability to spread and to metastasize, to pop up all over the world in the way that we've been seeing," he said in a TV interview.

"There are thousands of them and we need to start setting in train the process of gathering evidence, of getting more witnesses, so that ultimately they can be prosecuted and held to account for their crimes against humanity and that's something that I said today to everybody and got a large measure of support."

Fiona Bruce, the Conservative MP for Congleton, told Christian Today she hoped this meant the Foreign Office was reconsidering its position.

The MP, who is a Christian, said ISIS' actions clearly met the definition of genocide under the convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide, of which the UK is a signatory.

"Their 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part' these groups, as the Convention defines genocide, is all too obvious," she said. Bruce added it was "deeply concerning" the UK refused to support the US after it declared the atrocities a genocide in March. She said the UK must correct this "as a matter of urgency".

She added: "Boris Johnson has said that he is now committed to re-establishing the UK's 'identity as a great global player'. If he is to do that, the UK must stand by its commitment in the Genocide Convention, and join the US in recognising the genocide that IS/Daesh is committing."

Bruce has attracted support across parties for a parliamentary motion criticising the government for not referring the "genocidal atrocities of Daesh to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)".

In April the House of Commons unanimously backed a motion that called on the government to refer the issue to the UNSC  a necessary step for the international judiciary to declare a genocide.

But despite the vote by 279 to 0 in favour, the government did not change its stance. Bruce's motion, signed by 32 MPs from different parties, "calls on the Government to ensure that the unanimous will of Parliament is implemented with urgency".
India: Three Christians severely beaten by suspected Hindu extremists

Three Christians were subject to a brutal attack in central India after being questioned about their faith.

More than 50 suspected Hindu extremists turned on student Umesh Patel, his father Sudhama Patel and a family friend Kiran Vishwakarma for practising Christianity. The Patels' house was destroyed and the three men are in a serious condition after the attack on July 17.

In the Kamarud village, Damtari district of Chhattisgarh, the mob grilled the Christians on their religion before launching their attack.

According to Tomson Thomas, the head of Persecution Relief's Indian branch, the assault was part of an organised targeting of Christianity by hard-line Hindus in India.

"We keep getting several reports of assaults on poor Christians living in villages every day from different parts of the country," Thomas told UCA News.

Earlier this month a young Christian woman was found dead in an Indian jungle. Her death is being treated as a faith-related murder, according to the persecution charity Open Doors.

The victim, Samjeera, had prepared for baptism after converting to Christianity but her pastor said she had received several death threats from her relatives who were hostile to her newfound faith.

It does not seem that attacks on the Patels' and the young Christian woman were isolated incidents. Recent reports suggest hundreds of thousands of Christians across India are faced with an ultimatum: hide their faith or risk harassment, intimidation and in some cases death.
Millions of pounds given to England's flourishing Christian cathedrals

Canterbury is among more than 30 cathedrals to receive grants from a fund marking the centenary of the First World War.

The government has awarded 39 grants totalling 14.5 million for cathedral repairs in the second phase of grants by the First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund.

The grants come as cathedrals continue to show strong evidence of growing congregations. According to the latest figures, in 2014 the average number of adults and children attending cathedral services each week was 36,600, an increase of 23 per cent since 2004.

Church of England cathedrals contribute around 220 million annually to the national economy through employment and tourism. They welcome more than 11 million visitors annually, employ more than 7,000 people and are supported by 15,000 volunteers.

Dame Fiona Reynolds, chair of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission, said: "Cathedrals are the beating hearts of their communities, offering sanctuary, beauty, collective history, and social and economic support to people of every generation.

"Cathedrals which benefitted from the first phase of this fund have been repaired and refurbished, and staff and volunteers have time and resources to serve their cities and regions with renewed energy. It is fantastic that more cathedrals are now able to benefit from this scheme.

"England's cathedrals are a wonderfully diverse group, encompassing not only vast, world-famous medieval buildings such as Durham, Lincoln and Canterbury, but also smaller churches like Wakefield and Leicester which were made cathedrals to serve the growing urban populations of the industrial revolution. These too have become jewels in the centres of their cities and their showcase to the entire nation, as we saw with Leicester Cathedral's events around the re-interment of Richard III."

Among the cathedrals, 32 are Church of England and receive between 15,000 and 870,000 each.

The most common repairs are roof repairs at Lichfield, Derby, Guildford, Sheffield, Liverpool, Rochester, Hereford, Carlisle, Southwell, Canterbury and Lincoln, ranging from to 250,000 at Canterbury to 750,000 at Derby.

Winchester, Wakefield and Worcester have been given funds to restore stained glass.

Lichfield, St Albans, Gloucester, Salisbury, York, Ripon, and Leicester have grants for stone work. The largest grant of 870,000 goes to Coventry Cathedral for re-fixing the exterior slates of the Chapel of Unity, dedicated in 1962 and circular in shape like a nomadic tent, which was designed by Sir Basil Spence.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: "Cathedrals are powerful symbols of Britain's shared history. They are important not only for their architecture and heritage, but also for the vital role they play in local communities. I am delighted that the First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund will ensure that these wonderful cathedrals remain in a good state of repair and are preserved for future generations."

Sir Paul Ruddock, chairman of the repair fund's expert panel, said he and all those who love cathedrals were delighted when the chancellor announced a further 20 million for the fund in last budget. "It will now run until 2018 and the works it will have supported between 2014 and 2018 will stand as a very fitting memorial to the First World War a century earlier."
Mother of Sandy Hook victim says prayer got her through the ordeal of losing her child

In today's growing secular world, it is rare to find people who still believe in the power of prayer. But Magnificant magazine columnist Jennifer Hubbard is one such person, and she credits prayer with keeping her sane through one of the most difficult times of her life.

Hubbard is the mother of Catherine Violate, the 8-year-old girl who was one of the 20 children and six adults killed by a lone gunman during the December 2012 attack at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut.

During that heartbreaking moment, Hubbard said she, her husband, and all those victimised by the shooting incident relied heavily on prayer.

"There's no way, I believe, that we as a family, we as a community, could have walked through the darkness without the prayers of so many," she tells the National Catholic Register. "There were many days that were just very dark."

Hubbard recalls praying to God, asking Him to bring Catherine back home. She prayed repeatedly while waiting at the firehouse with other families of staff and students who were still trapped in Sandy Hook.

God might not have brought Catherine back to the firehouse, like Hubbard prayed for. But He still answered her prayer. "Catherine's home [with God]. He answered my prayer," Hubbard explains. "And in answering my prayer and bringing her home, there's the hope and understanding that I'll see her again."

There are many people who still doubt the power of prayer, but Hubbard wants people to know that they risk more whenever they refuse to talk to God.

"When we don't listen to God, when we take matters into our own hands, or look for the answer that we want him to respond with, I think that's dangerous," she asserts. "When we don't listen to God, we are just belligerent. We are putting ourselves above God. By not listening to God, by taking matters into our own hands, we feel like we've got this."

There is hope in prayer, continues Hubbard, and every time people bow down their heads and share a private conversation with God, they are "surrendering whatever you have that's holding you back from seeing [God's] purpose."
New exhibition at Durham shows spread of early Christianity in Britain

Durham Cathedral tomorrow opens its doors to a new 3.9 million exhibition telling the history of the 923-year-old building and its 14th century monastic life, with treasures from the past and present.

Made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Open Treasure shows in particular how Christianity spread in the North East of England after Saint Cuthbert in the seventh century became Prior of Lindisfarne.

Cuthbert's body, moved from Lindisfarne to Durham where it still lies, was one of the nation's top pilgrimage sites for centuries and still attracts many visitors to the cathedral.

The collection on show includes Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Roman stones and casts, including towering crosses that loom over visitors' heads as they enter the Monks' Dormitory.

There is also a timeline of the Cathedral's history and interactive exhibits.

The Great Kitchen will in about a year house the Treasures of St Cuthbert including fragments of his wooden coffin and his Pectoral Cross. One aim of the exhibition, expected to attract 120,000 visitors a year, is to help maintain free entry to the cathedral.

The exhibition itself is not free however. It is hoped it will increase income through the redevelopment of the cathedral shop and Undercroft Restaurant, as well as a programme of events.

Dean of Durham Andrew Tremlett said: "The economic viability of our churches is an important and sensitive subject and here at Durham Cathedral we pride ourselves on our free entry policy, but just like any ancient building, we have important maintenance work to do and overheads to meet. We therefore took the decision to charge a modest entry fee for Open Treasure.

"Open Treasure and the wider project it forms a part of are an essential part of us becoming more financially viable and in doing so, ensuring that this majestic place of sanctuary and pilgrimage can remain freely open to all who wish to visit."

Richard Morris, trustee of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: "A place of worship for thousands and a spectacular attraction drawing visitors from near and far to the city, Durham Cathedral is a heritage treasure in the North East. The Open Treasure exhibition will not only boost the cathedral's continuing popularity but will also keep its visitors at the heart of its heritage."

Work began on the cathedral in 1093 and took 40 years. It replaced a Saxon cathedral built by the Community of St Cuthbert after it arrived in Durham in 995 following its flight from the "Holy Island" of Lindisfarne 80 miles north of Durham.

The body of St Cuthbert is enshrined in the Feretory at Durham Cathedral and the Tomb of the Venerable Bede is in The Galilee Chapel. The Cathedral existed as a Benedictine Monastery until 1539 when it became one of the Church of England's major cathedrals.

It continues to be a focus for pilgrimage and attracts over 700,000 visitors each year from all over the world.
Rabbis oppose Britain's Chief Rabbi in faith schools controversy

Nearly 70 British rabbis have written to the new Education Secretary Justine Greening objecting to the Chief Rabbi's plea for new faith schools to be able to select all pupils on a faith basis.

The letter is the first major challenge to the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, since his appointment in 2013.

The Chief Rabbi represents the Orthodox community, and the letter is coordinated by a Reform rabbi.

However, the Chief Rabbi is often regarded as a spokesman for the wider Jewish community. Mirvis is known for his pastoral skills and is popular within the community. It is unusual for there to be publicly-voiced opposition to him of this nature.

Currently the government insists new free schools, even if they are faith schools, must open half their places to children from the local community, whatever their faith.

For this reason, the Catholic Church has not sponsored any free schools and has also called frequently for the 50 per cent cap on faith admissions to be changed.

Dr Jonathan Romain, rabbi of Maidenhead Synagogue and chairman of the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, told Christian Today that the letter reflects significant unease within the Jewish world that attempts to integrate children of different faiths are in danger of being undermined by more conservative religious groups.

He said the Chief Rabbi's opposition to free schools "displays a lamentable insecurity in the strength of the Jewish faith to withstand contact with wider society."

It also begs the question of what sort of society will those who are isolated from each other in childhood one day shape in adulthood, he added.

In the letter, the 68 rabbis write: "Some of us are in favour of separate faith schools, some of us are opposed to them, but all of us are keen that the current legislation surrounding the admissions procedure for faith-based free schools is maintained, whereby a maximum of 50 per cent of pupils can be selected on faith grounds, whatever faith that may be.

"We feel that there should be a place in the education system for schools that seek to achieve this balance, so that the children at them can have both a sense of religious roots and openness to others. We feel it will benefit the children concerned and the society into which they will emerge and help shape.

"We call upon you not to abolish the 50 per cent admissions rule for faith-based free schools, and believe that Jewish values can happily co-exist with social cohesion."
Russia's crackdown on religion comes into effect

Russia's new anti-terrorism laws, which include measures imposing sweeping restrictions on Christian evangelising and teaching the faith, have officially come into force.

The 'Yaroyava' package, named after their sponsor in the Russian Duma, has been fiercely condemned both by Russian Christians and rights activists and internationally. It makes house churches illegal and limits religious activity to registered buildings.

According to Russia's Council of Churches-Baptists, the laws will "create conditions for the repression of all Christians". The council said in an open letter: "Any person who mentions their religious view or reflections out loud or puts them in writing, without the relevant documents, could be accused of illegal missionary activity."

Another open letter, from the Protestant Churches of Russia, said the laws were "the most draconian anti-religion bill to be proposed in Russia since Nikita Khrushchev promised to eliminate Christianity in the Soviet Union".

One of the signatories to the letter, Mission Eurasia president Sergey Rakhuba, said in a statement from the organisation: "We don't know yet how these laws will be implemented, but it is already clear that they are achieving their goal of creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion within society, while allowing the government to restrict freedom in violation of the Constitution and international norms.

"Believers will soon need to make a very important choice: whether to obey God or these new Russian 'laws.'"

However, while the new laws have the potential to be extremely disruptive for Protestant Christians and other religious minorities in Russia, some observers believe their implementation may be patchy. Release International chief executive Paul Robinson said: "Let's wait and see what actually happens in terms of implementation on the ground. There is often a temptation in these situations to immediately fear the worst."

However, he added: "Having said that, we need to pray for Russian brothers and sisters now, as it's possible the doors may well be closing on the freedoms the church in Russia currently enjoys."

Some rights groups are considering legal appeals against the legislation as they regard it as unconstitutional.
Top evangelical leader Tony Perkins backs Trump

A top Washington-based evangelical leader has endorsed Donald Trump and encouraged his large following to do the same.

Family Research Council (FRC) leader Tony Perkins, who has up to now held back from declaring his support in the presidential race, last night took to the stage at the Quickens Loan Arena to support the candidate.

"Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party, and I will be voting for Donald Trump in November, and I will urge my fellow Americans to do the same," Perkins said.

"Donald Trump has committed to upholding and protecting the first freedom and therefore our ability as citizens to unite our nation once again under God," he continued. "Let us go forth from here and do that work."

The Washington blog The Hill said that the endorsement by Perkins, who has 25,000 Twitter followers, "could be a tipping point for the religious right moving behind the party's newly-minted nominee."

Nearly eight in 10 white evangelical voters say they would vote for Trump if the election were held today, including a third who "strongly" back his campaign, according to a recent Pew survey.

White evangelical Protestants make up one-fifth of all registered voters in the US.

After doubts about whether Trump could attract the conservative Christian vote, because of his colourful private life and divisive language, his campaign has been leant credibility by the appointment of Mike Pence as his running mate.

Pence, a senior Republican and now Vice Presidential candidate, is a former Catholic who has now embraced the evangelical movement.

The FRC is a lobbying organisation founded in 1981 by James Dobson, and campaigns for traditional family values.

Dobson has also backed Trump, having previously supported presidential hopeful Ted Cruz. Dobson said in a statement last night: "I have decided to endorse Donald J Trump for President of the United States, not only because of my great concern about Hillary Clinton. I am supporting Mr Trump primarily because I believe he is the most capable candidate to lead the United States of America in this complicated hour."
Trump accepts Republican nomination, vows to 'put America first'

Donald Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as US secretary of state and vowed to be tough on crime and illegal immigrants in a speech on Thursday accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump's 75-minute speech was designed to set the tone for the general election campaign against Clinton, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on November 8.

As the crowd chanted: "Lock her up" for her handling of U. foreign policy, Trump waved them off and said: "Let's defeat her in November." Thousands of supporters who were gathered in the convention hall roared their approval.

When it was over, Trump was joined on stage by family members as balloons cascaded from above and confetti blew around the arena.

A CNN snap poll of viewers of the speech said 57 per cent had a "very positive reaction" to the address and 18 per cent a somewhat positive reaction, while 24 per cent said it had a negative effect.

Social media sentiment toward Trump based on tweets that mentioned his name was slightly more negative than positive shortly after his speech.

The acceptance speech by Trump, 70, closed out a four-day convention that underscored his struggle to heal fissures in the Republican Party over his anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about his temperament. The event was boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents.

Trump presented a bleak view of America under siege from illegal immigrants, threatened by Islamic State militants, hindered by crumbling infrastructure and weakened by unfair trade deals and race-related violence.

Accusing illegal immigrants of taking jobs from American citizens and committing crimes, Trump vowed to build a "great border wall" against the border-crossers.

"We will stop it," Trump said.

Trump took positions in conflict with traditional Republican policies. He said he would avoid multinational trade deals but instead pursue agreements with individual countries. He would renegotiate the NAFTA trade accord linking the United States, Canada and Mexico. He would penalise companies that outsource jobs and then export their foreign-made products back into the United States.

"We will never sign bad trade deals," Trump thundered. "America first!"

The New York businessman, who has never held elected office, filled his speech with some of the bravado he used to win the Republican nomination over 16 rivals, punctuating his rhetorical points by waving an index finger.

"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump said. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

In his speech, Trump portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned.

Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump said policies pursued by Clinton in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse. He blamed her for the rise of Islamic State militants and blasted her willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees.

"After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said.

Clinton senior adviser John Podesta dismissed the speech as painting "a dark picture of an America in decline" and called it a reminder that Trump "is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president of the United States".

John Weaver, a senior adviser to Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, a former presidential rival to Trump, said in a tweet that Trump had delivered the "saddest, darkest, most depressing acceptance speech in modern history".

"Things have to change"

Trump needed a strong performance on Thursday night to improve his chances of getting a boost in opinion polls as Democrats prepare for their own, more scripted convention next week in Philadelphia.

In a contest that pits two politicians viewed as unfavourable by large segments of the American people, Trump also accused Clinton, 68, of being the puppet of big business, elite media and major donors who want to preserve the current political system.

"That is why Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change. My message is that things have to change  and they have to change right now," Trump said.

Trump said he would speedily address the violence that has dominated headlines, such as the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers earlier this month. He vowed to defeat "the barbarians of ISIS".

Convention discord

The prevailing narrative at the Cleveland convention has not been about Trump's positions, but dominated instead by the failure of he party's various factions to unite behind Trump.

A series of distractions at the convention largely thwarted a bid by the Trump campaign to show him as a caring father and magnanimous business leader who would bring greater prosperity and safety to the United States.

But in the end, many of these points were made when Ivanka Trump, Trump's daughter, introduced her father.

"I have seen him fight for his family. I have seen him fight for his employees. I have seen him fight for his company and now I am seeing him fight for our country," she said.

Trump's text of his speech, released by his campaign, included extensive footnotes to show where the material originated.

That was perhaps in reaction to the speech given on Monday night by Trump's wife Melania, who was accused of plagiarism when she repeated lines from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, Obama's wife.

A staff writer for the Trump Organisation later took responsibility for the misstep.
US cardinal says Islam 'wants to govern the world'

An American cardinal has said that Islam "wants to govern the world" and is not like other religions such as Christianity and Judaism.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based prelate, said he was not seeking to be "disrespectful" to Islam or to "generate hostility", adding that Muslims "are lovely people" and can speak "in a very peaceful manner about questions of religion."

But the Cardinal also made controversial remarks to the Religion News Service to promote his new book, Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ, an extended interview with a French journalist.

The cardinal, known for his conservative views on the reform agenda of Pope Francis, women in the Church, abortion and homosexuality, said that Islam is "fundamentally a form of government" and that Americans must reassert "the Christian origin of our own nation".

He criticised Catholic leaders who tend "to simply think that Islam is a religion like the Catholic faith or the Jewish faith," adding: "That simply is not objectively the case".

The Cardinal claimed that "when they (Muslims) become the majority in any country they have the duty to submit the whole population to Shariah," referring to Islamic law.

He went on: "(My) point is this: When they [Muslims) become a majority in any country then they have the religious obligation to govern that country. If that's what the citizens of a nation want, well, then, they should just allow this to go on. But if that's not what they want, then they have to find a way to deal with it."

The comments come after the senior Republican and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said that anyone found to be of "Muslim background" who supported Sharia law should be "deported" from the US.

The cardinal, who is a canon lawyer and was head of the Vatican's court system before Pope Francis named him chaplain of the Knights of Malta, controversially claimed that in some European cities with Muslim populations "there are little Muslim states" that are effectively "no-go zones" for government authorities.

He added: "This is the way things are to go... And if you do understand that and you are not at peace with the idea of being forcibly under an Islamic government, then you have reason to be afraid."

Asked how the West should respond, he said: "I think the appropriate response is to be firm about the Christian origin of our own nation, and certainly in Europe, and the Christian foundations of the government, and to fortify those... We have to say no, our country is not free to become a Muslim state."

In his book, Cardinal Burke says that "the (Catholic) Church really should be afraid of" Islam.
Women bishops protestors claim they stand for Christian tradition and the Bible

The two Christian ministers who have objected at services to consecrate women bishops in the Church of Engand have sought to justify their actions to Christian Today.

They spoke out after campaigners for women's ordination called on the Church to silence one of the objectors, who has interrupted the last few consecrations of women bishops.

Women and the Church has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, outlining why the protests "undermine the women being consecrated", and therefore all women and the Church as a whole.

Rev Stephen Holland, a non-conformist minister from Lancashire, says he has protested the last seven of the 10 consecrations so far and his aim was not to prevent them taking place, but just to have his voice heard.

He is not a member of the Church but is a non-denominational minister at an evangelical church in Lancashire.

He said: "I note WATCH's point that this is not like an objection at a marriage service and the consecration must take place. Firstly, all the consecrations have taken place. It is not my intention to prevent these ungodly practices, but rather to voice a public objection to them."

He makes his objection during the part of the consecration service where the question is asked of the congregation: "Is it now your will that they should be ordained?"

He answers: "No, in the name of Almighty God I protest. There are no women bishops in the Bible."

He told Christian Today: "As we are often told, the Church of England is a broad church."

Women bishops undermine tradition, he added.

"We have not only the Bible's authority but 2000 years of church teaching and backing. Objections to women holding positions of leadership within the church of Christ has nothing whatsoever to do with equality, fairness, or worth. It has to do with roles that God Himself has given to both male and female."

He said there are many thousands upon thousands of women who support the traditional biblical view on women in leadership within the church.

"Thankfully we in the UK live in a free democracy where citizens have a legal right to peacefully protest and object. All of my protests have been respectful, dignified, and courteous at all times."

And he made it clear that he has no intention of stopping: "As a non-conformist, evangelical protestant I intend, with God's help, to continue to make my free protest at the unbiblical consecration of women to the office of bishop."

Rev Paul Williamson, a Church of England priest in Hanworth, Middlesex, who protested at the consecration of Bishop Libby Lane in York but has not attempted any since then, said he had informed the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, of his intention to speak.

He said: "When I spoke I addressed the Archbishop as 'Your Grace', and used 'please' to request to speak."

He said his grounds were that no woman is ordained in the Bible.

"He [Sentamu] did not allow me to speak. He did not look me in the eye."

Williamson added: "The Council of Nicea in 325 states clearly in Canon 1 that priests are men and uses gender specifics. The Church of England is bound by the Council of Nicea."
The unseen Georgia OKeeffe

The curator of Tates new blockbuster explains why theres more to the artist than flowers  discussing New York, colour, and her complex relationship with Alfred Stieglitz

Why is the time right for a major OKeeffe exhibition? Tanya Barson: Were 100 years from OKeeffes debut in New York. In 1916, she exhibited with two other artists at Alfred Stieglitzs 291 gallery, going on to have a solo show in 1917. She also lived for almost a century. I was thinking about those two 100-year periods: her life, and the 100 years she has been in the public consciousness. How was OKeeffe first received? One of the artists earliest reviews refers to OKeeffe as a little-known personality. Its such a nice line because, shortly after that, she became widely known  both through her own exhibitions, and as the subject of portraits by Stieglitz (the photographer and OKeeffes gallerist, whom she married in 1924). In 1921, Stieglitz exhibited photographs he had taken of OKeeffe  of her hands and different parts of her body, both clothed and nude. As a photographic subject, OKeeffe became a sensation; as an artist, she quickly became notorious. She was written about from a very early stage in her career in lengthy reviews by journalists including Paul Rosenfeld and Marsden Hartley. Her work was bought very quickly, too; she became quite celebrated.

Open a larger version of this image Alfred Stieglitz 1864-1946. Georgia OKeeffe, 1918. Photograph, palladium print on paper. 243 x 192 mm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.  The J. Paul Getty Trust Open a larger version of this image Georgia OKeeffe 1887-1986. Special No. 9, 1915. Charcoal on paper. 635 x 486 mm. The Menil Collection, Houston  2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/DACS, London

Why did she become so popular? Theres something about her art that caught the public imagination. Her work changed, but even in her early charcoal drawings and watercolours, theres something thats recognisably OKeeffe. She had an extraordinary sense of colour and composition  something shed learnt from one of her teachers, the artist Arthur Wesley Dow. He was always thinking about beauty, and OKeeffe was not afraid of the beautiful; shes very generous to her viewers. What were OKeeffes other influences? Dow had been active at the height of Art Nouveau, and there are aspects of Art Nouveau design that resonate throughout OKeeffes work  in her love of spirals, and arabesques. Another influence was OKeeffes love of music, which she had given up to become an artist. She read Kandinskys writings on synaesthesia in the year they were released, and made paintings in response to music. She understood abstraction very early: Kandinsky made his first abstract in 1911, and, by 1916, OKeeffe was making her own.

Open a larger version of this image Georgia OKeeffe 1887-1986. Music  Pink and Blue No. 1, 1918. Oil paint on canvas 889 x 737 mm. Collection of Barney A. Ebsworth. Partial and Promised gift to Seattle Art Museum  2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/DACS, London



How is the exhibition at Tate structured? Its intended as a retrospective, beginning from OKeeffes first exhibition at 291, which was really the beginning of her career as a full-time artist. We cover a period of six decades, though deliberately chose not to be rigorously faithful to chronology. There are rooms dedicated to 291 and her early years, to abstraction and the senses, and to her relationship with Stieglitz. We also look at different locations  from Lake George to New Mexico, ending with her last major series, the horizon paintings Sky Above Clouds.

Open a larger version of this image Georgia OKeeffe 1887-1986. Sky with Flat White Cloud, 1962. Oil paint on canvas. 1524 x 2032 mm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia OKeeffe  2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/DACS, London

I was especially happy to exhibit a series she made in what she christened The Black Place  a stretch of hills 150 miles west of where she lived in New Mexico. OKeeffe would go there and camp, painting on location in all weathers from 1936 until the end of the 1940s. During this time her paintings of the area transform, moving away from a naturalistic style to the point of pure abstraction. The series includes some paintings from 1944, which I think are some of the best she ever did. Theyre unexpectedly aggressive. OKeeffe paints an emotional response to the harsh weather conditions she experiences there  from wild storms to snow, or intense heat. In the background, however, its also the height of World War Two; I think her works not dissociated from history.

How diverse are these OKeeffes? The exhibition aims to show the variety of OKeeffes work as she shifts between locations and subject matter. What emerges is a consistent oscillation between abstract modernist art and depictions of the natural environment  as landscapes, leaves or flowers.

OKeeffe was drawing upon a European modernism  built by Kandinsky and the artists Stieglitz presented at 291, including Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Cezanne and Rodin  and combining it with a sense of America. That sense of national identity is nowhere greater than in her landscapes; even a small painting of apples from the autumn crop in Lake George can be read as a symbolic exploration of America. Its also a reference to OKeeffes childhood, on a dairy farm in the prairies of Wisconsin.

Open a larger version of this image Georgia OKeeffe 1887-1986. Lake George Barns, 1926. Oil paint on canvas. 538 x 814 mm. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Gift of the T. B. Walker Foundation, 1954.  2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/DACS, London

Was that sense of American identity difficult to translate to London? The show is the biggest of OKeeffes work to have travelled outside the United States, and is designed for an international public. From London, it will travel to Vienna and then to Canada. We were conscious of explaining an idea of cultural nationalism in a particular era of American history. OKeeffe was part of a generation that came to maturity in the Progressive Era: she lived through the roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, two world wars and the Cold War, and saw Reagan become President. As OKeeffe worked, the world transformed around her. We talk about OKeeffe as a woman artist. Should we? Its something weve acknowledged. Early reviews made it clear OKeeffe was a female artist, and she responded vocally to the way her work was gendered by critics, who were largely male. Stieglitz was a complex character. Although he had very advanced ideas, and was keen to provide a platform for women artists, OKeeffe was never comfortable with the Freudian readings he made of her work  as being feminine, or representing womanhood. In a way, it was an expression of his love for her: to Stieglitz, OKeeffe was the ultimate idea of woman. But she didnt want to be seen as a woman artist. The objection was one she made again in the 1970s, when feminists sought to celebrate her as a source of female iconography  gendering her work, ironically, as the male critics of the 1920s had done before them.

Open a larger version of this image Georgia OKeeffe 1887-1986. White Iris, 1930. Oil paint on canvas. 1016 x 762 mm. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Mr and Mrs Bruce C. Gottwald.  2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/DACS, London Open a larger version of this image Georgia OKeeffe 1887-1986. New York Street with Moon, 1925. Oil paint on canvas. 1220 x 770 mm. Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/ DACS, London

Is it wrong, then, that OKeeffes imagery is so often sexualised? OKeeffe was quite clear, and insisted, When people read erotic symbols into my painting, theyre really thinking about their own affairs. In a catalogue for one of her exhibitions in 1939, OKeeffe said, You write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower  and I dont. She published the statement again in 1977, and repeated it directly to camera in a documentary with Terry Miller. Its something I think we should really listen to. In the mid 1920s, she moved away from diaphanous, coloured abstraction, and started painting New York City, which is gendered male. Critics laughed at her, but she did it anyway. Theres nothing more radical an artist can do than to state that youre reading their work incorrectly or in a way they dislike, so that it causes them to change it. Weve seen a lot of shows that emphasise women artists. Is that parity a broader concern? Theres a debate as to how much attention we give to artists who just happen to be women. At Tate, weve always been keen to see women artists take centre stage. I think theres a generation of female curators (to gender the term) concerned that, even now, theres a lack of parity for artists who are just as good as their male peers. OKeeffe herself confronted these issues. In 1944 she wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to ask her to support equal rights for women. What OKeefe wanted more than anything was to be equal to her male peers. Not to be described as a woman artist, but to be described as an artist. Did Stieglitz change the way OKeeffe was perceived? Stieglitz was very loquacious and spoke to everyone who came to his galleries, where OKeeffe exhibited almost annually. In 1919, he wrote a text on women artists and, although it was not published until 1960, phrases from it appear in reviews by critics including Paul Rosenfeld in the 1920s. Stieglitz wrote that women receive the world through the womb. In 1922 OKeeffe complained that male critics make me seem like some strange unearthly sort of creature floating in the air. The fact was, she insisted, I like beef steak  and like it rare at that.

Open a larger version of this image Ansel Adams 1902-1984. Georgia OKeeffe in the Southwest, 1937. Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper. 297 x 187 mm. Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Ansel Adams Archive  The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
One of the most influential art dealers in modern times

The Collection of Leslie Waddington, the pioneering art dealer who anticipated the rise of contemporary art, is to be offered as a highlight of Frieze Week in London

The Collection of Leslie Waddington will be offered for sale as a single-owner auction at Christies, London during Frieze week in October 2016. A celebration of some of the artists he most admired, the sale will feature works from his personal collection, assembled over many years. It includes pieces by 20th-century icons Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Milton Avery, Agnes Martin, Francis Picabia and Jean Dubuffet, as well as works by many of the contemporary artists he represented, and with whom he developed enduring friendships.

Open a larger version of this image Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), Visiteur au chapeau bleu (Visitor with Blue Hat), 1955. Oil on canvas. 45 x 35 in (115.2 x 89.2 cm). Estimate: 2,000,000-3,000,000

Born in Dublin in 1934, Leslie Waddington was the son of gallery owner Victor Waddington and his wife, Zelda. An avid reader and bibliophile, he first studied at the Portora Royal School, whose alumni included Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett. In the early 1950s Waddington attended university in Paris, where he studied the history of art and archaeology at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre.

Waddington, who passed away on 30 November 2015, was instrumental in building the collections of the colourful Tory treasurer Lord Alistair McAlpine (1942-2014) and the collector, patron and radio engineer E. J. Power (1899-1993) among many others. Lord McAlpine was helped by Waddington to form a major modern sculpture collection that he gifted to the Tate in 1971.

Open a larger version of this image Milton Avery (1885-1965), Dark Inlet, 1963. Oil on canvas. 49 x 59 in (125.8 x 152 cm). Estimate: 900,000-1,500,000

In the late 1950s Victor Waddington returned to London, where he opened a gallery on Cork Street. Accompanying him was the 24-year-old Leslie, who would soon become a director at his fathers business. In 1966 he opened his own space, Waddington Galleries, alongside business partner Lord Alexander Bernstein. Waddington Galleries grew swiftly and by the late 1980s Cork Street was home to five Waddington spaces.

Highlights of Waddingtons collection include Francis Picabias Lampe, 1923. Formerly in the collection of Jacques Doucet, it is one of a series of paintings Picabia made between 1921 and 1923 in which the ancient ideal of classical beauty is combined with geometric abstraction, and it is housed within its original Pierre Legrain frame. Another standout work is Agnes Martins Praise, 1985, an elegant example of the artists use of a visual vocabulary to evoke pure, meditative states of mind.

Leslie Waddington served as chairman of the Modern Painting and Pictures sections of The European Fine Art Fair. In 2003, he was one of the first dealers to participate in Londons influential Frieze Art Fair. In 2013, Nicholas Serota presented him with the Federation of European Art Galleries Award in Basel, lauding Waddington as an individual without equal in the profession.

Open a larger version of this image Francis Picabia (1879-1953), Lampe, circa 1923. Watercolour, brush and India Ink and pencil on paper. 24 x 18 in (63 x 47.2 cm). Estimate: 800,000-1,500,000

A centrepiece of the collection is Jean Dubuffets Visiteur au chapeau bleu (Visitor with Blue Hat), 1955, one of the raw, highly textured canvases that Dubuffet produced during the first few months of his six-year sojourn in the south of France.

It is a privilege to be offering works from the private collection of Leslie Waddington here at Christies in October, said Jussi Pylkkanen, Global President, Christies. Leslie was generous with his advice to the younger generation and many people in the London art world, including myself, benefited from his wisdom over the years.

Open a larger version of this image Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Praise, 1985. Acrylic and pencil on canvas. 72 x 72 in (183 x 183 cm). Estimate: 2,000,000-3,000,000

Waddington was a pioneering art dealer who presented a groundbreaking exhibition programme and fostered creative relationships with artists. He brought a range of Modern, Post-War and Contemporary names to the attention of international audiences and defined the London art landscape long before the rise in popularity of the contemporary art world today.

From his arrival in London in 1957, Leslie Waddington rose to become one of the most influential fine art dealers in modern times. Witty, erudite and principled, he spent more than half a century promoting the work of artists ranging from the St Ives School to American Abstract Expressionists, as well as Picasso, Matisse and the Pop artists. He strove to exhibit art that, in his view, spoke against parochialism and limitation.
A Dickinson man will spend almost 20 years behind bars after his conviction in federal court on child pornography charges, authorities said Thursday.

Richard Wayne Barton, 51, pleaded guilty in February for creating and distributing thousands of images and videos of minors engaging in sexual activity, officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston said.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Chevron is selling two of its larger Houston-area real estate holdings, including more than 100 acres on the west side of town and a 10-story office building in Bellaire.

The Bellaire facility at 4800 Fournace Place near the West Loop is being sold as part of an effort to "maximize our office space usage," Chevron spokesman Cam Van Ast said in an email Friday.
A man who hid on the Appalachian Trail from authorities for six years after embezzling $8.7 million will serve eight years in federal prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

James Hammes, 54, plead guilty in October 2015 to one count of wire fraud and agreed to pay nearly $7.7 million in restitution, according to the news release. Hammes embezzled more than $8.7 million from his employer G & J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, Inc. between 1998 and 2009, the federal agency reports.
Master misanthrope Todd Solondz has made a career with films that luxuriate in dysfunction and despair yet somehow remain engaging.

The director of "Happiness" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is at it again in "Wiener-Dog," and even the presence of an adorable dachshund cannot save the humans around him from their hopelessness.

The conceit of his latest exercise in droll negativity is presenting the misery from the viewpoint of the cute dog, who finds herself being herded from owner to owner, each with their own distinct shades of the pathetic.

What makes this watchable is that Solondz knows how to create vivid characters, even when all of them seem to be painfully resigned to the meaningless of life. The ensemble cast here is uniformly excellent, and knows what to do with Solondz's playful impudence.

More Information 'Wiener-Dog' Rated R: for language and some disturbing content Running time: 88 minutes xx1/2 See More Collapse

The first of four segments begins when the dog is rescued from a shelter and becomes the pet of a sickly boy (Keaton Nigel Cooke, solid) and his self-absorbed parents (Tracy Betts and Julie Delpy, at her chirpily caustic best). As the doggie puke mounts (to the sounds of "Claire de Lune"), the dachshund is sent to her next date with dreariness.

Soon, she comes under the care of a socially challenged vet worker (Greta Gerwig, very good), who happens to be Dawn Wiener, Solondz's alter-ego character from "Dollhouse." Needless to say, Dawn's life has not taken a turn for the better. The next owners on the dog's tour include a pathologically struggling screenwriter (Danny DeVito) and a resentful, ailing woman (Ellen Burstyn, brilliant) who wears giant sunglasses to hide the light of truth that she has wasted her time on Earth.

At the end of the day, "Wiener-Dog" seems to be saying that life is mundane, then you die. It's not the stuff of Hallmark cards, but Solondz has a way of making it palatable.
A man who robbed three Houston banks this month was arrested Thursday by the FBI Violent Crime Task Force .

According to the FBI, William Henry Dean, 30, is charged with three counts of robbery by threats by the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
Dear Abby:

While our daughter was on vacation with our small grandkids, she bought them postcards and suggested they write us about their vacation.

She said she laughed when the kids finished with the cards because she hadn't realized they didn't know how to write a postcard. The children had turned the cards sideways and written across the entire card. She found a half-inch space and in tiny print wrote our names and address.

I would like to thank the postal workers in both Springfield and Wales, Mass., and in Hartford, Conn., for caring, for taking the time to search for our address and forwarding these wonderful memories to us.

Thankful Grandma J.

Dear Thankful:

I'm pleased to pass along your message to the caring postal workers.

When I started this reply, I thought I'd begin by quoting the postal workers' official motto: "Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow," etc. Unsure of the correct wording, I decided to look it up online. What I found fascinated me, and I hope it will you, too:

Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Postal Service has no motto. The familiar sentence "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is actually the inscription found on the General Post Office in New York at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street.

The inscription was provided by the building's architects. The sentence appears in a translation of the account of the fifth-century B.C. Greek historian Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians. The Persians had mounted postal couriers, and he was describing the fidelity with which their work was done.

Dear Abby:

I spoke to a doctor friend about some medical issues my wife was experiencing. He specializes in this area. When he advised my wife to come into the office, I told him it was not a good time for us financially. He said not to worry about it.

We made the appointment, and two months later the bill arrived. We are on a high-deductible health plan, and the bill is not cheap. How can I discuss this with my friend without offending? I don't want to sound presumptuous - I know this is his livelihood.

Financial Difficulty

Dear "Difficulty":

Call your friend and explain the situation. If you do, he may reduce the amount of his bill or agree to a payment plan.
A woman in the Humble area was identified as a neighborhood thief after a home surveillance video showing items being stolen from a front porch was posted on social media.

Carley Williams, 30, faces one charge of misdemeanor theft after deputies with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office investigated her on Tuesday.
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Montgomery County Crime Stoppers sought nearly 30 fugitives between June 10 and July 1 on charges ranging from murder to indecency with a child.

In Montgomery County, authorities release a list of highly sought suspects, termed "featured felons."

RELATED: More than 40 charged with felony DWI in Houston

Tipsters with information about these suspects are asked to call 1-800-392-STOP (7867). All callers will remain anonymous, and tipsters may be eligible for a $5,000 reward.

See the photos above for more information on the specific charges against these suspects.
WASHINGTON (AP)  House Republicans are asking the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to investigate Hillary Clinton and determine whether she lied to Congress.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia say in a letter sent Monday that FBI evidence appears to directly contradict several of Clintons statements under oath.

Clinton testified last October that she never sent or received emails marked as classified when she served as secretary of state. She also has said she only used one mobile device for emails and turned over all of her work-related emails to the State Department.

FBI Director James Comey said she had multiple devices and investigators found thousands of work-related emails that had not been turned over. He said three of her emails carried classified markings.
The federal government will award Houston $1.5 million in federal money to fight Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that that can cause serious birth defects.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday it will give out $60 million to states, cities and territories to aid their efforts protecting people from Zika, which has now spread to 49 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Houston is one of only a handful of cities or territories that will be allocated funding independent of its state health department. The funding will be available Aug. 1.

"Our local, state and territorial health departments are on the front lines in the fight against Zika, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a prepared statement. "These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat."

Frieden said that though "necessary funding that is needed isn't yet available, we cannot wait to provide this essential support," a shot at Congress' failure to pass a Zika bill. Congress considered a bill that would have provided $1.1 billion in emergency funding for Zika, but it was blocked amid partisan bickering and the body subsequently adjourned for summer recess, considered the height of mosquito season in most Gulf Coast states.

Instead, the CDC funding comes from a pot of money intended for infectious disease response generally. The agency's statement said the funding will support epidemiologic surveillance and investigation, laboratory capacity, and mosquito control and monitoring. It added that it will also support participation in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry to monitor pregnant women with the virus and their infants, as well as Zika-related activities in U.S.-Mexico border states.

The virus has been linked to cases of microcephaly, a severe birth defect characterized by small heads and brains.

All confirmed Zika cases in the U.S. have involved people who'd been infected in countries where the virus is spreading, though the CDC is now investigating the possibility a case in Florida may have been locally transmitted. There have been 73 travel-related cases in Texas, 21 in Harris County.

The $1.5 million to be awarded to Houston represents the most the CDC is giving to any city or territory, though it is conceivable a state could allot that much to a local health department. Florida will get $5.6 million, for instance. Texas will get $564,000.
A Houston businessman will spend 10 years in prison for his role in scheme to funnel cutting edge restricted microelectronics to the Russian military.

Alexander Fishenko, 50, also was found guilty of acting as an agent of the Russian government, money laundering and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Thursday.
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A shift supervisor suspected of stealing nearly $120,000 from an Austin Chick-fil-A over a three year period was arrested Thursday and charged with theft, according to an arrest warrant.

Justin Felder, a 27-year-old formerly employed at the food chain's 13201 FM 620 road location, is accused of making 246 refunds to his personal bank account from October 13, 2011 to June 26, 2016, the document said. He is charged with theft exceeding $100,000, a second-degree felony.

RELATED: Daughter of former TAN director charged with theft

According to the affidavit, Felder made the refunds on a cashless register intended only for taking orders in the drive-thru window.

The refunds totaled $119,003.29 and went undetected until a 2013 investigation into an unrelated incident alerted a Chick-fil-A operations director to abnormalities in financial reports, according to the affidavit.

During the investigation into the other incident, the location's operations director found a large refund for $299.85, but couldn't recall a purchase of that size coming in.

RELATED: South Texas preacher arrested on theft charge, accused of not returning rental car

Felder, who was the manager on duty when the refund was made, was questioned about the amount by the operations director since the refund was made on the cashless register and he told the director "there is no money, it was credited to my bank card."

The director alerted authorities and after further investigation into Felder's subpoenaed bank records, investigators found that discrepancies in financial reports matched the amount credited to Felder's accounts, the affidavit said.

RELATED: Ex-Comal ISD administrator charged with theft, money laundering of thousands in district funds

When Felder was confronted, he allegedly told the franchise owners and director he used two different Visa debit cards to ring up fictitious refunds and then credit the refunds to his account.

Online records show Felder is at the Williamson County Jail. It's unclear what his bond is currently set at.

MMedina@mySA.com



Twitter: @MariahMedinaaa
AUSTIN -- Debate over whether to approve a controversial Mexican-American history book for Texas public school students drew tears from a member of the State Board of Education Friday as she urged colleagues to reject the text.

Erika Beltran, a Democrat member from Fort Worth and daughter of immigrants, tearfully urged members at the regular meeting Friday to consider what it would be like as a Mexican-American student reading derogatory and offensive language about their heritage.

"I'm asking to pull on your heartstrings and putting (sic) yourself in the shoes of a Mexican-American student whose parents, like myself, whose parents have been hardworking," she said as her voice quivered. "In just the excerpts that I've seen, I can't imagine being a child and seeing that language in front of me. And so, as we prepare for this conversation, I just urge you to think about the kids in our public school system that we already, we all know, are mostly Hispanic students."

READ MORE: The most controversial excerpts from a proposed Mexican American textbook in Texas

The State Board of Education expects to decide in November whether to approve "Mexican-American Heritage," a history textbook scholars say is offensive and plagued with errors. The text refers to Mexicans as "lazy" with a do-it-tomorrow attitude and Latino history experts say the book whitewashes Mexican-American contributions to society, plays down the role of slavery during the Civil War and and suggests the framers of the U.S. Constitution never intended the separation of church and state to become a key constitutional protection.

Marisa Perez, a Democratic board member from San Antonio, said the board should dump the book and look for texts that can be tailored to students in K-12.

"It's concerning to me that something like this would enter a classroom," Perez said. "Hopefully, this book gets voted down. I mean, that's the direction I'm going and my mind's not changing on that."

READ MORE: Mexican American textbook incites controversy

The State Board of Education will hear testimony in September on the nearly-500-page book, the lone text proposed to answer the call for Mexican-American history books this year. A final decision by the board is expected in November. Texas public schools are not limited to books from the board's approved list.

Just more than half of Texas'5.2 million public school students are Hispanic, according to the Texas Education Agency.

The book's publisher is Momentum Instruction, a company led by former State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, who has opposed the teaching the separation of church and state and called the public school system "tyrannical" and a "tool for perversion."

READ MORE: Coalition, professors demand state board dump Hispanic American textbook

Calls to Momentum Instruction were not returned.

Board members refrained from discussing the merits of the book, but several weighed in on the debate to come. While the State Board of Education hears a lot of complaints about bias or bad taste in textbooks, the board's job is to judge factual accuracy and whether the book aligns with state standards, said Thomas Ratliff, a Republican member from Mount Pleasant.

"There are times when inaccurate or misleading comments can rise to the level of a factual error," Ratliff said. "We can't look at whether it's a racist comment or a comment in poor taste. It's a factual error or not."

Discussion about the textbook was sparked by public comment at the meeting from Velma Ybarra, a member of Hispanics Organized for Political Education, who is pushing for the board to reject what she described as a derogatory text.

"If we consider the strife among racial groups and economic groups in this country and throughout the world, it behooves us to grab this opportunity to allow kids to learn with scholarly work about themselves so we respect one another, period," she said.

Four of the board's five Democrats spoke out against the textbook Friday, as did one Republican. Democrats are outnumbered on the board 10-5.

"I'm standing with my Hispanic friends. I'm not going to support anything that is that biased and hurtful to other people, and inaccurate," said Patricia Hardy, a Republican from Fort Worth. "But the thing about it is, the media makes it sound like this is something that the State Board of Education already supported and given its approval on, and we certainly have not."
A motor home was destroyed by a fire near Blue Springs this week.

The Gage County Sheriffs Department was dispatched to the scene of a vehicle on fire Tuesday near South 63rd and East Maple roads, east of Blue Springs.

The Blue Springs Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the scene and extinguished the fire. The vehicle, a 1988 Honey motor home, was destroyed by the fire, with an estimated damage valued at $8,500.

An investigator from the Gage County Sheriffs Office at the scene requested assistance from the Nebraska State Fire Marshals Office.

The Nebraska State Fire Marshals Office is reviewing the investigator's reports to possibly determine a cause of the fire and where in the vehicle the fire started.

Three witnesses who were driving in the area called 911 to report the fire and reported seeing large flames coming from the vehicle, according to a press release.

The damaged vehicle had been parked at that location for at least three days and the owner, Janelle Hurley, stated she had been having mechanical problems with the motor home.

The motor home had been parked along the roadside and not in operation when the fire started. No injuries were reported.
-- TEXAS REVIEWS DONALD: Speech wins over Texas delegates, by the Houston Chronicles Mike Ward

"I see new hope for America after hearing that speech," said William Harrison, a delegate from Stanford. "It was good for Texas. He said he will support the oil and gas industry and other segments of our economy. It also had a lot of common sense in it, which I liked."

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who earlier had predicted the Texas delegation would be at least 85 percent solidly behind Trump, said after the speech that he thought that figure was "now more like 95 percent."

"I was surprised at how great it was ... because it was probably the best speech I've ever heard," he said. "He mixed humor with humanity and humility. He hit every point, from serious to detailed to presidential to likeable. It was a long speech and he kept the enthusiasm level up through the entire speech."

-- His Tone Dark, Donald Trump Takes G.O.P. Mantle, by The New York Times Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin

Mr. Trump also challenged Republican orthodoxy as he promised to end multilateral trade deals and limit American intervention in global crises. He denounced 15 years of wars in the Middle East  a rebuke of his partys last president, George W. Bush  and pledged to help union members, coal miners and other low-wage Americans who have historically supported Democrats.

These are the forgotten men and women of our country, said Mr. Trump, a billionaire with a mixed record of job creation and layoffs. People who work hard but no longer have a voice  I am your voice.

-- Angry delegates question Cruz's political future after speech, by the Houston Chronicles Kevin Diaz and Mike Ward

Some analysts say it was a risky gesture of defiance of Trump, who told an RNC luncheon on Thursday that he knew the speech would offer no endorsement. He said he let Cruz go forward with it anyway, according to an official who was present, because canceling the Texan's appearance would have caused a bigger media flap.

-- Making GOP history, Trump vows to protect LGBTQ community, by the APs Josh Lederman

The unequivocal appeal for a more inclusive tone is likely to give Trump's fellow Republicans permission to embrace an issue resonating deeply with a younger generation of voters from all sides of the political spectrum. It also puts Trump squarely at odds with the party platform adopted just three days earlier at his own nominating convention.

In another Republican first, an openly gay speaker acknowledged his sexuality Thursday from the podium  and put fellow Republicans on the spot by saying he disagreed with parts of the platform. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, said only Trump was being honest about how fake culture wars distract from America's economic decline.

I am proud to be gay, Thiel declared. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.

-- Trumps RNC address: Fact or fiction? by Politico

Untrue: Hillary Clinton proposes admitting new Syrian refugees despite the fact that theres no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from.

Technically right . . . but highly misleading: Nearly four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African American youth are not employed. 2 million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.

-- On Ted Cruz: be a cheerleader or vote your conscience? by the Chronicles Mike Ward Sondra Ziegler, a Cruz delegate from Lubbock: "There is so much pressure to pick up a pom pom and become a cheerleader for Trump. A lot of us are grappling with the same issue (as Cruz): How to support a man who we couldn't in good conscience support as a Republican, if he weren't the nominee."

-- Geraldine Sam, a Texas alternate delegate and former mayor of LaMarque: "I came to this convention as a Cruz delegate. But your word is your bond, and I am very disappointed that he didn't keep his word with the pledge to support the nominee. If you cannot be a person of your word, then you lied to me. He lied to me. He's hurt Cruz. I have lost all respect for him."

SPEED READ

Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation, Austin American-Statesman

Cruz makes a career out of throwing elbows, Houston Chronicle

Federal judge lays blueprint for remedies in Texas voter ID case, San Antonio Express-News

Former jailer admitted falsifying log in Sandra Bland's death, lawyer says, Houston Chronicle

How social media helped, hurt police during Dallas ambush, other crises, Dallas Morning News

Up to 1,700 votes unaccounted for in close Texas House primary race, Dallas Morning News

Pressure is rising to end system that allows disabled workers to be paid pennies per hour, Houston Chronicle

CAPITOL DAYBOOK: No meetings scheduled

RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

-- Republicans rip Trump over NATO plan, by Politicos Nahal Toosi

"I disagree with that," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was in Cleveland, said of Trump's comments. "NATO is the most important military alliance in world history. I want to reassure our NATO allies that if any of them get attacked, we'll be there to defend them.

-- Mark Cuban: Trump's 'dream scenario' is to lose election, boost net worth, by CNNs Jackie Wattles

"He would be a former candidate who has a winning and compelling story. He may even get sympathy from people. That would be Huuuge for him. His brand would lose the negativity. He could do anything he wanted in business," Cuban wrote.

-- Tim Kaine Seems Likely for Hillary Clintons No. 2, but Liberals Balk, by The New York Times Amy Chozick

Liberals say they are concerned about Mr. Kaines positions on global trade deals and Wall Street regulation. He has been an outspoken advocate of free trade and has defended the North American Free Trade Agreement, which many voters in Rust Belt states blame for the loss of manufacturing jobs to Mexico. He voted in support of fast track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that President Obama has championed.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
The executive director of the state's labor union has warned the Department of Correctional Services that a proposed plan to offer voluntary 12-hour shifts to security staff at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution must be negotiated.

Corrections Director Scott Frakes announced Tuesday a couple of pilot projects that would affect staffing, overtime, engagement and safety at Tecumseh and the Nebraska State Penitentiary, beginning in October.

At Tecumseh, Frakes said, the department planned to move away from 12-hour emergency staffing and mandatory overtime that has been used since the Mother's Day riot in 2015, and allow protective services staff to opt for 12-hour or 8-hour shifts.

At the penitentiary in Lincoln, the department would create sergeant supervisors to reduce the high numbers of staff serving under lieutenants.

Mike Marvin said Thursday he had exchanged a string of frustrating emails with Frakes, telling him that NAPE/AFSCME had received a ruling in 2013 from the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations on the issue of implementing a new shift pilot program without first bargaining with the union.

On Thursday, Marvin told Frakes if he tries to implement any plan without negotiating it, the union will file a prohibited practice charge with the Commission of Industrial Relations.

Frakes said Thursday he was moving forward with the work needed to develop the pilot projects.

"And I will not engage represented employees in the planning process, as I stated to Mr. Marvin," he said.

Marvin said that in April Frakes was given a proposal that would have established a pilot alternate shift at Tecumseh. It contained a proposal on female-only positions at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women at York, but Marvin said Frakes would only talk about the alternate shifts.

"If he had been willing to come to an agreement, the membership would have already voted whether or not to agree," Marvin said in a Facebook post.

Marvin received a letter from Frakes, written Wednesday, saying that Frakes takes the quality of life and engagement concerns of Corrections employees seriously and he intends to do all he can to address them. Officers have told him the current shift scheduling makes it hard for them to find a balance in work and home life.

"Nebraska Corrections employees will be the biggest beneficiaries of any changes," Frakes said in the letter. "The pilot should demonstrate how 12-hour shifts can be utilized effectively, and would assist in transitioning from the emergency staffing schedule currently in place at the facility."

Frakes stressed that no scheduling changes were imminent, and the management team is still exploring how the pilot would be implemented.

"I'm hopeful that NAPE leadership will support its members' best interests and join in our management team's good-faith effort to address the concerns of our employees," Frakes said.

Marvin reminded Frakes about the Commission of Industrial Relations decision, which ordered the department to cease and desist from unilaterally implementing a pilot scheduling program without first bargaining.

"If he tries to implement it," Marvin said Thursday, "we'll file in the CIR and get an order to stop again."

All he has to do, Marvin said, is sit down and negotiate in good faith, and then the union would put it out to the membership and see if they want it.

"We have put it on the table for the last six years," he said, "but they don't want to give anything for it. They want to dictate everything. They don't want to have any back and forth on it."
Traubels Popcorn Stand hit an impressive milestone Wednesday afternoon. At about 3:30 p.m., a purchase from Beatrice resident Andrea Berry put the stand at over $100,000 in sales.

The popcorn stand, an exact replica of a stand of the same name started in 1937, has been reopened for business since 2014.

I think everybody was really surprised by how quickly it took to reach $100,000, said Connie Hartig, who works for Community Possibilities, the group in charge of the stand, and was one of the leaders in trying to get the popcorn stand up and running.

Traubels had been a staple in Beatrice for 50 years before shutting down in 1987. The original stand was donated to the Gage County Historical Society in the late 80s by the Beatrice High School Class of 1949. Community Possibilities revived the old memories and made the replica now standing at Fifth Street with the help of donations from those who wanted to see it return to Beatrice.

Hartig said that people who remember the stand from back in the day will still come and share memories of how they used to visit the same stand decades ago.

We have so many of those stories, she said. Everybody seems very passionate about it. I think its just a memory that has been brought back to life.

What sets the popcorn stand apart is that there is no hired staff assigned to sell the popcorn each day. Community Possibilities allows anyone to run the popcorn stand, as long as it's for nonprofit purposes, Hartig said.

Seventy percent of the sales go to whoever is running the stand at the time. It could be Mosaic, which helps those with intellectual disabilities, it could be teens raising funds for college, or even a person who wants to raise money to fly to New York.

Out of the $100,000 of popcorn we have sold, $88,000 has been paid out to those running the stand, so 70 percent may be a little low Hartig said.

She said it's rewarding to see how popular the stand has become, and that people have even driven from Lincoln to check it out.

In celebration of the $100,000 sale, customer Andrea Berry received a gift bag and 15 tubs of popcorn to use at her discretion.

Traubels Popcorns hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with hours extended until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. The stand is also available for fundraising events for non-profit organizations.
It is remarkable how little black lives matter when they have not been taken by a police officer. The mainstream media is foaming at the mouth over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps warnings about rising crime during his Thursday night convention speech. Trump pointed out that homicides were up nearly 17 percent in the largest 50 cities. (The latest research actually shows a nearly 17 percent increase in the 56 largest cities). There have been more than 2,000 shooting victims this year in Chicago, he said, and more than 3,600 killed in Chicago since President Obama took office.

The overwhelming majority of the victims in this post-Ferguson shooting and homicide surge have been black. In Baltimore, for example, 45 people were killed in July 2015 alone; 43 of them were black. Baltimores per capita murder rate was the highest in its history in 2015. In Chicago, 2,460 blacks were shot in 2015lethally or non-lethallyor nearly seven blacks a day. By contrast, 78 whites were shot in Chicago, or one every 4.6 days. Twelve cities with large black populations saw murders rise anywhere from 54 percentin the case of Washington, D.C.to 90 percent, in Cleveland.

Trumps concern about rising crime is therefore not a concern about white victims and the loss of white life. Rather, it is a concern about black lives. As Trump said: [Y]oung Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson . . . have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child America. Hint to the media: He was referring to black children in those cities, such as the ten children under the age of ten killed in Baltimore last year; the nine-year-old girl fatally shot while doing homework on her mothers bed in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2015; and the nine-year-old boy in Chicago lured into an alley and killed by his fathers gang enemies in November 2015.

And yet the media is twisting itself into knots trying to downplay and trivialize the crime increase. Isnt it white Republicans (and, of course, the cops) who are supposed to be indifferent to black lives? The Washington Post and Vox.com rushed out fact checkers to recycle many of the failed arguments against what I have called the Ferguson effectthe crime increase resulting from cops pulling back from proactive policing. Yes, crime is up, these journalists say, but its not as bad as it was years ago. Even if the nationwide murder rate increased by 17 percent in 2015, that rate would remain far, far below the peaks of the 1960s and '70s and below any period in the '90s, argues Vox. But a crime decrease that took two decades to achieve is not going to be reversed completely in two years. If present trends continue, however, we could see that unprecedented and unpredicted crime decline of 50 percent disappear in a few more years.

Vox compares the 1980 murder rate with the much lower 2014 murder rate. But the Ferguson effect kicked in only after the death of Michael Brown in August 2014. The second half of 2014 reversed the crime decline of the years first half, but the full Ferguson effect showed up in 2015 and continued at least into the first quarter of 2016, with homicides up 9 percent and non-fatal shootings up 21 percent.

Confronted with the Chicago bloodshed, Vox changes the subject to Americas high rate of gun ownership. But the number of guns has not changed since Ferguson. What has changed is the willingness of young gangbangers to carry and use guns now that officers are making so many fewer pedestrian stops90 percent fewer in Chicago this year, for example.

Vox also argues that there is no evidence that this administrations rollback of criminal enforcement caused violent crime to rise in Chicago (or, presumably, elsewhere). The Washington Post likewise challenges Trumps ascription of the violent crime increase to the Obama administration, pointing out that policing is mainly a local phenomenon. Here, Trumps critics are on more solid ground. The real action when it comes to policing and crime is at the local level. The federal government has little role in local crime-fighting, except for federal-local task forces on drug trafficking. To be sure, the Obama administrations drive to slap an unprecedented number of consent decrees and federal monitors on police departments has created enormous headaches and wasteful paperwork challenges. At the margins, those consent decrees could have had an impact on policing and crime, as a recent study found. When the administrations push for bogus implicit bias training kicks in, officers will be diverted from desperately needed tactical training and time spent fighting crime on the streets.

Yet, while there was no affirmative, policy-driven federal rollback of criminal enforcement, a rollback of enforcement at the local level has in fact occurred, with officers backing off of proactive policing. On that front, Trump got the causation absolutely right. The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone, he said.

President Obamas relentless accusations that cops are lethally biased, his embrace of Black Lives Matter, and the medias amplification of that mendacious movements lies about the police have led to the drop in proactive enforcement and the resulting increase in crime. Trumps recognition of the role that official rhetoric plays in determining facts on the ground is sophisticated. And his unapologetic alarum about the rising threat to law and order signified by the deliberate attacks on police officers is welcome.

Vox tries to downplay those attacks by noting that all on-duty deathsincluding those from traffic accidentsare down 1 percent. But the Black Lives Matter hatred is not causing more car crashes; it is inspiring people to kill cops. Lethal shootings of cops are up 84 percent this year, according to Voxs source, and up 68 percent according to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Those are chilling numbers. Not to worry, says Vox, on-duty deaths remain rare, and 2016s increase in gunfire deaths so far came after decades of decline.

If on-duty deaths remain rare, so do police shootings of unarmed black males. In fact, a police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. And the fact that 2016s increase in gunfire deaths so far came after decades of decline is precisely what makes the increase so striking. That it reverses decades of decline is not a point in Black Lives Matters favor.

Not enough attention has been paid to the portent that is this years string of attacks on police officersnot only in Dallas and Baton Rouge but also in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, Chicago, and Tennessee. We could be seeing the start of not just a war on cops, but more widespread racial violence.

Trumps speech was a bold and important shift in the prevailing discourse about policing and crime. It couldnt have represented a sharper distinction from the Obama-Clinton message, relentlessly delivered, that our criminal justice system and our nations police are infected with racial bias. Trump is absolutely right that law and order is at stake. The elites hear law and order rhetoric as code words for racism. They are the ones, however, who are turning their eyes away from the black bodies piling up on the streets.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Haunting this years presidential contest is the sense that the U.S. government no longer belongs to the people and no longer represents them. And this uneasy feeling is not misplaced. It reflects the real state of affairs.

We have lost the government we learned about in civics class, with its democratic election of representatives to do the voters will in framing laws, which the president vows to execute faithfully, unless the Supreme Court rules them unconstitutional. That small government of limited powers that the Founders designed, hedged with checks and balances, hasnt operated for a century. All its parts still have their old names and appear to be carrying out their old functions. But in fact, a new kind of government has grown up inside the old structure, like those parasites hatched in another organism that grow by eating up their host from within, until the adult creature bursts out of the hosts carcass. This transformation is not an evolution but a usurpation.

What has now largely displaced the Founders government is whats called the Administrative Statea transformation premeditated by its main architect, Woodrow Wilson. The thin-skinned, self-righteous college-professor president, who thought himself enlightened far beyond the citizenry, dismissed the Declaration of Independences inalienable rights as so much outmoded nonsense, and he rejected the Founders clunky constitutional machinery as obsolete. (See Its Not Your Founding Fathers Republic Any More, Summer 2014.) What a modern country needed, he said, was a living constitution that would keep pace with the fast-changing times by continual, Darwinian adaptation, as he called it, effected by federal courts acting as a permanent constitutional convention.

Modernity, Wilson thought, demanded efficient government by independent, nonpartisan, benevolent, hyper-educated experts, applying the latest scientific, economic, and sociological knowledge to industrial capitalisms unprecedented problems, too complex for self-governing free citizens to solve. Accordingly, he got Congress to create executive-branch administrative agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, to do the job. During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt proliferated such agencies, from the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Housing Administration to the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to put the New Deal into effect. Before they could do so, though, FDR had to scare the Supreme Court into stretching the Constitutions Commerce Clause beyond recognition, putting the federal government in charge of all economic activity, not just interstate transactions. He also had to pressure the justices to allow Congress to delegate legislative powerwhich is, in effect, what the lawmakers did by setting up agencies with the power to make binding rules. The Constitution, of course, vests all legislative power in Congress, empowering it to make laws, not to make legislators.

But the Administrative States constitutional transgressions cut deeper still. If Congress cant delegate its legislative powers, it certainly cant delegate judicial powers, which the Constitution gives exclusively to the judiciary. Nevertheless, after these administrative agencies make rules like a legislature, they then exercise judicial authority like a court by prosecuting violations of their edicts and inflicting real criminal penalties, such as fines and cease-and-desist orders. As they perform all these functions, they also violate the principle of the separation of powers, which lies at the heart of our constitutional theory (senselessly curbing efficiency, Wilson thought), as well as the due process of law, for they trample the citizens Fifth Amendment right not to lose his property unless indicted by a grand jury and tried by a jury of his peers, and they search a citizen or a companys private papers or premises, without bothering to get judge-issued subpoenas or search warrants based on probable cause, flouting the Fourth Amendment. They can issue waivers to their rules, so that the law is not the same for all citizens and companies but is instead an instrument of arbitrary power. FDR himself ruefully remarked that he had expanded a fourth branch of government that lacked constitutional legitimacy. Not only does it reincarnate the arbitrary power of the Stuarts tyrannical Star Chamber, but also it doesnt even meet the minimal conditions of liberty that Magna Carta set forth 801 years ago.

Adding insult to injury, Wilson, his allies, and their current followers call themselves progressives, a fatuous boast implying that they are the embodiments and chosen instruments of the spirit of an ever-improving, irresistible future. In tune with the German idealist philosophy that Wilson and his circle studied, they claim to be marching toward an as-yet-unrealized goal of human perfection. But that perfection, the German philosophers believed, would look something like Prussias enlightened despotism. For Americans to think that it is progress to move from the Founders revolutionary achievementa nation of free citizens, endowed with natural rights, living under laws that they themselves have made, pursuing their own vision of happiness in their own way and free to develop as fully as they can whatever talent or genius lies within themto a regime in which individuals derive such rights as they have from a government superior to them is contemptible. How is a return to subjection an advance on freedom? No lover of liberty should ever call such left-wing statism progressive. In historical terms, this elevation of state power over individual freedom is not even liberal but quite the reverse.

As these agencies have metastasized, they have borne out not a single premise that justified their creation, and their increasingly glaring failure has drawn citizens angry attention to them. Expert? As a New Deal congressman immediately recognized with shock, many of those who staffed the Administrative State were kids just out of law school, with zero real-world experience or technical knowledge. Efficient? Can-do America, which built the Empire State Building in 11 months and ramped up airplane production during World War II from 2,000 in 1939 to nearly 100,000 in 1944, now takes years of bureaucratic EPA busywork to repair a bridge or lay a pipeline, and who knows how many businesses never expand or even start because the maze of government regulation is too daunting and costly to navigate? Only last year, EPA experts fecklessly stood by as workers under their supervision accidentally dumped 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater into the Colorado River, and the agency vouchsafed not a word of warning to downstream Colorado and New Mexico officials for an entire day before the poisonous, fluorescent-orange flood hit them. Over at Veterans Affairs, those whove fought for their country die in droves while waiting for medical care. But whats the problem? asks agency head Robert MacDonald blithely. After all, at ever-popular Disneyland, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line?

Non-political? Ask Lois Lerner at the Internal Revenue Service. Oh wait: she pleaded the Fifth Amendmentand her boss, John Koskinen, simply ignores Congresss orders, even as more than 2,000 of his enforcement agents have acquired military-grade weaponry, among 200,000 of such administrative-agency officers now similarly equipped with lethal arms, presumably for coercion of the citizens they supposedly serve. Or theres the Federal Elections Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, lackeys of President Obama and his ultra-partisan agenda.

Protecting citizens from industrial capitalisms giant corporations? Where were the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight as the mortgage bubble blew up in 2008, nearly taking the whole financial system with it and producing the worst economic bust since the Great Depression, which even today has sunk the labor-force participation rate and hiked the suicide rate among working-class men and women to record levels? Moreover, from the establishment of the first administrative agencythe Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, essentially designed to create shared railroad cartelsthese agencies have been key instruments of crony capitalism, which today often takes the form of senators and congressmen pressuring agencies for rule changes or waivers to benefit their contributors, usually at the expense of their competitors as well as the public, as the author of the recent Confessions of Congressman X complains of his fellow legislative puppets. Little wonder that todays Americans think that such people dont represent them. Pollsters report that trust in government is at its lowest level ever, with only 19 percent expecting government to do the right thing, according to last years Gallup and Pew polls.

Ensuring the citizens health and safety? Where is the Food and Drug Administration as counterfeit medicines and medical supplies from China infiltrate our hospitals? As for the infamously dysfunctional Transportation Security Administration, its Keystone Kops regularly reported inability to spot journalists carrying banned weapons onto airplanes, while they are too busy fondling travelers private parts or undressing grannies, is a standing national jokeon us. We lost our constitutional safeguards for this?

FDR spewed out his agencies in a try anything spirit to cure a Depression that his predecessors misguided palliatives had worsened, and debate still surges over whether the New Deal agencies did harm or good, putting aside their doubtful legitimacy. But the majority of Americans at the time gave the president credit for good intentions. By contrast, many voters give Barack Obama no such credit for his analogous response to the Great Recession. They see it as a cynically calculated ploy to extend governments power over the people, especially given the White House chief of staffs crack that a president should never let a good crisis go to waste. So on the pretext of addressing the financial crisis, the administration partially socialized American medicine with legislation that only Democrats voted for, without bothering to read it, and that citizens who opposed the measurestill a solid majority of those polledsaw as a kind of coup detat, framed with utter irresponsibility and ignoring the scary financial mess. As happened during the New Deal, a timid Supreme Court found the act constitutional only by the politically driven legerdemain frequent in that institutions checkered history. It struck many as flimflam, not government by consent.

The result was a spectacular expansion of the Administrative State, with some 150 new agencies and commissions created; no one knows the exact number. And these agencies purposely removed the Administrative State even further from government by the people. One agency, the Independent Payment Advisory Boardthe so-called death panelis so democratically unaccountable that Congress can only abolish it by a three-fifths vote in both houses within a seven-month period next year. After that, the law bars Congress from altering any of the boards edicts, a provision as far from democratic self-government as you can get.

When the administration finally confronted the financial crisis, lengthened by Obamacares disincentives to hiring, its reflex response was to expand the Administrative State still further with the Dodd-Frank Act, named for its two legislative sponsors, both of whom had been in bed with the mortgage racket, one figuratively and one literally. Whether it solved the problem is dubious. What is certain is that it is as undemocratic as Obamacare, with its Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose budget Congress cant control, its Financial Stability Oversight Council, whose rulings no court may review, and its army of regulators occupying the big banks and squeezing multimillion-dollar penalties out of CEOs clinging to their supersize compensation, regardless of what happens to the stockholders. Meanwhile, the opaque Federal Housing Finance Agency, formed during the crisis to salvage the misbegotten mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, seems bent on nationalizing permanently this sizable chunk of the economy, putting the government in charge of citizens housing as well as their health care.

As for the stimulus that was supposed to give a Keynesian boost to the economy: since you cant prove a negative, no one can show that if all that money had stayed in the private economy, it would have created more jobs and economic growth than the economically anemic Obama era has done. What unemployed or underemployed workers saw, though, is that a good portion of stimulus money went to protect the jobs of public employees, whose welfare evidently trumps that of the citizens whom they supposedly serve. Coal miners saw that, even as the administration aimed to kill their jobs, its stimulus shoveled out hundreds of millions of dollars to now-defunct Solyndra and other nonviable, crony-capitalist green energy companies, supposed solutions to a global-warming crisis that many think a hoax, though some two dozen public officials seem keen to suppress, Inquisition-style, the very utterance of that thought. And voters noticed that Americas three highest-income counties are in the Washington suburbs that house the federal governments recession-proof functionaries. (See Hail Columbia!, Winter 2013.)

Unease over illegal immigration also has stoked todays fear that the government no longer belongs to the people, and its important to understand the separate but mutually reinforcing ways that it has done so. Once again, President Obama has made a bad situation worsethis time, by his contemptuous refusal to execute the laws faithfully. His catch-and-release policy for illegal border-crossers, as well as his ban on deporting young aliens brought here by their illegal-immigrant parents, are imperial, antidemocratic edicts that might have sparked impeachment proceedings, had not Congresss silly move to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about his sex games with an intern tainted that weapon for years to come. The result of Obamas diktat, as contrary to the spirit of the Founders Constitution as is the Administrative State, is that law-abiding taxpayers must pay for the kids welfare support, health care, and schoolingas they already do for anchor babies born to mothers who have sneaked over the U.S. border for the purpose of having a child eligible for child-only welfare benefits, scarcely less than ordinary welfare payments and vastly more than the income of Central American peasant families. No American voted to incur these costs, which, if current trends continue, are likely to persist for several generations of such families, so they amount to taxation without representation as naked as George IIIs.

As for the illegals who work, often for long hours at low pay, off the books: because immigrants, 13 percent of the population, hold 17 percent of the jobsand no one knows the percentage of workers who are here illegallyjobless working-class citizens have understandably concluded that a lawless government, by countenancing such cheap labor, is taking the bread out of their mouths. Should they eat cake instead?

Americas highest-income counties are in the suburbs that house Washingtons recession-proof functionaries.

What citizens want to know is that, of all the worlds people who seek to live in America, our government will admit those who come legally, whose families will not harm us, and who will add to the wealth of the nation, not reap where they have not sown. After all, public safetynot clean energy or national health careis governments purpose. Nevertheless, Mexican criminals really have infiltrated the country and really have killed Americans, inevitably, under the administrations anything-goes immigration stance. Further, its no comfort to any American who has suffered loss from an Islamist terror attack within our bordersfrom Ground Zero and Fort Hood to San Bernardino and Orlandothat such incidents pose no threat to our existence as a nation, as the president has said by way of reassurance, while refusing to call such outrages by their right name. How many citizens would have to die in a dirty-bomb attack in Grand Central Terminal for such events to strike him as a threat to the nations existence?

The question of providing a path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal aliens already here is also germane to the debate about whom the U.S. government serves and to whom it belongs. Talk radios Rush Limbaugh jokes that illegal aliens is a politically incorrect term; we must say undocumented Democrats instead. But its a joke with a barb, for no one can doubt that these 12 million, if they could vote, would vote for the Democratic program of an ever-larger, richly paid government extracting ever-larger transfer payments from productive workers to the dependent poorJames Madisons definition of the tyranny of the majority in Federalist 10. With black poverty and exclusion steadily ameliorating, thanks to decades of striving by well-intentioned Americans of all raceseven though Obamas exattorney general Eric Holder devoted his tenure to denying this plain truththe Democratic Party needs a new class of victims to justify its helping agenda and its immense cadre of well-paid government helpers. Central American peasants fill the bill.

Formerly, our open economy drew the enterprising and energetic to these shores, and our lack of a public safety net, with only private ethnic and religious charities to help the unfortunate, meant that those who couldnt contribute to the U.S. economy went home. But today, when we have a vast welfare state that didnt exist during earlier waves of immigration, the mothers of anchor babies come for handouts, and even the children of hardworking legal Hispanic immigrants end up on the welfare rolls at troublesomely high rates. In addition, our showering of self-proclaimed refugees with welfare benefits, which attracts the shiftless rather than the enterprising, only compounds the government-sustained dependency problemdependency upon taxpayers who didnt choose this particular philanthropy.

The phalanx of privately supported settlement houses and other institutions that met the great immigration wave around the turn of the twentieth century, along with the public school system, aimed to Americanize the new arrivalsteaching them our language, manners, and customs, and especially our republican civic ethic. Culture, after all, is as important an element of national identity as political institutions. To become an American in those days meant little more than learning English and subscribing to a broadly shared creed of self-reliance, self-government, self-improvement, and allegiance to a tolerant nation that most people agreed was unique in the freedom and opportunity it affordedas well as in its readiness to confer citizenship on newcomers who almost universally desired it. But todays legal Hispanic immigrants often dont apply for American citizenship, or retain dual nationalities: Americanization often is not high on their agendas.

Moreover, our new doctrine of multiculturalism gives todays immigrants nothing to assimilate to, since current intellectual fashionset by the universities, Hollywood, and the mainstream mediacelebrates everything that makes us different rather than the creed that once made one nation out of many individuals. And multiculturalisms accompanying creed of victimology encourages dependency rather than self-reliance. Who are the victimizers of illegal Hispanic aliens? According to todays politically correct progressivism, it is the neocolonial United States that has exploited the Third Worlds natural resources, shored up its ruling oligarchies, and subverted its incipient democratic governments. And then it further victimizes them with racism when they try to escape to this country.

Deference to the greater wisdom of government, which Wilsonian progressivism deems a better judge of what the era needs and what the people really want than the people themselves, has been silently eroding our unique culture of enterprise, self-reliance, enlightenment, and love of liberty for decades. But if we cease to enshrine American exceptionalism at the heart of our cultureif we set equal value on such Third World cultural tendencies as passive resignation, fatalism, superstition, devaluation of learning, resentment of imaginary plots by the powerful, and a belief that gratification deferred is gratification forgonethe exceptionalism of our institutions becomes all the more precarious.

Supercharging American anger over illegal immigration and its consequences is the politically correct ban on openly discussing it, with even the most reasoned reservation dismissed as racism and yahooism. And political correctness generates its own quantum of anger among citizens, who think of freedom of speech and debate as central to American exceptionalism. But elite culture stigmatizes plain speaking, so that now a rapist or a murderer is a person who committed a crime or an individual who was incarcerated, says the Obama Department of Justice, or, according to the latest humbug from the Department of Education, a justice-involved individual. Implicit in these euphemisms is the theory that society, not the criminal, is to blame for crime, a long-exploded idea aimed at blurring the distinction between right and wrong.

Thats what makes it so disheartening to learn that the University of California has just deemed it a politically incorrect offense to declare America a land of opportunity, so as not to stigmatize those whove failed to seize it. Its disheartening not only because such a retreat from our traditional culture will hold back immigrants, but also because our long cultural unraveling already has damagingly demoralized the native-born working class in the face of economic change. They dimly know that, and part of what makes them so angry is what they have allowed themselves to become.

When Theodore Roosevelt, who unsuccessfully ran against Woodrow Wilson in 1912 on the Progressive Party ticket, first declared his intention to go into politics, his fellow clubmen jeered at him for wanting to associate with the saloon-keepers, horse-car conductors, and other rough and brutal characters running the nations political parties. I answered, recalled TR, that if this were so it merely meant that the people I knew did not belong to the governing class, and that the other people didand that I intended to be one of the governing class. Thats the true voice of progressivism speaking. As the Founders often cautioned, a self-governing republic doesnt have a governing class. Part of Americas current predicament is that it now has such a class, and the American people are very angry about it.

Top Photo: There are good reasons that this is the most rage-fueled American presidential contest in at least half a century. (SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES)
Turkeys president would not be in power today had he succeeded more fully in his efforts to curtail critical media and control online speech. That fact gave a ray of hope to some of his critics that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might realize what saved him and soften his inclination toward censorship. But Erdogan quickly shut the door on such optimism Wednesday with a new crackdown and declaration of a state of emergency.

On the night of last Fridays coup attempt, rebel soldiers took over state broadcaster TRT and forced the anchor to read a statement at gunpoint. But the internet and the mobile network remained under the control of government loyalists. They used a nationwide blitz of SMS messages to mobilize opposition to the coup. Erdogan himself addressed the nation through a Facetime interview broadcast on CNN Turk, a joint venture between Time Warner and Turkeys Dogan Media Groupan organization the Erdogan government has systematically persecuted through massive tax penalties.

In the last five years, Erdogan has led a systematic media crackdown, making Turkey for a time the worlds leading jailer of journalists. He told a CPJ delegation that met him in October 2014 that he is increasingly against the internet every day.

Would his experience during the coup soften these views?

Writing in The New York Times, contributing writer Zeynep Tufekci noted, The role of internet and press freedoms in defeating the coup presents a significant opportunity. Rather than further polarization and painting of all dissent as illegitimate, the government should embrace real reforms and reverse its censorship policies.

Yusuf Muftuoglu, an advisor to former president Abdullah Gul and later to Erdogan, told me, I think his views will gradually soften about the value of the internet. Erdogan is a man who learns from experience, rather than from theory.

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But any hope the Turkish government would tamp down its relentless media crackdown was dashed with Erdogans three month state of emergency, giving him a free hand to make laws without legislative approval or judicial review and suspending constitutional and international legal protections, including those guaranteeing free speech.

In the days following the coup, the Turkish media were not subjected to the same kind of firings, jailings and other pressures as the military, the judiciary, and the academy, but this was likely because the media had already been purged over the years, putting Turkeys once diverse, if polarized, media largely at the service of the government.

The media crackdown in Turkey has responded to different perceived threats at different moments.

In 2012 and 2013, Turkey jailed dozens of journalists linked to a sprawling alleged coup plot called Ergenekon with little evidence and no due process. Journalists sympathetic to the Kurdish cause were also jailed in an effort to force the Kurdish separatists to the negotiating table. Kurdish journalists were released as negotiations moved forward, but rearrested once they collapsed. Today, as conflict rages in Turkeys Southeast, at least 20 remain in jail.

Following the 2013 Gezi Park protest, in which organizers used social media to coordinate action and circulate information outside the traditional media, the government sought to curtail online speech, including through a ban on Twitter

During his first decade in power, Erdogan had the support of the Gulen, or Hizmet, movement led by Fetullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who is living in exile in Pennsylvania. Then in 2013, Gulen split with Erdogan, causing the government to target his movements supporters, especially in the judiciary and media.

In March, after obtaining a court order, the government raided the leading national daily Zaman, along with its sister English language paper Todays Zaman and installed new owners. Hundreds of journalists lost their jobs, and many were forced to leave the country in the face of legal action and death threats. In October, the government orchestrated a takeover of the Koza-Ipek holding group, which it also linked to Gulen. The new owners of Koza-Ipek, which has interests in mining, shut down its media operations which included a popular television station, alleging they were a drag on corporate profits.

In the aftermath of the coup, which Erdogan blamed on Gulen and his followers, government supporters are congratulating themselves on their foresight. This coup justifies the actions taken against the Gulenists from many walks of life, argued Yusuf Muftuoglu. Medias relevance changes with respect to the situation. Had the coup attempt been successful, rest assured that the Gulenist media, if remained untouched, would be the most enthusiastic flag carriers of the junta to rule Turkey.

Following the failed coup attempt, the government shut down at least 25 radio and television broadcasters they alleged were linked to Gulen. Dozens of journalists had their accreditations revoked. Websites, including WikiLeakswhich published leaked government emailswere blocked. Even more ominously, an unverified list of more than 100 journalists that the government planned to arrest began circulating on social media.

The failed coup reaffirmed in the minds of Erdogan and his supporters the relationship between information and power and drove home the importance of government control. While the internet and the remnants of independent media may have helped Erdogan survive the coup attempt, now that he is firmly back in control and Constitutional protections suspended, the media operates at his mercy.

The framework for future repression is simple: For Erdogan, information is a weapon. He will never again allow it to be used against him.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Joel Simon is a fellow at Tow Center for Digital Journalism. His next book is The Infodemic: How Censorship Made the World Sicker and Less Free co-authored with Robert Mahoney.
One of the many unanswered questions surrounding the unsolved D.B. Cooper case appears to have been solved.

A CJR story on Monday attempted to explain how Clyde Jabin, a United Press International reporter in Portland, Oregon, came to identify one of the most famous American criminals as D.B. Cooper on Nov. 24, 1971. That was the day an unidentified man hijacked a Boeing 727 flying from Portland to Seattle. The manwho ultimately parachuted out of the plane with $200,000 and was never seen againhad purchased his Northwest Orient Airlines plane ticket that day under the name Dan Cooper, according to the FBI.

Jabins wire story that night identified the suspect as D.B. Cooper, and the name stuck. To this day, that is how the world refers to the mysterious hijacker. But where did Jabin, who died in 2001, get the initials D.B.? Two theories have endured for the last 45 yearsone involves an error on Jabins part, and the other involves information an FBI agent gave Jabin that turned stale after it hit the wire.

On Tuesday, though, CJR editors received an email from James Long, a retired journalist in Oregon.

It was my mistake, he wrote.

In a subsequent telephone interview, Long claimed responsibility for the error that renamed the alias of the man behind the only unsolved skyjacking in US history.

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Long explained that he was working that day for The Oregon Journal, a now-defunct afternoon daily newspaper in Portland. He had just come into the newsroom when news of a hijacking began to circulate. When he learned it was a Northwest Orient Airlines flight, Long thought of a former co-worker at the paper named Duane Youngbar who had taken a public relations job with the Minnesota-based airline. Long said he had an office telephone number for Youngbar in his Rolodex.

So I called as fast as I could, hoping to get through while every other reporter was piling up in line behind me, he said.

Long said he discussed what happened next with Youngbar years later, and Youngbar did not remember the ensuing conversation. (CJR could not reach Youngbar for comment.) Long claims, though, to have spoken with someone at the airlines headquarters that afternoon. Whoever it was, he said, told him the hijacking suspects last name was Cooper.

Long said that when he asked for a first name things got muddled. He could overhear his source talking with someone else on another telephone line. Also, it was a stormy afternoon in Portland. There were timesthis was onethat reception wasnt great, Long says. This added to the confusion.

He cannot remember how, but he wound up with D.B. Cooper as the suspects name. He guesses he asked the source to spell the name and somehow erroneously landed on the initials.

Long said that when he got off of the phone, deadline was upon him. He turned to his typewriter, wrote what he called a quick and dirty story, and sent it to his editor.

The Oregon Journal was located on the fourth floor of a building in downtown Portland. The same floor housed UPIs bureau. Long said UPI reporters often got stories from The Oregon Journal. He feels sure that as soon as he turned in his story, a reporter from the bureau scooped up his carbon copy and culled information from it for the first wire story on the hijacking. Long said he did not know which UPI reporter was working that afternoon.

It was Jabin.

Long, a respected investigative journalist who retired from The Oregonian in 2003, said he has never tried to hide what happened.

Through the years, whenever the Cooper case would come up in conversation, he would share his connection. Still, he said with a laugh, its not something you want to be remembered for.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

William Browning is a reporter based in Mississippi. He can be reached on Twitter @wtbrowning.
On Thursday morning, Edward Snowden and hardware developer Andrew bunnie Huang unveiled a plan at MIT Media Lab to provide an open source tool that allows journalists to know when their phones are revealing their location. While Snowden has been a constant advocate for freedom of the press since his revelations in 2013, this is the first piece of hardware he has introduced. The paper begins:

Front-line journalists are high-value targets, and their enemies will spare no expense to silence them. Unfortunately, journalists can be betrayed by their own tools. Their smartphones are also the perfect tracking device. Because of the precedent set by the USs third-party doctrine, which holds that metadata on such signals enjoys no meaningful legal protection, governments and powerful political institutions are gaining access to comprehensive records of phone emissions unwittingly broadcast by device owners. This leaves journalists, activists, and rights workers in a position of vulnerability. This work aims to give journalists the tools to know when their smart phones are tracking or disclosing their location when the devices are supposed to be in airplane mode.

The new tool addresses a need among journalists and others for an honest representation of what their devices are doing, and no smartphone currently on the market provides that. When phones are in airplane mode, can they really be trusted to not transmit the journalists location? Journalists are especially vulnerable to malware, they write, because of the range of contacts and sources who send information to them.

The idea behind the hardware is to passively detect the activity of the phones radio emissionsvia WiFi, bluetooth, cellular modem, GPS, and NFCnear-field communication, the vehicle for Apple Pay. The device will involve relatively simple alterations within the smartphone, plus an external battery case that alerts the phones owner to any unwanted radio activity. Snowden and Huang call it an introspection engine, and hope to have a working prototype using the Apple iPhone 6 in the coming year.

A conceptual rendering of a battery case style introspection engine, piggybacked on an iPhone6. Source: Edward Snowden and Bunnie Huang.

But the point isnt that this will be the exact thing that journalists use. I spoke with Susan McGregor, the Assistant Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, who said the report hints at driving change, not only among journalists, but in the smartphone industry:

This isnt like, youre going to be able to buy this in a store, snap it onto your iPhone, and youre done. Somebodys really going to have to open it up and go to town on it. So  its going to be a pretty rarified thing in its current form. But I think the spirit behind it is to say, look, one way forward is for vendors to make it easier to monitor the hardware for traffic on these various radios, and that says to me that [Snowden and Huang are] suggesting this is something that vendors might want to take on.

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When Snowden and Huang say, if phone vendors wanted to support efforts like this, future revisions of phones could break [certain] pins out, they are letting smartphone makers like Apple know what they need.

This is the only first step toward making something that is usable, without being obstructive. Snowden and Huang arent focusing on detecting whether the microphone, for instance, or the camera are on, but they say it will be possible to extend their work to include such detection. Journalists shouldnt have to be cryptographers to be safe, note Snowden and Huang. McGregor agrees: Were not all computer scientists, were not hardware or software experts, we need our devices to do things they dont do.  I think its a really commendable effort and reflects a healthy and promising concern with the issues that real people face with technology.

Back in the newsroom, there are other, somewhat more cumbersome tools that journalists can use to keep metadata secure. One of those tools is SecureDrop, which works via the Tor network to create a secure way for anonymous sources and whistleblowers to reach journalists without disclosing their identity, even to the journalist. Tow fellow Charles Berret spoke to journalists who use it in his recently published Guide to SecureDrop. Even in encrypted email, where the contents of the messages are hidden, the metadatathe sender, the time, the fact of the correspondenceis often enough to figure out the circumstances of communication between a journalist and a source.

While SecureDrop and the introspection engine solve two different problemssecure communication and secure location, McGregor told me, they are both trying to address a need among journalists for practical solutions to what are often theoretical problems.

Not surprisingly, after the Snowden revelations about the extent of government surveillance in 2013, Berret finds that interest in security among journalists went up dramatically. Because SecureDrop connects sources directly to a server at the newsroom, it can be legally beneficial, because it preserves the journalists right to keep his or her sources secret.

A Pew poll from February 2015 found that sixty-four percent of investigative journalists believe that they have been subjected to surveillance by the U.S. government, writes Berret. The same poll found that about half of these journalists had since taken measures to protect sensitive documents they share, and thirty-eight percent had begun to use secure communication tools with their sources.

SecureDrop is now used by over a dozen newsrooms, including The New Yorker, The Intercept, the Washington Post, Gawker, The Globe and Mail, and ProPublica. More than 80 organizations are on the waiting list for SecureDrop. While most of the journalists that Berret spoke with were reluctant, for privacy reasons, to reveal which stories came from SecureDrop tips, all of them confirmed that stories had indeed come in through this route. New Yorker staff writer Amy Davidson described it as a much-needed asset in an age where senders can be traced even when they dont want to be found.

At the moment, SecureDrop, like the introspection engine, takes a great deal of investment to install, and, unlike the introspection engine, to keep up: it is a magnet for all kinds of spam and trolling. But the journalists who use SecureDrop do not seem to be troubled by the large amount of spam that comes in. Even if its not always useful, the journalists that Berret spoke with see SecureDrop as a crucial tool for a healthy and free press.

Despite the fact they require a lot of upfront investment, there is a real need and desire for secure tools. The introspection engine, McGregor said, is a great example of grounding experimental design and research efforts in the needs of a real community.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Nausicaa Renner is digital editor of CJR.
Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Appoints Harman and Poppie to US Central Region Leadership Positions

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions announced that it has strengthened its North American Central Region leadership team with two appointments. Christine Harman joins the company as senior vice president, head Casualty, US Central Region. Gabriel Poppie is named senior vice president, head of Sales Central Region. Both will be based in Chicago, Illinois.

Harman will be responsible for leading the companys Central Region Casualty team and growing its capabilities and revenue in the umbrella and excess liability lines of business. She brings almost 20 years of industry experience including claims, underwriting and team leadership roles at a variety of commercial carriers.

Poppie, who has been a key account manager at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions since 2013, will become head of Sales Central Region. In his new role, he is tasked with generating new business, managing relationships with key regional brokers and driving growth. With over 16 years of industry experience, he is an expert in a wide range of industries and segments and new business origination. Poppie began his career in 2000 with Marsh in St. Louis.

Fox-Foster Joins G2 Insurance Services as Claims Manager

Martin Fox-Foster joined G2 Insurance Services as the companys claims manager. Martin will serve as a key resource to G2 Insurances commercial clients, advocating on their behalf for a wide range of property, casualty, cyber and environmental claims. Utilizing his legal background, he will also provide leadership in conducting in-depth contract and coverage reviews.

Prior to joining G2 Insurance Services, Fox-Foster was assistant vice president and claims advocate ld at Alliant Insurance Services in San Francisco where he provided rigorous client advocacy for complex, high-value claims. He was also an insurance litigation solicitor at Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP, a London-based law firm, where he focused on claims related to property, casualty and professional liability. Fox-Foster received his Graduate Diploma in Law from College of Law, located in London.

He is located in G2 Insurance Services San Francisco office and can be reached at 415-426-6606 and mfoxfoster@G2insurance.com.
Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) released eight separate studies this week that examine the impact of state reforms to the rules for drugs dispensed by doctors from their offices to injured workers. The eight states studied are Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina and Tennessee.

As of June 2016, 20 states have made changes to rules governing the reimbursement for physician-dispensed drugs, said Dongchun Wang, an author of the studies. For the reform states, policymakers want to know three things: (1) did the reforms lead to price reductions for physician-dispensed drugs? (2) did physicians continue to dispense after the reforms? and (3) are there emerging issues that suggest unintended consequences of the reforms?

Below are major findings for each of the eight states studied. A detailed analysis can be found in each state report.

Connecticut: Twenty months after the reform, physician dispensing was still common. The average price paid per pill to physicians for 6 of the 10 drugs most commonly dispensed by Connecticut physicians decreased 1848 percent. However, increased physician dispensing of higher-priced new strengths for cyclobenzaprine and tramadol raised the cost of physician dispensing of these two drugs in the latest study quarter.

Florida: Nine months after the reform, mixed results were seen in prices paid to physicians for the 10 drugs most commonly dispensed by Florida physiciansthe prices decreased for some but increased or changed little for others. Most striking was the substantial increase in physician prices for cyclobenzaprine and tramadol, due to some physicians dispensing higher-priced new strengths. Physician dispensing was common after Floridas reform, although physicians in the state dispensed fewer prescriptions.

Georgia: Thirty-six months after the reform, physician dispensing was still frequent. In the initial months after the reform, a sizeable price reduction was seen, consistent with the goal of the reform. However, some physicians dispensed higher-priced new strengths of cyclobenzaprine and tramadol in the latest study quarters, which raised the average price paid per pill for these two drugs.

Illinois: Over a year and a quarter after Illinois reform, the average price per pill paid for 7 of the top 11 drugs commonly dispensed by Illinois physicians decreased 2255 percent. However, physician prices for hydrocodone-acetaminophen, cyclobenzaprine, and tramadol increased substantially as a result of some physicians dispensing higher-priced new drug strengths. Physician dispensing was still common after the 2012 reform in Illinois.

Indiana: Nine months after the reform, the average price paid per pill to physicians for 9 of the 10 drugs most commonly dispensed by Indiana physicians decreased 1444 percent. While physician dispensing was still fairly common after the 2013 reform, physician dispensing of higher-priced new drug strengths was infrequent in Indiana over the study period.

Michigan: Fifteen months after Michigans reform, physician dispensing was still common in the state. Substantial price reductions were seen for most drugs commonly dispensed by Michigan physicians, which was consistent with the goal of the price-focused reform. Physician dispensing of higher-priced new strengths was infrequent in Michigan over the study period.

South Carolina: Sizable price reductions were seen for the drugs most commonly dispensed by physicians after South Carolinas reform. At the same time, frequency of physician dispensing decreased steadily over the post-reform quarters.

Tennessee: Twenty months after the reform, physician dispensing was still frequent. The average price paid per pill to physicians for 7 of the 10 drugs most commonly dispensed by Tennessee physicians decreased 2156 percent. However, an increase in physician dispensing of higher-priced new strengths was observed for cyclobenzaprine and tramadol in the latest quarters of the study period, which raised the average price paid per pill for these two drugs.

The studies evaluate the impact of the price-focused reforms on the frequency and costs of physician dispensing in these eight states using detailed transaction data for physician- and pharmacy-dispensed prescriptions filled by injured workers up through the first quarter of 2014. With future data over a longer time period, we will examine the subsequent effects of the reforms.

To purchase these studies, visit WCRIs website at http://www.wcrinet.org/result/phys_disp_8_rpts_2016_result.html.

Source: WCRI
LEEDCo drills Lake bottom

Cuyahoga County expects to buy nearly 9 percent of the roughly 21 megawatt output of the pilot wind farm the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo) is planning to build in Lake Erie in the summer of 2018. In this photo taken in the summer of 2015, the Farrell 256, a 200-foot crane barge owned and operated by the Donjon Marine Co. of Erie, Pa., anchored about 10 miles offshore carrying a crew of geotechnical engineers who mapped lake floor, determined its soil characteristics and too scores of core samples for detailed analysis.

(Courtesy DOSECC Exploration Services)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County wants to support the wind turbine project in Lake Erie by purchasing a portion of the output for the next 20 years.

To do that, the county plans to switch 15 of its buildings, including the Justice Center complex, to Cleveland Public Power, which would buy the power for the county from the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., or LEEDCo, and re-sell it at cost to the county.

CPP has already agreed to buy 25 percent of the nearly 21 megawatt output of the six-turbine pilot project. The turbines will be built 7 to 10 miles offshore northwest of downtown and be barely visible from the city.

County Executive Armond Budish has asked County Council to authorize the administration to negotiate a power purchase agreement with CPP. Council is expected to assign the request to a committee at its upcoming Tuesday meeting.

Budish said the deal, at a discounted rate, would be expected to save the county $2.5 million over 25 years and create about 500 new jobs in the next 10 years.

Mike Foley, the county's director of sustainability, said by law the county cannot contract for more than 10 years, but LEEDCo needs at least a 16-year contract in order to meet the terms of the $40 million grant the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the project. He said the county anticipates signing a second 10-year contract at the end of the first decade of operation.

Foley said the county would also ask for legislation in the fall authorizing it to negotiate with a still-to-be-determined investor of a 4 megawatt solar array that would be located on a 25-acre brownfield.

"This would be a test case for large-scale urban solar," said Foley. "We would be combining solar and wind and supporting locally generated clean energy."

The village of Minster in north central Ohio had a similar-sized solar farm built in 2015. An independent investment group paid for the project, taking advantage of a generous 30 percent tax credit and accelerated depreciation for the first five years.

Such arrangements allow for the city or county to purchase the array after the depreciation has lowered the market price. Solar panels are guaranteed 20-to-25 years.
9780520285613.jpg

Ahmed White, author of "The Last Great Strike" about the Little Steel Strike of 1937 will speak Saturday at a program downtown at the Cleveland Public Library.

(University of California Press)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A program featuring the author of a book about the Little Steel Strike, considered one of the most violent labor disputes of the 1930s, will be held downtown Saturday at the Cleveland Public Library.

Ahmed White, a law professor at the University of Colorado, will discuss his book, "The Last Great Strike." The strike represented the efforts of steelworkers to organize in Cleveland, Youngstown and other Great Lakes cities, including Buffalo and Chicago. The workers were trying to organize what were then known as the "Little Steel" companies -- Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube and Inland Steel. (The moniker distinguished them from the powerhouse, U.S. Steel.)

The program is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. July 23 in the second floor Conference Room B of the Louis Stokes Wing, 325 Superior Ave.

The labor dispute proved bloody.

"On May 26, 75,000 steelworkers walked out of their plants across the Midwest," states the Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. "Tensions culminated in Chicago, where Republic kept its mill in operation with strikebreakers. At a rally on May 30, police fired into an unarmed crowd of strikers and their sympathizers, killing 10 and wounding another thirty, including two women and a child. The Memorial Day Massacre, as it was known, galvanized organized labor."

See also:Labor union art from the Great Depression featured in exhibit at Cleveland Public Library (with photo gallery)

The strike ended without the workers winning a contract. (They would later do so by taking up their case with the National Labor Relations Board.) However, nearly 80 years later, the Little Steel Strike remains significant in labor history, according to White's book.

"The violence and brutality of the Little Steel Strike became legendary," states a publisher's synopsis of the book." In many ways it was the last great strike in modern America."

The programs is sponsored by the Labor Education and Arts Project, or LEAP. For information, tom@likeleap.org or (440) 364-2811.

Follow@OPinfo
APTOPIX State Unemployment

Ohio's unemployment rate was 5.0 percent in June, with the state gaining 12,400 jobs, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday

(Associated Press photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio gained 12,400 jobs in June, the Oho Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday.

The unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, down from 5.1 percent in May. Ohio's unemployment rate in June 2015 was 4.8 percent.

The sectors gaining jobs included: professional and business services; which increased by 6,900 jobs; local government, up 5,100 jobs; state government, where employment was up 4,100; manufacturing gained 2,600 jobs and employment construction was up 1,700 jobs.

Sectors losing jobs included: educational and health services, which lost 6,500 jobs; financial activities, where employment was down 2,500 and other service jobs, where employment was down 1,200.

"By in large, it is better news than what we usually have," said George Zeller of Cleveland, an economic research analyst, of Friday's jobs report. "I'm usually talking about cuts in government and weak manufacturing, but this time health services - which usually is our strongest sector --was down."

Hannah Halbert, a researcher with PolicyMatters Ohio, which tracks the state's labor market, expressed similar sentiments.

"The increase in public sector employment is a significant departure from the erosion we have seen during the state's recovery," she said in a news release. "If the numbers survive revision, June demonstrates how stability in the public sector can buoy otherwise lackluster job growth. Public sector jobs matter to our economy and the services provided by these workers matter to communities."

Still, Halbert and Zeller said there were some matters of concern in Friday's jobs report.

Zeller said a downward revision of 2,200 jobs in May, which ODJFS released Friday, means the state actually gained 10,200 jobs. Additionally, he said the rate of job growth in Ohio continues to lag the national average.

"The year over year June 2016 Ohio job growth rate is now 1.72 percent," he wrote in an email. "The year over year June 2016 USA job growth rate is now 1.77 percent. Thus, by a narrow margin, June 2016 is the 43rd consecutive month when Ohio's job growth was slower than the USA national average."

Both Halbert and Zeller expressed concern that the state's labor force - those either working or actively looking for work - shrank.

"The Ohio Civilian Labor Force declined by 16,000 in June even as the USA Civilian Labor Force increased by a large 414,000," Zeller wrote.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in June up from 4.7 percent in May. In June 2015, it was 5.3 percent.

Halbert agreed Ohio's rate of job growth needs to improve. She said since the Great Recession began in December 2007, Ohio has only gained a net of 77,400 jobs. The recession officially ended in June 2009.
AX078_726A_9.JPG

Cleveland is turning 220 today, July 22. It was founded in 1796 by Moses Cleaveland.

(Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland put on the grand old party of the decade this week, surviving the RNC with flying colors and impressing the world.

Now it's time to celebrate. And not just the success of the Republican convention. Today, July 22, is Cleveland's 220th birthday.

On July 22, 1796, General Moses Cleaveland of the Connecticut Land Company arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River and decided the area would be the new "capital city" of the Connecticut Western Reserve.

In honor of the occasion, University Circle is throwing Founder's Day party from noon to 2 p.m. Friday at Wade Oval.

There will be free birthday cake and ice cream, $1 hot dogs, live music by Brent Kirby, bounce houses, chalk artists, rides on the Euclid Beach Rocket Car, bubblepalooza with Dr. UR Awesome and Games on the Green and Solar Car Racing (courtesy of Motorcars in Cleveland Heights).

There will also be $1 rides on the Euclid Beach Grand Carousel at the Cleveland History Center from noon to 2 p.m., or unlimited rides with admission purchase.

Now that's a grand old party!
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Its tough being a politician in todays Big Data Age because something you said  or didnt say  15 or 20 years ago pops up every 15 or 20 minutes on a database someplace between Terra Haute and Tierra del Fuego.

Take the Republican vice presidential candidate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana.

Before the then-presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump, had even introduced Pence as his choice to be just one haircut away from the Oval Office, the New York Times already had mined its archives for some less-than-shining highlights of Pences dozen years in Congress.

For example, noted the Times July 15, Pence left little mark on the institution: During his 12-year congressional career, he introduced 90 bills and resolutions. None became law.

Digging deeper into its archives, the newspaper discovered that two years prior to his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, in 1998, Mike Pence mocked what government regulators had confirmed (about) the lethal consequences of cigarette smoking ... as hysteria ... Time for a quick reality check, (Pence) wrote. Smoking doesnt kill.

The bigfoot of Big Media wasnt the only news operation checking its database for Pense-iveness. The same day the Times ran its background piece, Agri-Pulse, an authoritative, respected ag weekly published in Washington, D.C., reviewed the Hoosiers Congressional ag record. It turned out to be as checkered as Richard Nixons pet cocker spaniel.

In 2002, wrote Agri-Pulses Spencer Chase, Pence voted in favor of the farm bill, but supported President George W. Bush's veto effort of the 2008 bill. Bush said the bill spent too much, but his veto was ultimately overridden in a 317-109 vote in the House. Pence was one of the losing 109 that supported the veto.

Pences Capitol Hill voting record on ethanol also roasted more than a few American corn growers. On the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a policy that Trump supports, Agri-Pulse reported July 15, Pence voted in favor of the original 2005 legislation that created the program, but voted against the 2007 bill that created the current version of the RFS.

Despite this on-again, off-again support for Farm Bills and the Renewable Fuel Standard, Pence never wavered in his unreserved support of free trade agreements. He voted for the Korean free trade pact in 2011 and for a similar deal with several Central American nations in 2005.

He confirmed his free trade bona fides in an April 2015 letter, noted Agri-Pulse, to the Indiana congressional delegation that urged all members to support President Barack Obamas uphill push for Trade Promotion Authority. (It was later approved on the strength of Republican support.)

But Pences almost-dogmatic stand for free trade  echoed both by fellow Republicans and almost every American farm and ranch group  is distinctly out of sync with that of his running mate and potential boss, Donald Trump, who rails against free trade almost as much as he rails against White House rival Hillary Clinton.

When confronted with this ticket paradox on CBSs 60 Minutes July 17, both Trump and Pence stretched their previously inflexible trade positions so far to find common ground that both almost needed chiropractors to complete the interview.

Characteristically, Trump ended that portion of the televised interview by labeling his trade critics  24-carat GOP Big Biz stalwarts like the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce  as really stupid people.

Come November, however, Trumps anti-trade tirades and Pences flip-flops on key farm and ranch issues such as the Farm Bill and renewable fuels will mean little to nothing to farmers and ranchers who, if the past is prologue, still will overwhelmingly vote for the Republican Trump/Pence ticket.

At some deep, yet-to-be-examined level that probably makes sense: If farmers and ranchers truly believe that government is the problem, who better to lead them than a president who has never written one policy proposal and a vice president who has never passed one.
Donald Trump,Mike Pence

Vice presidential running mate Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., right, listens as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an goodbye reception with friends and family following the Republican National Convention, Friday, July 22, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

CLEVELAND - GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump called this year's Republican convention in Cleveland "one of the best ever," and thanked the people of Cleveland for what he called "an incredible four days."

In a Friday morning appearance at the Westin Hotel with his family, friends and running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump applauded the unity displayed at the convention. But he spent a good amount of time pointing missiles at his defeated presidential rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who declined to endorse Trump in his Wednesday night convention speech.

Calling Cruz "dishonorable," Trump said: "I don't want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it, just so you understand." He said Cruz would "have been in better shape for four years from now" if he had endorsed Trump, although "I don't see him winning anyway, frankly."

Trump also responded to statements Cruz made after the convention, accusing the nominee of attacking his wife and father.

"I didn't start anything with the wife," said Trump.

He recalled how a super PAC sympathetic to Cruz disseminated risque photographs of Trump's wife, Melania, to voters in conservative Utah before the state's primary. He then asked Pence whether presidents are allowed to set up their own super PACs to fight those they dislike.

Trump also reiterated his claim that Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was photographed in the 1960s with John F. Kennedy's assassin - Lee Harvey Oswald - handing out pamphlets that supported Cuba's Fidel Castro.

"I don't know his father - I met him once - I think he's a lovely guy," said Trump. "All I did is point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer, there's a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast."

Thank you Cleveland. We love you and will be back many times!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2016

A spokesman for Cruz denied Rafael Cruz was in the picture and called the story "another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage." Fact-checking organizations have concluded the claim was false. And Cruz called it "kooky."

But Trump said Friday that "Ted never denied it was his father."

Trump's campaign invited national media to attend Friday's event while overlooking many Ohio media outlets. He used it to thank law enforcement and Cleveland officials, including Mayor Frank Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams, who ensured the convention went smoothly.

"I want to thank the police of Cleveland, the Cleveland Police Department," said Trump. "The mayor, I want to thank. I want to thank your police chief. He is amazing. I don't know if he's here. But boy, he has done some job working with all the folks from law enforcement."
Facebook gun policy praised Social media giant takes steps to block illegal online firearms sales

The Cincinnati Police Department is investigating after one of its officers reportedly posted on Facebook that white officers are "looking for a reason" to shoot a black person.

(Matt Rourke, Associated Press file photo)

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A black police officer finds himself under scrutiny after he wrote a post on Facebook in he reportedly implies that white officers are "looking for a reason" to shoot a black person.

According to fox19.com, the post was attributed to officer Freddie Vincent and appeared on his Facebook page earlier this month after black men were killed by police in Baton Rouge, La., and near St. Paul, Minn. It has since been deleted.

The post is addressed to "all my Afro America friends and family," fox19.com reports:

"When you are encountered by a white officer make sure that you are in a public place, and comply to all of their commands, because they are looking for a reason to kill a black man. And always keep your hands in the air, and never resist. I'm so tired of cops using these famous words 'I was in fear of my life.' I'm praying for Louisiana that could have been my nephew in B.R."

The police department is reviewing the post in regard to its policies on social media, Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac says in a statement, cincinnati.com reports.

Vincent's Facebook page contains several posts on controversies in regard to police work during the past few weeks, according to cincinnati.com, including a link to an article that claims the Ku Klux Klan has infiltrated police departments "for decades."

The website reports Vincent was fired from the Cincinnati Police Department in 1999 in connection with speeding on his motorcycle with no license, but he was reinstated in 2000. He reportedly has been disciplined several times during his career.
Black Lives Matter Banner

A "Black Lives Matter" banner hangs over the main entrance of City Hall in Somerville, Mass. Somerville's mayor denied a request from the police union that the banner, which has hung for nearly a year, be removed and replaced with one that says "All Lives Matter."

(Steven Senne, Associated Press)

SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts -- A request by the police union to take down a Black Lives Matter banner on City Hall and replace it with one saying All Lives Matter has been rejected by the city's mayor.

USA Today reports a letter from the Somerville Police Employees Association published on Tuesday asked Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone to remove the banner. The Boston Globe reports the letter says the sign on city hall is "demoralizing" for officers, especially with recent deadly shootings targeting police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.

"It is inconceivable to us as it is demoralizing that our city would propagate its support for this movement while standing silent over the seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country," union President Michael McGrath writes in the letter.

Curtatone was not swayed, saying in a statement to the Globe that a banner honoring the slain officers in Dallas currently is hanging in the Somerville police headquarters, "where it would provide the most moral support to our officers."

"Both banners will remain hanging. I've made very clear to our officers that we should be thankful for -- and reinforce -- what we have here in Somerville: a safer community thanks to the highest quality policing by a force dedicated to community policing, de-escalation, proper use of force, and antibias awareness," Curtatone's statement says.

Police Chief David Fallon says he supports the Black Lives Matter banner remaining on City Hall, adding that the mayor believes it helps residents feel safer and more engaged with officers. The banner has been in place since August.

"When I hear the hashtag or see the banner Black Lives Matter, it just brings to my mind personally that we have to be inclusive," Fallon tells the Globe. "If there's a small fraction of our community ... that doesn't feel like they're effective members of or welcome in the community, then there's a problem."
Many but not all of the Republican National Convention delegates inside The Q just spent four days in Cleveland loudly voicing their love for their nominee, Donald Trump, and his version of America on the ropes. But outside The Q, convention-goers were more unified. And what united them? Cleveland.

Cleveland threw the party of a lifetime for four days this week. The city looked spectacular, so spectacular that even miles of concrete barricades, chain-link fences, imposing vehicular barriers, raucous protesters and street scenes in which armed law enforcement officers seemed to dominate the landscape couldn't -- and didn't -- detract from the inviting, party atmosphere.

Yes, the weather helped, with mostly balmy, sunny days. The worst of the searing heat and humidity waited until delegates were boarding their airplanes.

But the success of the RNC in CLE was a human endeavor that featured Mayor Frank Jackson and city safety forces leadership staying engaged and on top of events; a Cleveland police department that has come a long way in a short period of time in embracing new styles of community policing; civic and business leaders who put aside their sometimes sniping ways to come together for the good of Cleveland, to make sure that planning was seamless; and average Clevelanders, who turned up the Midwest charm and hospitality to wow 50,000 visitors from all over the country and the world.

Police visibility was critical, and through it all, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was front and center, even in the middle of protesters' scrums, giving people the sense that everything was under control, which it was. Bicycle cops were everywhere and used their bikes to make temporary walls to protect protesters and the public.

Police attitudes were equally engaging -- it was difficult most of the time to find a grumpy cop. A group of Ohio state troopers passed Sharon Broussard, cleveland.com's chief editorial writer, and said, "Hello," one by one, with smiles on their faces. Another cop fished for a snack bag full of stickers for a beaming three-year-old.

Way to go, Cleveland! You've set the bar for Philadelphia and the Democrats and for all political conventions to follow.

And the city did this amid sniping by the head of the city's biggest police union, worries about terrorist attack, exorbitant liability insurance demands from insurers, last-minute scrambles to define protest zones and rules, publicly expressed security concerns from the U.S. secretary of homeland security, and defections of some of the police departments who'd pledged or were considering lending a hand in Cleveland. Shame on all the doubters and doomsayers.

No surprise, the accolades are pouring in. Fortune.com reported that even usually crabby members of the media agreed that, "Cleveland has been a fantastic host city. Cleveland's walkability, cleanliness, friendliness, and even its weather have drawn nothing but rave reviews."

Note the reference to "walkability." Despite all the security -- and it was tight, tight, tight -- Cleveland still managed to show a face to the world of an amiable, happy, open and welcoming city with wonderful places to congregate, enjoy a meal, or relax next to beautiful fountains on Public Square's arresting new digs.

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But it all would have been for naught if the planning hadn't been executed perfectly. As 100,000 balloons fell inside The Q Thursday night, even Trump was impressed, looking up and mouthing "Wow."

Trump tweeted this morning, "One of the best produced, including the incredible stage & set, in the history of conventions. Great unity! Big T.V. ratings! @KarlRove."

The tone was set right from the start with an amazing opening-night party Sunday for a mere 11,000 people -- delegates and others, including comedian Stephen Colbert -- at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, with Three Dog Night headlining and fireworks over Lake Erie. The Rock Hall shone, too, with a special exhibit on the interaction between rock music and politics. Despite the security lines, South Carolina RNC delegate called it a "great party" and told cleveland.com's Andrew J. Tobias that, "Cleveland made a very positive impression on the delegates tonight."

Full credit to the tireless efforts of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee and its experienced and organizationally savvy leader, Dave Gilbert, for choosing this venue and for near-flawless execution -- themes repeated throughout the convention.

Next up for Cleveland: Making all these kumbaya moments enduring, including the wonderful interactions between the police and the public, helped by friendly police on bicycles. That also includes extending the sense of safety and well-being and good police-community interactions beyond downtown. Gun violence still happened this week in Cleveland, just well out of hearing range of the convention. And that includes continuing the spirit of civic cooperation and of breaking down political and competitive barriers, to continue to work together for the betterment of all of Cleveland.

But meantime, bask in the congratulations, Cleveland. It was a peerless and safe four days, thanks to the tireless efforts of so many, and the good will of so many more.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Former Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott was accused of and denied being involved in domestic-violence incidents on Friday morning.

Police reports obtained by cleveland.com indicate that a woman called Columbus Police early Friday morning alleging that she was assaulted by her boyfriend, Elliott, while sitting in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle in a parking garage in Columbus.

According to the police report, three witnesses, including one seated in the vehicle, said they did not observe Elliott assaulting his girlfriend. The accuser stated she had pain in her right wrist and a red mark, but declined medical treatment.

The accuser referred to Elliott as her live-in boyfriend, but Elliott also denied that.

Due to the conflicting statements between the victim, the suspect and witnesses, along with the inability to prove that they live together, the victim was referred to the prosecutors office, according to the report.

No charges had been filed against Elliott for either incident as of early Friday afternoon.

According to a separate police report also obtained by cleveland.com, the same woman alleged that between July 16-20 Elliott struck her several times, leaving bruises on her arms.

The woman stated that she lived with Elliott for approximately three months within the last year. Elliott denied touching the woman in a harmful manner and that the bruises were from a bar fight in which she was involved, according to the police report.

Elliott said he and the woman have never lived together, but he has paid her rent and was a co-signer on her vehicle.

Again, due to the conflicting versions of events between July 16-20 and the inability to prove that they live together, the woman was referred to the prosecutor's office.

Both alleged assaults were reported to the police Friday morning.
ShomoPowell.jpg

Hakeem-Ali Ibrahim Shomo, 25, of Cleveland and Nastassja Monique Powell, 20, of Painesville are accused of leaving their 1-year-old child home alone for more than 10 hours while they robbed a Parma man of a pair of tennis shoes.

(Parma Police Department)

PARMA, Ohio -- A man and woman left their 1-year-old child home alone for more than 10 hours while they robbed a Parma man of a pair of shoes, police said.

Hakeem-Ali Ibrahim Shomo, 25, of Cleveland and Nastassja Monique Powell, 20, of Painesville are charged with felony robbery.

Both were arraigned Thursday in Parma Municipal Court. Their cases were bound over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury, court records show.

The robbery happened at 3:18 a.m. Wednesday in the 1900 block of Tuxedo Avenue, according to a Parma police news release issued Friday.

A 39-year-old Parma man flagged down an officer and said he had just been robbed by a couple in a blue Pontiac G6 heading north on Broadview Road toward Brookpark Road.

The officer stopped the car on Brookpark Road at the State Route 176 on ramp. Powell was in the driver's seat and Shomo was a passenger, police said.

Shomo and Powell responded to an ad for a pair of Nike Air Jordans the victim was selling through the OfferUp smart phone app. The couple tried to pay for the shoes with counterfeit money, police said.

The victim realized the money was fake as the couple drove away with the shoes. The victim grabbed the car and was dragged about 40 feet, police said.

Shomo and Powell were taken to the Parma Police Department.

About 11 a.m. -- eight hours after the robbery -- Powell told Parma police the couple had left their 1-year-old daughter alone in her Painesville home, nearly 40 miles away.

Painesville police found the child alone inside a locked apartment in the 200 block of Brentwood Drive. The child was asleep in a bedroom, wearing a T-shirt and no diaper, police said.

The apartment was "not well kept" and the room where the child was sleeping had a strong smell of urine, Painesville police Chief Anthony Powalie said.

"We will be filing child-endangering charges and possibly more," Powalie said Friday.

No charges had been filed in Lake County or Painesville Municipal courts as of Friday morning.

Powell told Parma detectives the couple left the child alone around 1 a.m. Wednesday, but police believe the child was alone longer, Parma police Lt. Kevin Riley said. He would not go into further details, as the investigation is ongoing.

Shomo and Powell remain in Parma City Jail on $50,000 bonds.

If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.

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TRUMP02.jpg

Donald Trump gives his acceptance speech Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena, bringing an end to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The themes of Donald Trump's improbable takeover of the Republican Party rang loudly here Thursday as he accepted the GOP's nomination for president.

Painting a dreadful picture of affairs at home and abroad, Trump outlined an "America First" movement that would dramatically reshape the country's relationships across the globe.

The New York businessman at times offered conflicting goals. He opened with a vow to lead "a country of generosity and warmth." But Trump also reaffirmed his tough stance on immigration, in the name of the economy and law and order.

Trump pledged to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans from "the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology." When the line drew a huge positive response, he replied how nice it was, as a Republican, "to hear you cheering for what I just said." Even so, he voiced no objection to a GOP platform that is hardly gay-friendly.

"America is a nation of believers, dreamers and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics and cynics," Trump said from the Republican National Convention stage at Quicken Loans Arena. "Remember: All of the people telling you you can't have the country you want, are the same people saying, 'Trump doesn't have a chance of being here tonight.' ... No longer can we rely on those elites in the media and politics who will say anything to keep a rigged system in place.

"Instead, we must choose to believe in America. History is watching us now."

Trump, introduced by his daughter Ivanka, as the "people's champion," spent considerable time on trade, his signature issue. He promised to overhaul existing pacts, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, with foreign countries.

He did not offer a detailed alternative. But he predicted his position would win him votes from supporters of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination with a similar message on trade but lost to Hillary Clinton.

"I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders - he never had a chance," Trump said. "But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest single issue: trade deals that strip our country of our jobs and strip us of our wealth as a country. Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works fairly and justly for each and every American."

Interestingly, Trump in the next breath said his choice for vice president, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, would be a partner "in this cause." Pence's support for free-trade is far more in line with the GOP mainstream and has been cited as a significant difference between the running mates.

In a statement sent after Trump's speech, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta criticized Trump's "dark picture of an America in decline." He said Clinton would present a more positive case at next week's Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Trump, Podesta added, "offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe, just more prejudice and paranoia. America is better than this. America is better than Donald Trump."

Trump clearly hopes his focus on trade will help him with working-class voters, including those in Rust Belt states such as Ohio, which as always will be a key general election battleground.

"I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals," the billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star said. "These are the forgotten men and women of our country -- and they are forgotten, but they're not going to be forgotten long. These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice.

"I am your voice."

Trump defended his closed-door, hardline approach to immigration - a centerpiece of his campaign is a promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border - in this vein.

"On ... the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced," said Trump, speaking off a prepared text from which he hardly deviated -- a rarity for him. "We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone. But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens."

Adopting a softer, subtler tone than he used when launching his campaign last year, Trump also argued that weak border security and lax enforcement is a criminal justice issue.

"Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more -- nothing even close, I have to tell you -- than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border," said Trump, who recalled convention speeches earlier this week from family members of people killed by undocumented immigrants. "These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to protect them and certainly none to protest on their behalf."

Trump also has revised one of his most restrictive immigration proposals, calling Thursday for an immediate suspension of immigration "from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until ... proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place." He previously had favored a blanket ban on Muslims. But his new plan raises similar enforcement questions.

"I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people," said Trump, who did not specify how he would screen for potential trouble. "Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, ever will be."

Throughout the speech, Trump's nationalist rhetoric energized the crowd, which erupted with chants of "USA! USA! USA!" and "Build the wall!"

Trump constantly drew sharp contrasts with Clinton. He also suggested, without offering proof, that Clinton was given a pass in an FBI investigation of her email practices while serving as President Barack Obama's secretary of state.

"When the FBI Director says that the secretary of state was 'extremely careless' and 'negligent' in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did," he said. "They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible, terrible crimes. In fact, her single-greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it - especially when others who have done far less have paid so dearly."

Trump saved his harshest critiques for Clinton's foreign policy.

"Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons," Trump said. "Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

"But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy," Trump continued. "The problems we face now - poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad - will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them."
Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

(Associated Press)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton had supported several trade agreements that led to job loss for many Americans.

"My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class," he said. "She supported NAFTA, and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organization - another one of her husband's colossal mistakes and disasters."

Plain Dealer fact check: Partially true.

The Facts: Trump also said that Clinton had supported a trade deal with South Korea and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Congress still must approve.

Clinton was against the U.S.-South Korea trade deal in 2007, but supported it in 2010, according to PolitiFact.com. She didn't vote on the trade agreement. (The post, which looked at how Clinton had voted on trade deals, was focused on claims made by Bernie Sanders that were similar to those made by Trump.)

PolitiFact said Clinton supported NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, in the 1990s, but was against it in 2007.

Also, there is debate about whether NAFTA has led to net job loss.

"The liberal Economic Policy Institute has found that NAFTA has cost the United States over 800,000 jobs and the South Korean deal about 60,000," PolitiFact states. "In a 2014 report, the think tank reported that the United States has lost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013 to trade with China.

"Business groups, on the other hand, argue that trade deals actually boost employment," the website states. "For example, a 2010 report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that the 14 trade deals in place in 2008 supported 5.4 million jobs."
TRUMP02.jpg

Donald Trump gives his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention July 21, 2016. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

Donald Trump said during his acceptance speech Thursday night that there is no way to screen refugees coming to the United States.

Trump said, "My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian - think of this, think of this, this is not believable, but this is what's happening - a 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country already under the leadership of President Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from."

Plain Dealer fact check: Partially true

Clinton has proposed to increase the number of Syrian refugees to the country from 10,000 to 65,000 - a 550 percent increase. Trump is accurate on that point. Clinton made the proposal on during an interview last September.

However, it is not true that there is no way to screen refugees, a claim Trump has made repeatedly during the campaign. Politifact vetted the statement and declared it to be false. A system to vet refugees has been in place for more than three decades. It typically takes 18 to 24 months for a refugee to gain entry to the U.S.

While imperfect, there is no evidence that a terrorist has slipped through the screening process. Trump is accurate that Clinton is proposing to respond to the refugee crisis by allowing more people to come to the United States. But he is wrong that there is no way to screen them.

To see more Plain Dealer fact checking of RNC speeches, go to: http://topics.cleveland.com/tag/rnc-2016-fact-check/
Cleveland RNC sticker investigation

Federal and state agents, along with Cleveland police, investigating the possibility of poisonous stickers being distributed Wednesday during RNC protests in Public Square.

(Adam Ferrise, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Federal agents and Cleveland police are investigating whether stickers passed out Wednesday during Republican National Convention protests in Public Square are to blame for the illnesses of two police officers.

The two officers -- a Georgia State Trooper and a Cleveland police officer -- were both treated for skin irritations about 4:30 p.m. after someone put a sticker on them, according to police.

The Cleveland officer is receiving medical care, police said. The Georgia trooper was treated and released. Police said they have not conclusively linked the stickers to the illness but are investigating that it's possible.

They also don't know if someone purposefully distributed the stickers in order to make people ill.

The stickers read: "I am awesome," according to a man detained for about 90 minutes by law enforcement outside the Renaissance Hotel off Public Square. The man was handcuffed for about 30 minutes but was released without charges.

Stickers confiscated from the man are being tested by the FBI and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, according to police and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor spokesman Joe Frolik.

Police advised that no one should take stickers from people on Public Square and to wash any body part that might have come into contact with a sticker.

The man detained at the hotel was handcuffed because he made movements against the officers, but calmed down, an FBI agent told one of the man's friends.

The man was trying to get signatures on the ballot for legislation that would lower the cost of prescription drugs. FBI agents interviewed at least two others in the man's group.

The man, who declined to give his identity, told cleveland.com that someone he didn't know offered to give him several of the stickers. He said he took them because he thought they would help him build good will towards the people signing his petition.

He said he put one of the stickers on his shirt. Agents with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation swabbed his shirt where the sticker was once attached and put it into a bucket with solution. The results of the test are unknown.

Another man from the same group allowed an FBI agent to search his bag. He also told the agents that he had sticker, but threw it away after someone told them they could cause a rash.

Two others with the group told cleveland.com that they were questioned by investigators but declined further comment.

Cleveland police also said reports of officers and others being stuck with syringes at random at Public Square are false.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Donald Trump gave his acceptance speech to a floor that was packed to its edges on the final night of the Republican National Convention.

Reporters and cameramen wedged themselves against walls and into aisles. One delegate from Texas managed to squeeze his son in-between the seat in front of him.

"I've never seen so many people on the floor," an arena employee remarked.

But in the mezzanine above a block of about 15 empty seats interrupted the otherwise full gallery. Amid the fanfare, balloons and confetti, the absences stuck out as a reminder of something that went missing during the 2016 convention: social conservatism.

One of those empty seats belonged to alternate delegate Christine Turpin, a member of the Waco, Texas, Tea Party and was a volunteer for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's ill-fated presidential campaign.

"I don't know what is in store for the Republican party. On a national level, I don't feel like I have a home," Turpin said. "I have little faith that things will move in a conservative direction."

Turpin was joined by about 15 members of the Texas delegation, mostly alternates, who sat out the speech in a lobby at the Marriott hotel a half-mile away.

The night before, Turpin and other Waco Tea party members watched their candidate booed and jeered on stage. As went Cruz, so went the fundamentalist conservative movement that backed him.

Inside Quicken Loans Arena there was only applause as the Republican nominee invited lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people into his campaign for the White House.

In his acceptance speech, Trump mentioned children 12 times and parent 3 times, but Planned Parenthood not once. He didn't mention gay marriage, nor transgender bathrooms, family values or abortion -- steadfast social conservative issues that had driven far right Republican candidates to victory in congressional races.

In his 2012 speech accepting the party's presidential nomination, Mitt Romney mentioned religious freedom in the first minute, and several times thereafter. Trump didn't use the word religion once.

Delegates interviewed afterwards didn't seem to mind the absence of social issues from Trump's speech, either.

"Win or lose, this has fundamentally changed the party," said Chuck Meyer, a Texas delegate and lawyer from the Houston area. "If Donald Trump had to depend on Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Ted Cruz for support, he wouldn't have won. He won because he was completely different from those guys."

The final night of the convention featured the first openly gay speaker at any Republican National Convention, billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, who proclaimed to a cheering Republican audience "I am proud to be gay."

Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, talked about a wage gap between married women and the rest of the country. Trump the candidate highlighted the unique plight of black children.

"If you roll back the clock 30 years, this would have been a stance that the national Democrats took," said Craig Dunn, Republican party chairman in Howard County, Indiana.

Dunn had previously been threatened after saying he would "consider" Donald Trump if he were running against Satan. By the end of the convention, his consideration had evolved into a fondness for the New York businessman.

"I thought this was a good moment for him," Dunn said. "I'm positive about Donald Trump, he gave a very presidential speech."

Outside the convention Eric Esteves, a Latino Republican New Hampshire state representative, worked the entrance. Esteves is running a campaign for U.S. Congress and said the party is reaching a point where it may finally be able to attract minorities long alienated by some of the more socially conservative platforms.

"Trump is a protest vote. The party does not know where it's going or what it stands for right now," Esteves said. "This is an opportunity...not necessarily just for me but for the country. They are going to have to start embracing minorities."
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China has no reason to devalue the , as economic fundamentals remained strong, with growth at 6.7 percent in the first half, the country's Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told CNBC. Zhu's comments came shortly before Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lambasted China again, this time for what he said was "devastating currency manipulation." Trump has employed anti-China rhetoric throughout his campaign, but ramped up his criticism in his high-profile speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday night local time. "We are going to enforce all trade violations against any country that cheats," Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters. "This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. They are the greatest that ever came about, they are the greatest currency manipulators ever." In fact, China's currency had steadily appreciated against the dollar over the past decade, although it recently lost some value against the greenback as the U.S. currency strengthened against almost every other major currency.

Speaking ahead of Trump's speech, Zhu said, "With strong economic fundamentals, we believe the renminbi will continue to keep [its] stability and for the long-term, [there isn't] any reason for the renminbi to devaluate. We will continue to reform the exchange regime of renminbi to reflect the market situation." He said China had "no specific comments on specific candidates" with regard to the U.S. election race, but believed that economic relations between the two countries were beneficial to people in the U.S. and in China. The yuan has been trading around five-year lows recently, as concerns over the state of the economy fueled capital outflows. Investors have also expressed concerns over the level of debt built up in the economy. China suffered almost $700 billion worth of capital flight in 2015, according to the Institute of International Finance. The surge in outflows late in 2015 sparked market concerns that China's foreign reserves weren't sufficient to stabilize the currency by buying yuan over the long term.

Meanwhile, the greenback has strengthened against most major currencies as investors reacted to negative interest rates in Japan and Europe, as well as the possibility the Federal Reserve would continue on its rate-hiking path. On Friday the dollar/yuan traded at 6.6683 on-shore and 6.6754 off-shore. China fixes its currency against the dollar every day. In August, China shifted the market mechanism for setting the daily fix, saying it would set the spot rate based on the previous day's close, theoretically allowing market forces to play a greater role in its direction. That resulted in an effective 2 percent devaluation in the currency, a move that sparked fears of a "currency war" to make Chinese exports more competitive.

On Friday the fix was at 6.6669 against the dollar.

China has also been criticized in the U.S. and Europe for allegedly flooding the global steel market with cheap product, hitting U.S. and European producers. China, which has been a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 2001, has repeatedly denied steel dumping, saying that its steelmakers were simply more efficient and enjoyed far lower costs than their international counterparts.

On Friday, ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 (G-20) finance ministers and central bankers in Chengdu, China, China's Premier Li Keqiang said the country had honored its WTO commitments and exported only a very limited amount of steel. China was willing to address the steel issue and other sources of tension through talks, Li added.

Economic headwinds
A truck driver who killed dozens of Bastille Day revelers in Nice, France, had been planning the attack for months and had at least five accomplices, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday.

The suspected accomplices  four men and one woman  were in custody in Nice, Francois Molins told a news conference, and were indicted Thursday on various terrorism charges.

While none of the accomplices was known to intelligence agents for ties to Islamic radicalism, one of them  identified as Franco-Tunisian Ramzi A.  had been charged six times for other crimes, ranging from theft to violence.

More from NBC News:

American Father and Son Among Those Killed in Nice

Terror by Truck: How the Attack in Nice Unfolded

Nice Attacker's Father Speaks out on Son's Troubled Past

Ramzi A. and two others, listed as "C. and Shokri Mohamed Walid G" were indicted for "complicity of murder in an organized band in connection with a terrorist enterprise, complicity in attempts to murder in an organized band and in relation with a terrorist enterprise, complicity of assassination attempts on person holding public authority in relation to a terrorist undertaking," prosecutors said in a statement.

Ramsey A. was also indicted for "offenses involving arms in relation with a terrorist enterprise," prosecutors said.

And all five suspects were all indicted on charges of "association of criminal terrorist conspiracy," they said.
CLEVELAND  Peter Thiel received a big applause Thursday night at the Republican National Convention after saying something not many would expect in such a venue.

"I am proud to be gay," said Thiel, one of the earliest investors in Facebook ."I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all I am proud to be an American."

The venture capitalist also touched on the debate over which bathrooms transgender people can use, saying "this is a distraction from our real problems."

Thiel also said the U.S. government's staggeringly outdated technology has more than just weakened it.

"Today, our government is broken. Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can't even fly in the rain. And it would be kind to say the government's software works poorly, because much of the time it doesn't even work at all," he said.

"We don't accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government."

Thiel also continued one of the week's most common themes, which is attack presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
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CLEVELAND  Donald John Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination here Thursday, completing a stunning rise from billionaire sideshow to standard bearer of a major American party. Standing in front of a row of American flags, "TRUMP" emblazoned behind in white letters on a gold background, Trump said he "humbly and gratefully" accepted the GOP nomination. He joined with sign-shaking delegates on the Republican National Convention floor in chanting "USA!" In reaching the Quicken Loans Arena stage Thursday, Trump drew ire from both sides of the political aisle and swaths of U.S. racial minority groups. His rhetoric on Muslims, immigrants and women disgusted many but emboldened others who felt overwhelmed by so-called "political correctness."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives two thumbs up to the crowd during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Getty Images

With the bluster and lofty promises that marked the year since he launched his unlikely bid, Trump, 70, painted himself as an outsider uniquely capable of fixing the failings of Washington insiders. The bombastic businessman stirred concerns about terrorism, refugees and American jobs lost to trade deals, contending his likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton would put Americans in more harm. Clinton's campaign tweeted Thursday amid the speech, saying "we are better than this." Bernie Sanders also criticized Trump's rhetoric. Tweet Trump positioned himself Thursday as a "voice" for ordinary Americans, equipped to rip down a "rigged system" embodied by Clinton. "Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing money at her because they have total control over every single thing she does," Trump contended. "She is their puppet, and they pull the strings. That is why Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change. My message is that thing have to change  and they have to change now."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Getty Images

Trump stressed that he would put "America first," a message that has empowered nationalists and those who feel betrayed by a perceived push toward globalism under President Barack Obama. As Trump described Thursday what he deemed the failings of the Obama administration, attendees from the delegate floor to the highest sections of the arena chanted "build the wall!" That references his divisive pledge to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and force Mexico to pay for it. Trump's unlikely ascent sparked rebellion from GOP officials and delegates, some of whom tried to stop his nomination as recently as this week. He ran afoul of some traditional Republicans, leaving both former presidents Bush and the GOP's last two nominees Mitt Romney and John McCain avoiding his coronation.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks on stage after his daughter, Ivanka Trump, introduced him during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Getty Images
The image of Trump in front of a line of American flags at the convention dominated European newspapers' front pages on Friday with a mixture of reactions to the Republican candidate's manifesto and musings on what the world might look like if he became president of the world's most powerful nation.

Trump's speech focused on the "threat" to the U.S. posed by terrorism, immigration and what he called "unfair" trade deals. In addition, he said that he was the only man who could challenge the elite and "fix" the country. His was a campaign for "Americanism" not "globalism," he added.

Giving his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, Trump attacked his rival Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and reiterated his pledges to make America both "safe" and "great" again.

Donald Trump might have whipped the crowds into a frenzy with his first speech as the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency, but Europe looked on with a mixture of criticism, fear and bemusement.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives two thumbs up to the crowd during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

In London, the left-leaning Guardian newspaper said in its lead that the Republican had struck an "authoritarian tone in [a] convention speech focusing on recent terrorist attacks and police killings to assure Americans' safety will be restored." The right-leaning Telegraph noted that Trump had promised Americans to be the "law and order candidate" and had, in the process, painted what one journalist called a "dark and terrifying" portrait of America.

Capping a four-day convention in Cleveland, the billionaire businessman and reality TV star said he "humbly and gratefully" accepted the Republican presidential nomination.

Europe's most powerful nation was not too impressed, with newspapers in Germany generally noting that there was little humility in the one hour and 16 minutes Trump addressed the convention making it the longest speech in 44 years.

Der Spiegel noted that Trump's keynote speech was characterized by "attacks against Hillary Clinton and illegal immigrants, many promises and lots of self-praise."

Business daily Handelsblatt's headline focused on Trump's call that "we cannot be so politically correct."

Trump was no less controversial when he promised to clamp down on immigration, strengthen borders and champion hard-working Americans. "I am your voice," he said.

The convention audience cheered wildly as Trump stood in front of a row of American flags to deliver his speech. Chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A," "Lock her up" (referring to Hillary Clinton's recent use of a private email account when she was secretary of state) and "Build the wall!"  a reference to the wall that Trump has promised to build on the U.S.- Mexico border.

Trump has the ability to make even Europe's right-wing political establishment look liberal. The U.K. Independence Party's former leader Nigel Farage, also not known for political correctness, once told CNBC that Trump was "wrong" to call for a complete ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

So it was on Friday, with even Europe's conservative press critical of Trump's key messages. Germany's center-right, conservative Die Welt newspaper noted that Trump's message was "apocalyptic" and "bleak": "The speech was populist through and through and offered no solutions," the newspaper said, adding that it lacked "elegance, humor, self-irony."

France's Les Echos, a right-leaning financial newspaper, said Trump had posed as the "savior of a country at the edge of the Apocalypse" in his "endless" speech on "endangered America." The left-wing Le Monde newspaper also drew attention to Trump's attempt to paint the "most distressing picture possible of the U.S." although it feared that Trump now "has just over three months to arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington."

Spain's centrist El Pais newspaper said that Trump's speech, although more "orderly" than his more impromptu utterances, was full of "half-truths and manipulated data," whereas Italy's Corriere della Sera attacked Trump's "absolutely groundless accusation that illegal immigrants would destroy America's middle class."

Not every country in Europe cared about Trump's speech  Russian dailies Vedomosti, Kommersant and the English-language Moscow Times, among others, had no reports on Trump's address.

Correction: This story was revised to correct the White House address to 1600.

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When ScreenCloud's CEO Mark McDermott woke up to the shock news that Britain had voted to leave the EU, a string of expletives crossed his mind. "I felt pretty numb," he told CNBC via email from London. "I was pretty much glued to the news on television after that. I couldn't believe we had hit the self-destruct button on our own economy." Britain's referendum decision on June 23 to divorce the EU has created a wave of uncertainty for the U.K. tech scene, and ScreenCloud - an early-stage digital signage business started by McDermott in 2014 - was one of many start-ups caught in the cross fire. But Asia may be ready to help. As U.K. businesses wrestle with new worries over the mobility and accessibility of talent, data flows and access to European markets, Asian funds and advisory firms are ready to capitalize on a potential uptick in interest and demand from U.K. and European startups. ScreenCloud is now shifting its funding ambitions from West to East, by looking to Asia to raise capital to fuel its next stage of growth.

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"Nobody really knows how bad this is going to be, and in times of uncertainty, people just pause," McDermott said. "With uncertainty in Europe, we are seeing better opportunities in North America, Australasia and Southeast Asia." ScreenCloud has its headquarters in London and an office in Bangkok. It has spoken to multiple investment funds in Singapore and Thailand since the Brexit vote and hopes to raise $1.25 million. "I think London has a heavy fintech and AI [artificial intelligence] bias right now, which is flourishing, but a tad narrow," the ScreenCloud CEO said. "Asia, by contrast, is flourishing with a lot of money coming into tech from within the region and also from overseas, as the U.S. looks beyond the valley for growth markets." The region is ready Interest from Western financial technology firms in a potential move to Asia has been growing, according to Markus Gnirck, partner and co-founder of Tryb, a Singapore-based investment and advisory firm. "Given the maturity of fintech markets in Europe and the U.S., it's a natural next step for a company to look out for new opportunities to expand into," he told CNBC. While Gnirk said there hadn't been an immediate rise in concrete interest from U.K. start-ups in a move to Asia since the Brexit referendum, he noted that the frequency of emails and conversations with a few firms had increased. For good reason, he said - Asia offered opportunities not available elsewhere. "The amount of fintech companies in Singapore in the last 12 months has increased by more than 200 percent and funding is not drying up like in other markets," he added. "In many markets, like Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, the fintech conversation has just started and consumers are hungry for new solutions."

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Donald Trump's acceptance speech mentioned pretty much every campaign issue but one: banks. No mention of efforts to cut financial regulation. Nothing about the Republican Party platform's new aim to break up the big banks. And not a word about Hillary Clinton's long-standing ties to Wall Street kingpins and the tens of millions she's accepted in donations from them. It's not like the GOP nominee was going for brevity. Thursday night's 76-minute screed promised safer streets, better opportunities for gays and women, a "border wall" crackdown on immigrants, victory in the Middle East, integrity in government, respect for police and veterans, stronger trade policies and lower taxes  a staggering potpourri that was nonetheless devoid of America's favorite political punching bag: the finance industry. "Maybe they decided they had other fish to fry," said Brian Gardner, Washington analyst for financial services firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "In their outreach to (Bernie) Sanders voters and the unending populist attack that he has tying Clinton to Wall Street and the Wall Street establishment, that would have been an effective line for him and would have fit well in the speech. I don't understand it." Trump's failure to mention banks was all the more surprising considering that one of the few tidbits of actual policy news to come out of the Republican gathering in Cleveland was a plank in the party platform to reinstitute the Glass-Steagall Act. Since the Great Depression, that regulation had installed a firewall between commercial and investment banking, but its repeal in 1998 is often cited as helping cause the financial crisis.

The omission added another layer of dichotomy to an already scattershot campaign. Trump has expressed disdain for the Dodd-Frank regulations passed since the crisis and massive bailout that followed  but he now carries the banner for a party that ostensibly wants to break up big Wall Street institutions. In addition to showing that bank reform may carry a low priority in a Trump administration, there may have been practical considerations. Clinton has raised scads of money from Wall Street  nearly $40 million, according to the latest Open Secrets count  while Trump has seen little as he has tried to stoke up his campaign coffers. "Being a cynic, I would say they're so far behind on fundraising, why would they want to antagonize Wall Street at this point?" said Greg Valliere, chief strategist at Horizon Investments and a leading voice on the Wall Street-Washington connection. "Just because something is in a platform doesn't mean he's going to advocate it. A platform is just a bunch of words." Gardner also thinks investors should be careful of taking anything too literally at this point. "I don't think there's a monolithic party-wide view of Wall Street within the GOP," he said. "Despite what the platform says, I don't think support of Glass-Steagall is a widely held view among rank-and-file Republicans, especially among those in Congress." Indeed, there have been previous attempts to reintroduce Glass-Steagall, and they've met with no success and little enthusiasm.

I was listening closely to see if (Trump) was going to say something about Dodd-Frank or Glass-Steagall. The fact that he didn't says to me there's too much conflict over this issue within the Republican Party itself. Getting back to Glass-Steagall is never going to fly. It's just not something that he's going to push at all. Dick Bove vice president of equity research, Rafferty Capital Markets
One month on and the U.K.'s is still reeling from the shock referendum result on the country's place in the European Union. The political and economic landscape of the country has changed radically  and the divorce proceedings haven't even started yet. Global financial markets went wild as it became clear that the majority of U.K. citizens had voted to leave the EU and make a leap into the political and economic unknown. But since then an eerie calm has descended as the fallout from the vote only slowly becomes apparent.

CNBC takes a look at what has  and hasn't  changed in the last month:





UK economy

Protestors march from Park Lane to Parliament during the anti-Brexit rally in London, England on July 2, 2016. Isabel Infantes | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

As soon as the Brexit victory became clear, financial markets around the world fell - no more so than in the U.K., with the pound falling to a 31-year low. But global financial market have surprised many people by recovering faster than expected in the immediate weeks following the Brexit vote. Nonetheless, confidence in the U.K. economy is starting to look shaky. A preliminary purchasing manager's index (PMI) of U.K. manufacturing and services published on Friday showed that activity across the sectors contracted in July at the steepest pace since early 2009. Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit which compiled the data, told CNBC that the figures showed a "dramatic deterioration" in the UK economy after Brexit.

"What we're seeing here is the largest points fall in our composite index across manufacturing and services that we've ever seen so this goes back nearly 20 years," he said. "The big question is where we go from hereThere are firms saying that they've had contracts lost, cancelled, new orders not coming in anymore, which is predominantly linked to Brexit uncertainty."

One bright spot, Williamson noted, was that the weaker pound had boosted exports orders for manufacturing and signs that confidence had picked up on the stabilizing political scene in the U.K. Given the drop in sterling, U.K. firms are seen as ripe for takeovers. Earlier this week, Japanese firm Softbank agreed to buy semiconductor firm ARM Holdings in a deal worth more than $32 billion. (103794754)

Britain has wasted no time in trying to court free trade deals with the likes of India and China and new Chancellor Philip Hammond has headed to China on Friday to reaffirm that Britain is "open for business". Speaking of the visit, China-Britain Business Council chairman, Lord Sassoon, told CNBC that the U.K. was still as attractive now as it was a month ago

"We've got plenty to work on here. (There's) $80 billion worth of bilateral trade (at stake), the U.K. is the second largest trade partner for china in Europe and it's the preferred destination for investment in Europe," he told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Friday.





UK politics

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron was the first major casualty of the Brexit vote, resigning on the morning of June 24 once result came clear. Cameron had campaigned for Britain to stay in a reformed EU but failed to persuade the British public of the benefits of remaining members of the 28-country group. His departure meant someone else from the ruling Conservative party had to lead the exit negotiations with Brussels. What followed can best be described by many Britons as chaos. Brexiteer Boris Johnson, former London mayor, fell on his sword after his political ally Michael Gove failed to endorse him for the Conservative leadership and decided to run for the leadership himself. Former home secretary Theresa May eventually won the contest to become Conservative leader and prime minister, months before an expected leadership election in September.

May wasted no time in asserting her leadership, appointing a mix of pro-Brexit and "Remain" politicians to key leadership positions, including Johnson as foreign secretary. Gove, by now generally unpopular for his political betrayal of Johnson, was sacked.

May  seen by many as a reluctant "Remainer" up to the referendum - said that she would delay triggering formal EU exit proceedings (known as Article 50) until she had cemented Britain's negotiating position, meaning that Brexit proceedings could start as late as early 2017.

Cameron was not alone in quitting. Prominent pro-Brexit campaigners also resigned in the wake of the vote. Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party whose rise in popularity was a driving factor behind the referendum, stepped down saying he'd "done his bit."

The opposition Labor party was also in a massive state of flux. Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was criticized for running a lackluster remain campaign, came under fire with widespread resignations and confidence votes. Corbyn had to replace most of his shadow cabinet and is currently facing a leadership contest.





Global growth

Global and UK growth prospects are certainly not what they were a month ago. This week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it had been prepared, ahead of the referendum, to upgrade global growth but that Brexit result had "thrown a spanner in the works."

In its World Economic Outlook published on Tuesday, the IMF forecast global growth at 3.1 percent in 2016  0.1 percentage points down on its April forecast and 0.3 percentage points lower than its January estimate. It also cut its forecast for 2017 growth to 3.4 percent, having predicted an expansion of 3.5 percent back in April. (103798547)

The IMF also cut its forecast for U.K. growth this year to 1.7 percent, down from the 1.9 percent predicted in April. In 2017, the economy is now seen expanding 1.3 percent, rather than 2.2 percent as previously forecast- it should be noted that the IMF had predicted a recession for the U.K. in 2017 if it voted to leave the EU.

Just days after the vote, credit ratings agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch downgraded the United Kingdom's credit rating. S&P downgraded the nation by two notches, from "AAA" to "AA" and Fitch, meanwhile, changed its rating from "AA+" to "AA."



UK-EU relations

Since the Brexit vote, relations between the U.K. and EU have been in limbo and varying from leader to leader, some frostier than others at the decision to leave the EU family. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May went to Berlin on Wednesday for a working dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, marking her first trip overseas. She then met with French President Francois Hollande. Both leaders stressed to the U.K.'s new leader that while they understood the U.K.'s need to figure out its negotiating position, it should get on with the exit procedure as soon as possible.

There has been much speculation over the form any new relationship between the EU and UK could take. In an ideal world, Britain would like free trade with Europe without the free movement of people. Immigration was a deciding factor behind many people's decision to leave the EU.

For their part, however, EU leaders have reinforced that the U.K. cannot "cherry-pick" which elements of the EU it wants to keep: The free movement of goods, service, labor and capital was one of the founding principles of EU membership

Despite the attraction of U.K. businesses given the pound's drop, firms based in the U.K. with close ties to Europe have also threatened to move back to the continent should a final Brexit deal with the EU involve.




Dick Durbin admits he ordered the FBI to purge words deemed 'offensive' to Muslims from manual

by Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has now admitted he was the one who ordered the FBI to remove words he deemed "offensive" to Muslims that were found in the Bureau's training documents all at the behest of Muslim advocacy groups claiming to be offended by words such as "jihad" and other words linked to incessant Muslim terrorism.Senator Durbin, the Democrats' Senate Minority Whip, admitted he ordered the purge of nearly 900 pages of FBI training manuals because they contained the "offensive" words."I asked for it, because there were provisions in the training manual which were flat-out wrong and embarrassing and they didn't characterize the threat to America properly and after the FBI re-visited the manual, they changed it and I'm glad they did," Durbin told The Daily Caller.Durbin also lambasted Texas Senator Ted Cruz for "badgering" a witness for what Cruz said was the government's "lack of emphasis of radical Islam in combating terrorism." The witness was testifying recently at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing.Cruz maintained that the training document purge of words offensive to Muslims made America weaker by gutting the real-world reasons for terrorism in FBI terror training. But Farhana Khera, president and executive director of Muslim Advocates, disagreed saying that using "inflammatory" words in FBI training documents "makes us less safe.""Our organization's position is that training materials as well as intelligence products that were produced by the FBI are not only offensive, inflammatory and alienating Muslims and American Muslims, but, more importantly, they make us less safe," Khera said at the hearing.Durbin also insisted Muslims have no problem informing on other Muslims when they are suspicious of terrorist activities.The Illinois Senator next claimed that Orlando nightclub terrorist Omar Mateen wasn't acting as a Muslim and said the claim that the killer was acting in the name of ISIS was nothing but "baloney."Durbin's dismissal, though, flies in the face of Mateen's own claims on 9-1-1 calls that he was acting in the name of ISIS. It is also hard to reconcile since the FBI had already been investigating the killer under suspicion of having ties to ISIS.
The "Fast Money" traders debated what it would mean if Yahoo does indeed sell itself to Verizon .

Sources told CNBC earlier on Friday that a sale could be announced as early as next week. Trader Steve Grasso said the deal could help Verizon branch out into the digital space.

Trader Dan Nathan said that buying Yahoo is unlikely to "move the needle unless [Verizon has] some other designs for the business."

Trader Tim Seymour agreed that this deal would not be "transformative." He said, however, that an agreement would probably be a relief for Yahoo shareholders "because this is an asset that is falling apart every day."

Seymour added that he believes that as a stock, Yahoo is "very defensive" because of a number of things including its stake in Alibaba .
Escalating health care costs are set to place an unsustainable burden on citizens, underlining the need for drastic reforms, according to the World Bank. "China needs to deepen its health reform to avoid the risk of creating a high-cost-low-value health system as observed in some high-income countries," the institution said in a new report on Friday.

Rescuers and workers who were wounded in a crane collapse accident, receive medical treatment at a hospital in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, April 13, 2016. AFP | Stringer | Getty Images

Health costs have grown at a rate higher than gross domestic product (GDP) growth since 2008, the report flagged. The situation was further magnified by a rapidly aging society and the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which were already China's number one health threat, the report stated. "Business as usual, without reform, would result in growth of total health expenditure from 5.6 percent of GDP in 2015 to 9.1 percent in 2035, an average increase of 8.4 percent per year in real terms." Health care is a vital component of China's 'new economy,' a hot-topic term that tends to dominates foreign investor interest in the mainland. Consisting of consumer-led sectors that also include internet and renewable energy, the 'new economy' has been a key beneficiary of government spending as President Xi Jinping seeks to make it the country's key growth engine, replacing 'old' sectors such as heavy industry. If Beijing can moderate the main drivers behind soaring health expenses, which include prices per treatment and unit cost increases, the government could achieve savings equivalent to 3 percent of GDP, the report said. To realize these savings, the World Bank suggested eight policy options aimed at making the system more efficient, compared to the current "hospital-centric, fragmented and volume driven" framework. China's current model is focused on dishing out more treatments instead of actually improving population health outcomes, the report observed. Moreover, "there is a shortage of qualified medical and health workers at the primary care level, which further compromises the system's ability to carry out the core functions of prevention, case detection, early treatment and care integration."

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Aluminium producer Norsk Hydro reported a rise in earnings in the second quarter on the back of rising prices and stronger demand for the metal.

Underlying earnings, released earlier this week, rose 7.8 percent to 1,618 million Norwegian krona ($190 million) from the first quarter.

The company forecast global aluminium demand to grow by 4 to 5 percent this year, but predicted demand from China could increase by as much as 5 to 7 percent due to unexpectedly higher activity.
Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

General Electric  The industrial conglomerate earned an adjusted 51 cents per share for the second quarter, five cents a share above estimates. Revenue also scored a beat. Revenue was up 15 percent over a year ago, although GE said the current business environment is being affected by a "volatile and slow growth economy."



Honeywell  Honeywell beat estimates by two cents a share, with quarterly profit of $1.66 per share. Revenue missed forecasts, however. Honeywell also raised the lower end of its full-year guidance. Separately, the industrial company announced it would split its automation and control solutions units.

Whirlpool  The appliance maker reported adjusted quarterly profit of $3.50 per share, 14 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also came in above forecasts. Whirlpool also raised its full-year earnings forecast, as it benefits from volume growth, cost cuts, and acquisitions.

Stanley Black & Decker  The tool company came in 13 cents a share above estimates, with quarterly profit of $1.84 per share. Revenue was also slightly above estimates. The company raised its full-year forecast as well, as volume growth increases and profit margins expand. Separately, the company announced CEO John Lundgren will retire July 31, to be replaced by current President/COO James Loree.

VF Corp.  The maker of North Face, Nautica, and other apparel brands earned an adjusted 35 cents per share for its latest quarter, one cent a share above estimates. Revenue fell short, however, and VF cut its sales forecasts for a number of key segments.

Starbucks  Shares were are under pressure after adjusted earnings of 49 cents per share merely matched forecasts, and revenue was below Street forecasts. Investors are also focused on a lower-than-expected four percent increase in comparable-store sales in both the U.S. and globally.

AT&T  AT&T earned an adjusted 72 cents per share for the second quarter, matching estimates, while revenue was slightly below analyst projections. AT&T saw an increase in wireless subscribers, but also experienced a decline in pay-TV customers.

21st Century Fox  The company announced the resignation of Roger Ailes as chairman and chief executive of the Fox News Channel, a development widely expected over the past few days in the aftermath of a sexual harassment lawsuit by former anchor Gretchen Carlson.

Chipotle Mexican Grill  Chipotle missed estimates by six cents a share, with quarterly profit of 87 cents per share. The restaurant chain's revenue also posted a miss, as comparable-store sales dropped more than expected. That came despite promotions and increased food safety measures in the aftermath of last year's food illness incidents.

Visa  Visa came in three cents a share above estimates, with adjusted quarterly profit of 69 cents per share. Revenue was very slightly below forecasts. The credit card issuer also announced a $5 billion share repurchase program, as well as a new strategic partnership with PayPal .

PayPal  PayPal matched forecasts, with adjusted quarterly profit of 36 cents per share. The payment service's revenue beat estimates, thanks to growth in its online payments business.

Pandora Media  Pandora lost 12 cents per share, narrower than the 16 cents a share analysts had expected. The online radio service's revenue missed forecasts, however, as did its current-quarter revenue guidance, owing to a drop in active listeners.

 Skechers reported quarterly profit of 48 cents per share, four cents a share below estimates. Revenue also missed Street forecasts. The shoe maker was hurt by several factors, including currency fluctuations and a fire at a warehouse located in Malaysia.

Boeing  Boeing said it would take a more than $2 billion charge against earnings for the second quarter, related to various aircraft programs, including the KC-46 tanker aircraft and 787 Dreamliner programs. Boeing is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings next Wednesday.

ConocoPhillips  ConocoPhillips will cut six percent of its workforce, about 1,000 workers, in the energy giant's U.S. and Canada operations.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals  The drugmaker said the Food and Drug Administration has raised issues regarding a Bausch & Lomb eye drop manufactured at a facility in Florida. The eye drop in question treats a certain type of glaucoma, and Valeant said it planned to address and resolve the concerns.

Syngenta  Syngenta said it expected its deal to be bought by ChemChina to be completed by the end of the year. That statement came as the agricultural chemical maker reported lower-than-expected first-half profit.

Amazon.com  Amazon is set to announced new investments in Italy worth at least $500 million, according to Reuters.

Advanced Micro Devices  AMD posted its first increase in sales in almost two years during the second quarter, thanks to increasing demand for videogame and graphics chips. AMD lost five cents per share for the quarter, compared to the eight cent a share consensus estimate. Revenue was above forecasts.
Getty Images

Florida is set to start selling medical marijuana on Tuesday, but just one company is approved to dispense it and cannabis investors are divided on whether or not now is the right time to invest in the state's nascent pot industry. A half dozen businesses were granted licenses to cultivate the medical cannabis but as of Thursday evening Hackney Nursery, doing business as Trulieve, was the only one to receive approval to dispense it, according to Mara Gambineri, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health. Trulieve plans to sell medical cannabis at its retail store in Tallahassee and its website indicates the company eventually intends to have locations in three other cities.

"We're not talking about having a dispensary on every street corner," said Richard Blau, an attorney who leads the regulated products practice at the Florida law firm of GrayRobinson. "It is still a very controlled, closely tailored and very heavily regulated structure."





Florida stands to be one of the biggest medical marijuana markets Leslie Bocskor President, Electrum Partners

Florida's medical cannabis law dates back two years ago when the state legislature passed the measure and Governor Rick Scott signed it. A series of legal challenges held up the rollout of the program and also had the effect of reducing the number of applicants. Florida's Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014 was originally designed to help a specific group of patients who suffer epilepsy, seizure disorders or certain cancers. And in the last legislative session lawmakers expanded allowed use to terminally ill patients. The marijuana approved for sale next week is a low-THC cannabis and medical cannabis. The low-THC (or tetrahydrocannabinol) strain doesn't produce a "high" and is frequently given through injection or pill form. THC and cannabidiol are some of the main components found in marijuana plants.

Amendment Two on the Nov. 8 ballot in Florida would broaden medical cannabis usage to individuals with "debilitating" medical conditions certified by a licensed physician. It also would greatly expand the consumer base for the state's marijuana industry.

Medical marijuana could be a $1.5 billion industry in Florida by 2020 and represent a 7 percent share of the total U.S. legal cannabis market, according to ArcView Group, an Oakland, California-based cannabis research and investment firm.

"Florida stands to be one of the biggest medical marijuana markets," said Leslie Bocskor, president of Las Vegas-based cannabis-focused investment firm Electrum Partners. He's an advisor to the United For Care group backing passage of Amendment Two in Florida and he expects there's money to be made in the industry.

From an investor perspective, this is very early and there's still a lot of risk Morgan Paxhia Chief Investor, Poseidon Asset Management

"We could see probably close to $1 billion invested in the infrastructure of the Florida market," said Bocskor. "The aging population there is the demographic that tends to skew most aggressively toward being new adopters of medical cannabis." Some take the opposite view and counter that the market is too restrictive to allow for major growth.

"From an investor perspective, this is very early and there's still a lot of risk," said Morgan Paxhia, founder and chief investor at Poseidon Asset Management, a cannabis-focused hedge fund based in San Francisco. "There is certainly potential long term, but in this existing program, it's very risky."



One-ounce bags of medicinal marijuana. Getty Images
Monday: Danaher, Gilead, Texas Instruments Danaher : Cramer has been recommending this conglomerate for a long time, but warned that the quarter could be difficult to understand because it just spun off its industrial business as a separate company. He said to buy it on any weakness.

With this in mind, Cramer outlined the stocks he will be watching next week:

Going into the week with a tough set-up, any earnings that are less than perfect could leave investors regretting that they didn't take profits beforehand.

"If you want to buy stocks, my advice is to wait until the end of next week, not the beginning," the "Mad Money" host said.

Jim Cramer does not like the set-up of the stock market going into next week. Historically, this is the week that can create collateral damage that can extend to the entire market.

Tuesday: Caterpillar, McDonald's, 3M, Verizon, Apple

Caterpillar : This company could provide glimmers of hope as oil and gas have come back, and it could prove that Europe and China are stronger than expected.

3M : To Cramer, the recent 20-percent gain in the stock seems unsustainable. For those investors that don't own it yet, he said not to buy it.

Apple : This will be the real test to Cramer's "own Apple, don't trade it" philosophy. He expects another no-growth quarter and the bears could be on the prowl in full force. Even worse, the stock has run up into the quarter with the expectation that it won't be bad.

"Believe me, it can be  I expect that this quarter could actually hurt the whole market  yes, Apple is that big  so beware," Cramer said.

Wednesday: Boeing, Hershey, Norfolk Southern, Facebook, Whole Foods

Boeing : Cramer thinks this quarter is also suspect due to the pause in wide body aircraft sales. He does not want investors owning it going into the quarter.

Norfolk Southern : The rails have had a bizarre run this year based on practically nothing. That's why Cramer recommended taking profits in this stock before it reports.

Thursday: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Alphabet, Amazon

Alphabet : Cramer is very concerned that there will be a troubling quarter from Alphabet, which could make for a difficult week. He likes Alphabet, but is concerned that the stock ran so much into the quarter.

Amazon : With a stock priced for perfection, Cramer wouldn't be surprised if Amazon had to turn on the spending jets to fend off competition from Wal-Mart's attempt to take share online.

"Everything has to be perfect for this stock to rally after it reports, and I just don't think perfection is attainable. Just too much ratcheting up of the competition. I say be careful," Cramer said.

Friday: Chevron, Exxon Mobil

Exxon : Cramer wants to hear why Exxon is bidding for Interoil, a small company in New Guinea. It was strange that it didn't snap up some of the independent American producers when they were so cheap. He will also be looking to hear if Exxon thinks the price of crude will head higher.

"This week of earnings season has historically produced sub-par results for stocks because we seize on the worst ones and we play a collateral damage game that can extend to the entire market," Cramer said.
JPMorgan Chase got into hot water for hiring the children of the international elite, according to a report on Friday, but what the bank is accused of doing is far from unique.

Jamie Dimon's bank is facing a $200 million fine for its hiring practices overseas, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Notably, it's accused of hiring the son of China's commerce minister, Gao Hucheng, as it simultaneously sought business in that country, the Journal said.

According to the Journal's story, JPMorgan took on more than 200 candidates through a program dubbed the "Sons and Daughters" initiative, although it isn't clear what the purpose of the program is.



JPMorgan declined to comment to CNBC. The Journal report said the bank is expected to admit guilt, but not to be charged criminally. Word of the JPMorgan investigation first surfaced in 2013, although reports have indicated that the bank believed its plans fell within the bounds of legally accepted behavior.

Regardless, many who follow China's economic culture closely say the things which JPMorgan stands accused of are common practice on Wall Street and beyond.



"Many firms have taken to hiring the children of senior government officials," Foreign Affairs magazine reported in April of last year, adding that U.S. firms are sometimes "even paying their tuition at Western universities."
President Barack Obama(R) meets with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 22, 2016.

Standing next to his Mexican counterpart, President Barack Obama jabbed back at Donald Trump on Friday, saying he didn't watch the GOP convention and the U.S. "values tremendously our enduring partnership with Mexico."

"I did not watch the convention, I don't think that's a surprise. ... I've got a lot of stuff to do," Obama said at a White House news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.



Their meeting came a day after Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination in a speech that painted a grim picture of America.

"Let me start by saying something that is too often overlooked but bears repeating, especially given some of the heated rhetoric that we sometimes hear," Obama said. "The United States values tremendously our enduring partnership with Mexico."



"We're neighbors, and we're friends, and we're family," Obama said.



Obama called Mexico "a critical partner" in confronting such issues as climate change and security.

Obama said that fears raised by speakers at the GOP convention, including the notion of crime running rampant and the contention that America is on the brink of collapse "just don't jive with the facts."



"America is much less violent than it was 20, 30 years ago, and immigration is much less a problem than it was not just 20, 30 years ago, but when I came in as president," he said.



"We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact, and that I think is something that I hope all Americans pay attention to."



Nieto has also been a critic of Trump's proposal to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, telling CNN there is "no way that Mexico can pay [for] a wall like that."



Obama also voiced his disappointment in the Supreme Court's split decision over his executive order on immigration, which resulted in the blocking of his plan aimed at protecting millions of undocumented immigrants.



"It is my firm belief that it will be in the interest of the United States, especially our economic interest, to pursue comprehensive immigration reform," Obama said.



Obama stressed the importance of trade in supporting American jobs, and work on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal that Trump says will result in the loss of American jobs.

During the question and answer period, Nieto voiced support for benefits he said have resulted from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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."
The specifics of whether China can lay claim to the heavily-contested waters of the South China Sea may have been resolved by The Hague's ruling in favor of the Philippines, but business and trade relations between the two countries could still cloud the issue.

In a bid to distance himself from the Philippines' previous administration, and avoid retaliation from Beijing for the ruling, the country's new president, Rodrigo Duterte, has indicated that he might be willing to make concessions on the South China Sea issue, explained Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, China was the Philippines' second largest trading partner and third largest export market in 2015.

Ian Chong Ja, a professor specializing in Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore, said hostile behavior was to be expected of Beijing in the medium term, as it went through a period of adjustment and reform at home.

"Domestic leeway for Beijing to look soft on the world stage will be diminished[and we can expect] similar reactions from China across the Pacific, whether it's the Diaoyu Islands, the management of Hong Kong and Taiwan [relations]," he said.

Chong said that in the long term, however, China still wanted to work with its neighbors.

This was reflected in a Chinese white paper published immediately after the ruling on July 13 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal, which Chong said which made "some room for negotiation" on issues relating to territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said Friday that social and political turmoil in the United States and beyond is creating a challenging operating environment for the world's largest coffee chain.

Still, he said he could not say those issues were causing Americans to make fewer stops at their local Starbucks.

Schultz first addressed the issue during the company's earnings conference call on Thursday, citing anxiety stemming from the U.S. presidential campaign, domestic racial tensions and terror attacks.

"There is no doubt that we are navigating through a very unusual time of a confluence of social and political turmoil at home, weakening consumer confidence, and clearly increasing global uncertainty," he told "Squawk Box" on Friday.



"All of that, I think, has created pressure on the consumer," he said.

Shares of Starbucks came under pressure after the company on Thursday reported its global same-store sales increased less than Wall Street analysts expected.

Share prices were up slightly on Friday.
The Republican Party's pledge to support the U.S. shale oil and gas industry would bolster the sector, while another Democratic president could produce more drilling delays, IHS Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin said Friday.

While U.S. exploration and production companies can generally obtain a drilling license within 30 days from state agencies, it can take several months to get permission to operate on federal land, he said.

"I think you would see a stronger industry" if it was easier to obtain federal permission, Yergin told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "What we're hearing from the Democrats is that they really want more regulation."

"It would slow things down," he said.

The Obama administration has announced regulations to cap methane emissions from new and modified oil and gas wells and stricter controls on federal lands for hydraulic fracturing, the technology that has fueled the U.S. shale boom, citing concerns over climate change and public health. The energy industry has roundly criticized those measures.



To be sure, more drilling on federal land may have simply contributed to lower oil prices by adding to a glut of crude, thereby dialing up the pain on hard-hit U.S. drillers, Again Capital partner John Kilduff previously told "Squawk Box."

Indeed, U.S. production is bound to continue falling as crude markets rebalance, Yergin said. The country's output slipped to 8.9 million barrels per day in April from a 45-year high of nearly 9.7 million bpd a year earlier.

The fact remains a wide gulf exists between Democrats and Republicans in terms of energy policy. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has vowed to enforce or extend policies that would slash U.S. oil consumption by a third and generate a third of domestic electricity from renewable sources by 2027.

Yergin noted, however, that the outright ban on hydraulic fracturing proposed by Clinton's rival-turned-supporter Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont did not make it into the Democrat's 2016 platform.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm to be energy secretary if elected to the White House, Reuters reported Thursday, citing four sources close to Trump's campaign.

The chief executive of Continental Resources would be the first U.S. energy secretary drawn directly from the oil and gas industry since the cabinet position was created in 1977, a move that would jolt environmental advocates but bolster Trump's pro-drilling energy platform.

Yergin said the nomination would provide for an "interesting" confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. The Republicans currently hold both houses of Congress, but Democrats are seen as having a shot at taking the Senate.

 Reuters contributed to this story.


watch now

Silicon Valley Republicans praised billionaire investor Peter Thiel for his speech at the Republican Party Convention on Thursday night, in particular, for calling on the party to focus on real issues such as wealth inequality, the economy and security, instead of what some termed faux culture wars and identity politics. The debate about who gets to use which bathroom is a distraction from real problems, said Thiel, a comment which strongly resonated with members of the San Francisco Republican Party and The San Francisco Log Cabin Republicans  the founding chapter of the nation's largest Republican LGBT organization  at a viewing party hosted by a tech incubator located in the same San Francisco building as Twitter. "I love that he said that because I feel strongly about that," said Eric Gonzalles, a tech worker at a company which recently went public, and former Marine who completed two tours of duty in Iraq.

The overriding perception  at least, at this party  was that Thiel's speech, with its focus on tech, the economy and small government, had been a resounding success. "He hit in exactly what he needed to, which was that we need to focus down on what's important for the average American," said John Hessling, a tech worker who plans to vote for Trump. "Economics and national security are things that are the most important in everyone's lives."

Thiel's public acknowledgment of his homosexuality on the GOP stage  and the positive response he received from GOP delegates  was another highlight, said attendees we spoke with. Among Log Cabin members, both gay and straight, many felt that Thiel had struck the right balance by establishing his Republican credentials before telling the audience he is proud to be gay and proud to be a Republican. "This convention is to focus on the party's future, candidates and winning in November," said Fred Schein, a retired federal auditor and Vietnam veteran who is openly gay and the president of Log Cabin Marin, Calif. "His gayness was not directly relevant to that, and so there was no need to focus on that, and he didn't." "It's Important for people not to look at gay people within the Republican party as token gays," said Michael Gofman, an incoming freshman to the University of California, Davis and member of the San Francisco Log Cabin Republicans. Gofman is straight but said the Log Cabin group has the most interesting and diverse mix of people and events. "He showed mainstream Republicans, 'I look just like you,' and he showed regular gay people that, 'you could look just like me,' said Gofman.



Many people expressed relief to see Thiel elevated within the Republican party, an indication that there is a level of tolerance not necessarily consistent with the GOP's anti-gay platform. This is particularly important to young voters, said Gofman. "You hear the GOP's platform and you see 'wow what an anti-gay platform - everyone in the GOP must be a straight white male,' and then you see this guy and you go 'oh wow, obviously there's a little more to this,' he said. Gofman was so impressed by Thiel's speech, he said had he been on the fence about whether to cast his vote in Trump's favor, he would have been convinced.

That said, feelings about Trump remained mixed among this crowd, with some still undecided as to whether they would in fact vote for their party's nominee for the White House.

"I have a really hard time with some of his rhetoric," said Troy Bodnar, a nurse and openly gay member of the Log Camp Republicans who may vote Libertarian in November. "It's going to take me a lot to vote for Trump."

Several other attendees said they had come around to their party's nominee for President, and were pleased that Thiel had so strongly endorsed him. It is hard to talk openly about politics in Silicon Valley, especially with tech CEOs "preaching these liberal policies" and "colleagues wearing paraphernalia in support of Hillary Clinton," said Gonzalles He plans to vote for Trump, though Ted Cruz had been his first choice. "I do feel uncomfortable to speak about it, but I am a proud conservative," he said.
CLEVELAND  There had been hints that Donald Trump, the freshly crowned Republican presidential nominee, might start reaching out beyond his core constituency of blue-collar whites.

The investor Peter Thiel addressed the convention hall Thursday, heavy with conservative Christians, and declared himself a gay man proud to be a Republican.



Ivanka Trump, with a glittering smile and winning manner, reassured women that her father would fight for equal pay and affordable child-care.



When she finished, her proud father embraced her and took the podium. And then the message got dark.



A shouting, glowering Trump painted a hellish picture of America as a place of economic devastation and mortal fear. Conjuring the same emotions that powered his primary campaign, he portrayed illegal immigrants, not as strivers seeking a better life for their families in the United States, but as intruders taking Americans' jobs and menacing their personal safety.



He accused the Obama administration of allowing Islamist terrorism to grow unchecked under the guidance of his then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He summarized the legacy of the former first lady and senator from New York succinctly: "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."



He accused corporate elites of conspiring with her to betray American workers through international trade deals that destroyed their jobs. He rejected "globalism" in favor of "Americanism," and cast his first job as cracking down on those who threaten police officers and public safety.
Wal-Marts Im Perfect brand of bagged apples sold at some stores. Source: Walmart

It might be hip for supermarkets such as Wal-Mart to embrace the sale of so-called ugly produce as a way to reduce food waste, but whether it makes practical or economic sense to launch regular offerings of odd-looking or funny-shaped fruits and vegetables may be something different. Wal-Mart started selling branded and bagged apples at a discount earlier this week to consumers in about 300 of its Florida stores under the "I'm Perfect" label, but even smaller chains have found it difficult to get a steady stream of ugly fruits and veggies to continue such programs. The retailer may get a shipment of imperfect produce one week but then have to wait weeks or months until the next harvest brings more, thus making it difficult to keep stores regularly stocked with this cheaper-priced produce.

"Selling cosmetically imperfect produce is relatively rare right now," said Dana Gunders, a senior scientist in the food and agriculture program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Whole Foods has a pilot program, and there was a California chain, Raley's, that tried it for a little while but discontinued it."

Jeff Daniels | CNBC

Last year, Raley's, a West Sacramentobased chain with more than 130 stores, launched a 90-day pilot known as the "Real Good" produce program with plums, peppers and pears, but ultimately decided to end it and cited "some challenges sourcing the product." Whole Foods has a Northern California pilot with imperfect produce in five stores, and next week it plans to add a sixth location. Also, Giant Eagle, a Pittsburgh-based food retailer with more than 420 locations, earlier this year launched a program in its hometown market to sell "ugly" oranges, apples and potatoes.

Some of the odd produce eventually gets repurposed in store kitchens and used to make higher-margin prepared foods, such as fruit salads. Also, some of the fruit or vegetables considered undesirable for sale in markets may go to food-service companies that run cafeterias on corporate campuses, hospitals or universities  and a portion of it gets donated to food banks or sent to landfills, where it rots and turns into methane gas, which is a pollutant. "Food waste overall is a huge problem going into landfills," said NRDC's Gunders.
The company sells brownie, cookie and muffin-baking mixes from $6.99 to $8.99, as well as a variety of hot cocoa mixes for $5.99. Last year, Cisse launched Super Thins  snackable "brownie thins" with superfood toppings, which retail for $4.99 a bag.

Pronounced "see-say," the name of Lovett's company is an African girl's name. According to the founder, the word reminded her of her first visit to a fair tradecertified cocoa plantation in Ghana, the experience that inspired her to start her own company.

"I started Cisse Cocoa Co. out of my passion for chocolate and sustainable development," says Lovett, the company's CEO and founder. "As a graduate of Yale and Cambridge, I was lucky enough to do international development work. I lived in Africa. I worked for Doctors Without Borders. I kept trying to find a way to address the social needs I was seeing through a business," she tells CNBC.

Diana Lovett is an unlikely brownie baker. After attending Yale and then Cambridge on a Fulbright scholarship, she says her volunteer work (and deep love of chocolate) led to the launch of her own baking and cake-mix start-up.

"We source all of our cocoa from a cooperative in the Dominican Republic and reinvest into the community we source from," Lovett explains.

The cocoa serves as the base for all Cisse products. In addition, each box of baking mix comes with what the founder calls a traceability infographic, which shows consumers the journey of their cocoa from bean to box.

"For us, we believe the best way to drive supply chain responsibility is through transparency."

To combat competition from major brands like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury and Duncan Hines, who offer lower-priced "premium" baking mixes, the start-up has been out in stores demoing Cisse products for customers.



"We found the best way to introduce people to our brand is through their [stomachs]. That's really important to us. Offering consumers a bite is such a great way to introduce the product, and for them to sample the quality."



The founder would not disclose its sales numbers, but she did say she expects sales to "more than double" next year.



According to market research firm Mintel, which tracks the baking and dessert-mix industry in the U.S., a recent report found that 47 percent of consumers bought a brownie mix in the past three months, 29 percent a muffin or cupcake mix and 27 percent a cookie mix.



Mintel also projects that by 2019, industry sales are expected to decline to $2.5 billion, down from $2.7 billion in 2014. Analysts cite ongoing health concerns associated with consuming too many baked goods. The report also points to growing consumer confidence, which translates to more people dining out rather than cooking and baking at home.



Venture capitalist Nir Liberboim, founder of Uprise Ventures, raises the issue that a lot of consumers automatically assume that organic and fair trade mean healthy. But, he points out, Cisse's products still have a relatively high amount of sugar.



"We certainly don't pretend our brownies are healthy  they're a treat," Lovett explains. "I eat them in my household, along with our kale smoothies. It's all about balance."



Launched in 2011, Cisse is headquartered in Mamaroneck, NY, just outside of New York City. In under four years, the company has grown from 30 retail locations to more than 2,000, including Whole Foods, Target, Stop&Shop, Wegmans and others.
2.4 "Non-Commercial Solicitation" means any distribution of leaflets, brochures or other written material, or oral speech to a passersby, conducted without intent to obtain commercial or private pecuniary gain. This definition does not include the dissemination of information for purposes of the administrative, academic, research, or extension activities of the University....

3.1 Groups or individuals wishing to conduct any form of solicitation on University premises must have the written permission of the Student Involvement in advance. All forms of solicitation must be approved by Student Involvement, and, if applicable, by the administrator responsible for the facility or location where the activity is to be held. However, except for University-approved vendors, groups may not conduct any form of solicitation at University-sponsored or hosted events held at Carter-Finley Stadium, Murphy Football Center, Vaughn Towers, PNC Arena and/or the parking lots surrounding these facilities.

In a statement to the Daily Signal , NCSU said:

NC State appreciates the court's review of this matter, and we will follow the court's preliminary ruling. The university remains an environment that fosters and enables the healthy and free exchange of ideas and viewpoints by our students and academic community. The ruling is not in response to a concern over the university's actual application of the policy, which is content neutral.

Imagine a college student who has just formed a student group. In order to generate interest in this group, the student goes to the student union and passes out flyers for the inaugural meeting.According to North Carolina State University, this student has just violated campus policy by failing to gain prior approval for his "solicitation."The policy in question is University Regulation 07.25.12, entitled "Solicitation." The policy reads:Just two days after a preliminary hearing in June, a United States district court judge ordered an injunction against the NCSU policy on the grounds that the policy facially violated the First Amendment.The lawsuit, brought by a Christian student group, claims that NCSU's policy amounts to an unconstitutional prohibition on free speech. Furthermore, the students claim to have witnessed and documented numerous instances when NCSU administrators failed to enforce the solicitation policy on other student groups.said Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the student group.Despite the judge finding that the student group had sufficiently established that the lawsuit is likely to succeed in overturning the campus policy, and that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm if the policy were to remain in place, NCSU has stood by its policy.Unfortunately, numerous First Amendment experts disagree that NCSU's policy itself is constitutionally sound. Writing for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Adam Steinbaugh explained that, "A university cannot say 'you can't speak ever without permission.' Even if such a policy were reasonable in scope, it cannot then fail to say what the criteria are to be eligible for such a permit."This isn't the first time NSCU has been scrutinized for impeding students' free speech rights. A portion of campus known as the "free expression tunnel" is often at the center of controversy. The tunnel connects two parts of campus and is marketed to students as a place where they can paint anything they wish to express.In 2008 there was uproar following an offensive statement painted in the tunnel. In this case, however, the administration wearily stood on the side of free expression. Then-Chancellor James Oblinger stated that In response, students and local NAACP leaders formed a human blockade to restrict access to the tunnel for all students.In 2011 the controversy shifted to NCSU's campus housing civility policy. The policy mandated that residentswhich includedandThe vague policy led FIRE to write a letter to NCSU chancellor Randy Woodson explaining the issues with the policy and citing case law clearly indicating that courts would likely find the policy indefensible. Fortunately, the administration amended the policy to state that theUnfortunately, by 2015 the NCSU administration appeared to forget their legal obligations to protect free expression. In another free expression tunnel controversy, administrators provided students with stencils that readand encouraged students to use them to cover any messages in the tunnel that students thought were hate speech or offensive language. While this move wasn't challenged as blatantly unconstitutional, FIRE's Susan Kruth explained that,In the past decade, we've observed countless lawsuits against similar policies in effect at universities. And they don't hold up in court. The case law regarding a university's obligation to protect the First Amendment is extensive, and has demonstrated that the courts nearly always side with the plaintiffs.NCSU, with its less than stellar free speech record, will likely settle or lose this case. And to what end? It is spending taxpayer money defending a policy that, in practice, deprives students of their free speech rights. In this case especially, by requiring prior approval for speech, the university is stifling spontaneous interactions.At this point it would be wise for NSCU to eliminate the solicitation policy and seriously reevaluate its commitment to free expression.
A contract is a promise, or set of promises, between willing parties. The law of contracts is a body of law as old as the Anglo-American division of law and equity. When a contract is breached, law and equity provide remedies. In fact, the definition of contract includes the phrase "for the breach of which the law gives a remedy." Court of law provide monetary remedies for breach while courts of equity provide unique remedies designed to relieve the aggrieved party when monetary awards are inadequate, such as forcing performance by the defaulting party. [This is where we get the words in Article III. Section 2, of the US Constitution: "The judicial power of the United States shall extend to all cases, in Law and Equity."] Synonymous with the term "contract" are "agreement" and "compact." Throughout Anglo-American history, people have organized their government through compacts or "social compacts." The philosopher, John Locke, who our Founders leaned most heavily in founding our country and drafting our foundational documents, explained that individuals, when organized in societies, form their government by way of social compact.Historical Anglo-American jurisprudence provided a party aggrieved by a breach of contract certain choices by law: First, he could choose to proceed to a court of law and seek damages for the loss of money in reliance upon the contract being fulfilled. In such a court, the aggrieved party would seek from the party in breach such sums as would place him in as good a position as he would have been had the contract been fully performed. Alternatively, a court of equity could enforce the contract for the aggrieved party by ordering "specific performance" by the defaulting party - that is, the court would force the party to fulfil his obligations under the contract. Finally, Anglo-American equity jurisprudence provided for another remedy for breach of contract - "rescission," or the annulment of the contract. Since the end of the eighteenth century in England, rescission has often been used as a remedy in conjunction with "restitution." The aggrieved party would ask the court to annul the contract and, at the same time, ask that he be made whole for his own performance, thereby placing him in the same position he occupied before he entered into the contract.For a States to claim the right of secession from the Union, the Constitution must be construed to be an agreement created by the States as parties.Unquestionably, the Constitution was created as a social compact. It had all the requisites of a contract. There were parties: thirteen States, to which were added those that similarly ratified the document in the years after 1781. There was mutuality: each State promised to give up some of its sovereignty in exchange for what the Union promised to deliver - for receiving a "common defense" and some regulation of commerce between the States where it was necessary to ensure free trade. The Constitution was created by the States and ratified by the States, each acting in Convention. It could only be amended by and between the States. And if there was any doubt about the fact that the Constitution was an agreement entered into by and between the States, Article VII states: "." If, then, the Constitution is a compact, what is the remedy for a State or a group of States harmed by a breach of the Constitution by the federal government or other States? [Under Agency law, the "agent" (government) would be fired]. The only remedy, short of persuading the party or parties in breach to conform, is the equitable remedy of rescission.As most people already know, several states posed obstacles to the adoption of the US Constitution and the formation of the new Union. The states of Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island proved to be battleground states. Ratification by the State of Virginia was made possible only so long as the people of Virginia expressly and specifically retained the right of rescission. The Virginia resolution of ratification of June 26, 1788 read, in part:." The vote in favor of adoption was narrow, 89-79. Virginia was only able to obtain this vote by linking ratification to amendments to be added for a Bill of Rights, which they recommended.In New York, the battle was just as fierce. Like Virginia, the resolution of ratification was made expressly subject to its peoples' right of rescission. It read, in part:." The vote in favor of adoption was 30-27. Also following Virginia's lead, the delegates to the NY Ratifying Convention then presented a veritable catalogue of rights that they believed should be added to the Constitution by way of amendment (a Bill of Rights).North Carolina and Rhode Island didn't ratify the Constitution until after George Washington was already sworn in as the first president of the United States in 1789. They waited until the first US Congress presented a Bill of Rights, as the States has demanded. North Carolina finally ratified the Constitution on November 21, 1789 and Rhode Island ratified on May 29, 1790 (after refusing to consider ratification and joining the Union seven times!!). Like Virginia and New York, Rhode Island adopted the Constitution subject to an express right to resume their delegated powers. It's Resumption Clause read, in pertinent part:Because the adoption of the Constitution by Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island was accepted including their Resumption Clauses, those stipulations became part of the agreement or compact, thereby providing the same benefit to all the States of the Union.The framers and ratifiers of the Constitution unquestionably understood the Constitution to be a "compact." The voluminous records documenting the debates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia of 1787 and the State Ratifying Conventions are replete with references to the Constitution as a "compact." The Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Essays use the same language, arguing for and against the ratification of the Constitution, respectively. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the authors of our most important foundational documents, referred to the Constitution as such in their Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, respectively and the Southern States, in their Ordinances of Secession did likewise. When Massachusetts attempted to secede from the Union in 1814-1815, it also referred to the Constitution as a compact from which it retained the right to rescind. James Madison declared long after the ratification of the Constitution that "."If the Constitution is a compact, and it could be rescinded or annulled upon a breach, what would be sufficient to constitute a breach? Whatever would constitute a breach is left wholly to the States seeking the extraordinary remedy of rescission. Obviously, in the words of James Madison's 1800 Report on the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, the offensive act would have to be "."While the governments of monarchs and dictators that ravaged Europe for centuries were based on the "universal law" that governments are not created by instruments that provide a mechanism for their own dissolution, the American government system flips that system on its head. The Declaration of Independence, embracing Natural Law and rejecting the Divine Right of Kings, proclaims that governments are only temporary in nature and are instituted among the People, by the People, and for the People for the primary purposes of securing their inalienable rights and for effecting their happiness. "" The Constitution, drafted to embrace the principles proclaimed in the Declaration, is therefore a revolutionary document. It is a revolutionary instrument created by a revolutionary people at the end of a successful revolution fought to end the rule of a monarch on the American States and the American people and to guarantee fundamental liberties to all citizens. The government created by the Constitution is worth keeping only so long as it serves this end. Sadly, this fundamental understanding of the formation of the Union was completely lost on Lincoln (or he was willfully and ambitiously blind to this understanding). The War of 1861 and the lies perpetrated on the country by the "victors" (because the victors have the luxury of telling the story and vilifying the conquered) have obscured the truth of our Constitution and our history. The transformation of our country from a republic to one oppressed by an over-zealous central government in the consequence of these lies.The Constitution's text and history before the Civil War did NOT change as a result of the surrender at Appomattox. Contracts do not textually change by the use of brute force; contracts change ONLY by the agreement of the parties. The Constitution was still a "constitution between the States" after the war as it was before. It remains so now.If the government created by the Constitution ceases to guarantee liberty, there must be a remedy available to those oppressed by it. It is not the courts; the citizens may not even have standing to challenge the actions of the federal government, and moreover, the courts are creatures of the very government that would be the oppressor. To be sure, courts are not competent to even address constitutional challenges to acts of Congress that allege that those acts undermine the liberties of citizens and invade the powers reserved to the States. Resorting to the ballot may be ineffectual; the votes of a few metropolitan areas may negate the votes of all other regions. More than that, fundamental liberties should never be subject vote. What remains to protect individual liberties are the States as parties to the Constitution. As parties, they must exercise their "duty" to protect their citizens from a federal government that has grown too powerful, too intrusive, too dictatorial. They do that by exercising the right that parties to agreements have exercised for literally hundreds of years: to stand up to actions that invade the liberties of citizens and the reserved powers of the States by, first, nullifying the unconstitutional acts and then, if the federal government persists, seceding. The framers and ratifiers would not have thought any differently. After all, although they were revolutionaries who created a revolutionary form of government, they were also the inheritors of an Anglo-American legal tradition that had been developed over hundreds of years, which defined contracts and remedies available to those injured by the breach thereof.The conflicts that divide Americans today are certainly as profound as those in other periods of our history, including those that compelled the Colonies to separate from Great Britain, those that troubled Massachusetts in 1815, and those that troubled the Southern States from 1828 to 1860. The numerous laws, voluminous regulations, and many illegitimate rulings by the Supreme Court have abused and usurped our rights and liberties and have, in effect, evidenced the design by the federal government to consolidate us into a one-size-fits all nation untethered to the States which used to be obligated to protect us. The reasons for the Constitution have been frustrated and now forgotten. Clearly, the grounds to rescind the compact are legitimate and numerous.In the history of the world, principles have always been more important than geographical boundaries. We have to ask ourselves what our alternatives are in order to preserve our traditional American principles. If we continue to believe they are being subverted and eroded, and if we continue to believe that our rights, our freedoms, and our liberty are being threatened and violated, then we have to ask ourselves what our rightful remedies are.Donald Livingston, ed. "Rethinking the American Union for the 21st Century," Pelican Publishing Company, 2013.Kent Masterson Brown, "Secession: A Constitutional Remedy," in "Rethinking the American Union for the 21st Century," Pelican Publishing Company, 2013.Thomas DiLorenzo, "The Founding Fathers of Constitutional Subversion," in "Rethinking the American Union for the 21st Century," Pelican Publishing Company, 2013.
I am an undergraduate summer 2016 reporter with an emphasis in arts & culture journalism. When I'm not being a student, you can catch me hiking, making music or trying new food. Feel free to shoot me an email at jjhwy6@mail.missouri.edu.

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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
Hello, I'm a reporter for summer 2016. I'm a dual major in journalism and English, a Californian and a lover of desserts. I look forward to covering a variety of topics, and would love to hear from you. Email me at kelseyhurwitz@mail.missouri.edu.

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Missouri's Abrams-Draine draws NFL Draft hype at cornerback

Missouri's Kris Abrams-Draine is only in his second season as a full-time defensive back, but the junior is drawing NFL Draft hype.
The cop-killing gunman, 29-year-old Gavin Long, who ambushed police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, leaving three law enforcement officers dead and another three wounded on Sunday morning is slowly being understood by authorities. Long, who was shot dead by police officers responding to his unprovoked attack, is being "wrapped around" most of the news outlets, who've always shown a preference for stories that accuse police of showing a propensity for violence and racism.According to analysts at the accurate organization Homeland Security News Wire (HSNW), Gavin Long appears to have been motivated by 1960's-era Black Nationalism movement. Its leaders - such as Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammed and the Nation of Islam, the original Black Panthers and the Symbionese Liberation Army - called on African Americans to violently fight back against the "white power structure" in the United States. Some even advocated taking land in the U.S. and creating their own Black Power nation.For example, in 1971 in New York City, Police Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini were shot and killed while on foot patrol in the Colonial Park Houses public housing complex, at 159th Street and Harlem River Drive. They were ambushed by members of the Black Liberation Army.As the two patrolmen were returning to their cruiser three suspects snuck up behind them and opened fire. Patrolman Jones was struck in the back of the head and killed instantly. Patrolman Piagentini was shot 13 times and succumbed to his injuries en route to the hospital.One of the suspects stole Patrolman Jones' weapon which was later recovered in San Francisco, California, after several BLA members executed a San Francisco police officer, Sergeant John Victor Young.The three suspects were arrested and sentenced to 25 years to life. One of the suspects died in prison. The other two have been denied parole several times. These two suspects, along with five others, were also involved in the murder of Sgt. Young of the San Francisco Police Department on August 29th, 1971. One has a parole hearing in June, 2018, and the other has his hearing in February, 2018.Five days after the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, Long posted a video on YouTube to express his views on the incident:Long said.In another video, referring to Native Americans, Long said,In another video, he praised the Deacons for Defense - a group of African Americans who formed an armed self-defense group during the civil rights movement of the 1960s - as men whoLong said in another video.According to Homeland Security News Wire,
The film that was anticipated with bated breath by millions of fans and movie buffs all around the world is finally out. The regular movie-goers would have seen Rajinikanth in different kinds of films, but what is special about Kabali is his collaboration with a two-film-old young director Ranjith which has played a big part in the curiosity levels of the audience. This combo is something new and fresh. And hence what is it going to offer to the viewer, is the standard thought in many minds.



Kabali is about an aged, reformed gangster Kabaleeswaran who had fought for the oppressed in Malaysia and returns from his jail stay after twenty-five years. What life has in store for him after this, is the turf in which Ranjith has played his shots, the scene of action being predominantly Malaysia.



The director gets into action without wasting any time starting with a small build-up scene for the lead and the very next frame he takes you to the highly anticipated hero intro scene. This happens with a lot of measured calculation, slowly building the tempo and reaching the crescendo powerfully, making Rajini fans come to their seat's end with a thumping heartbeat which becomes a collective loud one eventually. Ranjith has used Rajinis swagger to his advantage, albeit at a different pace.



There are hardly any scenes that pass which do not involve Rajinikanth in it but Ranjith has made sure that he has put all his acting resources to good effect. All the characters have been established having Rajinikanth alongside them.



Kabali shows another side of a gangster. Apart from the fancy costumes, guns and other style elements you find in gangster films, this film shows an emotional side of a gangster. His thought process, how he handles betrayal, tackles his enemies are all showcased neatly. A gangster cannot be powerful always. Likewise, Kabali's graph has a lot of ups and downs. He is strong and normal with friends and family but could be feeble when he is betrayed or when he lets emotions rule over him. Ranjith has played very well with such emotions.



It is easily Rajinikanths show and the style samrat delivers it all with vigor. Rajini has quite a few sentimental scenes which have come out well. When it comes to Kabali, more than his mass mannerisms, it is the sentimental scenes of him that will be the talking point.



The hard work that has gone into the flashback segments in terms of physical appearance is praiseworthy. But there are times when the younger Rajinikanth looks a little out of place.



Radhika Apte as Rajinis wife Kumudavalli, is apt. The actress known for her subtle nuances holds her fort in this Rajini film too. Dhansika is effective in her action avatar. Kishore, Kalaiayarasan, John Vijay, Rhythvika, Dinesh and all the other supporting characters have managed to provide the right kind of foil for this superstar film.



On the technical side, Santhosh Narayanans score is a major plus to the film with the songs not being an unwanted protraction. Maya Nadhi is melodious and brings out a matured affection. Veera Thurandhara and Neruppu Da up the mutineering mood as montages. Muralis camera captures the Superstar in his stylish best and Malaysia in its right feel. Editor Praveen has ensured that the product is at its cohesive best. Anu Vardhans costumes for Rajini are suave and classy, especially his suits. Ramalingams set designs and Anbarivs action sequences reveal that the team has worked in unison with the directors vision. However in the climax scene, the art department could have worked a little better.



The pace of the film is a little slow. It is not a film for people who are used to cliched mass hero films. Ranjith is known for his pro oppressed class ideologies, and he does not fail to showcase them in his films. There are some interesting tropes in Kabali too and a few sharp dialogues.



That said, the teaser of the film gave a super massy expectation for the film but when the films core is not that, it might give room for a little disappointment. And in a gangster film such as this, the antagonists should have been more powerful which would have made the protagonist much stronger. Sadly, despite having many villains, this did not come through.



Kabali is more of a Ranjith film than Rajini's. Some of the scenes and characterizations do remind you of the director's previous film Madras. One should say the screenplay could have been tighter. Usually, when a new director works with a big star like Rajinikanth, they tend to adjust the flow of the film for the hero's stardom but Ranjith has extracted what he wanted for his script without compromising much.
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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

The Raleigh Springs Mall continues to operate as it shrinks.

Even as the air-conditioning kept the vast halls comfortable and the sound system entertained a handful of patrons with upbeat radio music on Thursday, a demolition crew removed the big box left vacant by the 2011 closing of Sears.

Sears had anchored the southwest end of the 45-year-old mall. The J.C. Penney space that had anchored the northeast end was razed four years ago.

Except for a few exercisers in for a cool walk, a fraying thread of businesses gave the place a weak pulse Thursday.

The only open stores that a reporter could spot before being politely escorted outside by a mall representative were Citi Trends clothing store and the World Diamond Center jewelry store. A church also meets there.

The 63-acre mall site had opened with 55 stores in 1971 and remained healthy until Wolfchase Galleria opened in 1997 less than seven miles further out from the Memphis core.

The strange situation -- a mall operating as a big section of it is razed -- results from a court fight between the property's remaining two owners.

Out-of-town investors doing business as Raleigh Mall RPS LLC own the remaining heart of the mall. The City of Memphis has purchased the rest with plans to demolish it all and redevelop there with a $32 million civic complex.

The issue is apparently how much money the city, through its Memphis Housing Authority, is willing to pay for the part the city does not own yet.

Memphis Housing Authority has started the eminent domain process for a third time, having repeated a public hearing last week about its redevelopment plans.

The first two attempts failed after Shelby County Circuit Court Judge James F. Russell ruled Memphis Housing Authority did not properly conduct the public notification process.

If the court awards the city posession this time, the lawsuit will switch to the next phase that focuses on how much Raleigh Mall RPS LLC should be paid for its property.

Out-of-court negotiations have failed.

Last week, the mall investor-owners issued a press release stating, "The press has been told multiple times that the owners of the Mall want 'six million dollars' from the City. Actually, in April, the owners offered to sell the Mall for just over half that amount. The City refused this offer.''

The owners are willing to sell, "but they cannot sell it for an amount that would result in a loss,'' the release states.

"... The recent demolition works and needless fencing caused further damage to the Mall's business and elevated the tenants' fears,'' the owners stated. "The City has no legitimate business reason for engaging in these activities while the Mall is still privately owned and open for business.''

Baker Donelson attorney Jonathan Hancock, who represents MHA in the eminent domain case, said the agency had the property appraised and bases what it believes to be the fair market value on the appraisal.

In coming weeks, the MHA board will make a recommendation to the City Council about the redevelopment plan. If the City Council approves, MHA would return to court to seek possession of the mall through eminent domain.

Attorney Kirk Caraway of Allen Summers represents the mall owners.

Should the court grant the city possession, then both sides would make their cases to the court about the fair market value.
Site work continued Friday morning at the old Mall of Memphis site. A construction permit application shows TAG Truck Center plans to build $23 million worth of facilities there. (By Thomas Bailey/The Commercial Appeal).

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

TAG Truck Center this week filed construction documents showing it intends to build facilities valued at more than $23 million at the old Mall of Memphis site.

One application for a construction permit shows that TAG will build a $16.7 million distribution and training center at 4430 American Way.

A separate application shows plans for a parts and service center at 4450 American Way, with that construction valued at more than $6.8 million.

The business sells about 2,000 new Freightliner, Mitsubishi and Sprinter trucks annually, plus 600 used trucks, president Tommy Earl said Friday.

Business is good, Earl said. Its not as good as last year, but Memphis is a distribution center. Everything comes through Memphis... This is a great place to be.

Linkous Construction will build the facilities designed by Oklahoma architecture firm Fitzgerald + Associates.

The Memphis-based freight truck dealership revealed its plans in January. It purchased the former mall property Dec. 29 for $3.9 million.

TAG Truck Center is consolidating at the American Way site its five local operations  four in Memphis and one in West Memphis. They include the headquarters at 1650 E. Brooks Road. The company has five other locations in a five-state region.

The front of the new truck complex will face American Way; the back will front I-240.

TAG was founded in 2007 when Earl and chief financial officer Gary Dodson bought four dealership locations form Barloworld Truck Center.

The name TAG comes from Tommy and Gary.

Earl said in January that construction would start this summer and be finished in summer 2017.

TAGs 165 Memphis-area employees will move to the American Way site.

While TAG sells parts and provides truck repair services, truck sales generate most of the companys revenues, Earl said. The new trucks sell for an average of $150,000 each, he said, adding, Thats a lot of revenue.

TAG will use only about 40 of its 113 acres where the Mall of Memphis stood until being razed about a dozen years ago. TAG is listing the other 70-plus acres for sale.

Trezevant Realty Corp. is the commercial real estate firm representing TAG, Earl said. Some conversations have occurred about selling the land, including with a distribution company that has shown some interest.

Nothing is sold yet, he said.

Dirt work for TAGs new facilities started early last week.

Its pretty exciting, Earl said.

Johnson Development bought the former mall property in 2012 for $2.7 million, and with partner Huntington Industrial Partners  Atlanta planned to build an industrial park there.

But the partnership dropped its plans after the city-county EDGE board declined to offer tax incentives for speculative industrial buildings.
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By Stephanie Norton of The Commercial Appeal

The city of Memphis will operate a cooling center throughout the weekend for residents looking to escape the heat.

The center at Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Avenue, will be open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. Friday through Sunday.

People seeking relief during normal business hours are encouraged to visit malls, shopping centers, libraries and community centers.

For more information, call the City of Memphis Office of Emergency Management at (901) 636-2525.
"One Memphis, One Vision" activist DeVante Hill talks to the media before his arraignment last week. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal)

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By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

An attorney for activist DeVante Hill said Friday he is working to have his charge of false reporting dismissed.

Hill's case was reset for one week in Shelby County General Sessions court.

"We are working right now on gathering information that, I believe, will lead to getting this case dismissed for Mr. Hill," said attorney Charles Waldman.

Hill, 24, linked arms with Memphis police Director Michael Rallings on July 10, the night protesters shut down the Hernando DeSoto bridge. And the following day, Hill was a panelist at a town hall meeting with city leaders.

On July 14, Hill went to the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center to clear up two warrants. One related to an allegation of driving while his license was suspended or revoked and failure to exercise due care in 2013. That case was dismissed.

He was taken into custody on a charge of false reporting that Hill said relates to his stolen MacBook. He was released July 14 on $7,500 bond.

According to a law enforcement affidavit, Hill reported March 31, 2013, his Apple laptop was stolen in a burglary. In March 2016, he reported he located the laptop as being in the 1600 block of West Churchill. A man gave a statement that he bought the laptop from a Craigslist post Dec. 24, 2012 and identified Hill as the seller. The man provided cellphone records that he had called a number registered to Hill, the affidavit states.

Hill told The Commercial Appeal his laptop was stolen in North Memphis and he traced it to Germantown, but the officer he talked to was skeptical. Hill described his legal battles as "perfect timing."

Before he was detained, Hill said that death threats he has received and the warrant over the laptop will not deter the mission for One Memphis One Vision.

"I'm going to remain relentless," he said. "We're not going to quit."

On Friday, Hill announced a backpack giveaway August 6 at Robert Church Park.

"One Memphis One Vision, we're about to start giving away to the city," he said. "We're about to start being the light in the city. So it's enough to protest, but we've also got to be the light as well."
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By Thomas Novelly, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

CLEVELAND  Beada Corum has witnessed many presidential elections in her lifetime. She's 93, after all.

But this year's race was the first where she decided it was worth taking part. She finally found a candidate worth her vote: Donald Trump.

"The first time I ever heard him speak, he made a lot of sense," the Knoxville area resident said. "I felt like the Lord sent him to take care of the American people."

Corum was in Cleveland this week for the Republican National Convention where she served as an alternate delegate.

Corum was sitting in the corner of a loud dueling piano bar during a Tennessee delegation event on Thursday afternoon. Over the loud renditions of Billy Joel, she spoke amid loud whispers from one ear to the other. Corum is hard of hearing.

Wearing a blue blazer and a gold American flag pin, Corum lit up with enthusiasm about why she is voting for Trump.

"Well, it seems like all the candidates in the past have focused on the past," Corum said. "We need to talk about improving the present."

Corum grew up in Indiana and at 6-years-old moved to Knoxville. She spent her life working as a supervisor in a plant that manufactured military supplies and materials.

When asked about the highlights of her nearly 100 years of life, she immediately pointed to the two moments where she met Trump.

In August 2015 she had the chance to talk with him on the phone during a Fox Business Network segment and had the chance to tell him how much she respected his politics. Several months later, Trump reached out to her. He wanted her to speak during one of his campaign events in Knoxville.

In November, she introduced him to a crowded room and encouraged everyone to register to vote  something she had done for the first time in her life just a few months before.

Corum said she has enjoyed every second of the convention in Cleveland, and said the highlights for her have been getting to hear from Trump's family.

"He has a wonderful family," Corum said. "He has raised great kids. And I can just tell that his older son is going to be the next president of the united states after his daddy."

For Corum, she said it's simple. She said has been around for almost a century, and she can tell when someone is telling the truth.

"We need to make America great again," Corum said. "And he'll do it. I know it."
The Commercial Appeal files A new absentee ballot counter was in operation on the second floor of the Courthouse on July 22, 1952, for those citizens who will be out of the city for the Aug. 7 elections. Thomas E. Frederick (left) said he would be in Kentucky on vacation. C.J. Loverde (second left) of 3720 Guernsey will be in New Hampshire. Helping them file their applications for absentee ballots were Mrs. Claude Pittman (second right) of 666 Landis and Miss Erwin Hansch of 1711 Glenwood Place.

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July 22

25 years ago: 1991

NASHVILLE  Rep. Alvin King has never been afraid to go against the crowd, and this time, he's going against his fellow black leaders in the Memphis mayor's race. King, the General Assembly's longest-serving black legislator and current chairman of the Shelby County Legislative Delegation, has often broken with his fellow black lawmakers on issues over the years. Now the Memphis Democrat is publicly refusing to back Willie Herenton, the retired school superintendent, for mayor. While King won't say whether he is supporting Mayor Dick Hackett, he is frank about why he is not backing Herenton. "I told Herenton 'I don't think you're going to win and I want to be with a winner. You can't win because you're running a racist campaign,'" King said. "All he's running on is that he's black  we all know that."

50 years ago: 1966

Plagued by stampeding girls, blinding flashbulbs and a barrage of peanuts, the police at the Herman's Hermits concert at the Mid-South Coliseum last night were thankful for one thing: They had wax in their ears. Previous experience of standing in front of the blaring speakers at rock 'n' roll shows has taught them the hard way, one officer explained. "You just got to have it." Most of the audience of just over 5,000, however, couldn't seem to get enough of the noise.

Before the Hermits came on, another rock group, the Animals, performed, playing their famous "House of the Rising Sun" and showing that they are at least correctly named.

75 years ago: 1941

WASHINGTON  A sharply divided Congress yesterday received from President Roosevelt an urgent appeal that it declare a national emergency so that Army selectees, National Guardsmen and reservists can be kept in service instead of being released after one year commitment.

100 years ago: 1916

A tie-up of the Memphis Street Railway lines is threatened today unless the company accedes to the demands of the newly organized union. The employees effected a permanent organization and elected L.A. Johns, a conductor, president.

125 years ago: 1891

The persecution of the Jews in Russia has been somewhat relaxed. The decree for the expulsion of Jewish artisans from St. Petersburg has been indefinitely postponed.
July 12, 2016  Protesters with the Black Lives Matter movement rally outside Graceland on Elvis Presley Blvd Tuesday afternoon. Roughly 60-70 people gathered peacefully outside the gates of the famous tourist destination. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

By Jacinthia Jones of The Commercial Appeal

Travis Pickens had never organized a rally or demonstration, but after the police killings days apart of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota, he was moved to coordinate a prayer vigil at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

He called the museum to alert them of his plans and was directed to get a permit from the city. On his permit application, Pickens said he wanted to hold the vigil to honor the lives of Sterling and Castile, and he noted that Sterling's funeral was planned for the same day.

"I went down, paid for the permit, got it notarized and they were supposed to email it to me," Pickens said. When he didn't hear back, he says he called the permit office and was told that his permit had been denied. "He (a supervisor at the permit office) said that I didn't file within the 14-day range or something," Pickens said.

Pickens said another worker told him his permit was denied because "they said we may get violent." The $25 nonrefundable fee Pickens paid for the permit was refunded.

The city's permit process for such gatherings is coming under increased scrutiny as some protesters, many of them first-time organizers, are questioning the requirements.

After demonstrators shut down the Hernando DeSoto bridge two weeks ago, interim police director Michael Rallings warned individuals to get permits for their protests. Organizers had a permit for the rally at the FedExForum, but not to march on the bridge. Protesters outside Graceland later that week didn't have a permit and were ordered by police to break into groups smaller than 25, which don't require permits.

In Pickens' case, it's unclear if he actually needed a permit since his vigil was on private property. He held it anyway, but only a half-dozen participants showed up on that Friday when rumors circulated about a Day of Rage across of the country.

While some cities like Memphis require a permit to assemble, others such as St. Louis, which has had dozens of rallies and marches since the fatal police shooting two years ago of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, don't require permits at all.

"It's freedom of speech," said Maggie Crane, communications director for the St. Louis mayor's office, responding to a text message inquiring about the process in that city. "We have a pretty good rapport with some of our protesters so that we can make sure that we're also keeping them safe.

"For example, as protesters blocked a major intersection downtown yesterday (Thursday), police were standing behind them to protect them from traffic. We take a reasonable approach to ensure the safety of those protesting along with efficiency and safety of the motoring public."

Steve Mulroy, a constitutional law professor and associate dean at the University of Memphis' Cecil C. Humphreys Law School, says requiring permits for individuals to gather is not a free speech violation as long as the permits are issued in a content-neutral manner and the process isn't unduly restrictive. "In other words, if it (application requirements) isn't harsher for anti-city protesters than city protesters or it doesn't distinguish between say a spiritual rally and political rally, for example," Mulroy said.

Where the city may have a problem, he said, is the 14-day notice the city requires to obtain a permit. That could be considered prior restraint on free speech, he said.

But he added that anecdotally, he has never heard of a permit being denied. If that starts happening for certain groups demonstrating about certain issues that would be problem, he said.

The 14-day notice can be waived by the police director, and a provision in the city ordinance also allows for 24 hours notification for "spontaneous events occasioned by news or affairs coming into public knowledge within three days of such public assembly."

An online guide for protesters by the ACLU says that the First Amendment prohibits advance notice requirements from being used to prevent protests in response to recent news events. "Also, many permit ordinances give too much discretion to the police or city officials to impose conditions on the event, such as the route of a march or the sound levels of amplification equipment," the ACLU guide says. "Such restrictions may violate the First Amendment if they are unnecessary for traffic control or public safety, or if they interfere significantly with effective communication to the intended audience. A permit cannot be denied because the event is controversial or will express unpopular views."

Paul Garner, an organizing coordinator at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, which has been holding rallies and protests for 30 years, said requiring permits for protests is questionable. "From what I understand about the history of permitted protests and things like that is that it is very much rooted in racism. The process originated during the Civil Rights era as a way to suppress resistance and repress people's ability to assemble and demonstrate. I think we have to look at the origin of where these ordinances come from."

He added that the permit process can be onerous for some, such as an individual who has had a family member killed and simply wants to hold a prayer vigil or "Stop the Violence" gathering. Plus, he said, individuals don't always know how many people will show up.

"There is prevailing narrative in Memphis where every time there's a protest we hear our elected officials and our appointed officials, like the police directors, yelling for people to remain peaceful and to be calm and don't leave your homes. But there's no precedent in Memphis for anything like that.

"I think Memphians as a whole are very committed to nonviolent direct action in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, and we've seen people push the envelope with civil disobedience, but I've never seen in my time here  and I've been here 10 years  I've never seen a protest where people were not committed to nonviolence whether that's philosophical or tactical  I've never seen that be problem."
GILLETTE  A University of Wyoming professor is leading NASA's effort in the state to help capture the movement of the next total solar eclipse.

The eclipse will occur Aug. 21, 2017. Michael Pierce is the Wyoming state coordinator for a NASA project aimed at creating a movie of the solar corona during the total eclipse.

The film will be captured using 61 telescope stations across the country, including nine in Wyoming.

The state's telescope locations include the city park in Riverton, Izaak Walton Park in Casper and Guernsey Elementary School. Pierce said high school teachers and students will monitor the telescopes and record the total eclipse on video at each point.

The last total solar eclipse to cross America occurred Feb. 26, 1979.
July 21, 2016  Rolfi Ramirez, 18, stands in the living room of the apartment he shares with family in East Memphis. Ramirez fled gang violence in his native Guatemala with the dream of finishing his education in the United States. He was denied enrollment with Shelby County Schools after he arrived in Memphis with temporary immigration status. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

By Maria Ines Zamudio of The Commercial Appeal

When a Shelby County Schools district administrator told Rolfi Ramirez he was too old to enroll in school his heart sank.

Ramirez, who was 17, risked his life to come to Memphis. He crossed two borders alone, traveled on top of a freight train and walked for days dodging dangerous drug cartels and immigration officials. He felt alone and scared but he prayed and thought about the new life that he was fighting for. But that day standing inside the district office, he felt defeated.

"My dream was to come here, go to school and learn English," he said in Spanish. "I wasn't able to do it."

Instead of going to school full time, he was directed to take ESL classes at Messick Adult Center three times per week. That only lasted a few month before Messick was shut down for low performance.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is investigating whether Shelby County Schools was biased against migrant children like Ramirez. The investigation, which started on July 13, is looking into issues "affecting English learners and limited English proficiency parental communications," according to a statement from the department.

The investigation began after the Exchange Club Family Center filed the complaint in February. The agency received federal aid to help unaccompanied minors who moved to Memphis. A case worker spotted an alarming trend: Migrant children who were 16 or older were being denied enrollment and were routed to Messick Adult Center.

"The students were also told that they could not enter high school if they could not show proof of any former high school credits received in their home country. Many students from Central America are not able to obtain school records from their country of origin. The majority of newly arrived unaccompanied children have fled their countries of origin due to persecution, community violence, abuse and many have been disconnected from their families as a result. These circumstances make obtaining school records a very difficult, if not impossible, task," the complaint stated. "We requested a written response from Shelby County Schools detailing the reasons that all ELL students 16 or older are only placed in adult education, we have not received a response."

In May, the Associated Press found that Shelby County Schools was among at least 35 districts in 14 states in which hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras had been discouraged from enrolling in school or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs.

It is unclear how many children were turned away from enrolling in Shelby County Schools, but between 2014 and 2016, about 2,352 unaccompanied minors relocated to the Memphis region, according to the database maintained by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, which monitors immigration courts.

After the AP story was published, Mauricio Calvo, executive director of Latino Memphis, met with district officials.

"I don't think it's intentional," Calvo said of district officials turning immigrant children away.

He said the district has been responsive and a meeting has been scheduled for Aug. 30 to address concerns.

But Shelby County Schools Chief of Communications Natalia Powers downplayed the topic of the August meeting. Powers said she has had meetings with Latino Memphis about "the issue in general."

"One of the things that we want to focus on is what as a community do we need to do better to support immigrant families coming to the community," Powers said.

Calvo said he just wants Superintendent Dorsey Hopson to send a memorandum to his staff telling them to make sure every child who wants to go to school is able to enroll.

Shelby County Schools board member Mike Kernell said he couldn't talk about the investigation but said the district is responsible for providing education to these children.

"We are getting young people fleeing other countries, and when they hit our district, we're responsible for teaching them," Kernell said. "So we need to make sure that happens and it happens according to the law."

Under federal law, local educational agencies are obligated to provide all children, regardless of immigration status, equal access to education.

Ramirez didn't know about the law. When he was turned away from enrolling in high school he just felt defeated. For him, a decision from a school administrator had a big impact on his life.

"I have a lot cousins who were born here," he said. "They go to school. They speak English and I want to be like them and have the same opportunities."

Ramirez, who recently turned 18, is smart but he's behind in school. He has a third-grade education. He learned Spanish, his second language, when he was 10 years old.

He grew up in a rural area in Guatemala speaking his native Mayan language, Mam. His father came to Memphis looking for work when he was 8 years old. Ramirez lived with his grandparents until they died in 2014. And when he became a teenager, gangs started to recruit him. When he refused, they threaten to kill him.

"I didn't want to live in Guatemala," he said with tears in his eyes. "I was afraid to live there."

He knew about the risks he would be taking traveling alone to Memphis to reunite with his father. He was detained by immigration officials and was held in a detention center for over two months. He was later released to his father's care in Memphis. He has legal temporary status.

He doesn't regret risking everything to follow his dream.

"I was really afraid but I was ready to do everything I needed to do to follow my dream."

Staff writer Jennifer Pignolet contributed to this report.
By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal

A day after news broke of a U.S. Department of Education investigation into Shelby County Schools alleging immigrant students were unable to enroll in school, district officials say they've been in communication with the Latino community over several issues immigrants face with education.

SCS Chief of Communications Natalia Powers said she has had meetings with advocacy group Latino Memphis "around the issue in general," but said she could not comment on the investigation specifically.

"One of the things that we want to focus on is what as a community do we need to do better to support immigrant families coming to the community," Powers said.

The investigation, officially launched by the department's Office for Civil Rights on July 13, involves issues "affecting English learners and limited English proficiency parental communication," according to a statement from the department.

In February, the department received a complaint that children fleeing violence in Central America who were placed in Memphis were not able to enroll in school. Some older children were enrolled in Messick Adult Center for English language learning, but classes were only a few hours a week, and the program was shut down in February after the state pulled SCS's adult education funding due to poor performance.

Powers said another meeting is scheduled at the end of August for the district to learn from an expert in school programs that assist newcomers to the U.S. She said that could involve issues like how to communicate with families about enrollment procedures and the necessary documentation.

But she called the complaint to the federal government "very specific" and "separate."

Reached by phone Thursday, several board members said they were unaware of any issue involving enrollment of migrant children.

"We are getting young people fleeing other countries, and when they hit our district, we're responsible for teaching them," board member Mike Kernell said. "So we need to make sure that happens and it happens according to the law."

Board member Stephanie Love said she was aware of "discussions" prior to the launchof the investigation, but because it was a pending investigation could not comment further.

Board member Miska Clay-Bibbs said her first time hearing of the alleged problems was in the news.

"I do have a lot of questions," she said, before adding she also could not comment further.

Board member Billy Orgel said it sounded "counter-intuitive" that the district, which has been losing funding due to shrinking enrollment for the last several years, would turn away any students. The state funds the school district per student.

"Why would we discourage pupils from attending our schools?" Orgel said.

Board chairwoman Teresa Jones said the investigation would reveal whether there was any truth to the allegations.

"The district is always going to cooperate in the investigation and we'll see what unfolds," she said.

Board member Kevin Woods said he also anticipates full cooperation. He said the district's attorney notified board members of the investigation in an email Wednesday night.

"I think the district sees this as a very serious matter and I think they'll take it very seriously," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

DeSoto County school officials are urging parents to use the system's online registration program to enroll students before the Aug. 3 start of classes.

The InfoSnap program allows parents to enter most required registration information online after creating an account. Students still must provide two proofs of residency, which can be submitted at the school or, for new students, at administrative offices in Hernando.

"Parents and guardians are encouraged to complete the registration process now and not wait until school starts," school system spokeswoman Melissa Green said.

The registration program is the same one used by the school system since 2012, and it is pre-populated with most information for returning students. Green said parents and guardians should have received an InfoSnap code in the mail, which can be used to complete the process from home.

Anyone without computer access or unable to complete the registration process on their own can come to administrative offices at 5 E. South Street in Hernando, where personnel will be available to assist.

Teachers return Aug. 1 at the school system's 42 schools countywide. With more than 33,000 students, DeSoto County Schools is Mississippi's largest public school system.

The calendar for the 2016-17 school year includes a Christmas break of Dec. 19-Jan. 2, and the final day of classes for students will be May 22. Six days are built into the calendar as inclement weather makeup days.

DOCUMENTATION

Acceptable proofs of residency for students attending DeSoto County Schools include:

1: A lease, mortgage or rental agreement at the child's stated address plus one of the following:

a: Current utility bill

b: Current DeSoto County automobile registration receipt showing residence property address

c: Government mailing (mailing from any county, state or federal agency)

2: An affidavit plus two of the following:

a: ID (valid driver's license or state identification showing property address)

b: Automobile registration showing property address

c: Government mailing (mailing from any county, state or federal agency)

In addition to the proofs of residency, parents and guardians of new students from out-of-district must provide a final report card and transcript of courses completed if the student is in high school. Other requirements include a certified birth certificate and a record of immunizations transferred to a Mississippi 121 form.
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By Jennifer Rubin

Donald Trump's eye-popping declaration that the United States may not be automatically bound by the NATO pledge to consider an attack on one country to be an attack on all is reverberating around the world.

Former deputy director for policy planning in the State Department in the George W. Bush administration, Kori Schake (who, although a Republican, recently announced she would back Hillary Clinton), told The Washington Post, "His endorsements of authoritarians and heedlessness about our alliance commitments strengthen our adversaries and frighten those who look to us for protection and to be a beacon of our values. America would be a worse place and the international order badly destabilized by his election." Schake, now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, adds, "He doesn't seem to care that there are real consequences to others for the reckless things he says and does."

Trump opponent Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., pointed out that the Trump interview with The New York Times makes Russian President Vladimir Putin "a very happy man."

The consequences in this case are immediate. Ana Catuna, adviser to the former minister of foreign affairs of Romania, tells The Washington Post's Right Turn, "NATO is one of the few institutions that bond America and Europe together. It needs fixing and a better burden-sharing, but alluding to its irrelevance is an open invitation for Russia and other global competitors of the Western democracies to redouble their efforts to redraw the spheres of influence." She adds, "A weakened NATO is a weakened West, and a weakened West is a weakened America. You don't make America great again by turning your back to your best and natural allies!" She concludes, "Russia will see this as a gesture of weakness and will act accordingly."

Estonia's president has expressed alarm that Trump would undercut the NATO alliance. Another news report tells us: "Eastern European NATO members, long in the habit of accusing Russia of aggressive plans to target them, were apparently given a cold shower by U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who cast doubt over Washington's commitment to defend them." The report goes on to quote the Czech prime minister, who declared at a news conference, "NATO is the basis of our security. I expect that also in the United States, whoever wins the presidential election, I hope the United States will remain a solid NATO partner." If so, he had better hope Trump loses.

Latvia, another Baltic state living with the Russian bear at its doorstep, responded as well. Bloomberg News reports: "Trump's remarks are 'both dangerous and irresponsible,' Ojars Kalnins, who chairs the foreign affairs committee in Latvia's parliament, said in an interview with Latvian radio Thursday. This won't be good for NATO unity or the security situation. In principle, he is saying the U.S. will not fulfill its promises or obligations."

The Associated Press reports that the head of NATO was alarmed: "The dilution of long-standing policy on NATO earned Trump a rebuke from the alliance's head, Jens Stoltenberg, its secretary-general. He told BuzzFeed News: 'Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO. This is good for European security and good for U.S. security. We defend one another.' "

Thorsten Frei, a member of the German parliament, tells Right Turn that "it is absolutely unacceptable if an American presidential candidate implicitly announces to discontinue the willingness to help in case of alliance. Who talks like that, constitutes NATO fundamentally in question? That is a fatal signal to Putin and will certainly not help to make the world safer."

In sum, even before leaving Cleveland, Trump has set off an international furor, shed doubt on his competency and proved Hillary Clinton correct: He is too dangerous, erratic and ignorant to be president.

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post.
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By Noah Feldman

In time for the presidential election, an appeals court has determined that Texas' voter identification law is discriminatory. Those without a government-issued photo ID will therefore have their votes counted on the basis of other evidence of residency. If Texas turns out to be in play in November, the result could have a small but meaningful effect in Hillary Clinton's favor.

More important, the decision has great symbolic significance in an election in which Donald Trump has focused on illegal immigration. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a voter ID law in Indiana as a permissible way to avoid voter fraud. The different result in Texas  a state with distinctly different demographics  highlights how much things have changed in the last eight years.

A federal district court had previously found that the Texas law, SB 14, violated both the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution, and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld part of the decision. Texas then asked the entire court to sit and reconsider the result. In the meantime, the 5th Circuit issued a stay that kept the law in place. The plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the lower-court decision and block the law.

In an unusual move, the justices told the 5th Circuit that if it didn't decide the case by July 20, 2016, the court would be willing to consider a motion to block the law. The 5th Circuit got the message  and issued its carefully crafted opinion on July 20.

The majority more or less reached the same result that the panel had. It first said that the district court had made some legal errors in determining that the Texas law was enacted with the intent to discriminate against minority voters. In particular, the appeals court chided the lower court for relying too much on Texas' long history of voter discrimination and for giving too much weight to the testimony of the law's opponents.

The appeals court sent the case back to the district court for a do-over on the question of intent, to take place after the election. It strongly hinted that there could be enough evidence of discriminatory intent  in particular the fact that there was no meaningful evidence of voter fraud.

This part of the holding might for the moment assuage the feelings of some Texas Republicans, who can at least say that the appeals court didn't find that they meant to block Latinos and blacks from voting.

But unlike the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution  which, according to the Supreme Court, only prohibits intentional discrimination  the Voting Rights Act also prohibits laws that have a discriminatory effect. And the 5th Circuit upheld the district court's judgment that the voter ID law had a disparate, racially discriminatory impact on voters.

The basis for that conclusion was a regression analysis performed by Stephen Ansolabehere, a colleague of mine at Harvard. Ansolabehere analyzed a list of more than 500,000 registered voters who didn't have ID that allowed them to vote under the Texas law. He concluded that Latino and black voters were respectively 195 percent and 305 percent more likely than white voters to appear on that list.

This evidence of discrimination provided the basis for the court to distinguish the case from the Supreme Court's 2008 decision Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. In that complex case, six justices voted to uphold Indiana's voter ID law, which required the equivalent of a driver's license to vote.

The ordinarily liberal Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a plurality opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, in which he reasoned that Indiana had a constitutionally legitimate interest in "protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process." (The other liberals on the court at the time thought the law was discriminatory, while the hard-core conservatives thought it wasn't.)

The 5th Circuit reasoned that the Crawford case wasn't brought under the Voting Rights Act, but under the Constitution. To win, the plaintiffs would have had to show discriminatory intent, not just discriminatory effect. And there was no study comparable to Ansolabehere's.

That's a reasonable doctrinal basis for legal distinction. But the deeper difference between the two cases is surely the changed political circumstances between 2008 and 2016. In that time, anti-immigrant sentiment has risen. In 2008, even Stevens was prepared to allow the Indiana law to pass muster. Today, it would be much harder for a court to ignore the effects of the Texas law.

The 5th Circuit told the district court to fashion a remedy in time for the election that would allow people without qualifying ID to go to the polls and have their votes counted. It remains to be seen whether the publicity surrounding the law will suppress minority voter turnout.

But the symbolism of the decision leaves no question: Every qualified voter should have the right to vote in November.

Noah Feldman, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard.
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By Ramesh Ponnuru

As soon as it was clear beyond doubt that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wasn't going to endorse Donald Trump in his speech at the Republican convention, it was also clear that Cruz's speech was the only one that was going to be discussed the next day.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the vice presidential nominee, gave a conservative speech that almost all Republicans could applaud. But nothing in it could compete for attention with the blow to party unity that Cruz  and the delegates who booed him off the stage  delivered.

And that Trump and his allies compounded. Newt Gingrich, speaking after Cruz, was smart enough to know that it would be a mistake to rebuke him frontally. Instead, he tried to remold Cruz's non-endorsement into an endorsement.

Cruz (who I should note is an old friend) had said that voters should pick the candidate they can trust to protect the Constitution. Gingrich said that in practice that should compel them to vote for Trump.

This was the obviously sensible political response for Trump supporters. Say that Cruz's congratulations to Trump were appreciated, mention his case against Hillary Clinton and move on. Instead, everyone from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Gen. Mike Flynn to anonymous Republican National Committee functionaries lit into Cruz as a traitor.

This was political malpractice in multiple respects.

Remember: Trump and his campaign agreed to let Cruz speak at the convention even if he didn't endorse the nominee. They agreed, that is, to allow what Trump's people are now treating as a calamity. They could've easily foreseen what Cruz would do, and thus should've agreed on what they would all say about a non-endorsement. But Gingrich's prepared remarks simply assumed Cruz was going to make an endorsement he hadn't promised to make, and Gingrich had to wing his response  one that none of the other people in Trumpworld echoed.

Trump himself got into the act with a tweet saying that Cruz had broken his pledge to support the nominee (a pledge that Trump himself had said he wouldn't honor), that Cruz had been booed, that he had seen the text of the speech and allowed it to proceed, and that it was no big deal. These were a lot of points to convey in one tweet, and one must again admire Trump's concision. But the existence of the tweet would seem to suggest Trump thought the speech was a big deal, and that he needed to say something about it. And his claim to have approved the speech both undercuts his complaint about it and underscores the amateurishness of his campaign.

Cruz has taken a big gamble with his political career. In the short run, he will pay a price. But he would've paid a political price, too, if he got a reputation as a man who shrugged off malicious attacks on his family  Trump had insulted his wife and his father  for the sake of elections. (To say nothing of the moral price.)

Three days in, this convention seems to be setting back rather than advancing Republican unity  and, as ever, the deepest source of disunity is the candidate himself.

Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a senior editor for National Review.
On the day Apple confirms plans to release 14 special edition Olympic Games Apple Watch straps, the latest Wristly survey confirms an astonishing 94 percent of existing Apple Watch customers are still satisfied with their devices.

New software promise

Thats a big deal, even though Apple Watch sales have reportedly slowed pending the fall software update. Apple isnt the only watchmaker feeling the flatness, Swiss watch industry exports fell faster than ever before in 1H 2016, and all eyes now are on Apple this fall when new software and potentially new watch designs may be in the frame.

With the pace at which processors and core hardware system components are improving these days we can reasonably expect 25% to 30% higher performance and battery life for the next Apple Watch, Wristlys Bernard Desarnauts writes.

Challenges include

Wristly has identified some of the challenges Apple faces as it tries to build Apple Watch sales, but perhaps the biggest and most paradoxical problem is that even though customers are incredibly satisfied with their devices, they dont yet seem ready to recommend one to their friends.

The good news is that the three biggest reasons they wont recommend the device are for the most part being addressed in the next edition of watchOS.

More speed and better overall performance including battery

More utility and various capabilities

More independence from iPhone.

The Wristly survey suggests that for most customers expectation of a new model this fall and a desire for performance improvements (and standalone connectivity) are the big inhibitors to stop people recommending the device.

Everyday people

The researchers also found that most Apple Watch users continue to wear their watch every day.

14 percent wear it all the time, including while sleeping;

73 percent wear it all day;

9 percent wear it most of the day.

Of the remaining 4 percent just one in a hundred Apple Watch customers has given up using the device.

With so many people wearing their Watch on a daily basis, youd be forgiven for expecting to hear reports of damaged devices. Youll be disappointed if you are waiting for those -- 95 percent of users say their Watch remains in at least good condition.

Where we are right now is that the Apple Watch appears to be a device that users love which is robust enough to withstand the stresses and strains of being used every day. Most users cant wait for the future watchOS 3 software upgrade, as they think it will address most of the perceived limitations of the device, such as performance.

If the software upgrade delivers what we all think it will, then this may well unlock a wave of product recommendations as customers get hyped about their smartwatch all over again.

Im with the bands

Returning to Apples Olympic bands (and you can find out more about how Apple makes nylon bands here), and it seems Apple has quietly created a new business  watchstraps.

At least 78 percent [of Apple Watch owners] have purchased a second band and there are an average of 3.4 bands per owner, said Wristly. In fact, one-in-ten Apple Watch owners already have five or more bands, according to the 1,000-person sample group.

Brilliant! Once again Apple revolutionizes an industry with something so seemingly simple and leaves everyone else wondering why they didnt think of it first, one Apple Watch user told Wristly.

Apple designed an all-new way of easily attaching and removing Apple Watch bands. Its incredibly simple and very effective. It took a tech company to invent a mechanism that most of us could operate without the need to visit a watch service store, write Wristly. It takes most (81%) of customers under a minute to swap bands across.

Finally a note about Apple Watch sales: Apples kept these really quiet, but Wristly has assembled anecdotal data to suggest a 40 percent increase in the number of Apple Watch users since January.

We have seen estimates of 12 million sales, (I dont know how accurate these estimates might be), but if there are indeed 3.4 bands per owner then Apple might have sold as many as 42 million bands so far  which equates to a fairly substantial accessory business in itself (even at $49 per strap that's big money).

Google+? If you use social media and happen to be a Google+ user, why not join AppleHolic's Kool Aid Corner community and join the conversation as we pursue the spirit of the New Model Apple?

Want Apple TV tips? If you want to learn how to get the very best out of your Apple TV, please visit my Apple TV website.

Got a story? Drop me a line via Twitter or in comments below and let me know. I'd like it if you chose to follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when fresh items are published here first on Computerworld.
^pA landowners fence that illegally encroached on public land in Fergus and Musselshell counties resulting in a lengthy federal investigation has been moved and altered, and remediation has been paid, according to a ranch representative.

Under the terms of the settlement agreements, Wilks Ranch Montana Ltd. will perform rehabilitation and stabilization work valued at about $150,000 and will reimburse the Bureau of Land Management a little more than $71,000 to cover costs associated with the inquiry and survey, according to a BLM news release.

The nine miles of new fence built in 2014 by a local contractor was meant to separate 2,700 acres of landlocked Bureau of Land Management and state property, known locally as the Durfee Hills, from the surrounding NBar and Pronghorn ranches, which are owned by billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks.

^pThe Durfee Hills have become a popular spot for some elk hunters who can reach the property only by plane or helicopter. The land, located southeast of Lewistown, was also at the center of a controversial land exchange proposed by the Wilkses, who wanted the Durfee Hills in trade for portions of a ranch they own north of the Missouri River Breaks that would provide road access to 50,000 acres of BLM land. The BLM declined to consider the land exchange after initially indicating an interest.

^pWhen told by conservation watchdogs that the new fence around the Durfee Hills encroached on public land, the BLM initially denied the claim in October 2014, but by April 2015 the agency bowed to pressure and sent its survey team to investigate.

According to an email from Darryl James, a spokesman for the Wilks brothers, the survey revealed that the Wilkses fence encroachments varied from a few feet to around 20 feet at most, and resulted in ground disturbance and loss of timber on just under 5.3 acres of BLM land.

Kathryn Qanna Yahu, a Bozeman conservation advocate who had pressed the trespass issue, said the fence initially encroached on more BLM property near a road used by pilots to land their planes, but that section was moved before the BLM finished its survey. She claims the fence was first put in across the road to intentionally halt plane traffic and cut off hunting access.

We are fighting for keeping public lands in public hands and an accountability of what was done, she said. If we had done this on the Wilkses land, there would be hell to pay.

Qanna Yahu said she is not satisfied since she has yet to receive documents she requested from the BLM on how the trespass was handled.

James wrote that to address the trespass the Wilkses have agreed to: modify the fence in accordance with wildlife-friendly fencing standards; reseed the disturbed area; pay for additional mitigation to control erosion and pre-existing weed infestations, and will pay for a three- to five-year reclamation plan in areas that were bulldozed by the fencing contractor.

James said the Wilkses also agreed to pay the market value for the lost timber, and for the cost of the cadastral survey conducted by BLM. Additional mitigation costs will also be born by Wilks Ranch.

The market value of the lost timber was $1,288, James wrote, and the survey cost $65,325. To restore the bulldozed area James said the BLM estimated $200,000 in labor and materials.

However, much of that cost will be internalized on the ranch as Wilks Ranch personnel will be utilized to conduct the work, James wrote. All work on public land will meet BLM specifications regardless of who conducts the work.

James email called the fencing trespass inadvertent and said the enclosure was built in response to repeated trespass by public land hunters crossing onto private property ... 

Doug Krings, of Central Montana Outdoors, said his group could find no evidence of anyone being cited for trespass on the ranch in the Durfee Hills area.

We hunters are responsible to know the boundaries, and the same should apply for landowners, Krings said.

He added that hes glad the Wilkses modified the fence on the BLM land and would like to see them make the fence wildlife-friendly on the state parcel, as well.

James wrote, From the outset, Wilks Ranch has worked cooperatively with the BLM to identify any encroachments and respond as quickly as possible to mitigate any unintentional ground disturbance.

Good fences make good neighbors, and where weve made an error in building our fence, weve been more than willing to make appropriate adjustments and address the unintentional disturbance that our crews caused, said Farris Wilks in the email that James released. We regret our error in the location of the fence and all the fuss its caused over an otherwise common ranch management tool, but were pleased to have come to a point where we can agree with BLM on how to move forward cooperatively, and put this unfortunate incident behind us.

James said the fencing contractor has worked out a private agreement with the Wilkses to rectify the situation.
Several major banks in the U.S. now support the use of a smartphone to withdraw cash from an ATM -- many by way of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology -- instead of requiring customers to use a bank card.

One of the early adopters, Bank of America, said this week it currently supports cardless technology at 2,800 of its ATMs. That number will reach 8,000 ATMs by year's end that rely on NFC and other technology. Bank of America, which has about 15,000 ATMs nationwide, created a video to show how a smartphone loaded with the banks mobile app can now withdraw cash from some ATMs.

Wells Fargo said it has a "handful" of ATMs that are NFC-ready and working to deliver cash and other transactions and is planning to reach 5,000 by the end of 2016. A total of 12,000 ATMs will be enabled in 2017.

JPMorgan Chase said it also will have many cardless ATMs available this year, but didn't specify how many or when. Initially at Chase, customers will show up at an ATM and type in a numerical code they acquired wirelessly through use of the Chase smartphone app to get their cash. That numerical code verification process will be an early step in rolling out cardless technology at the bank's nearly 15,000 ATMs.

In addition to using NFC or a numerical code to authenticate a transaction, some bank ATMs are expected to rely on scanning a QR code displayed on a phone.

The number of ATMs supporting cardless cash remains a small portion of the estimated 500,000 ATMs in the U.S. Crone Consulting, which monitors the mobile payment industry, recently said it expects about 95,000 ATMs in the U.S. to support cardless cash by year's end.

The growth in cardless cash at ATMs is ironic, given that mobile payment technology is designed more for payments at stores, on trains and other locations with a quick swipe of a phone and without the need for cash.

But bank officials said there is still a strong interest in cash, especially in the U.S. "People still use cash and we don't see that going away or lessening," Jim Smith, head of virtual channels at Wells Fargo, said in an interview.

Banks and analysts admit that mobile payments have been slow to catch on in the U.S. However, banks see cardless cash at ATMs as another way to accommodate consumers who use their smartphones repeatedly every day for a variety of tasks.

"Consumers are living a large part of their lives with their phones right alongside them, so it's really critical to continue to help them do their banking that way," said Paul Hartwick, a spokesman for Chase. "In the past, banks looked at each other for deciding what's next and now we are looking at things like Uber and other experiences that people are used to having on their devices. People are not judging us against other banks, but based on all the apps on their devices."

In that spirit, banks see cardless ATMs as an added feature atop a roster of mobile banking services they support in their own custom mobile banking apps.

Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo all have banking apps for smartphones -- many of them first developed years ago -- that support various features such as making payments and check deposits using the phone's camera. They also support popular mobile payment apps like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay by allowing their bank cards to work with those apps.

But there are limits. For example, the Wells Fargo Wallet app has just been updated to support Android phones with NFC, but it does not support the iPhone. However, Wells Fargo does support Apple Pay. The advantages of the new Wells Fargo Wallet for Android include the integrated ability to see the balance on the card being used for an in-store mobile purchase, both before and after the purchase.

Bank of America recently announced its Bank of America Mobile 7.0 update for Android and Apple devices. New features include FICO credit score access and Spanish language support. The app has 20 million mobile users.

Even with such improvements to the Bank of America Mobile app, bank customers still need to carry paper currency or deposit multiple checks at once -- functions its ATMs offer that can now be accessed with a smartphone, said Hari Gopalkrishnan, managing director of client facing platforms technology for Bank of America.

As Bank of America has rolled out NFC capability on ATMs, it has had to tweak the technology and user experience, he said.

"It was test and learn," he said. "With regard to user behavior, people learned you have to wave the phone in a certain way at the ATM. There was user-adoption teething pain. We've come up with better error messaging and we're learning a lot. We're driving awareness and how to actually use it, since people are used to swiping their cards at the ATM."

Eventually, he said, "people will use the ATM just like you expect the printer to work."
Iain Dale is Presenter of LBC Drive, Managing Director of Biteback Publishing, a columnist and broadcaster and a former Conservative Parliamentary candidate.

Not that I intend to inspire jealousy with this column, but Im writing it beside a swimming pool in the Spanish mountains overlooking a lake. I normally write four of five chunks in my columns so I am deciding to reward myself with a swim after each chunk is finished. This must be the most decadent way to write a column ever invented.

Ive been here since Sunday and am going back today (Friday). From what I gather, the temperature in London hasnt been far off that which we have experienced here: its 37-39 degrees during the day and 30 degrees at 10pm  ideal for a late night swim.

Were staying with our friends Deborah and Mike Slattery. Deborah was a Conservative Party agent during the late 1980s and 1990s in Norwich, so we have spent many happy hours reminiscing about our nefarious political activities aimed at retaining Norwich North as a Conservative seat at the 1992 general election. It was a very different political era, and in many ways much more fun. It was a lot more innocent. Even our black arts would now be considered a pale shade of grey.

Deborah reminds me of a visit that Cecil Parkinson paid to Norwich in the 1992 election campaign. He still retained the ability to make Tory ladies go weak at the knees. I well remember him presenting a bunch of purple flowers to the Chair of the Norwich North Ladies. Without batting an eyelid she exclaimed to Cecil: just look at the purple head on that. Which cant have been the first time a woman said that to him. Or probably the last.

         

I really have tried to switch off this week. Up until now, Ive taken a grand total of two days off work this year, so I was in much need of some R & R. I even thought about not taking my laptop with me, but of course that was never going to happen. How would I write this column? And our esteemed editor doesnt like it if I tokk a week off.

I did go through almost an entire day without tweeting, which was a minor miracle in itself. And of course with modern technology as it is, even in Spain you can get all the main UK TV channels. So, yes, I admit it: I watched Theresa Mays first Prime Ministers Questions. And what a joy it was. David Cameron took to it like a duck to water back in December 2005 (you were the future once) but, whatever the exaggerated version of that phrase is, it certainly applies to Mrs May, as everyone seems to have taken to calling her.

Who will ever forget the look on her face when she leaned over the Despatch Box, fixed her eye on Corbyn, and said: Remiiiiind you of anyone? Do you remember back in November 1990, during her final PMQs, when Mrs T declared Im enjoying this!? And then a Conservative backbencher called Michael Carttiss shouted out: You can wipe the floor with these people! Well, many of us had a similar thought after May had wiped her feet on Jeremy Corbyn. Luckily for him he doesnt have to face her again until September.

Right. Time for a swim. I will spare you the pics.

         

Now, where was I? Ive only ever been to Spain twice before  once to Madrid and once to Barcelona, but both were work trips, advising the Spanish Government and port employers on port labour reform.

Were staying near Iznajar (pronounced Iznacker), which is a very rural area. Every single acre is rammed full of olive trees, each one receiving a nice little subsidy from the EU. I cannot believe how cheap it is to eat out. And its authentically Spanish too. Unlike most British expats, my friends are making every effort to learn the language and the locals seem to really appreciate it.

Its a very different lifestyle to the one they had in Norwich, but they seem to absolutely love it. They have completely renovated their property. Its taken them a year, but they now say they could never contemplate returning to England, given the lifestyle they are now able to enjoy in Spain.

Ive been here for four days, and I have to say I know what they mean. Having said that, Im not sure I would want to cope with Scorchio temperatures every day. I like heat, but every day? I rather like the variety that the English climate offers.

         

Have you noticed that TM is the reverse of MT. Just saying

         

So the final list of Government ministers has been revealed. Although the Cabinet looks very different, it is very much as you were in the lower ranks. An opportunity was lost to promote bright new talent into the government, while a lot of the same old faces inexplicably held onto their jobs, or were moved to different departments.

Love the old rogue as I do, I and many others were left scratching our heads on observing that John Hayes has survived yet another reshuffle. Better to have him pissing out than in? What other reason can there be? And hes gone back to a job in the Department of Transport, where he was universally loathed in his previous stint there.

Patrick McLoughlin, I am reliably informed, moved heaven and earth to get him moved out, so I do wonder how he and Chris Grayling will get on.

       

All Prime Ministers accumulate enemies, but few have embarked on their premiership with so many  the Cameroons en bloc, and a whole host of former Ministers such as Anna Soubry and Dominic Raab, who were offered jobs which the powers that be must have known they could not accept.

In Soubrys case she could reasonably have expected a Cabinet role, yet was offered a post as number two to Liz Truss. She quite reasonably told Mrs M where she could stuff her job, since she is far more qualified for Trusss post than The Trussette herself.

With a majority of only 12, the new Prime Minister should be careful how many more enemies she makes. She has won herself many admirers (me included), but we all know how dangerous it can be for too many backbenchers to have idle hands.

         

Sorry, but I can only resist that pool for so long. Laters.
It may feel like it happened years ago, given the pace of the news, but its just over six months since David Cameron warned that a vote to Leave the EU could mean the migrant camp in Calais commonly known as the Jungle moving to Kent almost overnight.

I wrote at the time that there several good reasons that made that particular scare story a non-starter, not least the existence of the English Channel. Its still nice, though, to see the claim confirmed as a nonsense by President Hollande and Theresa May:

Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Francois Hollande have reached a very clear agreement to keep Britains border controls in Calais, dispelling fears that UKs decision to leave the European Union will trigger moves by France to push the border controls back to British soil. The deal was made after May went to Paris to meet Hollande in the second leg of her trip to Europe ahead of Brexit talks on Thursday (21 July). May described the talks with Hollande on the future of the UK outside the bloc as excellent and openWe are both very clear that the agreement should stay, May said. Hollande added that the agreement is useful to both countries. We consider it as our duty  to apply it and also to improve it, he said in the joint news conference. He added: Le Touquet ensures that we can say to migrants that there is no point coming to Calais as they will not be able to cross it.

As Hollande himself says, any move to simply wave migrants through at Calais would be utterly self-defeating for any French administration that tried it, even if they were sufficiently malicious to want to do so . The impact of such a step would simply be to encourage thousands more migrants to travel through northern France  something which would be extremely unpopular and very costly.
POLSON  A methamphetamine addiction was behind all the crimes  including the shooting of a Pablo woman in December  that earned Ashley Rae Hewankorn a 16-year prison sentence Wednesday, according to her attorney.

Having lived in this world myself with my son, I get it, Kalispell attorney Thane Johnson told District Court Judge James Manley. Shes a good kid. She will not be back before you if she gets control of this addiction.

Hewankorn shot Karen Finley on Dec. 14 after accompanying a juvenile, Isaac Fleming, to a Pablo residence where Fleming had fired two shots at a different person a day earlier.

Finley survived. Court documents say the bullet struck a bone in the victims shoulder, was deflected through a lung and wound up lodged against Finleys spine.

Manley had rejected a plea agreement in the case and indicated he intended to impose a harsher sentence. Hewankorn had the option Wednesday of withdrawing her guilty plea and going to trial, but chose to proceed to sentencing.

I apologize to everybody I hurt during all of this, Hewankorn said before being sentenced. I just want to get better.

***

This spring, Fleming, who was 17 at the time of the incidents, was sentenced to five years with none suspended, and five years with all suspended, for two counts of felony assault with a weapon for firing two shots at another resident at the Pablo home, Matthew Hawkins, on Dec. 13.

Prosecutors charged Fleming as an adult.

Court documents say Fleming had been arguing with his girlfriend, Finleys daughter, prior to his altercation with Hawkins.

The next day he returned with Hewankorn and Hewankorns sister Charlene. Charging documents say Fleming aimed the gun at Hawkins again while inside the residence, but did not fire this time.

Instead, he handed the gun off to Ashley Hewankorn as Fleming and Hawkins engaged in a physical altercation.

Hawkins pursued Fleming and Hewankorn outside and broke out a window in their vehicle with a hammer, the documents say. Hewankorn, still in control of the firearm, got out of the vehicle and pointed the weapon at Hawkins, who took off running.

Thats when Finley opened the door of the house and yelled at Hewankorn. Hewankorn turned and shot Finley. The two sisters and Fleming then fled.

***

Hewankorn, who was 28 at the time, had three tentative plea agreements pending in other felony cases against her.

The Lake County Attorneys Office withdrew all three agreements after the shooting.

She was sentenced to 10 years for assault with a weapon and, in the cases that were already pending against her at the time of the shooting, three years for burglary and three years for forgery.

Hewankorn was credited for 218 days she has already spent in jail, and was also ordered to pay nearly $24,000 in restitution to her victims.

That did not, Manley noted, include Finley, and the judge wanted to know why the shooting victim's medical bills were not included. Deputy County Attorney Ben Anciaux indicated the county had been unable to gain her cooperation.

Hewankorn also received a six-year deferred sentence for criminal possession of dangerous drugs from Manley, who recommended she spend part of her incarceration at the Elkhorn Treatment Center, a residential treatment-based correctional facility in Boulder.

Hewankorn asked if there would also be treatment programs available at the Montana State Womens Prison in Billings, where she will initially be sent.

Johnson, her attorney, said he often represents clients whose legal problems stem from drug addictions. One of his three children, now 22, is a heroin addict who is now at a treatment center in Alabama and has been sober for nine months.

I can talk to this world, Johnson said. The family of the father of Hewankorns children, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, recommended him to Hewankorn.

Hewankorn was arrested in Browning two days after the Pablo shooting. Fleming eluded authorities for 11 days before being captured on Christmas day at a Pablo residence.
The EU referendum took place a month ago tomorrow, and a glance at its result invites the eye to gaze back still further. Britains membership first of the Common Market, then of the European Community, and then of the EU itself has divided both of our main parties (some more at one time than another) for well over 50 years  indeed, for almost the entire post-war period. Within the Conservative Party, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher are sometimes taken to represent the polarities of debate: In or Out  a viewpoint framed by her successful challenge to his leadership in 1975, and their tense relations through the years that followed.

But Thatcher was as much a Remainer in Government as a Leaver once she had departed it, having quit the Commons too for good measure. She wore that European flag-displaying jumper during the 1975 referendum campaign. And her Government saw through the Single European Act. No, to find a more authentic representatives within the Party of Leave (or Dont Join) has to search further back. Heath remains the spokesman for In; Enoch Powell is the voice of Out.

Powell was not always a vocal Eurosceptic  or whatever its equivalent was half a century ago. Indeed, it has been claimed that he had a hand in One Europe, a federalist-leaning publication by the One Nation Group, during the mid-1960s. And at least one pro-EU observer has complained that Heath, whose French was famously atrocious, was never fully engaged with Britains role in the European project: What Britain-in-Europe was for, in his mind, is a question to which the answer is elusive, wrote Hugo Young in This Blessed Plot.

None the less, the two squared off against each other from the late 1960s onwards, after Heath had sacked Powell from his Shadow Cabinet over the latters Rivers of Blood speech (words which its author did not actually pronounce). Powell opposed Common Market membership; left the Conservatives in 1974, and continued to contest the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty, Nice  and so on. He sat as an Ulster Unionist in the Commons until 1987, when he lost his seat in South Down. Heath stayed put as a backbencher from 1975 until 2001.

But my purpose is not so much to review the history of their relationship and rivalry as to take a snapshot of what their legacy may turn out to be. Powell had four main causes during his later backbench years: the free economy (perhaps the most longstanding of his interests), Northern Ireland, immigration, and Europe. He won on the first  Powell was championing free markets before they were even a gleam in Keith Josephs eye  but lost on the other threeat least until last week.

The EU referendum result should force a reappraisal of the influence of Powell and Heath on conservatism and, even more importantly, on Britain  on its people, its state and its policy. The biggest political win of the latters premiership  arguably the only one of lasting importance  was his taking of Britain into the Common Market. For over 40 years, membership of it seemed entrenched. It looked as though Heaths scarcely-articulated sense of where Britains emotional centre of gravity lay was more sure than Powells layered eloquence.

The referendum vote should provoke a revision. Since it does not guarantee Brexit, any conclusion must be provisional. But it is beginning to look as though Powell may turn out to be the most influential post-war Conservative thinker, just as Thatcher emerged as the most powerful post-war Tory doer. His free market ideas have triumphed. Now his view of nationhood has been endorsed: Lord Ashcrofts polling shows that the main reason why voters backed Leave was the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK.

Immigration from the EU itself will probably come down after Brexit takes place (if indeed it does). But there may be a sting in the tail for Powell, or at least for his political vision. There is a risk that Britain leaving the EU will help to drive Scotland in turn to leave the UK, and that the knock-on effects of a Scoxit will push Northern Ireland formally into an all-Ireland condominium. This would have been a bitter cup for Powell to drain. It may be possible to look at Brexit in 50 years time and conclude that he and Heath both lost.

But while it may turn out otherwise for Powell, Heaths reputation is already that of a loser. The referendum result will have reinforced that verdict  and in the light of it, assessments of his legacy will need updating. As coincidence would have it, next year marks the hundredth anniversary of Heaths birth. There is a series of events to commemorate it. John Major has delivered an inaugural lecture. Michael Heseltine gave the second yesterday evening. Michael McManus has just seen his own memoir of working with Heath published.

The consensus of the Conservative Right is that Heaths Government was a failure, that there is no more to it than that  and doubtless that the Brexit vote hammers a final nail in the groaning coffin. This was not quite the view of Thatcher as I heard it set out during the early 1990s. At an event during those years, I heard her explain that Heaths Government can be seen as a dry run for hers. This sounds like a contrarian take: after all, he introduced an incomes policy, she eschewed having one; he tried Keynesianism, she experimented with monetarism, and so on.

But her account was that, like her governments, Heaths was set on modernising Britain: maybe his adminstration can be viewed as a kind of military advance party, sent across a mine-strewn landscape to discover where the explosives are  and take collateral damage and death in consequence. So where Heath attempted a single Industrial Relations Act, in order to tame union power, she instead introduced a gradualist series of trade union bills. Nigel Lawson also learned from the industrial protests of the Heath era that it was essential to build up coal stocks.

Heath and Powell came to represent such differences of view  over Europe, economic policy, Northern Ireland, conservatism itself  that it has become hard to see them as having anything much in common. Yet both share in the Partys affections a residual distrust: Powell for leaving it, Heath  far worse!  for losing general elections (three out of four). The former has certainly had the latest laugh; it is too early to say whether it is the last one. Either way, Europe helped to keep them apart in life. But in death, it draws them together in a kind of strange meeting, implacable symbols of irreconcilable convictions, while the national conversation rolls ever-on.
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Billings man Harrison Fagg participated in his first presidential election year above voting age in a big way as Montanas youngest delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Fagg, 19, spoke with The Gazette shortly after Republican nominee Donald Trumps lengthy acceptance speech at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, which capped a four-day convention.

Hearing Trump speak tonight was most definitely a highlight, Fagg said. He did an outstanding job, I thought.

Fagg said that he felt Trump would be good for Montana, especially in policy surrounding coal extraction and other natural resources.

But he wasnt always on the Trump Train. Early on, Fagg said that he backed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who dropped out early in the primary race. After that, he pivoted to Ben Carson.

It was Trumps blustery tone that turned Fagg off initially.

Thats part of what draws people to him, he said. Hes not politically correct all the time. For me, that kind of made me nervous.

When Trump eventually stood alone as the Republican candidate, Fagg said that he looked toward party unity. After the weeks events in Cleveland, he was a full backer.

Ive come around to him, he said. And after watching him speak tonight, I was really, really impressed.

Fagg, a 2016 Billings Senior Catholic High grad, was among the 27 Montana delegates who traveled to Cleveland for the convention. His father is a judge in Billings, and his grandfather was a longtime legislator.

He plans to attend Southern Methodist University this fall, and actually flew to Cleveland with his mother straight from college orientation in Dallas.

Fagg said he would be battling the crowds to get on a plane back to Billings after the convention, but hell hold onto the greatest highlight: casting his delegate vote for a presidential nominee.
Close

If history repeats itself, Apple is likely to release iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 first week of September 2016.

It will be recalled that iPhone 6S and 6S Plus hit the market in September 2015. Barely six months after, the smaller iPhone SE was released by Apple in March this year. As top features of the latest Apple smartphone continue to surface online, rumors get louder that the release of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is likely to happen in six to seven weeks.

Pocket-lint said that Apples big day for iPhone release takes place following the annual consumer electronics show, IFA which is held in Berlin. IFA 2015 was held from September 4 to 9 and iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were launched on September 9.

This year, the biggest tech show in Europe has been slated from September 2 to 7. Industry experts said if Apple will not break its routine, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will hit the shelves on September 7, 2016.

Apple has not made any confirmation of the release date. But the leaked photos hint that Apples latest smartphone is coming out soon.

BGR shared the leaked photo of the real iPhone 7, emphasizing that the device captured with power on, shows its authenticity. These phones are rumored to have been snuck out of the facilities of Apples manufacturing partners.

The leaked photos of real iPhone 7 were first posted on Chinese microblog Weibo. The Malignant wasted no time and shared it with the public through the social network.

One of the photos shows a rose gold iPhone 7. The four photos captured two iPhones in each, displaying the back side and the front side of the phone, powered on, indicating the time at 3:19. A photo even included a hand, holding the phone to show off its features.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare
^pStanding amid the hula-hoop-heavy celebration at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch recreation center on Wednesday night, Casey Burrows was cool and confident.

^pHer mother, Bunny Burrows, said its an attitude that mirrors how Casey, 14, has dealt with life after her diagnosis with a rare form of soft-tissue cancer  epithelioid sarcoma.

^pThe cancer cost Casey her left arm before her 13th birthday.

Theres no stopping her, Bunny Burrows said of her daughter. Shes happy as ever, so that makes us happy.

After surgery and through regularly scheduled chemotherapy treatments, things are looking positive for the soon-to-be sophomore at Billings West High School. A vacation to Hawaii organized and paid for by Make-A-Wish Montana has only made things better.

The party this week was organized by Make-A-Wish Montana volunteers Kathy Jones and Betsy Ogburn as a way of announcing what their organization had scheduled for the Burrows family in Oahu. Jones seemed happy to help the Burrowses celebrate. Theyre the nicest family, she said.

The family will take a scenic horseback ride through filming locations for Lost and Jurassic Park, take a trip to Diamond Head State Monument, ride in a helicopter, attend a luau and have a chance to swim with dolphins.

Casey Burrows unwrapped a rock hammer given to her at the event Wednesday. She explained its significance: While taking an honors earth science course under former geologist and teacher Denece Lord at Billings West, the girl became fascinated with rocks.

Most people walk on rock and think Oh, its just some gray rocks, or they get a rock in their shoe and think Oh, stupid rock.

Thats not what Lord, and now Casey Burrows, experience.

(Lord) said Every rock has a story to tell, and Im going to tell you their stories, Casey Burrows said of her teacher.

In addition to watching for interesting rocks and geologic formations, Casey Burrows said shes excited to get in the ocean. However Bunny Burrows has expressed some reservations about seeing her daughter in the Pacific.

My moms not too keen on me swimming after Shark Week, Casey Burrows said, referring to the Discovery Channels annual week of summer TV programming that focuses on sharks.

I said When you get to the beach you are not going in deeper than your ankles!  Bunny Burrows said, laughing.

On a more serious note, Bunny Burrows expressed her gratitude for what Make-A-Wish Montana had given her family. It means the world that theres people that care about other people and making their wishes come true, she said. Its just very touching.

Casey Burrows said she was considering a trip to an amusement park for her wish, but her interest in rocks and encouragement from others to explore somewhere she might not ever be able to go otherwise helped her settle on Hawaii as a destination.

Her sister, 13-year-old Candace, will be coming along too, as well as her father, Travis Burrows. We get teased by family and friends that ask  Why couldnt you take us? Travis Burrows said.
Colstrip power plant owners have agreed to stop pooling toxic coal ash sludge from its largest units before 2019, as part of a lawsuit settlement filed Thursday.

An estimated 200 million gallons of contaminated water has been seeping each year for 30 years from Colstrip ash pond, rendering the groundwater undrinkable for the Colstrip community of about 2,300. The polluted ponds worst ingredient is bottom ash, a highly concentrated coal ash sludge that contains lead, arsenic, boron and other toxic chemicals that can cause liver, kidney, brain and testicle damage.

Both the power plant and the Colstrip community depend on water piped in from the Yellowstone River, 30 miles away.

The ponds will continue to collect pollution, but removing bottom ash from the cocktail will make it easier for Colstrip owners to deal with the pond seepage contaminating ground water.

To use a bathtub analogy, you cannot stop a bathtub from overflowing until you turn off the spigot, said Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The other plaintiffs were the Sierra Club, and National Wildlife Federation. The groups were represented by the environmental legal team Earthjustice.

The defendants are Talen Montana, which also operates the plant on behalf five other utilities headquartered in South Dakota, Washington and Oregon. And, Montanas Department of Environmental Quality, included in the lawsuit for not enforcing cleanup of the ash pond complex, which consists of nine containment sections spread over 800 acres.

Talen Montana is an environmentally responsible company, said Todd Martin of Pennsylvania-based Talen Energy, Talen Montanas parent company. We and the other owners of the Colstrip plant have invested millions of dollars to minimize the plants impact on the environment.

In the next 30 months, the power plant owners will have to come up with a way to dry the bottom ash for storage. The same methods will have to be used by mid-2022 for ash collected by the power plants air pollution scrubbers.

The change in coal ash treatment comes as Talen exits its role as plant operator. In May, Talen gave the other owners of Units 3 and 4 two years notice of its exit as operator.

The company has said it is losing millions operating the power plant. Talen has been frank about its intention to leave Colstrip altogether in coming years.

We believe we have identified the proper technology, but are continuing the process of researching the design and engineering to dewater the coal ash, Martin said. Our departure, in approximately two years, as operator in no way effects our responsibility for, and commitment to, environmental compliance and remediation.

Its too soon to speculate on the cost of dewatering the coal ash, Martin said. However, he did say the cost of the settlement will not result in the closure of Units 3 and 4.

Signing onto the settlement agreement were Colstrips five other owners, Avista Utilities, NorthWestern Energy, PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric, Puget Sound Energy. The lawsuit was filed in 2012.

The other owners have all signed on and we think the settlement is the right thing to do to move forward with certainty on this issue, said Grant Ringel, of PSE.

This is the second Colstrip lawsuit to be settled in the last nine days. On July 12, Puget Sound Energy agreed to shut down Colstrip Units 1 and 2 no later than 2022 under settlement terms with the Sierra Club and MEIC. That lawsuit centered on clean air.

Talen Energy, which co-owns with Puget Sound Energy, Colstrips two oldest units, also signed the agreement, as did the owners of the other units.

Units 1 and 2 are more than 40 years old and would have needed major pollution control upgrades without the settlement. Those portions of the four-unit power plant were also unexpected to survive the rollout of carbon dioxide limits included in the federal Clean Power Plan. Those limits will likely begin in 2022, provided the power plan survives legal challenges.

The terms of the coal ash settlement are more significant, said Jenny Harbine, attorney for Earthjustice. Damage from the leaking coal ash ponds spans 30 years.

The Colstrip plant has polluted drinking water and threatened groundwater that local ranchers rely on for their livelihoods, Harbine said. The most important step to solving the problem is to stop the leaking, and we expect this agreement to largely achieve that result.

In 2008, 57 Colstrip residents sued the power plant owners and obtained a $25 million settlement because of contaminated groundwater.

The first phase of the settlement removes the most highly concentrated pollution, Harbine said. The second phase removes the rest, putting the ash ponds out of business in six years.

The ash ponds at Colstrip leak nearly an Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of contaminated water into the aquifer every day. Some of the ponds are lined with tarps, but the areas where bottom ash is stored are lined with clay, which Harbine said is inadequate.

These bottom ash pods, they might as well be storing their waste in a colander, Harbine said.
Josh Mosqueda, a 27-year-old software engineer in Austin, chose his apartment because it offers Google Fiber, the tech giant's super speedy Internet service. (Photo: Joel Salcido, USA TODAY)

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By Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO  In February, Josh Mosqueda moved into a one-bedroom apartment on the other side of Austin from most of his friends, not for the nearby greenbelt or the swimming pool, but for the kind of perk this 27-year-old software engineer could not resist: Google Fiber.

With the one-gigabit-a-second service, fast enough to download a movie in less than two minutes, Mosqueda streams Game of Thrones, steps onto the virtual ice with video game Rocket League or tests mobile apps  frequently on multiple devices and without most of there hiccups he experienced on other broadband services.

With Fiber, Mosqueda no longer hesitates as he hands out his Wi-Fi password when hosting friends, even during a housewarming party.

"Every time I say that I have Google Fiber, people freak out," says Mosqueda. "And I say, 'You should freak out. It's amazing.'"

Mosqueda is not a spokesman for Google Fiber but he might as well be. Testimonials like his are fueling demand for the super-speedy Internet service across the country.

And that's good news for Fiber, which has a green light from executives at parent Alphabet (GOOGL) to spend big in its mission to become a national broadband company that competes with the industry's deeply entrenched heavyweights.

"Now that we have proven the business model to ourselves, we are expanding," says Dennis Kish, vice president of Fiber.

GIGABIT WARS

Yet demand is spreading far faster than Fiber is.

Fiber operates only in a handful of cities, with six more being built out, and it's in discussion with 13 more cities. Consumers on social media are vocal about wanting it in their cities, and mayors  eager to flaunt access to cutting edge Internet  vie to be chosen by Google.

The slow pace of expansion is frustrating some consumers and it's allowing competitors to race ahead.

Among them: AT&T, whose GigaPower Network is already in 25 major metropolitan areas and is expanding to an additional 31, many of them this year. AT&T is also experimenting with a 5G wireless service in Austin with speeds of up to 14 gigabits per second in early tests.

Comcast has rolled out gigabit service in Atlanta and Nashville, and plans to introduce it this year in Chicago, Detroit and Miami with more markets coming. It also offers 2-gigabits-a-second service called Gigabit Pro. And Comcast is testing a new wireless service that delivers speeds approaching one gigabit.

Welcome to the gigabit wars. Who will win? You.

Americans spend much of their lives connected to the Internet, yet the U.S. ranks 16th in the world in average Internet connection speed, lower than Turkey, Kenya and Paraguay and on par with Thailand, according to 's latest State of the Internet report. In many places around the country, consumers have one or two options for high-speed Internet.

Internet giants Google and Facebook, frustrated that telecom companies aren't moving fast enough, are building all kinds of technology to extend the reach, accelerate the speed and lower the cost of the Internet, from high-altitude balloons to drones. The perpetually sorry state of U.S. broadband prompted Google to take an even more ambitious step: It announced Fiber in 2010.

Google's lucrative advertising business relies on the use and growth of the Internet. Faster, cheaper connections mean more people spend more time online using Google services such as search, YouTube or Gmail, and viewing Google ads, says Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner.

Consumers have benefited from Fiber's entry into markets, where Internet providers lower prices by an average of $15 to $20 a month, and they begin to offer faster Internet service, Entner says.

GOOGLE'S BIG BET

"Google wanted these guys to get moving and it worked," Entner says.

But Google Fiber is far more than a catalyst to get industry players to step up their game. Fiber is aiming to build a nationwide broadband network, helped by its mountains of cash.

It's trying new strategies, such as lowering costs by tapping into existing networks rather than building them from scratch. It's also experimenting with wireless technology that could help Google spread the service farther faster because it won't have to build out or buy fiber networks. Fiber plans to start testing the technology in Kansas City and have a network running by the end of 2017. And, in June, Google Fiber said it would buy , a wireless point-to-point service focused on apartment buildings and condominiums.

"It is indeed a real business, and it's serving to increase competition as well, and that's something that we don't mind," Kish says of Fiber. "We think it's healthy for the market and for consumers."

analyst Carlos Kirjner estimates Fiber could connect as many as 25 million homes over the next five years.

ALPHABET BLESSING

Last year's reorganization of Google under parent company Alphabet, separating Google's lucrative advertising business from its "other bets" is giving Fiber runway to drive toward that goal. Fiber has the blessing of Alphabet management, including CEO , executive chairman and finance chief .

It's a costly gambit. In the first quarter alone, Alphabet spent nearly $280 million on capital expenditures primarily related to Fiber. Operating losses from Fiber and Google's "other bets" were $802 million with revenues of $166 million in the first quarter.

"We are investing in a very thoughtful way," Kish says. "And we're doing the right things to build a good, healthy, long-term business that is self-sustaining."

As Fiber digs in, it's also discovering that operating a broadband business comes with some baggage: customer complaints that are usually targeted at telecom companies.

In 2013, Google Fiber said it would roll out gigabit Internet service in Austin. Last year the city of Austin received 363 complaints about construction and installation activity, including home, landscaping and lawn damage, trucks blocking driveways and other disruptions. Of those, 254 involved Google Fiber and its contractors, while about 100 involved AT&T and Time Warner, according to the .

Austin tech executive Bowman Hall signed up for Fiber in February 2015. He found out in May that Fiber had incorrectly classified his home as an apartment building, skipping over him. Google apologized, but told him it could take months. He fumed, then last week Google finally installed Fiber.

Is he enjoying it?

"So far, yes," he says.
Say what you will about Mike Pence, but Indiana's governor always has seemed a man of principle.

When he abetted and encouraged the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bad idea that harmed our state and its reputation, he stood behind his beliefs that Christians could be facing discrimination.

When he signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion bills in America, one that was opposed by Republican women legislators, he said that it would "ensure the dignified final treatment of the unborn and prohibits abortions that are based only on the unborn child's sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry or disability, including Down syndrome."

So Pence appears to be what he consistently professes to be, "A Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order."

Then Donald J. Trump came calling, and Pence has, more and more, appeared to be first a politician.

When Trump first said that America's borders should be closed to all Muslims, Pence correctly tweeted that "Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional. Our Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. The U.S. cannot discriminate on the basis of religion."

After being named Trump's running mate, he backed down on that.

When Trump bashed U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was presiding over class-action lawsuits against Trump University, calling him a "hater" and saying he is biased because "he's a Mexican," Pence came to the Indiana-born judge's defense.

"Every American is entitled to a fair trial and an impartial judge, but of course I think those comments were inappropriate," Pence said. "I don't think it's ever appropriate to question the partiality of the judge based on their ethnic background."

He's not saying that now.

As you can tell, I haven't agreed with all of Pence's stances. But I gave him credit for standing up for his beliefs.

Now, unfortunately, he appears en route to becoming Chris Christie redux, a once-strong leader kowtowing to a more forceful politician, no doubt destined for some sort of humiliation.

Trump was criticized for not having Pence on stage as he spoke, or staying on stage when Pence spoke, at last Saturday's official announcement of his choice for vice president. But perhaps that spared Indiana's governor from adopting a "Christie face" as Trump droned on and on not about his proposed partner in the White House, but about himself.

Later, in a Sunday appearance on "60 Minutes," Trump continually finished Pence's answers. Still, Pence said, "It's probably ... it's ... it's probably obvious to people that our styles are different, but I promise you, our vision is exactly the same."

If the vision is the same, then Pence has lost his focus as a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.

Fortunately, Pence rallied on the big stage of the Republican National Convention.

In his Wednesday night speech, he came across as the man we've grown to know in Indiana. He stated his beliefs, he thanked his family, he campaigned on policies rather than personalities.

No doubt it was not a coincidence that Trump was out of sight.

Pence should leave it to people like Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich to carry Trump's baggage. He should stand on his own, with his Hoosier-bred beliefs, speak his mind, and if that doesn't align him with his boss, so be it.

At least he'll be able to sleep at night, and so will his friends and his supporters back home.

Tim Ethridge is editor of the Courier & Press. His email is tim.ethridge@courierpress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ECP_TimEthridge.
By Mark Wilson of the Courier and Press

An Evansville man was convicted of 19 counts of securities fraud and other charges this week after an eight-day trial in U.S. District Court.

Jeffrey L. Wilson could receive up to a 20-year prison term when sentenced, said Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

A date for sentencing has not been set.

The charges centered on e-biofuels, LLC, a biodiesel business in Middletown, Indiana, a wholly owned subsidiary of Evansville-based Imperial Petroleum Inc., of which Wilson was CEO and president.

Wilson was convicted of securities fraud, filing false reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), falsely certifying reports to the SEC, lying to the company's outside auditor and lying to federal investigators.

The case was directly related to the federal criminal convictions of brothers Craig Ducey, Chad Ducey of Fishers, Indiana, and Chris Ducey of North Webster, Indiana; Joseph Furando and Katirina Tracy of Park Ridge, New Jersey; and Brian Carmichael of Bend, Oregon.

They all pleaded guilty, prior to Wilson's trial, to charghes such as conspiracy to commit wire fraud, tax fraud, making false statements to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other crimes in a separate indictment in September 2013.

Furando was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $56 million in restitution in January for his role in the fraud scheme.

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the scheme involved Furando and Tracy purchasing biodiesel through their New Jersey companies CIMA Green and Caravan Trading knowing that the biodiesel fuel had already been used to claim tax credits and EPA renewable fuel credits.

Furando and Tracy then sold the biodiesel to Carmichael and the Ducey brothers, who used the e-biofuels company's facility in Middletown, Indiana to pretend to manufacture what they had bought and illegally reassign the tax and EPA credits to it.

The fraud involved more than $140 million in revenue and $56 million in criminal profits, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, while Wilson's securities fraud case involved over $20 million in loss to investors and another $25 million attempted fraud.
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By Richard Gootee of the Courier and Press

The Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office now has the case file on the death of an Evansville toddler who had synthetic marijuana in her system when she died.

Whitney Riggs, the spokeswoman for Nicholas Hermann's office, confirmed that prosecutors received a file Friday about the investigation into the death of 20-month old Kaylei Carter. Riggs declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation, including the timetable for a decision on whether to file criminal charges in connection with Carter's death.

Carter was found dead May 11 in a home in the 500 block of Jeanette Benton Drive. A coroner's inquest report released last month listed the girl's death as caused by "streptococcal sepsis with contributing synthetic cannabinoids."

Steve Lockyear, Vanderburgh County's chief deputy coroner, said at the time of the inquest's release that the toddler's cause of death was left "undetermined" because "of the unknown effects of K2 on a child."

Sepsis can develop after an infection and babies and toddlers are at an increased risk to be affected by it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The initial autopsy on Carter's body showed no signs of trauma, but investigators ordered both a toxicology test and tests for natural disease after her death.

The prosecutor's office had been anticipating receiving a file from the Evansville Police Department on the girl's death since that inquest was released.
Photos by DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Cory Lamb of Evansville puts the finishing touches on a bike rack he created for the Owen Block Thursday morning. "I made one bike rack and they keep on coming," the Sturgis, Ky., transplant said. "I can't complain about that."

SHARE The renovation of the Owen Block at Chestnut and Second streets is nearly complete and 10 units have already been leased. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Dennis Au, Evansville's Historic Preservation officer, studies the hand-carved limestone on the Owen Block Thursday morning. "I'm not surprised at all to see that this was Bowling Green (Ky.) limestone," Au said. "When it weathers, the Indiana limestone shows fossils."

By Thomas B. Langhorne of the Courier and Press

Four years after a previous owner legally walked away from the Owen Block by ceasing to pay property taxes on it, the once-blighted 19th century row house has new tenants at long last.

Thursday night, developer Mike Martin held a private showing of the long-vacant  but now almost completely renovated  building at Second and Chestnut streets for donors of Indianapolis-based nonprofit Indiana Landmarks. The historic preservation organization helped lead the charge to rescue the once-ornate structure with striking Second Empire architecture using money from private donors as well as taxpayer dollars.

Two of the structure's 15 luxury one-bedroom apartments are occupied, although no renters were in evidence before Thursday's private showing. Eight more apartments  they occupy 700-800 square feet and rent for $800 to $900 per month  have been leased, according to Martin.

There can be little doubt the units are meant for luxury. They feature granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances and stacked washer/dryers. The Owen Block  so named because it was built by prominent Evansville surgeon and investor Dr. Abraham Owen  also has a lower level workout room and a small private courtyard with bike rack and plants.

"It being restored and looking nice makes people think it's a nicer neighborhood, and I think it helps the whole area," said neighbor Jerry Johnson, who said he has lived in a 19th Century two-story brick structure at First and Chestnut for 25 years.

Speaking while he watered ivy climbing a tree outside his house, Johnson said it's a relief to find out Martin has rented 15 parking spaces nearby for the expected influx of new neighbors. Street parking also will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Just more than three years ago, city officials were talking about demolishing the Owen Block. Its numerous structural problems included significant amounts of water seeping through a collapsed section of roof, extensive interior deterioration, shifting exterior walls and a gutted interior. At one time, windows stayed open in winter, allowing animals and vandals inside.

Things began to look up in 2014, when supporters used social media to galvanize historical preservation advocates and city officials.

In March 2015, a code enforcement hearing officer approved the city's request to scotch demolition plans. The action came two days after Indiana Landmarks bought the building and transferred it to Martin's company. Landmarks acquired it from a Chicago-based LLC that had purchased the right to collect the building's property tax lien at Vanderburgh County's 2014 tax sale.

The transaction required facing up to previous owner Neuhoff Development LLC's unwillingness to be involved any longer.

Indiana Landmarks reported paying about $14,000 to clear up Owen Block's local and state tax liens. Neuhoff Development stopped paying property taxes on the structure after a failed development attempt in 2012, and afterward was unwilling to pay for repairs.

State law allowed the LLC to abandon its Owen Block redevelopment project without any legal repercussions.

In Indiana, an investor who is willing to part with a structure can avoid paying code enforcement fines, repair orders, even demolition. All the owner has to do is skip paying at least three consecutive seasonal installments of county property taxes  18 months  and the property goes to tax sale. The former property owner pays nothing.

Plenty of private money  and $100,000 in taxpayer money  went into the Owen Block rescue.

In 2015, the Landmarks group reported it met a fundraising goal of $440,000 from historical preservation supporters to help cover the cost of stabilization and part of the necessary exterior restoration. That amount, Landmarks said, was needed just to get a developer interested in taking on the renovation.

The public money came from two sources.

Fifty thousand dollars came from an unexpended federal Urban Development Action Grant. Another $50,000 was drawn from a previously dormant 2006 bond intended to fund property acquisition, sidewalks and demolitions in the Front Door Pride area. The local bond money was spent on public infrastructure  primarily sidewalk construction  around the building. The federal grant money helped Indiana Landmarks pay Martin to stabilize Owen Block.

City officials have justified the expenditure of tax dollars on the once-dilapidated Owen Block by saying it will pay off in future property tax receipts.
Evan Bayh

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By Thomas B. Langhorne of the Courier and Press

It started off as a routine campaign appearance for Evan Bayh, who is trying to return to the U.S. Senate. The sort of thing Bayh, a Democrat, has done hundreds of times before.

Bayh praised his hosts, eLuxury Supply, took a brief tour of the company's Kotter Avenue plant on the East Side of Evansville and told a small group of journalists that his top priority is growing business and the economy. He deplored Washington's negative "dysfunctional politics" and said he hoped to help change that.

Then someone brought up critics' contention that Bayh returns to Indiana only when he is seeking office. Republican candidate Rep. Todd Young has said the 60-year-old Bayh is "a wealthy lobbyist from Washington" who hasn't actually lived in the state since leaving the Senate in 2011.

"I guess you'd expect that from critics," Bayh said, mentioning a recent visit to Vigo County and quickly pivoting to a former initiative of his promoting and facilitating college education.

"Critics are going to criticize. It's just not true," he said.

The Courier & Press asked Bayh directly where he has lived since leaving the U.S. Senate.

"Our home's in Indianapolis. Always has been. Matter of fact, our boys were born in a hospital just down the street," he said.

So Bayh has lived in Indianapolis, the newspaper asked.

"Our home is in Indianapolis. As a matter of fact, I've got a driver's license here. I can prove it to you if you'd like," he replied.

The question of Bayh's residence has been front and center in Young's campaign against Bayh and may continue to be as the former Democratic senator and Young do battle this fall.

There are answers to the question, but they go deeper than the one Bayh offered in Evansville Friday.

Bayh does own a condo on the north side of Indianapolis. He told the Indianapolis Star last week that Indiana is still his legal residence.

But that doesn't mean he's been living here.

The Washington Business Journal reported last year that Bayh and his wife, Susan, had paid $2.9 million for a four-bedroom home in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown community.

Bayh, then a partner at the K Street office of McGuireWoods, told the Business Journal he would have been pleased to stay in the Northwest D.C. home he and his wife had occupied since December 1998. That six-bedroom, Georgia-style brick home hit the market in early 2015 for nearly $2.6 million. But Bayh told the publication that with their two children headed to college, the large home was more than they required. So they settled on a residence that the Business Journal described as "an 1820 Federal that was completely renovated with modern amenities."

"It's really simple. We have twin sons who went off to college last fall, my wife really wanted to downsize, and we didn't need as much space," Bayh told the journal. "It's the age-old story. The wife wanted to move. The husband didn't. So we moved."

In 2012, the Bayhs bought a waterfront penthouse in Key Biscayne, Florida.

In addition to his partnership at McGuireWoods, Bayh is a senior adviser in the New York private equity firm Apollo Global Management. He serves on several companies' boards of directors and on the advisory board for the CIA. He has been a contributor to Fox News, although he told the Indianapolis Star he ended that association.

"We come home frequently," Bayh told the Star. "We have a home here. I pay property taxes. I've got an electric bill, a gas bill."

Bayh served two terms as governor, from 1989 to 1997, and two terms as a U.S. senator, from 1999 to 2011. His father, Birch Bayh, served for nearly three decades as a senator and U.S. House member. Birch Bayh unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976.

The seat Evan Bayh seeks this year is being vacated by Republican Dan Coats, who succeeded Bayh in 2011. Young, 43, is serving his third term in the U.S. House.

Bayh isn't the only U.S. Senate candidate in Indiana who has been criticized for not actually living in the state. In 2010, Democrats pointed out that Coats had been living in Wilmington, North Carolina.

In 2012, Republican Richard Mourdock made Sen. Richard Lugar's Washington, D.C.-area residence a central part of his GOP primary argument that Lugar had fallen out of touch with Indiana.

Lugar and his wife, Charlene, no longer lived at the Indianapolis house where they resided when he was mayor of the city, and where they had until recently used as their address for voter registration. Three Indiana attorneys general had said Lugar could keep the old Indianapolis address for the purposes of voting, signing up for a driver's license and more.

But Mourdock said the U.S. Constitution demands inhabitancy of the state that lawmakers represent. Lugar's attorneys and Marion County election officials ultimately agreed that he would switch his registration to a family farm on the south side of Indianapolis that he had helped manage and maintain, even though he did not live there. On Friday afternoon, the Democratic State Central Committee formally put Bayh on November's ballot, replacing the departed Baron Hill.
A Billings man was arrested after an investigation into his alleged sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

Nicholas James Orr, 26, was charged with sexual intercourse without consent, a felony. He appeared in Yellowstone County Justice Court on Thursday.

Judge Pedro R. Hernandez set bond at $25,000 and ordered that Orr be put on GPS monitoring if released.

According to court documents, the girl was staying at Orr's home in 2013. When officers arrived, they found her "in a back bedroom closet" at the residence, charges state.

The girl disclosed to police that she had sex with Orr. Under Montana law, people younger than 16 cannot consent to intercourse.

The girl was taken to the hospital for a sexual assault exam. An analysis at the Montana Crime Lab matched Orr with the DNA retrieved during the exam, charges state.

Orr is scheduled to appear in Yellowstone County District Court on July 27.
Eric Holcomb

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By Chelsea Schneider/ USA Today Netowrk/ The Indianapolis Star

Gov. Mike Pence announced Friday his endorsement of Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb as his replacement in the governors race, a decision that could give Holcomb an edge ahead of Tuesdays meeting of a state GOP panel that will choose a candidate to fill the vacancy.



Pences endorsement came as U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks appeared to be surging among the four Republicans running in Tuesdays caucus.

In endorsing Holcomb, Pence said he essentially made his decision on whom to support back in March when he tapped Holcomb to become his lieutenant governor.



When selecting my lieutenant governor in March, the primary factor was who would be able to best serve the state of Indiana in the event I could no longer perform my duties as governor. As I concluded before, there is no better individual to lead our state than Eric Holcomb, Pence wrote in a letter to the 22-member Republican state central committee responsible for choosing a successor.

The unprecedented process was kick started after Pence dropped out of the race to become Donald Trumps running mate.



But Pence went on to say, This decision is yours alone, and I will respect that decision and support the nominee you deem fit to serve.



IndyStar reached out to all 22 members of the panel to ask whom they were planning to support. Five members confirmed theyd support Brooks with two saying theyd vote for Holcomb and one for U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita. Eight members said they were either undecided or declined to say whom theyd support. The remainder didnt return messages seeking comment.



State Sen. Jim Tomes, a Wadesville Republican, also confirmed this week he was seeking the nomination.



Prior to the governors announcement, two sources close to the Brooks campaign told IndyStar that they believed they had at least 12 votes on the committee  the minimum required to pull off a win.



At the same time, Pete Seat, a consultant to Holcomb, called him a front-runner in an analysis released Thursday. He based his conclusion on conversations taking place at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where two-thirds of the panels members were in attendance.



Holcomb said he was as honored today to receive Governor Pences support as I was when answering his call to serve as Lt. Governor.



Holcomb assumed the role of lieutenant governor after Sue Ellspermann resigned the office to apply for the presidency at Ivy Tech Community College. She began that job earlier this month.

Whomever the Republicans select as their gubernatorial candidate will face Democrat John Gregg in the November election.
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By Thomas B. Langhorne of the Courier and Press

A native Venezuelan, Alfonso Vidal greets Donald Trump's declaration that illegal immigrants in America "have to go" in terms that are more nuanced  but supportive, in a measured way.

That's not necessarily a surprise. After all, the 43-year-old Vidal, a Newburgh resident, is attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week as an alternate delegate. Like most of the other nearly 5,000 GOP partisans in Quicken Loans Arena, he readily deplores what he calls the "socialistic principles" of today's national Democratic Party and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's "corruption."

But Vidal, who says he was sworn in as an American citizen a few years ago, isn't buying everything GOP nominee Trump is selling on the illegal immigration issue. He flatly declared before Trump's acceptance speech Thursday that the real estate mogul's proposal to deport the nation's roughly 11 million illegal immigrants is impractical.

"There should be a legal way to create a path to legalization," Vidal said. "Now, that path can take many, many forms. It can include maybe a penalty. Many things."

Trump's promise to make Mexico pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border? That's possible and probably "necessary to move on," Vidal said.

"I think that would appease a lot of the concerns that Americans have about the borders," he said. "Every country should be able to control their borders. Borders have to be protected. Borders are not there to be porous."

The value of such a wall, Vidal said, is that it could initiate a national dialogue and ultimate solution to what he called the real issue  what to do about the millions who are thought to be living here illegally and their families.

"The issue of securing the border has to be addressed first. Once we get past that very contentious issue and everybody feels comfortable that we're not going to have continued flows of, back and forth ..." he said. "Then I think we can sit down at a table as a national coalition with everybody  Republicans, Democrats, Latinos, non-Latinos, whatever you want  and find a solution that will satisfy everybody.''

Republican National Convention organizers have been unable to say how many Latino delegates and alternates are attending this year's event, but most observers there say the number is small.

Vidal still marvels at the freedoms most Americans take for granted. Watching his adopted country's political system at work is one of his primary objectives in Cleveland.

While living in Venezuela in 1997, Vidal was taken hostage by Colombian guerrillas. He was on a fishing trip with a friend who had an airplane. Nearly two weeks later, they were freed  minus the plane.

Hoping to put the traumatic experience in his rearview mirror, Vidal visited a sister who was then attending the University of Evansville. UE officials encouraged him to stay in town and finish his mechanical engineering degree. He later earned a master's degree in industrial management at the University of Southern Indiana. He began a construction company and Vidal Plastics, a distribution business of which he is now president.

Vidal and his wife Daniela, a chemical engineer he dated in Venezuela, became activists in Evansville's Latino community. Alfonso served as chairman of the Indiana Commission for Hispanic and Latino Affairs.

The Vidals were among five people who began HOLA (Hospitality and Outreach for Latin Americans) in 2003, working with the Evansville mayor's office, schools and others on issues from health care and identification cards to Latinos' high school dropout rate. The Vidals and HOLA partnered with Nativity Church to create the Juan Diego Latino Center, which provides outreach services for Latinos.

Gov. Mike Pence this year renewed Alfonso Vidal's 2012 appointment to the Governor's Commission on Minority and Women's Business Enterprises.

Looking ahead to Trump's acceptance speech Thursday night, Vidal said the GOP's standard-bearer may be strong on issues, but his presentation needs work. Trump is prone to taunting defeated opponents, using coarse and indelicate language and refusing to be conciliatory.

Vidal said he can be combative just like Trump  but then, he's not running for anything.

"I am not on the national stage. I like people telling me things straight, direct, to the point, and don't beat around the bushes. I don't like pandering of the political parties to the Latino communities," he said.

"So, yeah, let's talk about it  but (Trump) could say the same thing without the harshness."
SHARE Todd Rokita

By Chelsea Schneider and Tony Cook, IndyStar / USA TODAY Network

U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita would be in a virtual tie with Democrat John Gregg if hes chosen as the Republican candidate for governor, according to a new poll released by the candidate Wednesday.

Rokita has a slight 45 percent to 43 percent lead over Gregg, a virtual tie because the difference between the two candidates falls within the polls 4 percentage point margin of error.

The poll by Public Opinion Strategies also shows Rokita with similar name recognition to Gregg in the Indianapolis area, though Gregg, who officially entered the race last year, remains at an advantage.

Rokita released the results to Indiana delegates at the Republican National Convention, many of whom serve on the GOP panel that will pick a replacement for Gov. Mike Pence on the ballot.

Also vying for the job: Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks and state Sen. Jim Tomes.

Rokita referred IndyStar to his campaign staff, who did not directly answer questions about whether they did polling on his competitors.

"We really are trying to stay positive here," said Rokita's campaign spokesman Tim Edson. "We built the poll around Todd and the messages we believe will resonate in the general election."

The results show once those surveyed learned more about Rokita his advantage over Gregg increased to a 13-point lead.

The poll was completed Saturday to Monday immediately after Pence was formally announced as Donald Trumps running mate.
Donald Trump walks backstage as Secret Service agents surround him during the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena on July 20, 2016. (Photo: Andrew P. Scott, USA TODAY)

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By Eliza Collins, USA TODAY

CLEVELAND  On the last day of the GOP convention, a #GetYourTrumpGear was trending on Twitter. But it didnt happen naturally  the Trump campaign paid six figures to get it there.

Trump is the first candidate to buy a full day of advertising on Twitter, Nicholas Pacilio, a spokesman for Twitter, told USA TODAY.

The hashtags will change throughout the day, and as of midday Thursday there had already been two.

To get your hashtag trending will cost six figures on a normal day. On a big day like Thursday (Donald Trump officially accepts the Republican nomination tonight), its in the high six figures, Pacillio said.

While it is definitely not unusual to be spending money on advertisements at this point in the cycle, Trump has downplayed his use of paid advertisements, saying hes been able to use natural media coverage to get attention. (As drama over his wifes speech unfolded earlier this week Trump tweeted out: all press is good press!)

Hillarys spending hundreds of millions of dollars in ads, you know what Ive spent so far? Nothing, nothing, Trump said in an interview with ABCs George Stephanopoulos that aired on Good Morning America Thursday. I dont want to waste money this early its like a race horse.

Trump has used Twitter to go around the media and communicate directly with his supporters this cycle. Last week he used the medium to announce that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence would be his running-mate.
A group of demonstrators gathered on a downtown sidewalk Thursday evening, holding signs that said Justice = Peace, White Silence is Violence and Black Lives Matter.

They met under the banner of a day of action that includes Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country. Sonia Davis, a Billings woman who organized the local event, said she was inspired to join the movement.

To be vocal. To be visible, said Davis, 37. We want our community to know that violence hurts us all.

With no official affiliation to the Black Lives Matter movement, Thursdays demonstration was a response to a recent string of high-profile, fatal police shootings of black men. In a statement, Davis mentioned Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minn., Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Delrawn Small in New York City.

The incidents sparked protests across the country, as well as more violence. On July 7, a gunman fired into a crowd in Dallas, killing five police officers and injuring more.

On July 17, three officers were killed and others were wounded by a shooter in Baton Rouge.

As the group of 14 gathered on the Yellowstone County Courthouse lawn, Davis said her hope is for a closer look at community policing practices among officials and lawmakers.

Another goal was to bring attention to the cause in Billings, a town that Davis said can feel far away from those headline-grabbing incidents.

We want to share our stories, Davis said, Give people an opportunity to speak about whats on their minds and on their hearts.

Davis press release was called, White People to Demonstrate for Black Lives. She said that she labeled it this way as a nod to inclusiveness, and that a movement in support of the lives of black people isnt restricted by race.

As Davis played music on her phone, the group was greeted by the honks of motorists on North 27th Street. One woman in the group, 55-year-old Deanna Barham, said that she had a brief thought that there might be some negative responses to the demonstration.

Barham said that she felt showing up was more important.

We cant survive as a nation unless we all love one another, she said.
The killing of the tiny white dog was a brutal, despicable crime. Anthony James Allen, 21, of Billings, pleaded guilty to beating Joker. The dog died shortly thereafter.

^pJokers violent death is outrageous, but the group of dog lovers who protested Allens sentence last week were barking up the wrong tree. Municipal Judge Sheila Kolar imposed the maximum fine allowed under state law for the misdemeanor that the City Attorneys Office charged: $1,000. She ordered Allen to have a psychological evaluation and to complete an anger management class  all at his own expense. She also ordered a four-day jail sentence.^p

^pWhile the idea of locking him up for months may appeal to us dog lovers, the Yellowstone County jail is overcrowded. Judges have to decide daily who stays and who goes free. Defendants who plead guilty to misdemeanor first offense assault on family members often spend just one day in jail.

In this particular case, the law was applied as strictly as just and reasonable in Yellowstone County. But Montana law is weak on multiple points of protecting dogs and other animals from abuse. Protective bills are introduced every session, but repeatedly fail.^p

Dog bills dont pass

^pIn the 2015 session, Rep. Tom Richmond, R-Billings, got further than anyone before him with a bill to close a loophole in the states law against causing dogs or cocks to fight. Richmonds bill passed the House, but died in the Senate. Several previous attempts to criminalize spectating at animal fights have died in committees.

Montana is the only state in the Union where its not illegal to attend a dogfight, according to Wendy Hergenraeder, state director for the Humane Society of the United States. Those paying spectators are the reason why dog fights are held. All but seven other states outlaw attendance at cockfights.

Here are a few examples of pet protection bills that died in legislative committees, but ought to be the law in Montana:^p

In the 2015 session, Sen. Eric Moore, R-Miles City, introduced SB285, which would have added knowingly fails to report evidence of animal cruelty at an animal facility to the state law against cruelty.

In the 2013 session, Rep. Margie MacDonald, D-Billings, sponsored HB439, seeking to protect pets by requiring licensing for commercial dog breeding facilities. The bill died in committee, as have previous attempts to prevent puppy mills from harming dogs. Many Gazette readers will recall a case in which more than 100 malnourished and sickly English shepherds were seized from a Ballantine dog breeder, housed at MetraPark for months during the criminal prosecution process. That case left Yellowstone County taxpayers with a big bill, despite generous donations of dog food and volunteer time to care for the animals.

In the 2009 session, one bill that died in committee proposed to increase penalties for the crime of animal cruelty, the offense charged in Jokers death. Republican Sen. Rick Laible sponsored SB346 to double the possible fine on first conviction from $1,000 to $2,000, and to double the fine for second and subsequent offenses from $2,500 to $5,000. That bill never made it out of committee.

^pPeople who want to protect dogs from cruelty and neglect need to direct their pleas toward lawmakers. Montana laws ought to be stronger on prevention. Canine advocates should lobby to change laws that often allow the worst animal abusers to escape any accountability for the suffering they deliberately inflict on mans best friends.^p
Supreme Court candidate Kristen Juras is working hard to try to hide her anti-public access background from Montana voters. This is because she knows that Montanans overwhelmingly value public access to our rivers, streams and hunting grounds and dont like to be fenced out by billionaire trophy property owners.

But Juras cant run from her own words. She has written extensively about Montana's public access laws. She calls our stream access law a "monumental erosion of property rights" and advocates for what she calls the "right to exclude." As a law school professor, she advances an extreme anti-public access agenda in her classroom. Indeed, no candidate for public office in Montana has ever been so anti-public access.

Juras also cant hide the fact that she is an academic with no practical experience for the job she is seeking. Not one judge has endorsed her. Her background is checkered including being rebuked by her employer for helping a Delaware corporation lobby to lower its taxes at our expense. She was also the legal counsel for an insurance company which was charged with (and paid a $2 million fine for) criminal bribery.

Juras opponent, Judge Dirk Sandefur, is a longstanding and well respected judge who is endorsed by a wide cross-section of judges, lawyers and law enforcement officers. He is ready to do the job of being a judge. And, equally important, he wont bring an agenda with him.

The billionaires that hate our public access laws and want to fence us out love Juras and will no doubt spend big money to try to get her on the Montana Supreme Court. If you value public access, make sure you vote responsibly this election.

John Heenan

Billings
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^pMontana has been awarded $195,000 in federal funding to help fight and prevent the Zika virus.

The U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention announced the funding as part of $60 million awarded Thursday across the country to help protect Americans from the virus and its effects.

Our local, state and territorial health departments are on the front lines in the fight against Zika, and though the necessary funding that is needed isnt yet available, we cannot wait to provide this essential support, said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. These CDC funds will strengthen state and territorial capacity to respond to Zika virus, an increasingly concerning public health threat.

Zika is a virus spread primarily through mosquitoes, as well as sexual contact with an infected person, that among other things can result in birth defects, including in rare cases the birth defect microcephaly. Zikas symptoms typically include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes and last for a few days.

As of July 20, there were about 1,400 known cases in the U.S., although none of them were acquired through mosquitoes in the country.

According to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Resources, there are three known cases in Montana, all of them associated with travel. The mosqiutoes that carry and transmit the virus are not found in Montana.

The funding will go to protect pregnant women, sureillance and investigation of the virus, shoring up lab capacity and improving mosquito control, as well as a registry to help monitor pregnant women with Zika and their infants.

President Barack Obamas administration has also requested nearly $2 billion in additional funding to fight Zika. Congress has not yet approved the budget that contains that request.

The money announced Thursday comes from the CDCs Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement.

Funding from the ELC for the 2016 fiscal year also includes $2.1 million to Montana to help deal with antimicrobial resistant bacteria, prevention and tracking of foodborne disease, setting up a system to track diseases preventable by vaccine, detection and response to an antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea threat and supporting a next-generation method of quickly identifying and responding to disease outbreaks.
Mobility News

Test Center Take: The Samsung Notebook 7 Spin

Kyle Alspach

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Mobile devices in the enterprise can take lots of different forms. Sometimes theyll be devices that are meant to hit the road. But sometimes theyre just devices that can make the trip from desk to conference room.

Samsung this week released its newest laptop for the workplace, the Notebook 7 Spin, and the CRN Test Center spoke with Samsung to learn what the device is all about. For solution providers with customers who need to get employees more productive around the office -- and not necessarily on the plane -- the Notebook 7 Spin fits the bill.

[Related: Review: Samsung's Notebook 9 Nails Portability And Power]

The device accomplishes that in part by being highly flexible, with a 360-degree hinge that lets the touch-screen display fold all the way back for use as a tablet -- a la the Lenovo Yoga series -- or even part of the way, for showing a video or presentation to co-workers.

Pre-loaded with Windows 10 Pro, the Notebook 7 Spin comes in two sizes, 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch, and it clearly isnt targeted for use by a mobile salesperson or other on-the-go professional as it weighs 4 pounds or 5 pounds, respectively.

Instead, Samsung designed the laptop for use by office workers who only need to be mobile on occasion. That is, they need to be able to collaborate and communicate with co-workers around the office, and thus have a computer thats not tied to their desk.

The 15.6-inch version is particularly targeted toward power users among the office knowledge worker set, such as designers or data analysts, said Jen Langan, director of mobility product marketing at Samsung.

They are working with a lot of data and that requires a lot more performance than the standard knowledge worker is going to need, Langan said.

Which is why the 15.6-inch version is so heavy compared with many of the new laptops hitting the market right now: Its got an Intel Core i7 6500U processor, a Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics card, a 1-TB hard drive, 128 GB of SSD and 8 GB of memory.

The price is reasonable for what users are receiving -- the 15.6-inch version of the Notebook 7 Spin starts at $1,300.

And the 13.3-inch version starts at $900, which comes with the Intel Core i5 Processor 6200U, a 500-GB hard drive and 8 GB of memory.
Networking News

Verizon To Give Some Unlimited Data Plan Customers The Boot

Gina Narcisi

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Unlimited data customers that have been grandfathered into their Verizon plans for years and are regularly burning through data may be getting cut off.

Verizon will be forcing customers on unlimited data plans to move to a tiered data plan by Aug. 31 if they use more than 100 GB of data in a single month, as initially reported Thursday by Droid Life and Ars Technica.

If these customers don't make the move to a new plan, they will be disconnected from Verizon's network.

[Related: Verizon Revamps Wireless Plan, Jury Still Out On How It Will Impact Partners]

Verizon, Basking Ridge, N.J., told CRN that less than 1 percent of its customers are on unlimited plans, with "a small fraction" of a percentage of those customers using "hundreds of times more data than the average user" on a single device.

"Because our network is a shared resource, and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon, we are notifying a very small group of customers on unlimited plans who use an extraordinary amount of data that they must move to one of the new Verizon plans by Aug. 31," said a Verizon spokesperson via email.

Moving to a tiered plan would require customers to pay overage fees should they go over their data cap.

Berkeley, Calif.-based solution provider DataXoom specializes in mobility services. The Verizon partner offers large data rate plans that "pool" its business clients, effectively creating nearly unlimited usage for its customers, said Rob Chamberlin, co-founder and chief revenue officer for DataXoom.

Chamberlin said that the change won't impact his business customers.

"When it comes to wireless, there is no such thing as 'unlimited' or 'free,' Chamberlin said. "These are just pricing gimmicks that drive subscriber growth, and they are typically somewhat short-lived."

Not every unlimited data plan customer will be impacted. Most of Verizon's customers on unlimited data plans stay well below the 100-GB data cap. Most of these customers are also off-contract and paying for their cellular services month to month. Verizon discontinued its unlimited data plan for customers in 2011.

For the rest of its customers, the carrier recently revamped all of its wireless plans and created new -- and slightly more expensive -- data pools. Business customers and consumers can now choose from small, medium, large, extra-large, and extra extra-large wireless plans, ranging from 2 GB to 24 GB per month.
Storage News

NetApp Partners: Company Is Primed For Flash Storage, Cloud And The Next-Gen Data Center

Joseph F. Kovar

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NetApp, a company whose sales and earnings have been hit over the past couple years, is navigating through a number of industry transitions and expects to come through a stronger company ready for the cloud and all-flash data centers.

That's the message from NetApp executives to customers attending a series of executive briefings, including one held Wednesday in San Diego that was attended by CRN. The event featured NetApp co-founder and Executive Vice President Dave Hitz and Henri Richard, the company's new executive vice president for worldwide field and customer operations.

It is a message that resonates with the channel, said Scott Miller, director of data center business at World Wide Technology, a St. Louis-based solution provider and longtime NetApp channel partner.

[Related: NetApp Fourth Quarter '16: Down Year Over Year, But New Strategic Technologies Expected To Lead Growth Going Forward]

"What Hitz and Richard said are completely aligned with what they are telling the channel," Miller told CRN. "It seems like NetApp has sorted itself out. Our business in the first half of this calendar year is much better than last year."

NetApp still has work to do, and it would be beneficial for the company to move into new areas that many of its competitors are in, such as hyper-converged infrastructure, Miller said. "But I like where they are going."

The past 12 months have seen a lot of changes at NetApp, including new leadership and significantly more energy from the company, said John Woodall, vice president of engineering at Integrated Archive Systems (IAS), a Palo Alto, Calif.-based solution provider and longtime NetApp channel partner.



"Dave [Hitz] said in the past that NetApp missed the flash storage market," Woodall told CRN. "But look at the IDC numbers giving NetApp the No. 2 position, and you see they're not missing it now. NetApp is competitive, viable and innovative. I'd say they are very well positioned in the flash space."



NetApp, along with SolidFire, has also done a very good of positioning itself for storage in the cloud, Woodall said. "They're able to meet different deployment models for the cloud."



In this transitional market that all vendors are going through, a lot of companies are seeing more shifts, pivots and trends that need to be managed, Woodall said.



"If Dave and Henri [Richard] are going to stand in front of customers and say they've made a lot of changes, done a lot of innovation, it's because they are as well positioned as anyone can expect any company to be," he said.

At the Wednesday customer briefing Richard said that NetApp has over the past few years had revenue and share price pressures. "There's clearly a need to show where we are and where we are going," he said.

NetApp's fourth fiscal quarter showed where the company is going, with sales of all-flash storage reaching an annual run rate of more than $700 million, and growth in sales of Ontap, NetApp's key storage architecture, growing 80 percent year over year, Richard said.

"We went from No. 5 to No. 2 [in flash storage sales], with a velocity that, without being presumptuous, we can go for No. 1," he said.

Richard said that, when considering IT industry disruption, it is usually caused by either a technology transition or a business transition. However, he said, flash storage is unique in that both are happening at the same time, which gives NetApp a real opportunity to grow.

"When you have these kinds of disruption, you can either be a victim of them, or you can benefit from it," he said. "[Historically with disruptions], people who take a risk will benefit from it.  You have to be comfortable with and lean forward into risk to be a winner."

Richard, citing data from research firm Gartner, said that by 2018, 50 percent of IT spending will be cloud-based, 65 percent of IT assets will be off-site, and 75 percent to 80 percent of public cloud services will be consolidated on six vendors.

For a company like NetApp, it is important to not focus on where customers hold their data, be it on-premise or in a public or private cloud, he said. "We should be concerned about how you get the data there, and how you manage it," he said.

Hitz said that NetApp and its customers are going through several major business transitions at the same time.

The first, which NetApp imposed on itself, is the transition from the older 7-Mode architecture to Ontap, a move that was a big reason for slower NetApp sales.

However, Hitz said, as of the last financial quarter, that transition has been largely solved, leaving NetApp's engineering team to focus on new things such as turning on certain capabilities like compression by default to decrease the amount of storage capacity needed, or changing and optimizing data paths so that high-performance flash does not have to wait for data.

The second transition is to all-flash storage, where NetApp currently has three platforms: All Flash FAS for customers needing the full range of data services, E-series for pure performance without the data services, and SolidFire for full scalability and automation.

Hitz said that, while some in the industry would question why NetApp would have three platforms, that's not an issue.

"I would say the whole data center is going flash," he said. "Is it going in two years, five years, six years? We can have a big fight about that.  But it's important to have the right platforms. We want to be there across all your data center platforms. We don't think three [flash] platforms are too many."

The third transition is to the cloud. Hitz said that, unlike flash storage, where customers are already comfortable with the transition from disk storage, the cloud brings up questions of security, governance and other issues.

Compute is easy in the cloud, but data is hard, which is where NetApp can help, Hitz said. For example, he said, NetApp offers AltaVault, an easy way to move data to the cloud. The company also offers NetApp Private Storage for Cloud, a solution that connects on-premise storage directly to Amazon or Azure public clouds, and Ontap Cloud, which runs Ontap as a virtual machine on-premise or in a cloud, he said.

The industry is also transitioning to next-generation data centers that are highly automated and feature software-defined architectures, which Hitz said plays into the strengths of NetApp's SolidFire all-flash storage technology.

SolidFire offers the kind of automation that lets customers continually add nodes without the need to manually control where data is stored or how it is managed, and offers the ability to provide complete quality of service, he said.

Hitz quoted SolidFire founder Dave Wright as saying, "I've come to realize that our job is to build storage for people who hate storage."

That is a different take than what other storage vendors, including NetApp, has had in the past, Hitz said.

"I'm the guy that designed Ontap," he said. "I love Ontap. But if you want to talk software-defined, you have to say [Ontap] is cable-defined."
Tasha Adams: I still sometimes feel like I released him out into the world. I think of him like a grenade where I was always putting the pin back in."
Royal Caribbean Cruises has scheduled a conference call for 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Tuesday, August 2, 2016, to discuss the company's second quarter 2016 financial results.

The call will be available on-line at the company's investor relations website, www.rclinvestor.com.

To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada.

International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. There is no passcode or meeting number.

A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.
An Oregon woman admitted federal methamphetamine charges in Billings on Thursday after investigators found a pound of almost pure meth along with heroin hidden in a car booster seat occupied by her young son.

Rachel Ruiz, 31, of Portland, Ore., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess meth for distribution during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Susan Watters.

A plea agreement calls for the dismissal at sentencing of more serious conspiracy and possession counts that carry a minimum mandatory 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine.

Ruiz faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Ruiz along with co-defendants Timothy Patrick Pine II, 37, of Miles City, and her boyfriend, Francisco Gutierrez, 22, who is from Honduras, were charged with trafficking meth from about January 2014 to June 2015 in Miles City, Missoula, Kalispell and other places in Montana.

Gutierrez pleaded guilty earlier to a conspiracy count and is awaiting sentencing. Pine has pleaded not guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Rubich said that Ruiz helped transport meth into Montana for redistribution. Federal and state investigators recruited a confidential source who would buy ounce and gram quantities of pure meth from Pine and also used an undercover agent in the investigation, he said.

Most of the deals occurred in Miles City but also in Missoula and Kalispell, Rubich said.

The confidential source and undercover agent got Pine to sell them a quarter pound of meth, and Pine told them to meet him in Missoula, where he would be meeting his source, Rubich said.

The agent and confidential source met up with Pine at a Motel 6 in Missoula on May 12, 2015. There, Pine met first with Ruiz and Gutierrez and then gave the agent and confidential source a quarter pound of meth for $6,000.

Pine agreed to another sale of a half-pound of meth on June 4, 2015, Rubich said. Pine contacted the undercover agent and told him his source was almost to Missoula.

Investigators stationed themselves by a truck stop along Interstate 90 and made a traffic stop of a Honda Civic that was headed toward Missoula.

Gutierrez was the driver and Ruiz was in the passenger seat, Rubich said. Ruizs 8-year-old son was in the back seat in a car seat. Officers arrested Gutierrez and asked Ruiz if she was willing to accompany them to a hotel room they had set up for questioning.

Ruiz agreed but said her son had to come with her and was adamant that the childs car seat be transported as well, Rubich said.

Agents got a search warrant for the vehicle and found marijuana in it. They also examined the car seat, removed screws from the bottom to open the seat and found a pound of meth and 8 grams of heroin, Rubich said.

All of the meth seized tested as almost 100 percent pure, he said.

Ruiz said at the hearing that her son was in a booster seat and that she didnt know it contained meth and heroin. She told the judge she thought they were transporting marijuana and that Gutierrez must have put the meth and heroin in the booster seat when he took the car in for a tune up before the trip.

Rubich and Vern Woodward, Ruizs defense attorney, agreed that under the law, it doesnt matter what drug Ruiz thought she was transporting, only that she knew it was a controlled substance.

Watters set sentencing for Oct. 27 and continued Ruizs release.
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CLEVELAND  Tim Herbst couldnt quite bring himself to say the name: Donald Trump.

I support the Republican nominee, Herbst said Thursday. Im certainly not going to be voting for Hillary Clinton.

It wasnt exactly a glowing endorsement for Trump on his biggest night from one of Connecticuts most ambitious Republicans.

So instead, Trump focused on his message and his momentum.

There can be no prosperity without law and order, the GOP nominee said to chants of Trump!

We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore, he added.

But for many of the states Republicans, Trump remains a prickly standard-bearer.

Herbst, who is in his fourth term as Trumbulls first selectman and ran for state treasurer in 2014, shows the imperfect union vexing state GOP members as they go their separate ways from Cleveland.

Many are critical of the partys conservative platform on gay marriage, abortion and other social issues. On Trump, theyre up  and down.

I think people are having a tough time adjusting to it, Herbst said. Look, this is what it is. This is what Republicans across the country wanted.

Now that the balloons have been released and the cigars burned down to ash comes the hard work for Republicans  convince an electorate flush with unaffiliated voters to embrace a candidate and platform that many of them would confide are imperfect. They return from the GOP national convention with a workmanlike pragmatism, unified more by their contempt for Hillary Clinton than their fondness of Trump.

I think Trump is going to play well in certain parts of the state, but its going to be a heavy lift, said Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe on MSNBC and a New Canaan resident.

Scarborough, whose name is being bandied about as a GOP contender for governor in 2018, mingled with delegates from his home state during the convention finale. The best hope for Trump, he said, is that Gov. Dannel P. Malloys unpopularity rubs off on Clinton. Trumps internal polling, Scarborough said, has Clinton clinging to a 5-point lead in the state. But Scarborough said hes looking for more independent forecasts, as opposed to his conversations with Trumps campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a Connecticut native. After all, he said, President Barack Obama won 60 percent of the vote in Connecticut in 2008 and 58 percent in 2012.

If you see Connecticut in single digits, then you could see a lot of states fall, Scarborough said. Right now, Im skeptical.

The appetite for Trump in Connecticuts delegation varies widely.

I think theres a realization that hes our candidate, said Daniel McCabe, of Stamford, the citys former longtime GOP chairman. When you look at the alternative, we have no choice.

McCabe leans toward the more conservative end of the spectrum of the states GOP contingent on social issues and is pro-life. He originally supported Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for president before becoming a convert for Trump, who he said isnt exactly a red meat Republican.

Hes anything but a traditional family conservative, McCabe said. (But) I think hes got good family values.

The GOP platform, a 66-page document ratified on the first day of the four-day convention, denounced the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry. It defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

The platform stands in opposition of a federal law extending protections for transgender persons to use the restroom of their choice, while it endorses the First Amendment Defense Act. Critics of the latter say it would allow businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

The GOPs top female office holder in Connecticut, House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, of Derby, slammed the platform this week.

It boggles my mind and its a concern to me, said Klarides, a GOP delegate. I dont believe that whether its a Democratic or Republican platform that its our business to define whats right and wrong with respect to social issues.

Former Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia, who currently resides in Ridgefield, echoed Klarides Thursday.

I understand being true to your principles, but youve got to understand the law of the land, Moccia said. Its time to move on. (But) Ive got issues with the bathrooms.

Moccia is more bullish on Trump than Klarides, however. Hes planning to start a Facebook page of Italian-Americans for Trump, who he said probably has more support than polls bear out because people are ashamed to say theyre backing Trump.

Not trying to be Pollyanna ... its not going to be an easy race, Moccia said.

McCabe downplayed the impact of the GOP platform on the November election.

Nobody after the conventions pays a whole lot of attention to the letter of the platform, McCabe said, adding that as a conservative hes terrified by Clinton appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court.

McCabe said that Trumps bravado and outsider message are refreshing to him.

I think once people get to know the real Donald Trump, not The Apprentice Donald Trump, not the primary campaign Donald Trump, theres an awful lot to admire and respect, McCabe said.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
NORWALK  Sal Rodriguez, a captain for Copps Island Oysters, was minding his own business Thursday afternoon, cleaning his boat near Greens Ledge Lighthouse when suddenly something startled him.

The whale jumped up right next to me, Rodriguez said. It was the first time Ive ever seen one. I thought it was a boat coming right toward me, but it was a whale.

Humpback whales have returned to Long Island Sound, following schools of menhaden fish, and have been sighted on at least three occasions this week along the Connecticut coastline from Norwalk to Greenwich.

Three whales have been sighted, said Joe Schnierlein, research and university liaison for the Maritime Aquarium. It could be the same whale in three different locations or it could be multiple whales. We dont know at this time.

David Simpson, director of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protections Marine Fisheries Unit, said theyd gotten word of sightings off Norwalk and in New Rochelle. Whale sightings have also been reported from Stamford and Greenwich. Simpson said whales can swim many miles in a day and could be anywhere in the Sound on a day-to-day basis.

Its clearly menhaden theyre feeding on, Simpson said of photographs showing a whale coming out of the water with the fish, also known as bunker, spraying out to the sides.

Patrick Killion, of Rowayton, was out fishing with his friends Wednesday afternoon when they spotted the massive creatures swimming alongside their boat.

It was just amazing, Killion said. We hung out for a good 45 minutes. We saw it a whole bunch more times. We thought there was maybe two of them, it was hard to tell. It was very cool. Ive never seen them up close like that before.

Schnierlein said three whales made their way into the Sound to feed on bunker last year, which are plentiful this time of year. They stayed in the Sound from August to October. Schnierlein said its unclear if these are the same whales, but that it is possible they remembered how good the feeding was and returned with that in mind. He said the bunker are rich in fats and oils, making them a great food source for whales.

Last year, one of the three whales was killed in a boat collision when a sail boat went through a bubble net during a regatta. Schnierlein said it is imperative that recreational boaters keep an eye out for circles of bubbles and schools of menahden, which indicate a whale could be near.

The big thing right now is to get the word out to as many as people we can, especially to recreational boaters because they tend not to pay attention to Coast Guard warnings as much as commercial boaters do, Schnierlein said. We want to avoid a boat-whale collision, because we know of one, probably two from last year. We want to get the word out that if you see a large school of menhaden, approach with caution, and if you see a bubble net, go to the outside of it. Its not normal to have bubbles coming up in the sound.

Schnierlein said boaters should stay a minimum of 100 yards away from the mammals, but if boaters see a whale or capture a good photo he asks people to let him know so they can track the whales and where they are. There is no electronic monitoring of whales currently being conducted in the Sound.

Whaling was banned in the continental U.S. in 1982, which has lead to a slow population growth in recent years. Whale sightings in the Sound are rare, but data provided by the Maritime Aquarium shows there have occasionally been humpbacks, beluga whales, manatees and pods of dolphins that have made their way into the protected waters. Prior to the 1950s, sightings of marine mammals, specifically dolphins, were fairly common and even expected during the warmer months as more people were on the water or at the shore.

The DEEP will be putting out an advisory to boaters, reminding them that by federal law they must stay 500 feet from marine mammals, and not act in a way that changes their behavior.

Schnierlein can be contacted at 203-852-0700, Ext. 2352 or jschnierlein@maritimeaquarium.org.

Its exciting knowing that theyre back and its exciting knowing theres enough food for them, but at the same time its something that the people who live and play on the water need to be aware of.

Contributing: Thane Grauel

KKrasselt@scni.com; 203-354-1021; @kaitlynkrasselt
A new federal report says that 14 salmonella cases in Montana in 2016 have been linked to backyard poultry flocks.

The report, issued July 19 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says that the cases are part of eight outbreaks nationwide that have infected 611 people in 45 states since the beginning of the year directly linked to contact with flocks of live backyard poultry, including chickens, ducks and geese.

Salmonella is an intestinal bacteria that can make people sick, with symptoms that include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Most people infected recover after a few days, but in rare cases it can lead to hospitalization and severe illness.

Dana Fejes, an epidemiologist with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, said that the 14 cases in Montana havent been confined to any one area.

Its been all across the state of Montana, and quite a few in the western portions, she said. But, really, its across the entire state. We have seen a couple more cases in the larger jurisdictions.

Two of the cases were reported in Yellowstone County, said Kim Bailey, a registered nurse and RiverStone Healths communicable diseases program manager.

They were reported in the spring and early summer, and at least one resulted in hospitalization. One case has been directly linked to salmonella, and the other is strongly suspected.

Were always cautious in the spring because thats the time when the chicks are more available and people are outside more with their animals, Bailey said.

In 2012, the Billings City Council approved an ordinance allowing as many as six hens per backyard within the city limits.

Both Fejes and Bailey recommended a few actions to help protect people around live poultry and other animals from salmonella.

The best thing any poultry owner can do is wash their hands after theyve handled any animals, collected eggs or washed the coop, Fejes said.

Other steps include avoiding touching your face or mouth after animal contact, avoiding eating and drinking around animals and, in the case of ones such as backyard poultry, keeping them out of the house. In addition, supervising small children while theyre around animals and ensuring they wash up after contact is also important.

Always, always wash your hands after youve been around (live poultry), Bailey said.

About a third of the national cases involved children 5 or younger, according to the CDC.

Fejes said that the number of confirmed backyard poultry-related salmonella cases in Montana in 2016 is higher than in years past, with five or six being reported in an average year.

However, that could at least in part be attributed to better and more accurate testing.

Bailey said that live poultry has always been a carrier of salmonella but that improvements in testing now allow health officials to pinpoint the exact DNA makeup of the bacteria and compare it to that of other cases from around the country, leading to better identification.

Our methods for testing have improved so much, she said. Its very likely that its been around and that weve had these kinds of outbreaks in the past ... were just better able to identify it.

One person died in the national outbreaks, although salmonella wasnt the cause of death.

The CDC expects the outbreaks to continue for several more months across the country and urges people to use the recent outbreaks as a reminder to take precautionary steps.

We definitely dont want to discourage backyard poultry, she said. I think its just really important to be an educated poultry owner.
New agreements between Cuba and Saudi Arabia

Cuba and Saudi Arabia signed on Thursday in Havana two new agreements that will favor the export of products from that country to the island, and the financing, with long-term loans, of infrastructure works in the area of water resources.

The Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX), Rodrigo Malmierca, and Ahmed M. Al-Ghannam, director general of the Saudi exports program of that nations Fund for Development, signed the agreements that will allow progress of bilateral trade.

According to Malmierca, one of the agreements will favor the import to Cuba of Saudi products through loans that will be paid in five years, amounting to approximately 50 million dollars, which give new refunding facilities as money is used.

At the headquarters of MINCEX, the minister pointed out that the first contracts for the supply of equipment for agriculture are already signed, and expressed the conviction that such advantages contribute to the development of bilateral trade.

On loans concerning the other agreement, he said that they will be aimed at continuing to finance, on favorable terms for their refund, the project for the restoration of water supply systems and sanitation in the city of Cardenas, Matanzas.

It was known that the credit, for more than 29 million dollars, aims to guarantee the construction in that western territory of a conductive system and new distribution networks, as well as to improve pluvial drainage and the creation of a sewerage system and a sewage plant.

Malmierca stressed that currently the Saudi Fund for Development analyzes new ideas for joint projects, for which the future of relations is guaranteed, he pointed out.

After expressing his happiness for being in Cuba, Al-Ghannam underlined that his visit seeks to consolidate economic ties between the two nations.

He highlighted that the signing of five agreements in the last five years, when bilateral cooperation began, shows the good execution of the financing granted and the willingness of the Saudi Fund to continue working to strengthen ties with the island.

The agreements signed between Cuba and that country in the field of water resources are now four, while the first took shape in the field of trade.

Attending the ceremony were Enrique Enriquez, Cuban ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Abdulkareen M.A. Helal, charge d'affaires of the embassy of that state in Havana, and MINCEX executives.

(ACN)
A 35-year-old Mandan man has pleaded not guilty to driving high and causing a fatal crash in June.

Ryan Riveland is charged with criminal vehicular homicide for the death of Robert Slavick, 83, of New Salem. He is also accused of driving under the influence and possessing marijuana and methamphetamine.

At a preliminary hearing before South Central District Judge Sonna Anderson on Thursday, two North Dakota state troopers testified about the accident and Riveland's alleged impairment.

Trooper Michael Wald testified that he responded to Riveland's crashed vehicle on Old Highway 10 during the afternoon of June 7. The victim's vehicle was found about two hours later, he said. It was located in a steep ravine about 200 yards away from Riveland's. At that point, the victim was already deceased.

Wald said he believes Riveland rear-ended Slavick, as evidenced by "transfer paint" on both vehicles, a trail of differential fluid between the two and a particular V-shaped bend of the victim's vehicle.

"That kind of damage could only be sustained from a high-velocity impact," Wald said.

An autopsy showed Slavick's cause of death as blunt chest and abdominal injuries due to motor vehicle collision, Wald said.

Wald said Riveland "didn't seem quite right" when he met him at the scene of the accident. Despite a bloody left hand, Riveland said he wasn't in pain. He was pacing and seemed hyper.

Riveland was taken to the hospital, and Trooper Brian Mehlhoff said he conducted a urine test on Riveland, which later revealed marijuana and meth in his system.

While conducting the test, the nurse found a rag in his underwear, which contained substances later identified as meth and marijuana, Mehlhoff said.

At the hearing, Riveland's defense attorney, James Loraas raised the possibility that Slavick had a heart attack and that his death was caused by veering into the ravine. He also questioned whether Riveland was given appropriate access to an attorney at the hospital.

Anderson found probable cause on all charges and scheduled a four-day trial for Oct. 25.
North Dakotas delegates to the Republican National Convention contributed to the partys energy, agriculture and economic policy, giving their candidate a platform they feel hell be able to run on.

It has been a great week, said North Dakota State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt.

Schmidt served on the GOP platform subcommittee on Jobs, Economy and National Debt, calling for tax reform within the first 100 days of a new administration.

Reform would include provisions such as lowering tax rates paid by companies in an effort to help them compete internationally, ending taxes on income earned and stored overseas in an effort to incentivize bringing that money into the United States and eliminating the death tax collected from income when a person dies.

Schmidt said some of these provisions make filing taxes simpler, reducing compliance costs.

The platform also calls for rolling back portions of the Dodd-Frank Act regulating banks following the 2008 financial crisis, an act Schmidt says will help small community banks in North Dakota and nationwide, where many agricultural and small business loans are made, that have had trouble complying with what the party and industry feels is a complex law.

ND GOP chairman Kelly Armstrong served on the policy subcommittee related to energy, which passed a platform addressing carbon dioxide emissions regulations on coal.

Armstrong said energy needs to be clean and efficient but rules made by agencies seem to forget the efficiency part, costing producers time and money.

They do a lot of legislating out of the regulatory agencies and that needs to stop, he said.

The party platform also calls for reform of regulations affecting farms and ranches, according to Armstrong.

You cant buy more cows if youre not able to put a stock dam in a grazing area, he said as an example.

Armstrong said he felt his partys candidate, Donald Trump, was the best he ever sounded during his address, talking off the cuff to the American people.

Trumps message on energy security and national safety is what this election is all about," Armstrong said.
Windber-Portage renew rivalry in Week 10 Heritage-WestPAC crossover

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Before leaving Washington for a seven-week vacation, Congress agreed that prescription drug abuse is a serious problem for the nation. With only two senators and five House members dissenting, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act is on its way to the presidents desk.

This point of bipartisan solidarity is a bright spot in an otherwise dismal record for this Congress, which recessed with most of its annual work undone. In fact, work on the addiction recovery act isnt finished. Although CARA authorizes $181 million in emergency spending to help U.S. communities curb the opioid abuse epidemic, the money still must be appropriated. Otherwise, the CARA is mostly empty or delayed promises.

On the same day the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of CARA, more than three dozen Democratic senators, including Montanas Jon Tester, sent a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asking him to act on funding for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction. The Democrats also cautioned against cutting other public health programs to fund the opioid initiative.

We owe all Americans a strong response to the opioid crisis that shows we can work together and eschew extreme partisan goals or political games, the Democrats said. That means providing real dollars immediately, strengthening other public health priorities, and staying away from poison pill riders.

Fortunately, both Tester and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., recognized that opioid painkiller misuse is a sourge in Montana.

This bill provides needed resources for our health care providers, emergency responders and treatment courts to help treat and stop this epidemic, Daines said in a news release after voting for CARA.

In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted this month, 43 percent of Americans said they know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers, including 19 percent who say they have a family member who has been addicted.

In Montana, health care and law enforcement leaders have united to reduce misuse. The Montana Medical Association promotes physician education on best prescribing practices and alternatives to opioids. The Montana Prescription Drug Registry was established to help pharmacists and prescribers avoid overprescribing narcotics.

Attorney General Tim Fox has several initiatives to raise public awareness about being cautious with opioids. Many Montana law enforcement agencies, including the Billings Police Department, provide prescription drug disposal receptacles that encourage people to get rid of old or unneeded medicines before they fall into the wrong hands.

Between 2011 and 2013 prescription drug overdoses caused at least 369 deaths and more than 7,200 hospital inpatient admissions and emergency department encounters in our state, according to the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.

Prescription drugs are commonly abused by men and women on parole and probation, and figure prominently among the substances abused by treatment court participants in Billings and Yellowstone County. Along with meth, opioids are abused by many Montana parents whose neglect of their children has increased the numbers in foster care.

The CARA is a good plan. But without money, the plan is like an inflatable raft without air. As Tester said, Congress should put their money where their mouth is so we can better combat addiction and keep our families and communities safe.

 Billings (Mont.) Gazette
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A former government official of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from a construction contractor has pleaded guilty to federal charges in North Dakota. Randall Phelan was an elected representative of the governing body of the Three Affiliated Tribes from the end of 2012 to the middle of 2020. Investigators say Phelan used his official position to help the contractors business by awarding contracts, fabricating bids and managing fraudulent invoices. His trial had been scheduled to begin Tuesday. Phelan and two others were originally charged with receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bribery scheme on the oil-rich Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The contractor has pleaded guilty to bribery.
Opinion Psychology

Its not enough for us to survive terrible experiences. Now were supposed to thrive because of them. Nonsense. Victims of trauma dont need to add a sense of failure to their burden.
Jeremy Corbyn summoned the world to Room 642 of University College Londons Institute for Education. The Leader of the Labour Party was launching his, er, leadership campaign for the Labour Party.

This follows the mutiny of Labour MPs, who have put up a little-known challenger, Owen Smith, once a Blairite spin doctor.

Low ceiling, plastic chairs, a back wall covered in white boards: such was the setting for the start of a campaign which could decide Labours fate as a parliamentary force for the next decade, or longer. The audience of 60 was a mix of reporters and students, the latter mostly young women.

Comrades on the march: Jeremy Corbyn heading for his Labour leadership campaign launch in London, accompanied by a group of female supporters in an apparent bid to counteract accusations of intolerance

Jeremy Corbyn arrives to launch his Labour leadership campaign at the UCL Institute of Education in London

A few activists wore red T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of the Momentum movement. One of the organisers sported aquamarine hair, nose rivets and a tattoo on her beefy upper arm. Not so long ago, John Prescott used to refer to New Labour as the beautiful people.

Prof Corbyn (for that is what he felt like in this college setting  a lecturer in Maoist studies, perhaps) ambled in to the room soon after 10.30am. He was accompanied by two Labour MPs, Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford & Eccles) and Kate Osamor (Edmonton). Both are from the 2015 intake.

I could see no other MPs, no trade union leaders, no peers, no ex-ministers. That is not the Corbyn way. He dislikes personalities to infect the purity of his ideas. His power-base is beyond Westminster, beyond the silos of established politics.

Comrade Osamor was there to do a perfunctory warm-up. She had to wait while the photographers swarmed around Mr Corbyn. Im here as well, she said, hinting that they might like to take snapshots of her noble visage. They declined.

Mr Corbyn is pictured ahead of his campaign launch

She hailed Mr Corbyn as principled, resilient, dignified and honest. He was bringing people together. Indeed. A year ago the Labour parliamentary party was split several ways. Now it is practically united  against him!

Mr Corbyn leapt from his chair and gave the statuesque Ms Osamor a wet kiss. Outreach to younger sisters: that, to darty-tongued Jeremy, is one of the more agreeable burdens of leadership. I wanna share a few thoughts, he said.

Thus began a 15-minute talk  really more of a murmur  about his desire for higher welfare payments and his belief that Labours Treasury team, under Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, had won the economic arguments. John has demolished the case for austerity, claimed Mr Corbyn. The Conservatives long-term economic plan is dead.

He used no amplification. His words were hard to hear. He spoke with his head slightly angled and gave the occasional little shrug as if to say thats obvious and undisputed.

When speaking of Labour he used the term movement as much as he did party. He said he had recently invited some of the women from the 1960s Dagenham Ford factory pay dispute (subject of the film and musical Made in Dagenham) to a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet to help the education process.

He clearly meant the education (or re-education, to use a communist term) of his parliamentary colleagues.

He presented himself, the Helmsman, as an electoral alchemist, a fomenter of tolerance and peace  and victory. Labour had won by-elections under him. It had triumphed in city mayoral elections. It was defeating the Government in that hotbed of democracy, the House of Lords. Everything was going swimmingly.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn with his wife Laura Alvarez (left) at the launch of his leadership campaign

The audience of 60 was a mix of reporters and students, the latter mostly young women. Mr Corbyn speaks

Mr Corbyn addresses the audience who gathered at his press conference to launch his Labour leadership bid

He wanted to harness the talents of everyone. What? Even Hilary Benn? Apparently. I have an ability to very conveniently forget things MPs have said, he explained. Oh, and he wanted them all to submit themselves to re-selection by local activists. Ouch.

This party is going places! he said, thumping his lectern. This party is strong! It is going to win the general election!
Some readers of the Financial Times feel the Remain-supporting paper is behaving peevishly since the referendum.

A City source wonders if this might be to do with its Japanese owner Nikkei, adding: 'Does doom-mongering about our economy make British companies cheaper to take over?'

Some readers of the Financial Times feel the Remain-supporting paper is behaving peevishly since the referendum. Pictured: Nikkei Chairman Tsuneo Kita

Sexpot Britt Ekland, 73, whose former escorts include Rod Stewart and Warren Beatty, says she's now happy cohabiting with her chihuahua, Tequila, adding on ITV's Loose Women: 'I don't have a man snuffling on top of me every night.'

Snuffling? To whom can she refer?

Sexpot Britt Ekland, 73, whose former escorts include Rod Stewart (pictured) and Warren Beatty, says she's now happy cohabiting with her chihuahua, Tequila

Fox News boss Roger Ailes, 76, who resigned last night from the goldmine channel he created 20 years ago after being accused of sexually harassing 50-year-old ex-anchor Gretchen Carlson, pictured, a 1989 Miss America  has said of his relationship with boss Rupert Murdoch, 85: 'Does Rupert like me? I think so, but it doesn't matter. When I go up to the magic room in the sky every three months, if my numbers are right, I get to live. If not, I'm killed. Our relationship isn't about love, it's about arithmetic.' Quite so. Fox, which announced his departure, made annual profits of 750million under Ailes, but he's unpopular with Murdoch's sons, James and Lachlan. Blood is thicker than water. Or, as financial commentator John Gapper puts it, 'biology ultimately wins out'. Ailes's lawyers have described Carlson's claims as baseless.

Decades after being Jeremy Corbyn's pillion passenger on a motorbike trip to East Germany, Diane Abbott, 62, remains touchingly loyal. She says of Labour MPs' failure to support him during PMQs: 'They refuse to cheer, they sit on their hands, they sulk, they chat away among themselves. When Theresa May came in she got huge cheers. When Jeremy came in there was a silence.' Heart-breaking, isn't it?

Ex-Telegraph owner Lord Black, 71, salutes Donald Trump, 70, as a 'great public figure' and accuses rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of 'carrying more baggage than the Queen Mary'. What, more baggage than the ex-jailbird Conrad himself? Might the old chancer be softening up 'President Trump' for a pardon, which, if successful, would mean that, as an ex-felon, he'd be able to enter the US again?

Ex-Telegraph owner Lord Black, 71, salutes Donald Trump, 70, as a 'great public figure' and accuses rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of 'carrying more baggage than the Queen Mary'

Billed as a 'leading lawyer who backed Remain', Nick Clegg's attractive wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, appears on the BBC's News at Ten deploring Brexit. Elsewhere she promotes her new cookbook, Made In Spain. As for Clegg, he has become Lib Dem spokesman (unpaid) for EU affairs. Saucy Miriam's now the 'go to' member of the Clegg tribe.
If you thought you'd seen some racy bikinis this summer, brace yourself.

A string-thin 'bikini' is taking the internet by storm having just landed in Japan as it's hailed the hottest new piece of swimwear in the Far East this summer.

The two-piece, by fashion house Buyma, lets wearers show a very generous amount of 'under-boob' and just about covers their nipples.

The two-piece, by fashion house Buyma, lets wearers show a generous amount of 'under-boob'

Quite how this would go down on Bournemouth beach, we don't know.

Not only does the bikini top not encase the wearer's breasts properly - like a bikini is supposed to - but it features a lot of unnecessary criss-cross straps across the chest and cleavage - as if to accentuate its lack of support in other, more vital areas.

The bottom half, on the other hand, show everything except your most intimate body part.

Hollywood wax is essential.

It features a tiny piece of material at the front and widely spaces straps which encase your bottom - leaving your cheeks showing fully.

Girls in Japan are snapping the swimsuits from Pocket Tokyo, where it retails for around 28

The bottoms show everything except your most intimate body part. Hollywood wax essential

Women in Japan are snapping up the bondage-inspired swimsuits from Pocket Tokyo, where it retails for around 28.

The item comes with optional black thigh-high socks to complete the 'sexy' look.

Despite the crazy tan lines it no doubt creates, the racy two-piece is the latest fashion statement taking the country by storm.

Rocket24 explained: 'It is a design that only the bravest of the brave would dare to wear down at the beach this summer. The perfectly placed cut-outs are designed to show off feminine curves.

'All those revealing cut-outs would probably get us arrested for public indecency down at the beach, but we can't help but think this would be much better suited to someone who's already proven themselves when it comes to pulling off unusual outfits.'

The item which gives crazy tan lines comes with optional black thigh-high socks to complete the 'sexy' look

British and American celebrities have certainly been embracing the bondage look this summer with strappy tops and swimsuits

Bella Hadid sported a sexy bikini with a classy wraparound belt to add a touch of bondage-esque style during a break in St Barts.

Meanwhile, Kylie Jenner and Demi Lovato both recently opted for strappy sexy bondage-inspired bikini tops, channelling racy lingerie.

But this jaw-dropping bikini is a whole other level.

Kylie Jenner recently opted for a sexy bondage-inspired bikini top, sharing a picture on Instagram
Even if you think it will protect your baby from the sun's glare, you should never cover over a pram with a blanket.

This is because even a thin cover, such as a muslin, can raise the temperature dramatically, as well as increase the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

The advice comes from Svante Norgren, a paediatrician at the Astrid Lindgren children's hospital in Stockholm.

Scroll down for video

Even if you think it will protect your baby from the sun's glare, you should never cover over a pram with a blanket (stock photo)

Swedish researchers said a muslin cloth or a blanket covering over a pram could both reduce air circulation and create an intense heat.

A Swedish study investigated the claims, and found a covered pram that was left in the sun became 15 degrees hotter than a pram left uncovered.

'It gets extremely hot down in the pram, something like a thermos', he said, speaking to the Swedish Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

'There is also bad circulation of the air and it is hard to see the baby with a cover over the pram.'

He explained that if a child were to get too hot, they may think they are back in the womb again and 'breathing may stop'.

A Swedish study carried out by the paper found a covered pram that was left in the sun became 15 degrees hotter than a pram left uncovered.

Sudden infant death syndrome can also be caused by overheating, and avoiding thermal stress has been one of the strategies used to reduce the risk of SIDS.

It was recommended parents leave their sleeping babys face uncovered to protect them from overheating.
Shortly after little Jordan Blair was born on the 14th of April, alarm bells were raised after he didn't react to loud noises and failed two of his initial hearing screenings.

With hearing loss running in her family, Jordan's mother Taryn Blair, from Perth, wasn't surprised to learn that her son, now three-months-old, did have a level of hearing loss.

But on Thursday, the adoring mother was brought to tears after Jordan was fitted with hearing aids and heard for the very first time.

Adorable: Shortly after little Jordan Blair was born on the 14th of April, alarm bells were raised after he didn't react to loud noises and failed two of his hearing screenings, so his mother Taryn took him to the audiologist

I hear you Mum! On Thursday, the adoring mother was brought to tears after Jordan was fitted with hearing aids and heard for the very first time (pictured)

'I was crying, I wasn't sure what to expect going in because we still don't know the severity of the hearing loss,' Ms Blair told Daily Mail Australia.

'So when we saw his reaction and saw him laughing at the rattle we were just so happy.

'It's been a tough time with him getting sick with Bronchiolitis, Rota virus and Laryngomalacia [a floppy larynx], so to see him smiling and laughing instead of crying was just lovely for my husband and I.'

Early days: 'I was crying, I wasn't sure what to expect going in because we still don't know the severity of the hearing loss,' Ms Blair told Daily Mail Australia (pictured is Jordan at his initial hearing screening)

Heartwarming: 'So when we saw his reaction and saw him laughing at the rattle we were just so happy,' Ms Blair said, referring to the first time she saw her little boy hear

After their trip, Ms Blair went home and shared videos of her little boy hearing for the first time on Facebook.

'Jordan's hearing aid day! (3 months old) He loved his rattle sounds. Put a smile on mummy and daddy's face!' She wrote next to one video, which shows her son erupting into a fit of giggles when his father shakes a rattle.

Jordan's aunty also shared a video on her Facebook page of Jordan giggling when he hears his mother's voice.

Happy baby: Ms Blair said while it will take some time for them to know just how severe Jordan's hearing loss is, she is relieved to see how well the aids are working

I hear you! Jordan's aunty also shared a video on her Facebook page, of Jordan giggling when he hears his mother's voice (pictured)

'My gorgeous nephew Jordan got his little hearing aids fitted today. Today he's hearing for the first time in his life! First time he's had a good proper giggle too! Love this little dude so much!' She wrote.

Ms Blair said while it will take some time for them to know just how severe Jordan's hearing loss is, she is relieved to see how well the aids are working.

'We were worried when he wasn't reacting to the dog barking that it could be really serious but if he had profound hearing loss he wouldn't have had that reaction yesterday,' she said.

Family photo: 'It was a great outcome and a relief and now we just need to learn how to keep them clean and keep them on - he will probably need a little headband,' she said

'It was a great outcome and a relief and now we just need to learn how to keep them clean and keep them on - he will probably need a little headband.'

Ms Blair said she has joined a number of support networks online, including Aussie Deaf Kids, to meet other parents with children who are hearing impaired and have hearing aids.
Some brides don colourful garments; others paint their faces and skin

FEMAIL documents some of the most beautiful ceremonies and traditions

However, wedding traditions are in fact very different in how they look

Many people associate weddings with white dresses and veils

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A lot of people associate weddings with white dresses and veils, but in many parts of the world, traditional bridal attire is quite different.

Some brides don colourful garments and accessories; others paint their skin and faces in advance of their big day.

From India to Indonesia, FEMAIL rounds up some of the most beautiful celebrations from around the world, because, as every bride on every continent knows, it's all about the dress.

Big day: A lot of people associate weddings with white dresses and veils - but, as these photos prove, the ceremonies can be anything but traditional

Eye to detail: Some brides don colourful garments and accessories; others wear traditional items for their big days

Party: From India to Indonesia, FEMAIL rounds up some of the most beautiful celebrations from around the world

Colourful nuptials: This photo shows a bride from Romania in traditional garb

INDIA

India has many different bridal traditions, but often pink or red wedding dresses are the item of choice.

Married women in the north of the country can often be identified by a red dot in the middle of their forehead, while with other brides, henna is applied to their hands and skin.

Some wear neck garlands, sequins and much detailed embroidery.

Beautiful: India has many different bridal traditions, but often pink or red wedding dresses are the item of choice (pictured)

Tying the knot: Married women in the north of the country can often be identified by a red dot in the middle of their forehead (pictured)

Accessories: Many brides wear headdresses and garlands, heavy with embroidery

JAPAN

For a traditional Japanese wedding, a bride will often sport a purely white kimono for the ceremony, which symbolises purity and maidenhood.

After the ceremony, many brides will change into something red, which represents good luck.

The traditional paper headdress worn by many brides is called a tsuno-kakushi. Such weddings involve the ceremonial drinking of sake, but are on the decline.

Ceremonial: For a traditional Japanese wedding, a bride will often sport a purely white kimono for the ceremony

What it denotes: This symbolises purity and maidenhood - the traditional paper headdress worn by many brides is called a tsuno-kakushi

KOREA

Hanbok is the name given to formal attire worn on ceremonial occasions in Korea.

Bridal wear usually includes a jacket called a 'jeogori' and a high-waisted, wrap-around skirt.

Headpieces are optional, and the majority of the outfits are made from white cotton or silk.

Ancient tradition dictates that the groom should carry his wife around the table on his back.

Dressing up: Hanbok is the name given to formal attire worn on ceremonial occasions in Korea

Ancient tradition: Bridal wear usually includes a jacket called a 'jeogori' and a high-waisted, wrap-around skirt

CHINA

China is very rich in culture, and it is a place seeped in history.

In china, red denotes good luck. It is also believed to keep away evil spirits.

As a result, many Chinese wedding outfits feature red, either in the dress or headdress.

Good luck: China is very rich in culture, and there, red symbolises good fortune (pictured) - it is believed to keep away evil spirits

NORWAY

In Norway, the traditional wedding outfit is called a Bunad.

This can also be worn for other formal occasions, such as a christening party.

Bunad usually features elaborate embroidery, with scarves, shawls and handmade jewellery.

Beautiful: In Norway, the traditional wedding outfit is called a Bunad - it can be worn for other formal occasions, including christening parties

RUSSIA

Because Russia is often so cold, faux fur or warm fabrics are a common choice for brides.

The country as a whole has over 185 different ethnic groups, and many of these have their own separate wedding traditions.

However, what many nuptials have in common is that Russian weddings can last up to a week.

Long fun: Russia has over 185 different ethnic groups, and many of these have their own separate wedding traditions - however, many nuptials can last up to a week

KAZAKHSTAN

In Kazakhstan, typically brides will wear a headdress called a 'saukele'.

They will also wear a facial veil.

The 'saukele' is often prepared long before girls reach the age of marriage.

Ethereal: In Kazakhstan, typically brides will wear a headdress called a 'saukele' - they will also wear a facial veil

KENYA

In a Maasai wedding, a bride can be required to wear a bold, colourful necklace made of beads and shells.

On the night of the wedding, a party, called a 'kumpamba' will take place.

At this point, the bride can remove her veil to showcase her intricate hairstyle and jewels.

Intricate: In a Maasai wedding, a bride can be required to wear a bold, colourful necklace made of beads and shells

INDONESIA

Indonesia has over 17,000 islands and so weddings vary greatly depending on where you live.

Three days before an Indonesian woman ties the knot, she may have her nails, hands and feet painted with birds and flowers in henna.

Colour is commonplace at an Indonesian ceremony, as is lots of bling. In Jakarta, plenty of gold, intricate patterns and head wear is commonplace.

Custom: Three days before an Indonesian woman ties the knot, she may have her nails, hands and feet painted with birds and flowers in henna

PERU

In Peru, traditional brides make quite a splash in red and black gowns.

These are made bigger by multiple layers of cotton, and heavily-embroidered petticoats.

Traditional Andean outfits for weddings are bright and include woven cloaks and tasselled hats.

A special skirt and poncho is made for the bride and groom's wedding day.

UZBEKISTAN

In traditional Uzbek weddings, the bride wears a colourful outfit embroidered with intricate patterns.

The wedding plays an essential role in Uzbek life.

Patterns: In traditional Uzbek weddings, the bride wears a colourful outfit embroidered with intricate patterns

MOROCCO

Matrimony in Morocco is a magnificent celebration which involves several ceremonies.

Depending on the families, these ceremonies can take up to a week to be completed.

Generally, a Moroccan bride will wear silk, chiffon or satin garments. She will be required to change several times during the ceremony. For the reception, she will change into something that reflects her family's region.

Celebration: Matrimony in Morocco is a magnificent celebration which involves several ceremonies
When Stef Hodgson, 19, was just six-years-old, her mother discovered a bald patch on her head while brushing her hair for school.

After her hair continued to fall out, she was taken to the doctor and was told she had Alopecia - a condition where the immune system attacks the hair follicles, making them fall out.

'Being that young it was really scary because all of a sudden I was going from this world where everything could be fixed by a sticker or a lollipop and a kiss from mum, but this couldnt,' Miss Hodgson, from Melbourne, told Daily Mail Australia.

Embracing her condition: Stef Hodgson, 19, from Melbourne, has had alopecia since she was six-years-old and by the time she was 12, she had lost all the hair on her head

'There were rumours going around that I was dying': When Miss Hodgson started school, she struggled with the transition and didn't want to be 'different' from her peers

'It was explained to me that everyone has an army of soldiers in their body called the immune system to fight off things but that my soldiers were a little bit confused attacking my hair follicles instead.'

When Miss Hodgson started school, she struggled with the transition and didn't want to be 'different' from her peers.

'It was incredibly hard and everyone at school thought I had cancer. There were rumours going around that I was dying and I had kids coming up and asking me how long I had to live,' she said.

Simple: 'It was explained to me that everyone has an army of soldiers in their body called the immune system to fight off things but that my soldiers were a little bit confused attacking my hair follicles instead,' she said

Desire to fit in: 'Whenever someone asked me about it I would get really stressed and upset and I didnt want to talk about it,' she said

'All my hair had fallen out by the time I was in year six so I did a presentation to explain my condition.

'It was hard because I had never talked about it openly. Whenever someone asked me about it I would get really stressed and upset and I didnt want to talk about it so I dont think I've ever been as terrified as I was in that moment.'

Miss Hodgson had a positive response from her fellow students, but her fear of telling people about the alopecia continued into her high school years - the bubbly teen afraid people wouldn't want to be friends with her because she was bald.

She decided to wear wigs and hide her bald head - the wigs used as a way to 'fit in' with everybody else.

'I thought that being different was something to be ashamed of': Miss Hodgson had a positive response from her fellow students, but her fear of telling people about the alopecia continued into her high school years

Hidden away: 'I kept it a secret and I protected that with everything. I didnt tell anybody until I was in year nine,' she said

WHAT IS ALOPECIA? * Alopecia is an autoimmune condition or a condition where the immune system attacks the hair follicles making them fall out * It's not contagious, hair loss is the only symptom and it doesn't have a cure * 1 - 2 per cent of the population have it in some form * Approximately 60 per cent of diagnoses are made in those under 20 years old There are three main types: 1. Alopecia areata (patches of hair loss on the scalp) 2. Alopecia totalis (where you lose all the hair on your head) 3. Alopecia Universalis (where you lose all the hair on your body including eyebrows and eyelashes) Advertisement

'I thought that being different was something to be ashamed of and something I should hide,' Miss Hodgson said.

'I felt like I was followed around by this "bald girl" label in primary school and I didnt want to be defined by something that I neither liked nor could control about myself.

'I kept it a secret and I protected that with everything. I didnt tell anybody until I was in year nine.'

Miss Hodgson slowly revealed details about her alopecia to her friends and in year 11 she presented to her year group about everything she had learned from her condition.

'All my friends jumped up and gave me a massive group hug and over the next week people came up to me and thanked me for sharing my story,' she said.

'Sometimes they would cry and I realised how the things I have gone through are actually quite universal. A lot of people can relate to my struggles.'

Natural beauty: Miss Hodgson slowly revealed details about her alopecia to her friends and in year 11 she presented to her year group about everything she had learned from her condition

Proud: 'Sometimes they would cry and I realised how the things I have gone through are actually quite universal. A lot of people can relate to my struggles,' she said

While she was never formally diagnosed with a mental illness, Miss Hodgson said she experienced a 'darkness' during her school years that she has since overcome.

'I withdrew from family and friends. It was a hard time in my life and I was constantly thinking that I wasnt good enough and that people wouldnt like me so it was tough for a young person,' she said.

'It's not something that went away quickly but it took small steps and being open about my feelings to move past those thoughts.

Miss Hodgson went to Vietnam with her father at 16-years-old where she bought a number of beautiful silk headscarves.

Individual: 'Wigs used to be a way of hiding my condition and pretending to be normal but now it's something I use to express who I am,' Miss Hodgson said

'When I came home and wore them it was the first time I looked at alopecia as a fashion statement in a way.

'I went out without my wig on for the first time and when I was walking around outside I had these people cross the road to tell me how beautiful I was. That was a real turning point for me because I'd never considered myself to be beautiful... but these people said I was.'

Miss Hodgson said she has grown to see her wigs as a way of self expression.

'It used to be a way of hiding my condition and pretending to be normal but now it's something I use to express who I am,' Miss Hodgson said.

'I wear hats and wigs and headscarves and I change my appearance based on my mood - that's something that's really exciting for me.'

Confident: 'I wear hats and wigs and headscarves and I change my appearance based on my mood - that's something that's really exciting for me,' she said

Honest: 'It's still a process, especially because I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia as well, it can be a little bit hard sometimes to find value and self worth outside of my condition,' Miss Hodgson said

Miss Hodgson, who is now working on starting her business as a motivational speaker and an ambassador for the Australia Alopecia Areata Foundation, said that while she is in a good place, she still faces challenges.

'It's still a process, especially because I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia as well, it can be a little bit hard sometimes to find value and self worth outside of my condition,' Miss Hodgson said.

'It will still be a struggle in years to come but I'm in a really great place and I'm thankful for the experiences and the people who have supported me.'

Miss Hodgson has recently been sharing an Instagram photo series of her experiences - the photos taken by her close friend Jess Morison.

'Now you see me': Miss Hodgson has recently been sharing an Instagram photo series of her experiences - the photos taken by her close friend Jess Morison

'Be kind to yourself': 'I am interested in sharing my story and exploring some of the things that I've learned visually as it's such a visual condition,' she said

Making a difference: Miss Hodgson is now working on starting her business as a motivational speaker and an ambassador for the Australia Alopecia Areata Foundation

'I am interested in sharing my story and exploring some of the things that I've learned visually as it's such a visual condition,' she said .

'It speaks about my struggle with identity and that fight with being authentic and worrying about what people would think of me.'

Miss Hodgson hopes to share her story with as many people with possible and has started a petition to remove the GST from medical wigs, some of which can cost up to $6,000.

'Being older and looking back, alopecia is something I've come to really like about myself and yes I am bald but that's not all I am,' she said.

'If I could go back and give myself advice I would tell myself not to be defined by a definition of beauty that I won't be able to achieve and start fighting for one that I could.
Since they were first considered an art form, pain has been part and parcel of getting a tattoo.

But now one man is taking away the discomfort of getting inked by using an ancient form of anaesthesia - hypnosis.

Christopher Phoenix from Cleveland, Queensland, began learning hypnosis to help himself deal with insomnia some five years ago.

And ever since a heavily tattooed friend suggested the idea in 2013, he has been using his skills to help people deal with the pain of getting inked.

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Unusual process: One man is taking away the discomfort of getting inked by using an ancient form of anaesthesia - hypnosis

Long process: Christopher Phoenix from Cleveland, Queensland, began learning hypnosis to help himself deal with insomnia some five years ago

'Essentially it started out with my insomnia and I began listening to MP3 recordings and became interested in syntax of language,' Mr Phoenix told Daily Mail Australia.

'I began rehearsing the script and then I got more interested in it, I read some books, did some courses and it was just a natural progression.

'I had a friend tell me I should do this for tattoo pain relief and so I did.'

Having done somewhere between 30 and 40 treatments so far, he said it had proved largely effective at either totally removing or significantly reducing pain levels.

However according to the hypnotist, the biggest success story has been with patients who have previously had tattoos.

'Im finding it works best with those who have tattoos because they can feel the difference,' he said.

Practice makes perfect: So far he has done between 30 and 40 treatments - he said it had proved largely effective at either totally removing or significantly reducing pain levels

'Prior to anaesthesia, hypnosis was used as pain relief so it's a legitimate tactic.'

After his success in Australia, Mr Phoenix is now looking to take his business overseas.

He is currently working with a fellow hypnotist in the UK on writing a book and is also planning on creating a training unit to teach tattoo artists to do the hypnosis themselves.
Recently another mother in New York posted a snap of her baby's diaper

Ms Duncan wittily captioned it: 'The joys of parenthood'

The photo has already garnered more than 12,000 likes on Instagram

It shows her son, Jeremiah, having pooed on her arm

A cursory browse through Brisbane-based fitness guru and model, Chontel Duncan's, Instagram profile will usually draw up a string of lycra, gym-clad photos, idyllic representations of parenthood and glamorous snaps.

But a photo uploaded to the bronzed fitness pro's profile on Friday afternoon garnered attention for several other reasons.

In it, the woman behind HIIT Australia, Chontel Duncan, was seen cradling her son, Jeremiah, who, unfortunately for the new mum, had gone to the toilet...on her arm.

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Scary surprise: Instagram fitness model, Chontel Duncan, uploaded this photo to Instagram on Friday, where she spoke about the 'joys of parenthood', while her son's poo dribbled down her arm

'The joys of parenthood,' Ms Duncan posted to her followers jokingly, as something distinctly green-looking slipped down her arm slowly.

'Green Frappe coming through nicely,' she added.

'Hope this put a smile on all of your faces. HAPPY FRIDAY from Jeremiah,' Ms Duncan concluded the humorous, frank post.

Glamorous: Ms Duncan is usually known for more glossy snaps, but this one did very well on her Instagram page, quickly garnering more than 12,000 likes in hours

Within hours, the witty photo and caption had already received more than 12,000 likes, with people both laughing out loud on the comments section and saying how disgusting the picture Ms Duncan had posted was.

'Suddenly I'm not hungry anymore,' one person wrote.

'I have one similar of one of my boys pooping on me,' another person added.

Insta fame: Ms Duncan was famous for uploading a comparison snapshot of herself and her friend, Nat, pregnant at nearly the same period - the difference in their physiques drew interest on social media

Viral: In her recent frank Instagram post, Ms Duncan wrote: 'Hope this put a smile on all of your faces. HAPPY FRIDAY from Jeremiah'

Recently, another mother shared a similarly candid photo of her two-year-old daughter's 'diaper blow out'.

Esther Anderson, 31, from Rochester, New York, shared a picture of herself holding her daughter, Ellia, who had made a huge brown stain on the back of her baby-grow and on her mother's shorts.

That photo encouraged countless women to share their experiences of their children's 'blowouts' or 'poonamis'.

It would seem Ms Duncan is not alone.

Messy: Esther Anderson, from Rochester, New York, also recently shared a picture on Facebook of herself and her daughter Ellia after her nappy had leaked
A groom who hoped to plan the perfect nuptials for his pregnant bride who he met just 18 months ago on Tinder has been accused of planning the 'worst wedding ever' by Don't Tell the Bride fans.

Adam Ledner, 33, from Downend in Bristol, and Bianca, 23, from Cwmbran in Wales, tied the knot on the first episode of the new series of the show - which involves the couple being separated for three weeks while the groom plans the big day.

However, while Adam was hoping for a 'glamorous' ceremony, his choices - including buying his bride a 140 'cheap bit of tat off the internet' as a dress and forking out to fill a warehouse with sand for a 'full moon party' - left a bitter taste in viewers' mouths.

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Upon arriving at her reception, hosted in a disused warehouse, Bianca (pictured with her new husband) describes the venue as 'proper s***'

The pair met on Tinder and after 18 months married while Bianca was seven months pregnant

Fans of the show, which was aired on Sky One last night, took to social media to blast Adam's decisions - which included giving his heavily pregnant bride two envelopes to choose from, each of which dictated a different style of wedding.

They were also less than impressed with Adam choosing to get married on a plane at Bristol Airport.

Lindsay Palmer took to Twitter to write said: 'If a fella ever organised my wedding like the one I just saw on don't tell the bride, I would drop kick the thick prat right off this planet.'

Lisa Mckenna added: 'Watching don't tell the bride and that was honestly the worse wedding known to mankind'.

And @EmiRus, said: 'Definitely think tonight's episode of don't tell the bride was the worst wedding/reception I've ever seen [sic].'

Bianca is left heartbroken - and in tears - by her fiance's 'tacky' choices describing aspects of her big day as 'proper s***'.

The couple were provided with 14,000 to pay for their dream wedding.

However, in order to earn this prize, the pair must separate for three weeks, leaving the groom to plan the entire wedding, and they aren't able to communicate until they meet again at the alter.

Sophie Corrie wrote on Twitter: 'I'm actual shock at how awful this wedding is on don't tell the bride .. I would run a mile.'

And Amber said: 'This guy on Don't Tell The Bride is brutal, blaming the bride for picking the wrong options if she doesn't like them...'

Glen Roughead wrote: '#DontTellTheBride OMG! So this bloke chartered a plane for 5,000 to fly out of Bristol back to Bristol.'

Adam Ledner, 33, from Bristol, was accused of giving bride Bianca, 22, the 'worst wedding ever' by TV fans

The reception took place in a warehouse with sand on the floor and bridesmaids and flowers in neon hues

Daisy said: 'That was the worst wedding I've ever seen. Oh dear. #DontTellTheBride.'

Emily Burley added: 'Would never ever trust a man to plan my wedding unless it was Gok Wan!! #DontTellTheBride @therealgokwan.'

Another of Adam's choices which viewers were less than impressed with was forcing his bride to choose is whether she has an expensive dress or 'the cheapest'.

Instead of the bespoke elegant floor length lace gown that she had dreamed of the former prison officer orders his wife-to-be a knee-length bridal gown online for just 140 with Adam adding: 'If she doesn't like it it's her own fault.'

At seven months pregnant Bianca admits that she is feeling self-conscious adding: 'I think the dress is probably the biggest thing out of it all.'

As Adam has dress delivered to Bianca by taxi, he says: 'I am slightly worried about Bianca's dress.

In order to take the blame off his decisions, Adam enlisted friend Alec to visit Bianca with two blank envelopes containing two options for the wedding ans she must pick one

In one instance Alec presents Bianca with two envelopes, one representing a cheap dress and the other an expensive, unfortunately for Bianca she picks the cheap dress

Adam orders her dress online for just 140 with the short gown leaving his wife-to-be in tears

Angrier still is Bianca's mother Rachel (pictured) commenting on the dress she says: 'There's not one good thing I can say about it'

Bianca's dream dress (pictured) is a world away from the one that she was presented with by Adam

'The fact its the cheapest dress in the shop but also the fact that she's just getting it at home in a box. She might figure out that I've ordered it online so I might be in a bit of trouble.'

It turns out that Adam had every reason to be worried. As Bianca opens the small pink box containing the short dress in a plastic bag she is quickly reduced to tears. The mother-to-be even questions whether it is part of an elaborate joke.

Angrier still is Bianca's mother Rachel. Commenting on the dress she says: 'There's not one good thing I can say about it.

He may have scrimped on the dress but in order to have his full moon style party Adam spent 400 on sand

'It's a cheap bit of tat off the internet in a plastic bag in a stupid pink box and I'm absolutely flabbergasted and astounded.'

However, with the wedding just a day away Bianca must wear the dress accompanied by bridesmaids kitted out in see-through dresses that Adam secured for under a tenner.

The day of the wedding sees Bianca travelling towards Bristol airport with her bridal party, with many of the guests having high hopes for a ceremony in Spain.

However, little do they know that they will be barely be leaving the confines of Bristol airport.

In a bold move Adam decided to spend 5000 hiring a plane for them to have the ceremony on

Bianca's dream wedding involved a far more classical style reception such as this one pictured

Earlier in the show, using his golden envelope trick, Adam got his bride to choose between a ceremony in a disused prison or aboard a plane - costing the groom 5000.

The pair spent time travelling together after meeting with Adam proposing to his bride in Thailand by spelling out 'Marry me?' in rose petals and candles.

In the hopes to veer towards a travelling themed wedding Adam planned for the ceremony to take place during a flight and for them to touch back down in Bristol airport to have a full moon party in a disused warehouse.

As Bianca is called up to the front of the cabin of the plane she has no idea that Adam is sat up front ready to put a ring on it.

Unaware that she is making her way down the 'aisle' Bianca goes it alone without her father to give her away.

After the priest says a few words and the rings are exchanged Bianca is shocked to learn that she is married, commenting 'what? we didn't even get to say vows!' adding 'are we even official?'

Following the short ceremony guests land in the West Country airport where Adam shows his new wife the setting of her reception.

As he takes her on a tour of the lofty warehouse covered in 400 worth of sand and 130 of plastic buckets Bianca admits that she is far from impressed.

She says: 'Babe it's awful. It's proper like s***' though she warms slightly adding 'The suit's tacky the dress is tacky, the flowers are tacky.

'At least you kept a link and it all ties in. I don't hate it it's just like shocking.'

Since their wedding the couple have now welcomed a baby boy.
If like Pippa Middleton you're rocking a new bit of bling on your ring finger, you might want to take note of Tatler's new etiquette guide.

The magazine has put together a list of don'ts for the newly engaged in a bid to eradicate outward signs of 'smugness'.

The manual says the number one rule is to never declare: 'Look at my ring!' - which for Pippa is quite easy as her blindingly big diamond band needs no verbal introduction.

Keeping her cool: If like Pippa Middleton you're rocking a new bit of bling on your ring finger, you might want to take note of Tatler's new etiquette guide

Next up, the guide says that you should never say your ring is replica and the 'real thing is in the safe' - even if that is the case.

For social media addicts, the Tatler engagement guide warns against creating a Twitter account for your ring and a real no-no is asking friends to guess how much the diamond dazzler cost.

Complaining about the ring's weight is also frowned upon.

For the 'braggers', the final 'don't' says it's best not to tell friends: 'The diamond was too small so I gave it back.'

So what should you say as a just engaged girl?

Reason to smile: Millionaire hedge fund manager James Matthews asked Pippa to marry him last weekend during a weekend away in the Lake District

James Matthews - who popped the question over the weekend - was snapped with his cocker spaniel who is called Rafa (apparently named after Nadal)

'Nothing', according to the tip sheet, unless someone else brings it up. Then, if they do 'no false modesty please'.

The guide continues: 'If your ring is wildly extravagant, acknowledge this with humour and self-deprecation.

"'I know! It's sodding emeralds. He must have stolen it. I have no idea how I got so lucky. Now, tell me about your new job/flat/cat/shoes..." and so on.

'Because diamonds may be forever but friends are for life.'

Millionaire hedge fund manager James Matthews asked Pippa to marry him last weekend during a weekend away in the Lake District and within a moment she said 'yes' and suddenly Britain's most eligible young woman was off the market.

The engagement, which I understand took the 32-year-old former party planner completely by surprise, has thrilled Kate and William and delighted the duchesss parents Michael and Carole Middleton

Date, set, match: Newly engaged Pippa is gearing up for a wedding in 2017

Less than a year after she began properly dating the financier (they were briefly an item in 2012) the Duchess of Cambridge's sister is now engaged to be married.

Pippa and her fiance have shared their delight at their engagement and revealed they plan to marry next year.

The Duchess of Cambridge's younger sister and her future husband will wed in 2017 - in what is set to be one of the most talked about society weddings since William and Kate tied the knot five years ago.

'Miss Pippa Middleton and Mr James Matthews are delighted to announce they became engaged on Sunday 17th July and plan to marry next year,' they said in a statement released to the Press Association.
Hindsight is a curious thing, in business as in life. Nick Jenkins, one of the newer Dragons on Dragons Den, is assessing how he would have fared had he gone on the show to pitch the business that went on to make him a multi- millionaire. In true Dragons Den style, his verdict is blunt. While moonpig.com, the online personalised greetings card company he founded, became a phenomenal success (in no small part because of the irritatingly memorable TV advert), it was touch and go for a while. Had he had to stand there and come clean about the figures (particularly in the period when the company posted losses of 1.1 million), hed have been shown the door. Id have been laughed out of the room, he admits. Theyd have looked at the figures and then Peter Jones would have spat his dummy out.

Which would have been a mistake, obviously. The brave souls who did take a punt on Nicks company were rewarded with a return that would make the toughest Dragon weep. They put in 3 million and got back 120 million, he points out. Still, it sounds like a gamble. I was in the right place at the right time. These things are a bit like catching a wave when youre surfing. You can do everything right, have all the best training and the best equipment, but its about timing too. And it worked out for me. For many, it doesnt. For every Facebook there are hundreds of companies that would have seemed equally strong on paper. Why does one make it and another doesnt? Its the eternal question.

The Dragons, from left to right: Touker Suleyman, Peter Jones, Sarah Willingham, Deborah Meaden and Nick Jenkins

And one which they will be publicly pondering again as the 14th season of Dragons Den kicks off. Last year the programme got the biggest shake-up in its history when three new Dragons  including Nick  came on board. Stalwarts Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden were also joined by retail guru Touker Suleyman, and Sarah Willingham, who made her fortune in the restaurant business. Alas for those of us who like our TV judging panels to be of the more explosive variety (were thinking the glory X Factor days of Sharon Osbourne and Dannii Minogue, when water tended to get flung along with the insults) they all seemed to gel nicely. The producers would probably prefer it if we didnt get on so well, says Peter, a man who understands the TV industry as well as he does the business world.

Today, as we catch up with the Dragons, its all very happy families, with them swapping stories about hanging out together (Nick and Sarah have actually been on holiday together  since theyre both millionaires, boats were involved rather than caravans in Skegness). The nature of how the show is filmed (in blocks over an intensive period, and in Manchester) means they spend every evening together while its being made, which means, Deborah says, we go out for dinner together. We spend more time together than most colleagues do. I see more of them than I do a lot of my friends. But make no mistake, once were in that Den it all goes out the window and its every Dragon for him or herself. Its hugely competitive. It has to be.

They all talk about how last years series saw the new Dragons finding their feet  and contestants (not to mention the audience) getting the measure of them. The newbies insist that they dont feel as new now. No one is holding back this time round, says Touker. Not that they did before, but I think there was a bedding-in period, learning how the other Dragons operate, how to predict what theyll do.

Obviously the dynamic between the Dragons is all-important. Put five ego-driven, high-achieving competitive souls in the same room and sparks should fly. Is there a pecking order though? Four of the Dragons fall over themselves to say absolutely not, every Dragon is equal. Ask Peter Jones though  the richest, longest-serving and (by a mile) tallest Dragon  if hes the boss and he whispers, I couldnt possibly comment, but yes I am, simply on the basis of having been here the longest. I see it as my job to keep the others on their toes. Hes the grandfather of the panel then, the sage voice of experience? Dont say grandfather, he cringes, that boyish face becoming alarmed. The Godfather maybe. Lets just say the others look up to me in more ways than one.

Last year the programme got the biggest shake-up in its history when three new Dragons  including Nick  came on board. Stalwarts Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden were also joined by retail guru Touker Suleyman, and Sarah Willingham, who made her fortune in the restaurant business

Theyve just finished filming the new series when we meet, and it sounds as if there are some belters among the wannabe Richard Bransons. Peter says there are some very slick and impressive business pitches. Hurrah, though, for the other end of the scale, where you find, as Nick puts it, the ones who are like those X Factor contestants whose mothers have told them they can sing. These are the poor souls who find themselves on national TV pitching a dud product, trying to convince the panel its the best invention since sliced bread. Theyre so enthusiastic about their product. Their friends and family have told them its great and theyve spent years on it. Theyve applied for intellectual patents in North Korea  but were all thinking, Why? Those are the ones that make great TV, but just dont stand a chance.

Still, the reason the programme is still going is that amid the sea of duds theres always the chance of a gem. Peter Jones says he goes into every series hoping to find the next Levi Roots. Levi, of course, is the shows big success story. He won investment for his range of Caribbean cooking sauces  and is now a multi- millionaire himself. Peter Jones, who leapt at the chance of investing in his company, isnt doing badly from the deal either. How much money do the Dragons really make from their investments though? Peter says his Den investments make up only about 10 per cent of his business interests. I still very much have a day job, he says.

The newbies havent yet been buying Ferraris on the profits from their investments either. I was talking to Deborah recently about this, admits Sarah. And she reckons it takes four or five years to start to see any return. Were very much in the early stages.

The reason the programme is still going is that amid the sea of duds theres always the chance of a gem. Peter Jones says he goes into every series hoping to find the next Levi Roots

Still, the rewards they get arent always financial. No slouches in the self-promotion stakes, all the Dragons are aware that their status as business experts soars because of their involvement with the programme. Sarah says she had been quite wary of signing up, fearing that it would upset the work/life balance shed worked so hard to achieve. I had carved out a lovely life, admits the woman who went it alone in the first place, turning the loss-making Bombay Bicycle Club into Britains biggest Indian restaurant chain, because she realised that, with four children, shed struggle to work her way up the ranks as an employee. There was anxiety there. Would I upset the apple cart by going on TV? But actually its been wonderful. I do get recognised a bit but its still quite low key. She gets recognition from all the right places, too. I think being on TV does open doors. I went to Buckingham Palace recently to talk about my work. Would that have happened without Dragons Den? I doubt it.

For Peter Jones, the doors that have opened include the famous black one at 10 Downing Street. Ive advised two former prime ministers. Would that have happened if I hadnt been on Dragons Den? Absolutely not.

When Sarah joined the panel the headlines focused on her Superwoman credentials, and her ability to make her fortune while having four young children. Interestingly, the same kerfuffle never unfolded around Peter Jones, who has five children. Hes delighted to be asked how he juggles parenthood and a high-powered job. I actually think having the kids around  as I often do while Im working  is helpful. Mine are always in and out of the office. Two of them work for my companies, and the younger ones are itching to get started. My daughter Izzy, whos 11, was in a boardroom the other day and said, Wheres my seat?

Levi Roots has been one of the show's biggest success stories, and Levi is now a multi-millionaire himself

Can you make multi-million-pound decisions with kids under your feet, though? Apparently so, and not just if youre a mumpreneur at the kitchen table. Yesterday I had to make an incredibly important phone call and while I did it the kids were pulling faces through the window at me, says Peter. I think it was helpful. I was laughing, I was relaxed, and Im sure that came across. There are people who divide their home and work life, but Ive never been one of them.

The question of whether having children is a help or a hindrance is one that crops up with several of the Dragons. Nick Jenkins points out that he probably wouldnt have had the success hes had if hed trodden a more traditional path. Firstly, he says, if hed been more successful at school hed probably have ended up being a doctor or a lawyer, rather than working for himself. If youre academically successful, youre kind of encouraged to go into the professions, he says. When youre on a career track like that its more difficult to step off it. I get a little suspicious of people who are looking for investment but wont give up their day job, but at the same time if that job is as a lawyer, you can see their point. Its the same if you have children, and responsibilities like school fees.

Sarah and Peter, meanwhile, argue that children can be a motivator in themselves. I wouldnt have set up on my own without mine, says Sarah. It was a practical step because I wanted to work and be a hands-on mum. Peter references the dark chapter in his life, when he lost everything aged 28. Just as his first marriage ended, his business went bust, leaving him homeless and jobless. I had two small children and I had absolutely nothing. Everything went  the house, the cars. I ended up sleeping in a garage. But it was the idea of having to provide for the kids that spurred me on to get a job. I took one  the first time Id worked for anyone else  because it paid 30,000 a year and it gave me a chance to rebuild my life.

What do their respective families make of their TV careers though? While Toukers two teenage daughters think its the height of cool that their dad is on the telly (although they have their moments. Often Im still just embarrassing Dad), Sarah says her children have watched it with horror. They got upset on my behalf if I didnt win a pitch. They also got confused. Theyve met Nick. Weve been to stay with him  theyve been snorkelling with him! Hes great with kids. But they couldnt understand why we werent friends in the Den. At one point the camera cut to Deborah, who was giving me daggers. They were saying, But Deborahs nice, Mama, why is she looking at you like that?

As theyve made clear, in the Den its every Dragon for themself.
Prince Philip got his sea legs as he hopped on board a catamaran with Sir Ben Ainslie on Friday afternoon.

The 95-year-old royal was in high spirits as he joined the sailor onboard a Land Rover BAR catamaran during his visit to Britain's America's Cup challenger Land Rover BAR, in Portsmouth.

Prince Philip in his role as Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron, whose subsidiary Royal Yacht Squadron Racing is the official America's Cup challenging Club of Land Rover BAR, met the design and engineering team responsible for building the boat that will race for the America's Cup in Bermuda 2017.

Prince Philip was in high spirits as he joined Sir Ben Ainslie onboard a Land Rover BAR catamaran during his visit to Britain's America's Cup challenger Land Rover BAR, in Portsmouth

The Duke then headed out on the water to watch the high speed racing action and met Sir Ben Ainslie and his sailing team as they battle to bring the Cup home.

The Duke of Edinburgh's love of the sea was instilled at an early age when he joined the Royal Navy and went on to serve on various classes of vessel during WW2. He then became a keen yachtsman and famously owned a Dragon Class Yacht called Bluebottle in which he was a regular and highly successful participant in the annual Cowes Week regatta on the Isle of Wight.

The royal has been a long-time member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and a former commodore and now holds the position of Admiral. Last year he reviewed their 180 strong member fleet during their bicentenary celebrations.

Speaking about the challenge, Martin Whitmarsh, Chief Executive Officer of Land Rover BAR, said: 'Every team that challenges for the America's Cup is required to do so through a host yacht club and we are honoured to have Royal Yacht Squadron Racing as our challenging club.

'The RYS is the most prestigious yacht club in the world and the support and advice we receive from their members means a great deal. We are delighted to have Prince Philip in his role as Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron visiting the team base and watching the racing in Portsmouth next week, it has given the whole team a huge boost ahead of the event.'

The Duke then headed out on the water to watch the high speed racing action and met Sir Ben Ainslie and his sailing team as they battle to bring the Cup home

Prince Philip subsidiary Royal Yacht Squadron Racing is the official America's Cup challenging Club of Land Rover BAR

The Duke of Edinburgh's love of the sea was instilled at an early age when he joined the Royal Navy and went on to serve on various classes of vessel during WW2

Prince Philip, in his role as Admiral of the Royal Yacht Squadron, visits the base of the British challenger

Land Rover BAR are aiming to right the wrong and bring the America's Cup home to Britain for the first time

Land Rover BAR was awarded 6.5m of Government funding to support the team and its proposal to build a base on the Camber in Portsmouth  a site already approved by Portsmouth City Council

The royal has been a long-time member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and a former commodore and now holds the position of Admiral

Last year he reviewed their 180 strong member fleet during their bicentenary celebrations

The America's Cup is the oldest international trophy in world sport and Britain has never won it.

The Royal Yacht Squadron has a long history with the America's Cup, going right back to the very beginning when they hosted the first race around the Isle of Wight in 1851. The prize was a silver Cup that was valued at 100.

The black schooner 'America' won the contest, outclassing the rest of the field to be first at the finish line off Cowes. To honour that victory, the Cup was renamed the America's Cup and became a challenge trophy, open to sailing clubs of all nations.

Land Rover BAR are aiming to right the wrong and bring the America's Cup home to Britain for the first time.

Land Rover BAR was awarded 6.5m of Government funding to support the team and its proposal to build a base on the Camber in Portsmouth  a site already approved by Portsmouth City Council.

The announcement took place at 10 Downing Street in the presence of the Prime Minister.

The Duke of Edinburgh was greeted by Lord-Lieutenant for Hampshire Nigel Atkinson, upon arriving for a visit to Britain's America's Cup challenger Land Rover BAR, in Portsmouth

The Duke of Edinburgh shakes hands with ACWS Event Director Sir Keith Mills, upon arriving for a visit to Britain's America's Cup challenger Land Rover BAR

David Cameron commented at the time: 'Sir Ben Ainslies project is truly fantastic news for Portsmouth and the Solent. It will not only build on Portsmouths global reputation as a centre of marine and maritime excellence but will also deliver a real sporting and economic boost to the UK.

'It is a great example of our long-term plan  creating jobs as well as opportunities for young people to develop their skills through apprenticeships.

'This is an exciting and historic challenge and I hope the whole country can get behind Sir Bens campaign.'

BAR Team Principal and four-time Olympic gold medallist, Sir Ben Ainslie said: 'Portsmouth has a great maritime heritage and we felt it was a natural home for the teams permanent base in the UK.

'There is excellent access to the water for the teams training and to host future Americas Cup events, with fantastic spectator viewpoints. We hope through our journey to bring the Cup home to Britain we will inspire more young people to get involved in the sport, along with supporting the growth of the marine sector in the Solent area to match the countrys F1 innovation hub.'

He then became a keen yachtsman and famously owned a Dragon Class Yacht called Bluebottle in which he was a regular and highly successful participant in the annual Cowes Week regatta on the Isle of Wight

Prince Philip joins a boat flying the Prince Philips standard, it is quartered Denmark, Greece, Mountbatten, and Edinburgh at BAR racing before watching the Americas Cup Races
When it comes to fashion, we are all inspired by what we see; whether it be a well dressed celebrity, a blow-your-mind catwalk presentation or even a super stylish every-day passerby.

As fashion editors, we're moved by all of the above, and then some. We're exposed to under the radar labels; we get a first hand look at collections months before they hit stores; we're tapped into brands with chic-yet-cheap offerings and we shop... A LOT.

To share our knowledge, FEMAIL brings you Style Swoon, an insider's view of the latest, greatest and on the verge. We hope this weekly Friday series will serve as a buying guide and point of inspiration for the clotheshorses and fashion fanatics alike.

ALEXA'S FAVORITE PAIRINGS

Flaunt those legs: Alexa Chung rocked her favorite fashion combo - mini skirts paired with sensible shoes - three times recently

Earlier this month, the fashion world rejoiced when Alexa Chung announced she would be launching her own fashion brand.

Not much is known about the namesake line, but if it includes Alexa's favorite fashion formula, you can bet there will be a range of mini-skirts and sensible flats available.

The model/presenter has been spotted sporting her stylish pairing several times recently.

While you'll have to wait 'til 2017 to see what designs Alexa comes up with, you can shop our favorite mini + flat combos inspired by the British beauty below!

Get the look: Left: Pixie Market skirt, $85, pixiemarket.com & Zara flats, $69.90, zara.com. Right: Missoni skirt, $660, intermixonline.com & Rochas flats, $490, matchesfashion.com

Get the look: Left: H&M skirt, Now $9.99, hm.com & Chiara Ferragni flats, Now $135.78, farfetch.com. Right: Topshop skirt, Now $20, topshop.com & Sophia Webster flat, $350, net-a-porter.com

BIEBER FEVER

Stylish superstar: Justin Bieber, 22, posed outside Barney's New York in front of the window housing his Purpose Tour XO Barneys New York collection

Shop it now: Left: Sweatshirt, $295, barneys.com. Right: Bomber Jacket, $595, barneys.com

Almost half way through his third worldwide tour, Justin Bieber is celebrating his sold out Purpose Tour with two different fashion lines!

For the first, Justin teamed up with Bravado (an industry leader in music merchandise) to design the 'Purpose Tour XO Barneys New York The Wardrobe Collection', a 31-piece unisex collection featuring everything from sweats to bomber jackets and flannel shirts that range from $95 - $1675. The limited edition line hit stores earlier this week.

In the market for more affordable Bieber swag? Head to Claire's. The budget-friendly accessory chain also teamed up with Justin and Bravado to create just about everything with the 22 year old's face on it. Snap up 'Sorry' beanies, cell phone cases, mugs and more, for less than $20.

Shop it now: 'Sorry' beanie, $16.99, claires.com

Shop it now: Left: 'Bieber Fever' mug, $9.99, claires.com. Right: Justin phone case, $14.99, claires.com

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

Sneak peek: Inside the Guns N' Roses 3 day pop-up shop in the John Varvatos store in New York City

The Biebs isn't the only musician selling fashionable merch.

Guns N' Roses is celebrating the band's reunion for their Not in this Lifetime Tour with a three day pop up shop in New York City.

Bravado, the same brand behind Justin Bieber's collaborations, teamed up with menswear designer John Varvatos for the special occasion.

The three day pop-up, located at John's flagship store (former home of music mecca CBGBs), will house the exclusive collection, which included six one-of-a kind leather jackets, limited edition bomber jackets and two exclusive John Varvatos designed t-shirts, ranging in prices from $25-$500.

If you are in the NYC area, stop by 315 Bowery Street today through Sunday to shop the pieces while supplies last.
on Twitter where they have been liked by thousands

After Josie said yes, Taylor shared her diary

A woman who found romance on a dating app found an innovative way to ask out her girlfriend - by handing her a journal of their dates.

Taylor Blake, 23, from Indiantown, Florida, kept a diary documenting her feelings abut Josie Paine, 19, each time they spent time together after meeting on Her, an LGBT app for women.

When Taylor, who works for a lumber company and as a waitress, decided to ask Josie, from Jupiter, Florida, to be her girlfriend, she decided to put it in writing.

Digital chemistry: Taylor Blake, 23, from Indiantown, Florida, pictured far left and far right, met Josie Paine, 19, from Jupiter, Florida, also pictured, on a dating app

Documented: After each of their dates, Taylor wrote an entry in a special journal which she later handed to Josie, pictured reading the diary

Unique: Rather than asking her out in a conventional way, Taylor took Josie out for dinner and handed her the notebook which ended with the message, pictured, 'be mine?'

Her diary entries describe Josie as 'walking poetry' and compares her to 'art' and ends with the words 'be mine?'

She wrote the final entry earlier this month before taking Josie out for dinner.

After their meal she handed Josie, who works at a vegan smoothie bar, the journal - asking her to read through to the end where there was a special message.

She read the final page to Josie herself, which said: 'There are 40 more pages in this journal. The first 19 pages were our memories from my perspective.

'I'd like the remaining pages to be future memories from our perspective. Be mine?"

Afterwards, she shared some of the entries on Twitter where they have since been read and appreciated by thousands.

Joint effort: She invited Josie, pictured with Taylor, to help fill the remaining pages of the diary

Impressed: After Josie said yes, Taylor shared her diary entries, pictured, on Twitter where they have caught the attention of thousands

Mutual interest: The couple met on LGBT dating app for women, Her

Her Tweet, in which she said 'the moment i met her i started keeping a journal of our memories, tonight i used the journal to ask her to be mine' has been re-tweeted more than 2,000 times and favorited by over 5,000 users.

Taylor joined Her in January to make friends during a family road trip but did not use it. On the night she got home she found it on her phone and came across Josie.

She told Daily Mail Online: 'I stumbled across a picture of the prettiest girl I had ever seen, my heart dropped. I actually looked at my friend and jokingly said, "update: I think I found my soulmate."

'I liked her photo, and waited. I figured she would never be interested in me, but I refused to delete the app, just in case.'

She liked her photo but did not hear back from her until logging in four months later when she found a message from Josie.

'I believe the message said something like 'you look like a beautiful unicorn' or something weird,' Taylor said. 'In her defense, I did have purple hair at the time.'

They started dating and after about two-and-a-half months Taylor asked Josie to be her girlfriend.

Chance: Josie joined the app in January but did not use it for some time before spotting Josie and sending her a message

Flirtatious: She did not hear back for months later when Josie returned her message by comparing her to a unicorn

Love struck: Taylor said when she saw Josie's picture she was 'the prettiest girl I had ever seen'

She decided to share the pictures online because she hoped they would inspire others 'to go the extra mile' for people who make them happy.

'I believe any sort of positivity shared is a blessing to this world, especially in recent times. I posted pictures of how I asked Josie to be my girl and the online response has been amazing,' she said.

'So many people have commended my effort to making the way I asked her so memorable and special. I think every girl deserves to be appreciated, and reminded what makes her special.

'However, in today's society, people who take the time to go above and beyond are few and far between.'

She said she expected her Tweet to be popular but did not expect to get messages from around the world after posting it.

It has resonated with people because in today's climate it is unusual to hear stories such as theirs, she said.

Adding: 'In today's society, technology consumes our lives so heavily that we often lose sight of true romance...

'Given everything I've been through in the past, meeting Josie has been the greatest blessing. She is such a beautiful soul and I cannot help but feel so lucky to call her mine.'

Gushing: In her journal, pictured, Taylor described Josie as 'walking poetry'

'For Josie': Taylor said she was struck by Josie's looks immediately and that on their first date they went to a park in the rain

Pining: After saying yes to Taylor's question, Josie took the journal to California where she used it to send messages to her new girlfriend

She said she was struck by her looks immediately and on their first date they went to a park in the rain.

'The first time we ever met in person, I remember being so intimidated by her beauty,' she told BuzzFeed News.

Taylor, who has always been passionate about writing, said she decided to 'let my writing tell me whether or not she was the person I should be with'.

After saying yes to Taylor's question, Josie then took the journal with her on a trip to California where she used it to send messages to her new girlfriend.

Taylor said she has not been able to stop smiling since meeting Josie and although their romance is still in its early stages, hopes it will 'continue to grow'.

'As far as the future goes, I am a firm believer in taking things day by day,' she told Daily Mail Online.

'For now, our relationship is still budding. I learn more and more about her every day and my feelings for her just continue to grow.
A proposal by the city of Spokane, Wash., that would fine rail companies for cars carrying crude oil sets a dangerous precedent of targeting specific commodities that move by rail, according to BNSF Railway.

But the Spokane political leaders say the risk, no matter how small, is too great to leave to chance.

The proposed $261 per-car finecould impede North Dakota's producers and others from getting their commodities to markets around the country and world, BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth said in a statement.

The North Dakota Petroleum Council also voiced its objection.

NDPC would most definitely have members that are affected by the proposal, Kari Cutting, vice president of NDPC, said in an email. If passed, NDPC will evaluate and see what path or recourse is available to our organization and our members.

In January, 500,000 barrels of Bakken crude were transported via rail daily, according to Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority. Of that, 60 percent or about 300,000 barrels was sent east, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. About 7 percent goes to the Gulf Coast, leaving roughly 10 percent traveling west.

Breean Beggs, a member of the Spokane City Council, said the city has been considering the issue of crude by rail transport as there have been a dozen oil train derailments in North America since 2010 which have resulted in fires, explosions and oil spills. But the most recent derailment and spill in Mosier, Ore., involving a train that had passed through the city of Spokane prior, spurred the council into action.

The rail lines in Spokane run through the heart of the city, within 500 feet of two hospitals and within a half mile of 17 schools, as well as the business center of the city.

About two to three trains carrying crude oil pass through the town each day, according to Beggs, who pointed out that the core downtown would be gone if there was an explosion.

The lines also cross Latah Creek, the Spokane River and the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which is the sole source of drinking water for about 500,000 people.

Were in a unique situation that we have a unique danger, Beggs said. Even if the chances of derailment are so small, the disaster would be so huge we cant risk it in Spokane . The damage would be so catastrophic.

The fines are meant to encourage rail companies to find a new route around the city, according to Beggs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, specifically the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, is charged with the jurisdiction for safe transport of all hazardous materials across the United States.

However, a situation like Spokanes aquifer could leave an opening.

Generally federal law regulates rail transport but it gives states the right to regulate in the case of uniquely local dangers when it is not federally regulated, Beggs said.

Cutting also raised the argument that new regulations requiring additional track inspections, preventive maintenance, speed restrictions and the phasing out of older railcars that were deemed less safe for transport of crude oil have been passed.

But the cars in the Mosier derailment had been "upgraded to the 1-2-3-2 standard, according to a Union Pacific spokesman.

So obviously, its not enough, said Beggs, who does not know of any other cities with fines for transporting crude oil. Spokane has the potential to be leading other communities.

Should the city council approve the rule it will go to a citywide vote in November.

What we really wanted was residents to vote and express themselves, said Beggs, adding that the popular vote of tens of thousands of people would send a message.

If the measure should pass, the citys code enforcement department would be charged to develop an enforcement plan.
Jason, who plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November, said his

With the constant coverage of who stood at the podium at the Republican National Convention dominating the media this week, there was one spot at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland that earned considerably less attention, but still offered some surprising insight into members of the Republican party and Trump family  the make-up chair.

That's where Jason Kelly, the official make-up artist for the RNC, was applying foundation, bronzer, and even highlighter to the faces of nearly every single person who took the stage this week, including Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, Jr.

But despite his privileged spot at convention getting up-close-and-personal with some major names, Jason told Harper's Bazaar that politically, he doesn't support anyone  and he plans to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Scroll down for video

Big gig: Jason Kelly was the official make-up artist of the Republican National convention (pictured right with assistants Tamra Malone, left, and Kristian Bailey-Gaines, second from left, and Paul Ryan)

Politics aside: The Cleveland-based make-up artist is a Democrat who plans to vote for Hillary Clinton but said that wasn't an issue while working on people at the convention

Fix it right up! Though he didn't get to work on Donald Trump, who came camera-ready, he said he'd do something about the hyper-pigmentation around his eyes, where goggles shield the skin during his spray-tans

Jason, who is the owner of Cleveland-based J Kelly Face Art, was 'thrilled' to be asked to work at the GOP event this week, despite the fact that he won't be voting that way come November. But, he added, his political differences with the men and women he was making up never became an issue.

'Politics don't need to be discussed and, if they do come up, I can calm it down and just keep it light,' he said. 'I can steer the conversation more towards one that will end in shaking hands after. You can't let your feelings get involved in something like this or you'll never get hired again. Get in where you fit in and keep it light and do your job.'

So what did this job entail? Very long, very busy days. Jason said from Monday to Thursday, he worked at least 12 hours a day, making up at least 40 people with the help of his two assistants, Tamra Malone and Kristian Bailey-Gaines. Each appointment lasted 15 to 90 minutes.

As of Tuesday morning, he still hadn't worked on Donald Trump himself, his daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, or Melania, since they all turn up camera-ready.

He owns J Kelly Face Art but used mostly face products  not lipstick and eyeliner  at the convention

Tan guy: He said Donald Trump Jr. was 'charming' and needed the same shade of face make-up as one of his female assistants, who is African-American

Giving direction: Paul Ryan wanted to cover his stubble with foundation and brighten up his inner eyes

He appeared bright eyed and even skinned on the stage Tuesday night with makeup

His under-eye circles were decidedly darker when he was makeup free at a breakfast on Monday, seen here

His team did, however, work on Donald Trump Jr. One of Jason's assistants, Tamra, had the honor, and said the Trump son was 'chatty' and 'charming'. As for his make-up, Donald Jr. showed up with a tan so dark that he needed to wear the same color face make-up that Tamara does does  and she's African-American.

They worked on other big names as well. On Tuesday, Paul Ryan came in, and was game for plenty of touch-ups.

'He said his 5 o'clock shadow comes in at 2,' Jason said. 'He knew he needed the full coverage foundation to cover it up. Some guys like letting the stubble show  but not him.'

The Speaker of the House also wanted his inner eyes brightened, as well as powder on his ears to cover up some redness

'Paul Ryan was funny. I was wearing a Batman shirt and there was this running joke where he'd call me Batman,' Jason said. 'I got a picture with him after. And the girls [assistants] fell in love.

Used to this: Actor Scott Baio sang to his make-up artist, one of the assistants, while he was getting his face done

Senator Joni Ernst is pictured on Monday with Jason's make-up on her knees at the RNC to cover scrapes

He did a great job - here she is Tuesday - as no scrapes were visible either day

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst needed concealer, but in an unexpected place  on her knees. She had tripped while climbing onto the stage before her speech, and needed her scrapes to be covered up.

Actor Scott Baio, who delivered an address, actually sang in the make-up chair while his face was powdered. The assistant who worked on him, Kristian, said he had 'great skin'.

W. Kirk Bell, the director of Regional Satellite and Radio Media, was afraid of looking like he had too much make-up on. got some powder to cover redness, plus a bit of bronzer.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar, Jason said that though he hadn't yet worked on Trump, he had a plan for the candidate's face should he need a touch up.
Have burgers overtaken the chicken parma as Australia's favourite pub meal?

It seems that with each week that passes, restaurants and burger joints across the country try to outdo each other with their exorbitant new creations.

From black charcoal buns to one kilogram meat-filled monstrosities, there's seemingly no end.

And now one Sydney restaurant has laid down their claim for the best burger, by topping their creation with none other than a shot of a-grade bourbon.

Bourbon beast! With a shot of Bulleit Bourbon on top of the bun, this burger by Chicken and Sons in Surry Hills is an exorbitant mix of traditional American cheeseburger and alcohol

Adam Spencer, owner and chef at Chicken and Sons in Surry Hills, Sydney, said the idea to sit bourbon inside the bun of the burger came from recent alocohol-inspired burger experiments.

'I did a burger a few weeks ago with Jack Daniels glazed bacon and thought let's use a bagel instead of a burger bun and put a shot of Bulleit bourbon on top,' he said.

'Yeah its going to be cool. We've had plenty of traction on Facebook and so it's exciting.

'Its a really traditional American cheese burger - its a great mix of salty and sweet.'

Using a sesame bagel instead of a normal bun, it's clear from the outset that this burger is different.

Inside is an angus beef pattie, melted yankee cheese, delcious bourbon glazed bacon, a jalapeno, pickles and some bourbon barbecue sauce.

Simply sublime! The bourbon burger is on sale from Friday night and has been described as a perfect mixture of salty and sweet

Burger king! Chef and creator Adam Spencer (pictured front) said the burger was based on a traditional American cheeseburger but came with a twist on top

But while other burgers rely on their secret sauce to win customers over, Mr Spencer has put his star of the show - a shot of Bulleit bourbon - atop the burger for all to see.

Prominent food blogger Jason King tried the incredible creation this week, describing it as 'sublime' and giving it an impressive rating of 4.7/5

He said one of the highlights of the dish was dipping the bourbon glazed bacon to enjoy his shot on top.
Also causes bowel and breast forms but it may be responsible for others

Alcohol causes cancer of the mouth and throat, larynx, liver and colon

Researchers said even people who drink low levels are at risk of developing the disease - killing off the idea that a glass of red wine can be good for you

Drinking alcohol causes at least seven kinds of cancer, a new study warns today.

Researchers said even people who drink low levels are at risk of developing the disease - killing off the idea that a glass of red wine can be good for you.

Although the exact mechanism is not known, there is strong evidence alcohol increases the risk of developing the disease, experts said.

Alcohol causes cancer of the mouth and throat, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, bowel and breast, but may also cause other forms.

And even drinking small amounts raises the risk.

However, despite Government advice earlier this year which said there is no safe limit, 90 per cent of people don't realise drinking alcohol increases the risk of getting the deadly disease.

Professor Jennie Connor, of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at Otago Medical School in New Zealand, conducted the review of research taking into account the latest studies.

She said alcohol is estimated to have caused half a million deaths since 2012  amounting to more than one in 20  5.8 per cent - of all cancer deaths.

Professor Connor added: There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites, and probably others.

Confirmation of specific biological mechanisms by which alcohol increases the incidence of each type of cancer is not required to infer that alcohol is a cause.

She said there is no safe level of drinking with respect to cancer. However, the risks are reduced for some forms when people stop drinking.

The supposed health benefits of drinking - such as red wine being good for the heart - were seen as irrelevant in comparison to the increased risk of cancer.

Professor Connor said the evidence shows the relation between alcohol and cancer is dose dependent  in other words the more you drink, the greater the risk.

The research reinforces guidelines issued in January, by the UKs chief medical officers, who said no level of regular drinking is without risks to health.

Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England said each time she has a drink, she asks herself do I want the glass of wine or do I want to raise my risk of breast cancer?'

In light of the medical officers report, NHS guidelines now advise men should consume no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, down from the previous 21 units, bringing them into line with the recommendation for women.

Fourteen units is around seven pints of medium strength lager, or nine and a third 125ml glasses of medium strength wine.

While alcohol has been shown to have some benefits in reducing the risks of heart disease, the NHS advise there are better ways to reduce heart disease, such as by losing weight

Officers also warned women who regularly drink two units a day have a 16 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer and dying from it.

And those who regularly consume five units a day have a 40 per cent increased risk.

For every 1,000 women who don't drink, 109 will develop breast cancer.

This rises to 126 women for those who drink 14 units or less per week, and 153 women for those who drink 14 to 35 units a week.

Scientists are still researching how alcohol can lead to cancer - but one theory is alcohol damages DNA.

HOW JAGERBOMBS TURN US INTO BINGE DRINKERS: Mixing energy drinks with alcohol leads to revellers wanting to consume even more booze, scientists claim. Cocktails such as Jagerbombs  Red Bull mixed with Jagermeister liqueur - have become a huge craze among younger drinkers. But mixing caffeinated drinks and alcohol together may lead to an increase in binge drinking. This is because the caffeine makes the drinker crave even more booze, the researchers at Northern Kentucky University warned. Drinking vodka mixed with soft drinks - rather than caffeine - did not have the same effect, the study found. Previous research has warned caffeine masks the intoxicating effects of alcohol  and can lead to riskier behaviours as people don't realise how drunk they are. Advertisement

Susannah Brown, science programme manager for the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), said many people wrongly believe alcohol consumption is only linked to liver cancer.

She said: Among other evidence, we see the risk increasing as the amount of alcohol consumed increases, and we agree there is solid evidence to conclude that alcohol consumption directly causes cancer.

For cancer prevention, we have long recommended people should not drink alcohol at all, but we understand this can be easier said than done.

The WCRF has previously said drinking three alcoholic drinks or more per day increases the risk of stomach cancer.

It also found strong evidence for a link with other cancers, including mouth and throat, liver, bowel and breast.

Alan Boobis, Professor of Biochemical Pharmacology at Imperial College London said the research is a useful summary of alcohol and cancer.

Pointing out recent research by Cancer Research UK that 90 per cent of the public are unaware alcohol causes cancer, he said: The science is now well established.

The main difficulty is communicating effectively with the public. 

While alcohol has been shown to have some benefits in reducing the risks of heart disease, the NHS advise there are better ways to reduce heart disease, such as by losing weight.

Some research has found benefits in moderate drinking compared to complete abstinence.

But other research has found abstainers have become teetotal due to health problems, or previous alcohol abuse.

Moderate drinkers are also more likely to be better off financially than abstainers.

Professor Connor notes moderate drinkers are more likely to engage in healthier behaviours such as exercise.

Women who regularly drink two units a day have a 16 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer and dying from it. And those who reguarly consume five units a day have a 40 per cent increased risk

Elaine Hindal, chief executive officer of the charity Drinkaware, said: Regularly drinking more than the governments low risk guidelines puts you at increased risk of some types of cancer, and can also increase your risk of heart and liver disease, strokes and pancreatitis.

'Smoking and drinking together increases your risk of developing throat and mouth cancer more than doing either on their own.

We know around 3.5 million middle-aged men are drinking more than the low risk guidance of 14 units or six pints of 4 per cent beer per week.

'It is why we have launched our Have a little less, feel a lot better campaign to target those who could be storing up serious health problems for the future.

Smoking and drinking together increases your risk of developing throat and mouth cancer more than doing either on their own Elaine Hindal, chief executive officer of the charity Drinkaware

Professor Dorothy Bennett, Director of the Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute at St. Georges, University of London, said the latest research updates existing studies of alcohol by concluding it 'does cause cancer.

She said the reason alcohol causes cancer is because: Alcohol enters cells very easily, and is then converted into acetaldehyde which can damage DNA and is a known carcinogen.

She added the research could be said to strengthen support for the existing message [of reducing drinking] by a careful review and update of the evidence on both links and mechanisms.

Dr Penny Buykx, from the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield, said: This new research summarises the well-established evidence linking alcohol consumption to an increased cancer risk.

'Our recent study with Cancer Research UK found that when shown a list of different cancers, only one out of five people know breast cancer can be caused by drinking, compared to four out of five people who know alcohol can cause liver cancer.
Just over half of surgeons discussed whether the event was preventable

13 per cent don't express any regret for something going wrong in surgery

Transparency and honest communication is what we expect from someone who is about to operate on our body.

But only 55 per cent of surgeons apologise if something goes wrong during surgery, a new survey has revealed.

And just over half discussed whether the error was preventable with the patient.

Even more worryingly, 13 per cent didn't express any regret for mishaps that occurred during surgery.

Only 55 per cent of surgeons apologise if something goes wrong during an operation, a survey has revealed

The study, from Boston University, comes after medical errors were found earlier this month to be the third leading cause of death in the US after heart disease and cancer.

More than 250,000 deaths each year are caused by medical error, patient safety experts at Johns Hopkins University identified.

That figure surpasses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's third leading cause of death - respiratory disease - which kills close to 150,000 people each year.

Of the 4.6 million surgical procedures carried out each year in the UK, blunders only occur in one in 20,000 cases of surgery, according to NHS England.

But what worries some experts is despite repeated efforts, never events do not seem to be declining.

Never events are serious, preventable events which should not occur if surgeons have followed the methods in place.

Figures showed there were 254 between April and the end of December 2015 - compared to 306 in the 12 months from April 2014 to March 2015.

US guidelines recommend full disclosure of adverse events or unanticipated outcomes to patients and their family members.

For this study, the Boston researchers found the vast majority of surgeons used five of the eight recommended disclosure techniques.

These are:

* Explaining why it happened - 92 per cent

* Expressing regret for what happened - 87 per cent

* Expressing concern for the patient's welfare - 95 per cent

* Disclosing the adverse event within 24 hours - 97 per cent

* Discussing steps taken to treat any subsequent problems - 98 per cent

The other three were: apologising to patients (55 per cent), discussing whether the error was preventable (55 per cent) and discussing how it could be stopped from ever happening again (32 per cent).

US guidelines recommend full disclosure of mishaps or unanticipated outcomes to patients and their families

Dr Thomas Gallagher, study author, told Kaiser Health News: 'For a long time in the field, people thought the primary reason physicians have trouble reporting adverse events is they were worried about being sued, but there are other barriers that are more important.

'This paper helps highlight how embarrassing and upsetting these events are for clinicians.'

He added committing errors 'makes it difficult for the physician to admit to the patient'.

The findings were gathered by experts from the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System and Boston University.

The 21-question survey was given to 67 specialist surgeons from three medical centers.

Researchers also found surgeons who failed to discuss whether what happened in surgery was preventable were more negatively affected.

Surgeons with more negative attitudes about disclosure were more anxious about patients' surgical outcomes or events following an operation.

Writing in the journal JAMA Surgery, the authors said very little has been done to assess disclosing mishaps with patients - a skill which requires skills in open communication.

They said: 'Future quality improvement efforts may be able to help sustain the implementation of open disclosure programs nationwide while also ensuring a healthy surgeon workforce.'
This is the gruesome moment a doctor burst a giant cyst covering a little boy's eye.

The child was admitted to hospital in Sonsonante, El Salvador, in February with a slow-growing inflammation on his eye duct, known as a chalazion.

The lump had become so big it completely blocked his left eye.

Most cysts fade over time.

If not, the only way to treat it is to cut an incision and squeeze out the fluid.

In a graphic video, Dr Alberto Cota demonstrated exactly how this is done.

The child was admitted to hospital in Sonsonante, El Salvador, in February with a slow-growing inflammation on his eye duct, known as a chalazion. He is pictured (left) before and (right) after the procedure

The child, who was not named, is seen in the video lying on a hospital bed.

Dr Cota tells him to stay calm as he takes a scalpel and slashes an opening on the cyst towards the boy's forehead.

Immediately, yellow pus begins to pour onto the floor.

When it stops, Dr Cota has to aid it along, squeezing the cyst as the child moans in pain and blood starts pouring out.

Eye cysts are incredibly common around the world, though they typically affect people between the ages of 30 and 50.

They are caused by an obstruction in the eye ducts, meaning oil from the eye is not being drained away.

It can be brought on by skin conditions like rosacea, though there have been many isolated cases.

At first it can feel like a small bead.

Dr Cota tells him to stay calm as he takes a scalpel and slashes an opening on the cyst

Immediately, yellow pus begins to pour onto the floor. When it stops, Dr Cota has to aid it along, squeezing it

The chazalion usually swells within around four days, becoming red and rubbery but painless.

Doctors advise holding a hot wet flannel on the affected area for five to ten minutes several times a day.

You should also wash your eyelines with baby shampoo mixed with water.

A chazalion incision is typically performed under general or local anesthetic.
They are described as the jihadi sons of jihadi fathers.

Abdullah Gul is the son of the late Lt Gen Hamid Gul, the 'jihadi general' who headed Pakistans notorious inter-services intelligence (ISI).

And Ijaz ul Haq is the former Federal Minister in Pakistan, the son of a former military dictator Gen Zia-ul-Haq, under whose regime the 'Talibanisation' of the Pakistan army allegedly started.

Abdullah Gul (right), son of the late Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, has been a key mediator for 26/11 accused Hafiz Saeed (left)

The two are on the radar of the intelligence agencies for allegedly providing legitimacy and funds to terror organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

The two jihadi sons are also seen as the key link between Pakistans Deep State - the ISI - and the terrorists' ISI handles.

Under international pressure, Pakistan was forced to put a curb on Hafiz Saeeds Jamat-ud Dawa rallies after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The older generation: Lieutenant General Hamid Gul (left) is remembered as the 'jihadi general', while former Pakistani President Zia Ul-Haq (right) is considered the man who 'Talibanised' the Pakistan army

Abdullah Gul is alleged to have played a key role in legitimising Saeeds brand of terror by organising the rallies under the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (Defence of Pakistan) flag and ensuring media coverage.

Interestingly, Gul is also seen as a front for Pakistans alleged nuclear black market don, AQ Khan.

Sources told India Today TV that Gul and Haq have organised a series of under-the-radar meetings between global terrorists and top politicians, businessmen and media agencies, providing them with increased legitimacy and funding.

Accused terrorist Hafiz Saeed embarked on a Kashmir Caravan mission following the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani by security forces in Kokernag

Gul and Haq, through their deep links with Pakistan's ISI, helped clear the administrative hurdles for Saeeds anti-India rants and rallies.

As accused terrorist Hafiz Saeed embarked on his latest Kashmir Caravan mission following the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani by security forces in Kokernag, these two sons of Pakistans 'jihadi generals' were in tow, supporting the main accused and alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Ijaz-ul-Haq is a former federal minister and a member of Pakistans national assembly.

He is also the president of PML (Zia). Sources told Mail Today: He has fundamentalist views and has been playing a key role in the mainstreaming of terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin.

He is also alleged to have organised meetings where funds were raised for this so-called 'Jihad in Jammu and Kashmir, and Afghanistan'.

Like father, like son? Ijaz ul Haq, son of former Pakistani President Zia Ul-Haq

Their fathers are Pakistans most notorious Jihadi Generals - both Godfathers of Pakistani terror against India and Afghanistan. It appears their sons have now taken up the mantle, though minus the mufti.

There are pictures of Gul, who calls himself a youth motivator, with terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin - and also with Pakistans National Security Advisor, Lt Gen Nasir Khan Janjua.

In fact, Gul has attended and addressed almost every rally organised for Hafiz Saeed.

Being from army families, both Gul and Haq have access to the all-powerful Pakistan army.

Lt Gen Janjua has been a frequent visitor at several seminars and events organised by Gul - an example of the proximity between terror outfits and Pakistani state officials.

Sources told India Today TV that Gul and Haq have organised a series of under-the-radar meetings between Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and top politicians, businessmen, and media agencies

They operate through the Difa-e-Pakistan Council, a group of about 40 fundamentalist and terrorist organisations across Pakistan aided by Pakistans Deep State.

"They arrange massive rallies and organise funds for Taliban and Kashmiri separatists and terrorists, sources added.

This group of Pakistani fundamentalists are against the US and India. They openly back LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen along with the Taliban and are seen as a threat to democracy even within Pakistan.
to as a 'prostitute' by senior BJP official Dayashankar Singh

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has finally woken up to the Dalit cause by visiting Una and Rajkot in Gujarat, after images of his alleged 'power nap' during the debate on atrocities against Dalits went viral.

The Gandhi scion was another high-profile politician to made a short-notice visit to sleepy Una and bustling Rajkot over the last few days.

The day started with a tweet from Rahul Gandhis official handle as soon as he landed at Diu airport on his way to Una.

"In Mota Samadhiyala, Una to meet with the family members of the Dalit youths who were so brutally assaulted, read the tweet.

Rahul Gandhi (left) has finally woken up to the Dalit cause in Gujarat by visiting Una and Rajkot, after images of his alleged 'power nap' during the debate on atrocities against Dalits went viral.

Back in the capital, BSP supremo Mayawati set the agenda in Parliament by putting both the Congress and the BJP in the dock for failing to check atrocities against the weaker sections of society.

Mayawati embraced the sympathy she received from across the political spectrum after being likened to a prostitute by senior BJP official Dayashankar Singh, and turned it against the slur hurled by the BJP official.

The Iron Lady slammed her opponents for merely paying lip service to the Dalit cause, arguing in the Rajya Sabha that the BJP had first targeted Muslims through the cry of cow slaughter, and was now turning its attention to Dalits.

Nap time for RaGa? Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi allegedly fell asleep in the Lok Sabha

Mayawati dismissed the Gujarat governments move to order a CID probe into the incident as hogwash.

Mayawati said that a high court-monitored trial should be held by a two-judge bench, and that one of the judges should be from the scheduled caste community.

Members of all political parties not only condemned the incident, but also spoke against the derogatory remarks against Mayawati made by the BJP functionary.

Rahul Gandhi was seen to be 'resting his eyes' in the session where the issue of the Dalit youths assaulted by a cow protection group in Gujarat was raised

Dayashankar Singh was sacked immediately by the BJP after they sensed the political damage his comments had caused.

CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury said that while the government talks about preserving the legacy of Dalit icon Ambedkar, its actions are different.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek OBrien also slammed the BJP for its superficial symbolism.

BSP activists protest derogatory comments made by senior BJP official Dayashankar Singh calling former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati a 'prostitute'

OBrien cited Rohith Vemulas suicide note to highlight the dire situation faced by Dalits.

The BJP, which is on the back foot, blamed the incidents of violence on the mindset of society at large.

Making his maiden speech in Parliament, the BJP's Vijay Sahasrabuddhe said there was a need to change the public mindset, as atrocities have taken place against Dalits in every government.

He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to achieving the dream of BR Ambedkar.

For once, the political parties spoke with a single voice after the BJP received criticism for not responding promptly.

A large crowd of BSP workers took to the streets of Lucknow to protest against the comments made by BJP leader Dayashankar Singh

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met with the families of the Dailt's flogged and paraded by a group of self-styled 'cow protection' vigilantes

Gandhi described the assault as 'brutal'

Dayashankar at large as cops register FIR

By India Today Bureau

While an FIR was registered against former BJP vice-president Dayashankar Singh in the Hazratganj police station of Lucknow late on Wednesday night, police conducted raids in various districts of the Poorvanchal region to catch him.

According to police sources, Singh is at large but is planning to surrender before the court.

SSP Lucknow Manzil Saini told Mail Today: An FIR has been registered against Singh under sections 153A (promoting enmity among groups in the name of religion, caste, etc), 504 (intentional insult) and 509 (insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and section 3(1) of the SC/ST Act.

Security was tightened at the BJP headquarters in Lucknow after city-wide BSP protests against expelled leader Dayashankar Singh, for his derogatory comments against Mayawati

Meanwhile the police of Ballia, Mau, Ghazipur, and adjoining districts conducted raids in different areas.

Inspector Hazratganj police station (Lucknow) Vijay Mal Yadav confirmed: A police team also raided his official residence in Lucknow but he was also not found here.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik on Thursday strongly condemned the remarks made by expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh against BSP supremo Mayawati.

During the 'cow vigilante uproar' former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister 'Iron Lady' Mayawati (left) was referred to as a 'prostitute' by senior BJP official Dayashankar Singh (right).

Any decent person would not make such comment, Naik said in reply to a question during a press conference.

Such utterances cannot be tolerated in a democracy, and I strongly condemn the remarks.

The BJP relieved Singh of all responsibilities on Wednesday night and removed him from the post of the party's state unit vice president.

Punjab Congress to protest anti-Dalit violence

By Manjeet Sehgal

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Captain Amarinder Singh has condemned the incidents of violence against Dalits across the country.

Amarinder warned on Thursday: There appears to be a dangerous pattern in the verbal and physical abuse and violence against the Dalits everywhere, which is either being ignored or encouraged, at the peril of sparking off a caste war in the country.

Questioning the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter, Amarinder asked why he had not intervened till now.

Lawyers burn an effigy of expelled BJP leader Dayashankar after calling BSP chief Mayawati a 'prostitute'

How can you shut your eyes when your fellow countrymen are being treated with such brutality and cruelty?, he asked the Prime Minister.

The PCC president also announced plans to hold state-wide protests against the anti-Dalit violence on Sunday. He will be leading the protest at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district the same day.

Referring to the flogging and parading of three Dalit youths in a Gujarat town by some self-styled cow protection vigilante groups, the PCC president said there was genuine anger and outrage, not only among the Dalits, but from all well-meaning Indians about the direction the country was taking.

Captain Amarinder also condemned the abusive language used by the Uttar Pradesh BJP vice president Daya Shankar Singh against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief Ms Mayawati, saying it was deplorable.

He said no punishment will be enough for the person who used such language against the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

Expressing concern over such incidents, the former chief minister suggested that the Prime Minister should personally intervene in the matter.

Given the alarming sensitivity of the situation, it calls for urgent intervention at the highest level lest the country is pushed into caste war, he warned.
Three lawyers provoked a mob to go on the rampage and attack JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and journalists at a city court this year, a Delhi Police charge sheet says.

The document, which was filed in the Patiala House Courts, has charged Vikram Chauhan, Om Sharma and Yashpal Singh for rioting, criminal intimidation, unlawful assembly and causing hurt to journalists and others when Kumar was produced before a judge.

The three lawyers had formed unlawful assembly with their common objective to attack Kanhaiya Kumar using criminal force and threatened journalists with dire consequences and even destroyed their personal property, says the charge-sheet, which was submitted this week.

Three lawyers provoked a mob to go on the rampage and attack JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and journalists at a city court this year, a Delhi Police charge sheet says

Fighting broke out on February 15 at the court complex where a case was being heard against the student union leader accused of sedition over an event commemorating Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Police action against JNU students sparked protests across university campuses and criticism that the Narendra Modi government was trying to muzzle dissenters.

At least six people were reportedly injured in the chaos that erupted over a petty issue of seats inside the courtroom.

Sources said some lawyers objected to JNU teachers and students sitting in the front row and asked them to vacate the seats.

The students and teachers refused.

Infuriated, the lawyers began thrashing them.

Witnesses said some unknown people wearing black jackets also joined the lawyers in beating up the students and teachers.

The mob also wanted media personnel to leave the area.

BJP leader OP Sharma was also present and was accused of attacking a CPI activist.

He along with the three lawyers had joined the probe and was granted bail.

Within hours of the episode, the trio was seen in videos raising slogans and indulging in violence.

Chauhan was identified in various clips. He had earlier told reporters that he was innocent and was being portrayed as a goon.

When contacted, Chauhan refused to comment, saying he had not read the charge sheet.

Witnesses told the police that the three lawyers who are currently out on bail were provoking others to hit journalists.

Cops have mentioned evidences from the CCTV footage that show the three lawyers roaming in the premises at around 2 pm.

The security camera videos have gone for forensic tests and a supplementary charge sheet will be submitted after the reports arrive.

The court will consider the charge sheet in September.

At 2.07 pm, Vikram Chauhan is seen pushing two journalists towards gate number 2 and manhandling them.

Later, Om Sharma and Yashpal Singh joined him and moved away from the vicinity of the camera.

Eight minutes later, Chauhan started shouting slogans and by 2.43 pm scores of lawyers had gathered even as at the same time a man is seen being beaten while trying to run away from the mob.

Simultaneously, a camera at gate number 2 caught a man being kicked around and the police trying to help him get away from the angry attackers.

The lady constables helped women escape who got trapped in the crowd in the chaos."

The police told the court that PCR calls received at Tilak Marg police station informed that lawyers, JNU students and supporters had indulged in an altercation at court number 4 of the main building.

Phones were being snatched away from whoever was seen recording the incident.

No one suffered major injuries in the melee.

Similarly, on February 17, the atmosphere remained equally tense.

The lawyers carried out a huge demonstration with placards and flags and surrounded the court building where Kumar was to be produced.

Despite tight security, the mob heckled and thrashed reporters as well as police officials and lawyers.

The Supreme Court on the same day had taken cognisance of the matter and formed a six-member committee that was immediately sent to report on the ground situation at the Patiala House complex.
It's impossible made possible by the Hyderabad City Police.

As part of its community policing, the South Zone police helped two daughters reunite with their mother after 28-long years on Thursday.

The story of parting and meeting may look like a Bollywood cine plot but it is actually a true emotional saga with a happy ending.

Sisters Ayesha and Fatima reunited with their mother in Hyderabad

Two Dubai-based sisters Ayesha Rasheed eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid were informed by their father just before his death that their mother is alive and lives in Hyderabad.

The revelation made by the father was shocking for the two sisters who believed that their mother had died right after their birth.

Nazia Begum, now 60, from Santoshnagar in south zone was married to a UAE national Rasheed Eid Obaid Rifaq Masmari in 1981 at a Qazis office in Old City of Hyderabad.

After a few years of marriage, she left for United Arab Emirates.

She lived there for around four years and gave birth to two daughters, Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid. Four years later, unfortunately Nazia was divorced by her husband Rasheed and she was sent back to India without her daughters.

With a heavy heart, Nazia returned to India.

She tried her best to get her daughters back, but poverty and lack of education remained the barrier between the mother and her daughters.

After two years Nazias was again married by her parents to a fruit-vendor from Bidar, Karnataka.

Twenty-eight years later, time turned, the two daughters knocked the door of Hyderabad Police and circulated pamphlets and posters all over south zone.
They're considered to be the embodiment of Lord Ganesha on earth, made to wear decorative head-gear and paraded at temples in Kerala.

And at the Amer Fort in Jaipur, they are painted with ornamental patterns and made to ferry tourists.

But behind the festivities and joy rides is unimaginable brutality.

India Today TV has accessed exclusive footage from two documentary filmmakers who have captured the persecution of elephants on camera.

Elephants in a procession during the annual temple festival in the southern Indian city of Kochi (file picture).

Tortured, blinded, starved, chained, the soles of their feet burnt with torches and spikes dug deep into their limbs... these are just some of the ways in which elephants at temples in Kerala and the Amer Fort are brutalised in the name of culture and tourism.

One poor elephant, Laxmi, is a regular attraction at Thirivambari temple in Kerala. Her cornea was torn by her mahaut, who was trying to reign her in with a metallic hook or ankush - a common occurrence.

He consults a vet, but doesn't feel the need to call someone and administer medicine. The mahaut and a friend try to put medicine in Laxmi's eye.

As she squeezes her eyes shut, he forcibly opens it, gouges out her eyeball, pours medicine in it, and attempts to stuff it back.

After the ordeal, the mahaut speaks to Laxmi like nothing has happened - and what is astonishing is that Laxmi responds.

In Thrishurpuram, filmmaker Sangita Iyer captures chilling images of a gentle giant being mercilessly assaulted by his mahaut to break his spirit. This too is a common practice.

Experts say male elephants become restless during mating season. If theyre chained and not allowed to roam free, they become aggressive. In a bid to curb their natural instincts, mahauts tighten the chains around their limbs.

The mating season lasts for about four months, and during this period male elephants are given just enough food to keep them alive.

Wildlife activists say many handlers even inject male elephants with drugs in a bid to chemically castrate them.

The government has done nothing about it. Kerala is a hotbed for illegal treatment to animals. The govt actually wanted to provide amnesty to these people but the Supreme Court shot it down. In Jaipur, the haathi gain is joke. The problem starts with breaking of elephants, says NG Jayasimha of Humane society international.

In her film, God's in Shackles, Sangita Iyer also captures pictures of deep gashes on elephants' limbs. She says that most mahauts tie elephants with chains that are fitted with long iron spikes to weaken them. When the elephants have to be taken temples for ceremonies, mahauts cover the torture marks with black paint.

"The tradition of keeping elephants in temples should be banned. It doesnt benefit anyone. Elephants are gentle animals, not used to loud processions, says Animal Rights Activist Ambika Shukla.

In Amer in Rajasthan, filmmaker Brigette Uttar Kornetzky finds mahauts literally burning the soles of the elephants feet.

Activists say elephants suffer from severe abrasions of the foot-sole, and joint and muscle damage because they're forced to walk on concrete, often overloaded with tourists.

The mahauts burn their soles to make their feet numb, and force them to work.

Kartik Satyanarayan, founder of Wildlife SOS, says: There are ample laws in our country but there is a lack of implementation.
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Of the 26 million births in India every year, 2-3% of the foetuses have severe congenital abnormality, according to WHO

There is some hope for the rape victim who has moved the Supreme Court seeking to abort her 24-week old foetus with serious abnormalities.

She is battling the law which prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks.

The court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to get the 26-year-old woman examined by a medical board on Saturday and submit the report on July 25 for deciding her abortion plea.

A Bench of Justices JS Khehar and Arun Mishra accepted the victims plea for subjecting her to a medical examination at the KEM Hospital, Mumbai.

An extraordinary intervention from the top court is necessary as the archaic 45-year-old Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act allows abortion only up to 20 weeks.

Mail Today had reported about her plight first on July 21.

She came to know about the existence of the foetus only when she underwent a medical test after filing a rape complaint against her fiance who deserted her.

She requested for an abortion when the doctor told her that the baby suffers from Anencephaly wherein the foetus does not have a major part of the brain, skull and scalp.

Mail Today had reported about her plight first on July 21

It also did not have the abdominal cavity as a result of which the intestines are not in place.

But the permission was denied with the Hospital saying the pregnancy was beyond the 20-week period and it was not legally permissible to do so.

The victim has also challenged the validity of a clause of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, which stipulates that an abortion was illegal after 20 weeks, calling it irrational, outdated, unconstitutional and a violation of womens rights to equality, health, and life.

It would be in the fitness of matter to constitute a medical board of K E M College, Mumbai to medically examine the petitioner and only thereafter will the matter be heard on merits.

"The petitioner may appear before the board at 10am tomorrow. The report shall be placed for the consideration of the court on Monday.

"Delay in the matter will be very worrying and the issue is not simple. All issues including challenge to certain sections will be looked into later, the bench said.

Armed with views of several doctors of reputed hospitals, she argues that now with advanced technology available to conduct a safe abortion at any stage without any harm to the health of the mother, the rules need to be drafted in a way to suit changing times.
If screaming headlines in newspapers and shrill TV studio debates are a measure of the ferment and outrage around us, then at this very moment we in India are being boiled alive in a cauldron brimming over with Dalit anger.

But thats not quite the case. The Tamil superhero Rajinikanths new film Kabali has just opened to packed houses across the country.

Kashmir, to use a unique Indian expression, is limping back to normalcy after a bout of rioting.

Lawyers hold a protest against BJP leader Dayashankar Singh after his insulting comment about BSP supremo Mayawat

Farmers are celebrating this monsoons bountiful rains.

The chattering classes are, well, chattering away.

In brief, India is trudging along as usual. The much-reported Dalit anger is just another distraction in this country's daily life.

Protests

True, there are street protests at Una in Gujarat, where a group of cow protection vigilantes, among them a Muslim man, assaulted Dalits, the outcastes of Indian society, for skinning a dead cow.

And in Lucknow, the lumpen followers of Indias tallest Dalit leader Mayawati have been hurling choice abuse at the wife and daughter of a (now sacked) BJP leader for using the P word while criticising their dear leader, Behenji.

The anger of politicians and intellectuals on public display is largely faux. The ersatz outrage that is periodically witnessed reaffirms the liberal credentials of our Left-leaning elite, but does little to alleviate the misery of Indias Scheduled Castes who are yet to claw up the economic ladder to comparative prosperity.

When politicians like Mayawati are inseparable from their caste, we can see how ingrained the system still is in Indian lives

There is no mileage in blaming any single person, community, political party, organisation, or even the provincial administration. For all our pretences of social equality, caste and casteism permeate both society and polity.

Manusmriti, a long-forgotten and entirely ignored text of Hindu code, is often targeted as the fountainhead of caste, casteism and caste-based discrimination. That is far from the truth. The Constitution of the Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic of India mandates caste in the most insidious manner; caste-based affirmative policies reinforce casteism and serve as the premise of identity politics.

In fact, barring possibly West Bengal which has had a three-decade-long engagement with upper caste Communists in power, caste shapes identity and defines, ever so narrowly, an individual, family and community.

Sperm banks in Bihar have test-tubes neatly categorised according to the caste of the donor. Educated and skilled IT engineers pushing the frontiers of technology use their services, along with clients from the rural hinterland.

The obsession with caste purity is not necessarily limited to the upper castes, or forward castes as they are dubbed, relegating the others to the stature of backward castes.

This crude definition forms the core of heartland politics; its all perfectly legitimate and politically sanctioned.

The woman who cleans the building where we live belongs to one of the lowest rungs of the listed Scheduled Castes (the Dalits have their own caste hierarchy). She has a brood of children.

Word went around one day that her daughter had eloped - escaped from grinding poverty, really - with a young man who had a job. Our cleaning woman was distraught.

We tried to reason with her, telling her that it means she has one less mouth to feed, that the man had a job and that her daughter would be happy. It was like talking to a wall.

She kept repeating, But hes not from our caste. The runaway girl was dragged back, bundled off to her native village, and forcibly married to a man from our caste.

Experience

This real-life experience recalled an anecdote recounted by Nirad C Chaudhuri in one of his autobiographical writings. One evening there was loud wailing at the house next door, where a well-off Bengali Christian family lived. Nirad Babu asked his wife to check if everything was fine.

She found the women of the family were inconsolable because the only son had decided to marry a woman of his choice. Further inquiries revealed the woman was a Bengali Christian, too.

Then whats your problem, a perplexed Mrs Chaudhuri asked.

Dont you see, she is from a lower caste, retorted the daughter, before breaking into a fresh bout of loud sobbing.

This was long before Independence and the advent of Nehruvian socialism, which was supposed to rid India of its cobwebs of faith, superstition, and other associated social ills.

Seven decades after India woke to freedom as the world slept, the markers of caste and community have grown firmer.

Example

Its not about Hindus alone; Christians, Muslims and Sikhs segregate themselves in sub-communities of upper and lower, forward and backward castes.

Sikhism as a faith is a shining example of egalitarianism and equality. In practice, Jat Sikhs refuse to let in Mazhabi Sikhs.

Christian graveyards have designated areas for Scheduled Caste converts. Muslims place their social ancestry just below their faith; both are non-negotiable.

The near-extinct Brahmos disowned and discarded the caste they were born into, but never opened the doors of their splendid chapels to those born into lower castes.

A slew of laws, from temple entry to prohibition of atrocities, has served little purpose other than breeding new animosities.

If laws were enough deterrent, Meenakshipuram, where 300 Dalit families embraced Islam hoping to escape discrimination and ostracisation in 1981, would not have happened.

We are what we are, as a nation and a people. To remould ourselves and recast our attitudes, we need our inner voice of reason to be awakened. That can be done either through a constitutionally mandated Second Republic, or a massive multi-faith reform movement. There is no third option.

Since neither the first nor the second will happen any time soon, we should give up our false pretences and get real.

For starters, ignore the sanctimonious carping of self-righteous politicians whose political fortunes are linked to keeping caste identities alive and pandering to rank casteism.
They might as well have named it Rajini Day, when they declared July 22 a holiday because Thalaivars new film Kabali was opening.

As an add-on, locking the date permanently on the filmi calendar for a new Rajinikanth release every year might not be a bad idea.

Salman Khan has Eid, Shah Rukh Khan has Diwali, Aamir Khan has Christmas. Akshay Kumar has been eyeing Republic Day for a while.

Star power: Dont be surprised if Rajinis latest film breaks all records created by Bollywood biggies this year

Rajinikanth just snubbed the trend of gunning for big Fridays, and Twitter went ballistic with jokes toasting that fact over most of this past week.

The release of Kabali forced offices in Chennai and Bengaluru to declare a days holiday - Rajini fever was prompting staff to call in sick in any case.

Delirious fans had sworn they would skip the office to catch a first-day, first-show.

The lesson underlined here would be best mouthed with the same sensational tone as a heroic dialogue from a Thalaivar hit: A real superstar doesnt wait for a festive weekend to release his film; any weekend when his film opens becomes a festival.

Such amusing incidences perhaps happen only in India, particularly Tollywood. In an age of PR-managed brand power, though, the rage that Rajini has once again unleashed proves he is possibly the last old-school superstar standing.

We had our version of hysteria in Bollywood by way of Amitabh Bachchan. But while Big B has only grown in stature over the years, he has also chosen to restrict his screen avatar to less frenzied character appearances in crossover flicks such as Piku, Wazir and Te3n lately.

A fan holds a Rajinikanth mask as he leaves the cinema with others after watching the actor's new movie 'Kabali' in Chennai

Rajinis romance with all-out mainstream, however, continues. Never mind the brief slip of Lingaa in-between, or the fact that Kabali is far from his best - his brand of excess glamour continues to thrive.

The frenzy that Rajinis new film brings in its wake has inadvertently created an embarrassing situation for Bollywood Sultan Salman Khan. Kabali, as stated earlier, was originally intended to open on the Eid weekend, which meant its release was clashing with Salmans wrestling saga, Sultan.

Since Sultan had muscled its way into an overwhelming number of multiplex screens, Kabali was far from getting its ideal screen count in the all-India market. Rajini quietly moved Kabali to a release date a fortnight later.

The film, though, threatens to bust every record that all of Bollywood - including Sultan - is likely to set this year.

The fact became clear when advance bookings of Kabali opened on Wednesday. The film outstripped Sultans advance stats, recording sold-out ticket status till Sunday on day one itself.

By Friday, when the film released across 4,000 screens worldwide, fans were happily paying hiked ticket prices worth Rs 500-600 at the cineplexes.

With an estimated 30-crore intake needed for profits, Kabali has reportedly made Rs 40 crore before its release, through promotional investments by various private companies.

Trade experts predict the film could easily cross a Rs 500-crore gross globally.

These are box-office facts and figures every new-age superstar hankers after. At 65 and showing no signs of slowing down, Rajini doesnt seem to have trouble garnering them.

Clearly, it is more than a case of idol worship. Rajinikanths fans also know him as a human who knows the meaning of being humble.

The writer is entertainment editor

Flying in with a spin

Tiger Shroff will put a new spin on the hero in A Flying Jatt

The first trailer of A Flying Jatt has amused many, while a few others are wondering what the deal is about. Tiger Shroff plays a guy with super powers who will save the world from mega forces of evil.

If that sounds hackneyed, here is the twist: He is also a guy who is scared of fire and breaks into a cold sweat at the idea of scaling heights. Thats something new.

The hero who saves the world is meant to be perfect in Hindi commercial cinema. Tigers Flying Jatt is not only out to reverse that definition of machismo - he will also find himself at the butt end of the jokes.

Ironic that such a makeover to the action hero should come through a two-film-old rising actor who was jocularly dismissed as a lipstick-flaunting dandy after his debut film.

Time for a retro rumble

Old-school! Mark Hamill returns as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars VIII

News coming in on Star Wars Episode VIII should thrill lovers of old-school action drama. Although the film, slated for a December 2017 release, will be stuffed with the usual CGI action extravaganza, director Rian Johnson has reportedly fallen back on war classics such as The Bridge On River Kwai and Twelve OClock High for inspiration on the drama quotient.

Johnson, feted director of such films as Looper and The Brother Bloom, has made the cast of Episode VIII watch these classics, which feature military heroes who rallied their forces against all odds to take on mightier enemies.

Call it method preparation with a twist for the actors, but now you know why and how Hollywood delivers that detailed feel.

A sheer slice of spice

If well-begun is half-done, Deepika Padukone must be bringing out the champagne glasses. The trailer of XXX: Return Of Xander Cage has not stopped trending since it was launched earlier this week.

Deepika can hope for a whopping start when the film releases next year. But she needs to watch the hype now.

Deepika needs to manage the hype around her role in XXX: Return Of Xander Cage

Buzz is a good thing only when it is played out with control. Filmy logistic shows many grand projects have stumbled because they failed to follow up hype with ample content.

For Deepika, content in a Vin Diesel starrer will be about her role - particularly, footage. As it is, she has just three minute scenes in the trailer.

It is important for fans to understand she is not Diesels solo heroine. Nina Dobrev, Ruby Rose and Ariadna Gutierrez are there too, and these ladies have been around in Hollywood for a while.

Thats not going to stop you from savouring Deepikas killer avatar.
You've probably heard of pet hotels - those outrageously expensive luxury boarding for your dogs and cats while you're away on holiday. Well now the lunacy has taken another step into the land of outrageousness with a boutique hotel experience created for your motor.

Don't rub your eyes or adjust your screen - that really did say a hotel for cars.

It's the brainchild of a firm operating at Heathrow airport that's set to trial the outrageous five-star car-park gimmick next week as Britons begin to jet off on their summer holidays.

Getting your bonnet down: Cars will be pampered during a week-long car-park hotel trial at Heathrow airport next week

Car parking company Good To Go describes the service as 'a boutique offering for car lovers to take advantage of'.

The seven-day trial period begins on Monday 25th July with three 'rooms' at the disposal to the car-infatuated clientele the concept is aimed at.

Here they are in all their glory: there's the 'Deluxe Junior Suite', which is said to 'give the vehicle extra room'; the 'Beachside Paradise Suite' that is essentially a parking space with half a sandpit lobbed onto it; and a 'Runway Penthouse' providing 'breathtaking' views of planes taking off and landing (...just like thousands of bays at any airport around the world then?)

But the ludicrous service doesn't end there.

Based on a first-come first-served basis, you also get to choose which pampering pack your car receives while it is living the life of automotive luxury in your absence.

The Beachside Paradise Suite where cars can bask in the sand while their owners vacation

The range, according to the firm, includes the following:

Room service - the dedicated Good To Go Parking concierge team will attend to a number of needs, such as buffing headlights and refilling window washer liquid.

Manicure and Pedicure - helps keep your wheels in exceptional condition when you're away with a deep clean incorporating a dust, wash and long lasting polish.

Evening Tuck In  for the serious car enthusiast, go the extra mile and order an Evening Tuck In service, where an extra warm car cover is wrapped around the car, for protection.

Massage  The Good To Go car therapist provides a soapy wash and rinse, focusing on all the tough areas.

Room Scent  invigorate your car in preparation of your return by choosing the room scent service, where immersive fragrances from across the globe will be diffused throughout the vehicle

The week-long trial isn't demanding any extra cash from customers. It's charging the same as its [most expensive] Meet & Greet service, which is 79.99 for a week - working out at 11.43 a day.

If you book through Heathrow's own parking website, you have to pay for 75.50 for the same period in the airport's long-stay car park, or alternatively 160 for short-stay - and that's with live discounts offered on the day we checked.

Based on this comparison, a week of your car parked on a man-made beach seems fairly good value for money.

Whether the boutique service continues after this week depends on feedback received from customers from Monday.

We've seen pet hotels before, with rooms for your cars and dogs featuring tv screens as well as receive a blow dry in this pooch-pampering unit (right), but hotels for your cars in a totally new phenomenon

The Meet & Greet service means you drop the car with the company near to departures and they park your car for you

The official statement announcing the Car Park Hotel trial said cars 'will be given the VIP treatment from the moment they roll into the bespoke suites that have been created to accommodate precious motors as owners desert them for some fun in the sun.'

Malcolm Maclean from Good To Go added: 'A lot of our customers are car fanatics and want to be safe in the knowledge that their vehicle is in the best possible hands when they're away.

'We're all about offering a convenient, hassle free and quality parking service for Heathrow passengers and now we're giving those jetting off on holiday a reason to give their car a holiday too  we can't wait to see the reaction.'

Us too, Malcolm, we can't wait to see what you guys think - so feel free to leave your comments below about the concept.

Parking in one of the 'hotel' bays costs 80 for the week - that's significantly cheaper than Heathrow's own short-stay parking
A Japanese takeover of technology giant ARM could cost Britain millions of pounds in tax each year, City grandees have warned.

Softbank is looking to snap up the Cambridge-based chipmaker in a 24bn deal.

But it is facing fierce opposition from critics who fear the UK would be losing a jewel in its technology crown.

Done Deal? Chancellor Philip Hammond with Stuart Chambers, Chairman of ARM Holdings

The latest to voice fears is former Treasury Secretary and veteran London businessman Lord Myners.

He yesterday told the House of Lords that Softbank needed to guarantee ARM would continue paying taxes in Britain.

According to its last accounts the company paid 75.1m in tax last year and 61.1m the year before.

Although there was no breakdown of which countries received this money, ARM said a large proportion of its products were developed in the UK.

It even praised British tax breaks, which support research and development.

Softbank said there would be no change to ARMs tax structure as a result of the deal. A spokesman said: ARM will continue to pay UK tax on its taxable income as it currently does.

However, there are still fears that the takeover will see profits transferred abroad  meaning the Government could miss out.

It follows the infamous purchase of chocolate maker Cadbury by American firm Kraft, which went back on promises to keep factories open.

Kraft later spun off its chocolate arm as Mondelez International, and this now owns Cadbury.

Mondelez has been using a controversial accounting system in which it pays no corporate tax in Britain. A similar scheme is used by Australian bank Macquarie, known as the vampire kangaroo for its asset-stripping ways. Under its ownership utility company Thames Water has only paid 100,000 in corporation tax since 2006.

Myners said: I completely support the idea of the UK having an industrial strategy. But I would like to know how this strategy fits in with supporting one of our leading technology companies being sold. There are a number of assurances that I think need to be explained about this takeover and about the role of Softbank.

ARM must not be allowed to have the profits from its extremely lucrative licenses go offshore and for it to be a tax haven.

The cross-bench peer also asked in Parliament what was being done to protect ARM from being used to fund debts in other parts of the Softbank empire. As the Mail revealed this week, the giant Japanese conglomerate is responsible for 25bn of debts at US mobile phone firm Sprint.

Sources said Sprint debt was not guaranteed by Softbank as it was paid out of Sprints own funds.
It appears to be proving difficult for any company related to the travel sector to assuage investors fears about terror, Brexit and a whole lot else.

FairFX Group fell back despite a positive trading update yesterday. Holidaymakers were queuing around the block for their currency in the lead up to the EU referendum and they were vindicated when the pound fell the next day.

Business boomed for the currency firms and FairFX said turnover was up 9 per cent year-on-year in the first six months of 2016, led by prepaid cards and international payments.

A website overhaul and new mobile phone app have helped too. The firm recorded a record week around the referendum, which has continued after a brief pause as holidaymakers get used to a lower sterling rate.

But investors still think staycations are going to rule this summer, thanks to a weak pound and terror fears. Shares lost 5.6 per cent, or 1.75p to 29.3p.

That outlook is still affecting airlines, too. Easyjet was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 (down 0.43 per cent, or 29.10 points to 6699.89) yesterday, losing 5.3 per cent, or 60p to 1067p. International Consolidated Airlines was down 3.6 per cent, or 15.1p to 406.6p and Tui fell 2 per cent, or 19p to 930.5p.

William Hill soared 10.6 per cent, or 29.2p to 304.3p after the firms chief executive stepped down. James Henderson had been with the business for 31 years. The company, which was the highest riser on the FTSE 350 in the day, was keen to reassure investors that expectations for the year were unchanged despite the news.

Online electrical retailer AO World marched forward comforted with news that there had been no material impact on sales since the referendum result. Branded sales increased 29 per cent in the first quarter of the year with total UK revenue up 25 per cent. At its AGM some 84pc of shareholders approved the directors remuneration. Shares climbed 9.8 per cent, or 13.2p to 147.6p.

Bisto gravy and Loyd Grossman sauces gave Premier Foods a boost in the 13 weeks to July 2. Group sales were up 1.9 per cent while branded sales climbed 0.8 per cent. International sales climbed 5 per cent led by a strong performance in Australia.

Sales of rice pudding brand Ambrosia grew in the first quarter of the year, led by a new deluxe custard range, and Premier says it will be making a significant investment into its Batchelors range in the second half of the year, launching high protein pots to tap into current consumer preferences.

The group is to increase its total marketing spending from 36m to between 42m and 44m this year. Shares gained 0.5 per cent, or 0.25p to 46.75p.

Meanwhile Nichols, the company which makes Vimto, Sunkist and Levi Roots drinks, said revenues in the first half of the year were up 3.3 per cent compared with a year ago.

The firm, which sells soft drinks in more than 70 countries, said pre-tax profit had increased 9.2 per cent to 11.9m. Nichols is planning a re-launch of Feel Good, a brand of 100 per cent natural drinks it acquired last autumn ready for Christmas trading. Berenberg has a buy rating on the stock. The broker likes that the firm is putting its substantial cash reserves to work, not least with the purchase of the Noisy Drinks Co in January.

Nichols had already bought a 49 per cent stake in the milkshake and slushie business last year. The firm will pay an interim dividend of 9p a share on August 26, an increase of 12.5 per cent from last year. Yet despite the positive outlook, shares fell 1.1 per cent, or 16p to 1429p.

A trio of announcements sent Tristel shares 11.6 per cent, or 13p higher to 125.5p. The firm, which makes infection prevention and contamination control products, started by declaring a special dividend and announced the acquisition of Ashmed, a firm which has distributed some of its products in Australia since 2011, for around 770,000.
Payments and cash machine giant VocaLink is being sold to MasterCard in a deal worth up to 869m.

MasterCard is snapping up a 92.4 per cent stake in VocaLink for 700m, with a further potential 169m due if performance targets are met.

VocaLink runs services for banks, including BACS, Faster Payments and Link cashpoints, as well as mobile app Zapp. It is responsible for about 6trillion of payments and 11bn transactions  more than half of all payments made in the UK.

Making millions: MasterCard is snapping up a 92.4 per cent stake in VocaLink for 700m

It also processes more than 90 per cent of salaries, over 70 per cent of household bills and almost all state benefits.

The firm is owned by a group of 18 banks, including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays.

But in February a review by the Payment Systems Regulator found that innovation and competition were being stifled by the dominance of the large High Street lenders. So they were ordered to sell off VocaLink.

Under this deal the banks will retain a 7.6 per cent stake for at least three years. Taxpayer-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland is one of the largest shareholders, with a 21.4 per cent stake and said it will see a profits boost of around 150m as a result of the sale.

Barclays confirmed it will gain up to 133m for its 15.2 per cent stake, while the Co-operative Bank will get up to 28.3m for its 3.3 per cent shareholding.

Ajay Banga, president and chief executive of MasterCard, said: Were excited about the opportunity to play a bigger role in payments in the UK, a very strategic market for us.

David Yates, chief executive of VocaLink, who will join the MasterCard management committee after the deal, said: We will continue to focus on ensuring that the UK systems perform seamlessly.

At the same time, well invest in further innovation to power competitive payments solutions for consumers and businesses around the globe.
Supermarket giant Sainsburys has been given approval by the UK's competition regulator to proceed with its 1.4billion takeover of Argos owner Home Retail Group.

The Competition and Markets Authority said today it had unconditionally cleared the move after considering whether the deal for Home Retail could bring a substantial lessening of competition.

Home Retail shares jumped higher on the news, topping the FTSE 250 leader board at lunchtime, up 3.6 per cent or 5.4p at 154.7p. But Sainsburys shares on the FTSE 100 index slipped 1.8p lower to 226.2p.

Sainsburys has said that the deal will still need to okayed by the Financial Conduct Authority and given backing by Home Retails shareholders.

Step along: Supermarket giant Sainsburys has been given approval by the UK's competition regulator to proceed with its 1.4billion takeover of Argos owner Home Retail Group

Sainsburys won the battle for Argos in March after having to fend off a last minute counter bid from South African giant Steinhoff International.

Weeks after it had agreed to Sainsburys 1.4billion takeover bid, Home Retail posted an annual pretax loss of 804million after being hit with a one-off 852million 'goodwill impairment charge' linked to Sainsbury's agreed deal.

But last month Argos revealed its best sales performance for two years as a rise in online sales saw total sales increase 2.6 per cent to 868million.

Earlier this month Sainsburys promised to create over 1,000 staff jobs following its 1.4billion purchase of Argos.

In a 188-page prospectus for the Home Retail deal, the supermarket group said that it would continue with the plan despite Britain's vote to leave the European Union last month.

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said today: We are pleased that the CMA has unconditionally cleared our proposed acquisition of Home Retail Group.

The combination of both businesses will create a multi-product, multi-channel proposition with fast delivery networks, giving customers what they want, whenever and wherever they want it.

Yesterday the supermarket chain announced that it would be trialling a new same-day delivery service and pledged to create 900 new jobs. This combined with the acquisition of Argos shows how Sainsburys is attempting to push itself into centre-stage in the online delivery battle.

Sainsburys said that 470 new jobs would be created at its new online fulfilment centre in Eeast London, which is seeking to meet rising demand for online orders in the capital. Another 430 jobs would be created by 2020, it added.

The three stores trialling the new fast online delivery will allow their customers to place an order by 12pm and have their shopping either delivered to them by 6pm or they will be able to pick it up from the store by 4pm on the same day.
Bank customers are being warned to stay vigilant as a new wave of cash machine distraction scams sweeps the country.

In the scam, victims are distracted for just a matter of seconds while taking money out of an ATM, enough time for the fraudsters to steal cash from their account or swap their debit card for a fake.

Barclays released a video on Thursday to help warn customers. The short clip shows a man waiting at a cash point while a woman stands behind him and watches as he enters his PIN number.

She then causes a distraction - in this case she drops some money - and he turns his back from the machine to help her.

Her accomplice, who is standing at the next terminal either takes his cash or - as in the case of the video - puts a fake bank card into the slot.

Sneaky tricks: Criminals work in small groups to distract an cash machine user and steal money

In this video the woman stands behind a bank customer and watches as he enters his PIN number

Her accomplice stands at the next terminal and has a fake bank card in his wallet which he puts into the man's machine when he's not looking

The unwitting victim then turns around, collects his cash and the fake card and leaves.

Finally the woman then tells the PIN code to her accomplice and they can then begin draining his account as they have the real card and the code.

Fraud at cash machines rose by a fifth to 32.7million in the last year alone, according to Financial Fraud Action UK.

One victim who contacted This is Money is Gordon Urquhart, 66, from West Yorkshire, who had 300 swiped from his Santander current account after being distracted by a pair of Romanian scammers at a branch.

Mr Urquhart was withdrawing money from outside the Airedale shopping centre branch of Santander in Keighley last month when he was interrupted by a man and woman.

He told This is Money that the pair kept insisting the machine was out of order and that he should try the machine inside the branch.

He told them to go away, but they refused. He terminated the transaction, withdrew his debit card and went into branch to alert staff.

However, somehow in the commotion, the two thieves managed to withdraw 300, the maximum daily amount, from his account - while he was distracted by one, the other managed to make the transaction in seconds.

The woman causes the distraction and the man turns around to help her

Unfortunately for him her accomplice quickly inserts the fake card into the machine

The victim then unwittingly takes the fake card from the cash point, leaving his real card still in the mahcine

He says the bank called the police and in the meantime arranged for the stolen funds to be reimbursed. Before leaving, he was told he would enter his account within 24 hours.

However, despite numerous requests in the days after, he didn't receive the money back.

When he phoned to question it, he was told by the fraud department that his account of events 'didn't match that of bank employees.'

A few days after the ordeal, he was informed by police that two Romanians had been apprehended. He claims to have been told they had been carrying out a similar scam across the country.

But weeks after the incident, Mr Urquhart was still out of pocket.

He told This is Money: 'As a pensioner, the bank's failure to honour its care of the customer has caused me considerable hardship and stress.

'I feel that its behaviour is even more irresponsible and criminal than those who took the money in the first place and its treatment of me amounts to an emotional violation.'

A Santander spokesman said: 'Distraction fraud is where a customer is distracted by one fraudster, while the other transacts on their account without the customer's knowledge.

'In this instance, the card was in the ATM whilst the second fraudster withdrew the 300.

The woman then tells her accomplice the PIN number as the victim leaves

The pair of thieves are then free to drain his account as they have the PIN number and the card

'We review and investigate fraud and scam cases on an individual basis, as each case is rarely exactly the same.

'In this instance we believe the customer has been a victim of distraction fraud, and did not knowingly disclose his details to a third party.'

He added: 'There was some confusion and inconsistency in the timeline and details of events when Mr Urquhart initially reported the incident, which led to his claim being declined.

'We have now established that Mr Urquhart has been a victim of distraction fraud, have apologised for the confusion and informed him that we will be refunding the money.'

Mr Urquhart is thankful that with This is Money's intervention the money has been returned - but has been left unhappy with the treatment from the bank who he believes would not have refunded him otherwise and has not apologised. He also added that the perpetrators have been handed a two year prison sentence.

Mr Urquhart is not alone  and it appears all high street banks are being targeted, with cases each having a slightly different sneaky twist.

This is Money has also been contacted by a reader who wishes to be simply named as Derek, 67, who has been a Barclays current account customer for 30 years.

He went inside a Barclays branch located on the High Street of Southend-on-Sea, Essex to withdraw cash.

While using a cash machine inside, he was distracted by a man  again with an Eastern European accent  telling him that he had dropped a 5 note on the floor.

He took the note and continued his transaction. While walking to his car a short while afterwards, he was approached by a woman who was shouting at him in broken English.

She claimed the 5 note was hers. In the confusion, Derek handed the note back and drove off. It was only the next day that he discovered his debit card had been nabbed - and 400 stolen from his account.

He believes the woman must have managed to take his card skillfully while he handed back the 5 note - and that the man in the branch clocked his PIN.

Derek informed the branch who replaced the funds he says within minutes, pending an investigation.

The probe confirmed Derek had been defrauded at no fault of his own - and he, unlike Mr Urquhart, was full of praise for the efficiency of his bank.

In another case reported by the Sunday Times earlier in the month, a Lloyds customer aged 80 entered its branch in Leamington Spa in February to take some cash from the ATM.

HOW TO PREVENT DISTRACTION FRAUD When using a cash machine, make sure you shield your PIN. Do not look away from the ATM while using it  common tricks include being told the machine is out of service or that you have dropped something on the floor. If you are distracted, make sure when you take your card it is definitely yours and not a duplicate. Alert branch staff. If you are withdrawing money and are not in a rush, use the counter at your local branch. Remember, these criminals seem to be experienced and can defraud you in lightning quick fashion. If you have entered your PIN and are distracted, it can take seconds for a transaction to be made, as the video above shows. The gangs are also seemingly targeting older customers - so please warn elderly relatives to stay vigilant of this scam. Have you fallen victim to a similar scam? Contact: lee.boyce@thisismoney.co.uk

They put their debit card into the machine, entered the PIN and selected the option to make a withdrawal and see an on-screen balance.

A man said the ATM wasn't working and a piece of paper with writing was thrust between the Lloyds customer's eyes and the screen.

In a flash, 500 was stolen from the account.

The man ran off and the customer - who had banked with Lloyds for 55 years - told staff who promptly contacted the police.

They watched CCTV footage and took the customer to the police station to give a formal statement.

The police allegedly told the customer that an attempted theft had taken place a few miles away at a Lloyds branch in Warwick a short while before.

The customer also claims the police said there had been similar incidents around the country.

However, Lloyds refused to refund the 500 stating that it was theft, not fraud.

It was only when the Sunday Times stepped in that Lloyds changed its tune, refunded the 500 as a 'gesture of goodwill' along with an extra 200 for the way the customer had been treated.

Another case in Grantham saw a 93 year-old man defrauded of 23,000.

He was distracted at a cash machine by three men, as seen in the video below in a similar manner to Derek in the Barclays case above.

They stole his card and had noted his PIN outside a NatWest branch. While he was distracted, a second man swapped his bank card for a fake one.

It was only later that the victim realised he didn't have his own card  and the criminals later used the details to siphon the money from his account.

NatWest confirmed to This is Money that the money was returned to the customer shortly after the incident.
The number of Brits using mobile banking apps to manage their cash has soared, analysis from the banking industry has found.

Mobile banking apps were accessed 11 million times a day (or 7,610 times a minute) in 2015 and around 347 million payments were made using them  up by an astounding 57 and 54 per cent respectively from the previous year.

However, payments using internet banking websites rose just 2 per cent to 417 million, as account logins fell slightly in 2015 to 4.3million a day, from 4.4million a year earlier.

Speedy payments: Mobile banking apps are now being used around 7,610 times a minute

The British Bankers Association, which released the figures in its latest report, attributes the rise in the use of mobile apps in digital banking to the speed in which people can access their information and make transactions.

Meanwhile, research by TSB has found 45 per cent of its customers do their mobile or internet banking while sat in front of the TV. Around 18 per cent do it at work, 17 per cent in bed and 11 per cent on their commute.

Anthony Browne, chief executive of the BBA, said: We are in the midst of a consumer-led revolution in the way we do our day-to-day banking. Customers love the new technology that is allowing us to bank round the clock.'

Robbert Cubbage, UK banking and capital markets leader at accountancy and advisory firm EY, added: Its a challenging but truly transformational time for banking.

'The sector is evolving fast, with almost all areas of financial management becoming simpler, more accessible and more dynamic for consumers. And as the [BBA] report shows, customers are increasingly making use of all the banking channels available to them.'

BBA boss says that we are in the midst of a consumer-led revolution in the way we do our day-to-day banking

Banks are set to continue increasing their investment in digital banking technology.

In June, Barclays became the first UK bank to unveil a banking app which allowed contactless payments for both debit and credit cards via Android phones.

The service allows payments up to 100 with the use of a pin.

Lloyds have also announced that they will invest 1billion in digital banking technology over the three years between 2015 and 2017.

On the money: In June Barclays became the first UK bank to announce contactless payments for both debit and credit cards via Android phones, allowing payments of up to 100 with the use of a pin

RBS has also recently upgraded its own app to let customers apply for a credit card or personal loan or manage their overdraft on their mobile.

Similarly, HSBC has made some major innovations to its phone and internet-only bank First Direct's app in the last few months.

But bank branches still continue to be the biggest losers of the digital revolution. The report highlighted a stark fall in the number of visits to bank branches  42 per cent from 2011s 476 million to 2016s projected 278 million. It is expected that this will continue to fall to 185 million visits in 2021.

Customers have also been keen to pay using contactless, with the annual use of the cards rising by a huge 250 per cent. Around 15million contactless cards were issued by banks last year, jumping by 54 per cent from 2014.
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Torn from her home in the dead of night and forced to marry a Boko Haram fighter, Noor tried to escape their evil clutches six times before she finally made it to safety  only to be accused of being a terrorist spy.

More than a year after she was snatched from her family she is free, but not only does she have the child of the man she was forced to marry, shes an outcast, branded a sympathizer of the very men she fought so hard to escape.

They wanted to beat me up and make me confess, and kill me because I was a Boko Haram wife," she told the MailOnline.

Many of the girls have returned to their families pregnant, or with Boko Haram babies, and have been rejected by both their families and their communities  fearing they now have bad blood.

Rejected: Noor, 17, has been shunned by her own family since escaping Boko Haram. She was abducted and forced to marry a militant who raped her. Now she cradles her six-month-old daughter at an internally displaced people's (IDP) camp

Traumatized: The teenager was accused of being a spy by civilian vigilantes after she came back to safety

Abused: Aisha, 14, is six months pregnant after two years in captivity. She was raped by her Boko Haram 'husband' while held near Sambisa Forrest, where the Chibok girls are also believed to be held

They (local community) thought I was here to spy on them, said Noor, 17, describing the night she escaped to the relative safety of Maiduguri in northern Nigeria.

Thousands of kidnapped schoolgirls have escaped as the Nigerian army is advancing in the northern state of Borno  but instead of being welcomed home with open arms, thousands of Boko Haram wives are being shunned.

Picked up by a local vigilante who recognized her and called her parents, Noor was given the crushing news that her father wanted nothing to do with her or his grandchild.

My father asked him: Why did you bring her? You should have left her in Bama, said Noor monotonously as she stared at the floor and recounted her horrendous ordeal.

Recalling the night she was kidnapped from Bama, her hometown in northeastern Nigeria, the teenager was hiding under the bed with her sister and brothers wife when three men came.

We were so scared when we saw the men coming, Noor said in a low voice. The girls were spotted easily - the sparse room provide little cover.

We were begging them and crying "please let us stay here," but they said "no  your friends are with us and were teaching them and you must join them".'

Wanted: Posters around Maiduguri show the 100 Boko Haram suspects declared wanted by the Nigerian army

Aisha's father was held at gunpoint when she was kidnapped from her home and made to walk for two months through the forest

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 sparked international outcry and the BringBackOurGirls campaign supported by people across the world, including Michelle Obama

As Nigerian soldiers make more progress against Boko Haram militants thousands of girls that have been raped are escaping to safety

The men  dressed in shalwar khameez and standard camouflage, guns draped over their shoulders, marched the girls to prison  a series of gated mansions abandoned by their owners.

For months the girls were forced to recite the Koran by the wives of Boko Haram fighters, and were branded as unbelievers over and over again.

Determined to escape, Noor tried six times to flee.

But each time she was spotted by former neighbours who were either sympathetic to the group, or terrified they would be punished if they could be implicated and complicit with her escape.

Once she got as far as mixing with a crowd walking to Maiduguri, but was recognized and forced back to the prison.

One day the fighters came to the girls and informed them they had been married.

They said we have found suitors for you and we will marry you off. We refused but they said you have to go and if you dont were going to beat you. You have to go  the Imam has married you.

Noor made one last ditch attempt to escape to her fathers house, but was followed and the men came again for her the next day.

Escaped: Amina Ali is the first of the 219 girls kidnapped from Chibok to have escaped. She was rescued in May this year and returned to her family with her four month old baby born in captivity. She returned with her husband, who also claimed to have been kidnapped

Mohammed Hayatu (centre) is said to be a commander known as 'Amir' and said ill health forced him to surrender as they were starving to death following the blocking of Boko Haram's food supply routes by the military'

Suspicion: The returning girls are shunned as they are suspected as being sympathetic to Boko Haram. The group has forced women to attack state capital Maiduguri. Above, a young female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at the town's bus station killing at least 20

When the men (Boko Haram militants) came to the house they said if you dont bring her out well kill you and well take her anyway, she said.

Deflated, and resigned, Noor was sent to live with the Boko Haram militant just a few years older than her near Sambisa Forrest.

If she tried to escape again they she was told, they would kill her.

Noor was taken just kilometres from Chibok, where the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 sparked international outcry and the BringBackOurGirls campaign.

Two months ago, after more than a year in captivity she summoned the strength to try one final escape and finding herself alone, slipped out at dusk, saying she was going to visit her grandmother.

She walked for seven hours  finally reaching her village at 1am.

I felt so safe and happy when I saw my grandmother. I felt like I was at home  I felt so happy not in the village, but as if I was back in Bama. I felt so safe. My grandmother was sleeping, but when she woke up it was if she was dreaming.

After a week with her grandparents, her grandmother sent her to Bama, where she was picked up by the Civilian JTF and taken to Maiduguri.

Noor's mother has left her husband to take care of her traumatized daughter, who had to live with a UNICEF volunteer for her protection when she first moved to the camp.

Shes associated with them  she cannot be trusted, her father tells his wife, who bravely insists on fighting for her daughter.

Now supported by her mother, Noor plays with her baby to distract her and its the only time during the interview that her eyes shine.

Estimates say between 500 and 2,000 women and children (boys and girls) have been snatched since 2012, but UNICEF's Chief of Child Protection in Nigeria Rachel Harvey says the problem now far out strips those figures as Boko Haram retreats from more and more areas

Threat: Without community support, the girls and their children are subjected to verbal and physical abuse and are shunned

UNICEF works with girls on a one on one basis to provide counselling, and also sets up peer networking support, where the girls can come together and talk about their experiences

As Noor waited to be screened at the gates to the internally displaced people's (IDP) camp, huddled with hundreds of other women, her husbands name rang out.

You should have left her in Bama

An informant had told to local JTF that a Boko Haram wife was in their midst and they shouted for her to reveal herself.

Noor did nothing. Then they called her fathers name.

Finally all the women were called out to be searched one by one, all the while telling the women to give her up.

If you dont tell us, she could be a spy and could be carrying weapons and she could kill all of you, they shouted at the crowd before Noor came forward, sure she had nothing to hide.

By this point, the army and UNICEF community volunteers intervened, pleading to treat her gently and she was allowed to continue to wait to be screened.

Estimates say between 500 and 2,000 women and children (boys and girls) have been snatched since 2012, but UNICEF's Chief of Child Protection in Nigeria Rachel Harvey says it is clear the figure is much higher. As Boko Haram retreats from more and more areas, the scale of the abductions is becoming clear.

Despite the international media attention for the Chibok Girls, their case is just the beginning of widespread violence and sexual abuse

Both Noor and Aisha who spoke to MailOnline believe they were being held near Sambisa Forrest  the location widely believed to be where the Chibok girls are being held, and close to where Amina Ali was discovered, the first Chibok girl found by vigilante groups in May

Many of the girls have returned pregnant like Aisha, 14, or with Boko Haram babies, that have been rejected by both their families and their communities  fearing they now have bad blood. It is in stark contrast to the Bring Back Our Girls campaign

Efforts to retrieve the girls and to free up territory is making progress. Increasing numbers are coming back to their families who have largely fled to Maiduguri, the state capital increasingly under attack by militants posing as refugees or worse - women and children brainwashed and strapped with explosive vests.

As thousands of desperate families continue arrive seeking refuge from the violence and from famine, soldiers and the vigilante Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) groups screen the crowds for terrorist infiltrators.

Locals say its easy to identify Boko Haram fighters  they have sores where the straps of their Kalashnikov rifles have dug into their shoulder, or callouses on their trigger finger.

For 14-year-old Aisha, she is traumatised by the memory of these militants holding a gun to her father's head as she was abducted. It was the last time she saw him.

She had tried to keep herself hidden for five months while the so-called Islamic extremists combed Bama for girls to steal, rape and indoctrinate with their version of Islam.

It was not one Aisha recognized.

She was barely a teenager when she was taken and forced to march for two months through the jungle with hundreds of other girls.

Trauma: UNCEF's Child Protection chief Rachel Harvey says working with the families and the communities to help them come to terms with their trauma and understand the girls experiences, as many have been accused of not fighting hard enough to escape

In the IDP camps some people dont want to share services with the girls, and they face verbal and physical abuse. The threat of violence  especially to their children [whose fathers were members of Boko Haram] is a concern for UNICEF. Above, a girl skips at the IDP camp

An estimated 2.1 million Nigerians are internally displaced, of which 800,000 people in the north-east of the country are facing severe food shortages and are in need of immediate assistance

I told myself that I wished I had just died. I didnt know where my parents were, or if they were alive or not, she told MailOnline from the same IDP camp in Maiduguri.

At a certain point I wanted to commit suicide. But I thought if I commit suicide now, what will I tell god? So I decided to face it. Ill face this difficulty and see how God will help me out of this situation, she said with a quiet resolution.

It took two years for her to escape, but which point she was pregnant by her Boko Haram husband, who was selected for her by faceless insurgents while she was imprisoned in a compound with other girls.

Efforts to retrieve the girls, and to free up territory is making progress and more and more are coming back to their families who have mostly fled to Maiduguri, the state capital increasingly under attack by militants posing as refugees

In seven years of conflict with brutal attacks on the civilian population in north-eastern Nigeria, over 20,000 people have been killed and 2.3 million are displaced within the country

Despite Nigeria being Africa's leading oil producer, the country has one of the highest levels of income disparity worldwide and is facing considerable humanitarian challenges, poverty and growing inequalities - only made worse by the brutal conflict

She dreamed up countless ways of escape.

But terrified she would be caught, Aisha couldnt even confide in the other girls.

I wanted to escape, but if you tell anyone this someone will tell on you and tell them you are munafiq (hypocrites) so they will either punish you or kill you, she told MailOnline.

I wanted to commit suicide. But I thought if I kill myself now, what will I tell god? So I decided to face it. Aisha

Aisha was finally rescued after overhearing an elderly woman in the area where she was being held railing against the brutal movement that had ransacked their countryside.

They walked all day to the next village, which was being liberated by the Nigerian army. Desperate, the pair hid themselves among the fleeing villagers and managed to cross to freedom.

Elated that she would finally be able to reunite with her family and fulfill her promise to her father, Aisha keenly asked for news of her parents and her brother, only to be told her father had died.

The last thing my father said to me was that this is the most difficult moments you will face, but you can come back anytime.

He told me: "Youre still welcome in this family," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Noor was threatened by vigilantes after she escaped Boko Haram because they thought she was a spy for the terror group

Now free, Aisha, is eager to get back to school to study Maths and English after her baby is born. She said she had signed up for secondary school before she was kidnapped

Her 'husband' told her that education is forbidden, and people who send their children to school are unbelievers so they must be killed

Both girls who spoke to MailOnline believe they were being held near Sambisa Forrest  the location widely believed to be where the Chibok girls are being held, and also near to where Amina Ali was discovered, the first Chibok girl found by vigilante groups in May this year.

They also report being second and third wives to their husbands, and that they believed they other wives had not been abducted.

Both girls unsurprisingly only want to look forward, and forget the trauma of the last two years.

My mother tells me its my destiny that Im back and its even better now because the worst is behind me, says Noor.

Aisha, is eager to get back to school to study Maths and English once she has her baby in a defiant stand against her captors.

I used to ask him why they call people unbelievers when they pray just like you do, they fast just like you, do so why are they killing them?, she said.

He told me that education is haram, and these people still send their children to schools so they are kafir (unbelievers) so killing them is the best way to stop it.

But when you go to school you get knowledge, and when you get knowledge you can get a job so then I can start taking care of myself and other people around me.

Two years after Noor was snatched from her family she is free, but not only does she have the child of the man she was forced to marry, shes an outcast  branded a sympathizer of the very men she fought so hard to escape

UNICEF has expanded their child protection pilot programme for the girls and works with 800 surviving abused girls across six IDP camps and four community groups, but say the need far outpaces their current resources and capacity

UNICEF works with girls on a one on one basis to provide counselling, and also sets up peer networking support, where the girls can come together and talk about their experiences.

Equally important, says Rachel Harvey, is working with their families and the communities to help them come to terms with their trauma and understand the girls experiences, as many have been accused of not fighting hard enough to escape.

In the IDP camps people dont want to share services with the girls, and they face verbal and physical abuse. The threat of violence  especially to their children [whose fathers were members of Boko Haram] is a very big concern for us,' she told MailOnline.
A 113-year-old New Jersey woman is the new holder of the title of oldest American, but always likes to pretend she's just 102.

Adele Dunlap became the country's oldest person earlier this month following the death of Goldie Michelson, of Worcester, Massachusetts.

She is also the 10th oldest person in the world, according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which tracks supercentenarians, people 110 or older.

In this July 19, 2016, photo, Adele Dunlap, 113, talks with Susan Dempster, the Activities Director at Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown

Dunlap lives at the Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown, where she first arrived a few months before turning 100.

Asked how it feels to be the oldest American, she told The Record newspaper: 'I don't feel any different.'

Asked what it means to be an American, she said: 'Well, I've never been anything else.'

Dunlap taught school before marrying and settling down to raise the couple's three children. Her husband worked for an insurance company and died in 1963.

She doesn't give an explanation for her longevity, and her 86-year-old son, Earl, is also at a loss to credit any particular thing for his mother's long life.

'It's hard to say,' Earl Dunlap said. 'She never went out jogging or anything like that. She's not really thin, but she never weighed more than 140 pounds. She smoked, and when my father had his first heart attack, they both stopped. I think she ate anything she wanted.'

Susannah Mushatt Jones (pictured) had been the oldest person in the world and the last American to have lived in the 19th century before she died this year

Despite the fact she was born December 12, 1902, in Newark, she often gives a younger age when asked how old she is.

'Last year, when we were telling her it was her 113th birthday, she said, "No, no, no, I'm only 102,"' recalled Susan Dempster, the care center's activities director.

Dempster said Dunlap is a passive participant in daily activities and socializes minimally, but looks forward to Girl Scouts' coming to sing Christmas carols.
An Oklahoma woman is recovering from third-degree burns to her thigh caused by hot pennies that spilled on the driver's seat in her SUV on a scorching summer day.

Melissa Sechrist, 48, says a cup of loose change tipped over and landed onto her seat in her Ford Explorer in Moore, Oklahoma, last week, and the scalding-hot coins came into contact with her leg.

She tried icing the wound, but she ended up going to a hospital on Sunday after the searing pain didn't subside and her flesh started to blister.

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Burned: Melissa Sechrist, 48, is recovering from third-degree burns to her thigh caused by hot pennies

Pennies from hell: A cup of loose change fell on the driver's seat in Sechrist's Ford Explorer

When the copper coins made contact with the woman's skin, they caused third-degree burns (left and right)

Shocking: Sechrist says a doctor who treated her wounds was left agape by their sight

'Excruciating pain. It was just horrible pain I've never felt before in my life,' she told channel KWTV.

The woman recalled that when a doctor lifted her shorts to inspect her skin, the sight of the wound left her agape.

The coins caused third-degree burns on the back of Sechrist's thigh. Days later, it is still painful for the woman to walk, sit or lie down because of the injury.

Sechrist has been prescribed antibiotics to prevent an infection, a cream for the burns and a pain medication.

According to the National Weather Service, the heat index was 104 degrees on the day Sechrist suffered the burns.

Scorching-hot: The heat index was 104 degrees on the day Sechrist suffered the burns

Sechrist now wants to get the message out to people to always check the seats for change when getting into a car on a hot day.
MailOnline is seeking to recruit the cream of world journalism to become the next generation of leaders at the worlds biggest and fastest-growing English language newspaper website.

We are looking for a select group of talented and ambitious journalists to train and work with the best digital editors and executives in the industry at the MailOnline Editors Programme.

Participants will be expected to work both in a classroom environment and alongside our homepage editors worldwide and learn the skills that have made MailOnline one of the worlds most successful and pioneering online media outlets with over 225million monthly unique visitors.

This is truly a world-class training opportunity for the best talent in journalism.

We are looking for a select group of talented and ambitious journalists to train and work with the best digital editors and executives in the industry at the MailOnline Editors Programme

After an intensive six-month course, successful candidates will be placed in a senior position at one of our global network of bureaus, currently in London, New York, Los Angeles and Sydney  or in other geographies as we continue to expand.

The course is open to journalists from anywhere in the world, with an excellent grasp of English.

But it is NOT for beginners.

Candidates who are selected for one of the coveted positions will have a strong journalism background and previous experience at a leading digital news outlet, national news agency, national or big city newspaper, major magazine or broadcast radio or television.

After an intensive six-month course, successful candidates will be placed in a senior position at one of our global network of bureaus, currently in London, New York, LA and Sydney

ARE YOU THIRSTY FOR THE PACE OF A 24-HOUR DIGITAL NEWS OPERATION? What we are looking for A keen eye and innate understanding for producing engaging content that combines words, images and video

Ability to thrive in a fast-paced digital environment

A willingness to learn and an open mind towards all things digital

Geographic mobility and ability to travel

Flexible approach to shift patterns

Boundless enthusiasm and capacity for hard work Core responsibilities Direct, develop and maintain the quality and output of rolling, 24-hour, digital news with an eye for news, features and viral content

Identify the local and global news of the hour, manage breaking news and oversee the production process

Pull together engaging stories, featuring multi-visual elements  pictures, video, words and graphics Your application should include Your career ambitions and achievements to date

What sets you apart from other applicants

What do you think is the greatest challenge in the digital journalism space?

Your motivation to join the largest English language newspaper website in the world Applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality. Apply here rmacdonald@mailonline.co.uk Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only successful candidates will be contacted. Advertisement
Donald Trumps former consultant Sam Nunberg has accused the Republican presidential nominee of violating federal law in the latest installment of their ongoing court battle.

Trump reportedly believes the former aide was also leaking confidential information to reporters, which he said was a violation of a nondisclosure agreement Nunberg signed.

Nunberg was fired from his position as a senior campaign consultant last year after racist posts were discovered on his Facebook account.

He blasted Trump for demanding $10 million in damages for the alleged breach, saying the presidential nominee had called his opponents child molesters and losers.

On Tuesday, Nunberg accused Trump of violating federal election law by by commingling Trump Organization funds with campaign funds, and claimed to a judge that Trump was silencing him through arbitration.

A spokesperson for Trump stated on Thursday: 'We cannot comment as we have not yet been served with any amended court filing furnished on behalf of Mr. Numberg.'

'That being said, we firmly stand by our position that Mr. Nunberg continues to look for free publicity using categorically false claims.'

Donald Trumps former consultant Sam Nunberg has accused the presidential nominee of violating Federal Election Campaign Law

Nunberg says Trump violated the law by co-mingling corporate resources and failing to file the costs and expenditures that the Trump Campaign has already incurred in May and June

He was accused of leaking a story about an alleged affair between ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign press secretary, Hope Hicks, to the NY Post.

Nunberg denied being the source of the leak, and no evidence of an affair has surfaced.

In May, Trump began the arbitration process against Nunberg and demanded $10 million damages for the alleged nondisclosure agreement breach.

Alan Garten, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at the Trump Organization, dismissed Nunberg's claims, saying: 'There is no merit to the allegations. In fact, there is no merit to just about anything Sam says.

'Sam is a disgruntled former consultant to the campaign who has a history of making false, reckless and outrageous statements in flagrant violation of his contractual obligations in order to try and get his name in the press and stay relevant.

'That is one of a multitude of reasons why he is was let go and the reason the campaign has commenced arbitration proceedings against him.'

The campaign is known to require staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements a condition of employment.

Nunberg said Trump was attempting to silence him in an effort to cover up the alleged staff affair.

He claimed the the presidential candidate started bullying him after he publicly announced support for Sen. Ted Cruz after his firing, but before the Texas senator dropped out of the race.

Nunberg filed documents earlier this month in New York attempting to block the private arbitration proceedings Trump started in May.

On July 19, Nunberg headed back to court to accuse Trump of violating election law and make another bid to quash the arbitration proceedings.

He said he never signed a written agreement with the Trump Campaign requiring disputes to be decided outside of the court system by an arbitrator.

He also claims he agreed to a standstill agreement with Trump in mid-June in an attempt to resolve their issues privately.

Nunberg's claim of illegally commingled funds involves the accusation that the Trump campaign failed to file reports with the government detailing costs and expenditures that it incurred in May and June.

Trump has accused Nunberg of leaking the story about an alleged affair between ex-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski (right), and campaign press secretary, Hope Hicks (left), to the NY Post. The pair were seen near each other on July 18 at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland

Nunberg believes Trump's $10 million arbitration is a result of his Cruz endorsement, and a reaction to allegedly derogatory things he has said about his former boss.

But Trump, he said, is a hypocrite for objecting to derisive names applied to him, when Trump has described his political opponents as losers, crooked, child molesters and liars.'

In Nunbergs most recent court filing, he accused Trump of trying to silence him 'in a misguided attempt to cover up media coverage of an apparent affair' between Lewandowski and Hicks.

The document, which references 'retaliatory' arbitration by which Nunberg does not want to be bound, referenced an explosive story broken by the New York Post's Page Six about a sidewalk spat between Lewandowski and Hicks.

Nunberg's filing made clear that the Trump camp accused him of being the source for the leak.

The story was about a 'screaming match' between the two top Trump insiders on 61st street near the presidential candidate's Trump Tower campaign headquarters.

The Post reported about the fight in May. It quoted an unnamed eyewitness saying, 'Hope was screaming at Corey, 'I am done with you!' It was ugly, she was doubled over with her fists clenched. He stood there looking shocked with his hands on his head.'

The Trump campaign sent out a statement from Trump general counsel Alan Garten last week accusing Nunberg of seeking 'free publicity.

As is standard practice for all major businesses, organizations and other entities dealing with proprietary information, Mr. Trump requires employees to sign and adhere to strict confidentiality agreements, according to the statement.

In Nunbergs last court filing, he accused Trump of trying to silence him 'in a misguided attempt to cover up media coverage of an apparent affair' between Lewandowski and Hicks (pictured above with head of security Keith Schiller)

Nunberg's filing made clear that the Trump camp accused him of being the source for the leak about a 'screaming match' between Hicks and Lewandowski (pictured in May)

When the agreements are not adhered to he will enforce them to the full extent of the law, and Mr. Trumps litigation track record on such matters is outstanding. With regard to Mr. Nunberg, this agreement specifically calls for arbitration, and Mr. Nunberg is simply looking for free publicity using categorically false claims,' Garten continued.

Nunberg's court filing blasted Trump for 'attempting to bring a frivolous and retaliatory arbitration proceeding against me essentially to punish me and shut me up,' the Post reported earlier this month.

Nunberg's filing referenced the explosive story, but claimedTrump 'misguidedly' identifies him as the source, and alleges a 'sordid' affair. Nunberg denies being the source for the story.

Nunberg has told Daily Mail Online that he 'believes' Lewandowski got him fired last year by digging into his Facebook account and leaking the embarrassing contents to a reporter.

He allegedly penned racially charged posts on Facebook, including one calling civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton's daughter a 'N*****!' and one that called President Obama a 'Socialist Marxist Islamo Fascist Nazi Appeaser. Nunberg denies writing the posts.

Lewandowski told CNN in August, after Nunberg was being sacked in reference to the posts: They were offensive and they do not reflect Mr. Trump's position and we take them very seriously.

'If it determined that Mr. Nunberg made these statements then he will no longer be part of the campaign.'

As recently as this past March, Nunberg was still publicly praising Trump. 'I learned a lot from him,' Nunberg, told the Daily Caller. 'He's an extremely nice and wonderful guy.'

One exhibit in the case is a Politico story where Nunberg states that his former boss 'does not have a coherent political ideology' and explaining his decision to throw his support to Cruz. Nunberg reportedly said he stopped supporting Trump 'Last fall, when he did not have any idea what the nuclear triad is' in a debate ... I do not see a candidate who takes these issues seriously,' he said.
The State Department has issued an urgent warning to Americans about a possible attack in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The US embassy in Riyadh has 'received reports of a potential, imminent threat against US citizens in areas of Jeddah frequented by Westerners, such as markets, restaurants and shopping malls, among others'.

The security message, published online and on Twitter, did not give further details but reiterated existing guidance for visitors to Saudi Arabia.

There are thought to be around 10,000 American expats working in Saudi Arabia, not including 5,000 US military personnel.

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This warning about the threat in Jeddah went up last night on the State Department's website

The warning was tweeted by the State Department, which reminded Americans of the dangers of traveling in Saudi Arabia and to avoid crowds if possible

The warning tells American citizens: 'Remember to vary your routes and times in all instances when traveling in the Kingdom.

'All US citizens are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings, and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country.'

Earlier this month there were three bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia, including one in Jeddah, which CIA director John Brennan said bore the hallmarks of ISIS.

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led international coalition battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Since March 2015 the country has also led a coalition fighting Shi'ite rebels in Yemen.

Saudi authorities have stepped up the arrests of radical Islamists in the last year and in 2015 announced they had dismantled an ISIS-linked group, detaining hundreds of suspects, mainly Saudis.

Saudi Arabia's top cleric, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, has declared ISIS to be an 'enemy of Islam'.

Jeddah, pictured, is on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia and is home to several thousand American expats

US government personnel and their families are already restricted from traveling within 50 miles of the Yemeni border, and to the cities of Jizan and Najran, without permission because of the security situation there.
Socialite and former reality TV star Tinsley Mortimer has signed an agreement with authorities in Palm Beach County, Florida, where they promise not to prosecute a trespassing charge against her - if she stays away from her ex-boyfriend and out of his house and his family's estate, Daily Mail Online has exclusively learned.

Palm Beach County Judge Marni Bryson is set to approve the deal during a hearing this morning in downtown West Palm Beach.

Mortimer, who is with her mother in Newport, Rhode Island, isn't expected to appear and neither is her lawyer, former Orlando Judge Belvin Perry.

SCROLL DOWN TO LISTEN TO THE 911 CALL

Former reality TV star Tinsley Mortimer signed an agreement in which Palm Beach, Florida, authorities agree not not to press trespassing charges if she stays away from her ex-boyfriend billionaire heir Alexander 'Nico' Fanjul

Tinsley told police she had been assaulted by her on-again off-again boyfriend Alexander Fanjul on numerous occasions. This photo was taken by police on December 31, 2013

Perry is best known as the judge who presided over the infamous Casey Anthony murder trial five years ago.

Young mom Casey was found not guilty in the killing of her two-year-old daughter Caylee. The retired judge didn't respond to a call and an email for comment.

The paperwork shows the charge against Mortimer will be officially dismissed at a hearing inside the county jail on December 30.

Fanjul (pictured), the heir to a billion-dollar sugar fortune, has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Mortimer

Until then, according to the paper she signed, Mortimer can have no contact with her 30-year-old billionaire heir ex-boyfriend Alexander 'Nico' Fanjul 'by any means directly or indirectly'.

She is also banned from visiting his El Dorado Drive home in Palm Beach as well as the mansion belonging to his parents, sugar baron Alexander Fanjul and his wife Nicole on nearby Chateau Drive.

Additionally, until her court date, Mortimer cannot be arrested, get cited for a traffic infraction or be convicted of any new crime.

If she fails to abide by the conditions, according to the document, the office of the Palm Beach County State Attorney will continue its prosecution of the trespass rap, which could send Mortimer to the county jail for a year.

Mortimer didn't return calls for comment. But a source close to the socialite who asked not to be named said Mortimer continues to claim her innocence.

'It's just that she wanted to put that abusive relationship and everything that remind her of it behind her forever,' the source said.

Mortimer, 40, was arrested in the tiny billionaires' town of Palm Beach on April 16 after police found her crying hysterically in Fanjul's front yard after calling 911.

The former Dior brand ambassador and fashionista called to ask police to help her retrieve her purse inside the residence, where the 30-year-old was allegedly holed up with a new girlfriend.

Instead Mortimer ended up being charged with a misdemeanor trespassing because, according to the police report, she had been warned to stay away from the property in October.

'After multiple attempts to calm (Mortimer) down from screaming,' the report reads, she was handcuffed and placed under arrest.

The source said Mortimer refused to sign a previous version of the deferred prosecution agreement.

'They wanted her to undergo alcohol treatment and anger management counseling,' the source said. 'There's no way she would've signed that.'

Mortimer, 40, was arrested in Palm Beach on April 16 after police found her crying hysterically in Fanjul's front yard after calling 911

Traditionally, victims sign off on deferred prosecution agreements. Fanjul's lawyer didn't return a call and an email asking how Fanjul and his family feel about Mortimer's deal.

The news of Mortimer's slated court appearance comes after a close friend told this website that the socialite has been reduced to a 'zombie-like state of suffering' by Fanjul.

Mortimer is also house-hunting in New York and is in talks with a fashion magazine over a new job as she attempts to put her past - and Palm Beach - behind her.

According to the friend, the move - set to take place this summer - is also partially the result of her fear of the Fanjul family, which at one point, left her convinced her life was in danger.

'She didn't want [news of her arrest] to go public - she was terrified about what Nico's family might do after it came out,' the source said.

'That was when she started seeing a therapist. The therapist specializes in treating women who have been physically and emotionally abused.

'Tinsley was terrified, afraid for her life - she almost died after sustaining one of the head injuries mentioned in one of the police reports. It was really severe.

'The injuries that have been reported are just the tip of the iceberg. She suffered years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of a very wealthy and powerful man who really used his money and power to control her.'

Fanjul, the heir to a billion-dollar sugar fortune, has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Mortimer but his mother Nicole, 64, dismissed Mortimer's abuse claims as 'hearsay'.

Ivanka Trump and Tinsley attended the Young Fellows of The Frick Collection Annual Gala in 2008. Mortimer has largely avoided the limelight ever since moving to Palm Beach in 2012 shortly after her divorce from husband Robert Mortimer

'It's all hearsay, and all [Mortimer's] black-and-blue stuff is what she's done to herself or what somebody else has done to her,' Nicole told The New York Post shortly after Mortimer's arrest on April 9.

'She hides in the bushes, she hides in her car, she puts cigarettes out in his face, did anybody ever tell you that?' she said. 'This makes Fatal Attraction look like a cartoon. She's insane. This is a result of a woman scorned.'

She added: 'She's going up against us and she's going down.'

But Mortimer's friends have hit back, with one telling Daily Mail Online: 'The one thing that was really scary for all of us was when Nico's mother told the New York Post that Tinsley caused the injuries to herself - despite the fact that a neighbor witnessed Nico smash Tinsley's head into a pavement.

'Her [Nicole's] public threat to Tinsley made it clear that she [Mortimer] was right to be scared to death.'

The full details of the abusive relationship between Mortimer and Fanjul first became public in April when the socialite was arrested for trespassing at her former boyfriend's home.

After an incident on December 31, 2013, Tinsley shows the bruises on her leg and arm to officers. According to the police report she said she was 'fearful of Fanjul' but slurred her words and, according to the report, 'appeared intoxicated'

The socialite also showed the bruising on her backside. She had told police that didn't want to press charges of battery against Fanjul. 'She made several references to how powerful his family is,' said one of the officers

Dramatic though the scene was, it was just one of six incidents that resulted in police attention during Mortimer and Fanjul's three-year on/off relationship.

On Christmas Day 2013, Mortimer was left in need of hospital treatment and was discovered with a black eye, multiple bruises and cuts to the back of her head following an altercation with Fanjul and his 28-year-old brother Oliver who prefers to be known as 'Redy'.

Further incidents included a call out a week later after Fanjul accused Mortimer of trespassing and another in June 2014 during which the sugar heir attempted to smother his girlfriend with a pillow and keyed her car.

The following August, Fanjul was seen slamming Mortimer's head into a pavement outside his home by neighbor Richard Spehr, 54, although she declined to press charges on that occasion.

Last October, Mortimer was once again collared for trespassing and, on that occasion, was handed a criminal citation.

According to friends, however, the six incidents were just the 'tip of the iceberg' with Fanjul and Mortimer frequently taking trips to other cities while she recovered from her injuries.

A friend of Mortimer's said: 'They would go to places like Fort Lauderdale where they wouldn't be seen because Nico was keeping it very private.

'I guess Tinsley was also afraid to be seen with all of the bruises and things like that.'

However, a police report uncovered in Fort Lauderdale last month reveals that Mortimer and Fanjul's battles were not confined to Palm Beach.

The report, dating from June 2014, notes that the two were thrown out of the luxurious W Hotel after 'causing a disturbance' in the establishment's bar.

When police responded to a report of assault on New Year's Eve 2013 Fanjul was drunk and was slurring his words so badly that 'he was difficult to understand,' according to the police report. Police photographed scratches and bruises on his face

Fanjul showed police a large bruise on the right side of his chest. Eventually, Mortimer was issued with a trespass warning and put in a taxi home

Fanjul also had some bruising on his chest and what looked like scratch marks covered his back

Later, by now ensconced in the equally lavish Ritz Carlton Hotel, the pair had another fight  this time resulting in a police call out.

When officers arrived, Mortimer had a swollen lip, an abrasion on her cheek and a scratch on her hand, while the 'highly intoxicated' Fanjul had scratches on his face.

According to the report, Mortimer said Fanjul had attacked her but once again refused to press charges.

Now, with Mortimer planning her return to New York, friends hope she will finally make a fresh start and cut ties with Fanjul for good.

'There's no way she would talk to him now,' a source told Daily Mail Online. 'Especially having gone through this. When it [the abuse] went public, it forced her to realize what was really going on.

'I know that one of the things that the therapist had mentioned to her is that it's best for her to start her life over in a sense so it is part of her plan to get out of Palm Beach.

'She's also still a little afraid after his mother threatened her so publicly so it's a bit scary to still live in the neighborhood.'

The source added: 'She [Mortimer] said she never wants to talk to him [Fanjul] or see him again so we're hopeful that she stays safe, gets away and starts her life over.
The man said to be behind an attack on a Sydney police station overnight is allegedly involved in an ongoing domestic dispute with his brother and elderly mother.

Peter Zhurawel, 61, set himself and his car alight before driving into the car park door of Merrylands Police station in Sydney's west.

Mr Zhurawel is allegedly embroiled in a domestic dispute involving his brother, Mick, and their their 93-year-old mother.

Mick Zhurawel, who is due to appear in court on Friday, told Daily Mail Australia his brother's car bomb attack had left him stunned.

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A man has driven a car (pictured) filled with gas bottles into a Sydney police station carpark on Thursday night in an attempted terror attack

Pictured is Mr Zhurawel's home in Sydney's west with rubbish piled up out the front

Neighbour Julia Di Salvia told Today Peter Zhurawel had been caring for his elderly mother for 30 years

Mick Zhurawel told Daily Mail Australia: 'It's a bit of a shock what happened'. He declined to comment further.

Mick is due to appear in Fairfield Court on Friday relating to an apprehended violence order.

Peter, 61, remains in Royal North Shore Hospital in a stable condition, a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

A neighbour of Mr Zhurawel who has known the man for 30 years told Daily Mail Australia she used to call him 'pumpkin Pete' because he had a pumpkin patch in his front yard.

'He's been through a lot of pressure with his family, his mother is his life', Julia Di Salvia said.

She said Mr Zhurawel had been his mother's primary carer for the past three decades and she had recently told him to stop looking after her.

More than a dozen plain-clothes and uniformed officers were at the home on Thursday

Police have seized a computer hard drive and gas bottles from the home

Pictured is the car Mr Zhurawek drove into Merrylands police station on Thursday night with gas bottles inside

Tradesmen were seen fixing the door at the underground car park on Friday

Ms Di Salvia said she had spoken to Mr Zhurawel on Thursday afternoon about 5pm and he was distraught and in tears.

'I had never seen him crying before', she said.

The front yard of Mr Zhurawel's house is scattered with rubbish - empty boxes, old newspapers and catalogues and various other containers.

Police have reportedly seized a computer hard drive and gas bottles from the home.

More than a dozen officers were at the scene and some were seen rummaging through the debris in the front yard, while others crawled into a roof cavity and hauled even more boxes from up there.

On Thursday evening about 7pm Mr Zhurawel allegedly set himself and the interior of his car on fire before driving it into roller doors of the underground carpark of Merrylands police station.

He is said to have initially tried to drive the white Hyundai Getz into the front of the police station, and claimed he had a bomb.

The station had been recently fortified after receiving threats including letters threatening attacks on 'non-Muslims' and pictures of ISIS fighters holding severed heads

The incident, which occurred about 7pm, was described by police as 'a very deliberate attack'

TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN THE ATTACK 7pm: Police notice a car sitting in the driveway of the Merrylands police station and approached the car The driver, in his 60s, did not speak to officers, but ignited himself and the interior of the car He then drove the car down the driveway into roller doors leading to police carpark Officers put out the flames and dragged the man out of the car, who was unconscious Police found gas bottles and accelerant in the car 8pm: The man was taken into custody and transferred to Royal North Shore Hospital with serious injuries Memorial Avenue in Merrylands is still closed to the public Advertisement

The station had been recently fortified after receiving threats including letters threatening attacks on 'non-Muslims' and pictures of ISIS fighters holding severed heads.

The incident, which occurred about 7pm, was described by police as 'a very deliberate attack'.

The man, who was arrested about 8pm, is known to police but is not believed to have any known links to a terrorist organisation.

He is said to have a history of mental illness.

Assistant NSW Police commissioner Denis Clifford said officers noticed a car sitting in the driveway of the police station about 7pm, and thought it was odd so they approached the car.

He said the man did not speak to officers, but ignited the interior of the vehicle and himself and drove it down the driveway where it hit a roller door.

Officers were able to put out the flames and drag the man out of the car, who was unconscious at the time.

Assistant NSW Police commissioner Dennis Clifford said officers noticed a car sitting in the driveway of the police station about 7pm, and thought it was odd so they approached the car

Officers from the Rescue and Bomb Disposal Unit are examining the vehicle used in the incident

'There was accelerant still in the car when police approached, petrol perhaps but I can't confirm it was gas,' Assistant Commissioner Clifford said.

He said there was nothing to indicate the incident was related to terrorism, but it was a concern considering recent events worldwide, and police were 'keeping an open mind'.

'Its very concerning, this is a serious incident. The police reacted very bravely and its just a miracle that no one else was seriously injured,' he said.

'Once the station is clear it will be a crime scene, but we will try and reopen the station as quickly as we can.'

While no police officers or members of the public were injured during the incident, Mr Clifford said he could understand the concerns of local residents.

'It's a busy area. It was late night shopping. There were a lot of people around,' he said.

Mr Clifford urged witnesses to come forward.

'Particularly if there's any mobile phone footage, as is often the case these days, that may assist us to start to put some pieces together,' he said.

Assistant NSW Police Commissioner Dennis Clifford (pictured) said the man did not speak, but ignited the interior of the vehicle and himself and drove it down the driveway where it hit a roller door. Officers were able to put out the flames and drag the man out of the car

A witness, who did not want to be named, said several police squads and emergency crews surrounded the building and numerous people saw a figure being taken away from the scene on a stretcher.

A woman, who also didn't want to be named, told Daily Mail Australia that her and her five-year-old daughter live across the street.

'It's very surprising for the area, I've never really seen anything dangerous happen here,' she said.

She added that the incident was very worrying.

A witness said they heard 'a big bang, a big loud sound like someone screaming'.

Another witness said: 'Police were yelling 'Get out of the car' but the man refused to get out of the car, then we heard taser shots'.

Other witness said police had blocked off Merrylands Road, and there was a strong burning smell from the area.

Merrylands Century 21 real estate chief executive Rafi Younes said: 'All the roads are blocked so the police wouldn't let anybody go close.

'We've been told to close the shops and leave the area.'

Mr Younes and his colleague Leonardo De La Vega said they had been told by witnesses there was subsequently an explosion, but it was unclear what caused it.

'So they had riot police and ambulance outside the street,' Mr De La Vega said.

'You could smell something was burning, you could smell it burning.'
Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic announced he was sending soldiers to stop people crossing its borders illegally

Serbia has sent soldiers to protect its borders as a fresh surge of people attempt to make their way across the continent.

Thousands of mostly economic migrants have arrived in the country as fears grow that Europe is about to face a dangerous new chapter in the crisis.

Hungary yesterday claimed those determined to get to Western Europe are increasingly turning to violence as they make their way through the Balkans.

Two-hundred migrants became involved in a brawl at one of the country's camps at the weekend, beating each other with pieces of smashed up furniture.

The warnings come as volatility in Turkey has raised concerns that thousands could start crossing to the Greek islands again this summer.

Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic announced he was sending teams of soldiers and police officers to stop people crossing its borders illegally and to crackdown on smuggling gangs.

Officials believe around 2,700 migrants are currently in the country, but estimate over 85 per cent are from Afghanistan and Pakistan, with just a small number of Syrians.

The number of migrants in Serbia has been growing since Hungary, its northern neighbour, tightened its border controls earlier this month.

Mr Vuvic said those crossing illegally 'will be severely punished' to make it clear that the country is not willing to become a 'car park' for migrants the EU does not want.

'We have a situation where people from Afghanistan and Pakistan who do not have any chance of being admitted to the EU are coming through our territory trying to get there,' he said.

'Serbia is forced to protect its national interests and clearly show that it cannot be a car park for Afgans and Pakistanis that no one else in Europe wants.'

Hungary yesterday warned about violence amongst migrants after groups of Algerian, Syrians and Pakistanis turned on each other at a camp in Kiskunhalas, near the Serbian border.

The number of migrants in Serbia has been growing since Hungary, its northern neighbour, tightened its border controls earlier this month. Pictured: Women in the makeshift refugee camp near Horgos, Serbia

A girl walks by a border fence in the makeshift refugee camp near the Horgos border crossing into Hungary

Around 20 people fought with bare fists, before the situation escalated with around 200 using legs of broken furniture.

The Hungarian prime minister's chief security advisor, Gyorgy Bakondi, yesterday said: 'An increasing number of migrants arriving to Serbia through Macedonia and Bulgaria are approaching the Hungarian border, and they are determined to continue their journey to Western Europe at any price, even by using violence.

'While in the first quarter of the year some 4,500 migrants attempted to cross Hungary's border, in the second quarter this figure amounted to 10,500, so an increasing trend can be observed.

'The fact that migrants are committing more and more violent acts poses a significant threat to public security: a number of incidents occurred in Hungary's reception centres.'

Hungarian officials have started sending back anyone caught on their territory within five miles of a 110-mile razor wire fence erected on the border.
Up to 7,400 migrants working in key public services cannot speak English well enough to do their jobs, a Government study has found.

The report, conducted for the Cabinet Office, found that thousands of people dealing with the public in hospitals, local councils, schools and other public sector jobs are unable to speak the basic English needed to perform their jobs safely.

It calls for staff to be given intensive English lessons in order to improve their performance.

The report found that thousands of people in public sector jobs are unable to speak the basic English needed to perform their jobs safely (file photo)

In guidance for employers, the Cabinet Office says those who refuse or fail to improve their English should be 'redeployed' to roles where they no longer have to deal with the public.

Under new powers in the Immigration Act 2016 they can ultimately be sacked if they are unable or unwilling to work on their language skills.

The study says that dealing with the problem is likely to cost the taxpayer up to 7.5 million, but suggests this will be offset through benefits in terms of better service provision and fewer complaints and compensation claims for errors.

Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer said it was vital to reassure the public 'that there is not a language barrier that might prevent them from contacting or using public services or inadvertently put them at risk'.

He added: 'The Government believes that the public should expect that all those with whom they interact, within the sphere of public services, have the language abilities required to respond to their needs.'

Last year's Tory manifesto pledged to bring in a new law requiring all public sector workers dealing directly with the public to speak good English.

Anecdotal cases of people suffering poor service from workers who cannot speak English have been reported for years.

In a notorious case in 2008 patient David Gray was given a lethal dose of painkiller by Dr Daniel Ubani, a German national who was able to register to work in the UK without passing a language test.

But yesterday's report is the first time officials have attempted to quantify the scale of the problem.

Using census data, officials estimated there are likely to be at least 5,500 staff dealing with the public who 'may potentially not meet the standards of fluent English necessary for the sufficient performance of their role'.

However, they warned that the precise figure is uncertain and could be as high as 7,400.

In guidance for employers, the Cabinet Office says those who refuse or fail to improve their English should be 'redeployed' to roles where they no longer have to deal with the public (file photo)

Many public sector workers are already required to take English tests, including doctors, dentists, midwives, nurses, pharmacists and teachers.

But the report says the provisions do not cover an array of other jobs, such as emergency call handlers, care assistants, Jobcentre staff, classroom assistants and many local authority roles.

And it warns that the situation could be far worse in the 'unregulated' adult care sector 'where a significant proportion of the workforce do not speak English as a first language, and employers are increasingly struggling to fill recruitment gaps'.

In new guidance issued yesterday, the Cabinet Office said public sector employers are now obliged by law to ensure that staff dealing with the public are able to speak English well enough to do their jobs.

It acknowledges that some staff, such as street cleaners and IT staff may be excused the test as they have few dealings with the public.

But those staff dealing regularly with the public will now have to prove they can speak and understand good English, either by demonstrating it in the workplace, sitting a test or providing a qualification.
Levi Shirley, from Arvada, Colorado, has died after stepping on a landmine in Syria - seven months after he joined Kurdish forces to fight ISIS

An American man who joined anti-ISIS forces in Syria to fight the Islamic terrorists has been killed on the front line.

Levi Shirley, from Arvada, Colorado, died after he stepped on a landmine in the northern city of Manbij - a city coalition forces are trying to take back from the jihadis.

The 24-year-old vigilante left his family home in January to fight 'injustices' alongside the Kurdish troops.

He had dreamed of being a Marine, like his Vietnam veteran father, but couldn't enlist because of his poor eyesight.

The forces still barred him from signing up even after he'd had surgery to fix the problem.

His mother, Susan Shirley, told NBC News: 'It's about as bad as you might think. It's every parent's worst nightmare.

She added that her son was 'soft-hearted' and wanted to 'fight injustice'.

Shirley was nicknamed Heval Agir - meaning 'The Fire Friend' - by his fellow fighters.

He first went to the Middle East in February 2015, but returned in June.

Shortly after getting home, he told his family he would never go back.

But in January he said he was going to train as an EMT in Texas, and his parents never heard from him again.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), who he fought with, posted a tribute to Shirley on Facebook.

They wrote: 'Hevale Agir was known for his discipline and sense of responsibility. His style and personality were a source of strength, motivation, and morale for his friends.

'In the fight, Hevale Agir was known and respected as a brave and altruistic person.

'We can say that Martyr Agir strenghtend our brotherhood and fought for the freedom of an oppressed people.

The 24-year-old vigilante (pictured in the northwestern Syrian town of Tal Tamr in April 2015) left his family home in January to fight 'injustices' alongside the Kurdish troops

Shirley was nicknamed Heval Agir - meaning 'friend' - by his fellow fighters. He first went to the Middle East in February 2015, but returned in June. He is pictured on the ground in April 2015

'The sacrifice of our comrade Agir has enriched the democratic revolution being fought in Rojava, His name has been written in the history of our brotherhood.

'We offer our condolences to the family of Martyr Agir Servan and to all the Martyr's families.

Macer Gifford, a British man who left his job to fight ISIS, paid tribute to the man he described as a friend.

He said: 'Agir had a determination to see you smile! He was always cracking jokes and doing impressions of the people around him.

'A few months ago - to boost morale - he did a comedy routine for a couple of Kurdish units on the frontline. He had people in stitches, to say he was loved would be a understatement.

'He came for no pay. For no public recognition or medals. He came knowing that he risked death and terrible injury at the hands of a brutal and remorseless enemy.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said he was known for his discipline and sense of responsibility

'Even with all this considered, it was in Agir's nature to risk all that to protect the innocent people that suffer the most.

'When Americans hear about his sacrifice, I hope it gives them great pride. We are one human race that shares one planet.

'It's about time people realised that liberty and justice aren't just words, they're a birth right. Agir knew that the West could have done more to stop ISIS years ago.

'He felt compelled to make a difference so he led by example and paid the ultimate price.'

'Rest in peace old friend, you died a Kurdish and American hero.'

Shirley's family still lives in Arvada. They say bringing his body back home is going to be very 'complicated' due to the fact that he died in Syria.
As of mid-July, there have been 1,306 cases of Zika in the United States

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus and can be spread by mosquito bites or sex and causes birth defects

All Zika cases in Florida so far involved people who have travelled abroad

If confirmed, Florida infections would mark arrival of homegrown virus

A second case of Zika virus possibly acquired locally is being investigated in Florida, just days after the first potential case was announced in Miami, officials said Thursday.

Until now, there have been hundreds of cases of Zika virus in Florida but all involved people who were infected while traveling to areas where the mosquito-borne virus is spreading.

If confirmed, the Florida infections would mark the arrival of the homegrown virus on the US continent for the first time.

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'The Florida Department of Health announced that it is conducting an epidemiological investigation into a possible non-travel related case of Zika virus in Broward County,' said a statement

Zika can be spread by mosquito bites or by sexual contact, and can cause birth defects if women are infected while pregnant.

'The Florida Department of Health announced that it is conducting an epidemiological investigation into a possible non-travel related case of Zika virus in Broward County,' said a statement, referring to the county just north of Miami, which includes Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

Health officials are working with 'mosquito control to ensure trapping, reduction and prevention activities are conducted in the area of investigation', the department added.

The department urged people living in the area and visiting to respond to requests for blood and urine samples.

'These results will help the department determine the number of people affected,' it said.

Regarding the possible non-travel case of Zika in Miami-Dade county, a health department spokesman said the investigation is ongoing, and that sexual transmission 'related to travel has not been ruled out'.

Few other details have been released about that possible case, which was first announced Tuesday. The Zika infection has been confirmed, but the mode of transmission has not.

As of Thursday, mosquitoes in the Miami area have tested negative for Zika, the spokesman added.

The forearm of a public health technician is seen covered with sterile female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes as part of research to prevent the spread of Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases at the entomology department of the Ministry of Public Health, in Guatemala City

HOW MIAMI IS TESTING MOSQUITOES AND SPRAYING THE COUNTY The team that tests Miami's mosquitoes for Zika has been in overdrive this week. Sharon Isern and Scott Michael run the lab at Florida Gulf Coast University. Their operation dates back years, examining mosquitoes from all over the state for dengue fever, yellow fever, and other infections. But since a woman was diagnosed with Zika without traveling abroad, officials fear the virus may now have reached the continental United States. The woman, a Miami resident, was diagnosed last week, and the news emerged on Wednesday. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the woman contracted the virus through sex. However, the fact of an investigation suggests that was not a probable cause. Consequently, Drs Isern and Michael have been urged to speed up their tests. 'It can take several days or a week but the process can be sped up if necessary, if there is an investigation, for example,' Dr Michael told Daily Mail Online. This week, they have been receiving increased pressure from Miami-Dade County officials to turn around results. The BG Sentinal trap is a white fabric collapsible cylinder with a black circular hole in the middle of it. HOW DO THEY CATCH THEM? There are at least 45 species of mosquito in Miami-Dade. Only two are known to carry the Zika virus: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Unlike most species, the Aedes are not attracted to salt and light - they operate during the daytime. It means the mosquito control team's usual methods - luring mosquitoes using the CDC's light traps - are relatively fruitless. Instead, officials have to use a trap containing carbon dioxide and dry ice, which attracts Aedes mosquitoes. The BG Sentinal trap is a white fabric collapsible cylinder with a black circular hole in the middle of it. The trap mimics convection currents created by a human body, releasing carbon dioxide out of the white fabric. It also releases non-toxic substances found on the human body (ammonia, lactic acid, and caproic acid). The mosquitoes are attracted to this movement. Once they get close, ideally, they are sucked into the black hole and trapped. Control teams then gather up the trapped mosquitoes, put them into vials, and ship them to labs - such as that of Drs Isern and Michael. The process is hampered somewhat by the simultaneous attempt to prevent an outbreak by spraying risky areas. The BG Sentinal trap is a white fabric collapsible cylinder with a black circular hole in the middle of it. The trap mimics convection currents created by a human body, releasing carbon dioxide out of the white fabric. It also releases non-toxic substances found on the human body (ammonia, lactic acid, and caproic acid). Once the Miami patient was diagnosed, mosquito control teams were carted into her neighborhood to blitz the area. 'They immediately go into a suspected area and spray,' Dr Michael explained. 'So that cuts down the number of mosquitoes you're going to get from that area, and we don't know how many of the mosquitoes we're getting are from there.' Health authorities in Utah are investigating a unique case of Zika found in a person who had been caring for a relative who had an unusually high level of the virus in his blood. Pictured: tests in Salt Lake City on Tuesday HOW DO THEY TEST THEM? To test the mosquitoes they squash them into a pulp then extract the genome of the virus. This is done through a process called reverse-transcription to identify the genome so they can amplify it and look for Zika. They have yet to find a Zika-infected mosquito from the Miami-Dade area. WHAT ELSE ARE THEY DOING TO PREVENT ZIKA IN MIAMI? Fogging trucks drove through the patient's neighborhood on Thursday morning. Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control Operations Manager Chalmers Vasquez said inspectors are trying to get into every backyard to spray and eliminate breeding sites. Health officials said lab tests confirmed the patient's infection, and there's no apparent connection to travel outside the country. Miami-Dade County has the most confirmed Zika infections in Florida, but all have involved international travel. Vasquez says no mosquitoes collected in the county so far have tested positive for Zika. Advertisement

Zika virus has spread through dozens of countries in Latin America. One way it could arrive in the United States is if a person who was infected with Zika while traveling elsewhere comes into the country and is bitten by a mosquito, which then bears Zika and bites another person, spreading the infection.

As of mid-July, there have been 1,306 cases of Zika in the continental United States, nearly all involving people who had traveled to areas in Latin America and the Caribbean basin that are affected by the current outbreak.

Fourteen of the cases were transmitted by sexual contact between those who had traveled and their US-based partners.

Earlier this week, a case emerged in Utah in which a caregiver appeared to have been infected by an elderly patient, though the exact route of transmission remains unknown.

Zika is a concern because if a pregnant woman is infected, she faces a higher risk of bearing a child with microcephaly, in which the skull and brain are malformed and smaller than normal.

President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Florida Governor Rick Scott on Wednesday and said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be sending another $5.6 million to Florida for Zika funding, in addition to $2million in federal funds the southern state has already received.
Ministers have repeatedly misled Parliament about the use of British-made cluster bombs by Saudi Arabian forces in Yemen, the Foreign Office admitted last night.

In an unprecedented move, Tobias Ellwood, a minister at the department, issued corrections to six statements on the Yemen crisis dating back almost six months.

MPs and campaigners have been pressing the Government over the use by Saudi Arabia of British weapons and expertise in its bloody incursion in neighbouring Yemen.

Tobias Ellwood, a minister at the Foreign Office, issued corrections to six statements on the Yemen crisis dating back almost six months

In statements dating back to February, ministers have said that we have assessed that there has not been a breach of international humanitarian law by the coalition.

But yesterday Mr Ellwood admitted that they should have said we have been unable to assess that there has been a breach of international humanitarian law by the Saudi-led coalition.

The written answer also said it was not for the UK Government to assess the Saudi bombing operation.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said it was an outrage that it had been slipped out on the final day of the parliamentary sitting along with a torrent of other bad news.

Sneaking this change out as part of 30 statements on the last day is a disgrace, Mr Farron said.

Having spent all year claiming to have made assessments on whether Saudi Arabia is breaking international humanitarian law in Yemen, we now see that no such assessment has been made, and that MPs have been misled on this issue.

This sordid affair tarnishes Britains standing in the world.

Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since 2014 when Shia rebels, known as the Houthis, toppled the Saudi-backed government.

The Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa, are now under attack from a Saudi-led coalition. Critics have claimed for months that the UKs close military links to Riyadh make it complicit in the horrors of the conflict.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said it was an outrage that the news had been slipped out on the final day of the parliamentary sitting

A United Nations report last month found that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for killing more than 500 children in its year-long campaign of airstrikes.

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty UKs arms programme director, said: Its staggering that such a shameful admission is made at the eleventh hour on the last day of parliament.

The U-turn is a major embarrassment for newly appointed Chancellor Philip Hammond, who, as Foreign Secretary, was adamant that there was no question of abuses.

In January, he said: I regularly review the situation with my own advisers and have discussed it on numerous occasions with my Saudi counterpart.

Our judgement is that there is no evidence that international humanitarian law has been breached, but we shall continue to review the situation regularly.
Zoo officials were were left surprised after a lion at a Texas zoo recently gave birth to a male cub with rare white fur.

The newest lion club at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin was born on Friday afternoon and is the second recorded white lion cub birth in a North American zoo, the zoo said in a press release.

Gordon Henley, the zoo's director, said they had been watching the cub's mother, the zoo's female African lion Adia, as they awaited the birth of the cub for the last 110 days.

He said they could have never predicted the six-day-old cub would have white fur, which is uncommon.

Zoo officials were were left surprised after a lion at Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, Texas recently gave birth to a male cub with rare white fur (pictured)

Gordon Henley, the zoo's director, said they had been watching the cub's mother, the zoo's female African lion Adia, as they awaited the birth of the cub for the last 110 days

'With this being her second go around we were expecting maybe two or three, and then they told me it was white,' Henley told KLTV.

'I just couldn't believe it, but it sure is white, it looks like a bunch of cotton balls all rolled up.'

Celia Falzone, the zoo's curator, added that they had no idea what to expect because both of the cub's parents are 'normal colored lions.'

'White coloring is a natural mutation, it does occur in the wild, but it's a recessive genetic trait,' she explained.

She added: 'It's important for people to know that this does not mean the cub is albino, it does have pigmentation around its mouth and eyes.'

Falzone also noted there are no health issues associated with the white color.

The newest lion club was born on Friday afternoon and is the second recorded white lion cub birth in a North American zoo, the zoo said

The cub opened its eyes on Wednesday and was given its first medical exam on Thursday during which gender was determined and it was weighed at 4.5 pounds

According to the Lion Species Survival Plan, the only other white lion cub born in a North American zoo ended up changing back to a normal color when it was about six months old, the zoo said.

'Will this lion remain white? Only time will tell, but everyone at the Ellen Trout Zoo is thrilled at the birth and are happy that mother and cub appear to be doing so well,' the zoo said.

The new lion cub is the second Adia has given birth to, as she previously gave birth to a cub named Sango four years ago.

Sango had to be hand reared because she failed to produce milk, but the zoo said this time everything has gone well and the mother and new cub appear to be doing fine.

'So far she is doing everything perfect. She's nursing, cleaning, and everything you are supposed to do,' Falzone told Fox News.

The new lion cub is the second Adia has given birth to, as she previously gave birth to a cub named Sango four years ago

The mother's other cub had to be hand reared because she failed to produce milk, but the zoo said this time everything has gone well and the mother and new cub appear to be doing fine

Since this will be her first time rearing a cub, zoo employees have been careful around the mother to ensure she is not distracted from her maternal duties, the zoo said.

The cub opened its eyes on Wednesday and was given its first medical exam on Thursday during which gender was determined and it was weighed at 4.5 pounds.

In the meantime, zoo keepers are being careful to limit human interaction with the cub as the zoo works to ensure has the appropriate time to bond with her baby.

At this time, a date for when the cub will be introduced to the public has not been released.

'I think it's pretty exciting that we had the birth, and that its white, but I hope people are patient about when we let them see it in captivity, we will get the cub out when its ready,' Falzone said.
A quick-thinking diver who came face to face with a monster great white shark jabbed it with his unloaded spear gun when the man-eater came within striking distance.

Brett Livingstone was diving with friends Jamie McCully, Anthony Sercombe and Kurt Zietlow when they spotted the four-metre predator lurking in the depths 2km off Queenslands Cape Moreton.

After circling around peacefully the shark changed its course and made a beeline for Mr Levingston, who poked it with his spear in the nick of time.

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Brett Livingstone was spearfishing with friends when a monster Great White shark appeared from the depths

Jamie McCully told Daily Mail Australia the friends were surfacing from about 10 metres when the shark appeared behind him.

I turned around and it was right there. Its a very intimidating predator to see up close.

Things took a terrifying turn when the shark changed its course and headed straight for Mr Levingston, who was looking in the other direction.

'I didn't see it coming' said Mr Levingston. 'I only realised when I heard Jamie calling out what was going on. Once I saw it it was fight or flight.'

He said he suspects it would have given him an 'inquisitive bite' if he didn't thrust the spear into his nose.

'They don't have any arms, so that's how they do it.'

After circling around peacefully the shark changed its course and made a beeline for Mr Levingston, who poked it with his spear

Mr Livingston (pictured) only noticed the man-eater because his friends screamed out to him in the nick of time

Jamie McCully watched the shark circling peacefully before changing its course and heading straight for Mr Livingstone

When the creature descended back to the depths, the mates decided to cut their losses and get out of the water.

'We were pretty stoked, I was squealing like a little girl at the time. It was pretty unforgettable.'
An American has reportedly been detained in Iran for criticizing its human rights record.

Robin Shahini, who lives in San Diego, left for Iran on May 25 to see his mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, according to his girlfriend, but she said that he was taken into custody on July 11.

The girlfriend, who asked not to be identified because she has family in Iran and fears for their safety, told Shahini's sister that she worries he was detained because of his comments on Facebook criticizing Iran's human rights record.

Robin Shahini during his International Security and Conflict Resolution San Diego State University graduation ceremony in San Diego

Shahini, pictured above in Facebook photos, had a plane ticket to return to San Diego on July 25 and had planned to start classes on August 22

Shahini, 46, graduated in May from San Diego State University with a degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that it is looking into the reports.

At a news conference Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry declined to comment on the detention.

The Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force charged with protecting the Islamic Republic, increasingly has targeted those with Western ties since the nuclear deal in which Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Officials at the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A prisoner swap in January between Iran and the U.S. freed Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans.

Shahini, 46, graduated in May from San Diego State University with a degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution.

Video Courtesy KGTV

He had been accepted to SDSU's graduate program in Homeland Security, but he has not registered for classes yet, according to university officials.

The girlfriend said she communicated with Shahini on July 10 and was expecting to hear back the next day to help him get his paperwork into the university. She grew concerned after not hearing from him.

She eventually reached his family who told him Iranian intelligence officials came to their home in Gordon, Iran, and took him away.

Authorities searched the home and took his personal belongings, she said. The family has not talked to or seen him since.

He had a plane ticket to return to San Diego on July 25 and had planned to start classes on August 22, the girlfriend said.

Shahini left Iran in 1998 and has lived in San Diego for 16 years. he is seen above in Facebook photos

Authorities searched Shahini's home in iran and took his personal belongings. The family has not talked to or seen him since

'He's majoring in international security, so his passion involves peace and justice, human rights,' the girlfriend said.

'He's open about being a human rights advocate. But it's not only limited to Iran, he's also posted about other countries too.'

Shahini left Iran in 1998 and has lived in San Diego for 16 years.

His close friend, Denera Radoonanan in New York, said he was not politically active in Iran. 'I really don't know what could have caused this,' she said.

The Revolutionary Guard (pictured), a paramilitary force charged with protecting the Islamic Republic, increasingly has targeted those with Western ties since the nuclear deal in which Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions

The day Shahini's family says he was detained on July 11, Iran announced the indictments of a Lebanese man and three dual nationals. The four were arrested in connection with separate cases over the past year.

Family members and representatives of the four say they did nothing wrong. All four have ties to Britain, Canada and the United States. The charges they face remain unclear.

Iran's official judiciary news agency Mizan quoted Tehran's prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, as also saying another seven people faced charges related to the unrest that surrounded the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.
A pregnant woman stopped to avoid collision, then they dragged her out of the car and drove off with her Nissan

swerved to the other side of the road

The tyres were punctured and the car

Four men have gone on a terrifying crime spree in Victoria stealing the cars of an elderly man and a heavily pregnant woman in less than an hour.

The cold-hearted attack took place on Wednesday evening near Geelong in Victoria and the criminals are still on the run.

The first attack took place around 10.30 pm on Wednesday when the group of men broke into the home of a 72-year-old man in Queenscliff and stole his car keys.

The 30-year-old woman's car was found destoryed and burnt out north of Geelong be a passerby

The man who found the womans car saw it explode and then called police to report it

Police believe the man in this photo may be linked to the stealing of the two cars and urging people in the public to come forward with information

The man told Seven that he was working in his office when he heard a noise and came out to find his car missing.

'You feel as if theyve intruded into your life. Its a terrible feeling but Im lucky I didnt get stabbed. I didnt fight them, I didnt find them,' the victim said.

He quickly called the police to report the car stolen.

The car was seen on the Bellarine Higway and police officers set up spikes in a bid to stop and catch the criminals.

After the tyres were punctured, the vehicle crossed over to the wrong side of the road where a 30-year-old woman, who was 31 weeks pregnant, pulled over to avoid collision.

'When she saw the car on her side of the road coming towards her, she did the right thing and pulled over,' said Senior Sergeant Terry Hay.

'The people in the stolen car saw the opportunity and pulled up along side her and manhandled her out of the car,' he said.

The womans Nissan was found north of Geelong by a passerby who witnessed the vehicle exploding and called police.

Police believe the men may be responsible for two other thefts in the region recently.

'The first vehicle, a white 2006 Subaru Station wagon with registration WEZ 728, was stolen from a Torquay residence overnight on 19 July.

'The second vehicle, a black Ford Territory with registration ZKO 762, was stolen from a Lara residence about 3.45pm on 20 July,' a media release stated.

Police have released footage of a man with the Ford Territory stealing petrol from a service station and urge anyone who recognises the him to come forward.

The group of four criminals made their first attack in Queenscliff before heading towards Geelong on the Bellarine Highway
A shocking 60,000 people detained or suspended from their jobs.

A three-month state of emergency which empowers him and his government to issue new laws without having to consult parliament.

Since the botched coup against his Islamist regime last Friday, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lost no time in ruthlessly cracking down on his enemies.

The terrifying scale of his response  and the way he has used it to boost his already autocratic powers  has given rise to suggestions that he might have faked the coup, in which 265 people died, to give him the excuse to grab more power.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pictured yesterday at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, has lost no time in ruthlessly cracking down on his enemies since the attempted coup against him last week

This is unlikely, not least because so many of his close friends were killed. But that doesnt mean Erdogan hasnt taken advantage of the situation to rid his country of anyone who disagrees with him, and mould it  and its culture  in line with his own despotic vision.

It is not just that 6,000 military personnel, with more than two dozen generals awaiting trial, have been arrested  or that 9,000 police officers have been sacked and 3,000 judges suspended. An astonishing 15,000 school teachers have also lost their jobs, as well as 1,500 deans of Turkish universities.

How, exactly, could the countrys educationalists and members of the judiciary have been involved in a coup attempt cooked up by army and air force officers?

Undesirables

The regime says all these people are supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric and Erdogan opponent who lives in exile in the United States and who, Erdogan claims, was behind the plot.

Its true Gulen has a secretive society of Gulenist supporters throughout Turkey, and that it recruits high-flyers to its liberal Muslim cause through a global network of private schools.

But the Turkish government has yet to come up with any evidence that Gulen was behind the coup attempt.

The truth is that Erdogan is using his new emergency measures to effectively purge Turkey of all those he considers undesirables. To this end, he is warning that he could bring back the death penalty.

Some have gone so far as to compare his purges to Chairman Maos Cultural Revolution in the Sixties and Seventies in China, in which Mao decided to eliminate impure bourgeois and capitalist elements of Chinese society and boost his own purified Communist ideology through violent class struggle.

Millions died in Chairman Maos revolution and, however chilling Erdogans crackdown seems, there seems no prospect yet of such carnage in Turkey.

A more fitting parallel would be the manner in which, in February 1933, Hitler used an arson attack on the Reichstag building (where parliament sits) by a lone Dutch Communist not only to proscribe the German Communist Party, which held 17 per cent of the seats in that assembly, but to suspend habeas corpus (preventing unlawful detention), as well as the freedom of expression, the right of people to gather in public, and the right to keep your post and telecommunications private.

Members of a Turkish SWAT team watch people take selfies at Taksim Square, in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday

Suitably purged, parliament then passed the Enabling Act granting Hitler dictatorial powers. A year later, Hitler had 85 opponents in the Nazi Party murdered by the SS in the Night of the Long Knives.

While declaiming the attack, Hitler announced that he gave the order to cauterise down to the raw flesh the ulcers of this poisoning of the wells in our domestic life.

How chillingly similar that sounds to Erdogans vow this week to clean all state institutions of the virus of supporters of his enemy Fethullah Gulen.

No wonder some commentators are calling the events of last weekend Erdogans Reichstag Fire moment.

Power

Stalin, too, used an attack on his regime in 1934 to launch a diabolical purge which went on until the outbreak of World War II. In that year an assassin shot the boss of the Leningrad Communist Party, Sergei Kirov, in the back of the head outside his office.

Since Kirov was both charismatic and popular, Stalin saw him as a threat and was not actually displeased at this turn of events. Some think that he organised the murder himself. Whatever the case, in the wake of it, he had 1,548,366 people arrested, of whom 681,692 were shot, at a rate of a thousand a day, with the survivors disappearing into the vast network of concentration camps called the Gulag.

Many of them died in places scattered across the frozen wastes of the Arctic and Siberia. At their trials, victims confessed every imaginary crime, having been beaten with chair legs and iron bars  often on Stalins instructions  before being shot in a cellar or dumped in one of many mass graves that are still being discovered.

Pro-government supporters protest on the road leading to Istanbul's Bosporus Bridge last night

Tourists walk in front of a picture of Turkish President Erdogan, in Istanbul, yesterday

Of course, Erdogans actions do not in any way compare to such atrocities. But my point is that, just like Hitler and Stalin, he is clearly using an attack on his regime ruthlessly to consolidate and boost his own power.

He may be retaining outward forms of democracy  his Justice and Development Party supporters were only too happy to respond to his call to act as a mobocracy during the coup attempt and challenge the tanks and soldiers on the streets.

But there is a steady pattern here of a clampdown. In December 2013 many journalists, judges, lawyers and policemen were sacked or imprisoned when they tried to investigate colossal corruption scandals that included Erdogans son.

He has already used the terrorist threats from both ISIS (which is ensconced in several Turkish cities bordering Syria) and from the Marxist Kurdish PKK to crush the moderate pro-Kurdish party that denied him an absolute majority in recent elections.

None of this bodes well for Turkeys future. The country is the sole example of a democratically elected Islamist government  and it is failing before our eyes. If Erdogan acts as a dictator then the deal under which the EU pays Turkey to staunch the flow of migrants will surely collapse, leading to countless more of them heading for Europe.

Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hold Turkish flags at Bosphorus Bridge during a demonstration against the failed coup in Istanbul last night

Momentous

Turkey has the second largest army in Nato, but its military effectiveness against ISIS is surely now in doubt after the coup attempt and the huge number of arrests  although it is not even clear Erdogan is serious about combating the terrorist organisation which, of course, hates the Kurds almost as much as he does.

And we should not forget that Nato membership entails subscription to democratic values and the rule of law.

Should Erdogan dispense with these, as he shows every sign of doing, there are fears he will turn to Vladimir Putin, with whom relations have suddenly thawed even though Turkey shot down a Russian combat jet over Syria recently.

While the likelihood of Turkey ever joining the EU is remote, the defection of the Nato power that guards Europes south-eastern flank would be a major victory for Putin. Not least because the main Nato base at Incirlik houses 50 of Natos B-61 gravity nuclear bombs that are aimed at Russia.
A friend of a woman who was one of three people killed in a horror crash in New Zealand's North Island on Monday says she can't get her dead face out of her mind after she was called to identify her at the morgue.

Arshpreet Sidhu, a 23-year-old Indian woman working in New Zealand, was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle when it lost control in treacherous winter conditions and smashed into a 16-tonne truck.

Her housemate and friend Joban Sidhu was called to identify her after the crash.

Arshpreet Sidhu (right) was one of three people killed in a horror crash in New Zealand's North Island on Monday. Her friend Joban Sidhu (left) was forced to identify her after the crash

'Police came around and confirmed it was her in the accident. I didn't believe it, I was hoping it wasn't her and must have been someone else,' she told stuff.co.nz.

'She died of internal injuries  it was hard to see her cold face there. I can't get her dead face out of my mind.'

On Wednesday, she posted a heartfelt tribute to Sidhu on Facebook in which she described the harrowing visit to identify her good friend.

'Walking towards the morgue hoping that the body I am identifying won't be yours,' she wrote.

'Seeing you lying down on the bed cold and calm hoping that you will just get up and say I was just joking Di.

'If we would have known what was going to happen, we would never let you go.

'You were a great sister (not through blood relation but related by heart ) and an amazing friend. A beautiful person with a beautiful heart and great soul who cared about the whole world.'

The crash in the central North Island killed two others - Monalisa Alofaifo, 20, who was sitting in the back seat beside Sidhu, and 21-year-old Indian student Twinkle Ansal, who was in the front passenger's seat.

Joban Sidhu (right) posted a heartfelt tribute to Arshpreet (left) on Facebook after the crash

Driver Ajay Rana Rajput, 21, also from India, is in a critical condition Waikato Hospital.

Sidhu, who lived in Auckland, was returning from a job interview in Christchurch when she missed her connecting flight in Wellington last Wednesday, the New Zealand Herald reported.

She was invited to stay a few days with friends and decided to drive back to Auckland with them.

Friends of the two other crash victims have also been remembered on social media.

Alofaifo's sister Cathy posted to Facebook: 'My beautiful angel up above you definitely went 'all the waaaaay up. The pain, regrets and burden I'll forever hold inside me kills me every time I hear and see your beautiful name. You were selfless my baby and have such an amazing soul!'

Friends of Twinkle Ansal described him as sociable, intelligent and caring.

'He was a hardworking young man and he's also a type of person that anyone would [want] to be friends with because he knows how to joke around and keep you company,' one told the New Zealand Herald.

Monalisa Alofaifo, a 20-year-old Samoan woman with New Zealand residency, was also killed in the crash
The controversial investigations website accused of peddling false allegations of VIP child sex abuse closed abruptly yesterday.

Exaro, which had close links to Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, has been shut following widespread criticism of its journalism standards and claims it destroyed the reputations of innocent people and profited from publishing bogus allegations.

The unregulated website came to prominence in 2014 after publishing claims by a suspected serial fantasist known as Nick.

Exaro, which had close links to Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured), has been shut following widespread criticism of its journalism standards and claims it destroyed the reputations of innocent people

He alleged he witnessed three murders by a VIP paedophile gang that included former PM Edward Heath and former Home Secretary Leon Brittan.

Under pressure from Exaro, Scotland Yard wasted millions of pounds investigating. Its inquiry, Operation Midland, closed in March, admitting there was no evidence to support Nicks allegations.

News of Exaros demise was confirmed by Tim Pendry, a director of its parent company.

Last night there were calls for it to face an investigation into claims it was part of a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Exaro had faced an uncertain future since the collapse of Operation Midland, after the Daily Mail exposed the shambolic Met investigation.
Former PM expected to trim list to ensure as many as possible get through

Blocked: Some of the names on David Cameron's farewell honours list have been rejected by the Cabinet Office - the first post - over fears that they are unsuitable

David Camerons honours list has reportedly been blocked by mandarins over ethical concerns.

The former prime minister was expected to nominate a string of former aides and friends for knighthoods and peerages in his farewell honours list, risking charges of cronyism.

But, according to The Times, some of the names have not passed the first post  the Cabinet Office  over fears that they were unsuitable.

Concerns over those nominated for peerages were also raised by the Lords Appointments Commission which has to vet those being elevated to the Upper Chamber.

The list may have to be trimmed to ensure Mr Cameron gets as many of his appointments through as possible.

A source close to the honours process told the Times newspaper that Mr Cameron had put forward some names but some of them did not even make it past the first hurdle, the Cabinet Office.

The source added: Camerons surviving team are having a series of difficult discussions with them to try to get through as many as possible.

Some of those who are expected to receive peerages or honours include Ed Llewellyn, his former chief of staff, Camilla Cavendish, the head of his policy unit, and Gabby Bertin, his respected director of external communications. Mr Llewellyn was also tipped to become Britains ambassador to France to replace Sir Julian King, who is heading for Brussels to be the new Commissioner to the EU after Lord Hill of Oareford quit after the Brexit vote. Friends of George Osborne, the Chancellor, are also said to have been blocked.

Another source told The Times: Given Cameron is well aware of what is involved, it should come as no surprise that they are running into difficulties and it is pretty brazen of him to have tried in the first place.

One Whitehall source is reported as saying that the Cabinet Office might show some flexibility but that the overall situation was difficult.

Mr Cameron has previously managed to reward a number of friends and aides with peerages.

On the list? Respected director of external communications Gabby Bertin and chief of staff Ed Llewellyn were widely expected to receive peerages or honours

The former gatekeeper at Number 10, Kate Fall, the former policy chief, James OShaughnessy and political secretary, Stephen Gilbert, were appointed to the Lords last autumn.

It is understood that special advisers who feature on the list are not likely to be among the applications being questioned.

The resignation honours list could come out as early as next week if the stand-off is settled.

Earlier this month Downing Street played down the prospect of an early resignation honours list, pointing out it was discretionary.

Last night a Cabinet Office spokesman said: This is speculation. Any list would need to go through the usual process and that inevitably takes time.

John Major was the last outgoing prime minister to push through a formal resignation honours list.
Ms Turkington is suing host's mother for $11.8million for not supervising

of her body and facial scarring

Ms Turkington was at the house party in Toowoomba, Queensland in 2013

A boy who was not invited poured methylated spirits onto a backyard fire

A teenager who suffered third-degree burns to almost half her body after a gatecrasher threw methylated spirits onto a backyard fire during a house party is suing the host's mother for $11.8million for not supervising properly.

Paris Turkington, then 16, was at house in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, in Queensland, celebrating with friends on August 25 2013.

A boy, 15, who was not invited to the party poured accelerant onto the fire shortly after midnight and Ms Turkington was engulfed in flames.

Paris Turkington (pictured), then 16, was severely burnt at house party in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane in August 2013 when a gatecrasher threw methylated spirits onto a backyard fire

Ms Turkington (pictured) has severe facial scarring and needs to wears a whole-body pressure suit up to 23 hours a day

Paris Turkington speaking at the Right Royal Affair in 2014- Raising funds for life-saving medical research at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital

Ms Turkington, now 19, is making a personal injury damages claim against the mother whose son had invited her to the celebration- She is pictured here before she was injured

Ms Turkington has third-degree burns on 42 percent of her body.

She has severe facial scarring and needs to wears a whole-body pressure suit up to 23 hours a day, The Courier Mail reported.

Ms Turkington, now 19, is making a personal injury damages claim against the mother whose son had invited her to the celebration.

The claim alleges that when Ms Turkington's mother Phoebe dropped her daughter at the Toowoomba residence she asked the host's mother if she needed help supervising the party.

The mother allegedly said she had a male friend coming and she did not need any further help, the publication reported.

The claim states: 'In truth, and in fact, at no time during the duration of the gathering was any adult present to act in a supervisory capacity, other than the defendant herself.'

There were multiple alleged instances of teenagers pouring methylated spirits and kerosene on the fire before Ms Turkington was burnt.

The damages claim alleges the mother failed to properly supervise the guests and failed to confiscate the accelerant.

There were many alleged instances of teenagers pouring methylated spirits and kerosene on the fire (pictured) before Ms Turkington was burnt
Troubled teens involved with violent gangs would rather steal than work, according to police.

As Victoria is gripped with a surge in underage crime, Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton hosted a summit to tackle youth offending.

The move comes amid a wave of violent crimes linked to the notorious Apex gang, who are made up predominantly of young Sudanese and Somali men.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said 'it's easier to steal than to work' for young Victorian criminals

Speaking with many young offenders, Mr Ashton says they struggle resisting the urge to re-offend.

'We are finding that we are arresting the same young people again and again and again...We're hearing it's easier for them to deal drugs than to deal with the bureaucracy of Centrelink,'

'For them it's easier to steal than to work' Mr Ashton said.

He also said disadvantaged youths reported finding it hard to get work.

Police have arrested more people, especially young teens, in the past 12 months than any other 12 months in the force's history.

On Thursday, they charged nine Apex gang members aged between 13-17 in connection with a home invasion where numerous cars were stolen in Melbourne's west.

Police have held a summit amid a wave of violent crimes linked to the notorious Apex gang (pictured: the gang during a riot at Moomba festival)

Police have arrested more people, especially young teens, in the past 12 months than any other 12 months in the force's history

WHO ARE THE APEX GANG? The group originated in Apex Street, Dandenong, about 30 kilometres south-west of Melbourne

The members are primarily from a Sudanese refugee background

The gang have been involved in a string of carjackings and home invasions in the Melbourne area

They are responsible for the Moomba riots in March

Thirteen teenagers were arrested this week relating to a series of crimes

They were aged between 13 and 17

The parents of members are so worried they are sending them back to Africa Advertisement

Apex shot to infamy in March after they were blamed for an infamous riot in Melbourne's CBD during the Moomba festival.

The gang has risen in line with a spike in serious crimes committed by youths, who are now bypassing petty crime for home invasions and carjackings, and re-offending more often, police say.

The situation has grown so bad that refugee parents have been sending their young children back to their war torn African home countries in hopes of keeping them away from a life of crime.

More than 200 community leaders, government officials and academics met at Thursday's summit to find ways to stop young offenders becoming career criminals.

Opening lines of communication to young offenders, finding new ways to rehabilitate rather than jail, and better resourcing of youth services were a few of the ideas floated.

Police charged nine Apex gang members this week aged between 13-17 in connection with a home invasion where numerous cars were stolen

Police are now scrambling to tackle the surge in underage crime across Victoria

Mr Ashton is now compiling a report of key issues and will hand it to the state government in the next few weeks.

Premier Daniel Andrews promised issues discussed at the summit would influence government policies through its Public Order Taskforce.

Flinders University Professor Mark Halsey discussed his 10-year study involving hundreds of interviews with jailed criminals, and said harsh punishments aren't a way to rehabilitate.

'You can't incarcerate your way out of the issue,' Professor Halsey said. 'They still go out and do exactly the same thing.'

He suggested Australia adopt an American-style program that sees former gang members or criminals become real life mentors to youths at risk of re-offending.
Its adaptations of much-loved novels have won it rave reviews and bumper audiences.

And the BBC is continuing its tried and tested formula, announcing yesterday it has commissioned a non-musical series of Les Miserables.

In a bid to replicate the recent success of War and Peace, it has drafted in the series award-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies to rework the Victor Hugo classic into a six-part series.

In a bid to replicate the recent success of War and Peace, it has drafted in the series award-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies to rework the Victor Hugo classic into a six-part series

But rather than follow a similar path to the hit West End musical or 2012 film of the story, Davies insists he will stick to the 19th-century novel and the cast will not sing.

He said: Les Miserables is a huge, iconic title. Most of us are familiar with the musical version, which only offers a fragmentary outline of its story.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity of doing real justice to Victor Hugo at last by adapting his masterpiece in a six-hour version for the BBC, with the same team who made War And Peace.

Hugos novel tells the story of a cat-and-mouse relationship between former convict Jean Valjean and police officer Javert, amid the backdrop of civil unrest in France.

Speaking at the Hay Festival in May, Davies said that the book needs a bit of a champion and described the musical versions as a shoddy forrago.

The BBC said yesterday that the series, which is likely to air in 2018, will be of the same quality and scale as the 10million adaptation of War and Peace and will be made by a very similar team.

The six-part costume drama, which starred James Norton and Lily James, drew an average audience of 7.2million when it aired on Sunday nights at the start of the year.

But Davies, who is also known for his adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Middlemarch, came under fire for sexing-up Leo Tolstoys 1,200-page epic.

He defended it at the time by saying that he included the scenes Tolstoy had forgotten, but it is likely to spark speculation that his version of Les Miserables will be similarly racy.

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein will be involved through his production company Weinstein Television, along with executive producers Faith Penhale and Simon Vaughan, who also worked on War and Peace.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity of doing real justice to Victor Hugo at last by adapting his masterpiece in a six-hour version for the BBC, with the same team who made War And Peace,' Andrew Davies said

Weinstein described the story as: An intense and serious drama that will find contemporary relevance to whats going on in the world today.

Im thrilled to be reunited with Faith Penhale and Simon Vaughan, my partners from War And Peace, with Charlotte Moore from the BBC, and of course, with Andrew Davies who wrote War And Peace.

I think the BBC and Weinstein Television collaboration are a new paradigm in the telling of classics - theyre modern and yet respectful.

And, with the exception of James Bond, nobody does it better than Andrew Davies.

Miss Moore, the director of BBC Content, said: Andrew Davies extraordinary skill for adaptation will bring the world-famous Les Miserables into powerful focus for a modern audience, with a multi-layered re-telling of Victor Hugos masterpiece.

BBC One viewers can expect the same quality and scale from the team behind War And Peace in this epic tale of redemption and the healing power of love.
A teenager who jumped into freezing water and pulled a drowning woman to safety has been hit with a $1,000 ambulance bill because he suffered hypothermia from the heroic rescue.

Brayden Mitchell, 19, dived in to save the woman as she was being swept out to sea at a floodway at Busselton, south of Perth, on Saturday.

The woman was trying to rescue her dog from the water when she got stuck and dragged in by a strong current from recent heavy rain.

Brayden Mitchell, 19, dived in to save the woman as she was being swept out to sea at a floodway at Busselton, south of Perth, on Saturday

'She was yelling out for help and she was maybe 50 metres out and going out further...she was struggling,' Mr Mitchell told the Busselton-Dunsborough Mail.

The teenage surfer did not hesitate and jumped in to help the woman.

'It was pretty rough... The lady was getting dumped and waves were just crashing over the top of us.

'She could not stand up because she was too cold and I could not help her because I was too cold  that is when my girlfriend ran in and helped us both out.'

They were both blue when they were able to get out of the water and were taken to nearby Busselton hospital after two witnesses called an ambulance.

Brayden Mitchell and the woman were both taken to hospital and treated for mild hypothermia on Saturday. The teenager was quoted $932 for the cost of the ambulance ride

They were treated for for mild hypothermia and Mr Mitchell said he was released after an hour.

He said the woman, only named as Susan, told him she was grateful he saved her life.

A friend of Mr Mitchell's family set up a Go Fund Me page on Monday to help him pay the $932 ambulance bill given the teenager is only on an apprentice wage.

The fundraising page raised more than $1400 in three days from residents of the small town who wanted to thank the teenager for his heroic efforts.

Mr Mitchell also rescued two young boys at the same floodway last year after they were swept away by a current.
Chairman Andrew Tyrie (pictured) has written to Mr Hammond telling him: For nearly 40 years, there has been much talk, but no action, by Governments on airport capacity

Expanding Britains airports needs to happen urgently, Chancellor Philip Hammond has been told.

The Treasury Select Committee has called on the Government to speed up the decision about airport expansion in the South East - effectively forcing it to choose between Gatwick and Heathrow.

Chairman Andrew Tyrie has written to Mr Hammond telling him: For nearly 40 years, there has been much talk, but no action, by Governments on airport capacity.

What is needed is transparency about the strength of the economic case for each option.

Heathrow and Gatwick are currently locked in a war of words over which should be picked to expand.

It follows a report published in July last year which concluded that building a runway at Heathrow should be the preferred choice for the Government.

But ministers have failed to make a final decision.

Earlier this year, Mr Tyrie wrote to then-Chancellor George Osborne calling for more details of the calculations which led to an independent commission recommending a third runway at Heathrow.

Grimshaw Architects's artists impression showing a night view of suggested design for the expansion of Heathrow Airport if the airport was to be allowed to construct a third runway

An artists' impression view of suggested design for the expansion of Heathrow Airport

Tyrie said the public had been left partly in the dark on the case for a new runway.

Now Mr Tyrie is hoping to end the stand-off and demanded the calculations he previous requested.

He said: This information is crucial for the decision on airport expansion.

Gatwick believes it may have been given a boost by the new Cabinet chosen by Theresa May.

A raft of new Government ministers who have constituencies under the Heathrow flight path are now in office, including the Prime Minister and Mr Hammond.

However Gatwick was yesterday attacked by the boss of easyJet, one of its biggest customers, over its shortcomings in managing its existing runway.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall blamed Gatwick, and other factors, for disappointing recent trading which yesterday wiped 5per cent off the share price.

Potholes on the runway caused disruption along with congestion, which meant delays at the airport increased by 350per cent.

The skies above both Gatwick and Heathrow are at capacity but one industry expert says Gatwick is less skilled at managing the congestion than Heathrow.

EasyJet also warned the terrorist attacks, weaker consumer confidence and the weak pound had also hit its peak summer season.

It took the unusual step of refusing to predict future profit because of all the turmoil affecting its business.

CGI of a what an extended Gatwick could look like: Gatwick believes it may have been given a boost by the new Cabinet chosen by Theresa May

What the interior of Gatwick could resemble: The skies above both Gatwick and Heathrow are at capacity but one industry expert says Gatwick is less skilled at managing the congestion than Heathrow

McCall said: Just ask anyone there has never ever been as many terrorist events in a single year, and never as many air traffic control strikes in a concerted period of time.

The Brexit vote caused the value of the pound to fall by about 10 per cent, making it more expensive for Britons to travel abroad, and prompted consumer uncertainty.

Britain is easyJets biggest single market.

McCall was seen as a cheerleader for the Remain camp and the firm hosted former Prime Minister David Cameron at one of the easyJet hangers during the campaign.

She has since tried to play down her role since the UK voted to leave.

EasyJet shares have lost a third of their value since the referendum because it will need a special licence to operate in Europe post Brexit.

It is in talks to get an air operator certificate and may need to move part of its business abroad to continue to operate in its existing form.
Ivanka Trump took center stage at the Republican National Convention tonight as she introduced her father as 'the people's nominee' to a delirious Republican faithful in Cleveland.

'For more than a year Donald Trump has been the people's champion and tonight he is the people's nominee,' Ivanka, 34, said to big cheers

Speaking with the utmost composure, she told the tens of thousands inside Quicken Loans Arena how she had watched her father 'fight for his family. I have seen him fight for his employees. I have seen him fight for his company.

'And now I am seeing his fight for his country,' she stated.

'He is colorblind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job,' she said, seemingly in defiance to the accusations of his long history of mistreating women.

Scroll down for video

Ivanka Trump took center stage at the Republican National Convention tonight as she introduced her father as 'the people's nominee' in Cleveland

Grabbing away one of Hillary Clinton's favorite talking points, she pledged: 'He will fight for equal pay for equal work.'

'And I will fight for this too right alongside of him,' Ivanka Trump said.

The mother of three, who wore a $138 blush-colored sleeveless outfit from her own label for the occasion, told the crowd she was like many millennial voters - not Democrat or Republican - but voted based on who she believed 'is right for my family or my country.'

Sometimes that is a hard choice, Ivanka admitted.

'That is not the case this time,' she said.

Each pause in her speech was greeted by rapturous applause and chants of 'Trump! Trump! Trump!'

Ivanka told the tens of thousands inside Quicken Loans Arena how she had watched her father 'fight for his employees and family' and she is now watching him 'fight for the country'

'For more than a year Donald Trump has been the people's champion and tonight he is the people's nominee,' Ivanka Trump said to big cheers

Each pause in her composed and measured speech was greeted by rapturous applause and chants of 'Trump! Trump! Trump!'

Donald Trump and his family joined vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, his wife and daughter on stage at the end of the convention

Alaska delegate Saul Soltero, surrounded by tens of thousands of Republicans, waves a Trump flag during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland

'Donald Trump is the person to make America Great Again,' she said, using her father's signature

Taking Hillary Clinton head on, Ivanka vouched for her father's business savvy and commitment to helping women get ahead.

The eldest Trump daughter and vice-president of the Trump Organization touted pay equity and promised results, saying: 'In our business, you're not a builder unless you've got building to show for it. Or in my father's case, city skylines.'

'In my father's company there are more female than male executives. Women are paid equally for the work that we do. And when a woman becomes a mother she is supported not shut out,' Ivanka continued.

Ivanka promised that her father, as president, would change the labor laws that were put in place long before women were a major part of the workforce.

'And he will focus on making quality childcare affordable and accessible for all,' Ivanka said, repeating another promise that Clinton often uses on the campaign trail.

Taking Hillary Clinton head on, Ivanka vouched for her father's business savvy and commitment to helping women get ahead

'Women are paid equally for the work that they do. When a woman wants to be a mother she is supported and not shut in,' Ivanka told a sell out crowd

Grabbing one of Clinton's trademark issues and making it her own, Ivanka Trump addressed the wage gap between female and male employees

Ivanka posted this picture on Instagram, writing: 'An incredibly surreal, humbling moment as I introduced my father as the Republican nominee for President of the United Statesin front of tens of millions of people!! I will never forget this night'

'As a mother myself of three young children I know how hard it is to work while raising a family and I also know I am far more fortunate than most,' she continued. 'American families need relief.'

'Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm,' Ivanka said.

Coming onstage to great fanfare, she reminded the audience of the challenging 13 month course her father had traversed. He 'sacrificed greatly' she said, of waging his outsider and unconventional bid.

'My father is a fighter, when the primaries got tough, and they were tough, he did what any great leader does: he dug deeper, worked harder, got better and became stronger,' she said.

Like she has many times before, Ivanka talked about her childhood.

'If it is possible to be famous and yet not really well known, that describes the father who raised me,' she explained.

Earlier this week, she admitted the prospect of introducing her billionaire father as he formally accepts the GOP nomination was 'terrifying'

Each pause in her speech was greeted by rapturous applause and chants of 'Trump! Trump! Trump!'

Trump came on to the stage to great fanfare and embraced his daughter for her composed and rousing introduction

'In the same office in Trump Tower, where we now work together, I remember playing on the floor by my father's desk. Constructing miniature buildings with Legos and Erector sets while he did the same with concrete, steel and glass,' she said.

'One of my father's greatest talents is to see potential in people before they see it in themselves. It was like that for us too growing up,' she added.

She recalled how her father would see a story about someone down on his or her luck in the newspaper.

'He'd write a note to his assistant with his signature black felt-tip pen and request that the person be found and invited to Trump Tower to meet with him,' she said.

That meeting would lead to a job or a break and that person would leave Trump's office 'feeling that life could be great again.'

'It is just his way of being in your corner when you're down,' she said.

The four-day convention ended with Donald Trump formally accepting the nomination of the Republican Party as their presidential candidate in the 2016 election

Trump gestures as he greets his daughter Ivanka Trump on stage during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland

In his own speech following Ivanka's tonight, Trump promised that the nation's safety will be restored if he is elected president

Donald Trump (center) celebrates with his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner (left) with wife Melania and son Barron (right)

The Trump clan took to the stage after The Donald's speech to soak up the crowd's applause as balloons fell from the ceiling

Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence stand with their families at the end of the Republican National Convention

More than 100,000 balloons fell from the ceiling, along with confetti as the Republican party ended a wild, raucous and sometimes controversial Convention in Cleveland

Ivanka and her father took to the stage earlier today to to road-test the podium, microphone and teleprompters.

Earlier this week, she admitted the prospect of introducing her billionaire father as he formally accepts the GOP nomination was 'terrifying'.

She said Trump left the content of her speech up to her, adding: 'I wish he'd give me input.'

'I think he wants it to come from my heart. He says don't worry, you'll do a great job. So I'm trying to take that advice,' she went on to say in her Good Morning America interview.

I think he [Donald Trump] wants it to come from my heart. He says don't worry, you'll do a great job. So I'm trying to take that advice Ivanka Trump on her speech

Her speech rounded off a week of addresses from Donald Trump's entire family - his wife Melania, sons Donald Jr and Eric, and younger daughter Tiffany.

While his children all gave a cross-section of what kind of man the controversial real estate mogul is behind the scenes, Ivanka's speech would offer a different perspective, according to her brother Eric.

'She does the princess thing very well and she's immensely close with my father,' he told CNN earlier today.

The historic event in Cleveland tonight brought Ivanka's involvement in her father's campaign full circle.

She was the one who introduced the reality TV star when he launched his presidential bid in Manhattan last June.

'I remember him telling me when I was a little girl, "Ivanka, if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well be thinking big",' she said at the time.

She repeated the line on tonight's stage.

'Thank you Cleveland! #rnc,' Ivanka wrote last night alongside this image from Thursday evening

'So proud of my father,' Ivanka captioned this picture of confetti flying as the Trump family stand on stage

In another Instagram post from Thursday, Ivanka shared a picture of herself walking out on stage, captioned: 'An epic evening'

Ivanka shared this behind-the-scenes picture, adding: 'One last run-through backstage before the big moment!! It's pure adrenaline at this point'

The historic event in Cleveland tonight brought Ivanka's involvement in her father's campaign full circle

She introduced her father in front of a raucous crowd, just as she spoke before he launched his presidential bid in New York last June

An estimated 50,000 people were expected in Cleveland for the event, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media

Massachusetts delegate Jimmy Davidson in front of a mirrored wall on the floor before the start of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention

delegate holds up a sign that reads 'Trump is Americas Great Ball of Fire' ahead of Ivanka's speech in Quicken Loans Aren

Ivanka Trump (pictured, at a sound check earlier today) said it was both terrifying and intimidating that her father left all aspects of her speech up to her

This week, Ivanka admitted the prospect of introducing her billionaire father as he formally accepts the GOP nomination was 'terrifying' (pictured, at a sound check earlier today)

As she prepares to speak in front of thousands in Cleveland and many millions around the world, she said Trump left the content of her speech up to her

Her speech rounded off a week of addresses from Donald Trump's entire family - his wife Melania, sons Donald Jr and Eric, and younger daughter Tiffany (pictured, at a sound check earlier today)

Ivanka has been pivotal in deflecting and defending his many controversies, including pas accusations of sexual harassment and misogyny.

'I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be a high level exec in his organization if he felt that way.' she told CNN regarding his views towards female employees.

Ivanka is also believed to double up as one of The Donald's key advisers, guiding him on when to reign in his inflammatory rhetoric and be 'more presidential'.

But last night, after Senator Ted Cruz refused to endorse Trump in one of the RNC's most talked about speeches, Ivanka's pristine veneer wore off.

Her face contorted in anger, the picture-perfect daughter in the glowing white dress jabbed her finger accusingly as Cruz walked off to furious boos from the crowd.

She was not the only one. The fiercely loyal and tribal Trump family shared looks of sheer disdain.

The mood lifted slightly when Donald took his seat among his children, having made a surprise entrance at the very end of Cruz's speech in what appeared a move orchestrated to steal the Texas senator's thunder.

I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be a high level exec in his organization if he felt that way Ivanka Trump on her father's treatment of female employees

Together the Trumps started to smile again and wave to the cheering crowd as Cruz hurried off stage and Eric Trump began his more flattering speech.

Even then, Ivanka could be seen with a pained look on her face as she whispered into her father's ear.

Tonight the perfectly polite Ivanka was back on stage.

As both his daughter and a business associate, Ivanka was able to first make the case for the kind of person he is. She talked about his compassion and caring demeanor.

She said the 'developer in him' gets disturbed when he sees America's rundown main streets and factories that are boarded up.

'He is tough and he is persevering,' she said of her father. 'He is honest and he is real.'

'He is an optimist and a relentless believer in America all of her potential,' she said, likely using the female pronoun with purpose.

Ivanka (left) lost her cool last night following a speech by Senator Ted Cruz, in which he refused to endorse Trump as the next president

Ivanka, dressed in immaculaet white, jabbed her finger accusingly as Cruz walked off to furious boos from the crowd

'He loves his family and he loves his country with his heart and his soul,' she added.

And then she made a compelling argument for handing the reins of the economy over to her dad.

'Politicians ask to be judged by their promises not their results. I ask you to judge my father by his results.'

'Judge his values by those he's instilled in his children. Judge his competency by the towers he's built, the companies he's founded and the tens of thousands of jobs he's created,' she said.

'He's the single most qualified person to serve as the chief executive of an $18 trillion economy,' she stated.

Donald Trump's children Tiffany and Donald Jr listen to a speech by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland tonight

Lara Yunaska, Tiffany Trump and yawning Barron Trump listen to Ivanka speak during the evening session on the fourth day of the RNC

Order and calm was restored shortly after Donald (second from left) greeted the crowd near the end of Cruz's speech and joined his family in the stands

Next January, when the country inaugurates its next president, she promised that 'all things will be possible again.'

'He is your greatest, your truest and your most loyal champion. This is the fighter, the doer, that you have chosen as your nominee,' Ivanka said.

The Republican nomination, Ivanka said, was given to an 'extraordinary man.'

'I have loved and respected him my entire life,' she said.

And at that point she introduced her father and he joined her onstage.

Addressing the screaming crowd, Trump then said the nation's safety will be restored if he's elected president.

Once considered a long-shot for the presidency, he repeated his vow to snuff out the nation's enemies abroad and put an end to a rash of violence and division that has plagued the nation.

I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end Donald Trump's speech tonight

With an address that has themes ripped from the headlines, Trump plans to call out 'chaos' in the streets and make the case for his own strong-man approach to end it.

'I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end,' Trump said according to advanced excerpts. 'Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored,' he promised.

Trump will cast himself as someone who will stand up to bullying nations and criminals in the streets.

'America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy,' Trump said. At that moment the chant 'Lock her up!' broke out.

'Let's defeat her in November,' Trump suggested instead.

'I am certain that it was a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment  something pointed out by Bernie Sanders  are what caused many of the disasters unfolding today.'

'But Hillary Clinton's legacy does not have to be America's legacy. The problems we face now  poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad  will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them in the first place,' Trump said.

Ivanka, who introduced her father tonight, also spoke before the reality TV star when he launched his presidential bid in Manhattan last June (pictured, at a sound check earlier today)

In his own speech following Ivanka's tonight, Trump is expected to say the nation's safety will be restored if he is elected president (pictured, at a sound check earlier today)
Jetting off to a sunnier climate was once the dream for almost everyones summer holiday.

But it appears that fears over terrorist attacks and the low price for the pound are now leading people to choose a holiday at home instead.

The huge increase in staycations will provide the British economy with a welcome boost.

The UKs tourism industry have reported that they have seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of bookings and inquiries from holidaymakers looking to plan a British getaway.

Booming: Growing number of Britons are opting for staycations, with East Anglia's resorts, such as Wells-Next-The-Sea, North Norfolk, pictured, seeing an increase in bookings of up to 25%

According to the latest figures, a record-breaking 7.3 million people have opted for a staycation so far this year.

Bookings for Egypt, Turkey, Brussels and Paris have all been in decline after suffering a number of recent terrorist attacks.

Justin Urquhart Stewart, economist and director at Seven Investment Management, told The Telegraph: More people holidaying in the UK will hugely boost our economy at a time when we greatly need it.

Families spend around 20 per cent of their net incomes on holidays so the impact will be disproportionately large. As demand rises, prices of UK Airbnb and hotel rooms will increase very quickly too, however.

Since the start of the year, 10 per cent more people have chosen to holiday in Britain compared to the same period last year, according to the official tourist board, Visit England.

The Telegraph also reported that Visit East Anglia had announced that bookings had risen by around 25 per cent in areas such as Norfolk, while Yorkshire agencies also reported a sharp increase in interest.

After Britains vote to leave the EU on June 23, the value of the pound has fallen by around 10 per cent, resulting in option of foreign vacations becoming increasingly more expensive for British holidaymakers.

Dramatic fall: The number of people visiting Turkey has gone down by 28% over the previous year.

Figures from TravelSupermarket found that for a family of four traveling inside the EU, the average holiday now costs an average of 245 more than it did four weeks ago.

The number of holidays in areas that have suffered recent terror attacks has fallen dramatically.

Since a passenger plane was downed in Egypt in October 2015, the number of holidays to the country have halved.

The number of people arriving in Turkey has also fallen to 1.75million in April, down by 28 per cent on the previous year, while in the first three months of this year, the number of people using the Eurostar fell by 100,000 following attacks in Paris and Brussels.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel broke new ground at the Republican convention by declaring himself a proud and loyal member of the party who is also gay, and was rewarded with a strong round of applause in the GOP convention hall.

He made the case for the GOP's pro-business agenda  and even took aim at Hillary Clinton's big bucks speaking fees as he made the case for electing Trump.

But halfway through his remarks, Thiel, 48, also voiced criticism of the Republican Party, which is dominated by socially conservative opponents of the nation's movement toward expanded gay rights and liberalizing acceptance of anti-discrimination for transgender people.

PayPal founder Peter Thiel is one of Silicon Valley's most complicated figures endorsed presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Republican National Conference on Thursday

Standing ovation: Thiel received a round of applause when he broke new ground at the Republican convention by declaring himself a proud and loyal member of the party who is also gay

Home truths: Despite the applause, Thiel went after the party's conservative platform, saying 'fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline'

A bright future: Thiel insisted that Donald Trump was not suggesting a return to the past, but rather taking America into a brave new tomorrow

'I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American,' Thiel told the gathered delegates and lawmakers from across the nation before a national TV audience.

Then he went straight after the party's conservative platform. 'I dont pretend to agree with every plank in our partys platform. But fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline,  and nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump,' Thiel said.

'This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?' he asked, winning another round of applause.

'When Donald Trump asks us to Make America Great Again, hes not suggesting a return to the past. Hes running to lead us back to that bright future,' said Thiel.

Trump during the campaign has demonstrative a reluctance to dive into the social issues that divide the party, and has expressed acceptance of gay marriage and said transgender people should get to choose whatever bathroom they want.

The Cleveland native explicitly urged people to vote for Trump, in a stark contrast to senator Ted Cruz, who dodged an endorsement and has hammered Trump for his stance on transgender people's use of bathrooms.

Throwing some red meat to the crowd, Thiel married his pro-business message to a shot against Hillary Clinton.

'Americans get paid less today than ten years ago. But healthcare and college tuition cost more every year. Meanwhile Wall Street bankers inflate bubbles in everything from government bonds to Hillary Clintons speaking fees,' he said.

Stark contrast: Thiel specifically implored people to vote Trump, in stark contrast to Ted Cruz, earning a standing ovation from the whole Trump clan

Respect: Tiffany and Donald Trump Jr listen to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, giving him a round of applause for the themes he hit on

Ivanka Trump followed on from Thiel as she introduced her father as 'the people's nominee' in Cleveland

Donald Trump made his bid for the presidency feel real on Thursday, urging Americans to propel him to the White House on a platform of crumpling up failing institutions and building new ones on the rubble

Thiel, 48, has shocked Silicon Valley by endorsing Donald Trump, the party's presidential candidate - even though John F Kennedy is his favorite President.

As other tech pioneers signed an open letter denouncing Trump for campaigning on what they called 'bigotry', Thiel walked toward him with open arms.

Thiel's decision shows that, when it comes to his personal politics, he seems as unpredictable as Trump, perhaps one of the reasons he endorsed him.

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and is worth nearly $3 billion, believes in a radical form of Libertarianism, whose followers traditionally believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Yet this does not square with his decision to finance the lawsuit by Hulk Hogan against news website Gawker, which he says outed him as gay in 2007. It says his sexuality was not a secret at the time.

The wrestler won the jury trial and Gawker has been ordered to pay $140 million. The website has filed for bankruptcy, though it is appealing.

At the same time Thiel, who was Facebook's first outside investor, claims he supports the press and has contributed to the Committee to Protect Journalists and has financed activist journalist James O'Keefe.

The contradictions do not end there and there are some major differences between Trump and Libertarianism.

Libertarians support free trade; Trump wants to hit countries like Mexico and China with sanctions if they do not give America a better deal.

Trump wants to build a wall along the border with Mexico, but Libertarians believe in free movement of labor.

And as he was born in Germany and moved to the US aged one, Thiel is an immigrant that Trump may well target for deportation should he get into the White House.

Where Thiel and Trump do crossover is a hatred of political correctness that goes back to his days at Stanford University and led to him writing The Diversity Myth, a critique of multiculturalism.

Trump has made speaking bluntly one of his main campaign strategies and has castigated Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for not using the term 'radical Islamic terrorism'.

In some ways, Thiel's beliefs out Trump Trump and his 2009 essay for the Cato Institute he wrote that left wing votes from recipients of welfare are threatening the very fabric of America.

He wrote: 'I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible'.

Thiel is also known for his belief that technology could allow humans to live far longer than currently possible, funding projects which are looking into beating aging.

I believe if we could enable people to live forever, we should do that. I think this is absolute, he told the Washington Post.

He thinks college is a waste of time and just gets you into debt and in September is due to speak at the annual meeting of the ultra-libertarian Property and Freedom Society in Turkey.

The founder of the group is former Nevada University professor Hans Hermann-Hoppe whose book 'Democracy: The God That Failed' has passages that advocate getting rid of gay people and anyone who believes in democracy in a quest for a 'libertarian order'.

Thiel apparently feels comfortable sharing a platform at the meeting with Hoppe, who wrote that gay people are on a par with 'advocates of parasitism' and should be 'physically separated and expelled from society'.

According to hate-watch group The Southern Poverty Law Center, the group hosts racist speakers who believe immigration is 'forced integration'.

Rapt audience: Delegates listen to Peter Thiel during convention as he implored people to vote for Donald Trump this November

I'm with Trump! Delegates, including (left) a woman wearing an anti-Hillary shirt, and (right) a man brandishing an anti-Ted Cruz sign roam the floor at the Quicken Loans arena. The cost of the convention is $64 million, with the number of visitors approximately 50,000

Who are you supporting, then? One delegate dressed up as Donald Trump as well as an American Revolutionary soldier take a selfie together ahead of Trump's climactic speech

And despite backing Trump for president of the United States, he has funded a radical proposal to set up new cities floating in the sea on oil-rig like structures which would be libertarian utopias not subject to the laws of any existing nation-state.

He gave $500,000 to the Seasteading Institute. The nonprofit organization is looking into building independent cities in international waters in the event of the end of civilization.

Thiel has tried to square the contradictions in his beliefs by donating to conservative-libertarian organizations - that are also pro gay.

Another fault line with the Republican party will be Thiel's support for legalization of marijuana, something which Republicans have long opposed.

Ahead of his speech, all Thiel has said about Trump or the election has been one statement.

It read: 'Many people are uncertain in this election year, but most Americans agree that our country is on the wrong track. I don't think we can fix our problems unless we can talk about them frankly'.

Clearly there is far more to Thiel's motives, and according to Inc magazine, he could simply believe that Trump will manage the economy better than Clinton.

Writer Jeff Bercovici said that Thiel could see Trump's candidacy as a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to weaken America's attachment to democratic government'.

An analysis by Bloomberg said that Thiel could regard Trump as a 'disrupter' in a similar way that he has disrupted the tech industry.

Another explanation is that Thiel's backing of Trump is the 'ultimate hedge' - if Trump loses then Thiel walks away unscathed.

But if Trump wins that Thiel could be rewarded for his loyalty with a position of influence in his administration, something that would shock Silicon Valley even more.

Controversial figure: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, the self-styled toughest sheriff in America and a big fan of Trump, speaks to the crowd, warming them up for the main acts later on
Russian police detained a suspected cannibal after he killed two neighbours and boiled their heads before flushing body parts down the toilet.

The man cut up a husband and wife using a saw - but their body parts blocked the sewer system of a Soviet-era apartment block on Culture Avenue in the Kalininsky district of St Petersburg.

Plumbers called the police after the macabre discovery of human remains.

The man cut up a husband and wife using a saw - but their body parts blocked the sewer system of a Soviet-era apartment block on Culture Avenue in the Kalininsky district of St Petersburg

Detectives traced the crime to a 'communal flat' where a man confessed to killing a married couple with whom he shared the apartment.

He killed both the 'alcoholics' after becoming exasperated with their frequent partying, he confessed to police.

He then boiled the body parts of his victims on a gas cooker, including both severed heads, before flushing them down the toilet.

He claimed he had no criminal record but investigations are underway over whether he ate his victims after boiling their heads in a saucepan.
Hillary Clinton will treat the White House like a 'cash cow,' GOP chairman Reince Priebus said tonight, wielding her power as president to 'grease the skids' for lobbyists, special interests and political insiders loyal to her family.

To chants of 'lock her up,' Priebus proclaimed that Clinton had lied to the American people 'over and over and over' again about her emails.

'She lied,' he repeatedly said as delegates kept going with what has become the mantra of the Republican convention.

Scroll down for video

Hillary Clinton will treat the White House like a 'cash cow,' GOP chairman Reince Priebus said tonight, wielding her power as president to 'grease the skids' for lobbyists, special interests and political insiders loyal to her family

The GOP chairman said, 'I have one word for all this hypocrisy and corruption: Enough.'

Americans have had 'enough of the Clintons excuses, cronyism and cover ups. Theyve had enough of the corrupt dealings,' he continued.

'This election is our chance to stop it, and Donald Trump is the right man to lead that charge.'

Republicans served up a cold dish of Clinton-bashing again on Thursday night at their national convention as they took advantage of the final night of uninterrupted primetime programming.

Convention delegate Lisa Shin, a small business owner and a member of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, angrily told attendees that 'Hillary Clinton is a direct threat to the American Dream.'

'She represents everything that is wrong with the system: the deceit, corruption cronyism and a total lack of accountability. With extreme carelessness, she has compromised our national security and our safety,' Shin shouted.

Clinton has 'flouted the rule of law,' she said, and 'overwhelmingly lost the trust of the American people.''

'She is not qualified to be our next president. She is unfit to be the commander in chief of the brave men and women who sacrifice so much to fight for our country.'

Priebus later got on stage and said Clinton must be stopped in the name of the American Dream.

Her presidency would mean more debt, more programs like ObamaCare, and would lead to more hard-working families going without a raise, he declared.

Clinton would 'stack the deck' on the Supreme Court with 'activist left-wing judges who will treat the Constitution like a doormat,' he forewarned. 'You can kiss your gun rights goodbye if she ever finds her way into the White House.'

'It was on her watch ISIS began to spread its wings of evil over the Middle East,' he said, laying the blame for the terrorist rampage at the feet of the former secretary of state.

Convention delegate Lisa Shin, a small business owner and a member of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, angrily told attendees that 'Hillary Clinton is a direct threat to the American Dream'

LOCK HER UP: A delegate wearing a Hillary Clinton mask in handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit appears on the convention floor at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday night.

Refusing to let up, Priebus said Clinton 'has spent the last 16 months looking in the eyes of the American people and lying about how she recklessly jeopardized the AP, our national security with her secret email server.'

'Perhaps worst of all, Hillary Clinton has perfected the art of politics for personal gain. She reads ethics rules as carefully as Americans read their junk mail,' he said, blasting the 'Clinton Machine.'

Well, help is on the way, he triumphantly told the country.

On Donald Trump's watch, there will be 'no more negotiating with terrorists,' he claimed. 'If they want to take us down, were gonna take them down.'

'He will protect the Second Amendment, and every other right guaranteed in the Constitution.'
Breaion King, 26, was body slammed twice by a police officer who stopped her for speeding last year. She is pictured above in her arrest mugshot, but charges were later dropped by prosecutors

Two Texas police officers are under investigation after a shocking video captured the moment one of them body slammed a black female school teacher to the ground twice during a violent arrest.

Breaion King, 26, was stopped for speeding on June 15, 2015 while on her lunch break by white police officer Bryan Richter in Austin.

Video captured on Richter's dash camera shows him violently arresting her surfaced Thursday more than year after the incident.

In addition, separate footage was released by authorities that revealed the disturbing conversation about race between King and another white officer, Patrick Spradlin. He told her that African Americans have 'violent tendencies.'

Richter said he clocked her car speeding at 50mph in a 35mph zone traveling eastbound on Riverside Drive, according to the Austin America-Statesman.

Video captured on their patrol cruiser's dash camera shows them pulling up behind King, who parked in a parking spot and got out of her Nissan Versa.

Richter can be heard telling King to get back in the vehicle and she complied with his orders.

He then stands next to the driver's side of the vehicle and can be heard asking for her driver's license.

Richter then told King, who is finishing a master's degree at Texas State University, that she was being stopped for speeding.

'But I'm already stopped so can you technically stop me,' King asked while gathering her documents to give to Richter. 'Because you didn't pull me over because I parked.'

King was stopped for speeding on June 15, 2015 while on her lunch break by white police officer Bryan Richter in Austin (above). Video captured on Richter's dash camera shows their interaction

King, who is finishing a master's degree at Texas State University, was dragged out her car by Richter before he body slammed her to the ground (above)

'Ma'am you were about to go inside without a wallet, so I know you're only coming here because you knew I was going to pull you over,' he replied.

'I can ask the other police officer if you had already parked yet,' Richter added. 'Let me see your driver's license, put your feet back in your car so I can close the door. Put your feet back in the car so I close your door.'

King, who weighs 112-pounds, does not comply with his request and that's the moment when the situation escalated dramatically.

'Okay stand up for me ma'am,' Richter can be heard saying on the video.

'No, why are you touching me?' King yells out. 'No why are you touching me, oh my God!'

'Stop resisting, stop resisting,' Richter yells back at King, as it appears he is reaching inside her vehicle to pull her out.

Richter can be heard yelling 'stop resisting' at King several times, as the car's horn goes off from the struggle taking place inside her car.

'Get out of the car,' Richter shouts to King, who replied that she is getting out and asks him to let her get out on her own.

She then tells him to not touch her, as the video shows him pull her out of the car and body slam her to the ground pinning her.

King is screaming as Richter yells at her to 'get her hands behind her back' before telling her that he is arresting her.

'Oh my God, why are you doing this to me?' King emotionally asks.

Richter continues to tell King to get her hands behind her back, as she questions why this is happening in shock.

King is screaming as Richter yells at her to 'get her hands behind her back' before telling her that he is arresting her. 'Oh my God, why are you doing this to me?' King emotionally asks while being arrested (above)

Richter continues to tell King to get her hands behind her back, as she questions why this is happening in shock. He then body slams her for a second time to the ground

The officer then tells King, 'I'm about to tase you,' while the two continue to struggle before Richter body slams her to the ground again.

After more words are exchanged between the two, Richter places handcuffs around King's wrists before aggressively pulling her up off the ground.

Another officer approaches the scene to help Richter, as they both push King towards the front of the police cruiser.

Separate footage recorded a conversation between King, who is distraught and handcuffed inside the backseat of the police cruiser, and Spradlin.

He engaged in a conversation about race and police with King as they neared the jail.

'Why are so many people afraid of black people,' Spradlin asks King.

She replies, 'That's what I want to figure out because I'm not a bad black person.'

'I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way,' the officer tells her. 'Violent tendencies.'

King then asks Spradlin if he thinks that racism still exists and he replies, 'Let me ask you this. Do you believe it goes both ways?'

'Ninety-nine percent of the time, when you hear about stuff like that, it is the black community that is being violent,' he can be heard saying.

Richter then tells King, 'I'm about to tase you,' while pinning her to the ground (above) before body slamming her again. After more words are exchanged between the two, Richter places handcuffs around King's wrists

He aggressively pulled her up off the ground as another officer approaches the scene to help Richter. They both push King towards the front of the police cruiser (above)

'That's why a lot of the white people are afraid, and I don't blame them. There are some guys I look at, and I know it is my job to deal with them, and I know it might go ugly, but that's the way it goes.

'But yeah, some of them, because of their appearance and whatnot, some of them are very intimidating.'

King was cleared of a resisting arrest charge after Travis County prosecutors viewed the video of her arrest.

After the incident, Richter's supervisors looking into his use of force and was issued the lowest level of discipline, counseling and additional training, by the Austin Police Department.

However, his conduct was not formally investigated by internal affairs, as Spradlin never faced punishment for his comments at the time.

Now, since the videos have been published by the media, both Spradlin and Richter are under investigation by officials.

According to the Austin America-Statesman, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department has opened an administrative review into how 'Richter's supervisors evaluated his actions and a separate criminal investigation.'

After being arrested King (above) was placed in the back of a police car and separate footage recorded officer Patrick Spradlin talking to her about race

Spradlin told King in the car that African Americans have 'violent tendencies' and asked her 'Why are so many people afraid of black people'

In addition, Spradlin's comments to King are also being investigated, though Acevedo said under state civil service law he cannot take further action beyond a written reprimand against the officers since the incident happened more than six months ago.

'After reviewing both videos, I and our leadership team were highly disturbed and disappointed in both the way Ms. King was approached and handled and in the mindset that we saw on display in those videos,' Acevedo said.

'But there is another piece, which has caused concerns as to our review process and the systems we have in place.'

He added that he regrets he was unaware of the situation sooner.

'We need to help our community overcome the fear or reluctance, which I understand, to file a complaint,' Acevedo said. 'This is critical if we are to weed out bad officers and bad behavior.'

Neither Richter or Spradlin have previous suspensions with the police department.

King told the Austin America-Statesman that she is considering filing a lawsuit against Richter and the Austin Police Department.

She has hired attorneys Broadus Spivey and Erica Grigg to represent her.
A Sydney shopkeeper who deliberately torched his Rozelle store has faced the heartbroken father of a young woman who was killed in the blaze with her baby son.

Bianka O'Brien, 31, and her 11-month-old son Jude were both killed when the fire ripped the shop in Rozelle.

Convenience store owner Adeel Ahmad Khan, 46, was found guilty of the manslaughter of 31-year-Mrs O'Brien and her son Jude last month, along with the murder of 27-year-old Chris Noble, who became trapped in the bedroom of his apartment directly above the shop.

Facing an emotionless Khan, Mrs O'Brien's father, Bill Keremelevski, told the sentencing hearing: 'For one man's selfish actions to have caused the death of my beloved daughter and my grandson, we were left devastated.'

Bianka O'Brien (pictured with her husband John) and her 11-month-old son Jude were both killed when the fire ripped through the shop in Rozelle

Adeel Khan (pictured after a hearing in June), deliberately set his Rozelle convenience store alight in 2014. He sat emotionless in court on Friday as the family members of three people killed in the blaze gave their moving victim impact statements

Bianka O'Brien, 31, and her baby boy Jude (pictured together) lived in a unit above the store in Sydney's inner-west and were killed. Khan was found guilty of their manslaughter last month

Mr Keremelevski read out a victim statement, speaking of his immense anguish in losing a treasured daughter and young grandson, who was his 'shining star.'

'You have destroyed my family, my happy family, I'm writing this to let you know what you have done - we are never at peace,' he said. 'God would be a final judge of your actions.'

Chris Noble (pictured), 27, was killed in the 2014 blaze and Khan was found guilty of his murder

Khan had earlier been found guilty of destroying his shop for financial gain and murdering the man who lived upstairs, Chris Noble.

Mr Noble's housemate, Corey Cameron, also spoke to Khan directly, saying how he had been left 'haunted' after hearing his best friend 'screaming for his life' while trapped inside his own bedroom.

Mr Cameron had woken up to the explosion, and fought his way through burning walls and billowing smoke onto the balcony with another housemate, but the pair were unable to save Mr Noble.

'I stayed on the balcony as long as I could  But I knew I had to jump as the building was overcome with flames  there was no escaping,' he said.

Mr Noble's family members, including mother Liz and father Ross, were also present at Khan's sentencing hearing at the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday.

Liz Noble told the court she had since gotten a tattoo on her left wrist with the words 'I love you' - the final message that her son Chris had sent her in the moments before his death, Daily Telegraph reported.

'I am tormented and humble by the sending of that message,' she said.

'A tattoo is never something I thought I would get ... but if Chris can send the message in those circumstances then I can (stay strong).'

Khan denied starting the fire, saying robbers tied him up, spilled fuel over the floor and left shortly before the blaze started (pictured is aftermath)

Khan was buried under debris in the explosion, and told emergency workers who rescued him that he was sorry

The blaze triggered a massive explosion and blazing inferno (pictured), killing three people including a baby

While Mr Noble lived in the unit directly above Khan's shop, the O'Briens were in an adjoining unit.

All three victims died when the explosion and fire ripped through the Darling Street store in the early hours of September 4, 2014.

Khan's trial heard he had debts of nearly $400,000 and wanted to get out of the lease on his failing shop.

He was accused of placing petrol-filled containers around the shop and lighting the fire in order to secure an insurance payout and avoid lease obligations.

The married father-of-three denied starting the fire, instead testifying that robbers tied him up, spilled fuel over the floor and left shortly before the blaze erupted.

Two nights before the fire Khan was caught on CCTV buying 38 litres of fuel which he pumped into containers.

He was buried under debris in the explosion, and told emergency workers who rescued him that he was sorry.

Justice Elizabeth Fullerton is expected to hand down her sentence for the 46-year-old next Friday.

Ross Noble, the father of Rozelle store explosion victim Chris Noble, arrived at court with supporters
The couple allege ANZ Bank abused them in negotiations over the debts

Radhika bailed out her billionaire husband when he ran into money trouble

The socialite wife of a former Indian billionaire alleges ANZ bank forced her to sell the wealth she had gained through their arranged marriage in order to bail out her husband.

Pankaj Oswal and wife Radhika are seeking $2.5billion in damages from ANZ in the largest case ever heard in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Mrs Oswal alleges ANZ used heavy-handed tactics such as putting her husband in a headlock to force the sale of undervalued business assets and prevent her husband's imprisonment.

Radhika Oswal (right) claims that ANZ Bank pressured her to sell the wealth she gained through her arranged marriage to Pankaj Oswal (left)

The Oswals were once one of Australia's richest couples and gained fame for trying to build the still-unfinished Taj Mahal on the Swan River (pictured)

The Oswals were once one of Australias richest couples and gained notoriety for attempting to build the biggest house in the country  the Taj Mahal on the Swan River.

Prosecutors allege that $150million from the Oswals successful fertiliser business was fraudulently used to fund construction on the house as well as their lavish lifestyle  a claim the couple deny.

The couple claim that ANZ forced Mrs Oswal into signing over control of millions of dollars of business assets to prevent her husband being jailed for fraud.

In negotiations over the debts it is alleged that ANZ executive Chris Page racially abused the couple and put Mr Oswal in a headlock.

While holding Mr Oswal in a headlock, Mr Page allegedly said: Bloody well sign the documents or we will destroy you.

Eventually, Mrs Oswal said she was pressured into selling a significant stake of the Burrup Fertiliser business to clear the debts.

The Oswals argue the $US560m sale of their 65 per cent stake in Burrup Holdings in 2012 represented less than half its true value.

Two days of mediation between the bank and the couple have so far failed to resolve the complex civil case, which involves numerous claims and counter-claims.

Mrs Oswal will give evidence when the trial resumes in August, although her husband appears unlikely to follow suit.

Construction on the $70million Taj Mahal replica halted when the Oswals ran into financial trouble with their bank. The building now lies derelict and overgrown
The woman who ploughed into media personality Glenn Wheeler while high on cannabis should be jailed, a prosecutor has argued.

Deborah Anne Levy was handed a seven-month suspended sentence in March for hitting the TV and radio presenter in Sydney's Woolooware on January 31, 2015.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has appealed the sentence and called for fulltime imprisonment, reports Daily Telegraph.

Deborah Anne Levy was handed a seven-month suspended sentence for poughed into media personality Glenn Wheeler while driving high on cannabis

Wheeler, 56, was put into an induced coma after the horrific accident and left with brain damage, pelvic injuries and a severed artery on one leg

Ms Levy, who had been smoking cannabis the night before the crash, cut a corner when driving her Mitsubishi Star Wagon and hit Mr Wheeler on his Piaggo 'fly' motor scooter.

Witnesses to the crash said Mr Wheeler had been propelled into the air on impact and landed on Ms Levy's windscreen.

Wheeler, 56, was put into an induced coma after the horrific accident and left with brain damage, pelvic injuries and a severed artery on one leg.

Ms Levy, who was living in her car at the time of the crash, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs and negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm.

She was already on bail for an assault charge and breaching an AVO when the crash happened.

Prosecutor Nanette Williams wrote in a submission to the court that while the seven month sentence was 'appropriate,' it should have been spent behind bars.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has appealed Ms Levy's sentence and called for fulltime imprisonment

Witnesses to the crash said Mr Wheeler had been propelled into the air on impact and landed on Ms Levy's windscreen.

'The Crown submits this was more than just a momentary misjudgment of a gap in the traffic or inattention causing a drift into an oncoming lane  this offender was clearly not paying attention at all to the road conditions.'

Ms Levy's lawyers argued the sentence was 'entirely appropriate'.
Melania Trump's appearance Thursday was her first since her prime-time speech went viral with

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It'll be years before he is eligible to vote, but Barron Trump is already the spitting image of father as he made his first appearance at the Republican National Convention Thursday.

The youngest of the billionaire's children sported a navy blue colored suit with a navy blue tie, as he matched his father's uniform.

The 10-year-old was first photographed walking alongside his father, as his mother, Melania, followed close behind when the family arrived to the convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Trump's mini-me had his light brown hair slicked down and parted to the side for his father's big night.

When arriving to the VIP seating section at the convention, Barron gave his big brother Donald Trump Jr a fist bump as his mother looked on with a beaming smile.

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Like father like son: The youngest of the billionaire's children sported a navy blue colored suit with a navy blue tie, as he matched his father's normal uniform Thursday night at the Republican National Convention (above)

Excitement: Trump's mini-me had his light brown hair slicked down and parted to the side for his father's big night in Cleveland, Ohio

Happy: Barron appeared happy to be at the convention to support his powerful father, who accepted the Republican nomination for president

Brothers for life: When arriving to the VIP seating section at the convention, Barron gave his big brother Donald Trump Jr a fist bump as his mother looked on with a beaming smile

Carefree: Barron sat next to his mother, Melania Trump, for the final night of the convention in Ohio as they both appeared content

Greetings: He gave his older sister Tiffany Trump a warm hug (left), before she also embraced a friendly greeting with her step-mother (right)

Tired?: Barron Trump (second left) appeared to be getting tired as the night dragged on. His sister Tiffany Trump (left), mother Melania Trump (second right) and brother Donald Trump Jr attentively listened to the family's leader while he gave his speech

Sleepy?: The 10-year-old youngster was photographed yawning at one point as his sister Tiffany (center) sat next to him. Their sister-in-law, Lara Trump (left) was also in attendance for the big night

Is it over yet?: The convention Thursday night was likely a lot for 10-year-old Barron to handle, as he seemed to grow restless during the final night sitting in between his sister, Tiffany Trump (left) and mother, Melania (right)

Tiffany grinned at her adorable little brother as he struggled to contain his exhaustion at the late hour

If looks could kill: Melania Trump flashed a not to pleasing glare at her son who held his hands to his face while sitting Thursday night

Spotted: His mother's appearance Thursday night at the convention was her first since her prime-time speech went viral with charges that she stole parts of it from a speech given by Michelle Obama eight years ago

He gave his older sister Tiffany Trump a warm hug, before she also embraced a friendly greeting with her step-mother.

Barron was last photographed last month with his parents as the family enjoyed a quiet night out to dinner on the eve of the real estate mogul's 70th birthday.

For that outing, Barron also wore a navy blue colored suit, just like his father, as they were photographed exiting the super exclusive Ralph Lauren's The Polo Bar.

As the family-of-three piled into the black colored vehicle, Barron could be spotted in the backseat sitting next to his father appearing to look a little tired.

But Thursday night, the youngster appeared happy at first to be at the convention to support his powerful father, who accepted the Republican nomination for president.

As the night dragged on, Barron was photographed letting out a big yawn, and in another photo, he grasped his face when his mother gave him a not so pleasing glare.

Social media users took notice of Barron's appearance at the convention Thursday, with some several commenting on his wardrobe.

Unite: A lot has happened since then  not the least of which, her husband, became the party's official nominee for president. She was in the huge arena and united with the rest of the family to watch her husband give arguably the biggest speech of his public life

Focused: While sitting in the VIP area of the arena, Barron looked focused on the huge events taking place as the evening first got underway

Future first lady?: Melania Trump sat poised throughout her husband's big speech accepting the Republican nomination for president

Gripping the White House?: Barron Trump grips his hands while standing during his father's speech on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention

Family affair: Melania Trump (center) shared a word with her step-sons Donald Trump Jr (left) and Eric Trump (right) during the big night

One Twitter user compared the youngest Trump child to the main character from The Omen films, while another had hoped to hear him speak.

His mother's appearance Thursday night was her first since her prime-time speech went viral with charges that she stole parts of it from a speech given by Michelle Obama eight years ago.

A lot has happened since then  not the least of which, her husband, became the party's official nominee for president.

The former model was in the huge arena to watch her husband alongside their family give arguably the biggest speech of his public life.

The Donald made his bid for the presidency feel real when he spoke on Thursday, urging Americans to propel him to the White House on a platform of crumpling up failing institutions and building new ones on the rubble.

Entering to the theme song from the Harrison Ford movie Air Force One, he heard wild cheers of Trump! Trump! Trump! and accepted the nomination that Americas political establishment swore for a year and a half would be denied him.

In a 4,300-word speech to the Republican National Convention, the longest prepared text he's delivered since becoming a presidential candidate, Trump staked his claim on Americans' cravings for stability in a year full of terror attacks and anti-police ambushes.

Coupled up: Ross Mechanic (left) attended the big night with his girlfriend Tiffany Trump (second left). The youngest Trump daughter sat next to her older brother, Donald Trump Jr (second right) as his wife, Vanessa Trump (right) sat on his other side

Applause: Tiffany Trump (left), Donald Trump Jr (center) and Vanessa Trump (right) applaud PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel after his speech Thursday night

Concentrating: Donald Trump's son Eric Trump (left) and his wife Lara Trump (right) looked focused during the final night of the convention

'We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order,' he vowed, forecasting his residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

'The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country,' he said.

Trump continued his habit of blaming the status quo on President Barack Obama.

'The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored,' he boomed.

'The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.

'This administration has failed America's inner cities. It's failed them on education. It's failed them on jobs. It's failed them on crime. It's failed them at every level.'

Proud son: Barron greeted his father on stage after his big speech with a smile, as his mother Melania stood by clapping

Memorable: Donald Trump hugs his youngest son Barron, as their navy blue colored suits looked identical

Kiss: The Donald even gave Barron a gentle kiss on the top of his head while he embraced the youngster. Barron's appearance Thursday was his first at the convention to support his dad

Gleeful?: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as his son Barron Trump looks on at the end of the Republican National Convention

Showing him the ropes: The Donald stood alongside his son pointing out to the crowd at the end of the convention Thursday

'We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore,' he said. 'So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week.'

Trump has staked his reputation, his truckloads of cash and his family name on a quixotic quest that still has one more towering hurdle  Hillary Clinton  standing between him and the Oval Office.

He brought a rhetorical steamroller to Cleveland, casting her as the principal reason the Middle East is in tatters, the ISIS terror army has found its way West, and American inner-cities are amped-up powder kegs.

Earlier in the evening, his oldest daughter Ivanka Trump took center stage at the convention to introduce her father as 'the people's nominee' to a delirious Republican faithful in Cleveland.

'For more than a year Donald Trump has been the people's champion and tonight he is the people's nominee,' Ivanka, 34, said to big cheers.

Speaking with the utmost composure, she told the tens of thousands inside Quicken Loans Arena how she had watched her father 'fight for his employees and family' and she is now watching him 'fight for America'.

'He is colorblind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job,' she said, seemingly in defiance to the accusations of his long history of mistreating female employees.

She added: 'My father will fight to win working mothers equal pay.'

Solidarity: At the end of the night, Trump's family and Mike Pence's family joined the stage. Pictured above right to left: Ivanka Trump, Charlotte Pence, Karen Pence, Mike Pence, Donald Trump and Barron Trump (front left)

Happy times: Balloons and confetti started falling from the ceiling at the arena to close out the night, as Trump's family looks up to watch. Pictured above left to right: Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Barron Trump, Melania Trump, Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Huge supporter: Ivanka Trump took center stage at the Republican National Convention earlier in the night as she introduced her father as 'the people's nominee' in Cleveland

Proud moment: Ivanka told the tens of thousands inside Quicken Loans Arena how she had watched her father 'fight for his employees and family' and she is now watching him 'fight for America'

The mother of three told the crowd she was like many millennial voters - not Democrat or Republican - but voted based on who she believed 'is right for my family or my country.'

Each pause in her speech was greeted by rapturous applause and chants of 'Trump! Trump! Trump!'

Taking Hillary Clinton head on, Ivanka vouched for her father's business savvy and commitment to helping women get ahead during her speech tonight from the Cleveland stage.

The eldest Trump daughter and vice-president of the Trump Organization touted pay equity and promised results, saying: 'You are not a builder unless you have a building to show for it or, in my father's case city skylines.

'Women are paid equally for the work that they do. When a woman wants to be a mother she is supported and not shut in.'

Coming onstage to great fanfare, she reminded the audience of the challenging 13 month course her father had traversed. He 'sacrificed greatly' she said, of waging his outsider and unconventional bid.

Embrace: Trump came on to the stage to great fanfare and embraced his daughter for her composed and rousing introduction
When little Libre was first brought to a Pennsylvania veterinary hospital on Independence Day, doctors said the Boston Terrier puppy needed a miracle to survive.

His rotting flesh, infected with mange, could be smelled from far away. He was emaciated, dehydrated, barely breathing as he floated in and out of consciousness.

But fast forward to nearly three weeks of around-the-clock care at the Dillsburg Veterinary Center, and Libre seems like a completely different puppy.

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This is Libre, a three-month-old Boston Terrier who was on the edge of death when he was brought to the Dillsburg Veterinary Center in Pennsylvania on July 4

His rotting flesh, infected with mange, could be smelled from far away. He was emaciated, dehydrated, barely breathing as he floated in and out of consciousness

But fast forward to nearly three weeks of around-the-clock care at the Dillsburg Veterinary Center, and Libre seems like a completely different puppy

The three-month-old is running around, a shoe in his mouth, and showering kisses on Janine Guido, the woman who helped rescue the pup from an Amish puppy mill.

It was Guido who told the veterinarian not to euthanize Libre, to do whatever she could to give him a chance at life.

The doctor had told her Libre was one of the worst cases she had ever seen.

'At seven weeks old he has only ever experienced horror and neglect,' Guido wrote on the night of his rescue.

'And the only thing I want is for him to know that life can be good. It can be full of love. And affection.'

No improvement was too small to celebrate as Libre was slowly nursed back to health, from the first time he was able to stand on his own four paws to the moment he realized he could bark.

It is a far cry from the pup who had deep corneal ulcers that almost cost Libre his vision, muscles so atrophied he used to be able to stand up for only a few seconds.

Blood and pus oozed from Libre's skin, where maggots infested the open wounds.

'I have never in my life seen a dog this close to death,' Guido, the founder of shelter Speranza Animal Rescue, told Barkpost.

No improvement was too small to celebrate as Libre was slowly nursed back to health, from the first time he was able to stand on his own four paws to the moment he could swallow dry food

It is a far cry from the pup who had deep corneal ulcers that almost cost Libre his vision, muscles so atrophied he used to be able to stand up for only a few seconds after he was rescued from an Amish puppy mill

'He was literally clinging to life the first time I laid eyes on him.'

Guido named Libre the Spanish word for 'Freedom', and doctors at Dillsburg Veterinary Center worked non-stop to fulfill her promise to the fighter pup.

Ivan Pryor, the center's owner, would take Libre home with him on nights and weekends so the pup was never alone.

'He's a lot of work, and a lot of us miss our lunches to care for him,' Michelle Hall, a veterinarian at the center, told USA Today.

'But he deserves only the best treatment. Had he not come in when he did, he probably wouldn't be with us anymore.'

Libre is now off of IV fluids, eating dry puppy food, and acting 'like a puppy', the center revealed this week.

Libre is now off of IV fluids, eating dry puppy food, and acting 'like a puppy'. He will likely get to go home with Janine Guido (pictured right), who helped rescue him, next week

Meanwhile, a controversy is brewing on whether or not charges should be pressed against Libre's owner

And Guido revealed he will soon be out of the hospital and headed to a forever home - with her, of course.

'I can't let him go,' she said. 'I promised him the first day I saw him that if he pulled through he had a forever home waiting for him. Can't break that promise.'

Meanwhile, a controversy is brewing on whether or not charges should be pressed against Libre's owner.

The Lancaster County SPCA has come under fire for deciding not to charge the breeder, arguing that it could not prove Libre was 'abandoned, left for dead, or maggot infested'.

Protesters have called for Susan Martin, the rescue center's director, to resign and the Humane Society of the US has revealed it will conduct its own investigation.

Guido said she was baffled when she heard Martin claim Libre wasn't in 'such bad condition'.

'I don't know how it could have been in worse condition,' Guido told Lancaster Online.

'This disgusts me and has outraged everyone that is supporting and following Libre's story.'

But as the legal battle brews, Guido is celebrating the improving health of the dog who she says has made 'the doubters believe'.

'I catch myself dreaming of you running around someday,' she wrote in a recent Facebook post.

'With a wagging tail. With a smile on your face. And with a light in your eyes.'
Ricky Reasoner (pictured), 33, a member of the Aryan Syndicate, has been captured after cutting off his GPS ankle bracelet and disappearing last month

A white supremacist gang member who disappeared more than a month ago after cutting off his GPS ankle bracelet has been captured.

Ricky Reasoner, 33, a member of the Aryan Syndicate, vanished on June 7.

He was caught just after midnight in Lakewood, Colorado on Thursday.

Officers from Colorado Fugitive Apprehension and the Lakewood Police Department joined forces for the arrest, according to the Denver Post.

A nation arrest warrant was issued after Reasoner dodged parole.

Police believed he was armed with a .45-caliber hand gun and driving a tan, late-model, four-door Cadillac with temporary Wyoming tags.

They said Reasoner was covered in tattoos, which include an iron cross on his neck and gang logos of the 'Peckerwoods' and 'Featherwoods' gangs on his legs, the Denver Post reported.

He also has 'F*** cops' tattooed above his eye.

Reasoner's mugshot was also released, where it appears the whites of his eyes has been tattooed black.

Authorities believed Reasoner had ties to Denver but could also be heading to Fort Collins.

Reasoner has an extensive criminal history, which includes possession of a weapon by a previous offender.
A group of kids attending an archaeology summer camp in upstate New York have unearthed an ancient artifact dating back thousands of years.

Officials at the State University of New York at Geneseo say fifth through 11th graders from Rochester public schools were excavating an area on campus when they found the base of a projectile point, commonly known as a dart head, that's believed to be 3,000 to 6,000 years old.

The students are part of the Rochester Young Scholars Academy at Geneseo summer camp. It's the second time archaeology has been the theme for the 10-year-old program.

Exciting find: Summer camp students in upstate New York have dug up this dart head dating 3,000-to-6,000 years at the State University of New York at Geneseo

Move over, Indie! The discovery was made by fifth through 11th graders from Rochester public schools who are part of the Rochester Young Scholars Academy at Geneseo archaeology summer camp

Students in a previous camp also unearthed prehistoric projectile points.

The 60 students who made the discovery this week are enrolled in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) camp titled 'Discovering the Iroquois: An Archaeological Dig.'

Participants of the program are taught to identify archaeological evidence, document the site using digital photography, and are given instruction on mapping and forensic sciences.

Experiences like that make science real for these students and peaks their interest in the STEM fields, Susan Norman, camp director and director of Geneseos Xerox Center for Multicultural Teacher Education, said in a press release.

Campers will continue to do archaeological digs on the Geneseo campus through Friday.
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A luxurious mansion that once hosted exclusive parties, extravagant events and fancy dinners for socialites and high-profile celebrities will go under the hammer, with a price guide of an eye-watering $11.5 million.

Television executive David Leckie and his charity fundraiser queen wife Skye have played host to the private parties at their grand Federation estate in Centennial Park, east of Sydney, for nearly two decades.

But after 17 years, the Sydney couple, who are planning to downsize to a harbourside abode, have decided to hang their party hats up after listing their family home on the high-end market ahead of the August 13 auction.

Television executive David Leckie and his charity queen wife Skye have listed their extravagant family mansion on the high-end market

The pair have played host to the private parties at their grand Federation estate in Centennial Park, east of Sydney, for nearly two decades

After 17 years, the Sydney couple have decided to hang their party hats up as they sell their family home, named Lactura, up for auction

The 1910 mansion with natural surroundings features five spacious bedrooms with built-in wardrobes including four with fireplaces

Mr Leckie (left) and his wife Skye (right) have listed their family home on the market, with a price guide of an eye-watering $11.5 million

The pair have hosted birthdays for their sons Harry, 19, and Ben, 17, milestone celebrations, poolside parties, charity events and Seven Network receptions while Mr Leckie was CEO for almost a decade.

The guest list has included Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy, Hugh Sheridan, Mel Doyle, David 'Kochie' Koch, Andrew O'Keefe, David Campbell - and Billionaire casino mogul James Packer and David Gyngell before their infamous street fight.

'You could have filled their swimming pool many times over with the vast quantities of champagne and Chardonnay consumed at their parties,' a long-time friend told The Daily Telegraph.

And despite finishing up with Seven Network next week, Mr Leckie, who purchased the five-bedroom property in 1998 for a cool $2.5 million, has told close friends he doesn't have any plans to throw the last hurrah at his mansion.

The 1910 residence named Lactura features a grand formal lounge, entertaining areas - perfect for indoor and outdoor social gatherings

The pair have hosted birthdays for their sons, milestone celebrations, poolside parties, charity events and Seven Network receptions

The 1910 mansion with natural surroundings features five spacious bedrooms with built-in wardrobes including four with fireplaces

Sitting on a sizeable 1,031 sqm block of land, the 1910 residence boasts a grand formal lounge and dining room with marble fireplaces, Hamptons-style outdoor entertaining entertaining area with a heated swimming pool, and five bedrooms with built-in wardrobes, including four with fireplaces.

Other features include gourmet kitchen with five burner gas stove, guest studio, cinema room, security intercom, high ceilings, leadlight windows and rear lane access to the double garage.

According to Domain, the property was listed on the market on Thursday, with a guide of up to $11.5 million.

Up for sale by real estate agent McGrath, the mansion, named Lactura, goes to auction on August 13.

Sitting on a sizeable 1,031 sqm block of land, the mansion has natural surroundings, including sweeping views of Centennial Park

The 1910 residence named Lactura features a grand formal lounge, entertaining areas - perfect for indoor and outdoor social gatherings

The gourmet kitchen comes complete with a double oven with steamer, five burner gas stove and a kitchen bar

The lavish mansion has been the party central for socialites and high-profile celebrities, with the Prime Minister also making the guest list

The property features high-ceilings, leadlight windows, security intercom, a guest studio and a cinema room

The 1910 residence named Lactura features a grand formal lounge, entertaining areas - perfect for indoor and outdoor gatherings

The five-bedroom mansion has entertaining features, including a cinema room - perfect to kick back with the family after a long week

The Sydney couple, who are planning to downsize to a harbourside abode, have decided to sell their family home after 17 years
The US Justice Department is suing a suburban Philadelphia town, alleging its denial of a permit for a mosque in 2014 constituted religious discrimination.

The suit was reportedly filed on Thursday and seeks to have Bensalem give the Bensalem Masjid approval to build the mosque, provide training for township employees on religious land-use laws and pay unspecified damages.

The Bensalem Masjid has been involved in litigation with the town since 2014.

The U.S. Justice Department (pictured) is suing a suburban Philadelphia town, alleging its denial of a permit for a mosque in 2014 constituted religious discrimination

Roman Storzer, the Masjid's lead attorney in a federal lawsuit filed against the town, says the Justice Department's lawsuit demonstrates the seriousness of the problem in the town.

Bensalem solicitor Joseph Pizzo says the town is disappointed by the filing and has been working with the Justice Department since the Masjid's lawsuit was filed, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He told the paper: 'The township has provided as much information as we can to show that the township has no bias against Muslims or any other religious groups.'

He pointed out that Bensalem gave another Muslim organisation, Faith Unity, to build a mosque in the township. He added that Bensalem Masjid 'failed to properly put a case before the Zoning Hearing Board'.

There is no mosque in Bensalem Township. Muslim residents currently meet for Friday prayers at a rented fire station hall

'Our Constitution protects the rights of religious communities to build places of worship free from unlawful interference and unnecessary barriers,' said Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

The Department 'will continue to challenge unjustified local zoning actions around the country when they encroach upon this important civil right,' Gupta said.

There is no mosque in Bensalem Township. Muslim residents currently meet for Friday prayers at a rented fire station hall.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tag-teamed Donald Trump on Twitter tonight as the Republican gave his seminal convention speech.

' "Im with you*" ' Clinton said, mimicking him. '*Not included: women, African Americans, LGBT people, Muslims, Latinos, immigrants...'

Sanders said, 'Looks like Ted Cruz was right about one thing. Trump does not understand what the Constitution is about. '

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tag-teamed Donald Trump on Twitter tonight as the Republican gave his seminal convention speech

Trump waged war on Clinton, telling a giddy crowd eager for an opportunity to shout her down: 'America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy'

Making an evening of the event that saw Trump skewer Clinton, Sanders former opponent, the Democratic presidential candidate sent out a photo himself watching Trump on the television screen and tweeting from his tablet that was tagged '#RNCwithBernie'

Making an evening of the event, the Democratic presidential candidate sent out a photo himself watching Trump on the television screen and tweeting from his tablet that was tagged '#RNCwithBernie.'

Sanders last week acknowledged Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee and said at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that he intended to vote for her in November.

He shed his taxpayer-funded security detail the same day though he never formally ended his bid for the White House.

Some Sanders supporters are refusing to follow his lead and have declared that they will never vote for Clinton in the general election.

Trump's tried appealing to those disaffected Democrats based on their shared interest in upsetting the political system. Sanders and his supporters have sternly told him it will not work.

'Those who voted for me will not support Trump who has made bigotry and divisiveness the cornerstone of his campaign,' Sanders said as he began his rebuttal to the Republican National Convention.

Taking a swipe at Trump's promise to protect the LGBTQ community, Clinton claimed he and Pence oppose advocated 'conversion therapy' for homosexuals and opposed equal marriage

Clinton also deflected Trump's jabs at her suitability in office by tweeting a picture of herself in the White House situation room during the siege that killed Osama Bin Laden

Clinton tweeted an Economist list which ranked Donald Trump becoming president as one of the biggest potential threats to global economy

Tonight Trump waged war on Clinton, telling a giddy crowd eager for an opportunity to shout her down: 'America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy.'

As if on cue, the crowd began shouting what has this week become the GOP battle cry, 'Lock her up!' Lock her up!'

'Let's defeat her in November,' Trump said. 'I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets.'

The Republican added, 'Her bad instincts and her bad judgment  something pointed out by Bernie Sanders  are what caused the disasters unfolding today.'

Trump later name-checked Sanders again as he promised to tackle a corrupt political system.

'Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,' he declared.

'Lambasting the system he admittedly leveraged to build his real estate empire as 'rigged,' Trump went after the fallen Democrat's supporters, proclaiming that he 'never had a chance.'

Trump said Sanders' supporters would redirect their support to his movement because he too is opposed to bad trade deals that undermine the country's middle class. Sanders responded on Twitter with, 'What a hypocrite!'

Trump said Sanders' supporters would redirect their support to his movement because he too is opposed to bad trade deals that undermine the country's middle class.

Sanders responded on Twitter with, 'What a hypocrite! If Trump wants to "fix" trade he can start by making his products in the US, not low-wage countries abroad.'

He proceeded to tweet out a list of ways Trump could 'fix trade' - by not manufacturing Trump-branded shirts in Bangladesh, where workers are paid 30 cents an hour, and Mexico and moving production of his ties out of China.

Replying to Trump's 'I alone' can fix the system bit, Sanders asked, 'Is this guy running for president or dictator?'

'Maybe he doesnt understand that a president has to work with Congress,' Sanders said, bringing up Cruz's call on delegates last night to vote for candidates that will uphold the Constitution.

The Clinton campaign used much of its firepower on her account to ask for donations.

The Clinton campaign used much of its firepower on her account to ask for donations

'We are better than this,' she said in one tweet. In another that linked to a donation page she said, 'As of tonight, only one thing is standing between Donald Trump and the presidency: all of us. '

At the conclusion of Trump's speech, which had a running time in the ballpark of an hour and twelve minutes, Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement that Trump 'painted a dark picture of an America in decline.'

'And his answer  more fear, more division, more anger, more hate -- was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President of the United States.'

The former White House official said the Republican nominee for president offered 'no real solutions' to do any of the problems he outlined, 'just more prejudice and paranoia.'
Two teenagers have been accused of charging hundreds of people entry fees to out-of-control parties in vacant houses.

The 17-year-old boy and 18-year-old girl allegedly advertised the parties on social media and held them at private premises in Perth without the owners' permission over the past two months.

Up to 1000 people registered to attend each event.

Three police officers were assaulted at one out-of-control party in Mirrabooka on July 7 where $2,000 worth of damage was done to the property.

Police were forced to shut down an out-of-control party in Yokine in Perth last month. They have now charged the two teenage hosts for holding a number of parties around Perth

Police laid 10 charges and then discovered the two teenagers allegedly ran an illegal business by organising parties charging entry fees.

The pair have been charged with offences including trespass, aggravated burglary and fraudulent appropriation of power.

They will face the Perth Children's Court later this month.

A 19-year-old man who was allegedly hired to DJ at some of the parties faces the same charges and will front the Perth Magistrates Court on July 29.

Police said they would seek to recover the entry fees paid as compensation for the owners of the properties.
This comes after the Nice terror attacks last week that left over 80 dead

He wants to focus on places where 'large numbers of Australians gather'

Mr Turnbull called for security to rethink the way it protects public places

Malcolm Turnbull has called for security agencies to rethink the design of places used for large public gatherings in Australia following the terror attack in Nice last week.

The Prime Minister has asked counter-terrorism adviser Greg Moriarty for ideas on how to prevent terrorist attacks.

'We'll certainly have to rethink the way we design and protect places where large numbers of Australians gather,' he told radio 3AW on Friday.

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Malcolm Turnbull has called for security agencies to rethink the design of places used for large public gatherings in Australia following the terror attack in Nice last week- Crowds gather in anticipation of the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display over Sydney Harbour in 2010

The Prime Minister has asked counter-terrorism adviser Greg Moriarty for ideas on how to prevent terrorist attacks- Legacy War Widows cheer as servicemen and women march along George Street during the Anzac Day Parade on April 25, 2015 in Sydney

Mr Turnbull (pictured) wants Mr Moriarty to examine the recent attack in Nice and the background of the Sydney Lindt cafe siege to see if there are lessons for Australia to learn

Mr Turnbull believes the inquiry should look at situations when crowds congregate- Fireworks explode over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on New Year's Eve 2016 on Sydney Harbour

Mr Turnbull believes the inquiry should look at situations when crowds congregate, as happened when a Tunisian man drove a truck through a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing more than 80 people.

He wants Mr Moriarty to examine the recent attack in Nice and the background of the Sydney Lindt cafe siege to see if there are lessons for Australia to learn.

'What we're seeing at the moment is people being radicalised or adopting murderous Islamist ideology very, very quickly,' Mr Turnbull said.

'So you have people who are not on the counter-terrorism radar screen, who then often as a result of mental illness will then attach themselves to this murderous ideology and then act.'

Mr Moriarty says a one-size-fits-all approach will not succeed.

'The terrorist threat is deep, global and multi-dimensional,' he said.

Mr Turnbull believes the inquiry should look at situations when crowds congregate, as happened when a Tunisian man drove a truck through a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing more than 80 people (pictured)

Mr Moriarty (pictured) says a one-size-fits-all approach will not succeed- 'The terrorist threat is deep, global and multi-dimensional'

A large crowd attends Vivid Sydney on May 27, 2016 in Sydney, Australia- Malcolm Turnbull has called for security agencies to rethink the way they protect places used for large public gatherings

'The Prime Minister has discussed with me the need to position the country to be both secure and united, not just for tomorrow or next year, but for decades and possibly generations.'

Australia's terror threat level has been at 'probable' since September 2014, meaning individuals or groups have developed both an intent and capability to conduct a terrorist attack.
The majority of migrant sex workers in Australia are satisfied with work conditions and intend to stay long term.

While most workers said they were content, a small amount of workers said they felt isolated and are only working to pay off debts.

The research conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Scarlet Alliance is the largest study of its kind with 594 sex workers surveyed from Thailand, South Korea, China and New Zealand.

Most migrant sex workers surveyed in a recent study said they were happy with their work and sataified

Of those studied, 63% were over 30 years old, more than half had tertiary-level qualifications, 20% were married and a substantial number of respondents reported having children under the age of 15 years.

The research was presented at the AIDS 2016 conference in South Africa.

The Age reported there around 20,000 sex workers across the country and about 15% of all Australian men have paid for sex at least once.

Of the 594 sex workers surveyed, 412 were migrants, 17 were male and eight were transgender.

Only half of the migrant sex workers have free access to condoms , with some saying they were encouraged to not use protection by their bosses and others saying the went without so they could charge their clients extra.

Of those studied, 63% were over 30 years old, more than half had tertiary-level qualifications

31% of workers said they had suffered verbal abuse at work while 6% said they have suffered physical abuse.

Some sex workers answered that they found the work hard and dangerous while others missed their family and had no friends in Australia.

CEO of the Scarlet Alliance Jules Kim said she hopes the research will help to debunk some of the misconceptions surrounding the sex industry.

Some sex workers said they felt alienated and alone in their occupation and only continued to pay off debt

'Absolutely people will be surprised. A lot of the figures in the research challenge the popular stereotypes about migrant sex workers.

'The main disconnect is that people can't imagine sex work for themselves so they cant imagine anyone would possibly choose to do this. But for a lot of people it is a viable occupation choice,' she said.

Ms Kim also says it's not helping that society continually feel the need to try and 'rescue' the sex workers.

Scarlet Alliance CEO, Jules Kim, says not every sex worker wants to be rescued and some willingly choose the occupation

'There's been a lot of harmful rhetoric and harmful organisations that believe they are supporting sex workers by trying to rescue them, but they don't all want to be rescued!'

Ms Kim said that a days work for sex workers could be more relateable than you think.

'There are days that work can suck and then there are good days, there are days that you have good customers and there are days when you have bad customers.'
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Its been drawing tourists for a new social media craze  but theres another reason crowds flocked to the worlds steepest street on Friday.

Crowds of about 15,000 converged in Baldwin Street in Dunedin on New Zealands South Island for the annual Cadbury Jaffa Race, otherwise known as the running of the balls.

The annual event sees 75,000 Cadbury Jaffas, (red-shelled chocolate candies popular in Australia and New Zealand) scramble down a 19-degree gradient street.

Spectators watch as thousands of Jaffa candies race down Baldwin Street in New Zealand's Dunedin

Crowds of about 15,000 converged for the annual charity event, otherwise known as the running of the balls

The annual event sees 75,000 Cadbury Jaffas scramble down a 19-degree gradient street - the steepest in the world

The 2.8 gram balls picked up speeds of up to 100kmh as they hit the road for there different race in the name of charity

There were three races and a prize for the person who bought a ticket for the winning Jaffa in each race

The event was set to raise $75,000, which would be divided between Make-a-Wish, Surf Lifesaving New Zealand and Parents Centre New Zealand

Jaffas are red shelled orange-chocolate candies popular in Australia and New Zealand

The 2.8 gram balls picked up speeds of up to 100kmh as they hit the road for there different race in the name of charity.

Baldwin Street grabbed headlines this week because of a new social media craze which involves tourists taking photos in front of houses with a tilted camera which create a bizarre optical illusion.

When photos of houses on the street are taken on an angle, it creates the illusion that they are sinking into the ground.

People regularly flock to the street to take photos with the properties that appear lopsided and upload them to Instagram. Residents in the street are used to people puffing up and down the steep street to take photos.

The stretch of road is about 350 metres long. It runs at a gradient of 1:2.86m, which means for every 2.86 metres horizontally, the elevation changes by 1 metre.

The street was the scene of tragedy in 2001 when a 19-year-old girl died after she tried to travel down the steep road in a wheelie bin.

The street has become an unlikely tourist attraction lately, after people have shared photos on social media of a bizarre optical illusion

Baldwin Street, in Dunedin on the country's South Island, holds the proud title of being the steepest street in the world

The street in Dunedin also hosts the traditional 'Steepest Race in the World' each year

When photos of houses on the street are taken on an angle (pictured), it creates the illusion that they are all sinking into the ground

This Instagram user posted a photo of this house on Dunedin Street with the caption: 'How to mess with people's minds - anchor your letterbox so that it's on the same incline as the street. Voila! Your house is now sinking!'

People have been flocking to the street (pictured) to take photos with the properties that appear lopsided, to upload them to Instagram

Residents who live on the world's steepest street are reportedly used to people puffing up and down the steep street to take photos

By tilting the camera on an angle, when this Instagram user took the photo, the house appears as if it is sinking into the ground
A man who stabbed his neighbour to death then gunned down the victim's elderly parents after a row about a dirt track has been sentenced to life in prison.

Triple-murderer Ian Francis Jamieson, 65, was given a life sentence in the Supreme Court on Friday, with a non-parole period of 30 years - meaning he will remain behind bars until he's 95.

Jamieson pleaded guilty to murdering Peter Lockhart, 78, and Mary Lockhart, 75, and her son Greg Holmes, 48, at their Wedderburn property in central Victoria on October 22, 2014.

The court heard Jamieson had never committed a violent crime before he stabbed Mr Holmes to death with a hunting knife before he shot the victim's mother and her husband.

Triple-murderer Ian Francis Jamieson, 65, being led into the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne on Friday

Jamieson pleaded guilty to murdering Peter (right) and Mary Lockhart (left) and her son Greg Holmes (centre)

Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth told court Jamieson 'intentionally took the lives of three other human beings fuelled by your anger', ABC News reported.

She said it was highly likely Jamieson would die in prison as the result of his 'appalling deeds'.

Justice Hollingsworth said he was entitled to a 30-year non-parole period because he pleaded guilty to his crimes - although she would have set a longer non-parole period if not for his age.

Grieving friends and family of the victims burst into tears as the sentences were read out.

Jamieson killed the trio for no reason other than his own 'long standing and utterly misplaced animosity' over the use of a dirt road that ran alongside his property, Justice Hollingworth said.

He stabbed Mr Holmes more than 20 times.

The 65-year-old was given a life sentence in the Supreme Court on Friday, with a non-parole period of 30 years

The court heard Jamieson (centre) had never committed a violent crime before he killed his three neighbours

Jamieson initially denied his role in the triple murder, before pleading guilty on the day his trial was due to start

He then armed himself with two shotguns and drove to the Lockharts' home, where he shot the elderly couple in an attack prosecutors said was designed to 'punish and degrade' the pair.

Jamieson initially denied his role in the triple murder, before pleading guilty the morning his trial was due to start.

He later attempted to change his plea on one count to not guilty, saying he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Mr Holmes - a claim Justice Hollingworth rejected.

She dismissed as 'complete fabrication' his submission that Mr Holmes had stabbed Jamieson with a syringe filled with what he said was 'probably ice'.

Jamieson pleaded guilty in April to the murders.
BA said the pilot landed as 'precaution' and apologised for delay

Passengers claim they were told crew had fallen ill due to the stench

A flight packed with British holidaymakers on their way to Greece was forced to make an emergency landing after an overpowering smell of cannabis filled the cabin.

The 8.15am flight from Gatwick to Heraklion in Crete was diverted over Paris and forced to return to the UK after passengers were told crew had fallen ill after the 'unmistakable' stench filled the plane.

The plane returned to Gatwick just 90 minutes after setting off and the 174 passengers on board were forced to wait for an hour while another flight was hastily arranged.

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The 8.15 flight from Gatwick to Heraklion in Crete was diverted over Paris and forced to return to the UK after passengers were told crew had fallen ill after the 'unmistakable' stench filled the plane (file image)

Although fire crews inspected the British Airways plane to find the source of the smell, the cause and source remains unknown.

Father-of-two Stuart Barnes, 40, from Cardiff, was on board the plane with wife Susan, 43, and daughters Rosie, ten, and Olivia, nine.

Finance worker Mr Barnes, from Cardiff, told The Sun: 'There was a faint smell when we got on.

'We were told that they hoped when they put the air conditioning on it would clear, but it got even stronger. You could tell straightaway what it was.

'BA have been very quiet at giving us an explanation - all they said was the cabin crew was ill from a pungent smell at the back of the aircraft.'

Holidaymaker Simon Skinner posted on Twitter: 'British Airways flight to Heraklion turned back after nasty smell.'

As a result of the diversion and emergency landing British tourists in Crete were delayed by up to six hours.

A BA spokesman said no evidence of cannabis or anybody smoking cannabis was found on board.

She said: 'Our pilot returned the aircraft to Gatwick as a precaution following reports of an unidentified strong smell in the cabin.
Two officers were treated for skin irritation in Cleveland's downtown Public Square on Thursday during protests surrounding the Republican National Convention, police said.

A Georgia state trooper was treated at the scene and released after coming into contact with a sticker during the protests, according to authorities.

And a Cleveland police officer was treated for skin irritation after reporting a numbness and burning in his neck that did not involve a sticker, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said.

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A Cleveland police officer speaks with a protester on Cleveland Public Square on the final day of the Republican National Convention on Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio. As the four-day Republican convention drew to a close on Thursday night, there were only a total two dozen protest-related arrests

Two men with opposing world views have a stand off in a public square not far from Quicken Loans Arena, site of the Republican National Convention

Police officers on bikes were seen arriving at the scene of the protest on Thursday

Brandon Bacon, 26, stands with a sign as police officers stand guard inside the Public Square outside the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday

Protesters had reportedly been placing yellow stickers on law enforcement officials that read, 'I am awesome,' according to WOIO.

The stickers were sent to Columbus for further testing and a person was questioned by the FBI, the station reported.

Ciaccia said officers were investigating the incident and urged people not to take stickers from people they do not know.

Authorities also advised those who had received a sticker from a stranger to remove it and wash the area with soap.

In addition, police placed syringes on a list of items banned in the protest zone created for the convention after unconfirmed reports of officers being injured with syringes.

As the four-day Republican convention drew to a close on Thursday night, there were only a total two dozen protest-related arrests.

That comes as a relief to city officials and police who had braced for mass disruptions and violence during this summer of bloodshed.

In the run-up to the convention in Cleveland, some law enforcement officials had feared hundreds of arrests every day.

The demonstrations that many thought would end in pitched battles between police and protesters turned at times into carnival-like scenes, with bongo players and with protesters dressed as nuns on stilts.

Late Thursday night, police put the number of arrests since Monday at 24, with 18 of those from a melee that erupted during a flag-burning by avowed revolutionaries.

Hundreds of the demonstrators that had gathered in Cleveland's Public Square on Thursday eventually scattered before the Trump's prime-time acceptance speech.

Shouting matches and scuffles among the groups came to a halt after protesters were outnumbered by hundreds of police officers who streamed into the square.

Groups included anarchists, anti-Muslim protesters and Bikers for Trump.

A supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (left) argues with a man opposed to Trump (right) in the Public Square before the start of the final day of the Republican National Convention

Protesters from the Revolutionary Communist Party march around the downtown area during the last night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland

Protesters from 'Stand Together Against Trump' make their voices heard at the public square on Thursday

Hundreds of the demonstrators that had gathered in Cleveland's Public Square on Thursday eventually scattered before Trump's prime-time acceptance speech

At one point, police formed a barricade using their bikes between different groups.

Gone were protesters yelling into bullhorns and a stage set up for demonstrators was empty for the first time all week.

Authorities also said on Thursday that most of the people arrested during a flag-burning protest on Wednesday have been charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct or obstruction of business.

They said most are free on personal recognizance bonds with some accused of flag burning still not charged while prosecutors review charges.

However, the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union criticized a delay in a hearing for those arrested following the flag-burning protest.

The ACLU said there was no reason for the 18 people to be held for so long on minor charges.

Lawyers representing those arrested during the Wednesday afternoon protest near the arena said a 4pm Thursday hearing was delayed because the court still had not received charging documents.

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stands among anti-Trump protesters at the Public Square on Thursday

A man holds a sign that reads 'socialism sucks' during protests on Thursday

Shouting matches and scuffles among the groups came to a halt after protesters were outnumbered by hundreds of police officers who streamed into the square

A group of law enforcement officers are seen gathering in Public Square on Thursday

Lawyers with the Ohio Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP said those under arrest should be charged or immediately released.

A message was left with Cleveland city officials seeking comment.

Earlier Thursday, Members of the Revolutionary Communist Party said no one was on fire as police had claimed when they moved in to make arrests during the flag-burning protest.

Police at the time said officers had moved in because a member's pants had caught on fire.

However, a supporter of the Revolutionary Party said at a news conference on Thursday morning that police 'lied' about people being on fire.

Late Thursday night, police put the number of arrests since Monday at 24, with 18 of those from a melee that erupted during a flag-burning by avowed revolutionaries

A Georgia state trooper stands armed in Cleveland Public Square on the final day of the Republican National Convention

A Trump supporter is pictured taking a selfie while surrounded by state troopers

In the run-up to the convention in Cleveland, some law enforcement officials had feared hundreds of arrests every day

Sunsara Taylor said members are being illegally detained to prevent them from protesting.

On Thursday afternoon, an anti-Trump march took place with the event starting at Hope Memorial Bridge.

Dozens of people chanted 'Love Trumps Hate' and carried signs that said 'Ban All Trumps Not Muslims.'
A 15-year-old from Oregon introduced the president and told the crowd how she had been called the N-word and a terrorist

The president paid tribute to Muhammad Ali - his wife and six of their children were also in attendance

President Obama spoke in strong support of Muslim Americans, who he said 'enrich our lives every single day', during the first ever Eid celebration at the White House on Thursday.

Obama broke from the tradition of hosting the annual Iftar dinner, an evening meal during Ramadan where Muslims break their daily fast, to celebrate the conclusion of the Islamic holy month instead.

More than 100 Muslim Americans attended the event celebrating the holiday, including Muhammad Ali's wife Lonnie and six of their children.

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President Obama smells a rose given to him by one Muslim American family during the White House's first ever Eid celebration on Thursday

Obama broke from the tradition of hosting the annual Iftar dinner, an evening meal during Ramadan where Muslims break their daily fast, to celebrate the conclusion of the Islamic holy month instead

Obama began his remarks by paying tribute to the Greatest, who passed during Ramadan.

'As proud of his blackness as he was of his faith, the Champ taught us that the most important thing in life is to be ourselves,' the president told the crowd.

And, Obama said, he wanted the day to be a reminder that Muslims 'have always been a part of America'.

'For more than two centuries, Muslim Americans of all backgrounds - Arab and Asian, African and Latino, black and white - have helped build America,' he said.

'As farmers and merchants, factory workers, architects, teachers and community leaders. Muslim Americans have enriched our lives every single days.'

The president celebrated the doctors 'we trust with our lives', the entrepreneurs who 'create jobs' and the artists who 'inspire us'.

And, like Ali, he celebrated the athletes, including American fencing champion Ibtijah Muhammad, who he said will be 'proudly wearing her hijab' when she represents Team USA at the Rio Olympics.

Obama paid special tribute to Muhammad Ali during his remarks, and was gifted the Greatest's cuff links by members of his family during the celebration

Obama was introduced at the reception by Aisha Osman, a 15-year-old Oregon native, in the East Room

Obama cited the 'heartbreaking letter' he received from Osman, who told the crowd she has been called both a terrorist and the N-word due to her Muslim religion and African American heritage

Obama told the young people in the audience that he wanted them to know one thing: 'That we see you, that we believe in you'

Obama also gave special tribute to Deputy Police Chief Malik Aziz of the Dallas Police Department and World War II veteran Sheikh Nazeem Abdul Karriem.

'Let's be clear,' the president said. 'Muslim Americans are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family.'

'And whether your family has been here for generations or youre a new arrival, youre an essential part of the fabric of our country.'

Just as Obama's speech was about to take a serious turn and discuss the 'difficult time' Muslim Americans currently face, the crowd broke into an impromptu chant.

'Four more years!' the audience yelled, 'Four more years!'

Obama laughed as he quickly shut them down.

'Michelle is going to come down and scold you,' he joked. 'Don't say that.'

The president then touched upon the fact that Muslim Americans not only have to fear the 'threat of terrorism', like their compatriots, but also the fact that it is their community that is blamed for it.

'Let's be clear,' the president said. 'Muslim Americans are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family'

Obama, pictured he greeting attendees after speaking at the Eid al-Fitr reception, said he wanted the day to be reminder that Muslims 'have always been a part of America'

Obama cited the 'heartbreaking letter' he received from 15-year-old Aisha Osman, an Oregon native who was selected to introduce the president after writing a letter about her experiences.

'She told me, "There were moments in my life where I would want to just take off my hijab and leave my identity behind so I can fit in with my peers,'" the president told the crowd.

'That's a young American, full of promise, full of possibility, fearful because of her faith,' the president said in his remarks.

Osman told the crowd that as both an African American and a Muslim, she has been called both a terrorist and the N-word.

'What those people don't know is that I am proud to be an American,' she said. 'I know I am the future of this country that I love.'

Obama told the young people in the audience that he wanted them to know one thing: 'That we see you, that we believe in you'.

'And, despite what you may sometimes hear, you've got to know that you're a valued part of the American family,' he continued.

The White House has held an annual Iftar dinner every year since 1996. Pictured is George W Bush with Kuwait's Prime Minister Nasser al-Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Saban in 2008

In December 2001 Bush read the children a poem and answered questions after celebrating Eid al-Fitr

'And there's nothing that you cannot do.'

The president never once mentioned Trump by name, but evoked the Republican presidential nominee when he said it was wrong to single out Muslim Americans.

Trump called for a complete ban of Muslims entering the country following the San Bernardino massacre in December by two ISIS supporters.

'Singling out Muslim Americans feeds the lie of terrorists like ISIL that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents,' Obama said.

'That's not smart national security.'

The president instead called for all Americans to reject hatred.

'Muslim Americans - and all Americans - have to reject discrimination,' he continued.

'Muslim Americans - and all Americans have to answer those who peddle hate, or suggest somehow that their interpretations of their faith justify violence.'

'And in the face of terrorism, we will prevail.'
OXFORD, Mississippi -- A former University of Mississippi student was sentenced Thursday to a year's probation plus 50 hours of community service for placing a noose on the statue of the school's first black student.

U.S. District Judge Mike Mills sentenced Austin Reed Edenfield, 21, of the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, Georgia, and ordered Edenfield to obtain substance abuse and mental health treatment, multiple news outlets reported.

Edenfield pleaded guilty in March to one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees by putting a noose on the James Meredith statue. He had faced up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Prosecutors recommended probation for Edenfield, who cooperated in the early prosecution of another former student, Graeme Phillip Harris, of Alpharetta, another Atlanta suburb. Harris pleaded guilty to the same charge in June 2015 and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Edenfield acknowledged that he tied the noose that ended up around the neck of the Ole Miss statue of James Meredith in February 2014. He, Harris and a third person also draped a former Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem on the statue of Meredith, who integrated Ole Miss in 1962 amid rioting that was suppressed by federal troops.

Prosecutors said Harris hatched the plan after a night of drinking with Edenfield and a third freshman in the Sigma Phil Epsilon fraternity house on campus. They said Harris frequently expressed ill will toward black people and that during that night, he told Edenfield that the act would cause a sensation, saying "It's James Meredith, people will go crazy."

After the noose and flag were placed on the statue, Edenfield and Harris returned at sunrise on Feb. 16 to observe and were filmed by a video camera at the Ole Miss student union

Both Harris and Edenfield are white.

The third man has not been charged.

All three students withdrew from Ole Miss, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity closed its chapter.
Police have raided the Bangkok home of a British journalist's wife and questioned her for several hours in connection with his social media posts containing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince - the heir apparent to the throne - wearing a crop top and sporting a huge tattoo on his back.

The 'insulting' photos Andrew MacGregor Marshall posted on Facebook on Thursday were published in the German tabloid newspaper Bild and were purportedly of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany. The crown prince spends much of his time in Germany.

The images, which Thai police say were doctored, show a man in low-slung jeans and sandals, with a huge sleeve tattoo holding a white fluffy poodle.

The German Bild newspaper and British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall claim this photo shows Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany wearing a white crop top and holding a poodle

Thai police say the photos, which claim to show a heavily tattooed crown prince and his 'new wife', are doctored and break Thailand's strict 'lese majeste' law

He is pictured with a woman who Marshall claimed is Suthida Vajiralongkorn aka Nui, a former Thai air pilot who now acts as the crown prince's guard.

Marshall said in his Facebook post that Vajiralongkorn is the crown prince's latest wife.

'There is at least one error in the [Bild] article - it names the poodle as Foo Foo, but in fact Foo Foo is dead, and the poodle in the photographs is actually called Fee Fee,' Marshall wrote on Facebook.

He said that despite Bild being a tabloid newspaper he is 'convinced that the pictures are genuine'

Marshall said in a statement that his wife, Noppawan 'Ploy' Bunluesilp, was visiting Bangkok with their 3-year-old son when both of them were taken by police Friday morning to a police station along with Noppawan's father.

Armed with a search warrant, police also took computers and several items from the house.

Noppawan, who is Thai, and her father were released about eight hours later.

Noppawan Bunluesilp, wife of British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall, holds her son as she leaves a Bangkok police station on Friday

British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall holds up a photo of his wife Noppawan Bunluesilp at a hotel room in Hong Kong

Marshall said in his Facebook post that he believes the pictures of the crown prince at the airport are 'genuine'

Her release 'is very encouraging news but I remain very concerned that she has faced this ordeal. She is innocent and plays no part in my journalism,' said Marshall in a statement issued from Hong Kong, where he currently is.

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak told reporters that Noppawan had been detained in connection with photos that Marshall had posted on his social media, and which were 'deemed inappropriate.'

Under Thailand's strict 'lese majeste' law, criticism of the monarchy is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Lese majeste prosecutions have soared under the arch-royalist junta that seized power two years ago and styles itself as a defender of the monarchy.

Local and foreign media based inside the country must routinely self-censor to avoid falling foul of the law.

The prince's father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, is ailing in a hospital, putting the monarchy under stress as the country considers the prospect of its first royal succession since 1946.

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak stands with Noppawan 'Ploy' Bunluesilp (left), wife of British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall

Noppawan 'Ploy' Bunluesilp, wife of British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall, prepares to leave a Bangkok police station after police raided her home

Thitiraj initially said officers had determined that the photos published on Bild's website were doctored, and that Marshall and two Thais, whom he did not name, were responsible for creating and posting fake photos on social media.

However, when questioned further by a reporter, he hedged his assertion, saying that 'whether or not they were doctored is not important  he should not have posted them in the first place.'

Detectives said on Friday that the pictures were fake and violated the kingdom's royal defamation law.

On Friday morning the online article on Bild was blocked in Thailand for carrying 'inappropriate content'.

Marshall, who used to be based in Bangkok, is a frequent critic of the Thai monarchy and the military government that has ruled since a 2014 coup. Marshall and his wife have not lived in Thailand since 2011, but he continues to write about the country and is banned from entering it.

Speaking to reporters after it was decided to release Noppawan, Thitiraj said police had always believed her 'to be innocent of her husband's crimes, but as police, we must follow the evidence.' He said Friday's actions gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence.

'She still is Thai and she still respects the Royal institution and she has nothing to do with it,' he said.

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak (second right) watches Noppawan 'Ploy' Bunluesilp (center) as she address the media while leaving a Bangkok police station

Noppawan 'Ploy' Bunluesilp, wife of British journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall, carries her three-year-old son after being released from custody

Marshall said Noppawan, 39, who used to work for Reuters and NBC, was not involved in his journalism.

'If Thai police believe that I have broken Thai law they should seek my extradition to Thailand via legitimate international legal challenges. It is unacceptable to harass an innocent woman simply because she is married to me,' Marshall, who also used to work for Reuters, said in his statement.

Lt. Gen. Thitiraj said police won't issue an arrest warrant for Marshall because he is not in Thailand and the matter would have to be discussed with other nations. He said her hoped Marshall would stop his 'movement' to criticize the monarchy.

'Andrew is the only foreigner who has consistently criticized the institution for four to five years now, and he hasn't stopped. He is the only one who has consistently attacked the institution.'
The first pictures have emerged of a Brit whose body police hope to find during the last scheduled day of a week-long river search in Lisbon.

Nishanthan Gnanathas, 32, was last seen on Saturday after falling into the River Tagus from a chartered yacht in what Portuguese police have described as a 'prank gone wrong'.

The Imperial College London graduate, who worked as a risk manager for city investment firm Millennium Partners, is said to have hit his head by accident as he wrestled with a friend who was trying to push him into the water and gone overboard 'unconscious'.

Nishanthan Gnanathas, 32, was last seen on Saturday after falling into the River Tagus from a chartered yacht in what Portuguese police have described as a 'prank gone wrong'

The pal and another man dived into the river after the strong swimmer failed to surface but couldn't find him.

A major sea and air search involving police vessels and an Air Force helicopter was launched which has been ongoing all week on a scaled-down version.

Lisbon-based Maritime Police chief Malaquais Dominguez said he planned to halt the search by nightfall today if he failed to find Nishanthan's body but said he still hoped to recover it if strong currents had not taken it out to sea.

Nishanthan was part of a group of 12 Brits and an Australian who had hired a sailing boat as part of a stag weekend away for a four-hour trip on Lisbon's River Tagus, a tributary of the Atlantic.

They had anchored the vessel to enjoy a light lunch when he went overboard just after midday on Saturday.

The Imperial College London graduate, pictured here centre in the blue and white shirt from a previous boys holiday, who worked as a risk manager for city investment firm Millennium Partners, is said to have hit his head by accident as he wrestled with a friend who was trying to push him into the water and gone overboard 'unconscious'

The family of Nishanthan, from Sutton, south London, pictured here centre in the blue jumper on a different skiing holiday, are understood to have been told it was an accident and no-one will end up being charged

The friend identified as the person who pushed Nishanthan, also a 32-year-old Brit, has been made an arguido or official suspect pending an ongoing criminal probe by a court in the nearby resort of Cascais.

However the family of Nishanthan, from Sutton, south London, are understood to have been told it was an accident and no-one will end up being charged.

Nishanthan's dad Packianathur, a 64-year-old-born Sri Lankan who emigrated to the UK 40 years ago with wife Mary, 62, jetted to Portugal on Sunday with a brother after learning of the accident and stayed in Lisbon till Wednesday after being questioned by police.

The unnamed Brit who was made an arguido is also thought to have flown back to Britain after being told he was under no obligation to remain in Portugal while the criminal probe continued.

He is understood to be subject to 'terms of identity and residence' restrictions.

These are automatically applied to an arguido under Portuguese law, and require them to give police their address and notify officers if they are away from home for more than five days.

Nishanthan, pictured left with a friend on an another boys holiday, was part of a group of 12 Brits and an Australian who had hired a sailing boat as part of a stag weekend away for a four-hour trip on Lisbon's River Tagus, a tributary of the Atlantic

The McCanns were subject to the same restrictions when they were made arguidos over the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.

Police have concluded in a report sent to the investigating court that the missing man accidentally hit his head as he was pushed and plunged into the water 'unconscious and without a life jacket.'

Maritime Police chief Mr Dominguez said earlier this week statements taken from witnesses had enabled them to 'determine that the incident was the result of a prank gone wrong.'

A Brit allegedly pushed a stag do friend off a boat (pictured) on a Lisbon river while he was 'unconscious and without a life jacket', it emerged

Speaking yesterday he said he had no doubt the tragedy would 'haunt the victim's friends for the rest of their lives' as he revealed the search had been downscaled and would probably be suspended later today.

He said: 'I have one boat now actively searching for the missing man so the search has been downscaled in terms of both manpower and resources.

'I will probably call the active search off at nightfall on Friday if we fail to find his body.

'Sadly I know we are searching for a body now and have no hopes of finding him alive after all this time.

'My worst fear is that it has been taken out to sea which is something that could happen with the currents over a period of days.

'I obviously retain hope that we can recover his body and return it to his family to give them some peace.

'I have only once failed to find someone's body in these sorts of circumstances and I want to make sure this is not the second time.

'His relatives were in Portugal but left on Wednesday although I am still in contact with them.

'I am not sure what the situation is with his friends but the arguido was under no obligation to remain in Portugal and could have left the country.'

A major sea and air rescue was launched after the 32-year-old went overboard in the area around Alges, Portugal. Pictured is the back of the boat the stag group had chartered

A helicopter crew pictured on Monday scouring the water for the missing Brit

Stressing the police investigation had concluded the Brit had gone overboard and disappeared in a tragic accident, he added: 'There had been no excessive drinking.

'The only intention here was to give a friend a soaking by putting him in the water. His family said he was a good swimmer.

'The friends' bad luck was that he hit his head as he was pushed in and was knocked out.

'When they saw he didn't come back up, two of them including the one who allegedly pushed him dived into the water to try to find him but couldn't.

'I have no doubt they will live with this terrible moment for the rest of their lives and that it was an accident and there was absolutely no intention to cause the missing man any harm.

'But the matter is out of my hands now and it is up to the courts to decide what steps should be taken.'
She said: 'To be able to tell Annabelle that I love her is very emotional'

This is the heart-warming moment a deaf baby heard her mother's voice for the very first time.

Born profoundly deaf, Annabelle Lawrence received two hearing aids on Wednesday and when they were turned on she couldn't hide her excitement.

When her mother Sarah Jo asked her if she could hear, the three-month-old broke into a massive gummy smile.

Pure joy: Sarah Jo, from Boise, Idaho spoke to her daughter and Annabelle's eyes opened wide as she realized she was listening to her mother speak

Sarah Jo, from Boise, Idaho then asked again and Annabelle's eyes opened wide as she realized she was listening to her mother speak.

Sarah Jo said: 'Everything has been so overwhelming.

'To be able to tell Annabelle that I love her and know she hears me is very emotional.

'You could see how excited she was to be able to hear. I can't stop talking to her.

'Whenever I'm doing the dishes or putting a wash on I give her a running commentary.

'I want her to be able to catch up on the last three months.'

The video also shows the audiologist from Idaho Elks Hearing and Balance Center, Boise, continuing with tests to determine to what level Annabelle's hearing is working.

Elation: Born profoundly deaf, Annabelle Lawrence received two hearing aids on Wednesday and when they were turned on she couldn't hide her excitement

Annabelle's hearing aids are temporary as she will have cochlear implants put in when she is nine months old

When she heard clapping, she started to look a little perplexed and turned her head a full 90 degrees searching for the origins.

Annabelle's hearing aids are temporary as she will have cochlear implants put in when she is nine months old.

Her current hearing aids enable her to hear sufficiently as the auditory nerve in her brain is functioning perfectly.

Sarah Jo added: 'At the moment she is really tired.

'I think hearing for the first time means her brain is working extra hard to understand what is happening.

'She is napping much longer than she did before to recuperate.
Passengers took to Twitter to vent their anger after they were left waiting

The flight was first delayed and then cancelled over the incident

A holiday jet was cancelled last night after the pilot was taken from the plane after allegations he fought with a member of ground crew.

The 9:20pm Aegean Airlines flight from Gatwick to Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete was first delayed and then scrapped after the alleged fight last night.

Passengers said they saw the pilot being walked off the plane by police shortly before the flight was due to take off.

An Aegean Air pilot was arrested after an apparent fight with a member of ground crew yesterday. File photo

Passengers were reportedly told of the row between the pilot and a dispatcher, someone responsible to sending off a plane off and advising on a route.

Dimitra Chaloglou tweeted: '@aegeanairlines flight A3425 delayed for 30' because the pilot had an argument with the dispatcher. Is this for real?'

Samantha Strickley posted: 'My Flight cancelled with Aegean airlines because pilot had a fight with dispatches.'

Sussex police have confirmed an arrest was made and they are still investigating the incident at the airport's South Terminal.

A spokesman said: 'Shortly after 9pm on Thursday, 21 July, police were called to the South Terminal at Gatwick Airport following an allegation of assault by a member of airline crew.

'The incident is alleged to have occurred on an aircraft, however no passengers were on board at the time.'

Passengers took to Twitter to express their anger at the delays to and then cancellation of their flight
The mother of the man who shot and killed three law-enforcement officers in Baton Rouge said her son would 'pretty much lose it' when he heard about a black man being shot by police in what he considered an unlawful manner.

Corine Woodley told PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley on Thursday that son Gavin Long rented a car several times and drove to locations where black men had been shot by police and would tell her: 'Somebody has to do something.'

Police gunned down Long, a 29-year-old black man from Kansas City, Missouri, after he shot and killed three officers and wounded three others during a shootout Sunday.

Woodley also brought in two diaries written by Long, and one extract reveals that he viewed his actions as necessary to 'create substantial change within America's police force.'

Corine Woodley, left, the mother of Gavin Long, the Iraq war veteran who shot and killed three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, La., tells PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley that her son suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder

Police gunned down Gavin Long (pictured on YouTube in July) a 29-year-old black man from Kansas City, Missouri, after he shot and killed three officers and wounded three others during a shootout Sunday

Long (pictured on surveillance Sunday carrying a weapon in Baton Rouge before he ambushed law enforcement officers fatally shooting multiple officers and injuring several others before he was killed

Woodley said during the interview taped in Los Angeles that she believes Long, an Iraq war veteran, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and he once said he thought the CIA was following him.

She brought a letter she said he received from the Department of Veterans Affairs denying her son's request for treatment of PTSD (Posttraumatic stress disorder) in 2013 on grounds that the disorder wasn't related to his military service.

The letter was shown to an Associated Press reporter but could not be independently verified.

Long spent five years in the Marine Corps. He served one tour in Iraq before being honorably discharged. His occupational expertise was listed as a 'data network specialist.'

Although he never saw combat, there was 'shooting all around' where he was stationed, his mother said.

Veterans Health Administration records show a number of contacts with Long from 2008 to 2013, with the last known encounter with the VA in August 2013, according to a statement from the VA this week.

The statement said the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prohibits the VA from disclosing any additional information.

Woodley said during the interview that she believes Long, an Iraq war veteran, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and he once said he thought the CIA was following him

Long spent five years in the Marine Corps and although he never saw combat, there was 'shooting all around' where he was stationed, his mother (pictured left) said

Long (left and right) had an active social media presence, where he adopted the persona of Cosmo Setepenra, and passed himself off as a life coach, author and radio host who broadcast his own podcasts

Long was armed with two rifles and a pistol and wearing a ski mask when he ambushed the officers near a gas station and convenience store.

Two Baton Rouge police officers  32-year-old Montrell Jackson and 41-year-old Matthew Gerald  and 45-year-old East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office Deputy Brad Garafola were killed in the shooting.

'My heart bleeds for the families (of the officers), more so than Gavin,' his mother said. 'I know Gavin; I know he did it. He didn't see any way out (from) the vicious killings from the police officers. He actually felt that was the only thing he could do to help the situation.'

She also brought two diaries she said her troubled son wrote  one in 2014 and one in 2015  that include rambling thoughts on philosophy, religion and politics.

At one point, he wrote: 'If you are not going to let me live, then you are going to have to kill me.'

The diaries are in addition to a self-described, handwritten manifesto that an Ohio man says was emailed to him by Long less than an hour before the shootings.

In the letter, Long said he expected people who knew him wouldn't believe he would commit 'such horrendous acts of violence.' He wrote that he viewed his actions as necessary to 'create substantial change within America's police force.'

Woodley also brought two diaries she said her troubled son wrote  one in 2014 and one in 2015  that include rambling thoughts on philosophy, religion and politics. Pictured: An extract from the diary

East Baton Rouge Sheriff's deputies release balloons at a noon vigil organized by municipal court workers in downtown Baton Rouge, Wednesday

Photographs of the three-page letter show it was signed by 'Cosmo,' the first name of an alias used by Long, and the pictures were attached to an email sent from a Google address that Long used.

The Associated Press obtained the photographs of the letter Wednesday from Yarima Karama, a Columbus, Ohio, musician who said he didn't know Long personally but received several emails from him after Long began commenting on Karama's YouTube videos in March.

The AP was not able to conclusively verify Long sent the photos himself from his Google account.

Metadata reviewed from the three photos indicates they were snapped shortly before 8 a.m. on the day of the shooting using a Motorola Android cellphone, but both photos and time stamps can be modified.

Karama said he provided a copy of the letter to FBI agents who interviewed him at his home Wednesday. Louisiana State Police Maj. Doug Cain said authorities were trying to verify that Long wrote the letter.

Brad Garafola (right) and at least two other Baton Rouge law enforcement officers investigating a report of a man with an assault rifle were killed Sunday, July 17. East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Sgt. Bruce Simmons (left) shakes hands with a a well-wisher as he leaves Baton Rouge General Hospital Thursday, after recovering from wounds received during an attack on officers last Sunday
Officials admit that the likelihood of recovering the doomed plane is fading

If there is no new evidence on its location, the search will be 'suspended'

Ministers look set to call off search by December after last area is scoured

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be 'suspended' if the plane is not found in the current search area as hope fades for the victims' families.

Ministers downplayed claims they had been searching the wrong area for two years citing there was not enough evidence to suggest the pilot glided to the sea instead of plummeting, which would have changed the dimensions of its possible location.

'With less than 10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles) of the high priority search area remaining to be searched, ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading,' the three nations' transport ministers said after a meeting in Malaysia as the Indian Ocean continued to be scoured.

The current search has been hampered by bad weather, but is expected to finish in December.

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The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be 'suspended' if the plane is not found in the current search area, a statement issued to the next of kin seen by Reuters said on Friday

Ministers downplayed claims they had been searing the wrong area for two years citing there was not enough evidence to suggest the pilot glided to the sea instead of plummeting, which would have changed the dimensions of its possible location

Ministers from Malaysia, China and Australia met in Kuala Lumpur today to discuss the future of the search in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

The statement from a next of kin of one of the victims, said ministers had agreed that if the plane is not found in current search area, and in the absence of new credible evidence on its location, the search 'would not end, but be suspended'.

Should that be the case, ministers have said all data would be released, opening the door for private companies to pick up where they have left off.

MH370 disappeared during a flight from the Malaysian capital to Beijing in March 2014, carrying 239 people.

Almost $180 million ($135 million) has been spent on an underwater search spanning 120,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean, the most expensive in aviation history.

The search, originally scheduled to end in June, has been hampered by bad weather.

A map showing the area where underwater investigators have been searching and now believe it could be the wrong place and where debris has been found on La Reunion. Searchers have yet to suggest a new search are

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said: 'In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 square kilometer (46,332 sq mile) search area',

He said suspension of the search does not mean an end to it, but he did acknowledge the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading'.

'Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps,' he said, reading out from a joint statement.

It is believed to have turned back and dropped into the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where the search has been concentrated.

Liow said the current search is being hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, but still it would end by December.

Investigators at a Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 say they believe the plane may have glided down with a pilot at the controls rather than dived in its final moments.

The latest theory means that search teams admit they many have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for the past two years looking for the jet.

Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

Top searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 say they believe the plane may have glided down rather than dived in the final moments, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for two years

Police carry a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion, in the east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion

WASHED UP DEBRIS: THE SEARCH FOR MISSING MH370 The first piece of debris believed to have come from MH370 was discovered last July on a beach on Reuinion island in the Indian Ocean. Experts believed that the debris was one of the plane's flaperon and that other debris that washed up on the shore was suitcase items from China and Indonesia. Later that year in December a grey piece of debris was found in southern Mozambique thought to belong to the aircraft. Two months later an object with the words 'no step' then washed up off the coast of the African country. Then in March this year, an engine part was found in South Africa while in Apirl the segment of a flap track fairing and part of a horizontal stabiliser were found off Mozambique. Officials say it was almost certainly from MH370. Meanwhile on Monday, investigators in Australia on said they were examining a wing flap found last month on an East African island The 'large piece of aircraft debris' arrived at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau headquarters in the capital, Canberra, for examination. Advertisement

The new theory about the doomed jet comes just days after officials said they would be examining a wing flap found last month on an East African island that is suspected to be from the missing Malaysian airliner.

The theory would mean that search teams would have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for the past two years looking for the jet.

The new theory about the doomed jet came just days after officials said they would be examining a wing flap found last month on an East African island that is suspected to be from the missing Malaysian airliner.

However, it is not believed that the discovery sparked the latest theory as Australian analysts were only given the debris to examine on Monday, while it is a Dutch team searching the ocean.

This theory was downplayed by officials today and Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai insisted they believed they were searching in the right place.

'We do not have any evidence to confirm that it was controlled ditching,' Liow said.

A Western Australia University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi , who has done extensive drift modeling, said the plane could have crashed slightly north of the current search area.

'The best guess that we think is that it's probably around the Broken Ridge region, which is slightly to the north of the area that they're looking at,' Pattiaratchi said.

Drift modeling was not used to define the search area because no parts of Flight 370 had been found before a wing flap washed up on La Reunion island off the African coast a year ago. The search area was determined by analysis of satellite signals that the plane emitted in its final hours.

But the ATSB has previously said wreckage found on the southwestern shores of the Indian Ocean was consistent with the plane crashing in the expansive search area.

Pattiaratchi's modeling was based on how long the first piece of confirmed Flight 370 wreckage took to reach La Reunion, an island where confirmed plane debris was found, and his team's calculations of the effects of currents, wind and waves on drifting debris put the crash site just north of the current search area.

The families of passengers who went missing on MH370 hold up signs demanding to know what has happened to their loved ones

Representatives from Voice 370, a group representing family members of the plane's 239 passengers and crew, met with Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and urged the governments to suspend the search until new funds can be raised.

They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers.
A new documentary about Pauline Hanson reveals the One Nation leader received vile hate mail and was under 24-hour surveillance.

Ms Hanson received letters in late 1997 that threatened her mother and contained death threats.

'I will rape your mother and your kids and I will blame the Asians,' one letter read.

Another read: 'Pauline you are my favourite I want your blood.'

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Excerpts taken from the Pauline Hanson documentary, due to be released on July 31, reveal the extent of hate mail she received, her ghost-written book and that she had more security than John Howard

Ms Hanson is pictured delivering her maiden speech on 10 September 1996 to the House of Representatives, which attracted significant attention for her views on immigration and indigenous Australians

Ms Hanson is pictured in her fish and chip shop in Ipswich, whihc she owned and ran before her foray into politics, when she entered as a member of Ipswich City Council in 1994

She was also referred to as an 'f***ing w*****' with people saying: 'I will marry who I want be they back or yellow or pink or green and if I ever hear that my kids are called mongrels, you'll be dead you bloody fish shop owner'.

The Pauline Hanson: Please Explain! documentary also reveals that by the end of 1997 Ms Hanson was under 24/7 surveillance and at one point, she had more security than former Prime Minister John Howard.

Police installed cameras and bullet proof class in her office in Ipswich and all her mail was checked before it reached her.

Ms Hanson also believed at one point that she had a $10,000 bounty on her head from Vietnamese people.

The documentary mentions the release of her book in 1997 titled Pauline Hanson - the Truth: On Asian Immigration, the Aboriginal Question, the Gun Debate and the Future of Australia.

Ms Hanson admitted the book was not even written by her and the first time she saw it was 'after it was edited and published'.

Spin doctor for the One Nation party David Oldfield (left) has repeatedly denied claims he had an affair with Ms Hanson (right). The pair are pictured together in 1998

Ms Hanson (pictured during a news conference in Brisbane in 2016) has blamed Tony Abbott and John Howard for her imprisonment for electoral fraud for 11 weeks in 2003

The book suggested things like 'Aboriginals were cannibals who ate each other' and 'the world will be ruled by lesbian Asian cyborgs as part of a conspiracy to destroy white males'.

It takes a look at Ms Hanson's two spin doctors with the first, a crocodile-hunter, goldminer and ex PNG parliamentarian John Pasquarelli, who is described as having 'a bullish ability to get right wing politicians onto the air'.

The second is Tony Abbott's former advisor David Oldfield.

The two were largely attributed to the success of Pauline Hanson's media campaigns.

The documentary also references Pauline Hanson's book released in 1997 which was ghost-written, with the One Nation leader saying she only saw it after it was edited and published

In the documentary, Ms Hanson claims she had an affair with David Oldfield.

But he has repeatedly denied this for the past two decades.

The only point in the documentary where Ms Hanson becomes emotional, is when she watches footage of her daughter telling her to stay strong during her stint in jail for electoral fraud.

Ms Hanson also said she blamed the two Liberal former prime ministers for the time she spent in jail.

'I blame Tony Abbott, John Howard for my imprisonment and no one will ever change my opinion about that,' she said.

In the documentary Mr Howard labelled her opinion regarding their involvement in her jail sentence as 'an absolutely ludicrous conspiracy theory'.
Jeremy Corbyn was forced to deny being a bully today after a string of new claims were levelled against him.

More than 40 female and ethnic minority MPs today wrote to the embattled Labour leader protesting against campaigns of intimidation and harassment carried out by his supporters.

And Mr Corbyn himself today faced accusations from another MP that he had threatened to call the politician's father to complain about critical comments in an interview.

Angela Eagle, a former leadership contenders, claimed Mr Corbyn was 'stirring' up trouble and Owen Smith, who is trying to oust the Labour leader, said his rival allowed a 'culture of bullying.

Mr Corbyn today told Sky News: 'I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues. I regret the language that has been used by all of them.

'I don't do any abuse, I don't do any bullying, I don't allow it to be done in any of my campaigning teams.'

Jeremy Corbyn denied being a bully today after his leadership launch, pictured, contained a threat of re-selection for MPs and a Labour politician claimed Mr Corbyn had threatened to call his dad over critical remarks

The beleaguered Labour leader continued: 'And I'm very surprised and actually very disappointed that they should say that because politics has to be about bringing people in and I think we have done that spectacularly well.

'We are now the largest membership we have ever had. That's good. It's not a threat it's a good thing that people come together and want to debate and be active in politics and our society. Isn't that good for democracy?'

In a letter to Mr Corbyn, signed by 44 colleague, Labour MP Paula Sherriff said: 'It is abundantly clear that MPs and politicians, as public figures, are the targets of threats, undue vilification, intimidation, abise and vitriolic rhetoric.

'We understand the leadership does not have total control over those who choose to threaten and abuse others but that does not mean that more cannot be done to safeguard our female colleagues.

'Jeremy, this is being done in your name.'

Mr Smith told Sky News this afternoon that 'under his leadership, there has been a culture of bullying, I fear'.

He added: 'Jeremy, of course, always says that he doesn't condone it but somehow under his leadership - we can't deny the facts that this wasn't something that we saw in the Labour Party before Jeremy Corbyn became leader - and it's now become commonplace in the Labour Party.

'So something has gone badly wrong under his watch.'

CORBYN VS SMITH: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith are head to head in a battle over the future of the Labour Party. What happens next? The two candidates are due to embark upon their campaigns around the country. Much like last year, there are expected to be many hustings and rallies - but regular constituency Labour Party meetings are banned.

On Monday August 22, ballot papers will be issued to all eligible voters. The election is a one member, one vote poll. With with only two candidates is a simple race for votes.

On September 21, the deadline for returning votes is reached.

Labour will hold a special conference on Saturday, September 24, the eve of its main party conference, to announce the winner. Advertisement

The latest round of troubles for Mr Corbyn came after he was accused of threatening re-selection for all MPs ahead of the next election.

Mr Corbyn called for a 'full selection process with every constituency' in his leadership campaign launch yesterday, warning Labour MPs a boundary review of the Commons would mean each constituency would need looking at.

The remarks were widely seen as a threat to the many Labour MPs who oppose Mr Corbyn's leadership but chief whip Dame Rosie Winterton last night stepped in to reassure the MPs Mr Corbyn had no power over selections.

The Chief Whip said she was in charge of dealing with the boundary review, which is reducing the Commons from 650 to 600 seats - potentially wiping out 20 Labour seats.

As the latest developments emerged, MP Conor McGinn revealed what he claimed was a 'bullying' campaign by Mr Corbyn which even included a threat from the Labour leader to phone his dad to complain about critical comments in an interview.

At his campaign launch, Mr Corbyn said: 'There will be a full selection process with every constituency.

'But the sitting MP will have an opportunity to put their name forward so there will be a full and open selection process for every constituency party throughout the whole of the UK.'

In her note to MPs, revealed by the Guardian, Dame Rosie said: 'Colleagues will be aware that I was appointed to lead on the boundary review and that the national executive committee has already agreed the existing rules and procedure for the selection of MPs in the event of boundary changes.'

Conor McGinn, left, today accused Mr Corbyn of threatening to phone his father over critical comments while Paula Sherriff, right, sent a letter signed by 44 MPs protesting harassment by Labour MPs

Mr Smith condemned Mr Corbyn's remarks. He said: 'It's a matter for the NEC, not for the leader of the Labour party. The rules are set by the NEC.'

The claims by Mr McGinn will come as a further blow to Mr Corbyn's already shattered credibility among Labour MPs.

The St Helens North MP claimed Mr Corbyn overreacted to remarks he made in an interview with a magazine, when he warned the Labour leader needed to reach out of his 'comfort zone'.

In a column for Politics Home, Mr McGinn said Mr Corbyn had been so enraged by the remarks - which were published while Mr McGinn was in Washington DC - he threatened to fire him before demanding an apology.

In an extraordinary letter, 44 Labour MPs demanded Mr Corbyn stamp out abusive behaviour - claiming it was being encouraged by shadow chancellor John McDonnell and being done in the leader's name

Mr McGinn said he refused to say sorry for the remarks but did text the Labour leader to make clear he had intended no offence.

Mr McGinn said: 'The following week, on my return, I again asked to meet Jeremy. I received no response.

'I was then informed by colleagues in the Whips Office of something that I have not made public until now, frankly because I find it shocking and embarrassing, and almost unbelievable.

'It transpired that Jeremy, in deliberations about how to respond to my interview, had said that he intended to ring my father to discuss it with him and ask him to speak to me about it.

'The Leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his Dad.

'Jeremy does not know my father so I can only presume that because of the much-publicised fact that my father was a Sinn Fein councillor, Jeremy felt that they would share a political affinity and was proposing to use that to ask my father to apply pressure on me.'

Dame Rosie Winterton, left, has reassured Labour MPs they are not facing the threat of de-selection despite Mr Corbyn's remarks. Angela Eagle, centre, and Harriet Harman, right, both also renewed criticism of the Labour leader today

Mr McGinn said while the call was never made he felt the episode was 'an attempt to bully me in to submission because he didn't like something I said'.

A spokesman for the Labour leader insisted the account was 'untrue'.

Owen Smith is attempting to oust Mr Corbyn in a summer leadership contest and today claimed 'something has gone badly wrong' on his watch

In other developments, former leadership contender Angela Eagle accused Mr Corbyn of 'stirring' things after she cancelled constituency surgeries due to abuse directed at her.

The former Labour leadership contender said she had been advised by police not to hold the public advice sessions in her Wallasey constituency.

But Merseyside Police said the decision to cancel surgeries was a matter for the MP and her staff.

Ms Eagle said a 'permissive' environment had been allowed to develop where MPs opposed to Mr Corbyn faced abuse.

She told the Daily Telegraph: 'I think he has contributed to this. It's all very well to condemn it, but there's a permissive environment. You can make any number of ritual condemnations as you like but you have got to be judged by your actions, not just words.

'He has been stirring, he needs to be held to account. We have contacted the police and they have said we should cancel surgeries for safety reasons

'I'm afraid for my staff. It's them that have been up there not me. It's them that have had to field the calls.'

Former acting leader Harriet Harman today said: 'It is not clear whether what Jeremy Corbyn was saying was that there is going to be new measures in relation to preventing current MPs standing again as Labour MPs at the next election, or whether he was describing the current system.

'But either way it more of driving a wedge between different parts of the party, setting the members against MPs, setting MPs against members. One of the responsibilities of leadership is to bring people together not to set people against each other.
Researchers believe they have found the location of Kim Jong un's top secret uranium enrichment plant which is hidden in a mountain near an airbase in northern North Korea.

The facility, which is vital to develop weapons grade uranium is believed to have been developed in an underground factory which was previously used to manufacture aircraft parts.

US experts using commercial satellite technology claim they have found the top secret lab used by North Korean nuclear scientists.

Kim Jong-un has hidden a nuclear weapons facility in a mountain in North Korea near the Chinese border

North Korea first revealed the existence of a gas centrifuge enrichment programme at its Yongbyon in 2010

Kim Jong-un has defied the international community with his continued work on developing nuclear weapons

The report by the Institute for Science and International Security said there has always been doubt about whether North Korea has disclosed all of its nuclear facilities. Confirming their location would be critical to the success of any future agreement to freeze and dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program, it said.

The site, 27 miles from the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, may have played a key role in development of centrifuges that refine uranium hexafluoride gas into low-enriched and highly enriched uranium, the report said.

David Albright, president of the institute said: 'It is necessary to identify where North Korea enriches uranium and part of that is understanding where it has done it in the past.'

What may once have been the early centrifuge research and development facility is believed to have been inside an aircraft part factory inside a mountain next to Panghyon Air Base.

Experts claim they have located Kim Jong -un's secret uranium enrichment facility near the Chinese border

The facility is hidden under the mountain to protect it from possible air attack and effective surveillance

Report author David Albright said it is vital for the international community to inspect the facility

It was located using commercial satellite imagery, the report said.

It was unclear whether the aircraft part factory was still operational but information from defectors indicates there may be three production-scale centrifuge manufacturing plants operating in the country although their locations have not been confirmed, said Albright.

NORTH KOREA CLAIMS IT HAS NO PLANS TO NUKE LONDON North Korea has attacked Prime Minister Theresa May over her comments that Kim Jong-un's nuclear ambitions pose a threat to the UK. In a statement following the parliamentary debate on the renewal of Trident, a Pyongyang official told the KCNA news agency: 'It is a pity that the UK makes an excuse for the building of [nuclear submarines] by finding fault with the DPRK, thousands [of] kilometres away from it. 'The DPRK does not regard the UK's nuclear weapons as a threat to it. Therefore, the UK has no need to regard the DPRK's nukes as a threat to it.' Advertisement

Tensions have been escalating between North Korea and South Korea, the United States and Japan over Pyongyang's fourth underground nuclear test in January and a series of missile launches.

North Korea's nuclear program is based on highly enriched uranium and plutonium separated from spent reactor fuel rods.

The reclusive government, which for more than a decade denied having a gas centrifuge program, in November 2010 revealed the existence of a production-scale gas centrifuge plant at Yongbyon but insisted it had no other such facilities.

In June 2000 a Japanese newspaper quoted Chinese sources as saying a facility was located inside Mount Chonma, the report said. Information recently obtained from 'knowledgeable government officials' suggested the undeclared facility was associated with an underground aircraft parts factory, it said.

Working with Allsource Analysis, which interprets satellite imagery, the institute determined it most likely was Panghyon Aircraft Plant, which made parts for Soviet-supplied fighters.

The report quoted an unidentified official as saying the site could have held between 200 and 300 centrifuges.

The dictator, pictured, has ordered a number of underground nuclear tests despite international condemnation
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More than 1000 migrants from Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan have been evicted from a makeshift camp in Paris, a day after it emerged the sprawling jungle camp in Calais is now home to more people than ever.

Between 1,200 and 1,400 people, mostly men, were removed from their tents near the metro stations Jaures and Colonel Fabien in the French capital early on Friday morning.

Some men were pictured covering their noses as they were lined-up alongside the unsanitary camp where people had been living without toilets underneath an elevated railway.

Among the large group of men were one hundred single women, children and families who were given priority to board buses to take the migrants outside of the city to reception centres in Ile-de-France and the provinces, Le Monde reports.

Security forces were forced to use tear gas to push back the baying crowds as they waited to be moved on from the area which featured hundreds of tents, mattresses and makeshift cardboard beds.

The head of the French Immigration and Integration Office, Didier Leschi, said some were passing through France and were planning to seek asylum in other European countries.

Migrants sat on the floor as they were evicted from a makeshift camp by French gendarmes, on July 22, in the French capital

Struggles broke out between men and the security forces as they rushed to board buses to take them outside of the capital

Others, however, had already been granted asylum in France 'but cannot find work and don't know where to live.'

Last weekend, riot police intervened at the site to break up a fight between some of the camp's occupants.

Migrant support groups complain of a dire shortage of accommodation for asylum-seekers, saying the 20,000 spaces created in the past two years are insufficient in the face of a constant stream of new arrivals.

Paris police have been battling the makeshift camps for months, with new illegal sites being built at the same rate they as existing ones are being evacuated and torn down.

The operation in northern Paris was the 26th of its kind over the past year in the city.

In May, the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo announced plans to create a refugee camp with proper facilities, scheduled to be up and running in September.

The other main destination in France for refugees and migrants is the northern port of Calais, where thousands of people are camped out in the hope of stowing away in a truck bound for Britain.

Pierre Henry, head of France Terre d'Asile, a charity that helps refugees and asylum seekers, called for other French cities to step up to the plate.

'We need (accommodation) centres in all the regional capitals, to receive the refugees and help them get their bearings, so that people are not drawn just to Paris and Calais,' he said.

In May, French police tore down and evicted 500 migrants from an illegal camp under the Stalingrad metro in east Paris for the third time in two months.

A picture shows the empty tents after the evacuations took place early on Friday morning. Litter and cardboard was left strewn across the floor as they men were told to leave their temporary homes

Between 1,200 and 1,400 people, mostly men, from Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan, were in this camp near the metro stations Jaures and Colonel Fabien

The gendarmes struggled to hold back the crowds as they made their way towards the waiting buses with their few belongings

And in March, nearly a thousand people were removed from the camp, which had mushroomed in the wake of the destruction of part of the Jungle camp in Calais.

The latest camp clearance comes as the Calais refugee camp nicknamed the 'Jungle' is revealed to be bigger then ever - despite hundreds being evicted just five months ago.

But despite talk of dismantling new aerial photographs appear to show it has grown, having moved to an adjacent field, as a new census claimed the population had swollen to above 7,000 for the first time.

There has been a 15 per cent rise month-on-month despite predictions that fewer people would travel during the holy month of Ramadan.

The increased border security between Turkey and the EU and continued attempts from both French and British authorities to discourage people from making the journey have also failed to stop more refugees arriving at the camp.

One group of men appeared to pose for a selfie (left) as they waited on the ground surrounded by gendarmes during the eviction

A man appears to be crushed as he tries to break free from the barriers held in place by the gendarmes pushing bins against metal bars

Paris police have been battling the makeshift camps for months, with new illegal sites being built at the same rate they as existing ones are being evacuated and torn down

On the Boulevard De La Villette migrants waited under the bridge during the eviction which began at around 6.30am

Some men were pictured holding their noses as the smell of the unsanitary camp became too much

The 100 single women, children and families among the crowd of migrants were given priority to board the buses

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo was previously forced to admit defeat in the fight against the shanty towns, saying that the current situation is no longer 'tenable'

Charities Help Refugees and LAuberge des Migrants say the population now totals 7,307. Nearly 50 people per day are arriving at the tent community and the camps population is expected to exceed 10,000 before the end of September if this surprising rate continues.

Following the Brexit vote, the Mayor of Calais - who wants the controversial refugee camp to be removed - claimed the British government should deal with the refugee situation.

And on Thursday French President Francois Hollande urged Prime Minister Theresa May to quickly come up with a negotiating stance for Britain's departure from the European Union but agreed she needed time to trigger the formal divorce.

May, who struggled as interior minister to control migration into Britain, refused to give anything away on how she would balance voters' demands for a reduction in movement with demands from business to keep access to the EU's 500 million consumers.

Sprawling: Despite talk of dismantling the Calais 'Jungle' these new aerial photographs appear to show it is now bigger than ever

The camp appears to have moved from the adjacent field to the left of the picture to the sprawling tents seen in the field on the right

This picture was taken in last December and shows how the Calais refugee camp the 'Jungle' has moved from one field to the other

Pictured left is how the 'Jungle' looked in December and right how it looks now having been moved a short distance from its original spot

Despite talk of dismantling it these new aerial photographs appear to show the Calais camp is now bigger than ever, having moved to an adjacent field, as a new census claimed the population had swollen to above 7,000 for the first time

There has been a 15 per cent rise month-on-month despite predictions that fewer people would travel during the holy month of Ramadan

Currently border checks are conducted on the French side of the Channel.

But now the understanding, known as the Touquet agreement, between France and the UK has been called into question following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart says she will be pressing for the agreement to be suspended.

She told French broadcaster BFM TV: 'The British must take on the consequences of their choice.

'We are in a strong position to push, to press this request for a review and we are asking the President to bring his weight (to the issue).

'We must put everything on the table and there must be an element of division, of sharing.'

The refugee camp in Calais has seen a 15 per cent month-on-month rise of migrants arriving at its gates

French politicians want to abandon an agreement where UK border checks are carried out in Calais

Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart, pictured, wants to shut down the camp and let Britain deal with the refugee crisis

The majority of the 7,307 migrants living in the camp are from Afghanistan (36 per cent) and 32 per cent are from Sudan

Charities Help Refugees and LAuberge des Migrants say the population now totals 7,307

THERESA MAY ARRIVES IN FRANCE Theresa May arrived in Paris tonight for what could be stormy talks with Francois Hollande over Brexit. The French President has already said he will demand the Prime Minister 'justifies' delaying triggering the process of leaving the EU, and warned that single market access means accepting free movement rules. Mrs May was welcomed to the Elysee Palace by Mr Hollande tonight, before they began their talks. After holding a press conference they are expected to have dinner. She confirmed that the two-year Article 50 process of leaving the EU would not be triggered before the end of the year. Advertisement

There are now 761 minors living in the camp - 608 of them (80 per cent) are unaccompanied by an adult. The youngest child is just four months old, and the youngest unaccompanied child is eight years old.

According to Help Refugees and LAuberge des Migrants, these unaccompanied children entered Europe on average seven months ago and have been living in the Calais jungle for an average of nearly five months.

In February, French authorities began dismantling part of the 'Jungle' after a judge upheld a decision to evict hundreds from the sprawling centre.

Demolition crews entered the encampment and started clearing its southern part as migrants were relocated to purpose-built accommodation.

Refugee organisations said thousands had their shelters displaced and others moved into shipping containers set in a nearby park after authorities said they would use force if necessary to move the camp's inhabitants.

The latest census has reportedly revealed just how few people are staying in secured government accommodation.

Only 25 per cent of the overall population and 30 per cent of minors are in the promised houses  with the remainder staying in tents and temporary accommodation.

In February the southern part of the sprawling camp near the port of Calais was cleared

In an image taken inside the Calais camp signs show where the refugees are from and where they hope to go

There are now 761 minors living in the camp - 608 of them (80 per cent) are unaccompanied by an adult

THE BRITISH BORDER IN FRANCE: WHAT IS THE DEAL KEEPING THE JUNGLE IN CALAIS? Britain and France signed the Le Touquet treaty in 2003 amid tensions over the number of people in camps at Calais. The deal was the latest in a series that allowed Britain to carry out border checks on the French side of the Channel - meaning papers were checked there and vehicles inspected. British officials are based on the French side of the channel and cooperation around the eurotunnel terminal was stepped up last summer as the numbers trying to break into the tunnel grew. Scrapping the deal could see British border checks brought back to the English side of the Channel - potentially allowing people to reach the Kent shore to set up camp while awaiting processing. There are currently around 7,000 people at the camps with 'roads' handed British-styled names such as Queen Elizabeth II Street. Advertisement

The youngest child living inside the Calais camp is just four months old. A huge 78 per cent of minors are on their own

Help Refugees co-founder Josie Naughton said: If the camp is set to be destroyed without adequate alternatives being offered to all residents currently without secured accommodation (many of whom have already been displaced at least once) then this is truly terrible news.

Over a hundred children went unaccounted for the last time French police moved in to evict the camp. That is sure to happen again unless French and British officials work together to ensure that these children are protected, and that those who have the legal right to be reunited with immediate family in the UK have their cases expedited.

There are 10,000 children who have reportedly gone missing in Europe so far. Another eviction could add hundreds more to that devastating tally.

Charities are calling for adequate alternative accommodation to be offered to the migrants before the camp is torn down

In February, French authorities began dismantling part of the 'Jungle' after a judge upheld a decision to evict hundreds from the sprawling centre

In February demolition crews entered the jungle encampment and started clearing its southern part
GULFPORT, Mississippi -- Police say the 25-year-old man accused in a slaying at a Gulfport apartment complex initially claimed to be a witness to the crime.

The Sun Herald reports Michael Philip Peden faces a murder charge in the July 1 shooting death of 30-year-old Christopher Jerome Smith. The case was ordered sent to a Harrison County grand jury after a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Harrison County prosecuting attorney Herman Cox says Peden was the one who flagged police down and said he had seen someone kill a person and had heard the screams and gunshots.

Peden is held at the Harrison County jail on a $1 million bond.

Online jail records do not list an attorney for him.
An Indian Air Force plane carrying 29 people is missing after losing contact shortly after takeoff.

The aircraft left Chennai in Southern India at 8.30am local time and was expected to land at 11.30am in Port Blair, capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said the last contact with the plane, carrying service personnel and six crew members, was made around 15 minutes after takeoff and that a search was on.

A search operation is under way after an Indian Air Force plane carrying 29 people went missing on its way to Port Blair

Surveillance aircraft and navy and coastguard ships have begun searching for the Russian-built AN-32 military transport aircraft, which is believed to have disappeared over the Bay of Bengal.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported AN-32s can fly for four hours without refuelling.
The sword is made of the finest Damascus steel and adorned with a gold handle. It cost $1,200 when it was made, which was a sizeable sum

A rare Civil War sword belonging to a Southerner who fought for the North and went on to become the first Governor of Utah is going under the hammer next week.

Eli Houston Murray was born in Kentucky, joined the Union Army aged 17 and was awarded the sword for his bravery and gallantry at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee in December 1862.

The sword, made of German-made Damascus folded steel and adorned with gold, is estimated to be worth between $100,000 and $150,000.

Damascus steel - named for the Syrian city where the process was invented in the 3rd century - is famous for making strong, sharp swords and legend has it they can anything from a rifle barrel to a strand of hair falling on to the blade.

Murray began the war as a major in the Third Kentucky Cavalry, was promoted to colonel the following year was breveted - a promotion traditionally reserved to just before retirement - to Brigadier General in March 1865, just before the war ended.

Murray later served as governor of the Utah Territory from 1880 to 1886 and was best known for his opposition to polygamy, which was widely practised among Mormon settlers.

He died in 1896 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Brigadier General Murray's sword will go up for sale in Scottsdale, Arizona at the auction house J. Levine.

Auctioneer Josh Levine said the sword came with strong provenenance and he added: 'Every man in Murray's regiment gave a dollar for the sword, which at the time cost $1,200.'

Mr Levin said Brigadier General Murray's son Neil and his family visited Hardinburg, Kentucky in 1938 when, after signing a hotel guest register, the clerk asked if was related to Eli Murray.

Brigadier General Eli Murray, pictured, joined the Union army as a 17-year-old and was awarded the sword for his bravery at the Battle of Murfreesboro in Tennessee

When Mr Murray confirmed Eli was his father, the clerk said he had something for him.

Mr Levine said: 'A few minutes later, he presented the historic sword and uniform. More than 70 years earlier, General Murray had been a guest at the hotel after the war ended.

'He took off the uniform and sword and gave them to the hotel proprietor saying he never want to see them again.'

The Murray family was in awe and took the sword and uniform back to their home in Glendive, Montana.
Donald Trump has vowed to build a 'big, beautiful, powerful wall' spanning the 1,933 mile land border between Mexico and America, which will make crossing over an even greater challenge for illegal immigrants.

But these photographs suggest that there are bound to be some who will try.

They reveal the extraordinary lengths desperate immigrants have gone to in their bids to evade Customs and Border Protection guards undetected and start a new life in the US.

They range from the heart-breaking discovery last month of children being smuggled in hot car trunks to December's interception of a fake, but convincing, border patrol vehicle packed with immigrants.

Other attempts include a Jeep Cherokee balanced precariously atop the border fence and the infamous sight of a man sewn into a car seat.

Another astonishing smuggling bid involved a woman hiding in a car dashboard. Wall or no wall, border guards will need to keep their eyes peeled.

The infamous 2006 picture of a man discovered sewn into the upholstery of a van seat to get across Mexican/US border

Driven to desperation: Two people hidden in the engine compartment of a van. They were caught in May 2010

Illegal immigrants crammed in the back of a tractor trailer in June 2010. Donald Trump has vowed to build a 'big, beautiful, powerful wall' spanning the 1,933 mile land border between Mexico and America

Hide and found: An illegal immigrant hidden behind the back seat of a car in July 2009

Squashed: In May 2010 a woman was discovered by US border guards hidden in the dashboard of a car

Rumbled: Illegal immigrants found in compartments in the floor of a car in May 2010

Agents arrested a male subject attempting to smuggle illegal immigrants from Mexico to the US using this cloned Border Patrol Chevy Tahoe on December 10, 2015. The fake vehicle had a different bumper than the SUVs used by border agents and also did not have lights on top

Twelve people were found crammed into the back of the fake patrol vehicle
During the thousands of royal visits and engagements he has attended over the years, Prince Charles has unveiled hundreds of plaques and memorials.

But the years of practice didn't prevent him dropping a clanger yesterday as a metal plate he was revealing tumbled to the ground.

The Prince was standing alongside BBC Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison when he pulled a drape off the engraved plaque at Daneway Banks in Gloucestershire.

Prince Charles was at Daneway Banks in Gloucestershire to celebrate a conservation project yesterday

But as he pulled the sheet from the plaque, which was attached to a white board, it fell to the floor

The Prince took the mishap in his stride and laughed it off with the crowd gathered at the nature reserve

But it didn't go according to plan and the plate - which was to be unveiled before it is attached to a bench - fell off the easel onto the ground.

Ms Harrison quickly scooped it up and placed it back on the mount as Charles and the gathered crowd laughed off the misfortune.

The incident happened as the Prince of Wales was visiting a nature reserve owned by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, of which Ms Harrison is president.

His visit celebrated a successful project to preserve the critically endangered Large Blue Butterfly at the site.

Ms Harrison said: 'There has been lots of work done by lots and lots of people to get this butterfly to return but this is now a great stronghold in the county and it's great that work has paid off.

'The Prince is a great champion, a great crusader for the natural world and he personally donated to the campaign...so it personally matters to him too.'

Ellie Harrison, the presenter of TV's Countryfile, stepped forward to put the plaque back in its place

The visit was to celebrate a successful project to preserve the critically endangered Large Blue Butterfly
Commanding Officer Alan Daveney and other senior officers now face court martial following the crash

HMS Ambush was submerged and carrying out a training exercise off

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Trainee commanders may have been in control of a 1.1billion nuclear submarine when it crashed into a merchant ship during a training exercise off the coast of Gibraltar.

HMS Ambush was submerged when it suffered a 'glancing' collision with a tanker as it surfaced at around 1.30pm on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

It emerged today that, at the time of the collision, the vessel was conducting the Submarine Commanders' Course, in which some of the Navy's brightest officers are put to the test.

It is unknown whether a trainee was in command of the submarine at the time of the collision, but the Royal Navy is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the embarrassing crash.

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In the dock: HMS Ambush sits forlornly on the surface at Gibraltar today with its damaged turret covered in tarpaulin as bosses assess the repairs needed

Probe: The Ministry of Defence is investigating the incident - but refused to say who was in charge of the 1.1bn vessel when it crashed

Embarrassing: The HMS Ambush submarine (pictured after the crash) was submerged and carrying out a training exercise when it collided with the merchant vessel on Wednesday afternoon, Britain's Ministry of Defence confirmed

Hit: The Royal Navy says its newest 7,400 tonne high-tech hunter-killer submarine has 'world leading sensors' - yet it still smashed into the merchant vessel, which escaped undamaged

Location: HMS Ambush was submerged when it suffered a 'glancing' collision with a tanker off Gibraltar as it surfaced at around 1.30pm, the Ministry of Defence confirmed

A source told The Daily Telegraph: 'These people generally already have a decade's submarine experience and are aspiring to command. It's renowned for its rigour, it's a serious course.'

It also emerged this morning that the commander of the submarine could face a court martial over the incident.

Commander Alan Daveney, the commanding officer of HMS Ambush, will be among a group of senior personnel under investigation as part of an inquiry into the collision.

He has served on three other of Britain's top submarines but the Ministry of Defence refused to say who was in charge of the 1.1bn vessel when it crashed.

The Times reported he was on board the submarine at the time of the collision and an inquiry is already underway - the conclusions of the inquiry will be used to support any subsequent investigations up to court martial.

'I would be surprised if there is not a court martial as a result of this,' a submarine source told the paper. This may not happen 'if a board of inquiry concludes that negligence was not a factor'.

Yesterday submariners looked grim and had their heads bowed as they stood next to its badly dented turret as it limped into Britain's key Mediterranean port on Wednesday afternoon.

In charge: HMS Ambush's skipper is Commander Alan Daveney - it is not known if he was on board at the time

Its heavily gashed main tower was covered by tarpaulin and surrounded by armed guards as Royal Navy chiefs consider whether it can be fixed in Gibraltar or sent back to its base at Faslane on the Clyde.

The Royal Navy says its newest 7,400 tonne high-tech hunter-killer submarine has 'world leading sensors to detect other submarines and surface ships' - yet it still smashed into the merchant vessel, which escaped undamaged.

The Astute-class nuclear sub is to undergo further checks having sustained 'some external damage' to its conning tower in the crash, but no service personnel were injured in the incident

In a statement, the MoD said: 'At approximately 1.30pm local time today, HMS Ambush, an Astute-class submarine, while submerged and conducting a training exercise was involved in a glancing collision with a merchant vessel off the coast of Gibraltar.

'We are in contact with the merchant vessel and initial indications are that it has not sustained damage.

'The submarine suffered some external damage but there is absolutely no damage to her nuclear plant and no member of the ship's company was injured in the incident.

'An immediate investigation is being conducted.

'The submarine will be entering Gibraltar for further checks. There are no safety concerns associated with HMS Ambush being alongside.'

The Astute-class are the largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy.

The boat was involved in the collision despite being equipped with what the Royal Navy boasts are 'world leading sensors'.

The 7,400 tonne Astute-class vessels, which cost more than 1 billion each, carry torpedoes for targeting enemy submarines and ships and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Spain today asked London for 'urgent' explanations after the collision.

The incident sparked environmental fears as well as concerns it could lead to yet another diplomatic row between London and Madrid, which wants Gibraltar back centuries after it was ceded to Britain in 1713.

'The ministry has asked the British embassy in Madrid for urgent explanations over the extent of the breakdown and all relevant information regarding the circumstances of this incident,' Spain's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Britain's navy tried to allay fears on Wednesday, saying there were 'no safety concerns' as the collision had not damaged HMS Ambush's nuclear plant, adding that initial indications suggested the vessel had not been damaged.

But Antonio Munoz, a spokesman for Spanish environmental group Ecologistas in Action, called for more information on the incident.

'We don't have any form of report to see if there was a radioactive leak,' he said.

'We don't know exactly where the collision happened, where the other vessel is, whether the vessel that collided with the submarine was a freighter, an oil tanker... We don't know whether there was a leak from the vessel.'

The submarine arrived in Gibraltar later in the day to undergo further checks following the collision - it may have to return to the UK

The Astute-class vessel suffered 'some external damage' but no crew members were injured in the incident (pictured here before the collision) - and is meant to have world class sensors to detect other vessels

A eagle-eyed Twitter user captured a video appearing to show a part of a submarine, which may be HMS Ambush, sticking out of the water in Gibraltar

In 2010 a British nuclear submarine, the HMS Tireless, docked in Gibraltar for repairs for nearly a year after a crack was found in a cooling pipe near its nuclear reactor, sparking fears that it could leak and contaminate the environment.

People in Gibraltar and in southern Spain staged regular protests against the HMS Tireless and it has been the subject of a high-profile direct action campaign by the environmental organisation Greenpeace.

Spain's Prime Minister at the time, Jose Maria Aznar, was criticised at home for not insisting that the submarine be moved back to Britain for repair.

The tiny peninsula on Spain's south coast, Gibraltar has been a British territory since 1713 and it is known to its 30,000 residents as 'the Rock'.

Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations, with Spain long claiming sovereignty over the enclave.
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More than 30,000 music fans have made the annual pilgrimage to Byron Bay's Splendour in the Grass festival which kicked off on Friday.

The three-day festival on the NSW north coast features international superstars The Strokes and The Cure as well as local electronic act The Avalanches.

Festival-goers were pictured arriving on Friday morning to the sold-out event and the party was in full swing by late afternoon.

More than 30,000 music fans have made the annual pilgrimage to Byron Bay's Splendour in the Grass festival which kicked off on Friday. Above are fans enjoy DMA's performance at the Amphitheatre stage on Friday

The three-day festival on the NSW north coast features international superstars The Strokes and The Cure as well as local electronic act The Avalanches

Festival goers pose as they wait in a queue for entry to Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay

Festival goers were pictured arriving on Friday morning arriving to the sold out event and the party was in full swing by late afternoon

A general view of the festival site on Friday afternoon

Annie Hatchman poses for a photo on the first day of the Splendour in the Grass festival

A Festival goer arrives for the annual event. Festival organisers and police have warned of a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs, underage drinking and anti-social behaviour

Festival organisers and police have warned of a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs, underage drinking and anti-social behaviour.

'Splendour is a large town in it's own right and we work with authorities to ensure your time at the festival is safe and enjoyable,' organisers posted on Facebook.

'Police, drug detection dogs and security will be present on site. You may be searched on your way into Splendour, so please don't bring anything you shouldn't.'

Detective Superintendent Wayne Starling, from Tweed Byron Local Area Command, said police had been working closely with organisers to make Splendour an 'incident-free weekend'.

A guest wearing Hunter gumboots during Splendour in the Grass

Jasmine Pirovice poses for a photo during Splendour in the Grass 2016 in Byron Bay

A reveler urinates against a tree before entering Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay

Guests during Splendour in the Grass 2016 on July 22, 2016 in Byron Bay, Australia

Police officers and drug detection dogs walk among festival goers before entering the annual event

A festival goers poses for a photo after arriving at the festival. Detective Superintendent Wayne Starling said police have been working closely with organisers to make Spelndour an 'incident-free weekend'

Festival goers look on at sunset during Splendour in the Grass 2016

Festival goers arrive for Splendour in the Grass 2016 on July 22, 2016 in Byron Bay

Police said: 'We will be focused on targeting those involved with illegal drug use and supply, underage drinking, alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour'

'Festival-goers who choose to do the wrong thing, breach the event's terms and conditions or risk the safety of other music fans, will be quickly identified and dealt with accordingly,' Det Supt Starling said.

'We will be focused on targeting those involved with illegal drug use and supply, underage drinking, alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour.

'A warning to anyone planning on bringing illegal drugs into the festival - we will have both uniformed and plain-clothes police with drug-detection dogs patrolling the entire event footprint - so think again as you can expect to be caught and could face legal action.'

Music fans wait in a queue for entry to the event on Friday. More than 30,000 people have flocked to the annual festival

Festival goers wait in a queue for drinks tickets at Splendour in the Grass 2016 in Byron Bay

Music fans look on at sunset during the 2016 Splendour in the Grass

Conor Mason of British band Nothing But Thieves performs during Splendour in the Grass 2016

Alison Mosshart of The Kills performs during Splendour in the Grass on Friday

Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart of The Kills perform on the first day of the annual event

More than 30,000 party goers arrived at the three-day event on Friday

Two revelers pose for a photo as they enter the festival on Friday
A U.S. District judge will hear arguments on Friday over whether to dismiss a 2013 fraud lawsuit against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stemming from his Trump University real-estate seminars.

Trump's lawyers will also ask federal judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego to decertify the class action.

That would force students to file individual lawsuits rather than pursue their fraud cases together.

Donald Trump's lawyers will ask a judge to toss a fraud lawsuit filed against him and his former 'Trump University' brand

Trump's involvment with the series of real estate business seminars is under the microscope

The lawsuit, one of at least three over the defunct Trump University, was filed on behalf of students who paid up to $35,000 to learn Trump's real estate investing 'secrets' from his 'hand-picked' instructors.

The cases against Trump University have regularly cropped up during the presidential campaign.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has been the target of Donald Trump's unending scorn even as the jurist will decide the fate of Trump University

Trump ignited a firestorm of criticism in May when he accused Curiel, who is of Mexican descent, of being biased against him because of the candidate's pledge to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.

Curiel, who was born in Indiana, is presiding over two of the cases, with one set for trial in late November.

A separate lawsuit by New York's attorney general is pending in that state.

Trump's lawyers say Curiel should toss the 2013 California lawsuit on the grounds that Trump, though personally involved in developing the concept and curriculum, relied on other executives to manage Trump University by the time the plaintiffs purchased their seminars.

In addition, Trump's lawyers claim references in marketing materials to 'secrets,' 'hand-picked' instructors or 'university' were mere sales 'puffery.'

According to the defense, there is no evidence Trump intended to defraud students.

Lawyers for the students have rejected those arguments, saying the New York developer conducted the marketing for Trump University more than anyone else, starring in and approving promotional materials.

They claim Trump University instructors were high-pressure sales people, not 'professors and adjunct professors' as Trump touted.

They also say New York authorities told Trump back in 2005 to stop calling his unaccredited venture a university.

Trump owned 92 percent of Trump University and had control over all major decisions, plaintiffs' court papers say, and should be held liable under a statute targeting racketeering.
War veterans have slammed a Taliban suicide bomber costume - complete with a beard, bomb and gun - as a 'vile insult' to the lives of fallen hero soldiers.

Edinburgh-based Morph Costumes say the 28.49 get-up is ideal for 'brave people who like to take a risk' - and even claim friends might 'find it funny'.

Critics branded the fancy-dress a 'sick joke' and in 'bad taste' for the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, and in the wake of recent events of terror.

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Disgusted British veterans have slammed a 28.49 Taliban suicide bomber costume - complete with a beard, bomb and gun - as a 'vile insult' to the lives of fallen hero soldiers

The website said they saluted anyone with the guts to try the costume, which has added extras like a 'fake tyrant beard' and a machine gun.

The description of the costume reads: 'It might not go down well with some people, but some of you buddies might fun it funny.

'There is nothing funny about the Taliban, but if someone has the guts to dress up as one of these then we have to salute them! Wear this costume at your peril!'

It continues: 'This Taliban Fancy Dress Costume is great for military, political, world and historical-themed events.

'You could also wear this to a Halloween party. Why not zombie-fy it and make it one of the most unique costumes your buddies have ever seen!'

Edinburgh-based Morph Costumes say the 28.49 get-up is ideal for 'brave people who like to take a risk' - and even claimed customers' friends 'might find it funny'

Critics branded the fancy-dress a 'sick joke' and in 'bad taste' for the families of soldiers lost in Afghanistan, and in the wake of recent events of terror

Outraged veteran support group, The UK National Defence Association has called for a boycott of Morph Costumes.

UKNDA chief executive officer Andy Smith said: 'If it's a joke, it's a sick joke and one which all decent people will rightly condemn.

'We call on fancy-dress shops to refuse to sell or hire out these Taliban costumes, and we call on the public to boycott any retailers who continue selling them.'

Military Cross winning retiree, Captain Doug Beattie said: 'It's in bad taste for the families of loved ones lost in Afghanistan and in acts of terrorism like the recent events in France.

'It's also in bad taste by portraying a Muslim in that way. I would say to people don't buy the thing because it's sick and particularly stupid. It creates hurt across the board.'

Morph Costumes have been contacted for comment.
The estate of former Beatle George Harrison has complained after Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka came on to the tune of Here Comes The Sun at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Harrison's family tweeted that the use of the song had not been authorized and was 'offensive and against the wishes of the George Harrison estate'.

Harrison wrote the song, a catchy, upbeat homage to springtime, which appeared on The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road.

Later Harrison's estate joked, in another tweet: 'If it had been Beware of Darkness, then we MAY have approved it!'

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Ivanka walked onto the stage at the Quicken Loans Arena to the tune of The Beatles' Here Comes The Sun, which was written by the late George Harrison

The estate of George Harrison tweeting this morning, angered at Trump using the upbeat song to introduce his daughter Ivanka, without permission

They tweeted a slightly more tongue-in-cheek remark, referring to a song from Harrison's 1970 solo album

Beware of Darkness is a track on Harrison's 1970 solo album.

Harrison, who died in 2001, was never affiliated with any major political party but supported humanitarian causes and once backed the Natural Law Party, a fringe group founded in 1992 on 'the principles of Transcendental Meditation'.

They put up candidates in several British elections but never got even one percent of the vote.

Here Comes The Sun is not the first song Team Trump have used without permission.

George Harrison, pictured right with fellow Beatle Paul McCartney in 1964, died in 2001 but his family said he would not have approved of his song being used by Donald Trump

Rocker Paul Rodgers also complained about the use of his song, All Right Now, at the climax of Trump's speech last night.

And earlier in the convention Queen's Brian May complained after the British band's 1977 hit We Are the Champions was used during a Trump convention appearance.

But James Grimmelmann, a copyright scholar at Cornell University, told the Vox website that although the GOP needed to acquire a license before using someone's music, in reality few musicians or their estates ever bother to file a lawsuit.

Donald Trump and his family joined vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, his wife and daughter on stage at the end of the convention

Last month former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee paid $25,000 to Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan for using the song Eye of the Tiger at a campaign event last year.

When the music died down Ivanka, 34, introduced her father as 'the people's nominee' to a delirious Republican faithful in Cleveland.
Migaloo the albino whale has been spotted swimming north with a friend after scientists feared she went missing due to unseasonable water conditions.

The 28-year-old was seen swimming alongside a smaller female heading towards Queensland waters, about 10km off the coast of Port Stephens in New South Wales, on Friday.

Whale experts said Migaloo and his companion - at his current speed and allowing for rest stops - would likely reach Queensland waters on Tuesday.

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Spotted about 10km off the coast of Port Stephens in New South Wales, Migaloo, the 28-year-old albino whale, was seen swimming alongside a smaller female heading north to Queensland (pictured)

A post to Imagine Cruises Port Stephens Facebook page read: 'MIGALOO, Australia's most famous humpback paid a visit to Port Stephens today.

'Guests on board our 10.30am and 11am Whale Watches were treated to a great glimpse of this very special whale.

'It has been two years since Migaloo last made his presence felt in Port Stephens. Although a much more subdued visit then his last, crew were excited to see this incredible creature on his northern migration.'

The beloved white whale poked its hump - like a snow hill - from the water as photographer Lisa Skelton on board a whale cruise, captured him waving his large tail as they sailed past.

Other pictures posted onto the Tamboi Queen Cruises Facebook page showed Migaloo gliding through the water with his companion around Fingal Bay.

The picture taken on the Hinchinbrook Explorer with Moonshadow-TQC was captured by Jane Cara and shows Migaloo alongside his companion.

Whale Experts have said that Migaloo and his companion - at his current speed and allowing for rest stops - will likely reach Queensland waters on Tuesday

The beloved white whale, poked its hump - like a snow hill (pictured) - from the water as photographer Lisa Skelton on board a whale cruise captured him waving his large tail as they sailed past

'Migaloo has been spotted at Fingal Bay this morning. Our whale watch cruise has just departed and is on the lookout for Migaloo,' the post read.

'We could see Migaloo coming to the surface each time as the water around him went completely aqua.'

First sighted in 2011, Migaloo was considered the only known all-white whale in the world and has been celebrated with a website, Twitter account and Facebook to report sightings of the majestic creature.

Last year another white whale was spotted off the Gold Coast and was affectionately named 'Son of Migaloo' for his likeness to the 28-year-old whale.
Pascagoula and George County officers.jpg

Officers from Pascagoula and George County traveled to Baton Rouge to attend funeral of slain Baton Rouge police officer, Matthew Gerald.

(Pascagoula Police Department Facebook page)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Six Pascagoula police officers and two George County officers decided to attend the funeral of their fallen brother in blue at his funeral on Friday in Baton Rouge. Officer Matthew Gerald, 41, of the Baton Rouge Police Department was slain in an ambush shooting on Sunday by gunman, Gavin Long.

According to Pascagoula Police Chief Kenny Johnson, the officers traveled to Baton Rouge to offer support to one of their own.

"It is important to us here at the police department," Johnson said. "The officers wanted to go and show their support to Baton Rouge PD, the officer's family, and that community. Everyone who went requested to go and felt that it was important to show support."

While the current climate around the country is difficult based on the happenings in Baton Rouge, Minnesota, Dallas, and returning to Baton Rouge, Johnson says that he can only speak for his community and the actions of his officers.

"I can only speak for my community," Johnson said. "We work hard everyday to be transparent, to support our community, and to use the best police practices possible. We are a state nationally accredited police department and the path to that accreditation is a good path to ensure that you do have good community relations."

"What is going on around the country is certainly not lost on our department," Johnson said. "We certainly monitor that and the message we are getting to our officers is that we cannot let the acts of a few make us forget that we are the protectors. We are the sheepdogs protecting the sheep and we can't get mad at the sheep because of what the wolf does."

Per the police department's Facebook page, the community has provided an outpouring of support to the officers whether providing cooked meals, a painted pallet, or by children using their allowance to provide the officers with a token of support. According to Johnson, the support by the community hasn't gone unnoticed.

We received cards from the children at Arlington Heights Baptist Church thanking our officers for keeping them safe!... Posted by Pascagoula Police Department on Friday, July 22, 2016

"I think it sends a message to the officers that people in the community do appreciate what they do," Johnson said. "It also shows they appreciate the rule of law and order.

"They [community] are conscious that our guys are out here protecting them at night and keeping them safe in their homes while they are sleep. It tells me that we are doing something right and the outpouring of support we have seen from our community provides validation to us that we are doing something right," Johnson said.
A HIV infected man has told how he is paid to have sex with girls once they reach puberty in his remote village in Malawi.

Eric Aniva is paid from 3 to 5 to have sex with girls over a three-day period after their first menstruation.

If they refuse it's believed their families or even the whole village will be cursed.

But Aniva's job is not classed as rape - instead it is called 'sexual cleansing'. And he is known as a 'hyena' rather than a sexual predator.

'Some girls are just 12 or 13 years old, but I prefer them older,' Aniva told the BBC.

'All these girls find pleasure in having me as their hyena. They actually are proud and tell other people that this man is a real man, he knows how to please a woman.'

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Eric Aniva is paid from 3 to 5 to have sex with girls once the reach puberty in southern Malawi

'Hyenas' are hired by village elders to carry out 'sexual cleansing' in traditional kusasa fumbi initiations in several parts of southern Malawi.

When questioned about the morality of the cruel practise, one female elder told the BBC: 'We have to train our girls in a good manner in the village, so that they don't go astray, are good wives so that the husband is satisfied, and so that nothing bad happens to their families.'

Aniva claims to have slept with over 100 women and girls in his paid role, which also sees him have sex with widows before their husband is allowed to be burried.

Aniva's wife Fanny said she hates the ritual, which was carried out on her when her first husband died.

One girl who was forced to sleep with Aniva said she only agreed because she was 'scared'.

Maria told the BBC: 'If I'd refused, my family members could be attacked with diseases - even death - so I was scared.'

Aniva claims to have had sex with over 100 girls and women since he started working as a 'hyena' in 1985

He is hired by village elders to carry out 'sexual cleansing' in traditional kusasa fumbi initiations

The 'sexual cleansing' practice is still carried out in southern Malawi despite attempts to end it

Shockingly Aniva said he would not allow a 'hyena' to sleep with his own daughter.

He has claimed that he is now 'stopping' the practice.

Charity organisations are working towards stopping the socially sanctioned gender-based violence through education.

Dr Howard Kasiya, health expert and director of the Adolescent Girls' Advocacy Network of Malawi, told the Guardian that being to undergo 'sexual cleansing' is 'often a death sentence for girls'.

'Malawi has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world and 10 per cent of the population is HIV-positive,' Dr Kasiya said.
A family court judge's behind-closed-doors ruling which relates to the murder of six-year-old Ellie Butler should be made public, the Court of Appeal has decided.

A jury at the Old Bailey found Ellie was battered to death by her father, Ben Butler, leaving her with some of the worst head injuries medics had ever seen.

A ruling was made in relation to her case in the Family Division of the High Court in the summer of 2014 - after Ellie had died but before her father Ben had been convicted of her murder.

Ben Butler, pictured during his police interviews, plans to appeal his conviction for murder over his daughter's killing and the sentence he was given for the crime. A previously secret judgement made in relation to the case is now to be made public

Ellie was removed from Butler's care after he was convicted of attacking her as a baby. But she was returned after that conviction was overturned and died less than a year later when her father attacked her

The contents of the ruling were kept secret after a judge found they could prejudice a potential re-trial of Butler, if he succeeds in an appeal which he has launched against his murder conviction.

But three senior judges have today ruled the judgement should be published after representatives of the media argued it was in the public interest to know the background to the shocking case.

The judgement is a victory for open justice campaigners who wish to see the work of the family courts opened up to scrutiny.

Appeal judges said lawyers should check to ensure any material which identifies Ellie's younger sibling is taken out of the ruling.They indicated the redaction process will take some days.

It emerged earlier today that Ben Butler is appealing against both his conviction and his sentence and that the inquest into the youngster's death may be reopened.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey last month, Butler was convicted of murdering Ellie and given a minimum 23-year life jail term.

Ellie's grandfather Neal Gray hopes a new inquest will examine the role of authorities in her death, including a controversial judgement by family judge Mrs Justice Hogg, which 'exonerated' Butler over an earlier attack

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.

Ellie's grandfather Neal Gray, 70, says he wants her inquest to be reopened to look at the role of the authorities in the build-up to the killing.

Social services were hampered in monitoring Ellie by a family court judgment by judge Mrs Justice Hogg, who released an extraordinary statement insisting Butler was 'exonerated' of a previous alleged attack on Ellie.

Mr Gray told The Guardian: 'I think the question should be asked about whether anything more could have been done to prevent Ellie's death.

'If a full inquest goes ahead I hope it will bring justice for Ellie and also help other children who are still alive to prevent the same thing happening to them as happened to Ellie.'

Selena Lynch, the senior coroner for south London, is to consider taking the unusual step of re-examining the case at a hearing next week.

Ellie's mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42-month term after being found guilty of child cruelty

Ellie was 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 after his conviction was quashed and the ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in 2012. Ellie died less than a year later.
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Seals are often called the 'dogs of the sea' but this one went out of his way to prove the similarities between his species and man's best friend.

Swimming in waters near Simonis Town, South Africa, the seal picked up a starfish with his mouth and presented it to a British diver as a gift.

The underwater pictures show the seal swimming around with the diver, chewing on kelp and orange sponge before he picked up the starfish.

The seal then brought the animal over to the diver, playing with it like a dog uses a chew toy. The images were captured by Manchester underwater photographer Caroline Robertson-Brown.

Seals mostly eat fish but they will consume just about any type of meat they can get including squid, octopus, and shellfish. They normally swallow their food whole suggesting that this seal had no intention of eating the embattled starfish.

What a star: Seals are often called the 'dogs of the sea' but this one went out of his way to prove the similarities between his species and man's best friend

Keen to please: Swimming in waters near Simonis Town, South Africa, the seal picked up a starfish with his mouth and presented it to a British diver as a gift

Hungry: The underwater pictures show the seal swimming around with the diver, chewing on kelp and orange sponge before he picks up the starfish

Come here: The playful seal prized the starfish away from the rock that it was stuck to using his teeth and peeling one leg away at a time

Gotcha: The starfish eventually came unstuck and unwillingly became a helpless playtoy, stuck in the jaws of the menacing seal

Let's play fetch: The seal then brought the animal over to the diver, playing with it like a dog uses a chew toy and enticing the diver to join him

The images were captured by Manchester underwater photographer Caroline Robertson-Brown. Here the seal looks right at the camera

The seal also grabbed at seaweed and appeared to pull it up from the seabed. He then flipped around in the water to look into the lens

Two seals joined in the fun and the trio swam together through the waters, turning upside down as they jetted through the ocean

I'm staying put, thank you: The starfish put up a fight but stood little chance against the stronger jaws of the determined seal
Comes 12 years after the

Daniel Morcombe's twin brother has become a father more than a decade after the harrowing abduction and murder.

Bradley Morcombe and his wife Anna welcomed their first child on Friday morning, a boy, according to Woman's Weekly.

Denise Morcombe told the magazine she and her husband Bruce were delighted to welcome their grandchild after years of heartache.

Bradley Morcombe (right) and his wife Anna (left) welcomed their first child on Friday morning

Daniel Morcombe was abducted in broad daylight from a bus stop and murdered by Brett Peter Cowan on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland in 2003

Anna, pictured here in April, said earlier this year about her pregnancy: 'I couldn't think of anything more fitting after everything that everybody has been through'

'Since Daniel's disappearance, we had to focus on the positives in our lives just to get by,' she said.

'And now we have something as wonderful as a new baby to look forward to in our family.'

Bradley and Anna announced in March they were expecting.

'I couldn't think of anything more fitting after everything that everybody has been through,' Anna told told Women's Weekly at the time.

Bradley, who said not a day passed without thoughts of Daniel, told the Weekly: 'It's something we have dreamed about for a long time.'

The couple married in August 2014 with Bradley wearing a photo of his twin brother pinned to a red rose on his suit jacket

Daniel's parents have since established the Daniel Morcombe Foundation with the aim of helping people keep their children safe

The high school sweethearts married in August 2014 with Bradley wearing a photo of his twin brother pinned to a red rose on his suit jacket.

Bradley, Daniel and Anna all attended Siena Catholic College in south-east Queensland before Daniel's disappearance in 2003.

The Morcombes are looking ahead to a future no longer dotted with upcoming court dates after Daniel's killer Brett Peter Cowan lost his last-ditch High Court appeal earlier this year.

Cowan was handed a life sentence in 2014 and cannot apply for parole until he has served 20 years.

Daniel was abducted in broad daylight from a bus stop and murdered on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland in 2003.

Cowan took him to a secluded site and choked him to death when he tried to escape.

The parents of Daniel Morcombe, Denise and Bruce, were at the Federal Court in Brisbane in March to hear that the man convicted of killing their son has exhausted his last legal avenue

Brett Peter Cowan, 46, was handed a life sentence in 2014 over Daniel's murder and cannot apply for parole until he has served 20 years. He lost his last-ditch High Court appeal earlier this year
The 37-year-old has been arrested on attempted murder and is in custody

Eight-year-old child is in a critical condition after suffering punctured lung

A mother and her three daughters were stabbed while on holiday in France because the attacker was enraged by the father grabbing his crotch.

Mohamed Boufarkouch attacked the woman and her three daughters, aged eight, 12, and 14, in the village of Garde-Colombe near Laragne-Monteglin, in south-east France, at around 10.30am on Tuesday.

He told a court he approached the father and said: You shouldnt have done that in front of my wife, referring to the victims' father scratching the inside of his thigh over his shorts.

A mother and her three daughters were reportedly stabbed while on holiday in France because their father scratched his crotch. Pictured police at the scene of the attack

The youngest victim, aged eight, is currently in a critical condition in hospital after suffering a punctured lung

The victim's father said he does not remember doing such a gesture, according to The Sun, and added it was 'hard to comprehend that such a gesture could have sparked such a serious attack from a person in full mental health or devoid of any ideological intent'.

The attacker, named locally as Moroccan-born Mohamed Boufarkouch, was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in police custody.

He allegedly shouted 'Allahu Akbar', meaning 'God is great', three times while being questioned by police.

Local reports initially suggested the Boufarkouch attacked the victims because they were 'scantily dressed'.

The victims are believed to have been wearing shorts and t-shirts at the time.

It is also understood that the victims were known to the attacker and his family as they were staying next door to each other in the holiday camp.

The victims, who have not been named, were attacked while eating breakfast.

Local mayor Edmond Francou, told Le Parisien that the attacker was on holiday with his own family, including two children, from their home in Yvelines, near Paris.

At a press conference Tuesday, the prosecutor said there was no motive.

However local reports suggest the attacker had made references about the woman and children being 'too lightly dressed'.

Jean-Marc Duprat, a deputy mayor for the nearby town, said ealier this week the attacker was upset because the victims were wearing shorts and t-shirts.

French TV channel TF1 said he 'may have acted out of religious motives'.

A small folding knife with a blade measuring from 8 to 10 centimeters was found at the scene.

Boufarkouch has been known to police for at least 15 years.

He reportedly fled after the attack, leaving behind his family and his wife 'in tears'.

The two families had shared a terraced house with two apartments at the VVF holiday camp, pictured

Local mayor Edmond Francou, said the attacker was staying next door to the family in the holiday camp

The family was attacked in Garda-Colombe near Laragne-Monteglin in the Hautes Alpes

Garda-Colombe near Laragne-Monteglin in the Hautes Alpes near Montpellier in the south of France

The mayor suggested Boufarkouch, who lives with his family in Yvelines, west Paris, could be 'pyschologically sick' and he is set to be seen by a psychiatrist today.

The eight-year-old victim was the most severely wounded in the attack and remained in a critical condition in hospital earlier this week.

The mother reportedly suffered an injury to her sternum.

French channel TF1 claimed the mother had helped the knifeman by bringing him medication when he fell ill on Monday.

The prefect Philippe Court, prosecutor Raphael Balland and Colonel Flagella, Group Commander of the local police force, speak after a man stabbed four people, a mother and her three daughters, on Tuesday morning

The family were attacked at around 10.30am at the VVF holiday village in Lagrand in the Hautes-Alpes region

Francois Hollande's deputy chief of staff Christophe Pierrel said: 'It is time to keep calm and let the investigators do their job.'

Karine Berger, member of the French National Assembly representing Hautes-Alpes, said she was shocked by the attack on a family holiday village.

'This tragedy affects us all by the age of the victims and the circumstances,' she said.
The mystery of a female ghost terrorising motorists and scaring locals has been solved after police discovered it was a prank.

Detectives investigated repeated sightings of the female ghost that had been terrifying residents in Tuzla, northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina - and found three children were to blame.

The youngsters had been dressing up in white sheets with a black wig and then sneaking out from their homes after midnight to wander the streets causing panic among locals.

Some reported it was a young woman that they had seen, while others claimed it was a young girl.

The sightings had also been reported in Gracanica, a town located to the west of Tuzla.

The youngsters had reportedly been seen walking along beside the road before dashing off when the headlights lit them up.

They had also been seen climbing on the roofs of houses.

Media reports had linked it to the death of a young woman who had died in a car accident on her wedding day, saying she was unable to rest in peace and was looking for revenge.

And it went viral when the ghost was aired on a local television station.

The video shows what appears to be a woman in a white robe with long black hair covering her face walking on a street in Tuzla before turning right and disappearing in an alley.

Suzana wrote online: 'Can somebody please tell me that this is not true! It looks so scary.'

The mysterious figure was spotted strolling around the streets in a town near Tuzla, northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina

Martin commented: 'Do you believe now! Here she is.'

And Dani commented: 'Well it looks it is not edited.'

With widespread panic, police agreed to step in and have now settled the mystery.
RAF fighter jets have reportedly been scrambled to escort a plane over the UK.

Military Typhoon planes were seen flanking the aircraft this afternoon following an apparent security breach in British airspace.

It has not yet been confirmed over which part of the UK the mystery plane was travelling.

More to follow.
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The migrant death toll crossing the Mediterranean so far this year is set to exceed 3,000 in the coming days according to international monitors.

The Irish Naval Service rescued more than 400 people from a metal barge 25 nautical miles north west of Tripoli yesterday, however, 16 passengers on board the overcrowded vessel had been smothered.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 242,179 migrants and refugees have successfully arrived in Europe by sea during 2016.

Workers in the Italian port of Trapani prepare coffins for the 22 migrants whose bodies were recovered from a sinking dinghy

Survivors of the disaster looked on while those who died were brought to shore in body bags and placed into coffins

The International Organisation of Migration estimates that 20 migrants a day are being killed as they try to cross the Mediterranean

Rescue workers removed the bodies of immigrants who died making the crossing from a boat in the Italian port of Trapani

The vast majority of those who made it landed in Italy and Greece.

According to the IOM: 'So far this year an estimated 2,977 deaths have been recorded, compared with 1,906 through 30 July last year.

'These figures do not include thousands of migrants and refugees rescued on the Mediterranean during the past 48 hours, nor the recovery of nearly two dozen additional corpses believed to be en route to Italian ports Friday morning.'

Flavio Di Giacomo said: 'Yesterday there was a landing of 842 people. There was one corpse. On Saturday a ship should arrive in Calabria with an additional 18 bodies on board. We still do not know what happened or how they died.'

The IOM said those deaths would bring the total so far this year to 2,996.

As a result, 2016 will be the third successive year where more than 3,000 lives have been lost crossing the Mediterranean.

In 2014, the 3,000 mark was passed on September 21, while last year it was October 15.

The Irish Naval Service recovered 16 bodies from this metal barge yesterday which was floating 25 miles from the coast of Tripoli

Sailors rescued 453 people from the barge, pictured, and took them on board the Irish navy's new patrol vessel, LE James Joyce

The rescued migrants, pictured, received medical treatment, food and water while vessel retrieved a further 152 people

The migrants were recovered from a boat found 25 miles north west of the Libyan capital Tripoli on its way to the Italian coast

The rescued migrants were travelling on the Libyan-Italy route which is the most dangerous way to cross the Mediterranean

The International Organisation of Migration said almost 250,000 people have so far made it to Europe by sea from Africa

New figures released by the International Organisation of Migration show almost 2,600 people died crossing between Libya and Italy

Spanish authorities rescued 34 sub-Saharan migrants who were found on board a dinghy off the Alboran coast near Granada

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said most of the deaths have occurred on the route between Libya and Italy after the flows between Turkey and Greece have 'almost disappeared'.

The LE James Joyce is currently en-route to Sicily where it will disembark the 605 survivors as well as the bodies of the 16 victims.

On Wednesday, 22 bodies were recovered from a rubber boat off the Libyan coast.

The LE James Joyce, an Italian navy vessel, a British ship participating in an EU anti-people smuggling operation, and a vessel operated by a humanitarian group also brought 1,128 migrants to safety on Thursday, the coastguard said.

The bodies of the victims were loaded into plain coffins before they were taken away for post mortems and burial

Several survivors sit just yards from the coffins of those who were less fortunate on their journey across the Mediterranean

Survivors of one such disaster told earlier today how people were crushed to death and were drowned when migrants on board their flimsy boat panicked.

Red Cross workers held roses and stood in silence on the portside in Trapani, Sicily, as the bodies of 21 women and a man were carried off a rescue ship, placed in wooden coffins and loaded into hearses.

The crew of the MS Aquarius, chartered by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and French NGO SOS Mediterranee, discovered the dead at the bottom of a dinghy when they picked up over 200 migrants on Wednesday.

Survivors told MSF the victims had drowned in 12 inches of water and fuel.

One survivor called David said: 'People were trying not to slip into (the) pool of fuel/water in (the) middle of (the) dinghy, but when they moved to the sides more water came in. The overcrowded dinghy was deflating on one side. Those aboard began trying to bail out the water, which rose quickly to knee high.

Migrants were crushed underfoot and drowned in 12 inches of water and fuel in the bottom of the boat as others struggled to survive

'Girls sitting down in centre started to panic, tried to get up. The bodies were on the floor under water, we were shouting and praying to be rescued.'

MSF said many of the 209 survivors were crying as they disembarked, and the charity was offering psychological support.

Among those saved by the MS Aquarius were two pregnant women and 50 children, 45 of whom were travelling without their parents.

Desperate migrants all too often cause their own shipwrecks as they tip their unstable crafts over by waving frantically for help or attempting to bail out water.

On Tuesday alone, some 3,200 migrants were rescued at sea and one dead body was recovered.

With Europe's migrant crisis in its third year, the Mediterranean has become the world's most dangerous border for migrants.

More then 84,000 have crossed the sea from North Africa to Italy so far this year, in line with the number who came over during the same period last year, according to official data.

That brings the total number of migrants to have reached Italy by to more than 400,000 since the beginning of 2014.

The Libyan coast guard has also been involved in rescuing migrants attempting the crossing, such as these returned to a refugee camp

These men, pictured, were found in a boat off the coast of Tripoli and returned to a refugee camp in Tagiura, east of the capital

The migrants were returned to Libya although it is expected many will attempt to resume their perilous journey as soon as they are ready
A mother and her friend have been jailed for Sellotaping her five-year-old son naked in a cupboard while they went to the seaside with his older sisters

The terrified boy was left home alone for ten hours as his 40-year-old mother and her 29-year-old friend - who both worked at a school in Bradford, West Yorkshire - went to Blackpool, Lancashire.

He was stripped, locked in a darkened cupboard in an empty house with only fruit and water and was sickeningly found in his own excrement when the family finally returned at 9.30pm.

Sent to prison: Both Muslim women showed no emotion as they were jailed - the mother (left) for two-and-half years and her friend (right) for four years - by a judge who criticised their deliberate scapegoating of the boy

The youngster was also beaten around the head with a metal pole and hit with a stiletto shoe heel in a prolonged campaign of hatred towards him, Bradford Crown Court was told.

Both Muslim women showed no emotion as they were jailed - the mother for two-and-half years and her friend for four years - by a judge who criticised their deliberate scapegoating of the boy.

The women, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the boy, became close friends after the mothers abusive husband walked out of the marriage, leaving her to bring up three children alone.

Judge Peter Hunt said the friends relationship with the defenceless boy was highly dysfunctional and he was in fear of her, adding: You meted out punishment to him of a very cruel nature indeed.

In April 2014 she attacked him with a metal pole, causing a deep gash to his chin and covering his arms and legs in bruises.

On another occasion she hit him on the head with a high-heeled shoe and caused a cut to his scalp which they glued together with superglue.

The judge said that when the family decided to go to Blackpool the friend effectively imprisoned the boy in the cupboard.

You both went to the seaside for a day out leaving him stranded and helpless in a cupboard in an empty house - this was a wicked thing to have done, said the judge.

Seaside trip: The terrified boy was left home alone for ten hours as his mother and her friend went to Blackpool

The boy was put in danger and in failing to intervene to protect her child the mother had been seriously derelict in her parental duties.

The court heard the single mother lived with the victim and his sisters, aged six and ten in a three-bedroom house. Her female friend was a regular visitor.

The older sister told the jury via video link that the three children shared a king sized bed and the empty cupboard was in the same room.

Every time [mums friend] came to the house my brother was put in the cupboard, said the schoolgirl.

He would be Sellotaped inside when they all went out to the shops. She said she was scared for him when they went to Blackpool.

This was a wicked thing to have done Judge Peter Hunt

First she told him to take his clothes off and then she put him in the cupboard, she said.

On another occasion after school the children were getting ready to go to mosque when the friend attacked the boy with a high heeled shoe.

He got a cut on his head, which started bleeding. The blood stopped when they put superglue on it, said his sister, who said the woman went to buy glue from the shop and stuck the wound together.

All the children are now living at their grandparents home. The boys mother, who was a teaching assistant, was found guilty of two offences of child cruelty, between August 2012 and April 2014.

Her friend, who was an IT technician, was convicted of two similar charges of child cruelty and two allegations of unlawfully wounding the child.

Barristers for both women said they had lost their good characters and their jobs as a result of their convictions, while the mother had 'lost everything', including her children and her family.

Outside court Detective Inspector Mick Ryan said: These crimes were appalling and cruel and committed against an innocent young boy.

He had no means of defending himself from the people he knew and trusted. The family friend inflicted cruel punishment over a long period of time, and his mother who should have been there to protect him, failed and instead was complicit in his neglect.
John Edwards' daughter with Rielle Hunter has called him a 'great dad' in an interview alongside her mother, who says people were 'mean' about her scandalous affair with the former U.S. senator.

Eight-year-old Frances Quinn also said she sees her father 'as often as she can' in an interview with Good Morning America's Amy Robach that aired on Friday.

'I think he has a real soft spot for her, he does,' her mother added. 'He gets very choked up by her, it's very sweet.'

Hunter, 52, whose affair with Edwards while his wife was battling cancer brought down his 2008 campaign for president, also spoke of the reaction to the scandal, saying: 'Everyone jumped on it so fast.'

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Rielle Hunter (left) sat down for an interview alongside her daughter with John Edwards. Quinn (right), eight, called him a 'great dad'

Eight-year-old Quinn (pictured with her mother and father) says she sees him as often as she can

Asked about what had bothered her the most, she said: 'The meanness of it all. The lack of compassion and understanding.

'When people make mistakes, everyone judges and jumps on you so fast.'

But she added: 'It can't go away, when you make a mistake, when you have bad things going on, you have to take responsibility for it and say you're sorry and forgive yourself and then move on.'

Despite the past, she says she and Edwards, 63, have a good relationship and co-parent Quinn.

'We're very, very good friends and great co-parents,' she said. 'We have the same goals, we want the best for Quinn. We get along great.'

She added: 'I absolutely love him him. We're family. We'll always love him.'

These days, her life is all about being a good mother, she says.

'Everything I do now is based upon being a mom, she said. 'And my choices, how they're going to impact Quinn.'

Hunter also said that she supports Hillary Clinton in this presidential election because she's a 'great role model' for her daughter.

Hunter said she has a good relationship with Edwards and they both 'want the best for Quinn'

Hunter became pregnant with Edwards' child while she was filming him for a documentary in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential primaries

'As a mom, she's a great role model. I'm with her. We're with her,' she said.

'Part of what I love so much about Hillary Clinton is that she's had everything thrown at her but the kitchen sink and maybe even the kitchen sink. She doesn't ever gives up and I admire that.'

Hunter and daughter recently published a children's book called 'Howie Do It: Finding Happiness RIGHT NOW'.

Hunter wrote the book, while her daughter illustrated it.

She first met Edwards when he hired the unknown actress and movie producer to create a documentary on his 2008 bid for the White House.

By 2007, Hunter was pregnant with their child but it wasn't until three years later, in 2010, that Edwards admitted he was Quinn's father.

That same year, Edwards' wife Elizabeth died from breast cancer. In addition to her husband, she was survived by their three surviving children. Son Wade died in a car crash as a teenager.

Edwards served for a single six-year term as a U.S. senator for North Carolina. In 2004, he ran and failed to win the Democratic party nomination.

Rielle (pictured with Quinn) says everything she does is now based around being a mom

Hunter, 52, said that she and Edwards, 63, continue to have a good relationship. Edwards pictured above with his wife Elizabeth, who he cheated on with Hunter, in 2007. Elizabeth died of breast cancer in 2010

Nominee John Kerry brought him on as a running mate, but the two eventually lost to incumbent President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

When he took another stab at the White House in 2008, he won just 2.65 per cent of voters in the Democratic primaries to Barack Obama's 48.2 per cent and Hillary Clinton's 47.8 per cent - due in large part to the revelations that he was cheating on his cancer-stricken wife.

In 2011, he was indicted on allegations that he used campaign funds to hide his mistress - though he was later acquitted on one count, and a mistrial declared on the other counts.

He has since left the world of politics and returned to a career in law.

Together with attorneys David Kirby and William Bystrynski, he founded the law firm Edwards Kirby in Raleigh, which specializes in civil rights, discrimination, product safety and medical liability. His daughter Cate is the managing attorney at the practice's office in San Diego.

Two years after Edwards admitted publicly that he was the father of Hunter's child, Hunter published a tell-all about the relationship called 'What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me'.

After that, she remained largely out of the spotlight. It wasn't until this past February that she gave another interview, this time on Steve Harvey.

She called Edwards a great dad.

Hunter and her daughter recently worked together on a children's book called 'Howie Do It' (pictured above). Hunter wrote the book while her daughter drew the illustrations

In it, she said she realized that the relationship with a married man was wrong and told Harvey that she 'never meant to hurt anyone' and added that this is why she went along with the original line that the baby belonged to Edwards' political aide Andrew Young and not him.

'I am really sorry,' she said, 'I really truly did not mean to hurt anybody, and I wasn't thinking of anybody but myself. And I was absolutely wrong. Absolutely.'

She said that they have weathered the storm and that she has 'forgiven herself'.

Hunter, who was born Lisa Jo Druck, married Alexander Hunter in 1991, becoming Lisa Jo Hunter. Three years later, she legally changed her name to Rielle Hunter.

Novelist Jay McInerney says Hunter, his former girlfriend, is the basis for his character Alison Poole, who has featured in the books Story of My Life.

Bret Easton Ellis, McInerney's friend, also included the character in his novels Glamorama and American Psycho.

A keen follower of astrology, she once told GQ magazine in 2010 that she did not believe Edwards should run for president when he announced his candidacy a year after they met in April 2007, because of her 'intuition. And my small knowledge of astrology'.

During testimony in 2012, Cheri Young, the wife of Andrew Young, revealed that Hunter often consulted Bob McGovern, a New Age spiritual adviser.

In one particular incident, she called him for help after a Reuben sandwich she ordered at a Colorado diner had the wrong sauce.

Young claimed to be Rielle's lover to protect Edwards after the National Enquirer first reported his assignation, and Rielle lived with the Youngs for a time.
GULFPORT, Mississippi -- Authorities have arrested two people they say delivered nearly 50 pounds of methamphetamine to Gulfport from Mexico.

Media outlets report that on Saturday, federal drug agents arrested 35-year-old Miguel Villalobos Chavez and 33-year-old Marlina Martinez Marcias, both of Mexico.

Police say an undercover agent and a confidential source arranged to pick up a drug shipment in Gulfport from a courier at a restaurant. When the confidential source and undercover agent arrived, they met with Chavez and Marcias. The group then moved to the parking lot of a nearby hotel.

Shortly after, Chavez and the confidential source began removing packages of meth from the doors of Chavez and Marcias' truck.

Upon seeing the meth, the agent gave a signal for other agents nearby to arrest Chavez and Marcias. Police uncovered 46.7 pounds of meth.

It's unclear if Chavez or Marcias have attorneys.
John also speaks about their turn to serious crime, which started last year, and saw a victim hand over $25,000

But he said the gang of 400 to 500 'go out together for thrills' but did not go out with the intention of hurting anyone

John*, 21, said the notorious gang was 'get rich or get robbed' and 'you don't want to be the one left behind'

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A founding member of Melbourne's notorious Apex gang has opened up on the African group's spiral into serious crime - from taking cars for cheap thrills to seeing a victim cough up $25,000 to save himself from being 'rolled' by members.

John*, 21, spoke exclusively to Daily Mail Australia and said the gang was about 'standing up, and making a name for themselves'.

'It is get rich or get robbed, you don't want to be the one left behind,' he said.

A founding member of Melbourne's notorious Apex gang has opened up about the African group's spiral into serious crime

John said the gang met up frequently as a way to escape their boring lives.

'We go out together for thrills - it's our chance not to give a f***,' he said.

'We don't go out with the intention of hurting people but it can happen.'

The gang started in 2013 in Hamilton Park in Melbourne's south-east - not on Apex Street like the name suggests - but they chose the name for its easy pronunciation as the founding members learned English as a second language.

'We just like the name "Apex", it has nothing to do with the street in Dandenong like everyone says,' John said.

'There are a lot of streets called that on Melbourne. We thought it was catchy and it was easy to say so we started using it.'

The gang 'just wanted to go partying and f*** things up', John, who arrived in Australia from Sudan in 2002, told Daily Mail Australia.

'But then last year it escalated and when we would see people walk down the street we would just take their bags,' he said.

John*, 21, spoke exclusively to Daily Mail Australia and said the gang was about 'standing up, and making a name for themselves'

The gang started in 2013 in Hamilton Park in Melbourne's south-east - not on Apex Street like the name suggests

John said the gang - which has between 400 and 500 members - met up frequently as a way to escape their boring lives

It was shortly after that some people within the group decided they could make money from crime - and serious offences became more and more common.

Gang members started heading to wealthier areas away from Dandenong and the south-east to pick up flashy cars and cash.

WHO ARE THE APEX GANG? The group originated in, Dandenong, about 30 kilometres south-west of Melbourne

The members are primarily from a Sudanese refugee background

The gang have been involved in a string of carjackings and home invasions in the Melbourne area

They are responsible for the Moomba riots in March

Thirteen teenagers were arrested this week relating to a series of crimes

They were aged between 13 and 17

The parents of members are so worried they are sending them back to Africa Advertisement

'You see some people with bundles of cash and just say "f*** it - go for it" and they give you stuff,' John said.

'The biggest handover I have seen personally was $25,000.'

And there is a 'right' and 'wrong' way to take cars according to John.

But it has nothing to do with the violence.

'Some people take cars just for the thrill and burn them but that is a waste and is the wrong way,' John told Daily Mail Australia.

'The people that do it right take the cars  for the thrill  but then they make money by chopping it up and selling it.'

John said he had no criminal record and he had learnt to 'be smart and how to carry himself'.

John admits 12-year-old boys are among those who go with them.

'They just want to earn their stripes and get a name for themselves,' he said.

'One part of me doesn't approve of that because getting a criminal record is stupid but we do let them ride with us.'

John blames the parents of the young boys who join the group and soon replace them as family.

'Our parents aren't looking after us so what the f*** are we supposed to do,' he said.

'Joining is a coping mechanism and because of the lack of support we get in our community.

'A lot of our dads have gone back to Africa and our mums don't care.

'If our dads lived here and we got back at five o'clock in the morning they would knock us around but our mums can't do that.'

Gang members started heading to wealthier areas away from Dandenong and the south-east to pick up flashy cars and cash. Above is a member pictured in the suburb

John said since the Moomba riots in March the group had become very well-known and now has between 400 and 500 affiliates

He said since the Moomba riots in March the group had become very well-known and now has between 400 and 500 affiliates.

'There are people who are with Apex spread all over town  people get in touch and want to join and it just spreads,' John told Daily Mail Australia.

TIMELINE OF APEX EVENTS Early 2013 - Apex gang is formed in Melbourne's Hamilton Park November 2015 - Spate of carjackings happened across Melbourne. Mother-of-two Amanda Matheson died after she was hit by car driven by a suspected Apex member March 2016 - Riot breaks out in central Melbourne at the Moomba Festival and is linked to Apex gang May 2016 - Police start up 'Operation Cosmas' to combat the violent carjackings and robberies July 2016 - Group of thugs threatened to kill a 12-year-old girl during a carjacking of a luxury BMW X5 Advertisement

He said while the Apex crew in the south-east started with Sudanese members the wider group now has people of all different origins - except 'Aussies'.

'There Sudanese, Islanders, Afghan, Asian and some white guys too,' he said.

John works full-time but when his friends say 'let's kick it' he 'goes with the flow'.

'We have drinks and take pills to lose ourselves, so we don't give a f***,' he said

'Then someone will come up with an idea for a thrill and we will go do it.'

John said he was bullied at school by 'Aussies' until he made his own 'ethnic' friends.

'I am not afraid of anyone anymore - at school you can't get up and fight back and teachers do nothing but people don't run at me anymore,' he said.

John said new people were accepted in the community if they approached the boys and asked.

'We look at the person and decide if they're one of us and then we let them come along,' he said.

He is also upset that other gangs in the area use Apex as a 'scapegoat' and try to blame them because they are 'coloured'.

'They go around hurting people and give us a bad name,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'We don't tag things with APEX it isn't our tag - that's how you know it is a fake using our name.

'The majority of these things are probably done by people who are coloured - when whites do the same thing they don't care.

He said while the Apex crew in the south-east started with Sudanese members the wider group now has people of all different origins - except 'Aussies'

John said new people were accepted in the community if they approached the boys and asked

John blames the parents of the young boys who join the group and soon replace them as family

This is Apex Street in Dandenong, which many think is where the gang's namesake comes from but they were actually formed at Hamilton Park

'Gangs use our name 'cause they can't make there own because they just get over run.'

While he would not comment on any specific incidents which had occurred recently, he said not all Apex people are bad - and 'they won't bash you if you say hello'.

'Not in our group here in south-east anyway - we aren't all that bad,' John said.

'When we are with other people it's "do this, do that" and we get sick of it. Here we are with family.'

He feels bad that people are afraid of all Africans because of the gang but showed no signs of cutting ties in lieu of recent events.
A former chorus girl who embarked upon a scandalous affair and went on to marry three times - becoming both a suffragette, a member of the aristocracy and a millionaire in the process - had an unlikely role in helping win the Battle of Britain.

Known as 'the mother of the spitfire' Lady Lucy Houston DBE was an aviation champion whose pre-Second World War 100,000 donation - equivalent to almost 4million today - to the RAF kick-started the development of the Rolls Royce-manufactured Spitfire engine.

Now a new book explores the unlikely beginnings and turbulent life of Lady 'Poppy' Fannie Lucy Houston, who was born in Lambeth, London, in 1857.

Known as 'the mother of the spitfire' Lady Lucy Houston DBE was an aviation champion whose pre-Second World War 100,000 donation - equivalent to almost 4million today - to the RAF kick-started the development of the Rolls Royce manufactured Spitfire engine

The daughter of a draper, she was the ninth of 10 children. Aged 16 and working as a professional dancer under the stage name 'Poppy', she ran away to Paris with a wealthy - and married - businessman more than twice her age.

He was Frederick Gretton, whose family owned Bass Brewery, and despite their often tumultuous relationship following his death in 1882 he bequeathed her 6,000 a year for the rest of her life.

The majority of her wealth was bequeathed ot her following the death of her third husband, Sir Robert Houston, who died and left her 5.5million in his will.

It was with this money that she supported the RAF, whose finances were being crippled by the time.

Lady Lucy donated the money in 1931 in order to keep research going into the Spitfires predecessor  the Supermarine S6, a single-engined racing seaplane  when Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonalds government pulled funding for the project during the Great Depression in 1931.

Her intervention led to the creation of the iconic aircraft, which played the critical role in defeating the German Airforce at the Battle of Britain in October 1940 and prevented Britain from being invaded for long enough to ensure the Allied forces eventually won the war against the Nazis.

The full story of that development and Lady Houston's life has been published in the book, 'Lady Lucy Houston DBE: Aviation Champion and Mother of the Spitfire' by ex-RAF pilot and author Miles Macnair.

In it Mr Macnair explains how Lady Houston stepped in to fund the RAF's entry into the Scheinder Trophy Race, a 1,000 trophy awarded annually (and later, biannually) to the winner of a race for seaplanes and flying boats.

Lady Lucy donated the money in 1931 in order to keep research going into the Spitfires predecessor  the Supermarine S6, a single-engined racing seaplane  when Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonalds government pulled funding for the project during the Great Depression in 1931

He wrote: 'The timely boost her donation gave to the accelerated development of the Rolls-Royce engine and to Mitchell's airframe design which would become the prototype of his iconic Spitfire fighter.'

Rolls-Royce were able to accelerate the development of the 'R' engine to enable it to produce 2,350 horsepower and sustain it for over one hour.

Lady Houston was also an ardent and productive campaigner for women's rights, conducting works of charity during World War One, and she was an active suffragette.

This included providing a convalescent home for nurses returning from the front line.

It was in recognition of these endeavours she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1917.

In 1932, when she was 75, she declared the nations defences against air attack to be so bad she tried to give 200,000 to the Army and Navy, which was rejected by the government.

Four years later she was so upset by the abdication of King Edward VIII she stopped eating and died shortly after of a heart attack, aged 79.

Lady Lucy Houston DBE: Aviation Pioneer and Mother of the Spitfire is available to buy from August 30.
The man who tried to blow up a west Sydney police station on Thursday night by igniting his car filled with gas bottles was in a long-running feud with his brother and saw his family as 'the enemy.'

Peter Zhurawel, 61, also known as 'pumkpin Pete', set his white Hyundai Getz ablaze as it sat in the Merrylands Police Station driveway at 7pm on Thursday before driving it into the roller door of the carpark.

Although it was initially suspected to be a terrorist attack, his actions stem from a dispute with his brother, Mick Zhurawel, over the care of their 93-year-old mother who lives with Mick.

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Peter Zhurawel, 61, who blew up his car in the driveway of the Merrylands Police Station, in Sydney's west, at 7pm on Thursday night, saw his brother as his 'enemy'

Although it was initially suspected to be a terrorist attack, Peter's (pictured) actions stem from a dispute with his brother, Mick Zhurawel (pictured), over the care of their 93-year-old mother'

Mick Zhurawel told Nine News on Friday that he '[wished he] had known that this was dwelling in his head all this time.'

'It was very hard because he never spoke to you he's the sort of person that you're the enemy.

'I'm not the enemy herehe made his choice, he took a stand.'

Mick's neighbours told Daily Mail Australia that he is difficult to live nearby and that they can often hear screaming coming from inside the house.

'We always hear arguments late at night. He (Peter) only came when his father died. We haven't seen him in a while but we also prefer to keep to ourselves,' they said, adding that they had never seen their 93-year-old mother because she never leaves the home.

Police entered Peter's home (pictured) on Friday and discovered piles of rubbish, as well as more gas bottles like the ones he had used to set his car on fire the night before

Peter is at Royal North Shore Hospital with burns but is in stable condition. Mick Zhurawel said he will not be visiting his brother in hospital

Peter's neighbour Julia Di Salvia said she had spoken to him earlier on Thursday and he was upset about the court battle with his brother.

'I had never seen him crying before', she said, adding that Peter had been caring for his mother for the better part of three decades.

The brothers' dispute about their mother was due in court today.

Peter's car is seen wedged into the carpark roller door as police investigated the incident

Peter had placed bottles filled with gas inside the car with the hope of it detonating

Police entered Peter's home on Friday and discovered piles of rubbish, as well as more gas bottles like the ones he had placed in his car the night before.

Police took out an apprehended violence order (AVO) earlier this year on behalf of Peter against his brother after a fight at their mother's Merrylands home.

It stemmed from an argument in May over Peter's care of their mother on May 19.

Peter is at Royal North Shore Hospital with burns but is in stable condition.

Mick Zhurawel said he will not be visiting his brother in hospital.

Video footage captured the moment Peter blew up his car in the driveway of the Merrylands Police Station (pictured)

The car is seen exploding before it rolled into the police station's carpark roller door around 7pm (pictured)
An overwhelming majority of Americans had a positive impression of the speech Donald Trump delivered Thursday night when he formally accepted the Republican Party nomination in Cleveland.

A snap poll by CNN / ORC taken the night of the speech found that 57 per cent of Americans were 'very positive' about the speech.

Another 18 per cent were 'somewhat positive' about it, while 24 per cent said the speech had a 'negative effect' on them.

It is still too early to tell whether Trump will get a 'bounce' from his convention speech, a typical bump that presidential candidates receive with the customary flood of positive media attention and puff pieces that typify convention coverage.

There was barely a hint of the split in the GOP over Trump's candidacy in the convention hall during his speech that had been a force all week through the convention, particularly when boos and shouts erupted during Senator Ted Cruz's speech, when he failed to endorse Trump.

Donald Trump made his bid for the presidency feel real on Thursday, urging Americans to propel him to the White House on a platform of crumpling up failing institutions and building new ones on the rubble

The future's bright: Donald Trump is joined on stage by his mini-me 10-year-old son Barron, while his wife Melania is left, with Vice-Presidential nominee Mike Pence and his wife Karen to the right at the end of the mogul's epic speech

Proud dad: Father-of-five Trump places his hands on 10-year-old son Barron's shoulders after delivering his speech, while Melania and Eric Turmp, who spoke on Wednesday, look on at the balloon and confetti display

Instead, Trump appeared to have the party's full attention as he laid out a bleak assessment of the violence and terror that has taken place this summer.

'We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order,' Trump vowed during his speech.

The only disruption occurred was from a single protester who security dispatched with immediately.

Pollster Frank Luntz tweeted Thursday night, 'Mark my words. This speech will put Trump even or ahead of Hillary in polls by Monday, when the Democratic convention begins.'

Clinton has been leading Trump in national polls, although her poll average dropped from about 5 points to under 3 points in recent days. Polling in the coming days will be influenced not just by the speech itself, but by media coverage of it.

Trump delivered his speech from a teleprompter Thursday, speaking forcefully and directly about the the nation's ills, where he pledged to built a wall on the border and go after ISIS.

'I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end,' Trump said. 'Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored,' he promised.

And he hammered Hillary Clinton, who like Trump has high negative ratings. 'America is far less safe  and the world is far less stable  than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of Americas foreign policy,' Trump said.
It also covers Hillary Clinton's cynical marriage of convenience to 'pitchman' and serial philanderer Bill

It culminates in a blistering portrait of Hillary Clinton, charting her radical political education under community organizer Saul Alinsky

His new film promises to draw back the curtain on the Democratic party's violent, racialist past and its links to the Ku Klux Klan

D'Souza says the Democrats have roots in slavery

Days before the Democratic convention begins, the film brands Clinton a 'gangster' and likens her and her husband to 'depraved criminals'

Controversial filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's new documentary, Hillary Clinton's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party opens today

Democrats will meet next week to endorse Hillary Clinton for President and celebrate their party's liberal mantra of equality, inclusion and social justice.

But it's unlikely the delegates will have as much enthusiasm for an explosive new film that opens nationwide today - branding their candidate a 'gangster' and attacking the party for its roots in slavery and racialism.

The incendiary claims come from controversial filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza who likens the Clintons to 'depraved criminals' and says the Democratic machine exploits the inner city poor in the manner of a plantation owner.

D'Souza is one of the most provocative conservative voices in America and the author of a New York Times #1 best-selling book likening President Obama to a Kenyan tribal leader.

Controversial filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's new project, Hillary Clinton's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party opens today

The film brands Clinton (pictured is actress Mikaela Krantz as a young Hillary Clinton) as a 'gangster' and likens her and her husband to 'depraved criminals'

Liberals regard him as a hate-filled conspiracy theorist and point to his criminal record for breaking federal election law.

Nonetheless his books, films and Twitter feed remain wildly popular. And the timing of his latest offering - released three days ahead of the Democratic National Convention - could not be more brazen.

The film promises to draw back the curtain on the Democratic party's violent, racialist past and its links to the Ku Klux Klan

'This is a vaccine against all the propaganda viruses that will be unleashed in Philadelphia next week,' says 55-year-old D'Souza, speaking exclusive to Daily Mail Online ahead of today's opening.

His scathing takedown, Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, promises to draw back the curtain on its violent, racialist past and its links to the Ku Klux Klan.

It culminates in a blistering portrait of Hillary Clinton, charting her radical political education under community organizer Saul Alinsky and her cynical marriage of convenience to 'pitchman' and serial philanderer Bill.

It also describes how she has managed to swat aside a series of scandals such as the Benghazi affair and her private email server controversy by deploying her trusty fail-safe: 'deny, deny, deny'.

'The Clintons are very rare in American politics in that they have gone from zero to several hundred million dollars at warp speed,' says D'Souza.

'They didn't do it by inventing the iPhone or starting a new business - they have actually profited from the business of politics.

'This is dangerous for America because we need a President who keeps his or her eye on the interests and the welfare of the United States.

'For Hillary those two things are a complete distraction. Her ideology takes a back seat to the accumulation of wealth and power. At her core she is a gangster.'

D'Souza's movie says Democratic Party founder and Seventh US President Andrew Jackson (pictured in painting) was an early champion for slavery

The film (a scene pictured above) looks deep into the racial issues the Democratic party has faced over the years, including attempting to block the Thirteenth Amendment which ended slavery

The film examines several Democratic historical figures and exposes how their actions affected racial issues in the United States

Several scenes show depictions of the Ku Klux Klan, which was founded by Nathan Bedford, a former delagate to the Democratic National Convention

One scene of the film includes a depiction of President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who ultimately abolished slavery

Far from championing the cause of minorities, D'Souza's movie says Democratic Party founder and Seventh US President Andrew Jackson was an early champion for slavery and influential figures such as John C Calhoun espoused the view that slaves benefited from their status as much as their masters.

D'Souza says the Democratic Party attempted to block the Thirteenth Amendment which ended slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment which granted equal rights under the law, and the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks the right to vote.

D'Souza is one of the most provocative conservative voices in America and the author a book likening President Obama to a Kenyan tribal leader

He accuses the party of inventing and enforcing segregation and using the Ku Klux Klan - founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former delegate to the Democratic National Convention - as its domestic terrorist arm.

The Indian-born polemicist even cites a young John F Kennedy's apparent admiration for Nazi Germany after a 1930's visit as evidence that he and his successors are rooted in a racialist, murderous past.

Republicans, meanwhile, are very much the 'good guys', championing civil rights to this day while their political counterparts continue to exploit and control inner city minorities by exchanging food, subsidized housing and medical care for votes.

It comes as little surprise that the 1hr 40min film has garnered some negative reviews, the Hollywood Reporter attacking it as a 'highly subjective history lesson' and the New York Times dismissing the content as 'familiar to anyone who's examined a right-wing website'.

But that is unlikely to deter theater goers who lapped up D'Souza' 2012 effort 'Obama's America', which made $33million and is the fifth highest grossing documentary ever, trailing only Michael Moore' Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and films about Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber.

'The facts laid out in the film are devastating because they are categorical and they cannot be contradicted,' insists D'Souza, who ironically cannot vote in the upcoming election because of his criminal conviction.

The film also looks into more current racial issues, including a scene which shows men in what appears to be a jail cell

D'Souza's film looks into current crime issues, claiming that Clinton has allowed the biggest criminals to still be at large. Pictured above is a scene from the film

In another scene from the film, a woman depicting Hillary Clinton can be seen walking through what appears to be the White House

The Dartmouth-educated filmmaker was a rising star of the political right, serving as a domestic policy analyst for the Reagan administration and working for conservative think tanks including the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution.

However his reputation took a major hit in 2014 when he admitted campaign finance felony charges for illegally asking two friends to each funnel $10,000 to former college classmate Wendy Long, who was running against New York's Kirsten Gillibrand in the 2012 US Senate race.

D'Souza claimed he was the victim of selective prosecution, an unusual and serious charge which claims the government has targeted an individual unfairly.

He was unable to convince the court and Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman sentenced the writer to eight months in a state-run confinement center, fined him $30,000 and put him on five years' probation.

Far from shying away from his conviction, 'Hillary's America' opens with footage from D'Souza's court case and repeats his assertion that he was unfairly targeted by the Obama administration for his previous movie.

'It appears the film upset the thin-skinned narcissist in the White House,' he says. 'No American has been prosecuted, let alone locked up, for what I did.'

Naturally, D'Souza believes Obama's potential Democratic successor is not above adopting similar tactics to persecute her opponents.

His movie repeats well-worn accusations that Hillary has tolerated her husband's womanizing, discrediting those who have come forward to allege affairs while feeding off Bill's popularity with the American people.

Then there are the recent accusations of cronyism and corruption at the Clinton Foundation, the Benghazi attack and the email server scandal, all minor irritations for the Clintons rather than major obstacles, according to D'Souza.
Dame Lin Homer had a stormy time in charge of HMRC before leaving in April

HM Revenue & Customs paid out 1.9 million in compensation after sending a firm bankrupt with a tax demand that turned out to be wrong.

The embarrassing blunder has been disclosed in the fine print of the organisation's annual report and accounts.

The document also reveals that the department wrote off 120 million last year after scaling back efforts to recover overpaid tax credits.

The setbacks happened during Lin Homer's final year in charge of HMRC.

She walked away from the chief executive role in April with a 2.4million pension pot despite a scandal-hit tenure in charge.

The 59-year-old is entitled to a index-linked income of around 125,000 a year - nearly two thirds of the 190,000 salary she had been earning.

Her pension pot grew by 225,000 last year, when she also received a 20,000 bonus, despite criticism of the taxmans performance.

She was controversially made a dame in the New Years Honours as her departure was announced, and was immediately dubbed Dame Disaster.

The detail of the HMRC accounts show that it made a 'special payment' of 1.9million last year.

The document says the sum was paid 'under an HMRC undertaking to Court in respect of damages suffered'.

'HMRC applied for and were granted a provisional liquidation order against a company by the High Court, which was then subsequently wound up,' the report said.

'The Duty and VAT assessments on which the action was based were later withdrawn by HMRC and so the action found to be unjustified, with compensation then paid as a result.

'The payment was made with HM Treasury approval.'

According to the accounts 118.6million of personal tax credit debt - much of which will have been overpaid by the department - was written off in 2015-16 as it was regarded as 'uncollectable'.

The report said 'no targeted exercises' were conducted during the year to recover the funds, as previous efforts had been 'unsuccessful'.

'In 2014-15 there was one targeted exercise which focused on money owed to HMRC which we had tried to collect through a collection campaign as well referring the debt to a Debt Collection Agency without success,' the report said.

'This exercise resulted in 39.6 million being remitted/written-off.'

An HMRC spokesman said: 'Compensation payments form a tiny percentage of the half a trillion pounds HMRC brought in for the country last year.

'We only write-off tax credit debt when it is absolutely clear the debt is not recoverable  it makes no sense to waste resources better used against tax dodgers.'

Dame Lin's 35-year career in the public sector was dogged by a string of scandals and failures.

In 2005, as chief executive of Birmingham City Council, she was caught up in a postal votes scandal, which a judge said would have disgraced a banana republic.

She went on to become the 200,000-a-year boss of the immigration system, at the time it was branded not fit for purpose by the then Home Secretary John Reid.

HMRC's headquarters in Whitehall. The department paid 1.9m in compensation last year after bankrupting a company with a miscalculated tax demand

During her time in charge it emerged that 1,000 foreign criminals had been mistakenly released, and 450,000 asylum case files were discovered dumped in boxes at the Home Office.

She later became head of the now defunct UK Border Agency, where she was criticised by MPs for a catastrophic leadership failure.

Despite the criticism, she was rewarded with a new post as head of HMRC.

At the time of her appointment, in 2012, the Home Affairs Committee said it was astounded that she was being promoted to become the chief executive at Revenue & Customs adding: The status quo, in which catastrophic leadership failure is no obstacle to promotion, is totally unacceptable.

Lin Homer worked closely with former Chancellor George Osborne when she was head of HMRC

As head of HMRC, she was forced to defend the department after it secured only one prosecution from a list of 6,800 UK-related secret Swiss bank accounts provided in 2010 by French authorities.

She has also faced criticism over the departments dismal customer service.

Last year it emerged the taxman failed to answer 18million phone calls from the public more than a quarter of those it received.

Despite her record, Chancellor George Osborne issued a glowing tribute to Dame Lin, saying she had made a real contribution to public service modernisation and transformation.
France's highest appeals court ruled today that IMF chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial for her role in a 400 million euros ($440 million) payout to a French businessman.

The court rejected her appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial at the Cour de Justice de la Repulique, a special court that tries ministers for crimes in office.

When posted as French finance minister in 2008, a massive state payout was handed to French tycoon Bernard Tapie.

France's highest appeals court ruled today that IMF chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial for her role in a 400 million euros ($440 million) payout to a French businessman

Five years ago Christine Lagarde burst through the glass ceiling at one of the world's leading institutions, becoming the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund.

Her ascension to the prestigious post marked the culmination of a meteoric rise for the French lawyer and former government minister, who began a second term as managing director of the IMF in July.

Five years ago Christine Lagarde burst through the glass ceiling at one of the world's leading institutions, becoming the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund

But her stellar career may have hit a snag.

On Friday a court will decide whether she will stand trial over a massive state payout to French tycoon Bernard Tapie in 2008 when she was economy minister.

The trailblazing 60-year-old, who is accused of negligence in the affair, says she has a 'clear conscience.'

'I've always acted in accordance with the law, and I've always had in mind the public interest,' she told AFP in an interview in Washington earlier this month.

Her legal woes have done little to dent her popularity in France, where her name has long been bandied about as a possible contender for president.

In an interview earlier this month, she appeared to rule out any return to the political fray.

'I think I'm better suited to what I'm doing today than for the world of politics,' she said.

A high-profile trial would be a blow to the unflappable finance czar, who patiently worked to restore the IMF's luster after the sex scandal that brought down her predecessor and fellow compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011.

The IMF move gave her a powerful seat inside the closed circle of the world's leaders - where women are notable by their absence - but also responsibility for handling Greece's debt crisis that threatened the whole European economy.

Less than a year after her arrival, the initial rescue plan for Greece crumbled and the IMF was forced to join an expanded second bailout operation, taking the cost to a massive 240 billion euros ($270 billion).

Yet Greece kept bleeding, and now has a third bailout that the IMF supports but has not contributed to financially.

The court rejected her appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial at the Cour de Justice de la Repulique, a special court that tries ministers for crimes in office

A tough negotiator, Lagarde did not hesitate to cross swords with the very officials she worked closely with in her previous job, criticizing her French successor as economy minister, Pierre Moscovici, of being asleep during one crisis meeting.

'There are many instances of Ms. Lagarde's courageous truth-telling,' said economist Desmond Lachman, a former IMF official.

At the same time, she skillfully managed the shifting currents of power in the Fund, where emerging giants like China are challenging the Europe-US-dominated status quo.

Lagarde recently scored two major successes at the IMF - the addition of the Chinese yuan to the Fund's basket of reserve currencies and the passage by the US Congress of long-stalled IMF reforms, for which she had joked she would 'do belly-dancing' if needed to get US ratification.

The silver-haired mother of two sons, whose chic wardrobe has also grabbed media attention - she was once listed among the 'best-dressed' personalities in Vanity Fair magazine - also has fashioned herself as an icon to talented women fighting male dominance in large organizations like the IMF.

When posted as French finance minister in 2008, a massive state payout was handed to French tycoon Bernard Tapie

Born in Paris to teacher parents, Lagarde was brought up in the port city of Le Havre.

As a teenager she was a synchronized swimming champion and learned to speak nearly flawless English.

After earning a law degree, she skipped a French establishment career and instead joined the Paris office of prestigious US legal consulting giant Baker & McKenzie.

She fought her way up to become chairwoman of the company's global executive committee in 1999, a first for the firm, and then of its global strategy committee in 2004.

She then embraced politics, joining the centre-right government of president Jacques Chirac as trade minister in June 2005.

Chirac's successor Nicolas Sarkozy appointed her to the finance portfolio in 2007, making her the first woman named to the post which she held until 2011.

Though not a trained economist, she proved deft at dealing with the financial crisis that at one pointed threatened the eurozone's unity.

In an interview with American public radio, she recalled how she was told by a major French law firm at the outset of her career there was no way to break through the glass ceiling.

''You can join us tomorrow and be an associate, be given great tasks and great files and great clients to work on, but don't ever expect to make partnership' And I said, 'Why would that be?' They said, 'Because you're a woman.''
Doused in acid: Samir Hussain, 28, left a film screening in West Sussex when he was attacked

A phone shop manager has revealed his destroyed face after he was doused in acid as he walked out of a Cineworld cinema.

Samir Hussain, 28, left a screening of Straight Outta Compton at Crawley Leisure Park in West Sussex when he was attacked with what police believe was sulphuric acid.

He was in agony as the acid burned into his flesh and said it was only because he shielded his face that he was not blinded.

Mr Hussain was left badly scarred and now has to wear an uncomfortable face mask 24 hours a day as he recovers from the assault in the car park which happened last August.

Sensation in many parts of his face, arms and neck has been lost and his left eye now does not close properly. He has had plastic surgery and multiple skin grafts and must wear the mask constantly for at least the next 18 months.

And because he is the manager of the Three phone shop in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, he is constantly reminded of what happened because he gets asked so many questions as he deals face-to-face with at least 100 customers a day.

He said: About 90 per cent of those people ask what happened and I live through it again and again and again. It comes to a point where you have to disconnect from your emotions otherwise I think about it all the time. Its made me a person I dont want to be.

Mr Hussain, who has two sisters and is from Redhill in Surrey, was in agony as the acid burned into his flesh and said it was only because he shielded his face that he was not blinded

Mr Hussain was left badly scarred and now has to wear an uncomfortable face mask 24 hours a day as he recovers from the assault in the car park which happened last August

He was treated at the reconstructive surgery centre at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead and was off work for three months before forcing himself to return and move on with his life.

Mr Hussain added: I had to force myself to go back, I didnt want the attackers to win. I had to go back out there, I had bills to pay.

It was probably a good thing, because I had to deal with people straight away. But it makes everything generally hard and it is hard to converse.

Now, because of the facial injuries, people cant tell if I am joking or smiling or being sarcastic.

After the attack: Sensation in many parts of his face, arms and neck has been lost and his left eye now does not close properly

Horrific injuries: Mr Hussain has supported calls by a Conservative MP to control the sale of corrosive substances such as sulphuric acid, battery acid and powerful drain cleaners

Mr Hussain has had to come with terms with people staring at him in the street. He added: I have had it for quite a long time but, for others, it is a big shock because they dont see this every day.

You have to learn to live with that. I dont have a choice. When I got out to a normal place, like a restaurant, I am a bit, I would not say wary, but it does make me think about other people more.

Mr Hussain, who has two sisters, has to massage his face and arms for two hours every day, plus wear a stifling mask, putting constant pressure on his face that will need treatment for many years.

The manager, who lives in Redhill, Surrey, must also stay out of the sun and will be left with his scars for life but hopes they will flatten as he begins to heal.

Cinema: Mr Hussain is recovering from the assault in the car park of the Crawley Leisure Park in West Sussex

Film: Mr Hussain had left a screening of Straight Outta Compton (pictured) at the Cineworld cinema last August

Mr Hussain has supported calls by James Berry, Conservative MP for Kingston and Surbiton, to control the sale of corrosive substances such as sulphuric acid, battery acid and powerful drain cleaners.

TWO MEN IN COURT OVER ATTACK Two men have appeared in court over the attack and one pleaded guilty. Michael McPherson, 26, of Tooting Bec, South London, admitted wounding with intent and assault by beating. He pleaded not guilty to having an offensive weapon, but will not be tried on this charge. Lee Bates, 25, of Clapham, South West London, denied wounding with intent, having an offensive weapon and assault by beating. The pair entered their pleas at Lewes Crown Court on November 16. Bates was bailed and will face a trial on February 6, next year. McPherson was remanded in custody and will be sentenced after the conclusion of Batess trial. Advertisement

Mr Berry has said people buying dangerous substances should be made to pay using debit or credit cards so their details are recorded.

He also said anyone buying the most concentrated substances should need a licence.

The Home Office said sulphuric acid was a reportable explosive precursor which means people who sell it must report suspicious purchases to the police.

A spokesman said it was working with retailers to identify the best means of restricting sales of products with a high acidic content.

Mr Hussain added: I will have this forever and there are other people out there, because there have been a lot of attacks, who have lost more than me.

There has to be some sort of restrictions somewhere down the line. With regard to sentences, they are quite light.

I reckon it could be a reason why there are more attacks, because the sentences are not harsh.
A German music professor and composer has been charged with rape in a bizarre case that also involves one of his students being kept in the cellar of his home as a sex slave.

Professor Hans-Jurgen B, 62, was suspended from his job at the renowned Munich Musikhochschule last year when allegations of rape first surfaced.

When police raided his house, they found a gun, cocaine and a 21-year-old student in the cellar who had a timetable outlining when she would be required to have sex with Hans-Jurgen - and other men - and when she could go to college.

A respected German music professor and composer has been charged with rape in a bizarre case that also involves one of his students being kept in the cellar of his home as a sex slave. Picture posed by a model

An ex lover who had an affair with him in 2006 and 2007 claimed she was forced to have sex with him three times against her will during that period.

During her initial testimony she said that the professor kept a gun in his home - an allegation that triggered a police raid.

When his luxury villa was stormed last year and the discoveries were made.

At first the woman in the cellar refused to co-operate with police.

Then officers found the timetable he had apparently drawn up for her.

It listed when she should come to the house, when she should have sex with him - and other men - and when she could go to college.

Germany's Bild newspaper commented: 'Obviously she submitted to him as a kind of sex slave.'

When police raided his house, they found a gun, similar to the one pictured here, cocaine and a 21-year-old student in the cellar who had a timetable outlining when she would be required to have sex with the man - and other men - and when she could go to college

The music professor denies all rape allegations brought by his 32-year-old ex-lover.

His lawyer Steffen Ufer described the charges as 'grotesque'.

'You have consensual sex, and ten years later claim that suddenly there were occasions where you actually didn't mean it?' he added.

He suspects that a rival college professor may have put the woman up to pressing the charges, saying: 'We are proceeding against the man for defamation.'

The theory is that the rival academic is after Hans-Jurgen's job.

The professor's lawyer is set to file defamation procedures against the claimant, and the student in the basement will testify on behalf of the defence in court.

Under the headline 'A cry for help', his wife, earlier this week issued an appeal to friends and admirers for help, opening a donation account to help pay legal and health-care costs.

She maintains that violence is 'alien' to her husband's nature and that his health, already fragile, has been wrecked by the case.

In May this year Hans-'s former boss, the music academy's president Siegfried Mauser, 61, was forced to quit after he was given a 15 month suspended jail sentence for the sexual assault of a female colleague.
Hillary Clinton held off this afternoon on announcing who she'd tapped to be her vice president after shots rang out at a Munich mall.

Clinton had teased the pick on Friday morning in a donation email that told supporters, 'Youre going to be one of the first to know when Hillary announces her choice for VP!

She was expected to put sunshine on her running mate this afternoon as she campaigned in Florida and make her first joint appearance with the lucky winner of the Democratic veepstakes tomorrow in Miami.

The news could now come this evening, on Twitter, NBC News reports. Clinton could also wait until Saturday morning to make the big reveal. She has a noon rally at Florida International University.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Hillary Clinton held off this afternoon on announcing who she'd tapped to be her vice president after shots rang out at a Munich mall

She was expected to put sunshine on her running mate today as she campaigned in Florida and make her first joint appearance with the lucky winner of the Democratic veepstakes tomorrow in Miami

Clinton had teased the pick on Friday morning in a donation email to her supporters ---then nothing happened

The much-anticipated moment was to come this afternoon via text message this afternoon to those that signed up for news related to the big reveal, NBC News, said.

Staffers were instead told at an afternoon meeting at Clinton's Brooklyn headquarters that the announcement would come at 'an undisclosed time.'

As news networks reported on the delay, claiming that staffers were originally to be given a name in the meeting, Clinton's National Press Secretary Brian Fallon refuted the account on Twitter.

'Not true, he said. 'The meeting happened as scheduled. It was about staffing for the Convention. Was never about VP,' he said in a follow up.

A terrorist attack on a mall in Munich, Germany that left eight dead and began a massive manhunt for three gun-wielding terrorists changed the optics of the afternoon on a day that began with Clinton traveling to Orlando for a listening session with community members affected by the Pulse night club shooting.

The roundtable discussion went long and Clinton did not arrive at the Tampa event until more than an hour after it was supposed to start .

On the way to Tampa Clinton said in a tweet, 'Monitoring the horrific situation in Munich. We stand with our friends in Germany as they work to bring those responsible to justice.'

Elizabeth Warren said Thursday night in a sketch on Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' show that it's not her.

'Stephen, I think if it were me, I would know it by now,' Warren tells him. 'So probably not.'

The long-shot VP pick said, 'But look, shes got lots of good choices and Im excited about seeing who shes going to pick.'

Warren shut the door in Colbert's face, leaving the talk show host facing her dressing room door. He slyly removed to the 'I' from the VIP sign hanging outside, suggesting she may still get the gig.

The Massachusetts senator was never thought to be at the top of Clinton's list. She has no foreign policy experience and does not bring along a swing state.

She has also been a consistent target of Donald Trump's mockery, with the Republican candidate calling her 'Pocahontas' over claims she faked Native American heritage to advance her career.

One woman in the White House would have been revolutionary enough, but some Democrats worry that two on the ticket would be one too many.

Bets are on Spanish-speaking Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, particularly because of the setting.

NOT IT: 'Stephen, I think if it were me, I would know it by now,' Elizabeth Warren told Stephen Colbert last night. 'So probably not.'

Clinton is Florida, a state with a large Hispanic population, until tomorrow and has rallies tonight in Tampa and Saturday morning in Miami.

The selection of the former Democratic Party head would come as no shock to the political world: the longtime Clinton ally was the favorite for the position given his familiarity with the candidate and her ex-president husband.

Kaine checks almost every box that presidential candidates typically consider in an application. The 58-year-old has executive experience having served as Virginias governor. And he represents a battleground state with 13 electoral votes.

Additionally, the U.S. senator sits on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees in the upper chamber. Likely adding to the one-time Democratic National Committee chairmans appeal is his proven ability to raise funds for political candidates.

Warren shut the door in Colbert's face, leaving the talk show host facing her dressing room door. He slyly removed to the 'I' from the VIP sign hanging outside, suggesting she may still get the gig

IS IT HIM? Bets are on Spanish-speaking Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. He checks almost every box that presidential candidates typically consider in an application. The 58-year-old, seen here with Clinton at a rally last week in his home state, has executive experience having served as Virginias governor

OR MAYBE HIM? Tom Vilsack, the sitting agriculture secretary, is also said to be at the top of Clinton's list. Vilsack and Clinton are pictured above touring a lab in Ankeny, Iowa, last summer. Vilsack is the former governor of Iowa

Kaine is not without his baggage. He took more than $160,000 in gifts as governor, including an $18,000 Caribbean vacation, that were legal under Virginia law but will become fodder for attack if he's on the ticket with Clinton.

The former secretary of state already struggles with honesty and trustworthiness, and Republicans made a sport this week at their convention of saying they'd send her to prison.

In picking Kaine Clinton also takes off the table an easy assault on the opposing ticket: theyre entirely representative of white America and lacking completely in diversity.

Clinton has argued that as the first woman to potentially run the White House, the Democrats are offering more than their Republican competitors. She's leaned on Trumps offensive comments about Muslims and Mexicans to shore up support among minority groups.

The Democratic candidate will not be able to escape the optics, however, of assuring that no matter who wins in November the first black president with be succeeded by all-white regime with Donald Trump and Mike Pence on the other ticket.

Tom Vilsack, the sitting agriculture secretary, is also said to be at the top of Clinton's list. Vilsack, too, is white.

Should Clinton select him, however, it could help her with white working class voters that Bernie Sanders and Trump wrestled each other for during their respective primaries.

Two other names on Clinton's list of possible running mates: U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. Their weak foreign policy credentials may preclude them from getting the job, and in Booker's case, Clinton may be concerned about being constantly out-shined by her new best friend.

Clinton's campaign promised her supporters they'd hear her VP pick straight from the horse's mouth - unlike Donald Trump, who bungled his announcement of Mike Pence in the veepstakes

Born in Pennsylvania an orphan, raised by a mother who battled alcoholism and prescription drug abuse, Vilsack settled in Iowa as an adult, rising eventually to become the Midwestern state's governor.

Vilsack and Clinton have known each other since she was a young congressional aide working on a committee investigating Watergate with the Iowan's brother-in-law.

They both served in President Barack Obama's cabinet from 2009 until Clinton stepped down in 2013.

Aside from a compelling personal story and swing state connections, his loyalty will be invaluable to the always-under-fire Clintons if Hillary is to win the White House and keep for eight years.

Two other names on Clinton's list of possible running mates: U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.

Their weak foreign policy credentials may preclude them from getting the job, and in Booker's case, Clinton may be concerned about being constantly out-shined by her new best friend.

Perez brings with him cabinet experience, as well, as a history of fighting civil rights violations in the United States Justice Department as an attorney. He has never held elected office, however, another setback to his selection.

Wildcards for the position are Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and House Secretary Julian Castro, whom Clinton is also known to have vetted.

Clinton has kept the veepstakes announcement close to the chest. Her campaign promised supporters in an email Sunday that they wouldn't let news leak before they were ready to make an announcement like the Trump campaign.

A partial list of speakers at the Democratic National Convention that came out on Thursday had Kaine, Brown, Warren and Booker speaking. Vilsack, Perez and Castro were not included.

Vice presidents and politicians vying for the job typically speak on the Wednesday of the giant political gathering that stretches four days formally but goes as long as six or seven days with outside events.

This year Clinton's VP pick will have to sure the spotlight at the convention with the outgoing president, Barack Obama, and his vice president, Joe Biden.
Doctors and Nurses of Singing River Health System.JPG

The Singing River Health System Stroke Team is an interdisciplinary team made up of staff members from the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Units, stroke units, Therapy, radiology, lab technicians, nurses, physicians, administration, quality management, education, and case management.

(SRHS)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Singing River Health System Hospitals can add more accolades to their trophy case as Ocean Springs Hospital along with SRHS received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's "Get With The Guidelines" Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

Both hospitals had target goals they needed to specifically reach to receive the award -- StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite and StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite Plus. OSH received the Elite Award while SRHS received the Elite Plus award.

These awards recognize each hospital's commitment to providing the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines according to the latest scientific evidence.

According to the release, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month periods. Hospitals must also achieve 75 percent or higher compliance with five of eight Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality measures to receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

In order to qualify for the awards of Stroke Honor Roll Elite and Elite Plus, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient's arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.

If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reduce the effects of stroke and lessen the chance of permanent disability. Both hospitals' earned the award by meeting specific measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period.

These quality measures are designed to help hospital teams follow the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.

According to Dr. Randy Roth, Chief Medical Officer for SRHS, "A stroke patient loses 1.9 million neurons each minute stroke treatment is delayed. These recognitions further demonstrate our commitment to delivering advanced stroke treatments to patients quickly and safely."

"Singing River Health System continues to strive for excellence in the acute treatment of stroke patients. The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines-Stroke further reinforces our team's hard work," Roth said.

Dr. Paul Heidenreich, M.D., M.S., national chairman of the Get With The Guidelines Steering Committee and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University applauds SRHS for implementing programs to improve stroke care.

"The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize Singing River Health System for its commitment to stroke care," Heidenreich said. "Research has shown there are benefits to patients who are treated at hospitals that have adopted the Get With The Guidelines program."

Get With The Guidelines -Stroke programs uses the expertise of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association to work for hospitals nationwide, helping hospital care teams ensure the care provided to patients is aligned with the latest research-based guidelines. Their goal is to save lives and to improve recovery time. Since 2003, Get With The Guidelines(r)-Stroke programs has impacted more than 3 million patients.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, strokes are the fifth leading cause of death and adult disability in the United States. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, someone dies of a stroke every four minutes, and nearly 800,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
Eldest's father says son is full of cuts and bruises from trying to save her

Personal trainer had been out with her her three sons and some friends

Police found the body of Leanne Gordon in a river after a family outing turned to tragedy

A nine-year-old boy watched his mother drown as she bravely attempted to rescue a friend's child.

Police found the body of Leanne Gordon in a river after a family outing turned to tragedy.

The personal trainer visited the river with sons Lorenza, nine, Lascelle, five and Evan, three, along with friends and their children as temperatures soared into the high twenties.

Her former partner Antonino Marsala, father of Lorenza, said the youngster is in a state of shock after the incident at the River Great Ouse at Queens Park, Bedford.

Mr Marsala, 44, who split with Leanna seven years ago, said: 'My nine-year-old son is full of cuts and scratches from going through the bushes to get help.

'He ran down the road screaming "mum needs help, she's drowning".

'That is when people were alerted.

'He got to someone's house and called his uncle who told me.

'As soon as I found out I rushed down there.

'When I got there I saw two little boys with a towel covering them. I immediately checked my son was okay.

'He's upset but we're an Italian family and he's got lots of support around him.'

Mr Marsala, a mechanic, arrived around 25 minutes after Leanne was swept away.

Police searching for the mother-of-three who drowned after getting into difficulties in a river with her children have found a body

Floral tribute left to Leanne was missing for almost 24 hours when she was dived into the River Great Ouse in Bedford

He said: 'They were swimming at the back of Queens' Park.

'They had done the same thing two days before because the weather was so nice. She was with a couple of other people and their kids, I think.

'One of the friend's kids was in distress. She jumped in and got into a bit of bother, and the current washed her away.'

The body of a woman was found today after assistance from fire fighters and specialist divers, Bedfordshire police said

He added: 'She was a really bubbly person.

'She was well known for being outgoing. It is such a shock and a real tragedy.'

He said Leanne's last job was as a part-time personal trainer at a gym.

Mr Marsala said that Leanne could swim, but that she suffered from panic attacks which may have prevented her from saving herself.

Her former partner Antonino Marsala said: 'She was a really bubbly person. She was well known for being outgoing. It is such a shock and a real tragedy.'

A local fireman warned that the river was dangerous, saying: 'It is mainly shallow, but there are parts where the riverbed drops and it can be more than ten feet deep.'

The body of a woman was found today after assistance from fire fighters and specialist divers, and her identity was revealed soon after.

Tributes have been paid by other people who knew her.

An emotional Mick Kelly, 57, laid flowers outside Ms Gordon's house and said: 'Why did God take her away from them three children?

'She was a lovely, lovely person and a lovely friend.

Sian Waterston, 25, used to see Ms Gordon on the school run and helped her with her Staffordshire bull terrier.

She added: 'She was a great mum. It's absolutely tragic. She always had a smile on her face.'

Nigel Spencer, 40, said: 'She was always smiling - just a lovely character.'

The area was cordoned off by police

Neighbour Joe Vacchio said the woman lives around the corner from the river and had been diving into the water off small islands with her three children.

'The children and their mum were playing in the river,' he said.

'They were diving off into the river. There were screams that my wife heard of 'I can't swim' and that was it really.'

'I have lived here 20 years and I've never been in that river. It's very, very dangerous and very, very unpredictable.'

He added that the river was had holes up to '20ft deep' and that relative knew the woman involved and had warned her not to go into the water with her children.

Mr Vacchio said the shallow part of the river is around knee or shin height during hotter summer months when it gets busy with families playing.

An aerial shot of the area where the search was conducted

A local fireman warned that the river was dangerous, saying: 'It is mainly shallow, but there are parts where the riverbed drops and it can be more than ten feet deep.

'Swimmers need to be very way here.'

There were no warnings or signs telling people to be careful or not to swim.

Police were called yesterday evening just after 8pm, while boats used by the fire service took to the river to try to find the swimmer, and ambulance crews also attended.

After they appeared on the scene, Mr Vacchio said he saw the three children sitting by the river wrapped in towels.

According to neighbour Joe Vacchio, who has lived in the area for 20 years, there were no warnings or signs telling people to be careful or not to swim

Mr Vacchio also said he saw the three children sitting by the river wrapped in towels

Bedfordshire Police Chief Inspector Nick Lyall said the woman's three boys had been left 'distressed' by the 'tragic accident'

Another witness said: 'They had boats out and loads of officers searching for her.

'The area they were looking in isn't that deep, pretty shallow.

'But she may have been swept to the deep end.

'The river is unpredictable, loads of people have died in this river.

'It's very sad, the whole community was out too, to help in any way.'

Bedfordshire Police Chief Inspector Nick Lyall said the woman's three boys had been left 'distressed' by the 'tragic accident'.

'Three children, they are all between three and 10 years of age, so young children that have lost a mother at the start of the school holidays,' he said.

'It is a tragic time for the family.'

'At some point she's gone into the river to help somebody that's in distress and we know now the tragic results of that.

'I believe the children were playing by the side of the river, but at the moment we are still trying to piece the rest of the circumstances together.
This hefty hound really did not want to have a bath - so his owner had to drag him across the grass to get him to the hose.

The English bulldog, named Doughnut, was not expecting a wash at his home in Orange County, California.

He spotted the coils of the hose from afar and decided to resist - by playing dead.

The huge brown and white animal plonks himself down on the patio, forcing his amused owner to grab him by the front paws and pull him towards the water source.

But he does not give up - Doughnut continues to stay limp while he is gently dragged across the grass, his back legs splayed out behind him.

Doughnut decided to plonk himself down on the patio rather than face bathtime - so his owner decided to take him herself

The huge hound does not even flinch as he is pulled across the lawn with his back legs splayed out behind him

Eventually they reach the hose where the dog decides to sit like a statue rather than make a run for it.

He lies still while he his owner splashes the water over his body and washes him down in the sunshine.

The brown and white canine edges closer towards the water source, but still refuses to make a move
Channel Nine said Ms Kruger will be back on the Today Show on Monday

presenter is on the Gold Coast with her husband and child

Channel Nine has insisted television presenter Sonia Kruger will be back on the Today Show's Mixed Grill after she called for a ban on Muslim immigration in Australia.

Ms Kruger was photographed on the Gold Coast on Friday with her husband Craig McPherson and daughter Maggie.

She reportedly flew to Queensland on Friday morning after her morning appearance on the Today Show.

Sonia Kruger (pictured) was photographed on the Gold Coast on Friday with her husband Craig McPherson and daughter Maggie. She reportedly flew to Queensland on Friday morning after appearing on the Today Show

The TV presenter caused controversy when she argued there was a correlation between the number of Muslims in a country and the number of terrorist attacks on a panel discussion on the Channel Nine breakfast show on Monday.

Kruger called for Australia to stop Muslim immigration because she wanted to 'feel safe'.

'Personally, I would like to see it stop now for Australia because I want to feel safe as all of our citizens do when we go out to celebrate Australia Day,' she said.

The television host said she had 'a lot of very good friends' who were Muslims and peace-loving, beautiful people, before adding 'there are fanatics'.

Ms Kruger said 'it was vital to discuss these issues without automatically being labelled racist'.

She told the panel Japan had a population of 174 million people and 100,000 Muslims and the country never suffered terrorist attacks.

Kruger attracted controversy with her comments earlier in the week on the Today Show's Mixed Grill segment (pictured), calling for a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia

Nine chief executive Hugh Marks said the aim of panel discussions, such as the Mixed Grill, was to showcase a range of views. Above is Kruger the following day addressing the fall-out

Nine chief executive Hugh Marks told the Herald Sun the aim of panel discussions, such as the Mixed Grill, was to showcase a range of views and drum up debate.

'Nine's view is that we believe in freedom of speech and the Mixed Grill segment on the Today show is a place where that happens,' he said.

Media experts have warned the trend of networks getting their stars to be part of TV debates is a disaster waiting to happen.

Fusion Strategy boss Steve Allen said stars are often drawn into discussions about subjects they are often way out of their depth to comment on.

'These stars earn considerable incomes and benefits by being popular. These incidents have the potential to unravel that,' Mr Allen told the Herald Sun.

A media expert said TV stars are often drawn into discussions about subjects they are often way out of their depth to comment on

'Audiences will turn off when a star says something or holds an opinion they strongly disagree with.'

While programs such as the ABC's 7.30 and Lateline attract recognised experts on controversial issues, panellists on shows such as Mixed Grill include Today Extra co-host David Campbell, Nine finance guru Ross Greenwood and Getaway reporter Livinia Nixon.

Comedians also regularly appear on panels on Channel Seven and Channel Nine.

Mr Allen said Nine's decision to get Sonia Kruger and co-panellist David Campbell to discuss the terror attack in Nice was always going to be fraught.
A giant fault in the earth's crust covers by millions of tonnes of sediment in one of the world's most densely populated areas could kill tens of millions of people, scientists have claimed.

Researchers placed hundreds of highly accurate GPS receivers in locations across India, Bangladesh and Myanmar and monitored them over a ten year period.

Now the scientists fear the location is home to a megathrust fault which could unleash a 9.0 magnitude earthquake at any minute.

More than 140 million people live within a 60 mile area of the potential disaster zone in Bangladesh

Researchers warn that poorly designed buildings in Bangladesh will increase the death toll in an earthquake

Buildings collapsed in Kathmandu, Nepal after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake which struck in April 2015

The scientists, led by Dr Michael Steckler from Columbia University published their findings in the journal Nature.

The experts discovered that millions of tonnes of sediment from the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers has been dumped into the megathrust fault, where one of the earth's plates is being pushed under another.

This type of fault creates the largest earthquakes and was responsible for the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster which almost wiped out Banda Aceh as well as the 2011 Japanese earthquake. Both of these events resulted in massive Tsunami waves as the epicentre was far out to sea.

However, the newly discovered megathrust fault has massive numbers of people living in close proximity - many of whom are packed into poorly designed and constructed buildings.

Bangladesh, pictured, is one of the most densely populated areas in the world according to experts

Dr Steckler said more than 140 million people live within 60 miles of the fault.

Steckler told CNN, he fears the fault line may be active.

He said the fault was being filled by sediment from the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta which makes it difficult to study.

However, using the GPS data, he said they were able to 'see the motion of the plates and the deformation around the fault due to the two sides being locked together'.

Steckler claimed a 8.2 to 9.0 earthquake would have a devastating effect on the tens of millions of people living nearby - even in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

He said: 'The strain is building up and will sometime be released by an earthquake.'
Jesus Perez-Rivera (pictured) has been charged with felony murder in the deaths of three relatives who died after a 2004 house fire in southern New Jersey

A Texas man who survived a 2004 house fire that killed three of his relatives in southern New Jersey is now facing murder charges.

Jesus Perez-Rivera has been charged with felony murder in the deaths of Luis Silva, 32, his 29-year-old pregnant wife, Maria Silva, and their six-year-old son Carlos Cruz, according to the Courier-Post.

A criminal complaint obtained by the Post said Perez-Rivera caused their deaths 'while engaged in the commission of an arson'.

Perez-Rivera, 30, was injured along with six other people in the fire that occurred on July 9, 2004, at a home on the 900 block of North 22nd Street in Camden, New Jersey.

Luis Silva opened his home to his sister, Iris Rivera, her husband, Roberto Rodrigues, and their sons, Victor and Jesus Perez-Rivera, according to Philly.com.

Perez-Rivera and his family had only been staying at his uncle's home for two weeks when the blaze occurred.

The victims were rescued from the two-story home, but the Silvas and their son died after being hospitalized.

The fire has now been determined to be 'incendiary,' by the prosecutor's office.

'In these kinds of cases, we are frequently revisiting the evidence and looking for additional information,' Detective Andy McNeil, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office told the Post.

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office said that Perez-Rivera had moved from Camden to Puerto Rico with his family shortly after the fire.

Perez-Rivera was taken into custody by the Killeen Police Department in Texas and is now awaiting extradition to Camden.

Luis Silva suffered burns to over 50 percent of his body as he struggled to extinguish the fire in the living room, fire officials said at the time, according to NJ.com.

Neighbors said they could 'hear the people inside screaming'.

Luis Silva, 32, his 29-year-old wife, Maria Silva, and their six-year-old son Carlos Cruz, all died in the fire that happened 12 years ago at a home on the 900 block of North 22nd Street in Camden, New Jersey (pictured) Luis Silva suffered burns over 50 percent of his body as he struggled to extinguish the fire

Maria Silva was pregnant, authorities later learned.

She, their son and two daughters were rescued from the second floor, while other victims were sleeping in the basement of the home, according to the Post.

The victims had been brought to safety by a security guard and an employee from a nearby firm called Magnetic Metals.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.
An Oklahoma dentist and married father-of-four has been charged with killing his mistress' toddler son with a blow to the head after allegedly threatening to murder and mutilate the boys father.

Bert Franklin, 35, was arrested Wednesday on a first-degree murder charge in the death of 19-month-old Lincoln Van Henry Lewis.

The toddler's mother found him unresponsive at home on Sunday and took him to Mercy Hospital, where he was diagnosed with skull fractures.

Monstrous crime: Oklahoma dentist Bert Franklin, 35 (left), has been charged with killing his lover's 19-month-old son, Lincoln Van Henry Lewis (right), with a blow to the head

Double life: Roxanne Lewis-Randall, pictured with Lincoln, said she had been in a relationship with Franklin for a year and did not know he was married

Due to the severity of his injuries, the child was later flown to a Tulsa hospital where he passed away Monday, according to police.

A doctor who initially treated Lincoln in Oklahoma City called police because the toddler's injuries were consistent with abuse, according to a press release cited by Tulsa World.

Bert Franklin surrendered to police on Wednesday and was taken to Tulsa County Jail to await extradition to Oklahoma City.

According to Franklins arrest affidavit obtained by NewsOK, the 35-year-old dentist from Tulsa, who is married with four young children, had been carrying on a year-long affair with Lincoln's mother, Roxanne Lewis-Randall.

Ms Lewis-Randall told police that on July 17, she was downstairs in her home in the 14800 block of Gravity Falls when she heard a loud thud from an upstairs bedroom, where Franklin and Lincoln were alone at the time.

Franklin later told his girlfriend that the noise she heard was with from a small ball he was throwing to a puppy.

When Ms Lewis-Randall went to check on her son in the morning, his body was limp and he would not wake up.

Family man: Franklin is married and has four children, he is pictured with one of them above

Chilling threats: The woman (left) claimed that Franklin hated Lincoln's biological father (pictured right) and threatened to kill him, 'skin him in Bricktown' and cut off his penis

Web of lies: Detectives said neither Roxanne Lewis-Randall nor Franklin's wife (pictured right) knew of one another's existence

An autopsy that was performed in the wake of the child's death found that Lincoln had severe swelling and trauma to his brain, as well as hemorrhaging in both eyes caused by a pair of skull fractures.

Detectives said when they interviewed Bert Franklin, they found his story to be inconsistent with the evidence in the case.

According to Ms Lewis-Randall, her boyfriend hated Lincoln's biological father and had threatened to kill him, 'skin him in Bricktown' and cut off his penis, reported Fox 25.

She also claimed that Franklin recently had begun to exhibit 'controlling behavior.' investigators stated in Franklin's arrest warrant that his wife and his mistress were not aware of one anothers existence.

His Facebook page states that Franklin works at Signature Smiles Dental Spa in Tulsa. He reportedly has been with the practice for eight years.

All smiles: His Facebook page states that Franklin works at Signature Smiles Dental Spa in Tulsa

'Miracle baby': Lincoln was born prematurely in December 2014 and spent weeks in NICU

A bio on the dental practices website states that Franklin graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, where he received the Dental Wellness Partner Scholarship.

He also holds an undergraduate degree in biomedical chemistry from Oral Roberts University.

Posts and photos shared on Ms Lewis-Randall's Facebook account reveal that her son Lincoln was born prematurely in late December 2014 and spent nearly two months in NICU.

She was finally able to take him home in February of last year, calling him in one status update her 'miracle babe.' The woman also has two older children, a son and daughter.
This Porsche driver and his passengers got a nasty surprise when they jumped out of the car to confront a cyclist - only to be ambushed by masked men with machine guns.

The cyclist appears to have been travelling with armed guards who turned the tables on a road rage driver and his friends who had attacked him in the middle of a busy road.

A shocked bystander in Moscow, Russia, filmed the amazing footage which begins with a cyclist being confronted and jostled by a furious Porsche Cayenne driver.

Two of the passengers from the Porsche get out to aggressively confront the cyclist in Moscow, Russia

The third passenger from the Porsche starts to bang on the Land Cruiser's door - only for masked men to jump out of the minivan behind

It is unclear what the cyclist had done to irritate the Porsche driver but his two passengers also spring out and join in.

But then with its horns blaring, a white land cruiser and a minivan come into view and abruptly stop behind the Porsche.

Believing that they are unhappy about the road being blocked, the third man from the Porsche starts irately banging on the Land Cruiser driver's door.

At that moment, three masked gunmen jump from the minivan and pounce on the three men from the Porsche.

The armed men manage to grab two of them and bundle them into the minivan.

It is unclear what happened to the third as he disappears behind a car.

The armed men pushes one of the passengers to the floor while the driver desperately tries to get back in his vehicle

However the driver is dragged out and the two men are piled into the minivan. It is unclear where the third passenger goes

One of the armed men then commandeers the Porsche and the three vehicles speed off from the scene.

The video has been posted online where it has received mixed comments from social media users.

User 'Star Numbone' said: 'Looks like a staged video to me.'

User 'zyarro' added: 'I wish stuff like that would happen all the time. People like these dudes need to be put back in their place.'
Authorities in Nice have refused a request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of the Bastille Day attack that killed 84 people.

The specialist SDAT anti-terrorism agency say the want the CCTV footage destroyed because it could be used by terror groups as propaganda.

Officials in Nice received a letter from the elite unit asking for the destruction of the footage.

However, the unusual request comes as police are facing serious criticism over their response to the truck terror attack on July 14. The cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

A lawyer for the city of Nice submitted a protest letter on Friday saying officials would not comply for legal, administrative and technical reasons.

Mohamad Bouhlel, right, drove his rented truck along the Promenade des Anglais killing 84 people

Bouhlel was in contact with five people including Ramzi A, right, who have been charged with terror offences

Prosecutors in the region believe the footage could be vital in future criminal trials against Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel's associates.

But the lawyer also notes that the images are scheduled to be automatically deleted anyway on Sunday, according to Nice City Hall practice of deleting CCTV images after 10 days. Investigators will keep copies of the images.

Top regional official Christian Estrosi, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, had argued for tougher security for Nice's Bastille Day fireworks celebrations.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the Nice beachfront when Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over people.

French police eventually were able to bring Bouhlel to a halt after firing dozens of bullets into the cab, pictured

CCTV footage could be used to show where and how police were deployed to the promenade on July 14

Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

Hollande promised results of an internal police investigation next week.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of 18 nationalities, Hollande said. More than 300 people were wounded, and Hollande said Friday that 12 are 'fighting for their lives.'

The news comes as French President Francois Hollande announced new help on Friday for Iraq's military in fighting ISIS, in a bid to show his government is taking action against the terror group targeting France.

Hollande also outlined plans for expanded military deployment within the country this summer, and defended his interior minister's handling of the Nice police presence.

Frustration is rising that French authorities were unable to prevent the Bastille Day attack despite being in a state of emergency after a string of previous violence.

French President Francois Hollande has announced an increase in his country's anti-ISIS efforts

The names of the victims of truck attack in Nice, that killed 84 people last Thursday hang from two pillars at Nice City Hall in Nice, as security officials call for the deletion of CCTV footage of the terrible attack

Hollande said he will send artillery equipment to Iraq next month reiterated that France would not send ground troops.

Stressing the international nature of the fight against IS, Hollande said, 'Even if it was France that was attacked July 14, it's the world that was targeted.'

He pledged that investigators would find the truth about 'the circumstances and the causes of this tragedy, and the eventual networks of the terrorist.'

The Paris prosecutor says attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five suspects handed preliminary terrorism charges Thursday in the case. Bouhlel was killed by police.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners.

The victims were of 18 nationalities, Hollande said.

More than 300 people were wounded 12 people are still 'fighting for their lives.'
Charlotte Foster, pictured with parents Cecilia and Stephen at her graduation, died from a blood clot caused by the Pill

A normally fit and healthy young woman who died from a blood clot caused by the Pill after it spread to her lungs and triggered brain damage was told by her GP to go for a spa day when she reported her breathing difficulties.

Charlotte Foster, 23, went into cardiac arrest when she collapsed at work, five months after she started taking Dianette.

Three days later, the doctor's daughter, from Newport, near Telford, died at the town's Princess Royal Hospital after suffering brain damage.

Three weeks before her death, she went back to the doctor's complaining of back pain and shortness of breath - but medics said there were no signs of deep vein thrombosis.

Today, at an inquest into her death, it emerged Miss Foster had undergone tests which indicated she would be high-risk if prescribed the drug.

The brand of Pill - which she wanted as both a contraceptive and to treat her acne - carries double the risk of blood clots.

But, years later, her new GP agreed to give her a continuing prescription of the medication, despite a family history of pulmonary embolism.

Her mother, Cecilia, told the inquest that her daughter suffered from heart palpitations and had messaged her family on New Year's Eve to say her ribs hurt and that she couldn't lie down or breathe properly.

Giving evidence to Shropshire Coroner John Ellery, Mrs Foster said her daughter asked her to go with her to an appointment with GP Sunil Simon at his practice in Newport on January 4.

Mrs Foster told the inquest: 'He did not seem to listen to her. He told her her problem was mechanical and that she should go for a massage or a spa day.

'Charlotte was very angry after the consultation. She was upset that no follow-up investigations had been arranged.'

Giving evidence, Dr Sunil Simon told the hearing he did not 'specifically recall' Miss Foster talking about shortness of breath but that it 'may have been mentioned'.

'When I suspect pulmonary embolism there has to be serious clinical symptoms. When I observed Charlotte I did not observe that she had shortness of breath,' he said.

'This is what GPs do do every day, day in day out, and I didn't notice any respiratory distress. The cause of her back pain was mechanical.'

The hearing was told how Miss Foster - who worked as a sales executive for Muller - had a MET risk assessment in August 2011 to assess the effect of the contraceptive on her body.

Category one shows there is 'no restriction for the use of contraception', while category two says 'the advantage of using the contraceptive outweighs the risk'.

Miss Foster was found to be category three where 'theoretical risk usually outweigh benefits of using the medication'. Her family had a history of pulmonary embolism and breast cancer.

But the hearing was told how Dr Sarah Cumberlidge later found she was a category one or two, a finding she 'stands by'.

She told the hearing: 'Although her mother had suffered two pulmonary embolisms, these were when she was over 45. Her blood pressure and oxygen saturation were healthy.'

After those tests in August 2015, Dr Cumberlidge gave Miss Foster a three-month prescription of Dianette, advising her to return to the surgeryif she suffered shortness of breath.

The 23-year-old (left and right) went into cardiac arrest at work after a thrombosis - believed to have arisen in her pelvis or leg - caused a 'massive' embolism in her lungs

The doctor told the inquest: 'She requested a combined oral contraceptive pill and I discussed the side effects with her.

'I prescribed a three month course and advised if there were any problems such as shortness of breath or chest pains she should contact the surgery.'

The Shropshire Coroner, John Ellery, heard how Miss Foster then went back to the surgery on January 4 with pain in her lower back, extending down to her knee.

The hearing was told how she saw a different doctor. Her mother Cecilia, 60, claims her daughter complained of shortness of breath.

The hearing also heard from Dr Nigel Tuft, a consultant anaesthetist at the hospital where Miss Foster died.

He told the coroner he had multiple discussions with Miss Foster's family and concluded that her only risk factor was the Pill.

He told the inquest: 'The most likely site for the pulmonary embolism to arise is in the veins of the pelvis and the upper leg.

'These can cause no symptoms whatsoever or they can cause symptoms or deep vein thrombosis.'

Today, at an inquest into her death, it emerged Miss Foster had scored highly on tests for those who would be at risk if they take Dianette - the brand of Pill she was prescribed which carries double the risk of blood clots

Dr Nigel Tuft, a consultant anaesthetist, described to the coroner how medics at The Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, Shropshire (pictured) had made efforts to resuscitate Miss Foster before she arrived in hospital

He gave the cause of death as 'hypoxic brain damage due to a pulmonary embolism due to taking the oral contraceptive pill'.

Dr Tuft described to the coroner how medics had made efforts to resuscitate Miss Foster before she arrived in hospital.

The sales executive, who worked for dairy firm Muller, also received treatment to ease swelling to her brain. But their efforts were not successful and she died on January 25.

Dr Tuft added that CT scans had shown Miss Foster was not suffering from any tumours likely to have caused the pulmonary embolism.

The inquest heard that there has been an awareness of a small but heightened risk of bloods clots linked to contraceptive pills since the 1970s.

A government report in 2013 said that concerns about Dianette, which is also used to treat chronic acne, had been raised in France over the risk of clots.

Dr Tuft said: 'We would expect the clot to have formed in the order of weeks, perhaps 10 days, before the pulmonary embolism, but it is hard to say for sure.

'Since the 1970s there has been some evidence the contraceptive pill could lead to an increase in blood clots.

'Normally there is a one in 10,000 risk of blood clots in normal women. That raises to two in 10,000 if you are on a number of contraceptive medication.

'If you are on Dianette it raises to four in 10,000, which in turn increases your risk of a pulmonary embolism.

'Health regulators have found that despite its risk of pulmonary embolisms, Dianette is still a legitimate drug to use to treat acne, but not to use as a contraceptive pill.'

Her death is one of several linked to the Pill.

Sophie Miller, 16, of Accrington, Lancashire, died in November, and Fallan Kurek, 21, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, died in May. Both took Microgynon for eight months.

Miss Foster, who attended Shrewsbury High School before studying at the University of Liverpool, was described as 'intelligent, beautiful and caring' by her parents.

She joined Muller in June last year where she had been working as a Customer Category Executive for just over six months.

In a statement, Charlotte's parents Stephen, 55, and Cecilia, 60, said they had been left heartbroken.
A homeless mother and her boyfriend who sent the women's three young children into the California desert without shoes or water as a punishment have been jailed for 240 days.

Mary Bell, 34, and Gary Cassle, 29, were arrested earlier this month when the children - a seven-year-old girl, and two boys aged five and six - were spotted alone near Twentynine Palms in the Mojave Desert about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

The pair, who the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said were living in a truck with the children, pleaded guilty to felony child abuse ahead of a scheduled appearance at the San Bernardino County Superior Court on Thursday, the Desert Sun reports.

Mary Bell, 34, and Gary Cassle, 29, who sent Bell's three young children into the desert without shoes or water as a punishment have been jailed for 240 days

A neighbor told the newspaper they had never seen anything like this in the area before.

'That's pretty bad,' Ron Greiger said.

'It's probably too hot to be letting your kids wander, especially without shoes.'

In addition to the jail time, Bell and Cassle were placed on probation, had a protective order filled against them for the children, and ordered not to contact one another.

Mary Bell (left), 34, and Gary Cassle (right), 29, pleaded guilty to felony child abuse ahead of a scheduled appearance at the San Bernardino County Superior Court on Thursday

In addition to the jail time, Bell and Cassle were placed on probation, had a protective order filled against them for the children, and ordered not to contact one another

The children were found in the desert after a local spotted them near a road and called 911.

They did not require medical treatment when they were rescued after being wandering for about 45 minutes.

Bell and Cassle were found by deputies within sight of the children, 'but it was apparent they weren't keeping a visual on them,' a San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman said at the time of the arrest.

Temperatures were in the low 90s at the time.

The children - a seven-year-old girl, and two boys aged five and six - did not require medical treatment when they were found in this area of the desert in California
A Colorado woman who was allegedly covered in gasoline and set on fire by her boyfriend has died in hospital, one month after suffering burns to 60 percent of her body.

Police say that mother-of-three Christina Archuleta was camping with her family outside Idaho Springs in the Arapahoe National Forest on June 17 when the incident occurred.

Her boyfriend, John Anthony Vasquez, 32, is accused of pouring gasoline over Archuleta's shoulder, lighting it with a blue lighter, and laughing as her clothes went up in flames.

Witnesses say the two had been fighting and that the incident occurred in front of Archuleta's two sons.

Vasquez, who was arrested on attempted murder charges, will now be charged with murder.

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Killed: Police say Christina Archuleta (left) was camping with her family outside Idaho Springs, Colorado, on June 17 when boyfriend John Vasquez (right) allegedly set her on fire after the two had a fight

Scene: Archuleta and her boyfriend had taken two of her sons on a camping trip to this spot outside Idaho Springs in the Arapahoe National Forest when the incident occurred

It was announced on a GoFundMe page set up for Archuleta that she had passed away this week from her horrific injuries.

She suffered third-degree burns to 60 percent of her body, stemming from the torso area.

'I'm sure a lot of you have already heard that our dearest daughter went to be with the Lord,' according to an update on the site that was posted Thursday morning.

'What a heart wrenching time. I will miss her. Her poor boys. They took it so hard. It was so devastating to see their broken hearts. Please pray for them that God comforts their hearts.

'It was a tough day. Thank you all for everything that you have done for our daughter, her boys and us. Thank you for all the love, support and donations you have shown and shared with Tina and her boys. We love you and may God bless you.'

Deputies found burned clothes, a seven-gallon container of gasoline, beer bottles and a bottle of Fireball whisky at the campsite, according to the Denver Post.

The gasoline container was only half full and was missing the pour spout. Authorities also found two lighters in Vaquez pockets.

Set on fire: Witnesses say Vasquez threw gasoline on his girlfriend's shoulder and used a lighter to set her up in flames. She died in hospital this week from the burns

Vasquez has denied that he purposely set his girlfriend on fire.

He claims he was lighting the campfire to cook breakfast when he turned around and saw Archuleta on fire. He said he told her to stop, drop and roll, but couldnt recall anything after that. He denied he lit her on fire, the report says.

One of Archuleta two boys, aged seven and 10, had second-degree burns on one of his hands, presumably from trying to put the flames out.

The boys were released to social services and later into the custody of their father.

Vasquez and Archuleta had been together for about two years, The Post reported.

The boys told investigators that, the night before the incident, Vasquez kicked Archuleta.

The four ended up sleeping in Vasquez's car, but when they woke the battery was dead.

One of the boys went to find someone that could jump start the car when the incident occurred.

He told police he ran back to the car after hearing his mother scream.

The other boy ran to get a jug of water to put out the flames, and was so upset he vomited as he ran toward her.

He said he threw the water on his mother as she rolled on the ground.

Archuleta was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.

Vasquezs criminal record includes a 2015 conviction for criminal mischief related to domestic violence.
A woman who says she was gang-raped twice by the same men in separate attacks three years apart has said: 'I will have to spend my entire life in constant fear of being raped again or killed.'

Prosecutors say the 21-year-old woman was raped by five men in the Indian city of Rohtak last week in a revenge attack after she refused to accept an out-of-court settlement when they raped her in 2013.

Even though she and her entire family had all moved some 40 miles from Bhiwani to Rohtak in Haryana state, the rapists still found her and attacked her as she left a college class.

The woman is from the lowly Dalit caste, sometimes known as Untouchables, while her attackers were from a upper caste.

She was found naked and injured in some bushes on July 13 and was taken to a hospital in Rohtak's Sukhpura Chowk district before lodging a complaint with local police.

Speaking from her hospital bed, she said: 'My life will never be the same. I am worried about my family's safety. They can harm us any time.'

The victim is recovering in hospital after being gang-raped on July 13, three years after the first assault

The three suspects were remanded in custody this week and her father said she was determined to pursue the case despite the state's failure to protect her.

The five men involved have been named as Mausam Kumar and Aakash Singh, Anil Singh, Raju Singh and Sandeep Singh, all in their twenties.

The accused, who face life sentences if convicted in the first case, allegedly offered money to the woman's family to drop the initial rape complaint.

Her cousin said: 'We were offered five million rupees (56,500) withdraw the case. They are rich people and have strong political links.'

Three Indian men attempt to hide their faces as they are brought to court in India accused of gang raping a 21-year-old woman

'We didn't give in to their demands and pursued the case, but we were let down by the court, which gave them bail in May,' he added.

The cousin said only the rich get justice in India and he said she was targeted after she spurned the advances of one of the money.

'He must have thought, they are poor and helpless, and we will get away with the crime,' he added.

The cousin said of their original attempts to get the men prosecuted: 'We were tossed from one police station to another, but no one was listening.

'The accused were bribing them and were getting all help from the authorities. This country is only for rich and for upper castes, only they get justice.'

The victim and her family moved from Bhiwani to Rohtak to get away from the men after the first rape

The accused, who face life sentences if convicted in the first case, allegedly offered five million rupees (56,500) to the woman's family to drop the initial rape complaint

A woman (pictured) who was gang-raped three years ago has alleged that she was raped again by the same men

Police have charged three men, who were still on bail for the initial rape in 2013.

Rohtak police chief Rakesh Arya said: 'We are collecting all evidence and will investigate the case in a fair and transparent manner.'

Sexual violence against women is a highly sensitive issue in India, where the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012 sparked deep soul-searching about entrenched violence against women and the failure of authorities to protect them.

India has enacted tougher jail sentences for rapists and promised to try those accused through 'fast-track' courts but rape, acid attacks and domestic violence remain common.

Unicef's gender adviser, Anju Malhotra,said: 'We need action now to end this brutality that has become routine and to give the victims of violence the justice and protection they deserve.'

A noose hangs demanding death penalty for rapists, as Indians participate in a candlelit vigil protesting violence against women in New Delhi

Indian Dalit women shout slogans during a protest against a gang-rape of four Dalit girls in New Delhi, India

An inefficient and underfunded judicial system, particularly outside big cities, and a patriarchal society also mean many victims are scared to come forward and when they do prosecutions move slowly, if at all.

Members of the lowest-rung of India's centuries-old social hierarchy can find it particularly difficult to seek justice because of their poor economic status.
Gary Shipp, 18, from Oldham, who runs his own firm has been hit with a 40,000 quote to insure a 9,000 secondhand van

A teenage bricklayer who runs his own firm has been hit with a 40,000 quote to insure a 9,000 secondhand van.

Gary Shipp, 18, from Oldham, was determined to go into business for himself - but the enterprising tradesman cannot afford a van because of the whopping insurance premiums.

He has been quoted between 20,000 and 40,000 to insure the vehicle even though he has a clean driving record and has never been involved in any accidents.

Gary, who started laying bricks from the age of 11, launched his business, Stonebrook Builders, a month ago.

Despite the stumbling block, he is working around the problem by using his own car, a Vauxhall Astra, to bring equipment to and from jobs.

He also hires larger items like cement mixers and drills, paying for them to be transported to building sites.

Using comparethemarket.com, he obtained quotes for a range of vans and trucks, with the cheapest around 20,000-a-year. Insurance brokers haven't beaten that price.

When he looked at the cost of insuring a Nissan Navara truck worth around 9,000, he was quoted a whopping 40,323 by the RAC.

Gary has never been involved in an accident and has no points on his driving licence.

The young entrepreneur has even moved out of his mother's home into his girlfriend's house to reduce his insurance costs.

The move is saving him about 2,500-a-year on his Astra, which he has brought down to 3,500 per

annum - and he even fitted a 'black box' monitor to reduce the costs even further.

He said: 'People under 25 are having to pay extortionate prices. It's a rip-off. It's like the pause button has been hit. It's depressing as well as the same time. I can't afford 20 grand to insure a van.'

The teenager started working in the building trade with his uncles from the age of eleven before learning bricklaying at Hopwood Hall College in Middleton.

He started an apprenticeship aged 17, and a month ago he started his own business, even employing other brickies and labourers.

'From very young I always knew I wanted to be a worker. I'm very strong-minded and I'm not going to let anything get me down. But the insurance companies grab you and won't let you move.

'They may as well put handcuffs on me.'

Gary is seen as the 'highest risk' primarily because of his age, according to insurance industry experts.

When he looked at the cost of insuring a Nissan Navara truck worth around 9,000, he was quoted a whopping 40,323 by the RAC

Malcolm Tarling, of the Association of British Insurers, said: 'What's important for the insurer is not the value of the van but the likelihood of him being involved in a multi-million pound personal injury claim. That risk is much higher the younger you are.'

Mr Tarlking said the insurance industry was lobbying the government for moves which would reduce the risk posed by younger drivers, for instance by limiting the number of passengers they can carry and introducing a test period after drivers have passed their test.

It comes as a teenage support worker was given a car insurance quote of 11,500 a year - almost six times the value of her car.

Naomi Bowler, of Folkestone, Kent, was 'absolutely disgusted' to receive the five-figure quote of 11,542 from insurance giant Aviva, who insisted the sum was 'nothing out of the ordinary'.

The 19-year-old, who has no claims, previously insured her factory standard 2007 Peugeot 206 using a black box to monitor her driving at a cost of 96 a month.

Miss Bowler, who was recommended to try Aviva by a family friend, earns 1,400 a month after tax and says the extortionate quote would eat up most of her wages.

It equated to 10 monthly payments of 1,107.72 and a deposit of 1,923.66.
The police officer who shot dead Philando Castile as he sat in his car had interacted with him in a previous stop four years ago, newly released records reveal.

Castile, 32, died July 6 after he was pulled over by St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in suburban St. Paul. Yanez's attorney has said the officer was reacting to seeing a gun.

The chilling detail was made public Thursday and described how Castile had been pulled over for a defective brake light in November 2011.

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St. Anthony Police officer Jeronimo Yanez, pictured right, who shot dead Philando Castile, pictured left, as he sat in his car had interacted with him in a previous stop four years ago, newly released records reveal

Castile's girlfriend remained calm and live streamed the aftermath of the fatal shooting on Facebook

He was arrested on a Hennepin County warrant for driving with a revoked license.

While St. Anthony Police officer Jeronimo Yanez wasn't the arresting cop, he was listed as one of two officers who drove Castile several miles to the county jail.

It was just a few weeks after Yanez had joined the St Anthony Police Department.

The report also includes detail on a July 2 armed robbery at a Super USA convenience store that lists Yanez as one of two officers assigned to investigate.

The robbery occurred a few blocks away from where the traffic stop took place four days later.

Yanez's attorney, Thomas Kelly, has said that when Yanez stopped Castile he was approaching someone he thought resembled a suspect in an armed robbery.

Castile's family has questioned that, saying his long history of traffic stops - he was pulled over or ticketed at least 52 times in recent years - suggested he was racially profiled.

An audio clip purporting to be police radio transmissions that capture the moments just before Castile was stopped by Yanez also seem to indicate that the officer believed Castille and Reynolds 'looked' like suspects in a robbery.

Castile's family say his long history of traffic stops - he was pulled over or ticketed at least 52 times in recent years. They suggested he was racially profiled. Philando Castile's mother Valerie, is pictured right, with her son's fiancee Diamond Reynolds

'I'm going to stop a car, I'm going to check ID's,' the officer can be heard saying in the recording, obtained by KARE 11.

'I have reason to pull it over. The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery.'

The officer then tells dispatch he believes the driver looks like one of the suspects because of his 'wide set nose'.

Castile's fiancee, Diamond Reynolds, streamed the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook in a distressing video that shows him slumped on the seat next to her covered in blood, which sent reverberations around the globe and sparked multiple protests.

She said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling the officer he had a gun permit and was armed.

Yanez and officer Joseph Kauser, who also responded to the scene of Castile's shooting, have no complaints against them, according to the city of St. Anthony, following a request for personal data on the pair.

Yanez joined the department in November 2011, and Kauser in January 2013.

The St. Anthony Police Department currently has 23 police officers and 14 reserve officers.
A terrifying tourist attraction which allows guests to feed meat to crocodiles from a raft has tried to prove it is safe - by floating an elephant on it.

Last last week pictures emerged of Chinese tourists dangling lumps of beef into the jaws of the killer reptiles at the Utairatch crocodile farm and zoo near Pattaya, Thailand.

The images, posted by a local taxi driver, sparked a safety frenzy with police and officials rushing to the facility to close it down.

Last week these images of Chinese tourists taking their lives in their hands as they dangled meat off a flimsy-looking raft, surrounded by hungry crocodiles, caused a stink in Thailand. The authorities threatened to close down the Utairatch crocodile farm and zoo

The farm's licence was suspended on Saturday for 90 days while officials carried out safety checks at the attraction, which has 4,000 crocodiles.

But in a bid to stay open defiant owner Uthen Youngprapakorn took the bizarre step of putting a two-and-a-half tonne elephant in the water.

The elephant, known as Big, is seen standing on the rusty craft as staff drag it from one side of the pond to the other, without it sinking.

In a bid to avert closure Mr Youngprapakorn sought to prove the raft was safe. He removed the roof and railings and loaded a two-tonne elephant onto it to show how much weight it could carry

Big has two chairs on his back and a handler sitting on his head and there are three other men in the boat.

Mr Youngprapakorn even offered a five million baht (100,000) reward to anybody who could one of his rafts and blasted 12 rounds from a handgun into one to prove its strength.

The tycoon said: 'There were some rumours that what we do isn't safe, that the rafts are too small, or not strong enough.

These images were distributed by a Thai taxi driver and the authorities responded by threatening to close down the zoo

'Well, look at the pictures. There's an elephant on there and it's totally fine. I'd let my children play on there.

'If an elephant can ride on one of our rafts then it's 100 per cent safe for a dozen tourists to go on there.'

The raft was identical to those used by the tourists, except with the roof and railings removed to fit in the elephant.

Another one of the tests was to pile 30 people onto the raft to show it would still float

Mr Youngprapakorn said: 'Everybody who has been here loves it. It's just people who have never visited who say it's not safe or cruel. They're cowards who are only good at using keyboards.

'All the crocodiles used in the tourist part are older reptiles, who get to live a long life instead of being used in the farm, where they would become handbags.'
Unite leader Len McCluskey claimed the intelligence services were involved in the attempt to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader

Unite leader Len McCluskey has claimed the security services are involved in the attempt to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.

The union baron is one of Mr Corbyn's closest allies as he bids to see off an attempt by Labour MPs to remove him as leader.

Mr McCluskley said he believed that in 30 years time, publication of government papers would prove his suspicions spies were helping in the effort to dislodge the left wing leader.

He claimed that a man he believed was a union leader in 1972 had proved to be an MI5 agent.

Mr McCluskey told the Guardian: 'Do people believe for one second that the security forces are not involved in dark practices?

I have been around long enough  the type of stuff that we ultimately find out about, about who was involved in who, the 30-year rule.

We found out just a couple of years ago that the chair of my union then, the Transport and General Workers Union, was an MI5 informant at the time that there was a strike taking place that I personally as a worker was involved in.

'[In] 1972, I was on strike for six weeks. And 30 years later it comes out that the chair of my union at that time was an MI5 informant.'

Mr McCluskey said the job of 'rightwingers' was to secretly stir up trouble for Mr Corbyn on social media and boost claims the Labour leader is inspiring intimidation and harassment.

He added: 'Well I tell you what, anybody who thinks that that isnt happening doesnt live in the same world that I live in.'

Mr McCluskey was brought into try and broker peace talks between Mr Corbyn and his MPs last month after almost the entire shadow cabinet resigned and MPs overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in the leader.

But after the talks collapsed, the union leader strongly weighed in behind Mr Corbyn and against the PLP.

In a television interview he launched a strident defence of Mr Corbyn as a 'man of steel' and placed the unions in the forefront of efforts to broker a truce.

Mr McCluskey told the BBC: 'Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour party for five years, lost an election. Gordon Brown, 13 years at the top of our party, including PM, lost an election.

'Grandees being dragged out to be part of this unedifying coup is quite outrageous.

'The reality is that this has been a political lynching of a decent man  undermined, humiliated, attacked in order to push him out. Here's the truth  the coup has failed.

'Jeremy Corbyn is made of stronger stuff. He has made it clear that he will not stand down.'

Jeremy Corbyn has been battling an attempt by most of his MPs to remove him as Labour leader amid claims he is incompetent and incapable of winning a general election

Mr Corbyn was today forced to deny he was a 'bully' after a string of new claims from his MPs.

Whip Conor McGinn revealed what he claimed was a 'bullying' campaign by Mr Corbyn which even included a threat from the Labour leader to phone his dad to complain about critical comments in an interview.

And former leadership contender Angela Eagle accused Mr Corbyn of 'stirring' things after she cancelled constituency surgeries due to abuse directed at her.

Mr Corbyn today told Sky News: 'I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues. I regret the language that has been used by all of them. I don't do any abuse, I don't do any bullying, I don't allow it to be done in any of my campaigning teams.

'And I'm very surprised and actually very disappointed that they should say that because politics has to be about bringing people in and I think we have done that spectacularly well.
mum but said he 'is very capable'

A man claiming to be missing Victorian mother Karen Ristevski's stepson says he 'is very capable' of murdering her.

Anthony Rickard, 32, denies killing the missing mum but told the Herald Sun that he is angry over a family conflict and has been questioned by police in relation to the 47-year-old's disappearance.

Mr Rickard, a father of two, also told the publication he was fighting an ice addiction.

Mrs Ristevski was last seen at her Avondale Heights home, in Melbourne's northwest, about 10am on June 29 after she went for some fresh air after a heated discussion with her husband Borce.

A man claiming to be missing Victorian mum Karen Ristevski's (pictured) stepson says he 'is very capable' of murdering her

Mrs Ristevski, 47, was last seen at her Avondale Heights home, in Melbourne's northwest, about 10am on June 29

Mrs Ristevski's alleged stepson said he has no alibi on the day of her disappearance, but tells the Herald Sun that anger over a family conflict would be considered a motive.

Mr Rickard says detectives asked him if he had killed his stepmother.

'I said, "I would have liked to",' he told the Herald Sun, then added he was very capable of carrying out such a crime.

He claims a secret conflict destroyed the family and that 'it would be understandable if police viewed him as a suspect.'

He says he is the son of Mrs Ristevski's husband, Borce, and said he was 14 when he moved into her household with his dad and younger half-sister Sarah.

While telling the Herald Sun he was provided a comfortable home to live in, he claims a secret conflict tore the family apart.

The reported disagreement is not specified but an aunt of Mr Rickard supports his story.

Melinda Dawes told the Herald Sun that she and an ex-partner have spoken with detectives.

'He has always kept to the same story  I've never had a reason to doubt him.'

Mr Rickard says he called the missing mum days before her disappearance to face his past.

'So I rung her (Mrs Ristevski) ... what I wanted to talk to her about she knows exactly why.

'It was a shock that she disappeared after my phone call to her.'

Mrs Ristevski's alleged stepson said he has no alibi on the day of her disappearance, but tells the Herald Sun that anger over a family conflict would be considered a motive

He says he is the son of Mrs Ristevski's husband, Borce (right), and said he was 14 when he moved into her household with his dad and younger half-sister Sarah

Mr Rickard claims Borce Ristevski (pictured left with the couple's daughter) is his father. Mrs Ristevski is pictured right with her close friend Australian television star Samuel Johnson

Mr Rickard said he was provided a comfortable home to live in but claims a secret conflict tore the family apart

Police have said they hold grave concerns for Mrs Ristevski's welfare as she hasn't used her phone or accessed her bank account since her disappearance.

Ms Ristevski has since failed to turn up for work at the family business Bella Bleu boutique in Taylors Lakes.

A police spokesperson previously told Daily Mail Australia: 'As part of the investigation, Karen's house and the surrounding area has been searched.'
The owner of a horrifically abused and starved puppy has been arrested on animal cruelty charges.

Police found the five-month-old brown pitbull mix living in a dark room without food or water in Laquana Moores North 6th Street home in Paterson, New Jersey, on Wednesday, according to NorthJersey.com.

'The dog was all skin and bones,' animal control officer John DeCando told the outlet. '[He] was extremely malnourished, showing the rib bones and struggling to walk.'

Pax, a five-month-old pit mix, was found in a dark room in New Jersey without food or water and in his own urine and feces

Pax was so malnourished his bones could easily be seen though his skin and he had a skin infection that caused a terrible odor to emit from his body

Rescuers said despite his horrible existence, Pax was friendly to all and eager for human touch

Moore was not home at the time, but her daughter showed cops where the dog was. The pup was rushed to Oradell Animal Hospital for treatment for malnutrition and an extreme case of mange.

Before the pooch was taken from the house, the animal control officer took him off his chain and despite hardly being able to walk, the pup staggered over to the toilet bowl and drank all of the water in it because he was so thirsty, according to the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Shelter, which took over the pup's care and has set up a GoFundMe page for him.

The shelter also said the pooch had an extremely strong odor from a skin infection and was living in feces and urine.

Pax was rushed to Oradell Animal Hospital for IV fluids to be fed in small amounts so as not to overwhelm his system

The emaciated pooch staggered to the toilet bowl and drank all of the water out of it as soon as he was let off his leash, said animal control

Despite all of that, the pup, now named Pax, never stopped wagging his tail and kissing his rescuers, and would even collapse from the exertion of showing gratitude and friendliness while so weak and emaciated.

'He was so excited to finally have human contact and kind touch,' said the shelter, which has raised almost $7,000 for his medical expenses.

'He was so happy, his tail wagging furiously - all the while the rescuers were in tears as he tipped over again and again from weakness, his skin flaked to the floor and his little heartbeat seemed to shine right through his paper-thin skin.'

Pax is now on IV fluids and being fed a little at a time so as to not overwhelm his system, but he is doing much better.

'The dog is doing fabulous, thank god,' said animal control officer John DeCando, who rescued the pup

The shelter says that Kathy, a vet tech at Franklin Lakes Animal Hospital, is fostering the dog. When pax is healthy, he will go up for adoption to find his loving, furever home.

Moore was issued two tickets for animal cruelty and will have to pay a $1,000 fine each or up to six months in jail on each count if convicted.

'A picture is worth a thousand words,' DeCando told the Daily Mail of the case against Moore. 'The dog is doing fabulous, thank god,' he added. The pooch has put on three pounds since he's been rescued.

Moore is next set to appear at the Paterson Municipal Courthouse on August 26.

Meanwhile, Pax has not let his trauma at the hands of one human taint his affection for humans in general.
Flight had to turn back with passengers put up in hotels at cost of 100,000

Kelly, from Essex, threatened to kill 'everyone on board' when confronted

A man who bought duty free wine at an airport downed it on the plane and got so abusive the flight had to turn around, a court heard.

Boozy James Kelly, 56, was on his way to Malaga from Bristol when he started knocking back vast quantities of alcohol.

He downed one bottle of wine in the departure lounge then another in the plane toilet and started making vile threats to passengers.

The flight to Malaga had to return to Bristol Airport 25 minutes after take off due to Kelly's inebriated state. A police van is seen parked outside the plane (pictured)

Kelly then threatened to stab the pilot and the flight was forced to turn round and head back to Britain.

Kelly, also known as Martin Johnson, was arrested in April when the plane was grounded. His misadventures wasted around 100,000 in costs.

Prosecuting, Kevin Blackmore said he bought two bottles of white wine in duty free before boarding the flight from Bristol Airport.

He said: 'He proceeded to the departure lounge where he drank one of the bottles of wine. He then put the other bottle in his bag.

'He went to his seat on the aircraft, 14D, and took the second bottle of wine and took a sip.'

Mr Blackmore said the flight attendant came over to him to ask him to stop drinking - but the defendant said he didn't have anything in his bag.

Mr Blackmore continued: 'He took the wine into the toilet for approximately seven minutes. The empty bottle of wine was found in the toilet bins.

'The toilet was left unusable as somebody had urinated all over it.'

The woman sat next to Kelly, Paula Jones, alerted flight attendants to his state and said she was worried about his behaviour, the court heard.

Aircraft staff came over to warn Kelly and told him they would have to turn around.

Kelly, of Harlow, Essex, retorted: 'If that pilot turns around I'm going to stab him.'

Mr Blackmore added: 'He then said he would stab the air hostess and kill everyone on board the plane. By this time Paula Jones was terrified.'

The flight to Malaga had to return to Bristol Airport 25 minutes after take off due to Kelly's inebriated state, while it was in Guernsey airspace.

Kelly, also known as Martin Johnson, was arrested in April when the plane was grounded back at Bristol Airport (pictured). His misadventures wasted around 100,000 in costs

The 153 passengers destined for Malaga had to put up in local hotels - as did those waiting for the return flight to Bristol.

Kelly initially appeared in North Somerset Magistrates court in April and was released on bail - but failed to reappear for another hearing on July 13.

In his absence the lout was found guilty of being drunk on an aircraft and police tracked him down in Glasgow before arresting him on Wednesday.

Kelly appeared in court today and his case was sent to Bristol Crown Court to be sentenced.

Mrs Johnson said: 'This is a very, very serious offence. If there was an emergency you could have put lives in danger.'
Was reinstated in 2000 but has been subjected to several

A black Cincinnati police officer posted a public Facebook message which said that 'white officers were looking for a reason to kill black men'.

Officer Freddie Vincent also gave advice to his African American friends in the post, telling them that if they are encountered by a white officer, they should 'comply to all of their commands' and 'never resist'.

He added: 'I'm so tired of cops using these famous words 'I was in fear of my life.' I'm praying for Louisiana that could have been my nephew in B.R.'

Freddie Vincent (right) black Cincinnati police officer posted a public Facebook message (left) which said that 'white officers were looking for a reason to kill black men'

Following the series of police shootings of black men, there have been daily Black Lives Matter protests across the country

Cincinnati Police chief Eliot Isaac said in a statement Thursday that the post is being reviewed under the department's 'social media procedure and our rules and regulations', according to Cincinnati.com.

Vincent has sent a stream of Facebook posts over the last fortnight, reflecting on the recent police shootings of black men, many of which suggest that there is systematic racism within all US police departments.

One post sent July 7 includes a photograph of Ku Klux Klan members with a burning cross, along with the words 'the KKK has infiltrated U.S. police departments for decades' along with a link to a site called Alternet. He wrote above it: 'Knowledge !!!!!'

Another, posted on July 12, includes an illustration on '10 rules of survival if stopped by the police' above which he has commented that while it isn't 100 per cent true, it is '85 % to 95 %' accurate and may make the difference between walking home safely or being shot.

Police Chief Isaac said that the Cincinnati Department 'strives to maintain a culture of professionalism, as well as transparency and accountability for our actions' and added that he was proud of 'the work of the men and women of the Cincinnati Police Department and our efforts to work collaboratively with the community.'

Alton Sterling (left and right) who was a father-of-five - was killed by a white officer outside a Baton Rouge convenience store where he was selling CDs on July 5.

The following day Philando Castile (left) was shot and killed in St Paul, Minnesota by a white officer after telling him he had a legal conceal carry license and had a weapon in his car. Just two days ago, Florida man Charles Kinsey (right) a caretaker who was trying to calm a patient with autism, was shot in the leg despite telling police that he had his hands in the air.

But at a panel discussion on police-community relations sponsored by the Enquirer held last Thursday, Isaac told an audience member 'I don't think anyone can say there is not racism inside the department', when asked if the issue still exists.

A string of shootings of black men by white officers has brought police - community relations to the center stage, as well as raising questions over the systematic racism that many believe to be infecting police forces across America.

Alton Sterling - who was a father-of-five - was killed by a white officer outside a Baton Rouge convenience store where he was selling CDs on July 5.

The following day Philando Castile was shot and killed in St Paul, Minnesota by a white officer after telling the officer he had a legal conceal carry license and had a weapon in his car.

Meanwhile, just two days ago, Florida man Charles Kinsey, a caretaker who was trying to calm a patient with autism, was shot in the leg despite telling police that he had his hands in the air.

The shooting in Florida illustrates the longstanding fear among black men that almost any encounter with police can go awry with potentially deadly results, even when a person follows every law enforcement command.

Vincent has sent a stream of Facebook posts over the last fortnight, reflecting on the recent shootings, many of which suggest that there is systematic racism within all US police departments

Following the series of shootings, there have been daily Black Lives Matter protests across the country, as well as several rallies held across the globe, including the United Kingdom.

Vincent, who identifies himself as a Freemason (a fraternal organisation that dates back to the 14th Century) according to his Facebook, has been the subject of multiple disciplinary actions, according to the Enquirer.

He was fired from the department in 1999 after pleading no contest to speeding on his motorcycle and failing to have an operator's license but was reinstated the following year.

Vincent has also been the subject of multiple disciplinary actions including failure of good behavior, neglect of duty for six negligent auto accidents in a cruiser and dishonesty.

Meanwhile in 2007, he was lauded as a hero by the former Cincinnati police chief for pushing another officer behind cover when a man pulled a gun on them both outside a nightclub.
A protester has set himself and two other people on fire while trying to burn an American flag during a rally outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Dramatic images captured the moment Gregory Lee Johnson set a flag he was holding alight, before the fire quickly spread to his pants, during a demonstration that blocked delegates from getting into the convention on Wednesday.

Johnson was addressing the crowd at the start of a video, captured by Fox Business, before he appeared to pull the flag out of a tin can.

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A protester (pictured) who burned an American flag during a rally outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland accidentally set himself and two other people on fire

When the flag is set alight, a police officer is seen rushing in to stop the protest, forcing Johnson to move it to his side and set the other two people on fire as well.

Moments later, the officer was knocked to the ground as more cops tried to push their way through the protesters to get to the flag.

Johnson, who is reportedly demanding he be released immediately from police custody, famously set fire to an American flag outside the 1984 RNC in protest of Ronald Reagan's policies. He was arrested and later charged under a Texas law that made it illegal to destroy or desecrate a venerated object - including the flag.

However, Johnson appealed the decision before the Supreme Court, arguing what he did was protected by the First Amendment as 'symbolic speech'.

Gregory Johnson (left) lights an American flag on fire during a protest in Cleveland, during the third day of the Republican convention on Wednesday

Police Chief Calvin Williams said 18 people were arrested during the protest, with two facing felony charges and others hit with misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of his argument five votes to four.

As a result of the 1989 court decision, flag burning is a protected form of free speech.

Police Chief Calvin Williams said 18 people were arrested during the protest, with two facing felony charges and others hit with misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse, according to Cleveland.com.

Johnson is seen being tacked by a police officer and taken into custody after he started to burn an American flag on Wednesday outside the RNC

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Communist Party, the group that was behind the protest, accused police of knocking a number of people to the ground and inflaming the situation.

'This is protected speech and they bum-rushed us,' Amina Gonzales told Cleveland.com.

'That caused a lot of the pro-Trump supporters to jump in too.'

A security official tries to extinguish a fire after members of the 'Revolutionary Communist Party' burned the U.S. flag outside the gates of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland
Their ribs pressing grotesquely at the skin on their tiny bodies, children fight for their lives on the crowded wards of the Al Sabeen hospital in Yemen's capital Sana'a.

Some are on life support and suck desperately for air, their chests pumping painfully and rapidly, others lie passively their big, gaunt eyes and large stomachs a sickening sign of the extreme malnourishment their bodies are fighting.

One baby died recently when the power generators cut out for an hour due to lack of fuel, preventing equipment such as incubators and ventilators from operating.

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Weak: This tiny baby is fighting for its life on a ward at the Al Sabeen hospital, in Yeme's capital Sana'a. Medics at the hospital faces an impossible challenge in healing the innocent victims of war and famine

Fighting: The wards of the hospitals in the Yemen capital of Sana'a are full of sick and dying children, many suffering from extreme malnourishment

Fear: Farah, nine, pleaded 'Who hates us? I'm scared of planes, of what they drop on us. That they bomb us. This is what scares me'

The pictures released by the British charity Save the Children are a rarely seen glimpse of the suffering of children in Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, where it is estimated nearly 1.3 million children - one in three of them under the age of five - are malnourished.

The city's hospital wards are also filled by civilians and children wounded by bombs, bullets and missiles, several crippled while aid workers speak of a 'catastrophic food crisis' across the country.

They are the innocent victims of the political crisis and devastating conflict that has seen a Saudi Arabian-led coalition carrying out a military campaign aimed at preventing Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen's ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking control of the country.

There is disturbing evidence that schools have been deliberately targeted by warplanes while the conflict has crippled much of the already impoverished country, destroying infrastructure and thousands of homes leading to warnings of a pending humanitarian disaster.

So far, at least 856 children have been killed and over 1,249 injured.

Tragic: Some 1.3million children - one in three of them under the age of five - are malnourished in Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries

Starving: Some of the babies are on life support, others are so severely malnourished they only have the energy to stare feebly with gaunt eyes

Violence: A political crisis and devastating conflict has torn Yemen apart, and there is disturbing evidence that schools have been deliberately targeted by warplanes

More than 2.7 million people are internally displaced and 3.4 million children are out of school.

Humanitarian agencies warn Yemen is 'teetering on the edge of famine', with the latest statistics revealing more than 14 million people are in desperate need of food.

Nine areas are now in a state of emergency, just one step away from being declared a 'famine', including the besieged city of Taiz in the highlands and the major port city of Al Hodeidah.

Children's lives in Yemen have been torn apart. Girls and boys are now facing challenges to both survive the conflict and access enough food, safe drinking water, and basic healthcare. Save The Children

Many homes have been reduced to rubble or sit in no-go areas between warring factions while desperate families talk of living in fear of bombs, little food or clean water and failing health services.

Mothers have walked for hours to take malnourished children to medical centres  a journey too dangerous for some to make  while schoolboys and girls tell horrific stories of their homes being bombed.

Farah, one nine year-old girl pleaded : 'Who hates us. I'm scared of planes, of what they drop on us. That they bomb us. This is what scares me.'

Save the Children warns that nearly eight million children are going hungry every day in a country where 40 per cent of the population are aged under 15.

More than 80 per cent of people rely on aid agencies and the United Nations for essentials such as food and healthcare.

'Children's lives in Yemen have been torn apart,' the charity says, 'Girls and boys are now facing daily challenges to both survive the conflict and access enough food, safe drinking water, and basic healthcare.

'And while the fighting continues and the delivery of vital humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to those most in need is obstructed, the lives of thousands more children are at risk.

Struggle: Pictures released by the British charity Save the Children offer a rarely seen glimpse of the suffering of children in Yemen, and the medics struggling to save their lives

Vulnerable: Humanitarian agencies warn Yemen is 'teetering on the edge of famine', with the latest statistics revealing more than 14 million people are in desperate need of food

Desperate: More than 2.7 million people are internally displaced and 3.4 million children are out of school

'The future for those that survive is also uncertain. The number of children who are not attending school has more than doubled during the past twelve months and now equates to nearly half of the school-age population.

'Many children have also been psychologically scarred and will need significant support to recover from their experiences and be able to live happy and productive lives in the future.'

The catastrophic food crisis in Yemen is clearly getting worse, and as we have seen so many times, it's babies and children who suffer the consequences most. Edward Santiago, Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen

Edward Santiago, Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen, said: 'We're particularly alarmed at spiralling malnutrition amongst babies and children.

'Every day, more and more families face an increased risk of being pushed into acute malnutrition as supplies dwindle, prices skyrocket and poverty rises.

'Even when Yemeni families can get their critically ill babies to a functioning hospital, the electricity supply is patchy and fuel to run back-up generators is scarce, meaning lifesaving equipment does not always function properly.'

He continued : 'The catastrophic food crisis in Yemen is clearly getting worse, and as we have seen so many times, it's babies and children who suffer the consequences most.'

Terrified children have spoken of fleeing the bombs and of attacks on their schools  both the UN and Amnesty International have accused the Saudi-led coalition of deliberately targeting schools, an allegation denied.

There have been allegations too that British weapons and munitions sold to Saudi Arabia and Gulf states have been used during some of the operations.

These are said to have included banned British-made cluster bombs that can be delivered by a Tornado jet, scores of which have been sold by Britain to Saudi Arabia in recent decades.

Help: Charities from around the world are fighting to help save the people of Yemen, where nine areas have now been declared to be in a state of emergency, just one step away from being declared a 'famine'

Relief: Edward Santiago, Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen, said: 'The psychological impact of the conflict has been devastating for children with many showing symptoms associated with distress and trauma'

In damning criticism, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the coalition was responsible for 60 per cent of child deaths and injuries last year and placed it on an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children's rights during conflict.

Amnesty said the coalition have carried out a series of air strikes targeting schools that were still in use, in violation of international humanitarian law.

Deliberately attacking schools that are not military objectives and directly attacking civilians not participating in hostilities are war crimes. Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty

'The Saudi Arabia-led coalition launched a series of unlawful air strikes on schools being used for educational  not for military  purposes, a flagrant violation of the laws of war,' said Lama Fakih, Senior Crisis Advisor at Amnesty.

'Schools are central to civilian life, they are meant to offer a safe space for children. Yemen's young school pupils are being forced to pay the price for these attacks.

'On top of enduring a bitter conflict, they face longer term upheaval and disruption to their education  a potentially lifelong burden that they will be forced to shoulder.'

In some cases the schools were struck more than once, suggesting the strikes were deliberately targeted.

'Deliberately attacking schools that are not military objectives and directly attacking civilians not participating in hostilities are war crimes,' said Lama Fakih.

With more than 1,600 schools destroyed or shut, it is unsurprising that a third of school age children in Yemen do not have access to education.

Santiago said: 'The psychological impact of the conflict has been devastating for children with many showing symptoms associated with distress and trauma including anxiety, low-self-esteem and lack of concentration.

'We support 300 children in our Child Friendly Spaces in Sana'a  giving them the opportunity to play, learn, create and spend time with their friends in a safe place where they can forget what they've been through.

'But ultimately their recovery requires an environment in which they are not in daily fear for their lives.'

The British government has been under pressure to investigate whether weapons originating in the UK have been used in violation of international laws.

British military advisers  and it is reported Special Forces  are said to have been in Yemen advising Saudi and other forces from the United Arab Emirates.

Significantly, the Foreign Office on Thursday took the highly unusual move of issuing a series of corrections to answers given to questions about allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law in Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition.

In a series of U-turns on the final day of Parliament, the government was forced to retract numerous written and oral statements to parliament which said ministers had assessed that Saudi Arabia was not in breach of international humanitarian law in Yemen.

Future? With more than 1,600 schools destroyed or shut, it is unsurprising that a third of school age children in Yemen do not have access to education

The admission led to calls by the Liberal Democrats for an investigation into Saudi behaviour in Yemen and a suspension of UK arms sales.

The Liberal Democrats have claimed that the Saudi military campaign has targeted civilians.

The Foreign Office said the incorrect statements, made by three different ministers over the last six months, were errors and did not represent an attempt to mislead MPs over its assessment of the Saudi campaign.
A man who is accused of killing his father with a samurai sword so he would receive $2.5million in insurance payouts allegedly plotted the attack in bed with his wife.

Michael Martin Senior - who was known to locals as 'Mullet Mick' - survived an attempt on his life in June 2014 but was killed just weeks later at his South Murwillumbah home on the NSW north coast.

After his son Michael Martin Junior, 27, and his son's ex-wife Candace Martin made an emotionally plea to find his killer, they were both charged with murder.

Candace allegedly later told police her ex-husband killed his father and the pair had devised the plan while they were in bed.

Michael Martin Senior, pictured, survived an attack in June 2014 but was killed just weeks later at his South Murwillumbah home on the NSW north coast

Michael Martin Junior, 27, (pictured) made an emotionally plea to find his father's killer, but was later charged with murder

'My husband was an abusive a******* and he murdered his father and I knew about it and lied for him,' Candace allegedly told police, The Saturday Telegraph reported.

'We were lying in bed and Michael said, ''I would feel no remorse in killing my father'', and we made a plan from there.'

Candace also told police the samurai sword had been dipped in acid so it would never be found.

It is alleged Martin Jnr bought a number of life insurance policies just weeks before his father was killed and he stood to receive $2.5million as the sole beneficiary.

Police allegedly found a confession letter written by Martin Jnr to his wife outlining plans to kill his father for financial benefit.

'You and I would finally be able to have the things in life we ever wanted. Plans were set and everything seemed perfect,' it reads, according to The Telegraph.

Candace Martin, pictured, allegedly told police her ex-husband killed his father and the pair had devised the plan while they were in bed

Martin Jnr is also accused of organising the first attack on his father, and allegedly arranged for Jessica Honey Fallon, 22, a prostitute and drug addict, to kill him.

Police claim Fallon and two other people were paid to break into the 46-year-old's home, and then stabbed him and assaulted one of his friends who was staying the night.

Mr Martin survived the attack, but during his first night at home after a lengthy stay in hospital, he was killed.

It was initially reported that Martin Jnr was tied up and beaten before he witnessed Mr Martin Snr's death.

Martin Jnr is also accused of organising the first attack on his father, and allegedly arranged for Jessica Honey Fallon, 22, (pictured) a prostitute and drug addict, to kill him

Police claim Fallon and two other people were paid to break into the 46-year-old's home, and then stabbed him and assaulted one of his friends who was staying the night

During his public appeal, Martin Jnr said he was scared for his life.

'All I can remember is hearing the death of my father. It was just terrifying,' he told Nine News. 'I never expected I'd see my wife or children again.

'When dad got assaulted the first time we spent countless hours in hospital thinking that was going to be our last night with him.

'We just got him out, we just got him better. I was just trying to help him make a new start.'
A London Duck Tours boat had to be rescued by firefighters this afternoon after getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the River Thames.

The vessel, which was carrying 28 passengers and two staff members, was towed to safety after becoming stuck close to Vauxhall Bridge and the MI6 headquarters in the centre of the capital.

The fire brigade sent four crews when they were called at 2.30pm after Duck Tours bosses were unable to get their tractor from Balham, South London, to the scene because of heavy traffic.

Stuck in the Thames: The boat was carrying 28 passengers and two staff members and was towed to safety

Coming to their aid: The Duck Tours boat had to be rescued by firefighters after getting stuck in the mud

Evacuated: The fire brigade sent four crews to the scene on the Thames when they were called at 2.30pm

John Bigos, managing director of London Duck Tours, told MailOnline: The vessel got stuck in the mud. Its not the first time in the last 15 years a vessel of ours has been stuck in the mud.

We asked the fire bridge because they happened to be there if they could take us back into the water because our tractor from Balham had not arrived due to heavy traffic.

We're not allowed to use the bus lane (with the tractor). When they arrived we were surprised as anyone to see land-based fire engines in the vicinity and on our slipway.'

He added: It's not the first nor is it likely to be the last time that we could get stuck in the mud.

Trips depart from near the London Eye, before the amphibious vehicles launch from a slipway. The craft used for the splashdown were apparently originally used for the D-Day landings in 1944.

Helping hand: The boat became stuck close to Vauxhall Bridge and the MI6 headquarters in Central London

Rescue: Trips depart from near the London Eye before the amphibious vehicles launch from a slipway

Amphibious: According to London Duck Tours, the craft used for the splashdown were originally used for the D-Day landings in 1944 (file picture)

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: Firefighters helped tow a tour boat to safety this afternoon after it became stuck on mud close to Vauxhall Bridge.

'ANTIDOTE TO USUAL BUS TOURS' London Duck Tours has touted itself as the antidote to the usual bus tours and promises to offer families an adventure on both road and river. Duck Tours last around an hour and a quarter The yellow boats - known as ducks - are said to help anyone 'enter the wonderful world of amphibious travel'. The firm's website states: See some of London's most talked about sights, learn interesting facts about the city and be entertained by an action packed live commentary before the thrilling splashdown onto the river Thames.' Tours last around an hour and a quarter, with around 30 minutes spent on the river. They are advertised as the terrific fun for everyone, whether it's with the kids, an activity for family or friends, a special occasion, corporate event or even a date'. According to the company, each boat is modified to meet stringent safety regulations set by road and river authorities. Each vehicle seats 30 passengers, has a public address system and is said to be fitted with full safety equipment. Advertisement

The vessel, which was carrying 28 passengers and two staff members, was towed to safety at St George Wharf Pier by the brigades fire boat.

All passengers and staff left the vehicle safely and there were no reports of any injuries.

The brigade was called at 2.30pm and the incident was over at 3.23pm. Crews from Lambeth River, Lambeth, Clapham and Soho fire stations attended the scene.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman added: At 2.37pm on Friday, the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) was informed that a boat was stuck in the mud at Albert Embankment.

The Marine Policing Unit and the London Fire Brigade (LFB) attended and the LFB dealt with the incident. There were no reported injuries.

It comes almost two years after a London Duck Tours boat caught fire opposite the Houses of Parliament in September 2013, leaving those on board with no option but to evacuate.

Astonishing pictures at the time showed passengers frantically trying to escape the billowing black smoke as tourists including children as young as six had to jump overboard as flames quickly spread.

Many leapt into the water, while others clung to the edge of the sinking vessel. Rescue workers and crews on passing tour barges helped haul 30 people to safety.

Three passengers, including a pregnant woman, were treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.

Also in 2013, 31 people had to be rescued when an amphibious tourist bus called the Yellow Duckmarine sunk in Liverpools Albert Dock.

London Duck Tours has touted itself as the antidote to the usual bus tours, promising families an adventure on both road and river.

The company offers a range of excursions including a James Bond Tour which is said to feature an adventure-packed journey and passengers are warned: Youll be on the edge of your seat.
President Barack Obama this afternoon dismissed Donald Trump's doom and gloom speech Thursday night at the Republican convention as a distortion of what's happening in America.

'This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jive with the experience of most people,' Obama stated.

The president tweaked Trump as he said, 'I hope people the next morning walked outside, and the birds were chirping, and the sun was out. And this afternoon people will be watching their kids playing sports teams, and go to the swimmin' pool and folks are going to work, getting ready for the weekend.'

The exiting president says he didn't watch Republicans' convention. But he did see the news clips, he said today, and thinks Trump and the Republican Party have it wrong.

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President Barack Obama says he didn't watch Republicans' convention. But he did see the news clips, he said today, and doesn't think Donald Trump's doom and gloom speech Thursday night is reflective of what's happening in America

'This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere doesn't really jive with the experience of most people,' Obama stated at a news conference with Mexican President Enrqiue Pena Nieto

Nieto was deferential to both Trump and his opponent, Obama-endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton, saying at the press conference that he will collaborate with whomever the American people select as their next president

'Some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just don't jive with the facts,' Obama said.

The crime rate in America has went down since Republican hero Ronald Reagan was president, Obama said Friday afternoon.

So have the incidences of murder and violence and intentional killing of police officers, even though it may not seem that way based on the violence recently in American cities. Illegal immigration has also slowed, he protested.

'We have put unprecedented resources at our border,' Obama asserted.

Exasperated, he said. 'We have far fewer undocumented workers crossing the border today than we did in the '80s or the '90s or when George Bush was president. That's a fact.'

The competing parties will obviously have differing visions of how to solve America's most serious problems, he acknowledged. 'But we're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact.'

The U.S. president said, 'America is much less violent than it was 20, 30 years ago, and immigration is much less a problem than it was not just 20, 30 years ago, but when I came in as president.'

The rebuttal came at a press conference at the White House with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto after a bilateral meeting between the two countries' leaders.

Trump in his convention speech the evening before renewed his pledge to build a wall on the border with Mexico if wins the presidential election in order to curtail the number of immigrants illegally crossing the United States' southern border.

Nieto was deferential to both Trump and his opponent, Obama-endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton, saying at the press conference that he will collaborate with whomever the American people select as their next president.

Comments he's made in the past about Trump that run contrary were taken out of context, he insisted.

Mexico will be closely observing the election, he said through a translator, 'but it will not give its opinion. It will not get involved.'

Nieto said he expects to have a 'frank open dialogue with whomever is elected.'

An exasperated Obama refuted Trump's convention speech today, saying, 'We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact'

Obama and Nieto last met at the end of last month in Canada at the 'Three Amigos' summit.

At the White House today during an afternoon news conference they reiterated their commitment to the multi-national trade agreement Obama wants Congress to pass that would modernize the United States and Mexico's relationship.

From the outset, Obama reminded his audience that Mexico is not only an ally and friend but a 'critical' partner on trade and a host of other issues.

'Although I am disappointed in the Supreme Court's failure to come to a decision on our immigration executive action,' Obama said, 'it is my firm belief that it will be in the interest of the Unite'd States, specially our economic interests, to pursue immigration reform.'

Trump has said as part of his wall proposal that he will make Mexico pay for the security measure one way or another. The most likely route would be through a tariff on traded goods.

Obama reiterated today that Mexico is the United States' third-largest trading partner and the U.S. does more business with country than China or Russia.

'The benefit of a cooperative Mexico, and by the way a Mexico that has a healthy economy, a Mexico that can help us build stability and security in Central America, that's going to do a lot more to solve any migration crisis or drug trafficking problem than a wall,' he stated.

Obama and Nieto last met at the end of last month in Canada at the 'Three Amigos' summit. At the White House today during an afternoon news conference they reiterated their commitment to the multi-national trade agreement Obama wants Congress to pass that would modernize the United States and Mexico's relationship.

Concluding the press conference, Obama said his vision way will also 'be much more reflective of the kind of relationship that we should have with our neighbors.'

As he stressed the importance of a closeness between the U.S. and Mexico Obama noted that many of the undocumented workers that are flowing over the border are residents of Central America.

'If it were not for the hard work of Mexico of trying to secure its borders to the south, we would have a much more significant problem,' Obama stated.

So the 'cooperation on that front has been absolutely critical in making sure that we deal with these issues in serious and in a humane way and we continue to make progress on that front.'

Drug trafficking is also a problem that both countries must do their part to resolve, he said, both with respect to the flow of drugs to the north and the flow if guns and illicit financing to the south.

'We're not going to be able to solve this problem by ourselves,' Obama pronounced. 'The more we can build these kinds of habits of cooperation, and ingrain them in our various agencies, the better off we're gonna be.'

He added, 'I want everybody to be very clear: Mexico has been a consistent strong partner with us on these issues, and if they had not been, we would have had much bigger problems on our borders.'

From the outset, Obama reminded his audience that Mexico is not only an ally and friend but a 'critical' partner on trade and a host of other issues. He's seen here shaking Nieto's hand at their joint news conference

Even as he defended Mexico as a partner in the fight against the trafficking of drugs and people between the two countries and himself against implications that he's not tough enough on crime, the U.S. president opted not to refute Republicans' claims at the convention in additional tedium.

Attendees repeatedly shouted 'lock her up' when Clinton was named and blamed her for a range of international crises from the formation of ISIS, a nuclear Iran and the terrorist attack on Benghazi.

'I'm gonna let the American people judge how persuasive their arguments were,' he told a reporter, saying moments later it's 'not really clear how appealing' they were to working-class Americans - 'that's what elections are for.'

He said next week, in Philadelphia, Democrats will have an opportunity to present their own vision during their convention that mirrors the one Republicans finished on Thursday.

Obama said he didn't see all of the prime time speeches and gleaned his information on what Trump and other Republicans said over the four-day event from news coverage.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ZIKA

WHAT IS ZIKA?

The Zika (ZEE'-ka) virus was first discovered in monkey in Uganda in 1947 - its name comes from the Zika forest where it was first discovered.

It is native mainly to tropical Africa, with outbreaks in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

It appeared in Brazil in 2014 and has since been reported in many Latin American countries and Caribbean islands.

HOW IS IT SPREAD?

The World Health Organization says Zika is rapidly spreading in the Americas because it is new to the region.

People aren't immune to it, and the Aedes mosquito that carries it is just about everywhere - including along the southern United States.

Canada and Chile are the only places without this mosquito.

MOSQUITOES

It is typically transmitted through bites from the Aedes species of mosquitoes.

They are aggressive feeders, commonly biting multiple people in quick succession, fueling the spread of the virus.

The Aedes aegypti - which spreads other tropical diseases like dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever - is most commonly associated with Zika. It thrives in warm climates.

Its cousin, the Aedes albopictus has also been linked to Zika. Worryingly for Americans in northern states, this species can survive in cooler temperatures.

Unlike some other types of mosquitos, Aedes mosquitos are active during the daytime.

They are most active during mid-morning and then again between late afternoon and nightfall.

SEX

Scientists have found Zika can be transmitted sexually - from both men and women.

Couples should abstain or wear condoms for eight weeks if either partner has traveled to a country with a Zika outbreak, regardless of whether they have symptoms.

The first case of sexually-transmitted Zika during the current outbreak was reported in Texas at the beginning of February.

Pregnancy: The infection can take two routes - through the placenta and through the amniotic sac

The woman became infected after sexual contact with a man who had caught the virus in another country.

On July 15, it was confirmed that women can pass the virus to men after such a case was seen in New York City.

There are also reported cases of sexual transmission in France and Canada.

Prior to this outbreak, there was a case of sexual transmission of Zika in 2008 when researcher from Colorado, who caught the virus overseas, infected his wife on returning home.

MOTHER TO BABY

A mother can pass the virus to her unborn baby during pregnancy.

There are two ways this can happen, according to a recent study.

Through the placenta: During the first trimester, it can travel through the placenta by infecting numerous placental cells - something very few viruses can do.

This route is the most damaging to the fetus, and is most likely to leave the child with birth defects, including microcephaly.

Through the amniotic sac: In the second and third trimester, the virus can make its way through the amniotic sac.

This route is less likely. The baby would have a much smaller risk of birth defects at this stage than if it were infected in the first trimester.

During childbirth: Since the virus can live in the woman's womb lining, there is a chance the baby can become infected when it is born.

ARE THERE SYMPTOMS?

The majority of people infected with Zika virus will not experience symptoms.

Those that do, usually develop mild symptoms - fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes - which usually last no more than a week.

There is no specific treatment for the virus and there is currently no vaccine to protect against infection, though several are in the developmental stages.

CAN THE SPREAD BE STOPPED?

Individuals can protect themselves from mosquito bites by using insect repellents, and wearing long sleeves and long pants - especially during daylight, when the mosquitoes tend to be most active, health officials say.
While the noose is tightening around ISIS in Raqqa and Mosul, the terror group have published sickening photos of life under their rule in Kirkuk and Damascus.

A series of photos show a prisoner, dressed in an orange jump suit and on his knees before a crowd of men, about to be shot in the head for 'insulting god'.

But this is not their de facto capital of Raqqa - it is reportedly in Al Hajar Al Aswad, an area to the south of Damascus.

'A glimpse into the the work of the Morality Centre' captions this picture as a man is thrown off a building

The caption refers to him being killed for practicing the sin of Lot - a reference to homosexuality

In a second set of photos to be published today, the group are show 'a glimpse of the work of the religious police', in Iraq's region of Kirkuk.

Amid mundane photos regulating expiry dates and handing out leaflets, is the now sickeningly familiar picture of a man being thrown off a building for being accused of homosexuality.

His body lies bloody on the ground, while a crowd gather and throw rocks at him in second photo.

Fashion police: The Religious Police in Kirkuk state cut off 'infidel' logos attached to this man's t-shirt

Here ISIS checks the length of the man's trousers, which they say should be above the ankle

'Checks and balances' - here they show the checking of medicine to ensure it isn't out of date

ISIS currently hold and area to the south of the city and the propaganda shows how they are ruling their territory.

In one photo, they show the checking of medicine to ensure it isn't out of date.

In another, a member of the religious police removes the 'kafir' logos from a man's t-shirt.

Further fashion rules show a man being checked for the lengths of his trousers.

'Guiding the Muslims to raise their trousers above the ankle,' reads the caption as an ISIS fighter kneels to show the man the advised fashion.

In southern Damascus, a man is executed for insulting God

ISIS coordinated with Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra to attack and take over Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus last Spring giving them a foothold in the Syrian capital

While not stated as a rule in the Koran, a series of 'good practices' are outlined in the Sunnah, and describe Prophet Mohammad's life.

A mountain of cigarettes and shisha tobacco and piled high and burned in one photo.

ISIS coordinated with Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra to attack and take over Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus last Spring giving them a foothold in the Syrian capital.
He falls flat onto his rear to the amusement of bystanders

Man charges at the door but jumps slightly and is

A policeman was left red-faced after he attempted to kick down a door only to be sending flying back onto his behind.

Hilarious footage, believed to have been filmed in Mexico, captured the moment the macho man was floored to the merriment of all watching.

He and two other officers can be seen outside a house with a woman and two little girls.

It seems the lady's son is ill and has been locked inside the house and they are desperate to get him out. One of the men, in full uniform, takes a running kick at the door

However on the second kick he jumps slightly beforehand and instead of breaking the door is catapulted backwards and lands on his bottom

The officer loses his serious demeanour for a second, laughing at himself as he picks himself off the ground

It seems the lady's son is ill and has been locked inside the house and they are desperate to get him out.

One policeman asks the woman 'Are you sure you authorise us to break down the door to retrieve your sick son? You do realise it will damage the door?'

But the agitated woman consents and the officers proceed with their duty.

One of the men, in full uniform, takes a running kick at the door.

However on the second kick he jumps slightly beforehand and instead of breaking the door is catapulted backwards and lands on his bottom.

The officer loses his serious demeanour for a second, laughing at himself as he picks himself off the ground.

The little girls also have a good laugh at his expense. However, the door remains as firmly shut.

It is unclear how or when they managed to gain entrance as the video ends abruptly and there is no further information on proceedings.

Social media users have commented on the video which has now gone viral in South America.
A former supermodel who was awarded a staggering 75 million from her Saudi billionaire ex husband could now have the settlement delayed after the terminally ill Sheikh died.

International businessman Sheikh Walid Juffali passed away in Zurich on Wednesday following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Earlier this month his ex-wife, former Pirelli calendar girl Christina Estrada, took the 61-year-old to the High Court where her fight for a share of his fortune became one of the highest-stakes divorce battles of its kind.

Christina Estrada (right) took her 61-year-old ex-husband Sheikh Walid Juffali (left) to the High Court where her fight for a share of his fortune became one of the highest-stakes divorce battles of its kind

Split: Christine Estrada and Sheikh Walid Juffali at a charity gala in 2007. The American-born model fought for more than three years to win the payout

Dr Juffali did not appear in court in person as he was receiving treatment in a Swiss hospital.

Had he died before the case was concluded, the 54-year-old model's property claim would have become irrelevant.

However the court hearing was brought forward due to his worsening health.

High Court Family Division judge Mrs Justice Roberts had ordered Dr Juffali to pay Ms Estrada the lump sum by 4pm on Friday, July 29, however this could now be subject to a delay while his affairs are put in order.

Dr Juffali's death will not affect the settlement. It is now legally binding and he will have to still pay her the money.

The judge had ordered Dr Juffali to pay Ms Estrada the lump sum by 4pm on Friday, July 29 - however this could now be subject to a delay while his affairs are put in order

Dr Juffali (pictured with Ms Estrada), passed away this week at a hospital in Zurich following a long battle with cancer

Ms Estrada, who is currently in St tropez, was have been informed of her husband's death this week and was said by friends to be 'devastated' at the news.

Dr Juffali, was chairman and heir of EA Juffali and Brothers, one of Saudi Arabia's most successful companies.

Ms Estrada met the businessman in 2000 and they wed soon after, however the marriage ran into difficulty after Dr Juffali's decision in 2012 to marry a 25-year-old Lebanese model, the mother of his two youngest children, while still married to Ms Estrada.

Muslim culture allows more than one wife.

The sheikh divorced Ms Estrada in Saudi Arabia in 2014 under Islamic law without her knowledge.

The pair have one daughter together.

Ms Estrada (pictured outside the High Court in London), is understood to have been informed of her husband's death this week and was said by friends to be 'devastated' at the news

Ms Estrada wanted 196million from the businessman to meet her 'reasonable needs' - which included two luxury houses, a huge clothes budget and five cars

Ms Estrada wanted 196million from the businessman to meet her 'reasonable needs' - which included two luxury houses, a huge clothes budget and five cars.

EXPENSES PUT FORWARD BY FORMER MODEL MS ESTRADA 55million for a new home in London

4.4 million country home in Henley

1.02 million-a-year clothing budget

335,558 staff including a butler, housekeeper, chauffer, nanny, two cleaners, a chef and office manager

100,000 to maintain her home

100,000 for food and drink

482,416 to rent a yacht for two weeks, 4,824 to tip the crew

247,233 for a Paris holiday at the Presidential Suite at the Ritz, plus 74,230 for the nanny's room

103,000 for 12 nights in the south of France

93,793 on beauty treatments

58,000 for two luxury handbags

23,000 for six casual handbags

35,000 for ten clutch handbags

26,000 for a mobile phone

14,850 for three new suitcases a year

39,000 for two watches every year

9,400 for four bottles of face cream

4,000 for fifteen pairs of sunglasses Advertisement

The model rejected an offer which, added to her own assets, would have given her some 37million to live on.

She was ultimately awarded a 53million cash settlement at London's High Court - with lawyers saying the payout is worth 75million when assets she has already been given are taken into account.

Her lawyers said the award she received was 'by more than 50million the largest needs award ever made by an English court'.

Ms Estrada claimed her 'needs' included 1million for clothes, 40,000 for fur coats, 109,000 for haute couture dresses and 21,000 for shoes every year.

She also said she needed enough from her ex-husband to afford a luxury home in London worth about 60million, a 4.4 million house in the country at Henley, as well as 495,000 for five cars - three in London and two in the US.

She told family judge Mrs Justice Roberts: I am Christina Estrada.

'I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to.

Her lawyers estimated her ex-husband was worth 8billion.

But Dr Juffali had said in a written statement that was a grossly exaggerated 'fantasy' figure and put his net worth at about 113.8million.

He said in his statement that he had left the vast majority of his wealth to his three eldest children, including his daughter with Ms Estrada, now a teenager, who cannot be identified.

Sheikh Walid Juffali passed away in Zurich on Wednesday following a lengthy battle with cancer - now his ex wife, Christina Estrada, may have to wait for her divorce payout

Yesterday, a source close to Miss Estrada said: Shes devastated as she loved him to the end and shes been dreading this day.

Christina had, throughout his illness, sent him messages and prayers of hope.

She has not thought about the settlement. Her priority is her daughter. Shes young and shes just lost her father.

Earlier this month, Miss Estrada, who is currently living in the 22million matrimonial home near Windsor Great Park, described her court battle as distressing but said she was glad she had made history.
Garrett Barker, 18, (pictured) has been charged with the first-degree murder of his terminally ill father

A Maryland man has been charged with the first-degree murder of his father after he initially claimed his terminally ill dad killed himself, according to authorities.

Corporal Amanda Ensor of the Frederick County sheriff's office in Maryland said Friday that 18-year-old Garrett Barker is charged with killing his father Kevin.

The 47-year-old was found dead in the basement of the home where he and Barker lived on July 11.

Kevin Barker was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease - also known as ALS, according to the Frederick News-Post.

The Frederick News-Post reports investigators found a handgun and shell casing on Kevin Barker's chest and initially concluded he took his own life.

Ensor says Barker told deputies on July 11 that his father had shot himself.

Family members said Barker had recently become paranoid and was walking around the house with the gun, according to court documents.

Charging documents say other relatives later became suspicious and called deputies back.

Investigators say they listened in on a phone call in which Barker said: 'I didn't panic. He grabbed my hand and made me pull the trigger.'

Kevin Barker was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease - also known as ALS - at the time of his death. He was found with a handgun and shell casing on his chest

Family members said Barker had recently become paranoid and was walking around the house with the gun, according to court documents. He is being held without bond

In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Barker is facing charges including the use of a firearm in a violent, felony crime, court documents state.

Barker, who was arrested Thursday, is being held in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center.

The 18-year-old is being held without bail.
A woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for a self-induced abortion has had her conviction overturned.

Purvi Patel, from Indiana, was found guilty of killing her premature infant by taking abortion-inducing drugs and was convicted of neglect and feticide, two years after her self-induced abortion at a family home.

But in a Friday ruling by Indiana Court of Appeals repealed the feticide ruling but upheld the lower-level felony neglect of a dependent conviction.

Purvi Patel, from Indiana, (pictured) was found guilty of killing her premature infant by taking abortion-inducing drugs and was convicted of neglect and feticide, two years after her self-induced abortion at home

But in a Friday ruling by Indiana Court of Appeals repealed the feticide ruling but upheld the lower-level felony neglect of a dependent conviction. Pictured: Purvi Patel (left and right)

Women's advocacy groups have been heavily involved in the case, saying it marks the first time a state feticide law was used against a woman because of an alleged self-induced abortion.

The appeals court ruled that the state Legislature didn't intend for the feticide law 'to be used to prosecute women for their own abortions'.

Patel was arrested when she sought treatment at a local hospital for profuse bleeding after delivering a 1-pound boy in a bathroom and putting his body in a trash bin behind her family's restaurant.

Court records show she bought abortion-inducing drugs from an online pharmacy based in Hong Kong.

Patel, who was 32 at the time, used the drugs because she feared her family would discover she had been impregnated by a married man, according to documents.

Patel was arrested when she sought treatment at a local hospital for profuse bleeding after delivering a 1-pound boy in a bathroom and putting his body in a trash bin behind her family's restaurant. Pictured is area where the fetus was found

Women's advocacy groups have been heavily involved in the case, saying it marks the first time a state feticide law was used against a woman because of an alleged self-induced abortion

Patel lived with her parents and grandparents in Granger, a city just northeast of South Bend along the Michigan border.

Attorneys for Indiana argued that Patel was at least 25 weeks into her pregnancy. They said her infant was just beyond the threshold of viability and took at least one breath before dying.

The attorneys also argued that Indiana's feticide law could apply to pregnant woman, not just 'to third-party actors,' and that Patel hadn't shown the feticide law constituted an undue burden on the right to an abortion.
A 14-month-old baby is fighting for her life after her dad forgot she was in the backseat of a hot car in Alabama for up to four hours.

Police said the toddler was found unconscious in the car that reached 160 degrees while parked in Birmingham Thursday.

Birmingham Police Lt Sean Edwards told AL.com that the little girl's father appeared to have dropped the mother off at work Thursday morning before heading to his office and leaving the baby in the car seat.

A 14-month-old baby is fighting for her life after her dad forgot she was in the backseat of a hot car (pictured) in Alabama for up to four hours

Birmingham Police Lt Sean Edwards said the little girl's father appeared to have dropped the mother off at work Thursday morning before heading to his office and leaving the baby in the car seat (pictured)

Edwards said the little girl is fighting for her life at the hospital and her parents, whose names haven't been released, are extremely shaken.

'Last night was extremely challenging for the baby girl but she's a fighter,' Edwards told WBRC-TV.

'I spoke with both parents and they are experiencing a lot of emotion right now.'

Detectives haven't interviewed the parents about the incident and Edwards said the girl's survival is the priority, and detectives will interview both parents later.

Twelve medical professionals worked to save the child at the Children's of Alabama hospital, according to Edwards.

Police said that the child was still in the ICU on Friday afternoon.

Edwards told the station that the father found the child and was the one who called 911 around noon.

The father told police that he forgot the little girl was in the vehicle.

The father found the child in the car (pictured being towed) around noon and called for help. Police said the little girl was alive and conscious when transported to the hospital

Parts of Alabama were under heat advisories until 9pm Thursday. No criminal charges have been filed against the child's parents, according to police (pictured at the scene)

Police said the little girl was alive and conscious when transported to the hospital.

Edwards told WBRC: 'As adults, as parents, we've got to slow down, get focused a little bit more and try to make sure we do the best thing by taking care of our kids and being responsible.'

Nineteen children have died this year from heatstrokes after being left in hot cars, according to a report by meteorologist, Jan Null.

Jay Paradiso works in the building next door to the area where the child was found.

'I've seen this guy for a year or two. He's really good with his child. Always waving. Just normal people,' Paradiso said.

Usually in 90-degree weather, the temperature in a closed car can increase 30 degrees per hour, according to WBRC.

Parts of Alabama were under heat advisories until 9pm Thursday.
Hillary Clinton has another email problem on her hands on the eve of the Democratic Convention  this one brought on by a provocative move by Wikilkeaks to release 19,252 Democratic Party emails on the eve of her convention.

Founder of Wikilkeaks Julian Assange has clashed with Clinton publicly and doesn't want her to get elected president.

In one May email headlined, 'No shit,' from DNC Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall, may expose an effort to get someone to press Clinton primary rival Bernie Sanders publicly about his faith.

The email is to DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda and Deputy Communications Director Mark Paustenbach.

'It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God.'

Scroll down for video

The Wikileaks dump of of Democratic Party emails occurs on the eve of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia

The email continued: 'He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.'

Marshall emailed The Intercept blog and denied the email was about Sanders, who is Jewish but did not talk about religion on the campaign trail much.

'I do not recall this. I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate, he said. 'We have asked him who that surrogate could possibly be.'

The email doesn't mention Sanders' name or identify who it is referring to.

Another email, from May 21, appears to show DNC press secretary Mark Paustenbach constructing a narrative that Bernie Sanders' campaign is incompetent.

Wondering if theres a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess, Paustenbach wrote in an email titled 'Bernie narrative.'

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange has spoken openly of his disregard for Hillary Clinton

YE OF LITTLE FAITH?: One email purports to show a plan to expose an unidentified person with Jewish heritage as an atheist

Specifically, [DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz] had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because theyd either ignored or forgotten to something critical,' he wrote communications director Luis Miranda.

The email continued: 'She had to call Bernie after the data breach to make his staff to respond to our concerns. Even then they didn't get back to us, which is why we had to shut off their access in order to get them to finally let us know exactly how they snooped around HFA's data.'

'Same was true with the standing committee appointments. They never got back to us with their names (HFA and even O'Malley got there's in six weeks earlier) for the committees. So, again, the chair had to call Bernie personally for his staff to finally get us critical information. So, they gave us an awful list just a few days before we had to make the announcements. It's not a DNC conspiracy, it's because they never had their act together.'

Wikilkeaks suggests the email shows a campaign finance violation

One email encourages constructing a new 'Bernie narrative' that exposes him as disorganized

PARTY TIME: Wikileaks suggests that this email shows improper coordination

Assange, who is living in exile in the Ecuadorian embassy after leaking countless US government secrets, blasted Clinton in a recent post on the site.

Shes a war hawk with bad judgement who gets an unseemly emotional rush out of killing people,' Assange wrote on Wikileaks in February.

'I have had years of experience in dealing with and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgement and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism. Her personality combined with her poor policy decisions have directly contributed to the rise of ISIS, he added.

Another email, to DNC finance chair Jordan Kaplan, catalogues big checks from Indian tribes that should be counted towards the convention fund.

'Hey Jordan. Today I am sending you the following checks made out to the DNC that should be counted towards the convention fund,' wrote Justin Klein, who has a HillaryClinton campaign email address.

It lists contributions from the Gila River Indian Community of $100,200, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community for $100,200 Democratic National, and smiliar contributions.

'Let me know if you need anything on our end regarding this donation. Please have Alex confirm when he receives them. Thanks very much.

According to the leak, Kaplan wasn't pleased.' Don't send me an email like this again. You know Alex. Don't be a d---.'

Wikileaks, which tweeted about the exchange, asked, 'Did HillaryClinton.com asked DNC to commit an FEC violation'  suggesting the email revealed improper coordination.

The source of the material isn't known, but it may be linked to a spate of hacks by Guccifer 2.0.

'Does he believe in a God?'

The emails detail matters concerning backroom politics, finance, and scoring ducats

HAVE YOU TRIED STUBHUB?: A DNC official encourages an advisor to Nancy Pelosi to hit up a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs when she inquires about tickets. The problem is that the prior ticket source 'hates Obama now'

In another leaked message, Missy Kurek, Nancy Pelosi's political director, hits up Kaplan for some Chicago Cubs tickets.

'Do you have anyone that has good cubs tickets? I am looking for May 14th tickets v Pirates. Just need 2 tickets. You are my go-to Chicago person. Because I dont want to ask my cousin,' she wrote him in April at the start of the baseball season.

Kaplan wrote back: 'I dont have anyone anymore and the guy who we used to go to hates Obama now. Also, they are so good now that everyone goes to them.'
The shootings in a Munich shopping centre come five years to the day that far-right activist Anders Breivik murdered 77 people on an island in Norway.

At least five people have died after a gunman opened fire at Munich Olympia Shopping Centre, in the district of Moosach, and police have put the city on lockdown advising people to stay indoors.

On July 22 2011 Anders Behring Breivik exploded a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people before driving to the island of Utoya where he gunned down 69 people  mostly teenagers  at a youth summer camp.

The shootings in a Munich shopping centre come five years to the day that far-right activist Anders Breivik (pictured making a Nazi salute at his trial) murdered 77 people on an island in Norway

Most of those who died on Utoya were teenagers who belonged to the youth branch of Norway's Labour party

Shoppers fleeing the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre, in the district of Moosach, after a gunman killed at least six people. The city is currently on lockdown

Norway paid an emotional tribute today to those who died with church services and other events marking what the prime minister called 'one of the darkest days in Norwegian history.'

Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit laid wreaths at the government offices in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, whereLater they attended a memorial service at Oslo Cathedral, which also included victims' families, friends and representatives of a left-wing youth group that hosted the camp on Utoya.

'We still see traces of the terrorist acts. The missed ones will always be there. Time does not heal all wounds,' Solberg said at the memorial ceremony, where the names of all those killed were read out. 'The biggest impact is felt inside us as human beings.'

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Prime Minister Erna Solberg, right, lay wreaths during a ceremony on Utoya Island, Norway, Friday July 22, 2016. Norway is paying homage to the 77 people killed in a bombing and shooting rampage five years ago, with church services and events to mark one of the darkest days in the Scandinavian country's history

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General and Norway's former prime minister during the attacks in 2011, and President of Norwegian Labour party youth division Mani Hussaini, right, attends a wreath laying ceremony in the government quarter in Oslo, Norway

In 2012, Breivik was convicted of mass murder and terrorism and given a 21-year prison sentence that can be extended for as long as he's deemed dangerous to society. Legal experts say he will likely be locked up for life.

His attacks traumatized the nation of 5 million, where an estimated one in four people were affected through connections with family, friends or acquaintances of the victims.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister at the time, said he had painful memories of that fateful day  July 22, 2011.

'It hurts to hear all the names read out,' Stoltenberg said. 'But it's also good to be with other people who were affected that day, and we give each other support and comfort.'

In the afternoon, a ceremony was held on Utoya, a small island on a lake surrounded by wooded hills, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Oslo. It reopened to the public a year ago, when 1,000 youth organization students enrolled for a camp held in memory of the victims.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General and Norway's former prime minister during the attacks in 2011 pays tribute

Jens Stoltenberg lays a wreath in commemoration of those who died
Much like most of the romantic entanglements on The Bachelor, Ben Higgins' flirtation with politics has proven to be short lived.

Less than 48 hours after the star of the hit ABC dating reality show announced his plans to run as a Republican to represent Colorado's House District 4 in the November election, Higgins had a change of heart.

'I regret that I must withdraw my candidacy. Despite my best efforts to pursue this opportunity in good faith, I recently received information that has made such a pursuit unworkable, Higgins said cryptically in a statement released on Friday by a Walt Disney Co spokesperson.

Scroll down for video

Change of heart: Bachelor star Ben Higgins on Friday decided not to run to represent Colorado's House District 4 as a Republican in the state's November election

Higgins, pictured with fiancee Lauren Bushnell, filed nomination papers last Friday and released a statement saying he is 'definitely not a politician'

'Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be able to move forward as a candidate. I find solace in knowing that our intentions and actions have been fair and sincere.

'I entered into this endeavor wanting to bring positive change to my community, and it is with that same spirit that I will move forward, albeit on a different path.'

The Bachelor airs on ABC, which is owned by Disney. Higgins is set to star in a spinoff reality show with his fiancee, Lauren Bushnell, which will premiere on ABC in the fall.

A source close to Higgins' campaign told The Denver Post Friday that officials with Disney 'got very squeamish about the politics, especially with Ben being a Republican,' and that Higgins was allegedly forced to choose between his political ambitions and his burgeoning career in show business.

'The ultimatum that was given to Ben was "If you run, we will take you out of The Bachelor franchise,' the anonymous source told the paper.

Daily Mail on Friday reached out to Disney for comment and was awaiting a reply.

Higgins, 28, filed nomination papers last Friday. Although Denver's District 4 heavily skews Democrat, Higgins would have faced off against an incumbent who recently found himself in the headlines as well - after landing behind bars.

Higgins would have faced-off with incumbent Democrat Rep Dan Pabon, who pleaded guilty to driving under the influence (pictured is his mug shot)

Democrat Rep Dan Pabon, elected in 2010, was sentenced to one year probation on Tuesday after pleading guilty to driving under the influence, according to the Denver Post.

Pabon, 38, was caught on a body camera asking if a call could be put in to the officer's 'supervisor', the city attorney.

'Is there any way we can avoid this possibility?' Pabon said during his arrest. 'This is going to change my life.'

Pabon had a blood alcohol content level of 0.14 that night, almost double the legal limit, the Denver Post reported.

Higgins, who affiliated with the Republican Party in January, had decided to throw his hat in the ring after William Pinkston withdrew his candidacy earlier this month so that the Bachelor could run instead.

'Ben is the only Republican in the district I would step aside for,' Pinkston, a small business owner, said in May.

'He's a great guy and likely the only other Republican who can win.'

Higgins wrote in an earlier statement that although he is 'definitely not a politician' he believes he has a lot to offer due to his 'years in the financial services industry' and his charity work.

But the software sales rep has hinted in the past that he had an interest in politics, citing his nonprofit work for Humanity & Hope United.

'People reach out to me about community development and planning and how to counsel places that need help,' he told US Weekly.

'At its core, that's politics - dealing with issues we face as a community.'

As part of his now-aborted bid for public office, Higgins had launched a 'Ben Higgins For Colorado' website, which now displays the statement announcing his decision to withdraw from the race.

Although Higgins never officially announced his candidacy, a spokesman for his campaign earlier had promised that there will be an official launch in two weeks.

'Ben is a serious contender,' Roger Hudson told The Guardian.

Pabon, 38, was sentenced to one year probation for the incident. He had a blood alcohol content level of 0.14 that night, almost double the legal limit, and asked an officer that night if he could 'avoid' an arrest

Higgins shot to national fame after he was named The Bachelor following his third place finish in The Bachelorette. He is pictured here proposing to Bushnell during the ABC show's season finale

'Ben has a unique vision for Colorado and plans to make this his home with his fiancee and build a family here post-Bachelor.'

The nomination announcement came just a month after Higgins revealed he would be returning to reality television with Bushnell in Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After, a new Freeform show about the couple's new life together in Colorado as they plan their wedding.

The couple said they thought the show, which will premiere in October, would be a fun way to show their fans what life was really like after The Bachelor cameras turned off.

'We're already used to sharing our lives with everyone else,' Bushnell told US Weekly in June. 'So we thought, "Why not?'"

Although Higgins has not officially announced his candidacy, a spokesman for his campaign said there will be an official launch in two weeks

Higgins' has not yet taken to Twitter to promote his campaign, but he has begun to tweet about his dive into politics, tagging Debbie Brown and Shellby Jones, who work with Colorado's Women Alliance, in this post

'After you walk away from The Bachelor, it's not like your life becomes private,' said Higgins. 'People still find out what you're doing, so it's not changing our life to be public.'

Hudson said that that show will probably only have a 'small sliver' of politics, and will mostly focus on the couple's relationship.
Police have released pictures of a dead woman's numerous tattoos in the hope someone will identify her after she was shot in public housing in New York.

The NYPD released image of the tattoos on Friday morning, hoping someone would come forward with the woman's identity.

She was found with gunshot wounds to the head, leg and arm inside the Whitman Houses, a government housing facility, in Forest Greene.

Police have released images of a dead woman's tattoos in an attempt to identify her body (pictured, tattoos of names 'Johnathan' and 'Cerenity')

The woman was found with gunshot wounds to the head, leg and arm inside the Whitman Houses, a government housing facility, in Forest Greene

Police are hoping someone who recognizes the woman's distinct tattoos will come forward and identify her (CJ tattoo pictured on her back)

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers believe the woman is between 20 and 35 years old, about five-foot-six and has blonde hair.

Her tattoos are a small shamrock on her left calf and a mushroom surrounded by flames.

She also has the names 'Johnathan' and 'Cerenity' tattooed on her, police say, as well as 'CJ' on her back.

Officers believe the woman is between 20 and 35 years old, about five-foot-six and has blonde hair (Shamrock tattoo on her calf)

The woman was also wearing a ring on the fourth finger of her left hand, which could possibly be a wedding or engagement ring

A ring was found on her left hand, which looks like a possible wedding or engagement ring.

The shooting happened around midnight on Thursday.

One resident said there was no commotion prior to the killing.

'I didn't hear anything in the hallway - no yelling or screaming - until that boom, boom, boom,' Louise Lee, 78, who lives on the fifth floor where the shooting happened, told DNA Info.

'I thought it was firecrackers,'
This is one lobster that won't have to worry whenever it sees a stick of butter.

Larry the Lobster, whose former owner thinks he is 110 years old based on his massive size, is being spared the dinner table and will retire to a Maine aquarium, according to ABC News.

The average lifespan of a lobster isn't quite known as scientists have yet to figure out a way to definitively determine age, however, reports usually range anywhere from up to 70 to up to 100 years, which would make Larry one very old lobster indeed if his owner is correct about his age.

The gigantic crustacean, who weighs in at 15 pounds, three times larger than the average lobster, was headed for the stock pot after a man who saw him in the tank at Fish Tin seafood restaurant in Sunrise, Florida, bought him from owner Joe Melluso and reserved a table for his family next Tuesday night.

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Larry the 110-year-old lobster (above) was rescued from the dinner table in the nick of time

Fish Tin owner Joe Melluso found the 15-pound lobster through a vendor in Florida and sold him to a customer

When Costa Rica-based iRescue heard the lobster was about to meet a pound of butter it stepped up to buy the crustacean

Larry has been packed up and sent to the Maine State Aquarium where he will either retire or be set free

Melluso originally bought Larry from a vendor on Monday and was 'astounded' by his size.

He said he felt 'bad' about serving up the lobster, but would rather that he do it than someone else, according to Local 10.

But some animal activists got word of the lobster's impending doom and intercepted, offering to buy Larry from the man who wanted to make him dinner.

'They really opened up my eyes and it got me a little emotional,' Melluso said. 'We went ahead and donated the lobster to them.'

Fish Tin owner Joe Melluso says he donated Larry to the rescue group because 'They really opened up my eyes'

Larry is headed to the Maine State Aquarium today, according to the rescue group iRescue Wildlife, based in Costa Rica.

The group headed up the campaign to rescue Larry from the dinner table, and promoted his plight on its Facebook page with the hashtag Lobster Lives Matter.

Once Larry reaches freedom up north, he will have to be quarantined, and then would likely be living out the rest of his natural life at the aquarium, or may even be set free back in the ocean.

'iRescue is super grateful for the assistance it received, both monetarily plus time and energy, to save Larry the 110 year old Lobster and get him back home to Maine,' the group wrote on Facebook.

The group said it rustled up $300 worth of donations and offered to buy the lobster from the man who bought him.

A lobster expert told ABC News that the crusty critter is probably between 60 to 80 years old, not the 115 that Melluso thought.

Which means Larry will have even more time to enjoy his years in retirement at the aquarium or the ocean - provided he's not caught again.
An American college student has revealed the harrowing scenes after she and her family were caught in the middle of the Munich shopping centre attack.

Thamina Stoll, 22, of Durham, North Carolina, who is in Munich on a summer internship, filmed people fleeing the shopping centre during the attacks from her grandmas nearby apartment.

She told MailOnline that she had just visited the centre with her grandma and a cousin for an hour before the shooting started.

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American student Thamina Stoll, of Durham, North Carolina, tried to enter the shopping centre with her family while the gunman was on a shooting rampage

However, she was returning to the centre with more members of her family including her mum and dad.

When we went down to the street, we ran into another family and they were in shock, she told MailOnline.

They were scared and they told us not to go back to the shopping mall.

'After we were spoken to by the family, we went back upstairs to my grandmas apartment - who lives about three minutes away from the shopping mall. We took in the family. They were so scared.

From the balcony we were able to witness about 50 people running towards our house seeking shelter. Sirens started to arrive and a helicopter appeared.

The view Thamina Stoll had from her grandma's apartment after fleeing the shopping centre with her family

People continuing to flee the shopping centre in Munich after the gunman opened fire in a restaurant

Ms Stoll, who is studying at Duke University, said the family felt like the other family who warned them had saved their lives.

I feel very lucky because I had been there an hour before and I was just about to return, she said.

Me and my family - we were saved. We are completely safe but there were still a lot of people running.

God knows what would have happened to us if my family had decided to go that shopping mall half an hour later. We might not be alive now.'

Ms Stoll posted her video to Twitter, showing people fleeing the shopping centre area
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The widow of one of the police officers slain in the Baton Rouge shootings kissed her husband goodbye at his funeral on Friday.

Dechia Gerald was steady as a rock as her two young girls - overcome with emotion and sadness - wept near their hero father's casket at the Louisiana National Cemetery.

All three of them placed a single red rose each on his coffin shortly after Dechia received a folded American flag - a symbol of the country her husband protected each day before he was killed by an ex-Marine.

Earlier in the day, she held her daughters close as she prepared to lay her husband Matthew Gerald to rest after a service at the Healing Place Church.

Mourners at the church were handed a written tribute from the slain officer's wife before the funeral, in which she expressed hope that his memory will 'bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for.'

'My blue-eyed rock was a hero,' she wrote. 'The only thing stronger than his love for the red, white and blue was his love for us.'

Gerald, 41, a military veteran, was one of three officers killed by a lone gunman in Baton Rouge on July 17.

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Dechia Gerald, the widow of one of the police officers slain in the Baton Rouge shootings, planted a kiss on her husband's casket today

Shortly before Dechia and her two crying daughters bid a final farewell to their hero, she was handed a folded American flag

She held her nerve as her two young girls - overcome with emotion and sadness - wept near their hero father's casket in Louisiana

Gerald embraces her daughter Fynleigh during burial services for her husband, Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald

Surrounded by friends, family, loved ones and mourners, Dechia and her daughters each placed a single rose on Matthew Gerald

In what was a poignant and heartbreaking moment at his funeral, Gerald's youngest daughter Dawclyn placed a red rose on his casket

Hundreds of soldiers, officer and veterans saluted Gerald's coffin - draped in the red, white and blue he protected - as it was carried to the Louisiana National Cemetery

He died alongside his fellow Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson, 32, and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Brad Garafola, 45, by former Marine Gavin Eugene Long, 29, at the B-Quik gas station on Sunday morning.

Funerals for father-of-four Garafola and Jackson, who became a new father just four months before his death are set for Saturday and Monday respectively.

Gerald was remembered as a hero by the city's mayor, who called for respecting the police and avoiding the kind of 'us vs. them' mentality that can encourage violence.

More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald. 'The men and women who put on those uniforms, they respect you. Respect them,' the mayor said

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr.'s voice cracked as he strayed from his prepared remarks to respond to the criticism police across the country have received over a steady stream of videotaped killings of black people by police.

'The media has blasted us for what we do and how we do it, basically portraying law enforcement as these band of bullies who go around and beat people up,' the chief said. 'We're not bullies. We are protecting our communities. And they throw us under the bus for it. And that's wrong.'

Two of Gerald's uniforms hung next to his flag-draped casket as photos on a big screen showed moments from his 11 years in the military, his fledgling police career and his family life.

A police chaplain stops for a moment of prayer at the casket of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald

Gerald died alongside his fellow Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson, 32, and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Brad Garafola

Mourners kneel for a moment of prayer at Gerald's casket before he was finally laid to rest

Pallbearers carry the casket containing Matthew Gerald after a funeral service at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Slain police officer Matthew Gerald's widow and two young daughters are pictured after his funeral in Baton Rouge on Friday

Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald (pictured right) was one of three officers killed in an ambush at a gas station on Sunday

Dechia Gerald, the widow of one of the police officers slain in the Baton Rouge shootings on Sunday sobbed as her husband's casket was loaded into a hearse after his funeral on Friday

Dechia Gerald comforts her two daughters Dawclyn, left, and Fynleigh, right, as she watches her husband Matthew Gerald's casket being carried into a hearse on Friday

Dechia Gerald, center, wife of slain Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, holds the hand of her daughter Dawclyn, as they follow her husband's casket after funeral services at the Healing Place Church

Matthew Gerald's casket is loaded into a hearse, after funeral services at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Friday

Mourners at the church were handed a written tribute from the slain officer's wife (left) before the funeral, in which she expressed hope that his memory will 'bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for

Pallbearers load the casket of Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald into a hearse outside the Healing Place church ahead of his burial

He joined the Baton Rouge Police Department less than a year ago after serving four years in the Marines and seven years in the Army, including three tours in Iraq.

His partner on the force was Cpl. Lester Mitchell, an 11-year police veteran. The two officers, black and white, began riding together on July 1, days before Alton Sterling's death.

'We talked about the madness, how much it was putting a strain on the community, police relations,' Mitchell said on Friday. Gerald, he said, 'was a protector. It was just in his DNA.'

On the day of the attack, the partners had been writing reports at police headquarters when Gerald said he was feeling tired, and was going for an energy drink at the B-Quik convenience store a few blocks away.

Someone at the store approached Gerald, saying an armed man was walking through the area, Mitchell said. Gerald radioed back to dispatch, and Mitchell and other officers raced to the scene, hearing gunfire as they arrived.

'We were right in the middle of the firestorm,' he said. 'He had already been shot when we got there.'

The funeral's speakers included Gerald's childhood friend Dave Mulkey, who described sending him a text message during the protests over Sterling's death.

Dechia Gerald, wife of slain Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, stands in front of his casket during his funeral service on Friday

Police salute the casket during funeral services for Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge

Mourners pay respect to the casket of Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Lousiana

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr spoke during funeral services for officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church

Police officers from departments around the country attend the fallen officer's funeral

The casket of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald is carried out of the Healing Place Church

Funerals for sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola (left) and Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson (right) are set for Saturday and Monday

A police offer bows his head during the funeral services for Matthew Gerald, a police officer and military veteran killed last week

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, right, hugs Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie, Jr., during the funeral for Matthew Gerald

Members of a police honor guard raise their hands in salute as the casket of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald exits the church

A North Carolina Fayetteville Police Department officer made her way to a funeral services for police officer Matthew Gerald in Louisiana

Law enforcement officers stand at attention as the casket of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald is carried to a hearse after his funeral

A member of a police honor guard carries an American flag after funeral services for Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald

'I told him to be careful, and to keep a cool head,' Mulkey recalled. He said Gerald's response was 'I'm going to do what I got to do to keep you all safe, old boy.'

Also among the hundreds of mourners at Gerald' funeral were Sheriff's Capt. Tom Cox from Knox County, Tennessee, who said he had just traveled to Dallas to attend all five funerals for the officers killed by a sniper there earlier this month.

'It's numbing, with this many in such a short period of time,' Cox said. 'We hope this isn't some trend.'

The three officers were slain by Long, a black man whose rambling internet videos urged violent responses to what he considered oppression.

After killing the three officers and wounding three more, Long was killed with a long-distance shot by a SWAT team officer.

Police leaders said Long's ambush was at odds with how little violence there had been in Baton Rouge, despite days of heightened racial tension following the police shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man whose death was recorded and posted online.

The two officers involved in Sterling's death outside a convenience store on July 5 were put on administrative leave and the U.S. Justice Department is investigating.

But thousands protested in Louisiana's capital nonetheless, demanding systemic changes to end what they feel are unjustified police shootings of black men.

The tension was heightened further after another black man, Philando Castile, was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop the following day. His girlfriend Diamond Reynolds live streamed the gruesome aftermath of his killing on Facebook.

The day after that, a black Army veteran opened fire amid a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, Texas, killing five police officers. Micah Johnson, 25, told authorities he wanted to 'kill white officers' before he was killed by police using a remote-controlled bomb on a robot.

Motorcycle patrolmen arrive to the funeral services for police officer Matthew Gerald, one of three officers killed by a gunman in Baton Rouge

The hearse carrying the casket for Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald leaves the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge

An American flag is hoisted between two cranes as police motorcycles lead the procession to the cemetery after Matthew Gerald's funeral

A line of police motorcycles lead the procession to the cemetery after funeral services for Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald

A hearse containing the casket of police officer Matthew Gerald is escorted by police motorcycles after a funeral service in Baton Roug\e

Motorcycles ride in the funeral procession for Matthew Gerald, one of three police officers kileld in an ambush, in Baton Rouge on Friday

Baton Rouge police officers are seen attending the funeral of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald on Friday

A Baton Rouge police officer is pictured shortly after a funeral service for police officer Matthew Gerald at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge

A Baton Rouge police officer's badge is seen with a black band placed over it during a funeral service for police officer Matthew Gerald

East Baton Rouge Sheriff's deputies Natasha Stingley, right, and Minnie Ducksworth, left, bow their heads in prayer before releasing balloons at a vigil organized by municipal court workers in downtown Baton Rouge on Wednesday

A memorial sign is posted in front of the B-Quik convenience store where law enforcement officers were killed by a lone gunman

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Sgt. Bruce Simmons, 51, leaves the Baton Rouge General Hospital in Louisiana after recovering from wounds received during an attack on officers on Sunday
Ted Cruz's extraordinary speech at the Republican not only angered Donald Trump's supporters who were in the hall Wednesday  it set off one of Cruz's senior Senate colleagues, who is now branding him a 'liar.'

'I think what people saw last night is what we have seen in the Senate. No matter how conservative you are, you never can meet Ted's standard,' fumed retiring senator Dan Coats of Indiana in an interview with IndyStar.

'He only thinks of himself, he doesn't think about party. He's a wrecking ball.' said Coates, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany who did two stints in the Senate.

Coates was so outraged at Cruz, who delivered a long speech where he called people to vote their 'conscience' but wouldn't endorse Trump, that he was willing to shatter the normal etiquette of not insulting fellow senators so directly.

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Indiana Senator Dan Coates blasted Cruz on a day Indiana Governor Mike Pence is hitting the road with Donald Trump

Ted Cruz faced angry questions when he met with the Texas delegation on Thursday

'He's the most self-centered, narcissistic, pathological liar I've ever seen  and you can quote me on that,' he told the paper.

Cruz suffered similar, though less insulting, abuse when he faced down angry questioning from members of his own delegation, who shouted out questions about why he wouldn't endorse Trump.

Cruz's speech exposed a deep rift. He got booed in the hall by Trump supporters when he didn't endorse. Then Trump appeared in the hall as if to interrupt him, and Cruz supporters booed Trump.

Donald Trump left Cleveland on a bizarre note as the free-wheeling Donald went after Ted Cruz while he thanked convention volunteers

The Trump-Cruz feud - which grew and grew during the contentious primary  got even more heated Friday as Trump prepared to leave Cleveland following his own convention speech.

'Somebody got booed the hell out of the place by thousands and thousands of people,' Trump said.

'There wasn't one person in the room with him, including the Texas delegation, which was with him.'

Trump said even if Cruz were to endorse him now, he would not accept it. And he gleefully boasted that the Texas senator 'was booed the hell off the stage' at the end of his convention speech on Wednesday night.

'He'll come and endorse. It's because he has no choice,' Trump said. 'But I don't want his endorsement. What difference does it make?'

Cruz is already resented, and in some cases despised, by some of his Senate colleagues for behavior that they have branded self-promotional.

Cruz faced down angry questions from delegates his own delegation on Thursday.

'I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,' Cruz said, referencing attacks by Trump on his wife Heidi and father Rafael during the primary campaign. Trump revisited his attacks linking Rafael Cruz to the Kennedy assassination on Friday.
If you still believe in superman, you've childish thinking.

Here said: Trump, Trump (: happycow222 ). He is neither , nor , but opportunist businessman.

Unconventional #42: Where does the GOP go after its ugliest convention since 1964?

Andrew Romano

Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 2016. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

CLEVELAND  When Donald Trump took to the stage of the Quicken Loans Arena to deliver his nomination acceptance speech, he was hoping for a repeat of 1968 .

That was the year, of course, that  a chip-on-his-shoulder, knife-fighting white man  appealed to the United States racially anxious silent majority by promising to restore law and order  and won the White House over an establishment Democrat as a result.

And so, on Thursday night, Trump used his moment in the spotlight to portray the world around us as a terrifying hellscape, with hundreds of thousands of law-breaking illegal immigrants tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens, and murder on the rise because of this administrations rollback of criminal enforcement.

The situation is worse than it has ever been before, Trump added.

And the only solution, according to Trump, was Trump.

The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life, the real estate developer told the tens of millions watching at home. But, he added, I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon  and I mean very soon  come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored.

Never mind that the rate of violent crime has fallen by half since 1990 . Never mind that only 3 percent of Americans list crime and violence as the nations most important problem . If it worked for Richard Nixon, why not try it again? The problem, though, is that  as Mark Twain is reputed to have said  History doesnt repeat itself. Rather, it rhymes. The story of the 2016 election wont be the story of 1968, no matter how much Trump might want it to be. Trump isnt Nixon; Hillary Clinton isnt Hubert Humphrey. History doesnt repeat itself. But there were rhymes this week. And thanks to Ted Cruzs dramatic mutiny Wednesday night  the boos and back-turning it provoked ; the division and doubt it exposed  the most revealing was the way Cleveland rhymed with the GOPs rancorous 1964 convention in San Francisco. It hasnt gone unnoticed that Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater was, in some respects, the Trump of his day. He was a Republican insurgent. He was running against the establishment. His views  on the New Deal, on the Cold War  werent considered mainstream. He was seen as impulsive, hot-headed, ill-informed  not someone to be trusted with the nuclear codes. The press was hostile. He opposed the Civil Rights Act, and white supremacists were drawn to him. In the primaries, Goldwater vanquished his main rival, moderate New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, along with several lesser competitors. But the moderates did not give up. In June, they launched a Stop Goldwater movement. They even drafted a candidate: Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton. And when Scrantons 11th-hour challenge fizzled, Rockefeller decided to go to San Francisco himself and propose a platform amendment repudiating Goldwaters extremist followers. During this year, I have crisscrossed this nation fighting  to keep the Republican Party of all the people, and warning of the extremist threat, Rockefeller said from the convention stage. These things have no place in America. The delegates threw paper at the stage. We want Barry! they chanted. Some of you dont like to hear it, ladies and gentlemen, but its the truth, Rockefeller said. You goddamned Socialist! cried a young Goldwater supporter. The booing was so loud, Rockefeller could barely finish his remarks. Historian Rick Perlstein later described the event as the ugliest of Republican conventions since 1912. And with the GOP divided  Rockefeller, like Cruz, refused to endorse his partys nominee  Goldwater went on to lose 44 states on Election Day. The scene Wednesday night was similar. When Cruz urged listeners to vote your conscience, thousands of delegates booed and turned their backs, choosing instead to face Trump, who had materialized on the other side of the Quicken Loans Arena in silent, seething protest. Vote for Trump! Vote for Trump! they shouted. Go home, Ted! And yet a rhyme isnt a repetition. Trump could win in November, or he may lose in a landslide, with party discord playing a part. But for anyone looking to answer the big post-Cleveland question  Where does the GOP go from here?  its worth remembering what happened after Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Goldwater: Conservatism took root. The movement blossomed. Eventually, Ronald Reagan won the White House and Republicans recaptured Congress after decades in the wilderness. Was Cruzs rebellion the last gasp of the old guard? Has movement conservatism lost its grip on the GOP? Is the inward-looking Americanism that Trump touted in his address ascendant? Or is Trump a party of one, without the infrastructure or ideological integrity to sustain the kind of movement that could remake the GOP? Well know more in a few years time. Still, an early clue came Thursday night, in the middle of Trumps address. He was bemoaning Americas political system  how it permits the powerful to beat up on people that cannot defend themselves; how its rigged against our citizens. He claimed to know the system well. And then Trump uttered a telling line: I alone can fix it. _____ Missed the big speeches? Weve got you covered.

Donald Trump kisses his daughter Ivanka as he arrives to speak during the final session at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Holly Bailey on Donald Trump : In a surreal moment befitting an unconventional candidate at one of the most unusual conventions in recent memory, the arenas speaker system began playing the Rolling Stones You Cant Always Get What You Want. The song is one of Trumps favorites and a mainstay of his raucous campaign rallies, but it also seemed to be a message from the candidate to a divided party.

Lisa Belkin on Ivanka Trump : Her speech tonight was not big on personal anecdote  the few that she did offer included stories of sitting on the floor building towers with Legos while her father sat at a desk designing ones from concrete, or of having her dad exhort to her think big  but it was filled with personal reassurance, one mother to millions of others, that her father would represent women in particular.

Michael Isikoff on Peter Thiel : Maverick Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel delivered a speech tonight that would have been unheard of at a Republican convention not too many years ago: He proclaimed himself proud to be gay, decried fake culture wars and called for an end to stupid wars in the Middle East.

Hunter Walker on Joe Arpaio : Arpaio suggested the cornerstone of Trumps immigration platform, a massive wall the developer promises to build along the U.S. border with Mexico, would help guard against the dangers of illegal immigration and drugs.

_____

Overheard

It was very interesting  but it was different than ones Ive been to before.

 A deadpan #RNCinCLE operations volunteer, summing it all up as 10,000 delegates, donors, politicians and journalists streamed out of the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday night.

_____

The RNC wanted to reach out to minorities. Then along came Trump.

California delegate Eddie Inamdar celebrates at the Republican National Convention, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News)

By Jon Ward

CLEVELAND  Before RNC Chairman Reince Priebus spoke Thursday night at the Republican convention he had presided over, his young staffers played a video on the big screen that demonstrated what theyd hoped their party would represent this year.

The video was skillfully produced, with slick graphics. It showed young, earnest men and women walking up to homes to knock on doors. There was a young Latino shaking hands with a couple, and an African-American man in a stylish hat telling a voter about the greatness of the Republican Party.

If only.

This years convention was as white and as old as ever, and was punctuated by outbursts of resentment against the Black Lives Matter movement and undocumented immigrants. Several speakers stood at the podium nodding and smiling as thousands of delegates chanted, Lock her up! Lock her up! in reference to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

(Read the full story here .)

One year ago, young Republicans looked at Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, or Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and thought, Were headed for a young, positive, hopeful campaign.

A Rubio or Bush nomination, in particular, held the prospect of winning over millions of Latino voters and young voters. It was one of the goals set forth in the 2013 autopsy report that Priebus sanctioned and released from the RNC.

That report laid out the demographic facts  the diminishing percentage of white voters in each consecutive presidential election  and said, If Hispanic-Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States  they will not pay attention to our next sentence.

It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies, the report said.

One of Priebus favorite lines is that Republicans are the party of the open door.

On Thursday, Priebus started his speech with that same phrase. And then he ceded the stage to a nominee whose central idea is to build a giant wall.

_____

A tale of two protests

Medea Benjamin of Code Pink is taken away as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention, July 21, 2016. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)

As Trump spoke Thursday night, he was briefly interrupted by veteran Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin, who began shouting and waving a banner that read Build Bridges Not Walls. Yahoo News National Correspondent Hunter Walker caught up with Benjamin after security dragged her out of the arena :

Benjamin and other members of Code Pink plan to travel to Philadelphia to protest next weeks Democratic convention. She said they get inside the conventions because the party activists and delegates in attendance just give us their badges.

There are a lot of Republicans who dont like Donald Trump. I mean, weve been out on the streets all these days, and weve just seen so many people who come up and say  you know, they agree with us that Donald Trump is not fit to be president, Benjamin said. There seemed like a lot of enthusiasm tonight, but from what Ive seen, theres a tremendous crisis in this party, and I think its going to be a very difficult electoral season for them.

After protesting at so many major events, Benjamin has become fairly well-known. She was amazed security didnt notice her infiltrating the RNC. There was a congressman there who came up and said hello, Benjamin said.

There were people who winked at me. Im sure there were people who recognized me, but thankfully they didnt say anything. I was indeed nervous the whole time that somebody was going to come and pull me out because I had been recognized.

Benjamin wasnt sure which lawmaker she saw, but she said he was wearing a congressional lapel pin. She spent about two hours waiting on the convention floor for Trumps speech, and said she was very nervous the entire time.

Its scary. I mean, you look out and you see a sea of people who are so enthusiastic and cheering, and you know that the people around you are going to be really upset with you. It is scary, Benjamin said.

Meanwhile, outside the Q, Yahoo News Chris Wilson wandered among the protestors gathered in Public Square :

Here, for this night at least, there was no fear on display, no violence  and no arrests.

There were some gun-rights supporters carrying long guns and pistols, but they were outnumbered by people lounging in the grass with their dogs, and in one case, a pet lizard. There were also a few men in Guy Fawkes masks, and flag-waving Trump supporters in Hillary for Prison shirts, but their exchanges with the anti-Trump demonstrators never got beyond the occasional taunting shout or intense but mostly cordial political argument.

~~ /`~~~

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Caligula



































































































Loser) 







Sorry, Youre Fired.

~~~/ !!!

()
As news reports of a gun massacre in Munich crossed the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, the President of the United States was cracking jokes.

Barack Obama delivered a brief update to reporters at the White House about the still-unfolding shooting rampage that left the German city on lockdown.

Eight are confirmed dead, and 10 injured.

The president was speaking to law enforcement agents at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.

But as cameras rolled on the somber moment, Obama grinned and chuckled  and drew laughs from his audience  about his elder daughter Malia leaving the nest and heading for college.

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YUKKING IT UP: President Barack Obama took a joking and tone-deaf detour from his Friday remarks about a gun mass murder that may be terror-related, chuckling about how he would miss his daughter Malia when she goes to college

WHY HE WAS THERE: Obama told law enforcement agents next door to the White House that 'Germany's one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support they may need in dealing with these circumstances'

CASUALTIES: One picture on social media shows a man lying on the ground with a blanket over him

'Some of you are aware there were shootings in Germany. And we don't yet know exactly what's happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured,' the president said.

'It's still an active situation and Germany's one of our closest allies. So we are going to pledge all the support they may need in dealing with these circumstances.'

After a pause, he reflected on the impact of the potentially terror-related attacks, and others like it, on Americans.

'It's a good reminder of something that I've said over the last couple of weeks,' Obama said, launching into a list of ordinary daily-life activities that are threatened in the absence of good police and intelligence work.

'Our way of life, our freedoms,' he said, 'our ability to go about our business every day, raising our kids'  and suddenly the president's mood shifted.

'And seeing them grow up and graduate from high school, and now about to leave their dad,' he continued, waving his hand and breaking the tension as the room erupted in laughter.

'I'm sorry. I'm getting a little too personal. Getting a little too personal there,' he said.

Obama then returned to the gravity he had discarded just moments before.

'That depends on law enforcement,' he said. 'It depends on the men and woman in uniform every single day, who are under some of the most adverse circumstances imaginable at times, making sure to keep us safe.'

Friday morning, about one hour before the Munich gunman opened fire on a street outside a McDonald's restaurant, Obama said in a joint press conference with Mexico's president that Republican nominee Donald Trump has overreacted by drawing attention to crime and terrorism in his campaign rhetoric.

VICIOUS: A video purporting to show the shooter, dressed in black, firing 20 shots has been posted on Twitter. The video shows him outside a McDonald's directly outside the shopping centre

WANT TO REPHRASE THAT? In a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart just one hour before the Munich shootings, Obama dismissed Donald Trump's stated fears about 'violence and chaos everywhere'

'This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesnt really jibe with the experience of most people,' Obama said alongside President Enrique Pena Nieto.

'I think it is important to be absolutely clear here,' he added, unaware of the bloodshed about to begin an ocean away.

'Some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just dont jibe with the facts.'

The area around the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre has been sealed off. An electrical shop nearby is being used as a makeshift hospital to treat the casualties.

It was reported that at least one gunman fled into the city's underground mass transport system, which has now been shut down.

Germany's passenger rail authority also confirmed that Munich's main train station has been evacuated.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Friday in a statement that 'our prayers are with all those affected by the horrible attacks in Munich. This cannot continue.'
Harmless countryside cottages on the Kentish coastline and a shop selling ice cream are unlikely locations for top-secret wartime operations.

But instead of attracting holidaymakers escaping to the sea air and children clamouring for a sweet treat, these buildings housed unique machinery that pumped an estimated 172 million gallons of fuel underwater to Allied forces in France during the Second World War as part of Operation PLUTO - all without the Germans ever finding out.

Such extensive - and complicated - proceedings were urgently required, as without an adequate and reliable supply of petrol, advances in France would have been heavily impeded, giving German forces the time to counter-attack.

Instead of attracting holidaymakers escaping to the sea air and children clamouring for a sweet treats, these buildings housed unique machinery that pumped an estimated 172 million gallons of fuel underwater to Allied forces in France during the Second World War as part of Operation PLUTO

Overground pipelines were ruled out as an option as they would clutter beaches and obstruct movement of vessels. Moreover tankers full of petrol and oil would have been easy targets.

Sandown on the Isle of Wight, Romney Marsh and Dungeness on the south coast of England were chosen as the three locations from which to pump the fuel, brought down from oil terminals in Liverpool and Bristol, with the stations hidden inside holiday cottages, a Brown's ice cream shop and an amusement park.

But the disguise did not stop there. As part of the elaborate subterfuge a three-mile-long fake dock was constructed at Dover, just across from Calais with the aim of fooling the Germans into thinking D-Day would occur there instead of Normandy.

As part of the act even King George VI came to visit the dock which was filled with fake details such as false pipelines, storage tanks, a fire brigade and anti-aircraft guns.

Meanwhile, anyone transporting material to PLUTO facilities had to ask for 'Captain Jones'.

Lord Mountbatten, a senior figure in the British Army, came up with the idea of an underwater fuel route with Clifford Hartley, chief engineer at the Anglo-Iranian oil company, designing the project.

And so PLUTO - Pipeline Under the Ocean - came into being.

Hartley developed a pipe made of lead, just three inches in diameter, which could resist a bomb explosion underwater.

These were taken to one of several loading docks and coiled around 50-foot oil drums. Tankers would then release them underwater.

Another engineer, Bernard Elis, designed pipes of steel which were too fragile too be transported in the same way as Hartley's.

The Petroleum Department worked with the Miscellaneous Weapons Department, nicknamed 'wheezers and dodgers', to fashion a 'Conundrum' - a giant, floating spool which stored up to 90 miles of pipeline

500 miles of pipeline in total connecting the French and English coasts in preparation for the D-Day landing of June 6, 1944 when 200,000 men and 20,000 vehicles landed on the beaches of Normandy

It's estimated that 172 million gallons of fuel were supplied to Allies forces during the landings without the German's knowledge

On August 31, 1945 the team behind the project disbanded but the holiday cottages are still there today and remainders of the overland pipes can still be seen around the country (pictured)

So the Petroleum Department worked with the Miscellaneous Weapons Department, nicknamed 'wheezers and dodgers', to fashion a 'Conundrum' - a giant, floating spool which stored up to 90 miles of pipeline.

A tugboat would pull it as it spun and released the pipelines into the water.

Two secret routes were planned. One, 70 miles long from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg, France, code-named BAMBI and the other 30 miles long from Dungeness to Boulogne, called DUMBO.

500 miles of pipeline in total were laid down connecting the French and English coasts in preparation for the D-Day landing of June 6, 1944 when 200,000 men and 20,000 vehicles landed on the beaches of Normandy.

However, there were numerous delays as the BAMBI route was plagued with problems including a ship's anchor destroying the first lines, a ship's propellor breaking the second and - after a false start when fuel flowed efficiently after four months - more pipeline broke with barnacles rotting the material.

The DUMBO route had more success and by the end of 1944 3,000 tons of fuel were rushing across the Channel every day, escalating to 4,500 by the end of the war.

It's estimated that 172 million gallons of fuel were supplied to Allies forces during the landings without the German's knowledge.

Without the efforts of Operation Pluto the US forces would have run out fuel, Dwight Eisenhower, then head of United States Army said afterwards, while British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called Operation PLUTO 'a wholly British achievement and a piece of amphibious engineering skills of which we may be proud.'
A black man who was incapacitated with a stun gun is suing the white Arkansas police officer who arrested him.

Chardrick Mitchell on Wednesday filed the civil suit in Mississippi County against Blytheville Officer Stephen Sigman, Police Chief Ross Thompson and the city of Blytheville.

The lawsuit says police video shows Mitchell was walking away from Sigman on July 4 when the officer fired his stun gun at roughly the same time he announced Mitchell was under arrest.

Shocking body cam footage of the incident has been released as part of the lawsuit, which maintains Mitchell was a victim of excessive police force.

Tasered with his back turned: Shocking body cam footage of the incident has been released as part of the lawsuit, which maintains the Blytheville man, Chardrick Mitchell, was a victim of excessive police force

Mitchell refused to give his name to police and walked away. Sigman tasered him from behind and said: 'Hey, turn around. You're under arrest'

It alleges there's an 'institutionalized practice of using excessive force against African-Americans.'

'At no time did Mr. Mitchell resist arrest, especially since he had already been tased when he was first told he was under arrest, even though he had at that point committed no possible criminal act,' the lawsuit, obtained by the New York Daily News, reads.

'Video displays that the first time Officer Sigman told Mr. Mitchell that he was under arrest was either at the moment the tazer was fired or just as the tazer was striking Mr. Mitchell in the back.'

Mitchell has been charged with obstruction of government operations, disorderly conduct and failure to submit to arrest.

Blytheville police Capt. Jeremy Ward says Sigman is still employed, but has declined to comment on the officer's status or the lawsuit.

Police have also refused to say whether there was an investigation into Sigman's actions.

Sigman was called to Mitchell's Blytheville apartment by Mitchell's girlfriend, who was trying to get inside to get some belonging but Mitchell would not allow her to.

The footage shows an incapacitated Mitchell on the ground. He is then arrested and put in a patrol car

In the body camera footage, Mitchell is seen calmly sitting on a car as Sigman arrives.

Sigman can be seen getting out a notepad and asking Mitchell for his name, but Mitchell does not tell him. He asks repeatedly and threatens to charge him with obstruction.

Mitchell then gets off the car and starts walking to his apartment.

However Sigman pulls his taser, shoots Mitchell, and says: 'Hey, turn around. You're under arrest.'

The lawsuit claims that Mitchell still suffers shoulder pain from the way in which he fell to the ground as he was tasered.

Sigman was involved in the fatal shooting of another black man, Terrence Dawson, in May of 2013, according to the Daily News. A prosecutor says Sigman's deadly force was justified because Dawson pulled a knife and lunged at the officer before he fired shots.
A Washington state man accused of killing a couple and dumping their bodies in a remote forest has been arrested in Mexico after more than three months on the run.

John Blaine Reed, 53, shot Monique Patenaude, 46, and her husband, Patrick Shunn, 45, over a property dispute in Oso, Seattle, on April 11, police believe.

Reed has been on the run ever since, but the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office said investigators finally caught up with him in Sonora, Mexico.

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John Blaine Reed (left), 53, was arrested in Mexico and is charged with the murders of Monique Patenaude, 46, and her husband, Patrick Shunn, 45. He fled Washington state with his brother, Tony (right), in April

'He was discovered and expelled to the United States by Mexican authorities for violation of immigration laws of the Sovereign Nation of Mexico,' the statement read.

'He was taken into custody at the border by United States officials and booked into the Pima County Jail in Arizona.'

The statement added that it is unknown when Reed will be extradited to Washington state.

Reed's capture comes after his brother, Tony Clyde Reed, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony rendering criminal assistance when he surrendered to police in San Diego after returning from Mexico in May.

Investigators believe Tony Reed fled with his brother to Mexico after killing Patrick Shunn, 45, and his wife, Monique Patenaude, 46 (pictured). Neighbors reported Shunn and Patenaude missing on April 12 when their livestock was left unattended

Reed has been on the run ever since the couple (pictured) disappeared, but the Snohomish County Sheriffs Office said investigators finally caught up with him in Sonora, Mexico

He then helped investigators locate the bodies of Shunn and Patenaude, who were buried on gravel logging road near their home in Oso.

Tony Reed had initially been charged with murder along with his brother, however those charged were dropped in June.

The brothers were linked to the murders by surveillance video showing them dump the couple's cars over an embankment north of Seattle, police believe according to the Seattle Times.

Neighbors reported Shunn and Patenaude missing in April when their livestock was left unattended.

Detectives concluded the couple had been killed after they searched the vehicles and the home where Reed lived.

The Reed brothers' parents were also charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance, KIRO reports.

The couple's wrecked cars were found in woods about four miles from their home
A woman accused in the overdose death of her nine-month-old grandson has been arrested in suburban Atlanta after authorities have been looking for her for more than a month, police said.

Tonya Monroe, 45, was arrested on Thursday and is charged with murder, possession of methamphetamine and first degree cruelty to children in the March 11 death of her grandson, Kobe Shaw.

Monroe was identified as the suspect at the start of the murder investigation and warrants were obtained on June 14 for her arrest, but authorities did not know her whereabouts, the AJC reported.

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Tonya Monroe, 45, was arrested in the March 11 death of her grandson, Kobe Shaw. Following a search spanning at least three counties, Monroe, who had changed her hair color from blonde (left) to brown (right), was taken into custody in Paulding County on Thursday

Nine-month-old Kobe Shaw pictured above. Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office determined Kobe died of a methamphetamine overdose, which led detectives to open a murder investigation

Following a search spanning at least three counties, Monroe, who had changed her hair color from blonde to brown, was taken into custody in Paulding County.

Back in March, Sandy Springs police received a call about an unresponsive baby at the Legends at Dunwoody Apartments, authorities said.

When officers arrived, they said the baby boy was dead, WXIA-TV reported.

Initially, it was believed his death was the result of medical conditions as a result of being born with an undeveloped brain.

However, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office determined Kobe died of a methamphetamine overdose, which led detectives to open a murder investigation.

Back in March, Sandy Springs police received a call about an unresponsive baby at the Legends at Dunwoody Apartments (pictured), authorities said. When officers arrived, they said the baby boy was dead

The child's mother, Taylor Shaw, told WXIA-TV they had been living temporarily at her mother's apartment and noted her mother had a history of meth arrests.

While the motive has not yet been determined, detectives believe Monroe intentionally forced meth into Kobe to kill him, according to the station.

On Friday, a Facebook post written by Kobe's father, Hayden, detailed his heartbreak of losing his son but that he was glad Monroe was finally caught.

'Everything is really startin (sic) to set in... This pain and depression is so dark that i cant understand how somebody pulls thru (sic) this kinda situation,' he wrote.

The child's mother, Taylor Shaw (pictured with Kobe's father, Hayden) said they had been living temporarily at her mother's apartment and noted her mother had a history of meth arrests

Kobe's parents are pictured above at his grave site in a Facebook photo dated March 19

On Friday, a Facebook post written by Kobe's father (shown above) detailed his heartbreak of losing his son but that he was glad Monroe was finally caught

'I'll probably never know why or what you thought you might accomplish by doing this to our son...im glad they finally caught you because now your gonna think everyday about how badly you have hurt us.

'Idk (sic) how you could do that to such a sweet innocent baby...not even just that but your grandson...justice is and will be served for my son.

'I love you kobe!... i need you to get me through all this baby boy daddy misses you so bad its unbearable... R.I.P KOBE CONLEY SHAW!!!'
Posing against an impressive London skyline, newly-wed Mundill Mahil appears every inch the happy bride.

The pretty brunette appears to have the world at her feet as she gazes into the eyes of her handsome young husband, Varinder Singh  a rising Labour Party star.

But the photograph provoked fury last night from the family of the former admirer she led to a grisly death just five years ago.

Mahil  then a medical student  played the honeytrap in the brutal murder of TV executive Gagandip Singh.

The photograph of newly-wed Mundill Mahil and rising Labour Party star Varinder Singh provoked fury last night from the family of the ex-boyfriend she led to a grisly death just five years ago

He was beaten and tied up before being burnt alive in the boot of a car parked just a stones throw from Greenwich Park in South-East London.

Mahil received six years for her part in the plot but was released after three years.

Incredibly, however, before she got married last week she decided to go to a spot close to the scene of the murder for a romantic photo - even though it was 25 miles from where the marriage ceremony took place.

Last night, Gagandips heartbroken mother Tajinder Singh, 49, branded the photographs beyond belief.

She said it was painful to see Mahil going on to build her own family when hers had been ripped apart so violently.

The victims sister, Amandip, 23, added: I think its disgusting. Its five minutes from where it happened.

It seems she has just started over, as if nothing happened. In court she tried to make herself seem innocent, and depressed. But it didnt take her long to get over things. She has been out for a year and already married. Why have a photoshoot in Greenwich? Surely it would bring back bad memories?

Mahil lured the 21-year-old besotted businessman to his death by inviting him to her student digs in Brighton in revenge for a sex assault on her. He was beaten over the head, tied up with electrical cord and trapped in the boot of his Mercedes which was later set on fire near Greenwich Park in February 2011.

One year later the Old Bailey trial split the Sikh community in South-East London, with Mr Singhs TV station campaigning for Mahils bail to be revoked.

Her barrister admitted some would always see her  albeit wrongly  as the girl who got away with murder.

Eventually, the jury cleared Mahil, who claimed she had no role in the attack, of murder but convicted her of causing grievous bodily harm. Another man, who was also infatuated with Mahil, was convicted of murder and a third, an accomplice, of manslaughter.

Sentencing Mahil, Judge Paul Worsley QC said she had many outstanding qualities but was also manipulative, vengeful and deceitful.

Gagandips mother believes he was killed because she blocked their marriage because he was so young. The murder was the second tragedy for the family. Mr Singhs father Charanjit was shot and killed on a visit to India in 2009.

Since her release in 2014, Mahil has been forging a new life, but her criminal conviction means her dream of qualifying as a doctor is over. Instead she has thrown herself into charity work, photography and retrained as a personal trainer, aromatherapist and masseuse.

Last weekend, her family threw a huge party to mark her wedding to Varinder Singh.

He is an Ilford councillor who works as a senior official in the office of Ilford South MP Mike Gapes. The community-minded politician has been pictured with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and backed Liz Kendall in her failed leadership bid.

Gagandip Singh was beaten and tied up before being burnt alive in the boot of a car parked just a stones throw from Greenwich Park in South-East London

She tied the knot with Mr Singh at a ceremony at Rochester Gurdwara.Afterwards, more than 500 guests packed Cobham Hall in Higham, Kent, as Mahil wowed the crowd in a traditional, bespoke wedding dress rumoured to have cost 3,000.

The celebration followed a smaller party the previous evening at her family home in Chatham, Kent. One guest said: It was astonishing to see how she has moved on. What about the guy that is dead and his family?

She is using a new name but everyone knows about her past. Everyone gets a second chance but to make such a public show of it seems wrong.

There were some who did not go to the wedding because they did not want to be seen there. It has caused huge uproar in the Sikh community.

They do not want to be seen associating with someone who has done something so terrible. They feel that at least the wedding should have been more modest and humble.

Whatever she has or has not done, it cannot be right to throw it back in the faces of the victims family like this.

As part of her bid to erase the past, Mahil has launched no fewer than five websites all carrying detailed descriptions of her achievements, strengths and passion for charity. One describes her as a highly conscientious peoples person.

There is no mention of her victim, conviction or time in jail.

None of Mahils family were willing to speak about her wedding but her father-in-law Gulzar Singh, 65, insisted he had no problem with it, adding: We are happy if our son is happy.
Those exposed to lake's bloom had symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, fever

But health officials believe foam may have been caused by chemicals used for a moss removal process in the canal

The foam came from the Welby Jacob Canal, which is connected to the Jordan River - which is Utah Lake's only river outlet

Early reports indicated the foam was caused by same algae in Utah Lake

The foam was spotted by residents on Thursday in Bluffdale

A mysterious green foam has left neighbors of one Utah neighborhood more than a little concerned after it was spotted bubbling from a storm drain on Thursday.

The Salt Lake County Health Department immediately sent both its emergency response team as well as scientists to test the bright green foam after it was reported in the Bluffdale neighborhood.

Early reports indicated that the foam was caused by a toxic algae bloom that currently covers 90 percent of Utah Lake - and has already caused more than 100 people to fall ill.

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The Salt Lake County Health Department immediately sent its emergency response team to Bluffdale, Utah after residents spotted this mysterious green foam bubbling from a storm drain in the neighborhood

The foam was sourced to the nearby Welby Jacob Canal, which feeds water to local farms. The canal is connected to the Jordan River, which is connected to Utah Lake

The foam was sourced to the nearby Welby Jacob Canal, which feeds water to local farms. The canal is connected to the Jordan River, which is connected to Utah Lake.

'It's certainly possible that the water in the Welby Canal here does have some of that particular harmful algae that produces toxins in it,' department official Nicholas Rupp told Fox 13 Now.

But Rupp said the foam is more likely the result of a recent moss removal process the canal underwent earlier this month.

'The chemicals that they use for the moss prevention process foams and causes a foaming action,' Rupp said.

But just because the toxic algae didn't cause the green foam doesn't necessarily mean it isn't present in the canal.

Rupp said the department tested water in the canal just to make sure. Results are expected in the next few days, according to KUTV.

The foam began to recede after the irrigation line to the canal was shut off, Bluffdale city engineer Michael Fazio told KSL.

The department believes the foam was likely caused by chemicals used for a recent moss removal process the canal underwent earlier this month

Firefighters protected themselves with masks and gloves while hosing the green substance down the sewer

Firefighters protected themselves with masks and gloves while hosing the green substance back into the sewer.

The department said the foam does not pose a concern to public health at this time.

Meanwhile, all activities at Utah Lake have been canceled indefinitely after it was revealed the toxic algal bloom covering the water was becoming more hazardous.

Cyanobacteria cells release higher levels of toxins into the water as they die - making the water more lethal even as the number of cells drop in the lake, which lies in Utah Valley.

More than 100 people exposed to the bloom called the Utah Poison Control Center last Friday, reporting symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, fever, skin and eye irritation and rashes.

Although no definitive link has yet been made with the symptoms and the bloom, officials said they were consistent with cyanotoxin exposure.

The majority of samples collected last Thursday exceeded the 'medium risk' threshold of 100,000 cells defined by the Worth Health Organization and the Utah Department of Health guidelines.

Early reports indicated that the foam was caused by a toxic algae bloom that currently covers 90 percent of Utah Lake - and has already sent more than 100 people to the hospital

More than 100 people exposed to the bloom called the Utah Poison Control Center last Friday, reporting symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, fever, skin and eye irritation and rashes

One such sample contained nearly 700,000 cyanobacteria cells.

Even when algae blooms don't appear on the surface of the lake, they could still be present - as cyanobacteria can sink in certain conditions.

'Toxins can be at their highest after a bloom has subsided,' warned a release issued by the Department of Environmental Quality this week.

Sampling collections continued on the lake last week, while crews from the Utah Division of Water Quality also observed additional bloom areas from an aerial viewpoint.

Water in the Jordan River, the lake's only river outlet, as well as canals fed by the lake were also being tested to see if the bloom was spreading, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food strongly advised farmers and ranchers to avoid using water from the lake to irrigate crops and give to livestock until results are made available next week.

The Salt Lake County Health Department said drinking water was not affected by the bloom.

Recent studies have linked cyanobacteria-producing toxins to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which causes the death of neurons that control voluntary muscles.
Russia bombed a secret military base in Syria used by American and British forces, it has been reported.

Vladimir Putin's warplanes allegedly struck a remote garrison at At-Tanf, an outpost for elite forces from both sides of the Atlantic on June 16.

US jets are believed to have been scrambled in response, but failed to stop the aerial raid.

It was a move by the Kremlin to pressure the White House into more cooperation during airstrikes over the war-torn country, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Russia bombed a secret military base in Syria used by American and British forces, it has been reported. Vladimir Putin's warplanes allegedly struck a remote garrison at At-Tanf, an outpost for elite forces from both sides of the Atlantic on June 16. They also struck a CIA-linked site 50 miles away on July 12th

Hours after the attack, the Daily Beast says that the US Central Command - which overseas American combat in the Middle East - spoke directly to the pilots.

Officials from Washington and Moscow also spoke over a hotline set up to avoid similar confrontations, reports suggest.

There was also a similar attack on a CIA-linked site on July 12 that was previously unreported.

But the attack pushed both the US and UK into a compromise with Russia.

The U.S. and Russia agreed to a pact last week to target airstrikes against the Al Qaeda affiliate in the region  Nusra Front.

They reportedly went ahead with the plan despite objections from the Pentagon and CIA.

Daily Mail Online has contacted both the State Department and Ministry of Defence for comment.

US officials and rebel commanders told the Journal that the outpost was hit with cluster munitions.

US attempts to wave off the Russians failed to prevent a second air strike on the base, the report said.

About three weeks later, on July 12, Russian warplanes hit a rebel camp used by family members of CIA-backed fighters about 50 miles west of At-Tanf, the report said.

The attacks were seen as a move by the Kremlin to pressure the White House into more cooperation during airstrikes over the war-torn country. Two Russian warplanes are seen flying over the coastal city of Latakia in January 2016

But the White House and the State Department, seeking to avoid a military escalation, decided to pursue a compromise, it said.

Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry reached a provisional agreement with the Russians to join forces in strikes on Al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Under the agreement, the Russians would halt air strikes against US-backed rebels and restrain the Syrian air force in return for Washington easing Moscow's international isolation, the Journal said.

There are still disputes over the areas Russia can strike without approval from the US.

Because of skepticism in the Pentagon, there are reports of a clause in the Russia-US deal that means Kerry can stop cooperating if Putin bombs American allies.
The photo shows a baby: doll-like, peaceful, button-nosed, nestled in his mothers arms, the focus of his parents fond, adoring gaze. Rory Bells tiny cheeks are rosy. His eyes are closed as if in sleep. We might assume his parents are celebrating his birth.

But actually they are mourning his death, because days before this picture was taken, Rory was stillborn and his mother Lynseys life, threatened by a massive haemorrhage, hung by a thread.

Just before she was rushed into theatre for emergency surgery, Lynsey was told the baby she had carried for eight months had died in her womb. Then for two agonising days her husband Mark believed he would lose not only his fourth child, but also his wife.

The photo shows a baby: doll-like, peaceful, button-nosed, nestled in his mothers arms, the focus of his parents fond, adoring gaze - but little Rory Bell was stillborn

Lynsey and Mark Bell with their children Max, Daisy and Poppy

The doctors told me to prepare for the worst, says Mark. Our son had been born dead and Lynsey could also die. My biggest worry was how Id tell our other three children that their little brother wasnt coming home and neither was their mummy.

I also felt my responsibilities to Rory acutely. Though he was dead I didnt want him lying in a cold mortuary. I couldnt bear the thought of him being there alone. Though his body was lifeless, I wanted him to be snuggled up beside me.

So for four hours I lay down on a bed in an empty delivery suite with Rory at my side. I sang to him, cuddled him and told him stories about his brother and sisters. I wanted him to be loved just as we love our other children.

The couple changed, cuddled and kissed baby Rory for over two weeks after he died before his funeral

I prayed a lot, too, that Lynsey would survive the surgery, and the next day I carried Rory down to see his mummy in intensive care, and though she was unconscious, I lay him down in the crook of her arm.

The doctors had told me she might not pull through and I wanted her to meet Rory in case she died, too.

Miraculously, Lynsey survived six major haemorrhages, but her climb back to health was a slow one, and during the 11 days she spent in hospital she and Mark made a resolution: they would store up as many memories of Rory, their second son, as they could.

Eighteen days elapsed between their little boys stillbirth and his funeral, and during that time Lynsey and Mark Bell treated him much as they would have a living child

Rory was a baby whose heart had stopped beating, but he was their child, nonetheless, and loved with the same intensity as their other children  Daisy, now ten, seven-year-old Max and Poppy, four.

Eighteen days elapsed between their little boys stillbirth and his funeral, and during that time Lynsey and Mark Bell treated him much as they would have a living child.

They changed his nappy, washed him, sang to him, cuddled him and read him stories. And on the day before his funeral, in August 2014, they took him to Lynseys parents home, where he was at their side for their final night with him.

During those precious hours, they bonded with him. And because after seeing them each day he was returned to the hospital mortuary, his body did not change with time. He remained, to the casual onlooker, the image of a peacefully sleeping baby.

And because after seeing them each day he was returned to the hospital mortuary, his body did not change with time. He remained, to the casual onlooker, the image of a peacefully sleeping baby.

It was as if he defied science, says Lynsey. He was perfect. For 18 days he looked exactly like a living baby. He wasnt stiff. It was like holding a newborn. You could wrap his fingers round yours and his arms and legs were flexible.

But, of course, we knew we couldnt keep him with us all day, so we rationed the time we had with him. In the end, the fact he was cold became reassuring. If hed started to get warm we would have worried. We knew, too, that once his funeral came wed never see him again, so we wanted to know as much as possible about him.

I asked the midwife if I could undress him. I wanted to know if there were any birth marks I hadnt seen.

Rory's grave in Newcastle bears the inscription 'Our angel baby, big guy Rory Bell. We love you to the moon and back'

We asked, too, if we could make casts of his hand and footprints, and I changed his nappy. Even stillborn babies pass meconium [the first faeces of a newborn] and as a mum I wanted to know that my baby was clean and well looked after.

So going back and forth to the mortuary to fetch him, kiss him, change him and give him a cuddle became our normality. For those weeks in hospital we lived in a bubble. Lynsey and Marks other children never met Rory: it was their parents view that they were far too young to face the awful finality of his death.

So the thoughts that Daisy, Max and Poppy retain of their baby brother are happy ones, based on the photos of him at their home in Newcastle upon Tyne, and in their happy belief that he lives now in heaven, a little angel.

When Lynsey, 33, a nursery nurse, discovered in December 2013 that she was pregnant for the fourth time, she was shocked: It was a really big surprise. We were two happy parents with three lovely children: our family was complete.

Daisy, Max and Poppy make a loveheart symbol in memory of their baby brother

I remember thinking: What are we going to do? But by my 20-week scan, when we knew we were having a boy, my heart had melted.

We bought everything new: a pushchair, crib, even a little bouncy chair that was all set up in the sitting room. The pram was in the corner and the crib was ready upstairs. Rory was to share a room with his big brother. Everything was prepared.

However, Lynsey was steeling herself for a difficult pregnancy. She had developed the potentially life-threatening condition pre-eclampsia  dangerously high blood pressure  when pregnant with her other children and knew her fourth pregnancy was also likely to be problematic.

Indeed, 35 weeks in, she developed very high blood pressure and was put on medication. A day later, on July 31, 2014, she went into labour.

She and Mark, a technical operator in a factory, arrived at hospital to devastating news.

Lynsey Bell holds hands with her baby son

Tests revealed Lynsey had again developed pre-eclampsia, but worse followed: a scan showed her babys heartbeat had stopped.

Marks hand squeezed mine and my eyes filled with tears, she says. Everything on the scan was still. I could see no beating heart, not a flicker of life.

I knew straight away something was wrong. Then the doctor took my hand and said: Im so sorry. Hes gone. 

The baby had died when the placenta had detached; probably as Lynsey walked into hospital. Death would have been instantaneous as his oxygen supply was cut off.

Lynsey recalls: I lay on the bed and thought: Whats that noise? It was me, screaming, but in my head it sounded as if it was coming from somewhere else, not from my mouth.

I used to work in a hospital, as a health care assistant in paediatric intensive care, and I learned then that there is no cry like a mothers when her child dies.

And it was me who was making that sound. I felt as if a train had smacked into me.

Lynsey and Mark now do charity work for Tommy's, the stillbirth charity

Then there was a stabbing pain in my stomach. They told me Id have to go through labour and give birth to my stillborn baby. I said to Mark: I just cant go through it. Please let them give me a caesarean. I couldnt imagine the horror of it.

Distraught with pain and grief, she was taken to a delivery suite, but she began to haemorrhage catastrophically and was rushed into theatre for an emergency caesarean.

Mark took my hand and I know now he told me he loved me, but by then I was drifting into unconsciousness. I heard doors smacking open, felt a mask on my face and a million lights seemed to shine on me. There was noise, then nothing  until I woke up two days later. By then, just as dawn broke on Friday, August 1, 2014, their son Rory had been stillborn. Meanwhile, doctors were fighting to save Lynseys life.

She suffered six major haemorrhages and kidney failure, and was given 15 blood transfusions.

Having failed to stem the flood of blood any other way, surgeons finally had to perform an emergency hysterectomy. Mark, waiting outside the operating theatre for news, feared that he would be planning two funerals.

He and Lynsey had been together since they were 18. She was the only girl he had ever loved. The thought of losing her as well as their son all but crushed him.

I remember saying to the doctors: You can have my leg; anything. Just save her. 

By the Saturday evening, Lynsey, in intensive care, still hovered between life and death and Mark knew he must introduce her to their new son, named, as she had wished, Rory. He nestled their boy under her arm.

I opened my eyes and remember Mark saying You know Rory is here? and for a split second he must have glimpsed hope in my eyes because he said: You do remember what happened, dont you? You know they couldnt save him? I did remember. Then I lost consciousness again.

Two days on, Lynsey was alert enough to meet her son.

When Mark brought him to me I could see how gorgeous he was. Id imagined the horror of a dead body. But he was as perfect as any newborn. His cheeks were rosy. He looked exactly like a living baby.

I gave him a kiss. I cuddled him. Unlike an adult, he did not have rigor mortis. His legs and arms were flexible. The midwife had dressed him in a blue babygro and he wore a navy cardigan one of my mums friends had knitted and one of Maxs red hats.

Round his neck was a rosary bead necklace, because after hed been born Mark had called the priest to bless him  were Catholic.

The hardest bit, the bit I struggled with, was touching his face and feeling that it was cold. But he was my baby and Id carried him for eight months and I loved him as much as I did all my other children.

The midwife at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle, assigned to look after Rory accorded him the same tender care that she would any newborn.

To her he was still a baby, says Lynsey. She dressed him and put special cream onto his face to stop him dehydrating, and brought him to me whenever I wanted to see him. It was lovely. Four days after Rorys birth, Lynsey resolved to store up memories of her son in which she would find succour for the rest of her life. She and Mark arranged a second, full blessing for him: this time he wore a new, white sleepsuit.

I held him throughout and it was like a christening, she says. The priest said, May the angels watch over him, and he talked of the childrens heaven he would go to, and that reassured us.

Then, for the following week, as family members rallied to look after their other children, Lynsey and Mark immersed themselves in a separate life with their baby son, who seemed held in life-like suspension.

Yet they knew they must relinquish him before the inevitable processes of nature destroyed him. After 11 days, Lynsey was discharged from hospital and Rory was transferred to a funeral home.

We asked for him to be in an open casket, she says. He still looked perfect. Id taken a pair of pale blue dungarees that had been his brothers. Max wanted him to wear them.

Six more days passed and Rorys parents continued to visit him. Sometimes they took him out of the tiny casket to cuddle him.

Their child Daisy holding a picture of Baby Rory, along with siblings Max and Poppy

Lynsey wrote poems to him, and on August 17, the day before his funeral, they arranged their final parting.

We went to Mum and Dads house and we took Rory in his casket and laid him on a chair, says Lynsey.

I read him Guess How Much I Love You, and we left him with that story.

That last night we sat on the sofa and he was there beside us. We thought about the hardest day wed ever face when wed say our final goodbye. We played music to him, talked to him and held his tiny hand.

You think, Have we done it all? Is there anything weve forgotten? We wondered if it was right not to let the children meet him, but we made the best decisions we could at the time. And then when the morning came and we had to put the coffin lid down on him for the last time, wed agreed Mark should do it.

But he couldnt. That was when it hit him. He had to say goodbye and he couldnt. So I put the lid down.

I didnt collapse until the funeral car arrived and then everything crashed down around me. I sat on the stairs and sobbed.

The funeral was a final valediction, but Lynsey and Mark Bell had already said a long farewell to their boy. For 18 days they held him, cosseted him, dressed him, loved him.

As a parent you have a responsibility to your child, living or dead, says Lynsey.

The shelves of a mortuary are cold and awful places. I didnt want my baby to lie alone there.

I wanted him to be as cosy as possible, wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by love. He was dead, but he was still my child, and I would have found it harder to grieve for him if I had not had those days with him.

As it is, we did everything possible. We took photos. We got to know our boy. He had auburn hair and the smallest little button nose.

Lynsey is stoic, dry-eyed. Two years on, Rory remains there, at the forefront of her memory.

His grave in Gosforth is awash with summer flowers. A candle burns in a glass case. And every two or three days, she and Mark visit their youngest child.

We still havent let Rory go, she says, but now we can remember him with smiles.
A residential compound in China has become famous after internet users started to compare it to tetris blocks.

The three buildings in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province look very similar to Tetris blocks in irregular shapes, reports the People's Daily Online.

Earlier this year China's State Council issued new guidelines on urban planning calling an end to weird buildings.

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What an odd shaped building! People have been discussing whether the buildings look like Tetris blocks

Bizarre! The odd looking residential compound is located in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province

Look alike! Many people have compared the building to Tetris bricks from the popular video game (File photo)

The compound located in the city of Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province was constructed in 2014.

Photos show the three residential buildings which have been compared to Tetris grids.

Tetris is a tile matching video game which was released in 1984.

Drone footage shows the sheer scale of the residential buildings.

On news163.com, people have been discussing the building's odd shape.

One user commented: 'Beautiful shape, unique and creative.'

While another user wrote: 'This is way better than the White House and the Louvre.'

And one user said: 'This is very good. There is no wasted space.'

Stack them up! Photos show the three residential buildings which have been compared to Tetris grids

Ingenious! The photos have emerged online with many people saying the building is smart at using space

Earlier this year, China's State Council issued new guidelines on urban planning that will curb the construction of 'weird and odd shaped buildings' in the country.

However many odd shaped buildings with interesting themes still remain.

The council called for buildings to keep in line with its cultural heritage along with being economic and green.

The guidelines state that designs should match the urban landscape and embody China's national character.

In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech in which he called for 'no more weird buildings' in the country.

The state council said that those who break the rules will be held accountable.

A building in Shenyang shaped like a giant traditional Chinese coin was picked as one of the world's ugliest buildings

Funny building: The offices of Wuliangye Group in Yibin, who make Chinese rice wine, looks like a giant bottle

Odd: The Galaxy building sits in Beijing's ChaoYangMen district and stands out among the buildings

Sheraton Hot Spring Resort, lit up at night, in Huzhou, Zhejiang. The luxury hotel and resort has earned itself nicknames such as 'Horseshoe Hotel' and 'Doughnut Hotel'

These two buildings have gain fame in China for looking like a pair of giant trousers. On the left is the office building of China Central Television Station in Beijing, on the right is the Gate of Orient in Suzhou

Ring of life: This building in Fushun is made with over 3,000 tons of steel and decorated with 12,000 LED lights

The teapot-shaped, about 130 feet tall, is part of the Wuxi Wanda Cultural Tourism City Project in east China

Known as the 'Bird's Nest', the iconic stadium was at the forefront of the 2008 Olympic Games
Management at a Chinese decorations company are 'motivating' apparently unproductive employees to hit sales targets, by forcing them to choke down bitter squash in front of co-workers.

The unusual ritual has been brought in at Leshang Decorations Corporation in Chongqing, south-west China, in order to push them to work harder for success, according to People's Daily Online.

40 of the small corporation's 100 employees were forced to stand up in a recent staff meeting and bite pieces out of the bad-tasting vegetables, much to the amusement of their colleagues.

Too harsh? Under-performing employees at Leshang Decorations Corporation in China had to complete task

Brutal: 40 of the company's 100 staff had to stand up in front of their colleagues and eat the horrible gourd

The company deliberately sought out the largest and most bitter squashes available on the market in order to give to most suffering to the 'lazy' employees, bringing a huge bundle into the office.

Bitter squash, also known as bitter melon or bitter gourd, is a cucumber-shaped vegetable which is often used in Chinese dishes, but is only very rarely eaten raw due to its intensely bitter taste.

The photos were published online on July 16, and are thought to have been taken at a recent event

Employees told reporters from People's Daily that this is not the first time the corporation has imposed mandatory punishments for staff failing to meet targets.

Staff had been forced into doing rounds of squats exercises, sprints around the office and push-ups, before managers decided to change their approach and introduce eating challenges.

Any employee not performing to 'expectations' will be given the punishment, and it is reported that around half of new recruits chose to leave the company due to pressures shortly after joining.

One employee gave a list of reasons for why people made the decision to leave: their incapability to meet expectations, high pressure, low pay and of course shame caused by being punished in front of coworkers.

Odd: The bitter squash is one of the least enjoyable vegetables to have raw, due to its intensely bitter taste

On Weibo, commenters were quick to voice their concerns about the strange practice.

'If I were them, I would quit immediately. I won't give my time and energy to work for a company that doesn't even respect their employees,' one commenter wrote.

But another one denied it was a bad punishment, adding: 'I don't mind eating bitter gourd, it's tasty'.

It is not the first time a Chinese company has made news for inflicting bizarre punishments on employees failing to meet adequate targets in the workplace.
She performs CPR while three men hold an umbrella over them

Nurse can be seen rushing over to the man found lying on the ground

A video showing a nurse in China kneeling to perform CPR in the rain has caught the attention of the country's social media.

Several men stand over the nurse named Sha Meirong while she tries to resuscitate the man in Taiyuan City, central China's Shanxi province on July 19, reports Huanqiu, an affiliation of the People's Daily Online.

After four minutes, the man regained consciousness and remains in hospital.

At work: The nurse rushed over in the middle of a downpour after seeing the man on the ground

Thoughtful: She was caught on CCTV rushing over while two men held umbrellas over her and the man

In the footage, the man can be seen lying on the floor with his umbrella still up.

Two men rush over to see if they can help while the woman can be seen running from the hospital.

She then rolls him over and starts to perform CPR while kneeling on the ground.

The rain is visible on the floor.

The two men use their umbrellas to hold over the man and the nurse while she continues to try and resuscitate the man.

Two more medical staff appear running from the hospital. One of them is carrying a wheelchair.

But they then run back when they realise that the situation is more serious than first thought.

Another man joins the nurse and two men and holds another umbrella over them to give them more cover.

Towards the end of the video, a group of medical staff come running over with a hospital bed.

Horrifying: In the footage the woman can be seen rushing over to the man who was spotted on the ground

According to CCTV News, the man has heart disease.

It took a total of four minutes to resuscitate the man and he remains in hospital in a stable condition.

Sha Meirong told reporters: 'He fainted in the water. I ran to him and found he had lost his pulse.

'I thought there must be a problem with his heart so I started to perform CPR on him.'

On news site News163.com, people have been commenting on the story.

One user wrote: 'What a beautiful nurse.'

While another commented: 'The media should pay more attention to things like this and not patient disputes!'

And one user said: 'She has such a good nature.'
Photographs show the moment a farmer had to halt his vehicle carrying hundreds of pigs in order to spray the animals with water as they got increasingly sunburned.

Around 200 pigs were being carried in the truck on July 20 in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, east China, according to photographs published by Huanqiu.com, an affiliation of People's Daily Online.

Hearing the pigs squealing in distress, the driver decided to climb out of his cabin and used a water pump to hose down the animals, giving them a cooling bath on what was a hot day in China.

Feeling hot: The driver pulled over and used his water pump to douse animals near Kunshan, east China

Red raw: The poor sunburned pigs needed rapid assistance after they started squealing from sunburned skin

A voyage: The truck was in the middle of a 500-mile long trip from Zhumadian in Henan to Shanghai in the east

The truck was said to be on a 500-mile journey from Zhumadian in Henan Province to the port city of Shanghai in the east of the country.

Temperatures rose up to 36 degrees Celsius in the area due to intense summer heat, leaving the pigs baking in cages which were thought to be around 50 degrees.

The driver said he noticed the pigs' skin had turned bright red in the sun, and used the pump he had brought in the truck to douse the relieved animals in cooling water.

Heatwave: Commenters on Weibo joked they were envious of the pigs for their cool shower in the China heat

It is reported the pigs stopped squealing shortly after, now less distressed by the high temperatures.

On Weibo, many commenters jokingly said they were 'envious' of the pigs for their cooling summer wash - which they themselves craved in the mounting heat.
A man in China has had his hand grafted to his leg in order to save his right hand.

50-year-old Mr Sun from Anhui province was injured while operating a machine at work on July 15, reports the People's Daily Online.

In the next couple of weeks, the man will have his hand reattached to his arm.

Amazing feat: Doctors have managed to save Mr Sun's hand by attaching it to his leg and will reattach later

Accident: The man's hand was completely amputated in the accident which occurred when he was at work

Mr Sun was operating machinery in a factory when his right wrist became crushed.

The force of the crush resulted in his arm being amputated by the machine at the wrist.

Workers took him to hospital in Xiao County and after initial treatment he was transferred to Mercy Hospital in Xuzhou.

Admissions doctors said that the squeezing motion of the machine resulted in complete amputation from the wrist.

His hand was completely intact however there was tissue damage to his wrist.

Shirong Jian, a doctor from the hospital told reporters: 'It sent the patient into shock and he was in a critical condition.'

By that time his limb had been apart from the rest of his body for six hours which usually by that time means it is unable to be transplanted back.

Doctors told Mr Sun's family that his hand could be amputated or they could attempt replanting the hand.

His family told doctors that Mr Sun is physically strong and could not accept the blow of amputation. They requested that the hospital did their best to keep the hand.

Ouch! Doctors told the man's family that they had to choose between amputation or attempting to save hand

Xuzhou Mercy Hospital started the process of a 'hand protection programme' which involves first attaching it to the man's leg before eventually reattaching it to his wrist.

First, the patients right wrist was grafted onto the leg until he was in a good enough condition for it to be reattached.

The surgery lasted more than eight hours and needed a range of different teams from the hospital to work together.

Doctors at the hospital said the surgery was difficult because there were so many elements.

The mans wrist and calf vascular vessels and broken blood vessels had to match as much as possible and there had to be an adequate blood supply. And the side of the leg had to be cut accordingly to reduce damage.

Experts said that after the surgery the blood circulation looked good and the hand had adapted well.

They will wait around 3-4 weeks for the hand to survive until they attempt re-plantation surgery.

A doctor at the hospital told reporters: From the current situation, the patients right hand is recovering well.

The success of the foster hand means that the biggest difficulty has been a breakthrough.
laborers spotted reclining on wheelbarrows and on road

Photographs from China show a range of people struggling to cope with the searing summer heat in one of the country's hottest cities - and leading to them having impromptu naps in the street.

Citizens in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, south east China, were left feeling more than a little drowsy as daytime temperatures in the city rocketed to 39 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, according to People's Daily Online.

People complained of leaving their houses at 8pm and still getting 'the feeling of having their bodies wrapped in heat, even in the shade', the report said.

Heat is on: Citizens in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, south east China, were left feeling more than a little drowsy

Struggling: Plenty of people working outside were caught red-handed catching 40 winks on the pavement

Relax: Decorators, porters and deliverers were spotted resting on their wheelbarrows or on pavements

As a result, plenty of people working outside were caught red-handed catching 40 winks on the pavement near to where they were meant to be working.

Decorators, porters and deliverers were spotted resting on their wheelbarrows, stretching out on the back of motorbikes or just leaning against walls by the side of the road.

None of the people seem to be aware they are having photographs taken of them as they recline.

Zhang, a teacher from Nanchang, told People's Daily: 'Now it's summer, with long days and short nights, it is clear people need to take naps during the day.'

Unbelievable heat: China is currently in the hottest part of its summer, a period named locally as 'sanfu'

Caught: None of the people seem to be aware they are having photographs taken of them as they reclined

Hotting up: Temperatures across China have soared over the past month, as summer begins in earnest

Temperatures across China have risen dramatically over the past month, as the country finally sees summer begin after a period of unsettled weather.

China is currently in the hottest part of its summer, a period named locally as 'sanfu', with ambient temperatures peaking at well over 50 degrees Celsius.
An Chinese model who organised a naked photoshoot at a popular tourist hotspot was left mortified when her team's driver secretly took pictures of her nude body and posted them online.

The unnamed young woman said she intended the artistic shoot to be entirely private and had repeatedly checked the area for bystanders before removing her clothes for the camera, according to Huanqiu.com, an affiliation of People's Daily Online.

She did not, however, account for the presence of the driver of the car which had brought her team to Haishe Park in Dali, Yunnan province, south China - a popular destination for holiday makers.

Not on: The unnamed woman was shocked when her driver spied on her shoot at Haishe Park in Dali, China

Spying on the shoot, the driver secretly took his own photographs of the woman before circulating them online, according to the report.

The photos were quickly re-posted to the social network Weibo on July 21, where they were viewed thousands of times by users.

The pictures show a completely nude woman with long black hair posing on the shore of the lake beneath some trees, while the official photographer takes pictures of her.

Chongqing Morning Post, a Chinese newspaper, claimed that the woman is a part-time model and photographer. While web users claimed she was also an art student for a college in Yunnan.

Her identity has not been revealed.

The woman herself told Chongqing Morning Post the photo shooting was part of an art portfolio and was strictly private, with team members making sure the site was cleared.

She told the paper: 'This photo shooting is art creation and a private matter.

'We started from 6:30am because we did not want to interrupt the life of the locals and we had cleared the site beforehand.

'These pictures were taken by our driver without our knowledge before sending them to his family members. The whole thing is a misunderstanding, and has caused me great damage.'

Weibo users voiced mixed reactions to the incident, with some blaming the driver and others the woman for doing such a photoshoot in the first place.

'Yang shu and dolphin' said: 'It's the driver's fault. The crew cleared the site.'

Naked truths: The art student told a local paper the incident had 'caused [her] great damage' and humiliation

Meanwhile 'Honeykisser' said: 'Driver is the one to blame.'

'Xiao rou rou ze ge de ma mai' disagreed, saying: 'I dislike this so-called art taking placein Dali.'

'1993 ba wang bie ji' added: 'How did they have the rights to clear the site of a public park? The most they could do is to ask people not to go near. However their action has invaded other people's rights. Taking nude photos in public is asking for trouble.'

In May this year, a travelling couple came under fire after posing for a series of raunchy nude photos in various locations, also in the Chinese city of Dali.

The pair took sexually charged pictures outside a youth hostel, in front of a bar and a middle school
Nasa's Viking 1 lander made history 40 years ago when it became the first man-made spacecraft to touch down on the surface of Mars.

The mission gave scientists their first chance to study the surface of the red planet, sending back data across 34 million miles (55 million km) that's still used today to prepare for mankind's future missions to Mars.

Now the race is on to preserve this data - recorded on microfilm - and digitise it so it can continue to be help push the boundaries of space travel.

Nasa's Viking 1 lander made history 40 years ago when it became the first man-made spacecraft to touch down on the surface of Mars and now the race is on to preserve this data - recorded on microfilm - and digitize it so it can continue to be help push the boundaries of space travel

THE VIKING 1 LANDER Nasa's Viking 1 lander made history 40 years ago when it became the first man-made spacecraft to touch down on the surface of Mars. It landed on the Martian surface on 20th July 1976 with its sister spacecraft Viking 2 following suit and landing on 3rd September of the same year. The probe sent back data across 34 million miles (55 million km) that's still used today to prepare for mankind's future missions to Mars. Data stored on microfilm that's being digitized includes the first high resolution images of the Martian surface and results from experiments that studied the composition of the planet's atmosphere. Advertisement

The spacecraft, dubbed Viking 1, touched down on the Martian surface on 20th July 1976 with its sister spacecraft Viking 2 following suit and landing on 3rd September of the same year.

The data the spacecraft sent back - which included the first high resolution images of the Martian surface and results from experiments that studied the composition of the planet's atmosphere - was stored on rolls of microfilm  a new technology at the time.

Now scientists at Nasa's data archiving lab are converting these rolls of microfilm into digital data to preserve them for future generations of scientists and students.

David Williams, the planetary curation scientist for the Nasa Space Science Data Coordinated Archive at Goddard Space Flight Center, is leading the project to convert the data.

'At one time, microfilm was the archive thing of the future,' he said.

'But people quickly turned to digitising data when the web came to be. So now we are going through the microfilm and scanning every frame into our computer database so that anyone can access it online.'

The data the spacecraft sent back - which included the first high resolution images of the Martian surface and results from experiments that studied the composition of the planet's atmosphere - was stored on rolls of microfilm (pictured)  a new technology at the time

The spacecraft, dubbed Viking 1 (pictured), touched down on the Martian surface on July 20 1976 with its sister spacecraft Viking 2 following suit and landing September 3 of the same year

In the early 2000s, Dr Williams got a call from Joseph Miller, professor of pharmacology at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, requesting data from the Viking biology experiments, but he found that all that was left of the data was stored on microfilm.

'I remember getting to hold the microfilm in my hand for the first time and thinking, 'We did this incredible experiment and this is it, this is all that's left,' he said.

'If something were to happen to it, we would lose it forever. I couldn't just give someone the microfilm to borrow because that's all there was.'

Dr Miller wanted to comb through Viking 1's biology experiments to make sure Nasa's science teams had not missed anything on their original analysis.

The biology experiments involved scooping up soil samples from the Martian surface and injecting nutrients into the Martian dirt.

Viking 1 took the first hi-res images of the red planet (the first in the series is shown above) and conducted experiments looking for signs of life, which were to prove incredibly controversial

The idea was that if primitive life forms such as microbes were present in the soil, they would react with the nutrients and release carbon dioxide or methane.

While one experiment found evidence of a reaction, two more Viking experiments did not find any organic molecules in the soil, resulting in what scientists call a 'false positive'.

Scientists continued to disagree about the results of the Viking biology experiments, known as Labeled Release (LR) experiments.

'The data were very controversial,' Dr Williams said.

'But, in a way, it helped push for continued Mars missions and landers.

'The very next missions were planned around what we found with Viking, and then the next group of missions built upon those. But even our most current Mars missions still refer back to Viking.'

These current missions include the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in August 2012.

Equipped with an instrument suite known as Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), the Curiosity rover is capable of searching for organic compounds on the Martian surface.

Following launch using a Titan/Centaur launch vehicle on August 20, 1975 (pictured), and a 10-month cruise to Mars, the Viking 1 orbiter began returning global images of Mars about 5 days before orbit insertion

SAM is able to detect a lower concentration of a wider variety of organic molecules than any other instrument sent to Mars, including those on Viking.

Danny Glavin, associate director for Strategic Science in the Solar System Exploration Division at Nasa Goddard explained: 'We built SAM based on a lot of experience and heritage from Viking.'

'The capabilities of the Viking landers and instruments were very advanced for the technology at the time. Just demonstrating that you could land a spacecraft on the Martian surface successfully was a huge feat.'

But unlike the Viking mission, data from Curiosity's experiments are uploaded to a Planetary Data System online so scientists can access it with ease.

'Viking data are still being utilised 40 years later,' Dr Glavin said. 'I know the same will be true for SAM.

Viking 1 has inspired current missions include the Curiosity rover (illustrated) that landed on Mars in August 2012. Equipped with an instrument suite known as Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), the Curiosity rover is capable of searching for organic compounds on the Martian surface.

'The point is for the community to have access to this data so that scientists 50 years from now can go back and look at it.'

Nasa's next mission to the red planet is called Mars 2020, where a rover will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been favourable for microbial life.

The rover will land on the planet in 2021, and probe Martian rocks for evidence of past life.

Throughout the mission, the rover will also collect samples of soil and rock, and store them all so that they can be brought back to Earth by a future mission.

Geoffrey Yoder, associate administrator of Nasa's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. added: 'The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potential multi-mission campaign to return carefully selected and sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth.'
They were once said to be the crystallized tears of deer, set within gold and adorned with jewels to act as an antidote against all poisons for the wealthiest inhabitants of Europe and the Middle East.

But, the origin of ornate bezoars is far more gruesome than their appearance might suggest.

These stones are the product of indigestible or inedible material that builds up around rock fragments in an animals gut, worn smooth by activity in the digestive tract.

They were once said to be the crystallized tears of deer, set within gold and adorned with jewels to act as an antidote against all poisons for the wealthiest inhabitants of Europe and the Middle East. But, the origin of bezoars, pictured above, is far more gruesome than their ornate appearance might suggest

WHAT IS A BEZOAR? Bezoars are the product of indigestible or inedible material that builds up around rock fragments in an animals gut, worn smooth by activity in the digestive tract. They can be found in the guts of various animals, including deer, antelope, goats, oxen, porcupines, and llamas. As the rocks remain trapped within the digestive tract, they become coated with layers of calcium and magnesium phosphate from inside the gut. Advertisement

Bezoars were used by Greek and Persian doctors in the 1st millennium CE and later travelled to Europe, becoming a popular commodity by the 16th century, according to Nautilus.

Legends said that these stones were created through the anguish of deer, brought to tears after eating snakes and suffering intense stomach-aches.

It was thought that they could counteract any poison, and were commonly worn as charms or ground into medicinal powders.

These stones were often placed into drinking cups as well, in hopes to absorb any arsenic that may have been put into it.

Even Queen Elizabeth I had a bezoar stone set in a silver ring.

Bezoar stones can be found in the guts of various animals, including deer, antelope, goats, oxen, porcupines, and llamas  and sometimes, humans.

As the rocks remain trapped within the digestive tract, they become coated with layers of calcium and magnesium phosphate from inside the gut, Nautilus explains.

Legends said that these stones were created through the anguish of deer, brought to tears after eating snakes and suffering intense stomach-aches. It was thought that they could counteract any poison, and were commonly worn as charms or ground into medicinal powders

This process is similar to the formation of a pearl, and as the muscles contract and relax in peristalsis, the stones are smoothed out.

The phosphate coating and sulphur-containing breakdown products from hair were believed to be capable of absorbing arsenic.

In ancient times, bezoars from animals were thought to have medicinal and magical properties, and they were considered antidotes to a variety of poisons and disease, according to a paper published to Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

BEZOARS IN HUMANS PRESENT SERIOUS MEDICAL ISSUE A bezoar in a human stomach is shown above In the 1800s, scientists discovered this type of obstruction in humans for the first time, finding it can cause ulcers, bleeding, and infection of the abdominal cavity. In modern years, numerous treatments have arisen to get rid of this serious medical condition. One is the use of high-energy shock waves to break it apart. Or, they can be disintegrated through a water jet, laser-ignited mini-explosive, or direct injections of substances that can break them down, according to Nautilus. One of the substances used for this is Coca-Cola, along with enxymes from papayas and pineapples, cellulase, and N-acetylcysteine. Sometimes, bezoars must be removed surgically. Advertisement

But eventually, skeptics put this idea to the test, and found that they were not the cure-all remedy for poison as thought.

One such example of this can be seen in a 16th century experiment of the surgeon Ambroise Pare.

A cook in the kings court had been caught stealing fine silver and was sentenced to death by hanging.

'As an alternative, the cook was granted the opportunity to receive a poison followed by a bezoar as a potential antidote under the supervision of Pare, the authors wrote.

It was agreed that if the cook survived the poison, his life would be spared.

'The cook lived for only 7 hours; thus Pare concluded that the bezoar stone could not cure all poisons.
Government whistleblower Edward Snowden has unveiled a new iPhone case that is designed to tell the user when any information is being transmitted from their mobile.

The phone-mounted battery case contains a measurement tool to constantly check on whether the handset's internal antennae are sending signals.

The new iPhone case has been designed based on the assumption that 'a phone can and will be compromised'.



The new iPhone case has been designed based on the assumption that 'a phone can and will be compromised'. Pictured is a concept image of the what the anti-snooper case could look like when attached to an iPhone 6

SNOWDEN MAKES DANCE TRACK Edward Snowden made his musical debut as an electronic dance music artist with a track created acclaimed electronica star Jean-Michel Jarre. The song - called Exit - Snowden discussing digital surveillance to the backdrop of a lively electronic soundscape created by Jarre. The pair were brought together by the Guardian after Jarre gave an interview and asked to be put in touch with the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, who is now wanted on espionage charges in the United States. Advertisement

Co-designed with hardware hacking expert Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang, a mock-up of the unusual case was unveiled over a video link to an event held at MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It will include its very own CPU, separate from the phone's processor in order to avoid it being infected by any malware from the phone itself.

The case will also include a small screen to keep the user up to date with anything that the phone is transmitting.

The makers are also considering adding a 'kill switch' that would immediately shut down the phone if any suspicious radio transmissions are made.

The case was designed primarily for journalists venturing into hostile territories in order to enable them to keep their location discreet and prevent any government snooping.

'Front-line journalists are high-value targets, and their enemies will spare no expense to silence them. Unfortunately, journalists can be betrayed by their own tools.

'Their smartphones are also the perfect tracking device,' Huang and Snowden explained in a paper describing the invention.

Government whistleblower Edward Snowden (pictured) has unveiled an iPhone case that is designed to tell the user when any information is being transmitted from their mobile. The phone-mounted battery case contains a measurement tool to constantly check on whether the handset's internal antennae are sending signals

While the 'airplane mode' is most phones is designed to turn off location and communication services, Huang and Snowden argued that the setting is merely a 'soft switch' that does not necessarily relate to the state of the phone's hardware.

Referring to the prototype gadget as an 'introspection engine', Huang and Snowden said that the technology 'has the capability to alert a reporter of a dangerous situation in real-time.

'The core principle is simple: if the reporter expects radios to be off, alert the user when they are turned on'.

So far, the case has only been designed to work with the iPhone 6, with the makers going purely by the preferred phone of many reporters.

If popular, the makers said that the technology could be expanded to work with other of smartphone.

The diagram shows how the case would connect to the iPhone via the handset's SIM slot. While the first models will be aimed squarely at reporters working in hostile environments, the case could eventually be made available to all smartphone users

After scouring the electronics markets of Shenzen in China for spare parts and repair manuals, the pair then reverse engineered the case to keep track of cellular mobile signals, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC-based Apple Pay.

The final design of the case is also likely to include a feature that enables the user to selectively obscure the phone's cameras so that they are unable to give away any location data.

Huang and Snowden intend to come up with a final prototype over the coming year.

While the first models will be aimed squarely at reporters working in hostile environments, the case could eventually be made available to all smartphone users.
The far reaches of our solar system beyond Neptune are a cold, dark place, filled with icy and rocky debris left over from the formation of the planets.

Now scientists have discovered two new icy 'worlds' on the outer edge of the solar system in an area known as Kuiper Belt.

But these frozen potato-shaped rocks are unusual compared to other asteroids and comets in the region as their orbit seems to be in sync with Neptune despite being far away from the planet.

Their strange cosmic dance with Neptune could help reveal how the early solar system formed.

Two new icy worlds have been discovered in the Kuiper Belt at the outer edge of the solar system, where many other icy rocks, asteroids and comets orbit in their vicinity. Artists impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering distance of 4 billion miles from the sun

WHERE ARE THESE OBJECTS? The objects have the third and fourth most-distant 'perihelia' - the distance when an object has its closest approach distance to the sun, of any known solar system objects. Their orbits range between 40 astronomical units (AU) and 100 AU, between 4 and 9 billion miles from the sun. They are so far away they will never interact with any planets. Advertisement

The orbital paths of these icy worlds imply they either have interacted with Neptune in the past or are continuing to do so, in spite of the large distances between them.

This has led to them becoming locked in what appears to be a cosmic dance with the giant icy planet of Neptune.

The objects have the third and fourth most-distant 'perihelia' - the distance when an object has its closest approach distance to the sun, of any known solar system objects.

Their orbits range between 40 astronomical units (AU) and 100 AU, between 4 and 9 billion miles from the sun.

They are so far away they will never interact with any planets.

'The objects are interesting because their orbits do not bring them into the region where they may interact with any of the solar systems planets,' Dr Mark Wyatt, astronomer from the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study, told MailOnline.

But one of the new objects goes around the sun once every time Neptune goes around four times, while the other goes around once every time Neptune goes around three times.

This timing suggests these worlds must once have interacted with the planet.

The astronomers discovered 2015 FJ345 using the Hyper Suprime-Cam at the Subaru Telescope. The observation took place on March 17, 2015, and the interval between the individual images in the animation above is 2 hours (Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen/Chad Trujillo)

The two new worlds appeared as distant spots of reflected light in images captured by the Hyper Suprime-Cam at the Subaru Telescope. The observation took place on March 17, 2015, and the interval between the individual images in the animation above is 2 hours

The researchers think the newly discovered objects, which are too small to be considered planets, were captured into their orbital region through interactions with Neptune, while it was migrating outwards in the distant past.

Neptune was born much closer to the sun than it is now. Its migration outwards disturbed other, smaller objects into the distant orbits we see today.

This means these orbits teach astronomers about the movement of Neptune during the very early history of the solar system.

This latest discovery is based on observations made with the Subaru Telescope in Hawai'i and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) telescope in Chile.

'The origin of these detached objects has been a long-standing question since the discovery of Sedna.'

The researchers think were captured into their orbital region through interactions with Neptune, while it was migrating outwards in the distant past. Neptune formed much closer to the sun but its migration outwards disturbed other, smaller objects into distant orbits in the Kuiper Belt (artist's impression of the Kuiper Belt)

HOW THEY 'FOUND' PLANET NINE Researchers inferred Planet Nine's presence from the peculiar clustering of six previously known objects that orbit beyond Neptune. They say there's only a 0.007% chance, or about one in 15,000, that the clustering could be a coincidence. Instead, they say, a planet with the mass of 10 Earths has shepherded the six objects into their strange elliptical orbits, tilted out of the plane of the solar system. Advertisement

Sedna is a dwarf planet in the outer reaches of the Solar System that was discovered in 2003.

Sedna completes an orbit every 11,400 years, but moves between two and 20 times the distance of Neptune from the sun.

'This paper adds more detached objects to the inventory of this population, and the fact that the orbits are near resonance with Neptunes orbit could be a clue to their origin.

'This whole area is of particular note right now since the claims for a planet nine orbiting beyond Neptune.'Signatures of that planet could be imprinted in the orbits of the detached objects.'

In January this year, researchers at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena argued that a mysterious additional planet could be responsible for some of the erratic movements of icy worlds in the outer solar system.
Cleveland

Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump gave a shout-out to a long-treasured GOP priority, school choice, in his nomination acceptance speech here Thursday, and in a section on education attacked a long-time party boogeyman, bureaucrats.

We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice, Trump told delegates on the final night of the Republican National Convention. My opponent would rather protect bureaucrats than serve American children.

But anyone who wanted policy details about where Trump stood on education before the convention kicked off on Monday was just as in the dark when the balloons hit the floor four days later.

Overall, Trumps speech was light on policy and the specifics of governing, as were most of the addresses here in Cleveland this week. To the extent that big issues were discussed, national security and immigration far eclipsed education.

However, Trump may soon be addressing a new policy area: child care. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, a mother of three, told the audience that shed be working alongside her father on the issue, but she didnt offer specifics. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who is to formally accept her partys nomination at its convention in Philadelphia next week, has made access to child care a signature of her campaignand career. Early on in the race, Clinton unveiled a plan to move toward universal prekindergarten.

Over the course of the week, a smattering of speakers, including Trumps vice-presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence , and the nominees son, Donald Trump, Jr., checked the education box, sprinkling praise for school choice into their speeches. But no one offered anything resembling specifics.

A lot of the rhetoric is very similar to the 2012 and 2008 conventions, said Marty West, a Harvard professor who worked on education policy proposals for two previous GOP presidential nominees, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain . At any Republican convention, youre going to hear a lot about the virtues of school choice and local control. The biggest difference [this time] is that there is little to point to beyond the rhetoric. 

By the time they accepted the GOP nod, though, Romney and McCain had each given at least one major speech on K-12 and put out policy documents outlining a roadmap for bringing more options to parents, West noted. And because both had held elected office for years, they each had a record to draw from. Romney, in particular, had a long edu-resume .

Trump, on the other hand, has never been a policymaker, so theres no such record to look at. And he has yet to expound on his K-12 policy vision. In fact, Trumps campaign website doesnt include a section on education, noted Jonathan Hayes a college student and alternate delegate from Pennsylvania .

In fact, plenty of the party faithful who showed up in Cleveland to nominate Trump readily admit they dont know where his heart is on K-12 policy.

Theres not a lot of definitive information, he just says he wants to improve education but thats pretty nebulous, said Carol Hanson, an Iowa delegate and special education teacher from Cedar Falls.

But she was pleased by some of what she heard this week. School choice is a great idea because it would empower parents to make decisions for their family and its closer to local control, she said. I would support Donald Trump in any way he would promote school choice.

And others say, that, at the very least, they trust Trump to handle education far more than Clinton, who Democrats will formally nominate at their convention in Philadelphia next week.

The main idea that I support that Mr. Trump has said is that education is better handled at the local level, said Molly Spearman, South Carolinas elected state chief in an interview this week.

And Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee who endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the primary, said in an interview here earlier this week that Trump assured him when the nominee met with GOP senators earlier this summer that he would respect the local control focus of the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act.

Some delegates and lawmakers say the choice of Pence in the number two slot has helped ease their minds when it comes to K-12 policy. Pence has soughtand gotten more resources for charter schools in the Hoosier State, and convinced lawmakers to lift a cap on elementary school vouchers. And in 2014, under Pence, Indiana became the first state to officially ditch the Common Core State Standards..

That was probably the best choice he could make, said Hanson, who feels the common core was developed without input from teachers and forced on states by the Obama administration. (Indianas replacement standards, however, are much too close to common core for her taste.)

Meanwhile, the prospect of an early childhood initiative raised by Ivanka Trump appealed to Kathy Henry, an Ohio delegate. I was really pleased with that. I worked in a factory for 32 years and it cost a lot of money to cover childcare for my children, she said.

But Paulette Rakestraw, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives who once served on a school board, offered a word of caution. Liberals say we need to them get earlier, she said. But in her view the answer isnt sticking them in [the] public school thats failing them in the first place, for a longer period of time. If Trump moves forward on early childhood education, she said, shes hoping he explores private, not public, options.

James Stroman, a member of the South Carolina state board of education who watched Trumps speech from the convention floor, said Trump sent a good message on education.

And he didnt think that the candidate was targeting strong educators in any way when he mentioned bureaucrats. Rather, Stroman said, Trumps remarks bolstered his view that too many people were making decisions about education who had never taught in classrooms.

You ask any teacher, they can solve the education problems, Stroman said.

Even though Trump hasnt released a point-by-point plan on K-12 policy, he has made it clear that hed consider scrappingor scaling backthe U.S. Department of Education and would put an end to common core, even though ESSA prohibits the federal government from monkeying around with state standards. More on his past policy positions, and how they compare to Clintons, here .

Assistant Editor Andrew Ujifusa contributed to this report.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
The world's first clinical trial that will inject humans with genetically modified cells created with a ground-breaking DNA-editing technology is set to start next month.

Oncologists at Sichuan University's West China Hopstial in Chengdu have been given approval to begin the tests with cells modified using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique.

It is hoped it might provide a new treatment against cancer for patients who have not responded to chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

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The trial will use the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique to alter T cells from the patient's own immune system so they will target lung cancer in the patients (microscopy image of lung cancer cells pictured)

The researchers will extract immune cells known as T cells from the blood of the patients taking part in the trail and use CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out a gene in the cells.

This will disable a regulatory mechanism in the immune cells that prevents them from normally attacking other cells in the body.

WHAT THE TRAIL WILL DO The researchers will extract T cells from the blood of patients taking part in the trail. A gene coding for a protein called PD-9 will be knocked out in the cells using CRISPR-Cas9. The technique uses tags and an enzyme to cut DNA in a precise place, allowing small portions of a gene to be removed. This turns off the gene for PD-9, which will mean the T cells will loose some of the regulation that stops them from attacking cells belonging to the human body. These edited cells will be multiplied before being injected back into the patient. Researchers hope they will then home in on the cancer and destroy it. However, there are concerns the cells could become overactive and mount an immune response against healthy tissue too. Advertisement

The scientists hope that when these edited cells are reintroduced back into the patient's bloodstream they will home in on the cancer and destroy it.

It comes as several groups in the United States have also been given approval to carry out gene-editing trails in humans.

Last month the US National Institutes of Health gave approval for a project that will use a similar approach in a trial involving 18 patients with several different types of cancer.

However, this trial also requires approval from the US Food and Drug Administration before it can go ahead.

In the Chinese trial, the trail will focus on patients who have metastatic non-small cell lung cancer where other treatments have failed.

Lu You, an oncologist at Sichuan University who is leading the study, told Nature: 'Treatment options are very limited.

'This technique is of great promise in bringing benefits to patients, especially the cancer patients whom we treat every day.'

CRISPR-Cas9 is based on a gene-editing technique used by bacteria to help them remove sections of DNA introduced by viruses that infect bacteria, known as phages.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a technique that borrows from the way bacterial cells defend themselves against infections by viruses known as phages. The Cas9 enzyme complex (green and grey in picture above) uses a tag (shown in red) to precisely target and cut DNA so that a section can be removed to silence a gene

Small chemical tags are used to get an enzyme to cut DNA in a precise place and 'snip out' a small piece of DNA.

This can be used to turn off specific genes in an extremely precise manner that has not been available using previously less accurate gene editing techniques.

However, scientists now need to prove the technique can be used safely in patients before it can be used more widely and these initial tests will aim to show it does not harm those being treated.

Future trials will then have to assess how effective the technique is compared to other types of treatment.

In the Chinese trial the researchers will use CRISPR-Cas9 to target a gene that produces a protein called PD-1 in T cells.

This protein usually helps to regulate the T cell's ability to launch an immune response and prevents it from attacking healthy cells belonging to the body.

By knocking out this gene with great accuracy, the researchers believe it will be possible to increase the immune response against cancerous cells, which are often overlooked by the immune system as they are made of the same cellular material as the rest of the body.

WHAT IS CRISPR-CAS9 AND HOW IS IT USED? CRISPR-Cas9 is a tool for making precise edits in DNA, discovered in bacteria. The acronym stands for 'Clustered Regularly Inter-Spaced Palindromic Repeats'. The technique involves a DNA cutting enzyme and a small tag which tells the enzyme where to cut. By editing this tag, scientists are able to target the enzyme to specific regions of DNA and make precise cuts, wherever they like. It has been used to 'silence' genes - effectively switching them off. When cellular machinery repairs the DNA break, it removes a small snip of DNA. In this way, researchers can precisely turn off specific genes in the genome. The approach has been used previously to edit the gene called HBB responsible for a condition called -thalassaemia. Advertisement

Previous trials have attempted to block PD-1 using antibodies but it is hoped silencing the gene that produces it will be more effective.

Timothy Chan, an immunotherapy expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, who is not involved in the trial, said the gene editing technique promised to be a more powerful way of targeting cancer than with the approach using antibodies.

The trial is being conducted with Chinese biotechnology company Chengdu MedGenCell.

China has been pushing ahead with gene editing technology and is leading the world in using CRISPR techniques after being the first to use it to edit human embryos and in monkeys.

However, it has raised some fears that they may be moving faster than is perhaps safe.

Dr Chan said there was a chance the CRISPR-Cas9 editing of T cells could induce an excessive immune response that could lead to them attacking healthy tissues in the patient's body.
Since Nasa's Mars rover, Curiosity, landed on the red planet in 2012, it has been zapping rocks using an on-board laser to analyse their composition.

But until now, the laser was only able to operate when controlled by humans.

Now, the rover is able to select rock targets to blast on its own, using the first autonomous target selection instrument of its kind.

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A computer generated image shows the rover using its ChemCam to investigate the composition of a rock surface on Mars

HOW DOES IT WORK? The new software, called 'Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Inreased Science (AEGIS), was previously used on Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover, though for a different type of instrument. To select a target, the software analyses images using criteria previously specified by scientists, such as identifying rocks based on their size or brightness. The criteria can be changed depending on the rover's surroundings and the scientific goals of the measurements. A second mode uses images from ChemCam's camera to pinpoint exactly where to point the laser at targets chosen in advance by scientists. For example, scientists might select a crack in a rock, based on images received on Earth. AEGIS then controls the laser sharpshooting. Advertisement

The software was developed at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and allows the rover to choose multiple targets every week for a laser and the rover's 'ChemCam' instrument.

Previously, most ChemCam targets were selected by scientists discussing rocks or soil seen in images from the rover.

Since Curiosity reached Mars almost four years ago, ChemCam has fired more than 350,000 lasers at about 10,000 points, to identify the chemical compositions of the targets.

At the same time, a telescope takes high resolution images which are then sent for analysis on Earth.

However, having a human operate the laser was labour-intensive and unproductive.

The new software, called 'Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science' (AEGIS), was previously used on Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover, though for a different type of instrument.

Tara Estlin, a robotics engineer from AEGIS, who worked on the software, said: 'This autonomy is particularly useful at times when getting the science team in the loop is difficult or impossible - in the middle of a long drive, perhaps, or when the schedules of Earth, Mars and spacecraft activities lead to delays in sharing information between the planets.'

To select a target, the software analyses images using criteria previously specified by scientists, such as identifying rocks based on their size or brightness.

The criteria can be changed depending on the rover's surroundings and the scientific goals of the measurements.

A second mode uses images from ChemCam's camera to pinpoint exactly where to point the laser at targets chosen in advance by scientists.

On-board software autonomously analyzed the image on the left, chose the target highlighted with the yellow dot, and pointed ChemCam to acquire laser analysis and the image on the right

Nasa now hope to use the AEGIS software to investigate the geological layers on lower Mount Sharp (pictured)

WHAT IS 'CHEMCAM'? ChemCam fireS a laser and analyses the elemental composition of materials from areas smaller than one millimeter on the surface of rocks and soils. An on-board spectrograph will provide detail about minerals and microstructures in rocks by measuring the composition of the resulting plasma. ChemCam will also use the laser to clear away dust from Martian rocks and a remote camera to acquire extremely detailed images. The camera can resolve features five to 10 times smaller than those visible with cameras on NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers that began exploring the red planet in January 2004. In the event the Mars Science Laboratory rover can't reach a rock or outcrop of interest, ChemCam will have the capability to analyze it from a distance. Source: Nasa Advertisement

For example, scientists might select a crack in a rock, based on images received on Earth.

AEGIS then controls the laser sharpshooting.

Ms Estlin said: 'Due to their small size and other pointing challenges, hitting these targets accurately with the laser has often required the rover to stay in place while ground operators fine tune pointing parameters.

'AEGIS enables these targets to be hit on the first try by automatically identifying them and calculating a pointing that will centre a ChemCam measurement on the target.'

The instrument allows Curiosity to analyse the composition of a rock from up to seven metres away.

Nasa now hope to use the AEGIS software to investigate the geological layers on lower Mount Sharp.
It's thought blood from a chimp infected a hunter in Africa through a cut

This backs up hypothesis that SIV was passed from a chimp in 1900s

First lab evidence that chimp-carried forms of SIV can infect human cells

The first strain of a virus considered the ancestor of HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - may have been passed to humans through a bite wound or scratch from a hunted chimpanzee whose blood seeped into a small cut.

Experts believe it was passed to humans in the early 1900s, somewhere near a West African rainforest.

Now a study has backed up this theory, by proving forms of HIV can cross between chimps and humans.

The first strain of a virus considered the ancestor of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was passed to humans in the early 1900s, somewhere near a West African rainforest. Now a study has backed up this theory, by proving forms of HIV can cross between chimps and humans

ORIGINS OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC The AIDS epidemic began in a rainforest in southeastern Cameroon in 1908 and not more than 70 years later when the virus started to be recognized in the early 1980s. For a book out earlier this year, which is subtitled 'How AIDS emerged from an African forest', David Quammen traced the history of AIDS by examining genetic samples from humans and chimps. This led him to believe the birthplace of the epidemic was the southeastern edge of Cameroon sometime around 1908. Quammen theorizes a hunter in the rainforest was infected with a immunodeficiency virus similar to HIV by a chimp he killed and butchered. The hunter likely infected at least one other person through sex and the virus continued to make its way down the Sangha River in that matter until it reached the city of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) in the Congo. After reaching the Congo, the virus spread even faster via the continued re-use of hypodermic syringes at health clinics, Mr Quammen said. Advertisement

It is thought a hunter or vendor of bush meat - wild game that can include primates - acquired the first strain of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).

SIV is the monkey equivalent of HIV, which virologists consider the ancestor of HIV.

A new study by scientists at the University has now proved a strain of SIV carried by chimps can also infect humans.

They found the first laboratory evidence that forms of SIV in chimps can infect human cells.

'The question was whether SIV strains that have not been found in humans have the potential to cause another HIV-like infection,' said senior author and biologist, Professor Qingsheng Li.

'The answer is that, actually, they do. They get replicated at a very high level. It's surprising.'

The researchers wanted to understand why humans had acquired certain strains of HIV, but avoided others.

The HIV virus is classified into four groups - M, N, O and P.

Group 'M' gave rise to the AIDS pandemic - infecting over 40 million people worldwide by spreading across Africa and throughout the rest of the world.

Groups 'N' and 'P', at the other extreme, have only been found in a few individuals from Cameroon.

But 'O', although not as widespread and prevalent as 'M', has nonetheless infected about 100,000 people in west central Africa.

The researchers injected mice that had been implanted with human cells with strains of SIV.

The inferred SIV forerunners of the group 'M' and the Cameroon-specific strains required fewer opportunities to infect the mice than the SIV strains whose HIV descendants have not been found in humans.

No one knows exactly how it happened. It is thought a hunter or vendor of bush meat, wild game that can include primates, acquired the first strain of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)that virologists consider the ancestor of HIV. A conceptual image of a HIV infected cell is pictured

'Based on our experiments, we clearly see some differences between the strains,' said Professor Li.

'That implies that there might be differences in the likelihood of cross-species transmission when a person is exposed to one strain versus another.'

The team also found evidence that SIV strains mutate when they enter cells to overcome human-specific barriers to infection, something that had been suspected for a long time.

Professor Li and lead author biologist Zhe Yuan said the recent outbreak of the Zika virus emphasises the importance of identifying viruses that could jump to humans from animals.

Zika remained relatively quiet for decades after it was discovered in 1947 in a monkey.

'The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases has become a constant threat to global health, social stability, safety and economic systems,' Professor Li said.

'Bill Gates recently said that nuclear war is no longer the (biggest) threat to our safety; emerging infectious diseases are. That's probably true.'

'I think this analysis of the disease is very important for public health,' said Yuan, who noted a new group of HIV strains was discovered in 2009.

'We want to explore this platform for evaluating new, emerging infectious diseases.'
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Strange bubbles have been discovered in the Arctic permafrost - adding to mysterious behaviour seen in the region, including the sudden appearance of giant holes in northern Siberia.

Now Russian scientists have revealed the bubbles in the wobbly Earth are are leaking methane gas some 200 times above the norm in the atmosphere.

The 'trembling tundra' also contains concentrations of carbon dioxide 20 times higher than usual levels.

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The strange bubbles add to mysterious behaviour seen in the region, including the sudden appearance of giant holes in northern Siberia. One of the terrifying craters is shown above and its magnitude can be easily seen, thanks to the people peering into it

HOW THE CRATERS WERE FORMED Scientists believe the giant holes in north Siberia were originally a phenomenon known as a pingo. This is a subsurface accumulation of ice that has been covered by land. When the ice melts it can leave behind a gaping hole. The melting of the permafrost caused natural gas trapped in the soil to be released and accumulate in the void, causing the pressure to build and eventually erupt from the ground. Rising temperatures in the soil would have increased the pressure, leading to an eruption. Advertisement

The extent of the harmful greenhouse gases buried in this new phenomenon of jelly-like bubbles poses 'very serious alarm' concerning the impact of global warming, expert Alexander Sokolov warned.

Some 15 examples of this swaying Siberian ground were revealed this week on Belyy Island, a polar bear outpost 475 miles (764km) north of the Arctic Circle in the Kara Sea.

One account from a Russian research team at the scene said: 'As we took off a layer of grass and soil, a fountain of gas erupted.'

'An early theory is that warm summer heat has melted the permafrost causing the release of long-frozen gases,'The Siberian Times reported.

The newspaper was the first to report the weird sight and has now shared the gas readings.

Startling video footage shows the ground wobbling under the feet of scientists.

'It was like a jelly,' said one researcher, who continued: 'We have not come across anything like this before.'

He warned there is 'serious reason to be concerned if gas bubbles appear in the permafrost zone' with 'unpredictable' consequences.

Strange bubbles (one pictured) have been discovered in the Arctic permafrost. Russian scientists have revealed the bubbles in the wobbly Earth are are leaking methane gas some 200 times above the norm in the atmosphere

Some 15 examples of this swaying Siberian ground (a bubble is pictured above) were revealed this week on Belyy Island, a polar bear outpost 475 miles (764km) north of the Arctic Circle in the Kara Sea

The 'trembling tundra' also contains concentrations of carbon dioxide 20 times higher than usual levels - a reading is shown. The extent of the harmful greenhouse gases buried in this new phenomenon of jelly-like bubbles poses a 'very serious alarm' concerning the impact of global warming, expert Alexander Sokolov warned

Dr Sokolov said he first saw the spectacle during an expedition on this Siberian island last year.

'I've been working in Yamal for twenty years now - some of my peers have been working here even longer - and it's the first time I have ever seen this,' said the ecological expert with the Urals Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He explained: 'The day after seeing this bubble, we came across another one.

'As shown on our video, we punctured it and, let's say, "air" starting coming out quickly - it had no smell - and there was no liquid (eruption).'

Ground on Belyy Island, normally rock hard from permafrost, is seen 'bubbling' or swaying and measurements indicate it is leaking methane and carbon dioxide, according to scientists

When the craters (one shown) first appeared on the Yamal Peninsula - known to locals as 'the end of the world' - they sparked bizarre theories as to their formation. They ranged from meteorites to stray missiles fired by Vladimir Putin's military machine, and from man-made pranks to the work of visiting aliens

The researchers went back and measured the gas that was released when the thin layer of grass and soil sealing in the methane and carbon dioxide was punctured.

'Gases are typically measured in parts per million or ppm,' he said.

'The gas analyser showed that one of these gases was dozens of times higher and another was hundreds of times higher than normal.'

The peak carbon dioxide measurement was 7750 ppm, while the methane reading was 375 ppm.

The island - which lies in the Kara Sea off the Yamal Peninsula - has had unusually warm weather this summer, including temperatures in the 20C (68F).

Dr Sokolov said he first saw the spectacle during an expedition on this Siberian island last year. 'I've been working in Yamal for twenty years now - some of my peers have been working here even longer - and it's the first time I have ever seen this,' said the ecological expert with the Urals Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Here, two researchers explore the strange phenomenon

South of Belvy Island, another phenomenon is being closely observed by scientists - the sudden formation of craters, caused by eruptions or explosions of methane gas, which has melted below the surface. These Siberian craters (one shown) are believed to have been caused by the release of gas previously frozen in the permafrost

The researchers measured the gas that was released when the thin layer of grass and soil sealing in the methane and carbon dioxide was punctured. Here, one of the experts walks on the undulating ground

'It is likely that 10 days of extraordinary heat could have started some mechanisms, (and the) higher level of permafrost could have thawed and released a huge amount of gases,' Dr Sokolov said.

Three feet (one metre) down there is 'solid permafrost' so he believes the greenhouse gases are caused by the thawing of the surface layer only.

'It is evident even to amateurs that this is a very serious alarm,' he said, continuing: 'As for the future, we are interested in further study of the bubbles.

'We have discovered over a dozen of them. We need interdisciplinary study.'

South of Belvy Island, another phenomenon is being closely observed by scientists - the sudden formation of craters, caused by eruptions or explosions of methane gas, which has melted below the surface.

These Siberian craters are believed to have been caused by the release of gas previously frozen in the permafrost.

The Yamal craters, some tiny but others large (shown), were created by natural gas filling vacant space in ice humps, eventually triggering eruptions, according to leading authority Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky, of Moscow's Oil and Gas Research Institute

When the craters first appeared on the Yamal Peninsula - known to locals as 'the end of the world' - they sparked bizarre theories as to their formation.

They ranged from meteorites to stray missiles fired by Vladimir Putin's military machine, and from man-made pranks to the work of visiting aliens.

Most experts now believe they were created by explosions of methane gas unlocked by warming temperatures in the far north of Russia.

On Yamal, the main theory is that the craters were formed by pingos - dome-shaped mounds over a core of ice - erupting under pressure of methane gas released by the thawing of permafrost caused by climate change.

The Yamal craters, some tiny but others large, were created by natural gas filling vacant space in ice humps, eventually triggering eruptions, according to leading authority Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky, of Moscow's Oil and Gas Research Institute.

Recently there were accounts of a 'big bang' leading to the formation of a crater on the Taimyr Peninsula.

However, there was no pingo on this spot before the eruption in 2013.

The noise could be heard up to 60 miles away and one resident saw a 'glow in the sky' after the explosion, it was recently revealed.

On Yamal, the main theory is that the craters (pictured) were formed by pingos - dome-shaped mounds over a core of ice - erupting under pressure of methane gas released by the thawing of permafrost caused by climate change
For Special Forces scuba divers, getting into battle can be uncomfortable, often having to travel in open top submersibles.

However, a new 'missile sub' promises to deliver to battle underwater far more easily - and keep them dry when they travel.

Called the Swimmer Delivery Vehicle, it will be built by Lockheed Martin and Submergence Group after winning a US$166 million contract to supply the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) with a new class of combat submersibles.

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Called the Swimmer Delivery Vehicle, the new craft will be built by Lockheed Martin and will deliver divers into battle far more easily - and keep them dry when they travel.

THE SWIMMER DELIVERY VEHICLE THE SDV will carry two pilots and six passengers It will have a depth rating of 328 ft (100 m) Lock-out depth of 98 ft (30 m) Top speed of 5 knots (6 mph, 9 km/h) Advertisement

According to Lockheed, the three 30-ton (27-tonne) DCS vehicles that it is contracted to build will allow warfighters to travel deeper and farther underwater than today.

The craft are dry submersibles that support two operators (pilot and navigator) plus up to six swimmers with the ability to lock them out and in.

'The dry one-atmosphere environment of these vehicles provides an alternative to traditional wet submersibles being used by the U.S. and international Special Forces communities today, and will deliver operators to their destination in better physical condition to complete a mission,' Lockheed Martin says.

Instead of sitting in the open, the passengers will sit in a dry, environment as the vessel brings them closer to their destination.

Once at the target location, disembarking is through a lockout chamber while still submerged.

It will carry two pilots and six passengers, have a depth rating of 328 ft (100 m), a lock-out depth of 98 ft (30 m), and a top speed of 5 knots (6 mph, 9 km/h).

Lockheed says the new DCS will boast improved hydrodynamics and propulsion compared to the previous vehicles.

'Our advancements in undersea technologies will ensure personnel are equipped with technologically capable and adaptable systems that can easily be refreshed with the latest capabilities,' says Erika Marshall, general manager and program director at Lockheed Martin's site in Palm Beach.

It will carry two pilots and six passengers, have a depth rating of 328 ft (100 m), a lock-out depth of 98 ft (30 m), and a top speed of 5 knots (6 mph, 9 km/h).

'These reliable undersea vehicles will protect personnel, ensure they arrive ready to execute their mission, and return them safely.'

The vehicles will also come with an Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) for navigation support, an Underwater Telephone (UWT) and UHF radio for communications, and an obstacle avoidance sonar and fathometer.

Additional sensors can be added to support specific mission requirements.

The DCS will transport Navy SEALs directly to their underwater mission areas, reducing swim time to enable them to be better prepared for their mission.

Soldiers currently travel in open craft underwater, which are uncomfortable for long distances.
Men are far more aggressive on online dating sites - but often 'mass mail' women that are out of their league in the hope of a response, researchers have found.

They say that by comparison, women tend to be more conscious of their own attractiveness to other users and approach fewer people.

The study found major behavioural differences between male and female users when it comes to contacting potential partners.

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The researchers say men are far more aggressive on online dating sites - but often 'mass mail' women that are out of their league in the hope of a response, researchers have found.

HOW THEY DID IT Using data collected from Baihe, one of the largest dating websites in China, researchers from Binghamton University, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Northeastern University analysed the messages and how suitable each person actually was. Advertisement

'We found that males like to send a lot of messages to attractive female users, but they don't get a lot of responses,' said Binghamton University PhD candidate Shuangfei Zhai,co-author of the paper.

'We found that males like to send a lot of messages to attractive female users, but they don't get a lot of responses,' said Zhai.

When looking for potential matches, the research shows that women take their own attractiveness into consideration, whereas men are more oblivious to this.

'For females, they're self-conscious because they tend to evaluate the likelihood of getting a response to the user that they're sending messages to.

'In terms of the data, it shows that women have a much larger chance of getting responses from users that they send messages to,' said Zhai.

They say that in particular, males tend to be focused on their own interests and be oblivious toward their attractiveness to potential dates, while females are more conscious of their own attractiveness.

Using data collected from Baihe, one of the largest dating websites in China, researchers from Binghamton University, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Northeastern University developed a reciprocal recommendation system that better matches users who are mutually interested in and likely to communicate with each other.

When it comes to messaging users on dating websites, men tend to be more aggressive and contact users they are interested in, whereas women tend to be more conscious of their own attractiveness to other users, according to new research.

Using data collected from Baihe, one of the largest dating websites in China, researchers from Binghamton University, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Northeastern University developed a reciprocal recommendation system that better matches users who are mutually interested in and likely to communicate with each other.

'Our results also reveal interesting behavioral difference between male and female users when it comes to looking for potential dates,' the researchers wrote in the journal Social Network Analysis and Mining.
It seems America is no longer keeping up with the Kardashians, but has found a new family to follow.

Following the RNC, the Trumps have surpassed the reality television stars as the most searched family in the US, according to Google Trends.

The search engines chart shows the query Trump family has sky rocketed in the last seven days, beating the California TV family 100 to 20 in interest over time.

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The search engines chart shows the query Trump family has sky rocketed in the last seven days, beating the California TV family 100 to 20 in interest over time.

Leading the pack in the US for the most interest is Washington, followed by Chicago and then Trumps home state  New York.

The top searches for the Republican family include Donald Trump family, The Trump family and Trump and Family.

Even though the US has moved on, it seems Kim and the family have been able to keep the attention of other parts of the world.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump with his family and running mate Mike Pence after accepting the party's nomination on the last day of the Republican National Convention: now the family has overtaken the Kardashians in terms of Google searches, it has been revealed.

TRUMPS TAKE GOOGLE FROM THE KARDASHIANS The Trumps surpassed the reality television stars and has become the most searched family in the US, according to Google Trends. The search engines chart shows the query Trump family has sky rocketed in less than a week and is beating the California family 100 to 20 in interest over time. And it seems that Americans cant get enough of this political bunch as the search volume index in the US sits at 100  where the Kardashian family only have a volume index of 73. Leading the pack in the US for the most interest is Washington, followed by Chicago and then Trumps home state  New York. The top searches for the Republican family include Donald Trump family, The Trump family and Trump and Family. Even though the US has moved on, it seems Kim and the family have been able to keep the attention of other parts of the world. The reality television crew holds the top spots in both Canada and United Kingdom in regards to the search volume index. Advertisement

The reality television crew holds the top spots in both Canada and United Kingdom in regards to the search volume index.

The massive boost is a result of the Republican Nominee Conference (RNC) this week, which seemed to also double as a coming out party for the entire Trump family.

On the first night, Ivanka Trump introduced her father, as 'the people's champion' who took the stage with the his silhouette picking out against a dramatic backlighting as Queens We Are The Champions belted through the speakers.

Twitter users poked fun at the over-the-top entrance, comparing it to the way WWE wrestlers strut into arenas, rap star Drakes Hotline Bling video and chief spook Gozer from Ghostbusters confronting characters Spengler, Stantz, Venkman and Zeddmore.

Following this big entrance was the speech that stole the show.

Melania Trump spoke about her husband and why he would make a great president, but it was later revealed that a few passages had been pulled from Michelle Obamas 2008 speech about her husband and the current US President, Barack Obama.

MEET THE TRUMPS The family of the Republican candidate is larger than the average. Trump, who has been married three times, has five children and eight grandchildren. The oldest three, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka and Eric are from his first wife Ivana Trump  a Czech-born fashion model. And the top searches for the Republican family include Donald Trump family, The Trump family and Trump and Family Donald Jr., 38, is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization and is married to Vanessa Haydon, a former model --together they have five children. Next in line is Eric Trump, 32, who sits at the same role as his older brother in the Trump Organization and is married to CBS producer Lara Yunaska. Ivanka Trump, 34, is a business women and former model who has her own fashion line that is available in most US department stores Ivanka Trump, 34, is a business women and former model who has her own fashion line that is available in most US department stores. The eldest daughter is married to Jared Kushner and the couple has three children together. Tiffany Trump, 22, is The Donalds only child with second wife Marla Maples, who she spent of her younger life with. In 2005, Trump married Melania, a Slovenian model, and together they had the youngest son Barron who is 10 years old. Ed Cox, NY Republican party chairman, announce they pass during roll call along with Businessman Donald Trump Jr. (2nd-L), Businesswoman Ivanka Trump (C), Businessman Eric Trump (2nd R), and Singer Tiffany Trump (R) on the second day of the Republican National Convention. Advertisement

The rest of the family, Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany, were all given their time to shine and speak about how loving and respectable their father is  before throwing daggers and pointing fingers at Ted Cruz for not endorsing The Donald.

KEEP UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS The Kardashians made their way into homes in 2007 with the hit reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. This Hollywood family has oddly enough been deemed Americans first family. One of the most famous is Kimberly, Kim Kardashian West, 35, who is a television, social media personal and model. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and got her first taste of fame through a friendship with Paris Hilton  but made a name for herself with a 2003 sex tape. It seems that Americans cant get enough of this political bunch as the search volume index in the US sits at 100  where the Kardashian family (pictured) only have a volume index of 73. Leading the pack in the US for the most interest is Washington, followed by Chicago and then Trumps home state  New York She has been married twice, first to Kris Humphries who plays professional basketball for the Atlanta Hawks in 2011 --but the two parted ways just two years after saying I do. Kim was again swept off of her feet by a well-known American rapper, Kanye West, and the two married in 2014. The couple has two children  North West and Saint West. Next in line of the Kardashian clan is Khloe Kardashian, 31, who follows the same path of her older sister in terms of career choices. Khloe is a fashion designer, television producer, model, author and more. She married Lamar Odom, a professional basketball player for the Lakers in 2009, but has been the topic of many rumors that the two could soon be parting ways. Even though the US has moved on, it seems Kim and the family have been able to keep the attention of other parts of the world. The reality television crew holds the top spots in both Canada and United Kingdom in regards to the search volume index The only son in the bunch, Rob Kardashian, 28, has dabbled in other shows such as Dancing with the Stars. Kourtney Kardashian, 36, who has led the creation of spin-offs from the hit show. Kylie Jenner, 18, and Kendall Jenner, 20, are also socialites and television personalities like their older sisters. And this all wouldnt have been possible without Kris Jenner, 60, who is the mother of the leading ladies. Kris runs her own production company, Jenner Communications, which is based in Los Angeles. Following the reality television show, Kris took on the role of managing Kims career and some of her other children. Kris has been married twice and the most recent separation was in 2014 with retired Olympian Bruce Jenner who is now Caitlyn Jenner. Advertisement

It seems that Americans cant get enough of this political bunch as the search volume index in the US sits at 100  where the Kardashian family only have a volume index of 73.

Leading the pack in the US for the most interest is Washington, followed by Chicago and then Trumps home state  New York.

The Trumps surpassed the reality television stars as the most searched family in the US, according to Google Trends . The search engines chart shows the query Trump family has sky rocketed in less than a week --beating the California family 100 to 20 in interest over time

And the top searches for the Republican family include Donald Trump family, The Trump family and Trump and Family.

Even though the US has moved on, it seems Kim and the family have been able to keep the attention of other parts of the world.

This boost could be attributed to the lively display at the RNC, which seemed to also double as a coming out party for the entire Trump family. On the first night, Trump took the stage with the his silhouette picking out against a dramatic backlighting as Queens We Are The Champions belted through the speakers

The reality television crew holds the top spots in both Canada and United Kingdom in regards to the search volume index.

This morning marked the last day of the RNC, which Trump left with a gleeful series of attaches on his defeated rival Ted Cruz  ending the conference with a bang.

He mocked him over and over again, accusing Cruz of lying  and even raised a purported link between Cruz's father and Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed President John F. Kennedy.

Melania Trump spoke about her husband and why he would make a great president, but was later revealed that a few passages had been pulled from Michelle Obamas 2008 speech about her husband and the current US President, Barack Obama, which probably added to the number of searches for the Trump family

Trump said even if Cruz were to endorse him now, he would not accept it. And he gleefully boasted that the Texas senator 'was booed the hell off the stage' at the end of his convention speech on Wednesday night.
Researchers have uncovered a bizarre 'compacted' solar system with planets tightly spaced together.

Located about 1,100 light years away, Kepler-80, named for the NASA telescope that discovered it, features five small planets orbiting in extreme proximity to their star.

Kepler scientists found that all five planets orbit in an area about 150 times smaller than the Earth's orbit around the Sun, with 'years' of about one, three, four, seven and nine days.

Located about 1,100 light years away, Kepler-80, named for the NASA telescope that discovered it, features five small planets orbiting in extreme proximity to their star.

KEPLER 80 UP CLOSE As early as 2012, Kepler scientists found that all five planets orbit in an area about 150 times smaller than the Earth's orbit around the Sun, with 'years' of about one, three, four, seven and nine days. The planets' close proximity to each other and their star allowed the Kepler Space Telescope to detect tiny variations (about 0.001 percent) in the length of their 'years' due to their mutual gravitational interactions. Advertisement

'The cool thing about this system is that all five orbits fit inside 1/10 AU,' wrote Mariah MacDonald as an undergraduate with Darin Ragozzine, an assistant professor of physics and space sciences, both at Florida Institute of Technology.

The unusual planetary array highlighted in the study deepens the ongoing examination of similar systems known as STIPs  Systems with Tightly-spaced Inner Planets  and contributes to the understanding of how Earth formed.

Located about 1,100 light years away, Kepler-80, named for the NASA telescope that discovered it, features five small planets orbiting in extreme proximity to their star.

MacDonald and Ragozzine uncovered the nature of the exoplanetary system through measurements taken with the telescope.

As early as 2012, Kepler scientists found that all five planets orbit in an area about 150 times smaller than the Earth's orbit around the Sun, with 'years' of about one, three, four, seven and nine days.

The planets' close proximity to each other and their star allowed the Kepler Space Telescope to detect tiny variations (about 0.001 percent) in the length of their 'years' due to their mutual gravitational interactions.

Analysis by MacDonald and her collaborators revealed that the outer four planets had masses about four- to six-times that of Earth, though they shared Earth's rocky composition.

All four planets have masses similar to one another, though the two outermost planets are almost twice as big.

'We wanted to discover the masses of the four outer planets as well as their orbits.

'The data we got from the Kepler Space Telescope was only the brightness of the star; however, when a planet passes in front of (or transits) its star, the observed brightness decreases.

KEPLER'S 100 PLANET HAUL An international team of astronomers have discovered a treasure trove of new worlds. So far they have reported finding 197 planet candidates, with 104 planets confirmed by scientists. The planets, which are all between 20 and 50 per cent larger than Earth by diameter, are orbiting the M dwarf star K2-72, found 181 light years away. Scientists have found hundreds of exoplanets with dozens thought to have the potential to host alien life. The image above shows some of the recent small planets to be found by the Kepler Space Telescope that exist in the habitable zone around their star where liquid water may exist The scientists, led by the University of Arizona, say that the possibility of life on the new planets around such a star cannot be ruled out. Four of the planets discovered have been found to be rocky, and could host alien life. They are thought to be between 20 and 50 per cent more massive than Earth, and they orbit a star smaller than our sun. Two of the worlds could have radiation levels that are similar to Earth. The huge finding of planets was found by combining data with follow-up observations by earth-based telescopes including the North Gemini telescope and the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Advertisement

'Because the planets are so close to each other, a planet can gravitationally perturb the orbits of the other planets, causing it to transit either early or late.

Another rare attribute of the Kepler-80 system is that its planets have 'synchronized' orbits.

'The outer four planets return to almost exactly the same configuration every 27 days,' said Ragozzine.

This effect is known as a 'resonance' and helps the system remain gravitationally stable.

The study also explained the origin of the synchronized orbits in general  and possibly the tightly-spaced configuration.
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It was a staggering feat, a car that went faster than the speed of sound.

On October 15 1997, Andy Green travelled across the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, in the Thrust SSC at 763.035 mph, or Mach 1.02.

Two decades on, that record remains unchallenged. Until now.

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Back in 2007, a small team of British engineers headed up by Richard Noble and Andy Green decided to have a pop at the world land speed record once more. This time, their sights were set on 1,000mph with a car designed to have a a hybrid rocket system inside - and it is called Bloodhound

Back in 2007, a small team of British engineers headed up by Richard Noble and Andy Green decided to have a pop at the world land speed record once more.

This time, their sights were set on 1,000mph.

A rocket scientist was brought in to design the largest hybrid rocket system ever developed in the UK, a structural engineer was brought in to design the car's internal structure and I was invited to join the team along with Ron Ayers to ensure that this car would, indeed, remain a car and stay firmly planted on the ground.

Ron and I would be responsible for the aerodynamic design of the car.

It would be called Bloodhound.

I must confess that none of us anticipated back then that it would take quite so long to get to this point.

Ambitious engineering projects, however, do have a habit of overrunning.

This particular one, completely dependent on sponsorship and operating through a major global recession, has been no different.

So, here we are. We have completed the extensive seven-year design process, including multiple design iterations and optimisation cycles.

We have built the car and revealed the real thing to the world.

We have even practised the loading of the car onto the transporter plane soon to take us to our high speed test site on the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa.

BLOODHOUND'S MOMENT OF TRUTH: HOW THE 1,000MPH CAR WILL BE TESTED The recent signing of major deals means The Bloodhound Project now has sufficient funding pledged to complete the car and start the countdown to high speed testing at the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa, in Autumn next year. The identity of the new partner(s) will be revealed in due course, the project says. Bloodhound will travel under its own power for the first time at Newquay in June 2017, in a slow speed (c.220 mph / 354 km/h) shakedown test. This will also be an opportunity for the team to practice live-streaming data and imagery from the car - a key aspect of the mission to share the adventure with a global audience. By this time the teams Rapid Response and Turnaround Crews will have done extensive training ready to support high speed running in South Africa. This will include rehearsing the pit stop from hell: an intense 40 minute period between timed runs during which time the car will be checked, refueled and made ready for the return leg. This race within a race is crucial to setting a record: in 1997 a delay of just a few seconds cost the team the top prize during an early record attempt. With the Shakedown Test successfully completed, Bloodhound will be loaded onto a CargoLogicAir Boeing 747 freighter to be airlifted to Upington, South Africa. It will then be transported by road to the teams desert base at Hakskeen Pan. Under the guidance of Operations Director Martyn Davidson, 16 container-loads of equipment will have been shipped in advance and a self-contained village complete with workshop and TV studios set up. Bloodhound facts and figures: Bloodhound will travel under its own power for the first time at Newquay in June 2017, in a slow speed (c.220 mph / 354 km/h) shakedown test. Advertisement

We have also recently signed a major new sponsorship deal which means that the funding is now in place to start the vehicle testing.

We will finally discover whether or not all of our design and modelling work has been correct.

This is the moment that the adventure gets real. Did we get it right?

You might be concerned that we are about to attempt a 1,000mph land speed record when all of our understanding of the car's aerodynamic behaviour has been done using computer modelling  in a 'virtual wind tunnel'.

We have not done real world wind tunnel testing or rocket sled testing to double check our results.

Pictured is the BLOODHOUND SSC during construction at the Bloodhound Technical Centre, Avonmouth, summer 2015. The only movement this vehicle has seen is onto the loading the transporter plane soon to take us to our high speed test site on the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa

With the Shakedown Test successfully completed, Bloodhound will be loaded onto a CargoLogicAir Boeing 747 freighter to be airlifted to Upington, South Africa.

Bear in mind that if we've got this wrong then we could easily generate sufficient lift to project BLOODHOUND SSC skywards.

Equally, too much downforce and we might find ourselves with the world's fastest plough.

Back in the 1990s, when computer modelling was the primary tool for the aerodynamic design of Thrust SSC, extensive validation of the computer model was undertaken using a scaled model of the car strapped to a rocket sled.

Comparison of data originating from the scaled rocket sled model and the computer predictions gave the Thrust SSC engineers the confidence they needed to press ahead and build the car.

This time we are doing things differently.

The team has completed the extensive seven-year design process, including multiple design iterations and optimisation cycles. The car is build and ready to reveal to the world. They have also signed a new sponsorship deal which means that the funding is now in place to start the vehicle testing

The team designed a unique hybrid rocket in order to reach 1,000mph, which has been proven -- but only with a computer modular in a 'virtual wind tunnel'. And if the team got this wrong then they could easily generate sufficient lift to project BLOODHOUND SSC skywards

Computational aerodynamic modelling has come so far in the last 20 years that this time around we will be using the car itself to validate the computer model that was used to design it.

One of my jobs after each run will be to check this mass of data and help decide whether or not we have the confidence in the computer model to try going a little faster on the next run.

Of course, my hope will be that the computer model predictions and the car's sensor data track neatly next to each other as we increase the car's speed.

Pictured is the evolution of BLOODHOUND from the beginnings to what is shown in the pictures today. It took the team seven years to complete the design and they are now ready to test it out in the real world

BLOODHOUND has reached 1,000mph, but only in a computer model (pictured). But this is now the real world and there might be times when the team has to (metaphorically) put on the brakes and ask themselves some difficult questions. This, perhaps, will require them to tweak the computer model or even tweak the car's design itself

But this is now the real world and there might be times when we have to (metaphorically) put on the brakes and ask ourselves some difficult questions.

This, perhaps, will require us to tweak the computer model or even tweak the car's design itself.

And we want to keep everyone involved and engaged in this process.

All of the data coming from the car's sensors will be made available to the public after every run so that you can help us with this data analysis.

We will be streaming the test runs live across the internet so you can follow our progress every step of the way.

The adventure is certainly now getting very real indeed 

Comparison of data originating from the scaled rocket sled model and the computer predictions gave the Thrust SSC engineers the confidence they needed to press ahead and build the car. But in the real world the team might end up tweaking the car design or computer model
A fire reportedly forced a flight from North Korean flag-carrier Air Koryo to land in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Friday.

The scheduled flight from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to Beijing was forced to divert and land in Shenyang 'because the plane caught fire,' according to reports of a passenger's account of the incident.

Those on board were reportedly forced to use oxygen masks after the cabin filled with smoke around 30 minutes after the flight departed.

A fire forced a flight from North Korean flag-carrier Air Koryo to land in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on Friday (file photo)

China's state news agency Xinhua said the crew told passengers the plane would make a stop in Shenyang and urged them not to panic.

Xinhua said oxygen masks were released and the plane made a forced landing in Shenyang 10 minutes later according to an unidentified passenger.

Some passengers were said to have experienced breathing difficulties.

Airport authorities said the plane had made a safe landing and no one aboard was injured, according to Xinhua.

An official with the Shenyang Taoyuan Airport police unit, reached by phone, said the plane landed at around 9 a.m. local time.

Its report did not mention what might have caused the fire and gave no word on any injuries or damage to the plane.

Air Koryo has a decent safety record with just one fatal accident in more than 30 years (file photo)

Independent ratings website Skytrax lists Air Koryo as the world's only one-star airline for poor quality standards, though it does not measure safety.

However, critics point out that the record is built on an extremely limited service.

Air Koryo operates mainly Russian TU-204 and AN-148 planes. The international destinations to which it flies regularly include Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang in China and the Russian port of Vladivostok.

The Pyongyang-Beijing service uses a Russian Tupolev Tu-204 - a twin-engine medium-range jet airliner that carries about 140 passengers.

An Air Koryo employee reached at the airline's Shanghai office said no company representatives were available and that she was unaware of the situation. The Beijing office could not be reached.

MailOnline Travel has contacted Air Koryo for comment.
Ghostbusters star and Saturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones took a break from Twitter this week after an ad hoc internet mob harassed her with racist and sexist messages, overwhelming her online. Jones spent a day retweeting the hurtful posts to draw attention to the issue, calling it her personal hell.

I feel like Im in a personal hell. I didnt do anything to deserve this. Its just too much. It shouldnt be like this. So hurt right now. -- Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016

While the experiences of a movie star may seem far from the things educators deal with every day, I think Jones story offers some important lessons for schools, which are increasingly being asked to deal with cyberbullying and online harassment of students.

After Montana adopted its anti-bullying law last year, every state in the country now has one. Those laws generally require school districts to set policies for tracking and quickly responding to incidents of bullying. And nearly all of them require schools to address electronic forms of bullying or cyberbullying.

But that is often easier said than done: Bullying online can often occur outside of school hours, creating free-speech concerns. And educators and administrators may have a hard time keeping up with the social media platforms and habits of their students.

Ill leave it to the experts to determine whether Jones experience meets the technical definition of bullying or whether it qualifies as a different category of harassment. In the mean time, here are a few things schools can learn from it that may apply to their anti-bullying work.

Cyberbullying Often Occurs on Multiple Platforms

Twitter eventually responded to Jones situation by taking the unusual step of permanently banning Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. But that move came after Jones expressed frustration at the lack of action by the social media website.

The problem? Though hundreds of people were sending hurtful public messages to the star, it was unclear who had initiated them. Yiannopoulos, known as a troll on Twitter, didnt appear to be sending any of the tweets.

However, NPR reported that according to other Twitter users, Yiannopoulos was on two other platforms , 4chan and reddit, mobilizing against Jones, which means she and Twitter would have to go outside one social network to others to get a full picture.

What does this mean for schools? Viewing one tweet or Facebook post in isolation may not provide a full picture of a bullying situation. Experts say bullying is a pattern of behavior, not necessarily discrete, isolated incidents. When intervening in bullying situations, it might be important for schools to ask what is driving them and if there are others involved.

Cyberbullying Mimics Face-to-Face Harassment

Many bullying experts say its unnecessary to draw a line between cyberbullying and old-fashioned bullying, or to define them as two separate behaviors.

Thats because, for many students, online bullying is just a continuation of the interpersonal experiences they have with their peers. The same people who call them names in class are likely following up on Facebook later.

And cyberbullying often follows patterns that are similar to in-person harassment. While we tend to think of bullying as calling people hurtful names , experts say it can also take other forms, like isolating a peer or turning social dynamics against them. In that way, what Yiannopoulos reportedly did is very similar to what some bullied students experience in school.

In 2008, the New York Times covered one such student, a Fayetteville, Ark., teen who sued his school after his peers started a Facebook group where they shared hurtful messages about him. The boy also complained about mean treatment in person, but the district later won the lawsuit.

What does the crossover nature of cyberbullying mean for schools? It means its probably not enough to just scrub one hurtful message off of a website without addressing the root of the behavior and without ensuring the student isnt also being victimized in person.

Technology Moves Fast, Making it Difficult to Respond to Cyberbullying

People not only sent hurtful messages to Jones, they also used websites to create fake, offensive tweets that appeared to be sent from her account. Id venture to guess that many school administrators arent aware thats possible. I wont share one that was sent to Jones, but heres one I made to show you whats possible.

As much as I like to think that Beyonce knows who I am and prefers my coverage of school policy issues, shes never actually tweeted about me (that I know of). This is totally fake.

The speed at which teens adopt and master new social networks and internet tricks can be dizzying, and it can make it difficult for educators to respond to reports of bullying if they occur on platforms schools arent familiar with. Some things school leaders may want to make themselves aware of include the growing swarm of anonymous messaging apps like Whisper, After School, and Yik Yak.

And heres a great resource from the Cyberbullying Research Center, a list of ways to report problematic behavior on various social networks and apps.

What do you think? How should schools handle cyberbullying?

Photo: Leslie Jones, a cast member in the film Ghostbusters, poses backstage during a presentation at CinemaCon 2016 in Las Vegas. --Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP-File

Further reading on bullying and cyberbullying:

Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.
An underground walkway connecting several stations in Tokyo's Shinjuku district was flooded by an as-yet unidentified black liquid on Wednesday.

The mysterious sludge was described by witnesses as 'foul smelling' and footage from the scene showed the murky water rapidly covering a section of the Shinjuku Subnade.

Several shops in the area were affected with the flooded areas temporarily closed off to the public.

An underground walkway connecting several stations in Tokyo's Shinjuku district was flooded by an as yet unidentified black liquid on Wednesday (pictured)

The mysterious sludge was described by witnesses as 'foul smelling' and footage from the scene showed the murky water rapidly covering a section of the Shinjuku Subnade

Staff on site were quick to drain the murky liquid before disinfecting and deodorising the area (pictured)

The black ooze started flooding Shinjuku Subnade from about 4pm on Wednesday.

Several videos have been posted on Twitter, which show the liquid spreading through the shopping areas completely unobstructed.

One person told TBS News that the liquid 'smelled terrible, like sewage. A door banged open and sludge flooded out.'

One person told TBS News that the liquid 'smelled terrible, like sewage. A door banged open and sludge flooded out'

The affected areas were temporarily closed off as staff worked to clean up the mystery liquid. The Subnade was open again from 6pm

Staff on site were quick to drain the murky liquid before disinfecting and deodorising the area.

Services were resumed by 6pm and the shops were open to the public again.

While many people speculated a burst pipe on Twitter, Tokyo Reporter said that an official statement from Shinjuku Subnade claims the incident was 'not caused by a pump in our facility breaking and spreading dirty water'.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Government is investigating the exact cause of the flooding with the help of local police and fire departments according to the report.
A Cathay Pacific flight to Bangkok was delayed for more than three hours after a passenger accidentally tore off part of the ceiling while trying to stow his luggage.

The man reportedly pulled down the ceiling panel as he thought it was an overhead luggage compartment.

Engineers were able to repair the part and the flight was able to continue as normal after the delay.

A Cathay Pacific flight to Bangkok was delayed for more than three hours after a passenger accidentally tore off part of the ceiling while trying to stow his luggage (file photo)

Photographs from the plane revealed significant damage to the interior of the aircraft. Part of the ceiling is seen hanging down over the seats below it, exposing an empty space (right)

There were 280 passengers on board the flight on Wednesday when the incident took place.

Flight CX705 from Hong Kong to Bangkok was scheduled to take off at 8.15am local time but was delayed until 11.47am according to Flight Radar.

The male passenger who caused the delay was seated in the rear of the flight according to South China Morning Post (SCMP).

He reportedly tried to open an overhead luggage bin but the space was actually a redundant compartment.

Flight CX705 from Hong Kong to Bangkok was scheduled to take off at 8.15am local time but was delayed until 11.47 due to the repairs. Pictured is a file photo of Hong Kong airport

Photographs from the plane revealed significant damage to the interior of the aircraft.

Part of the ceiling is seen hanging down over the seats below it, exposing an empty space.

SCMP said that airlines normally marked the redundant space but it was not done in this case.

After engineers repaired the aircraft, the passenger was allowed to travel on to Bangkok according to the report.

A spokesperson for Cathay Pacific told MailOnline Travel: 'Cathay Pacific flight CX705 from Hong Kong to Bangkok on 20 July, scheduled to depart at 8.15am, was delayed as a fixed panel of the overhead compartment was found damaged before take-off and repair was required.
A man almost died after drinking detergent that was decanted into a water bottle in his hotel room.

The tourist, identified by his surname Bin by Chinese media, was staying at a hotel in Dujiangyan, south-west China. He picked up what he thought was complimentary drinking water, which was later identified as detergent.

Fortunately he was rushed to hospital in time and has experienced no serious consequences as a result of the incident.

A tourist was staying at a hotel in Dujiangyan, China, when he drunk some detergent that was decanted into drinking water bottles (pictured)

According to China's state news agency Xinhua, Mr Bin and his family checked into Shengshihuaxia International Hotel on July 11.

After a day's sightseeing, the 41-year-old returned to his hotel room to find two 'neatly placed bottles of water 'by the sink with a sign indicating that they were complimentary according to the report.

He then reportedly poured one of the bottles and took several gulps of the liquid, which was later revealed to be detergent.

Mr Bin's wife, Ms Zou, told Xinhua: 'The detergent had a fragrant smell. My husband drank almost half of the bottle. The doctors said it was about 30ml.'

According to the Xinhua report, the detergent was colourless and looked just like water but when it was shaken, the bottle started foaming.

The couple contacted the hotel's reception and the duty manager expressed that it might be detergent according to Xinhua.

According to China's state news agency Xinhua , Mr Bin and his family checked into Shengshihuaxia International Hotel (pictured) on July 11

Mr Bin was rushed to hospital where he had his stomach pumped.

He was said to have been experiencing nausea and irritation in his stomach by this time.

As he already suffered from high blood pressure, his condition was very precarious.

Mr Bin was eventually discharged after four days of hospital treatments.

Management staff from the hotel told Xinhua that the incident was caused by an 'operational error' by a member of its cleaning crew.

The member of staff is said to have thought the standard sized detergent was too heavy so decanted a small amount into a used water bottle for ease of use.

Unfortunately as it was unlabelled, another member of the cleaning crew thought it was drinking water and placed the bottle in the hotel room.

The hotel paid out 4,080 Yuan (466.89) in damages to Mr Bin and is expected to compensate the couple's lost earnings according to Xinhua
An underground tunnel used by Gaza's militant rulers during a seven-week conflict with Israel has apparently been turned into a tourist attraction.

It was used by Hamas during Israel's Operation Protective Edge in 2014, a conflict which left more than 2,000 Palestinians and approximately 70 Israelis dead.

The tunnel in Gaza City was recently opened to public tours for locals and is part of a military and weapon display at a Hamas-run summer camp for children.

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The tunnel in Gaza City was recently opened to public tours for locals on the anniversary of the conflict

The tunnel is part of a military and weapon display at a Hamas-run summer camp for children

Footage of the tunnel was posted on Facebook by pro-Hamas media outlet Afaq and translated by the Times of Israel.

The weapon exhibition and tunnel created by Hamas' military wing was said to be 'open to any citizen or media for videos and publishing,' the newspaper reported.

In the clip, children are led on tours of a dimly-lit tunnel, which are decorated with posters of Hamas fighters who were killed, on the second anniversary of the war.

Photos posted on social media showed rockets and anti-aircraft guns on display.

Footage posted online by a pro-Hamas media outlet shows children being given a tour of the dimly-lit tunnel

The weapon display and tunnel was said to be 'open to any citizen or media for videos and publishing'

After a series of air strikes during Operation Protective Edge, Israeli troops invaded Gaza to destroy the militants' network of cross-border and internal tunnels, which are used to hide weapons and launch attacks on Israelis.

Britain's Foreign & Commonwealth Office advises Britons against all travel to Gaza, including the waters off Gaza. It also tells Britons not to approach the perimeter fence.
She called her mother from Splendour In The Grass in 2014 to apologise when she had a naughty sip on a half chocolate, half coffee beverage.

And despite gearing up for her 18th birthday on Sunday, Bindi Irwin isn't planning on letting loose now that she's of legal alcohol drinking age.

Speaking with KIISFM's Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson on Friday, the 17-year-old said she's not really interested in having a glass of champagne.

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'I'm going to start with Coca Cola!': Bindi Irwin admits she's 'probably not' going to have champagne on her 18th birthday

'Maybe one, we'll see, but probably not, I like being in control,' she said.

'I'm going to start with Coca Cola, maybe I'll have a glass of that,' she laughed.

The cheerful teen has steered clear of stimulants, and in 2014 called her mother Terri from Splendour In The Grass festival with a rather shocking confession: 'I had a mocha'.

'I had a mocha': he cheerful teen has steered clear of stimulants, and in 2014 called her mother Terri (pictured) from Splendour In The Grass festival with a rather shocking confession

'A good head on her shoulders': Bindi, famed for being mature beyond her years, said in the same interview that she's unlikely to be seen stumbling out of nightclubs in the future

'Mum always said try to avoid too much caffeine,' Bindi told WHO magazine, 'I called mum up and I go, "I'm so sorry".'

The July music festival, held near NSW's coastal Byron Bay, limits alcohol and bans illegal drugs but nevertheless has been the focus of police sniffer dog presence and arrests in the past.

But Bindi stuck to her cup of hot chocolate and coffee, although she admits 'I felt so bad'.

'Dancing like there's no tomorrow': Bindi Irwin posted a picture from Splendour in the Grass festival in 2014

'It's now known as the weekend of mocha debauchery,' 45 year-old Terri joked in the magazine.

Bindi, famed for being mature beyond her years, said in the same interview that she's unlikely to be seen stumbling out of nightclubs in the future, as that sort of partying doesn't really appeal.

'She's got a good head on her shoulders,' Terri said.
It can't have been a coincidence, because they both left the trailer together.

Tilda Swinton, 55, and her 38-year-old boyfriend Sandro Kopp wore matching pink outfits on Wednesday.

The pair were were spotted leaving the New York set of Tilda's latest film, Okja.

Snap! Tilda Swinton, 55 and her 38-year-old boyfriend Sandro Kopp wore matching pink outfits on the set of Okja on Wednesday

The actress wore a pink blazer, ruffled blouse, a white skirt and pink pumps, with a pair of circular shades.

Her hair was slicked back, probably to make life easy on the wardrobe department who have to fit the many wigs the Brit has been seen wearing.

Her German artist boyfriend meanwhile looked just as rosy in a pink T-shirt, slacks and socks, with just his black slip-on shoes breaking the colour code.

The South Korean-American production will be Netflix's first original sci-fi horror film.

Pretty in pink: The actress wore a pink blazer, ruffled blouse, a white skirt and pink pumps, with a pair of circular shades

It is co-written and directed by Joon-ho Bong, best known for writing 2013 Chris Evans film Snowpiercer.

It tells the story of a young girl named Mija - played by Korean actress Ahn Seo-hyun -who befriends a genetically modified pig named Okja.

When the creature grows to a gigantic size, the powerful, multi-national company that created it try to recapture it, with Mija doing everything in her power to stop them.

Right behind you: Her German artist boyfriend meanwhile looked just as rosy in a pink T-shirt, slacks and socks, with just his black slip-on shoes breaking the colour code

It also stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Lily Collins and The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun.

Tilda plays twin sisters, one of which is the head of the company that's hunting the giant pig.

Dano plays an animal activist trying to expose her company, while Gyllenhaal plays a zoologist.

It's not the first all-pink outfit Tilda has rocked on set either; on Monday she was seen wearing an billowy dress along with a blonde bob wig.

And again: It's not the first all-pink outfit Tilda has rocked on set either; on Monday she was seen wearing an billowy dress along with a pink bob wig, with cos-star Jake Gyllenhaal
It looks like shock jock Kyle Sandilands' temper got the better of him on Friday morning, when an interview with Bindi Irwin on his KIIS FM radio show was suddenly cancelled.

The 45-year-old radio host didn't waste time lashing out at the 17-year-old's publicist, and even went as far to threaten banning the Irwin family from the radio show altogether.

'We were told 8 o'clock. I've changed the whole show around to allow Bindi on because I love the kid,' he began, before making some heated comments directed towards Bindi's management team.

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Not happy: On Friday morning Kyle Sandilands almost called for a definite ban on the Irwin family appearing on his KIIS FM radio show with Jackie O, after their interview with Bindi was dropped at the last minute

Birthday girl: Bindi was meant to call through to talk about her 18th birthday party to be held over the weekend

'Some dumb publicist has ruined it now,' he said to his co-host Jackie O.

One of the Kyle and Jackie O show producers clarified the reason for the change in plans, informing the radio stars: 'Her live TV cross went late and they dropped us'.

'Dropped us for what?' a fuming Kyle responded, and when he discovered that Bindi was pre-recording another television interview, he was far from happy.

'Do these idiots not realise we have more people listening to this than the whole audience watching the television? Stupid publicists.

Lashing out: 'Dropped us for what?' a fuming Kyle said, and when he learned that Bindi was pre-recording another television interview, he was far from happy

'I'd wipe my a** with half these publicists in Australia, they're a joke. I don't know who it is, but the person, male or female, I don't know.. idiot, fool!'

His co-host Jackie's response was rather brief, as she simply agreed with Kyle and said the situation was 'not good'.

This only encouraged Kyle to continue his angry rant, and he went as far as saying: 'Anyway, Irwins are now banned for life'.

'No, don't blame her,' Jackie O quickly reigned in her co-host and with much success, as he subsequently backtracked, saying, 'Oh Jack, yeah you're right. Fair enough'.

Mum saves the day! Terri eventually called through and the radio duo were able to speak to her, and Bindi a few minutes later

'It's not her fault. She wouldn't even know about it,' Jackie continued, before the on-air duo were surprised with a phone call from none other than Bindi's mother Terri.

'Who's the idiot publicist that has mucked this all up? Bindi's on TV, some publicist thinks TV is more important,' Kyle said to the wife of the late Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin.

But Terri did her best to reason with the media personality, saying, 'No, no no. We're just trying to get the word out about Bindi turning 18 and set the record straight about all of the great goss and it's so exciting'.

Bindi joined the phone interview shortly after, proving the Irwin ban is off the cards for the popular FM radio show.
He is the unknown actor who became an international sex symbol almost overnight due to his turns as dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser.

And Outlander hunk Sam Heughan showcased the physique that makes his legion of female fans go weak at the knees as he stepped out of a gym in a tight workout vest in New York on Wednesday.

The Scots oatcake certainly seems to have been eating his porridge if his bulging biceps, chiselled chest and toned torso are any guide.

Someone's been eating their porridge: Scots Outlander hunk Sam Heughan showed off his muscles in a tight vest after a trip to the gym in New York on Wednesday

Sam, 36, was looking hot and sweaty as he pounded the pavement in a grey vest, shorts and running shoes.

The ginger hunk was later spotted out and about in a blue vest, shorts and trainers after another of his bodybuilding sessions.

Despite playing a handsome Highlander in the epic time-bending romance show, Sam is a lowlander in real life, as he hails from the Dumfries and Galloway area in the south of Scotland.

But it is unlikely fans of the Balmaclellan beefcake will care, as long as he keeps showing off his washboard abs on screen in the coming years.

What a Jock: He looked every inch the handsmome he-man as he left the gymnasium

No fried mars bars for him: Sam was carrying some healthy food in a paper bag for his post-workout snack

Just been caber tossing? The Scots muscleman's arms were looking pumped after his workout

But the he-man actor, who this year raised 225,000 for blood cancer charity Bloodwise through his My Peak Challenge campaign, has joked he may let himself go to add a new dimension to his acting on the programme.

He told Vulture: 'I'm thinking about getting really fat. I'm thinking eating a lot and not working out would be really good.

'(But) Do we really want to see that?'

He also said the Starz hit will be getting even better in the coming third season, where the setting shifts to colonial Jamaica.

Sam said: 'It's going to be a completely different show. Next year's stuff is probably the most interesting, in a way. We've been setting it up, setting the stage, introducing these characters, and now it goes into new, different worlds.'

Stopping traffic: But it was the traffic lights rather than Sam's smouldering looks that did the trick

Jock's away: The handsome Scot grinned for the camera as he prepared to head to his next appointment
Her stint on Love Island ended in disaster as she was stripped of her Miss GB title for romping on TV.

But Zara Holland appeared to put the scandal in the past and seemed in high spirits as she attended fashion event in Manchester on Thursday.

The stunning blonde, 20, may no longer have a crown but she still boasts beauty queen glamour as she showed off her enviable curves in a tiny two piece.

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Moving on: Zara Holland appeared to put her Love Island romp scandal in the past and seemed in high spirits as she attended fashion event in Manchester on Thursday

The skimpy purple ensemble made the most of her generous assets, as well as accentuating her teeny-tiny waist.

The blonde bombshell was at the PrettyLittleThings office to try on some of the brand's new range.

And she was there alongside a familiar face; her former fellow Love Islander Sophie Gradon was also in on proceedings.

The brunette - who spiced up the show with a lesbian kiss with Katie Salmon after starting up a romance with Tom Powell - looked sensational as she showed off her deep tan she had picked up on the series.

Purple reign: The stunning blonde, 20, may no longer have a crown but she still boasts beauty queen glamour as she showed off her enviable curves in a tiny two piece

Tan-tastic: The skimpy purple ensemble made the most of her generous assets, as well as accentuating her teeny-tiny waist

Friendly face: And she was there alongside a familiar face; her former fellow Love Islander Sophie Gradon was also in on proceedings

Sophie also showed off her cleavage in a tiny crocheted dress, which she teamed with an on-trend choker and strappy heels.

Zara will no doubt always be remembered for the on-screen romp she shared with Alex Bowen in the villa, which saw her stripped of her prestigious Miss GB title.

The beauty recently said that she'd let her mum down, though Zara's mum Cheryl seemed to have recovered when she joined her for the bash.

Recalling her mother's advice, Zara told OK! last month: Before I even went into the villa, my mum said, "Don't sleep with anybody." So I let my mum down, and that really still upsets me.

'I haven't committed a crime,' she continued. 'I haven't done anything to hurt anyone, but yes, I made this mistake. I've accepted that and we have to move forward now.'

Talking about her loss of the title, the reality star added: 'I still can't quite believe it now, because it's been such a massive part of my life and I've worked so hard for it. Losing the title was just the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
Johnny Depp's estranged wife Amber Heard has been 'spending a lot of time' with billionaire space pioneer Elon Musk as she navigates her way through a very public divorce.

The Rum Diary star, 30, has known Musk, 45, for several years but sources claim the amount of time the pair are spending together recently has increased.

Musk, who is worth a staggering $12.7 billion, is going through a separation of his own. His wife Tallulah, who he had married, divorced and remarried, filed for divorce from the billionaire in March.

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Heading for divorce: A report from UsWeekly claims that Depp (pictured left with Amber in January) would like to hurry up the divorce process as much as possible while Musk is being divorced by his wife Tallulah (pictured right together in 2013). They married, divorced then remarried

According to TMZ, a source claimed she has been seeing the entrepreneur behind those sleek, eco-friendly Telsa cars for weeks.

Last weekend Heard and her sister were at Elon's hotel bungalow in Miami. She has visited him at his Los Angeles office and he has visited her at his home. Two weeks ago they allegedly had a 'one-one dinner' at his LA home.

The source warned it should not be called 'dating' but that it cannot be ignored that they have been meeting privately a lot.

It is a trying time for Heard who is in the midst of a messy divorce from Depp. She filed papers in court in May claiming the 52-year-old actor had been 'verbally and physically abusive' for the 'entirety' of their relationship.

The following month, text messages reportedly exchanged between Heard and Depp's assistant emerged detailing alleged assault by the actor including that he had 'kicked her'.

Entertainment Tonight reported that a source claimed the messages were sent between Heard and a man alleged to be Depp's assistant, Stephen Deuters, and are from May 2014.

In one text supposedly sent from Heard regarding a man alleged to be Depp she writes: 'He's done this many times before. Tokyo, the island, London (remember that?!), and I always stay. Always believe he's going to get better... And then every 3 or so month [sic], I'm in the exact same position.'

The text exchange dates back to before the estranged couple was married.

According to UsWeekly Depp - who was spotted visiting Alcatraz in San Francisco on Wednesday - wants to hurry up the divorce process as much as possible and also wants to keep the details of their split out of the public eye.

The pair, who wed after a whirlwind romance, had no prenup and Depp, who is worth a reported $400million, will not reveal his finances until Heard agrees to keep them private.

In the city by the bay: Johnny Depp let his troubles blow away on a trip to windy Alcatraz off the coast of San Francisco on Wednesday. The actor, who is worth an estimated $400million, wants to hurry the divorce from Amber Heard as much as possible and has refused to make his finances public until his estranged wife agrees to keep them private

Meanwhile, Musk, who has been described as the Thomas Edison of our times, co-founded PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, which produces cars with an advanced auto-pilot feature.

SpaceX, a privately funded space transport services company, has managed to land four rockets from space back on Earth, one on land and three on sea, with the latest successful sea landing on May 28.

Musk, a South African-born Canadian-American, recently said that he expects to launch a manned mission to Mars in 2024, which would arrive in 2025.

One of Musk's most ambitious projects is Hyperloop - a proposed method of travel that would transport people at 745mph between distant locations using pods that are pushed through tubes by magnets.

It was unveiled by Musk in 2013, who said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane.

But his incredible success has not come easy.

First wife: Elon Musk with Justine. The pair were married for six years and have five sons together

Stepping out: Elon Musk was pictured with his then wife, Tallulah at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho in July 2015

Family fun day: Elon Musk recruited his sons to help when did the ALS ice bucket challenge in 2014

He had a miserable childhood in South Africa and where he was bullied by classmates and subjected to some psychological torture by his father. His experiences there would lead him to leave and head to the United States where he met his first wife, Justine Wilson.

The entrepreneur and the Canadian author were married for six years before divorcing. They have five sons together - triplets and twins. Musk revealed in an interview that he didn't like his children's school so he started his own. Ad Astra, which is Latin meaning to the stars, is shrouded in secrecy. It is believed to have only 20 pupils, and has no known websites or application process.

According to author Ashlee Vance in Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, the billionaire met the second Mrs Musk at the famous London nightclub Whisky Mist in 2008.

She was still a virgin at 22 and he told her he wanted to show her his rockets.

She later said:'I was skeptical, but he did actually show me rocket videos.'
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has landed in hot water for emails dating from 2011 in which he claimed that half of the Chicago districts teachers are virtually illiterate.

The emails were released July 21 to the Chicago Tribune as part of the newspapers open-records request pertaining to the SUPES Academy principal-training contract. (That no-bid contract ultimately led to criminal charges against Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett for a kickback scheme.)

Rauner made the remarks to high-powered, wealthy members of the Chicago Public Education Fund, which has helped fund some of the districts major education initiatives. A Rauner spokesman issued a quick apology for the remarks, explaining that the governors email was sent out of frustration at the pace of change in our public school system.

Its not the first time Rauner has alienated parents, teachers, and others for remarks on the citys schools: Just recently, he received a barrage of criticism for likening CPS schools to prisons

Tensions have ratcheted up between Illinois and Chicago officials over school funding, as my colleague Denisa Superville and I reported recently for Education Week. A few months ago, it was an open question whether schools would even open in the fall. Since then, the state agreed to a stopgap measure to provide $300 million in funding and pension relief for the citys schools.

But the deal doesnt solve all of the districts financial problems, and wrangling over the states education funding formula and pension woes are likely to continueas are disagreements about the steps CPS should take to balance its budget. The Chicago Teachers Union has threatened to strike if certain teacher benefits are scaled back.

The CTU has, unsurprisingly, issued a bunch of aggrieved press releases over Rauners remarks. Even more to the point, it also sent reporters the following photo. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, youll hear loud and clear what this one is saying.
The 50th anniversary of iconic Australian children's show Play School has given viewers a look at behind-the-scenes secrets.

A never-before-seen video of bloopers published earlier this month has revealed the presenters are normal people and there have been plenty of expletives muttered on set.

The narrator can he heard over the start of the clip and says: 'Mistakes were part of the magic formula but there were some bloopers that had to be edited out.'

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Potty-mouthed presenters: A never before seen video of bloopers from Play School has revealed that the presenters are normal people and there have been plenty of expletives muttered on set

In one clip Bonita Collings took a makeshift crown off her head before she was meant to and in a moment of frustration realised what she had done and threw it on the ground exclaiming 'Oh s***!'

Her foul-mouthed moments featured throughout the video and in another clip she threw her arms out and declared: 'It's fine, I'm sorry I f**ed it completely.'

John Hamblin wasn't shy with his racy innuendo, and in one clip he lay on the floor with a book while a producer interrupted the scene to give him a pillow.

Rude moments: Bonita Collings foul mouthed moments featured throughout the video and in another clip she threw her arms out and declared 'It's fine, I'm sorry I f**** it completely'

Cheeky: In one clip a producer leans into the scene with presenter John Hamblin and says: 'We'll get you a cushion on the floor' and with a grin John quips back with a laugh: 'who wants to be first?

The producer leans into the scene and says: 'We'll get you a cushion on the floor' and with a cheeky grin John quips back with a laugh: 'Who wants to be first?'

John also tested out a very poorly constructed slide, made out of cardboard and pipes and while his co-hosts urged him to stop he dove onto it causing it to collapse.

Children's rhyming songs were also another part of the show that resulted in expletives as the hosts got tongue-tied and showed off their human side as they struggled to get the words out.

Nice try: John also tested out a very poorly constructed slide, made out of cardboard and pipes and while his co-hosts urged him to stop he dove onto it causing it to collapse

Innuendo: Children's rhyming songs were also another part of the show that resulted in expletives as the hosts got tongue tied and the hosts also had several moments with risque craft segments

Earlier this month Play School celebrated its 50-year anniversary with a special retrospective documentary, Big Ted's Excellent Adventure: 50 Years of Play School.

There were still racy moments that went to air and in the documentary free spirited Benita, who used to go braless, confessed that people would come into the studio while she was filming 'to see me bouncing up and down!'

'She was a one woman sexual revolution for the under ten demographic!' said TV personality Joe Hildebrand, who was one of the many famous faces enlisted to add commentary to the special.

Eventually, ABC producers asked busty Benita to start wearing a bra to stop her assets from becoming such a distraction.
Special agent Kensi Blye put in a bit of overtime on Thursday.

Actress Daniela Ruah was among the cast of NCIS: Los Angeles who made special appearances during the CBS Television Studios block of shows at Comic-Con International at San Diego Convention Center.

And the 32-year-old made the most of her baby bump, dressing in a figure-hugging dress with horizontal black and blue stripes.

She made it: Actress Daniela Ruah was among the cast of NCIS: Los Angeles who made special appearances during the CBS Television Studios block of shows at Comic-Con International at San Diego Convention Center on Thursday

Check it out: And the 32-year-old made the most of her baby bump, dressing in a figure-hugging dress with horizontal black and blue stripes

The beautiful brunette is expecting her second child with husband David Olsen, who is the older brother of her NCIS co-star Eric Olsen.

Their little girl is due in the fall and will be a sister for their two-year-old son, River Isaac.

But her burgeoning baby bump certainly didn't seem to sap Daniela's energy as she waved from the stage.

Family: The beautiful brunette is expecting her second child with husband David Olsen, who is the older brother of her NCIS co-star Eric Olsen

What the audience didn't know, but the beautiful brunette shared with her Instagram followers, was that she and Eric had actually walked up the stairs to the studio on the eighth floor of the convention centre for their appearance.

Daniela posted a snap showing them flat out on the floor after their climb, which she captioned: 'So @ericcolsen challenged this team of #cbsfanfavorites to take the stairs, 8 floors up. Ok he didn't challenge us... He suggested because zombies were waiting to get in the elevator. Still, challenge accepted.'

She also posted a snap with Eric and other CBS stars on the way to her 'first ever' Comic-Con, saying: 'In the bus with the cool kids #cbsfanfavorites already love these people!'

The gang: She posted a snap with Eric and other CBS stars on the way to her 'first ever' Comic-Con, saying: 'In the bus with the cool kids #cbsfanfavorites already love these people!'

Other shows in the CBS block included Scorpion, American Gothic and MacGyver.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Daniela came up with a humourous way to announce the upcoming eighth season of NCIS: LA.

She shared a hilarious snap of herself in character, wearing fatigues, sitting with her back up against a helicopter, landed on top of a pair of legs in black and white striped tights and red shoes.

'And this is how Kensi killed the witch. With A Navy helo. #NCISLAfamiliaisbacktogether #NCISOz @ncisla #season8,' she joked.
She was told by her own father that she had 'stacked on the weight' and 'let herself go' on her KIIS FM morning radio show on Thursday.

And a day later, radio personality Jackie 'O' Henderson was once again on the receiving end of criticism after her co-host Kyle Sandilands questioned her intellect.

Praising a caller for her quick wit and vast knowledge, Kyle told the listener they were very clever, unlike the mother-of-one.

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Not again: Jackie 'O' Henderson is bullied by co-host Kyle Sandilands about her intellect after she was fat shamed by her dad a day earlier on her KIIS FM radio show

'Not like Jackie, who is Woman's Day and New Idea smart,' the 44-year-old announcer said.

The harsh comments come after the mother-of-one was fat shamed live on-air by her own father, Tony, on Thursday.

The popular KIIS FM radio host was told by her father that she had 'stacked on the weight' and had 'let herself go' during her most recent holiday to Fiji.

Harsh words: Kyle said the mother-of-one's intelligence only extended to Woman's Day and New Idea

A day earlier: The harsh comments come after the mother-of-one was fat shamed live on-air by her own father, Tony

'It wasn't irrelevant to your holiday, it was part of your holidayconsuming too much food,' Jackie's father explained in a bid to back-up his claim.

'You know what prompted this don't you!' he told listeners. 'She ran into a bloke in New Zealand who I built a house for years agoand they were fans of Jackie years ago, and I said to Mark 'how is she?' and he wasn't very complimentary, let me tell you that.

'He basically said she had let herself go.'

Tony then questioned his daughter, asking: 'So why have you let yourself go?'

More comments: Her father then said: 'You have to remember, no one ever says anything nice to fat people'

Completely shocked by his statements, Jackie responded: 'Dad, that is just rudeYou and mum are always having a go at me about my weight.'

'You have to remember, no one ever says anything nice to fat people,' Tony replied.

Kyle then attempted to steer the conversation to him, chiming in: 'Isn't it called happy fat?

'I am at my happiness with a lamington in one hand and my 25-year-old girlfriend in the other. That is happy,' he laughed.

Months earlier, Kyle told Jackie 'O' that she didn't know what it's like to be a hard-working mum.

'You don't know what it's like being a parent Jackie,' the 44-year-old jokingly told the popular radio personality live on air.

No he didn't: Earlier in the year shock jock Kyle told his co-host Jackie that she doesn't 'know what it's like to be a hard working mum'

'You just have one very easy-going daughter and you have a stay at home husband.

You make out that you are a hard-working mum, but you don't know what it's like,' he concluded

All Jackie could say in response of her co-presenters comments was a simple no

The awkward conversation came about during an interview with western Sydney couple, Matt and Donna Blackwell, who are the parents of seven young children and nine puppies.

The family recently lost their home and all their belongings in a house fire on April 2.

Donna and Matt were on the show to tell their heartbreaking story, as well as appeal to the public for donations.
She's one of the quieter characters in the dramatic world of TOWIE.

But Chloe Meadows ensured she was the centre of attention as she wowed the crowd in a daring ensemble at a fashion bash in London on Thursday.

The stunning blonde, 23, looked sensational as she arrived at the star-studded Spectrum AW16 preview in the UK capital.

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Centre stage: Chloe Meadows ensured she was the centre of attention as she wowed the crowd in a daring ensemble at a fashion bash in London on Thursday

Dismissing the old rule that you should legs or cleavage, Chloe decided to flaunt both in a seriously sexy tuxedo style playsuit.

The plunging number meant that the reality star's generous assets were on full display, with her lace bra clearly on show.

Meanwhile, her long tanned and toned pins were accentuated by a pair of gold heels.

She was joined by co-star and BFF Courtney Green, played it a little more demure in a white shirt and flirty pink skirt.

Rule breaker: The stunning blonde, 23, looked sensational as she arrived at the star-studded Spectrum AW16 preview in the UK capital

Legs be having you! Dismissing the old rule that you should legs or cleavage, Chloe decided to flaunt both in a seriously sexy tuxedo style playsuit

The pair have been embroiled in many scandalous scenes since they joined the show earlier this year.

Most recently they have been drawn into arguments thanks to their very outspoken pal, Megan McKenna.

The former CBB star has been at war with Chloe Lewis over claims she slept with her on/off boyfriend Jake Hall while they were on one of their many breaks.

The girls are out! The plunging number meant that the reality star's generous assets were on full display, with her lace bra clearly on show, as she posed alongside BFF Courtney Green

Summer ready: Courtney played it a little more demure in a white shirt and flirty pink skirt

But Chloe Meadows has also been dragged into claims she has also bedded Jake, reports which she insists are outrageous.

She recently told Reveal: 'The rumours I slept with Jake were ridiculous. I was being told I had a guilty face.

'That's just my face! It hurt that I was being called a s**t and I hadn't done anything wrong. It was all so stupid.'

Drama: Chloe Meadows has been dragged into her pal Megan McKenna's row with Chloe Lewis on the new series of TOWIE, amid claims the CBB star slept with her boyfriend Jake Hall




He's the father to a two-year-old daughter who is no doubt a fan of the hit film Frozen.

And Rove McManus appears to be a fan himself, delighting his 2DayFM Hit 104.1 breakfast radio co-host Sam Frost to an incredible rendition of the hit song Let It Go from the children's movie.

The 42-year-old radio personality belted out the lyrics to the song as his co-host watched on and let him do his thing as they drove to the snowfields at Thredbo on Thursday.

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Passionate: Rove McManus appears to be a fan of the film Frozen himself and delighted his breakfast radio co-host Sam Frost to an incredible rendition of the hit song Let It Go from the children's movie

The song was originally sung by the films main character Elsa and Rove may have taken a few moves from his young daughter as he threw himself into the performance.

Sam watched on in amazement and tried to contain her laughter as he passionately sung the song and started off by telling her: 'You know this one, everyone does.'

Taking to their joint Instagram account the video was uploaded with the caption: 'What would a road trip be without a good old fashion sing along?'

Sing-a-long fun: The 42-year-old radio personality belted out the lyrics to the song as his co-host watched on and let him do his thing as they drove to Thredbo on Thursday

Everyone knows it: Sam watched on in amazement and tried to contain her laughter as he passionately sung the song trying to get her into it

The pair have been sharing plenty of snaps to their social media accounts since arriving at the snow and on Friday broadcast their radio show live from a ski resort.

Taking time out after their show the duo posed happily in the snow throwing their arms up in delight for a picture which was captioned: 'Hellooooooo Thredbo'

Rove quickly initiated a snowball fight with Sam and in another snap uploaded to their account showed off their silly side as they played.

We're here!The pair have been sharing plenty of snaps to their social media accounts since arriving at the snow and on Friday broadcast their radio show live from a ski resort

Playful: Rove quickly initiated a snowball fight with Sam and in another snap uploaded to their account showed off their silly side as they played

Rove appeared to be far more excited for the almost six-hour-long road trip than his former Bachelorette co-host.

During the long drive from Sydney to the snowfields, the pair stopped off at as many tourist attractions as they could for happy snaps.

They posed in front of the Big Merino in Goulburn and while Sam looked chic and stylish Rove was more than happy to show off his Ugg boots while wrapping himself up in a dressing gown.
She is flowering as a mother-to-be for the second time.

And Blake Lively looked in full bloom as she showcased her burgeoning baby bump in a flattering floral maternity dress at a launch party in New York on Thursday.

The 28-year-old silver screen lovely was the perfect advertisement for pregnancy as she turned heads at the Target Cat And Jack brand event.

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Blooming lovely: Pregnant Blake Lively looked fantastic as she showcased her baby belly at a Target in New York on Thursday

For the glamorous Green Lantern star was glowing in a tastefully fashionable floral maternity dress, which she teamed with a pair of dinky high heels.

However it feels she eventually tired of suffering for style however, as she later posted an image of herself on Instagram wearing trainers, which she captioned: 'Milkshake: check. Comfortable shoes: check.

'Having a slit in your dress to make you feel better about the aforementioned: check.'

But Blake was far from the only yummy mummy turning heads at the exciting event.

Indeed a veritable smorgasbord of celebrity mums were there, including including Jenna Dewan-Tatum, who went for a nautical but nice look by wearing a navy-striped dress.

Things that go bump in the evening: The Green Lantern star looked in fine form indeed in her floral dress

Still a Gossip Girl: She looked in her element after a reporter stuck a microphone in front of her

Thighly impressive: Her dress even boasted a high split that allowed her to show off her legs

Mum's the word: Blake's maternal instincts took over when she was approached by a pint-sized fan

Others who looked lovely included busty model Camilla Alves, the other half of Lincoln Lawyer favourite Matthew McConaughey, and her fellow 34-year-old, The OC favourite Rachel Bilson.

While Mrs Ryan Reynolds has been making it appear easy to be a stylish mother-to-be, Blake recently admitted it is not quite as simple as it looks.

The Gossip Girl favourite confessed to struggling with New York's soaring summer temperatures during her second pregnancy.

Blake told Jimmy Fallon last week: 'It should be illegal to be pregnant in New York in JulyIm going to make my water break just to cool down'.

Pregnancy cravings: She later shared an image where she sipped a milkshake while wearing trainers

Another yummy mummy: Jenna Dewan-Tatum showcased her dancer's body in this form-fitting number

Nautical but nice: The Supergirl favourite was looking great in a navy-striped dress

She also gushed about her daughter James, 19 months, Saying: 'Shes talking, its kind of amazing, she knows lots of words.

'She says schump for jump,' she explained, before getting Jimmy laughing by revealing that James mixes up 'sh*t' for 'sit' and 'c*cks' for 'socks'.

Blake's second pregnancy was announced in April and the doting couple, who have been married since September 2012, couldn't be happier.

The actors met on the set of Green Lantern in 2010 when Ryan was still married to Scarlett Johansson, now 31, and she was with her Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley.

Latina lovely: Model Camila Alves was showcasing her famously generous curves at the event

A bit of all white: The Brazillian wife of Matthew McConaughey looked great in this trouser dress

Meanwhile: Former The OC star Rachel Bilson was another starlet in attendence
Since their lavish Bali wedding in 2013, Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall still appear very much in the honeymoon phase.

And from snaps taken on Wednesday while on a romantic getaway in the Italian island of Capri, it was clear the genetically blessed duo could not keep their hands off one another.

The stunning 32-year-old former Miss Universe was spotted leaning in for several steamy kisses with Jake, 33.

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Loved-up: Jennifer Hawkins, 32, leant in for a steamy kiss with husband Jake Wall, 33, while holidaying in the Italian island of Capri on Wednesday

While putting on a affectionate display, there was no mistaking their enviable model physiques.

Myer ambassador Jennifer flaunted her ample cleavage and taut torso in a skimpy patterned triangle bikini that elongated her already endless legs with intricate ties at the side.

Sweeping her signature blonde tresses into a topknot for most out of the outing, she highlighted her striking natural beauty with just a golden tan.

Steamy: It was clear the genetically blessed duo could not keep their hands off one another

Look of love: The couple held an affectionate gaze with one another

Up close: The former Miss Universe nuzzled into her beau's neck as they reclined on a sun lounger

She kept her accessories to a minimum with just a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses and black cap.

Meanwhile, Jake highlighted his washboard abs donning a pair of two-toned boardshorts and accessorised with just a pair of dark shades.

The couple were seen reclining on an orange and white sun lounger as they took a much-earned break from their hectic work schedules.

When not leaning in for a steamy kiss, Jennifer and Jake were inseparable, often casting an affectionate gaze in each other's direction

Model looks: While putting on a doting display, there was no mistaking their enviable physiques

Details: Myer ambassador Jennifer flaunted her ample cleavage and taut torso in a skimpy patterned triangle bikini

Snap happy: Relaxing alongside her beau, Jennifer appearing to be taking holiday selfies

Holiday mode: The high-profile pair then took to the water to cool off with Jennifer letting her signature tresses fall effortlessly behind her shoulders

After relaxing side-by-side and appearing to take holiday selfies, the couple then took to the water to cool off.

Builder Jake showed off his impressive muscular frame as he dived into the water, while Jennifer flaunted her cellulite-free pert posterior as she was seen taking to the concrete stairs.

Keeping a watchful eye on Jennifer, there was no denying his affection for his stunning wife.

Jennifer appeared to be enjoying downtime, having just wrapped up filming for the highly awaited tenth season of reality series Australia's Next Top Model.

Cooling off: Builder Jake showed off his impressive muscular frame as he dived into the water

Leggy: The statuesque model emphasised her washboard stomach and lithe legs as she took to the stairs

Flawless: There was no denying the budding entrepreneur's striking natural beauty

Envy-inducing: There was not an inch to pinch on the beauty's impressively toned frame

The model and budding entrepreneur has taken on the role of host of the popular modelling contest since 2012.

Set to appear alongside renowned fashion designer Alex Perry and David Jones spokesperson Megan Gale, twins Jordan and Zac Stenmark and Cheyenne Tozzi will also feature in the series.

Hosting duties aside, Jennifer and Jake launched their own brand of tequila, Sesion, late last year.

Inseparable: The creator of tanning range JBronze was close behind her hunky beau

Watching out: Jake looked back affectionately at his wife

Pilates-honed: Jennifer flaunted her cellulite-free pert posterior as she was seen heading back out of the water

Low key: The television personality tied her locks into a bun at the nape of her neck

Off-duty: Jennifer appears to be enjoying downtime, having just wrapped up filming for the highly awaited tenth season of reality series Australia's Next Top Model

Jennifer and Jake are regularly seen on the Sydney social scene.

They tied the knot in a luxurious Bali ceremony in 2013, following eight years together.

To this day the couple have grown a multi-million-dollar brand, J Group, which they manage jointly.

In demand: The model and budding entrepreneur has taken on the role of host of the popular modelling contest since 2012

Gym-honed: Jake showed off his bulging biceps as he stood shirtless underneath a pergola

Impressive: The couple have grown a multi-million-dollar brand, J Group, which they manage jointly

Long-time lovers: They tied the knot in a luxurious Bali ceremony in 2013, following eight years together
Tori Spelling, the 43-year-old actress and mother of four, put on her party planning hat for daughter Stella McDermott's eighth birthday party on Saturday in Los Angeles.

The entire McDermott family attended the Japanese and Kawaii themed fete, which is often better known as the quality of cuteness in context to Japanese culture.

With pastels galore and cartoon Geisha dolls everywhere, the children indulged their sweet tooth with cake and pinata-filled goodies.

Picture Perfect: The family of six pose for a photo in celebration of daughter Stella turning eight years old.

Mama Spelling went all-out, matching her daughter's bubble gum pink highlights and traditional Geisha-inspired robe.

Even though both wore floral, Tori opted for a more muted, earth-toned palette, while Stella chose electric blue with pale pink accessories and platform shoes.

Tori swept her hair back from her face with a braided headband and Stella showed off her razor sharp bangs with chopsticks in a bun.

Pretty In Pink: The mother-daughter duo sport their matching pink highlighted hair at Stella's birthday party last Saturday in Los Angeles

While some appeared to stay away from the line of fire, Stella's younger sister Hattie Margaret McDermott, thought the party was a hit enjoying the giant pinata.

Hattie joined in on the theme wearing a pastel two-piece set.

The McDermott males on the other hand decided to keep it casual.

Strike 1: Hattie, Stella's younger sibling, gives the pinata a try last Saturday at her sister's 8th birthday party in Los Angeles

Tori's sons Liam Aaron and Finn Davey matched their father's style with understated summertime tees.

As Stella blew out her candles, we were able to catch her triple scoop ice cream earrings and bright pink lipstick.

After a long day of celebrating, the family appeared more than ready to cut into that cake.

Make A Wish! Stella blows out the candles on her cake while celebrating her 8th birthday

Aside from being a self-proclaimed 'DIY party planning mama' as she likes to call herself, Tori and her husband are in hot water according to People. They reportedly owe $259,000 in taxes to the state of California.

However, this is not the first financial obstacle that the couple have encountered.

Earlier this year in January, Tori is being sued by American Express for an outstanding balance on her credit card of almost $38,000 that remains unpaid since last summer.
Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio tied the knot with Gary Clark Jr. two months ago.

The beauty slipped back into a wedding dress to pose for an issue of Brides magazine showing off her naturally striking features alongside her son.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the 30-year-old shared a picture from the shoot in a slinky white gown with her cherubic one-year-old Zion cradled in her arms.

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Here comes the bride...again: Nicole Trunfio slipped back into a wedding dress to pose for an issue of Brides magazine alongside her son in behind-the-scenes snap uploaded on Thursday

Nicole flashed a smile and posed side on showing off her incredible figure in the sleek gown that featured an A-line skirt and train.

The beauty tenderly rested her head on her sons as she held him in her arm while gazing towards the camera.

Held in her other hand was a fresh bouquet filled with white roses and green foliage while her brunette locks cascaded down her back.

Fashionable tot: During the shoot with her boisterous little lad she took a photo of him as he played by a gate at the Smoke Tree Stables in Palm Springs

During the shoot with her boisterous little lad she took a photo of him as he played by a gate at the Smoke Tree Stables in Palm Springs.

Dressed in a white linen shirt paired with white trousers he was an adorable accompaniment to his mother in the shoot.

Zion's look was finished with black sandals and the tot appeared to have been exploring the stables with dusty brown marks on his knees.

Family: Nicole is currently based in the US with Zion and her husband Gary and the pair tied the knot in April

For her own nuptials, Nicole stunned in a Steven Khalil couture dress, featuring a plunging and embellished neckline, and a flowing A-line skirt.

She completed her look with a long delicate veil and had her hair out in loose tousled curls.

At the altar, she had the support of her model friends Jessica Gomes and Gemma Ward, who stood beside her as bridesmaids.
The Real Housewives of Sydney cast has officially been unveiled.

And among the controversial cast members is Lisa Oldfield, wife of former One Nation politician David.

The 41-year-old brunette made headlines this week when she slammed One Nation co-founder, Pauline Hanson, for claiming that she had sex with David on the first night that they met, a claim which he strongly denies.

Oh my! Lisa Oldfield, the controversial wife of former One Nation politician David Oldfield, has been confirmed to star in The Real Housewives of Sydney

For the past two decades Mr Oldfield, who co-founded One Nation with the red head, has staunchly denied having sex with Ms Hanson in a motel room the first night the pair met back in 1996.

Lisa, who has been married to the ex-politician since 2001, said the controversial Pauline's ongoing claims the two had a sexual relationship is 'poor form'.

'Her suggestion is that they slept together on what was essentially a first date so it was very poor form and really a bad reflection on her I think,' she said in an A Current Affair segment.

'Her suggestion is that they slept together on what was essentially a first date so it was very poor form:' Lisa was forced to defend claims that David slept with Pauline Hanson the first night they met back in the nineties

The documentary, Pauline Hanson: Please Explain! airs on SBS on July 31

Lisa is no stranger to the spotlight, having previously co-hosted the Channel Nine daytime show, The Catch-Up, in 2007.

The mother-of-two hit the headlines in May after calling a fellow passenger a 'fat f**k' during a flight and comparing her to portly Game Of Thrones character Walda Frey.

Lisa is believed to have offended the fellow traveller after she stripped down to her underwear to put on her pyjamas during the flight to Hawaii, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Please explain! David has repeatedly denied Pauline's claims that they slept together after meeting for the first time at a pub

'Fat f**k!' Lisa mad headlines in May after calling a fellow passenger on a flight to Hawaii a 'fat f**k' on social media

Daring: Lisa appears to have a soft spot for pythons

Relaxed: The reality star appears to enjoy cooking while barefoot

Starlet: The 41-year-old is no stranger to the spotlight, having previously co-hosted the Channel Nine daytime show, The Catch-Up, in 2007

'Nice to see #walda #frey getting away from #winterfell #got #hawaii #fatf**k,' she wrote alongside the Instagram image.

The outspoken TV host attempted to justify the social media post saying: 'Walda couldn't fit in to an economy seat so was bumped to first.

'Me in bra and knickers was 100 times less offensive than her clothed.'

Is that a pet? She is pictured here with a large snake

Coming soon: The ten-part, one-hour series is set to premiere on Australian screens next year

Strike a pose: The ladies all appeared at the big reveal event in Sydney on Friday

Photo time: Melissa and Lisa happily posed for some snaps together in front of the media wall

In addition to Lisa, the full cast of The Real Housewives of Sydney includes the artistic Athena Levendi, energetic ex-model turned real estate agent Krissy Marsh, beauty expert Matty Samaei, former chart-topper and soap star Melissa Tkautz, former Miss Australia Nicole ONeil, and Wrinkles Schminkles creator Victoria Rees.

Melissa Tkautz, 42, would be a familiar face to many, as she has starred in Australian soap opera E Street.

Her career spanning over three decades has also seen her grace several magazine covers, and she's even won an ARIA Award.

Quality time: Lisa enjoys bonding with loved ones during her downtime

Good times: The ladies weren't afraid to have some fun in front of the camera

Comeback: Lisa worked her best angles for the photographers on the day

Television bombshell: Melissa Tkautz, 42, would be a familiar face to many, as she has starred in Australian soap opera E Street

Red hot: Melissa Tkautz sipped into a lacy red dress, while Nicole O'Neill also wowed in a scarlet frock

Success story: Melissa's career spanning over three decades has also seen her grace several magazine covers, and she's even won an ARIA Award

Beauty queen: Nicole O'Neill is a former Miss Australia winner, originally born in Dubai to a Swedish mother and Lebanese father

While The Real Housewives Of Melbourne series sees Gina Liano sporting some eye-catching bling, viewers can also expect some bold accessorising by housewife Athena Levendi.

The Australian-born businesswoman is a jewellery designer, married to an Australian Greek jewellery designer who owns Levendi Jewellers.

The couple have three children and live in Sydney's east in Bellevue Hill.

Meanwhile Krissy Marsh is another one of the housewives, who is originally from Brisbane but moved to Sydney for her modelling career when she was 18.

The real estate agent has a love for Shanghai, and while her husband is still based there for business purposes, she happily lives in Double Bay with her three children.

The Mediaspa by Matty owner, Matty Samaei, is another one of the cast members.

Dressed to impress: All seven women sported glamorous outfits for the press event

Pucker up: Matty Samaei sported a glimmering sequinned number for the occasion

Businesswoman: Matty is the owner of The Mediaspa by Matty

Back to back: Matty and Athena Levendi posed for some snaps together

Moving to Australia with her Persian family when she was 12, Matty has gone on to establish a successful business years later.

Like Athena, this housewife also lives in the exclusive suburb of Bellevue Hill, with her partner and two daughters.

There are two more sassy housewives in the lineup, Nicole O'Neill and Victoria Rees.

Nicole is a former Miss Australia winner, originally born in Dubai to a Swedish mother and Lebanese father.

She's a gem: Athena Levendi is a jewellery designer, married to an Australian Greek jewellery designer who owns Levendi Jewellers

Model ways: Krissy Marsh is another one of the housewives, who is originally from Brisbane but moved to Sydney for her modelling career when she was 18

White on the mark! Krissy (L) and Athena (R) sported neutral coloured outfits

Sleek in black: Victoria Rees is a single mother to her 12-year-old son, and calls beachside suburb of Bondi her home

Past: She was previously an interior decorator and now has a beauty product called Wrinkles Schminkles

The owner of event planning and production company Pret-a-Party has two daughters she shared with her husband who was a childhood friend.

Meanwhile Victoria is a single mother to her 12-year-old son, and calls beachside suburb of Bondi her home.

She was previously an interior decorator and now has a beauty product called Wrinkles Schminkles.

The ten-part, one-hour series is set to premiere on Australian screens next year.

It follows The Real Housewives of Melbourne, which has produced three successful seasons so far.

The Real Housewives of Sydney precedes the upcoming Real Housewives of Auckland, which is due to air this year on Bravo New Zealand.
Last month, six of the best teachers in the United States traveled to the country known for its top-performing education system: Finland.

The teacherswho are the state teachers of the year for Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, Colorado, Georgia, and Kentuckywere in Finland for three full days, where they visited a school and went to lectures and workshops on education trends. Then, they traveled to the Netherlands for EF Education Firsts Global Student Leaders Summit , which lasted for two days and was centered around human rights.

EF, an international educational tours company, and the Council of Chief State School Officers had partnered to bring the teachers abroad (five received EF-CCSSO scholarships and one received a scholarship through a different EF program). The teachers were chosen because of an essay they wrote on preparing students for success in a global society.

Finland has long been held up as a model for successful education, but its worth noting that Finlands high test scores on international comparison tests have slipped in recent years. The country is working to reverse course (and is rolling out new curriculum this fall which emphasizes interdisciplinary learning ), but some U.S. educators have developed a bit of Finland fatigue .

I spoke to two of the winning teachersRevathi Balakrishnan of Texas and Leticia Ingram of Colorado about their experiences in Finland and the lessons they will take back to the United States.

Finnish Teachers Are Trusted, Seen as Experts

Both Balakrishnan and Ingram remarked on the high level of trust afforded to teachers in Finland. Theyre seen as true professionals, they saida perception that is often lacking in the United States.

This is perhaps a result of the rigorous teacher preparation programs in Finland, Balakrishnan said. The application process is extremely selectivecandidates have about 250 pages of articles to read in a month, and then are tested on the application (not just the facts) of the articles. About 70 percent of candidates are weeded out that way, Balakrishnan said, and then the rest are interviewed to see if they have a teacher personality"communicative, engaging, et cetera. In 2015, there was only about a 10 percent acceptance rate, she said.

As far as I could see, I dont think they have a teacher-evaluation system, Balakrishnan said, noting that when teachers asked Finnish educators about evaluations, they responded with, We trust [teachers] to do their best. (Finland appraises teachers against the national core curriculum and school development plans; there is no standardized testing to evaluate teachers by.)

Ingram said that seeing this cultural mindset in action reinforced her belief that it is critical for U.S. teachers to also feel trusted and valued.

I think teachers dont realize the importance of their jobs ... they change lives, she said. Automatically, you see that [understanding] over there. Here, we tend to forget the importance of educators. I think it would help a lot [with burnout] if teachers realized how important they are.

Diversity Is Importantand Finland Doesnt Have Much

Finland has a relatively homogenous student body, and the teachers noted that they appreciated the benefits and opportunities of teaching a diverse student body in the United States.

Finland is facing an influx of refugees , so the demographics could soon changeIngram said Finnish educators asked her for her advice in teaching a diverse population.

Ingram, who teaches in a school where the majority of students are English-language learners, said she came away from the trip thinking: Im so excited to be a teacher in the United Statesour biggest gift is diversity; my biggest inspiration is my students.

A Well-Rounded Education Is About More Than Grades

In Finland, a holistic approach is emphasized, Balakrishnan saidfor every 45 minutes of instruction, children have 15 minutes of play .

And even young Finnish students take home economics classes, making incredible projects, Ingram said. "[That was] one of the things that really hit mesome of my high school students dont know how to sew a button or change a tire. Were so focused on teaching STEM lessons that we forget about life skills.

She said she is bringing the emphasis on life skills back to her schoolher English language development students will now work on woodwork projects every Friday.

Inspired by the Finnish, Balakrishnan said she wants her students to want to learn for the love of learning itselfnot because its for a grade.

How do I get students to get excited about learning? Thats the biggest question Im going to grapple with, she said. I think students are not excited about learning because we have made education boring. The way I evaluate my class is, Would I be happy to sit in this class for one hour? If Im not, how can any child be happy?

Balakrishnan said during a panel discussion, someone asked a Finnish principal how the school handled discipline. The principal didnt understand, asking, Why wouldnt students listen to their teachers? Theyre excited about coming to school.

That resonated with me. I teach gifted students, Balakrishnan said. By nature, theyre excited about what theyre learning, theyre gifted in that. [But when] theres so much stress on them, they shut down. I cant afford for gifted students to shut down because theyre the future leaders.

Incorporate Global Education into the Curriculum

Ingram said the trip reinforced to her the importance of global educationits the key to understanding other cultures, she said. Ingram has done globalization projects with her students and other group cultural activities (like a Thanksgiving feast intended to immerse immigrant students and families into her Colorado community; read a story about it here ).

During the Global Student Leaders Summit, about 1,300 high school students from around the world worked together using design-thinking and project-based learning strategies to come up with solutions to human rights challenges in their communities. The U.S. teachers talked with some of these students and their teachers, sharing their educational experiences and insights.

Were so hungry to learn from each other, Ingram said, adding that she has plans to Skype one of the international teachers she met on the trip. Its vitalin all of our curriculum, no matter what content, you can incorporate global education to enhance our understanding of whats going on in the world.

The six 2016 State Teachers of the Year who traveled to Finland and The Netherlands with CCSSO and EF Education First pose in the Hagues downtown district while attending the EF Global Student Leaders Summit. From left - Chelsea Collins (New Jersey), Leticia Ingram (Colorado), Ernest Ernie Lee (Georgia), Ashley Lamb-Sinclair (Kentucky), Natalie DiFusco-Funk (Virginia), and Revathi Balakrishnan (Texas).

Source: First image of a Finnish kindergarten by Flickr user Ville Miettinen , licensed under Creative Commons . Second image courtesy of Leticia Ingram.

More on Finnish Education:

Follow @madeline_will and @EdWeekTeacher on Twitter.
Much ado has been made over the 47-year-old face of Renee Zellweger, and she was clearly a bit shy while shopping in Beverly Hills Thursday.

The Oscar winner concealed her eyes beneath aviator shades and a USO cap, and sported black athleisure wear with bright purple trainers.

The My Own Love Song actress - who was make-up free - hauled a black shopping bag as she left an office building.

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Hiding in plain sight: Much ado has been made over the 47-year-old face of Renee Zellweger, and she was clearly a bit shy while shopping in Beverly Hills Thursday

Low key: The Oscar winner concealed her eyes beneath aviator shades and a USO cap, and sported black athleisure wear with bright purple trainers

Dressed for action: The My Own Love Song actress - who was make-up free - hauled a black shopping bag as she left an office building

It's been over two years since Renee shocked fans with her startlingly different brow at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards.

'[Plastic surgery speculation is] not really part of my life. It's part of the job, that I don't experience except when I step into this arena,' the elusive blonde Texan shrugged on the March 25 episode of Today.

'In my home I'm not aware of it. I don't do any kind of social media, so I don't see it. I like to have, I guess you would call them, real experiences.'

Earlier this month, Rose McGowan penned a THR essay outraged over how Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote about Zellweger no longer looking like herself on June 30.

'[Plastic surgery speculation is] not really part of my life': It's been over two years since Renee shocked fans with her startlingly different brow at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards (pictured 2013 and 2001)

The elusive blonde Texan said on the March 25 episode of Today: '[Plastic surgery speculation is] not really part of my life. It's part of the job, that I don't experience except when I step into this arena'

'Her crime, according to you, is growing older': Rose McGowan just penned a THR essay outraged over how Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote about Zellweger no longer looking like herself (pictured Tuesday)

He's like 'home' to her: Not seen Thursday was the three-time Golden Globe winner's boyfriend of four years - musician Doyle Bramhall II - whom she met in 1991 at the University of Texas at Austin (pictured June 10)

'Her crime, according to you, is growing older in a way you don't approve of,' wrote the 42-year-old retired actress.

'Who are you to approve of anything? What you are doing is vile, damaging, stupid and cruel. It also reeks of status quo white-male privilege.'

Not seen Thursday was the three-time Golden Globe winner's boyfriend of four years - musician Doyle Bramhall II - whom she met in 1991 at the University of Texas at Austin.

'There is a familiarity between us, that sense you have when you're with someone and you know you are home,' Renee gushed to British Vogue.

Hitting UK/US theaters on September 16! The Case 39 actress will soon reprise her star-making role in the who's-my-babydaddy flick Bridget Jones's Baby alongside Colin Firth (L) and Patrick Dempsey (R)

Zellweger lamented to Vogue UK: 'I put on a few pounds. I also put on some breasts and a baby bump. Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I've never understood why it matters so much. No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role'

The Case 39 actress will soon reprise her star-making role in the who's-my-babydaddy flick Bridget Jones's Baby - hitting UK/US theaters on September 16 - alongside Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey.

'I put on a few pounds. I also put on some breasts and a baby bump. Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I've never understood why it matters so much,' Zellweger lamented to Vogue UK.

'No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role.'

Renee will also play a wife with cancer in the faith-based drama Same Kind of Different as Me, and she plays the mother of a murder suspect in the courtroom thriller The Whole Truth.
Cara Delevingne was shown transforming into her Enchantress character in a new teaser video.

The 23-year-old model turned actress portrays June Moone and her villainous alter ego in the upcoming Suicide Squad film.

The 36-second Introducing Enchantress clip released on Wednesday opened with June standing in a grey suit with her blonde hair in a bun as she whispers an incantation.

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Magical incantation: Cara Delevingne transformed into her Enchantress character in a new teaser video for the upcoming Suicide Squad movie

June placed her milky hand on the desk and it was clasped by an emerging all-black hand that turned her watch and suit sleeve into dark tattoos and a chain bracelet.

The transformation finished quickly as Enchantress dramatically looked up with her stringy jet black hair and burning red eyes.

Enchantress stood in a room filled with men in military uniforms.

Viola Davis, 50, was then shown as the government's Suicide Squad overseer Amanda Waller.

Hand in hand: The transformation started with an incantation and a black hand coming out of nowhere

Security meeting: The Enchantress transformed in a room filled with military men

Introduction time: Viola Davis as Amanda Waller introduced the officials to the Enchantress

'Meet the Enchantress. Everything we know about her is in your briefing packets,' Waller told the group.

'She's walked this earth for a very long time and will likely be here when we're long gone,' she said solemnly.

'This meeting is now a magic show?,' asked a military man.

Lukewarm welcome: The military men watched the transformation take place

Required reading: Waller told the men to read their packets for information about the ancient Enchantress

Good question: One of the military men asked if the briefing was a magic show

Incredible things: Waller warned the men that the Enchantress can do some 'pretty incredible things'

'Magic or not this girl can do some pretty incredible things,' Waller warned.

Suicide Squad stars Will Smith as Deadshot, Jared Leto as Joker and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

The Warner Bros Pictures film is due out on August 5 in the US and UK.
Earlier this year she was infamously accused of having 'ugly feet' by Today host Savannah Guthrie.

But Penelope Cruz proved she has nothing to be ashamed of as she stepped out in a pair of chic wedge heels in New York on Thursday.

The Latin lovely showcased her delicate trotters as she went for a sun-kissed summer walk in the Big Apple.

Look at my left foot: Penelope Cruz once again proved she has beautiful trotters as she stepped out in New York on Thursday

The 42-year-old Blow beauty showcased her lithe figure in a flattering summer dress, which boasted a high hemline that drew attention to her slender pins.

But her was her dainty feet that really stole the show, thanks to her trendy wedge heeled strappy sandals, which she wisely wore without white socks.

Penelope was visibly shaken when she appeared on Today to promote Zoolander 2 earlier this year, only to be accused of having horrible hooves.

The saucy Spaniard shrieked, 'no, no no,' after being quizzed on the delicate subject in front of the show's five million viewers.

Shady lady: The saucy Spaniard looked as cool as a cucumber in the summer head in her sunglasses

Well behooved: The former ballerina's delicate feet were truly a sight to behold on her grand day out

Salon quality: It is easy to see why the luxuriously barneted star has shot adverts for L'Oreal

Savannah decided to broach the subject during the February interview by insisting it was the Girl of Your Dreams star herself who said it first.

She said: 'I don't even know how I feel about this, I think you said it, that you, despite what you look like... you've said you have ugly feet.'

Savannah tried to dig herself out of her unfortunate hole by saying she thought that was the case 'because you were a dancer.'

Turning heads: It must have been difficult for passersby to decide whether to steal a glimpse at her beautiful face or her dainty feet

Dressed to impress: Her gown boasted both a tantalisingly low cut neckline and an adventurously high hemline

Old pro Penelope, who studied classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, then explained the tribulations a ballerina goes through.

She said: 'When you're a ballet dancer, you lose your toenails. You get used to throwing them away. You don't even feel it anymore.'

Mrs Javier Bardem then turned the conversation back to her trotters, insisting, 'I think they are normal.'

Former lawyer Savannah used this as the perfect excuse to end their chat, drawing a line under the matter by saying, 'We'll leave it at that.'

Looking down her nose at her feet: Savannah Guthrie glanced at the star's trotters as she asked about her 'ugly feet' on Today earlier this year

Ofendido: The Latin lovely looked rather disgruntled at the TV host's offensive line of questioning
She had spent almost two weeks in France shooting scenes for the Fifty Shades franchise.

And Dakota Johnson showed off her well-put-together airport style as she returned from Europe on Thursday.

The actress, who plays Anastasia Steele in the erotic movies, has completed shooting all of the remainder films in the series.

Getting it right: Dakota Johnson, 25, showed off her well-put-together airport style as she returned from Europe on Thursday

Dakota, 25, arrived at LAX wearing a button-up blue blouse, which she tied at the ends.

She paired her collared top with a set of dark skinny jeans.

The actress added a bit of menswear flair with penny loafer style dress shoes.

For work: She had spent almost two weeks in France shooting scenes for the Fifty Shades franchise

Done! The actress, who plays Anastasia Steele in the erotic movies, has completed shooting all of the remainder films in the series

'50's style: Dakota, 25, arrived at LAX wearing a button-up blue blouse, which she tied at the ends

The actress did not appear tired from her hours-long flight, as her make-up and hair looked loosely styled.

Dakota wore her medium-length tresses down and in loose waves.

The actress had rosy cheeks and a soft pink lip, which was in accordance to her usual natural look.

Natural look: The actress had rosy cheeks and a soft pink lip

For almost two weeks, Dakota and co-star Jamie Dornan, 34, have been filming the controversial Fifty Shades franchise in France.

The two were present during the tragic Nice shooting, but all cast and crew was reported safe.

The duo have wrapped filming of the entire franchise, with the remainder two movies set for a 2017 and 2018 release date.

'Fifty Shades is wrapped. Thanks to all the fans who came to support us,' wrote the book's author, E. L. James, on Twitter.
It looks like Miranda Kerr has gone straight back to work after announcing her engagement to Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel earlier this week.

Taking to Instagram,on Friday the 33-year-old Australian model shared a photo of herself with some female pals, tagging Japanese fashion company Samantha Thavasa in the snap.

'Always a pleasure working with you girls (sic),' the mother-of-one wrote next to the image, in which she showcased a glowing and flawless complexion.

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Picture perfect: Miranda Kerr shared this photo of herself with some female pals on Friday, the first social media snap since announcing her engagement to Snapchat founder Evan Spieglel

Staring into the camera lens with her beautiful blue eyes, Miranda showed off her caramel tresses that were combed to one side.

A hint of her light strappy blouse was visible to social media followers, while she completed her look with a slick of pink lipstick.

Earlier this week Miranda accepted the proposal from 26-year-old tech superstar Evan, who she has been dating for one year.

'They are extremely happy,' a spokesperson for the Snapchat CEO told DailyMail.com exclusively.

Set to wed: Earlier this week Miranda accepted the proposal from 26-year-old tech superstar Evan, who she has been dating for one year

Happy news: Miranda posted this image to Instagram which confirmed her engagement to Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel

Miranda later shared an image of her stunning sparkler to Instagram confirming that Evan had indeed asked her to be his wife, with the beaming message: 'I said yes!!!'

Forbes has valued Spiegel - who founded Snapchat while he was still at Stanford - at $2.1billion, making him one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world.

Miranda and Evan stepped out in public together as a couple in June 2015 after first meeting at a Louis Vuitton dinner in New York City in 2014.

It will be a second marriage for former Victoria's Secret model Miranda.

Kerr, who has a five-year-old son Flynn with her ex-husband Orlando Bloom, shot to fame as one of the faces of Victoria's Secret.

The model stepped down as one of the brand's Angels in 2013, and since then has done campaigns for companies including H&M, Swarovski, Reebok and Wonderbra.
Melissa McCarthy headed to her meeting with a big satisfied smile on her face on Thursday.

And that kiss and hug from her doting husband Ben Falcone certainly helped as the 45-year-old actress set off on her merry way in Los Angeles.

Melissa was dressed up for success in a large and loose red and white plaid blouse over white trousers and burgundy lace-up heels.

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Happy trails: Melissa McCarthy headed to a meeting in LA on Thursday with a big satisfied smile

A creamy lace scarf was wound around her neck and fluttered to her knees while a stylish bag hung from her arm.

Ben, 42, didn't let his wife of 11 years get by with some PDA, however.

The couple proved they're still very much in love and in sync as they embraced and smooched right there on a tree-lined sidewalk.

Thanks, honey: The 45-year-old comedienne certainly got a boost from husband Ben Falcone during their show of PDA

Kiss me, silly: The couple - who have been wed 11 years - embraced and smooched right there on the sunny sidewalk

Go get 'em: Melissa clutched an iced coffee and a chic handbag as she set off for her meeting

Ben looked relaxed behind his tinted aviator shades that kept the bright California glare out of his eyes.

He was wearing shorts, a blue T-shirt and navy trainers as he wrapped his arms around the Bridesmaids star.

The comedienne has been busy of late promoting her summer flick Ghostbusters, which has an all-female cast including Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.

Pretty in plaid: The clothing designer wore a fetching ensemble that featured a large plaid print blouse and white trousers with lace-up burgundy shoes

Where did I put my keys: Melissa dug around her large purse for what seemed to be her car keys

The film has received mixed reviews from critics and some scathing comments from fans of the original Ghostbusters flick from 1984 starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.

'All those comments - "You're ruining my childhood!" I mean, really,' Melissa told The Guardian in regards to the haters. 'Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood?'

Added the star: 'I have a visual of those people not having a Ben (Falcone), not having friends, so they're just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the Internet. I just hope they find a friend.'

Summer blockbuster: The comedienne has been busy of late promoting her summer flick Ghostbusters, which has an all-female cast including Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon

Melissa, who gained fame after starring as Sookie St. James on Gilmore Girls (2000 to 2007) shares two daughters with Ben, Georghette, six, and Vivian, nine.

She's also made a name for herself as clothing designer and launched the fall collection of her Melissa McCarthy Seven7 line just recently.

Melissa, who has lost a reported 75 lbs in the past two years, doesn't want her appearance to be the focus.
She courted controversy on Monday when she called for Australia to halt Muslim immigration.

And Today Show host Sonia Kruger, 50, was spotted looking tired as she stepped out with her husband, Craig McPherson, and their baby girl, Maggie, on the Gold Coast on Friday.

Sonia jetted to the Gold Coast for a weekend getaway immediately after her appearance on Friday morning's episode of the Today Show.

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Laying low: Today Show host Sonia Kruger, 50, was spotted looking pale and withdrawn as she stepped out with her husband Craig McPherson and their baby girl Maggie on the Gold Coast on Friday

The fair-haired journalist appeared decidedly sombre as she pushed her daughter's stroller across the road with one hand, while balancing a carton of take-away drinks in the other.

With her eyes obscured behind a pair of aviator-style sunglasses, Sonia barely cracked a smile as she passed onlookers.

Dressed for Queensland's oft-tropical climes, Sonia was clad in a loose-fitting pair of ripped jean shorts and an oversized black T-shirt that swamped her petite frame.

Out of town: Sydney-based Sonia jetted to the Gold Coast for a weekend getaway immediately after her appearance on Friday morning's episode of the Today Show

Reserved: The fair-haired journalist appeared decidedly sombre as she pushed her daughter's stroller across the road with one hand, while balancing a carton of take-away drinks in the other

Shaded: With her eyes obscured behind a pair of aviator-style sunglasses, Sonia barely cracked a smile as she passed onlookers

Casual: Dressed for Queensland's oft-tropical climes, Sonia was clad in a loose-fitting pair of ripped jean shorts and an oversized black T-shirt that swamped her petite frame

She completed her look with a pair of sneakers and a set of delicate gold earrings.

The mother-of-one appeared to have spent time shopping, having thrown a plastic bag containing a newspaper over the arm of her child's stroller.

Later her husband, Craig, was spotted hoisting his daughter into his arms so that Sonia could load up the stroller with more shopping bags.

Laid-back: She completed her look with a pair of sneakers and a set of delicate gold earrings

Running errands: The mother-of-one appeared to have spent time shopping, having thrown a plastic bag containing a newspaper over the arm of her child's stroller

Craig looked relaxed in a blue T-shirt, grey jersey shorts and a faded pink cap.

He completed his look with a pair of leather flip-flops and a set of spectacles.

Meanwhile, Little Maggie looked adorable in a pink long-sleeve top, black trousers and sneakers.

No fuss: Craig looked relaxed in a blue T-shirt, grey jersey shorts and a faded pink cap

Helping hands: Later, her husband Craig was spotted hoisting his daughter into his arms so that Sonia could load up the stroller with more shopping bags

Cute! Meanwhile, Little Maggie looked adorable in a pink long-sleeve top, black trousers and sneakers

Sonia has undoubtedly had a tumultuous week since her controversial appearance on Monday's installment of Today Extra.

Her comments were made during a fiery panel discussion with her co-host, David Campbell, on the topic of terrorism.

'Personally, I would like to see it stop now for Australia because I want to feel safe as all of our citizens do when we go out to celebrate Australia Day,' the media personality said.

Controversy: Sonia has undoubtedly had a tumultuous week since her controversial appearance on Monday's installment of Today Extra

Sparking a media firestorm: Her comments were made during a fiery panel discussion with her co-host David Campbell on the topic of terrorism

Speaking out: 'Personally, I would like to see it stop now for Australia because I want to feel safe as all of our citizens do when we go out to celebrate Australia Day,' the media personality said

The television host said she had 'a lot of very good friends' who were Muslims and peace-loving, beautiful people. 'But there are fanatics.'

The remarks have sparked a social media firestorm but in response Kruger said 'it was vital to discuss these issues without automatically being labelled racist'.

She told the panel Japan has a population of 174 million people and 100,000 Muslims and the country never suffers terrorist attacks.

Her remarks drew a passionate response from the morning program's co-host David Campbell, who interrupted her as she began to talk about journalists being 'threatened' and freedom of speech.

Giving her point of view: The television host said she had 'a lot of very good friends' who were Muslims and peace-loving, beautiful people. 'But there are fanatics'

Treading carefully: The remarks have sparked a social media firestorm but in response Kruger said 'it was vital to discuss these issues without automatically being labelled racist'
The official cast of The Real Housewives of Sydney was announced on Friday and the vibrant ladies already look set to rival their Melbourne counterparts, when it comes to drama and scandals.

The seven diverse women selected for the outrageous series include a controversial politician's wife, a former Miss Australia 2002 and a glamorous real estate agent.

Leading the pack is Melissa Tkautz, who most Australians will already know from her days as a '90s pop star and soap actress.

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Crazy ladies! The colourful cast of The Real Housewives of Sydney was unveiled on Friday

The blonde bombshell, now 42, found fame on E Street before launching a pop career with the chart-topping hit, Read My Lips - which picked up the 1992 ARIA award for Highest Selling Single.

'I'm quite introverted, so I think this [show] will be good for my self-esteem,' Melissa told Daily Mail Australia.

Speaking about the cast, the married mother-of-two said: 'We're all over the top, we're all eccentric, we've been chosen for a reason.'

'We're all over the top, we're all eccentric, we've been chosen for a reason,' said cast member Melissa Tkautz, who most Australians will know from her time as a pop star and soap actress

The beauty has also starred in All Saints, and famously posed for the December 1996 issue of Australian Playboy.

Another early standout is Persian beauty expert Matty Samaei, who runs the luxury Double Bay beauty clinic, Medispa.

The exclusive establishment calls itself as 'an elite and very discreet cosmetic injectable practice which fuses artistry with world class medical science,' and boasts A-list clientele such as model Tegan Martin and PR maven Roxy Jacenko.

Sexy (Is the Word)! The 42-year-old posed for Playboy's 1996 December issue

Hitmaker: The former pop princess is best known for her hit single 'Read My Lips,' which picked up the ARIA award for the Highest Selling Single 1992

Stunning Matty is used to the limelight, having already appeared on television multiple times to share beauty tips and secrets.

The stunner, who lives in Bellevue Hill with her partner and her two young daughters, often rubs shoulders with celebrities, and has been spotted with everybody from Jesinta Campbell to Kim Kardashian.

'Hopefully I can inspire other women in Australia,' Matty told Daily Mail Australia about her role on the show, before adding: 'I'm really not in it to boost my business, I hope that I can be more of an inspirational person.'

'Hopefully I can inspire other women in Australia,' says Persian beauty expert Matty Samaei

She continued: 'What an honour to represent the greatest city in the world, to the world.'

Real estate agent Krissy Marsh, who is described by Foxtel as 'the quintessential Australian girl,' admits that she's 'excited' for the show to start.

The former model now lives in Double Bay with her three children, while her husband of fourteen years is based in Shanghai for business.

'I'm really not in it to boost my business:' The confident blonde runs her own boutique cosmetic injectable practice called Medispa, which is used by celebrity clients like Tegan Martin and Roxy Jacenko

The future reality star says her long-distance marriage 'isn't the ideal situation,' but that she's hoping their business 'settles down a bit more soon' so he can spend more time with the family in Sydney.

Krissy describes herself as 'crazy, cheeky, [and] naughty,' and says the show, 'is going to be a fun ride, so buckle up.'

She'll be joined by friend Victoria Rees, a divorced Bondi-based socialite who decided to sign on after being persuaded by Krissy.

'It's going to be a fun ride!' Krissy Marsh is described by Foxtel as 'the quintessential Australian girl.'

Long distance love: The mother-of-three lives in Double Bay while her husband of 14 years is based in Shanghai for business, which she admits 'isn't the ideal situation'

The blonde beauty, who shares a striking resemblance to RHOM's Gamble Breaux, has been married twice and is currently single for the first time in her life.

'I met my second husband the day I left my first husband,' she revealed.

The taut blonde, who divorced her second husband in 2014 after ten years of marriage, confessed that the split was 'incredibly hard' on her 12-year-old son.

'He was devastated,' she said, before explaining that she's not ready to bring another man into her life or her son's right now.

'I met my second husband the day I left my first husband!' Divorced socialite Victoria Rees is another standout cast member

Bringing an artistic flair to the series is Athena Levendi, a successful 'painter, sculptor and jewellery designer.'

The regal artist has three children, and lives in Bellevue Hill with her husband, who owns and runs Levendi Jewellers.

She's confident that Sydney will be the superior Housewives franchise, telling Daily Mail Australia that some of the Melbourne ladies 'lack decorum' and 'look like retired casino waitresses.'

Despite her harsh words, the creative spirit calls herself 'a softer character' and insists: 'I'd never go out for somebody to harm them. I'm not prickly or abrasive or rude.'

'I'd never go out for somebody to harm them. I'm not prickly or abrasive or rude,' says artist Athena Levendi

'They look like retired casino waitresses,' said Victoria when asked about the Real Housewives of Melbourne

Adding some sex appeal to the series is Nicole Gazal ONeil, a former Miss Australia 2002 turned glamorous party planner.

The busty beauty, who runs her own event planning business, was born in Dubai to a Swedish mother and Lebanese father, but was raised in Sydney.

Last but not least is the controversial Lisa Oldfield, wife of former One Nation co-founder David Oldfield.

Busty babe! Busty bronzed beauty Nicole Gazal ONeil adds some sex appeal to the cast

The 41-year-old brunette made headlines this week when she slammed One Nation co-founder, Pauline Hanson, for claiming that she had sex with David on the first night that they met, a claim which he strongly denies.

For the past two decades Mr Oldfield, who co-founded One Nation with the red head, has staunchly denied having sex with Ms Hanson in a motel room the night that the pair first met, in a pub, back in 1996 after Pauline's iconic maiden speech.

Lisa, who has been married to the ex-politician since 2001, said the controversial Pauline's ongoing claims the two had a sexual relationship is 'poor form'.

Here she is: The brunette is a former beauty pageant contestant, having been crowned Miss Australia 2002

Successful: Nicole now runs her own successful event planning business called Pret-a-Party

'Her suggestion is that they slept together on what was essentially a first date so it was very poor form and really a bad reflection on her I think,' she said in an A Current Affair segment.

Lisa is no stranger to the spotlight, having previously co-hosted the Channel Nine daytime show, The Catch-Up, in 2007.

The mother-of-two hit the headlines in May after calling a fellow passenger a 'fat f**k' during a flight and comparing her to portly Game Of Thrones character Walda Frey.

Shocking: The outrageous and outspoken Lisa Oldfield rounds out the cast

Shocking: Lisa is the wife of former One Nation co-founder David Oldfield

'Me in bra and knickers was 100 times less offensive than her clothed!' Lisa made headlines in May after calling a fellow passenger on a flight to Hawaii a 'fat f**k' after the passenger was offended by her getting changed into pajamas on board

Lisa is believed to have offended the fellow traveller after she stripped down to her underwear to put on her pyjamas during the flight to Hawaii, the Daily Telegraph reported.

'Nice to see #walda #frey getting away from #winterfell #got #hawaii #fatf**k,' she wrote alongside the Instagram image.

The outspoken TV host attempted to justify the social media post saying: 'Walda couldn't fit in to an economy seat so was bumped to first.

'Me in bra and knickers was 100 times less offensive than her clothed.'

The ten-part, one-hour series is set to premiere on Australian screens next year.
Sequins, glitter balls and fake tan at the ready - ITV have announced that they are planning a new celebrity filled show to rival Strictly Come Dancing.

With a budget of millions, Dance Dance Dance, will feature famous faces teaming up with a close friend or family member to recreate an iconic dance routine.

Bosses say they are planing to blow the hit BBC One Saturday night show 'out of the water' with an all-star line-up and 'mind blowing' special effects.

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High kick: ITV have announced that they are planning a new celebrity filled show to rival 'Strictly Come Dancing', due to be filmed later this year

A source told The Sun newspaper: 'For the past 12 years ITV has seen Strictly pull in massive ratings and gain a huge fan base of all ages.

'But ITV have finally decided it's time to hit back and splash the cash on a super flashy show called Dance Dance Dance, which they bought from the company behind The Voice.

'Dance Dance Dance's budget will blow Strictly out of the water as producers are planning to incorporate revolutionary special effects and recruit some huge names.

Bit of bling: With a budget of millions, Dance Dance Dance, will feature famous faces teaming up with a close friend or family member to recreate an iconic dance routine

'This new launch will certainly unsettle the BBC as Dance Dance Dance has the potential to knock their flagship show.'

The show is set to start filming later this year and will be aired at the start of 2017.

Contestants will perform a well-known routine, such as moves from Michael Jackson music videos, which will be recreated with special effects that mimic the original setting of the dances and create a 3D world around the performance.

A celebrity pairing will by voted out each week after being judged by an expert panel, who are yet to be announced.

It's time: ITV have finally decided it's time to hit back and splash the cash on a super flashy show called Dance Dance Dance, which they bought from the company behind The Voice

A similar format has been successful in the Netherlands and includes lots of viewer interaction including an app that shows judges reactions while the performance is happening and backstage gossip.

Producers also think they have a better chance of securing high-profile celebrities as they will be dancing with someone they know so there's no chance of the 'Strictly' curse' happening.

The insider continued: 'Celebrities will be given the chance to actually spend time with those close to them but ITV are also hoping this dynamic will create strops between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters.'

Up close and personal: Producers also think they have a better chance of securing high-profile celebrities as they will be dancing with someone they know so there's no chance of the 'Strictly' curse' happening

Strictly has gained a certain notoriety for couples sharing more than just a Tango whilst competing on the show, after a string of dancing partners have become romantically involved.

Earlier this month former Strictly stars Ben Cohen and Kristina Rihanoff announced the birth of their daughter, following a whirlwind romance after meeting on the show which saw Ben leave his wife of 13 years.

Other couples who met on the show include Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev and Jimi Mistry and Flavia Cacace who married in 2013.
She is known for her incredible curves and never fails to display her show-stopping figure on the red carpet.

But Sofia Vergara took things one step further as she flaunted her envy-inducing hourglass shape in a series of sexy selfies while shooting new movie The Brits Are Coming on Thursday.

The Modern Family star, 44, oozed sex appeal as she stripped down to a rather risque lace corset, tiny hotpants and suspenders in a snap shared with her 9.3 million Instagram followers.

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The lady is a vamp: Sofia Vergara flaunted her envy-inducing hourglass shape in a rather risque lace corset, tiny hotpants and suspenders in a series of sexy selfies on Thursday

Flaunting her killer curves and ample cleavage in the low-cut lingerie, the Colombian actress pouted into the mirror as she snapped away.

Sofia captioned the shot: 'Just another day at the office #setlife #thebritsarecoming.'

Adding to the steamy selfie, the screen siren channelled the bed head look as she wore her hair loose and wild to one-side.

Continuing to set pulses racing, Sofia's vibrant red lipstick and smokey eyeliner was purposely smudged as she flashed her enviable engagement ring from husband of eight months, Joe Manganiello, 39.

Glamour: The Modern Family star, 44, oozed sex appeal as she got to work on the set of her latest movie, The Brits Are Coming

Adding a number of pictures from the set of her new movie, the actress also posed in a series of elegant black dresses that hugged her every curve.

Starring in the comedy alongside Uma Thurman, Stephen Fry and Alice Eve, the actress shared pictures in an elegant black fishtail dress with a statement diamond necklace and fifties inspired knee-length dress.

Film sets aside, the bubbly actress has revealed the strain of trying to live up to people's standards on social media and how it can become 'overwhelming'.

Although an Instagram queen, the confident star admitted to People magazine that social media puts incredible pressure on women int his day and age.

Relaxed: Adding a number of pictures from the set of her new movie, the actress also posed in a series of elegant black dresses that hugged her every curve

Birthday girl: Sofia recently celebrated her 44th birthday with her husband, Magic Mike hunk Joe Manganiello, 39, who she married in Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2015 after 18 months of dating

'I think it's so hard, not just for me, but for every woman,' she said.

'Now with the social media and all the craziness with the Internet  you see how women look everywhere in the world. Its very overwhelming.'

'Its like, "Oh, I should exercise more. Should I eat less? Should I cook more greens? Should I put more makeup on?" Its a lot.'

Sofia has a 23-year-old son, Manolo, with her first husband, high school sweetheart Joe Gonzalez.

The actress tied the knot with Magic Mike hunk Joe Manganiello in Palm Beach, Florida, in November 2015 after 18 months of dating.
Can a Small Business Invest in Stocks?

When you own a small business, it's all about income. A classic shop or store may have profits from sales or service. A startup may have venture capital money coming in. In either case, you might need to get a little more creative with your revenue streams. Individuals and investment funds can make money off the stock market, so why not your small business?

But before you start day trading with company funds, here's what you need to know about your small business investing in stocks.

Stocks, Funds, and Indexes: A Word of Caution

Just because you can invest in stocks doesn't mean you should invest in stocks. Most small business owners and entrepreneurs are already focused on the company's day-to-day operations and don't have time to keep an eye on the market, much less execute a high number of stock trades. You're probably trying to simplify things, and the last thing your small business needs is a day-trading distraction.

But you don't have to pick and choose your stocks one at a time. You can also invest in an index fund that includes groups of stocks and is designed to mirror the stock market's performance as a whole. These can be less risky and require less maintenance over time.

Before you begin, consider the legal and tax implications of investing based on your business's structure.

Investing Through a Legal Business Structure

Most businesses register as legal entities through state regulatory authorities. With so many different entity types for owners to choose from, there are certain considerations you should take into account before investing through a business structure:

Can an S-Corp Invest In Stocks?

If your small business is incorporated as an S-corporation (S-corp), there are no more legal restrictions on stock purchases than placed on an individual. So most small businesses can buy and sell stock the same way a normal person does. You may need to pay more attention to how your small business will be taxed on any profits you make from dividends or stock sales.

As The Arizona Republic points out:

You may wonder: since there's no tax at the corporate level in an S corporation, can you sell the stock in the corporation and defer taxes on it for as long as you hold it in the corporation. Unfortunately, you can't. The moment you sell the stock, the profit on the sale flows out of the S corporation to you and becomes taxable income.

So, if you're going to play the market with company money, make sure you have a qualified tax attorney on your side to keep it all legal.

Can a C-Corporation Invest In Other Companies?

C-corporations (C-corps) are typically larger entities with complex regulations. They can have unlimited investors and can sell shares of stock publicly. Owners of C-corps are subject to what's referred to as a double tax. This means that any profits are taxed at the corporate level and again at a personal level when the owners file their annual tax returns.

Despite the double tax, investing in businesses through a C-corp can still be highly lucrative under the right circumstances. C-corps that invest in foreign businesses are entitled to certain benefits that reduce taxes paid on the profits from those investments. Here, the corporation pays what's called a Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) tax. This tax ranges between 10.5-13.5%, much lower than the typical 21% federal corporate tax rate.

Can an LLC Invest In Stocks?

Limited liability companies (LLCs) can be a great way to reduce an owner's tax liability. That's because LLCs can choose to be taxed like S-corps, thus avoiding the double tax. Additionally, multi-member LLCs allow owners to pool their investment capital together according to the terms of their operating agreement.

LLCs are simple to establish and are a go-to for startups looking for a quick and easy path to liability protection. For this reason, investment experts often recommend that partners organize as an LLC before pooling their monies for investment. Keeping a diligent record of all investments made through the LLC would be best. Also, pay careful attention to avoid commingle your personal and business assets. Doing so could potentially remove the liability shield afforded through LLCs. Click here form an LLC in your state, including Texas and Pennsylvania.

Partnerships and Sole Proprietorships

LLCs (and their close relative, limited liability partnerships) protect owners' personal assets from the debts and obligations raised by the company. These protections extend to debts and losses raised through investments.

Alternatively, general partnerships and sole proprietorships offer no such protections. As such, it is not generally encouraged to purchase stock or make investments through these entities. Instead, owners should register their entities as LLCs or corporations before investing through the business. This can be done at any point during the life of a partnership or sole proprietorship.

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Fear and trembling are at the heart of the new trailer for Snowden released at Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday.

The film promises to tell the story of Edward Snowden, who is perhaps one of the most controversial figures of the last few decades and branded, depending on who you talk to, as a whistleblower, patriot, and traitor after leaking classified intelligence information from the National Security Agency.

The brand new clip sees a team of reporters coming to Snowden's hotel room door as he prepares to release the classified information.

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Whistleblower: Fear and trembling are at the heart of the new trailer for Snowden released at Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday

A compatriot instructs the journalists to place their cellphones in the microwave.

After one of them demands to know why, Snowden replies: 'It blocks UHF frequencies.'

He goes on to state: 'I am 29 years old. I work as a private contractor for the NSA; for the CIA; I worked various jobs in the intelligence industry and now that we are in contact they are going to come after you too.'

The tone of the opening moments unfolds into a gripping two minutes and 26 seconds of tense paranoia and international intrigue.

The brand new clip sees a team of reporters coming to Snowden's hotel room door as he prepares to release the classified information

A compatriot instructs the journalists to place their cellphones in the microwave. After one of them demands to know why, Snowden replies: 'It blocks UHF frequencies.'

He goes on to state: 'I am 29 years old. I work as a private contractor for the NSA; for the CIA; I worked various jobs in the intelligence industry and now that we are in contact they are going to come after you too.'

Director Oliver Stone said Thursday at Comic-Con that every major movie studio turned down his narrative film about Edward Snowden because of censorship from their corporate leaders.

Stone, who has chronicled many American conspiracies in his films, said he does not believe an entity like the National Security Agency is putting pressure on the studios, but the corporate boards who control them.

He got financing from France and Germany for the movie, which comes out Septembre 16 and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden.

The tone of the opening moments unfolds into a gripping two minutes and 26 seconds of tense paranoia and international intrigue as it attempts to paint a picture of the controversial figure

Stone said he believes Snowden is still 'a mystery' despite many interviews, articles and the Oscar-winning documentary 'Citizenfour' exploring the former NSA contractor who leaked thousands of classified documents about the government's surveillance programs.

Snowden now lives in Russia, and Stone met with him a number of times in Moscow, trying to gain his trust and decide whether to take on the project.

Gordon-Levitt also tried to get to know Snowden before portraying him. The actor said he was particularly surprised at Snowden's optimism about the ability of technology to positively change the future.

The hunt is on: The first full trailer for the Snowden movie dropped on Thursday promising an all-star cast

The conversation Thursday took a decidedly heady turn, away from the usual fanboy fun and toward big ideas about government transparency and the surveillance state.

'We're promised privacy in the Constitution, and if the government was going to change those rules, they have to be open about it,' Gordon-Levitt said. 'We're supposed to have that conversation and decide together.'

The first full trailer for the Snowden movie dropped in April promising an all-star cast that is there to entertain first, inform second.

Hollywood master: Director Oliver Stone has waved his Academy Award-winning wand over the story of one of the biggest governmental leaks of all time

Will the real Edward please stand up: While the actor does not entirely look like the 32-year-old genius computer analysis (pictured right in 2013) he has certainly tried to replicate the way Snowden speaks

Director Stone waved his Academy Award-winning wand over the story of one of the biggest governmental leaks of all time.

Snowden is Gordon-Levitt's show with the 35-year-old morphing into the currently-exiled Edward Snowden.

While the actor does not entirely look like the 32-year-old genius computer analysis - attempts were made by adding some glasses and changing his hair style - he has certainly tried to replicate the way Snowden speaks.

Joseph's voice over dominates the trailer which shows flashes of how Snowden went from solider to CIA operative to contractor for the NSA to man willing to risk it all to expose the government's information collection tactics.

A journey: Joseph's voice over dominates the trailer which shows flashes of how Snowden went from solider to CIA operative to contractor for the NSA to man willing to risk it all to expose the government's information collection tactics

Seemed simple: Tasked by his boss - played by fellow big name Nicholas Cage - with 'find[ing] the terrorist in the Internet haystack' Snowden at first hopes to do good by the world and stop the bad guys

Snowden remains a divisive figure in the US with some seeing him as a criminal and traitor while others see him as a hero championing the right to privacy.

If the film follows the trailer's feel, Snowden is set to be an exciting espionage thriller rather than just a simple retelling of the saga.

Tasked by his boss - played by fellow big name Nicholas Cage - with 'find[ing] the terrorist in the Internet haystack' Snowden at first hopes to do good by the world and stop the bad guys.

However, who exactly the bad guys are starts to change, in his mind, quickly.

The trailer shows Snowden becoming increasingly concerned at just what the government does to keep track of citizens, and his role in it.

His reason to be nervous crystallizes as a fellow worker - who is spying at a women changing by accessing her web cam - explains their job.

He says: 'Think of it as a Google search, except instead of searching everything people make public, we're also looking at everything they don't.'

Does not seem right: The trailer shows Snowden becoming increasingly concerned at just what the government does to keep track of citizens, and his role in it

Electronic invasion: His reason to be nervous crystallizes as a fellow worker - who is spying at a women changing by accessing her web cam - says their system is like 'a Google search, except instead of searching everything people make public, we're also looking at everything they don't'

Another character tries to explain why many are not willing to stand up against the NSA's surveillance tactics: 'Most Americans don't want freedom, they want security.'

His concerns grow and even when with his girlfriend, played by Shailene Woodley, he fears they are being watched.

Luckily for us he comes to this realization during a steamy sex scene with The Divergent star.

To love and protect: His concerns grow and even when with his girlfriend, played by Shailene Woodley, he fears they are being watched

They're watching: He comes to this realization during a steamy sex scene with The Divergent star

Proud to be involved: Shailene has previously express admiration for Snowden - who is currently in Russia where he sought asylum after America declared him a wanted man

Chemistry: The pair play a convincing couple in the Oliver Stone-directed film

Shailene has previously express admiration for Snowden - who is currently in Russia where he sought asylum after America declared him a wanted man.

The actress told E! that Snowden was 'selfless' and a 'hero': 'I define a hero as somebody, who against the judgment of other people, if they believe something will positively impact the world and they choose to do it and honor their integrity, that's what I sort of consider a hero, no matter how big or small a feat they create,.

'And in that light, absolutely I think that Edward Snowden is a hero.'

For the show: In real life, once Snowden decided to expose the NSA's tactics, he smuggled out a thumbdrive with what is believed to be 1.7 million classified documents saved on it but Joseph's Snowden does so using an elaborate ruse to get the information out using a Rubix Cube

Taking it to the masses: Snowden handed over the documents to journalist Glen Greenwald who is played by Zachary Quinto

Game on: The real excitement begins as Snowden and the US government start a cat and mouse game

In real life, once Snowden decided to expose the NSA's tactics, he smuggled out a thumbdrive with what is believed to be 1.7 million classified documents saved on it.

But Oliver Stone has made it a bit more exciting, with Joseph's Snowden using an elaborate ruse to get the information out using a Rubix Cube.

After handing over the documents to journalist Glen Greenwald who is played by Zachary Quinto, the real excitement begins as Snowden and the US government start a cat and mouse game, which continues today.

Snowden also stars Melissa Leo, Rhys Ifans, Scott Eastwood, Timothy Olyphant and Tom Wilkinson and is in theatres September 16.

In the run: Snowden remains in Russia where he sought asylum after fleeing the US
She recently enjoyed a sun-drenched Mykonos holiday where she chronicled her daily activities to her 322,000 followers.

But it looked like it was back to reality for Mischa Barton who headed out to do some laundry in West Hollywood on Thursday.

Puffing away on a cigarette, the 30-year-old actress look lost in her own world as she made her way in bright orange shorts which revealed her long legs.

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Domestic goddess: Mischa Barton, 30, puffed away on a cigarette as she headed out to do some laundry in West Hollywood on Thursday

Welcoming a cool breeze, the former O.C star opted for a billowy sheer white blouse and comfortable trainers as she carried the washing detergent.

Sporting a subtle layer of make-up and statement necklace, Mischa allowed her luscious blonde locks to blow effortlessly behind her

Meanwhile, last week, Mischa raised temperatures on her trip to the Greek Island as she shared a racy topless photo on a balcony.

With breathtaking scenery laid out beneath her, the actress puffed on a cigarette in the image, while wearing just a pair of blue skinny jeans.

What you thinking about? The actress look lost in her own world as she made her way in bright yellow shorts which flashed her long limbs

Casual: Welcoming a cool breeze, the former O.C star opted for a billowy sheer white blouse and comfortable trainers as she clung on to the washing detergent

In less than 24 hours, the image garnered well over 12,000 likes and 450 comments from her army of followers, a number of whom remarked that she was 'back to her old self'.

This comes a few days before she was slated over her choice of imagery to accompany a post about a recent US shooting.

Hoping to express her solidarity with the late Alton Sterling's family and apparently the Black Lives Matter movement at large, she posted a bizarre picture to Instagram on Thursday - showing her looking downcast and drinking wine on a yacht.

Daring: She upped the glamour during her trip to Greece where she shared a racy photo on a balcony, where she forewent a top and once again puffed away

In the caption, the actress wrote that she was 'truly heartbroken' after watching the video of the 37-year-old man's shooting at the hands of the police - which has sparked protests in the US.

'This may have been going on forever in the United States but thank god the pigs get caught on camera now. It's unthinkable and an embarrassment to America. The country I was brought up in.

'Somebody make change. We need gun control and unity. And a real President so think about that when this election is around the corner. The world is a precarious place right now. #stop #reflect and #act appropriately,' she wrote.

Controversial: Mischa sparked fury from Alton Sterling supporters and Blue Lives Matter backers earlier this month, when she posted a picture of herself looking downcast on a yacht on Instagram

The choice of image to go with her words sparked widespread criticism from all sides, prompting the star to quickly delete the image.

After forging a glittering career in her late teens and early 20s, Mischa attempted a comeback this year - appearing on Dancing With The Stars - but was booted off after just three episodes.

She is next set to star in the thriller Deserted and the horror The Malevolant.
She's been consumed with racy alter-ego Anastasia Steele for months during filming for the sequel to Fifty Shades Of Grey.

But when Dakota Johnson finished Fifty Shades Darker on Thursday, she seemed to be having trouble shaking off the persona, posting an extremely suggestive photo to Instagram.

Joking that she was having an 'identity crisis', actress Dakota posted a picture of her hand rested on the inside of her thigh in a short sundress.

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Yikes: Dakota Johnson seemed to be channeling her racy alterego Anastasia Steele after filming wrapped on Thursday, when she posted an extremely suggestive picture of her hand rested on her inner thigh

The provocative snapshot featured the caption: 'Ill have an order of Identity Crisis with a side of Whats My Hand Doing, #please.'

With bedhead hair and no make-up, Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson's daughter naturally prompted quite a reaction from her 1.1m followers.

Dakota has spent almost two weeks in France with hunky co-star Jamie Dornan shooting scenes for the latest raunchy book-to-big-screen epic.

Racy scenes: Dakota has been filming with screen hunk Jamie Dornan in France

The book famously follows a love affair between sex-crazed billionaire Christian Grey (played by Jamie) and impressionable Ana (Dakota), a 21-year-old English literature major in Washington.

Despite going topless for some of her racier beach scenes, Dakota was distinctly more covered up as she headed to the airport on Thursday to leave Europe for Los Angeles.

The actress, who reprises her role one year after the original film hit screens, has completed shooting all of the remainder films in the series.

Getting it right: Dakota made her return from Europe to Los Angeles on Thursday after two weeks of filming for Fifty Shades Darker

Done! The actress, who plays Anastasia Steele in the erotic movies, has completed shooting all of the remainder films in the series

Making a sophisticated outfit change, Dakota arrived at LAX wearing a button-up blue blouse, which she paired her collared top with a set of dark skinny jeans.

The actress added a bit of menswear flair with penny loafer style dress shoes and a long blazer over the top of her outfit.

The actress did not appear tired from her hours-long flight or her busy schedule of filming that's been keeping her occupied.

Natural look: The actress was pictured in the car again later in Los Angeles, when she prepared for a drive home

Filming was briefly interrupted by the tragic Nice shooting last week, but all cast and crew was reported safe, shortly after the incident.

They took a brief break, returning to set a couple of days afterwards, allowing them a little respite from the acting commitments.

The duo have now wrapped filming of the entire franchise, with the remainder two movies set for a 2017 and 2018 release date.

'Fifty Shades is wrapped. Thanks to all the fans who came to support us,' wrote the book's author, E. L. James, on Twitter.
As a beauty pageant, it is renowned as a night of glitz and glamour.

And the Miss World Australia 2016 National Final, held at Crown Palladium in Melbourne on Friday night, certainly didn't disappoint.

Real Housewives Of Melbourne star Janet Roach cut a stylish figure on the red carpet in a floor-length white lace gown showing off her petite frame.

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White hot! Real Housewives Of Melbourne star Janet Roach cut a typically stylish figure on the red carpet in a floor-length white lace gown

The gown featured a slip which fell to her thighs, as the semi-sheer skirt skimmed the floor.

Janet's cropped blonde locks were styled to perfection and kept straight in sleek waves framing her face.

The 57-year-old property developer was sporting a full face of make up, adding to her elegant attire.

Preened: Janet's cropped blonde locks were styled to perfection and kept straight in sleek waves framing her face

The stunner also accessorised with a pair of white and silver earrings, complementing her dress perfectly, as well as a collection of dazzling rings.

And away from the glamour of the red carpet, Maminydjama Maymuru, a 19-year-old Yolgnu woman, made history as the first Indigenous model in history to compete at the finals of Miss World Australia.

Ms Maymuru, who goes by the name Magnolia when modelling, is from the remote community of Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land and was representing the Northern Territory.

Making history! Maminydjama Maymuru, a 19-year-old Yolgnu woman, was the first Indigenous model ever to compete at the finals of Miss World Australia

The beauty became a model after being spotted by the director of NT Fashion Week, Mehali Tsangaris, while taking money out of an ATM in Darwin in 2014.

Ms Maymuru initially turned down his offer to walk in fashion week in order to finish her year 12 studies.

However, after being spotted by Mr Tsangaris again a year later, he tried to convince her once again her to take part in the fashion-packed week, which she did in 2015.

Unfortunately for Ms Maymuru, she did not manage to claim the 2016 title, as Madeleine Cowe, a law student from Tully, Queensland was crowned Miss Universe Australia at the event on Friday night.

Ecstatic! Madeleine Cowe was crowned Miss Universe Australia at the event on Friday night

Winner! The beauty is a law student from Tully in Queensland and will now see out all duties as Miss World Australia for the next year

Joining Janet on the red carpet was journalist and television personality Ita Buttrose, who cut a demure figure in an all-black ensemble.

Ita also opted for a floor-length number, in the form of a black beaded skirt which hid the blonde beauty's curves.

The 74-year-old added a simple yet stylish black blazer with satin lapels, which she buttoned at the waist.

Simple: Ita Buttrose cut a demure figure in an all-black ensemble, sporting a beaded black skirt

Mixing it up! Ita kept her blonde tresses styled in simple waves, however she added a bold red lip and matching nail polish for a pop of colour

Ita kept her blonde tresses styled in simple waves, however she added a bold red lip and matching nail polish for a pop of colour.

Meanwhile, gracing the red carpet were former and current Miss World Australia beauties, Courtney Thorpe and Tess Alexander.

Tess, who was wearing her crown on her final night as title-holder, wowed in an embellished midnight blue gown.

Leaning on each other: Gracing the red carpet were former and current Miss World Australia beauties, Courtney Thorpe and Tess Alexander

The frock highlighted Tess' hourglass frame and featured an off-the-shoulder cut, revealing her alabaster skin and decolletage.

The personal trainer from the Gold Coast wore her long copper tresses in curls which fell over her shoulders.

Her Miss World Australia predecessor, Courtney Thorpe, also put on a sleek and sexy display in a figure-hugging black dress.

Posing up a storm! Tess' frock highlighted her hourglass frame and featured an off-the-shoulder cut, revealing her alabaster skin and decolletage

The 26-year-old stunned in the frock which featured a plunging neckline - dipping almost to her belly button.

Her bronzed complexion was glowing and her brown locks were pulled away from her face in a sleek do.

The brunette beauty added a pair of drop earrings for a touch of glamour and kept her make up neutral with a soft pink lip.
Matthew Newton's tumultuous past has been well documented.

But according to Matthew's famous father Bert, the 39-year-old has finally found light at the end of the tunnel.

'I have always prayed for a happy ending, and I think it has arrived,' Bert said of his son in an interview with the Herald Sun this week.

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'I have always prayed for a happy ending, and I think it has arrived': Bert Newton, 78, has revealed that his once troubled son, Matthew, has found happiness

'He is happy, he's doing good things, and that's the most important thing. I'm overjoyed. He is a great writer, he is a great director and a fine actor and he is happy,' gushed the new grandfather, who turned 78 on Saturday.

Matthew, who has struggled with bipolar disorder in the past, moved from his native Australia to the US four years ago following a string of violent-related arrests.

In 2007, he was charged with the assault of his former girlfriend, ex Neighbours star Brooke Satchwell.

New start: Matthew, who has struggled with bipolar disorder in the past, moved from his native Australia to the US four years ago following a string of violent-related arrests

The actor and screenwriter pleaded guilty to common assault, appealing against a twelve-month good behaviour bond and later having the charge dismissed without the bond by District Court Judge Joseph Moore

In 2010 Matthew's girlfriend and reported fiancee, actress Rachael Taylor took out an AVO against him after an attack in the foyer of a hotel in Rome.

Matthew was also charged in 2011 for allegedly assaulting a cab driver on the way to a children's party in Sydney which was later dismissed.

Controversy: In 2007, he was charged with the assault of his former girlfriend, ex Neighbours star Brooke Satchwell

Mug shot: In 2012 he was arrested twice in Miami, Florida for trespassing and resisting arrest and battery

Charges were dismissed after he completed 50 hours of community service among other conditions.

In 2012 he was arrested twice in Miami, Florida for trespassing and resisting arrest and battery.

Matthew Newton controversies 2007: Actor and screenwriter charged with assault of former girlfriend Brooke Satchwell 2010: Rachael Taylor takes out AVO against Matthew after hotel attack 2011: Matthew charged for allegedly assaulting cab driver 2012: Charges from 2011 dismissed, Matthew is arrested twice in Miami 2015: Matthew denies that he has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and says he is 'happy and healthy' Advertisement

The actor previously blamed his outbursts on mental illness but in the 60 Minutes interview he admitted he was at fault for 'any anguish or fault I have ever caused anyone,' adding, 'it's never okay to hit someone.'

In 2015, Matthew shot down claims that he had been admitted to an expensive psychiatric hospital following a psychotic episode.'

'I am happy and healthy. I have been residing peacefully in New York for the last three years with occasional business trips to Los Angeles', he said in a public statement.

This year, Matthew took a step back into the media spotlight when he won critical acclaim for his film From Nowhere.

This year, Matthew took a step back into the media spotlight when he won critical acclaim for his film From Nowhere




She recently split from her Made In Chelsea co-star beau Alex Mytton after almost two years of on-off dating.

But Nicola Hughes seemed determined to show her womanising ex what he is missing as she headed out on a lunch date in London on Friday.

Looking solemn as she wandered through the streets, the reality star, 26, embraced the summer heatwave in a cream bardot playsuit with flirty frill detail.

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Alex who? Made In Chelsea's Nicola Hughes seemed determined to show her womanising ex Alex Mytton what he is missing as she headed out on a lunch date in London on Friday

Putting on quite the leggy display, the blonde model opted for studded black boots while keeping the majority of her attention focused on her phone.

The newly-single TV personality added to the low-key daytime look with circular shades.

Making her way to a cafe, she got herself set up with her laptop and looked deep in thought as she alternated between surfing the web and texting with a coy smile on her face.

Nicola's smile was somewhat surprising given that Alex - who admitted to cheating on her numerous times throughout their relationship - and his ex-girlfriend Binky Felstead, also a Made In Chelsea star, openly mocked her on social media this week.

Summer fun: Looking solemn as she wandered through the streets, the newly-single reality star, 26, embraced the summer heatwave in a cream bardot playsuit with flirty frill detail

Pins on parade: Putting on quite the leggy display, the blonde model opted for studded black boots while keeping the majority of her attention focused on her phone

Hippy chick: The newly-single TV personality added to the low-key daytime look with circular shades

On Monday, Nicola put on a sizzling display as she headed to her local park where she couldn't handle the heat and stripped down to tiny khaki bikini top and scarlet bottoms.

But it didn't go down too well with her ex Alex, who took to social media to throw major shade in a tweet that has since been deleted.

He playfully wrote after seeing the MailOnline pictures of Nicola: Guys I may go to the park alone today..I may also get unchanged and changed again due to the heat, hope no one sees me, that would be s*** [sic].

The hunk's ex-girlfriend and fellow MIC co-star Binky also shared his views and tweeted: 'Cringing enormously right now. When do you plan whilst on the phone??'

She later deleted the tweet as well.

Something to smile about? Making her way to a cafe, she got herself set up with her laptop and looked deep in thought as she alternated between surfing the web and texting with a coy smile on her face

Ouch! Nicola's smile was surprising given that Alex and his ex-girlfriend Binky Felstead, also a Made In Chelsea star, openly mocked her on social media this week

Whatever! Alex took to social media to throw major shade in a tweet that has since been deleted

Nicola suffered extreme highs and lows with her on/off boyfriend Alex and and during last season of the E4 series Alex admitted to kissing another girl while on a lads' ski trip with Jamie Laing.

Co-star Louise Thompson also called their relationship into question while chatting to The Irish Mail as she revealed she couldn't see the romance lasting.

'I just don't think they have a future together,' she said of the reality TV couple. 'I never see the two of them together. I hear about the bad stuff. There is no way I would last in that relationship.'

Too hot to handle! On Monday, Nicola put on a sizzling display as she headed to her local park where she couldn't handle the heat and stripped down to tiny khaki bikini top and scarlet bottoms

Unimpressed: The hunk's ex-girlfriend and fellow MIC co-star Binky also shared his views

Back in May, Alex told BANG Showbiz that they were working through things, explaining: 'Being away - like travelling around Europe and the UK - can put a strain on your relationship.

'I do have a lot of female attention but it's not as bad as everyone thinks. We're good. She's still living with the girls but we're trying to work through things.'

Last month, Nicola was seen enjoying a night out with Cheryl's ex-husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini and appeared to be trying to slip away unnoticed as she left the Chiltern Firehouse with him whilst hiding under her coat.

Alex hinted at the couple's split in June during his appearance at the MailOnline yacht party at the 2016 Cannes Lions Festival

In happier times: Alex - who confessed to cheating numerous times throughout the couple's relationship - and Nicola dated on and off for almost two years after meeting in a Dublin nightclub in August 2014




He has been at the centre of a media storm, after ex Stephanie Davis announced she was pregnant with his baby.

And despite Jeremy McConnell's denials, the 23-year-old former Hollyoaks actress is adamant he is the father.

To add fuel to the fire, reports have now surfaced claiming Jeremy, 26, is lined up to appear on the upcoming Ex On The Beach- and it could clash with Stephanie's due date.

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Next Ex? Reports have surfaced claiming Jeremy, 26, is lined up to appear on the upcoming Ex On The Beach- and it could clash with Stephanie Davis' due date

Reportedly due to start filming around September, a source told the Daily Star: 'MTV were desperate to get Jeremy on board. His party boy ways and social media rants made him top priority.

'Obviously they wanted Stephanie Davis at first but now she's pregnant there's no chance.'

Just weeks after splitting from her on/off boyfriend, Stephanie revealed she was pregnant with his baby.

And speaking about her former Big Brother co-star, she the said the timing couldn't have been worse as she found out a week he was jetting off to Dubai with his new girlfriend.

Exes: Jeremy has been at the centre of a media storm, after ex Stephanie announced she was pregnant with his baby weeks after they split- however he denied he is the father

And despite changing the date of her first scan so he could be present, the actress said 'he didn't turn up' to the big event.

Letting her emotions out, she explained: 'It kills me that he isn't going to be there at the birth to experience it with me. It's all such a mess, I really thought we had a future together. I'll always love Jeremy but he doesn't want to be part of our life.'

In response to Stephanie's bump reveal on last week, Jeremy took to his own Twitter account.

Away for her birth? Reportedly due to start filming around September, a source told the Daily Star: 'MTV were desperate to get Jeremy on board. His party boy ways and social media rants made him top priority'

Turbulent: Stephanie and Jeremy dated for four months and split numerous times

Sharing a screenshot of quotes he previously gave which stated that if he is the father he'd 'be 100 per cent the best dad in the world', the Irish model wrote:

'Article I done months ago , time will tell , I don't need to reiterate again. We were broke up for weeks.'

He added: 'Everything will be dealt with accordingly and mature, but a baby doesn't fix a toxic relationship , end of discussion.'

Steph was quick to hit back though, tweeting minutes after, before deleting: 'No a baby doesn't fix a toxic relationship, especially when there's drugs involved and accusations. U can stick and DNA up ur arse after Putting my period, calling me an escort and drugs. I'm doing this alone, I've not needed u so far and I don't ever want to see u again!'

Excited: Stephanie appears to be slowly coming to terms with the situation, sharing her excitement at discovering the baby's sex on Twitter recently

Hindsight: Speaking to the Loose Women panel, Stephanie said: 'Looking at it now - outside the situation - it [getting pregnant] wasn't the right thing to do considering the relationship and what was going on.

'Ps... U were that conceded u would be a dad u could have asked for a pre DNA test, don't pretend u give one f**k. Only piping up for press.'

She later added: 'Gob sh**e. Right off for a nice day. Only 1 with egg on their face now is him Hope every1 has a fab day. Thankyou SO much for ly comments.'

However Stephanie appears to be slowly coming to terms with the situation, sharing her excitement at discovering the baby's sex on Twitter recently.

Speaking to the Loose Women panel, she said: 'Looking at it now - outside the situation - it wasn't the right thing to do considering the relationship and what was going on.

'But, it just kind of happened... And it was a bit of a shock, because I never would have got pregnant if i thought I was going to go it alone.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative of Jeremy's and Love Island for comment.
She recently broke off her nine-month romance with fellow actor Andrew Steel.

But Heather Maltman, 29, looked anything but heart-broken as she stepped out in Brisbane on Friday night to attend a local film festival.

The former Bachelor contestant was dressed to impress in a curve-hugging blush midi dress and gold body chain.

Hello boys! Newly single Heather Maltman, 29, looked anything but heart-broken as she stepped out in Brisbane on Friday night to attend a local film festival

She completed her look with a pair of brown heels and a matching clutch bag.

Her lips were also painted with a flirty shade of red lipstick, while her green eyes were accentuated with a black flick of liner.

It comes after Heather confirmed the sad news of her recent break-up in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Sultry: The former Bachelor contestant was dressed to impress in a curve-hugging blush midi dress and gold body chain

The twosome first met last year at a festival after Heather was recovering from being dumped by fitness entrepreneur Sam Wood.

Speaking to Fitzy and Wippa on Nova 96.9 last October, the aspiring actress revealed: 'We met at a Melbourne web Festival a week or two after the show and ended up becoming really good friends.'

She continued: 'Because that's my thing, and I didn't want to date because Sam [Wood] polarised my heart.'

Splitsville: It comes after Heather confirmed the sad news of her recent break-up with fellow actor Andrew Steel

Claim to fame! Heather first entered the spotlight as a standout contestant on season three of The Bachelor

Dumped: The brunette beauty was tragically dumped on national TV by fitness entrepreneur Sam Wood

The twosome soon started flaunting their romance at every opportunity, regularly splashing loved-up selfies on social media and walking the red carpet together at glitzy events around Sydney and Melbourne.

Heather's return to single life comes at a bad time now that Channel Ten has already cast ambitious newswoman Georgia Love to front season two of The Bachelorette.

Too late: If Heather had split with Andrew earlier, she may have been able to become the next Bachelorette. Instead, that role has been given to ambitious newswoman Georgia Love (pictured)

The quirky Maltman was a fan favourite during her stint on The Bachelor, and many hoped to see her follow in Sam Frost's footsteps as the next Bachelorette until she started dating Andrew.

The brunette beauty, who co-hosted this year's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! NOW, is now working on launching a career as an actress or director.

In April, she flew to Hollywood to enter a web series she had filmed into festivals.
Amber Rose has risen from exotic dancer to late-night TV personality.

But the 32-year-old evidently still enjoys showing off the assets that won her the first job.

On Thursday, the SlutWalk figurehead was spotted in Beverly Hills wearing a pair of black leggings that drew attention to her signature bulging behind.

Tight fit: Amber Rose modeled black leggings that flaunted her curves as she ran errands in Beverly Hills On Friday morning

Taking care of business: The former Mrs Wiz Khalifa answered the phone as she walked past a pharmacy in Beverly Hills

Her sleeveless grey crop top allowed her to display the labyrinth of tattoos going up and down her arms. In a tribute to careful planning, one of them is a portrait of her husband Wiz Khalifa, with whom she finalized her divorce in June.

A pair of black sunglasses clashed stylishly with gold hoop earrings and a platinum blonde buzz cut.

Her hairdo marks a change from earlier in the week, when Kanye West's ex-girlfriend underwent a startling makeover that included a Marilyn Monroe-esque wig.

On the move: Early on Friday morning Amber was spotted at LAX airport. She had on a white shirt under a black pair of Tommy Hilfiger overalls

Her son by Khalifa, Sebastian Taylor Thomaz, will be disappointed she returned to her old look. In an adorable Instagram video Rose posted Thursday, her three-year-old told her, 'I like you with hair,' despite the fact that, 'You look like a monster.'

The Philadelphia native discussed her son and his father during last Friday's episode of her new eponymous talk-show.

Pregnancy, she confided, squelched her sex drive. For a while, Khalifa still wanted to be intimate with her, and she 'would act like I was into it, but I'd be like, "Please, just hurry up and get off of me."'

Keeping her eyes hidden: The ex of Kanye West also kept her sunglasses on as fans followed her

By her ninth month, though, 'he was like, "The baby's kinda big now. It's a weird. Like, I feel like I'm gonna hit my son in the head."'

Early on Friday morning Amber was spotted at LAX airport. She had on a white shirt under a black pair of Tommy Hilfiger overalls.

The ex of Kanye West also kept her sunglasses on as fans followed her.

Meanwhile, Rose's pal Blac Chyna, who is expecting a baby by her fiance Rob Kardashian, has no such troubles. 'She says she's always horny all the time,' said the talk-show hostess somewhat incredulously.

The Amber Rose Show premiered on July 8, and airs on VH1 Fridays at 8pm.
He raised nearly $45 million with his self titled foundation's fundraiser on Wednesday night.

So it was understandable that Leonardio DiCaprio was in the mood to celebrate as he hit the dancefloor at the glamorous afterparty in St Tropez's Domaine Bertaud Belieu vineyard.

Showing off some of his best moves, the 41-year-old actor found a dancing partner in the form of a pretty brunette, who seemed more than happy to join him for a spin across the room.

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Party time: He raised nearly $45 million at his fundraiser on Wednesday night. So it was understandable that Leonardio DiCaprio was in the mood to celebrate as he hit the dancefloor at the glamorous afterparty

Unable to keep the smile off his face, the Oscar-winner - who is believed to be dating Nina Agdal - grasped his mystery dance partner by the hand as they put on a cosy display inside the crowded ballroom.

At one point Leo looked particularly enamoured by her ornate earrings, and reached out to get a closer look, seemingly enthralled by their intimate conversation.

The glamorous guest's outfit was just as dazzling as her accessories, with the pretty brunette donning a bardot sleeved figure-hugging black gown that clung to her every curve.

Happy chappie! Unable to keep the smile off his face, the Oscar-winner - who is believed to be dating Nina Agdal - grasped his mystery dance partner by the hand as they put on a cosy display inside the ballroom

It takes two: Showing off some of his best moves, the 41-year-old actor found a dancing partner in the form of a pretty brunette, who seemed more than happy to join him for a spin across the room

Leo was undoubtedly in good company at his event, with a guestlist that boasted the likes of Doutzen Kroes, Lily Donaldson and Joan Smalls.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation fundraiser featured lots donated by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bono, Martin Scorsese and even the chance of being Harvey Weinstein's personal guest to every major society event for a year.

The charity auction was held on behalf of his humanitarian foundation, which was created in 1998 and 'is dedicated to the long-term health and wellbeing of all Earth's inhabitants'.

Mesmorised: At one point Leo looked particularly enamoured by her ornate earrings, and reached out to get a closer look, seemingly enthralled by their intimate conversation

Beautiful in black: The glamorous guest's outfit was just as dazzling as her accessories, with the pretty brunette donning a bardot sleeved figure-hugging black gown that clung to her every curve

Hands on: The star affectionately touched the shoulder of his dancing partner as they tore up the floor

Intense: The pair huddled together for a chat as guests milled around the ballroom beside them

All smiles: Leo seemed in high spirits as he enjoyed a drink on the floor with his dancing buddy

But whilst the glitzy event attracted a host of stars from across the globe, Leo's Danish girlfriend Nina did not seem to be in attendance.

The Victoria's Secret model's abscence from the fundraiser comes after her grandmother warned Leo to treat the starlet well.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline Lona Agdal confessed: 'We have not said hello to him [DiCaprio] but we hope that he behaves towards her. Otherwise he will get me to deal with.

'I can tell you that it is six years since they first met, and now the relationship apparently developed.'

Taking a break: The pair couldn't keep the dancing up all night and stopped for a brief break to talk

Chirpy: Leo was rightfully in good spirits after raising millions for his conservation foundation

Hard to impress: Despite being in A-List company, the pretty brunette seemed slightly distracted

Big fan: Leo seemed drawn to the exquisite jewellery the pretty brunette was wearing

Bust a move: Leo proved his talents didn't only lie in acting as he danced up a storm

Two of a kind: The pair seemed to be enjoying each other's company at the glitzy fundraiser

No-show: Whilst the glitzy event attracted a host of stars from across the globe, Leo's Danish girlfriend, Victoria's Secret model Nina Agdal, did not seem to be in attendance

Nina and Leo were first romantically linked in 2014. The pair were seeing other people, but according to friends hooked up at the Cannes Film festival in May.

Last week they were photographed kissing and cuddling on the beach at Malibu in California, with the very public show of affection a clear sign they were an item.

Leo has previously dated the likes of Toni Garrn, Naomi Campbell and Gisele Bundchen.

Taking a stand: The charity auction was held on behalf of his humanitarian foundation, which was created in 1998 and 'is dedicated to the long-term health and wellbeing of all Earth's inhabitants'

Quids in: Leo raised nearly $45 million with his self titled foundation's fundraiser

Glamorous guests: The fundraiser attracted an A-List crowd, including Bradley Cooper

Heading out: The environmental activist (pictured with Tobey McGuire second left and Vincent Laresca) hopped from helicopter to gas guzzling private jet in Saint Tropez on Friday

Taking to the skies: DiCaprio was pictured donning a pair of camouflage shorts, a purple T Shirt and a straw hat as he made his way across the tarmac in the August heat with his pals
10 Injuries That May Not Be Covered by Workers' Comp

When determining whether a specific injury will be covered by workers' compensation insurance, the deciding factor is whether the injury was work-related. Did it happen while you were working? Or because of the kind of job you were doing? Were you on your way to work or at a work function? Answers to these questions will determine if you can get workers' comp for your injury.

But does that mean any and all injuries are covered by workers' compensation insurance? Here are ten injuries that people most often wonder about when it comes to workers' comp, and how to figure out if you're covered.

Back injuries due to heavy or repetitive lifting seem like a classic case for workers' comp, and some states will presume your hernia is work-related.

This might not be your biggest question in July, but come January you might be wondering if you're covered.

If you work outside, or anywhere hot during the summer, stay hydrated and take plenty of breaks in the shade. And here's what you need to know if you have a heat stroke on the job.

Seasonal and summer employees don't just have to worry about the heat -- the sun can cause damage to your skin over time. If this results in cancer, you may be eligible for benefits.

Having a company cafeteria sounded like a good idea until you got sick. Is the company now responsible?

Those that have gotten one know a migraine can be just as debilitating as a broken leg. But proving that work caused your migraine may be difficult.

If you work long hours in a loud environment without proper ear protection, the effects on your hearing can be devastating. Here's how to prove your hearing loss was work-related.

It may sound strange to get insurance coverage for a drinking problem, but it has happened.

If your injuries are mental rather than physical, can you still recover? It may depend on the state in which you work.

Stress can be hard to identify and difficult to prove, but that doesn't mean that insurance won't cover the effects of your work-related stress.

The best way to know whether you can get workers' comp for your injury is to consult an experienced workers' comp attorney. Most are willing to talk to you about your case for free.

Related Resources:
She's the younger sister of one of the world's most iconic supermodels.

But Lottie Moss proved she wasn't going to stay in Kate's daunting shadow as she shared an eye-popping bikini snap on Thursday.

Treating her Instagram followers, the 18-year-old model showed off her peachy posterior in a tiny pair of paisley print bikini bottoms as she posed overlooking her balcony.

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Bootylicious! She's the younger sister of one of the world's most iconic supermodels. But Lottie Moss proved she wasn't going to stay in Kate's shadow as she shared an eye-popping bikini snap on Thursday

Cheekily referencing her scanty attire, she quipped: 'Suns out bums out [sic].'

Staring ahead, the star seemed at peace as she made the most of the warm weather Britain has been experiencing.

Highlighting her slender waist, the starlet opted for a bikini top with multiple straps that crossed her toned frame, whilst she wore her golden locks loose and tousled.

Model moment: Lottie soared to fame at the tender age of 16 when she signed with Storm Model Management after previously being scouted at sister Kate's wedding to Jamie Hince in 2011

Lottie soared to fame at the tender age of 16 when she signed with Storm Model Management after previously being scouted at sister Kate's wedding to Jamie Hince in 2011.

Despite coming from a famous family, Lottie told Vogue that she felt under no pressure to live up to her sister's reputation.

Gracing the cover of the prestigious style bible earlier this year, she explained: 'I am who I am and I do what I want, whether that is modelling or anything else. The success of my sister does not affect me in my choices. I feel no pressure in that respect.'

No sibling rivalry: Despite coming from a famous family, Lottie told Vogue that she felt under no pressure to live up to her half-sister Kate's reputation in the modelling world

The talented teenager also spoke out about juggling her blossoming career with her education, as she admitted she felt like she was living in 'two worlds'.

She explained: 'One minute I'm in a Dior suite in Cannes and then the next I'm in a classroom in Sussex. I feel like I'm Hannah Montana.

'Its important to me that I manage school and my modelling. I'm now able to fund my own schooling through any jobs I book.'
She was known for dressing to impress during her brief stint on Made in Chelsea.

But Ashley James opted for a pared back look as she cycled on her designer bike in central London on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old reality star appeared entirely composed - despite the heat - after her ride, as she headed into the Hoxton Radio studios to record her weekly show.

Composed: Ashley James opted for a pared back look as she cycled on her designer bike in central London on Tuesday

She rocked a monochrome ensemble comprising black hot pants and a white boob tube exposing her midriff under a long flowing black jacket.

Ashley completed her look with a pair of comfortable black trainers and a matching choker necklace with a gold pendant.

Keeping all her essentials in one place, she wore a practical dark backpack to complement the rest of her outfit. Her highlighted blonde tresses were worn in a relaxed tousled style that flowed behind her as she cycled.

Looking good: The 29-year-old reality star appeared entirely composed - despite the heat - as she headed into the Hoxton Radio studios to record her weekly show

Clearly in high spirits, the radio presenter smiled at photographers as she dismounted her bike and made her way to the east London studio.

Ashley, who soared to fame in 2012 after briefly starring in Made In Chelsea, split from her ex Matt Richardson after dating for a year and a half and although things ended acrimoniously between the pair they are now friends.

She told MailOnline: 'It was a breakup that knocked my confidence. I put everything into a relationship, moved in with someone for the first time and that didn't work.

'I'm a perfectionist and when that didn't work it had a big effect on me and because it was in the public eye it was a difficult change for me.

High spirits: She rocked a monochrome ensemble comprising black hot pants and a white boob tube exposing her midriff under a long flowing black jacket

'With Matt Richardson. We're friends now so it's fine. It was my first difficult breakup where it was in the public eye and it was a difficult time in my life. The stress it caused with my acne and body confidence.'

Ashley revealed the extremity of her body confidence issues led her to having panic attacks before celebrity parties.

'Even up till a few years ago I've had panic attacks before events because I really struggled with body dysmorphia,' she explained.

'So body confidence was something I had in a cock sure way as a teenager then I lost it because there's so much pressure on women. Girls are harsh, so everything I do now is to not tear women down.'

After rumours of a romance with David Walliams, Ashley has recently enjoyed a low-key relationship out of the public eye, although she recently split from her mystery man.

She said: 'I'm recently single and it is difficult like I think I'm a very alpha female, I'm driven, I work a lot, I prioritise my friend a lot also it's hard to know nice guys.'
Lizzy Caplan is engaged.

The Masters Of Sex actress accepted a proposal from boyfriend of over a year, Tom Riley, E! News revealed on Friday. He got down on one knee two months ago while in New York City.

The 34-year-old Caplan, who once dated Friends vet Matthew Perry, met Tom, 35, in January 2015 when she was shooting a project in London.

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Soon to be man and wife: Lizzy Caplan is engaged. The Masters Of Sex actress accepted a proposal from boyfriend of over a year, Tom Riley, E! News revealed on Friday; here they are seen in February

The rock: In June she flashed her diamond solitaire ring at the Now You See Me 2 premiere

Bling! The stone was set in white or yellow gold

They came out as a couple in February when they held hands at the 2016 Prague Opera Ball.

They were also seen vacationing in Italy together.

Riley appeared in the television series DaVinci's Demons and is set to star on Amazon's The Collection this fall.

In June she flashed her diamond solitaire ring at the Now You See Me 2 premiere.

The rock looked to be several carats and set in yellow or white gold.

The beauty had no qualms about showing off the rock.

She even held it up as she pulled on her evening shoulder bag.

And Kaplans' dress matched it perfectly as it was white with gold accents. Lizzy was also beaming as she flashed the stone.

On Friday Lizzy was seen flashing the engagement ring again on her left hand when on a grocery run with Riley.

She appeared rightfully smitten with Tom as she had her arm around him.

Hiding her ring: The beauty kept her left hand out of frame when in NYC in June; they became engaged in May

Once the love of her life: For several years she dated Matthew Perry, who she is seen with here in 2011

As far as children, they appear to be on her mind. In 2014 she told Elle Canada: 'I actually romanticize the idea of a stay-at-home dad.

'Partly because I think that's a very sexy thing, but also because if there are two working actors and both of them get a job and they have a baby, the woman is going to stay with the baby.

'I see it all the time. It just seems very unfair.'

In the fall Lizzy will be back on Masters Of Sex for season four.
Trump promises his presidency will bring 'safety'

Donald Trump will promise fearful Americans that "safety will be restored" if he is elected president, as he accepts the Republican Party's White House nomination Thursday.

"I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end," Trump will say, according to prepared remarks.

In a speech that evokes recent racially-tinged shootings and seemingly indiscriminate terror attacks, Trump will present himself as the law and order candidate.

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump does a sound check on the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on July 21, 2016 Jim Watson (AFP)

"Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities," he will say.

"Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored."

His tough on crime tone are reminiscent of Richard Nixon's election-winning strategy in 1968, and he contrasts the dark mood with a bold promise for better times come inauguration day.

Trump's acceptance speech will be his first major primetime address to the nation and an opening salvo of November's general election.

Trump will hope to put a wretched party convention behind him, one that has been dogged by scandal and rare shows of Republican discord.

Nationwide polls put the New York mogul, who has never held elected office, almost neck and neck Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state heavily criticized over an email scandal.

Clinton, who will formally accept the Democratic nomination at her own convention next week, is expected to steal the limelight on Friday or Saturday by announcing her vice presidential running mate.

- Riven with doubts -

Team Trump will try to paint its candidate as a sheriff and his general election foe as worthy of the local slammer.

Throughout the four-day convention Republicans have rallied around chants of "lock her up."

Speakers lined up to denounce Clinton for the deaths of their loved ones, for dodgy foreign policies and for putting national security at risk by using a private email server for sensitive government information.

Trump will accuse the former secretary of state as being a political insider with "bad instincts" and "bad judgment."

"My message is that things have to change -- and they have to change right now."

"I'm with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you."

It remains unclear if that message will be enough to unite a Republican Party riven with doubts over his candidature.

On Wednesday those doubts were laid bare when his primary rival Ted Cruz pointedly refused to endorse him.

"Vote your conscience," Cruz said, leading to a chorus of boos.

Cruz had at one point pledged to support the eventual nominee, but he was defiant Thursday: "That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I'm going to nonetheless come like a puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife."

Before Trump takes to the stage, his daughter Ivanka will try to warm up the crowd and soften her father's image.

In a slew of emails to supporters Thursday, she spoke of a loving dad who encouraged his young daughter to succeed, of an inspirational leader and a crack negotiator destined to win.

"My father is someone you want fighting for you," she wrote. "He will outwork everyone in the room. He will always stay one step ahead of his competitors."

- Unorthodox campaign -

Trump's campaign has defied political norms -- fueling ethnic tensions, offending key voting blocs, eschewing big-spending ad buys or campaign infrastructure and relying on heavy media coverage.

His roller-coaster campaign defeated 16 rivals and steamrolled stubborn party opposition after being written off as a joke.

He has shocked foreign leaders by questioning key pillars of American foreign policy.

On Wednesday he qualified normally sacrosanct support for NATO allies, warning it would depend "if they fulfill their commitments to us."

Responding to the comments, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told AFP there was a need for solidarity.

"I will not interfere in the US election campaign, but what I can do is say what matters for NATO," he said.

"Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO. This is good for European security and good for US security. We defend one another."

It was left to Trump's pick for vice president, the socially conservative Indiana Governor Mike Pence, to try to overcome the Cruz debacle in delivering a speech introducing himself to voters.

He fed the crowd self-deprecating jokes and a clear conservative message, defending Trump as a man "who never quits, who never backs down" in a message given a standing ovation.

Delgates and signs crowd the floor of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 2016 Robyn Beck (AFP)

America's choice Adrian Leung (AFP)
Baldwin brothers at war over Trump: Alec

Widely regarded as one of the most polarizing figures in modern politics, Donald Trump has stoked a firestorm among Republican leaders and divided middle America.

But the real estate tycoon is also pitting brother against brother in one of Hollywood's most famous families, veteran actor Alec Baldwin revealed on Thursday.

"I have one brother at the Republican convention. It's okay -- my other brother is there protesting Trump," the actor told a laughing audience of around 4,000 at San Diego Comic-Con.

(L-R) Actors and brothers Billy, Stephen, Alec and Daniel Baldwin arrive for the Lotus Cars Launch event on November 12, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Valerie Macon (AFP/File)

The revelation came during a surprise debut appearance by the actor at the annual fan event, to promote "Boss Baby," the story of an infant who turns out to be a cunning businessman who can talk.

"My two brothers are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and I'm here wearing a diaper and telling people what to do," the eldest Baldwin laughed.

The revelation led US presenter and comedian Chris Hardwick, who was hosting the Dreamworks panel, to quip: "There's a Baldwin for every occasion. Bizarre."

Baldwin didn't say which of his three brothers was in Cleveland but Stephen has been a vocal Trump supporter since appearing on the GOP presidential candidate's reality show, "The Apprentice."

The 50-year-old, who starred in "The Usual Suspects," has been giving supportive interviews from the Republican National Convention this week.

The anti-Trump brother is almost certainly "Backdraft" actor William Baldwin, who took part in a march in the city on Tuesday condemning police shootings of African-Americans.

"The vast majority of the cops are good and are well trained," Baldwin told AFP during the demonstration, which was overshadowed by scuffles between rival protesters before Baldwin arrived.

"But I think police practices and procedures have to change. Have to. It doesn't work."
'No terror link' in Australia police station scare

Terror links were Friday ruled out after a man set his car alight and rammed it into a police station in Australia, as officials vowed to review security after the scare.

The man was seen parked in the driveway of the Merrylands Police Station in Sydney's west late Thursday with the car going up in flames when officers approached.

It was then driven into an underground carpark security door.

Police inspect a vehicle that has crashed through the gate of the Merrylands Police Station underground car park in Sydney Sam Mooy (Pool/AFP)

Police said petrol and a gas bottle were found inside by officers who risked their lives to extinguish the blaze and pull out the man, who suffered serious burns. No one else was injured.

A motive has yet to be established but terrorism was ruled out.

"It is the first thing we always go to in terms of our thinking these days unfortunately," said New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

"But the reality is on this occasion, what I can say is this event is not in any way linked to a terrorist attack based on the briefings I have received this morning."

The man, who is under police guard in hospital, was known to officers and reportedly had a history of mental problems. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said he was a Czech national.

The Australian government lifted its terror threat level to high in September 2014 and recently said nine terror events had been prevented since then.

But several have taken place, including the terror-linked murder of a police employee in Sydney in October.

Scipione said security had already been beefed up at police stations across New South Wales state, and it would be looked at again after Thursday's incident.

"Security at this police station is already very, very high," he said, adding that ballistic glass was recently installed and cages put around key areas.

"But we will go back again and have a look at this because we will never stop in doing all we can to secure our police stations for our police."

Attorney-General George Brandis urged caution against every act of violence being seen as a possible terrorist attack, after early reports of the incident suggested a link.

"From what police can determine there is no reason to believe that the event at the Merrylands Police Station last night was a terrorist event and it's important to bear this in mind," he said.

"Not every act of violence, even a pre-meditated or carefully planned act of violence, is an act of terrorism."
Gay tech billionaire tells Republicans to vote Trump

A tech billionaire told the Republican National Convention that he was proud to be gay, admonished the party for not embracing LGBT rights and called on delegates to vote Donald Trump.

"I am proud to be gay. I'm proud to be a Republican," said Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and an early Facebook investor, who Forbes said has a net worth of $2.7 billion.

"I don't pretend to agree with every plank in our party's platform... culture wars only distract us from our economic decline," the 48-year-old entrepreneur said on the last night of the convention.

Speaking at the Republican convention PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel urged the party to focus on the economy and "end the era of stupid wars" Brendan Smialowski (AFP)

"And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump."

The Republican Party's platform opposes last year's Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage across the United States, calling "traditional marriage and family" the "foundation for a free society."

Thiel urged the party to focus on the economy and "end the era of stupid wars" and told them to let people use whichever bathroom they want.

"Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?" he said to cheers.

It was the first time an openly gay speaker addressed the Republican convention since Jim Kolbe, a Republican congressman from Arizona, spoke in 2000 but did not address his sexuality in his remarks.

There is currently heated debate in the United States about whether people can use the bathroom of their choice or the one which corresponds to their gender at birth.

In late March, North Carolina's governor signed a controversial bill blocking cities from permitting transgender individuals to choose which public bathroom to use.

Charles Moran, a California delegate and member of gay group Log Cabin Republicans, told AFP it was "very easy" to support Trump, a New York billionaire with socially liberal views.
Afghan brothers launch new mine-hunting drone

Former refugees Massoud and Mahmud Hassani stunned the world three years ago with an invention like a dandelion puffball that sought to rid the world of landmines.

Now the Afghan brothers are back with their latest creation: a low-cost drone to detect and destroy mines, which each year claim thousands of lives.

Ridding the world of their childhood horror has become the life work of the Hassanis, who now live in the Netherlands.

Former refugees Mahmud (L) and Massoud Hassani hold their latest invention: a low-cost drone that detects and destroys landmines Jan Hennop (AFP)

In 2013, they won worldwide acclaim for the "mine kafon" -- a giant ball shaped like a dandelion-seed head that rolls around with the wind, its plastic stalks tripping landmines in the process.

Inspired by their childhood toys, the kafon -- short for "kafondan" which in the Hassanis' native Dari language means "something that explodes" -- drew high praise from anti-landmine organisations.

- Flying blue octopus -

Now their latest mine-hunting device combines drone technology, 3D printing and robotics with a metal detector to find and ultimately destroy landmines.

Hinged on six arms with rotors that creates lift, the 4.5 kilo (10-pound) drone consists of a blue hard plastic casing that contains batteries, computer hardware and software and a global positioning system.

A robotic arm slung underneath is fitted with pincers that can remotely be opened and closed. The pincers can carry a metal detector or a small explosive charge, which the brothers say can be used to destroy a landmine.

The on-board GPS allows it to plot its course via computer.

Massoud explains that the drone works in three stages: mapping, detecting and destroying.

When deployed, a 3D mapping system scans the section that needs to be demined. Secondly, the mapped area is meticulously sweeped by the drones carrying a metal detector on a pre-programme path.

"This way the mine field in question can be scanned inch-by-inch," Massoud told AFP at his workshop in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven.

Finally, the plan is to destroy the mines by using the drone to place a small charge on every mine to detonate it.

"We believe this way mines can be cleared almost 20 times faster than what they are now," Massoud said.

- 'Time-consuming process' -

So far the duo have built three working prototypes, and have carried out demonstrations before the Dutch military, who say they are willing to help with further testing.

"Clearing minefields is an incredibly time-consuming process," Major Fred de Vries of the Dutch army's explosives ordnance disposal unit told AFP.

"We see many possibilities to use drones" to save time to map and detect landmines in a given area, De Vries said.

The key phase will be to carry out field tests in Afghanistan, which the brothers hope to finance by crowd-funding.

If all goes well, the pair believe the drone can be made for as little as 1,000 euros ($1,100) each.

Other opinions are guarded.

One of them is the Halo Trust, the world's largest humanitarian mine clearing organisation.

It said despite having carried out some "small-scale trials with aerial mapping drones" it did not believe "drones will contribute significantly to the future of mine clearance".

Drones are of limited use in areas covered with vegetation and in poor weather conditions, the trust said.

And even if the drone did find a landmine "a trained human being will still be required to excavate and destroy it," the trust said in a statement.

- Back to Afghanistan -

The brothers are using the Kickstarter online crowd funding platform in the hope of raising 90,000 euros ($100,000) for the final tests.

They want to take it to Afghanistan for testing within the next two months, the first time the brothers will be back in their native country since fleeing the Taliban-ruled Kabul in the late 1990s.

Three years ago a plan to return to Afghanistan to test the original kafon failed.

The "puffball" idea -- while praised for its low technology and cheapness -- meant the device was at the mercy of the winds and could not cover a minefield systematically to guarantee it was cleared, as humans would.

"The mine kafon invention did a lot to create awareness of landmines," Massoud Hassani said.

"We felt that it was now time to do something even more concrete to destroy landmines," he said.

Massoud, 32, fled Afghanistan in 1998, followed two years later by Mahmud, 30. After arduous treks through Pakistan and Uzbekistan the brothers finally made their way to the Netherlands and today hold Dutch citizenship.

Landmines are scattered in 78 countries, and each year kill between 15,000 and 20,000 people and maim countless more, according to UN figures.

Despite huge progress in mine-clearing, Afghanistan remains one of the most-mined countries in the world.

Since 1989, around 703,000 anti-personnel mines, 29,000 anti-tank mines and more than 18 million other pieces of unexploded ordnance have been collected, according to the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA).

There were at least 1,296 Afghan casualties in 2014 resulting from mines, victim-triggered improvised explosive devises and other ordnance left over from the Afghan war, the Geneva-based Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor research group said.

"Our whole life is dedicated to the fight against landmines. As children we saw our friends lose limbs and die," said Massoud.

"It will be great to go back to our country bearing this gift."

In 2013, Massoud (L) and Mahmud Hassani won worldwide acclaim for the "mine kafon" -- a giant ball that trips landmines as it rolls around Jan Hennop (AFP/File)
Hong Kong student leader pleads not guilty

A Hong Kong student protester pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple criminal charges over a demonstration against a pro-Beijing figure, a day after the conviction of an "Umbrella Revolution" leader was blasted by rights activists.

The court cases come with feelings running high in the city over fears that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Billy Fung, former president of Hong Kong University's student union, faces a raft of charges over a protest at the university in January where students stormed a council meeting.

Student leader Billy Fung said he worried other students could be targeted, after pleading not guilty to four charges Anthony Wallace (AFP)

Supporters gathered outside the court to support Fung Friday, a day after teenage protest leader Joshua Wong and two other prominent student activists were convicted for a protest that sparked major pro-democracy rallies in Hong Kong, known as the "Umbrella Revolution".

That prosecution was slammed by rights group Amnesty International, which said the "vague charges" against Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law "smacked of political payback".

Speaking outside the court Friday, Fung said he worried other students could be targeted, after pleading not guilty to four charges -- criminal intimidation, disorderly conduct in a public place, criminal damage and attempted forcible entry.

The charges all relate to the student siege of the meeting in January in protest at the appointment of pro-Beijing Arthur Li to a senior administrative role.

Around 200 students surrounded an HKU building and refused to let both Li, who is council chairman, and the vice-chancellor of the university leave the meeting, according to reports at the time. They said Li "forced" their hand due to his unwillingness to speak with them.

Fung, now 22, was accused of shouting: "Don't let him go! Don't let Arthur Li go! Kill him, kill him!" according to a court charge sheet.

He was released on a cash bail of HK$10,000 ($1,300) and will appear in court again in September for a pre-trial review.

The appointment of Li was made by Hong Kong's unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying -- chancellor of all the city's universities -- and comes after months of controversy and protests over what some see as politically motivated decisions at the prestigious university.

It also tapped in to wider concerns that Beijing interference is affecting academic freedom and freedom of expression in the city.

The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a deal that guaranteed the retention of its civil liberties and capitalist system for 50 years.
Thai cops quiz UK journalist's wife over unflattering royal photos

Thai police on Friday questioned the wife of a British journalist over his social media links to unflattering photos allegedly of the kingdom's crown prince, in a country where insulting the royals carries heavy jail terms.

Detectives said the photos shared by former Bangkok-based correspondent and strident Thai monarchy critic Andrew MacGregor Marshall were fake and violated the kingdom's royal defamation law.

On Friday Marshall's wife, 39-year-old Noppawan Bunluesilp, was taken into police custody in Bangkok and released without charges after several hours of questioning over her husband's social media posts from the day before.

Unflattering photos allegedly showing Thailand's Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (pictured) were shared online by former Bangkok-based correspondent Andrew MacGregor Marshall Pornchai Kittiwongsakul (AFP/File)

"Based on forensic evidence, we determined she has nothing to do with (the case)," Thitirat Nongharnpitak, commander of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), told reporters after the interrogation.

"She is still a Thai who loves the institution," he added, using a euphemism for the monarchy.

The Facebook and Twitter posts published by Marshall, who lives outside Thailand, linked to a web article in German tabloid Bild with photos apparently showing 63-year-old Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany.

On Friday morning the online article was blocked in Thailand for carrying "inappropriate content".

Under Thai law each count of lese majeste -- insults, threats or defamation of Thailand's leading royals -- carries up to 15 years in jail.

Local and foreign media based inside the country, including AFP, must routinely self-censor to avoid falling foul of the law.

"The pictures were doctored," Thitirat told AFP ahead of the questioning.

"The culprit is Andrew MacGregor Marshall who has violated lese majeste laws for several years," he said, adding "he has acted from overseas to attack" the royal family.

Marshall is an outspoken critic of the Thai monarchy and has written a book on the subject which is banned inside the kingdom.

He regularly posts commentary on social media that would be swift grounds for prosecution under the lese majeste law.

"The key point is my wife is not involved at all in my journalism," he told AFP from Hong Kong Friday.

"We'd always been concerned that it might be dangerous for my wife to visit Thailand especially since the military coup but she hadn't seen her family for a couple of years," he added.

The issue comes during a time of intense sensitivity surrounding the Thai royals, as the health of revered 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej wanes.

Lese majeste prosecutions have soared under the arch-royalist junta that seized power two years ago and styles itself as a defender of the monarchy.
Is Plagiarism a Form of Copyright Infringement?

A speech delivered by Melania Trump, wife of presidential candidate Donald Trump, garnered all kinds of attention for all the wrong reasons at the Republican National Convention this week. As many have pointed out, a large segment of her speech seems to have been lifted from a speech given first lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

A trump aide has since admitted to inadvertently included phrasing from Mrs. Obama's speech after Mrs. Trump read them to her over the phone, explaining why the two speeches sounded so similar. The aide resigned, but could she also be on the hook for copyright infringement? And who owns the copyright to a speech anyway?

Copywritten Speech

Copyright is a legal protection for creators of original works that prohibits others from copying and profiting from their work. Anything from literature to music to sculpture can be covered by copyrights, including speeches, and registration of a work is not necessary to gain copyright protection.

For example, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is still under copyright. King originally fought Twentieth Century Fox Records Company in 1963 to block unauthorized sales of recordings of the speech. And a judge in 1999 ruled that speeches like King's could be copyright protected, even if given to the public:

A performance, no matter how broad the audience, is not a publication; to hold otherwise would be to upset a long line of precedent. This conclusion is not altered by the fact that the Speech was broadcast live to a broad radio and television audience and was the subject of extensive contemporaneous news coverage.

So Michelle Obama's speech eight years ago would be eligible for copyright protection, and could be enforced by her or the speech writer.

Copied, Written Speech

In order to prove a copyright violation, the copyright holder must show that someone else plagiarized a substantial portion of the copyrighted work. An analysis of the excerpts at issue in Melania Trump's speech showed that almost half of her words were lifted directly from Michelle Obama's speech, and the likelihood of this being a coincidence is less than one in a trillion.

So what is the likelihood of Mrs. Obama suing Mrs. Trump for copyright infringement? Probably just as small. In politics, as they say, image is everything, and the damage to Mr. Trump's campaign has already been done.

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Trump fever infects convention finale

The Trump troops embraced their newly crowned Republican presidential nominee, clogging the convention floor to roar their approval, swat away talk of party division, and vent their collective disgust of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump's acceptance speech Thursday night was the moment thousands in the Cleveland arena were waiting for, and the brash billionaire did not disappoint.

Cheers erupted when he strode across the stage to face his flock, soaking up the lengthy standing ovation from a crowd that hardly expected such a result 14 months ago when Trump launched his underdog White House bid.

Donald Trump's acceptance speech was the moment thousands in the Cleveland arena were waiting for, and the brash billionaire did not disappoint Dominick Reuter (AFP)

One thousand supporters snapped his picture in unison, while a delegate in a pink elephant-print shirt climbed atop her chair for a better view.

"This is fantastic!" beamed Donald Hartley of Madison, Alabama, who snuck onto the floor from the guest seats to be closer to the action.

While Trump laid out his vision for America, the crowd reacted much the way they did at his campaign rallies: loudly and impulsively.

Despite the week's turmoil over the Trump nomination, Thursday night was a one-sided affair, and several delegates cheerfully sought to put to rest the assertions that Republicans were in disarray.

"I'm telling you, this party is not divided, the voters are not divided, and Trump is going to continue to gain strength and he's going to win this election," Senator Jeff Sessions, a close advisor to Trump, told AFP.

House Republican Thomas Massie used to support fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul, but now said Trump had "the opportunity and the obligation to bring us together."

"I think he can do that, but the biggest unifier we've got is Hillary Clinton."

Boos rained down when Trump mentioned the former secretary of state, and at one point the crowd loudly reprised the caustic chant "Lock her up! Lock her up!" that ricocheted through the arena throughout the week.

Trump gestured as if to stop the ruckus, then leaned in and boomed: "Let's defeat her in November."

Clinton made an appearance of sorts, courtesy of Wes Nakagiri, a delegate from Michigan who dressed up in a prison outfit, plastic handcuffs and rubber Hillary mask.

"I heard 'Lock her up' last night and thought it would be funny if I went out and bought an orange prison jump suit," he said.

Trump spoke for 77 minutes, a virtual eternity as far as conventions go, and supporters started to flag. Several waved their mangled-Spanish "Hispanics para Trump" signs from their seats.

- 'We're alive' -

Trump's night wouldn't be complete without a disruption, and it faithfully arrived in the form of a protest by the group Code Pink.

The protester yelled and held up a banner that was quickly ripped away, but she disrupted proceedings for more than a minute before cops managed to drag her out.

Christopher Harvey, an African-American delegate from Houston, Texas, said the turmoil at this week's convention was all part of the circus that is American politics.

"We show anger, we show emotion," said Harvey, who acknowledged Trump was his fourth choice for nominee, behind arch-conservative Rick Santorum, Senator Marco Rubio, and Senator Ted Cruz.

"We're alive, unlike the robots you're going to see next week" at the Democratic convention, he said.

When Trump finally wrapped up -- "I will fight for you, and I will win for you!" -- the balloons cascaded down on the crowd.

The music seemed to match the sense of relief in the arena as the rock classic "All Right Now," by the band Free, blared from the speakers.

Not everyone was claiming success.

"We've had more successful conventions than this one," Texas delegate Bill Eastland, wearing a cowboy hat and "Ted Cruz" campaign pins, said matter-of-factly as confetti fluttered down around him amid the sound of popping balloons underfoot.

Minnesota state delegate Mary Susan, clad in a red cape with blinking lights that formed the name Trump, said the convention could be a "failure" if Trump can't rally the broad coalition of Republicans in the coming months.

Her liberal friends have mocked Trump's rhetoric-heavy campaign, calling Trump "an orange buffoon," Susan said as she turned around and spread her cape.

"But he's our orange buffoon, and we love him!"

A delegate holds a Trump doll as she looks up after the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio Jim Watson (AFP)

Despite turmoil over Donald Trump's nomination, the last night was one-sided and several delegates sought to put to rest assertions Republicans were in disarray Robyn Beck (AFP)
MH370 search facing suspension as hopes 'fade'

Hope of finding flight MH370's final resting place is "fading" and the massive three-nation search for the doomed jet will be suspended if nothing turns up in the suspected crash zone, Malaysia, Australia and China said Friday.

With the designated search area due to be fully scanned within weeks, transport ministers from the three countries held talks to discuss the future of the unprecedented deep-sea sonar hunt for the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane.

"Ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved, the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after the talks in the country's administrative capital Putrajaya.

Relatives of passengers missing on MH370 pictured after meeting with the Joint Agency Coordination Centre and Australian Transport Safety Bureau at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur Mohd Rasfan (AFP)

He was joined by Australia's Darren Chester and China's Yang Chuantang.

Unless "credible new evidence" is found by the current operation, "the search would not end, but be suspended" until solid new information pointing to a crash site emerges, Liow said.

The use of the term "suspended" was an apparent nod to anguished families who have stepped up pressure on authorities not to declare efforts to locate the aircraft completely abandoned.

"The suspension does not mean the termination of the search," the joint ministerial statement said.

"Ministers reiterated that the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned."

The Boeing 777 vanished for unknown reasons on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, mostly Chinese nationals. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led operation is scanning the seafloor at forbidding depths within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) area -- nearly the size of Greece.

Search authorities say satellite data indicates the plane went down somewhere in that remote and stormy part of the southern Indian Ocean far off Western Australia.

Only about 10,000 square kilometres are left, and officials say that could be completed in August, weather permitting.

- Families welcome statement -

Next-of-kin who turned up for the three ministers' appearance told reporters they welcomed the official statement.

"This means authorities are committed to finding answers and not just quitting. This is to be welcomed," said K.S. Narendran, a business consultant in Chennai, India, whose wife Chandrika Sharma was on board.

Many relatives have long questioned whether the right area is being searched and want a thorough reassessment of the data.

Some next-of-kin present on Friday called for the three searching countries to actively seek new angles on the mystery, but the transport ministers did not mention any plans to gather new information or re-examine existing data.

Chester defended the focus on the current search zone, saying expert analysis determined it was the "most probable location for MH370."

"I hope new information will come to light and that the aircraft will be located," he said.

Authorities hope to find a crash site and recover MH370's data recorders for clues into what happened.

Even if located, recovering them would be an operation of unprecedented difficulty in an area of rugged undersea terrain at crushing depths exceeding 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

Several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres toward Africa have been identified as definitely or probably from MH370.

But they have shed no light on where exactly the plane went down or why.

Theories include rogue pilot action, terrorism, or catastrophic mechanical failure, but there is no evidence to support any one hypothesis.

A piece of suspected aircraft wreckage found off the east African coast of Mozambique in March Neels Kruger (AFP/File)
Chinese relatives demand truth about tourist bus inferno

Grieving relatives of 24 Chinese tourists who died in a bus inferno in Taiwan have demanded answers from authorities, after the worst road accident ever to hit mainland visitors.

The first group of 46 relatives arrived in Taiwan Thursday to identify the bodies of their loved ones, and many broke down in tears as they visited a funeral parlour where the victims's bodies are being kept.

Emotions were high at a briefing hosted by Taiwanese officials, with distraught relatives demanding to know the cause of the tragedy and questioning why no one was able to escape when fire ripped through the bus.

The first group of 46 relatives arrived in Taiwan to identify the bodies of their loved ones killed in a bus inferno Sam Yeh (AFP)

"The relatives demanded the truth and asked about the rescue process. Some of them wanted Chinese experts to take part in the investigation," said Tang Wen-chi, a Tourism Bureau official who attended the late night meeting Thursday.

"Why is there no truth after so many days? Why can't we find anyone to take responsibility?" Taiwan's United Daily News quoted unnamed relatives as saying.

The report said some relatives questioned whether the low cost of the tour had increased safety risks, as drivers for such tours reportedly often work over-time, leading to fatigue.

The price for an eight-day around the island tour, tailor-made for Chinese tourist groups, typically costs less than Tw$20,000 ($625).

The bus was just a few kilometres away from Taipei's Taoyuan airport, for passengers to catch a flight home Tuesday, when it was engulfed in flames and careered through an expressway barrier, killing all 26 on board, including a Taiwanese driver and guide.

Investigators are probing the cause of the accident and say the fire started at the front of the bus, near the driver's seat.

Questions are still swirling over why no one was able to escape via the emergency exits.

Chinese officials have demanded Taiwan take measures to ensure the safety of mainland visitors to the island, after a number of fatal accidents involving tourists from China in recent years.

"Relevant government agencies are taking measures to review and improve travel safety to ensure that similar accidents will not happen again," said tourism official Tang.

Since the accident authorities have increased inspections of tourist buses and tour operators will be fined if safety doors are not working.

Liu Kezhi, secretary-general of China's Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Straits, expressed "strong dissatisfaction" over the accident Thursday.

Chinese media has also warned of a decline in tourists to Taiwan.

"If Taiwan does not seriously reflect and improve, Chinese tourists would be playing with their lives if they go there again," Huanqiu.com said in an editorial.

Tourism from China to Taiwan boomed for eight years under Beijing-friendly president Ma Ying-jeou who left office in May.

But since new leader Tsai Ing-wen, a Beijing-sceptic, took over ties have become increasingly frosty.

Taiwan's official data showed the number of Chinese tourists dropped 16 percent in May-July 2016 compared to the same period last year, with speculation Beijing is putting pressure on Tsai through squeezing tourism.

Taiwan Premier Lin Chuan (C) arrives at Chungli funeral parlor to pay his respects to the victims of a bus crash in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan Sam Yeh (AFP)
Trump launches Clinton election showdown

Donald Trump rallied Republicans by vowing he alone could fix a nation adrift in a dangerous world, storming into an election showdown with Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee determined to become America's first woman president.

The billionaire and former reality TV star electrified the Republican National Convention by delivering the speech of his life, promising to restore security, clamp down on immigration and put America first.

Nationwide polls suggest the New York mogul, who has never held elected office, is almost neck and neck Clinton, the former secretary of state mired in an email scandal yet propelled by ardent fundraisers.

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech on the last day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016, in Cleveland Jim Watson (AFP)

A CNN straw poll suggested that 75 percent of respondents found Trump's speech positive and 56 percent were more likely to vote for him -- balanced out by 42 percent either less likely or unmoved.

But eyes will now pivot to Clinton. She is expected to unveil her pick for vice president by Saturday, then accept the Democratic nomination at her party's convention in Philadelphia next week.

Between chants of "U-S-A" and "Trump, Trump, Trump," the Republican's candidate cast himself as the "law and order candidate" who would champion "people who work hard but no longer have a voice."

"I am your voice," he declared pointing into the cameras, promising better times with "millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth."

Exploiting angst over racially-tinged shootings and seemingly indiscriminate attacks, Trump offered a tough-on-crime message that was reminiscent of Richard Nixon's election-winning strategy in 1968.

Dayna Dent, 69, a retiree and alternate delegate from Washington state told AFP she was "thrilled" by the speech. "I think Donald is very real, and I like that about him," she said.

But speaking for over an hour, he also stuck to many of the hard right themes from a bruising primary campaign, showing why he is one of the most controversial US politicians in living memory.

- President or dictator? -

Foreigners from terror-linked countries would be banned, a wall built on the Mexican border and trade deals ripped up and renegotiated.

"I alone can fix it," he claimed, not impressing Democrats.

"We are better than this," tweeted Clinton.

Her former presidential rival Bernie Sanders, who galvanized young people with his call for free college education and universal healthcare, also took umbrage.

"Is this guy running for president or dictator?'" he tweeted.

But the Republican party rank-and-file lapped it up, rising to their feet in standing ovation after standing ovation and displaying none of the divisions that have plagued the four-day convention.

This, a Trump top aide remarked, is now the "party of Trump." Many of the Republican old guard had stayed away, including both former presidents Bush.

Daniel Carter, an Ohio delegate and lawyer who originally wanted Ohio Governor John Kasich to win the nomination, said he would now be working to get Trump into the White House.

"For the most part everyone's, 'Come on lets get this guy elected,'" he said. "We certainly don't want Hillary Clinton."

- Vice president -

When the former first lady formally accepts the Democratic nomination next week, it will be the highlight of her more than three-decade career in public service.

Trump painted her as corrupt, incompetent and hopelessly out of touch. "Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," he said of her legacy.

While Trump went with experience, steadiness, and rock-solid conservative credentials in picking Mike Pence to join his ticket, the deeply experienced Clinton needs other skills in a vice president.

Tim Kaine, senator from Virginia, comes from a battleground state, speaks Spanish and is a southern white man who might put independent male voters at ease.

Tom Vilsack, from Pittsburgh and known to the Clintons for years, could help in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. As a former two-term governor of Iowa, can woo rural American voters.

Tom Perez, labor secretary and a liberal, could heal the rift with left-leaning supporters of Sanders and as a Latin, cement the increasingly important Hispanic vote.

Two outside choices are James Stavridis, a retired four-star US Navy admiral and liberal superstar Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who could also help attract Sanders supporters.

It remains unclear if antipathy towards Clinton will be enough to unite a Republican Party riven with doubts over his candidature.

Warming up the crowd before Trump took to the stage, his daughter Ivanka tried to soften her father's image.

"My father not only has the strength and ability necessary to be the next president, but also the kindness and compassion," she said.

Clinton v Trump: America's choice

The party rank-and-file gave Donald Trump a standing ovation, displaying none of the divisions that have plagued the four-day convention Robyn Beck (AFP)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump offered a tough on crime message that was reminiscent of Richard Nixon's election-winning strategy in 1968 Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

A man wearing a Hillary Clinton mask walks through the convention floor at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 21, 2016 Brendan Smialowski (AFP)
India steps up search for missing military plane

India on Saturday stepped up a major search operation for an air force plane that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal the day before with 29 people on board, as the defence minister headed to the region.

The AN-32 military transport plane was on a routine flight from the southern city of Chennai to Port Blair, capital of the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, on Friday morning when it vanished from radar screens.

Twenty-one of the passengers on board were defence personnel, including six crew members, while eight others worked for the military in non-uniform roles, an IAF source told AFP.

Indian Air Force personel stand guard outside Tambaram Airforce station in Chennai on July 23, 2016 as a massive search and rescue operation was underway for an Indian Air Force plane that went missing with 29 people on board over the Bay of Bengal Arun Sankar (AFP)

On its official Twitter account the Indian navy said 18 navy and coastguard ships were now deployed in the search operation, along with six aircraft and a submarine.

" 18 Naval & ICG ships (+1sm) deployed with various aircraft... to locate missing AN 32" the navy tweeted.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar travelled to Tambaram air base on the outskirts of Chennai on Saturday morning, where he was briefed by military officials before departing for an aerial survey to monitor the ongoing operation.

"It lost contact with the radars approximately 150 nautical miles east of Chennai," IAF Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee told AFP.

Several reports said weather in the Bay of Bengal had been rough owing to the southwest monsoon.

An IAF source said Friday radar data from the missing aircraft showed it making a sharp left turn before rapidly losing altitude.

The Russian-built AN-32, equipped with navigational aids, is the IAF's workhorse aircraft and capable of flying for up to four hours without refuelling.

Experts have warned India's outdated fleet -- some of which dates back to the 1960s -- is a threat to national security, with some aircraft virtually on their last legs.
Honey provides sweet relief for Palestinian women

Their faces covered in mesh and bodies protected by white suits, three Palestinian women carefully inspect beehives which they say have helped to transform their lives.

In the hills of the West Bank, occupied for nearly half a century by Israel, producing honey has become an economic lifeline for a growing number of women.

The income it brings is a major boost in the Palestinian territories, where one in four people -- and 40 percent of women -- are unemployed.

Each year a group of women in a village near Ramallah produce 600 kilos (1,320 pounds) of honey, which sells for about 100 shekels ($26, 23 euros) per kilo Andrea Bernardi (AFPTV)

Muntaha Bairat, 37, started beekeeping four years ago in an olive grove near the village of Kafr Malik, near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

She was not expecting big results, she told AFP as she examined the beehives, which she runs with five women from the village.

"But after we worked we discovered it was a great project for us," she said. "It has totally changed our lives."

Each year they produce 600 kilos (1,320 pounds) of honey, which sells for about 100 shekels ($26, 23 euros) per kilo.

Once maintenance costs are deducted, each woman takes home around 6,000 shekels a year -- more than $1,500.

From the profits, one woman was able to send her son to college, while another bought a television she had long dreamed of, Bairat said.

"Before this project, some of the women never left Palestine," Bairat said.

"Today they travel to Jordan or Spain" to display their goods in agricultural and trade forums.

As well as honey, they now aspire to make products with jelly and beeswax.

- Strong roots -

The project was supported by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), an organisation that helps 103 women run 64 small agricultural projects across the West Bank and Gaza.

Most of the projects in the West Bank are in the region known as Area C, the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

Since then, Israel has tightly restricted any Palestinian development of the area.

The decision to focus on Area C was deliberate, says PARC's Nasseh Shaheen, who oversees the projects.

He said the goal is to "support people to stay on their land, especially women living in agricultural areas."

The share of agriculture in the Palestinian economy has fallen by 72 percent since the Oslo agreement.

It now represents just four to five percent of the economy, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

In the West Bank, more than one in 10 families rely on the mother as the major breadwinner.

This is true among the beekeepers, with some feeding families of seven or nine members, Bairat said.

No'ama Hamayel expects the annual harvest in August. The 52-year-old mother of six has school bills to pay and "by selling a kilo of honey every week, my finances improve substantially."
Aleppo rebel tunnel blast killed 38 regime forces: monitor

Nearly 40 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime fighters were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel under a government position in Aleppo city, a monitor said Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 38 members of government forces were killed in Thursday's blast, which brought down a building used by the regime in Aleppo's Old City.

The monitor had earlier reported a toll of 14.

Smoke billows following a reported strike by pro-Syrian government forces in Aleppo on July 12, 2016 Karam Al-Masri (AFP/File)

A video posted online by the Thuwwar al-Sham rebel group purported to show the incident, with members of the force walking though a long tunnel and preparing barrels full of explosives.

"We are now inside the tunnel that will be detonated soon, God willing, the tunnel under the traffic branch building, which is an important headquarters for the Assad regime and its mercenaries," a rebel says in the video.

The footage then shows a massive blast levelling a multi-storey building, filmed from multiple angles.

A huge geyser of dirt and smoke shoots upwards from the scene of the blast, after which gunfire can be heard.

Aleppo was once Syria's economic powerhouse, but it has been ravaged by the conflict that began in March 2011.

The city has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.

The east of the city has been under siege for the past two weeks, since government forces severed the only remaining supply route into rebel-held districts.
Japan government sues Okinawa authorities over US base

A lawsuit demanding local bureaucrats stop blocking the construction of a US military base in Okinawa was filed by Japan's central government Friday, the latest in the spat between Tokyo and the southern island.

Tokyo wants to move the unpopular US airbase in a crowded residential district on Okinawa's main island to a sparsely populated area in its northern part, but many residents want the base moved off the island altogether.

In Friday's suit, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government asked the court in Okinawa's capital city Naha to declare that a move by the region's governor to block construction for the base is illegal.

People protest against the presence of US bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa in front of the entrance the US Marine Corps' Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa, on June 17, 2016 Toru Yamanaku (AFP/File)

"The national government's hardline attitude toward Okinawa's US base issue is extreme," Okinawan governor Takeshi Onaga told reporters in Tokyo, citing local election results showing voters favour moving the base off the island.

"I have no choice but to call it a far cry from democracy," he said.

But Gen Nakatani, defence minister, reiterated that Onaga's decision was illegal and the government would make its case in court.

"Governor Onaga's decision to cancel the approval was illegal. We will argue that the infrastructure minister's order (for him to reverse his move) is appropriate," Nakatani said.

More than half the 47,000 American troops in Japan under a decades-long security alliance are stationed on Okinawa, the site of a major World War II battle that was followed by a 27-year US occupation of the island.

A series of crimes including rapes, assaults and hit-and-run accidents by military personnel, dependants and civilians have long sparked protests.

Tempers flared again in northern Okinawa Friday, where protesters clashed with police as the central government resumed the construction of helipads for US forces -- a separate issue from the base relocation that is the focus of the lawsuit.

Riot police pushed and shoved protesters who refused to move from near a US military training area as construction resumed, Japanese television footage showed.

Protesters used more than 100 vehicles to block an access road to the training area, according to the Asahi Shimbun daily.

The US has more than 26,000 troops based on the Japanese island of Okinawa Toru Yamanaka (AFP/File)
Indian double gang-rape survivor says she lives in fear

A low-caste Indian who survived a gang-rape aged 17 only to be raped again, allegedly by men awaiting trial for the first attack, said Friday she feared she and her family would never be safe again.

Police say the 20-year-old student from India's lowest Dalit caste was abducted from outside her college on July 13, drugged and raped before being dumped on a highway.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack, two of whom had been charged with raping her in 2013, and only released on bail a few months ago.

The cousin of a gang rape victim looks out of a window at a government hospital where she is being treated in the city of Rohtak, northern India on July 21, 2016 Chandan Khanna (AFP)

Relatives say they believe the latest attack was revenge for her refusal to drop her complaint against the men, who they say were able to evade justice because they belonged to higher castes and had political connections.

"I will have to spend my entire life in constant fear of being raped again or killed," said the woman, who AFP is not naming for legal reasons.

"My life will never be the same. I am worried about my family's safety. They can harm us any time," she told AFP by telephone from her hospital bed in the northern Indian state of Haryana.

India promised to speed up rape trials in the wake of a fatal gang-rape in 2012 that shone a global spotlight on frightening levels of violence against women in India.

But rape and sexual assault remain commonplace and cases are often slow to come to court -- especially if the defendants are wealthy and well-connected.

Relatives of the victim said the alleged perpetrators of the 2013 rape had offered them money to withdraw the case, and threatened to attack her again if they did not.

"We were offered five million rupees ($75,000) to withdraw the case. They are rich people and have strong political links," her cousin told AFP.

"We didn't give in to their demands and pursued the case, but we were let down by the court, which gave them bail in May," he told AFP in the city of Rohtak in Haryana, where the family moved to after the first attack.

- 'Only rich get justice' -

He said he believed his cousin was originally attacked because she had spurned the advances of one of the alleged rapists.

"He must have thought, they are poor and helpless, and we will get away with the crime," he added.

The relative said police only moved to arrest the alleged perpetrators after weeks of protests by the Dalit community, who face widespread discrimination in India even though this is illegal.

"We were tossed from one police station to another, but no one was listening. The accused were bribing them and were getting all help from the authorities," he said.

"This country is only for rich and for upper castes, only they get justice," said the cousin, adding that the entire family had now converted to Buddhism to escape discrimination under the Hindu caste system.

Local police say they are using all their resources to track down another two men accused in last week's attack, and have set up a special investigation team.

"We are collecting all evidence and will investigate the case in a fair and transparent manner," Rohtak police chief Rakesh Arya told AFP.

But rights activists say the case shows the justice system is still failing victims of sexual assault, more than three years after the Delhi gang rape that sparked mass protests.

"We need action now to end this brutality that has become routine and to give the victims of violence the justice and protection they deserve," said Anju Malhotra, gender advisor to the UN children's agency UNICEF.
Russian warplanes 'targeted US, British outpost in Syria'

Russian warplanes bombed a remote outpost in Syria used by elite US and British forces last month as well as another site linked to the CIA, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Journal, which cited US officials as its source, said the previously unreported air strikes on June 16 and July 12 were part of a bid by Moscow to pressure Washington to cooperate more closely with it in the skies over Syria.

A contingent of about 20 British special forces had pulled out the day before the first attack on June 16, on a garrison about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Jordanian border at At-Tanf, the report said.

Russian servicemen prepare an SU-34 fighter jet for a mission from the Russian Hmeimim military base in Syria's Latakia province, in May 2016 Vasily Maximov (AFP/File)

US officials and rebel commanders told the Journal that the outpost was hit with cluster munitions.

US attempts to wave off the Russians failed to prevent a second air strike on the base, the report said.

About three weeks later, on July 12, Russian warplanes hit a rebel camp used by family members of CIA-backed fighters about 50 miles west of At-Tanf, the report said.

US military and intelligence officials told the newspaper that the attacks hardened opposition at the Pentagon and the CIA to cooperating with the Russians.

But the White House and the State Department, seeking to avoid a military escalation, decided to pursue a compromise, it said.

Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry reached a provisional agreement with the Russians to join forces in strikes on Al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
France to supply artillery to Iraqi army

France will supply weapons to Iraq to support its fight against the Islamic State group, President Francois Hollande said Friday, but ruled out any troop deployment in the country.

"This morning at the defence council, I took the decision as part of the anti-Daesh coalition to make weapons available to Iraqi forces," Hollande said, using another name for IS.

"They will be there next month," he said following the meeting with a handful of ministers and the heads of the security forces.

Soldiers hold a position on the frontline south of Mosul, northern Iraq on July 17, 2016, during a military operation to recapture Nineveh province from the Islamic State group Safin Hamed (AFP/File)

An aide to the president said the weaponry would include artillery batteries and that France would also send military advisors to train Iraqi forces in using them.

Hollande said he would also be sending the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the region "at the end of September".

The carrier "will allow us to intensify strikes against terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq using our Rafale jets," he said.

Hollande insisted that the move did not change the nature of France's military involvement in the region.

"We support our allies in Iraq and Syria but we are not deploying ground troops," he stressed.
South Sudan ex-rebels accuse Kiir of plot to oust rival Machar

South Sudan's vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar has no plans for an immediate return to Juba, his supporters said Friday, accusing his rival President Salva Kiir of trying to oust or even kill him.

Machar has not been seen in public since he left the capital after days of intense fighting this month between rival troops that left over 300 people dead and threatened to torpedo an already shaky 2015 peace deal.

Kiir had appealed on Thursday for Machar to return to Juba and work together towards rebuilding peace, pledging to guarantee his safety.

Once friends and now arch-rivals, South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar (L) and President Salva Kiir are both former rebel leaders who rose to power during Sudan's 1983-2005 civil war Albert Gonzales Farran (AFP/File)

"There is no point to come back to be assassinated," Machar's spokesman Goi Jooyul Yol told AFP, speaking from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

"Dr Machar is still being hunted around Juba," he said, adding that "we don't trust" Kiir's security pledge.

"He has killed the peace agreement. The only way forward is a neutral force," the spokesman insisted.

- 'Devastating blow' -

Kiir has rejected a proposal by the African Union to deploy a robust protection force in South Sudan and is also against beefing up the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission UNMISS.

But Machar's movement, known as the SPLM/A (IO), is in favour of a independent force.

"This is because South Sudan has no national armed forces, no national security agency. The existing armies are all partisan and ethnic in character," it said in a statement.

The SPLM/A (IO) statement reaffirmed the group's support for Machar's leadership and denouncing what it said were government efforts to replace him with Taban Deng Gai, who was the chief negotiator for the former rebels during the peace talks.

Any attempt to change Machar's role as chairman and commander in chief of the SPLM/A (IO) "is totally rejected," the statement said.

"It will deal a devastating blow" to the government of national unity and the August 2015 peace accord which aimed to end a near two-year civil war in the world's youngest nation.

The statement called on the government "to cease with immediate effect their ongoing military attempts to hunt down and kill (Machar) in their vain hope of installing Taban Deng Gai as the first vice president".

"Salava Kiir can appoint him (Taban Deng Gai) first VP. That up to him. But he cannot (make him) chairman of the SPLA/IO," said Goi Jooyul Yol.

Juba was rocked by days of heavy fighting in early July between government forces and fighters loyal to Machar which erupted as he was meeting Kiir in the presidential palace.

More than 300 people were killed and tens of thousands of people fled, escalating fears of a return to the brutal civil war that erupted just over two years after independence in 2011.

The latest violence in the capital echoed the fighting that first triggered the civil war in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.
Zimbabwe's MDC opposition hails war veterans' Mugabe rebuke

Zimbabwe's main opposition on Friday praised the country's war veterans for "finally seeing the light" after President Robert Mugabe's staunchest allies denounced him as "dictatorial".

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) "would like to whole-heartedly thank and salute (the) war veterans for publicly acknowledging that Robert Mugabe has outlived his relevance and should immediately proceed to resign," it said in a statement.

In a sign of growing opposition to Mugabe, the war veterans who have in the past supported the nonagenarian leader, on Thursday issued a strongly-worded statement denouncing Mugabe and his regime for brutal attacks on his opponents and for presiding over a failing economy.

Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe attends a meeting with the National Liberation War Veterans Association in Harare on April 7, 2016 Jekesai Njikizana (AFP/File)

The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association said they had noted "with concern, shock and utter dismay the entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the President and his cohorts which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle in utter disregard of the constitution".

The war veterans vowed not to support Mugabe if he seeks re-election.

A rare surge of public demonstration has forced many onto the streets of the southern African country in recent weeks, triggered by an economic crisis that has left banks short of cash and the government struggling to pay its workers.

The MDC called on the 92-year-old leader "to take heed of the very clear advice that he has been freely given by his erstwhile comrades, the war veterans".

"Mugabe remains the single biggest threat to Zimbabwe's national stability as well as economic prosperity," said the MDC.

Opposition to Mugabe's rule has grown in recent months as the countrys economic troubles mount while his ZANU-PF party is in turmoil over his succession.

- Reason to be afraid -

The country has been hit by protests including a stay-away strike called by an evangelical pastor Evan Mawarire which shut offices and shops and crippled the public transport system.

Head of the Harare-based think-tank Southern African Political and Economic Series (SAPES) Ibbo Mandaza said Mugabe would be weaker without his once-dependable veterans who at times had resorted to violence to keep him in power.

"Mugabe and his cohorts have a reason to be afraid," Mandaza said.

The ageing leader's ZANU-PF party is divided over who will follow him, split between his wife Grace and vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is widely seen as his successor.

Mandaza said the veterans, who fought in the 1972-1979 war of independence "have made it clear that their anointed successor is Mnangagwa".

Independent political analyst Ernest Mudzengi, said the war veterans' rebellion was driven by the succesion struggle.

"They want to be influential in deciding who succeeds Mugabe, whom they think they made," said Mudzengi.

Starting in 2000, the war veterans led the seizures of white-owned commercial farms in what Mugabe said was a reversal of imbalances from the colonial era.

The land seizures have been blamed for the drastic slump in food production that contributed to the country's economic collapse.

A drought that has ravaged southern Africa has added to Zimbabwe's woes.

Charity Save the Children warned this week that thousands of children could "be facing starvation by Christmas" unless the country gets more help.
Tanzania bans lube in crackdown on gays

The Tanzanian government has banned imports and sales of sexual lubricants in its latest move targeting the gay community, officials say.

Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu justified the move on the grounds that the product encourages homosexuality, which is banned in the east African nation.

"It is true that the government has banned the importation and use of the jelly to curb the spread of HIV," the minister told local media on Tuesday.

Gay male sex is punishable by life imprisonment under Tanzanian law, but there is no such ban on lesbian relations Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

"It is estimated that 23 percent of men who have sex with men in Tanzania are living with HIV/AIDS," he added.

"I have instructed stakeholders working with gay people to remove the products from the market."

Groups working with the gay community were handing out the lube for free, the minister said.

"The ministry has agreed to work with stakeholders to give the ministry the money they were using to buy and import the lubricants so we could use it to buy beds for the maternity wards."

Gay male sex is punishable by life imprisonment under Tanzanian law, but there is no such ban on lesbian relations.

In practice, there have been no known arrests over homosexuality in recent years.

But the newly appointed regional commissioner for the port city of Dar es Salaam, Paul Makonda, announced a major crackdown against gay people this month, followed by arrests of suspected gays in clubs.
Clinton's VP pick coming, Virginia senator frontrunner

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could announce her vice presidential pick as early as Friday, with reports suggesting she is leaning towards Spanish-speaking Senator Tim Kaine from the battleground state of Virginia.

Clinton is scheduled to campaign in Florida on Friday and Saturday, but The Wall Street Journal -- citing people familiar with the former secretary of state's selection process -- said the news could come Friday in a text message to supporters.

The Washington Post said Clinton would likely introduce her pick either later Friday or at a Saturday rally in the Sunshine State. The Journal and the Post, citing unnamed sources, said Kaine has emerged as the frontrunner.

Hillary Clinton will be formally crowned the party's White House candidate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week John Gurzinski (AFP/File)

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign had no comment, when asked about the reports.

Kaine is seen as a leading contender for several reasons: he could help Clinton claim Virginia, a key battleground state and one her campaign believes is key to victory, and also could help cement her overwhelming lead with Hispanic voters.

The 58-year-old senator also has strong foreign policy experience -- he currently serves on the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. And he is seen as helping Clinton win votes from independent male voters.

Also on the short list are: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who has been friends with the Clintons for decades and is from another key battleground state, Pennsylvania; and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, a Latino seen as a true liberal.

Clinton, 68, has said she wants a running mate with enough experience to "literally get up one day and be the president of the United States."

Her Republican challenger Donald Trump, who accepted his party's nomination on Thursday with a speech painting a dark picture of an America in crisis, has chosen Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate.

The Democratic National Convention, at which Clinton will be formally crowned the party's White House candidate, begins Monday in Philadelphia.
Facebook accused of censoring posts on Indian Kashmir

Academics and activists accused Facebook Friday of censoring posts about Indian-administered Kashmir as a curfew in the region extended into its 14th day following unrest that has left 48 protesters dead.

Facebook users posting on the violence in Kashmir in Britain, the US, India and Pakistan told AFP their posts had been removed or their profiles permanently deleted by the Silicon Valley giant citing "violation of community standards".

Wide-scale protests against Indian rule have flared across the Muslim-majority territory since the killing on July 8 of popular rebel leader Burhan Wani in a firefight with government forces.

Kashmiri protesters throw stones after Indian paramilitary troops fired tear gas during clasesh in Srinagar on July 21,2016 Tauseef Mustafa (AFP/File)

Professor Huma Dar, a Kashmiri-origin academic at the University of California Berkeley, said her profile was permanently disabled after she posted photos of Wani and a video of his funeral attended by tens of thousands of mourners.

"We will not reactivate it for any reason," Dar said Facebook informed her.

Professor Dibyesh Anand of London's Westminster University said his posts about the actions of Indian security forces, which have drawn criticism for their heavy-handed tactics, were removed twice.

"They (Facebook) apologised. But they blocked a second time within a day, again for 24 hours for a mild post," Anand told AFP from London.

"When a conspicuous number of posts relating to Indian state violence in Kashmir gets removed by Facebook and profiles of academics and writers blocked, it is clear that there is censorship," Anand said.

More than 3,000 people, hundreds of them police officers, have been injured in the clashes, overwhelming hospitals in the region's main city of Srinagar.

Indian authorities have imposed a curfew, suspended mobile networks and internet in large parts of the territory and seized newspapers in a bid to quell protests.

US-based social activist Mary Scully said her posts were also removed on more than one occasion, citing community standards.

She and Anand along with others have started a petition urging Facebook to investigate.

"None of the posts removed have violated Facebook's community standards of hate speech or incitement to violence but have only portrayed the violence being perpetrated against the Kashmiri people," the petition states.

Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to Facebook data, India ranks second only to the US for the number of requests for user data and content restriction made every year to the company.

Residents of Indian Kashmir have regularly complained of Facebook removing their posts since 2010 when large protests roiled the territory.

"My account was permanently disabled when I posted a video of Indian paramilitaries ransacking a hospital," said Kashmir valley resident Rayees Rasool.

Burhan Wani was the leader of banned rebel group Hizbul Mujahideen, one of several fighting some 500,000 Indian troops deployed in the region since 1989, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.

Both India and Pakistan claim in full the Himalayan territory that has been divided between the rivals since their independence from British rule in 1947.

Indian Kashmir AFP (AFP)
Trump depicts United States of Armageddon, but do facts add up?

To hear Donald Trump tell it, America is a sick, dystopian mess, mired in urban violence, terror threats and other woes that he and only he can fix.

But a day after accepting the Republican nomination for president, Trump drew scorn on Friday for his creative or misleading use of facts to paint an ugly national portrait and scare people into voting for him in November.

One of those weighing in to disagree with Trump was President Barack Obama, who said the billionaire real estate mogul's gloomy vision and that of other Republicans at the convention this week "don't jive with the facts."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses delegates on the final night of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on July 21, 2016 Timothy A. Clary (AFP/File)

The United States of Armageddon, as depicted by Trump, is a place where the homicide rate and deaths of police officers are soaring, tens of thousands of dangerous undocumented immigrants wander the streets and Americans are saddled by a dysfunctional economy and quitting the workforce by the millions.

"Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation," Trump said at the outset of his speech Thursday night in Cleveland, the most important of his young political career.

"The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life," Trump said, a thick line of red, white and blue US flags arrayed behind him.

Of the whole, huge mess, he said, "I alone can fix it."

The text of Trump's hour-plus speech features big, sometimes half-page chunks of footnotes that the candidate offered up to buttress his assertions.

But Trump's data was often either incomplete and thus misleading, or simply wrong.

For instance, he stated that around 180,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal records and deportation orders "are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens."

The figure is accurate but those people's crimes are not documented, and many of them certainly involved immigration violations and other non-violent offenses.

On the economy, among other things, he stated that US household incomes are down $4,000 since 2000.

But that figure is based on 2014 Census data, and incomes have risen sharply in the past two years, the Washington Post reported. Taking that increase into account, household income is roughly stagnant rather than down by $4,000, it added.

- 'Wildly distorted view' -

For Obama, "this idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jive with the experience of most people."

Americans may disagree on how to address the nation's problems, Obama said, "but we're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact."

The Trump campaign has acknowledged that his speech was modeled on Richard Nixon's 1968 address at the Republican convention in Miami Beach.

Nixon and his tough law and order message won the election that year, which came at a time of acute national crisis: widespread riots sweeping major American cities after the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and national angst over the war in Vietnam.

Not far from the White House, streets burned for days in Washington.

"We see Americans hating each other, fighting each other, killing each other at home," Nixon said in his speech.

Trump told The New York Times recently that he saw parallels between his candidacy and that of Nixon.

"I think what Nixon understood is that when the world is falling apart, people want a strong leader whose highest priority is protecting America first," Trump said.

"The '60s were bad, really bad. And it's really bad now. Americans feel like it's chaos again."

But America then was one thing and America now is another one altogether.

Trump's apocalyptic vision "is not only factually false, it's a widely distorted view of all the nation stands for," the Times said Friday in an editorial entitled "Donald Trump's campaign of fear."

"One would think that if Mr. Trump believed this dystopia existed, he would have a clear and detailed plan for change. But, as always, he has only his empty sales pitch to offer -- 'I'm with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you,' he says."

The Washington Post was no less scathing.

"Donald J. Trump, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome," it said, adding he has "unspooled one lie after another" during the campaign.

"It is impossible to know whether he convinces himself of his own untruths or knows that he is wrong and does not care," the Post said.

"Mr. Trump is a unique and present danger."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on during the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio Brendan Smialowski (AFP/File)

Key dates in the life and career of Donald Trump Laurence SAUBADU, Simon MALFATTO (AFP)
Kerry urges phasing-out of toxic greenhouse gases

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday urged signatories of an international ozone pact to back the phasing-out of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) -- toxic greenhouse gases thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.

"Climate change is happening  and it is happening quicker than most of us ever anticipated," Kerry said.

"Week after week, month after month, year after year, we continue to see new evidence, tangible evidence, of the danger climate change poses to our planet. Last year was the hottest in recorded history... but 2016 is on track to be even hotter."

US Secretary of State John Kerry was speaking at a conference in Vienna on July 22, 2016 uniting close to 200 signatories of the 1987 Montreal Protocol Saul Loeb (AFP/File)

He was speaking at a conference in Vienna uniting close to 200 signatories of the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

The Protocol, implemented by 196 nations and the European Union, commits all UN members to scrapping ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons, which were once widely used in aerosol sprays, solvents and refrigerants.

While the treaty has managed to slash these substances and help the ozone's recovery, it now faces a new challenge in the shape of HFCs.

As a result, nations have agreed to discuss an amendment to the Protocol to include the phasing-out of HFCs.

The Vienna conference was the last meeting before a final deal is due to be reached in October in Rwanda.

"HFCs... are exceptionally potent drivers of climate change  thousands of times more potent, for example, than CO2," said Kerry.

"Amending the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFCs is one of the single most important steps the world could possibly take at this moment to stave off the worst impacts of climate change."

Kerry said the move could help avoid a global temperature rise of 0.5 degrees Celsius (33 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.
Ebullient Trump praises party unity but raps Cruz hard

Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump took a victory lap on Friday after accepting his party's nomination at a raucous convention in Cleveland, proclaiming it "the summer of Trump."

But while insisting that the four-day confab brought "amazing" unity to divided Republicans, Trump harshly criticized his erstwhile rival Ted Cruz for pointedly declining in a convention speech to endorse his candidacy.

He called the Texas senator "dishonorable," adding that Cruz "may have ruined his political career."

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on the last day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio Jim Watson (AFP/File)

The New York mogul said that even if Cruz now offered an endorsement, he would not accept it.

In often-rambling remarks Friday, the candidate seemed ebullient after delivering a focused acceptance speech Thursday night that drew warm and loud applause within the Cleveland arena.

The convention had been marred not only by Cruz's speech -- which drew loud boos -- and a brief anti-Trump revolt but by apparent plagiarism in a speech by Trump's wife, Melania.

Still, the nominee called it "one of the most love-filled conventions in the history of conventions."

"It's been the summer of Trump," he said, adding, "There's never been anything like it."

But at a time when more traditional candidates might have been looking ahead to the race against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the unconventional Trump seemed unable to let go his differences with Cruz.

Cruz, he said, had been "booed the hell out of the place."

Trump added, "What difference does it make? I don't want his endorsement."

An unrepentant Cruz said after his speech Wednesday night that he could not support a man who had criticized both his wife and father during the primary campaign.

Trump had tweeted a picture of an angry-looking Heidi Cruz appearing next to a model-perfect photo of his own wife.

Trump on Friday blamed the Cruz camp for drawing first blood.

As for Cruz's father, he said he had merely tweeted a photo that seemed to show the elder Cruz with "crazy Lee Harvey Oswald" -- President John F. Kennedy's assassin.

"I think he's a lovely guy," Trump said of the father. But he said the photo had appeared in the National Enquirer, a magazine know for sensationalism but which Trump said "does have credibility."
The decision was announced at a 3-day meeting of the eight Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatory EAOs held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

PadohKwe Htoo Win from the Karen National Union (KNU) told reporters, There are four main agenda items at Mai Ja Yang. The first is political affairs, attitudes on how to build our federal union. The next agenda item is security affairs, how to defend our country. The next agenda item is the political framework. Our NCA-signatory EAOs reviewed this framework after signing the NCA. We will discuss this at the meeting, which parts of the NCA should be changed and modified.

Panglong and Panglong agreement are interpreted in different ways. When the State Counsellor used the term 21st century Panglong Conference, people criticised it. We will find common ground on this term by inviting scholars and academics and then it will be approved at the scheduled plenary meeting and we will let our position be known to the people, he added.

PadohKwe Htoo Win also said that they would submit a paper containing five points on politics and military affairs including the political framework at the scheduled Union Peace Convention or 21st Century Panglong Conference.

We will discuss five main points at the convention. One of them will be a review of the political framework, which points will be discussed at which stage. Most of them will be in the Civil Society Organizations sector. While political affairs, constitutional affairs, union defence and security affairs will be discussed at the national level rather than ethnic and regional levels. But we have not yet got confirmation on these matters, he added.

He further said that these deliberations and preparations were subject to approval by the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC).

Col. KhunOkkar from Palaung National Liberation Organization (PNLO) said that at the 3-day meeting, the eight NCA-signatory EAOs made preparations for submitting a paper to Union Peace Convention (21st Century Panglong Conference) becuase NCA commitments and obligations need to focus on the political sector and building a federal union.

The forthcoming convention will be held for the first time under the leadership of a new government. They will lay the foundation for political dialogue similar to what President Thein Seins government did. There are two main topics in this foundation. One is the political sector and building a federal union. So we need to discuss federal systems. And another most important matter is the nations security sector. In the tradition of our country, the armed forces are deemed to be primarily responsible for security so we need to discuss what is to be done on security sector reform and how it will adapt to a federal union.

Col. KhunOkkar added that convening the Union Peace Convention is included as step 4 of the NCA so that carrying out this step is in accordance with the NCA. He said that they hoped they would reach the political dialogue stage by stopping armed conflict as their political goal was to enter political dialogue to resolve conflict.

He went on to say that the eight NCA-signatory EAOs would hold a separate conference after the Mai Ja Yang plenary meeting and before the Union Peace Convention scheduled to be held at the end of August 2016.

A statement issued on July 20 after the meeting says that the eight NCA-signatory EAOs will attend Mai Ja Yang plenary meeting of all EAOs and they will try and coordinate with political forces, government and Tatmadaw (governments defence services) until they reach an agreement on building internal peace in the country and building a federal union.

Over 40 delegates attended the 3-day meeting.
One dead, several injured in shooting at Ivory Coast protest

At least one person was killed and about 10 others wounded by gunfire in Ivory Coast on Friday during protests over a hike in electricity rates.

Demonstrators ransacked a number of electricity company agencies, government buildings and a bank in the central city of Bouake, witnesses said.

About 10 injured people were taken to hospital and one succumbed to gunshot wounds, a hospital source said.

Demonstrators gather outside an Ivorian electricity company on July 22, 2016, in Bouake, to protest against a hike in electricity rates

An AFP journalist saw the body of a 29-year-old man at the morgue. He had been shot in the stomach during the protest in Bouake.

In the midst of the clashes rioters looted a police station, carrying off several Kalashnikov rifles.

"They are going to regret shooting at us," said one man.

The protest started with hundreds of people pressed against barricades and shouting "CIE thieves, CIE thieves," using the acronym for Ivory Coast's electricity company.

"CIE doesn't care about us, today we are going to tell them what we think of them," protester Arouna Toure told AFP. "The bills are too high and nobody is listening to us."

Authorities tried to disperse the protesters with tear gas, but a crowd then looted and burned a CIE office. Violent clashes subsequently broke out between rioters and security forces, who opened fire on the crowd, witnesses said.

Similar violence flared earlier this week in the administrative capital of Yamoussoukro and the western city of Daloa over the hikes in electricity prices of up to 10 percent.

Following the unrest, the government agreed to allow residents to delay paying their electricity bills until September, but this did not prevent the demonstrations in Bouake.
AIDS summit ends with call for more funding

The International Aids Conference in South Africa wrapped up Friday with calls for increased funding as the search for a cure continues and with HIV infections running at around 2.5 million a year.

"The work simply isn't done," incoming International Aids Society (IAS) president Linda-Gail Bekker told thousands of delegates at a closing ceremony.

"During the five days of this conference, 15,000 people living with HIV have died... and more than 28,000 have been newly infected with HIV, of which 1,500 were young people from this country alone.

Hundreds of delegates attend the closing ceremony of the International AIDS conference in Durban on July 22, 2016 Rajesh Jantilal (AFP)

"This makes me outraged and appalled and I see no room for complacency."

Around 15,000 scientists, campaigners and donors gathered in the South African port city of Durban to discuss the latest advances in tackling an epidemic that has claimed more than 30 million lives in 35 years.

But as the number of new infections has levelled off, funding has dipped.

A UNAIDS and Kaiser Family Foundation study presented at the conference this week pointed to a billion dollar drop in donor government funding, from $8.6 billion in 2014 to $7.5 billion last year.

"We're at a particularly critical moment for the future of funding," said Bekker, who is the first African women to lead the IAS.

The warning comes just over two months before the international financing organisation Global Funds conference in Canada.

Founded in 2002, the fund was established to raise money in the fight against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

The Fund is asking for at least $13 billion from donor governments.

Failing to address the funding gap, would only cost more money, said the Global Fund Advocates Network earlier this week.

- Critical moment for funding -

A study released by the group this week warned of 21 million preventable Aids deaths and 28 million new HIV infections over the next six years if the Global Fund did not get the requested $13 billion.

"People, this is what it comes down to: whether people live or die in many countries, will depend on how donors respond to the Global Fund's call to action," said Bekker. "Lives depend on the Global Fund."

Some 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of these, only 17 million are receiving treatment.

But despite the dire warning, Bekker said she was optimistic about the future.

"I'm excited and optimistic about the future of the global HIV response," she said.

"The scientific insights and programmatic responses shared at this conference provide powerful evidence that we can beat this."

The conference returned to Durban this year 16 years after Nelson Mandela galvanised the world to take up the fight against AIDS, describing it as "one of the greatest threats humankind has faced".

The 2000 conference was a contentious affair, with South African activists angrily criticising then-president Thabo Mbeki, who insisted the disease was caused by poverty, not by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

But its emotional impact transformed the AIDS campaign.

"People at the last Durban conference came at a time when there was no hope," UNAIDS' deputy executive programme director, Mahesh Mahalingam told AFP.

"They came here (now) with hope, and they came here with results, results that showed that the glass was half full."

"But also what the conference did was tell the world that a glass half full is no longer acceptable."

"We need the glass completely full -- we need 30 million people on treatment," he said.

The United Nations has set 2030 as its deadline to end the Aids epidemic.

AIDS: concern over slow progress in reducing infection rates Simon MALFATTO, Marc Antoine GUILBAULT (AFP)
IS uses civilians as human shields in Syrian city: coalition

The Islamic State group is using civilians as human shields in Syria, a US military official said Friday, at a time when the coalition has been accused of killing dozens of civilians in strikes near Manbij.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused the coalition of killing 56 civilians, including 11 children, as they fled Tuesday from a village near Manbij, a strategic waypoint between Turkey and the jihadist stronghold of Raqa.

The Britain-based rights monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

A member of US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters walks past destroyed buildings as they advance into the IS bastion of Manbij, in northern Syria on June 23, 2016 Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)

The coalition has opened an investigation of the matter.

The Islamic State "used civilians as human shields and as bait" in an effort to draw the fire of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) toward the civilians, Colonel Chris Garver, a coalition spokesman, said by video conference from Baghdad. The SDF is a US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance.

Garver said the attack Tuesday came after SDF fighters "observed a large group of Daesh fighters in a convoy who appeared to be readying for a counterattack" against SDF troops in the area. Daesh comes from the Arabic language acronym for the IS group.

"A strike was called in on Daesh. The strike was against both buildings and vehicles." Afterward, the spokesman said, the coalition received both internal and external reports "that there may have been civilians in the area who are mixed in and among the Daesh fighters."

Garver said the first phase of the investigation -- what he called a "credibility assessment" -- would take no longer than a week and a half. Coalition officials will then determine whether a more intensive inquiry is required.

The spokesman said the jihadists had been mounting exceptionally fierce resistance in Manbij, an IS bastion.

Fighting has grown more intense as SDF units move into the city, he said, "which is sort of different than what we saw in Ramadi and what we saw in Fallujah," Iraqi cities from which jihadists were ousted this year.

"It's a fight like we haven't seen before."

Garver estimated that the SDF had taken back roughly half the city, an area still housing at least 2,000 civilians.
Hundreds of migrants march from Belgrade towards Hungary

Some 300 migrants in Belgrade, mostly young men from Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Friday began a hunger strike and set off on foot towards the Hungarian border in the hope of entering the European Union.

Defying afternoon heat, the migrants began their 200 kilometre (120 mile) trek north escorted by a police car, an AFP photographer reported.

They were carrying blankets and backpacks, many bearing the distinctive blue logo of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

A group of migrants walk near Belgrade on July 22, 2016, to protest the closed border preventing them from entering central Europe Oliver Bunic (AFP)

Some covered their heads with wet towels to keep cool as temperatures rose above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

Abdul Malik from Afghanistan said the group was "going to Hungarian border."

"We're gonna change something by walking and not eating," he said.

"We are today in hunger strike. We don't want to eat. We didn't come here for the food, we are not hungry people," the 24-year old said.

"The only things we don't get in our country is security and education. That's the only thing we want to find here," he said.

The number of migrants blocked inside Serbia has grown significantly since Hungary introduced tough new measures aimed at stopping them crossing the border earlier this month.

According to UNHCR in Serbia, some 2,800 migrants were in the country on Friday, mostly in makeshift along the Hungarian border.

Malik said he had spent 20 days in Belgrade, sleeping in a park, but than decided to move on.

"I really appreciate Serbian people, they are really nice with refugees, the only problem we have right now is with Hungary," he said.

He explained that there were no children and women in the marching group "because they can't walk so just young men and some old people."

The men carried cardboards with messages reading "Stop wars if you want to stop refugees," "Hungary remove dogs from your border" and "Prove that humanity is still alive."

Serbia lies on the so-called Balkan route taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa since last summer on their way to western Europe.

Although the route was effectively shut down in March, migrants have continued to cross the region in smaller numbers, often with the help of smugglers.

Last weekend Belgrade decided to launch joint police and army patrols to beef up its borders against migrants.

Serbian authorities said recently that 102,000 migrants had been registered since the start of the year -- more than 500 a day.
Top cocoa grower Ivory Coast stung by caterpillar invasion

Cocoa crops in the world's top producer, Ivory Coast, are being ravaged by caterpillars but authorities are playing down the new scourge, saying they have it under control.

The west African nation, now a beacon of stability and prosperity in the restive region, is slowly emerging from about a decade of low-level civil war and political turbulence, and is desperately trying to restore its once-booming economy to its former glory.

"This is the new menace for cocoa cultivation," a researcher at the Ivory Coast National Centre for Agronomy said.

A cocoa farmer points to dried cocoa pods which were damaged by a caterpillar in a cocoa plantation in Tiassale, in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast where insects eat vegetation including cocoa treas, on July 13, 2016 Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

Authorities say some 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of cocoa have been ravaged in a few weeks but stress that it is a fraction of the country's total cocoa fields.

"This caterpillar attack will not have a significant impact on production as about 20,000 hectares have been affected out of the total crop area of two million hectares," said Nanga Coulibaly, who works for the national cocoa board.

Kra Kouame, the local head of agriculture at Taabo in southeastern Ivory Coast, said cocoa crops in the village of Lelebele had been wiped out in a month.

- 'Like a nightmare' -

Maxime Brou, a 48-year-old cocoa farmer from a small village in the Taabo region, said his life turned topsy-turvy in the space of just four days.

"One Monday, I went to my fields and everything was normal. Four days later, there was nothing. It was like a nightmare!" he said.

The cocoa industry, which accounts for 15 percent of GDP and more than 50 percent of export receipts as well as two thirds of the country's jobs, is absolutely vital to Ivory Coast's economic welfare, according to the World Bank.

"Caterpillars are not new for us but this is the first time they've attacked cocoa crops," said Nanan Kouame Kan Kouame, the chief of Ahondo -- a village of 5,000 people.

Cocoa board adviser Coulibaly said global warming had reduced the caterpillars' natural predators -- which includes birds and beetles -- leading to a leap in their population.

"But the situation is totally under control" and pesticide teams have been deployed across the country, he said.

The caterpillars have also attacked banana plantations, which are already reeling under a drought.

Between 2014 and 2016, rainfall in the region fell drastically from 1,100 millimetres (43 inches) annually to 900 mm in 2015. In the first six months of this year there were only 13 days of rain against 28 days in the same period in 2015.

"In June, there were only four days of rain and then nothing", said village chief Kouame.

Francois Kouakou Konan, a 41-year-old farmer said he watched on helplessly as the caterpillars "ate up" his eight-hectare field in a week.

"How will I send my young brothers and my children to school?" he asked, teary-eyed.
Netanyahu calls Abbas to offer condolences on brother's death

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Friday to offer condolences on the death of his brother, an Israeli official said.

Abbas's brother Omar died in Qatar on Thursday, with the funeral taking place on Friday.

He had been suffering from cancer, according to Israeli media reports.

The last substantial public meeting between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) is thought to have happened in 2010 Chris Kleponis (AFP/File)

The official, in the Israeli prime minister's office, told AFP that Netanyahu's telephone call to Abbas was "only to offer condolences".

No other topics were discussed, he said.

Palestinian state media confirmed the call.

Relations between the two men are frosty, with Netanyahu accusing Abbas of libelling the Jewish people last month after he suggested some rabbis had called for Palestinian wells to be poisoned.

Abbas and Netanyahu shook hands at a climate summit in Paris in November, but held no significant talks.

The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have happened in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

The last talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April 2014 despite intense American diplomatic efforts.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, the architect of those talks, was meant to meet Abbas in Paris on Friday evening, but the meeting was cancelled following news of the Palestinian president's bereavement.

Addressing journalists in Vienna before flying to Paris, Kerry said the meeting would take place towards the end of July.

"I talked to him last night... he and I will meet somewhere shortly after the period of mourning," Kerry said.
UN backs plan to rid Libya of chemical weapons

The UN Security Council on Friday endorsed plans to rid Libya of its chemical weapons and prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists like the Islamic State group.

Libya this week asked the OPCW chemical watchdog to draw up a plan for the destruction of the toxic agents that until recently were stored at the Ruwagha depot in southeastern Libya.

Libyan authorities moved the stockpile to another location in recent days and now want the OPCW -- the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons -- to help remove them from the country and destroy them outside Libya.

Smoke billows from buildings after the air force from the pro-government forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Unity (GNA) fired rockets targeting Islamic State (IS) group positions in Sirte on July 18, 2016, during an operation to recapture the jihadists' coastal stronghold Mahmud Turkia (AFP/File)

The council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on UN member-states to help Libya's UN-backed national unity government and the OPCW with "the elimination of category 2 chemical weapons safely and in the soonest practicable timescale."

The measure authorizes governments to take part in the operation, allowing them to "acquire, control, transport, transfer and destroy" chemical weapons to "ensure the elimination of Libya's chemical weapons stockpile in the soonest and safest manner."

Making his first visit to the United Nations, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the resolution "marks the beginning of the end of the Libyan chemical weapons program."

"We have reduced the risk of these weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and fanatics," he said.

The resolution invokes chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allows the council to enforce the measure through military force or sanctions.

Britain and Russia have raised concerns that Libya's chemical stockpile could fall into the hands of IS jihadists, who hold the key coastal city of Sirte and are active in other parts of the country.
Luc Besson wows Comic-Con with early 'Valerian' footage

SAN DIEGO (AP)  Comic-Con audiences got a sneak peek at seven minutes of heart-racing action Thursday afternoon in footage from the upcoming sci-fi epic "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets."

Director Luc Besson, best known for frenetic and colorful sci-fi spectacles like "The Fifth Element" and "Lucy," said that he's been infatuated with "Valerian," based on the long-running comic series "Valerian and Laureline" since he was 10 years old.

The film, an expensive extravaganza from EuropaCorp, stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevigne as Laureline as time-traveling agents investigating galactic landscapes.

Cara Delevingne, left, and Dane DeHaan attend the "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

DeHaan described his character as a "space bro."

The footage shown was still very raw, as the film is still in the works and doesn't hit theaters until next summer. But it received rapturous applause from the estimated 6,000-person audience.

Producer Virginie Besson-Silla, from left, Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan attend the "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Luc Besson accepts the Ink Pot award before the "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Director/producer/writer Luc Besson, from left, producer Virginie Besson-Silla, Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan attend the "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio gives speech at GOP convention

PHOENIX (AP)  The longtime sheriff of metropolitan Phoenix fired up the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday by reminding them of Donald Trump's pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

To chants of "build the wall," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Trump will secure the border, "restore law and order and keep drugs and illegal immigrants from entering into our country."

"I am supporting Donald Trump because he is a leader. He produces results and is the only candidate for president ready to get tough in order to protect Americans," Arpaio said. "I have fought on the front lines to prevent illegal immigration, and I know Donald Trump will stand with me and other proud Americans to secure our border."

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Arpaio was a late addition to the speaker lineup on the convention's final night, where Trump was to give a speech formally accepting the Republican Party's nomination for president. The six-term sheriff has been an enthusiastic Trump supporter for the past year and has regularly campaigned for the New York businessman.

Arpaio's five-minute speech came a day after a federal judge in Phoenix presiding over a racial profiling case handed down the first round of punishments for the lawman's decision to prolong his signature immigration patrols months after being told to stop. Arpaio has been found in civil contempt in the case, and the judge ordered an overhaul of internal affairs investigations at his department, with additional sanctions expected.

On Friday, the 84-year-old sheriff is set to appear before U.S. District Judge Murray Snow for a hearing to examine whether he will recommend a criminal contempt-of-court case against Arpaio for ignoring his orders in the racial profiling case.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona walks on the stage to speak during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Pastor leads GOP convention in chant, 'All lives matter!'

CLEVELAND (AP)  Chants of "All Lives Matter!" filled the arena at the Republican National Convention Thursday  a not-so-subtle jab at the Black Lives Matter movement that calls attention to police violence against African-Americans.

Leading the chant was a pastor from South Carolina  Mark Burns, who is black. He said Donald Trump won't "pander" to one race.

"I want to declare to the whole world and to the Republican Party that under a Donald Trump administration, all lives matter," Burns said. "That means black lives, white lives, Hispanic lives, Asian lives, Christian lives, Muslim lives. Shout with me! All lives matter!"

Pastor Mark Burns speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Burns also called on the GOP to listen to the problems of people in disenfranchised communities in the country. He said that more than anything, they want jobs.

The "All Lives Matter" chant is often used by conservatives to counter the Black Lives Matter movement, which was started after a spate of incidents in which police officers shot and killed unarmed African-Americans.

There are few signs of sympathy for African-American victims of police shootings inside Trump's presidential nominating convention.

A speaking lineup arranged by Trump's campaign, facing an overwhelmingly white audience in a majority-black city, has repeatedly belittled the black community's frustration. There have been almost no references to black victims of police brutality.

The program has instead featured people like prominent Black Lives Matter critic David Clarke, a Wisconsin sheriff who drew a massive ovation by declaring "Blue Lives Matter."
Seven Mong Yaw villagers were killed late last month. According to eyewitnesses, five were arrested by a unit of Burmese government forces on June 25, and later found buried in shallow graves near an army camp. The other two were shot dead that same day when they failed to stop their motorbike at an army checkpoint in the town.

The court martial found that they [soldiers] violated the rules, and failed to follow certain procedures that led to the death of the victims during interrogation, Lt-Gen Mya Tun Oo admitted at a public news conference in Rangoon.

He said a court martial was in progress, and that the verdict would be made open to the public.

Reached for comment, Sai Wan Leng Kham, an Upper House MP from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), said he was relieved that the military had finally admitted its role in the crime, and had promised to bring the culprits to justice.

The military has never admitted to their crimes in the past, he said. The reason they did is because the people of Mong Yaw have fought fearlessly for justice.

The MP expressed sympathy for the families of the victims, noting that they had lost the breadwinners of their individual households.

Will the military pay them compensation? Sai Wan Leng Kham questioned. Well have to wait and see.

According to Lt-Gen Mya Tun Oo, the military will now assume the role of caring for and supporting the victims families. However, he gave no further details.

On July 18, Shan Herald reported that the Tai Youth Organization, Kachin Youth Organization, Taang Womens Organization, and Taang Students and Youth Union led over 1,000 protestors in a rally in Lashio, demanding justice for the murder victims.

In a statement on July 20, Amnesty International urged the National League for Democracy-led government to take action against those who were involved in the incident.

While its positive that the authorities are investigating this case, the reality is that all too often victims and their families are denied access to justice, truth and reparations, and have faced reprisals when reporting cases of military abuse. This has to stop and Myanmars [Burmas] new government must make it clear that no one is above the law, said Rafendi Djamin, Amnestys director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

This case is an important reminder of the need to reform the military and judicial systems in Myanmar, he added. Although it is important that steps are taken to ensure those responsible for serious human rights violations are held to account, military tribunals are not the solution. The authorities in Myanmar must take immediate action to ensure that human rights violators can be effectively tried before independent, civilian courts  anything less would only serve to perpetuate the cycle of impunity.

BY: Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Officials to decide whether to extend search for Flight 370

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)  Officials from Malaysia, Australia and China will decide Friday whether to extend an underwater search for Flight 370 amid renewed appeals by families of those aboard the Malaysia Airlines jet to not give up the hunt more than two years after the plane vanished.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has said the meeting will decide the future direction of the search, with about 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) of the designated search area still to be scanned by sonar equipment towed from ships.

So far, the search has not yielded a single clue. Officials have said the search for the Boeing 777, which so far cost 180 million Australian dollars ($135 million) the most expensive in aviation history, will end later this year unless new credible evidence is found.

A family member of a passenger on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing March 8, 2014 holds up a placard during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Representatives from Voice 370, a group representing family members of the plane's 239 passengers and crew, met with Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

They urged the governments to suspend, rather than end the search, until new funds can be raised. They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers.

The three governments are involved because the airline was Malaysian, most of the passengers were Chinese, and the suspected crash site is off southwestern Australia.

"We are counting on world governments not to give up on us, not to give up on MH370," said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member on the plane.

Australian officials still hope the plane will be spotted in the current search area, but they agreed the search should continue if new funding is provided, although this is up to the governments, said Grace Subathirai Nathan, who lost her mother, Anne Daisy.

She said that officials should consider the possibility that their calculations were wrong and that the plane may have crashed outside the current search area.

"This has been described as the most bizarre and an unprecedented air incident, and it requires unprecedented measures. They should go beyond what has been done," she said.

Western Australia University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi , whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from the missing jet, said Thursday that the plane could have crashed slightly north of the current search area.

Adventurer Blaine Gibson has handed Malaysian authorities three pieces of debris and personal belongings he found on Madagascar beaches and which he suspects came from the Boeing 777 that vanished March 8, 2014.

Pattiaratchi said the same drift modeling that Gibson relied on while looking for the debris led his team of oceanographers to suspect the plane could have gone down just north of the search area in the southern Indian Ocean.

"The best guess that we think is that it's probably around the Broken Ridge region, which is slightly to the north of the area that they're looking at," Pattiaratchi said.

But he could not rule out the aircraft being within the 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of seabed being searched southwest of Australia. Despite the drift modeling and other predictions officials have made about the plane's possible flight path, no one has been able to explain what has become one of aviation's biggest mysteries.

Drift modeling was not used to define the search area because no parts of Flight 370 had been found before a wing flap washed up on La Reunion island off the African coast a year ago. The search area was determined by analysis of satellite signals that the plane emitted in its final hours.

But the ATSB has previously said wreckage found on the southwestern shores of the Indian Ocean was consistent with the plane crashing in the expansive search area.

Pattiaratchi's modeling was based on how long the first piece of confirmed Flight 370 wreckage took to reach La Reunion, and his team's calculations of the effects of currents, wind and waves on drifting debris put the crash site just north of the current search area.

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Associated Press Writer Rod McGuirk contributed to this report from Canberra, Australia.

FILE - In this March 22, 2014 file photo, flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in southern Indian Ocean, Australia. The oceanographer who led American adventurer Blaine Gibson to Madagascar where he found a potential debris field from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet says drift modeling suggests that Flight 370 could have crashed north of the current search area. The comments comes after Gibson on Tuesday, July 19, 2016, handed Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur pieces of debris and personal belongings found on Madagascar beaches in June, which he suspects came from the jet that vanished with 239 people on board in 2014. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)

FILE - In this March 5, 2016 file photo, American adventurer Blaine Gibson speaks to The Associated Press during an interview at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia. Adventurer Gibson handed Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, July 19 2016, three pieces of debris and personal belongings that he found on Madagascar beaches in June, which he suspects came from the Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Joshua Paul, File)

Family members of passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing on March 8, 2014 hold up a placards during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Jacquita Gomes, right, wife of Patrick Gomes, the in-flight supervisor on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 speaks during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Raphael Ariano, grandson of Patrick Gomes, the in-flight supervisor on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, embraces his mother, Nicolette Gomes, during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Family members of passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing on March 8, 2014 hold up placards during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Family members of passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing on March 8, 2014 hold up placards during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Nicolette Gomes, daughter of Patrick Gomes, the in-flight supervisor on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 embraces her son, Raphael Ariano, during a special press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. The oceanographer whose calculations helped an American adventurer find potential debris from Flight 370 said Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner could have crashed slightly north of the current search area. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Betsy Bloomingdale, Reagan friend and philanthropist, dies

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Betsy Bloomingdale, a department store heir's widow who hobnobbed with the world's elite, epitomized high fashion and was best friends with former first lady Nancy Reagan, has died. She was 93.

The socialite and philanthropist died Tuesday at her home in the exclusive Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles from congestive heart failure, her daughter-in-law, Justine Bloomingdale, said Thursday.

The daughter of a Beverly Hills doctor, she married Alfred S. Bloomingdale  heir to the New York department store fortune  in 1946.

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2007 file photo, celebrated fashion designer James Galanos, second from left, is joined by Betsy Bloomingdale, left, former first lady Nancy Reagan and Mayor Jimmy Delshad, as Galanos is honored with the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award in Beverly Hills, Calif. Betsy Bloomingdale, the widow of a department store heir who hobnobbed with the worlds elite and was best friends with Nancy Reagan, has died. She was 93. Her daughter-in-law says Bloomingdale died Tuesday, July 19, 2016, at her Los Angeles home from congestive heart failure. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

She patronized the hottest of haute couture designers in Europe and regularly made best-dressed lists. In 1976, she was fined after pleading guilty to altering an invoice to undervalue the price of imported Dior gowns.

Her home had 11 closets. She was quoted on style by fashion magazines and designed loungewear for the Swirl brand in the 1980s.

She also lectured on style.

"She maintained that the quality of one's lifestyle does not necessarily depend on wealth; that a sense of style and taste are acquired with knowledge, not money," according to an obituary from her family.

"She's really a fashion icon," the designer James Galanos told Women's Wear Daily in 2009. "She still has a great figure. She's tall and willowy. She knows what's stylish and what suits her."

When not jet-setting to Europe to shop or visit royalty, Bloomingdale was renowned for hosting parties  many for charity  at the family's Los Angeles mansion, where neighbors included celebrities such as Barbra Streisand.

She was a guest in 1981 at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

Bloomingdale and her husband were good friends for decades with the Reagans. Bloomingdale was among the friends in Reagan's "kitchen cabinet" who served as unofficial advisers and helped propel the actor to the presidency.

She was best friends with the first lady, dispensing tips on fashion and design.

The Bloomingdales were regulars in get-togethers at the Reagans' California ranch and the White House and she remained close to Nancy Reagan after Ronald Reagan died in 2004.

"Like any widow, she adjusted," Bloomingdale told People magazine this year. "But Nancy missed Ronnie terribly and always."

When her own husband died of cancer in 1982, Bloomingdale became embroiled in a scandal after his longtime mistress, Vicki Morgan, sued her and the estate, contending she had been promised lifetime support. The suit was later dismissed.

Bloomingdale's deep Roman Catholic faith and her own toughness helped her cope with the scandal, her daughter-in-law said.

"She was just an amazing woman," Justine Bloomingdale said. "She just held her head up high and kept moving."

An only child, Bloomingdale was thrilled to belong to a large family and "she always entertained everybody at every holiday," her daughter-in-law said.

Bloomingdale is survived by her sons, Geoffrey and Robert; a daughter, Lisa Bell, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2015 file photo, Betsy Bloomingdale, right, and a guest arrive at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Bloomingdale, the widow of a department store heir who hobnobbed with the worlds elite and was best friends with Nancy Reagan, has died. She was 93. Her daughter-in-law says Bloomingdale died Tuesday, July 19, 2016, at her Los Angeles home from congestive heart failure. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Vietnam re-elects parliament speaker following May elections

HANOI, Vietnam (AP)  Vietnamese Communist-dominated National Assembly on Friday re-elected Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan as its chairwoman for a five-year term following elections in May.

Ngan, the sole candidate, won more than 97 percent of the votes from the 494 deputies.

In her acceptance speech, the 62-year-old Ngan pledged to improve the assembly's activities to make it a "National Assembly of unity, creativeness and action for the interests of the people, the national pride and for the country's sustainable development."
AP FACT CHECK: Trump resurfaces debunked claims in speech

WASHINGTON (AP)  Despite promising "the truth, and nothing else" in his convention speech, Donald Trump presented the nation with a series of previously debunked claims and some new ones Thursday night  about the U.S. tax burden, the perils facing police, Hillary Clinton's record and more.

A look at some of the Republican presidential candidate's claims and how they compare with the facts:

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Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

TRUMP: "Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administration's rollback of criminal enforcement. Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years."

THE FACTS: A rollback? President Barack Obama has actually achieved some big increases in spending for state and local law enforcement, including billions in grants provided through the 2009 stimulus. While FBI crime statistics for 2015 are not yet available, Trump's claim about rising homicides appears to come from a Washington Post analysis published in January. While Trump accurately quotes part of the analysis, he omits that the statistical jump was so large because homicides are still very low by historical standards. In the 50 cities cited by the Post, for example, half as many people were killed last year as in 1991.

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TRUMP: "The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources."

THE FACTS: The pace of releasing immigrants is driven not by the Obama administration, but by a court ruling. A federal judge ruled last year that the government couldn't hold parents and children in jail for more than 20 days. An appeals court partially rolled that back earlier this month, saying that parents could be detained but children must be released.

By the standard used by the government to estimate illegal border crossings - the number of arrests  Trump is right that the number in this budget year has already exceeded last year's total. But it's down from 2014.

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TRUMP: "When a secretary of state illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can't see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence - I know that corruption has reached a level like never before."

THE FACTS: Clinton's use of a private server to store her emails was not illegal under federal law. Her actions were not established as a crime. The FBI investigated the matter and its role was to advise the Justice Department whether to bring charges against her based on what it found. FBI Director James Comey declined to refer the case for criminal prosecution to the Justice Department, instead accusing Clinton of extreme carelessness.

As for Trump's claim that Clinton faces no consequence, that may be true in a legal sense. But the matter has been a distraction to her campaign and fed into public perceptions that she can't be trusted. The election will test whether she has paid a price politically.

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TRUMP: "The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year."

THE FACTS: Not according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks police fatalities daily. The group found that the number of police officers who died as of July 20 is up just slightly this year, at 67, compared with 62 through the same period last year. That includes deaths in the line of duty from all causes, including traffic fatalities.

It is true that there has been a spike in police deaths from intentional shootings, 32 this year compared with 18 last year, largely attributable to the recent mass shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge. But that was not his claim.

And overall, police are statistically safer on America's streets now than at any time in recent decades.

For example, the 109 law enforcement fatalities in 2013 were the lowest since 1956.

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TRUMP: "My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian (refugees). ... She proposes this despite the fact that there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people."

THE FACTS: Trump persists in making the bogus claim that the U.S. doesn't screen refugees. The administration both screens them and knows where they are from. The Department of Homeland Security leads the process, which involves rigorous background checks. Processing of a refugee can take 18 months to two years, and usually longer for those coming from Syria. Refugees are also subject to in-person interviews and fingerprint and other biometric screening.

For all that caution, U.S. officials acknowledge that the Islamic State group could try to place operatives among refugees. Last year, FBI Director James Comey said data about people coming from Syria may be limited, adding, "If we don't know much about somebody, there won't be anything in our database."

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TRUMP: "Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when President Obama took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely. ... President Obama has almost doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing."

THE FACTS: Trump is playing with numbers to make the economy look worse than it actually is. The sluggish recovery over the past seven years has been frustrating. But with unemployment at 4.9 percent, the situation isn't as bleak as he suggests.

Trump's figure of 14 million who've stopped working since Obama took office comes from the Labor Department's measure of people not in the workforce. It's misleading for three reasons: The U.S. population has increased in that time; the country has aged and people have retired; and younger people are staying in school longer for college and advanced degrees, so they're not in the labor force, either.

A better figure is labor force participation  the share of people with jobs or who are searching for work. That figure has declined from 65.7 percent when Obama took office to 62.7 percent now. Part of that decrease reflects retirements, but the decline is also a long-term trend.

On national debt, economists say a more meaningful measure than dollars is the share of the overall economy taken up by the debt. By that measure, the debt rose 36 percent under Obama (rather than doubling). That's roughly the same as what occurred under Republican President George W. Bush.

The Hispanic population has risen since Obama while the poverty rate has fallen. The Pew Research Center found that 23.5 percent of the country's 55.3 million Latinos live in poverty, compared with 24.7 percent in 2010.

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TRUMP: "Another humiliation came when President Obama drew a red line in Syria, and the whole world knew it meant absolutely nothing."

THE FACTS: Trump's reference is to a threat by Obama for retaliatory strikes if Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against rebels  and he's basically on target. When Assad crossed Obama's "red line" in 2013 by using chemical weapons, the U.S. president backed down.

Obama's two secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, pushed for intervention, as have a former defense secretary and CIA director. But Obama as commander-in-chief has the last word, and nothing has swayed him thus far.

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TRUMP: "When that same secretary of state rakes in millions and millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers, I know the time for action has come."

THE FACTS: That's a somewhat overheated take on a legitimately troublesome issue for Clinton.

Although financial disclosures show she earned only her government salary as secretary of state, she made more than $21 million afterward, over three years, for speeches and appearances for private companies. None of those speeches was paid for by foreign governments, but some groups she addressed could be counted as special interests.

As well, the Clintons' family charity, the Clinton Foundation, received millions of dollars in donations while she was secretary of state, some from foreigners. And Bill Clinton earned millions making appearances and speeches for foreign corporations and organizations while his wife was at the State Department.

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TRUMP: "After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world. Libya is in ruins, and our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis now threatens the West. ... This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness."

THE FACTS: It's an exaggeration to suggest Clinton, or any secretary of state, is to blame for the widespread instability and violence across the Middle East.

Clinton worked to impose sanctions that helped coax Tehran to a nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers last year, a deal in which Iran rolled back its nuclear program to get relief from sanctions that were choking its economy.

She did not start the war in Libya, but supported a NATO intervention well after violence broke out between rebels and the forces of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country slid into chaos after Gadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011, leaving it split between competing governments.

Clinton had no role in military decisions made during the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Republicans' claim that high-level officials in Washington issued a "stand-down" order delaying a military rescue in Benghazi has been widely debunked.

On Iraq, Clinton as a senator voted in 2002 to grant President George W. Bush authority to invade Iraq, but has since said it was a "mistake." Many in the Middle East do not regret Saddam's ouster and regional allies allowed U.S. bases in their country to support the war. But many also now fear the Islamic State group, which rose in the chaos of Syria's civil war and Iraq's security vacuum.

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TRUMP: "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world."

THE FACTS: Trump continues to repeat this inaccuracy. The U.S. tax burden is actually the fourth lowest among the 34 developed and large emerging-market economies that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Taxes made up 26 percent of the total U.S. economy in 2014, according to the OECD. That's far below Sweden's tax burden of 42.7 percent, Britain's 32.6 percent or Germany's 36.1 percent. Only three OECD members had a lower figure than the U.S.: Chile, South Korea and Mexico.

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TRUMP: "My opponent wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment."

THE FACTS: Hillary Clinton has not proposed any revocation of the constitutionally protected right to bear arms. She does support a ban on certain military-style weapons, similar to the law President Bill Clinton signed in the 1990s. That ban expired after 10 years and was not renewed. Clinton also backs an expansion of existing criminal background checks to apply to weapons sales at gun shows. The checks now apply mainly to sales by federally licensed gun dealers.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Stephen Braun, Deb Riechmann, Jim Drinkard and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
CLEVELAND (AP)  Donald Trump's daughter promised Thursday that her father will fight for equal pay for women and affordable childcare for parents, issues the Republican nominee has rarely if ever addressed on the campaign trail.

Ivanka Trump got an enthusiastic welcome at the Republican National Convention. Her primetime speech elicited repeated applause and much praise from delegates in the arena.

Touting a side of her father rarely seen on the campaign trail, Ivanka Trump cast her father as a leader who would fight to address the student debt problem and would be a champion for equal pay for mothers and single women.

Ivanka Trump, daughter of Republican Presidential Nominee Donald J. Trump, speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time when women weren't a significant portion of the workplace, and he will focus on making quality childcare affordable and accessible for all," Ivanka Trump said.

Trump has not addressed childcare costs or the gender pay gap so far in his 2016 presidential bid. These are issues usually touted by Democrats.

Trump's past statements on women in the workplace have included calling pregnancy "an inconvenience" and telling a voter in New Hampshire last year that women will receive the same pay as men "if they do as good a job."

On Thursday, Ivanka Trump said her father "will fight for equal pay for equal work."

Ivanka Trump vowed that her father would "focus on making affordable childcare affordable and accessible for all" if elected.

Ivanka Trump was a big hit among the delegates.

"She is showing the softer side" of Trump, said Chris Herrod, state director for Ted Cruz in Utah. "She hit the gender pay issue which is very important. And she talked about the family. I think she's done very, very well."

Wisconsin delegate Kathy Kiernan called Ivanka's speech "perfect."

"I think she's amazing. I think that looking at his children and how great they all are and how much they all love their father tells you a lot about the man as a parent," Kiernan said. "I think she's one of his best assets."

California delegate Shawn Steel said Ivanka Trump's speech was "the high point of the entire convention for me."

"He does the blue collar, she does the millennials. It's a powerful combination," Steel said. "This woman I've been saying for some time is the greatest asset Donald trump has."

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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Jill Colvin, Josh Lederman, Erica Werner and Jeff Horwitz in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Ivanka Trump, daughter of Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, takes the stage during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Vaccine scandal highlights Indonesian health system woes

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  A scandal over fake vaccines given to children prompted angry and confused parents to physically attack a doctor in the Indonesian capital in a sign of deep-seated problems in the country's health system.

Since last month, vials marked as vaccines but filled with saline solution and antibiotics have been discovered at 37 hospitals and clinics in nine cities, according to the Food and Drug Agency. So far, 23 people have been arrested, including three doctors. The number of affected children is still being investigated but could be significant in a country of more than 250 million people.

Indonesia President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo this week visited a clinic where nearly 170 children were to be revaccinated. He asked for patience while police continue to investigate an "extraordinary crime" of bogus vaccines allegedly going back as far as 2003.

In this Monday, July 18, 2016, Indonesian health officials inject a baby during a revaccination program for children who were earlier given fake vaccines, at a community health center in Jakarta, Indonesia. Vials of counterfeit vaccines filled with saline solution and antibiotics have been discovered at 37 hospitals and clinics in nine cities, according to the Food and Drug Agency. So far, 23 people have been arrested, including three doctors. The number of affected children is still being investigated. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

"We are in crisis right now," said Dr. Aman Bhakti Pulungan, head of Indonesia's Pediatrician Association. "This is a medical emergency, and we have to overcome this."

He said he is not aware of any children dying as a result of not being protected against diseases they were believed to have been vaccinated against, but added it's possible some kids could have gotten sick without being detected. The fake vaccines involved a number of shots routinely given to children, including for measles, whooping cough, hepatitis and diphtheria.

The counterfeits were falsely labeled as imported brands, Pulungan said. He believes the number of children affected is likely small, given that only 1 percent of vaccines administered nationwide are imported. The government began revaccinating children this week free of charge at affected hospitals and clinics, including 14 in the capital Jakarta and its outskirts.

Local television footage this week showed a mob of angry parents at Harapan Bunda Hospital in eastern Jakarta arguing with a doctor and then punching him and spitting on him before security officers broke up the brawl. Other parents took their rage to the government, complaining to members of parliament and demanding help.

Jane Soepardi, the director of Surveillance, Health Quarantine and Epidemiology at the Health Ministry said Friday the government estimates about 5,000 children from 4.8 million targeted this year for immunization, have gotten fake vaccines.

"Fake vaccines arose because there was a scarcity of vaccine a few years ago that led hospitals and clinics to look for imported vaccines," she said. "Also because the middle class demanded imported vaccines rather than locally made."

She said the fakes did not contain harmful substances but it's possible the unsafe process of producing them could cause infections in children they were administered to.

Health Minister Nila Moeloek has called for calm and warned parents not to panic, but distrust of the health system runs deep in a country rife with corruption, overcrowded hospitals and a lack of qualified doctors. For those who can afford it, Singapore or Malaysia are often the first choice for treatment.

Danang Susilo, the father of 14-month old Chelea, said he is worried about his daughter's health even though doctors from Karya Medika Hospital at Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta assured him the fake vaccine she received was harmless.

"I was shocked and very disappointed when the hospital management asked me, along with about 300 other parents to bring our children for revaccination, because the vaccine that is injected into our children turned out to be fake," he said. "How could this happen?"

"We need a medical check-up, not only an explanation," he said. "We need concrete compensation."

In 2013, the Food and Drug Agency received a report from British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline about the circulation of counterfeit vaccines bearing its name. The perpetrator was caught and fined less than $100. Additional problems were discovered in 2014 and 2015. This year, PT Sanofi-Aventis Indonesia, a subsidiary of French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, notified the National Police about fake vaccines using its product labels, according to the agency.

Dr. Kartono Mohammad, former head of the Indonesia Medical Association, said regulations are in place to ensure that safe vaccines are administered, but enforcement and monitoring are weak. He said that the vaccine scandal is a symptom of a much larger problem, and that the country's entire health system should be overhauled.

"The attitude of the Indonesian people, especially the middle class, is that they look at the building and the facility and they say: This is the best hospital," he said. "But nobody knows if it really is a good hospital or not because there is no quality control, no quality assurance done by the government."

In this Monday, July 18, 2016, An Indonesian health official gives a drop of polio vaccine to a baby during a revaccination program for children who were earlier given fake vaccines, at a community health center in Jakarta, Indonesia. Vials of counterfeit vaccines filled with saline solution and antibiotics have been discovered at 37 hospitals and clinics in nine cities, according to the Food and Drug Agency. So far, 23 people have been arrested, including three doctors. The number of affected children is still being investigated. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

In this Monday, July 18, 2016, an Indonesian health official prepares a vaccine injection during a revaccination program for children who were earlier given fake vaccines, at a community health center in Jakarta, Indonesia. Vials of counterfeit vaccines filled with saline solution and antibiotics have been discovered at 37 hospitals and clinics in nine cities, according to the Food and Drug Agency. So far, 23 people have been arrested, including three doctors. The number of affected children is still being investigated. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

In this Monday, July 18, 2016, An Indonesian health official prepares a vaccine injection during a revaccination program for children who were earlier given fake vaccines, at a community health center in Jakarta, Indonesia. Vials of counterfeit vaccines filled with saline solution and antibiotics have been discovered at 37 hospitals and clinics in nine cities, according to the Food and Drug Agency. So far, 23 people have been arrested, including three doctors. The number of affected children is still being investigated. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

In this Friday, July 15, 2016, photo, parents bring their children to a hospital for authentic vaccinations during a revaccination program after earlier receiving fake vaccines in Tambun, West Java, Indonesia. A scandal over fake vaccines given to children prompted angry and confused parents to assault a doctor in the Indonesian capital in a sign of deep-seated problems in the country's health system. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Ohio county official apologizes for Hillary Clinton remark

NEWARK, Ohio (AP)  A county official in Ohio is apologizing after a newspaper quoted him as saying that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "should be hanging from a tree."

Licking County Commissioner Duane Flowers read a prepared apology during a meeting on Thursday, after The (Newark) Advocate reported on the comment he made during a meeting earlier this week.

Flowers says he made the remark during a casual conversation with two other officials and a reporter from The Advocate that he thought was off the record.

Flowers says he knows that he "will never again have a casual conversation with a reporter."

Licking County Democratic Party Chairwoman Grace Cherrington says Flowers' remarks promote "violence and divisiveness."
Crowds cheer Indian superstar Rajnikanth's latest film

CHENNAI, India (AP)  Hundreds of thousands of fans of Indian superstar Rajinikanth are thronging cinemas across the country to catch the premiere of his latest film, "Kabali."

Many private firms gave their employees a day off and parents kept children home from school in Tamil Nadu state for the movie's release Friday.

Crowds of fans waited outside theaters all night before the gangster film premiered soon after dawn.

Fans of Indian actor Rajinikanth wait outside a theatre to buy tickets on the eve of release of his new movie Kabali, in Bangalore, India, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Businesses in southern India have given their employees the day off on Friday so they can attend screenings of a new film starring Tamil cinema's superstar Rajinikanth. One of Asia's highest paid actors, Rajinikanth is considered one of the most bankable stars in India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Inside one theater, Rajnikanth enthusiasts screamed, cheered and whistled as their hero fought many battles with underworld dons and villains.

Sixty-five-year-old Rajinikanth is India's most popular star and counts millions of fans who speak the Tamil language and even those who don't.

Fans of Indian actor Rajinikanth wait next to police barricades outside a theatre to buy tickets on the eve of release of his new movie "Kabali" in Chennai, India, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Businesses in southern India have given their employees the day off on Friday so they can attend screenings of a new film starring Tamil cinema's most bankable superstar Rajinikanth. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Hong Kong booksellers braving China chill for publishers

HONG KONG (AP)  Hong Kong publishers' latest works on sensitive Chinese topics were displayed at a book fair this week, despite the chill persisting from recent detentions of five local booksellers.

The former British colony has a lively market for so-called banned books, covering Chinese elite politics and other topics off limits to mainland readers. The temporary disappearances of the five men, who worked for the publishing firm Mighty Current, highlighted fears Beijing is tightening its grip on Hong Kong.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese control in 1997, but its semiautonomous government has preserved civil liberties such as freedom of speech, not found on the mainland, that for decades have made the city an important clearing house for information about China.

In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016 photo, copies of "China's Godfather Xi Jinping" and other so-called banned books are on display at an annual book fair in Hong Kong. Hong Kong publishers unveiled their latest titles on sensitive Chinese topics at a major book fair this week even as many in the industry despaired over the chilling effect from the recent case of five missing booksellers. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Mighty Current churned out gossipy, thinly sourced titles that were popular with visitors from the mainland, where state-owned publishers face strict control and where those engaging in public expressions of dissent risk lengthy jail sentences.

The men went missing one after the other, only to turn up months later under the control of mainland Chinese authorities.

Four of the men have been released. One, Lam Wing-kee, said he was interrogated on sources for information used in company's books and on its mainland Chinese customers. A fifth man is still detained.

The book fair, one of the biggest in Asia, has attracted tens of thousands of visitors since it kicked off Wednesday. Last year, it drew more than 1 million visitors.

Its 640 exhibitors are featuring serious titles, mostly in Chinese, including volumes critical of China's Communist Party and President Xi Jinping, though they're outnumbered by lighter fare such as manga, self-help books and educational guides for students.

Jimmy Pang, the publisher of the small, independent press Subculture , said he saw no future for Hong Kong's political book industry. The Mighty Current case has sparked a "white terror," he said.

"It's not just publishers, it's a problem for the whole industry," said Pang. "Printing companies don't dare print them. Distributors aren't willing to distribute them." Many bookstores are controlled by mainland Chinese state-owned companies and refuse to stock them, he said.

Pang's booth was displaying books that included works advocating greater autonomy for Hong Kong.

Another publisher, Bao Pu, described the outlook for the industry as "very gloomy."

Bao's company, New Century Press , had trouble finding a printer willing to put out its latest title, a book about Qincheng Prison, a facility north of Beijing that has housed many prominent political prisoners. Bao's father, Bao Tong, was a top aide to purged Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang and was held for years in Qincheng.

Before the Mighty Current case, the "banned book" industry avoided the wider trend of falling book sales because it was a market created by Chinese censorship.

"It was thriving for a while until they clamped down, until they made sure that everybody knows it's dangerous to buy these books. So when they do that it has a tremendous effect," Bao said.

Bao's Hong Kong-based company is best known for publishing a posthumous memoir on Zhao, who was deposed as premier for opposing the June 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square that left hundreds of people dead, if not more.

Hong Kong's academic publishers are feeling less pressure, and Chinese University Press launched a four-volume "Collected Works of Zhao Ziyang, 1980-1989." The publisher said the compilation of nearly 500 reports, speeches and letters written by Zhao provides a detailed look at China's economic rise and insight into backroom dealings within the country's top leadership.

A Zhao family member provided the documents, said a person who worked on the book but refused to be identified because of the sensitivity of the project.

English-language books are not immune to the chill: Columnist Jason Ng said that, as he expected, his publisher's usual printer, based in the nearby mainland city of Shenzhen, refused to handle his "Umbrellas in Bloom," about Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy protests. But printers in Hong Kong also turned it down.

The printer that finally agreed to do the job would do so only if it wasn't named.

"That's sort of silly since the printer's name never appears on the book," Ng said. "I think that speaks to the general paranoia up and down the publishing food chain."

___

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http://bigstory.ap.org/content/kelvin-chan

In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016 photo, a copy of Time Magazine which features portraits of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and former leader Mao Zedong is on display at an annual book fair in Hong Kong. Hong Kong publishers unveiled their latest titles on sensitive Chinese topics at a major book fair this week even as many in the industry despaired over the chilling effect from the recent case of five missing booksellers. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016 photo, copies of so-called banned books "China's Godfather Xi Jinping" are on display at an annual book fair in Hong Kong. Hong Kong publishers unveiled their latest titles on sensitive Chinese topics at a major book fair this week even as many in the industry despaired over the chilling effect from the recent case of five missing booksellers. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
China denies political conditions on aid to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  China said Friday its financial assistance to Cambodia is in no way dependent on that country's support on diplomatic and political issues, such as Beijing's dispute with other Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea.

A Foreign Ministry statement faxed to The Associated Press said that China and Cambodia are important partners who have "for a long time and from beginning to end engaged in sincere cooperation, mutual support and mutual assistance."

"I wish to point out that assistance provided by China comes with no political conditions and is widely welcomed by the Cambodian people," the statement said.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang commented on a recent Associated Press report about a $600 million aid package provided by Beijing to Cambodia that referenced the close relationship between the countries.

State media quoted Lu saying China's aid should not be hyped-up or viewed through "tinted glasses."

Cambodia's prime minister announced last week that the Chinese assistance to his government would go to support the country's election infrastructure, education and health.

Last month, Cambodia deported 39 suspected criminals to China, including 25 Taiwanese, over whom Beijing insists it has jurisdiction despite protests from self-ruled Taipei.
According to SNLDs Sai Sai, the incident happened around 3pm when Sai Teng Aung and his daughter Nang Mo Leng stepped on a landmine between the villages of Kungao and Pang Nyaung in Hsipaw Township.

They were going to cut firewood, said Sai Sai. The eight-year-old girl has wounds all over her body, including her hands and legs.

He said the pair were taken to Hsipaw Hospital at 5pm, but due to the severity of the injuries both were transferred to a hospital in Lashio Township two hours later.

This is by no means the first incidence of landmine injuries in and around Hsipaw, where several armed groups are active, including the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces), the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA). However, there is no evidence linking the laying the mines in this area to any particular group.

On April 28, Myanmar Times reported that two German tourists were injured by a landmine blast while hiking in the area.

On July 12, Shan Herald reported that more than 300 villagers in Hsipaw Township had fled their homes because of fighting between TNLA troops and the RCSS/SSA.

According to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, an organisation that documented global landmine use, Burma was ranked third most dangerous country in the world in 2014, after Colombia and Afghanistan.
Kansas court upholds death sentence for sheriff's killing

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence imposed against a man who fatally shot a sheriff during a 2005 drug raid.

Kansas hasn't executed anyone in more than 50 years, and Friday's decision in Scott Cheever's case is only the second time the court has upheld a death sentence under the state's 1994 capital punishment law.

An execution by lethal injection isn't likely to be scheduled soon, but state Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement, "today's ruling marks the end of the first line of appeals in this case."

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2008, file photo, Scott Cheever is led from the courtroom after a sentencing hearing in Eureka, Kan. The Kansas Supreme Court is preparing to rule Friday, July 22, 2016, on whether Cheever, who was convicted of fatally shooting a sheriff during a 2005 drug raid, will face execution. (Bo Rader/Wichita Eagle via AP, POOL, File)

Cheever acknowledged shooting Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels as Samuels tried to serve a warrant at a rural home about 75 miles northeast of Wichita, but Cheever's attorney argued that he was too high on methamphetamine for the crime to be premeditated.

The slain sheriff's son, Heath Samuels, is now serving as interim sheriff in his father's old job in Greenwood County. He said he was "very excited" to see the court system still works. The family supports the death penalty, he said.

"My dad had to pay the ultimate sacrifice," he said. "I don't think this is any different than what the defendant should pay."

The decision came only days after a Kansas City, Kansas, police captain was shot to death in his patrol car while searching for a suspect in a drive-by shooting and only weeks after fatal attacks on officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Kansas court has faced scrutiny over its handling of past capital cases.

The Kansas court in 2012 ordered a new trial for Cheever, concluding that his constitutional right against self-incrimination was violated when prosecutors used a court-ordered mental evaluation from a different trial against him. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2013.

The court's 6-1 majority did conclude there were several errors in Greenwood County District Judge Michael Ward's handling of the sentencing proceedings, including in his instructions to jurors. But the court concluded the errors had "little if any effect" on the jury's decision to recommend a death sentence.

"Thus, no issue raised by Cheever warrants reversal," Justice Eric Rosen wrote for the majority.

Dissenting Justice Lee Johnson disagreed, accusing the majority of "donning the mantle of super-juror here." He also has said previously that he believes the death penalty itself violates the state constitution.

A state public defender representing Cheever in his appeals did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

Cheever initially was charged in federal court because the Kansas Supreme Court had declared the state's capital punishment law unconstitutional weeks before the murder, leaving it in limbo. But the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that 2004 decision, preserving the law, and Cheever went to trial in state court in 2007.

The Kansas court put its review of Cheever's case on hold again last year because three other death penalty rulings from the state were before the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation's highest court again in January reversed the Kansas court, settling issues that could have forced a new sentencing in the Cheever case.

Samuels was shot while serving arrest warrants on Cheever for allegedly stealing firearms from his stepfather and not reporting to his parole officer.

A defense expert had argued that Cheever's brain had been damaged by meth use. The U.S. Supreme Court said that because Cheever's defense raised the issue of brain damage, prosecutors could present testimony from a different trial by a mental health expert that Cheever killed because he had an anti-social personality.

Cheever is among 10 men who've been sentenced to die and could still face execution under the state's 1994 death penalty law, though the state's last executions, by hanging, were in 1965.

The Kansas court previously had upheld only one death sentence, ruling last year against convicted serial killer John E. Robinson Sr., who trolled for female victims online and was tied to murders dating to 1984.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP legislators have criticized the court for overturning other death sentences. The court's critics are hoping to oust four of its seven justices in the November election, when voters decide whether they're retained for another six years.

___

Associated Press writer Roxana Hegeman contributed to this report from Wichita.

Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .

This undated photo provided by the Samuels family shows Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels. The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday, July 22, 2016, upheld the death sentence imposed against Scott Cheever, who fatally shot Samuels during a 2005 drug raid. (Samuels family/The Emporia Gazette via AP, File)
Chicago officer shot, suspect killed in exchange of gunfire

CHICAGO (AP)  A Chicago police officer was released from the hospital after being shot in the leg by a man who was killed when officers returned fire, police said.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told reporters the officer and his partner were on bike patrol on the near South Side around 8:15 p.m. Thursday when a person told them about a man acting erratically. The Cook County medical examiner identified the man as Derek Love, 50.

The officers approached Love, who was talking on a cellphone, and asked him to hang up so they could speak with him. Love pulled a gun out of a backpack and began firing, striking one officer in the thigh, Johnson said.

Both officers returned fire, killing the suspect, he said.

"This is just another example of too many guns, too many people willing to use them," Johnson said. "But it also illustrates how Chicago police officers put their lives on the line every day to keep the city of Chicago safe."

The wounded officer had a tourniquet and he and his partner used it to treat the wound, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

He was taken to a hospital with injuries that Johnson said were not considered life-threatening. Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited him there, Johnson said.

The wounded officer is 44 years old and a 16-year veteran of the department, according to a police statement. The officer's name was not released.

The shooting happened in an affluent area blocks from Soldier Field. The incident is under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority. The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative leave.

Chicago police have been working in pairs for safety since the fatal shooting earlier this month of five Dallas officers during a protest over the fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Judge denies witness details in murder case of rap mogul

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Defense lawyers for Marion "Suge" Knight will not be given addresses and other information about confidential informants and key witnesses in the murder case against the former rap mogul, a judge ruled Friday after a closed-door meeting with a prosecutor and police detective.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen made the decision after prosecutors cited Knight's history of violence and allegations that he has intimidated witnesses.

However, Coen said some of the details will need to be disclosed shortly before Knight goes on trial.

FILE - In this July 17, 2015 file photo, Marion "Suge" Knight sits in court during a bail hearing in his murder case, in Los Angeles. Knight is scheduled to return to a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday, July 22, 2016, for a hearing in which his attorneys will ask that prosecutors hand over information about witnesses in a murder case against the Death Row Records co-founder. Prosecutors do not want to release certain info about the witnesses, citing Knight's history of violence. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

The 51-year-old Knight was boisterous throughout the hearing and at one point complained that he wasn't receiving proper medical treatment in jail. He told the judge he recently spent 10 days in a hospital after doctors found blood clots in his arm and neck..

"I'd hate to go through all of this and die in jail," Knight said during lengthy remarks to the judge. "I just know my time is ticking some days because of my health."

"I think it's really important you listen to me because I have no one else to talk to," Knight said.

Coen said he would sign any orders for medical treatment that Knight required. "I don't want you dying," he said.

Knight lashed out at his attorneys during a recess after he spoke to Coen, who had urged Knight to heed the advice of his lawyers to remain silent. Knight could be heard yelling after deputies took him out of the courtroom.

"I have a right to know what is going on," Knight told his lawyers. "This has to be a real conversation. I'm not an idiot, you have to consult with me."

Knight's attorney J. Tooson said his client's reaction was "natural in a case this high-profile." He also noted that Knight hasn't been able to see his fiancee Toi-Lin Kelly and young son.

Kelly said during the recess that Knight addressed the judge directly because he isn't being treated fairly.

"He feels like has a voice and he can talk to somebody," she said.

Knight has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges filed after security camera video showed him running over two men in January 2015 outside a Compton burger stand. One of the men died.

Knight could face life in prison if convicted. A trial date has not been set.

His lawyers had wanted details about people who saw the confrontation, including some who are gang members. One of the witnesses is Cle "Bone" Sloan, who survived being hit by Knight's pickup truck after he repeatedly punched the former mogul during the incident. The judge withheld Sloan's address from Knight's lawyers.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes said she would arrange interviews of Sloan and other witnesses by Knight's lawyers.

Knight's Death Row Records label fueled gangster rap's popularity in the 1990s, with a roster of artists that included Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. He lost control of the company after it was forced into bankruptcy.

Knight pleaded no contest in 1995 and was sentenced to five years' probation for assaulting two rappers in 1992. He was sentenced to prison in 1997 for violating his probation by taking part in a fight at a Las Vegas hotel hours before Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting as he rode in Knight's car.

___
NKorean airliner catches fire, makes forced landing in China

BEIJING (AP)  An airliner operated by North Korea's flag carrier caught fire and made an emergency landing in northeastern China on Friday, an airport police official said.

The Air Koryo flight was en route from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to Beijing when it made the unscheduled stop in the Chinese city of Shenyang, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing a passenger on board the plane.

An official with the Shenyang Taoyuan Airport police unit, reached by phone, said the plane landed at around 9 a.m. local time. Like many Chinese officials, he refused to provide his name and said he had no further details.

Air Koryo operates mainly Russian TU-204 and AN-148 planes. The international destinations to which it flies regularly include Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang in China and the Russian port of Vladivostok.

Calls to the airline's office in Beijing rang unanswered.

Xinhua cited the unidentified passenger as saying that smoke began to appear in the cabin around half an hour after the plane took off from Pyongyang. The report said the crew told passengers the plane would make a stop in Shenyang and urged them not to panic. It said oxygen masks were released and the plane made a forced landing in Shenyang 10 minutes later.
Kashmir residents struggle under India security lockdown

SRINAGAR, India (AP)  Sheikh Naseer Ahmed is getting married, yet his home looks like anyone else's. There are no floral or light decorations, no hustle and bustle. Only close relatives are invited to the modest meal that is being prepared.

His unusually humble nuptials reflect how ordinary life is muted in Srinagar, the urban heart of Indian-controlled Kashmir, as authorities attempt to quash protests against Indian rule.

An eerie silence engulfs downtown, home to half a million people. Shortly after dawn, police and paramilitary soldiers, in full riot gear and armed with automatic rifles, swiftly occupy the roads and streets. They set up checkpoints, and lay steel barricades and razor wire at all the entry and exit points.

An Indian Paramilitary soldier stops a Kashmiri Muslim man in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, July 22, 2016. Restrictions and security lockdowns are nothing new for Kashmiris. The region witnessed months of clampdown during massive public uprisings against Indian rule in 2008 and 2010. Frequent separatist calls for shutdown and protests too are routinely met with security lockdowns. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Like much of the rest of Kashmir, the sprawling, densely populated neighborhoods have been under curfew since July 9, a day after Indian government forces killed a popular leader of the region's largest rebel group. Yet public defiance has persisted, sparking deadly clashes between Kashmiris and Indian government forces that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Separatist leaders have called general strikes.

Shops are shuttered and public movement restricted. Getting food and medicine is a struggle. Dozens of feasts and celebrations have been canceled.

Ahmed's marriage date was fixed months back, with elaborate celebration plans. He intended to have more than 500 guests fed by 20 chefs cooking more than 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of mutton and chicken for the multi-course Kashmiri meal known as wazwan. A principal part of Kashmiri marriage, the wazwan consists of seven to 20 dishes, and is accompanied by a religious ritual solemnizing the nuptial knot.

Those invitations, as well as mutton and chicken orders, have been canceled. The atmosphere is quite subdued. About two dozen women circled inside a hall to sing few traditional folk songs.

"How can we feast and celebrate when so many people are being killed?" Ahmed said in downtown neighborhood of Nowhatta, which houses the city's historic main mosque of Jamia Masjid. "I'm just managing to solemnize my nuptial knot."

At a nearby community hall, few hundred meters away from Ahmed's modest three-story house, there are just two chefs at an open-air kitchen cooking 30 kilograms of mutton. The meal will be an ordinary, single meat dish and a vegetable.

"The entire population is undergoing a grind," said Mohammed Munnawar, the head chef. "It feels sinful to pound and grind meat for rista," or minced mutton balls.

"This is a peak marriage season here. But this how we've been doing it in these conditions," Munnawar said.

After the Thursday's wazwan, Ahmed, accompanied by four relatives, traveled 5 kilometers (3 miles) to another neighborhood in Srinagar to bring his bride home late Thursday night, after government troops had withdrawn from the pitch-dark streets. Under normal circumstances, the feasting would continue after the bride has been brought home, but this, as Ahmed said, was a "curfewed marriage."

Restrictions and security lockdowns are nothing new for Kashmiris. The region witnessed months of clampdown during massive public uprisings against Indian rule in 2008 and 2010. Frequent separatist calls for shutdown and protests too are routinely met with security lockdowns.

Residents say they've figured out ways to mitigate the hardships of being prisoners inside their homes.

For fresh vegetables and milk, they must leave home before dawn and walk a few kilometers to reach farmers; they can be home by 6 a.m. They buy other essentials, and smokers can get cigarettes, at the home of a neighborhood grocery store owner who had stockpiled goods there.

But communication and information blackout has added to the hardships. Authorities suspended most cellular and internet services and temporarily banned newspaper publication to stop activists from organizing protests.

Life may be toughest for the sick. Not far from Ahmed, cancer patient Haleema Bano twice ran short of her medicine, but managed to get it.

Now, however, she's due for her follow-up examinations. To get to the hospital, she will need her son's help to walk a long distance, through a network of interior alleys away from police and paramilitary soldiers. She's fearful.

"I don't know how long this will go on," said Bano as she wiped sweat from her 3-year-old granddaughter, sleeping next to her. "I don't want my son to be in harm's way."

Her son, Reyaz Ahmed Bhat, said a cousin in a neighboring locality ran out of prescription medicine for chronic depression. Living on a roadside in the gaze of patrolling soldiers, his condition worsened as he could not even venture out of his home to take strolls.

"Sometimes he would become violent, hitting his head against the wall. Then he would go quiet for hours. His wife and parents and two little kids were so terrified," Bhat said. "For three days he and his family suffered before his medicine could be organized."

Kashmir's fury at Indian rule is not something new. Its roots lie in a broken promise of referendum guaranteed shortly after India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain. The two countries were unable to resolve their competing claims on the stunning mountain territory divided between the archrivals.

The Indian side has seen several separatist movements since then, including a bloody armed rebellion launched in 1989 to demand independence or a merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people were killed in that uprising and the subsequent brutal military crackdown by hundreds of thousands of Indian forces deployed across the region.

But the latest rage surprised authorities, who did not expect rebel killings to be a trigger for a renewed public insurrection. The state administration has so far done little more than let the police and paramilitary quell the deadly unrest.

Yet every new killing has further enraged residents, sparking more protests and clashes. Separatist politicians, most of them under house arrest or inside police lockups, have channelized the uprising by repeatedly calling for protest demonstrations and strikes.

On Wednesday night, separatist politicians appealed to residents to stock up for a long struggle. The strike was relaxed Thursday and resumed Friday.

Earlier in the week at sunset, as soldiers in Nowhatta began to withdraw for the day, a group mostly of young men barraged them with stones and bricks. Soldiers responded with pepper gas and, tear gas, and threw stones as well.

The muezzin call for evening prayer from the nearby mosque established a sort of ceasefire. Both sides withdrew.

The next day is the same routine: Soldiers patrolling silent, deserted streets, and residents caged in their homes.

__

Follow Aijaz Hussain: www.twitter.com/hussain_aijaz

In this Thursday, July 21, 2016 photo, Kashmiri groom Shiekh Naseer Ahmed during his wedding ceremony in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Ahmed's marriage date was fixed months back, with elaborate celebration plans, yet his home looks like anyone else's. There are no floral or light decorations, no hustle and bustle. Only close relatives are invited to the modest meal that is being prepared. His unusually humble nuptials reflect how ordinary life is muted in Srinagar, the urban heart of Indian-controlled Kashmir, as authorities attempt to quash protests against Indian rule.(AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

In this Thursday, July 21, 2016 photo, Kashmiri women walk on a deserted street, past an Indian policeman during curfew in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Like much of the rest of Kashmir, the sprawling, densely populated neighborhoods have been under curfew since July 9, a day after Indian government forces killed a popular leader of the region's largest rebel group. Yet public defiance has persisted, sparking deadly clashes between Kashmiris and Indian government forces that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Separatist leaders have called general strikes. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A Kashmiri municipal worker cleans the road outside a mosque during curfew hours in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, July 22, 2016. Like much of the rest of Kashmir, the sprawling, densely populated neighborhoods have been under curfew since July 9, a day after Indian government forces killed a popular leader of the region's largest rebel group. Yet public defiance has persisted, sparking deadly clashes between Kashmiris and Indian government forces that left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Separatist leaders have called general strikes. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Relatives of the groom surround Kashmiri bride Quansar, covered with a white shawl, during her wedding ceremony in Indian controlled Kashmir, early Friday, July 22, 2016. The marriage date was fixed months back, with elaborate celebration plans, yet his home looks like anyone else's. There are no floral or light decorations, no hustle and bustle. Only close relatives are invited to the modest meal that is being prepared. The unusually humble nuptials reflect how ordinary life is muted in Srinagar, the urban heart of Indian-controlled Kashmir, as authorities attempt to quash protests against Indian rule. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

In this Thursday, July 21, 2016 photo, Mohammed Munnawar, right, and Muneer Ahmed, Kashmiri wazas, or chefs, cook for a wedding feast in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Ahmed and Quansar's marriage date was fixed months back, with elaborate celebration plans. They intended to have more than 500 guests fed by 20 chefs cooking more than 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of mutton and chicken for the multi-course Kashmiri meal known as wazwan. A principal part of Kashmiri marriage, the wazwan consists of seven to 20 dishes, and is accompanied by a religious ritual solemnizing the nuptial knot. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

In this Thursday, July 21, 2016 photo, Kashmiris perform traditional hair cut to the groom Shiekh Naseer Ahmed during his wedding ceremony in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Ahmed's marriage date was fixed months back, with elaborate celebration plans, yet his home looks like anyone else's. There are no floral or light decorations, no hustle and bustle. Only close relatives are invited to the modest meal that is being prepared. His unusually humble nuptials reflect how ordinary life is muted in Srinagar, the urban heart of Indian-controlled Kashmir, as authorities attempt to quash protests against Indian rule. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Kashmiri groom Shiekh Naseer Ahmed, center, sips tea during his marriage ceremony at the bride house in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, early Friday, July 22, 2016. How can we feast and celebrate when so many people are being killed? Ahmed said in downtown neighborhood of Nowhatta, which houses the city's historic main mosque of Jamia Masjid. I'm just managing to solemnize my nuptial knot. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Obama, Mexican president stress importance of relationship

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto reaffirmed the importance of the US-Mexico relationship Friday, promoting the benefits of trade and friendship in an election year that has sometimes stressed that alliance.

In a news conference with Pena Nieto at the White House, Obama said trade with Mexico brings important investment and jobs to the U.S. He said the United States sells more to Mexico than to China, India and Russia combined.

Obama said he has worked to deepen the relationship during his presidency.

President Barack Obama, right, meets with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday, July 22, 2016. Nieto, who has said the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's negative attitude toward Mexicans, including saying they bring drugs and crime to America and calling them rapists, has hurt his country's relations with the U.S. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

"We're not just strategic and economic partners, we're also neighbors and we're friends," Obama said.

The news conference came the morning after the closing of the Republican National Convention and a speech by GOP nominee Donald Trump, whose demands that Mexico pay for a U.S. border wall and descriptions of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists has offended the neighboring country.

Pena Nieto said a good relationship with the United States is "essential" for his country and said he looks forward to a "frank, open dialogue" with whomever is elected. Pena Nieto avoided questions about the wall, but has previously said that Mexico will not pay for the wall Trump proposes.

The two men also endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that both countries have signed on to, saying it would make the relationship between their countries even stronger. They said they have learned from the two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has heavily criticized.

Obama said the global economy is a fact, and "we're not going to be able to build a wall around that."

The visit comes less than a month after Pena Nieto and Obama met in Canada during a summit of North America's leaders. Obama's meetings with visiting foreign leaders are usually announced weeks in advance, but this visit was announced just last week.

The White House shrugged off suggestions that the visit was timed to highlight differences between Democrats and Republicans, particularly on attitudes toward Latinos.

"I think it's fair to say that almost anything that President Obama did on Friday would be viewed as a sharp contrast to the agenda that's being put forward by the other side," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. "But in this case, it's been a while since the president has hosted the president of Mexico here at the White House."

Trump has also said Mexican immigrants "have lots of problems" and when they come to the U.S. "they're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
Hillary Clinton chooses Va. Sen. Tim Kaine as running mate

TAMPA, Florida (AP)  Hillary Clinton named Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate Friday, adding a centrist former governor of a crucial battleground state to the Democratic ticket.

In a text message to supporters, the presumptive Democratic nominee said, "I'm thrilled to tell you this first: I've chosen Sen. Tim Kaine as my running mate."

Kaine himself tweeted, "I'm honored to be her running mate." The two will make their first appearance together as a ticket Saturday at a rally in Miami.

In this July 14, 2016, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks at a rally at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va. Clinton has chosen Kaine to be her running mate (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Clinton's decision caps a highly secretive, months-long process to find a political partner. It's also the final puzzle piece for the general election, pitting Clinton and Kaine against Republican Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence, the Indiana governor.

Clinton called Kaine by phone around 7:30 p.m. Friday to offer him the job, and he accepted, according to a campaign aide. She then called President Barack Obama to inform him of the decision.

Kaine, 58, had long been a favorite for Clinton's ticket. Active in the Senate on foreign relations and military affairs, he built a reputation for working across the aisle as Virginia's governor and as mayor of Richmond. He's also fluent in Spanish, making him a valuable asset in Spanish-language media as the campaign appeals to Hispanic Americans turned off by Trump's harsh rhetoric about immigrants.

Clinton weighed two finalists: Kaine and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a longtime friend of the candidate and former President Bill Clinton. Kaine's strong ties to politically important Virginia, as well as his foreign policy experience, put him over the top, according to a person close to the campaign, who insisted on anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the process publicly.

Kaine and Vilsack each had friends and allies lobbying the Clinton campaign on their behalf. But Kaine had a particularly powerful backer: Obama, who told the campaign during the selection process that the senator would be a strong choose.

Trump, in a text to his own supporters, said Obama, Hillary and Kaine were "the ultimate insiders" and implored voters to not "let Obama have a 3rd term."

Kaine is viewed skeptically by some liberals in the Democratic Party, who dislike his support of free trade and Wall Street. Shortly after Friday's announcement, Stephanie Taylor of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said Kaine's support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact gives Republicans "a new opening to attack Democrats on this economic populist issue."

Notably, a campaign aide said Kaine made clear "in the course of discussions" that he shares Clinton's opposition to TPP in its current form.

Clinton's campaign closely guarded the selection process, keeping the names of finalists under wraps to try to maximize the impact of the announcement. Clinton held two lengthy private meetings with Kaine, including a lunch at her New York home last Saturday with their spouses and children.

Clinton's campaign teased the announcement throughout Friday, encouraging supporters to sign up for a text message alert to get the news  a favorite campaign method for getting contact information about voters. The Democratic candidate made no mention of her impending pick during a somber meeting with community leaders and family members affected by the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and a later campaign rally in Tampa.

As Clinton finalized her decision, Trump met with supporters in Cleveland to run through a long list of thank-yous after his four-day convention.

But rather than stay focused on Clinton or reach out to the general election voters he now must court, the newly minted Republican nominee spent considerable time stoking the fire of his bitter quarrel with Republican former rival Ted Cruz. "Ted, stay home," Trump said, dismissing any interest in an endorsement the Texas senator refuses to provide. "Relax. Enjoy yourself."

Trump boasted of his TV ratings, his primary victories and other achievements, including winning over his wife, Melania, in a stream-of-consciousness delivery with Pence, standing quietly nearby.

"I don't do anything unless I win," Trump insisted. He promised to work "so hard" as the nominee and vowed his campaign was "not going to disappear," even though he has no plans to campaign this weekend.

No matter, perhaps, as that time will belong to Clinton and the Democrats, whose own convention begins Monday in Philadelphia. Kaine is expected to speak Wednesday, with Clinton delivering the closing address the following night.

Before entering politics, Kaine was an attorney who specialized in civil rights and fair housing. He learned Spanish during a mission trip to Honduras while in law school. During his political career, he's demonstrated an ability to woo voters across party lines, winning his 2006 gubernatorial race with support in both Democratic strongholds and traditionally Republican strongholds.

His wife, Anne Holton, is the daughter of a former Virginia governor, a former state judge and, currently, the state's Education Secretary. The couple has three children.

Some Democrats believe Trump's selection of Pence, a conservative white man from a largely Republican state, freed Clinton from pressure to add another woman or a minority to her ticket. Her short list included Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, two Latino cabinet secretaries and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of two black U.S. senators.

Democrats argue that Kaine can help her woo moderate and even some Republican voters turned off by Trump's provocative rhetoric.

Kaine got some practice challenging Trump's message when he campaigned with Clinton last week in northern Virginia, where he spoke briefly in Spanish and offered a strident assault on Trump's White House credentials.

"Do you want a 'you're fired' president or a 'you're hired' president?" Kaine asked in Annandale, Virginia, as Clinton nodded. "Do you want a trash-talking president or a bridge-building president?"

_

Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia. AP writers Julie Pace and Lisa Lerer in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Ken Thomas and Alan Suderman on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/kthomasdc and http://twitter.com/AlanSuderman

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally in Entertainment Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Friday, July 22, 2016. Clinton haws chosen Sen. Time Kaine, D-Va., as her running mate. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign event at the Florida State Fairgrounds Entertainment Hall, Friday, July 22, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures at the audience as he arrives at a campaign event at the Florida State Fairgrounds Entertainment Hall, Friday, July 22, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reaches out to touch Orlando City Commissioners Patty Sheehan's arm during a roundtable discussion with community leaders at the Holden Heights Community Center in Orlando, Fla., Friday, July 22, 2016 to speak about the attack on the Pulse nightclub. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaks at a reception with friends and family following the Republican National Convention, Friday, July 22, 2016, in Cleveland. Listening are vice presidential running mate Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Karen Pence, and Charlotte Pence. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Thursday, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A developer is seeking to preserve the site of North Carolina's fabled Lost Colony where 100 settlers mysteriously vanished more than four centuries ago.

Michael Flannelly is desperate to save 1,000 acres in rural Bertie County so archaeologists can finally find the truth.

Clues revealing what happened to the Englishmen could lie in a waterfront tract where developers once wanted to build thousands of condos.

But Flannelly is seeking millions of dollars to buy out the developers and prevent any building on the site.

Developer Michael Flannelly is desperate to save 1,000 acres in rural Bertie County so archaeologists can finally find the truth about what happened to 100 settlers who vanished from there

'I want to see the site preserved,' said Flannelly, who lives on a boat he docks in Norfolk, Virginia, or near his land in Bertie County. 'I think it would make a fantastic place for people to come.'

The mystery of the Lost Colony - England's first settlement in North America - has intrigued historians and the popular imagination for centuries.

In 1587, 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by explorer John White.

He left them there when he sailed back to England that same year for more supplies.

Delayed by war between England and Spain, he didn't return until 1590 - and when he did, he discovered the entire colony had simply vanished.

White knew the majority had planned to move '50 miles into the maine,' as he wrote, referring to the mainland.

The only clues he found about the fate of the other two dozen were the word 'CROATOAN' carved into a post and 'CRO' lettered on a tree trunk, leading historians to believe they moved south to live with American Indians on what's now Hatteras Island.

In 1587, 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by explorer John White (centre). He returned three years later to find they were all missing

The mystery of the Lost Colony - England's first settlement in North America - has intrigued historians and the popular imagination for centuries

But some archaeologists now suspect that at least some of the Roanoke colonists found their way to the inland site south of the Chowan River bridge, roughly 50 miles from Roanoke.

This idea first came to light in 2012, when researchers at the British Museum in London announced they had found a drawing of a fort that had been obscured under a patch on a map of Virginia and North Carolina drawn by White in the 1580s.

The drawing placed the fort in an area of Bertie County where archaeologists had found colonial-era English pottery and signs of a Native American village several years earlier.

They found it during a dig that the state required before Flannelly and his partners could get permits for the subdivision that was never built.

Archaeologists have since found further evidence on the tract, dubbed Site X, including bale seals used to verify cloth quality and 16th-century nails.

Clues about what happened to the Englishmen could lie in a waterfront tract. Pictured: An archaeologist holds pieces of pottery in an area being excavated in rural Bertie County, N.C.

Before the site can be preserved, Flannelly must buy out his former development partners.

Flannelly estimates it will take $4 million to $5 million, along with a conservation group willing to help raise the money and preserve the land.

To any cynics who suspect Flannelly is doing this only for the money, he says he would get 8 percent of any sale, plus a tax credit. And the proposed buyout is far less than the $10 million Flannelly says the developers paid for the property.

A spokesman for the company, Forest City, said that officials know about the archaeological finds but have no other updates about the status of the property. Forest City no longer works in land development, spokesman Jeff Linton said.

Flannelly said that when archaeologists uncovered the property's historical significance, he insisted that those areas be cordoned off as green space and not developed.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SETTLERS? THEORIES ON THEIR DISAPPEARANCE Integration with local tribes Some historians say members of the Lost Colony sought shelter with a local tribe called the Chowanke who were attacked by another tribe called the Mandoag. A map drawn in 1607 supports this claim because it states 'four men clothed that came from roonock' were living with the tribe. A secretary of the Jamestown Colony wrote that Indian settlements were living in two-story houses with stone walls that they had been taught to build from the Roanoke settlers. Destroyed by Indian rivals One historian claims the settlement was destroyed by local Indian leader Chief Powhatan because they mixed with his enemy tribe - the Chesepian - who refused to join his confederacy and were prophesised to rise up and defeat him. Chief Powhatan reportedly produced several English-made iron implements to back his claim, but no bodies were found and no archaeological evidence supports this. Destroyed by the Spanish This theory is unlikely because the Spanish were still looking for the settlement in 1600, ten years after White discovered that the colony was missing. Advertisement

John White discovers the word Croatoan carved onto a tree upon his return to the deserted Roanoke Colony in 1590

Flannelly personally owns 15 acres that include the possible Lost Colony site, but said he didn't know about the artifacts when he chose that land for his own home. 'They felt the same I did,' he said of the settlers. 'That's the best piece of property on the whole tract.'

He has turned to North Carolina's Coastal Land Trust, a nonprofit that has preserved more than 65,000 undeveloped acres in 31 counties since 1992. Lee Leidy, attorney and northeast regional director for the trust, said officials there hope to view the property later this month.

'It's fascinating,' she said. 'It's one that we're very excited to take a look at and learn more about.'

But raising funds to preserve the land presents a challenge, since limited conservation dollars must cover many projects, she said.

Arwin Smallwood chairs of the history department at A&T State University said: 'If it's done properly, I think it could be tremendous.'

'Right now in Bertie County, you can have a true sense of history and what the landscape was like.'

Tourists travel by the thousands to Dare County, home of the outdoor performance of 'The Lost Colony' at an outdoor amphitheater on Roanoke Island. Now Bertie County residents have adopted the settlers as their own as well.

More than 300 people attended the town of Windsor's first Lost Colony Festival in April, said Billy Smithwick, the town fire chief and tourism manager. In addition, the county is acquiring 137 acres for a nearby park.
Florida mosquito control officials worry they won't be able to keep up their efforts to contain the bugs that carry Zika without federal funding, even as concern mounts that the first infection from a mosquito bite on the mainland is near.

On Thursday, fogging trucks drove through a Miami-Dade County neighborhood where health officials are investigating a Zika diagnosis that doesn't appear to have connection to travel outside the United States.

Zika is usually spread by mosquitoes, but nearly all the Zika cases in the US have been contracted in other countries or through sex with someone who got it abroad.

'We want to make sure we reduce the mosquito population down to zero if possible in this case,' said Chalmers Vasquez, Miami-Dade County's mosquito control operations manager.

Nadja Mayerle with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District looks at a mosquito on Tuesday in Salt Lake City

Vasquez's inspectors are going door-to-door, trapping mosquitoes for testing, hand-spraying and removing the standing water where they breed.

Such aggressive mosquito control and surveillance is now routine in Miami-Dade County, which leads Florida in confirmed Zika cases linked to travel.

The Florida Department of Health announced Thursday that another Zika case potentially not related to travel was being investigated in Broward County.

While Zika's appearance in mosquitoes in the US mainland is likely, health officials don't expect widespread outbreaks like those seen in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Zika is such a mild disease for most people that they don't even know they have it, but it has been found to lead to severe birth defects if a pregnant woman is infected.

The tropical mosquito that carries Zika, Aedes aegypti, likes to live near people and it doesn't travel far. Better building construction, more extensive use of air conditioning and window screens, wider use of bug repellant and broader mosquito control measures will help control the spread of Zika by mosquitoes in the country, experts believe.

A tray of Aedes dorsalis and Culex tarsalis mosquitos are shown collected at the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District Tuesday

The same mosquito also has brought dengue and chikungunya to Florida and the Texas-Mexico border, but only in small clusters of cases.

Still, even suspected cases trigger costly responses, as inspectors sweep areas to eliminate their breeding sites, set traps and kill any mosquitoes they see. 'We try to get access to every backyard we can,' Vasquez said.

No mosquitoes collected in Miami-Dade County so far have tested positive for Zika or other viruses carried by the same species, according to state and county officials.

Above, a female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquires a blood meal on the arm of a researcher at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo's University in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Nadja Mayerle with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District places a mosquito trap Tuesday in Salt Lake City

Nadja Mayerle with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District places a mosquito trap on the ground

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has provided Florida $8 million in Zika-specific funding, and the White House has said the state can anticipate receiving another $5.6 million in Zika funding through a grant.

But the state hasn't been able to fill most of the $15 million in emergency Zika funding requests, and Congress left on a seven-week vacation without giving the Obama administration any of the $1.9billion it sought for mosquito control, vaccine development and other steps to battle Zika.

Florida's mosquito control districts can respond to Zika infections for now, but doing so burns up budgets for longer-term threats.

Nadja Mayerle collects a mosquito trap near the marshes in Salt Lake City

Mayerle with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District collects a mosquito trap to help health authorities in Utah who are investigating a unique case of Zika found in a person who had been caring for a relative who had an unusually high level of the virus in his blood

Volusia County has confirmed only three travel-related Zika cases, but responding to each one cost $9,000 to $24,000, depending on local conditions, said Jim McNelly, director of mosquito control in the Atlantic coast county.

'If you multiply the cases we've had to date with the potential cases, we've already spent $50,000 to $60,000 this year. That's money we didn't budget for,' McNelly said. 'We treat a potential case just like a confirmed case. It's the truck, it's the gas, it's the chemicals - it's the whole shooting match.'

The Collier Mosquito Control District could have used federal funding to intensify its virus surveillance and might not have needed to spend about $70,000 budgeted for insecticides on laboratory upgrades instead, executive director Patrick Linn said.

Brad Sorensen, left, of the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District, checks on a decorative pond in the front yard of Miyoung Kim's house Wednesday in Salt Lake City

'This allows us to test in-house,' Linn said. 'We just have to go with a little lower inventory with some of our chemicals used for treating mosquitoes.'

The CDC this week announced nearly $60 million in stopgap funding to divide between states and territories for local Zika efforts, but its officials also stressed that more money is crucial.

'The way you prevent a locally transmitted case from becoming sustained and disseminated is good mosquito control,' Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease director at the National Institutes of Health, said last week. 'The CDC needs the money yesterday.'

The lack of money almost certainly will delay development of a vaccine. The NIH has several promising candidates and is gearing up for first-stage safety testing in late August or early September.

But there's no money for next-step studies to prove the shots really protect - and that planning must begin by September to stay on schedule, Fauci said.

Aubry Lines, with the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District, checks for mosquito larvae Wednesday near Salt Lake City
Dramatis personae: Denver Fenton Allen, a murder defendant. Bryan Durham, a Superior Court judge. And everyone watching in the peanut gallery-cum-courthouse in Rome, Ga., when things got fiery in Floyd County.

The action started when Allen told the judge to fuck himself. Summarized here from a transcript posted by Keith Lee

Durham: I  I am finding  I'm finding you in contempt of court.

Allen: I don't care.

Durham: I know you don't. And I sentence you to 20 days for that. And if you say anything else, I'm going to add 20 days for everything you say.

Allen: Fuck you.

Durham: Forty days.

Allen: Fuck you again.

Durham: Sixty.

Allen: Go fuck yourself.

Durham: A year.

Allen: Your mama.

Durham: Ten years.

Allen: Suck my dick.

Durham: You know something, this is going to be an interesting trial.

[more bickering between them]

Allen: You reckon if I let you suck my dick that I could get a fair trial here?

Durham: Oh, I don't think so.

Allen: I've got a big dick now, and If I pull it out

Durham: I don't think that's doing to get you a fair trial unless you have every one of the jurors do it.

[more bickering between them]

Allen: I've got a big old donkey dick.

Durham: I'm sure the women love it.

Allen: I don't fuck girls.  I fuck boys.

[discussion of the sexiest types of boy]

Durham: You know, you look like a queer.

Allen: Well, okay. So now you're calling me a queer in the courtroom.

Durham: I didn't call you one. I said you looked like one.

Allen: You're yelling.

[Judge Durham gets angry]

Allen: "How about this? I'll kill your whole family. When I get in this trial, I will murder your whole family. I'll cut your children up into pieces. I'll knock their brains out with a fucking hammer and feed them to you."

Durham: [To reporter] "Areare you taking this down?"

Reporter: I am.
Style or sexism? Female leaders face focus on appearance

LONDON (AP)  For Margaret Thatcher, it was handbags. For Theresa May, it's shoes.

The new British prime minister likes to wear boldly patterned kitten heels, and the media is fascinated. May's footwear has been analyzed, photographed and satirized. Photojournalists have captured her shoes in close-up alongside the stilettos of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the wedge heels of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Sun tabloid greeted May's victory in Britain's Conservative leadership race with a front-page image of her leopard-print shoes and the headline "Heel, boys."

A close up of the shoes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and British Prime Minister Theresa May during a military welcoming ceremony at the chancellery in Berlin Wednesday, July 20, 2016, on May's first foreign trip after being named British Prime Minister. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Dozens of countries around the world have had women at the helm, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Norway, Denmark, Liberia and Canada. But female leaders are still scrutinized as much for style as for substance, and invariably compared to one another  a sign they are considered exceptions, rather than the rule.

"It's easy to laugh off, but it trivializes the women," said Jessica Smith, a doctoral researcher at Birkbeck, University of London who studies gender and political leadership.

Smith pointed out that May's meeting with Sturgeon after Britain's European Union referendum came at "a crisis point for Scottish-English relations, an incredibly important point, and if we just talk about what shoes the women are wearing, that sort of undermines any sort of message."

May is hardly the only female politician to draw comment for her outfits  think of Hillary Clinton's previous fondness for trouser suits or Merkel's array of brightly colored blazers.

And, in Britain, sooner or later the comparisons get around to Thatcher.

Britain's first female leader stamped her imprint on the country with her free-market policies, and played a global role in the final years of the Cold War. Britain's Conservatives remain in her thrall, 26 years after she left office and three years after her death.

May  the U.K.'s second female prime minister  draws endless Thatcher comparisons. In newspapers, she's "the new Maggie," ''Maggie II" and "Maggie May." The Times of London said May's first appearance at prime minister's question time was "pure, vintage Maggie." Its editorial cartoon showed May clobbering opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn with a Thatcher-esque black handbag.

The Thatcher effect is not limited to the U.K. Both Merkel and U.S. Democrat presidential contender Clinton have been called an "Iron Lady," Thatcher's nickname.

Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, thinks the comparisons are understandable, because "women who make it to the top have similar qualities."

"To be a woman in politics ... you tend to have to be better than average," she said. "You don't get there because you were at school with some bloke. The same network isn't there that's always helped men throughout history. So the women who make it into politics and then go up are generally pretty formidable. And those who make it to the very top are a phenomenal force."

The ascent of forceful politicians like Merkel and May shows women can sometimes smash the glass ceiling to a country's highest office. Once there, though, some think they still face a double standard.

Many feminists saw sexism at work in the debate over comments by Conservative lawmaker Andrea Leadsom, May's rival for the party leadership, who suggested that being a mother made her a better leader than the childless May because it "means you have a very real stake in the future of our country."

Male politicians' parental status has rarely been an issue in election campaigns.

Others wince at the endless fascination with female politicians' appearance.

The Sun's fashion editor opined on May's first day in office that the prime minister looked "approachable, not stuffy" in a collarless Amanda Wakeley coat, "quirky" shoes and "edgy chain necklace."

Her predecessor David Cameron's blue suits and black brogues did not get the same treatment.

The Metro newspaper made the point neatly by reversing the tables, describing the prime minister's husband in the sort of language often applied to first ladies: "Stepping into the limelight as First Man, Philip May showcased a sexy navy suit with a flourish of pinstripe."

May recently told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that "I have grown used to the focus on my clothes and my shoes." She said she likes to dress soberly and "add a little bit of interest with footwear."

Rosie Campbell, a Birkbeck professor who studies gender and politics, said May is one of a number of female politicians who have used their clothing cleverly, to send subtle signals of authority.

Thatcher became so associated with her no-nonsense handbags that it spawned a verb  to be "handbagged" is to be berated forcefully.

"We always think it's a bit negative when women's clothes are scrutinized  and mostly it can be," Campbell said. "But I also think women use their dress  think about (former U.S. Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright and all her different brooches. Sometimes it can be a way of sending political messages."

She noted that May wore bold, leopard-patterned shoes when she entered 10 Downing St. for the first time. "Did she put those on thinking that she was signaling something: I mean business?"

Unlike Thatcher, who once said "I owe nothing to women's lib" and had few women in her government, May has been photographed in a "This is what a feminist looks like" T-shirt, and has worked hard to increase the number of women in the Conservative Party. She appointed women to senior roles in her Cabinet, including the home secretary, in charge of borders and security.

Women make up about 30 percent of Britain's House of Commons, and about 20 percent of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Some feminist campaigners say the focus on appearance will only change when there are as many women as men at all levels of politics.

"It is about numbers," said Frances Saunders, founder of 50:50 Parliament, a group that seeks a better gender balance in British politics. "The more women we have in there, the less noticeable it would be. I think we'd all get rather bored commenting on their clothes."

___

Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
Trump upends decades of NATO doctrine with views on treaty

WASHINGTON (AP)  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States might abandon its NATO treaty commitments has upended decades of American foreign policy dogma and doctrine in both parties. It has created a domestic furor and fueled angst not only across Europe but in Asia, where Trump's complaints about allies not paying their own way have also resonated.

Trump's mere musing that he would review allies' financial contributions  in this case those owed by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania  before acting under NATO's Article 5 mutual defense clause if they were attacked by Russia could rock the foundations of the security architecture that has underpinned European stability since the end of World War II.

That possibility, and the global instability that would likely follow, is not something NATO leaders or their nervous citizens will countenance lightly, particularly since they responded, without question, under Article 5 when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. administrations have complained, often bitterly, that many NATO members are not footing their share of the alliance's bills. The U.S. accounts for more than 70 percent of all NATO defense spending. Only four other allies  Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland  meet the minimum 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense that NATO requires. But Trump's floating the idea that that spending target would be a prerequisite for the U.S. to defend them is an abrupt break for the most powerful member of NATO, which styles itself as the most successful military alliance in world history.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves noted pointedly in a tweet that Estonia "fought, with no caveats," on behalf of the U.S. in Afghanistan.

In 2002, the only time Article 5 has ever been invoked, NATO surveillance planes patrolled American skies and deployed a third of the troops in Afghanistan for a decade. More than 1,000 non-American troops died in Afghanistan.

"We are equally committed to all our NATO allies, regardless of who they may be. That's what makes them allies," Ilves tweeted.

His fellow Eastern European leaders sought to calm the furor.

"Regardless of who will be the president of America, we will trust in America," Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters in Vilnius in remarks that were echoed by Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. "The United States always stood with nations which were under attack and it will continue doing so."

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said "solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO," a stand that "is good for European security and good for U.S. security," he said. "

"The United States has always stood by its European allies. Now the U.S. is stepping up its support once again, and increasing its presence," Stoltenberg said. The U.S. placed new troops recently in Poland.

Yet, analysts and citizens throughout Eastern Europe, where fears of Russian aggression run high since it annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea, expressed deep concern, notably since just two weeks ago NATO-country leaders reaffirmed that they "stand together, and act together, to ensure the defense of our territory and populations, and of our common values."

In Warsaw, average Poles were alarmed.

"His words were irresponsible and they inspired fear in me. I'm worried about the world's future, about Poland's future," said 39-year-old schoolteacher Lidia Zagorowska.

"If I were a U.S. citizen I would never ever vote for Trump. Let that be my answer," said Katarzyna Woznicka, 54, walking her dog in downtown Warsaw.

Others dismissed it as just political rhetoric. But back in the U.S., the outcry from politicians, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, was blistering.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who backed Trump at the party's national convention only two days earlier, said he totally disagreed with the statement but was willing to "chalk it up to a rookie mistake."

McConnell called NATO "the most successful military alliance in the history of the world" in a Facebook interview with The New York Times.

A former presidential contender, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Trump's remarks "make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe. ... I'm 100 percent certain how Russian President (Vladimir) Putin feels - he's a very happy man."

Some Republicans opposed to Trump have sought to cast him as pro-Putin, a position that would put Trump at odds with both Republican and Democratic foreign policy experts and would diverge from the current GOP platform. While Trump surrogates may have succeeded in preventing a reference to arming Ukraine from getting into this year's GOP platform, the manifesto itself is demonstrably not pro-Russia.

In fact, it accuses "current officials in the Kremlin" of eroding the "personal liberty and fundamental rights" of the Russian people."

"We will meet the return of Russian belligerence with the same resolve that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union," it says. "We will not accept any territorial change in Eastern Europe imposed by force, in Ukraine, Georgia or elsewhere, and will use all appropriate constitutional measures to bring to justice the practitioners of aggression and assassination."

Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed the United States' commitment to NATO.

"This administration, like every single administration, Republican and Democrat alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments under Article 5, which is absolutely bedrock to our membership and to our partnership with NATO."

___
At slain officer's funeral, calls for respect and unity

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  When protests erupted here over a black man's killing during a struggle with two white police officers, Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald made a promise to an old friend who urged him to be careful.

"I'm going to do what I got to do to keep you all safe, old boy," Gerald told Dave Mulkey, his childhood friend and former roommate.

That text message was the last Mulkey received from Gerald before a lone gunman enraged by recent police shootings killed the 41-year-old rookie.

Dechia Gerald, wife of slain Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, holds her daughters Fynleigh, left, and Dawclyn, right, as the casket is placed in the hearse during the funeral for her husband at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

"That's what Matt did. He went toward the danger, along with his fellow officers," Mulkey told more than 2,000 mourners at Gerald' funeral on Friday, the first for the three officers who were shot down before the attacker was killed.

Baton Rouge's mayor and police chief hailed Gerald as a hero who proudly served his country during three tours in Iraq before joining the police force nine months ago.

The mayor and chief also issued broad appeals to respect police and heal wounds opened by the death of Alton Sterling, a black man whose shooting by police was videotaped and posted online, prompting widespread protests.

After nearly 200 arrests in three days in Louisiana's capital, tensions seemed to be easing before the surprise Sunday morning ambush.

Mayor Kip Holden said people must avoid an "us versus them" mentality and recognize that police officers are "here for all of us."

"The men and women who put on those uniforms, they respect you. Respect them," Holden said.

Chief Carl Dabadie Jr.'s voice cracked as he strayed from his prepared remarks to respond to critics of policing. Departments across the country have been scrutinized after a steady stream of videotaped killings and mistreatment of black people.

"The media has blasted us for what we do and how we do it, basically portraying law enforcement as these band of bullies who go around and beat people up," the chief said. "We're not bullies. We are protecting our communities. And they throw us under the bus for it. And that's wrong."

Gerald's Army and Marine uniforms hung next to his flag-draped casket as photos on a big screen showed moments from his 11 years in the military, his fledgling police career and his family life.

Dechia Gerald, now a widow with two young girls, called him "my blue-eyed rock" in a written tribute, expressing hope that his legacy will "bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for."

Funerals for sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola and police officer Montrell Jackson are set for Saturday and Monday. They, too, were slain by Gavin Long, an Army veteran from Kansas City, Missouri, whose rambling videos urged violence in response to what he considered oppression.

Gerald joined the Baton Rouge police as an enthusiastic rookie after four years in the Marines and seven years in the Army, where he served as a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief.

J.D. Leach, commander of the police academy, recalled asking Gerald why he was joining the force at his age.

"I've been serving my country and now it's time to serve my community,'" Leach recalled Gerald telling him.

Gerald was partnered with Cpl. Lester Mitchell, an 11-year police veteran. The two officers, white and black, began riding together on July 1, days before Sterling's death.

"We talked about the madness, how much it was putting a strain on the community, police relations," Mitchell said during an interview before the funeral.

Mitchell said they were writing reports at police headquarters Sunday when Gerald said he was going for an energy drink at the B-Quik store less than a mile away.

Someone at the store approached Gerald, saying an armed man was walking through the area, Mitchell said. Gerald radioed for help, and Mitchell was among the officers who raced to the scene, hearing gunfire as they arrived.

"We were right in the middle of the firestorm," he said. "He had already been shot when we got there."

The many mourners Friday included Sheriff's Capt. Tom Cox from Knox County, Tennessee. He said he attended all five funerals for the officers killed by a sniper in Dallas this month, and planned to attend all three of the funerals in Louisiana.

"It's numbing, with this many in such a short period of time," Cox said. "We hope this isn't some trend."

___

Kunzelman can be reached at @Kunzelman75 on Twitter.

A member of a police honor guard carries an American flag after funeral services for Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. Multiple police officers were killed and wounded Sunday morning in a shooting near a gas station in Baton Rouge, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police here, sparking nightly protests across the city. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Police motorcycles lead the procession to the cemetery after funeral services for Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. Multiple police officers were killed and wounded Sunday morning in a shooting near a gas station in Baton Rouge, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police here, sparking nightly protests across the city. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Dechia Gerald, wife of slain Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, holds her daughters Fynleigh, left, and Dawclyn, right, watch his casket as it is placed in the hearse after his funeral at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

The casket of Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald is wheeked out of the Healing Place Church during his funeral in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. Top right is his widow Dechia Gerald. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest.(Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie, Jr., second right, pays respects with fellow officers to the casket of Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

Members of a police honor guard raise their hands in salute as the casket of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald exits the Healing Place Church after funeral services in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. Multiple police officers were killed and wounded Sunday morning in a shooting near a gas station in Baton Rouge, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police here, sparking nightly protests across the city. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie, Jr. speaks during funeral services for Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

Dechia Gerald, wife of slain Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald, stands in front of his casket during funeral services at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

Police officers pay their respects in front of the casket, left, of Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Brianna Paciorka/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, right, hugs Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie, Jr., during the funeral for Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Brianna Paciorka/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)

A police offer bows his head during funeral services for Baton Rouge Police officer Matthew Gerald at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Friday, July 22, 2016. More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. (Brianna Paciorka/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP, Pool)
Queen Elizabeth II's dresses will be displayed at palace

LONDON (AP)  A wide selection of dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth II since her childhood days will be on display at Buckingham Palace this summer.

Palace officials said Friday the show will be open to people who visit the summer opening of the State Rooms at the palace in central London.

The unprecedented display to mark her 90th birthday will include the wedding dress worn by the queen when she married Prince Philip in 1947 and the dress she wore to her coronation.

A woman adjusts the Mantle of the Order of the British Empire at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

The display will also include a black silk velvet dress she wore to a 1956 film premiere where she met Marilyn Monroe and many of the queen's distinctive hats.

The State Rooms are opened to tourists who purchase tickets each summer. The display opens Saturday.

A woman adjusts dresses of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Dresses of Britain's Queen Elizabeth are on display at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A woman adjusts evening dresses of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A woman adjusts evening dresses of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A woman adjusts Britain's Queen Elizabeth wedding dress at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A woman adjusts evening dresses of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at an exhibition at Buckingham Palace in London, Thursday, July 21, 2016. In celebration of Her Majesty's 90th birthday this year, visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace will enjoy an unprecedented display of The Queen's outfits, from childhood to the present day, in the special exhibition Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Hospital: 1 man still critical after German train attack

BERLIN (AP)  A hospital treating four people wounded four days ago by a man wielding an ax and a knife on a German train says one patient's condition remains life-threatening.

Wuerzburg's university hospital said in a statement Friday that the three tourists from Hong Kong and a German woman have improved and are stable. However, it said one man  identified by German media as a Hong Kong tourist in his early 30s  is still in a critical state and being kept in an artificial coma by doctors.

The attacker, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee, slashed five people Monday before being shot dead by police. One wounded Hong Kong tourist has been released from hospital.

Medical director of the University Hospital in Wuerzburg, Georg Ertl, speaks to the media about the health condition of victims of an ax and knife attack by a refugee in Wuerzburg, Germany, Thursday July 21, 2016. Two Hong Kong tourists remained in a critical condition, the hospital treating them said Thursday, three days after they were attacked by an Afghan refugee wielding an ax and a knife on a German commuter train. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. ( Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa via AP)
Radovan Karadzic appeals against convictions at UN court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic has filed a lengthy appeal against his conviction in March on genocide and other charges, arguing that he did not receive a fair trial and that United Nations judges made a string of mistakes when reaching the guilty verdicts.

Karadzic on Friday filed an appeal listing 50 alleged errors that, he argues, amount to a miscarriage of justice.

The appeal argues that the errors, "violated the presumption of innocence, created an unmanageable trial, and made a fair trial impossible."

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia sentenced 71-year-old Karadzic to 40 years imprisonment for masterminding atrocities by Bosnian Serb forces throughout the 1992-95 war that killed some 100,000 people.
Police: Man faces murder charges in 2004 triple-fatal fire

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP)  A Texas man who survived a New Jersey house fire that killed three people a dozen years ago has been charged with setting it.

Jesus Perez-Rivera, 30, was charged with felony murder in the deaths of 32-year-old Luis Silva, his 29-year-old wife, Maria, and her 6-year-old son, Carlos Cruz, authorities said Thursday, according to The Courier-Post (http://on.cpsj.com/29RagVE ).

The blaze tore through a two-story row home just before dawn on July 9, 2004.

"You could hear the people inside screaming, 'Help me, help me!' and the children crying, 'Mommy, Mommy!'" said Lucy Malavet, a neighbor.

Silva died while attempting to extinguish the fire in the living room. His wife and son died after being hospitalized for injuries they sustained in the blaze.

"In these kinds of cases, we are frequently revisiting the evidence and looking for additional information," said Detective Andy McNeil, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor.

Prosecutors said the Killeen, Texas, man moved from Camden to Puerto Rico with his family shortly after the fire.

Perez-Rivera was taken into custody by the Killeen Police Department and is being held in Texas while awaiting extradition. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney to comment on his behalf.

___
26,000 flee South Sudan to Uganda, says UN

JOHANNESBURG (AP)  More than 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month, says the United Nations refugee agency.

The thousands of South Sudanese have left their country since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Vice President Riek Machar, Andreas Needham, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Friday.

Although an uneasy peace has been established in South Sudan's capital, Juba, the U.N. official said the flow of people leaving the country has continued. More than 90 percent of the new refugees are women and children, he said.
After attack, France bolsters Iraq military fight against IS

PARIS (AP)  French President Francois Hollande announced new help Friday for Iraq's military in fighting Islamic State extremists, trying to show his government is taking action amid criticism that there weren't enough police protecting Nice's Bastille Day celebration when a truck attack last week killed 84 people.

Hollande also outlined plans for expanded military deployment within France this summer, and defended his interior minister's handling of the Nice police presence. Frustration is mushrooming that French authorities were unable to prevent the July 14 attack despite being in a state of emergency after a string of previous violence.

Hollande said he decided at an emergency security meeting Friday to send artillery equipment to Iraq next month as part of increased military help to fight IS. France has been conducting airstrikes against IS and providing military training, but Hollande reiterated Friday that France would not send ground troops.

The names of the victims of truck attack in Nice, that killed 84 people last Thursday hang from two pillars at Nice City Hall in Nice, as security officials call for the deletion of CCTV footage of the terrible attack

Stressing the international nature of the fight against IS, Hollande said, "Even if was France that was attacked July 14, it's the world that was targeted."

He pledged that investigators would find the truth about "the circumstances and the causes of this tragedy, and the eventual networks of the terrorist."

The Paris prosecutor says attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five suspects handed preliminary terrorism charges Thursday in the case. Bouhlel was killed by police.

Amid questions about the police presence July 14, authorities in Nice are protesting against a request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of the attack. The cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency, obtained by The Associated Press, saying images of the July 14 attack should be destroyed.

An official with the national police said the request was motivated by concern that the images could leak and be used for jihadi propaganda. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

A lawyer for the city submitted a protest letter Friday saying Nice officials would not comply for legal, administrative and technical reasons. But the lawyer also notes that the images are scheduled to be automatically deleted anyway on Sunday, according to Nice City Hall practice of deleting CCTV images after 10 days. Investigators will keep copies of the images.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the Nice beachfront when Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over people. Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

Hollande promised results of an internal police investigation next week.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of 18 nationalities, Hollande said. More than 300 people were wounded, and Hollande said Friday that 12 are "fighting for their lives."

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

French President Francois Hollande has announced an increase in his country's anti-ISIS efforts
The Latest: Power restored to Incirlik air base in Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP)  The latest developments on the situation in Turkey after a failed military coup last week (all times local):

5:10 p.m.

U.S. officials say electric power has been restored to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey.

A police APC drives in the city center in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, July 22, 2016. Some Muslim faithful in Ankara welcomed Friday a declaration of a state of emergency by the top authorities, a move that gives President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers in ruling the country.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

The base had been operating on a backup generator since July 16, when power was shut off at all military bases in Turkey following a failed military coup. Turkish authorities have alleged that planes involved in the coup attempt were refueled by Turkish planes housed at the base.

The U.S. military's European Command said Friday there is a steady flow of hot food, water, and fuel to support U.S. service members and civilians in Turkey.

EUCOM said it is working with the Turkish military to make sure the base is prepared to carry out its missions. It is used by U.S.-led coalition jets fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

___

5 p.m.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared July 15 a national holiday in Turkey to commemorate the people who gave their lives during the failed coup attempt.

Erdogan said the date would be celebrated every year as "martyr remembrance day" at a press conference in Ankara late Thursday. He says "from civilians to police to soldiers, future generations will never forget the heroes who fought for democracy on July 15."

The government says 246 pro-government supporters  security forces and civilians  died while confronting the attempted military coup, and 24 coup plotters also died.

___

4:30 p.m.

Turkey's prime minister has warned of the possibility that not all those responsible behind last week's coup were apprehended during the ensuing crackdown.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara Friday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there is "a remote chance some madmen might take action, acting out of a sense of revenge and defeat."

He criticized the United States for demanding evidence to extradite Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara claims is responsible for the coup.

"Stop standing up for savages who run over citizens with tanks, who strafe people from land and the air," he said.

___

3 p.m.

Germany is urging Turkey to respect the rule of law after Ankara imposed a state of emergency following an attempted coup.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert says several people detained in the wake of the failed coup had been shown on camera and appeared to have been mistreated.

He told reporters in Berlin Friday that it "raises troubling questions if accused people are seen on television or photos bearing clear traces of physical violence. If individual people are humiliated or denigrated in front of the camera."

Seibert also said Germany hopes the state of emergency will be as short as possible and that it would have no impact on the deal between the European Union and Ankara to halt the flow of migrants crossing to Europe.

___

2:30 p.m.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says a colonel under investigation for alleged involvement in last week's failed coup appeared ready to jump off Istanbul's Bosporus Bridge, but was talked down by police hostage negotiators.

The agency reports that authorities had been searching for the 44-year-old colonel as part of the investigation into last week's failed coup, which killed an estimated 270 people. He taught at Istanbul's Kuleli Military High School, where 62 students have been put under arrest for alleged involvement.

Anadolu says that on Friday morning, the colonel climbed past the guardrails on the bridge, a major artery that has been the scene of clashes and protests. Police talked him down after an hour-and-a-half and he was taken into custody.

___

2 p.m.

One of the Greek lawyers for eight Turkish military personnel who fled to Greece last week aboard a helicopter after last week's failed coup in their country says they are being transferred to Athens.

Menia Polychroni, one of three lawyers representing the eight in the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis, said the legal team found out unofficially that their clients were being transported to Athens Friday, and had confirmed the information with authorities.

Polychroni told The Associated Press the transfer would complicate the legal team's contacts with their clients. The eight have appointments scheduled with immigration officials next week in Alexandroupolis as part of their asylum application.

Turkey is seeking the extradition of the eight, who received two-month suspended prison sentences in Greece Thursday for illegal entry into the country.

___

Noon

A large crowd blocked access overnight to a Turkish military base in the capital amid nervousness following last week's failed coup attempt.

The streets of Turkey's major cities were quiet Friday, a day after Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency that allows the government to extend detention times and issue decrees without parliamentary approval.

However, in a sign of the underlying tensions in the country, protesters went to the Etimesgut military base in Ankara late Thursday and parked trucks and a bulldozer outside  possibly for fear that tanks might try to leave the facility.

It was not clear what sparked the tension and power to the base appeared to have been cut.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy.

A huge banner hang in front of the headquarters of Turkish military that reads "The army and the nation hand in hand" in Ankara, Turkey, Friday July 22, 2016. Some Muslim faithful in Ankara welcomed Friday a declaration of a state of emergency by the top authorities, a move that gives President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers in ruling the country. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

People gather outside a military base in Etimesgut district of Ankara, Turkey, late Thursday, July 21, 2016. A large crowd blocked access overnight to a Turkish military base in the capital Ankara, amid nervousness following a failed coup attempt in Turkey by some military units. Protesters went to the Etimesgut military base and parked trucks and a bulldozer outside it on Thursday night, possible fearing that tanks might try to leave the facility. (AP Photo)
Laurie Penny, "a radical queer feminist leftist writer burdened with actual principles," has a weird frenemy relationship with trolling, racist, alt-right opportunist Milo Yiannopoulos, who was just permanently banned from Twitter for orchestrating a racist harassment campaign against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones.

Penny and Yiannopoulos met opposite one another on a panel show, and Yiannopoulos sort of adopted her with a combination of seemingly genuine affection and the desire to be a contradictory and unpredictable cipher. Penny has been covering the RNC, and Yiannopoulos inducted her into his entourage on the evening when he received word that he was banned from Twitter, letting Penny tag along to "the gayest neo-fascist rally at the RNC."

Penny is an outstanding writer, and has a history of doing badass warzone Hunter S Thompson gigs, but with this latest missive, she's into some serious Next Level Hunter Thompson Enemy Lines shit. If you only read one article about the RNC

"Get Laurie a cigarette, darling," Milo says to his personal trainer, who has charge of the handbag. We smoke in the car park behind the event space as Milo's camera crew arrive and hook him up to a microphone. Then the crew livestreams the delighted Twitter martyr's Reservoir Dogs strut through to the VIP rooma carpeted ballroom on the seventh floor of hell full of manic trolls and smug neo-fascists from every slimy corner of the internet. Over by the bar, Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right leader, is having a nice chat with two republicans of the sort who look like they've been poured into their suits. I realise that I have stumbled into a den of goblins. It's way too late to cast a protection spell. Milo swoops away to hold court. I hear a throat clear right in front of me. And there is Daryush Valizadeh, also known as Roosh V, self-styled leader in the "neo-masculinity" movement, author of a suspicious stack of sex travel guides and headline-hunting nano-celebrity in the world of ritualised internet misogyny. Roosh hates feminists for a living. He asks me what I'm doing here. I ask him the same question. The interaction that follows is the most surreal episode in a deeply surreal evening. Roosh is tall and well-built and actually rather good-looking for, you know, a monster. I have opportunity to observe this because he puts himself right up in my personal space, blocking my view of the room with his T-shirt, and proceeds, messily and at length, to tell me what my problem is. Number one: my haircut, and he's telling me this as a man, makes my face look round. This is absolutely true. Number two: I seek to destroy the nuclear family, and disturb traditional relationships between men and women. This is also true, although I remind him that the nuclear family as it is currently conceived is actually a fairly recent social format. He insists that it's thousands of years old, and asks me if I truly believe that it's right for gay men to be able to adopt children. I tell him that I do. He appears as flummoxed by this as I do by his presence at what is supposed to be a party to celebrate Gay republicans. He's here for the same reason I am: Milo invited him.



I'm With The Banned

[Laurie Penny/Medium]





(Image: Molly Crabapple)
British expert to argue against extraditing Egypt hijacker

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  A British expert has agreed to testify in a Cyprus court in defense of an Egyptian hijacker fighting an extradition request from his country.

Seif Eddin Mustafa, who hijacked an EgyptAir Airbus 320 plane on March 29 from Alexandria to Cairo and diverted it to Cyprus, claims his opposition to Egypt's military-backed government would put him at risk of torture if he was extradited back. The hijack ended peacefully after all 72 passengers and crew were released and Mustafa arrested.

Judge Dona Constantinou adjourned proceedings Friday until next month when Emile George Howard Joffe, an international relations expert at London Metropolitan University, is scheduled to testify.
History of searches for missing Malaysia Airlines airliner

A look at the progressive searches for Flight 370, which are the most challenging and expensive undertaken in aviation history.

FIRST SEARCH: On March 8, 2014, an air and sea search begins in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea on the assumption that the plane crashed on its way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. Malaysia reveals two weeks later that its military radar had tracked the plane flying far off course to the west.

SECOND SEARCH: Analysis of satellite signals emitted by the plane in its final hours suggests that it crashed west of Australia. A sonar search appears to detect the 'ping' of the jet's black box near the end of its monthlong battery life. But after 850 square kilometers (330 square miles) of seabed is searched, authorities conclude that they must have been mistaken.

FILE - In this March 22, 2014, file photo, Flight Officer Jack Chen uses binoculars at an observers window on a Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion during the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Southern Indian Ocean, Australia. The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will be suspended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the ministers of the three countries conducting the operation announced Friday, possibly ending all hopes of solving aviation's greatest mystery. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)

THIRD SEARCH: Further analysis of satellite data defined a more remote search zone is 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia's southwest coast in the Indian Ocean. The 60,000-square-kilometer (23,000-square-mile) search area was later doubled. The search will be suspended if nothing is found.

CHALLENGES: The search zone is so remote that the sonar ships spend half their monthlong shifts transiting to and from their Australian port. The ocean ranges from 600 meters (2,000 feet) to 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) deep, with the average depth being 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). The seabed has jutting ridges and volcanoes and deep, sharp crevasses.

CLUES: Five pieces of confirmed MH370 wreckage have been found on beaches along the western Indian Ocean in the past year. But experts agree the passage of time and distance has made them unusable as clues to the location of the plane.
Palestinian boy who survived 2015 firebomb attack goes home

DUMA, West Bank (AP)  A Palestinian boy who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack last year that killed the rest of his family has been released from an Israeli hospital and returned home to the West Bank.

Ahmad Dawabsheh was discharged from the hospital on Friday and greeted with a festive welcome in his village of Duma.

Suspected Jewish settlers hurled firebombs into the family's home last July, killing his brother, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His parents later died of their wounds. Four-year-old Ahmad survived but his burns needed a year of treatment to heal.

Palestinian boy Ahmad Dawabsheh, the sole survivor of a West Bank arson attack, at the Duma village is dressed at the Tel HaShomer Hospital in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, July 22, 2016. The Palestinian boy who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack that killed the rest of his family a year ago has been released from hospital. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

The attack and the drawn-out investigation helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Hospital director Asher Barzilai says Ahmad arrived with little chance of surviving but that the staff were now pleased to see him go home healthy.

Palestinian boy Ahmad Dawabsheh, the sole survivor of a West Bank arson attack, is dressed before his release from the Tel HaShomer Hospital in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, July 22, 2016. He was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack that killed the rest of his family a year ago and returned home Friday. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

A Palestinian relative carries Ahmad Dawabsheh, the sole survivor of a West Bank arson attack, at the Tel HaShomer Hospital in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, July 22, 2016. The Palestinian boy who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack that killed the rest of his family a year ago has been released from hospital. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

A Palestinian relative carries Ahmad Dawabsheh, the sole survivor of a West Bank arson attack in Duma village, at the Tel HaShomer Hospital in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, July 22, 2016. The Palestinian boy who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack that killed the rest of his family a year ago has been released from hospital. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Ahmad Dawabsheh, the sole survivor of a West Bank arson attack in Duma village, rides a toy car at HaShomer Hospital in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel, Friday, July 22, 2016. The Palestinian boy who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack that killed the rest of his family a year ago has been released from hospital. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
German charged with killing of 11-year-old girl at New Year

BERLIN (AP)  Prosecutors say they have formally charged a German man with murder in the slaying of an 11-year-old girl on New Year's Day.

The girl died after being shot in the back of the head while out celebrating in the town of Oberaurach, north of Nuremberg.

Bamberg prosecutors said Friday that the 53-year-old had been angered by loud fireworks and fired at random at a group of women and children.

The suspect, who worked as a driver at a nearby prison, has denied intending to kill anybody.
Pakistan's premier celebrates election victory in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistan's prime minister has pledged an "era of development" in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir after his party won 31 of 41 seats in the local legislative assembly.

Nawaz Sharif on Friday urged a crowd of supporters in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir, not to forget the sacrifices of people living in the Indian-controlled side.

Local elections were held peacefully Thursday, after a "black day" was observed to protest the killing of dozens of civilians during protests in Indian-held Kashmir. The largest street protests in years erupted after Indian troops on July 8 killed Burhan Wani, the popular 22-year-old leader of Kashmir's largest rebel group.

The rebels want Indian-held Kashmir to merge with Pakistan or become independent.
8 companies seek oil drilling rights for 3 areas off Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  Cyprus' energy minister says eight companies have formally applied to carry out exploratory oil and gas drilling in waters off the island's southern coast.

Yiorgos Lakkotrypis says six applications for a drilling license were submitted for all three blocks, or areas, that were available as part of the island nation's third licensing round. He said the companies' names will be announced next week.

Lakkotrypis said after an application deadline expired Friday the government is "completely satisfied" with the outcome in light of the "difficult conditions" the oil and gas industry is going through.
Armenian president urges gunmen to release hostages

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP)  The president of Armenia on Friday called on the gunmen holding hostages in a police station in the capital to lay down arms and release the four police officers they're holding as the tense standoff stretched into its sixth day.

The police station in Yerevan was seized Sunday by gunmen seeking the release of an opposition figure who was arrested in June for illegal weapons possession. One policeman was killed in the assault.

Supporters of the gunmen have rallied outside the police station, and clashed with the police late Wednesday.

Police detain a protester while clearing out the protest camp in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. More than 50 people have been injured in clashes near a police station in Armenia's capital where armed men have been holding hostages for four days and protesters erected barricades on a nearby avenue. (Aram Kirakosyan/PAN Photo via AP)

President Serzh Sargsyan on Friday met with the country's top law enforcement officials to discuss the crisis and called for the hostages to be released. Sargsyan said that the government's actions "will be in line with Armenia's laws," but did not say whether he would ask police to storm the building.

About 3,000 supporters of the gunmen were gathered near the police station on Friday night. Nikol Panishian, a leading opposition politician, urged the crowd to be peaceful but persistent in its calls for Sargsyan to resign and for new elections.

He also said demonstrators would be holding nightly meetings near the police station.

The Armenian national security agency on Friday that two men had been detained for allegedly trying to bring grenades and firebombs into the crowd of demonstrators.

The opposition figure whom the gunmen are demanding be released is Jirair Sefilian, a noted fighter in the Nagorno-Karabakh war. Tensions have been strong in Armenia over suspicions that Sargsyan is ready to make concessions to ease tensions over that disputed region, which this spring boiled over into four days of heavy fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that has been under the control of Armenian forces since the end of a separatist war in 1994. The forces, which Armenia claims consists only of regional fighters and do not include the regular military, also hold substantial territory outside Nagorno-Karabakh proper.

Many Armenians believe Sargsyan is considering a proposal reportedly being promoted by Russia to withdraw from the surrounding territory in exchange for an agreement to delay a referendum on Nagorno-Karabakh's final status.
Man convicted of ex-wife's death 25 years ago gets new trial

EBENSBURG, Pa. (AP)  A Pennsylvania man serving life in prison for his ex-wife's slaying 25 years ago deserves a new trial because a prosecutor  who is now a sitting judge  didn't disclose blood evidence that might have helped him, a judge has ruled.

Kevin Charles Siehl, now 60, has maintained his innocence since his first-degree murder conviction for the July 1991 stabbing death of ex-wife Christine Siehl, who was found dead in a bathtub with the shower still running.

In Siehl's latest appeal, Centre County Judge David Grine ruled last week that then-prosecutor David Tulowitzki wrongly failed to disclose the evidence during Siehl's 1992 trial.

The judge said the omission "so undermined the truth determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place."

Grine also found fault with then-defense lawyer Linda Rovner Fleming for failing to challenge evidence, including a bloody fingerprint that was used to tie Siehl to the crime scene.

Grine is handling the appeal to avoid a conflict of interest in the Cambria County case since Tulowitzki and Fleming are now Cambria County judges.

Tulowitzki and Fleming both declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Friday.

Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan also isn't handling the case because she was an intern for attorneys on the original defense team. Still, she issued a statement calling Grine's findings "very concerning" and distancing her office from Tulowitzki's prosecution of the case.

"None of the current employees in this office, including me, worked here in 1992 when these alleged acts occurred," Callihan said.

Callihan has referred the case to the state Attorney General's Office, which must decide whether to appeal Grine's ruling.

In an earlier appeal, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a hearing on the effectiveness of Siehl's defense attorneys. At that 2012 hearing, Fleming testified that the defense didn't challenge the fingerprint because a forensic expert for the defense had also found evidence that Siehl was at the crime scene around the time of the killing.

Fleming testified that if defense attorneys challenged evidence that Siehl's fingerprint was found on a shower head, then prosecutors could have asked the defense expert about other evidence that implicated Siehl.

But Grine found that failing to challenge the fingerprint "effectively admitted that Petitioner (Siehl) was the murderer."

The earlier appeals also disclosed that Tulowitzki got confidential information from the defense expert that resulted in Siehl's shoes being retested for blood. Prosecutors believed the blood was the victim's. But the tests, completed just before trial, supported Siehl's claim that the blood was his, Grine said.

By withholding that information, Tulowitzki was able to suggest to the jury that Siehl's shoes were only tested once, that the prosecution's expert found crime scene blood on the shoes and that Siehl lied by claiming the blood was his, Grine found.
Boom times for big US airlines: $3.9 billion in 2Q profits

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP)  Compared with their checkered track record, major airlines are enjoying boom times.

Planes are full, and jet fuel is still much cheaper than it was last year. The four biggest U.S. carriers just reported a collective second-quarter profit of $3.9 billion.

And yet investors seem to be looking past the bottom line. They have become obsessed with fare prices  falling now for more than a year  that may foreshadow thinner profits in the future.

This Friday, June 3, 2016, photo shows the tail of an American Airlines passenger jet at Miami International Airport in Miami. On Friday, July 22, 2016, American reports financial results. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

When the airlines held calls this month to discuss their second-quarter operations, investors pressed them to reduce flights and the supply of seats in order to drive up fares. They cheered when Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. said that they would trim growth plans in the fourth quarter  sending shares of both higher.

And they hammered shares of Southwest Airlines Co., which announced no such pullback  and showed "no sense of urgency," according to Wolfe Research analyst Hunter Keay. Shares plunged 11 percent, although a massive Southwest technology outage that stranded tens of thousands of its passengers the day before earnings came out may be partly to blame.

On Friday, American Airlines Group Inc. became the last of the big four to report results. American, the world's biggest airline, earned $950 million in the second quarter, beating Wall Street expectations.

Still, profit fell 44 percent from a year ago (partly due to a tax provision), revenue per mile slipped by more than 6 percent on lower average fares, and American said that figure will fall again in the third quarter  even if by a smaller percentage.

"It's difficult to believe we'd ever be excited" about American's forecast of 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent lower revenue per mile, but "we'll take it," said JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker.

For the second quarter, American said that, excluding one-time costs, it earned $1.77 per share. That easily beat the expected per-share earnings of $1.68 coming from analysts, according to a poll by FactSet. Revenue fell 4 percent to $10.36 billion, but that also edged out Wall Street expectations for $10.32 billion.

American's shares rose $1.40, or 4 percent, to close Friday at $36.36.

The airlines will face more pressure for measured growth (nobody is talking about shrinking yet) if revenue trends don't improve this year.

Right now even business travelers, considered less stingy than vacationers, are enjoying a relative bargain. All airlines said pricing was weak for tickets bought on short notice  often by corporate travelers.

"Corporate demand is strong," American's president, Scott Kirby, said on a conference call, "but we have a lot of low fares, so they are getting a deal right now."

Kirby said American will boost revenue by at least $1 billion a year once it starts offering both a bare-bones fare to compete with discounters like Spirit Airlines, and a "premium economy" ticket for people wanting a better seat.

The company is also deferring costs, delaying the delivery of 22 Airbus planes.

For the four biggest U.S. airlines, second-quarter profit and third-quarter forecast of lower revenue for every seat flown one mile:

 American: 2Q net income $950 million; 3Q revenue per mile down 4.5 percent-6.5 percent

 Delta: 2Q net income $1.55 billion; 3Q revenue per mile down 4 percent-6 percent.

 United: 2Q net income $588 million; 3Q revenue per mile down 5.5 percent-7.5 percent.

 Southwest: 2Q net income $820 million; 3Q revenue per mile down 3 percent-4 percent.

___
Poland moves closer to adopting new regulations on top court

WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poland's lawmakers on Friday approved a final version of legislation regarding the Constitutional Tribunal, in a move the ruling party says is intended to end the conflict around the top court.

Opponents of the legislation say they will appeal to the same court to block the legislation, saying parts are unconstitutional, and the head of the court has appealed to the president to veto the legislation.

The tribunal has been at the center of a controversy since the conservative Law and Justice party took power and began efforts to gain control of the court. The tribunal has the power to block government-proposed legislation if it finds it unconstitutional, and has used this power on legislation proposed by the previous Law and Justice government.

The ruling party's moves  including appointing more judges though there were no vacancies  have paralyzed the court and have led international organizations and foreign leaders to say that Poland's rule of law is threatened. U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his concern over the "impasse" around the tribunal when attending a NATO summit in Warsaw earlier this month.

Amid vehement protests from the minority opposition, Poland's lawmakers voted Friday to approve a bill the ruling party said included suggestions from European law experts of the so-called Venice Commission, which has urged the parliament to solve the conflict and indicated the direction.

The last step for the bill to become law is approval from President Andrzej Duda, who hails from the ruling party and remains its ally.

Opponents say the bill includes unconstitutional clauses and allows the government to influence the court's work. They criticize some provisions like the requirement that cases be taken up in chronological order, which could lead to minor cases blocking those vital to the citizens, and a power for any four judges on the tribunal to veto any of its rulings. Law and Justice appointed three of the current members and hopes to appoint a fourth in December.
In 2007, Singaporean blogfather Mr Brown discovered this video, which is literally the most best thing you will ever see, this week: middle-aged Singaporean government officials rapping(ish) about the nation's public-private partnership strategy, with fresh rhymes like "They call me CEO, hear me out everyone/My aim, a vibrant media-hub for the city/Singapore-made content can be number one/Media choice and jobs for everyone."



I mean, cringeworthy raps by middle-aged professionals are an established genre, but this is the "It Takes a Nation of Millions" of the form. The flows are so fresh, the obvious rhymes so boldly eschewed in favor of woke pronouncements about KPIs and Singapore's Media Conduct Code.

More importantly, this video demonstrates that Neal Stephenson is a fortunetelling wizard who successfully predicted this stuff with the rapper Sushi K in 1992's Snow Crash:

I'm Sushi K and I'm here to say

I like to rap in a different way. So I will get big radio traffic

When you look at demographic Sushi K research statistic

Make big future look ballistic Speed of Sushi K growth stock

Put U.S. rappers into shock..



(Thanks, Joi!)
Democratic delegates cram into hotel rooms to cut high costs

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Facing hotel bills running into the thousands of dollars, some delegates to the Democratic National Convention are planning to do like college students on spring break and squeeze as many people into a room as they can.

Nicole Lutkemuller, a Bernie Sanders delegate from Tahoma, California, said her two-bed room at the Marriott Hotel Philadelphia Downtown is costing nearly $4,000 for five nights.

So she'll be sharing it with four other Sanders delegates she identified through a roommate matchup project on a Sanders Facebook page. Lutkemuller plans on taking a sleeping bag, and the five will trade off sleeping on the floor and the beds.

"We're hoping for a cot, but there's a limited number," she said.

The high cost of hotel rooms during the convention, which runs Monday through Thursday, has been a sore point for some delegates. The prices were driven up by expected high occupancy rates, which allow hotels to command a premium. Expectations for a great summer for Philadelphia's hotel industry were running high even before the convention, with Memorial Day weekend occupancy rates hitting the highest level in at least a decade, the city's tourism bureau said.

Ed Grose, the executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, said it appeared occupancy would run above 90 percent on peak nights of the convention.

Even with demand dictating prices, hotel managers were surprised by how much some hotels were charging and by what they said was the willingness of the DNC to accept rates as proposed.

"Usually the customer will come back and say, 'Eh, we're hoping for something a little lower,'" said Kevin Murnane, general manager of the Doubletree by Hilton Center City.

In the Doubletree's case, that's not what happened, he said.

"The DNC  they were OK with  they don't get involved. They just took the price, and when you see, there's some pretty high prices. There's some huge prices out there," Murnane said.

He didn't want to discuss his rates. But a Pennsylvania delegate raising money online to stay at the hotel said his delegation quoted him a discounted room rate of $2,100 for five nights.

The DNC said its convention committee negotiated individual contracts with each of the 95 hotels it worked with. In a statement, the committee said, "Negotiations for convention hotels include not only rates but many other elements of a hotel experience such as attrition, function space and food and beverage."

Jan Bauer, a Hillary Clinton delegate from Ames, Iowa, who attended the DNC in New York in 1992, Denver in 2008 and Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012, said she was shocked by how much her room at the Marriott downtown would cost.

Because she is disabled, Bauer said she couldn't share a room with other delegates, though some family will stay with her. She said her room is costing more than $500 a night before taxes.

The Charlotte hotel cost a little over $200 a night  still expensive, Bauer said, but nowhere near the cost this year.

Like some other delegates, she turned to online fundraisers.
Call for reconciliation over Ukraine conflict falls flat

MOSCOW (AP)  Nadiya Savchenko, the military pilot who became a national hero when she was jailed in Russia, faced a backlash Friday for saying reconciliation was the only solution to conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Savchenko's comments irked many Ukrainian politicians, with some calling her a traitor.

"We are not going to ask occupying forces and terrorists for forgiveness," said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister. "Now I know: it was Putin who planted her in the minds of Ukrainians as a Trojan horse."

FILE In this Wednesday, June 8, 2016 file photo Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko speaks to the media at a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine. Speaking on Ukraine's Channel 5, Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko who spent two years in a Russian prison has called for reconciliation as the only solution to the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, enraging local politicians. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov, file)

Speaking on Ukraine's Channel 5, Savchenko said late Thursday that Ukrainians "need to ask for forgiveness" or there will be no end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has claimed more than 9,400 lives and displaced over a million people since it erupted in April 2014.

Savchenko fought on the government side in the war with Russia-backed rebels and was captured in June 2014. She was then put on trial in Russia for involvement in the deaths of two journalists and spent two years in prison before she was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and returned home to a hero's welcome in May this year.

"We need to ask for forgiveness and forgive otherwise we will never get peace," she said. "The mother on the other side who lost her only son, I'm ready to ask her to forgive me."

Fighting which has killed civilians on both sides of conflict has led Ukrainians there to call for an all-out war.

While in prison in Russia, Savchenko became the face of Ukrainian nationalism as she condemned her captors and the entire Russian state for meddling into Ukraine's affairs. She became member of parliament, and came to disagree with her nationalist supporters who advocate more force.

A government-connected spin doctor invoked the name of Alexander Zakharchenko, the Russian-backed separatist leader, to condemn Savchenko.

"It's a shame Zakharchenko is married," Taras Berezovets tweeted. "He and Nadezhda Savchenko would make a great couple.

Well-known columnist Vitaly Portnikov said on Friday in a blog post on Newsru.ua that Savchenko's remarks deflect public attention from the fact that Russia has been fomenting unrest in the east.

"It was Russia that came to our land, it was its soldiers and mercenaries who triggered fighting on our territory. And it's not us who should apologize to the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk," Portnikov said. "The only thing we're guilty of is that we have not liberated the land from the hordes of the enemy."
Suspect in shopping mall baby kidnapping to claim insanity

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP)  A suburban Philadelphia woman charged with kidnapping a newborn from a shopping mall plans to use an insanity defense.

The (West Chester) Daily Local News (http://bit.ly/29ZY2sg ) reports attorneys for Cherie Amoore have filed court documents laying out their plans.

Amoore has told police she gave birth to a baby who died after only a few hours in February and she just wanted to hold a baby again.

But her attorneys claim the 32-year-old Tredyffrin woman suffered from mental problems relating to a false pregnancy and subsequent depression.

Police say she struck up a conversation with the baby's mother at the King of Prussia mall in March and took the boy when the mother was distracted with another child.

The boy was found unharmed at Amoore's nearby apartment.

___
Kenyan court convicts man of ivory trafficking

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP)  A court in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa has convicted a man accused of leading an ivory smuggling ring.

Kenyan Feisal Mohamed Ali was found guilty Friday of possessing ivory. A judge freed Ali's co-accused for lack of evidence.

The case against Ali attracted significant attention from conservationists in Kenya, which faces a persistent problem of elephant poaching and ivory smuggling.
Cop post: White police look for reason to 'kill a black man'

CINCINNATI (AP)  The Cincinnati Police Department says it's reviewing a Facebook post made by a black officer that said white officers "are looking for a reason to kill a black man."

The post apparently was made earlier this month after black men were killed by police in Louisiana and Minnesota and has since been deleted. It said black people encountered by white officers should make sure they're in a public place and comply with all demands because "they are looking for a reason to kill a black man."

Chief Eliot Issac says the post is being reviewed in relation to the department's social media policies and its rules and regulations.
2 more deaths occur in Kashmir as anti-India protests endure

SRINAGAR, India (AP)  Two more people died in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday, police said, as anti-India protests and clashes with government forces persisted despite a strict curfew in place for a 14th straight day.

One man died from injuries suffered earlier and another man died in fresh firing, said a police officer who was not authorized to speak to media and provided the information on condition of anonymity.

Authorities tried to prevent protests by barring people from Friday prayers in most of the big mosques but they prayed in small neighborhood mosques instead, and the protests and clashes began afterward.

A young Kashmiri girl watches from the window of her home, as protestors shout freedom slogans on a street in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, July 22, 2016. The largest street protests in recent years in the disputed region, that left dozens of people dead and hundreds injured, erupted more than a week ago after Indian troops killed a popular young rebel leader. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmir's largest anti-India street protests in recent years erupted after government forces killed a top rebel leader on July 8. At least 48 civilians, mostly teens and young men, have been killed as government forces fired live ammunition and pellets. A policeman was killed after protesters pushed his vehicle into a river. About 2,000 civilians and 1,500 police and soldiers have been injured in the clashes.

On Friday, residents defied curfew in southern areas of Awantipora and Kakpora but were stopped by the police and paramilitary soldiers, leading to clashes, police said.

Protests were reported from several other places in the region.

Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region, is divided between India and Pakistan, but both claim it in its entirety. Most people in the Indian-held part resent the presence of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and want independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Since 1989, more than 68,000 people have been killed in the armed uprising against Indian rule and the subsequent Indian military crackdown.

Kashmiri protesters throw stones at Indian paramilitary soldiers and policemen in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, July 22, 2016. The largest street protests in recent years in the disputed region, that left dozens of people dead and hundreds injured, erupted more than a week ago after Indian troops killed a popular young rebel leader. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
Hundreds of migrants marching to Hungary border in protest

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers set off on foot Friday toward Serbia's border with Hungary to protest its decision to keep its border closed for most people trying to reach the European Union.

Migrants held cardboard placards saying "Hungary Open Borders" or "No Borders, No Fence" as they marched Friday in a long column along a road leading north from Belgrade toward the Hungarian border 200 kilometers (120 miles) away.

Several police cars drove slowly by the marchers, who were carrying bags and blankets. Most migrants appeared to be young men who stand little chance of entering Hungary or other EU nations.

A group of migrants walk on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, July 22, 2016, to protest over the closed national border preventing them from journeying into central Europe. Hundreds of migrants set off on foot Friday toward Serbia's border with Hungary to protest Hungary's decision to keep its border closed for most people trying to reach the European Union after fleeing war and poverty. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

"We have no money, we walk," one shouted as he hurried with the group.

The migrant march slowed traffic on the road connecting Belgrade with the northern city of Novi Sad.

Hungary has recently strengthened anti-migrant controls on its southern border with Serbia, letting in about 30 people a day, mostly families with small children. This has left a few thousand people stuck in Serbia, with hundreds camping along the border without basic facilities.

Also on Friday, international medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders warned of a "sharp increase" in violence against migrants and refugees since the Balkan borders closed for the free flow of migrants in March.

"In the last months, an increasing number of our patients reported cases of violence and abuse and showed physical trauma directly associated with violence," said Simon Burroughs, MSF head of mission in Serbia. "Many of these cases were allegedly perpetrated by Hungarian authorities.

"We are extremely worried that the new measures recently adopted by Hungarian authorities will lead to increased violence against migrants, who are increasingly treated like criminals," added Burroughs.

He added that conditions along the Serbia-Hungary border are "unfit for human beings."

Faced with a pileup of refugees, Serbian authorities also have announced stricter, joint army and police border controls with Bulgaria and Macedonia, where migrants mostly enter the country. Most of the people stranded in Serbia have refused to apply for asylum there, fearing it would ruin their chances of one day reaching any EU nation.

Dozens were lying on blankets in a park in Belgrade, unsure of what to do next. Some have already tried to reach Hungary, but were pushed back by authorities there.

"I tried three times to go to Hungary, but it is closed," complained Ajmal Azizi, a 20-year-old from Afghanistan, who says he wants to join family members in Germany.

Irena Vari, an aid worker helping migrants in Belgrade, said many have been in the Serbian capital for weeks, even months now.

Some migrants staged a protest in Belgrade earlier Friday, threatening hunger strikes, Vari said.

"They are now in such a position that they are left with smugglers," she said. "The majority have sold everything and spent everything and they are stuck here."
Judge: Man accused in store poisoning incompetent for trial

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)  A judge says a Michigan man accused of poisoning unpackaged food at grocery stores earlier this year isn't competent to stand trial.

The Ann Arbor News reports (http://bit.ly/2aAPr1i ) Washtenaw County District Court Judge Cedric Simpson made the ruling Thursday in the case of 29-year-old Kyle Bessemer after a doctor's evaluation.

Steve Hiller, Washtenaw County chief assistant prosecutor, says Bessemer will stay at the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry until a Sept. 22 review hearing. He faces food poisoning charges.

Bessemer's lawyer had requested the mental evaluation.
Kerry: Climate change as dangerous as terrorism

WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that climate change is as dangerous as, if not more, than the threats posed by the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

Speaking Friday in Vienna at an international climate change conference, Kerry said the issue might not get as much public attention as terrorism but that the meeting is as important as a gathering he hosted only Thursday in Washington on combatting the Islamic State.

"What you are doing here right now is of equal importance, because it has the ability literally to save life on this planet," Kerry told the conference of parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a global treaty to end the use of many chlorofluorocarbons from aerosols and refrigerants that deplete the ozone layer.

European Union Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete welcomes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, from left, for talks to reduce hydrofluorocarbons under the Montreal Protocol at Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria, Friday July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Treaty members have claimed some success  including a healing of an ozone hole over Antarctica. They are now trying to adopt an amendment that would phase out substances that replaced chlorofluorocarbons, called hydrofluorocarbons. They trap more heat than carbon dioxide but are less plentiful.
The Latest: Corporal recalls moments before officer slaying

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  The Latest on funerals in Baton Rouge for three law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty on Sunday (all times local):

12:55 p.m.

The funeral for Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald has ended.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff's deputies Natasha Stingley, right, and Minnie Ducksworth, left, bow their heads in prayer before releasing balloons at a noon vigil organized by municipal court workers in downtown Baton Rouge, La., Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in honor of recent slain and injured sheriff deputies and police. Several police officers and sheriff deputies were killed and wounded Sunday morning in a shooting near a gas station in Baton Rouge, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police here, sparking nightly protests across the city. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The 41-year-old Gerald was among three law enforcement officers who were killed Sunday outside of a convenience store while investigating a report of a man with a gun.

Gerald was remembered during a funeral service at the Healing Place Church.

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden called on mourners  and the greater community  to set aside whatever differences they may have with law enforcement and show respect to police.

He said that officers "are here for all of us."

"The men and women who put on those uniforms, they respect you. Respect them."

Local sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola's (gar-ah-FOE'-lah) will be remembered at a Saturday funeral. The funeral for another Baton Rouge Police Department officer, Montrell Jackson, is set for Monday.

___

10:15 a.m.

Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald was remembered by a colleague as devoted and passionate about his job.

Cpl. Lester Mitchell began riding with Gerald on July 1. Days later, Baton Rouge was shaken by the controversial shooting of a black man named Alton Sterling.

Neither Mitchell nor Gerald was involved in the shooting, but they talked about what a strain the incident had put on the community and its relations with police.

Mitchell and Gerald were working together Sunday, when Gerald decided to head to the B-Quick convenience store to get an energy drink. Mitchell stayed behind.

When Gerald reached the store, someone reported to him that a gunman was in the area. Gerald radioed back to dispatch, which sent Mitchell and other officers racing over. They heard gunfire as they arrived on the scene.

Gerald was one of three law enforcement officers who was shot to death. His funeral is Friday in Baton Rouge.

___

9:20 a.m.

Hundreds of mourners began gathering at the church where funeral services were about to begin for slain Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald.

The 41-year-old Gerald was one of three law enforcement officers gunned down in the line of duty Sunday. They were shot in an ambush by a lone gunman who was later killed.

Dozens of American flags were planted in the grass outside the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge.

Capt. Tom Cox of the Knox County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee was among those in attendance. He says he plans to attend not only Gerald's funeral but those of 32-year-old Montrell Jackson and 45-year-old East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office Deputy Brad Garafola in the coming days.

Cox also recently attended the funerals of police officers slain in Dallas and New York.

Cox said: "It's numbing ... this many in such a short period of time."

___

The final goodbyes are set for three slain police officers in Baton Rouge.

A Friday morning funeral is set for military veteran-turned-cop Matthew Gerald of the Baton Rouge Police Department. Local sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola's (gar-ah-FOE'-lah) will be remembered at a Saturday funeral. The funeral for another Baton Rouge Police Department officer, Montrell Jackson, is set for Monday.

The three were gunned down Sunday in an ambush by a lone gunman who was later killed.

Gerald's funeral follows a Thursday evening visitation. He had served four years in the Marines and seven years in the Army before he became a police officer earlier this year.

A Texas company designed and donated caskets for the ceremonies. Company owner Trey Ganem said Gerald's reflects his military background and his family.

A memorial sign is posted Monday, July 18, 2016, in front of the B-Quick convenience store where law enforcement officers where engaged by a gunman and three were killed on Sunday in Baton Rouge, La. Pictured in the poster is, from left to right, Montreal Jackson, Matthew Gerald, both with the Baton Rouge Police Department and Brad Garafola of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Twenty-three-year veteran East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Sgt. Bruce Simmons, 51, leaves the Baton Rouge General Hospital in Louisiana on Thursday, July 21, 2016, after recovering from wounds received during an attack on officers on Sunday. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP)
Poland's FM defends minister's Jewish massacre remarks

WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poland's foreign minister on Friday defended the country's education minister, saying her remarks, which appeared to deny Polish responsibility for two massacres of Jews in the 1940s, have been misunderstood.

The comments by Foreign Minister Witold Wszczykowski showed that the on-and-off soul searching in Poland regarding the Holocaust is far from over.

Education Minister Anna Zalewska last week spoke about the World War II Jedwabne massacre of 1941, when Poles burned alive some 300 Jews in a barn, and the post-war Kielce massacre of 1946, in which 42 people died, 37 of them Jews. Anniversaries of both pogroms were marked with observances earlier this month, with President Andrzej Duda condemning anti-Semitism at the Kielce observances.

Jewish organizations protested  and some called for the minister's dismissal  after a Zalewska TV interview in which she avoided confirming the responsibility of the Poles for the massacres. In fact, shortly after the war, Polish courts convicted and punished Poles for their involvement.

"It is disturbing to think that senior government officials in Poland, a country that led the struggle against Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and that has done so much to advance the cause of Holocaust education and scholarship, now seem to be lurching backward to the days of obfuscation and misinformation," said Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress.

Waszczykowski, on a visit to Washington, said "I will keep patiently explaining (to the critics) that they have misunderstood minister Zalewska's words." He did not elaborate how the comments were misunderstood.

For decades under communism, Poland's Jewish minority and the Holocaust, organized by the occupying Nazi Germans, were taboo themes and there was no discussion of those killings. A heated nationwide debate followed the publication of a book, "Neighbors," in 2000 by Polish-American sociologist Jan Tomasz Gross, which explored the murder of Jedwabne's Jews by their Polish neighbors.
Three white men in Florida are accused of screaming racial slurs at three teenagers and pepper spraying them in a 'hate crime'.

Peter-Austin Afentakis and Corey Knous, both 19, and John Schmidt, 18, were arrested on Thursday after the alleged attack in Pinellas Park, Florida.

The three men were driving when they saw the teenagers riding their bikes on the footpath, according to Pinellas Park Police Sgt. Mike Lynch.

John Schmidt (pictured), 18, and Peter-Austin Afentakis and Corey Knous, both 19, are accused of screaming racial slurs at three teenagers and pepper spraying them in a 'hate crime' in Pinellas Park, Florida

While the car was stopped at a red light, Schmidt reportedly rolled down the window and unleashed a slew of racial slurs - which included shouting: 'look, it's a pack of 'n*****s'.

Two of the teenagers were black, aged 13 and 15, and the third was a 14-year-old white boy.

Police said the victims were riding their bikes to football practice when they were harassed.

After a brief argument between the two groups, Schmidt allegedly got out of a car and pepper sprayed all three in their faces and torsos.

Authorities say child abuse charges are being submitted to the State Attorney's Office with a hate crime enhancement.

Afentakis, who was driving the car, has been released from jail, but Knous and Schmidt both remained behind bars on Friday morning.

Peter-Austin Afentakis (left) and Corey Knous (right) reportedly stayed in the car while Schmidt pepper sprayed the three teenagers, before speeding off in their car after the attack

Locals said they were shocked to see such an incident in their neighborhood.

'It's getting ridiculous to see it right here,' Dottie Carter, who lives next door to where the alleged attack took place, told WTSP.
Whistleblower complaint filed in inmate death investigation

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  The Virginia inspector general's office failed to properly investigate the death of a 24-year-old mentally ill inmate, according to a whistleblower complaint.

Cathy Hill, senior project manager at the agency, and two independent consultants filed the complaint Wednesday, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/2a54h2J).

The complaint said the agency did not adequately investigate the death of Jamycheal Mitchell. According to a medical examiner, Mitchell died of heart failure last August accompanied by severe weight loss several months after being arrested for stealing $5 worth of junk food. Mitchell's family filed a $60 million wrongful death lawsuit in May, saying correctional officers at the Hampton Roads regional jail physically abused him and withheld food.

A spokeswoman with the inspector general's office declined to comment to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Hill's complaint accused State Inspector General June Jennings and another employee of misleading state lawmakers and violating federal privacy laws.

"Our concerns have grown to the degree that we feel we can no longer in good faith remain silent," according to the complaint from Hill and the consultants, Ann White and William Thomas.

The majority of the investigation was completed from behind a desk rather than from site visits and one-on-one interviews with employees of the agencies responsible for Mitchell's case, the complaint said.

"By failing to go to the facilities during the course of the seven-month review/investigation of the Mitchell case, the OSIG missed a critical opportunity to hear from concerned staff that may have wanted desperately to share concerns of inadequate care and possibly abuse and/or neglect," the complaint said.

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Key events in the financial scandal that embroiled Lagarde

PARIS (AP)  Here are the key events in the financial scandal and investigation that Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, will stand trial for.

___

February 1993: Businessman Bernard Tapie sells his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas through French bank Credit Lyonnais. Tapie claims the deal was mismanaged and begins a long legal battle with the bank to claim damages.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks during a press conference for the 1+6 Roundtable on promoting economic growth at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Friday, July 22, 2016. The IMF called Friday to end uncertainty over Britain's vote to leave the European Union she says is dampening global economic growth. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

June 2008: Lagarde appointed minister of finance and economy for France.

July 11, 2008: With Lagarde's approval, French arbitration panel awards Tapie about 400 million euros in damages and interest, paid from public funds.

July 5, 2011: Lagarde becomes managing director of the IMF after the previous chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned amid sexual assault allegations.

Aug 4, 2011: French court orders investigation into Lagarde's role in Tapie case.

March 20, 2013: Lagarde's Paris home is searched by police.

Aug 27, 2014: Lagarde reveals she is under official investigation for negligence in the case of the damages awarded to Tapie, following a fourth round of questioning before magistrates.

Feb 17, 2015: Paris court of appeal overturns 2008 decision to pay the 400 million euros to Tapie. He appeals.

Sep 23, 2015: French prosecutor argues probe of Lagarde should be dropped. The prosecutor's recommendation is often taken up by the magistrates.

Dec 17, 2015: Despite the prosecutor's recommendation, Lagarde is ordered to stand trial over her involvement in the Tapie case. She appeals the decision.

Feb 19, 2016: Lagarde is elected to second five-year term at the helm of the IMF.
Thai police question British writer's wife over royal photos

BANGKOK (AP)  Police raided the Bangkok home of a British journalist's wife and questioned her for several hours Friday in connection with his social media posts containing embarrassing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince, the heir apparent to the throne.

Andrew McGregor Marshall said in a statement that his wife, Noppawan "Ploy" Bunluesilp, was visiting Bangkok with their 3-year-old son when both of them were taken by police Friday morning to a police station along with Noppawan's father. Armed with a search warrant, police also took computers and several items from the house.

Noppawan, who is Thai, and her son and father were released about eight hours later.

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak stands with Noppawan "Ploy" Bunluesilp, wife of British journalist Andrew McGregor Marshall, as she prepares to leave a Bangkok police station, Friday, July 22, 2016. Police raided the home of Thai national Bunluesilp on Friday and took her away for questioning in connection with her husband Marshall's social media posts containing embarrassing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince. Police later said the photos were doctored. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Her release "is very encouraging news but I remain very concerned that she has faced this ordeal. She is innocent and plays no part in my journalism," said Marshall in a statement issued from Hong Kong, where he currently is.

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak told reporters that Noppawan had been detained in connection with photos that Marshall had posted on his social media, and which were "deemed inappropriate." Under Thailand's strict "lese majeste" law, criticism of the monarchy is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The photos Marshall tweeted Thursday were published in the German tabloid newspaper Bild and were purportedly of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn at an airport in Germany. The crown prince spends much of his time in Germany.

The prince's father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, is ailing in a hospital, putting the monarchy under stress as the country considers the prospect of its first royal succession since 1946.

Thitiraj initially said officers had determined that the photos published on Bild's website were doctored, and that Marshall and two Thais, whom he did not name, were responsible for creating and posting fake photos on social media. However, when questioned further by a reporter, he hedged his assertion, saying that "whether or not they were doctored is not important  he should not have posted them in the first place."

Marshall, who used to be based in Bangkok, is a frequent critic of the Thai monarchy and the military government that has ruled since a 2014 coup. Marshall and his wife have not lived in Thailand since 2011, but he continues to write about the country and is banned from entering it.

Speaking to reporters after it was decided to release Noppawan, Thitiraj said police had always believed her "to be innocent of her husband's crimes, but as police, we must follow the evidence." He said Friday's actions gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence.

"She still is Thai and she still respects the Royal institution and she has nothing to do with it," he said.

Marshall said Noppawan, 39, who used to work for Reuters and NBC, was not involved in his journalism.

"If Thai police believe that I have broken Thai law they should seek my extradition to Thailand via legitimate international legal challenges. It is unacceptable to harass an innocent woman simply because she is married to me," Marshall, who also used to work for Reuters, said in his statement.

Lt. Gen. Thitiraj said police won't issue an arrest warrant for Marshall because he is not in Thailand and the matter would have to be discussed with other nations. He said her hoped Marshall would stop his "movement" to criticize the monarchy.

"Andrew is the only foreigner who has consistently criticized the institution for four to five years now, and he hasn't stopped. He is the only one who has consistently attacked the institution."

Noppawan told reporters after her release that said she had asked her husband to stop his activities because they had an impact on his family.

Noppawan "Ploy" Bunluesilp, wife of British journalist Andrew McGregor Marshall, prepares to leave a Bangkok police station, Friday, July 22, 2016. Police raided the home of Thai national Bunluesilp on Friday and took her away for questioning in connection with her husband Marshall's social media posts containing embarrassing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince. Police later said the photos were doctored. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Police Lt. Gen. Thitiraj Nhongharnpitak, second right, watches Noppawan "Ploy" Bunluesilp, center, wife of British journalist Andrew McGregor Marshall, address the media as she prepares to leave a Bangkok police station, Friday, July 22, 2016. Police raided the home of Thai national Bunluesilp on Friday and took her away for questioning in connection with her husband Marshall's social media posts containing embarrassing photographs purported to be of Thailand's crown prince. Police later said the photos were doctored. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Illinois governor apologizes for calling teachers illiterate

CHICAGO (AP)  Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner apologized Friday for a 2011 email in which he characterized Chicago public school teachers as "virtually illiterate" and principals as "incompetent," but said he was frustrated by the pace of change in the nation's third-largest school system.

Before the Republican governor could even make the apology, several protesters interrupted his opening remarks at a signing ceremony for two education-related bills. Rauner stood silently behind a podium and tried awkwardly to suppress a smile as protesters stood up one after the other to read statements, including one who called his comments inflammatory and challenged the governor to a reading contest.

"Let me be very clear, I apologize for the statement that I made in that email in 2011," he said in response to questions from reporters moments later. "The remarks there were inaccurate and intemperate and I apologize to the teachers."

Rauner, a longtime advocate of school reform, has been a frequent critic of Chicago Public Schools and the city's teachers union, even likening some schools to "almost crumbling prisons." He called for a state takeover of the financially troubled school district in February.

During a 2012 teachers strike, Rauner wrote an opinion piece for the Chicago Tribune saying the strike "provides us all with a clear opportunity to examine the grossly inadequate performances of many public school teachers."

On Friday, he sought to explain his 2011 comments by saying he was passionate about the issue of education and frustrated at the pace of improvements.

Rauner sent that email before his 2014 election. He was a private equity executive at the time and a large donor to the Chicago Public Education Fund, an education reform group.

The remarks were revealed Thursday after a court ordered Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration to release emails sought by the Tribune in connection with its reporting about a principal training program at the center of a former district superintendent's federal fraud conviction last year.

In the email, Rauner was discussing future investments by the fund with other billionaire board members.

He wrote that teacher evaluation is critically important, "but in a massive bureaucracy with a hostile union, where 50 percent of principals are managerially incompetent and half of teachers are virtually illiterate, a complex multi-dimensional evaluation system with huge subjectivity in it will be attacked, manipulated and marginalized  the status quo will prevail."
Kosovo man charged with joining terrorist group

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP)  Kosovo prosecutors say an ethnic Albanian who allegedly fought in Syria has been charged with participating in a terrorist group.

A prosecutors' statement on Friday said that the defendant, identified only as A.D., allegedly went to Turkey in November 2012 with four other Albanians. He is then said to have crossed the border into Syria and went to Aleppo where he joined his brother, a member of the Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorist group. For six months he allegedly took part in fighting in Aleppo and Qalamoun. He was arrested at the Pristina airport when he returned to Kosovo in May 2013.

He may face a maximum sentence of 10 years.
British-Australian held in Lebanon banned from traveling

BEIRUT (AP)  The lawyer of a dual British-Australian national indicted in a botched attempt to kidnap two Australian-Lebanese children at the center of a custody battle says he has objected to a travel ban imposed on his client.

Joe Karam said on Friday that judges issued the ban against Adam Whittington but that he appealed the decision. A verdict is expected on Saturday.

Whittington, who heads a British-based child recovery agency, allegedly masterminded the plot to kidnap the children from their Lebanese father in Beirut in April.

Whittington, his colleague and the children's Australian mother, Sally Faulkner, were charged with forceful kidnapping, which is punishable in Lebanon by up to 15 years imprisonment.
Authorities: $1B Medicare fraud nursing home scam, 3 charged

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Three people have been charged in an unprecedented $1 billion health care fraud scam, accused of using dozens of Miami nursing homes to bilk the taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

"This is the largest single criminal health care fraud case ever brought against individuals by the Department of Justice," Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Criminal Division Leslie Caldwell announced in a statement.

Authorities said Philip Esformes, who ran 30 nursing homes and assisted living facilities, joined with two conspirators and a complex network of corrupt doctors and hospitals to refer thousands of patients to their facilities even though the patients did not qualify for the services. Some of the treatments were harmful, they added.

All of this was done with little regard for the patients, Caldwell said.

"Among the thousands of people cycled through the fraudulent network were, for example, drug addicts who were allegedly prescribed opioids - including OxyContin and Fentanyl - and other narcotics in order to entice them to stay in facilities where they didn't belong," she said at a news conference.

Authorities said Esformes, along with Odette Barcha and Arnaldo Carmouze, also received kickbacks for steering patients to other community health care providers, including mental health centers. When a patient reached their Medicare-imposed length of stay limit at one facility, conspirators simply moved patients to a different facility, Caldwell said, calling it a "ruthlessly efficient" scam.

Authorities allege in court documents that those facilities also billed Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary services and that kickbacks were often paid in cash or disguised as charitable donations.

Esformes' two other defendants were identified in court documents as a hospital administrator and a physicians' assistant.The three were charged Friday with conspiracy, obstruction, money laundering and health care fraud, the indictment said. It's unclear if they have retained lawyers. Emails sent to Esformes' lawyers from previous cases were not immediately returned Friday.

According to court documents, Esformes paid $15.4 million in 2006 to resolve civil federal health care fraud claims for similar charges. But authorities said Esformes was able to continue with alleged crimes after that date through a sophisticated money laundering scheme.

Miami has long been ground zero for Medicare fraud, a crime that has morphed into complex schemes over the years, moving from medical equipment and HIV infusion fraud to home health care, as criminals try to stay one step ahead of authorities.

For decades, Medicare has operated under a pay-and-chase system, paying providers first and investigating suspicious claims later. The system worked when the agency was paying hospitals and institutions that couldn't close up shop and flee the country if they'd been overpaid. In recent years and in this case, authorities said, they used data technology to flag suspicious claims before they were paid.
The Latest: 2,800 out-of-town officers part of RNC security

CLEVELAND (AP)  The Latest on protests, marches and security in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention (all times local):

11:30 a.m.

Cleveland's police chief says 2,800 law enforcement officers from across the country joined about 500 city police officers in providing security for the four-day Republican National Convention that ended Thursday.

Supporters watch Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speak on a outdoor screen in downtown on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Chief Calvin Williams said at a Friday news briefing that out-of-town officers were key contributors to Cleveland's successful performance as convention host.

Authorities counted only 24 convention-related arrests, a far smaller number than some had predicted.

The city had worked with Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County to make hundreds of jail cells available if needed during the convention.

Williams singled out the Ohio State Highway Patrol for its assistance, noting that 450 troopers were in Cleveland helping with security.

___

1:00 a.m.

Cleveland has breathed a sigh of relief as the Republican convention concluded with about two dozen arrests over four days thanks to a massive police presence and protesters' own concerns for their safety.

City officials and police who braced for mass disruptions and violence during this summer of bloodshed struck a confident note as the convention wrapped up Thursday.

Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia (chach) said police were not nervous but trained and in place to keep the public safe.

The demonstrations that many feared would end in pitched battles between police and protesters turned at times into carnival-like scenes, with bongo players and with protesters dressed as nuns on stilts.

There were tense moments as protesters filled the downtown Public Square, but most people seemed to get along.

Protesters argue in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Police officers stand guard in Public Square during a protest on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protesters march in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention.(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Protesters argue in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A protester yells as a police officer stands by in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Member of the media crowd around as protesters argue in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Protesters argue in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Police form a line near the Lorain-Carnegie bridge into downtown during a protest, Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Protesters march as police look on near Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protesters argue in Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

A demonstrators protests near downtown during a march, Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention.(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Demonstrators make their way over the Lorain-Carnegie bridge into downtown during a protest, Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, center, takes a selfie with a protesters at Public Square on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland, during the final day of the Republican convention. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Obama denies US involvement in failed Turkey coup

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama on Friday denied prior knowledge or involvement by the U.S. in last week's failed coup attempt in Turkey, saying reports to the contrary are "unequivocally false."

Obama said he had made that clear to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when they spoke by telephone earlier this week. Obama said he also stressed to Erdogan that he ensure everyone in the Turkish government understands that any reports to the contrary are untrue. Diplomatic relations and the safety of Americans on the ground in Turkey could be at risk otherwise, the president said.

"Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any U.S. involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false," Obama said during a joint appearance at the White House with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, July 22, 2016. The morning after Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, President Barack Obama on Friday opened the White House to Mexico's president, who has blamed the GOP candidate for damaging relations with the U.S. with his rhetoric about Mexicans bringing drugs and crime to America and being rapists. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

"And I said that to President Erdogan. And I also said to him that he needs to make sure that not just he, but everybody in his government understand that those reports are completely false because when rumors like that start swirling around, the puts our people at risk on the ground in Turkey and it threatens what is a critical alliance and partnership between the United States and Turkey."

After the coup attempt, Obama issued written statements expressing strong support for Turkey's democratically elected, civilian government. On Friday, he expressed concern over the crackdown Erdogan has undertaken since the overthrow was thwarted.

Turkey, a NATO ally, is a key player in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group. U.S. military jets use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to conduct air strikes against IS extremists in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. Defense Department said Friday that Turkey had restored electrical power to the base after it was cut following the failed coup. The base had been operating on a backup generator since July 16.

Erdogan, meanwhile, has blamed followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for masterminding the uprising. He has asked the U.S. to extradite Gulen to Turkey. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.

Obama said Friday that any decision on whether to extradite Gulen "is not a decision that I make." He said it would be the end result of a long-standing, legal process for judging extradition requests by a foreign government. The Justice and State Departments are reviewing material Turkey has provided the U.S. about the coup to determine whether it amounts to a formal extradition request.

"I told President Erdogan that they should present us with evidence that they think indicates the involvement of Mr. Gulen or anybody else who is here in the United States, and it would be processed the way that it is always processed and that we would certainly take any allegations like this seriously," Obama said.

Since the botched attempt to overthrow Erdogan, Turkey's parliament has approved a three-month state of emergency, giving the president sweeping new powers. Erdogan has said the state of emergency will counter threats to democracy. Critics are urging restraint out of fear that the measure will violate basic freedoms.

The Turkish government has imposed a crackdown, including mass arrests and firings, and the closing of hundreds of schools allegedly tied to Gulen.

Obama said he hoped that "as the dust settles" the government doesn't overreact and limit civil liberties or weaken the ability of legitimate opposition to have their concerns heard.

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Puerto Rico policeman detained after crashing into car

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  Authorities in Puerto Rico have detained a policeman they say crashed into a car carrying a pregnant woman he was escorting to the hospital.

Police said a judge ordered Agent Luis Medina to undergo a blood alcohol test after he refused to take such a test following the crash early Friday. It was not immediately clear if Medina has an attorney. Authorities said he was off-duty at the time.
Emails: Group asked governor for religious objections order

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Emails disclosed in a lawsuit over a blocked Mississippi law that protects religious objections to same-sex marriage show a Christian legal group asked Gov. Phil Bryant to institute the protections through an executive order in 2015.

The emails were filed in court this week by opponents who persuaded a federal judge to block the law before it went into effect. The plaintiffs say the emails show House Bill 1523 "improperly and unconstitutionally reflects the sectarian Christian values" of the Alliance Defending Freedom and other supporters.

Emails show the alliance also offered public relations advice to Bryant and drafted the statement the Republican governor issued explaining why he signed the bill into law. Bryant declined to answer questions from The Associated Press on Friday, sending only a statement.

"We appreciate the Alliance Defending Freedom working with the Legislature to draft House Bill 1523," Bryant said. "It is perfectly normal for our office to work with individuals and organizations, who have had a role in requesting and/or opposing legislation, during the bill review process to gather additional information."

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves blocked the law less than an hour before it would have taken effect July 1. Bryant and Department of Human Services Executive Director John Davis are appealing, represented in part by the Washington, D.C.-based alliance, and have asked Reeves to let the law take effect in the meantime. Opponents have asked Reeves to leave his preliminary injunction in effect during any appeal, saying Bryant hasn't shown any proof his appeal will succeed.

"If allowed to go into effect, HB 1523 will cause sweeping harm to some of the most vulnerable members of society," wrote Roberta Kaplan, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.

An email from Austin Nimocks, senior counsel with the alliance, suggested an executive order to Drew Snyder, Bryant's policy director and counsel, 10 days before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in Mississippi and nationwide.

"The main document is a model executive order that would prevent state governments from discriminating against their citizens because of their views about or actions concerning marriage," Nimocks wrote, including a sample news release.

Much of the language from that proposal appears in HB 1523, including a section that seeks to protect actions motivated by 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.

Outside groups often draft laws in Mississippi. University of Chicago researchers recently found that Mississippi lawmakers introduced more model bills from the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council than legislators in any other state. Mississippi lawmakers also introduced the third-highest number of bills from the more liberal-leaning State Innovation Exchange.

Kaplan's filing also cites correspondence from the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, which helped organize churches and other groups that supported HB 1523 in advance of the 2016 legislative session. The center also issued a poll showing support for the measure and suggested talking points that Bryant and other supporters cited.

The center's president, Forest Thigpen, said again Friday that his group conveyed the suggested language to legislative leaders.

"We work with national organizations on a regular basis, and we knew there was a model bill that had been developed," Thigpen said, saying it's common for his group to be a "resource for legislators."

Thigpen said it's "ridiculous" to allege that a religious motivation is somehow invalid in drafting legislation.

Kellie Feidorek, a lawyer with the alliance who helped write the signing statement and offered public relations advice to Bryant, said the plaintiffs should not be able to exclude people whose views aren't in "lockstep" with theirs from influencing policy.

"That is a chilling proposal for the diversity we cherish in public life," she said Friday.

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The Latest: Judge denies witness details in rap mogul's case

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Latest on a hearing in the murder case against former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight (all times local):

10:10 a.m.

A judge says lawyers for Marion "Suge" Knight cannot receive additional information about several potential witnesses in the murder case against the one-time rap mogul.

FILE - In this July 17, 2015 file photo, Marion "Suge" Knight sits in court during a bail hearing in his murder case, in Los Angeles. Knight is scheduled to return to a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday, July 22, 2016, for a hearing in which his attorneys will ask that prosecutors hand over information about witnesses in a murder case against the Death Row Records co-founder. Prosecutors do not want to release certain info about the witnesses, citing Knight's history of violence. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen ruled Friday that prosecutors had shown good reasons to withhold the identities of three confidential informants and the addresses of several witnesses.

Coen made his ruling after meeting in n closed session with a prosecutor and detective.

Knight's lawyers sought the information so they could independently interview the witnesses to prepare a defense for the Death Row Records co-founder.

Prosecutors objected, citing Knight's history of violence and allegations that he has intimidated witnesses.

The 51-year-old Knight has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges.

___

1 a.m.

Attorneys for Marion "Suge" Knight are returning to court to seek information about prosecution witnesses in a murder case against the former rap music mogul.

The hearing Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court comes amid new health problems for the Death Row Records co-founder, who was hospitalized for more than a week recently.

His attorney, J. Tooson, says Knight received emergency treatment for complications stemming from blood clots that developed after he was shot seven times in a West Hollywood nightclub in 2014.

In court, Knight's lawyers are seeking details about witnesses to a January 2015 confrontation in a Compton parking lot that ended when authorities say Knight ran over two men, killing one and seriously injuring the other.
Venezuela's government accepts Vatican mediation in crisis

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)  President Nicolas Maduro has accepted a proposal by the opposition to ask the Vatican to facilitate dialogue with Venezuela's socialist government.

The Union of South American Nations' Secretary General Ernesto Samper met late Thursday with Maduro and afterward announced that he would ask Pope Francis to send a representative to Venezuela. Samper was in Caracas along with former Spanish President Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero in an effort to revive a two-month-old attempt to bring the sides together to resolve the country's economic and political crisis.

The opposition has pushed for Francis' intervention but also conditions its support for dialogue on the release of people it considers political prisoners and a commitment by Maduro to hold a recall referendum this year.

Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday that "in the past, The Holy See has manifested its willingness, in case the basis is there for its contribution to the dialogue."
Suspect in Kansas police captain's death appears in court

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP)  Mourners gathered Friday at a Kansas civic center to remember a slain police captain, hours after the 20-year-old man accused of killing him made his first court appearance on charges carrying a possible death penalty.

Jamaal Lewis wore an anti-suicide prison smock during his initial Wyandotte County court appearance Friday on charges of capital murder, aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a weapon. Jeff Fewell, a jail official, said Lewis was placed on suicide watch after a mental health evaluation.

Authorities allege Lewis shot and killed Kansas City, Kansas, police Capt. Robert Melton on Tuesday as 46-year-old Melton was still in his unmarked patrol car, helping investigate an earlier drive-by shooting. Melton was alone searching for a shooting suspect in that earlier gunfire when he drove up to a person who matched a description of someone possibly involved. Before the officer could get out of his unmarked police cruiser, he was shot several times through his passenger-side window and died later at a hospital.

This photo provided by the Wyandotte County, Kan., Sheriffs Department shows Jamaal R. Lewis of Kansas City, Kan. Lewis was charged Thursday, July 21, 2016, with capital murder in the death Tuesday of 46-year-old Kansas City, Kan., police Capt. Robert D. Melton. (Wyandotte County, Kan., Sheriffs Department via AP)

A second man, 18-year-old DaQon J. Sipple, has been charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer involving a different officer than Melton, as well as with criminal discharge of a weapon.

It's unclear whether they have lawyers yet who could comment on the allegations.

Prosecutors haven't determined whether to pursue the death penalty against Lewis, saying it could take months before that decision is made.

Hours after Lewis' court appearance, mourners filed into the city's Jack Reardon Civic Center for Melton's wake as a large flag was displayed at the entrance, not far from flags held my members of the Patriot Guard. Police cars, some from as far away as St. Louis County, Missouri, packed the parking lot.

"The people that run into danger on our behalf on a daily basis are deserving of great honor and respect," Don Harden, a Patriot Guard member from Tonganoxie, Kansas, told KCTV.
Ex-NYC jail guard union boss pleads not guilty to bribery

NEW YORK (AP)  The former head of New York City's jail guard union has pleaded not guilty in his bribery case.

Norman Seabrook entered the plea Friday in his federal indictment in Manhattan.

He's been charged with funneling $20 million in union funds to a hedge fund through a middleman in exchange for a $60,000 kickback. He told reporters outside court Friday that he expects to be vindicated.

Larry Seabrook, the former head of New York City's jail guard union, talks to reporters outside federal court after pleading not guilty in his bribery case, Friday, July 22, 2016, in New York. He's been charged with funneling $20 million in union funds to a hedge fund through a middleman in exchange for a $60,000 kickback. He told reporters outside court Friday that he expects to be vindicated. (AP Photo/Tom Hays)

Seabrook was removed as president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association following his arrest last month.

Overlapping federal corruption probes have also resulted in bribery charges against New York Police Department officers and implicated businessmen with ties to Mayor Bill de Blasio's election campaign.
US judge rejects $100M investors' lawsuit against Venezuela

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  A federal judge on Friday rejected a $100 million investors' lawsuit against Venezuela in a case that included allegations of fraud, hints of an international criminal conspiracy and references to diamonds, junk bonds and a mysterious house fire in Switzerland.

At issue were 3-decade-old promissory notes issued by a now-defunct government-sponsored Venezuelan bank.

Lawyers representing Venezuela said the notes were fakes with forged signatures and were never guaranteed by the government.

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2015, file photo, Chief Judge Edmund Sargus of the U.S. District Court's Southern District of Ohio poses for a photo in Columbus, Ohio. In a Friday, July 22, 2016, ruling, Sargus of the U.S. District Court's Southern District of Ohio rejected a $100 million investors' lawsuit against Venezuela over three-decade old promissory notes issued by a now-defunct government-sponsored Venezuelan bank, in a case that included allegations of fraud, hints of an international criminal conspiracy and references to diamonds, junk bonds and a house fire in Switzerland. (Eric Albrecht/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, File)

"The evidence will show not only that the purported notes are fake, but also that the plaintiff seeks to capitalize on a long-running international fraud," Albert Lucas, a Columbus attorney representing Venezuela, said in a Jan. 27 filing summarizing the Venezuelan government's case.

Judge Edmund Sargus agreed, calling the notes fraudulent in a 101-page opinion and saying the "bank in question never issued the debt and received no consideration for it."

Sargus presided over a trial lasting nearly five weeks this year after Skye Ventures' 2004 lawsuit survived multiple legal challenges.

Andrew Schwartz, whose firm Foley Hoag LLC represents Venezuela in the case, said the ruling is "a significant victory for Venezuela and its citizens."

"Venezuela has long maintained that the notes are fraudulent, and the Court's decision fully vindicates Venezuela's position," Schwartz said in a statement.

Chip Cooper, a Columbus attorney representing Skye Ventures, said the company was still reviewing the lengthy decision and couldn't immediately comment.

The legitimacy of the promissory notes was at the heart of the case, which included more than 700 individual filings and thousands of pages of documents.

Skye Ventures said it based its decision to purchase the notes on a 2003 opinion by the Venezuelan attorney general and a 2003 report by the country's Ministry of Finance that said the notes were valid and must be paid.

Venezuela said that the opinion and report weren't binding and that Skye Ventures had every reason to believe the notes were fraudulent.

Siding with Venezuela, Sargus noted in his decision that even a Skye Ventures lawyer "believed that the question of the validity of the notes was an extremely close call."

Sargus pointed out that Skye Ventures itself discovered evidence that the notes weren't valid.

Venezuela said the fraud was perpetrated by "a notorious international criminal" who, before he died in a house fire in Switzerland, had been convicted of crimes related to fake Bandagro promissory notes.

Lawyers for the country also denied claims by Skye Ventures that a group affiliated with that criminal purchased such bonds "in exchange for 'much more' than $250 million, supposedly comprised of an unspecified combination of diamonds, German junk bonds and cash."

In turn, Skye Ventures said Venezuela created a story "that requires the listener to believe that an unbelievably wide-ranging conspiracy existed" to create fraudulent notes and later fool the country's minister of finance and attorney general.

Before the case went to trial, numerous courts settled issues related to the timing of the complaint, whether Venezuela was immune from being sued and whether the case could be tried in the U.S.

___
Airline abuse suspect was returning from alcohol treatment

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  The man accused of groping a 13-year-old girl on flight from Dallas to Portland last month was returning to Oregon after completing a residential treatment for alcohol dependency in Florida.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds revealed the information Thursday while arguing for Chad Camp to remain in jail as he awaits trial on a charge of abusive sexual contact. A witness told police Camp had at least four mixed drinks during a layover in Dallas.

Magistrate Judge Youlee You decided to keep Camp in jail, saying there's a correlation between substance abuse and a defendant failing to show for court, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported (http://bit.ly/29Z4Vfv).

"When you're high and using, nothing else matters," she said. "What's particularly troubling in this case, right after intensive residential treatment program in another state, there's evidence Mr. Camp consumed a lot of alcohol, right after being released from that program."

Camp, 26, has been in jail since FBI agents arrested him following the June 16 flight. He has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities said a flight attendant noticed the man's hand in the victim's crotch area, and a tear running down the girl's cheek. The girl was flying as an unaccompanied minor, and her family has filed a $10 million lawsuit against American Airlines.

Camp's lawyer, Steven Lindsey, asked for his client to be released to an inpatient residential treatment program in southern Oregon. But the prosecutor said it's not in a secure facility, and there was no guarantee Camp would stay.

___
Missouri trooper cleared in fatal shooting of suspect

JACKSON, Mo. (AP)  A Missouri state trooper was justified in the shooting death of a suspect, a prosecutor ruled Friday.

The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/2a3lOod ) reported that Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Chris Limbaugh issued the ruling in the death of Jeffrey Darrell Hobbs, 48, determining that Trooper Jason McBride was endangered "without question" by Hobbs' actions.

McBride shot Hobbs in April after a confrontation during a traffic stop near Cape Girardeau, about 100 miles south of St. Louis. The trooper stopped Hobbs after observing his vehicle swerving on Highway 177.

The State Highway Patrol said Hobbs was acting suspiciously, prompting the trooper to handcuff him. With one cuff on, Hobbs began to fight with the trooper and tried to break free, the patrol said.

Hobbs allegedly returned to his vehicle and began to drive, dragging the trooper along the side. The patrol said the trooper warned Hobbs to stop or he would be shot.

"The audio recording shows McBride repeatedly yelled for Hobbs to stop as the car engine was revving and accelerating," Limbaugh wrote in a letter to the highway patrol.

Hobbs continued to drive and the trooper fired two rounds, killing him. The trooper was treated at a hospital for cuts to the face.

"It is without question that Hobbs presented clear and immediate danger of serious physical injury to McBride," Limbaugh wrote. "These events are tragic, not criminal."

Limbaugh reviewed reports, photos and witness interviews, listened to audio recording of the incident and watched the dashboard camera video, his report said.

Hobbs was shot twice in the left side of the chest at close range, an autopsy showed. A toxicology report found Hobbs' blood and urine contained high levels of methamphetamine and Oxycodone. Both drugs were found inside the car and two Oxycodone pills were recovered from Hobbs' pocket, Limbaugh said.

___
Turkmenistan to have summit on European gas

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP)  A Turkish diplomat says the presidents of Turkey, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are set to meet to lay groundwork on possible future deliveries of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Europe.

Mustafa Kapucu, Turkey's envoy to Turkmenistan, said Friday that the three-way summit will happen later this year.

The preferred proposed westward pipeline route for Turkmen gas would cross the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, from where it would feed into Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline.
Brazil Muslims back probe of 10 for terror suspicions

SAO PAULO (AP)  Brazil's Islamic community supports police actions against a group of people suspected of planning attacks during the Olympics as long as the investigations are conducted in a transparent way, a Brazilian Muslim leader said Friday.

Sheik Jihad Hassan Hammadeh, president of the Ethics Committee of the Sao Paulo-based National Union of Islamic Entities, told reporters the community is concerned with the Thursday arrest of 10 Brazilians police said had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next month's Olympics.

He said the National Union of Islamic Entities supports the Federal Police Department's investigation. But he said there must be concrete evidence and transparency to ensure citizens or groups are not unjustly persecuted.

Sheikh Jihad Hassan Hammadeh, president of the Ethics Committee of the Sao Paulo-based National Union of Islamic Entities, speaks during a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, July 22, 2016. Muslim leader Hammadeh said the organization was concerned with the arrest of 10 Brazilian citizens police said had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

"The arrest of the 10 should have been announced in a more cautious way and with proof," he said.

"The way the arrests were announced frightened the population and could lead to anti-Muslim discrimination," he said, adding that "prejudice against Islam is growing in Brazil and today Muslim women are scared to go out on the street wearing hijabs."

On Friday, the 10 suspects were transferred to a federal penitentiary in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Larissa Rodrigues, the wife of Vitor Barbosa Magalhaes, one of the 10 men arrested, said that he spent six months in Egypt learning Arabic and studying Islam.

She said her husband did not resist arrest and that police seized a computer and an e-book after searching their home.

Magalhaes' mother, Rosemeire Barbosa, told the O Globo newspaper her son was not a terrorist and that he would "prove he is innocent."

"He is very smart and has always been interested in learning other languages," she said adding that after returning from Egypt he used the social media to teach Arabic.

Authorities have said the investigation that began in April showed the suspects had all been "baptized" as Islamic State sympathizers online but none had actually traveled to Syria or Iraq, the group's stronghold, or received any training. Several were allegedly trying to secure financing from IS.

Investigators said none of the suspects was of Arab descent, but released no details on their religion. They were described as being between the ages of 20 and 40, except for one minor.

Last week the top military aide for Brazil's interim government said concerns over terrorism had "reached a higher level" after the truck attack that killed 84 people in Nice, France.

Officials did not raise the country's terror alert level Thursday following the raids.
Mayan artifacts to be returned by US to Guatemala

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Seven priceless Mayan artifacts looted decades ago from Guatemala are returning to the land of their creation after a representative for an antiquities collector grew suspicious of their origin and contacted the FBI.

Experts called in by the agency quickly determined the limestone pieces, all more than a thousand years old, were removed illegally from two specific regions of Guatemala and sold to a California collector in the 1970s.

"Four larger limestone pieces date to 400 to 600 A.D.," said FBI special agent Elizabeth Rivas, whose specialty is art crimes investigation. "Experts believe they are symbolic of the Earth Monster connecting the Earth to the underworld."

Los Angeles-based Consul General of Guatemala, Roberto Archila, left, and FBI Assistant Director in Charge, Deirdre Fike, middle, review pre-Columbian Mayan artifacts during a repatriation ceremony at the FBI offices in Los Angeles, Friday, July 22, 2016. The items came to the attention of the FBI's Art Crime Team earlier this year when an individual managing the art collection of the owner made contact. The individual could not determine the date the items were brought to the United States and elected to transfer custody of the artifacts to the FBI for repatriation to the Republic of Guatemala. The U.S. signed the 1970 UNESCO Convention addressing the illicit trafficking of cultural property around the world. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Three smaller pieces covered in hieroglyphics likely once made up a calendar outside an ancient temple in Guatemala's Petexbatun region, Rivas said. They are believed to be 1,400 to 1,100 years old.

All seven were placed on display at Los Angeles' FBI headquarters Friday for a news conference attended by U.S. and Guatemalan officials. The consul general to Guatemala's Los Angeles consulate called them priceless.

"They are part of our culture. Part of our people. Part of our earth. Every piece that is returned to Guatemala for us is very important," said Roberto Archila, who thanked the FBI and U.S. government.

He said Guatemala plans to ship them to a museum dedicated to Mayan artifacts and eventually put them on display.

Rivas said the FBI became aware of the artifacts' existence in the 1970s when authorities charged an antiquities dealer with illegally selling other pieces stolen from Guatemala.

"Because we could not determine where in Guatemala they came from or when they came to the U.S. we could not prove they were stolen," she said of the seven pieces.

Had the agency had the capability to determine their provenance then, Rivas added, the dealer likely would have faced additional charges. She said officials believe the buyer didn't know they were stolen.

"An innocent buyer who is a collector purchased the items inside the US and he had them for many, many years," she said.

After that person died an individual handling the estate discovered the pieces had no papers showing their provenance, or chain of ownership, which would also show if they left Guatemala legally. That's when the FBI and its experts were called in.

Rivas declined to identify the collector or the third party other than to say they were from California. She said the person who contacted the FBI was happy to learn the pieces are going back to Guatemala.

Since 1970 the United States has cooperated with countries around the world in efforts to return looted artifacts.

The FBI formed an art crime team in 2004 to help in that effort, and since then officials say it has recovered more than 14,850 items valued at more than $165 billion.

"We're really happy to be part of this," said Deirdre Fike, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office. "This is a good news story."

Members of the media document pre-Columbian Mayan artifacts during a repatriation ceremony at the FBI offices in Los Angeles, Friday, July 22, 2016. The Mayan artifacts were purchased innocently in the United States in the 1970s by a collector unaware the party selling them dealt in looted antiquities. Guatemala plans to display them in a museum. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Shooting highlights police trouble spotting autism traits

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (AP)  The four North Miami police officers who aimed rifles at a black therapist and an autistic man in the middle of an intersection were responding to a 911 call about a suicidal man with a gun. The 27-year-old autistic man sat cross-legged. He yelled. He didn't obey commands to lie down with his hands up, as the therapist was doing, and he fidgeted with a metal object.

One of the officers, Jonathan Aledda, thought the disabled man was about to shoot his therapist Charles Kinsey, who was trying to coax him back to a nearby group home, the officer's union said. The officer fired three shots at the disabled man because he thought he was a threat, but he missed and accidentally struck Kinsey in the leg.

The metal object turned out to be a toy truck and there was no suicide threat. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over the investigation. Meanwhile, a police commander was suspended for allegedly fabricating information about the shooting.

In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016, frame from video, Charles Kinsey explains in an interview from his hospital bed in Miami what happened when he was shot by police on Monday. Kinsey, a therapist who was trying to calm an autistic patient in the middle of the street, said he was shot even though he had his hands in the air and repeatedly told the police that no one was armed. (WSVN via AP)

Monday's shooting was the latest in a violent month of police shootings, but it also highlights the difficulties officers have in identifying people with autism. The characteristics of autism range from mild quirks or obsessions, to people who can't communicate, yell and occasionally become violent.

National groups such as the Autism Society and Autism Speaks help train officers, paramedics and other first responders to recognize autistic traits.

"This is not Down syndrome  autism is not a disorder that is visual," said Teresa Becerrra, executive director of the Autism Society's Florida operation.

Becerra said she watched cellphone video of the moments before the shooting and believed she probably would have recognized that Kinsey's client was autistic.

"But I have been highly trained," she said.

She said she understands why police may have missed the signals, even though the therapist said he told officers the man was autistic and that he had a toy truck.

For 10 years, she has been educating South Florida officers with the help of her 20-year-old autistic son Robert, whom she said is much like the man in the video in that he can be loud and not follow orders.

"When Robert is not walking on his tip toes and not flapping his hands, we look just like a mom and her 20-year-old son walking down the street. But give it three minutes and they will learn that it can be very hairy being in public with my son," she said.

She said she has trained North Miami officers, but doesn't know if the ones involved in the shooting have taken her classes.

City Manager Larry Spring Jr. said Friday that commander Emile Hollant is suspended without pay for allegedly fabricating information about the shooting, but he declined to give specifics.

Aledda, whose race hasn't been released, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

Pensacola police Sgt. Jimmy Donohoe, who also teaches classes for the Autism Society, said officers shouldn't be expected to be "roadside clinical evaluators"  but there are characteristics to recognize. He has a 23-year-old son who is autistic.

Like Becerra's son, he said people with autism often flap their hands when upset or repeat words that have been spoken to them.

"The officer might say, 'Put your hands on the car' and the person will respond 'Put your hands on the car,'" he said.

If an officer doesn't recognize that behavior as autism, he could think the person is talking back. The situation could escalate and some people with autism react violently when touched, Donohoe said.

"One of the things we stress is officer safety. In these instances, they need to be more aware that the person is more likely to react spontaneously, even if unprovoked. You are dealing with the unexpected," he said.

Donohoe said he tells officers and firefighters that their uniforms can be scary and trigger an emotional meltdown. He said he tells them to stay calm and slow down their actions, realizing it takes people with autism longer to process information.

"By being a little more patient, the situation will work itself through," he said.

Becerra said she suggests that officers hand the autistic person a cellphone or other device.
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An American surfer who had part of his right leg amputated after he was attacked by a large crocodile in Costa Rica was able to escape because his friend fought the reptile off with his hands.

Local media named the man as 59-year-old John Becker, and said he was attacked while crossing the river between Playa Grande and Tamarindo in Costa Rica about 7am on Friday.

Becker escaped the crocodile and make his way to shore, where he collapsed due to the large amount of blood he had lost, according to the Tico Times.

An American surfer who had part of his right leg amputated after he was attacked by a large crocodile in Costa Rica was able to escape because his friend fought the reptile off with his hands (stock image)

Local media named the man as 59-year-old John Becker (pictured on all fours), and said he was attacked while crossing the river between Playa Grande and Tamarindo in Costa Rica about 7am on Friday

In addition to the those suffered to his right leg that caused the amputation, he also had minor injuries to his face.

It reportedly took about 40 minutes for an ambulance to reach Becker and transfer him to hospital.

Tamarindo is a town in the country's north-west and is often visited by surfers and eco-tourists.

Dramatics photographs taken show the moment Becker dragged himself out of the water, before collapsing flat on his back on the sand.

Locals and other beachgoers are gathered around Becker, who escaped the crocodile with the help of a friend and then crawled back to shore

A man is seen appearing to tie a rope around the 59-year-old American surfer's right leg, slightly above his knee

People quickly rush over to him and offer their assistance, with one person putting Becker's surfboard behind his head to use as a pillow.

About a dozen more surfers and beachgoers then gather by his side to offer assistance, before one man appeared to tie a rope around the 59-year-old's right leg - slightly above his knee - potentially to stop further blood loss.

Two lifeguards and a police officer were also seen sprinting towards the American.

Seven men are then pictured carrying Becker on a stretcher off the beach and to an ambulance that was parked nearby.

A police officer is seen running towards Becker as a group of people watch over the surfer who was attacked by a crocodile

Seven people are seen carrying Becker from the beach where he was attacked by a large crocodile in Costa Rica on Friday morning

Pat McNulty, who works as a consultant and is a certified trained lifeguard in the area, said the man was crossing a river with the friend when the crocodile struck.

'It was a vicious attack, and he was bitten several times in the leg as well as the head,' McNulty said.

'They were able to get him free, swim him to safety and then trained lifeguards responded ... and we administered first aid and called an ambulance.'

McNulty said he accompanied the victim, who remained lucid after the attack, to Liberia, the provincial capital, where he underwent surgery.

Local media reported John Becker was taken to a nearby hospital and had to have part of his right leg amputated

The 59-year-old from Colorado was saved by a friend who fought off the damaging attack, a witness told reporters

'His friend saved his life ... and then we the lifeguards helped keep him alive,' McNulty said.

'It was a very traumatic scene, and all individuals attending him did a tremendous job.'

McNulty said he was familiar with the man before the attack because Tamarindo is a small town where everyone knows everyone else.

He declined to identify him publicly by name but described him as a surfer from Colorado who maintains a residence in the village. Family members were traveling to be with him.

Community, wildlife and tourism officials met after Friday's attack to consider strategies for relocating crocodiles and making sure there's proper signage to keep people safe (stock image)

The U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica said in a statement that it was aware of the case and that consular officers help U.S. citizens when they are injured overseas, but declined to comment further citing privacy considerations (stock image)

The U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica said in a statement that it was aware of the case and that consular officers help U.S. citizens when they are injured overseas, but declined to comment further citing privacy considerations.

Community, wildlife and tourism officials met after Friday's attack to consider strategies for relocating crocodiles and making sure there's proper signage to keep people safe.

McNulty said a few months ago there was a 'minor incident' in which a smaller croc bit a person.
Cadets arrested in coup in Turkey were duped, relatives say

ISTANBUL (AP)  Military school cadets who were arrested following the failed coup in Turkey were unwitting participants because their commanders told them they would be attending a "surprise party" for the new head of the academy, relatives of the youths said Friday.

Standing outside the juvenile detention facility in the Istanbul suburb of Maltepe, families of about 60 cadets called on authorities to release them and put their commanders on trial instead.

The cadets were rounded up after daybreak Saturday from outside the Kuleli Military High School, one of Turkey's largest and most prestigious academies, as the rebellion by a faction of the military fell apart.

The moon rises behind Bosporus Bridge as pro-goverment supporters gather on the bridge to protest, late Thursday, July 21, 2016. Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency, endorsing new powers for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would allow him to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools, in the wake of the July 15 failed coup. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The families said they have not been able to see the youths since their arrest, and neither have their lawyers. An official complaint was filed Thursday against the commanders by the relatives.

Nearly 10,000 people have been rounded up since the failed coup on July 15, most of them from the military. Many of those arrested apparently are from the lower ranks, including cadets. Relatives said the many of the teenagers thought they were going to take part in a training exercise.

Lawyers say 62 cadets are accused of attempting to overthrow the government, but no official charge sheet has been released yet.

Their relatives vehemently denied the youths were willing participants in a coup attempt, saying they were summoned to school from vacation by commanders who duped them into taking part in the rebellion and deploying them onto Istanbul's streets.

One 48-year-old father said his son, a first-year student, and others were told to come to school July 15 for the reception. The son called again to say the reception was delayed and a "surprise party" for the new commander was planned, said the man, who asked to be identified only by his first name of Mustafa because he feared government retaliation.

The son later called again and said he was given an unloaded gun and told to wear a camouflage uniform and flak jacket, and stand guard outside the academy, Mustafa said.

When father and son spoke again, images of the coup were being shown on TV, but Mustafa said he didn't want to tell him what was unfolding because he was afraid of adding to his son's agitation.

"They are in no condition to question orders. They are young," Mustafa told The Associated Press. "When they were given empty weapons and were deployed on the streets, they thought they were playing a game of soldiers."

The father added: "A 13- or 14-year-old can't be a traitor."

Dozens of relatives gathered outside the Caglayan justice palace on Wednesday, seeking a glimpse of their detained relatives, mostly conscripts.

Baki, a man in his 30s, said he was looking for his brother, Mehmet, who was on his last day of military service when the coup began. Mehmet had called him on the day of the coup attempt after handing in his weapon, but he was given a new one.

"They told him there will be a field exercise," said Baki, who also spoke on condition his full name not be used for fear of retaliation. "He was waiting to be released. He was a security guard at a parking garage and wanted to get back to that job."

On Saturday, Mehmet called and said he had been detained by authorities, Baki said.

The government has not given any details of trials for the thousands who have been arrested in the week since the coup failed.

At the Maltepe juvenile detention facility, Mehmet Alkanat spoke to reporters about his detained son, Hasan.

"For three days, we have been waiting in front of prison. We can't get any information, and we don't know how his health is," Alkanat said. "Please be aware of this injustice and please resolve it as soon as possible."

___

Associated Press writer Bram Janssen contributed to this report from Istanbul.

The moon rises behind Bosporus Bridge as pro-goverment supporters gather on the bridge to protest, late Thursday, July 21, 2016. Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency, endorsing new powers for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would allow him to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools, in the wake of the July 15 failed coup. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A Turkish flag is lighted by Bosporus Bridge illumination as pro-government supporters protest in Istanbul late Thursday, July 21, 2016. Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency, endorsing new powers for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would allow him to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools, in the wake of the July 15 failed coup. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Kenyan police arrest popular Congolese musician over assault

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Kenyan police are holding Congolese musician Koffi Olomide after he allegedly assaulted a female member of his band at the airport in the capital.

Local television station showed Olomide's arrest late Friday as he left a television station where he was being interviewed.

In the interview with Citizen TV, Olomide denied assaulting anyone and said he respects women.

Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet said he ordered the arrest of Olomide after he was filmed assaulting a woman at Nairobi'a Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Mexican authorities catch man wanted in killings of couple

SEATTLE (AP)  A man accused of killing a couple in rural Washington state and burying their remains in a remote forest clearing has been captured in Mexico, authorities in Washington said Friday.

John Blaine Reed, 53, was arrested Thursday by Mexican authorities in Sonora, Mexico, and expelled from that country for violating immigration laws, said Snohomish County Sheriff's Lt. Doug Jeske.

He was taken into custody at the border by U.S. Marshals Service and booked in Pima County Jail in Arizona, Jeske said.

FILE - These undated booking photos provided by the Snohomish County Sheriff Office show brothers Tony Reed, left and John Reed, right. The pair fled to Mexico on murder charges stemming from the killings of Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude, who were found May 24, 2016 near Oso, Wash. John Reed was captured Thursday, July 21, 2016 by Mexican authorities and transferred to a jail in Arizona, and Tony Reed turned himself in to authorities in May, 2016. Investigators believe John Reed fatally shot the couple in April 2016 over a property dispute. (Snohomish County Sheriff Office via AP, File )

Reed had been on the run since the April slayings near Oso, a tiny rural community northeast of Seattle that was devastated in 2014 by the nation's worst landslide disaster.

Investigators believe Reed fatally shot Patrick Shunn, 45, and his wife, Monique Patenaude, on April 11, reportedly over a property dispute. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder by Snohomish County prosecutors.

Reed is expected to have a court hearing in Pima County next week, Jeske said. It's unknown yet when Reed would return to Washington state to face charges. Jeske said it would depend on whether Reed waives extradition.

Authorities believe Reed and his brother Tony Reed fled to Mexico after the killings. Tony Reed turned himself in last month and led detectives to the couple's gravesite. Tony Reed pleaded guilty last month to two counts of rendering criminal assistance.

Reed's parents, Clyde and Faye Reed, of Ellensburg, Washington, have also been charged with helping John Reed. Snohomish County prosecutors say the couple gave their sons money and a vehicle and helped them escape the country.

The slain couple lived on a 21-acre riverfront spread abutting the scar where the hillside gave way in 2014, obliterating three dozen houses and killing 43 people. They shared a gated driveway with John Reed.

Shunn was a one-time Army Ranger who worked at a company that refurbishes aircraft interiors. Patenaude, a British Columbia native, had worked at an organization that provides services to disabled adults.

FILE - In this May 25, 2016, file photo, a bouquet of red, white, and blue flowers, at lower right, that was left by detectives with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, marks the location where the remains of Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude were found May 24, 2016 near Oso, Wash. John Reed, who fled to Mexico on murder charges stemming from the killings, was captured Thursday, July 21, 2016 by Mexican authorities and transferred to a jail in Arizona. Investigators believe Reed fatally shot the couple in April 2016 over a property dispute. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Judge to monitor Kansas' actions on gay marriage for 3 years

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  A federal judge told Kansas on Friday that for three more years he will monitor its compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court's historic decision legalizing gay marriage across the nation.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree issued a permanent barring the state from treating same-sex couples differently than opposite-sex couples in allowing them to marry or extending "other rights, protections, obligations or benefits of marriage" to them.

"It's a shame that the court had to spell this out," said Joshua Block, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, a lawyer involved in the lawsuit that led to the order.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Rapp said Attorney General Derek Schmidt advises agencies to fully comply with the U.S. Supreme Court decision and would do so without Crabtree's order.

"It is disappointing the federal court thinks Kansas judicial and executive branch personnel require ongoing federal supervision," she said in an email.

Crabtree ruled in a lawsuit filed in 2014 by five gay and lesbian couples against officials in the state's health and revenue departments, as well as two local court clerks. The health department maintains marriage and birth records, while the Department of Revenue handles tax filings and issues driver's licenses.

Kansas law already barred gay marriage when the state's voters in 2005 approved an amendment to the state constitution to reinforce the ban. The amendment declared that only heterosexual couples were entitled to "the rights or incidents of marriage."

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision on gay marriage last year, and two months later Crabtree declared the state's ban unconstitutional. But he held off on issuing a permanent order to see how fully the state complied.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and many members of the GOP-dominated Legislature strongly supported the ban and have been vocal critics of the Supreme Court's order. The Kansas Republican Party's platform declares that "traditional marriage is the foundation of society."

Crabtree wrote in his 33-page order that while the state took steps to follow the Supreme Court ruling, it did not comply fully and its conduct "raises doubts about the reliability" of its efforts. His decision to continue monitoring Kansas' actions means aggrieved couples will not have to file new lawsuits  resolving their complaints far more quickly.

The judge specifically cited the state's handling of birth certificates for children conceived through artificial insemination for same-sex couples. Crabtree said one couple initially faced additional steps not required of opposite-sex couples to get both names listed as parents and that later officials gave conflicting information about a change in the department's practices.

Block said similar issues have arisen in Florida, Indiana, Nebraska and Utah. But he and Mark Johnson, a Kansas City, Kansas, attorney also representing the couples, said Crabtree's injunction covers all of state government and is clear in declaring that same-sex couples have to be treated the same as opposite-sex couples.

"The judge left no wiggle room," Johnson said.

___
Survivors of Boy Scout canoe trip mourn deaths of 2 campers

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The survivors of a Texas Boy Scout troop's adventure trip to the pristine canoe country along the Minnesota-Canadian border were grieving Friday over the deaths of a 13-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman volunteer, a Scouting spokeswoman said.

The group from Troop 121 from Carrollton, Texas, paddled into the wilderness from the Northern Tier High Adventure Base near the northern Minnesota town of Ely. They were camped on the Canadian side of Basswood Lake in Quetico Provincial Park when strong winds blew through early Thursday, knocking down trees that killed the two campers. Two others were flown out with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Ontario Provincial Police identified the two who died as 13-year-old Christian James Sanchez of Lewisville, Texas, and 39-year-old Rorth Lac of Carrollton, Texas. They were part of a group of nine people, including three adults and six boys.

This undated photo provided by Rhonda Sanchez shows Christian James Sanchez, a Boy Scout from Lewisville, Texas. Sanchez and a woman were killed Thursday, July 21, 2016, during a storm that knocked down trees while they were camping on a Boy Scout troop's adventure trip on the Canadian side of Basswood Lake in Quetico Provincial Park along the Minnesota-Canadian border. (Rhona Sanchez via AP)

The survivors were taken back to the base camp and Scouting officials were helping Friday to arrange travel home, said Effie Delimarkos, communications director for the Boy Scouts of America. She said none were available Friday to speak about their ordeal.

"The priority really is to help them grieve and support them through this difficult time. ... It's really about a time for grief and remembrance right now," Delimarkos said.

Troop 121 meets at First United Methodist Church in Carrolton, but Sanchez and several fellow Scouts are members at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas, where the student ministry organized a prayer vigil Thursday evening.

"Over 200 parents and students gathered to pray, share memories of Christian and comfort each other, and to express our love and support for the Sanchez family," the church said in a statement Friday. "The death of Christian Sanchez is a loss for our church, the Sanchez family, and all who knew him."

Christian participated in the student ministry and youth choir at St. Andrew. He went on a mission trip this summer to repair homes in Los Angeles, and toured New York with the choir, the church said.

Lac was a former Marine and assistant scoutmaster who left behind four children and a husband, KDFW-TV in Dallas reported.

Troop 121's website says the troop was founded in 1950 and takes a high adventure trip every year.

Police wrapped up their investigation Friday and found nothing suspicious, Constable Jim Davis said. The results were turned over to the regional coroner's office, he said. Officials with the coroner's office declined to comment, citing Canadian confidentiality rules.

"For lack of a better term, we'd call it an act of God," Davis said.

CORRECTS TO STATE CAMPERS WERE ALONG U.S.-CANADA BORDER- A camper is attended to by ambulance staff after arriving Thursday, July 21, 2016 in Ely, Minn., by floatplane from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after being injured following a severe storm that knocked trees down on Basswood Lake. The injured party received non-life threatening injuries and was treated at the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital. A boy and a woman camping with a Boy Scouts adventure program were killed and two other campers were injured when severe storms swept through a remote area along the U.S.-Canada border. (Hailey Worth/Ely Echo Newspaper via AP)


A file photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): India on Wednesday said it is engaging with China to iron out differences after Beijing created "procedural hurdles" for its entry into Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) but made it clear that government will never ink Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).



Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said China had raised questions over how a non-NPT could become a member of the NSG.



"But we are engaging with it. We have not stopped efforts. If someone says 'No' for once, it does not mean he won't agree at all...like GST...Congress friends are not allowing the GST to be passed. Four sessions have passed, all parties have agreed to it, it is being held up due to them (Congress).



"That does not mean it will never agree (to the GST bill). It is possible that the bill is passed in this session," she said.



Asserting that India has a "clear cut" policy on NPT, she said government will "never sign NPT" but will continue to fulfil its commitments made when it got the waiver in 2008.



Her reply was made amid protests by the Opposition over attacks against Dalits in Gujarat, including sloganeering from the Well.



The minister rejected suggestions that India had created a lot of "hype" ahead of the NSG meet in Seoul. "We have been taught to make serious efforts to achieve things...no hype was created when we submitted our application for the membership of NSG on May 12. We did it with low fanfare," she said.



Swaraj also scoffed at suggestions by Supriya Sule (NCP) that the denial of NSG membership to India was a 'huge diplomatic snub' as it came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Mexico and Switzerland.



The Minister said Mexico supported India's bid and when the decision did not go in New Delhi's favour, Mexico demanded an extraordinary meeting to make the plenary decide again on the issue.



Asserting that Indian diplomacy has made its mark, she said earlier people used to ask whether India can make it to the NSG. "Now when India will become a member is the question being asked," she said in the presence of the Prime Minister.



On the benefits of getting NSG membership, Swaraj said India will then become part of rule making. "We are rule takers not rule makers," she said recalling a 2011 decision of NSG not to transfer sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technology to non-NPT states.



"The decision was against us. Had we been inside (member), we would not have let this happen," she said.



She said waiver is like being allowed in the verandah.



"Membership is like being in the room...being part of rule making," Swaraj said.



She also credited the previous UPA government for getting the waiver and said while the UPA government made the commitments, the present government is following the same since it came to power in 2014.



She said membership of the NSG would enable India to have enhanced and uninterrupted access to nuclear technology, fuel and material required for expanding its civil nuclear programme.



In a clear setback to its efforts to join the 48-nation grouping, the NSG plenary held in South Korea last month decided against accepting India's membership application after China and some other countries opposed entry of a non-NPT signatory into NSG.


While introducing her father, Ivanka Trump captivated the Republican convention with her powerful speech.

But her words weren't the only part of her performance in Cleveland that caught the attention of the huge audience.

Her radiant pink dress also got a thumps up, giving the billionaire's eldest daughter a chance to market her own fashion label.

The next morning, she tweeted a link promoting the $139 garment that is from her own line.

Ivanka Trump used her appearance at the Republican convention on Thursday to promote her own look and market her own brand

The next morning, she tweeted a link promoting the $139 garment that is from her own line

It was a move that blended politics and business under a huge spotlight, as her father Donald Trump has done throughout the campaign.

Her ensemble was 'modern, feminine and beautiful,' said Peter Marx, president of the Washington, D.C.-area luxury women's fashion shop Saks Jandel.

He said powerful politicians put a lot of thought into the image they're projecting through their clothes even if they're trying to communicate that clothes aren't important to them. He said all of Donald Trump's children showed an 'immaculate' style at the convention.

Though the dress will not be available until this fall, since Thursday night a similar blush-colored dress from the Ivanka Trump Collection has sold out at Nordstrom.com and Macys.com, a brand spokesperson said.

It's no surprise that Ivanka Trump might choose to wear something from her own brand, which includes clothing, accessories, shoes and fragrances. But using the RNC to market her clothing got people talking.

Her marketing move that blended politics and business under a huge spotlight, as her father Donald Trump has done throughout the campaign

'This is pretty novel, other than her father trying to sell Trump Steaks himself in his prior television appearance,' said Robert Kelner, a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling.

Kelner, who is in charge of the firm's election and political law practice, compared Ivanka Trump's promotion of her fashion line to a Hollywood designer having a high-profile actor or actress wear their clothes on the red carpet. He said it's legal and doesn't violate any ethical rules since Ivanka Trump herself isn't a candidate for office, but said some people might find the promotion 'unseemly' in the context of politics.

That's a hard line to draw when it comes to Donald Trump. He ascended to the Republican nomination by claiming his business acumen as the ultimate credential. He touts a net worth of more than $10 billion, much of it tied up in the value of his own name and companies bearing that moniker.

As he accepted the Republican nomination on Thursday, screens around the stage proclaimed 'Trump' in giant letters on a golden barrier, much like on the outside of a Trump building.

'His brand is all about his wealth and his business, and so it's not surprising that the campaign would be very closely associated with his business,' Kelner said. 'By now it's clear I think the voters don't seem to mind.'

Trump has sometimes mixed his campaign and his businesses. At a speech in March, he displayed a table full of Trump Winery beverages (the vineyard is run by his son Eric), Trump-branded water and magazines, and steaks that he suggested were from his Trump Steak brand even though that was discontinued years ago.

Kelner says if Trump becomes president, his business holdings could cause conflicts of interest that wouldn't easily be resolved. But there's reason to think the campaign will be good for his business, and for his daughter's.

'Whatever this family decides to do after the election should they not win, they have definitely increased their brand,' Marx says.
Bolt return from injury upstaged by 28-year WR being broken

LONDON (AP)  Usain Bolt looked in fine shape for the Olympics by winning his last race before Rio de Janeiro on his return from injury.

Keni Harrison also looked more than ready for Brazil by breaking a 28-year record in the 100-meters hurdles in London on Friday.

Only, unlike Bolt, Harrison is not going to the Olympics.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica poses for photographers after he won the men's 200 meter race during the Diamond League anniversary games at The Stadium, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, Friday, July 22, 2016.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

While Bolt is Rio-bound despite being forced to pull out of the Jamaican trials with a hamstring injury, Harrison failed to make the American track squad after a poor performance at her trials.

Instead, Harrison will have to settle for her record-breaking night at the London Diamond League meet being her crowning moment of the summer.

The 23-year-old Harrison ran 12.20 seconds on the site of the 2012 Olympics to surpass Yordanka Donkova's previous mark of 12.21 set in August 1988; before the American was born.

"Not making the Olympic team I was really upset," Harrison said. "And I wanted to come out here and do what I know what I could have done (in Rio)."

Even sweeter for Harrison was finishing ahead of compatriots Brianna Rollins and Kristi Castlin, who both qualified for the Olympics ahead of her.

"You have one bad day but I knew I still had it in me," Harrison said, referring to her sixth-place finish at the U.S. trials earlier this month. "I was coming out here with just vengeance to show these girls what I have."

Bolt rarely has anything to prove to anyone. But the six-time Olympian champion had to show in London that he hasn't been slowed by the hamstring injury that led to him withdrawing from his country's Olympic trials.

In his first 200-meter race of the season, the world's fastest man ran 19.89 seconds at the same Olympic Stadium where four years ago he took golds from the 100, 200 and 4x100-meter relay races. On Friday, Bolt finished ahead of Alonso Edward of Panama and British runner Adam Gemili, clocking slower than LaShawn Merritt's world-leading time of 19.74.

"I'm not fully in shape. I need more work but over time I will be fine," Bolt said. "I could feel the rust. The execution up there wasn't perfect but it was my first run so I can't complain."

The only complaints Bolt had were targeted at American rivals who had lightly suggested  not strongly  that he got preferential treatment by being allowed to skip the Jamaican trials.

"I felt it was a joke," the Bolt said. "I felt it was a disrespect the fact they think I'd back out of a trials. Me, Usain Bolt who has proven myself year (after) year that I'm the greatest.

"I laughed when I heard it. I was disappointed, especially in Justin Gatlin."

Elsewhere in London, there was a trio of French winners: Jimmy Vicaut ran a sluggish 100 meters in 10.02 seconds, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse clocked 1 minute, 43.88 seconds in the 800 and Renaud Lavillenie cleared 5.9 meters in the pole vault.

Olympic triple jump Christian Taylor prepared for his defense in Rio by reaching 17.78 meters.

There were a couple of victories for British women on the fast newly-laid track: Laura Muir in the 1,500 as well as the quartet of Asha Philip, Desiree Henry, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita in the 4X100-meter relay.

The meet continues for a second day on Saturday.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica, centre,runs onto win the men's 200 meter race during the Diamond League anniversary games at The Stadium, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, Friday, July 22, 2016.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Kendra Harrison of the US poses next to the time she ran to win the women's 100 meter hurdles in a world record time of 12.20 seconds during the Diamond League anniversary games at The Stadium, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, Friday, July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
BERLIN (AP)  The latest developments on a deadly shooting attack Friday in Munich (all times local):

___

1:40 a.m.

Police officers point their weapons outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Munich police spokesman Peter Beck says 10 people were killed, including the likely attacker, in the shooting in the Bavarian capital.

Beck says investigators also believe the shooter killed himself and appears to have acted alone.

Munich police gave a "cautious all clear" early Saturday morning, more than seven hours after a gunman opened fire in a crowded shopping mall and at a nearby McDonalds

___

1 a.m.

The German news agency dpa is reporting that bomb experts are checking the body of a man found about a kilometer away from the Munich shooting scene for possible explosives.

A backpack was found on the body, which is now being examined. Police have said they're trying to determine if the body is that of a shooter.

Police say the shooting attack in the Bavarian capital Friday left eight victims dead.

___

12:05 a.m.

Police in Munich are urging people not to upload videos or photos from the shooting attack on social media but instead to provide them to authorities for their investigation by uploading them at a special link online.

The link is https://medienupload-portal01.polizei.bayern.de.

Meanwhile, police spokesman Peter Beck says at least 10 people have been hospitalized.

Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk is reporting that 20 people have been wounded in the attack.

___

11:55 p.m.

Police say the Munich shooting attack has left eight victims dead along with a 9th body that police are examining to see if it was an attacker.

Video obtained by The Associated Press from German news agency NonstopNews shows two bodies with sheets draped over them not far from a McDonald's across from one of the biggest malls in Munich.

Another video posted online shows a gunman emerging from the door of the McDonald's, raising what appears to be a pistol with both hands and aiming at people on the sidewalk, firing as they flee in terror.

Police are still searching the city for suspected shooters and Munich is in a transit lockdown, with trains, buses and trolley cars halted.

Munich police have set up a hotline for concerned citizens. Residents have also opened their doors to stranded people seeking shelter using the Twitter hashtag #opendoor.

___

11:45 p.m.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has expressed shock and sadness over the shootings in Munich.

Speaking outside the U.N. Security Council, Johnson says if this is another terrorist attack "then I think it proves once again that we have a global problem and a global sickness that we have to tackle."

He added he had discussed dealing with the process of radicalization with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a short meeting Friday.

Earlier, Johnson addressed the Security Council to endorse a British-backed resolution calling on the international community to help destroy Libya's remaining chemical weapons. It was Johnson's first visit to the U.N. as foreign secretary.

___

11:35 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff notes that the attack in Munich has taken place on the anniversary of another massacre.

Peter Altmaier told German public channel ARD that "today is the fifth anniversary of the terrible massacre in Norway, where young people, students were killed at will by a Norwegian citizen."

Asked whether the attack Friday in Munich that left at least eight dead could have been prevented, Altmaier said: "You can only have absolute security in an absolute surveillance state, and nobody wants that, it would be the opposite of our free western European way of life. "

But he adds that "this became clear again today, we can't talk down this danger ... and that's why it's important to give our security agencies the instruments they need."

___

11:25 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is being regularly briefed on the shooting attack in Munich and the government has sent members of Germany's elite anti-terrorism force to the scene.

Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier says "all that we know and can say right now is that it was a cruel and inhumane attack." He told the German public channel ARD that "we can't rule out that there are terrorist links. We can't confirm them, but we are investigating along those lines too."

Altmaier says numerous attacks had been prevented in Germany in recent years "but, and this is important, there can never be absolute security."

Munich police say eight victims have died in the attack Friday.

___

11:15 p.m.

Witness Luan Zequiri said he was at the scene when the shooting broke out Friday in Munich near a McDonald's restaurant.

He tells the Germany broadcaster n-tv that he heard the attacker yell an anti-foreigner slur and "there was a really loud scream."

He said he saw only one attacker, who was wearing boots and a backpack. Zequiri says "I looked in his direction and he shot two people on the stairs." He says he hid in a shop, then ran outside when the coast was clear and saw bodies of the dead and wounded on the ground.

Munich police say at least eight people have been killed and several wounded in the shooting attack on Friday, and they are hunting for up to three shooters. A ninth body is being examined to see if it was an attacker.

___

10:55 p.m.

The United States says it "condemns in the strongest terms the apparent terrorist attack that has claimed innocent lives in Munich."

Munich police say at least eight people have been killed and several wounded in the shooting attack on Friday, and they are hunting for up to three shooters. A ninth body near the scene in north Munich is being examined to see if it is an attacker.

The statement by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says the U.S. "will work closely with our German partners to whom we will make available any resources that would assist their investigation."

He says "our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the deceased, just as we wish those wounded a full recovery."

___

10:45 p.m.

Munich police spokesman Marcus Martins says a ninth body has been found at the scene of a shooting attack in Munich and police are "intensively examining" it to see if it may be one of the attackers.

Martin says "according to my knowledge, we're looking for three suspects" in the attack late Friday afternoon outside a McDonald's in Munich that police say has left eight other people dead and several wounded.

Martin would not comment on the nature of the injuries to the ninth body but said it was not one of the eight victims.

It was the second attack this week in Germany. Members of Germany's elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the Munich shooting.

___

10:30 p.m.

A spokesman for Munich police says the number of people killed in a shooting attack has increased to eight.

Spokesman Peter Beck told The Associated Press he can confirm eight dead and several wounded in the attack Friday near a McDonald's restaurant in a northern section of the Bavarian capital

He says "we can't give a precise number for those wounded. They have been taken to Munich hospitals. The hunt for suspects is still ongoing."

Beck was unable to say whether one or more suspects were among the dead. Police say they are hunting up to three suspects with rifles.

It was the second attack this week in Germany. Members of Germany's elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the shooting, and the country's interior minister has cut short his holiday to return to Berlin for a security meeting.

___

10:20 p.m.

Members of Germany's elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the deadly shooting in Munich.

A security official told The Associated Press that 30 members of the GSG9 special operations unit are landing in Munich "as we speak." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be quoted by name.

Police say the attack near a McDonald's restaurant in Munich has left at least six people dead and others wounded.

Munich police, who are calling the attack "suspected terrorism," are still hunting for up to three possible shooters armed with rifles. No suspects have been apprehended yet. Residents have been told to stay indoors during the police operation.

___ Frank Jordans in Berlin

___

10:15 p.m.

Germany's interior minister has cut short his holiday in the United States to go back way to Berlin late Friday to meet with security officials after an attack near a McDonald's restaurant in Munich left at least six people dead and others wounded.

Munich police, who called the attack "suspected terrorism," were still hunting for up to three possible shooters armed with rifles. No suspects have been apprehended yet.

Police have urged residents to stay indoors while the manhunt is on. Facebook has created a safety check for Munich shooting. Police have set up a hotline for people who are missing relatives and are sending out tweets on safety suggestions in four languages  German, English, French, Turkish.

___

9:50 p.m.

Munich police spokesman Peter Beck tells The Associated Press that six people are dead and several are wounded in a shooting attack outside a McDonald's restaurant in Munich.

Munich police spokesman Marcus Martins tells AP they are aware of reports that a man has killed himself while he was being arrested, but said there is no confirmation of this yet. He says up to three suspects armed with rifles are still at large and being hunted by police.

Munich police are calling the Friday afternoon attack "suspected terrorism." They have urged residents to remain indoors while the police operation is going down.

They also are urging social media users to refrain from speculating about the attack on Twitter.

___

9:15 p.m.

President Barack Obama is pledging to provide Germany with whatever help it may need to investigate a deadly shooting incident.

Obama says "exactly what's happening" in Munich is unclear.

German police and media reports say six people have been killed and others wounded when a shooter or shooters opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich. A police manhunt is underway.

Obama says he was late getting to a White House meeting on police issues because he was being briefed on developments in Germany, "one of our closest allies." He told his audience the shooting is yet another reminder that people's way of life, their freedom and ability to go about their everyday business depends on law enforcement.

___

9:05 p.m.

Munich police are hunting for a shooter or shooters and using the term "suspected terrorism" in connection with a deadly attack at a McDonald's in a city mall.

Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk says six people have been killed in the attack but police are only confirming "several dead and wounded" at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in the northern section of the Bavarian capital. Police say witnesses have seen three people with what appear to be rifles.

No one is in custody yet. All trains, trams, buses and subways in the city have been shut down during the police operation, and police are urging residents to stay indoors.

This is the second attack in Germany this week, after an Afghan youth attacked five people with an ax and a knife on Monday night near Wuerzburg before being shot dead by police.

___

8:45 p.m.

A Munich police spokesman says witnesses have reported seeing three shooters with "long guns" who attacked a McDonald's in a city mall.

Police spokesman Peter Beck also tells The Associated Press he is not yet able to confirm the report by German public broadcaster BR that six people have been killed in the shooting late Friday afternoon. Another Munich police spokeswoman, Claudia Kuenzel, says there are "several dead and wounded" at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall.

Munich police are hunting the suspects but no one is in custody yet. All trains, trams, buses and subways in the city have been shut down during the police operation, and police have urged residents to stay indoors.

Hospitals in Munich, a city of 1.4 million people, have called in extra staff to prepare for the possibility of large numbers of wounded.

___

8:25 p.m.

German public broadcaster BR reports that six people have been killed at a shooting at a McDonald's restaurant in a mall in Munich.

Munich police on Friday night are hunting for the shooter or shooters, saying "the suspects are still on the run." They are urging residents and visitors to stay home, seek safety inside buildings and avoid public places. The city has sent smartphone alerts to tell people to stay indoors.

The attack, the second in Germany this week, occurred just before 6 p.m. at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in the northern part of Munich.

The German rail company Deutsche Bahn has stopped train traffic to Munich's main station and Munich public transit operator MVG has shut down all subway, bus and trolley cars because of the police operation to find the shooters.

___

8:15 p.m.

Munich police are urging residents to stay home or seek safety indoors as they hunt for a shooter or shooters who attacked people at a mall.

In a statement, Munich police say "the suspects are still on the run. Please avoid public places." They urge people not to post tweets or post photos of police operations in the city.

Munich police spokeswoman Claudia Kuenzel says there are "several dead and wounded" in the shooting at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in northern Munich.

Munich public transit operator MVG says all subway, bus and trolley cars have been shut down because of the police operation until further notice.

___

8 p.m.

A Munich police spokeswoman says there are "several dead and wounded" in a shooting at a mall in the Bavarian capital, and police are still hunting down the suspect or suspects.

Claudia Kuenzel tells The Associated Press that "the shooter or shooters are still on the run"  either in the mall or around the mall.

Public broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk reports that the late afternoon attack happened at a McDonald's restaurant at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in the northern part of Munich.

Armin Fritz, a reporter for public radio B5, says the city's entire public transport system has been shut down as police search for the attacker or attackers.

It's the second attack in Germany in less than a week.

___

7:40 p.m.

Germany's dpa news agency reports that police in Munich are saying "we expect multiple dead" in a shooting at a mall and police are hunting for the shooter or shooters.

Dpa is quoting Munich police as saying no one has been captured yet.

Dpa says the attack started at a fast food restaurant in the mall, shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) according to Munich police spokesman Thomas Baumann. He was quoted as saying that police didn't know whether they were dealing with one or more shooters.

The Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in the northern part of Munich is not far from the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital.

It's the second attack in Germany in less than a week.

___

7:25 p.m.

Germany's dpa news agency reports that police in Munich are saying "we expect multiple dead" in a shooting at a mall.

The Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in the northern part of Munich is not far from the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital.

Police are responding to the reported attack Friday in large numbers.

Munich police are urging people to avoid public places. "The situation is still unclear," they said on Twitter.

___

6:40 p.m.

Police in Germany say there's been a shooting at a shopping center in Munich.

Munich police confirm shots have been fired at Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center but say they don't have any details about casualties.

Police are responding in large numbers. German media say multiple people are injured.

It's the second attack in Germany in less than a week. On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan wounded four people in an ax-and-knife attack on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, and attacked another woman outside as he fled. All survived, although one man from the train remains in life-threatening condition. The attacker was shot and killed by police.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teen likely acted alone.

Members of the public run away from the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. A manhunt was underway Friday for a shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich, killing and wounding several people, a Munich police spokeswoman said. The city transit system shut down and police asked people to avoid public places. (AP)

Heavily armed police forces operate at Karlsplatz (Stachus) square after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

Heavily armed police forces walk through the underground station Karlsplatz (Stachus) after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

GERMANY OUT In this grab taken from video, people leave a mall, after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. A manhunt was underway Friday for a shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich, killing and wounding several people, a Munich police spokeswoman said. The city transit system shut down and police asked people to avoid public places. (NONSTOP NEWS via AP)

GERMANY OUT In this grab taken from video, a body covered with a sheet outside a mall, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. A manhunt was underway Friday for a shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich, killing and wounding several people, a Munich police spokeswoman said. The city transit system shut down and police asked people to avoid public places. (NONSTOP NEWS via AP)

GERMANY OUT In this grab taken from video, police officers stand outside a McDonald's restaurant, near the mall, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. A manhunt was underway Friday for a shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich, killing and wounding several people, a Munich police spokeswoman said. The city transit system shut down and police asked people to avoid public places. (NONSTOP NEWS via AP)

Police officers securing the Stachus hotel talk to residents after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Police officer stands in downtown Munich after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Police officers secure the main train station after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Police officer search a residential area near the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

Members of the public run away from the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. A manhunt was underway Friday for a shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall in Munich, killing and wounding several people, a Munich police spokeswoman said. The city transit system shut down and police asked people to avoid public places. (AP)

President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the mall shooting in Munich, Germany, before addressing law enforcement officers from around the country at the Advancing 21st Century Policing Briefing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex in Washington, Friday, July 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Special police forces prepare to search a neighbouring shopping centre outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Special police forces prepare to search a neighbouring shopping centre outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Police escort people who leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A police officer aims his submachine outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A police officer with a submachine gun points with his finger outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A police officer with a submachine gun points with his finger outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

CORRECTS SOURCE Armed police move past onlooking media responding to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, Friday July 22, 2016. Munich police confirm shots have been fired at Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center but say they don't have any details about casualties. Police are responding in large numbers. (AP)

CORRECTS SOURCE Police in Munich, Germany respond to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Friday July 22, 2016. Munich police confirm shots have been fired at Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center but say they don't have any details about casualties. Police are responding in large numbers. (AP)

Police officer search a residential area near the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (AP Photo/Marc Kleine-Kleffmann)

Police officers in protective gear woperate at Karlsplatz (Stachus) square after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Police officer search a residential area near the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (AP Photo/Marc Kleine-Kleffmann)

Police officer search a residential area near the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (AP Photo/Marc Kleine-Kleffmann)

Police officer search a residential area near the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (AP Photo/Marc Kleine-Kleffmann)

Police cars stand outside the Olympia shopping centre after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (AP Photo/Marc Kleine-Kleffmann)

Police officers secure the Stachus hotel after a shooting was reported there in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Several people have been reported to be killed. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)
Mexican businessmen say protests threaten economy

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Protest blockades by radical teachers' groups are threatening to strangle Mexico's economy, the country's business groups said Friday.

The teachers have been protesting mandatory teacher evaluation for months, but have recently taken to blockading railway lines as well as highways.

The Confederation of Mexican Industrial Chambers said that layoffs or shutdowns could occur in some industries.

Confederation president Manuel Herrera said "this is a situation we can no longer stand."

"This is causing damage to businesses," Herrera said, adding "this could cause the closure of some industries."

And the Mexican Railway Association said that multiple blockades on rail lines in the western state of Michoacan had halted about 100 train runs. It said those closures affected the grain, auto, cement and oil industries.

Local media reported the blockades had disrupted rail links to the Michoacan seaport of Lazaro Cardenas, and that car-carrier trucks had gone missing at highway blockades.

Tensions have risen after months of protests, especially in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, where members of a radical teachers union have blocked dozen of highways off and on.

On Thursday, a group of about 300 indigenous villagers from the town of San Juan Chamula attacked one of the protesters' blockades on a highway near the colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas.
Michigan zoo shuts down exhibit after stingray, shark deaths

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  An outdoor lagoon at a western Michigan zoo is being shut down following the deaths of 21 stingrays and sharks.

MLive.com reports (http://bit.ly/2a6CHkY ) Friday that the exhibit at John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids has been dismantled.

Eighteen cownose stingrays and three spotted bamboo sharks were found dead July 8 after a mechanical malfunction shut off one of two pumps to the lagoon. Low oxygen levels were found in water samples.

Zoo Chief Executive Peter D'Arienzo says no new stingray exhibit will be built until officials determine that a state-of-the-art, weather protected facility that can assure the animals' safety can be built.

More than 50 stingrays died last summer after oxygen levels in their tank dropped too low at an exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago.

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Congo president issues pardons in bid to calm vote tensions

KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  Congo's President Joseph Kabila has issued a series of pardons meant to ease tensions around upcoming elections.

Those affected include a half-dozen pro-democracy activists recently arrested for insisting that Kabila respect the constitution and not stay in power beyond his mandate, which expires at the end of this year.

The pardons were announced Friday, a day after the visit of the U.N. human rights chief, who expressed concern about restrictions on freedom of expression as the elections approach.

The government announcement also changes existing death sentences to life sentences in prison, and existing life sentences to 20-year sentences.

It also orders the early release of women and those 65 or older and 30 or younger, with some exceptions.
Obama vetoes bill to cap ex-presidents' expense accounts

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama vetoed a bill Friday that would cap the taxpayer-funded expense accounts of former presidents.

Obama said he supports the bill's goal, but he sent the measure back to Congress because it would immediately end salaries and benefits to staffers carrying out the official duties of former presidents. He says the measure doesn't provide enough time for these employees to be moved to another payroll.

Obama says the bill would also interfere with the Secret Service's ability to protect ex-presidents.

He offered to work with lawmakers and the offices of the former presidents to change the bill in ways that would eventually earn his signature.

The legislation sets an annual allowance of $200,000 a year for travel, staff and office costs that have become a standard part of life after the Oval Office. For former presidents who make money through books, speaking fees and other ventures, the allowance is reduced by $1 for every dollar in outside income above $400,000.

Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, like former presidents before them, have earned millions in speaking fees since leaving office.
Father, son convicted for role in US-Italy drug ring

NEW YORK (AP)  A father and a son have been convicted on weapons and other charges related to an international drug operation run out of their New York pizzeria.

A federal jury in Brooklyn delivered the verdicts Friday against Gregorio and Angelo Gigliotti.

Prosecutors argued the 60-year-old Gregorio Gigliotti and his wife ran a cocaine transport business from the Cucino a Modo Mio (I Cook It My Way) pizzeria in Queens. They say 36-year-old son Angelo Gigliotti worked for his father.

Authorities say the family coordinated the shipment of drugs and cash among Costa Rica, the U.S. and Italy.

Attorneys for the men haven't returned messages seeking comment.
Baker wants US Supreme Court to hear gay wedding cake case

DENVER (AP)  A suburban Denver baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case after a lower court ruled he must provide the service despite his Christian beliefs.

The Denver Post reports (http://goo.gl/ai9Cfh ) attorneys for Jack Phillips filed the petition Friday. The Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the Lakewood baker's case after an administrative law judge and an appeals court ruled against him.

Attorney Jeremy Tedesco says no one should be forced to further a message they can't in good conscience promote.

In 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins were turned away by Phillips when they requested a custom wedding cake from Masterpiece Cakeshop. The couple planned to marry in Massachusetts and wanted a cake to celebrate in Colorado.

___
Great Ormond Street Hospital warns over future of EU funding

Losing EU funding for medical research could cost the lives of some vulnerable children, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has said.

In a plea to the Government to secure a deal with Europe that protects research and enables the hospital to "retain its brightest minds", GOSH said there is a "serious risk" it could lose EU staff, funding and long-standing EU partnerships.

Since 2010, GOSH, in central London, has received 25 million from the EU - 10% of its funding - for research into new treatments and cures.

Great Ormond Street Hospital said there is a "serious risk" it could lose EU staff, funding and long-standing EU partnerships

With its research partner, the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), GOSH is the UK's only academic biomedical research centre specialising in paediatrics.

GOSH said 44 EU-funded research projects are active, with six at clinical trial stage for new treatments. Fourteen research projects are under review, with "uncertainty about current grants, or applications in the future", it said.

It argued that losing EU funding could "critically delay" the development and availability of revolutionary treatments, and because 75% of rare diseases affect children and 30% of children with a rare disease die before their fifth birthday, such research can be the only hope for some families.

GOSH and the ICH also have large numbers of staff from the EU - 24% of research staff, 25% of medical staff and 16% of nurses.

Dr Peter Steer, GOSH's chief executive, said: "We are deeply concerned about what leaving Europe means for our many EU staff and our research programmes. We call on the Government to prioritise the best European deal to protect these essential staff and research programmes, now and in the future.

"For the vulnerable, very ill children we care for, every day counts.

"The UK is known for the strength of its biomedical research. At GOSH our research base enables us to develop transformative treatments and cures and save lives. We do not want to see this eroded by uncertainty about the status of key staff and funding."

GOSH said the freedom of movement of EU patients taking part in UK-EU clinical research is vital to ensure a large patient base for studying rare diseases and some specialist areas such as gene therapy.

This has a knock-on effect for developing new treatments for adults, it said.

It also warned that r estricting access to research groups and hospitals across and outside Europe would put the rapid sharing of research and results at risk.

Furthermore, it said drug treatments for children with rare diseases could be affected and the costs of some drugs may rise.

Graeme Warnell's daughter Nina, three, had her life saved during a clinical trial at GOSH for an untested gene therapy.

She had suffered life-threatening infections caused by a rare, aggressive disease of the immune system called severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).

He said: "It is critical that funding is allocated to the most effective areas of research, to combat rare genetic illnesses that children like Nina have.
Two British police officers banned from UN South Sudan peacekeeping mission

Two British police officers have been banned from rejoining UN peacekeepers in South Sudan after they were allegedly evacuated by the Foreign Office without telling mission chiefs.

Their sudden departure is said to have damaged morale on the peacekeeping mission and prompted questions from UN figures over Britain's future standing on the United Nations Security Council.

The officers were in the capital, Juba, to support efforts to build a police force when violence erupted between rival factions earlier this month, leaving hundreds of people dead.

A destroyed tank after fighting between forces of Salva Kiir and Riek Machar in Jabel area of Juba (AP)

The British officers, along with seven German and three Swedish officers, were pulled out of the war-ravaged country over concerns for their safety.

They were then "dis-invited" by the UN peacekeeping mission, who said lead co-ordinators had not been consulted on the move.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said their departure had affected "the operational capability of the mission and the morale of staff".

The operation includes 1,200 police officers out of a 13,500-strong peacekeeping force.

Meanwhile there were reports that a leaked internal memo quoted UN officials questioning if Britain is worthy of being a veto-power on the Security Council as a result of the withdrawal.

The UN's peacekeeping spokesman, Nick Birnback, dismissed the claims.

"The supposed 'DPKO memo' to our knowledge it does not exist," he said, referring to the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

UN officials added that while the decision to send home two unarmed officers might send the wrong message to other countries contributing police it would not put Britain's UN standing into question.

The Foreign Office stressed that its status on the security council had not been affected by the withdrawal.

A spokeswoman said: "The United Kingdom is a committed and active member of the UN Security Council and our permanent membership is not going to change.

"The United Kingdom leads the council's work in some of the world's most vulnerable countries including Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Sudan."

South Sudan has seen a return to bloody fighting in recent weeks between forces backing President Salva Kiir and those loyal to vice president Riek Machar.

British officials arranged the removal of the two officers, who were based in Juba, out of concerns for their safety on July 13.

It is understood the officials had some communication with the UN's police advisor before their evacuation.

The officers did not return to the UK and are said to be waiting on standby in Uganda to return to South Sudan when the security situation improves.
He appeared when an interpreter arrived and was remanded in custody

He refused to come into court after an interpreter could not be found

Ali Qazimaj is to be charged with the murder of Peter and Sylvia Stuart

A Kosovan immigrant accused of the murder of an elderly Suffolk couple believes there is a 'conspiracy against him', a court heard.

Ali Qazimaj, 42, of Tilbury, Essex, was extradited from Luxembourg to the UK to face charges over the deaths of Peter Stuart and his wife Sylvia, 69.

Mr Stuart, 75, was found with multiple knife wounds in woodland near his home in Weybread, Suffolk, on Friday June 3.

While Qazimaj has been charged with the murder of Mrs Stuart, 69.

Her body has not been found but she is feared dead and police are continuing to search for her body.

Qazimaj was detained on a European Arrest Warrant in Luxembourg on June 16 and was collected by police officers from the Suffolk and Norfolk joint major investigations team and Suffolk extradition officers and brought back to the UK yesterday.

He was then taken into custody at Martlesham police investigation centre, near Ipswich, ahead of his court appearance at Ipswich Magistrates' Court this morning, for which an Albanian interpreter was requested.

Court staff made efforts to summon an interpreter to attend court but failed to.

Qazimaj then refused to come up to the court from the cells and the hearing proceeded in his absence.

Several hours later, after an interpreter was found, Qazimaj did appear in court. When asked if he is Ali Qazimaj, he replied: 'No, my name is Vital Dapi'.

He was remanded in custody for 28 days and removed from the dock.

At the first hearing of the day, Paul Scothern, of the CPS complex case work unit, said: 'Qazimaj, or as he wishes to be known, Mr Dapi, faces two counts of murder and the matter clearly has to be transferred to the crown court.'

The couple went missing from their home in Weybread, Suffolk last month. The body of Mr Stuart (left) was later found. Mrs Stuart (right) remains missing but police believe she is dead

Stephen Harris, defending, said the lack of an interpreter had caused concern for his client. 'The question of engagement depends on his level of communication,' he said.

'His English is not perfect and he's concerned he might not be able to understand everything.'

Mr Harris added that it was a 'grave case' and an interpreter should be present.

'This gentleman thinks it's a conspiracy against him and that it's being done deliberately to stop him giving his case properly,' said Mr Harris.

No pleas were taken at today's hearings.
Police issue more images of suspects after night of violence in London

Detectives investigating a night of mass violent disorder in central London have added a woman and three men to their wanted list.

They include a man caught on CCTV who appears to be aiming a missile at police officers who found themselves attacked by a mob in Hyde Park on Tuesday night.

Images of the four have been added to a gallery of suspects sought in connection with the widespread disorder that saw a water fight descend into chaos.

Detectives are appealing for assistance from the public in helping to identify these individual who were involved in the disorder (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Up to 4,000 people had gathered on the banks of the Serpentine on Tuesday afternoon as the capital enjoyed the hottest day of the year so far, but the festivities turned hostile as the evening wore on.

Three people including a police officer were stabbed in the violence that spilled into Marble Arch, yards from the shops of Oxford Street. A second police officer was injured at the scene by a flying bottle.

Police are yet to make any arrests and Scotland Yard has now publicly identified eight people they want to trace.

The suspects include the man appearing to throw the object in Hyde Park and the three others who are alleged to have committed offences in the Marble Arch area.

They are wanted alongside four men, three of whom are wanted in connection with violent disorder in Hyde Park and one over trouble in Marble Arch.

Detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime and Operations' Homicide and Major Crime Command are using their expertise to track down suspects as officers pore over CCTV from the area.

Commander Nick Downing said: "We have a number of specialist officers who are reviewing hours of CCTV footage and whilst we are still in the early stages of the investigation they have been able to identify key individuals who are believed to have taken part in the disorder in some way or form.

"Detectives continue to work to identify not just these four individuals but a number of others involved.

"We are appealing to the public to help us identify the individuals in the images we are releasing, or if you are the person in the images now is your opportunity to make yourself known to police.

"As the investigation continues we are still keen to hear from any witnesses or anyone with any information about any of the incidents across London on the night of the 19th July."

That evening two 16-year-old boys were stabbed in Burgess Park, south London, and a nearby supermarket ransacked at an end-of-term water fight.

Police were also pelted with missiles when they moved in to close down an illegal rave on an east London estate. Some officers suffered minor injuries and three police vans were damaged.
Nasty smell forces BA flight to Greece to return to Gatwick

A British Airways flight carrying holidaymakers to Greece was forced to turn back when a "nasty smell" filled the cabin.

Passengers complained of smelling a foul odour, reportedly compared to the smell of cannabis by some, on the flight to Heraklion airport after takeoff from Gatwick on Thursday morning.

The pilot turned back as a precaution and the flight was met by fire crews when it landed 90 minutes later.

British Airways said its pilot returned the aircraft to Gatwick as a precaution following reports of an unidentified strong smell in the cabin

Passenger Simon Skinner tweeted: "@British_Airways flight to heraklion turned back after nasty smell. Disappointed holidaymakers."

Stuart Barnes, 40, told The Sun: "We were four rows from the back and the whole area stank. Everyone was saying it was cannabis.

"We were told the air con would clear it but it got even stronger."

Passengers were eventually put on a rescheduled flight at midday.

A BA spokeswoman said no evidence of cannabis or anybody smoking cannabis was found on board.

She added: "Our pilot returned the aircraft to Gatwick as a precaution following reports of an unidentified strong smell in the cabin.
Corbyn planned to bully me through my father, claims Labour MP Conor McGinn

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of considering calling the father of a senior Labour MP in an attempt to "bully" the politician into silence.

Labour whip Conor McGinn made the extraordinary claim that the party leader had considered using his father in an attempt to "apply pressure" on him following public criticism of Mr Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn's office dismissed the claims as "untrue" but St Helens North MP Mr McGinn accused the party leader of hypocrisy for talking about a "kinder, gentler politics" when "he had proposed using my family against me".

Labour's Conor McGinn

He said: "The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad."

He suggested that Mr Corbyn considered calling his father, Pat McGinn, because he is a Sinn Fein councillor and thought they may "share a political affinity".

Mr McGinn said the leader had contemplated the action against him after a critical interview in May when he suggested that Mr Corbyn needed to understand that his Islington constituency in north London - often seen as a bastion of support for radical causes like unilateral nuclear disarmament - was "not like the rest of the country".

Mr McGinn said Mr Corbyn had initially asked for his resignation and considered sacking him after the comments in The House magazine but subsequently reconsidered.

But he added that he was later informed by colleagues in the Whips' Office about the proposal to call his father.

He said he had not made the incident public until now " because I find it shocking and embarrassing, and almost unbelievable".

In a statement, he said: " It transpired that Jeremy, in deliberations about how to respond to my interview, had said that he intended to ring my father to discuss it with him and ask him to speak to me about it.

"The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad. Jeremy does not know my father so I can only presume that, because of the much-publicised fact that my father was a Sinn Fein councillor, Jeremy felt that they would share a political affinity and was proposing to use that to ask my father to apply pressure on me.

"Thankfully, others dissuaded Jeremy from taking this course of action. The call was not made, and it would not have been well- received ."

Mr McGinn said he had decided to go public after watching an interview with Mr Corbyn in which he repeated his mantra of supporting a "kinder, gentler politics".

"I am afraid I could no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of him talking about a kinder, gentler politics when I knew for a fact that he had proposed using my family against me in an attempt to bully me into submission because he didn't like something I said."

Mr McGinn said he and other Labour MPs had been subjected to a "torrent of abuse and threats" from supporters of Mr Corbyn.

"In my constituency, a group of people gained access to my shared office building under false pretences and filmed themselves protesting outside the door of my office, in an incident that has been reported to the police," he said.

"They threatened to disrupt my surgeries and events I was attending, requiring me to have a police presence at those last weekend."
No place for abuse in the Labour Party insists Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted there is no place for abuse in the Labour Party, after 44 women MPs wrote to him to urge him to take action over the bullying and intimidation they faced.

At a leadership rally in Salford, Mr Corbyn acknowledged that people were "angry" at the actions of MPs who had sought to oust him from the leadership, but said that they should settle their differences by "democratic" means.

Speaking from the same platform, his close ally, shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon, hit back at the MPs, warning them that they needed to show "respect" to ordinary party members.

Jeremy Corbyn was speaking at a leadership rally in Salford

He compared the portrayal of Mr Corbyn's supporters with the way striking miners had been "demonised" in the 1980s.

"I am not, and others are not, going to stand by and see every single one of you portrayed as the striking miners were, as thugs, brick-throwers, bullies and misogynists," he said to cheers from the packed audience at the Lowry Theatre.

"It is vitally important that we respect each other with our different views, as we do. But I tell you this, MPs need to respect party members as well.

"MPs shouldn't be abused by members of the Labour Party or those who appear to be members of the Labour Party. But honest, decent Labour Party members - the people who made all of these other people MPs - should not be abused or badly treated by MPs."

He praised the new members who had been inspired to join the party as a result of Mr Corbyn's leadership.

"These are not bad people, these are good people. We should be proud of them and I say welcome to the Labour Party," he said.

His comments are likely to inflame the tensions within the party after Mr Corbyn faced an overwhelming vote of no confidence by MPs, and a mass walk-out by the shadow cabinet, in the wake of last month's EU referendum vote.

Mr Corbyn, who is now facing a leadership challenge from former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith, urged his followers to remain disciplined.

"We have to be very disciplined. As I have made it very, very clear many times before, I don't do any personal abuse of anybody at any time. None of that has any place in our party or our movement," he said.

"I know people are angry about actions that have been taken but where we have disagreement in our party we settle it through democratic means - no coups, no intimidation, no abuse."

His comments came after 44 women Labour MPs wrote to him in a letter organised by backbencher Paula Sherriff complaining about his "inadequate" response to the abuse.

"Rape threats, death threats, smashed cars and bricks through windows are disgusting and totally unacceptable in any situation," they wrote.

"This is acknowledged by all factions, yet the simple words of condemnation offered in response are inadequate. We expect swift and tangible action against those who commit such acts."

Speaking under the slogan "People powered politics", Mr Corbyn sought to rally his supporters with a call for a new wave of grassroots activism to propel the party to victory at the next general election.

He said it was a mistake to believe that it was solely what took place in Parliament that was important when it came to achieving change.

"We are a social movement and we will only win the next general election because we are that movement of people all around the country," he said.

"What happens in Parliament is very, very important - that is why many of us have sought office in Parliament in order to effect those changes - but changes come because people want those changes to come."

He said it was essential that the party learned the lessons of the general election defeats of 2010 and 2015 if it was to succeed next time.

"That tells me something. We cannot go on as we were before. We have to and we will do politics, do economics, do social justice, differently," he said.

"We have become a mass party and a mass organisation. Electoral success is never a given, it is hard work.

"I don't underestimate the mountain we have to climb to win a general election, which is why this leadership election is also about building the technology, the ideas, the campaigning skills and the inclusive way we do things, into a movement that can and will win a general election."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is bidding to retain the party leadership, at an event in Manchester.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has his picture taken during an event in Manchester.

Supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester.

Supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn show their true colours at an event in Manchester.

Supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership.

Supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wait to enter the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with supporters during the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the public launch of his campaign to retain the party leadership in Manchester.
U.S. clears 'Guantanamo Diary' author for release

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - A Mauritanian prisoner who wrote a best-selling memoir about his long ordeal at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo has been cleared for release, his lawyers and a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

A parole-style review opened the way for Mohamedou Ould Slahi, author of "Guantanamo Diary," to be moved out of the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. But he cannot leave until U.S. authorities make arrangements for him to be repatriated to his West African homeland or to send him to another country.

Slahi, 45, who arrived in Guantanamo in August 2002 and has been held without charge or trial, appeared before a Periodic Review Board - a multi-agency government panel - on June 2.

His hearing was part of President Barack Obama's stepped-up effort to whittle down the Guantanamo inmate population to meet his promise to close the prison by the end of his tenure in January, a prospect that looks increasingly doubtful due to U.S. congressional opposition. The latest decision means that 30 of the 76 detainees are now cleared for release.

Slahi became one of Guantanamo's most prominent inmates with the 2015 publication of his prison memoir in which he described his years of detention and interrogation, including being subjected to harsh techniques widely considered torture. U.S. censors heavily redacted the 466-page manuscript he gave to his lawyers.

Slahi was first detained by authorities in Mauritania and was then sent to Jordan and Afghanistan and finally to the Guantanamo prison, which was opened under President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The facility became a symbol of the excesses of Bush's "war on terror."

Slahi was originally suspected of being a senior recruiter for al Qaeda. But his lawyers contended that his links to militants had been limited to the early 1990s when he fought in Afghanistan with the mujahideen anti-communist insurgents.

The review board determined that Slahi "poses no significant threat to the United States," the American Civil Liberties Union said. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Slahi was cleared for release and the ruling would soon be officially released.

"We will now work toward his quick release and return to the waiting arms of his loving family," said Nancy Hollander, one of Slahi's attorneys, in a statement issued by the ACLU.
SSE loses more customers in cut-throat UK energy market

By Karolin Schaps

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Britain's second-biggest energy supplier SSE said on Thursday it had lost another 50,000 power and gas customers over the three months ending June 30, as small suppliers continue to grab market share from incumbents.

Britons have grown increasingly dissatisfied with high bills and poor customer service, with the competition watchdog finding some households overpaid a total of 1.4 billion pounds a year between 2012 and 2015 on uncompetitive tariffs.

SSE said total household customer numbers fell to 8.16 million at the end of June from 8.21 million at the end of March.

"It's an intensely competitive market with more than 30 suppliers competing for customers," said an SSE spokesman.

SSE shares opened 0.3 percent lower in London.

The "big six" suppliers have seen their market share drop to 84.6 percent in the dual-fuel (gas and electricity) market, compared with 99 percent four years ago, according to data from consultancy Cornwall Energy.

Britain's largest energy supplier British Gas, owned by Centrica, lost as many as 224,000 customers between January and March.

Small suppliers including First Utility, Ovo Energy and Good Energy often offer lower prices, attracting new customers.

Despite the customer losses, SSE maintained its earnings per share target of at least 120 pence for the current fiscal year.

Its gas and oil-fired power plants nearly doubled output to 4.4 terawatt-hours (TWh), up from 2.4 TWh, but poor weather reduced green energy output 31 percent year-on-year to 1.5 TWh.

This reflects improved profitability for thermal power plants thanks to weak gas and oil prices after these plants had been struggling to make money in a market of growing renewable energy output.

SSE also confirmed its intention to sell up to a third of its 50 percent stake in regional gas distribution business SGN, with a sales process now under way.

Angelos Anastasiou, utilities analyst at Whitman Howard, estimates a third of its stake could be worth 500 million pounds.

The energy company, which also supplies customers in Ireland, said it was continuing to assess risks to its business associated with Britain's decision to leave the European Union.
Jewish group calls on Polish minister to apologise over pogrom remarks

WARSAW, July 21 (Reuters) - The World Jewish Congress has demanded an apology from the Polish education minister over her refusal to recognise the complicity of Poles in a 1941 massacre of several hundred Jews at Jedwabne in the country's northeast.

Speaking to private broadcaster TVN24, Education Minister Anna Zalewska refused to openly admit Poles' complicity in the pogrom, saying it was a "historical fact, which has been misunderstood many times, with many very biased opinions".

"The dramatic situation which took place in Jedwabne is controversial. Many historians, distinguished professors, paint a completely different picture," she said.

Before World War Two, Poland was home to Europe's largest Jewish community of some 3.2 million people. Most of them were killed by the Nazi occupiers, who built death camps including Auschwitz and Treblinka on Polish soil.

But a 2000-2004 inquiry of Poland's state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) found that on July 10, 1941, Nazi occupiers and local inhabitants colluded in a massacre of at least 340 Jews at Jedwabne. Some victims were burned alive after being locked inside a barn.

The revelation disturbed the Poles' belief that, with a few exceptions, they conducted themselves honourably during a vicious war that killed a fifth of the population, and some still refuse to acknowledge the IPN's findings.

The issue of Poles' attitudes to their Jewish neighbours during World War Two is also key for Poland's ruling conservatives, who surged to power in October, partly on a promise to make Poland feel proud of its achievements and win it more respect on the world stage.

Anti-semitism was rife in Poland in the run-up to World War Two. After the war, a pogrom in the town of Kielce and a bout of anti-Semitism in 1968 sponsored by the communist authorities forced many survivors who had stayed in Poland to flee.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the WJC's President Ronald Lauder said Zalewska should "immediately issue clearly worded apologies and retract" the remarks.

"It is disturbing to think that senior government officials in Poland, a country that ... has done so much to advance the cause of Holocaust education and scholarship, now seem to be lurching backward to the days of obfuscation and misinformation," Lauder said.

The WJC's demand for an apology comes on the day Poland's parliament approved the candidacy of Jaroslaw Szarek to head the IPN, which investigated the killings in Jedwabne.
Failed by courts, children bear brunt of rape in Ivory Coast - activists

By Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, July 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Children in Ivory Coast bear the brunt of sexual violence in a culture where rape is widely considered "insignificant" and perpetrators usually go unpunished, activists say.

Two in three rape victims in the West African nation are young girls, according to a recent U.N. report, which recorded some 1,130 cases of rape between 2012 and 2015.

Yet the number of rape cases is likely to be far higher, the U.N.'s Ivory Coast mission (UNOCI) said, as many victims do not come forward due to the fear of retaliation and stigma within their communities and a lack of confidence in the legal system.

While Ivory Coast has recovered from two civil wars, in 2002 and 2011, to boast one of Africa's fastest growing economies, years of conflict have fuelled a culture of violence, where rape is rife, according to the UNOCI.

"Rape is considered banal by a lot of people, they claim sex is an obligatory rite of passage for every woman," said Jean Claude Kobena of the Abidjan-based group SOS Violences Sexuelles.

"They think no one should be imprisoned for an act they see as so insignificant," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Children are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence because so many roam the streets, out of school and forced to work because of widespread poverty, child rights experts say.

Almost half of the 20 million population of Ivory Coast live in poverty, and six out of every 10 children of secondary school age are not in education, according to data from the World Bank.

"Millions of kids are out of school and on the streets, relying on odd jobs to survive, which exposes them to abuse and rape," said Save the Children's country director Famari Barro.

NO MORE 'MISDEMEANOURS'

Rape victims and their families are often not aware of how to report the crime, or cannot afford to do so, activists say.

Victims may have to travel far to a court, and they must first obtain a medical certificate - which can cost up to 50,000 CFA francs ($85) - to prove they have been raped before pressing charges, said the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF).

Most rape cases in Ivory Coast are therefore settled out of court, usually without the victim's consent, with the intention of avoiding stigma and preserving peace within communities, and sparing the suspected rapist from jail, the UNOCI's report said.

"For victims to seek justice, the culture of settlements must end, allowing them to speak up and be referred to support services," said UNICEF deputy representative Christina de Bruin.

While investigations were opened in 90 percent of rape cases documented by the UNOCI, less than a fifth led to a conviction.

In all 203 cases that ended in conviction, the perpetrators were found guilty of a lesser offence than rape - often indecent assault - which is a common legal practice, the report said.

"Although seen as a way for victims to access justice and facilitate a prompt judgement, this practice minimizes the gravity of rape," the UNOCI said.

Ivory Coast should revise its criminal code, which punishes rape without defining it, provide victims with free legal aid and hold special court sessions for rape cases, the UNOCI said.

The justice ministry this week in a confidential document seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation issued a notice telling the authorities not to recategorise rapes as 'misdemeanours'.

Issued a week after the UNOCI report, it also says sexual offences must be fully investigated and prosecuted, even if out-of-court settlements are reached or complaints are withdrawn.

The Ivorian government spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
News / Health

by Agencies

The Avenues Clinic today (Friday) presented 35 hospital beds to the Little Children of our Blessed Lady, a Roman Catholic religious order, for use in institutions the LCBL sisters run.The Clinic recently acquired new beds and decided to give away the old beds, which are still in good condition, to institutions that have a need for them, such as those run by the Little Children of our Blessed Lady (LCBL).In May it donated 60 similar beds to the United Methodist Church for use in its homes for expecting mothers at Anoldine Clinic in Makoni District and Old Mutare Mission.Some of the beds presented to the LCBL sisters will be going to Chichester Convent in Chishawasha, a retirement convent for elderly LCBL sisters, many of whom are unwell and in need of care.The other beds are going to a new clinic that was built at Martindale School near Selous, Mount St Mary's Hospital in Wedza and the LCBL Herbal Project, which was initiated by the LCBL sisters in 2008 to provide herbal remedies for those who, in the harsh economic conditions of that time, were unable to afford or obtain prescription medicines.The LCBL Herbal Project, which is run by Sr Yullita Chirawu, its executive director, has a clinic at the Harare Exhibition Centre, which offers herbal remedies, massage and reflexology. It has a herbal remedies processing plant at Makumbi Mission in Domboshawa.The Avenues Clinic chairman, Mr Pearson Chitando, praised the work of the LCBL sisters. He said he was pleased to learn that the beds would be put to good use."It is evident that the LCBL Sisters are doing a lot of good work in caring for the sick, whether it is for their own elderly sick sisters at Chichester Convent in Chishawasha, those visiting their clinic at Martindale, those treated at Mount St Mary's Hospital in Wedza, those visiting their herbal clinic in Harare or those visiting other health facilities that they run or assist with," Mr Chitando said."It would certainly seem that the good Sisters are going to make maximum use of the beds we are handing over to them today," he said.Thanking The Avenues Clinic for the donation, the superior general of the Little Children of Our Blessed Lady, Sister Illumina Katsukunya, said that the new clinic in Martindale, St Barbara's Clinic, had been built in the heart of a farming area.She said the people it would serve were poor farming people who could not afford other health facilities. They were in particular need of maternity facilities."Yesterday there were 35 mothers who want their babies delivered at the clinic but the clinic does not yet have beds. The maternity ward has not yet been completed," she said, adding that they are also intending to build a waiting mothers' home at the clinic.She praised The Avenues Clinic for its generosity in donating the beds, which, she said, would go a long way towards helping further improve the quality of service the LCBL sisters were able to deliver at the various institutions."The Catholic Church is this year celebrating a Year of Mercy. You have demonstrated that you are reaching out to the needy and sharing what you have," she said.The Avenues Clinic managing director, Mrs Merissa Kambani, said she considered the beds donation more than just a donation. She said she hoped it would mark the beginning of a close relationship between the clinic and the LCBL sisters.
Croatian Halilovic leaving Barca for Hamburg

July 21 (Reuters) - Croatian midfielder Alen Halilovic is leaving Barcelona to join SV Hamburg for five million euros ($5.50 million) after the clubs agreed a deal, the Spanish champions said on Thursday.

The 20-year-old will sign a four-year contract with the Bundesliga side but could return to the Nou Camp in the future.

"Barcelona will hold a buy-back option for the first two years of the player's contract for a value of 10 million euros," Barca said in a statement.

Halilovic arrived at the Nou Camp before the 2014/15 season from Dinamo Zagreb but only played for the 'B' side before going out on loan to Sporting Gijon for the following campaign.

He scored three goals in 36 La Liga appearances for Sporting and missed out on Croatia's Euro 2016 squad. He has eight caps.
Sri Lanka's cash-strapped airline may lease four planes to Pakistan

COLOMBO, July 21 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's cash-strapped national airline is in talks to lease four of its Airbus A330 planes to Pakistan International Airlines Corp, a government minister said on Thursday, months after cancelling an order for four Airbus A350 aircraft.

State-owned SriLankan Airlines aims to reduce its debt and is looking for an international partner to help reverse years of losses.

"A team from the airline is in Pakistan for negotiations. We will lease one A330, latest next month, on wet lease," Kabir Hashim, Minister of Public Enterprise Development, told reporters in Colombo. A wet lease refers to when one airline provides an aircraft, crew and maintenance to another.

Hashim also said SriLankan would lease three more A330s "in the next few months", but did not discuss the type of lease.

The airline, which has taken on seven Airbus A330-300s since 2012, has debts of around $3.25 billion.

Hashim said the airline paid around $450,000 dollars a month to lease each A330 and was looking to lease the aircraft to the Pakistani carrier "even at a break even" level.

The aircraft to be leased were used on loss-making routes to cities such as Frankfurt, Paris, and Rome, which SriLankan has decided to cancel, he said.

Pakistan International Airlines said in a statement to Reuters SriLankan airlines had expressed interest in leasing out four new wide body A-330 aircraft to PIA.

"PIA is in negotiations with SriLankan Airlines for the wet lease of four A-330 aircraft," it added.

"These planes would primarily be used for PIA's premier service which is being launched from 14th August 2016."

SriLankan ordered eight A350s from Airbus in 2014. It has cancelled four and got rid of one of the others.

Hashim said it was in talks with parties including an Iranian airline to sell the remaining A350s, which are still in production.

SriLankan was a profitable venture with Dubai-based Emirates Airline until the pair split in 2008.
Nigeria's Qua Iboe crude under force majeure for at least a month -sources

By Libby George

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Exports of Nigeria's largest crude oil stream, Qua Iboe, will remain under force majeure for at least one month while operator ExxonMobil repairs a leak on the pipeline feeding the terminal, sources told Reuters.

The damage is the latest setback to Nigerian oil production, which has been hobbled this spring by militant attacks and another accident at the Qua Iboe terminal earlier this year.

Exxon declared force majeure last week, citing a "system anomaly" it observed during a routine check. Sources told Reuters this week that the pipeline lost pressure while loading a cargo of crude oil and that the company subsequently discovered a leak on the underwater pipeline.

An Exxon spokesman declined to comment on any leak or a timeline for repairs.

Sources said that repairs needed to fix the leak, which was on part of the pipeline several miles offshore, were more extensive than initially thought and would not begin this week. The force majeure is likely to remain in place for a minimum of one month, several sources said.

Two of Nigeria's largest fields are now under force majeure, with Shell-operated Forcados crude oil exports halted since a militant attack on its subsea pipeline in February.

While Exxon said at the time it declared force majeure that the terminal was operating, traders said the company had not yet released a revised loading schedule for July crude exports, an ominous sign for those hoping to purchase or sell the oil.

According to Reuters vessel tracking, the last ship to load crude at the Qua Iboe terminal was the Ottoman Nobility on July 9. Typically, a vessel would load a million-barrel lot of Qua every three to four days, and exports of 250,000 bpd aboard eight vessels were scheduled for July.

Three other ships scheduled to load Qua were near the terminal, one since July 12.

The cause of the leak is unclear, but the force majeure came just days after militant group the Niger Delta Avengers claimed to have bombed a pipeline related to Qua Iboe.

Exxon denied at the time that there had been any attack, and said the force majeure was unrelated to any militant activity. However, the scale of the damage has raised questions among traders.

The Avengers warned that if the company moved forward with repairs "something big...will happen".
U.S. envoy says liberation of Mosul from Islamic State "now in sight"

BERLIN, July 21 (Reuters) - Brett McGurk, the United States' envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, on Thursday said the liberation of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State was now an achievable goal and had to be prepared carefully.

"The liberation of Mosul is now in sight," McGurk told about 30 defense and foreign ministers gathered in Washington to discuss the U.S.-led fight against the extremist group.
Angola's government to release thousands of inmates to free up overloaded jails

LUANDA, July 21 (Reuters) - Angola's government approved a new amnesty law to send home thousands of inmates convicted with prison sentences of up to 12 years as it scrambles to free up overloaded jails and penitentiaries.

The new law passed on Wednesday grants amnesty only to common crimes of prisoners who have completed half of the sentence and will cover national and foreign citizens in Angola.

"The amnesty for all offences punishable by imprisonment of up to 12 years...results from the feeling of providing social opportunities, policies and other rehabilitation staff and family," said Virgilio de Fontes Pereira, president of Parliamentary Group of the ruling party, MPLA.
Nigeria's Buhari says government talking to Niger Delta militants-statement

By Felix Onuah

ABUJA, July 21 (Reuters) - The Nigerian government is talking to militants in the Niger Delta to end a wave of attacks on oil and gas facilities which have cut oil production by 700,000 barrels a day, top officials said on Thursday.

But the Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks, said it was not aware of any talks, saying there would be no dialogue without involving the international community

The government was using oil companies and security agencies to talk to the militants "to find a lasting solution to insecurity in the region", President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement.

Buhari also said his government was reviewing an amnesty programme for former militants, which offers cash and job training, after initially slashing the scheme's budget by two-thirds and angering militants.

"We understand their feelings," Buhari said. "We are studying the instruments (of the amnesty). We have to secure the environment, otherwise investment will not come."

In June, government officials said a one-month ceasefire had been agreed with the Niger Delta Avengers but the group reiterated on Thursday no talks were going on.

"We are not aware of any peace talk," the group said in a statement on its website. "President Buhari... is not sincere to the Nigeria people and their foreign allies."

Militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth to go to the impoverished Delta region. Crude sales make up about 70 percent of national income and the vast majority of that oil comes from the southern swampland.

Nigeria, an OPEC member, was Africa's top oil producer until the recent spate of attacks pushed it behind Angola.

Pipeline vandalism has reduced oil production by 700,000 barrels a day, Maikanti Baru, the new managing director of state oil firm NNPC, said in a statement.

"The 2016 national budget plan was based on 2.2 million barrels per day of crude oil production," Baru said. "However, the budget plan is now grossly impacted due to renewed militancy: with about 700,000 bpd of oil production curtailed due to pipeline vandalism."
Paraguay's central bank raises 2016 growth forecast to 3.5 pct

ASUNCION, July 21 (Reuters) - Paraguay's central bank said on Thursday the country's economy would expand by 3.5 percent this year, up from a previous forecast of 3.0 percent, boosted by faster growth in livestock, meat and construction output.

Electrical production, a barometer of industrial activity, was also seen strengthening, the central bank said in a report.

Construction will likely expand 8 percent in 2016 as the government and private sector move ahead with infrastructure projects, the central bank said. However, it now expects weaker growth in services than before.

Paraguay is the world's fourth-biggest soybean exporter.
Kenyan police kill two suspected members of Somalia's al Shabaab

By Joseph Akwiri

MOMBASA, Kenya, July 21 (Reuters) - Police in Kenya's port city of Mombasa on Thursday shot and killed two men they said were wanted fighters belonging to the Somali al Shabaab group, a senior officer said.

The two, who had been under surveillance for two months, were killed after police raided their hideout in Mishomoroni area, deputy area police chief Walter Abondo said. Another man escaped.

"We have identified the dead suspects...and the two have been linked to terrorism activities in Malindi and Lamu," Abondo told reporters, referring to towns north of Mombasa that have witnessed attacks and heightened activity related to al Shabaab.

Police found greandes, bullets, explosive acid and compact discs that had bomb-assembling instructions in the hideout.

The group has said in the past its attacks in Kenya are in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia in 2011 where they are battling the militants as part of an African Union peacekeeping force.

The al Qaeda-linked group also seeks to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Fighting erupts over northern Mali town of Kidal

By Souleymane Ag Anara

BAMAKO, July 21 (Reuters) - Fighting broke out in the town of Kidal in Mali's desert north on Thursday between pro-government militia and a Tuareg-dominated rebel coalition, town residents and the United Nations said.

The violence highlighted the increasing fragility of a U.N.-backed deal signed a year ago between the government in the southern capital Bamako and northern armed groups that was meant to end a decades-long cycle of uprisings.

Mali's U.N. peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, said the fighting was a violation of the ceasefire both groups - the Tuareg separatist Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and pro-government Gatia militia - agreed to as part of the deal.

The sound of gunfire rang out in Kidal, one of northern Mali's main towns, from around 4 p.m. (1600 GMT) and sent residents fleeing indoors for cover as clashes quickly spread.

"We were at the mosque when we heard a few gunshots," said Ahamadou Thegoum, a Kidal resident. "Fifteen minutes later, they let loose and we heard gunfire practically all over town, steady gunfire and sometimes explosions."

One young girl was killed in crossfire while a second was injured, according to the father of the dead girl. Another family member had earlier said that both girls had been killed.

A CMA fighter, who asked not to be named, claimed that four Tuareg rebels had died, while 10 Gatia fighters were killed, but the death toll could not be independently verified.

Military helicopters circled above the town during the fighting, he said, though it wasn't clear if they belonged to Mali's U.N. peacekeeping mission or a French force fighting Islamist militants in the arid Sahel region.

Kidal is a traditional stronghold of rebels claiming a Tuareg homeland they call Azawad, but the CMA and pro-government Gatia militia had peacefully shared control of Kidal since February.

Tensions have been building over the past few days, however, amid tit-for-tat violence, and both sides reinforced their positions in and around Kidal.

The government of neighbouring Niger attempted to mediate between the groups, and representatives of the pro-Bamako militia and the rebels signed a truce on Sunday.

But from Wednesday, CMA fighters occupied Kidal's main roads and established positions to block Gatia from entering the town centre. One CMA fighter reached by phone in Kidal said Gatia had started Thursday's clash.

"This morning CMA told the militias to stay where they were and maintain their positions outside of the town, but they tried to force their way in," he said, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

Gatia leader Fahad Ag Almahmoud rejected responsibility for the violence. "CMA sought to reduce our mobility in Kidal," he said. "This afternoon one of our brigades was returning from the bush ... CMA fighters opened fire at them at close range."

Islamist militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda, hijacked a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and seized northern Mali until a French-led intervention drove them back a year later.

Last year's peace agreement signed by the government, its militia allies and the separatists was intended to ease long-standing tensions in the north and allow the army to concentrate on fighting jihadist groups.

However the deal is fraying and new groups are springing up to destabilise the West African nation.

Islamist militants killed 17 Malian soldiers and wounded 35 others earlier this week when they attacked an army base in the centre of the country, firing on troop positions, burning buildings and pillaging shops.
HSBC reviewing 2013 forex probe after trader's arrest -source

By Lawrence White and Kirstin Ridley

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - HSBC is reviewing a past investigation of forex trades after the arrest on Tuesday night of a senior manager in New York for alleged fraud, according to a source familiar with the matter.

HSBC examined the trades done by Mark Johnson, its global head of foreign exchange cash trading, in 2013 as part of a broader internal probe and found no irregularities, the source said.

A spokeswoman for HSBC declined to comment.

Johnson was on Wednesday charged in a criminal complaint filed in a federal court in Brooklyn with engaging in a scheme to front-run a $3.5 billion transaction by one of the bank's clients, alongside former HSBC executive Stuart Scott. Both men were charged with wire fraud conspiracy.

On Wednesday the bank said it was co-operating with the Department of Justice's (DoJ) investigation.

In its statement, the DoJ did not name the client the pair allegedly defrauded, but a different source familiar with the situation said the trades involved British oil firm Cairn Energy .

An HSBC spokesman said the bank is cooperating in the DoJ's foreign exchange investigation. Cairn Energy was not immediately available to comment.

Scott, who was head of cash trading for Europe, left HSBC in 2014.

"Our client strongly denies the allegations. Given there are ongoing proceedings it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time," Gerallt Owen, a lawyer at Withers who is representing Scott said in an emailed statement.

The investigation could deal a reputational blow to HSBC in a business area in which it is particularly strong. The lender specialises in helping clients engage in cross-border deals, aided by its large global network at a time when many rival investment banks are shrinking.

Authorities in the UK said they had been working closely with counterparts across the Atlantic, although the DoJ is the first prosecutor to lay charges in the multi-year worldwide investigation into forex market-rigging.

Some of the world's biggest banks, including HSBC, paid a combined total of around $10 billion to settle U.S. and British allegations of foreign exchange manipulation in 2014 and 2015.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office dismissed suggestions it had missed possible wrongdoing while sifting through 500,000 documents in its wider forex investigation before closing it earlier this year.

"There is no suggestion that something was missed. We followed the evidence available to us in our jurisdiction in respect of the Forex investigation and reached the conclusion that it was insufficient to support a realistic prospect of conviction," a spokesman said.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it is continuing to investigate individuals over allegations of misconduct in the foreign exchange investigation.
News / National

by Itai Mushekwe



Minister Saviour Kasukuwere

VP Emmerson Mnangagwa rural mansion



First Lady Grace Mugabe's Mapfeni farm mansion in Mazowe

The country's flashy vice president, Phelekezela Mphoko, is building a massive multi-million mansion for himself, at a time he has refused to vacate Rainbow Towers Hotel, in the capital amid growing outcry of taxpayer money abuse, as government continues to foot his bills to an executive suite.Information gathered by Spotlight Zimbabwe indicates that Mphoko, is constructing the villa thought to be almost the same in size, with President Robert Mugabe's own famed Chinese-roof mansion in Borrowdale, in the affluent suburb of Douglasdale in Bulawayo."It is really obscene," said a local government official who requested not to be named. "The Mphokos recently turned down a beautiful house in the Grange area in Harare valued at over US$3,5 million. The house is ready for occupation, but the VP wants more improvements done. We really don't understand what he wants the ministry of public works and national housing to do, but we have done our best to it. We don't know what more needs to be done. Meanwhile he is building a big mansion in Bulawayo worth millions of dollars from his own pocket, and he has even had the road to his new project tarred."Other officials close to the Presidency, this week said Mugabe's office has now taken over the issue, as Mphoko has now refused to move into more than three houses, offered to him by government, citing a chain of security demands and that the homes are not befitting for someone of the vice president's stature.Mphoko's wife, Laurinda, has been figured as the one behind rejection of the three houses, among them, a mansion in Harare's upmarket suburb of Ballantyne Park worth US$3m. The other property, is a house in Mandara, formerly belonging to the late vice president Joseph Msika. The VP and his wife said they wanted a house of their own, not the one vacated by others.Human rights activists have deplored Mphoko's continued stay at Rainbow Towers, saying the money could be channelled towards underfunded sectors such as health and education.The VP is about to clock a record 24-months staying at the hotel since his appointment in December 2014, accruing costs close to the tune of US$500 000 for the taxpayer.The main opposition, MDC-T, last month described VP Mphoko's continued stay at the expensive hotel in the capital as a "shame and disgrace".Below are some of the mansions, which have sent the tongues of Zimbabweans wagging:
Cuba objects to U.S. lawmakers' attempts to stop flights

By Sarah Marsh

HAVANA, July 21 (Reuters) - Cuba on Thursday objected to attempts by a small group of U.S. lawmakers to prevent scheduled flights between the two countries from going ahead on security grounds, underscoring its longstanding cooperation with U.S. authorities on the issue.

The former Cold War foes agreed last year to restore scheduled commercial airline services for the first time in more than five decades, as part of a broader normalization of ties, and dozens of daily flights are set to begin within months.

But a group of mainly Republican lawmakers has raised concerns about airport security and proposed a law prohibiting flights to Cuba until they are addressed.

They introduced the bill last week despite assurances from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that it always ensures its standards are met.

"Our airports are safe, and not because we say it, but because the specialists of the TSA say it," Armando Garbalosa, the head of security at Cuba's civil aviation authority (IACC), told state-run website Cubadebate.

TSA officials told a House of Representatives transportation security subcommittee in May that it had enjoyed a "strong, professional relationship" with the IACC for years and the latter had been receptive to all its proposals.

The subcommittee chairman, Republican U.S. Representative John Katko, complained however he had unanswered questions and Cuba had denied him and other subcommittee members a visa to examine Cuban airports.

As a result, he introduced the bill, which would prohibit flights until the TSA certified Cuban airports had the appropriate security measures in place.

There was no indication that the measure would advance in the U.S. Congress. No vote has been scheduled in the House, and it would not have enough support to pass in the U.S. Senate.

Cubadebate suggested the lawmakers were trying to frighten Americans into not traveling to Cuba.

The number of U.S. visitors to the Caribbean island has shot up since respective U.S. and Cuban Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced a detente 1-1/2 years ago, despite an ongoing ban on general tourism.
Ghana parliament rejects change to election date

ACCRA, July 21 (Reuters) - Ghana's parliament failed on Thursday to secure the two-thirds majority needed to change the presidential election date from Dec. 7 to Nov. 7, sources in parliament said.

The Electoral Commission wanted to bring the vote forward to allow for a second round to be held if necessary and still have time for a smooth transition before Jan. 7, when a new government must be sworn in.

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) voted against the measure, arguing it would reduce the time available to the Electoral Commission to organize the election, witnesses said.

"The idea (for a Nov. 7 election) is good and many of us have worked hard on it. But we don't like the shortness of the timetable for the Electoral Commission," the NPP's legal secretary Mike Oquaye told Reuters.

The ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition are competing for advantage ahead of what is expected to be a tight election between President John Mahama, who is running for a second term, and opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo.
First U.S. LNG shipment to cross expanded Panama Canal next week

By Oleg Vukmanovic

MILAN, July 21 (Reuters) - The United States will ship its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo through an expanded Panama Canal next week.

The waterway shaves distances between export plants dotted along the Gulf of Mexico and Asia to 9,000 miles from 16,000, allowing U.S. producers to better compete in one of the world's biggest gas consuming markets.

The size of most LNG tankers had previously prevented them from squeezing through, forcing them to sail around South America instead.

Royal Dutch Shell's Maran Gas Apollonia tanker loaded up at Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana and will arrive at the Panama Canal on July 25, according to Kpler LNG, a shipping analysis firm.

Shipping data shows the vessel to be heading in the direction of Panama.

Shell owns the entire output of Sabine Pass's first production line.

A day later BP Plc's British Merchant will begin passing through the Panama Canal carrying a cargo from Trinidad and Tobago to Manzanillo on Mexico's Pacific coast.

It is not known where in the Pacific Shell's vessel will sail.

The Panama Canal Authority confirmed the Maran Gas Apollonia tanker will transit the expanded canal on July 25, and the British Merchant is scheduled for July 26.

A surge in U.S. natural gas production thanks to the shale revolution stimulated billions of dollars of investment in building LNG export terminals, transforming the United States from an importer of LNG to an exporter of the fuel.

By 2019, the United States will be pumping out around 60 million tonnes of LNG annually.

So far only Sabine Pass is exporting LNG and output will double to 9 million tonnes per annum as Cheniere adds a second production line later this year.
Ghana parliament body rejects key central bank reform bill

By Kwasi Kpodo

ACCRA, July 21 (Reuters) - Ghana's parliament has taken a step towards passing a law on central bank reform that could breach a key tenet of its $918 million aid deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), parliamentary and finance sources told Reuters.

The parliamentary finance committee has recommended a change to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Amendment Bill to allow central bank financing of the budget deficit up to 5 percent of the previous year's total revenue, the committee's chairman said.

Current law allows the Bank to finance the deficit up to 10 percent but the IMF wants the funding eliminated as part of Ghana's austerity program to restore economic balance and boost sustainable growth.

Until 2014, Ghana had one of Africa's fastest-growing economies based on its exports of gold, cocoa and oil. Growth has slumped sharply since and any threat to the IMF programme will hit the confidence of domestic and foreign investors.

"The finance committee is of the view that the zero financing provision as contained in the Bill should be amended to a 5 percent limit and that is what we are recommending," chairman James Klutse Avedzi told Reuters.

If the bill passes with the 5 percent amendment it would likely make it harder for the Fund's Board to approve disbursement of the next tranche of balance of payment support.

The Fund said in a document issued in Dec. 2015 that Ghana should: "Submit to Parliament a revised Law that strengthens the functional autonomy of BoG (and) sets a zero limit on monetary financing to the government and public institutions.

One economist close to the process said it is "absolutely central" to the whole IMF deal.

TIMING CRUCIAL

The finance committee's amendment comes in the context of an apparent delay on a decision by the IMF Board on whether to disburse the next tranche of aid to Ghana following the third staff review of the programme in May.

The Board will now complete its review after that recess and only if the government undertakes certain steps, including passage of the law to back zero central bank financing, said the Fund's Ghana representative Natalia Koliadina.

"The completion of prior actions is not unusual in Fund programs and, while their implementation takes time, they need to be met before the board meeting," she said in an email to Reuters, adding that the programme is "broadly on track."

"Subject to this work being completed and prior actions met IMF staff will finalise the preparation of the required documentation for the Executive Board's consideration of the review," she said.

The uncertainty is more acute because Ghana will hold an election in December when President John Mahama is expected to face a close race against opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo. Parliament rises on July 29, thus the bill must pass by then.

Parliamentary sources said the central bank wants the amendment but MPs in the ruling party say it could tie the government's hands in the run-up to the election.
Odebrecht Peru deal hits snag as banks fret over $4.1 bln loan -sources

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal, Marco Aquino and Mitra Taj

SAO PAULO/LIMA, July 21 (Reuters) - Lenders could accelerate the disbursement of a $4.125 billion loan to Peruvian gas pipeline operator Gasoducto Sur Peruano GSP SA if Brazilian engineering group Odebrecht SA fully exits the project overseeing the construction of the pipelines, three people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Odebrecht, which is ensnared in a corruption scandal in Brazil, is pulling out of Peru to raise cash and repay debts. For the banks, Odebrecht's exit from the construction portion of the project would make financing less risky, one of the people said.

The group of about 20 banks working on a syndicated loan to GSP this week rejected three bids for Odebrecht's 55 percent stake in the pipeline operator, as bidders refused to buy the Brazilian firm's 71 percent interest in the project overseeing the construction of GSP's pipelines, the people said.

The sources declined to be identified because the deal has not been finalized.

Potential buyers, which include Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc, Spain's Ferrovial SA, and a Sempra Energy-led consortium, have until Aug. 25 to submit fresh bids, the people said. GSP needs $600 million to repay a bridge loan used for building the pipeline, one of the people added.

The situation underscores the challenges facing Odebrecht, Latin America's largest engineering conglomerate, as its involvement in Brazil's worst-ever corruption scandal undercut access to financing. The "Operation Car Wash" investigation has found a ring of graft and bribery between state companies and contractors, including Odebrecht and other builders.

Several of Odebrecht's 15 subsidiaries are refinancing up to 35 billion reais ($11 billion) in loans and selling assets, Reuters has reported.

Odebrecht, Ferrovial, Brookfield and Sempra all declined to comment. Techint Group, an Italian steelmaking group that the sources said have teamed up with Sempra on the bid, declined to comment.

Macquarie Infrastructure Corp, which the sources named as another member of the Sempra consortium, denied being part of it in an email sent to Reuters.

Gasoducto Sur Peruano, a 34-year concession to build and operate more than 1,134 kilometers (700 miles) of natural gas pipelines across Peru's southern region, needs $5 billion in investments in coming years.

If the banks approve a winning bid for the partial or full sale of Odebrecht's stakes, the loan could be approved and disbursed by mid-September, or about 60 days later than previously expected, the people said.

Reuters reported last month that Odebrecht hoped to raise about $2 billion from the sale.

Enagas SA and Grana y Montero SA are Odebrecht's partners in GSP, with a 25 percent and 20 percent stakes in the company, respectively. Grana y Montero has 29 percent of the pipeline construction project.

Lima-based magazine Semana Economica had reported the rejection of the bids earlier this week.
U.N. memo on South Sudan leaves out criticism of Britain

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (Reuters) - A final United Nations memo on Britain, Germany, Sweden and Jordan's withdrawals of police from a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan without telling the world body, left out draft language questioning Britain's Security Council veto power.

The one-page confidential note to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous dated July 15 and seen by Reuters on Thursday, said the four countries would be barred from replacing the police once South Sudan's situation improves.

The note to Ban was largely similar to a draft memo, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, but it did not have language questioning Britain's Security Council veto power when "they themselves are quick to abandon their post in challenging situations."

When asked about the draft memo critical of Britain, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said: "I'm not aware that there is any sort of authentic memo." He added that his colleagues "looked all over their memos and there's no such document that they see."

It was not immediately clear why the language on Britain's Security Council veto power was not included in the final memo, though some officials did note that the strong criticism was not a typical U.N. approach.

Heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters raged in South Sudan's capital Juba for several days earlier this month between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing Vice President Riek Machar. At least 272 people were killed.

A spokesman for the British U.N. mission said on Wednesday that Britain temporarily removed two unarmed police officers on July 13 "for the officers' safety" and had told the U.N. police adviser in advance.

Ladsous' note to Ban said the departure of the police officers from the four countries had "affected the operational capability of the mission at headquarters level and has dealt a serious blow to the morale of its peacekeepers."

The draft memo said the United States had also reportedly planning to pull out nine police, but a spokesman for the U.S. mission said there were no plans to withdraw police.

The German U.N. mission confirmed that it had evacuated seven police serving with the U.N. mission, UNMISS, and said that the United Nations had been notified orally and in writing beforehand.

The Swedish mission said it had repatriated three officers for medical reasons and that 15 officers remain in South Sudan. "Sweden has not, and will not, withdraw the police support to the UNMISS mission," it said.

The Jordanian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Niger Delta militants deny any peace talks with the government

July 21 (Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group said on Thursday they are not aware of any peace talks with the government.

"If we are to engage in any peace talk we made it clear that the international community must be part of it," the group's spokesman Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo said on the organizations website. "The President knows our demands. So they should stop deceiving the international oil companies, the general public and the international community."
1-Oil dives 4 pct on the week on U.S. rigs rise, glut threat

By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - Oil prices settled lower on Friday, losing 4 percent on the week, after the fourth weekly rise in the U.S. oil rig count added to worries about a global crude glut.

Crude futures were already down, with Brent at two-month lows, on fears of more Iraqi supply before a report by energy services firm Baker Hughes showed U.S. oil drillers added 14 rigs this week to bring the total rig count to 371.

"The oil complex is already struggling with oversupply issues. More than ample inventories and upcoming refinery turnarounds and maintenance have the bulls on the defensive," said Pete Donovan, broker at Liquidity Energy in New York.

"An increase in rigs is the last thing they need."

Brent settled down 51 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $45.69 a barrel, after falling to $45.17, the lowest since May 11. For the week, Brent lost 4 percent.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude closed down 56 cents, or 1.3 percent, at $44.19. It fell 3.8 percent on the week.

The dollar's rally to a more than four-month high also hurt demand for greenback-denominated oil among holders of the euro and other currencies.

Iraq's oil exports were expected to rise in July, according to loading data and an industry source. If confirmed, it would put OPEC's No. 2 producer back on track for supply growth after a two-month lag.

"These large and increasing stocks will not only up the likelihood of additional commercial short hedges, but will also encourage the commercials to defer long hedges," said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates.

Earlier this week, the U.S. government reported that domestic crude inventories were at 519.5 million barrels last week, historically high for this time of year, even after a ninth straight week of drawdowns.

On Thursday, traders said market intelligence firm Genscape reported a build of 725,176 barrels in the latest week at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures.

Falling oil prices have encouraged traders to send U.S. supplies to Europe, counterbalancing 700,000 barrels per day in lost Nigerian supply..

U.S., European and Asian oil product stocks rose 2.35 million barrels last week for a second week of growth.

"The narrative of a balanced oil market (in the second half of 2016) has so far been an illusion," UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.
Australia's NAB in management shake-up to boost growth at home

By Swati Pandey and Tom Westbrook

SYDNEY, July 22 (Reuters) - National Australia Bank , the country's No.1 lender, on Friday announced a top management shake-up and restructuring to reverse declining market share in Australia and New Zealand, leading to the departure of three senior executives.

After exiting struggling UK operations and selling a controlling stake in its life insurance business, CEO Andrew Thorburn is under pressure to boost growth at home where NAB has underperformed its three big rivals in recent years.

"To me this is another sign of the ongoing transition of NAB to an Australia and New Zealand-facing business," said Simon Burge, chief investment officer at Above The Index Asset Management.

Three senior executives - Michaela Healey, Gavin Slater and Renee Roberts - will leave the bank as a result of the restructuring. A NAB spokeswoman said there would not be any job cuts as a result of Friday's announcement.

Investors shrugged off the changes, with NAB shares falling 0.69 percent in a weak Australian market, tracking the broader banking index.

Australia's largest business bank has consistently lost market share in business lending from nearly 25 percent in 2012 to 22 percent in March 2016. Market share in home loans also dropped during the period.

More nimble online rivals as well as foreign players such as Chinese and Japanese lenders are rapidly expanding their loan books in Australia, leading to tighter margins and falling revenues for the established majors.

Australian banks' overseas ambitions have backfired. NAB was the first in 2014 to make it a priority to exit the troubled British businesses. This year, No.4 lender Australia & New Zealand Banking Group started restructuring its Asia business under new CEO Shayne Elliott following years of low returns.

No.2 player Commonwealth Bank and No.3 Westpac have always stayed focused on the domestic market. Westpac last year split its profitable retail and business banking division in an organisational reshuffle.

"The time was right to refresh the executive leadership team after two years during which the team had worked to address major legacy issues and re-focus the bank on the core Australian and New Zealand business," Thorburn said in a statement.

MORE FOCUS

The moves come at a time when the broader operating environment for Australia's "Big Four" banks - NAB, ANZ, Westpac and CBA - have become more onerous as they prepare for a new era of slowing growth after years of record profits.

They are also facing the prospect of further capital raisings, threats to their credit ratings and calls from some politicians for a sweeping public inquiry following a series of scandals over improper financial advice, rate rigging and insurance claims.

Among the changes announced on Friday, the bank will create three main customer-facing divisions - one for small businesses, a second for large corporates and international branches and a third for retail banking and wealth.

The heads of each of these divisions will report directly to Thorburn.

"It looks like they are focusing more on corporate and mid-market lending, moving away from the institutional piece where the (regulatory) capital requirement is going to go higher," said Omkar Joshi, who helps manage A$1 billion at Watermark Funds Management.
Papua New Guinea PM survives no-confidence vote but strikes remain

By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY, July 22 (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill survived a no-confidence vote on Friday, EMTV reported, an outcome unlikely to end upheaval in a country developing lucrative projects with energy majors ExxonMobil Corp and French giant Total SA.

The Supreme Court last week ordered parliament to reconvene, for the first time since June protests between students and police boiled over into violent clashes, for the express purpose of allowing the opposition to lodge a no-confidence motion against O'Neill.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Basil moved the motion at the opening of the session on Friday, detailing numerous accusations of corruption against O'Neill since he took office in 2010.

"To make the wrong decision here would be a mistake," Basil told parliament. "Today it is up to us on the floor to make a change."

But Basil only secured 21 of the 56 lawmakers needed to oust O'Neill, leaving unclear how long a strike by aviation, maritime and public transport workers that has effectively cut off the rugged, mountainous nation, would continue.

Australia's Oil Search Ltd on Thursday cleared the way for ExxonMobil to take over InterOil Corp for $2.2 billion, giving the U.S. giant access to a rich new gas field to expand its exports from Papua New Guinea.

The move could lead ExxonMobil and Total to tie together their competing gas interests in the South Pacific nation, cooperating to reduce costs as they battle cheap oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices.

However despite the growing resource wealth, corruption and violence are endemic in the island nation of seven million people, raising concern about its long-term stability and the ability to deliver a higher quality of life to its citizens.

Martyn Namorong, head of the PNG Resource Governance Coalition, urged protesters to respect the decision in order to avoid a further descent into chaos and violence.

"I'm a little bit deflated personally, but I respect the decision of parliament," he told Reuters.

"Papua New Guineans have suffered a lot more than the politicians, and we should not create more suffering for ourselves."

Student protest leader Noel Anjo urged Australia, which has said little about the crisis, to speak out.

"They should come out and say something, because this country, the leadership, is not right," he said. "Under O'Neill the leadership has gone from bad to worse."

Namorong argued that Australia's traditional role as the indispensable nation in the Asia-Pacific region was eroding.

"I think the Australian influence in PNG has declined and that is reflected in how indifferent Australia is to what happens in Papua New Guinea," he said.
Opinion / Columnist



Iphithule kaMaphosa is Director of Information Publicity and Marketing.

Zimbabwe African People's Union-(ZAPU).

Comments made by President of Zimbabwe Mr. Robert Mugabe at the National Heroes Acre on Tuesday 19 July 2016 in reference to Pastor Evan Mawarire makes very sad reading. Once more, Mr. Robert Mugabe has abuse a family bereavement of a family and the nation to launce a vitriolic verbal attack on a perceived enemy.Delivering his so called keynote address at the burial of little known Charles Utete, Mr. Mugabe abused the podium to insult Evan Mawarire, the pastor who initiated the recent national stay away in protest against Mugabe and his ZANU PF regime.He said Evan Mawarire and the rest of the Zimbabweans who exercised their constitutional right to protest and demand accountability from Robert Mugabe and his regime are not part of us and are free to go to perceived sponsors in the form of Western Countries.One is left wondering as to who Mugabe is representing with such pronouncements. Who is "us"? Does this statement relegate the rest of the country to lesser citizens while promoting him, his family and ZANU PF to full and privileged citizenship? Where does Mr. Mugabe get the authority to unilaterally evict Zimbabwean citizens from their country?We remind Mr. Mugabe that Mawarire and the rest of Zimbabweans are not backyard tenants in his blue roof mansion, but citizens of Zimbabwe at whose pleasure he serves. We also remind Mr. Mugabe that his citizenship to Zimbabwe is equal to each and every other citizen, hence his statement was reckless and misplaced to say the least. So when the citizens feel its time for him to leave, just as they are saying today, he should comply and silently do so without arrogantly insulting them by lessening their citizenship.Change in Zimbabwe is inevitable, the people are demanding regime change and if Mr. Mugabe truly loves this country as he claims, he should listen to the wishes its people. Regime change is not illegal. It is the very essence and driving force of multi-party democracy.The multi party democracy movements are what constitutes the people of Zimbabwe and the "us" which Mr. Mugabe is trying to steal and spin to represent private ownership of the country. It is "us" the people of Zimbabwe who own this country and have the prerogative to choose our leadership and the way we want to be governed. It is "us" again, the people of Zimbabwe who have the authority to grant or deny anyone citizenship to our country, not an individual like Mr. Mugabe. We recognize the equal citizenship of each and every citizen and Mr. Mugabe has no authority whatsoever to lessen anyone's right to his/her citizenship for narrow political reasons as pursued by Mr. Mugabe and ZANU PF.
Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Pre-stroke lifestyle tied to long term risk of more strokes, dementia

Having heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure before suffering a stroke may influence a person's risk for a second stroke or dementia years later, according to a new study from the Netherlands. In recent years, medication advances have helped cut health risks in the year following a stroke, but after that the risk of a second stroke or dementia remains elevated for at least five years, said senior author Dr. M. Arfan Ikram from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam.

Brazil scientists find Zika traces in Culex mosquitoes in wild

Brazilian researchers on Thursday said they found signs of the Zika virus in a common mosquito that is a separate species from the insect known to be the primary means of transmission. They warned, however, that further tests are needed to determine whether the species, known as Culex quinquefasciatus, is in fact responsible for transmitting the virus to humans and, if so, to what extent.

Amgen, Allergan biosimilar found as effective as Roche cancer drug

Amgen Inc and Allergan Plc said their copycat version of Roche Holding AG's blockbuster cancer treatment, Herceptin, was found as effective as the original in a late-stage study. There were no "clinically meaningful" differences in data gathered from patients given Herceptin and the copycat version, ABP 980, to treat a type of early breast cancer, said Sean Harper, Amgen's executive vice president of research and development.

Reducing children's exposure to violence - virtual and real

Pediatricians, parents, industry and policymakers need to join forces to limit children's exposure to virtual and real violence, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Communications and Media. "What is needed is stronger political will," said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the University of Washington's Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development in Seattle, in email to Reuters Health.

Doctors devise care plan for babies as Zika threat looms in U.S.

As U.S. public health officials try to determine whether Zika has arrived in the country, doctors are establishing guidelines on how to care for the rising number of babies whose mothers were infected with the virus during pregnancy. Florida said it is investigating two possible cases of Zika not related to travel to an area where Zika is active, raising the possibility of the first incidence of local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus.

High water mark: active marijuana ingredient found in U.S. town well

Residents of a small farming community in eastern Colorado have been warned to avoid drinking the town's water after THC, the psychoactive agent in marijuana, was found in one of its feeder wells, authorities said on Thursday. A public works employee in Hugo, a town of about 800 people 90 miles southeast of Denver, detected the chemical and health officials believe it is "marijuana THC-related," the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook posting.

China Resources, Macquarie team up to buy control of Australia healthcare firm GenesisCare

Chinese state-owned conglomerate China Resources Group and Australian bank Macquarie Group Ltd plan to buy majority control of GenesisCare Ltd, laying the groundwork for Australia's biggest cancer and cardiac services provider to expand into the world's second-largest economy. In a joint statement on Friday, Hong Kong-based China Resources and Australia's biggest investment bank said they will buy between 50 percent and 74 percent of GenesisCare, without saying how much they will pay. Private equity giant KKR is selling its 45 percent stake as part of the deal, they said.

Seat belts, airbags help prevent face fractures in accidents

Wearing a seat belt and having an airbag may reduce the risk of broken facial bones in car accidents, according to a new study. People in car accidents who were using those protective devices were 18 to 53 percent less likely to end up at a trauma center with a facial fracture compared to people not using the devices, researchers found.

Scientists hunt 'anti-evolution' drugs in new cancer fight

Scientists are opening a new front in the war on cancer with plans to develop "anti-evolution" drugs to stop tumor cells from developing resistance to treatment. Britain's Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), one of the world's top cancer centers, said on Friday its initiative was the first to have at its heart the target of overcoming cancer evolution and drug resistance.

Roche CEO fears hit to UK drug research from Brexit vote
Romania - Factors to watch on July 22

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Friday.

DEBT TENDER

Romania sold a slightly more than planned 313 million lei ($77.21 million) of March 2021 treasury bonds on Thursday, with the average accepted yield at 2.4 percent, central bank data showed.

CEE MARKETS

Central Europe's main currencies firmed to new highs on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it would keep its loose policy for an extended period.

BANCA TRANSILVANIA

Romania's Banca Transilvania raised its share capital by 620 million lei ($153.25 million) to 3.65 billion lei. Ziarul Financiar

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
By Noah Barkin

BERLIN, July 21 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and fellow European leaders are pressing the new British government to trigger divorce proceedings with the European Union as soon as possible.

But behind the scenes, senior German officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, say they fear a swift move by London to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty risks creating an impossibly short window for negotiating Britain's departure.

Further complicating the task, EU leaders have rejected the possibility of any negotiations before Britain moves on Article 50, a step which would start a two-year countdown to Brexit.

Behind their stance is a desire to send a message to Britain that it cannot hold the EU hostage by horse trading on the terms of an EU exit before it commits to leave.

But six top officials in Berlin and Brussels described this position as problematic, with one dismissing it as "absurd".

Some believe Europe's hard line on the sequencing of Brexit talks will need to be revised, perhaps as early as October, when new British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to attend her first meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

The comments reveal the depth of anxiety in Europe's key capitals about how both sides in the Brexit showdown have positioned themselves in the weeks after the shock June 23 vote to leave the bloc.

"It was not wrong to send a tough message after the Brexit vote but I don't think the current stance is sustainable," said one official. "You need to start some sort of process as soon as possible, whether you call it negotiations or not."

A second senior official said: "It's absurd to think that we won't negotiate on anything before Article 50 is invoked."

May, on her first foreign trip since replacing David Cameron as prime minister last week, visited Berlin on Wednesday for talks with Merkel before travelling to Paris on Thursday to discuss Brexit with French President Francois Hollande.

At a news conference in Berlin, she said Britain needed time to agree on its objectives for the talks and would not trigger Article 50 this year. Merkel said it was understandable that Britain would take a few months to figure out its negotiating strategy, but added: "Nobody wants a prolonged period of limbo."

The French have taken a tougher line, pressing Britain to move fast, and launching an open campaign to woo London-based financial firms to Paris.

FAR TOO SHORT

Behind the concern of the German officials is a creeping realisation that the two-year window for negotiating a Brexit, as set out in Article 50, is far too short.

An extension of the period is possible, but it would require the unanimous agreement of the remaining 27 EU member states, and is therefore seen as unlikely, or at best unsure.

Berlin is also sceptical about the possibility of Britain revoking Article 50 once it has been triggered.

This means that something will have to give, German officials say. They spell out two possible scenarios.

Under the first, the EU would revise its position and agree to a prolonged period of negotiations before Article 50 is invoked. That would win both sides extra time before the clock starts ticking, but it would represent a climbdown and probably provoke outrage in some EU capitals, notably Paris.

The second option, in the event May triggers Article 50 early next year, would be for Britain to settle for a very basic framework for its future ties with the EU, based on an existing model similar to that of Norway or Switzerland.

Even then, the deadline of two years is widely viewed as a stretch.

A third senior official said it took the EU three years to seal its divorce from Greenland, a negotiation that was focused almost exclusively on fishing rights.

That official estimated that the EU and Britain, because of the complexity of their relationship, needed at least twice that time -- six years -- to seal their separation, describing two years as "mission impossible".

Adding to the muddle is the heavy election calendar in Europe next year, which officials fear could lead to paralysis.

Germany, France and the Netherlands are all holding elections in 2017, Spain is still struggling to form a government after two inconclusive votes, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he will resign if he loses a referendum on constitutional reform in the autumn.

Leaders in these countries will be focused on their campaigns. If there are changes in power, new governments will need time to settle in.

"Do you really think that Europe will be in a position to focus on Brexit talks next year if its five biggest countries are in the middle of elections or dogged by political uncertainty?" a senior Brussels-based official said.

DOWN TO EARTH

Even if formal negotiations do not start for half a year or more, the official said it was important that Britain and the EU converge on a "corridor of principles" for Brexit talks in the months ahead.

One of the big worries in Berlin and other capitals is that London has unrealistic expectations about what it can secure from the Brexit negotiations, particularly on the tradeoff between access to the EU's single market and respect for the bloc's core principle of free movement.

British diplomats also acknowledge that the team May has put together to steer Brexit talks has a starry-eyed view of what concessions London can win from the EU and say their European counterparts need to deliver this message to them directly.

"A lot of people have 'climbed up trees', people like David Davis and Liam Fox," said one of the German officials, referring to the new Brexit and trade ministers in London. "They need time to climb down."

The problem is not just on the British side. It remains unclear who will take the European lead in negotiations, although officials say the aim is to clear this up by September.

Berlin is reluctant to hand over responsibility to the executive European Commission, its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and his chief of staff Martin Selmayr, out of fear they could take an overly confrontational stance towards Britain.

An alternative would be to let the European Council, led by Poland's Donald Tusk, take the lead, with input from sherpas in European capitals and with the Commission playing a secondary, supportive role.
Poland - Factors to Watch July 22

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

RAIFFEISEN POLBANK

Poland's top lender PKO, its local rival Alior, controlled by state insurer PZU, France's top listed lender BNP Paribas and Dutch ING are conducting due diligence in Austria's Raiffeisen Polish unit, daily Puls Biznesu reported.

FX LOANS

President's office will soon propose a draft bill aimed at resolving Swiss franc-denominated mortgage issue. It will be probably no cheaper for banks than the previous project, which was worth tens of billions of zlotys, Rzeczpospolita daily said.

Separately, tabloid Fakt reported the proposal will include options such as a refund on excessive currency spreads charged in the past, allowing borrowers to walk away from the loan in exchange for the property, or converting the remaining part of the mortgage into a zloty-denominated one.

PKN

The management and supervisory boards of Poland's top refiner PKN Orlen gave consent for the company to invest about 400 million zlotys ($101.24 million) in building a metathesis installation at its production plant in the city of Plock.

POLITICS

The World Jewish Congress has demanded an apology from the Polish education minister over her refusal to recognise the complicity of Poles in a 1941 massacre of several hundred Jews at Jedwabne in the country's northeast.

FOOD MARKET

Poland-based Asian food manufacturer Tan-Viet is being put up for sale with a price tag of 100 million euros ($110.25 million), Puls Biznesu reported.

****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Czech Republic - Factors To Watch on July 22

PRAGUE, July 22 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Czech Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA========================== Real-time economic data releases.................... Summary of economic data and forecasts........... Recently released economic data.................. Previous stories on Czech data............. **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/2E/events-overview ==========================NEWS================================== Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol UNPE.PR reported net profit of 3.1 billion crowns ($126.61 million) in the second quarter, a rise of 4 percent, propped up by insurance payments for a blast that damaged a steam cracker unit a year ago. Story: Related stories: Story: Related stories: CEE MARKETS: Central Europe's main currencies firmed to new highs on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it would keep its loose policy for an extended period. Story: Related stories: ======================PRESS DIGEST============================ VITKOVICE: Jan Svetlik is c7onsidering a sale of two companies from his Vitkovice engineering group to E-Invest controlled by his long-time business partner, Martin Ulcak. Vitkovice, one of the leading steel producers in the country, reported a loss of 82 million crowns ($3.35 million) in 2015 and its debt has been growing over the past years. Hospodarske Noviny, page 1 O2: The Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) is considering disciplinary steps against O2 Czech Republic operator for the changes it makes to contracts with customers regarding data distribution and payments, head of the office told the paper. CTU can hand a fine on an opeator. Hospodarske Noviny, page 10 Reuters has not verified the stories, nor does it vouch for their accuracy. For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX For updates on CEE currencies TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets Prague Newsroom: +420 224 190 477 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com ($1 = 24.4850 Czech crowns) (Reporting by Prague Newsroom)
German firms hold off UK investments ahead of Brexit talks

By Michael Nienaber and Paul Carrel

BERLIN, July 21 (Reuters) - Some German companies are holding off making investments in Britain until they know more about the relationship the country will forge with the rest of Europe following the Brexit vote.

While big companies like Siemens and Bosch have the deep pockets to take a longer-term view about one of Europe's most lucrative markets, and weather uncertainty about how the divorce will play out, smaller firms are more cautious.

Britain is a major market for Germany, accounting for around 7 percent of its exports, and is likely to remain so regardless of Brexit. But Germany's VDMA association, which represents thousands of firms in the engineering industry, said many of its members were unwilling to make any financial commitments.

"Companies want to continue to do good business in Britain and most are likely now waiting to see how the exit negotiations go, once they start," said its head Thilo Brodtmann.

Family-owned industrial manufacturer Kemper, for example, has shelved plans to expand its British business.

Before the Brexit vote the company, which makes air filter systems and fume extraction units for the car and construction industries, had planned to invest in its UK marketing and servicing operations this year.

"We definitely won't do that now," CEO Bjoern Kemper told Reuters from his office in Vreden, close to the Dutch border in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

He said Kemper's British sales have fallen this year, partly because customers had put off spending decisions ahead of the June 23 referendum, and that he saw little prospect of a rebound in the short term following the decision to leave the EU.

The company, which has overall annual turnover of about 40 million euros ($44 million), said it expects to lose around 1 million euros in UK sales this year as a result of economic uncertainty before and after the Brexit vote.

COMPLEX TALKS

Little is clear about how Brexit will affect the British and German economies.

The Bank of England said on Wednesday it saw "no clear evidence" that a sharp economic slowdown was yet under way in Britain after last month's vote, though there were signs investment and hiring were being put on hold.

New Prime Minister Theresa May says her government is formulating its position for talks that will determine the country's relationship with the EU, and has appealed for time to work out how best to approach the complex Brexit negotiations.

British officials have stressed they believe investment will flow again once foreign businesses can see how Britain's post-Brexit ties with the EU are starting to shape up.

"People are not disinvesting, they are just on hold ... if by December or March they can see a decent landing point, they'll move ahead again," one senior economic official told Reuters.

Kemper is more exposed to Britain than most German companies, with the country accounting for a tenth of its turnover, but its experience nonetheless reflects some of the challenges the Brexit vote poses to Germany's economy.

In the first five months of 2016, German exports to Britain stagnated on the year, official data shows. The slowdown contrasts sharply with last year, when German shipments to Britain surged almost 13 percent to just under 90 billion euros, a record for German exports to Britain.

In 2015, Germany sold more goods only to the United States and France.

The VDMA engineering association said German exports from the sector to Britain fell by 4.2 percent in the first quarter, year-on-year.

In a further sign that political uncertainty has harmed economic ties, German foreign direct investment to Britain fell 6 percent on the quarter in the first three months of 2016, Bundesbank data show.

Markus Kerber, managing director of the BDI Federation of German Industries, told Reuters it expected a significant deterioration in economic relations with Britain in the coming months. "When it comes to new German foreign direct investment, it's looking bad," he said.

MARKET ACCESS

The immediate uncertainty is perhaps less problematic for big companies whose size and financial muscle allows them to plan further ahead.

Siemens said late last month that it was not scaling back investment in a British wind power factory due to go into production in a few months.

German car parts maker Bosch, which employs 5,300 people in UK factories, told Reuters last week that it was sticking to its plans and intended to invest 20-25 million euros in Britain this year, about in line with last year.

Much of the negotiations between London and Brussels, when they come, are likely to boil down to a trade-off between Britain's controls on immigration and its access to the EU single market. Tougher immigration controls will likely mean less market access.

Reduced market access for Britain could be damaging for trade flows between Britain and the EU. However, some German companies could profit from such a scenario.

Stephan Gais, CEO of German firm Mahr, which makes high-end measuring tools used in the auto and chemicals sectors, said uncertainty caused by Brexit was hurting his business. But he also scented opportunity should trade between Britain and the EU become more complicated as a result of the divorce.

"There are a few British competitors and if they have difficulties in Europe that would of course help us."

($1 = 0.9092 euros)
Amazon set to increase bet on Italy's digital turnaround plan - sources

By Giulia Segreti

MILAN, July 22 (Reuters) - Online retailer Amazon.com is set to announce on Friday the first in a series of investments in Italy worth at least 500 million euros ($550 million), a bet on the government's plan to go from laggard to leader in digital commerce, sources said.

Amazon will invest 150 million euros to build a major storage and logistics centre outside Rome, its second in Italy, said one source close to the matter. The new centre, due to open next year, will employ 1,200 people.

"There are wide margins of growth for small and medium businesses in Italy, which are still very much behind their European counterparts on e-commerce," the source said.

It will be the biggest foreign IT investment to be unveiled in Italy since Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced in April a new tactic to speed up broadband rollout across the country. He enlisted the help of state-controlled utility Enel to lay fibre-optic cable alongside its existing power network.

The European Union's fourth-largest economy comes last in the EU for Internet usage, with barely half of Italian households subscribing to fixed-line broadband.

However, online shopping is growing and will have almost doubled between 2011 and the end of this year when transactions are estimated to reach around 19 billion euros, according to national ecommerce association Netcomm.

Amazon also plans to build data centres in Italy in the next 12 months for its expanding cloud-service division, housing them in old power stations belonging to Enel, two sources said.

Enel Chief Executive Francesco Starace has said previously that Amazon is among companies interested in acquiring three old stations, following reports by newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Amazon has a share of 14 percent of Italian Internet retailing, second to eBay with 24 percent, according to research firm Euromonitor International.

It has already invested some 450 million euros in the last six years in Italy, its fourth largest European market, after the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos will visit Italy and is set to meet Renzi in Florence on Friday, sources said.
North Korean Air Koryo plane makes emergency landing in China

BEIJING, July 22 (Reuters) - A North Korean Air Koryo airplane made an emergency landing in China's northeastern city of Shenyang on Friday after smoke appeared in the cabin, but there were no injuries, airport authorities and the official Xinhua news agency said.

The plane, belonging to the North's national carrier, was flying to Beijing from Pyongyang when it made a forced landing because of the smoke, the airport said in a short statement on its microblog.

The aircraft made a safe emergency landing, and "nothing abnormal" was found in its condition, although an investigation was underway, it added.

Xinhua, which had initially reported a fire, cited a passenger as saying the smoke appeared about 30 minutes after takeoff, and flight crew told passengers not to panic as the plane landed.

"Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin," Xinhua said, adding that the plane landed 10 minutes later and no one on board was injured.

Fire trucks were dispatched and the aircraft was "smoking" when ground staff examined it, but no obvious fire was spotted, the passenger told the agency, which added that rain in Shenyang at the time of the landing may have averted a fire.

An airline staff member at Pyongyang airport told Xinhua the plane had suffered a "malfunction," but more investigations were needed to determine what happened.

An Air Koryo employee reached at the airline's Shanghai office told Reuters no company representatives were available, and she was unaware of the situation. The Beijing office could not be reached.

Independent ratings website Skytrax lists Air Koryo as the world's only 1-star airline for poor quality standards, though it does not measure safety.

Few North Koreans are allowed to travel outside their isolated country.

The North Korean state-owned airline uses mainly Russian-built Tupolev aircraft on international flights but older, Soviet-era aircraft are used within the country.
Philippines' oil still in troubled waters after South China Sea ruling

By Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA, July 22 (Reuters) - The Philippines, eager to resume development of vital oil and gas reserves off its coast, will likely need to reach an accord with a Chinese government infuriated by last week's ruling that granted Manila a big victory in the South China Sea.

The Philippines relies overwhelmingly on imports to fuel its fast-growing economy. That reliance will grow further in a few years when the main source of domestic natural gas runs out, so the clock is ticking for it to develop offshore fields that China shows no sign of loosening its grip on.

Beijing has refused to recognise the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that granted the Philippines sovereign rights to access offshore oil and gas fields, including the Reed Bank, a shallow tablemount some 85 nautical miles off its coast.

And as long as things stay that way, the Philippines will have a hard time finding much-needed foreign expertise willing to risk upsetting China, officials and experts say.

According to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford, one concession - SC 72 - contains 2.6-8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That would be as much as triple the amount discovered at the Malampaya project, an offshore field that powers 40 percent of the main island of Luzon, home to the capital Manila.

Malampaya, which was developed by Royal Dutch Shell and began operations in 2001, is approaching the end of its productive life. Its only viable replacements are in waters that China insists it will not cede.

"Malampaya is going to run out of gas in 10 years so there is urgency for us to develop the Reed Bank," said Antonio Carpio, a supreme court associate justice.

Carpio was part of the legal team that made the case in The Hague and said a big factor in the Philippines' decision to pursue arbitration in 2013 was China's obstructions around Reed Bank.

"Every time we send a survey ship there, Chinese coastguard vessels harass our survey ships," he told news channel ANC. "That's why we had to do something."

DEFERRED BY DISPUTES

The U.S. Energy Information Administration believes that beneath the South China Sea could be 11 billion barrels of oil, more than Mexico's reserves, and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Most foreign firms with capital and technology needed to develop those reserves, however, don't want to risk being caught up in spats over jurisdiction and have avoided concessions offered in disputed waters.

Manila's state-run Philex Petroleum has the controlling stakes in two stalled concessions, the 880,000-hectare SC-72 at the Reed Bank and the 616,000-hectare SC-75 off the island of Palawan.

The court verdict on July 12 sparked a surge in energy stocks the next day, with Philex shares up as much as 21 percent.

Philex says it is seeking a meeting with Philippine energy officials regarding the potential to lift a suspension order on drilling activities in the Reed Bank, in place since December 2014.

"It's a matter of national importance. We don't want to move on our own without guidance from the government," Philex Chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters.

"We will need a partner ... no local company has the expertise that we need."

Department of Energy spokesman Felix William Fuentebella said there were no immediate plans to lift the suspension as the department awaited guidance from new President Rodrigo Duterte.

"The moratorium stays. We are exploring ways to resolve the conflict peacefully and we follow the lead of the President," he said.

Manila and Beijing have both expressed a desire to resume talks, but the Philippines says it could not accept China's pre-condition of not discussing the ruling.

CONCESSION TO SHARE?

Without an agreement between Manila and Beijing, finding development partners would be difficult, said Andrew Harwood, a Southeast Asia upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

"There has to be some softening of Beijing's stance before any companies would be willing to go and drill in any of the disputed areas," he said.

China has involved energy businesses in diplomatic disputes previously.

In May 2014, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) moved its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig into Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone, guarded with a flotilla of coastguard ships. In a tense standoff, Vietnam protested vehemently and sent ships to try to disrupt operations.

Surveying on the disputed Reed Bank concessions began in 2003 under a Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) between Philippine state-owned PNOC Exploration Corp, CNOOC and state-owned PetroVietnam. Manila did not extend the agreement when it lapsed in 2008 after criticism from within the Philippines that the deal compromised its sovereignty.

The pact also caused a diplomatic upset in Southeast Asia as it was seen as undermining regional solidarity against an assertive China.

But some Filipino oil executives think teaming up again with CNOOC could solve problems on both the diplomatic and logistical fronts.

Pangilinan of Philex said he would not close the door on a China JV, while Philex President Daniel Stephen Carlos said a "farm-in" type deal was also being looked at.

Rufino Bomasang, a former Philippines energy ministry undersecretary and current executive chairman of Otto Energy Investments, an oil and gas exploration and production company, said restarting the JMSU with CNOOC should be considered.

"It is something worthwhile resuming," Bomasang told Reuters. "If there's good faith on both sides, why not? And I hope so."

CNOOC did not respond to a request for comment.

China's Foreign Ministry did not directly answer a question submitted by Reuters about whether the government would permit a Chinese firm to join up with Philex, but said in a faxed statement that Reed Bank was Chinese territory.

China wants to resolve the South China Sea issue through talks and is willing to set aside disputes for joint development before a resolution is reached, the ministry added.

"China is willing to have consultations and dialogue with the Philippines about this," it said, without elaborating.
Bahrain says dismantles Iran-linked militant cell

DOHA, July 22 (Reuters) - Bahrain said on Thursday it had dismantled an Iranian-linked cell plotting attacks on its territory, arresting five suspects after finding bomb-making materials, guns and knives in their houses.

The Gulf Arab kingdom has been beset by a growing rift between its Shi'ite Muslim majority and its Sunni rulers.

Police said the five men had received military training in Iran and Iraq, according to a statement by Bahrain's interior ministry. There was no immediate comment from Tehran or Baghdad.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, frequently accuses Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, of being behind bomb attacks targeting security services and fomenting Shi'ite protests.

Iran denies interfering in Bahrain, although it acknowledges support for opposition groups seeking greater rights for Bahrain's Shi'ites.

The Shi'ite community led Arab Spring protests in 2011 that were put down by the government with help from neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Since June, Bahrain has taken a series of steps that activists describe as a renewed opposition crackdown, including arresting prominent activist Nabeel Rajab and stripping top Shi'ite cleric Isa Qassim of his citizenship.
Opinion / Columnist

We must raise not one single cheer in support the war veterans' call for President Mugabe to resign because only to impose another tyrant. We want the tyrant to go and the whole dictatorship too so that we can have a democratic system of government and the next president is elected by the people is a free, fair and credible election. These are two parallel, in so far as we both want the current dictator to go, but ideological opposed and conflicting agendas.These war veterans are fighting to remove one corrupt and murderous tyrant; they imposed the tyrant on us and today they are fighting to remove him but only to impose another tyrant in his place. These war veterans' mentality has not changed one bit; they still believe they alone are the "stockholders of Zimbabwe" whilst we are "stakeholders who come and go". As the stockholders, they believe they have the right withhold our right to a meaningful vote and have even use brute violence to deny us the vote and impose their political will, a veto.As long as these rogue war veterans continue to hold on to the belief they are special and deserve a veto they are not welcome in the camp of the democrats."The MDC would like to whole-heartedly thank and salute war veterans for publicly acknowledging that President Robert Mugabe has outlived his relevance and as such, he should immediately proceed to resign. As a social democratic political party, the MDC has always applauded the patriotic and selfless role that was played by thousands of gallant sons and daughters of the soil in fighting the racist colonial settler regime ultimately leading to our independence as a sovereign republic on April 18, 1980," wrote MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu."We now call upon President Mugabe to take heed of the very clear advice that he has been freely given by his erstwhile comrades, the war veterans. Mugabe remains the single biggest threat to Zimbabwe's national political stability as well as economic prosperity."This is the shortsighted political opportunism and incompetence the nation has come to expect from MDC; the same opportunism and incompetence behind MDC's failure to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. Sadly, they have learnt nothing from the past and so they are at it again now.During the GNU, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were tasked to implement the democratic reforms necessary to stop President Mugabe rigging the next elections. They are five years to do this and yet failed to get even one reform implemented.President Mugabe entrapped Tsvangirai et al with gravy train good-life plus the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai; proof, so the MDC leaders thought, Mugabe had accepted them as bona fide members of the country's highly privileged ruling elite. They kicked the reforms into the fire and made sure they were reduced into ashes, they knew implementing the reforms would have jeopardized their continued ruling elite membership!Boy-oh-boy! Tsvangirai and MDC friends were really shocked when President Mugabe blatantly rigged the July 2013 elections and kicked them off the gravy train. Some MDC leaders were so desperate to keep their gravy train seats they reportedly begged President Mugabe to give them any role, according to Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda. It is the same naive and political opportunism that is behind MDC-T's praise of the war veterans today.The rogue war veterans Gutu is praising today have been the vanguard of President Mugabe's tyrannical rule since 2000 to February this year when he tear-gassed them and hosed them down with water cannons. We are fighting to end tyranny and replace it democracy and good governance and they are fighting to remove one tyrant so they can impose another tyrant. These are two parallel but opposite agendas.If we come out today in support of the war veterans' removal of one tyrant knowing fully well their plan is to impose another tyrant we will have no cause to complain after they have imposed the second tyrant.It is the economic meltdown, more than the demands of a totally discredited group of thugs, that is finally forcing President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal to accept political change. We, the people of Zimbabwe, must be absolutely clear that kind of political change we after is the end of this dictatorship and the creation of a healthy and functional democracy in its place.We must make is absolutely clear that we totally reject the proposed political fudge by a bunch confused and egotistic war veteran lunatics seeking to save the corrupt and tyrannical one-party dictatorship by swapping one dictator for another. One has to remind the impressionable MDC village idiots in Harvest House applauding the rogue war veteran thugs that the nation is paying dearly for the idiots' foolishness during the GNU, they must not compound the situation.Some people called for MDC leaders to resign and be banished from public life soon after the rigged July 2013 elections. Now I accept that was the wise thing to do; as a nation we have done ourselves a great disservice by trying to recycle leaders with a proven track record corruption and incompetence. MDC leaders have sold-out before and they will do so again given half a chance!
Hong Kong shares join others in Asia, follow Wall Street down

July 22 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares finished down on Friday as Asian shares slid after weak corporate earnings halted Wall Street's record run.

The Hang Seng index fell 0.2 percent, to 21,964.27, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.3 percent, to 9,031.93 points.

For the week, the Hang Seng was up 1.4 percent and the HSCE down 0.2 percent.
Fighting flares up again in northern Mali town of Kidal

BAMAKO, July 22 (Reuters) - Fighting broke out for the second day in a town in Mali's desert north on Friday between pro-government militia fighters and Tuareg rebels, three town residents and a fighter said.
Pakistani prime minister's party wins polls in divided Kashmir

By Abu Arqam Naqash

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, July 22 (Reuters) - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party swept local elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to unofficial results on Friday, giving the premier a boost after months of pressure from his opponents.

Sharif has faced criticism since documents released as past of the Panama Papers data leak showed his children owned several off-shore companies and used them to buy properties in London.

He denies wrongdoing, as do his children.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party won 31 seats in the region's 41-seat assembly in Thursday's vote, said Tariq Mahmood Butt, spokesman for Pakistani Kashmir's election commission.

"This win is proof that our voters have completely rejected our opponents' incessant diatribe against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif," said the party's regional chief, Raja Farooq Haider.

"It is not merely a win. It is a landslide," Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, an increasingly influential member of her father's party, said on her Twitter page.

The disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir was split between India and Pakistan in 1948, after they fought a brief war over it. It remains at the heart of animosity between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The win by Sharif's party in the region will not have any direct bearing on Pakistan's stand on the Kashmir dispute or on its dealings with India.

Sharif stressed the need to improve relations with India in his successful campaign for the last general election in 2013 but the powerful army, which oversees security and foreign policies, is seen as wary of making big concessions quickly.

The criticism of Sharif from his political opponents and occasional strains in his relations with the army have raised questions about prospects for his government.

Pakistan's next general election is due in 2018.
UN envoy hopes Geneva meeting will pave way for Syria peace talks

GENEVA, July 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria hopes that a meeting expected to be held in Geneva next week with U.S. and Russian officials will pave the way for a resumption of peace talks between the warring parties, his spokeswoman said on Friday.

Jessy Chahine, spokeswoman for Staffan de Mistura, declined to give details of the talks or their participants. "Our hope is that any discussions on Syria will help move forward with the process so we can also get to starting the next round of intra-Syrian talks," she told a briefing in Geneva.

A high-level meeting of officials from Russia, the United States and the United Nations is due to take place in Geneva next week to discuss the Syrian crisis, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, Interfax reported.
Up to 20 dead as northern Mali fighting threatens peace deal

By Cheik Amadou Diouara

BAMAKO, July 22 (Reuters) - Up to 20 people were killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.

The Tuareg-dominated Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival Gatia militia fighters, who had peacefully shared control of the town of Kidal since February, clashed for a second day on Friday before pro-government fighters withdrew.

Both groups signed a United Nations-backed deal a year ago with the government in Bamako, the capital in southern Mali, that was meant to end a decades-long cycle of uprisings and let the army focus on defeating jihadist groups in the desert north.

A nurse at the main health centre in Kidal, one of the largest towns in northern Mali, said she had seen about 20 dead, both at the clinic and on the town's streets.

"There are wounded people everywhere. Forty wounded, with four bad cases. One of them was shot in the throat, another in the back, another in the abdomen," a doctor at the health centre told Reuters by telephone, asking not to be named.

Red Cross volunteer Ahamed Ag Mohomedine said he had counted over 15 bodies, adding many wounded had been taken to the Kidal base of Mali's U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.

Both armed groups gave death tolls from the fighting that were lopsided in their own favour and could not be independently verified.

Mali's government, which has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, urged both sides to end the fighting.

"The government of the Republic of Mali considers that the situation created by these clashes constitutes a serious threat to the implementation of the peace accord," it said in a statement.

MINUSMA said it had stationed troops in heavily populated areas to protect civilians.

The U.N. also deployed drones to monitor the fighting, and a regionwide French counter-terrorism mission used helicopters to patrol the skies above the town, said MINUSMA spokeswoman Radhia Achouri.

"Our main concern is that civilians are in the line of fire," she said, adding that some town residents had taken shelter inside the MINUSMA camp overnight.

The gunfire had largely subsided by mid-afternoon on Friday, as the CMA claimed to have driven Gatia fighters from Kidal, a traditional stronghold of the Tuareg separatist movement.

"We control the town in its entirety along with the surrounding areas. Calm has returned," said CMA spokesman Almou Ag Mohamed.

Two officers in the pro-government militia confirmed that Gatia had withdrawn from the town.

"We decided to draw back from Kidal, but we are in the process of reorganising," one of the officers said, asking that his name not be used for his protection.
Most Germans fear terrorist attack after train axe assault -poll

BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) - More than three-quarters of Germans believe their country will soon be the target of terrorism, a survey showed on Friday, after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a train in an axe attack claimed by Islamic State.

Seventy-seven percent expect an attack to happen soon, up from 69 percent two weeks ago, according to the survey compiled by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF.

Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said investigations suggested he was a "lone wolf" who had been spurred into action by Islamic State propaganda.

The axe rampage came days after a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing 84 in an attack also claimed by the jihadist group.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The survey of 1,271 respondents, which showed 20 percent do not expect an attack soon, was conducted during the three days following the train attack.
Bulgaria braces for migrant arrivals after Turkey's failed coup

SOFIA, July 22 (Reuters) - Bulgaria is bracing for a potential rush of migrants on its southern border following an attempted coup in Turkey, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Friday.

Patrols on the border with Turkey have been bolstered and 150 to 200 migrants a day have been detained since the failed coup, Borisov said.

"The situation at the border is much more dramatic," Borisov told local media. "We prepare for a severe problem with the refugees ... The army, police and gendarmerie, they are all working."

Borisov said he would meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Aug. 24 in Istanbul. On Thursday, he met Bulgaria's top military personnel to discuss the measures the government and security services were taking.

After the meeting, he said events in the coming weeks might require rapid reactions from the military officers, the government and citizens, to guarantee the security of the country.

Borisov said that Sofia should aim to keep the balance and maintain communication with Turkey, but he criticised some of Erdogan's moves.

"We do not understand the arrests of journalists, judges, teachers," he said.

Migrant flows into Bulgaria had been easing slightly before the failed coup. The country detained about 14,000 migrants in the first six months of the year, compared with 21,000 in the same period last year.
Qatar says gives $30 mln to pay Gaza public sector workers

DOHA, July 22 (Reuters) - Qatar said on Thursday it would give $30 million to help pay the salaries of thousands of Gaza Strip public sector workers left without a full wage package since 2013.

The donation was welcomed by Hamas, the Islamist group that dominates the enclave who said it would help ease the wage shortages - that have tested already strained relations with the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian Authority or Israel, who have long been suspicious of Qatar's regular donations to Hamas and other Islamist groups across the region.

The emir of the wealthy Gulf state, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said the payment of 113 million riyals was meant to "alleviate suffering and financial distress", according to Qatar's state news agency, QNA.

Hamas fighters seized control of Gaza in 2007 from forces loyal to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, triggering years of mutual distrust.

A reconciliation pact signed in 2014 by the two sides raised hopes among Hamas that its 50,000 public sector employees' wages would be taken care of via the Palestinian Authority (PA) payroll.

But the Palestinian Authority cannot afford to pay all those extra workers and international donors who support the PA budget, including the European Union, say they want an audit of workers and cutbacks to the bloated payroll, which costs more than $2 billion a year.

The Hamas-hired public servants have grown restive and in 2014 protested over their lack of payment which is partly due to a continued blockade imposed on Gaza by both Israel and Egypt.

"The July payment will be made in full immediately once the Qatari financial fund is received," Hamas' deputy finance minister, Youssef al-Kayyali said.

Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, has for years preserved influence with Islamist forces across the region it believes are the long-term future.
Car bomb explodes near mosque in Yemen's Sanaa

CAIRO, July 22 (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded outside a mosque run by Yemen's Houthi group in the capital Sanaa on Friday, residents said, going off as worshippers were leaving after midday prayers and injuring several of them.

There were no reports of casualties in the relatively rare attack in the city or an immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion by the Bilal mosque in western Sanaa.

Islamist militants have exploited Yemen's 16-month civil war between the Iran-allied Houthis and supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by a Saudi Arab coalition, to strike at both sides at will.
Singapore bans newspaper linked to Islamic State

SINGAPORE, July 22 (Reuters) - Singapore on Friday banned the distribution and possession of Al Fatihin, a newspaper linked to the Islamic State militant group, after government officials repeatedly warned against terror threats.

The wealthy city-state saw its first case of terrorism financing this month, with four Bangladeshi men jailed for terms ranging from two to five years for funding attacks in their South Asian homeland.

"The Singapore government has zero tolerance for terrorist propaganda and has therefore decided to prohibit Al Fatihin," the Ministry of Communications and Information said in a statement.

Launched in the southern Philippines on June 20, the paper, whose name means "The Conqueror" in Arabic, is also distributed in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand, the Straits Times newspaper said this month.

"ISIS is a terrorist group which poses a serious threat to the security of Singapore," the ministry added. "Al Fatihin is yet another step by ISIS to spread its propaganda abroad, with a clear intention to radicalise and recruit Southeast Asians."

The newspaper is published in the Indonesian language, which is very close to Malay, Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's minister in charge of Muslim affairs, said in the statement.

Anyone convicted of possessing or distributing the newspaper faced a fine or imprisonment, or both, the statement added.

The fine can range up to S$10,000 ($7,380), and the jail term up to three years for a first offence, rising to four years for subsequent offences, the Straits Times newspaper said.

Al Fatihin is mainly distributed online, said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
CLEVELANDThe last piece of confetti has fallen at Quicken Loan Arena in BelieveLand and the Republican National Convention has come to a close. But has the last dollar for escorts in the greater Cleveland area been spent yet?

According to tabloid newspaper New York Post, escorts did very well during the RNC. But that was to be expected, right? Every year stories are written about the anticipated increase in prostitution in major cities hosting everything from the World Series to the Super Bowl and the Olympics.

What might be surprising to some (but not to media observers here at AVN) is the type of escorts who did well during the three-day convention: gay male escorts.

Business has been way better. Ive seen 10 clients so far, one male escort told the newspaper.

Reporters for the paper contacted several escorts in the Cleveland area and found the gay male escorts were raking in the cashsometimes as much as six times the amounts they normally makeand much of their businesses was coming from married white men, many of them between the ages of 40 and 50.

Most of them were first-timers. You could tell they were nervous, but once they became more comfortable, they seemed to be having a good time, an escort told reporters.

But, the Post reported, their female counterparts didnt reap the rewards of having thousands of new visitors in their fair city.

Has business been better for me? Honestly, no, one woman told the Post before hanging up.

The Daily Dot website also reported that the Men Seeking Men section of Craigslist in the Cleveland area also saw a major uptick during the convention. Some of the juicier posts? RNC bitch for black dicksu don't have to vote, you need to fuck me (m4m), Son Seeks Dad at RNC (m4m) and RNC TOPSSeed a Democrat (m4m).
Indian military plane with 29 on board missing in Bay of Bengal

By Sanjeev Miglani and Euan Rocha

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI July 22 (Reuters) - An Indian air force plane carrying 29 people went missing on Friday on a flight to a remote island chain in the Bay of Bengal, the Defence Ministry said.

The Russian-made AN-32 was on its way to Port Blair, the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, from the southeast city of Chennai when it disappeared from radar.

Military officials said the weather had been rough in the Bay of Bengal for the last two days during the monsoon season.

The aircraft was last detected on radar 151 nautical miles east of Chennai, making a left turn with a rapid loss of height from 23,000 ft, according to a note provided by the air force to the Defence Ministry.

There were 21 military personnel on board including six crew. The other people on board were civilians, some family members of soldiers deployed on the islands.

"It was a routine courier mission to Port Blair, the plane was airborne at 8:30 a.m. and due to land at 11:30," air force spokesman Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said. It had fuel to fly for four hours and 15 minutes.

The plane was overhauled and went through an upgrade in September 2015, according to the note given to the ministry.

The plane had reported three snags this month, according to the note - a pressure leak from the port door, a hydraulic leak and sluggish throttle movement.

The Defence Ministry said four surveillance planes, 12 ships and a submarine were searching for the aircraft in one of India's largest search and rescue operations in recent years.

India has been beefing up its military presence in the Andamans, 750 nautical miles from mainland India, in recent years.

The islands are near the Malacca Straits, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes which link the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and East Asia.

The Defence Ministry said the submarine had been deployed to locate transmissions from an emergency locator beacon on the aircraft. The AN-32 is a workhorse of the air force, chosen for its ability to operate from short runways.
EU sues Austria for discriminating against foreign ski instructors

VIENNA, July 22 (Reuters) - The European Commission is taking Austria to the Court of Justice of the European Union for discriminating against foreign ski instructors.

In the southern province of Tyrol, for example, foreign instructors were not allowed to accept clients who were already in Austria. The Commission also criticised the Styria region for not accepting some foreign ski instructor qualifications.

"Such requirements are contrary to EU law," the Commission said in a statement.
Nearly 3,000 dead in Mediterranean already this year -IOM

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, July 22 (Reuters) - Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have perished in the Mediterranean Sea already this year while almost 250,000 have reached Europe, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

The estimated death toll could put 2016 on track to be the deadliest year of the migration crisis. Last year the same landmark was only reached in October, by which time nearly one million people had crossed into Europe.

"This is the earliest that we have seen the 3,000 (deaths) mark, this occurred in September of 2014 and October of 2015," IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a briefing. "So for this to be happening even before the end of July is quite alarming."

Three out of four victims this year died while trying to reach Italy from North Africa, mostly Libya, a longer and more dangerous route. The others drowned between Turkey and Greece before that flow dried up with the March deal on migrants between Turkey and the European Union.

Nearly 2,500 fatalities have occurred since late March, with about 20 migrants dying each day along the route from Libya to Italy, Millman said. Most are from West Africa and the Horn of Africa, although they may include people from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco.

"The (Libyan) coast guard has had some luck turning back voyages from Libya. We've heard in the last six weeks a number of cases where they have been able to turn boats back.

"They (have also been) recovering bodies at an alarming rate," Millman said.

Some 84,052 migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy so far this year, almost exactly the same number as in the same period a year before, he said.

That indicated departures from Libya were at "maximum capacity" due to a limited number of boats deemed seaworthy.

But there is "a very robust market of used fishing vessels and things coming from Tunisia and Egypt that are finding their way to brokers in Tripoli," Millman said. "And you can actually go to shipyards where people are trying to repair boats as fast as they can to get more migrants on the sea."

Migrants in Libya are often held in detention centres, some run by criminal gangs and militias, he said. IOM officials seek access to detainees and authorisation for their repatriation.
New faces in LME warehousing but old hands still dominate: Andy Home

By Andy Home

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - The number of London Metal Exchange (LME) physical storage units continues to decline in tandem with falling registered stocks.

As of July 8 there were 608 registered warehouses for the storage of base metals, down from 621 a year ago and from almost 700 in 2012 and 2013.

Total exchange-registered stocks have fallen to 3.6 million tonnes from over 7.5 million over the same time frame, largely due to the LME's forced attrition of load-out queues at locations such as Detroit and the Dutch port of Vlissingen.

The LME is ploughing on with its warehousing reform package with charge capping the latest measure out for consultation.

In doing so, the exchange is walking a fine line between addressing the concerns of regulators about its physical delivery function and ensuring its warehousing network remains both robust and competitive.

It can therefore take some comfort from the number of new operators seeking LME registration and the relative success a couple of them have had in terms of grabbing a share of inventory.

That said, however, the business of LME storage remains dominated by just a handful of older players.

Graphic on changes in storage units by operator:

http://tmsnrt.rs/29Q6cZe

Graphic on LME storage units and registered stocks:

http://tmsnrt.rs/2a2l1Up

OLD HANDS

Just two operators account for 339 of LME registered sheds and, as of the end of June, for almost 70 percent of all registered metal.

Steinweg, the grand-daddy of the LME warehousing business, operates 185 units, having added a net six over the last year, primarily reflecting additional sheds in South Korea.

It held 25 percent of total registered inventory at the end of last month, a share that has risen steadily from just 13 percent in August 2014, when the LME first started publishing stocks-by-operator figures.

Access World, the recently rebranded Pacorini Metals, operates fewer units, 154 as of the LME's list on July 8, but holds more metal, 44 percent as of the end of June.

That percentage has shrunk over the last year as Access, the logistics arm of trading giant Glencore, makes accelerated load-outs from its sheds in Vlissingen, the location of the last embedded queue in the LME system.

But, interestingly, its storage unit count at the Dutch port has dropped by just three over the last year to a current 36.

Since warehouse operators don't like operating empty sheds, the inference is that it must be seeing some offset to falling registered stocks from rising unregistered stocks.

If it is, it's faring better than Metro, the "owner" of the original load-out queue in Detroit.

Metro's shed count in Motown has dropped from 27 a couple of years ago to 13 after another delisting in the last week. The company was storing just 4.8 percent of LME tonnage at the end of June, down from 24 percent two years ago.

Metro's broader footprint in the LME storage space has declined by 50 units over the last two years, suggesting it hasn't been able to replace the once mountainous stockpile of aluminium in Detroit.

Graphic on number of units by operator:

http://tmsnrt.rs/29Q6Mq3

Graphic on stocks held by operator:

http://tmsnrt.rs/29RCW0J

DEPARTURES AND ARRIVALS

Gone completely from the list of LME-registered operators are Impala Terminals and Scale Distribution.

Impala delisted its last remaining sheds, mostly in its home port of Antwerp, over the last year after its owner Trafigura took the decision to exit the LME warehousing business.

Scale has also left the LME stage with part owners Macquarie Bank and Orion Mine Finance recently selling their stakes.

Taking their place come new arrivals such as 4STOX and Katoen Natie (Antwerp), Verbrugge International (Vlissingen) and ACE Warehousing (Kaohsiung in Taiwan).

As of the end of June, though, none of them were actually holding any registered metal.

Three relative newcomers have fared better in terms of muscling into the preserve of the old guard, even if two of them are reappearances of old hands.

P Global Services, the original Pacorini before it sold its metal operations to Glencore, added another 28 LME-registered units over the last year, bringing its tally to 39 since it reentered LME storage in 2015. At the end of June it held 4.4 percent of total LME stocks.

ISTIM has fewer sheds, just seven, but more stocks, largely thanks to a foray into the zinc storage business in New Orleans.

The company, a reincarnation of Bill Whelan, the man behind the original Metro, held 5.9 percent of registered stocks at the end of last month, putting it in (a distant) third place behind Access and Steinweg.

Engelhart, part of the commodity business recently spun out of Brazil's BTG Pactual, has lifted its share of stocks from under one percent in November 2015 to 4.4 percent.

It has listed an additional 11 storage units over the last year, bringing its count to a current 24.

STOCKS FRAGMENTATION

In terms of total units and number of operators, the LME warehousing system has held up remarkably well given the pace of recent change.

More worrying, however, is the continued drainage of physical metal out of the system.

Remember that this is taking place at a time of relatively poor fundamentals in the base metals markets. Most are in supply surplus but you wouldn't necessarily know that from the downtrend in LME stocks.

LME reforms, particularly those hitting warehousers' bottom lines such as the recent introduction of rent caps on metal stuck in a queue, may be driving more metal into off-exchange storage deals.

But there is also a growing gravitational pull of stocks towards China.

Stocks of copper sitting in China's bonded warehouse zone have for several years dwarfed the amount of copper in the LME's storage system.

More recently, LME nickel stocks have been depleted as metal, Russian full-plate specifically, is shipped to the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) to support trading liquidity on its new nickel contract. ShFE registered nickel inventory currently stands at 105,880 tonnes.

China remains closed to LME warehousing, a major obstacle for its parent, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, in trying to open up the world's largest metallic market.

LME Shield, the newly-launched electronic warehouse receipt project, may offer a back-door route into the mainland but while the LME is working out how to expand its warehousing reach eastwards, it is facing a threat from the other direction.

CME Group's lead contract saw the U.S. exchange open up base metal warehouses outside of its home country for the first time ever.

There are currently 2,605 tonnes of non-warranted metal sitting in CME warehouses in Rotterdam and 1,806 tonnes of similar-status lead in Antwerp.

Listed warehouse operators for the lead contract are a sub-set of the biggest LME operators; Access World, Steinweg, Henry Bath, Engelhart and Worldwide Warehouse Solutions.

A useful reminder that the warehousing business is simply about storing metal, where ever that metal is located and which ever exchange it is registered with.

A basic fact of warehousing life that may come into sharper relief if LME stocks continue to erode.
Armenian president calls on hostage-takers to surrender

YEREVAN, July 22 (Reuters) - Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan on Friday called on gunmen occupying a Yerevan police station to lay down their arms and release four hostages they seized in a bid to have a jailed opposition leader released.

The gunmen seized the station and hostages in the capital on Sunday, killing a police officer and wounding two others. They released two hostages on the same day and three more on Monday.

Police clashed on Wednesday with hundreds of demonstrators showing support for the gunmen, firing tear gas and detonating smoke grenades after protesters pelted them with stones at them.

About 140 people were detained and 51 were injured, including 29 policemen.

"I call on the armed group to lay down their arms as soon as possible. We acted and still act very patiently because the life and health of each citizen is very valuable to us," Sarksyan said in a statement.

He set no deadline or state what steps the authorities would take if the gunmen refused to surrender, saying only that the authorities had decided not to use force to try to release the hostages in the hope this would "sober up the gunmen".

"This situation has lasted longer than we can afford," he said. "We don't have the right to allow our society to become a hostage of this situation."

The hostage-takers' main demand is the release of Jirair Sefilian, an opposition leader accused by authorities in the ex-Soviet state of plotting civil unrest. Sefilian was jailed in June over allegations of illegally possessing weapons.

Sefilian, a former military commander, has accused Sarksyan of mishandling a long-running conflict between pro-Armenian separatists and the breakaway Azeri region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A Moscow-brokered ceasefire halted four days of violence in the South Caucasus region on April 5, the worst flare-up in years, but sporadic shooting persists at night and some deaths have been reported.
Migrants in Serbia start march to Hungary and hunger strike

By Marko Djurica

BELGRADE, July 22 (Reuters) - Hundreds of migrants from the Middle East and Asia marched through Belgrade on Friday on their way to Hungary and announced a hunger strike to underline their demand for passage to western Europe.

Last month Hungary, Serbia's northern neighbour and an European Union member, allowed police to send back illegal migrants detained within eight kilometres (five miles) of its razor wire-fenced frontier with Serbia.

It has also limited the number of daily entries to a maximum of 30, creating a bottleneck in Serbia.

A group of around 300 men, mainly from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, marched across the main bridge between Belgrade's city centre and the Novi Beograd area, with a police car leading the column. There were no women or children in the group.

A police officer who declined to be named said the migrants had started a march to the Hungarian border, around 200 kilometres to the north. "We are here to guarantee their safety and prevent accidents en route," he said.

Earlier in the day, the group also announced a hunger strike, said Vladimir Sjekloca, a manager of Belgrade's Asylum Info Centre. "They want to go to Hungary, they want borders open," he said. "Most of them spent the night in the park."

To cope with the inflow of over 100,000 migrants that passed through Serbia so far this year, the country's police and army last week formed joint border patrols. More than 650,000 people passed through Serbia last year on their way to the EU.

On Friday, Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia's minister for social affairs, said as many as 3,000 migrants were stranded in the country.

"Serbia cannot allow that," Vulin was quoted as saying by the Tanjug news agency. It will not suffer because EU countries cannot find a joint solution."
Split appears in South Sudan opposition, threatening more turmoil

By Denis Dumo

JUBA, July 22 (Reuters) - A rift appeared in one of South Sudan's two main rival groups on Friday, raising the prospect of further turmoil after months of fighting, as members of one faction threatened to replace their leader.

A group inside the SPLM-IO movement issued a statement saying its head Riek Machar should return to the capital Juba and carry on his work in the government, or be removed from office.

Machar, South Sudan's Vice President, and his SPLM-IO group, have been caught up with more than two years of on-and-off, ethnically charged fighting with supporters of the country's President Salva Kiir.

Machar left the capital last week after a fresh outbreak of clashes, saying he would only return when an international body set up a buffer force to separate his forces from Kiir's.

Kiir called on him on Thursday to return to salvage a peace deal, and a faction of Machar's own group, led by mining minister Taban Deng Gai, on Friday said they agreed.

"The decision by the government to give... Machar an ultimatum is entirely in line with its powers," William Ezekiel, spokesman for SPLM-IO faction allied to Gai, told Reuters by phone.

"On our side, we want him to show up, otherwise we will replace him."

Machar's spokesman, James Gatdet, rebuffed the threats, saaying Gai's faction had no official status in the momement.

South Sudan's politics has long been plagued by splits and rivalries as leaders switch allegiances, in the contest for power and influence in the oil-producing nation, which only emerged from Sudan five years ago.

"Machar ... has communicated to all his military commanders to cut off any communication with General Taban Deng Gai and his few individuals who support the President Kiir's conspiracy," he said.

The two years of fighting started after Kiir sacked Machar as Vice President in 2013 and has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million, many of whom fled to neighbouring countries.
As Pakistan bars extremists from airwaves, some fear creeping censorship

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik

ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Reuters) - When Hafiz Saeed, a Pakistani Islamist wanted in the United States and India, led a kilometre-and-a-half long caravan of supporters on an anti-India protest march across Pakistan to the capital this week, the story was not aired by local TV channels.

Also absent from the airwaves earlier this year were images of the nearly 100,000 hardliners who packed the funeral of executed assassin Mumtaz Qadri, hailing him a hero for killing a governor who advocated reforming Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws.

The blackouts are the most vivid examples of changing editorial behaviour prompted by a little-reported provision in Pakistan's National Action Plan, a counter-terrorism strategy that in effect bans broadcast media from covering Islamist militants.

But in a country with a fast-growing but still young broadcast media, Pakistani critics worry that rules intended to fight militancy will spill over into wider limits on criticism of the government or powerful military that could undermine a fragile democracy.

"Projecting militants is undesirable but a blackout does not serve the public interest," said Raza Rumi, a Pakistani broadcast journalist who is currently a scholar-in-residence at Ithaca College in the United States.

"For public accountability it is important that carefully edited information on militants is aired so that the public can assess the efficacy of state operations against terrorism."

Pakistan announced the 20-point National Action Plan after Taliban gunmen attacked a military-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December 2014 and killed 134 children and 19 adults.

The plan's main thrusts include expanded counter-terrorism raids, secret military courts and the resumption of hangings.

But it also contains clauses banning "glorification of terrorism and terrorist organisations through print and electronic media" and calling for "measures against abuse of internet and social media for terrorism".

"JUST A WARNING"

Under the plan, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has sent dozens of warning letters to TV networks in recent months, and imposed fines for airing content that incites religious hatred or promotes violence.

This included fining a channel whose host likened members of the Hindu minority to "dogs" and issuing warnings to a popular news station that interviewed a woman who said she had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State.

PEMRA chief Absar Alam, a former journalist, told Reuters banning such content was not censorship but rather "a call to be responsible".

"I've worked in Pakistan, I've worked for international organisations but I haven't seen the kind of irresponsibility and violation of codes as in Pakistan," Alam said.

"We want Pakistani media to avoid promoting extremist views. There should be balance."

On Qadri's funeral, Alam said he did not order a media blackout, but merely issued a reminder of the law's provisions. "It was a warning, not a single word asks them to stop covering news," he said.

But some worry that the broadcasters are also being steered away from covering legitimate stories.

Two years ago, events such as Qadri's funeral or this week's March by Saeed, who operates with no fear of arrest despite a $10 million U.S. bounty over his alleged involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, would have been extensively reported on TV.

"There seem to be quiet guidelines and you can't afford not to follow them," said Abbas Nasir, a former editor for the BBC World Service and Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

DENYING "OXYGEN"

Many journalists in Pakistan, however, support the blackout.

"Media is oxygen for militants," said a former managing director of state-owned Pakistan Television, who declined to be named because of the nature of his new job.

"On one hand you are trying to bleed them and then you want to keep giving them oxygen? That makes no sense."

Pakistan's largest news network, Geo News, was ordered off air for 15 days by the PEMRA in 2014 - one of the few examples of overt censorship in recent years - after accusing the army's intelligence arm of an attack on one of its leading anchors.

But Geo was happy to go along with the blackout in coverage of the Qadri funeral.

"It is a show of maturity by the media and it is not imposed," Muaaz Ahsan, chief of programming at Geo, said. "There was across the board agreement that giving these elements airtime is detrimental to society at large."

A few years ago, Pakistani Taliban spokesmen would call in and claim responsibility for attacks on live television.

Today, news channels rarely even report such claims.

"They don't want people to know the real situation," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani told Reuters. "In the near future, the whole world will see how we handle media."

There have been several attacks on local TV stations since the anti-terrorism law's introduction.

Since the army launched an operation against militant strongholds near the Afghan border in 2013, it has earned broad support from a Pakistani population, including its media.

But while analysts support erasing militant groups from the airwaves, they say the blackout has come hand-in-hand with ignoring the alleged excesses of security forces.
Lufthansa Technik to cut 700 jobs in engine overhaul operations

FRANKFURT, July 22 (Reuters) - German airline Lufthansa's maintenance business will cut 700 of the 2,000 jobs at its engine overhaul operations as its customers shift to newer types of engines that require less revamping, Lufthansa Technik said on Friday.

The jobs are to be cut over the next five to eight years, mainly by workers taking early retirement, Lufthansa has agreed with labour union Verdi. Lufthansa Technik said it did not plan forced redundancies.

Thanks to advances in technology, the new generation of aircraft engines needs to be overhauled only twice during a lifetime of 20 years, compared with three times for previous types of engines.

Also, manufacturers like Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric are increasingly offering customers long-term service contracts with their new engines, competing with maintenance firms like Lufthansa Technik.

Lufthansa Technik and union Verdi agreed that engine overhaul staff would start working around the clock in three shifts at the company's site in Hamburg, where 1,100 of the remaining 1,300 staff are based, to improve utilisation of equipment.

In return, Lufthansa will invest 80 million euros ($88.09 million) in new machines and training.
Germany remains committed to Balkan talks on EU membership

BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) - Germany remains committed to talks with Kosovo and other Balkan countries about future membership in the European Union, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"We remain committed to the European prospects of the west Balkan countries," the spokesman said.

Some European leaders, including Alain Juppe, a conservative former prime minister who is leading polls ahead of the French presidential election, have called for an end to EU talks with the Balkan states after Britain's vote to leave the bloc.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also assured his Kosovo counterpart, Enver Hoxhaj, before a meeting on Friday that nothing had changed regarding the goal of forging closer ties between the EU and Kosovo.

His comments echoed remarks made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the leaders of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia on July 4.

The six countries are all at different stages in joining the EU. Serbia aims to complete accession talks by 2019
LOS ANGELESDigital Playground contract stars Aria Alexander and Eva Lovia head up the cast of the studio's new take on college Greek life, Sorority Sisters, rolling out this month as a series on DigitalPlayground.com.

Directed by Holly Randall, Sorority Sisters co-stars Cherie DeVille as the dominating house mother, along with Cassidy Klein, Jenna Foxx, Johnny Castle, Lucas Frost, Ryan McLane and Seth Gamble.

"Sorority Sisters is the sequel to our very popular Sisterhood series," DP product manager Samael explained. "We go behind the scenes of American sororities and touch on all events from the crazy coed parties to hardcore hazing. What really makes this movie stand out from mainstream sorority-themed productions is that we can take it a few steps further to really shock and please our viewers."

Samael added, "We're also running a contest with Pornhub to give away three paddles signed by Digital Playground exclusive star Aria Alexander, Cassidy Klein and Jenna Foxx."

See the trailer for Sorority Sisters here. Fans may enter to win one of the three signed paddles here.
Poland amends constitutional court law, opposition says more work needed

WARSAW, July 22 (Reuters) - Poland's parliament on Friday eased some restrictions on the constitutional court in a move the government said addressed concerns that the ruling party had undermined the rule of law but the opposition said the changes did not go far enough.

The United States and European Union have criticised Poland for undermining the constitutional court's ability to act as a check on government powers.

Critics say the government's changes to the tribunal had undermined democratic standards and are part of a broader push to seize more control over state institutions, charges denied by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The government says the changes were needed to resolve a deadlock over how the tribunal functioned after the previous parliament, dominated by the current main opposition party Civic Platform, illegally appointed judges to the court last year.

Poland's 1997 constitution gives the tribunal power to block legislation approved by parliament and the president. But the constitution also says parliament should decide how the tribunal proceeds with cases.

The PiS-controlled parliament in December passed laws that court verdicts had to be passed by a two-thirds majority, instead of a simple majority, and imposed a requirement that cases be heard in the order they were received.

On Friday, parliament voted to remove the requirement for a two-thirds majority but introduced a clause giving judges the power to postpone a ruling by six months if four judges agreed.

It also said verdicts in the most important cases needed to be agreed by at least 11 of the 15 judges, instead of its previous requirement of at least 13, a number critics say effectively paralyses the court, and eased restrictions on the order in which cases could be heard.

PiS lawmaker Wojciech Szarama said the amendments sought to address the opposition's concerns.
UN envoy eyes new Syrian peace talks in Geneva in August

BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations hopes to convene a new round of intra-Syrian peace talks in Geneva in August, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday.

"We are determined to actually look for a proper date in August for relaunching the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva," de Mistura told reporters before a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The envoy said U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry and Russian officials had agreed to take some "concrete steps" in addressing the situation in Syria, which could be helpful.

He said Turkish officials also assured him during a meeting in Ankara this week that they remained committed to working toward peace in Syria despite a failed coup attempt that has rocked Turkey.

"The next three weeks are going to be extremely important to give a chance for not only intra-Syrian talks, but also for some possibility of reducing violence," he said.

De Mistura said progress in U.S.-Russian talks on Syria would get the next round of intra-Syrian talks off to a good start and could help the warring parties take "credible, real steps in the direction of political transition."

He said the situation in Aleppo was critical, with about 300,000 people facing the threat of another siege.
Split appears in South Sudan opposition, threatens more turmoil

By Denis Dumo

JUBA, July 22 (Reuters) - A rift appeared in one of South Sudan's two main rival groups on Friday, raising the prospect of further turmoil after months of fighting, as members of one faction threatened to replace their leader.

A group inside the SPLM-IO movement issued a statement saying its head Riek Machar should return to the capital Juba and carry on his work in the government, or be removed from office.

Machar, South Sudan's Vice President, and his SPLM-IO group, have been caught up with more than two years of on-and-off, ethnically charged fighting with supporters of the country's President Salva Kiir.

Machar left the capital last week after a new outbreak of clashes, saying he would only return when an international body set up a buffer force to separate his forces from Kiir's.

Kiir called on him on Thursday to return to salvage a peace deal, and a faction of Machar's own group, led by mining minister Taban Deng Gai, on Friday said they agreed.

"The decision by the government to give... Machar an ultimatum is entirely in line with its powers," William Ezekiel, spokesman for SPLM-IO faction allied to Gai, said.

"On our side, we want him to show up, otherwise we will replace him."

Machar's spokesman, James Gatdet, rebuffed the threats, saying Gai's faction had no official status in the moment.

South Sudan's politics has long been plagued by splits and rivalries as leaders switch allegiances, in the contest for power and influence in the oil-producing nation, which only emerged from Sudan five years ago.

"Machar ... has communicated to all his military commanders to cut off any communication with General Taban Deng Gai and his few individuals who support the President Kiir's conspiracy," he said.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting attended by some SPLM-IO ministers, Information Minister Michael Makuei said it was up to the party to sort out its internal differences.

"The cabinet has advised (Machar) to put his house in order so that they decide as to whether someone will be acting in the place of Riek Machar or declare his position vacant," he told reporters after the meeting.

The two years of fighting started after Kiir sacked Machar as Vice President in 2013 and has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million, many of whom fled to neighbouring countries.
Grenade explodes near mosque in Yemen's Sanaa

CAIRO, July 22 (Reuters) - A grenade exploded on Friday outside a mosque in Yemen's capital Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-allied Houthi group, residents said, as worshippers were leaving after midday prayers.

There were no injuries or casualties, a Reuters witness said. No group claimed responsibility for the explosion under a parked car by the Bilal mosque in western Sanaa.

Islamist militants have exploited Yemen's 16-month civil war between the Houthis and supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, to strike at both sides.

The Houthis have controlled Sanaa since 2014 when they drove Hadi and his government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Yemeni government forces and allies from the United Arab Emirates control the southern port city of Aden and have pledged to win back control of the capital.
Bodies of migrants brought to Italy; survivors tell of struggle

By Crispian Balmer

ROME, July 22 (Reuters) - The bodies of 21 women and one man were brought ashore to Sicily on Friday as fellow migrants described scenes of panic and violence when water poured into their dinghy.

Some survivors had bite marks, testimony to a desperate struggle onboard to escape death.

The stricken boat was discovered floating off the coast of Libya on Wednesday, with humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) rescuing about 104 survivors and retrieving the badly disfigured corpses.

People on the rubber dinghy said human traffickers in Libya had pushed too many migrants aboard and the floor had split after the boat put to sea, proving a death trap for young women who had been sitting in the central section.

"I kept asking for help. Nobody would help. They were climbing on me to stay out of the water. I thought I would die," a 24-year-old Nigerian woman named Mary told MSF.

"I had to bite to be able to breathe. The woman I bit stood up. Men were standing on top of me. A woman stood on my face ... A woman who was pregnant died. We were under the water together."

Erna Rijnierse, an MSF doctor who was aboard the rescue ship, the MV Aquarius, said there was an eerie silence when they neared the dinghy and it was obvious there had been a struggle.

"You can tell it from the nail scratches on people's arms and legs, but also we had 10 people with human bites on arms, a back and also on the lower back and ankles," she said.

Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year while trying to reach Europe - three quarters of them en route from north Africa to Italy, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Just over 80,000 people, mainly from Africa, have reached Italy since Jan. 1, more or less in line with last year's numbers, according to official figures.

Mary told MSF she had been held in prison in Libya - immigrants are often arrested there - for two months before finding a place on the dinghy. Rijnierse said she believed many of the victims had been detained prior to the trip and were too weak to fight their way off the floor.

"They rape there. They are looking for young girls, you cannot say no, they have guns, shout, speak in their language," Mary said, describing her ordeal in the prison before she managed to escape and meet up with her husband.

Another survivor, a 30-year-old man called David from Nigeria, urged would-be migrants not to make the journey.
Syrian opposition turns to Pokemon to win support

July 22 (Reuters) - Syrian opposition groups have taken advantage of a global Pokemon craze to draw the world's attention to the plight of children caught up in the country's five-year civil war.

Photographs of children in besieged Syrian towns holding pictures of Pokemon characters and appealing for help were published by the Syrian National Coalition, an alliance of Western-backed activist and rebel groups.

Their release is an attempt to capitalize on the success of "Pokemon GO", which challenges players on smartphones to go to real-world locations to capture the cuddly monsters using the phone's camera.

"If you are looking for a Pokemon you can find it in Syria," the coalition said on Twitter through their communications arm, the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office.

Many Syrians feel the world is ignoring a conflict which has killed more than a quarter of a million people, displaced half the population, and left hundreds of thousands trapped by either government or rebel forces.

One photograph of a child with the Pokemon character "Pikachu" reads, "I am trapped in Douma in east Ghouta. Help me."

Douma is a suburb of Damascus besieged by government forces. Bombardments are a daily occurrence there and in the surrounding neighbourhoods, which hold tens of thousands of civilians according to the United Nations.
Tunisia's ruling parties set to oust PM in confidence vote

TUNIS, July 22 (Reuters) - Tunisia's parliament looks set to sack technocrat Prime Minister Habib Essid next week after the parties in the ruling coalition said they would not back him in a confidence vote.

Essid has been under pressure to quit after President Beji Caid Essebsi called last month for a new unity government that could push through economic reforms and calm social tensions.

Essid, who has been in post since early last year, refused to resign, but instead called a vote of confidence in his government for July 30.

"We decided not to give confidence to Habib Essid in the parliament," said Sofiane Toubel, a lawmaker in Essebsi's Nidaa Tounes party.

Ennahda, the biggest party in parliament, also said it would vote against the prime minister, as did Afek Tounes and UPL, two small liberal parties in the ruling coalition.

"There is an agreement between the parties and organizations on the need for change," said Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi.

"Habib Essid will not be the new prime minister, and his government has become a caretaker government since the president launched his initiative," he said.

The ruling coalition parties hold more than 150 seats out of 217 in parliament.

Tunisia has emerged as a political model for democratic change in the Arab world since the 2011 uprising that overthrew autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

But political progress has outpaced the economic liberalisation demanded by foreign lenders to tackle high unemployment, a particularly acute problem among Tunisia's youth.
Kenyan court jails ivory smuggler for 20 years

By Joseph Akwiri

MOMBASA, Kenya, July 22 (Reuters) - A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced a man to 20 years in jail and fined him 20 million shillings ($200,000) for ivory smuggling.

Police accused Feisal Mohamed Ali, from the coastal city of Mombasa, of being behind an international ivory poaching syndicate linked to a 3-tonne haul of elephant tusks seized in Mombasa in June 2014.

Poaching has surged in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa, where gangs kill elephants and rhinos to feed Asian demand for ivory and horns for use in folk medicines.

Kenya has imposed longer jail terms and bigger fines for wildlife poaching or trafficking, saying it is harming tourism, a major earner of foreign exchange.

Ali was arrested in Dar es Salaam in neighbouring Tanzania in December 2014 on a warrant issued by Interpol.

He faced two counts of handling ivory tusks and possessing ivory. He denied the charges but the court in Mombasa found him guilty on the second count and acquitted him on the first.

Magistrate Diana Mochache said: "120 elephants were killed and the value of the tusks was 44 million shillings." She was referring to the consignment of elephant tusks confiscated during a police raid on a warehouse in Mombasa.

Four other suspects on trial alongside Ali were acquitted of all charges.

Ali's lawyer Gerald Magolo told reporters his client would appeal the verdict. "There is no way he alone could be convicted," Magolo said.

Prosecutors said they would appeal against the acquittal of the other four suspects.

"The guilty verdict is a strong message to all networks of poaching gangs, ivory smugglers, financiers, middlemen and shippers that Kenya will not watch as its elephant population is decimated or its territory used as a conduit for traffickers," Kenya Wildlife Service said in a statement.

In January 2014, a Kenyan court convicted a Chinese man of smuggling ivory and ordered him to pay a fine of 20 million shillings or serve seven years in jail, the first sentencing since Kenya introduced its anti-poaching law.

In April, President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns, destroying a stockpile that would have been worth a fortune to smugglers and sending a message that trade in the animal parts must be stopped.
Former Ku Klux Klan leader Duke runs for U.S. Senate in Louisiana

By Bryn Stole

BATON ROUGE, La., July 22 (Reuters) - David Duke, a former leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, launched his candidacy on Friday for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana, saying white people are threatened in America and that he hears echoes of his views in Donald Trump's rhetoric.

Duke, a Republican, is a former Louisiana state legislator and unsuccessful candidate for governor who served a 15-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2002 to felony charges of tax evasion and mail fraud.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, drew criticism in February for failing to quickly disavow support from Duke.

At a news conference in Baton Rouge after officially filing as a candidate to succeed outgoing Republican Senator David Vitter, Duke, 66, said he watched Trump's speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday in Cleveland and heard echoes of his own past political platforms.

"I don't really care what Donald Trump says about me. I respect what he's doing," Duke said.

In an online video announcing his candidacy, Duke also said, "I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I've championed for years."

In his video, Duke said he believes in equal rights and respect for all Americans but "what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and heritage of European-Americans."

Duke's announcement came as Louisiana's capital grapples with racial tensions after the fatal July 5 shooting by police of a black man named Alton Sterling and the July 17 shooting deaths of three police officers by a black U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

In his comments to reporters, Duke called the Black Lives Matter protest movement that arose after a series of killings of black men by police in various U.S. cities a "terrorist group."

Duke said that "European-Americans" need a politician to fight for their interests and that white people are threatened in the United States. Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, said he was no longer affiliated with the group.

'HATE-FILLED FRAUD'

Duke's announcement drew and swift and scathing condemnation from Republican leaders and others. The Republican Party of Louisiana called Duke a "felon and hate-filled fraud" who does not embody Republican values.

Ward Baker, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which supports Republican candidates in Senate races, said Duke will never get the organization's backing.

Louisiana does not hold party primaries. Instead, candidates from all parties are placed on the same ballot. If no one wins a simple majority in the Nov. 8 election, the top two vote-getters enter a runoff.

Duke used this system to his advantage when he ran for governor in 1991 and made it to a runoff against former Governor Edwin Edwards, who had left office under a cloud of controversy for misconduct in office.

Other candidates seeking to replace Vitter in the Senate include Republican U.S. congressmen Charles Boustany and John Fleming. Vitter did not seek re-election to the Senate after a prostitution scandal helped derail his bid to become Louisiana governor.

"I strongly denounce the racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism of David Duke. His views are a relic of ancient history and are repugnant to Louisianians," Boustany said.

A spokesman for Fleming said the congressman "is wholly focused on uniting Louisiana voters of all races, creeds and religions."

In February, Trump initially blamed his failure to reject Duke's support on not having heard an interviewer clearly.

"I disavowed David Duke all weekend long, on Facebook, on Twitter, and obviously, it is never enough," Trump told NBC's "Today" show after being widely criticized.
Palermo court says people smuggler arrested in Sudan is right man

By Steve Scherer and Wladimir Pantaleone

ROME/PALERMO, July 22 (Reuters) - A suspected people smuggler who alleged he had been mistakenly arrested and extradited to Italy is indeed the man prosecutors had sought, Palermo magistrates said after investigating his identity.

Sudanese witnesses and the man's lawyer have said the suspect, who was initially identified as Medhanie Yehdego Mered, is not the smuggler sought for running a human trafficking network that sent thousands of migrants to Europe and many to their deaths at sea.

But Palermo prosecutors listed a series of reasons in a document seen by Reuters that they say show him to be the man they consider to be the smuggling kingpin who goes by the nickname "the General".

"There are many factors that confirm that the person we wire tapped, investigated in 2014, and sought to arrest for international people smuggling in 2015 is the same man who was arrested in Sudan and extradited to Italy," a prosecutor told a closed hearing on Thursday, according to a judicial source.

If his identity is confirmed by the court, it would be the first time a suspected trafficking kingpin has been tracked down in Africa and brought to face justice in Italy since Europe's immigration crisis started almost three years ago.

Prosecutors however admit that they may have got his name wrong, and they also say that the picture that had been circulated of their suspect, which bears little resemblance to the man arrested, was discovered to be of someone else who had nothing to do with the case.

The suspect's lawyer, Michele Calantropo, told Reuters his client's real name was Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe. He said he had been living in Khartoum as an Eritrean refugee when he was arrested in May, and had no ties to people smuggling.

"We are also continuing our own investigations and we will show our results to the judge at the next hearing on Sept. 21. The wrong man is in prison," Calantropo said.

At a hearing on Thursday, prosecutors presented the results of their investigation to the judge who will decide whether the suspect must remain in prison or not.

The case underscores the difficulties in fighting people smuggling to Europe from Africa. Both Italy and Britain, whose National Crime Agency helped coordinate the man's arrest with Sudanese authorities, have a lot riding on the case.

If it turns out that the wrong man was seized, it would be a huge blow in their battle against traffickers who have shipped more than 400,000 migrants to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea since 2014.

NAME DISCREPANCY

In a 27-page document Palermo prosecutors Calogero Ferrara and Claudio Camilleri list 17 elements that they said proves the suspect in custody is the man they had sought.

The reason for the name discrepancy was due to the fact that prosecutors had to deduce his identity from wiretaps, the document says. The suspect used different names on each of his multiple social media accounts.

A cell phone Medhanie was carrying when arrested had accessed the same Facebook account as the man investigated in 2014, and had spoken to some of the same people.

Medhanie was carrying the phone number of a man whom he had spoken with on 78 occasions during the original investigation, which was launched after a shipwreck that killed more than 360 people near the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.

A voice recognition specialist also compared wiretaps and said there was a similarity between the voices, but could not say with certainty it was the same man.
NEW YORKJason Galaniswho was formerly with the troubled-now-defunct company iBill and son of John Peter Galanis, a con man in his own rightpleaded guilty Thursday in a federal court in New York to securities fraud and other charges.

The charges stemmed from Galanis involvement between 2009 and 2011 with the publicly traded company Gerova Financial Group Ltd.

Federal prosecutors claimed Galanis was the ringleader of a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that acquired shares of the company and then manipulated the market by cashing out.

His sentencing for the plea is scheduled for December.

In 2004, Galaniswho hails from Los Angelesco-led a group with iBills former CEO Garrett Bender in buying iBill from Intercept Payment Solutions, which originally purchased the credit card processing company in 2002. Reports at the time said Galanis father had a heavy if not controlling hand on Jasons businesses, which have been involved in the spectacular blowup of a colorado bank and millions in losses for commodity giant Cargill. But those reports didnt stop Forbes magazine from publishing a feature on him and dubbing him Porns New King.

The 46-year-old Galanis and iBill have a lengthy, complicated and shady history in adult, which AVN covered here, here and here.

Galanis father was a financier in the 1970s and 1980s who became a notorious white collar criminal who was tried and sentenced in 1988 to 27 years in federal prison. In 2001, he was released from prison on a work release program and disappeared.

The younger Galanis also was charged with cheating a Native American tribe and investors out of $60 million, but he has pleaded not guilty to that charge.
Not all of Donald Trump's foreign policy positions are crazy

By Josh Cohen

July 22 (Reuters) - At a recent campaign rally, Donald Trump defended former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's record on terrorism, noting that Hussein was a "bad guy" who was nevertheless very efficient at "killing terrorists." House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately distanced himself from Trump's remarks, and leading Republican donors jumped in with criticism as well.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has repeatedly angered Washington's Republican foreign policy establishment with his views on America's role in the world. Although Trump did not repeat these views during his nomination speech on Thursday, in an interview Wednesday he suggested he might revisit the United States' willingness to defend its NATO allies - drawing an immediate rebuke from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

Some of Trump's foreign policy ideas are downright dangerous. Two of his ideas, for instance - forcing Mexico to pay for a new border wall and banning Muslims from entering the United States - alienate much of the world and neither reflect American values nor promote American interests. His apparent enthusiasm for increasing the United States' use of torture is downright chilling.

Nevertheless, amid Trump's showboating and frequently stream of consciousness thoughts, he raises some critical questions that challenge the longtime Washington foreign policy consensus but deserve to be taken seriously.

First, Trump frequently asserts the United States cannot continue to be the "world's policeman," thus challenging the belief held by both Democrats and Republicans that the United States remains the world's "indispensable nation." U.S. interventions in Iraq and Libya support Trump's case. Washington's Iraq adventure produced 40,000 American military casualties, over 150,000 dead Iraqi civilians and the rise of al Qaeda in Iraq and ultimately Islamic State. Meanwhile American military support for the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi left the country with an ongoing civil war and the emergence of a powerful Islamic State franchise on the Mediterranean.

Trump also rightly emphasizes the financial costs of American military interventions, pointing out during a Republican primary debate that "we've spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people" and "if we spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges...we would've been a lot better off." He's right on both counts. A Harvard study actually pegged the combined costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at between $4 trillion and $6 trillion - almost the same amount of money required over the next ten years just to keep America's already crumbling infrastructure from deteriorating further.

In these contexts, Trump's assertion that if the United States had done nothing in the Middle East since 2001 "we would have been much better" has a degree of truth.

Trump also asks some hard questions regarding the United States' network of global alliances. At various points during his campaign Trump has suggested he would renegotiate Washington's alliance with Japan and halt purchases of oil from Saudi Arabia. He called NATO "obsolete" - even suggesting "maybe NATO will dissolve, and that's okay." While these positions make many in the mainstream foreign policy establishment apoplectic, Trump raises some legitimate points.

For example, when it comes to NATO, only five countries in the alliance meet the NATO guidelines that each member spend a minimum of two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, but only five countries - including the United States - meet this requirement. The alliance with Japan is even more unequal. Tokyo spends only one percent of GDP on defense, and as Trump points out, Washington remains required to protect Japan in the event of a conflict, while Japan does not possess any reciprocal requirements.

This means it's not beyond the realm of possibility, for example, that the United States could find itself dragged into a war with China if Beijing and Tokyo clash over the uninhabited Senkaku islands - a pile of rocks possessing no strategic interest to the United States.

Lastly, Trump's willingness to meet with with the leaders of American adversaries such as North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin should not be dismissed out of hand. As odious as the North Korean regime may be, the reality is that Pyongyang possesses a growing nuclear arsenal, and even the Pentagon admits "North Korea is committed to developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile that is capable of posing a direct threat to the United States."

While Kim appears unwilling to eliminate Pyongyang's nuclear program, it's arguably in the American national interest to at least sit down with Kim to determine if a deal between Washington and Pyongyang could even be possible. Given that no other policy that Washington has pursued towards North Korea in the last 15 years has worked, no harm can come of trying something different.

The argument for engaging with Russia is even stronger. While demonizing Putin makes for good rhetoric, U.S. and Russian interests overlap in some places. Cooperation to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism and proliferation represents one fruitful area for further cooperation. Containing the violence in Syria is another example where coordinating with Moscow might be useful.

Indeed, since Washington first began working with Syrian rebels in 2012, its proxies have at various times allied with al Qaeda's Syrian branch; fought each other; turned American-supplied weapons over to al Qaeda; and according to a recently released Amnesty International report committed war crimes, targeted ethnic and religious minorities and imposed Sharia law in cities they control. In this context, Trump's belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin's move into Syria and desire to fight Islamic State is a "wonderful thing" makes some sense.

What Trump ultimately offers is an American foreign policy more focused on narrow American national interests than previously pursued by the United States. This does not mean Trump's views necessarily reflect the best course for the United States - strong arguments in favor of American alliances and the importance of Washington's continuing role as the world's "indispensable nation" exist - but at a minimum it's worth debating the pluses and minuses of the traditional "Washington Playbook" approach to foreign policy.

Unfortunately however, while some of Trump's viewpoints help promote needed debate, many of his other foreign policy ideas are incoherent or even alarming. Moreover, while Trump sometimes espouses a narrower world role for the United States, at other times he completely contradicts this realpolitik approach. For example, Trump promises if elected his "number-one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran" while also deploying 30,000 American troops to Syria to fight Islamic State. These policies make Trump sound more like a traditional neo-conservative Republican than an original thinker.
Number of people fleeing South Sudan violence hits one-day record, officials say

By Sebastien Malo

NEW YORK, July 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 8,300 refugees fled violence in war-torn South Sudan and crossed into neighboring Uganda in a single day this week, setting a one-day record for this year, United Nations officials said on Friday.

The refugees, nearly all women and children, were escaping stepped-up fighting between forces loyal to South Sudan's president and those loyal to its former vice president, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

More than two years of ethnically charged fighting, triggered when President Salva Kiir fired Vice President Riek Machar in 2013, has killed more than 10,000 people and forced more than 2 million others to flee their homes.

This week overall, more than 24,000 South Sudanese traveled south to Uganda, pushing the limits of humanitarian groups working in the region, UNHCR said.

Days of torrential rain have created muddy roads that complicate deliveries, and the rain and crowded conditions heighten risks of disease spreading, UNHCR said.

"At the moment humanitarian organizations are coping, but just about," Charles Yaxley, a UNHCR spokesman, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Kampala.

Some 10,000 refugees are staying in the Ugandan border town of Elegu in a compound equipped to hold 1,000 people, Yaxley said.

Another Ugandan site in Kuluba has more than three times its capacity, with more than 1,000 refugees, UNHCR said.
U.N. authorizes states to help Libya dispose of chemicals

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday authorized U.N. countries to help eliminate Libya's stockpile of chemicals that could be used to develop toxic weapons amid concern they could fall into the hands of militant groups.

Libyan authorities told the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), last Saturday that the country's remaining precursor chemicals had been moved to a temporary storage site in the north of the country and asked for help to destroy them outside of Libya.

Libya has roughly 700 tonnes of precursor chemicals - known as category two chemical weapons - diplomats said.

In a unanimously adopted, British-drafted resolution, the 15-member Security Council determined "that the potential for acquisition by non-State actors of chemical weapons in Libya represents a threat to international peace and security."

Islamic State gained a foothold in Libya amid the political chaos and security vacuum that developed after long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011. Al Qaeda-linked militant group Ansar al Sharia also has a presence.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the resolution "marks the beginning of the end of the Libyan chemical weapons programme" by authorizing the removal of the precursors from Libya to be destroyed in another country.

"In doing so, we have reduced the risk of these weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and fanatics," Johnson said during his first appearance at the U.N. Security Council since being appointed last week.

The Security Council authorized "member states to acquire, control, transport, transfer and destroy chemical weapons identified by the Director-General of the OPCW ... to ensure the elimination of Libya's chemical weapons stockpile in the soonest and safest manner, with appropriate consultations with the Government of National Accord."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the adoption of the resolution on Friday was relevant "given there's been a springing up of terrorist groups in Libya."

"There was an imminent threat of danger that these things would fall into terrorist hands. The examples of Syria and Iraq have demonstrated the topical nature of the problem of chemical terrorism for the region," Churkin said.
FBI repatriates recovered 1,000-year-old Mayan artifacts to Guatemala

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES, July 22 (Reuters) - Federal authorities on Friday formally repatriated a collection of more than thousand-year-old Mayan artifacts to the Guatemalan government at a ceremony in Los Angeles after recovering them from the estate of a deceased art collector.

The collection of limestone sculptures was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by a person handling the estate of the collector, who has not been publicly identified.

"The cultural significance of these pre-Columbian artifacts is priceless to the people of Guatemala," Deirdre Fike, FBI assistant director in charge of the agency's Los Angeles office, said following the ceremony.

"I'm very pleased that the FBI's Art Crime Team was able to facilitate the return of these ancient treasures to their proper home."

No criminal charges were filed over the recovery of the sculptures, three which have been traced to the Late Classic Maya Era (A.D. 600-900).

According to the FBI, experts say the fragments were uncovered near a ruined temple building in the Petexbatun Region of Guatemala and that an inscription found on them is part of a text that served as a primitive calendar.

The other four pieces were thought to have originated in the El Peru area of Guatemala and believed to date to the Early Classic Period (A.D. 400-600).

According to the FBI, experts have said the artifacts are consistent with Mayan iconography and that the carvings are associated with symbolism depicting an earth or mountain monster.

All seven will be shipped to Guatemala in the coming days. The Guatemalan government will determine the best place to house and display them.

A source close to the case said that the items were believed to have been purchased by the now-deceased art collector in the 1970s from a man who was convicted during that decade of dealing in other artifacts that were illegally brought to the United States.

No charges were ever filed in connection with the seven pieces repatriated on Friday.
Kashmir Valley is on the boil again. If home minister Rajnath Singh's statement in Parliament on Thursday is to be believed, along with the 38 deaths and 2,180 civilian injuries in firing, one police officer died and 1,392 security men were injured in the attack by agitating crowds.

Mistake

It has been like this in J&K, off and on, for nearly 30 years. A child who was born in 1989 is now a 26-year-old young man.

What has he seen in the last three decades? Curfew, clampdown, terrorist attacks, dead bodies, deserted streets...

Yes, it was a grave mistake on Jawaharlal Nehru's part to take the Kashmir issue to the United Nations and promise a plebiscite. But Nehru can't be blamed for all what is going on there?

Successive governments of different political affiliations, both in New Delhi and Srinagar, have contributed to the mess we are in.

While bringing back normalcy has to be the immediate goal, winning the hearts and minds of Kashmiri youth must be the next priority. In this regard, Rajnath Singh's statement is a welcome move.

The home minister, under severe criticism over a large number of Kashmiri youth being hit in the eye with pellet shots by security forces, announced the setting up of an expert committee to suggest alternative to this non-lethal weapon to control crowds.

Long-term political solution, however, will require concerted efforts to evolve a consensus among the elected Kashmiri leaders, the Union government and prominent opposition parties.

Aren't the security forces seen by many in the state as an occupying force? (AP)

We need an interlocutor for J&K for ten years - as former Union home secretary K Padmanabhaiah was for Nagaland - who enjoys trust and confidence of all stakeholders, who will connect with all shades of opinion-makers in and outside the Valley, and painstakingly carves out a template which appears a win-win scenario for all.

To begin with, a little introspection and soul-searching will do us no harm.

For nearly 30 years, the Centre has been maintaining around 3,50,000 troops in J&K.

Has their presence made the lives of ordinary Kashmiris more secure than in the 1980s?

Aren't the security forces seen by many in the state as an occupying force?

Shouldn't it be given that as a nation basically inimical to us, Pakistan would do what it has been doing all these years?

Pakistan is busy doing in Kashmir what it had done in Punjab in the 1980s and the early 1990s when it instigated, financed, trained, armed and even exported Khalistani terrorists in the state.

The Khalistani insurgency failed largely because the vast majority of Sikhs didn't embrace militancy. Sadly, that is not true about Kashmir today.

Alienation

We need to find out why most people in the Valley don't feel connected with the rest of the country. There should be a concerted attempt to win over the youth of the state who have been radicalised over the years, if not decades.

It must be understood that the alienation of the Valley is the culmination of the sordid saga of arrest/dismissal of CMs on dubious grounds, rigged elections, mal-governance, rampant corruption, lack of employment, steep decline in tourism, excessive use of force by security agencies, and of course the role of Pakistan in providing funds and arms to anti-India elements in the Valley.

Social networking has become a tool of instant dissemination of negative developments aggravating the situation.

J&K isn't just a law and order problem. It is primarily a political issue which can only be tackled politically: by restoring people's trust in government/security agencies, and allaying fears and anxieties about trampling on the state's special status.

Also, it's time the Centre realises that AFSPA can't - and should not - be a permanent feature in the lives of Kashmiris.

Though it's not the author's contention that the armed forces in the state do not need legal protection, this one single move would garner a lot of goodwill for the government.

Normalcy

But the real normalcy will come only when the state witnesses economic development at the grassroots level.

The youth of the Valley can't be allowed to be left idle to be misused by anti-India forces. The government can involve apolitical youth icons to connect with the youth to wean them away from militancy.

IIFA, for instance, holds its annual function in different world capitals, why not in Srinagar?

In the 1960s, most Bollywood blockbusters were shot in Srinagar and Pahalgam; with secure conditions, they can be brought back.

Likewise, the Centre can ensure the state hosts sporting events. Though it will require a lot of efforts to successfully hold these events in J&K, the windfall of the entire exercise would be immense.

In all these things, the government must not come across as a weak, compromising player. The policy of blowing hot and blowing cold doesn't help; it sends mixed signals.

Political leaders of the Valley who support terrorists and don't accept India's Constitution must be put behind the bar indefinitely.

Above all, we should upgrade our surveillance and intelligence gathering and apprehend infiltrators at the porous entry points.

Last but not least, we must shame Pakistan internationally by publicising its irrefutable involvement in acts of terrorism in India. Kashmir is a long battle. We need to play it that way.
Every dog has its day. Even the "underdog"!

On July 21, thousands of enraged workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party descended on roads of Lucknow and brought the city to a standstill.

Shouting slogans and demanding the immediate arrest of BJP's Dayashankar Singh, the BSP supporters gathered at the Ambedkar statue in Hazratganj.

But among the many slogans being shouted by thousands of angry supporters, one was clearly most resounding: "Dayashankar kutta hai".

Of the many placards at display, one was unmistakably most visible: "Dayashankar kutte ko giraftaar karo".

Dog, the best friend of man, seems to also have become the most favourite adjective in politics these days.

Dayashankar Singh, former BJP UP vice-president. (PTI)

When used properly, it can spice up a statement and have very desirable effect.

Like Asaduddin Owaisi showed his command over the use of this tricky word and got many compliments when he said: "ISIS militants are dogs from hell. I will cut them into thousand pieces."

But the BJP is learning it the hard way that a dog bite can hurt badly and the pain can come back to haunt it again and again.

Like it is happening now, thanks to Dayashankar Singh.

Yesterday in Lucknow, leader after leader of the BSP could be seen reminding people on the loudspeakers how VK Singh, who compared Dalits to dogs, still continues to be part of Modi's ministry.

Nasimuddin Siddiqui, the senior BSP leader was thundering: "This is not Dayashankar who has spoken these dirty words; it reflects the real thoughts of the party. Don't get fooled when they say that Dayashankar has been removed from the party. Remember, what VK Singh said about Dalits? He compared you with dogs. What action did the BJP take against him?"

It's not about Dalits and dogs alone.

The Congress and Samajwadi Party, both trying aggressively to woo Muslims in UP elections, never miss a chance to remind them about the much talked about Modi's "a puppy coming under the car" comment.

More recently, motormouth Subramanian Swamy took the fancy for dogs to Twitter and left many leaders red faced when he quipped about "someone being bitten by mad unelectable dog".

But it is hard to find a BJP leader today having an iota of sympathy for Dayashankar Singh when he is being called "Dayashankar kutta, murdabad, murdabad".

In one stroke, he has frittered away the capital gains that the BJP had earned by working for months among the Dalits.

Weaning away a section of Dalits from Mayawati, who so far had a tight grip on this vote bank, is one of the most crucial strategies that Amit Shah and his team has been working on.

Shah taking a holy dip with Valmiki sadhus in Ujjain or having lunch at the homes of Dalits were efforts in the same direction.

Lok Sabha election results in 2014 has given the BJP this confidence that if planned shrewdly, the Hindu identity can be used to overshadow the identity of caste and bring the Dalits under the BJP fold.

So successful was the strategy in Lok Sabha polls that Mayawati was reduced to zero seats in UP, which was unprecedented. The RSS has also been extending a helping hand and the pracharaks have been working deep into the villages on this agenda.

In a week-long, closed-door meeting of the RSS in Kanpur recently, a detailed blueprint for this was prepared how to give momentum to this effort.

Once again, the BJP leaders were beaming with confidence and were sure that their efforts to woo Dalits are yielding results. But then the stories of atrocities on Dalits in Gujarat erupted and the opposition parties lapped it up.

And before the BJP could contain the damage, Dayashankar decided to bark a nonsense - and let his party's fortunes go to the dogs in UP.

Till recently, it looked like the BSP was on a downslide in Uttar Pradesh. One after another, leaders were deserting the party and allegations of corruption against Mayawati were flying thick.

But just when the opponents were about to declare the BSP as the demoralised underdog in the run-up to the elections, Dayashankar has proved that barking dogs can also bite.

Now the BSP has got a potent issue to harp on and a new lease of life to bounce back at its opponents very aggressively.
CHATSWORTH, Calif.The second edition of trans studio Grooby's Shemale.xxx Florida Roadtrip releases Monday through distributor Exquisite Multimedia.

Directed by Jack Flash, Florida Roadtrip 2 stars Sunshine State-based TS performers Mayland, Jenny, Lucia, Peyton and Cindy.

"So many of our hottest TS stars come from Florida thanks to our director Jack Flash," Grooby founder Steven Grooby said. "For this DVD, we've handpicked some of our favorite hardcore scenes from some of Florida's hottest upcoming TS stars."

"It is an exciting time here at Grooby to all of our retailers' delight," sales manager David Peskin added. "Domino Presley: Transsexual Icon streeted on Monday and has re-ordered all week, even with huge numbers out the door. Many believe it is the biggest TS release thus far this year."

Peskin continued, "Recent releases TGirls Porn Volume 2, a trans-lesbian title, and the debut of UK TGirls & Friends are retailing, plus Miran: Newhalf Superstar is currently the number one best-seller at Adult DVD Empire in the transsexual genre. Based on the sales of the first volume, no doubt Shemale.xxx Florida Roadtrip 2 will be another boner-fide winner."

As Florida Roadtrip 2 streets Monday, Grooby will also begin shipping Trans-Tastic Four, which it touts as the first ever transsexual XXX comic book parody, scheduled to street the following Monday, August 1.

For DVD, VOD, licensing and broadcast sales/inquiries, both domestic and foreign, contact Peskin at [email protected] or (866) 629-4271 ext. 113. All other inquiries may be directed to [email protected].
BATH, EnglandA new TV advertisement for Lbovehoneys pleasure products and lingerie take a humorous approach by featuring cute furry rabbits going at it like  well, rabbits.

When we tested the concept with consumers they loved it, describing it as exciting, humorous and playful. Its a little bit cheeky and is really getting talked about, said Helen Balmer, brand and marketing director for Lovehoney. Everyone who has seen it ends up with a big smile on their face.

In the ad, which was cleared to air on British TV after 9 p.m., features bonking furry rabbits, cheeky spanking with a fly swatter and a happy, satisfied couple crashing on a bed in a post-coital glow. Award-winning Lovehoney was the first sex toy company to advertise on TV in the U.K.

The manufacturers previous ads, featuring couples talking about their positive experiences shopping at Lovehoney, have helped boost annual sales to 55 million and profits to increase by 79 percent to 3.7 million.

Balmer identified, through research and insight, that U.K. consumers are ready for a new approach for talking about/considering sex toys.

The aim is to convert the millions of adults currently considering buying sex toys into Lovehoney customers with ads celebrating the fun sex toys can bring to a relationship along with Lovehoneys excellent customer service and discreet packaging.

The ad started showing on British TV on July 21 and it is being widely shared on social media.

Balmer, appointed last October, said: Following an extremely high quality pitch process, we appointed Brave. We selected Brave because they really got our market, our brand and applied our insight. They developed a brilliant creative which is totally on brief and brand.

Balmer led a creative team which included from Brave group Account Director Claire Knowles, Creative Head Caroline Paris, Senior Producer Emma Smalley and Director Mary Clerte from Partizan.

Knowles said: We were delighted to work with Lovehoney to create a real category-shifting TV ad, to entice couples to enhance their sex lives in the pursuit of sexual happiness for everyone.

Lovehoney has worked closely with regulators Clearcast and all its ads go out after the 9 p.m. watershed.

Balmer added: We work hard with the regulators to create ads appropriate for post-watershed schedules. No sex toys are featured in the new ad, and instead we have lots of innuendoa staple of British humor.

Lovehoney is Britains biggest online sex toy retailer. It has the worldwide rights to all Fifty Shades sex toys and sexual wellbeing products and it is expecting a record year with the launch of the new Fifty Shades Darker movie around Valentines Day next year. The first movie, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, was one of the the biggest-grossing adult movie of all time.

Lovehoney has launched new websites in America, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and an .eu site for Europe, allowing customers to shop in Euros.

In April, Lovehoney won the Queens Award for Enterprise in International Trade for outstanding growth in overseas sales over the last three years. It allows Lovehoney to feature the Queens Award emblem on all its packaging.

Media planning and buying for the ad was done through The Specialist Works.

Watch the new ad on YouTube.com.
LOS ANGELESReigning AVN Male Performer of the Year Mick Blue has a new release out this week from BAM Visions, distributed by Evil Angel. Anal Visions is now available on DVD, the latest from BAM Visions. (Click here to read more about the one-year-old company, founded by Blue, Anikka Alrite and Maestro Claudio.)



In Anal Visions, Blue takes on the whole cast himself, putting Abella Danger, Ashley Fires, Kat Dior and Stella Cox in his sights.

I feel like each of our movies is my favorite when it comes out because they are all very special, but I really do love Anal Visions, Blue said. These are all beautiful girls at the top of their game doing incredibly passionate anal scenes with me POV style. There is so much to love about this movie!

The nominees for the 2016 NightMoves Awards have been announced, and Blue is again in the running for Best Male Performer. The NightMoves Awards will be held at the Tampa Gold Club this October. For more information go to NightMovesOnline.com.

Blue and wife Anikka Albrite star in Babysitting the Baumgartners, the biggest release of the year from Adam & Eve Pictures. The DVD is available this week. Next week the company will host a party to promote the movie. The party will be held next Friday, July 29, at Ora, 1710 N. Las Palmas in Hollywood. Doors open at 10 p.m. and there is plenty of parking in two adjacent lots.



Check out the SFW trailer for Babysitting the Baumgartners here.

Watch the trailer for Anal Visions here.

Blue also stars in several other new DVDs, including The Sexual Desires of Megan Rain (New Sensations), Squirt-a-Holic (New Sensations) and Bonnie "Spoiled" Rotten (Darkko/Evil Angel). He also directed the recent releases Micks Anal Teens 3 (BAM Visions) with Maestro Claudio and Busty Nurses 3 for Zero Tolerance.

To book Mick contact him directly at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter and Instagram (mickbluexxx).
SAN FRANCISCO, CA  Falcon Studios Group has released Raging Stallions Men of Madrid, a sexual journey through the bustling Spanish metropolis. Director Steve Cruz is the tour guide, giving exclusive access to the horniest, hairiest, hottest Spanish hunks getting off with each other all over the city. This rough and rugged Euro action is now available for download and on DVD on the Falcon Studios Group store.

Big muscles, dark, thick Latin hair, tattoos, and hefty uncut cocks rule in the world of the Men of Madrid. Viktor Rom cruises Ramwey Reis on the street, and they retreat to private rooftop with a sweeping view of the Madrid skyline. Spaniard Gabriel Taurus invites Mario Domenech over for some siesta action, indulging in advanced 69 techniques and vigorous ass-fucking. Abraham Al Malek gets into intense oral and heavy pounding with handsome stranger Antonio Miracle, but doesnt discover that Antonio is playing him until its already too late. Flex Xtremo is nervous about hiring his first escort, but Xavi Duran quickly puts him at ease. When Mario Domenech and Viktor Rom both get cancelled on by their flakey hookups, they turn to each other for fun.

Filming on location in Spain is the best part of my job, says director Steve Cruz. The men there are of the most beautiful anywhere in the world. I fall in love every time, and Madrid is one of my favorite cities. The spirit of the city comes through, and the men, they definitely come through too, and come again..."

Steve Cruz has once again captured some of the worlds most incredible men in action, states Falcon Studios Group President Tim Valenti. With the busy city as a backdrop, the Men of Madrid deliver scorching hot performances. This film is everything Raging Stallion represents.

For DVD wholesale purchasing, contact Jose Mineros at [email protected]
CHATSWORTH, Calif.Mancini Productions long-running series She-Male Strokers has returned for its 81st volume, with seven performers aiming to please fans of the genre. Chanel Santini and Isabella Sorrent grace the cover.

Streeting this week and directed by the prolific Sammy Mancini, She-Male Strokers 81 brings out some well-known names along with newbies. The cast includes Alexa Scout, Stefani Special, Aleena, Luna and Korra Del Rio.

She-Male Strokers recently garnered another industry nomination. The 2016 NightMoves Awards announced its nominations and She-Male Strokers 79 received a nod for Best Transsexual Release. Fans and the industry can cast votes here. Only vote per IP address can be made, and voting closes September 15. The Editors Choice awards are decided by an industry panel. The 24th Annual Awards Show will be held in Tampa, Florida, on October 9. Details can be found here.

Of course, Im always excited about the release of a new title, and ecstatic to be nominated again by NightMoves, Mancini said. I hope the fans will not only buy the DVD, but also cast their vote for She-Male Strokers 79.

Exquisite Multimedia exclusively distributes Mancini Productions. For foreign and domestic DVD sales, licensing and broadcast, contact David Peskin at [email protected] or (866) 629-4273.

Mancini's content is also available at ShemaleStrokers.com. Follow the studio on Twitter: @shemalestrokers.
Best Black Jeans For Men

Every Man Needs At Least One Pair Of These Classic Black Jeans

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Once a symbol of the labourer, jeans now transcend the workwear wardrobe. Jeans have become a staple for budget-savvy ballers, the working class, and the elite; for the young and less young; and for classic and contemporary dressers alike. In other words, jeans know no bounds. If made well, as Levi Strauss and his business partner Jacob Davis learned early on in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, jeans can be the most durable and valuable item of clothing anyone could own.

Traditionally made from blue or indigo denim, solid everyday jeans are reinforced at the seam and high-wear areas, and are cut for comfort. Usually fabricated from cotton, jeans arent unlike a good pair of leather boots or wallet  they just get better with time. Keeping this in mind, a buzzword youll want to be familiar with is selvedge denim. Derived from self-edge, the woven strips that run along the edges of a roll of fabric, selvedge is the rawest form of denim available. Stiff at first, it loosens with time, but never frays thanks to its tight weave. A symbol of hard work, the wear patterns will always be unique  a mark of ownership and lifestyle.

Today, classic jeans have been put through many variations. When shopping for the perfect jeans, there are two main things to keep in mind: fit and fabric. While jeans are now often made from various cotton blends for added stretch or textural effect, straying away from your natural fibres tends to cheapen the quality. Fabric also comes in many washes, offering room for personalization when choosing your best fit. Keeping your body stature and style in mind, the fit of your pants will differentiate the cowboy from the New Yorker, the punk rocker from the beach bum, and Bobs uncle from the 2016 man.

Fit is often considered according to six bucket categories: skinny, slim, slim straight, straight, tapered, boot cut, and relaxed. Keeping these fits in mind, heres your guide to the best black jeans for men. The kicker? Nothing on this list is over $200.

Lightweight Dylan Stretch Denim in Black

Cut loose for maximum breathability and ease of movement, the Dylan jeans are an ideal vacation look. Created from lightweight cotton, the fit is snug through the hip and thigh with a narrow leg opening at the ankle for an optional roll at the cuff. The boyfriend jeans for boyfriends.

$60.00 at FrankandOak.com

Levis 541 Commuter Athletic Fit Jeans

For the guy who prefers to an unconstricted feel but still needs a streamlined fit for his daily excursions, the 541 Commuter jeans are the answer. Built with plenty of room in the thighs knees and calves, these are designed for the guy who doesnt necessarily have the body type of a waifish runway model (certainly not a bad thing). Available in Midnight, or a variety of other nice colorways.

$46.99 at Amazon.com

True Religion Relaxed Fit Jeans

Heres a relaxed fit thats still work appropriate. Featuring an inky black wash, and capped off with matte black hardware and button-flap coin pockets, these True Religion jeans are a refined version of taking it easy. Made from 98% cotton, these are guaranteed to be comfortable from the get-go.

$188.00 at Nordstrom.com

Flint And Tinder Slim Black Selvedge

At Huckberry, quality and lifestyle are of primary importance. These slim-cut selvedge jeans from Flint and Tinder are crafted from 100% cotton and sulfur-dyed for a unique finish. Made in New York, expect these jeans to take a bit of wearing in, and expect the rewards to be amazing. Tip: Wash these inside out to preserve the pitch of the dye.

$62.98 at Huckberry.com

7 For All Mankind Standard Luxe Performance Straight Leg Jeans

Crafted from black stretch-denim with an understated lustre, the Standard Luxe jeans are a great straight leg option. Woven to keep its shape, these will wear in (but not out!) within a few hours. Made in the USA from imported materials.

$189.00 at Nordstrom.com

NEED Standard Denim Selvedge Jeans

For originality points, look out for NEED denim. Made in the USA from imported Italian fabrics, the black Standard jeans are a mid-weight option featuring gunmetal hardware, single needle topstitching at the inseam, and a flattering fit that sits somewhere between slim and straight. 100% cotton.

$89.99 at NeedSupply.com

Cheap Monday Skinny Jeans

Cheap Monday is a great entry level brand. These jeans wont redefine your appreciation of black jeans, but they were made using the same accessible signature streetwear style that has earned the brand international recognition. Here, these basic skinny jeans feature a greyish black wash, 5-pocket styling, button closure and zip fly.

$75.00 at EastDane.com

Naked & Famous Skinny Fit Jeans

Featuring a modern skinny fit, these Naked & Famous jeans are made in Canada from premium 12-ounce Japanese denim. With a low rise, streamlined cut through the seat and thighs, and mildly stretchy quality and slender profile, these are a great staple in the skinny category. Tip: Nordstrom recommends ordering one size up, since these tend to run on the small side.

$145.00 at Nordstrom.com

Baldwin Denim 76 Slim Stretch Jeans

A looser fit slim jean, the Baldwin 76s provides plenty of room for moving around without compromising a clean silhouette. Made from 98% cotton and assembled in the USA, these wont take much time to break into. Can also be rolled once or twice at the cuff for a more relaxed look.

$154.00 at EastDane.com

Levis 513 Slim Straight Stretch Jeans

A mid rise jean thats equally classic and contemporary. Not strictly speaking black, these 513s come in a dark wash thats effectively trompe-l'il. Constructed with a straight-leg fit that tapers below the knee for a clean silhouette, wed be hard pressed finding someone these didnt look good on. Also featuring 5-pocket styling, a zip fly and button closure.

$69.50 at Nordstrom.com

Naked & Famous Weird Guy Easy Guy Jeans

Made in Canada from Japanese fabrics, the Easy Guy jeans from Naked & Famouss Weird Guy collection are a favorite in the relaxed category. With an overall laid-back fit that remains comfortable throughout, were talking extra room in the seat, hips and thighs and a gradual taper from the knee to leg opening. Looks great rolled.

$170.00 at Amazon.com

Unbranded Brand Black Selvedge Chino Jeans

Here, two styles come together to offer the best of both. Made from 100% cotton, these black selvedge chinos have the same durable feel that youd expect from a pair of jeans, but feature a look thats relaxed yet refined like a typical chino. Also equipped with 5-pocket styling, a button-fly closure, and a hidden coin pocket.

$88.00 at Amazon.com

Levis 511 Red Tab Slim Fit Selvedge Jeans

With a fit thats slim through the thigh and cut straight from knee to ankle, the Levis 511s are a no-frills classic. Theyre made from a mildly stretchy selvedge denim loomed in North Carolina, and feature a 5-pocket design, button closure and zip fly. Levis Red Tab line also offers an interesting range of shirts, jackets and accessories bent on the same standard of craftsmanship.

$128.00 at EastDane.com

Frank + Oak Soft Wash Selvedge Denim in Jet Black

Cut in Frank + Oaks classic slim-straight fit for ultimate versatility, the Soft Wash Selvedge Jeans in jet black offer a comfortable twist on your usual raw selvedge. Blended with 1% of lycra for minimal stretch and easy wear, they can be paired with anything from a blazer and sneakers, to Oxfords and a relaxed tee.

$125.00 at FrankandOak.com

Related reading:

- Men's Jeans Under $100

AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use.
Tesla Reveals Part Two Of 'Master Plan'

Trending News: The Future According To Tesla's 'Master Plan' Sounds Amazing

Why Is This Important?

Because when Elon Musk tells you his plans, you listen.

Long Story Short

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has outlined his second master plan for the future in a blog post and it includes safe self-driving cars, electric buses and taxies, and cars that make you money when you arent using them.

Long Story

Elon Musk is the closest thing we have to a real life Willy Wonka, so when he released his latest self-titled Tesla Master Plan, Part Deux on the companys blog page, the world sat up and took notice.

In the post, Musk looked back at his last master plan, which he says is "in the final stages of completion." That plan reads: Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive, use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price, use that money to create an affordable high volume car. And Provide solar power. No kidding, this has literally been on our website for 10 years.

Musk explains how he used the money he made from PayPal to spearhead Tesla - a business that he admitted seemed crazy to many.

As of 2016, the number of American car companies that havent gone bankrupt is a grand total of two: Ford and Tesla. Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared, he said.

But Tesla has thrived and Musk, who is also behind SpaceX and the prospective Hyperloop, has unveiled his next steps for the electric car company.

He writes that Tesla will create a "solar roof with battery product" that can be fitted onto houses and he plans for Teslas electric vehicles to expand its range to buses and taxies. There remain question marks over how safe self-driving cars are, but Musk insists he will produce "a self-driving capability that is 10x safer than manual"

This comes as critics pick apart Teslas Autopilot mode which allows cars to travel autonomously on motorways while changing lanes and speeds as needed. A recent crash during a test caused a fatality and road safety investigators are trying to ascertain whether the Autopilot was responsible.

Finally, Musk pledges to "enable your car to make money for you while you arent using it," which would happen via drivers adding their cars to a shared fleet scheme. This would mean that Tesla owners could summon a car when needed via an app, almost like a self-driving Uber, and when you arent using it you can effectively rent it out.

The blog post explains: Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5% to 10% of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.

The proposals in the plan could make a radical difference to the way we drive and could dramatically assist in fighting climate change and air pollution. While some critics suggest the plans are vague and may be unrealistic, Musk has proved the doubters wrong before and you wouldnt ever bet against him.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Would you ever trust a self-driving car?

Disrupt Your Feed

Elon Musk is one of the few people who can declare he has a "master plan" without people laughing at him.

Drop This Fact

Musks official annual salary for his work at Tesla is just $1.
Learn From Nick Wooster's Impeccable Style

Look (Almost) As Good As Fashion Icon Nick Wooster With A Little Help From $tyleJacker

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Nick Wooster poses in front of a Cadillac Escalade at the brand's New York Mens Day event. Nick Wooster is kind of like a Cadillac  expensive, domestically-produced, and the epitome of American luxury.

A photo posted by Nickelson Wooster (@nickwooster) on Jul 11, 2016 at 11:56am PDT

Who even is Nick Wooster?

Hes the most street-styled old dude of all time.

Hes the epitome of aging gracefully.

Hes the type of guy who pulls off corny suiting and looks amazing.

OK, but who is he? Why do we care?

Nick Wooster is a consultant, stylist, and brand manager whos worked with everyone from Calvin Klein to Ralph Lauren to Barneys. Hes the OG don of mens street style and he makes shit happen for billion-dollar brands around the world.

Hes from a small town in Kansas and worked his way up the chain working for some of the biggest retailers and fashion houses on earth. So essentially, hes living the American fuccboi dream in exactly the way you wish you were.

Im not here to give you career advice. But I can show you how to look (almost) as good as the boy Wooster. And hopefully for a little bit less than his suits are worth  not that he pays for em.

RELATED: The Best Style Tips Heard At New York Fashion Week: Men's

So whats our man got on here?

Lets get it.

1. A Navy Blazer

This is one of the most versatile items of #TraditionalMenswear you could have in your closet. Navy goes with absolutely everything, and a well-cut, single-breasted blazer polishes off almost any outfit. Just dont wear one with jeans and well be good.

High Life

Tom Ford Blue Slim-Fit Denim Blazer, $3,445.00 at MrPorter.com

My Life

Club Monaco Blue Slim-Fit Stretch-Cotton Pique Blazer, $270.00 at MrPorter.com

2. A Mandarin-Collar Shirt

I f*ck with mandarin collars. Theres something both relaxed and sharp about em. They remind me of a Chinese peasant from the year 1463 and a priest and a futuristic starship captain at the same damn time. Great option for fulfilling the button-down requirement while staying chill.

High Life

Palm Angels Green Koreana Shirt, $395.00 at SSENSE.com

My Life

Uniqlo Men EFC Broadcloth Stand Collar Long-Sleeve Shirt, $29.90 at Uniqlo.com

3. Cropped Trousers

You can tell that the boy Wooster is of the Thom Browne school of suiting. Cropped trousers are still decidedly the wave and wearing them is the best way to show off your kicks. Skip the tighter silhouettes and go for something that fits well with a bit of breathing room. Aint no skinny jeans here.

High Life (On Sale!)

Thom Browne Classic Chinos, $513.45 at Farfetch.com

My Life (Just Get Em Hemmed)

GapShield Reinforced Relaxed Pants, $29.95 at GAP.com

4. Some Chunky-Ass Oxfords

As you may have guessed, Im not much for formal footwear. But there are some situations where even I wouldnt wear Jordans. Basically a funeral or a wedding, but thats it. Should you find yourself in need of something a little more serious on your feet, shoot for an Oxford shoe  it goes with everything and is pretty easy to source. This is something you wanna drop a bit of coin on; cheap shoes of any kind are always to be avoided. That doesnt mean you gotta drop a rack, but go at least $150-200 for these. I like the stacked welt on these shoes, too  nice detail that sets them apart from the average jawn.

High Life

Yang Li Black Patent Asymmetric Oxfords, $1,085.00 at SSENSE.com

My Life

Park Avenue Cap-Toe Oxfords, $395.00 at AllenEdmonds.com

AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use.


The Home Builders Association of Dayton will kick off its 2016 Homearama Touring Edition presented by Vectren on Friday, July 22, 2016. The Homearama event will showcase 10 newly constructed homes located in seven communities throughout the Miami Valley.

The scattered-site tour will feature homes to suit any budget or lifestyle. House prices range from $129,000 to more than $1.5 million and the best of urban, suburban, rural, small town and estate living will be displayed. Many of the homes have already been sold, making the 2016 Homearama Touring Edition the only opportunity for the public to view the houses.



Homearama tickets are available for purchase for $12 at local Kroger stores, online at DaytonHomearama.com or by downloading the free Dayton Homearama Touring Edition mobile app. The Dayton Homearama app is available through the iTunes App Store or Google Play. Walk-ups without tickets will be charged $15 at the doors of Homearama houses; all guests over the age of five years must have a ticket to enter.



Homearama tickets are good for the duration of the show, from July 22 until Homearama concludes on August 7, 2016. The houses will be available to tourMonday-Thursday from 5:00 PM-8:00 PM and Friday-Sunday from 12:00 PM-8:00 PM. Guests are able to visit each Homearama house once, then can choose a maximum of two homes to repeat a visit.



Guests that register their tickets at the DaytonHomearama.com website or through Dayton Homearama mobile app and visit six or more Homearama houses are eligible to vote for their favorite homes in the 2016 People's Choice Awards presented by 84 Lumber. Homearama guests that vote will be automatically registered for a chance to win a prize. The prizes, donated by Audio Etc..., Morris Home Furnishings and Watson's Home Store, will be distributed to randomly selected winners after voting concludes on August 22, and the winning builders will be announced in September. Votes can be submitted through the DaytonHomearama.com website or the Dayton Homearama Touring Edition mobile app. Categories include: Best Exterior and Landscaping, Best Interior Design, Best Kitchen, Best Owner's Suite, Best Overall Home and Most Innovative Home.



In addition to beautiful homes, several Homearama houses will hold tag sales of furniture used to stage the homes and offer seminars with speakers from local companies and industry professionals. These professionals will give the public an opportunity to ask questions of the experts. Seminars will encompass topics such as outdoor living, landscaping and interior design.



The 2016 Homearama Touring Edition will offer complimentary tickets to active duty military personnel and their families as a way to thank those who serve and defend our nation. Key-Ads has partnered with the Home Builders Association of Dayton, G.A. White Homes and R.M. Clemens Company to offer a maximum of four Homearama tickets when a Military ID is shown at the doors of two builders' homes - Chateau Serendipite by G.A. White Homes, located in Beavercreek Township (2081 Forest Bend Drive, Beavercreek Township, Ohio 45385) and the Grey Field by R.M. Clemens Company, located in Bellbrook (1661 Fox Trial, Bellbrook, Ohio 45305). Ticket supplies are limited and tickets must be picked up during Homearama show hours.





This year, Homearama will invite guests to participate via social media in a Selfie Campaign to show what they like most about the 2016 Homearama Touring Edition by sharing photos on Facebook or Twitter , including the house number in their captions and directing posts to @DaytonHomearama or #DaytonHomearama.



Driving directions, a Homearama house locator map and up-to-date information on the homes, builders, seminars and more can be found on the DaytonHomearama.com website or the free Dayton Homearama mobile app.
This page may contain outdated information

This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Past Event - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Reg. Price $156 - Save 50% - Only $78 With Discount Code Below

Choose one or more sessions. This is a fun and interesting look into working and creating with clay. It's a great class for those whom have never worked with clay before!

In this special series of workshops you'll build fun sculptures with wet clay then attend a live raku firing of your piece! Book early, each workshop is limited to 8 seats and will meet to create in clay on the first date. On the second date, students will glaze their creations and fire them in a modernized version of raku so you take your works home that day. Ages: Adults 15+ (Children ages 10-14 may register with a registered adult in the same class.)

Reg. Price $156 - 50% off at $78 per student. Discount code: DLBIBI

All materials, tools and firing are included.

Choose a class

Put a Bird On It - Bird Sculptures: August 10 & 17*, 6p-8p

Funky Bottles & Vases: August 24 & 31*, 6p-8p

Wall Hanging Creatures: September 7 & 14*, 6p-8p

May not be combined with other coupons or discount offers. Rain date may be needed if there is uncooperative weather for the firing day. Students must attend both dates to the selected workshop to complete artwork. Limited Seating. Non-refundable class.

*Firing is held outside and may require a rain date if the weather is uncooperative.
David Benedict and Michael Moore will be in concert with guest Jacob Johnson at Barking Legs Theater on Saturday, Aug. 20. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the music begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and available here.

Review for David Benedict and Michael Moore:

David Benedict (mandolinist for Missy Raines and The New Hip) and guitarist Michael Moore will present an evening of adventurous string music at The Barking Legs Theater. This duo has developed a distinctive style of original and traditional acoustic instrumental and vocal musicequally pulling from the genres of jazz, folk, bluegrass, classical, and popular music. Now at the cusp of their debut duo album, Each by Side, David and Michael offer a compelling, entertaining, and unique display of the musical possibilities in the mandolin and guitar idiom.

Review for Jacob Johnson:

Also, joining David and Michael, South Carolina, finger style guitarist Jacob Johnson will be playing the first set. Its not just Jacob Johnsons guitar virtuosity thatll stop you in your tracks. Its his infectious joy for playing and performing that captures you, locks you in, and sends you back into your life two steps happier. Pure musical joy works that way. It infects us, seeps into our pores, makes our hearts full. Indeed, Jacob Johnson woos us all with the kind of music we fell in love with music for in the first placeinfectious folk songs played with the sincere conviction that no tune can change the world, but that doesnt have to be a bad thing.

For further information, contact David Benedict at 864.650-1005.


I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Soddy Daisy, Sale Creek and north Hamilton County communities. Parkridge Health recently received approval from the state of Tennessee to build a freestanding emergency room in Soddy Daisy that will serve the northwest area of Hamilton County. This approval would not have been possible without the support of the citizens, businesses ... (click for more)

Amendment 1 is an important legislative item for us Tennesseans. Vote yes on keeping Tennessee a Right to Work state, where we get to decide if we want to keep our right to work anywhere we want, without being forced to join a union. Opponents of the amendment will tell you, Right to Work only guarantees the right of an employer to fire you. What they wont tell you is some ... (click for more)
Erlanger Health System welcomed two new family medicine physicians to its growing network of physicians: Dr. Hannah M. Bujak and Dr. Oliver M. Bujak.

We welcome the husband-and-wife team of Drs. Hannah and Oliver M. Bujak to UT Erlanger Primary Care at Volkwagen Drive, said Kevin M. Spiegel, FACHE, President and CEO of the Erlanger Health System. Their experience in family medicine will be invaluable in treating patients of all ages.

The Bujaks, board-certified family medicine physicians, have practiced together in private family medicine offices in Lynden, Washington; Johnson City, NY; and most recently, Chattanooga. They received their medical degrees from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California and completed a family practice residency program at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, NY.

Both physicians are now accepting new patients at UT Erlanger Primary Care at Volkswagen Drive. To make an appointment with either physician, call 423-778-8950.
In the Asian market, it is supposed to be in the same segment as that of the Honda BRV.

The Japanese automaker teased its forthcoming small crossover MPV concept that is expected to debut at the 2016 Indonesia International Auto Show, being held from August 11 to 21. In the Asian market, it is supposed to be in the same segment as that of the Honda BRV. However, apart from some design detail and interior space, Mitsubishi hasn't disclosed much information about the MPV.

The automaker said that the front fascia is based on Mitsubishi Motors Dynamic Shield front design philosophy, which we have seen in the latest Mitsubishis such as the upcoming Pajero Sport. It will be a high riding vehicle with SUV-esque aesthetics such as flared wheel arches and butch looks. Speaking of cabin space, the company highlighted that the new concept car will use a wide body and optimised layout to provide generous interior space allowing seven occupants comfortably.

Recently, Nissan has acquired majority shares in Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and now has a controlling stake in the Japanese automaker. Nissan declared that it has bought 34 per cent equity stake in Mitsubishi for 237 billion yen (nearly Rs 14,000 crore). Check out what we feel could possibly work in Mitsubishis favour in India after the strategic alliance.

Source: CarDekho.com
The Board would also be considering raising of long-term funds through issuance of non-convertible senior unsecured fixed rate bonds denominated in foreign currency or rupee for up to USD 750 million in the international markets,"

New Delhi: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel is looking to raise up to USD 750 million (about Rs 5,032 crore) from international markets. In this regard, a meeting of the Board of Directors has been convened. It will be held on July 27, 2016, the company said in a regulatory filing.

"In the aforesaid meeting, the Board would also be considering raising of long-term funds through issuance of non-convertible senior unsecured fixed rate bonds denominated in foreign currency or rupee for up to USD 750 million in the international markets," it added.

Last month, the steelmaker had said it will approach shareholders to raise up to USD 2 billion from global capital markets to meet its long-term capex requirement and loan refinancing, among others.

It is in the interest of the company to raise long-term resources with convertible option so as to optimise capital structure for future growth, it had said. "The proceeds of the issue will be used for long-term funding to meet the planned capital expenditure and for other corporate purposes, including refinancing of expensive debt to reduce interest costs and to meet any unlikely shortfall in unforeseen circumstances," JSW Steel added.

Recently, the company completed its present brownfield expansion to reach 18 million tonne per annum (MTPA) capacity and it has a strategic vision to reach 40 MTPA by 2025 with significant investment in mineral resources -- iron ore and coal.
New Delhi: Interest of the employees of five associate banks will be protected following their merger with the parent entity State Bank of India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

The central government has sanctioned the proposal of SBI to enter into negotiations with its subsidiary banks as well as Bhartiya Mahila Bank for acquiring them including their liabilities, he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The proposal for acquisition has been originated by respective boards, he added.

"SBI has informed that the interest of the employees of the subsidiary banks will not be affected. The pay and allowances offered to employees or officers of the merging banks will not be less than the overall pay and allowances as they would have drawn in the merging banks," he said.

SBI has five associate banks -- State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad.

In another reply, Jaitley said, gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) to the total advances of the PSU banks as on March, 2016 were Rs 4.76 crore (9.32 per cent).

The macro stress tests in the Financial Stability Report of RBI, June 2016 suggest that under the baseline scenario, the GNPAs for the public sector banks (PSBs) may rise to 10.10 per cent by March 2017, he said.

However, this level may not be reached in view of the recovery efforts by banks and steps taken by government and the Reserve Bank, Jaitley said. As per the data received from PSBs, he said, frauds constituted 7.15 per cent of total GNPs as on March 2016.

In a separate reply, Minister of state for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said out of 27 public sector banks, 14 have posted losses. The main reason for such losses was Asset Quality Review (AQR) exercise initiative by RBI during 2015-16 due to which banks had to suddenly make provision for accounts categorised as NPA.

During 2015-16 public sector banks made recoveries of Rs 39,534 crore as compared to Rs 41,236 crore in the previous fiscal. Replying to another question, Gangwar said the ministry is considering a proposal of LIC for approval of five-day working week for its employees.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued warning as well as deficiency letters to virtually all the mutual fund players for several lapses in 2015-16.

New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi has initiated action against Franklin Templeton MF and JPMorgan MF for violation of mutual fund regulations last fiscal while warning letters have been issued to 39 players for several lapses, Parliament was informed today.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said adjudication proceedings were initiated against Franklin Templeton MF in March this year for violation of mutual fund norms.

Besides, Sebi has initiated adjudication and enquiry proceedings against JPMorgan MF in December last year for violation mutual fund regulations in the matter of investment in Amtek Auto's debt securities.

Further, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued warning as well as deficiency letters to virtually all the mutual fund players for several lapses in 2015-16.

The minister said 49 warning and 56 deficiency letters have been issued to 39 mutual fund houses, including JPMorgan MF and Franklin Templeton MF. A total of 43 mutual fund houses operate in the country with an assets under management of over Rs 14 lakh crore.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that the interest of the employees of five associate banks will be protected following their merger with the parent entity State Bank of India.

He said that the Central government has sanctioned the proposal of SBI to enter into negotiations with its subsidiary banks as well as Bhartiya Mahila Bank for acquiring them including their liabilities.

Mr Jaitley said that the proposal for acquisition has been originated by respective boards. SBI has informed that the interest of the employees of the subsidiary banks will not be affected. The pay and allowances offered to employees or officers of the merging banks will not be less than the overall pay and allowances as they would have drawn in the merging banks, he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

SBI has five associate banks  State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad.

On Brexit, Mr Jaitley said that India has not only avoided adverse impacts, it has in fact emerged as a safe haven for investors around the world. For example, the Rupee depreciated against the US dollar by around 1 per cent for one day post-Brexit referendum, while currencies of other emerging markets depreciated for many days.

But on a cumulative basis, the rupee has actually appreciated by 0.3 per cent on 19th July 2016 over 23rd June 2016, said Mr Jaitley. Similarly, the Sensex fell only on one day by around 2 per cent while the equity index of many other developed and developing countries fell by a higher percentage for many days after Brexit referendum, he said. On cumulative basis, the Sensex has risen by 2.9 per cent on 19th July 2016 over 23rd June 2016. The G-sec rate has also declined from 7.48 per cent to 7.28 per cent over this period, added finance minister.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department has detected undisclosed income worth Rs 22,475 crore in over 9,500 surveys conducted over the past two years, Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday. As part of enforcement measures the department has conducted searches in 990 groups of assessees during the last two years.
Mumbai: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, along with her daughter Aaradhya and mother Vrinda Rai returned back to Mumbai from London on Thursday. The actress was welcomed by a huge crowd of shutterbugs at the airport.

Aishwarya was walking out of the airport with her daughter and mother in tow when things took a nasty turn. With her daughter tucked safely in her arms, Aishwarya was heading towards her car when her bodyguards started pushing shutterbugs away. One of the guards pushed a cameraman so forcefully that he tripped and fell on Aishwaryas mother, who was walking close by. Hit by a sudden impact, the actress mother lost her balance and hit the ground.





Aishwarya was stepping inside the car when she heard her mothers yelp. In a rush to get back to her mother, Aishwarya tucked her daughter inside the car, during which, Aaradhya banged her head on the cars door and started crying.

While comforting her hurt daughter, Aishwarya kept asking Who pushed mamma? as she tried to step outside of the car and get to her mother.
Mumbai: In a major breakthrough in the ephedrine racket in which former actress Mamta Kulkarni and her husband Vicky Goswami are allegedly involved, the Thane police is likely to submit the fourth chargesheet by July 25, with the added name of Kulkarni as an accused, said officials. Till now, the police has submitted three chargesheets in the Thane sessions court.

Thane police officers said that the fourth chargesheet will have statements of employees of Solapur Company and private security guards as well as evidence of hawala transactions having been carried out. They also said that Kulkarnis sisters statement would not be added in this chargesheet as it will not be used as evidence against the accused in the case.

Sources said that employees of Solapur Company had approached the police and informed them, among other things, about the work that the owner had asked them to carry out illegally. They revealed that private security guards who had been employed to look after excess production of ephedrine came to know about the owners illegal activities, because of which they left their jobs a few months ago and returned to their village in UP. However, when they heard that the Thane police was probing the case and had arrested a director of Solapur Company, they approached the Thane police.

Police officers also said that they had evidence against Kulkarni which clearly indicated that she was involved in the conspiracy and was ready to become the managing director of her husbands company so that the drug business ran smoothly. They said that the evidence was sufficient to prove Kulkarnis guilt in the case. They also said that the chargesheet was a fitting reply to Kulkarni, who had told a private news channel that the Thane police had ruined her name and dragged her into the case unnecessarily.

On April 17, the Thane police, in collaboration with the narcotics department of the Thane crime branch, had seized a huge haul of drugs worth Rs `2,000 crore from the outskirts of Thane. Among the drugs seized was 18,600 kg of ephedrine powder and pseudo-ephedrine powder. The haul is billed to be the biggest ever in the state.
Priyanka Chopra snapped while shooting for 'Quantico' season 2.

Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra recently started shooting for the second season of her Hollywood TV series 'Quantico' in New York.

Making us proud with her hard work and well-deserving success, Priyanka Chopra never fails to stun us with her new pictures from the shows set. In the new stills, the actress looks breathtakingly gorgeous as she shoots for Quantico.

In few pictures, we also see the actress in a candid shot with her mother. Sitting adorably on her mothers lap, Priyanka is snapped flashing some cute expressions.

Check out the photos below:

PC with her mom and family on set ... Cute  #priyankachopra #quantico #quan2co A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 19, 2016 at 11:48pm PDT

Not too old to sit on her mommy's lap  PC on set yesterday  #priyankachopra #quantico #Quan2co A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 20, 2016 at 7:10am PDT

@priyankachopra with her mom's  lovely daughter & mom together  #PriyankaChopra #AlexParrish #Quantico #quan2co A photo posted by pcaddicts (@peeceeaddicts) on Jul 20, 2016 at 5:54am PDT

Priyanka on set shooting on her bdaysunshine #priyankachopra #Quan2co #Quantico A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 18, 2016 at 11:47pm PDT

Probably on Twitter  #priyankachopra #Quantico #Quan2co A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 18, 2016 at 11:52pm PDT

Priyanka on set today in NYC shooting for #Quantico  #Quan2co #priyankachopra A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 18, 2016 at 3:50pm PDT

She's the perfect example of girl power...  #PriyankaChopra #AlexParrish #Quantico #quan2co A photo posted by pcaddicts (@peeceeaddicts) on Jul 20, 2016 at 7:15pm PDT

God bless the paparazzi ...  from yesterday! #priyankachopra #quantico #quan2co A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 19, 2016 at 11:39pm PDT

PC On set yesterday :-) #priyankachopra #quan2co #quantico A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 20, 2016 at 12:11am PDT

Such a meme  | PC on set yesterday #priyankachopra #quan2co #quantico A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 19, 2016 at 11:58pm PDT

PC yesterday. #priyankachopra A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra Fan | Quantico (@pcourheartbeat) on Jul 19, 2016 at 11:41am PDT

According to show's creator Josh Safran, Priyanka's character Alex Parrish will be at the centre of the plot across all upcoming seasons.

'Quantico' features Priyanka as young FBI recruit Alex Parrish, who is suspected of committing a terrorist attack.
Evading paparazzis can be a difficult task even when you are a seasoned star. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been around the industry enough to master this art, but the actress who returned to Mumbai from London with her mother and daughter had an unpleasant scene at the airport earlier this week.

Things took a nasty turn when Aishwarya was walking out of the airport with her daughter and her mother, Vrinda Rai, in tow. A huge crowd of shutterbugs was waiting to snap Aishwarya, and while the actress zipped through safely with her daughter tucked in her arms, her mother wasnt as lucky. As her bodyguards started pushing shutterbugs away, one of the guards pushed a cameraman with so much force that he tripped an fell right on Aishwaryas mother, who was walking close by.

Aishwarya was stepping inside the car when she heard her mothers yelp. In a rush to get back to her mother, Aishwarya tucked her daughter inside the car, during which, Aaradhya banged her head on the cars door and started crying. While comforting her hurt daughter, Aishwarya kept asking Who pushed mamma? as she tried to step outside of the car and get to her mother.
KFCC had maintained that the five-star release move was illegal.

Bengaluru: Authorities have declined permission to screen Rajinikanth's much hyped movie 'Kabali' in five star hotels here.

Citing rules, Bengaluru urban Deputy Commissioner V Shankar has rejected a distributors application to screen the movie in the hotels, officials said.

The Deputy Commissioner has rejected the application citing Karnataka Cinema (Regulation) Act and Karnataka Cinemas (Regulation) Rules under which films can be screened in theatres or multiplexes with required permission and not in hotels, the officials said

Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce and Karnataka State Exhibitors Association had opposed the move to screen Kabali in five star hotels and even petitioned the Deputy Commissioner and Commercial Tax Department on the issue.

KFCC had maintained that the five-star release move was illegal and the Central Board of Film Certification issues a certificate for release in theatres and not in any hotel.

Distributors of the movie had planned to screen movies from Friday to Sunday in hotels like JW Marriott, Lalit Ashok, Royal Orchid and Crowne Plaza in the city.

The tickets with price ranging from Rs 1,300 to 1,500 that included redeemable coupon were snapped up within no time but the plans, said to be a replication of the model in the West, have now been put paid to with the rejection.

The money collected would be refunded, the hotels said.
Its every professors ardent wish to have the group hes addressing pay full attention to him, instead of staring at their smartphones, or worse, dozing off. For Usha Pravin Gandhi Colleges Mayur Vyas, today is the day of wish fulfillment. Soon, his voice will be blaring in Dolby sound across packed theatres in almost every corner of the country. Not just that, it will also command every ounce of attention from those present, for it will be superstar Rajinikanth himself who will add life to his voice on the screen.

Mayur, who will be the voice of Rajinis Kabali in Hindi, has already lent his voice to the superstar in his last three releases  Lingaa, Robot and Sivaji. While it clearly is a tall order, the established voice-over artist, who has Hindi versions of the likes of Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr to his credit, tells us about the challenges of being a voice-over artist and how it was Rajini himself who helped him pull it off.

Read: Kabali fever takes over Chennai, Mumbai; fans watch 5am show

I still havent had the chance to meet him personally, says Mayur, clarifying that the help he got was not from the man himself, but from the persona. But it instills a lot of confidence when you give voice to his characters and the dialogues he speaks, he explains. While he hasnt got the superstars feedback yet, he adds that every film he gets of Rajinis, is an approval from the star for the previous one.

Mayur tells us how he got the opportunity to do Kabali and says, Before Kabali, I had only worked on his films that were made by Shankar sir. So when I heard that Kabali was happening, I was hoping I would hear from the team. It was then that one of my very close friends, Mohan Nair, called me and said that he was doing the Hindi dub of Kabali and wanted me on board. We went to Chennai to meet Pa Ranjith (the director) and the team really liked my voice and I ended up doing Kabali.

Mayur says that the tough part is to keep the dialogues, which were originally meant for Tamil from sounding caricaturish. If you look at Rajini sirs original renditions, even his Tamil isnt authentic and is heavily accented. So I decided to focus less on the language and more on the nuances and the style.

Also read: Make way for Rajinikanth, the Kabali fever is here!

While the superstar himself has dubbed in Hindi for many of his Hindi films in the 80s, Mayur adds that his style doesnt take from Rajinis Hindi. I tried to take from some of his films, such as Chalbaaz. But even there the Hindi he speaks is heavily accented. Everyday, people from the voice artists fraternity ask me things like, Arey kaise karta hai yaar? (How do you do it?) and How do you find the conviction to say those lines. The problem is many in this fraternity are predisposed to the opinion that Tamil cinema is over-the-top and for them the dialogues almost seem funny. I didnt want that to be the case because here Rajini is the hero and he needs to be taken seriously.

He rubs off on you, says Mayur on the effect that being Rajinis voice has had on him. To say lines like Jhund mein to suar aate hain, sher akela hi aata hai (Only pigs come in a group, lion always comes alone), you need tremendous confidence. And over time you imbibe some of it, he adds.

While it may seem easy on the outset, being a voice artist is quite a difficult art, says
Crowds throng in front of Chennais Kasi theatre in Chennai from 2 am on Friday. With just a few hours to go for the first day first show, joining the madness is actor Jayaram along with his actor son Kalidas. Jayaram explains that a thalaivar movie should be watched along with true blue Rajini fans accompanied with all the usual mayhem. I am someone who tries to watch almost all the movies in a theatre -- first day first show. I am very particular about watching movies in theatre, especially when it is Rajini sirs film. There is no point in going to any random theatre to enjoy his films, there are a few particular theatres like Kasi or Albert in Madras. It has to be watched here, with the crowd. There is a special kind of thrill that comes with watching his films this way.

My son and I left our house around 2 am and reached the theatre at 2.45 am. There was no place to park my vehicle, so I parked it far away and walked to the theatre. We were with the audience from then. It is an experience of a lifetime, like a festival. I dont think we will get this for anyone else's movie, says Jayaram, his voice choked with excitement. He goes on to admit that he could not hear a single dialogue throughout the screening. I myself have no vice left from screaming but I will take my family along to watch it again.

Jayaram probably encapsulates the Kabali mania that has transcended all barriers including that of language. Back home in Kerala, From Kabali painted cars to Kabali cake, Malayalis too are celebrating the emotion called Thalaivar like never before. In Kochi, a major Rajini fan decided to do something special before the films release. Praveen K.K. along with his wife decided to decorate their car with the legend Kabali. Praveens brother Premjith, who is also a Rajini fan, says: Its been four days since the car got decked up to welcome Kabali. It was my brother and his wife Nitha who decided to do this on their Duster as both are hardcore Rajini fans.

Premjith and his friends, who are members of the Stadium Film Club, will watch the film at the Sreedhar theatre at a special show at 8 am. All the members of the club are movie buffs. So the office bearers of the club requested the theatre for a screening in the morning. They obliged and 100 of us went for the show. Not to be left behind, some of the bakeries in the state too are hoping to make hay while the sun shines. Jaya Bakery in Thrissur has come up with Kabali cakes that are selling like, well, hot cakes! What is more, they are even planning to celebrate the Kabali fever by making available the cakes for a week.Nithin, who is the third generation businessman of this landmark bakery in the cultural capital, says, All the staff of the bakery as well as me are huge Rajinikanth fans and Kabali is a much awaited film. So as a tribute to Rajini, we came up with the idea of edible cakes featuring the Kabali poster of Rajinikanth.

With expectations so high, some disappointment was also in the cards. The initial response in Kochi has been getting mixed. It can be called an emotional action movie, says a theatre manager. Only the first half has those typical mass style of Rajini movies. The story flows in a different manner in the next half. Some are of the opinion that the movie should have had more Rajini style punch dialogues, while some love it the way it is. Anyway, all shows are housefull, he says.

In Thiruvananthapuram New theatre, the excitement knew no bounds. Manager Vimal says: The first show at 5am saw a huge rush and nearly all shows are booked till Sunday. At government-owned Kairali, however, it was a different picture: The fan show at 5.45 am was full. But the 11 am and 2pm shows didnt have the kind of response we expected from a Rajni movie. This is a class movie. And perhaps because it is running in so many theatres in Thiruvananthapuram alone, there was not the kind of turnout we expected, the manager says.

With inputs from Cris, Priya Sreekumar, Elizabeth Thomas and Deepthi Sreenivasan
Hyderabad: Dental tourism is seeing a rise in India with a lot of non-resident Indians and also foreign nationals opting for India as a destination for dental treatments.

Smile designing, metal free bridge, dental implants, root canal treatment, tooth whitening, crown and implants are the most sought after treatment. Dental treatments are clubbed with vacation tours. Hence places like Hyderabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Chennai and New Delhi are the most sought after.

Dr Kamlesh Kothari, a senior maxillofacial surgeon, said, The cost of dental treatments in the USA, the UK and Europe are 10 times more than that in India. Hence people who are coming down for vacations also plan their dental procedures at that time making it a two in one package.

The reason a large number of NRIs and even foreigners are preferring India is because there is state of the art technology and surgeons having experience of more than 10 years in dealing with different kinds of patients. Hence most of the treatments are carried out according to set standards.

In 2015 more than a lakh people had opted for dental treatment in the five cities of India from July to December. The dental industry finds this an interesting avenue and they analyse that the growth rate will be more than 30 per cent in the next three years.

Dr K. Padmaja, a senior dentist in the city explained, There are a lot of positive factors like English speaking population, competence, tourist destinations and also alternative medicines. These are some of the factors which are attracting people.

The outcomes are better as doctors are well-trained and experienced.

Experts opine that the biggest growth for the industry will be implants and dentists have to equip themselves with the technology for implants as it will be required both within the country and abroad.

Dr J. Reddy, senior dentist explained, The Dental Council must come forward to help dentists set up clinics so that they can make the most of the influx of tourists. Patients check before opting for a healthcare system whether facilities are available. We need to set up clinics according to protocol so that there are no complaints.
For Dr Venu Gopal, managing director, Century Hospital and Anil Kumar, MD, Shree Jewellers, its been fulfilling beyond words to travel back to their childhood. They say, Our four decades of friendship is ultimately worth in gold and health.

Dr Venu, a laparoscopic surgeon, says there is nothing like having an old friend to walk through life with you. We have been there for each other through good and bad,

Dr Venu says. I can discuss anything with him and its always in the local Hyderabadi dialect. When we are together we speak it and we instantly feel connected, he adds.

Many of their teenage memories revolve around discussing teachers, girls and studies. We were a group of eight to 10 boys from Little Flower, who would hang out together. Once we got into Osmania Medical College our group got more defined and we used to sit together and talk about movies, girls and studies, recalls Dr Venu, adding, During Holi, we used to roam around the city in our jeep, drag our friends out and play with colours.

Keeping childhood friends is not easy today, especially when theyre in different professions. Venu, after completing his medicine, went to England for higher studies. They were apart for six-seven years, but were always connected through the phone. Even with seven years of separation, the trust was unshakable. Nothing changed, says Anil. After I came back from England, we would meet every Friday and sometimes even talk till 1 am, says Venu.

Anil adds, We travel a lot together, and even our wives get along very well. Recently, we all went to Bhutan together.

What is 40 years between childhood friends? The foundation of our friendship is intact and time, with all its advantage, has grown old with us, says Dr Venu. We know that not all childhood friends share a strong bond. Nothing is complete without Anil. In our house even if anyone gets a headache, Venu is there. He is like a guardian to my children, says Anil.
In her petition, the woman has alleged that she was raped by her ex-fiance on the false promise of marriage and became pregnant. (Photo: Pixabay)

New Delhi: A medical board will be set up at a Mumbai hospital to examine the condition of an alleged rape survivor who wants to abort her 24-weeks-old 'abnormal' foetus, the Supreme Court on Friday said.

A bench headed by Justice J S Khehar asked the medical board to examine the woman at King Edward Memorial College and Hospital at Mumbai, by tomorrow and submit its report to the apex court on Monday.

The bench also comprising Justice Arun Mishra said the report of the medical board with regard to the woman's condition will be assessed and if necessary, some directions will be passed.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the woman, will ensure that she reaches the hospital by tomorrow for her examination, it said.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said that the Centre was ready to constitute a medical board at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where the woman could be examined.

Gonsalves said that the condition of the woman, who is at present in Mumbai, is very bad and she will not be able to travel to Delhi.

"Delay in these matters is very bad. There should not be any delay in these matters," the bench said, adding that a larger issue of law will be dealt with separately.

"The issue at hand is not that simple. It will be dealt with separately," it said.

The apex court had yesterday sought reply from the Centre and the Maharashtra government on the plea of the woman. The alleged rape survivor has also challenged the constitutional validity of the provisions of the abortion law which prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks even if there is a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus.

In her petition, the woman has alleged that she was raped by her ex-fiance on the false promise of marriage and became pregnant and sought a direction to quash section 3 (2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 to the extent that it puts a ceiling of 20 weeks for an abortion as it is ultra vires to Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

Her plea contended that the ceiling is unreasonable, arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory and violative of the right to life and equality.
New Delhi: Seeking to turn the tables on BSP chief Mayawati, BJP on Friday asked her to tender an apology and take action against her party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui for his abusive language targeting expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's daughter.

The party said it took Singh's slur against Mayawati very seriously and expelled him from the party but she was "justifying" Siddiqui's use of derogatory language and her stand was condemnable.

"Siddiqui said Singh's daughter should be presented before the crowd. This is an insult to the woman; sisters and daughters. We condemn Mayawati's justification of it. She should not do politics over it and damage the state's social harmony in her greed for power.

"BJP demands that she offer an unconditional apology and take action against Siddiqui," its national secretary ShrikantSharma said, noting that senior BJP leaders had regretted Singh's comments.

The BSP supremo had reportedly said that her followers treat her like a "deity" and were making angry statements due to Singh's comments against her.

The state's social cohesion had suffered due to the poor law and order situation under the Samajwadi Party government, he alleged, adding that Mayawati's stand can worsen it.

Questioning her commitment to the dalit cause, Sharma said she did not visit the home of any Dalit woman who were sexually assaulted under the Samajwadi Party government.

"The cases of atrocities against women in UP are more than anywhere else. Did Mayawati visit any Dalit victim?" he asked, saying over 1000 dalits were killed when she was the chief minister and over 29000 cases of atrocities against them were registered.
Expelled BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh's mother (R), wife Swati Singh (C) and others after filing a complaint against Mayawati and other BSP leaders at a police station. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singhs wife Swati on Friday alleged that she and her minor daughter were being threatened and harassed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) activists and lodged an FIR against party chief Mayawati for the 'mental trauma' her family was being subjected to.

A case was registered at the Lucknow police station, based on the complaint of Dayashankar's wife and his mother under the sections 120b ( Punishment of criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (insulting the modesty of woman) of IPC. Mayawati and three other BSP leaders were named in the FIR.

Dayashankar Singh is facing arrest for making derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati and her supporters have been making vicious attacks against him ever since.

"I will lodge an FIR against Mayawati ji over the mental trauma faced by my family. He has been removed from all party posts, he has even been sacked from the party, but Mayawati is still not satisfied. If she puts her mind to it, she could even get him beheaded," Swati Singh had earlier said.

Read: BSP leader offers Rs 50 lakh for Dayashankar's tongue

Singhs wife alleged that BSP activists were openly asking people to call her and were abusing her 12-year-old daughter.

"BSP activists are summoning me and my daughter, they are abusing her. My daughter is traumatised, is this not condemnable? Should she not sack her party members for abusing us?" Singhs wife said.

She asked if Mayawati would take responsibility if anything happened to her or her minor daughter.

WATCH: He got expelled,yet Mayawatiji not satisfied. She'll even demand that he be beheaded, says Dayashankar's wifehttps://t.co/5OT4DY9onh  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 22, 2016

Read: Watch: BSP MLA calls sacked BJP leader illegitimate child for making Maya slur

Earlier on Thursday, BSP MLA Usha Chaudhary on Thursday was caught on camera calling the suspended Uttar Pradesh BJP vice-president an 'illegitimate child'.

"Since the BJP came to power, the Dalits have been tortured. The BJP Government protected those who should be put behind the bars. Based on what Dayashankar Singh said about Mayawati ji, I think its Dayashankar's family which is like that. There is something wrong with Dayashankar Singh's DNA, I think he is an illegitimate child, that is why he made such a remark," she said.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has said that Singh left for an 'unknown location' when the cops arrived at his residence to arrest him.

Balia Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Jha said that their efforts to locate and nab Singh would continue.

BSP workers staged protests across several cities of the nation over Singh's derogatory remark and demanded his arrest on Thursday.

The BJP yesterday expelled Dayashankar from the party for six years.
In April, the government had made a submission in the Supreme Court that the diamond was neither forcibly taken nor stolen by the British, but given as a gift to the East India Company by the rulers of Punjab. (Photo: Representational Image)

New Delhi: The issue of bringing back the famed Kohinoor diamond from Britain was on Friday discussed at a meeting attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma.

The meeting lasted for over 45 minutes and issues relating to the 108-carat diamond which is currently set in a crown on display in the Tower of London were discussed, a source said.

In April, the government had made a submission in the Supreme Court that the diamond was neither "forcibly taken nor stolen" by the British, but given as a "gift" to the East India Company by the rulers of Punjab.

Bringing back of the diamond faces legal and technical hurdles as it dates back to pre-Independence period and thus did not fall under the purview of Antiquities and Art

Treasures Act, 1972.

However, after receiving flak for its stand, the government had said all efforts would be made to get back the diamond estimated to cost over USD 200 million.

Kohinoor, meaning mountain of light, is a large, colourless diamond that was found in southern India in early 14th century.

In May, Sharma had told Parliament that Ministry of External Affairs is exploring ways and means for obtaining a satisfactory resolution to this issue with the UK government. The gem is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and has been claimed by at least four countries, including India.
Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the Dalit victims were beaten up at the behest of the administration. (Photo: Twitter/ANI)

Rajkot: Alleging Gujarat government's collusion in the Dalit thrashing incident, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday dubbed it "anti-Dalit" and accused the ruling BJP of "trampling" upon the depressed sections.

Kejirwal targeted the BJP after meeting the victims in Rajkot civil hospital first and visiting Mota Samadhiyala village in Una to meet their family members, a day after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi met the victims.

Seven persons of Dalit community were brutally thrashed by cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on July 11, triggering nationwide condemnation.

The AAP chief also alleged that the Gujarat government first allows crimes be carried out on Dalits and then slaps false cases on people who come out in protest on streets. He alleged that the Dalit victims were beaten up at the behest of the administration.

"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police, with police batons, it means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is police silent? Why is it involved? This means there is some direction from the top administration," he told reporters.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, it is anti-Dalit," he said.

"The BJP first sends its goons to beat dalits, and when their community members come out on the streets to protest, false cases are filed against them," Kejriwal alleged.

Kejriwal also rubbished BJP's contention that leaders are making a beeline to Gujarat only to make political gains.

"Our politics is for justice of Dalits, while BJP's politics is for trampling upon them," Kejriwal said in reply to a question on politics behind the visit.

Apart from Rahul Gandhi and leaders of other non-BJP parties, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel had visited the victims day before Thursday.

A Trinamool Congress parliamentary delegation is slated to come to Rajkot and Una tomorrow and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is also expected to meet the victim's family.

Kejriwal also questioned the state government's intent to carry out investigation without showing bias against Dalits.

He said only 16 persons have been arrested while 40-50 people were involved in the incident. "Why are others not held so far? The victims told me that the accused were members of Shiv Sena. The government is trying to save them," he alleged.

Kejriwal also triggered a controversy by meeting a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes.

It evoked strong reaction from BJP, whose Saurashtra- Kutch spokesperson Raju Dhruv said the Delhi CM's aim was to make "personal and political gains."
He(Modi) shouts at mere cough and cold of others, but keeps mum for long when the poor and Dalits are beaten up, says Lalu Prasad. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for second successive day on Friday on his "continued silence" on atrocities against Dalits and wondered whether "these incidents are taking place at his instigation."

"Auron ki khansi/jukhaam per chichiyate hain, per gareeb/dalit ko maara peeta ja raha hai us per lambi chuppi! Inhi ki to shah nahin? (He shouts at mere cough and cold of others, but keeps mum for long when the poor and Dalits are beaten up are the incidents taking place at his instigation)," Lalu said in a tweet.

He was replying to a tweet by his son and deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav's tweet goading the Prime Minister to speak at his rally in Gorakhpur on atrocities against Dalits.

"Dear @narendramodi Ji, Hope u wil speak tdy in Gorakhpur on #DalitAtrocity takn place aggressively in ur regime. Plz gv hard msg to ur caders," Tejaswi tweeted.

Dear @narendramodi Ji,Hope u wil speak tdy in Gorakhpur on #DalitAtrocity takn place aggressively in ur regime.Plz gv hard msg to ur caders  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 22, 2016

Slamming Modi on Thursday for his "silence" on assault of some Dalit men in Gujarat last week, Lalu had tweeted that the "PM who cries at the drop of a hat or tweets on anything happening even saat samundar paar (seven seas away) won't utter even a single word on unfortunate incidents in Gujarat."

The incident at Una in Gujarat, where Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, caused nationwide outrage after its video went viral. The victims' contention was that they were skinning a dead cow and had not killed it.
Hubballi: A Martyrs' Day tribute to two farmers killed in police firing on July 21 1980 to quell a protest against the betterment levy imposed by the government, turned violent on Thursday with farmers setting fire to effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for their failure to resolve the Mahadayi water dispute.

There was high drama in Nargund when farmers stopped Navalgund MLA, N H Konareddy from garlanding the busts of the two farmers, who paid with their lives during the 1980 stir. Other politicians too were stopped from entering the venue with farmers condemning the anti-farmer policies of the Centre and the state.

The agriculture sector is in crisis due to extensive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. To make things worse, the successive droughts have turned 30 per cent of agricultural land barren," said farmer leader K.S. Puttannaiah.

The farmer leaders urged the Centre to amend the National Water Policy to resolve inter-state water disputes and prevent delays by tribunals set up to adjudicate them. They sought compensation for distressed farmers on the lines of relief given by the pay commission to government employees.
Several parts of the Kashmir Valley erupted after Friday prayers with huge slogan-chanting crowds taking to the streets. (Photo: Habib Naqash)

Srinagar: At least one person was killed and another injured in security forces firing on protesters at Charsoo in southern Pulwama district, as several parts of the Kashmir Valley erupted after Friday prayers with slogan-chanting crowds taking to the streets. Two more youth were also injured as security forces opened fire at neighbouring Kakapora and in north-western town of Sopore, reports said.

Witnesses and hospital sources said the slain youth Mushtaq Ahmed had been hit in the head when police opened fire at protesters at Charsoo. He was first taken to a hospital at Pampore, the nearest town, where doctors on seeing his condition referred him to Srinagars government-run Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospitals but doctors declared him brought dead.

The other youth injured at Kakapora and brought to the SMHS has received pellet injuries, doctors said. The Sopore youth too has received a bullet wound in his head but his condition was stable, doctors said.

Read: Rajnath Singh to visit Kashmir for 2 days from tomorrow

Yet another youth among those injured during the initial period of the ongoing turbulence succumbed in a Srinagar hospital early Friday. With these two deaths the number of those killed in security forces' firings and other actions during past 14 days has risen to 47. Unofficial reports put the toll at 50.

Police and central security forces are enforcing curfew strictly in Srinagar and other cities and towns of the Valley on the fourteenth day running Friday.

Friday congregational prayers were not allowed at Srinagars historic Grand Mosque and some other major places of worship. However, Friday namaz was offered in mohalla mosques and also at Hazratbal shrine on the shores of Dal Lake. At places, curfew-defying crowds took to the streets to chant pro-freedom slogans and soon clashed with security forces.

Kashmir Valley erupted earlier this month following the killing of a popular militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani by troops. More than 3,000 people have been injured, over 150 of them maimed and blinded in pellet gun firings by security forces on protesters who took to the streets in huge numbers to mourn and protest Burhans killing and later also over the deaths in security forces actions against violence mobs across the scenic Valley.

As the alleged indiscriminate use of pellet guns on protesters has come in for severe criticism within and outside the country with human rights groups and political parties calling for an end to it.

Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, told Parliament on Thursday that a committee of experts will be set up to suggest alternative to pellet guns. Singh is scheduled to arrive in Srinagar on Saturday to review the prevailing situation.

Officials sources said that the Home Minister has been briefed about the alarming nature of the situation after which he decided to personally visit Srinagar and meet senior government functionaries, officers of police and other security forces, local commanders of Army and leaders and representatives of various mainstream political parties.

On Thursday, a joint meeting of these parties held here in Srinagar to deliberate on current unrest in the Valley had called for engaging all stakeholders in Kashmir in an effort to carry forward the peace and reconciliation process in the restive State.

It also asked for converting what it said was political consensus arrived at the meet into a national initiative for addressing the problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir and its people.

The meeting recognised the fact that the incidents and events unfolding in the Valley were not merely a law and order problem but essentially a political issue.

Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who had convened the meeting asked for taking all the stakeholders on board as part of a politically-inclusive agenda to address the problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir.

She also called for reviving the dialogue process with Pakistan to ensure peace and stability in the region. The participants with a couple of quiet exceptions in one voice called for an end to the use of controversial pellet guns by the security forces as these have maimed and blinded scores of youth during ongoing turmoil as well.

Endorsing them, the Chief Minister said, Im especially pained by the grievous eye injuries caused to some youth because of the pellets guns this cruel method of crowd control will have to be done away with, sooner the better.

Meanwhile, J&Ks Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution Department (CA&PD) Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali on Friday said that there is no shortage of essential commodities in the Valley.

After reviewing the stock and supply position and distribution process across the Valley, the Minister said that 1,295 truckloads of essential commodities have crossed Lower Munda (along Jammu-Srinagar highway) while there is sufficient stock of LPG for 17 days and petroleum products for one month in the Valley.

There is no shortage of essential commodities in the Valley and the CA&PD Department is having sufficient stock which is being distributed in every corner of Kashmir, he said.
Ramdas Athawale has been part of NDA since 2011 after he quit the NCP-Congress alliance. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Newly inducted Union Minister and Dalit leader Ramdas Athawale on Thursday said that law alone will not ensure that there is no crime against Dalits and suggested that promotion of inter-caste marriages can help in checking casteism in the society.

"Gau raksha jaruri hai (cow protection is necessary) but who will save humans," Athawale said, asserting that incidents like the attack on Dalits in Gujarat should not be be allowed to recur.

"All should work together and nobody should politicise things," he told reporters at the sidelines of an event in Delhi.

"Law alone will not ensure that there is no crime against Dalits. For this, people need to work together. Law will take its own course. Unless the society changes, inter-caste marriages are promoted, unless efforts are made to bring together two sides of the society, I feel casteism will not end," he said.

To a question over attack on Dalits by vigilantes for skinning a dead cow in Gujarat, he said these sort of incidents should not happen.

"The message should go that Dalits are also citizens of this country. They should also be respected. 'Gau Rasksha jaruri hai' (cow protection is necessary) but who will save humans. It is not right to attack people like this.

"That is why I would like to appeal to all the people of the country that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar has given us a Constitution, which ensures social and economic equality, and accordingly we should work and end any wrong mentality," said Mr Athawale, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment.

He said there has been no government under which crimes have not been committed. "But the governments should ensure strict punishment (to guilty)," the minister said after participating in inaugural session of day-long meeting on 'Monitoring the implementation of constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Castes' in Delhi.

The meeting comes at a time when the Centre is under attack from the opposition parties on the Gujarat incident where Dalit youths were assaulted by vigilantes for skinning a dead cow.
Nirmal Bairagi was replying to reporters who pointed out that such incidents have gone up in the state over the last two years. (Photo: Video grab)

Ambala: In controversial remarks, Haryana BJP women's cell chief Nirmal Bairagi on Friday said incidents of rape have been there since the creation of earth.

She was replying to reporters who pointed out that such incidents have gone up in the state over the last two years.

"Incidents of rape were there ever since the creation of earth," she said on being asked about the progress in police investigation into a recent Rohtak incident where a Dalit woman was allegedly gangraped by five persons in a repeat offence.

The BJP leader was referring to the reports of Dalit girl from Rohtak who survived a gangrape only to be raped again, allegedly by men awaiting trial for the first attack.

Police say the 20-year-old student was abducted from outside her college on July 13, drugged and raped before being dumped on a highway.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack, two of whom had been charged with raping her in 2013, and only released on bail a few months ago.

Relatives say they believe the latest attack was revenge for her refusal to drop her complaint against the men, who they say were able to evade justice because they belonged to higher castes and had political connections.

"I will have to spend my entire life in constant fear of being raped again or killed," said the woman, who AFP is not naming for legal reasons.

"My life will never be the same. I am worried about my family's safety. They can harm us any time," she told AFP by telephone from her hospital bed.

Relatives of the victim said the alleged perpetrators of the 2013 rape had offered them money to withdraw the case, and threatened to attack her again if they did not.

"We were offered fifty lakh rupees to withdraw the case. They are rich people and have strong political links," her cousin said.

"We didn't give in to their demands and pursued the case, but we were let down by the court, which gave them bail in May," he added.

"This country is only for rich and for upper castes, only they get justice," said the cousin, adding that the entire family had now converted to Buddhism to escape discrimination under the Hindu caste system.

Bairagi claimed the state government took such incidents seriously and all necessary steps have been taken to curb them, adding that "most of the accused" in the Rohtak incident have been nabbed.

Replying to another query, she said the executive body of the state women's cell of the BJP would be constituted soon for which she was touring various districts to collect the feedback of active workers.
Police say the 20-year-old student was abducted from outside her college on July 13, drugged and raped before being dumped on a highway. (Photo: Representational Image)

Rohtak: Dalit girl who survived a gangrape only to be raped again, allegedly by men awaiting trial for the first attack, said on Friday that she feared she and her family would never be safe again.

Police say the 20-year-old student was abducted from outside her college on July 13, drugged and raped before being dumped on a highway.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack, two of whom had been charged with raping her in 2013, and only released on bail a few months ago.

Relatives say they believe the latest attack was revenge for her refusal to drop her complaint against the men, who they say were able to evade justice because they belonged to higher castes and had political connections.

"I will have to spend my entire life in constant fear of being raped again or killed," said the woman, who AFP is not naming for legal reasons.

"My life will never be the same. I am worried about my family's safety. They can harm us any time," she told AFP by telephone from her hospital bed.

Relatives of the victim said the alleged perpetrators of the 2013 rape had offered them money to withdraw the case, and threatened to attack her again if they did not.

"We were offered fifty lakh rupees to withdraw the case. They are rich people and have strong political links," her cousin said.

"We didn't give in to their demands and pursued the case, but we were let down by the court, which gave them bail in May," he added.

Only rich get justice

He said he believed his cousin was originally attacked because she had spurned the advances of one of the alleged rapists.

"He must have thought, they are poor and helpless, and we will get away with the crime," he added.

The relative said police only moved to arrest the alleged perpetrators after weeks of protests by the Dalit community.

"We were tossed from one police station to another, but no one was listening. The accused were bribing them and were getting all help from the authorities," he said.

"This country is only for rich and for upper castes, only they get justice," said the cousin, adding that the entire family had now converted to Buddhism to escape discrimination under the Hindu caste system.

Local police say they are using all their resources to track down another two men accused in last week's attack, and have set up a special investigation team.

"We are collecting all evidence and will investigate the case in a fair and transparent manner," Rohtak police chief Rakesh Arya said.

But rights activists say the case shows the justice system is still failing victims of sexual assault, more than three years after the Delhi gang rape that sparked mass protests.

"We need action now to end this brutality that has become routine and to give the victims of violence the justice and protection they deserve," said Anju Malhotra, gender advisor to the UN children's agency UNICEF.
New Delhi: In yet another portfolio reshuffle, health and transport minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday was given charge of the urban development department, relieving deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia of the portfolio.

The move is seen as a step to minimise Mr Sisodias workload who, according to sources, wants to focus more on the education sector. Besides, being the deputy chief minister, Mr Sisodia takes care of chief ministerial work in the absence of Mr Kejriwal who, in the coming time, will be busy campaigning in Punjab, Goa, and Gujarat where elections are scheduled next year.

However, the government has attributed the change to better coordination of work between Mr Sisodia and Mr Jain both of whom hold important portfolios in the Kejriwal Cabinet.

The deputy CM holds charge of about 11 departments including education, finance, planning, land and building, revenue, vigilance, services, administrative reforms, information technology, law and justice. Mr Jain, who now has the urban development department in his kitty, also holds portfolios like power, home, PWD, transport, health and industries.

This article was first published in The Asian Age.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ruled against the Bombay High Court order directing authorities to demolish the 31-storey scam-tainted Adarsh housing society building.

The top court asked the Centre to take over possession and to ensure that no demolition takes place while securing the controversial Adarsh society building located in the heart of Mumbai.

We will secure the building and there will be no demolition, said Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to the court. The next hearing of the case has been fixed for August 5.

Read: Adarsh scam: CBI seeks Maha Governor's nod to prosecute Ashok Chavan

The Bombay high court in April directed the Union environment ministry to demolish the Adarsh housing society building, close to the sea in Colaba, and told the government to begin criminal proceedings against the politicians and bureaucrats involved in sanctioning the illegal construction. It had also imposed a fine of Rs 6 lakhs on the Adarsh society.

On a plea by the Adarsh society, however, a division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Rajesh Ketkar had stayed its order to pull down the building for 12 weeks to enable it to file an appeal in the Supreme Court, despite the Maharashtra government opposing it. The demolition, it said, should be done at the expense of the Adarsh society.

Seen as a symbol of corruption, the Adarsh scam kicked up a huge political storm after it surfaced in 2010, leading to the resignation of then Congress CM Ashok Chavan. In February this year, the Maharashtra governor had given the CBI sanction to prosecute Mr Chavan under the Indian Penal Code in the case.
Gorakhpur: Seers and the various religious orders can play a major role in making India modern and prosperous, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said, noting that many of them have taken up public welfare works like building toilets and providing health care facilities.

"It is the demand of time that lakhs of saints, thousands of orders and hundreds of mathas (monastic establishments) can play a critical role in making India modern and prosperous, in cultivating good values among its people."

"Many are doing that. It is a good force for the country's future," Modi said after unveiling a statue of Mahanth Avaidyanath, the guru of Hindutva leader and party MP from here Yogi Adityanath.

Avaidyanath, a four-time BJP MP, had been in the forefront of the Ayodhya Ram temple movement. He passed away in 2014 and the government had released a stamp to mark his first birth anniversary last year.

Noting that all the systems in the country have undergone timely changes, Modi said many sages who were devoted to religious and spiritual works have nowadays attached themselves to cleanliness, building toilets, running eye surgery centres and keeping animals healthy.

Avaidyanath worked for the welfare of society and Adityanath was keeping up with his good works, Modi said. The statue is housed at the Gorakhnath Temple, of which Avaidyanath was the chief priest and has been succeeded by Adityanath.

"My association with Mahant Avaidyanath ji goes back to the time when I was not in active politics. Heard from him the work done here," the Prime Minister tweeted.

"Our saints and seers, they are very noble and have always been compassionate towards society and the poor," Modi said.

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar accompanied Modi at the event held inside the temple premises.
CHENNAI: Next time when you travel in an aircraft, you may spot a new feature displaying the age of the flight. In a step towards air passenger safety, the Madras high court has directed the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to consider the feasibility of furnishing details regarding age of aircraft to passengers. The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, before which a PIL filed by M. Purushothaman, an advocate, came up for hearing, passed the order. The petitioner sought a direction to DGCA to direct all airlines, offering domestic and international services, to inform passengers about the age of the aircraft.

Closing the petition, the Bench said as courts are not experts in this field, it was asking DGCA to consider whether the petitioners request is feasible and desirable. Purushothaman submitted We often come across reports of miss situation and aborted landings due to engine and equipment failure during take-off and landing of flights. Recently, a 25-year old aircraft crashed in Nigeria resulting in death of the more than 100 passengers. Our national carrier, Air India and Indian Airlines are operating many aircraft that are very old. As a travelling public entrusting their lives in the hands of the aircraft operators, passengers have every right to be informed about the age of the aircraft in which they are going to travel, he said.

Passengers would consider it prudent that a recently built aircraft is safer to travel. He sent a representation to DGCA on May 6, 2013. As there was no response, he filed the present petition. Meanwhile, in the DGCA website, the authorities have started displaying a message calling upon passengers to know details and reliability of the aircraft before they fly.
The arrested man is associated with IRF Foundation of Zakir Naik. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A joint team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala Police on Thursday arrested a youth allegedly associated with controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's foundation in connection with a case registered in Kochi.

A senior police official said Arshid Qureshi, who was associated with IRF Foundation of Zakir Naik, was nabbed from Navi Mumbai.

According to reports, Qureshi is accused of recruiting youth from Kerala for the dreaded terror outfit Islamic State. More than 20 people who have gone missing in the state are suspected of leaving the country to join ISIS.

Read: Dhaka attackers followed Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik

Ebin Jacob, the brother of Merin alias Mariam who went missing from Kerala along with her husband, informed the police that a man along with Qureshi tried to forcibly convert him to Islam, so that he could join the Islamic State.

A case under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between groups) as well as under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was registered in Kochi against Qureshi.

Read: Zakir Naiks school in Chennai imparts education for both worlds

He was produced before the Belapur court in Navi Mumbai which granted Kerala Police his transit remand till July 25. Kerala Police will now produce him in a court in Kochi.

Mumbai-based Islamic Preacher Zakir Naik is under the scanner of probe agencies after it emerged that some of the Dhaka attackers were inspired by his speeches.
Hyderabad: As many as 32 farmers of Medak district had moved the High Court in 2012, challenging the revenue authorities moves to acquire their lands in Velimala village in Ramachandrapuram mandal for non-payment of taccavi loans (loan given to poor farmers for agriculture inputs).

According to the farmers, their forefathers had taken loans of Rs 2,000 each in 1958. The Revenue authorities told the court that after the failure of the farmers to repay the loans, the government put the lands for auction.

When no one came forward to buy the lands, the government bought them at the rate of Rs 1 per acre. They contended since it has become government land, they have powers to take it over.

Senior counsel C.V. Mohan Reddy, appearing for the farmers, told the bench that the farmers had repaid their loans long back. The bench observed that there was absolutely no record with Revenue authorities to show that the farmers were indebted to the government.

Maintaining that the authorities have to agree that the farmers are the original owners of the land, the bench said at the best they can ask the farmers for payment of principal amount of Rs 200, with interest.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday cautioned the state revenue authorities against indulging in forcible or unilateral acquisition of land from farmers.

Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale said, Forcible dispossession is nothing but driving farmers towards suicides. There is no point in paying Rs 6 lakh to the kin of the deceased farmers after their death while resorting to dispossession when they were alive.

Justice Bhosale along with Justice A.V. Sesha Sai was dismissing an appeal moved by the TS government and the Medak district collector challenging the order of a single judge to re-assign land to certain farmers if they repay Rs 1 lakh each for loans obtained by their forefathers in 1958.

The bench observed that the government cannot take away land on the ground of having power to acquire land for public purpose. If at all the government required land, it has to adopt a policy which can facilitate paying reasonable compensation to the owners to lead a normal life.
New Delhi: The government is likely to approach Britain soon to get back the Kohinoor diamond from the British crown. According to news agency reports, the decision was taken at a high-level meeting on Friday which was attended by External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and Cabinet secretary P.K. Sinha among others, with indications that Britain may be approached on the issue soon.

The meeting also reportedly discussed possibility of signing a treaty with the UK wherein Britain may be assured that India would not claim any other artefacts in Britain except the Kohinoor diamond.

The meeting apparently lasted for over 45 minutes, and was called following Prime Minister Narendra Modis directions to take steps to bring back the jewel that changed hands over the centuries among Indian and foreign monarchs who conquered and ruled India.

In 2010, the then UK Prime Minister David Cameron, during a visit to India, had reportedly said that if Britain agrees to return the diamond, you suddenly find the British Museum empty.

Just in April this year, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said India remains committed to bringing back the Kohinoor which has strong roots in our history. The 108-carat unique Kohinoor diamond is estimated to cost over USD 200 million.
Hyderabad: The Rehabilitation and Resettlement clause is all set to make a comeback in the TS governments land acquisition policy.

The unfortunate suicide by a farmer in Medak and intense agitations against land acquisition for Mallannasagar project has forced TS government to incorporate R&R clause again in its policy (GO 123). Originally, the R&R clause was very much part of GO 123 when it was issued in October 2015.

However, the government removed it in November 2015, ostensibly to bring down land acquisition costs. This has now become a major obstacle to land acquisition. In the revised policy, a 2BHK house and a job will be offered to oustees family.

Bowing to intense agitations from farmers and Opposition parties, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had offered to give compensation either under states policy or the Centres Land Acquisition Act, 2013, as desired by farmers.

However, the government is still keen on acquiring land under state's policy as it feels that Centre's Act is time consuming. Besides, the government will have to conduct social impact study with experts and make gram panchayats part of the acquisition process by holding gram sabhas under the Centres Act. The state's policy does not require conduct of gram sabhas or social impact study.

With Mr Rao keen on completing irrigation projects in three years by spending over Rs 1.25 lakh-crore, he wants land acquisition to be done faster as per states policy but offer all the benefits of the Centres Act to farmers.

CMO sources said Mr Rao directed Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, revenue principal secretary Pradeep Chandra and CCLA Raymond Peter to revise the state policy on land acquisition offering R&R package.

Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao said, Revision of GO 123 is under active consideration. The CM has made certain suggestions on how R&R should be offered and officials are working out the modalities. All the benefits the Centres Act has to offer will be offered by state government.

The R&R package will be applicable not only for future acquisitions but also for those whose lands have been already acquired for irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram, Sitarama, Palamur-Ranga Reddy, Dindi and even for Pharma City.

The government needs to acquire 1,04,628 acres for irrigation projects.

It has already acquired 20,000 acres in Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Medak districts under GO 123 and needs to acquire another 20,000 acres.

For Pharma City on the city outskirts at Mucherla, nearly 12,500 acres need to be acquired of which 6,000 acres were already acquired as per GO 123. Under R&R package, a 2BHK house and a job to the member of a family will be offered.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the defence ministry to take possession of the Adarsh Housing Society apartments in Mumbai and the land on which the building stands and secure it from encroachment.

A bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and A.M. Sapre asked the Mumbai municipal authorities not to carry out the demolition of the building, though it did not pass a specific order to this effect.

On the Adarsh Housing Societys persistence that the Bombay High Court decision ordering demolition be stayed, the bench said the word secure meant there would be no razing.

Earlier, senior counsel Shekar Naphade, appearing for the society, pleaded that the Bombay High Court order directing demolition of the structure and resumption of lands be stayed. Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar assured that the defence ministry would secure the building and the land and there would be no demolition.

When the bench wanted to know whether there was any occupant in the flats, Mr Naphade and the SG informed the court that the building was lying unoccupied from 2010. The SG said the occupancy certificate issued to the society was later rescinded and no one had occupied the flats.

Mr Naphade, however, said some of them had kept their furniture in the flats and the office-bearers may be allowed to remove them. The bench agreed and passed an order to this effect.

The Bench also asked the registrar-general of the Bombay HC to ensure that either he, or a registrar nominated by him, oversee the handing over of possession of the building on or before August 5.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to set up a medical board at the KEM Medical College and Hospital, Mumbai to examine the rape victim on Saturday and submit a report on Monday whether the 24 weeks foetus can be medically terminated. She had said the foetus suffered from anencephaly, which means absence of major portion of brain, skull and scalp.

A Bench of Justices J.S. Khehar passed this order after the Maharashtra government consented to set up a medical board.

Earlier Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar for the Centre informed the Bench that the government was willing to set up a medical board at the AIIMS. However, since the girl is in Mumbai, the court asked Maharashtra government to set up the medical board.

The Bench asked the Board to submit a report to the court on Monday when the matter will be heard again. The Bench asked the SG to render assistance on other aspects of the writ petition challenging the provisions of the MTP Act on the ground that imposes a restriction of 20 weeks for carrying out abortion.

The woman said she was a rape victim and her doctors did not allow her abortion stating that the foetus is more than 20 weeks old and termination of pregnancy is prohibited even if there is fatal risk to the mother and the foetus.

The petitioner said that when she came to know that she was pregnant she underwent tests and sonography revealed that the foetus suffered from anencephaly. She contended that 20 weeks ceiling may be reasonable when the law was enacted in 1971 but has ceased to be reasonable today where technology has advanced and it is perfectly safe to abort even up to the 26th week and thereafter.
Lucknow: An FIR was on Friday filed against Mayawati and some of her party leaders by police on a complaint by the family of expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh whose whereabouts were not known after he kicked up a controversy by questioning the character of the BSP supremo.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), on Friday, termed as baseless the charges levelled against it regarding use of abusive language for the women family members of Dayashankar Singh.

The BJP, on the other hand, will be holding a programme in every district on Saturday called Beti ke samman mein, BJP maidan mein in which party leaders will submit memorandums to the Governor through district officials, drawing his attention to the harassment of daughters.

BJP spokesman Vijay Pathak said, While we condemn the words used by Dayashankar and have already taken action against him, we also do not approve of the manner in which BSP workers are targeting his wife, minor daughter and other women relatives.

BJP spokesman Vijay Pathak said, While we condemn the words used by Dayashankar, we also do not approve of the manner in which BSP workers are targeting his wife, and daughter. The BSP leader said that the BJP was trying to indulge in a damage control exercise by getting Dayashankars family to lodge an FIR.
I have nothing to

confess, said the spider

Confronting God Yama at the gate

Then opening his jaws a little wider

He accounted for everything he ate.

Flies, fleas and moths he trapped

In that invisible net

All that murder gently wrapped

And devoured without regret 

All creatures who were born to die

All lovers who were born to lie .

 From Ai! Dont Be Silly Yaar by Bachchoo

Londons Metropolitan Police reports that it has seen a significant increase in hate crimes since the country voted, narrowly, for Brexit. Hate crime is the phrase it uses for racially motivated attacks on people who are innocently, ethnically, non-white British. It can take all sorts of shapes, from serious physical assault to verbal abuse, spitting in someones face or even smashing the windows or throwing objectionable things including firebombs through the letter boxes of ethnic families. So far, there have been no recent fatalities. A young lady who monitors these attacks was interviewed on television. She had her head covered and said she was of mixed race and had in the past few days been randomly abused on the streets. She was aware that this was trivial compared to the more serious cases she had recorded.

It is certainly no coincidence that, after the Brexit referendum, a fraction of the people in favour of Leave imagined that the vote gave them the right to demand that foreigners be instantly evicted from this sceptred isle. Antagonism to immigrants seemed to have been in check before the referendum but the signal for its resurgence has clearly been fuelled by its leaders. I mentioned the covered head of the monitoring lady because of a curious item that appeared in a national newspaper a few days before she spoke about an increase in hate crimes. The Sun is a tabloid British newspaper. Its character and that of its readers can be gauged from some of its features and journalistic practices  one of which is a photograph every day of a nude or semi-nude model with some mind-numbing, punning slogans under it on its Page 3. It was also the centre of convictions for hacking phones of celebrities and even of a teenage victim of rape and murder.

Channel 4 News, an important journalistic vehicle, reported the Bastille Day massacre in Nice on the night it happened. The news presenter, a charming young lady called Fatima Manji, presented the report. She was wearing a very smart grey scarf covering her head and draping her shoulders. The Sun, the next day, ran a column by its former editor, one Kelvin McKenzie, which said: Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim? McKenzie went on to say that Ms Manji was clearly a Muslim as she was wearing a hijab. The tone of the column was one of outrage: Mackenzie wrote he could hardly believe his eyes when (he) turned on the telly and was greeted by a sight that would shock any right-thinking person.

Almost every day, on the world, national and local news, theres bound to be a report of some disaster or atrocity. A young man picks up a gun and shoots his schoolmates somewhere in America. He is from a Christian family. Should every news channel that reports the incident in Britain or around the world ensure that they dont outrage right-thinking people by having the news presented by a Hindu, Muslim, Jew or some other non-Christian? Or closer to Mr McKenzies fox-hole, should all reports of outrageous and illegal phone-hacking by journalists of the Sun, several of whom were convicted of the offence, be reported on television by people of a different faith from the possibly pious journalists whose consciences allowed them to violate the privacy of an abducted teenager?

Should no TV presenter be allowed to wear, shall we say, a chain with a cross on it while enumerating the deceptions exposed by a judges inquiry used by the avowedly Christian Tony Blair when he sent soldiers to a war in Iraq in which thousands of Iraqis and 179 British soldiers died? Mr Mckenzie is obviously talking rot, but in the light of the increased racial attacks reported by the police, was he writing rot which incited people to racial hatred? Was he saying that Ms Manji is on the same ethical side as the murderer who killed men, women and children in Nice because she was wearing a scarf to cover her hair? No Muslims I know  and I can confidently say that about Ms Manji  would claim to share a faith with the Nice killer or any of the outfits and death cults that appropriate the aspects of Islam that lead them to the murder of innocents.

That being said, there is no denying that there are deep divisions in our world caused by interpretations of religion. The suppressed coup in Turkey was proclaimed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an extremist, terrorist, move by associates or followers of ISIS. The opposite opinion is that the armed forces were attempting to overthrow Mr Erdogans increasingly dictatorial and Islamist regime in order to restore secularism, democracy and freedom of expression in an Ataturkish Turkey. Until the imprisoned leaders of the failed coup are allowed to address the world on their motives, we shant know. They will, on all evidence, be executed before they speak.

The news from Turkey however, points to the secularist view of their intentions as the citizens who suppressed the coup seemed from their slogans and interviews to be followers of a fundamentalist Islam. The Western media spoke to several women in Istanbul and Ankara, all of whom claimed they were now afraid to go out onto the streets in the western clothes they had worn for years and would only venture out of their homes in hijabs. Dress maketh the man, dress undoeth the woman?
Akal Takht, situated in the precincts of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, is the abode of the timeless one, the eternal divine. Akal Takht, throne of the Akal, is the primary seat of Sikh religious and political authority. Akal means without kal or beyond time, everlasting and timeless. The word Takht means throne or the seat of authority, hence Akal Takht is the throne of the Supreme Being. Akal Takht is one of the five Takhts, the other four Takhts are associated with Guru Gobind Singh and are situated at Patna, Anandpur, Damdama and Nanded. The Akal Takht at Amritsar, founded by Guru Hargobind, is the oldest of all the Takhts and occupies a special place in Sikh history and religion.

The word Akal is used by the Sikh gurus to refer to the formless divine reality, that is, Akal Purakh, pervading everywhere and in every being. The Supreme Being is also Akal Murat  timeless image  as expressed by Guru Nanak in Mul-mantra. He is the only time and yet timeless; he is the creator as well as the creation. Guru Gobind Singh, in Akal Ustat, praises the Akal and exclaims, Hail, O Akal, hail, O Kirpal! Akal Takht symbolises the supremacy of the cosmic reality. The original structure was built by Guru Hargobind as a seat of temporal authority, along with the spiritual authority represented by Harmandir Sahib. Akal Takht and Golden Temple signifies Guru Hargobinds concept of miri-piri (spiritual-temporal) in a true sense.

According to the historical sources, the Guru had laid the foundation and Bhai Buddha and Bhai Gurdas completed the work. The Guru, referred to as sachcha patshah (true king), used to manage secular affairs and issued hukamnamas to Sikh sangat from the Akal Takht. Hence, the throne is the sachcha takht  true throne. The Akal Takht is a majestic building. The main floor of the building is artistically decorated and also displays some weapons used by the gurus and prominent Sikhs. The takht is the supreme authority and all other takhts and the Sikh community are bound to accept its decisions. It is regarded as the decision of the sarbat khalsa and decrees issued by the Akal Takht are universally applicable to all Sikhs.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh was accorded religious punishment by the head of the Akal Takht, which the maharaja, in the capacity of a Sikh, had accepted graciously. Important religious matters like size of the kirpan, addition of lines in ardas and honouring persons are also taken here. On January 25, 1952, Akal Takht, after the Partition, enjoined upon the entire Khalsa to add lines related to the gurdwaras, now in Pakistan, with the words, O timeless Lord, the benevolent one, ever the succourer of thy Panth, we pray grant the Khalsaji the privilege of unhindered access to and control and maintenance of Sri Nankana Sahib and other holy shrines and sites from which the Panth has been parted. The seat of supreme authority for the Sikh community is the Akal Takht.
Indias federal structure calls for the division and sharing of powers on a territorial basis between the Centre and states. After Independence, the predominance of a single party in the national narrative ensured a strong centrifugal system that was given to its own agenda, arbitrariness and biases. It also fuelled regionalism and gave rise to anti-Delhi sentiments. The larger issue of a tenuous Centre-state relationship came to the forefront only in the late 1960s, when the state Assemblies saw the rapid emergence of Opposition and regional parties beyond the Congress. In 1969, the flag of concern was raised by three non-Congress chief ministers from Orissa, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. They insisted on decentralisation of power and transparency in the financial doles meted out to the states.

Given the increasingly fragmented political landscape and natural impulses and instincts of all sides, constitutional appointments like governors and the provision requiring presidential assent for bills passed in the state Assemblies became invaluable political tools. Often, the constitutional resources and processes were deployed to checkmate and suppress the states autonomy and the federal framework  tainting the hallowed spirit of the Indian Constitution and militating against popular sovereignty. The frequent invoking of Article 356 through the state governors recommendation to impose Presidents Rule in a state is one such contentious Centre-state flashpoint. It was prophetically pre-empted by the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution, B.R. Ambedkar. He had wished that the use of Article 356 be a dead letter  only to be used when all other means had been exhausted. The partisan behaviour by parties of all hues, denominations and combinations has been responsible for the misuse of this provision.

The recent instances of gubernatorial overreach in both the Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Assemblies has given fresh ammunition to disgruntled chief ministers (belonging to Opposition parties) to voice their concerns on the mirage-like reality of the oft-quoted principle of cooperative federalism. With the Supreme Court indictments in sail, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar launched a meaningful debate, that questioned the relevance, role and conduct of those appointed as governors. The debate in the 11th Inter-State Council saw riled Opposition chief ministers invoking several parts of the unimplemented findings of the Sarkaria Commission and the Punchhi Commission, and alluded to the Supreme Courts guiding principle in the landmark S.R. Bommai case. Clearly, the ruling dispensation has boxed itself into a corner with the questionable conduct of some of its new appointees in the past couple of years.

To appoint any individual as governor is the sole prerogative of the ruling party as long as the individual meets the basic criteria of eminence and hails from outside the state and its politics. However, what has really raised hackles is the post-appointment conduct of these individuals, including questionable political preferences and the constitutional compromises they have made. The familiar, rote and protracted quasi-purge of removing the appointees of an earlier government was justified on the grounds of similar behaviour by previous dispensations  an opportunity to correct a historical malaise was lost. The demonstrated gubernatorial actions have now taken on hitherto unseen and brazen levels of politicisation and deep tones of ideological colours, that are being projected, unconvincingly, as a nationalistic imperative.

Comments like Hindustan for Hindus or that Muslims are free to go to Pakistan by one governor, or such as whatever gave you notion that I am secular? I am a Hindu... by another  the list of avoidable opinions that are rooted in ideological beliefs is unfortunately long. The popular notion of Raj Bhavans being old-age-homes for party lions in the winter of their lives, or as dens of the Centres apparatchiks, is both regrettable and true in parts. However, given the proliferation of parties and the accompanying mathematics of permutations and combinations of cobbling together electoral numbers  the presence of an apolitical and constitutionally upright wise man cannot be overemphasised.

Given the political nature of the domain, the induction of erstwhile political warlords who have sheathed the sabre is also kosher; it is not wrong as a certain political understanding is required to handle the constitutional quandaries that can emerge in a multi-party coalition or in an Assembly. Certain border states with a strong democratic culture and regional parties (with soft-secessionist tendencies) are always susceptible to testing the limits of constitutional, territorial and sovereign frameworks  herein, the role of a Delhi-appointed governor who can rein in the political enthusiasm to within the contours of constitutional fences is invaluable. Neither a rubber-stamp nor politically active governor is needed. On the contrary, textbook conduct, like that by late President K.R. Narayanan (who defined himself as a citizen President), who had the wisdom, moral courage and political sagacity to return files relating to Presidents Rule twice  once to the United Front government trying to dismiss a BJP state government, and again to the NDA government, seeking to remove a RJD government in Bihar  in both cases, given the strict impartiality and textbook adherence to the egalitarian spirit of the Constitution, no taint of individual or political bias were attributed to the constitutional conscience-keeper.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has raised a valid point in pre-aligning chief ministers on gubernatorial appointments, purely from the perspective of healthy Centre-state ties, the dignity of the post and the respect for decisions taken by the constitutional head of the state. These points are in conformity with ignored and forgotten portions of the Sarkaria Commission report. The operative words in Nitish Kumars pitch was transparency and consultation  reminiscent of 1969 trust deficits in the Centre-state relationships. Now, with judicial intervention leading to the restoration of Opposition-led governments in Dehradun and Itanagar, the Centre has an opportunity to mend fences, and walk the talk on cooperative federalism, and indeed on the BJPs claims to be a party with a difference.
A big hole was blown in the BJPs carefully constructed concern for the untouchables of Hindu society  the dalits as they are called in current political literature  and the saffronites new-found narrative of Harijans  the innocent Gandhian expression that today sounds quaint  being an integral part of Hindu society, when in Gujarat Hindu vigilante groups attacked dalits in Saurashtras Una village for pursuing their ancient vocation of skinning dead cows. Parties of vigilantes, which have behaved like the Taliban, have been active in various parts of northern India since the establishment of the Modi government since they (rightly) believed thered be no comeuppance, that theyd be above the law.

Their aim has been to sharpen contradictions between Hindus and Muslims, and cow slaughter or the eating of cows meat was a handy tool. Thus we had the Akhlaq murder in UPs Dadri and violent attacks on Muslim cattle-traders in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, and a big ruckus in Mumbai on the issue of the consumption of beef. Elements of civil society  sought to be reviled as liberal secularists  opposing this trend were attacked and maligned. All this was easy enough for BJP and other RSS affiliates such as the VHP. So-called gau-raksha samitis, or cow-protection groups, mushroomed. The Muslims do not generally vote BJP and there was no electoral angle involved. But the dalits are different. Traditionally they have not voted BJP. But lately the saffron party is pushing all limits to win them over.

The Prime Minister himself took the lead, starting with observing B.R. Ambedkars birth anniversary in a big way last year. Ambedkar, who has been made fun of by the BJP-RSS for the last 70 years, was suddenly in demand in the saffron camp. Dalits, who revere him, make up nearly a fifth of the countrys population and would be crucial to BJPs chances in the UP Assembly election. It was therefore important for the BJP to try and contain the fallout of the vigilante attack on cow-skinning dalit groups of Gujarat who went on a statewide protest, with several committing suicide.

It did not help matters that the state is ruled by the BJP. Union home minister Rajnath Singh announced in Parliament that several Una accused were in custody and a police official had been suspended. These steps should be welcomed even if they are self-serving. At least a party like the BJP, which has been traditionally partisan to upper caste Hindu interests, has at the procedural level moved against those committing violence against dalits. This is something new.
The archerfish used in experiments could demonstrate the ability to a high degree of accuracy; despite lacking the crucial neocortex part of the brain which other animals use for sophisticated visual recognition. (Representational Image)

Scientists have shown for the first time how a species of tropical fish can distinguish between human faces. The archerfish used in experiments could demonstrate the ability to a high degree of accuracy; despite lacking the crucial neocortex part of the brain which other animals use for sophisticated visual recognition.

The research, conducted by scientists from the University of Oxford and Australia's University of Queensland, wanted to test the long-held belief that differentiating between human faces could only be accomplished by more sophisticated animals, such as primates.

The archerfish, found largely in Australia and southeast Asia, was chosen for its ability to spit a jet of water; a technique it uses to shoot down insect prey even above the water level.

In laboratory-based tests, an archerfish was presented with two different images of human faces and trained to 'choose' one of them by shooting a jet of water at it.

"We present them with different stimuli, and it can be a whole range of different things. But what we do is we give them different options and then we train them by giving them a food reward to select a particular one. So this can give us a huge amount of information about what the fish is able to see and how they do it," explained lead author Dr. Cait Newport from the University of Oxford.

In subsequent tests, the archerfish were presented with the learned face and a series of new faces. Researchers found that the fish could discriminate one face from up to 44 new faces with up to an 81 per cent success rate. They were able to do this even when features such as head shape and colour were removed from the images.

In her lab at the Department of Zoology, Newport demonstrated a similar level of visual perception in her Picasso triggerfish. The brightly coloured tropical fish were able to successfully pick out a black coloured disc mounted on a board surrounded by white discs.

Newport said the lack of a neocortex in fish and the fact they have no evolutionary need to recognise human faces makes the results of their research all the more surprising.

"It [the brain] is very large in primates, and it's highly folded, so there is a lot of different connections within the neurons happening in the brain; fish entirely lack that. When you look at a picture of a fish's brain it's only got what we consider the primitive sections of the human brain which are underneath that highly folded neocortex. And yet fish are still able to perform really complex behaviours; they can do facial recognition as we showed, they also build social systems, and there's some evidence of potential tool use," Newport told

Reuters, adding that the fish could be applying their pattern recognition ability that evolved to detect aerial prey to the task of discriminating human faces.

The cognition demonstrated by fish sheds some light on their ability to recognise and return to the same territory year after year for breeding. This is something that could be under threat in the Great Barrier Reef due to the current mass bleaching of coral reefs.

Bleaching occurs when the water is too warm, forcing coral to expel living algae and causing it to calcify and turn white.

Mildly bleached coral can recover if the temperature drops, otherwise it may die. Australian scientists have said mass bleaching is likely to destroy half of the northern coral. This could prove devastating for the marine life there.

"These guys [the fish] are looking at colours and patterns and textures. And if all of that is bleached we don't know if they're still going to be able to find their territories, their homes; we don't know how that will affect how they detect predators or potential prey," said Newport.

The study, published recently in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that complicated brains are not necessarily needed to recognise human faces, even though subtle features need to be identified in order to differentiate.

Newport added that the research provides evidence that fish have much more impressive visual discrimination abilities than previously believed.

"It is amazing what they can do with a really simple brain, as humans like to call it. Although it seems a bit unfair to call it simple - I think their brains are perfectly adapted to what they do and that's what's important to remember about all this - brains can look different, but they've evolved for different tasks," she said.

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WeChat is betting an array of services that include money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases.

Late to the party, WeChat, China's biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform, is scrambling to get a piece of the action in the booming African market.

The move is leading the South Africa-China joint venture down a fiercely competitive path as Facebook's WhatsApp is already part of the social media fabric in most African countries.

Africa is not often the scene of battles between tech giants, but the outcome could help determine who can turn the exponential growth in online messaging services into profits.

WeChat stands at a major disadvantage as WhatsApp is used far more widely, making users naturally reluctant to choose a rival service.

But WeChat is betting an array of services that include money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases and its experience in selling products to lower income users in the villages of China will loosen the Silicon Valley grip.

That's at the heart of the story for us because we knew that we were late to the market compared to other instant messaging apps and so we realized that focusing on chat services was not the most practical way to get to market, WeChat Africa head Brett Loubser told Reuters.

Launched in Africa in 2013 by China's Internet giant Tencent and its 34 per cent shareholder South African e-commerce and media group Naspers, WeChat Africa is a rare south-south corporate partnership to expand on the continent.

The joint venture is facing an uphill battle in taking on WhatsApp, which offers free text, picture and video messages and whose adoption in big African markets such as South Africa was lightening-fast because texts over a phone network are still expensive.

A 2015 study by World Wide Worx, a Johannesburg consultancy, showed WhatsApp had just over 10 million users in South Africa compared with just over 5 million for WeChat.

But WhatsApp, acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion and which has a long-standing promise to keep the platform ad-free, has no immediate plans to make money out of the service in Africa, Facebook Africa head Nunu Ntshingila said.

At this point in time, we are not at the stage where we are looking at monetizing WhatsApp, Ntshingila told Reuters. That's in a three-year time frame because right now the focus is on two big apps which are Facebook and Messenger.

With Facebook's deep pockets, analysts believe WhatsApp can easily leverage its popularity on the continent as and when it turns on the monetization tap. Ntshingila said WhatsApp is the No.1 messaging platform in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

You could argue that WeChat is pulling ahead in monetization efforts but WhatsApp guys can do anything using their numbers. It's all about who's got numbers, ICT analyst Sibonginkosi Nyanga at fund manager Momentum SP Reid said.

WhatsApp is testing making restaurants, airlines and credit card firms pay to contact consumers, its Chief Executive Jan Koum said in January, when the company announced it is dropping its token $1 fee levied on some of its users.

Beyond Messaging

Although there are no reliable statistics on the number of mobile phone owners who use either WhatsApp or WeChat on the rest of the continent, there are parts of Africa where WeChat is almost unknown whereas WhatsApp is everywhere from Namibia to Niger.

I used to have a WeChat account but I deleted it because you will find virtually nobody to chat. With WhatsApp, there are no complications, it's simple and all my friends use it, Nkululeko Mabuza, a 24-year-old social worker in Tzaneen, a large town 400 km (250 miles) north of Johannesburg.

Loubser said WeChat is all about making it easier for users with a suite of features to order food takeouts, shop online, search for jobs and transfer money without having to leave the interface.

We looked very carefully at what the platform can achieve beyond just messaging because people use products when there's value for them, he said.

Late last year WeChat launched mobile money services, or WeChat Wallet, which allows users to store bank cards and withdraw cash at the automated teller machines (ATM) of a partner, Standard Bank.

The service might be alluring for Africans. The success of telecoms operator Safaricom's mobile money service M-Pesa in Kenya has convinced investors and executives that the convergence of financial services and mobile phones offers growth opportunities.

The logic of using mobile phones to access financial services in sub-Saharan Africa is obvious: For every 100,000 people there are at least four bank branches and five ATMs but more than 700 mobile phones.

Earlier this month WeChat partnered with Stuff, the word's best-selling gadget and technology magazine, and a unit of household goods retailer Steinhoff to launch a payment feature that allows WeChat Wallet users to scan a barcode along side a product in the magazine.

Riding on Naspers' pay-television monopoly across Africa WeChat can also be used to cast votes for popular reality shows such as Idols and Big Brother.

I'm a big Idols fan and for me to vote on Idols I have to have a WeChat account. But I still have WhatsApp, which is for chatting with my friends, said Nkosinathi Sibanyoni, 28-year old a human resource practitioner.

Naspers Chief Executive Bob van Dyk admits that the number of WeChat users has not reached a level that would make the platform's collection of features mainstream.

Something that we've been confronted with is that because there is so much competition for the chat product you need a certain audience engagement before any of those other products can become mainstream, van Dyk told Reuters last month.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
The team responsible for the torrent search engine, IsoHunt, has made an unofficial mirror of the Kickass Torrents, the worlds biggest piracy website which was taken down by the US authorities yesterday.

The KAT mirror only features the list of torrents from Kickass Torrents but lacks sites most strong point, its user community. It was the only torrent website to have its own community, setting it apart from other torrent portals.

IsoHunt told VentureBeat "Its not perfect but if users need to save and archive something its time. We dont know how long it can last, but at least its something,"

Kickass torrents was taken down by the US authorities after collecting data on the site's financial transactions and bank accounts, US officials issued an international arrest warrant for KAT's admin, Artem "tirm" Vaulin, 30, of Kharkiv, Ukraine, who was arrested yesterday in Poland.



The website is down since yesterday and its Dark Web .onion URL also stopped working after few hours. IsoHunt team has also created two petitions to get the torrent kingpin, Vaulin out of the bars.

The Change.org.petition currently has 2500 supporters, while the White House Petition requires more 99,431 signatures.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Thousands of South Sudanese have left their country since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Vice President Riek Machar. (Photo: AP)

Johannesburg: The United Nations refugee agency reports that 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month.

Andreas Needham, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Friday that thousands of South Sudanese have left their country since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Vice President Riek Machar.

Although an uneasy peace has been established in South Sudan's capital, Juba, the U.N. official said the flow of people leaving the country has continued.

He said that more than 90 percent of the new refugees are women and children.

The U.N. official said the new refugees report that fighting is continuing in southern South Sudan and that in the Magwi area gunmen are looting properties and recruiting young men and boys.
It is estimated that 23% of men who have sex with men in Tanzania are living with HIV/AIDS, said health minister. (Representational Image)

Dar Es Salaam: The Tanzanian government has banned imports and sales of sexual lubricants in its latest move targeting the gay community, officials say.

Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu justified the move on the grounds that the product encourages homosexuality, which is banned in the east African nation.

"It is true that the government has banned the importation and use of the jelly to curb the spread of HIV," the minister told local media on Tuesday.

"It is estimated that 23 percent of men who have sex with men in Tanzania are living with HIV/AIDS," he added.

"I have instructed stakeholders working with gay people to remove the products from the market."

Groups working with the gay community were handing out the lube for free, the minister said.

"The ministry has agreed to work with stakeholders to give the ministry the money they were using to buy and import the lubricants so we could use it to buy beds for the maternity wards."

Gay male sex is punishable by life imprisonment under Tanzanian law, but there is no such ban on lesbian relations.

In practice, there had been no known arrests over homosexuality in recent years.

But the newly appointed regional commissioner for the port city of Dar es Salaam, Paul Makonda, announced a major crackdown against gay people this month, followed by arrests of suspected gays in clubs.

Some people who have been openly gay on the internet stopped posting after Makonda threatened that police would arrest those who follow them on social media.
The man was trying to help a patient with autism when the police shot and injured him. (Photo: YouTube screenshot)

Washington: A unarmed black man trying to help a patient with autism was shot and wounded by Florida police while lying on the ground with his arms raised in the air and pleading with officers to hold their fire.

Charles Kinsey was wounded in the leg in the incident Monday in Miami, which came as he was trying to help a disoriented autistic man who had wandered away from a group home where Kinsey works as a therapist.

Police said they were responding to an emergency call about a man with a gun walking around and threatening suicide.

Cell phone footage shows Kinsey on the ground with his arms in the air, with the heavy-set young autistic man sitting on the ground nearby playing with a small white toy.

In the video, Kinsey can be heard shouting to police: "All he has is a toy truck. A toy truck. I am a behavioral therapist at a group home."

He was shot anyway. The video ends before that.

Kinsey was not seriously hurt.

The incident illustrates the edgy mood of US police and the nation in general after the police ambush in Dallas that left five officers dead and another similar incident Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that killed three.

Kinsey, 47, told Florida TV station WSVN-Channel 7 that as he lay on the ground he told police that he was unarmed.

"I am asking the officer, I said, 'sir, please don't shoot me. Please, do not shoot me.'"

Kinsey added: "It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I'm like, 'I still got my hands in the air, and I said, 'No I just got shot! And I'm saying, 'Sir, why did you shoot me?' and his words to me, he said, 'I don't know.'"

The officer who opened fire has been placed on administrative leave for at least a week, the Miami Herald reported.

The investigation has been turned over to the Miami-Dade state attorney's office, it added.
Radwan was removed from the flight on the basis of his identity (Photo: AFP)

Washington: In a case of alleged discrimination in the US, a 40-year-old Muslim man was removed from a plane after a flight attendant publicly announced his name, seat number and said she would be "watching" him.

The matter came to light on Wednesday when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained to transport authorities that Mohamed Ahmed Radwan was removed from the American Airlines Flight last December because of his "identifiably Arabic and Muslim name."

According to federal law, airlines are prohibited from discriminating against passengers based on religion, ancestry and national origin, among other criteria.

CAIR sent a letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday urging an investigation and also called for a "thorough examination" into prevailing practices of major airlines, The Charlotte Observer reported.

In addition, CAIR said the DOT should develop policy guidelines on objective factors to be looked at while deciding to remove a passenger from a plane.

Radwan, a chemical engineer, said he was flying from Charlotte to Detroit on December 6, 2015, on American Airlines Flight 1821.

As he was taking his allotted seat, he said, a female flight attendant loudly announced, "Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A, I will be watching you."

After a minute, she repeated, "Mohamed Ahmed, that is a very long name, Seat 25-A, I will be watching you." Then a third time, according to Radwan, she said, "25-A: you will be watched."

"I was in total shock. I've been flying for over 30 years, and I've never heard something like that," he said.

The flight attendant did not make such a statement about any other passenger, Mr Radwan said. When he asked about her statements, the attendant said she was going to monitor everyone. When asked why she singled him out, the attendant accused him of being "too sensitive" and walked away, he said.

After a couple of American Airlines employees talked to him, he was told the attendant felt "uncomfortable" and he was escorted off the flight.

"I felt too unsafe to fly with American again," he said.

Mr Radwan instead booked a much later flight, which cost him about USD 1,500 and interfered with his travel plans.
He said that he will not support someone who attacked his wife and father (Photo:AP)

US Senator Ted Cruz staunchly defended his decision not to endorse Donald Trump, saying on Friday he was not the Republican presidential candidate's "servile puppy dog" in a damaging rift at the party's convention ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Cruz, who came in second to Trump in the race for the Republican nomination after a bitter and personal campaign, was booed by delegates at the gathering in Cleveland on Wednesday night when he stopped short of endorsing Trump in a high-profile speech.

The conservative senator from Texas stood his ground today. He refused to say whether he would vote for Trump, who during the primary battles insulted Cruz's wife, Heidi, for her physical appearance and suggested that his father was linked to late President John F. Kennedy's assassin.

"I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father," Cruz told a meeting of the Texas delegation in Cleveland.

Republican candidates had pledged during the primary contests to support the party's eventual nominee.

"That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi that I'm going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say 'thank you very much for maligning my wife,'" Cruz said. He did say he would not vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

The dispute was the latest misstep at the four-day party meeting, which was meant to show Republicans rallying behind Trump, a New York businessman who has never been elected to public office but who saw off 16 rivals to win the White House nomination.

Trump, well known to Americans as a reality TV star, has upset many in the Republican establishment with his free-wheeling style, frequent insults to rivals and controversial policy proposals such as imposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and building a wall along the border with Mexico.

Party leaders had sought a smoothly-run convention that would unify around the unorthodox White House candidate and present him as a strong leader capable of taking on challenges from the security threat of ISIS to wage stagnation in the United States.

But the convention briefly erupted in chaos on Monday when opponents of Trump stormed out of the room and others chanted in a failed attempt to force a vote opposing his candidacy.

Then one of the event's highlights, a speech by Trump's wife on Monday night caused controversy over plagiarism because she used some lines that were similar to passages in an address by first lady Michelle Obama in 2008.

As the last speaker at the gathering, Trump, 70, has a chance today's night to end on a positive note when he makes a prime-time address to formally accept the presidential nomination.

Trump said he would mention many of the issues that won him support from Republican voters during the primary campaign.

"I'm talking about trade, I'm talking about law and order, I'm going to be talking about borders. I'll be talking about many different things. Our country has a lot of problems. We're weak in so many different ways," he told ABC News.

"I think my message is a good message. It got me here," said Trump, who has fired up crowds with promises to create jobs, be tough on national security and ensure that foreign policy keeps American interests firmly at its heart.

NATO DOUBTS

But comments by Trump to the New York Times raised fresh questions about his commitment to automatically defend fellow NATO members if they were attacked.

In response to a question about potential Russian aggression towards the Baltic states, Trump told the newspaper in an interview that if Moscow attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations "have fulfilled their obligations to us."

After Trump's comments, the White House said the United States has an "ironclad" commitment to mutual defense among the NATO allies.

Trump and his aides have offered scant policy details so far at the convention. Nor have they been able to put to rest questions about whether they can mount a sophisticated campaign that can take on Clinton's well-oiled operation. He currently trails the former secretary of state in most opinion polls and needs the lift a candidate traditionally gets from the pre-election party convention.

FURY WITH CRUZ

Cruz, known as a ideologue of the conservative Tea Party movement who strongly favors small government, has been a controversial figure in the party himself, upsetting fellow Republicans in Congress by plowing his own furrow.

Pro-Trump delegates were furious with him.

Susan Hutchison, chair of the Washington delegation to the convention, said she confronted Cruz after his speech and called him a "traitor to the party."

"I always heard he didn't have that many friends in Washington D.C. He certainly didn't have that many friends in this room last night," Trump's son Eric told NBC's Today show.

Cruz was still one of the most talked about topics on social media, capturing attention ahead of Trump's big speech.

On Google, "ted cruz speech" was the top trending query about the Republican National Convention and on Twitter, around 56 tweets mentioning his official Twitter handle @tedcruz were posted every minute.

The overall tone of the tweets was more positive than negative, at a ratio of about 2.5 to 1, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.
Republican Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump, speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Photo: AP)

Cleveland: The following is a selection of reaction on Twitter to New York billionaire Donald Trump's speech on Thursday accepting the Republican Party nomination for president:

Bernie Sanders, former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination

@BernieSanders

Trump: "I alone can fix this." Is this guy running for president or dictator?

Trump: I alone can fix this. Maybe he doesnt understand that a president has to work with Congress. #RNCwithBernie  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 22, 2016

Laura Ingraham, conservative host of the Laura Ingraham Show

@IngrahamAngle

This is @realDonaldTrump broadening the base of the GOP. The inner city will no longer be neglected. They have suffered under Obama.

This is @realDonaldTrump broadening the base of the GOP. The inner city will no longer be neglected. They have suffered under Obama.  Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) July 22, 2016

Stephen King, author

@StephenKing

That wasn't a convention. It was something closer to a lynch mob. Republicans, you should hang your heads in shame.

That wasn't a convention. It was something closer to a lynch mob. Republicans, you should hang your heads in shame.  Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 22, 2016

Ari Fleischer, former White House spokesman for President George W. Bush

@AriFleischer

For everyone saying this speech is "too dark", remember - 69pc of the nation thinks the USA is on the wrong track. Many will agree w Trump.

For everyone saying this speech is "too dark", remember - 69% of the nation thinks the USA is on the wrong track. Many will agree w Trump.  Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) July 22, 2016

Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential nominee

@HillaryClinton

We are better than this.

We are better than this.  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016

David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan

@DrDavidDuke

Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders! Fair Trade! Couldn't have said it better!

Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldn't have said it better!  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 22, 2016

Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion

@Kasparov63

I've heard this sort of speech a lot in the last 15 years and trust me, it doesn't sound any better in Russian.

Ive heard this sort of speech a lot in the last 15 years and trust me, it doesnt sound any better in Russian.  Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 22, 2016

Michelle Malkin, conservative blogger

@michellemalkin

Trump is addressing the real concerns of people ignored outside the Beltway by both parties. Elites find this "depressing," apparently.

Trump is addressing the real concerns of people ignored outside the Beltway by both parties. Elites find this "depressing," apparently.  Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 22, 2016

Meghan McCain, daughter of Republican Senator John McCain

@MeghanMcCain

The party I was part of is dead.

The party I was part of is dead.  Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 22, 2016

Michael Cohen, Boston Globe columnist

@speechboy71

This is the bleakest, darkest, most fascistic speech I've ever heard delivered by an American politician

This is the bleakest, darkest, most fascistic speech I've ever heard delivered by an American politician  Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) July 22, 2016

Bill Kristol, founder of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard

@BillKristol

Trump's speech wasn't a speech in the normal sense, with pace & rhythm & argument. It was a shouted series of assertions. Which might work.
Washington: The US government on Thursday, issued an urgent warning that it has information about a possible attack against its citizens in the Saudi port city of Jeddah.

The State Department said the US embassy had received reports of a potential, imminent threat against US citizens in areas of Jeddah frequented by Westerners, such as markets, restaurants and shopping malls, among others.

The security message, published online and sent to US travellers registered with department, did not give further details on the reported threat, but reiterated existing guidance for visitors to Saudi Arabia.

Remember to vary your routes and times in all instances when traveling in the Kingdom, the notice said.

All US citizens are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings, and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country.

Earlier this month there were three bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia including one in Jeddah, the kingdoms second city and major Red Sea port, and which CIA director John Brennan said bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led international coalition battling the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Since March 2015, the country has also led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen.

In the past year, Saudi authorities have stepped up the arrests of radical Islamists and in 2015 announced that they had dismantled an IS-linked group, detaining hundreds of suspects, mainly Saudis.

Saudi Arabias top cleric, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, has declared the IS group to be an enemy of Islam.
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana with their families at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Photo: AFP)

Cleveland: Ivanka Trump took center stage at the Republican National Convention on Friday as she introduced her father as the peoples champion to a delirious Republican crowd in Cleveland.

For more than a year Donald Trump has been the peoples champion and tonight he is the peoples nominee, Ivanka, 34, told the cheering crowd.

He is colourblind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, she said, seemingly in defiance to the accusations of his long history of mistreating women.

She stepped out as a potent surrogate for her father promising he would be a compassionate leader who would fight for womens rights and affordable childcare. She regaled the crowd with childhood stories softening the sometimes hard-edged image of her her billionaire businessman father

At times, her speech was drowned out by the cheering crowds in the arena of the Republican National Convention. Social media crowned a new political star. Some Republicans said they were seeing the U.S. president they longed for. It was Ivankas night.

On Google, there were more searches for Ivanka Trump than for her father. The 34-year old businesswoman and former model talked about her fathers yearning to improve America, childcare, equal pay for women and other issues close to her heart, with a poise some found befitting of the White House.

Okay, why isn't @IvankaTrump running for President? television actor Anson Mount said in a Twitter post.

One of the best speeches  if not the best speech  tonight, said Chris Herrod, a 50-year-old delegate from Utah who had worked for Trumps vanquished rival Ted Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas.

One of Trumps five children, Ivanka was chosen to introduce her father, who then officially accepted the Republican Partys presidential nomination. Since Trump announced his intention to run for the White House last year, she has been steadily drawn into her fathers presidential campaign. On Friday she was one of the top trending topics on Twitter with about 121 tweets mentioning her posted every minute.
Policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday. (Photo: AP)

Berlin: Several people were killed today in a shooting rampage by a lone gunman in a Munich shopping centre, police said.

The Bild newspaper reported that the gunman ran through the mall near the Olympic stadium in the southern German city, firing on several people before fleeing in the direction of a nearby metro station.

The DPA news agency, citing a Munich police spokesman, said several people were dead. Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks. The OEZ shopping centre was surrounded by police who were hunting for the attacker, the paper said.

"There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre," Munich police said on Twitter, urging people to avoid the area.

Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as passers-by looked on.

"Attention -- avoid the neighbourhood around the OEZ. Stay in your homes. Leave the street," the Munich police tweet said.

Germany has so far escaped the kind of large-scale jihadist attacks seen in neighbouring France. But the shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany on Monday, injuring five people, two of them critically.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" attacker who appeared to have been "inspired" by the Islamic State group but was not a member of the jihadist network.

Authorities said he shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) three times as he rampaged through the train carriage. The attacker is believed to be either Afghan or Pakistani and investigators are still trying to determine his identity.

The train rampage triggered calls for Germany to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into the country. The assailant had arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Germany in June 2015 and had been staying with a foster family in the region of the attack for the last two weeks.

A record 1.1 million migrants and refugees were let in to Germany last year, with Syrians making up the largest group followed by Afghans.

In the latest attack in France, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, in the Riviera city of Nice last week.

It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November and the shootings at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January 2015. In March, Islamic State-claimed suicide bomb attacks at Brussels airport and a city metro station left 32 people dead.
The US military has deployed drones, Prowler electronic warplanes and A-10 ground attack aircraft, as well as 1,500 military personnel, to Incirlik to strike at IS targets. (Photo: AP)

Washington: The Incirlik air base in Turkey, used by the US-led coalition for air strikes against the Islamic State group, has power again for the first time since last week's coup attempt, the US military said Friday.

Turkish authorities cut electricity to the huge base on Saturday, suspecting that Turkish putschists used it to re-supply war planes for the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Since the power cut, US forces at Incirlik used back-up generators so they could continue aerial strikes against IS targets in neighbouring Syria.

"We will retain this capability should the power be interrupted again," the US command in Europe said in a statement.

In the meantime "there is a steady flow of hot food, water and fuel to support our service members and civilians in Turkey."

The US military has deployed drones, Prowler electronic warplanes and A-10 ground attack aircraft, as well as 1,500 military personnel, to Incirlik to strike at IS targets.

Washington has condemned the attempted coup in Turkey but has also carefully criticized the sweeping measures taken by authorities in cracking down on suspected coup plotters.
Dhaka: Bangladesh police on Thursday handed over to the FBI for testing blood and hair samples of militants who carried out the country's worst terror attack in which 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.

"Hair and blood samples from the five gunmen and their suspected aide have been given to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for testing," said Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman.

Immediately after the attack on July 1, US Secretary of State John Kerry called Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and offered her assistance from American law enforcement agencies, including FBI.

The counter-terror unit asked for hair and 20 mililitres of blood to be collected from the bodies for a second time, Soheil Mahmud, assistant professor of Forensics Medicine at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital said.

Doctors on Wednesday collected hair and blood samples from the bodies of six "terrorists" to ascertain whether they had been under the influence of drugs while "carrying out" the attack on a Gulshan cafe, Dhaka Tribune reported.

The autopsy will check if they were under the influence of amphetamine-based drugs, namely Captagon, that the IS uses to create 'super soldiers', Mahmud said.

A forensic team of Dhaka Medical College Hospital collected the samples on request of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The move came amid media reports that militants, especially members of the ISIS, are popping addictive pills, which help "fuel their fury", before attacking the victims.

The gunmen, mostly in their 20s, seized the upscale cafe, where they shot and slaughtered 22 hostages, including an Indian.

Two police officers also died during the attack, for which the ISIS claimed responsibility.

The government said six attackers were killed by army commandos, who stormed the cafe the next morning.

Among them, five were members of the banned Jama'aatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), according to the police. They maintained that the sixth person, the restaurant's chef, Saiful Chowkider, "was assisting the killers".

The remains of the attackers and their alleged aide were at the mortuary of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka.
Gujranwala: Recounting his association with the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani, who was recently killed in an encounter with the Indian security forces, 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed on Friday said that Wani was prepared to die after talking to him.

"Few days before his death, Burhan Wani told me over phone that it was his desire, his last wish, to talk with me. Now that my desire has been fulfilled, I am waiting for martyrdom, he told me," said Saeed in an event organized to express solidarity with Wani.

"I want to assure the people of Kashmir that if you are in the field, we are also with you," said the Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader.

Saeed also said that he had received a phone call from Asiya Andrabi, the founder of separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Millat, seeking his help to resolve what she called 'the crisis on the Indian side of Kashmir'.

Addressing a rally here, Saeed said, "My sister Asiya Andrabi cried for 15 minutes and asked me over phone, my brothers where are you?"

#WATCH ANI's exclusive: LeT Founder Hafiz Saeed talks about his conversation with slain terrorist Burhan Wanihttps://t.co/XcqZ9yiCKe  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

Assuring Asiya Andrabi that he was on his way to Kashmir, Saeed said, "This act of violence will come to end and nobody can stop Kashmir from becoming independent," he added.

Warning India, he said that it could either accept separatist Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's four-point formula on Kashmir and withdraw security forces from the Valley, or face the decision in battlefield.

#WATCH ANI exclusive: LeT Founder Hafiz Saeed talks abt his conversation with Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabihttps://t.co/B7bJWWyX5I  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

"We have to give a message to India to stop and withdraw forces and accept Geelani's four-point formula immediately, because, this is the last chance, and after this, the matter will be decided in the battlefield," Saeed said during his 'Kashmir Caravan' in Gujranwala.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah leader organised a "Kashmir Caravan" from Lahore to Islamabad.

The caravan, comprising of trucks and buses, stretched for several kilometers, and passed through many cities, including Gujaranwala, Jhelum and Gujarat.

His rallies were attended by federal ministers and religious leaders of various organisations.

The Pakistan's Government direct links with Hafiz Saeed has been further exposed by Islamabad allowing him to lead an anti-India rally on the Kashmir issue.

Saeed lead a Pakistan Government call to Observe July 19 as a Black Day, apparently to draw attention to the "burning issue of Kashmir." Pakistan's irrevocable links with Saeed have disappointed the Obama Administration.

The US has designated both the Laskkar e Toiba ( LeT ) and the Jamaat ud Dawa ( JuD ) as terrorist organisations. Saeed has also been listed by the UN Security Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.

Those watching South Asia in Washington say that by allowing a terrorist to take up a government sponsored cause, the Pakistan Government has bared it's selective approach towards terrorism.

This connection was also highlighted by a European Parliament Report by Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki where he pointed out how the Falah e Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), a charity front of the LeT, was radicalising the Pakistani Diaspora while the state was a mute spectator.

The July 19 Kashmir Rally is certain to be brought up on Capitol Hill where proposals are afoot to cut financial aid to Pakistan in the absence of complete and verifiable de-linkage with terror groups.

While the Obama Administration has been supporting Pakistan as an important ally in the war against terror, this July 19 rally, where a wanted terrorist has been given state patronage, is certain to raise questions and embarrass Washington.
She was my son, not a daughter. I have lost my son. She supported all of us, including my son who killed her, Qandeels father said. (Photo: AFP/Instagram)

Islamabad: Mohammad Anwar Azeem, the father of Qandeel Baloch, Pakistan's internet sensation, who was strangled to death by her brother at her family home in Multan said on Monday that he wants his son to be shot.

According to a report, Anwar Azeem said that his sons were unhappy over her achievements and turned against her even though she supported them.

"I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one," Anwar Azeem said.

Read: Yes of course, I strangled her: Qandeel Baloch's brother tells investigators

She was my son, not a daughter. I have lost my son. She supported all of us, including my son who killed her, he added.

Recalling the condition of her daughter's corpse, Qandeel's mother said, "Her whole face was covered in bruises, her tongue was black, her lips were black."

"My husband and I fell deep asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives," she said referring to the night when Qandeel was choked to death by her brother, Wasim.

Read: Murdered Qandeel Baloch took care of family, including killer brother

Anwar Bibi, mother of Qandeel Baloch mourns beside her body at her home in Shah Sadar Din village. (Photo: AFP)

Wasim, who was arrested for drugging and strangling Qandeel, had said he was "not embarrassed" to have killed her as she brought disrepute to the family.

The 26-year-old Qandeel Baloch was killed at her home in central district of Multan. Her brother Muhammad Wasim had fled soon after the incident. He was arrested late on Saturday, Multan City police chief Azhar Akram said, and confessed to drugging then strangling her "for honour".

Read: Pakistani 'selfie' cleric investigated over Qandeel Baloch's murder

Early this week, Pakistani authorities barred Qandeels family from legally "forgiving" their son for strangling her in a rare stand against the so-called practice of "honour killings".

Qandeel was a media sensation, bold in her videos and considered quite controversial in the country. She shot to fame in Pakistan in 2014 after a video of her pouting for the camera.

Read: In rare move, Pakistan bars Qandeel Baloch's family from 'forgiving' son

Last video of Qandeel Baloch on Instagram before her death that went viral:
Karachi: While almost all countries that used to invest in Pakistan pulling out their money, "all weather" ally China has stepped in to pump-in nearly US $600 million in 2015-16, almost half of the total FDI received by the cash- starved country last fiscal. Pakistan received Foreign Direct Investment of US $1,281.1 million in July-June, which is US $358.2 million higher than FDI received in the preceding fiscal year, figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said. This was 38.8 % more than the FDI figure in 2014-15.

With almost all countries that had traditionally invested in Pakistan now pulling out their investments, China has increased its FDI as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Express Tribune reported. Almost half of the total FDI that Pakistan received in the last fiscal year originated from China alone. Chinese and Pakistani leaders describe their strong bilateral ties as "all weather". FDI from China amounted to US $593.9 million in 2015-16, which is up 131.3% from 2014-15 and constitutes 46.3% of the total FDI Pakistan received over the entire fiscal year.

Pakistan, which has seen several terror attacks, has faced low levels of foreign investment in recent years. The SBP has called an increase in FDI 'imperative' for the sustainability of the economy's external sector. China was followed by Norway (US $172.3 million), United Arab Emirates (US $164.2 million), Hong Kong (US $130.9 million) and Italy (US $103.5 million) as the largest contributors to FDI in 2015-16. According to the SBP report, China has emerged as a dominant investor because of its interest in power projects.

Chinese companies have been interested in coal-based thermal generation, as it entails low unit cost compared to furnace oil and high-speed diesel, the SBP said. "Excluding power, FDI inflows into the country have declined," it noted.

The United States has traditionally been a big source of FDI, but that trend is changing now. As opposed to making fresh investments in Pakistan, it is now pulling out its money instead, the report said. US investors have pulled out US $65.5 million from Pakistan in 2015-16, although net inflows from the world's largest economy amounted to US $208.9 million in the preceding fiscal year.

In addition to the US, other major outflows of FDI were from Saudi Arabian (- US $102.2 million), Egyptian (- US $ 5.6 million) and German (- US $ 33 million) investors in July-June, SBP data shows. The largest net outflow of FDI in 2015-16 was recorded in petro chemicals (- US $ 136.1 million) followed by metal products (- US $ 59.1 million). Pakistan received FDI of US $ 709.3 million in 2014-15, which was 58.2 per cent less than the FDI received in the preceding fiscal year, the report said. Largest contributor to the FDI during 2014-15 was the US (US $ 238.7 million), followed by China (US $ 229.5 million) and United Arab Emirates (US $ 222.4 million), it said.
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said Kashmir will be part of Pakistan one day. Backing the Kashmiris struggle in Kashmir, Nawaz Sharif said the independence movement cannot be suppressed by using brute force.

A day will come when Kashmir will accede to Pakistan. Pakistan will not abandon Kashmiris struggle to right to self-determination, he said while addressing a rally in Muzaffarabad.

Mr Sharif said the people had rejected negative politics by giving thumping majority to the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in Legislative Assembly elections held on Thursday. The Prime Minister said success in politics can only be derived through serving instead of staging sitins.

Later, Pakistans civil and military leadership on Friday decided to approach the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to send a fact finding mission to Kashmir after the recent violence. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Security Comm-ittee chaired by Mr Sharif here, said an official statement.

The meeting demanded ban on the use of pellet guns in the Valley for dispersing people exercising their right to protest.

It unanimously called upon the international community to condemn the blatant human rights violations and play their role in ensuring the realisation of human rights of the Kashmiri people through fulfilling its commitments towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the UNSC resolutions.
Indie Stars Juliana Hatfield & The Blake Babies Discuss Their Evanston Reunion

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 22, 2016 8:45PM



The Blake Babies

The Blake BabiesJuliana Hatfield, John Strohm and Freda Lovehelped set the template for the indie rock boom of the late '80s and early '90s. All three members went on to play in other bands, and Hatfield charted a couple notable hits including "My Sister." Still, there's something undeniably alluring about the band's earlier workfor fans, and for the band itself. The band members recently unearthed the demos for their Earwig album, and recently led a crowdfunded project to bring those out into the world. What's most remarkable about those recordings is just how fully formed they were from the outset, laying the foundation for the band's future work.

To celebrate the release of these demos the band is getting back together for three shows. Two already happened in Boston, and the last one takes place in Evanston on Saturday afternoon. It sounds like these are the only times the band is getting back together, so we took this opportunity to ask them a couple questions about how they got here, and why they chose Chicagoland for one of these rare shows.

CHICAGOIST: What led you all to come back together?

JOHN STROHM: We all welcome opportunities to do projects together when time permits, and when we discovered the demos we thought wed commit to doing a couple shows.

FREDA LOVE: I am always clamoring for a Blake Babies reunion! I call those guys every few years and suggest it, but in this case it was the discovery of the Earwig demo tapes that made the prospect a little more interesting to everybody.



C: Why did you choose the Chicago area for one of the two reunion shows?

LOVE: Chicagowell, Evanstonhas been my home for six years now, but it's always felt like a second home to the Blake Babies. Even on our first tour we were warmly received here, perhaps even more so than in our home city of Boston.

JULIANA HATFIELD: We always did well here, and I have always done wellthere, tooaudiences show up for us and me in Chicago. It's a good town for us. We love Chicago. I apologize to Evanston if it is offensive for me to be lumping Evanston in with Chicago.

STORHM: Chicago was always a great market for the band, and its been Fredas hometown for years. Also theres a great infrastructure here with venues, media, and lots of friends. We felt confident we could do something successful here.

C: How did you guys find the Earwig demos, and how did you decide to release them?

STROHM: I had a bunch of tapes in storage in Indiana, masters for a few albums I made post-Blake Babies. Id long forgotten that I had the reel to the Earwig demos, or that they even existed. For some reason they were stored with the rest of my tapes, so I bounced them to digital and gave them to a friend to mix. We all agreed that the tracks were not only really good, but showed a side of the band that had never been represented in our recordings. We decided to find a way to share them with the fans in a meaningful way. Hence the Pledge campaign.

HATFIELD: I had been really busy doing other workthe I Don't Cares, me and Paul Westerberg, came right after a new album and national tour with my old band the Juliana Hatfield Three, and then this Blake Babies situation started happening, and so when it did I think my brain was a little overloaded with things so the Blake Babies info details did not stick with mea lot of it slipped through but I was on board in a vague sort of way..I knew I wanted to do it but I didn't know exactly what "it" was. I trusted the others, they seemed to know what they/we were doing, and that it would be good.



C: How long did it take you to get back into the groove with each other?

HATFIELD: It was pretty darned instantaneous. The chemistry is real, it's a real thing. The songs, some of which I had not listened to in decades, came right back, in the form of muscle memory. Even the lyricsold, ancient, teenaged lyrics from the 1980s came right back. Some of those old songs, we had played them so many times, on tour back in the old days and in the studio, recording them-- and I just fell right back into the groove. I imagine it was the same for John and Freda. But it was all pretty exhausting and I needed a couple of days to recover from the two Boston shows. It was a lot of songs that we had to polish. A lot of information and memories.

C: Any future plans?

STROHM: Nothing specific, but were generally feeling good about the way things are going. I can only speak for myself, but I would love to find a way to do more with Freda and Juliana.



LOVE: Not yet, but I hope we play a few more shows. We are also discussing the possibility of reissuing our back catalogue.

HATFIELD: As far as the Blake Babies go, we are not really looking past this Chicago thing. We have no solid plans for anything else but the Boston shows were fun and I hope that at some point we can maybe try and do some more.

C: What're you going to do while in Chicago? Any plans?

HATFIELD: I have no plans other than the scheduled Blake Babies things. I hope to try and see some art.

STROHM: Mostly just see friends. Our bad luck that the Cubs are out of town.



There are still a number of limited tickets left to the Blake Babies reunion show at Space (1245 Chicago Ave.) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
On Tuesday April 12, 2016 the Taliban announced the start of their new spr-ing offensive. It was expected to be their deadliest yet, and the attack in Kabul on April 19 in wh-ich 64 persons were killed and over 300 were wounded is a cl-ear indication of what is to come.





The security situation there is alarming, with the Taliban resurgent and spreading to areas where they have never been strong (they briefly occupied the city of Kunduz in the north in September last year), being in near full control of Helmand, and even threatening their spiritual home of Kandahar. For Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, this is the death knell of his strategy to engage with Pakistan and move to negotiations with Taliban even at the cost of sidelining the countrys most effective development aid donor  India.



When Ghani took office in September 2014, he deliberately repudiated his predecessor Karzais India-centric approach, making overtures to Pakistan, particularly its army and its intelligence agency, the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI). In November that year, he went on his first state visit to Pakistan and was warmly received by the civilian government and the military alike.



It was agreed that Afghan-istan would send army cadets to Pakistan for training and a few months later, in May 2015, there came an astounding announcement of cooperation between Pakistans ISI and Afghanistans intelligence agency the National Security Directorate (NSD).



Ghani was motivated by the recognition that there can be no peace and stability in Afghanistan without Pakistan, given Pakistans decisive influence over the Taliban Quetta Shura and other militants like the Haqqani network.



In July 2015, Pakistan was unable to deliver Taliban leaders to a planned meeting in Muree with the Afghans, instead the news of Mullah Omars secret demise some years ago broke. Then in early August 2015, there were a series of suicide attacks in Kabul, killing 51 people and wounding many more.



This was followed by the Taliban assault on Kunduz, which came as a last straw for the embattled Afghan president. Taliban attacks and Afghan National Army casualties spiked in the second half of 2015, according to the Pentagon. Ghani appeared to have come to the end of his tether with Pakistan.



By November of 2015, Afg-hanistan seemed to be turning to India again. This renewal of ties with India received a boost in December 2015 when India supplied Afghanistan, on request, three attack helicopters.



On Christmas in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Kabul to inaugurate the new pa-rliament building that India had built for Afghanistan. A more recent cementing of the relationship came with the finalisation of the Chabahar Port deal, invol-ving Iran, Afghanistan and India.



This allows Afghanistan access to the sea via the new Iranian port, linking through Afgh-anistan using the Zaranj- Delaram highway built by India. It will provide an alternative route for Indian and other goods coming into landlocked Afghan-istan and reduce their reliance on Pakistan.



Ghani has had to learn the bitter lesson that India is all too familiar with about relations with Pakistan. Consider briefly Indias recent experience since the positive start to Modis premiership with the invitation to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to attend his inauguration, good meetings on the side of various international summits, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajs December visit to Pakistan and Modis impromptu Lahore visit on Christmas Day, all intended to give impetus to the talks between India and Pakistan. All this was derailed by the attacks in Gurdas-pur and particularly Pathankot.



Never smooth

Ghani will learn like Modi has, that relations with Pakistan never proceed smoothly, that progress is constantly negated by some new act of violence and terror, and that building a good relationship with Pakistani civilian governments is no guarantee of progress or peace.



While Sharifs government might want peace and stability, Gen Raheel Sharif (no relation) is more concerned with winning on the armys strategic objectives in the region.

Until the Pakistani military and ISI stop seeing India as their biggest threat and Afghanistan as Pakistans backyard where Indias influence must be curtailed, turning Afghanistan into a pawn giving Pakistan the strategic depth to resist that perceived Indian threat, there can be no improvement in relations with Pakistan for either Afghanistan or India.



Only when the Pakistani military establishment recognises the far greater danger Pakistan faces from the very Islamic extremists they have nurtured and used in both Afghanistan and India, can things change. Some of these Islamic extremists have targeted Pakistan which has suffered appalling acts of terrorism, has so far only convinced the military to crack down with operation Zarb-e-Azbon specific extremist groups.



They are clearly not yet persuaded that the distinction they make between good Taliban (who target India and Afghan-istan) and bad Taliban who target Pakistan is spurious, reckless and self-defeating.



(The writer is Principal Lecturer in International Relations, Staffordshire University, UK)
Terming the BJP government in Gujarat as "anti-Dalit", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused the state administration of colluding in the incident of attack on dalit men by cow vigilantes as he met the victims and their families.



The Aam Aadmi Party Chief claimed that it was not an "isolated" incident and "atrocities" on dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be "taught a lesson" by members of all communities if it does not end its "oppression".



"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police...it means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is the police silent? Why is it involved? This means there is some direction from the top administration," Kejriwal told reporters after visiting the victims of the July 11 incident at Rajkot civil hospital.



"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, (it) is anti-Dalit," alleged Kejriwal whose visit cames a day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi meet the victims. Two days back, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had also visited the place.



The Delhi Chief Minister also questioned the state government's intent to carry out an unbiased investigation into the matter. The AAP national convener said only 17 persons have been arrested when about 40-50 people were allegedly involved in the July 11 incident, and pointed out that no charge sheet has yet been filed in the 2012 killing of Dalits by police at Thangadh in Surendranagar district.



Three Dalits were killed in the police firing in 2012. "People apprehend that the arrests could be an eyewash and the accused may be allowed to go scot-free later," Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal also stoked a controversy when he met Dalit youth Kanti Mulji Vala, arrested for the murder of head constable Pankaj Amrelia, at the Rajkot civil hospital where he is admitted.



Asked why he meet a murder accused, the Delhi CM said he will also meet the family members of the constable at Amreli. He said those who attempted suicide told him that "atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day in Gujarat". "I asked them why they are committing suicide. They said atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day. Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together," he stressed.



He demanded compensation and government jobs for the victims and the youths who had attempted suicide. Kejriwal also pressed for swift action against all the accused. "I have been told that false cases are being lodged against the (dalit) youths who are agitating by the authorities as they did during the peaceful Patidar quota agitation," Kejriwal claimed.



After meeting the victims of the beating incident and people who attempted suicide during the protest, Kejriwal will also visit the victims' families at Mota Samadhiyala village, where the incident of brutal assault on Dalits for skinning a dead cow took place on July 11. The thrashing incident had sparked a statewide protest by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today stoked a controversy when he met a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes.



Kejriwal arrived at the airport here this morning and went straight to Rajkot civil hospital, where he met two Dalit victims of the Una thrashing incident and several others who attempted suicide to protest against it.



The AAP national convener also met Kanti Mulji Vala, accused of killing a police constable, who is also being treated at the Rajkot civil hospital.



Vala is one of the accused in the murder of Amreli's head constable Pankaj Amreliya. The policeman was killed in stone-pelting a couple of days back during the protest by Dalits against the Una incident.



Kejriwal assured the murder accused of "all possible support to fight for justice". Vala, however, maintained that he was innocent and had not killed the policeman.



When asked about the reason behind meeting a murder accused, Kejriwal evaded a straight reply and instead said that he will also meet the family members of the deceased policeman in Amreli today.



However, the meeting evoked strong reaction from BJP. The ruling party's Saurashtra-Kutch spokesperson Raju Dhruv condemned Kejriwal's meeting with Vala and described the Delhi CM as a person who can do anything for political gains.



"He (Kejriwal) is a person who can do anything for his personal political gains. He deceived Anna Hazare and now tries to defame Gujarat," Dhruv alleged.



"By meeting the murder accused, Kejriwal has proved that he does not have any concern for Dalits or constable Amreliya who sacrificed his life in the line of duty," he said.



"Kejriwal believes in cheap politics," he said.



The AAP chief is on a one-day visit to the state to meet the Dalits who were thrashed for skinning a dead cow and their family members at Mota Samadhiyala village in Una town of Gir Somnath, where the brutal assault took place on July 11.



The incident sparked statewide protests by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.
A 62-year-old businessman, facing probe from the Income Tax Department, has been arrested for human trafficking and impersonation.





A 23-year-old Russian woman also attempted suicide during an IT raid at his house, the police said on Thursday.



The womans decision to slash her wrist prompted the IT authorities to lodge a police complaint and inform the Russian Embassy.



The police now suspect that Safdarjung Enclave-resident Pritindra Nath Sanyal also has involvement in a high-profile prostitution racket.



It was established that Sanyal sent messages to government officials and other senior functionaries posing as a Member of Parliament. He was seeking favour in business deals.

Currently, details of Sanyals mobile phone, bank accounts and e-mails are being investigated.



Incriminating documents indicating his involvements in illegal activities like human trafficking and impersonation have come to light, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ishwar Singh.



Copies of passports of other foreign women and phone numbers of dozens of foreign women belonging to central Asian countries have also been recovered from Sanyals residence.



The Russian national is underwent treatment at AIIMS Trauma Centre. According to the police, she came to India on a tourist visa on February 25 and visited Jaipur, Sariska and Delhi.



She claims to have been introduced to Sanyal by a man named Ajay Ahlawat. His involvement in the case is being investigated. The police confirmed that Ahlawat has criminal history with involvement in cheating cases.



Evidence in the form of SMS and WhatsApp data of the Russian womans mobile phone shows that she was being kept at the house against her will.



Her travel documents, including passport, were forcibly kept by Sanyal in his custody. The IT authorities recorded the womans statement in which she said that she wished to leave immediately, Singh added.



Messages exchanged between Sanyal and his accomplices reveal financial transactions related to foreign women. A case under Indian Penal Code was filed with Safdarjung Enclave police station on Tuesday.



The call data records of Sanyals mobile phone were being analysed to find out the details of other accomplices and victims.
Resident doctors at Lady Hardinge Hospital went on an indefinite strike on Thursday evening after some of their colleagues were allegedly assaulted by relatives of a child who died during treatment.





The family members of a three-year-old girl admitted at the government hospital allegedly attacked doctors on duty in the early hours of Thursday after the child died. The doctors have demanded better security measures at hospitals. A doctor was bit by an attendant with the child and another received deep scratches, alleged doctors.



A woman was arrested after police registered an FIR. The girl was admitted at the Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital under the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC). LHMC has two hospitals under it  Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital and Sucheta Kriplani Hospital.



Doctors from both the hospitals have decided to go on an indefinite strike, said Dr Ravinder Chauhan, member of resident doctors association at LHMC. The child suffered from encephalopathy. According to doctors, the patients family was told that she was in a critical condition.



The patient expired around 4.30 am. Around half-an-hour later, a mob comprising at least 15 people arrived at the paediatrics ward, said Dr Vikram Bhaskar, senior resident doctor at the paediatrics department.



They were carrying rods. Doctors ran inside for cover and the guards ran away. Two of the mob members were in an inebriated state. One woman bit a doctor while the other one scratched another doctors hand, he said.



The family was from Sarai Kale Khan, according to the hospital register. The mob was violent even though the family was clearly told in advance that the patient was brought in a serious condition to the hospital, said Dr Bhaskar.



The resident doctors association has demanded better security measures from the hospital administration. The authorities have promised us better security arrangements and CCTV cameras in the hospital. However, these incidents keep recurring and things have not improved for resident doctors, said Dr Chauhan.



Doctors have repeatedly protested against the rising number of attacks on them at hospitals. Recently, attendants of an accident victim vandalised hospital premises after the patient succumbed to his injuries.



Doctors at government hospitals have gone on strike several times demanding better security. The Delhi Medical Council (DMC) also held a meeting recently over cases of assault on doctors in the capital.



Council members, police, representatives of Federation of Doctors Association (FORDA), Indian Medical Association and Delhi Medical Association had then debated how to improve the doctor-patient relationship.


The issue of bringing back the famed Kohinoor diamond from Britain was today discussed at a meeting attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma.





The meeting lasted for over 45 minutes and issues relating to the 108-carat diamond which is currently set in a crown on display in the Tower of London were discussed, a source said.



In April, the government had made a submission in the Supreme Court that the diamond was neither "forcibly taken nor stolen" by the British, but given as a "gift" to the East India Company by the rulers of Punjab.



Bringing back of the diamond faces legal and technical hurdles as it dates back to pre-Independence period and thus did not fall under the purview of Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.



However, after receiving flak for its stand, the government had said all efforts would be made to get back the diamond estimated to cost over USD 200 million.



Kohinoor, meaning mountain of light, is a large, colourless diamond that was found in southern India in early 14th century.



In May, Sharma had told Parliament that Ministry of External Affairs is exploring ways and means for obtaining a satisfactory resolution to this issue with the UK government.



The gem is the subject of a historic ownership dispute and has been claimed by at least four countries, including India.
Congress today questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on China voicing concern over Kashmir violence and said it is due to the "lack of maturity" in the government's foreign policy that led to Beijing's "direct" interference in India's internal affairs.



Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said it was expected of the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister to make a statement on the floor of the House expressing concern over China's remarks that did not happen, but hoped they would do so on Monday when opposition raises the issue in Parliament.



"For the first time in India's post-independence history, China has commented on the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. This is a direct interference in the domestic affairs of India and what is surprising is that Government of India has taken no note of it. This is very serious and this is the result of a lack of maturity in our foreign policy," he told reporters.



Sibal said it has been reported that a spokesperson for Chinese Foreign Ministry had on July 19 said, "China has taken note of the relevant reports in Jammu and Kashmir. We are concerned about the casualties in the clash. We hope that it will be handled properly".



The Congress leader said neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Minister expressed concern over the remarks. He said a public statement should have been made by the Prime Minister on the Floor of the House.



He said the Prime Minister should have expressed both concern and response to Chinese government, telling them that "they should not fish in troubled waters and that they have no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India".



Sibal said when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, "we kept a very delicate balance between our relationship with the United States and with China and considered both of them as partners in the progress of this region."



"The present Prime Minister has not handled the situation with any sense of maturity," he alleged.



Sibal added that when the opposition raises the issue on Monday, the Prime Minister should inform the House about his position in the matter.



"I am sure that the House will unanimously express concern over the statement but we don't expect the Prime Minister and the Foreign Ministry to keep quiet for two days on a matter," he said.



Sibal also said that after 100 tanks were deployed by India in the Ladakh region, China reacted, saying investment in India cannot come at a time when normal political ties are not there, even as it referred to 'Pakistan Occupied Kashmir' as territory 'administered by Pakistan' for the first time.



He said Frontier Defence Regiment of People's Liberation Army in Xinjiang along with Border Police Force from Pakistan will carry out a joint patrol along the China-Pakistan Border.



"Now they consider that as the China-Pakistan Border and not an administered territory of Pakistan. In a sense they have recognized (Pakistan's claim over PoK)," he said.
Seeking to turn the tables on BSP chief Mayawati, BJP today asked her to tender an apology and take action against her party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui for his abusive language targeting expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh's daughter.



The party said it took Singh's slur against Mayawati very seriously and expelled him from the party but she was "justifying" Siddiqui's use of derogatory language and her stand was condemnable.



"Siddiqui said Singh's daughter should be presented before the crowd. This is an insult to the woman; sisters and daughters. We condemn Mayawati's justification of it. She should not do politics over it and damage the state's social harmony in her greed for power.



"BJP demands that she offer an unconditional apology and take action against Siddiqui," its national secretary Shrikant Sharma said, noting that senior BJP leaders had regretted Singh's comments.



The BSP supremo had reportedly said that her followers treat her like a "deity" and were making angry statements due to Singh's comments against her.



The state's social cohesion had suffered due to the poor law and order situation under the Samajwadi Party government, he alleged, adding that Mayawati's stand can worsen it.



Questioning her commitment to the dalit cause, Sharma said she did not visit the home of any dalit woman who were sexually assaulted under the Samajwadi Party government.



"The cases of atrocities against women in UP are more than anywhere else. Did Mayawati visit any dalit victim?" he asked, saying over 1000 dalits were killed when she was the chief minister and over 29000 cases of atrocities against them were registered.



Meanwhile, in Lucknow the UP unit of the BJP today strongly condemned slogans raised by BSP workers against women family members of expelled leader Dayashankar Singh during yesterday's dharna and announced that the BJP will stage dharna at all district headquarters tomorrow.



"The manner in which BSP workers led by Naseemuddin Siddiqui tarnished the image of women community is highly condemnable," BJP UP president Keshav Prasad Maurya said in a statement issued here.



He said that it would have been better if Mayawati herself would have lodged an FIR against her leaders and workers and expelled them, but instead of doing so she was giving logic to protect them.



Maurya demanded that if even a bit of respect for women is left in Mayawati, she should expel Siddiqui from the post of Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council and national general secretary.



He said that if BSP workers were not arrested, BJP would take to the street for the respect of a girl.



He announced that BJP would stage demonstrations at all district headquarters demanding arrest of BSP workers and submit a memorandum to the Governor.


More Obscure Stories Of How Chicago's Favorite Bars Got Their Names

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jul 22, 2016 2:50PM

This week, we brought you the stories of how some of Chicago's most legendary bars got their names. Here's more of those stories.

By Madeline Hester



Photo via Matilda.

Matilda



It's rare to see a bar venture into the realm of the supernatural, but that's just where you are headed when you enter Matilda. Yes, this bar is named after a ghost.

Matthew Golden, who runs the bar, told me that the building was previously the home of the Chicago Draft House. During demolition in 1994, the overnight work crew reported strange incidents, including seeing a young girl in the bar. Apparently she looked like Natalie Portman when she played Mathilda in Leon: The Professional. The bar didnt have a name yet, and Matilda seemed like a fit.

People have reported seeing the ghost for over 20 years. Shes everywhere, even on the menu: the cocktail "Happy" (coco rum, hazelnut liqueur, cream, and a cherry) was created for her as an inside joke, since in the film Mathilda and Leon only drink milk. So next time you visit and you order over your spending limit, maybe blame it on Matilda and theyll take one off the tab. (Or not. Definitely dont say a ghost ordered your drinks. Trust me, it doesnt work).

Matilda is located at 3101 N. Sheffield Ave. #1.

Moes Tavern

The story behind the "Moe's" in Moes Tavern is simple: the name belongs to owner Maureen Moe Clancy. The bar was originally Simpsons-themed, inspired by the owners nickname. But as Moe's booking manager JB told me, Fox put the kibosh on that so we had to change the paintings on the wall...we also had to change the name of the "Flaming Moe" to the "Flaming Cease and Desist."

Moe herself can usually be found "sitting in her office or at the bar near the stage talking to the bartender and making sure everything is clean and running smoothly,. according to JB. When I asked if there were any crazy drinking stories we should know about Moe, the response is: Haha no. Not a big drinker, responsibly managing a bar, and praised as one of the coolest business owners in Chicago? Looks like Moe is getting the last laugh after all. Though she didn't say this herself, we're saying it for her: Fox can eat her shorts .

Moe's Tavern is located at 2937 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Cunneens



Cunneen means rabbit in Gaelic (at least according to Janet Pratt, one of the bartenders at Cunneen's) but that's not where the name comes from. Owner Steve Cunneen is the source of this bar's name, and after graduating from the University of Illinois with a useless degree in political science he opened a bar with a girl friend. She got her name on the LLC and he got his name on the bar (he eventually bought her out).

Cunneens might not be around today if not for the dropping of the legal drinking age from 21 to 19 in 1973. Being next to Loyola, this really helped boost business, and even after the drinking age was raised back to 21 in 1980, the reputation of Cunneens as a solid dive stayed.

Steve is 81 and has no interest in slowing down; even a collapsed (and repaired) ceiling cant stop him. Im healthy. He comes in each morning after opening, reads the papers, drinks the coffee, and does crosswords. Cunneens: an 8-letter word for a good time.

Cunneen is located at 1424 W. Devon Ave.

Emmits Irish Pub



Emmit's is one of Chicago's most famous bars, thanks to its many on-screen appearances: it's been featured in Uncle Buck, Only the Lonely, Blink, Backdraft, The Untouchables, Oceans Eleven, Oceans Twelve, U.S. Marshalls, Eagle Eye, and Overcoat and even a few Playboy shoots as well. But Emmit's wasn't the original name of this historic bar.

The building was originally a bank, notorious for Chicago gangsters and underground tunnels. After Prohibition ended, the building was converted into a tavern, and during the 1980s, it was known as OSullivans. In 1996, Kevin Doherty and Ron Halvorsen (both firemen) re-opened the bar as Emmits. They named it after Robert Emmet (with the e changed to i so that it can be dotted with a shamrock, because you know, Irish), the famous Irish nationalist and republican.

Emmet was known for rebelling against the British king and was tried and hung for high treason. He almost had a chance to escape but wanted to protect his love, Sarah Curran, and was caught. His remains have never been claimed. Sounds like the material for a great period piece. And if for some reason this film is shoot in Chicago (modern reboot? Taxes?) this is a bar always ready for a close-up.

Emmitt's is located at 495 N. Milwaukee Ave.


Members of Peoples Movement for Human Rights and residents staged a protest against the inordinate delay in widening work of the Mahadevapete Road in the city on Friday.



The protesters urged the City Muncipal Council (CMC) to speed up the work, to provide footpath to pedestrians and also cover open drains with slabs. They also insisted that CMC president and commissioner should come to the spot for inspection.



A CMC engineer visited the venue and informed the protesters that putting slabs on open drains is not included in the project. He said the pedestrians should use alternative route till the road work is completed.



The protesters were disappointed with the justification given by the engineer. They argued that the officials and the elected representatives are avoiding the real problems, by giving vague answers.



Forum president Harish Acharya said the forum will file a case in court against the CMC president and the commissioner for not providing basic facilities to citizens.



Plea to the DC

Acharya attended a public interaction meeting chaired by the Deputy Commissioner Richard Vincent DSouzaand submitted a memorandum with the details of the problem.



The DC assured of them taking necessary measures. Leaders R B Ravi, E L Ashok, Nityananda Rai, residents Harish, Ganesh Acharya, R B Pravin, Shafi, Ibrahim and Jayaram were present.


With Kabali mania gripping everyone, how could Mysuru be far behind? The heritage city has joined the celebrations with fans thronging theatres on Friday to catch a glimpse of their thalaiva superstar Rajinikanth.



Fans coming out of the theatres were beaming and sporting the dialogue Kabali daa... Neruppu daa. The film has been well-received by the fans, who said it was pucca mass.



With no films being released this week, a smart decision by other film makers, four single screens, Sangam, Rajkamal, Padma and Saraswathi, and multiplexes DRC (BM Habitat Mall) and Inox (Mall of Mysore) have been booked for the weekend.



The cinema halls wore a festive look with huge cutouts of the superstar and fans decorating them with garlands. They even booked the native drum beaters for the day, who went on a procession, egging the fans on to dance to the beat. A few of them even poured milk on the cutouts to show their devotion to the superstar.



Though the fans knew it was not possible to get a ticket on the release day, many had thronged the theatres with the hope of getting at least one ticket, even if it cost them a bomb.



The film, which released around 10 hours earlier in other countries, saw rave reviews pouring on Facebook and WhatsApp. Watching Rajinikanth on the screen itself was a celebration for the fans, who could not control their emotions, thanks to the hype created by the media.



Deepesh, who works for Infosys, said he could not sleep the whole night and was checking on the physical ticket every few minutes, with a fear of losing it. Kabali daa..., the dialogue uttered by the star in the film, has become a craze among his friends, he said.



A trailer of the film was circulated on WhatsApp, touted as the introduction scene. A few cars sported Kabalis nameplates, showing their love and admiration towards Rajinikanth. Mysuru City Rajinikanth Fans Association is said to have arranged breakfast for fans at Sangam Theatre.


The city police here have reunited a mother with her two daughters who were left in Dubai way back in 1981 after her UAE-based husband divorced her and sent her back to India. The south zone police helped the two daughters find their mother by searching records of Qazi office.



According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, V Satyanarayana who played an important role in uniting the family, Nazia Begum (60) from Santoshnagar was married to a United Arab Emirates( UAE) national Rasheed Eid Obaid Rifaq Masmari in 1981 at a Qazis office in old city. After a few years of marriage, she left for UAE.



Her husband lived in Fujairah province in UAE. As he was already married to a woman, Nazia faced immense problems after she joined her husband. Nevertheless, she lived there for around four years and had two daughters Ayesha Rasheed eid Obaid alias Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid. Unfortunately, Nazias husband Rasheed forcibly divorced her following household disputes after which she was handed over a flight ticket to India and sent away. He did not allow Nazia to take her daughters along. After two years, Nazias parents married her to a fruit vendor from Bidar in Karnataka. While she was living with her family in Bidar, her daughters Kanoo Rasheed and Fatima Rasheed eid Obaid who are now aged 29 years and 26 years respectively came to Hyderabad in search of their mother, after their ailing father handed over details of their mother and breathed his last.



In January, both of them approached the police. The women brought along with them a photograph of their mother. Pamphlets and posters were printed and circulated all over the south zone. After six months their efforts bore fruit. Nazia had faint memories of her daughters as she last saw them around 30 years ago. All she could remember was her younger daughter had six fingers. The meeting was fixed at the deputy commissioners office at Purani Haveli.



At around 5 pm on Tuesday, Ayesha, her husband, their 10-year-old son and Fatima drove into the office. After moving around the hall, their eyes fell on an elderly woman. We never thought we would meet our mother in lifetime. Allah had fixed the meeting and we are glad that we got to see our mother after 28 long years, Ayesha and Fatima said.


India is keen to take tips from Malaysia to modernize Islamic education system in the country and bring about changes in the curricula to prevent radicalisation of youths.



New Delhi is likely to send teams of officials to Kuala Lumpur in the coming months to learn about de-radicalisation programmes of Malaysia, particularly on the way the religious education system has been modernised in the South-East Asian nation. The teams will include officials not only from security agencies, but also from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Representatives and experts of minority organisations will also join the official delegations for interaction with their counterparts in Malaysia, sources in New Delhi told DH.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi evinced keen interest in de-radicalisation programmes run by Malaysia when the Muslim-majority nations Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi called on him in New Delhi early this week.
The Navys second aircraft carrier INS Viraat will go on its farewell cruise on Saturday from her home port of Mumbai to Kochi before its decommissioning. She will spend a month in Kochi, where some parts and equipment would be removed, before returning to Mumbai for dismantling.



She would be dry-docked in Kochi. It would take some time before she returns to Mumbai, an official of the Western Naval Command (WNC), said. The worlds oldest carrier in service, INS Viraat, was the star attraction at the International Fleet Review earlier this year.



The ships keel was laid in 1944 and she was launched on February 16, 1953. She was commissioned in the Royal Navy on November 18, 1959, as HMS Hermes. On May 12, 1987, she was commissioned under the White Ensign of the Indian Navy and has been serving Indian interests since.



As HMS Hermes, she was the flagship of the South Atlantic Task Force during the Falklands War in 1982. Operating round-the-clock, her aircraft destroyed several enemy airplanes in the air and on the ground.



After the Falklands War, the ship was placed as a reserve before India inked a deal with the United Kingdom to buy her as its second aircraft carrier.



Capable of moving nearly 28,500 tonnes, INS Viraat could operate Short Take-off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) Sea Harrier jump jets and virtually all types of naval helicopters.



The ships 12-degree ramp on the bows, the most striking visual feature, improves the safety factor and the radius of operation/payload carrying capacity of Sea Harrier.



Besides, being equipped with Close in Weapon System for self defence, the ships Computer Aided Action Information System (CAAIS) offers a comprehensive picture of the tactical scenario based on information assembled from all onboard sensors, providing rapid decision making in the minimal reaction time on the sea to destroy hostile platforms.


The Supreme court on Friday directed for constituting a medical board to examine the condition of a rape victim who wanted termination of her 24-week pregnancy.



The victim had claimed that the doctors had refused to abort her foetus which suffered from anencephaly (a serious birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull). The condition posed fatal risk to her and the foetus, she had said.



Observing that any delay in the matter would be harmful, a bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra directed the woman petitioner to appear before the medical board of the Mumbai's KEM Hospital at 10 am on Saturday for her examination.



The court accepted the submission by a Maharashtra government's counsel that her condition would be examined by the board. It directed for placing the report of the medical board on Monday (July 25) for further consideration.



Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Union government, agreed for setting up such a board at AIIMS here but his proposal was not considered as senior advocate Colin Gonsalves submitted that the petitioner was in Mumbai.



The court also said it would examine separately the petition challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, which put a bar on abortion of foetus of 20-week old or more. The government has also proposed to amend the Act.



The woman-petitioner claimed a ceiling of 20 weeks for an abortion put under the law was ultra vires to Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution.



The woman, who alleged that she was raped by her ex-fiance on the false promise of marriage, described the bar in the law as unreasonable, arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory and violative of the right to life and equality.



She had sought direction to the Centre for setting up an expert panel of doctors in hospitals to assess the pregnancy and offer medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) at least to those women and girls who were survivors of sexual violence and have passed the period of 20 weeks.


Pilot Died When Small Plane Crashed Into Chicago Area Street Thursday

By Mae Rice in News on Jul 22, 2016 6:28PM



Photo via the Joliet Fire Department on Facebook

The pilot of a single-passenger plane died when the plane crashed into a street in the Southwest Side suburb of Plainfield on Thursday, authorities say.

Though the crash also set a nearby home on fire, the pilot was the crash's sole fatality, Joliet Fire Department's deputy commander Ray Randich told Chicagoist; the woman in the home managed to get out unharmed with her pet. (The Joliet Fire Department put out the fire, though the home at 1812 Hampton Court has a Plainfield mailing address.)

Yesterday, reportsincluding ourssaid the plane crashed directly into the Plainfield home. However, Randich explained that the Joliet Fire Department now believes the plane crashed into the street outside the home. "When they made impact, the fuel tank split open and it splashed the fuel... across the street, up the grass, and onto the side of a house," he said. There was then "basically instantaneous ignition of the spilled fuel."

Though Randich was unsure exactly what model of plane it was, the Naperville Sun reports that it was a Piper PA-30 en route to Wisconsin.

Randich said his department first received a call about the crash and related fire at 11:14 a.m., and fire trucks were on the scene just over a minute later. All told, Randich said it took about two hours to put out the fire, which caused "extensive damage" to the home, from the first floor up to the attic. (The fire climbed through an exterior chimney.)

The woman in the home told fire officials she at first thought the noise of the plane crash was a loud car or motorcycle, but realized that a plane had crashed and her house was on fire in plenty of time to escape.
The Adarsh Society building in Mumbai would not be razed for now as the Supreme Court on Friday directed the defence ministry to secure it till appeals against the demolition order was decided.



A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said it is implicit that the 31-storey structure building will not be demolished if the government was being asked to secure it.



The court also asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the defence ministry, to ensure that there were no squatters inside the building as he submitted that the building will be taken over within a week.



A batch of petitions by the residents of Adarsh Housing Society came up for consideration before the court following the Bombay High Courts direction to demolish it in April.



The Adarsh scam had created huge controversy as reports emerged in 2010 that politicians, bureaucrats and ministers had promoted the society that had been originally earmarked as a housing project for the widows of Kargil war martyrs. The controversy had taken scalp of then Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan. In February this year, the Maharashtra governor accorded sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code in the case.



The high court had earlier directed the Centre and the Maharashtra government to consider launching criminal proceedings against bureaucrats, politicians and ministers for committing various offences in acquiring the plots on which the society was constructed and for abuse of power. The order of demolition was suspended for 12 weeks to enable them to approach the top court.



The court asked senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the residents, to stay away from the building. It also issued notice to the Centre and Maharashtra on the petitions, putting the matter for further consideration on August 5.




The administration said the flood situation in Namsai district is grim as the water level in Noa Dihing river and its tributaries has crossed the danger mark.



Meanwhile, the Army has swung into action in Assams Chirang district with floods in the state affecting more people.



West Bengal witnessed an erratic rain activity with sub-Himalayan part of the state getting heavy showers, while the southern districts continued to reel under a rain deficit.



Jalpaiguri was the wettest place in the state, gauging 49 mm of rain, while Darjeeling got 43.3 mm of precipitation.



A red alert was sounded in Subhashini and Dolphinpara tea estate areas in north Bengal in the wake Torsha river flooding the area. Also, a yellow alert was sounded in Joygaon, Hashimara and other areas situated on the banks of the Teesta, Jaldhaka and Raidak rivers.



Flood water entered many places and 5,000 people were shifted to shelters in Alipurduar district. Rain eluded Punjab and Haryana for another day, leaving residents reeling under sultry conditions.



Hisar in Haryana recorded a high of 39.4 degrees, Ambala 37.1 and 35.8 degrees. In Punjab, the maximum temperature in Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala settled at 35.9, 36 and 36.3 degrees, respectively.

Heavy showers battered eastern parts of the country, triggering floods in Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal. In Uttar Pradesh, four people were killed in rain-related incidents.The weatherman has warned of very heavy rain in West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Bihar on Saturday.Delhiites grappled with high humidity on another rainless day. However, the weatherman has forecast rain on Saturday. The maximum temperature in the city was recorded at 37.3 degrees, while the minimum settled at 29.5 degrees.The maximum temperature in the other three metropolitan cities of Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai was recorded at 32.9, 32 and 28 degrees Celsius, respectively.In Uttar Pradesh, a brother-sister duo was buried alive when a wall collapsed on them amid heavy rain in Gonda district. In another such incident, a person and his infant daughter died last night.The Central Water Commission said the water level in Sharda and Ghaghra rivers has crossed the danger mark in Palia Kalan, Elgin Bridge, Ayodhya and Turtipar.The IMD said the monsoon activity was normal in Uttar Pradesh and more rain is likely in the coming days.Incessant rain triggered landslides and floods in Arunachal Pradesh, throwing normal life out of gear. Torrential showers have severed connectivity between many villages in East Kameng districts and the rest of the state.
A few districts in the state continued to receive heavy rain on Friday.

Incessant rains lashed several parts of the rural areas in Kalaburagi district causing damage to life and property.





Devappa Bennur (53), a resident of Iragapalli village in Chincholi taluk, is reported to have drowned while crossing the River Mullamari which is in spate. Devappa was returning from Tandur, in Telangana. The Sulepet police have launched a search for the body.



All the streams, rivers and rivulets in Chittapur taluk are flowing in full capacity due to heavy rain. The ancient Neelakanteshwar and Suryanarayana temples at Kalgi village are inundated, while the village has turned into an island. The standing kharif crops at several places have been damaged and at least 20 irrigation pump sets have become defunct.



The bridge across River Kagina in Malkhed is submerged due to torrential rain, bringing traffic on the Ribbanpalli-Wagdhari interstate highway to a halt.



According to official sources, a total of 178 houses have been partially collapsed in the district. At least 101 houses have partially collapsed in Chincholi taluk. Six livestock are reported to have died in the heavy rain.



In Uttara Kannada



Most parts of Uttara Kannada district received incessant rain on Friday. Karwar, Bhatkal, Honnavar, Kumta and Ankola received good showers. Sirsi, Siddapura, Yellapur, Mundgod, Haliyal and Joida received moderate rain. The district has received total 155 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.



Most parts of the district received light showers on Friday and the sky remained overcast throughout the day.



In Belagavi



Belagavi city and the surrounding villages received light showers in the early hours of the day. Light showers were reported in Bailhongal, Ramdurg, Savadatti, Chikkodi, Gokak, Raibag, Hukkeri and Athani taluks.



Crops in 50 acres of land were damaged after the wall of a check dam at Basurte village in Belagavi taluk breached on Thursday night.



The check dam was constructed by the Minor Irrigation department at the foot of Vaijnath temple hillock. A few electricity poles also collapsed due to water pressure.



In Dharwad



Dharwad received heavy drizzle throughout the day. Most parts of the district, including Hubballi-Dharwad twin cities, experienced drizzle throughout the day. Gadag, Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Ballari also received intermitant drizzles throughout the day.



Moderate to heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Shivamogga district on Friday. Thirthahalli, Hosanagar and Sagar received good rain.



In Shivamogga



Shivamogga, Bhadravathi, Shikaripur and Sorab also received moderate rain. Most parts of the district witnessed cloudy weather throughout the day.



The water level in Linganamakki dam rose to 1,778.75 feet against the maximum level of 1,819 feet as catchment area received 21 mm of rainfall.




KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday hit out at the BJP for the rise in atrocities against dalits and demanded that the NDA government should take immediate steps to provide justice to the victims.





After minorities, the BJP is targeting dalits, Gundu Rao said and added that the saffron party has been pursuing the agenda of targeting minorities and dalits in the country.



Though dalits are being targeted in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far not even condemned it, he said. All those instigating attacks against dalits should be arrested, failing which the Congress will launch a nation-wide protest, he told reporters.



Asked why the Karnataka government has not been able to arrest Congress leader Marigowda who abused Mysuru Deputy Commissioner C Shikha recently, Gundu Rao said Marigowda was absconding and that the police were trying to track him down.
Vice-President M Hamid Ansari made a veiled reference to controversies in universities and called upon academicians and policy-makers to deliberate on guidelines to streamline education in universities.





Delivering the valedictory address of the centenary celebrations of the University of Mysore in Manasagangothri here on Friday, he said a discussion on what a university should be and what a university should not be must be initiated.



He said universities should act as agents of social justice and mobility to build an egalitarian society. India should continue its character of being a neutral assembler of knowledge to meet the transitional needs of the nation, he said and listed out the guidelines of the high-level task force constituted by Unesco and World Bank for model universities and urged policy-makers to emulate them.



Presiding over the ceremony, Governor Vajubhai Vala said, per capita courage and per capita character of the nation should be measured instead of dabbling with per capita income and other materialistic things for real prosperity. Ours is a land of action, karmabhoomi, so knowledge should be converted into actions, which needs courage. Courage gives a person confidence. For actions to be fruitful, character of the people is vital, he said.



Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, District in-charge Minister H C Mahadevappa, Higher Education Minister Basavaraja Rayareddy, UGC Chairman Ved Prakash, Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar, former governor of West Bengal Gopalakrishna Gandhi, honorary director of Centre for Human Genetics H Sharat Chandra, Vice-Chancellor K S Rangappa and registrars C Basavaraju and R Rajanna were present.






Karnataka continues to be among the top five states in the country witnessing large number of cyber crims, with Bengaluru contributing in a big way to such crimes.





The police say increasing use of technology across the state, migration of youngsters to Bengaluru from other states and countries and online initiatives offered by public and private sectors have led to an increase in cyber crimes. Barring the cases that are registered, a large number of cyber crimes go unreported as victims dont approach the police, said a senior police officer.



The top three cyber crimes reported from the state are financial offences, defamation and personal abuse - circulating defamatory content about a person- and use of stolen electronic devices.



Crimes committed using credit card, debit cards, mobile phones and internet account for nearly 90% of the total crimes, followed by defamation and personal abuse with 8% and stolen electronic devices about 2%, points out cyber law expert Vijayashankar.



Though cyber crimes are increasing, action taken by the police is disappointing. The police admit that the number of arrests made is less, while conviction rate is not even two per cent. Most criminals operate from Nigeria and east European countries. The police detect IP addresses of the computers used to commit the crimes, but are unable to arrest the suspects as India has no extradition agreement with these countries, Additional Director General of Police (Crime and Technical Services) Bhaskar Rao said.



Amount involved in most financial crimes is less. Investigating officers are often transferred. It takes about eight months to get in touch with countries having extradition agreement with India. Most police inspectors fail to investigate cases properly as they lack cyber law knowledge. Lack of awareness of cyber law among judicial officers and judges of lower courts has affected conviction, Rao said.



There is no provision for the police to employ private expert advocates to handle the case. Cyber criminals employ expert advocates and win their cases. The police said it is high time the government formed a dedicated police force to handle cyber crime.



According to the police, Bengaluru accounts for more than 80% the crime registered in the state followed by Mysuru and Mangaluru.



Cyber crimes in numbers



Karnataka



Year 2014 2015 2016 (till June 22)

Cases 1,091 1,450 746



Bengaluru



Year 2014 2015 2016 (till June 22)

Cases 687 1,039 435



Measures suggested to check cyber crimes



Create separate force for cyber crime investigations

Create awareness among people on cyber crimes and IT Act

Ensure proper protection of digital data and personal data

Fix accountability on banks for financial crimes



Bhaskar Rao, ADGP (Crime and Technical Services): Most police inspectors fail to investigate cases properly as they lack cyber law knowledge. Lack of awareness of cyber law among judicial officers and judges of lower courts has affected conviction.








Of the total 14 JD(S) corporators, only seven are willing to continue their support to the Congress. These corporators are the followers of rebel JD(S) MLAs, B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamarajpet), Akhanda Srinivasmurthy (Pulakeshinagar) and K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout).



These MLAs had voted in favour of the Congress in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. The JD(S) leaders H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy believe that the Congress instigated its MLAs to stage a rebellion.



Though the numerical strength of the Congress has increased after the recent elections to Legislative Council, it will be in trouble if half of the JD(S) corporators withdraw their support.



Sources say Gopalaiah, who claims the support of three JD(S) MLAs, may declare truce with the JD(S) leaders in coming days. In such an event, the BJP will be in an advantageous position.



Sources in the Congress said the party has decided to hasten the process of nominating three members to the Upper House of the Legislature so that it can increase its numerical strength. MPs and MLAs from Bengaluru and MLCs residing in Bengaluru have voting power in the mayoral elections.



MLAs meet Mayor

The three JD(S) MLAs on Friday met the Mayor at his office. Though the MLAs claimed that they held a meeting on development issues, sources in the Congress said the issue of the JD(S) continuing the support to the ruling party was discussed.

After the meeting, Khan told reporters that all the 14 corporators want to continue their support to the Congress.



During a meeting convened by JD(S) party general secretary Narayan Rao recently, all the 14 corporators expressed that they would want to continue extending their support to the Congress.



The Congress has begun making efforts to retain its control over the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council in view of speculations that the JD(S) may align with the BJP in the coming days.Currently, the Congress is holding the reins of power in the BBMP council with the support of the JD(S). The term of Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy (who belongs to Congress) is set to end in September.It is speculated in the Congress circles that the rebellion-hit JD(S) may sever ties with the Congress and support the BJP in the next mayoral election.
The State government on Friday transferred Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) A M Prasad as ADGP and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety.





The post, considered to be an insignificant one, has been upgraded and declared equivalent in status and responsibilities to that of the ADGP (law and order).



Prasad has been named accused number three in the FIR filed by the Madikeri Town Police in the DySP M K Ganapathis suicide case. Sources in the Chief Ministers Office told Deccan Herald that the post of Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety was never occupied. It is a notional post which remained vacant, most of the time, a senior officer said. The post has been upgraded by keeping the cadre post of DIG and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety in abeyance, the order said.



On Thursday, the state government cleared IGP Pronab Mohanty, who has been named the second accused in the FIR, for Central deputation as Deputy Director General (DDG) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in Bengaluru. Mohanty is presently IGP (Lokayukta).



Prasads transfer is a fallout of the police registering an FIR against the two officers and then Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, following a direction from the Judicial Magistrate First Class court in Madikeri. Prasad and Mohanty have approached the High Court seeking to quash the Madikeri court order.




Sanders Supporters Are Holding 'People's Convention' In Philly To Plan Next Steps

By aaroncynic in News on Jul 22, 2016 8:33PM



Bernie Sanders (Photo by aaron cynic/Chicagoist)

Dubbed the People's Convention, the event will take place Saturday July 23 in Philadelphia and feature Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein and former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner as keynote speakers.

As a growing movement, there will be space for grassroots organizers and organizations to network and strengthen relationships for future partnerships and expansion, said organizers in a press release. This powerful collaboration will establish the foundation for a growing movement seeking to transform American politics by reigniting the power of the people.

Die-hard Sanders supporters have been struggling for a unified plan to move forward after the Vermont Senator said he would support Clinton for the nomination. For many, Clinton's Wall Street-heavy donor base and foreign policy record as Secretary of State is a major source of contention. Many will likely swallow a bitter pill and cast a ballot for the former First Lady anyway, while others may go to Jill Stein or focus their efforts in other areas. Few have expressed support for Republican Presidential nominee and carnival barker Donald Trump, who attempted to woo Sanders supporters the last night of the Republican National Convention.

I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. He never had a chance, said the neo-Mussolini during his coronation on Thursday. In response, Sanders asked Twitter if Trump was running for President or dictator, and then tweeted out a long list of big differences between the two men.

The groundswell of support around the Sanders campaign had much to do with his platform. The DNC and Clinton were slow to adopt ideas like a $15 an hour minimum wage and free, though not universal, college tuition to their platform, and she has directly benefited from Wall Street and industries like the prison industrial complex. But the Sanders campaign brought many disillusioned and political newbies into the fold who now need a place to put their efforts. Organizers of the People's Convention hope to seize on that.

The Peoples Convention is an opportunity to define what happens next, Anoa Changa, a woman who has volunteered for several efforts to support Sanders, told Rachael Perrotta, a Chicago-based supporter of the People's Platform who is volunteering to help promote the convention. In a post published to Medium, Changa asked Perotta, How do we engage and hold people accountable? People feel emboldened through this process and empowered to take charge of the process themselves.

The group will ratify a people's platform, a list of issues crowdsourced from more than 800 people who then voted on which were most important in an online poll. The platform includes racial, climate and economic justice as well as healthcare as a human right and pulling money out of politics.

The grassroots army that pushed Bernie to the top of the polls isnt stopping now, said Sharon Sanders, a Bernie delegate that said she will try to bring the platform to the DNC. Were building on Bernies vision to send a strong message to politicians of both parties: you are accountable to the people.
Two Chicago Police Shootings Have Been Declared Unjustified By IPRA

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 22, 2016 3:40PM



Photo by Aaron Cynic/Chicagoist

The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) ruled on Thursday that two separate police shootings were unjustified.

In one case, in 2013, East Hazel Crest man Ryan Rogers was fatally shot by police during an investigation of a cell phone theft ring Rogers was suspected of being involved in. Police explained that the shooting occurred because an officer was pinned under the SUV Rogers was driving. However, IPRA ruled that one of the four shots police fired at Rogers was unjustified; Rogers was already driving away, they ruled, when that shot was fired. The city's Finance Committee in May approved a $1 million settlement involving the incident.

In the second case, in 2015, Antwon Golatte was shot and wounded by a pair of officers after allegedly fleeing from a drug deal. Again, the agency determined the officers were out of harms way when they fired.

The rulings come two days after the City Council awarded $4.72 million in police-misconduct settlements.

As the Tribune points out, the IPRA, under the direction of Sharon Fairey, has ruled against police with greater frequency than it did under her predecessor, Scott Ando. And the agency called for strict revisions to the department's use-of-force policy earlier this month.

However, the IPRA still faces staunch criticism: Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans in May to disband the agency, following the recommendation of an accountability task force, and amid ongoing investigations into police abuse by the Department of Justice. Activists have called for a civilian-elected board to replace the IPRA.
You Can Adopt A Dog Or Cat For Free This Weekend In Chicago

By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on Jul 22, 2016 8:03PM



Blaze, an adoptable dog at The Anti-Cruelty Society, photo via The Anti-Cruelty Society's Facebook page

More than 400 shelters in 20 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico will participate in this year's pet adoption initiative including local facilities like PAWS, The Anti-Cruelty Society, The Animal Welfare League, Chicago Animal Care and Control, Treehouse Humane Society and many more.

Last year, the NBC- and Telemundo-backed event resulted in 1,354 animals finding new homes in Chicagoland in its first year, with several shelters (Angels' Wings in Crystal Lake, Hinsdale Animal Hospital and McHenry County Animal Care And Control among others) ending the day-long drive with their cages entirely cleared. Across the country, more than 19,000 pets were adopted from participating shelters. This year's event will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the discounted or waived fees will only apply to animals six months old or older (sorry, if you want a puppy or kitten, you're going to have to pay full-price). The shelters' regular policies also apply.



Sister, an adoptable cat from PAWS Chicago, photo courtesy PAWS Chicago

According to the ASPCA, 7.6 million homeless animals end up in shelters across the country each year and only 2.7 million of those are adopteda figure participating shelters are looking to significantly boost.

"Our hope is that this event will shine a light on some of our wonderful, deserving adult dogs and cats who are often overlooked," PAWS associate director of media and community relations Sarah McDonald told us. "Its thrilling to know that for every animal adopted during Clear the Shelters, space has been created to save another life in his/her place."

Every pet should be loved like Isaboo! Find out more about #ClearTheShelters on 7/23 at https://t.co/RWyDqsdFHk. pic.twitter.com/L54KCWlKtz  Rachael Ray Show (@RachaelRayShow) July 14, 2016

For NBC's interactive map of participating shelters, click here
Iryna Yaremchuk is in Beijing on a visiting program for young Sinologists that has been organized by the Culture Ministry and the think tank Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Iryna Yaremchuk (left) attends a program in Beijing for young Sinologists organized by the Culture Ministry. [Photo / China Daily]

"It's a very good chance to meet Sinologists from different countries. We know our problems and learn from each other during such exchanges," says the 36-year-old Ukrainian linguist.

The program, which began on July 3 and ends on Friday, aims to assist foreign Sinologists with their research work as well as let them experience Chinese culture.

It also includes lectures by well-known Chinese scholars such as Liu Xinwu.

Yaremchuk, who has been studying Chinese culture, history and literature, says she was intrigued by Liu's talk, which focused on the Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions.

"The book is very interesting, and I really like his (Liu's) way of explaining culture," she says, adding that Liu helped her appreciate the traditional culture depicted in the book.

Yaremchuk, who teaches Persian and Ukrainian languages at the Ivan Franko Lviv State University in Ukraine, says her dream is to become a translator of Chinese literary works for readers back home.

She chose translation of Chinese literature as her project for the visiting program, partnering with the Beijing Language and Culture University for research.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
July 20, 2016 // By Peter Clarke

EETimes Europe

Wolfson Microelectronics gone to Cirrus; CSR gone to Qualcomm; Imagination stumbles; UK votes to leave the European Union; ARM votes to become a subsidiary of a Japanese telecommunications company with IoT dreams of grandeur. Is there a steady-state theory of tech company creation and destruction or are we living in a big-bang technology world? And was the bang we just heard the door closing as UK exits hardware technology?

Click here to read more ...








10 Records That Rajnikant's Kabali Has Already Broken
Although China is a place of many things, one thing it certainly lacks is diversity. After having stayed here for almost three months, there have been many days when I haven't seen a single person of color. Before visiting, I was warned that I would get strange stares from the local Chinese and that people would want to take pictures with me, so most of what I have experienced was expected.

It never dawned on me that there may be some discrimination. I never thought to myself that simply because there were people in America who didn't like me because I'm black that there would be similar people in China. And I am glad these sort of thoughts didn't enter my mind when I came to China, because since I've been here I've experienced nothing of the sort.

I took to the streets to ask some other people of color how they've been treated by Chinese people here in Beijing, and I found their experiences to be quite different from my own. Melvin, a middle-aged Liberian, has found Chinese people to be not so fond of him. When asked if he thought Chinese people were nice and welcoming, his response was no. "Chinese people are not friendly, [when] you try to ask them something, they say they don't know. They are careless." Melvin has been here for six months and he finds it very hard to do simple things like hail a taxi or get help with directions. He also feels highly offended when taxi drivers smoke while he's in the car as if they don't care about his health or wellbeing. However, Melvin doesn't think he's discriminated against because of his skin color. "I don't think that it is a white or black thing. I think Chinese people just don't like foreigners." In light of current racial issues in America, I asked Melvin if he thought he would be treated better in America. He responded that he thought he would be because America is a democracy. However, I'm sure the two black men recently killed by police officers would beg to differ. Melvin is here learning Chinese and purchasing products to send back to his business in Liberia. Although, he wouldn't advise his family and friends to relocate to China, he said he would advise them to come for education or tourism.

Another African man living in Beijing shared a similar view of racism here in China. He says it isn't uncommon for a woman standing next to him to grab hold of her purse on a crowded bus or to move to another seat to stay as far away from him as possible. As a Nigerian who has lived here for a little more than a month, he has found it very difficult to find a job, which he thinks is mainly due of the color of his skin. He does not feel welcomed in China and is ready to return to his home country.

Denis, a 21 year-old from Uganda, has found his experience to be the complete opposite of Melvin's. He is here studying Chinese language at Beijing Normal University and has felt welcomed since he first arrived. He has made a few local friends, and they are always inviting him places and showing him around. He likes his professors and has found people in Beijing to be quite friendly. He has also become accustomed to the long stares and mini-photo shoots when visiting tourist sites like the Great Wall. Living in Beijing for 18 months has afforded him great experiences, and he is excited to move to Shenyang to complete his last two years of college.

If someone were to ask me if Chinese people discriminate against black people, my response would be no. I don't think the local people have a preference for white foreigners over black foreigners, or vice versa. However, I do think that some Chinese people welcome foreigners to the country more than others, but this is probably the case in any country. Although I don't speak Mandarin, when I go into restaurants, servers do their best to understand my "false" sign language. They even wait patiently as I look up words on my phone one by one. When I am lost on the street, people are nice enough to stop and do their best to help point me in the right direction. There are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world, but my time in China has introduced me to a lot of good people.

Mariah Breeze is an African-American intern from the US who recently graduated with a degree in international business.
A new meta-analysis finds that eight different diabetes drugs do not improve cardiovascular or all-cause mortality compared with placebo.

Researchers from the University of Bari, Italy, and Diaverum, Lund, Swede, investigated 301 clinical trials that examined the efficacy and safety of glucose-lowering drugs. Nearly 120,000 patients were involved in the trials, all of whom had type 2 diabetes.

Overall, 177 trials involved drugs being given as monotherapy; 109 trials of drugs were added to metformin as dual therapy; and 29 trials involved drugs being added to metformin and sulphonylureas as triple therapy.

The findings showed that there were no significant differences in the association between the drug classes with cardiovascular, all-cause mortality, serious adverse events, heart attack or stroke.

However, the researchers noted considerable uncertainty about the association of drug treatment with cardiovascular mortality existed within trial evidence, largely because of few events in most available studies.

Additionally, there was no data for basal insulin and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1) agonists as a monotherapy for cardiovascular mortality.

The study teams secondary endpoint was HbA1c. They observed that metformin outperformed some of the other drug classes in lowering HbA1c levels, but all other drugs were more effective when added to metformin.

The four drug classes that were associated with higher HbA1c levels when compared to metformin were sulphonylureas, thiazolidinediones, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and -Glucosidase inhibitors.

Meanwhile, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) drugs were associated with the lowest risk of hypoglycemia when added to metformin; GLP-1 agonists had the lowest risk when added to both metformin and sulphonylurea; and basal insulin and sulphonylurea were associated with the highest risk of hypoglycemia.

Based on this review, clinicians and patients may prefer to avoid sulphonylureas or basal insulin for patients who wish to minimise hypoglycemia, choose GLP-1 receptor agonists when weight management is a priority, or consider SGLT-2 inhibitors based on their favourable combined safety and efficacy profile, the authors wrote.

The findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
NVIDIA TITAN X is the Pascal architecture based compute powerhouse from NVIDIA capable of 11 TFLOPS for $1200

NVIDIA sure is on a killing streak with GPU launches as it just announced the NVIDIA TITAN X based on the Pascal GPU microarchitecture. Powered by 3584 CUDA cores clocked at 1.5 GHz, the NVIDIA TITAN X is capable of crunching out 11 TFLOPs of performance while sporting 12 GB of GDDR5X memory. To jog your memory, the NVIDIA GTX 1080 too featured the same GDDR5X type memory which has a 10 Gbps memory speed. The card was unveiled by Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO, NVIDIA at Stanford University yesterday and the cards will go on sale from the 2nd of August for a whopping $1200. In India, the card could end up costing around Rs.1,09,000. We dont have the official pricing yet.

While we havent heard of any Founders Edition SKUs for the new NVIDIA TITAN X but you can expect board partners to come out with their own SKUs bearing aftermarket cooling solutions soon enough. Based on the GP102 GPU, the NVIDIA TITAN X will have 3584 CUDA Cores, which means there are 28 Pascal Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs). Since we know how many Texture units each SM has, this would, in turn, mean that there are 224 Texture Units. The number of ROPs is a bit difficult to figure out but if we are to go by what the the GP104 looks like then we are looking at 96 ROPs. The NVIDIA TITAN X has considerably more CUDA Cores than the Maxwell based TITAN X so despite Pascals power saving features we are still looking at a card designed with a TDP of 250 W. The new member of the TITAN X family will have 1x 8-Pin + 1x 6-Pin power connectors.

NVIDIA TITAN X Specifications NVIDIA Titan X GTX 1080 GTX Titan X GTX Titan Launch Year 2016 2016 2015 2013 Launch Price $ 1200 $ 599 $ 999 $ 999 CUDA Cores 3584 2560 3072 2688 Texture Units 224 160 192 224 ROPs 96 64 96 48 Core Clock 1417 MHz 1607 MHz 1000 MHz 837 MHz Boost Clock 1531 MHz 1733 MHz 1075 MHz 876 MHz Memory GDDR5X GDDR5X GDDR5 GDDR5 Memory Clock 10 Gbps 10 Gbps 7 Gbps 6 Gbps Memory Bus Width 384-bit 256-bit 384-bit 384-bit VRAM 12 GB 8 GB 12 GB 6 GB TFLOPs 11 TFLOPs 9 TFLOPs 6.6 TFLOPs 4.7 TFLOPs FP64 1/32 1/32 1/32 1/32 TDP 250 W 180 W 250 W 250 W GPU GP102 GP104 GM200 GK110 Transistor Count (Billion) 12 7.2 8 7.1 Manufacturing Process TSMC 16nm TSMC 16nm TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm

More images:
Executives refer to the result as an "anomaly" after terror concerns and political uncertainty

Starbucks Corp. posted disappointing results in Europe and the US with a third successive sales target miss , citing global concerns regarding civil unrest as a major factor.

The company's shares have tumbled 4% this year, slipping 3% to $56.07 in afterhours trading on Thursday.

Executives were quick to dismiss the results from the quarter, referring to them as an "anomaly", with Chief Executive Howard Schultz flabbergasted.

"In Starbucks's 24 years of public life, I can't recall a quarter quite like this," said the company's boss.

The coffehouse chain had previously projected sales to rise by well above 10%, but is now predicting just about 10%.

The company recently announced plans to better working conditions for its employees, which will come into effect in October, but it will not affect the profit outlook.

"There's no wavering in our commitment to deliver at least 15% EPS growth every year," CEO Scott Maw said, adding, "that is true for 2017."

Domestic sales, in which Starbucks does the majority of its trade, rose 8% while similar sales rose 4% in the previous quarter. In the year-ago period, the company reported 13% and 8% increases, respectively.
Central Rand Gold announced on Friday that it has completed and executed the definitive documents which will govern its Joint Venture Tolling Agreement with the unnamed third party supplier of gold bearing ore. The AIM-traded firm also announced that it has received multiple deliveries of gold bearing ore from the supplier which is presently being stockpiled on site at the company's metallurgical plant.

Clinigen Group announced on Friday that it has made an application for the admission to trading on AIM of 38,308 ordinary shares of 0.1p each. The firm said the shares have been issued to satisfy the exercise of share options, and rank pari passu with the existing shares of the group.

Lakehouse has appointed Robert Holt as chairman of the asset and energy support services group following a "challenging" start to the year. Ric Piper will step down as non-executive chairman but will continue as a non-executive director.

Ariana Resources announced on Friday a placing of 29,616,666 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the company, at a price of 1.5p per share, in order to raise gross proceeds of around 0.45m before expenses. The AIM-traded firm said the placing has been undertaken within the company's existing share authorities, and has been supported by both new and existing shareholders.

South East England-focused housebuilder Inland Homes updated the market on its trading on Friday, ahead of its preliminary results for the 12 months ended 30 June, which will be announced in September. The AIM-traded company said it has maintained a considerable focus on successfully piloting a large number of sites through the planning system.

Accrol Group, a maker of toilet rolls and tissue paper, on Friday reported its first set of annual results since floating on the London Stock Exchanges AIM market on 10 June. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 22% to 15m in the year to 30 April 2016, up from 12.3m the previous year. Adjusted margins rose to 28.1% from 26.0%.

Uvenco issued a warning to the market on Friday, that some costs in its accounts for the year to 31 March might have more of an impact than first thought. The AIM-traded firm said that costs that had previously been categorised as exceptional items and stricter accounting policy interpretations may now increase expected overhead expenditure.

Wireless technologies company Toumaz announced on Friday the sale of its healthcare business, Sensium Healthcare, and also provided the market with a trading update for the six months ended 30 June. The AIM-traded firm said it has agreed the sale of Sensium to Dutch healthcare group, The Surgical Company.

Scientific and technology products company Scientific Digital Imaging posted its final audited results for the year ended 30 April on Friday, with revenue rising to 8.5m from 7.0m a year earlier. The AIM-traded firm reported an increased gross margin of 61.1%, against 59.2%, and an operating profit 536,000 - well above 2015s 59,000 figure.
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How Ohio anti-abortion activists shaped post-Roe America

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.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appears on a video screen at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, US July 19, 2016.

The unfolding disaster that has been the 2016 Republican presidential primary is now complete. Donald Trump has officially been nominated for the presidency of the United States of America at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. The only thing left is for him to lose the general election in humiliating fashion.

I like to refer to the convention as the Trumpublican National Trumpvention. He is, in many ways, not a traditional Republican. He strikes different policy positions (to the extent that he has positions) on issues like abortion, healthcare, and especially trade. He campaigns erratically and makes offensive statements no nominee - Republican or Democrat - has made before. His braggadocios style, the way he brands his name on everything and talks about himself incessantly, really does make the convention more about him than about the Republican Party.

But part of my reluctance to view Trump as a traditional Republican also stems from the fact that I don't want him to be a traditional Republican. I don't want to believe that this level of hate and incoherence could come out of a mainstream party in American politics and win its approval.

The sad fact, however, is that even with as many differences as there are between Trump and the old-line GOP, he has honed in on a few key selling points of the GOP and conservative movement. In one particular way, when it comes to appealing to fear and national security authority, Trump isn't anti-Republican, but he is rather an uber-Republican.

Those appeals to fear of vaguely-defined criminals, terrorists, and, most of all, outsiders, were on display in brutal fashion on the first and second days of the horror show. A lineup of washed-up actors and B-list ex-politicians riled up crowds who responded by chanting for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, to be imprisoned.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said last year that he doesn't think President Obama loves America, said, "We must not be afraid to define our enemy. It is Islamic extremist terrorism," as if anyone doesn't already know. Obama has presided over the bombing of ISIS targets, and Clinton has at times called for more.

Patricia Smith, a grieving mother, blamed Clinton for the tragic death of her son at an outpost in Benghazi, Libya. Scott Baio, an 80's actor who spoke at the convention for some reason, tweeted that Clinton was a "c*nt" just one week before his speech. Another actor, Antonio Sabato Jr, called Obama a Muslim in a post-speech interview and added, "I believe that he's on the other side -- the Middle East. He's with the bad guys."

As bad as that all sounds, it's not at all a departure from the language of Trump, who built his political career on questioning the birthplace of Obama and said last month that he thought Obama might have sympathies with terrorists.

This kind of vicious hate has not been expressed so straightforwardly at past GOP conventions, but the underlying ideas Trump brings to the table - that Democrats are unpatriotic and that foreigners are scary - have been a key part of the Republican appeal, especially since 9/11. George W. Bush warned that electing Democrats and leaving Iraq could result in American deaths. He did, to his credit, stress that this was not a war between Christian America and Islam, but not all Republicans followed his example.

Trump basically stole much of his campaign talking points and strategies from past successful Republican campaigns and turned the volume up to 11. "Make America Great Again" was a slogan used by Ronald Reagan, and Trump's other slogan, his claim that his supporters represent "The Silent Majority," was taken from Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign. Also cribbed from Nixon's 68 campaign is an emphasis on "law and order."

Republicans want someone to "get tough." They want a big strong daddy type to protect them from what they see as a "war on police," as African-American activists protest police brutality, and terrorist attacks in France. But if you ask some of the white supremacists who have been attracted to the Trump movement, the real problem they see is that immigration from foreign countries and the protests by African-Americans are both changing the demographics of America and chipping away at discrimination that has favored whites.

The truth is when Nixon won the presidency on a law-and-order platform, the murder rate was 6.9 per hundred thousand Americans, and there had been race riots across the country - not to mention whites attacking civil rights protesters as well - and assassinations. (The murder rate would rise to 9 during Nixon's term.) Now the murder rate, according to the 2014 numbers, is 4.5, and international terrorism only kills a handful of Americans each year. A spate of highly publicized and indeed terrible killings of police officers and terrorist shootings has raised fears but hasn't changed the underlying reality.

It's true that many Republicans aren't very happy about Trump having won the nomination, but they intend to vote for him anyway because they are so afraid of the Democrats. Hate for the other party animates each party more than a love of their own party. Rep. Paul Ryan accused the Democrats of stoking racial resentment - sounding blissfully unaware of what his own party's nominee has been saying - and Giuliani said, "There is no next election. This is our last chance."

The Republicans have nominated Trump. Leaders who once said they didn't support him have endorsed him and spoken in support of him. Trump is, sadly, the face of the Republican Party.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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 Flash

Kenya's anti-terrorism police officers on Thursday killed two most wanted terror suspects in the coastal city of Mombasa.

The two were gunned down after a team of anti-terrorism police raided their house where they were allegedly plotting terrorist attack in the coastal region.

The security officers recovered three hand grenades, 17 rounds of ammunition, two detonators, mobile phones from the house.

Kisauni police commander Walter Abondo said police are still pursuing the third suspect identified as Ismael Soshi who escaped and is believed to be armed and dangerous.

"Soshi is among most wanted terror suspects in our radar and we suspect he has escaped during the operation," Abondo said.

The police suspected that the gang had targeted key installations including shopping mall for attacks before their plans were thwarted.

The authorities also suspected that the two were also part of the gang that escaped from a house in a residential estate in Mombasa where weapons were also seized on January 5.

The security officers have intensified security in the coastal city to deal with terrorist threats posed by the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.

The coastal region, a major tourist spot is one of various locations targeted by a series of grenade attacks and abduction of foreigners in recent months.
 Flash

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Thursday said over 10,000 people from the troubled South Sudan have fled into neigbouring Uganda in the last two days.

In a statement issued here, UNCHR said a total of 7,000 and 3,200 refugees from South Sudan crossed into Uganda on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, bringing the total of new arrivals to 15,984 in the previous five days alone.

Just 1,326 people crossed into the East African country between last Friday and Saturday, with 1,633 more arriving on Sunday. Prior to Friday, the average daily rate was 233.

At least 18,149 South Sudanese refugees have fled to Uganda since fighting between forces loyal to President Kiir and those loyal to First Vice President Machar began in the capital, Juba on July 7.

UNHCR said the influx continues to be characterized by a high proportion of women and children, which accounts for more than 90 percent.

"The influx is severely stretching the capacity of collection points, transit centres and reception centres. Elegu collection point is full to the extent that it is not possible conduct a head count," said UNHCR in a statement.

UNHCR said it expects more people to flee to the East African country, especially now that the 200-kilometre Juba-Nimule road, linking the South Sudan capital to Uganda, has been cleared of checkpoints. The border was previously closed on the South Sudan side, but restrictions have been eased.

The people reportedly are arriving in Uganda are tired, hungry and others are suffering from malnutrition after walking without food for days while carrying belongings.

The UN has said that at least 300 people were killed and over 10,000 fled their homes after the recent fighting between two rival army factions in Juba.

"There are reports that armed gunmen continue to loot properties, forcibly recruit boys and young men, and murder civilians in Magwi," said UNHCR.

Although a fragile ceasefire has held since last Monday, the UN has warned of the possibility of fresh fighting in the capital, Juba.
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OLYMPIA (AP)  The Washington state Supreme Court has invalidated two sections of the city of Lakewood's anti-begging ordinance, saying that the sections violated the First Amendment rights of a man convicted for walking into the traffic lanes at Interstate 5's northbound exit ramp.

Six of the high court's nine justices agreed Thursday that the 2012 conviction of Robert Willis  who walked onto the exit holding a sign that said he was disabled and needed help  should be reversed. Willis had been sentenced to 90 days in jail and a fine of $1,000, though the jail time was suspended, as was $750 of the fine. He was also assessed $125 in costs at the time.





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Allen Marine removed some cabins, some deck structure and a false smoke stack to comply with Coast Guard weight rules.



By TOM HESSE

Daily Sitka Sentinel

SITKA, Alaska  The newest vessel in the Alaska Dream Cruise fleet suffered two groundings on two different coasts before it was revived with a 100-ton remodel by Allen Marine.

The 207-foot cruise vessel, previously owned by Cruise West, was called the Spirit of Nantucket when it grounded near Virginia Beach in 2007, reported the Daily Sitka Sentinel.





. . .
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KENAI, Alaska (AP)  Homeowners concerned about the level of erosion alongside a river in their Kenai Peninsula community have to consider other options to prevent the bank from collapsing after officials shot down their request to install a type of rock that would provide long-term stabilization.

Homeowners in the Funny River community have been concerned about erosion along the river for over 15 years. Their past attempts at mitigating the problem have been unsuccessful, and the latest setback was dealt Monday.





. . .
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GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP)  It will cost more to visit exhibits surrounding the hallowed ground of Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

The National Park Service has approved higher fees to experience the museum, film and cyclorama, a 360-degree canvas depicting the dramatic Union Army stand against the Confederate troops on the final day of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.





. . .
ExxonMobil to buy InterOil Corp for more than $2.5 bn, Oil Search abandons bid

US energy giant ExxonMobil Corp yesterday struck a deal to buy InterOil Corp for more than $2.5 billion in stock, outbidding a competing $2.2 billion bid from Australia's Oil Search Ltd.

Under the terms of the deal, Exxon will pay $45 in newly issued stock, and the deal value could go as high as $71.87 depending on how much gas InterOil's Elk-Antelope field holds.

The potential payouts could be between $2.5 billion to $3.6 billion, which would be Exxon's biggest acquisition in nearly four years. Exxon also agreed to pay a $60 million breakup fee.

''This agreement will enable Exxon Mobil to create value for the shareholders of both companies and the people of Papua New Guinea,'' said, Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil's chairman and CEO.

In May, Papua New Guinea-focused oil and gas explorer Oil Search Ltd said that it would buy InterOil for at least $2.2 billion and agreed to sell off some assets to French energy giant Total SA to fund part of the proposed acquisition.

InterOil Corp, which agreed to be acquired by Oil Search, said that it has received an unsolicited takeover offer from an unnamed bidder and would enter into talks with the unnamed bidder. The company further added that Oil Search had allowed it to proceed with the negotiations. (See: InterOil Corp receives unsolicited takeover offer from an unnamed bidder) InterOil is an independent oil and gas business with a sole focus on Papua New Guinea. It owns a 36.5 per cent stake in the Elk-Antelope gas field, which is operated by Total.

The deal will give ExxonMobil access to InterOil's resource base, which includes interests in six licenses in Papua New Guinea covering about four million acres, including PRL 15. The Elk-Antelope field in PRL 15 is the anchor field for the proposed Papua LNG project.

Papua LNG is Papua New Guinea's second LNG project with expected first gas in the early 2020s. Operated by French energy giant Total SA, the project is a joint venture between InterOil, Total SA, Oil Search and the Papua New Guinea government.

Papua LNG will be supported by the Elk-Antelope gas field, located in the Eastern Papuan Basin.

ExxonMobil said that it will work with partners and the government to evaluate processing of gas from the Elk-Antelope field by expanding the PNG LNG project.
Swiss healthcare group Galenica to buy US biotech company Relypsa for $1.53 bn

Swiss healthcare group Galenica yesterday struck a deal to buy US biotech company Relypsa for $1.53 billion, in order to strengthen its Vifor Pharma unit just before it becomes an independent specialty pharma company.

Galenica, the owner of Switzerland's largest pharmacy network, is offering to pay $32 per share in cash, a 59 per cent premium to Relypsa's Wednesday's closing price.

Galenica, based in Bern, expects to fund the transaction through cash on hand and a bridge loan from Credit Suisse.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Vifor Pharma ahead of the planned split of the Galenica Group into two independent companies in 2017.

California-based Relypsa is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of polymeric medicines for patients with conditions that are often overlooked and undertreated and can be addressed in the gastrointestinal tract.

The company's first medicine, Veltassa oral suspension, was approved in the US in 2015 for the treatment of hyperkalaemia. The drug has patent protection until 2030 in the US and 2029 in the European Union.

Veltassa is the first medicine for treatment of people with elevated blood potassium levels to be approved in the US in more than 50 years and the only hyperkalaemia medicine with long-term data in its label supporting chronic use.

Hyperkalaemia is a potentially life-threatening condition which occurs most frequently in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and heart failure. It affects approximately 3 million people in the US with stage 3 or 4 CKD and/or heart failure, giving Veltassa the potential to become a blockbuster medicine.

Vifor Pharma already has rights to Relypsa's drug outside the US and Japan, and the deal will give the company global control of the drug.

Vifor Pharma is an emerging company focused in cardio-renal and gastroenterology therapies. The deal will provide Vifor Pharma with full global rights to Veltassa and also significantly enhance the commercial visibility and presence of the company in the key US cardio-renal market.

''The combination of Vifor Pharma and Relypsa is an important step towards achieving our goal of building a world-leading specialty pharmaceutical company focused on nephrology, cardiology and gastroenterology medicines,'' said Etienne Jornod, executive chairman of Galenica.

''This acquisition will give Vifor Pharma direct access to the key US market, enabling us to maximise the potential of our compelling product portfolio and enhancing our growing attraction as an international partner of choice,'' he added.
As many area communities will be observing Trick-or-Treating this weekend and Monday, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections advises you and your family to keep your children safer this Halloween by discussing ahead of time what to do if you are ever separated. A list of safety tips from state agencies is below to help ensure a safer Halloween weekend for everyone. You can also find the hours for trick-or-treating in Door and Kewaunee counties by clicking here.

-A parent or trusted adult should always accompany children

-Stay on well-lit streets and stick to neighborhoods you know

-Only stop at homes where the porch light is on

-Never enter a home or car for a treat

-Trick-or-treaters should carry a cell phone to allow for quick communication

-If the child carries a cell phone, activate location services prior to trick-or-treating

-Call 911 if you see any suspicious or illegal activity

Children should yell No! and run from any stranger who tries to take them somewhere

-Have a responsible adult check treats at the end of the night

Similarly, the Wisconsin Department of Health also suggests some tips for families with trick-or-treaters and families who are giving out candy.

Costume Tips

-Choose costumes that are light-colored and more visible to motorists.

-Use reflective tape to decorate costumes and candy bags to increase the visibility of children to drivers. Reflective tape may be purchased at hardware, bicycle, or sporting goods stores.

-Use make-up rather than a mask; if your childs costume does include a mask, make sure it fits snugly and that the eyeholes are large enough to allow full vision.

-Children should wear well-fitting, sturdy shoes.

-Costumes should be short enough that a child will not trip and fall.

-Choose costume accessories such as swords or knives that are made of soft and flexible material.

-Do not use novelty contacts such as cat eyes or snake eyes.

Pedestrian Safety

-Engage in Halloween activities during the daylight hours, if possible.

-Do not enter homes or apartments without adult supervision.

-Remind children to walk, not run, and to only cross streets at crosswalks.

-Be sure your children are accompanied by a responsible adult who has a flashlight. -----

-Flashlights or chemical light sticks should be used so that children can see and be seen by motorists.

Halloween Home Safety

-Remove obstacles from your lawn, porch, or steps if you are expecting trick-or-treaters.

-Make sure your front porch is well-lit.

-Avoid using candle-lit jack-o-lanterns if possible. If you do use candles, dont place them near curtains, furnishings, or decorations. Move them off porches where childrens costumes may ignite.

-Keep your pets in another room when you are expecting trick-or-treaters.

-Small children should not carve pumpkins; instead, allow them to draw the designs on the pumpkin and adults may carve.

-Turn on an outside light if welcoming trick-or-treaters.
 Flash

China's Ambassador to the U.K. Liu Xiaoming reiterated on July 19 China's solemn position that it does not recognise or accept the award given to the Philippines in the so-called tribunal for the South China Sea Arbitration.

China's Ambassador to the U.K. Liu Xiaoming addresses the media at the Chinese embassy in London.

A case for arbitration that the Philippines unilaterally initiated against China in 2013 came to an end on June 12, 2016 with the Permanent Court of Arbitration awarding in favour of the Philippines.

The court was a non-permanent one, and despite ruling on UN law and being based in The Hague, it is not actually a UN institute and is not connected with the UN's legal arm, the International Court of Justice.

The tribunal was about sovereignty over islands and geographical features in the South China Sea, and historical rights to the area. China has long maintained that it does not recognise this court, and that the Philippines' unilateral actions are against agreements to find bilateral resolve.

The Chinese government has issued two statements and a white paper on the matter. The paper is called "China Adheres to the Position of Settling Through Negotiation the Relevant Disputes Between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea."

Speaking at a press conference at the Chinese Embassy in London, Liu said: "The statement [issued by the Chinese government] underscores the facts that China is the first to have explored and exploited Nanhai Zhudao, or South China Sea islands, and relevant waters."

China is also the first to exercise continuous peaceful and effective sovereignty and jurisdiction over the islands.

"The statement explicitly points out that China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea include its sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao. China has internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and continental self, based on Nanhai Zhudao," Liu said.

Despite the Philippines' actions in bringing about this tribunal, China is still ready to resolve relevant disputes through negotiation and consultation. Liu said, "China is ready to work with [coastal nations] to jointly maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea and to ensure the safety of and the unimpeded access to international shipping lanes in the South China Sea."

During media questions, Liu pointed to the importance of peace and stability, and that such stability is in the interest of all, including China. Liu said, "The bulk of China's commercial commodities go through these shipping lanes, and we have every reason to ensure peace and stability, and freedom of navigation and over-flight."

The South China Sea is an important trade route with US$5.3 trillion in ship-borne trade passing through it every year.

During media questioning, Liu also pointed out that an example of cooperation between countries with disputed borders already exists. China and Vietnam have worked bilaterally to reach a resolve on territory in the Beibu Gulf (Gulf of Tonkin). In 2015, China and Vietnam launched a joint inspection in search of resources in the waters outside of the bay, signifying fruits of the two nations' efforts to cooperate.

Liu also brought attention to the Chinese Foreign Ministry's statement on the legality of the arbitration and how it goes beyond the jurisdiction of UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

"The arbitration infringes on China's right to choose the procedures and means for dispute settlement on its own will," Liu said.

The arbitration also violates bilateral agreements between China and the Philippines, and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members to resolve relevant disputes through negotiations.

China believes negotiated results can "gain understanding and support from people of countries concerned."

"Only a negotiated result can be effectively implemented," Liu said. "And only a negotiated result can be enduring."
There was some surprise and confusion before Monday morning's meeting of Louth County Council.

As the monthly meeting began Cllr Conor Keelan asked why a meeting on Brexit was held earlier that same morning and attended by only a minority of councillors.

Cllr Mark Dearey said he had arranged the meeting with Mairead McGuinness the local MEP and the vice-president of the European Parliament to examine the likely implications of Brexit for this region.

Participants included representatives of local authorities, business, community enterprise and farming, who outlined their concerns.

DkIT was also represented.

About 60m in cross-border funding goes into higher education in this region.

But it wasn't just councillors who weren't told about the Brexit meeting.

Joan Martin Chief Executive Louth County Council said she wasn't officially informed - the meeting was held at 8.30am in the County Hall, the council's headquarters.

She believed it was too early to talk about Brexit as nobody knew yet where the British Government is going.

Meanwhile, a Brexit motion from Cllr Tomas Sharkey at the council meeting drew widespread support.

He called for the council to note the huge progress made in removing barriers between communities North and South since the Good Friday Agreement.

He said a new border would be damaging for the economy in this region and called for the Government here to work with the North's executive to ensure that the wishes for the people of the North to remain in the EU are respected.

Cllr Conor Keelan said that whatever the outcome of talks on Brexit. He hoped for the minimum of disruption along the border.
Deals website, Catch Of The Day and Brisbanes Beserk Clothing received top honours at last nights 2016 StarTrack Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIAS) gala, hosted at Dockside Pavilion in Sydneys Darling Harbour.

The StarTrack ORIAS Peoples Choice Award was launched in 2015 to give online shoppers the opportunity to have their say on the online shopping experiences they love the most by voting for their favourite online retailer. Over 100,000 online shoppers voted for their favourite online retailers from a selection of 750, ranging from familiar household names to Aussie start-ups.

Deals website, Catch Of The Day was named the winner, having established itself as a top online destination for thousands of deals on streetwear, fashion, homewares, toys, groceries and more.

Were thrilled to win this award, said Adam Rudy, Head of Customer Experience at Catch Of The Day. Over the past few years, our business has gone from strength to strength but its this award that is the pinnacle of recognition, because it is our consumers who have voted for us and, without them, we wouldnt exist.

This years awards also saw the introduction of a brand new category recognising and celebrating smaller online retailers, with Beserk  a Brisbane-based alternative clothing store founded by Fleur Beserk  taking out the Peoples Choice Award for Small Business.

StarTracks CEO & Executive General Manager  Parcel & eCommerce Services, Bob Black said, This is the only category that gives online retail customers a voice. So, its fantastic to see both of these home grown trailblazers awarded for their innovation and outstanding customer experiences.
Hallelujha!

In a surprising move, a federal judge in Detroit struck down a Republican law that bans having the option of voting a straight partisan ballot in Michigan. Its a move sure to give Republicans a very powerful case of indigestion since the move was largely aimed at taking control of the last areas where they do not have control: the State Board of Education and University Boards of Regents and Trustees.

From reporting by The Detroit News:

A federal judge in Detroit has issued four preliminary injunctions against state election officials, prohibiting Michigan from enforcing a new law that bans straight-ticket voting. In a passionate 37-page opinion issued Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin A. Drain said the new law puts a disproportionate burden on African-Americans right to vote and will reduce their opportunity to participate in Michigans political process compared to other groups of voters. The real question the court must answer, Drain wrote, is whether the burden caused by the law is in part caused by or linked to social and historical conditions that have produced or currently produce discrimination against African American. This question is unavoidably answered in the affirmative. African-Americans are much more likely to vote Democrat than other ethnic groups, and many feel this is largely due to racially charged political stances taken by Republicans on the local, state and national level since the post-World War II era, Drain wrote.

You can read the fascinating and well-constructed opinion HERE.

The response from Republicans is almost comical in its audacity:

Assistant Attorney General Erik Grill  argued last week the elimination of straight-ticket voting wouldnt actually prevent anyone from voting down the party line  theyd just have to fill in more bubbles. Voters are absolutely able to vote for whichever party they choose to, be it Democratic, Republican, Socialist or Communist, Grill said. He said in Ottawa County, which is 93 percent white, about 60 percent of voters vote straight-ticket. Grill also criticized what he called Metzgers cherry-picked study for focusing on nine out of Michigans 83 counties. Ottawa County was not one of them. If theyre being affected, too, its not disparate impact, just impact, he said.

This is a clear admission that the move was impacting all voters which causes long lines at the polls. The disparate racial impact is not only because black folks are more likely to vote a straight ticket. Its also because they are the ones most likely to encounter inadequate voting facilities or an inadequate number of voting facilities.

But, at the end of the day, its the dashing of their hopes of taking control over the groups that have control over education in our state that is causing Republicans the most unspoken consternation. If they can do that, theyll have control over literally everything pertaining to government in Michigan. And having control over the State Board of Education and University Boards of Regents and Trustees will allow them to wreak even more havoc on our schools, colleges, and university with little to no resistance.

Every once in awhile, the good guys win a round. That said, Republicans are sure to fight this with everything they have. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: As predicted, Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette and Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson have announced that they both plan to appeal Judge Drains injunctions.

[CC image credit: 123hamda | Wikimedia Commons]
Airbnb recently filed suit against San Francisco over a new rule governing short-term rentals, which the citys Board of Supervisors approved last month.

An Airbnb-supported law adopted earlier this year requires short-term rental hosts to register with the city, but its estimated that only about 20 percent of them  about 1,400 out of 7,000  have done so.

The new rule requires short-term rental listing services like Airbnb to enforce the law by ensuring that hosts advertising on their websites have registered with the city before posting ads online.

When the city flags suspect rental ads, the listing service must respond with details about those properties within one business day  or incur fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing, as well as face misdemeanor charges.

Airbnb had vowed to fight the rule, and late last month filed suit in United States District Court.

We believe we are on firm legal footing with this case because this is a piece of common sense legislation that is supported by landlords, tenants, hotels and hotel workers, said San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

We are confident that our city attorney will successfully present our case, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Airbnbs Allegations

The registration system for short-term rental properties  which Airbnb had supported  isnt working, notes the companys complaint.

However, the rule requiring listing companies to enforce registration violates the 1996 Communications Decency Act, it argues.

Congress passed the CDA, Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, with the goal of regulating pornographic material on the Internet. However, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 struck down its anti-decency provisions in Reno v. ACLU.

Airbnbs case is based on Section 230 of the Act, which gives immunity from liability to providers and users of an interactive computer service that publishes information provided by others.

San Franciscos Reasoning

Theres a dearth of rental apartments in San Francisco, which has sent rents skyrocketing and seen landlords engage in a variety of shenanigans.

For example, one landlord of a North Beach apartment recently raised a tenants rent from US$1,800 a month to $8,000.

In another case, landlords reportedly are seeking to evict a tenant for using the appliances in her unit.

Instances like these concerned the Board of Supervisors enough that they unanimously passed the rule requiring short-term hosts to include their license numbers when advertising online.

Introduced by Supervisor David Campos, a long-time opponent of Airbnb, the rule also attracted the support of Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has fought for affordable housing in San Francisco for years.

Good Intentions Arent Enough

The problem is not the citys motivations but the fact that its method for achieving those goals contravenes Section 230, said Gautam S. Hans, director of the Center for Democracy & Technologys San Franciscos office.

The courts wouldnt look at the effect on the housing market or anything else when interpreting the [Section] 230 claims, he told the E-Commerce Times. Airbnb has a strong case given the statute and existing case law.

Further, liability cannot be based on the presence or absence of a registration number or whether the user can legally offer the service, noted David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The requirement of specific content  the registration numbers of advertisers  is a restriction based on speech, he told the E-Commerce Times, implicating the first amendment.
Americans have expressed outrage at Wednesdays police shooting of Philando Castile, an African-American man, which happened in St. Paul, Minnesota, during a traffic stop for a broken tail light.

Castile was shot in front of his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and their 4-year-old daughter, who were in the car.

Reynolds used Facebook Live to stream video of the aftermath of the shooting.

The graphic video, which shows Castile bleeding and groaning in pain while the officer who shot him curses and continues aiming his gun at Castile, had garnered more than 4.4 million views by Thursday evening, and nearly 300,000 shares.

President Obama posted a lengthy comment in response to Castiles shooting and the police shooting earlier this week of another black man, Alton Sterling, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sterlings shooting was captured on video by several bystanders.

Race undoubtedly played a role in Castiles shooting, said Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, who called on the United States Department of Justice to investigate.

Outrage and Anguish

There were more than 16,000 comments on Reddit less than 24 hours after the shooting, many expressing outrage.

There is no reason four shots should be fired from a foot away, especially when he let the officer know he had a concealed weapon, wrote chemicalbeats37.

I saw this guys last moments of life, wrote doyou_booboo. His last breaths. A mother in a state of shock, watching someone she cared about die. I saw a three year old witnessing something that she doesnt fully understand yet, but which might have lasting repercussions on her psyche.

A Twitter feed on the shooting also displayed the anguish of commenters.

"It's okay mommy. It's okay, I'm right here with you" #PhilandoCastile's girlfriend's 4yo daughter said to her mother. & I am broken.

 deray mckesson (@deray) July 7, 2016

A Gofundme campaign set up by Xavier Burgin to benefit the Castile family raised more than US$60,000 toward a goal of $80,000 in its first 19 hours. Upwards of 2,200 people contributed. Castiles sister Moni also started a GoFundMe campaign, which had raised more than $16,000 toward its $30,000 goal in the first 12 hours.

Facebooks Role

Facebook took down the streaming video of the shooting for several hours but restored it after some users protested. Facebook claimed the takedown was due to a technical glitch.

In this day of citizen journalism and ubiquitous video, the role Facebook played in disseminating knowledge of the incident was critical. What legal, ethical and other issues do companies that offer live-streaming services face, as people use them to document events in real time?

Typically, posting something that showcases someone getting shot would be an automatic delete, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

However, thats not the case if it has to do with abuse of power and you position yourself as a news service, he told TechNewsWorld.

Users have posted disturbing images on Facebook and other streaming services before.

Whether that raises legal and ethical issues depends on whether the service is considered to be a common carrier with an obligation to not discriminate on the basis of content or use, or a publisher, constrained by considerations of copyright and fair use, noted Mike Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

If Facebooks a publisher that allows individuals to use its platform to post their content, it has the right to determine what gets posted, he told TechNewsWorld. However, if its a common carrier, then it cant and shouldnt, regardless of impact. Thats called free speech.

The FCC is wrestling with the question of whether Facebook is a common carrier with a must-serve obligation, Jude said.

There has been a lot of dispute regarding the liability of various intermediaries such as Facebook  which doesnt necessarily fall in areas Congress envisioned when they passed various laws, Yasha Heidari of the Heidari Power Law Group told TechNewsWorld.

Theres no hard-and-fast rule as to what is or isnt allowed, so streaming services will just simply accept the risk and moderate after the fact, doing their best to comply with known laws, Enderle said. The difficulty with any kind of censorship is knowing where to draw the line.

Forget about ethical standards, which seem to mean very little on the Internet, Jude remarked. I would say there are moral [arguments] for not publishing such content.
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In 2014, Vermont passed the first legislation in the U.S. to require labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. A year earlier, Connecticut and Maine passed GMO labeling bills though these were dependent on several other states passing similar laws.

Best of Democracy: Lawmakers Respond to the People

Passages of these three bills were textbook examples of democracy in action. The states citizens lobbied their legislatures to introduce the bills, public hearings were held, experts spoke for and against the bills and lawmakers debated the measures. The bills ultimately passed because the lawmakers recognized that the People wanted them approved.

Vermonts bill passed overwhelmingly in both the states House of Representatives and Senate and Gov. Pete Shumlin signed the bill shortly thereafter.

This is how democracy is supposed to work, right? Citizens see an issue of concern that needs to be addressed and they contact their elected representatives who respond by passing a law. This is what happened in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine.

As Tara Cook-Littman, who spearheaded Connecticuts labeling initiative, said: GMO labeling is about people taking back power and getting lawmakers to take action in the interests of the people and not corporations. If we dont use our voices its not democracy. We proved in Connecticut that we do have power and can make democracy work.

Worst of Democracy: Lawmakers Pander to Corporations

Contrast those initiatives with U.S. federal government action on GMO labeling in the past year. Heavy lobbying by large food and agriculture corporations and groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association led the U.S. House of Representatives to introduce the Orwellian-named Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act.

The bill, dubbed the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know), aimed to stop Vermont and other state GMO labeling laws and establish a meaningless system of voluntary GMO labeling. The DARK Act passed the House but a similar bill failed to pass the U.S. Senate this past March mainly because the people told their senators to vote against it.

Following the Senate defeat and with Vermonts GMO labeling law set to take effect July 1, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) drafted a compromise of the DARK Act, making GMO disclosure mandatory and not voluntary as in the House bill. But there was no requirement for an on-package statement as the Vermont law mandated.

Stabenows compromise essentially snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for labeling supporters because many major food companies were already putting GMO labels on their products sold nationwide to comply with Vermonts law.

The Roberts-Stabenow bill has been described as a non-labeling GMO labeling bill since, among its many flaws, it allows food companies to continue their stonewalling of GMO information by putting QR codes on products that can only be read by smartphones. Imagine a busy mother at a supermarket with several children in tow pulling out her smartphone to read QR codes on 20 or 30 food products. Or imagine the many mothers that dont even have smartphones trying to get GMO information. According to marketing communications expert Peter Quinn, the use of QR codes has virtually been abandoned because they have proven to be so ineffective and a technology wild goose chase.

Needs of the People Have Been Ignored

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said: The Stabenow-Roberts GMO bill is confusing, misleading and unenforceable. It does nothing to make sure consumers know what theyre eating.

In contrast to Vermonts GMO labeling billthe Roberts-Stabenow bill had no hearings, no public input, no committee debate and was rushed to be introducedand passed in both the Senate and House. Behind the push were Big Food and Ag and their millions of dollars in lobbying.

So while the GMO labeling efforts in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine demonstrated the best of democracyworking for the people as Americas founders intendedthe Roberts-Stabenow bill showed us the worst of democracywith its pandering to the narrow interests of big business at the expense of the wishes of the people. And the bill makes the successful democratic efforts in those states null and void.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said the bill was not whats in the interests of the American consumer, but what a few special interests want.

With their support for this bad piece of legislation and continued obfuscation of GMOs, Big Food and Ag have assured themselves more years of consumer distrust and targeting by advocacy groups, leading to PR disasters. A few food companies, such as Campbells and Dannon, have decided that transparency is the best policy, but for many others this may be a tough lesson to learn.

As of July 22, the Roberts-Stabenow GMO labeling bill, S.764, has not yet been signed into law by President Obama but the White House said after Congress passed the bill that he would sign it. More than 80,000 people have petitioned the White House urging Obama to veto the bill. Florida Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan also urged the president to veto the bill. In a letter to Obama, Buchanan called the legislation a sham bill that pretends to offer disclosure but in truth has so many loopholes that it is meaningless.
There has been a lot of talk around the country about how the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is good for our agriculture economy. But Im not buying it.

Over the last several decades, the story of trade agreements ratified by Congress has been one broken promise after another. Backers of trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Korea Free Trade Agreement promised U.S. farmers increases in farm income and more rural economic activity. These promises have largely been unfulfilled. In fact, agricultural imports have surged while exports have lagged behind under recent free trade agreements, hurting U.S. farmers.

Now Congress is proposing yet another free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Wisconsin Farmers Union believes that the TPP, a global trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries, poses a serious threat to dairy farmers. Among other concerns, TPP could lead to greater imports of Milk Protein Concentrates (MPCs), which displace demand for milk produced on U.S. farms. New Zealand, the leading exporter of MPCs, is a member of the TPP.

Exchange rates are especially important when it comes to trade in agricultural commodities. When the value of the U.S. dollar is high, U.S. commodities are relatively more expensive to international traders, and they will opt to buy commodities from other countries instead. Since U.S. negotiators failed to secure binding prohibitions on currency manipulation in the TPP, all of the supposed gains to agricultural exports under the TPP could easily be wiped out by currency manipulation.

Currency manipulation could quickly erase supposed gains in agricultural trade. The TPP includes three known currency manipulators: Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. These countries use state-owned banks to buy up U.S. dollars, so their currencies stay cheap and the U.S. dollar stays expensive.

The TPP contains voluntary measures, but no binding provisions, to curtail currency manipulation. Currency manipulation drives up our trade deficit, reduces our Gross Domestic Product by hundreds of billions of dollars, undermines U.S. job growth, and increases the U.S. federal deficit. During trade talks Japanese officials said that they would use this mechanism to protect their industries, especially the auto and banking sectors.

Another possible detriment to the TPP is that Canadas milk quota system is supposed to be phased out over the next decade. Will they still have the ability to protect their farm structure? And how will that impact our fragile U.S. dairy market?

Meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit continues to rise. Without some safeguards in place and a provision to address currency manipulation, TPP is not going to be good for American agriculture.

Under TPP, dairy stands to be at a net loss in both price and farm numbers. Dairy prices will struggle under TPP as the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that imports will rise close to 5 billion pounds by 2025 under TPP versus under 4 billion under current trade agreements.

But think of the exports, they say!

Were told exports will save us, but look at what has happened over the last 18 months  exports have fallen by nearly 13 percent in volume and 33 percent in value. That means there is less money coming back to the local economy and more money leaving the U.S. to buy imports.

Dairy farm numbers in the United States have been declining for several decades now. In 1970, there were around 648,000. In 2006, there were 75,000, and today we have less than 58,000 dairy farms across the country. Wisconsin is losing one farm a day on average, and California is losing one to two per week as a result of the low price that farmers are receiving for their milk.

So with the above scenario where exports are falling and imports are rising, there will be pressure for prices to remain below farmers production costs.

We cant risk another economic downturn like those weve experienced under previous trade deals. Wisconsin Farmers Union opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership, and has urged our representatives in Washington to say no to TPP.

And just where do our candidates and elected officials stand? President Obama has gone all in on his support of the TPP. In contrast, presidential candidates Clinton, Sanders and Trump all have come out in opposition to the TPP.

Wisconsin Senate incumbent Ron Johnson says he has not made up his mind on TPP, even though the proposal was released in November of last year. Johnson did vote to give the president Trade Promotion Authority in order to fast track the TPP. His competitor, Russ Feingold, opposes TPP in no uncertain terms.

While many in our agricultural community would have you believe TPP is all sunshine and roses, past trade deals should give us serious pause.

Dont believe the hype. Standing up for Wisconsin farmers means standing against the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The U.S. will burst through its emission-reduction target under the Paris climate agreement if the 19

natural gas pipelines proposed in the Appalachian Basin come to fruition, according to a new study.



Oil Change International

The report,

A Bridge Too Far: How Appalachian Basin Gas Pipeline Expansion Will Undermine U.S. Climate Goals, was published today by the environmental group Oil Change International in partnership with 11 other local, regional and national organizations.

As

Reuters noted from the report, these pending projects would pipe natural gas from fracking fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to states from Louisiana to New York and unlock at least 15.2 billion cubic feet per day of production. Combined, these 19 proposed pipelines would enable 116 trillion cubic feet of additional gas production by 2050. Some of the pipeline operators include Spectra Energy Co, Williams Cos Inc and EQT Corp.

The Paris climate agreement signed in June set a goal limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. The climate target in the U.S. is an emissions cut of 83 percent from 2005 levels by 2050.

However, as the authors of the report warned, these proposed pipelines would be incompatible with these goals. If they are constructed, they would blow past our emissions target 10 years early. And thats just for natural gas.

Our calculations show that the rise in gas consumption projected by the EIA [Energy Information Administration] would alone lead to emissions that would surpass the current long-term U.S. climate target by 2040, the report said.

Proposed pipelines and potential pipeline routes from the Appalachian basin.

Oil Change International

While proponents of natural gas like to argue that its clean since it emits about half as much carbon dioxide as coal these proposed pipelines, which have an economic lifespan of more than 40 years, would appropriate all of the U.S. emissions budget for natural gas alone.

Expanded natural gas production is a bridge to climate disaster, Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, said. Our report shows that even if we entirely eliminated emissions from coal and oil, the emissions from the natural gas boom alone would still blow our climate budget.

The authors of the report argue in favor of clean energy alternatives such as

renewables, battery storage and grid management technology.

It is increasingly clear that the clean energy sector is poised to transform our energy system, the report stated. There is nothing standing in the way of building the renewable energy capacity we need to sustain our electricity needsexcept maybe the entrenched interests of the natural gas industry.



Its not just #oil & #coal  natural gas boom is going to wreck our #climate if we keep #fracking. Read the report: https://t.co/5FL5nEtEwC  Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) July 22, 2016

The report recommends that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates interstate gas transmission pipeline operations, apply a climate test to future infrastructure and policy decisions.

As Reuters noted, Vermont Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has advocated for this climate test, which resembles the criteria President Barack Obama applied when he

vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline.

Thanks to Sanders supporters, the climate test has been

adopted by the 2016 Democratic party platform, even though presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Clinton once deemed natural gas a bridge fuel in the transition to a cleaner energy economy.

This should be a wake up call to anyone promoting natural gas as a bridge to a clean energy future. Put simply, its not, Kretzmann said.

Something fairly amazing is happening at Democratic platform hearing right now  Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) July 10, 2016

No more all of the above. No more bridge to the future. Sun and wind are now above natural gas  Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) July 10, 2016

The report adds steam to the #KeepItInTheGround movement that challenges the oil and gas industry to stop drilling.

Theres a strong and vital movement of people throughout Appalachia who are standing up to protect their communities and their land from pipelines and the increase in fracking they will bring Kretzmann said.

The partnering organizations that support the Oil Change International report include Appalachian Voices, Bold Alliance, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Earthworks, Environmental Action, Sierra Club, 350.org, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (Virginia & West Virginia), Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter and Friends of Water (West Virginia).

Actions show the strength and commitment of people standing up to Big Gas and their reckless pipelines, Bold Alliance President Jane Kleeb said. These people are fighting for their land, and our climate. Using eminent domain for private gain is something the Cowboy and Indian Alliance stands against. We plan on using actions, prayer and all legal tools available to stop these risky pipelines.

Carolyn Reilly, community organizer with Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, agrees. As a grassroots organizer, and landowner in the path of a proposed natural gas transmission pipeline, Ive seen the ugliness of the corporate grab and greed, Reilly said.

The only place gas will bridge us too is more pollution and further climate disruption, Lena Moffitt, director of Sierra Clubs Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, said. This report highlights the magnitude of the threat our climate and communities face from further expansion of gas pipelines and plants, and shows that the only solution to meeting our global climate commitment is to keep gaslike all dirty fuels

in the ground.
Republican presumptive presidential nominee and climate change denier Donald Trump said in an interview he would renegotiate U.S. role in the Paris agreement.

Photo credit: a katz / Shutterstock

I will be looking at that very, very seriously and at a minimum I will be renegotiating those agreements, at a minimum. And at a maximum I may do something else, Trump told Reuters. But those agreements are one-sided agreements and they are bad for the United States. The Paris agreement has a clause that says a new government wanting to back out of the climate accord would have to wait four years to do so.

This is simply more proof that Trumps international antics would isolate the United States around the world and only negotiate away American leadership, Sierra Club political director Khalid Pitts said. Meanwhile, we can only wonder how a climate science denier is supposed to renegotiate an international climate agreement.

For a deeper dive:

News: Reuters, MotherJones.

Commentary: New York Times, Tom Friedman column

For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.

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What is fracking?

Fracking is a process of blasting water, chemicals and frac sand deep into the earth to break up sedimentary rock and access natural gas and crude oil deposits. The fracking industry, which has sought to promote the practice as safe and controlled, has preferred the term hydraulic fracturing.

Fracking emerged as an unconventional, relatively new and extremely popular technique only about 20 years ago in the U.S., after advances in technology gave it an unprecedented ability to identify and extract massive amounts of resources efficiently.

Fracking is one of the most important environmental issues today, and its a prime example of how a new technology that offers immediate economic and political benefits can outpace (often less obvious) environmental and health concerns.

Why is fracking so controversial?

Modern fracking emerged so quickly, faster than its impacts were understood. Just as importantly, once scientists, health experts and the public started to object with evidence of harm it was causing, business and government succeeded in perpetuating a message of uncertainty, that more research was necessary, further enabling the full speed ahead fracking juggernaut.

How does fracking impact the environment?

Frackings supporters have pushed an environmental angle, insisting that natural gas can be a bridge fuel, a cheaper, cleaner option than coal before we have a large-scale transition to renewable energy. This claim has some merit, as natural gas does emit much less carbon dioxide than coal or oil. However, it is still a fossil fuel, adding harmful emissions while the climate crisis worsens. Moreover, fracking wells leak methane, a greenhouse gas more than 25 times more potent than CO2.

Water



In order to break up rock formations one to two miles deep, a fracking operation requires millions of gallons amount of water. After its used, the resulting wastewater, which contains chemicals is pumped back into injection wells, sent to treatment plants, or can be dangerously dumped or spilled.

In 2016 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report skewed friendly to industry in its language: Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources in the United States. The EPA acknowledged that drinking water contamination was possible, but ultimately came to this conclusion: Data gaps and uncertainties limited EPAs ability to fully assess the potential impacts on drinking water resources locally and nationally.

Earthquakes



According to the U.S. Geologic Survey, disposal of wastewater has caused an increase in earthquakes in the central U.S. Seismologists have reported that frackings initial blasting process can trigger earthquakes.

Air Pollution

In addition to methane, fracking releases many toxic contaminants into the air. EPA has acknowledged the public health threat, but a lack of urgent political pressure has sidelined the agency into advising on ways to control and reduce, rather than eliminate, the danger.

Toxic Chemicals



Fracking fluids contain unknown chemicals and known carcinogens such as benzene. Fracking companies havent been required to disclose their proprietary formulas, however. This is yet another example of how uncertainty serves as an enabling force. The EPA has identified more than 1,000 different chemicals used in fracking fluid.

Wildlife



Fracking can destroy wildlife habitats, pollute rivers and fisheries, poison birds, and use up water supplies that animals need to survive.

How does fracking affect the economy?



The fracking boom made the U.S. the worlds largest producer of oil and gas, reducing its energy imports from 26% to less than 4%. It has lowered oil and gas prices and created thousands of industry jobs. While fracking companies profited greatly at first, as prices dropped their margins collapsed. Many are now going bankrupt.

How is fracking regulated?



Congress has enabled the oil and gas industry to be exempt from such regulations as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Fracking surged during the Obama administration, which moved to protect water from fracking on federal lands in 2015. Subsequently, the Trump administration sought to roll back protections and expand fracking on federal lands.

Key Examples of Fracking in the United States

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvanias Marcellus Shale is the source for about 40% of shale gas production in the U.S.

New York

While the Marcellus Shale also runs through New York, the state has banned fracking.

Texas

Texas produces more crude oil than any other state.

North Dakota

The Bakken Shale in North Dakota has been one of the main sites for the fracking boom and subsequent bust, leaving behind extensive environmental damage.

A recent report found that all 50 states could provide 100% (or even greater) in-state renewable energy.

Other Countries



Outside the U.S., only Canada, China and Argentina have commercial fracking operations. A UN report in 2018 said that other countries were highly unlikely to produce at such a large scale as the U.S., due to political and cultural factors, and existing infrastructure.

The Future of Fracking

While renewables were considered a solution for peak oil only a decade ago, fracking changed the terms of the debate, with a new focus from environmentalists to keep it in the ground starting in 2015.

The Biden administration now stands at a pivotal moment in the climate crisis. Bidens stance on fracking is not yet entirely clear, but he has rejoined the Paris agreement and appears to take climate seriously. At the same time, he is sympathetic to workers in fossil fuel industries, was vice president during the fracking boom years under Obama, and may be more inclined to seek a gradual transition than one fast enough to help solve the crisis.
Radioactive contamination in the seabed off the Fukushima coast is hundreds of times above pre-2011 levels, while contamination in local rivers is up to 200 times higher than ocean sediment, according to results from Greenpeace Japan survey work released Thursday.

The extremely high levels of radioactivity we found along the river systems highlights the enormity and longevity of both the environmental contamination and the public health risks resulting from the Fukushima disaster, Ai Kashiwagi, energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan, said.

Greenpeace sediment sampling in Abukuma river, Miyagi prefecture, February 2016. The Abukuma has a 5,172km2 catchment15 which is largely in Fukushima prefecture, before entering the Pacific ocean in Miyagi prefecture. Greenpeace / Raquel Monton

These river samples were taken in areas where the Abe government is stating it is safe for people to live. But the results show there is no return to normal after this nuclear catastrophe, said Kashiwagi.

Riverbank sediment samples taken along the Niida River in Minami Soma, measured as high as 29,800 Bq/kg for radiocaesium (Cs-134 and 137). The Niida samples were taken where there are no restrictions on people living, as were other river samples. At the estuary of the Abukuma River in Miyagi prefecture, which lies more than 90km north of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, levels measured in sediment samples were as high as 6,500 Bq/kg.

Greenpeace radiation specialist Jacob Namminga on board research vessel off the coast of Fukushima Daiichi, removing marine sediment sample collected by Remotely Operated Vehicle, March 2016. Greenpeace / Christian Aslund

The lifting of evacuation orders in March 2017 for areas that remain highly contaminated is a looming human rights crisis and cannot be permitted to stand. The vast expanses of contaminated forests and freshwater systems will remain a perennial source of radioactivity for the foreseeable future, as these ecosystems cannot simply be decontaminated.

Caesium-137 has a half life of 30 years and will continue to pose a risks to the the environment and human health for hundreds of years. Cs-137 contamination in seabed samples near the Fukushima plant was measured at up to 120 Bq/kg  compared to levels pre-2011 of 0.3 Bq/kg. Further, the levels of contamination found 60km south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were comparable with those found within 4km of the plant. Numerous marine science investigations, have concluded that these higher levels are one explanation for some marine species still showing higher cesium levels than the background levels in seawater.

River systems along Fukushima and neighboring prefecture coastline discharging radioactivity into Pacific Ocean.

The radiation levels in the sediment off the coast of Fukushima are low compared to land contamination, which is what we expected and consistent with other research, Kendra Ulrich, senior global energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan, said. The sheer size of the Pacific Ocean combined with powerful complex currents means the largest single release of radioactivity into the marine environment has led to the widespread dispersal of contamination.

Most of the radioactivity in Fukushima Daiichi reactor units 1-3 core fuel in March 2011 remains at the site.

The scientific community must receive all necessary support to continue their research into the impacts of this disaster, Ulrich said.

In addition to the ongoing contamination from forests and rivers, the vast amount of radioactivity onsite at the destroyed nuclear plant remains one of the greatest nuclear threats to Fukushima coastal communities and the Pacific Ocean. The hundreds of thousands of tonnes of highly contaminated water, the apparent failure of the ice wall to reduce groundwater contamination and the unprecedented challenge of three molten reactor cores all add up to a nuclear crisis that is far from over.

A radiation survey team onboard the research vessel Asakaze, supported by the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, conducted underwater survey work along the Fukushima coastline from Feb. 21 to March 11 this year, as well collecting samples in river systems. The samples were measured at an independent laboratory in Tokyo.
By Curtis Morrison

While Hillary Clintons presidential campaign boasts ambitious green goals, like installing half a billion solar panels and generating enough renewable energy to power every American home, a pro-Clinton super PAC (political action committee) champions her record in promoting fossil fuel production. Ironically, that super PAC is named Correct the Record.

Enabled by a recent advisory opinion by the Federal Election Commission, Correct the Record has reportedly collaborated directly with the Clinton campaign. Led by Clinton ally David Brock, Correct the Record spun off from American Bridge PAC in May and received attention in September when it went negative on candidate Bernie Sanders, despite Clintons commitment not to do so.

Correct the Record set up the webpage Hillary Clinton: Fueling Americas Energy Future as one of 26 different Record Analyses. All 11 major points made on the webpage tout Clintons last two years as Secretary of State. About half of the pages talking points are devoted to giving Clinton credit for the Obama administrations use of natural gas as a geopolitical tool, even citing Russia, Ukraine and Putin in section headings.

For example:

Sec. Clinton significantly elevated the role of energy as a driver of foreign policy.

Sec. Clintons Bureau of Energy Resources helped European nations reduce dependence on Russian gas.

Sec. Clintons Bureau of Energy Resources lessened Putins leverage over Ukraine and Europes energy supply.

Sec. Clinton created the Bureau of Energy Resources for the purpose of channeling the domestic energy boom into a geopolitical tool to advance American interests around the world.

Correct the Record has promoted the webpages pro-fossil fuel messaging on Twitter:

A different webpage on Correct the Records website, Hillary Clinton: Stemming the Tide of Climate Change, appears to have been designed to defend against attacks from the left. That web page relies more on excerpts from Clintons book, Hard Choices, and does not mention natural gas, Russia, Ukraine or Putin.

Yet another Correct the Record webpage purports to defend Clintons environmental record generally, but has significantly less content than the Fueling Americas Energy Future or Stemming the Tide of Climate Change pages. There, Correct the Record highlights Clintons December 2014 New York City speech before the League of Conservation Voters in which she qualified her enthusiasm for fracking and natural gas, by saying If we are smart about this and put in place the right safeguards, natural gas can play an important bridge role in the transition to a cleaner energy economy.

Meanwhile in July, the Clinton campaign pledged to introduce a comprehensive energy and climate agenda. Sections of that agenda already released include revitalizing coal communities and modernizing North American energy infrastructure. Both those sections affirm Clintons commitment to energy and climate security that prioritizes the reduction in the amount of oil consumed in the U.S. and around the world, without mentioning natural gas. The campaigns four-page Climate Change Fact Sheet commits to reducing oil consumption, also without mentioning natural gas.

The full scope of Clintons promotion of fracking and natural gas as geopolitical tools during her tenure as Secretary of State continues to be exposed. Among the State Departments New Years Eve release of Clinton emails, an April 2012 email from then Sec. of Energy Steven Chu to Clinton followed up on their prior conversation about howU.S. companies and the USGcan help other countries develop the shale oil and gas with hydraulic fracking in an environmentally responsible way. Per Chu, The responsible development of these resources can change the energy and geo-political landscape in profound ways.

Chu provided Clinton contact information for two DOE employees who would support the State Department with this agenda, joking that he would have gotten back to her sooner had he not been distracted by the Tumblr page Texts from Hillary. Clinton forwarded Chus email to an assistant requesting the email address for Carlos Pascual, who she had appointed to Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Affairs. However, no emails from Clinton to Pascual following that request appear to have been released by the State Department as of yet, although a final production of Clinton emails is expected in January.

Correct the Record, incidentally, points to a New York Times article that describes Pascuals role as leading the State Departments Bureau of Energy Resources, created in late 2011 by Hillary Rodham Clinton  for the purpose of channeling the domestic energy boom into a geopolitical tool to advance American interests around the world.

The fact that Clinton discussed using gas and fracking as a geopolitical tool directly with Chu and made plans to coordinate that agenda with the DOE may compromise her ability to connect with voters who see any increase in the production of fossil fuels as reckless.

When recently asked by 350 Iowas Steve Patterson whether she would sign a pledge not to take money from the fossil fuel industry, Clinton responded that she opposed offshore drilling and vowed to look into fossil fuel industry donations. I will do everything I can to know that everyone who gives me money knows exactly what Im going to do when I am elected, theres no doubt about that, she said.

Clinton has yet to explain exactly how increasing natural gas production could possibly be compatible with effective climate change mitigation, much less climate recovery. And Correct the Record isnt helping.

Curtis Morrison is a freelance journalist and Whittier Law School J.D. candidate with environmental law concentration.

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ECSU Works with Coast Guard to Educate Future Leaders

Elizabeth City State University is committed to educating future leaders. And future Coast Guard leaders are coming out of the university and heading to Officer Candidate School.

Joining ECSU Chancellor Thomas Conway in his office Friday, July 22, 2016, was ECSU Director of Veterans and Military Services Tim Freeman, Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City Executive Officer and ECSU graduate, Cmdr. Warren Judge, and Coast Guard Adm. Bill Kelly. Adm. Kelly and Cmdr. Judge toured the campus and enjoyed lunch while discussing the future of educating members of the Coast Guard at ECSU.

Currently, ECSU participates in the College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI), offering a university education to men and women enlisting in the Coast Guard. Upon graduation, the enlisted service members then attend Officer Candidate School (OCS) to become commissioned officers in the Coast Guard. Cmdr. Judge noted that there are currently six ECSU graduates on their way to OCS.

Cmdr. Judge is an example of how a relationship between the Coast Guard and ECSU can change one persons future. He joined the Coast Guard behind his brother after leaving the University of Florida as a student. While working as an enlisted service member, Cmdr. Judge was stationed at Base Elizabeth City. He enrolled at ECSU, earned his bachelors in computer science, and went on to OCS.

Cmdr. Judge would go on to have a stellar career in the Coast Guard. And through programs such as CSPI, it is possible for any young man or woman to thrive beyond graduation.

One of ECSUs most recent CSPI success stories is Tyler Pryor. Pryor graduated from the ECSU aviation program in May, 2015. He had the honor of being the only student in the country accepted into the U.S. Coast Guard's Wilks Flight Initiative program.

Pryor was already enrolled in the Coast Guard's College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative, sending him to Officer's Candidate School after graduation. Pryor says his goal has always been to be an aviator, and so his experience in ECSU's aviation program - the only degreed aviation program in the UNC system - prepared him for his future as a Coast Guard aviator.

The summer before Pryors senior year, he attended Coast Guard boot camp at Cape May, New Jersey. Once he returned to ECSU, he served as an enlisted member of the Coast Guard while finishing his degree.

Pryor says Elizabeth City State University has made his dreams come true. He says if it were not for his alma mater, he might not have been able to pursue his dream.

I am 100 percent certain I would not have gotten this opportunity anywhere else but Elizabeth City State University, said Pryor.

Pryor completed Officer Candidate School last fall, graduating at the rank of Ensign. He began his aviation training in Pensacola, Florida, in December 2015. He said his goal is to pilot the H-60 helicopter and then become an engineer, working with a variety of aircraft in the Coast Guard.

According to www.gocoastguard.com the CSPI scholarship program is, designed for motivated individuals who demonstrate a high caliber of academic and leadership excellence and who desire to serve their country in the United States Coast Guard. Students currently enrolled or accepted for enrollment in a full-time bachelor's degree program at designated college or institution (defined in item 6 below) with the desire to complete college and receive a guaranteed commission as an officer in the United States Coast Guard can apply for CSPI. This means that a student currently pursuing an AA/AS degree at a junior college or community college who plans to continue with their BS/BA degree may be eligible for CSPI if they are accepted for enrollment at a qualifying college.
(Photo: REUTERS / Carlos Garcia Rawlins)Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends to a meeting with representatives of the opposition, the Roman Catholic Church and Union of South American Nations' (UNASUR) at Miraflores Palace in Caracas April 10, 2014. Maduro hosted Venezuelan opposition leaders on Thursday at the start of mediated talks intended to stem two months of political unrest that has killed dozens in the OPEC nation.

A Geneva-based non-governmental rights group has urged U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to respond to an appeal by 50 Venezuelan NGOs angry at an array of U.N. humanitarian agencies they say are ignoring the hunger and health catastrophe taking place in Venezuela.

UN Watch on July 22 urged Ban to respond as they express indignation at the deferment to the regime of President Nicolas Maduro saying the UN agencies are ignoring the hunger and health catastrophe taking place in Venezuela.

"The UN says that it cares about social and economic rights, yet when it comes to Venezuela, UN agencies and officials have continuously helped the perpetrator instead of the victim," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

The coalition of NGOs pointed a finger at UN agencies such as PAHO, FAO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO.

It says these groups have adopted an unresponsive stance in the face of the compelling health and food deprivation affecting millions in Venezuela, apparently due to pressure from the Maduro regime.

"Not only was Venezuela re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council, and given a free pass there, but the Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome last year gave Venezuela an award for supposedly halving malnutrition. It's a sham," said Neuer.

"This is simply absurd and immoral, and a betrayal of the U.N.'s own values," said Neuer. "Venezuelan media used the false U.N. recognition as propaganda to legitimize a regime that is responsible for causing a desperate food situation for millions of their own people."

"Venezuela, with the support of Cuba and other allies, has used political clout to influence UN experts and agencies. As a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Venezuela backed U.N. experts who backed Chavez."

The group of NGOs includes: Caritas Ciudad Bolivar, Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, Justicia y Paz Caritas Los Teques, Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes, Padres Organizados de Venezuela, Sinergia, Asociacion Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil.

Neuer said, "Hilal Elver, the current expert on the right to food, has never visited Venezuela, issued any statement on hunger in Venezuela, or made even one tweet on the subject. It's shameful."

The signers said in their petition, "The UN agencies refrain from dialogue with Venezuelan society, without pressure or conditions by the State.

"This situation compromises their performance, according to the Action Plan 'Rights up Front,' which establishes their duty to prioritize, above the interests of states, the mandates and commitments on human rights and to provide accurate information regarding populations at risk or subjected to serious violations of human rights, to ensure coherent strategies for action on the ground, facilitating an early coordinated action and greater impact on the work of protecting the rights human and humanitarian law."
Some test questions are likely harder to answer on tablets than on laptop and desktop computers, presenting states and districts with a new challenge as they move to widespread online assessments.

Analyses by test providers and other organizations have pointed to evidence of small but significant device effects for tests administered in some grades and subjects and on certain types of assessment items.

The results in many cases do not follow a clear pattern. And the most comprehensive studies to dateanalyses of 2014-15 test results from millions of students who took the tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards designed by two major assessment consortiaconcluded that overall test results were comparable, despite some discrepancies across individual test items.

But much remains uncertain, even among testing experts. A recent analysis commissioned by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, for example, found that test-takers in Ohiohome to 14 percent of all students who took the 2014-15 PARCC examsperformed significantly worse when taking the exams on tablets. Those students poor showing remains unexplained.

Absolutely, this preliminary evidence leads to questions, said Marianne Perie, the director of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas. Were so new into this and we need so much more research.

Steps for State Testing In its June report titled Score Comparability Across Computerized Assessment Delivery Devices, the Council of Chief State School Officers offered four recommendations for states: 1. Identify the comparability concerns being addressed

From different devices to multiple test formats, there are a variety of factors that can make student test scores not directly comparable to each other. In order to minimize potential threats, state officials first need to be clear what theyre dealing with. 2. Determine the desired level of comparability

For most states, this will mean interchangeability, in which test scores are reported without regard to the device a student used. 3. Clearly convey the comparability claim or question

In the contemporary testing environment, states may be wise to embrace some level of flexibility, by claiming, for example, only that students took tests on the devices most likely to produce accurate results, rather than claiming that students would have received the exact same score, no matter which device they used. 4. Focus on the device

When administering tests on different devices, its important to ensure that all devices meet recommended technical specifications, and that students are familiar with the device they will be using. Source: Council of Chief State School Officers

The 2015-16 school year marked the first in which most state-required summative assessments in elementary and middle schools were expected to be given via technology. Over the past decade, states and districts have spent billions of dollars buying digital devices, in large measure to meet state requirements around online test delivery.

To date, however, relatively little is known about how comparable state tests are when delivered on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, or Chromebooks. Each type of device has different screen sizes and ways of manipulating materialtouchscreen vs. mouse, for exampleand inputting informationsay onscreen vs. detached keyboardfactors that could contribute to different experiences and results for students.

In an attempt to summarize research to date, the Council of Chief State School Officers released last month a report titled Score Comparability Across Computerized Assessment Delivery Devices.

Device effects are a real threat to test-score comparability, the report concludes, one of many potential challenges that state and district testing directors must wrestle with as they move away from paper-and-pencil exams.

From a practical standpoint, researchers say, the key to avoiding potential problems is to ensure that students have plenty of prior experience with whatever device they will ultimately use to take state tests.

Struggles in Ohio

In February, Education Week reported that the roughly 5 million students across 11 states who took the 2014-15 PARCC exams via computer tended to score lower than those who took the exams via paper and pencil. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, the creator of exams given to roughly 6 million students in 18 states that year, also conducted an analysis looking for possible mode effects.

In addition to looking for differences in scores between computer- and paper-based test-takers, both consortia also looked for differences in results by the type of computing device that students used.

Smarter Balanced has not yet released the full results of its study. In a statement, the consortium said that its findings indicated that virtually all the [test] items provide the same information about students knowledge and skills, regardless of whether they use a tablet or other device.

A PARCC report titled Spring 2015 Digital Devices Comparability Research Study, meanwhile, reached the same general conclusion: Overall, PARCC testing is comparable on tablets and computers.

But the reports details present a more nuanced picture.

Numerous test questions and tasks on the PARCC Algebra 1 and geometry exams, for example, were flagged as being more difficult for students who took the tests on tablets. On the consortiums Algebra 2 exam, some questions and tasks were flagged as being more difficult for students taking it on a computer.

The analysis of students raw scores also found that in some instances students would have likely scored slightly differently had they taken the exam on a different device. For PARCCs end-of-year Algebra 1, geometry, and Algebra 2 exams, for example, students who used computers would likely have scored slightly lower had they been tested on tablets.

And most dramatically, the researchers found that students in Ohio who took the PARCC end-of-year and performance-based exams on tablets scored an average of 10 points and 14 points lower, respectively, than their peers who took the exams on laptops or desktop computers. The researchers concluded that those results were highly atypical and decided to exclude all Ohio test-takers (representing 14 percent of the studys overall sample) from their analysis.

When Ohios results were included, though, extensive evidence of device effects was observed on nearly every assessment.

PARCC officials were not able to definitively say why tablet test-takers performed so poorly in Ohio. They speculated that the results might have been skewed by one large tablet-using district in which students were unusually low-performing or unfamiliar with how to use the devices.

Perie of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation said more dataincluding the full extent of the apparent device effect in Ohioshould have been presented to help practitioners draw more informed conclusions.

Typically in research, we define our parameters before looking at the results, Perie said. If the decision to drop the anomalous state was made after looking at that data, that could be problematic.

Screen Size, Touchscreen

In its roundup of research to date, meanwhile, the CCSSO noted a number of studies that have found some evidence of device effects. Among the findings: some evidence that students taking writing exams on laptops tend to perform slightly worse than their peers who used desktop computers, and signs that students generally experience more frustration responding to items on tablet interfaces than on laptops or desktops.

The report also examines research on the impact of specific device features. Screen size, for example, was found to be a potential hurdle for students, especially for reading passages. Smaller screens that held less information and required students to do more scrolling led to lower scores, according to a 2003 study.

Touchscreens and on-screen keyboards, both features of many tablet devices, also appear to put students at a disadvantage on some test items. Technology-enhanced performance tasks that require precise inputs can be challenging on touchscreen devices, and students tend to write lessin response to essay prompts, for examplewhen using an onscreen keyboard.

Overall, said Perie, she would not go so far as to advise states and districts to avoid using tablets for online testing, but there are absolutely some questions about how students perform on tablets.

The CCSSO, meanwhile, offered an extended set of recommendations for states.

Ultimately, the group said, states and districts will want to be able to use test scores interchangeably, regardless of the device on which the exams are taken.

To be able to do so with confidence, theyre going to have to conduct in-depth analyses of their results in the coming years, said Scott Norton, the groups strategic-initiative director for standards, assessment, and accountability. Device comparability, he said, is definitely something that states should be paying attention to.
To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.
SDDOT to host open house, gather public input for traffic study near Ellsworth

The South Dakota Department of Transportation, in cooperation with the City of Box Elder, the Rapid City Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Federal Highway Administration, will host a public open house from 6 to 7:30 p.m. inside the main atrium at Black Hills State University, Rapid City, SD, July 26.



Open to all members of the public, including those who live or work at Ellsworth AFB, the meeting is being held to help the SDDOT gather information for a study being conducted regarding future configuration for mainline Interstate 90 (I-90) and the Exit 63 interchange.



Public agency and consultant staff will be available with displays to discuss issues, answer questions and take ideas and opinions. A short presentation will be given at approximately 6:15 p.m.



Individuals with disabilities who will require a reasonable accommodation in order to participate should submit a request to the SDDOTs ADA coordinator at (605) 773-3540 or 1 (800) 877-1113. SDDOT officials request the accommodations no later than two business days prior to the meeting in order to ensure they are available.



Those who cannot make the meeting are invited to visit the webpage: http://www.i90corridor61to67.com.



For further information, please contact Steve Gramm at (605) 773-6641 or by email at steve.gramm@state.sd.us


Kelly, Pastore debate inflation, energy policy in congressional race

Kelly and Pastore went head-to-head in a debate Tuesday that was organized by WQLN and Erie News Now, which first aired the taped debate Thursday.
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
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Big bridge grant for Austin Free Access Austin Borough has qualified for a state grant to cover construction of a new bridge near the towns northern gateway. A $518,400 allotment from the Multimodal Transportation Fund will allow...

Deeds filed in Cameron County Free Access Following are real estate transactions filed with the Cameron County Recorder of Deeds: Blair A. Lundberg to Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services, Emporium, $185,000; David Jeffrey Smith to Elk Mountain...

These are the best of times for deer hunters Free Access There has rarely been a better time to be a deer hunter in Pennsylvanias northcentral region. Not only has the whitetail population been steadily rebounding, but the deer are healthier...

DuBois family leaves millions for volunteer orgs Free Access Christmas came early to seven community organizations whose work was important to the late multimillionaire Arthur F. DuBois (shown in the inset) of Coudersport. Some $3.1 million in proceeds from...
The reign of the Samsung Galaxy S7 as the king of Android phones is coming to an end, as the South Korean tech giant has confirmed that its latest flagship phablet, the Galaxy Note 7, will be officially released on Aug. 2. In fact, pre-orders for the upcoming smartphone have already started, but there's one very big catch. Pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 7 are only available in Dubai.

While it has not been revealed why Samsung opted to open pre-orders for the device in the Middle Eastern country before any other region, Galaxy Note fans in the United States need not worry. According to recent rumors, T-Mobile will start taking pre-orders for the Note 7 starting next week. Other speculations suggest that pre-orders for the Note 7 would be opened both through carriers and online retailers.

The Galaxy Note 7 is looking to be one beast of a device, with rumored stating that it would carry the Exynos 8893 processor or a Snapdragon 821 coupled with a very impressive 6GB of RAM. The device is also rumored to have a dual-curved 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display, as well as IP68 dust and water resistance. In addition to a fingerprint scanner, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 also comes equipped with an iris scanner, which has been lauded as one of the device's most interesting features.

Samsung's Note line has lately fallen under the shadow of the tech giant's Galaxy S devices. Over the years, Samsung has always promoted the Note as a device for power users, with specs that go beyond that of its S line. However, last year's Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ were completely on par with the Note 5, leaving a lot of fans somewhat disappointed.

This year, it seems like Samsung is going back to the roots of its Note line of devices. If rumors do prove true, the Galaxy Note 7 would once more be the phablet to beat, with extremely impressive specs and performance that could rarely be challenged.
Since 201920, the union government provides a weighted tax deduction of 200% for any capital and revenue expenditure incurred on in-house research and development (R&D) by a company. In that year India joined a growing number of countries in offering what is referred to as super deductions1 for encouraging additional investments in R&D by firms. In fact Mani (2014) had shown that India had the distinction of having the most generous tax regime for R&D investments.

This was not to last long as the Union Budget for 201617 reduced the tax incentives for performing R&D in business enterprises from the current 200% to 150% in the period 201718 onwards including 201920. From 202021, the tax incentive will be further reduced to just 100% of R&D. Simultaneously, the finance minister has also announced a patent box type of incentive for the first time wherein income received in the form of royalties and technology licence fees received by Indian companies are taxed at a reduced rate of 10% from the fiscal year 201617 onwards. The introduction of patent box which encourages output of R&D while the reduction of R&D tax incentives reduces the incentives for input to innovation. While an advance announcement of an R&D tax policy is creditworthy as it makes the policy a stable one, is the government justified in becoming less generous towards R&D investments by firms in that process? The only negative reaction to this reduction, hitherto, has come from the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, which together account for over a quarter of the total business enterprise R&D expenditure in the country.2 The proposed streamlined reduction came as a rude shock because as part of its pre-budget lobbying the industry had been clamouring for an even more generous incentive: an increase in weighted tax deduction on R&D from 200% to 250% and expansion of the scope of the benefit to include R&D expenses incurred outside the facility like bioequivalence studies, clinical studies, patent filings and product registrations. So for the industry it was a double blow. The cliche evidence-based policymaking has been doing the rounds in government circles recently, but is this policy of a graduated reduction based on any empirical analysis?
Younited Italia, Nicola Manzari e il nuovo Coo, Luca Faccini e Head of Growth e Domenico Petraroli e General Counsel
WASHINGTON -- Is empathy the result of gut intuition or careful reasoning? Research published by the American Psychological Association suggests that, contrary to popular belief, the latter may be more the case.

"Cultivating successful personal and professional relationships requires the ability to accurately infer the feelings of others - that is, to be empathically accurate. Some are better at this than others, a difference that may be explained in part by mode of thought," said Jennifer Lerner, PhD, of Harvard University, a co-author of the study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Until now, however, little was known about which mode of thought, intuitive versus systematic, offers better accuracy in perceiving another's feelings."

Individuals process information and make decisions in different ways, according to Lerner. Some choose to follow their instincts and go with what feels right to them (i.e., intuitive) while others plan carefully and analyze the information available to them before deciding (i.e., systematic).

Lerner and her co-author, Christine Ma-Kellams, PhD, of the University of La Verne, conducted four studies, involving over 900 participants, to examine the relationship between the two modes of thought and empathetic accuracy. The first determined that most people believe that intuition is a better guide than systematic thinking to accurately infer another's thoughts and feelings. The other three studies found that the opposite is true.

"Importantly, three out of the four studies presented here relied on actual professionals and managers. This sample represents a highly relevant group for which to test empathic accuracy, given the importance of empathic accuracy for a host of workplace outcomes, including negotiations, worker satisfaction and workplace performance," said Ma-Kellams.

These findings are important because they show that commonly held assumptions about what makes someone a good emotional mind reader may be wrong, said Lerner. "The many settings in which the value of intuition is extolled -- for example a job interview -- may need to be reassessed with a more nuanced perspective."

###

Article: "Trust Your Gut or Think Carefully? Examining Whether an Intuitive, Versus a Systematic, Mode of Thought Produces Greater Accuracy," by Christine Ma-Kellams, PhD, University of La Verne, and Jennifer Lerner, PhD, Harvard University. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published online July 21, 2016.

Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspi0000063.pdf.

Contact: Jennifer Lerner at Jennifer_Lerner@harvard.edu by phone at (617) 495-9962 or Christine Ma-Kellams at cma-kellams@laverne.edu.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 117,500 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

http://www.apa.org
(Toronto - July 21, 2016) Since the discovery of their true nature 140 years ago, lichens have been the poster children for symbiosis. In the textbook definition of a lichen, the filaments of a single fungus provide protection for photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria, which in turn provide food for the fungus.

But 140 years after the term "symbiosis" was coined to describe lichen, it turns out there's a third party involved in the relationship - a yeast that may help provide the structure found in large "leafy" and "branching" lichens.

"These yeast are sort of hidden just below the surface," says John McCutcheon, a fellow of the Integrated Microbial Biodiversity program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and a genome biologist at the University of Montana. "People had probably seen these cells before and thought they were seeing something else. But the molecular techniques we used happened to be especially good for spotting the signal of a separate organism, and after years of looking at the data it finally occurred to us what we were seeing."

McCutcheon and colleagues found a variety of yeast called a Basidiomycete living in the cortex - the tough outer layer - of all of the lichens they sampled from a number of locations on six different continents.

Lichens come in two basic flavors. One forms a thin, film-like layer on rocks and trees. The other kind is composed of "macrolichens" that grow big leafy, branching or vine-like structures. It's the latter that seem to harbor the yeast.

The discovery started when Toby Spribille, a postdoctoral fellow in McCutcheon's lab, was studying two lichen species collected from the mountains around the Missoula, Montana campus - Bryoria fremontii and B. tortuosa. The two species are distinguished by the presence of vulpinic acid in B. tortuosa, which also gives it a yellow colour. However, genetic tests showed that the known fungus and alga in both lichen species were identical.

But Spribille and McCutcheon found the genetic signature of a third species - a basidiomycete yeast, present in both of the lichen species but more abundant in the yellow version. They and their colleagues went on to test 56 different lichens from around the world, and found each had its own distinct variety of basidiomycete yeast.

McCutcheon says it seems possible that the newly discovered yeast is necessary in part to create the large structures found in macrolichens. They tend to be embedded in crystals inside the lichen, and could have a role in forming them. This might solve the mystery of why macrolichens are so hard to grow in the lab when you start with only a fungus and an alga - they could be missing a vital third member.

"This doesn't prove that they're necessary to create the structure of the macrolichens, or that they do anything else for that matter. But its early days. It took a lot of work just to discover that they were there. We're interested if the yeast is making these important compounds, or possibly enabling the other fungus to make them. We don't know, but it's the obvious next question," McCutcheon says.

The paper "Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens" will be published in Science on July 22.

###

About CIFAR

CIFAR creates knowledge that is transforming our world. Established in 1982, the Institute brings together interdisciplinary groups of extraordinary researchers from around the globe to address questions and challenges of importance to the world. Our networks help support the growth of research leaders and are catalysts for change in business, government and society. CIFAR is generously supported by the governments of Canada, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, Canadian and international partners, as well as individuals, foundations and corporations.
Scientists at Hokkaido University have revealed temperature-dependent energy-state conversion of molecular hydrogen on ice surfaces, suggesting the need for a reconsideration of molecular evolution theory.

Molecular hydrogen, the most abundant element in space, is created when two hydrogen atoms bond on minute floating ice particles. It has two energy states: ortho and para, depending on the direction of proton spins. Ortho-hydrogen converts to para-hydrogen on extremely low temperature ice particles, though its mechanism remained unclear.

When molecular hydrogen is released from tiny ice particles in space, the particular state of its energy plays a key role in molecular evolution -- the process of generating a wide range of molecules over a long period of time in space.

In the study, the researchers developed a special system that could detect the ortho/para ratio of molecular hydrogen on artificial ice particles. The study discovered that the ratio of the ortho-to-para conversion rate (as time passed) was dramatically different in the relatively small temperature range of between -264C and -257C, thus, in a world first, unraveling the conversion mechanism. Ortho-hydrogen converts to para-hydrogen by releasing energy to the ice, in a temperature dependent manner.

Until now, the energy conversion rate was believed to be identical regardless of the temperature of ice particles -- a theory that has been scotched by the new research. The finding will likely prompt scientists to rebuild theories of molecular evolution, opening new horizons in studies of molecular formation and molecular evolution.

###
NDIANAPOLIS -- Concerns that law enforcement fusion centers are violating individuals' privacy rights as they gather intelligence on terrorism, criminals and other threats to public safety are the exception and certainly not the rule, according to a study published in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.

The paper, "Law Enforcement Fusion Centers: Cultivating an Information Sharing Environment while Safeguarding Privacy," authored by Jeremy Carter, an assistant professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, addresses the privacy-rights issue, among others.

The national network of fusion centers in the U.S., currently numbering 78, was created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In the wake of the attacks, the need for greater information-sharing and increased intelligence capabilities across various law enforcement levels and locales became widely apparent.

The idea was to try to have the necessary pieces of information funneled to a fusion center so analysts could stay abreast of potential threats and then relay that information back to law enforcement to mitigate the threat, Carter said.

The fusion centers were designed to enhance information-sharing among law enforcement agencies, public agencies and private organizations by acting as hubs for information and intelligence on terrorist, criminal and other public safety threats.

Given the large quantities of information being collected, coupled with an emphasis on terrorism and multijurisdictional partnerships, concerns about privacy and civil rights have surfaced to question the legitimacy of fusion center operations, Carter said.

Some people are concerned that fusion centers are "Big Brother watching us" and that information is being gathered about people regardless of whether they've done anything wrong, he said.

Another concern stems from non-law enforcement organizations that participate in fusion centers, including private businesses, Carter said: "That raises questions about what those organizations can do with an individual's information versus what law enforcement can do."

"There are concerns about who has access to what, and what they are using it for," he said.

Based on a survey of fusion center personnel and three in-depth case studies, however, the study found that fusion centers are taking steps to safeguard the privacy rights of individuals.

To begin with, according to Carter, fusion centers are not gathering reams of data about people and holding onto it.

"Fusion centers are following the federal regulatory code, 28 CFR Part 23, that is the legal standard for collecting information," he said. "That code says you have to establish a criminal predicate, basically probable cause, to keep information on identifiable individuals."

Further, the centers have instituted a series of checks and balances to safeguard the privacy of individuals and have review boards or advisory councils watching them to ensure they are adhering to legal guidelines. "This is not a case of police policing themselves," Carter said.

The oversight boards also assist fusion centers to develop policies and best practices to safeguard individuals' privacy rights when fusion centers engage non-law enforcement agencies, Carter said.

The paper is Carter's latest study focusing on the role and operation of fusion centers.

###
A highly sensitive chemical sensor based on Raman spectroscopy and using nitrogen-doped graphene as a substrate was developed by an international team of researchers working at Penn State. In this case, doping refers to introducing nitrogen atoms into the carbon structure of graphene. This technique can detect trace amounts of molecules in a solution at very low concentrations, some 10,000 times more diluted than can be seen by the naked eye.

Raman spectroscopy is a widely adopted identification technique used in chemistry, materials science and the pharmaceutical industry to detect the unique internal vibrations of various molecules. When a laser light irradiates crystals or molecules, it scatters and shifts colors. That scattered light can be detected in the form of a Raman spectrum, which serves almost as a fingerprint for every Raman-active irradiated system.

"Basically, different colors in the visible spectrum will be associated to different energies," said Mauricio Terrones, professor of physics, chemistry and materials science at Penn State, who led the research. "Imagine each molecule has a particular light color emission, sometimes yellow, sometimes green. That color is associated with a discrete energy."

The team chose three types of fluorescent dye molecules for their experiments. Fluorescent dyes, which are frequently used as markers in biological experiments, are particularly hard to detect in Raman spectroscopy because the fluorescence tends to wash out the signal. However, when the dye is added to the graphene or N-doped graphene substrate, the photoluminescence -- fluorescence -- is quenched.

On its own, the Raman signal is so weak that many methods have been used to enhance the signal. A recently developed enhancement technique uses pristine graphene as a substrate, which can enhance the Raman signal by several orders of magnitude. In a paper published online today (July 22) in the journal Science Advances, Terrones and colleagues revealed that adding nitrogen atoms to the pristine graphene further enhances sensitivity and, importantly, they gave a theoretical explanation for how graphene and N-doped graphene cause the enhancement.

"By controlling nitrogen doping we can shift the energy gap of the graphene, and the shift creates a resonance effect that significantly enhances the molecule's vibrational Raman modes," said lead author Simin Feng, a graduate student in Terrones' group.

"This is foundational research," said Ana Laura Elias, a coauthor and research associate in Terrones' lab. "It is hard to quantify the enhancement because it will be different for every material and color of light. But in some cases, we are going from zero to something we can detect for the first time. You can see a lot of features and study a lot of physics then. To me the most important aspect of this work is our understanding of the phenomenon. That will lead to improvements in the technique."

Terrones added, "We carried out extensive theoretical and experimental work. We came up with an explanation of why nitrogen-doped graphene works much better than regular graphene. I think it's a breakthrough, because in our paper we explain the mechanism of detecting certain molecules."

Because of graphene's chemical inertness and biocompatibility, the team expects that the new technique will be effective in detecting trace amounts of organic molecules. Elias is excited about the prospect of combining the technique with available portable Raman spectrometers that can be taken to remote places to detect, for instance, dangerous viruses. The fluorescent dyes they studied will make it fast and easy to see the presence of compounds inside biological cells. Because the technique is simple -- just dip the graphene substrate into a solution for a short amount of time -- it should be feasible to create an entire library of the Raman spectrum of specific molecules, Terrones said.

Researchers from Brazil, China and Japan contributed to this work while visiting the Terrones lab at Penn State. The paper is titled "Ultrasensitive Molecular Sensor Using N-doped Graphene through Enhanced Raman Scattering."

###

Other coauthors include Maria Cristina dos Santos, Brazil; Bruno R. Carvalho, Brazil; Ruitao Lv, China; Qing Li, China; Kazunori Fujisawa, Yu Lei, Nestor Perea-Lopez, all from Penn State; Morinobu Endo, Japan; Minghu Pan, China; and Marcos A. Pimenta, Brazil. Funding was provided by MURI grants from the U.S. Army Research Office and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Agencies within their home countries provided support for the visiting faculty and students.
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM) and the Japan Statistical Society (JSS) have inaugurated the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award under their joint sponsorship. The lecture will be presented during the Japanese Joint Statistical Meeting, a combined meeting of the organizations involved in the statistical sciences, and will feature a biennial lecturer recognized for his or her research accomplishments in this field. A memorial to the legacy of Dr. Hirotugu Akaike, we hope that this lecture will be a valuable stimulus to the minds of younger colleagues and contribute to the development of the statistical sciences.

The first lecture will be held as the planning session of the JSS for the 2016 Japanese Joint Statistical Meeting, which will be held at Kanazawa University from Sunday, September 4 to Wednesday, September 7.

As the awardee, ISM and JSS are proud to announce to have retained Prof. C.F. Jeff Wu of Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Overview of the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award

The Akaike Memorial Lecture Award has been planned since 2014 under the joint sponsorship of ISM and JSS. We have named this lecture award after Dr. Hirotugu Akaike, who left a wide-reaching and influential legacy of research in the statistical sciences, and intend for these events to be both opportunities for exchange among statistical researchers from inside and outside Japan and to provide inspiration to young and talented researchers, contributing to further advances in this field.

Every two years, one lecturer is selected under the standards of the Akaike Memorial Lecture Award Nominating Committee from among those individuals who have, like Dr. Akaike, stood out as being ahead of their time, exercising an international influence over a wide range of fields in the statistical sciences (including mathematical sciences such as control and optimization, and mathematical engineering) and applied fields. The awardee receives an honorarium (100,000 yen), an award plaque, and travel expenses.

To promote the education of students and young researchers, the Akaike Memorial Lecture features a selected board of representatives who will engage in discussions after the lecture. The lecture and follow-up discussion will be published as an invited paper in the Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics (AISM) or the Journal of the Japan Statistical Society (JJSS).

First Awardee: Prof. Chien-Fu Jeff Wu

Experience

1949 Born in Taiwan

1971 B.Sc. (Mathematics) National Taiwan University

1976 Ph.D. (Statistics) University of California, Berkeley, USA

1976-1977 Lecturer, Department of Statistics University of California, Berkeley, USA

1977-1980 Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

1980-1983 Associate Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison

1983-1988 Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin, Madison

1988-1993 Professor and GM/NSERC Chair in Quality and Productivity, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Canada

1993-2003 Professor and Chair (1995-1998), Department of Statistics and Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

1997-2003 H. C. Carver Professor of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

2003- Professor and Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

Research Accomplishments

Prof. C.F. Jeff Wu has been a vigorous pioneer in the theory of experimental design, EM algorithms and resampling, especially bootstrapping. His research has addressed a broad spectrum of topics in statistics; let us describe some of his particularly notable accomplishments below.

He proposed a general optimal design algorithm using the fact that approximate optimal design problems become constrained convex problems and proved that they converge asymptotically to the optimal design. He examined the convergence of EM algorithms and obtained results under conditions that are applicable to most practical problems. He also made key contributions to the justification of the bootstrapping and jackknife methods from the viewpoint of mathematical statistics.

As experimental design methods were quickening the development of new products and technologies in Japanese industry in the early 1990s, Prof. Wu used advances in statistical methods to propose fundamental revisions to experimental design, based on the agricultural methods of R. A. Fisher and the robust parameter design method of Genichi Taguchi. He developed a new method called "conditional main effect analysis" for distinguishing among the effects of configuration, sparsity, the principle of transmission, and aliasing in factorial experiments, thereby contributing greatly to the development of the technometrics field.

Recently, Prof. Wu has devoted attention to virtual experiments on computers, in search of principles beyond those identified by Fisher for problems examined with numerical experiments.

Reasons for Award

Prof. Wu has conducted vigorous and pioneering work on the theory of experimental design, EM algorithms and resampling. His support of industry has also been highly valued and he has received many awards in statistical quality control. He has long recognized the importance of data science; on entering his post as H. C. Carver Professor at Michigan University in 1997, he gave a speech titled "Statistics = Data Science?" in which he emphasized the role of analysis of large volumes of data and cooperation with people in fields outside of statistics. More recently, he has proposed new methods for experimental design, adapted to the procedures of experiments performed on computers (simulations). Prof. Wu has maintained an exemplary balance among theory, procedure and applications in his research. Since he first came to Japan in 1987 together with Prof. G. E. P. Box to observe quality control in industries, he has visited this country many times and continued exchanges with Japanese statisticians and the industrial sector.

Prof. Wu has also visited ISM on several occasions to lecture and engage in discussions and debates with our young researchers. On the strength of Prof. Wu's record of research achievements as a statistician and his strong links with ISM and JSS, the nominating committee was proud to recommend Prof. Wu as an entirely appropriate awardee to deliver the first Akaike Memorial Lecture.

###

Akaike Memorial Lecture 2016

Speaker: Prof. C.F. Jeff Wu

(Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering)

Title: A fresh look at effect aliasing and interactions: some new wine in old bottle

Date and Time: September 5, 2016, 15:30-17:30

Place: Kakuma Campus, Kanazawa University

http://www.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/e/campuses/

Japanese
LA JOLLA, CA - July 21, 2016- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Scripps Clinic have received a grant of nearly $2.4 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support safety and quality tests of a potential stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease.

The new two-year project will be led by Jeanne Loring, professor of developmental neurobiology at TSRI. Loring will be partnering with Melissa Houser, M.D., neurologist and medical director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center at Scripps Clinic.

"The goal is to restore the quality of life for Parkinson's patients," said Loring. "The methods we're using will raise the bar for quality considerably -- for all kinds of cell therapy."

"What sets our study apart from many others is that it's patient-specific," said Dr. Houser. "Our hope is that this grant will help to begin a new era of long-term treatment for Parkinson's disease."

Parkinson's disease strikes when specialized neurons in the brain begin dying. These neurons produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that maintains normal nerve-firing patterns. Without dopamine, patients suffer from tremors, a lack of balance and even speech difficulties.

For the study, the Loring lab will investigate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are derived from adult subjects and can differentiate into any kind of cell in the body. In this case, iPSCs derived from cells donated by 10 Scripps Clinic Parkinson's patients were developed into dopamine-producing neurons--the same kind that die during Parkinson's.

The new grant will allow the researchers to advance these cells through U.S. Food and Drug Administration preclinical testing requirements, with the hope of moving closer to clinical trials.

Loring's work focuses in part on improving the quality and safety of stem cell therapies. She and her colleagues recently published the first comprehensive analysis of genomic sequence of iPSCs, and her lab's advances include the development of the PluriTest quality control assay for pluripotency (the ability of stem cells to differentiate), which was recently licensed to The Coriell Institute for Medical Research.

###

The grant number is DISC2-09073.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists -- including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academy of Science, Engineering or Medicine -- work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. For more information, see http://www.scripps.edu.

About Scripps Health

Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif. Scripps Health treats more than 600,000 patients annually through the dedication of 3,000 affiliated physicians and more than 15,000 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses, hospice and home health care services, 28 outpatient centers and clinics, and hundreds of physician offices throughout the region.

Recognized as a leader in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, Scripps Health is also at the forefront of clinical research, genomic medicine and wireless health care. With three highly respected graduate medical education programs, Scripps Health is a longstanding member of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Scripps Health has been ranked four times as one of the nation's best health care systems by Truven Health Analytics. Its hospitals are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's best and Scripps Health is regularly recognized by Fortune, Working Mother magazine and AARP as one of the best places in the nation to work. More information can be found at http://www.scripps.org.
For materials with complex internal structures, researchers still do not precisely understand which substances or which mechanisms are responsible for controlling a desired material property. Experience gathered over many years can, of course, help them deduce how specific additives or processing steps may affect a material. 'In many cases, however, significant improvements often seem to arise by chance. With our analytical methods we are now able to visualize in three dimensions all of the changes in the internal structure of materials and to analyse them quantitatively,' explains Frank Mucklich, Professor of Functional Materials at Saarland University. This enables researchers to gain a better understanding of processes occurring during the production of a material, such as what happens inside the material when it undergoes deformation at a very specific temperature. The approach also helps to improve predictions as to how a specific property or combination of properties of a material might be obtained.

This is nicely illustrated by an example from the automotive industry. Lightweight engine blocks made from aluminium can be made significantly more rigid, by creating a specially formed microscopic network of silicon atoms within the aluminium. However, the resulting material has the disadvantage that it is very brittle, meaning that it breaks easily. Using the techniques of nanotomography, which they helped to develop, and atomic tomography, Mucklich and his team were able to show that embedding only a very few guest atoms (about one in ten thousand) into the crystal lattice of the host metal, produces a metal that still has the desired increased rigidity, but no longer exhibits the unwanted brittleness. 'By incorporating such a small number of foreign atoms, we can effectively stop the growth of the silicon network. The silicon network is therefore reduced to isolated regions that can move relative to one another when the aluminium material is deformed, making the material more ductile. Materials of this type play a crucial role for the high-performance engines with high compression ratios used in premium-class vehicles,' explains Mucklich.

Nanotomography produces images similar to those generated by the computed tomography (CT) technique used in medical examinations. 'However, in nanotomography, the body under examination is not illuminated slice by slice, but undergoes nanoscale sectioning using a highly precise focused ion beam, and the resulting nano-slices are then scanned using an electron beam. The images recorded are then assembled in a computer to create a precise spatial representation of the material,' explains the material scientist. In the Atom-Probe Tomography Lab, which was also set up by Prof. Mucklich in his department, the underlying methodology is slightly different. In this case, an extremely powerful electric field is used to eject individual atoms from a sample, which are then analysed and a computer-generated three-dimensional representation of the material is created.

'The extremely high resolution that that we can achieve with tomography and the different phase-contrast techniques that we can use enable us to determine the chemical identity of the atoms in the material, and to visualize the crystal lattice structures in the material and the nanostructures that have been formed from them,' explains Prof. Mucklich, who is also Director of the Steinbeis Materials Engineering Center Saarland (MECS) in Saarbrucken. If a material becomes brittle and fractures when subjected to high loads, it is often not enough just to examine the interior of the material at the micrometre scale. 'Some of the properties of a material can only be explained when you zoom in by a factor of 1000, and examine the material's structure at the nanoscale,' says Mucklich. When it came to analysing the material for the aluminium engine blocks even that wasn't enough and the research team needed to increase magnification by a further factor of 1000 to the atomic level. 'It's only by linking the different 2D and 3D imaging techniques across all size scales that we can begin to really understand the huge variety of material properties and how they relate to one another. Computer modelling is allowing us to optimize these properties and so develop new materials with customized combinations of properties,' says Mucklich.

Background to the Henry Clifton Sorby Award

The major US professional organization for materials science -- the American Society for Materials (ASM International) has chosen to recognize Prof. Mucklich for his many years of ground-breaking research work. ASM International is therefore presenting Prof. Mucklich with this year's Henry Clifton Sorby Award in recognition of his lifetime achievement in the field. The Sorby Award has been presented annually since 1976 and is named after the legendary British scientist who pioneered the use of microscopy in materials research. Prof. Mucklich will receive the prestigious award on 25 July 2016 at the M&M (Microscopy & Microanalysis) 2016 Conference, which is being held in Columbus, Ohio. He is only the fifth German materials scientist to receive the US award. Prof. Mucklich will present the traditional Sorby Lecture, entitled 'From Correlative Microscopy to 3D Understanding of Material Microstructures'.

Background to Professor Frank Mucklich

Frank Mucklich studied physical metallurgy at the Freiberg Mining Academy and has headed the Department of Functional Materials at Saarland University since 1995. Since 2009, he has also held the position of Director of the Material Engineering Center Saarland (MECS) of the Steinbeis Foundation and is Chairman of the European School for Materials in Saarbrucken (EUSMAT). He is also Editor of the journal Practical Metallography -- Preparation, Imaging and Analysis of Microstructures, which is published by Hanser. Frank Mucklich has received numerous awards, including the Georg Masing Prize, the Alfried Krupp Prize, the Georg Mitsche Prize and the Steinbeis Foundation Transfer Award. Mucklich was a member of the Board of the German Society for Materials Science (DGM) and he also heads the largest European conference on advanced materials and processes (Euromat), which is held every two years in Seville, Spain.

###

Further information:

http://www.uni-saarland.de/fuwe

http://www.mec-s.de

http://www.asminternational.org/web/ims/ims-awards

Press photographs can be downloaded at: http://www.uni-saarland.de/pressefotos

Questions can be addressed to:

Prof. Dr. Frank Mucklich

Department of Functional Materials, Saarland University

Steinbeis Research Center - Material Engineering Center Saarland (MECS)

Phone: 49-0-681-302-70500

E-Mail: muecke@matsci.uni-sb.de
A multicenter team of researchers led by Barbara Murphy, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has identified a panel of genes which can help predict whether a transplanted kidney will later develop fibrosis, an injury which can cause the organ to fail. Their results were published in the July 21 edition of Lancet.

Researchers in the Genomics of Chronic Allograft Rejection (GoCAR) study obtained biopsy samples from transplanted kidneys three months and twelve months after transplantation. Using microarray, a method by which the expression levels of a large numbers of genes or proteins can be measured simultaneously, the researchers determined which genes were correlated with biopsy samples which had an increased Chronic Allograft Damage Index (CADI) score at the 12-month biopsy. The CADI score is a measure of the level of fibrosis in the transplanted kidney. The researchers then narrowed the genes down to a predictive gene set that identified patients at risk for decline in renal function and loss of the transplanted kidney beyond one year. The rate of correlation of the identified gene set with damage was greater than the clinico-pathological variables currently used in practice to identify kidney transplant recipients at risk of allograft damage and loss.

"This is the first finding of its kind," said Barbara Murphy, System Chair of Medicine for the Mount Sinai Health System and Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the lead investigator on the study. "By helping us better understand the causes of damage to transplanted kidneys, this study has the potential to change how we monitor and manage all renal transplant patients."

"The study offers the potential to identify renal transplant recipients at risk for a loss of the new organ prior to the development of irreversible damage," said Dr. Murphy. "This would mean that doctors might eventually have the opportunity to change the therapeutic treatment approach in order to prevent fibrosis from progressing at all."

###

Other institutions involved in the study include Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Northwestern University; Massachusetts General Hospital; Brigham and Women's Hospital; University of Michigan; and University of Wisconsin.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient services--from community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.

The System includes approximately 7,000 primary and specialty care physicians; 12 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per investigator. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals in Geriatrics, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, and Gastroenterology, and is in the top 25 in five other specialties in the 2015-2016 "Best Hospitals" issue of U.S. News & World Report. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked in seven out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel is ranked regionally.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Most people don't think of fungal infections as deadly -- they are generally viewed as annoyances -- athlete's foot, for instance.

But for many weakened patients in the hospital, fungal infections can be life threatening. Some experts estimate that tens of thousands of patients die every year from these infections. Recent research has also found that wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have sometimes died after fungus from soil is driven deep into their wounds, causing untreatable infections.

Now, a new study by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) has provided new insights into one of these microbes, the Mucorales fungi, which can cause fatal infections.

The study was published today in the journal Nature Communication. The researchers delineated several key aspects of the fungus that might help researchers develop treatments. Right now, there is no way to treat these fungal infections. For example, all of the mucormycosis-causing fungi tested contained several copies of a gene known to be involved in host invasion.

"I think this work is going to provide a significant resource for future fungal research," said lead co-author Vincent Bruno, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, as well as a research scientist at the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS). "Now we can dig into the data to find new targets for treatment."

The other lead author is Ashraf S. Ibrahim, a scientist at LA BioMed, a nonprofit independent biomedical research institute in Los Angeles. Marcus Chibucos, a research associate at the IGS, also contributed significantly to the study.

There are between 50 and 100 species of the Mucorales fungus. Dr. Bruno and his colleagues compared the genes of 25 of these. The study identified several pathways that are required for mucormycosis to develop in a patient.

Generally the fungus invades the cells of people with weakened immune systems and causes a sometimes-deadly infection known as mucormycosis. This infection can occur

Patients whose immune systems are not working properly are especially at risk. This group includes patients with diabetes, people who have recently undergone transplants or who have suffered wounds. In addition to soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fungal infections also appeared in some patients hurt in the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the tornadoes that occurred in Joplin, Missouri, in 2011.

These infections are considered to be rare, but Dr. Bruno notes that they are probably often overlooked and underreported, and so may be much more common than previously realized.

"There are no vaccines or effective therapies available today to halt the highly fatal mucormycosis infection," said Dr. Ibrahim. "There is an urgent need for additional research to develop strategies to protect patients with weakened immune systems."

The researchers say they have identified a pathway that has the potential to be targeted to treat these infections. It appears that these fungi are less able to invade human cells after the inhibition of a protein called platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PGDFR), which plays a key role in cell growth. Dr. Bruno and Dr. Ibrahim are now beginning research to find out whether this protein can be targeted to treat these fungal infections. They suspect that there may be existing drugs, already approved by the FDA that can effectively inhibit PGDFR; this would make the path to finding treatment for these fungal infections much simpler.

###
Lincoln, Nebraska, July 22, 2016 - No one knows exactly how it happened. It may have entered through a cut or bite wound, the blood of a chimpanzee seeping into an exposed fingertip or forearm or foot.

But in the early 1900s, probably near a West African rainforest, it's thought that a hunter or vendor of bush meat - wild game that can include primates - acquired the first strain of a simian immunodeficiency virus that virologists consider the ancestor of HIV.

A new study led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has supported this hypothesis by reporting the first in vivo evidence that strains of chimpanzee-carried SIVs can infect human cells. They include the SIV ancestor of HIV-1 M - the strain responsible for the global HIV pandemic - and another ancestral strain of HIV found only among residents of Cameroon.

Yet the researchers further discovered that the SIV ancestors of two HIV strains not identified in humans also managed to invade human cells after multiple exposures in the lab.

"The question was whether SIV strains that have not been found in humans have the potential to cause another HIV-like infection," said senior author Qingsheng Li, associate professor of biological sciences and member of the Nebraska Center for Virology. "The answer is that, actually, they do. They get replicated at a very high level. It's surprising."

Li and his colleagues came to the conclusions after inoculating mice that were implanted with human tissues and stem cells, which stimulated the growth of other cells essential to the human immune system. To explore why humans have acquired certain HIV strains while avoiding others, the team injected low doses of the four SIV strains into separate groups of the mice.

The authors found that the inferred SIV forerunners of HIV-1 M and the Cameroon-specific strain required fewer opportunities to infect the mice than did the two SIV strains whose HIV descendants have not been found in humans.

According to Li, this may stem from the fact that the genetic makeup of the latter two strains differs more from HIV-1 M than does the Cameroon strain, which shares more genes with its pandemic cousin.

"Based on our experiments, we clearly see some differences between the strains," said Li, whose team collaborated with the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. "That implies that there might be differences in the likelihood of cross-species transmission when a person is exposed to one strain versus another."The team also found evidence for the long-suspected notion that SIV strains mutate upon entering cells to overcome human-specific barriers to infection. Within 14 weeks, the same viral gene in two different SIV strains - including the ancestor of HIV-1 M - regularly underwent mutations at two key positions on that gene.

Li and lead author Zhe Yuan, a doctoral student in biological sciences, said the recent outbreak of the Zika virus - which remained relatively quiet for decades following its 1947 discovery in a monkey - underscores the value of pre-emptively identifying viruses that can jump from animals to humans.

"The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases has become a constant threat to global health, social stability, safety and economic systems," Li said. "Bill Gates recently said that nuclear war is no longer the (biggest) threat to our safety; emerging infectious diseases are. That's probably true."

The experimental approach employed by the team could help assess the threat posed by additional SIVs and numerous other animal-carried viruses, Yuan said. This could prove especially vital given the dynamic nature of HIV and other zoonotic diseases, he said, many of which have caused new epidemics or even pandemics.

"I think this analysis of the disease is very important for public health," said Yuan, noting that a new group of HIV strains was discovered in 2009. "We want to explore this platform for evaluating new, emerging infectious diseases."

###

The team reported its findings in the Journal of Virology. Li and Yuan authored the study with Guobin Kang, research technologist at the Nebraska Center for Virology; Fangrui Ma, senior bioinformatician at UNL's Center for Biotechnology; postdoctoral researcher Wuxun Lu; doctoral student Wenjin Fan; and Christine Fennessey and Brandon Keele of the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.
A new protein which will help scientists to understand why nerve cells die in people with Alzheimer's disease has been designed in a University of Sussex laboratory.

In people with Alzheimer's, Amyloid-beta (Abeta) proteins stick together to make amyloid fibrils which form clumps between neurons in the brain. It's believed the build-up of these clumps causes brain cells to die, leading to the cognitive decline in patients suffering from the disease.

It is not known why this particular protein's "stickiness" causes cells to die and scientists have been unable to properly test whether the sticky clumps of Abeta proteins have different effects, compared with individual proteins that are not stuck together.

Now University of Sussex scientists have created a new protein which closely resembles the Abeta protein in size and shape, but contains two different amino acids (the building blocks that proteins are made up of). These changes mean that the new protein does not form amyloid fibres or sticky clumps, and, unlike Abeta, is not toxic to nerve cells, according to a study, published today (22 July) in the open access Nature Publishing Group journal, Scientific Reports.

The new protein will be an essential laboratory tool for researchers working to understand the causes and role of Abeta plays in Alzheimer's disease. The scientists who designed it are now working closely with the Sussex Innovation Centre, the University's business-incubation hub, to research commercial opportunities for the protein.

Dr Karen Marshall, who lead on the study said: "Understanding how the brain protein Abeta causes nerve cell death in Alzheimer's patients is key if we are to find a cure for this disease.

"Our study clearly shows that the aggregation of Abeta into bigger species is critical in its ability to kill cells. Stopping the protein aggregating in people with Alzheimer's could slow down the progression symptoms of the disease. We hope to work towards finding a strategy to do this in the lab and reverse the damaging effects of toxic Abeta."

Professor Louise Serpell, a senior author on the study and co-director of the University of Sussex's Dementia Research Group, said: "This is a really exciting new tool that will contribute to research to uncover the causes for Alzheimer's disease and enable tangible progress to be made towards finding targets for therapy."

Peter Lane, Innovation Support Manager at The Sussex Innovation Centre said: "This is an really exciting development. The Centre is thrilled to be working alongside Professor Serpell to make sure the benefits offered by this new laboratory tool are made widely available to the Alzheimer's research community in the very near future."

###

The study 'A critical role for the self-assembly of Amyloid-1-42 in neurodegeneration' has been published in the open access Nature Publishing Group journal, Scientific Reports.

MEDIA RELATIONS

Communications and External Affairs | University of Sussex | Sussex House | Brighton BN1 9RH | United Kingdom

T +44 (0)1273 678888 | press@sussex.ac.uk

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/newsandevents Notes to Editors:

The University of Sussex's School of Life Sciences is one of the largest academic schools at the University of Sussex. With 96 per cent of its research rated as world leading, internationally excellent or internationally recognised (REF 2014), it is among the leading research hubs for the biological sciences in the UK. The School is home to a number of prestigious research centres including the Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC) and the Sussex Drug Discovery Centre, where academics work with industry to translate scientific advances into real-world benefits for patients. Nearly 350 undergraduate and postgraduate students (including 50 PhDs) are admitted each year onto a broad range of degree courses in biological, biomedical and chemical sciences.

Sussex Innovation Centre is based at the University's Falmer campus, it offers flexible, professional office space and a range of in-house support services to assist start-up businesses and university enterprises during the early years of their operation. For more information please visit http://www.sinc.co.uk/centre-locations
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La Casa del Dragon Por que Rhaenys es la unica que no se arrodilla ante Rhaenyra?
In the wake of the 2016 Warsaw Summit conclusions, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is getting ready to step up Allied forward presence on its North-Eastern and South-Eastern flanks, in response to increased Russian activity. The minutiae are still being thrashed out, but preparations will include four rotational multinational battalions in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and a multinational brigade in Romania. These efforts will complement work undertaken by the Alliance since the Wales Summit in 2014 to strengthen the NRF (Nato Response Force) and to build up its high readiness component (Very High Readiness Joint Task Force). The Alliances focus is thus very much on growing NATOs readiness to respond to potential rapid Russian troop deployment.

And yet, despite all the efforts geared towards increasing military readiness, is it clear what these more ready NATO forces will be ready for? Paradoxically, be it on its Eastern or Southern border, the short answer is: not really. In fact, the way NATO looks at the readiness of its forces paints only a partial picture. Across the Alliance, readiness is used chiefly as a technical variable that focuses on what researcher T. Harrison would term flying hours, steaming days, tank miles, and training events  to the exclusion of other facets of what it means to be ready to use force. As a recent study for NATO ACT shows, the definition of readiness across NATO countries measures the inputs that are necessary to maintain the capacity to use force rapidly. Readiness is understood as the ability of a military unit to perform the task that is assigned to it. It includes manpower, size of the unit (e.g. an army battalion) and equipment (e.g. a particular weapon system)  as such it encompasses spare parts, maintenance, supply and logistics for equipment, but also such variables as training, morale, food, as well as attracting, retaining [and] educating [] top quality military personnel for manpower.

Logically, this method yields a technical, quantitative, measurable picture of readiness across NATO countries  low, high, or very high. Force elements at readiness levels (FEAR) are classified. They involve a number of thresholds which are set by NATO, and assess the ability to fulfil a number of tasks and operate in an international environment. In this respect, NATO readiness is very much a stamp that reflects capacity to be certified, although it is up to Allies themselves to conform to these thresholds.

But the capacity to use force requires more than a reliable statistical aggregate of flying hours, steaming days, tank miles and training events. It requires the capacity to operate in multinational coalitions with a sufficient degree of interoperability, the availability of enablers and the ability to project those combat ready assets swiftly to a given theatre. More broadly, the broader look on readiness also supposes that these interoperable, combat-ready assets are adapted to the threats they were deployed to face, from Libya to the Baltics, and are able to have more than a fleeting impact on them when projected there. Finally, it supposes that political leaders, nations and populations are willing to project such force  and more crucially still, that they understand and agree about what they are trying to achieve by doing this.

The criticism levelled at most European militaries tend to focus on operational readiness and willingness to use force. Conversely, the American military since the turn of the century has seldom been criticised for lack of combat readiness or willingness to use force, but rather for lacking a solid sense of what it is attempting to achieve, and is actually achieving. All this suggests that readiness narrowly defined, whilst necessary and important, is not sufficient in the real world: it captures only part of what it is to be ready to use force.

A more detailed look at current risks in the Baltics, Ukraine, Libya or the Mediterranean might encourage one to distinguish four layers of readiness: combat readiness, operational readiness, strategic readiness, and cultural readiness.

The current readiness debate tilts decidedly towards combat readiness of assets, and how to achieve it. Operational levels of readiness  that is, the ability to project combat-ready assets, quickly, to a given theatre, to operate in national frameworks or multinational coalitions  are less easily captured by existing readiness metrics. Also, they do not address the output that such inputs can achieve  so that in operational terms, it is hard to say whether such inputs will lead to appropriate outcomes, such as tactical victory in the case of a Russian encroachment in a Baltic country.

Being prepared and able to deploy and use force to reach a positive effect should be termed strategic readiness. It supposes a shared sense of what ones means might achieve, being aware of what one is attempting to achieve through such means, and also the capacity to use them. In turn, this entails that the political actors who define the objectives are endowed with a world view that is sufficiently clear, that they have the honesty to articulate it and the courage to explain it.

Shoring up strategic readiness requires inflexibly investing in our analytic capacity of understanding the world: doing more robust contrarian work, prospective thinking, scenario building, looking far more closely into potential short-term impacts and long-term effects, and then linking this back to resources and capabilities. This would enable NATO to reach a better understanding of the positive and negative impact militaries can have on threats in given situations, which requires an understanding of the context in which they operate and of how they can effect change within it.

Strategic readiness is underwritten by what might be termed cultural readiness: a state of mind that supposes being willing to project and use force to reach a calculated end. One may have assets that are combat ready but without being prepared to deploy them, being willing to use them, or having a sense of what they might achieve or why to use them. Conversely, one might be willing to use force, but without having assets that are combat ready or deployable. But in effect the outcome will be the same: a failure to grasp the purpose of readiness, understood as the capacity to use force to reach a calculated end.

Although strategic and cultural readiness are less visible in military thinking, they nonetheless have palpable military effects  quite the same way that lack of combat readiness will have a substantive tactical and operational impact. The four aspects of readiness are thus all necessary to employ force, although neither is sufficient in isolation. Yet, there remains an inbuilt leaning within the NATO militaries that focuses on combat readiness. There is comparably less inclination to examine what hard statistics find trickier to capture and quantify. But the present bias towards the comfort that quantifiable units provide should not dispense us from trying to assess what these tools are for, and the added value that they can actually provide.

Warsaw has undeniably beefed up NATO readiness on its Eastern flank. It is now time to try to build a more realistic understanding of readiness, which better straddles the political-military divide and therefore more reliably covers what it means to be ready to use force to reach a calculated, positive impact. One way of achieving a finer sense of military readiness would be to combine the hard and soft indicators and build a methodology that focuses on outputs and tangible effects. Otherwise, readiness metrics will simply constitute what T. Harrison calls a proxy measure for what NATO wants to and can achieve, stifling rather than highlighting some problematic issues that NATO should focus on in the coming months and years.

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.
Assisted suicide isnt the same as palliative care. The latter is about easing symptoms and alleviating pain. The former is about intentionally ending life.

But the culture of death brooks no dissent. Vermont authorities require doctors to counsel terminally ill patients on receiving assisted suicide under a law that requires all end-of-life medical options to be discussed. That is, doctors are to be forced by law to counsel their terminally ill patients about the pros and cons of committing suicide.

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed suit contending violation of the First Amendment and conflicts with aspects of Obamacare that prohibit discrimination against doctors who refuse to participate in life-ending actions. From the complaint:

Vermont medical authorities have recently determined to force conscientious doctors and other clinicians to counsel their patients for physician-assisted suicide. Although Act 39, the State of Vermonts assisted suicide bill, passed with limited protections for conscientious physicians, Act 39 and a separate existing mandate to counsel and refer for all options for palliative care have been construed by State medical licensing authorities, including Defendants, to require all healthcare professionals to counsel for assisted suicide.

Imagine. Not long ago, assisted suicide was against the law in Vermont. It violates the Hippocratic Oath. Now, all doctors are required to discuss the option of being made dead objectively and without judgment.

Forcing doctors to violate their conscience and essentially push suicide as if it were no different from controlling symptoms or other medical treatment  or to refer for that purpose  is to force doctors to commit what they might consider a grievous sin or moral wrong.

Thats tyranny. But we are seeing more and more of such cases these days.

Image: Burke Mountain, Vermont, by the nek (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism.
Who doesnt enjoy watching hummingbirds through the window at their backyard feeder? These amazing birds, zipping to and fro in all directions at stunning velocity, never seem to crash. Intrigued by their flight prowess, Canadian scientists decided to look into how they do it. They learned something new and unique about the tiny birds strategy for collision-free navigation.

To make controlled observations of hummingbird paths, the team from the University of British Columbia built a flight simulator consisting of a long box 5.5 meters long, lined with eight cameras. On the side walls, they could project images of vertical and horizontal lines of various widths, and control their motions. Then they caught 18 wild hummingbirds, kept them separate from one another, and trained them to fly the tunnel toward a feeder. While projecting a wide variety of patterns on the walls, they filmed 3,100 flights by the birds.

The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). New Scientist says:

Hummingbirds have a unique collision avoidance system built into their brains that allows them to perform high-speed aerobatics in safety. The super-agile birds, whose wings beat up to 70 times a second, can hover, fly backwards, and whizz through dense vegetation at more than 50 kilometres per hour. How they manage to avoid potentially fatal crashes has remained a mystery until now. Researchers in Canada conducted a series of experiments which showed that the birds process visual information differently from other animals. [Emphasis added.]

Heres what the team expected. Based on earlier studies with insects, they thought that birds would respond to moving stripes on the side walls. The paper states:

Information about self-motion and obstacles in the environment is encoded by optic flow, the movement of images on the eye. Decades of research have revealed that flying insects control speed, altitude, and trajectory by a simple strategy of maintaining or balancing the translational velocity of images on the eyes, known as pattern velocity. It has been proposed that birds may use a similar algorithm but this hypothesis has not been tested directly.

To their surprise, the scientists found that hummingbirds use a different strategy. They dont seem to be affected by pattern velocity, at least when seeing vertical stripes pass by along the walls (known as nasal-to-temporal pattern velocity). One would think that the speed of moving bars in their peripheral vision (i.e., the optic flow), would make them speed up or slow down as they approached the feeder; this is known as the telegraph pole effect, familiar to drivers who can gauge their speed by the passing of telephone poles. But no matter how they varied the speed of the vertical stripes, it didnt seem to matter to the birds. New Scientist explains:

When the scientists simulated the telegraph poles effect with vertical moving stripes, the hummingbirds did not react. Instead, they appeared to rely on the size of objects to determine distance, steering away from the stripes as they grew larger. When objects grow in size, it can indicate how much time there is until they collide even without knowing the actual size of the object, says Dakin. Perhaps this strategy allows birds to more precisely avoid collisions over the very wide range of flight speeds they use.

Its not that the birds were incapable of responding to the speed of the moving bars. When horizontal bars were projected moving up or down, the birds did respond by varying their altitude, probably using the information to gauge their risk of hitting the ground. But for preventing collision with the feeder, they appeared to rely mainly on the increasing vertical size of the target.

Further tests confirmed their findings. Instead of stripes, they tried projecting moving dots. They tested many combinations of dots, stripes, stripe orientations and stripe motions. The secret became clear: expansion of an object in any part of the field of view was the birds cue to respond. They would slow down or steer away from anything that grew in size vertically.

Collectively, our findings suggest that birds control forward flight by monitoring changes in the vertical axis: specifically, the height of features and vertical pattern velocity. This finding is consistent with other laboratory studies showing that flying birds rapidly stabilize key features in their visual field. In nature, collisions may be avoided by monitoring changes in the apparent size of features, such as trees and branches, as well as changes in the vertical position of those features. Although our experiments focused on manipulating a limited number of cues, we do not suggest that these represent the only visual guidance strategies used by birds.

Now apply this to a confusing, dynamic tangle of branches, leaves, flowers, and objects that hummingbirds must face in their natural environments. The strategy allows them to quickly zero in on the pertinent optic flow information to avoid collisions. Moving at 50 km/hour, hummingbirds must be quick! This programmed strategy avoids TMI (too much information), giving them only what they need at the moment, even though their brains are perfectly capable of gathering and processing all the information in the visual field.

It makes sense that birds, being much larger than insects, would use a different strategy for collision avoidance. It appears that the strategy is common to birds. Previous tests with budgerigars (the pet parakeets) showed similar responses. Now see what a large goshawk has to deal with in its flight through a tangled forest!

The scientists realize that the behaviors must relate somehow to actual nerve impulses:

Neurons that compute expansion have been identified in the nucleus rotundus of the pigeon brain, part of the tectofugal pathway. These cues can inform an animal about the nearness in time of an impending collision, triggering an appropriately timed response without knowledge of the true size or distance of the approaching object. It was recently discovered that the zebra finch nucleus rotundus also contains cells that respond during simulated flight if an approaching feature is located at the point of expansion, suggesting that the tectofugal pathway may also be involved in flight control.

Flight control. Thats design. Understandably, the scientists did not speculate about how flight control systems might have evolved. Spinning a narrative gloss on the findings would have dubious value.

On the contrary, you can certainly appreciate that the knowledge gained by investigation of flight control in hummingbirds might improve the design of drones, now that drone racing is becoming one of the hottest new sports. Look at this:

As you watch the man-made racing drones suffer spectacular crashes in their daring aerial maneuvers, then realize that hummingbirds already had collision avoidance figured out, you cant help but remember Paul Nelsons quip in Flight: The Genius of Birds, If something works, its not happening by accident.

Photo source: University of British Columbia.
I think it unlikely that you will get replies to questions like that on this forum which is for the Republic of Cyprus and not the TRNC.



Pete
Hi.

My wife and I moved to Paphos in March this year. before we moved I phoned the Bank of Cyprus in London and asked, as we are still in the UK can we open an account with you and then use the account when we get to Cyprus. the answer was NO. we are a separate bank. Phone them yourself and see if there are any changes.



We opened an account here in Paphos at the main branch of the BOC. Asked for a current account, were given a deposit account, asked for Visa debit cards, were given debit cards that can only be used in their cash machines, we can't buy anything in stores, we can't buy anything on line. If we wish to withdraw our money from the bank ATM, fine, if we want to withdraw from inside the bank we have to have our passports because they don't have any machines on the counter to enter pin numbers in.



Joint account, either to sign. Went on to Internet banking to set up a direct debit, this service not available, went to bank and my wife had to sign a form that allows me to set up a direct debit on our account. After waiting three days for form process, I can now do this simple task, though if the debit is to a non BOC account there is a charge of 1euro 70 cents each time.



Asked about safety deposit boxes. We wanted somewhere to keep our documents, certificates etc safe. We were told you will need your passports to access your box.



We just tolerate this bank because it's very handy for where we live and there are lots of branches around, so we just use our Halifax credit card to take money from the UK at any ATM free of charge with the Halifax Clarity Credit Card, then we go on line and pay the card back from our UK bank account, also at the Halifax. BOC is handy for keeping our euros safe ( we hope ), and paying our electricity bill ( charge 1 euro ) they are also very good at signing our Life Forms from the pension Center in the UK ( no charge )



Best wishes



Phillip
Not personally, but the problem is endemic here. When you find a rental property through an agency, you are required to pay one months rent in advance and one months rent as a deposit. Landlords have to pay the agent a finders fee of one months rent, so they don't actually get to receive the deposit as the agent will retain it as their fee. It appears, therefore, that some unscrupulous landlords expect the tenant to effectively pay the agents' fee via the deposit and they refuse to pay deposits back to tenants at the end of a tenancy agreement - especially as they are likely (as they see it) to "lose" another deposit/one months rent from new tenants to the agency again.



The exception is when the agent is retained by the landlord to maintain the property on a year to year basis. Do you pay your rent direct to the landlord or through the agent? Who do you contact of you have a problem to be fixed - the agent or the landlord?
LOL you've given information which actually backs up MY argument.



'Infectious diseases' HIV/AIDS/TB/Syphilis/Yellow Fever etc.



You're scaremongering. OP is not going to be reported or deported for an STD other than HIV or certain HEP strains which I already stated should be tested for outside the UAE.



What an assumption to make to say you're in a better position to advise, when you a. don't know what other people do and b. don't know what their personal experiences are. I've seen people in the medical profession here make some right royal cock ups.



When people talk about STD's they usually implying Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, HPV, Thrush - non of those will get you into trouble or are reportable.



To Concerned (OP) I'd PM you my clinic as they're excellent, but you need 5 posts before I can send you a personal message. Don't worry, been here, done that, got the t-shirt.
I agree with Rando. It sounds like everything went fine. I'd be more surprised if you do NOT get it. It seems to me, if there's a problem, you find out the day of...from my limited-ish experience with this. Being, in 2015 I lived in Paris for a year on a long stay visitor visa. And I just recently applied for my student visa as well. Anyway...there was one instance I recall from last time when someone clearly didn't have everything he needed...the consulate clerk was trying to even work with him a little...maybe even seemed to be willing to let one requirement slide, but then the dude also did not have another one. So the clerk was like "yeah...no. We can't give it to you. you're going to have to make another appointment once you have what you need." etc. So I have an inkling, if they ARE going to refuse someone, you'll probably know at the time. Because, even for some people missing a doc or two, they'll let you know you need to get something ASAP and then get back to them later...I've heard tales of people having that happen and even they do end up getting the visa!



So...I definitely think you'll get your passport back with the visa soon. Trust me, the first time I did it in 2014, even though my eyeballs saw the little checkmark on the "granted" part on the app (or did it? I wasn't 99 percent sure ;P) I also didn't feel reassured. I didn't have them flat out tell me "yes!" though all signs seemed to point that way. I kept thinking some other shoe might drop. But it didn't. I got the visa. As for them not telling you...I think that's just covering their butts not to say 'yes' before it's made official. They don't want to say yay or nay until it goes through whatever thing it goes through. But them taking it and getting all they need from you is like an implicit "yes"... unless something drastic happens or changes, I say it'll be a yes.



So just try not to think about it. I know the feeling of not being assured, but, from everything you said....again, I'd be surprised if you did not get it.
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Thursday, July 21, 2016

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I never thought I would have occasion to place the term Ethics Hero anywhere near Ted Cruzs name. Ted understands ethics (unlike Donald Trump), he just discards them at will, when an end he lusts for requires an unethical means. Last night, however, Cruz brushed up against ethics heroism. He took the podium at the Republican National Convention in prime time, and directed principled conservatives and Republicans not to vote for Donald Trump, though not in so many words. It took character, it took courage, and his message was the right one.

The Texas Senator and last Trump challenger standing congratulated Trump for winning the Republican nomination, but never endorsed him. Then he closed by telling convention-goers and TV viewers to vote your conscience in November. The convention throng of Trump supporters erupted in jeers, as Cruz had to know they would, and Trump felt he had to appear on the floor to pull focus from his intransigent foe. Today on Fox News, the Fox Blondes and their harassers were slamming Cruz as a traitor and a fool.

Yeah, that was how the collaborators talked about De Gaulle in France during the occupation, too.

My country, right or wrong has never been an ethical principle. My religion, right or wrong allowed Catholics to enable child rape. My President right or wrong created Watergate. My race, right or wrong, is tearing the nation in two. There is nothing honorable about My party, right or wrong. The Republican Party is betraying its duty to the democracy and the nation by knowingly nominating a Presidential candidate its knows is unqualified and unfit to lead, and a likely danger to the nation and the world. No matter how bad they may think Hillary Clinton is, and she is mighty bad, it cannot excuse this surrender of principle. Indeed, if they believe Hillary will be a disaster, then the Republican Party has an obligation to present a candidate who can defeat her on his or her merits, and not one that 60% of the publicthat is, the segment with functioning ethics alarms and reading comprehension beyond a fifth grade levelhas concluded is unqualified. Nominating Trump is a classic March of Folly move, blindly going forward with a disastrous course of action long after its insanity became undeniable.

The GOP leaders who know better, like Speaker Paul Ryan, and yet allow this cataclysm to proceed are the individuals deserving scorn, not Ted Cruz. Cruz is the scout telling Custer not to go into that valley. He is my late father, three times telling superior officers in World War II that their orders were illegal and deadly, and that he would not carry them out. Ethics Alarms has discussed the dilemma facing the engineers who believed that the Challenger would blow up, and whose warning were ignored. I have come to believe that stating their objections and then allowing the launch to proceed was not enough. Would they have been traitors to their employers if they went forced a postponement by blowing a whistle to the news media and announcing that the Space Shuttle was doomed if it launched in low temperatures? Would they have been traitors if they personally obstructed the launch?

Cruz made it clear last night that he would not be complicit or supportive of the candidacy of Donald Trump as a matter of principle. Exactly. Trump is not Hitler, but the way his candidacy has commanded support and loyalty from citizens who know or should know how bad he will beindeed has already been for the United States is reminiscent of how Hitler captured the government, culture and soul of Germany. A Cruz-like resister to Hitlers rise would have been arrested and shot had he tried what Ted did last night. Thats some consolation, I suppose. Cruz was drowned out at the end, but at least he was alive.

Still, it took great courage to do what Cruz did last night. Ive had a similar experience, but didnt have the guts to make my stand.

When I worked for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, I was once assigned the task of giving a speech before an Amway convention at the Atlanta Omni, to promote the Chambers grass roots right-wing lobbying non-profit, Citizens Choice. The audience consisted of over 15,000 extreme conservatives, and right before I was scheduled, they wildly cheered a speech by the local Diamond, who gave a full-bore John Bircher-style rant, condemning feminism, integration, the teaching of evolution, and President Jimmy Carter, whom, he said, was an agent of the Soviet Union (and he had documents to prove it!).

I sat there, at the age of 28, and wondered what I should do. I considered walking out. I considered taking the mic and announcing that the previous speaker was a fascist, and that someone had to say so. Doing either, I decided, would cost me my job and have no positive impact whatsoever, so I went ahead and delivered my short pitch, and got off the stage. (I also told my boss, current President of the U.S. Chamber Tom Donohue, that I would never do anything like that again, and he apologized for the assignment. He also said that he would not have blamed me if I had refused to follow that speaker. I still wonder about that)

Cruz cant be given full Ethics Hero status. Everything he does is calculated to help Ted Cruz, and he might have in part been motivated by vengeance. After all, Trump branded him Lying Ted, smeared Cruzs wife and accused his father of helping to assassinate Kennedy. Most analysts assume that Cruz was setting himself up for a Presidential run in 2020, after Trumps defeat leaves the Republican Party in smoldering ashes. I dont doubt it. Cruz, as he has before, may have been doing the right thing for unethical reasons.

The Trump staff is also saying Cruz lied to them about the contents of his speech. I can believe that. I can also believe that Trumps people are so inept and gullible that they believed him. Lying isnt ethical, though I could argue that Cruz lying in this case was a utilitarian act: it was more important for someone of stature to take the podium during this mass rejection of valuesand point out the importance of conscience and principle than to tell Trumps brownshirts the truth.

Im not certain of that. I am certain that Ted Cruz showed courage last night and delivered a message that needed to be delivered.
Thursday, July 21, 2016

Six Effective Internet Strategies: Attract the Right Job or Clientele

Automation definitely saves each of us time. However, it is wise to carefully examine the pros and cons for each app you are about to implement. On top of that we want to keep all of our information safe to avoid serious difficulties. In the past 24 hours, two messages were sent my way prompting todays blog.

My Story

Today a colleague sent an update regarding the LinkedIn saga regarding 6.5 million accounts being hacked. Viveka Von Rosen forwarded the news from CNN that the number of accounts affected was actually 117 million. She is the co-author of the new book, LinkedIn Security, Whos Watching You? It should be a well-worthwhile read.

Password Safety

Her message also explained why a family member, upon request, sent his updated password for another account. I kid you not, it was about 22 character spaces long to include letters, numbers and special characters. The likelihood of someone guessing it is minimal. Its a lesson in how to create new passwords. Capture them somewhere safe and change frequently.

Website Automation

The other internet topic is automation. Larger companies provide a Chat feature on their website. Its outstanding when enough employees are available to reply within a reasonable amount of time. But if there is an unusual wait, there should be a way to inform the customer.

Social Media Automation

Another example is that of some automated services applied to Twitter accounts. The messaging needs to be read after the service is put in place to make certain it makes sense. Part two is to double check that thought out of alignment with your own thinking is not automatically posted.

Your Story

Are you routinely checking your accounts to be certain they havent been hacked? And are you changing your passwords from time to time?

Additional strategies to remain up-to-date:

Take classes

Classes of every type are available to us both online and in-person. Make it a habit twice a year to take something you need to learn or you particularly want to learn. It will make a huge difference in your business

Attend events

Once per year, treat yourself to a conference to learn the latest in your industry. Network with like-minded businesspeople and learn from industry experts. Its a huge opportunity to learn from many people at one gathering. And if you are a job seeker  this is the most efficient way to seek out job opportunities, and meet the people involved.

Business issues of every type are what will keep you on a steady path for growth. Previously mentioned, I strongly encourage you to consider the Global Finance & Credit Conference & Expo. It will be live streamed worldwide. Should you decide to attend, use the code ES100 to save $100. I will be speaking on the topic of building a global brand.

Talk to technical people in the know

Im the creative type, and so Im always very appreciative when family members and friends provide the insights I need. If you are technical, get the creative scoop from someone in your network to be certain all systems are in tip top shape.

Sales Tips

Pay attention to the news Visit your accounts frequently Dont let your accounts remain on auto pilot for long periods of time Change passwords Make your passwords complicated Review all communication strategy and systems used Increase knowledge from a variety of resources Get insights from those who think differently Implement the best of what you learn Experience greater success and celebrate!

Following these guidelines will lead you to the Smooth Sale!

For Business Consultation and Conference Speaking

Schedule an Appointment to Learn More: elinor@smoothsale.net

Visit Elinors Author Page

Sponsored By

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The prestigious Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust is featuring in the fictional BBC Radio 4 series, The Archers.

Tom Archers interest in Nuffield and the Scholarship opportunity has caused him to consider applying for a Nuffield Scholarship after visiting an open day at a farm producing ready meals.

Its not long until the deadline date for 2017 applications, so if Tom does decide to apply, he will have to send his application in before 31 July.

Toms past farm business experience, his time managing a pig-unit in Canada and his childhood at Bridge Farm have driven an interest in diversification into producing organic baby foods.

If Tom decides to apply and is successful, he will be assigned a sponsor and will receive a bursary of up to 12,000 to fund his study and travels.

He will then start 18 months of study, including at least 8 weeks of international travel, providing the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and businesses throughout the world.

'Vital part in Oliver's success

2009 Nuffield Scholar, Oliver Surman did just that, he embarked on travels to countries including Japan and New Zealand.

Oliver completed a similar project to that of Tom Archer, focusing on diversification and adding value to farm produce, he applied for the Scholarship to take a step back from the day-to-day running of his family farm and ready meal business.

Oliver believes that his Nuffield experience played a vital part in the success of his family business.

"Id really encourage anyone in agriculture or working in a related industry, to speak to a Scholar or the Nuffield team and find out how a Scholarship can benefit them."

The deadline for applications is approaching, prospective Scholars, aged between 22 and 45 who demonstrate a passion for the industry they work in, need to apply for the annual award before the deadline July 31 2016.
Brexit must not result in a loss of devolved responsibility, the Rural Cabinet Secretary for Wales has said to Farm Minister George Eustice.

Agriculture, environment and marine/fisheries are fully devolved matters for Wales.

Welsh Ministers determine how policies in those areas develop in future, in the best interests of Wales.

The Cabinet Secretary sought assurances over future funding for agriculture in Wales, which currently benefits from more than 200m of EU funds every year.

Rural Cabinet Secretary for Wales Lesley Griffiths

She also reiterated the vital importance of continued access to the single market for Welsh rural businesses and food and drink producers.

Lesley Griffiths also stressed the importance of maintaining a level playing field to ensure the competitiveness of Wales food and drink industry.

She insisted current EU laws relating to food and drink safety must be replicated so the industrys excellent reputation in this area is protected.

Farm Minister George Eustice

'Wales must not lose out financially following Brexit'

Following the meeting the Cabinet Secretary said: "It was a good opportunity to discuss current issues facing the agriculture and environment sectors, with Brexit, of course, being the main topic of discussion.

"The First Minister has already made it clear to the Prime Minister that Wales must not lose out financially following Brexit.

"The Prime Minister assured him that the Welsh Government will be closely involved and engaged in the EU withdrawal negotiation process. Securing future trading relationships will be vital if our agriculture and environment sectors are to thrive in the longer-term.

"I reiterated this to the UK Farming Minister and I will be writing to him again on this in the near future.

"During what has been an extremely productive week, I have met many people from rural Wales including farmers, food and drink producers and representatives of environmental groups.

"I am determined their views and concerns are communicated and taken into consideration during negotiations over the UKs withdrawal from the EU.

An 'outward looking' nation

On access to the European Single Market the Cabinet Secretary said: "Wales is an outward looking nation.

"Our produce is world class and we have confidence we can develop new opportunities around the world.

"We can not ignore the fact though that last year, 90% of all the food and drink Wales exported went to the EU.

"That is why we are clear that it is absolutely vital the United Kingdom negotiates to retain access to the 500 million customers in the Single Market."
Livestock farmers have been warned to be vigilant after an industry warning that batches of imported soya hulls from Argentina may be contaminated with the mycotoxin zearalenone.

The Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) believes some of the affected soya may have been sold in the UK and could be contaminated with up to 4.96ppm of this mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species moulds.

Mycotoxins at high concentrations can have a direct impact on animal health and welfare.

At lower concentrations, mycotoxins can impact on livestock performance such as decreased litter weights and reduced feed conversion rates, all of which have a direct effect on farm profitability.

Mycotoxin management specialist Alltech is urging farmers to be cautious because of the known impact of zearalenone on livestock fertility.

"We would certainly not recommend using any of this contaminated soya in rations for developing or reproducing females, particularly gilts, sows or dairy heifers.

"Even at 10% inclusion of this contaminated material the zearalenone level would be almost 500ppb  around five times the guidance level for gilts and on the limit for dairy youngstock too," warns Jonathan Younger from Alltech.

Alltech has advised farmers that recent purchases of soya hulls from Argentina need to be tested as 'soon as possible'.

And if already feeding it to livestock to introduce an appropriate mycotoxin binder such as Mycosorb A+.

"Increasingly we are seeing multiple mycotoxin contamination of feed materials.

"Whether this is due to varying climate precipitating more aggressive mould growth or indeed changing agronomic practices around the world, we cant be sure.

"But the important message is vigilance and it now certainly makes sense to screen what you are feeding for potential mycotoxin contamination," Mr Younger says.
Many farmers voted leave without fully realising the consequences, John Montagu, 11th Earl of Sandwich said during a House of Lords debate.

The House of Lords yesterday debated the impact of Brexit on farmers, and the governments response to this as it prepares to begin negotiating Britains exit from the EU.

The debate was called by Conservative Baroness Anne McIntosh, a former shadow minister for environment, food and rural affairs and former chair of the EFRA Committee

The Earl of Sandwich was one of the biggest critics of leaving the EU in the debate.

John Montagu, 11th Earl of Sandwich, manages a small agricultural estate and voted to remain in the EU

He said: "Generally, I think there has been considerable dismay among farmers since Brexit simply because of the threat to their farm payments.

"The new Secretary of State will have to persuade the Chancellor that smaller farmers and hill farmers will not be able to carry on unless they are given stronger reassurances of support.

"In 2013, farmers received 2.6 billion under Pillar 1 and 637 million for agri-environment and rural development under green Pillar 2.

"How will the government ensure that British farmers continue to receive these payments?

"There are fears that direct payments will be significantly less under the new Government because of the continuing need for austerity.

"Farmers will have to receive this level of support or the whole fabric of rural society and the countryside will collapsewe heard of the situation in Wales.

The Earl then went on to talk about the fluctuating milk prices, and how it is a 'continual source of grievance' for farmers.

"There is wide disparity between farmers supplying milk to supermarkets at 30p a pint, or close to it, and others sending milk to companies like Arla for processed milk products with a price for ever in the low 20s.

"This is the result of oversupply worldwide and I will not go into it now. The EU has helped with emergency payments, but can we assume that this Government, outside the EU, will do any better?"
Would you pay a little extra for milk if that money goes back to the farmer?

Almost two thirds of consumers said they would pay more for their dairy products if they knew it would go towards helping struggling farmers.

Now milk producers with Arla have launched a new 'Farmer's Milk' charging an extra 25p which will be returned to Arla's 12,700 farmer owners.

The company said earlier this year that it planned to be a 'champion of British dairy' with the UK managing director Tomas Pietrangeli saying their overall objectives were to 'return the best possible price to our farmer owners.'

People willing to pay more

"This product will see more money being paid directly back to Arla members"

And Arla Foods farmer board director Jonathan Ovens said the launch is a great boost to their dairy farmers.

"People want to know more about where their food comes from and who benefits, and are willing to pay more if they know it goes directly to the farmers that produce it.

"As were part of a co-operative, the money we receive goes back to the farmers who supply our milk.

"With farmgate milk prices much lower than we would like, we thank Asda for the continued support of our co-operative principles and also for providing an opportunity for their shoppers to give something back to Arla dairy farmers."

NFU Scotland milk committee chairman Graeme Kilpatrick said initiatives such as this demonstrate that consumers value farmers and believe in a 'sustainable milk price.'

"This product will see more money being paid directly back to Arla members and this is positive given the challenges that farmers have faced over the last two years.

"It is not yet clear whether this product will contain milk produced in Scotland and it is important going forward that retailers continue to source and sell Scottish milk from Scottish farms," he added.

"NFU Scotland will advance our discussions with both retailers and processors to ensure that investment in the Scottish dairy industry continues."

UK milk producers struggling

New figures show milk production in the UK is down 9.2% to 3.9m litres/day from the same period in the previous year.

"Disastrous price reporting month on month; the gap between production costs and farm-gate price continues to widen and families on dairy farms live in fear of this very real threat to their existence," the European Milk Board said.

Romuald Schaber, President of the EMB said: "This constant shortfall in price coverage means that farmers must subsidise their production out of their own pockets.

"To make this possible, they do not pay themselves for the work they put in and take on loans to salvage their milk production and farms for the time being.

"When even this fails, many farms abandon milk production, raising a very urgent question. Can we really treat those producing our food so unfairly and allow production in many regions of Europe to simply disappear?

"While it is obvious that the answer to this question is 'No', the next question about options to address these unfair conditions is also self-evident.

"To bring prices to a fair level, the volume of milk on the market must be reduced."
The organisers of the Scotch Beef Farm of the Year award are urging farmers and others involved in the industry to nominate farms they feel are worthy of receiving the 2016 award.

Now in its fifth year, the Scotch Beef Farm of the Year award, which is organised by AgriScot and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), sets out to find, and reward, a Scottish farm which exemplifies the best in beef cattle production.

This years competition was launched today at a charity Open Day hosted by the Watson family of Darnford, near Banchory - winner of Scotch Beef Farm of the year 2015.

The search is on for the next Scotch Beef Farm of the Year

"Running Darnford is very much a team effort, involving family, neighbours and many others and winning the award was very much a reflection of that teamwork," said Peter Watson speaking at the event attended by over 420 people.

"We were delighted to be nominated and having been through the process I would definitely encourage others to apply and play a part in promoting Scotch Beef," added Mr Watson, who farms Darnford with sons Adam and David and their wives Aynsley and Lynne.

Celebrating Scottish agriculture

Andrew Moir, AgriScot Chairman encouraged other farmers to enter the competition this year. He said: "The AgriScot directors take great pride in our dairy, beef and sheep farm awards.

"We believe the awards are a tremendous opportunity to celebrate all that is good in Scottish agriculture."

Doug Bell, Head of Industry Development with QMS, said the organisation was proud to support the award.

"The award helps to raise the profile of the commitment and passion of the cattle farmers in Scotland who work hard to produce top-quality Scotch Beef PGI.

"It also provides a fantastic platform for our quality assured farm businesses to champion the excellent stock management skills our industry is renowned for."

Those who work as suppliers of services or products to the industry, from vets to feed manufacturers, are encouraged to nominate customers who are doing a great job as well as the many others involved in the production chain such as processors, hauliers and auction markets.
Farmer Ryan Murphy 29, of Tullyreagh Road, Glarryford, Ballymena, was today sentenced at Ballymena Magistrates Court on a number of animal welfare and food hygiene related offences.

He was sentenced to three months imprisonment suspended for two years on each charge, to run concurrently.

He was also disqualified from keeping all animals for five years plus 46 costs.

The offences included:

 one charge of failing to ensure the needs of animals were met to the extent of good practice;

 one charge of causing unnecessary suffering;

 one charge of failure to possess the appropriate ability, skills, knowledge or competence to care for animals;

 one charge of failure to provide appropriate feeding arrangements;

 one charge of failure to provide dry lying areas for animals;

 one charge of failure to dispose of animal carcases;

 one charge of failure to comply with a Food Hygiene Improvement Notice;

 one charge of failure to comply with a Food Hygiene Remedial Action Notice; and

 one charge of failure to ensure that milk was protected against contamination.

The food hygiene offences committed in this case presented a serious risk to public health.

The extremely poor standards of management and hygiene found posed a significant risk for contamination of the milk and ultimately compromised food safety.

This case arose during a routine inspection by the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (DARD) Milk Inspectors on behalf of the Food Standards Agency.
A comprehensive plan is needed to protect Cumbrias fragile agricultural industry, a cross-party delegation has said.

A delegation of NFU representatives laid bare the extent of challenges facing the countys farmers when visiting Westminster.

Cumbria is in the enviable position of having Members of Parliament from all three main political parties looking after constituencies within the county  with the National Farmers Union (NFU) enjoying a good working relationship with all.

NFU Cumbrian Council Delegate Alistair Mackintosh said: "Its vital all MPs recognise the importance of food production to the Cumbrian, rural and national economy.

"Food production delivers jobs and the environment  its crucial."

Sue Hayman, the Labour MP for Workington, helped bring all Cumbrian MPs together to join forces so that they speak with one voice in fighting Cumbrias corner in Parliament.

Sue Hayman, Labour MP for Workington

Her group wished to hear about the specific challenges facing Cumbrias dairy farmers directly from the NFU after they all received a letter from the NFU Cumbria County Chairman David Raine about the impact on the countys economy of the down turn in milk price and the number of farmers leaving the industry.

Dairy was the focus of the discussion, but given the impact Brexit will have on Cumbria, the NFU delegation also broadened the discussion to other matters.

The delegration said that heavy investment in dairy processing in Cumbria is needed. Also, the introduction of legislation for contractual agreements between producers and processors was high up on the list.

Other than that, the group mentioned a need to secure continued free access to the European market, which is 'vital' for lamb exports and the Cumbrian economy.

The delegation want a commitment from the government to fund existing Countryside Stewardship Scheme agreements which run beyond the potential exit date or 2020.

Lastly, they said securing an early agreement on approval of funding for current applications to Countryside Stewardship Schemes both mid-tier and higher tier.

Triggering Article 50

Following the meeting, Sue Hayman MP asked the following question at Business Questions in the House of Commons.

"The EU Referendum Act 2016, which we debated in the last session, doesnt contain any requirements for the Government to implement the result of the referendum, nor to set a time limit by when we should trigger Article 50.

"Ive had a lot of constituents come to see me who are concerned about the implications of this, and Ive had a meeting this week with local farmers who are particularly concerned about the EU funding streams, and are asking for assurance on that.

"Can the Leader of the House clarify if we will have an opportunity to debate these very important matters as soon as possible after our return from the summer recess?"

The Leader of the House replied: "Because of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, it is ultimately for parliament to determine our membership of the European Union.

"But the Government has consistently said and acted on the basis that the referendum outcome would be decisive, and that the Government would honour the result, whatever that result turned out to be, and that is the approach that the Government intends to take. I think the country would expect no less."
Farm leaders warn of 'devastating' new veterinary rule for exports
Tom Vilsack in the running as Clintons choice

By Diego Flammini

Assistant Editor, North American Content

Farms.com

Tom Vilsack, the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, could be Hillary Clintons vice presidential running mate in Novembers election.

Vilsacks loyalty and his influence in rural parts of the country could play a major factor in Clintons decision.

As a running mate, Vilsack could also deliver Iowa, a key swing state, to Clinton, as Vilsack previously served in various roles in local government before being a well-liked [governor] of the state," writes Carolyn Heneghan on FoodDive.com.

Reaching out to voters in rural America would likely be a personal mission for Vilsack, someone close to Clinton told CNN.

Political insiders say Vilsacks demeanor, which makes him stand out from the crowd, also plays into his favor.

Prior to joining President Obama's team in 2007, current press secretary Josh Earnest worked on Vilsack's brief presidential run; Earnest said it's Vilsack's demeanor that separates him from the rest of the pack.



Tom Vilsack

Secretary Vilsack stands out in D.C. not just because of his discipline, his smarts and his competence. His decency is what distinguishes him," he told NBC News.

In addition to his work as a politician, Vilsack also has a personal relationship with the Democratic frontrunner that spans more than 40 years.
Fort Bragg to be known as Fort Liberty. Here's what to know.
A former employee of Southwestern Energy Co. was jailed for 36 months Wednesday after pleading guilty to embezzling nearly $450,000 from her employer and then asking for leniency by faking terminal breast cancer.

Kendra Walker, 28, submitted a fake three-page hospice report to federal judge Nancy Atlas in a plea for leniency.

But the U.S. Attorneys Office in Houston noticed that the report claimed Walker had been diagnosed with stage 5 breast cancer. The National Cancer Institute regards stage 4 as the gravest cancer.

An FBI investigation confirmed that Walker had never been a hospice patient. She also claimed she was treated at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston but Anderson had no patient records for her.

Walker had pleaded guilty to embezzling from her former employer, Southwestern Energy Co., where she worked in the accounts payable department.

Starting in February 2014, Walker changed some vendor records by inserting her own bank accounts. She created phony invoices and the payments went to her accounts.

Judge Atlas said Wednesday that trying to trick the court with the terminal cancer story was inexcusable.

Walker embezzled $452,025.56. The judge also ordered her to pay full restitution to Southwestern Energy Co.

______

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Hell be the keynote speaker at the FCPA Blog NYC Conference 2016.
From 2009 to at least 2013, private individuals were allegedly able to siphon off more than $3.5 billion from the wealth fund of Malaysia and go on a high-end luxury shopping spree in several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland for property, museum-quality art and a private jet.

Gatekeepers such as auction houses, the real estate industry, lawyers and banks played supporting roles (sometimes unwittingly) in the alleged wrongdoing.

The perpetrators used shell companies, where the real names of the ultimate owners were obscured. Ironically, in a plot twist made in Hollywood, they even financed a film, The Wolf of Wall Street, about living high off financial fraud.

To ensure this lurid tale isnt solely remembered for its audacity and scale, we need to take active steps to close the obvious loopholes in the U.S. legal framework and compliance practices, and shore up the international financial system that has allowed this brazen money laundering to happen.

The good news is that we know what needs to be done. The bad news is because this fund is tied to the government of Malaysia, political concerns in Malaysia may also get in the way of bringing all the perpetrators to justice.

The story so far, however, is promising. The well-named Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative of the U.S. Department of Justice in bringing the largest ever civil complaint seeking to forfeit and recover over $1 billion in assets involving Malaysias 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad), is taking the first step in wresting the proceeds of corruption away from the corrupt. It named several individuals, three in particular, who allegedly lived high off the money and had close ties to one unnamed individual in the Malaysian government.

The named individuals include Riza Aziz, the stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib and a Hollywood film producer, Jho Low, a longtime friend of Aziz and his family, and Mohamed Badawy al-Husseiny, a former official at a government fund in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, that participated in deals with Malaysias fund.

As U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch noted Wednesday, this is  a significant step in our ongoing work to combat global corruption and to ensure that the United States offers no haven to those who illegally use public funds for private gain.And it should make clear to corrupt officials around the world that we will be relentless in our efforts to deny them the proceeds of their crimes.

The fact that assets are frozen in a civil suit, however, does not mean that the people who took them will face criminal proceedings, though that may follow. We believe it should. The biggest obstacle to fighting corruption is impunity.

The case also highlights the role of intermediaries  bankers, lawyers and the real estate industry. In order to prevent dirty money from entering the U.S., gatekeepers, such as the real estate industry, involved in sale of luxury goods need to conduct due diligence into buyers identities and the sources of their funds.

Additionally, we know how easy it is in the United States to use shell companies to mask ownership of assets. That has to change. The Panama Papers leak earlier this year also highlighted the use of anonymous or shell companies to disguise the identities of individuals who want to evade taxes and launder money. Transparency International is calling for more transparency into the identities who those who control and benefit from these anonymous companies globally and for the creation of a global register that lists the true owners of companies.

The United States can lead the way by enacting federal legislation to collect, maintain and update beneficial ownership information upon company formation thereby regulating states like Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming where lax rules make setting up shell companies cheap and easy. Just one building in Delaware is home to 285,000 shell companies. Other jurisdictions like the UK can clamp down on these activities in its crown dependencies and overseas territories.

What is also clear is the need for international cooperation. In a world where creating complex international webs of corruption to hide laundered funds is easy, authorities must work together in order to uphold both national and international laws. As noted by Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell, the significant assistance we received from our international partners was critical in identifying and restraining assets. Gaps in the legal regimes across the globe  including in the United States  allowed these criminals to avoid disclosing the ultimate beneficial owners of the accounts to which 1MDB funds were diverted.

The Justice Department is also reportedly separately investigating the role of Goldman Sachs in setting up the IMDB fund. Switzerland is investigating 1MDB funds and banks involved in the scandal and Singapore is also on the case. Malaysia has its own probe too.

Unfortunately for Malaysians, the true victims in this story of fraud, there is little action on the home front. The high-level official named by the DOJ only as Malaysian Official 1 remains legally anonymous though the hashtag #MalaysianOfficial1 lit up the twitter sphere where links were made directly to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib. Last year $681 million was found in his personal account. Najib denies all wrong doing and his attorney generals investigation said the money was a political donation from Saudi Arabia.

The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative has much work to do to bring the perpetrators of this billion dollar fraud to justice. Legislatures must also do their part and tighten up the global financial system so the corrupt cannot exploit its weaknesses anywhere in the world.

____

Shruti Shah is a contributing editor of the FCPA Blog. Shes Vice President of Programs and Operations at Transparency International-USA. She can be contacted here.

Samantha Grant is Transparency Internationals regional coordinator for the Asia- Pacific Region. She can be contacted here.


My writing is intricately connected with my life, which is why so many of these answers are biographical! My life spills into my writing; my stories bubble up from the place where all those experiences are stored. So, if you want to know what makes me a writer, you should know the following:

The Sugar Planter's Daughter

I was born and grew up in Guyana, South America. It was then British Guiana, a British colony, and anyone who shared that background would agree it was the best place in the world to have a childhood! Such a mellow, soft, friendly atmosphere among flowers and animals and lovely people and music and good food. Guyana now provides the backdrop to most of my novels.

As a teenager I rebelled against everything: society, school, my father's radicalism, my mother's too liberal parenting - yes, it's possible to rebel against a parent who lets you do everything you want! Coming of age in the sixties was exhilarating and a time I wouldn't have missed for all the world, despite some of the silly things I got up to. I was the quintessential hippy: I tuned in, turned on, and dropped out. The latter, quite literally.

When I was 18 I found work as a journalist for a local Guyanese newspaper. I saved some money and with a couple of friends went off on an extended trip around South America. It started in the Amazon and (in my case) ended up, over a year later, in a jail in Colombia -- a long story which I'll tell another time. We travelled on the cheap, lived on the cheap, going wherever the wind blew us. We were at Macchu Piccu long before it was overrun by tourists - we dropped acid (LSD) for the first time at the very top, where there's a big alter in honour of the Inca's Sun God. We lived for half a year in a commune of mostly Americans in Ecuador. It was all pretty crazy, but unforgettable! One of the most surreal events of that time was running into Mohammad Ali - yes, THE Muhammad Ali - on a Lima street and being invited to spend the day with him. And yes, he really is one of the funniest, wisest, most entertaining and lovable people I've ever met! And no, I didn't take a selfie of us together! I learned to simply throw myself at life during this trip, and that's how I write as well: I thrown myself into a story, not knowing where it will go, and always surprised at the outcome!

I am literally tongue-tied! My tongue has a little skin on the underside that binds it close to the floor of my mouth: it's called lingual frenulum. This makes it hard for me to speak quickly, and led to a reluctance to speak when I was a child, to mumbling and stuttering. I was very self-conscious about speaking as a child, and avoided it whenever I could. I still do. I'm that person in a group who says nothing or very little, which tends to make people judge me as either stupid or boring, mostly the latter. I've always admired people who can speak eloquently and quickly and used to feel a tremendous pressure to speak up while being too shy to do so. This is one of the reasons I turned to writing - I can express myself much better in writing than in speech. I did have the lingual frenulum cut when I was older, but it didn't help much.

I once lived on a farm in a very remote district of Guyana, practically in the rainforest near the Venezuelan border. Also quite near to the place where Jim Jones founded his People's Temple retreat and those terrible mass suicides took place. That story became a novel, still unpublished.

Probably related to the speech problems I mentioned earlier, I'm very introverted. As a child I would sit for ages trying to figure out the great philosophical questions of all ages: Who am I? What is mind? What are thoughts? Where do they come from? So it was inevitable perhaps that I discovered Yoga when I was 18, and never turned back! This was at a time when Yoga was practically unknown in the West, and people would tease and mock me when I spoke of it, so in the end I just did it secretly. It changed my life around; I had been overweight, and immediately lost all my excess weight. I also stopped both drinking and smoking, both of which had been problematic.

When I was 21 I wanted to get deeper into the spiritual teaching behind Yoga, so in 1973 I took off again, this time to India. I flew to England and from there travelled overland with some friends, through Europe and then Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another unforgettable trip! I lived for almost two years in an Ashram in South India. I met some extraordinary people. I found answers to my questions, and worked hard on my self-esteem and self-image problems. And eventually led to the confidence to become a writer.

I love nature. I love nothing more than a walk through the forest, or just sitting on a beach watching the sea roll in and out. My favourite beaches are in the Caribbean - Guyana actually counts as a Caribbean country so I've been to a few of the islands and just seeing the sea makes me expand and feel myself again. Mountains are a close second, though! I like watching them more than climbing them. The most beautiful country in the world for me is Switzerland. I also love flowers, especially roses. I can look at a beautiful rose, smell it, and I am in immediate bliss!

Most authors can't wait to give up the day job. I'm the opposite: I started writing as a stay-at-home mother when my daughter was five, as I finally had the time to write. I never went back to work while my kids were growing up, and kept on writing throughout their youth. But then at 62 I returned to Germany and went back to work as a social worker in a hospital. Earlier this year I took on a second job in a home for unaccompanied underage refugees. So, just as my writing career took off, I went back to work! Incidentally, my work with the refugees has been one of the most rewarding and interesting jobs I've ever done. I love those kids!

I love growing older! I have no time for women who complain about being invisible when they turn 50 - who cares whether others see me or not, ignore me or not! Maybe because I always was a wallflower that I find the sense of finally growing into myself, of fullness and ripeness that has come with my sixties simply wonderful. Life has been full of ups and downs and I wouldn't exchange a day of it for an extended youth. I suppose I'm lucky in that my health is good and hopefully it will stay that way for a further ten years at least as my life feels as if it's just beginning! I'll be 65 in September and I retire next year and I can't wait to see what's around the next corner. I'm not a planner and I have no idea where I'll end up, not even in which country. I'm ready to be surprised! All the people I've most admired in my life have been in their 80's. I'm hoping my 80's too - if I reach them --will be special.
Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets is one of the most anticipated films at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego and a fab new image from the film has been released.

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets

Luc Besson is set to head the Comic-Con panel for the film as he returns to the director's chair.

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets is based on the French sci-fi comic series Valerian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mezieres and has been adapted for the big screen by Besson.

Dane DeHaan is set to take on the central role of Valerian and features in this great first image.

The director has brought together a fantastic cast as Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Sam Spruell, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, and John Goodman are all set to star.

Besson has brought us movies such as Leon, Nikita, and The Fifth Element during his career and this is his first feature since the success of Lucy back in 2014.

Valerian (DeHaan) and Laureline (Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Valerian has more in mind than a professional relationship with his partner - blatantly chasing after her with propositions of romance. But his extensive history with women, and her traditional values, drive Laureline to continuously rebuff him.

Under directive from their Commander (Owen), Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprised of thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe. Alpha's seventeen million inhabitants have converged over time- uniting their talents, technology, and resources for the betterment of all.

Unfortunately, not everyone on Alpha shares in these same objectives; in fact, unseen forces are at work, placing our race in great danger.

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets arrives in cinemas 2017!

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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The Wave is a Norwegian movie that is already winning over the critics and the first trailer for the disaster film has arrived.

The Wave

The Wave is a movie that is already being held in high regard and it does look like it is going to be a nerve-shredding ride.

The brand new trailer for the film has arrived and we have it for you to take a look at:

The Wave marks the return Roar Uthaug to the director's chair for his first feature film since Escape back in 2012.

This is set to be one of his biggest movies to date and he is one to keep an eye on, as he is going on to direct the new Tomb Raider movie with Alicia Vikander.

Kristoffer Joner will take on the central role of Kristian Eikjord in the film, and is joined on the cast list by Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Edith Haagenrud-Sande. Eili Harboe, and Laila Goody.

Experienced, Norwegian geologist Kristian Eikfjord (Joner) has accepted a job offer out of town. He is getting ready to move from the city of Geiranger with his family, when he and his colleagues measure small geological changes under ground.

Kristian realises his worst nightmare is about to come true: the alarm goes off and disaster is upon them. With less than 10 minutes to react, it becomes a race against time in order to save as many lives as possible including his own family.

Some critics are saying that The Wave puts Hollywood disaster movies to shame... I really cannot wait to see what Uthaug delivers.

The Wave is released 12th August.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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San Diego Comic-Con 2016 is in full swing and Marvel have already showcased some of their original television properties for Netflix.

Credit: Netflix

Giving fans a full-length teaser trailer for the upcoming Luke Cage series, debuting in September, along with short teasers for both Iron Fist and The Defenders, there's plenty to chew on ahead of their releases later this year and into 2017...

Luke Cage

Following a botched experiment that left him with super strength and unbreakable skin, Luke Cage (Mike Colter) tries to rebuild his life in Harlem, New York City, but is hunted by those who see him as a fugitive on the run. Living in the shadows, Cage is forced to step out into the light and confront a past he'd hoped was buried when unimaginable threats try to take down his city.

Iron Fist

Finn Jones steps into the role of Danny Rand, a man fighting against all of the odds to regain everything he lost as a child.

Jones said to EW of the role: "I love the character. What really drew me was the character and the story. I really enjoy how he's a superhero with a real heart but has spiritual elements as well. I think it's going to be an exciting character to play because there's this contraction of on one hand, he's from a very wealthy family, he's a billionaire, on the other hand he's been in this world of K'un-Lun for a long time where he's learned kung fu and buddhist philosophy. There's a contradiction in those elements that's going to be really fun to play."

The Defenders

Next year, Marvel's The Defenders will bring together Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist as the four superheroes face the biggest threat to meet them head-on yet. Whilst details on just who that threat may be are kept tightly under wraps, it's sure to be one heck of a ride.

Luke Cage debuts on Netflix on September 30. A third season of Daredevil has also been announced.

Take a look back at Daredevil and Jessica Jones in the sizzle reel below:

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) returns in the second season of Narcos, coming to Netflix later this year.

With the criminal mastermind on the run from the Colombian authorities, he's got many enemies determined to put an end to his illegal activities in a series based on the real-life stories of the kingpins of the late 1980s.

Brutal and bloody, gritty storytelling continues as the clash in the effort to control cocaine rumbles on.

Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal also star as real-life DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Pena.

Narcos is produced by Gaumont International Television for Netflix, with Jose Padilha and Eric Newman serving as executive producers of the series.

Credit: Netflix

All 10 episodes of Narcos season 2 premiere exclusively on Netflix on September 2, at 12.01am PST.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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An explosive argument broke out between the cast of 'The Only Way is Essex' earlier this week - but the cameras weren't rolling.

Georgia Kousoulou and Tommy Mallet

The drama unfolded at Essex's famous nightclub Sugarhut on Wednesday (20.07.16) after Tommy Mallet reportedly went "apes**t" at his girlfriend Georgia Kousoulou just before the gang were about to film the upcoming episode on Sunday (24.07.16).

Speaking about the ruckus, an onlooker told The Sun Online: "All of a sudden Georgia ... she come running down the stairs with rollers in her hair and she said 'I can't believe the way he's just spoken to me', and like crying and Chloe was trying to comfort her.

"Tommy Mallet just [went] absolutely apes**t, screaming, swearing."

However, the 25-year-old beauty wasn't the only one to be on the receiving end of Tommy's hot-headed temperature as the 26-year-old hunk later turned on Dan Edgar and shoved him against a wall.

The source explained: "Tommy Mallet just run into the restaurant where there was all families sitting with their little kids ... and got Dan up against the wall. It was just mayhem. Tommy just absolutely went ballistic. They weren't just shouting - it was a mess. Producers were running round like blue-arsed flies."

Tommy was immediately escorted off of the premises following his outburst, whilst his fellow cast mates - Megan McKenna and her new flame Pete Wicks, Gemma Collins, Lydia Bright and her former beau James 'Arg' Argent - began filming for the current series.

The source said: "Security ran in and dragged Tommy Mallet out and pulled him over to the side. He was absolutely going mental.

"They wouldn't let him back on set. They escorted him off the premises. He wasn't seen again after that."

Meanwhile, the manager of the Brentwood bar dished out free beverages to all guests who witnessed the spectacle as a token of his apology.
'Coronation Street' bosses reportedly banned the cast from sunbathing after the UK was thrown into a heatwave this week.

Coronation Street

The stars of the long-running show are said to be fuming after producers told them they weren't allowed to enjoy the sunshine after parts of Great Britain reached highs of 30 degrees because they were worried some members of the cast would have a summer glow in scenes being shot for the autumn.

A source told the Daily Star newspaper: "There was no getting sunburnt for the 'Corrie' cast.

"How would they explain they were all tanned and glowing and then if in the next scene it was pouring with rain? Some of the cast members were extremely disappointed that they were all missing out on the hottest day of the year."

And one person who was struggling with the strict soap rules was Shayne Ward - who portrays factory boss Aidan Connor - as he joked he was limited to just 30 seconds of vitamin D.

He said: "Thirty seconds of sun for me. Continuity rules."

However, the cast weren't stripped of all the summer fun as bosses reportedly brought in an ice cream van to keep them and hard-working camera crew cool in between takes.

Meanwhile, this isn't the first time the cast have clashed with the bosses this year as they also reportedly locked horns when it was announced the soap will air six nights a week from next year.
Just a week away from the release of her new film RohitDhawansDishoom, Jacqueline Fernandez has not been in the best of health.

The actor took a break from JhalakDikhlaJaas shoot and met co-star John Abraham over lunch at Pali Village Cafe in suburban Mumbai yesterday.

The story goes that Fernandez consults Abraham whenever the need arises.

I like being surrounded with fit people. Even though I have learnt a lot through trial and error, I look up to John for advice. He has a very scientific approach to wellness, she says.

Fernandez also finds A Flying Jatt co-star Tiger Shroffs journey to fitness inspirational. He has immense resolution and leads a very disciplined life, she added.

Photographs: Yogen Shah
Cast: Rajinikanth, Radhika Apte, Dhansika, Kalaiyarasan, Dinesh, John Vijay, Riythvika, Winston Chao, Kishore, Mime Gopi

Direction: Pa Ranjith

Genre: Action

Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes



Synopsis: A gangster in Malaysia goes in search of his family after 25 years of imprisonment.



Review: The project Kabali evinced interest among the hordes of die-hard fans of Superstar Rajinikanth and other movie buffs right from the beginning - for, they were sure that this wasn't going to be 'another' Rajini film with the star playing to the gallery, with his successfully tried-and-tested histrionics. With Pa Ranjith, who won appreciation from all quarters for his previous film Madras, it isn't an exaggeration to say that Kollywood was waiting to witness an all-new Rajini, nay, in fact, the old Rajini, which many people felt they have been missing for many years. As his legions of fans were disappointed with his previous outing, Lingaa, which had the star trying to please his admirers with unconvincing romance, comedy and action, Kabali, undoubtedly, was going to be a 'do or die' game for both, the star and his fans. Has he made a 'comeback' ('payback' is the word fans have chanting for a while) this time, with more than enough reasons for his millions of fans to cheer? Let's check out.

Kabaleeshwaran aka Kabali (Rajinikanth), who was born somewhere in Dindigul, is the messiah of Tamil labourers who work in Malaysia, after he fights for their primary rights and wages. His rise to an influential person in the society, in a short span of time, is now giving sleepless nights to a few, which further fuels jealousy and enmity towards Kabali. Veera (Kishore) is one among those jealous, and keeps hatching plans to destroy Kabali's gang, and defame him publicly. He convincingly brainwashes an aide of Kabali and successfully turns him against the latter. After a violent gang war, which takes place unexpectedly, Kabali, being convicted of various false charges, ends up in jail.



Released after two-and-a-half decades, Kabali goes in search of his wife Kumudhavalli (Radhika Apte), who was pregnant when destiny separated them. He seeks the help of his old gang, including Ameer (John Vijay), who are more than happy to help him. Jeeva (Dinesh), an overly enthusiastic youngster, too, joins him as a loyal aide. Thamizh Kumaran (Kalaiyarasan), the son of a yesteryear aide of Kabali, who backstabbed the latter, is another person who promises to help the old Kabali, but is confused. Meanwhile, Veera is ruling the roost in the town, with his own empire and Tony (Winston Chao), one of the dreaded gangsters is his business partner. Will Kabali get his wife back? Will he be able to make up the years that he lost in jail? The suspense continues...



Though, with Kabali, most of the audiences were expecting a 'Ranjith film which has Rajini', it is the Superstar, like in most of his previous films, who carries the entire film in his shoulders, even though other actors shine in their respective roles. His scores of fans, needless to say, are in for a treat, watching him in, probably, the most stylish and dapper avatar in his recent outings. His majestic screen presence and the fast movements in intense sequences make the film watchable. Radhika, who has been cast opposite him is apt and their chemistry, their combination scenes, though only few, are convincing. Watching Yogi (Dhansikaa) is a delight, given her stylish makeover and ease in fight sequences. The climax of the film, however, is something that one least expects from a Rajini film. Just when viewers erupt with joy, with Thalaivar finishing off the baddies in style, there comes an unconventional twist.



As Ranjith isn't a run-of-the-mill director, and is considered as someone whose screenplay and dialogues have hidden meanings, comparisons with his previous films are but in order. In Kabali, one shouldn't expect the freshness in script and making style which his Madras offered. The flashback portions, on occasions, test one's patience, and lack evenness. The songs by Santhosh Narayanan are soothing to watch on screen, too. The stunt sequences and shoot-out scenes choreographed by Anbarivu, with Rajini putting his best foot forward, is sure to give adrenaline-rush to his fans, and are, in fact, among the things that work in favour of the film, in addition to an emotional scene. The story, perhaps, needed a tighter screenplay, but watch it for 'Thalaivar athiradi'. Nothing more, nothing less!

Next Story : Not Your Average Gift: Our Handpicked Thoughtful Diwali Gifts
Three weeks after a terror attack killed 20 people, mostly foreigners in Dhaka, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the Accord), an alliance of major buyers of the European Union (EU), has reassured Bangladesh of buying apparels, but sought stricter security for foreign buyers.During a meeting met with Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan in Dhaka on Wednesday, a delegation of the Accord reiterated the commitment to buying from apparels from Bangladeshi producers.

Three weeks after a terror attack killed 20 people, mostly foreigners in Dhaka, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the Accord), an alliance of major buyers of the European Union (EU), has reassured Bangladesh of buying apparels, but sought stricter security for foreign buyers. During a meeting met with Bangladesh Home Minister...#

Representatives of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) were also present at the meeting..The Accord delegation, led by its Executive Director Rob Wayss, conveyed told the Home Minister that they were concerned at the recent terrorist activities.They also said that their members would continue usual business with the Bangladeshi apparel exporters. Wayss also sought security for the foreign buyers during their visit to Bangladesh.The Minister assured the Accord delegation that the government attaches utmost importance to the issue of ensuring security, particularly to foreign apparel buyers.Director General (DG) of Industrial Police Abdus Salam, who also attended the meeting, said the industrial police would provide all security to the foreign buyers during their visit to industrial areas.Earlier this month, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety that includes 28 North American retailers like Walmart and Gap, also said it would continue to source from Bangladesh despite the terror attack at a Dhaka restaurant on July 1. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
In a significant development for Indian garment exporters, Iran has agreed to slash import duties on Indian textile products by 20-25 % in two years and signed an MoU that would make New Delhi the largest textile exporter to Iran.An MoU to this effect was signed between Apparel Export Promotion Council (APEC) and the powerful Teheran Garment Union (TGU) on July 18 at the 57th India International Garment Fair (IIGF) in Delhi.TGU is an influential manufacturers and retailers association with legislative power in terms of Garment Commercial affairs in Iran.India exported RMG worth $ 21 million to Iran which constituted a minuscule 2.5% of the $ 825 million worth of RMG that Iran imported from the world In 2015, according to UN Comtrade data 2016.It is learnt that the MoU would remain in effect till July 18, 2017, according to a press release of APEC, which had been in talks with TGU for several months before the inking of MoU.It was signed by APEC chairman Ashok G Rajani and TGU Vice-President Mohamad Javad Sedghamiz on behalf of their respective organisations.As per the MoU, AEPC and TGU would make efforts to promote bilateral trade and industrial cooperation in the textile and fashion sectors by sharing experiences and knowledge, actively cooperating to provide relevant information for enhancing bilateral trade and facilitating and supporting trade relations between AEPC and TGU.The MOU is a result of persuasions and convincing that was undertaken by the delegation AEPC had sent to Iran in the month of April. The delegation had invited TGU leaders to visit the IIGF so that they could get a firsthand experience of the quality and diverse range of Indian apparel, Rajani said.The 3-day IIGF played host to 416 Indian exporters, who got opportunity to exhibit their products to foreign clients. More than 1500 international buyers and 1000 plus buying agents kept the atmosphere pulsating at the fair.Union Minister of state for Textiles, Ajay Tamta, who inaugurated the IIGF, such events provide domestic exporters an opportunity to exhibit their products, which meets the international quality and technology standards.Events like these give a boost to the Make in India programme as the platform encourages smaller player and debutants to work towards making it a reality," he said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has expressed disappointment over imposition of two per cent further tax on unregistered textile sector and demanded zero-rated sales tax facilities for both registered and unregistered sectors.In a statement on Wednesday, Aptma chairman Tariq Saud said that the zero-rated facility which the government announced in this year's budget, was also available in the past and was nothing new.

The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has expressed disappointment over imposition of two per cent further tax on unregistered textile sector and demanded zero-rated sales tax facilities for both registered and unregistered sectors. In a statement on Wednesday, Aptma chairman Tariq Saud said that the zero-rated facility which the government...#

The reason for this facility is because billions of rupees of refunds remain stuck up with FBR and the industry is not able to compete because of severe liquidity crisis, Saud said.He insisted that it was the responsibility of the FBR to ensure that refunds of exporters are released in time and because this was not being done the industry had no choice but to demand zero-rating.The Aptma chief also said that during the discussion with the government in the presence of all textile sector associations representing the entire chain and attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Haroon Akhtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue, in which it was agreed that there would be zero rating on registered and unregistered sales and that all industrial raw materials both imported and local would be free from levy of sales tax.This agreement is now being jeopardized to prevent the success of the zero-rated facility by which the country would be able to regain its competitive edge and enhance exports, Saud said.He urged the Finance Minister to ensure that the spirit in which this facility was framed should remain intact to ensure its success.He also sought the immediate removal of 4 per cent customs duty and 5 per cent sales tax on the import of cotton in order to enable the spinning industry function properly.The destruction of local industry is not in the interest of growers as well as the downstream sector, and such temporary benefits will result in long-term losses, Saud said.According to Saud, Pakistan's cotton yarn export had come down by almost 32 per cent in the first 11 months of 2105-16 as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.Saud also criticised the PRGMEA for demanding removal of regulatory duty on the import of cotton yarn. He backed the government's decision to impose regulatory duty, saying it was necessary because India was dumping yarn in Pakistan at subsidised rates. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
French textile machinery producer Staubli will be exhibiting technologies in weaving and knitting suitable for the Asian market at the forthcoming ITMA Asia.The extensive range of textile machinery includes; shedding solutions for frame weaving among which are cam motions and dobbies; and electronic Jacquard machines with harnesses.

French textile machinery producer Staubli will be exhibiting technologies in weaving and knitting suitable for the Asian market at the forthcoming ITMA Asia. The extensive range of textile machinery includes; shedding solutions for frame weaving among which are cam motions and dobbies; and electronic Jacquard machines with harnesses. The exhibits also...#

The exhibits also include; weaving preparation systems including automatic warp drawing-in and warp-tying machines; and Schonherr carpet weaving machines.With its brand Deimo, Staubli will be exhibiting automation solutions for the knitting industry at a separate booth.Three complete Jacquard installations with different types of weft insertion will be on show and two set-ups showing the re-engineered Jacquard SX and LX machines will be weaving terry cloths and upholstery on rapier weaving machines.On another set-up with air-jet weft insertion, the production of OPW airbags will be demonstrated by the LXL Jacquard machine for heavy payload with a weaving width of 280 cms.According to Staubli, the Staubli harness with 12,288 cords, offers the possibility to achieve formats up to 36,864 by combining two machines in a tandem set-up.The company will also be presenting newly developed dobbies, the S3062 and the S3061 for water jet applications, which feature the sophisticated Staubli rotation principle with high-end locking system.On the weaving machine, they can be installed in high position with the new harness motions De82/83 for high-mounting, while offering maintenance free bearings, the company said.To complete the picture of Staubli shedding systems, further upgraded dobbies as well as refined cam motions are being demonstrated at the booth.The new mobile automatic drawing-in machine SAFIR S40, dedicated particularly to cotton weaves like denim and other standard fabrics, too will be in operation at the booth.With its unique and compact format, it can fit in any traditional weaving mill and like the whole Safir family; the S40 offers unequalled features like double end detection, it added.The company further added that exclusive carpet samples woven on ALPHA 400 and 500 Series, some with the recently developed 'Magic Shadow Effect' or also called the traditional carpet effect can also be seen by visitors.At a separate booth D15 in hall 4, Staubli with its brand Deimo is showing two circular sock knitting machines in operation, featuring the automatic toe-linking device D4S driven by the 2900 SL controller.Visitors will also be able to see a selection of electronic control solutions, input or output devices, and related programming tools mainly for the textile industry, it informed. (AR)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
Shahrukh Khan, has his own way with words and can make humour out of anything under any circumstances. During the book launch of Gunjan Jain's 'She Walks, She Leads', SRK took to the mic and left the audiences' seated at the venue in splits.

When Shahrukh Khan took the mic and was praising Gunjan Jain, the writer immediately stood up for acknowledgement, and without wasting a second, SRK joked, "Please sit! This may be politically incorrect, but actually when I speak to a woman, I'd like her to be lying down."

SRK, was also quick in telling that his remark might end up getting himself into trouble, and the audiences' started laughing even louder at his funny antics. Well, we guess only the people who were present at the event could eventually get what the joke was all about!

Red Hot Pictures! Sunny Leone Shoots For The Calendar Of Manforce

Gunjan Jain's book, She Walks, She Leads was hosted by Nita Ambani in Mumbai, and the book also features 24 honorary women leaders, including Nita Ambani herself.

Ileana D'Cruz's Boyfriend Clicks Mindblowing Pictures Of Her In A Bikini & Much More!
The clash between Kichcha Sudeep and Puneeth Rajkumar is averted as the later's movie Dodmane Huduga, has been postponed by a few weeks owing to the delay in post-production.

Director Suri after completing the song shoot in four cities, had revealed that team was looking to release Dodmane Huduga in August 2nd week targeting the Varamahalakshmi Festival and Independence Day Weekend.

Recently, Kotigobba 2 producer MB Babu announced that the Sudeep starring Kannada and Tamil versions will release on August 12. Also, Gandhinagar sources have revealed that the distributors of Kotigobba 2 had already started theater bookings quoting August 12 as the release date.

With these two announcements, it was expected that a big battle would take place in theaters, between the stars and their fans on the social media. But, the industry insiders felt that this clash should be avoided as this is not good for the industry; as already there are several other language biggies lined up for release on same day which will have an impact on Kannada movies.

Just when the battle lines were being drawn, Suri has stated that the movie will not release on August 12. He has revealed that the post-production work is yet to be completed and it cannot be completed in 2-3 weeks' time. Also, it is said that the portions featuring Ambareesh is yet to be completed.

With the clash being averted, Kotigobba 2 will be the only big and notable movie to hit the screens on August 12, as of now.
Rating: 3.0 /5

Kabali movie review is here. Starring superstar Rajinikanth and Radhika Apte in the lead, Kabali was one of the most awaited Tamil movies of the year.

Well, the wait is finally over as Kabali has stormed into more than 5000 screens worldwide, creating and breaking records in the process. So what does the film has to offer? Continue reading our movie review to know.

Click on the slider below to know what celebrities have to say about the film:

Sivakarthikeyan @Siva_Kartikeyan Sivakarthikeyan watched the first day first show along with his industry friends. He wrote, "In Vetri theatre wit @anirudhofficial and @VigneshShivN .. Ready for Thalaivar adhiradi.. #KabaliFDFS #NerrupuDa." Suresh Raina @ImRaina Surprisingly, cricketer Suresh Raina managed to catch the first day first show of Kabali. "sureshraina3Amazing Movie First Day First Show ! Let the festival begin #thalaivar #kabali #nerrupuda #magizhchi #rajnikanth sir," Raina wrote on his official Twitter page. Siddharth @Actor_Siddharth Actor Siddharth too, joined Sivakarthikeyan, Anirudh and Vignesh Shivan to catch the first day first show. "#KABALI DA Ready for the biggest FDFS in a long long time. #Superstar #NeruppaDa," he posted. SaiDhanshika / YOGI @saidhanshika "#Watched Kabali in Malaysia Woohoooo I shouted & screamed like anything.. @superstarrajini is exceptional.. Perum magizhchi @beemji sir," Sai Dhanshika, who has acted in the movie posted on her Twitter page. venkat prabhu @vp_offl "#happykabaliday it's gonna be a rocking weekend guys!!! Proud of u @beemji @vicramlacks28 #suresh #kabalida. And of course very proud of u too Saar @Cinemainmygenes #kabalida," Venkat Prabhu posted. venkat prabhu @vp_offl Venkat Prabhu further went on to say that no one can stop the earth shattering collections from the weekend box office. He said, "No matter who releases what! No matter who leaks what! No one can stop the earth shattering mind blowing weekend box office! #kabalida." Aishwaryaa.R.Dhanush @ash_r_dhanush Aishwaryaa R Dhanush, who watched the special screening of Kabali along with her father superstar Rajinikanth in the USA wrote, "That feeling within .... before shows begin #KabaliFeeling #NoWordsToExpress." Vignesh ShivN @VigneshShivN Vignesh Shivan said, "#NeruppuDa #KabaliFDFS early morning festival! Thalaivar energy is electrifying best wishes @beemji #Magizhchi."

Kabali Plot:

Rajinikanth spends 25 years of his life in jail, when he returns, he is in for a surprise, which is gradually revealed to the audience.

Why was he locked up in a Malaysian jail for such a long period of time is shown in the flashback. The rest of the film deals with what Rajini does to get back his lost life and how he achieves his prime task, for which he was jailed all these while.

Performances:

Rajinikanth steals the show from the very beginning till the end. Kabali might not have the usual Rajinism one expects from a superstar-starrer, but his acting skills come to the fore and the star actor has absolutely nailed it.

Stand out performances are delivered by Radhika Apte and Riythvika. Kudos to director Pa Ranjith for etching out strong female characters and all of them have done justice to their characters, including Dhansika. Watch out for Dhansika's action sequences.

Combination scenes between Rajinikanth and Winston Chao have come out really well and the Taiwanese actor has made an impressive Tamil debut.

PHOTOS: Fans Celebrate Release of 'Kabali' In Grand Style

Technicalities:

While the first half is pacy with sharp cuts by editor Praveen KL, the second half delves into the emotional side of things as Kabali gets a bit melodramatic.

Stunt sequences by Anbu and Arivu are choreographed well and the duo deserves an applause for making the action scenes as realistic as possible.

Cinematography by G Murali adds stability to the film. Angles and colors used by the cameraman are impressive as it suits each and every frame.

Music by Santhosh Narayanan is a big positive. If you are a fan of Rajinikanth, then Santhosh's music will put a smile on your face for days to come.

Director Ranjith could've used the star image of Rajinikanth in a much better way. Awfully less number of hoot-worthy scenes is a major worry.

Overall View:

You might be disappointed if you go into the cinema hall keeping in mind the recent hype and hoopla around Kabali. However, this is definitely Rajinikanth's best in the recent times.

Also Read: Mind-boggling Records Created By Rajinikanth's 'Kabali' Even Before Its Release!
Here is a good news to Powerstar Pawan Kalyan fans, who are waiting to know an update about his next movie. It is learnt that the actor's next in the direction of Dolly will go on floors from August.

"#PSPK #PawanKalyan starrer with Shruti Hassan as the heroine to commence shoot in August. Director Dolly team busy with pre production work.", tweeted Sharrath Marar, the film's producer.

While the speculations were rife that Shruti Haasan has been replaced with Rakul Preet Singh, the producer has made it clear with his statement that the film stars Shruti Haasan and there is no change in the female lead.

The film, which was launched in the direction of S J Suryah, with the story with Akula Siva, has later turned out to be the remake of Veeram, and the director was replaced with Dolly.

The music for this yet to be titled project will be scored by Anup Rubens. Stay tuned to this space for more updates.
Magnolia Petroleum Plc / Index: AIM / Epic: MAGP / Sector: Oil & Gas

22 July 2016

Magnolia Petroleum Plc ('Magnolia' or 'the Company')

AGM Statement

Magnolia Petroleum Plc, the AIM quoted US focused oil and gas exploration and production company, is holding its Annual General Meeting ('AGM') later today. At the meeting, CEO Steven Snead will make the following statement:

"Magnolia Petroleum is an oil and gas producer and explorer focused on proven US onshore formations. As a result, lower oil prices are both a threat and an opportunity. A threat because revenues from production are lower; an opportunity because all active participants in the sector face the same pressures, with some being more exposed than others. With cash preservation being paramount, certain operators will have little choice but to relinquish high grade acreage or sell assets at distressed prices, creating opportunities for others. For us to take advantage of these, it is first necessary to overcome the threat by realigning Magnolia to the lower oil price environment so that the business does not just tread water until the current downturn ends, but emerges from it stronger.

"From the outset, management has always kept a tight rein on Magnolia's cost base to allow more of our internally generated revenues to be invested in new drilling opportunities alongside established operators, such as Devon Energy and Continental Resources. In line with this, I have never drawn a salary for my role as CEO which, as well as freeing up funds for acquiring leases and drilling wells, aligns my interest in the Company with those of all our shareholders. However, as it became clear that the current downturn would last longer than had originally been anticipated by the wider market, we swiftly moved to ratchet down our costs even further.

"Over the last 12 months Magnolia's capital expenditure, operating costs and interest payments associated with our reserve-based debt facility have all been materially reduced. In addition, we have freed up our internal resources by divesting a total of 67 wells which had little or no economic value, leaving a portfolio of 146 producing wells which are commercial at current oil prices. As Magnolia had below average interests in the 67 divested wells, their removal from our portfolio will not materially impact the Company's overall production which stood at 242 boepd as at 31 March 2016. Broadly speaking, in addition to the oil and gas produced, every well generates the same amount of paperwork regardless of how many barrels are recovered. We have therefore created the administrative capacity to replace the uneconomic, divested wells with more productive ones. This is what we are doing.

"As well as having an adverse impact on the production and revenues of those active in the space, the drop in drilling activity in the US onshore sector is resulting in leases becoming available as they expire, including those covering areas where we have been looking to increase our exposure to, or enter into, for some time. Furthermore leases can be acquired at little or no premium compared to just a few years earlier. Against such a backdrop and with four decades of experience and expertise in leasing US onshore acreage, Magnolia's management is well placed to pick up leases in areas of interest. Our participation alongside Continental Resources in 10 wells that are currently being drilled to the Woodford formation, provides a readymade example of our strategy to high grade our leases. All 10 wells are located in the prolific South-Central Oklahoma Oil Province ('SCOOP') play in Oklahoma, where an estimated 3.2 billion barrels of conventional oil have been recovered from 60 reservoirs.

"With our proven developed reserves of 138.63 Mbbl of oil and condensate and 352.38 MMcf gas as at 1 January 2016 providing the bulk of the US$7,294,470 in tangible assets we reported in our recent final results, our current market valuation does not reflect our existing assets, let alone our improving prospects. The last eighteen months have been a challenging period for all oil and gas companies, including Magnolia, but having cut operating costs by 31% and divested 67 non-economic wells, we are confident Magnolia can not only weather a prolonged period of lower oil prices, but can also thrive."

* * ENDS * *

For further information on Magnolia Petroleum Plc visit http://www.magnoliapetroleum.com/ or contact the following:

Steven Snead Magnolia Petroleum Plc +01918449 8750 Rita Whittington Magnolia Petroleum Plc +01918449 8750 Jo Turner / James Caithie Cairn Financial Advisers LLP +44207 1487900 Colin Rowbury Cornhill Capital Limited +44207710 9610 Lottie Brocklehurst St Brides Partners Ltd +44207236 1177 Frank Buhagiar St Brides Partners Ltd +44207236 1177

Notes

Magnolia Petroleum Plc is an AIM quoted, US focused, oil and gas exploration and production company. Its portfolio includes interests in 146 producing and non-producing assets, primarily located in the highly productive Bakken/Three Forks Sanish hydrocarbon formations in North Dakota as well as the oil rich Mississippi Lime and the substantial and proven Woodford and Hunton formations in Oklahoma.

Summary of Wells


22 July 2016 AIM: AAU PLACING TO RAISE 445,000



Ariana Resources plc ('Ariana' or 'the Company'), is pleased to announce a placing of 29,616,666 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the Company (the 'Placing Shares') at a price of 1.5 pence per share (the 'Placing Price'), in order to raise gross proceeds of approximately 445,000 (the 'Placing') before expenses. The Placing has been undertaken within the Company's existing share authorities, and has been supported by both new and existing shareholders. The net proceeds of the Placing will be used to extend the current drilling programme and for developing new projects. The Placing is conditional only on admission to AIM ('Admission').



In addition, the Company advises that three directors of the Company, namely Mr. Michael de Villiers, Dr. Kerim Sener and Mr. William Payne, intend to subscribe for a total of 2,050,000 shares on the same terms for a further sum of 30,750 following the announcement of the Placing.



Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:



'The completion of this fundraising occurs at a significant moment in the development of the Company, while it delivers on completion of the Kiziltepe Mine with its partners, Proccea Construction. We are particularly keen to extend the current drilling programme beyond the budgeted 4,000m given the number of new target areas we have defined in recent months. The extended programme will systematically test several of these additional areas at Kiziltepe and will also enable us to drill other prospect areas as necessary. We would expect that this work will help to define an enhanced project with greater mine life and resource/reserve optionality.'



Special note concerning the Market Abuse Regulation



This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ('MAR'). Market soundings, as defined in MAR, were taken in respect of the Placing, with the result that certain persons became aware of inside information, as permitted by MAR. That inside information is set out in this announcement. Therefore, those persons that received inside information in a market sounding are no longer in possession of inside information relating to the Company and its securities.



A further announcement will be made in due course.



Contacts:



Ariana Resources plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616



Michael de Villiers, Chairman



Kerim Sener, Managing Director



Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396



Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt



Beaufort Securities Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 8300



Jon Belliss



Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500



Adam James / Tom Salvesen



Editors' Notes:



About Ariana Resources:



Ariana is an exploration and development company focused on epithermal gold- silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits in Turkey. The Company is developing a portfolio of prospective licences selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database, on its own in western Turkey and in Joint Venture with Eldorado Gold Corporation in north-eastern Turkey. Eldorado owns 51% of this joint venture and are fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties, while Ariana owns 49%. The total resource inventory within this JV is 1.09 million ounces of gold.



The Company's flagship assets are its Kiziltepe and Tavsan gold projects which form the Red Rabbit Gold Project. Both contain a series of prospects, within two prolific mineralised districts in the Western Anatolian Volcanic and Extensional (WAVE) Province in western Turkey. This Province hosts the largest operating gold mines in Turkey and remains highly prospective for new porphyry and epithermal deposits. These core projects, which are separated by a distance of 75km, are being assessed as to their economic merits and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co. The Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project is fully-permitted and is currently in construction. The total resource inventory at the Red Rabbit Project and wider project area stands at c. 525,000 ounces of gold equivalent.



Beaufort Securities Limited and Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited are joint brokers to the Company and Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Company's Nominated Adviser.



For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Company's website at www.arianaresources.com.



Ends



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: Ariana Resources plc via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2030070]



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HALF YEARLY FINANCIAL REPORT

for the six months ended 30th June 2016

A copy of the Company's Half Yearly Financial Report for the six months ended 30th June 2016 will shortly be available to view and download from www.rightsandissues.co.uk. Neither the contents of this website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on this website (or any other website) is incorporated into or forms part of this announcement.

Printed copies of the Report will be sent to shareholders shortly. Additional copies may be obtained from the Corporate Secretary - Maitland Administration services Limited, Springfield Lodge, Colchester Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 5PW.

INTERIM DIVIDEND

An interim dividend of 10.0p per share has been approved by the Board and is payable on 30th September 2016 to shareholders on the register as at 2nd September 2016 (ex-dividend 1st September 2016).

The following text is copied from the Half Yearly Financial Report.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

The decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union on 23rd June 2016 will have fundamental economic consequences which as yet are difficult to predict. In the short term, there has been a period of extreme market volatility.

This is not apparent in the performance of the FTSE All-Share Index which shows a rise of 2.1% for the first six months. However, since the vote to leave there has been a significant divergence in performance with the leading company prices rising while the rest of the UK market has fallen.

The net asset value has risen by 2.4% to 1582.3p at the end of the period.

The capital restructuring was successfully completed in June and the interim dividend is 10p per share in accordance with the previous indication.

The economy is now faced with a period of uncertainty and market volatility is likely to continue.

Dr D. M. BRAMWELL

Chairman

21st July 2016

Risks and uncertainties

Cautionary statement

This Half Yearly Report contains forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainty. These have been made by the Directors in good faith based on the information available to them at the time of their approval of this Report. Due to the inherent uncertainties, including stock market risk factor, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

There are a number of potential risks and uncertainties which could have a material impact on the Company's performance over the remaining six months of the financial year and could cause actual results to differ materially from expected and historical results. The Company's results continue to be exposed to market price risk. Further information on the principal long-term risks and uncertainties of the Company is included in the latest Annual Report.

INCOME STATEMENT

for the six months ended 30th June 2016

Six months ended

30th June 2016 Six months ended

30th June

2015

Year ended 31st December 2015 Notes Revenue

'000 Capital

'000 Total

'000 Revenue

'000 Capital

'000 Total

'000 Revenue

'000 Capital

'000 Total

'000 Investment income 2 1,561 - 1,561 1,679 - 1,679 3,271 - 3,271 Other operating income 2 3 - 3 1 - 1 6 - 6 Total income 1,564 - 1,564 1,680 - 1,680 3,277 - 3,277 Gains on fair value through profit or loss assets - 452 452 - 23,470 23,470 - 25,875 25,875 (Losses)/gains on subsidiary holding - (45) (45) - - - - 212 212 1,564 407 1,971 1,680 23,470 25,150 3,277 26,087 29,364 Expenses Investment management fee - - - - - - - - - Other expenses 296 - 296 359 - 359 682 - 682 296 - 296 359 - 359 682 - 682 Profit before tax 1,268 407 1,675 1,321 23,470 24,791 2,595 26,087 28,682 Tax- - - - - - 29 - 29 Profit for the period 1,268 407 1,675 1,321 23,470 24,791 2,624 26,087 28,711 Earnings per share Return per Income Share 14.1p 4.5p 18.6p 24.2p 238.5p 262.7p 47.3p 265.1p 312.4p Return per Capital Share n/a n/a n/a 44.2p 1073.3p 1117.5p 89.0p 1193.0p 1282.0p

The total column of this statement represents the Income Statement, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. The supplementary revenue return and capital return columns are both prepared under guidance published by the Association of Investment Companies. All items in the above statement are those of the single entity and derive from continuing operations.

An interim dividend of 10.0p (2015: 10.5p) per share and amounting to 902,000 (2015: 258,300) is payable on 30th September 2016 to shareholders on the register as at 2nd September 2016 (ex-dividend 1st September 2016).

The financial information contained in this Half Yearly Financial Report does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Sections 434 - 436 of the Companies Act 2006. The information for the six months to 30th June 2016 and 30th June 2015 has not been audited.

The information for the year ended 31st December 2015 has been extracted from the latest published audited accounts which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. The report of the auditors on those accounts contained no qualification or statement under Section 498 (2) or (4) of the Companies Act 2006.

The auditors have reviewed the financial information for the six months ended 30th June 2016 pursuant to the Auditing Practices Board guidance on Review of Interim Financial Information and their report is on page 12.

BALANCE SHEET

as at 30th June 2016

Non-current assets 30th June

2016

'000 30th June

2015

'000 31st December

2015

'000 Investments at fair value through profit or loss 125,347 130,795 123,256 125,347 130,795 123,256 Current assets Other receivables 742 735 412 Current tax receivable 29 39 29 Amounts due from Group undertakings 140 831 140 Cash and cash equivalents 16,509 8,076 18,909 17,420 9,681 19,490 Total assets 142,767 140,476 142,746 Current liabilities Other payables 41 752 77 41 752 77 Total assets less current liabilities 142,726 139,724 142,669 Net assets 142,726 139,724 142,669 Equity Called up share capital 2,255 1,025 1,025 Share premium - 225 225 Retained reserves: Capital reserve 62,665 55,901 63,709 Revaluation reserve 75,290 80,074 74,883 Revenue reserve* 2,516 2,499 2,827 Total equity 142,726 139,724 142,669 * Previously called the Dividend equalisation reserve. Net asset value per share Income shares 1,582.3p 1,505.6p 1,544.8p Capital shares n/a 6,261.4p 6,382.2p

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

for the six months ended 30th June 2016



Share

capital

'000 Share premium

Account

'000

Capital

Reserve

'000

Revaluation

Reserve

'000 Dividend

Equalization

Reserve

'000



Total

'000 For the six months ended June 2015 Balance at 31st December 2014 1,025 225 51,973 60,532 2,539 116,294 Profit for the period - - 3,928 19,542 1,321 24,791 Total recognised income and expense 1,025 225 55,901 80,074 3,860 141,085 Dividends (Note 3) - - - - (1,361) (1,361) Balance at 30th June 2015 1,025 225 55,901 80,074 2,499 139,724 For the year ended December 2015 Balance at 31st December 2014 1,025 225 51,973 60,532 2,539 116,294 Profit for the period - - 11,736 14,351 2,624 28,711 Total recognised income and expense 1,025 225 63,709 74,883 5,163 145,005 Dividends (Note 3) - - - - (2,336) (2,336) Balance at 31December 2015 1,025 225 63,709 74,883 2,827 142,669 For the six months ended June 2016 Balance at 31st December 2015 1,025 225 63,709 74,883 2,827 142,669 Profit for the period - - - 407 1,268 1,675 Total recognised income and expense 1,025 225 63,709 75,290 4,095 144,344 Bonus issue of income shares 1,230 (225) (1,005) - - - Cost of bonus issue - - (39) - - (39) Dividends (Note 3) - - - - (1,579) (1,579) Balance at 30th June 2016 2,255 - 62,665 75,290 2,516 142,726

* Previously called the Dividend equalisation reserve.

CASH FLOW STATEMENTS

for the six months ended 30th June 2016

Cashflows from operating activities 30 June

2016

'000 30 June

2015

'000 31 December

2015

'000 Profit before tax 1,675 24,791 28,682 Adjustments for: Gains on investments (452) (23,470) (25,875) Losses/(gains) on revaluation of subsidiary 45 - (212) Purchases of investments (1,684) (1,733) (1,733) Proceeds on disposal of investments - 6,147 16,283 Operating cash flows before movements in working capital (416) 5,735 17,145 (Increase)/decrease in receivables (330) (428) 586 (Decrease)/increase in payables (36) 11 40 Net cash from operating activities before income taxes (782) 5,318 17,771 Income taxes received - - 39 Net cash (used in) from operating activities (782) 5,318 17,810 Cashflows from financing activities Expenses from capital restructure (39) - - Disposal of subsidiary - - 20 Dividends paid (1,579) (657) (2,336) Net cash used in financing activities (1,618) (657) (2,316) Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents (2,400) 4,661 15,494 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 18,909 3,415 3,415 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 16,509 8,076 18,909

NOTES TO THE HALF YEARLY FINANCIAL REPORT

for the six months ended 30th June 2016

1. Accounting Standards

The condensed interim financial report has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), including IAS 34 "Interim financial reporting" as adopted by the European Union. The same accounting policies and methods of computation are followed in the interim financial report as those used in the Company's latest published annual financial statements.

2. Income

30 June 30 June 31 December 2016 2015 2015 '000 '000 '000 Total income comprises: Dividends 1,561 1,679 3,271 Interest 3 1 2 Other income - - 4 Total income 1,564 1,680 3,277

3. Dividends

Amounts recognised as distributions to equity holders in the year:

Income (Paid)

Interim dividend for the year ended 31 December 2015

30 June

2016

'000

30 June

2015

'000 31 December

2015

'000 of 10.5p per share - - 258 Final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2015 of 25.5p per share (year ended 31 December 2014: 25.5p) 627 627 627 Special dividend for the year ended 31 December 2016 of 22.5p per share (year ended 31 December 2015: nil p) 553 - - Capital (Paid) Supp cap dividend for the year ended 31 December 2015 of 86.6585p per share - 704 1,421 Final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2015 of 1.8p per share (year ended 31 December 2014: 1.8p) 30 30 30 Special dividend for the year ended 31 December 2016 of 22.5p per share (year ended 31 December 2015: nil p) 369 - - 1,579 1,361 2,336

30 June

2016

'000 Income

Proposed interim dividend of 10.0p per share 902 902

This proposed interim dividend was approved by the Board on 21st July 2016 and has not been included as a liability at 30th June 2016.

4. Valuation of financial instruments

IFRS 13 requires the Company to classify fair value measurements using a fair value hierarchy that reflects the significance of inputs used in making the measurements. The valuation techniques used by the Company are explained in the accounting policies note 1 Investments, as set out in the Company's Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December 2015.

The fair value hierarchy has the following levels:

Level 1 - Unadjusted prices quoted in active markets for identical assets and liabilities.

Level 2 - Having inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or

liability, either directly (ie as prices) or indirectly (ie derived from prices).

Level 3 - Having inputs for the asset or liability that are not based on observable data.

30 June 2016 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Total 000 000 000 000 Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss UK Equity Listed 92,239 - - 92,239 AIM trades stocks 32,530 - - 32,530 Investment in subsidiary - - 578 578 Net fair value 124,769 - 578 125,347 30 June 2015 Level 1

000 Level 2

000 Level 3

000 Total

000 Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss UK Equity Listed 97,870 - - 97,870 AIM trades stocks 32,494 - - 32,494 Investment in subsidiary - - 431 431 Net fair value 130,364 - 431 130,795 31 December 2015 Level 1

000 Level 2

000 Level 3

000 Total

000 Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss UK Equity Listed 92,853 - - 92,853 AIM trades stocks 29,780 - - 29,780 Investment in subsidiary - - 623 623 Net fair value 122,633 - 623 123,256

There were no transfers between Level 1 and Level 2 during the period.

A reconciliation of fair value measurements in Level 3 is set out in the following table.

30 June

2016

'000 30 June

2015

'000 31 December

2015

'000 Opening Balance 623 431 431 Purchases - - - Sales - - (20) Total gains or losses included in gains on investments in the Income Statement: - on assets sold - - - - on assets held at period end (45) - 212 Closing Balance 578 431 623

The Level 3 investments relate to the Company's subsidiary, Discretionary Unit Fund Managers Limited which has been valued based of the most recent estimated NAV.

5. Related Party Transactions

Under IFRS, the Directors have been identified as related parties. Their fees and interests for the year ended 31st December 2015 have been disclosed in the Director's Annual Remuneration Report within the 2015 Annual Report and Financial Statements.

During the period the Company had the following transactions with Discretionary Unit Fund Managers Limited, its subsidiary undertaking:

30 June

2016

'000 30 June

2015

'000 31 December

2015

'000 Dividends received - 113 121 - 113 121 Amounts owed by subsidiary undertaking 140 475 140

6. Going Concern

The Company's assets comprise mainly realisable equity securities and cash and the value of its assets is greater than its liabilities. Additionally, after reviewing the Company's budget including the current financial resources and projected expenses for the next twelve months and its medium-term plans, the Directors believe that the Company's resources are adequate for continuing in business for the foreseeable future. Accordingly it is appropriate to continue to prepare accounts on a going concern basis.

DIRECTORS' STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE HALF YEARLY FINANCIAL REPORT

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Half Yearly financial report in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

The Directors confirm that to the best of their knowledge:

- the condensed set of financial statements has been prepared in accordance with IAS 34 "Interim financial reporting"; and

- the Half Yearly management report includes a fair review of the information required by DTR 4.2.7R and 4.2.8R.

This report was approved on 21st July 2016.

Dr D. M. BRAMWELL

Chairman

TOP TEN HOLDINGS

Investment Holding Value  Scapa 8,000,000 20,680,000 RPC 1,800,000 14,076,000 Hill & Smith 1,434,230 12,714,449 VP 1,800,000 11,340,000 Treatt 5,775,000 9,240,000 Colefax 2,050,000 9,225,000 Macfarlane 16,325,851 8,897,589 British Polythene Industries 764,325 7,092,936 Spirax-Sarco Engineering 120,714 4,514,704 Menzies (John) 650,000 3,545,750

The actual holdings as at 30th June 2016 are, in each case, of ordinary shares and of the nominal value for which listing has been granted.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW REPORT TO RIGHTS AND ISSUES INVESTMENT TRUST PLC

INTRODUCTION

We have been engaged by the Company to review the financial statements in the Half Yearly Financial Report for the six months ended 30th June 2016 which comprises the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Changes in Equity, the Cash Flow Statement and the related explanatory notes 1 to 6. We have read the other information contained in the Half Yearly Report and considered whether it contains any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the information in the condensed set of financial statements.

The report is made solely to the Company in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (UK and Ireland) 2410 issued by the Auditing Practices Board. Our work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company those matters we are required to state to them in an independent review report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company, for our review work, for this report, or for the conclusions we have formed.

DIRECTORS' RESPONSIBILITIES

The Half Yearly Financial Report is the responsibility of, and has been approved by, the Directors. The Directors are responsible for preparing the Half Yearly Financial Report in accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority.

As disclosed in note 1, the Annual Financial Statements of the group are prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union. The financial statements included in this Half Yearly Financial Report have been prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 "Interim Financial Reporting" as adopted by the European Union.

OUR RESPONSIBILITY

Our responsibility is to express to the Company a conclusion on the condensed set of financial statements in the Half Yearly Financial Report based on our review.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

We conducted our review in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (UK and Ireland) 2410, "Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity" issued by the Auditing Practices Board for use in the United Kingdom. A review of interim information consists of making enquiries, primarily of persons responsible for financial and accounting matters, and applying analytical and other review procedures. A review is substantially less in scope than in an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) and consequently does not enable us to obtain assurance that we would become aware of all significant matters that might be identified in an audit. Accordingly we do not express an audit opinion.

CONCLUSION

Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial statements in the Half Yearly Financial Report for the six months ended 30th June 2016 are not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 as adopted by the European Union and the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority.

COLIN WAIN

For and on behalf of Begbies

Chartered Accountants

9 Bonhill Street

London EC2A 4DJ



21st July 2016

END
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 4:30 am ET Friday, Markit releases U.K. flash PMI data. The factory PMI is forecast to fall to 48.7 in July from 52.1 in June. Similarly, the services PMI is seen at 48.8 versus 52.3 a month ago. Ahead of the data, the pound climbed against its major counterparts. The pound was worth 0.8313 against the euro, 1.3275 against the greenback, 140.88 against the yen and 1.3073 against the franc as of 4:25 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.










New Return Policy Offers More Benefits to Shop at SammyDress.

SHENZHEN, China, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SammyDress, a company by Globalegrow, is a growing ecommerce conglomerate focused on bringing the fashion of the early 20th century to the masses. The fast fashion style mixed with the broad range of apparel and accessory options for women has quickly elevated SammyDress to a top e-commerce store.

Leo Wang, SammyDress director of sales and marketing,discusses belowhow the revamped return policy gives more power to the customer.

Q: In a nutshell, what is the new return policy at SammyDress?

A:SammyDress 24/7 support team is responsible for handling returns and exchanges. One thing that our staff have relayed to upper management is that customers often need more time evaluating a product once it has arrived. To accommodate customers further we have extended our return policy to give customers a total of 30 days to decide if they like a product or not.

Q: What is the process of getting a product returned or exchanged?

A: We want to make the return as seamless as possible. Much of the industry allows for customers to just ship products back and this can result in slow returns, or even worse people are sending back products that can't be returned and this creates bigger issues.

SammyDress, like other Globalegrow brands Zaful and Rosegal, has a policy that makes sure customers are eligible for returns first. The first step of the SammyDress return policy is to contact the company itself. Chat, call, or email SammyDress and provide the team with the issue you are having along with the products SKU number. From here a SammyDress staff member will contact you with a resolution option.

Once a product has been received by SammyDress customers will have two options; one they can ask for a full refund or they can exchange products. We will try our best to solve the case in one email to save customer's time.

Q: Finally, do you have anything you want to say to the customers about the new return policy?

A:As a growing company we are constantly getting reviews from customers, we want them to know that their voices are being heard. We will continue to take their words into consideration to make a better shopping experience. In the coming months expect more surprises and changes!

For more information, please visithttp://www.sammydress.com/and its sister companies' websites: http://www.zaful.com/andhttp://www.rosegal.com/.










NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - July 22, 2016) - Property expert and consultant Jacob Frydman, who earned his reputation as one of the nation's leading analysts of trends in both the New York City and national real estate markets, has recently offered his deeply knowledgeable response to CityRealty's projection that condominium sales at new developments in Manhattan will exceed $10 billion by 2018. Recognized as a thought-leader in his field, he has been a guest lecturer on real estate finance at Columbia University and in the Master's Lecturer series sponsored by New York Law School, and has been interviewed numerous times on Bloomberg TV, Fox Business News, CNBC and other television networks.

Launched in 1994, "The oldest continuously operating real estate website," CityRealty.com has reported that 92 condo projects with roughly 8,000 new apartments are currently under construction or proposed. A graphic on CityRealty.com shows that condos at new developments will climb from $4.1 billion in sales in 2014 to $8.4 billion this year and $10.3 billion in 2018. The website credited higher price points as the main reason for the "upward trajectory" to what CityRealty called "a level not seen since last decade's boom cycle."

Few if any are better positioned than Jacob Frydman to analyze expectations in the real estate market. An expert in various segments of the industry -- including industrial properties, hotels, and retail space as well as residential units -- he addressed the value of condominiums during his guest appearance on Fox Business News on Nov. 4, 2014. "Things you live in might not be an investment," Frydman said. "But if you're thinking about it as an investment, condos fell less as a percentage than houses from the top of the market to the trough in 2009, and have recovered faster from the trough of the market in 2009 to today, by between 6 and 10 percent in major cities... it might surprise most Americans, but buying a condo actually was a better investment play than buying a house."

Jacob Frydman has over 30 years of experience in structuring, financing and executing highly complex real estate transactions. Notable achievements of his career include Two Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, an office condominium tower in midtown Manhattan used by foreign governments for their missions to the United Nations, and redeveloping the Aetna Building in lower Manhattan's financial district. An avid philanthropist, he has been a firm supporter of Chabad of Dutchess County, the Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer, and other organizations. He generously dedicates much of his time and capital to programs aimed at helping people in struggling communities, and is proud to have recently joined the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) in support of its Released Time program of Greater New York.

Jacob Frydman -- Blog -- JacobFrydmanNews.com: http://JacobFrydmanNews.com

Jacob Frydman -- Devoted Member and Supporter of The Rhinebeck Jewish Center: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-devoted-member-supporter-050741846.html

Jacob Frydman -- Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/jacob-frydman

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/7/22/11G107651/Images/mw1ao89tnp2f3ei818671lmrrdi2-034649402de8aa5c969031fbc45c14b6.jpg

Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYlCSBjQbU

Contact Information:

JacobFrydmanNews.com

contact@jacobfrydmannews.com

www.JacobFrydmanNews.com
ISTANBUL, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Airline becomes launch operator for A320neo with CFM engines

Pegasus Airlines, Turkey's leading low-cost airline, took delivery on Tuesday July 19th, its first Airbus A320neo powered by CFM International's LEAP-1A engines, becoming the first airline to do so for the type. Pegasus placed the largest single order by a Turkish carrier for up to 100 A320neo Family aircraft in 2012, making it a new Airbus customer. Pegasus Airlines along with Airbus and CFM top management and employees celebrated the delivery in a private ceremony at Airbus' site in Hamburg.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392090-INFO )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392091 )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392092 )



"This delivery marks the start of Pegasus' fleet renewal with the most fuel efficient aircraft incorporating the latest technologies, aerodynamics, engines and a comfortable cabin," said Mehmet Nane, CEO of Pegasus Airlines. "We have an ambitious expansion strategy and the A320neo will be the backbone of this."

"We are delighted to be delivering our first CFM powered A320neo to Pegasus Airlines." said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus President and CEO. "It fills us with pride that Pegasus Airlines has selected the A320neo Family to achieve its impressive growth plans. We are sure the aircraft will deliver on their expectations."

"Today, Pegasus, Airbus and CFM are making history. Introducing a new engine family in commercial service happens almost once in a lifetime. It's a big deal, so we are very proud to do it with our long-term customer, Pegasus, and with Airbus," said CFM International CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga.

The A320neo Family is the world's best-selling and most fuel efficient single aisle aircraft Family. The A320neo powering with the CFM International's LEAP-1A provides operators with double digits improvements in fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions - with a 15 percent reduction upon entry into service and up to a 20%reduction by 2020.

The A320neo Family incorporates the very latest technologies including new generation engines and Sharklet wing tip devices. With over 4,500 orders received from 83 customers since its launch in 2010, the A320neo Family has captured some 60 percent share of the market. The Airbus' A320neo Family offers thanks to their widest cabin unmatched comfort in all classes and Airbus' 18-inch wide seats in economy as standard.

Connect with Pegasus on Social Media

Official website: http://www.flypgs.com/en

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pegasusairlines

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flymepegasus

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/pegasusairlines

Instagram: http://instagram.com/pegasusairlines


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The euro strengthened against most major rivals in the early European session on Friday, after data showed that the flash eurozone composite purchasing managers' index fell less than expected in July.



Data from the Markit showed Eurozone private sector expanded at the weakest pace in one-and-a-half-years in July. The flash composite output index fell to 52.9 in July, an 18-month low, from 53.1 in June. Nonetheless, the score was above the expected level of 52.5.



The services Purchasing Managers' Index dropped marginally to 52.7 from 52.8 in June. The score was expected to drop to 52.3.



Also, Germany's private sector expanded at the fastest pace in seven months in July. The flash composite output index rose to 55.3 from 54.4 in June. The index reached its highest level in 2016 so far with both manufacturers and service providers reporting stronger expansions.



The services Purchasing Managers' Index climbed unexpectedly to 54.6 from 53.7 a month ago. It was forecast to drop to 53.2.



The manufacturing PMI dropped less-than-expected to 53.7 from 54.5 in the previous month. The score was expected to fall to 53.4.



Meanwhile, European shares rose amid gradual improvements in the corporate earning results.



In the Asian trading today, the euro held steady against its major rivals.



In the early European trading, the euro rose to 9-day high of 1.4494 against the Canadian dollar, from an early low of 1.4419. The euro may test resistance near the 1.46 area.



Against the U.S. dollar, the yen and the NZ dollar, the euro advanced to 1.1041, 117.23 and 1.5791 from early lows of 1.1016, 116.39 and 1.5715, respectively. If the euro extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 1.12 against the greenback, 123.00 against the yen and 1.61 against the kiwi.



The euro edged up to 0.8378 against the pound, from an early 1-week low of 0.8299. The euro is likely to find resistance around the 0.86 area.



Data from Markit showed that the flash U.K. composite output index fell to an 87-month low of 47.7 in July from 52.4 in June. The services Purchasing Managers' Index dropped more-than-expected to 47.4, an 88-month low, from 52.3 in the previous month. The expected level was 48.8.



The manufacturing PMI came in at 49.1, down from 52.1 in June, but slightly above the expected score of 48.7. This was the lowest score in 41 months.



Meanwhile, the euro rose to 1.0876 against the Swiss franc, from an early 2-day low of 1.0858 and held steady thereafter.



Against the Australian dollar, the euro edged up to 1.4777 from an early low of 1.4691 and held steady thereafter.



Looking ahead, Canada consumer prices and producer price indexes for June, Canadian retail sales data for May, flash U.S. manufacturing PMI for July and U.S. Baker Hughes rig count data are due for release in the New York session.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
MUMBAI, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The following release was issued today by Vedanta Limited's subsidiary Cairn India Limited.

Financial Highlights

Revenue at Rupee 1,885 crore ( US$ 282 mn ); up 10% QoQ on improved price realization

( ); up 10% QoQ on improved price realization EBITDA at Rupee 794 crore ( US$ 119 mn ); up 48% QoQ on account of higher revenues and reduction in operating cost

( ); up 48% QoQ on account of higher revenues and reduction in operating cost Normalized net profit at Rupee 360 crore ( US$ 54 mn ); up 88% QoQ

( ); up 88% QoQ Strong total free cash flow of Rupee 1,521 crore ( US$ 226 mn ) generation despite low oil price; robust Cash and Cash Equivalents position of Rupee 23,394 crore ( US$ 3.5 bn )

( ) generation despite low oil price; robust Cash and Cash Equivalents position of Rupee ( ) Discount to Brent for Rajasthan (RJ) crude at US$ 8.2 /bbl, reduced from 19.8% to 17.8%

Operational Highlights

World's largest Polymer EOR project contributing ~42 kboepd; up 31% QoQ

Average gross oil and gas production maintained at 206 kboepd

Continuous improvement in RJ water-flood operating cost, reduced by 7% QoQ and 14% from FY16 to US$ 4.4 /boe; polymer injection cost in Mangala also 25% below guidance ~25% reduction in well maintenance expenses from FY16, ~40% work-over optimization ~24% reduction in crude processing charges from FY16, savings on chemical cost and gas compressor rentals

/boe; polymer injection cost in Mangala also 25% below guidance

Development / Exploration Highlights

Ultimate gas recovery potential up by ~25% in RDG post completion of hydro-fraccing in 15 wells. Gross recovery ( gas and condensate ) till 2030 up from 74 mmboe to 86 mmboe

) till 2030 up from 74 mmboe to 86 mmboe Polymer flood in MBA has potential to add ~10-12% recovery, further to 30-35% estimated from water-flooding. Development plan for Aishwariya (15 mmbbls EUR) and Bhagyam (45 mmbbls EUR) EOR till 2030 expected to be submitted in current quarter and 1H CY17, respectively.

Development of Aishwariya Barmer Hill (20-30 mmbbls EUR) envisaged in stages. Production from stage-1 expected in current fiscal year. Exploration potential of 1.4 bnboe of HIIP in Barmer Hill offers a growth opportunity with an estimated ultimate recovery of 8-10%

Seismic data interpretation ongoing to identify new prospects near Raageshwari Deep Gas field and other areas within the block

Corporate and Regulatory Developments

At the Annual General Meeting held earlier in the day, members have voted on all items of the AGM Notice. The results shall be declared within the prescribed time limits and will also be placed at the website of the Company and CDSL.

Mike Wylie joins Cairn India as Head of Tight Oil business. His rich experience on unconventional resources from his earlier tenure at Exxon Mobil and Newfield Exploration, will help strength the focus on the tight oil resources.

joins Cairn India as Head of Tight Oil business. His rich experience on unconventional resources from his earlier tenure at Exxon Mobil and Newfield Exploration, will help strength the focus on the tight oil resources. Cairn India remains committed to the Cairn - Vedanta Limited merger and continue to work towards its completion. The merger would generate value for shareholders delivering stable cash flows through the cycle by providing exposure to a large, resilient and diversified commodity portfolio with significant near term growth potential.

remains committed to the Cairn - Vedanta Limited merger and continue to work towards its completion. The merger would generate value for shareholders delivering stable cash flows through the cycle by providing exposure to a large, resilient and diversified commodity portfolio with significant near term growth potential. The PSC extension and crude export writs are sub judice in the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi . Pursuant to the Delhi High Court's directions, ONGC in the capacity of the Contractor (as per the PSC) communicated its consent to the extension of PSC on the same terms and conditions for a period of 10 years. The Rajasthan JV partners keenly await Government's expeditious decision on PSC extension, to initiate large investment.

in the Hon'ble High Court of . Pursuant to the Delhi High Court's directions, ONGC in the capacity of the Contractor (as per the PSC) communicated its consent to the extension of PSC on the same terms and conditions for a period of 10 years. The Rajasthan JV partners keenly await Government's expeditious decision on PSC extension, to initiate large investment. In May 2016 , the MoPNG launched Discovered Small Fields Bid Round - 2016. This is a significant step towards a more simplified and transparent, administrative and regulatory set-up for the Oil & Gas sector. Cairn India believes this will increase production and investments in the Indian Oil & Gas sector.

Mr. Sudhir Mathur, CFO and Acting CEO of Cairn India commented:

"The Cairn team has delivered a resilient performance, registering 88% increase in profit for the quarter on sequential basis. We have taken significant measures to drive cost efficiency and rationalize capital investment, resulting in free cash generation in a lower-for-longer oil price environment.

We remain committed to our four projects - RDG Gas, Enhance Recovery at Bhagyam & Aishwariya as well as the tight oil projects. Sharp reductions in drilling and fraccing costs coupled with learnings from Mangala EOR give us the confidence that we will be ready to execute in a US$ 50/barrel world within 12 months."

Operational Review

During Q1 FY17, Cairn had a gross production of 17.9 mmboe across all the assets, of which working interest production was 11.4 mmboe. Gross Sales was 17.7 mmboe averaging at 195,003 boepd.

Average Daily Production Units Q1 Q4 FY17 FY16 y-o-y (%) FY16 q-o-q (%) Total Gross operated* Boepd 206,455 217,935 -5% 206,170 0% Gross operated Boepd 196,861 209,738 -6% 197,039 0% Oil Bopd 190,305 203,731 -7% 190,271 0% Gas Mmscfd 39 36 9% 41 -3% Working Interest Boepd 125,391 130,565 -4% 125,775 0% /b> Rajasthan (Block RJ-ON-90/1) Total Gross operated* Boepd 175,760 179,683 (2%) 176,039 (0%) Gross operated Boepd 166,943 172,224 (3%) 167,650 (0%) Oil Bopd 164,547 170,686 (4%) 164,826 (0%) Gas Mmscfd 14 9 56% 17 (15%) Gross DA 1 Boepd 150,699 149,651 1% 150,918 (0%) Gross DA 2 Boepd 16,244 22,573 (28%) 16,732 (3%) Gross DA 3 Boepd - - - - - Working Interest Boepd 116,860 120,557 (3%) 117,355 (0%)

Ravva (Block PKGM-1) Total Gross operated* Boepd 20,664 29,563 (30%) 20,068 3% Gross operated Boepd 19,637 28,556 (31%) 19,058 3% Oil Bopd 17,014 25,245 (33%) 16,588 3% Gas Mmscfd 16 20 (21%) 15 6% Working Interest Boepd 4,418 6,425 (31%) 4,288 3%

Cambay (Block CB/OS-2) Total Gross operated* Boepd 10,031 8,689 15% 10,063 (0%) Gross operated Boepd 10,281 8,958 15% 10,331 (0%) Oil Bopd 8,744 7,800 12% 8,856 (1%) Gas Mmscfd 9 7 33% 9 4% Working Interest Boepd 4,113 3,583 15% 4,133 (0%)

* Includes internal gas consumption

Operations

Rajasthan (Block RJ-ON-90/1)

The Rajasthan block crossed the cumulative production of 350 mmboe in Q1 FY17, with a total production of ~354 mmboe by the end of the quarter. Gross production was largely stable at 15.2 mmboe at an average of 166,943 boepd, aided by encouraging Mangala EOR volumes and inline performance from Aishwariya. Contribution from Mangala EOR increased by ~31% to an average of 42,000 boepd for the quarter from 32,000 boepd in Q4 FY16, driven by enhanced well productivity and new wells coming online. Production optimization and maximization of liquid handling capacity helped maintain strong performance from Aishwariya. Satellite Field's production increased ~4% QoQ to an average of ~3.5 Kbopd in Q1 FY17. Total oil sales for the quarter was 14.9 mn barrels, at an average rate of 164,169 bopd.

Gas production from RDG remained firm at an average of 28 mmscfd, amounting to 2.6 bcf. Hydro-frac campaign of 15 wells that started in December 2015 to sustain the growth level, was successfully completed Total gas sales was 1.3 bcf, maintaining an average rate of 14.4 mmscfd.

The water-flood operating cost in Rajasthan has been consistently brought down over the past six quarters to US$ 4.4/boe in Q1 FY17 from US$5.2/boe in FY16 through cost reduction in crude processing and work-over optimization activities. Blended operating cost was also reduced to US$ 6.4/boe from US$6.5/boe while maintaining the injection of polymer at the targeted level of 400 kblpd.

Maintaining continued focus of safe operations and asset integrity, the average facility uptime was over 99% in Q1 FY17. Lost Time Incident (LTI) free man-hours for Rajasthan Projects crossed 30 million since last LTI.

A routine operational and statutory maintenance shutdown at the Mangala Processing Terminal is planned in later half of September. While this would have an impact on production, the opportunity will be used to create tie-ins for ongoing new facility enhancements, development projects and future growth projects.

Ravva (Block PKGM-1)

The Ravva block continues to be an excellent example of good reservoir management, having produced more than 278 mmbbls of crude and over 345 bcf of gas with an overall recovery of ~50% since inception in 1994, far greater than the initial resource estimates at the time of the PSC award. In Q1 FY17, Ravva production increased 3% QoQ to 1.8 mmboe at an average rate of 19,637 boepd on account of improvement in well productivity after the well stimulation program was carried out in Q4 FY16. Prudent reservoir management through continuous surveillance, sustained water injection and optimizing the lift gas, has helped offset the natural decline. For Q1 FY17, 1.5 mmbbls of crude and 1.4 bcf of gas were sold, averaging 16,934 bopd of crude oil and 16 mmscfd of gas, respectively.

With a strong focus on asset integrity, Ravva recorded an uptime of 99.9% in Q1 FY17. Maintaining its high safety standards, Ravva asset completed two years of Lost Time Incident (LTI) free operations this quarter and recorded 4.9 million LTI free man-hours since last LTI.

Cambay (Block CB/OS-2)

The Cambay block has been consistently delivering strong performance with a total production of more than 25 mmbbls of crude and over 226 bcf of gas since inception in 2002. For Q1 FY17, the production remained steady at 0.9 mmboe at an average rate of 10,281 boepd. Effective reservoir management practices and production optimization measures helped offsetting the natural decline in the block. During the quarter, 0.7 mmbbls of crude and 0.8 bcf of gas were sold, averaging 7,343 bopd of crude oil and 9.2 mmscfd of gas, respectively.

Facilities maintained excellent uptime of 99.9% in Q1 FY17 and recorded 3.4 million LTI free man-hours.

Development

With an aim to monetize the large base of resources of over one billion boe in Rajasthan, significant development efforts have been undertaken to improve their economics. Following activities were undertaken in this direction in the key projects:

Mangala EOR

The world-class polymer project in Mangala has been successfully implemented and stabilized within the acceptable efficiency range within a span of one year. It continues to perform on expected lines as polymer injection is maintained at the target level of 400 kblpd. EOR contribution increased to an average of about 42,000 boepd in Q1 FY17 from 32,000 boepd in Q4 FY16. Encouraging results from Mangala polymer flood gives the confidence to pursue it in Bhagyam and Aishwariya also.

The specialized technology for produced water treatment has already been partially commissioned and the initial results of the water quality from the skim tanks are as per expectations. Common facilities for all well-pads are in place and injection is ongoing at all the well-pads as per plan.

Gas Development at RDG Field

Based on superior initial well productivity post conclusion of the hydro-frac campaign and better reservoir characterization, the Expected Ultimate gas recovery from RDG has increased by ~25%. The recovery estimates till 2030, including of condensate, increased from 74 mmboe to 86 mmboe. Focus on cutting-edge technology and design improvements has led to over 100% increase in initial well productivity to 8-10 mmscfd compared to wells fracced during the2009-10 campaign. 'Limited Entry Technique' for fracturing and better design in terms of larger numbers of fracs, higher proppant concentration etc increased the pay coverage by ~30%. Introduction of 'Addressable Switch Firing System' perforation technique has halved the number of days per frac to 2.2 days resulting in ~50% reduction in per frac cost to US$ 230k; 35% of this optimization is structural in nature driven by design engineering and operational efficiency savings.

Good progress has been made on phased ramp-up of gas production through return based capital discipline approach while ensuring sustained production growth. As part of Phase 1, fraccing has been completed in all the 15 wells and the wells are being put on production after testing and clean-up. Debottlenecking of existing facilities through low cost augmentation is underway. Completion of Phase 1 is expected to increase the gas production to 40-45 mmscfd by end of 1H CY17. For Phase 2, tendering for new gas processing terminal Long Lead Items, drilling rig and services is progressing as per plan. Tendering activity for the EPC contract for gas evacuation pipeline from Raageshwari to Pali and Pali to Mehsana planned to be constructed by GSPL India Gasnet Limited is also progressing as per schedule. Completion of Phase 2 will increase the gas production to 100 mmscfd.

Polymer flood in Bhagyam and Aishwariya

Continued efforts to reduce the cost through scope optimization have resulted in improving the economics of polymer flood in Bhagyam and Aishwariya. Recovery from MBA is estimated at 10-12% through polymer flood, in addition to 30-35% from water-flood operations. At present incremental production of 45 mmbbls in Bhagyam and 15 mmbbls in Aishwariya are expected through polymer flood till 2030. In-line with the return focused capital investment approach, the initial implementation will take place in a favourable region to reduce drilling and surface facility costs. This has helped reduced the development and operating cost per barrel by 25-30% compared to the cost based on initial plan for full field development. Efforts are underway to further bring down the cost by 10-20% to improve the economics at a low oil price. Multiple options are being evaluated to reduce the cost through design innovations, drilling and completion optimization, and alternate technology and material. Learnings from Mangala EOR in terms of enhanced development through fewer wells, use of standardized skids and optimizing polymer consumption, will also help lower the cost further.

Multi-well polymer injectivity test in Bhagyam to improve injection rate modelling is currently underway. Revised development plan is expected to be submitted to the JV partner in 1H CY17 after incorporating results of the test. Polymer injection is planned begin in Q1 CY19 subject to approval of the plan. For Aishwariya EOR, concept report has been finalized and development plan is expected to be submitted in the current quarter. First polymer injection is expected in 1H CY18.

Barmer Hill

With a large exploration potential of 1.4 bnboe of HIIP, Barmer Hill offers an excellent growth opportunity, with an estimated ultimate recovery of 8-10% till 2030. The focus is to monetize the Barmer Hill formations of Mangala and Aishwariya by leveraging the existing infrastructure. The recently concluded field appraisal program saw an improvement in operating efficiency and technology implementation. Introduction of advanced technologies like 'Microseismic' and 'Chemical Tracer Technology' also helped in improving the recovery. Aishwariya Barmer Hill is also expected to benefit from its reservoir outperformance. With the initial results indicating 30% higher productivity compared to the expectation, ultimate recovery per well is estimated to be double of initial prognosis. Increase in number of fracs per day from one to three has helped reduce the well completion cost for lateral wells by ~20% from the initial estimates. Efforts are ongoing to further reduce it by 20-30% to US$ 4.5-5 million per well, through design improvement in well construction.

Development of Aishwariya Barmer Hill, with total EUR of 20-30 mmbbls, is envisaged in stages to de-risk the capital investment. Stage-1 includes development of the appraisal wells to increase the production at low investment. Technical and commercial discussion with the JV partner is in advanced stage and first oil is expected in the current fiscal year. Future stages shall be developed with improvement in economics driven by enhanced recovery and cost reduction. For Mangala Barmer Hill, internal studies and field pilots are being carried out to optimize and finalize the development plan.

Satellite Field

Production enhancement and cost reduction are key focus areas in Satellite Field. The operating cost optimization initiatives like reducing fuel expense by substituting diesel with produced gas/grid power where possible, optimizing well intervention expense through effective use of low cost alternatives and minimizing trucking costs for produced liquids have yielded good results. Considerable progress on preparing development plans for additional satellite resources at minimal development costs has been achieved. Stage-1 development plan of Guda field is in advanced stages of discussion with the JV partner. These additional resources provide optionality and are expected to be monetized with improvement in their economics.

Exploration

Exploration activities will continue focussing on seismic interpretation while integrating the well information from the previous extensive exploration campaign to build a large portfolio for future growth.

Rajasthan

In-line with the re-phased exploration program, the focus is continued on appraisal of new discoveries and processing of the new 3D seismic data over high priority areas during Q1 FY17. The data obtained during appraisal work for NL and V&V fields is being evaluated, with the objective of progressing these discoveries to development.

The recently acquired 3D seismic data over Raageshwari field and adjoining areas has been processed in pre-stack depth migration mode, which has improved the subsurface imaging. Data interpretation is underway to identify new prospects near Raageshwari deep gas field. Processing of 3D seismic data in other areas of Rajasthan block (DP and Air Field South) is ongoing with a focus upon identifying additional prospects that will act to replenish the exploration prospect inventory.

Other India and International Assets

KG Offshore (Block KG-OSN-2009/3): Cairn continues to engage with the MoPNG for an extension contingent upon full lifecycle clearance from Ministry of Defence. Phase-I was up to 8th March 2016. Interpretation of the new seismic volumes has resulted in identification of four prospects and a number of smaller leads over different play types.

KG Onshore (Block KG-ONN-2003/1): ONGC, the development operator, has submitted the Field Development Plan (FDP) to the Management Committee (MC). The FDP is being reviewed by the MC.

Palar-Pennar (Block PR-OSN-2004/1): Preparation for drilling the commitment wells in 2017-18 is in progress. Process for receiving Coastal Regulatory Zone clearance is also initiated. The JV is engaging with the MoPNG for proportionate revision of work program commitment from three wells to two wells in view of lack of access to the full block area.

Mumbai Offshore (Block MB-DWN-2009/1): Due to lack of prospectivity and high risk, Cairn has submitted an application for relinquishment of the block. The first exploration phase expired on 16th April 2016.

South Africa (Block 1): The prospect inventory for the block has been finalised. Assessment of exploration potential of inboard plays is ongoing to provide other drilling options. A decision on the proposed legislative changes to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 2002 and the consequent applicable fiscal regime for progressing into the second exploration license phase is awaited.

Financial Review

In-line with the requirement of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the financial statements are prepared under Indian Accounting Standards (IndAS). Numbers for FY16 have also been restated as per IndAS. A detailed Annexure, explaining the key changes under IndAS and their impact on the profit and reserves, has also been attached.



Q1 Q4 Rupee Crore FY17 FY16 y-o-y (%) FY16 q-o-q (%) Net Revenue 1,885 2,627 (28%) 1,717 10% EBITDA 794 1,353 (41%) 537 48% Margin (%) 42% 51%

31%

Normalized PAT 360 501 (28%) 191 88% Reported PAT 360 501 (28%) (564) NA Margin (%) 19% 19%

(33%)

EPS (Rupee) - Diluted 1.92 2.67 (28%) (3.00) NA Cash EPS (Rupee) 6.73 9.10 (26%) 5.67 19%

Average Price

Realization Units Q1 Q4 FY17 FY16 y-o-y (%) FY16 q-o-q (%) Cairn India US$/boe 38.0 56.0 (32%) 28.2 35% Oil US$/bbl 37.9 56.3 (33%) 27.8 36% Gas US$/mscf 7.1 6.6 8% 7.4 (4%)

In Q1 FY17, net revenue increased 10% QoQ to Rupee 1,885 crore on account of a significant rise in Brent prices. Brent prices were up 33% during the quarter, resulting into a 35% QoQ increase in the overall realization to US$ 38.0/boe. Realization for RJ crude also increased by 36% to US$ 37.4/bbl as discount to Brent was at US$ 8.2/bbl, which reduced from 20% to 18% over the quarter. A lower increase in revenue was due to a higher amount of profit petroleum. During the quarter, net profit petroleum more than doubled to Rupee 648 crore (US$ 97 million) including Rupee 549 crore (US$ 82 million) for Rajasthan block. Net royalty was Rupee 366 crore (US$ 55 million) with Rajasthan share of Rupee 363 crore (US$ 54 million).

With constant efforts to reduce the cost, the water-flood operating cost in RJ was further reduced to US$ 4.4/boe in Q1 FY17 from US$ 4.8/boe in Q4 FY16 and US$ 5.2/boe in FY16. Reduction in the well maintenance expenses through continuous optimization of work-over activities and lower crude processing charges due to savings on chemical cost and gas compressor rentals resulted into decline in the operating cost. Blended operating cost for RJ was also reduced to US$ 6.4/boe in Q1 FY17 from US$ 6.5/boe in FY16 with polymer injection being maintained at the targeted level of 400 kblpd. Continuous interventions to reduce the polymer cost resulted into a polymer injection cost being ~25% lower than the guidance. Purchase of power from open exchange has also decreased the energy expenses and work on enhancing the captive power generation to reduce the cost further is underway.

EBITDA for the quarter increased 48% QoQ to Rupee 794 crore with an EBITDA margin of 42%. Higher revenue, reduction in operating cost and lower Cess charges on ad-valorem basis led to increase in EBITDA. DD&A charges increased 9% QoQ to Rupee 810 crore as per IndAS computation, wherein 2P reserves on entitlement interest basis and addition of future capex to current asset base for development of these reserves are considered for DD&A calculation. Other income was stable at Rupee 528 crore. Movement in Rupee of 1.4% depreciation versus US Dollar resulted into a forex loss of Rupee 125 crore, in accordance with IndAS.

Normalized profit after tax was 88% up QoQ at Rupee 360 crore driven by higher EBITDA but was partly offset by higher DD&A charges and forex losses. A higher profit resulted into Earnings per share of Rupee 1.9 for Q1 FY17. Cash EPS was also up 19% QoQ to Rupee 6.7 due to higher EBITDA.

Cash flow from operations for Q1 FY17 was Rupee 735 crore. Net capital investment for the quarter was Rupee 70 crore (US$ 11 million), which was distributed between development and exploration activities in the ratio of 82% and 18%, respectively. Total free cash flow was recorded at Rupee 1,521 crore. Closing cash and cash equivalent position is strong at Rupee 23,394 crore (US$ 3.5 billion), of which 68% is invested in rupee funds and 32% in dollar funds.

Health, Safety, Environment and Sustainability

Cairn India's continued focus on health, safety, environment and sustainability has helped sustain excellent HSES performance over the years. Cambay asset won CII - Western Region HSE Excellence Award 2015-16 in Manufacturing Category. At the 29th Mines Safety Week 2015 Awards organised by the Directorate General of Mines Safety - Ajmer Region, Mangala Processing Terminal secured first prize in overall performance while the other four installations also won prizes in different categories.

Corporate Social Responsibility

In line with the Chairman's vision, construction of two clusters of the modern Anganwadi project "Nandghar" was completed at Barmer. During the quarter, other developments included commencement of operations for the first set of plants under the safe drinking water project, partnerships with Government agencies at the Cairn Centre of Excellence (CCOE) and placement of trainees. The programmes received wide visibility amongst the stakeholders. Cairn established a safe drinking water plant in Sewniwala, one of the largest community drinking water plant in India run by solar power. Over 70 operators were appointed from the local community creating employment and encouraging entrepreneurship; they also included women operators. CCOE has been recognized as the first vocational training centre in Rajasthan to get a 'Gold' Green Building certification. Following the earlier prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Award under Corporate Social Responsibility Domain Excellence, Cairn India also received the BT-CSR Excellence award in this quarter.

FY17 Outlook

Pursuing its goal to create a long term value, Cairn India will remain focused on monetizing its Rajasthan resource base in FY17. An estimated net capex spend of US$ 100 million is proposed, 20% of which is for exploration while balance will be invested primarily to develop RDG Gas and for completion activities of Mangala EOR completion. The aim will be to maintain production from Rajasthan asset at FY16 level.Efforts are underway to further improve the economics of key projects that includes Bhagyam & Aishwariya EOR, Barmer Hill and Satellite fields, at low oil price and invest in their pre-development activities to ensure project readiness for development with grant of extension of PSC. The company maintains its flexibility to raise capital investment as oil prices improve and aims to generate a healthy cash flow post capex so as to retain the ability to pay dividends.

Contact

Media Relations

Arun Arora, Chief Communication Officer

+91 124 4593039; +91 8826999270; cilmedia@cairnindia.com

Investor Relations

Dheeraj Agarwal

+91 124 4593409; +91 9769732150; cilir@cairnindia.com

Annexure-1

Cairn India Group - Adoption of Ind AS (effective 1 April 2016)

1. Background

On 16 February 2015, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) notified the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015 laying down the roadmap for application of IFRS converged standards (Ind AS) to Indian companies other than banking companies, insurance companies and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). The Government has also notified Ind AS standards (known as Indian Accounting Standards) for application by these companies.

Voluntary Phase: Early adoption of Ind AS was permitted from financial year beginning on or after 1 April 2015 .

Early adoption of Ind AS was permitted from financial year beginning on or after . Mandatory Phase 1: Application of Ind AS is mandatory from the financial year beginning on or after 1 April 2016 , for the following companies: Listed or non-listed companies with net worth of INR 500 crores (INR5 billion) or more Holding, subsidiaries, joint ventures or associates companies of these companies

Application of Ind AS is mandatory from the financial year beginning on or after , for the following companies:

Since Cairn India Limited's ('CIL' or 'Cairn') net worth is above this threshold, CIL is required to prepare its financial statements under Ind AS from 1 April 2016 onwards.

2. Process followed to adopt Ind AS

First time adoption of Ind AS involves the following:

Recognise all assets and liabilities whose recognition is required by Ind-AS;

De - recognise items as assets or liabilities if Ind-AS do not permit such recognition;

Re-classify items that it recognised in accordance with previous GAAP as one type of asset, liability or component of equity, but are a different type of asset, liability or component of equity in accordance with Ind-AS; and

Apply Ind-AS in measuring all recognised assets and liabilities.

Cairn has been publishing its financial statements prepared under Indian GAAP (IGAAP) and also preparing IFRS financials for group reporting purposes. As per Ind AS 101, Ind AS has to apply retrospectively subject to the exemptions specified. Accordingly, the group (CIL including its subsidiaries and joint ventures) has availed the following four exemptions:

In the Standalone financial statements (SFS) and Consolidated financial statements (CFS), share based accounting has been applied for all outstanding and unvested employee stock options from 1 st April 2015 .

. In the SFS and CFS for accounting Ind AS 103 on business combination the date of incorporation of CIL, which is 21 st August 2006 , has been considered as the date of application for the purpose of transition to Ind AS.

, has been considered as the date of application for the purpose of transition to Ind AS. In the SFS, the opening foreign currency translation reserves (FCTR) have been computed retrospectively for Cairn India Ltd. However, in the CFS, exemption has been availed wherein the foreign currency translation reserve has been computed prospectively from the transition date.

In the SFS, CIL's investments in subsidiaries and joint ventures have been measured as per IGAAP carrying amount to the date of transition i.e. 1st April 2015.

3. Key impact areas identified;

Exploration and evaluation assets: IGAAP required charging of the exploration expenditure which cannot be directly attributable to individual well in the period in which it is incurred as per successful efforts method of accounting. Accordingly, costs like seismic activities, interpretation of seismic, planning and general overheads were being expensed as and when incurred. Under Ind-AS the Company has changed its accounting policy to capitalize such costs initially. This will lower routine exploration cost in profit and loss account and increase in carrying value of exploration and evaluation assets in the opening balance sheet.

(Amount INR Crores)

Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 - In Income Statement 42 77 Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In Income Statement 127 231

Discounting of Site restoration / De-commissioning liability: Under the IGAAP, the company recognised the full cost of site restoration as a liability when the obligation to restore environmental damage arises. The site restoration expenses form part of the exploration & development work in progress or cost of producing properties, as the case may be, of the related asset. Under Ind AS, the decommissioning costs are recognised on discounted basis, as an asset, and the unwinding of discount is recognised as finance cost in the income statement.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 - In income Statement (7) (11) Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In Income Statement (29) (49)

Depreciation: For depletion accounting, IGAAP specified use of working interest on proved and developed reserves (or 1P reserves) with current asset base, for calculation of depletion under unit of production methodology. However, under Ind AS (based on international practices) proved and probable reserves (or 2P reserves) on entitlement interest basis are required to be depleted. Similarly, the future capex estimated to develop those undeveloped reserves is required to be added to the current asset base for depletion computation.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial

statements (SFS) Consolidated financial

statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 - In Income Statement 4 10 Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In Income Statement (223) (416)

Business combination of entities under common control: At the time of incorporation of CIL and subsequent to the Cairn's group internal reorganization the shortfall in net assets was recorded as goodwill on consolidation under the IGAAP. However, under Ind AS 103 common control re-organisation needs to be recorded using pooling of interest method. The difference between consideration paid and the net asset transferred has been recorded as reduction to equity in the consolidated financial statement of the CIL.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Reserves as at 31 March 2015 Nil (15,152) Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2015 Nil Nil

Functional Currency: Under IGAAP there was no concept of functional currency and therefore the books of accounts were prepared in Indian Rupee. However, Ind AS 21 requires the assessment of functional currency basis the conditions specified therein. The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) specifies that 'the accounts shall be maintained in US Dollars, which shall be the controlling currency of account for cost recovery, production sharing and participation purposes and for the computation of tax liability", even our revenues are based on US Dollar and most of our joint venture's direct operating spend is denominated in US Dollars. Accordingly, the Group has considered US Dollar as the functional currency for our JV operations and for all of our overseas subsidiaries. For our Indian treasury and corporate operations, which is mostly denominated in Indian Rupee, the group has considered Indian rupee as the functional currency.



Under IGAAP, the currency fluctuation on dollar denominated transactions for our JV operations and overseas subsidiaries dollar assets was accounted for in the profit and loss account. The same will get nullified under Ind AS as US Dollar being the functional currency. However, under Ind AS the impact of currency fluctuation for INR denominated transactions for the same entities will be accounted for in the profit and loss account.



Further, the group reporting currency remains to be Indian Rupee, the impact on account of translation of items for which functional currency is USD would be accounted for in "Other Comprehensive Income (OCI)" as part of Foreign Exchange Translation Reserve (FCTR).

(Amount INR Crores)

Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 - In OCI 143 566 Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In OCI 470 1,804

Fair valuation of investments: Under IGAAP, current investments are measured at lower of cost or market value and accordingly the unrealised increase in the value is not recognised in Income statement, only the unrealised diminution in the value is recognised. Under Ind AS the current investments are categorised as financial assets, and are designated as financial assets held at fair value through OCI for debt securities and fair value through profit and loss for other investments.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended

30 June 2015 - In OCI (8) 20

Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 -In Income statement 53 12

Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In OCI 2 (171)

Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In Income Statement 296 437



Employee benefits: Ind AS 19 Employee Benefits requires the impact of re-measurement in net defined benefit liability (asset) to be recognized in other comprehensive income (OCI). Re-measurement of net defined benefit liability (asset) comprises actuarial gains or losses, return on plan assets (excluding interest on net asset/liability). However, under Indian GAAP the re-measurement amount is recognised under profit and loss.

(Amount INR Crores)

Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 - OCI (3) (3) Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016 - In OCI (1) (1)

4. Financials statements prepared under Ind AS

Annexure I - Comparison between Profit and Loss account under IGAAP and Ind AS for the financial year ended 31 March 2016

- Comparison between Profit and Loss account under IGAAP and Ind AS for the financial year ended Annexure II - Profit / (loss) reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015 , 30 September 2015 , 31 December 2015 , 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

Profit / (loss) reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended , , , and year ended Annexure III - Equity Reconciliation (Standalone and consolidated) between IGAAP and Ind AS at 31 March 2015 and 31 March 2016

- Equity Reconciliation (Standalone and consolidated) between IGAAP and Ind AS at and Annexure IV - Consolidated Balance Sheet under Ind AS at 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016

- Consolidated Balance Sheet under Ind AS at and Annexure V -Profit & Loss account under Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015 , 30 September 2015 , 31 December 2015 , 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016 .

The financial information in the Annexures below are not audited financials and are being provided only to facilitate early dissemination of comparative historical data.





Annexure I - Comparison between Profit and Loss account under IGAAP and Ind AS for the financial year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore) Particulars IGAAP Ind AS Revenues 8,626 8,626 Profit before Taxes & exceptional item 2,239 1,470 Taxes (94) (411) Profit after Taxes excl exceptional item 2,145 1,059 Exception item (net of tax) (11,577) (755) (Loss) / Profit after Tax (9,432) 304

Annexure II A- Consolidated Profit / (loss) reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)

Quarter ended Year ended Particulars 30 Jun 15 30 Sep 15 31 Dec 15 31 Mar 16 31 Mar 16 Net Profit / (Loss) under Previous GAAP 835 673 9 (10,948) (9,432)











Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 10 (37) (119) (269) (416) Effect of change in exploration cost written off due to change in accounting policy 77 59 68 27 231 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 12 297 251 (123) 437 Effect of unwinding of site restoration liability (11) (12) (12) (13) (49) Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation loss (284) (473) (96) (95) (946) Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortization (18) - (24) 14 (28) Effect of reversal of impairment charge due to differences in carrying value of underlying assets - - - 10,647 10,647 Effect of actuarial gain on employee defined benefit funds recognised in other comprehensive income 3 3 (4) (2) 1 Effect of deferred tax charge on above adjustments (122) (185) (33) 198 (142)











Net Profit as per Ind AS 502 326 41 (564) 304 Other Comprehensive Income (including foreign currency translation reserves) 584 854 136 58 1,633 Net Comprehensive Income for the period 1,086 1,180 177 (506) 1,937

Consolidated Profit and Loss reconciliation for FY 2016

To view the information click here

Annexure II B- Standalone Profit reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)

Quarter ended Year ended Particulars 30 Jun 15 30 Sep 15 31 Dec 15 31 Mar 16 31 Mar 16 Net Profit / (Loss) under Previous GAAP 322 194 (10) 347 854











Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 4 (8) (63) (156) (223) Effect of change in exploration cost written off due to change in accounting policy 42 34 37 14 127 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 53 183 171 (111) 296 Effect of unwinding of site restoration liability (7) (7) (7) (8) (29) Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation loss (20) (49) (14) (32) (118) Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortization (10) (1) (12) 8 (15) Effect of reversal of impairment charge due to differences in carrying value of underlying assets - - - (503) (503) Effect of actuarial gain on employee defined benefit funds recognised in other comprehensive income 3 3 (4) (2) 1 Effect of deferred tax charge on above adjustments (25) (85) 9 196 95











Net Profit as per Ind AS 362 264 107 (246) 486 Other Comprehensive Income (including foreign currency translation reserves) 133 274 35 30 472 Net Comprehensive Income for the period 495 538 142 (216) 958

Annexure IIIA - Consolidated Equity Reconciliation

(INR Crore) Particulars Year ended

31 March 2015 Year ended

31 March 2016 Shareholders' equity under Previous GAAP 58,870 48,793 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 1,570 2,012 Effect of dividend adjustments 900 677 Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation 28 11 Effect of discounting of site restoration liability 310 341 Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 886 633 Effect of goodwill adjustment (15,152) (3,763) Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation gain 18 22 Effect of deferred tax (charge) on above adjustments (261) (488) Shareholders' equity under Ind AS 47,170 48,238

Annexure IIIB - Standalone Equity Reconciliation

(INR Crore) Particulars Year ended

31 March 2015 Year ended

31 March 2016 Shareholders' equity under Previous GAAP 37,051 37,259 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 1,323 1,622 Effect of dividend adjustments 900 677 Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation 15 5 Effect of discounting of site restoration liability 162 178 Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 693 439 Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation gain 6 6 Effect of deferred tax (charge) on above adjustments (236) (182) Shareholders' equity under Ind AS 39,915 40,004

Annexure IV - Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 1 April 2015

To view the information click here

Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2016

To view the information click here

Annexure V A - Consolidated Profit & Loss account under Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)



Quarter ended Year ended Sr No Particulars 30 Jun 15 30 Sep

15 31 Dec

15 31 Mar

16 31 Mar 16 1 Income from operations











a) Income from operations 2,627 2,242 2,039 1,717 8,626

b) Other operating income - - - - -

Total income from operations (net) 2,627 2,242 2,039 1,717 8,626 2 Expenses











a) Share of expenses in producing oil and gas blocks 487 517 544 546 2,093

b) (Increase)/decrease in inventories of finished goods 9 (22) 1 (9) (21)

c) Employee benefit expenses 29 28 36 6 98

d) Depletion, depreciation and amortization expenses 866 902 1,012 742 3,523

e) Cess on crude oil 691 678 684 552 2,605

f) Exploration costs written off 6 9 5 10 29

g) Other expenses 53 59 64 76 252

Total expenses 2,141 2,171 2,346 1,923 8,579 3 Profit from operations before other income,

exchange fluctuation,

finance costs, tax and exceptional

items (1-2) 486 71 (307) (206) 47 4 a) Other income 394 418 393 527 1,731

b) Foreign exchange fluctuation gain/(loss)-net (102) (94) (46) 6 (237) 5 Profit before finance costs, tax and exceptional items (3+4) 778 395 40 327 1,541 6 Finance costs 13 16 16 26 71 7 Profit before tax and exceptional items (5-6) 765 379 24 301 1,470 8 Exceptional items - - - 1,026 1,026 9 Profit before tax (7-8) 765 379 24 (725) 444 10 Tax expense 263 54 (16) (161) 139 11 Net Profit for the period (9-10) 502 326 41 (564) 304 12 Other comprehensive income 584 854 136 58 1,633 13 Total comprehensive income for the period (11+12) 1,086 1,180 177 (506) 1,937

Annexure V B - Standalone Profit & Loss account under Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)



Quarter ended Year ended Sr No Particulars 30 Jun

15 30 Sep

15 31 Dec

15 31 Mar

16 31 Mar

16 1 Income from operations











a) Income from operations 1,403 1,199 1,125 923 4,649

b) Other operating income - - - - -

Total income from operations (net) 1,403 1,199 1,125 923 4,649 2 Expenses











a) Share of expenses in producing oil and gas blocks 262 279 287 299 1,128

b) (Increase)/decrease in inventories of finished goods 8 (10) 3 (7) (6)

c) Employee benefit expenses 28 27 35 6 96

d) Depletion, depreciation and amortization expenses 448 460 524 380 1,813

e) Cess on crude oil 349 342 344 278 1,313

f) Exploration costs written off 1 5 1 5 13

g) Other expenses 51 53 41 71 216

Total expenses 1,147 1,156 1,235 1,032 4,573 3 Profit from operations before

other income, exchange

fluctuation, finance costs, tax

and exceptional items (1-2) 256 43 (110) (109) 76 4 a) Other income 275 291 255 387 1,209

b) Foreign exchange fluctuation gain/(loss)-net (25) (7) (8) 14 (25) 5 Profit before finance costs, tax and exceptional items (3+4) 506 327 137 292 1,260 6 Finance costs 8 10 10 20 47 7 Profit before tax and exceptional items (5-6) 498 317 127 272 1,213 8 Exceptional items - - - 783 783 9 Profit before tax (7-8) 498 317 127 (511) 430 10 Tax expense 136 53 20 (264) (55) 11 Net Profit for the period (9-10) 362 264 107 (246) 486 12 Other comprehensive income 133 274 35 30 472 13 Total comprehensive income for the period (11+12) 495 538 142 (216) 958

For further details on the Reconciliation of the financial statements from IGAAP to IndAS, please refer to the website www.cairnindia.com

Cairn India Limited Fact Sheet

On 9 January, 2007, Cairn India Limited was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Cairn India is now a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited; part of the Vedanta Group, a globally diversified natural resources group.

Cairn India is headquartered in Gurgaon in the National Capital Region. The Company has operational offices in India including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and International offices in Colombo and Houston.

Cairn India is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in India. Together with its JV partners, Cairn India accounted for ~27% of India's domestic crude oil production for FY16. Average gross operated production was 203,703 boepd for FY16. The Company sells its oil and gas to major PSU and private buyers in India.

The Company has a world-class resource base, with interest in seven blocks in India and one in South Africa. Cairn India's resource base is located in four strategically focused areas namely one block in Rajasthan, two on the west coast of India, four on the east coast of India and one in South Africa.

The blocks are located in the Barmer Basin, Krishna-Godavari Basin, the Palar-Pennar Basin, the Cambay Basin, the Mumbai Offshore Basin and Orange Basin.

Cairn India's focus on India has resulted in a significant number of oil and gas discoveries. Cairn India made a major oil discovery (Mangala) in Rajasthan in the north west of India at the beginning of 2004. To date, thirty eight discoveries have been made in the Rajasthan block RJ-ON-90/1

In Rajasthan, Cairn India operates Block RJ-ON-90/1 under a PSC signed on 15 May, 1995 comprising of three development areas. The main Development Area (DA-1; 1,859 km2), which includes discoveries namely Mangala, Aishwariya, Raageshwari and Saraswati is shared between Cairn India and ONGC. Further Development Areas (DA-2; 430 km2), including the Bhagyam, NI and NE fields and (DA-3; 822 km2) comprising of the Kaameshwari West Development Area, is shared between Cairn India and ONGC, with Cairn India holding 70% and ONGC having exercised their back in right for 30%.

In Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, Cairn India on behalf of its JV partners operates two processing plants, with a production of over 34,000 boepd for FY16.

The farm-in agreement was signed with PetroSA on 16th August, 2012in the 'Block-1' located in Orange basin, South Africa. The block covers an area of 19,898 sq km. The assignment of 60% interest and operatorship has been granted by the South African regulatory authorities.

For further information on Cairn India Limited, kindly visit www.cairnindia.com

Corporate Glossary



Cairn India Cairn India Limited and/or its subsidiaries as appropriate Company Cairn India Limited Cairn Lanka Refers to Cairn Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India Cash EPS PAT adjusted for DD&A, impact of forex fluctuation, MAT credit and deferred tax CFO Cash Flow from Operations includes PAT (excluding other income and exceptional item) prior to non-cash expenses and exploration costs. CPT Central Processing Terminal CY Calendar Year DoC Declaration of Commerciality E&P Exploration and Production EBITDA Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation includes forex gain/loss earned as part of operations EPS Earnings Per Share FY Financial Year GBA Gas Balancing Agreement GoI Government of India GoR Government of Rajasthan Group The Company and its subsidiaries JV Joint Venture MC Management Committee MoPNG Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas NELP New Exploration Licensing Policy Normalized net profit Net profit before exceptional items NRM National Rural Mission ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited OC Operating Committee PPAC Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell qoq Quarter on Quarter Vedanta Group Vedanta Resources plc and/or its subsidiaries from time to time yoy Year on Year

Technical Glossary



2P Proven plus probable 3P Proven plus probable and possible 2D/3D/4D Two dimensional/three dimensional/ time lapse Blpd Barrel(s) of (polymerized) liquid per day Boe Barrel(s) of oil equivalent Boepd Barrels of oil equivalent per day Bopd Barrels of oil per day Bscf Billion standard cubic feet of gas Tcf Trillion standard cubic feet of gas EOR Enhanced Oil Recovery FDP Field Development Plan LTI Lost Time Incident MDT Modular Dynamic Tester Mmboe million barrels of oil equivalent Mmscfd million standard cubic feet of gas per day Mmt Million Metric Tonne PSU Public Sector Utilities SPM Single Point Mooring PSC Production Sharing Contract





Field Glossary

Barmer Hill Formation Lower permeability reservoir which overlies the Fatehgarh Dharvi Dungar Secondary reservoirs in the Guda field and is the reservoir rock encountered in the recent Kaameshwari West discoveries Fatehgarh Name given to the primary reservoir rock of the Northern Rajasthan fields of Mangala, Aishwariya and Bhagyam MBARS Mangala, Bhagyam, Aishwariya, Raageshwari, Saraswati Thumbli Youngest reservoirs encountered in the basin. The Thumbli is the primary reservoir for the Raageshwari field

Disclaimer

This material contains forward-looking statements regarding Cairn India and its affiliates, our corporate plans, future financial condition, future results of operations, future business plans and strategies. All such forward- looking statements are based on our management's assumptions and beliefs in the light of information available to them at this time. These forward-looking statements are by their nature subject to significant risks and uncertainties; and actual results, performance and achievements may be materially different from those expressed in such statements. Factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ from expectations include, but are not limited to, regulatory changes, future levels of industry product supply, demand and pricing, weather and weather related impacts, wars and acts of terrorism, development and use of technology, acts of competitors and other changes to business conditions. Cairn India undertakes no obligation to revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect any changes in Cairn India's expectations with regard thereto or any change in circumstances or events after the date hereof. Unless otherwise stated the reserves and resource numbers within this document represent the views of Cairn India and do not represent the views of any other party, including the Government of India, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons or any of Cairn India's joint venture partner

About Vedanta Limited (Formerly Sesa Sterlite Ltd.)

Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium and commercial power. The company has a presence across India, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Ireland, Liberia and Sri Lanka.

Vedanta Limited, formerly Sesa Sterlite Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. Governance and Sustainable Development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information please log on to www.vedantalimited.com

Vedanta Limited

(Formerly known as Sesa Sterlite Limited)

Vedanta, 75, Nehru Road,

Vile Parle (East), Mumbai - 400 099

www.vedantalimited.com

Registered Office:

Sesa Ghor, 20 EDC Complex,

Patto, Panaji (Goa) - 403 001

CIN: L13209GA1965PLC000044

Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" - that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should" or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different that those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

For further information, please contact:

Communications

Roma Balwani Tel: +91 22 6646 1000 President - Group Communications, Sustainability & CSR gc@vedanta.co.in

Investor Relations

Ashwin Bajaj Tel: +91 22 6646 1531 Director - Investor Relations vedantaltd.ir@vedanta.co.in Vishesh Pachnanda

Manager - Investor Relations

Sunila Martis

Manager - Investor Relations



Logo- http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150422/740375
andu amet and RICCI EVERYDAY are jointly presenting their works at Pure London, one of the largest premier fashion exhibitions in Europe, for the first time to enter the European market. Pure London attracts more than 700 brands with more than 20,000 visitors from all over the world.

The stunning collection of bags of andu amet and RICCI EVERYDAY are all handmade by local artisans at their own ateliers in Ethiopia and Uganda respectively. Both brands embody unique combination of Japanese traditional craftsmanship and African material and they have been sold in the major department stores in Japan. andu amet has received numbers of awards including "Young Women Innovator Award" at APEC Summit in 2014. RICCI EVERYDAY, on the other hand, was established in as recent as 2015, but it has already started penetrating Japanese fashion market with their products.

Now it is high time for both brands to expand business to Europe by offering its inspiring unique experiences of fusing Japanese and African traditional cultures. Pure London will become their turning point for it.

Overview of Pure London Date 9:30-18:00, 24th 26th July 2016 Venue Olympia London, Hammersmith Road, Kensington, London, UK, W148UX Stand No. Q69

About andu amet

Light as a feather, smooth as silk andu amet is a meeting point of ethics and luxury, using Ethiopian sheepskin, the world's best leather. Every process from production to marketing is designed ethically and andu amet is aiming to make the world better and happier.

About RICCI EVERYDAY

RICCI EVERYDAY proposes a life style with African taste to customers all over the world and supports better livelihoods of single-mothers in Uganda through production of items made of colorful and playful African fabric and unique material.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005316/en/

Contacts:

(Both brands stay in London until 30th July)

andu amet Ltd.

Hiroko SAMEJIMA, +81-3-6459-2251

CEO

info@anduamet.com

Pure London Brand Page: http://www.purelondon.com/Exhibitor/andu-amet-Ltd

or

RICCI EVERYDAY Inc.

Chizu NAKAMOTO, +81-54-250-2350

COO

info@riccieveryday.com

Pure London Brand Page: http://www.purelondon.com/Exhibitor/RICCI-EVERYDAY-Inc




Taiwan whiskymakeris double World Whiskies Awards winner

TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan's premier whiskymaker, Kavalan Distillery, is this year raising a glass to two rare achievements, being named the "best single malt" and "best single cask, single malt" whiskies on Earth.

The prestigious World Whiskies Awards (WWA) named the Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique its 2015 "World's Best Single Malt Whisky".

This year, Kavalan's Solist Amontillado Sherry Single Cask Strengthwon theWWA's"World's Best Single Cask Single Malt Whisky"

Kavalan owner Mr YT Lee says: "We were incredibly humbled by this rare honour of getting two top World Whiskies Awards. Kavalan Whisky is always learning and always improving our whiskies to try to bring our customers the best in the world."

The 2015 WWA judges described Vinho as follows: "Very sweet pruney flavours initially on the palate, with fruit cake and big clove, chilli and dry cinnamon. Walnut and hazelnut on the very dry finish. Immediately and subtly liquor rich. Tiny bit of incense, a thread of spice and smoke.

"Caramel, marzipan, coffee-vanilla, fudge, rich, creamy, dried black fruits. Integrated and surprisingly light. Element of sandalwood. Starts creamy, waters out, almost disappears before rubbing hot brown sugar into the oesophagus. Tiny bitter trace."

Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible wrote: "Amontillado is probably my favourite sherry style. How many times, though, have I discovered its delicate, complex, understated nature perfectly transferred onto a single malt? In some 35 years, this must be only the fourth or fifth time, and I doubt any quite displayed such truth to its style, such panache."

About Kavalan Whisky

The Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan has been dedicated to the art of single malt whisky since 2006.The world's first subtropical whisky distiller, it is a pioneer in making whisky in a hot climate, and has collected more than 180 gold awards.

Aged in American oak bottles in intense humidity and heat, Kavalan also benefits from sea and mountain breezes and the Snow Mountain's spring water, which combine to create Kavalan Whisky's signature creaminess. Kavalan takes its name from the old name for Yilan County and is backed by 30 years of beverage-making thanks to parent company, King Car Group. It is available in 40 countries.Visit www.kavalanwhisky.com/en/.

Media Contact:

Yvonne Chou

886-3922-9000#7162

yvonne@kavalandistillery.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160715/389916










MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- In light of a large volume of inquiries submitted to the Company by shareholders in the last 48 hours concerning a press release issued by the Autorite des marches financiers ("AMF") on July 15, 2016, Geomega Resources Inc. ("GeoMegA" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GMA) would like to make the following clarifications;

1. As mentioned in the AMF press release, GeoMegA is not the subject of the investigation. The inquiry is about, and only about one employee's and two of his acquaintances' alleged trading in GeoMegA securities. 2. To address the majority of recent shareholder inquiries, the Company has reviewed the evidence as presented by the AMF on the Company employee's alleged insider trading activities and to date, has not been able to conclude that the alleged transactions were linked in any way to the spikes in the Company securities seen in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Based on the Company's analysis, the volumes allegedly traded generally represent a small percentage of the volume traded on the specific days and during the specific period inquired by the AMF. Furthermore, based upon the evidence presented by the AMF, the Company employee named by the investigation appears to have been a net buyer of Company securities. 3. The inquiry has no bearing whatsoever on the integrity of the Company's technical or financial disclosure. GeoMegA has always reviewed its technical data. Separation results in 2014 and the hydrometallurgical results in 2015 were validated by an independent third party, and the Company has no reason to doubt the integrity of the data it has published to date.

The Company will continue to monitor the investigation if and as it proceeds.

About GeoMegA (www.geomega.ca)

GeoMegA is a mineral exploration and evaluation company focused on the discovery and sustainable development of economic deposits of metals in Quebec. GeoMegA is committed to meeting the Canadian mining industry standards and distinguishing itself with innovative engineering, stakeholders' engagement and dedication to local transformation benefits.

77,433,712 common shares of GeoMegA are currently issued and outstanding.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding our intentions and plans. The forward-looking statements that are contained in this news release are based on various assumptions and estimates by the Company and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. As a consequence, actual results may differ materially from results forecasted or suggested in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We caution you that such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, as discussed in the Company's filings with Canadian securities agencies. Various factors may prevent or delay our plans, including but not limited to, contractor availability and performance, weather, access, mineral prices, success and failure of the exploration and development carried out at various stages of the program, and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward- looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Contacts:

Kiril Mugerman

President and CEO

GeoMegA

450-641-5119 ext. 5653

kmugerman@geomega.ca






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Textron Inc. (TXT), a multi-industry company engaged in aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses, reported Friday that its second-quarter net income increased to $177 million or $0.65 per share from $167 million or $0.60 per share last year.



Income from continuing operations in the latest quarter was $178 million or $0.66 per share, 10 percent higher than last year.



On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.64 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.



Revenues in the quarter were $3.51 billion, up 8.1 percent from $3.25 billion in the second quarter of 2015. Analysts were looking for revenues of $3.36 billion.



The company noted that revenues were up at Systems, Industrial and Textron Aviation despite a challenging global environment.



Textron segment profit in the quarter was $328 million, up $22 million from the second quarter of 2015.



Looking ahead, the company said its third-quarter results will include an income tax benefit, including reversal of accrued interest, of approximately $315 million, of which approximately $200 million, or $0.74 per share, is attributable to continuing operations. This is related to the approval on July 11 by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Office of Appeals of a final settlement for the company's 1998 to 2008 tax years.



Further, Textron reiterated its 2016 earnings per share from continuing operations guidance of $2.60 to $2.80, not including the estimated impact related to the tax settlement. Analysts expect earnings of $2.72 per share for the year.



The company also confirmed its 2016 manufacturing cash flow before pension contributions guidance of $600 - $700 million.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Regulatory News:

Second quarter 2016 Indutrade's (STO:INDT) growth continues

Order intake rose 13% to SEK 3,422 million (3,026). The increase for comparable units was 8%.

Net sales rose 10% to SEK 3,317 million (3,025). The increase for comparable units was 5%.

Operating profit before amortisation of intangible non-current assets attributable to acquisitions (EBITA) rose 12% to SEK 405 million (362), corresponding to an EBITA margin of 12.2% (12.0%).

Net profit rose 13% to SEK 259 million (229), corresponding to earnings per share of SEK 2.16 (1.91).

CEO's message

The uncertainty that has overshadowed the market in recent years did not decrease during the second quarter. Many countries continue to experience weak or no growth, and the Brexit vote in the UK has given rise to even more questions about the future.

The combination of political instability and large fluctuations in currency rates and commodity prices is presenting our company presidents with major challenges. What does this entail for our customers? Will the trend continue as forecast? Added to this, many of the projects that customers have planned are being pushed back due to the general level of uncertainty.

One advantage that our company presidents have is that their organisations are relatively small, and they can independently make quick business decisions and adapt to their customers' needs. We have continued to become accustomed to varied growth in different segments and sharp swings in the market. In previous years there were countries with strong growth that served as locomotives for our own growth, but performance in several of these growth markets has clearly slowed during the past year, and no one knows when growth will return. Despite this difficult economic climate, Indutrade continues to grow.

Second quarter

Order intake increased by 13%, of which 8% was organic, and sales rose 10%, of which 5% was organic.

In the second quarter as well, this favourable organic growth can be credited to strong performance by companies in Sweden, Denmark, Benelux and Ireland.

In Sweden investments grew in the pulp and paper industry, which benefited Indutrade. Commercial vehicles are another segment that has performed well. Major investments in the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland continue to generate good business opportunities for our companies.

The previous strong growth in the UK has slowed, partly owing to the negative impact of the decline in the oil and gas sector and partly as an effect of increased uncertainty, associated with Brexit. Sterling has weakened after the referendum, but on the other hand this may benefit export companies over time.

Indutrade's operations in Finland performed better than expected during the quarter, which can be credited to the performance of individual companies and not to higher growth in the country as a whole.

Indutrade is achieving its target of at least 10% growth over an economic cycle as a result of both organic and acquired growth. In the current market climate, a considerable share of growth will continue to be achieved through acquisitions until we can gain a boost from an upswing in industrial production.

Acquisitions

Our acquisition prospects remain favourable, and during the year to date we have carried out nine acquisitions, including two after the end of the quarter, with another one scheduled for possession to take place in August. Indutrade continues to grow above all outside of Sweden.

A total of three acquisitions have been made in Denmark during the year. The two most recent are Klokkerholm, which manufactures spare parts for the automotive industry aftermarket, and Crysberg, which makes irrigation control systems. Both of these companies complement previous acquisitions made by the Group.

In the UK we have carried out three acquisitions, where the most recent - Vacuum Engineering gives the Group a stronger position in the area of leak detection.

In Sweden one acquisition has been made - KA Olsson - which strengthens our position in chemical products. In addition, acquisitions have been made in the Netherlands and Norway during the year.

Outlook

I do not expect any major change in the demand situation in the near future. The market will continue to be unstable, and our challenge is to capture market shares in a market with low growth.

The Indutrade model, which we have worked with for decades, entails a decentralised way of working for our small, flexible and local companies. They can act swiftly and adapt to prevailing demand. We have a good diversification of risk, with many small companies in many countries that work in a range of niches and segments.

Our prospects to generate profitable growth therefore remain favourable.

Johnny Alvarsson, President and CEO

Indutrade markets and sells components, systems and services with a high-tech content to industrial customers in selected niches. Indutrade's business is distinguished by the following factors, among others:

High-tech products for recurring needs

Growth through a structured and tried-and-tested acquisition strategy

A decentralised organisation characterised by an entrepreneurial spirit

The Group is structured into six business areas: Engineering Equipment, Flow Technology, Fluids Mechanical Solutions, Industrial Components, Measurement Sensor Technology and Special Products.

The Group's financial targets (per year across a business cycle) are to grow by a minimum of 10%, to attain a minimum EBITA margin of 10% and a minimum return on operating capital of 20%.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005327/en/

Contacts:

Indutrade AB

Johnny Alvarsson

President and CEO

+46 70 589 17 95

or

Jan Ohman, CFO

+46 70 226 75 34.


VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - European stocks swung between gains and losses on Friday, as hopes for BOJ and ECB stimulus faded and a closely-watched survey of business managers showed U.K. private sector activity contracted at the steepest pace since early 2009 in July in the wake of the Brexit vote.



The Markit flash composite output index fell to an 87-month low of 47.7 from 52.4 in June. The expected level was 48.8. The corresponding composite index for the euro zone business activity hit an 18-month low in July, but the decline was less than expected.



The French private sector stagnated in July as the growth in services was offset by a contraction in manufacturing. However, German private sector expanded at the fastest pace in seven months.



Amid a lack of fresh catalysts, investors are watching the Group of 20 finance officials meeting in China this weekend and next week's Fed and BOJ meetings for further direction.



The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.2 percent in midday trading after closing marginally lower in the previous session. The German DAX was marginally lower, while France's CAC 40 index was up 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was gaining 0.4 percent.



Swedish construction company Skanska dropped over 4 percent after its second-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations.



Vodafone shares soared 5 percent in London. The mobile operator confirmed its full-year outlook after reporting a better-than-expected 2.2 percent rise in first-quarter organic service revenue.



Building materials group CRH rallied 4 percent after raising its first-half earnings guidance.



Mining stocks such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell around half a percent each as copper prices eased.



Shares of Nicox slumped 12 percent in Paris after the ophthalmic company announced that its partner Bausch + Lomb had received a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, concerning latanoprostene bunod.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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NEW YORK, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

D+H customers honored for their achievements in the corporate treasury space byTreasury Todaymagazine.

DH Corporation(TSX: DH) ("D+H"), a leading provider of technology solutions to financial institutions globally, would like to congratulate the winners of theTreasury TodayAdam Smith Awards, now in their ninth year, honoring excellence and achievement in the corporate treasury space.

Among the 2016 honorees are D+H customers Etihad Airways, Kuehne + Nagel, Coca-Cola HBC AG, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, and Hilton Worldwide.

Etihad Airways received three separate awards, including Top Treasury Team 2016, Best Cash Management Solution, and Best Financing Solution

Kuehne + Nagel was recognized for Best SWIFT Solution

Coca-Cola HBC AG was named Best Liquidity Management Solution

Highly Commended winners included Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc for First Class Relationship Management and Hilton Worldwide for Best Risk Management Solution

"D+H would like to congratulate all of the winners of these prestigious awards," says Per Trifunovic, Global Head of Financial Messaging at D+H. "D+H is honored to provide solutions in support of such forward-thinking corporations in the corporate treasury space."

About D+H

D+H (TSX: DH) is a leading financial technology provider the world's financial institutions rely on every day to help them grow and succeed. Our global transaction banking, lending, payments and integrated core solutions are trusted by nearly 8,000 banks, specialty lenders, community banks, credit unions, governments and corporations. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, D+H has more than 5,500 employees worldwide who are passionate about partnering with clients to create forward-thinking solutions that fit their needs. With annual revenues in excess of CAD$1.5 billion, D+H is recognized as one of the world's top FinTech companies on IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings andAmerican Banker'sFinTech Forward rankings. For more information, visitdh.com

Patrick Kilhaney, Public Relations & Analyst Relations Manager, D+H, +1-917-286-1053, patrick.kilhaney@dh.com; Cognito, +1-646-395-6304, dh@cognitomedia.com
LONDON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Facilities Show, organised by UBM EMEA, is pleased to announce another hugely successful year for the leading global event for the facilities management industry, hosted at London's ExCeL from 21-23 June.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130723/629764-a )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160610/377842LOGO )

Facilities Show once again delivered an exceptional experience for FMs and solutions providers, attracting 11,353 attendees, a whopping 18% increase in visitors over the first two days. Fighting nature's severe flooding in London, South West and Essex which severed transport links to the venue, plus the UK's EU Referendum, Facilities Show still managed to deliver a huge 3000 visitors to exhibitor stands on day three.

The event continued to attract visitors from over 40 different countries, with 4181 visitors responsible for a facilities budget of over 1 million. The seniority of those attending Facilities Show also rose, with 4756 visitors in positions where they head up departments and teams within their companies.



Facilities Show was also very pleased to be working again in association with BIFM (The British Institute of Facilities Management), the leading facilities association, who hosted their Careers Zone once again, and delivered 26 seminars across the three days. Heavily involved within the programme were award winners Tanya Horscroft (Rising Talent in FM), Alan Russell (FM of the year) and McFarlane Telfer (Learning and Career Development). Sessions included 'Negotiating Skills for a Pay Rise', 'FM Qualifications', 'Managing Remote Teams' and more.

Providing their support of the event were also leading TFMs; Mitie, who were Official Show Partner, alongside Sodexo as Gold Partner. Key association to FMs, RICS, also joined as Gold Association partner, joining CIBSE as supporting association and official magazine partner, FMJ. Endorsement from such respected organisations is key to the success of the event, allowing Facilities Show to continue to deliver the very best seminars and solutions on the show floor.

Heather Beach, Event Director for Facilities Show said: "Even wild weather and a referendum couldn't keep us down this year, with a significant increase in visitors across the three days and a great deal of fun. I was particularly pleased to see the new conference style content going down well with visitors - thank you to those who spoke - and the new Facilities Societies Fair busy too. Thank you to all those who worked with us to create such a great event - it is always a partnership. See you next year!"

Teresa Higgins, Sales Director, Barbour EFM went on to say: "Barbour EFM hadn't exhibited at Facilities Show for a few years, but we decided to return in 2016 and I must say we were very pleased that we did. We gave 48 really good presentations to clients who were walking by and generated over 100 leads. Our aim was to promote the Barbour brand as the official BIFM information service provider providing a workplace management tool that helps to remain compliant and stay ahead of legislative changes. It was fantastic to speak to so many senior FM professionals and we are really looking forward to next year's show."

This year Facilities Show seminar programmes included more speakers and informative content than ever before with more than 300 suppliers showcasing their products, and over 130 speakers delivering first class, case-study led presentations via three new theatre locations located around the show floor. The three theatres consisted of the Facilities 2020 Strategy Summit, sponsored by Planon, FM Operational Excellence Arena, sponsored by Stannah and FM in the Real World sponsored by Barbour EFM. Key issues within Facilities management were examined by industry experts delivering key insight within FM, aided by real life case studies, including Red Bull, Adobe and more.



With networking at the heart of the Facilities Show community, this year saw the audience of 11,000+ meet with service suppliers, as well as discussing common challenges amongst the FM community with their visiting peers. The Facilities Societies Fair created a core new area of this year's event, where visitors could meet with those organising networking groups for FMs, to ensure that the thought-sharing atmosphere of Facilities Show is continued year round.

The Inspirational Speaker Series continued to attract large crowds this year from across the FM, security, safety, fire and service management industries, filling the 400 capacity theatre each day. Speakers were again of a very high calibre with Colonel Tim Collins OBE, Kate Adie OBE and James Cracknell OBE, sharing key insights on how they have overcome adversity and challenges in their extraordinary careers in order to achieve their goals, from everyday tasks of getting children to school before work, to overcoming traumatic events to ensure a continual strive for progress.

The SHE1000 networking masterclass concluded the show on day three, with hundreds of women involved in protecting and managing premises gathering to take part in the session delivered by expert Heather White, CEO atSmarter Networking Ltd. The audience were split into groups and, using interactive technology fromGreen Hat People, they were able to make a commitment going forward about the things they would like to do differently in the future. Kizzy Augustin, Senior Associate at Pinsent Masons LLP said: "The SHE1000 event was fantastic - Heather White did a great job of helping the huge group of women (and a few men!) to understand the importance of good networking, but she did it in a fun and interactive way."

Facilities Show also continued to benefit from the co-located fire, health & safety, security, service management and workwear and uniform events, which as a total saw over 45,000 visitors at the ExCeL over the three days, a 4% increase on 2015. Across the series, visitors were able to benefit from meeting their needs for fleet management, fire integration, health & safety legislation, uniforms and more. Core to exhibitors at Facilities Show were the crossovers from these co-located events, FIREX, IFSEC, Safety & Health Expo, Service Management Expo and Professional Clothing Show, leading to higher show-floor visits.



IFSEC International welcomed 27,052 attendees across the three days in line with 2015. A key highlight for IFSEC this year was the Home Automation House on display, a complete home environment was created to demonstrate the latest tech for home safety and security automation.

FIREX International welcomed 16,290 attendees across the three days in line with 2015. A key highlight for FIREX this year was the Passive Protection Zone which offered the opportunity to develop knowledge around passive fire protection and they offered a one stop show with ASFP members surrounding their zone.

Safety and Health Expo welcomed 13,800 attendees across the three days which represents a 9% increase from the previous year.

Facilities Show 2017 takes place from 20th-22th June at ExCeL London. For more information about Facilities Show 2017, visit http://www.facilitiesshow.com. To discuss stand and sponsorship at Facilities Show 2017 contact Charles Oakley, telephone +44 (0) 20 7921 8048 or email Charles.oakley@ubm.com

Notes to editor:

About UBM EMEA:

UBM EMEAconnects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets. Through premier brands such as Routes, CPhI, IFSEC, Ecobuild, Seatrade, and many others, UBM EMEA exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across seven industry sectors.

About Protection & Management Series:

UBM Live's Protection & Management Series unites business professionals across the fields of security, fire, safety, facilities and service management at IFSEC International, Safety & Health Expo, Facilities Show, FIREX International and Service Management Expo. In 2017 the events will take place at the ExCeL London from 20th - 22nd June.
Approval Allows Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans to Be Imported for Food/Feed Use in The EU

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) announced today that the European Commission has granted import approval for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans. This milestone allows for the import and food/feed use of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans into the European Union.

The European Commission's approval follows Monsanto's February announcement of Chinese import approval. With both the EU and Chinese import approvals and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the final stages of review for over-the-top use, Monsanto can now look forward to a full system launch in the United States in 2017 and continues to be in a strong position to supply roughly 15 million U.S. soy acres when the selling season arrives. A full system launch also is planned for Canadian soybean growers in 2017 given the previous Canadian regulatory approval for Roundup Xtend with VaporGripTM Technology and XtendiMax herbicide with VaporGrip Technology.

"We've seen great demand from growers for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans," said Brett Begemann, Monsanto President and Chief Operating Officer. "Farmers are telling us they're looking forward to the benefits of the full Xtend Crop System, including over-the-top use of dicamba and glyphosate. We're excited to give Canadian growers this opportunity in 2017, along with US growers pending final EPA approval."

Roundup Ready 2 Xtend is Monsanto's newest soybean platform that includes tolerance to dicamba. This new dicamba-tolerant trait is stacked with the current Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean trait technology, which offers farmers the highest yield opportunity with more beans per pod and more bushels per acre.

"It's important to remind growers that, at this time, there are still no dicamba formulations registered for in-crop use in Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans or Bollgard II XtendFlexin the United States," said Miriam Paris, U.S. soybean marketing manager. "The approvals for in-crop use of dicamba are in the late stages of review by the EPA and are tracking for a late Summer, early Fall approval. Pending dicamba over-the-top approval, growers will continue to maximize their yield opportunity through the weed management recommendations and incentives provided by Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions."

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto is committed to bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world. We produce seeds for fruits, vegetables and key crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton that help farmers have better harvests while using water and other important resources more efficiently. We work to find sustainable solutions for soil health, help farmers use data to improve farming practices and conserve natural resources, and provide crop protection products to minimize damage from pests and disease. Through programs and partnerships, we collaborate with farmers, researchers, nonprofit organizations, universities and others to help tackle some of the world's biggest challenges. To learn more about Monsanto, our commitments and our more than 20,000 dedicated employees, please visit: discover.monsanto.com and monsanto.com. Follow our business on Twitter at twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on the company blog, Beyond the Rows at monsantoblog.com or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed.

Monsanto Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements contained in this release are "forward-looking statements," such as statements concerning the company's anticipated financial results, current and future product performance, regulatory approvals, business and financial plans and other non-historical facts. These statements are based on current expectations and currently available information. However, since these statements are based on factors that involve risks and uncertainties, the company's actual performance and results may differ materially from those described or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, among others: continued competition in seeds, traits and agricultural chemicals; the company's exposure to various contingencies, including those related to intellectual property protection, regulatory compliance and the speed with which approvals are received, and public understanding and acceptance of our biotechnology and other agricultural products; the success of the company's research and development activities; the outcomes of major lawsuits and the previously-announced SEC investigation; developments related to foreign currencies and economies; pursuit of acquisitions or other transactions; fluctuations in commodity prices; compliance with regulations affecting our manufacturing; the accuracy of the company's estimates related to distribution inventory levels; the recent increases in and expected higher levels of indebtedness; the company's ability to fund its short-term financing needs and to obtain payment for the products that it sells; the effect of weather conditions, natural disasters, accidents, and security breaches, including cybersecurity incidents, on the agriculture business or the company's facilities; and other risks and factors detailed in the company's most recent periodic report to the SEC. Undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which are current only as of the date of this release. The company disclaims any current intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements or any of the factors that may affect actual results.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Bollgard II, Genuity, Respect the Refuge and Cotton Design, Roundup Ready 2 Xtend, Roundup Ready 2 Yield, Roundup Ready and Roundup are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton and Design 2016 Monsanto Company.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160722005349/en/

Contacts:

Monsanto Company

Media:

Kyel Richard, 314-694-4771

or

Sara Miller, 314-694-5824

or

Analysts:

Laura Meyer, 314-694-8148
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) said that its FirstEnergy Solutions subsidiary will make operational changes to coal-fired units at two of its Ohio plants in response to challenging market conditions. The company plans to sell or deactivate the 136-megawatt (MW) Bay Shore Unit 1 in Oregon, Ohio, by October 2020. In addition, Units 1-4 of the company's seven-unit W.H. Sammis Plant in Stratton, Ohio - collectively representing 720 MW of capacity - will be retired in May 2020. Units 5-7 will continue to provide 1,490 MW of reliable baseload generation. In 2015, Bay Shore Unit 1 and Sammis Units 1-4 contributed about four percent of the electricity produced by the company's generating plants. FirstEnergy does not intend to offer these units into the PJM capacity auction for the 2020-2021 timeframe. No job reductions are expected at either plant. FirstEnergy will work with any potential buyer to discuss continued employment for the 78 employees at Bay Shore, or if the plant is deactivated, provide employees with job opportunities at other FirstEnergy facilities. There are 368 employees at Sammis. 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.
Fidelity China Special Situations PLC

Directorate Changes

The Board of Fidelity China Special Situations PLC is pleased to confirm that Nicholas Bull has been appointed as Chairman of the Board with effect from 22 July 2016, following the retirement of John Owen as Chairman at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting held earlier today (22 July 2016).

The Board is also pleased to confirm that Elisabeth Scott has been appointed as Senior Independent Director with effect from 22 July 2016, a role formerly undertaken by Mr Bull. Ms Scott will also chair the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

Lastly, Andrew Wells has retired from the Board with effect from the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting and John Ford has been appointed in his place with effect from 22 July 2016. It has been agreed that Mr Ford will not serve as a member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Board.

Mr Ford has been FIL Limited's (FIL) Global Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income, Solutions and Real Estate and has been a member of FIL's Global Operating Committee since 2016. Prior to this, he was Chief Investment Officer for FIL's entire Asia Pacific region from 2008. He joined FIL in 2005 as the Hong Kong based Managing Director of its operations in South East Asia before becoming the Chief Investment Officer in 2006 for Japan. He has worked in the asset management industry since 1986, having spent 19 years at Schroders. He was located in Asia for much of that time and worked in a number of different countries in the region including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

There is no other information to be disclosed pursuant to LR 9.6.13R in respect of Mr Ford. As at the date of this announcement, he has no beneficial interests in the ordinary shares of the Company.

Bonita Guntrip

FIL Investments International

Company Secretary

Tel: 01737 837320

22 July 2016
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.
MONACO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Costamare Inc. (NYSE: CMRE), announced today that it will release its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 after the market closes in New York on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Following the earnings release, Costamare's management team will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results on Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Conference Call Details:

On Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. ET, Costamare's management team will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results.

Participants should dial into the call 10 minutes before the scheduled time using the following numbers: 1-866-524-3160 (from the US), 0808 238 9064 (from the UK) or +1-412-317-6760 (from outside the US). Please quote "Costamare".

A replay of the conference call will be available until August 28, 2016. The United States replay number is +1-877-344-7529; the standard international replay number is +1-412-317-0088; and the access code required for the replay is: 10090298.

Live Webcast:

There will also be a simultaneous live webcast over the Internet, through the Costamare Inc. website (www.costamare.com) under the "Investors" section. Participants to the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast.

About Costamare Inc.

Costamare Inc. is one of the world's leading owners and providers of containerships for charter. The Company has 42 years of history in the international shipping industry and a fleet of 72 containerships, with a total capacity of approximately 467,000 TEU, including 10 newbuild containerships on order. Eighteen of our containerships, including 10 newbuilds on order, have been acquired pursuant to the Framework Agreement with York Capital Management by vessel-owning joint venture entities in which we hold a minority equity interest. The Company's common stock, Series B Preferred Stock, Series C Preferred Stock and Series D Preferred Stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols "CMRE", "CMRE PR B", "CMRE PR C" and "CMRE PR D", respectively.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements". In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "believe", "intend", "anticipate", "estimate", "project", "forecast", "plan", "potential", "may", "should", "could" and "expect" and similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. It is possible that actual results may differ, possibly materially, from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect future results, see the discussion in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F (File No. 001-34934) under the caption "Risk Factors".

Company Contact:

Gregory Zikos

Chief Financial Officer



Konstantinos Tsakalidis

Business Development



Costamare Inc., Monaco

Tel: (+377) 93 25 09 40

Email: ir@costamare.com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Goldrea Resources Corp. (CSE: GOR)(FRANKFURT: GOJ)(OTC PINK: GORAF) announces that it has signed a definitive agreement to complete the acquisition of the previously announced Gaspe Lithium property located on the Gaspe peninsula in eastern Quebec. (news release June 28,2016)

The property is located approximately 75 kilometers northwest of the city of Gaspe, Quebec, in NTS map sheet 22H03 and covers historically reported elevated lithium values obtained from stream sediment samples. The highest recorded stream sediment sample from the Gaspe Lithium property returned a value of 159 ppm Li . For reference, the SIGEOM sediment sample database contains only five samples that exceed 150 ppm for the entire province of Quebec. The highest assaying lake sediment sample near Nemaska Lithium's (NMX.T) proposed Whabouchi lithium open-pit resource returned a maximum of 10.9 ppm Li.

In addition to the 159 ppm sample taken from the property, another three stream sediment samples within the property boundaries include, using the first sample as a reference point for location: 105 ppm Li located 200 metres to the west, 24 ppm Li located 400 metres to the west, and 26 ppm Li located 700 metres to the north.

LCT (lithium-cesium-tantalum) pegmatites, such as the pegmatite hosting Nemaska Lithium's Whabouchi deposit, typically occur in groups, which can consist of tens to hundreds of individuals and cover areas up to tens of square kilometres. Highly mobile elements such as lithium, rubidium, and cesium, and volatile components such as boron and fluorine tend to alter the adjacent country rocks during LCT pegmatite emplacement.

Goldrea has paid a $10,000 non-refundable deposit and will issue 600,000 shares to the vendors upon final transfer of claims by the Quebec government. This entitles Goldrea to 100% of the Gaspe Lithium property. No work commitment is required and the property is in good standing through May 22, 2018. The property is easily accessible with infrastructure in proximity.

"This acquisition puts Goldrea into a significant region of high interest for the development of Lithium properties," states Jim Elbert, President/CEO of Goldrea Resources. "With the reported high value lithium numbers on these claims, Goldrea is planning a ground work program to do follow up in the near term. Working in Quebec has many benefits as well, given the encouragement and cooperation from that provincial government."

The technical contents of this release were approved by Mr. Case Lewis, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The property has not yet been the subject of a National Instrument 43-101 report.

Forward-Looking Statements

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain "forward-looking statements", which are statements about the future based on current expectations or beliefs. For this purpose, statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate or true. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Contacts:

Goldrea Resources Corp.

James Elbert

President and CEO

(604) 559-7230

info@goldrea.com

www.goldrea.com




SMB Mobile SaaS will Account for 79% of the Total Revenue in 2016

BOSTON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of mobile users and devices, from smartphones to tablets, is increasing across the board in enterprises, and SaaS applications continue to provide a tremendous value to end users with easy setup and collaboration capabilities that are changing the way organizations do business. According to the latest forecasts, "Global Corporate Mobile SaaS Forecast 2016-2022", and "Global SMB Mobile SaaS Forecast 2016-2022", Strategy Analytics estimates that revenue from Corporate mobile SaaS will grow from a $4.4 billion in 2016 market to reach $7.4 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 11% over the forecast period; and SMB mobile SaaS will grow from a $16.5 billion in 2016 market to reach $30.5 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 13.1% over the forecast period.

Logo- http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130207/NE56457LOGO-b

According to Gina Luk, Senior Analyst and author of the Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) reports, "the demand for businesses to be more agile to meet organizations' demands and stay competitive is driving a change in the way applications are developed, deployed and adopted. The need for flexibility, scale, and ease of deployment and use is driving adoption of SaaS to support mobile enterprise strategies".

"The SaaS industry is an unstoppable train that can only move forward; as more players come into the picture, competition will heat up to boiling levels. In order to stay competitive, many SaaS vendors have built ecosystems or communities which serve to streamline shopping and selection on the front-end, and integration on the backend, so that more companies can use SaaS solutions in an incremental, yet integrated manner. Small and medium sized businesses are leading the leap to the cloud as they look for applications that will enable their business to scale for rapid growth and to reduce the need for internal IT resources," added Andrew Brown, Executive Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics.

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success. www.StrategyAnalytics.com

Contact: Gina Luk, +44(0) 1908 423 632, gluk@strategyanalytics.com

Other Contact: Andrew Brown, +44(0) 1908 423 630, abrown@strategyanalytics.com
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Edgefront Real Estate Investment Trust (the "REIT") (TSX VENTURE: ED.UN) announced today that it intends to release its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2016 before the opening of the TSX Venture Exchange on Thursday August 18, 2016.

Kelly Hanczyk, President and Chief Executive Officer of the REIT, and Robert Chiasson, Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Thursday August 18, 2016 to review the financial results and operations.

To participate in the conference call, please dial 416-340-2216 or 1-866-223-7781 (toll free in Canada and the US) and ask to join the Edgefront REIT conference call.

A recording of the conference call will be available until September 1, 2016. To access the recording, please dial 905-694-9451 or 1-800-408-3053 (toll free in Canada and the US) and enter passcode 1161455.

The REIT also announced today that it will make a cash distribution in the amount of $0.01333 per unit, representing $0.16 per unit on an annualized basis, payable August 15, 2016 to unitholders of record as of July 29, 2016.

The REIT has adopted a distribution reinvestment plan ("DRIP") whereby residents of Canada may elect to have all or a portion of the cash distributions of the REIT automatically reinvested in additional units of the REIT. Eligible unitholders who so elect will receive a bonus distribution of units equal to 4% of each distribution that was reinvested by them under the DRIP. Full details with respect to the DRIP can be found on the REIT's website at www.edgefrontreit.com.

The REIT also announced today that it has paid outstanding retainer fees payable to independent trustees of the REIT in the amount of $33,125, net of applicable payroll withholding taxes of $6,020, through the issuance of 15,107 units of the REIT ("Trust Units") at an average price of $1.79 per Trust Unit. The Trust Units were issued under the REIT's Non-Executive Trustee Unit Issuance Plan.

The Trust Units are subject to a four month hold period expiring on November 22, 2016. The transaction constitutes a related party transaction pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The REIT is exempt from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.5(b) and Section 5.7(a), respectively, of MI 61-101.

About the REIT

Edgefront REIT is a growth oriented real estate investment trust focused on increasing unitholder value through the acquisition, ownership and management of industrial properties located in primary and secondary markets in North America. The REIT currently owns a portfolio of 19 properties comprising approximately 1,030,000 square feet of rentable area.

The REIT has approximately 35,327,961 units issued and outstanding. Additionally, there are 4,962,565 Class B LP units of subsidiary limited partnerships of the REIT issued and outstanding.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Edgefront Real Estate Investment Trust

Contacts:

Edgefront Real Estate Investment Trust

Kelly C. Hanczyk

President and CEO

(403) 817-9497



Edgefront Real Estate Investment Trust

Rob Chiasson

CFO

(403) 817-9496








NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES (INCLUDING ITS TERRITORIES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA) OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL

LONDON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc. (the "Company") (N-OTC: CHEMS), an international shipping company focused on the transportation of chemicals, today announced that it has taken delivery of the Navig8 Topaz, a 49,000 DWT IMO2 Interline-coated chemical tanker, from STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. ("STX"). The Navig8 Topaz is the second STX vessel to be delivered under the sale and leaseback arrangements entered into with Ocean Yield ASA ("Ocean Yield") announced on April 1, 2015. Following delivery from STX, the Navig8 Topaz was delivered to Ocean Yield under the terms of the Sale MOA and then delivered back to the Company under bareboat charter.

The Navig8 Topaz will be entered into and operated in Navig8 Group's Chronos8 commercial pool.

About Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc.

Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc. was established in 2013 as a joint venture between the Navig8 Group and Oaktree Capital Management to capitalize on significant structural changes in the petrochemical industry and the continuing development of long-haul chemical trades. Its best-in-class newbuilding fleet is comprised exclusively of large, fuel-efficient vessels with modern eco-designs to take greatest advantage of these shifts. The fully delivered fleet will feature a complementary mix of primarily Interline-coated and stainless steel vessels that are capable of servicing the full range of conventional and specialized chemicals cargoes.

The Company has taken delivery of 23 chemical carriers to date and anticipates delivery of its full 37-vessel fleet by mid-2017. The Company's fleet is contracted to operate in various chemical tanker pools managed by the Navig8 Group, the world's largest independent pool and commercial management company.

Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc. is listed on the Norwegian OTC market under the symbol CHEMS.

Visit our website at www.navig8chemicaltankers.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Distribution

This press release contains forward looking statements. These statements are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including the Company's management's examination of historical operating trends. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control, the Company cannot give assurance that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or intentions.

Important factors that, in the Company's view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in this press release include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions including fluctuations in charter hire rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the chemicals market as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and worldwide oil consumption and storage, changes in the Company's operating expenses including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company on the Norwegian OTC trading support system.

This communication is not for publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into any state or jurisdiction into which doing so would be unlawful. The distribution of this communication may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes, should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdictions. The Company assumes no responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions.
OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) will have a strong presence at EAA AirVenture 2016, the largest gathering of aviation enthusiasts in the world. P&WC is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

"We're delighted to show our support and gratitude to the enthusiast community attending EAA AirVenture 2016," said Denis Parisien, Vice President, Marketing, General Aviation, P&WC. "EAA AirVenture is an event we look forward to every year as a venue to share the latest PT6A news, reconnect with old friends, as well as make new ones. This year we have many exciting new innovations, program offerings and updates to share with PT6A customers and fans."

Highlights of P&WC's presence at the 2016 AirVenture include:

-- Promotion of Epic's World Tour kicked off in St. Hubert, Quebec and crowned at this year's EAA AirVenture. Follow Epic details at www.PT6Nation.com. -- Promotion of an overseas flight that carried P&WC President John Saabas aboard a single-engine PT6A-powered TBM930 from Farnborough, UK, to St- Hubert, Quebec, Canada, on July 15 and 16 - with a few stops along the way. Follow the journey on www.PT6Nation.com. -- The selection of the PT6A-140 series engines by multiple aircraft manufacturers and converters. P&WC's PT6A-140 series engines raise the bar by setting new industry benchmarks for performance and efficiency in the utility and agricultural segments. It is the most powerful and reliable engine in its class and delivers 5% lower specific fuel consumption. -- A special event to mark the delivery of the 1,400th Pilatus PC-12 aircraft (PT6A-67P engine) and the 20th anniversary of the creation of Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd (Pilbal) in Broomfield, Colorado. Pilbal provides finishing (interior and exterior livery) to 70% of Pilatus aircraft and conducts the marketing, sales and servicing activities for Pilatus in North and South America. -- News around P&WC's innovative Oil Analysis Technology Program as it continues to build momentum as a next-generation on-wing monitoring solution for preventive maintenance - including a call out to PT6A customers to join the customer trial as "early adopters" of the technology in its final stages of development. -- A PT6A seminar to take place on Friday, July 29, 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. at Forum 3. The seminar will provide insight into the PT6A engine design, operation and maintenance. -- PT6A vision, customer service and pilot testimonials featured in the EAA AirVenture Show Daily publications and throughout P&WC's social media channels. -- P&WC onsite at Hangar B at EAA AirVenture: P&WC engine and aftermarket experts will be available throughout the event to answer questions from customers and other show participants. Two PT6A engine cut-aways will be on display.

"It is part of the culture at P&WC to constantly push to make the best even better and we continue to invest in new engine technologies and customer service programs for the PT6A engine," said Parisien. "From reducing pilot workload and streamlining engine installation, through the development of an integrated electronic engine and propeller control and a 2000+ SHP thermal engine for the next generation, the needs of the general aviation community are always top of mind. As a result, new innovations are always on our drawing boards."

About Pratt & Whitney Canada

Founded in 1928, and a global leader in aerospace, P&WC is shaping the future of aviation with dependable, high-technology engines. Based in Longueuil, Quebec (Canada), P&WC is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries.

Note to Editors

Follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/pwcanada) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/PrattWhitneyCanada) for our latest news and updates.

Contacts:

Karine Baccichet

Pratt & Whitney Canada

514-240-6143

karine.baccichet@pwc.ca



Jennifer Barron

Pratt & Whitney Canada

Office: 1-450-677-9411 x75009

jennifer.barron@pwc.ca






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - In a speech described as both inspiring and divisive, real estate tycoon Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday.



Trump's appearance on the stage at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, culminated the billionaire's unlikely run to become GOP nominee.



On the final day of the Republican National Convention, Trump delivered a lengthy speech that touched on many of the focal points of his campaign, including illegal immigration, trade agreements, and likely general election opponent Hillary Clinton.



Trump also sought to define himself as the 'law and order candidate' in what many described as a throwback to Richard Nixon's campaign for president in 1968.



'I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end.' Trump said. 'Beginning on January 20, 2017, safety will be restored.'



'The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens,' he added. 'Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.'



Trump argued that the nation is in crisis, pointing to the fatal shootings of police officers as well as terrorist attacks in cities like San Bernardino and Orlando.



The businessman-turned-politician also spent a considerable amount of time discussing illegal immigration, reiterating his plan to build a 'great wall' on the border with Mexico.



Trump described illegal immigrants as 'roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens' and told the story of a young girl named Sarah Root who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant.



'I've met Sarah's beautiful family. But to this Administration, their amazing daughter was just one more American life that wasn't worth protecting,' Trump said. 'One more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders.'



Trump also reiterated his pledge to slash taxes, which he claimed would cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into the country.



Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was also a major of target for Trump, as he argued her time as Secretary of State has made the world less safe.



However, Trump refrained from joining in the 'Lock her Up' chant from the convention floor, declaring instead that they should 'defeat her in November.'



The speech was met with substantial applause from the Republicans delegates but was seen as appealing more to the GOP base rather than the broader electorate.



Trump was also criticized for being short on specific policy proposals that would allow him to achieve his lofty goals.



Some critics also claimed that Trump's comments about law and order and illegal immigration were a veiled effort to divide the country by race.



'Tonight, Donald Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline,' said Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. 'And his answer - more fear, more division, more anger, more hate - was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be President.'



'He offered no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country safe, just more prejudice and paranoia,' Podesta added. 'America is better than this. America is better than Donald Trump.'



Next week, Democrats will hold their national convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Hillary Clinton will presumably be nominated as the party's presidential candidate.



(Photo: Michael Vadon)



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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22 July 2016 AIM: AAU



DIRECTORS' SUBSCRIPTIONS



DIRECTORS' DEALINGS



TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS



Further to the announcement earlier today relating to the placing to raise 445,000 (the 'Placing'), Ariana Resources plc ('Ariana' or 'the Company'), is pleased to announce that three directors of the Company, namely Mr. Michael de Villiers, Dr. Kerim Sener and Mr. William Payne, have subscribed for a total of 2,050,000 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the Company at a price of 1.5 pence per share (the 'Director Shares'), being on the same terms as the Placing, for a further sum of 30,750.



Application will be made for the 29,616,666 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence issued under the Placing, together with the 2,050,000 Director Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM ('Admission'). Such shares will rank pari passu with all existing ordinary shares in the Company, and Admission is expected to take place on 5 August 2016.



The following Directors have subscribed for Director Shares, with the resultant shareholding as described below:



+-----------------+------------------+---------------------+-------------------+ |Name |Number of Director|Shareholding upon|Percentage of| | |Shares |Admission |enlarged share| | | | |capital upon| | | | |Admission | +-----------------+------------------+---------------------+-------------------+ |Michael de|1,050,000 |26,050,000 |3.09 | |Villiers | | | | +-----------------+------------------+---------------------+-------------------+ |Kerim Sener |666,667 |13,076,868 |1.55 | +-----------------+------------------+---------------------+-------------------+ |William Payne |333,333 |4,801,622 |0.57 | +-----------------+------------------+---------------------+-------------------+



Total voting rights



At Admission, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 841,541,783 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 0.1 pence each, with voting rights ('Ordinary Shares'). The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in Treasury. Therefore the total number of Ordinary Shares in the Company with voting rights will be 841,541,783.



Special note concerning the Market Abuse Regulation



This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ('MAR'). Market soundings, as defined in MAR, were taken in respect of the Placing, with the result that certain persons became aware of inside information, as permitted by MAR. That inside information is set out in this announcement. Therefore, those persons that received inside information in a market sounding are no longer in possession of inside information relating to the Company and its securities.



Contacts:



Ariana Resources plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7407 3616



Michael de Villiers, Chairman



Kerim Sener, Managing Director



Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396



Roland Cornish / Felicity Geidt



Beaufort Securities Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7382 8300



Jon Belliss



Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500



Adam James / Tom Salvesen



The notification below, made in accordance with the requirements of the EU Market Abuse Regulation, provides further detail in respect of the Directors subscribing for Director Shares as described above.



Michael de Villiers



1 Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated a) Name Michael de Villiers



2 Reason for notification a) Position / status Chairman b) Initial notification /Amendment Initial 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Ariana Resources plc



b) LEI Not applicable 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument



Identification code Ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in Ariana Resources plc



ISIN GB00B085SD50



Nature of the transaction Purchase of new ordinary shares as described above



c) Price(s) and volumes(s)



+-----------+------------+ | Price(s) | Volumes(s) | +-----------+------------+ | 1.5 pence | 1,050,000 | +-----------+------------+



d) Aggregated information n/a e) Date of the transaction 22 July 2016 f) Place of the transaction London Stock Exchange, AIM (XLON)



Kerim Sener



1 Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated a) Name Kerim Sener



2 Reason for notification a) Position / status Managing Director b) Initial notification /Amendment Initial 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Ariana Resources plc



b) LEI Not applicable 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument



Identification code Ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in Ariana Resources plc



ISIN GB00B085SD50



Nature of the transaction Purchase of new ordinary shares as described above



c) Price(s) and volumes(s)



+-----------+------------+ | Price(s) | Volumes(s) | +-----------+------------+ | 1.5 pence | 666,667 | +-----------+------------+



d) Aggregated information n/a e) Date of the transaction 22 July 2016 f) Place of the transaction London Stock Exchange, AIM (XLON)



William Payne



1 Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated a) Name William Payne



2 Reason for notification a) Position / status Director b) Initial notification /Amendment Initial 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Ariana Resources plc



b) LEI Not applicable 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument



Identification code Ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in Ariana Resources plc



ISIN GB00B085SD50



Nature of the transaction Purchase of new ordinary shares as described above



c) Price(s) and volumes(s)



+-----------+------------+ | Price(s) | Volumes(s) | +-----------+------------+ | 1.5 pence | 333,333 | +-----------+------------+



d) Aggregated information n/a e) Date of the transaction 22 July 2016 f) Place of the transaction London Stock Exchange, AIM (XLON)



Editors' Notes:



About Ariana Resources:



Ariana is an exploration and development company focused on epithermal gold- silver and porphyry copper-gold deposits in Turkey. The Company is developing a portfolio of prospective licences selected on the basis of its in-house geological and remote-sensing database, on its own in western Turkey and in Joint Venture with Eldorado Gold Corporation in north-eastern Turkey. Eldorado owns 51% of this joint venture and are fully funding all exploration work on the JV properties, while Ariana owns 49%. The total resource inventory within this JV is 1.09 million ounces of gold.



The Company's flagship assets are its Kiziltepe and Tavsan gold projects which form the Red Rabbit Gold Project. Both contain a series of prospects, within two prolific mineralised districts in the Western Anatolian Volcanic and Extensional (WAVE) Province in western Turkey. This Province hosts the largest operating gold mines in Turkey and remains highly prospective for new porphyry and epithermal deposits. These core projects, which are separated by a distance of 75km, are being assessed as to their economic merits and now form part of a Joint Venture with Proccea Construction Co. The Kiziltepe Sector of the Red Rabbit Project is fully-permitted and is currently in construction. The total resource inventory at the Red Rabbit Project and wider project area stands at c. 525,000 ounces of gold equivalent.



Beaufort Securities Limited and Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited are joint brokers to the Company and Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Company's Nominated Adviser.



For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Company's website at www.arianaresources.com.



Ends



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: Ariana Resources plc via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2030235]



B085SD5R13



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TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Supporters of US Iraq War resisters are renewing their call for the Canadian government to stop pursuing litigation against the resisters that was initiated by the Harper government.

Four American veterans and resisters of the Iraq War are scheduled to have a judicial review of their cases heard by the Federal Court in Toronto this fall. The government has been given a September 16 deadline to decide whether or not it will continue to pursue the Conservatives' policy of opposing these conscientious objectors in court.

"This litigation continues Harper's policy of targeting US war resisters," said retired CBC broadcaster and Vietnam War resister Andy Barrie, CM. "It's time to tell government lawyers to call it quits to Harper's deportations."

In early May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quoted by The Canadian Press saying that this issue is "one that we are looking into actively as a government." Yet the litigation is still going forward.

"Back in 2008, I was elated when the Liberals voted in Parliament to let us stay in Canada," said Dean Walcott, a former Marine and one of the four US war resisters who are part of the litigation. "I hope that they soon make that stand concrete by halting this litigation."

"The recent Chilcot Report confirmed what millions of people around the world knew - that the 2003 Iraq War was unjust and led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians," said Jenny Kwan, MP for Vancouver East and the NDP Critic for Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees. "A resolution for these people of conscience is long overdue."

Jeremy Brockway, a former US Marine, came to Canada in 2008 after he was ordered to re-deploy to Iraq, despite a medical board recommending he be honourably discharged. "Coming to Canada saved my husband's life," said Ashlea Brockway, Jeremy's spouse. "But the stress of knowing he could be deported or go to jail is affecting all of us. I am hopeful that if the government finally lets us stay so our family can truly begin to heal."

A recent Insights West poll found that three in five Canadians (63%) say they agree with allowing these US soldiers to become permanent residents of Canada.

"I'm proud to be among the majority of Canadians who support the war resisters' principled stance," said Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, MP for Beaches-East York. "Finally granting permanent resident status is the right thing to do for these conscientious objectors and for Canada," he concluded.

Since 2008, there have been 12 Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeals decisions in favour of Iraq War resisters. Unfortunately, the limited remedy available to the courts is to send back cases for reconsideration by immigration officials who are still subject to the instructions in the previous government's prejudicial Operational Bulletin 202. The current government is re-litigating many issues that have already been found in the war resisters' favour by the Canadian courts and is defending the Harper government's position that it is acceptable to imprison conscientious objectors.

Federal Court/Federal Court of Appeal decisions in favour of US war resisters

1. Joshua Key - July 2008

2. James Corey Glass - July 2008

3. Jeremy Hinzman - September 2008

4. Matthew Lowell - September 2008

5. Dean Walcott - January 2009

6. Kimberly Rivera - March 2009

7. Kimberly Rivera - August 2009

8. Jeremy Hinzman - July 2010 (Federal Court of Appeal)

9. Dean Walcott - April 2011

10. Chris Vassey - July 2011

11. Jules Tindungan - February 2013

12. G.L.S. - October 2014

Contacts:

War Resisters Support Campaign

Ken Marciniec

416-803-6066

communications@resisters.ca



Office of Jenny Kwan, MP (Vancouver East)

Gabriel Yiu

778-238-8404

jenny.kwan.c1a@parl.gc.ca



Office of Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, MP (Beaches-East York)

Andrew Goodridge

416-432-5489

nathaniel.erskine-smith.a1@parl.gc.ca




So much for that slow, languorous summer where not much happens. There has been little unwinding in the solar sector, what with the recent SolarWorld-Hemlock case, India's continued boldness and a raft of new technological developments that threaten to elevate PV to previously unseen heights keeping industry heads a-chatter. Rolling on from last week's major news story, SolarWorld is expected to feel concerted pressure to reach an agreement quickly in its dealings with Hemlock following the court ruling in favor of the polysilicon manufacturer. IHS Senior Research Director Ash Sharma spoke to pv magazine about the case this week and suggested that the worst of the damage is already done. The best thing SolarWorld could do now, he advised, is strike a resolution. And quickly. "It's pretty damaging what's happening with the case. They've got 300 million in bonds due, which is probably going to be accelerated. They're going to struggle to get further loans or bonds elsewhere now, with this ruling against them, so they know they need to find a solution to this pretty soon." SolarWorld has shown a great reluctance to change its position in relation to the solar trade cases involving the U.S. and China. Even if it was willing to change its position, there is no guarantee that it would impact the rulings of either country in relation to the case. "I would say based on the indications from SolarWorld over the past couple of years, they seem very stubborn over the trade case and it doesn't look like they want to negotiate at all, based on the rhetoric coming from the company," Sharma commented. "The other thing to consider is that it's really in the hands of the chamber of commerce at the moment. "It's not really up to SolarWorld to drop the charges now, what they could do is initiate a process not to extend it, but that could take some time. There could even be another western manufacturer that decides to pick up the case and try and proceed with the claim against the Chinese producers. It's not done and dusted in any sense. It would take more than Hemlock and SolarWorld coming ...

Den vollstandigen Artikel lesen ...
Fidelity China Special Situations PLC

Directorate Changes

The issuer advises that the following replaces the Directorate Change announcement released on 22 July 2016 at 13:27 under RIS number PRNUK-2207161326-4CEB. There has been an amendment to Mr Ford's biographical details. The full amended text appears below:

The Board of Fidelity China Special Situations PLC is pleased to confirm that Nicholas Bull has been appointed as Chairman of the Board with effect from 22 July 2016, following the retirement of John Owen as Chairman at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting held earlier today (22 July 2016).

The Board is also pleased to confirm that Elisabeth Scott has been appointed as Senior Independent Director with effect from 22 July 2016, a role formerly undertaken by Mr Bull. Ms Scott will also chair the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

Lastly, Andrew Wells has retired from the Board with effect from the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting and John Ford has been appointed in his place with effect from 22 July 2016. It has been agreed that Mr Ford will not serve as a member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Board.

Mr Ford is Fidelity International's Global Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income, Solutions and Real Estate and has been a member of its Global Operating Committee since 2008. Prior to this, he was Chief Investment Officer for Fidelity International's Asia Pacific region from 2008. He joined Fidelity in 2005 as the Hong Kong based Managing Director of its operations in South East Asia before becoming the Chief Investment Officer in 2006 for Japan. He has worked in the asset management industry since 1986, having spent 19 years at Schroders. He was located in Asia for much of that time and worked in a number of different countries in the region including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

There is no other information to be disclosed pursuant to LR 9.6.13R in respect of Mr Ford. As at the date of this announcement, he has no beneficial interests in the ordinary shares of the Company.

Bonita Guntrip

FIL Investments International

Company Secretary

Tel: 01737 837320

22 July 2016
MUMBAI, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Vedanta Limited, Cairn India Limited ("Cairn India") and Vedanta Resources plc ("Vedanta plc" together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"), today announce revised and final terms to the recommended merger between Vedanta Limited and Cairn India (the "Transaction"), that was announced on 14 June 2015.

Key Highlights

The Boards of Vedanta Limited and Cairn India have today approved revised and final terms for the Transaction, taking into account prevailing market conditions and having regard to underlying commercial factors.

Pursuant to the revised and final terms, each Cairn India minority shareholder will receive for each equity share held: 1 equity share in Vedanta Limited; and 4 Redeemable Preference Shares with a face value of INR 10 in Vedanta Limited, with a coupon of 7.5% and tenure of 18 months from issuance. Implied premium of 20% to one month VWAP of Cairn India share price.

The recent commodity price environment has further strengthened the strategic rationale of the Transaction outlined at the announcement: Diversified Tier-I portfolio de-risks earnings volatility and drives stable cash flows through the cycle. Strong historical evidence over the last 10 years, of diversified resources companies generating total shareholder returns superior to single-commodity companies. Improved ability to allocate capital to the highest return projects across the portfolio. Greater financial flexibility to sustain strong dividend distribution. Cost savings and greater capital efficiency, with potential re-rating to benefit all shareholders. Stronger balance sheet will allow for the Group's overall cost of capital to be reduced. Consistent with stated corporate strategy to simplify the Group structure. Offers significant long term sustainable value enhancement for all shareholders.

The Transaction offers significant benefits for Cairn India shareholders De-risked earnings and stable cash flows supporting investment and dividends through the cycle, driving long term value. Attractive transaction terms. Exposure to Vedanta Limited's world class metals and mining assets - low cost, long life and well invested, delivering strong growth through production ramp ups. Improved optionality to allocate capital and increased participation in cost savings. Increased free float and trading liquidity. Potential re-rating of the merged company.

The Jurisdictional High Courts have convened the shareholder meetings for each of Vedanta Limited and Cairn India on 8 September 2016 and 12 September 2016 , respectively. The Notice convening the shareholder meetings will be sent to shareholders in due course.

and , respectively. As previously announced, following completion of the Transaction: Vedanta plc ownership in Vedanta Limited is expected to decrease to 50.1% from its current 62.9% shareholding. Cairn India minority shareholders will own 20.2% and Vedanta Limited minority shareholders will own a 29.7% stake in the enlarged entity.



Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources plc, said: "I am pleased that the Boards of Cairn India and Vedanta Limited have approved the terms announced today. The simplified corporate structure will better align interests between all shareholders for the creation of long term sustainable value."

Sudhir Mathur, CFO and Acting CEO of Cairn India, said: "Cairn India shareholders will benefit from exposure to a diversified portfolio of world-class, low cost, long-life assets with significant growth. We are confident that the financial strength and diversified portfolio of Tier-I assets will provide de-risked earnings and stable cash flows, driving long-term value. Cairn India shareholders will benefit from the revised terms announced today, while retaining the upside from Cairn's strong oil & gas assets."

Tom Albanese, CEO of Vedanta Limited, said: "The strategic rationale for merging Vedanta Limited and Cairn India remains highly compelling. Diversified resources companies have delivered superior returns for shareholders historically. The Transaction consolidates our portfolio of attractive Tier-I assets and simplifies the group structure, better positioning the group to deliver superior value to all shareholders over the longer term."

Recommendations, Financial Advisers and Fairness Opinions

The non-conflicted, independent members of the Boards of Directors of Vedanta Limited, Cairn India and Vedanta plc unanimously approved the revised merger terms.

Independent valuers, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP and Walker Chandiok & Co LLP, have provided their joint recommendation on the exchange ratio for consideration by the Boards of Vedanta Limited and Cairn India.

Lazard & Co., Limited has acted as financial advisor to Vedanta Limited in relation to the Transaction and the Board of Directors of Vedanta Limited has received a fairness opinion from Lazard India Private Limited with regard to the fairness of the exchange ratio to Vedanta Limited, from a financial point of view.

The Board of Directors of Cairn India has received opinions from DSP Merrill Lynch Limited and JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited as to the fairness of the exchange ratio to Cairn India, from a financial point of view.

J.P. Morgan Cazenove and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint financial advisors and joint corporate brokers to Vedanta plc in relation to the Transaction.

Key Transaction Approvals

Completion of the Transaction will be conditional on receipt of the following approvals:

Vedanta Limited and Cairn India shareholder approvals through postal ballot including e-voting : Majority of the minority shareholders voting required to vote in favour of the Transaction.

At a High Court directed meeting (scheduled for 8 September 2016 for Vedanta Limited and 12 September 2016 for Cairn India): Majority in number and 75% in value of shareholders present and voting at the shareholder meeting, required to vote in favour of the Transaction; Vedanta plc and Vedanta Limited can vote at the meetings for Vedanta Limited and Cairn India, respectively. Additionally, for Vedanta Limited, majority in number and 75% in value of creditors present and voting at the secured and unsecured creditor meeting (held separately), required to vote in favour of the Transaction;

for Vedanta Limited and for Cairn India): Vedanta plc shareholder approval: Simple majority of holders present and voting at the shareholder meeting planned for September 2016 required to vote in favour of the Transaction.

Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas - vesting of Cairn PSC's to Vedanta Limited.

Jurisdictional High Courts where the registered offices of Vedanta Limited and Cairn India are situated.

Foreign Investment Promotion Board - issue of redeemable preference shares to non-resident Cairn India shareholders.

Regulatory and other approvals as may be required.

The appointed date for the scheme has been revised to 1 April 2016 from 1 April 2015 earlier. The Transaction is expected to close in Q1 CY2017.

Conference Calls for Analysts and Shareholders

There will be a conference call at 6.45 PM IST today:



TIME Dial In (Toll) India & International (Main Access)

+91 22 3938 1017 India & International (Standby Access)

+91 22 6746 8333

TIME Dial In (Toll Free) UK only 2.15 PM 0 808 101 1573 USA only 9.15 AM 1 866 746 2133 Hong Kong 9.15 PM 800 964 448 Singapore 9.15 PM 800 101 2045





REPLAY (AVAILABLE UNTIL 29 JULY 2016)



Mumbai

+91 22 3065 2322

+91 22 6181 3322













Passcode: 89897#

Contacts

Vedanta Resources plc

Ashwin Bajaj

Director - Investor Relations

Radhika Arora

Associate General Manager - Investor Relations

Ravindra Bhandari

Manager - Investor Relations

Tel: +44 20 7659 4732

Tel: +91 22 6646 1531

ir@vedanta.co.in

Vedanta Limited

Ashwin Bajaj

Director - Investor Relations

Sunila Martis

Manager - Investor Relations

Vishesh Pachnanda

Manager - Investor Relations

Tel: +91 22 6646 1531

vedantaltd.ir@vedanta.co.in

Vedanta Group Communications

Roma Balwani

President - Group Communications, Sustainability and CSR

Tel: +91 22 6646 1000

gc@vedanta.co.in

Cairn India

Sudhir Mathur

Chief Financial Officer and Acting Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +91 124 677 3767

cilir@cairnindia.com

Arun Arora

Chief Communication Officer

Dheeraj Agarwal

Investor Relations

Financial Advisor to Vedanta Limited

Lazard & Co., Limited

Spiro Youakim

Fiona McHardy

Tel: +44 207 187 2000

Lazard India Private Limited

Deepak Sharma

Tel: +91 22 6752 6000

Financial Advisors to Cairn India

DSP Merrill Lynch Limited

Raj Balakrishnan

Jagan Dholakia

Tel: +91 22 6632 8000

JM Financial Institution Securities Limited

Vikas Kothari

Venugopan Nyalapelli

Tel: +91 22 6630 3030

Joint Financial Advisors, Joint Sponsors and Joint Corporate Brokers to Vedanta plc

J.P. Morgan Cazenove

Barry Weir

Edward Jack

Tel: +44 207 742 4000

Morgan Stanley

Teodor Todorov

Tom Perry

Tel: +44 207 425 8000

UK Media

Finsbury

Daniela Fleischmann

Tel: +44 20 7251 3801

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

Notes:

If the Transaction were to occur, it would be considered a reverse takeover, under Listing Rule L.R. 5.6.4 (1).

Since Vedanta plc currently discloses detailed financial as well as operational information on Cairn India in its Annual Reports and periodic reporting (see references below), the directors of Vedanta plc consider that the publicly available information, specifically the publicly available information referenced in this announcement, contains sufficient information about the business to be potentially acquired, to provide a properly informed basis for assessing its financial position.

Detailed financial and non-financial, operational information on Cairn India covering the last three years can be found in the Vedanta plc FY16 and FY15 Annual Reports. For FY16, detailed financial information can be found in the FY16 Annual Report, on pages 48 - 55, 162 - 164 and 224 - 226 with detailed non-financial, operational information on pages 56 - 59. For FY15, detailed financial information can be found in the FY15 Annual Report on pages 44 - 49, 148 - 149 and 211 - 213 with detailed non-financial, operational information on pages 50 - 53. Further, a Five Year historical financial and operational summary for the Group and Cairn India can be found on pages 223-231 of the FY16 Annual Report.

The Vedanta plc Annual Reports and results referenced above can be found at: www.vedantaresources.com/investor-relations/results-and-reports/annual-interim-reports.aspx. The Vedanta plc FY2016 Annual Report can be found at http://www.vedantaresources.com/media/200956/vedanta_annual_report_fy2016__final.pdf and the FY2015 Annual Report can be found at http://www.vedantaresources.com/media/177388/22883_vedanta_ar2015_final.pdf.

Pursuant to L.R. 5.6.5 (1), L.R. 5.6.5 (2) and (3) respectively, the Group confirms that if the Transaction were to occur, it will not change the strategic direction or the nature of the Group's business, the Group's business will not be part of a different industry sector following completion of the Transaction and the Group's business will not deal with fundamentally different suppliers and end-users as a result of the Transaction. There will be no change in board or voting control of Vedanta as a result of the Transaction, if occurred.

About Vedanta plc

Vedanta Resources plc ("Vedanta") is a London listed diversified global natural resources company. The group produces aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, silver, iron ore, oil & gas and commercial energy. Vedanta has operations in India, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Ireland and Australia. With an empowered talent pool globally, Vedanta places strong emphasis on partnering with all its stakeholders based on the core values of trust, sustainability, growth, entrepreneurship, integrity, respect and care. For more information, please visit www.vedantaresources.com.





About Vedanta Limited

Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium and commercial power. The company has a presence across India, South Africa, Namibia, Australia and Ireland.

Vedanta Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. Governance and Sustainable Development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company is conferred with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 'Sustainable Plus Platinum label', ranking among the top 10 most sustainable companies in India

Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information, please log on to www.vedantalimited.com. Vedanta Limited had gross assets of $28.3 billion as of 31 March 2016 and profit before tax (before exceptional items) of $1.0 billion for the year ending 31 March 2016.

About Cairn India

Cairn India is one of the largest independent oil & gas exploration and production companies in India. It operates 27% of India's domestic crude oil production and to date has opened 4 frontier basins with numerous discoveries. Cairn India has a portfolio of 9 blocks - one block in Rajasthan, which contains multiple assets, two on the west coast and four on the east coast of India and one each in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Oil and gas is currently being produced from Rajasthan, Ravva and Cambay. It is listed on the BSE and NSE in India. For more information, please visit www.cairnindia.com. Cairn India had gross assets of $8.5 billion as of 31 March 2016 and profit before tax (before exceptional items) of $342 million for the year ending 31 March 2016.

Disclaimer

This press release is for information purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute, or form part of, any invitation or offer to sell, dispose, acquire, purchase or subscribe for any securities of any company mentioned herein in the United States or any other jurisdiction pursuant to the Transaction or otherwise, and neither this press release nor anything herein forms the basis for any contract or commitment whatsoever. This press release does not constitute a prospectus or prospectus equivalent document.

The Transaction relates to securities of an Indian company and is proposed to be effected by means of a Scheme of Arrangement under Indian law. A transaction effected by means of a Scheme of Arrangement is not subject to the proxy solicitation or tender offer rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). The Transaction is subject to the disclosure requirements, rules and practices applicable in India to Schemes of Arrangement, which differ from the requirements of the U.S. proxy solicitation and tender offer rules.

The Vedanta Limited securities to be issued in the Transaction have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an available exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Accordingly, the Vedanta Limited securities to be issued in the Transaction are expected to be issued in reliance upon the exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act provided by Section 3(a)(10) of the Securities Act or another available exemption under the Securities Act.

No statement in this press release (including any statement of estimated synergies) is intended as a profit forecast or estimate for any period and no statement in this press release should be interpreted to mean that cash flow from operations, free cash flow, earnings, earnings per share or income on a clean current cost of supplies basis for any of Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited or Cairn India, as appropriate, for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published cash flow from operations, free cash flow, earnings, earnings per share or income on a clean current cost of supplies basis for any of Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited or Cairn India, as appropriate.

This press release contains statements which are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited and Cairn India and of the Transaction. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as at the date of this press release. Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited and Cairn India expressly dislaim any obligation to update such statements other than as required by law or by the rules of any competent regulatory authority, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of any of Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited or Cairn India to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions including as to future potential cost savings, synergies, earnings, cash flow, return on average capital employed, production and prospects. Additional factors that could cause Vedanta Limited and its subsidiaries' results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the Vedanta Limited's 2015 Annual Reports on Form 20-F, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In some cases, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "anticipate", "believe", "could", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "plan", "objectives", "outlook", "probably", "project", "will", "seek", "target", "risks", "goals", "should" or their negatives and similar terms and phrases. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. Neither Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited or Cairn India, nor any of their respective associates or directors, officers or advisers, provides any representation, assurance or guarantee that the occurrence of the events expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in this press release will actually occur.

There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of any of Vedanta plc, Vedanta Limited or Cairn India and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for any of Vedanta plc's Vedanta Limited's or Cairn India's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) reserves estimates; (e) loss of market share and industry competition; (f) environmental and physical risks; (g) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (h) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (i) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including potential litigation and regulatory measures as a result of climate changes; (j) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (k) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (l) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Certain information in this announcement is based upon unaudited management accounts and estimates. Unless otherwise indicated, all references in this press release to "US dollars", "US$" and "$" are to the lawful currency of the United States and all references to "INR" are to "Indian Rupee", the lawful currency of India. For the purposes of this press release and unless otherwise stated, for the convenience of the reader, the US dollar to INR exchange rate of 1: 66.33, the rate quoted by the Reserve Bank of India on 31st March 2016 and an average US dollar to INR exchange rate of 1: 65.46 for the Vedanta Limited's and Cairn India's financial years to 31st March 2016, have been applied for translation of certain amounts from INR to US dollar. Such translations should not be considered as a representation that such currencies could have been or could be converted into US dollars or INR (as the case may be) at any particular rate, the rate stated or at all.

Investors should seek their own tax advice.

J.P. Morgan Limited, which conducts its UK investment banking activities as J.P. Morgan Cazenove and is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority, is acting as corporate broker and financial advisor exclusively for Vedanta plc and no one else in connection with the Transaction and matters set out in this announcement and will not regard any other person as its client in relation to the matters in this announcement nor be responsible to anyone other than Vedanta plc for providing the protections afforded to its clients nor for providing advice in connection with the Transaction or any matter referred to herein. Neither J.P. Morgan Limited nor any of its affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of J.P. Morgan Limited in connection with this announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc ("Morgan Stanley") is acting as corporate broker and financial advisor to Vedanta plc and is advising no one else in connection with the Transaction and this announcement. In connection with such matters, Morgan Stanley, its affiliates and its and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents, will not regard any other person as their client, nor will they owe or accept any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person other than Vedanta plc for providing the protections afforded to their clients or for providing advice in connection with this announcement, any matters referred to herein or otherwise.

Lazard & Co., Limited, which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority, and Lazard India Private limited, a Category I Merchant Banker registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (together with Lazard & Co., Limited, "Lazard"), are acting as financial advisor to Vedanta Limited and are advising no one else in connection with the Transaction referred to in this announcement and will not be responsible to any person other than Vedanta Limited for providing the protections afforded to the clients of Lazard, nor for providing advice in relation to the Transaction, the contents of this announcement or any other matters referred to herein. Neither Lazard nor any of its affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Lazard in connection with this announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

DSP Merrill Lynch Limited ("BofA Merrill Lynch") is acting as a financial advisor to Cairn India Limited and is advising no one else in connection with the Transaction and this announcement. In connection with such matters, BofA Merrill Lynch, its affiliates and its and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents, will not regard any other person as their client, nor will they owe or accept any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person other than Cairn India Limited for providing the protections afforded to their clients or for providing advice in connection with this announcement, the Transaction, any matters referred to herein or otherwise.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150422/740375

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150615/749005
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Croatia's jobless rate declined for a fifth straight month in June, preliminary data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics showed Friday. The registered unemployment rate tumbled to 13.6 percent from 14.4 percent in May. The figure has been falling since February, when it was at 17.8 percent. Historical data on the statistical office website show that the jobless rate typically rise in the second half of the year. 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.
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust PLC

(the "Company")

Publication of Circular to convene a General Meeting

22 July 2016

Since the Company's last annual general meeting held on 4 February 2016 (the "Annual General Meeting"), its Ordinary Shares (the "Shares") have consistently traded close to the Net Asset Value (the "NAV") per Share, which indicates that there is reasonable demand for them in the market. This has enabled the Directors to use the authority granted to them at the Annual General Meeting to issue a further 10,034,000 Shares.

The Company announces that the authority granted in February 2016 has been substantially utilised and that it has taken the steps necessary to enable it to continue to issue further Shares.

The Company is pleased to announce that a circular convening a general meeting (the "Circular") will be posted to shareholders on Tuesday, 26 July 2016to enable the Board to continue the policy of issuing new Shares to the market at a premium to the higher of the prevailing cum income or ex income NAV per Share when demand arises.

The Circular sets out the Company's intention to call a general meeting of shareholders to be held at 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL at 2.00 p.m. on 23 August 2016 (the "August General Meeting") to consider and, if thought fit, approve an ordinary resolution empowering the Directors to allot equity securities up to an amount equal to approximately 10 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company and a special resolution to disapply pre-emption rights in respect of any such issuance (the "Proposal"). Any authority granted to the Directors will lapse at the conclusion of the next annual general meeting of the Company.

Expected Timetable

Latest time and date for receipt of forms of proxy 2.00 p.m. on 19 August 2016 August General Meeting to approve the Proposal 2.00 p.m. on 23 August 2016

A copy of the Circular has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM

The Circular will also shortly be available on the Company's website at www.finsburygt.com

Enquiries:

Katherine Manson

Frostrow Capital LLP, Company Secretary

020 3709 8734
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) has been added to the FTSE4Good Index Series.

FTSE Russell (the trading name of FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Company) confirms that IGM Financial has been independently assessed according to the FTSE4Good criteria, and has satisfied the requirements to become a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series.

Created by the global index provider FTSE Russell, the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. The FTSE4Good indices are used by a wide variety of market participants to create and assess responsible investment funds and other products.

IGM Financial was accepted into the index series following a rigorous independent assessment of the company based on a well-established methodology of key ESG themes. It recognizes IGM Financial's strong corporate performance in the areas of climate change, labour standards, human rights & community, social supply chain, corporate governance, risk management and anti-corruption.

"We are pleased to be identified by FTSE Russell as a company with holistic ESG practices and to be included in this globally recognized index," said Andrea Carlson, Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Responsibility. "The FTSE4Good Index facilitates investment in companies recognized for doing business in a responsible way."

IGM Financial is one of only three Canadian companies to have been accepted into the London-based FTSE4Good Index Series on June 20, 2016 as part of its semi-annual review. In total, only 25 Canadian companies have met the criteria to be included in this index, which is comprised of 824 companies globally.

The FTSE4Good designation is one of several recent achievements by IGM Financial in the area of corporate responsibility - a result, Carlson said, of enhanced reporting efforts and initiatives that demonstrate the company's longstanding commitment to sustainability.

-- IGM Financial was named to the 2016 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada by Corporate Knights; -- IGM Financial is a member of the Jantzi Social Index (JSI), a leading Canadian sustainability index, and rated as one of the top five performing Canadian diversified financial services companies by global environmental, social and governance research firm Sustainalytics; -- Investors Group and Mackenzie Investments are signatories to the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), offering the largest suite of mutual funds in Canada committed to PRI; -- IGM Financial is a member of the CDP and has been recognized as a leader in Canadian climate disclosure for the quality of its reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change; and -- IGM Financial published its third Corporate Responsibility Report in 2016, guided by Global Reporting Initiative G4 Sustainability guidelines.

See the IGM Financial website for more information about the company's commitment to corporate responsibility.

About the FTSE4Good Index Series

The FTSE4Good Index Series, provided by FTSE Russell (the trading name of FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Company), is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. Transparent management and clearly defined ESG criteria make FTSE4Good indices suitable tools to be used by a wide variety of market participants when creating or assessing responsible investment products. See the FTSE4Good Index Series for more information.

IGM Financial Inc. is one of Canada's premier personal financial services companies, and one of the country's largest managers and distributors of mutual funds and other managed asset products, with approximately $135 billion in total assets under management as of June 30, 2016. Its activities are carried out principally through Investors Group through a network of over 5,300 Consultants, Mackenzie Financial Corporation and Investment Planning Counsel. IGM Financial is listed on the Jantzi Social Index and the FTSE4Good Index Series, it participates in climate disclosure through the CDP and is one of Corporate Knights' Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada.

A MEMBER OF THE POWER FINANCIAL CORPORATION GROUP OF COMPANIES.

Contacts:

Media Relations:

Ron Arnst

204-956-3364

ron.arnst@igmfinancial.com



Investor Relations:

Paul Hancock

204-956-8103

investor.relations@igmfinancial.com




FRANKLIN, TN--(Marketwired - July 22, 2016) - Apple Music' has announced that classical genre playlisting brand unCLASSIFIED (http://unclassified.com) has been made a curator on their streaming platform. Starting today, Apple Music' subscribers will be able to access unCLASSIFIED's expertly curated content on the service along with exclusive playlists that will only be available on Apple Music'. unCLASSIFIED will also be working with Apple Music' to make tracks available for certain recordings before release date.

Naxos of America CEO, Jeff Van Driel, commented, "We are excited to be the first classical music focused playlist brand to be invited to be an Apple Music' curator. Our focused content creation and knowledge of classical music recordings paired with the reach of the world's most pioneering and recognizable brands results in an unmatchable listening experience for classical music lovers."

Followers of the unCLASSIFIED profile on Apple Music' will be able to find exclusive content and playlists based on mood or activity. unCLASSIFIED will also work with artists who will curate playlists of their favourite or most inspirational music as well as classical music aficionados and tastemakers to help bring deeper catalogue to a larger audience.

For more information about unCLASSIFIED, please contact Katie Ferguson, General Manager, at kferguson@naxosusa.com.

About unCLASSIFIED

unCLASSIFIED's mission is to improve the experience of classical music discovery for the curious listener as well as the aficionado. The curators behind unCLASSIFIED make the sometimes daunting exploration of classical music into a simple exercise in discovery by masterfully grouping the appropriate works into playlists by mood, activity, occasion, time period, instrument, or composer. Founded in 2016, the playlisting brand can be found on all of the major streaming platforms worldwide, including Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and YouTube.

unCLASSIFIED is an affiliate of Naxos Music Group, the world's leading independent classical music label and distribution network. Please visit www.unclassified.com.

Raymond Bisha

Director of Marketing & PR

rbisha@naxosusa.com

raymond@naxoscanada.com

US: 917-892-1249

Canada: 416-992-5677



Kelly Voigt

Senior Manager of Press & Media

kvoigt@naxosusa.com

Direct Line 615-465-3806
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2016) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it has won a court-ordered asset freeze to halt an ongoing fraud by two former brokers with disciplinary histories who allegedly raised more than $5 million from investors without using the money as promised.

In an emergency action filed in federal court in Chattanooga, Tenn., the SEC alleges that James Hugh Brennan III and Douglas Albert Dyer sold purported shares in eight similarly named companies to more than 240 investors since 2008 without ever registering the stock as they promised. Instead, according to the SEC's complaint, Brennan and Dyer transferred investor funds into their personal accounts or those belonging to their wives. The SEC further alleges that Brennan and Dyer continue to solicit investors while touting their securities industry experience and failing to disclose that Brennan was banned from the brokerage industry and Dyer suspended and fined for executing unauthorized transactions in customers' accounts.

"We allege that Brennan and Dyer have been telling investors the same lies for several years without fulfilling any of the promises they've made, and the court's temporary restraining order stops them from soliciting any more investors and freezes their assets as we pursue litigation," said Walter Jospin, Director of the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office.

The SEC encourages investors to check the backgrounds of investment professionals before investing their money. A quick search on the SEC's investor.gov website would have shown that neither Brennan nor Dyer has been registered to sell investments as a broker since the late 1990s as well as their disciplinary problems with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and state regulators.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Brennan, Dyer, and their company Broad Street Ventures have violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 as well as Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. The SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest and penalties as well as permanent injunctions. The SEC also seeks penny stock and officer-and-director bars against Brennan and Dyer. The court's order issued this morning freezes the assets of Broad Street, Brennan, and Dyer. Their spouses are named as relief defendants in the SEC's complaint for the purposes of recovering ill-gotten gains deposited in their accounts.

The SEC's investigation has been conducted by Michael Mashburn and Peter Diskin under the supervision of William Hicks, and the litigation is being led by Robert Schroeder, Pat Huddleston, and Graham Loomis in the Atlanta Regional Office.

Public Service Announcement: - Check Out Your Investment Professional
PORTLAND, ME -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Director of Operations, Justin Cincala leads Una Innovations into their most productive year to date. As the marketing firm represents two of the largest brands in the nation, the demand for growth has never been greater.

Focusing primarily on growth form within, Una Innovations stands for corporate expansion, management training, business development and team leadership. Justin explains, "As our client's footprint grows, we must grow with it. For every new city acquired by our clients, we need marketing managers and brand managers to lead the campaigns. The opportunity for corporate growth has become exponential."

In the last six months, Una Innovations acquired the one of the leading technology companies in the world while expanding into more local and national locations than ever before. Beginning in August, the company will roll out the red carpet in Falmouth, Topsham, and Scarborough.

"The company currently boasts three locations and our customer base is the largest it has ever been. With the amount of growth happening nationally, now more than ever, we need to make sure we hire and develop the highest caliber of management staff that our company has ever seen," says Justin.

The company prepares to open their doors for the interview process in order to find Una Innovation's next generation of leadership. The company seeks entrepreneurs, driven by teamwork and competition as well as personal and professional development. The management staff in Portland is willing to provide paid training in order to mold individuals to lead campaigns and to apply knowledge freely and creatively upon completion of training.

For more information regarding the employment and growth opportunities offered by Una Innovations, visit their website at www.UnaInnovations.net.

Una Innovations

175 Lancaster Street

Suite 212

Portland, Maine 04101

207-951-4370

Email Contact

www.UnaInnovations.net




HANOVER, MD -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Brekford Corp. (OTCQX: BFDI), a leading public safety and security technology service provider of automated traffic safety enforcement ("ATSE") solutions, parking and traffic violation systems, and an end-to-end suite of technology solutions for public safety vehicles and mobile workers, announced today the deployment of a seventh red light enforcement system in New Rochelle, New York. The City has approval from the State of New York to install photo enforcement systems at 12 intersections, with approximately 40 approaches. Brekford will continue to work with New Rochelle representatives to provide complete coverage in the coming months.

"Brekford is very pleased to be working with the New Rochelle Police Department to improve traffic and pedestrian safety by reducing red light running and traffic crashes," stated Rod Hillman, President and COO of Brekford. "The City selected our advanced non-intrusive BRAVA Red Light Enforcement System, featuring high resolution violation capture, to place at high risk intersections with minimal impact on City resources. Since inception of the program earlier this year, the system has operated very efficiently and we have seen a reduction in red light running at intersections where cameras have been deployed. Brekford has worked diligently to ensure complete turnkey support for a fully transparent ATSE red light program in New Rochelle. We have operated speed enforcement programs for several years now, and are pleased with the initial success of our first red light program. Our objective for the remainder of this year is to promote this capability to other prospective clients throughout the U.S. and Latin America."

Communities face heavy costs from traffic accidents at red light intersections, and issuing fines by automated enforcement is a fair and objective way to remind drivers that they are required by law to stop at red lights. According to estimates by the American Automobile Association, a single fatal crash costs society over $6 million, and includes costs to victims, families, government, businesses and taxpayers. Independent studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show that red light safety cameras lower red-light running violations up to 90% and fatalities by 24%.

Brekford invests heavily in research and development to deliver advanced traffic safety enforcement solutions and reliable service to its customers. Brekford's range of technologies include its P2S Speed Enforcement System, Safety Zone SpeedAlert Radar Signs, BRAVA Red Light Enforcement System, and back office iP360 Violation Processing and Evidence Management Suite. We develop each solution to yield better results through innovative designs and manufacturing in the U.S., high quality engineering and components, flexible and easy-to-use tools, and proven chain of custody.

About Brekford Corp.

Brekford Corp. provides state-of-the art public safety technology and automated traffic enforcement solutions to municipalities, the U.S. military, various federal entities and other public safety agencies throughout the United States. Its services include automated speed and red light camera enforcement programs, parking enforcement solutions and an end-to-end suite of technology and equipment for public safety vehicle upfitting. Brekford's combination of upfitting services, cutting-edge technology, and automated traffic enforcement services offers a unique 360-degree solution for law enforcement agencies and municipalities.

The Company is headquartered in Hanover, Maryland, and its common stock is traded on the OTC Markets under the symbol "BFDI." Additional information on Brekford can be accessed online at www.brekford.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of that term in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Words such as "anticipate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "target," "aim," "should," and words and terms of similar substance and any financial projections used in connection with any discussion of future plans, strategies, objectives, actions, or events identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, among others, those concerning our expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans, as well as all assumptions, expectations, predictions, intentions or beliefs about future events. These statements are based on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to us and reflect our current views concerning future events. As such, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among many others: the risk that any projections, including earnings, revenues, expenses, synergies, margins or any other financial items that form the basis for management's plans and assumptions are not realized; a reduction in industry profit margin; requirements or changes affecting the business in which we are engaged; our ability to successfully implement new strategies; operating hazards; competition and the loss of key personnel; changing interpretations of generally accepted accounting principles; continued compliance with government regulations; changing legislation and regulatory environments; and the general volatility of the market prices of our securities and general economic conditions. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Brekford Corp. with the SEC, specifically the Company's most recent reports filed on Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q, which further identify important risks, trends and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release. Brekford Corp. expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Company contact:



C. B. Brechin

CEO

(443) 557-0200

investors@brekford.com






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Suggesting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other Americans are embracing his ideas, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke announced Friday that he is running for U.S. Senate in Louisiana.



Duke, who served one term as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, said he will run for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. David Vitter, R-La.



In a video announcing his candidacy, Duke pledged to 'stop the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America' and called for 'fair trade.'



'I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues I've championed for years,' Duke added. 'My slogan remains America first.'



Trump made illegal immigration and renegotiating trade deals to benefit America key focal points of his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president on Thursday.



Duke claimed he believes in equal rights for all but said he also demands respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans.



However, the National Republican Senatorial Committee was quick to distance itself from Duke's campaign for Senate.



'Louisiana voters will be able to choose from several Republican Senate candidates who will have a great impact on the Bayou State and the future of our country,' said NRSC Executive Director Ward Baker. 'David Duke is not one of them. He will not have the support of the NRSC under any circumstance.'



Trump drew considerable criticism earlier this year for his apparent reluctance to disavow an endorsement from Duke.



In a post on Twitter on Thursday, Duke praised Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican convention, saying he 'couldn't have said it better!'



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Canada's federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture today concluded their annual conference with Ministers issuing the Calgary Statement - representing a consensus among Ministers regarding the key priorities to develop the next agricultural policy framework, set to launch in April 2018.

This year's conference was co-chaired by Lawrence MacAulay, Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and Oneil Carlier, Alberta Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. FPT Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to work together to strengthen the agriculture and agri-food sector - an industry that generates over $108 billion for the Canadian economy and employs one in eight Canadians.

FPT Ministers will continue to collaborate with stakeholders to enhance the sector's ability to compete, innovate and capture new opportunities. Ministers discussed increasing market access and development, advancing investments in science, innovation and research, the need for a strong science-based regulatory framework, enhancing public trust, the continued importance of Business Risk Management programs and systems such as supply management, and renewed emphasis on environmental sustainability and climate change. Ministers committed to preserve the integrity of the supply management system.

The Calgary Statement was developed by FPT Ministers based on ongoing discussions with stakeholders and will guide the development of the next agricultural framework. The second phase of federal online consultation was also launched to seek comments on the Calgary Statement and help inform the development of future FPT agricultural programs and services.

Ministers discussed the importance of efficient transportation systems in order for Canada to be a reliable supplier of agriculture and agri-food products to customers around the world, and the importance of access to labour, and finding short- and long-term solutions to labour needs. Ministers also stressed the importance of the quality of Canadian and imported products (reciprocity of standards) and the strict controls to which all foods are subject.

(i) Although Quebec is not opposed to the content of this joint communique, it will issue its own communique as it considers this joint communique incomplete and not reflective of a full consensus.

Quotes

"The Calgary Statement sets the direction for future agricultural programs and services that will help the sector continue to innovate, grow the economy, create jobs and help grow the middle class. Along with the provinces and territories, I will continue to work with stakeholders and interested Canadians to chart the way forward for Canadian agriculture."

- Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

"Agriculture is an enormous contributor to a strong and diversified Canadian economy. As we move forward, we will continue to work closely with industry and my colleagues from across the country, to implement programs that help ensure the agriculture sector is well-positioned for sustainable growth and continues to be a leader in the global marketplace."

- Oneil Carlier, Alberta Minister of Agriculture and Forestry

Quick Facts

-- The current agriculture framework, Growing Forward 2 (GF2), is a $3 billion investment for strategic initiatives over five years (2013-2018) by FPT governments in programming to support innovation, competitiveness and market development. -- Canadian farm incomes also continue to hit new records with net cash income expected to close out 2015 at a record $15 billion and remain strong in 2016. -- The GF2 FPT Business Risk Management suite of programs are demand- driven, and to date, have provided over $4 billion in support to help producers address risks that are beyond their capacity to manage and that threaten the viability of their farms. -- In 2015, the total value of Canadian agricultural exports reached an all-time high exceeding $60 billion. -- The agriculture and agri-food sector represents close to seven per cent of Canada's GDP.

Related Products:

Calgary Statement

Online consultation

Growing Forward 2 (GF2)

BACKGROUNDER

On July 20-22, 2016, federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture from across the country met in Calgary, Alberta for their annual Ministers' Conference. Ministers discussed the opportunities and challenges facing the sector:

Next Agricultural Framework:

-- FPT Ministers are currently collaborating on the development of the next agricultural policy framework, set to launch in 2018. -- Ministers issued the Calgary Statement on July 22, 2016 which outlines the overarching themes and priorities that will guide the development of the next framework. -- The Calgary Statement recognizes the diversity of the sector and the importance of flexibility in addressing its changing needs. -- Engagement with stakeholders has been underway since early 2016 and additional consultation activities will be ongoing in the coming months to gather feedback that will help inform future agricultural programs and services. -- Ministers are committed to a strengthened focus on results and continuous improvement of policies and program delivery.

Business Risk Management (BRM):

-- FPT Ministers agreed that BRM programming must help Canadian producers address risks that are beyond their capacity to manage and that threaten the viability of their farms. -- FPT Ministers also share the industry's concerns about the level of participation in AgriStability and have tasked officials to consult with industry on options aimed at improving participation in the program, including with young farmers. -- Ministers will continue to consult with industry on BRM as part of the engagement process on the next policy framework and agreed that BRM will play a key role in the next framework.

Market Access, Market Development and Trade Policy:

-- Ministers reaffirmed continued support for developing new markets for Canadian products and strengthening Canadian competitiveness in the agriculture and agri-food sectors. -- FPT partners will work collaboratively to ensure effective coordination to support companies in getting their products to market. -- Ministers discussed their support for implementing the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which will lead to new and expanded opportunities, create jobs and benefit Canadian consumers. Ministers also noted the importance of ongoing consultations on the allocation of the new cheese import tariff rates quotas. -- Ministers look forward to the conclusion of consultations on the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP). Ministers also discussed the potential benefits and implications of the TPP, should it come into force. -- Ministers noted the importance of free movement of agriculture and agri- food products within the Canadian market.

Science and Innovation:

-- Ministers acknowledged the vital importance of continued investments in science and innovation to drive higher levels of productivity, competitiveness and sustainability in the farming and food processing sector. -- They discussed the importance for these investments to continue the momentum from previous frameworks, the need for funding to align with industry and government priorities, and the importance of flexibility to enable regional approaches and program options that achieve high impact and unlock further potential from all parts of the sector. -- Ministers also discussed the importance of knowledge transfer and uptake by producers to maximize the value of agricultural research investments, and the need for governments, producers and academic institutions to work together to strengthen the transformation of research results into practical advice for farmers.

Environment and Climate Change:

-- Ministers discussed the importance of environmental sustainability as a key element in agricultural development. -- Ministers discussed the need for science-based policies that will facilitate clean growth while achieving progress on environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation and adaptation. -- Ministers agreed on the need for renewed efforts on environmental sustainability and to help address the advancement of agri-environmental priorities to support a competitive, innovative and sustainable sector.

Public Trust:

-- Ministers acknowledge that Canadian consumer preferences about food are changing. Consumers expect transparency from industry and assurance that food is produced in safe, sustainable and responsible ways. -- Ministers recognize that governments and industry have important roles to play in maintaining trust and confidence in Canadian agriculture and the agri-food system. -- Ministers agree on the importance of continuing to work with industry to build and maintain public trust, and sharing the story of the importance of the sector and the modern, responsible and sustainable practices it uses. -- Ministers reaffirmed their support for continued review and modernization of science-based regulations for food safety, animal health and welfare, and plant health.

Food Processing:

-- Ministers reemphasized the strategic importance of the food manufacturing sector in Canada, and recognized the need for FPT governments to work together to assist the sector to improve productivity. -- Ministers also directed FPT officials to examine the capacity of the processing system in Canada to help it introduce new products and processes to improve competitiveness domestically and internationally.

Food Policy:

-- Ministers discussed the development of a national food policy that includes promotion of healthy living and safe food, and food security. Minister MacAulay encouraged the continued FPT sharing of ideas about food policy. -- The federal government plans to seek the ideas of Canadians and stakeholders about the scope and directions of a food policy.

Emergency Management:

-- Ministers endorsed the new Emergency Management Framework for Agriculture in Canada (the Framework). Developed in collaboration with FPT officials, the Framework aims to improve FPT integration and collaboration through a focus on prevention, mitigation and improving the capacity of governments and industry to prepare, respond and recover from emergencies. -- Ministers also endorsed the Livestock Market Interruption Strategy. FPT officials, in partnership with the livestock industry, developed the strategy which includes tools and information to enable all stakeholders to make timely and well informed decisions in case of an emergency, such as foot-and-mouth disease. -- Ministers also endorsed the development of a plant and animal health strategy, including the initiation of stakeholder consultation.

Regulatory Framework:

-- Ministers reaffirmed their support for a science- and outcome-based Canadian regulatory framework and acknowledged its contribution to food safety, plant and animal health as well as to trade and market competitiveness. Canada is known for having the highest standards of food safety which helps make our agri-food products more attractive in traditional and emerging markets. -- Ministers agreed to continue to work together across governments and industry to support industry's awareness and understanding of the modernized regulatory requirements e.g. proposed regulations under the Safe Food for Canadians Act.

Contacts:

Media Relations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Ottawa, Ontario

613-773-7972

1-866-345-7972




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, today issued the following statement regarding the annual conference of federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture.

"I attended my first annual conference with provincial and territorial Ministers of agriculture this week in Calgary, Alberta. Over the two day conference, we had productive discussions and reached common ground on a number of key areas.

We issued the Calgary Statement, which was developed by FPT governments and outlines the key priority areas for the next agricultural policy framework, set to launch in April 2018. We also renewed our commitment to work with stakeholders to ensure a strong and growing sector in the coming years which will help grow the middle class.

The Canadian agriculture sector generates over $108B for the Canadian economy and is the single largest employer of all manufacturing sectors - providing jobs to one in eight Canadians. We want to make sure farmers and processors can continue to take advantage of new global market opportunities. By doing so, we're also supporting Canada's economy and the middle class, which includes farmers and processors.

I look forward to continued collaboration with my provincial and territorial counterparts to build an even better agricultural sector for all Canadians and the economy."

Follow us on Twitter: @AAFC_Canada

Like us on Facebook: CanadianAgriculture

Contacts:

Guy Gallant

Director of Communications

The Office of the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay

613-773-1059



Media Relations

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Ottawa, Ontario

613-773-7972

1-866-345-7972




HOUSTON, TEXAS -- (Marketwired) -- 07/22/16 -- Greenfields Petroleum Corporation (the "Company" or "Greenfields") (TSX VENTURE: GNF)(TSX VENTURE: GNF.DB) is pleased to announce that, further to the press release of the Company dated March 8, 2016, Greenfields has mailed its management information circular and related proxy materials in connection with the meeting (the "Shareholder Meeting") of holders of common shares of the Company and the meeting (the "Debentureholder Meeting") of holders ("Debentureholders") of the 9.00% convertible unsecured subordinated debentures of the Company. Both the Shareholder Meeting and the Debentureholder Meeting are scheduled to be held at 211 Highland Cross Drive, Suite 250, Houston, Texas 77073, U.S.A. on August 18, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (CST), in the case of the Shareholder Meeting, and at 11:00 a.m. (CST), in the case of the Debentureholder Meeting. Copies of the meeting materials mailed to the Greenfields securityholders have been filed on Greenfields' SEDAR profile and are available for viewing at www.sedar.com.

About Greenfields Petroleum Corporation

Greenfields is a junior oil and natural gas company focused on the development and production of proven oil and gas reserves principally in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Company plans to expand its oil and gas assets through further farm-ins, and acquisitions of Production Sharing Agreements from foreign governments containing previously discovered but under-developed international oil and gas fields, also known as "greenfields". More information about the Company may be obtained on the Greenfields website at www.greenfields-petroleum.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Greenfields Petroleum Corporation

John W. Harkins

Chief Executive Officer

(832) 234-0836



Greenfields Petroleum Corporation

A. Wayne Curzadd

Chief Financial Officer

(832) 234-0835

info@greenfieldspetroleum.com

www.greenfields-petroleum.com




This week international rating agency Fitch Ratings held a global portfolio rating committee related to an overhaul of the Agency's sovereign methodology released on May 26th, 2016. The results of the committee were published today. As part of the methodology adjustment Fitch changed its approach to the assessment of the long-term local currency (LTLC) ratings, bringing these ratings in line with the long-term foreign currency (LTFC) ratings for most sovereigns globally. In addition, Fitch has assigned new issuer default ratings (IDR) for short-term local currency (STLC) obligations. As part of the criteria related ratings recalibration, Fitch has lowered Iceland's LTLC rating in line with its LTFC rating of BBB+, which was affirmed by the Agency on July 15th with a stable outlook. The ratings for short-term obligations in both foreign and local currency have also been affirmed at F2 Iceland's sovereign ratings continue to be supported by the country's strong macroeconomic fundamentals, sustained improvements in fiscal and external indicators, and solid institutional base. Corresponding changes will be made to the ratings of other sovereigns whose LTLC ratings were a notch above their LTFC ratings. The Fitch press release can be found in attachment Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=579705

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.
blogfoster, a Berlin, Germany-based startup for blog and influencer marketing, raised a multi-million amount in its latest funding round.

Backers included yabeo Capital and previous investors Axel Springer Plug and Play, VC Fund Technology (managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft) and Nils F. Glaser.

The company will use the funds to grow the Berlin team from 20 to 35 employees by the end of the year and expand in Europe and beyond.

Led by Jan Homann, co-founder & CEO, and Simon Staib, co-founder and CPO, blogfoster gives advertisers access to a pool of thousands of bloggers to place their products and brands within the sphere of relevant target groups. Advertisers are sorted by topic and relevant insights, allowing bloggers to select their preferred collaborators themselves. The platform handles the process from start to finish and reports relevant data after the end of the campaign to give both sides an overview of results achieved.

FinSMEs

22/07/2016
Blue Cedar Networks, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of device-independent app security, received $10M in Series A funding.

Backers included Accelerate IT Ventures (AITV), Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV), Grayhawk Capital, and Generation Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Anik Bose of BGV, Brian Nugent of AITV, and Sherman Chu of Grayhawk Capital are joining the Blue Cedar board as part of this Series A round.

The company will use the funds to accelerate its R&D investment.

Led by John Aisien, CEO, Blue Cedar Networks provides the Atlas platform, which allows customers to access secure and user-friendly capabilities to connect and protect their enterprise apps across the enterprise.

The company currently has more than 150 customers spanning every major industry vertical, including some of the largest financial services, wireless and telecommunications, CPG, manufacturing, healthcare, and government organizations globally.

The partner ecosystem is comprised of leading technology firms, including SAP, Unisys, and Apperian.

FinSMEs

22/07/2016
Koho Financial Inc., a Vancouver, Canada-based spending and saving app, closed a second round of funding.

The round was led by Power Financial Corporation (TSX:PWF) with participation from Rashay Jethalal, the former Director of Global Banking at CIBC, Adam Felesky, former CEO of Horizons ETF, Scott Lake, Co-Founder of Shopify and Hello Ventures, and David Tedman, Co-Founder of Hootsuite.

The company, which closed an initial seed round of $1 million last June, plans to use the additional funds to continue improving its product, onboarding its waitlist, hiring, and layering on new features based on customer feedback.

Founded in 2014 by Daniel Eberhard and Stanley Park Ventures Joshua Bixby, Jonathan Bixby, and Mike Benna, Koho provides an mobile application (and Visa prepaid card) offering such features as direct deposit, bill pay, ATMs, and transfers, as well as real-time updates, automated budgets and savings, personalized goals, and card blocking.

Users deposits are held through Kohos partnership with Peoples Trust, while the Visa network provides the ability to make purchases everywhere Visa is accepted.

The app was recently released in private beta to a select few users for early testing and feedback, and will roll out to the remaining waitlist of more than 7,000 Canadians over the coming months.

FinSMEs

22/07/2016
An extra 1 billion in funding is to be made available to startups from the German Economic Affairs Ministry and European Investment Fund.

The European Investment Fund and the ERP Special Fund  represented by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy  have topped up the ERP/EIF Fund of Funds and the European Angels Fund to 2.7 billion.

Combined with funding under the Growth Facility launched in March, approximately 3.2 billion is now available to support German startups and high-tech companies with fast growth trajectories.

Since its launch in 2004, the ERP/EIF Fund of Funds has played an important role in startup funding by participating in venture capital funds which invest in technology firms in the early and growth phase.

The European Angels Fund, which is also financed with money from the ERP/EIF facility, complements this with cofinancing for investments by selected, experienced business angels.

The ERP/EIF Growth Facility covers the growth-phase segment.

FinSMEs

22/07/2016
Konsus, a Palo Alto, CA- and Oslo, Norway-based startup that gives users 24/7 access to on-demand freelancers to help them get the job done via Slack, received an investment from the Slack Fund.

The Slack Fund is an investment fund started by Slack, in partnership with Accel, Index Ventures, KPCB, Social Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Spark Capital to support teams building products on top of Slack that enable simpler, more pleasant, and more productive workplaces.

Launched in August of 2015 by Fredrik Thomassen (1) and Sondre Rasch (2), Konsus provides a supervised global workforce to aid in the quick and easy completion of virtually any office task, from PowerPoint enhancements and data entry, to full scale web design. Project managers perform strict quality control over all deliverables. The platform now provides on-demand business support for over 500 companies.

The company joined Y Combinator in January 2016.

(1) Fredrik Thomassen is the former co-founder and CEO of Zalora Indonesia and consultant with McKinsey & Company. He is a graduate of the Norwegian School of Economics and London School of Economics.

(2) Sondre Rasch is the co-founder of SolidHost.com and a policy advisor with the Norwegian parliament. He is a computer and information science graduate of the University of Bergen, and the Norwegian School of Economics.

FinSMEs

22/07/2016
Rajinikanths outsize #Kabali film release trended on Twitter in 53 cities across 9 countries in the last 24 hours with top trends ranging from Chennai in India to Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

As for the movie itself, Rajini does more for the film than the other way around, says a quick fix review in The Hindu.

Rajinikanth returns to the big screen after six years with 'Kabali'. The aging superstar plays the eponymous crime boss, out of prison after 25 years of incarceration. His former rivals, the 43 gang led by Chinese mafia leader Tony Lee are out to kill him, but Kabali slips away every time. We are told he is a gang leader, but somehow his crimes aren't serious. The 43 gang, on the other hand, are villains because they deal in drugs and the flesh trade. What Kabali and his cabal deal in, we are never told.

Lonesome, he searches for answers to the death of his wife - played by Radhika Apte.

#Kabali was the top trend in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Rawalpindi and Srinagar with Chennais Twitter users spending more than 1000 minutes on the blowout hashtag #Kabali. This is according to iTrended data.

Bangalore was similar, with keyboard warriors there spending more than 1300 minutes whipping out content on #Kabali. Srinagars Twitter users were not far behind, spending more than 900 minutes on the top trend.

Kabali made it to number 1 in Rawalpindi, spending 485 minutes on the peak.
Chennai: Ford Motor Company is in the process of setting up a Research and Development (R&D) centre here, the first such facility to be located outside of the US, Finance Minister O Panneerselvam told the House on Thursday.

In his Budget address, he said after the Global Investors' Meet here last year, several other companies have been setting up their facilities in southern Tamil Nadu.

"Due to the impetus on growth of IT industries in southern Tamil Nadu, Honeywell, HCL Technologies, Zoho Corporation and Syntel are establishing their facilities there," he said.

Panneerselvam also said software exports have risen steadily at around 10-12 per cent per annum with Chennai being a hub for IT and ITeS companies. "In 2015-16, software export is expected to have touched Rs 95,000 crore," he said.

Stating that the government has taken key steps for improving the ease of doing business, he said multiple incentives including capital and tax subsidies and infrastructure in the form of industrial parks and power supply have been provided.

"After the Global Investors' Meet so far, investments totalling Rs 23,258 crore have materialised and have generated employment for 48,145 persons," he said.

He said the Japan International Co-operation Agency has agreed to fund the second phase of the Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Programme with an outlay of Rs 1,560 crore to improve the investment environment.

Referring to other initiatives, Panneerselvam said State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) has been taking efforts for creating a land bank of 19,000 acres in southern districts including Ramanathapuram and Pudukottai for promoting industrial growth.

SIPCOT has also initiated action for implementing Madurai-Thoothukudi Industrial Corridor (MTIC) Project by forming a Special Purpose Vehicle and it has expedited the land acquisition process.

The government was also in the process of developing Ponneri (a town north of Chennai in Tiruvallur District) Industrial Node as a National Investment and Manufacturing Zone under the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor Project, he pointed out.
The world economy is in an uncertain space with Brexit ripples still to reach their crescendo. This combined with the complexity of automation and scare around immigration is expected to affect Indian IT industry adversely.

The first-quarter earnings that have come out until now paint a dismal picture of growth. As pointed out in this article a fundamental shift has taken place and it is becoming clearer now. With the changes in the technological space, disruption in the BFSI sector, and advent of automation and cloud-based services, the IT services business is caught in a perfect storm.

These changes have not all happened together, they have been developing over the last four years. IT services for all their vision did not prepare for it. To prepare for it meant disrupting their business and saying no to revenues.

The challenge of the IT industry is that it is like a 30-car freight train going at 90 mph. How do you drop half the cars and change tracks on this running behemoth.

Board of Infosys believed that Vishal Sikka as an outsider with relative little emotional connect to the past would be able to do it. Unfortunately it does not seem to be so. While Infosys initially seems to have recovered it is not because it has changed its business model.

It continues to do more of the same thing. The sales improved briefly and margins perked up with efficiencies. But there is no fundamental change in the business model.

Sikka is blunt enough to admit execution failure in the first quarter. In his letter to the employees he says, I am disappointed. Disappointed that our revenue performance was not what we could have delivered, but even more so, that this overshadowed the many strong strides we made on executing our strategy.

Sikka also announced immediate changes in the team as the stock slipped 8 percent on the day of the results announcement. He claims that 20 percent of the growth came from the new strategy of design thinking, Mana etc. That means that a percentage of growth is coming for new initiatives the existing business model remains where it is. Which can also means that Sikka may now go for acquisition-based growth.

While the team at Infosys was shuffled immediately after the results in a very American style, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) did no such thing as TCS beat revenue and profit estimates for the June quarter. Operating margins, however, shrank to 25%. While analysts are focusing on the margins the real question is still the business model.

The business model cannot be changed by having the same people running the same verticals. TCS the single bright spot in the Tata group of companies, does not even believe in changing or adding to the leadership. Unlike Infosys there has been no change in the top leadership for decades all the top guys started their careers with TCS. Asking a team that built TCS to dismantle and rebuild it for the future is tough. Last year, TCS decided to revamp and wanted to fire staff but the reaction was so venal that the leadership backed off.

The only company that anticipated the change but also reacted well to it was Cognizant. CEO Francisco D Souza moved out from the operation to craft the firm's offering to social, mobile and e-commerce.

Companies such as HCL Technologies, Mindtree , Wipro, are even worse off. HCL Tech may see a change as Anant Gupta has not really been able to pull it together. There is also confusion in the top ranks as to who will take over the reins and whether promoter Shiv Nadar is indeed looking to exit. The talk of Nadar selling his stake does the round almost every six months. Uncertainty of this nature combined with business slowdown is not the best thing for a company.

Wipro has been struggling for a long time, and trying to retain its performers is forced to offer higher incentives than they deserve. A higher salary bill has now starting cutting at its margins. In a way to keep the current business running, the firm is expending more when it should be looking at changing with the times. Maybe it is changing internally, as its CEO keeps reiterating to the media. Maybe the worst performers are the ones who will come out of trough better.

Whatever be the outcome there is pain on the way for both current and potential employees of IT companies. As a job engine the sector is one of the largest in the country and every year hires lakhs of fresh graduates. Two things will happen - the hiring will slowdown and secondly it will change tracks.

Old skills may not be as useful in the new business model. IT companies hire engineers, software engineers first, but also other engineering graduates. IT companies have also hired science graduates in droves. Coding as a skill is going down with automation for code generation becoming the norm. There are enough packaged software in the market that can generate code now.

What is more important is training the code, thinking architecture, defining the problem in better algorithms etc. This needs a new set of skills. Middle management which I call as email managers in these companies is most at risk.

As all they do is send emails out they are an inefficient communication layer and most likely to lose jobs as automation takes hold. New jobs will be created in this disruption but they will need new skills. But the big question is does Indian IT has the wherewithal to reinvent itself ?

The author is a Delhi-based journalist. He tweets @yatishrajawat
Information technology body Nasscom on Thursday spelt out the headwinds the Indian IT companies face in the short to long term, painting a gloomy picture for the sector.

The statements assume significance as the three major IT services companies of the country - Wipro, Infosys and TCS - have come out with a not-so-impressive earnings, giving rise to concerns about the jobs creation potential of the sector.

Here are the key points made by the Nasscom on Thursday:

Hiring to decline: The most important takeaway from the Nasscom's statements is the bleak outlook for fresh hiring. It said recruitment by the IT services sector in the current financial year is expected to decline from the last year's level as the companies are facing pressure on margins, besides focusing on automation of jobs. This is the first decline since 2009.

"Hiring activity in the year before last was 2.20 lakh (new jobs were created in IT sector). Last year, (FY 2015-16) there were about two lakh additions. This financial year, we are expecting it to be on the lower side of that", said Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar, without giving an exact figure.

He said fresh hiring is either static or gently declining. It is not as if overall hiring is going down. It is not going to be in the same pace as it was, he said.

Automation is the buzzword: Chandrashekhar attributed the companies' focus on automation and pressure on margins for the decrease in hiring activities. "They (IT companies) are adopting higher productivity by reducing the strength and focusing on automation. For a country like India, automation works differently as cost effectiveness on automation is different because our economic levels are different," he said. He expects 5-10 percent of existing jobs to be automated in the next 10 years.

While certain jobs within the industry may be automated, those which are off-shored are actually coming in to India. There is a loss of jobs because of automation within India and also because of a new set of jobs which are coming due to off-shoring and technology changes, he said. However, the body is still "quite optimistic" for the next two years for the reason that "our fundamentals are stronger than others (countries)".

Demand for robotics, AI, digital skills: While entry-level coding jobs will see a cut, there will demand for skills in robotics, AI, digital space, biotech, nanotech, smart technologies, etc.

Re-skilling, self-learning key: Chandrasekhar also revealed a Nasscom-McKinsey study on the IT sector jobs. As per the stidy, the sector has 3.7 million employees now. It would need 1.2-2 million more heads to achieve the revenue target of $100 billion by 2025. According to the industry body, the companies are "strengthening their existing workforce". "From a one-time training system, IT companies will need to adopt ongoing and sustainable training while incentivising self learning," Chandrasekhar has been quoted as saying. According to the Nasscom-McKinsey study about 60-70% of the existing staff will have to be re-skilled.

Do not panic on Trump: Industry needs to wait and watch, rather than panic, on the outcome of the US Presidential elections Republican candidate Donald Trump is a frontrunner for the US President's post and is widely feared in India for his stance on the outsourcing industry and existing immigration policies.

The industry does not have a view on candidate Donald Trump. "There is a big difference between candidate (Donald) Trump and incumbent (Trump). When a President becomes incumbent, the real world, governance come into picture", Chandrasekhar said.

"Indian IT industry actually helps create jobs even ostensibly in United States. This lead us to believe that we can afford to sort of wait and see the circumstances. But we do not need to panic, for sure," he said.

Brexit is indeed a worry: Nasscom it warned of lasting impact of 'Brexit' on India. Chandrashekar expects the it to reflect in the second or third quarter results of the domestic IT firms and roll out over a much longer period.

"First and foremost, till December 2016 itself, UK said they will not invoke Article 50. So, from a technical stand point they have not started exiting by the end of calendar year 2016. After that, it may take up to two years, of exiting from European Union," he said explaining the rationale.

If the currency (Pound) depreciates further, current IT contracts, if not re-negotiated, would either become loss making propositions or would not yield the same kind of margins.

"In terms of large contracts made by big companies, the decision-making will slow down. Impact on some of the large deals could get impacted. Lot of Indian companies used London as base. So that will get re-evaluated," he said.

However, in the longer term, Brexit holds opportunities for India, Chandrasekhar said.

With PTI
New Delhi: Two statements in Parliament this week about airport infrastructure show why India remains a country of ghost airports and patchy air connectivity. We have close to 400 airports across the country which are un-served - they do not handle even a single flight. But we also lack airport infrastructure at several places where demand actually exists.

In the first statement, Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju laid the blame at the airlines' door and compared them to horses who can be taken near the water but cannot be made to drink it. According to him, airlines not mounting flights to many existing airports is the biggest reason for patchy air connectivity in India.

The second statement came in the form of a long list of airports run by state-owned Airports Authority of India - 86 of them - which incurred losses in 2014-15. Not all of these are un-served. In fact, the Raja Bhoj airport in Bhopal and Sri Guru Ram Dass ji airport in Amritsar, together accounted for over Rs 100 crore in losses but both these airports service flights regularly. They are not ghost airports at all.

Are airlines solely to be blamed for the unused airports and loss making ones? MoS Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in Rajya Sabha this week that some airports are making losses because of "low revenue generation, which is primarily due to low air traffic movements resulting in lesser aeronautical revenue, low non-aeronautical revenue potential and basic operating expenditure on account of regulatory/IATA and security requirements."

Loss-making airports or un-served airports were built partly to pander to local politics and partly because of inability of the AAI to judge where an airport should be in a state so that airlines find it viable to operate flights there and again. This was partly done on hopes that airlines will get smaller aircraft to operate on these routes.

An AAI official had said earlier that most of the airports lying unused were built on the premise that India's airlines, including Air India, will operate smaller aircraft. This has clearly not happened. Now, we are once again banking on airlines leveraging their balance sheets and purchasing smaller aircraft to boost regional connectivity.

In fact, the draft regional connectivity scheme (RCS) unveiled earlier this month, speaks of a complicated formula through which the Centre, states and airlines will work out viability of connecting India's hinterland. The plan imposes fare caps while also offering viability gap funding to airlines willing to mount flights to these unviable routes and therefore infuse life into India's ghost airports.

Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey has said that several small aircraft manufacturers have shown interest in India's market after this policy draft was unveiled. The only question is: India's airlines are still ordering larger aircraft which cannot land at many of the smaller airports. Where are the orders for smaller aircraft?

Anyhow, the regional connectivity scheme needs to iron out some other rough edges too and the government has called a meeting with all stakeholders on 29 July. Till now, not a single state government has confirmed its interest in the scheme, which proposes a specific levy on airlines departing from metro airports to fund the VGF for operating in the hinterland.

Meanwhile, an AAI official had pointed out earlier that not everywhere did AAI invested indiscriminately in creating airports where airlines would not find viability. He said Jaisalmer in Rajasthan was developed to promote tourism but Air India stopped operations in 2012. He said many of these airports have seen small investments and have been built keeping traffic potential in mind. So just Rs 30 crore was spent to refurbish Jaisalmer in 2011, just Rs 10 crore for the airport at Gondia and even airports at Cudappah in Andhra Pradesh and Bhatinda saw small investments. But still, scheduled flights remain a pipe dream at most of such airports as airlines want some support from the state government besides the right kind of aircraft to fly there.

According to an earlier Parliament reply by Minister Raju, the maximum number of ghost airports lie in Maharashtra - at Gondia (which was former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's constituency), Juhu, Kolhapur and Sholapur, Akola and Jalgaon. Rajasthan and Punjab have three each in the list, at stations such as Jaisalmer, Bhatinda, Ludhiana and Pathankot. There is a ghost airport at Shimla too, which has been in the news recently after the Supreme Court showed its displeasure at its state of affairs. Scheduled flights stopped landing at this airport since October 2012, but now the AAI says it has completed re-carpeting work on the runway and made it fit for operation of ATR aircraft.

Though these airports do not handle scheduled flights, staff has to be paid and depreciation accounted for. In 2014-15, Hyderabad's Begumpet airport saw the highest government expenditure among all ghost airports at over Rs 67 crore, followed by Bengaluru's HAL airport at over Rs 58 crore and Delhi's Safdarjung Airport at almost Rs 47 crore. So over half the expenditure of the country on maintaining ghost airports was made in these three airports at Rs 172 crore. A former AAI official pointed out that Juhu incurs heavy expense as high security has to be maintained for operations of ONGC whereas Delhi's Safdarjung airport has to be kept operational for VVIP chopper flights, for which the government pays nothing!

What India needs is a complete overhaul of its airport infrastructure. Airlines need to be incentivised to fly to ghost airports. And for functional airports which are loss making, AAI needs to explore alternative management options such as giving out operation and management contracts to private parties.

India is one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets but domestic air connectivity remains a dream for most people residing in the hinterland. World class airports at Delhi and Mumbai, built in participation with private consortia, are not enough. States wanting enhanced connectivity must work with the Centre and the airlines to correct the anomaly.
A transport plane of the Indian Air Force with 29 people on-board went missing on Friday, while flying from Chennai to Port Blair.

The Antonov AN-32 aircraft took off at 8.30 am from Tambaram in Chennai and the last contact made was 16 minutes later, according to defence sources.

The aircraft can reportedly fly for up to four hours without refuelling.

A massive search operation has been launched by the IAF, Navy and the Coast Guard, sources said.

So, what is the AN-32 plane?

According to Bharat Rakshak, the consortium of Indian military websites, the AN-32 forms the backbone of the IAF's medium lift capabilities. It writes, "the AN-32s were hit hard by the chaos in the ex-USSR, as spares became harder to obtain." To compensate, the IAF fitted several AN-32s with AN-12 power plants (after these were retired) and put a number of airframes (an aircraft's mechanical structure that includes fuselage, wings and undercarriage) into storage. It should also be noted that the AN-32s will need replacements by the end of the decade as spares are reportedly hard to come by and the life of the airframes are short.

The Indian Air Force website describes the aircraft as a "twin-engine turboprop, medium tactical transport aircraft of Russian origin with a crew of five and capacity to carry 39 paratroopers or max load of 6.7 tonnes". The website notes that the aircraft has a maximum cruise speed of 530 km/hr.

Bharat Rakshak also adds that AN-32, known as the 'Sutlej' in the IAF (Nato codename: Cline) is the "workhorse of the transport fleet" that travels to far off bases such as Leh, to deliver much-needed supplies to the Army outposts in the area. An estimated 100 aircraft are in service with the IAF. Deliveries to the IAF began in July 1984. Its maximum cruising speed is 286 knots (329 mph; 530 km/h) at 8,000 metres (26,245 feet), and has a capacity of 39 paratroopers on tip-up seats.

According to the official website of Antonov, more than 240 of the AN-32 aircrafts are being operated in countries, which have adverse climate conditions, including India, Sri Lanka, Columbia, Peru, Mexico, Afghanistan and African countries.

The P8-I, which has also been deployed for search and rescue, is armed with harpoon block missiles and is called the "country's intelligent hawk eyes". The aircraft has also achieved a number of operational milestones, which includes participation in the search effort for Malaysian Airlines MH370.

The P8-I has a maximum speed of 907 kmph and an operating range of 1,200 nautical miles.

Bharat Rakshak also adds that the relatively new Dornier DO-228 light transport aircrafts that are still in production in-country, and one of which has been deployed for search and rescue, are the ones to stick around well into the future.

It is to be noted that the Dornier 228 is the most versatile and most advanced high-wing aircraft in its class.

Livemint had earlier reported that the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had won a Rs 1,090 crore deal to supply the IAF with 14 new turboprop DO-228 aircrafts, according to the ministry of defence. This move comes following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to modernise India's armed forces by replacing aged equipment with home-made hardware built by local and foreign companies and scale back on arms import.

As of February 2015, the HAL has so far manufactured 125 DO-228 transport planes.

Here is a list of plane crashes in which the AN-32 was involved
Arshid Qureshi, who was arrested by a joint team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala police on Wednesday night on the charges of radicalising Kerala youths and recruiting them for the Islamic State, is a guest relations officer at the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) run by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, a person close to Naik told Firstpost, but said no IRF staff has encouraged anyone to join IS.

Zakir Naik and the IRF has repeatedly condemned the Islamic State for being anti-Islamic. No staff of the IRF will ever encourage anyone to join the IS. A year back, Naik had also conducted a staff meeting condemning the IS and had warned people not to get misguided by those who support it. It is the Anti-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, who wrongly call themselves as Islamic State, the person said in a message.

Mobin Solkar, the advocate of Zakir Naik, said Arshid Qureshi is not a member of IRF.

The cops arrested Qureshi from his Navi Mumbai home following complaints by the brother of the alleged IS recruit, Merlin alias Mariam that Qureshi and Mariams husband, Bestin Vincent alias Yahia were behind the alleged conversion of Mariam and recruitment to IS. The brother, Ebin Jacob, was too approached for conversion.

As per the statement, Qureshi insisted that Ebin should embrace Islam and join IS. It was Bestin who compelled Ebin to come to Mumbai and meet Qureshi," Ernakulam ACP K V Vijayan, the investigating officer, had said. Ebin's statement said he was taken to Mumbai by Bestin, who had been indoctrinated in 2014.

But, the person close to Zakir Naik said Arshid Qureshi does not recall the two youngsters from two years back. He (Arshid) meets scores of people visiting IRF every day as thats his job, the person said.

As many as 19 youths missing from Kerala have allegedly joined the Islamic State. Reports quoting Kerala police said that at Qureshi's house in Mumbai, Ebin was taken to a library. Qureshi also made a comparison of all the religions. Ebin was told that Islam was superior to all other religions and that people in India were not leading a righteous life. But, Ebin didnt fall for the talk and returned home.

If police confirms Qureshis association with Naik, more trouble is awaiting the controversial preacher, who is already facing investigations for allegedly inspiring terrorists involved in Dhaka operations. So far, Naik has denied having any links with terrorists or having inspiring the terrorists. But, in the recent past, Bangladesh and India had clamped down on Naiks television channel, Peace TV.
Mota Samadhiyala/Rajkot: Alleging Gujarat government's collusion in the Dalit thrashing incident, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday dubbed it "anti-Dalit" and accused the ruling BJP of "trampling" upon the depressed sections.

Kejirwal targeted the BJP after meeting the victims in Rajkot civil hospital first and visiting Mota Samadhiyala village in Una to meet their family members, a day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met the victims. Seven persons of Dalit community were brutally thrashed by cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on 11 July, triggering nationwide condemnation.

The AAP chief also alleged that the Gujarat government first allows crimes be carried out on Dalits and then slaps false cases on people who come out in protest on streets. He alleged that the dalit victims were beaten up at the behest of the administration.

"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police, with police batons... it means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is police silent ? Why is it involved ? This means there is some direction from the top administration," he told reporters.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, it is anti-Dalit," he said.

"The BJP first sends its goons to beat Dalits, and when their community members come out on the streets to protest, false cases are filed against them," Kejriwal alleged.

Kejriwal also rubbished BJP's contention that leaders are making a beeline to Gujarat only to make political gains.

"Our politics is for justice of Dalits, while BJP's politics is for trampling upon them," Kejriwal said in reply to a question on politics behind the visit.

Apart from Rahul Gandhi and leaders of other non-BJP parties, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel had visited the victims day before yesterday.

A Trinamool Congress parliamentary delegation is slated to come to Rajkot and Una tomorrow and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav is also expected to meet the victim's family.

Kejriwal also questioned the state government's intent to carry out investigation without showing bias against Dalits.

He said only 16 persons have been arrested while 40-50 people were involved in the incident. "Why are others not held so far? The victims told me that the accused were members of Shiv Sena. The government is trying to save them,"he alleged.

Kejriwal also triggered a controversy by meeting a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes.

It evoked strong reaction from BJP, whose Saurashtra- Kutch spokesperson Raju Dhruv said the Delhi CM's aim was to make "personal and political gains."

Kerjiwal demanded exemplary punishment for those involved in the crime so that in future nobody dares to commit such crimes again. He also demanded jobs for victims' kin and proper compensation for them.

He claimed that it was not an "isolated" incident and "atrocities" on Dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be "taught a lesson" by members of all communities if it does not end its "oppression".

He said those who attempted suicide told him that "atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day in Gujarat".

"I asked them why they are committing suicide. They said atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day. Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together," Kejriwal stressed.

Till now, 20 people have attempted suicide during the protest on violence against Dalits.

The incident of flogging of Dalits has sparked protests by community members across the state, which continued for days causing loss of public property.

Sixteen people have been arrested so far in connection with the assault on Dalits, while four policemen have been suspended for dereliction of duty.
Patna: RJD supremohit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for second successive day on Friday on his "continued silence" on atrocities against Dalits and wondered whether "these incidents are taking place at his instigation."

"Auron ki khansi/jukhaam per chichiyate hain, per gareeb/dalit ko maara peeta ja raha hai us per lambi chuppi! Inhi ki to shah nahin? (He shouts at mere cough and cold of others, but keeps mum for long when the poor and Dalits are beaten upare the incidents taking place at his instigation)," Lalu said in a tweet.

  -    , /  -            https://t.co/jZxOrUUf48  Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 22, 2016

He was replying to a tweet by his son and deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav's tweet goading the Prime Minister to speak at his rally in Gorakhpur on atrocities against Dalits.

"Dear @narendramodi Ji, Hope u wil speak tdy in Gorakhpur on #DalitAtrocity takn place aggressively in ur regime. Plz gv hard msg to ur caders," Tejaswi tweeted.

Slamming Modi yesterday for his "silence" on assault of some Dalit men in Gujarat last week, Lalu had tweeted that the "PM who cries at the drop of a hat or tweets on anything happening even saat samundar paar (seven seas away) won't utter even a single word on unfortunate incidents in Gujarat."

The incident at Una in Gujarat, where Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral. The victims' contention was that they were skinning a dead cow and had not killed it.
Srinagar: Fresh clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in Kashmir after Friday prayers killing one youth, raising the death toll to 45 in the unrest that erupted two weeks ago, even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit the Valley on Saturday.

As the PDP-BJP government battles the unrest following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter, Singh will be in Kashmir for two days in a bid to calm down tensions and reach out to people in the first high

level visit from the Centre after violence broke out on 8 July.

After a brief spell of relative calm, reports of stone pelting were received from many places in the curfew-bound Valley, mostly in Baramulla, Kupwara and Pulwama districts, as clashes continued through the evening.

Curfew remained in force in all 10 districts of the Valley due to apprehension of law and order problems in view of large gatherings for Friday prayers.

A youth identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat sustained severe injuries in the abdomen after being hit by pellets during protests at Chursoo in Awantipora area of Pulwama this afternoon after Friday prayers, a police official said.

He said Bhat was rushed to SMHS hospital but succumbed to injuries.

This was the first death in fresh clashes in the Valley since Monday when three persons were killed in army firing at

Qazigund in Anantnag district.

Two other persons were brought to SMHS hospital on Friday with pellet injuriesone from Kakapora in Pulwama district

and other from Sopore town of north Kashmir Baramulla district, the official said.

He said condition of Asif Ahmad, who was injured during clashes in Kakapora, was critical while Aaqib Ahmad from Sopore was stable.

Earlier on Friday, a youth succumbed to injuries sustained in clashes a few days ago.

Ishtiyaq Ahmad, injured in clashes at Kokernag area of Anantnag district, died at SKIMS hospital, Soura this morning. Although no incident of violence was reported on Friday, authorities clamped curfew in all 10 districts of Kashmir as a

precautionary measure, a police official said.

"Large gatherings are expected during Friday prayers which usually turn into violent protests," the official said.

Authorities had eased curfew in four districtsBaramulla, Bandipora, Budgam and Ganderbal on Friday to facilitate reopening of schools.

However, most of the schools in these districts remained closed as parents chose not to send their wards due to security apprehensions.

Mobile telephony and mobile internet services remained suspended for the 14th day. Normal life remains paralysed for two weeks now due to curfew and a separatist-sponsored strike.

Singh, who will reach Srinagar around 11 AM, will first interact with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior officials and review the law and order situation.

After that, he will meet representatives of political parties, social organisations and leading citizens to get their feedback about the Kashmir situation as well as future roadmap, official sources said in Delhi.

Singh will stay at Nehru guest house in Srinagar, where he will meet the public representatives.
Navy and Air Force comes together for AN-32 rescue ops

While IAF has pressed into service a C130 plane along with two AN 32, the Navy has deployed two P8i maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from the strategically important Port Blair, home to India's only tri-service command. The Navy has also pressed into service two Dornier aircraft and 12 ships with the Eastern Fleet Commander on board for the search and rescue operation.

Navy spokesperson Captain D K Sharma said, "Navy has been deployed in full force in the Bay of Bengal for the search and rescue operation."

Coast Guard has rushed four ships to the spot besides two dorniers.

The Russian built twin engine AN 32 aircraft had undergone an upgrade in Ukraine. IAF has a fleet of over 100 AN32s but the multi-million dollar upgrade programme has been hit due to the crisis in Ukraine.
On 11 July, seven members of a Dalit family in Gujarat's Una town, involved in leather trading, were attacked and brutally assaulted. Four of them were stripped half-naked, tied to a car, dragged for about a kilometre and then beaten up with iron rods and sticks. What was their crime? They were found skinning the carcass of a cow brought from a neighbouring village by the self-proclaimed gau rakshaks.

Retaliating against the oppression, violent protests broke out throughout Gujarat. Many from the Dalit community attempted suicide in protest. While violence escalated in the state, the only assurance that came from the Anandiben Patel-led Gujarat government was that of a CID probe into the alleged assault.

In the last few days, Rajya Sabha has been in uproar over the atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat with Opposition parties demanding a check on the cow vigilante groups. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav posed questions that everyone in India should be asking: Who created these gau rakshaks? Why doesnt the government ban them?"

The horrifying incident of the four Dalit youths getting beaten up in front of a crowd was recorded and the video went viral on social media. The fact these gau rakshaks can record their brutal crimes and circulate them publicly without any fear proves that they have the backing of the state and the right-wing Hindu political outfits.

Politics surrounding cow and the violence perpetrated in the name of cow protection has escalated in the last few years. Last year, Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, by a right-wing Hindu mob over rumours of possessing beef. The political debate raged on whether Akhlaq indeed had beef in his possession or not, while the bigger question of how did a group of men get the licence to beat up a man for possession a kind of meat was somewhere lost. A year later, an FIR was filed against the Akhlaq family under the Cow Slaughter Act with no concrete steps from the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to prevent such brutalities.

A few weeks ago, a video surfaced of gau rakshaks forcing two men to eat cow dung. The vigilante group claimed that they had received a tip that they were illegally transporting beef. Dharmendra Yadav, president of the Gurgaon Gau Rakshak Dal, was quoted by The Indian Express as saying that they had to chase these men for seven kilometres. "When we caught them, they had 700 kg of beef in their car. We made them eat the panchgavya (cow dung concoction) to teach them a lesson, and also to purify them," was his bold claim.

In Haryana, BJP government of Manohar Lal Khattar has gone ahead and proposed 'Gau-Rakshak Task Force'. Never mind the state of law and order and crime in the state, the Haryana government has constituted three teams for the protection of cows, which include legislators and officers of municipal corporations, district administration and the police.

Veneration of the cow is not new in India.

The adage of "gau hamari mata" and cow worship has been instilled in the Hindu psyche for a long time. But the cow is also the most political animal in India. Mukul Kesevan argues that it is a political assertion. "Cow-protection in modern India has become a species of lethal lapel-pin politics. Violence in the cause of cow-protection is the official blood sport of the Hindu Right."

Every time, a crime takes place in the name of cow slaughter, the ministers of the Narendra Modi governments limit themselves to paying lip-service and cloaking the incident under vague terms "unfortunate," "condemn" or "upset over the incident," while these gau rakshaks become more brazen under the protection of the right wing groups. Political outfits like the RSS, VHP and their Hindutva agenda have given confidence to the gau rakshaks to put on an air self righteousness and spread violence in the name of justice.

A fact-finding team that visited Una following the assault of Dalits, said that the Dalit community has become a "soft target" of the cow vigilantes. Kaushik Parmar of the fact-finding team said that it was not an one-off incident as many have become victims of these gau rakshaks.

"Earlier, such cow vigilantes used to target those who are involved in cow slaughter. But since last seven to eight months, they have started targeting Dalit community members  who are involved in the leather business and are soft targets  to show off their bravado," he said.

Firstpost's Sandipan Sharma writes, "Somehow, they (gau rakshaks) seemed to have not only organised themselves in vigilante groups in Gujarat, but have also become bold enough to act and then publicise their barbarity. If the BJP wants to assuage Dalits, it must not only ensure strict punishment to the guilty, but also outlaw such groups."

The situation in Gujarat has given an opportunity to politicians like Mayawati, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi to train their guns against the Modi government and gain some brownie points. The turmoil in Gujarat that followed is the incident is a testimony of the Dalit community's desperation to get justice. With an eye on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the BJP is out to woo the Dalit votes.

In the face of the recent violence, the party needs to rethink its Hindutva agenda and rein in its foot soldiers. The rising Dalit anger against the saffron party could cost it an important state.
Rajkot: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday stoked a controversy when he met a Dalit youth arrested for allegedly murdering a police head constable in Amreli during protests over the thrashing of youths from the community by cow vigilantes. He accused the government of corruption and called for police action against the accused.

Kejriwal arrived at the airport on Thursday morning and went straight to Rajkot civil hospital, where he met two Dalit victims of the Una thrashing incident and several others who attempted suicide to protest against it.

The AAP national convener also met Kanti Mulji Vala, accused of killing a police constable, who is also being treated at the Rajkot civil hospital.

Vala is one of the accused in the murder of Amreli's head constable Pankaj Amreliya. The policeman was killed in stone-pelting a couple of days back during the protest by Dalits against the Una incident.

Police ke log mile hue hain, upar ke log bhi mile hue hain: Arvind Kejriwal after meeting victims of Una incident pic.twitter.com/vQpYT2hKMt  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

In this whole incident police was involved, and this happens when orders are given from top:Delhi CM on Una incident pic.twitter.com/C1NPtd2ySP  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

Una(Gujrat): Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal meets victims and family members of Una incident pic.twitter.com/6Yw6UpFv1H  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

Kejriwal assured the murder accused of "all possible support to fight for justice".

Vala, however, maintained that he was innocent and had not killed the policeman.

When asked about the reason behind meeting a murder accused, Kejriwal evaded a straight reply and instead said that he will also meet the family members of the deceased policeman in Amreli on Thursday.

However, the meeting evoked strong reaction from BJP.

The ruling party's Saurashtra-Kutch spokesperson Raju Dhruv condemned Kejriwal's meeting with Vala and described the Delhi CM as a person who can do anything for political gains.

"He (Kejriwal) is a person who can do anything for his personal political gains. He deceived Anna Hazare and nowtries to defame Gujarat," Dhruv alleged.

"By meeting the murder accused, Kejriwal has proved that he does not have any concern for Dalits or constable Amreliya who sacrificed his life in the line of duty," he said.

"Kejriwal believes in cheap politics," he said.

The AAP chief is on a one-day visit to the state to meet the Dalits who were thrashed for skinning a dead cow and their family members at Mota Samadhiyala village in Una town of Gir Somnath, where the brutal assault took place on 11 July.

The incident sparked statewide protests by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.

With inputs from PTI
ADDIS ABABA Bill Gates said health would remain a priority for the work of his foundation in Africa and it faced a struggle to bring down the rate of new HIV infections in the world's poorest continent.

Speaking to Reuters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Gates said the foundation planned to spend $5 billion in Africa in the next five years. The Horn of Africa country is one of the biggest recipients of funds from the foundation.

"Our big priority is health and there is still a lot to be done. The child mortality rate came down from 1990 to the present - it was cut in half, which is fantastic. But that still leaves far too many children dying," he said, referring to pneumonia, diarrhoea and other illnesses.

Turning to HIV/AIDS, Gates said much had been achieved such as an increase in the number of people under treatment for the disease to 12 million globally. But he noted two-thirds of new HIV/AIDS infections continued to take place in Africa.

"It is a mixed situation," he said. "We have a challenge to bring the numbers down."

The philanthropic organisation formed in 2000 by the world's richest man has an endowment of more than $40 billion. It distributed grants of nearly $4 billion in 2014.

Slumping commodity prices have posed serious challenges to economic and political stability in some African countries, and have slowed the momentum of poverty reduction.

But Gates said infrastructure, education and health investment during the boom years had laid solid foundations.

The commodity slump will slow down the pace of development, "but the direction is largely going the right way," he added.

(Editing by George Obulutsa and Alexandra Hudson)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Cleveland: Hundreds of protesters from across the US marched through the streets of Cleveland, demonstrating against the policies of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as the four-day Republican convention came to an end.

"The US is under grave threat as the emergence of Donald Trump on national stage has given dangerous rise to anti-Muslim and racial sentiments in the country, which will take it towards a downward path," said Terrey Kaye, a retired teacher who joined the protests here yesterday.

Thursday afternoon, hours before Trump was scheduled to deliver his speech to accept the nomination of the Republican presidential candidate, Kaye was out on Public Square  the most popular place in downtown Cleveland  a few blocks away from there with a placard to vent his anger.

"Ban all Trumps not Muslims," read the handwritten placard in black and white. He had covered his face and dressed like a Muslim from the Middle East.

"This is my humble way to protest against the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Trump," he told PTI.

Kaye said he is protesting on his own, to vent his feeling against the prevailing sentiment in the country. But he was not alone, several hundred people like him from across the country landed in Cleveland, Ohio to protest against the policies of Trump.

"Chumps: Make America Racist Again," said the placard being displayed by another lone protester Briandon Arapes, who works as a customer service provider in Cleveland. I am asking people not to vote for Trump. He has bankrupt ideas," he said.

But there were scores of people who have come to this city in groups. Toni Rozsahezyi of a non-profit organisation had a group of protesters who were dancing on a set of music and were dressed pink.

"We are here to protest against the war and drones," she said. Next week, the group plans to hold a similar protest in Philadelphia, the city that hosts the Democratic National Convention.

"We will be in bigger size there," she said, adding that Clinton has been a supporter of drones and war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Thursday, as the four-day convention came to an end, Cleveland experienced one of the largest anti-Trump protest this week. The city was on its edge, with police officials and security personnel from as many as 37 agencies deployed for the week, several days
Nine people have been killed in a shooting rampage at Olympia Einkaufszentrum (shopping centre) in Munich on Friday that police described as a suspected terror attack, and three gunmen are still at large. The police were, however, unable to confirm the number of injured victims.

The Munich Police have, however, tweeted that they have found a ninth body at the shooting scene and are verifying if the body belongs to one of the attackers.

We are verifying the possibility of one dead person being involved in the shooting, #Munchen, #oez, #Schieerei  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Police warned of an "acute terror" situation in the southern German city, which saw panicked shoppers fleeing the mall as armed police roamed the streets on the hunt for the attackers.

The mall near the southern German city's Olympic stadium was surrounded by police after shots were fired.

"There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre," Munich police said on Twitter, urging people to avoid the area.

Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as passers-by looked on.

"We suspect terrorism," a Munich police spokesman told AFP.

The shooting spree began before 1600 GMT at a McDonald's restaurant and continued on a nearby street before the gunmen moved into the OEZ shopping centre, a police spokeswoman said.

"There are several dead and injured," the spokeswoman said, without confirming the death toll of six given by a police source.

It is the third strike against civilian targets in Europe in just over a week, and follows an axe rampage by a teenager on a train in the same German state of Bavaria on Monday and the truck attack in the French city of Nice on 14 July.

German news agency DPA quoted police as warning of an "acute terror situation" with three assailants at large armed with "long guns".

According to DPA, Munich police have confirmed only one terrorist shooting in Munich.

"There have been no terrorist incidents in Munich aside from a shooting at the Olympia shopping centre," police said, refuting reports in German media about an incident at the Karlsplatz square, also known as Stachus.

An advisory has been issued to the Indian nationals in Munich by the Consulate General of India in Munich, Germany

A video posted on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black walking away from the McDonald's while firing repeatedly on people as they fled.

Reuters tweeted a live video from the site of the shooting where police operation is currently underway

LIVE: Video from site of Munich shooting rampage that police suspect to be 'terror attack'. https://t.co/4V7hfBxKuU pic.twitter.com/bKaGHXvQdI  Reuters Live (@ReutersLive) July 22, 2016

Public transport suspended

Munich's main train station has been evacuated and metro and bus transport in the city suspended on police orders.

The trains, the tramways and the busses of the MVG are out of service at the moment. #oez, #Munchen, #Schieerei  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Three gunmen were involved in the shooting, according to a police statement, citing witnesses.

Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks including bombings in neighbouring France and Belgium.

The OEZ shopping centre, which opened in the 1970s near the city's Olympic stadium, was surrounded by armed police and emergency vehicles, while a helicopter buzzed overhead.

"There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre," Munich police said on Twitter, urging people to avoid the area.

The Munich Police have requested not to upload or publish photos/videos of gunfire in Munich citing public safety

Important:

Please don't publish Fotos/Videos of #gunfire #Munich.

Please help us and send these files to us underhttps://t.co/29Df0qGgM6  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Facebook safety checks have been actived

'Stay in your homes'

Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as shoppers rushed away from the mall, some carrying children in their arms.

"Attention -- avoid the neighbourhood around the OEZ. Stay in your homes. Leave the street," the Munich police tweet said.

Germany has so far escaped the kind of large-scale jihadist attacks seen in France.

But the shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train near Wuerzburg, also in Bavaria on Monday, injuring five people, two of them critically.

One victim is still fighting for his life, the hospital treating him said Friday.

'Inspired by Islamic State'

Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" attacker who appeared to have been "inspired" by the Islamic State group but was not a member of the jihadist network.

Authorities said he shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) three times as he ran through the carriage slashing passengers on the train near the southern city of Wuerzburg.

The attacker is believed to be either Afghan or Pakistani and investigators are still trying to determine his identity.

The train rampage triggered calls by politicians in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into the country -- many of them via the southern state.

The assailant had arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Germany in June 2015 and had been staying with a foster family in the region of the attack for the last two weeks.

A record 1.1 million migrants and refugees were let in to Germany last year, with Syrians making up the largest group followed by Afghans.

The mall shooting comes just eight days after a 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, in the French Riviera city of Nice last week.

It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November and the shootings at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

In March, Islamic State-claimed suicide bomb attacks at Brussels airport and a city metro station left 32 people dead.

In May in Germany, a mentally unstable 27-year-old man carried out a knife attack on a regional train in Bavaria, killing one person and injuring three others.

With inputs from agencies
Washington: US President Barack Obama on Friday pledged support to Germany in the wake of a deadly shooting rampage in Munich, as officials said they were working to determine if any US citizens were affected.

Obama, speaking at a meeting with law enforcement officials, said he had been briefed on the unfolding drama in Germany, where at least six people are believed dead in a shooting at a shopping centre in Munich.

"Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. It's still an active situation, and Germany's one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances," he said.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said US officials were working with local authorities to determine if any US citizens were affected by the incident.

American citizens in Germany were urged to contact loved ones to let them know their whereabouts.

"For your own safety, avoid squares and streets: perpetrators are on the run," said a statement on the website of the US embassy in Germany.

"Continue to shelter in place, contact your family members to let them know you are safe, and follow the instructions of police and emergency personnel."
Cleveland: Criticising Republican leaders for singling out American Muslims, US president Barack Obama has said the minority community has always been a part of America and what worries them is the fear of being blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent their faith.

"Like all Americans, you worry about the threat of terrorism. But on top of that, you fear that your entire community will be blamed for the violent acts of a few who do not represent your faith," Obama said at an Eid event at the White House on Thursday.

"Singling out Muslim Americans, moreover, feeds the lie of terrorists like the Islamic State that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents. That's not smart national security," Obama said in an apparent criticism to Republican leaders who have been calling for banning the entry of Muslims and increased monitoring and even racial profiling.

"In fact, it is IS and Al-Qaeda, and organisations like those that are waging war on Muslim communities, even during the holy month.

"And discriminating against Muslim Americans is also an affront to the very values that already make our nation great," Obama said.

"Muslim Americans are as patriotic, as integrated, as American as any other members of the American family," he said.

"And whether your family has been here for generations or you're a new arrival, you're an essential part of the fabric of our country," he added.

Muslim Americans, he said have to reject hatred. "Muslim Americans  and all Americans  have to reject discrimination. Muslim Americans  and all Americans  have to answer those who would peddle hate, or suggest that somehow their interpretations of their faith justify violence," Obama said.

"All of us have those obligations  whether we are Christian, or Jew, or Hindu, or Muslim, or of no faith at all. We have to reaffirm that in this country, it is our obligation to abide by the law, to look out for each other, to be part of a single community  and that we can still appreciate our differences and retain those things that are essential to our identities, and still strongly affirm our

commitment and our faith in this country," said the US president.

The celebration of Eid at the White House, he said, is another reminder that Muslims have always been a part of America.

"In colonial times, many of the slaves brought over from Africa were Muslim. We insisted on freedom of religion, in Thomas Jefferson's words, for, "the Jew and Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan.

"For more than two centuries, Muslim Americans of all backgrounds  Arab and Asian, African and Latino, black and white  have helped build America as farmers and merchants, factory workers, architects, teachers and community leaders," he said.

"Muslim Americans have enriched our lives every single day. Muslim Americans help keep us safe," he said.

Muslim Americans aren't just heroes in real life, he said.

"One of today's most popular comic book superheroes is a Pakistani American girl named Kamala Khan, also known as Ms Marvel," he said amidst applause.

"I'm a comic book fan. But it's important that our children see positive, rich portrayals of all people, including Muslims, from all walks of life  not just in the national security context.

"In the news and TV and movies, the diversity and depth of the Muslim American experience needs to be portrayed," said the US president.
Cleveland: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump took to the stage and said that her father is the "People's nominee" at the Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC) where Donald Trump will accept the Republican nomination.

Ivanka said her father has always fought for country and recognises talent.

"My father is colour blind and gender neutral. One of the reasons why he is a successful entrepreneur is because he listens to everyone. My father turns vision into reality," she added.

Ivanka, who is expected to introduce her father for speech, said Donald Trump would improve labour laws and childcare.

"He would fight for equal pay and I would fight with him," she said.

This week's Republican National Convention has seen drama ranging from the plagiarised speech his wife delivered and the way the campaign prolonged the episode to Ted Cruz's shocking address on Wednesday in which he refused to endorse Trump and encouraged Americans to vote their conscience, CNN reported.

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump's former rival, was booed off the Republican top stage on Wednesday night after he withheld his endorsement of the New York billionaire as the nominee.

"Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution," Ted Cruz said at the party's convention, instead of urging Republicans to rally behind Trump.

The language, which echoed statements from the 'Never Trump' movement, triggered boos and chants of "Trump! Trump!" from the audience.

Cruz left the stage putting on a brave face, wrapping up his remarks and thanking the audience while Trump entered the venue and gave his formal rival a thumbs-up, sarcastically venting his anger.

On the final day of Cruz's campaign in May, he charged Trump with being "a pathological liar", "a narcissist" and "utterly immoral", the Guardian reported.

So far the RNC has been all about heated attacks on Hillary Clinton. Trump has yet to show how he can appeal to the broader general election audience, particularly women, by proving that he would be a reliable president.
On the night of 15 July, Turkey had witnessed a coup attempt by a faction within the Turkish military against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Alleged plotters of the stunning attempt to seize political power from the president and the government have been identified as the members of the Gulen Movement, a group inspired and led by a Turkish cleric and Islamist figure Fethullah Gulen who has been living in the US for the past 17 years.

Obviously, no one could imagine that the ongoing conflict between these two factions, AKP and the Gulen Movement, might have resulted in the bombing of the Parliament building by military aircraft controlled by coup plotters, since these two factions had remained close allies until 2013 and mutually strengthened each other.

The Opposition parties and groups in Turkey, and European Union leaders express their concerns about the steps have been taken by Erdogan and his government after the failed coup attempt, which might be used as an opportunity for crackdown on the Opposition. Unfortunately, the latest news proves that the people were right to be paranoid. The government declared a three-month state of emergency on Wednesday night. It suspended all obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, the deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus said, and gives the government the right to expand measures that might further roll back human rights in Turkey.

Opponents of Erdogan are concerned about the potential misuse of a three-month state of emergency by the government for a further consolidation of political power and employing repression against the Opposition, stemming from Erdogans authoritarian tendencies before the coup attempt.

The aforementioned developments display a potential threat to critical voices against Erdogan and his government in the aftermath of the failed coup. These have to be kept in my mind to be able to comment on the future of academic freedom in Turkey.

In the wake of the failed military coup, the chairman of Turkeys Higher Education Council (known as YOK), Yekta Sarac held an emergency meeting with 165 university rectors on 18 July. In the official announcement of YOKs call for the meeting, it was openly declared that the agenda set by the council is to clean the universities of academics who are allegedly linked to the Gulen Movement.

In that regard, after the meeting, the Higher Education Council has asked all faculty deans across the country  1,577 in total  to resign. Additionally, on the same day, the council asked university rectors to investigate all academicians and administrative staff in their universities urgently in order to reveal the ones who are Gulenists and to take action against all those found guilty. Yet, it is still unclear why university deans have been asked to resign without any official investigations being started by the council.

On Wednesday, following the call for the resignation of 1,577 deans, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the Higher Education Council has banned academics from work trips abroad and urged those overseas to immediately return to Turkey. Lastly, according to the newspaper Haberturk, YOK will remove 4,000 academics  working in state universities  from their jobs as part of the first phase of the crackdown.

Although these measures imposed by the higher education authority and the government are allegedly being justified as attempts to prevent potential future threats from the coup-plotters in universities, the crackdown implemented by the authorities makes academics worried that might turn into a purge of Turkish academia in a broader sense, and it may be argued that it is reasonable to start getting concerned when we look at the previous indicators showing the hostile attitude towards academics by Erdogan and his government.

For a better understanding of the possible implications of these temporary measures that are supposedly designated to unveil academics, who are believed to be in contact with the coup-plotters, the formation and mission of Turkeys Higher Education Council must be addressed. The council was established in 1981  the year after a successful military seizure of political power.

The founding principle of the council was to centralise the higher education system in Turkey and to curtail the autonomy of the universities in Turkey until the coup. In other words, the military regime maintained tight control over universities that were considered as the major threat as authoritarian military rule expanded. Since 1981, academics and university students have opposed the Higher Education Council as an anti-democratic and repressive institution, which is at the same time, a product of the military coup.

Even the AKP government articulated a discourse against YOK to for a political mobilisation and promised to abolish such an anti-democratic institution representing the military coup in 1980. However, when Erdogan and his government gained the full control over the council, it gave them the opportunity to consolidate their power over universities.

The latest incident before the failed coup that provides important evidence of the extent of the use of the Higher Education Council by Erdogan and his government for their own purposes was the opening of investigations by the council against Academics for Peace at the start of 2016. This was a group of signatories to a statement calling for the government to put an end to the violence perpetrated by security forces in the Kurdish region, and Erdogan immediately targeted them. His call to the authorities to take action against them ended up in a crackdown on academics in which almost 800 academics have faced action.

The Higher Education Council played a critical role in terms of opening administrative investigations to silence critical voices in universities.

Taking into account all these factors, the post-coup purge might signal a stifling of academic freedom in Turkey. Although the governments and Higher Education Councils subsequent purges are supposedly designed to target the coup-plotters in universities  namely Gulenists, 10 academics, who are among the Academics for Peace have already been dismissed in Van University. Ironically. while Erdogan and his government are swiftly responding to the attempted military coup, the purge of academics is via a council that was the product of a successful military coup and is now at the government's service.
Contrary to popular opinion, neither Goa, nor Kerala or even Jammu and Kashmir is the most popular tourist destination in India for foreign travellers. India's most popular state with foreign tourists is Tamil Nadu.

According to data published by India's Ministry of Tourism, Tamil Nadu contributed almost 20 percent of the total foreign visits to India in 2015. The state remains popular despite the tragic floods the state endured in 2015.

Last year, India saw 23 million foreign visitors, as compared to 22 million in 2014 and registered a growth of 4.4 percent.

The most frequented states (number of visits in millions) were Tamil Nadu (4.68), Maharashtra (4.41), Uttar Pradesh (3.1), Delhi (2.38), West Bengal (1.49), Rajasthan (1.48), Kerala (0.98), Bihar (0.92), Karnataka (0.64) and Goa (0.54) and these have been the consistently top ranked states in the country in terms of tourism. Maharashtra contributed 18.9 percent of the visits, Uttar Pradesh contributed 13.3 percent and Delhi contributed 10.2 percent of the total visits.

The top 10 states contributed about 88.4 percent to the total number of foreign tourist visits in the country during 2015. These states also house some of the major cities of India where tourists usually arrive, before they go on to explore other parts of the country.

Emerging favourites

States like Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh have emerged as winners with a perceptible rise in the number of foreign visitors. The two states are steadily becoming popular with travellers from across the globe, with Jharkhand seeing an increase in popularity by 72.6 percent and Andhra Pradesh saw a rise by 70.8 percent.

Other fast-growing destinations in India are Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala, Puducherry and Telangana, where each of the state governments is facilitating ease of travel for foreign tourists.

Big losers

The unrest in Jammu and Kashmir seems to have resulted in the decline foreign visitor numbers. Compared to 2014, the tourism in the state went down by 32 percent with only 58,568 foreign tourists visiting the state.

Other states that saw a decline in tourism were Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Sikkim.

Data suggests that the western states are most visited by foreign travellers, while North Eastern states are facing a steady decline in the number of visitors.

Bangladesh contributes the highest number of foreign tourists

In the year 2015, India the highest number of foreign visitors belonged to Bangladesh followed by the United States, United Kingdom and Malaysia. India is a popular destination with tourists from countries like Sri Lanka, China, japan, Canada, Germany, Australian and France.

According to reports, tourists from Bangladesh to Indian has increased by 133 percent in the last four years. No other country has seen such a high increase. The number of visitors in 2015 were 1,133,879.
In the wake of the Nice terror attacks on 14 July, 2016, France extended its state of emergency for three more months and just a few days later when the military decided to stage an unsuccessful coup against the ruling government, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president was quick to declare a state of emergency in his own country.

A state of emergency essentially means that the rights of citizens are limited and subject to terms and conditions. However, it would be folly to think that it is only the Turkish emergency that is oppressive in nature. According to the official French website, during the emergency, the french authorities can put people under house arrest if they are considered to be a threat to security or public order. Groups that take part or facilitate acts that can be viewed as a serious threat can be dissolved. Authorities can also carry out searches of property, luggage without judicial warrants and close places of congregation or worship.

According to Upturned lives: The Disproportionate Impact of Frances State of Emergency, an Amnesty International report, after the 2015 Paris attacks, most of those who were interviewed said that "harsh measures were applied with little or no explanation and sometimes excessive force." And it is this abuse of emergency provisions that has caused deeper mistrust in the Muslim community, said Yasser Louati of Collective Against Islamophobia in France in a Human Rights Watch report. He added, "The government has lost the trust of the Muslim community and it is doing nothing to repair the damage."

Turkey, perhaps is more familiar with authoritarian rules  especially in the 1980s when the martial law was imposed. However, the emergency provisions in Turkey are not all that different from France. Despite its own shortcomings and flaws, France was quick to "warn" Turkey of consequences, after president Erdogan carried out a purge post-coup.

AFP reports that the European Union expressed "concern" Thursday over Turkey's decision to impose a state of emergency following the attempted coup, and urged the country to respect human rights and the rule of law. "We are following the developments regarding the state of emergency Turkey has declared after the attempted coup, which the European Union condemned, very closely and with concern," said a statement jointly issued by the bloc's foreign affair's chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn.

"This declaration comes in the wake of the recent unacceptable decisions on the education system, judiciary and the media... we call on Turkish authorities to respect under any circumstances the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right of all individuals concerned to a fair trial," the strongly worded statement added.

The Erdogan government shortly after the unsuccessful coup attempt stirred talks of bringing back the death penalty  this would be a deal breaker for the EU, a league that Turkey has been keen on joining for years. But, Erdogan had also said: "We will continue to clean the virus from all state bodies because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state."

This statement worried world leaders as photos emerged of those rounded up in the coup in only their underwear, with their human rights being violated.

But Erdogan insisted democracy would "not be compromised" and lashed out at critics of the sweeping purge that has raised deep concerns about democracy and human rights in the key NATO member. The extra powers, to restrict freedom of movement and other rights, were needed "to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt," Erdogan said.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the special measures may only last up to 45 days, insisting that "we want to end the state of emergency as soon as possible".

Asked about whether the government may impose curfews, Kurtulmus said: "Very clearly no. This is not a declaration of martial law." But he also said Turkey would suspend the European Convention on Human Rights, saying France had done the same after being targeted by a string of jihadist attacks. "The road to arbitrary rule, unlawful behaviour, feeding on violence, has been chosen," complained the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). "Society has been forced to choose between a coup or an undemocratic government."

The Turkish president on Wednesday told French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault "to mind his own business" after he warned Ankara over the crackdown after the coup in Turkey. "He should mind his own business. Does he have the authority to make these declarations about my person? No he does not. If he wants a lesson in democracy he can very easily get a lesson in democracy from us," Erdogan told Al-Jazeera in an interview.

Ayrault had called for maintaining the rule of law in Turkey in the wake of the coup saying "this is not a blank cheque for Erdogan" to silence critics.

With inputs from AFP
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Mom-daughter retreat planned

SCHUYLER -- "BLOOM: Because Loving Ourselves and Others Matters," is a retreat scheduled for Saturday and Sunday for mothers and daughters ages 11-14.

This retreat with Deb Waskowiak and Debbie Sheehan, MA, provides opportunities for deepening the communication that is so essential for growth into mature womanhood. Sessions will help connect faith, relationships and healthy loving in ways that are rooted in gospel teaching and relevant today.

This weekend includes outdoor activities, weather permitting. The retreat begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and ends at noon Sunday.

For more information, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.stbenedictcenter.com.

Young adult retreat slated

SCHUYLER -- Gods Paths are Faithfulness and Love is a one-day retreat for young adults, ages 1835, scheduled for Saturday at St. Benedict Center.

As youth adults try to find the right way for their lives, they will have a chance to reflect on how to make decisions, how to find guidance and direction for their lives, and how to pray in a way that self-awareness and love for God may grow.

This day of reflection, facilitated by a team of monks, will include talks, sharing, personal prayer time, Mass and lunch. Total fee is $10.

For more information, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.stbenedictcenter.com.

Father-son retreat planned

SCHUYLER -- Fathers and Sons  Together Forever is a retreat scheduled for July 30-31 for fathers and their sons ages 11-15 at St. Benedict Center.

Edward DeSimone, Ph.D., Father Jeff Mollner and a team of fathers and sons will lead this retreat, providing opportunities for open communication and mutual learning between fathers and their adolescent sons along with Mass and a traditional blessing of the sons.

The weekend will include dodgeball competition, water balloon toss, and a hayrack ride, weather permitting. The retreat begins at 9 a.m. July 30 and ends at noon July 31.

For more information, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.stbenedictcenter.com.

Retreat Aug. 5-7 at St. Benedict

SCHUYLER -- "Tongues as of Fire" is a weekend retreat scheduled for Aug. 5-7 at St. Benedict Center, with musician and composer Father Bob Dufford, SJ (St. Louis Jesuits).

St. Ignatius of Loyola invites those attending to use their imagination while praying with Holy Scripture, to picture a particular biblical scene as if they were standing there. During this retreat, Fr. Bob will use specially composed instrumental music and texts to help participants enter into moments in the life of Jesus.

Those attending are invited to bring an iPod, iPad, MP3 player, or computer. CD players may also be used but only for a few.

The retreat begins at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5.

For more information or to register, call 402-352-8819 or visit www.stbenedictcenter.com.

Plasi dinner planned Aug. 28

PRAGUE -- The Plasi (Sts. Cyril and Methodius) Roast Beef Dinner will be held from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Prague Parish Hall.

The self-serve buffet will be $10 for adults, $5 for kids 5-10 years, and free for kids under 5.

There will also be a cake walk, bake sale, silent auction, live auction and a raffle for $1,000.

Mississippi leaders divided

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi's Democratic attorney general says he won't join the Republican governor in appealing a federal judge's ruling that blocked a state law on religious objections to gay marriage.

Attorney General Jim Hood said a continued legal fight would be "divisive and expensive" in a state that's already struggling with a tight budget.

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.

Hood says that Mississippi has no law that would force clergy members to perform weddings for same-sex couples, and the state enacted a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2014 that would protect private businesspeople and others from violating their own beliefs.

Religious sites used for voting

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP)  Palm Beach County voters have been assigned to polling stations in about 80 Christian churches and five synagogues or Jewish centers this year, along with schools, government buildings and other locations. Until last week, a single mosque was part of this mix.

County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher had invited the Islamic Center of Boca Raton to host a polling site for the Aug. 30 Florida primary and Nov. 8 general elections. Then she disinvited the mosque after an anti-Islamic backlash

U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch and Lois Frankel say, by caving in to threats, Bucher is giving unwarranted support to those who say Muslims are not legitimate Americans because of violent extremists.

Vatican sets beatification

TIRANA , Albania (AP)  The Catholic Church in Albania says the Vatican has set Nov. 5 as the day of beatification of 38 Albanian religious martyrs killed by the former communist regime.

In April, Pope Francis officially recognized as martyrs Archbishop Vincens Prenushi and 37 other priests who died in prison or were murdered in 1945-1974 by the late communist dictator Enver Hoxha's regime, the church said a statement Wednesday.

Hoxha's regime banned religion In 1967 and persecuted its leaders and believers.

During Francis' visit to Tirana in 2014, big posters of the 38 clergy were placed along the Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard in the capital.

Francis held up Albania, with a majority of Muslims and also with Orthodox and Catholic communities, as a model for interfaith harmony.

Nun subject of new TV series

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  An Italian-born nun who once challenged Billy the Kid and later opened New Mexico hospitals and schools will soon be the subject of a TV series.

An Albuquerque production company is scheduled Wednesday to announce a new project about Sister Blandina Segale.

Saint Hood Productions will oversee the production "At the End of the Santa Fe Trail" just as the Roman Catholic Church is examining the 19th-Century nun for possible Sainthood.

Segale, a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and an advocate for Hispanics and Native Americans, founded schools in New Mexico and St. Joseph Hospital.

Her encounters with Old West outlaws became the subject of an episode of the CBS series "Death Valley Days," titled "The Fastest Nun in the West."

She worked as an educator and social worker in Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico.
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What happened?

A megamerger in the brewery industry has received the U.S. antitrust regulator's approval, with conditions. The Justice Department signed off on the estimated $108 billion takeover of SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD 4.93%). The news was announced Wednesday.

In addition to formalizing a previously agreed upon stipulation that the company divest the entire U.S. portfolio of SABMiller, the Department of Justice is prohibiting the expanded AB InBev "from instituting or continuing practices and programs that limit the ability and incentives of independent beer distributors to sell and promote the beers of [AB InBev's] rivals, including high-end craft and import beers."

Additionally, any AB InBev attempts to buy beer distributors or brewers in the U.S. will be subject to review by the Department of Justice. The merger still faces regulatory scrutiny in China.

Does it matter?

The absorption of SAB Miller is going to have a huge impact on AB InBev. But this deal has been (sorry) brewing for quite some time, and the company agreed to the SABMiller U.S. divestment last year. So there wasn't much surprise in the Department of Justice's announcement.

The new stipulations likely won't affect the beefed-up AB InBev too much thanks to its massive size, although the company might find it trickier to acquire choice assets going forward.

Meanwhile, investors in Molson Coors (TAP -0.38%) can also look forward to their company expanding its footprint.

As per the requirement for AB InBev to shed SABMiller assets once the merger closes, Molson Coors is to become the sole owner of the MillerCoors joint venture. It is to pay around $12 billion for SABMiller's 58% stake. This will give Molson Coors the right to brew and sell bar staples such as Coors Light, Miller Genuine Draft, and Blue Moon in the U.S. It will also control the U.S. rights to several foreign brands like Peroni.
Credit card giant MasterCard (MA -0.04%) has been a public company for only about a decade, but already it has posted impressive performance for long-term investors. The pace of innovation in the electronic payments industry has forced MasterCard to adapt in order to protect its competitive position, but it has also created new opportunities for growth. Coming into its second-quarter financial report on Thursday, MasterCard investors wanted to see evidence that the company would stop seeing declines on its bottom line and instead return to its long-term trajectory to become an even more important force in the global payments industry. Let's take an early look at MasterCard to see whether it will emerge from its doldrums and move forward more strongly than ever.

Stats on MasterCard

Expected EPS Growth 5.9% Expected Revenue Growth 8.3% Forward Earnings Multiple 22.1 Expected 5-Year Annualized Growth Rate 15.3%

Can MasterCard earnings put in a solid rebound?

In recent months, investors have grown guardedly optimistic about MasterCard earnings, raising their projections for the second quarter and for the full 2016 year by a penny per share each. However, the stock hasn't responded well, and investors have suffered a 7% loss since mid-April.

MasterCard's first-quarter earnings report alerted investors to some of the pressures that the company has faced recently. Even though MasterCard's revenue rose at a 10% pace, which was faster than most shareholders had expected, net income was down from year-ago levels. The card giant blamed the downturn on currency effects and the loss of a key tax credit, but fundamentally, MasterCard continued to fire on all cylinders. Double-digit percentage growth in gross dollar volume, processed transaction counts, and worldwide purchase volumes when measured in local currency terms showed the resiliency that MasterCard has been able to muster even in the face of tough economic conditions throughout much of the globe.

During the quarter, some MasterCard investors became concerned when CEO Ajay Banga made a major sale of shares in the company, reducing his stake in the card giant by half. However, as Motley Fool analyst Jordan Wathen pointed out, Banga has followed a pattern of making options-related sales during the spring. The fact that the CEO gets a portion of his compensation from the performance of the share price makes it unlikely that the sale reflects any negative sentiment about MasterCard's future.

Does MasterCard face real challenges?

More serious is the potential for trouble resulting from the U.K. Brexit vote to leave the European Union. Shares of MasterCard reacted negatively to the referendum results, fearing that the move would stifle economic activity within the eurozone and potentially lead to a pullback in spending activity among customers in the U.K. and throughout the European continent. Those fears largely dissipated in the aftermath of the vote, and many now believe that the impact of Brexit will be minimal, making MasterCard and some of its international card network peers look more attractive as investments going forward.

Still, MasterCard will have to fight hard in order to remain competitive in the industry. Even among traditional card network giants, the battle for partnerships with major retailers and other key drivers of transaction growth has been hard-fought, and MasterCard won a key victory when it won the co-branding business from airline giant JetBlue. But to maximize the opportunity, MasterCard has to look for more high-profile partners to win over from rivals, and that will be tough because of how hard MasterCard's peers are fighting to retain existing business and steal new customers from other providers.

In the MasterCard earnings report, investors should watch to see how executives respond to the changing dynamics in the global economy and their impact on the payments industry. With so much competition not only from traditional card networks but from e-commerce-spawned specialists that are disrupting the industry, MasterCard must continue to execute well and keep winning business wherever it can.
COLUMBUS  Columbus Public Schools' students are going to have more menu choices to fill their plates when filing through cafeteria lunch lines when classes resume in about a month.

The CPS board voted unanimously this week to approve LunchTime Solutions to manage the districts food service program beginning this year with the aim of boosting nutritional value and the variety of meal choices.

School officials began exploring changes in the districts food service program after a group of parents pushed for improved nutrition and variety in meal choices during a school board meeting last year.

The North Sioux City, South Dakota-based company was selected from among four that submitted food service management proposals seeking a five-year contract with the district. LunchTime Solutions got the top ranking among the four companies.

CPS, the Nebraska Department of Education and the company will determine the terms of the final agreement, which must be approved at a later meeting.

A daily all-you-can-eat fruit and veggie bar and increased entree choices at all school levels were among the factors considered by the committee in selecting LunchTime Solutions, said Dave Melick, executive director of business operations and human relations for the local school district.

Other factors in the North Sioux City companys selection were its business presence and glowing references in the state, understanding of the improvements desired by CPS, a well-defined transition plan for facility and equipment upgrades and per meal pricing, Melick said.

The programs traditional lunch meal option, according to the companys website, has a choice of at least three entrees with selections from homestyle comfort foods, sandwiches such as grilled chicken or burgers, subs with fresh-baked rolls, wraps, fresh-baked pizza and Mexican foods.

Students get unlimited servings of fruits and vegetables, a hot vegetable daily, desserts and milk choices.

In other business, board members and administrators eyed ongoing building renovations at West Park Elementary School that began when classes let out in May.

Workers have spent the last two-plus months replacing tile flooring with polished concrete in building entryways, relocating the kindergarten centers entryway and reconfiguring its two classrooms, and installing new carpet in hallways and classrooms in grades one through five.

I think it looks great, said Leonard Kwapnioski, executive director of technology and operations for CPS, who led a tour of the elementary school.

Advantages of polished concrete and carpeting over tile flooring are the ease of cleaning up concrete and replacing carpet squares, Kwapnioski said. Carpeting in the school hallways makes for a much quieter learning atmosphere, he said.

West Park will serve as a test site for other future school improvements, he said.

Board members Doug Molczyk and Theresa Seipel liked what they saw during the tour.

The improvements are amazing, Molczyk said. Im excited to see how things work out.

Seipel was impressed with the reconfiguration of the kindergarten area.

Im so glad its finally getting done, she said.

B-D Construction of Columbus and Midwest Flooring of Lincoln are completing the estimated $220,000 renovation project. The upgrade is scheduled to be completed at the end of this month.

In another matter, the board accepted the low bid of $174,825 by Commonwealth Communications of Omaha for security at the new Columbus High School south of Lost Creek Parkway.

Commonwealths bid, one of three received by the district, will pay for access controls and cameras at the new 270,000-square-foot school.

The system is what the district plans to standardize on all future CPS facility upgrades and remodeling projects, Kwapnioski said.

Other bidders included Kidwell Communications of Lincoln, $197,270, and VTi Security of Omaha, $204,669.
During an interview on the FOX Business Networks Risk & Reward, billionaire oil magnate Harold Hamm said one of the keys to Donald Trumps success, specifically in creating a strong energy policy, is through his experience in the corporate world.

Donald knows business across a lot of different categories. Hes a businessperson. He was willing to listen and learn very early on about the energy renaissance and the great things that have been done with horizontal drilling in America, Hamm, the CEO of Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR), told Deirdre Bolton. He certainly wanted to understand that and he got it real quick and chose to accept it and realized that this could power America forward and be a big part in rebuilding America.
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When he talks about bringing jobs back to America and really looking at some of these trade agreements, I know that some things hes saying cant easily be done to bring American jobs back.

DeJoria responded to concerns that a Trump presidency would lead to a shutdown in trade.

No, I didnt hear it at all last night and there wont be a shut down in trade because both sides still benefit. No matter who youre doing business with, they still benefit. But I think what scares some of the bigger businesses is hes saying its not going to be business as usual. And with all due respect, our government does give a lot of grants to a lot of big companies that make a lot of money that shouldnt really be getting those grants.

More from FOXBusiness.com
Filmmaker and author Dinesh DSouza isn't holding back with his new film Hillarys America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.

DSouza told FOX411 his movie goes beyond just Hillary Clinton.

Hillary is a kind of crowning pinnacle of the film, but the film is actually a kind of systematic lay out of the sorted history of Progressivism and the Democratic Party culminating in its worst exemplar, which is Hillary," D'Souza said.

Four years ago, DSouza made a film about President Barack Obama. He said he believes Obama tried to achieve a vision for America but he wouldn't say the same of Clinton.

Hillary has no vision for America, he said. Her only vision for America is that she wants to be the mob boss of America. She wants to be the female Godfather, the greatest thing since Al Capone. And she wants all the benefits that Al Capone got in Chicago; he liked to run the city; he liked to knock off his opponents.

"This is the cult of Hillary and this is what she wants. She wants to basically be the one who runs our life and calls all the shots and snubs out her opponent. I, for one, am not going to stand for it and Im hoping most Americans wont either.

DSouza came to America from India at 17, and he said Obama and Clinton jeopardize the American dream.

I came to America because this is a country defined by ladders of opportunity, he said. [Obama and Clinton] are actually jeopardizing the American Dream itself and turning America into the same kind of gang run racket that many third world countries are today.

DSouza said he hopes both Republicans and Democrats view his film.

What I am hoping the movie will do is reach well-meaning people in the middle, sincere Democrats who go I cant believe this, he said. We have had people who have been in the movie, particularly minorities particularly Hispanics and blacks, and they say Dinesh the only question I have to ask you, is this true? Because if they are true it changes everything. And thats the thing. The things in my book are movie are true and they cannot really be disputed and it does change everything.

Hillarys America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party premieres July 22nd.
After a Gods Not Dead 2 billboard was banned at the Republican National Convention for being too political and incendiary, Ike Wingate, founder of Wingate Media Group, has offered to place a free billboard promoting the film in Nashville.

I saw the story somewhere online talking about how the billboard was rejected a little bit vague on the details as far as who and whybut it was rejected because of the messaging and my understanding that it was going to incite feelings that would not be desirable around the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, he told FOX411. When I saw that I thought thats too badI thought wow its a shame they are not able to promote that from the standpoint of the film but then from a secondary standpoint the right to free speech was in some senses denied, so I didn't like that.

Pure Flix, the company behind the film, is thankful for the support, said Chief Operating Officer Steve Fedyski.

We are grateful to Wingate for their wonderful gesture of solidarity, which demonstrates the importance of standing together as people of faith to protect the foundational freedom of religion afforded to all Americans.

Wingate had no qualms about offering the movie one of his billboard spaces.

I posted on my own Facebook the story, and I said its a shame that this billboard company said no to free speech and this message, we would have no problem doing that with our company he said. So I just thought lets donate the space on a digital billboard. With the digital platform we have, we thought it made a lot of sense.

The planned billboard in Cleveland was reportedly set to feature actress Melissa Joan Hart with the slogan, Id rather stand with God and be judged by the world than to stand with the world and be judged by God.

Gods Not Dead 2, the sequel to Gods Not Dead, tells the story of a public school teacher whose Christian faith and career come under attack when she answers a question about Jesus with scripture.

In Cleveland, the billboard company Orange Barrel supposedly turned down the billboard citing rules that prohibited scandalous messages at the RNC.

The Wingate billboard will be live as soon as the production team delivers the design for it to Wingate Media Group.
The executive director of the state's labor union has warned the Department of Correctional Services that a proposed plan to offer voluntary 12-hour shifts to security staff at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution must be negotiated.

Corrections Director Scott Frakes announced Tuesday a couple of pilot projects that would affect staffing, overtime, engagement and safety at Tecumseh and the Nebraska State Penitentiary, beginning in October.

At Tecumseh, Frakes said, the department planned to move away from 12-hour emergency staffing and mandatory overtime that has been used since the Mother's Day riot in 2015, and allow protective services staff to opt for 12-hour or eight-hour shifts.

At the penitentiary in Lincoln, the department would create sergeant supervisors to reduce the high numbers of staff serving under lieutenants.

Mike Marvin said Thursday he exchanged a string of frustrating emails with Frakes, telling him that NAPE/AFSCME had received a ruling in 2013 from the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations on the issue of implementing a new shift pilot program without first bargaining with the union.

On Thursday, Marvin told Frakes if he tries to implement any plan without negotiating it, the union will file a prohibited practice charge with the Commission of Industrial Relations.

Frakes said Thursday he was moving forward with the work needed to develop the pilot projects.

"And I will not engage represented employees in the planning process, as I stated to Mr. Marvin," he said.

In April, Marvin said, Frakes was given a proposal that would have established a pilot alternate shift at Tecumseh. It contained a proposal on female-only positions at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women at York, but Marvin said Frakes would only talk about the alternate shifts.

"If he had been willing to come to an agreement, the membership would have already voted whether or not to agree," Marvin said in a Facebook post.

Marvin received a letter from Frakes, written Wednesday, saying Frakes takes the quality of life and engagement concerns of corrections employees seriously and he intends to do all he can to address them. Officers have told him the current shift scheduling makes it hard for them to find a balance in work and home life.

"Nebraska Corrections employees will be the biggest beneficiaries of any changes," Frakes said in the letter. "The pilot should demonstrate how 12-hour shifts can be utilized effectively, and would assist in transitioning from the emergency staffing schedule currently in place at the facility."

Frakes stressed that no scheduling changes were imminent, and the management team is still exploring how the pilot would be implemented.

"I'm hopeful that NAPE leadership will support its members' best interests and join in our management team's good-faith effort to address the concerns of our employees," Frakes said.

Marvin reminded Frakes about the Commission of Industrial Relations decision, which ordered the department to cease and desist from unilaterally implementing a pilot scheduling program without first bargaining.

"If he tries to implement it," Marvin said Thursday, "we'll file in the CIR and get an order to stop again."

All he has to do, Marvin said, is sit down and negotiate in good faith, and then the union would put it out to the membership and see if they want it.

"We have put it on the table for the last six years," he said, "but they don't want to give anything for it. They want to dictate everything. They don't want to have any back and forth on it."
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An assistant principal at a Georgia high school brought new meaning to her role when she assisted her colleague in delivering her baby on the way to work.

Fox 5 Atlanta reported that Lydia Powell and her fellow assistant principal at Fayette County High School Brandi Johnson were traveling to work Wednesday when Johnson began having contractions.

Powell pulled the car over and flagged down another car, which turned out to be a parent of one of their students, to get help.

This guy says, Hey, you work at Fayette County High. Arent you an assistant principal there? My daughter is in the car.... at that point, Im like, Oh Lord, I got to cover her up! Powell recalled to Fox 5 Atlanta.

The two helped deliver Johnsons newborn with help from her doctor on the phone.

While Johnsons husband was en route to the hospital, baby Skye Blessing Johnson was born on Peters Road in Union City. The news station reported she is healthy.
SPOKANE, Wash.  Washington's attorney general on Thursday asked a federal judge to immediately take steps to protect Hanford Nuclear Reservation workers from exposure to chemical vapors.

More than 50 workers have received medical evaluations after reporting exposure to vapors in recent months.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson, along with the watchdog group Hanford Challenge and a labor union, filed motions for a preliminary injunction in federal court in Eastern Washington. The injunction seeks to prevent further harm to Hanford workers by implementing certain protections now, instead of waiting for the outcome of a trial.

The state filed a lawsuit against the federal government over Hanford worker safety last September. Trial is set for next May, but Ferguson says workers cannot wait that long to have a safe workplace.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons, and the site near Richland in southeastern Washington is now engaged in a massive cleanup of the resulting radioactive wastes.

The wastes are stored in 177 massive underground tanks, and it is vapors escaping from some of those tanks that are thought to be making workers sick. The vapors are invisible and are not radioactive. Their exact content is not known because the exact contents of the tanks, some dating back to World War II, are not known.

"How many sick Washington workers will it take before the federal government fixes this problem?" Ferguson said in a press release. "The federal government's culture of indifference to worker safety at Hanford must end. Now."

Washington River Protection Solutions, the U.S. Department of Energy's contractor for the tanks, said it was committed to the safety of workers and disappointed by the actions of the attorney general.

"We believe the claims are not reflective of the safe work our team is accomplishing in the tank farms' challenging environment," WRPS said in a press release. "While we review the motion, we will work with the Department of Energy on an appropriate path forward."

All of the workers who recently reported exposure to chemical vapors were checked by medical personnel and cleared to return to work, WRPS has said.

But Hanford critics contend that this issue has been going on for decades.

"Too many workers have already gotten sick and even disabled by brain and lung diseases," said Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge. "Hanford's cleanup mission will last decades, and workers deserve a safe workplace now and into the future,"

By pursuing a preliminary injunction, Ferguson, Hanford Challenge and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 seek to prevent further harm to workers by implementing certain protections now. They seek:

- Mandatory use of bottled air at all times for all personnel working within the perimeter fence lines of the tanks and those working inside the vapor control zone.

- When waste is disturbed, they seek an expanded vapor control zone not less than 200 feet outside the perimeter fence line, and barricading of all roads and access points to prevent entry into the expanded zone.

- Installation of additional monitoring and alarm equipment to warn workers when toxic vapors are being emitted.

Between late April and the end of June, 56 workers reported they were exposed to vapors, the attorney general's office said. Within minutes to hours after breathing the fumes, workers experienced nosebleeds, chest and lung pain, headaches, coughing, sore throats, irritated eyes, and difficulty breathing, the attorney general's office said.

Hundreds of workers have reported similar exposures since the early 1980s.
DURBAN, South Africa  Prince Harry is warning against complacency in the fight against AIDS, saying inaction has set in as the epidemic has drifted from the headlines and people live longer with the disease.

The British prince spoke Thursday with rock star Elton John during a global AIDS conference in South Africa.

The prince, who publicly took an HIV test earlier this month, said the world cannot lose the sense of urgency in fighting the disease.

He said a new generation of leaders must step forward on the issue and make sure no young person feels any shame in being tested.

Elton John called the prince a powerful ally in the fight against AIDS, the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa, where around 30 people are infected every hour.
An 11-time Special Olympic long-distance walker was once suffering excruciating pain and in danger of losing his vision as he desperately searched for a doctor who would take him seriously. Edward Garcia, who was diagnosed with hydrocephalus at 11 months old, found his savior in Dr. Isaac Young at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, PEOPLE reported.

Every doctor said my CT scans looked fine, Garcia, 31, told PEOPLE, but I knew this wasnt how I was supposed to be feeling.

Garcia had already undergone 26 surgeries by the time he was 8 years old to help manage hydrocephalus. The condition causes cerebrospinal fluid to accumulate in the cavities deep in the brain and has been managed by a surgically implanted drainage system called a shunt, PEOPLE reported.

From the OR to the top of the podium. #undefeated pic.twitter.com/6NI2qnTtgc  Edward Garcia (@soscchamp) April 19, 2016

In 2011 he began waking up with headaches, chest pain, nausea and vision loss, and knew the shunt was malfunctioning, but technology wasnt advanced enough to detect it. When the pain became unbearable, he took himself to the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

I remember there were five doctors in my room, and I told them, If you open me up, you will find that something is wrong, Garcia told the magazine. The athlete feared death or severe disability was near.

Yang took his patients word for it and decided to operate. He found that Garcias shunt had broken in a region not detected by the scans. He repaired the shunt and Garcia woke up pain free.

The first thing Dr. Yang told me after the surgery was, Youll never hear a doctor say this, but I was wrong and you were right, Garcia told PEOPLE.

He said the words meant more to him because, as a disabled person, he feels doctors often talk down to him or easily dismiss his symptoms. He believes that if Yang hadnt trusted him, he could have died.

Instead, Garcia returned to training for the Special Olympics and recently presented Yang with a gold medal that he won at the Special Olympics state finals.

It was a joy to give him the medal, Garcia told PEOPLE. I told him to look at it when hes at a low point, and know that he helped and believed in me when no one else would.
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats should be worried.

Why? Because Donald Trump delivered Thursday night and did what he needed to do. No, he didnt deliver a speech with great oratorical flourish. No, he didnt broaden the base of the party significantly though he did speak about minorities and the LGBTQ community in ways that he hadnt done before.

What Trump did, and he did it very well, was to raise the stakes of the election and define it in his own terms. Law and order, crime in the streets, and terror. He managed to make the argument, compellingly, that these challenges were the central ones America faced and that given the failures of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his way of change was the only way to go.

It was a long speech, it ran well over an hour and it was repetitive in parts. But that doesnt matter. Trump was ultimately speaking to a fairly discrete and arguably specific constituency of Americans. Concentrated, though not exclusively, in the swing states of the industrial Midwest.

What Trump did, and he did it very well, was to raise the stakes of the election and define it in his own terms.

Trumps remarks were directed at the 70-odd percent of Americans who feel the country is on the wrong track and his remarks were designed to amplify those feelings and offer  in general terms  a different way forward.

I dont believe that the pundits necessarily will give this speech high marks and in my own terms, Trump did not do anything that he has not done before on the campaign trail. But what he did do is present a vision of America, a path forward, and a vision of leadership that is very, very different than what the country has had for the last eight years.

It was necessarily more non-partisan than traditional Republican speeches. Trump did not harp on Republicanism or conservatism, and indeed his own daughter Ivanka specifically underscored that her generation of millennials were not partisan in the way that older Americans were. Trump was speaking to commonsense, American concerns about safety and security, primarily, though not exclusively, of the working and middle class white Americans -- the people he called forgotten Americans, reminiscent of Richard Nixons silent majority.

Do I think this is enough to catapult Trump well into the lead? No I dont. Do I think this will solidify his position and perhaps bring him even or put him into a slight advantage going into the Democratic Convention? I think thats plausible but unlikely. I think, also, that in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, these remarks will help him significantly with precisely the voters and constituents he needs if hes going to win the election.

It will be interesting to see how Secretary Clinton responds, not only to the substance of the speech, but to the atmospherics of the convention. It was a white convention; it was a convention that was not really able to broaden the demographic base of the Republican party. Secretary Clinton will almost certainly highlight substantial numbers of blacks, Latinos, and Asians in the four days to come in Philadelphia starting on Monday.

But shes got another challenge, and one that is perhaps larger than what she expected. She needs to address the issues of law and order, safety, and security, as well as terrorism, in the way that Trump presented them given the challenges that we are all facing as Americans.

The other challenge Secretary Clinton will have is to make the case for globalism and for our role in the world.

Trump explicitly and clearly ruled it out.

He said that we need to put America first and put America before our role in the world. This goes against the credo and the values of American culture and foreign policy. But at a time when wages are stagnated, jobs are disappearing, and people are increasingly at risk and facing threats both at home and abroad, it may well be enough to turn an election that was beginning to appear issueless into the most profound, prominent, and I dare say, nation determinative contest in recent memory.
Editor's note: The following column is excerpted from Dinesh D'Souza's new book, "Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party" (Regnery Publishing, July 18, 2016).



Contrary to what we learn from progressives in education and the media, the history of the Democratic Party well into the twentieth century is a virtually uninterrupted history of thievery, corruption and bigotry. American history is the story of Democratic malefactors and Republican heroes. Yes, its true.

I begin with Andrew Jackson. Henot Thomas Jefferson or FDRis the true founder of the modern Democratic Party. Progressives today are divided about Jackson. Some, like historian Sean Wilentz, admire him, while others want to remove him from the $20 bill because he was a slaveowner and a vicious Indian fighter. He was, in this view, a very bad American.

I support the debunking of Jackson, but not because he was a bad Americanrather, because he was a typical crooked Democrat. Jackson established the Democratic Party as the party of theft. He mastered the art of stealing land from the Indians and then selling it at giveaway prices to white settlers. Jacksons expectation was that those people would support him politically, as indeed they did. Jackson was indeed a man of the people, but his popularity was that of a gang leader who distributes his spoils in exchange for loyalty on the part of those who benefit from his crimes.

Jackson also figured out how to benefit personally from his land-stealing. Like Hillary Clinton, he started out broke and then became one of the richest people in the country. How? Jackson and his partners and cronies made early bids on Indian land, sometimes even before the Indians had been evacuated from that land. They acquired the land for little or nothing and later sold it for a handsome profit. Remarkably, the roots of the Clinton Foundation can be found in the land-stealing policies of Americas first Democratic president.

The Democrats were also the party of slavery, and the slave-owning mentality continues to shape the policies of Democratic leaders today. The point isnt that the Democrats invented slavery which is an ancient institution that far predates America. Rather, Democrats like Senator John C. Calhoun invented a new justification for slavery, slavery as a positive good. For the first time in history, Democrats insisted that slavery wasnt just beneficial for masters; they said it was also good for the slaves.

Today progressive pundits attempt to conceal Democratic complicity in slavery by blaming slavery on the South. These people have spun a whole history that portrays the slavery battle as one between the anti-slavery North and the pro-slavery South. This of course benefits Democrats today, because today the Democratic Partys main strength is in the north and the Republican Partys main strength is in the South.

But the slavery battle was not mainly a North-South issue. It was actually a battle between the pro-slavery Democrats and the anti-slavery Republicans. How can I make such an outrageous statement? Lets begin by recalling that northern Democrats like Stephen Douglas protected slavery, while most southerners didnt own slaves. (Three fourths of those who fought in the civil war on the confederate side had no slaves and werent fighting to protect slavery.)

Republicans, meanwhile, to one degree or another, all opposed slavery. The party itself was founded to stop slavery. Of course there were a range of views among Republicans, from abolitionists who sought immediately to end slavery to Republicans like Abraham Lincoln who recognized that this was both constitutionally and politically impossible and focused on arresting slaverys extension into the new territories. This was the main platform on which Lincoln won the 1860 election.

The real clash was between the Democrats, north and south, who supported slavery and the Republicans across the country who opposed it. As Lincoln summarized it in his First Inaugural Address, one side believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, and the other believes it is wrong and ought to be restricted. This, Lincoln said, is the only substantial dispute. And this, ultimately, was what the Civil War was all about.

In the end, of course, Republicans ended slavery and permanently outlawed it through the Thirteenth Amendment. Democrats responded by opposing the Amendment and a group of them assassinated the man they held responsible for emancipation, Abraham Lincoln. Republicans passed the Fourteenth Amendment securing for blacks equal rights under the law, and the Fifteenth Amendment giving blacks the right to vote, over the Democrats opposition.

Confronted with these irrefutable facts, progressives act like the lawyer who is presented with the murder weapon belonging to his client. Darn, he says to himself, I better think fast. Yes, he now admits, my client did murder the clerk and rob the store. But he didnt kill all those other people who were also found dead at the scene.

In other words, progressives who are forced to acknowledge the Democratic Partys pro-slavery history promptly respond, We admit to being the party of slavery, and we did uphold the institution for more than a century, but slavery ended in 1865, so all of this was such a long time ago. You cant blame us now for the antebellum wrongs of the Democratic Party.

Yes, but what about the postbellum crimes of the Democratic Party? From Democratic support for slavery, lets turn to the partys complicity in segregation and the Ku Klux Klan. Democrats in the 1880s invented segregation and Jim Crow laws that lasted through the 1960s. Democrats also came up with the separate but equal rationale that justified segregation and pretended that it was for the benefit of African Americans.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee by a group of former confederate soldiers; its first grand wizard was a confederate general who was also a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. The Klan soon spread beyond the South to the Midwest and the West and became, in the words of historian Eric Foner, the domestic terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.

The main point of the Klans orgy of violence was to prevent blacks from votingvoting, that is, for Republicans. Leading Democrats including at least one president, two Supreme Court justices, and innumerable Senators and Congressmen were Klan members. The last one, Robert Byrd, died in 2010 and was eulogized by President Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

The sordid history of the Democratic Party in the early twentieth century is also married to the sordid history of the progressive movement during the same period. Progressives like Margaret Sangerfounder of Planned Parenthood and a role model for Hillary Clintonsupported such causes as eugenics and social Darwinism. While abortion was not an issue in Sangers day, she backed forced sterilization for unfit people, notably minorities. Sangers Negro Project was specifically focused on reducing the black population.

Progressives also led the campaign to stop poor immigrants from coming to this country. They championed laws in the 1920s that brought the massive flows of immigration to this country to a virtual halt. The motives of the progressives were openly racist and and in the way the immigration restrictions were framed, progressives succeeded in broadening the Democratic Partys target list of minority groups.

While the Democratic Party previously singled out blacks and native Indians, progressives showed Democrats how to suppress all minorities. Included in the new list were Central and South American Hispanics as well as Eastern and Southern Europeans. Many of these people were clearly white but progressives did not consider white enough. Like blacks, they were considered unfit on the basis of their complexion.

During the 1920s, progressives developed a fascination with and admiration for Italian and German fascism, and the fascists, for their part, praised American progressives. These were likeminded people who spoke the same language, and progressives and fascists worked together to implement programs to sterilize so-called mental defectives and unfit people, resulting subsequently in tens of thousands of forced sterilizations in America and hundreds of thousands in Nazi Germany.

During the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent members of his brain trust to Europe to study fascist economic programs, which he considered more advanced that anything his New Deal had implemented to date. FDR was enamored with Mussolini, whom he called the admirable Italian gentleman. Some Democrats even had a soft spot for Hitler: young JFK went to Germany before World War II and praised Hitler as a legend and blamed hostility to the Nazis as jealousy resulting from how much the Nazis had accomplished.

Yes, I know. Very little of this is known by people today because progressives have done such a good job of sweeping it all under the rug. This material is simply left out of the textbooks even though it is right there in the historical record. Some progressive pundits know about it, but they dont want to talk about it.

Indeed many progressives have been working hard to come up with lies that can be passed off as facts. Progressives have a whole cultural contingentHollywood, the mainline media, the elite universities, even professional comediansto peddle their propaganda. From the television show Madame Secretary to the front page of the New York Times to nightly quips by Stephen Colbert, the progressive bilge comes at us continually and relentlessly.

In this bogus narrative, Republicans are the bad guys because Republicans opposed the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. For progressive Democrats, the civil rights movement is the canonical event of American history. It is even more important than the American Revolution. Progressive reasoning is: we did this, so it must be the greatest thing that was ever done in America. Republicans opposed it, which makes them the bad guys.

The only problem is that Republicans were instrumentalactually indispensablein getting the Civil Rights Laws passed. While Lyndon Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the backing of some northern Democrats, Republicans voted in far higher percentages for the bill than Democrats did. This was also true of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Neither would have passed with just Democratic votes. Indeed, the main opposition to both bills came from Democrats.

Interestingly enough the GOP is not merely the party of minority rights but also of womens rights. Republicans included womens suffrage in the partys platform as early as 1896. The first woman elected to Congress was Republican Jeanette Rankin in 1916. That year represented a major GOP push for suffrage, and after the GOP regained control of Congress, the Nineteenth Amendment granting womens suffrage was finally approved in 1919 and ratified by the states the following year.

The inclusion of women in the 1964 Civil Rights Act was, oddly enough, the work of group of racist, chauvinist Democrats. Led by Democratic Congressman Howard Smith of Virginia, this group was looking to defeat the Civil Rights Act. Smith proposed to amend the legislation and add sex to race as a category protected against discrimination.

Smiths Democratic buddies roared with laughter when he offered his one-word amendment. They thought it would make the whole civil rights thing so ridiculous that no sane person would go along with it. One scholar noted that Smiths amendment stimulated several hours of humorous debate among racist, chauvinist Democrats. But to their amazement, the amended version of the bill passed. It bears repeating that Republicans provided the margin of victory that extended civil rights protection both to minorities and to women.

This article is excerpted from Dinesh DSouzas new book Hillarys America, which was published this month by Regnery and is accompanied by a film of the same name that opened in theaters nationwide on July 22.
One thing Donald Trump knows better than almost anyone is the art of making a deal and negotiating from a position of strength.

Trump is now applying that same savvy business-sense to Americas international role as the chief contributor, in terms of dollars and military support, to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)an alliance of countries from North America and Europe.

Trump has it right.

To the irritation of so-called national defense and security experts, Trump is doing what President Barack Obama should have done a long time ago: compel NATO countries to uphold their full commitment to the alliance and each other.

Trump is doing what President Barack Obama should have done a long time ago: compel NATO countries to uphold their full commitment to the alliance and each other.

The NATO alliance is important to preserving global security and mutual security interests, and that is something Trump no doubt fully grasps. NATO was initially purposed to counter the Soviet Union, but times have changed and while the threat of an emboldened Russia still persists, its the global terrorist threat that is taking center stage. Something countries like Belgium, France and Turkey know all too well.

As is always the case, NATO is a euphemism for American combat resources, troops and funding. The 28 countries that comprise NATO are all committed to common strategic goals and safeguarding freedom, but for too long these countries have relied on Americas military power and force projection without meeting their own obligations.

NATO imposes a goal on member nations that at least 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) goes to support defensea direct benefit the alliance. Only five of the 28 countries are meeting that obligation and the United States assumes the disproportionate share of the funding burden at 3.6 percent of GDP.

Critics and security experts argue that this is acceptable and that compelling greater cost sharing among NATO allies could serve to upend the international alliance and stir resentment that will translate into even less cooperation.

Trump isnt buying it.

Many of the experts sounding the alarm are the same individualsin and out of governmentwho supported the disbandment of the Iraqi military early in the invasion to ouster Saddam Hussein. Theyre the same individuals who argued Iraqs government could flourish under a democratic system and even supported the withdrawal of forces from Iraq without retaining a military presence, inviting the formation of the Islamic State. Theyre the same individuals who felt the government of Afghanistan could flourish in its current formas if Kabul could mirror any major American city.

How wrong they were.

Trump needs to stay the course on his criticism of NATO, not for the purpose of dissolving Americas role or reducing its influence, but rather to force greater participation, through funding and military support, from all partner nations that want to be part of the club. They all depend on America for protection and support, and that reliance is sure to continue, but its time theyre asked to start meeting their own obligations and better collaborate to protect their own borders and interests.

What Trump is doing is smart. Hes keeping cards close to his chest and in the process hes utilizing Americas position of strength, and unofficial ownership of NATO, to send a clear signal to the world that America will expect its allies to do more. In many ways, its the start of a negotiation that the next Presidenteven if not Trump himselfmust continue.

Whenever Trump questions NATO, the gasps among the national security establishment should be treated as nothing more than an interest to preserve the status quo. They argue its been this way for a long time, so theres no reason to make waves, even if America shoulders a disproportionate burden under the NATO banner.

Instead, Trump is creating a real opportunity for our international partners to show their strength to the rest of the world, particularly at a time when Americas attention is scattered across the globefrom Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria to Africa and elsewhere.

Its a clear indication that hell be a strong commander in chief.
A postscript to the 2016 Republican National Convention: just how is the wide of a gulf between a Fourth Estate that nitpicked and nunchucked the Republicans every move in Cleveland and a viewing audience drawn to this conventions more forthright rhetoric?

That includes Donald Trumps acceptance speech Thursday night.

Critics of the Republican presidential nominee wasted no time relegating it to historys dustbin.

But heres what they missed (and, no, Im not a Trump supporter): for a guy who calls Manhattan and Palm Beach home Trump sounded an awful lot like a bridge-and-tunnel guy in touch with working-class concerns.

Which is precisely what he set out do, in Thursday prime time.

Heres one way to assess Trumps big speech: how it stacks up against four previous GOP nominees.

That includes:

Barry Goldwater, 1964. Like Trump, Goldwater faced a divided party  moderate Republicans who saw the GOP as hijacked by the far right.

Read the famous extremism in the defense of liberty speech and its clear: Goldwater was as much interested in defining the GOP as he was championing freedom.

Republican, or some variation of the word, came up 34 times in a 40-minute address.

In Ohio, land of the late Robert Taft, Trump didnt try to position himself as the new Mr. Republican. He mentioned the word twice in the opening moments of his speech and only once long after that.

For those of you keeping score at home, there also was zero mention of conservative or Ted Cruz.

This speech wasnt about establishing an ideological beachhead within the Republican Party, so lets move on to

George H.W. Bush, 1988. If Goldwater was about the movement; Bush 41s speech was all about a man with a purpose  a former torpedo bomber pilot who, in his words, sees life in terms of missions  missions defined and missions completed.

Trumps speech took a similar flight path: I have had a truly great life in business, he declared. But now, my sole and exclusive missions is to go to work for our country  to go to work for you. Its time to deliver for the American people.

Ironic, given Trumps toxic relationship with Jeb, there was one other Bush influence in Trumps speech: branding.

George W. Bush, 2000. Befitting the first Republican president of the Information Age, Bush 43s speech was an attempt at recast the GOP in the candidates more compassionate image.

In Bushs words: Everyone, from immigrant to entrepreneur, has an equal claim on this country's promise. Preceded by: I want to change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect.

Trump tried the same in Cleveland  not seeking a group hug (though he did utter compassionate once, with regard to immigration laws), but instead casting himself as a needed combatant on the side of the American people. Trumps villains: big business, special interests, elite media and major donors, he said, all backing Hillary Clinton to preserve an economic and political system, in his words, rigged to their benefit.

Trump made it clear there will be a new sheriff in town: I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country.

And in case you missed it the first time, a few moments later: In this race for the White House, I am the law-and-order candidate.

In this regard, what we discovered at a national convention with little to show in the way of bloodlines  no Bushes, no Mitt Romney, no John McCain, and little mention of Ronald Reagan  is Trump having Republican ancestry

Richard Nixon, 1968. Befitting a nominee with a troubled soul but the most accurate of political compasses, Nixons speech was spot-on for a nation wracked with domestic and foreign turmoil.

Nearly a half-century ago, Nixon singled out forgotten Americans chafed by economic hardship, racial tension, disrespect of the law, cultural decay and the nations inability to wage war effectively.

And Trump?

Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned.

I have visited the laid-off factory workers, he continued, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals.

These are the forgotten men and women of our

country. People who work hard but no longer have a

voice.

I am your voice.

Trump echoed Nixon foreign policy, making Clinton/Obama his Humphrey/Johnson for leading the nation on a host of foreign policy follies -- ISIS, Egypt, Libya and a host of overseas follies.

There was no declaration that Clinton has blood on her hands, as on Monday night, but there was this brutal summation: This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death,

destruction, terrorism and weakness.

Finally, the similarity between Nixon and Trumps closing passages.

Nixon: The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn  a new day for America, and a new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.

Trump: History is watching us now. Its waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion and if we will show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.

Trump didnt plagiarize Nixons remarks, but one thing he did lift: bumper stickers. Trump-Pence and Nixon-Agnew are all five-letter names.

One last observation: weve never had an election like this in modern times  two nominees so engrained in the nations mindset, both deeply unpopular.

It begs the question of a post-convention bounce  since 1968, all non-incumbent presidential winners have picked up at least 4 points in the immediate aftermath of their acceptance speeches.

Mitt Romney didnt get much of one in Tampa, back in 2012. Ill wager Trump does. Why? The speech connected. Replace Trump with a less controversial figure and it really connects in a time when voters are down on individuals and institutions.

But bounces can be fleeting. If one considers that every presidential gets four bites out of the apple  the day they announce, the day they clinch the nomination, the night they accept it at the national convention, and finally the three fall debates.

This may prove to be an election with the winner determined by what those debates yield, and what events overtake the candidates closer to Election Day  violence at home, unrest overseas.

The national conventions are important milestones, but not necessarily crucial to the cause.

And the blunt talk, mini-controversies and odd political-celebrity hybrid that is the Trump show?

Its over, in Cleveland.

With another 15 weeks to play out.
PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch Fox News Reporting  Clintons Left Turn - A Political Insiders Special this weekend. The show premieres Saturday at 8PM ET and airs again at 11 pm, 2 am and 4 am ET. It also airs again on Sunday at 10 pm ET, midnight and 2 am ET.

Fifty-six years ago, when John F. Kennedy was elected as our 35th president of the United States, Democrats retained total control of both houses of Congress.

Kennedy commanded a Democratic Party that believed in capitalism -- including tax cuts to generate economic growth; a vigorous military that could be used to oppose Communist expansionism; and a patriotism in which the United States proudly thumped its chest about our accomplishments, victories and generosity.

Now things are indeed radically changed. Todays Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to JFK.

For example, consider the following questions:

? Would Kennedy possibly believe that more Iowa Democrats in 2016 identify with socialism than with capitalism?

? Would he have ever believed that 43 percent of Iowas Democratic caucus-goers self-identified as Socialist?

? What would JFK have thought of a Democratic president of the United States who never misses an opportunity to apologize for American behavior?

Would Kennedy possibly believe that more Iowa Democrats in 2016 identify with socialism than with capitalism?

? What would Kennedy have thought of that same twice-elected president of the United States embracing the very same Cuban regime that he, JFK, tried to over-throw in 1961?

? And what would he think about his party nominating someone whom 57 percent of American voters believe should be indicted for her handling of classified information?

We could go on and on, but the same question permeates todays Democratic Party: what has happened to the party  and where is it headed?

Ideologically, the Democrats have moved toward the Radical Left  and abandoned the political center.

Hillary Clinton has traveled a long way from the days of JFK.

The 2016 Democratic Party platform also bears little resemblance to her husbands centrist policies. Now, heavily influenced by Socialist Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the party has embraced the public option for free universal health care; an inexplicable free college plan with no realistic way to pay for it; and a war on capitalism and wealth.

As the Democrats convene in Philadelphia next week, we know where they are ideologically.

What we do NOT know is this:

? Can Clinton duplicate President Obamas 2012 African-American turn-out?

? Will she turn out an increased Latino vote in key states to overcome her deficit among white voters?

? Do Clintons negatives negate Donald Trumps own negatives?

? And, whether in an electorate crying out for change, if a candidate who has already lived in the White House for eight years and who represents the status quo can still win a national election.

The answers to these questions may well be the difference between victory and defeat for Hillary Clinton.

We will drill down on these issues and search for answers on "Fox News Reporting  Clintons Left Turn - A Political Insiders Special."

Please join us.
Pro-gay Republicans have held Donald Trump up as the most supportive nominee in GOP history, but at this week's Republican National Convention, their excitement is clashing with the stark realization that their party is still pushing a very different message.

While Republicans seek to broaden their appeal ahead of November's election, the party adopted a platform that moves farther away from gay rights with a new admonition of gay parenting, adding language that says kids raised by a mother and father tend to be "physically and emotionally healthier."

Even as Trump declares himself a "friend of the gay community," the GOP platform maintains its opposition to gay marriage and to bathroom choice for transgender people.

Yet in a first for a GOP convention, an openly gay speaker acknowledged his sexuality Thursday from the podium -- and put fellow Republicans on the spot by saying he disagreed with parts of the platform. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, said only Trump was being honest about how "fake culture wars" distract from America's economic decline.

"I am proud to be gay," Thiel declared. "I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American."

He was greeted with wild cheers and extended applause as some delegations jumped to their feet, in a striking moment for a Republican gathering.

The closing-night moment aside, Trump's nominating convention featured awkward silences on the rare occasions when gay rights have come up. Connecticut State Rep. Cara Pavalock said that's a reflection of how much work the party needs to do on the issue.

"I joined the party not for what it is but for what I know it will be in the future," said Pavalock, a Trump supporter.

For those hoping Trump's nomination will help repair the perception that Republicans are hostile to equality, there's another challenge: Mainstream gay rights groups are denouncing the New York billionaire, arguing that tolerance for one minority group doesn't excuse prejudice toward others -- like Hispanics and Muslims.

Trump, who has said he'd nominate Supreme Court justices who might overturn gay marriage, has nonetheless spoken effusively about his friendships with gay people while avoiding anti-gay rhetoric that many other GOP candidates have embraced.

After a gunman claiming Islamic State allegiance killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Trump said he'd be better than Hillary Clinton because he wouldn't allow in Muslim immigrants who want to "murder gays."

At the same time, Trump has rattled many voters with unflattering comments about women, while insisting Mexico sends rapists and criminals into the U.S.

"His hatred toward anybody is a huge concern," said Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights group. "When he attacks women, he attacks us. When he attacks Muslims, he's attacking us."

Gay Republicans who attended one event in a downtown ballroom Tuesday -- titled "Wake Up! (the most fab party at the RNC)" -- said it promoted the message that Islam and LGBT tolerance are incompatible. Outside the party, police kept at bay protesters with signs reading "Queers Against Racism."

Though gay rights groups have pointed to Trump's rhetoric about other minorities as evidence of intolerance, Republicans say that's an attempt to blur the issues to help Democrats win elections and raise money.

"They are hell-bent on keeping this a political issue," said Republican strategist Richard Grenell.

Four years ago Grenell, who is gay, was hired by 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney to be his foreign policy spokesman, but resigned under pressure from social conservatives who questioned Romney's conservatism.

This week, he attended a "Big Tent Brunch" on the convention's sidelines, hosted by the American Unity Fund, a GOP group that promotes LGBT rights.

At the brunch -- held in a literal big tent at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, pro-LGBT Republicans sipped mimosas and mingled with transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner while a man carried a rainbow version of the Gadsden flag -- a tea party symbol.

Added was the phrase "Shoot Back," employed by gun rights advocates after the Orlando shooting to suggest the victims should have been armed.

And at the Quicken Loans Arena where Trump was nominated, there were mostly vague allusions if any to gay rights from convention speakers -- such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who praised police for protecting, among others, people of "every sexual orientation."


COLUMBUS  A party in the square with family friendly activities marked the anniversary of a longstanding organization.

Columbus Area United Way celebrated its 75th year of serving the area with a gathering Thursday in Frankfort Square. Free hamburgers were served along with ice cream to cool off those who came out to enjoy the event in the summer heat. There were also several games set up for people to play.

Impacting the community to improve the quality of life here has been the purpose of United Way since it started. The organization continues to do that by helping support 18 area partner agencies. Through campaign drives, which started in 1941, the local United Way has raised more than $15 million.

The core building blocks of United Way are education, income and health. The national organization believes investing in those areas helps communities thrive.

Columbus Area United Way has awarded grants to support programs and organizations that focus on those building blocks.

Programs started by the United Way to address the areas of education, income and health include the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program that provides books to children, a 2-1-1 number that gives callers access to community resources and an outdoor game called the Born Learning Trail in East Pawnee Park.
Hillary Clinton stayed tight-lipped on her VP pick at a Florida rally late Friday despite mounting speculation shes leaning toward Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, while using the appearance to take shots at Donald Trumps Republican nomination address the night before.

He offered a lot of fear and anger and resentment, but no solutions about anything that he even talked about, Clinton told supporters, rallying Democrats ahead of the party convention that starts Monday in Philadelphia.

The former secretary of state featured prominently at the Cleveland Republican convention, with headlining speakers slamming her over her email controversy and frequent chants breaking out of lock her up.

Trump, in his acceptance speech, blasted Clintons foreign policy record as secretary of state, saying her legacy is death, destruction, terrorism and weakness and a change in leadership is needed.

Hillary Clintons legacy does not have to be Americas legacy, he said.

Speaking in Tampa, Clinton mocked Trumps refrain during his address that I am your voice.

I dont think he speaks for most Americans, do you? she said. Clinton even exploited the tensions that flared at the convention between Trump and ex-primary rival Ted Cruz, who declined to endorse Trump in his prime-time speech and said only that people should vote their conscience.

I never thought I would say these words, but Ted Cruz was right, Clinton said. Do the right thing, vote your conscience.

She closed her remarks saying, Love trumps hate.

Meanwhile, Clinton could name her running mate at any moment as she tries to shift the spotlight from Cleveland.

Sources told Fox News the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has not told Kaine or two others believed to be on her short list who has been eliminated. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday morning that Clinton is believed to be poised to choose Kaine.

In addition to Kaine, Clinton is considering Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker -- a late entry.

Kaine, who is also a former Virginia governor and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is seen by many Democrats as a more moderate candidate with swing-state appeal. He was considered one of President Obamas top three finalists for the position in 2008.

Kaine endorsed Clinton early on in the campaign, and is also generally regarded as a safe pick for the former secretary of state. He also speaks fluent Spanish which could be useful in increasing the campaigns reach among Hispanic.

The expected announcement comes ahead of the opening of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia on Monday. Republican nominee Trump followed a similar strategy, tweeting out his vice presidential choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on the Friday before the Republican convention.

Booker, a Yale Law School graduate, was among the first prominent Democratic lawmakers to endorse Clinton. He said he would be willing to serve if chosen.

I know the Clinton campaign is in the midst of deciding. Im very happy to be where I am, the first-term senator and former mayor of Newark, told reporters in Cleveland.

Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who is a longtime friend of the Clintons, could help with the male vote.

After calling her VP pick, Clinton was expected to inform supporters via an email blast, to avoid a leak.

Clinton is trying to strike the right balance with the base as she weighs her running mate options, after a rigorous primary battle against progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who only recently endorsed Clinton.

Clinton also has met with several other prospects, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Housing Secretary Julian Castro.

Fox News Mike Emanuel, Jason Donner and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.
Just over a year after Donald J. Trump descended his iconic escalator in Manhattan to announce he was joining a packed field of political veterans seeking the Republican nomination for president, the New York billionaire completed an astonishing and historic political ascent Thursday night in Cleveland, officially claiming his partys nomination  and declaring to struggling Americans, I am your voice.

Trump electrified the convention crowd on closing night, with chants of U.S.A. frequently breaking out as the nominee vowed to put America first. He used the speech to align his campaign squarely on the side of struggling American workers of all political stripes, as he moved to broaden his appeal beyond the Republican base that largely decided the primaries.

Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned.  These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice, Trump said. I am your voice.

And he delivered a tough law-and-order message throughout, declaring from the convention floor in Cleveland, Safety will be restored under a Trump presidency.

America will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced, Trump vowed.

He described the nation at a moment of crisis, citing terror attacks, violence against police and chaos in our communities including rising inner-city crime. I will restore law and order to our country, he said, while vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.

Trumps highly anticipated speech -- at 75 minutes, the longest convention acceptance address since 1972 -- amounts to his closing argument before Clinton and the Democrats get their turn starting Monday in Philadelphia. As much as Republican leaders bashed the presumptive Democratic nominee in Cleveland, Democrats are likely to be just as tough on the Republicans at their convention.

The next big step for Clinton, though, will be to name her running mate, a decision that could come as early as Friday.

But before the attention turns to Clinton, Trump got in his final shots.

The businessman closed his address by turning rival Clintons Im with her campaign slogan on its head.

I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, Im with you, Trump said.

He blasted Clintons foreign policy record as secretary of state  citing the bloody tumult in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya  saying her legacy is death, destruction, terrorism and weakness and a change in leadership is needed.

Hillary Clintons legacy does not have to be Americas legacy, he said.

And defending his aversion to political correctness, he said for anyone who wants to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week -- go there. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies.

Trump also cycled through his campaign promises, including the controversial calls to build a southern border wall and immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.

He added, We dont want them in our country.

Trump vowed as well to protect LGBTQ citizens from terrorism like the Orlando club shooting. In a moment that allowed him to show his gay-rights support, Trump thanked the crowd for cheering that line: It is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said.

The speech caps a dramatic convention week marked by powerful displays of party unity but also tensions, flaring most recently when Ted Cruz withheld his endorsement Wednesday night.

The omission prompted boos from pro-Trump delegates, and the unrest continued into Thursday, when the Texas senator defended his decision before an audience of Texas delegates clearly divided over Cruzs handling of the convention speech.

At the same time, Trumps newly anointed running mate Mike Pence deftly set the stage for Trumps big night, effectively making the conservative case for the billionaire businessman in his own nomination acceptance speech on Wednesday. The choice of Pence  a classic conservative with Midwestern roots  helped bring various factions of the party together even before the convention began.

Despite the Cruz commotion, top party leaders from House Speaker Paul Ryan to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus worked to heal divisions in the party over the course of the Cleveland coming-together.

Hes brought millions of new voters to our party because hes listening to Americans anxious about the state of the country, Priebus said. With Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Americas ready for a comeback after almost a decade of Clinton-Obama failures.

Priebus claimed Republicans are the party with new ideas, while Democrats are the same party doing the same old thing, trotting out the same old candidate next week.

Lets stay united as Republicans, Priebus said.

Members of Trumps family also spent the week giving voters a glimpse into the tycoons more personal side, with daughter Ivanka introducing her father Thursday night. Appealing to women, she praised the businessmans record supporting female employees at his organization. And touting her dad as a tireless fighter who can bring his work ethic and aptitude to the nations highest office, Ivanka asked all voters to put their faith in him.

For more than a year, Donald Trump has been the peoples champion, and tonight he is the peoples nominee, she said.  When my father says hell make America great again, he will deliver.
The Obama administrations relative silence on Turkeys alarming crackdown following last weeks failed coup attempt is tantamount to a green light for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to continue his assault on democracy in the NATO nation, experts said.

Questioned about Erdogans ongoing roundup of some 50,000 academics, judges, teachers, soldiers and civil servants, and the declaration Wednesday of a state of emergency, a State Department official earlier this week meekly warned against overreach.

I cannot overstate the sense of the Turkish government and the Turkish people right now that they truly felt and truly feel under threat, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told an Associated Press reporter at a department briefing. We support completely the efforts to bring the perpetrators of the coup to justice. We just also caution against any kind of overreach that goes beyond that.

But when pressed, Toner declined to characterize the arrest, firing or suspension of the tens of thousands of Turkish government workers as overreach.

Erdogans government, which blames U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for inciting the coup attempt, in which more than 200 people were killed and members of the military briefly commandeered tanks, aircraft and communications channels, has reacted with a vengeance.

The state of emergency gives Erdogan and his cabinet new powers to implement laws without parliamentary approval. It also allows Ankara to censor media broadcasts, search citizens, impose curfews and restrict gatherings both public and private.

Erdogan has simultaneously demanded the U.S. hand over Gulen, a onetime Erdogan ally who lives in a Pennsylvania mountain compound and runs a profitable chain of Islamic charter schools. Secretary of State John Kerry has said the department is considering the request, but it remains unclear what evidence Erdogans administration has provided.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the crackdown shows Erdogan is taking advantage of the failed coup to further strengthen his grip on power. The strongman, who has ruled Turkey as either president or prime minister since 2001, has been steadily stripping the long proudly secular nation of its constitutional freedoms and increasingly adopted Islamist rhetoric.

When he was mayor of Istanbul 20 years ago, he said democracy is like a street car  you ride it to the stop you want and then you get off, Bolton said of Erdogan. This will enable him to pursue his objective of Islamisizing the Turkish government and overturning the secular constitution. Thats whats underway. I dont think theres much question about it.

Bolton said that the Obama administration appears to have done very little to pressure Turkey to ease up on its people, either publicly or behind the scenes. That gives Erdogan all the encouragement he needs, Bolton said.

The situation will continue to deteriorate as Erdogan arrests more people and puts them in jail, he said.

The European Union has more aggressively sought to rein in the crackdown, with two EU officials warning Thursday that Turkeys declaration of a state of emergency had led to unacceptable decisions on the education system, judiciary and the media.

We call on Turkish authorities to respect under any circumstances the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right of all individuals concerned to a fair trial, EU high representative Federica Mogherini and commissioner Johannes Hahn said in a statement.

Ahmet Yayla, who was chairman of the sociology department at Harran University and a former police chief in Turkey, said many of those being rounded up in Turkey include the Muslim nations bulwark against terrorism. Police, soldiers and judges deemed disloyal to Erdogan have been detained, leaving a diminished human infrastructure to deal with security threats, he said.

Those are the people who were fighting against terrorism in Turkey, said Yayla, who fled to the U.S. eight months ago when ISIS threatened his life for interrogating terrorist defectors.

Yayla said Erdogans dangerous dance with ISIS  tacitly supporting the terror group and allowing foreign fighters to pass through Turkey on their way to the terrorist armys caliphate  could combine with the post-coup unrest to threaten the nations stability.

In the near future, Turkey will face a lot of danger coming from terrorism because the newly appointed officers in the military and police are not going to be able to fight or deal with terrorism threats that exist in the country, especially by Erdogans allowing the terrorists inside the country, he said.
Donald Trump said goodbye to Cleveland Friday, pronouncing the Republican National Convention a yuge success and launching a barrage of parting shots at GOP rival Ted Cruz, who refused to endorse Trump in a controversial speech that got the Texas senator booed off the stage.

The vindictive victory lap laid bare Trump's simmering anger at Cruz, who brought drama to Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday when he began a speech to cheers and ended it by garnering a raucous chorus of boos after he refused to endorse the man who had bested him.

I like Ted, hes fine, Trump said in a trademark, ad-libbed press conference. I dont need his endorsement. If he gives it to me, I will not accept it.

Trump said if Cruz had endorsed him, it may have brightened his former rival's future presidential prospects.

"He should have done it," Trump said. "He would have been in better shape in four years."

Added Trump: "He's got intellect, but he didn't use it."

Speaking 12 hours after his historic acceptance speech, and with running mate and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence at his side, Trump praised his children, and predicted a major bounce coming out of the four-day convention. But the GOP nominee spent most of the news conference pounding Cruz, who finished second to Trump in a bruising primary campaign that began as a field of 17.

Trump dredged through a primarys worth of animosity with Cruz, blasting him repeatedly while basking in the glow of his victory.

While Trump and Cruz initially steered clear of criticizing each other as other candidates fell by the wayside, the gloves came off once state primaries and caucuses began. A Cruz super PAC ran an ad featuring a racy picture of Trumps former supermodel wife, Melania, in an effort to tar him in the conservative state.

Trump responded with a retweet that showed Melania side-by-side with an unflattering picture of Cruzs wife, Heidi, and the words: No need to spill the beans. The images are worth a thousand words.

On Friday, Trump managed to praise Heidi while delivering a stinging backhanded blow to Cruz.

I think Heidi Cruz is a great person, Trump said yesterday. I think shes the best thing hes got going, (that) and his kids.

Trump was just getting started in settling his score with Cruz, who he allowed to speak in a prime time slot on Wednesday, even though Cruz declined to endorse him. Trump predicted Cruz would never mount a serious campaign for president and said that if he does, maybe Ill start a super PAC to attack him.

Hopes that the two could bury the hatchet and unite the party disappeared when Cruz spoke on Wednesday, urging Republicans to vote your conscience but refusing to accede to chants of Endorse Trump that were followed by a loud chorus of boos.

During the campaign, Cruz bitterly lashed out at Trump when the National Enquirer, which had also ran an unsubstantiated story accusing him of having multiple affairs, published a picture purportedly of Cruzs father, Rafael Cruz, standing near Lee Harvey Oswald. Trump mentioned the story in multiple interviews, clearly angering Cruz.

[Im not going to] come like a servile puppy dog and say, thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father, Cruz told Texas delegates during a sometimes contentious meeting Thursday morning.

Trump took a shot at Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another primary rival who refused to attend the convention even though it was in his home state.

"Whether you're the governor of Ohio, whether you're a senator from Texas, or any of the other people that I beat so easily and so badly, you have no choice," Trump said. "You've got to go for Trump."
Donald Trump, in accepting the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, delivered a speech that appealed to his conservative base but also presented promises and hope to former Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters and other potential Democratic cross-over voters -- including better trade deals, improved schools and less crime in impoverished urban areas.

As the self-proclaimed law-and-order candidate, Trump zeroed in on the crime that has plagued some of the poorest and minority populations in U.S. cities.

Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years, Trump said. In our nation's capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They're up nearly 60 percent in nearby Baltimore.

Trump and other Republicans have long argued that cities, frequently run by Democrats, have failed to protect residents and provide them with the kind of job opportunities that will end the cycle of poverty and crime.

So to every parent who dreams for their children, and for every child who dreams of their own future, I say this: I am with you. I will fight for you,  Trump said.

The so-called political map -- essentially showing more Democratic than Republican voters across the country -- favors Democrat presidential nominees.

So Trump will need cross-over votes to win the White House, with his best likely hope supporters of Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Hillary Clinton and who carried a message of social and economic inequality.

Knowing that hell also need at least some of the Hispanic vote to win, Trump argued that nearly four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty and that 2 million more Latinos are in poverty, compared to when President Obama took his oath of office less than eight years ago.

He also called for an end to international trade deals that have taken U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas, just as Sanders had.

While Sanders pushed for free college education, Trump on Thursday vowed to help students drowning in debt from tuition loans.

He also vowed to protect members of the LGBTQ community, typically Democratic suppoters.

If you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths, the Democrats are holding their convention next week. Go there, Trump said. But here, at our convention, there will be no lies.
An iron ring set in the stone pillar of a 15th-century chapel in the Scottish city of Aberdeen may not look like much, but historians say it could be a direct link to a dark chapter in the citys past  the trial and execution of 23 women and one man accused of witchcraft during Aberdeen's "Great Witch Hunt" in 1597.

"I was skeptical, to be honest  the ring is not all that spectacular, but it is actually quite genuine," said Arthur Winfield, project leader for the OpenSpace Trust in the United Kingdom, which is restoring the chapel as part of a community-based redevelopment of the East Kirk sanctuary at the historic Kirk of St Nicholas, in central Aberdeen.

Winfield told Live Science that two places within the kirk (the Lowland Scots word for "church") had been equipped as a prison for witches snared in the Aberdeen witch hunt: the stone-vaulted chapel of St Mary, and the tall steeple of the kirk, which was at that time the tallest structure in the city. [See more photos of the "witch prison" in the Scottish church]

Winfield said that neither location would have been warm in the winter of 1597, when those accused of witchcraft awaited trail, and likely their execution: "In the winter nowadays, the temperature gets down to 3 degrees [Celsius] in St Mary's Chapel, and I guess it would be even colder up in the spire."

Witch hunting in Scotland in the 16th century was not carried out by mobs with pitchforks, but by royal commissions at the orders of the king. As a result, Aberdeens city archives today hold meticulous original records of the witch trials and executions in 1597, including payments to a local blacksmith for the iron rings and shackles installed to imprison accused witches at the Kirk of St Nicholas.

The city records also detail the costs for the rope, wood and tar later used to burn the convicted witches at the stake, at Castle Hill and Heading Hill in Aberdeen, before large crowds of onlookers. As a small mercy, most of the condemned were strangled to death before their bodies were burned, according to the University of Edinburghs online Survey of Scottish Witchcraft.

The Great Witch Hunt

Chris Croly, a historian at the University of Aberdeen, told Live Science that Aberdeens Great Witch Hunt of 1597 was one phase of a wave of witch persecutions across Scotland sparked by the witchcraft laws of King James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England in 1603).

"It is often said that Aberdeen burned more witches than anywhere else  that may not be entirely accurate, but what is absolutely accurate is that Aberdeen has the best civic records of witch burning in Scotland, and so it can appear that way," Croly told Live Science.

He said the wave of witchcraft persecutions that began in Europe in the 15th century and reached Scotland in the 1590s, continued into the Americas in the 17th century and led to the infamous witch trials at Salem in Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. [Black Magic: 6 Infamous Witch Trials in History]

Many Protestant and Catholic authorities at the time were united in a belief that witchcraft was the result of witches "communing with the devil" and that biblical scripture justified their execution. "That's how this wave can sweep through both Protestant and Catholic countries," Croly said.

One the most famous cases of the 1597 witch trials in Aberdeen involved two members of one family. The mother, Jane Wishart, was convicted of 18 counts of witchcraft, including casting spells that caused illness in her neighbors; inducing a mysterious brown dog to attack her son-in-law after an argument; and dismembering a corpse that hung on a gallows, to provide the ingredients for her magic.

Wishart's son, Thomas Leyis, was also convicted of heading a coven of witches that had danced with the devil at midnight in Aberdeen's fish market area. Both mother and son were strangled and burned, and the city records note that it cost "3 pounds, 13 shillings and 4 pence" to provide enough peat, tar and wood for Leyis pyre.

Buried beneath the kirk

In 2006 and 2007, the East Kirk of St Nicholas was the scene of a major archeological excavation before restoration work could be done to develop the former church as a community center. The redevelopment effort is known as the "Mither Kirk Project," from the Lowland Scots words for "mother church."

No remains of the accused witches were found at the site, and Croly noted that they would have been buried elsewhere, on "unhallowed ground." But the excavations had provided archaeologists with an extraordinary look at the lives of the people of the city from the 11th to the 18th centuries, he said.

Over the course of the excavation, the remains of more than 2,000 people, including 1,000 entire skeletons, were disinterred from grave sites that lay under the floor of the East Kirk, said Croly, who was Aberdeens city historian at the time of the excavations, and worked closely with city archaeologists on the project. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

Most of the bodies were buried before the 1560s, when the Protestant Reformation in Scotland forbade burials inside churches, but the practice was profitable and continued in a small way until the 18th century, he said.

The excavations had also found evidence of earlier church buildings beneath the existing kirk that dated to the 11th century, and the graves of nine babies that had been laid out together in an arc near an 11th-century wall  possibly the victims of an epidemic of disease, Croly said.

Now that archaeological tests on the bodies from the kirk have been completed, the Mither Kirk Project plans to hold a ceremony later this year to reinter the bodies in a vault beneath the current floor level.

At a later date, the former "prison for witches" in St Mary's Chapel will be redeveloped as a "contemplative space," said Arthur Winfield, the project leader for the OpenSpace Trust. "That space will be kept as an area of peace and tranquility  essentially, it is going to be respected for the chapel that it was, and will be again," he said.

Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Were it not for efforts by the U.S. military to develop a lightweight, unarmored, all-terrain vehicle for the battlefield there might not be a market for SUVs today. It all began 75 years ago last December when the United States military adopted the 'jeep', and while the iconic military vehicle was phased out and replaced by the Humvee  the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) in the early 1980s  the Army could go full circle and bring back the jeep.

Last year the Army began gearing up its Ground Mobility Vehicle Program for fiscal 2017. It was part of the Army's Combat Vehicle Modernization Strategy that sought to procure lightweight combat vehicles for infantry brigade combat teams. The vehicles considered sound very much like what first entered service back in 1940.

The Origins of the Jeep

The U.S. Army saw the need for such a go-anywhere four-wheel vehicle when it went "Over There" to France during the First World War. The Four Wheel Drive Auto (FWD) and Thomas B. Jeffery Company supplied the military with the first four-wheel drive trucks, but with another war looming military planners saw a need for a new light, cross-country reconnaissance vehicle. In July 1940 the Army formalized its requirements, which were submitted to 135 U.S. automobile manufacturers.

In the end only two companies  the American Bantam Car Company and Willys-Overland Motors  entered the process, while Ford Motor Company joined the competition a little later. In the end Bantam won the bid, and did deliver a prototype known as the "Blitz Buggy" to the U.S. Army for testing. However, Bantam lacked the production capacity needed on the scale of the War Department, so Willys and Ford each were sent blueprints and developed their own respective prototypes. In the end Willys won the contract due its design having the more powerful engine, but it also featured elements from the Bantam and Ford designs.

During World War II Willys-Overland produced some 363,000 'jeeps' but as it couldn't meet the production target, Ford then produced another 280,000. The actual name is itself still debated  with some suggesting it was a term used by Army mechanics for any untried vehicle during testing, but another story is that it was named after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye cartoons. Finally, another story is that it came about from the acronym "GP" for "General Purpose."

Ford unsuccessfully sued Willys over the name, which Willys retained and used to market its first Civilian Jeep  the CJ  the first mass-produced 4x4 vehicle for the civilian market.

"The 'jeep' has an enduring legacy partly because they were the first of a kind, were used all over the world in WWII and their impact and was significant," Randy Withrow, director of The U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum in Huntsville, Alabama, told FoxNews.com.

Humvee and Other 'Jeep' Replacements

The 'jeep' as the main light go-anywhere vehicle served through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, although it went through numerous upgrades and updates. By the 1980s, however, the U.S. military began to seek alternative options, and opted for a larger vehicle that could do what the 'jeep' did but could also take on the duties of other light military wheeled vehicles.

The result was the aforementioned Humvee, which had its baptism of fire in Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. The irony was that this was also to be the final military operation for the 'jeep', which had been in service since 1940.

"The workhorse small utility vehicle for the past many years has been the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles made by AM General," Brad Curran, aerospace and defense industry principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, told FoxNews.com.

"The HUMMWV was a replacement for several vehicles, including the Vietnam War era Ford MUTT  last of the jeeps to my mind  but also the weapons carrier, the Gama Goat and the Mule," Withrow told FoxNews.com. "All the compromises and combinations resulted in a vehicle that was 'huge' by jeep standards."

Now after 25 years in service it is apparent the Humvee can't do it all. It won't exactly be the end of the road for the Humvee, but the military may be putting drivers behind the wheel of other, more versatile alternative vehicles.

"Many of these units will start to be phased out by the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) made by Oshkosh," added Frost & Sullivan's Curran. "In addition, special operations command operates various small engine and electrical vehicles made by recreational off road makers like Polaris and others."

The JLTV isn't the first vehicle to offer an alternative option to the Humvee  as the military already has the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected or MRAP, the special armored vehicles that were designed to counter land mines. From 2007 until 2012 some 12,000 MRAPs were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just as the MRAP didn't replace the Humvee the JLTV won't replace it either.

"This isn't a complete replacement for the Humvee," Dan Wasserbly, editor at Jane's, told FoxNews.com. "The Army is simply looking for a vehicle that has greater tactical mobility. Something that is lighter and faster than a modern Humvee."

It is instead about finding the right vehicle for the job. What the MRAP provided in armor and protection was offset by a lack of mobility.

"What we have seen from the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is that one size doesn't fit all uses, especially when it is a big wide platform like the Humvee," Wasserbly added. "The threat is different and the military needs to weigh its options. The MRAP also isn't ideal for humanitarian missions, as it is too big to fit down many tight streets."

Back to Small Tactical Vehicles

Thus with the JLTV program the military may be going back to small and lighter vehicles that can provide greater mobility. Earlier this year the Army ordered an initial batch of the half truck/half-'jeep' like vehicles.

"With the JLTV Oshkosh has delivered the vehicle the military needs," Col. John Bryant, USMC (Retired), senior vice president of defense programs for Oshkosh Defense, told FoxNews.com. "The JLTV provides the ballistic protection of a light tactical tank, the mine resistance of an MRAP and the off-road capabilities of a Baja racer. It is mobile enough that it can be airlifted where it is needed, and the JLTV is very modular and scalable so that the command can determine how to best utilize it in the field."

The JLTV is in its initial production stage, and throughout 2019 the military will be conducting live fire and reliability testing. Moreover, the JLTV was just one of several options considered, and the U.S. Army had looked at vehicles from Polaris, Lockheed Martin and Boeing-MSI Defense.

Earlier this year the U.S. Army had negotiations with Hendrick Dynamics, which developed a modified light off-road vehicle built on the Jeep Wrangler with a modified JP-8 diesel engine. This Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) vehicle was dubbed the Commando and is now officially designated the Grand Mobility Vehicle (GMV).

"We're right in the transition to light mobility for our military," Marshall Carlson, Hendrick Dynamics general manager, told FoxNews.com. "This is much lighter than the JLTV, and it won't be armored  it is what is being called a 'better boot.' The GMV is for those light infantry and airborne infantry that can only move across the battlefield by walking at 3mph. This is literally a people mover that can go anywhere."

What also makes the GMV program notable is that Hendrick Dynamics is contracting the Jeeps from Chrysler, which is bringing the iconic vehicle back to the battlefield.

"Chrysler has been a great supporter of this program," added Carlson, "These are the export versions with the diesel engines, and we're modifying these for the military to provide that needed mobility. We think this is a game changer and one that literally went back to the future and took another look at the jeep."
The latest round of iPhone 7 speculation is more focused on separating legitimate from spurious rumor. But some changes, like a better camera, are so important they're a foregone conclusion.

So, heres how the week started. Images from China-based microblogging site Weibo purported to show three iPhone 7 models. The third model was dubbed the iPhone 7 Pro."

That was Monday. By Tuesday, most of the popular Apple enthusiast sites were discounting the Pro moniker and saying that there would only be two models.

But nothing is really certain at this point. The certitude typically increases as we approach Apple's launch date, which is expected to be this fall.

So, what iPhone 7 rumors seem more realistic than others? Those would include: a design similar to the iPhone 6s, the elimination of the headphone jack, water resistance, and a dual-lens camera (possibly on a "Plus" model). Other changes, such as better silicon, are a virtual certainty because theyre not rumors so much as things Apple does every cycle.

Camera improvements -- whatever form they may take -- are also a given because they're so important. Improving the camera is imperative for Apple, Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at market researcher IDC, told Foxnews.com in an email. Going forward, Apple needs to make the camera the focal point (no pun intended), he added.

This is key especially as camera applications expand. Cameras will likely play a much bigger role in future functions like augmented reality, virtual reality and so forth, Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm Conlumino, said.

Some Android phone makers are pushing ahead of Apple with new-fangled cameras. For the longest time, Apple held the crown for taking the best pictures However, recently Samsung and other Android vendors have been able to match and in some cases beat the iPhones capabilities, Ubrani said.

Those other Android vendors would include China-based smartphone supplier Huawei and South Koreas LG. Both have come out with dual-lens cameras.

Huawei, for example, has come out recently with the P9 Android phone that boasts two 12-megapixel cameras co-developed with German camera maker Leica. The P9 combines the images taken with the two lenses to render a photo with more detail than current smartphone cameras.

LG also has a new dual-camera smartphone, the LG G5, that combines a 16-megapixel camera with a standard lens and an 8-megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens. The latter lens is better at capturing a wide, sweeping landscape than a standard smartphone camera.

Theoretically, Apple could use a dual-lens camera to set a new high-water mark in smartphone cameras. Reports, which point to the possibility of a high-end iPhone 7 with a dual-lens camera, seem to back this up.

Don't get too excited though. The biggest iPhone design changes may not occur until next year, according to a note Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty sent to investors on Thursday.

Investors will increasingly look forward to the 2017 iPhone cycle. We see several potentially revolutionary features, especially in display and battery life, that Apple could launch in just over a year from now, she said in the note, citing expected big changes that are "similar to the first large screen iPhone, the [iPhone] 6 in 2014."

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Residents of a small Colorado town were told Thursday not to drink, shower in or cook with their water because of evidence of THC, the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana.

The Lincoln County sheriff's office tweeted that bottled water was being brought to the community of Hugo, about 100 miles southeast of Denver. Authorities added that there were no reports of any unusual symptoms.

The sheriff's office added that the contamination was discovered after testing brought about by "complaints", but did not elaborate further.

A spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Emergency Management, Micki Trost, told the Associated Press state investigators are headed to the scene.

She did not know the source or extent of the contamination. The Lincoln County sheriff's office says federal authorities are also involved.

Hugo, a community of about 730 people, prohibits marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing, testing facilities, and Colorado's retail marijuana stores.

It's unlikely that consuming pot-tainted water would cause lasting health effects, said Mark Salley, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment.



The effects of drinking THC-laced water would depend on the concentration, the amount consumed and how quickly it was consumed, all information officials don't yet know, Salley said.



Drinking water containing THC would be similar to eating marijuana-infused food, meaning the effect would depend entirely on how much was consumed and the strength of the tainted water.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from KDVR.com.
Authorities say a plane set to fly from West Palm Beach to Philadelphia with 138 people aboard had to be evacuated after a report of a possible hydraulic fuel leak.

Palm Beach International Airport spokeswoman Casandra Davis says the American Airlines plane was set to head out to the runway Thursday afternoon when crewmembers called in a possible leak.

American Airlines spokeswoman Alexis Aran Coello says the 133 passengers and five crewmembers were evacuated to the tarmac using inflatable slides. She says 23 passengers and one crewmember were taken to local hospitals for treatment. The other passengers were returned to the terminal, where the airline was helping them make new travel arrangements.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue officials went to the scene.
As an entrepreneur, you have a particularly big role to play in the success of your business. You are the sales person, the developer and the customer representative -- all at the same time. While outsourcing some of these roles or hiring others to fill these positions is a good idea, scarce resources may not give room for such.

No matter what roles you end up serving, it's important to remember that being a small business owner does not give you immunity from the law. Your small business is very much regulated by the same laws guarding big businesses, so you have to know how to handle legal issues. While not all of your legal needs would require hiring a lawyer, all of it does require your knowledge about the law. A little bit of preparation will go a long way to help.

Related: Startups: Prevent Business Mishaps The Legal Way

Here are five ways to protect your fledgling business from facing expensive legal situations as it grows.

1. Read-up on all available business laws.

They say knowledge is power. Nothing is as important as keeping yourself armed with adequate information on business laws. Every recognized type of business has laws regulating their operations. A good place to start is the SBA website.

Some of the legal aspects of business you must be familiar with include the following:

Financial laws : Read up on the laws that concern businesses, investors and your customers.

: Read up on the laws that concern businesses, investors and your customers. Employment and labor law : Get familiar with employment and labor laws. This will help you understand the legal aspects of hiring practices in business.

: Get familiar with employment and labor laws. This will help you understand the legal aspects of hiring practices in business. Intellectual property : The law gives authors of creative materials protection over their works. Understanding how intellectual property law works will help you know how to protect your work.

: The law gives authors of creative materials protection over their works. Understanding how intellectual property law works will help you know how to protect your work. Marketing and advertising law: Businesses get sued over misleading statements made in their marketing materials. Understanding marketing and advertising laws will help you avoid getting in trouble with the law.

2. Back your partnerships up with a written agreement.

Always get it in writing. Before you kick off any relationship with a new business partner, client or service provider, put the terms of your relationship with them in writing. This will save both of you from ending your business relationship in court.

Related: 4 Potential Lawsuits to Watch Out for in Small Business

3. Stay up-to-date on your paperwork.

Getting charged with fraud is expensive. In several scenarios, businesses have been hit with fraud cases just for being careless with their paperwork. When it comes to handling your taxes and its documents -- if things are beginning to look confusing -- be willing to spend a few hundred bucks to have a professional sort it out. Having a lawyer defend your business against fraud can be pretty expensive. But facing charges of fraud could dwarf attorney fees. In some states, individuals or businesses could be fined as much as $5,000 to $250,000, according to research from criminal defense law site, Monder Law.

Tax filing and record keeping is usually the most tricky part for entrepreneurs. Young founders often find the process very mundane -- given that they've been conditioned to handle more complex, mental challenging tasks. This, however, is their shortcoming as things can eventually get muddled up and go awry. If you find that handling your paperwork gets on your nerves, hiring a professional to help you take care of it -- while you pay close attention to learn how it's done -- can save you a lot of headache in the future.

4. Seek legal advice when you need it.

Don't wing it. If you're not clear on the terms of a new contract you're about to enter into, have a lawyer read and interpret the document to you. While you might be very eager to append your signature to the agreement, taking a little caution will keep you from entering a long and painful business relationship.

In a Geekwire article, Josh King, an experienced lawyer for tech startups, recommends hiring lawyers that specialize in the area of your business. Using an industry-specialized lawyer will help you get a legal counsel who has a better understanding of your needs while keeping the cost down. While focusing on the lawyer's field of specialization, you should also make sure they are licensed to operate in your state. You can also use this directory from American Bar Association as a guide.

Related: Invest in a Lawyer Now to Save Money Later

5. Prioritize your IP trademarks.

Intellectual property(IP) is the bread and butter of most online businesses. That said, this is where attorneys make the most money when it comes to small businesses. There's sometimes a very thin line between creativity and theft. Intellectual property owners need to put in efforts to ensure their rights are protected. As a small business, securing a trademark for your IP is the only way to guarantee no one will steal your idea from you.

NOTE: The author is not a legal practitioner and is not licensed to give legal counsel to anybody.
Authorities in Arizona continued the search Thursday for a missing 10-year-old boy who hasnt been seen in three days.

The Arizona Republic reported that police and civilian searches worked around the clock to try and find Jesse Wilson, of Buckeye. Volunteers split into groups and scoured the area around the boys house.

Buckeye police spokesman Jason Weeks said there was easy access from Wilsons home to Skyline Regional Park, which is located about a half-mile away. Hikers also searched the rougher terrain around his house.

The searchers turned over every bush and ditch to try and find Jesse, but nothing turned up.

The Buckeye SWAT team and the Arizona Rangers also joined the public search Thursday. The FBI was also seen at the home of the boys family Thursday morning, according to KPHO-TV.

Police believe Jesse slipped out of his bedroom window Sunday night. The boy had been known to leave his house that way but never stayed out after an extended period of time, police.

He was last seen at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night.

Jesse is described as being about 4-feet tall and weighing about 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red shirt, shorts, black socks and black shoes.

Jesse attended the Bradley Academy in Goodyear. School president Daniel Hughes said the faculty and students have a very close connection to the boy.

"He's very charismatic, very friendly and very outgoing," Hughes said.

Authorities ask anyone with information about Jesses disappearance to call the Buckeye Police Department at 623-349-6400.

Click for more from the Arizona Republic.
A Chicago police officer was expected to survive after being shot in the leg by a man who was killed when officers returned fire, police said.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson told reporters the officer and his partner were on bike patrol on the near South Side around 8:15 p.m. when a person told them about a man acting erratically.

The officers approached the man, who was talking on a cellphone, and asked him to hang up so they could speak with him. The man pulled a gun out of a backpack and began firing, striking one officer in the thigh, Johnson said.

Both officers returned fire, killing the suspect, he said.

"This is just another example of too many guns, too many people willing to use them," Johnson said. "But it also illustrates how Chicago police officers put their lives on the line every day to keep the city of Chicago safe."

The wounded officer had a tourniquet and he and his partner used it to treat the wound, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

He was taken to a hospital with injuries that Johnson said were not considered life-threatening. Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited him there, Johnson said.

The wounded officer is 44 years old and a 16-year veteran of the department, according to a police statement. The suspect was not immediately identified.

The shooting happened in an affluent area blocks from Soldier Field. The incident is under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority. The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative leave.

Chicago police have been working in pairs for safety since the fatal shooting earlier this month of five Dallas officers during a protest over the fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Police said Sunday that policy would continue after three law enforcement officers were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


A Florida man who authorities said lived a secret double life for more than two decades was charged Thursday with identity theft.

Richard Hoagland, 63, was accused Thursday of living in the Tampa Bay area with a wife and a son after stealing the identity of a man who drowned in 1991, Fox 13 Tampa Bay reports.

The drowning victims nephew was shocked to find a marriage certificate on Ancestry.com indicating his uncle had married after he died, the station reported. He eventually went to authorities.

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said Hoagland had been living as Terry Symansky after abandoning a wife and family in Indiana in 1993. His family had Hoagland declared dead in 2003.

People are going to say, I can't believe that happened. It happened, Nocco said in announcing Hoaglands arrest on a identify theft charges.

Hoagland found out about Symansky after he ended up in Florida, the station reported. He had moved in with the mans father, Edward Symansky, a stranger who was looking for a roommate.

Hoaglands wife in Indiana told deputies he told her he had to disappear because the FBI was after him for embezzling millions, according to The Tampa Bay Times. But when he was arrested Wednesday he told deputies he left Indiana just to get away from her.
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A Chinese immigrant community has been growing around two of the nation's largest casinos for more than a decade.

Many have been drawn from New York and Boston by good-paying jobs at the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods resorts and a quiet suburban life among the otherwise sleepy towns along Connecticut's Thames (THAYMZ') River.

But the establishment of a sort of suburban Chinatown has caused tensions with longtime residents, who complain that too many people are cramming into homes and turning their front lawns into miniature farms.

Officials say problems like "hot-bedding" have diminished over time and residents have learned to live with their new neighbors.

But Stephen Fan, a designer who has created an art exhibit on the Chinese community, says more could be done to improve relations.
In the golden age of the software services company, Novell -- remember? -- I worked in public relations for CEO Eric Schmidt. And even back then, before talk of the cloud, Schmidt was spreading his vision of One Net.

Related: 4 Entrepreneurs Trying to Bring Cloud Computing to Tech-Leery Law Firms

He went on to build out that vision with a little startup called Google.

When I started my own first company, I already shared that vision of doing business online and knew how to connect people and systems, to facilitate a virtual company.

This approach has worked for 13 years, giving us a virtual advantage. Fast-forward to 2016, and the online cloud is now an integral part of that advantage.

Why is cloud computing good business? In an Executive Summary to a recent report, Files Anywhere described some interesting, related research. That research found that 37 percent of IT professionals recently surveyed admitted feeling pressured to transition their company's operations from a traditional capital-intensive physical model to an expense-based cloud model.

No surprise there: Businesses are looking to cut overhead costs as much as possible, so they're looking to the cloud to accomplish this.

But, what about you? Are you looking for ways to keep costs down? Clearly, you're not alone, and moving to the cloud may be your best option. With smaller businesses, managing operational costs and requirements can slow them down, says Gerard Szatvanyi, president and CEO of OSF Global Services. But if [those smaller businesses] are able to define a cloud-computing strategy, they can use enterprise-class technology at a fraction of the cost.

Making that same switch could save you money too.

Make a direct impact on expenses with the cloud.

Moving to the cloud is not as mysterious as it once was. What was formerly considered to be faddish, trendy technology is now an industry pacesetter. New models involve tiered pricing and boutique offerings. The two features work in tandem to help clients create a custom cloud experience that suits their business needs. This makes an immediate impact on expenses.

For starters, cloud-based models have a direct impact on the amount of capital that has to be spent on physical equipment. The cost of data servers, IT infrastructure and the electricity needed to operate them is pretty much a non-issue.

And the money saved can be funneled into other areas where it makes more sense. This is only the first of several ways a cloud model can help with operating expenses.

How the cloud impacts intangible expenses.

Chances are, you will not require a full IT staff once you migrate services over to the cloud. How much could you save by having one or two part-time IT employees versus a full staffed department of five or six? Maybe some employees could work from home? This would free up office space and save money on utilities, as well.

Related: 10 Big Misconceptions About Cloud Computing

There are all sorts of indirect savings associated with moving to the cloud. Paper expenses, filing storage and time gained in efficiency are just a few. Storing documents online requires less time for an individual to physically file the document, make copies of it, find it when it is needed, etc.

You have given your employee time back by his or her move to the cloud. This will make your business more efficient, allowing employees to give their full attention to the task at hand.

Efficiency encourages profitable productivity.

The cloud was one of the ways how Napa Valley wine company Soutirage started killing the competition. Its entire business model is cloud-based, allowing the company to grow rapidly by maintaining a laser focus. Soutirage has a handful of employees and operates above a drugstore in St. Helena, Montana.

Managing partner Chadwick Meyer says, We are singularly focused on a small number of clients who buy a large amount of wine. The cloud, Meyer points out, lets the staff focus on those individuals because it gives them the ability to offer their product at much cheaper rates than traditional brick and mortar stores.

Cloud-based models make a lot of sense when you're a small business owner. You save money directly, by not having to make capital purchases for equipment, and indirectly, through cuts on spending for staffing.

Related: How the Hassle Over Lost Documents Might Be Costing You Thousands Each Year

The cloud makes your business more efficient and greases its gears of productivity. Boutique packages allow you to create an end product that is scalable and specific to your needs. Perhaps the time is right for you, too, to consider making the switch.
Objectives and key results ( OKRs) is a popular method for setting and tracking goals. First developed in the 1970s by the late Andy Grove in Intel, it's now increasingly popular and used not only in big companies like Google, LinkedIn and Twitter but in many SMEs as well.

OKRs can be used in any company, with any team size and there really is no downside for having clear goals. The methodology helps people be more productive and focused.

John Doerr, one of the advocates for OKRs, has said:I remember being intrigued with the idea of having a beacon or north star every quarter, which helped set my priorities. It was also incredibly powerful for me to see Andys OKRs, my managers OKRs and the OKRs for my peers. I was quickly able to tie my work directly to the companys goals. I kept my OKRs pinned up in my office and I wrote new OKRs every quarter, and the system has stayed with me ever since.

Big objectives and measurable key results.

Although used a little differently in every organization, OKRs have some fundamental similarities. Objectives are set every quarter on personal, team and company level and they should summarize the most important things that a person or the team has to do.

Related: 3 Ways to Help Your Employees With Goal-Setting

Each objective should have three to four clearly measurable key objectives. Its very common to use the SMART goals methodology for that. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. For instance, selling more products is not a good key results. Instead it should be to sell 20 percent more products than last quarter in U.S. market.

Key results must be 100 percent measurable and looking at your OKRs, you should easily see, how well youre doing.

Google's ambiguous goals.

It was John Doerr who originally introduced OKRs in Google in 1999 and they've been using the methodology ever since.

In Google, the quarterly goals are set as high as possible to make people really push for the stars. At the same time, each goals have easily measurable key results on a scale from zero to 1.0.

It is a common belief that if you can achieve 100 percent of all your OKRs each quarter, you're not aiming high enough. The OKRs must be structured. In Google, each individual and team has it's own objectives that contribute to a higher (department) level objectives. That helps to make sure that everyone is working in sync.

One other key thing about OKRs is openness. Anyone in Google can see anyone's OKRs and so, everyone knows what others are working on and how they contribute to the whole.

OKRs make your mission actionable.

Using OKRs has been very good for LinkedIn.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner defines them more broadly. They should be about something you want to accomplish over a specific period of time that leans toward a stretch goal rather than a stated plan. Its something where you want to create greater urgency, greater mindshare.

Related: How to Seesaw Between the Why and the How of Goal-Setting

He has also said that good leaders show to each person in a company, that they can make a real difference and OKRs help you with that.

SMEs need an OKRs management tool.

OKRs are a vital tool for smaller enterprises as well.

In 2015, one of the team members in Zlien, which makes preliminary notices, lien waivers and mechanics lien compliance, suggested using objectives and key results.

They first tested it with their technology team, but quickly included the department managers as well.

Scott Wolfe Jr., CEO of Zlien, recommends using OKRs in general. It's very good to align and focus your team on the main things you are trying to work on as a company. He said: I like the structure and how it breaks down each department and team.

Lyle Stevens, co-founder and CEO of Mavrck also loves the objectives and key results framework.

It makes it easier to align what every individual of the company wants to achieve each quarter, said he.

For Mavrck, it's a great system for prioritizing resources and for making sure everybody is focused on the right goals. OKRs help them to make trade-off decisions. For example, if they have a new potential priority, OKRs help them to compare it to what they already want to achieve.

Related: When SMART Goals Don't Work, Here's What to Do Instead

No downside.

I can think of no reasons, why implementing a clear goal setting system in a company would do harm. From Google to two-people teams, OKRs are a one size fits all solution and your competitors probably already know that.

OKRs can be managed in an Excel spreadsheet or using a specific tool like Weekdone and taking the time every quarter, will save you a lot of time along the road.
Authorities in Massachusetts discovered hundreds of dead and injured animals, makeshift cabins, burning trash and illegal stoves on a 70-acre property Tuesday.

Westport police and Dartmouth officers searched a portion of the Westport land and found three goats that had to be euthanized, dead sheep and several other sick or injured farm animals in deplorable conditions.

Authorities said the investigation started last week after a man reported that his goats had been attacked by two Rottweilers. The dogs had been found in poor condition after escaping an unsanitary enclosure.

Authorities said they found between 600 and 800 animals in dire health.

This is the worst Ive ever seen, as far as scale and conditions, lead veterinarian for the Animal Rescue League of Boston Kyle Quigley said Wednesday, according to the Boston Globe.

According to WCVB-TV, the Animal Rescue League of Boston said that 7 dogs, 3 cats, 5 goats, a pig, a goose and 33 rabbits were taken into their care. At least four goats and one pig were euthanized.

Westport police detective sergeant Tony Cestodio said the property is divided into 20 lots and is managed by individual tenants. Most of the tenants who raise livestock for sale or personal consumption had neglected their lots and animals.

They clearly dont care, he added. They dont care about the condition of the animal; they dont care about the condition of the lot.

Police identified the owner as Richard Medeiros, of Westport. He was charged in a similar animal cruelty incident six years ago.

Its the same property, same issues, Westport Police Detective Jeffrey Majewski said. Its just as bad.

Cestodio said that Medeiros and the other tenants will likely face criminal charges. The tenants will only be allowed on the property to feed their animals under police supervision, according to the Globe.

Cestodio said he hopes that the penalties for Medeiros will face stiffer penalties since hes a repeat offender.

"I'd like this to stop," he added. "Stop bringing animals up here and neglecting them. No animal should live like that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from the Boston Globe.
A Pennsylvania man serving life in prison for his ex-wife's slaying 25 years ago deserves a new trial because a prosecutor  who is now a sitting judge  didn't disclose blood evidence that might have helped him, a judge has ruled.

Kevin Charles Siehl, now 60, has maintained his innocence since his first-degree murder conviction for the July 1991 stabbing death of ex-wife Christine Siehl, who was found dead in a bathtub with the shower still running.

In Siehl's latest appeal, Centre County Judge David Grine ruled last week that then-prosecutor David Tulowitzki wrongly failed to disclose the evidence during Siehl's 1992 trial.

The judge said the omission "so undermined the truth determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place."

Grine also found fault with then-defense lawyer Linda Rovner Fleming for failing to challenge evidence, including a bloody fingerprint that was used to tie Siehl to the crime scene.

Grine is handling the appeal to avoid a conflict of interest in the Cambria County case since Tulowitzki and Fleming are now Cambria County judges.

Tulowitzki's secretary told The Associated Press on Friday that he can't comment since the case is still pending. Fleming didn't immediately return a call to her chambers.

Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan also isn't handling the case because she was an intern for attorneys on the original defense team. Still, she issued a statement calling Grine's findings "very concerning" and distancing her office from Tulowitzki's prosecution of the case.

"None of the current employees in this office, including me, worked here in 1992 when these alleged acts occurred," Callihan said.

Callihan has referred the case to the state Attorney General's Office, which must decide whether to appeal Grine's ruling.

In an earlier appeal, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a hearing on the effectiveness of Siehl's defense attorneys. At that 2012 hearing, Fleming testified that the defense didn't challenge the fingerprint because a forensic expert for the defense had also found evidence that Siehl was at the crime scene around the time of the killing.

Fleming testified that if defense attorneys challenged evidence that Siehl's fingerprint was found on a shower head, then prosecutors could have asked the defense expert about other evidence that implicated Siehl.

But Grine found that failing to challenge the fingerprint "effectively admitted that Petitioner (Siehl) was the murderer."

The earlier appeals also disclosed that Tulowitzki got confidential information from the defense expert that resulted in Siehl's shoes being retested for blood. Prosecutors believed the blood was the victim's. But the tests, completed just before trial, supported Siehl's claim that the blood was his, Grine said.

By withholding that information, Tulowitzki was able to suggest to the jury that Siehl's shoes were only tested once, that the prosecution's expert found crime scene blood on the shoes and that Siehl lied by claiming the blood was his, Grine found.

Because the blood evidence information was obtained during the federal appeal, federal public defender Christopher Brown has continued to represent Siehl in the state court appeal that resulted in Grine's ruling. Brown declined comment Friday.
Authorities have identified a suspect arrested after a fatal stabbing outside a Metrorail station in a Maryland suburb of the nation's capital.

Metro Transit Police say 36-year-old Ali Anthony Jovan of Fairfax, Virginia, was taken into custody and faces first-and second-degree murder in Wednesday night's stabbing in Prince George's County.

Police say Jovan is accused of stabbing 35-year-old Vontrel Laarius McDaniel with a folding knife at a bus bay outside the Addison Road station. McDaniel was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the two men had been arguing and that officers chased Jovan and arrested him as he tried to run from the area.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said police believe the suspect and the victim knew each other.

It is unclear if Jovan has an attorney.
A Colorado man who joined Kurdish forces in their fight against the Islamic State group was killed in combat in Syria, his mother said Thursday.



Susan Shirley said the U.S. Consulate in Turkey called her Tuesday to tell her that her son Levi Shirley, 24, was killed July 14 by a land mine.



She said her son had wanted to join the Marines since high school, but he couldn't because of bad eyesight. He reached out to Kurdish forces online and joined the fight in Iraq and Syria for about three months last year before returning to Arvada in suburban Denver.



"He saw ISIS as a terrible evil, and that just was not OK with him," Shirley said. "That's the way his mind works. If you are defenseless, he will help you."



Shirley said her son was never much of a fighter but had been involved in about a dozen gunbattles during his first stint in the Middle East and "that was enough to convince him that war is not as romantic as he thought."



But he had a hard time adjusting to life back in Colorado while working at fast-food restaurants.



Shirley said her son told her he was trying to raise money for tuition to get emergency medical training in Texas, but in hindsight she thinks he was saving for airfare back to the Middle East. He rejoined the Kurds in January.



"He had a very big heart," Shirley said. "He was so brave to go back the second time, knowing what he was in for. He just really cared about the underdog."



State Department officials said Thursday they are aware of reports that an American was killed in Syria, but they declined to comment further.



The Kurds have used the Internet to find fighters, creating a Facebook page called "The Lions of Rojava" with the stated aim of sending "terrorists to hell and save humanity." The page also features portraits of heavily armed Kurdish female commanders and fighters.



The first American believed to have been killed fighting ISIS had no military training and died alongside Kurdish forces in 2015.



Keith Broomfield of Massachusetts had joined the People's Protection Units known as the YPG under the nom de guerre Gelhat Rumet. The YPG is the main Kurdish guerrilla group battling ISIS in Syria.



Dozens of other Westerners are now fighting with the Kurds, spurred on by social media campaigners and a sense of duty rooted in the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq.



Shirley said she was terrified that her son would be killed in the fighting but was proud of his decision.



"You really have to go with what calls you, not with what your mother thinks calls you," she said.



Levi Shirley would have turned 25 in August.
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Authorities in Nice are protesting against a request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of last week's deadly truck attack, amid growing questions over the scale of the police presence at the time.

The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency, obtained by The Associated Press, saying images of the July 14 attack should be destroyed.

An official with the national police said the request was motivated by concern that the images could leak and be used for jihadi propaganda. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

A lawyer for the city submitted a protest letter Friday saying Nice officials would not comply for legal, administrative and technical reasons. But the lawyer also notes that the images are scheduled to be automatically deleted anyway on Sunday, according to Nice City Hall practice of deleting CCTV images after 10 days. Investigators will keep copies of the images.

The dispute comes as the government faces growing criticism over security measures the night of the attack, and the cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

Top regional official Christian Estrosi, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, had argued for tougher security for Nice's Bastille Day fireworks celebrations.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the Nice beachfront when driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over people, killing 84. Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched, and President Francois Hollande is holding a special security meeting Friday.

Five people were handed preliminary terrorism charges late Thursday night in the case. The Paris prosecutor says Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of the suspects.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of several nationalities, as were the more than 300 people wounded in the attack.

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
One of the art worlds most enduring mysteries was put to rest this week, when the unknown woman who received Vincent Van Goghs severed ear was revealed to be a farmers daughter named Gabrielle Berlatier.

The revelation was contrary to the 130-year-old belief that the painter gave his bloody appendage to a prostitute named Rachel, during a fit of madness.

Experts said the recipient was actually Berlatier, who toiled as a maid in a house of ill repute in Arles to pay off her medical bills after being attacked by a rabid dog.

The Art Newspaper reported the identity of the woman, who was referred to in Bernadette Murphys new book, Van Goghs War: The True Story.

The newspaper said it tracked Berlatiers name in the records of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, where the 18-year-old had been treated for rabies after being bitten by a dog owned by the farms shepherd on Jan. 8, 1888.

She was disfigured when her wound was cauterized with a red-hot iron, but her life was saved when she received a new anti-rabies vaccine in Paris.

She had had a very nasty scar on her arm following the bite, Murphy told The Daily Telegraph. Van Gogh was somebody who was very touched by people in difficulty. I feel that he wanted to give her this gift of flesh.

Berlatier, who later married and lived a long life, kept her encounter with Van Gogh a secret, The Art Newspaper reported.

Click for more from the New York Post.
Russian warplanes reportedly bombed a secret military base in Syria used by elite American and British forces last month.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Russian strike on the CIA-linked site was part of a campaign by Russia to pressure the White House to agree to closer cooperation in the Syrian skies, U.S. military and intelligence officials said.

Despite the fact that some forces could have been killed and the bombing dampened relations between Russia and the Pentagon and CIA, the White House and State Department still persued a compromise.

The U.S. and Russia agreed to a pact last week to target airstrikes against the Al Qaeda affiliate in the region  Nusra Front  despite objections from the Pentagon and CIA. Russia agreed to stop airstrikes on U.S.-backed rebels and restrain the Syrian air campaign. The two sides are still talking about designations where Russia would need U.S. approval to conduct an airstrike.

According to The Wall Street Journal, deal backers in the White House and State Department believe U.S. airstrikes on the Nusra Front in areas that were previously occupied by Russian forces would provide protection for allies in Syria.

However, officials in the Pentagon and CIA contend that Washington bowed to Moscow in the deal and believe that the U.S. needs to confront Russia.

The Russian strike on the base occurred on June 16. The U.S. and British forces help maintain what is described as a buffer zone in Jordan. Forces go into Syria to help protect Jordan from Islamic State, U.S. officials told The Journal. Forces didnt spend the night, due to security reasons.

Nearly a day before the strike, 20 of 24 British special forces pulled out of the base. The U.S. tracked a Russian plane heading toward the base. The warplane dropped a cluster bomb, according to U.S. and rebel officials.

After the first strike, U.S. central command air operations center in Qatar called Russias air campaign headquarters in Latakia, Syria to tell them that the base shouldnt be attacked.

However, Russian forces struck again nearly 90 minutes after the call was made. Russian pilots didnt respond to U.S. calls using frequencies the two sides had previously agreed to use in case of an emergency.

At least four rebels were killed in strikes.

Russian officials initially told the Pentagon that the military thought it was an Islamic State facility, but U.S. officials rejected the notion because of what they described as a unique way the base was fortified, The Journal reported.

Russians then said that the Jordanians had given them the go-ahead to strike the base, but the U.S. double-checked and said no such authorization was given. Later, Russia told the U.S. that their headquarters wasnt in position to call off the strike because the U.S. didnt provide them with the proper coordinates of the base.

U.S. officials said that the Pentagon had never asked the Russians to steer clear of that area because it wasnt close to the front lines and Russian aircraft didnt operate in that part of Syria anyway.

The strike has increased the distrust between U.S. and American forces in Syria. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. didnt want to give Russia any more information than they had to.

Since the strike, the U.S. has told Russia to steer clear of the Jordanian border.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.
Police were hunting Saturday for clues to explain why an 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire at a crowded Munich shopping mall and fast-food restaurant, killing nine people and wounding at least 16 others before killing himself.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said "no evidence" of links to the Islamic State group has been found in the home and room of the suspect.

Shooting in #Munich shopping mall #OEZ!! People running away to seek shelter!! pic.twitter.com/PB189s6RQy  Thamina Stoll (@thaminastoll) July 22, 2016

Andrae also told a news conference that the crime and the perpetrator had "absolutely no" link to the issue of refugees.

The attack in the Bavarian capital sparked a massive security operation as authorities  already on edge after the recent attacks in Wuerzburg and Nice, France  received witness reports of multiple shooters carrying rifles shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). Six hours later police declared a "cautious all clear," saying the suspect was among the 10 dead and that he had likely acted alone.

Peter Beck, a Munich police spokesman, said officers were still collecting evidence at the scene of the crime Saturday morning.

"With regard to the suspect we have to examine everything, but we don't know yet what triggered the crime," Beck told The Associated Press.

He declined to confirm reports by German daily Bild that officers had raided a home in the city's Marxvorstadt district about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the mall and were interviewing the suspect's father, citing "ongoing police operations."

Beck said the number of people receiving hospital treatment stood at 16, three of whom were seriously wounded. Security restrictions in the city have been lifted and public transport is operating as normal, Beck said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to chair a meeting of her government's security Cabinet Saturday.

At an address on Dachauer Strasse that was searched by police early Saturday, a neighbor described the suspect as "very quiet."

"He only ever said 'hi'. His whole body language was of somebody who was very shy," said Stephan, a coffee shop owner who would only give his first name.

"He never came in to the cafe," he added. "He was just a neighbor and took out the trash but never talked."

Some 2,300 police from across Germany and neighboring Austria were scrambled in response to the attack, which happened less than a week after a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker wounded five people in an ax-and-knife rampage that started on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teen  who was shot and killed by police  likely acted alone.

Andrae said early Saturday that the shooting suspect was a dual citizen who had lived in the city for some time, and whose motive was still "fully unclear." He said it was too early to label the attack an act of terrorism, though police had used the term earlier to describe the nature of their operation, which included calling in the elite GSG9 special operations force.

"The question of terrorism or a rampage is tied to motive, and we don't know the motive," Andrae said.

Andrae said the suspect's body was found about 2 1/2 hours after the attack, which started shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) at a McDonald's restaurant across the street from the mall. The body was determined to be the shooter based on witness statements and closed-circuit television footage of the attack, he said. The man, whose name wasn't released, was not previously known to police and there was no evidence of any links to terrorist organizations, Andrae said.

A cell-phone video posted online showed the suspect dressed in black standing on a rooftop parking area of the mall yelling back and forth with the person filming, saying at one point "I'm German" and eventually firing shots. Andrae said police believe the video is genuine.

David Akhavan, a 37-year-old who from Tehran, Iran, who works at the Shandiz Persian restaurant, described his anguish as he learned of the shooting.

"I started to get texts from friends asking if I was safe," he said. "Then, my thoughts were: please, don't be a Muslim. Please don't be Middle Eastern. Please don't be Afghani. I don't accept any of this violence."

Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, but Andrae said two other people who fled the area were investigated but had "nothing to do with the incident."

Local residents described the scene as the shooting unfolded.

"I was standing on the balcony smoking a cigarette. Suddenly I heard shots," said Ferdinand Bozorgzad, who lives in a high-rise building next to Olympic Shopping Center. "First I thought someone had thrown some firecrackers. I looked down at the Mc Donald*s and saw someone shooting into the crowd. Then I saw two people lying there. "

Franco Augustini, another local resident, said his daughter hid in the shopping center during the attack.

"Next to our flat was a woman who was full of blood," Augustini said. "My wife had a bottle of water. Then we helped to wash her. It was horrible and made me speechless."

Andrae, the police chief, said the nine fatalities included young people; children were among the 16 wounded, three of whom were in critical condition.

Public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that most of those killed were aged 15 to 21 years. A 45-year-old woman was also killed, BR reported without citing sources.

At least three of the victims appeared to be of Kosovo-Albanian origin, according to Facebook posts from family members. Their identities have not been officially confirmed

Munich has large communities of people who fled the Balkan wars in the 1990s but like many German cities has in recent years also become home to a diverse mix of people from many different countries, including Iran.
New Dallas Janitorial Service & Tips YouTube Channel Launches For SMB Owners

Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC launches a new YouTube Channel aimed at Business Owners that plans to cover Janitorial Services & Tips. The channel and the extensive video content can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyhwUXbcMQdv2TSxEpE8dtg

--

Business Owners looking for the latest information on Dallas Janitorial Services & Tips are invited to subscribe to the all-new YouTube channel by Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC. This new channel promises to provide expert guidance and information on Janitorial Services & Tips, on a regular basis.

This new YouTube channel was created specifically with the needs of small to medium business owners in mind, and Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC welcomes input on which topics to explore.

Mark Nkolomi, CEO at Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC said: "We know our clients value both their time and money. We make sure the job is done right the first time and that our prices are affordable, while maintaining our quality standards.."

Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC's CEO goes on to say: "The aim of the new YouTube Channel is to Help to gain knowledge of the cleaning industry to help people save time and money.. The more feedback we can get, the better we can serve our audience.

Anybody interested in Janitorial Services & Tips and current Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC fans and supporters, can subscribe to the YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyhwUXbcMQdv2TSxEpE8dtg

Alternatively, they are welcome to read more on the company website at: daltexjanitorialservices.com

Some of the planned subjects for upcoming videos include:

Office Cleaning Tips - Helpful cleaning tips for your office building. What To Look For When Hiring A Dallas Janitorial Company - Learn what sets janitorial companies apart and give yourselves the edge when selecting a Dallas cleaning company. Promotion for Cleaning Service - Receive promotional offers on cleaning services.

After the new YouTube Channel launch in July, new viewers can view all the latest videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyhwUXbcMQdv2TSxEpE8dtg

Further details on the channel, the direction and other information on Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC itself can be found on their website: daltexjanitorialservices.com

For more information, please visit http://www.daltexjanitorialservices.com

Contact Info:

Name: Mark Nkolomi

Organization: Daltex Janitorial Services, LLC

Address: 5501 Broadway Blvd #102 Garland, TX 75043

Phone: 214-703-0400

Release ID: 123818

For more information visit r



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The Hindley Burgmaier Group Celebrates Business Merger

Norton Hindley, ASA, is now working with Eric Burgmaier, CPA, CVA, to provide business services to dental practices, reportswww.hindleyburgmaiergroup.com.

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The Hindley Group and Eric Burgmaier, CPA, CVA have announced a new joint venture, "The Hindley Burgmaier Group." Norton Hindley, formerly of The Hindley Group, and Eric Burgmaier, who has spent the last decade providing CPA services exclusively to dental practices will focus on assisting dental professionals with growing, valuing, buying, selling, listing, and financing their practices as well as providing back office support.

Norton Hindley stated "For the last 35 years, The Hindley Group has had the pleasure of being able to work with dental practices as they make critical transitions in their businesses. We have been able to guide dental professionals through the difficulties of the valuation, buying, selling, and financing processes with ease. Now, we are very excited about joining forces with Eric Burgmaier. Together, we will be able to support dental practices in a capacity that we never have before."

"We believe The Hindley Burgmaier Group is the only firm with a management team that combines the expertise of a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Valuation Analyst, and American Society of Appraisers credentials. This means that clients can expect an accurate dental practice valuation based on a complex analysis of a variety of relevant factors." The team at The Hindley Burgmaier Group stands ready to help their clients through the entire dental practice transition process, including analysis and growth, back office support, buying and selling, and financing with a focus on building long-term banking relationships.

As Mr. Burgmaier continued, "In our business, we pride ourselves on helping clients get through the transition from start to finish rather than just handling the dental practice sale on their behalf. We believe wholeheartedly in fully supporting the professionals with which we work, and we couldn't be happier that this merger will now allow us to do that on an even greater scale."

About The Hindley Burgmaier Group:

In their 35 years of experience, the team at The Hindley Burgmaier Group has facilitated more than 400 dental practice transitions in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The company is backed up by a CPA firm that specializes in working with dental practices. The Hindley Burgmaier Group has helped practices in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and their team operates on one simple principle: working with their clients through the transition, not just the transaction.

For more information, please visit http://www.hindleyburgmaiergroup.com

Contact Info:

Name: Eric Burgmaier

Organization: The Hindley Burgmaier Group

Phone: (281) 367-1955

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/the-hindley-burgmaier-group-celebrates-business-merger/123844

Release ID: 123844

For more information visit r



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Quiesta Launches Blog About Sleep Tips

Quiesta offers a blog and website which provides the latest research information about how the UK sleeps. The goal of the company is to come up with solutions for sleep issues in the United Kingdom.

--

Quiesta.co.uk is pleased to announce that the organization is launching a blog which offers sleep tips for UK residents. The company works with manufacturers worldwide in order to produce sleep products which are of the highest possible quality. The firm is constantly innovating products and services which aid sleep habits. The products which they offer are noted for their high quality. Visitors to the website are invited to sign up for the email newsletter in order to receive some of the sleep research results.

As part of a service to Quiesta customers, all research finds will be published in an easy-to-read book. The author of the book will put together all the various pieces of research in order to benefit the end reader. A current project for research is gathering personal surveys from people about their sleeping habits. There is no cost to participate in the surveys and the sign-up process is by request.

According to a spokesperson for Quiesta, "We have developed a number of products which appear on our Collections page. We know that when it comes to purchasing bedding, it can be difficult to know if you will like a product or not. The company offers a thirty-day trial on all products. If, for any reason you are not 100 percent certain that the product is right for you, you can send it back to us for a full refund."

Adequate restful sleep is a critical component of good health. The blog which Quiesta provides is chock full of tips to improve the quality of sleep for those who are willing to follow the suggestions. The tips and advice which are shared in the free email newsletter ensure that a good night's sleep can be enjoyed each night.

Products which are available on the Quiesta website include baby bedding, duvets, pillow, sheets and covers. The same high quality is available for each product.

For more information, please visit https://www.quiesta.co.uk

Contact Info:

Name: Quiesta

Organization: Quiesta

Phone: 07857 089859

Source: https://twitter.com/QuiestaSleep

Release ID: 123855

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Environmental Testing Market Expected To Hit 6.9% To 2021 Led By Rapid Technology

The environmental testing market is to reach USD11.82 billion by 2021 at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2016 to 2021 driven by deteriorating environment, privatization of environmental testing services, and increasing regulations regarding environment protection while Organic contaminant segment expected to be the largest contaminant type.

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The high growth potential in emerging markets and untapped regions provides new opportunities for market players. The organic contaminant type was the largest market in 2015. Testing for organic compounds basically includes tests of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The risk of health problems is most likely to increase by breathing low levels of VOCs for a long period of time. Several studies have suggested that exposure to VOCs may worsen the symptoms in people who are asthmatic or are sensitive to chemicals. The effect of every chemical is different and is attributed to its toxicity. The rising concerns over health issues due to organic contaminants are expected to drive its testing services market.

Complete report on environmental testing market across 187 pages, profiling 10 companies and supported with 82 tables and 59 figures is now available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/environmental-testing-market-by-sample-wastewatereffluent-soil-water-air-contaminant-microbiological-organic-heavy-metal-residue-solids-technology-conventional-rapid-region-market-report.html .

On the basis of technology, the environmental testing market was led by the rapid technology segment in 2015. The market is growing due to the requirement of quick, accurate, easy-to-use, and reduced total cost method of testing.

North America was the largest environmental testing market in 2015. Governing organizations are present in the market and have enforced various environment protection policies. The North American environmental testing market addresses various environmental issues such as climate change, acid rain reduction, and greenhouse gas emissions. The Asia-Pacific market is projected to be the fastest-growing market during the forecast period.

The various key smart gird vendors profiled in this report such as Eurofins Scientific S.E (Luxembourg), AB Sciex LLC (U.S.), SGS S.A. (Switzerland), Bureau Veritas S.A. (France) and Agilent Technologies Inc. (U.S.).

The above-mentioned companies have collectively accounted for the largest portion of the environmental testing market in 2015. Other players also have a strong presence in this market. These include Intertek Group PLC (U.K.), ALS Limited (U.S.), AssureQuality (New Zealand), Romer Labs (U.S.) and R.J Hill Laboratories Ltd. (New Zealand).

Get a discount on this report at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/discount?rname=378160 .

In the process of determining and verifying, the environmental testing market for several segments and sub segments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted with key people. In Tier 1 (35%), Tier 2 (45%) and Tier 3 (20%) companies were contacted for primary interviews. The interviews were conducted with various key people such as C Level (35%), Director Level (25%) and others (45%) from various key organizations operating in the global environmental testing market. The primary interviews were conducted worldwide covering regions such as North America (45%), Europe (30%), Asia-Pacific (20%) and Rest of World (5%).

On a related note, another research on Environmental Monitoring Market Global Trends and Forecasts to 2020 says, the global environmental monitoring market is poised to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% during 2015-2020, and is expected to reach a value of ~$20.5 Billion in 2020. In this report, the global environmental monitoring market has been segmented on the basis of type of products, type of sampling method, type of sensors and type of application. Companies like Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), TE Connectivity Ltd. (Switzerland), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), and Siemens AG (Germany) have been profiled in this 162 pages research report available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/environmental-monitoring-market-by-product-monitors-sensors-and-software-application-air-gas-water-soil-and-noise-pollution-and-by-region-global-trends-and-forecasts-to-2020-market-report.html .

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Source: http://marketersmedia.com/environmental-testing-market-expected-to-hit-6-9-to-2021-led-by-rapid-technology/123674

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Geosynthetic Clay Liner Market is Growing at a CAGR of 4% till 2022 Research by Hexa Reports

"Global Geosynthetic Clay Liner Market" size was 118.0 million square meters in 2014 and is expected to witness considerable growth on account of increasing awareness regarding landfill protection in construction and mining sectors.

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The global geosynthetic clay liner market is expected to reach USD 488.2 million by 2022. Geosynthetic clay liners are used as lining system in construction, mining and upstream oil & gas sectors on account of providing good self sealing property and excellent chemical resistance. Rising awareness towards environmental protection in mining industry is expected to increase the expenditure on landfill treatment and containment solutions which will remain a favorable factor.

Geosynthetic clay liner market volume in landfill was estimated at over 56.5 million square meters in 2014. The product is used as a lining system in mining industry to prevent leakage of chemical constituents into groundwater and surrounding environment through providing stability on steep side slopes.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Global geosynthetic clay liners demand was 118.0 million square meters in 2014 and is expected to exceed 165.0 million square meters by 2022, growing at a CAGR of over 4% from 2015 to 2022.

Roadways & civil construction is expected to witness growth at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2015 to 2022.

The product is used as a protection barrier in construction of roads, railways, commercial and other infrastructure facilities including stadiums, airports and dockyard. In November 2014, GCLs were used in Toulouse-Blagnac Airport and adjacent Airbus-France facility where the new Airbus A-380 was built. It was reported that approximately 40,000 square meter of geosynthetic clay liner was used in construction of this airport.

Related Reports on "Materials"

United States Thermal X-ray film Industry @

http://www.hexareports.com/report/united-states-thermal-x-ray-film-industry-2016/details

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http://www.hexareports.com/report/global-cold-rolled-steel-coil-market-professional-survey-report-2016/details

GCLs also find application in agriculture and aquaculture industries in light of preventing the water leakage. Positive farming industry outlook in Peru, Chile, Norway and China in light of abundance of fish species including tilapia is anticipated to increase market penetration in the near future.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth and the market is estimated to reach 59.4 million square meters by 2022. In March 2015, the government of China announced funding of USD 1.1 trillion for infrastructure development of railways and roadways which will subsequently promote the importance of geosynthetic clay liners in the near future.

Key market players include CETCO, GSE Holdings, Terrafix, HUESKER and Wall Tag. In May 2014, GSE Environmental, Inc. inaugurated a new manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China. The company will manufacture 20,000 metric tons of GSE products including geosynthetic clay liners. Increasing application of road construction along with easy raw material access in China is expected to force manufacturers to keep their production facilities in vicinity.

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Intermountain Valve Services of Utah Now Serves Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho & Arizona

Intermountain Valve Services Inc. of Utah, a premier industrial valve solutions company since 1984, is now expanding their service areas to Idaho, Arizona, Nevada & Wyoming.

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The management and owners at Intermountain Valve Services have announced that they are now offering their specialized industrial valve services to clients in the surrounding states. The Utah-based company is now also serving clients in Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona.

For more on Intermountain Valve Services, visit their website at http://www.intermountainvalve.com

Intermountain Valve Services is a family-owned and operated industrial valve company. Founded in 1984, the company has positioned itself as a leader in industrial process operations. Offering valve related solutions and specialized support, Intermountain Valve Services helps companies keep their operations running smoothly. Intermountain valve also provides emergency services to get their clients up and running as quickly as possible.

"If your facilities maintenance inspections have discovered damage in a critical piece of equipment or your operations are experiencing leak by on valves which are necessary for either start up, isolation, or control efficiency, we can help," said the Intermountain Valve Services team.

The company provides a variety of solutions, including 24 hour emergency on-site service, in-line reconditioning, actuator overhaul, in-line machining and boring, complete machine shop services, and onsite OEM style/spec parts construction or refurbishment.

While Intermountain Valve Services has worked with clients across the U.S. and has provided regular services for companies in the western portion of the country, the company is now offering dedicated services to clients in Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona, as well as in their home state of Utah.

Intermountain Valve Services is thrilled to offer its services to more clients than ever. The company's team of experts specializes in maximizing run-time, reducing down-time, and saving companies time and money. For instance, by providing on site repair services, Intermountain Valve Services can duplicate long lead time replacement valve parts or perform weld and machining repairs to valve bodies, thereby foregoing replacement.

The company is proud to offer their emergency field services, valve sales, on-site & off-site services and repair, control valves and positioner services, actuation reconditioning and machining, and OEM part refurbishment to more clients than ever. In addition, the company looks forward to continuing their tradition of excellence in safety through their expansion. Since their launch, Intermountain Valve Services has never had an OSHA/MSHA recordable or lost time accident. Adhering to the strictest regulations and protocols, the company carries along a reputation for being accident-free.

Currently, prospective clients can visit the Intermountain Valve Services website to request service or equipment. More information can be found at http://www.intermountainvalve.com/.

About Intermountain Valve Services

Intermountain Valve Services was founded in 1984 and continues to deliver premier industrial valve solutions, including shop and on-site services.

For more information, please visit http://www.intermountainvalve.com

Contact Info:

Name: Orrin Hall

Organization: Intermountain Valve Services, Inc.

Address: 450 North Center Street, Santaquin, Utah 84655

Phone: 801-201-7888

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Becoming Exclusive ActronAir Dealer, Ducted Air Perth Experiences Strong Growth

Delivering huge efficiency gains to Perth-area residents and businesses, Australian-designed ActronAir systems produce enthusiastic word of mouth for company, Ducted Air Perth reports

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Ducted Air Perth, the area's leading residential and Commercial Air Conditioning specialist, announced that the company will henceforth supply only Australian-designed ActronAir equipment to its clients. Up to 75% more efficient than competing systems, ActronAir reverse-cycle ducted air conditioners regularly save Ducted Air Perth clients $900 or more annually on costs of operation.

Since switching exclusively to ActronAir equipment, Ducted Air Perth has experienced growth of over 500%, thanks in large part to enthusiastic word of mouth from highly satisfied clients. As the only Platinum-level exclusive ActronAir dealer in the area, Ducted Air Perth is especially well positioned to help residents and businesses enjoy the efficiency, reliability, and output for which the company's systems have rightfully become so well known.

"We're excited to announce to the world at large that we now focus exclusively on ActronAir air conditioners," Ducted Air Perth General Manager Mike King said, "These Australian-designed ducted systems are incredibly efficient, thanks to their exclusive Variable Fan Speed and other technologies. Since making the switch, the feedback and word of mouth has been strong, with our clients greatly enjoying the savings that result. We couldn't be happier, and neither could our customers, as our recent growth shows."

While Australia is in many ways a strikingly beautiful and appealing country, the weather can, at times, be less so. Australians rely heavily on air conditioning to take the edge off the hottest parts of the year, with many Perth residents and businesses spending thousands of dollars per year running the associated equipment.

For over thirty years, Australia-based ActronAir has been turning out domestically designed systems that tackle the challenges of the country's often-harsh climate head on. By making use of innovative technologies and efficiency-focused engineering approaches, the company's ESP Plus air conditioners produce savings of up to 60% compared to competing products, with the ESP Platinum series upping the figure as high as 75%.

By becoming an exclusive ActronAir dealer, Ducted Air Perth will address the single most common air-conditioning-related complaint among Perth-area residents and business operators. In delivering savings of up to $900 annually on operational costs, along with industry-leading output and reliability, ActronAir equipment matches up perfectly with the needs of those living and working in the area's demanding climate.

Those interested in learning more about Ducted Air Perth or the ActronAir systems that it now offers exclusively can do so at www.ductedairperth.com.au. With transparent, upfront pricing and honest, friendly service, Ducted Air Perth makes it easier and more affordable than any other company to enjoy all that ActronAir has to offer.

About Ducted Air Perth:

With over twenty years of experience, Ducted Air Perth delivers the best in ActronAir air conditioning equipment to residents and businesses throughout the Perth area.

For more information, please visit http://www.ductedairperth.com.au

Contact Info:

Name: Mike King

Organization: Ducted Air Perth

Phone: 1800 111 007

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/becoming-exclusive-actronair-dealer-ducted-air-perth-experiences-strong-growth/124276

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AgenciesRanked.com Releases New List of World's Top 100 SEO Agencies for June

Simi Valley's Bruce Clay, Inc., secures another top-spot nod from company's proprietary algorithm, with WebpageFX and Fruition making strong showings in next two spots, AgenciesRanked.com reports

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AgenciesRanked.com released a new list of the Best SEO Agencies for June 2016. Using a proprietary, cutting-edge algorithm, the company ranked the top search engine optimization specialists in the industry, accounting for demonstrated results, pricing, and a range of other relevant factors. Bruce Clay, Inc., of Simi Valley, California, tops the new AgenciesRanked.com list of SEO standouts, with WebpageFX of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Fruition of Denver following up in second and third places, respectively. The new SEO agency rankings are available now at http://www.agenciesranked.com/, where visitors will also find lists of the overall best marketing agencies in 2016, along with leaders in a number of other categories.

"Our SEO agency rankings for June have just been published, and we know that many have been eagerly awaiting this moment," AgenciesRanked.com representative Joe S. said, "We see Bruce Clay, Inc., once again holding the top spot, with our algorithm awarding a gold trophy to an agency that keeps producing impressive results for its clients. The top ten also includes a number of new presences, along with some consistent performers that have become even more capable in recent months. As always, we do not accept payment or other consideration for placement in the new rankings, so readers can count on getting an accurate, unbiased take."

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the art of catering to search services like Google such that targeted websites and pages become more likely to show up when users input particular keywords and phrases. Given that as much as fifty percent of all search-engine-derived clicks accrue to the highest-ranking result for a given term, SEO can be a powerful way to gain more visibility and traffic for the online presence of a business of any kind.

What has traditionally been less clear is just which SEO-focused agencies are best at producing these results. Making use of an exclusive, technologically advanced algorithm, AgenciesRanked.com regularly highlights the world's most capable agencies when it comes to SEO and other marketing endeavors.

The site's newest SEO agency rankings will therefore be of great interest to many. From first-place agency Bruce Clay, Inc., and runners-up WebpageFX and Fruition down through the ninety-seven other top agencies ranked there, readers of the new list will gain many useful insights. In addition to the new list of the world's top SEO providers for June, AgenciesRanked.com maintains a number of equally useful marketing agency rankings of other kinds, all available free of charge at its website.

About AgenciesRanked.com:

Highlighting the most capable and effective marketing agencies the world has to offer, AgenciesRanked.com employs an advanced, proprietary algorithm that delivers results readers can rely on.

For more information, please visit http://www.agenciesranked.com/best-seo-agencies/

Contact Info:

Name: Joe S.

Organization: AgenciesRanked.com

Phone: (415) 766-7508

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/agenciesranked-com-releases-new-list-of-worlds-top-100-seo-agencies-for-june/124272

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Bedrock Granite Celebrates 25 Years of Service

Bedrock Granite proudly celebrates 25 years of fabricating and installing top quality granite, quartz and marble countertops and fixtures in homes throughout the tri-state area.

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Bedrock Granite recently celebrated its silver anniversary, marking 25 years of fabricating and installing top quality granite, quartz and marble countertops and fixtures in homes throughout the tri-state area.

Now more than ever, Bedrock Granite is a one-stop shop for its customers' granite needs. Much more than a simple counter-installation firm, Bedrock Granite offers thousands of remnants from which to build smaller, complimentary projects such as vanities, fireplaces, tub surrounds and small galley kitchens. The company also recently debuted the latest designs from Schock, the world leader in granite sinks. Bedrock Granite's work can be found in dream kitchens, stunning patios and elegant bathrooms throughout the region.

Bedrock Granite prides itself on its longstanding relationships with kitchen dealers, designers and builders, many of whom have been recognized by national publications. Those relationships allow Bedrock Granite's customers to take advantage of the knowledge, skill and expertise of high-end professionals in every area of kitchen design.

"We're determined to make the granite design process less intimidating and more fun for our customers," said Bedrock Granite's Allison Campanelli. "We're proud to have provided the best granite fabrication services for 25 years, and we look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries to come."

Bedrock Granite has been serving the tri-state area's granite, marble and quartz fabrication, installation and service needs for more than 25 years. Unlike most other granite fabricators, they make working with customers a fun, step-by-step process. Dealing with granite design and installation can be intimidating and confusing, which is why Bedrock's highly skilled staff will be happy to explain every detail so that their customer's new kitchen or bathroom looks every bit as great as they imagined it would. They are even open over the weekend so that shopping for a new counter, sink or tub can be as convenient as possible.

To learn more about Bedrock Granite visit the showroom at 803 Shrewsbury Ave., Shrewsbury, NJ 07702, call 732-741-0010 or visit bedrockgranite.com.

For more information, please visit http://www.bedrockgranite.com

Contact Info:

Name: Allison Campanelli

Organization: Bedrock Granite Inc.

Address: 803 Shrewsbury Ave, Shrewsbury, NJ 07702

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Global Market Research And Forecast For Medical Gas Pressure Regulators Industry 2016-2021

The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies.

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This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Medical Gas Pressure Regulators from 2011-2016, and provides extensive market forecasts (2016-2021) by region/country and subsectors. It covers the key technological and market trends in the Medical Gas Pressure Regulators market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Medical Gas Pressure Regulators, and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.

Browse Full Research Report With TOC http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-medical-gas-pressure-regulators-market-outlook-2016-2021

Medical gas pressure regulators reduce high-pressure gas in a cylinder or process line to a lower, usable level as it passes to another piece of equipment. They also maintain pressure within a gas delivery system. Medical gas pressure regulators are not flow control devices; they are used to control delivery pressure only which are used in pipeline systems for the following medical gas: oxygen; nitrous oxide; air for breathing; carbon dioxide; oxygen/nitrous oxide mixtures; air for driving surgical tools; nitrogen for driving surgical tools; oxygen produced by an oxygen concentrator.

GCC's report, Global Medical Gas Pressure Regulators Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Medical Gas Pressure Regulators market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies.

See More Reports of This Category by Radiant Insights: http://www.radiantinsights.com/catalog/medical-devices

The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. The major players in the global Medical Gas Pressure Regulators market areEmerson, Ohio, Concoa, Gentec, GCE, Air Liquide, Heyer, Greggersen, Flow-Meter, Shanghai Regulator Factory, Danyang Airtech, Ningbo Kaipo, Linhai Pressure Gauge, Aero Tech, Yuyao Jiahua.

The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of Medical Gas Pressure Regulators industry has been provided.

Request A Sample Copy Of This Report at: http://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-medical-gas-pressure-regulators-market-outlook-2016-2021/request-sample

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Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions.

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CCHR Educates Over 90,000 Families in Campaign to Restore Parental Rights

CCHR is educating families on their rights under the Baker Act and has mailed over 90,000 postcards to households with children in Florida encouraging them to protect their children and to sign a petition to change the law.

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The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a non-profit mental health watchdog dedicated to the eradication of abuses committed under the guise of mental health, has reached over 90,000 families in a campaign to prevent abuse of the Baker Act by educating families on their rights and exposing unnecessary involuntary commitment of minors in Florida.

The mental health law in Florida, commonly known as the Baker Act, allows children to be sent for involuntary psychiatric examination without parental knowledge or consent. This is supposed to happen if it is believed the child has a mental illness and could be a serious threat to themselves or others.

In practice the decision whether particular child is Baker Acted is arbitrary and influenced by the opinions and beliefs of those making the judgment calls at Florida schools.

A few years ago in the Palm Beach School district the police took students straight from school and drove them in squad cars to mental health examination facilities 256 times - an average of more than one child for every day of the school year.

Examples of young children being Baker Acted unjustly are far too common. For example, one mother arrived at school to find her kindergartner huddled under a table in the school office scared to death and screaming. The mom had never seen her daughter behave like this before. Police tried to handcuff the girl whose tiny wrists were too slim for the cuffs.

In another instance, a fourth-grader was committed right off the school bus while on his way home. His mother said that what her son told her happened on the bus and what the bus cameras showed was different than what the school police told her. She had to leave her son at the psychiatric hospital crying and begging for her to stay with him. After release the boy recounted how he met a girl who cut patterns into her skin with a knife, a boy addicted to pills, a boy wearing a prison jumpsuit, a roommate who punched him in the face. The boy also recalls sitting handcuffed in the hot police car while his classmates watched him from the windows of the school bus.

"We consistently receive calls from parents whose children were Baker Acted off of school grounds without their permission or knowledge," said Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida. "Some of these children are as young as 5 years old and do not meet the criteria for involuntary commitment. This is a gross violation of the rights of the child and of parental rights."

In 2014 the Flagler County school board discussed the rise of Baker Act incidents involving elementary school age kids and attempted to diffuse the anger parents were feeling.

The presentation was made by Katrina Townsend, the district's director of student services who said "I have also sat on both sides of the table at Halifax (the psychiatric ward at Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach) as the parent of a patient, and as a representative of you, the school board, so I like to think I knew a little bit about it as well. And having gone through the process as a parent, I feel confident in the services that they provide to us."

Townsend went onto to say, "A Baker Act is absolutely not a discipline consequence."

She offered this analogy between Baker Acts and an asthma attack. "Mental health, just like asthma can have a critical issue or an event that requires emergency care and in mental health, that emergency care is often a Baker Act. As with a student with asthma, we would not identify that a student was having a crisis and send them home to sort it out. We would transport them for emergency care. So once I heard that analogy it kind of helped me wrap my head a round it a little bit."

However, School Board member Colleen Conklin did not buy this idea and sided with the outraged parents.

Conklin stated, "A Baker Acting of a child is traumatically different than what was just described in the analogy of an asthma attack. The reason that you have the media and that you have some become so outraged, if you will, is because it goes against all of our senses, at the thought of a child receiving help by being placed in either handcuffs or put in the back of a patrol car. That is not dealing in the same manner as you do with somebody who has an asthma attack... That to me exacerbates the situation and is more traumatizing to a child."

Taking action to stop this abuse, CCHR is educating families on their rights under the Baker Act and has mailed over 90,000 postcards to households with children in the Tampa Bay area after launching a new website designed to educate parents and allowing them to download a non-consent form, report abuse and encouraging them to sign a petition to stop the involuntary commitment of children in Florida.

"Our goal is to first reduce the number of unjust involuntary commitments of children and then change the law so that parental rights are restored and the Baker Act is no longer used as a disciplinary tool in our school systems," said Diane Stein.

About CCHR:

Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR's mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world. In March 1969, he said, "Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the 'free world' tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of 'mental health.'" Free help and consultation is available by calling 800-782-2878.

SOURCES:

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/lifestyles/when-little-ones-break-down-at-school/nW275/

http://flaglerlive.com/65679/baker-act-children-fl...

For more information, please visit http://www.cchrflorida.org/

Contact Info:

Name: Diane Stein

Email: publicaffairs@cchrflorida.org

Organization: Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida

Address: 109 N. Fort Harrison Ave

Phone: 1-800-782-2878

Release ID: 124348

For more information visit r



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Go-Forth Pest & Lawn Of Winston-Salem Responds To Zika Virus Concerns

The pest control company reports an increase in mosquito pest control services due to fears of the Zika virus, according to winstonsalempest.com

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With news about the Zika virus making headlines regularly, residents of Winston-Salem are more concerned than ever about mosquitoes. More than a summertime nuisance, the insects have become an object of fear as potential carriers of a frightening disease that, at this time, has no vaccine or cure. While earlier outbreaks of the virus occurred in Africa and Southeast Asia, it spread to South America in 2015, and now cases are being reported in the United States as well. Consequently, Go-Forth Pest & Lawn of Winston-Salem reports a significant increase in service calls for mosquito control.

"We've gotten an influx of calls regarding the zika virus, and we sympathize with our customers' concerns. It's a dangerous disease, especially for vulnerable populations," said company spokesperson Chase Hazelwood. While healthy adults are not at great risk of complications from the virus, infants, young children, and the elderly are more seriously affected. One of the biggest concerns is the risk of birth defects when pregnant women become infected. There is scientific evidence linking the Zika virus to microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder.

According to the World Health Organization, preventing mosquito bites is the number one defense against the Zika virus. In addition to providing pest control service for concerned customers, Go-Forth also seeks to educate people regarding simple protective measures they can take. "We can treat your property," said Hazelwood, "but we can't protect you everywhere you go. That's why we recommend that people take some basic safety precautions, like wearing long sleeves and long pants outdoors, even though it's hot, and using mosquito repellent on exposed skin. People also need to be aware of - and stay away from - any standing water, which is where mosquitoes breed. Some of our customers live on property with naturally low-lying areas where water tends to collect. We make it a point to treat those areas even if we don't see any sign of mosquitoes. We try to prevent an infestation before it happens."

Symptoms of the virus include fever, rash, joint pain, headaches, and muscle pain. However, many people experience no symptoms or only mild symptoms. "While there is a legitimate cause for concern," Hazelwood concluded, "I don't think we need to panic. The products we use to eliminate mosquitoes are very effective, and our customers can feel safe."

About Go-Forth Pest & Lawn of Winston-Salem

Go-Forth Pest & Lawn of Winston-Salem was founded in 1959 in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina. It has now grown to have branches in Mooresville, Greensboro, Asheboro, High Point, Lexington, Burlington, Salisbury, and most recently Charlotte. It is a family-owned business now with its third-generation owner. Go-Forth Pest & Lawn of Winston-Salem strives to have profound professionalism and customer service that makes customers, employees, and the community proud to be associated with Go-Forth. It is home to the 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 NC Statewide Technician of the Year. Go-Forth is the only company in the state to be recognized with that track record.

For more information, please visit http://winstonsalempest.com

Contact Info:

Name: Leah Hazelwood

Organization: Go-Forth Pest & Lawn of Winston-Salem

Address: 248 Konnoak Village Circle Winston-Salem, NC 27127

Phone: (336) 793-2999

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/go-forth-pest-lawn-of-winston-salem-responds-to-zika-virus-concerns/124380

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TurningPoint Medical Group Co-Owner Markus Ernst Will Take Pikes Peak Challenge

On Sept. 10, Ernst and others will hike to 14,100-foot summit to raise money for non-profit Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado, TurningPoint Medical Group reports

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TurningPoint Medical Group co-owner and physical therapist Markus Ernst will participate in the 2016 Pikes Peak Challenge in support of the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado, the clinic reported. As a leading provider of physical therapy, and through the associated CBP Brain Centers, TurningPoint Medical Group regularly works with Coloradans who have suffered strokes, concussions and other brain injuries.

The non-profit Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado provides information and services that contribute to faster, more successful recoveries and will receive the pledges Ernst and other participants collect for the 2016 Pikes Peak Challenge. Over the course of the hike on September 10, TurningPoint co-owner Ernst will climb over 7,400 vertical feet to reach the 14,100-foot summit. The annual Pikes Peak Challenge has been the headline fundraising event for the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado for over three decades.

"I'm proud and happy to report that I'll be taking part in the upcoming Pikes Peak Challenge on September 10," Ernst reported, "Helping people with brain injuries get back to living life fully is an important part of what we do here at TurningPoint Medical Group. It's therefore a real honor to be able to support the great work that the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado does for so many. I know the Challenge will live up to its name, but it'll be nothing compared to what the average survivor of a brain injury faces. We hope for a safe, successful event for all and some record-setting fundraising for the truly worthy Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado."

Over 500,000 people living in Colorado today suffer from the lingering effects of brain injuries. With more than 5,000 being hospitalized in the state for new brain injuries in the average year, ensuring the fullest, fastest possible recovery for each has rightfully become a top public-policy priority.

Through its CBP Brain Centers arm and with its own services, TurningPoint Medical Group regularly contributes in direct, valuable ways to the such important outcomes. From providing recovery-enhancing brain stimulation to helping brain injury survivors with physical therapy and other services, TurningPoint Medical Group takes seriously the responsibility of fighting against a large and growing public-health problem.

In participating in the 2016 Pikes Peak Challenge, TurningPoint Medical Group co-owner Ernst will add another dimension to the clinic's commitment to this cause. In addition to providing much-needed physical and other therapy to brain injury survivors and others, TurningPoint Medical Group also offers a multidisciplinary range of other services, including chiropractic, massage therapy, and more. Those interested in learning more can do so at the TurningPoint Medical Group website, and all are invited to sponsor Ernst's upcoming summit hike at the official Pikes Peak Challenge site.

About TurningPoint Medical Group:

As the leading Colorado Springs-area super-clinic, TurningPoint Medical Group offers a full, multidisciplinary range of services that includes chiropractic, physical and massage therapy, neuro-feedback, and brain therapy using the state-of-the-art GyroStim Performa.

For more information, please visit http://www.turningpointmedicalgroup.com

Contact Info:

Name: Markus Ernst, PT

Organization: TurningPoint Medical Group

Address: 6140 Tutt Blvd, Suite 120 Colorado Springs, CO, 80923

Phone: 719-266-0438

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/turningpoint-medical-group-co-owner-markus-ernst-will-take-pikes-peak-challenge/124379

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Street Sweeper Industry 2016-2021 Global Forecasts with a Focus on US Market

DeepResearchrRports.com gives information on 2016 Market Research Report on Global Street Sweeper Industry Intelligence Study to the Machines & Equipment Business Research Collection of its Category.

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The Global Street Sweeper Industry 2016 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Street Sweeper industry.

The Street Sweeper Industry provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Street Sweeper market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.

Inquiry for Discount on '2016 Market Research Report on Global Street Sweeper Industry'

spread cross 153 pages, profiling 25 companies and supported with 265 tables and figures is now available @ http://www.deepresearchreports.com/contacts/inquiry.php?name=148228 .

Major companies with their market volumes and revenues are covered for each of the regions. Top players in the industry Bucher (Johnston), Elgin, FAYAT GROUP, Alamo Group, Aebi Schmidt, Madvac Exprolink, Hako., Tennant, FAUN, Alfred Karcher, Boschung, Dulevo, Global Sweepe, TYMCO, KATO, ZOOMLION, AEROSUN, FULONGMA, Hengrun Tech, Yantai Haide, Hubei Chengli, Henan Senyuan, Tianjin Sweeper, Beijing Tianlutong and Yangzhou Shengda.

Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.

The Street Sweeper Industry focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Street Sweeper industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.

With 265 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.

Order a copy of 2016 Market Research Report on Global Street Sweeper Industry at http://www.deepresearchreports.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=148228 .

Major Points from Table of Contents

Table Street Sweeper Major Raw Materials List

Table Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Street Sweeper in 2015

Figure Manufacturing Process Analysis of Street Sweeper

Figure Global Price Analysis of Street Sweeper 2011-2016 (USD/Unit)

Figure Global Cost Analysis of Street Sweeper 2011-2016 (USD/Unit)

Figure Global Gross Analysis of Street Sweeper 2011-2016

Table Capacity (K Units) and Commercial Production Date of Global Street Sweeper Key Manufacturers in 2015

Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Key Street Sweeper Manufacturers in 2015

Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Street Sweeper Key Manufacturers in 2015

Table Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global and China Street Sweeper Key Manufacturers in 2015

Table Global Production of Street Sweeper by Regions 2011-2016 (K Units)

Figure Global Production Market Share of Street Sweeper by Regions in 2015

Table Global Production of Street Sweeper by Type 2011-2016 (K Units)

Figure Global Production Market Share of Street Sweeper by Type in 2015

Browse more Machines & Equipment reports at http://www.deepresearchreports.com/cat/machines-equipment-market-research.html .

Related research titled '2016 Market Research Report on United States Street Sweeper Industry' forecasts the market analysis provided for the United States markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. With 207 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. This report focuses on United States major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Street Sweeper industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. The 25 companies profiled in this Street Sweeper market research include Bucher (Johnston), Elgin, FAYAT GROUP, Alamo Group, Aebi Schmidt, Madvac Exprolink,Hako, Tennant, FAUN, Alfred Karcher, Boschung, Dulevo, Global Sweepe, TYMCO, KATO, ZOOMLION, AEROSUN, FULONGMA, Hengrun Tech, Yantai Haide, Hubei Chengli, Henan Senyuan, Tianjin Sweeper, Beijing Tianlutong and Yangzhou Shengda. Order a copy of this 2016 Market Research Report on United States Street Sweeper Industry at http://www.deepresearchreports.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=151599 .

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Deep Research Reports is a database of selected syndicated market reports for global and China industries including but not limited to life sciences, information technology & telecommunications, consumer goods, food and beverages, energy and power, automotive and transportation, manufacturing and construction, materials and chemicals, public sector as well as business and financial services. We provide 24/7 online and offline support to our customers. Call +1 888 391 5441 with your research requirements or email the details on sales@deepresearchreports.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we would be happy to help you find the business intelligence that you need.

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Sheriff Ric Bradshaw Of Palm Beach County Leads Task Force In Preparation For Public Safety Concerns

Ric Bradshaw, Chairman of the Southeast Regional Domestic Security Task Force, intends to learn from all aspects of the tragedy in Orlando and incorporate any changes into the existing protocols at his office.

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Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the events that transpired at the Pulse nightclub are something his office is prepared to respond to.

"We've been doing this for a long time to prepare for the eventuality that something like this happens," he explained.

Bradshaw leads the Southeast Regional Domestic Security Task Force. Recently, a group of law enforcement and first responders from the tri-county (Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach) area held their quarterly meeting in Broward County.

Created after the 9/11 attacks, the Southeast Regional Domestic Security Task Force is currently chaired by Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and includes more than 200 law enforcement agencies and fire-rescue departments from Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), based in Miami, also has satellite offices in West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce.

The South Florida unit is one of 104 JTTFs nationwide and, as in the other locales, it is led by the FBI. It includes U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, and many other local law-enforcement agencies.

"We will, after the critique is done from Orlando, look at everything they've talked about. If there are new lessons to be learned, we'll incorporate that," he said.

Bradshaw said that none of his law enforcement offices have made any changes to their protocols, as yet. According to Bradshaw, not only does law enforcement consistently share intelligence and train together, but their work extends into the private realm to keep you safe.

"We also work with business owners that have nightclubs and other establishments to say what's your security protocol? What happens in there? Do you have a way for them to get out, do you have a safe area they can go to?" he pointed out.

Bradshaw firmly believes that staying safe begins with the individual. He lives by the motto, "If you see something, say something".

"We're going to be prepared to win. Failure is not an option," Bradshaw said.

About Sheriff Ric Bradshaw

With over 43 years of law enforcement experience, Sheriff Bradshaw has extensive training in all aspects of law enforcement, with special emphasis on domestic security and community-based policing. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw knows that his first and foremost duty is to keep citizens safe.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office provides police services for over 760,000 residents. Covering fifteen districts, the Sheriff's Office is comprised of over 4,300 total employees, including 1,700 sworn deputies, 980 correction officers and more than 1,500 civilians, along with thousands of local volunteers.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is Chairman of the Florida Sheriffs Task Force for Region 7, Chairman of the Regional Domestic Security Task Force for Region 7, Executive Board member of the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force, member of the Medicaid and Public Assistance Fraud Strike Force, among other law enforcement organizations.

For more information, please visit http://www.cornerstonesolutionsteam.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Jonathan Cooper

Email: Jon@cornerstonesolutionsteam.com

Organization: Cornerstone Solutions

Address: 6917 Vista Parkway North, Suite 1, West Palm Beach, FL 33411

Phone: (561) 252-9191

Video URL: https://youtu.be/IbzapoHhOmE

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/sheriff-ric-bradshaw-of-palm-beach-county-leads-task-force-in-preparation-for-public-safety-concerns/124221

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Industrial Enzymes Market To Witness Enhanced Usage In Detergent And As Ingredient In Food Processing Industries Till 2024

According to report published by Grand View Research, Inc. global industrial enzymes market will be worth $9.63 billion by 2024, market is expected to witness significant growth owing to increasing substitution of chemicals with industrial enzymes particularly in food & beverage and nutraceutical applications.

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The global industrial enzymes market is expected to reach USD 9.63 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to witness significant growth owing to increasing substitution of chemicals with industrial enzymes particularly in food & beverage and nutraceutical applications.

Growing applications of industrial enzymes for use in detergents and as ingredients in food processing industry is expected to fuel the demand. Proteases are extensively used in the detergent industry owing to its superior stain removal properties. However, the demand in the detergent application is expected to witness sluggish growth owing to market saturation.

Growing use of protease in bakery products is expected to drive market growth. Furthermore, increasing application scope of the product in nutraceutical industry as a digestive enzyme is expected to drive demand.

Technological advancements in the field of industrial enzymes have led to the use of the product as cleaning agents. The increasing use of enzymes or waste water treatment is also expected to drive the demand over the forecast period.

Neozymes, DSM, and Danisco dominated the global industrial enzymes market in 2015 with the industry being characterized by forward integration by manufacturers to distribution and end-use. Manufacturers such as DuPont and DSM manufacture industrial enzymes for specialized applications. The global industrial enzymes market is dominated by North America due to the presence of a large number of manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada.

Access full research report: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-enzymes-market

Key findings

o Industrial enzymes demand for lipases is expected to witness substantial growth, growing at over 8.0% from 2016 to 2024. Increasing demand for the product in food & beverage and textile industry is expected to augment growth over the forecast period.

o The feed additive enzymes are expected to be the fastest growing product segment, growing at over CAGR 9.0% from 2016 to 2024. The increasing use of enzymes as a protein source in animal feed is to improve performance in livestock which in turn is anticipated to drive demand over the projected period.

o Asia Pacific is expected to witness substantial growth, growing at a CAGR of over 10.0% from 2016 to 2024. Robust expansion in food processing industries particularly in Asia Pacific is expected to augment growth. Furthermore, the supportive regulations promoting the expansion of manufacturing industries is expected to have a positive impact on market growth.

o Europe accounted for over 29.0% of the market share in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth owing to rising demand in pharmaceutical and textile industry. Stringent regulations prohibiting the use of toxic chemicals and catalysts in various applications is expected to positively impact market over the next eight years.

o Key players in the industry include BASF SE, Koninklijke DSM N.V, Novozymes A/S., Associated British Foods PLC E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company Adisseo France SaS, Dyadic International Incorporated CHR, Codexis Incorporated. Hansen Holding A/S, and Amano Enzyme Incorporated.

Request for free sample of this research report: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-enzymes-market/request

Market Segments:

Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024)

o Carbohydrase

o Proteases

o Lipases

o Polymerases & nucleases

o Others

Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024)

o Technical

o Feed additive

o Food processing

End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024)

o Food & beverage

o Detergents

o Animal feed

o Textile

o Paper & pulp

o Nutraceutical

o Personal care & cosmetics

o Wastewater

Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024)

o North America

o U.S.

o Canada

o Mexico

o Europe

o Germany

o UK

o France

o Asia Pacific

o China

o India

o Japan

o Latin America

o Brazil

o Middle East & Africa

o South Africa

Access press release of this research report: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-industrial-enzymes-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services.

For more information, please visit http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-enzymes-market

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Address: 28 2nd Street, Suite 3036, San Francisco, California, 94105

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/industrial-enzymes-market-to-witness-enhanced-usage-in-detergent-and-as-ingredient-in-food-processing-industries-till-2024/124495

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Alchemy OTC Markets Specialists, LLC Announces Special Turn-Key Private Company public listing program on the OTCMarkets

A program to list private company assets on the OTC Markets where ~10,000 Foreign/Domestic issuers are listed and trade in excess of $USD13 Billion per Month.

July 22, 2016 (FPRC) -- //Las Vegas NV//



Alchemy OTC Markets Specialists LLC, has structured a program to list private company assets on the US OTC Markets Group platform via a Reverse Merger wherein which Alchemy provides the OTC Markets qualified company with a shareholder base, current financials and all OTC Markets submissions to facilitate the public listing with name change reflecting the newly listed company as an OTC Markets compliant current Pink, alternate reporting public company.



ABOUT: Alchemy OTC Markets Specialists, LLC , is an International Nevada based Boutique US Reverse Merger and public company listing Consulting Firm advising private companies as to US OTCMarkets listing requirements, SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) &, FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) regulatory requirements to become a publicly listed company or an SEC reporting issuer quoted and traded on the US OTCMarkets (www.otcmarkets.com)



Company Services include;

 Reverse Merger Transactions

 Facilitation of the change in control of public listed companies assets and equity

 Preparation of required supporting documentation and filings in satisfaction of regulatory compliance, disclosure and OTCMarkets listing requirements with agencies including OTC Markets, SEC and FINRA.

 S1 Registration Statements, Form 10 filings, Jobs Act Title IV Reg A+ Tier I & Tier II; Jobs Act Title II Reg D Rule 506 (b) & (c) & Title III Reg CF Crowdfunding Offerings.

 Post public listing services include Funding Campaigns with Pr & IR programs to meet company budgetary requirements.



With over 50 years of combined partner experience and a Team of Professional Associates, we can structure any public company vehicle to suit your Companys share structure requirements and budget



CONTACT US TO DISCUSS OPTIONS





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New Local Biz Marketing Book With 7 Ways To Generate Ideas Using Brainstorming

Dan Crider launched a brand new book for local business, "Cloudy With A Chance of Brainstorm", which shows decision makers a way to find new and better solutions to old nagging problems using proven brainstorming techniques. Available through Amazon.com or at http://marketingbooksbydan.com/

--

Author, consultant and entrepreneur Dan Crider just released his brand new book for local businesess, "Cloudy With A Chance of Brainstorm". The book went live July 20 on Amazon.com and is expected to become a big hit with decision makers in local businesses.

More information on the book can be found here: http://marketingbooksbydan.com/

This is the twelfth book Crider has released. The book was written with the aim of helping local business management teams find new and better solutions to old nagging problems. There's also particular excitement about this launch because this book is one of five in the Local Biz Cafe Book Series focusing on local business organizations.

"Cloudy With A Chance of Brainstorm" sets its main focus on teaching 7 most effective brainstorming methods used by local business owners and managers. Readers will likely be interested in experimenting with each of these brainstorming methods to decide which to put into their arsenal.. The book's cover art was created by the author himself and Cloudy With A Chance of Brainstorm is being released by Wealth Net LLC.

Dan Crider has a background in founding and running local businesses. This helped shaped the creation of the book by providing a laboratory to test strategies and tactics of running a small and local business.

When asked about why he wrote the book, Crider said: "to encourage entrepreneurs to take the massive action required for generating new ideas through brainstorming"

Crider has hopes that the book will prevent decision makers from making common brainstorming mistakes. This positive outlook from the author is certainly testament to his optimism considering some of the mishaps during its creation. For example, at one point one of the brainstorming team's stronger members overshadowed a more tentative idea giver. This is a common mistake made by many brainstorming groups.

In a recent interview, the author made a point of thanking a willing tribe of contributors who had powerful input in the development of this book. Crider expressed particular gratitude "to Dave Moxley for sharing his unedited opinions and sharp honesty."

Those interested in learning more about the book can visit here: http://marketingbooksbydan.com/

For more information, please visit http://marketingbooksbydan.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Dan Crider

Email: dan@marketingbooksbydan.com

Organization: Wealth Net LLC

Address: 15944 Fir Grove Ct

Phone: 503 329 9109

Release ID: 124589

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Bat Removal Specialists Publish Information On Humane, Safe & Effective Bat Removal

Bat Removal Specialists is helping home and office owners safely and humanely remove bats, and has created a new briefing on the importance of humane treatment when dealing with bats.

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The pest control industry has done little to develop alternatives for bat removal, or to ease the anxieties of homeowners who have bats nesting in their house. They have instead relied on the tactics of the exterminator: repellents, toxins, and passing. Not only does this kill or injure the bats, but it increases the damage to properties. Bat Removal Specialists are unique: they do not offer any type of pest control, and specialize only in Bat Removal and Animal Control. Their founder, Brendan Mangnitz, is now sharing bat control information, highlighting the importance of dealing with bats humanely.

In the information, he explains how important bats are to the local eco-system, and how helpful they are in controlling the bugs and mosquitoes we call pests. He then describes how small fissures in walls, or cracks in the mortar can give bats the opening they need to get into attics and hearths, and nest there.

The information also lists the humane ways in which they are able to control the populations. They use 'exclusion' to offer bats a way out through a unique 'bat valve', which allows the bats out but not back in again, while sealing off any other potential entrances. They also install bat houses in 75% of the homes they visit, to provide a controlled environment separate from the human home in which the bats can nest.

His tale also recounts how families came for a sunset picnic to watch the bats take flight and feed, demonstrating the importance of changing the perception of bats among homeowners, and encouraging people to join the North American Bat House Research Project.

Bat Removal Specialists' Brendan Mangnitz explained, "Diplomacy and patience are my primary advantages in working out homeowners' first concerns about bat control, and working in a way that can be both safe and humane for the animals. I talked to a homeowner and happy customer this winter, and she said she wanted an even bigger bat house on her adjoining wall for springtime, to see if the bats would favour the higher temperature. We are changing perceptions, one person at a time, and this is invaluable work to undertake. We encourage anyone in Texas or Florida to call us if ever they have a bat problem."

About Bat Removal Specialists: Bat Removal Specialists was founded by Brendan Mangnitz, the Current President of the Centurian Wildlife Control Company. They are a wildlife and animal control company based in Melbourne FL with offices throughout all of Florida and Texas. Brendan educates pest control operators and the public in protecting non-game wildlife in Florida and Texas. He graduated from the University of South Florida with his Business Management Degree and the University of Florida with his Entomology and Wildlife Biology Degree.

For more information, please visit http://batremovalspecialists.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Brendan Mangnitz

Email: Brendan@critter-marketing.com

Organization: Bat Removal Specialists

Phone: 214- 932-6599

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/bat-removal-specialists-publish-information-on-humane-safe-effective-bat-removal/124632

Release ID: 124632

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Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert Expands Into Elder Law And Medicaid Planning

Firm's Medicaid planning services alone regularly help clients save hundreds of thousands of dollars and get the long-term care they need, Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert reports

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Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert, PA has expanded its areas of practice to include elder law, with a special focus on Medicaid planning, the firm reported. With many senior citizens today facing long-term costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert attorneys can help clients figure out how to pay for nursing home, assisted living facility or home health care without depleting their hard-earned assets. Elder law attorney services of other kinds will also be available from Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert, as one of the state's most successful personal injury practices expands on its decades-long tradition of helping the most vulnerable residents of Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

"We're proud to announce that we will now be representing clients in elder law matters, with a particular focus on effective, strategic Medicaid planning," Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert attorney Jason Neufeld said, "With many senior citizens in the area confronting six-figure annual care costs, the later years of life can be challenging for those who fail to prepare. We regularly help our clients allocate their assets in legal, ethical ways that that allow them to qualify for Medicaid, an option that can save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. With these and other elder law services, we are committed to making sure that senior citizens throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties receive the respect, protection, and care they deserve."

With over 56 million nationwide now receiving coverage under the nation's Medicare system, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, it might be thought that the care-related needs of aging people would be well provided for. In fact, though, the Medicare system only provides coverage for "medically necessary care" meaning that participants receive very limited help with most of their long-term care needs. The Medicare long-term-care benefit is limited to 100 days of rehabilitative or skilled nursing care over the course of an elder's lifetime.

While Medicare is open to most Americans of qualifying age, regardless of their financial status, Medicaid is meant to provide support to those with low income and assets. But, unlike Medicare, Medicaid will pay for many long-term care needs, including nursing and home-health services, along with some assisted-living arrangements.

In many cases, elderly people discovering this fact feel torn between wasting their lives' savings on paying for expensive long-term care or purposely driving themselves into poverty to qualify for support from Medicaid. Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert attorneys help clients sidestep this dilemma altogether. By making use of established, ethical, legal strategies, Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert lawyers can help clients arrange their income, real estate and financial assets such that they qualify for long-term care support from Medicaid without descending into poverty.

This service alone can help Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert clients save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it is only one example of the kinds of valuable elder law services the firm now provides. Those interested in learning more about this important Medicaid planning option or other legal services can do so at the Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert website.

About Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert, PA:

Serving the most vulnerable members of society, Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert provides a full range of highly effective personal injury, Medicaid planning, and elder law services to clients in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

For more information, please visit http://elderneedslaw.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Jason Neufeld

Organization: Neufeld, Kleinberg & Pinkiert, PA

Address: 2641 NE 207 Street Aventura, FL, 33180

Phone: 305.931.6666

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/neufeld-kleinberg-pinkiert-expands-into-elder-law-and-medicaid-planning/124629

Release ID: 124629

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Prospect Equities Real Estate Launches New App, Available On iTunes And Google Play

Luxury real estate brokerage firm ramps up customer and agent support with the launch of a new mobile app, currently available on iTunes and Google Play.

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Prospect Equities, a premier luxury real estate brokerage firm, recently announced the launch of a new mobile app currently available for download on Google Play and iTunes. The company's founder and president, Richard M. Killian, states that he feels this new technology will help the firm and their agents provide better support to their customers and clientele and offers several features to their user base that will significantly help customers find the perfect home for themselves and their families.

"We are very excited to announce the launch of our new Prospect Equities mobile app," Killian said. "We firmly believe that, with our proprietary customer strategy systems and all of the features our app now offers, this will significantly improve the home buying experience for thousands of people throughout the Chicago, New York, South Florida, and Arizona regions."

The new app offers several impressive features, including a high-end search engine, simplifying searching for properties offered through the firm; a photo slideshow of property and home listings, and instant directions to homes and properties available for sale. "We also allow users to share listings with their friends and loved ones through text and email," Killian said.

"We recognize that, when it comes to buying a new home, many people turn to their friends, family, and loved ones for advice and suggestions. We wanted to be able to assist people with finding a new home, easily and affordably, through the mobile app, which is why we included this in the list of features it offers."

Moreover, the app also shows users a full range of homes and properties available for rent, includes a built-in mortgage calculator, as well as recommended listing notifications via their mobile phone or tablet.

"Our ultimate goal with this app is to make shopping for a new home less painful, and more accessible. Buying a new home should not be a stressful experience - it should be a happy, exciting time in a person's or couple's lives, one they can look forward to. We believe that our app will simplify the experience for our users as well as our agents working hard to provide quality service to our customers," Killian said.

Prospect Equities, a tone setter in real estate innovation, is one of the first brokerages to feature this type of technology to power their agents and prospective home buyers in the New York City market. To download the Prospect Equity app, visit the Apple Store or Google Play Store.

About Prospect Equities

Founded in 2000 by Richard M. Killian, Prospect Equities has grown from a single real estate holding company to a majorreal estatebrand. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the firm has grown to 10 office locations throughout Illinois, New York, Arizona, and South Florida. In addition to an exciting growth trajectory, the prestigious brandis recognizedby their luxury offerings, proprietary systems, and innovative environment.

For More Information

For more details about Prospect Equities or to schedule an appointment, please call 312-202-0006.

For more information, please visit http://www.prospectequities.com

Contact Info:

Name: Richard M Killian

Organization: Prospect Equities

Address: 500 N. Michigan Ave Chicago, Illinois 60611

Phone: 312-202-0006

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/prospect-equities-real-estate-launches-new-app-available-on-itunes-and-google-play/124614

Release ID: 124614

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Stealth, The Number One Web Design And Marketing Agency In The Province Expanded Its Services To Toronto

Stealth helps businesses and individuals in Edmonton and Toronto connect with new people by creating timeless brands with the help of websites that engages visitors and successfully converts them to customers.

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A good web design can prove very beneficial to the business in terms of attracting new people, allowing them to connect to the business and eventually converting them to customers. The current generation of buyers rely heavily on the internet to provide them with accurate information in a timely manner. Without a well-designed website, it gets harder for the information to get across. This is exactly why businesses like to use reputed web design companies such as Stealth web design in Edmonton (http://stealthmedia.com/web-design/Edmonton-Web-Design) and Toronto (http://stealthmedia.com/web-design/Toronto-Web-Design).

Stealth web design not only designs websites to get the information out, they build websites to make their client's website stand out from all other competition. Stealth covers all of their customers' web design needs. Along with an outstanding web design, Stealth takes care of all the branding and marketing, the logo design, printing of business cards, photography, as well as videography.

A spokesperson at Stealth Web Design explained, "When your business needs help with a creative marketing plan, call Stealth. We're a digital design firm that specializes in putting you in touch with your customers. Whether you're starting a new business and need an eye-catching brand, or your existing company needs a new website to showcase the value of your services, we've got you covered. We design websites and advertising that strike a chord with viewers. Our goal is to grow your business through award-winning design and strategic marketing campaigns, connecting you with new customers, new clients, and new business. We know that when you succeed, we do as well. Let's make something great together. "

About Stealth in Edmonton and Toronto: Stealth is currently the number one SEO agency and has won multiple Summit International Awards. All their websites are custom-built from scratch and not from templates. This guarantees a unique website for every one of their loyal and satisfied customers. Their online blog provides a wealth of valuable information for anyone looking to learn more about web designing in general. For a query or a quote, visit: http://stealthmedia.com/web-design/CONTACT.

For more information, please visit http://stealthmedia.com/web-design/HOME

Contact Info:

Name: Ryan S. Yedersberger

Email: hello@stealthinteractive.ca

Organization: STEALTH INTERACTIVE MEDIA INC

Phone: (306) 978-9018

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/stealth-the-number-one-web-design-and-marketing-agency-in-the-province-expanded-its-services-to-toronto/124649

Release ID: 124649

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Global Shipbuilding Market Size, Trends And Forecasts 2016-2020 Research Report Now Available At MarketReportsOnline.com

MarketReportsOnline.com adds " Global Shipbuilding Market: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020) " report to its research store.

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The report titled "Global Shipbuilding Market: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020)" provides an in-depth analysis of the global shipbuilding market with detailed analysis of market size and growth, market share and economic impact of the industry. The report also provides market size of each of the segments of the market on the basis of the types of ships.

Inquire for a discount on this Shipbuilding market research report at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/discount.php?name=492675.

The report provides detailed regional analysis of Asian countries, leading the global market, which are South Korea, Japan and China. Regional analysis includes market size of the basis of new orders, order book, order completions and delivery trend along with the commercial vessel market.

The report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. The current status of the overall global shipbuilding market has been analyzed, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends. The competition in the global shipbuilding market is stiff and dominated by the big players like DSME. Further, key players of the market Hyundai Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are also profiled with their financial information and respective business strategies.

Complete report on Shipbuilding market spread across 84 pages providing 3 company profiles and 2 tables and 45 figures is now available at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/492675.html.

Regional Coverage of Shipbuilding Market:

o South Korea

o Japan

o China

Company Coverage of Shipbuilding Market:

o Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company

o Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.

o Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Purchase a copy of this Global Shipbuilding Market research report at USD 1200 (Single User License) http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=492675.

The maritime business has long been known for being cyclical. In times of growth and high profits, ship owners have positive cash flows and they order new capacity. This capacity, however, takes time to be delivered. There are waiting times, because shipbuilding berths tend to be full in times of prosperity; any new construction will only be started two to three years after it has been ordered, and then the construction itself can take up to one year. During the industry's boom years, the world saw records for new vessel orders being set year after year. The companies in this industry build and repair barges, cargo ships, naval vessels, and passenger ships, as well as platforms used for oil and gas drilling and production.

The global shipbuilding market can be analyzed on the basis of new orders, order book and delivery trend of ships. Currently, the market is experiencing tough times but is expected to regain its momentum with Asia leading the global market. South Korea, China, and Japan are the leading countries in the market accounting almost the entire global shipbuilding market. The shipbuilders in a given country typically specialize in certain types of vessels. South Korean companies, tend to focus on containerships and tankers. China produces large numbers of dry bulk containers and Japan builds large numbers of oil tankers.

The growth drivers of the global shipbuilding market, especially for the global shipbuilding market are: rise in seaborne trade & shipping confidence level and upsurge in the demand for eco-friendly ships. Despite the market is governed by various growth drivers, there are certain challenges faced by the market such as: volatile oil prices, write-downs on existing backlogs, increasing competition in the commercial segment, delay in financial decisions, political & financial instability, financial crises and stringent environmental regulations.

Few Points from List of Tables & Figures (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/492675-toc.html) provided in Global Shipbuilding Market: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020):

List of Tables

Table 1: Global Shipbuilding Market Major Players New Orders on the Basis of Yards; 2015

Table 2: Global Shipbuilding Market Major Players New Orders on the Basis of Yards; 2015

List of Figures

Figure 1: Types of Ships

Figure 2: Value Chain of Shipbuilding Market

Figure 3: Global Shipbuilding New Orders by Value; 2011-2015 (US$ Million)

Figure 4: Global Shipbuilding New Orders by Volume; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 5: Global Shipbuilding Order Book; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 6: Global Shipbuilding Order Completion & Delivery Trend; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 7: Global Shipbuilding Merchant Fleet; 2010-2015 (Billion GT)

Figure 8: Global Commercial Vessel Delivery Trend; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 9: Global Tanker Delivery Trend; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 10: Global Fleet of Tanker; 2010-2015 (Million DWT)

Figure 11: Global Laid Up Tanker; 2010-2015 (Million DWT)

Figure 12: Global Tanker Market by Region; 2013-2015 (%)

Figure 13: Global VLCC Market by Region; 2013-2015 (%)

Figure 14: Global Bulk Carrier Delivery Trend; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 15: Global Fleet of Bulk Carrier; 2010-2015 (Million DWT)

Figure 16: Global Laid Up Bulk Carrier; 2010-2015 (Million DWT)

Figure 17: Global Containership New Orders by Volume; 2010-2015 (Million TEU)

Figure 18: Global Containership Delivery Trend; 2010-2015 (Million GT)

Figure 19: Global Containership Market by Region; 2013-2015 (%)

Figure 20: Global Mega Containership Market by Region; 2013-2015 (%)

Other Related Report on Shipbuilding Market:

Global Shipbuilding Market Report: 2016 Edition (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/477020.html) The shipbuilding industry is responsible for the design and construction of oceangoing vessels all around the world. The shipbuilding industry is involved in the construction and modification of ships and these operations are carried out in specialized facilities called shipyards. The industry builds ships for commercial as well as military purposes. Most of the global ship production is concentrated in Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea, though large shipyards also exist in many other countries.

Explore More Latest Reports on Automotive Market at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/cat/automotive-market-research.html.

For more information, please visit http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/discount.php?name=492675

Contact Info:

Name: Ritesh Tiwari

Email: sales@marketreportsonline.com

Organization: Market Reports Online

Phone: + 1 888 391 5441

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/global-shipbuilding-market-size-trends-and-forecasts-2016-2020-research-report-now-available-at-marketreportsonline-com/124504

Release ID: 124504

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New Retirement Information for Retiring Huntsville Alabama Starts 7/25/2016

Huntsville Opportunity announced the availability of their new retirement information portal Service beginning 7/25/2016. More information can be found at http://hsvopportunity.net/finances.

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Customers looking for the latest retirement information service will soon be able to get involved with Huntsville Opportunity . Today Eric Mulford, CMO at Huntsville Opportunity releases details of the new retirement information service's development.

The new retirement information portal is designed to appeal specifically to people planning to retire in the next few years and includes current articles, ebooks, checklists, videos, contacts and other resources.

See the services here: http://hsvopportunity.net/finance/

Get access to information before meeting with a financial planner. - This feature was included because people preparing to retire need to make intelligent decisions with their retirement savings. Before seeking the services of a retirement planner it's good to be informed. This is great news for the consumer as retirees will be alert to the proper questions to ask, the documents needed and what plans to share for the best experience and advice possible.

Stay current with relevant information in the marketplace for retirement services. - This was made part of the service, since the research is all accessible in the same place without extensive searching. All of the information is screened for relevance, accuracy and applicability. . Customers who invest in the service should enjoy this feature because it allows those planning to retire in the near future to focus attention on important things and not all the time searching for the right information. .

Access to financial professionals in a timely fashion - Huntsville Opportunity made sure to make this part of the new retirement information portal service's development as retirement is an important decision. It frequently requires the services of a professional. Knowing when to seek a professional and what to have ready in advance is vital for retirement to be everything it is supposed to be. Visitors to new retirement information portal service will likely appreciate this because retirees will have solid plans, have the services of quality professional and have the knowledge necessary to face the future confidently..

Eric Mulford, when asked about the new retirement information portal Service said:

"Intelligent people will make better decisions when they have access to the right information. "

This is the latest offering from Huntsville Opportunity and Eric Mulford is particularly excited about this launch because Huntsville Opportunity is providing a top-notched information portal for people preparing to retire. .

Those interested in learning more about Huntsville Opportunity and the new retirement information portal services can do so on the website at http://hsvopportunity.net/finances

For more information, please visit http://hsvopportunity.net/finances

Contact Info:

Name: Eric Mulford

Organization: Huntsville Opportunity

Address: 2305 Andrew Jackson Way NE, Huntsville, AL 35811

Phone: 334-224-8047

Release ID: 124409

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Bronx Westchester New York City Wholesale & Cheap Kitchen Cabinets Site Launched

Kitchen Cabinets NYC announced the launch of a new website with information and extensive photo galleries of its broad range of premier kitchen cabinetry lines with unique design features and available at wholesale costs for homeowners in the New York City area.

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The popular Kitchen Cabinets NYC announced the release of a new website detailing and showcasing its premier offer of stylish kitchen cabinetry from top brands at wholesale costs, in the New York City and surrounding areas.

More information is available at http://kitchencabinetsnyc.com.

Kitchen Cabinets NYC is prominent Bronx based business with an established reputation for its broad range of affordable and high-quality kitchen cabinetry solutions provided to homeowners and contractual workers or property management companies in the New York City area.

The business has announced the launch of a new website detailing its renowned and affordable kitchen cabinetry solutions with top brand cabinetry lines and unique design features available for homeowners in and around the New York City area, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Long Island, Westchester, Queens, New Jersey, and more.

The newly launched website provides extensive photo galleries showcasing the broad selection of stylish kitchen cabinets available, including over 100 different cabinet profiles, in multiple colors and finishes, from the top brands in the market such as Fabuwood, Cabico Custom Cabinetry, Medallion Cabinetry, Canyon Creek Cabinet Company and Elmwood Kitchens.

Free consultations with the Kitchen Cabinets NYC experienced team of professionals, able to provide recommendations and guide customers through the process of selecting the right design, color and finishes or outlining the kitchen cabinetry in their home, can also be requested through the company's new website at the link provided above.

The Kitchen Cabinets NYC explains that "we have the best selection of kitchen cabinets at an affordable price. We believe in providing beautiful and customized cabinets and we believe in making it all affordable. Our wide selection of cabinetry lines and hundreds of unique design features provide an exquisite experience at the price of stock imports".

The business adds that "the Kitchen Cabinets NYC brand represents considerable authority in the industry and Dave Flannery, the founder and owner, has built a professional and courteous team full of ideas and eager to serve, listen or provide great recommendations tailored to any specific needs to produce remarkable results that our clients can be proud of".

For more information, please visit http://www.kitchencabinetsnyc.com

Contact Info:

Name: Kitchen Cabinets NYC

Organization: Kitchen Cabinets NYC

Address: 3395 E Tremont Ave, Bronx, NY 10461

Phone: +1 718-824-1751

Release ID: 124693

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Online Dog Trainer Three-Day One-Dollar Obedience Trial Launched

The Online Dog Trainer, Doggy Dan, is encouraging dog owners to participate in a newly launched three day trial offer of his online dog and puppy training techniques endorsed by the New Zealand SPCA.

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Doggy Dan, The Online Dog Trainer, has launched an online trial that encourages dog owners to trial three days of his dog and puppy training techniques. More information about the three-day training trial can be found at http://obediencetrainingfordogsonline.com.

New Zealand's best known dog trainer, Doggy Dan, is offering new customers the opportunity to trial his dog and puppy training techniques online with a three-day trial. A trusted and leading dog expert, Doggy Dan's training method, delivered via videos from his website, is effective, simple and a pleasure to follow, according to clients.

A professional dog trainer, author and speaker, Doggy Dan provides tips, tricks and secrets to master dog training. He helps people overcome common dog problems and puppy behavioral issues in an easy, step by step fashion using common sense yet powerful training methods that don't include yelling at the dog or using shock collars or clickers.

Doggy Dan also condones the notions that: older dogs are set in their ways and cannot be trained; dogs must be physically dominated in order for them to respect their owner; dog training can be completely handed over to a dog trainer; and, most of all, if a dog can't be trained then there's something wrong with it. To set dog owners straight, Doggy Dan asks them to forget everything they've even been shown or told about training dogs, and to start fresh with his techniques.

He says that, "Dogs don't think like humans, and they do not respond like humans, so people treating their dogs like humans can create behavioral issues or make them worse". Instead, he shows clients how to understand their dog's mind and how they think, which goes a long way towards earning their respect.

The online training trial includes access to: hundreds of Dan's video lessons, weekly updates, community, and allows for individual answers to questions. He shows subscribers how to deal with over 30 common dog behavioral issues. Some of these include: pulling on the leash, jumping on people, not coming when called, toilet training issues, mouthing, biting and chewing issues, crying when left alone, not responsive to commands, digging issues, separation anxiety, aggression, barking, hyperactivity issues, attention seeking and following, tail chasing, jumping on furniture, and many more.

Doggy Dan's online training course is the only dog obedience program endorsed by the New Zealand SPCA.

For more information, please visit http://obediencetrainingfordogsonline.com

Contact Info:

Name: Richard Kells

Organization: Richards Marketing



Release ID: 124667

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Houston TX Mold Testing & Removal Services Site Launched

The Mold Removal Doctor has launched a new site for its mold testing, mold remediation and mold removal services, aimed at helping residents of Houston, Texas, keep their homes toxin and mold free.

--

A new site has been launched for Mold Removal Doctor, a site for its mold testing, mold remediation and mold removal services, helping residents of Houston, Texas, keep their homes health friendly and mold free. For more information about the mold removal service, visit the website: http://moldremovaldoctor.com.

Mold Removal Doctor in Houston can be messaged from the new website, or a phone number is available to call also, for quick and easy appointment setting, then a mold removal specialist will arrive at the clients home for testing and remediation or removal.

The new site also covers in detail information about mold, how it forms, where it's likely to be found and the potential dangers to human health. The Mold Removal Doctor site also provides plenty of tips and practical advice on how to find mold if it's suspected, and details the testing and removal procedure.

The Mold Removal Doctor says that, "Outdoors mold is not a threat to health, but once it spreads indoors it poses a real threat to people, particularly if it's within close proximity to them for long periods of time". If left unchecked, toxins from the mold can affect people who might ingest it, inhale it or come into direct contact with it, as it spreads to the air.

A potentially lethal form of mold to be wary of is black mold, which Mold Removal Doctor professionals will recognize immediately. The company says, on its website, that prolonged exposure to black mold can cause any of the following unexplained or sudden onset of symptoms: persistent exhaustion, unexplained physical discomfort, mental impairment, neurological issues, problems with eyesight, respiratory failure, organ damage, skin problems and others, and in extreme cases its even been known to be fatal.

The company says that constantly dark, damp and humid areas in the home are susceptible to mold formation, allowing it to thriver. Common areas that its mold removal experts will look are: under the kitchen sink, bathrooms, places where the plumbing pipes are installed, HVAC exhaust or unit, under the floorboards, wooden walls and or drywall, ceilings, basements and indoor flower boxes (especially wooden ones).

Once identified, Mold Removal Doctor professionals proceed to: contain the mold and spores; put up barriers to prevent further spread; employ the use of an effective air filtration system; and clean up, sanitize, deodorize and restore any items that are salvageable, to improve the environmental and air quality of a home, before it reaches unacceptable levels of toxicity.

For more information, please visit http://moldremovaldoctor.com

Contact Info:

Name: Kirk Hilbornrr

Organization: Mold Removal Doctor



Release ID: 124662

For more information visit r



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In the wake of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's remarks that he might not honor the U.S. commitment to help defend fellow NATO members if they are attacked, Sen. Ben Sasse on Thursday issued a statement declaring that "Americans keep our word."

As Russian President Vladimir Putin "revives Soviet-style aggression and the threat of violent Islam looms over European and American ciities, the United States stands with our NATO allies," Sasse said.

"Our friends should draw strength and our adversaries should take pause from this simple fact: Americans keep our word."

Trump stated in a New York Times interview published on Thursday that under his presidency the United States might not defend NATO allies like the Baltic states against Russian aggression if they haven't "fulfilled their obligation to us."

Trump has argued that most NATO members are not making sufficient financial contributions to assure NATO's common defense. His comments during the interview have been widely viewed as a sharp departure from U.S. foreign policy.

Sasse, a Republican senator, has declined to support Trump and actively campaigned against him in Iowa in advance of this year's first Republican presidential caucus almost six months ago.
M&Gs Optimal Income fund suffered the worst outflows in June, as investors flocked to safe ground by ploughing money into Legal & Generals Cash trust, figures from FE have revealed.

The 14.8bn M&G Optimal Income fund fared the worst, after 509m was pulled from the fund last month.

The popular 8.6bn Woodford Equity Income fund also featured on the outflow list, coming in 12th after seeing 141m exit the vehicle in the space of a month.

Fund Name Size 1m ago (m) Size Now (m) Performance Effect on Size (m) Outflows (m) 1. M&G Optimal Income 14,554.17 14,785.39 740.5 -509.28 2. Artemis Income 6,564.15 6,098.67 -98.35 -367.13 3. Threadneedle UK Equity Income 3,291.69 3,233.68 135.03 -193.04 4. Aviva Inv Property Trust 1,842.4 1,616.9 -34.92 190.58 5. Threadneedle European Select 3,245.56 3,232.21 164.88 -178.22

Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, FE figures revealed that L&Gs 559m Cash trust topped the list in terms of inflows. Investors injected 477m into the vehicle, causing it to increase by seven times its size.

This comes after figures revealed cash had become the go-to vehicle for investors before Brexit, as BlackRock, Aberdeen and Fidelitys cash funds topped the list as the most researched funds.

The 7.1bn Fundsmith Equity fund also saw strong inflows, pulling in 372m of extra investment during the month.

Mika-John Southworth, director at FE, said the fact the L&G trust has attracted nearly half a billion pounds in the space of a month goes a long way to highlight the cautious mood which had gripped investors.

He pointed out the top 25 winners all have exposure to perceived lower-risk assets.

Fund Name Size 1m ago (m) Size Now (m) Performance Effect on Size (m) Inflows (m) 1. L&G Cash Trust 81.57 558.62 0.02 477.02 2. Fundsmith Equity 6,153.84 7,059.27 533 372.43 3. Invesco Perpetual Global Targeted Returns 5,870.50 6,071.04 -124.59 325.13 4. Royal London FTSE 350 Tracker 4,408.77 4,744.86 25.32 310.77 5. Royal London Cash Plus 1,450.18 1,724.43 0.84 273.41

However, the Fundsmith Equity fund bucks the low-risk trend, Mr Southworth said.

The fund has managed to significantly and consistently outperform both its sector and its benchmark, he said, adding the portfolio returned more than 6 per cent on the day after the EU referendum, when many funds were struggling with news of a Brexit vote.

Ben Willis, head of research at Whitechurch Financial Consultants, said: I am not overly surprised by investors sentiment pre-Brexit. If a significant number of investors were upping their cash weighting then you could see why M&G Optimal Income has suffered proportionately due to its popularity. Ben Willis

I spoke to a number of advisers whose clients were getting nervous about the vote and wanted to move into cash, so Im not surprised by M&G Optimal Income suffering outflows per se, as this is a ubiquitous fund which is why it is just under 15bn in size.

If a significant number of investors were upping their cash weighting then you could see why it has suffered proportionately due to its popularity.
Land Securities, one of the largest commercial property companies in the UK, has given a bleak outlook for the sector for foreseeable future, after the referendum caused property prices to spiral.

In an annual general meeting, the companys chief executive Robert Noel said demand from occupiers of properties was likely to remain subdued following the UKs controversial Brexit vote last month.

This comes weeks after a number of asset managers suspended trading in their commercial property funds, as thousands of investors started cashing in their investments in the wake of the referendum.

Mr Noel said: We expect business uncertainty to persist until there is more clarity on both the timing and terms of the UKs exit from the European Union.

This process may take some time. Demand from occupiers is likely to be subdued until confidence returns and this may have an impact on rental values.

The 8.7bn group saw its share price drop by 16 per cent the morning after the referendum, but has its shares have recovered slightly since then.

Mr Noel said the company proposed increasing its total dividend for the year to 9.9 per cent, adding strong cash flows and large undrawn banking facilities means it is well prepared to purchase more assets in the future.

Land Securities portfolio of quality office properties and retail destinations, together with our very low leverage, high levels of occupancy and long lease terms by historical standards, put us in an excellent position.

Despite the warnings and the general sense of doom and gloom about commercial property, Phil Cook at Thomas Miller Investment said investors should consider increasing their holdings in the sector.

However, Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown, argued the dramatic price movements meant it was a dangerous time to buy into property funds.

katherine.denham@ft.com
The Treasury Select Committee has approved the appointment of Andrew Bailey as chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority.

The committee said leading the FCA would be a tough job but it was satisfied Mr Bailey would be able to provide the right kind of leadership.

It approved Mr Baileys appointment after he appeared before the committee yesterday to give evidence on his role.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the TSC, said: The FCA has been in difficulties since its creation, and on many fronts.

It has a tough job, and requires high quality leadership. The committee is satisfied that Andrew Bailey has demonstrated the professional competence and personal independence to provide this leadership.

Mr Bailey did a good job of creating the PRA out of the ashes of the FSA, whose shortcomings were so heavily exposed by the financial crisis of 2008.

He has extensive experience of implementing the reforms  designed in line with the recommendations of the Vickers and Parliamentary Banking Commissions - necessary to protect millions of UK financial services consumers and businesses.

The committee wishes him every success in his role.

During his evidence yesterday Mr Bailey said tackling retirement savings is his top priority.

He said the landscape was pretty complicated and somewhat legacy, adding that there is a need to make long-term savings and pensions clearer and more transparent.

Mr Bailey was appointed after Martin Wheatley stood down last year when former chancellor George Osborne told him his contract would not be renewed when it expired.

Before joining the FCA this month he had been chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority since 2013.
One of the most moving passages that I ever read in a novel is from Slaughterhouse Five where Kurt Vonnegut describes emerging from a bunker into the bombed remains of Dresden where he was held as a prisoner of war.

Looking at the political situation in the UK brings that scene to my mind for some reason.

A Farmers Weekly poll suggested that more than 70% of farmers were not in favour of remaining in the EU.

They are now, no doubt, celebrating their liberty and looking at the scorched earth in front of us with enthusiasm and excitement.

Matthew Naylor is the managing director of Naylor Flowers, a South Lincolnshire business that grows cut flowers and potatoes for supermarkets. Matthew is a Nuffield scholar. is the managing director of Naylor Flowers, a South Lincolnshire business that grows cut flowers and potatoes for supermarkets. Matthew is a Nuffield scholar.

Perhaps, had they been early witnesses to the burning remains of Dresdens historic architecture, they would have regarded that as a massive and thrilling opportunity to rebuild a prosperous future too.

See also: My name is Matthew and Im an addict

I have rather less optimism in my belly.

As an employer of migrant labour, an exporter of significant volumes of British produce to the EU and a net contributor to the exchequer, my business has been dealt a punishing blow.

I dont know where the electorate think the UK will sell the 45% of its exports that were previously sold to the EU.

I dont know who they think will harvest their fruit and vegetables. I dont know what they think this has done to our international reputation.

I despair at the situation and I pity the next generation for the burden that this wretched decision places upon them.

Crying fits

In between my uncontrollable crying fits, I try to find chinks of optimism amid the uncertainty.

The CAP was unquestionably flawed and so the British countryside could eventually be better off without it.

UK agriculture, in a very broad analysis, is divided into loss-making blackgrass growers in the East and loss-making milk protestors in the West.

Everybody is miserable. Land is unaffordable. The chemicals dont work anymore. Animals have become meat machines.

The recent CAP reform all but gave up on biodiversity. A large percentage of the UK population is fat and unhealthy.

Probably it is OK to wave goodbye to the policy which delivered this situation and to build a new future for agriculture.

Funeral

Does it matter if the 30,000 least-profitable farms in Britain go bankrupt without their Basic Farm Payment?

Most of them voted to be put out of their misery, after all. Probably they would like us to wear bright colours for the funeral.

I am now praying that the devolved administrations of the UK grasp the opportunity to create a farming policy which takes account of our food and energy needs and our natural strengths.

I sincerely hope our new leaders dont take the lazy and easy decision to repatriate the same policy of area-based farm payments.

It would be the easiest system to implement and the NFU will almost certainly argue for it, but we need a much braver policy than that.

Big Bang

The right farming policy could be the Big Bang that delivers the same market-driven style that characterises agriculture in New Zealand.

We deserve a system of support payments which make it much easier for good farm businesses to succeed and much harder for bad farm businesses to survive.

In the short term, we must brace ourselves for choppy waters and hope our new cabinet ministers are able to negotiate trade agreements which retain our export markets.

The farming industry might be the turkey that voted for Christmas but the EU is the one with the sage and onion.
We received hundreds of entries for the Farmers Weekly/Woodland Trust photography competition. The standard was fantastically high, but after much deliberation, here is our winner and two others that particularly impressed the judges.

Luke Moseley took the winning shot  The Beautiful Lake District  in June near Keswick in Cumbria.

I spotted the scene through a gap in the hedge and had to pull the car over to take the picture, says Luke, who was driving home to Rochdale from the Lake District.

The light was amazing and the way the scene was laid out looked like a painting.

Luke became really interested in photography when he got a dog two years ago. Taking my silly springador, Dexter, out gave me the push to visit new places and living in the north of England I found I was never short of subjects, he says.

The countryside and landscapes in Britain can provide such a wide range of photo opportunities due to the constantly changing weather and light. I can go to the same place every day and take a completely different shot of the area. 

He used a Sony A7 camera with a Sigma 24-105 lens for the shot.

See also: Tips for farm photography from Katy Gambles

Highly commended images

Christopher Walmsley took the picture below on his familys farm in Prees, Shropshire, with a Nikon D90 with a 12mm wide-angle lens.

It had just snowed and I was out walking around the farm. It was very foggy in the morning and this picture was taken just as the fog was clearing.

James Alexander went out one evening last summer to see how combining was progressing on the family farm in north-west Kent.

He spotted the prospect of a good sunset, but didnt have his SLR camera with him, so improvised with his phone.

Sunsets can develop really quickly and you have to stay and watch them, he says. I took a series of images over 30 minutes and this was the last one. Soon after this, the colour disappeared.
STANTON -- Russ and Marla Gubbels went home Tuesday night with a couple jars and a sense of unease about the 30-inch pipeline that transports Canadian tar sand oil across their farm northeast of Randolph.

The jars were given to them by the advocacy group Bold Nebraska for gathering samples of soil and water from their land to be tested by an independent lab in Omaha.

The sense of unease was given stems from what they see as a lack of oversight and lack of information as TransCanada Corp. digs up and replaces sections of its Keystone pipeline.

"I'd kind of be an idiot not to be concerned," said Russ Gubbels, who was one of about 25 people who attended a meeting organized by Bold Nebraska and held at the Red Road Herbs Retreat & Learning Center near Stanton.

TransCanada is digging up and replacing sections of the pipeline for two different reasons, only six years after it began operating in June 2010, said Angela Pickett, one of two representative of the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that attended the meeting.

The first surfaced in the wake of an oil leak from the pipeline discovered April 2 by a landowner near Freeman, South Dakota. A third-party investigator hired by TransCanada found a small hole in a weld that leaked about two drops per minute. It's unknown how long it leaked but officials estimate it spilled 400 barrels of crude oil.

The pipeline administration ordered TransCanada to verify the integrity of the pipeline and address any areas of concern. The company identified numerous girth welds to be replaced, including seven in the Nebraska counties of Cedar, Wayne, Stanton, Cuming and Colfax, she said.

The second reason TransCanada is digging up the pipeline is to replace portions that don't meet current government strength guidelines that became an issue after the pipeline was installed. Replacing those sections will allow the company to run the pipeline at higher pressure.

TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper on Wednesday disputed Pickett's comments. He said the company is not replacing girth welds and is only replacing sections to allow the pipeline to operate at higher pressure.

"We did carry out additional integrity inspections on areas that may have similar characteristics on the Keystone Pipeline as requested by PHMSA following the incident in Freeman, however, no welds or sections of pipeline were identified as needing to be repaired or replaced," Cooper said in an email.

"As such, there are no plans to carry out additional pipe replacements beyond the proactive maintenance work scheduled in order to comply with guidelines issued by PSMSA so we can operate the pipeline at a higher operating pressure."

Cooper said the work to replace sections of the pipeline is not related to the Freeman, South Dakota, leak.

In addition to Nebraska, pipeline sections are being replaced in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and South Dakota. Work started in May and is expected to continue through mid-2017. Crews have completed six section projects so far, TransCanada said.

"The Keystone Pipeline continues to operate safely and there is no public safety issue or integrity concern with the pipeline," Cooper said.

"This maintenance work is simply being done to comply with PHMSA's guidelines and so we can safely increase the operating pressure on the pipeline," he said.

Bold Nebraska founder Jane Kleeb said Nebraska landowners have no way to verify TransCanada's safety assurances.

"Our fear is slow leaks have been happening and they know that and that is why they have been doing these replacements ... We feel there should be some level of accountability of TransCanada," said Kleeb, one of the foremost grassroots organizers who opposed TransCanada's failed Keystone XL, the final phase of its Keystone pipeline network.

President Barack Obama last year killed the Keystone XL project by denying a permit TransCanda needed to build across the border between the United States and Canada.

PHMSA has had inspectors at Keystone excavation sites, Pickett said, but their reports are not made public. Kleeb said Bold Nebraska plans to file Freedom of Information Act requests demanding those reports.

Pickett said both the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have the authority to do soil and water testing.

Crystal Rhoads, an elected member of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, also spoke at the meeting encouraging people who attended to contact state regulators and lawmakers to encourage them to give the Public Service Commission more authority over pipeline issues, including safety and reporting.

Currently the Public Service Commission only has sway over approval of the path pipelines take through the state and violations of the state laws that require companies to restore land after digging it up, Rhoads said.

The Keystone pipeline network runs from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City in southern Nebraska where it splits south and east. The south section connects to refineries along the Gulf Coast while the eastern section runs to Illinois.

The pipeline administration is reviewing a request by Rep. Brad Ashford, 2nd District Democrat from Omaha, for independent testing of soil and water along sections of the pipeline that TransCanada plans to replace.
MCU Latest News & Update: Spider-Man Vs Giant Man Concept Art From 'Captain America: Civil War' Reminds Fans Why They Hated Tom Holland's Peter Parker

"Captain America: Civil War" could be considered the most serious Marvel Cinematic Universe flick so far. However, it did have some light moments, thanks to Paul Rudd's Scott Lang and Tom Holland's Peter Parker. Needless to say, the scene where Spider-Man takes on Giant Man was one of the most entertaining sequences in "Captain America 3".

Andy Park Reveals Awesome Giant Man Vs. Spider-Man Concept Art For "Captain America: Civil War"

So it was a welcome sight when Andy Park shared some awesome "Civil War" concept art on Twitter. The Marvel Studio lead concept artist recently posted the MCU Giant Man vs. Spider-Man art. In addition to that, he revealed that he geeked out over the idea of the two superhero insects duking it out in the film.

Fans understandably loved Andy Park's concept art. Some even believe it looks better than the real thing in "Captain America: Civil War". That is, until io9 reminded everyone why they didn't like Tom Holland's Spider-Man in the MCU film.

Tom Holland's Spider-Man Isn't "Geek" Enough For Marvel Geeks?

Remember when Spider-Man tried to get Team Iron Man to work together to bring down Giant Man? The webslinger made a reference to "that really old movie, 'Empire Strikes Back'" and called AT-ATs "walking thingies."

The comment was pretty hilarious when paired up with Tony Stark's statement about carbon-dating. However, some MCU fans were not amused by the new Spider-Man's "Star Wars" ignorance.

Some believed that Peter Parker is a nerd who would at least know the correct term for the "walking thingies" or that that ice planet is Hoth. Overall, MCU fans seemed to have discovered a newfound hate for Spider-Man who should be smarter than he appeared in "Captain America: Civil War".

What do you think of Spider-Man's "Star Wars" reference in "Captain America: Civil War"? Was it an unusual line for the character? Let us know in the comments.
'Minecraft: Story Mode' Episode 7 Release Date, News & Update: Get Episode 1 For Free! Is 'Access Denied' Already Available Online?

"Minecraft" fans are currently celebrating the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and it looks like Microsoft has plenty of goodies to give away! Want to get "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 1 for free? It's possible, and completely legal! In addition to that, there are rumors that one of the freebies from Microsoft is the highly-anticipated "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 7!

"Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 1 Currently Available For Free

In celebration of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft is giving out awesome freebies for everyone. One of these amazing deals is the chance to get "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 1 for free.

"The Order of the Stone" was initially released on October 13, 2015. The episode follows Jesse and his/her friends as they take on a monster known as Wither Storm. To defeat the creature, they must reunite the Order of The Stone in "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 1.

Fans can download "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 1 for free here. It's as easy as simply clicking on the link and claiming "The Order of the Stone."

Getting "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 1 is a true treat from Microsoft. But is it also possible to get "Access Denied" before its release date?

Is "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 7 Already Available For Download?

"Access Denied" is not scheduled for release until the last week of July. However, fans are already looking for a way to download "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 7 ahead of its release date. So is there a free version of the episode available from Microsoft?

Unfortunately, fans will have to wait a little longer for "Minecraft: Story Mode: Episode 7. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer for "Access Denied" below.

"Access Denied" is the seventh episode of the graphic adventure game from Telltale Games and Mojang. "Minecraft: Story Mode" Episode 7 will be available in PC, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on July 26.
Ian Somerhalder, Nikki Reed Split: Controlling Her Husband & Nina Dobrev's Reunion In 'TVD' Season 8? Elena Absent In The Final Season?

The rumors about Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed's divorce are getting stronger as there are swirling reports that Nina Dobrev is about to return to "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8. In fact, the "Sleepy Hollow" star even courted her husband to the drama series' cast reunion.

There are reports claiming that Nikki Reed is now being alarmed that Ian Somerhalder will be united with Nina Dobrev in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8. As "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 will be the final tale of the supernatural drama, it looks like The CW will bring Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrave back on screen.

However, Celeb Dirty Laundry hinted that the reunion between Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 might no longer happen. In a recent post of "The Vampire Diaries" creator Julie Plec, she shared a photo of the cast's get-together, but Nina Dobrev was nowhere to be seen.

This leads to speculations that Nikki Reed avoids Ian Somerhalder to meet Nina Dobrev once again and the latter won't join "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8.

Happy Season 8, 5 in a series. #TVD A photo posted by julieplec (@julieplec) on Jul 14, 2016 at 8:06pm PDT

On the contrary, Inquisitr reported that Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed are actually living a happy life and the divorce rumors are all lie. As a matter of fact, Nikki Reed is not alarmed at all that Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev will be back together again on "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8.

"Nikki and Ian are so in love. There's nothing he could possibly do to upset her," a source told Hollywood Life, as per Inquisitr. "The idea of Ian and Nina reuniting on screen for 'The Vampire Diaries' doesn't bother her one bit. She has no issues with this whatsoever."

Meanwhile, the hearsays that Nina Dobrev is going to be back in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 to reprise her role as Elena excites the fans even more. However, Julie Plec explained that when Nina Dobrev cast her goodbye to "The Vampire Diaries," she strongly clarified that she will concentrate doing her other endeavors.

But, Julie Plec promised that she and The CW will try their best to get Nina Dobrev back in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 even for one just one episode. "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 will be back on Oct. 21 on The CW.
'Star Wars Rebels' Season 3 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Battle Droids Are Coming To The Empire

The third "Star Wars Rebels" season is currently in development. A major part of the prequel period will allegedly feature an encounter with the Rebels and battle droids are rumored to arrive soon.

Dave Filoni, co-creator and executive producer of "Star Wars Rebels," provided some insight about the Battle Droids at Star Wars Celebration in London.

Filoni told IGN that there several funny things about the Battle Droids in the "Star Wars Rebels" animated series. He said that they are actually a lot better compared to the ones that they featured in the Clone Wars series.

Filoni explained that the Battle Droids were an asset in the first season. Due to their nature, they did not spend much time fixing the robots and improving their appearance, although other aspects of "Star Wars Rebels" were enhanced.

Filoni continued that not a lot of people, aside from Matt Wood, cared about the Battle Droids, so they do not expect many to notice the upgrade as well.

In terms of the Rebels, Kilian Plunkett made a closer observation and they decided not to overstylize them differently.

This meant maintaining the true head shape, similar to the original Battle Droids concept by Doug Chiang. He said that they were pleased with the version that will appear in "Star Wars Rebels."

The co-creator did not specify the reason and manner of the appearance of Battle Droids in "Star Wars Rebels" Season 3, but he shared that they are somewhat moving through the path that they had in the previous season.

They are delving into some Clone War elements and developing these thoroughly. Filoni said that an episode about the final battle of the Clone Wars which feature the Battle Droids and the "Star Wars Rebels" characters. It was an important story for Ezra and "Star Wars Rebels" fans will see why soon.

Filoni also shared on Coming Soon that he admired having the capacity to use elements to bridge the gap between various "Star Wars Rebels" generations.

He said that it was a great opportunity to put these "Star Wars Rebels" features in the same space as classic Star Wars elements.

There were a lot of revelations in the process because there used to be very few stories on how the prequels and classic trilogy crossed over.

The appearance of the Battle Droids in "Star Wars Rebels" is just as significant as the meeting of characters from the prequel era and classic trilogy.

"Star Wars Rebels" Season 3 will launch in fall 2016.
'Teen Mom 2' Latest News & Update: Jenelle Evans 'Disappointing' Pregnancy News Rant Had Nothing To Do With Chelsea Houska?

The drama continues on 'Teen Mom 2' despite the fact that the MTV series is currently on hiatus. It looks like Jenelle Evans has confirmed that she is once again (surprise!) pregnant before ranting on social media over all the negativity from netizens. But was she really referring to Chelsea Houska or the rest of the world?

'Teen Mom 2' Star Jenelle Evans Gets Into Car Accident, Ends Up Pregnant (Again)

Well, that's not exactly how it happened. Jenelle Evans and David Eason were recently involved in a car accident. Although the "Teen Mom 2" star and her boyfriend escaped unscathed, a police report revealed that Evans is actually 10 weeks (or more) pregnant (via Yahoo).

Usually, the good news would have been greeted with congratulations. However, the internet did not react very nicely to Jenelle Evans' third pregnancy. Not surprisingly, the "Teen Mom 2" star responded with an (instantly deleted) Instagram post calling for justice.

Jenelle Evans wrote that the internet trolls "disgust" her for not asking how she was after "the car accident". The "Teen Mom 2" star also stated that netizens had zero concerns for her condition. "I want privacy," she wrote.

The "Teen Mom 2" star concluded by writing that it was "funny someone else comes out with news they are pregnant and the world is overjoyed."

Does That Sound Like A Slam At Jenelle Evans' "Teen Mom 2" Co-Star Chelsea Houska?

People immediately interpreted the last sentence as a reference to other "Teen Mom 2" star Chelsea Houska, who is currently expecting another child. The response to Houska's pregnancy have been mostly positive while fans didn't seem happy with Jenelle Evans' being pregnant for the third time.

However, it looks like Jenelle Evans was simply making a general comment about how people usually respond to pregnancy.

Do you think Jenelle Evans was referring to other "Teen Mom 2" star Chelsea Houska? Let us know in the comments.
San Diego Comic Con 2016 Latest News & Update: Netflix's 'Luke Cage' Debuts With No Jessica Jones; Full Cast List & Everything We Know So Far

Netflix is getting ready to launch its new "Luke Cage" drama series. More details about the Marvel character were revealed at San Diego Comic Con 2016.

The"Luke Cage" panel was at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2016 at Ballroom 20, from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. It will be the first time that the Marvel Cinematic Universe set up their own panel at the huge event.

Luke Cage, played by Mike Colter, made his first ever appearance, as well as some things to expect in the upcoming premiere season of the show.

The panel was moderated by executive producer and Marvel's Head of Television Jeph Loeb. An official trailer was also shown during the event.

UPI stated that Luke Cage first appeared in the "Jessica Jones" series on Netflix. He was a bartender at a posh Hell's Kitchen location.

Subsequently, Luke Cage's bar was destroyed, compelling him to leave and return to Harlem. A new promotional shot was shown, hinting that Luke Cage will be bartending in a new place.

Fansided reported that the "Luke Cage" panel members at SDCC included Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Alfre Woodward, Theo Rossi, Simone Missick, Frank Whaley and executive producer CheoHodari Coker. However, Krysten Ritter, who played Jessica Jones, was not with the group.

Luke Cage is a strong and powerful character, gifted with unbreakable skin that makes him almost completely immune to physical attacks. In the first season of "Luke Cage," he will return home to Harlem and begin fighting crime to protect others.

Mahershala Ali will play Cornel "Cottonmouth" Stokes, a night club owner engaged in illegal activities that Cage intends to put an end to.

Alfre Woodward plays Mariah Dillard, a local politician and cousin of Stokes who aims to improve Harlem. She is not too keen on how Cage is solving crime, however.

Theo Rossi will play Shades, a Harlem criminal who has connections to Cage's background. Simone Missick will take on the role of Misty Knight, a police detective who aids Cage.

Frank Whaley will play Rafael Scarfe, Misty's police partner. Erik LaRay Harvey and Rosario Dawson will also be part of the cast.

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones had a romantic relationship in the last Netflix series. It is still unknown whether she will be part of "Luke Cage" Season 1, although it is likely that she will have a cameo appearance at least.

Ritter is scheduled to appear again in the upcoming series, "The Defenders," together with Mike Colter as "Luke Cage," "Daredevil" and "Iron Fist."

"Luke Cage" will premiere on Sept. 30, 2016 on Netflix.
One Punch Man Season 2 Air Date May Be Confirmed Soon; Who Is Amai Mask? [SPOILERS, NEWS & UPDATE]

The "One Punch Man" Season 2 release date has been the subject of speculations lately. Understandably, some fans want it to happen sooner; the anticipation to know what happens after that explosive first season finale is just too much to bear for some fans.

There are those who speculate that the timetable of the "One Punch Man" Season 2 release date could be escalated depending on how the English dubbed first season will be received by fans.

English Dubbed One Punch Man Season 1 Well Received

To update fans who may not be aware yet, an English dubbed "One Punch Man" season 1 was premiered on Toonami last July 16. The reception of this English dubbed version is of interest to fans because there were previous assumptions that an earlier "One Punch Man" release date is possible if the English dubbed first season is well-received.

Thankfully, reports say that the English dubbed version currently airing on Toonami is well-received indeed. Of course it had to be. With nothing else to do, English speaking fans might as well watch how good the first season feels when viewed using their language in the dialogues.

What this means, hopefully, is that creator Yusuke Murata as well as the networks might be compelled to move the "One Punch Man" season 2 release date a bit earlier, knowing there are hordes of eager fans waiting for it.

New Enemy Amai Mask Could Be Featured When "One Punch Man" Season 2 Releases

But an even more interesting topic to speculate on are the possible strong fighters Saitama could be facing when "One Punch Man" season 2 release date finally arrives. Three strong contenders were put forward including an upgraded Lord Boros, Fang-an's stellar former student Garou and Amai Mask.

Who exactly is this Amai Mask? Unfortunately, nothing much is known about Amai Mask's past. What is known is that Amai is definitely strong enough to qualify him to the S class, which could indeed make him a lethal enemy when "One Punch Man" season 2 release date finally comes. He is super fast, immensely powerful and able to regenerate his body, even reattaching his severed arm according to OnePunchManWikia.

And here is the interesting part. Fubuki, who witnessed Siatama's power in combat convinced that he will be no match for Amai Mask. It should be one gigantic match once the two cross each other's path when "One Punch Man" season 2 release date comes.

"One Punch Man" Season 2 Release Date

There is no exact date set for the launching of the second season yet. What is known for now is that "One Punch Man" season 2 release date could happen this coming October, 2016. In addition, there is that possibility that an update may be revealed soon in the ongoing SDCC.
CSULB alum wins gold at the 38th Long Beach Marathon  which was his first
A jury trial got underway Thursday for a former Oregon State University student accused of raping a woman at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in 2015.

Tyler Lazell Warren, who was enrolled at OSU from fall 2013 through spring 2015, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree rape, second-degree sexual abuse and first-degree burglary in connection with a July 12, 2015 incident at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. On Thursday, Amie Matusko, assistant district attorney, and defense attorney Robert Corl, took part in selecting the jury for the case, paring a field of 31 potential jurors down to 12 and three alternates. Opening statements are set for Friday morning and the trial is expected to continue until Wednesday.

The case was scheduled to go to trial in January, but there were several delays as parties waited on the results of DNA testing.

Warren is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in the early morning hours at the fraternity, where the woman was renting a room for the summer, according to a probable cause affidavit. Warren has been listed as booked in the Benton County Jail since July 15, 2015, after the woman reported the incident to Corvallis police.
New School Year Approaching: Get Tech Right This Time!

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By Stefania Viscusi

Assignment Desk, Content Management By Stefania ViscusiAssignment Desk, Content Management

No More Pencils, No More Books, No More Teacher's Dirty Looks may be the name of a popular kids book by Diane deGroat and a chant school kids start repeating once summer rolls around. But with July quickly coming to a close, the time to start thinking about the new and upcoming school year has already approached. This chant still holds true at the start of a new school year - especially as todays modern classroom moves away from the use of pencils and physical books and starts using technology more and more to further enrich and improve the learning experience.





Having quality audio solutions in place is one way officials at Revolabs (News - Alert) say help schools propel the learning experience to a higher level.

Revolabs also offers a Dean's List Education Discount Program for schools for U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand-based educational institutions that provides a 10 percent discount at the time of purchase of a qualifying Revolabs product order.

Nows the time to start thinking about how to adopt technology for learning and put a proper plan in place to adequately develop the right AV solution for your educational space.

Having poor audio quality in the modern classroom can do more than just hamper the learning experience, it can also cause fatigue. With a more immersive learning experience, kids can hear every word they need to learn loud and clear and get more out of their overall educational experience.

To talk more about the topic, the company is hosting a Webinar Tues., July 26 at 10 a.m. Eastern titled, Think About Audio Now Before its Back to School. Be sure to register if you plan to ace the school year!

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Edited by Alicia Young
This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise.

Corvallis Police Department

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20

DUII - DRUGS: 4:38 p.m., 160 N.E. Conifer Blvd. Denise Irvin, 54, of Albany was arrested and charged with DUII of drugs following a traffic crash. Irvin reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.0 percent. Irvin was booked into the Benton County Jail.

PLANE CRASH: 9:58 a.m., 5500 S.W. Airport Place. Officers and firefighters responded to a report of a non-injury plane crash at the Corvallis Municipal Airport. The pilot reported that the front landing gear did not engage and he crash landed. The plane was later towed to a hangar.

Benton County Sheriff's Office

MONDAY, JULY 18

CHICKENS: 8 a.m., 19000 block of South Mountain Road, Alsea. A woman reported that her neighbor's chickens had been roaming freely on her property and that "about 20 chickens had been on her porch pooping and making a mess." The woman also reported that she had told her neighbor about the incident and she had not seen the chickens since.
Bangalore

The office-space crunch in the country's tech capital has prompted a top developer to acquire an upcoming luxury hotel project to expand its business park.

RMZ Corp is acquiring what would have been Bengaluru's second Shangri-La hotel for a little over $100 million (Rs 700 crore) to build additional 2.5 million sq ft office space in the city's IT suburbs.

RMZ has struck a deal to buy the 15-acre hotel project, adjoining its Ecoworld business park on Outer Ring Road, from rival Adarsh Developers. The Qatar Investment Authority, an investor in RMZ, is funding the transaction signalling the robust appetite for rent-yielding office properties, which count the tech units of marquee global corporations as tenants. RMZ is expected to pull down the structure substantially for office space development.

Hong Kong-based luxury hotels group Shangri-La said in 2015 that the new hotel was scheduled to open in December 2016 with 300 guest rooms and suites. The Asian hospitality chain operates a 19-storey, 397-key hotel near the city centre. The second one was to be named Shangri-La Palm Retreat.

Another large commercial developer, Embassy Group, and Singapore's Ascendas have also clinched land deals in recent months to expand office portfolio in north Bengaluru. The latest deal-making could see RMZ Ecoworld taking its leasing potential to 10 million sq ft, rivalling Manyata Tech Park of Embassy as the city's largest work destination.RMZ vice-chairman Manoj Menda and Adarsh Developers CMD B M Jayeshankar were not immediately unavailable for comment.

In the April-June quarter, Bengaluru's office rentals spiralled as vacancy rate dropped to 3.4%, much below the desired 10% in a stable market. This is a continuation of the trend seen last year, when the city recorded its highest leasing activity of about 14 million sqft. Bengaluru has a total stock of 96 million sq ft Grade-A office space today, according to independent property consultancy JLL.

The strong office-leasing market in Bengaluru is a contrast to the otherwise-sedate real-estate story in the country. While residential property market is in disarray, even commercial space activity is yet to mirror the GDP numbers. The office leasing market in the software exports, or broadly off shoring, has made cities like Bengaluru an attractive investment bet for sovereign wealth managers and global pension funds searching for long-term stable yields in commercial real estate.

The growth in off shoring activity by the world's top financial services giants, the rise of the billion-dollar start-ups and the continuing story of global corporations moving R&D and engineering work have sustained and fuelled Bengaluru's office leasing activity .

Top US banks have expanded their tech and back office work in the city. E-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon struck some of the biggest office leasing deals in the past 18 months.

Source: Economic Times, Bangalore
NRW traffic : Improvements on the horizon

Dusseldorf For commuters using public transport or the autobahn, some relief is planned for down the road.

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North Rhine Westphalias (NRW) transportation minister Michael Groschek says it is so far the best plan put forth for NRW. Hes referring to a federal transportation outline for 2030. For NRW, it would be a huge boost to combat traffic jams. On Thursday, Groschek presented federal transportation infrastructure plans, which appear to be very profitable for NRW.

Groschek is focusing his efforts on trying to ensure that the Cologne Hauptbahnhof (central train station) becomes a more complete facility with better connectivity of all public and commercial transportation. He says the division into two separate train stations at Deutz and the central station must end; Cologne needs a real main station not plagued by delays. No other large city in Germany has such a haphazard central station, he comments.

In and around Cologne, more rail tracks must be built. One project that will definitely happen is the Rhein-Ruhr-Express (RRX). The federal government will invest around 2.5 billion euros in that infrastructure improvement. It will have its own track between Cologne and Dortmund, meaning trains can run more often. The first RRX trains should be running in 2019.
Article

Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
Google app to bring Indian art and culture a step closer News oi -GizBot Bureau

Search engine giant Google on Thursday launched a new "Google Cultural Institute" app and website which will help art lovers in India and across the globe discover famous works and artifacts from several museums from over 70 countries.

The app gives users an opportunity to search for anything related to art and culture like the history of newly-declared World Heritage Site Nalanda University in Bihar to panoramic imagery of its excavation.

SEE ALSO: Indian teenager bags Google Community Impact Award for Asia

It also allow you to navigate through the artworks by one of the founders of modern Indian painting Abanindranath Tagore to how eminent painter Amrita Sher-Gil's palette changed through her journeys between India and Europe.

"The 'Google Arts and Culture; app helps art lovers take a walk through famous museums and artefacts from world over, offering them a rich immersive experience," said Duncan Osborn, Product Manager, Google Cultural Institute, in a statement.

SEE ALSO: Salman Khan, Sunny Leone are Google's most searched Indian actors

Making India's rich cultural heritage come live, the virtual reality headset Google Cardboard gives users an opportunity to take a virtual tour of the Sanskriti Museum, established in 1978 which is home to one of the largest collections of Indian art and craft.

The users can also subscribe to the new Google Arts and Culture YouTube channel where they can find original content dedicated to culture hosted by the YouTub community.

Source: IANS

Best Mobiles in India

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Nice design language

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus features a nice and fresh design language with a metallic build. It looks elegant enough and comes in different color options including Silver, Onyx Black, and Pearl White.

Packs a decent screen

The phablet boasts a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display that packs it with a FHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This gives it a pixel density of 401 ppi that sounds pretty standard.

MediaTek SoC powers it

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6755 processor clocked at 1.8 GHz along with Mali-T860MP2 graphics under the hood. It is paired with 3 GB RAM and 16 GB of internal storage space that can be expanded up to 256 GB using a micro SD card.

Dual-LED flash gives better performance

The Vibe K5 Note is given a 13 MP main snapper at its back with dual-tone dual-LED flash and PDAF. The camera supports FHD 1080p video recording as well. Also on board is an 8 MP front-facer that can help in clicking decent selfies.

Runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop

The Lenovo phablet is a mid-ranger that is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop OS that is dated. The OS is topped with the the company's own Vibe UI that gives added customization.

Fingerprint scanner

There is a fingerprint scanner at the back of the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note that makes the device more secure. This scanner is positioned right below the rear camera sensor.

Won't run out of charge

There is a 3,500 mAh battery that fuels the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note. It will undoubtedly give at least one day of backup to the device.
Now smartphone can help men test sperm health at home News oi -GizBot Bureau

Those men who find it too embarrassing to visit a fertility clinic to test the health of their sperm have reasons to cheer, thanks to a new smartphone-based system that allows men to have a semen test at home to know about potential fertility problems.

Using a low-cost lens, Yoshitomo Kobori from Dokkyo Medical University Koshigaya Hospital in Japan and his colleagues at the University of Illinois in Chicago created a smartphone microscope to analyse semen samples at home, with help from an app that is in development.

SEE ALSO: Edward Snowden helping MIT team build spy proof iPhone

Clipped on to the camera of a smartphone, the lens magnifies an image by 555 times - perfect for looking at sperm cells, New Scientist reported.

"I thought a smartphone microscope could be an easy way to look at problems with male fertility," Kobori was quoted as saying.

SEE ALSO: App to help scientists study cancer genetics

To do a home test, a man would have to wait for around five minutes after ejaculation for the semen to liquefy, then apply a small amount to a plastic sheet and press it against the microscope for inspection.

The camera can take a short video clip of the sperm which can then be uploaded to a computer for further analysis to see if it meets the key indicators of male fertility.

This can be done without getting semen on to the phone, Kobori said.

The smartphone microscope is already commercially available in Japan, and Kobori hopes it will soon be on sale in other countries, the report said.

Source: IANS

Best Mobiles in India

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'Feels Like Home Season 2' offers something real and tangible to think about; takes home a pertinent point - if your intentions are good, there is nothing in life that isn't achievable.
Russian Agent Sentenced to 10 Years for Acting as Unregistered Russian Government Agent and Leading Scheme to Illegally Export Controlled Technology to Russian Military

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, July 21, 2016



Alexander Fishenko, a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $500,000 in criminal proceeds following his guilty plea on Sept. 9, 2015 to a 19-count indictment. Fishenko pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of the Russian government within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General, conspiring to export and illegally exporting controlled microelectronics to Russia, conspiring to launder money and obstruction of justice.

The sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers of the Eastern District of New York.

Fishenko, 10 other individuals and two corporations  ARC Electronics Inc. (ARC) and Apex System LLC (Apex)  were indicted in October 2012. Five defendants previously pleaded guilty, three individuals were convicted in October 2015 after trial and three individuals remain at large. ARC is now defunct and Apex, a Russian-based procurement firm, failed to appear in court.

"Alexander Fishenko illegally shipped millions of dollars of high-technology products to Russian military affiliated actors in clear violation of United States law," said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. "Export laws exist as an important part of our national security framework and protecting national assets from ending up in the hands of our potential adversaries is one of our highest priorities."

"U.S. export laws exist to check the proliferation overseas of dangerous military technologies but Fishenko, while working illegally as an agent of the Russian government, flouted these laws in order to line his pockets," stated U.S. Attorney Capers. "Today's sentence sends a powerful message of deterrence to others, who like Fishenko and his co-conspirators, would be willing to sacrifice the national security of the United States for their personal financial gain."

In 1998, Fishenko founded ARC and also served as an executive of Apex. Between approximately October 2008 and October 2012, Fishenko led a conspiracy to obtain advanced, technologically cutting-edge microelectronics from manufacturers and suppliers located within the United States and to export those high-tech goods to in Russia while evading the government licensing system set up to control such exports. These commodities have applications and are frequently used in a wide range of military systems, including radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and detonation triggers. Russia does not domestically produce many of these sophisticated goods. Between 2002 and 2012, ARC shipped approximately $50 million worth of microelectronics and other technologies to Russia. ARC's largest clients  including Apex subsidiaries  were certified suppliers of military equipment for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

To induce manufacturers and suppliers to sell these high-tech goods to ARC and to evade applicable export controls, Fishenko and his co-conspirators provided false end-user information in connection with the purchase of the goods, concealed the fact that they were exporters and falsely classified the exported goods on export records submitted to the Department of Commerce.

Ultimate recipients of ARC's products included a research unit for the Russian FSB internal security agency, a Russian entity that builds air and missile defense systems and another that produces electronic warfare systems for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Today's sentencing took place before Senior U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. of the Eastern District of New York.

Assistant Attorney General Carlin joined U.S. Attorney Capers in extending his grateful appreciation to the FBI's Houston Field Office and the Department of Commerce for their leading roles in the investigation.

The government's case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office's National Security & Cybercrime Section. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard M. Tucker and Una A. Dean of the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney David Recker of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Kedeshian of the Eastern District of New York is handling the forfeiture aspects of the case.

16-851

National Security Division (NSD)

USAO - New York, Eastern

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Russian Agent Sentenced for Illegally Exporting US High-tech Gear

by VOA News July 21, 2016

A federal court in New York on Thursday sentenced an admitted agent of the Russian government to 10 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $500,000 in profit he'd gained from his criminal activity, which focused on acquiring and secretly shipping abroad high-tech microelectronics for Russian military equipment.

Alexander Fishenko pleaded guilty to all 19 charges brought by the Department of Justice. U.S. officials said a company that Fishenko had founded shipped $50 million worth of electronic products to Russia between 2002 and 2012, all in defiance of a government licensing system meant to control such exports.

"These commodities have applications and are frequently used in a wide range of military systems," U.S. officials said, "including radar and surveillance systems, missile guidance systems and detonation triggers."

Charges against Fishenko, who has both American and Russian citizenship, included conspiracy, illegally exporting controlled products, conspiring to launder money and obstruction of justice. He was indicted in October 2012, along with 10 other individuals and two corporations, both of which Fishenko controlled. Three of the people remain at large, but the others either have pleaded guilty or been convicted in court.

To evade export controls on high-tech products manufactured in the United States, officials said, Fishenko and his co-conspirators gave false information about who was buying the electronic components, concealed the fact they were exporters and falsely described the devices on records submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Ultimate recipients of the electronic components acquired by Fishenko's companies, known as ARC and Apex, included a research unit for the Russian internal security agency FSB, a Russian entity that builds air and missile defense systems, and another that produces electronic warfare systems for the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said prosecuting those who violate U.S. export laws is "an important part of our national security framework ... protecting national assets from ending up in the hands of our potential adversaries."

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Dunford Says Aviation Brings 'Asymmetric Advantage' to Afghan Force

By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 21, 2016  As the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attended briefings at the U.S. Air Force's 438th Air Expeditionary Wing at Kabul International Airport here, a special delivery arrived for the Afghan air force.

Five new MD-530 Cayuse Warrior helicopters were wheeled off a C-17 Globemaster III transport from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. The attack helicopters were moved into position where Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford would soon inspect those and other aircraft used by Afghan forces in the fight against the Taliban.

Air Force Lt. Col. James Detweiler, the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group deputy commander, said the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing/ Train, Advise, Assist Command-Air is supporting a functional, capable and sustainable Afghan air force. "It takes quite a while to build an air force, especially when you're trying to almost build it from scratch," he said. With the latest delivery, the Afghan air force has 23 MD-530s.

An objective of the training mission is to teach the Afghans how to integrate the air power with other air assets and ground forces, he said. While U.S. pilots are fully trained before undertaking a mission, the Afghan forces are training while executing combat missions, Detweiler said, adding that the Afghan forces are resilient and eager to learn.

"It's really impressive to watch them work and continue to move through the problem sets and continue training, continue flying combat operations all at the same time," he said.

Dunford Hails Aviation as 'Asymmetric Advantage'

Air power, both from the United States and the burgeoning Afghan air force, is a critical element in the fight against the Taliban, Dunford told reporters. "Aviation for the Afghan security forces is an asymmetric advantage for the Afghan security forces," he said on his plane after concluding the July 14-17 visit to Afghanistan. "I think that is what's going to allow them to continue to maintain momentum this year." A priority of the trip, he pointed out, was to see the Afghan air force and talk about recapitalizing the Afghan air force, which he described as a "major combat multiplier."

Aircraft in Afghanistan's fleet include C-130s and A-29s, while the United States can provide a variety of air support, including with unmanned aerial vehicles, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, reconnaissance flights, and lift for resupply, military officials said.

Building Confidence

In an interview at Resolute Support headquarters, Army Maj. Gen. Richard Kaiser reiterated the process in building an air force, but said the Afghans are doing well and have proven very effective. Kaiser is the commander of Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan and Resolute Support's deputy chief of staff for security assistance.

He welcomed the delivery of the five MD-530s, saying those helicopters are another element in building a strong air force for Afghanistan. "The ability for the Afghans to have an air force that they can look at [and] rely upon has absolutely built their confidence up," Kaiser said.

The increased capabilities of the Afghan forces, coupled with a renewed international commitment to Afghanistan, have encouraged the Afghan people and the security forces, said Army Gen. John W. Nicholson, the commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, who spoke in a separate interview here.

"The ability to help the Afghan security forces when they are on the offense is really where we want to be," Nicholson explained, "because when they have the initiative, when they're on the offense, when they're taking the fight to the enemy, that's how they are going to be successful."

The general expressed confidence in the future of Afghanistan: "I think we're on a positive trajectory going forward," he said.

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Washington may not defend NATO allies: Trump

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:52AM

US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says under his leadership the Washington may not remain committed to the protection of NATO allies.

Trump said in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday that if he is elected president, the US would only aid the allies who have "fulfilled their obligations to us."

Asked about Russia's possible response to NATO's military buildup in the Baltic region, Trump said America might abandon a guarantee of protection to such countries.

Members of NATO have signed a treaty that says an attack on one member state is an attack on all and that other states should come to aid of any member that comes under attacks.

Last week, Trump said the US has been providing the western military alliance with more support than it should. He also noted that NATO should play an active role in the war against Daesh militants.

A woman holds signs in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence on July 20, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP

Trump further noted that he would not pressure US allies over crackdown on opposition groups if he elected president, saying that Washington had to "fix our own mess" before "lecturing" other countries.

"I don't think we have the right to lecture. Look at what is happening in our country. How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?" he said.

Asked about the recent failed coup in Turkey, Trump praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying, "I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around."

"Some people say that it was staged, you know that. I don't think so," he added.

This as US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Ankara on Monday not to go too far with its ongoing arrest and ouster of military personnel, police officers and judges for alleged involvement in the coup attempt.

Kerry also said that Turkey may lose its membership in the NATO military alliance if it fails to maintain democratic principles.

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Kerry, Responding To Trump, Says U.S. 'Fully Committed' To NATO

July 22, 2016

by RFE/RL

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured NATO allies in eastern Europe that the United States remains "fully committed" to defending them despite a pullback suggested by Donald Trump.

"I want our NATO partners to be clear where we stand. This administration, like every single administration Republican or Democratic alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments" under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on any member state is considered an attack on every NATO member, he said in Washington on July 21.

Kerry added that this commitment is "absolutely bedrock to our membership" in NATO.

The top U.S. diplomat was responding to remarks by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times on July 20, saying if he were president he would not automatically come to the aid of the Baltic states if they were invaded by Russia.

Trump said he would first review whether such countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" before deciding whether to come to their aid in the event of an attack by Russia.

The comments follow previous statements by Trump questioning the commitment of unnamed NATO members who he has said are not contributing as much as they should to the alliance, complaining that Washington was shouldering too much of NATO's financial burden.

Trump said U.S. allies would "adjust to his approach" and he would "prefer to be able to continue" existing agreements. But he said that would only be possible if U.S. allies stop taking advantage of Washington's generosity to always foot the bill, which he said the country can no longer afford.

Trump's comments provoked sharp responses throughout the day on July 21, with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg saying, "Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States... We defend each other."

British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said NATO's mutual defense guarantee is a commitment that comes without any "conditions or caveats."

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik tweeted that his country was one of the few to meet the minimum defense expenditure requirement Trump touted, and noted pointedly that Estonia "fought, with no caveats" on behalf of the United States in Afghanistan.

The only time the treaty's mutual defense clause has been invoked was in 2002, when NATO deployed a third of the troops sent to Afghanistan for a decade. More than 1,000 non-American troops have died in Afghanistan.

Even Trump's allies in the Republican party balked at his stance.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he totally disagreed with Trump's statement, but would "chalk it up to a rookie mistake."

McConnell called NATO "the most successful military alliance in the history of the world," in a Facebook interview with The New York Times.

"My hope is that if Donald is elected president, we can convince him to change his mind on it," said Senator Marco Rubio, a former rival of Trump in the Republican primary elections who now supports him.

"Statements like these make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a bitter foe of Trump. "I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Baltic states, must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump. I'm 100 percent certain how Russian President [Vladimir] Putin feels - he's a very happy man,"

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, and The New York Times

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ us-secretary-state-kerry- responding-trump-says-us-fully-committed- nato-defend-eastern-european-states/27872771.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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Trump Statement on NATO Proves Inability to Become US Commander in Chief

Sputnik News

11:43 21.07.2016(updated 12:54 21.07.2016)

Donald Trump's statement on protecting NATO allies prove he is "ill-prepared" to be the country's commander-in-chief, a foreign policy adviser for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, said in a statement Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Trump told The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that if he becomes US president, he would only support other NATO states should they be attacked by Russia if the allies had "fulfilled their obligations" in respect to Washington.

"For decades, the United States has given an ironclad guarantee to our NATO allies: we will come to their defense if they are attacked, just as they came to our defense after 9/11. Donald Trump was asked if he would honor that guarantee. He said maybe, maybe not Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our Commander in Chief," Jake Sullivan said.

He added that the US president should be "the leader of the free world," while Trump did not even believe in the free world.

In the past, Trump has repeatedly said that if elected president he would require major US allies make larger contributions to the military bloc.

The US presidential election is scheduled to be held on November 8, 2016.

 Sputnik

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South Sudan: UN human rights expert calls for the release of journalist Alfred Taban

21 July 2016  A United Nations human rights expert today urged the Government of South Sudan to immediately release Alfred Taban, a prominent journalist and chief editor of the daily English newspaper, Juba Monitor.

Mr. Taban was arrested on 16 July by National Security Services agents, one day after the publication of an editorial article in which he called for the removal of the South Sudan President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar, criticizing them for their unsuccessful implementation of the August 2015 peace agreement. He is currently being held without charges.

"It is crucial for a country seeking to establish peace and stability that it takes active steps to encourage freedom of expression for everyone," said David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, referring to the recently installed transitional Government. "Any pressure against journalists based on the content of their reporting represents regressive steps that South Sudan cannot afford to take."

Mr. Taban's opinion piece came as a response to the violent clashes in Juba on 7 July, between government forces loyal to the President Kiir and those loyal to the First Vice-President Machar, leaving hundreds of people killed. The incident was recently described as a clear breach of the peace agreement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani.

"The arrest and detention of Mr. Taban are unlawful as they are directly linked to the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression," said Mr. Kaye in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The Special Rapporteur noted that the detention of Mr. Taban is the latest in a series of attacks against journalists and media in South Sudan, which have been on the rise since the beginning of the mid-December 2013 conflict. Several journalists have reportedly been killed or detained without trial, and a number of newspapers have been ordered to shut down.

Mr. Kaye urged South Sudanese authorities to halt the targeting of journalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed to everyone under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

His statement has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst; and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

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France Launches Probe Into Security Measures in Nice

by VOA News July 21, 2016

French police conducted a counter-terrorism operation in the Argenteuil area north of Paris Thursday near a mosque and an Islamic library, authorities said.

It is not yet known whether the operation had any links to last week's truck attack in Nice.

Meanwhile, France's interior minister said that there were no national police stationed at the entrance to the walkway in Nice when the Bastille Day truck attack took place.

Bernard Cazeneuve's acknowledgement Thursday came as a newspaper accused French authorities of a lack of transparency for their handling of the massacre.

Cazeneuve initially had said that "national police were present and very present on the Promenade des Anglais" and suggested that their cars were blocking the pedestrian sidewalk entrance, in a speech two days after the July 14 attack that killed 84 people and injured several dozen.

Internal probe

Cazeneuve launched an internal police probe into security measures taken for the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice shortly after Thursday's backtrack.

Speaking from Dublin where he met the Irish prime minister, French President Francois Hollande said the conclusions of the investigation will be known next week.

Hollande said that any police "shortfalls" will be carefully looked into, but defended French authorities against the media attacks, saying that "there is no room for polemics, there is only room for transparency."

His comments came in response to French newspaper Liberation's accusations that Cazeneuve lied about the presence of the national police officers and cars and authorities lacked transparency about the attack.

Five detained suspects with possible links to the attack were to appear before anti-terrorism judges Thursday, who will decide whether to charge them.

In a related development, France's lawmakers voted Wednesday to extend the state of emergency for another six months, continuing greater police search-and-arrest powers without advance clearance from judges.

Speaking in the lower house of parliament (the National Assembly), French Prime Minister Mannuel Valls said that the fight against terrorism would be long and difficult, warning against a social divide with millions of Muslim citizens.

"We must protect all our compatriots," he said. "We should of course also protect our Muslim compatriots, the co-citizens, the compatriots, co-citizens of Muslim culture, who today are also afraid, and feel blamed and who see the considerable damage not only from the attack, but also from what IS [so-called Islamic State] is trying to do to fracture French society."

Paris officials cancelled some summer events, including open-air free movie showings and a car-free day on the city's famous Champs-Elysees boulevard.

The move followed the attack last week in Nice by a French-Tunisian, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day.

No official list of the dead has been released but it is known they include French, Americans, Germans, Ukrainians, Swiss, Tunisians, Polish and a Russian nationals.

French general prosecutor Francois Molins has labeled the unprecedented rampage a terrorist strike by a man who had shown support for the Islamic State group and searched online for information about the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, although there is no evidence linking Bouhlel to the group.

France imposed emergency rule after the November 13, 2015 attacks carried out by Islamist militants that claimed the lives of 130 people in Paris and left scores of others wounded.

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France Charges Five Accomplices Of Nice Truck Driver With Terrorism

July 22, 2016

by RFE/RL

The Paris prosecutor's office said late on July 21 that it filed terrorism charges against five accomplices of the truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront.

Prosecutors said the driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who was shot dead at the scene on July 14, and his accomplices appeared to have been plotting the attack for months. They cited text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls, and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of the suspects.

Prosecutor Francois Molins' office, which oversees terrorism investigations, has put more than 400 investigators on the case and is pursuing a battery of charges against the five suspects, including complicity to murder and possessing weapons tied to a terrorist enterprise.

The detained suspects are four men - identified as Franco-Tunisians Ramzi A. and Mohamed Oualid G., a Tunisian named Chokri C., and an Albanian named Artan - and a woman of dual French-Albanian nationality identified as Enkeldja.

Ramzi had previous convictions for drugs and petty crime. All were locked up pending further investigation.

People close to Bouhlel, a French-Tunisian who had lived in France legally for years, said he had shown no signs of radicalization until very recently. But prosecutors said information from Bouhlel's phone suggested he could have been preparing an attack as far back as May 2015.

Evidence suggests Bouhlel staked out the Bastille Day fireworks event in Nice in 2015 as he prepared for the attack in which he used a 19-ton truck to mow down 84 people who were leaving the 2016 Bastille Day fireworks show, Molins said.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities say they have no found signs the extremist group actually directed or funded it, although their evidence confirms the attack was premediated,

Prosecutors used telephone records and social media posts to link the five suspects to Bouhlel and the attack.

On April 4, Tunisian Chokri C.,sent Bouhlel a Facebook message reading: "Load the truck with 2,000 tons of iron... release the brakes my friend and I will watch."

Video surveillance placed Chokri with Bouhlel in the truck on Nice's Promenade Des Anglais before Bouhlel set off on his murderous rampage, driving the truck more than a mile along the famous waterfront avenue as it was crowded with people.

Chokri's fingerprints have been found on one of the truck doors. Pictures of Oualid apparently taken in the truck used in the attack were also found on Bouhlel's phone.

Hours after the attack, prosecutors said one of the accomplices also filmed the bloody scene on the promenade.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/france- charges-five-accomplices-nice-truck-driver- terrorism-bouhlel/27872776.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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South Korean President Defends Missile Defense Plan

by VOA News July 21, 2016

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is defending her decision to deploy a U.S.-built missile defense system on the country's southeastern peninsula, as protests against the plan continue.

Chairing a meeting of the National Security Council Thursday, President Park said North Korea's growing ballistic missile capabilities left the government no choice but to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, in Seongju county.

The decision has sparked angry protests by residents in Seongju, fearing possible hazards to health and the environment from the radar-based system. Thousands of Seongju residents held a massive demonstration in Seoul Thursday.

Park warned that opposition to over the plan to deploy the THAAD system could lead South Koreans "divided" and "confused," which could play right into North Korea's hands.

North Korea launched three ballistic missiles from the western city of Hwangu early Tuesday that flew between 500 and 600 kilometers before falling into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula. The missile launches came a week after Pyongyang threatened to retaliate against Seoul over the deployment of the THAAD system.

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Foreign Ministry Spokesman Slams U.S. for Finding Fault with DPRK's Ballistic Rocket Firing Drill

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Thursday in connection with the fact that the U.S. found fault with the ballistic rocket firing drill conducted by the Korean People's Army:

Official figures of the White House and the State and Defense Departments of the U.S. are branding the ballistic rocket firing drill conducted by the Hwasong artillery units of the Strategic Force of the KPA as "violation of resolution" of the UN Security Council and "provocation".

The U.S. action reminds one of a thief crying "Stop the thief!" as it took issue with the routine military rehearsal of the KPA.

The U.S. has to look back on the fact that it is posing a grave threat to the DPRK with nuclear weapons after bringing to south Korea all types of strategic assets, before slandering others.

The unceasing arms buildup and nuclear war drills of the U.S. are real threats to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and a wanton violation of the UN Charter and international law.

Just like a robber shaking his fist at the owner after breaking into his house, the U.S. is accusing the DPRK of its legitimate countermeasure for self-defence. This is an intolerable provocation against the DPRK.

With the joint military exercises Ulji Freedom Guardian scheduled in coming August at hand, the U.S. is steadily escalating the tension on the Korean peninsula.

There is no guarantee that the saber-rattling which the U.S. plans to stage with the coming joint military exercises as an occasion would not lead to igniting the fuse of a nuclear war.

The spokesman warned that the U.S. will be made to face a prompt, merciless and deadly nuclear retaliation if it plays with fire on the peninsula despite the repeated warnings by the DPRK.

Some countries about to side with the U.S. should take unbiased stand with a clear understanding of the nature of the situation and contribute to ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of the world, the spokesman stressed. -0-

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Salehi: Iran not agreed with unveiling long-term N. program

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed / 20 July 2016 / 15:24

TEHRAN (ISNA)- Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said that Iran overall does not agree with unveiling its long-term nuclear program.

"Since our nuclear industry program is in a long-term perspective, we want it remains confidential. We had an agreement with P5+1 to give the program to them and the program is not supposed to be published," he said in Iranian TV Channel 1.

He noted that in case the other side releases Iranian long-term nuclear program, "We do not have any problem with the issue, but overall, we do not want our long-term plan to be unveiled for all."

Salehi warned that Iran, due to efforts made by its experts, could resume enrichment in the shortest possible time in case the other side's measure runs counter to the JCPOA.

End Item

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Statement by the Co-Hosts Canada, Germany, Japan, Kuwait, The Netherlands, and the United States at the July 20 Pledging Conference in Support of Iraq

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

July 21, 2016

Over $2 billion in new money has been pledged for the people of Iraq in response to Da'esh's campaign of tyranny that has resulted in enormous suffering, deprivation, and devastation for the Iraqi people. To help address the grave conditions faced by those displaced in Iraq, the international community has surged forward to provide desperately needed humanitarian support such as food, water, and shelter for those in need, and to help create the conditions that will allow the safe and voluntary return of displaced families to liberated areas as quickly as possible. The foundations for long-term stability can be achieved if Iraq's humanitarian crisis is alleviated and its citizens are able to return to their homes safely, with access to basic services, healthcare, and education, and hope for economic prosperity.

As a result of the conference, led by the co-hosts Canada, Germany, Japan, Kuwait, The Netherlands, and the United States, the international community mobilized to meet near-term funding requirements for Iraq in four critical-need areas:

humanitarian assistance;

demining;

UNDP's Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization;

UNDP's new Funding Facility for Expanded Stabilization (FFES), endorsed by Prime Minister Abadi to provide pivotal, medium-term stabilization initiatives to foster resiliency and recovery in Da'esh liberated areas.

The humanitarian assistance raised yesterday primarily supports United Nations agencies operating in Iraq, as well as other international organizations and non-governmental organizations. Through these organizations, the international community has provided resources for assistance to every governorate in Iraq, helping people who need it mostultimately saving lives and alleviating human suffering amid daily threats of violence from Da'esh. The stabilization pledges generated through this initiative will contribute meaningfully to longer-term reconciliation efforts within Iraq, the success of which is vital for the country's longer-term stability and recovery from Da'esh oppression.

The donors that gathered remain committed to assisting Iraq, and strongly urge all governments, organizations, and individuals to support the lifesaving efforts of the UN and its funds and agencies, in addition to other humanitarian partners. We are particularly gratified by the presence at yesterday's conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and welcome its efforts to broaden advocacy efforts on behalf of the Iraqi people.

As donors, we remain cognizant as well that success on the battlefield enacts a disproportionate toll on the civilian population. The United Nations announced July 20 that it will require an additional $284 million in order to plan for the humanitarian impact of Mosul's liberation, while far more will likely be needed to mitigate this challenge as Da'esh is defeated in Mosul. We therefore hope the results of the initiative allow donors to more speedily align their pledged contributions against elements of the United Nations latest appeal.

While not a comprehensive listing of the pledges tabled during the event, the following highlights signal achievements of the Pledging Conference in Support of Iraq. The list excludes 2017 and 2018 commitments from those donors not able to specify publicly their out-year programming.

Conference Highlights:

Responsive and Robust Humanitarian Assistance Pledges

A total of 26 donors pledged contributions totaling more than $590 million for humanitarian assistance in support of Iraq, through bilateral and multilateral channels. These funds will support the needs identified in the United Nations 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan for Iraq, in addition to other organizations providing aid in Iraq and the region, and lay the groundwork for a more effective international response to the anticipated humanitarian challenges attendant to the Mosul campaign.

Support for Stabilization Programming

Fourteen nations announced new funding for critical stabilization programming in Iraq, pledging more than $350 million. An even larger number of countries made additional pledges totaling $125 million for UNDP's Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization, a significant advance towards meeting the $180 million requirement identified by the United Nations for 2017.

Dedicated Funds for Humanitarian Demining Activities

More than ten nations made over $80 million in new pledges for demining efforts in Iraq. This support will provide approximately three-quarters of the total amount of funding the United Nations estimates is required for one year of demining activities in Iraq.

Launching the Funding Facility For Expanded Stabilization

The United States was the first major donor, with $50 million, to pledge funding to the new UNDP Funding Facility for Expanded Stabilization. FFES facilitates recovery and resilience in Da'esh liberated areas, providing project-specific funding to support rehabilitation of facilities to restore critical, public services and create jobs. The UN estimates that teaching colleges, hospitals, and universities eligible for FFES support will be able to employ an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 people in each of the areas previously devastated by Da'esh.

Long-Term Commitment to the People of Iraq

In addition to securing immediate funds for near-term humanitarian needs and critical stabilization programming, the Pledging Conference in Support of Iraq secured more than $200 million in commitments for 2017 and 2018 to address demining, stabilization and humanitarian needs. This funding pipeline provides international organizations and NGOs with the flexibility and programing safety-net required to address unforeseen humanitarian crises or respond rapidly to evolving stabilization challenges.

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Syria Kurdish forces give Daesh 48 hrs to pull out of Manbij

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 21, 2016 12:30PM

Syrian forces have given the Takfiri Daesh terrorists 48 hours to abandon the embattled northern city of Manbij near the Turkish border.

The Manbij Military Council, allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that is a coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces, issued the ultimatum on Thursday in an effort to "protect civilian lives" in Manbij.

"This initiative is the last remaining chance for besieged members of Daesh to leave" the city, the council said in a statement.

"In order to protect civilian lives and property and to protect the town from destruction, we announce that we accept the initiative under which besieged IS (Daesh) members would leave with their individual light weapons," it added.

The statement further urged civilians to leave the city or distance themselves from areas where clashes are taking place.

An unnamed SDF commander said that tribal leaders in Manbij had proposed a 48-hour ultimatum last week, but the measure was put into force on Thursday after Daesh "used residents as human shields" and media pressure to protect civilians trapped in the city.

Since May 31, the SDF has been fighting Daesh in Manbij with the support of airstrikes from the US-led coalition allegedly battling the extremists.

However, the aerial assaults have claimed the lives of dozens of civilians around Manbij in recent days, prompting the so-called Syrian National Coalition opposition group to call for a suspension of the coalition air raids.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the coalition airstrikes left at least 56 civilians dead in north of Manbij on Tuesday, a day after 21 others were killed in a northern district of the besieged Daesh-held city.

Also on Thursday, clashes and air raids were reported in Manbij, where the SDF advanced overnight, the observatory added.

SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said the SDF troops seized a southern district of Manbij, "bringing them the closest they have been to the centre of" the city.

Manbij, situated in Syria's Aleppo Province, is a key point along Daesh's main supply line from the Turkish frontier to its Syrian stronghold of Raqqah.

In June, the SDF broke into western districts of Manbij, but its advance has been slowed in the past month because of bombings and landmines planted by the extremists.

The so-called multinational task force against Daesh started its controversial mission in Iraq in late 2014 after Daesh seized control over territories west and north of the country.

The US-led air campaign was later expanded to cover areas in northern Syria despite criticism from the Syrian government that the attacks violate the sovereignty of the Arab country.

However, analysts say the air strikes have failed to cripple the extremists, who are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

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In Wake Of Blown Coup, Turkey Takes Global Aim At Gulen Movement

July 21, 2016

by Charles Recknagel

In the wake of last week's failed Turkish coup, a battle over the Gulen movement is shaping up in Kyrgyzstan that may soon be played out in many more countries.

The contest pits two universities sharply against each other in the rugged Central Asian nation's capital, Bishkek, where both are ranked among the country's best institutions of higher learning and are located just a few kilometers apart.

One, Manas University, is funded by the Turkish government. The other, Ataturk-Alatoo University, is funded by the global Islamic education network of Fethullah Gulen, the man Ankara blames for the July 15 coup attempt that killed hundreds.

Gulen, who has lived in exile in the United States since 1999, denies any involvement.

Immediately after the coup was crushed, the Kyrgyz rector of the Ankara-funded Manas University organized a forum to denounce the attempted putsch. Sebahattin Balf also used the forum on July 18 to publicly warn his fellow citizens that the Gulen group could equally make "people in Kyrgyzstan do terrible things in their own country."

The rector's warning did not fall on deaf ears. It resonated with students at his institution, where some feel the Gulen network is an opaque organization whose aims may go far beyond the group's stated goals of promoting education, public service, and conservative Islamic values.

"Many people are saying they could attempt to seize the power," Aigul, who studies at Manas, says of the Gulen crowd. "It's hard to say who is right and who is wrong. I have seen how those [Gulen] students keep together, they help each other, though I personally see no danger or threat coming from them."

Such views are challenged by the professors and students at Ataturk-Alatoo, the Gulen-funded university.

"What ideas or principles [does Gulen] promote?" asks Nurdin Kaparov, a teacher at Ataturk-Alatoo. "Spreading education, unity, stressing the importance of math, biology, chemistry, and other sciences, how can such ideas look suspicious?"

It is a debate likely to be heard increasingly in many countries as Ankara cracks down hard on the Gulen movement at home in Turkey and now looks set to ask other states to do the same. The goal is to undercut the global network's source of funding, much of which comes from the institutions the Gulen network is best known -- and often praised for -- the private schools it operates in some 150 countries around the world.

"There is an all-out war on Gulen [by Ankara], obviously heavily focused right now on the domestic situation in Turkey and heavily focused on the United States because of Gulen's residency there," says Wolfango Piccoli, an expert on Turkey at Teneo Intelligence, a U.S.-based political-risk-advisory service. "But certainly the next wave will be focused on wherever Gulen or associates of Gulen are operating, and I would expect Ankara to put pressure on those countries, asking them to stop these entities from operating."

Early Indications

Already there are early signs Ankara is gearing up for a push by the Turkish government, its embassies, and its government-linked organizations to roll back the Gulen movement.

Erdogan has urged the United States to extradite Gulen over his alleged involvement in the failed coup, calling him a "terrorist," although no formal request was initially filed. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Washington might consider extradition, but would require not "allegations" but "evidence" that could prove the cleric's wrongdoing in a U.S. court of law.

On July 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly asked visiting Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to closely watch the activities of Gulen schools in Georgia. Two days earlier, Turkey's consul in Georgia's port of Batumi urged parents there not to send their children to its Gulen-affiliated school, claiming it teaches in "accordance with a terrorist ideology."

Similarly, Erdogan has reportedly pressed Azerbaijan to rein in Gulen-linked facilities. The day after a July 17 phone call between Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Baku ordered the temporary closure of a private television station that had announced it planned to broadcast an interview with Gulen.

On July 20, Baku closed the Gulen-linked Qafqaz University (Caucasus University), widely considered one of the best institutes for higher learning in the country, along with at least one newspaper. Many other Gulen schools have already been closed in Azerbaijan in previous years based on requests from Turkey -- one of Azerbaijan's closest allies.

Any Turkish effort now to globally roll back the Gulen movement is ambitious because it tackles one of the Muslim world's largest social networks, with schools, think tanks, and media outlets from Kenya to Kazakhstan. Gulen's Hizmet (Service) movement is said to have millions of members who follow the Turkish-born theologian's teachings that a Muslim's duty is to fund educational institutions, observe conservative Islamic values, and engage in community service.

Public Ambivalence

But Erdogan appears to be counting not just on Turkey's weight as an important financial partner for many of the states where Gulen operates. He also may hope to tap into existing public ambivalence in many countries regarding the Gulen organization. While many people welcome the schools as an addition to their country's educational systems, the Gulen movement is also widely seen as being opaque in its operations, fueling speculation over whether it has hidden goals.

"Two problems with the Gulen movement that make them quite unique are the sheer scale of their resources, the network in Turkey extends into business and charities, but also what seems to be the political nature of the network's activities [in Turkey]," says William Park, an expert on Turkey at King's College in London. "So their tendency to rely on their own internal network can easily be made to look threatening, political, and driven."

Like many networks, the Gulen organization encourages its members to rely upon each other, do business with each other, and contribute part of their income to the organization. Businessmen in particular are encouraged to set up local groups to fund schools and provide scholarships for poorer students who cannot afford the tuition. The schools teach a Western curriculum that includes English and Turkish and professors living in dormitories with students, where Gulen's writings on religion are studied after school hours and close links are formed that often continue into professional life.

Eventful History

The Gulen movement already has had an eventful history in Central Asia, one of the first regions where the movement set up schools in the 1990s as part of a then Turkish-government supported push to spread Turkish culture and influence abroad. The drive, which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, saw schools established in all the newly independent Central Asian states with the support of local governments.

However, several of the region's authoritarian leaders later turned against the schools. Uzbekistan closed the schools in the early 2000s, Turkmenistan in the early 2010s, and Tajikistan last year. Russia, which originally welcomed the schools in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, annexed the schools in the early 2000s by putting them directly under the state educational system.

None of these countries provided a reason for shutting the Gulen schools. But some observers say that authoritarian governments are usually the first to feel threatened by the existence of any well-organized network in their countries that is not under their direct control.

"In any authoritarian government, there is always a tendency to centralize power over concerns about any outside force that could topple the government from within," says Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

In now seeking to weaken the Gulen movement globally, Erdogan may have to convince some countries that host Gulen schools that his own motives are more than those of a powerful leader seeking to eliminate an organization which, ironically, was once allied with him.

Erdogan and the Gulen network in Turkey cooperated in bringing Erdogan's religiously conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in 2002. However, they soon fell out, reportedly over power-sharing issues and over Erdogan's leadership style.

Since coming to power, Erdogan has accused the Gulen movement of being behind several attempts to tar his administration, notably during a police investigation of a 2013 corruption scandal that implicated some of the president's closest associates.

That scandal was followed by the government dismissing many prosecutors and top officials involved in the corruption investigation, with Erdogan telling the public the purge was necessary to protect Turkey from "dark forces" bent on destroying it.

RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service correspondent Bakyt Asanov contributed to this story

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey-gulen- movement-global-aim/27872225.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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Turkish Intelligence Spied on People Involved in Coup Attempt

Sputnik News

20:51 21.07.2016

The people involved in the recent coup attempt in Turkey were kept under surveillance by the country's intelligence service, according to a high-ranking member of the Turkish ruling party.

ANKARA (Sputnik)  Turkish intelligence service had spied on those arrested and dismissed after the failed coup attempt before it happened, Yasin Aktay, deputy chair of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told Sputnik on Thursday.

"There were lists [of participants before the coup]. The country's intelligence spied on all of them Of course it knows who is who but everything is in line with the law. We never struggle with people only because they are adherents of a certain organization or have certain political views," Aktay said.

He also called participants of the coup attempt members of a terrorist organization.

"This structure is not simple, ordinary; they are a terrorist organization and that is clear. So that our friends could better understand the situation, imagine that members of al-Qaeda or Islamic State [both outlawed in Russia] are holding offices at schools, security bodies or armed forces of the United States. Imagine that intelligence services obtained their names. Imagine what they would do. We are not doing even half of what they would do Turkey has no options but to remove the threat," Aktay added.

On July 15, the Turkish authorities said that a coup attempt was taking place in the country. The coup was suppressed the following day. Some 290 people were killed and around 1,500 injured during the failed coup, according to the country's authorities.

Thousands of military officers, high-ranking civil servants, judges and teachers suspected of being disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been detained or sacked in Turkey after the failed attempt to overthrow him.

 Sputnik

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Top Turkey Official: 'Mutual Benefit Approach' to Relations With US

by Dorian Jones July 21, 2016

Turkish-U.S. relations will not be significantly affected by last week's failed coup and Turkey will take a "mutual benefit approach" to diplomacy between the two countries, Turkey's chief of international relations told VOA on Thursday.

In an interview, Ayse Sozen Usluer discussed Turkey's strategy following the July 15 failed coup by members of Turkey's military.

U.S.-Turkish relations remain strained after last Friday's attempted coup, with accusations from members of Turkey's ruling AK Party that the U.S. was involved in it. Usluer distanced President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from such accusations.

"There is no official idea that there are foreign powers behind the coup," Usluer said. She insisted Ankara would continue working with Washington.

"It will not affect the U.S.-Turkish relations. I think our cooperation will continue, especially on our fight against Daesh," she said, using an Arab acronym for the Islamic State group.

Usluer described the country's approach as pragmatic, calling it a "win-win" in which both sides gain advantage.

Analysts have been speculating that the crisis threatens to unravel U.S.-Turkey relations, as Erdogan has sought the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher who lives in exile in the United States. Erdogan accuses Gulen of masterminding the coup attempt.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the military plot to topple the Turkish government and has hinted the coup might have been staged to justify his arrest.

Washington says all extradition requests require evidence and legal process. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned that failure to extradite Gulen would be a "warlike act."

But Usluer acknowledged the extradition process would take time. "What is important is to show decisiveness and sincere cooperation," she said.

Usluer said failure to extradite Gulen would result in only a limited response, with the ending of Turkey's extradition agreement with the United States, and would not affect regional cooperation.

Usluer told VOA that in addition to the United States, Turkey would be solidifying relations with Iran and developing relations with Russia.

Unlike some of Ankara's Western allies, Iran did not wait for the coup's failure to speak up in support of the Erdogan government. "We will remember who helped us," Usluer said.

In a phone call, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told Erdogan the coup attempt was "a test to identify your domestic and foreign friends and enemies."

"Iran's support will affect, of course, positively our relations," said Usluer, who acknowledged that differences remain, "but each country will follow their own concerns in the region."

Usluer also said Turkey would be forging closer ties with Russia. Erdogan is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

The meeting follows Erdogan's apology to Moscow for Turkish jets downing a Russian bomber in November 2015, which triggered a seven-month crisis in bilateral relations.

Putin and Erdogan had their first telephone conversation since the November incident, with the parties agreeing to meet in person soon, and restrictions on travel to Turkey for Russian tourists were lifted.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday offered reassurances that Turkey's alliance with the U.S. was still strong following the failed coup.

"Turkey has been a strong ally for decades, as we've faced together a great variety of problems, from the Cold War to today's counter-ISIL campaign," Carter said. "The alliance is very strong and our relationship's very strong."

However, it appears White House officials are uncertain about how Erdogan and his government will respond. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday, "Given the tumultuous nature of events in Turkey over the last six days, that answer is we'll learn in the weeks ahead."

But with the declaration of a state of emergency by Ankara, further concerns are being raised about restrictions on freedoms and rights in Turkey. The declaration allows the cabinet under the chairmanship of the president to issue decrees that have the force of law on matters relating to the emergency.

It also comes as concerns grow over the scale of the crackdowns that have targeted thousands of judges, civil servants, teachers, police officers and soldiers, and amid widespread fears of growing authoritarianism on the part of Erdogan.

Turkish officials have insisted that the measures are necessary to preserve security and stability as the country grapples with the coup's aftermath and investigates how it came about.

Erdogan said the state of emergency was not against democracy, the rule of law or freedom.

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Proposed GOP Stance on Ukraine Sparks Controversy

by Tatiana Koprowicz, Iuliia Iarmolenko July 21, 2016

At this week's Republican National Convention, a mini-drama has surfaced over what the party's platform has to say about the conflict in Ukraine.

Diana Denman, a Texas delegate who backed her state's U.S. Senator Ted Cruz for the party's presidential nominee, has visited Ukraine several times since its independence in 1991. An international observer in three of the country's elections, she has been troubled by Russia's annexation of Crimea and its involvement with armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Denman serves on the Republican National Committee's platform committee. At a recent meeting here on national security, she put forward a platform amendment that included providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine. A similar proposal was submitted by members of the Ukrainian diaspora. It included participation from the Ukrainian Embassy, which also called for supplying Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons.

'Appropriate assistance'

The proposal "was not supported in its entirety," Denman told VOA's Ukrainian service, noting "two gentlemen [who] acknowledged that they're representing Mr. Trump. ... I believe they were the ones that urged that the wording be changed."

The language was altered from providing "lethal defensive weapons" to providing "appropriate assistance."

"Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened," Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin wrote of the meeting at which the wording was changed. "By working with pro-Trump delegates, they were able to get the issue tabled while they devised a method to roll back the language."

A VOA reporter on Tuesday asked Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort whether Rogin's characterization of his staff's influence on the committee's work was accurate. Manafort, who for more than a decade worked as a political consultant to and lobbyist for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian politician ousted as Ukraine's president by popular protests in 2014, said he did not understand the question.

Ukraine ambassador takes issue

Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, is here on a program organized by the State Department. He said he was less concerned about the rewording of the language on Ukraine than about the way it was done.

"The problem is that the document, which included [a] position on providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, was amended by the group in the committee who, I think, didn't consider the position of the wider Republican establishment," Chaly told VOA. "The document, which was submitted by the wider Ukrainian diaspora ... was amended by the people of Donald Trump's campaign manager and not by the people who analyze and formulate foreign policy and defense positions. It makes [it] difficult to predict how strategic documents would be developed if Trump becomes president."

The ambassador noted that the document is only an electoral platform plank and not a statement of policy of a possible future Trump administration. He said that conversations at the convention led him to believe that policy toward Ukraine has not yet been formulated.

"I don't think that overall foreign policy of the United States would change dramatically regardless of who wins," Chaly said, adding that Indiana Governor Mike Pence, the Republican Party nominee for vice president, has "good credentials" and understands the issue.

"The main thing for us is that the people who run Donald Trump's campaign would not run his foreign policy," he said.

Russian actions against Ukraine and the GOP's position on the issue dominated a roundtable discussion organized by the International Republican Institute in Cleveland on Tuesday.

'Terrible mistake'

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who was a contender in the Republican presidential primaries, ripped into the party's platform on Ukraine.

"As long as I'm breathing air, I'm for arming the Ukrainians who want to fight for freedom," Kasich said. Removing the language calling for arming Ukraine was "a terrible mistake," he added.

Michael Flynn, a retired U.S. Army general who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency and was reportedly considered as Trump's running mate, defended Trump's approach to foreign policy in an interview with VOA.

"I think the foreign policy of the United States is failing, I think our role in the world is failing," said Flynn, who has frequently appeared on RT, Russia's government-funded, English-language international television news channel.

"I think we need much stronger, tougher leadership," he continued. "We need tougher diplomacy. Foreign policy starts with strong personal relationships with foreign leaders at every level  president to presidents, president to kings, president to prime ministers  all the way down to ambassadors and maybe some of our senior military."

However, some delegates here are unhappy that the Republican platform's plank on Ukraine was watered down.

"The Trump campaign was, for the most part, hands off except one strange issue, and that was Ukraine," said Randall Dunning, an alternative Ted Cruz delegate from Texas. "I don't understand why, with all the tough defense talk coming out of Mr. Trump, why he would object to giving Ukraine the arms necessary to defend their nation."

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Alan Burkitt-Gray speaks to Don MacNeil, chief operating officer of GTT, about its company restructuring after coming out of Chapter 11 and its strategic roadmap for the next 12 months.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, July 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Preparations are well underway for Latin Americas third biennial ALARYS risk-management conference in Bermuda this September, with early-bird registration and hotel rates offered via a new website (http://alarys.bm/) launched by lead sponsor Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA).



The three-day event, to be held September 2527 at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, will be opened by Premier Michael Dunkley, and will feature a full slate of speakers, including BDA CEO Ross Webber and FUNDALARYS President Jorge Luzzi. More than 150 delegates are expected for the event, geared to risk managers from throughout the Latin American region.

It will be the third time the Fundacion Latinoamericana de Administracion de Riesgos ALARYS (FUNDALARYS) has chosen Bermuda as host country for the trilingual conference; the Latin American Congress on Risk Management and Insurance was held previously in 2004 and 2010 in Bermudathe only non-Latin venue in its 20-year history.

FUNDALARYS is looking forward to hosting the conference in Bermuda, said Luzzi, who also serves as Executive Vice-President of the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA). This is a unique opportunity to interact with specialists of all areas of the industry. We have confirmations for top-level participants, from economists and politicians to regulators and executive members of the insurance and reinsurance community.

Early-bird rates for hotel accommodation and event registration are being offered through August 31 via the website, which also details speakers, agenda details, hotel and travel information, and package options for sponsors and exhibitors.

The fact FUNDALARYS selected Bermuda for the third time illustrates our close ties to the LatAm region, said BDA Business Development Manager Jereme Ramsay. With the increasing number of Latin American companies incorporating captive insurers and other structures in our jurisdiction, specifically from Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru, Bermudas hosting of FUNDALARYS provides a great opportunity to showcase our jurisdiction.

Sponsors of ALARYS Congress 2016 include: PwC, Appleby, HSBC Bermuda, Brokers Link, Estera Services (Bermuda), Butterfield Bank, Artex Risk Solutions (Bermuda), ASW Law, Armour Group Holdings, KPMG, Conyers, AON (Bermuda), Citadel Management Bermuda, R&Q Quest Bermuda, and JLT Insurance Management.

As the LatAm representative of one of the Bermuda firms that has greatly benefitted from ALARYS in the past, I can highly recommend industry professionals attend this very relevant conference, as it offers opportunities to meet and listen to some of LatAms most influential risk-management and reinsurance advisers and business providers, said Applebys Latin America Manager Eduardo Fox.

Were encouraged by the strong industry support weve received for FUNDALARYS, noted BDA Conferences & Events Manager Nicole Conrad Morrison. Our BDA committee, together with industry partners and the FUNDALARYS executive, have developed a strong agenda with influential speakers from Bermuda, Latin America and globally. We have seen a lot of interest from the LatAm region, and are encouraging guests to arrive early and enjoy our beautiful island.

To become a sponsor or to take advantage of the ALARYS 2016 August 31 early-bird registration and hotel rates, go to: http://alarys.bm/.



CONNECTING BUSINESS

The BDA encourages direct investment and helps companies start up, re-locate or expand their operations in our premier jurisdiction. An independent, public-private partnership, we connect you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in the Bermuda government to assist domicile decisions. Our goal? To make doing business here smooth and beneficial.
The Democratic Party of Virginia  hoping to elect presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and 5th District congressional candidate Jane Dittmar  opened its Danville office in a celebration Thursday evening.

Local Democrats joined supporters during the event at the office at 441 Piney Forest Road to discuss Novembers general election choice between Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Catrea Johnson  a Danville Community College graduate who is working on her bachelors degree  just started volunteering this week. She said she was volunteering after talking about her passion for politics and engagement with her mother.

I am as political as she is, Johnson said. She thought it would be a great opportunity for me.

Johnson said she was volunteering for the Democrats because they gave a voice to everyone, regardless of race, gender or class.

I want the smallest voice heard to the strongest voice heard, Johnson said. This political party makes me feel like Im important.

Johnson said she also wanted to combat the idea that an individual voter was unimportant to the election or to U.S. government.

I really want to make sure that lie is demolished.

The Democrats also hope to register more than 3 million Americans to vote in November, and will be using the office to help organize local voting and volunteering efforts.

Danville resident Sheila Baynes has already been volunteering with the office, phone banking and canvassing around the city.

Im really thrilled that we have a campaign office, Baynes said. Danville is an important city in Virginia with a lot of voters.

Baynes said she was supporting Clinton because she was incredibly prepared for the position.

She knows everyone and knows the issues and the important things happening, Baynes said.

Baynes said Clinton supports issues like paycheck equality and expanding President Barack Obamas health care coverage to include every American.

I understand that and I can relate to that and I know others will as well, Baynes said.

Baynes also said Dittmar would bring a bipartisan approach to Congress in order to pass legislation and avoid gridlock.

Johnson said the stakes were a little bit higher this election  the opposition was opening promoting bigotry and classism.

Thats not OK, Johnson said. Thats what the Democratic Party needs to make sure is not OK.

Baynes said she would continue to volunteer for the campaign throughout the election.
Danvillians should soon see a third large mural decorating a River District building.

Jerry Amburn, chair of the mural committee for the River District Association, said William Gentry has agreed to allow a mural featuring the Dan River Regions tobacco history to be painted on his building at 308 Craghead St., on the side facing Loyal Street.

Gentry said he has painted the building in preparation of the project, which will cover up to a 44-foot tall and 28-foot wide area between the front of the building and the first windows on the side.

We painted and sealed the building for them, Gentry said. I think it will create charisma in the area.

Ernecia Coles, executive director of the RDA, said she was very pleased Gentry agreed to the project and gave the building fresh paint.

Its a very visible location, the best location for it, Coles said. Were pleased [Gentry] is excited about it.

The first two murals on downtown buildings  of the Wreck of the Old 97 at the corner of Main Street and Memorial Drive and one featuring the citys old trolley lines on Spring Street  were painted by Wes Hardin, a Dothan, Alabama, artist who has created historical murals across the country.

Coles said the RDA decided to put the new project out for bid as a way to see if there are local artists interested in doing the new mural. The request for proposals will soon be posted on the groups website at www.downtown-danville.com under the murals tab, she said.

Were open to new ideas; well provide information about the history of tobacco and they can do their own research, Coles said. We want it to be beautiful, unique and worth seeing.

Amburn  who was part of the Downtown Danville Association when the first two murals were done and continues to be a board member on the renamed RDA  said artists will be asked to provide a sketch of their idea for the mural, a bid on painting it, references and other information.

They really need to be experienced outdoor mural painters and be true artists, Amburn said. We want them to use their imaginations  its got to be right.

The ultimate goal is to build up the number of murals throughout the River District and make the city a destination for mural fans.

Were hoping we can keep it up and become a mural destination city, Amburn said.

Both of the existing murals include portraits of people  on the Old 97 mural, the people killed in the wreck are featured, while on the trolley mural, local residents donated to the mural fund to have a friend or relative depicted in the mural, Amburn said.

Both Amburn and Coles said they want to encourage artists to submit sketches that reflect their vision of the citys tobacco history, they both said they feel someone with experience doing outdoor murals  Its a whole different thing, Amburn said  will fit the project best and create a long-lasting mural.

Coles said the proposals will be due Aug. 25 at 4 p.m. and hope to have the mural completed by the end of the year.

Were working hard to get this done, Amburn said.
Speaking to the Republican National Convention on the night Donald Trump would be nominated as presidential candidate, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. gave a nod to his own faith-leader father.

In a concise speech at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Falwell vouched for Trumps ability as a businessman and his dedication to nominating conservative Supreme Court Justices in encouraging a rally around Trump, who accepted the nomination Thursday night.

Falwell referred to Trump in historic context, citing his own commute by Poplar Forest, where third president Thomas Jefferson retreated from his home at Monticello. He also referenced the founders and former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican hero.

In an interview after Trumps acceptance speech concluded late Thursday, Falwell said he would place Trump as among that group. In the speech, he called Trump one of the greatest visionaries of our time.

I do think hes just a perfect example of a citizen legislator, the type that our founders envisioned would someday lead our country, Falwell said by phone late Thursday over the conventions festive din.

Falwell often compares his endorsement of the New York City businessman to his father, The Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., endorsing divorced actor Ronald Reagan over Baptist Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter.

Falwell Jr.s path to the Cleveland convention pulpit began after Trump spoke at the Christian university in 2012. He came out early to endorse Trump in this years GOP primary after the candidate spoke at LU again.

Trump later named him to the campaigns Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, a group with hes been in touch.

I really think theyre of like minds. I think they are uniting behind Mr. Trump, and I think after this speech tonight, I dont see how any conservative could vote for a third party candidate or stay home on Election Day with so much at stake with the future of our country, Falwell said.

Falwell highlighted his fathers Moral Majority political accord at the beginning of his speech, referencing the opening prayer Falwell Sr. made at the 1984 convention before incumbent Reagan accepted the partys nomination. Reagan later won the presidency.

A little over 30 years later, I stand here with the sincerest prayer that history is about to repeat itself with the election of Donald J. Trump, Falwell said in the speech.

Falwell said he worked most of the week at LU only flying into Cleveland Wednesday for news interviews. He said most of Thursday was spent rehearsing and shaping his self-written speech with his family and RNC staff.

After his speech, Falwell made his way to the floor to say hello to party delegates he knew, including Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford County. Byron was one of The Republican Party of Virginias 13 at-large delegates.

There are a lot of similarities between the Trumps and Falwells successes. If they want to get something done, they just go and do it, Byron said in a text message from the arena floor.

She said hearing LU and Lynchburg talked about at the national convention highlighted the universitys impact on the region.

After attending a Lynchburg City Republican Committee meeting, longtime Lynchburg-area GOP activist Wendell Walker went home to watch Falwells speech. The Falwell he saw reminded him of the elder he knew.

Hes following in his dads footsteps as far as someone who is moving and having great influence on our nation, Walker said.

Walker said he appreciates, and believes other conservatives will agree with, the message Falwell made about supporting Trump and vice presidential candidate and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to ensure control of expected Supreme Court justice picks.

Falwell said a Trump presidency would uphold the 2nd Amendment and appoint conservative anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court as well as stop Iran to protect Israel.

If Hillary Clinton is allowed to appoint the next few Supreme Court justices, that, in itself, could be a fatal blow to our Republic, Falwell said in the speech.
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 21, 2016) - Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) (the "Company" or "Carube") is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced private placement financing of 5,000,000 units ("Units") for gross proceeds of $500,000 (the "Offering").

Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole such warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable into one Common Share at a price of $0.15 per Common Share for a period of two years from the closing date.

Certain eligible persons (the "Finders") were paid a cash commission equal to 7% of the proceeds raised from subscribers introduced to the Company by such Finder, and also issued an aggregate of 43,761 broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants"), each Broker Warrant entitling the holder to acquire one Unit at a price of $0.10 for a period of two (2) years from the closing of the Offering.

The proceeds of the Unit offering will be used for exploration and general working capital purposes. The actual allocation of net proceeds may vary from the aforementioned uses depending on future operations, unforeseen events or opportunities. The Common Shares, Warrants and Broker Warrants issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a hold period expiring 4 months and a day following the closing.

The closing of the Offering constituted a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101") as certain insiders of the Company subscribed for an aggregate of 500,000 Units. The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as the fair market value of the participation in the Offering by insiders does not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Company, as determined in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closing of the first tranche of the private placement, which the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances in order to avail itself of the proceeds of the private placement and complete the Offering in an expeditious manner.

Contacts

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO  1-613-839-3258  jackert@carubecopper.com

Vern Rampton, Executive VP of Corporate Development  1-613-839-3258  vrampton@carubecopper.com

Alar Soever, Chairman  1-705-682-9297  asoever@carubecopper.com

www.carubecopper.com

 END PRESS RELEASE 

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) is a Canadian exploration company focused on the exploration and development of copper and gold projects in Jamaica and Canada. In Jamaica, two projects, totalling 188 square kilometres in area, are the subject of separate joint venture agreements with OZ Minerals Ltd., an Australian copper-gold producer with a market capitalization of approximately $2B. Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in two other nearby projects, totalling 80 square kilometres. In Canada, Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in three porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum properties, totalling 593 square kilometres within the Tertiary-aged Cascade Magmatic Arc in southwestern British Columbia. Exploration continues on these properties with the goal of joint-venturing them to larger exploration and mining companies. Carube Copper continues to seek opportunities in Canada and the Caribbean for acquisition and development.

DISCLAIMER & FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, and by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on currently available information, Carube Copper Corp. provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Factors which cause results to differ materially are set out in the Company's documents filed on SEDAR. Undue reliance should not be placed on "forward looking statements".

IMPORTANT NOTICE: By reference herewith, Carube Copper incorporates into this release the entire disclaimer set forth on its website at http://carubecopper.com/disclaimer.htm
Toronto, July 22, 2016: Rosita Mining Corp. (RST: TSX-V) ("Rosita" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement"). Pursuant to the Private Placement, the Company issued 17,000,000 units ("Unit") at a price of $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of $850,000.Each Unit is comprised of one common share and one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant ("Warrant") entitling the holder to acquire a further common share of the Company at a price of $0.055 for a period of two years following the date of issuance.All securities issued in connection with the Private Placement are subject to a four-month hold period plus one day in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws, commencing on the closing date of the Private Placement and ending on November 21, 2016.The securities offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.Rosita plans to use the proceeds from the Private Placement to advance the Santa Rita stockpile project, located near Rosita, Nicaragua. Work planned will include- Metallurgical optimization test work leading towards a production decision by the first quarter of next year- Additional gold leach test work and SART studies for the recovery of copper.- Capital and operating cost estimation work- Completion of a Preliminary Economic AssessmentThe stockpiles at the project were generated over a 17-year operating life from 1959 to 1975 at the Santa Rita open pit mine. A total of 5.4 million tonnes averaging 2.06% copper, 0.93 grams gold and 15.08 grams silver per tonne were mined. Mill recoveries reportedly varied from 60% to 80%, depending on the type of material processed.In addition to the stockpile resources, the concessions also include 13 exploration targets for gold-copper skarn and porphyry mineralization.Rosita recently completed an updated National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") resource estimate for the surface stockpiles. These total 70.9 million lbs. of copper, 96,660 oz. of gold and 1,520,500 oz. of silver and 46.2 million lbs. of copper, 50,330 oz. of gold and 957,500 oz. of silver in the Indicated and Inferred categories respectively.Indicated resources total 6.46 million tonnes grading 0.47 grams gold per tonne, 0.5% copper per tonne and 7.32 grams silver per tonne whilst Inferred resources total 3.44 million tonnes grading 0.46 grams gold per tonne, 0.61% copper per tonne and 8.66 grams silver per tonne in a series of stockpiles located near the former producing Santa Rita gold-copper open pit mine. These estimates have been based on a US$10 net smelter return ("NSR") cut off.

In addition, the Company also reported maiden Inferred resources of 1.96 million tonnes grading 0.56 grams gold per tonne, 0.21% copper per tonne and 9.56 grams silver per tonne at cut-off of 0.3 g/t gold in tailings located proximal to the Santa Rita stockpiles.



For complete details about the NI 43-101 resource estimate, please see our press release dated February 8, 2016 and the NI 43-101 report, both which are available at www.SEDAR.com





About Rosita Mining Corporation



Rosita is a junior mining and exploration resource company focused on growing shareholder value through the development of near-term mining projects and advancing accretive exploration opportunities.



Rosita and Calibre Mining Corp. hold a 65% and 35% interest respectively in the Rosita copper-gold-silver supergene/skarn/porphyry project in Nicaragua located 275 kilometres northeast of Managua.



The technical information included in this press release has been reviewed and approved by John Cook, MIMMM, President and CEO of Rosita Mining Corp. and a "Qualified Person", under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.



For additional information, please visit our website at www.rositaminingcorp.com.







For further information, contact:



Rosita Mining Corp.

John Cook, President and CEO

Telephone: +1 416 200 8073

Email: johncook@kos.net







This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information under applicable Canadian, U.S. and other securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the future plans, objectives or expectations of Rosita are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans of Rosita or expectations include risks relating to the fluctuating gold prices, possibility of equipment breakdowns and delays, exploration cost overruns, availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions, regulatory changes, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by Rosita with securities regulators. Rosita 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 except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, nor the OTCQX accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors Regarding Mineral Reporting.



Rosita prepares its disclosure in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. Terms relating to mineral resources in this press are defined in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the "CIM") -- CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended, which standards differ significantly from the discourse permitted by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission requirements and terminology set forth in SEC Industry Guide 7. Accordingly, information contained in this press release and the public filings of Rosita containing descriptions of mineral deposits may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.



Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.


The outpouring of support was met by a downpour from the heavens that Friday, July 21, 1916.

A storm front had rolled into the Cumberland Valley from the southwest bringing with it torrential rains, lightning and high winds.

Fully 1,000 visitors were marooned in the hospital during an exceptionally heavy shower, The Carlisle Evening Herald reported the next day. Taxis were in great demand during the entire evening.

The newspaper estimated between 1,700 and 2,000 area residents had braved the unsettled weather to tour the newly built hospital located at the corner of Parker and South streets.

Carlisle Regional Medical Center can trace its origin to that former location and stormy afternoon a century ago when a limestone building held steady in a tempest so strong it knocked down an iron smoke stack at a power plant in Mount Holly Springs.

The open house drew physicians from as far away as Chambersburg to what was actually the third hospital building to operate in the Carlisle area. Friends and fellow nurses from Harrisburg were on hand to congratulate Edith Yingst who was appointed the first superintendent of Carlisle Hospital. She had served as head nurse at Harrisburg Hospital.

Well-wishers sent Yingst a bunch of roses exquisitely beautiful, The Evening Sentinel reported on July 22. Pretty young ladies ushered the visitors to the various apartments and the many callers had nothing but praise for the institution.

The Herald reporter described in detail the features of a hospital made possible by the support of 1,650 donors who had raised $37,500 in just 10 days from Nov. 17 to 27, 1913.

Not all the space within the building was well received, however. The x-ray room lined with lead caused much apprehension among the visitors as did the operating room.

The Herald reporter also touched on what was then cutting edge medical technology and protocol. The sterilizing room insures that everything will be clean and the majority of faucets in practically the entire building are operated with the feet, thus leaving the hands free and insuring sanitation.

First operations

What became Carlisle Hospital and later CRMC was an outgrowth of two previous attempts to deliver quality health care to the community. The first attempt began in the early 1890s when a group of ladies launched a movement to establish a hospital in Carlisle.

Their vision was to offer an avenue through which the poor would receive medical treatment through a charitable institution, The Sentinel reported on June 23, 1996 in a special section commemorating what was then the 80th anniversary of Carlisle Hospital.

Their efforts created The Hospital Wards of the Lydia Baird Home and Hospital in April 1893. That hospital was located in a house on the north side of East High Street that was built in 1887 by Mrs. Henry J. Biddle of Philadelphia in honor of her mother who was a Carlisle native.

Seven churches selected parishioners to serve on a 16-member Board of Lady Managers who operated the hospital with six men on an advisory board. The Baird Hospital lasted three years setting the stage for more to come.

In January 1896, a brick home at North West and H streets became the Todd Hospital. The first floor was converted into a parlor, counseling room, dining room and kitchen. There were 10 bedrooms for patients including six on the second floor and four on the third floor, according to information on file in the Cumberland County Historical Society archives.

The Todd Hospital even had an operating room  something the Baird Hospital had lacked. It too was supervised by a Board of Lady Managers who later formed the nucleus of the Carlisle Hospital auxiliary.

Prognosis for change

By 1913, local doctors were so convinced that community demand had outgrown Todd Hospital they petitioned the Cumberland County court to create The Carlisle Hospital. President Judge William Sadler granted the charter on March 17, 1913.

Two months later, bylaws were adopted and a building committee was formed. The site chosen for that first limestone building was between Parker and Wilson streets on 20 lots owned by the Mooreland Company.

The land at that time was located in South Middleton Township and was only incorporated into Carlisle Borough in 1928, according to the book The Carlisle Hospital: The Most Important Building in Town by Susan E. Meehan.

On Sept. 30, 1913, the committee hired Philadelphia architect Edwin Bertolet to design the building. The fundraising campaign that November took in $37,500. Going was slow, however. The contract to construct the hospital was awarded on June 14, 1915 to James Porter of Carlisle for the sum of $43,500 or the modern equivalent of about $1.02 million.

Thirteen months later, on July 24, 1916, Carlisle Hospital was open for business. Mrs. W.L. Gooding, the wife of a Dickinson College professor, was the first of 639 patients admitted in that first year. The first baby born at the hospital was George Barnitz Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. George William Barnitz, according to the Meehan book.

Back then, it cost $2.50 a day for bed, board, medicine and nursing in semi-private wards and $3 to $4 a day for private rooms, according to the 1996 Sentinel article. In public wards, the minimum charge was $1 per day payable weekly and in advance except if the person was admitted as a free charity patient.

A Carlisle Hospital chronology mentions how floors were added to the original building in 1932 and 1938 and that new wings were completed in 1950 and 1962. The original hospital building was demolished in 1974.

Ownership of Carlisle Hospital was transferred to Health Management Associates on June 19, 2001. The decision was made to sell the Parker Street hospital building and replace it with a new facility in South Middleton Township.

Meanwhile, Carlisle Hospital became the Carlisle Regional Medical Center, which continued to operate from the Parker Street location until Feb. 12, 2006 when 90 patients were transported to a $68 million medical center along Alexander Spring Road.

For some time, there had been hope that the old buildings could be gutted and renovated to provide condominium or apartment space for residents, Meehan wrote in her book. It was simply too expensive a process to be feasible in Carlisle.

Demolition work on the old hospital complex started in November 2006. Three months later, the smokestack for the incinerator was imploded. The borough council in July 2007 approved a subdivision plan for 22 homes on former hospital land.
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2016) - Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) is pleased to announce recent initial drill results from the Bellas Gate and Above Rocks Joint Ventures in Jamaica. The 2016 exploration programs at both JVs are being operated by OZ Minerals Ltd., a $1.9B Australian copper producer.

Highlights of recent drilling:

Drilling at Bellas Gate is presently focused on the Provost Prospect where initial drilling yielded:

Hole PVT-16-002  339m of 0.34% CuEq, including 10m of 1.79% CuEq

Hole PVT-16-001  82m of 0.46% CuEq, including 29m of 0.63% CuEq

Drilling at Above Rocks is presently focused on the Job's Hill Prospect, where high grade copper oxide had previously been identified over a 45 metre by 600 metre surface area; initial drilling yielded:

Hole JBH-16-001  5m of 0.87% CuEq and 3m of 0.48% CuEq

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO of Carube Copper stated: "Results from the new discovery at Provost are extremely encouraging as they show near surface to end of hole copper and gold mineralization situated within the five-kilometre long Porphyry Alley trend from Camel Hill, to Provost and on to Hendley. I believe that we have identified a large and significant copper-gold porphyry system with this discovery."





Cannot view this image? Please visit https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/21739_a1469200420764_85.jpg to view this image

Figure 1: Location of the Provost Prospect and Lucky Valley Prospect within the NW Trending Alteration Zones at the Bellas Gate Joint Venture.

Bellas Gate Drilling

At the Provost Prospect, a total of 728 metres in 3 holes has been completed with another hole in progress. Provost is a copper-gold porphyry target, located on the five kilometer long prospective Southern Alteration Zone and Porphyry Alley trend hosting numerous coppergold porphyry systems. Soil geochemistry has defined a 400m by 400m copper in soil anomaly where strong to intense density of stockwork veining in volcanic rocks including quartz "A-veins" in malachite-mineralized outcrop are present. A recent ground Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey is also coincident with the mapped alteration and copper in soil anomaly.

There has been no historic drilling on this prospect, but Hole PVT-16-001 intersected copper mineralization from 29m downhole to the end of the hole at 111m. It was stopped in mineralization and abandoned due to drilling difficulties. Hole PVT-16-002 intersected copper mineralization from 29m downhole to the end of the hole at 368.15m with anomalous copper values to the end of the hole.

At the Lucky Valley Prospect one hole was drilled where an intrusive complex has been interpreted to be analogous to the Connors porphyry complex. Multiple phases of intrusions, including quartz-feldspar porphyry with strongly sheeted quartz +/- magnetite veining, have been identified in field mapping; individual rock samples yielded up to 0.44% Cu and 0.67g/t Au. A zone of anomalous Cu in soil measuring 200m by 400m has been identified in an area of poor outcrop. Assays are pending for hole LKV-16-001.

At the Provost Southeast Prospect at least one drill hole is planned. Soil sample data outlines an anomalous copper zone 600m long by 100 to 200m wide. Provost Southeast is some 800m southeast of Provost.

The Calabash Ridge Prospect is new and has been identified by surface mapping and sampling and has been upgraded in priority with the completion of the IP survey. It has been brought to the drill-ready stage and will be drilled later this quarter. Calabash Ridge is situated between the Connors Porphyry Complex and the new discovery at Provost.

Table 1: Summary of Most Recent Drilling Intersections from the Bellas Gate and Above Rocks Joint Ventures.

Joint Venture Prospect Hole Name From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (g/t) CuEq (%) Bellas Gate Provost PVT-16-001* 29 111.1 (EOH) 82.1 0.37 0.16 0.46 including 61 111.1 50.1 0.4 0.19 0.51 and including 82 111.1 29.1 0.49 0.24 0.63 Provost PVT-16-002 29 368.15(EOH) 339.15 0.28 0.12 0.34

including 80 93 13 0.41 0.16 0.50

including 138 148 10 1.28 0.90 1.79

including 189 204 15 0.38 0.24 0.52 Provost PVT-16-003 Drilling in progress Lucky Valley LVY-16-001 Assays awaited

Above Rocks Jobs Hill JBH-16-001 160 163 3 0.48 0 0.48 and 179 184 5 0.87 0 0.87 Jobs Hill JBH-16-002 Assays awaited

*Note: Hole was abandoned before target depth due to technical issues. EOH  End of Hole.

The intervals do not necessarily indicate true width of mineralization, as its geometry is not known. Copper equivalents are calculated using a US $3.00/lb. copper and a US$1200 per ounce gold price assuming unlimited internal dilution and 100% recovery of both metals.

Above Rocks Drilling

At the Jobs Hill Prospect one hole has been drilled for 237 metres while a second is currently being completed. The results of the first hole are reported in Table 1. Jobs Hill has extensive copper oxide showings and numerous exposures of malachite with good gold credits. It is hosted in a northeast trending structural zone, is at least 600m long and 45m wide and is open to the southwest. Drilling has indicated an intensely sheared contact zone between fine-grained volcanic flows and coarse-grained volcaniclastic rocks. Mineralization is comprised of chalcocite with occasional chalcopyrite and bornite. Two narrow zones of copper mineralization were encountered at depth. The second hole (results pending) was drilled beneath surface trench with visible chalcopyrite, bornite, azurite and malachite.

At the Bellas Gate JV the drilling is being fully funded by OZ Minerals under Phase 5 of the JV, which includes all work to the completion of a feasibility study. At the Above Rocks JV, this drilling campaign is part of the ARJV's Phase One exploration program, which will enable OZ Minerals to earn 40% of the project by sole funding $500,000 in exploration expenses.

Sample Preparation, Analysis and Quality Control: For a description of these items as pertaining to drill core and soil samples please see disclosure in press releases of January 14, 2015 and October 2, 2014. OZ Minerals, Carube Copper and Activation Laboratories all have robust sample security and quality control programs in place for samples collected in Jamaica.

Contacts

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO  1-613-839-3258  jackert@carubecopper.com

Vern Rampton, Executive VP of Corporate Development  1-613-839-3258  vrampton@carubecopper.com

Alar Soever, Chairman  1-705-682-9297  asoever@carubecopper.com

www.carubecopper.com

This press release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Vern Rampton, P. Eng., in his capacity as a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101. All references to "$" herein are to Canadian dollars unless stated otherwise.

 END PRESS RELEASE 

Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC:) is a Canadian exploration company focused on the exploration and development of copper and gold projects in Jamaica and Canada. In Jamaica, two projects, totalling 188 square kilometres in area, are the subject of separate joint venture agreements with OZ Minerals Ltd., an Australian copper-gold producer with a market capitalization of approximately $1.9B. Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in two other nearby projects, totalling 80 square kilometres. In Canada, Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in three porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum properties, totalling 593 square kilometres within the Tertiary-aged Cascade Magmatic Arc in southwestern British Columbia. Exploration continues on these properties with the goal of joint-venturing them to larger exploration and mining companies. Carube Copper continues to seek opportunities in Canada and the Caribbean for acquisition and development.

DISCLAIMER & FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, and by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on currently available information, Carube Copper Corp. provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Factors that can cause results to differ materially are set out in the Company's documents filed on the SEDAR website. Undue reliance should not be placed on "forward looking statements".

IMPORTANT NOTICE: By reference herewith, Carube Copper incorporates into this release the entire disclaimer set forth on our website at http://carubecopper.com/disclaimer.htm

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Not knocking the halal snack packs and pizze that have served generations of Melburnians well after decent restaurant hours, but there are options beyond something you have to scoff on the street. Take shelter from the storm (or your own making).

Belleville

It's a limited menu after 11pm, but from Thursday through Saturday, you can't really argue with a miso-glazed rotisserie chicken and cheese and gravy-soaked poutine to plug a late-night hole.

Globe Alley, Melbourne, 03 9663 4041, belleville-melbourne.com

The Black Pearl

The bar menu is often overshadowed by the quality of the cocktails, but upstairs at the Attic you can get Melbourne's fanciest nachos until 3am  braised pulled duck, layered between tortilla chips with romesco, sour cream, guacamole and fistfuls of mozzarella.

304 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 03 9417 0455, blackpearlbar.com.au

Cheeseburger and frites at Entrecote steakhouse. Photo: Jesse Marlow

Entrecote

The whole menu is available up until midnight, so you can battle the traffic leaving the MCG and still sit down to steak-frites, creme brulee and wine. Just as an adult should be able to do.

131133 Domain Road, South Yarra, 03 9804 5468, entrecote.com.au

Kimchi pancake at Joomak. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

Advertisement

Joomak

This basement Korean joint has it all  booths for your group, a call button and a series of infused rice wines to go with the kimchi pancakes and braised trotters you can get up until dawn. Take note  you'll have to search. There's no sign.

407-409 Swanston Street, Melbourne, 03 9663 7123, joomak.com.au

All-day diner: Magic Mountain Saloon Photo: Paul Jeffers

Magic Mountain Saloon

Many an evening and date has been saved by Karen Batson's South-East Asian menu  especially her sticky sour pork ribs, available alongside half a chicken and vegetarian friendly stir-fries until 1am on weekends.

62 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 03 9078 0078, magicmountainsaloon.com.au



Mamasita's signature corn with lime and queso (cheese). Photo: Eddie Jim

Mamasita

"We stay open as advertised no matter what," says Mamasita's crew. And the good news that while they're open you can get a round of pork tacos, queso-frilled corn and margaritas until midnight on weeknights and 1am on Friday and Saturday nights.

Level 1, 11 Collins Street, Melbourne, 03 9650 3821, mamasita.com.au

Oree Korean barbecue restaurant. Photo: Arsineh Houspian

Oree

Oree once specialised in duck, and you still can still get it in chilli, soy or smoked flavour, but the late-night joint now covers Korean barbecue classics more broadly, right up until 4am (or 5am, depending how they're feeling).

179 Queen Street, Melbourne, 03 9642 1270, oree.com.au

Shujinko

It's not only open 24 hours, and specifically providing weary DJs, shift workers and travellers with power points to charge their phones, but their tonkotsu and black ramen is also really good.

225 Russell Street, Melbourne, 03 9654 0989

Suckling pig at Supper Inn. Photo: Eddie Jim

Supper Inn

'The crime of the renovation is the sudden natural light  it's too much for someone who used to smoke here while eating.' Yep, everyone's reliable, long-serving late-night Chinese has had a touch up (down?) but noodles and Tsingtao are still at your service 'til 2.30am.

15 Celestial Avenue, Melbourne, 03 9663 4759

Souvlaki at Stalactites. Photo: Tim Grey

Stalactites

Depending on who you are and how you order, the city's spackled all-night stalwart will either confirm or abolish your belief that nothing good happens after 2am. Garlicky gyros are the main export, but you can sit in for marinated octopus, T-bones or spaghetti 24 hours a day.

177183 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, 03 9663 3316

The Age Good Food Guide 2017 will be available for purchase for $24.99 (with free access to the new Good Food app) from all newsagents and major bookstores from Tuesday, September 13. Pick up your Age Good Food Guide 2017 for $14.99 with The Age on Saturday, September 17.
My long-running obsession with science fiction is probably the natural consequence of my background as a completely unapologetic nerd. Relatively recently, I was sucked into the BBC show "Doctor Who," which is about a time-traveling, human-looking alien who prefers the company of British humans in his travels as he explores space and time, setting right the wrongs committed by any number of alien species across the cosmos.

The doctor's arch-nemeses are the Daleks. The Dalek motto is "Exterminate!" You cannot negotiate with them. You cannot make peace. The only thing the Daleks want to do is kill everything. Even when other antagonists in the series try to ally with the Daleks against the Doctor, they refuse and proceed to try to exterminate all parties involved.

As believers, we have a similar enemy whose only goal is our destruction. Satan's only desire is the destruction and death of everything God has created. Jesus said that Satan "comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10a).

We cannot, therefore, negotiate or appease an enemy like ours. President John F. Kennedy said, "We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." Describing ISIS, former British intelligence officer Annie Machon said, "You cannot negotiate with a mad dog. You cannot make accommodations for a mad dog." Sometimes, peace with certain parties is not to be found.

Neither should we even try. The former president of the American Postal Workers Union, William Burrus, said, "You cannot negotiate with the turkey over what day Thanksgiving is."

While we cannot negotiate, it still behooves the believer to understand why Satan's goal is our destruction.

Throughout history, conquest and usurpation have always meant the destruction of the symbols of the old regime. Nebuchadnezzar renamed Jewish captives after destroying the temple in Jerusalem from names that honored the Israelite God to names which honored the Babylonian gods. Alexander the Great systematically "Hellenized" every land he conquered, changing the official language to Greek, building Greek cities and hijacking local belief systems with the Greek pantheon of gods. I remember when Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted from power in Iraq and realizing the point of no return had passed when the news showed statues of Saddam Hussein toppling. Even today, members of ISIS destroy symbols of ancient paganism wherever they find them. More locally, we dispute the names of streets, buildings and institutions that bear the names of former Confederate generals and presidents.

Recall how Satan's original aim was also usurpation and revolution. Satan said in his heart, "I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; ... I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13-14). Satan originally set out to replace God's regime with his own, and God seems to have allowed him to think he was somewhat successful. He is, after all, the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, deluded as he may be about his success, Satan has for millennia pursued the usurper's usual program of destroying the images and symbols of the old regime.

What greater image of God's reign is there than those whom he specifically created to carry it? That means you.

You and I are made in the image of God. "God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) As the very image of the old regime, you and I must be destroyed.

But do not fear. God is not going to let his own reign be usurped so easily. In the same breath that Jesus revealed Satan's goal, he also revealed his own, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; but I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Where Satan desires to destroy God's image, God works to restore it through Jesus. God's power is immeasurably greater, and if we turn to him, he will raise his image back up as evidence that Satan's revolution will never succeed. "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).

Kyle Hooks is the associate pastor at Angelo Bible Church. Contact him at 325-716-4258 or kyle@lookingupfrombelow.com. You can like Looking Up at facebook.com/lookingupfrombelow.
SHARE

By Staff Report

Some relief may be ahead for the acute shortage of nurses in West Texas.

As part of its effort to meet demand for health care professionals in the workforce, Howard College on Thursday received approval from the Texas State Board of Nursing to establish a generic and an accelerated Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) to Registered Nurse (RN) Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Education Program at Howard's San Angelo campus.

The first cohort of 20 generic ADN and 30 accelerated LVN to RN students will be admitted in August, the college said, and the first students participating in the accelerated LVN to RN track will graduate in summer 2017.

Validation of the demand and need included a survey of clinical facilities indicating the availability of rich clinical learning experiences to accommodate the Howard College ADN students, according to a Howard College announcement.

The Board of Nursing staff cited the need for the professional nursing program. Since August 2013, LVNs and generic students wishing to obtain an ADN no longer had an option to do so in the San Angelo geographical region.

The program was strongly supported by local officials. Howard College and community leaders, including Mayor Dwain Morrison and Tom Green County Judge Steve Floyd, attended the Texas Board of Nursing presentation in Austin on Thursday.

Funding for the first two years of the program includes financial assistance from the City of San Angelo Development Corp., the Concho Valley Workforce Development Board, Texas Workforce Commission, Shannon Medical Center, Community Medical Center and the Howard College at San Angelo Foundation.

The application deadline for students who wish to enter the program is 3 p.m. Aug. 10. Information is available from the Howard College Health Professions Office at 325-481-8371 ext. 3435 or Student Services at 325-481-8350.
SHARE Hughes

Suspect's mom may leave hospital today

By Jennifer Rios

Investigators and those directly involved in a Grape Creek shooting are staying quiet about events surrounding the incident.

Gabriel Hughes, who is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail, declined a jail interview.

Hughes, 31, is accused of shooting his mother, Cathleen Hughes, and San Angelo lawyer Theodore "Tip" Hargrove on Monday afternoon in the 15200 block of Sutton Road northwest of San Angelo.

"It was just a family disturbance over family issues," Tom Green County Sheriff David Jones said Thursday.

Hargrove told officers Hughes shot him and Cathleen Hughes with an AR15 rifle, according to a complaint filed with Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Eddie Howard.

The two were injured outside the residence, Jones said. Hargrove was shot in the right foot. It was unclear where Cathleen Hughes was injured.

Hughes is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, and aggravated assault date/family/house with a deadly weapon, a first-degree felony.

A phone call to a number listed for Cathleen Hughes was answered with a no comment.

Judges at the San Angelo District Courthouse, who all have worked for years with Hargrove, asked Regional Administrative Judge Dean Rucker, out of Midland, to assign a different judge to Hughes' case. District Court Administrator Shannon McFarland said the request was made Wednesday and granted Thursday morning.

Judge Brock Jones was will preside over the case in San Angelo if Hughes is indicted. In that instance, the case will be prosecuted by the 119th District Attorney's Office.

"The judges don't even want to give the appearance of impropriety," McFarland said. "They went ahead and requested an assignment."

Hughes did not have an attorney listed to represent him as of Thursday.

Sheriff's Lt. Christina Lopez said Cathleen Hughes' condition was improving and she may be released from the hospital Friday. She and Hargrove were taken to Shannon Medical Center on Monday afternoon.

Jones said the San Angelo Police Department offered assistance with their SWAT and Hostage Negotiation Team, and state and federal agencies supplied three aircraft to assist in the case.

"It was a very large scene with several structures on the place," Jones said. "DPS sent numerous people, and U.S. Customs, or Homeland Security, sent out several people."

Events began just after 4 p.m. Monday when law enforcement authorities responded to a report of two shooting victims on U.S. 87 and March Road, Lopez said. The shooting victims were found in Hargrove's 2013 Toyota pickup about 10 miles south of the residence on Sutton Road where Gabriel Hughes was later found. The property is owned by Hughes' parents, Don and Cathleen Hughes, according to Tom Green County Appraisal District records.

Abilene Police Department sent its armored personnel carrier, which provided protection for local officers as they approached the residence, "which was very much out in the open," Jones said.

Texas Ranger Nick Hanna assisted the sheriff's office by taking statements.

Hargrove, who had been released from the hospital by Tuesday morning, was at the Tom Green District Courthouse Thursday afternoon with his foot propped behind him on a wheeled cart. He declined to comment on the alleged shooting.

"I don't think it would be appropriate," Hargrove said.

Hughes has several connections to Hargrove and, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked for the office of state Sen. Robert Duncan.

According to Hughes' page on LinkedIn, a social media network, he was a graduate of St. Mary's University law school and twice was employed at Hargrove's law office. The page also said he was employed from "January 2013 to present" with Duncan's office as a committee clerk.

Duncan's office said Hughes' employment there lasted from January to March 2013.

Tom Green County court records show that Hargrove represented Hughes in court cases at least three times in the past eight years: On a speeding ticket in May 2006, on a DWI charge in August 2010 and on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in October 2010. All three charges, heard in Tom Green County Court-at-Law, were dismissed.
SHARE Hallcy Hallcy

By Ngan Ho of the San Angelo Standard-Times

A woman accused of setting an acquaintance's house on fire last year was released from the Tom Green County Jail on Thursday on a $50,000 bond.

Dominesha Elizabeth Hallcy, 31, was arrested May 25, charged with arson with intent to damage a habitat or place of worship, a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years in prison.

The San Angelo Fire and Police Departments were dispatched to a structure fire the 200 block of West 23rd Street on July 5, 2015.

First responders saw flames coming out of an upstairs window when they arrived at the scene about 2:50 a.m., according to a complaint report.

Neighbors told firefighters they weren't sure if anyone was home, and the front door was locked, stated the complaint,

One firefighter kicked the door open to search the home for occupants but was unable to because of heavy smoke, the complaint stated.

Authorities later learned that no on was home during the fire.

Victor Brown, the home's resident, told authorities that he and his girlfriend were in Abilene at the time, according to the complaint.

Brown said he had allowed Hallcy and another occupant move into the home with him about three months before the fire.

Brown said he and Hallcy had dated two or three years earlier, but they weren't in a romantic relationship at the time of the fire. He said he was simply helping her out by allowing her and the second occupant to live with him because the two did not have any other place to go.

Brown said Hallcy wanted a romantic relationship but he did not.

About a week before the fire, Brown said he came home and saw that the second occupant had a new bicycle.

He asked Hallcy where the bicycle came from because he suspected that it was stolen, and she became angry and told him that it was none of his business.

He then confronted Hallcy about smoking marijuana on the property, and she admitted she had been smoking marijuana on his property with the second occupant present.

Brown said he told Hallcy she needed to move out because he didn't want any trouble with the police. Hallcy was not happy about moving out, the complaint stated.

Brown said he took back the house key from the second occupant but Hallcy did not return her key.

On July 12, 2015, Brown said he was at Martin Luther King Park, 2121 Martin Luther King Blvd., visiting with friends when he overheard some people talking about Hallcy and the fire.

They said, "Baby girl did her thug thizzle thang and for out of Dodge and to D town," the complaint stated.

Brown said he understood this information meant that Hallcy set the fire at his residence, then left San Angelo to go to Dallas.

Brown called Hallcy on her cell phone that same day, but she did not answer, the complaint stated.

Hallcy called back about 30 minutes later and left a voice message saying, "I had heard that it was a female that came through your windows and set the back of the loft on fire. Which one of your females she that mad at you like that? Umm umm umm. You didn't want to call me and ask me how I'm doing. I'm lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely. Like you said, God don't like ugly and he ain't too fond of cute. Karma is a (expletive). Have a great night and a blessed day."

The SAPD complaint was made on July 22, 2015. Hallcy was arrested May 25 and has not been indicted.
McCraw says DPS did not fail Uvalde

Uvalde shooting victims' family members called for Steve McCraws resignation in a tense meeting of the Texas Public Safety Commission on Thursday.
SHARE Sherrod Malik Wilder Taryn Makia Espinosa

By Staff Report

Two teens arrested this week, accused of kidnapping a juvenile at gunpoint, are being held at the Tom Green County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail.

Sherrod Malik Wilder, 19, and Taryn Makia Espinosa, 18, were charged with aggravated kidnapping of the juvenile from his residence in the 9700 block of Burma Road in Carlsbad.

Tom Green County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to the residence for a report of a terroristic threat Tuesday, according to a release from the Sheriff's Office.

The San Angelo Police Department told deputies before they arrived that the victim had called 9-1-1 after escaping from the suspects , according to the release.

The juvenile told police he was involved in an argument that later became a physical altercation with Wilder, according to a complaint report.

Wilder then used a handgun, given to him by Espinosa, the juvenile told police, and the two forced the juvenile at gunpoint into a car to go get money from an ATM.

The juvenile said Espinosa and Wilder also forced him at gunpoint to attempt to withdraw money from his bank account at the Paint Rock State Bank, 402 Smith Blvd.

The juvenile said he was then taken from the bank to the Stripes Store at 1606 La Follette, where he was able to escape after asking for help from the clerk.

SAPD arrested Wilder and Espinosa at Rio Concho Drive and Bell Street. Wilder was booked on Tuesday and Espinosa on Wednesday.

Wilder told police that he rode with Espinosa and the juvenile to San Angelo as Espinosa used a handgun to abduct and strike him at times, according to the complaint.

Wilder said he was with Espinosa while she drove the juvenile to the bank.

Espinosa said she had possession of a handgun and gave the handgun to Wilder for him to use to instill fear and coerce the juvenile to ride in the vehicle, the complaint stated.

Espinosa said Wilder pointed the handgun at the juvenile and attempted to obtain money from his bank account while the three were sitting in the vehicle at the bank's drive-thru, according to the complaint.

Espinosa was arrested on an outstanding warrant from McCulloch County and on manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance greater than 4 grams and less than 200 grams, according to the release.

A pistol was found in Espinosa's purse that matched the description of the pistol used in the aggravated kidnapping, the release stated.

Aggravated kidnapping and manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance greater than 4 grams and less than 200 grams are first-degree felonies punishable by five to 99 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
Israeli police officers watch as people take part in the annual gay pride parade in central Jerusalem, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city's annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

SHARE Friends of 16-year-old Shira Banki who was killed last year in the annual gay pride parade lay flowers at the site were she was stabbed as people take part in the annual gay pride parade in central Jerusalem, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city's annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) An Israeli border police officers watches from a roof top as people take part in the annual gay pride parade in central Jerusalem, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city's annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) People take part in the annual gay pride parade in central Jerusalem, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city's annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Women take part in the annual gay pride parade in central Jerusalem, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city's annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP)  Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city's annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march.

The heavily guarded event comes against a backdrop of deep divisions in Israel between its secular majority and increasingly powerful nationalist and ultra-Orthodox camps that have spoken out forcefully of late against the LGBT community. The fault lines have been even more pronounced in Jerusalem, the ancient biblical city rich in religious history and tradition, and the gay parade has been an explosive point of contention.

Unlike the raucous parade in the liberal Israeli city of Tel Aviv, which this year drew some 200,000 people, the Jerusalem affair is relatively modest. Even so, it has faced much resistance from ultra-Orthodox extremists who have deemed it an "abomination" and protested against it vigorously.

The conflict reached its apex a year ago when ultra-Orthodox extremist Yishai Schlissel began stabbing participants, killing the 16-year-old girl and wounding seven others. That attack came shortly after he had been released from prison after serving a sentence for stabbing several people at the 2005 pride march.

Police said Thursday that even behind bars, Schlissel has been plotting to further harm gay pride participants and that they have thwarted another attack he was planning. Police said Schlissel was taken for questioning from his cell and his brother, Michael, was arrested as an accomplice.

"We have thwarted and prevented attempts to harm people during the march. The march will take place as planned and without change," said Jerusalem district police commander Yoram Halevi. He did not elaborate.

Police deployed in unprecedented numbers Thursday, with some 2,000 officers securing the route. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said 12 protesters were apprehended on suspicion of planning to disrupt the parade, with some carrying knives.

Local media reported that about 25,000 took part in the march, an all-time high and five times as many as a year ago.

In recent days, some Israeli rabbis have spoken out against the gay community. Protesters on Thursday held signs such as "Jerusalem is not Sodom." Supporters of the gay pride march countered with messages such as "thou shalt not kill."

Jerusalem's secular mayor, Nir Barkat, said this week that while the gay community has the right to march, he would personally forgo the event because it was seen as offensive to the city's many religious residents.

Responding to criticism from the gay community, Barkat laid flowers ahead of the march at the site where 16-year-old Shira Banki was killed last year.

"I understand the pain and criticism of those who do not agree with my decision not to participate in the parade," he said in a statement. "I chose a different way to honor the memory of Shira Banki, a sweet girl who was murdered because of hatred."

Several lawmakers from across the political spectrum attended the march, which began with a wedding ceremony between two men under a traditional Jewish canopy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a special statement in support.

"They are marching for one principle: that all people are equal," Netanyahu said. "The march today in Jerusalem is not just a march of the LGBT community. It is not just a march of a specific community. It is not a march 'for' or 'against.' It is a march of all of us. It is a march of together."
When we sow the wind, we should not be surprised when we reap a whirlwind.

And the whirlwind in which we find ourselves is a nation so filled with unchecked anger and hatred it seems we cant go a week without a cop killing, this time in Baton Rouge.

In this age of instant news, people feel compelled to react instantly before facts come out, aided by race-hustlers who consistently fan the flame of division with inflammatory words and then step back to watch the world burn. In response to the Baton Rouge killings, President Obama lectured Americans must temper our words and open our hearts.

Hi pot, meet kettle.

Clevelands Police Patrolmens Association president, Detective Steve Loomis, who spoke to Fox News while events were still unfolding in Baton Rouge says Obamas own words are to blame.

Its absolutely insane that we have a president of the United States and a [Democrat] governor of Minnesota making the statements they made less than one day after the police-involved shootings, Loomis said, And those police-involved shootings, make no mistake, are what absolutely have triggered this rash of senseless murders of law enforcement officers across this country. Its reprehensible. And the president of the United States has blood on his hands that will not be able to come washed off.

The damning comments Loomis referenced were Obamas: When incidents like this occur, theres a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same... And Minnesota Gov. Daytons: Would this have happened if the driver were white, if the passengers were white? I dont think it would have.

Not long after, five officers were killed by a man who reportedly had it out for white people. And now, three more officers were killed on July 17.

Its as simple to understand as an indisputable law of the universe: cause and effect. Coddling groups conceived in and fostered by hatred will reap bloody-bad results.

Ask slain Baton Rouge officer Montrell Jacksons sister Joycelyn Jackson. The Washington Post reports she understands the anger fueling the Black Lives Matter movement, but still believes God gives nobody the right to kill and take another persons life...Its coming to the point where no lives matter.

And shes right. In reality, though, all lives matter, but if you say that youll be labeled a racist. I suppose Jesus was also a racist in that he died for all, regardless of skin color. A song I learned as a kid went like this: Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world; red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world. My how Americas changed.

Days before he was assassinated, slain Officer Jackson prophetically posted on Facebook that he was tired physically and emotionally, and said he wondered if the city he loved, loved him back. In uniform, he wrote, I get nasty hateful looks and out of uniform some consider me a threat...These are trying times. Please dont let hate infect your heart...

Obviously, Jacksons alleged assassin allowed hate to fill his heart. The Daily Caller reports the shooter, Gavin Eugene Long was a [former] Nation of Islam member who railed against crackers on his YouTube Channel. The New York Daily News reported that in another video Long defended the Dallas cop shooter saying, Its justice. You know what Im saying.

Yes, Gavin, we got what you were saying. You showed us in Baton Rouge.

And mark my words, this mayhem will continue unless hatred is replaced with Gods love and forgiveness. Then sanity will return to the citizenry and law and order to this nation. God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind, so maybe there is hope for us in ours.

Susan Stamper Brown lives in Alaska and writes about culture, politics and current events. She was selected as one of Americas 50 Best Conservative writers for 2015. Her columns are syndicated by CagleCartoons.com. Email her at writestamper@gmail.com.
planning future activities and programs (46 percent agreed)

analyzing data -- as opposed to gathering and collecting it (34 percent)

personal professional development (28 percent)

interacting with peers in government (27 percent)

brainstorming (26 percent)

Do you have trouble getting all your work done in a 35- to 40-hour week?More than half (53 percent) of local government officials do, according to a survey by the Governing Exchange, a research arm of. It polled nearly 300 executives and senior managers in cities, counties and special districts.Of the people who said they struggle to cross everything off their to-do lists, 69 percent regularly work more than 40 hours with no additional compensation. Another 10 percent get the job done with overtime pay, and 21 percent said they just dont finish the tasks theyre expected to perform.Despite the obvious importance of this issue in state and local governments, which spend a significant percent of their revenues on personnel, theres been little analysis about how to help employees use their time more productively.Most managers dont have any idea of how their people use their time at work, said Karen Thoreson, president of the Alliance for Innovation. Honestly, they might not even have a good handle on how they use their own time.There are a number of activities that respondents believe take up too much of their time. The most common culprits were meetings, paperwork, email, data collection and reporting, and employee performance reviews.Obviously, all these tasks are critical to the smooth functioning of any government entity. Its doubtful that public employees oppose any of these functions, per se. They just feel that theyre voracious time-consumers that leave too few hours for other important things.What are those important things? According to the survey, officials say they would better accomplish the goals of the job if they had more hours for the following:When similar surveys have been conducted in the past, the results have been unsettling. Take the Colorado Child Welfare Workload Study. Over four weeks in 2014, 1,300 child welfare workers in 54 counties recorded how much time they spent on different activities. The results: 37.5 percent of their time was spent on documentation and administration, 5 percent on parent and family contact, and 4 percent on child contact.We knew there needed to be a readjustment, said Reggie Bicha, director of the Colorado Department of Human Services.Over the next two years, they increased staffing, implemented a new child welfare information system, and provided workers with mobile phones and tablets so they could make the best use of all the hours they spend waiting around courthouses and hospitals.Since then, Bicha said, caseworkers have been ecstatic about having these tools.A focus on time management has also helped the Department of Parks and Recreation in Pearland, Texas. About a year ago, Christopher Orlea, the departments new director, decided that a reimagined approach to the standard employee-supervisor relationship could dramatically increase productivity and reduce redundant communications. First, instead of having the same conversation with different people, he created a document where staff can include any necessary news or information. That document is then emailed out each week to all relevant parties.Then, Orlea moved away from a typical hierarchy and gave all employees more autonomy. Granting them the power to make more decisions in effect reduced the need for many meetings.A year later, Orlea said morale has also gotten a big boost, and personally, he said hes gained an enormous chunk of my day back.
In a ruling with strong implications for the Nov. 8 presidential election in Michigan, a federal judge on Thursday blocked Michigan's recent ban on straight-party voting, saying the change would result in longer lines and wait times at polling places and that it would disadvantage black voters the most."The court finds (the law) presents a disproportionate burden on African Americans' right to vote," partly because, in Michigan's most populous counties, there is a strong correlation between the size of the black voting population and the use of straight-ticket voting, U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain, who issued a preliminary injunction against the state law, said in a written opinion.Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson will appeal Drain's order, likely on Monday or Tuesday, Schuette spokesman John Sellek said late Thursday.Drain said "time is of the essence" because the election is less than four months away, and "election officials need to have adequate time to prepare."Under the judge's order, the case would still go to trial to decide the merits. Drain said he issued the injunction because the plaintiffs have a good chance of winning, and he intends for straight-ticket voting to be in place for the November election, barring a successful appeal.The Aug. 2 primary election is not affected because in a primary voters choose among candidates in either the Republican column or the Democratic column and can't cross over.* Related: Lawsuit challenges elimination of straight-ticket voting* Related: Michigan Senate, House OK end to straight-ticket votingThe Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks issued a statement soon after the ruling, before Schuette announced the appeal, urging the state not to do so.The law was passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed into law by GOP Gov. Rick Snyder in January."This is a great victory for the voters," said Southfield attorney Mark Brewer, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, who represents the Michigan State A. Philip Randolph Institute and several individual plaintiffs in the case."As bad as this would be for everybody in the state, it would be worse for African Americans," Brewer told the Free Press.But House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, blasted the "bizarre ruling," saying "Michigan voters want to vote for people, not parties.""The court's opinion did not focus enough on the needs of voters, instead fighting odd rhetorical battles over which party deserves to win the trust of certain voters," Cotter said in a statement."The people of Michigan deserve better, and I hope they will receive it after an appeal."Straight-party voting, in which all candidates of a single party are picked with just a single mark, is popular in Michigan cities with large black populations, especially Flint and Detroit, election data show.Lawyers say more than 70% of ballots in Detroit and Flint have been cast as straight-party votes."The real question that the court must answer is whether the burdens caused by P.A. 268 are in part caused by or linked to social and historical conditions that have produced or currently produce discrimination against African Americans," wrote Drain, a former Wayne County Circuit Court judge appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2012. "This question is unavoidably answered in the affirmative."African Americans are much more likely to vote Democrat than other ethnic groups, and many feel this is largely due to racially charged political stances taken by Republicans on the local, state and national level since the post-World War II era," the judge said.The State Attorney General's office, which is defending the law in court, said there's nothing illegal because no one would be denied access to voting."Michigan joins 40 other states that require voters to select an individual for each elective office, rather than simply selecting a political party," Snyder wrote in a letter explaining why he signed the bill. "As governor, I have strived to put people before politics and strongly encourage voters to do the same."In his opinion, Drain said: "The behaviors of other states are irrelevant to the question of constitutionality."Drain also described as "woefully insufficient" a $5-million appropriation the Legislature attached to the straight-ticket bill, "presumably to be spent on more voting booths and staff.""There is evidence that it would actually take $30 million, six times the amount appropriated, to adequately combat the long lines," the judge said.House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said he and his caucus are glad the judge agreed "with what we've said all along: This law will put roadblocks between voters and the voting booth."Rep. Brian Banks, D-Detroit, head of the House Detroit caucus, said "the judge's ruling today sends the clear signal that playing games with the electoral process and trying to keep African-American citizens from exercising their right to vote will not be tolerated."Snyder signed the bill, but urged the Legislature to pair it with a bill to allow people to vote by absentee ballot without having to give a reason -- a measure expected to reduce lines at polling places. The House passed such a bill, but the Senate has not and is not expected to take it up.Speaking in Cleveland Thursday before Drain issued his ruling, Snyder said "the reason I signed it is I think it's a good part of the process for people to look at each individual office and each candidate.""It's not just about partisan politics," he said. "And you have to go through that process when you don't have straight-ticket voting. It's the way I've always voted."In a statement, the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks said it did not support the change in state law eliminating straight-ticket voting, but was committed to implementing it."Now that Judge Drain has issued a preliminary injunction suspending the law for the November election, we must express our strong recommendation that the Secretary of State and Attorney General refrain from appealing the judge's ruling until after the November elections," said Sarah Bydalek, Walker City Clerk and association president."An appeal prior to the November election would leave too much uncertainty for our hardworking clerks and elections workers and undoubtedly cause confusion with voters that could affect the integrity of this important election.," she said.Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, said "We need to be focused on making it easier for everyone to vote, and today's ruling helps protect that right."U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, said "It's a shame that Michigan's Republican-led Legislature enacted these burdensome restrictions that were found to adversely affect African Americans' ability to vote."State Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Alto, who chairs the House Elections Committee and wanted straight-ticket voting banned only if it were coupled with "secure, no-reason absentee voting," said in a news release that "Whether or not the state appeals today's ruling, I again call upon the Senate to pass my ... absentee voting legislation and enact good, pro-voter policy."
It's a tough time to be in law enforcement," said Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans. "Everybody thinks we're bad guys out there.It was that public perception that five years ago led Boston Police to try a new community policing tactic: an ice cream truck. The truck, which is driven by officers who hand out free treats to residents, has become emblematic of the departments efforts to improve cops' relationships with citizens, particularly young people from black and Latino neighborhoods.In recent months, a string of videotaped deaths of black men at the hands of police has led to a severe loss of trust in law enforcement across the country. Public confidence in police is at a 20-year low , andthat lack of faith is most severe among black people . Anger at police erupted recently in the shooting deaths of eight officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.Boston knows, of course, that giving away frozen goodies won't solve the systemic problems that plague many departments across the country. But it's meant to be a small first step.We want neighborhood kids to have positive interactions with police officers at a young age, so that they know they can trust us, said Rachel McGuire, a public information officer with the Boston Police Department.While the officers are dishing out ice cream, we're always approached about issues that people dont want to pick up the phone and call us [about]," said Evans.Police-operated ice cream trucks are uncommon, but the idea of getting police more involved in the community has been growing for years. The recent White House task force report on 21st century policing recommends that departments engage in community policing as well as frequent youth-based programming. At least one other city, St. Louis, is following Boston's lead and has purchased an ice cream truck for police.Any of Boston's 75 community-police officers can drive the truck, which is equipped with a siren and rooftop lights in case of emergency. During the summer, police park the vehicle at events across the city at least once a week. The truck is so popular that lines will stretch down the block.It brings a whole different dynamic to the community, said Rev. Arthur T. Gerald, a pastor at a Baptist church in Roxbury, a majority black neighborhood in Boston. Because children and their parents meet the officers and get to interact with them in a context that isnt adversarial, Gerald says, "they begin to see the police through another prism.Dianne Lescinskas, a program director at the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester, a Boston neighborhood where about a quarter of residents are white, said she didnt know what to expect when police first asked to serve ice cream at youth softball games.When the truck showed up, the kids went crazy. They had huge smiles on their faces, she said. It's really building bridges between police officers and the communities they serve.Boston police are trying to find other ways to build those bridges, such as pairing officers with teenagers to cook pizzas together at a nonprofit cooking school. And the department is working with a local police foundation to buy a new truck to replace the first one, which was donated by a local dairy company. The investment -- a new truck would cost about $70,000 -- is worth it, said Evans.It's a way to show what the Boston Police Department's mission is, and that's working with the community.
The announcement by Donald Trump of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate had not yet been made official last Thursday, but that didnt stop the hard left from hauling out its familiar and overused rhetoric.

Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, released a statement which said, If Trump picks extreme right-wing Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, he will be doubling down on his divisive and hate-filled approach to politics. Funny how turning people against each other is, for the left, a one-way street. When the left wants to obliterate history, tradition, biblical teachings and even common sense it never sees itself as divisive. Conservatives are supposed to accept their agenda without complaint.

Pence has the government experience Trump lacks. He spent a decade in the House of Representatives and has been governor for the last four years. Yes, he was blindsided by the business communitys reaction to his signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which would have allowed businesses to deny service to the LGBT community on the basis of religious beliefs. And yes, it could be argued  and was  that he looked weak as he backtracked in face of heavy opposition and signed an amended bill passed by the Republican majority legislature allowing local governments to add protections for LGBT people.

Pence has the temperament critics say Trump lacks. He is an evangelical Christian, which should appeal to that base whose members have been troubled by Trumps marital history, his rhetoric about women and his unfamiliarity with scripture.

Pences record as governor is a profile in conservatism: a 5 percent reduction in the state income tax; a reduction in the state corporation tax from 6.5 percent to 4.9 percent (that must have appealed to Trump who wants to cut corporate taxes to return jobs to the U.S.) and an increase in the state labor force which according to the governors office, by the end of 2014, had grown by more than 51,000 over that year. That was five times the national growth rate.

Heres what he told me in a December 2014 interview in his Indianapolis office: The Republican Party has become just the other party to Washington solutions. We have to get back to advancing state-based solutions and reforms. We must be relentlessly optimistic. Channeling power from Washington back to the states is another announced Trump priority.

There is something else that will appeal to Trump and a lot of poorer Americans with children trapped in failing schools because Democrats wont let them escape due to pressure and donations from the teachers unions. As governor, Pence set a goal of getting 100,000 more Indiana students in high-quality schools by 2020. The objective, he told me, is to fix traditional schools, as well as expand the states educational voucher program, the largest in the country.

Pence said he believed 2016 will be the first foreign policy election since 1980. He was right.

During our interview Pence refused to describe President Obamas time in office as a failure, saying it has only been disappointing. Dont look for him to be as judicious during the campaign because he has many reasons not to, including the administrations poor record on fighting terrorism.

In what could turn out to be one of his best stump speech lines as he pursues the vice presidency, Pence said: Theres a lot wrong with our national government, but weve got to stop confusing our national government with our nation.

Modest, self-effacing and a man of deep faith in God and America, Pence will be salt to Trumps pepper.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.
Attorney General Maura Healey stepped up the ban on military-looking rifles yesterday, prompting licensed gun enthusiasts to flood gun shops on what they believed might be the last day to buy AR-style guns here.Healey issued a notice to all gun sellers and manufacturers in Massachusetts banning guns which appear like the Colt AR-15 and the Kalishnikov AK-47, but have been altered by manufacturers to conform to Massachusetts' ban on adjustable stocks, high-capacity magazines and other features. An estimated 10,000 so-called "copycat" assault weapons were sold in Massachusetts last year alone, Healey's office said."The gun industry has openly defied our laws here in Massachusetts for nearly two decades," Healey said. "That ends today. We have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that combat-style weapons are off our streets and out of the hands of those who would use them to kill innocent people.Cyndi Roy-Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Healey, said the office did not consider how many shootings in Massachusetts have been carried out with assault-style rifles, but insisted the ban is an effective anti-violence measure.According to FBI statistics, rifles of any variety were used in just two of the Bay State's 779 murders in the past five years, which were mainly carried out with handguns. In that same period, hands and feet were cited as the murder weapon 35 times."This isn't a panacea," Roy-Gonzalez said. "This isn't going to solve the issue of gun violence. There's a lot more that needs to be done. There's been a law on the books since 1998. It's up to us to enforce the law. The point is these guns are illegal and 10,000 of them were sold last year alone. ... These are guns that are used all over the country in Aurora, in Baton Rouge, in Dallas, in Orlando. Thankfully, we haven't had the same kind of incidents here."Healey said stores with existing stock can transfer the weapons out of state where their sale is legal. The move could kill as much as 20 percent of business to some Bay State gun stores, one owner estimates."I understand what she's doing. She's saying it's always been the law and now we're enforcing it. It doesn't seem right. She's just reinterpreting the statute," said Jack Gallagher, co-owner of Collector's Gallery, a gun shop in Stoneham. "I'm sure there will be legal challenges from all angles."While several gun shops yesterday quickly sold out of military-style rifle variants, Gallagher did not sell any on advice of counsel. He said the profit wouldn't outweigh the potential legal headaches."If I sold every AR in stock, I'd make a few thousand, but how much is it going to cost me in legal fees down the road," he said.
On Thursday, in the morning, at the Australian Embassy, Paris, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey met and received a briefing from Mr George Mina, Australian Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Deputy Head of Mission, Australian Embassy, Paris.

In the afternoon, at the Australian Embassy, Paris, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey were hosted for lunch by His Excellency Mr Stephen Brady AO, CVO, Australian Ambassador to France, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Monaco. The Governor also conveyed to the Ambassador letters written by His Excellency and the Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier of Queensland, addressed to His Excellency Francois Hollande, President of the Republic of France, expressing sympathies following the recent attack in Nice.

Following, at Musee du quai Branly, Paris, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey toured operations and received a briefing on the museums collection supporting links with Queensland artists and institutions.

In the afternoon, at Hotel Raphael, Paris, the Governor met and received a briefing from Mrs Laurence Broseta, Head of Transport in France, Transdev.
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GIS  22 July 2016 : Intimate partner, social and sexual violence: Young women at risk was the theme of a forum organised yesterday by the National Womens Council at the Municipal Complex of Camp Levieux to mark World Population Day 2016, observed annually on 11 July.

The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, Mr Ivan Collendavelloo; the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Marie-Joyce Perraud; the Minister of Social Security, National Solidarity and Reform Institutions, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, and other personalities were present on the occasion.

In her keynote address, the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare outlined that violence against women, in all its form, is unacceptable. She recalled that the National Assembly passed in June 2016 the Protection from Domestic Violence (Amendment) Act to provide for better protection to victims of domestic violence and inflict harsher penalties on perpetrators of such acts.

According to Mrs Perraud, law enforcement is not enough, however a change in mind-set is needed. She pointed out that the implementation by her Ministry of the programme on strengthening values for family life targeting children, adults and elderly, aims at bringing change in mind-set and promoting positive attitudes and behaviours. My Ministry is putting much emphasis on awareness programmes and a national campaign will soon be launched to sensitise the population, she said.

For her part, the Minister of Social Security, National Solidarity and Reform Institutions, stated that among the three prerequisites for society to function properly namely, Government, Education and Family, the latter is the most important pillar. She underlined the key roles of parents in providing support to their children.

The Minister also talked of the positive impact that empowered girls can have on their communities and urged parents to treat their children without any discrimination. Both boys and girls have the same rights, and should be treated on equal grounds whether in the field of education or in the performance of domestic chores, she said. She believes in the African proverb that says, If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family.

Domestic violence - particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence  is a major public health problem and a gross violation of women's human rights. Recent global prevalence figures indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner.
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GIS  22 July 2016: Mauritius has to develop new strategies and policies in order to bolster its economy and that will also help generate employment and improve the living conditions of its people. This implies building new pillars of development in which science and technology remain the major drivers of sustained economic growth, said the President of the Republic, Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, yesterday afternoon at the State House, Reduit.

The President made the opening address for a Lecture on the theme Technology and Development in a Globalising World delivered by Professor Kaushik Basu, senior vice-president and chief economist at the World Bank.

Professor Basu holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics. He has also received honorary doctorates from several Institutes, including IIT, Mumbai, and Fordham University, New York. Professor Basu is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and has received the title of Padma Bhushan which is one of the highest civilian awards given by the President of India.

In her address, President Gurib-Fakim said that there is no doubt that Mauritius has the potential to leverage science and technology to spur its growth and development. Many countries have done that before and are experiencing unparalleled growth, she pointed out. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no country can survive in this 21st century without investments in science and technology. We have the fundamentals to succeed, she added.

10 PhD Scholarships Awarded

During the lecture, ten young people were presented the Mrs Ameenah Gurib-Fakim PhD Scholarship Award. The objective is to provide direct support to Mauritian scientists/researchers as part of the effort to promote science, technology and innovation as key drivers of growth and development. The PhD Programme is being jointly financed by the Planet Earth Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Initiative in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences.

Research areas of focus are: water and sanitation, energy, agri-business, health and blue-sky research.

The lecture/Highlights

During his presentation, Professor Basu highlighted the rather complicated relationship between technology and development; the emergence of Africa on the economic front and the related challenges; the opportunity for Mauritius to become an education hub not limited to the region; and the importance of public private partnership.

Relationship between technology and development

Whereas technology is the driver of growth, dynamism and hope, it is also the source of a lot of conflict and fragility. Countries have to navigate this world well in order to progress and keep their economies on a fast track.

Africa and growth

Africa harbours the worlds fastest growing economy that is Ethiopia, but also economies which are shrinking with falls in GDP. All these factors have to do with how well these countries are able to gear up the technological changes in the world. Emerging economies should focus on some areas where they need to work on to facilitate their people to hook up with the world and basic education is the number one area and Mauritius reform process in that field in constitutes just a start.

Mauritius as an education hub

Mauritius is a well-educated country and can become a hub in education not only for emerging countries on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but also for rich economies where tuition fees have gone through the roof. Ambition along with the provision of an adequate environment by attracting some of the best foreign Professors and nurturing local Professors can help Mauritius play a major role in education, just as the UK has done, and which is recognised as a global hub for education.
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GIS - 22 July, 2016: The second meeting of the Mauritius-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Joint Committee opened this morning at the Hennessy Park Hotel, Ebene. The EFTA delegation is led by Mr Martin Eyjolfsson, Ambassador, from the Permanent Mission of Iceland in Geneva and comprises four delegates. The second meeting of the Mauritius-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Joint Committee opened this morning at the Hennessy Park Hotel, Ebene. The EFTA delegation is led by Mr Martin Eyjolfsson, Ambassador, from the Permanent Mission of Iceland in Geneva and comprises four delegates.

The meeting is focusing, amongst others, on trade and investment opportunities between Mauritius and EFTA, identification of potential areas of collaboration in key sectors such as Ocean Economy, Seafood sector, Financial Services, Trade and Private Sector development as well as agreement on modalities to implement any recommendations of the meeting.

The Mauritian side is led by the Acting Director, Trade Policy Unit, Mr Boodhoo and comprises representatives from relevant Ministries and institutions including the Board of Investment, Enterprise Mauritius, Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mauritius Exporters Association.

EFTA consists of four countries namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It is an intergovernmental organisation set up for the promotion of free trade and economic integration to the benefit of the four Member States. Mauritius in 2009 signed a Joint Declaration on Cooperation with EFTA states, which provides the establishment of a Joint Committee to review cooperation in areas such as trade, investment and private sector development.

EFTA has a combined GDP of EUR 923 billion with a population of around 13 million inhabitants. EFTA states are leaders in several sectors such as ICT, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Energy, Fisheries and Banking.
(TNS) -- While Californians consider legalizing recreational pot use, a few San Diego entrepreneurs are already casting their vote in favor of the states cannabis industry.The group, called Canopy San Diego , is accepting applications for its pot-themed technology accelerator, a first for Southern California. The concept is to find and fund early-stage companies with ideas that can assist the states dispensaries and growers. That could range from water conservation tools to more optimal packaging; payroll software to analytics.Canopy San Diego said it is launching now because it believes the states legal marijuana market is already sufficiently large enough to support new businesses. With sales projected to reach $2.7 billion this year, California is the largest medical marijuana market in the nation. And, if residents vote in favor of recreational use in November, the states cannabis industry is expected to swell exponentially.California is about the size of the rest of the legal markets combined, said John Kagia, executive vice president of data analytics at New Frontier, which researches the industry. The next largest legal markets are Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Arizona, which generated between $215 million and $1 billion in sales last year.The opportunity presented by legalization in California cannot be overstated. ... (As technologists) transition to the cannabis industry, that represents a significant opportunity to dramatically advance the technological sophistication of an industry that, because of illegality, has not been able to capitalize on the same type of innovation that has advanced most other sectors.There is one important caveat to the accelerator. Canopy San Diego is bypassing the risks associated with funding anyone dealing directly with plants, which means it wont accept startups that actually cultivate or sell weed. That means consumer-centric, on-demand pot apps need not apply.The problem with delivery is that it could very easily be legislated into a niche market or legislated into no market at all, said Eric Gomez, founder and CEO of Canopy San Diego. We have zero control over that. So, the risk is too high for us to want to add that to our portfolio.The new accelerator is being modeled after a similar venture in Boulder, Colo., a state where recreational use was legalized in late 2013. Canopy San Diego expects to accept 10 young companies into its inaugural program this September, and repeat the cycle three times over the next two years. Program executives are in the process of raising $3.4 million, currently from local angel investors, to finance a total of 40 portfolio companies.The program is designed with the objective of taking entrepreneurs with great business ideas and turning those ideas into structured and polished business models that can then be presented to investors and other strategic partners, Gomez said.Each 16-week cohort is designed as a crash-course for would-be cannabis entrepreneurs who are just getting started. Participants are supplied with between $20,000 and $30,000 in seed money, office space and access to dozens of industry mentors. In exchange, Canopy takes between a 6 percent and 9.5 percent equity stake in the potentially budding businesses. At the end of the boot camp, the three best businesses, as determined by the program leaders, will receive an additional $50,000 in financing.We are really looking for the right team, said Jack Scatizzi, the accelerators managing director. Were investing in founders; smart founders that are passionate about the cannabis space.Canopy San Diegos muse, Canopy Boulder got its start around two years ago and graduated 19 startups in its first year of existence, including Solana Beach e-commerce company Tradiv. The San Diego chapter will keep close ties with the Boulder program so graduates here will also have access to Boulders partner, The Arcview Group, a 500-plus-person investor network focused on the cannabis industry.Not a day goes by when I think it was the wrong decision to (give up a 9.5 percent equity stake), said Geoff Doran, co-founder of Tradiv.The Canopy Boulder alumnus and his co-founder Aeron Sullivan took a $20,000 seed investment to jump start an online platform where growers list products and dispensaries buy goods. Live for less than a year in Colorado, Tradiv counts roughly 35 percent of the states licensed cannabis businesses as registered users, Doran said.This week, the startup is prepping to launch in its home state of California, and has, thus far, raised $4 million in financing. Plus, its grown its headcount from two people to nearly 30 who are spread across its Denver and Solana Beach offices.Our business is a hard play. Were creating something kind of new here, Doran said. It was really beneficial for us to take advantage of Canopy Boulder. Its been an important part of our history.San Diego applicants shouldnt expect to replicate Tradivs quick accession. Realistically, three or four companies from each Canopy tranche wont ever see the light of day. But that wont be because theyre venturing into an socially unacceptable industry, Gomez said.As far as the stigma aspect, that is probably the one thing that is changing the fastest, he said. That doesnt concern me whatsoever. The social change is happening so quickly.
(TNS) -- The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Springfield City School District must release student directory data after a Columbus advocacy group alleged the district used its records policies to deny information to organizations it opposed.The justices ruled former Springfield Superintendent David Estrop abused his discretion when he refused to release records that included student names and addresses to School Choice Ohio. The information falls within limitations specified in a consent form sent to parents, the justices ruled, and it wouldnt violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.Because School Choice fits within limitations specified in Springfields consent form and because the superintendent cannot create FERPA prohibitions by making post-consent discretionary decisions, disclosure of Springfields student directory information to School Choice would not be prohibited, Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote in the majority opinion.The courts ruling will send a message to districts statewide, said Kaleigh Lemaster, executive director of School Choice Ohio.This is a major victory for the families who are denied potentially life-changing information because of the abuse of discretion of one superintendent, Lemaster said. We decided to take on the time and expense of this case because we believe strongly that parents deserve this information so they can make the best choice for their childrens education.School Choice Ohio regularly seeks directory information, including student names and addresses, she said. The nonprofit then sends information to parents about vouchers students in low-performing schools can use to attend private schools.But Springfield district leaders had raised concerns that the mailings were misleading.The Board of Education adopted our current student privacy policy with the primary goal of giving parents more options in protecting their childs information and to protect students and families from receiving false and misleading information, said Kim Fish, a spokeswoman for the district. Our policy allows the superintendent to decide who gets student information, if their parent consents. The Supreme Court ruled the superintendent cannot have that discretion, and that once we have parental consent for any disclosure, we have to give student information out even if we believe the organization is not acting in the best interests of our students.In 2014, School Choice Ohio filed a public records request for Springfield student names, addresses, parent telephone numbers and other contact information. The district denied that request, citing FERPA. It sent student names and addresses and said the remaining information wasnt directory information that could be released.District officials changed their records policy in 2013, saying no student information would be designated as directory information. Directory information can include details such as a students name, address and phone number, and is the only student data thats exempt from federal privacy laws and considered a public record.Instead, district officials send out a consent form, giving parents the option whether to release information about their student to school partners or not.The justices also denied the School Choice Ohios request that the district change its student privacy policies. The court also awarded School Choice Ohio $1,000 in damages, as well as court costs and attorney fees.
(TNS) -- Loans for more than $165 million awarded on Thursday by the Texas Water Development Board will likely be used by Austin Water Utility to replace customers water meters and expand its water reuse program.Following hundreds of complaints about unexpected water bill spikes last summer, Austin Water had applied to the state agency for an $80.2 million loan to switch all customers to smart meters that electronically transmit data about water usage.Such devices could provide earlier indicators of unusually high water use, giving customers more time to address a leak or rein in their water use before getting a large bill. As it stands now, customers dont find out about their usage until they receive their monthly bill, which is based on the read a city-hired outside company manually takes from the meter.Having that much data available on a moment-to-moment basis gives you options you dont have now, such as sending customers a text message if the meter picks up on usage suggesting a leak, Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros told the City Council in April. But also, youve got to figure it all out. Its a very complex undertaking.Smart water meters, besides being expensive to provide to thousands of customers, reside in harsh conditions in a box underground that can contain water, dirt and bugs  and that can make it hard to obtain a digital read from the meter, Meszaros said. Austin Water is testing several ways to read meters, such as using a mobile phone network, creating its own network or using the network Austin Energy set up for its electric smart meters, he said.Such technology would cut down on the need for manual meter readings, something Austin Water hires an outside firm to do for $3.6 million a year.The rollout to all Austin Water customers, both inside and outside the city, could take five to seven years for roughly a quarter-million meters, Meszaros told the Council in April.Austin Water would probably consider an opt-out program similar to the one Austin Energy has for its smart meters, Meszaros said. Austin Energy charges a one-time $75 fee as well as a $10 monthly fee for manually reading the meter.Austin Water also won an $87 million loan to improve the filter system at two wastewater treatment plants and expand its reclaimed water system in the Montopolis, Onion Creek and Colony Park areas, as well as to properties such as cemeteries, University of Texas facilities and parks. Customers pay a subsidized rate for the treated wastewater, which is commonly used for irrigation and in cooling towers.The Austin City Council will decide in August whether the utility can move forward on accepting the loan in August; it may not be until next summer that it votes on whether to move forward with the smart meter loan.The loan and interest, which is likely to be a rate under 2 percent, will be paid off by ratepayers, said Joseph Gonzales, utility budget and finance manager.Austin Water spokesman Jason Hill said the utility had been considering the smart meters even before the complaints about bills.Were looking to affordably and realistically integrate this technology into our current infrastructure, he said.The projects financed today help ensure that Texans will have a secure and reliable water supply for decades to come, said Bech Bruun, chairman of the Water Development Board.
Kevin Magnussen has admitted for the first time that he is looking beyond Renault to secure his future in formula one.

But the Dane does welcome news that the French works team has now stopped developing the 2016 car in order to focus completely on the new regulations.

"Yes, because we can't win with this car," Magnussen said in Hungary when asked if he supports the decision.

"I am hoping I will stay with the team, so I want us to focus on the future," he added.

Renault appears happy with Magnussen so far, but the 23-year-old is on only a one-year contract and the team is not yet ready to take up its 2017 option.

"I expect to be here," he said when asked by the Danish newspaper BT about 2017.

"I have told that team that I want to continue and I have not seen or heard anything that indicates I won't be here. But I also sense that the team is in no hurry to decide its drivers for next year," Magnussen admitted.

So when asked what steps he is taking to ensure he keeps racing in 2017, he answered: "I'm not only talking with Renault.

"I know enough people in the paddock now to hear about what's going on, but right now I don't feel the need to talk too much with the other teams about 2017," he added.

It seems the biggest threat to his place is coming from team reserve Esteban Ocon, who is driving the yellow car in Friday practice this weekend.

"Esteban is a really good driver, there's no doubt," Magnussen told Ekstra Bladet newspaper. "It wouldn't be good for motor sport in general if a driver like him didn't get a chance in formula one."

(GMM)
Felipe Nasr is not ruling out staying at Sauber in the wake of the Swiss team's buyout by an investment group.

Marcus Ericsson in Hungary joined boss Monisha Kaltenborn in not commenting on speculation that the buyers are linked to the Swedish driver's sponsors.

Nasr, meanwhile, brings backing from the Banco do Brasil, who before the buyout news were said to be seriously considering leaving Sauber for 2017.

Now, he has told Brazil's UOL Esporte that staying is an option.

"I think that (staying) is still an option," said Nasr in Hungary. "If it is the best, I don't know.

"I think if it brings better prospects for developing and better people for important technical aspects then I would not rule out the option to continue here.

"It's very good news, I'm happy for the team," he added. "It brings a better perspective both in the short and the long term. We can begin to work better in areas where we could not before because of our financial situation.

"In the short term, we had update packages planned from the beginning of the year that we can now press the green button on and take them to the track," said Nasr.

(GMM)
Nico Rosberg travelled to the Hungaroring with a new two-year contract in his back pocket.

The team and the German driver announced the news with a video on Twitter showing Rosberg, 31, and Mercedes chief Toto Wolff signing a piece of paper.

And Bild newspaper said the deal including bonuses will be worth about EUR 45 million euros.

On Thursday in Budapest, Rosberg said he was navigating the process of negotiating the new deal without affecting his focus on his racing.

"Of course you need to be careful, because it can influence and take some energy away," he said.

"I have Gerhard Berger who is handling it for me, specifically to make sure that I don't lose any focus on the racing."

(GMM)
Sebastian Vettel has pointed a finger at the media as talk of a Ferrari 'crisis' swirls in Hungary.

Overtaken in recent races by Red Bull, Ferrari has also been struggling with reliability problems.

Now, there are rumours that technical director James Allison is departing, that Ross Brawn could replace him, and that Vettel himself might switch to Mercedes in 2018.

The Vettel-to-Mercedes rumour came from the German's former boss at Red Bull, Christian Horner.

"It's interesting that he knows that without speaking to me," Vettel joked in Hungary.

"There's nothing in it. We are all highly motivated to ensure that Ferrari gets back to the top."

What about the Brawn rumour? The Briton told the German newspaper Bild: "There is nothing to report about Ferrari. They have not been in contact with me.

"I am happy with my life and have found nothing that will change my plans," Brawn added.

Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, said on Thursday that Ferrari doesn't even need Brawn.

"Although we are not where we would like to be, we have a great team," he said. "There are no magic tricks in formula one that can change everything overnight.

"We need to have confidence that what we are doing as a group is right," he added.

As for the James Allison speculation, Vettel revealed: "When we read all that is written, we can only laugh about it.

"The media prefers to talk about the negatives rather than the positives. All this 'Everything is crap and we have to change everything and throw everyone out' doesn't come from us, it comes from what is written down," he added, referring to the press.

(GMM)
Mercedes could be ready to look to the "next generation" of drivers by the time Nico Rosberg's new two-year deal ends.

That was the claim on Friday of Toto Wolff, as he played down claims Mercedes may have made a mistake by setting up both Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton's deals to both expire at the end of 2018.

"No, we try to look on the positive side," team boss Wolff told German broadcaster Sky from Hungary.

"On the one hand you can say that we can lose both drivers at the same time, but on second thoughts it as an interesting possibility that opens up several options for us.

"Two years is anyway a long time in formula one, since there are results every weekend. On the other hand we must look towards the next generation.

"At the moment we have two of the best drivers. But what comes after that is not entirely clear," Wolff added.

Clearly, Wolff is making a reference to Pascal Wehrlein and Mercedes' other young charger, Esteban Ocon, who is currently on loan to Renault.

"Nico didn't want a longer contract," Wolff insisted. "We agreed that from the outset.

"He is at the height of his powers. We also don't know what happens with the next generation.

"Some very good guys are developing but it is still too early to say whether they will be able to drive on that (Rosberg's) level, so for us the two years contract period is just right," he added.

(GMM)
Union Cabinet approves establishment of new AIIMS at Gorakhpur

Published: July 21, 2016

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for establishment of new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

It will be established under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) which aims at correcting imbalances in the availability of affordable healthcare facilities in different parts of country and also augmenting facilities for quality medical education in under-served states.

Key Facts

The AIIMS, Gorakhpur will have a hospital with capacity of 750 beds which will include Emergency/Trauma Beds, AYUSH Beds, Super Speciality beds and Private Beds and ICU Speciality.

In addition, it will have an Administration Block, Auditorium, AYUSH Block, Night Shelter, residential facilities and Hostels.

The cost of project for establishment of the AIIMS Gorakhpur will be 1011 crore rupees. It does not include recurring costs (wages, salaries and operation & maintenance expenses).

AIIMS will meet its recurring expenditure from their annual budgets through Grant-in-Aid provided from Plan Budget Head of PMSSY of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The establishment of AIIMS, Gorakhpur will serve the dual purpose of providing super specialty health care to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and other health workers in this region.

Background

Under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), AIIMS have been established in Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Raipur, Rishikesh and Patna.

The work of AIIMS at Rae Bareli is in progress. Besides, three new AIIMS in Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kalyani (West) and Mangalagiri in Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) also have been sanctioned in 2015.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2016

Topics: Medical  Public health  States  Uttar Pradesh

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Its easy to read news coming from Cheyenne about state budget cuts or staff reductions in Casper as issues being far removed from Green River.

Theyre not and the recent closure of SW-WRAP is proof of that. The organization, which underwent a reorganization under a new CEO last year, closed after several grants supporting programs administered through SW-WRAP were cut or awarded elsewhere. As a result, the Green River-based organization which once boasted offices in multiple states, is now defunct.

The real tragedy of the closure isnt the jobs lost as a result of budget cuts, its th...
A Green River Democrat will represent Wyoming at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Cathy Denman, who is the current Sweetwater County Democratic Party Committeewoman, is excited to attend the national convention and represent one of 18 Wyoming delegates at the national convention, which is scheduled to take place July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

Denman decided before she went to the Wyoming Democratic Convention that she was interested in attending the national convention as a delegate.

Before I went to state, I needed to decide and fill out all of the forms, Denman said.

Even befor...
Shelia Tallys great-grandchildren, 11-year-old Haden and 10-year-old Jackson, have participated in the after-school program at Spears YMCA since 2011.

For Tally, the Y feels like an extended family.

She warmly refers to Spears YMCAs executive director, Joe Hennigan, as Mr. Joe and says that she feels great trust toward the staff, counselors and coaches at Spears.

Robert Robertson especially appreciates the homework assistance his 9-year-old grandson, Javen, gets at the Reidsville YMCAs after-school program.

Robertson said he knows that Javen is in good hands when it comes to homework. Tally agrees, and says that going to the YMCA after-school program gives Haden and Jackson the opportunity to unwind and release some energy after being in school all day.

With busy families juggling the demands of work, activities and family time, after-school care is often a necessity.

But beyond the convenience and scheduling benefits of after-school care, there are documented benefits in terms of academic success, social development, health and safety of children who participate in after-school programs.

A 2005 study measuring the health and social benefits of after-school programs found that participation has improved health and reduced obesity.

Healthy habits start early, and spending time playing sports and swimming after school, as opposed to snacking on junk food in front of the television, can set the tone for a childs future health behaviors.

Four YMCA of Greensboro locations sponsor after-school programs in the Triad, either on-site at the YMCA or at nearby schools: Hayes-Taylor YMCA near Barber Park in Greensboro, Ragsdale YMCA in Jamestown, Reidsville YMCA in Reidsville and Spears YMCA in Northwest Greensboro.

It is crucial for parents and guardians to trust and know that their children are in a safe, structured environment. Studies by Brandeis Universitys Community, Families and Work program show that parents concerned about their childrens after-school care miss an average of eight days of work per year. This causes strain on the family, and in the workplace.

In addition to their standard afternoon hours, the YMCA after-school programs are also open when local schools are closed for teacher workdays (for full-time after-school program participants).

In addition to homework assistance, the Y programs include snack, arts and crafts, STEM activities, character building, sports and fitness, outdoor games, board games and swimming.

Some locations even offer additional services like piano lessons or tutoring, so children can participate in activities while theyre at the YMCA without cutting into family time in the evening.

YMCA provides bus transportation from eligible schools.

The YMCA believes that all members of the community should be able to participate in YMCA programs, regardless of income or background, so some scholarships are available for eligible families.
GREENWICH - The Harbor Management Commission is planning to repeat its attempt to use an online system to manage who gets which mooring spots in Greenwichs harbors.

The town previously used Online Mooring, a firm based in Rocky Hill and used by many Connecticut towns and cities, but gradually got away from it beginning several years ago because users felt it was cumbersome.

For the past two years, the town has been paying about $3,900 annually for a service they were hardly using at all, said Harbor Management Commission member Frank Mazza.

We were really just wasting money with it, he said.

Commission members said they have not picked a new vendor but have planned to hear a presentation from Online Mooring  the same vendor they currently have but dont use.

Online Mooring is the only service of its kind, members of the Harbor Management Commission said Wednesday.

Greenwich Harbor Master Ian Macmillan said the Online Mooring system had some benefits, but he didnt think going back to it would be wise.

I dont think its a good idea, weve developed a much better system, Macmillan said. Much cheaper, too.

Macmillan said his office has gone back to paper: files sorted in alphabetical order and excel spreadsheets. When the harbormaster or the police need information from the water, Macmillan calls his assistant to look them up in the on-site records.

Often when the police turn to us, we are able to give them phone numbers, Macmillan said about his current system.

Macmillan said the current, paper, system is more time-efficient than using a computer site that can take three times longer to find information. Accessing online databases depends on a working server  and there had been occasions where the server was not working for up to 24 hours in some instances, he said.

The online system also allows Macmillan and others to communicate only with those who are properly registered for mooring permits, which is about a fifth of the the number of local boaters, he said.

On the other hand, an online system does allow the harbormaster, police or others to send out messages to all mooring permit holders in Greenwich in case of emergencies like Hurricane Sandy, Macmillan said. A downside was that you could not add attachments to the messages, he said.

Commission chairman Bruce Angiolillo said the investigation for different vendors will continue through September. The commission expects to make a final decision on which online system to choose by the third week in October.

pfrissell@hearstmediact.com; @PeregrineFriss
GREENWICH  North Mianus School Principal Angela Schmidt will have a new right hand-manor woman, ratherthis year.

On Wednesday, Interim Superintendent Salvatore Corda announced the appointment of Kathleen Brunswick as the Interim Assistant Principal for North Mianus, effective immediately.

I am very excited to welcome Kat Brunswick to NMS, said Schmidt. She brings a wide range of skills to this position, from her experience in teacher evaluation and management to developing and implementing both behavioral and academic plans to meet the needs of all learners.

Until her new appointment, Brunwick was a special education teacher at Glenville School. This summer, she is the Site Supervisor/Building Administrator for the Greenwich Public Summer School and Extended Year Program at Hamilton Avenue School, a position which she has held since summer 2013.

As Interim Assistant Principal, Brunswick is responsible for assisting the principal with the administrative operations of the school, including staff evaluations, scheduling, and special education.

Schmidt expressed confidence that Brunswick will have no problem stepping into her new role.

She demonstrates strong communication skills in addressing colleagues, parents and students, said Schmidt. Her background in technology and data analysis makes her an ideal fit for our school.

A search for the permanent position of NMS Assistant Principal will begin in January 2017.
We are all in business to solve problems, add value and make a profit -- tasks which involve pricing your product or service. But how do you effectively price your product or service to increase sales and make more money with little or no effort?

Related: Mastering the Art of Pricing: What the Textbooks Don't Teach You

Its simple; use psychological pricing.

Psychological pricing is a pricing/marketing strategy based on the theory that certain prices have a bigger psychological impact on consumers than others. Below are five pricing strategies entrepreneurs can adopt:

1. 'Charm pricing': Reduce the left digits by one.

This strategy, often called "charm pricing," involves using pricing that ends in "9" and "99."

With charm pricing, the left digit is reduced from a round number by one cent. We come across this technique every time we make purchases but dont pay attention. For example, your brain processes $3.00 and $2.99 as different values: To your brain $2.99 is $2.00, which is cheaper than $3.00.

How is this technique effective? It all boils down to how a brand converts numerical values. In 2005, Thomas and Morwitz conducted research they called "the left-digit effect in price cognition." They explained that, Nine-ending prices will be perceived to be smaller than a price one cent higher if the left-most digit changes to a lower level (e.g., $3.00 to $2.99), but not if the left-most digit remains unchanged (e.g., $3.60 to $3.59).

In an experiment conducted by the University of Chicago and MIT, women's clothing was used to test the left-digit effect. First, prices were set for $34, $39 and $44. To the amazement of the researchers, the items sold best at $39 even though that price was more expensive than other options.

Related: 10 Pricing Strategies That Can Drastically Improve Sales

So, the message here is, if you want to increase purchases of your products and services, convert zero ending numbers to nines. A perfect example of this strategy can be found on Apples website, where each product price ends with a 9.

A postscript: Keith Coulter, associate professor of marketing at the Graduate School of Management, Clark University, has suggested that this effect may be enhanced when the cents are printed in a smaller font.

2. 'Prestige' pricing strategy

Prestige pricing is the complete opposite of odd or charm pricing. Prestige pricing involves making all numerical values into rounded figures, i.e., $99.99 is converted to $100.

You may be wondering why. According to Kuangjie Zhang and Monica Wadhwa in a 2015 study, rounded numbers (e.g., $100) are more fluently processed and encourage reliance on consumers' feelings, compared to non-rounded numbers (e.g., $99.99), which are less fluently processed, and encourage reliance on cognition.

This means that rounded numbers "feel right" because the purchase is being driven by feelings and the price is processed quickly.

Zhang and Wadhwa realized that consumers were more inclined to buy a bottle of champagne when it was priced at $40.00, rather than $39.72 or $40.28.

3. 'BOGOF': Buy one, get one free.

This is a pricing strategy in which customers pay the full price for one product or service to get another for free.

The psychological strategy at work here is, simply, greed. Once a customer comes across the offer, logic gets tossed to the wind and the main focus is making a purchase to get the free item.

Now, because this technique has been widely adopted and most people no longer take the bait, you could stir things up a bit by offering one of the following:

Buy one and get 25 percent off your next purchase.

Purchase one and get four bonuses valued at $60, for free.

Buy one, get three for free.

To fully maximize this strategy, get creative with your discount offers.

4: Comparative pricing: placing expensive next to standard

Comparative pricing may be tagged as the most effective psychological pricing strategy. This simply involves offering two similar products simultaneously but making one product's price much more attractive than the other.

This is a psychological game of choice for the customer, who has to choose between two products that are similar but have different prices.

This strategy works well with fashion brands, which place side by side tuxedos with similar quality but different prices, to make customers pick the more expensive one, which is the desired purchase.

To the average human, if something is expensive, then it is "quality."

A perfect illustration of this strategy would be the case study on The Williams-Sonoma bread maker.

5: Visually highlight the different prices.

When you offer a sale with a previous price side by side with a new one, you make more sales because customers feel they are getting a bargain and are not interested in researching the drop in price.

To make the new pricing strategy work effectively, use the psychological trick of changing the font, size and color of the new price.

This trick triggers a fluency effect and consumers interpret the visual difference to a larger numeral distinction, according to 2005 research by Keith Coulter and Robin Coulter.

According to that research, simply changing the font, size and color of the signage for the current sale price and placing it a little bit away from the previous pricing will increase the number of purchases, because customers see the new price as cheaper and a better deal than the previous price.

Tip: The pricing difference should be no more than $10.

Related: Make Sure the Pricing Is Right With These Tips

Conclusion

So, given these psychological pricing strategies, you might try them out, remembering to split-test different ones on different pages and products to determine what works best for your business.

Related:



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Nietzsche wrote, "God is dead." Whether or not you agree with the cheerful German, there is another powerful three-letter entity that no one can deny has met its maker: the VCR.

Japanese consumer electronics company Funai Electric, the last remaining manufacturer of VCRs, announced that by August they will permanently shut down their production lines.

Never again will a blinking12:00! 12:00! 12:00!clock need to be set. Never again will a tracking wheel be fiddled with to stop static from messing up an already pretty terrible picture. Never again will we blow into a machine with the hope that it might make the aforementioned terrible picture .00002% less terrible.

Does it make anyone else feel really old that an innovation that was developed during our lifetime has unequivocally been declared obsolete?

Related: 6 Pieces of Old Tech that Sold for Big Bucks at Auction

Now I know that VCRs are hardly the only innovation that has come and gone (New Coke, we hardly knew ye), but this one hit me particularly hard because of just how big a deal VCRs were when they first came out. I wanted a VCR so badly and had to wait forever to get one. This is mostly because my parents are mean and horrible people. (Okay, fine, I guess it's because they were selfishly spending their money on things like food and shelter for me and my brother, but still, we were the last ones on our block guys!)

VCR technology existed since the 1950s, but it wasnt until the 1980s that the machines became affordable to regular folk. When I first learned of their power, my little legs buckled contemplating the new world that was about to open up for me: So even though we are stuck in traffic coming home from grandmas house, this thing will allow me to watch the new episode of Family Ties and not wait 8 months for the re-run? And hold on, I can watch movies in my house? Over and over again? And I can watch R-rated ones without having to sneak past an usher? And even though my parents wont let me stay up late enough to watch the mini-series V, I can tape it and watch the baby get born with a lizard tongue tomorrow morning during breakfast?

All the answers were yes. What a time to be alive.

Related: I Call B.S. on this Motivational Poster

Its amazing, in retrospect, how convenient it seemed to be able to get movies from Blockbuster Video. Today I get annoyed scrolling through Netflix and Hulu searching for "something good," and I dont even have to be wearing pants while I do it. In the VCR times, you had to drive to a store (wearing pants) with the full knowledge that there was a 99% chance that the movie you wanted to rent wouldnt be there. And you were fine with that! Conan the Barbarian is out? Fine, Ill try whatever the hell Time Bandits is. Who cares? It's a movie in my house!

Related: 5 Old Technologies that are Still Thriving

I know that Blockbuster has been gone for some time, but it does seem sad that the phrase Be kind and rewind will officially go the way of the Mayan calendar. I asked my 9-year-son Gus if he even knew what the phrase meant.

Um, if youre already being mean, start being nice?

No Gus, that isnt the answer, but given our current domestic and global politic climate, not the worst advice.

So heres to you, VCR. You gave me so much and asked for so little. All you needed was someone to set your clock and to blow on your heads every once in a while to clear away the dust. Enjoy your cloud in innovation heaven. Tell Discman we say hello.

Related:



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Americas big generation is heading into its next big phase of life. By 2030, baby boomers will be 65 or older and will constitute 20 percent of the U.S. population.

Thats a lot of retirees.

But many of them won't be retired in the traditional sense. Theyll be working, according to a 2014 Merrill Lynch Retirement Study that spotlights the new retirement workscape.

The report concludes that in the near future, it will become increasingly unusual for retirees not to work. Driving forces cited in the study include increasing life expectancy, elimination of pensions, economic uncertainty and the re-visioning of later life towards purpose and social engagement.

Couple this with the stark reality that 22 percent of boomers have less than $100,000 of retirement savings -- and half of those have less than $50,000. Its no wonder that 62 percent of younger boomers (ages 51 to 65) expect employment to be a source of income in their retirement years.

Related: Is the Notion of a 'Good Work Ethic' Generationally Biased?

Boomers are responding to the challenge by starting their own businesses in record numbers. According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, 23.4 percent of new entrepreneurs in 2013 were aged 55 to 64. Why the interest in entrepreneurship? When older workers are downsized, it can take nearly twice as long for them to find new jobs, so it makes sense to many boomers to start their own companies. Other boomers choose entrepreneurship as an encore career in order to pursue a passion, work on their own terms and continue to create wealth for themselves and their families.

Bohnne Jones of Nashville, Tenn., fits both categories. After 31 years in health care, she was downsized five times between 2002 and 2007 -- until she turned to something completely different. I was looking to own my own business and work pursuing my passion for design, fabrics and color. Jones found her answer in the Decorating Den Interiors franchise that she has owned in Nashville for the last eight years.

Shes not alone. Many baby boomers have embraced franchising as the chance to start a business without having to build it from scratch. The U.S. Small Business Administration says, Franchising can be a great alternative if you want to have some guidance in the startup phase of the business.

Related: Why Boomers Might Be the Breakout Stars of Entrepreneurship (Infographic)

Jones agrees. For me, it was an ideal situation. I chose to move into an industry that was not at all where my experience lay. I interviewed existing franchise owners, as well as people who had left Decorating Den. They all said the same thing: Follow the system, and you will do well.

The advantages of buying a franchise include built-in name recognition, proven business models and operational procedures, and a wealth of support from the franchisor in locating, supplying and marketing the business. Jones used her own retirement assets, through an arrangement called Rollovers as Business Startups, to buy her franchise just before the onset of the recent recession, and the educational materials and low-cost marketing ideas provided by Decorating Den helped her weather the storm.

She also values the community that franchising creates. You can get support from other owners who have experienced the same things you have, and you can get some great advice.

Although all franchises require an initial investment, those worried about the lack of sufficient savings can still find franchises that dont necessarily require large upfront payments or high net worth. Low-cost franchise options include commercial and residential cleaning services, printing and promotional products, tax preparation and a variety of services for children or seniors.

SBA loans may also offer a source of financing. And buying an existing franchise from a current owner -- as opposed to building a new franchise location from the ground up -- can give an entrepreneur more certainty when making a business investment. As with any undertaking, do your research and consult a trusted financial advisor to see if franchising makes sense for you.

Franchising can help baby boomers match their interests, their entrepreneurial spirit and their specific financial situation to a business they can build on -- with help and guidance from the franchisor, franchise associations and their fellow franchisees.

Ive had eight years of employment without the worry of yet another round of downsizing," Jones says. "My business is strong, and I feel that I could, in a few years, step back and allow the business to take care of me. Then I can downsize myself!

Related: Baby Boomers, Who Are More Successful as Entrepreneurs, Are Great Startup Assets

Related:



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
The Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce Business and Community luncheon featured an update from State Auditor Nicole Galloway on a board created to help small businesses.

Galloway told those in attendance Thursday the Missouri Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board received a poor rating  the lowest score possible.

The auditor is speaking around the state to those who have an interest in small business  and are willing to have their voices heard in Jefferson City.

Galloway explained her office conducts a wide variety of audits in government  from county commissions, to schools, to large state agencies, cities and fire districts and pretty much everything in between.

With so many areas of government, Galloway said, the office may audit particular entities not familiar to the citizens of the state.

The auditor said an example of that is the audit of the Missouri Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board.

Created by legislators in 2004 as a state law to ensure small businesses have a voice and are engaged in the regulatory process in Jefferson City  especially when new laws or rules are created that can affect their livelihoods, Galloway said.

The board, led by private citizens to make the regulatory process less burdensome on business owners - was created to have three statutory responsibilities, which included gather input from small businesses across the state as to how proposed regulation could have an impact on their business.

For two years, the board received no comments and held no hearings for public input at all, Galloway said the audit found.

The other two functions were for the board to provide input to state agencies about how the rules would affect small business along with creating an annual report on the status of small business in the state to the governor and General Assembly.

The board issued its first annual report in several years in January  describing, in their own words, an organization operating at a sub-par level.

As State Auditor, their report was hugely concerning to me, Galloway said. The board is designed to serve as a voice of small business in Jefferson City.

An immediate audit from Galloways office was launched after the release of the report to get a status of the boards operations as well as provide recommendations for improvement.

I released this audit back in May and found a level of dysfunction that hurts businesses and demands action, she said. Without this board functioning, government is missing the input of small business openers who understand personally how changes in laws, rules and regulations directly impact our states businesses.

Galloway outlined the findings of the audit as to why the board was not functioning at the level it was created.

First and foremost, she said, is the nine-member board has four vacancies  and, among those five on the board, four are serving in expired terms.

The governor and the legislator did not meet their responsibility to appoint members to the board, Galloway said. Because of that, a majority of the volunteer members serve way past their expired terms in an attempt to keep the board functioning.

Galloway also cited a contemptuous relationship between the board and the Department of Economic Development  which, through the creation of the board, is required to provide staff support to the board.

In recent years, budget appropriations have not provided a staff member for the board, she said. DED has not requested funding for staffing in its budget.

The auditor said the main takeaway for the boards demise is there was no follow-up by the legislature and no follow-up from the Department of Economic Development.

We made a series of recommendations, and I want to see the administration, the legislature and the Department of Economic Development step up and implement positive changes for the board, she said.

A follow-up audit will be conducted in a year.

We know that change is going to take some time because we are depending on the legislature, the governor and the Department of Economic Development to take action, Galloway said. We want to see this board succeed, so we are going to allow time to do that.

In the meantime, Galloway said it is important for changes to be made from the bottom up with citizens and small business owners willing to engage in making sure the board operates as it was created to do. That is why she is traveling around the state, speaking to groups like the chamber with small business in mind.

One thing the audit does not tell is how business owners may have been affected by the dysfunction of the board.

Galloway and her staff are asking from input to use during the follow-up review process. Those with any input can visit the website at auditor.mo.gov, by email at moaudit@auditor.mo.gov, or by phone at 800-347-8597.

Policy makers need to hear from you about the challenges youve experienced or maybe heard from some of your colleagues, she said. My job as auditor is to make sure our government runs efficiently and effectively. We know that was not happening here  far from it.
The National Weather Service has announced another extension to its excessive heat warning covering the southeast Missouri region that includes St. Francois and its surrounding counties.

The first extension was set to end on Saturday, but the warning now remains in effect until 8 p.m. Sunday with the expectation that heat index values could reach between 105 and 111 due to temperatures in the upper 90s and dew points in the mid-70s.

The heat index is a measure of how hot it really feels when relative humidity is factored in with the actual air temperature.

In addition to dangerously hot temperatures and high humidity during this period, nighttime conditions will remain warm and muggy with little chance of relief from the heat. This combination of high temperatures and high humidity will create a dangerous situation in which heat-related illnesses are likely  especially for those living in homes or apartments that aren't air-conditioned.

People in the warning area are advised by NWS to avoid poorly ventilated areas and prolonged work outdoors in the sun. Those without air-conditioning should try to spend some time in an air-conditioned environment to give their bodies a break from the heat.

Looking ahead to next week, highs are forecast to drop slightly into the upper-80s to lower-90s and Monday through Friday there's a good chance for thunderstorms to develop.

For the latest update on NWS advisories, watches and warnings, check the Daily Journal website at www.dailyjournalonline.com.
I make rice 20 times a day; Im a sushi-rice machine right now. Photo: Noah Fecks

Chefs and their cooks often have a contentious relationship with New Yorks Department of Health, and nobody knows this better than David Bouhadana. The former head chef of the East Villages Sushi Dojo, Bouhadana got into a squabble last fall with the DOH over the departments insistence that sushi chefs wear gloves when handling raw fish  something Bouhadana believes is anathema to the craft. That spat cost Bouhadana his job at Dojo, where he had become one of New Yorks most acclaimed sushi chefs. Now, eight months later, hes back with the first of two new projects: Sushi on Jones, an open-air omakase counter in the new Bowery Market. Grub Street stopped by to talk with the chef about his new spot, his future plans, and where he currently stands on the crucial glove issue.

How did Sushi on Jones come about?

It happened by accident. It was a blessing in disguise. It was an opportunity that no one had ever thought of. Its top-notch sushi without the huge price tag. This is what every station in Tokyo and all across Japan has. Amazing high-end fast food. And, unexpectedly, we cant find that sort of thing here. All we have is hot dogs and pretzels. So I think this is a game-changer.

Hows it been so far?

I dont have my platform yet, so I cant be Mr. Professional. I havent shaved in a couple weeks, Im wearing short shorts, Im sweating out here, and Im having fun. And I get to be sushi help. I love being sushi help. I dont want to be head chef right now; I want to make rice and wash dishes. It feels great to go back to being a student in that way. But Im in charge. This is my shop.

Whats the menu like?

Its a $50 omakase, no substitutions, but the menu is not 100 percent final right now. I can tell you, we have your standard fish: tuna, salmon, hamachi, eel, scallop, shrimp, albacore shrimp, and a few little pieces were trying. Our claim to fame is the wag-uni, which is the Japanese premium beef with truffle salt and uni.

I think the pieces I put here are what people order after their omakase. I dont have the white fish, I dont have the silver fish, I dont have the three kinds of this and that. I have all the power pieces. None of the fillers. Also, because I cant make that beautiful little piece of that special little silver fish. I dont have time to vinegar it, salt it, age it.

Do you think youll do takeout eventually?

Not for a while. While the weather is rocking and rolling, people want to sit down and have sushi until midnight, and we are fully booked  When its winter, I imagine people arent going to want to sit outside.

Is this something youd want to open more locations of?

I think we stumbled upon something that can be replicated without me being there. That needs to be mastered first. Were thinking about something like that. Our main focus, at this point, is perfect, continue with Sushi Bouhadana, and see how this goes.

I feel like the only decent thing currently in New York, until Sugarfish arrives, anyway, between something higher-end and sushi you really dont want to eat is Sunrise Mart.

[Laughs.] Im a big fan of Sunrise Mart. Well, the cool thing is there could be more of these. I dont want to get too much into it, but this could fit inside of Sunrise Mart, this could fit inside of a stadium, this could fit in any place. So the opportunity is there. But were day three, and we want to get this perfect and make sure that when I walk away its still high-quality and delicious.

Youre also opening up a restaurant, Sushi Bouhadana.

Correct. Were still in the process of opening it, so theres not too many things I can say yet. But it will be a high-end omakase. It will be a 12-seat sushi bar; this is fun outdoor sushi.

The idea of street sushi must terrify the Department of Health.

I think the DOH and Department of Buildings are unfortunately the reason why we dont have amazing street food. I think Department of Buildings rules about open-flame, fire inspection system, water, grease trap  these are things that you cant put into small spaces. I think Anthony Bourdains market will be a game-changer. But because of those regulations and restrictions, were confined to hot dogs and pretzels. We got super lucky here at this property.

Right, it doesnt really qualify as street food.

Well, I think the most exciting word is open-air.

What went through your mind when you lost the job at Dojo?

Thats a hard question to answer. There was a lot of emotion. But its over. That was three years of building Sushi Dojo and the Izakaya, and when I was released it was a huge relief. It was all blood, sweat, and tears for me. I had no equity, and I put so much into it. At the same time, my partnership soured, management was bad, I had to control incompetent people, and it hurt because I had put it all on the line. I did it every day for my name, and that clearly showed. I was heartbroken, excited, relieved. My job changed overnight from sushi head chef to sushi free agent.

What did you do? Did you go back to Japan at any point?

The next day I woke up and went for a coffee. I think sitting still for two months was unbelievable. Walking around on a Wednesday, I was like, Wow, people are outside, this is amazing. I got to go out, play my guitar, see my friends, eat dinner at seven oclock. Id never eaten dinner at seven oclock in my life, and Im like, Wow, this is cool. Day drinking? Amazing.

Then, yeah, I went to Japan. I went to Florida to see my family. I went to Los Angeles, and I went on a road trip. Im going to Costa Rica in a couple weeks. Also, my body just needed a month of sleep. I used to just wake up, sit on the couch, and take naps. Thats what my mind needed to do. Flush everything out, and its crazy theres now press  whether its good or bad, thats hard to take that in. People know who I am. I dont know who they are, but they email me, call me, they want photos. Its crazy, because all I do is sushi. Its a blessing, an honor, and a curse. Its fun.

How do you look back on your time at Dojo?

When I was younger and at Sushi UO, I was having an identity crisis. Im not your typical sushi chef, obviously. Im a white guy, I like surfing, I have tattoos and a beard, and my favorite band is Tool. Im a Japanese-trained American sushi chef. There was a lot of pressure from my master to be the best. But at Dojo I got to express myself. People could see that I was fun, cool. My master said you cant change any of the fish, you cant change the rice. But he never told me about music and lights.

It was a great experience. The outcome was the best thing that couldve happened because there was no lawsuit involved. But this was the only way that partnership wouldve ended. I couldnt just walk out. Things had soured, and the gloves and closing were the final straw. I dont want to expose too much of our issues, but something was going to happen.

So the question everyone has been waiting for: Are you wearing gloves?

The DOH has a job to do. We are wearing gloves here. But I went through grueling years to become that master chef, to earn that respect, to charge people that much money. I think its really gross to charge someone $200 and wear gloves. Thats saying youre not clean. Not that theyre not clean here, but this is fast-paced  and I think gloves are perfect for that.

Why one and not the other?

Let me put it this way. I think not wearing gloves is for master-trained sushi chefs who are in front of you, washing their hands. This is fast-paced. It isnt about the art form. It isnt about patience. It isnt about discipline. I think there needs to be an exception and a rule for the high-end sushi bars, where youre paying an absurd amount. These guys who are artists, craftsmen. They have degrees, they are trained for this.

The guys at Jones dont have degrees. They arent master sushi chefs. They are great sushi chefs, but theyre machines. They know that, I know that, and Im a machine with them. I make rice 20 times a day; Im a sushi-rice machine right now. But when the atmosphere is Zen, thats when the gloves come off. Thats when its time to be intimate. Thats when my hand and your hand come together. When I hand you a hand roll and its beautiful, I make sushi with my hands and you eat with your hands, thats beautiful. This? Fast-paced. Thirty minutes, in and out.

Are you going to use gloves at Sushi Bouhadana?

I dont want to say what Im going to do at Bouhadana. Like I said, the DOH has a job to do. I respect them and want them to do their job. But what happened at Sushi Dojo was personal. Things were said, things were done. They made an example out of me. Great job. It made my career go higher and higher, and here we are talking about it.

Im working with people, with chefs. We are coming together for a sushi alliance to hopefully change the rule on gloves and make an exception. Sushi came before the DOH. Theres issues with it. I stood up for it. All the chefs believe in me. But they dont want to speak on my behalf because theyre nervous. I think were going to come together and try to solve this problem. But if you go ask Seki, Ichimura, Hatsuhana, all these guys, theyll say the same thing.

I understand why youd not want to answer that question. Its how chefs have to deal with the DOH.

I just think maybe the gestures and the attitude were wrong with Dojo. I think coming in at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday repeatedly, in front of customers, my face was flushed, I turned red, there were comments made on both sides, and it became personal. So that was just what happened. I had poor management, and I had to walk the inspector, holding hands with them for an hour and a half through my restaurant. I was flustered. I had reservations piling up, the show gets stopped, theyre telling me to throw away food. There were a few comments that were made, and I think they were unhappy with it. I probably wasnt the nicest person.

Im just trying to keep the philosophy alive for sushi and what Ive learned. I lived in Japan for three years, I worked very hard, and this is the way I was taught and what I believe. This isnt a nationwide rule. This is a rule that has to be changed, and the public made me a big deal out of it and we got some drama out of it, and it was fun. Now its time to seriously sit down and fix this problem.
Introduction

Back in February, we first caught a glimpse of the Alcatel Idol 4s at MWC 2016. In keeping with the Alcatel tradition, it was piled together with another basic Idol 4 model, as well as three other POP4 devices. Still, even amid the announcement chaos that this event is known for, the Idol 4s still managed to stick out of the bunch. Now, the phone is officially on sale in North America and we couldn't miss the opportunity to take a closer look at what appears to be the highest spec'd Alcatel handset yet.

Alcatel doesn't usually dip its feet into flagship waters, but the once formidable mobile titan has found its own way of surviving all this time on the 'dog-eat-dog' market. For the most part, this has entailed catering to carrier needs and the Chinese phone maker has been throwing out a slew of entry-level to mid-range handsets hoping for something to stick.

Every once in a while, however, amid the endless sea of Pixi and Pop devices with all their carrier-specific varieties, Alcatel still manages to come up with something impressive while maintaining on affordability.

Alcatel Idol 4s at a glance:

5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display



Octa-core Qualcomm MSM8976 Snapdragon 652 processor (Quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72 & quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53)



3GB RAM, 32GB expandable storage



16MP, f/2.0 main camera with phase detection autofocus and 4K video recording, 8 megapixel front camera



Dual SIM support (hybrid second slot)



LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps



Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow



Fingerprint reader



VR goggles included (the goggles are the retail box)

retail box)

3000mAh battery

Now, we know this point is definitely open for debate, but we feel pretty confident in calling the Idol 4s a 'flagship offer'. The AMOLED display with QHD resolution is about as good on paper as most other 2016 high-end offers. As far as we are concerned, 3GB of RAM is still perfectly fine and although the Qualcomm SoC in question might be from the 600 series, ample power is available thanks to four Cortex-A72 and four Cortex-A53 cores. The camera setup looks just as promising in terms of raw specs as well.



Alcatel Idol 4s in official photos

However, the Alcatel Idol 4s is priced quite unlike a flagship - at the tantalizing $399 (even $350 on pre-order). It boils down to how well the Idol 4s actually performs everyday, outside the dry specs.
This morning, media outlets all over the world report about the Moto Z and Moto Z Force for the first time since the embargo lifted. One such site speculated that Motorolas update policy has changed since Lenovos acquisition and will not offer regular security patch updates, leaving the Moto Z susceptible to known vulnerabilities.

Since then, Motorola has commented on the speculation and confirmed that the Moto Z and Moto Z Force will be receiving regular security patch updates. Its worth noting the review units that media outlets got is currently up to date with security bulletins until May 2016. Additionally, review devices will be updated to reflect these security patches before the July 28 release date.

The Moto Z will launch on Verizon for $624 or $26 per month and the Z Force will launch for $720 or $30 per month. The Z Force (which at this time remains a US-only Verizon exclusive) carries a $96 premium over the Moto Z and offers a 35% larger battery, higher-resolution camera, and Motos ShatterShield display. Everything else is the same on both devices.

Pre-orders for both the Moto Z and Moto Z Force Droid editions are open now with Verizon in the US and will hit Verizon retail stores starting on July 28.

If you haven't already, check out our hands-on with the Moto Z Force Droid and pricing for different Moto Mods launching alongside the Moto Z.

Via
Market research firm TrendForce has released smartphone market numbers for Q2 2016. As per the report, Huawei was the leading player in China (the world's largest smartphone market) with nearly 21% share.

Oppo and vivo came in at second and third spots, with 12.7% and 10.6% share, respectively. Lenovo and Xiaomi rounded up the top five with around 10% market share each.

"The combined production volume of Chinese brands in the second quarter reached 139 million units, up 13.8% from the previous quarter," said TrendForce smartphone analyst Avril Wu. "For the second straight quarter, the combined volume from Chinese brands was larger than the combined volume of the two leading international brands, Samsung and Apple. Furthermore, the volume growth rates of respective Chinese brands are expected to be above the global average in the third quarter."

Globally, Samsung topped the charts with nearly a quarter of the market share, while Apple came in a distant second with 15.1% share - Samsung shipped 77 million units, while Apple shipped 48 million units.

However, compared to the last quarter, the former's share decreased, while the latter's share increased. Huawei, Oppo, and LG rounded up the top five with 9.2%, 5.6%, and 5.4% market share, respectively.

Source
Sony is all set to launch the Xperia XA Ultra smartphone in India next week - Monday, July 25 to be precise. The company's India subsidiary has sent out a tweet teasing the smartphone.

Your perfect Selfie companion, with OIS. This Monday! pic.twitter.com/bY64Owk8Jo  Sony Xperia India (@SonyXperiaIndia) July 22, 2016

While the tweet itself doesn't reveal which smartphone is it, the accompanying text - which describes the phone as "perfect Selfie companion, with OIS" - is more than enough to confirm that the handset in question is the Xperia XA Ultra with its 16MP OIS selfie camera.

Other specs of the handset include Mediatek Helio P10 chipset, 6-inch 1080p display, 3GB RAM, 16GB expandable memory, 21.5MP rear camera, and 2,700mAh battery. If you are interested, you should take a look at our review of the device.

Source
West County High School Principal Eric Moyers began the monthly board of education meeting Thursday with a brief summary of the districts Persistence to Graduation report.

The goal is to get 100 percent of our kids all the way through school and get them a diploma at the end of the school year, he said. Our ultimate goal is to get that 100 percent.  This past year, we had the highest graduation rate that Ive seen us ever have. Our rate this year was 96.6 percent so were very pleased with that.

Superintendent Stacy Stevens pointed out that the figure is 11 percent higher than the state average.

Continuing with his report on the high school, Moyers gave the board an update on the maintenance projects going on over the summer, including work on the floors in the hallways and cafeteria and general clean-up outside and around the school.

He also announced that the date for registration for the middle and high schools is set for Aug. 11; the first teacher in-service day will be Aug. 15; an open house will be held on Aug. 16 and the first day of school is Aug. 18.

Principal Kevin Coffman gave a report on the middle school, stating that summer school attendance averaged between 95 and 100 students per day.

I had a lot of good teachers who worked really hard to come up with some creative things, he said.

He also gave a brief update on the most recent work completed and in progress at the new building. Among other details, work is still being done on the floors and lettering is being applied to the outside of the building.

Area artists Mike and Patty Wallace are in the process of painting logos and school mascots in the gymnasium.

Its really starting to look like a school gymnasium now, Coffman said. Its looking really good. I thought the logos probably look better than any other middle school Ive been in. They have a little bit different look.

Coffman made a point to recognize the work that Bobby Radford, the high school custodian, did on the gymnasium floor at the middle school.

I dont think you can find a better floor guy than Bobby in this area, he said. Hes really made our gym floor look nice.

In his report, Principal Todd Watson also informed the board about summer maintenance projects going on at his school.

The elementary school is looking a lot nicer also, he said. It seems like weve had a little extra time this year and have jumped in and got a lot of extra things accomplished. Weve done a lot more painting this year, even stripped some rooms that we didnt have time for last year.

Other projects include installation of new HVAC units and hanging a new projector in the gymnasium.

In his report, Stevens announced that a grant through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is being sought to help purchase a new school bus. He mentioned that whether the district receives the funding is largely due to the luck of the draw due to many applicants across the state.

We put our names in the hat, he said. And probably, one way or another, were gonna be looking at buying a new bus for an upcoming school year.

Stevens also spent some time to talk about the financial condition of the school district and sources of funding and spending, referring to the annual Secretary of the Board Report for 2015-2016.

Were in a strong position, he said. I believe that.

In new business, the board approved the eligibility criteria for the free and reduced meals program, bus routes for the upcoming school year and a request by a local Girl Scouts troop to use the middle school facilities.

In old business, the board discussed a proposed salary schedule for staff categorized as classified employees. At the end of the discussion, board members agreed to gather together a group of staff members to ask for their input on the proposed schedule.

The board set the next regular meeting for Aug. 25. A tax rate hearing will begin at 5:45 p.m. with the regular meeting starting at approximately 6 p.m. Having the meeting a week later than usual will also allow board members to hear about the first week of the new school year, which begins on Aug. 18.
DEAR ABBY: My beloved father passed away three years ago. One of my older sisters moved in with Mom to help take care of her and be her companion. My sister has a boyfriend my father absolutely disliked, and the rest of our family doesn't like him either.

My issue (and I'm not the only family member who feels this way) is that when her boyfriend is at the house, he sits in Dad's chair. It's hard enough not seeing Dad there anymore, but seeing the boyfriend sitting there is offensive. Am I wrong for feeling this way? If there is a way, how could I or my family approach the subject with my sister or her boyfriend? -- DADDY'S GONE NOW

DEAR DADDY'S GONE NOW: Please accept my sympathy for the loss of your obviously much-loved father. But the boyfriend may be using Dad's chair because no one else is using it, and it is comfortable and available.

As I see it, you and your other siblings have two choices: Either speak to the boyfriend and tell him -- nicely -- that seeing him occupy your father's special chair is painful for all of you, or replace the chair with one that has less sentimental value.

DEAR ABBY: Some time ago I was descending an escalator when a suitcase belonging to the woman ahead of me got stuck. She had put the bag in front of her, and the wheels had caught on one of the steps. When she reached the bottom of the escalator, she fell over her suitcase, and then I fell over her. I scrambled on my hands and knees as fast as I could to get out of the way of the dozens of people behind us, visualizing a pileup and injuries.

Fortunately, an attendant quickly grabbed the suitcase, and no one was hurt. As he did he said, "NEVER put a suitcase ahead of you on an escalator! Always carry it behind you so you can control it!" I hope this letter will save others from what could be a dangerous situation. -- AVOIDED A PILEUP IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR AVOIDED: Whoa! So do I. Thank you for the warning.

DEAR ABBY: Recently my wife was out for some training all day on a Saturday. Our 11-year-old daughter had been invited to a birthday party on the same day, so I was to drop her off. My wife and daughter told me the birthday party "might or might not" be a sleepover party. My daughter would inform me at the end of the party if she were spending the night.

I wanted to know at the time I dropped her off whether she was going to be sleeping over. My wife claimed I "didn't need" to know. She accused me of being unreasonable, and said it was OK for me to find out at the end of the party. I don't mean to be picky, but as a dad was I being unreasonable? -- RESPONSIBLE PARENT IN OREGON

DEAR PARENT: No. As the parent responsible for your daughter that day, you had every right to know what the plans would be so you could plan your own evening. When the invitation was issued, that information should have been conveyed so your daughter would be prepared and take along her pajamas and toothbrush.

DEAR ABBY: My 18-year-old daughter has just finished school. She now wants to take a gap year and work to save enough to travel overseas. The problem is, she's so eager to get away from home that she wants to move to another city to work.

I have advised her that staying home and working will allow her to save more to travel, and she would have to pay for her food, accommodation and transportation, and would have little left over to save to travel. She got upset with me and could not understand why I wouldn't want to pay her rent or support her. Am I being unreasonable saying that she should pay her own way if she moves out of the home? -- MOM IN JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

DEAR MOM: If anyone thinks that an attitude of entitlement is strictly a problem in the United States, your letter should banish that notion. What you told your daughter makes perfect sense. If she wants independence, she should be prepared to accept the responsibility for living that way.

I would, however, encourage you to continue the dialogue with her so you can understand why she feels the need to live apart from you, on the chance that a compromise might be possible. I'm sure it would be enlightening.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069
With a passion to encourage congregational worship, create resources for churches, and draw listeners closer to God, Highlands Worship is set to release their debut studio album "Here I Surrender" on July 29. Highlands Worship features the talents of gifted songwriters and vocalists from the Birmingham, Alabama-based Church of the Highlands. Together, this diverse group of individuals strives to bring the local church community together through praising God.

The album includes 13 tracks, all original to Church of the Highlands. Highlands Worship has an incredible team, consisting of 560 active worship team members as well as 30 full or part-time musicians worship staff. On "Here I Surrender," the project features three main vocalists John Larson, Nicole McLean and CJ Blount, and musicians made up from their various worship teams.

"My hope for this album is that people will truly encounter the Living God in a real and authentic way -- and when they do, they are encouraged, empowered, and transformed by His presence," explains McLean. "I am believing that these songs will be more than just music and lyrics, but that they will literally be anthems of truth for people to declare in this generation and for many generations to come."

The album will be first given, in physical form, to the 4,000 pastors who will attend Grow Conference hosted by Church of the Highlands on July 22, 2016. The digital release of the album will launch in tandem with the Motion Conference, one of the largest young adults conference in the nation, on July 29, 2016. At both conferences, members of Highland Worship will be leading the congregations in musical worship.

Today, Highlands Worship has also launched a new website, complete with training videos, helps for worship leaders and members of a church technical staff, articles and blogs on church leadership, tutorials for worship team development and other creative resources. The site can be viewed here: http://www.highlandsworship.com.

In 2012, Highlands Worship released their first major project, "Place of Freedom," a live-recorded album that introduced songs and worship anthems that thousands of churches have embraced. Highlands Worship also leads worship at various conferences and events throughout the year to spread their mission.

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Highlands Worship comes from the worship ministry of Church of the Highlands. Since being founded in 2001, Church of the Highlands, under the leadership of Pastor Chris Hodges, has expanded to 14 multisite campuses with over 40,000 in weekly attendance.

Worship Pastor John Larson shares, "Worship has been one of the central marks of Church of the Highlands since the beginning, this latest collection of Highlands Worship is the heart beat of our community. Its not about us, its about Jesus - and because of what He has done for us, we have a reason to sing."

http://www.highlandsworship.com

Tags : highlands worship here i surrender highlands worship here i surrender highlands worship new album highlands worship news
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Published on 2016/07/21 | Source

Actor actress couple Yeon Jung-hoon and Han Ga-in celebrated their daughter's 100th day.

Advertisement

The couple welcomed their first daughter on April 13th this year in 11 years after their marriage. The happy mom and dad had a small event to celebrate their daughter's 100th day like any other parents would do.

Yeon Jung-hoon and Han Ga-in met through KBS 2TV's 'Yellow Handkerchief', 2003. Since they co-starred in the drama, their relationship began and the two finally got married in 2005.

Han Ga-in is currently busy with parenting. Yeon Jung-hoon finished filming the US and China joint movie, 'Skiptrace' also starring Jacky Chan, Fan Bingbing, Johnny Knoxville. 'Skiptrace' will be released in China soon.
Uber is being taken to an employment tribunal by drivers in the UK who claim that the company is acting unlawfully by categorising drivers as self-employed to avoid paying them minimum wage and holiday pay.



The app-based taxi firm, which has users book and pay for taxis through the Uber app, and then pays its drivers a percentage of the fee, is facing a legal challenge from drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam over whether drivers should be deemed as employees or self-employed.



The two cases, described as test cases, began on 20 July and will determine whether a further 17 claims against the firm will go ahead.



Farrar and Aslam, represented by law firm Leigh Day on behalf of the GMB union, both claim the company is acting unlawfully by not offering holiday and sick pay as would be afforded to them if they were classed as employees.



Uber, which calls its drivers partners, insists that they are not employed workers but are instead self-employed and can work as little or as much as they wish.



David Reade QC, representing Uber, sought to demonstrate on the first day of the tribunal in London that Mr Farrar was self-employed as he can choose when he works, BBC News reports.



However, Farrar insisted that he does not have free choice and considers Uber work as his job.



He also claimed that his pay was often below the national minimum wage in the UK.



The action is the latest in a series of legal challenges against Uber, which operates in over 487 cities worldwide, according to its website.



Uber paid US$7.5m last month to settle a lawsuit brought by drivers over background checks in San Francisco, where the company was founded.



In a statement the regional general manager at Uber UK, Jo Bertram, said: "More than 30,000 people in London drive with our app and this case only involves a very small number.



"The main reason people choose to partner with Uber is so they can become their own boss, pick their own hours and work completely flexibly.



"Many partner-drivers have left other lines of work and chosen to partner with Uber for this very reason. In fact, two thirds of new partner-drivers joining the Uber platform have been referred by another partner."



A ruling on the tribunal is expected in several weeks.




HR is one of the most in-demand professions today with 39% of Australian employers planning on increasing headcounts in this area.



The latest Hudson Report  which surveyed the hiring intentions of over 2,000 Australian employers  revealed that this demand was strongest for both L&D and change management specialists.



HC spoke to Simon Moylan, head of talent management at Hudson, about the factors driving these hiring trends.



For L&D, I think organisations are again starting to recognise that if theyre going to retain their staff they need to start investing in them, he said.



With organisations skimping on investment over the last few years, he noted that the increased hiring figures are probably firms replacing roles they had previously let go.



The change has been due for a little while now, he said.



As for change management, while this could be seen as part of the HR generalists role, the demand for specialists was increasing as organisations tried to accelerate the rate of change within.



Theyre not seeing it as part of your normal HR business partners everyday role, Moylan told HC. Theyre saying we want to do things faster and invest more time in this, so were going to get a specialist to come in and work on this.



Overall, firms were increasing focus on finding people with a transformational mindset in addition to those with this specialised skills set, he added; So people who love and are comfortable with change, who can lead that change, and who are collaborative and solutions-focused.



The increased competition, while good for those looking for work in these fields, will make it more difficult for Australian HR departments to find these sorts of people.



However, this skills gap is about to close, he said.



Over the last seven or eight years, a lot of the investment in these specialised roles has decreased. Basically firms asked less people to do more over a broader range of business areas. Now though, were starting to see that specialisation come back.




Story and Photos by Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

For some families, summertime means sunshine, playtime, vacation plans and parties; but for families who face food insecurity, summertime means financial stress, added costs and worrying about how theyll feed their children.

A large number of kids who attend public schools rely on the breakfast and lunch they receive every day during the academic year. When schools out for summer, however, many parents struggle with how to afford those two daily meals on top of their other expenses.

Thats why the folks at Green Street Catering, a local food ministry, are on a mission to distribute food products to families in need through its summer food program.

In addition to serving and delivering hundreds of hot meals each week from its home base at Alliance Bible Fellowship in Boone, Green Street will pack and deliver bags of additional food on five separate occasions this summer for neighbors in need.

The goal is that they last for two weeks. Thats why well try to get the bags bigger or well do two little bags as one bag, said Green Street Executive Director Chastity Lesesne. Weve got milk, weve got juice, cabbage, potatoes, tuna fish, about six to eight canned foods in the bottom of it, snack foods, oatmeal, grits, peanut butter, healthy chips and then we stick a treat of candy in there, too.

While its developed strong working relationships with businesses and organizations that keep a steady supply of food flowing, the Green Street team is in serious need of financial support to help keep the operation moving.

The nonprofit seeks ministry partners who can pledge to contribute monthly, no matter the size of the donation, in order to cover regular expenses, like a salary for a new employee and the cost of its electric bills.

We have hired one guy and we pay him each week to do a lot of the heavy lifting. While we have help on Thursdays, it takes a lot more than just Thursdays to do that, so he helps tremendously and he has a heart for what we do, Lesesne said. He is part of Freedom Farm Ministries. Those Freedom Farm guys come and help us at Green Street  they are just such a gift and we love them to pieces.

Steady financial contributions will allow the team to keep its food supplies, which are picked up and stockpiled throughout the week, in commercial coolers and freezers.

We just got an influx of meat and were doing good on actual food, but wed like for people to partner with us who can give $10 or $20 a month. Something consistent  that would be very helpful, said Lesesne. Thats where we are, with electricity to keep the food, store the food, cook the food and ensure proper handling of the food.

If youd like to support Green Streets mission and its summer food program, make a donation online or send a check or money order by mail to 200 Sierra Vista, Boone, North Carolina 28607.

If you or someone you know would like to volunteer with Green Street or sign up to receive the free weekly meal, contact Lesesne by email at [email protected] or visit the ministry online at greenstreetcatering.org.

The Green Street team prepares summer food bags for delivery at Alliance Bible Fellowship.

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Big Summer Concerts On the Way at Biltmore Estate in Asheville

ASHEVILLE, N.C.  Rock band Daughtry, fronted by Chris Daughtry, kicks off Biltmores 20th annual Concert Series on July 28.

Biltmores unique concert venue offers views of the 250-room Biltmore House in one direction, and sunset views of Mount Pisgah and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the other.

Daughtry has released four studio albums, garnered four Grammy nominations, and sold more than 8.2 million albums and 16 million singles worldwide. The band has also earned four No. 1 radio singles, including the multi-format No. 1 song Its Not Over.

A variety of ticket, dining and lodging packages are available. Tickets do not include or require estate admission, but may be purchased online at www.biltmore.com/concerts; by calling 866-336-1255; or in person at Biltmores Reservation and Ticketing Sales Center.

All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. Performers and dates are subject to change.

The full 2016 Biltmore Concert Series line-up:

July 28 Daughtry

Aug. 12 Casting Crowns with special guest Jeremy Camp

Aug. 14 Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter

Aug. 16 Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald

Aug. 19 The OJays and Chaka Khan

Aug. 23 Rick Springfield with special guests Night Ranger and The Romantics

On the Same Page Literary Festival to Feature Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain

(West Jefferson)  On the Same Page Literary Festival features the 2016 Festival Read Pretending to Dance by international best selling author Diane Chamberlain with upcoming events.

Events will begin with the Festival Read Kick-Off on Thursday, August 4, at 2:00 p.m. at the Ashe County Public Library. Books will be available to borrow or purchase at the kick-off and refreshments will be provided. The Festival will then present Festival Read Conversationsabout themes from Pretending to Dance hosted by area experts on topics related to the books themes:

Aug 25: Conversation on Adoption Issues  led by Dana Colvard, at Bohemia Coffee House

Sept. 1: Conversation on Family Dynamics/Secrets  led by Colinda Hendricks at Rosebud Bakery

Sept. 8: Conversation on End-of-Life Issues  led by Rev. Ken Morris at West Jefferson Coffee House

The Festival Read Wrap-Up Discussion will take place on Wednesday, September 14, at the Ashe County Public Library at 4:00 p.m.

Diane Chamberlain will appear at the On the Same Page Literary Festival on Thursday, September 15, at 2:00 p.m., at the Ashe County Public Library. She will also be at a Lunch With An Author event at 12 noon on Friday, September 16, and on the discussion panel at Saturday, September 17s On the Same Plate luncheon at 12:30 p.m.

Chamberlain has written 24 books, frequently set in North Carolina. They are complex stories about family, compassion and forgiveness with strong elements of mystery and suspense. Pretending to Dance is no exception. Prior to her writing career, Chamberlain was a medical social worker and a psychotherapist in private practice, working primarily with adolescents. She is currently at work on her 25th novel, also set in North Carolina.

On the Same Page, Ashe County, NCs Literary Festival, celebrates its ninth year in 2016 with award-winning authors and plans for a Festival filled with reading, writing workshops, music and more. This years Festival is scheduled for Tuesday  Saturday, September 13  17. The Festival is sponsored by the Ashe County Public Library and the Ashe County Arts Council and is supported with major funding from Skyline Membership Corporation and many individual donors  the Page Turners. On the Same Page is also funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. The County of Ashe and the Town of West Jefferson also support On the Same Page.

This years Festival authors include: Darnell Arnoult, Diane Chamberlain, Judy Cook, Elliot Engel, Georgann Eubanks, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Jeremy Hawkins, Charlie Lovett, Beth Macy, Sarah Shaber, and Kevin Morgan Watson. See the websitewww.onthesamepagefestival.org for details about times and locations of events. Most are free and open to the public; some require reservations/tickets.

School Bus Driver Classes Offered in Avery County

School bus driver training will be offered August 2-4 on the Newland campus of Mayland Community College. The classes will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day.

Before attending the class, anyone who is not a current Watauga County Schools employee must have a recommendation from the principal or assistant principal at the school where they want to be hired.

We encourage everyone who is interested in being a school bus driver to obtain the required recommendation and attend these classes, said WCS Transportation Director Jeff Lyons.

A school bus driver training class must be completed in order to receive the license (CDL) required to drive a school bus in North Carolina. The current starting pay for school bus drivers in Watauga County is $13.32 per hour.

Each students driving record is screened through the NC Division of Motor Vehicles the first day of class. In addition to the driving record check, a criminal background check is conducted of all prospective school system employees before they start work.

For additional information, contact Jeff Lyons at 828 264-6391.

Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild to Meet Aug. 4

The Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, August 4th, at 1:00 PM in the conference on the second floor of the Senior Center on Poplar Grove Connector in Boone. We will have a Quilting/Sewing Yard Sale during which the members will be able to sell and buy these items. Part of the money will be given to the guild for buying fabric for donation quilts. So gather up and bring items you would like to put in the sale. Call Ann at 295-5039 to get guidelines for the sale.

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The following information is provided by local law enforcement agencies.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Compiled by Jessica Isaacs

The following were provided by the Watauga County Sheriffs Office.

July 12

INCIDENT: An unattended death was reported at 306 Betsy Circle in Todd.

INCIDENT: Larceny was reported at 3764 Rominger Road in Banner Elk.

ARREST: A female suspect, 47, of 134 Miller Drive in Boone, was charged with felony neglect disable/elder ser inj. Trial date: Sept. 7.

July 13

INCIDENT: Fraud and larceny were reported at 311 Laurel Fork Road Apt. 1 in Vilas.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 381 Apple Way Road in Blowing Rock.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at Boone Drug.

INCIDENT: Assault on a female was reported at 501 Lucky Lane in Zionville.

ARREST: A male suspect, 33, of 3581 Rush Branch Road in Sugar Grove, was charged with felony breaking and entering, larceny and possession of stolen property. Secured bond: $5,000. Trial date: Aug. 3.

July 14

INCIDENT: Discharging firearm in unsafe manner was reported at 826 Presnell School Road in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 10675 N.C. Highway 105 S Unit 3 in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 288 H Stanley Miller Road in Deep Gap.

INCIDENT: Motor vehicle theft  automobile and larceny were reported at 1438 Mountain Dale Road in Vilas.

INCIDENT: An unattended death was reported at 125 Ski Crest Park in Blowing Rock.

July 15

INCIDENT: Drug violations and breaking and entering were reported at 509 Hodges Gap Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny was reported at 146 River Way in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny from motor vehicle were reported at 101 Leatherwood Road in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Larceny was reported at 100 Bennick Place in Sugar Grove.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny were reported at 193 River Road 2 in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Drug violations were reported at Radford Quarry on Bamboo Road.

ARREST: A male suspect, 22, of 430 New River Heights Drive in Boone, was charged with felony possession of marijuana and misdemeanor simple possession of a schedule VI CS. Secured bond: $3,000. Trial date: Sept. 7.

ARREST: A male suspect, 35, of 244 Devils Den in Banner Elk, was charged with FTA. Secured bond: $1,500. Trial date: Aug. 11.

July 16

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 353 Elk Lane in Deep Gap.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 1251 Ray Brown Road in Boone.

ARREST: A female suspect, 36, of 1099 Bairds Creek Road in Vilas was charged with FTA. Secured bond: $1,500. Trial date: Aug. 18.

July 17

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering were reported at 122 A Laurel Reach Lane in Boone.

INCIDENT: Disorderly conduct was reported at 2815 N. Pine Run Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny from buildings, breaking and entering and unauthorized use were reported at 125 Ski Crest Park Unit 1 in Blowing Rock.

ARREST: A male suspect, 32, of 822 Ramsey Woodring in Todd, was charged with disorderly conduct. Secured bond: $500. Trial date: Sept. 7.

July 18

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering and vandalism were reported at 177 Cool Springs Drive in Blowing Rock.

INCIDENT: Vandalism and communicating threats were reported at 1110 Ford Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny and drug violations were reported in a camper in Roan Mountain.

July 19

INCIDENT: Simple physical assault was reported at 100 The Overlook Road Apt. 1 in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Assault on a female and communicating threats were reported at 315 Monroe Herman Road in Banner Elk.

INCIDENT: Calls for service were reported at 220 Alan Drive in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 49, of 315 Monroe Herman Road in Banner Elk, was charged with assault on a female and communicating threats. Trial date: Sept. 9.
Finland will be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by sectors not covered by the emissions trading system by 39 per cent compared to 2005 before the end of the next decade, more than any other member state except for Luxembourg and Sweden. Sectors not covered by the trading scheme include the agriculture, buildings, forestry, transport and waste sectors.

The European Commission has presented its recommendations for measures to accelerate the transition towards a low-carbon economy to all 28 member states of the European Union.

The emissions target is higher than expected, says Kimmo Tiilikainen (Centre), the Minister of Agriculture and the Environment.

It is stricter than expected as we were prepared for a target of 3738 per cent. We must carefully review the calculation methods and source data used by the commission, he says in a press release from the Ministry of the Environment.

Flexibilities are being offered to help us meet the high target, but uncertainties over whether or not they can be utilised persist, adds Tiilikainen.

Finland, he reminds, has already prepared for the next decade by laying out the most important measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions  namely, halving the use of imported oil and raising the share of renewable transport fuels to 40 per cent  in the government programme.

Background: - The European Union agreed in October 2014 to impose a binding economy-wide emissions reduction target of at least 40 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990. - The energy and industrial sectors covered by the emissions trading system will be required to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005. - Sectors not covered by the trading system, such as agriculture, forestry, land-use and transport, will be required to reduce emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005. Source: the European Commission



The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) has similarly voiced its concerns about what it estimates is an excessive reduction target.

Finland's emissions reduction target will increase from the current 16 per cent to 39 per cent for the next time period that extends until 2030. [The Government Institute for Economic Research] VATT and [the Technical Research Centre of Finland] VTT, for example, have estimated that such a target will translate to a notable rise in transportation costs, Tiina Haapasalo, a leading expert at EK, says in a press release.

Finland should consequently leave no stone unturned to reach a more just outcome, according to EK.

Jyrki Katainen (NCP), the European Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, states in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat that he recognises the proposal has taken many by surprise in Finland. It did, after all, stir up similar reactions in a number of other member states.

[The targets] are the sum of many indicators. Governments will obviously review them with the commission to make sure the playing field is level for everyone, he told the daily.

Luxembourg and Sweden, for example, will be expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent, and France and the United Kingdom by 37 per cent by 2030, according to the targets doled out by the European Commission.

Katainen stresses in a press release from the European Commission that the strategy should be seen as another element of the ongoing effort to modernise the common economy and strengthen the internal market.

It defines key priorities on the way to low-emission mobility and gives clear guidance for future investors. It contributes to our goals which do not change over time  we want to create conditions for our industry to be more competitive and able to provide quality jobs, he says.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Irene Stachon  Lehtikuva
Casper von Koskull, the chief executive at the provider of financial services, says he is disappointed with the shortcomings detected in the implementation of the operating principles of Nordea. This cannot be tolerated. The shortcomings in our operations are primarily related to administrative routines and supervision. I am nonetheless pleased that the inquiry found no evidence that the employees of Nordea had actively facilitated tax evasion, he says in a press release .

Nordea has announced that it has completed the internal inquiry it opened in the aftermath of the so-called Panama Papers, a leak of over 11 million sensitive financial documents from a law firm based in Panama.

Nordea has according to the leaked documents established over 400 shell companies for its customers in Panama and the Virgin Islands through its division in Luxembourg.

Von Koskull reiterates that the provider of financial services will not tolerate being used as an instrument in tax evasion or aggressive tax planning.

Nordea is the largest bank in the Nordics, and it has a special obligation to be a good corporate citizen. Tax-paying is an obligation, and it is of utmost social importance that companies and private citizens comply with regulations related to taxation, he adds.

The shortcomings detected in the internal inquiry include insufficient documentation and non-compliance with internal guidelines. Documentation pertaining to the know your customer procedure, for example, did not meet the standards set forth in the operating principles in the case of several high-risk customers, the press release indicates.

The operating principles were violated also in seven cases related to the renewals of letters of attorney.

The cases, however, are unlikely to meet the criteria for illegal activity as the employees neither clearly benefited nor were unlawfully rewarded for their negligence, according to Nordea.

Von Koskull says he has launched a number of initiatives in response to the findings.

Nordea's operating principles and strategies will be developed by a committee focused on ethics and values to ensure they correspond with both our Nordic values and the views of our stakeholders on how a responsible bank should operate, he states.

The operating guidelines will also be revised to ensure they are as unambiguous as possible. The entire group must have a cohesive understanding of issues related to compliance with laws and regulations and must systematically comply with the operating principles, says von Koskull.

We have also established a tax committee that will comment on complex tax issues at the group level and ensure the group's decisions on tax issues are cohesive.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Teemu Salonen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The late Paul Kelly, former CEO of Console charity and his wife Patricia Kelly Photo: John Dardis

The car the pair were travelling in. Photo: John Dardis

First pictures of Paul Kelly, former CEO of Console charity and his wife Patricia Kelly seen in town this afternoon,on their way to their solicitors office. Kelly seemed to be in good spirits since checking himself out of the psychiatric unit last week and walked with a big grin across his face. Photo: John Dardis

First pictures of Paul Kelly, former CEO of Console charity and his wife Patricia Kelly seen in town this afternoon,on their way to their solicitors office. Kelly seemed to be in good spirits since checking himself out of the psychiatric unit last week and walked with a big grin across his face. Photo: John Dardis

Here's Console's disgraced former CEO Paul Kelly pictured with his wife for the first time since it was revealed the pair splurged hundreds of thousands on the charity's expenses account.

Despite the shocking expenditure, the shamed former charity boss can be seen grinning, without a care in the world, as he made his way to a legal appointment in Dublin city centre yesterday afternoon.

Kelly (56) and his wife, Patricia were spotted, having travelled into the capital from their Kildare home, near the Four Courts.

He was wearing a blue pinstripe shirt, jeans and brown shoes.

The couple are understood to have left their Clane home in a 142 Toyota Yaris shortly after 1pm. They finished their business in Dublin city around 3pm.

Despite the initial smirk, Mr Kelly's expression became more glum as he noticed a camera pointed in his direction as he left the meeting.

Luxuries

Last month, Mr Kelly and his wife resigned as directors of the company after it was revealed the founder of the suicide prevention charity benefited from more than 500,000 in wages and cars between 2012 and 2014.

The pair, along with son Tim, spent another 500,000 using numerous credit cards belonging to the company.

The Console credit cards were used for luxuries such as foreign holidays and designer clothes.

The trips abroad included Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Some 37,000 was also spent on a horse, while another 10,000 was spent on his daughter for her 18th birthday.

Tim lavishly spent 63,000 last year alone on travel, cars and meals.

Since the scandal broke, the disgraced former director has had his bank accounts frozen.

However, a freezing order on one of the accounts has now been lifted to allow him and his wife to claim a 300 weekly social welfare cheque.

On Tuesday, Kelly's solicitor, James MacGuill told the High Court that apart from 6,700 in another bank account, the Kelly's have no other cash assets.

Barrister for Console, Keith Farry objected to Mr Kelly having access to this account however, as he believed the money may have also initially came from Console.

The couple also have an outstanding mortgage of 428,000 on their Alexandra Manor home in Co Kildare, while there is also another 225,000 outstanding on a property at Whitethorn Grove, Celbridge.

Combined monthly payments on the two properties work out at 5,300.

These repayments cannot be met, Kelly's solicitor said.

The case was adjourned until next Thursday.

Earlier this month, a horse belonging to the conman mysteriously went missing from a stables in Longford.

The brown mare, named Ecapitola had been bought by Kelly in 2014 for his daughter, Robyn who is an accomplished showjumper.

It has also been revealed that Kelly lied about the date of the death of his sister prior to the setting up of Console.

Mr Kelly said his sister's death in 2001 was the catalyst to founding the charity - which within a decade had counselling centres across the country.

He described the death of Sharon in her hospital bed before he set up the charity.

However, Sharon, from Ballyfermot, who had a history of mental health issues, died in the mid-1990s.

Mr Kelly is understood to have been in a psychiatric unit until last week after being arrested for his own safety.
A sales assistant at an off-licence has been ordered to pay 3,000 compensation after he was found guilty of stealing takings.

Aleksanders Vedernikovs (35) took the money on 20 separate occasions over a six-week period.

Judge Ann Ryan found him guilty after he had denied theft charges at Dublin District Court.

She adjourned the case for the production of a probation report and payment of compensation.

Vedernikovs, of Rochfort Green, Baker's Walk, Kilcock, Co Kildare, pleaded not guilty to theft between December 2, 2014 and January 17, 2015.

The thefts, of sums ranging from 17 to 484 happened at the Arc Bar Off Licence, Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, where he worked at the time.

The accused said he had "misused the till", which was newly-installed and did not intentionally take anything.

The court heard the defendant had been employed there for a number of years and between the dates in question, money went missing from the till.

Installed

CCTV was viewed and the prosecution said that for some transactions, money was not put in the till while in others, only partial payment was made.

The discrepancies in the takings amounted to 3,080.

The accused had told gardai a new till had been installed at the off licence and there had been no formal training in using it. It was "completely different to the old one," he said.

It was put to him in interview that when customers bought beer, he inputted a smaller quantity than had been brought to the till.

"It must have been an input mistake," he said. "I had no intention of taking money. If I did make a mistake I didn't do it on purpose."

On one occasion, it was put to him that he was handed money for three four-packs of beer and gave the customer change. However, there was only one on the till roll.

"Maybe I mis-pressed the buttons again," he told gardai. "I must not have looked at the screen and noticed how much it had been."

Judge Ryan adjourned the case to a date in October.
Kerrville, TX (78028)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening followed by thunderstorms late. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening followed by thunderstorms late. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
To the right, that same red cross turned up in a pair of animated posters of Walt Disney characters including Goofy, Donald Duck, Mickey and Minnie Mouse. In each, that little red cross symbolizes the immensity of the American Red Cross.

July marks the 100th year of the Mountain Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross. Events to mark the momentous turning of the calendar will unfurl gradually throughout the coming year.

Were pretty excited about it, said Grennell, executive director of the Mountain Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross of Virginia in Bristol, Virginia. Were planning to visit each of the counties, have a little celebration and say thank you to our volunteers.

The chapter serves 16 counties in Southwest Virginia including Washington, Russell, Scott, Wise, Dickenson and Buchanan. A number of cities, from Bristol in Virginia and Bristol in Tennessee as well as such localities as Bluff City, Tennessee, exist within the chapters realm of coverage.

Were having a blood drive today, Grennell said on Thursday afternoon, as part of our goal to collect 100 pints for 100 years of service.

Just down the hall, a steady trickle of folks donated blood. Carolyn Burks numbered among the donors. An office associate at the Red Cross on Lee Highway, she gave blood despite her fear of needles.

I close both eyes and look away, said Burks. I do it because its not about me. Plus, I remember back in 1989, I had to receive a blood transfusion.

Eventual recipients could be anyone. Perhaps a neighbor whose back comes under the surgical knife will need a pint or two. Maybe a stranger whom a particular donor will never meet narrowly survived a car crash desperately needs that donors rare type of blood.

We give because we help other people, said Pat Bryant, of Pulaski, Virginia.

Bryant, a Red Cross volunteer, wore a red band around the crook in his arm on Thursday moments after giving blood.

We walk around and you wonder, are they walking around with my blood? Bryant said. Were blood brothers. You know its out there.

Missed Thursdays blood drive? Fret not. The Red Cross will stage another blood drive on Aug. 17 from 1 to 6 p.m. at the Bristol Virginia Fire Department. Another follows on Sept. 8 at the Red Cross on Lee Highway from 1 to 6 p.m.

Sandra Myers, an account manager with the Red Cross, was in charge of organizing Thursdays and subsequent blood collections.

Ive been with the Red Cross for 21 years, said Myers. Its a vocation and an avocation, just knowing you make a difference.

She recalled a prior blood drive. A person approached with intent to give blood.

His blood pressure was so high that they referred him to his doctor, Myers said. He contacted us later to let us know that we saved his life.

Thats the Red Cross.

No capes. No cool theme song. No blockbuster movie deals. Regardless, theyre societys superheroes, quietly suturing superficial to incredibly deep wounds amid a gamut of calamity and tragedy.

Doing So Much More

Oh, and they do more than folks may realize.

There was a fire in Lebanon, Grennell said. It was on this kids 10th birthday.

Birthday presents, gone with the fire.

A volunteer went to Walmart and bought her some cupcakes, Grennell said. That touched my heart  and thats not unusual to the Red Cross.

Volunteers of the Red Cross stand at the ready as a mix of Superman and Mother Teresa. Sometimes they may seem faster than a speeding bullet.

There are times when we respond before the fire is out, Grennell said.

Other times, theyre there to heal unseen wounds, as with the aforementioned birthday girl. Regardless, the Red Cross is not selective as to whom they help.

The Red Cross is, in the time of distress, there to help anyone who needs help and support to alleviate pain and to help in the process of recovery, Grennell said.

Multiple programs within the aegis of the Red Cross focus on various aspects of prevention. Take their home fire protection campaign. The Mountain Empire chapter is in the midst of a five-year plan to install and upgrade smoke alarms throughout their domain.

Were canvassing neighborhoods and offering to install smoke detectors, Grennell said. They come with a 10-year battery. Its new technology, so they are as sensitive as possible.

Its free of charge, the device and its installation.

Our goal for this chapter for the fiscal year (from this July 1 through next June 30) is to hit 930 smoke detectors installed, Grennell said. We have on Oct. 15 a statewide event to try and install 750 smoke detectors in a single day.

In need of a smoke detector? Simply call 276-645-6650 to request one and its installation.

Consider Volunteering

Prospective volunteers may also refer to that phone number if they desire to contribute time to the Red Cross.

We always need more volunteers and support, said Patty Tauscher, disaster program manager for the Red Cross. To me, the Red Cross is only as strong as the community that supports it. Of course, its gratifying.

Gratification evolves from having leapt to action when called upon from either near or far. Home burns to ashes in the neighborhood? Your Red Cross chapter responds. Trees on mountains burning to cinders across the country? Typically, your Red Cross neighbors respond.

Weve been helping out with the West Virginia flooding, Grennell, who worked for the Boy Scouts of America for 23 years, said. Weve also helped to raise money for Louisiana and Texas flooding, South Carolina flooding, California wildfires. Its been a crazy year for natural disasters.

In the aftermath of crazy, calm or downright maniacal happenstances, the Red Cross accept such circumstances as calls to action. However and as with its home fire protection campaign, prevention also rises to the fore among their litany of programs.

For instance, consider the Red Cross active shooter scenario training program. Its intent is to train people to adequately, wisely and safely respond if in the midst of an active shooting episode.

I mailed out the invitations on July 5, Grennell said.

A shooting that resulted in the death of one person occurred along Volunteer Parkway in Bristol, Tennessee, on July 7.

Our training was on July 11, Grennell said.

Naturally, blood drives and emergency relief exist within the core of the Mountain Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross. However, they also herald programs from international relief to preparedness health safety services including first aid and CPR education.

They also provide service to the armed forces and veterans, which date back to the formation of the Red Cross.

Say youve got someone whos dying or theyve already passed (such as a family member), Grennell said. Theyll move heaven and earth to get a soldier home for the service.

A native Southern Californian new to the Mountain Empire, Grennell has been on the job with the Red Cross for eight months.

And five days, he said.

In that short span of time, families displaced quickly amid home-evaporating fires typically experienced swift and caring responses from the Red Cross. Folks in West Virginia whose lives so cruelly changed with the rise of flood waters surely welcomed the presence of the Red Cross.

Likewise, think of the homes that havent burned and the lives that havent perished thanks to newly-installed smoke detectors courtesy the Red Cross.

Im pretty proud of what weve done, Grennell said.

So if youre in need

Were there, Grennell said.
County cross country: Hubs sweep titles, boys score a perfect 15

North Hagerstown claimed both team championships and had both individual champions, with the boys achieving the first perfect score in meet history.
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NEW YORK (JTA)-Being an American Jew, more than anything else, means remembering the Holocaust.

That's what nearly three quarters of Jewish Americans said, according to the Pew Research Center's landmark 2013 study on American Jewry. Asked to pick attributes "essential" to being Jewish, more Jews said Holocaust remembrance than leading an ethical or moral life, caring about Israel or observing Jewish law.

If anyone personified that consensus, it was Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who through his writing and speaking turned himself into perhaps the leading moral voice of American Jewry. Some quarters of the left derided him for, in their view, being insufficiently sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. But in a fragmented community, he was the closest thing American Jews had to a unifier.

Regardless of religious observance or thoughts on Israel, nearly all Jewish Americans agreed with Wiesel's message of remembering the genocide and preventing another one.

Following Wiesel's death on July 2, will another consensus leader rise to take his place? Or is the American Jewish community too divided to unite under any one person's moral voice?

JTA asked a range of American Jewish leaders who, if anyone, can take up Wiesel's mantle.

Nobody

The most common answer given was that no one can or should replace Wiesel, both in terms of name recognition and moral authority.

Abraham Foxman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League: "I don't know of anybody out there who can be so comfortable in our very, very partisan, unique Jewish world and experience, and yet be a voice, and an icon, and a standard-bearer of moral issues," Foxman told JTA. "He was such a giant in so many areas that it's hard to see a successor."

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights: "There's no single moral voice-but that's a good thing!" Jacobs wrote in an email to JTA. "It's not healthy for our community to be dependent on a single voice-it's much better when we have many voices, on and off the pulpit, bringing our Jewish values to bear on pressing concerns."

Susan Weidman Schneider, editor in chief, Lilith Media: "There's no one voice speaking now with the moral authority Elie Wiesel had," Weidman Schneider wrote in an email to JTA. "Part of the reason is that we're accustomed to hearing from a multitude of voices on any moral issue-thanks to a wider net, more diversity in the Jewish community, the open mic of the Internet."

Alan Dershowitz, law professor and Israel advocate: "No one can replace Elie as the moral voice," Dershowitz wrote in an email to JTA. "There will be new voices, but none represents the combination of tragedy and hope that Elie characterized."

Deborah Lipstadt, Holocaust historian: "A moral, ethical rock-star (in the best sense of the word)... Wiesel was it and I think there are no more," Lipstadt wrote in an email to JTA.

Michael Berenbaum, former project director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: "What made Wiesel very interesting is that he was very particularistic but also deeply universal," Berenbaum told JTA. "Wiesel was one of the very few people who had authority in the Jewish community that wasn't based on institutional power or great philanthropic wealth... No one will fill quite that role because no one will be able to wrap themselves in the authority of the Holocaust."

Natan Sharansky

The most common name mentioned as a moral successor to Wiesel was that of a Russian-Israeli, Natan Sharansky. The former face of the Soviet Jewry movement, he spent nine years in Soviet prisons facing specious espionage and treason charges, but mostly for advocating his and other refuseniks' desire to live as Jews and move to Israel. Sharansky, 68, now lives in Jerusalem and is the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Rabbi Avi Weiss, leading liberal Orthodox rabbi: "While not a survivor, Natan's fearless struggle against the empire of evil, turning that struggle into a pro-active commitment to Am Yisrael, is unparalleled," Weiss wrote in an email to JTA, using the Hebrew term for the Jewish people. "Natan has achieved a rare combination of access to government leaders who see him as a Jewish Mandela, while being able to connect with and inspire the amcha," or rank-and-file.

Jennifer Rubin, columnist, Washington Post: "[Sharansky's] ordeal as a human rights dissident and imprisonment by the former Soviet Union give him a moral standing to address issues of Jewish persecution," Rubin wrote in an email to JTA. "As someone who came to live and serve in the Jewish state, he represents the next link in the history of the Jewish people."

Spielberg? Sacks? Somebody else?

Sharansky wasn't the only leader proposed. One possibility was Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, 69, who made the foundational 1993 Holocaust film "Schindler's List" and since then has dedicated energy to preserving Holocaust memory. Spielberg certainly has the name recognition, but not the full-time commitment to Jewish causes.

Another was Jonathan Sacks, 68, the former chief rabbi of Britain, who has written dozens of books on Judaism and ethics, and has an audience beyond the Jewish community.

Others were confident that while Wiesel has left a void, eventually someone will rise to fill it.

Jonathan Sarna, American Jewish historian: "There's always another because we can't live without them," Sarna told JTA. "I never say there won't be a central moral figure."

Sacks, said Sarna, has "an ability to speak to non-Jews, which is crucial. His reputation, his wisdom, his ability to project Judaism as a crucial moral force and his support of Israel have all shaped him as a central moral figure in Jewish life."

Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent, The Atlantic: "He was the closest thing we had to a saint," Goldberg said of Wiesel. "Spielberg is the most obvious first among equals, but he limits himself to Shoah activities and commentary. Elie Wiesel had the life experience to say what he wanted... The reason we're not going to have one [consensus leader] is that everyone wants to be the one."
Jonathan Greenblatt, left, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, and Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, conferring at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre, July 10, 2016.

JEDWABNE, Poland (JTA)-As German army troops invaded eastern Poland, Ichak Lewin's family fled their town of Wizna.

On July 10, 1941, the Lewins approached the nearby town of Jedwabne, where hundreds of Jews lived and had the means to shelter other Jews. But the Lewins soon realized they had come to the wrong place.

"We were on the cart when we smelled a fire and another bad smell," said Lewin, recalling the day 75 years ago that has changed how millions in Poland and beyond think of the Holocaust years in that country.

Lewin was 10 when Jedwabne residents massacred hundreds of their Jewish neighbors, including three of Lewin's uncles and most of his classmates. The townspeople, led by their mayor, rounded up at least 340 Jews and burned them alive inside a barn.

"When the smell reached us, so did word from non-Jewish passers-by that the people of Jedwabne burned the Jews," Lewin said.

Known to few people in post-communist Poland prior to the 2001 publication of a book about it, the Jedwabne massacre was one of about 20 anti-Semitic atrocities during or immediately after the Holocaust perpetrated by Poles. It prompted the country's previous president, Bronislaw Komorowski, to "beg forgiveness" for the actions of "perpetrators among the nation of victims," as he said in 2011.

But in a country where anti-Russian sentiment is fueling a nationalist revival, historians, politicians and activists are engaged in a campaign to discredit the inconvenient accounts from Jedwabne and those who exposed them.

Lewin, who survived the war because he was rescued by Polish villagers, recalled the massacre at Jedwabne on Sunday to some 150 visitors who attended a low-key ceremony commemorating its 75th anniversary.

None of the villagers participated in the memorial event, which the mayor could not attend due to a previous engagement.

Sobbing, Lewin addressed his remarks in Yiddish to a photograph of his classmates, including one of his cousins, who were burned alive.

"I made a life for myself in Israel, but know that I think of you all the time," he said at the ceremony, which was attended by Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Poland's undersecretary of state, Wojciech Kolarski.

Kolarski, who chose not to speak at the event, told JTA that the Poles who killed Jews "damaged an ancient tradition" of coexistence in Poland. Poland's right-wing president, Andrzej Duda, conveyed a similar message when he spoke earlier this month at the site of another pogrom, committed in 1946, against Jews in the town of Kielce.

But before Duda was elected president last year, he attacked his predecessor for apologizing in 2011 for Jedwabne and denied that such events actually occurred.

"We did not, as we are falsely accused by others, participate in the Holocaust," Duda said in a 2015 televised debate. "Lord knows that Poles didn't take part in the Holocaust."

He has since changed his tune, at least publicly.

At Kielce, vowing to reject anti-Semitism, Duda said: "Also ordinary people were involved in the attack. I leave it down to historians and sociologists to determine how it happened and why it happened, why people reacted in this particular way."

A senior state historian this week offered one answer to the questions raised by Duda: He blamed Jews of brutality against non-Jews before the 1941 German invasion, when the part of Poland that included Jedwabne was controlled by Russia.

"Poles took part in the crime" at Jedwabne, but pro-communist sympathies by Jews and "hateful acts perpetrated by Jews" stoked hate against Jews, Piotr Gontarczyk, a deputy director at the Institute of National Remembrance, said in an interview that Radio Poland published on the 75th anniversary.

The 2001 book "Neighbors" by the Princeton University historian Jan Gross, which exposed the Jedwabne massacre, has statistics and accounts that "don't add up," Gontarczyk said. Gross, he added, "is no historian."

Gross, the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 professor of war and society and a history professor at Princeton, migrated to the United States from Poland in 1969.

Two "criminal ideologies are responsible for the events in Jedwabne," Gontarczyk said in the interview: communism and Nazism. To determine what happened at Jedwabne, the bodies must be exhumed, he added-a scenario many Jews oppose on religious grounds.

Revisionist statements among officials such as Gontarczyk are a new development, according to Efraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

"Progress was made under previous governments toward confronting the Jedwabne massacre, which is emblematic of other pogroms by Poles against Jews," Zuroff said. "The current right-wing government wants to turn back the page and rewrite it as it used to be."

But he said historical documentation exists not only about Jedwabne-where witnesses said one Jewish girl was raped and decapitated by people who playfully kicked around her severed head-but also about 20 other cases of mass murder of Jews by Poles during or shortly after the Holocaust.

At least 1,500 and possibly 2,500 people died in the pogroms, Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said.

One of the incidents occurred a month after the Jedwabne killings in the nearby village of Bzury, where Polish prosecutors in 2013 said 20 Jewish women were raped and then butchered by locals. In another massacre in Wasosz, axe-wielding villagers hacked and buried hundreds of their Jewish neighbors.

For Poland's Law and Justice party, Zuroff said, fully acknowledging these events "puts at stake their whole national identify because it changes the perception of Poland as a victim nation."

Non-Jewish Poles certainly suffered in the war. The Nazis killed 3 million non-Jewish Poles in addition to 3 million Jewish ones and, as "lesser humans" under the Nazi racial code, Poles were not invited to collaborate in the same way as Hungarians, Romanians and the people of Baltic nations.

And like the people of other countries controlled by Russia during communism, Poles also suffered oppression and atrocities directed from Moscow-a trauma that has left widespread anger toward Russia and is helping the right wing garner votes in reaction to President Vladimir Putin's current expansionist politics.

For Duda's right-wing government especially, the discussion about Jedwabne clearly touched a nerve.

In recent months, Polish authorities began pursuing a criminal investigation of Gross, who exposed the massacre. Police questioned him in April for allegedly violating Poland's law against "insulting the Polish nation" because he said in an interview recently that more Jews than Germans died at the hands of Poles during World War II.

In February, Duda's office ordered an examination of the possibility of withdrawing a state honor given to Gross.

Flowers and wreaths left at the memorial to the massacre at Jebwabne, July 10, 2016.

In parallel, the Polish government has led efforts to highlight the actions of 6,600 Poles who saved Jews, including by opening a museum in their honor this year and erecting three monuments for them in Warsaw alone. Poland has the highest number of saviors in absolute terms, though other countries have a higher proportion of non-Jews who saved Jews.

While Polish saviors deserve recognition, Gross said, in the current atmosphere there is a fear that "it's an attempt to create an alternative narrative, to distract," he told JTA.

If that is true, the effort is not going very well. Last year, the Jedwabne debate was rekindled following the publication of an English translation of a book written in 2004 in Polish by historian Anna Bikont that puts the Jedwabne death toll at double the 340 estimate of state historians. It also alleges that locals shot Jews trying to escape.

"I was saved by Poles to whom I owe my life," Lewin said at the Jedwabne monument, a black stone whose center features a charred barn door. "But on July 10," he said of that infamous day in 1941, "we were safer with the Germans."
Ha Ha Ha Hee Hee Hee Ho Ho Ho...

No. Santa Claus isn't coming to town. (No way! This is a Jewish story!)

I'm writing about my experience the other day with the Jewish Community Center's Laughter Yoga class that takes place every Monday afternoon from 12:15 pm until 1 pm. It is lead by the very talented and likeable DANA KAPLAN.

I walked into the designated room at the JCC with Dana and saw some chairs in a semi-circle waiting for us.

Lovely gals who were taking part, Barbara and Sylvia, were already there when we entered and a few others followed shortly.

(I didn't know what to expect, although I did sit in on a few minutes of a session a few years ago with my spouse, just to see what it was about. Hee Hee, Ha Ha was all that I remembered.)

Well, Dana started us off with "Hee Hee Ha Ha" and added so much more. Namely breathing exercises, hand and arm exercises and clapping. Not only was the experience enjoyable, it was very healthy for body and mind.

While laughing and enjoying the contact with fellow participants, your body is involved from head to toe.

To learn more, you can either contact Dana at the JCC or go online to http://www.YogaYouSmile.com.

I recently heard from The Jewish Guild for the Blind...

I received a letter from ALAN R. MORSE, JD, PhD, president and CEO of The Guild. He writes: "You may not have given much thought to the impact of vision loss, unless you have dealt with it yourself. With healthy vision, you're able to enjoy the freedom of living independently, travel safely and confidently, look into the faces of those you love, and do what you want, when you want. So when a significant loss of vision occurs it doesn't only mean losing one of your senses. It means changing the way you live every day... and that can be very overwhelming. At the Jewish Guild for the Blind, we're creating hope for people who are struggling to cope with vision loss. Founded by pioneers in vision rehabilitation, we're one of the most respected not-for-profit vision care organizations in the world. But we can use your help."

Please visit The Jewish Guild for the Blind online at http://www.lighthouseguild.org.

A Jewish Pavilion Mensch...

I received this email from the Jewish Pavilion about their "Mensch" KEVIN STEWART. I pass it along to you: Kevin Stewart is not a man who tends to follow the usual course of action. As CEO/Principal Broker of Money Tree and Me Insurance and Financial Services, he feels that it is important to give back to the community. He is very active with the Maitland Chamber of Commerce and Easter Seals Florida.

As a new Jewish Pavilion volunteer, Kevin was asked to visit BILL FRIGEN at Horizon Bay Lake Orienta. Over the past six months, Stewart has forged an extraordinary friendship with Bill. He sees his new friend as 'very sharp' and they enjoy discussing philosophy, politics, social sciences, human behavior and anthropology. Stewart even goes the extra mile and has taken Bill shopping for books that pique his interest. They love to go out together and try different restaurants from Greek to local breakfast nooks. Kevin writes "Between intellectual discussions and making waiters and waitresses laugh at restaurants, Bill brings light to the lives of others and ultimately enriches his own quality of life."

The truth is that Kevin's thoughtfulness and kindness have enhanced Bill's life. Few residents in Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing ever leave their building. Taking Bill outside of his little world has been an amazing adventure for both parties.

A shout out...

What a treat to meet (that rhymes!) such a lovely waitress as AMANDA KURZBAN at Perkins Restaurant on University Blvd in Winter Park.

She may be new but she is very efficient and kind... and best of all...QUICK! Thanks, Amanda!

One for the road...

This one was sent to me by my dear friend, BOB GURNETT, who realized how much I needed a laugh!

A man found an old bottle. He pulled out the cork and out popped a Genie. The Genie said, "Thanks for letting me out. I'll grant you three wishes."

The man said, "First I want a billion dollars." Poof! A checkbook appeared in his hand. He said "And I want a brand new Ferrari." Poof! He was sitting in a new Ferrari.

He said, "Finally, I want to be irresistible to women."

Poof! He turned into a box of chocolates.

(I am a chocoholic! YUM YUM!)
Shown here (l-r): wearing Tree for Life T-shirts at the Sh'loshim Jewish communal event on July 10, are Arlene van de Rijn, Rabbi Joshua Neely, Ina Porth, Natan Brener, Rabbi David Kaye and Cathy Swerdlow. Front, center is Nathaniel Neely.

To honor the victims and families of the tragic Pulse Club massacre in Orlando on June 12, Temple Israel has produced, and is offering for sale, a custom-designed commemorative T-shirt which shows the Jewish community's support and love for all who were affected by this event. T-shirts can be ordered online at http://www.tiflorida.org.

The entire project was the idea of Emily Raij, a member of Temple Israel, who wanted to organize something in memory of and support of the Central Florida LGBT and Hispanic communities. Raij brainstormed her ideas with members of Temple Israel Sisterhood who encouraged her to make it happen.

"Like everyone else," said Raij, "I couldn't stop thinking about the people whose beautiful lives were cut short and what their family and friends must be going through. I knew our congregation would be a good starting place to show support from one community to another. I'm so grateful the members of Temple Israel Sisterhood welcomed me to their meeting, listened wholeheartedly to my ideas, and offered wonderful ideas of their own."

The Tree of Life motif on the shirt was designed by Raij with 49 leaves, representing the 49 people who perished that day. Of great assistance to her was Chuck Silverman, a Temple Israel teacher and congregant, who secured the design/print services of a long-time business contact.

Shirts can be purchased for a minimum donation of $18. All net proceeds will be donated to OneOrlando Fund. Due to previous sales, not all sizes are still available. Shirts can be picked up at the Temple Israel office located at 50 S. Moss Road, Winter Springs, Fla. 32708. There is an additional $5 charge if mailing is requested. For more information about mailing or any other questions, please email office@tiflorida.org or call 407-647-3055.
By Cnaan Liphshiz

PRESTWICH, England (JTA)-When Yitzchak Horwitz's family opened one of the first Jewish businesses in this leafy suburb of Manchester-a bookstore that also sold Judaica items-it served a small Jewish community that had only recently moved there from the downtown area.

"The center was run-down after the war, living conditions deteriorated, we had to get out," said Horwitz, a man in his 80s who runs and owns the Judaica World store that his family opened here in 1960. "A few Jewish families, a small synagogue and that was pretty much it."

Nevertheless, Horwitz stuck it out. And half a century later, his business is among dozens of Jewish shops servicing thousands of people from the Jewish community of the Manchester area, some 200 miles north of London. Now this community is among the fastest growing in Western Europe, providing Horwitz income from selling Jewish and Hebrew holy books, textbooks and stationery.

At a time when many Jewish communities outside London are dwindling, the one in the Manchester area is growing almost beyond its own capacity due to the high birthrate of its haredi Orthodox nucleus and an influx of Jewish newcomers. The latter is drawn here by the excellent infrastructure for observant Jews and a cost of living that is roughly half that of pricey London.

"People in London seem to think they earn loads more money," said Selena Myers, a Liverpool-born observant Jew in her 20s who works in the office of a local Jewish newspaper. Four years ago she moved from London to Manchester, where she lives with her husband. "In fact, the cost of living is maybe three times higher than in Manchester," whereas the salaries are not. London, she said, "doesn't make financial sense."

London is the world's most expensive city in which to live and work, according to a study published in March by the Savills international real-estate agency. Accommodation for the average Londoner-calculated as a total of housing and office rental costs-comes to $105,000 a year, putting London ahead of New York ($103,000) and Hong Kong ($96,800).

Not only is renting in Manchester half the cost of what it is in London, but the average price of a home in the greater Manchester area is $144,000-a full fifth of the average price in London.

Cost of living is especially important for Orthodox families with many children, like that of Simon Rudich, a Rome-born property investor and lawyer who has raised eight children in Manchester with his British wife.

"If you want to live in England as an observant Jew, which I do, then you have two main options: London or Manchester," said Rudich. "But you only have one sensible option, which is the one I took."

The only downside to living in Manchester, he said, "is living without sunshine." Manchester gets 256 rainy days annually and 34 inches of precipitation-respectively 30 and 21 percent more than London.

When the sun does shine, however, Prestwich is bustling with activity by Jews of all denominations. It has five kosher supermarkets near its center. One features a sushi bar where customers line up for freshly prepared glatt kosher rolls.

There are clothing shops catering to the modest standards of observant women, several kosher butchers, a vegetable shop with exotic produce like gooseberries and mangos from Israel, and a French-style kosher patisserie.

According to a 2011 census by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, greater Manchester in the previous decade saw a 15 percent growth in its Jewish population, to 25,013. Conversely, the city of Manchester itself lost 463 Jews. It is home to Britain's second largest Jewish population after London, where most of the country's 250,000 Jews live.

In Manchester, as elsewhere in Western Europe, Jewish families that once lived in middle- and working-class areas of the city have moved into the suburbs, partly to improve their quality of life. Another reason for moving has been the arrival of poorer African and Arab immigrants to neighborhoods that often saw an uptick in crime and, more recently, anti-Semitic harassment.

"I chose Manchester because I'm from South Africa," said Dianna Schwartz, an observant mother of four. She immigrated five years ago to Prestwich from Cape Town because of what she described as "a deteriorating security situation after 1994," the year apartheid ended.

"I can't live in a London apartment, I need space and green. That's how I grew up," she said. "But getting that in a part of London that is near a proper Jewish school is just impossible for us."

Manchester's Jewish influx has left its 12 or so Jewish schools and kindergartens in need of more space and staff, which has helped generate work, particularly for women.

"When I first moved here, people immediately assumed I was a teacher," said Myers, the newspaper office worker. "They'd ask me straight away where I teach."

While Manchester remains significantly cheaper than London, the influx is nonetheless driving up prices and creating a housing shortage in the city's heavily Jewish areas.

"You're already seeing new Jewish presence in areas around Prestwich, which used to have no Jews in the past," Myers said.

Manchester is not the only affordable city in northern Britain with an active Jewish community; Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol all have them. Yet Manchester emerged as the largest because it retained an observant and haredi nucleus, which over time produced community institutions that cemented it as the epicenter of Jewish life outside London, according to Rabbi Hillel Royde of the Manchester Beth Din, or rabbinical court.

Thus Manchester is the only city in northern England with a large haredi school. Myers and her siblings attended school in Manchester for that reason even when they were living in Liverpool, she said.

This inbound traffic is "creating some problems that are nice to have, but they are nonetheless problems," Royde said.

His rabbinical court is one of the community's main tools for solving those problems. Established in 1902, when heavy industry attracted thousands of Jewish immigrants from Europe to the area, the court served 30 butcher shops, supervising ritual slaughter across the region.

Over time it has taken over kashrut supervision for the large food producers in the Manchester area, including the cereal giant Kellogg's. Supervision fees from such companies are invested back into the community and used to open new schools and fund projects that make Manchester even more attractive for observant Jews-like setting up eruvs, symbolic boundaries that allow observant Jews to carry objects on Shabbat.

A view of Manchester's Victoria train station.

In 2014, the Manchester suburbs became the site of Britain's largest eruv, a 13-mile perimeter that includes Prestwich, Crumpsall and Higher Broughton. Without an eruv, haredi families with children would effectively go into weekend curfews. But setting them up is an expensive and complex process that requires city permits and installing braces, strings and poles to discreetly cordon off the area. Work is ongoing on another eruv in the Manchester suburb of Hale.

These improvements have made life easier for thousands of haredi Jews and are attracting thousands more. And that is changing the nature of a community that, according to Myers, is losing its middle ground.

"Nowadays it's either you're very observant or almost not at all," she said. "It didn't used to be like that."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando has announced the winners of its 2016 community leadership awards, to be presented at Federation's Annual Meeting at 7 p.m., Aug. 17, on the Maitland Jewish Community Campus.

Themed "A Meeting of the Minds," the event also will feature "Mentalist to the Stars" Sidney Friedman, who will read minds and perform ESP, telepathy and premonition, among other feats.

Federation will pay tribute to "the great minds of our Jewish community" with the following awards:

 Jerome J. Bornstein Leadership Award: Bruce Gould

Eric Sugarman

 Byron B. Selber Young Leadership Award: Eric Sugarman

 Creative Jewish Programming Award: Our Jewish Orlando steering committee

 Jewish Communal Professional Award: Nancy Ludin

 Community Relations Award: Rabbi David Kay

 Federation SuperMensch Awards: Dr. Edward Zissman and Ryan Lefkowitz

 Recognition of the 2016 Menschen of the Week, who will be inducted into the JFGO Mensch Hall of Fame.

The Heritage Florida Jewish News Human Service Award winner will be announced in next week's edition of The Heritage.

Registration is now open for the 'Meeting of the Minds' at http://www.jfgo.org/meeting2016 or by calling Marisa West at 407-645-5933, ext. 236.
Jewish Academy of Orlando announced its new board for the upcoming school year. We would like to thank all of the outgoing members, who worked tirelessly to support our school, said outgoing President Jordan Steinberg. Marni Stahlman, Rona Weiss, Allan Klaiman, Linda Zlatkiss and Paul Rosenthal all deserve recognition for their dedication.

At this years annual meeting and last board meeting of the year, Renee Libow and Maura Weiner received special recognition for their continued support, dedication and efforts throughout the years.

Alan Rusonik, head of school, said, We are excited to announce our new board, including Amanda Jacobson and Melanie Brenner as co-presidents. Both Jacobson and Brenner have served several terms on the Jewish Academy of Orlando board throughout the years and participated in various committees including the Head of School committee, Finance committee, Development committee, Marketing committee and Executive committee. Jacobson is a Hebrew Day School alumni, past Horim U Morim president and brings great passion to this position. Brenner is a day school graduate from Ramaz School in New York City, past gala co-chair and is committed to the success of the school. For the past few years both Jacobson and Brenner were monumental in the schools annual galas success, as well as running the schools parent-led social and fundraising events.

Other board members include: Robyn Eichenholz, vice president; Rob Kleiman, vice president; immediate past president, Jordan Steinberg; Suzy Temple, Treasurer; Nina Oppenheim and lifetime board member, Ed Zissman.

Rusonik added, we also welcome the newest board members, Rob Gebaide, Ronni Mendelsohn, Joseph Schwartz, Lisa Sholk and Stacey Soll.

To further support Jewish education and your local Jewish day school, to get involved or for any questions, please contact Alan Rusonik, head of school, at 407-647-0713.
Former British Home Secretary Theresa May-who is now the U.K.'s prime minister-speaks at the Ukraine Forum on Asset Recovery in London on April 29, 2014.

British-Jewish and pro-Israel groups are congratulating Home Secretary Theresa May for winning the leadership of the Conservative Party and replacing outgoing United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned following the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union (EU) in the Brexit referendum last month.

May takes over the role after all other candidates for the Conservative leadership exited the race earlier in the week, and after Cameron expedited his resignation to Wednesday, July 13 (he initially gave himself a three-month deadline for leaving office). May now becomes the U.K.'s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher. Her ascension to the post has been viewed positively by the Jewish and pro-Israel communities due to her record of support for those sectors.

Theresa May has repeatedly shown herself as "a committed and conscientious friend to both Israel and Jewish communities in the U.K.," Paul Charney, chairman of the Zionist Federation of the United Kingdom, told JNS.org.

"We have no doubt that should the safety of either [community] come under threat, she will stand firm in our defense. Under David Cameron, the relationship between Israel and the U.K. remained warm and open, and we look forward to that positive relationship continuing under May," he said.

May's appointment comes at a challenging time for British Jews. The Conservative Party's rival Labour Party was recently mired in a controversy over anti-Semitism. There were as many as 50 reported suspensions of Labour parliament members for anti-Semitic remarks, including of Labour MP Naz Shah and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Shah was later reinstated. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also came under fire for a recent apparent comparison of Israel to the Islamic State terror group, which added to his existing history of controversial remarks on the Jewish state.

A report reviewing the year 2015 by the Community Security Trust (CST), a group that works to protects British Jews from anti-Semitism, recorded 924 anti-Semitic incidents in 2015, the third-highest annual total ever recorded by CST. The number of such incidents in 2014 was even higher, largely due to the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror group that summer.

In her capacity as home secretary, a position responsible for the internal affairs of England and Wales, May had promised to defend the country's Jewish community and wipe out anti-Semitism.

"No one wants the school where they send their child to need security guards, or have their place of worship be fitted with security alarms and blast-resistant glass. But until that changes, the government is clear-we will stand by the Jewish community," May said at a CST-organized event, the London Jewish Chronicle reported.

May has also worked closely with the CST, committing 13.4 million ($17.8 million) of government funds toward Jewish communal security measures in March. This figure is larger than the amount pledged by Cameron in 2015.

Gerald Ronson, CST's chairman, thanked May and said that she gives the Jewish community in the U.K. "moral support, opposing anti-Semitism in its own right, but also correctly placing it within the wider attack upon Brtish and western values."

Jonathan Walker, president of the U.K.-based Anglo-Jewish Association, told JNS.org that May "has held one of the most important positions in the British government for 6 years, minister of state for the Home Office, and this has brought her into close contact with the British-Jewish community."

Walker said May has a good record of supporting religious freedom, particularly the Jewish practices of shechita (kosher slaughter) and brit milah (ritual circumcision). There have been efforts to ban both practices across Europe, including in the U.K. In a speech at the Board of Deputies of British Jews dinner in 2013, May vowed that such efforts "will not succeed."

The U.K. government, she said, will do "everything [it] can to ensure that Jewish people can practice their religion safely, without incurring any disadvantage-like being required to work on holy days such as Shabbat."

Gillian Merron, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, congratulated May on her rise to prime minister, saying in a statement that May "has been a great friend of the [Jewish] community and, during her time as home secretary, the Board of Deputies has had a very positive and close relationship with her."

"We look forward to that relationship continuing as she moves in to 10 Downing Street and we wish her every success in her new role at this challenging time for our country," Merron said.

Walker told JNS.org that May has developed a good understanding not only of the contributions of Britain's Jewish community, but also of the political and security situation in Israel. In a speech for Israeli Independence Day in April 2015, May had said that "the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of many generations of struggle."

In 2014, May visited Israel, where she met with experts on cyber-security and modern slavery, saying those are "two challenges which both Israel and the U.K. are confronting with great determination."

"At a time of major upheaval emanating from Brexit, having a senior, experienced serious politician in Theresa May offers the current Conservative government strong and stable leadership. For Britain's Jewish community, there are good prospects for continued good relations with our government based on mutual respect, understanding, and fairness. For Israel, we look forward to continued good relations with the British government," Walker said.

May's appointment comes just days after Israeli Member of Knesset Tzipi Livni was questioned by British police on suspicion of committing war crimes in relation to Israel's Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when she served as the Jewish state's foreign minister.

"We would have expected different behavior from a close ally such as the U.K.," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement about the questioning of Livni.

"However, the current situation remains unsatisfactory," Johnson told JNS.org. "It is unacceptable that democratically elected members of the Israeli Knesset should face such uncertainty when visiting the U.K. We hope that Theresa May will continue to support democratic leaders who visit the U.K. and ensure they are treated appropriately."

The JLC, added Johnson, "had built a fantastic relationship with the Prime Minister's Office under David Cameron, and we look forward to meeting Theresa May in her new role in the coming months. David Cameron dedicated a huge amount of time and resource to the U.K. parliament's relationship with Israel. We hope that will continue under Theresa May."

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Daniel Taub told the Jerusalem Post that May has supported "efforts to deepen British-Israel ties in the area of homeland security, and [is] also very receptive to the concerns of the Jewish community regarding anti-Semitism and violent extremism."

"Israel can rest assured that a U.K. led by Theresa May will be there in its moments of need," said British MP Eric Pickles, the parliamentary chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel group, in a statement. He added that May has a "deep understanding of the seriousness of the threat radical Islam poses to the U.K., Israel, and [the] wider international community. It will not be one that she takes lightly."
Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland is decorated to welcome the Republican National Convention, July 11, 2016.

WASHINGTON (JTA)-They're elusive, but show up in the right place at the right time-and you might find one!

No, we're not talking about the latest iteration of Pokemon Go. This is about tracking prominent Jewish GOPers and Jewish organizational representatives attending the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland.

They'll be barely visible, and the reason has everything to do with the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.

The Republican Jewish Coalition usually rolls out major shebangs at party conventions, starting with a news conference where you can count on director Matthew Brooks to confidently project growth in the GOP share of the Jewish vote.

Not this year, an RJC spokesman said in an email that noted plans for "a couple of events" closed to the media. One is a "salute to pro-Israel elected officials"-in governors' mansions, in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate-which is typical of past conventions.

Jewish donors who have undergirded much past campaigning? Try to find them.

"I'm going to watch on TV," emailed one donor who has been a constant at the conventions and asked not to be named. "Should be quite a show."

He said many of his GOP Jewish donor compadres also had cats to clean and hair to shampoo and long walks in the woods planned for next week.

Among the major fund-raisers staying away, according to a list compiled by Jewish Insider, are Charlie Spies and Yitz Applebaum. The list says they will be joined on the sidelines by George W. Bush administration alumni Noam Neusner, Tevi Troy and Jay Zeidman.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America, usually ubiquitous at conventions, are maintaining low profiles not just at the Republican event but also the Democratic assembly later this month in Philadelphia. That means no "breakfasts with mishpocha" organized by AIPAC to bring together its activists with Jewish lawmakers and congressional staffers.

A "Salute to Israel" in AIPAC's name appears on some Democratic National Convention schedules in circulation, but an official at the prominent Israel lobby told JTA that it is not an AIPAC event.

The JFNA, through its Israel Action Network and in partnership with the Israel Project, is organizing a single event at each convention honoring state legislators who have countered the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. But unlike past years, there is no convention-specific event planned.

Two Jewish groups are maintaining a profile typical of their past participation-at venues near the conventions, but raising issues not directly related to the nomination. The American Jewish Committee is running the same series of panel discussions in both cities on anti-Semitism, U.S. demographics, U.S. foreign policy and on the Middle East. The Anti-Defamation League is running a session in Cleveland on bipartisanship; it's Philly session is on hate language.

Even as many Jewish Republican insiders are steering clear of the convention, Trump seems to be considering moves that would please many of the party's pro-Israel activists and donors.

The Republican Platform Committee on Tuesday approved language that does not mention the two-state solution as a favored outcome in the Middle East. It also says Jerusalem is Israel's "indivisible" capital and rejects calling Israel's presence in the West Bank an "occupation."

Both plank items are big wins for the right wing of the pro-Israel community. And the author of the revised language, Alan Clemmons, a South Carolina state representative, worked closely with top Trump aides to formulate the language.

Clemmons, who carefully described himself to JTA as a "delegate bound for Donald Trump"-a tad short of someone who enthusiastically supported the candidacy-was careful when asked if he thought Trump would endorse the policy.

"I'll have to let Mr. Trump speak for himself," he said. "Let me just say his advisers at the highest level are in support of the language."

There may yet be joy for pro-Israel folks at the Republican convention: Of the five purported names in circulation for the vice presidential nod, three of them-former House speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence-have longstanding close ties with the pro-Israel community.

A fourth, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, has worked hard to forge ties with the community since her 2014 election-between her November election and taking her seat, she visited the country. The fifth, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, left the Obama administration as the Defense Intelligence Agency chief in 2014 in part over concerns shared by Israel regarding U.S. policy on Iran.

Now if, as rumored, Trump names his daughter, Ivanka, as running mate-well that's one Jew, at least, who doesn't mind making appearances with him.
Amid the intrigue and speculation over the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, one item that the party has settled is its firm support for Israel and opposition to a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On July 12, the Republican Platform Committee unanimously approved a number of significant changes to its platform in an attempt to further set the partys pro-Israel credentials apart from the Democrats, who are facing concerns over their partys future support for the Jewish state. The GOPs platform changes included removing language encouraging a two-state solution as well as reinstating a reference to an undivided Israel that was previously included in the partys 2008 platform, but was removed in 2012.

The U.S. seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region, the approved amendment said. We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and call for the immediate termination of all U.S. funding of any entity that attempts to do so.

Alan Clemmons, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and a Republican convention delegate, conveyed his disappointment over the 2012 GOP convention, when the platform committee chose not to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

I was a delegate at the last RNC, but was not on the platform committee. I observed the platform committee process and proposed language similar to the language that was passed today (July 12). Unfortunately, that language gained no traction and it went nowhere on the platform, and as a matter of fact the platform regressed in terms of support for Israel, Clemmons told JNS.org.

The push to bolster the Republican Partys language on Israel follows a four-year effort by Clemmons and Joseph Sabag, the former executive director of the Israel Allies Foundation. Both leaders sought to reach out to the partys baseevangelical Christiansas well as to Jewish and other ethnic groups to reach a consensus on the GOPs pro-Israel stance.

Between Joseph and myself, we talked to pastors that represent literally millions of evangelical Americans, said Clemmons.

Although evangelical support was a significant factor in crafting the 2016 RNC platform, Clemmons said the party didnt leave the Jewish population out of that mix.

We met with many of prominent movers and shakers in the Jewish community throughout the United States, and Israel as well, he said.

According to Clemmons, two more recent alliances that made a significant impact on drafting and approving the platforms Israel language were with David Friedman and Jason Dov Greenblatt, senior Israel advisers for presumptive nominee Donald Trumps campaign.

Those gentleman appreciated what we were doing. They appreciated the language that was being offered and presented it to Mr. Trump, who likewise was very interested in being of assistance in this process, Clemmons said.

Clemmons, in his platform committee speech prior to this weeks vote, said that along with Trumps advisers and leading policy experts, he was able to present platform language that captures the true sentiment of pro-Israel supporters everywhere.

The Trump campaigns Friedman told JNS.org that getting the pro-Israel language on Jerusalem reinstated was a collaborative effort with a lot of people whose hearts were in the right place with respect to Israel. I think the outcome speaks for itself.

Its the most pro-Israel platform that either party has ever issued, so were obviously very proud of the accomplishment, he said.

The Trump campaigns involvement in reinstating the platform language may also signal a move by the candidate to bolster his pro-Israel credentials, amid questions over his past statements on remaining neutral about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and accusations of anti-Semitism stemming from his recent Twitter post featuring what critics called a Jewish Star of David.

Friedman said that Trump has been working very hard to lay that issue to rest over the last couple of months.

Mr. Trump himself has said, over and over again, that he is a highly pro-Israel candidatenot just in comparison to Hillary Clinton, where the differences are starkbut even in absolute terms, hes a very pro-Israel candidate, he said.

The GOP platform should lay that issue to rest, said Friedman, who argued that the Trump campaigns work on the Israel language highlight the candidates ability to work with leaders across different faiths and ethnicities to achieve a common goal.

When people criticize [Trump] for being polarizing, I think just the opposite is true. This was an effort which unified people of different faiths, all united behind a desire to support Israel, Friedman said.

One of the groups that the Trump campaign worked with closely on the platform was the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition (HILC), a group that seeks to engage Latino Christians in support of Israel. HILC is a subsidiary of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC).

Pastor Mario Bramnick, president of HILC, told JNS.org that Trump and his advisers were very strong on the importance of this language [on Israel]. And through discussions, the language was finalized...[and] ultimately approved by a unanimous vote.

We are very encouraged by the resolve and support of Mr. Trump and his advisers on the issue, said Bramnick, who is also a regional vice president for the NHCLC. We had worked with the platform committee leadership regard the reinserting of the language as a united Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the nation of Israel, and the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem should the Republican candidate win the presidency.

Clemmons, the South Carolina state lawmaker, affirmed the roles of Bramnick and HILC, calling them a very big part of the process to reinstate the platform language.

[Bramnick] certainly has a large congregation and a prominent following, and a good feel for the respect that evangelical Christians have for Israel. He was certainly a partner in all of this. Thats not unlike the other pastors around the country who were a part of it as well, Clemmons said.

The push for the revised platform language was also backed by Pastor John Hagees Christians United for Israel (CUFI) non-profit through its separate 501(c)(4) lobbying affiliate, the CUFI Action Fund.

In a letter (first reported by JNS.org) that was sent to Republican convention delegates on July 6, former Ronald Reagan administration official Gary Bauer, director of the CUFI Action Fund, called for the Republican platform to strengthen its language in support for Israel with Jerusalem as Israels undivided, eternal capital.

Bramnick praised CUFIs role in the process, saying the group worked very hard behind the scenes to make sure that a very strong supportive platform language came forth from the Republican Party, especially as it pertains to a united Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel.

For evangelical Christians, support for Israel is not only a political stance, but a theological one. As such, working to strengthen the Republican Partys ties with the Jewish state is a highly prioritized process for that faith community moving forward.

There was a Pew [Research Center] report back in 2013 that said that 82 percent of the evangelical community believes that God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people, and we read that literally, Bramnick said. We believe that is a biblical covenant and mandate that really no person has the right to revoke... For the evangelical community, this is very important.
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The conventional wisdom has it that earning the sobriquet "the most right-wing government in Israeli history" does not lead to diplomatic successes.

In recent weeks, on the Turkish, Egyptian and African fronts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proving the conventional wisdom wrong.

How is it that the head of a government beating a hasty retreat from the two-state solution scored a triumphant tour of Africa, hosted a convivial summit with an Egyptian foreign minister for the first time in nearly a decade and renewed full ties with Turkey?

Here's a look at what Netanyahu's diplomatic successes mean-and their limitations.

Oh, Bibi, Bibi, it's a wild world

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, talks about retreating from America's preeminent role in the world. Although he is adamant that he is pro-Israel, Trump has suggested he could charge Israel for the billions in defense assistance it receives.

Similarly Europe, overwhelmed by a refugee crisis, is becoming more insular and, for the first time in decades, faces the prospect of falling apart as a common political force, with Britain's planned exit from the European Union and other countries contemplating similar actions.

Meantime, calls to target Israel-or its settlements-with boycotts are increasing across the continent.

"In Israel, there's broad recognition for no substitute for the U.S-Israel alliance. It remains crucial," said Jonathan Schanzer, a vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank with a focus on the Middle East. "There's also a recognition that we are going through a turbulent period, and from a diplomatic perspective there are ways to defray some of these challenges."

Among them: Enhance security ties with Egypt, reinvigorate decades-old ties in Africa and mend ties with Turkey.

The shared Sinai threat

The vastness of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, its strategic positioning between Asia and Africa, and the porous nature of its Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea coasts have been like catnip to terrorist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

That poses a shared challenge to Israel and Egypt, and has helped already friendly ties between the nations; Israel was one of the few countries to celebrate the 2013 coup that removed the Muslim Brotherhood-led government and brought to power Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi.

Israel in recent months quietly has allowed Egyptian forces entry back into the peninsula, effectively allowing Israel to abrogate one of the tenets, demilitarization, of the 1979 Camp David Peace Agreement. Commensurately, Egypt has allowed Israel to target terrorists with drones.

"You have a closely coordinated counterterrorism strategy in the Sinai," Schanzer said. "You have intelligence sharing, increased numbers of Israelis are operating in the Sinai."

That helps explain why Sissi was willing to send his foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, to Israel this week for a high-profile visit-effectively warming up a peace that Sissi's predecessors preferred to keep cool. Keeping the Sinai secure trumped the domestic blowback Sissi knew he would endure for the visit.

Preempting the Palestinians, France and (maybe) the Obama administration

The French are trying to kick-start peace talks with the Palestinians under an international umbrella. The Palestinians hope to advance statehood recognition during the U.N. General Assembly launch in September. And President Barack Obama may deliver his own post-U.S. election surprise, setting out the U.S. parameters for a final-status arrangement.

All are anathema to Netanyahu, who favors direct talks with the Palestinians, where Israel is able to exercise greater leverage. Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, appeared to favor the direct talks track, saying his visit was part of Sissi's "vision for establishing peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples-bringing this long conflict to an end."

Bringing Egypt into the configuration increases pressure on the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to return to direct talks, said David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Egypt is the P.A.'s lead patron in the Arab world, and Abbas can ill afford to alienate Sissi.

"While the PA president has had no problem rejecting Netanyahu's call to resume talks amid disbelief that anything concrete will emerge from them, bringing Egypt into the picture raises the cost of any such rejection," Makovsky wrote on the think tank's website.

Turkey is more about what Erdogan needs

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, pressed for the rupture with Israel in 2010 after Israel's deadly raid on a Palestinian convoy aiming to breach Israel's blockade with Gaza. Now he's the force behind the reconciliation.

Erdogan is dealing with restive Kurds in the south, the chaos in Syria across his country's border and the blowback from his decision recently to take tougher measures against the Islamic State. He needs to smooth waters elsewhere.

Reestablishing ties with Israel not only returns an important trade partner to eminence and restores full security ties at a time of crisis, it addresses a longstanding U.S. demand that its two most important allies in the Middle East reconcile.

"Erdogan is starting to realize he's overstretched; Turkey is dealing with so many problems at once," said Ilan Goldenberg, the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank. "Erdogan is realizing he has to pull back."

Back to Africa

The last time there was a movement on the rise to isolate Israel-in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when the Arab League used oil leverage to pressure third parties to join their boycott-Israel countered by quietly reinforcing ties in Africa.

The ties, established in the 1950s and 1960s, already were a point of pride for Israel, identifying the Jewish state not as a colonial anomaly, but as a postcolonial triumph of an indigenous people.

That very much was the point of Netanyahu's four-nation African tour, said Schanzer.

"One gets the sense we're revisiting history amid the new boycott movement-and it's yielding dividends," he said.

The tour coincided with the 40th anniversary of an Israeli commando raid on Entebbe in Uganda, where terrorists were holding Israeli airplane passengers with the sanction of the country's then dictator, Idi Amin. Netanyahu's elder brother, Yoni, was killed leading the rescue effort.

But the tour was more than symbolic, participants said. Netanyahu traveled with 80 men and women representing some 50 businesses, and was well prepared to assist them, according to Yosef Abramowitz, CEO of Energiya Global Capital, a Jerusalem-based solar energy and social development enterprise.

Abramowitz said he shook hands on $1 billion worth of deals during the four-nation tour.

"A fully coordinated government initiative brilliantly executed in every country by the Prime Minister's Office, the embassies and the Israel Export Institute, it was clockwork," he said.
This has been a trying week for America.

As Americans, we are all wounded by the targeting of the police force in Dallas and the deaths in St. Paul and Baton Rouge.

Now, I know a lot of you might ask, "What can I do?"

You can do a lot-right now, this weekend.

This weekend, it is on each of us to be a visible force in our communities for non-violence. Join together online, in your neighborhood, in your houses of worship, around your kitchen table. For all of you community leaders, use your platforms to heal and unite. Talk and listen, see and hear each other during this moment for our country that requires profound introspection and dialogue. To find helpful resources in your community, visit the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service at http://www.justice.gov/CRS.

For if not you, then whom? If not now, then when? (John E. Lewis, author)

In the days and weeks ahead, we'll continue offering our thoughts and prayers to provide comfort to the broken-hearted families. But they will only be redeemed by the courage of our actions that honor their memories.

I believe the Dallas Police Department is one of the finest in the nation-and this incredibly diverse city can bridge any divide. To paraphrase Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, let us use our words carefully. Let us act with unity, not division. As Dallas Police Chief David Brown-one of the leading chiefs in America-said, "there are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city, all I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens."

This violence has to stop. It is not normal. And it is not who we are.

So while we're being tested, we can't be pulled apart.

We are America, with bonds that hold us together.

We endure, we overcome, we stand together.

Joe Biden

Vice President of the United States
WASHINGTON (JTA)-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg launched a broadside against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the last week, calling him unfit for office. She subsequently apologized, but not before voices on the right and left criticized her for seeming to compromise the high court's dignity and objectivity.

"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg needs to drop the political punditry and the name-calling," The New York Times editorial board said. The Washington Post agreed.

Even her most ardent fans were at a loss to defend her descriptions of Trump as a "faker," criticizing his failure to hand over his tax returns and saying his presidency would be too dire to contemplate.

"I adore Justice Ginsburg," Robert Wexler, the former Florida congressman whose autobiography is titled "Fire-Breathing Liberal," told JTA in an email. However, he added, "It's fair to say Mr. Trump doesn't bring out the best in people."

Truth is, there isn't much wiggle room for a defense: The American Bar Association's ethical guidelines say flat out that a judge "shall not ... publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for any public office."

Not that the ABA guidelines have much practical consequence in this case: Supreme Court justices are inviolate-once they're in, they're pretty much in until they want to leave, or they die. Ginsburg, 83, however much this taints her legacy, will remain a fixture of the court.

"Judicial ethics prohibit candidates from commenting on public office," said David Bernstein, a legal scholar who opines for the Washington Post. "Even though the Supreme Court justice are not bound by the code," Ginsburg's outburst "does not reflect the consensus. It was wildly inappropriate."

So: What was she thinking?

Here are some theories:

She's losing it.

Trump was characteristically blunt. "Her mind is shot-resign!" he said on Twitter.

Barney Frank, a longtime member of Congress and a liberal who extols Ginsburg's legacy in advancing rights for women, said it was painful to admit, but Trump may have a point: It might be time for Ginsburg, 83, to go.

"I'm afraid it's a sign she stayed too long and she's not functioning," Frank said in an interview. "I can't imagine she would have made this mistake 15 years ago. It diminishes her legacy."

Frank, who retired in 2013, said he was chided by friends for leaving office at the peak of his influence. Just three years earlier, the Massachusetts congressman and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., had rewritten the rules for how Wall Street works with their Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

"I retired a couple of months short of my 73rd birthday," he said. "I said I wanted people to ask why I quit, not why I didn't quit."

Ginsburg, he said, should have quit several years ago, when the Obama administration would have guaranteed a liberal replacement.

Sometimes you've got to break the rules.

The prospect of a Trump presidency is so dire, ethical considerations seem to lose some of their urgency in this case, said Mark David Stern, who covers the law and LGBT issues for Slate.

"Donald Trump is not an ordinary presidential candidate, or an ordinary Republican," Stern wrote. "He is a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic bigot. He has proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States; called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals; supported the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants; routinely treated women with sexist disdain; advocated for torture of suspected terrorists; and generally dismissed the rule of law."

Ginsburg, he said, was right to "sacrifice some of her prestige in order to send as clear a warning signal about Trump as she possibly can."

Everyone does it.

Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor, wrote on Bloomberg News that the rules Ginsburg was ostensibly violating were mostly honored in their breach.

He listed open clashes between Supreme Court justices and presidents dating to John Marshall, who as secretary of state campaigned for John Adams in his unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1800. Thomas Jefferson won the election, but before he took office, Adams named his friend chief justice while keeping him as secretary of state. Marshall stopped being secretary of state once Jefferson was inaugurated, but remained a notable thorn in Jefferson's side as a justice.

Besides, wrote Feldman, "Doesn't everyone have an outspoken Jewish grandmother?"

In Politico, Linda Hirshman, who has written a book about Ginsburg and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, came up with two Jewish precedents for judicial politicking.

Abe Fortas, a justice in the 1960s, routinely consulted with President Lyndon Johnson on matters personal and political, and didn't bother to deny it to seething congressional Republicans who denied him the chief justice spot in congressional hearings.

Louis Brandeis, Hirshman wrote, the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, paid Felix Frankfurter to advance his favored progressive causes after Brandeis joined the court in 1918. Frankfurter-for whom, coincidentally, Feldman's professorial seat is named-became the third Jewish Supreme Court justice in 1939.

This keeping shtum can be aggravating, especially for born loudmouths.

Ronald Halber, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Washington, D.C., said he was simultaneously appalled by Ginsburg's jeremiad but also sympathetic. He was reminded that Jewish community professionals, writ much smaller, face the same dilemma as judges. They are naturally opinionated folks who take on roles that keep them from pronouncing their opinions.

"Nonprofit directors whom I work with engaged in public affairs work and engaged in communications work would love to state political opinions-and people who run JCRCs are truly political," Halber said.

"But we keep them to ourselves. I never once publicly announced who I would support for a candidate, and Justice Ginsburg has a much more important role. If you're going to keep community, or project impartiality, you can't project your opinion."

Ginsburg, in her apology, appeared to come around to that view.

"Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office," she said in a statement. "In the future, I will be more circumspect."
Later this month the Republicans and Democrats will hold their respective conventions. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will officially become the presidential nominees.

Ahead of the conventions, both parties selected delegates to draft their platforms. The Democratic platform committee convened late last month.

As soon as the delegates to the Democratic platform committee were named, it was clear that the future of the partys support for Israel would come under assault. After Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination with her primary victories, she decided to allow her defeated opponent, socialist senator Bernie Sanders to appoint a third of the committees membership.

Three of Sanders representatives are outspoken opponents of the U.S. alliance with Israel. Rep. Keith Ellison, Prof. Cornell West and James Zogby have all distinguished themselves as rabid critics of Israel and apologists for Palestinian terrorism.

Although commentators downplayed the significance of their appointments, noting that Clintons representatives, were by and large, supportive of Israel, the fact is that Clinton was under no obligation to give Sanders supporters a seat at the table. That she did so shows that she wanted to showcase growing Democratic opposition to Israel and tip her hat to the growing power of anti-Israel forces in the party.

As expected, Sanders representatives submitted a draft platform that called for an end to the occupation and the illegal settlements.

In the end, the committee reached a compromise. While the Zogby/West/Ellison wording was rejected, the draft platform makes explicit mention of Palestinian grievances for the first time calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state that will ensure, the independence, sovereignty and dignity of the Palestinians.

Watching the drama unfold, the Republicans, reasonably sought to play up the growing disparity between the GOPs support for Israel and the Democrats growing hostility. After Ellison, West and Zogby were appointedagain, with Clintons consentthe party released an ad attacking the Democrats for abandoning their traditional support for the Jewish state.

The numbers speak for themselves. According to a Pew survey released in May, since 2014, support for Palestinians among liberal Democratsthat is, hard line Obama supportershas skyrocketed from 21 percent to 40 percent. Support for Israel among the group during the same period decreased from 39 to 33 percent.

The result marks the first time that support for Palestinians exceeded support for Israel among any major political demographic. On the other hand, among conservative Republicans, support for Israel stands at 79 percent while support for Palestinians is almost negligible4 percent. The situation among moderate to liberal Republicans is not much different. 65 percent support Israel, 13 percent support the Palestinians. On the other hand, support for Israel versus Palestinians among moderate Democrats stands 53 to 19 percent.

Since most American Jews are Democratsand indeed, most American Jewish leaders are Democratsthere is little appetite for a fight with the Democratic Party. Admitting that Republican support for Israel is far stronger than Democratic support would require them to act. Either they will have to switch parties, or they will have to wage an ugly fight with the increasingly powerfuland White House backedanti-Israel voices in the party. Not only would such a fight risk losing the party, it would risk losing the Jews who, if forced to choose between their Jewish and liberal sympathies, would without hesitation, opt to remain in the liberal camp.

J Street was a central force in the Democratic committees deliberations. The far Left Jewish group, which claims to be pro-Israel and pro-peace, but has not supported any pro-Israel initiatives since it was founded in 2008, supported all the members of Congress who were delegates on the committee.

The rise of J Street as a major force among Democrats is emblematic of the Obama administrations hostility to Israel and its Jewish American supporters. The main casualty of J Streets rise has been AIPAC.

J Street was founded to challenge AIPACs claim to represent the Jewish community as a whole by claiming that it doesnt speak for Jews on the Left. In so doing, J Street has served as a means for enabling Democrats from far Left districts to effectively oppose Israel while using J Street to hide the fact that they have done so. In this way, J Streets very presence on the political scene has diminished AIPACs influence over the party.

J Street supports all manner of anti-Israel measures in the interests of peace with the Palestinians. Indeed, it supported the Sanders delegates platform proposal. And throughout Obamas long courtship of Iran at Israels expense, J Street has been an ardent opponent of anti-Iran sanctions and advocate for whatever deal Obama came up with.

Obamas use of J Street is just one of the ways he has worked to emasculate AIPAC. He has also deliberately hung AIPAC out to dry, repeatedly, in order to humiliate it and weaken its influence over lawmakers.

The most glaring example of that practice was Obamas insistence that AIPAC lobby Congress in favor of his plan to bomb regime targets in Syria in 2013. Israel had no particular stake in the issue, so AIPAC had no particular reason to get involved.

Moreover, Obamas plan was unpopular among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats opposed his proposed missile strikes because they oppose all US involvement in Middle Eastern wars. Republicans opposed it, because his plan made no strategic sense.

And yet, in the hopes of winning sympathy, and through it, perhaps, influence over the administrations Israel policies, AIPAC dutifully sent its lobbyists to the Hill to push Obamas plan.

In the end, of course, AIPAC was humiliated, when at the last moment, Obama decided to scrap the strikes.

Then of course, there was Obamas extraordinary assault on AIPAC over its opposition to his nuclear appeasement of Iran. Throughout the years leading up to his nuclear capitulation to the mullahs last summer, Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats worked together to pass Iran sanctions laws. To appease the administration, AIPAC went out of its way to water down the bills. But the administration was unimpressed.

While AIPAC had no choice but to oppose Obamas embrace of Iran, it has given the administration no fight over its support for the Palestinians against Israel. Indeed, not only has it gone along with the administrations hostile positions against Israel on the Palestinian issue, it works out that AIPAC has lobbied Republicans to support the Palestinians.

Last week, Republican activists sent me a video recording of the 2012 Republican platform committees deliberations regarding the partys position on Israel. In 2008, the Republican platform included an unequivocal endorsement of unified Jerusalem as Israels capital. In its words, We support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to that undivided capital of Israel.

In the video recordings, Sue Lynch, a delegate from Wisconsin is seen introducing an amendment calling for the GOP to strike mention of unified Jerusalem from its platform. According to the activists, Lynch was acting as a surrogate for AIPAC in submitting the amendment. And in the event, the 2012 Republican platform sufficed with a mention of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Later in the same recording, a committee member submitted an amendment that would have deleted all mention of a Palestinian state from the platform. She argued that there was no reason for the U.S. to take a position on the matter, since it has to be determined by Israel. From the response the amendment received, it was difficult to discern any controversy over the effort.

That is, until Brad Gordon, AIPAC Director of Policy and Government Relations took the floor. Gordon repeatedly argued that by not committing the GOP to supporting a Palestinian state, the Republicans risked harming Israel.

We do not want to do anything that would embarrass the Israeli government, he said.

And since Obama coerced Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into endorsing a Palestinian state, Gordon argued that it would be embarrass Netanyahu to leave it out of the platform. In testament to its power, AIPAC got what it wanted. The amendment deleting mention of the Palestinians was defeated.

In other words, acting through a surrogate and directly, AIPAC weakened Republican support for Israel.

This week, Republican delegates convened to write their platform ahead of their convention, which began on July 18. Donald Trump has already expressed reservations about supporting Palestinian statehood and supports moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Moreover, the Israeli governments guidelines make no mention of Palestinians statehood.

As understandable as the U.S. Jewish leaderships attempts to hide the growing disparity between Republican and Democratic support have been, the fact is they have failed to bring any positive result. Now, as the anti-Israel voices among the Democrats have grown so powerful that Clinton has enabled them to influence the partys position on Israel, AIPACs moment of decision has arrived.

Does AIPAC intend to remain a pro-Israel organization? Or will it opt to become a softer version of J Street and work to hollow out Republican support for Israel just as J Street has hollowed out Democratic support for the Jewish state?

Originally posted in the Jerusalem Post.

Caroline Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC, the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post and a contributor to the Jewish World Review.
The pictures are fuzzy. Overt, explicit, and legally enforced racism is no more in the United States. Individual blacks, Asians, Jews, and other minorities, and women, can reach as high as the White House, senior governmental and corporate positions, and marry who they choose.

Integration, human relations, political correctness, busing, and affirmative action accomplished a great deal.

But not everything.

A significant incidence of white-black violence associated with police, black activism said to paint an extremist picture, and the killing of cops in Dallas, while a black man has been president for eight years presents a troubling picture that challenges analysis.

One can describe elements of racism both black and white, as well as police use of ethnic profiling, the problematic organization of American police, against a background of criminality that is more black than white, and what may be more guns than people.

At least part of the problem derives from social conditions that are among the most dismal in developed countries. Despite its wealth and the best of its education, medicine, and science, the U.S. is outside the range of other western democracies. Thomas Hobbes description from Britain in the 17th century, that life is nasty, brutish, and short, now serves for the black ghettos of American cities.

It does not help that American insistence on home rule lays a heavy hand on the organization of police. Professionalism varies greatly from place to place, and local politics affects recruitment, training, and discipline. Black activists and police activists both add to a politicized atmosphere that affects charges, inquiries, and decisions coming after incidents of black deaths at the hands of the police.

Its a challenge to decide about individual instances in a setting where there may be some justification for police concern about blacks, i.e. unofficial and unacknowledged profiling, especially of young black males. However, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that instances of non-life threatening law violations could have been handled with much less than deadly force, especially when there have been numerous shots fired by one or more officers.

Its hard to escape ideology. Reliable data is elusive or non-existent. Googling black deaths and police produces lots of pictures of smiling, peaceful looking, young black men said to have been gunned down, along with different annual compilations of all deaths associated with police, black deaths by firearms used by police, deaths while in police custody, or deaths said to be of unarmed blacks.

Against Black Lives Matter, Color of Change, and other African-American activists one can pose spokespeople for various police organizations. As certain that their personnel are being harassed by political activists as the activists are certain about police racism.

After a killing by police in his state, the Governor of Minnesota asked, Would this have happened if those passengers, the driver and the passengers, were white?... I dont think it would have... I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront that this kind of racism exists.

The executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations said, theres got to be a fear, a concern, that because of the job, because of the uniform I wear, Im being targeted... unfairly painted with a broad brush... (the governor) exploited what was already a horrible and tragic situation... Whether race had something to do with it or not, I dont know, because I cant get into the officers head... and neither can the governor.

The New York Times headlined one article, Black Lives Matter was gaining ground. Then a sniper opened fire.

Most prominent among those striving to keep everything on the table, but in proportion, has been Americas black president. He has spoken against racism among police, noted the heroism and unfair stereotyping of police, against the excessive posturing of black activists, and about the threat of national fractures triggered by Dallas. He asserted that the Dallas shooter did not represent African-Americans, and used the occasion to promote his hopeless campaign about gun control.

Texas is an extreme case of gun enthusiasts. In responding to the violence at a black on police demonstration, the cops had to decide who among the numerous people carrying rifles (legal in Texas) was or was not a threat.

Its impossible at this desk to avoid a comparison with Israel, where the adjective of black is often heard in conjunction with Jews of Middle Eastern background, and where there is more blatant antagonism expressed toward Arabs.

What follows is, of necessity, at least partially impressionistic. As in the U.S., there is more ideology than simple, clear, and reliable statistics.

Among the similarities and differences:

Ethnic profiling is more apparent, acknowledged, and accepted here than in the U.S. Arabs (especially young males) are more likely to be pulled over by police, asked for their identity papers, and forced to wait while the police check if they are wanted. They are more likely to be examined closely by security personnel at the airport. However, ethnic profiling is not entirely about Arabs. Foreign tourists, including Jews, are more likely to be examined closely at the airport than Israeli Jews.

Israeli security personnel are more carefully selected and better trained than many American police officers.

There are charges here of police, soldiers, and other security personnel too quick with violence, against individuals said to be disproportionately Arab, Ethiopian, illegal African immigrants, or lower income Jews from Middle Eastern backgrounds. Yet the incidence of deadly violence used in the context of non-life threatening incidents appears to be much less than what occurs in the United States, even correcting for differences in population.

I know of no Israeli case comparable to an American black who died in police custody after being pulled over for failing to signal a lane change.

Significant is the current trial of a young soldier, accused of the unnecessary killing of a severely injured and inert Palestinian who had been wounded while trying to attack with a knife.

The soldiers family and other supporters are claiming that the government is fabricating a case against him. Some say that the Palestinian was a terrorist, who should have been killed. There is also support for the soldiers defense that he feared that the Palestinian could still act against those near him.

Against this are indications that the soldier identified with Kahanist, anti-Arab extremists, was a bystander not involved in the Palestinians attack, and acted against explicit IDF policy and training about the use of excessive force.

The soldiers trial is occurring against the background of another fracture in Israeli society. A committee associated with the Ministry of Education has proposed a significant increase in programs to teach about the history and culture of Jews from the Middle East. An Ashkenazi movie critic for the IDF radio station has been suspended due to comments he posted on Facebook, in which he wrote against professional campaigners from the East. He ridiculed the SHAS political party and religious Sephardim who visit the graves of renowned rabbis.

The prime minister joined the furor, with The extremist comments posted by the cinema critic, in which he blatantly insulted members of the Sephardi community, deserve all the appropriate condemnation.

While the connection between this brouhaha and the soldiers trial may not be direct, it is somewhere in the air. The soldier accused is a Jew of Middle Eastern origin, i.e., Sephardi, Involved in the ethnic stereotypes of Israel is that they are inclined to be viscerally anti-Arab, due to family backgrounds of suffering persecution in Arab societies.

Yet there are prominent Sephardim who emphasize the value of co-existence, and see themselves as Arabic-speaking Jews concerned with building bridges.

Moreover, some of the most prominent of anti-Arab extremism comes from religious settlers who are Ashkenazim, with some of the most extreme being American immigrants or the children of Americans. Among their heroes are Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein.

Neither the American nor the Israeli pictures, in black and white, are all that clear.

Comments welcome, including expressions of intellectual and/or moral frustration. Irashark@gmail.com.
Dear Editor:

While I can certainly understand and appreciate Olga Yorishs comments in the latest email FED Friday, dated July 8, 2016, I do not totally agree with these comments. With the tragic event that took place in Orlando, my hometown, last June, the dynamics have changed dramatically. An act of terrorism has become a reality here. As a result, the paradigm has also changed. What was acceptable behavior and response prior to this event is no longer valid.

The reality is that yes there are bad people out there who hate for whatever reason, for whatever cause. That cant be changed. However, I think the response to terrorist acts can be changed. As well they should be. From perspective, the posture of the Jewish Federation and the Community Relations Committee has always been one of apology, one of appeasement, one of hiding. Basically it is what I refer to as the shtetle mentalityIf we dont draw attention to ourselves, maybe theyll go away and leave us aloneIt didnt work then and I doubt if it will work now.

We do have a group, an ever-increasing group, of people in the greater Central Florida area who basically dont like infidels or nonbelievers (kafirs) That is a fact of life. That cant be logically or realistically denied. That group is made up of radical fundamentalist Muslims. They are here. The event last June shows that. All of the talk of love, understanding, compassion, what I call Kumbayah stuff, wont do anything to change that. They wont change. They wont convert to Christianity and certainly not to Judaism. For discussion purposes, lets say there are 60,000 Muslims in Central Florida. I think there are much more. If only 5 percent fall into the category of being radical fundamentalist Muslims number could be 3,000 people to be concerned about.

The posture and position of the CRC is to be focused on the 95 percent. In reality the main focus of Federation, of the entire Jewish community should be on the 5 percent.

How do we do this? Education about Islam is the key. Too many are totally ignorant about Islam. Remember, Ignorance is bliss. In the classic The Art of War, author Sun Tzus states, Know your enemy. He also states, War is deception. Mohammed realized both of these concepts and taught them well. Presently, our Jewish Community leadership has not acknowledged that we do have an enemy. Just as the Israelis have an enemy. They are the same.

Very little is ever discussed about Islam for fear of not being politically correct and the fear of being called an Islamaphobe, and there go our First Amendment rights!

I would like to see the Federation and the entire Jewish Community make a statement: An open rally condemning radical Islam, fundamentalist Islam. Certainly the local Muslim community is not doing it. The local Christian community is not doing it. Think back to Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. The Nazis were using the same exact tactics as the present-day radical Muslims: Intimidation!

Remember how that ended.

Never again? Phooey! If you forget, it will happen again. The cry should be NEVER FORGET! so that we will not have to scream NEVER AGAIN! Its time to take off the rose-colored glasses and face reality before its too late. I may not be around when it happens. We all may not be around when it happens, but rest assured, unless there are dramatic changes made, it WILL happen.

Laurence Morrell

Maitland, Florida

emorrell0627@yahoo.com
NEW YORK (JTA)Last week, we watched in horror and dismay as violent event after violent event unfolded, each amplifying and recontextualizing the one before it. By Friday morning, July 8, five Dallas police officers were dead, three black men had been killed by the police (including the Dallas shooter), and countless families were broken and traumatized.

On Friday evening I was in the streets marching, chanting our movements simplest, yet most elusive assertion, Black Lives Matter. As a black person and a Jew, I was asserting the value of my own beingattempting to claim agency over my own body and the bodies of those who look like me in the face of racism and violence.

I usually find these marches and rallies empowering, but on this night I was deflated and sad. As we marched through the rapidly gentrifying streets of New York City, I couldnt stop watching the faces of those people, especially white peoplepresumably many of them Jewishwho sat in outdoor cafes sipping wine or coasting by in the backseats of taxis. Some cheered or raised a glass, others gawked mutely; some were obviously annoyed at the minor disruption to their day. I joked darkly to a Jew of color who was marching with me that all of our signs should just say, If youre standing there, reading this, then you are part of the problem.

On Sunday I joined a group of Jewish people of color, organized through Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, or JFREJ, to process and hold space for each other after a week of pain.

Many of those in the room with me have been active in the fight to pass the Right to Know act, a piece of legislation before the City Council here that would help address the very issues that have brought our nation to this terrifying moment. It would create more trust and mutual respect between communities and the police by requiring officers to identify themselves with a business card when they stop you on the street, thus allowing you to follow up if you believe you were stopped or searched in a discriminatory or illegal manner.

It would also provide a remedy for unconstitutional searches by requiring officers to inform people when they have the right to refuse a search.

The bill would protect everyone in New York by empowering citizens and creating a bond of trust with the police. Our Jews of Color Caucus has been working with the rest of JFREJ as part of a wide coalition of grassroots organizations, Communities United for Police Reform, in a tireless effort to pass this bill. And it was my job on Sunday to tell everyone, even after the week that our country had been through, that the bill is still not on the calendar for a vote in the City Council. We actually have a council majority for both bills, enough to pass the legislation. But it still hasnt been brought up for a vote even though not a single other police reform bill has passed in New York since the death of Eric Garner two years ago.

As I looked at the demoralized faces in the room, I understood why the week left us all so drained and depressed. For decades people of color have protested against discriminatory and violent policing. And while there have been some meaningful victories over the years, we have yet to win the true accountability that we need to secure our full civil rights and dignity. Ever since the death of Garner in my cityin some ways ever since the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles 25 years agoweve had the proof right in front of us, on our screens. We thought this new phenomenonubiquitous cameras providing new evidence of an enduring injusticewould shock the nation into action, but it hasnt. We have organized and marched and rallied, thinking it would move the nation to value our lives and reform its policing. But it hasnt.

All across America, local community groups are working to pass bills and make policy reforms such as the Right To Know Act. Each effort tries to address some small piece of the problem of racism and police violenceto chip off some tiny piece of the iceberg and make some progress. Our movement is growing, but not fast enough. Unless the Jewish community and everyone who is now watching from the sidelines gets involved, we will be sharing these tragic videos for years to come. Now is the moment to say never againnot one more. Now is the moment for white Jews to join us in the streets, to call your legislators, to donate your time and money. To invest in a future where we never have to enter Shabbat with the echoes of gunshots in our ears.

The only way we can ensure a future in which black lives matter and the police are trusted and respected by all is if white Jews, and all Americans, actively participate in the campaigns for racial justice and police accountability being waged all across the country by local organizations, especially those led by people of color. We can win, but only by creating movements too powerful to be ignored. In this struggle there is no neutral groundif the Jewish community isnt part of the solution, then it is part of the problem.

Like those people watching us march past them, most Americans dont see this as their problem to solve. As Jews, we know what it means to fight for our survival while those around us do nothing. And as a Jew of color, I am tired of feeling abandoned by my friends and my larger Jewish community when they sit on the sidelines rather than fighting for my safety and full humanity.

Though these weeks have been painful, I am still filled with hope for change and certainty that we will win. All I have to do is look at the community I am lucky enough to work withthe powerful, brilliant Jews of all races who are struggling for racial justice every day. They remind me of the most potent parts of our tradition: those that call us to strive for justice even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. We wont give upwe will pass bills like the Right to Know Act. With Jews at my side, I will be out in streets fighting for justice. Will you be there with me?

Leo Ferguson is the community and communications organizer for Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) sends its heartfelt condolences to the families of the 84 innocent people, including 15 children, who were murdered in the truck attack in Nice, France July 14 by radical Islamist Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. ZOA also sends prayers for recovery to the 188 injured, including the 50 people whom French President Francois Hollande stated were in critical condition between life and death.

BBC reported that a witness who had time to see the terrorists face said that the terrorist-truck driver appeared to be having fun as he was mowing down people like bowling pins. The terrorists glee at leaving people dying in the streets of France exemplifies the evil cruelty, sadism and lack of humanity of radical Islamist murderers.

Just a little over two weeks ago, after the horrific massacre at the airport in Istanbul, ZOA wrote that the world must finally get serious about combatting radical Islamist terrorism, listing some of what we need to finally do, and listing some of the thousands of terror attacks and casualties caused by radical Islamists in just the past year and a half. Since then, the death toll has continued to mount: 13-year-old American-Israeli Hallel-Yaffa Ariel stabbed to death by a Palestinian-Arab Islamist terrorist while she was sleeping in her bed in Kiryat Arba, Judea, Israel on June 30; Rabbi Michael Miki Mark shot to death while driving in his car by Palestinian-Arab Islamist terrorists on July 1; Rabbi Marks wife and two of their children were also wounded in the attack; 13 people murdered and at least 7 civilians wounded by Islamist car bombings in Benghazi, Libya on July 3 and July 7; Nine Christians hacked to death in villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)and numerous other attacks by radical Islamists around the world every single day.

At the risk of repeating ourselves, we must act to stop the Islamist terrorist threat to our lives. We must stop allowing unvettable Syrian Muslim immigrants into our countryas our top U.S. security officials, including FBIs Comey, Homeland Security House Chair Peter King, National Intelligence Director James Clapper admit that these immigrants cannot be properly vetted and are likely to be infiltrated by ISIS.

We must demand that Iran stop funding Islamic terrorists from the huge largesse of $150 Billion the Iran Deal afforded them. We must stop U.S. funding of the Palestinian Authority to the tune of $600 million/year. We must urge Muslim leaders to join Muslim Reformists such as Egyptian President Gen. Abdul Fateh al-Sisi in calling for and leading a religious revolution to stop radical Muslims throughout the world from killing and causing destruction. We must stop pretending that the problem is Islamophobia or gun control or limited to ISIS and al Qaeda alone when the problem is far broader: the radical Islamist ideology that incites hatred and murder of fellow human beings.
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A Kashmiri militants funeral 26 years ago had drawn attendance at least as large as Burhan Wanis did on July 9. Ishfaq Majid Wani, who was designated chief commander of the JKLF, was killed on March 30, 1990; his funeral at Srinagars Idgah was probably much larger than Burhans at Trals Idgah. The difference is that the only television channel in those days was Doordarshan.

It is worth noting that the slopes leading to the Line of Control came alive after Ishfaqs death; daily, thousands tried to cross for training and arms through April. Muzaffarabads infrastructure broke down; for a while, the ISI was forced to turn boys back after a couple of days perfunctory training. Relatively few Kashmiri militants cross the Line of Control now. Since large numbers of rifles and other arms have been snatched during the current unrest, another spurt in militancy could occur without any mass LoC crossings.

The point here is not to dispute Pakistans role, nor to compare the popularity of the two iconic militants separated by a generation  and by innovations such as social media. The point is to compare the response of the State to those vast funeral throngs, and the violent trends in their aftermath. Sadly, the situation is vastly different but the responses are much the same.

Read: Mehbooba Mufti calls for cooperation in all-party meet

The political class appears to be as willing to respond with empathy as it was 26 years ago, but seems as clueless about what to do as it then was. Cash and paramilitary remain central to the States response. The discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, the first of the monsoon session, showed creditable unity and political will to do the right thing. Pakistan was blamed. A parliamentary delegation to the Valley was recommended. Some alluded to the need to talk to leaders of Hurriyat groups. Most urged minimum force, and criticised the use of pellet guns.

Pellet guns should indeed be dumped. Pakistan deserves to be blamed. But political responses need to go beyond that. They need to be imaginative. A parliamentary delegation visited Kashmir around the time Ishfaq was killed too. Led by the deputy prime minister, Devi Lal, and including the leader of the opposition, Rajiv Gandhi, it could hardly have had a higher profile. But its interactions with politicians (like the late Iftekhar Ansari) and common people (including some of the staff of the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre, the farthest they went) had touches of irony.

The most important result was that the railway minister, George Fernandes, was appointed Kashmir affairs minister. Fernandes stayed back when the delegation returned to Delhi, and engaged with Mirwaiz Farooq, and later with Abdul Ahad Guroo, the mentor of Ishfaq and other JKLF commanders (nothing to do with Afzal Guru).

Read: After five-day media clampdown, newspapers return to Kashmir stands

Fernandes efforts were well advised, but too late. By the time that parliamentary delegation visited Kashmir on March 17, 1990, Pakistan had already sidelined the JKLF and begun to push the Hizb-ul Mujahideen centre-stage. From January that year, Syed Ali Shah Geelani had taken charge of coordinating that switch  urged by Pakistans Jamaat-e-Islami and the ISI.

Speeches during Mondays Rajya Sabha discussion did not reflect an awareness of how far those sorts of political options have been marginalised. Burhan Wani was the icon of a new generation, one that was born during, and shaped by, violence, insecurity and despair. That despair extends to a rejection of a range of political leaders including the various offshoots of the Hurriyat Conference. Burhan was designated divisional commander of Hizb, but that does not mean that Hizb as an organisation, or its leader, Syed Salahuddin, commands enough youth respect to be able to negotiate peace.

It is sad that the spectrum of political parties is stuck with one of two strategies. One is the counterproductive belief that street anger in Kashmir can be crushed by force. The other that a deal involving maximum autonomy can be made with a leader of the Kashmiri movement.

As was noted during Mondays parliamentary debate, this strategy has been in play since at least 1995, when Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao said that the sky is the limit for autonomy. It did not work  even when the youth were amenable to Hurriyat leaders. Now, a new generation has grown up. It has discarded the bunch of one-time leaders as corrupt, self-serving and forked-tongued. The bribes doled out by the State over the years have not only not worked, they have kept instability alive. That suits a host of vested interests  on various sides. But it is also a major cause of youth anger today.

In order to respond sensibly to the recent unrest, political initiatives must be undertaken to reach out to this generation at a mass level. By and large, they do not accept their own parents attempts to restrain them; they are impervious to leaders  local, Pakistani or farther afield  apart from some distant Islamist figures.

Political responses must include social, educational and economic initiatives. But the latter must go beyond job-creation. Economic patterns must be developed to replace the cash-and-carry dole economy. It angers young people. Central schemes like the Udaan employment training project have failed. Reserving seats, with scholarships, for Kashmiris in universities across the country has had limited success.

Read: Good Kashmiri, bad Kashmiri: The view of a JNU student leader

The first chapter of the Rangarajan committee report noted that at the beginning of this decade there were extraordinary discrepancies between the National Sample Survey data and those from Kashmirs employment bureaus. To make sense of what jobs means, one has to understand the aspirations unleashed, and perceptions about bottlenecks, three generations after the most sweeping land reforms anywhere in the world outside the Communist bloc.

An adequate response needs incisive sociological understanding, and sustained engagement. All-party meetings and delegation visits are at best a symbolic starting point.

David Devadas is a senior journalist based in Kashmir . The views expressed are personal.
The PM is cultivating a sage-like detachment from everyday politics. This is politically risky when Dalits and Muslims both need empathy and succour. His model of communication needs to change.

It is difficult to anticipate what form of internal unrest will finally compel Prime Minister Narendra Modi to directly comment on political developments in the country.

The last couple of weeks has offered plenty opportunity for him to do so. 44 civilians have been shot dead by security forces in Kashmir since July 9. Over 2,100 others have been injured and many, including children, blinded by pellets. Contrast Modis silence on the bloodshed with President Barack Obama who makes it a point to respond to every major incident involving the shooting of black civilians by police in the US.

There have been other disturbing developments. Four Dalits were publicly flogged by cow protection activists at Una in Gujarat for allegedly skinning a dead cow. The government waited for an entire week  till protests erupted  to arrest some of the accused. Adding to that a BJP leader compared Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati to a prostitute setting off protests in UP. PM Modi has yet to comment on these.

Its not that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not responded to these events. Home minister Rajnath Singh and other leaders have reacted in Parliament and party spokespersons have been debating the issues on television.

But there seems to be a concerted attempt by the BJP to insulate Modi from these events  to keep the PM above the fray and humdrum of everyday politics.

The pattern seems to be that Modi himself will not speak on grim matters but will spell out his views through ministers or officials. So Jitendra Singh, minister of state at the PMO, emerges from a high-level meeting and says the PM has appealed for calm. The Press of Trust of India reports subsequently that the PM was unhappy about the media coverage of Kashmir. Rajnath Singh tells Parliament that the PM is very much pained about Kashmirs suffering and that Modi was concerned enough to convene a meeting within hours of arriving Africa, battling jetlag. Singh will also convey that the PM was very upset about the flogging of Dalits in Gujarat.

In effect, the PM has settled into model of communication where he tweets mostly good news (and outrage on terrorism), lists achievements and dishes out homilies on radio shows, have the odd email and TV interview that have no scope for tough follow-up questions, solicit votes in election rallies but retreat into a hallowed space and let others do the fire-fighting when the going gets tough.

This has a particular logic to it. It elevates the PM to a plane that is above political combat; it underlines the impression that he has no peer in Indias political life and portrays him as a sort of a sarsangchalak of the formal political system (quite apart from the one in Nagpur). Its no wonder that Cabinet ministers refer to him in reverential tones and convey edicts from his sanctum sanctorum. This is a useful veneer to cultivate since Arvind Kejriwal is doing his best to normalise Modi by directly attacking him from time to time. The PMs refusal to engage deprives Kejriwal of a target and potentially exhausts the latters unidirectional combat.

This strategy worked fine and suited the BJP when the focus was on stigmatising and targeting Muslims and urban liberals. Modis silence over his party colleagues targeting JNU and his tolerance of inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims from those like Yogi Adityanath, Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti rallied the nationalist section of the middle class in UP and other cities.

But Dalit disaffection is a different matter altogether. The BJP has already alienated Muslims across the country; it cannot afford to unite Dalit opinion against it as well. Dalits comprise 20.7% of UPs population and they make a formidable force when aligned with Muslims who account for 18% in the state. The BJP has relied on splitting the Dalit vote to defeat Mayawati, but this public flogging of youth at the behest of cow protection activists can consolidate opinion among all Dalits that the BJP is instinctively anti-Dalit.

And this is where Modis cultivated detachment becomes a liability. His exuberant foreign visits, his blithely going about official routines (like inaugurating a Petrapole integrated check post with Bangladesh via video conference on Thursday) while Dalits nationwide are incensed over the treatment meted out to them will certainly rankle. It is worth noting that the BJP cannot take the support of the upper castes for granted once the Dalit-Muslim consolidation is discernible.

The PM may see no political gain from personally comforting Kashmiris. But there will be a huge price to pay if there is no firm action on SC/ST Act violations and consistent (not one-off) messaging about Dalits.

For a party with a difference, atrocities against Dalits should not be a matter of electoral instrumentality but of justice being upheld and delivered.

The views expressed are personal.

The author tweets as @SushilAaron

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Politicians in Uttar Pradesh neither learn from their mistakes nor from the mistakes of others.

Otherwise, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dayashankar Singh would not have committed the blunder that Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi made. He was not only expelled from the party but will also spend days in jail.

It was in July 2010, when the then Congress president Joshi earned the wrath of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers over her derogatory comments against the then chief minister Mayawati. The angry BSP workers later set her house on fire.

Joshis comment was in connection with the governments compensation to rape victims. She was booked under sections 153 (delivery of inflammatory speeches), 109 (using abusive language) and the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act and sent to jail. She was also severely castigated for her slanderous attack against a woman chief minister with Congress president Sonia Gandhi condemning it strongly.

Read | Why BJP was quick to show the door to Dayashankar Singh

However, the attack on Joshis house by irate BSP workers later toned down the oppositions charge on her as she described it as state sponsored. Instead, security at her Lucknow and Allahabad residences was tightened. She later filed a case in the court.

Joshi is no more the state Congress chief, nor is Mayawati the chief minister. While BSP leaders told party workers on Thursday to convert their anger into votes the fact is emotions do not always yield political dividends. The BSP lost the 2012 polls while Joshi won her seat from the prime Lucknow Cantonment constituency.

This is not the first time when BSP workers have taken to the street to protest objectionable remarks against their leader.

In the early 1990s, late Kanshi Ram had led lakhs of people in a public rally to a newspaper office for objectionable news against Mayawati.

However, UP politics, which has been a witness to such tumultuous verbal wars, touched its nadir when seriously objectionable words were used against a woman leader by Dayashankar Singh.

Earlier, senior Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP leaders have called each other goonda-goondi on national television and the political parties have launched thu-thu rallies.

And now, with no dearth of irrepressible leaders in every political party the scene is only going to get charged further with choicest of abuses on display. Congress leader Imran Masood infamous for his chop Modi into pieces statement in the 2014 polls has been elevated by the Congress. SP leader Nahid Hasan who described Mayawati and Modi unmarried and who would form a relationship after polls survived in the party.

With no fear of any action, political leaders are filling their armour with choicest of abuses ahead of the assembly elections. Gear up for a verbal war before poll skirmishes.

Read | BSP leader announces reward of Rs 50 lakh for Daya Shankar Singhs tongue
In just one month Great Britain has gone through more political upheaval than it usually does in five years. Since a narrow majority of Britons voted to leave the European Union (EU) in June: The prime minister has resigned, two party leaders have gone, the leader of the Opposition Labour party is facing an unprecedented revolt, numerous other political careers have been killed off, the currency and stock markets have lost enormous value and the economy is on the brink of a crisis.

But there is a depressing twist. The international victims of Britains vote to leaving the EU in June will most likely be Indians. Want to visit Britain as a tourist? To study? Want to travel there to find work or even to join family? They are all about to get a lot harder than they already are. Every year thousands of Indians marry someone from Britain and apply to settle there. Thousands more go there annually to rejoin families or visit their children. Nearly 20,000 Indians went to study at British universities last year, many settling down after finding work or even falling in love. Britain may have a special relationship with America, but it has strong family ties with India.

Read | Merkel backs May plan not to trigger Brexit this year

But while the rules for visiting, studying, settling or working in Britain have already been made stricter in recent years, worse is yet to come.

Part of the reason is the new Prime Ministers background. As the daughter of a Church of England vicar, Theresa Mays deliberately non-flashy and middle-class background sharply contrasts with the man who occupied that job last.

She is a more traditional Conservative with values more in tune with the heart of middle-class England than metropolitan London, i.e. suspicious of both foreigners and rich bankers. As she said when launching her campaign to be PM: I dont gossip about people over lunch. I dont go drinking in Parliaments bars. I just get on with the job in front of me.

Read | Britain renews nuclear submarine option amid Labour division

And that job, as home secretary for six years, was frequently about clamping down hard on immigration. At one point, her department hired vans to tour Indian-dominated areas of London with big Go Home signs that were apparently aimed at illegal immigrants. Only 11 people actually left the country as a result. But it didnt matter because the British media was willing to overlook her mistakes as long as she talked tough on immigration.

Brexit is about to make this situation worse. A lot of Britons voted to leave the EU because they want to see immigration cut drastically. But no one told them the legal process to leave could take up to three years, perhaps more, and in the meantime EU citizens can still walk into Britain without a visa. They will soon start getting angry.

Read | Some EU migrants may have to leave UK,says Brexit minister David Davis

So until it happens, May will have to appease the anti-immigration lobby by restricting non-EU immigration again. A huge proportion of them are from India and China. But since Chinese visitors mostly come to study (a source of income Britain does not want to give up), they will seek to restrict Indian immigration.

In practice, this could mean stricter requirements for those visiting as tourists or joining family and higher charges for Indians hoping to study or work there. All of this would be a big mistake for a country that now needs a stronger relationship with India more than ever. But it would not be the first time the new PM will put political calculations ahead of her countrys needs.

Sunny Hundal is a writer and lecturer on digital journalism based in London. The views expressed are personal.

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Mumbai is definitely Indias creative dynamo. It is home to several successful creative industries such as Bollywood, television, animation, publishing, fashion, restaurants, theatre, performing arts and art galleries. This vibrancy flows from a dynamic, cosmopolitan and urbane culture that nourishes the creative ecosystem, encouraging multiple talents to flourish. Mumbais streets, chaotic and run down as they might appear, are full of kinetic energy, which inspires artists, poets, writers and other creative minds, and pushes us to engage, to get involved and find our equilibrium in the hurly-burly of the city.

Art and artists have thrived in Mumbai since the establishment of the JJ School Of Art (Fort) in 1857. The British set up two great museums, the Victoria & Albert Museum, now the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum (BDL; Byculla East) in 1855 and the Prince Of Wales Museum, now the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS; Fort), in 1922, to encourage the local population to engage with art. But it takes much more than an art school and museums to create a thriving art scene. In the past decade, Mumbai has seen the mushrooming of several galleries and alternative art spaces that have given a new pulse to the citys art scene. The quality varies, and they cater to different audiences, but there is now a much greater awareness and interest in the subject. This year, in Maharashtra alone, 2,50,000 students registered in Fine Art courses.

The British set up two great museums, the Victoria and Albert Museum (above), now the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Byculla (E), in 1855 and the Prince of Wales Museum, now the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS; Fort), in 1922, to encourage the local population to engage with art. (HT Photo)

The city draws you into the art world with its galleries, which are located at walking distance from each other, and a stones throw from the imposing CSMVS and its neighbour, the National Gallery Of Modern Art (NGMA; Fort). In the 70s, when I was studying at the JJ School Of Art, we would hang out at Irani cafes (in Colaba) and at the famous Samovar Cafe (Fort).

When Mehta was studying at the JJ School of Art, she and her friends would often hang out at the now-closed Samovar Cafe in Kala Ghoda. (Hindustan Times)

My favourite galleries are those that push the envelope such as Lakeeren, Project 88, Chatterjee And Lal, and Maskara (though this wonderful space is closing), all cheek by jowl on the busy Colaba road. Then there are galleries like Mirchandani & Steinruecke (Colaba) and Chemould Prescott Road, (Fort). These galleries have supported the art they believe in, often in the face of financial risk. Maskaras show of the artist Anant Joshi ranks as one of the best I have seen in the year, not just in India, but also internationally. Joshis miniature sculptures presented in multitude mesmerised me. Sakshi Gallery, also located here, was one of the first galleries to set up shop in Mumbai 25 years back. They have shown two special artists, Rekha Roddwittya and Surendran Nair, among others.

Mehta calls Anant Joshis show at Gallery Maskara, which featured miniature sculptures, as one of the best Ive seen in the year, not just in India, but internationally. (gallerymaskara.com )

Mumbai is also revolutionising the museum scene in India. While museums across the country suffer without knowledgeable directors and adequate staff, Mumbais three museums  the CSMVS, the NGMA and the BDL  have valiantly struggled to put on good shows despite many odds. The NGMA is beset by problems, but the citys artist community, and the staff have managed to keep the place going despite the many challenges. I have been on the advisory committee for the past 20 years, and weve tried with successive governments to find solutions to its problems. But I firmly believe that as long as museums are treated as departments of the government, changes will be cosmetic.

Read: Visit museums across the world, without leaving your couch

This feast is not just in South Mumbai. Theres much more as one moves north. The Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, which I helm, has had some amazing shows in the last year. Atul Dodiyas exhibition is one of the best shows by any Indian artist, not just in the past year, but in the past decade. We launched on Google Cultural Institute (GCI), and you can now do a detailed walk-through of the museum and its collection. Nearly 51 million people across the world have access to the GCI. In Bandra, you have What About Art, a residency space that supports artists, and many galleries and spaces that have taken to pop-up exhibitions.

Atul Dodiyas exhibition, 7000 Museums: A Project for the Republic of India, at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Byculla (E). (Facebook.com/Bhau Daji Lad Museum)

I want to acknowledge the Kala Ghoda Festival and the other street fests in Bandra and Ballard Estate. Art in its many varied forms has suddenly become happening, and now everyone wants a piece of the action. The citys fathers would do well to pay attention to this creative energy and establish adequate infrastructure to support and sustain it. It is what makes Mumbai cool and buzzing.

Tasneem Zakaria Mehta is the managing trustee and director of Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Byculla (E), one of Mumbais most prominent cultural destinations.
Poetry was like coming home. I wrote about young love, longing and loss. I wrote about women, children and people who didnt have a voice. I wrote about rebellion, I wrote about desire. Perhaps...this is who I became through poetry.

Thats what 30-year-old urban transport professional, Zainab Kakal hopes to share with the poetry-loving community in the city, through a recently revamped blog.

Read: Performance poetry has entered the unlikeliest of places in Mumbai

Words Tell Stories (WTS), given a facelift in May, aims to be a repository for poets and poetry-lovers in Mumbai. While the year-old website primarily had a monthly poetry calendar earlier, it now focuses on the poetry community in Mumbai, first-hand experiences of spoken-word poets and the audience, posts on trends in poetry and verses from the citys bards.

Always daunted by poetry and dont know what to make of it? Poets on Wordstellstories.com explain why they write the poetry in the first place. (Facebook.com/Wordstellstories)

As performance poetry enters wedding events, flea markets and art galleries, many want to experiment but dont know where to look, says freelance writer and founder of the blog Rochelle dsilva, 32, a performance poet herself. Several writers end up imitating American slam poetry. I hope the citys community can engage in a conversation through the blog.

Posts on the nuances of John Lennons writing and experiences of a poet hooked to YouTube are currently popular. Dsilva soon plans to publish posts on the poetic influence of hip-hop, Instagram poetry, a primer on ghazals, and poetry podcasts you can tune in to.

Read: A poet wonders what use is poetry in the world

Poetry is democratic, and not as high-brow as we imagine. It can be as entertaining as stand-up comedy, and Words Tell Stories is a great place to discuss its effect, says subscriber Preeti Vangani, 30, a marketing executive.

WHAT: A one-stop poetry resource for Mumbaiites

WHERE: wordstellstories.com
A head constable of the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) allegedly committed suicide at Kalaburgi city in north Karnataka, police said on Friday.

Anna Saibanna Gamaga, 50, was found hanging in his police quarters by his family members, who alerted us, the police official said.

Though Gamaga belonged to the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), he was on deputation to the IRB and posted at Vijayapura in north Karnataka.

As Gamaga was not happy working with IRB, he applied for transfer back to KSRP with posting at Kalaburgi but his application was pending and not considered till date, the official said, quoting a family member.

Gamaga, who hails from Chittapur in Kalaburgi district, was on leave for 15 days as he was indisposed and was staying in a quarter allotted to him.

Read | Police suicides show the rot runs deep in Karnatakas home department

We have booked a case of unnatural death and sent Gamagas body for autopsy. We have to investigate the case to find out why he took the extreme step of ending life, as no suicide note was found in his room, the official added.

Gamagas suicide comes a fortnight after Mangaluru seputy superintendent of police MK Ganapathi, 51, committed suicide on July 7 at Madikeri in Kodagu district, while two days before that, Chikkamagaluru deputy superintendent of police Kalappa Handibag, 34, was found hanging at his in-laws house at Belagavi.

On Wednesday, woman sub-inspector Rupa Tambad at Vijayanagar police station in Bengaluru attempted to commit suicide by swallowing sleeping tablets in excess on the grounds that she was being harassed by her senior inspector Sanjeev Gowda.

Read | Karnataka cops suicide: Bengaluru development minister KJ George resigns
A mob of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supporters allegedly pelted stones at state cabinet minister Rajendra Shuklas house in Rewa district on Thursday.

The incident happened around 2.30 pm in Ahmiya area when around 200 BSP supporters were carrying out a rally to protest against the recent remarks made by UP BJP leader Dayashankar Singh against their party chief and former UP CM Mayawati.

No injury or casualty was reported in the stone pelting but the window glasses on the first floor of the ministers house were found damaged.

MP mineral resources and industry ministers personal staff Jai Prakash Tiwari said the matter was reported to the Civil Lines police.

Rewa additional SP Sunil Tiwari, while confirming the episode, said a case against unidentified persons had been lodged and efforts were underway to identify the culprits.

The accused have been booked under Sections 336, 147 and 427 of IPC for act of endangering life or personal safety of others, rioting and mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees.
For the first time in five years in his extremely prolific and versatile career, choreographer-director Prabhudheva is focusing exclusively on acting.

As he wraps up the shooting of his new acting assignment a Hindi-Tamil-Telugu tri-lingual entitled Abhinetri Prabhu takes time off to discuss why he isnt directing a film right now.

Read: Prabhudheva announces three Tamil projects under his banner

Its not as if Ive planned it this way. Ive never planned many things that Ive done in life. Its all happened on its own. It was just chance that I got pulled away from the South to direct a series of films in Hindi. When Rowdy Rathore became a hit I was offered several Hindi films to direct.So I was cut off not only from acting but also from Chennai where my two sons go to school.

Prabhu is now in Chennai and enjoying his stint as an actor in the South. It was my colleague and friend in Mumbai Remo dSouza who re-addicted me to acting with ABCD and its sequel. Now here I am doing a role in my own production.

Read: Sonakshi is lucky for me, says Prabhu Dheva

Prabhu, who is a producer of the film, says, See when you are an actor youve to worry only about getting your shots right. When you are a director you have to worry about everything on the sets. As a producer you get maximum responsibility. I am in that zone right now.

Abhinetri invents a new genre for Indian cinema. He says, Its a horror-comedy.I dont think thats been done in Hindi before.It also has a very strong emotional content.So there is a bit of everything, plus its in three languages.So the post-production is taking longer than usual. Weve shot Abhinetri in three languages, not dubbed the film Tamil Telugu and Hindi. Weve shot three different versions.

Now begins the struggle to release all three versions simultaneously.

Follow @htshowbiz for more.
Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has said his life has been shaped up by the women in his life, including his grandmother, wife, daughter and those with whom he has worked in the film industry.

Watch: How SRK reacts when he spots a Pokemon

My life has been completely shaped by women, starting from my grandmother to my daughter now and in between my wife, aunts, didis in colonies, my leading ladies and women directors with whom I have worked. They have helped me achieve 100 per cent of what I am today. I wouldnt be half a man without these women. I owe my life to them, the 50-year-old actor told reporters.

Irrfan Khan and Shah Rukh Khan at a special screening of Madaari in Mumbai. (AFP)

He was speaking at the launch of a book - She Walks, She Leads - by debutante author Gunjan Jain at an event last evening. The book profiles 24 women from all walks of life, including Nita Ambani, Chanda Kochhar and Swati Piramal.

The Fan actor, who previously shared that he was penning his autobiography, expressed hope to write a book about the women who have influenced him in his life. The amount of sensitivity I have, the goodness in me has been led by the women in my life, about whom I will one day perhaps write a book, he said.

Shah Rukh Khan recently launched Sania Mirza's autobiography Ace Against Odds in Hyderabad. (IANS)

Shah Rukh also narrated a poem, which he wrote after being inspired by a comment he read of former One Direction band member Zayn Malik. The poem celebrates a girl who has made mistakes, regrets, secrets and dreams, one, who falls but never gives up.

Read: SRK pays Hrithik midnight visit to dissolve Raees-Kabil clash

...for girls who have made mistakes, and had regrets galore, the girls who may not win but always get up from the floor. The girls who take life as it comes, the girls who have broken the code. For the girls who hope that it will get better somewhere down the road, let your steps be a dance and jump into this world. You are beautiful, because you fight like a girl..., he recited.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
In recent days, theres been a sharp division between lovers and loathers of a phenomenon distracting the world. No, not the Trumpathon at Cleveland, but rather Pokemon Go, the gaming app that leads players into exploring new places, whether or not they are welcome there like when they gatecrash private property.

The Republican National Convention in Cleveland witnessed the culmination of a process of a trespasser taking possession of the property. About a year back, Donald Trump was known best for being a building tycoon, host of The Apprentice, providing fodder for Page 6 of New Yorks tabloids, and another bristling birther who demanded to see United States President Barack Obamas birth certificate. Now, 12 months later, he has formally clinched and accepted the Republican Partys nomination to contest the November presidential election, deleting the descriptive presumptive, though presumptuous still applies.

Read | Trump accepts Republican Presidential nomination: 5 key moments in convention

This summer was supposed to mark the double-crowning of American royalty. Jeb Bush was to woo the GOP while Hillary Clinton wowed the Democrats. Neither happened. Jeb! remained an exclamation mark in primary politics, while Hillary barely outlasted a socialist senator from Vermont, who officially had to become a Democrat for the primaries. Still, she will get her tiara, pending since 2008, in Philadelphia.

If there was talk of dynasty in Cleveland, it was about the appearance of Willie Robertson, CEO of Duck Commander and member of the family that features in the hit American reality show Duck Dynasty, which tracks this Louisiana redneck clan. The venue was a Bush-free zone.

Read | Republicans find their Kennedy clan in Trumps children

If those in attendance were playing a game, other than Pokemon Go, it could have been called a Pack of Trumps. The Donald put family first, and foremost for this showcase for the First Family-in-waiting. Each night, at prime time, a Trump or two addressed the arena. Of course, the nominee himself created history probably becoming the first-ever to appear on each day of the multi-day convention, even if he did do so on Day Two via satellite, beaming across the 1,711 square foot screens, way larger than most Manhattan apartments. He joined his vice-presidential pick, Indiana governor Mike Pence on stage on Wednesday after photo-bombing Texas senator Ted Cruzs speech, a non-endorsement.

First among the Trumps was Melania, the Slovenia-born former model, who recounted a life story, which, in parts, sounded like that of the incumbent First Lady Michelle Obama, probably because those words were lifted from one of her speeches. Theres no cribbing of Michelle Obamas speech, Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign manager, told CNN. There was none from Trump, who described her speech and demeanor as absolutely incredible. In her plagiarism, Melania Trump joined a luminous list that includes Obama, his vice-president Joe Biden, and even Bill Clinton.

Read | Hillary Clinton has more cash; Trump forgives loans

But this Trump Train was just getting on track. The next day, the New York State delegate to announce that Trump had the magic number for the nomination (the scheduled rumble in Cleveland turned into a few scattered grumbles) was his eldest son, named Donald Trump Jr Junior also was a headliner when it came to speeches, along with half-sister Tiffany. The family act continued into Wednesday with Eric Trump, another son, taking to the podium. Each trumpeted filial fealty. Trump gushed over each performance, the only speakers he referred to on Twitter on the first two days, ignoring the likes of Speaker Paul Ryan, senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and a host of governors, senators, and representatives. Joining the sibling revelry was Ivanka, who got to play opening act to the headliners acceptance speech. At the RNC, the Trumps towered.

Obviously, this pageant of Trumps concluded with the candidate himself and his acceptance speech, one some would unkindly think of as a call to Make America Chafe Again. All that, and 125,000 balloons and 1,000 pounds of confetti brought the event to an end.

Read | A divided Republican party: Donald or Ivanka for president?

Strange, how a New York billionaire has managed to engineer a hostile takeover of the Republican Party over a period of a year and it now appears increasingly like a Trump family enterprise with Pence brought in like the outsider CEO needed for his political management chops.

Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a Toronto-based commentator on American affairs. The views expressed are personal.

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Uttarakhand government selected on Friday a park inside a government building in Haridwar to install the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar following outrage by state seers and pressure from Tamil Nadu politicians over the last month.

Former Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand, Tarun Vijay, on June 29 organised a programme to erect a statue of the Tamil poet at the Shiv bridge near Har Ki Pauri. But when the Ganga Sabha  the umbrella body of teerth-purohits objected to it, the administration decided to install the idol at Shankaracharya Chowk, but saints resisted the move.

The Haridwar administration on Tuesday re-erected the statue on the compound of a government building, where the statue was otherwise kept wrapped in a plastic sheet.

On Friday, the government sent two senior IAS officials from Tamil Nadu serving in Uttarakhand -- Meenakshi Sundaram and SA Murugesan -- to inspect the place in Haridwar.

District magistrate Harbhajan Chug said: We plan to install the statue at a park inside a government building called CCR Tower during a function that will be attended by chief minister Rawat.

Sundaram, the vice chairman of the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority, said the chief minister wants the process of the statues installation to be expedited.

A newspaper picture of the statue wrapped in black plastic sheet had triggered outrage in Tamil Nadu. But Sundaram denied there was any opposition from seers to the installation.

Their apprehension was that installing Thiruvalluvars statue on the ghat might give rise to similar demands from different groups following different icons, the official said.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, who had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to intervene into the matter, thanked Rawat for taking steps to install the statue in his state, calling it a positive action.

I am grateful that you have responded speedily and positively to the outpouring of sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu on this sensitive issue.

Rawat also wrote to Jayalalithaa saying the Thiruvalluvar statue will give inspirations to pilgrims visiting Haridwar.

We hope that the people of Uttarakhand and the pilgrims who visit Haridwar will have an opportunity to get the glimpse of revered poet (Thiruvalluvar). The place will become an integral part among the pilgrimage place, Rawat said, inviting his Tamil Nadu counterpart to the hill state.

(With PTI inputs)

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NEW DELHI: The two most-sought after items by thieves in the national capital are cell phones and motor vehicles, according to Delhi Police data.

City police register theft cases of at least 120 cell phones a day, which makes the communication gadget the number one item targeted by thieves of all kinds  petty thugs preying on solitary joggers in parks, street muggers, burglars, and pickpockets in public transport.

Police said cell phones make the easiest target because everyone has one these days, and the favourite preying field of thieves is the crowded Delhi Metro, where around 3,600 of the 4,800 registered FIR sat Metro police stations this year are those of cell phone thefts. Last year, a little less than 50% of cell phones lost in the city were reported in Metro and railway stations.

More than 20,500 cell phones have been stolen till July this year, and police believe the number could be much more because many people dont report such thefts.

The second item on the list seldom goes unreported, though.

Cars, motorcycles, and scooters collectively make up the second most-preferred object of thieves. In the first half of 2016, at least 15,900 vehicles were stolen  about 87 a day.

Even battery-operated e-rickshaws, which make up the bulk of neighbourhood short-distance taxis, are not spared. Anything that moves on wheels is a target, an officer said. But the favoured wheels are motorcycles and scooters, data show.

Police manage to recover around 2,000 stolen vehicles every year  a dismal success rate considering the staggering number of thefts in a city which has about 9 million vehicles, the highest in the country.

Police statistics show car and bike thefts are increasing each year. Last year, more than 31,000 vehicles were stolen, compared to 22,219 in 2014.

Unlike cell phones, stolen vehicles are not resold in Delhi. These are smuggled out and reach places as far-off as the Northeast, undetected. Police arrested three men last week, Bareilly natives who travelled 250km to Delhi to steal motorcycles. Their loot, they confessed, was sent to clients in Manipur.

Carjackers operate in gangs, or work alone like super thief  Dhani Ram Mittal who cant stop stealing a car or two even at 77. He is behind bars, as is a gang of ingenious thieves who came in a stolen Audi and took off with a BMW parked at a housing society in Noida this month.

Delhi has a booming market for stolen cell phones, with hundreds of shops such as the ones in Gaffar Market selling used phones. There are experts who can change a phones IMEI number, the unique identity that allows police to trace a stolen one.

An officer has to upload the stolen phones IMEI number, and accordingly track it through its GPS location. This can be done only if the phone is switched on. Even if the GPS location is detected, it requires lengthy analysis and surveillance to pinpoint the exact place where the phone is used, an officer explained.

In April, six men were caught with 448 cell phones, including 310 Apple iPhones. These phones were stolen from 16 different states and brought to Delhi  to be resold. Since iPhones are easy to trace, these were dismantled and their parts sold to dealers at Gaffar Market, an officer said.

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NEW DELHI: A 68-year-old litigant suffered a heart attack and died on Thursday while he was standing in queue for getting an entry pass to Delhi High Courts reception area.

The senior citizen, Suresh Nayyar, was rushed to RML Hospital after he collapsed, where doctors declared him brought dead.

According to advocate Ashok Aggarwal, the incident took place around 10.15am when Nayyar was waiting in queue for obtaining an entry pass to the court for a property dispute case.

Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) secretary Abhijat said: The incident was unfortunate. The bar association will, with the help of the high court administration, put up boards informing litigants that emergency medical facilities are available within the court premises.

Abhijat said the police officers could have rushed the senior citizen to the high courts dispensary, which is run by the Delhi government, for immediate medical attention.

It is surprising that the police authorities did not show presence of mind, he said.

Whenever such an incident has occurred in the past, immediate medical attention has been provided. It is certainly a wake-up call, Abhijat said.

Delhi government dispensary at the high court has facilities such as general OPD, pathology lab, ultrasound, X- Ray, eyes and ortho, physiotherapy, ENT (ear, nose, throat), ECG (electrocardiogram), dental and ayurvedic and homeopathic departments.
NEW DELHI: The suicide of an AAP worker in Delhi over alleged harassment was raised in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday with the BJP saying the Election Commission should derecognise the party.

The Congress, too, made similar demands for AAP for using the image of Golden Temple on its youth manifesto in Punjab.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi claimed that the lady was asked to compromise when she flagged the matter to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and she went into depression, only to commit suicide later.

This is not the case of a woman worker being exploited. A structure is being created within the party to exploit women. The EC must take note of it, said Lekhi, a Lok Sabha member from New Delhi.

Congress MPs Ravneet Singh Bittu and Santok Singh Chaudhary demanded the EC should derecognise the AAP for hurting religious sentiments.

Chaudhary alleged that an AAP legislator has been named in a case of alleged desecration of Koran, while Bittu claimed that using the picture of the Golden Temple on its youth manifesto had hurt the feelings of Sikhs in Punjab. Both also sought derecognition of AAP.
NEW DELHI: Family members of the Aam Aadmi Party worker who committed suicide met chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday even as the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to corner the government over the incident.

Leader of opposition Vijender on Thursday protested at CM Arvind Kejriwals house in Civil Lines.

There was deep resentment among the demonstrators that the CM had gone into a silent mode and is busy in Gujarat politics at the cost of Delhi and its affairs, said Gupta. Protesters were carrying placards demanding resignation of Kejriwal and DCW chief Swati Maliwal.

Gupta demanded a CBI inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the AAP worker.

Later in the day, the BJP organised a candle light march from Jantar Mantar to Connaught Places Central Park.

BJP national vice-president Shyam Jaju said women were the most neglected and harassed under the Kejriwals government.

People of Delhi are shocked by the working style of Arvind Kejriwal. Every person raises only one question, how can a chief minister be so insensitive towards a woman worker of his own party who complained about her exploitation? Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said.

Earlier, family members of the victim met Kejriwal in his office at Delhi Secretariat. Her two daughters, father and father-in-law met the CM. Sources said the CM assured the family of all help.

The government has always been extending its help to the family. The government had stepped in when the victim had approached the public grievance cell in the CM office. The DCP was informed about the case soon after and the FIR was filed. While the chief minister requested the family members to take the case to its logical end, he assured the family of all help in the process, a government spokesperson said.
NEW DELHI: Robin drove an Audi, wore flashy clothes and walked with a swag of a wealthy businessman. The camouflage helped the former porter steal 30 luxury sedans over 14 years.

Robin, who revered Delhi-NCRs notorious auto thief Bunty Chor as his god, would just walk into any house, pick up the car keys and drive away. Security men at the gates of the houses he targeted would salute in awe as he effortlessly played the role like a thespian.

Cases against him have been registered in Delhi, Haryana, UP and Punjab. He was delivering a stolen BMW car to a buyer staying at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Paschim Vihar on Wednesday when the police arrested him. A Fortuner SUV that he stole along with the BMW from Panchkula was also seized.

The police got their first clue from CCTV footage at a Noida Sector 17 house from where Robin stole the BMW car. The footage showed two men entering the compound in an Audi.

One of them stayed in the car, while the other walked in and returned with the keys. He then drove away in the BMW car parked inside the house, said another officer who investigated the case.

We sought help from the local intelligence to trace Robin, he said.

Police came to know that the semi-bald Robin used to wear a wig to disguise himself. Based on the inputs of the local intelligence and their investigation into car theft cases, the police found similar cases registered in several cities.

Based on their probe and tipoff from sources, police came to know that Robin will be in Paschim Vihar to deliver a stolen car. Robin used to carry lights in wedding and other processions, the investigator said.

He wanted to be rich and got his inspiration from the movie Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, which depicted the life of Bunty Chor, he said.

He started idolising Bunty so much that he used to keep his photo in his pocket. Robin was once arrested in another theft case in January and sent to jail. He formed a gang inside the prison and came out on bail in May.

He met Manoj Bakkarwala aka Bunty Chor in jail. He wanted to live a luxurious life and had several girlfriends. He used to steal car and sold them, the investigator said. Robin will be handed over to Uttar Pradesh Police for questioning.

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NEW DELHI: The AAP government on Thursday effected a Cabinet reshuffle, with health and transport minister Satyendra Jain getting additional charge of the urban development department.

The urban development department so far was with deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds charge of 11 other departments  including education, finance, planning, land & building, revenue, vigilance, services, administrative reforms, information technology, law and justice.

The urban development department looks after the work of municipal corporations and development work in unauthorised colonies across the National Capital. Earlier, Jain was also given the charge of transport ministry after Gopal Rai stepped down due to health reasons.
BEIJING: Chinese and Pakistani troops are jointly patrolling a stretch of the border connecting Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Xinjiang against the backdrop of reports that more than 100 Uyghurs from the region have joined the Islamic State (IS).

Chinas state media reported the joint patrolling on Thursday, with the website of Peoples Daily, the Communist Party of Chinas mouthpiece, publishing dozens of photos of armed Chinese and Pakistani troops marching along the border and conducting drills.

There was no report accompanying the photos and it could not immediately be ascertained whether such patrolling was being done for the first time, or the activity was being reported for the first time.

The caption with the photos read: A frontier defence regiment of the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) in Xinjiang, along with a border police force from Pakistan, carry out (sic) a joint patrol along the China-Pakistan border.

What was referred to as the China-Pakistan border is considered by New Delhi as the frontier of PoK, officially an integral part of India.

The joint patrolling comes at a time when Washington-based think tank New American Foundation has said that 114 men from Xinjiang were among thousands of foreign fighters recruited by the IS.

It added that Chinas control over religious activities in northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region could be a push factor driving people to leave the country and look elsewhere for a sense of belonging. Quoting New American Foundation, state media said: Of the more than 3,500 foreigners recruited to join ISIS, the report stated that 114 came from Xinjiang, making the region the fifth largest contributor. Xinjiang followed Saudi Arabia and Tunisia on the list.

Pakistan has repeatedly dismissed reports of the presence of Chinese troops in PoK. These reports had suggested the troops were deployed in the region to protect infrastructure projects funded by China and Chinese personnel working on them.

Work is currently underway on the flagship $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project which will cut through PoK to connect Xinjiang to Gwadar port in Balochistan.

CPEC is expected to connect both countries through roads, railway networks and pipelines. It is an integral part of President Xi Jinpings Belt and Road Initiative.

The photos were also published at a time when Jammu and Kashmir is seething with unrest triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani that has claimed 44 lives.

India recently positioned about 100 T-72 tanks along the frontier with China in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Officially, China refers to Jammu and Kashmir as Indian Controlled Kashmir. Earlier this week, China s foreign ministry said in a statement it wasconcerned by the casualties in the Indian state.

We are equally concerned about the casualties in the clash, and hope that relevant incident will be handled properly. The Kashmir issue is left over from history. China holds a consistent stance and hopes relevant parties will address the issue peacefully through dialogue, the statement said.

The official Xinhua news agency, wrapping up a report from Srinagar on Thursday, said: A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhis rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.
NEW DELHI: Policemen probing the Samachar Apartment murder case in east Delhi said they were looking for a woman, caught on CCTV cameras leaving the flat after the crime.

Vijay Kumar, a retired health ministry official, was found murdered at his flat on Wednesday.

Police sources said the suspected woman reportedly worked as a domestic help at Kumars flat. Investigators, however, refused to share any details, saying it would hamper the probe.

In the CCTV footage, a woman is seen carrying an LED TV that went missing from Kumars flat. A kitchen knife, allegedly used for stabbing Kumar in his chest and abdomen, was also missing, said a police officer.

The suspect is a resident of Trilokpuri in east Delhi. We believe another person was present at the crime spot since three empty tea cups were found on the table. One of the cups had lipstick marks on it, said the police officer, seeking anonymity.

Another camera caught the woman entering through one of the rear gates of the apartments an hour before the crime. What happened after is still a mystery. We are not sure whether the second suspect was already there or entered the apartments after her arrival, the officer said.
NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old BDS student at Jamia Hamdard University in Tughlaqabad, southeast Delhi, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan at her friends room on Tuesday night.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot.

The police said Heena couldnt pay her hostel fee, and got upset when her male friend refused to lend her money. She then locked herself in a room at his house and hanged herself.

Her friend was cooking in the kitchen when the duo had an argument and she locked herself in a room. He didnt take the matter seriously. Later, when he did knock on the door, she didnt respond, said a senior police officer.

Heenas friend said he had to break open the door to get in. He had hung herself with her dupatta.

Police said he raised an alarm and rushed her to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead. Police were informed by the hospital authorities.

He told the police they were to get married soon. He was to visit Heenas family in Bareilly to fix the wedding dates.
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: BSP chief Mayawati took centre stage in national politics and won rare unanimous opposition support in Parliament on Thursday, as protests grew over derogatory remarks about her and atrocities against Dalits.

Thousands of people filled the main streets of Lucknow and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh, demanding the arrest of expelled state BJP leader Dayashankar Singh for comparing Mayawati to a prostitute. They left after the authorities promised to arrest Singh within 36 hours.

The insult to Mayawati, a Dalit icon and four times chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, came at a time the central government has been struggling to contain protests over the beating of four Dalit men by self-styled cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow in Gujarat.

Thursdays demonstrations as well as Mayawatis speech in Parliament signalled that Uttar Pradesh was set to become the focal point of Dalit protest politics, with elections in the state just months away. Accounting for about 21% of the state population, Dalits are a key swing vote.

Implying a political backlash for the BJP, Mayawati said Dalits would never forgive the party for Singhs comments.

People from the weaker sections of society... respect me a lot; they treat me as a goddess and if you say bad things about their goddess, they will feel bad and are bound to protest, she said.

In the Rajya Sabha, her speech bore the hallmark of a potential election pitch. It is a positive thing that the entire Parliament has condemned it. You have not only condemned vehemently, but boosted my morale and motivated me to fight for the cause of Dalits, she said. In the name of cow protection, in the past one and a half years, first there were atrocities against Muslims, now we see even Dalits are not being spared. This is not just in Gujarat but across the country, especially in BJP-ruled states.

The events of the past few days are seen as undermining the BJPs outreach to Dalit, who have traditionally not voted for the party. In Parliament, home minister Rajnath Singh tried to douse the political fire, saying that not only physical violence but also verbal abuses equally insult and hurt a person. I felt ashamed when I was informed about this, he said. On the Gujarat attack, he said four police officials had been suspended and a CID probe ordered.

But that did not mollify the opposition parties, almost all of which jockey for Dalit support.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia pitched the attack against Mayawati as BJPs efforts towards a Dalit-mukt India.

Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury termed the attack on Mayawati as a part of a larger plan to find new avenues of attacking Dalits.

I keep wondering that when it came to Dalits, there is diarrhoea of words and constipation of action. There are voluminous speeches but no action, he said.

Even within the NDA ranks, the BJP stood isolated on the issue.

Its ally and RPI(A) leader Ramdas Athawale said: It is important to protect the cow but who will save humans?

Back in UP, police raided Singhs Lucknow residence twice on Thursday but were told he is possibly on a tour of Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh. His mobile phone was switched off.

Singhs younger brother Dharmendra Singh was taken into custody, police said.

BSP workers also gathered in large numbers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and shouted slogans denouncing the BJP. Besides, party MLAs also protested in the Bhopal assembly.

In Lucknow, Singhs wife, Swati Singh, alleged BSP workers were harassing her and her 12-year-old daughter.

A case must be registered for mentally harassing my daughter, ANI quoted her as saying.

But angry BSP supporters justified their action, shouting slogans such as gaali ke badle gaali (abuse for abuse).
UNA: In the once-sleepy village of Samadhiyala, one of several that dot Una tehsil in Gujarats Gir-Somnath district, the love of cows could be masking a more sinister design  land grab.

Family members of four Dalit men publicly thrashed by self-styled cow activists for skinning a dead cow say the assault was the result of an upper caste conspiracy aimed at grabbing their land and homes.

A video clip of the July 11 incident, which shows the four being flogged by members of a self-styled cow protection group, went viral a day later, sparking nationwide outrage amid allegations of increasing atrocities on Dalits since the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre.

We believe that villagesar panch Prafullabhai Korat conspired with Hindu vigilante groups to organise this attack as he had been eyeing the two acres of land that Dalits have been using to skin dead animals, said Babubhai Veerasbhai Sarowya, fatherof Visrambhai and Rameshbhai, who were among the four assaulted by a group called the Gow Raksha Samiti on charges of cow slaughter.

The sarpanch has since gone into hiding.

The so-called activists had arrived in the village in two vehicles one of which allegedly had President  Shiv Sena  Gir Somath written on its rear windscreen, a fact-finding team was told. The activists allegedly used casteist abuses while flogging the youths though the four victims pleaded that they were only skinning dead cattle. Ahmedabad- based Raju Solanki of the Dalit Haq Rakshak Manch  an organisation that works for the community  was not surprised at Babubhais charge.

Land has always been central to atrocities against Dalits. The Hindu vigilante groups, which mostly comprise the upper castes, have been carrying out atrocities against the Dalits in conjunction with the state administration and the police, he said.

The family of the sarpanch, however, dismissed the charge.

The land being used by the Dalits converges on the borders of three villages, but we are not interested in occupying it. We have enough land of our own, said Jeenabhai Korat, father of the sarpanch.

Samadhiyala, around 300km from state capital Gandhinagar, has suddenly turned into a garrison state  with police vans and pickets at each corner. It has also emerged as a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and intrigues.

One unconfirmed report said that a Dalit youth in a nearby village had committed suicide by consuming acid. Others warn of a bloodbath waiting to happen.

The reason for all this is that, while Dalits have improved their economic status in past decades, the upper castes and the Patels in particular have been growing increasingly insecure, said a veteran Gujarat-watcher.

The justification of this argument was visible at Samadhiyala.

All the 100 Dalit homes  in a village with a population of around 2,000  have concrete homes. One of Babubhais nephews is a final-year engineering student, while his own daughter is training to become a nurse.

In contrast, a majority of the Patels among the states affluent communities but now agitating for reservation in jobs -- living in the rural areas have allegedly lagged behind.

Unemployment has been growing in Gujarat. That is the reason for the current social churn and political upheavals, Solanki said.

Dalit leaders say community members, who constitute about 7 percent of the states population, are subjected to institutionalised caste bias.

Official data show that about 1,000 cases of atrocities on Dalits are reported every year in the state. Figures also reveal that 50 Dalit women are raped and 200 Dalits are murdered on an average every year in Gujarat.

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Three days after an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteer committed suicide after her alleged molester, reportedly a party member, was released on bail, another party worker filed a case of molestation and threat against three men.

Delhi Police said they were AAP workers.

AAP, however, said they had nothing to do with the party.

An FIR under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) has been registered at the Mangolpuri police station. On Friday afternoon, the complainants statement was recorded before a magistrate.

Two of the suspects have been identified as Ravi Hooda and Aditya.

SBK Singh, special commissioner of police (law and order, north), said as per their information, Hooda is the personal assistant (PA) to Sandeep Kumar, Delhi minister for social welfare and women & child development. Aditya and the other suspect are also party workers, he said.

Sandeep Kumar denied any association. The person named by the police has nothing to do with my office or my assembly constituency. He is not at all related to me, he told HT.

Read: Parliament video row: AAP defends Bhagwant Mann, hits out at BJP

The woman in her statement, told them that on Thursday, a self defence conclusion programme for youths was organised in Mangolpuri area where several AAP workers and members were present. During the programme, she was distributing self defence certificates to youths who participated in the event.

The woman entered into an argument with Jamuna Rajora, vice-president of AAPs SC/ST wing in Delhi, over the issue of distributing the certificates, Singh said.

During the altercation, Ravi Hooda and Aditya allegedly misbehaved with her and manhandled her. When she protested, the three used filthy language and threatened her, he said.

The woman alleged that when she brought the matter into the notice of a senior AAP leader, she was asked to sign a compromise letter. When she refused, she was threatened with dire consequences, he added.

We are trying to trace and arrest the three suspects, he said.
Doctors from New Delhis Lady Hardinge Medical College and associated Kalawati Saran Childrens hospital, called off their 36-hour strike after the administration promised to increase security guards and bouncers within 10 weeks.

Nearly 1,200 odd doctors were on strike in protest against three of their colleagues having been manhandled by the relatives of a patient.

We called off the strike after the administration promised that they would increase the number of security guards to 350 and the number of bouncers to 34. We had also demanded that the woman who had bitten the doctor be arrested. Yesterday, we were running the emergency services and closed it today at 9 am as no steps were taken to resolve our issues, said Dr Vivek Chouksey, president of the resident doctors association at Lady Hardinge.

On Friday morning, there was a complete shutdown of OPD and emergency services.

Read | Lady Hardinge docs get bitten, beaten, go on strike

Patients admitted in the non-emergency wards were discharged while nurses attended to patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). The hundreds who approached the hospital were turned away as the hospitals couldnt issue OPD cards.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, one of the nurses said, We were just looking at the charts and continuing the medicine that was being given (to patients).

The Kalawati Saran hospital has the states largest neonatal wing and is among one of the biggest childrens hospitals in Asia.

Tabbasum Begu, 32, who had come from Okhla for the follow-up treatment of her nine-month-old son, had to leave after finding the hospital shut.

My son was diagnosed with pneumonia and is running a high fever. I left my kids alone at home to bring him here as it was his follow-up date, but the hospital seems to be shut. For daily wagers like us, it is so hard to miss a day of work, and now I will have to miss work again tomorrow, she said.

Three-and-a-half-month-old Pari Bhatt was admitted on Wednesday for a high-grade fever, along with severe cold and cough. Since morning, however, she has not been given an injection.

There was no one to attend us here... doctors refused to refer her to another hospital and asked me to take her away at my own risk, said the mother.

Rachna Mishra travels from Kanpur every month to get her 3-year-old son Prakash treated at Kalawati for cerebral palsy, a congenital muscle movement disorder. She had to return to Kanpur without treatment this month. It is wrong for doctors to not treat other children because of what happened with one. They are making so many of us suffer, she said.

The doctors went on a flash strike on Thursday morning, after three of them were beaten up by relatives of a three-year-old girl who died from encephalopathy, a brain disease. One of the doctors was bitten on his arm by a relative.

She was brought to Lady Hardinge late on Wednesday night in a critical condition after being taken to several other hospitals, but by then, her condition was critical and the parents were told right away that she may not survive, a resident doctor from the hospital said.

When the infant died at around 5 am, her parents called up friends and family, gathering nearly 15 people who barged into the paediatric ward and attacked the resident doctors on duty.

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Selling your old diesel vehicle to a suitable buyer outside Delhi might not be easy.

The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday had provided some relief to owners of old diesel cars by allowing them to sell their vehicles outside Delhi-NCR. The order, however, came with an added condition.

The green court ruled that old diesel cars can only in areas where the dispersion of air is high and vehicular density is low. The Regional Traffic Offices (RTO) have in turn been instructed to issue No Objection Certificates for the sale of these vehicles only for such areas.

Read more: Scrap out 15-year-old diesel vehicles in Delhi-NCR in phased manner, says NGT

Wednesdays order on these vehicles read: We clarify that in terms of the orders of the tribunal, every state has to identify areas where the dispersion of air is higher and vehicular density is low. If the states have not done it so far, we grant them one last opportunity to identify such areas and put them on their respective websites. The RTOs in Delhi will issue NOC for transfer of these vehicles only for such areas which are identified by the states.

The states are yet to upload information about such areas on their websites, as per the directions of the tribunal.

Environmentalists question move

Some transport and pollution experts, including those from the Centre for Science and Environment, have questioned the move, wondering why Delhis most polluted vehicles should be allowed to ply elsewhere.

Lawyers of applicants in the air pollution case, however, supported the green courts move and said it was not problematic.

We are happy with the order. The NGT is not allowing the sale of unfit vehicles nor of those that have Bharat Stage I and II emission standards. These vehicles need to be scrapped. Once the fuel quality improves to BS VI across the country, things will improve, said Salik Shafique, one of the lawyers in the case.
Students at Delhi University (DU) are known to be innovators, be it in the field of academics, technology or skill development. One such group, Enactus of Kirori Mal College, is leading the way in involving communities through various entrepreneurial ventures. In their latest initiative, called Project Patradya, the students have come up with a recipe to manufacture edible bowls.

Enactus stands for entrepreneurship in action through the empowerment of communities. We have made edible bowls that not just help with nutritional requirements, but also help reduce the dependability on plastic, says Mansha Siraj, president of the society.

Read: Eco-friendly moves by Delhi University colleges

The ingredients that go into the making of these bowls are grain flours of rice, wheat and jowar, which are easily available. These bowls are packaged within two layers, and every box has a label that clearly lists the ingredients used, so that the consumers know what they are eating, adds Siraj.

Members of Enactus ideate, research and implement projects to empower communities. (Enactus Technical Team)

They involved refugee women from Afghanistan in this project to empower them with sustainable livelihood. For this project, our target was a socially excluded community and our teams were in talks with refugees, transgenders and acid-attack survivors. It just so happened that the idea clicked with the women from Afghanistan, and then began the process of training them, informs Siraj.

Read: World Environment Day: Easy fixes to make your house eco-friendly

Their training was a 3-tier programme that involved workshops on sanitation and hygiene, baking classes, and finally, sessions on the importance of this project. Apart from skills training, we also teach them about the marketing and business side, and how to sell the bowls, says Ayushi Srivastava, project head of Patradya.

Bowls are easier to manufacture, as compared to forks and spoons, because their moulds are cheap and easily available. (Enactus Technical Team)

The society started operations in April of this year, and their first project involved the women of Sapera Basti in Delhis Najafgarh area. We were working with an NGO and looking for suitable communities, when we were told that these women were vulnerable to human trafficking and prostitution. These women were adept in tie and dye, stitching and embroidery. We held workshops for them and trained them with business skills. Now, they are self-reliant and have put up stalls at places like India International Centre, Nature Bazaar and Dilli Haat, says Siraj.

Other sustainable development projects at Delhi University:

1.Solar water heaters at Lady Irwin College

2.Earthen pots for storing water at Kalindi College

3.Solar panel at Dyal Singh College

4.Use of bicycles in and around Ramjas College

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A 28-year-old Dalit woman working as a help at the Queen Marys School, Tis Hazari, was allegedly molested twice on the school premises by the principals brother-in-law.

The woman, who was admitted to a city hospital for two days after an attempted suicide, told the police on Friday that she was threatened by the principal against reporting the incident to anyone.

She claimed she was sexually harassed for one-and-a-half years but chose to remain quiet because two of her children study in the same school.

Police on Monday filed an FIR against accused, Vinod Thomas, under IPC sections 354 (outraging a womans modesty) and 354B (assault or criminal force with intent to disrobe).

DCP (North) Madhur Verma said, We have registered a FIR of molestation. Her allegations that the school had allegedly threatened to expel her children will also be probed.

HT contacted the school principal on her cell phone. A man identified himself as the PRO and said the FIR was that of eve-teasing. He said he would connect us to the principal but despite several calls and three text messages in the evening, she was not available for any comment.

Narrating her ordeal, the woman told HT, He always touched my hand, forced me to stand close to him and passed remarks but I kept quiet because of my kids who study in the same school. Every time I served water, he touched my hand. I continued to put up with this harassment but on June 30, it got worse.

The woman said she was molested twice over two days. On June 30, at around 9am, Vinod allegedly called the victim to give him a glass of water at the principals house which is on the school premises. There was no one in the house then. She said that Vinod grabbed her, touched her inappropriately and tried to kiss her. I fought back and left the house. He threatened to get me arrested in a fake theft case. I chose not to complain because of my kids and thought that he would not do it again, she said.

The woman alleged that the following day, when the principal had left for school, Vinod forcibly pushed her inside the bathroom and disrobed her. He touched me inappropriately and tried to rape me. I managed to run away and told the principal about it. She did not believe me and threatened to expel my children, she said.

Feeling helpless, the woman said that on July 12, she drank phenyl but was rushed to the St. Stephens hospital by her colleagues. I did not tell police anything at the hospital but last week, they started harassing my mother. They transferred my mother to another department, because of which she also suffered a heart attack. I now want justice at any cost. I will also approach the SC/ST commission against them, she alleged.

Bishop Warris Mariah of the Delhi Diocese said he was informed about the case on Friday morning. Police have already registered an FIR. We have also called a meeting on Saturday.

The woman stays with her husband and three children at Majnu-ka-Tilla.

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The Jawaharlal Nehru University has allowed all 21 students, who were allegedly involved in a controversial event commemorating Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, to register for the next semester.

The move came three days after the university issued an order blocking the registration.

The students include union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who were arrested on charges of sedition over the February 9 event where anti-India slogans were allegedly shouted and later released on bail.

Students have been allowed to complete their registration process before July 26 , the last date..., JNU registrar Pramod Kumar told HT.

In June, a month after Delhi high court stayed the punishment of the JNU students in connection with the event, the university formed a four-member committee to hear appeals of those who had been found guilty of indiscipline by a probe panel.

Officials said the earlier move to block the registration came as they were expecting a decision from the committee.

But the final result of the committee will take time so we have decided to allow the registration. Students should not suffer, Kumar said.

On July 18, a circular bearing the names of the students said: The registration of the following students should be blocked till further notice.

The affected students had protested the move, terming it a violation of a court order.

The vice-chancellor has formed a committee to assist him in his capacity as the appellate authority to hear the appeals from students who had been found guilty by the High Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) of violating various university rules during the February 9 incident on campus, an official statement had said.

The HLEC had found 21 people, including two academics from outside the institute guilty of indiscipline. Umar, Anirban and another student, Mujeeb, were rusticated in April. Others were expelled from their hostels or fined.

This was followed by a fortnight-long hunger strike that ended with the Delhi high court asking JNU vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar to decide on the students appeals.

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On the night of July 16, the Ghaziabad police found an eight-year-old boy in Loni area of Ghaziabad. Farzan was ill, alone and unable to talk.

Playing the good Samaritan, the police, instead of sending him to the child welfare committee, got him admitted to a hospital, traced his family and reunited the kid with his parents five days later.

Read more: Cop returns Delhi womans purse he found on Ghaziabad road

The boy had gone missing from outside his house in Seelampur in Delhi. The boys father, Mohammed Tahir, who runs a shop by a pavement, said Farzan went missing while playing outside his house.

We are a poor family and searched for Farzan with whatever resources we had. We searched for him for several days, but got information about his whereabouts on July 21. We thank the police who took care of him and helped him with his treatment. My son is still under treatment at GTB hospital and I hope he will recover soon, he said.

Farzan was found outside a shop near Vijay Vihar in Tronica city, in the Loni area of Ghaziabad.

The boy was unable to talk but when he heard the sound of azaan in nearby mosques, he gave a sign. We approached several mosques and requested them to make announcements about the missing boy. There was no response to the announcement. We approached several temples and a similar announcement was made, said Ummed Singh, station house officer, Tronica City.

We urged Zuber Hussain, Imam of Mehmoodi Masjid, to take care of the boy till next morning.

Read more: Shirt tag helps Ghaziabad cops reunite boy with family

Around 12.30 am on July 17, Hussain called the police station to report that the boys condition was deteriorating. A PCR van rushed him to Khushbu Hospital in DLF, Loni, from where he was taken to GTB Hospital, Delhi.

Two women constables were posted on 12-hour shifts to take care of Farzan in the hospital.

In the meantime, we circulated his photographs and other details over the social media for three days but there was no response. On July 21, the boy recovered and told us about a murga mandi. We searched two places and found one in Seelampur. When contacted, Seelampur police station officials told us that a missing FIR was registered by his parents. Later, the parents were traced and the boy was reunited, Singh added.

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To decongest NH-8, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed a plan to construct a link road which will connect the Ring Road (close to RK Puram) to MG Road via Nelson Mandela Marg (Vasant Kunj). It will be a six-lane bypass road which will share the burden of the busy NH-8.

The residents from the nearby areas are happy with the development, but they are equally concerned about the safety of pedestrians. Nearly 75-80% of the traffic coming from Delhi to Gurgaon takes NH-8. Once this road comes up, it will work as an alternative route and the traffic load on the stretch will reduce. But we want the authorities to also construct enough foot overbridges or underpasses for the safety of pedestrians, said Ashwani Kumar Mehta, chairman, People for Society and Nation, a Vasant Kunj-based organisation.

According to Mehta, many colonies are located along the proposed road including Vasant Kunj and Vasant Vihar. We have written to Nitin Gadkari, minister for road and highways, Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, as the Delhi government will be partly financing the project, said Mehta. The residents have also raised the matter with MP Ramesh Bidhuri and MLA Naresh Yadav.

The Public Works Department had sanctioned two FOBs on Nelson Mandela Road  one near Vasant Kunj Mall and the other near Vasant Kunj Shopping Arcade in 2009. But these could never be materialised. Following our requests, the Delhi government sanctioned construction of two FOBs, said IPS Suri, resident of D-2 block, Vasant Kunj.

The FoB near Vasant Kunj mall was first inaugurated by former minister Yoganand Shastri in 2013. Three months back, PWD minister Satyendra Jain also inaugurated the project, but construction never started here, he said. Now that the road will be transferred to NHAI, residents want the authority to plan FOBs here.

The residents have requested the MP to get two more FOBs  D-6 and D-7, Vasant Kunj (near Massodpur Flyover) and Ganga-Yamuna apartments, Vasant Kunj.

Bidhuri said, I have already asked the urban development ministry to plan at least three FOBs on this stretch. Yadav has also assured to take up the matter with the agency. I will closely watch the project and if required I will request for the Delhi governments intervention. There is no denying the fact that FOBs are important and we will ensure that these are constructed at the points suggested by the residents, he said.

The work on the project will start by the end of this year. A portion of the link road from Ring Road to Nelson Mandela Marg will be elevated.

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In 1984, a young couple committed suicide by jumping off the Qutab Minar, after which the government banned the entry for public, says a guide authoritatively. However, if you walk a little ahead, you can hear another one assert, There was a stampede inside the minaret in 1997. Eight children, who were on a picnic here, were killed. And since then entry is restricted.

Tourist guides while assisting foreigners and Indian nationals at heritage sites narrate varied tales. Most of their narratives, which they swear are the ultimate truth, cannot be found in any historical reference by experts or the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Historians say the traditional guides narrate concocted stories, and to a large extent, the taller the tale, the more it helps them grab the attention of visitors to make their earnings for the day. A guide earns Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 per day.

History experts claim contradicting historical facts about nearly every bit of our heritage has emerged in the backdrop of the rapid change brought about by the Internet and backed by smartphones and tablets. Thus, a tourist nearly always has every possible historical detail about the monument he/ she wants to visit, be it large or small. In view of this, guides allegedly make up their own stories to prove they are superior and have something a typical tourist would not be able to access on the Internet.

For example, Qutab Minar. Made of red sandstone and marble, the construction of the structure  a 73m tall tapering tower with a diameter measuring 14.32m at the base and 2.75m  was started in 1200 AD by Qutb al-Din Aibak, the founder of the Delhi Sultanate. Aibaks son-in-law Iltumish added three more storeys to the tower. A century after, in 1369, lightning struck the top storey, destroying it completely. Firoz Shah Tughlaq then took over the responsibility of its restoration.

Surya Kant has many anecdotes about Qutab Minar. According to him, it was a favourite place of the Britishers to dine. (S Burmaula / HT Photo)

However, some of our inimitable guides, who attend to and show around scores of visitors on a regular basis, say lightning never struck. In fact, the last two storeys were damaged due to high intensity quakes in 1328 and 1368, prompting Tughlaq to begin restoration. These guides also point out that the last two storeys are donned in white marble, a clear testimony that it was a place for British officials to dine. Evidently the East India Company was rather adept at procuring fancy digs.

A senior ASI official agrees that guides give their own descriptions. Thus, it is planning to take steps to ensure that only authorised guides by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, are allowed to enter the monuments.

I cannot tell false stories to visitors, says guide Narendra Singh Rathore who is also trained in French. I tell them every single anecdote that is associated with the history  the real history  and that is needed because they dont know English. But, I have seen some guides who, despite being associated with this trade for ages, tell concocted stories to foreigners as well as Indians.

Many tour guides say they mostly benefit from European visitors or those who dont know English. And those who are well-versed in a foreign language make good wage by assisting them at heritage sites, Qutab Minar being one of them. At least 3,000 people visit Qutab Minar on a day and 300 of them are international visitors who pay Rs 500 per person for entry into the monument site.

Surya Kant, another guide at Qutab Minar, says, Some facts that we know and tell people cannot be called concocted as people who are experts in the field have the same tales in their repertoire. Officials dont usually agree to these factoids or use them as references in their history books, but people are interested in listening to these stories only.

According to him, Qutab Minar was a favourite of the Britishers to dine. There used to be a lot of hustle bustle. People want to know these stories and not the boring details, he adds.

Although guides know a few words of many foreign languages, Narendra Singh Rathore is well-versed in French. (S Burmaula / HT Photo)

At Humayuns Tomb, they say there are rumours of restless spirits due to the presence of 172 graves that mostly belong to the relatives of Mughal king Akbar. They also claim the tomb has all mortal remains of Humayun, however, only two bones have been found here.

Guide Pawan Popli, a History graduate from Delhi University, has been assisting people at heritage sites for the last 25 years. He knows historical facts and is well aware of the myths related to the sites. He believes that unknown facts makes research more valuable.

While briefing some tourists from Karnatka, Popli, donning a hat, said, I wanted to be a guide to know more about our history and heritage sites and give people the correct information. At many heritage sites, I keep having a countering experience with facts.

He said the many facts narrated by guides have been twisted for their survival. However, these stories are not entirely worthless as they have an origin.

His statement is backed by historian Dr Sawapna Liddle. She says, In some cases the stories narrated by these guides at heritage sites do have relevance, but mostly they modify the stories to make them interesting for the visitors. At the end of the day, facts with historical relevance are accepted. They are following all those old stories. For instance, some people say Shahjahan cut the hands of masons who built Taj Mahal, its not true but people have accepted it. This is also the case with other monuments.

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Students at Delhi University (DU) like to keep it short and simple. And no, we arent talking about their college life or even their hangout sessions, were talking about their style quotient.

As classes in Delhi University begin, juniors and seniors seem to be getting the shorts fever. Blame it on the citys humid monsoon or their fashion needs, shorts seem to have become everyone fashion fix  ripped, faded, hot pants, Cherokee, long or short.

To beat the heat, while most girls have paired these with cold-shoulder and off-shoulder tops, boys have transformed their jeans into hot shorts.

While some believe that shorts keeps them comfortable and sweat-free, during the long walks across the campus, there are others who prefer shorts over jeans, because theyre fun, stylish and can be paired with almost anything in their closet. To the extent that some have even used their old shorts to create an Indo-western look by sporting shorts with short kurti and bindi on forehead!

HT City speaks to some of the students to find out how they are reinventing their shorts to create a style statement in monsoon.

Kriti Sharma, B Com student, says kurti and shorts both are weather appropriate. (Manoj Verma/HT)

Kriti Sharma, a B Com (Hons) student, says: I paired this kurti with shorts because theyre both weather appropriate. We all know how comfortable kurtis are, and shorts dont stick to my legs like jeans do. We have classes that last about four hours, add to those two hours of travelling, and I also have to do a lot of walking in the campus  I need to wear clothes I can breathe in and be comfortable in.

Piyush Ashok, a BA student, says shorts are casual yet stylish. (Manoj Verma/HT)

Piyush Ashok, BA student, says: Most boys are conscious about baring their legs but not me. I think shorts are a fun way of dressing to beat the heat. Theyre perfect for us college-goers as theyre casual yet stylish. And just like jeans, they can be paired with almost anything, whether it is a t-shirt or a nice, smart shirt.

Read: Gearing up for first few weeks in college? Heres what you must do

John Kashung says ripped shorts are a cooler version of ripped jeans. (Manoj Verma/HT)

John Kashung, a B Com student, says: Everyone prefers shorts these days as it is so hot and we have so much travelling and walking to do. I got these ripped shorts as I thought it would be a nice stylish twist. Also, ripped jeans look so cool so I thought why not experiment this way! These are a cooler version of ripped jeans.

Palak Motsara believes that shorts add a sporty, casual and tomboyish look to the attire. (Shivam Saxena/HT)

Palak Motsara, an English Hons student, I think shorts are the most summer friendly attire. Theyre comfortable, airy and there is no worry of them flying around, like there is with a skirt. I also like how they add a sporty, casual and tomboyish look while still bordering on the edge of girly. I am wearing them with a floral top today to add an even more summary look to the whole outfit.

Read: DU ki kahaani, seniors ki zubaani

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Over the last two years, G Prakash Raj, a charity worker from Indias Tamil Nadu state, has received hundreds of yellow postcards. Each reads the same. Sent by a migrant child, the postcard informs Raj that the child is safely back home, and more importantly, back in school.

The postcard programme was launched in Tamil Nadu in 2014 as a way of tracking the education of some of the more than 10 million children who are estimated to migrate with their families to different parts of India every year.

When they are at work sites with their parents, we try and ensure they get basic access to education, said Raj, who works for Aide et Action, a non-governmental group which is collaborating with the education department to keep migrant children in school.

When they head back to their villages six months later, they need to go back to school. Tracking that has been a big challenge, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Under the Indian Right to Education Act, every child between the age of four and 16 should be enrolled in school, but government data shows up to six million children aged between six and 13 are out of school in India.

Under the postcard programme, the first to track the education of migrant children across state borders, migrant families working in Tamil Nadu are given a postcard when they head home.

They are required to get it signed and stamped by the principal of the village school and send it back to Aide et Action.

In the postcard, the principal writes back to us saying that the child has been enrolled back in school. Its just a note but we are able to track a childs academics through it, said an official at education department, requesting anonymity.

Last year, 547 postcards were sent back with migrant families from areas around Chennai and 495 came back saying that the children had been successfully enrolled in school.

To ensure the children are back in school, volunteers working with the education department travel to the home states and cross check enrollment.

Families who do not send back a postcard are traced back to their villages and counselled to enroll their children in school.

In Tamil Nadu, most migrants tracked are from Orissa.

The success of the postcard programme has prompted similar initiatives in other migration hubs across India, including in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.

Although Indias law allows children to go to any school in the country, an education department official said that a language barrier kept many migrant children out of school.

India, a country of 1.2 billion people, has 22 official languages and dozens more that are spoken across its 29 states.

We are fixing that slowly, said the official, who declined to be named. We are bringing people and books from home states to help the children in a language they are familiar with.
Edward Snowden says that Oliver Stones dramatisation of his story is a pretty accurate portrayal.

Snowden appeared live from Moscow via Google Hangouts Thursday night at Comic-Con following the first public screening of Stones film, Snowden, to answer audience questions and interact with the cast, including star Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Speaking to a small audience comprised mostly of journalists, Snowden said there wasnt a lot of fictionalisation in the film, which chronicles his life from 2004 to 2013, when he leaked classified security documents to the press.

I dont think anybody looks forward to having a movie made about themselves, particularly someone who is a privacy advocate, Snowden laughed, but said that there was a kind of magic to the film and its potential ability to reach a large audience through narrative storytelling.

Im not an actor. I dont think anyone in politics is really charismatic enough to connect with people on issues that are so abstract, Snowden said. But (actors) can reach new audiences in new ways and get people talking about things that they dont have time to read (or) to look for in the academic setting. By watching the lived experiences ... and tying it back in that magic Oliver Stone moment, it was something that made me really nervous but I think it worked.

Watch Snowden trailer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Oliver Stones thriller

Gordon-Levitt said Snowdens public endorsement means a lot.

Snowden also appears in the film as himself at the very end. While his demeanour in interviews is calm and composed, Stone found his acting to be less than natural.

We did nine takes from several angles, Stone said, half laughing. We got there eventually but it was a painful day.

In addition to looking at some of Snowdens mentors throughout his career, the film heavily focuses in on his relationship with girlfriend Lindsay Mills. Shailene Woodley plays Mills, who Stone said was represented poorly by the press.

Actors Joseph Gordon Levitt, Shailene Woodley and Zachary Quinto attend the Snowden Press Line during Comic-Con International 2016. (AFP)

Read: Joseph Gordon-Levitt met Edward Snowden before filming biopic

I think the media was very unfair to Lindsay at the time and treated her in a very condescending way, he said. He hopes that the film helps to redeem her in the public eye.

Out of necessity, the film takes some liberties with facts that arent in the public record yet, including the pivotal moment when Snowden smuggles the classified files out of the NSA. Without spoiling how the filmmakers chose to dramatise that scene, Stone did reveal that it was actually Snowdens idea.

It was a good idea and we ran with it, Stone said.

Snowden, an Open Road Films release, leaks into theatres on Sept. 16.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
A total of 239 one-horned rhinos have been killed by poachers in Assam from 2001 to 2016, and despite high security, most were from Kaziranga National Park, which accounted for 161, the state assembly was told on Friday.

Replying to a question from the Congress Ajanta Neog, forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma also said that the forest department had so far arrested 661 poachers since 2001.

Giving the statistics, she said that while 161 rhinos have been killed in Kaziranga, 34 of them have been killed in Orang National Park, 15 one-horned rhinos in Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary and nine in Manas National Park. The remaining 20 rhinos have been killed in different areas of the state.

A total of 15 one-horned rhinos have been killed since January this year. While 12 of them were killed in Kaziranga, one each was killed in Manas and Orang, and one in Sonitpur.

Read: Impossible to end rhino poaching, says Assam minister

Brahma also told opposition legislator Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha that a total of 386 persons and 43 animals were killed due to man-animal conflicts in different parts of Assam in last five years.

While 68 people were killed in 2011 due to man-animal conflict, 83 people were killed in 2012. In 2013, 85 people were killed followed by killing of 53 people in 2014 due to conflicts with wild animals. Last year 97 people were killed due to man-animal conflict, she said.

Most of the killings were reported from Sonitpur, Udalguri, Nagaon and Baksa districts, the minister said.

HT in-depth: To save Kaziranga rhinos, forest officials are killing villagers

Brahma further informed that ten animals each were killed in humans in different parts of the state in 2011, 1012, and in 2013. Eight animals were killed in 2014 followed by killing of another five in 2015, she said adding that the killed animals includes 11 wild elephants and 32 leopards.

The minister further said that the government has taken up several steps to stop the man-animal conflicts across the state.


Floods engulfed more districts in Assam on Friday amid heavy deluge and pouring waters of overflowing rivers in the state affecting three lakh people even as the Army swung into action in Chirang district for rescue works.

The state continued to be under the grip of floods with the deluge spreading to nine districts from Thursdays seven, Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.

The affected districts include Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Morigaon, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Sivasagar, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Bongaigain where three lakh people in 464 villages are affected by the swirling flood waters, it said.

Overflowing water of the swollen Brahmaputra and its tributaries has overrun roads in many areas snapping surface communication, breached embankments and caused large scale erosion in many areas, ASDMA said, adding the deluge has also submerged over 25,000 hectares of agricultural land damaging standing paddy crops there.

Based on a call for help from the local people, the Army on Friday sent its four teams in the Khungring area of Chirang, rescuing 30 people who were trapped in their marooned village, a Defence spokesman said in Guwahati.

The Army deployed its boats to reach the marooned people and rescued them making several trips against swift currents to save them and took them to relief camps, he said.

The spokesman said the Army is dedicated towards the safety of the people and despite all odds, is standing by to save people amid concerns of rising water levels in Assam.

The Army Flood Control Centre at Tezpur is also functioning round the clock to monitor the flood situation and coordinate relief and rescue efforts wherever required.

All units under the Area of Responsibility of the Gajraj Corps (4 Corps) are fully alert and geared up to react swiftly to any flood related contingency, he added.

The Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger mark atThe Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger mark at Nematighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur and Dhubri district, Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat district, Jia Bhorali at N T Road Crossing in Sonitpur district, Beki at Road Bridge in Barpeta district and Sangkosh in Golakganj district, ASDMA said.

The district administrations in Bongaigaon, Morigaon and Barpeta have pressed 20 boats into service to rescue and evacuate the marooned people.

Twenty-seven relief camps and seven relief distribution centres have been opened to provide shelter to 12,428 flood-hit people, ASDMA added.
Two Dalit youths were beaten and urinated upon by some men allegedly for stealing a motorcycle in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, according to an FIR filed by the mother of one of the victims.

The incident took place at Babutola under Paru block in Muzaffarpur district on Wednesday night when the two went there to attend a rural fair during ongoing Annapurna-Mahayagya, said the first information report (FIR) filed by Sunita Devi.

The incident comes at a time when Gujarat has erupted in protests against the stripping and flogging of four Dalit youth by a cow vigilante group in Una district for allegedly skinning a dead animal.

In her FIR, Sunita Devi said her son Rajiv Kumar Paswan and his friend Munna Paswan were caught on July 20 by Mukesh Thakur and his henchmen, when they were roaming in the fair, a district police official said.

The two were locked in a room and later badly beaten after being accused of stealing a motorcycle, said the police official, citing the FIR.

Thakur is the husband of Utri-Paru panchayat head, according to the FIR, which names 11 people as accused.

On Thakurs order to humiliate Rajiv and Munna, his nephew also urinated into their mouths, said the FIR.

Sunita Devi said her husband was also attacked and humiliated when he went to rescue Rajiv and Munna.

People participating in the fair intervened to save her husband, she said.

Her husband later informed the local police that freed both his son and his friend and admitted them in a primary health centre, she said.

Main accused Mukesh Thakur has denied the charges against him.

Paru police station in charge Shahnawaz said the police are investigating into the complaint.

Muzaffarpur Superintendent of Police Vivek Kumar said he has asked a deputy superintendent of police to investigate into the complaint.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal took on the BJP in the Prime Ministers home turf on Thursday, accusing the Anandiben Patel government of Gujarat as being complicit in last Mondays brutal attack on five Dalit youths at village Samadhaliya in the states Una tehsil while lashing out against the party for its anti-Dalit position.

A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis visit, Kejriwal arrived at the dusty village to promise a countrywide campaign against the partys anti-backward policies.

If it takes a human tragedy for politicians to visit remote Dalit homes, Samadhaliyas list of VIP arrivals has been growing. After Gandhi and Kejriwal, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Union minister Ram Das Athawale are among those scheduled to arrive.

At the one-roomed dwelling of Balubhahai Sarowya  father of two of the six Dalits publicly flogged by a Hindu vigilante group  the stream of visitors has remained unending.

Since VIP visits have become inevitable, villagers have been attending to housekeeping issues. A makeshift rug to provide seating arrangements has been arranged and a few plastic chairs have also sprung up. Tiny plastic cups of tea are in circulation while a visitors notebook had been arranged for at Sarowyas house. Kejriwal was seen noting down his mobile and other contact numbers in it.

Since it is not often that the administration reaches the village, the villagers have been trying to make the best of the opportunity. An old lady was seen petitioning a local official to resolve her long pending land dispute. A gaggle of youth was heard providing details of bootlegging activities from the nearby Union Territory of Diu to another. One villager was heard making passionate pleas on the need to set up a dispensary in the village; anothers concern was about the need to install more numbers of solar lights.

For his part, Kejriwal kept to the script. My information was that police batons were used. The state administration, police and the vigilante groups  they are functioning as a team. Atrocities against Dalits, with the knowledge and even at the behest of the BJP government, is happening across Gujarat. But the state government takes no action.

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Eight months after the BJPs drubbing in the Bihar Assembly elections, there is a palpable sense of disquiet among a handful of the partys Muslim leaders who insist that it needs to do more to gain the communitys support.

Most of them are not quite sure of their standing in the party. Two prominent Muslim leaders - former ministers Akhlaq Ahmad and Monazir Hassan, have already left the BJP. While Ahmad quit just before the polls, Hassan left shortly after the elections.

Sources in the BJP attributed this to the flagging of the partys Muslim outreach, that had hordes of Muslims joining the party ahead of the assembly election, as a section of the community chose to bet on the BJP-led NDAs possible victory in the Assembly polls.

But the NDAs pathetic show, winning just 58 of the 243 Bihar Assembly seats against the RJU-JD(U)-Congress combines 178 seats, quickly muddied the scene for the BJPs Muslim leaders. The BJP which accounted for 53 of the NDA 58 seats, has since shifted its focus to UP where elections are due next year.

With the BJPs political activity taking a backseat in Bihar, its Muslim leaders, already at odds with their communitys anti-BJP sentiment that contributed to its big poll defeat, are feeling frustrated and do not seem to have a roadmap for themselves.

The BJP clearly has a preference for Hindus. It seems to have lost interest in Muslims after the poll defeat although they constitute 18% of Bihars population, said Abdur Rahman, one of just two Muslims the BJP fielded in the Assembly elections.

I raise my voice in the party (on Muslim issues) but nobody hears it because there are so few of us in the BJP, said Rahman, who secured 35,000 votes and came third from Kochadhaman in the Muslim hub of Kishanganj in eastern Bihar.

The partys only other Muslim candidate in the Assembly elections, Saba Zafar who lost from Amour, said the BJP needed to do more to attract Muslim support.

At a time when ground has slipped from under its feet in Bihar, the BJP needs Muslims more than ever before. I am trying hard to attract Muslims to the party but it is not easy. The party leadership needs to pay more attention to this, said Zafar who was the BJPs Muslim face in the Bihar Assembly for five years (2010-15),

Another former Bihar minister, Jamshed Ashraf, who ran a campaign called Muslim Bedari Muhim to attract Muslims towards the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections, said good work being done by PM Narendra Modi was not being used properly to attract Muslims to the BJP.

Former Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali, who was inducted into the BJP despite opposition from union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, sounded frustrated over not being adjusted suitably in the party. But its okay. Some things take time, he said.

Former minister Monazir Hassan, who made an acrimonious exit from the BJP after the Assembly polls, for criticizing the party, said he got frustrated because the party never made him part of the decision-making process and denied him any say in ticket distribution.

Another ex-minister Akhlaq Ahmad quit the party to contest the Assembly election from Karakat in Rohtas district, on a ticket of Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadavs Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik).

BJP state spokesman Azfar Shamsi, a loyalist who has been with the party since 1985, said the party needed greater realization of electoral arithmetic and suitably use its credible Muslim leadership.

Upsetting Muslims unnecessarily through irresponsible statements by some leaders serves no useful purpose. Such statements made Muslims vote more aggressively against the BJP, which contributed to our Assembly poll loss, he said.

But BJP Bihar unit president Mangal Pandey insisted that the party has not become indifferent towards Muslims. Political activity as a whole is at a low ebb in Bihar at present. As more time passes after the assembly poll, it will pick up again, he explained.

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Seeking to turn the tables on BSP chief Mayawati, BJP on Friday asked her to tender an apology and take action against her party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui for his abusive language targeting expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singhs daughter.

The party said it took Singhs slur against Mayawati very seriously and expelled him from the party but she was justifying Siddiquis use of derogatory language and her stand was condemnable.

Siddiqui said Singhs daughter should be presented before the crowd. This is an insult to the woman; sisters and daughters. We condemn Mayawatis justification of it. She should not do politics over it and damage the states social harmony in her greed for power.

BJP demands that she offer an unconditional apology and take action against Siddiqui, its national secretary Shrikant Sharma said, noting that senior BJP leaders had regretted Singhs comments.

The BSP supremo had reportedly said that her followers treat her like a deity and were making angry statements due to Singhs comments against her.

The states social cohesion had suffered due to the poor law and order situation under the Samajwadi Party government, he alleged, adding that Mayawatis stand can worsen it.

Questioning her commitment to the Dalit cause, Sharma said she did not visit the home of any Dalit woman who were sexually assaulted under the Samajwadi Party government.

The cases of atrocities against women in UP are more than anywhere else. Did Mayawati visit any Dalit victim? he asked, saying over 1000 Dalits were killed when she was the chief minister and over 29000 cases of atrocities against them were registered.
Crimes against Dalits in Gujarat are far lesser than what the Centre had reported earlier, says police data, but the bad news for the community is in the states poor conviction record in such cases.

A Right to Information reply by the Gujarat director general of police said 1,052 cases of crime against Dalits were reported in 2015. This is a sixth of the figure of 6,655 cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in 2015, according to data circulated for a review meeting in the Union social justice ministry on Thursday in Delhi.

But the RTI reply still painted a grim picture for Dalits in the state, reporting a mere 8% conviction rate. This, however, may be an improvement by Gujarats standards. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the conviction rate for crimes against Scheduled Castes was just 2.5 % in 2013 against a national average conviction rate of 23.8%.

The RTI reply also reported more than 4,500 pending cases and the rape of a Scheduled Caste woman every fourth day. HT accessed a copy of the RTI reply that was released on June 4.

The data comes at a time when Gujarat has erupted in protests against the stripping and flogging of four Dalit youth by a cow protection vigilante group in Una for allegedly skinning a dead animal.

Prominent politicians have rushed to the poll-bound state and authorities have showered compensation upon the victims. But the RTI reply shows the four victims were part of a broader pattern of violence, in which three Dalit men are thrashed in the state every day. Most of the cases dont even reach the court or police station, said Kaushikbhai Parmar of the Dalit Adhikar Manch, a local NGO.

These figures may give fresh ammunition to the Opposition, which has targeted the Centre for growing violence against Dalits and minorities. Congress has accused the government of unleashing social terror. Activists say the reason for the poor conviction rate is due to apathy by local police, which often dont register complaints or collect evidence seriously. Look at the Una case. Many relevant sections werent applied. Hence, when such cases come to court, there are loopholes and the public prosecutor loses, said Parmar.
Swati Singh, the wife of Bharatiya Janata Partys expelled UP unit vice-president Dayashankar Singh, said on Friday her family was facing threats in the wake of protests over the leaders controversial remarks against BSP chief Mayawati.

Singh triggered a storm for comparing the Bahujan Samaj Party leader to a prostitute, with thousands of angry BSP workers thronging Lucknow to stage a protest on Thursday.

Police are under pressure to arrest Singh, who is on the run. Rumours are rife that Singh might have fled to neighbouring Nepal or Bihar but his supporters say he might soon surrender in court.

Read: Why BJP was quick to show the door to Dayashankar Singh

We have not been provided any security cover and we are living under fear, she told reporters on Friday afternoon, hours later her mother-in-law filed an FIR against senior BSP leaders.

Swati told reporters that a number of abuses were directed at her family by the protesters during the protest in Lucknow where BSP workers allegedly demanded that both her and her daughter be presented before them.

I condemned the distasteful comment made by my husband against Mayawati but that does not give BSP leaders licence to make outrageous comment against me and my daughter. The BSP leaders have threatened to attack us, she told reporters.

Read: UP police launch manhunt to nab Dayashankar Singh as BSP threatens protests

Tetra Devi, Swatis mother-in-law, said after filing the FIR at the Hazratganj police station: My 11-year-old grand-daughter was under so much trauma, that she fell ill.

Singhs children, who didnt wish to be named, said they had stopped going to school because of the BSP workers threats.

The daughter studies in Class 7 and the son in Class 4 four in a reputed school in the city. The family has demanded security at their residence.

Singhs remarks have triggered massive protests and a political storm in Parliament with all parties coming together to back Mayawati. The BJP sacked Singh within hours of the remark with finance minister Arun Jaitley apologizing to the Dalit leader.

His comments have taken a political colour ahead of assembly polls in the state early next year as the Dalit community forms more than a fifth of the states population and is likely to prove crucial.

BJP protests

On the back foot, BJP state president Keshwav Prasad Maurya announced an agitation against the BSP.

party leaders and workers across the state have been asked to take to streets to demand the arrest of BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui and other BSP leaders and workers who used indecent language against Dayashankars wife and daughter, Maurya said.

(With inputs from Pankaj Jaiswal in Lucknow)

Read: BJP expels Daya Shankar from party for comparing Mayawati to prostitute
Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel accused political leaders, making a beeline to meet Dalit victims who were beaten up in Una, of trying to gain a political mileage ahead of next years elections and said on Friday that they should not be trusted.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and NCP leader Praful Patel have met the victims and their families at Mota Samadhiyala village in Gir Somnath district in the last couple of days.

They came, spoke and went away, but the state government is doing what needs to be done...dont trust them. Have faith in our government, Patel said, speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar. Her government had acted promptly to ensure justice for victims, she said.

Political parties are trying to get a mileage out of the issue and creating a political controversy because of the (assembly) elections due next year, she said.

But Dalits and suppressed classes of Gujarat know what our government has done for them in last fifteen years. There is not a single community that has not benefited from government largesse... We do not discriminate among members of various communities and will never do.

The chief minister said police had arrested sixteen people immediately after the incident. The case would be tried in a designated court for which notification had been issued. CID had taken over the probe and the government had paid compensation to the victims, she said.

On July 11, some Dalit youths from Mota Samadhiyala who were skinning a dead cow were flogged by cow protection vigilantes, alleging that they had killed the cow.

After a video of the incident went viral, it sparked off violent protests across Gujarat.
Struggling to contain the two-week long unrest in Kashmir that has left 44 people dead, the PDP-BJP ruling combine may open talks with the separatists to restore calm in the Valley.

Restoration of peace in Kashmir is the priority and holding talks with separatists was the essence of the all-party meeting, deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh said on Thursday.

Singhs BJP has been reluctant to engage with the Hurriyat Conference, though talking to separatists was part of the agenda for alliance the two unlikely partners agreed to before coming together to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Members of all parties except the opposition National Conference participated in the five-hour meeting called by the Mehbooba Mufti government in Srinagar. The meeting condemned violence while condoling the loss of life.

Read: Strict restrictions ahead of Friday prayers, curfew on for day 14

Curfew continued for the fourteenth day in the Valley rocked by violent protests after the July 8 encounter death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. The government even banned newspapers in the Valley for a few days in order to control the situation. Newspapers hit the stands after five days on Thursday.

all the participants spoke on various aspects like how to deal with the situation. Actually, it was a very constructive meeting, Singh told media.

The government asked all parties to keep all options open, Singh said when asked if the government was ready to talk to the Hurriyat. We requested all the parties that channels (of dialogue) should be kept open with all the parties because stalemate is there. This (dialogue with separatists) is also mentioned in PDP-BJPs agenda for alliance document.

The National Conference should have attended the meeting as it was the main opposition party in the state, he said. Omar Abdullah-led National Conference boycotted the meeting, terming it a meaningless exercise.

Read: Stop inciting terrorism, meddling in our affairs, India tells Pakistan

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The Supreme Court issued notice on Friday to lone convict in the Pune German bakery blast case, Mirza Himayat Baig, on Maharashtra governments appeal for death sentence.

A bench of Justice PC Ghose and Justice AK Roy sought Baigs response after state counsel Nishant R Katneshwarkar contended the Bombay high court judgement acquitting him of all terror charges as illegally unsustainable. He said there was enough circumstanstial evidence to show that he participated in the conspiracy to carry out the blast that claimed 17 lives in 2010.

On March 17, 2016 the HC acquitted Baig from serious charges under various sections of the Unlawful Prevention (Activities) Act and the IPC, including sections 302 (murder) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

It convicted the 32-year-old for possessing a document knowing it to be forged with intent to use it as genuine and under the Explosive Substances Act because it was proved that he was in custody of explosives. Baig is serving life imprisonment.

Baig, who was alleged to be a member of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, was arrested in September 2010 from Latur in Maharashtra for involvement in the blast case.

In 2013, the trial court had convicted him to death.

Maharashtra governments appeal raises 20 grounds while assailing the high court order. It said the HC ignored last seen evidence against Baig in which an auto rickshaw driver confirmed the convict was in possession of the planter of the bomb.

In the test identification parade the autorickshaw driver identified the respondent (Baig). In spite of that, the high court held that the plea of the prosecution that the respondent was last seen with planter of the bomb does not gets credence, read the appeal.

The plea asserted there was a definite connection between the explosive recovered from Baigs possession and the explosive used in the bomb.

Besides Baig, another accused Qateel Siddiqui was also arrested in the case, but he had died in Punes Yerawada jail following a scuffle with other inmates.

The other wanted accused are Indian Mujahideen operatives  Yasin Bhatkal, Mohsin Choudhary, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Ismail Bhatkal, Fayyaz Kagzi and Sayyad Zabiuddin Ansari.

Yasin, who had allegedly planted the bomb in the eatery, was arrested in August 2013. The case against him is pending before the trial court.
The government is speeding up the process to collect biometric information at its missions of all those who visit India when they apply for a visa as part of augmenting its security measures in line with its policy to promote tourism and business.

The facility is now available in 78 missions. Government sources said it would be rolled out in all 178 missions within a year.

Various measures are in place to ensure that the visa regime of the country is a facilitator to genuine travellers. The effort has been to not compromise security, while ensuring the travellers are not inconvenienced, explained an official.

The effort falls within the ambit of the Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT), kick-started in 2010 under the National e-Governance Plan.

The scope of the project is to bring 178 missions, 77 Immigration Check Posts (ICP), five Foreigners Regional Registration Offices (FRRO) and Foreigners Registration Offices (FRO) in state/district headquarters under a secure service delivery platform.

In other words, details of a travellers identity at a missions ICP, FROs is ascertained through the use of intelligent document scanners and biometrics, foreigner details of entry and exit points are updated, tracking of foreigners whereabouts is improved through information sharing.

India now gives e-tourist visa to nationals from 150 countries whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing, a casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit. Biometric details of the foreigners visiting India on e-tourist visas are captured on arrival at 16 designated Indian airports.
An Indian air force plane carrying 29 personnel went missing over the Bay of Bengal on its way from Chennai to the Andaman Nicobar Islands on Friday, triggering an expansive search involving helicopters, warships and a submarine.

The Russian-origin Antonov-32 plane disappeared about 280 km off the coast of Chennai from where it had taken off at 8.30 am. It was due to arrive around midday at Port Blair -- about 1400km away -- which hosts Indias only tri-service command.

The plane was flying 12 air force personnel, one each from the army, navy and coast guard and eight civilians, some of them family members of soldiers. It also had a crew of six. The medium-lift plane, upgraded last year, can fly for four hours and 15 minutes without refuelling.

The aircraft was observed to have carried out a left turn with rapid loss of height from 23,000 feet, an Indian Air Force (IAF) official told Hindustan Times.

IAF officials said the missing plane made its last radio contact at 8.46 am and it was last seen on the radar at 9.12 am.

At least four planes, including two P-8I long-range maritime surveillance aircraft, helicopters and 13 warships are scouring the sea looking for the plane.

A submarine has also been diverted to the area for locating the transmissions from emergency locator beacon on board the aircraft, a navy spokesperson said.

Indian Air Force personnel stand guard at Tambaram airforce station in Chennai. (AFP)

The AN-32 has been in service with the IAF since 1984. There are 101 such planes in the air forces inventory. The one that has gone missing was overhauled and upgraded at the IAFs 1 Base Repair Depot in Kanpur in September. It had flown 279 hours after being upgraded, IAF officials said.

The mid-life upgrade and life extension of the AN-32 fleet began in 2010 and 40 planes have been upgraded in Ukraine over the last five years. Ten planes have been upgraded at the Kanpur facility.

The Indian air force has gradually been getting rid of its older planes, some of which date back to the 1960s.

Experts have warned Indias delay in revamping its outdated military aircraft threatens national security, with some of the fleet virtually on their last legs.

Retired Air Marshal Anil Chopra said searching for an aircraft in an ocean was complex and that knowledge of the last known position of the plane would be critical for any breakthrough.

Unfortunately the radar cover in Indian east coast does not cover full area... As time elapses uncertainty and risk increases, he posted on Twitter.

Searching an aircraft in an ocean is as complex as finding a ping pong ball on Siachen glacier, he tweeted, referring to the Himalayan glacier.

(With agency inputs)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised contemporary Indias top sants for their growing involvement with his governments welfare initiatives, particularly in the field of hygiene.

Our sants today are no longer confined to talking and preaching spirituality. They are voluntarily associated with social missions like Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, he said at a gathering at the famous Gorakhnath temple on Friday. It is a welcome development.

The PM was in the city to lay the foundation stone of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences and a fertiliser plant later in the day.

He also paid obeisance to Gorakhnath, the idol at the monastic shrine.

The 11th-century temple played a key role in mobilising people in eastern Uttar Pradesh during the 1990s Ram Janmabhoomi movement, but the PM avoided any talk of the controversial right-wing mission to build a temple in Lord Ramas birthplace at Ayodhya.

Modi, instead, chose to praise the new-age sants for their involvement with the NDA governments pro-people initiatives. At the sant samagam, he lauded the contributions of Hindu leader Mahant Avaidyanath, saying the local MP who died two years ago was an embodiment of benevolence.

I knew Mahant Avaidyanath even before I was in politics, the PM said after unveiling a statue of the sant, also a former head priest of Gorakhnath temple. I learned the value of compassion from him.

He praised local BJP Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath, who is also Avaidyanaths successor at the shrine. The temple has a great legacy--and has always upheld its great age-old traditions. I know for sure that no person returns hungry from Gorakhnath mandir, Modi said amid applause.

While the PMs temple visit and short speech was out of bounds for the media, sources said the attendees included Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas chief Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Suresh Das, Mahant Vasudevacharya, Ramanujacharya Purshottamacharya from Ayodhya, Rambhadracharya from Chitrakoot, VHP leader Swami Chinmayanand and Gujarats Mahant Gulabnath.

Political observers have attached special significance to the PMs Gorakhpur visit marked primarily by giving a boost to healthcare and job generation.

The Swacch Bharat Abhiyan launched 21 months ago covers 4,041 statutory cities and towns across the country, striving to clean their roads and improve infrastructure. Another pet project of the BJP-led government is the Rs 2,137-crore Namami Gange that seeks rejuvenate the Ganges and beautify the river-fronts along its course in both the mountains and plains.

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The Gujarat government cares more for gau rakshaks (cow protectors) than gau suraksha (cow welfare), say activists in the state that is currently in the spotlight for the brutal thrashing of four Dalit youth by suspected cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow.

Gau rakshaks are awarded Rs 500 for every cow they rescue under a government scheme. The rescued cattle and also those abandoned by their owners are sent to panjrapole (cow shelters) run by local trusts. The government pays a one-time grant of Rs 2,500 for every cow  enough to buy it fodder for 10 to 15 days  and, thereafter, the animal is at the mercy of those running the shelters.

Gujarat has 220 talukas (subdivisions made up of several villages) and each taluka has two cow shelters on average. Some 660,000 cows are estimated to be housed in these shelters across the state and struggling to survive without government support, says Bharat Sinh Jhala, president of Kissan Adhikar Manch, a farmers group. The trusts tasked with running the shelters rely mostly on contributions from locals and NGOs.

Activists say a large number of cattle is more or less left to die at these shelters, at a time when cow vigilantes are virtually running amok with the goal of saving the animal  considered sacred in the Hindu religion.

The government is more interested in helping cow protectors than cows. Its because cow protectors give the government political mileage, alleges Dilip Singh Parmar, convenor of a trust that runs one such shelter in Muli taluk of Surendranagar district.

Its a charade the government runs, says activist Pratik Sinha. They will not let Dalits skin dead cattle because it hurts their sentiments. They will not let Muslims trade the animals because the cow is their mother. But they have no problem when these animals die of starvation in the panjrapole.

According to the gauseva board, the state spent Rs 2.17 lakh in 2012 paying gau rakshaks Rs 200 for every cow they rescued. In 2013-14, the reward was raised to Rs 500 and the cow protectors received Rs 6.47 lakh for their heroism.

In contrast, the shelters and their inhabitants are starved of money. And with successive years of drought leading to cattle being abandoned in large numbers, space at the shelters is also being squeezed.

In 2012, we had around 600-700 cattle. Now, we have 1,600. The 2012 drought made many farmers abandon their cattle, says Parmar. He has not received any state grant for maintaining the abandoned cattle.

Gujarats Gir or Kankrej breed of cows, with their majestic horns, are known for their high milk yield and credited with the states white revolution. A Gir cow gives a minimum of 10 litres of milk a day. They are among the best in the country, says Dr Ghulam Nabi Mansoori, a veterinarian and one of the only Muslim members of the states gauseva board.

The most prized cattle in the state are being abandoned by the lakhs. There is a massive crisis in the state following the drought that started in 2012. But the BJP-led state government is doing nothing to help the cattle. It is only interested in using them for politics, says Jhala.
Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) are known across India for their academic excellence and a wide network of good, inexpensive schools. But away from the classroom, the teachers are busy playing cupid.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) -- which looks after the schools -- runs a popular matrimonial service on its website that gives details of more than 100 unmarried teachers who wish to find partners within the so-called KV family.

The link to the matrimonial service  found on the right side of the bottom panel of the website  lists the names, addresses, designations, email ids, dates of birth and even the phone numbers of prospective brides and grooms.

It is a good initiative as its free of cost and there are a number of KV teachers who want to get married to a teacher as they have similar working hours, said a KV teacher from Maharashtra who uploaded his details online.

The scheme was started in 2012 to help some of the 55,000 teachers across 1,128 Kendriya Vidyalaya schools to find each other, meet and possibly get married. Officials say the teachers provided their details voluntarily.

The KVS is now forming a committee for review and take a call on whether to continue with the scheme and ways to improve it.

We are forming a committee which will review whether to continue with this scheme. The information uploaded on the website has to come through the principal of the school. We dont entertain applications otherwise for safety, said UN Khaware, additional commissioner (academics), KVS.

The level of details available is no less than a professionally run matrimonial website. Whats better, teachers say, is that the stamp of the government-run KVS ensures safety and no threat of stalkers or abusive calls.

The link to the matrimonial service  found on the right side of the bottom panel of the website  lists the names, addresses, designations, email ids, dates of birth and even the phone numbers of prospective brides and grooms.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) -- which looks after the schools -- runs a popular

I wanted to get married to someone from the same field. It helps to have someone who has similar timings. I posted my information and got a few calls but it didnt work out. But it is a good platform, said Nikhil Kesharwani, a music teacher in KV.

But like all matrimonial services, this one too is not without glitches. Far too often, teachers find that a few phone calls dont lead to anything concrete.

I got a number of calls after I posted my information online and met a few of them too. But then my family found a girl and I got married to her, said a KV teacher who had provided his information on the website.

And just as with any other government service, many others complain that the data is not up-to-date and is seldom updated. Phone numbers, especially, arent in use by the person against whose name it is listed, causing many blushes to prospective suitors.

I have been getting calls regarding a KV school teacher. The person must have got transferred and changed his number without updating it on the website, said a woman getting calls for the past two years regarding match-making.

Others say the organisation didnt remove their information even after their marriage.

Details of unmarried teachers were put online but I got calls after I got married. I have given two applications to remove my information from the website now, said a KV teacher who provided his information a few years ago when he was posted in Gujarat.

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Gujarat reported a five-fold jump in crimes against Dalits in 2015 over the previous year, data released by the national commission for scheduled castes shows, giving credence to charges that the community was vulnerable in the PMs home state.

The report comes at a time when Gujarat has erupted in protests against the stripping and flogging of four Dalit youth by a cow vigilante group in Una district for allegedly skinning a dead animal.

The state reported 6,655 cases of atrocities against scheduled castes, figures circulated for a review meeting on Thursday show. Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with 8,946 cases.

Gujarat, however, had the highest rate of atrocities against Dalits in 2015. It recorded 163 crimes for every 100,000 SC population, compared to 43 for Bihar.

These figures will give fresh ammunition to the Opposition, which has in Parliament targeted the Centre for growing violence against Dalits and minorities. The main opposition part, the Congress, has accused the Modi government of unleashing social terror in the country.

Another BJP-ruled state, Chhattisgarh, also shows a spurt in crimes against the scheduled castes. Around 3,000 cases of atrocities against Dalits were registered last year.

The agenda notes for the meeting to review the implementation of safeguards for Dalits flagged the figures to the two states, pointing that the sudden increase in respect to Gujarat and Chhattisgarh was abnormal. In 2014, Gujarat had reported 1,130 such incidents and Chhattisgarh 1,060.

It can be seen from the analysis... that Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh are the states that deserve special attention, the document said.

Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar account for nearly 40% of all reported crimes against members of the schedule caste community in 2015.

Addressing the meeting, social justice minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said there had been a rise in cases of atrocities against people of reserved class.

We feel such incidents should not happen. It is a matter of concern for us. If at all such cases happen, states must ensure speedy and prompt justice to victims, the minister said.

Read | Cultural practices of caste-Hindus obstructing justice for Dalits

Read | Old enmity behind flogging of Dalit youths in Una: Fact-finding team
The Indian Army and the United States army will participate in a joint military exercise in Uttarakhand in September this year in a bid to share experiences and techniques.

This year it will be the 12th edition of the exercise in the Yudh Abhyas series that started in 2004 as part of US Army Pacific partnership programme, an army official said. It will be held at the Chaubatia Military Station in Ranikhet, where a joint exercise of both the armies was also conducted in 2014.

Last year, armies of both the nations met at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the US.

Chaubatia Military Station in Ranikhet, where a joint exercise of both the armies was also conducted in 2014. (Photo: Indian Army)

Indo-US joint training exercise will be a battalion level exercise. As part of the combined training, the contingents are (already) sharing tactics, techniques, procedures and operational experiences to improve interoperability between the two armies, an Indian Army spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, a three-day long meeting was conducted between the US and Indian Army officials at Ranikhet to chalk out a plan for the proposed drill. Sources said officials deliberated on issues related to coordination, conduct and training aspects of the exercise.

Dehradun-based Brigadier (retd) KG Behl said the joint military drills are crucial for the forces as they learn new techniques.

Earlier this week, a three-day long meeting was conducted between the US and Indian Army officials at Ranikhet to chalk out a plan for the proposed drill. (Photo: Indian Army)

Such drills help in a big way. The jawans and officials learn about new weaponry, warfare techniques and also they get a chance to showcase strength, Brig (retd) Behl said.

In the backdrop of unfolding strategies on the global defence arena, the countries sharing a common interest are coming on a single platform. Earlier in June, a trilateral naval exercise was held between India, US and Japan close to the South China Sea.
The Indian consulate in Munich has put out an advisory and helpline numbers so that Indians in Munich could report their safety from the shooting rampage at a mall in the German city of Munich in which eight people have been killed and several injured.

Read: Live updates on Munich attack

Safety of Indian nationals may be informed on Indian Consulate, Munich helpline numbers 0171 2885973, 01512 3595006, 0175 4000667, a post said on official Twitter account of the Consulate General of India in Munich, Germany.

All those undertaking travel to Munich are advised to be in touch with their respective airlines/travel agencies, another post said.

Meanwhile, Ambassador of India to Germany Gurjit Singh tweeted that people should follow the police advice.

#Munichattack. Situation live& not conclusive. #IndianCommunity must follow police advice:stayindoors help others stayin touch with groups, Singh wrote on official twitter account IndianAmb in Germany @AmbGurjitSingh.

#Munichattack.our heart is for Munich &Germany, another tweet said.
A youth was killed in fresh clashes between protesters and forces in south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Friday, taking the death toll to 47.

The youth, identified by sources as Mushtaq Ahmad of Awantipora, was hit by a bullet from retaliatory firing by forces during clashes.

He was brought dead to Srinagars SMHS hospital in the afternoon, succumbing on the way.

Sources at SMHS confirmed the death and added that two more injured patients have been brought.

Earlier in the day, Ishtiyaq Ahmad, who was injured in clashes in Anantnag district a few days ago, died at SKIMS hospital in Srinagar in the morning.

Rajnath Singh to visit Srinagar today

In a first overt political outreach to the Valley, Union home minister Rajnath Singh will reach Srinagar on Saturday to meet various delegations there.

Singh is the first high-profile political leader from the ruling NDA government to visit Srinagar after the unrest that engulfed the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

He is likely to reach Srinagar at 11 AM and will hold first meeting with chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior state officials to review law and order situation there.

During his two-day stay, he will hold meetings with different sections of the society there, said home ministry officials. The officials didnt specify the number or composition of such delegations.

He will meet representatives of political parties, social organisations and leading citizens to get their feedback about the situation, said a home ministry official.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for second successive day on Saturday on his continued silence on atrocities against Dalits and wondered whether these incidents are taking place at his instigation.

Auron ki khansi/jukhaam per chichiyate hain, per gareeb/dalit ko maara peeta ja raha hai us per lambi chuppi! Inhi ki to shah nahin? (He shouts at mere cough and cold of others, but keeps mum for long when the poor and Dalits are beaten up... are the incidents taking place at his instigation), Lalu said in a tweet.

He was replying to a tweet by his son and deputy chief minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadavs tweet goading the Prime Minister to speak at his rally in Gorakhpur on atrocities against Dalits.

Dear @narendramodi Ji, Hope u wil speak tdy in Gorakhpur on #DalitAtrocity takn place aggressively in ur regime. Plz gv hard msg to ur caders, Tejaswi tweeted.

Slamming Modi for his silence on Saturday on assault of some Dalit men in Gujarat last week, Lalu had tweeted that the PM who cries at the drop of a hat or tweets on anything happening even saat samundar paar (seven seas away) wont utter even a single word on unfortunate incidents in Gujarat.

The incident at Una in Gujarat, where Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral. The victims contention was that they were skinning a dead cow and had not killed it.
A landowner who signs a memorandum of understanding with a builder to develop flats on his land is a consumer and can demand compensation from the latter in case the developer fails to fulfil his promise to complete construction in time, the Supreme Court held on Friday.

The ruling gives relief to property-owners of small plots who often enter into a collaboration agreement with builders to redevelop their old property. Usually the understanding involves distribution of flats between the owner and the real estate firm. In case of a dispute the parties have to approach the trial court where proceedings can take years to end.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra gave the judgement on a petition filed by a Hyderabad-based resident  Bunga Daniel Babu - who signed an agreement with a firm in July 2004 for constructing a multi-storied building comprising of five floors, with elevator facility and parking space.

The apartments were to be distributed in a manner that 40 per cent went to the owner and 60 per cent to the builder. Under the agreement the construction was to be completed within 19 months from the date of approval of the plans by the Municipal Corporation. In case of non-compliance, the developer was to pay Rs 2000 every month for each flat.

According to the petitioner the builder delayed the handing over of the flats by three years. To claim compensation for the loss the petitioner incurred, Babu dragged the builder to the district consumer forum under the Consumer Protection Act.

Though the district forum declared Bunga a consumer under the law, the State and National consumer panels held it otherwise. Both said Bunga had entered into a commercial contract with the builder and the transaction was not for his personal use.

The MOU that was entered into between the parties even remotely does not indicate that it is a joint venture, the bench said, remitting the case back to the State Commission to decide how much compensation is Baig entitled to.
Investigation into a blast outside the district court here earlier this month had revealed the Maoists were targeting illegal miners for protection money and had set up a group to grab land, police have said.

A mentor of the Maoist outfit Tritiya Prastuti Committee, Ashok Baitha, recently ordered those workings as munshis, or managers, for those operating illegal mines -- which are widespread in Bihar  to work under the rebels protection, Rohtas superintendent of police Manavjeet Singh Dhillon said.

Baitha, the district police chief said, also set up a group of supporters/sympathisers for grabbing prime land in towns and along main roads and national highways.

These revelations were made by four Maoists arrested on July 18 in the court blast case, he said.

High-grade explosives, detonators, fire arms and a few vehicles were recovered during raids on an outhouse of Baitha and two other Maoist leaders.

A man, believed to be a member of Baithas land-grab gang, was killed on July 13 when a bomb blew up his motorcycle. The bomb was planted on the bike, police said. In March, an advocates clerk, suspected to one of Baithas men, was injured in a blast.

They used to threaten owners into transferring land in the name of Maoists or their sympathisers, the officer said.

Sandip Da alias Moti Lal Soren, the mastermind of the recent attack in Gaya that left 10 CRPF men dead, too, had accumulated wealth through similar means.

A member of the Maoists Bihar and Jharkhand special area committee, Soren had invested huge sums of money in real estate and even owned a realty firm in Kolkata, sources said.
The Mumbai Police is likely to submit by next week its report to the state government on controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who is facing multiple probes over his alleged provocative speeches, a high-ranked police official said on Friday.

The report is in the final stages of preparation and it is likely to be submitted by next week, the police official said.

According to him, police were planning to submit the report a couple of days back but the arrest of Arshi Qureshi, associated with Naiks Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), prompted them to wait for additional inputs, if any.

Qureshi was arrested from Navi Mumbai on Thursday by a joint team of Maharashtra ATS and the Kerala Police for allegedly radicalising a Kochi-based woman.

This arrest delayed the process. We are waiting for the ATS report. The information they provide to us will be incorporated in our probe report, he said.

The official added although they are yet to get in touch with Naik, the televangelist has not been given a clean cheat yet.

Police havent given a clean cheat to Naik yet, he said.

Replying to a query whether Qureshis arrest will help police in their probe against Naik, the official said, Anyone can be associated with an organisation but it all depends on the involvement of this person in a criminal act.

Naik, a city-based televangelist, who also runs Peace TV, has been under scanner of various agencies after one of the attackers involved in the Dhaka terror strike posted he had been influenced by the preacher.

Last week, Naik held an interaction with the media in Mumbai via Skype from Saudi Arabia, wherein he had rubbished the charge that his sermons had inspired terror activity, including the Dhaka attack.

He had also said he would not return to India this year.
The real reason behind the brutal thrashing of four Dalit youths in Una of Gir-Somnath district that triggered massive protests across Gujarat and even reverberated in Parliament could be previous enmity, a fact-finding team of the Ahmedabad-based Dalit Adhikar Manch has said on Thursday.

The eight-member team that visited Mota Samadhiyala village near Una town told HT that the father of one of the assaulted youths had been threatened by the upper-caste sarpanch of the village of dire consequences if he didnt stop trading in cow hide.

Whatever business you are doing, stop it right now. Else, your dead cows will come alive and for that you have to pay heavily, the sarpanch is reported to have told Balubhai Sarvaiya six months ago. The sarpanch had also threatened to demolish his house.

The four youths were on July 11 publicly flogged, a video of which went viral and triggered nationwide outrage. Angry Dalits have taken to the streets, torching buses and putting up road blockades. Normal life was also hit in Gujarat on Wednesday in response to a bandh call by several Dalit organisations.

An Indian Dalit woman waits for a relative's release from a police station after protestors were detained by police for damaging vehicles and disturbing peace, at Dholka town, some 40 kms from Ahmedabad on Thursday. (AFP)

Read: Conspiracy to grab land behind Una Dalit youth thrashing: Relatives

Balubhai told the fact-finding team that on the request of residents of two villages he had sent his son and three others to haul the dead cows from there. The youths were attacked after they had brought back the carcasses and were skinning them. The assailants came in two vehicles and were armed with sticks and iron pipes.

One of the vehicles had President  Shiv Sena  Gir Somath written boldly on its rear windscreen. Its registration number was stated to be DD 03 F 1294.

The men also used casteist abuses while flogging the youths, despite the four victims pleading repeatedly that they were only skinning dead cattle. When Balubhai and his wife came to know about it and rushed to the spot, they were also abused and beaten up.

Piecing together evidence from witnesses, the fact-finding committee said the police did precious little to rescue the youths. While they were being forcibly driven to Una after being brutally beaten, the vehicle was stopped by a police team. The assailants spoke to the policemen and were allowed to proceed. The police said visiting the spot was a priority for them.

Balubhai, the father of Dalit victims who was brutally assaulted by self-styled 'cow protectors' last week, at Mota samdhiyala village in Una, Gujarat on Thursday. (Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

Read: Cultural practices of caste-Hindus obstructing justice for Dalits

Dalit leaders say community members who constitute about 7 per cent of the states population are subjected to institutionalised caste bias. According to official figures, about 1,000 cases of atrocities on Dalits are reported every year in Gujarat. Figures also reveal that 50 Dalit women are raped and 200 Dalits are murdered on an average every year in the state.
Even as doctors have described her medically fit, the Rohtak rape victim has so far not given her statement to the magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC).

On the other hand, the counsel of the three accused arrested by the police on Tuesday has filed a petition in the court, expressing their willingness to undergo polygraph test (lie-detection test). The accused are ready to undergo polygraph and narco tests. We demand that the girl and her family be made to undergo these tests as well, accuseds counsel Manoj Kumar said.

The 21-year-old Dalit girl has alleged that she was choked, drugged and raped by five men for the second time in Rohtak on July 13. In her statement submitted to the police, the girl claimed she was abducted soon after she left her college at around 1.30 pm while she was walking towards home.

However, police sources told HT that the girl was not seen exiting her college between 1 pm to 3 pm in the footage of CCTV cameras installed there.

The police said it was collecting the CCTV footage from various parts of the city, including the Sukhpura Chowk area where the girl claimed she was thrown off by her alleged rapists, to verify her claim.

Meanwhile, the three accused arrested by the police have submitted CCTV footage, wherein they are purportedly seen in Bhiwani and Ambala around the alleged time of the incident.

A special investigating team (SIT) was formed by Haryana additional director general of police (ADGP) Muhammad Akil on Wednesday to probe the case. The three arrested were remanded in police custody for four days by the court on Wednesday. The ADGP said they will match the DNA samples of the accused with the forensic evidence.

Citing mental unstableness and depression, the girl turned back the magistrate a couple of times without giving her statement. However, she has given her statement to the Haryana State Womens Commission.

Police claimed that in 2013, the girl changed her statement submitted to the magistrate after a few days.

1 ACCUSED UNTRACED FOR THREE YEARS

Meanwhile, Akash, one of the accused in the gangrape case, has remained untraced for the past three years  ever since he was accused to have raped the victim in 2013. Except that his name was mentioned by the girl in her statement, police have no clues about him or his whereabouts.

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A medical board will be set up at a Mumbai hospital to examine the condition of an alleged rape survivor who wants to abort her 24-week-old abnormal foetus, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

A bench headed by Justice JS Khehar asked the medical board to examine the woman at King Edward Memorial College and Hospital at Mumbai by Saturday and submit its report to the apex court on Monday.

The bench also comprising Justice Arun Mishra said the report of the medical board with regard to the womans condition will be assessed and if necessary, some directions will be passed.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the woman, will ensure that she reaches the hospital by Saturday for her examination, it said.

Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar said that the Centre was ready to constitute a medical board at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where the woman could be examined.

Gonsalves said that the condition of the woman, who is presently in Mumbai, is very bad and she will not be able to travel to Delhi.

Delay in these matters is very bad. There should not be any delay in these matters, the bench said, adding that a larger issue of law will be dealt with separately.

The issue at hand is not that simple. It will be dealt with separately, it said.

The apex court had sought reply from the Centre and the Maharashtra government on the plea of the woman on Thursday.

The alleged rape survivor has also challenged the constitutional validity of the provisions of abortion law, which prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks even if there is a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus.

In her petition, the woman has alleged that she was raped by her ex-fiance on the false promise of marriage and became pregnant. She has sought a direction to quash section 3 (2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 to the extent that it puts a ceiling of 20 weeks for an abortion as it is ultra vires to Article 14 and 21 of Constitution.

Her plea contended that the ceiling is unreasonable, arbitrary, harsh, discriminatory and violative of the right to life and equality.
Bindeshwar Pathak, sanitation expert and founder of the prominent NGO Sulabh International, believes it is possible to provide toilets for all citizens across India in three years, but ministers need to focus and carry forward the commitment to deliver it.

Pathak, who was in London for a conference on Indias smart cities, told Hindustan Times on Thursday evening the bureaucracy could not be expected to lead, but to follow directives of ministers to implement such a massive project.

The leadership and clarity is there at the top from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this important issue, but ministers responsible for delivering need the vision to take it forward, and not expect the bureaucracy to lead the drive," Pathak, 73, said.

Presenting figures of the all-India challenge, Pathak said 120 million toilets can be constructed in three years with a budget of Rs 3.6 lakh crore (each toilet costing Rs 30,000, inclusive of cost escalation).

Besides subsidy from the government, potential sources for funding include corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets of thousands of Indian companies, non-resident Indians, bank loans and contribution from beneficiaries.

It will not only provide employment in our 2.51 lakh panchayats and 6.46 lakh villages, but also ensure the sustained maintenance of toilets, he said.

Backed with 45 years of award-winning experience in providing low-cost sanitation in India and other countries, Sulabhs approach is based on partnerships with local governments, backed by community participation. It ensures maintenance and follow-up of projects.

It does not matter if we are part of this initiative but I can say that only the low-cost Sulabh model based on two-pit pour flush compost toilet technology can ensure that India is free of open defecation. They can take our model, but the government alone cannot do it, he said.

Earlier this month, Sulabh opened the worlds largest public toilet facility in the holy city of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, with nearly 2,800 seats. Pathak said Sulabh had so far constructed 8,500 public toilets and 1.5 million in homes.

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Hundreds of volunteers have come together in Srinagar to arrange food and medical treatment for the people injured in the recent waves of violence that have rocked Kashmir following the killing of top insurgent Burhan Wani.

Despite a 14-day curfew in the Valley, people have been working round-the-clock, providing medicines and even arranging ambulances to ferry the wounded.

The volunteers and NGOs have erected tents outside the hospitals. Some organisations even provide tea three times a day to victims and attendants.

The volunteers are all common people. Some are young, some are old, some are illiterate, and some are literate, all are driven by love for their people, said a volunteer outside Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital, where 400 patients have been treated since July 8, when the violence first broke out.

The volunteer, who is a businessman and refused to be identified, said they made contributions from their own pockets and received donations.

Read: Kashmir: Strict restrictions ahead of Friday prayers, curfew on for day 14

Kashmir has been on the boil since thousands of people clashed with security forces, a day after Wani was gunned down. 44 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 wounded  600 of them due to the controversial pellet guns that the government has pledged to review.

Besides the volunteers, many NGOs are providing medicines that are not available in hospitals. Among such organizations are the Help Poor Voluntary Trust (HPVT), Tawheed Forum J&K, Athrout, Sakhawat, Allama Iqbal Charitable Medical and Diagnostic Centre and Daarul Khair led by moderate separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

During these days of unrest, we have distributed medicines worth Rs 5 lakh at SMHS. The beneficiaries included bullet and pellet victims, Amarnath Yatris injured in an accident besides normal patients, said Farooq Ahmad Bhat, founder of HPVT, stressing the medicines included some life-saving drugs.

Read: To stay indoors or not: A day in Kashmir marked with indecision

The organisation also provided free medicines at the Bone and Joint Hospital, a super-specialty facility catering to some 75 patients. The institutes medical superintendent, Dr Rashid Budoo,was all praise for the volunteers.
The Dalits in Uttar Pradesh are angry about being taken for granted and hungry for real empowerment.

They chafe at the civic neglect that compels them to live in sub-human conditions, deride the political opportunism that sees leaders of all varieties make a beeline for their slum clusters at poll-time only to forget about them later, and want a stop to incidents where their dignity is undermined.

Expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singhs derogatory comment against BSP chief Mayawati has added fuel to their discontent. In Meeruts Abdullapur slum cluster, some residents openly declare that they will tear into Singh, who is untraceable, if they are able to lay their hands on him.

Bring him (Singh) here and I will cut him to pieces, says Satish Kumar, a mason.

We are in a majority and in a position to teach them (BJP) a lesson but Behen ji always wants to maintain peace and harmony, say Rajpal and Surendra Gautam.

The slum is part of ward no. 14 under the Meerut Nagar Nigam and 60% of its 11,000 voters are Dalits. A majority of them are supporters of Mayawati.

Shiv Kumar, a postgraduate student, says: Daya Shankar has insulted not only Mayawati but all women. The comment shows the mentality of BJP leaders.

The party will pay a heavy price in the assembly election, predicts Neeraj Kumar Gautam. Others agree.

They also wonder why the BJP, particularly the Prime Minister, has kept mum over the incident in Una, Gujarat, in which four Dalits were flogged by cow protection activists.

Anger is also palpable in the voice of Bhitari village head Heerawati Devi, a Dalit who has been a BJP member for about 20 years. Bhitari is a village on the outskirts of Varanasi. Dalits here are extremely angry about the offensive comment against the BSP chief. She is a mass leader. Singh should be taught a lesson so that upper class men dont dare make such comments in the future, she says. As much as 60% of the population in the village comprises Dalits.

When reminded of her political allegiance, she retorts, I am in the BJP. But it doesnt mean that I will not speak on Dalit issues. I always worked for them (Dalits). I will keep raising their issues. I have condemned the filthy comment against the BSP chief.

Some Dalits in a village on the outskirts of Lucknow lament they are yet to experience true freedom and empowerment. It seems as if we are being subjected to the same caste discrimination and atrocities that our community used to face during the British era. The BJP leaders remark about Behen ji is a glaring example, says Parshuram, a farmhand at Dhanwa Saand in Mohanlalganj block on Lucknows border with Rae Bareli. A few villagers call the BJP-led government at the Centre the most unsafe government for their community.

The Mayawati issue is not the only one riling Dalits. Their appalling living conditions also annoy them. Residents of Pura Padain, a Dalit slum in Allahabad, say they do not have a single toilet, ration card, legal electricity or water connection, access to school and government health centre.

The settlement is located in the heart of city on Cantonment land, barely four kilometres from district headquarters. Slum residents, comprising around 1,200 people, live in unhygienic conditions. A 70-year-old mother of five says, Every election, netas come and seek votes. We cast our vote but get nothing in the name of facilities. I curse my fate every time I remember losing three children to an epidemic when I was young. Women and girls are forced to defecate and bathe in the open.
M Cream

Cast: Imaad Shah, Ira Dubey, Barry John, Raaghav Chanana, Auritra Ghosh

Director: Agneya Singh

Rating: 3/5

You might not be interested in the frustration, loneliness and anger felt by a rebel, but you can still empathise. You might not have stood up against authoritarian agencies, but you can always stand by those who do. You might not have dared to break the shackles of a comfortable middle class existence, but you can start off on a journey that promises to take you away from it. After all, the idea of being a rebel is unbelievably romantic.

Read: Hope M Cream opens debate on marijuana legalisation: Director

Read other film reviews here

Four Delhi friends set out on a road trip to the interiors of Himachal Pradesh, thinking the trip will fill the vacuum in their lives. They plan to find a rare drug called M Cream. Fig (Imaad Shah) and Maggie (Auritra Ghosh) are from affluent families and are non-conformists in a way. Niz (Raghav Chanana), a working class photographer, and Jay (Ira Dubey), an anti-establishment college student, join them. The farther they travel, the more they go inside their subconscious.

From a hash-selling hippie Vishnu Das (Barry John) to a group of carefree foreigners, they meet a string of usual suspects on the way, but the M Cream is nowhere to be seen. Or, are they still not high enough to realise the omnipresent ecstasy surrounding their existence?

Immad Shahs easy-going attitude is a thing to watch in M Cream. (YouTube)

Director Agneya Singh is ambitious like most debutants. He wants to present his side on so many things: Drugs, politics, literature, alcohol, love, sex, freedom and revolution. He mostly speaks through Shahs Fig, a guy with a mop of hair and a love for poetry. He loves to quote authors and can differentiate between Vikram Seth, Rabindranath Tagore and Jimmy Hendrix. Its been a while we saw a well read Indian youth on screen.

Its delightful to hear Shah and Dubeys conversations. They are so full of quotes and aimless counter questions. They dont know what they want, but we know that we want to return to the University campus.

Barry John is seen in a film after a long time. (YouTube)

Once the nostalgia phase gets over, we are back to fight a battle that wont produce any instant result, but will assure that were not alone. In the film, a French journalist-activist shows us what it takes to believe in a cause.

However, this happens only after a lot of trippy music and booze guzzling. A little nudity and some sex scenes too get their share. Its fine if you dont want a closure, or dont want to be spoon-fed. But, it also affects the coherence of the plot. What can make it tricky is the point where you stop identifying with these youngsters.

Watch: Trailer of Immad Shah, Ira Dubeys M Cream

Its not so surreal that you need to recall Ferdinand de Saussures semiotics. It talks like a cool guy, but lacks the gravity of an objective commentator.

M Cream is a raw voice of an energetic director. And, nothing can sum it up better than this Mahatma Gandhi quote: Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

(Interact with Rohit Vats at twitter/@nawabjha)

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop

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Next time you are stuck at a toll plaza at one of the entry-exit points to Mumbai because of heavy traffic congestion, there are chances that you would be allowed to pass by without paying the toll.

Vehicles at toll plazas will be allowed to leave without paying the toll at the time of heavy traffic jams. Public Works Department (MSRDC) minister Eknath Shinde assured the legislative council that such directives will be issued to the toll companies across the state.

People have no objection in paying the toll but dont like waiting in the queue for hours. Heavy traffic congestion make them wait in queues for long adding to their woes. Toll nakas will be asked to leave vehicles without collecting toll at the time of heavy traffic congestion, Shinde said in the Upper House, replying to a debate during calling attention motion.

The issue was raised by Congress legislator Sanjay Dutt and others while NCP legislator Vidya Chavan demanded that the vehicles should be allowed to leave without paying toll during heavy traffic jams as this adds to the misery of the people.

A few days back people had to wait for three hours at Dahisar toll naka to reach their destination. In such a situation, people should be allowed to leave toll nakas without paying the toll. The move will also help in easing traffic congestion in short time, she said.

In the Assembly, Shinde announced to introduce e-toll system at all the toll plazas, including nine on the Mumbai-Pune expressway in the next six months to avoid long queues. He also announced to consider the parking bays along the e-way to be utilised during the emergencies.

The government has also chalked out Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS). The Electronic Toll Control system has been introduced on the Worli-Bandra sea link, Airoli and Mulund toll nakas and the rest of the toll points will be equipped with e-toll collection system in the next six months, he said.

Ajit Pawar of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) suggested during the debate to widen the roads as the fourth lane wherever possible to accommodate the broken-down vehicles, as they are the cause of most of the accidents.
An employee of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was arrested by a team of Kerala police and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in Mumbai on Thursday for allegedly radicalising and recruiting youth to the Islamic State (IS).

Arshi Qureshi, a public relation manager at IRF, was arrested from Nerul in Navi Mumbai under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and produced before a local court before being placed in transit remand. He will be taken to Kerala and produced before a court in Kochi.

The arrest is not good news for Dr Zakir Naik, the controversial Islamic preacher who founded the IRF and is also being investigated for links to extremist elements. He came into the spotlight recently when two of the six terrorists who attacked a Dhaka cafe in Bangladesh, claimed they were incited by his sermons. Naik is currently abroad.

Read | Cops will struggle to build a case against Zakir Naik, say experts

Read | No plans to return to India this year, says Islamic preacher Zakir Naik

The 45-year-old Arshi became a suspect after Palarivottam police station in Kochi registered a complaint against Yahya alias Bestin Vincent, a Christian from Palakkad who converted to Islam and is believed to have joined IS. He went missing from Kochi along with his wife Merin Jacob alias Mariyam. The complaint was registered by Merins brother Ebin Jacob.

Jacob alleged that his sister had been influenced to convert to Islam by Yahya and Ashi. Hailing from a Christian family, Mariyam nee Merin had met her husband while working in Mumbai in 2015. Though she initially resisted Islam, she was taken to several classes, following which, she had been converted, police sources said.

Ebin said that at one point his sister wished to come back to Kerala, where her family is, but was eventually forced into joining the IS. His brother-in-law also tried to convert him, Ebin added.

His parents alleged that Yahya and Mariyam were radicalised though Dr Naik, who they had met while in Mumbai.

According to police sources, Arshi was the public relation manager responsible when Dr Naik had held a massive public conference in 2009.

Read more | Zakir Naiks speeches objectionable but not provocative
Empty counters and over 5,000 people waiting to clear immigration at 5 am, read a tweet by a passenger stuck at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Thursday morning. While a long wait at immigration counters is a chronic woe for city fliers, no respite from the manpower crunch has enraged passengers.

Sources in the civil aviation ministry said the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) wrote another note to the union home ministry last month, asking it to appoint officers to man empty immigration counters. A report on angry fliers reactions on the airports social media channel was attached.

The Mumbai airport had red-flagged the staff crunch in 2013, said a senior ministry official requesting anonymity. He added this was obvious as its newest terminal T2 opened in February, a year later.

The X-shaped terminal has more than 140 immigration counters divided between the arrivals and departure level. Frequent fliers said more than half are unmanned.

More than 100 immigration counters but only 20-odd working at the Mumbai airport. Children standing in the queue for two hours, tweeted Vineet Minocha, a passenger, on Thursday morning.

Five hours to travel from Mauritius to Mumbai, three hours to clear immigration at Mumbai airport, Pratik Gandhi, another passenger wrote on Twitter on July 19.

On December 7, 2013, HT had reported that T2 could face a shortage of immigration officers after MIAL sent a last-minute request for 393 additional immigration officers in November, citing an increase in counters from 81 to 142.

The deputy commissioner of police, Supriya Patil Yadav, who heads the foreign regional registration office in-charge of immigration admitted the shortage but said that counting empty counters was not the right yardstick to assess the problem. Immigration counters have been built keeping in mind the passenger growth projections for the next five years. Manpower cannot be increased accordingly.

She added that there were adequate immigration officers but peak hours see long queues owing to bunching of flights. I cannot share the status of new appointments at the moment as I am on leave till early August, she said.

However, industry projections show that the city airport is almost packed to its capacity. It entered the big league of busy world airports by catering to 41.7 million passengers in 2015-16. A report released by aviation think tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA India) last November projected that by 2018-19, CSIAs capacity would be filled to the brim with 48 million fliers in a year. Until last year, the city airport had filled more than three-fourth of its capacity - the highest among metro airports in India along with Chennai, the report added. Even Delhi, the countrys busiest airport has utilised only 41% of its capacity.
With Rajinikanth you can always expect the unexpected. Usually its fans of rival actors who battle it out to prove which star is superior. However, in Rajinikanths case, his fans try to outdo each other to show who is more dedicated to their Thalaivar.

In Mumbai, the Maharashtra State Rajinikanth Fans Welfare Association (MSRFWA) and Tanka Nilavuhas go head-on against one another to prove their supremacy.

Read: Rain-drenched Mumbai dances to Rajinis beat

Aadhimoolam of MSRFWA, which has more than 5,000 members, said they chose to watch the 9am show at Aurora Cinema on Friday because early in the morning the celebrations would have caused disturbance to people living in the vicinity. We do things for the love of Rajinikanth, we want to serve the people in his name, whereas they [Tanka Nilavuhas] do business in his name, said Aadhimoolan. We are family friends of Rajinikanths wife, unlike them who dont know anyone.

Watch: The different looks of Rajinikanth over the years

Read: Kabali review | Rajinikanth sheds heroism in this painfully slow emotional drama

Contesting the claim, Nitya Nandaa of Tanka Nilavuhas, which has more than 2,000 members, said, We are the only registered fan club. We are businessmen by profession; we dont need publicity. We charge an extra sum to our fan members for the ticket and rest of the money, we put in from our own pockets; the seven people who are in charge, said Nanda.

Read: Rajinikanth is ultimate, say fans after first shows across India

In the war of the fan clubs, one person who gets caught is Nambi Rajan, the owner of Aurora Cinema. Hamara chutney ban jata hai (We get squeezed in between them). They just want to be one-up on each other. I had asked them to spilt the tickets for the 9am show among themselves, but they didnt want to, so we had to arrange for a 6am show. As the owner of Aurora Cinema, I want all the fans of Rajini sir to come, said Rajan.

For complete coverage on Kabali, click here:

Watch: How fans try to ace Rajini-isms
MUMBAI: A public relations manager working for controversial televangelist Zakir Naiks Islamic Research Foundation was arrested from Nerul on Thursday for allegedly radicalising a couple from Kerala and recruiting them with the Islamic State.

A team of Kerala police and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested 45-year-old Arshid Asif Qureshi under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Arshids name surfaced when the Palarivottam police station in Kochi registered a complaint against Yahya, alias Bestin Vincent, a Christian from Palakkad who converted to Islam and is believed to have joined the ISIS, after he went missing from Kochi with his wife Merin Jacob, alias Mariyam.

The complaint was registered by Merins brother Ebin Jacob.

Police sources said Qureshi was the public relations manager when Naik had held a massive public conference in 2009 and that he was responsible for all the coordination. Ebins complaint says theirs is a Christian family from Edapally in Kochi. His sister had met Yahya while working in Mumbai in 2015, and eventually the two got married. Soon, Yahya and Qureshi allegedly influenced Merin, radicalised her and converted her to Islam, Kerala police sources investigating the case said.

Merin initially t ried to resist the alleged conversion attempt, but she was taken to several classes that convinced her, police sources said. Yahya and Qureshi are also believed to have forced Merin to join the ISIS. According to Ebin, Merin initially resisted this too and had even expressed her desire to return to Kerala.

Ebin told the police Yahya and Qureshi had even tried to compel him to convert to Islam.

Earlier, Merins parents had alleged both Yahya and Merin had met Naik in Mumbai, and it was through him that they were radicalised.

The team of the Kerala police produced Qureshi before a local court in Navi Mumbai and have taken a transit remand. He will be produced before a competent court in Kochi.
Over 50 protestors who had been allotted plots in Sector 18 and 20 six years ago visited the Yamuna expressway industrial development authority (Yeida) office in Greater Noida on Friday morning demanding possession. Before they could begin their protest, Yeida additional chief executive officer (ACEO) Amarnath Upadhyay spoke to them and assured them that the authority is working to resolve pending issues and get them possession.

In 2009, Yeida had launched the scheme for plots ranging from 300 sqm and 4,000 sqm at a cost of Rs 4,750 per sqm. The authority had allotted the plots through a lucky draw in 2009-10, with the allottees having invested Rs 2,000 crore.

However, the authority has so far failed to provide possession as many farmers challenged the land acquisition in Allahabad high court and refused to part with their agricultural land, demanding a 64% hike in compensation. Farmers continue to farm on their land and the court cases are still pending. Meanwhile, plot allottees have been paying instalments towards the cost of land without actually getting the plots.

Allottees asked why Yeida was demanding extra money on account of hiked compensation to farmers, if it has failed to give possession yet.

I have a 300-sqm plot in N block of sector 20. Without offering possession, the authority is demanding Rs 90,000 from me as additional hiked land compensation to be given to farmers. All allottees are pressured to pay this additional compensation. We will pay additional compensation if our demand for plot possession is met, said Alok Singh, an allottee.

Meanwhile, the ACEO said that Yeida is working on taking the possession of some part of the land from farmers. This land is located in blocks A, B and U of sector 20. We hope we will settle all issues with farmers with regard to litigation and offer possession to around 1,000 allottees in the next three months, said Upadhyay.

Plots measuring 4,000 sqm, 1,000 sqm and 500 sqm are located in the three blocks of sector 20 along the Yamuna expressway. It will take more time to provide possession to the other allottes whose plot size is 300 sqm, due to litigation over the land, he added.

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Mondays botched operation in the forests of Aurangabad close to Jharkhand border that left 10 CRPF jawans dead, was carried out despite hostile weather, as the police and paramilitaries had credible information about the presence there of top Maoist leader Arvindji alias Dev Kumar Singh and his group, along with some other Maoist leaders, official sources said.

This killing of Prince, who was the body guard of Arvindji, indicates latter was present at the scene. Perhaps, the Maoists triggered the land mines blasts in panic after the killing of three of their cadres, as they found the commandoes encircling them, said a senior police officer.

Arvindji, a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), carries a cash reward of `1 crore on his head and is wanted in Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Read: Bihar Maoist attack: Brides, families of slain CRPF soldiers mourn their fallen

According to police sources, Arvind ji, 50 plus, does not keep well and has some kidney problems, but is still known for planning and executing many of the Maoists operations.

In November 2014 also, Arvindji had managed to flee from Latehar (Jharkhand), as the CRPF was engaged by another group to give him an opportunity to escape. Police said Arvindji was close to top Maoist leader Kishenji, who was killed by security forces in November 2011.

Arvindji was involved in the attack on former Jharkhand Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari in 2011, which claimed the lives of 11 policemen. He was also involved in a landmine blast in Garhwa a year later, in which 14 security forces were killed, sources said.

Police have picked up some suspects to find if more top cadres of Maoists were present at the site of the encounter on Monday. Maoists cannot organize a meeting at any place without local support from some splinter groups or sympathisers. We are trying to find out who all were there. Jharkhand police is also cooperating in this regard, they added.

Read: Chain of events that led to heavy casualties in Maoist attack in Bihar

Bihar DGP PK Thakur said, We are trying to ascertain more facts through various sources. There is also report of a fourth man being hit by bullets, but we are yet to ascertain his identity.

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Taking note of high number of students skipping Class 5 and 8 exams conducted by the State Council of Educational Research and Training this year, the Punjab education minister has summoned 390 government schools that recorded the highest absenteeism.

Principals of these schools along with district education officers (DEOs) and block primary education officers (BPEOs) are to appear before the minister, Daljit Singh Cheema, in SAS Nagar on July 27.

Also read | HT SPOTLIGHT Kids, teachers resolve running this Mokampura school

These schools had at least eight students who skipped all the exams. There are many schools among these where the number of absentees is more than 25.

The education department records revealed a total of 9,870 students were absent in the Class 5 annual exams, while 10,214 students skipped the exams in Class 8.

Cheema said: It is for the first time that such data has come forward and we are taking it seriously. We will like to know if the students moved to some other area and are receiving education or not.

The education minister will ask the principals to furnish information about all these students along with their addresses.

Will help unearth bogus students

To check the number of students not appearing for the exams, the state education department had asked the officials concerned in every district to ascertain the reason for the students absence. Sources in the department said these students could be bogus admissions shown by the school authorities in order to receive various benefits, in form of uniforms and books and grants for scholarships and mid-day meal, from the government. Sources said in some cases, teachers resort to claiming an excessive number of admissions as it increased their chances of not being shifted.
The much-hyped project of the municipal corporation (MC) to clean the main roads of the city with a sweeping machine faces another trouble as the Congress has approached the Vigilance Bureau (VB) and sought an inquiry into the whole issue.

After accusing mayor Sunil Jyoti and municipal commissioner GS Khaira of embezzlement of around Rs 26 crore, Congress councillors, led by leader of the opposition Jagdish Raja, on Thursday, visited the bureau office and complained to senior superintendent of police (SSP) vigilance Alka Meena against Jyoti and Khaira for hiring a sweeping machine at a whopping cost.

In a memorandum submitted to the SSP, councillors said the mayor and the commissioner have hired a sweeping machine at a cost of Rs 30 crore for five years, even though the same work can be carried out at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore.

The proposal of the sweeping machine was taken up in the finance and contract committee meeting and mayor Sunil Jyoti got the approval for it despite opposition by senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia and another member Ravi Mahendru, the memorandum read.

We feel that the tenders floated by the MC were only to favour a single party as other competitors could not compete, it stated.

Meanwhile, Alka Meena said that the case had been sent to headquarters in Chandigarh for a decision.

Special MC house meeting demanded

Congress councillors on Thursday called for a special house meeting of the municipal corporation. The councillors, led by leader of opposition in the MC Jagdish Raja, submitted a memorandum to municipal commissioner GS Khaira in this regard.

The memorandum stated that as corruption charges are being levelled agaisnt the mayor by senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia, it calls for an immediate discussion.

Raja said that the opposition has made a demand for a special meeting under Section 55 (2) of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1976, on the basis of which one-fourth of councillors can make a demand for a special meeting.

GS Khaira could not be reached for comments.
Three rebels from the ruling Akali-BJP alliance are on the loose and it is the Congress that is trying to catch them. The party has been witnessing a flurry of activity after resignation of former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu from Rajya Sabha on Monday triggered speculations of his joining the Aam Aadmi Party. It is also attempting to poach the two Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLAs, Pargat Singh and Inderbir Bolaria, who have been suspended from the party a day after Sidhus exit.

Read more: Sidhu will not be CM candidate, declare Punjab AAPs Chhotepur, Mann

After Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh formally invited Sidhu to join the party on Tuesday, hectic parleys have been on to lure the firebrand leader over fears that his foray into AAP can greatly benefit the latter to the detriment of the Congress. However, Sidhu, who was in New Delhi on Wednesday, remained out of bounds for the media and political leaders.

Though Amarinder and his team denied they had formally approached Sidhu, sources within the party revealed the Congress is trying to get all the three SAD-BJP rebels on board. The party has sent feelers to Sidhu through his friends in Amritsar and local leaders. We are also trying to get Pargat Singh into Congress. As for Bolaria, he has been in touch with us, party sources said.

Amarinder said he had already stated he would be happy to have Sidhu and Pargat in the party. Sidhu came to Delhi on Wednesday and I have learnt from the media that he (Sidhu) has locked himself up in his apartment. I have already issued a statement inviting him to join the party as his father was a general secretary when my mother was Patiala district Congress committee president. Likewise, Pargat was director, sports, when I was Punjab CM and Bolarias father was an MLA in my government. All three are fed up and disillusioned by Akali-BJP combine and I invite them all to join the Congress. Dushman ka dushman dost hota hai. SAD-BJP is our enemy, which makes Sidhu, Pragat and Bolaria our friends. Before the battle, every general wants to strengthen his army, Amarinder told HT.

Dont miss | Sidhu has crossed point of no return, AAP best option: Wife

At Wednesdays meeting in Delhi with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the party discussed the impact of Sidhu-AAP pact on its poll prospects. Owing to suspense on Sidhus next moveneither he nor his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu have yet resigned from the BJPthe party felt it was worth trying to lure Sidhu away from the AAP, which has thrived on waning fortunes of both SAD-BJP and the Congress in Punjab.

But in its bid to poach dissidents of other parties, the Congress will have to encounter resistance from some of its own. Jalandhar Cantonment, the seat Pargat represents, has Jagbir Brar as contender. Brar has now mended fences with Manpreet Badal and would not like to be edged out by Pargats entry. Similarly, in Amritsar (south) constituency of Bolaria, Jasbir Dimpa and Harjinder Singh Thekedar are contenders for the party ticket.

Sidhu wont agree to play second fiddle

But even leaders trying to get Sidhu on the Congress ship see little reason in his choosing it over the AAP. He will not like to work as second fiddle in the Congress (to Amarinder) when he can become the CM face in the AAP. He was keen on joining the Congress during Captains tenure as CM but it was Amarinder who did not support the idea then, one of Sidhus close associates said.

The Congress too knows it and has prepared a counter-narrative. Sidhus entire political career has been at Delhi. He was missing from Amritsar as its MP. Nobody knows him in Sangrur, Bathinda and other areas of Punjab. So, the Congress will not be ruffled if he joins AAP. But we want him to join us as he has old Congress ties, Amarinder said.

According to party insiders, the offer is being made also as they feel AAP may be exerting pressure on Sidhu to join it as was evident from the timing of his resignation that came when Arvind Kejriwal was looking for a face-saver after the unsavoury controversy over partys youth manifesto. It also believes Sidhu will face resistance from Punjab AAP leaders, most of whom have CM aspirations. The AAP will see a lot of upheavals after Sidhus entry and many might jump its ship. The Congress might as well benefit from the uprising, a senior MLA said, requesting anonymity.

Read more | HT Analysis: The importance of being Navjot Singh Sidhu

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Punjab Police have told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the special investigation team (SIT) probing alleged 2015 fake encounter of Mukhjit Singh, alias Mukha, in Amritsar has recommended registration of a first information report (FIR) against eight police officials.

The SIT head and inspector general of police (crime) G Nageswara Rao has informed the court that director general of police had approved the report of the SIT and was sent to commissioner of police, Amritsar, for action.

The SIT had recommended registration of an FIR under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code against sub-inspector Ramesh Kumar, assistant sub-inspector Joginder Singh, head constables Ranbir Singh, Rajesh Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Jasbir Singh, constables Navjot Singh and Satwinderjit Singh.

The court was told that the SIT had also recommended departmental action against constable Love Kumar for giving his official AK-47 assault rifle to Rajesh Kumar and one Baljit Singh for giving a Malkhana vehicle to head constable Kanwaljit Singh, used in the alleged fake encounter.

The report was filed in a petition filed by Mukhas wife Harjeet Kaur seeking `50 lakh compensation and action against the police officials involved in encounter.

The high court had issued notice to Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal among others on the petition filed in February 2016.

Mukha, a Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leader, was killed in the alleged fake encounter on July 16, 2015 evening near the Verka area in Amritsar. Police had fired at a vehicle in which Singh was travelling.

He sustained 23 bullet injuries and later succumbed to it. The matter would now come up for hearing in the high court on September 14.
Angrej Singh, a class five student of Elementary School at Chakbala, here, dreams of becoming a doctor and serve the society and families affected due to excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs in this region; but then it seems to be a distant dream for him.

Also read | HT SPOTLIGHT Kids, teachers resolve running this Mokampura school

Many kids like Angrej have big dreams in this school, but the lack of even the basic facilities here may hamper their aspirations. This was discovered when the HT team visited Chakbala village in Ajnala belt, which is around 1 km away from the international border.

Students passing from waterlogged path in front of the main gate after school hours. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

The so called Elementary School is in such a miserable condition that one would cross it numerous times but will fail to figure it out as neither there is a board depicting its name on the gate, nor the name of the school drafted on the boundary wall is visible clearly. Only the local people can guide one to the location.

Adding to the woes, the rainy season has made the situation even worse for the students as because of extensive waterlogging in and outside the school one can see young girls trying to find their broken slippers desperately in the mud, ending up staining their uniforms.

Eight-year-old Divya and nine-year-old Simran want to be established dancers, but lack of facilities and backing from their families and school is not helping their cause. We are from poor families and affording a pair of slippers is also tough for us. Our parents work very hard to fetch us food. Thus unlike other kids along with our studies we do have to help them in household jobs as well. Above it, we lack the backing for our dreams by our parents as well as school authorities.

HT SPOTLIGHT Headmaster the lone teacher for 100 kids at Ajnala school

We also do not have specialised teachers. How can we become good dancers if we do not have a teacher to train us, shared the duo.

Teacher speak

The school currently has 79 students, out of which 44 are boys and 35 are girls. However, the head teacher Harpal Singh informed that the strength has been declining every year.

A few years back the number touched 105. Last year, the number declined to 92 and this year it is just 79. There are several reasons behind this and one is the background many these students come from. For the kids coming from drug and alcohol affected families education is not the priority. Then for teaching five subjects there are just two teachers and everyone feel thats its we who are not able to justify our jobs. We are trying our best and looking after academics and clerical works too. Lastly, it is the level of syllabus with which they are unable to cope up and eventually leave, says Harpal Singh, who is also the officiating head, as the head master post is lying vacant.

Student speak

Majority students out rightly criticised the syllabus and stated it to be tough.

Our syllabus is above our level. It should be simplified a bit so that we can understand it better. We just cant understand the English subject being taught to us. The school also needs a specialised English teacher who can speak the language fluently and help us in attaining the same, shares Balyam Massi, a class five student, who has lost his father and aims to settle abroad.

Officials speak

I do make monthly visits to different schools in different blocks and villages. The Deputy DEO also does the same. We make at least 10 visits each. We are aware about the problems faced by the border schools. The issues concerning them have been reported to education minister Daljit Singh Cheema. He has assured that recruitment of teachers in the border schools will be done soon. Infrastructure and funds for facilities are not given to us. Thus for this we can only try at our own level or there are NGOs who have been contributing by putting ROs for clean water and have provided furniture too, said Jugraj Singh Randhawa, DEO (Elementary).

I assure to make a file and report it to Amritsar DC Varun Roojam so that he can take up the matter with the higher education authorities concerned. Our efforts will definitely help the kids in getting quality education.

Meanwhile, DC Varun Roojam said, DEO elementary can tell me about the prevalent situation and needs of the children. Furniture and other basic facilities can be arranged for these schools.

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Visitors at the Amar Shaheed Sukhdev Inter State Bus Terminus are a harried lot for the past three days. They are now shelling out double the money to park their vehicles at the bus stand, after revised rates came into effect.

Visitors are more or less paying the same amount for 12 hours that they were paying for a whole day. Earlier, two-wheeler owners paid Rs 9 for a day. They are now paying Rs 20. The revised fee for 12 hours is Rs 10. Car owners now pay Rs 40 for a day instead of Rs 21. The revised charges for 12 hours for parking cars is Rs 20.

The fee for parking cycles has increased from Rs 2 for a day from Rs 1.5 while the revised fee for a rickshaw is Rs 5 for a day. The fee was Rs 2 for a day before. An auto driver is now paying Rs 10 per trip, instead of Rs 7.

No respite for daily commuters

The move has mostly affected daily commuters who travel to other towns, villages and cities. To top it all, there is no pass system available for them. However, the transport department is looking into introducing a pass system for daily visitors.

Many have echoed the same need. I often travel between Ludhiana and Chandigarh. Earlier, I was paying Rs 21 for a day. Now, I pay Rs 40, said Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, adding, the authorities should start a monthly pass system at low rates for daily visitors. Vehicles that come for pick and drop purpose must not be charged.

The transport department has also done away with four-hour and eight-hour parking slots. I park my bike here daily. The hike in the fee is shocking. I was earlier paying Rs 3 for four hours. Now I pay Rs 10 for the same time. The authorities should roll back this decision, said a commuter Davinder Kumar.

A rickshaw puller, Ravi says, It is difficult for me to manage my monthly budget. The government does not think about the poor. I will have to pay more every time and this will upset my budget.

Monthly pass system may be introduced

An employee of the Punjab Roadways, on condition of anonymity, claimed that many visitors get into arguments over the revised parking rates. We are helpless. We have to charge fee as per instructions by higher authorities. The common man travels by bus and hundreds of visitors park their vehicles here, he said.

RPS Makkhu, general manager, Punjab Roadways Ludhiana, said parking rates were revised by the state transport department. He further said they had sent a proposal for the facility of monthly passes for daily visitors.

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Fourteen months after a 29-year-old waiter with IT company Infosys was murdered in broad daylight at the rear of the office building on May 4, 2015, the accused, another waiter of Manimajra, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The mother of the victim, Saroj, was key witness and complainant in the case.

The court of additional sessions judge Harish Anand said the sentence for Bablu Gupta (29) will run till natural death. A fine of Rs 11,000 has also been imposed on convict Bablu who had stabbed Shivnath of Indira Colony to death.

In her complaint, Saroj told the police that Bablu used to harass her daughter-in-law and used to roam around their house. On May 3, a day before the murder, Shivnath and Bablu had a scuffle over the issue in which Shivnath slapped Bablu.

The day of the murder

On May 4, Bablu, armed with a knife hid behind bushes at the rear of the Infosys building, the entrance for the staff. Around 10.30am, Shivnath and his mother arrived. Sensing an opportunity, Bablu then stabbed Shivnath in the chest before his horrified mother.

The police was informed and Shivnath was rushed to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) where he succumbed to his injuries.

Bablu was arrested the same day from near the IT park.

The knife used in the crime and blood-stained clothes of the accused  the trouser and shirt  were also recovered. A Central Forensics Sciences Lab (CFSL) report confirmed that the blood on the knife was of the deceased.

The motive behind the murder  revenge  was also established as the victim has slapped the convict a day before. The court examined 12 witnesses.

The victim is survived by his wife, an 18-month daughter, mother and a younger sister.

The prosecution is happy to deliver justice to a mother who witnessed her sons stabbing. She was the complainant and the sole witness in the case, said public prosecutor JP Singh.

What led to conviction?

1) A forensic report confirmed the blood of the deceased on the knife used in the crime.

2) Revenge was established as the motive with the victim slapping the accused a day before the murder.

3) Blood-stained clothes of the accused  the trouser and shirt  were also recovered.

4) 12 witnesses were examined in the case
Tension gripped the town here after a clash between Shiv Sena activists and Muslim men supported by Sikhs, as the two sides pelted each other with stones for over 25 minutes on Friday afternoon. The clash left at least six people injured, including two cops.

The police failed to pre-empt the clash even as the situation was simmering for a couple of days. It all started on Wednesday when Sena activists allegedly used force to shut shops of a few Muslim families during a protest against disruption in the Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

After Friday prayers, a delegation from the Muslim community was to submit a memorandum to the administration, seeking action against the Shiv Sena activists for harassing Muslim traders.

When the prayers were going on, Sena activists reached outside the mosque and started raising anti-Pakistan and Bharat Mata ki jai slogans. They reportedly also dared the people inside the mosque to face them.

People in the mosque came out and both sides exchanged heated words and soon stone pelting ensued at Gaushala road. The volatile situation took a dramatic turn when a group of Sikhs turned up to lend support to the Muslim side. The Sikh youths were carrying sharp-edged weapons and they also hurled stones at Sena activists.

Police failure?

The cops made no effort to stop the Sena activists from reaching outside the mosque. It was only after the two sides exchanged stones for 25 minutes that a posse of police reached the spot and detained some people from both sides.

The administration was aware of our programme to submit the memorandum, still only a handful of cops were deployed near the mosque. Are we not citizens of this country? Police deliberately reached late as they wanted us to suffer at the hands of these hardliners, said head of Ubbaish Ur-Rehman, head of the mosque.

Seven injured

Seven people, including two cops, sustained minor injuries. The shopkeepers downed the shutters after the clash.

Senior officers from the administration and the police, including deputy commissioner Jaskiran Singh, inspector general of police (Jalandhar range) Lok Nath Angra, DIG Rajinder Singh and Kapurthala SSP Rajinder Singh, too reached the spot.

We are identifying the people who instigated the violence, through CCTV camera footage and other sources, he said.

The situation was still tense when this report was filed as both communities were demanding an unconditional apology from one another for hurting their religious sentiments.
A right to information (RTI) inquiry reveals that Punjabs liquor market is much bigger than collectively of Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh and it has beaten them with considerable margins.

Punjab has one liquor shop for every 1,939 people. Whereas, Haryana has one liquor shop for 4,861 people and Delhi has one shop per 15,000 persons.

RTI filed by senior advocate and social worker Kamal Anand also reveals that Punjab government aims to sell 36 crore of liquor bottles in the year 2016-17, which is liquor quota of state government.

The data contradicts governments talk of controlling liquor consumption.

The next shocking part is that during its last seven years of tenure, the government has opened over 3,000 new shops of liquor. In year, 2008-09 there were 6,637 liquor shops in the state which increased to 9,842 in year 2016-17, which roughly makes one liquor shop every day.

There are 169 lakh voters in Haryana for which the government has 3,491 liquor shops and in Delhi there are 130 lakh voters for which the Delhi government has 873 shops and in Punjab there are 191 lakh voters (including women) for which the SAD government have 9,897 liquor shops.

Advocate Anand said government is opening liquor shops every day, however, did government do such with health and education and did they open this much schools and hospitals during their rule?

However, the data is still excluded the liquor consumed in the state through illicit distilling and smuggled alcohol from neighboring states and the liquor sold in army canteens, where it costs much less.
If it is the day a Rajinikanth film is releasing, it cant just be about the business of cinema. It has to be about the madness, craze for a superstar, music, dance, and tickets frenzy....

Scenes from the First Day First Show (FDFS) at the famous Albert theatre in Chennai were one of anticipation in the midst of rivalry and madness. After all, it is said to be superstar Rajinikanths favourite theatre!

There was, however, a minor break from tradition -- the FDFS show was postponed to 11 am because the theatre owner didnt pay the screening rights of Rs 45 lakhs to KS Thanu, Kabalis producer.

Watch: The different looks of Rajinikanth over the years

Read: Kabali quick take | Superstar Rajinikanth towers over the world

Read: Kabali | HT tried to ace Rajinikanths awesome moves. How did we fare?

Actor Dhanush and Rajinikanths younger Soundarya were present at the theatre to watch the 1 pm show with the fans. Dhanush is married to Aishwarya, the stars elder daughter.

Dhanush and Soundarya arrive at Albert Theatre to watch #KabaliFDFS @htTweets  Aditya Iyer (@Theadityaiyer) July 22, 2016

In the meanwhile, take a look at Rajini madness from ground zero:

Rajini fans give a cutout of their beloved superstar a paal abhishekam (milk bath) @htTweets pic.twitter.com/vIpcTIsbYl  Aditya Iyer (@Theadityaiyer) July 22, 2016

It wouldn't be a Rajinikanth premiere without dappankuthu @htTweets pic.twitter.com/FkyN1RQqWe  Aditya Iyer (@Theadityaiyer) July 22, 2016

And here are some scenes from Thursday:

A Japanese couple await a date with their favourite star. In fact, the guy proudly displays his fan-boy moment when he met the star in person.

Meet Yagdish and Anita - two Rajinikanth fans who've come from Japan to get #Kabali tickets @htTweets pic.twitter.com/nSfxZGkTU1  Aditya Iyer (@Theadityaiyer) July 21, 2016

A picture of happiness as a fan poses with his ticket.

Viramani's the first to get a first day first show ticket for #Kabali and he couldn't be more ecstatic @htTweets pic.twitter.com/2OSp7usa6M  Aditya Iyer (@Theadityaiyer) July 21, 2016

The rush continues...

Ticket counter is finally open at Chennai's Albert Theatre for #Kabali @htTweets pic.twitter.com/FWxOprCHNo  Aditya Iyer (@Theadityaiyer) July 21, 2016

Thalaivar with his daughter, Aishwarya, on Thursday before the screening:

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop

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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her party entered July with nearly $11 million more on hand than her Republican counterparts operations, a strong showing of fundraising as both campaigns dive into the general election.

Republican nominee Donald Trump also wiped out his campaign debt, forgiving the more than $47 million in personal loans hes made to his own campaign since last year. Trump and the Republican Party, which officially selected Trump as its White House contender Tuesday, had $41 million cash on hand compared with Clinton and the Democrats $52 million.

Read | As Trump gets GOP ticket, Hillary appeals dont let him set foot in Oval Office

New campaign finance reports released Wednesday reveal the state of the 2016 money race as candidates and their supportive groups turn their attention to the November election. Fundraising has historically been a key metric in a campaigns financial health, with funds paying campaign staffers and pricey TV ads.

While Clinton outraised Trump, she also spent more, burning through $34 million in June compared to Trumps $7.8 million. On Wednesday, Trump delighted in his low campaign spending rate.

Hillary is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in ads. You know what Ive spent so far? Nothing. Nothing. I saved money, Trump said in an interview with ABC News in which he also said he wouldnt be advertising any time soon.

Clintons campaign has put about $35 million into ads to air between the time she locked up the nomination in June and this week, according to Kantar Medias campaign advertising tracker. A super PAC helping her is spending about $20 million more during that same time frame.

Delegates crowd the floor with sign of support on the final night at the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland (AFP)

In addition to spending less than Clinton, Trump also had more appeal among small donors than the former secretary of state. He raised more than $12.1 million from contributors giving $200 or less, since making his first-ever appeal for online contributions on June 21. That small-donor harvest was about double Clintons, despite Trumps late start.

Trumps haul comes after a disappointing May report, during which the billionaires campaign finished with only $1.3 million to spend. With Trump and Clinton now becoming the official nominees, theyll be able to make use not only of their campaign funds but also much of the money raised by their respective parties.

On the GOP side, the Republican Party made up about half  or roughly $21 million  of the available cash on hand. For the Democrats, Clintons own fundraising accounted for most of the money left in the bank at the beginning of July. She had $44 million to spend.

Clinton is expected to be formally nominated next week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Graphic comparing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. (AFP)

As with the 2012 election, super political action committees are adding to the financial might of both candidates. Outside political groups backing Clinton reported a money advantage over similar committees behind Trump.

Priorities USA, the main super PAC helping Clinton, had more than $40 million in the bank at the beginning of July after spending nearly $24 million last month, the bulk on advertising targeted at swing-state voters. It received $1 million each from the National Education Association teachers union and Working for Working Americans, the super PAC of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.

On the GOP side, the National Rifle Associations political fund, which has been airing ads backing Trump and opposing Clinton, reported $13 million cash on hand at the beginning of July after raising $1.3 million last month. The NRA group also gave $60,000 to the Republican Party last month, including $45,000 for its convention in Cleveland this week.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 42nd International Convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center on July 19 in Las Vegas. (AFP)

Rebuilding America Now, a super PAC supporting Trump, raised about $2.2 million in June, nearly all of which came from real estate developer Geoffrey H. Palmer. The majority of that money, about $1.4 million, went toward television ads attacking Clinton. Great America PAC, another group airing ads supporting Trump, brought in about $2.6 million in total.

Make America Number 1 reported about $1.1 million in cash on hand at the beginning of this month, but it took in only $97.86 in revenue  a $25 donation and $72.86 in bank interest. The group was formerly a super PAC backing Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruzs presidential bid, and also benefited from nearly $14 million in contributions from hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

Read | Melanias plagiarism talk rife in Republican tent as Trump closer to GOP prize

Conservative-leaning American Crossroads received its biggest single donation last month, $1 million, from a trust linked to Joseph Craft of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Craft is the president and chief executive of Alliance Resource Management GP LLC, which oversees coal production.

Democratic donor Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager and climate-change activist, poured $7 million into the coffers of the Clinton-aligned NextGen Climate Action Committee. So far this election cycle, Steyer has given $18 million to the group. NextGen separately reported more than $9.4 million left to spend.

Super PACs like Priorities USA and American Crossroads benefit from the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. The decision allowed corporations and unions to contribute in unlimited ways to political races, so long as that money comes through super PACs that are not directly coordinated with the candidates.

Read | US Presidential elections: Do political conventions even matter anymore?
Donald Trumps daughter promised Thursday that her father will fight for equal pay for women and affordable childcare for parents, issues the Republican nominee has rarely if ever addressed on the campaign trail.

Ivanka Trump got an enthusiastic welcome at the Republican National Convention. Her primetime speech elicited repeated applause and much praise from delegates in the arena.

Touting a side of her father rarely seen on the campaign trail, Ivanka Trump cast her father as a leader who would fight to address the student debt problem and would be a champion for equal pay for mothers and single women.

As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time when women werent a significant portion of the workplace, and he will focus on making quality childcare affordable and accessible for all, Ivanka Trump said.

Ivanka Trump delivers a speech during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention. (AFP Photo)

Trump has not addressed childcare costs or the gender pay gap so far in his 2016 presidential bid. These are issues usually touted by Democrats.

Trumps past statements on women in the workplace have included calling pregnancy an inconvenience and telling a voter in New Hampshire last year that women will receive the same pay as men if they do as good a job.

On Thursday, Ivanka Trump said her father will fight for equal pay for equal work.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (2nd L) and his daughter Ivanka Trump test the teleprompters and microphones on stage before the start of the fourth day of the Republican National Convention. (AFP Photo)

My father is colour blind and gender neutral. One of the reasons why he is a successful entrepreneur is because he listens to everyone. My father turns vision into reality, she added.

Ivanka Trump vowed that her father would focus on making affordable childcare affordable and accessible for all if elected.

Ivanka Trump was a big hit among the delegates.

She is showing the softer side of Trump, said Chris Herrod, state director for Ted Cruz in Utah. She hit the gender pay issue which is very important. And she talked about the family. I think shes done very, very well.

Read: Donald Trump humbly, gratefully accepts Republican nomination for US president

Wisconsin delegate Kathy Kiernan called Ivankas speech perfect.

I think shes amazing. I think that looking at his children and how great they all are and how much they all love their father tells you a lot about the man as a parent, Kiernan said. I think shes one of his best assets.

California delegate Shawn Steel said Ivanka Trumps speech was the high point of the entire convention for me.

He does the blue collar, she does the millennials. Its a powerful combination, Steel said. This woman Ive been saying for some time is the greatest asset Donald trump has.
Elite German police were hunting for gunmen who went on a shooting rampage in a busy Munich shopping centre on Friday, killing eight people in a suspected terror attack.

The southern city was in lockdown after the shootings, which saw panicked shoppers fleeing the Olympia mall as armed anti-terror police roamed the streets in search of the assailants. A video posted on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black walking away from a McDonalds restaurant while firing repeatedly on people as they fled.

Germany has so far escaped the kind of large-scale jihadist attacks seen in France and the motives and identity of the gunmen were not yet known.

We suspect terrorism, a Munich police spokesman told AFP. It is the third strike against civilian targets in Europe in just over a week, following an axe rampage on a train in the same German state of Bavaria on Monday and the truck attack in France on July 14.

LIVE: 8 killed in Munich shooting, attacker yelled anti-foreigner slur

Police said at least three shooters were still at large and reported to be armed with long guns.

Munichs main train station was evacuated and metro and bus transport in the city suspended while residents were ordered to stay in their homes, leaving the streets largely deserted.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene her security council on Saturday to address the deadly rampage in the European economic powerhouse which took in more than one million migrants and refugees last year.

We are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany, her chief of staff Peter Altmaier said.

Im German

Some witnesses reported seeing Arab-looking men, while another police spokesman said the authorities had no indication of a possible Islamist link.

One spokesman said the body of a man had been found near the mall and investigators were trying to determine whether he was one of the assailants.

Another video appeared to show a gunman on the roof of a parking garage as he exchanged insults with people who referred to him a foreigner. Im German, I was born here, the gunman is heard to reply.

The spree began before 1600 GMT (2130 IST) at the McDonalds and continued on a nearby street before the gunmen moved into the Olympia centre--not far from the scene of the 1972 Olympics massacre.

Shoppers rushed away from the mall, some carrying children in their arms, as the building was surrounded by armed police and emergency vehicles, while helicopters buzzed overhead.

A witness speaking to rolling news channel NTV said he saw one gunman dressed as Father Christmas and wearing sunglasses but the account could not be immediately verified by police.

Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks in neighbouring France and Belgium claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Police sign blocks the entrance to Odeon square following shootings at a shopping mall earlier on July 22, 2016 in Munich. Eight people were killed and several gravely injured on Friday in a shooting rampage at a Munich shopping centre, with the attackers still believed to be at large. (AFP)

Murderous attack

German President Joachim Gauck said he was horrified by the murderous attack, while Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to New York when the shooting began, will return to Germany.

Austria said it has significantly tightened security measures in states sharing a border with Germany and put its elite Cobra police force on high alert.

US President Barack Obama and French counterpart Francois Hollande voiced their support for their close ally. Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. Its still an active situation, and Germanys one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances, Obama said.

The Munich mall is located near the stadium for the 1972 Olympics and the athletes village which was the site of the hostage-taking and massacre of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September group.

READ: 8 people confirmed dead in Munich shooting, cops ask people to stay indoors

The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train on Monday near Wuerzburg, also in Bavaria, injuring five people, two of them critically.

De Maiziere had said the teenager was believed to be a lone wolf who appeared to have been inspired by IS but was not a member of the jihadist network.

The authorities said the attacker--believed to be Afghan or Pakistani--shouted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) three times as he ran through the carriage slashing passengers.

Flow of migrants

The train rampage triggered calls by politicians in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into Germany -- many of them via the southern state.

A record 1.1 million migrants and refugees were let in to Germany last year, with Syrians making up the largest group followed by Afghans.

The mall shooting comes just eight days after 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, in the French Riviera city of Nice.

It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November 2015 and the shootings at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

In March, IS claimed suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a city metro station that left 32 people dead. In May in Germany, a mentally unstable 27-year-old man carried out a knife attack on a regional train in Bavaria, killing one person and injuring three others.
China has applauded Britains decision to list as a terrorist organisation a group Beijing accuses of fomenting terrorism in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

The British Parliament has declared the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as an Islamic terrorist and separatist organsiation and banned any kind of support to it.

Beijing has repeatedly accused ETIM of inciting terrorism and separatism within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and outside.

China applauds Britain's updated terror list, which includes ETIM, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a statement. China welcomes a clearer understanding of the violent and terror nature and the actual harmfulness of ETIM by other countries, including Britain, Lu added.

Lu said ETIM was generally recognised as a terrorist organisation by the world community. Terrorism is the public enemy of all mankind, and anti-terrorism has no national boundaries.

China would like to work with all parties, including Britain, to enhance counter-terror cooperation, fight international terrorism, and jointly safeguard global and regional peace as well as the security of people's lives and property, Lu said.

Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uyghur community, which rights groups say have had their religious and cultural rights severely restricted by the Communist Party of China-run government.

The region has seen sporadic violence between members of the ethnic community and government forces. Independent verification of news from the region is difficult as the government tightly controls the flow of information.

According to reports from London, the British Home Office made the listing this week. TIP (Turkistan Islamic Party) is an Islamic terrorist and separatist organisation founded in 1989 by Uyghur militants in western China. It aims to establish an independent caliphate in the Uyghur state of XUAR of northwestern China and to name it East Turkestan, the office said in a notice.

Experts and rights groups, however, have expressed doubts about ETIMs capabilities and questioned Beijings claims that it is responsible for attacks within and outside XUAR, including in Beijing and Kunming.

However, the presence of Uyghur fighters in Syria has been reported by multiple sources, the AP reported.

Earlier this week, Washington-based New America Foundation said in a report that leaked registration documents of ISIS fighters provided by a defector included 3,500 foreign recruits, of whom 114 came from Xinjiang.

The reason, it said, was because of significant economic disparities between the ethnic majority Han Chinese and the Uyghur population, who were being subjected to substantial state repression through restrictions on Islamic practices like growing beards or wearing head coverings.

China dismissed the report.
An Indian-American supporter of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has announced that he will raise a whooping $2 million for the Trump Victory Fund and hold a mega rally with estimated 50,000 people in support of the real estate tycoon from New York.

Chicago-based Shalabh Shalli Kumar, who heads the Republican Hindu Council (RCH) told a group of Indian reporters Thursday that he and his family have already donated $1.1 million to the Trump Campaign.

With this, he is among the top 14 donors for the Trump campaign.

The Kumar family in total would contribute USD 2 million for the Trump Campaign and the Republican Party. It is in the best interest of the India US relationship that I have decided to work for the victory of Trump in the November general elections, he said.

Kumar said he is planning to hold a mega rally sometime in September in the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to showcase the support of Indian Americans for Trump.

Read: Hillary Clinton has more cash; Trump forgives loans

He met the Republican presidential nominee last week and claimed that Trumps presidency would take India-US relationship to new heights.

Under a Trump presidency, forget about F-16 to Pakistan, he said.

Next week, Kumar plans to travel to India to invite some of the popular Bollywood stars for the Trump rally.

I want to invite Amitabh Bachchhan and Priyanka Chopra for the rally, he said as he maintained silence when asked if Trump would be attending the rally.

Trump, he said, wants to build a strong relationship with India.

He and Modi are a natural fit. They would both work together to make the world safe and secure. I am also confident that they would work together to increase bilateral trade between the two countries. We should set our goal to $500 billion as India-US bilateral trade, he said.

Kumar first came into limelight a few years ago, when he took a Congressional delegation to meet the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Read: As it happened: Donald Trump accepts Republican nomination for US president

The Congressional delegation did meet Modi, but his approach to take along a group of Indian American businessmen by charging money from them generated controversy in both India and the US.

However, Kumar has denied the allegations.

Early this year, with the help of Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, he established the Republican Hindu Coalition, set up on the pattern of Republican Jewish Coalition. PTI LKJ ARK
Supporters of the Islamic State militant group celebrated on social media a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday that killed and wounded many people.

Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men, read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favours the radical Islamist movement.

The Islamic state is expanding in Europe, read an Arabic-language tweet on another account also known to support Islamic State.

Read: Shots fired in Munich shopping centre, multiple deaths feared

The attack was the third major act of violence against civilian targets in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by Islamic State and Munich police said they suspected the latest assault was a terrorist attack.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall in the Bavarian capital but many others were hiding inside.

A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded. We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage, the spokeswoman said.

Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. NTV television reported the states interior ministry as saying three people were dead, but the ministry said later it would not confirm this.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train, wounding four people before he was shot dead. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.
Munich police said Saturday that the shooter in a deadly shopping mall rampage was an 18-year-old German-Iranian man whose motive was completely unclear.

The perpetrator was an 18-year-old German-Iranian from Munich, police chief Hubertus Andrae told reporters after the massacre Friday that left 10 people dead including the gunman.

Andrae said the shooter -- who opened fire at a busy shopping centre near the southern German citys Olympic stadium before turning the gun on himself -- had dual citizenship and no criminal record.

His body was found about one kilometre from the mall.

Here are the updates:

6.45am: Munich Police revise number of people injured to 16.

6.24am: Munich Polices press conference ends. Police chief says there is no more danger.

6.17am: The attacker had both German and Iranian citizenship, Munich Police say. Spokesperson confirms there are children among the injured.

The sad result of #munich #gunfire

10 fatal casualties, among them the shooter

16 injured

For more see(german text):https://t.co/ZooBf7NG6J  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 23, 2016

6.15am: Police say 20 people have been injured in the Munich attack. Three people have life-threatening injuries.

6.10am: Munich Police chief says the attacker used a handgun, not a long-barrelled weapon.

6.08am: Munich Police say names of the victims will not be released until their families are informed.

A woman reacts following the shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany. (Reuters)

6.05am: Two people who left the shooting spot scene in a car at a high speed had nothing to do with the shootings, Munich Police say.

6.03am: The gunman had lived in Munich for a long time, police chief Hubertus Andra tells a press conference. The attacker had no previous criminal record.

6am: Munich Police say attacker was an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent; motive is unclear.

5.20am: Press conference by Munich Police to begin shortly.

5am: Munich Police give a cautious all-clear, say they found one person in connection with the attack who may have killed himself. There is a high probability that the person acted alone. Earlier reports spoke about the possibility of three gunmen.

We found a man, who killed him himself.

We assume, that he was the only shooter. #gunfire #munich  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

4.53am: Munich police say there are 10 people dead, including one possible gunman.

4.51am: Munich Police tweet public transport services have been resumed.

4.50am: Here is quick wrap of what we know so far:

What happened?

Shooters armed with long guns opened fire at a McDonalds restaurant and continued onto a street before entering the Olympia mall near the Olympic stadium in Munich.

Was it a terror attack?

A Munich police spokesperson told AFP they suspected terrorism in the rampage, while German news agency DPA quoted police as warning of an acute terror situation. The three attackers were still at large, fleeing in the direction of a nearby metro station, media reports said.

Train attacks

The violence comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany on Monday, injuring five people, two of them critically.

4.05am: Unconfirmed German media reports say police may have found a car used by an attacker.

3.40am: Soon after public transport was halted, a Muslim newspaper in Germany said mosques in Munich would open all night for people who were unable to get home after the attack.

Another attack, this time in Germany. Many killed. God bless the people of Munich.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2016

3.25am: Speaking outside the UN Security Council, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson says if this is another terrorist attack then I think it proves once again that we have a global problem and a global sickness that we have to tackle.

We know of at least 10 injured persons. Police operations are still running. The Situation is still not clear.#gunfire #munich  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

3.23am: Unconfirmed reports in local media say about 20 people are injured. Some of them critical.

3.15am: German chancellor Angela Merkels chief of staff notes the attack in Munich has taken place on the anniversary of another massacre. Peter Altmaier told German public channel ARD that today is the fifth anniversary of the terrible massacre in Norway, where young people, students were killed at will by a Norwegian citizen.

Unverified footage appears to show the moment shots were fired in Munich.

Unverified footage appears to show moment shots fired in #Munich - Latest developments: https://t.co/AQSQhhNELq https://t.co/uGHOExawWg  BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 22, 2016

2.58am: Witness Luan Zequiri tells the Germany broadcaster n-tv that he heard the attacker yell an anti-foreigner slur and there was a really loud scream. He said he saw only one attacker, who was wearing boots and a backpack. Zequiri says I looked in his direction and he shot two people on the stairs. He says he hid in a shop, then ran outside when the coast was clear and saw bodies of the dead and wounded on the ground.

2.56am: Chancellor Angela Merkel to convene German security council after Munich shootings: Spokesperson.

2.49am: Munich police spokesperson Marcus Martins says according to my knowledge, we are looking for three suspects.

2.48am: Germany cannot confirm that the shooting attack in Munich in which at least nine people were killed on Friday was an act of terrorism, Chancellor Angela Merkels chief of staff said.

2.46am: German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere will return to Germany from his holiday in New York, where he landed on Friday evening.

2.15am: German president horrified by murderous attack in Munich.

2.12am: Munich police say they have found 9th body at shooting scene; checking to see if it was an attacker.

2.01pm: Death toll rises to 8 in shooting at Munich shopping mall, police spokesperson says.

A screen grab taken from video footage shows a covered body lying in a street following a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany. (Reuters Photo)

1.57am: Members of Germanys elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the deadly shooting in Munich

1.55am: Germanys interior minister has cut short his holiday in the United States to go back way to Berlin late Friday to meet with security officials

Important notice:for any information for relatives or inqiuiries about missing persons please dial:0800 7766350! #oez, #Munchen, #schieerei  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

1.52am: German president says horrified by murderous attack in Munich

1.50am: Members of Germanys elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the deadly shooting in Munich.

1.30am: Munich police spokesman Marcus Martins tells AP they are aware of reports that a man has killed himself while he was being arrested, but said there is no confirmation of this yet.

Shooting spree #Munich. Helpline Nos. of the Indian Consulate, Munich are:

0171 2885973, 01512 3595006, 0175 4000667  India in Munich (@cgmunich) July 22, 2016

1.09am: German magazine Focus cited police sources as saying one of the gunmen on the rampage had shot himself in the head and died.

1.00am: President Barack Obama is pledging to provide Germany with whatever help it may need to investigate the deadly shooting incident. Obama says exactly whats happening in Munich is unclear.

[1/1] Unknown number of injured victims - sadly there are six fatal casualties #gunfire #munich  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

12.40am: Supporters of the Islamic State militant group celebrated the shooting rampage on social media.

Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men, read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favours the radical Islamist movement.

12.30am: Bavarian broadcaster BR says German patrol helicopters are on route to Munich.

12.25am: Munich Police are using the term suspected terrorism in connection with the shooting at the mall.

11.52pm: German public broadcaster BR reports 6 people have been killed at the mall shooting in Munich.

Unconfirmed reports of more violence and possible #gunfire in the City Center. Situation is unclear. Please avoid public Areas. #munich #oez  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

Please don't take Fotos or Video of Police Action in order to avoid any helpful Information for the suspects. #munich #gunfire #oez  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

11.46pm: Main train station in Munich has been evacuated, says German rail operator

11.39pm: Munich Police says the situation is unclear, avoid public places and the subway

A screen grab taken from video footage shows plain clothes police officers at the scene of a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. (REUTERS)

11.36pm: Three suspected gunmen in German shooting: police

11.35pm: There are reports of second shooting at a metro station

11.20pm: Sueddeutsche Zeitung paper says Munichs transit system has shut down following shooting at a mall.

Munich Police ordered people on Friday to stay away from the large shopping mall.

Read | Doubts over Germany train attackers identity, may be from Pakistan

11.10pm: German news agency dpa says Munich Police is hunting shooter or shooters at mall. No one has been captured yet.

11.02pm: The Bild newspaper reported that the gunman ran through the mall near the Olympic stadium, firing on several people before fleeing in the direction of a nearby metro station.

10.52pm: Munich police says believes more than one shooter involved; no one taken into custody yet.

Read | German train attacker vowed revenge on the infidels

Munich Police spokesperson said, We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage.

In this frame grab taken from video, people run from the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre after a shooting, in Munich, Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (AP Photo)

10.42pm: Munich Police confirm multiple deaths in shopping centre shooting

10.35pm: Germanys Muencher Abendzeitung reported that up to 15 people were killed in the shooting.

10.31pm: An official at the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre declined comment, saying only, We are experiencing a problem.

10.30pm: One person is reported to be dead and 10 others have been injured.

The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany, injuring five people.

Interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a lone wolf attacker who appeared to have been inspired by the Islamic State group but was not a member of the jihadist network.

It also follows a truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice after Bastille Day fireworks last week that left 84 people dead.

Read | Nice attack premeditated, trucker Bouhlel had clear interest in radical Islam
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be suspended if the plane is not found in the current search area, a statement issued to the next of kin seen by Reuters said on Friday.

Ministers from Malaysia, China and Australia met in Kuala Lumpur on Friday to discuss the future of the search in one of the worlds greatest aviation mysteries.

Relatives of passengers missing on Malaysia Airlines MH370 holds placards during a press conference after a meeting with the Joint Agency Coordination Centre and Australian Transport Safety Bureau at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Transport ministers from Australia, China and Malaysia met on Friday to discuss the future of the frustrating deep-sea search for the missing flight. (AFP)

The statement said ministers had agreed that if the plane is not found in current search area, and in the absence of new credible evidence on its location, the search would not end, but be suspended.

MH370 disappeared during a flight from the Malaysian capital to Beijing in March 2014, carrying 239 people.

Almost A$180 million ($135 million) has been spent on an underwater search spanning 120,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean, the most expensive in aviation history.

The search, originally scheduled to end in June, has been hampered by bad weather.
US President Barack Obama on Friday pledged support to Germany in the wake of a deadly shooting rampage in Munich, as officials said they were working to determine if any US citizens were affected.

Obama, speaking at a meeting with law enforcement officials, said he had been briefed on the unfolding drama in Germany, where at least six people are believed dead in a shooting at a shopping center in Munich.

Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured. Its still an active situation, and Germanys one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances, he said.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said US officials were working with local authorities to determine if any US citizens were affected by the incident.
Two multiple-target attacks in as many months have shaken Kazakhstans reputation for stability and led to fears that home-grown radicalism could be on the rise in the ex-Soviet republic.

Some have suggested that the central Asian states faltering economy may also have had a role in the unrest.

On any given evening the trendy cafes lining the leafy boulevards of economic hub Almaty teem with chatting students, creative types and business people enjoying the fruits of years of oil-fuelled economic boom.

But on Monday the scene was shattered when gunmen attacked a police station and a building used by the security services, leaving six dead.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev called it an act of terror.

On June 5, four civilians and three soldiers were killed in the western city of Aktobe when assailants attacked gun shops and tried to storm a military base in a bus they had hijacked.

Read: Three policemen, civilian killed in Kazakhstan; 1 suspect detained

Security forces killed 18 people suspected of involvement in the Aktobe incidents.

Nazarbayev said the attacks had been orchestrated from abroad and carried out by followers of the non-traditional religious movement Salafism, referring to an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam.

Sabina Sailaubekova, a marketing specialist who witnessed Mondays attack in Almaty, told AFP: I never thought something like that would happen so close to us.

We had no idea how to react in such situations.

Under Nazarbayev, 76, majority-Muslim Kazakhstan, which shares a border with Afghanistan, has cultivated an image as an island of stability in a volatile region wracked by poverty.

While other former Soviet republics in the region have endured varying degrees of political upheaval, ethnic clashes and violence, Nazarbayevs firm rule since the fall of the USSR has largely kept a lid on any turmoil in his own country.

So far the motives for Mondays attack remain murky.

An estimated 300 Kazakh citizens are thought to have joined jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, including the Islamic State group, fuelling speculation about a religious motive.

Some IS propaganda videos feature Kazakh children.

While police have not yet explicitly linked the main suspect in Mondays attack to any jihadist groups, the countrys security chief has suggested he might have formed ties with followers of an ultra-conservative strain of Islam during stints in jail.

Commentators have been cautious in connecting the two recent attacks directly.
As the PML-N party emerged victorious on Friday in elections in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he hoped Jammu and Kashmir would soon become part of Pakistan.

Speaking at a rally in PoK capital Muzaffarabad, Sharif told his supporters: "The day is not far when Jammu and Kashmir will become Pakistan. No one can stop the freedom movement in occupied Kashmir."

The PML-N has won more than a dozen of the 41 seats being contested in the legislative assembly. Unofficial results suggested the party will eventually have a two-thirds majority in the assembly. The polls were held on Thursday.

The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) and Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) shared the second spot, grabbing two seats apiece.

Elections to the 49-member legislative assembly were held in PoK and different parts of the country where refugees from Jammu and Kashmir live, including Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat and Multan. Forty-one seats are directly elected while the remaining seats have nominated members.

Sharif expressed gratitude to the people for giving his party a majority. He said those who want to launch a movement against his government should first check their popularity among voters.

This was seen as a reference to threats by Pakistan Peoples Party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Imran Khan that they would launch a popular movement against the PML-N if Sharif did not come clean on his children figuring in the Panama leaks scandal.

Promising rapid progress in PoK, Nawaz said a network of motorways, roads and highways would be built in the region over the next five years.
The father of slain Pakistani social media sensation Qandeel Baloch has said that his son, who killed the 26-year-old model-actress for honour, should be shot on sight for murdering his daughter.

I say he should be shot on sight! He suffocated my little one. We were drugged, asleep upstairs. She must have called out to us, Qandeels father Anwar Azeem said.

Qandeel, Azeem said, was his best friend but claimed that his son Muhammad Waseem had been crazed.

Qandeels mother also shared the pain of losing their daughter.

We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me - Your daughter is working hard, shell go far, her mother was quoted as saying by BBC Urdu.

Qandeels mother also said that she and her husband were also drugged by Waseem the night Qandeel was first sedated and then strangled to death.

My husband and I fell deeply asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives. In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast... but she didnt get up, she added.

Police had arrested Qandeels brother Waseem last week. He has admitted to strangling his sister to death for honour of the family. Waseem said he gave her a tablet to subdue his sister and then strangled her in their family home over the weekend.

Waseem said he killed his sister due to her social media activities, which included a series of video posts with the prominent cleric Mufti Qavi.

Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Qandeels mother had accused Qavi, her daughters former husband Ashiq Hussain, and a man name Shahid of being involved in the murder.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she, spoke of trying to change the typical orthodox mindset of people in Pakistan. She faced frequent abuse and death threats but continued to post controversial pictures and videos.

The alleged honour-killing has sent shock waves across the country and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media for Baloch.
Donald Trump unleashed the last of them on Thursday, just minutes before he took the stage to accept the Republican partys nomination. His children have been his best weapon at the convention.

They have been followed around, gawked at, selfied with, reported about and just generally celebrated. Some Republicans are saying the party may have found its Kennedy clan.

Just look at those kids, said Buffie Ingersoll, a delegate from Houston, Texas. We have had the Bushesbut they are One of them is based in her state, remember.

But the Trump family is like the Kennedy clan, she added, with matching glamour and lifestyle. And, said another delegate who refused to be identified, minus the scandals.

They are not just nice looking, smart and eloquent. They have emerged as important surrogates for Trump at the convention, meeting Republican leaders and donors.

And most significantly, they have offered the strongest character testimonial for their father, humanising a deeply polarising figure who has appeared brash, boorish and inconsiderate.

In person, my father is so friendly, so considerate, so funny, and so real, Tiffany Trump, the nominees daughter from his second marriage, said in a speech, setting the tone.

She kept all her report cards from school, she said, because of the sweet notes he wrote on each and every one of them, which were about everything and anything but grades.

(Left to right) Ivanka Trump, wife of Eric Trump, Lara Yunaska, and Tiffany Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. (AFP)

Donald Trump Jr and EricTrump, sons from his first marriage, described a father who brought them up to be as comfortable in a construction site vehicle as in their own cars.

And their sister Ivanka Trump, her fathers favourite according to her siblings, was given the task of introducing the nominee at the conventions most important event, his acceptance speech.

If Trump it seen banking too heavily on his children, he probably has good reasons for it. Or, as his running mate Mike Pence said, As we say back home, you can't fake good kids.

Presidential nominees are known to use children to bolster their appeal  Barack Obama did in 2008. The image of his family of four with two small children signalled change.

That image of the four of them (the Obamas)during his convention, was quite powerful, said Ed OKeefe, a Washington Post reporter whos covered six conventions.

The idea of having young children in the countrys house was appealing to a lot of people, or they liked the idea of that, he added. Malia and Sasha, who are much older now, helped.

And now the Trumps. OKeefe said, Generally, theyve been received very well by the American publicThey seem to be upstanding citizens and loyal children to their devoted father.

But can they get their father to the White House?


A tussle has erupted between Pakistans powerful military and the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over a sprawling piece of land in the garrison city of Abbottabad where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived and was killed in 2011.

While local authorities want to construct a childrens playground there, the military wish to build a graveyard, the BBC reported on Friday.

The two sides have tussled over control of the land - and on Wednesday the military erected a wall around the site, surprising local authorities, the report said.

Bin Laden, 54, was killed in a US raid on his hideout on May 2, 2011. He had been living there in secret, in a three- storey building behind high walls, for several years before his death.

After his death, the land was handed over to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province which tore down the structure and its boundary wall, to prevent the place from becoming a site of pilgrimage for jihadists and their sympathisers.

Since then the land has been lying unutilised amid a growing neighbourhood.

Now, the local government and military authorities are in a dispute over how to use the land - and who should control its future, the report said.

The military-run Cantonment Board of Abbottabad (CBA) moved to occupy the area in May, erecting a rope-fence around it. But they removed it after the provincial authorities intervened.

This time the CBA was more decisive - building a one metre wall around the sprawling grounds, and catching the local government by surprise.

A member of the CBA council, Bashir Khan, said the military had decided to convert the land into a cemetery.

It is needed because there is no graveyard nearby for the local population, he told the BBC.

But KP Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani dismissed the plan, saying the grounds were in the middle of a populated area and not fit for a graveyard.

Besides, the cantonment authorities have built the wall on land that belongs to the provincial government, Ghani said, adding that the CBA had said they build the wall to prevent encroachments.

The provincial government hoped to turn the land into a playground for children, Ghani said.

The dispute looks set to continue - and local residents have their own ideas too, with some demanding that the land should be used to build a girls school.

Some other military officials have mooted plans to build a revenue-generating amusement park on the land.

What everyone seems to agree on is that any project should be chosen with care so it could not be easily associated with the name of Bin Laden - something which could become a source of continuing embarrassment for the military, the report said.
Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party nomination on Thursday, drawing a grim and dark picture of a country in crisis and offering himself as the only one who can help.

Lustily cheered by his supporters on the floor of the convention and in the stands of a large sporting arena, Trump seemed angrier and louder than before, delivering a familiar message.

Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation, he said. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life...Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Trump offered himself as the law-and-order-candidate, with a message for law-breakers: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country.

Outside, the city that had turned into a fortress with police officers brought in from around the US, watched nervously as another day of protests passed peacefully.

Clevelanders stayed home mostly, handing over their city to outsiders  Republican Party delegates, protestors, tourists and hordes of news crews from around the world.

I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination, started Trump, after being introduced by Ivanka Trump, his daughter and favourite child, according to her siblings.

In the speech, which lasted an hour and 15 minutes, he stressed on building a wall along the Mexican border, keeping out visitors from areas affected by terrorism and making better trade deals.

But he just sounded grim, and his speech was completely bereft of a positive message of hope and optimism that Republican nominees before him have offered the country.

It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation, Trump said. I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

According to him, the crime rate in the US is rising, the number of police officers being killed is up by 50% over the past year, and illegal immigrants with criminal records are roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.

The economy was in a bad way too  unemployment remained high, household income was down, the trade deficit was high, and national debt was $19 trillion, and growing.

But Trump had a plan to fix every problem. The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo, he said.

The nominee detailed his plans, which were much the same he has trotted out before during the primaries. As then and now, he failed, as widely noted, to answer the how question.

Shortly before Trump accepted the nomination, an African-American woman walking away from Public Square, a popular venue for protestors, said, I am waiting to get my city back.

She would get Cleveland back on Friday, after four days of a tumultuous convention to crown the real estate magnate the Republican nominee for the White House.
A fractious Republican convention wrapped up Thursday with Donald Trump accepting the partys White House nomination. Here are some key moments from the four-day gathering in Cleveland.

Floor fight

When the convention was gavelled in on Monday, it didnt take long for tensions over Donald Trumps nomination to bubble over.

What should have been a routine floor vote on arcane party rules erupted into a public revolt by anti-Trump Republicans.

Having lost the primary and several behind-the-scenes battles the Never Trump movement showed it was not going to roll over and die -- even if it meant a damaging public brawl.

We deserve to be heard, this is the peoples convention! said Diana Shores, a delegate from Virginia, while pro-Trump delegates tried to drown out the rebels with shouts of Shame! Shame!

Echoes of Michelle

Melania Trumps debut in the political big league Monday was a speech full of earnest warmth, except the words werent entirely hers.

It transpired that Trumps third wife, an ex-model, had included sections from a speech given by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2008.

The Trump campaigns ham-fisted response -- denying allegations of plagiarism, dismissing them as a media-generated controversy, then tacit admission, then having a speechwriter own up -- only fuelled the scandal and made Team Trump look inept.

Trumps kids had less problematic appearances. A string of sons and daughters gave the convention a family feel -- with the tycoons favourite daughter Ivanka proving a powerful surrogate on the final night when she painted him as a compassionate champion of womens rights.

Vote your conscience

When Texas Senator Ted Cruz walked onto the convention stage at prime time Wednesday, Team Trump had some hope that a unifying endorsement might be in the offing.

Fat chance. Cruz, popular on the right of the party, not only declined to endorse but actively encouraged his conservative backers not to vote for the mogul. Vote your conscience, he said.

The Trump campaign described it as no big deal and classless, whatever the political fallout, it is already clear that Trumps running mate was collateral damage.

Mike Pences speech accepting the vice presidential nomination took place outside primetime because Cruz ran well over his allotted speaking time and thoroughly eclipsed Pences moment in the sun.

Lock her up!

If Republicans in Cleveland agree on nothing else, it was that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is bad.

Speakers lined up to denounce Clinton for the deaths of their loved ones and for putting national security at risk. On Tuesday, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, went as far as convening a mock trial, seeking to convict the former first lady and secretary of state.

Is she guilty, or not guilty? he asked half a dozen times to the assembled delegates. The response: Guilty!

Adding to the raised-pitchforks tone, Republicans unleashed full-throated chants of Lock her up! Lock her up!

Trump

Thursday night, an unsmiling Donald Trump struck a martial tone in accepting the Republican presidential nomination, vowing to restore security to an America he sees as surrounded by danger.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored, he promised.

For one hour and 17 minutes, candidate Trump reasserted many of the nationalistic themes of his campaign, often shouting his lines to the roar of a packed convention hall.

It was the most important speech of his political career and he delivered it almost exactly as it played across a teleprompter, rarely ad-libbing.

At 11.34 pm, he concluded with a God bless you, and good night. I love you, and 125,000 red, white and blue balloons floated down onto the stage. Outside a burst of fireworks marked the end of the Republican jamboree.
DHAKA: Bangladeshs High Court on Thursday sentenced the eldest son of opposition leader and former premier Khaleda Zia to seven years in jail for money laundering, scrapping his acquittal by a lower court three years ago.

A two-judge bench made the decision against Tarique Rahman, who is the heir apparent to Zia, throwing a major challenge for the former prime minister to rise against her arch-rival, current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Rahman, senior vice chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has been living in exile in Britain since 2008, when he left the country after securing bail on medical grounds.

The verdict in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission came at a time when Bangladesh is struggling to fight arising Islamist militancy. There has been growing concern that Hasina will further consolidate her powers in the days to come.

The government regularly blames Z ia and her party of being in a partnership with the Jamaat-e-Islami in an anti-government alliance.

Zainul Abedin, a defence lawyer, said the court had also fined Rahman 200 million Takas and upheld an earlier verdict of seven years of jail for his businessman friend Giasuddin Al Mamun.
DHAKA: Bangladeshs security force arrested four members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen on Thursday, including a leader of the banned group blamed for the Islamist attack on a cafe in Dhaka in which 22 people were killed, mostly foreigners. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raided an apartment on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka and arrested the groups southern region leader and three other members, including a medical student, said RAB spokesman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiya. They will be interrogated intensively to understand if they had any connection with the cafe attack, he told Reuters. A huge quality of ammunition, weapons, bomb-making materials and jihadi books have been recovered from the house, which was used for training recruits, Bhuiya added. Five Bangadeshi militants stormed an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka on July 1 and killed customers.

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BERLIN: German chancellor Angela Merkel backed UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays decision to wait until next year before beginning the formal process of leaving the European Union.

After their first meeting in Berlin, Merkel gave support to May, saying it was right and necessary for Britain to take a moment to work out what it wants. She also did not rule out a deal for the UK that combines free trade with controls on immigration, saying Germany would be listening to what Britain wants before coming to a decision.

However, French President Francois Hollande, whom May was to meet later in the day, said on Thursday that Britain s negotiations to leave the EU shouldnt drag on.
Last-Ditch Rebel Stand at Petersburg

By Ronald E. Bullock

After nearly 10 months of trench warfare, Confederate resistance

at Petersburg, Va., suddenly collapsed. Desperate to save his

army, Robert E. Lee called on his soldiers for one last miracle.

After more than nine months of squalid trench warfare around the beleaguered Southern city of Petersburg, Virginia, the spring of 1865 found Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his 44,000-man Army of Northern Virginia facing an overwhelming enemy force of 128,000 troops commanded by the indomitable Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee had been successful against long odds before, but never before had he and his men faced a situation as desperate as this. Less than 150 miles away in North Carolina, General Joseph Johnston and his depleted Army of Tennessee were trying to hold back Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and four times as many Union troops, while a third Federal force, under Major General Philip H. Sheridan, had just joined Grant outside Petersburg. Soon, Lee knew, he would be facing more than 200,000 battle-tested foes. Not even Robert E. Lee could defy those odds.

It had already been a long and grueling winter inside the Confederate trenches at Petersburg. Hunger, cold, illness, desertions and the constant threat of deadly snipers had sapped the spirits of the once defiant Virginians. In one five-week stretch that winter, nearly 3,000 Southern soldiers desertednearly 8 percent of Lees total strength. The few new recruits that came into the armyusually grudgingly, via the widely hated draftcould not replace the hardened veterans of so many earlier campaigns. The men coming in do not supply the vacancies caused by sickness, desertions, and other casualties, Lee admitted. Although the general still retained the affection and loyalty of his men, both Lee and his underlings realized that it was only a matter of time before the war reached a point of no return. Said one Maryland soldier: There are a good many of us who believe this shooting match has been carried on long enough. A government that has run out of rations cant expect to do much more fighting, and to keep on is reckless and wanton expenditure of human life. Our rations are all the way from a pint to a quart of cornmeal a day, and occasionally a piece of bacon large enough to grease our plate.

Lee himself made a fruitless trip to Richmond to plead his armys case before the Confederate Congress, but bitterly told his son Custis, I have been up to see Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving. Meanwhile, the Union forces were growing stronger by the day. A massive supply depot at City Point, seven miles northeast of Petersburg at the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers, bulged with mountains of food, clothing, arms and ammunition for the Federal troops.

Lees desperate attempt to cut the enemy supply lines at the juncture of Prince George Court House Road and the City Point Railroad on March 25 went terribly awry. Major General John Gordon, aiming his assault at the enemy salient of Fort Stedman, quickly seized the fort, but a massive counterattack rained down death and destruction on the Confederate attackers. After only a few hours, Lee called off the attack, but not before losing another 4,000 irreplaceable troops while gaining absolutely nothing.

Even worse, Lees halfhearted assault put Grant on alert. The Union commander was no longer worried that Lee could defeat him (if indeed he ever had been), but he was concerned that the wily Confederate might slip away under cover of darkness and join Johnstons forces in North Carolina. On March 29, Grant assembled 50,000 troops on the Union left under one of his favorite commanders, Sheridan, who had already cleared the Shenandoah Valley of all effective Rebel resistance. Two days later, Sheridans force pushed northwestward toward Five Forks, a strategic wilderness crossing a dozen miles south of Petersburg. Lee, rather than extending his thin lines of defense an additional four miles to meet the Union threat, dispatched a 10,500-man mobile force of cavalry and infantry to oppose Grants flanking movement. The idea was that the quicker-moving Confederate cavalry could bridge the gap between the existing lines and the 6,000 supporting infantry troops until they could be properly situated.

On March 31, a portion of Sheridans force reached the outskirts of Five Forks but were repulsed by Maj. Gens. George Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee. A terse message soon arrived from General Lee. Hold Five Forks at all hazards, he ordered. Incredibly, Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee chose the next day to hold a holidaylike shad bake behind their lines, and that same afternoon the relentless Sheridan struck, routing and scattering the leaderless Confederates. In one stroke, Lees entire right flank disappeared.

To replace the lost infantrymen on the right and attempt to continue holding his lines around Petersburg, Lee sent a desperate appeal that night to Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, who was north of the James River guarding Richmond, to come immediately to his aid. Major General Charles Fields 4,600-man division was at least 12 hours away from Petersburg, and could not be expected to arrive before 7:30 a.m. on April 2. In the meantime, Confederate troops were moving out of their old earthworks and shifting toward the right to meet the enemy flanking movement there, with the slight hope that Fields reinforcements would arrive at Petersburg before a general Federal assault fell on the defenders across the entire line.

Grant, however, alertly launched a heavy attack along the whole length of the Confederate lines south of the Appomattox River at dawn (4:45 a.m.) on April 2, and the center of Lees lines was soon broken at a thin section held by Lt. Gen. A.P. Hills III Corps. As Lee came out of his headquarters behind Hills lines at the Turnbull house before daylight on the morning of April 2 to investigate the heavy firing that was in progress, he could just make out a long line of men coming toward him from the southwest. In the growing light, Lee could clearly see the blue uniforms of the troops, who were not more than half a mile away.

Hill was present at headquarters by this time, and he immediately set out with a lone courier to try to ride around the advancing Federals in a desperate attempt to rally his troops and restore the broken lines. The III Corps commander had said recently that he had no wish to survive the fall of Richmond, if that should occur. His wish was soon fulfilledas Hill was killed instantly when knocked from his horse by a shot through the heart. In the meantime, a six-gun battery set up on the grounds of the Turnbull house opened fire to slow the advance of the oncoming Federals.

A semicircular section of the Confederate line held by Gordon on the left, surrounding Petersburg itself and running from the Appomattox River on the east to Fort Gregg well west of the city, had remained intact. The only chance to buy sufficient time for an evacuation of the major portion of Lees army that night required that the Federals be kept out of the 11Z2-mile-wide gap in the lines on the west (running north from Fort Gregg to the Appomattox River) until Fields approaching division could be brought into place about noon to establish an effective inner line of defense.

Lee himself was presently outside the intended inner line of defense, with hardly any Confederate troops between him and the enemy, a mere half mile away. Undaunted, Lee took time to go back into his headquarters and rapidly complete his dressing, including the unusual step of strapping on a dress sword with his full uniform. Reluctant to leave even then, Lee took personal charge of the guns. Later, a Federal officer reported: As we advanced over rolling and open country, a rebel battery opened on our left. Several times, as it was forced to change positions by the fire of the First Maine, we noticed a fine-looking old officer on a gray horse, who seemed to be directing its movements. At length the guns went into battery again on a hill near a large house, and their presence became more annoying than ever. By common consent the three brigades attempted to charge the hill, but the canister fire was so hot that the first attack was a failure. Later, I asked a mortally wounded artillery officer left behind what battery it was. Poagues North Carolina, he said, and then I asked who was the officer on the gray horse? General Robert E. Lee, sir, and he was the last man to leave these guns.'

Lee remained so long at the front that he eventually had to ride away at a gallop on his beloved Traveller, under heavy artillery fire. A shell burst so near the little band of retreating riders that the horse of one of his staff officers was killed. This caused Lee to rapidly jerk his head to one side, as he sometimes did when angry, and glare over his right shoulder toward the source of the fire as he rode along. Some shells also passed through the just-abandoned Turnbull house, setting it on fire and soon leaving only four tall chimneys standing where the headquarters had been.

As he rode through a thin inner line that was beginning to form across the open western end of the earthworks, Lee was cheered by his men as enthusiastically as he had been when he rode into the opening around the Chancellor house following Stonewall Jacksons flank attack at Chancellorsville almost two years earlier. Before leaving the Turnbull house, Lee found time to send a telegram to the War Department in Richmond (received at 10:40 a.m.) stating, I advise that all preparations be made for leaving Richmond tonight. This dispatch was delivered to President Jefferson Davis, who was attending Sunday morning service at Saint Pauls Church. After receiving the message, Davis got up quietly and left the church to prepare for the evacuation of Richmond that night.

The army had achieved so much for Lee that even now he must have wondered if there might not be one more miracle left. In a way there was, for otherwise the troops would never have been able to get away from Petersburg. Relief came in the form of two small earthworks under construction just beyond the south end of an open area, where it was hoped that an inner line could be established and held. Fort Gregg and Fort Baldwin (also called Battery Whitworth from its nearness to the Whitworth house) were about a quarter mile apart and mutually supporting. The works were occupied by Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Harris Mississippi brigade, which was a part of Maj. Gen. William Mahones division of Hills III Corps. This brigade had been one of the first reinforcement units to be thrown into the broken mule-shoe salient at Spotsylvania 10 months earlier. During that battle, Lee had been riding beside Harris at the head of this column when a solid artillery shot passed under Travellers raised forefeet as the rearing horse pawed in the air. Soldiers of the brigade called out: Go back, General Lee! For Gods sake, go back! Completely composed, he said, If you will promise to drive those people from our works, I will go back. The troops shouted their promise, and then made good on it with the assistance of an Alabama brigade from Mahones division that arrived shortly thereafter.

Harris brigade consisted of the battle-thinned remnants of four Mississippi regiments (the 12th, 16th, 19th and 48th), which numbered about 400 men in totalnot even enough for one good-sized regiment. The brigade was augmented in the Gregg and Baldwin redoubts by about 100 North Carolinians who had been cut off from Maj. Gen. Cadmus Wilcoxs division of Hills corps when the left of Wilcoxs line had collapsed during the Petersburg breakthrough. Harris put just under half of those troops into Fort Gregg (214 men, including portions of the 12th and 16th Mississippi and the remnants of Brig. Gen. James Lanes North Carolina brigade), along with two rifled cannons, one manned by the famed Washington Artillery of New Orleans and the other by the 4th Maryland Battery.

Harris took the rest of the men (about 286, including most of the 19th and 48th Mississippi) and three guns from the Washington Artillery with him to Fort Baldwin, which lay just north of Fort Gregg and had a field of fire of a mile and a quarter to cover, running all the way to the Appomattox River on the north.

Fort Gregg was a square earthwork with a water-filled ditch around three sides of its steeply sloped walls. On the north side, the building of a trench and an elevated parapet to connect with Fort Baldwin had only just begun, and this unfinished section gave a narrow access into Fort Gregg. Likewise, there was an opening in the side of Fort Baldwin to accommodate the planned connecting entrenchment. Thus, each fort depended somewhat on the sweeping cannon fire of its neighbor to prevent enemy forces from entering through its open side. Also, there was no ditch along the unfinished side of the Gregg garrison.

Before Harris left Fort Gregg about noon, he shouted out Lees orders over the roar of the ongoing cannonade. Men, he told them, the salvation of the army is in your keep. Dont surrender this fort. If you can hold out for two hours, Longstreet will be up. As he left the fort, after placing Lt. Col. James Duncan of the 16th Mississippi in charge, he heard someone shout out behind him: Tell them well not give up! This was the second promise to Lee that the Mississippians would honor in every respect.

Two 6,000-man Federal divisions were put in place to overrun the Rebel earthworks as soon as the bombardment was lifted at 1 oclock. One division was assigned to each of the works. The attack on Fort Gregg got underway promptly, but there was a delay at Fort Baldwin because of the heavy smoke from nearby burning buildings that the Confederates had set ablaze to improve their field of fire. The Federals advanced toward Fort Gregg in three columns, each containing a 2,000-man brigade, which were to converge on the fort as they approached.

Hit by massed volleys of fire, the attacking columns fell back, regrouped and came again, only to meet the same destructive fire and have to fall back once more. Longstreet was on the field by this time, swiftly positioning his lead brigades inside an inner defensive line as soon as they arrived. He and Lee observed the attack on Fort Gregg from a high vantage point. After each unsuccessful storming attempt, faint cheering could be heard from Fort Gregg and Fort Baldwin, which was not yet under heavy attack. At one point Lee called his staff around him, pointed to Fort Gregg and asked them to remember the most gallant defense they had witnessed here. Under a tree on a hillside in another part of the field, Grant was also observing and directing the assault on the fort.

Union Maj. Gen. John Gibbon, in charge of carrying out the attack, eventually called for one of the brigades in the division still standing idle before Fort Baldwin. This increased his assaulting force to about 8,000 men, and they were now sent against what was left of the 214 men inside Fort Gregg in one single flood designed to swamp the defenders, instead of in successive waves. The attackers completely surrounded the fort and gained entry through the unfinished side. While the Confederates tried to drive the Federals out through the opening, more troops attacked the other sides of the fort, standing on the shoulders of their comrades to reach the tops of the parapets.

Eventually, hand-to-hand fighting broke out on parapets all around the perimeter of the battered fort. At one time, six Federal regimental battle flags were visible on the parapets. Wounded Confederates inside the fort continued to load rifles taken from dead and disabled soldiers and pass them up to the sharpshooters atop the walls. Tumbling over the parapets, sometimes lifted on the raised bayonets of the unwavering defenders, the attacking Federals achieved a tenuous foothold inside the fort. Still, for another 25 minutes, hand-to-hand fighting continued within Fort Gregg, where defenders made use of everything available to them, from bayonets and clubbing rifles to bricks gathered from chimneys toppled by artillery fire.

Finally, only one gun was in action within the redoubt, and that was manned by a single cannoneer who held the lanyard taut on a gun loaded with double-shot canister. Told to drop the lanyard or well shoot! the gunner yanked on the lanyard and shouted, Shoot and be damned! whereupon he was riddled with bullets and fell dead across the smoking gun. A similar incident had occurred on May 3, 1863, during the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, when the last gunner of the Washington Artillery fired point-blank into surrounding attackers. The units well-earned reputation was not harmed by their work on April 2, 1865.

It was just after 3 oclock when the last fighting terminated in Fort Gregg. The defenders had been true to their wordthey had not given up. Moreover, they had given Lee the two hours he wanted, plus an extra hour for good measure. With the collapse of Fort Gregg, the defenders of Fort Baldwin now made a rush for the inner lines before their now-indefensible position could be surrounded, losing about 60 men as they fled. Left inside Fort Gregg were 55 dead defenders, 129 wounded and only 30 men who surrendered uninjured. The Federals suffered more than 700 casualties during the reduction of the two unfinished earthworks. Now, however, the victorious Federals faced a stronger inner line of works, manned by defenders whose resolve had been strengthened by witnessing the heroic defense of Fort Gregg.

The exhausted Federals were content to remain in a line just outside the range of Confederate rifle fire until nightfall, when the Confederates began their retreat across bridges over the Appomattox River about an hour after darkness fell (8 p.m.). There was no organized interference from the Federals except for continued cannon fire. Because of the enemy firing, the Confederates could roll their artillery over the cobblestone streets of Petersburg without being heard during their retreat. Perhaps the retreat went undetected. But after losing well over 40,000 casualties in the trenches around Petersburg during the past 293 days (including more than 700 lost that afternoon in overwhelming 500 Confederates in Forts Gregg and Baldwin), perhaps Grant was perfectly willing to allow the Army of Northern Virginia to gain unopposed access to the open country.

As they walked through Fort Gregg and the surrounding Petersburg trenches following the evacuation on April 2, the victorious Federals could not fail to notice the beardless faces or silver strands of hair of many of the fallen Confederates. Major Washington Roebling wrote: Old men with silver locks lay dead, side by side with mere boys of thirteen or fourteen. It almost makes one sorry to have to fight against people who show such devotion for their homes and their country. The Confederate manpower shortage became acute during the last stage of the war, but the boys and older men in the trenches continued to fight as desperately as any of Lees veteran troops ever had.

The evacuations of Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2 were accomplished successfully, with most of the artillery intact, and the two wings of the army were on the march, in good order, toward a juncture at Amelia Court House on the Richmond & Danville Railroad, about 40 miles from the evacuated cities. The army, reunited for the first time since the battle of Cold Harbor 10 months earlier, planned to evacuate along the railroad through Burkeville to link up with Johnstons forces somewhere beyond Danville, which was more than 100 miles from Amelia Court House. Although the retreat started well, not much went right thereafter; not the least of the blunders was a failure to deliver rations to the starving army at Amelia Court House. The surrounded army was forced to surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, only a week after the gallant defense of Fort Gregg had allowed a last slim chance for escape. In the meantime, many thousands more had died for a cause that appeared to be altogether hopeless, even before the Petersburg lines were finally broken.

Still, the defense of Fort Gregg was not without benefit, over and above providing an example of conspicuous gallantry in pursuit of a near hopeless cause that ranks alongside any armed resistance in modern or ancient times, including the Spartan defense of Thermopylae. Indeed, the delay of the Federal attack may have saved a great many lives, at least on the Confederate side. As it turned out, the defense presented an opportunity to draw the army together and allow Lee to make a collective and reasoned decision regarding the surrender of what was left of his once-great army. Even after a week of hard marching with hardly any food, with his army totally surrounded by a vastly superior force, Lee found the decision so agonizing that when contemplating surrender he was heard to remark: How easy I could be rid of this, and be at rest! I have only to ride along the lines and all will be over! He must have been thinking about A.P. Hills recent death as he said this. Then, after some reflection, Lee added: But it is our duty to live. What will become of the women and children of the South if we are not here to protect them?

Some 28,356 paroled Confederate troops returned home from Appomattox. Many of these men might have been shot down, one by one, in the streets of Petersburg if the stout defense of Fort Gregg had not stalled the Federal advance until the Confederates could retreat across the Appomattox bridges. Lees life may well have been one of those saved by the orderly evacuation, because it is difficult to imagine that he would have peacefully surrendered with troops still actively engaged in the field. To believe otherwise goes against a considerable body of evidence on Lees behavior under fire. His taking charge of the cannons on the morning his lines were broken at Petersburg is but one example of the commanders steadfastness in battle. Lees troops were equally dedicated, some giving their lives at Fort Gregg so that others would have an avenue of retreat. In that way, at least, they did not die in vain. *

Ronald E. Bullock of Cardiff, Calif., is a longtime student of the Civil War and has published several articles on this and other subjects. For further reading, see Shelby Footes The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3; Douglas Freemans R.E. Lee, Vol. 4; and E.P. Alexanders Military Memoirs of a Confederate.

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A recent study showed that a star system near ours hosted three "potentially habitable planets" but only two of them seem to be more habitable than believed.

Three planets were found to be habitable when discovered in May 2016. They were orbiting the dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, just 40 light years away from us. All three were the size of the earth and were within the "not-too-hot/not-too-cold habitable zone" in which life forms can survive.

Two of these planets have been found to be like earth, with rocky, not gassy surfaces. "These planets are not mini-gas giants, which is a good thing because they wouldn't be habitable," said lead author Julien de Wit of MIT. "We ruled out that scenario."

Even though the planets are like earth, they are not completely so. "They could be like Earth," said de Wit, "or they could be like Venus, with an atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide and high-altitude clouds, or maybe like Mars."

Researchers examined the Hubble telescope even as they went by in front of the star they orbit. As the planets were in a double transit across the sun, alterations in the wavelength of the starlight were also measured.

Gas giants such as Jupiter have atmospheres that are lighter and more diffuse and not really conducive to life. But the researchers discovered the opposite in the planets---"the atmospheres were wound fairly tightly around the planets," as expected in rocky planets. More transits of the TRAPPIST-1 planets will now be examined closely in order to see what the atmospheres are like.

Scientists found the TRAPPIST-1 system through a prototype robotic telescope in Chile, but now they are searching to see if comparatively smaller dwarf stars could host such systems. Hence, six more telescopes based on the prototype will soon be erected in Morocco and Chile, which would demonstrate that there are more habitable planetary systems than thought.

"With more observations using Hubble, and further down the road with James Webb, we can know not only what kind of atmosphere planets like TRAPPIST-1 have, but also what is within these atmospheres," de Wit says. "And that's very exciting."

The findings were published in Nature.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Of the many concerns when traveling abroad  electrical outlets, language barriers, etc.  currency exchange is but one. With all of the expenses that can pile up while traveling, you want to get the best exchange rate so you don't get ripped off before you've even spent a penny. If you do a bit of legwork before you leave for your trip, you can save a lot of money and hassle.

Here are seven ways to get the best currency exchange rates while traveling.

Check Up on Exchange Rates, ATMs, and More Before You Leave

Start by checking the current exchange rate of your destination country at a conversion site like XE.com. That way, you won't be surprised when you arrive. While the rate will fluctuate throughout your trip  whether you're traveling for a few days, weeks, or months  barring a major economic event like the Brexit vote, it shouldn't change too drastically. XE also offers apps for Apple, Android, and other devices. To get the most up-to-date rates, though, you'll need data or a WiFi connection.

Next, contact your credit card companies and inform them of your travel dates and destinations. This will prevent them from freezing your accounts due to suspicious-looking charges during your travels. Ask for a local number as well, so you can get in touch with the companies if your card is lost or stolen; the 800 number listed on the back will generally work only in the U.S. and Canada.

SEE ALSO: 3 Easy Ways to Use Your Phone Abroad (Without Going Broke)

Also see if your bank will reimburse you for any fees charged by other banks when you make an ATM transaction. It's worth checking the availability of ATMs if you're not familiar with your destination, too. Use the online locators offered by Plus and Cirrus, the two big ATM networks. Confirm that you have a four-digit PIN, as many ATMS in other countries won't allow PINs that are longer than that.

Finally, bring some U.S. currency with you, so can pay for cabs and food when you land on your return trip; your jet-lagged self will thank you.

Opt for Credit and Debit Cards

In general, you'll get the best exchange rates by using your credit card or withdrawing cash at the ATM. We recommend bringing at least two credit cards. You'll have the best luck with MasterCard and Visa; American Express and Discover are less widely accepted.

Additionally, some countries outside the U.S.  mainly in Europe  have transitioned to chip-and-PIN cards, in which your card is embedded with a microchip and assigned a PIN to prevent fraud. Chip-embedded cards are rolling out in the U.S., too, where 70% of credit card holders have an EMV chip card, according to a recent CreditCards.com survey.

You'll have the best luck with MasterCard and Visa; American Express and Discover cards are less widely accepted.

If you don't have a chip-embedded card yet, ask your bank to issue you one before your trip, if available. Credit cards without microchips should work at most locations, but you may run into trouble at unstaffed kiosks. So if you're buying a train ticket, for example, you may have to use cash or pay at the booth where a staff member can swipe your card.

Many credit cards in the U.S. charge a foreign transaction fee each time you use them abroad; check with your bank. You'll also get charged at the ATM, so try to limit your withdrawals to avoid multiple fees. If you travel a lot, look into signing up for a credit card that does not charge these fees. NerdWallet has a comprehensive list of these no-fee credit cards.

In Certain Cases, Consider Traveler's Checks and Prepaid Cards

Remember traveler's checks? Before the proliferation of ATMs, they were probably one of the most popular ways to carry money abroad. The benefit used to be that you could use them just like cash, but many retailers don't accept them anymore. If you buy checks, you'll likely have to exchange them for cash at a bank. You won't get as good a rate as using a credit or debit card; however, in most cases, the issuing bank will refund you if the checks are lost or stolen.

SEE ALSO: 7 Ways to Keep Your Money Secure While Traveling

A company called Travelex offers a prepaid chip-and-PIN MasterCard, which you can load up with local currency and use just as you would a credit card. Again, the rates won't be as favorable as using a credit or debit card, but it's an option for those who don't have or don't want to use their credit card abroad. One plus is that you don't have to worry about a fluctuating exchange rate. But you're limited to buying only Euros, British pounds, Australian dollars, Japanese yen, Canadian dollars, and Mexican pesos, and you'll have to pay various fees based on your usage of the card.

Exchange Money After You Arrive (For the Most Part)

Some banks and other services will sell you foreign currency before you depart, but the rate won't be the most favorable compared to exchanging money in your destination country. If you're headed to a destination with limited access to ATMs, this may be a wise option; otherwise, just wait.

However, you'll also want a bit of cash on hand when you land, so it's probably worth taking the hit and exchanging a few dollars before you leave.

Stay Up-to-Date With Mobile Payment Developments

If you use your smartphone to pay for in-person purchases, you may think that's a great option when traveling. However, Android Pay and Apple Pay are currently only accepted by retailers in a few countries outside of the U.S. That number is growing, though. Android Pay is available in the U.K., Australia, and Singapore, and Apple Pay is now in six countries.

See if Your Destination Accepts U.S. Dollars

A few countries outside of the U.S., including tourist destinations such as the Bahamas and Belize, accept the U.S. dollar in addition to their local currency. You can also spend U.S. dollars in parts of Mexico and Canada, though you'll get change in the local currency at the current exchange rate.

Try to Spend Foreign Currency Before You Leave

It's happened to the best of us: You've reached the end of your trip and you still have a pile of foreign currency. If you travel to the same country frequently, it's not the end of the world to come home with leftovers. Otherwise, try to spend the money before you leave  and not by buying junk at the airport. Ask your hotel if you can pay for all or part of your accommodations with cash, or use it for your last meal or your ride to the airport. A little bit of planning can go a long way.

Readers, what are some of your tips for getting the best exchange rate? Let us know in the comments below!
News, events, history, and other mid-week tidbits.

Tuesday, October 25, 4:30  7 p.m.

Orr Area EMS Open House

Brats and burgers will be served. Event includes a new ambulance tour and blood pressure screenings. For more info: 218-780-3798.

Orr Fire Hall

4540 Lake St., Orr

Tuesday, October 25, 12  6 p.m.

Essentia Health Job Fair

Talent recruiters and department managers will be on-site at Essentia Health-Virginia. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to attendnurses, nursing and clinical assistants, surgery technicians, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, human resource professionals, and those interested in environmental services or nutrition services. Essentia staff will greet candidates, conduct an initial screening and filter them to appropriate hiring managers for interviews. Select candidates will be verbally offered a position before leaving. Candidates are asked to bring a resume, but its not required. Attire is business casual. For more info: www.essentiacareers.org.

901 9th St. N., Virginia
Loosely speaking, revenue management (AKA "yield management"), a cornerstone of successful hotel operations, follows a formula: sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price. Hoteliers accomplish this by effectively balancing occupancy and rate strategies to maximize revenue.

This article lays out the essential tenets and components of revenue-management practices, including how they relate to a hotel's revenues and value.

A Brief History of Revenue Management

The concept and modern practice of revenue management originated in the 1970s when airlines began experimenting with new ways to fill seats without sacrificing ticket prices. To do this, they analyzed historical booking patterns of individual and subgroups of travelers. Two of the earliest approaches took the form of overbooking flights and offering discounts to passengers who book early.

Overbooking worked on the principle of predicting the number of passengers who would not show up for a specific flight and selling those seats again to new passengers. Airlines would analyze historical data for similar flights, looking specifically at how many ticketed passengers did not arrive, and overbook by the same number. This practice all but guaranteed that all seats would be filled on a given flight.

To maximize potential revenue further, airlines also began to change ticket prices throughout the booking cycle and gauge corresponding demand levels. Airlines would allocate a number of seats three or more months from the departure date at a lower ticket price, typically appealing to the leisure traveler to provide a base of business for a specific flight. As the departure date approached, airlines would increase rates to maximize yield, knowing most of these last-minute travelers (often commercial customers for whom the travel was necessary and inflexible), would pay the higher price.

Hoteliers Adopt the Trend

These practices became known as "yield management," and hoteliers did not take long to adopt them. The move made sense for hotels, which also looked to maximize revenues with a pricing strategy based on historical consumer purchasing analytics and demand trends. In the late 1980s, larger hospitality companies implemented similar strategies, and Sheryl E. Kimes' oft-cited paper, "The Basics of Yield Management," appeared in the Cornell Quarterly in November 1989.

Today, revenue-management strategies are woven into the very fabric of successful hotel operations, and they continue to evolve.

For hotels, revenue management varies by asset type, location, brand, management, and ownership. Strategies, however, tend to focus on two segments of demand: transient and group. These two segments serve as the foundation for the pricing and mix of business at a particular hotel. Hoteliers must understand each, as well as how they work together, to develop an effective pricing strategy for a hotel.

TRANSIENT BUSINESS

Transient pricing strategies are designed for individual guests staying at a hotel, whether for business or for pleasure. Essentially, transient guests are not affiliated with a group booking or a contract block agreement. This section presents a basic approach to maximizing transient revenues, including effective pricing, segment pricing strategies, inventory management, and forecasting.

Technology, Pricing, and Guest Satisfaction

Optimized, time-sensitive, and customer-targeted pricing strategies for hotel rooms are typically arrived at in one of two ways (or a combination of both). The first simply relies on experienced managers or management teams, who price rooms based on their knowledge of competitive products and pricing, as well as their property's historical and forward-looking trends. These managers now have access to competitor rates through several sources that allow them to "shop" competitor rates by searching published online travel agency (OTA) rates automatically.

A strategy coming more into wide-scale use is to set pricing with the help of sophisticated software and revenue-management systems developed by hotel brands, management companies, and outside consultants. Today's top hotel companies invest heavily in software that aids revenue-management decisions. Examples include HiltonGro (Hilton), One Yield (Marriott), and IDeaS and Duetto, which are independent systems used by many hotel franchises and independent hotels. The playing field has been leveled somewhat between branded and independent hotels related to access to these high-tech systems. The upfront cost of these systems was in the $30,000 to $50,000 range until about four years ago, a prohibitive cost for most independent hotels and small boutique hotels in particular, even given the higher average rates at such properties. With the advent of cloud-based systems and increased competition, these new high-tech systems can be acquired for an upfront cost of between $7,000 and $10,000, with monthly fees now between $6 and $10 per available room per month.

Both methods rely heavily on evaluating the historical performance of a specific hotel, forecasted demand and occupancy, and vigilant monitoring of competitor pricing. The benefits of going high-tech include the ability to gather and monitor mass amounts of complex data on demand in real time, so that managers can accordingly adjust pricing strategies based on market conditions and competitive moves.

These revenue-management systems "learn" and provide suggested rates based on their analysis that no human can replicate. The technology cannot, however, be left untended, and even the most sophisticated systems and algorithms do not replace a revenue manager's ability to gauge forces in the market that can affect pricing. These factors include the state of the local, regional, national, and global economies; demand and pricing levels induced by non-recurring special events; and general knowledge of market dynamics.

Mark Lynn, head of HVS's Asset Management & Advisory group in San Francisco, notes that, despite the vital data it produces, "the use of technology alone is a short-sighted approach. There are always unique circumstances occurring in a hotel's competitive environment that may not show up in the numbers."

Lynn argues that hotels must provide "price value" to guests, something that can be sabotaged by strict reliance on technology. "We have seen situations where the technology dictates the setting of outrageous rates based on high demand." While guests may be forced to book one time, he says, they leave feeling coerced, and are unlikely to return. "There has to be a balance of logic and guest satisfaction injected into the rate-setting process," Lynn says.

Pricing Strategies Suited to Demand

The level of support in setting room rates differs with a hotel's product type, location, and brand. Management teams review and adjust rates dailyoften frequently throughout the dayand make tactical decisions on rates over the next 90 days. It is extremely important to have longer-term strategic pricing guidelines in place that are determined annually in strategy meetings with hotel leadership. These long-term rate strategies serve as a basis for adjusting rates during shorter-term tactical initiatives.

Typically, hotel management will employ one of the two following strategies to price rooms. The first is a"weekday versus weekend" strategy, with one guestroom rate for Sunday through Thursday and another for Friday and Saturday. Another approach is known as the "dynamic" pricing strategy. Used to maximize pricing during the highest levels of occupancy, the dynamic approach also allows the flexibility of offering lower guestroom rates on shoulder nights around peak occupancy days, as well as on weekends.

Hoteliers will also home in on pricing for specific segments of transient demand, including commercial, leisure, government, and extended stay. Examples of pricing strategies specific to these segments are listed below.

Special Corporate Pricing: Commercial guests, defined as those traveling on business, will frequently book within a shorter period, and typically have a larger budget for travel. Larger companies will often negotiate for special rates given the high levels of business they produce for a hotel. These negotiated room rates may be offered locally or across multiple properties nationally and help establish a strong occupancy base for hotels. In markets with limited corporate demand, hotels will often offer one commercial rate for business travelers.

Leisure Packages and Advance Bookings: Leisure demand designates hotel guests traveling on vacation, visiting friends or family, and for other reasons not associated with a business purpose. These guests are characterized as price-sensitive travelers, prone to search for the best deal. Hotel management will offer a variety of special rates and packages designed to add value for leisure guests. These packages may include free amenities such as breakfast at the hotel or tickets to a show or other local attractions. Another pricing tool is known as the "advanced purchase rate." This discounted rate normally requires an advance reservation with a full, usually non-refundable deposit, appealing to leisure guests with definite travel plans made well ahead of the date of travel.

Contract Agreements: Contract agreements are designed for industries that need a constant supply of guestrooms. For hotels located near an airport or a major seaport, for example, contract agreements with airlines or cruise ships can be an effective pricing strategy. Hotels with a large supply of guestrooms often benefit from these agreements, which can provide a foundation for consistent occupancy. It is important to note, however, that these agreements are often secured at lower rates given the large quantity of room nights provided throughout the year.

Third-Party Booking Agencies and Online Travel Agencies: Third-party booking agencies and online travel agencies (OTAs) allow guests to book hotel rooms, along with flights, rental cars, and other travel conveniences, online. These entities typically operate in one of three ways.

"Merchant" websites (e.g., Expedia, Orbitz) offer guestrooms for a given date from hotels in a market, and guests can search among selected hotels by name. Merchant sites then receive a commission for each guestroom booked. Independent hotels can limit the number of rooms allotted to the merchant sites on any given day, but most branded hotels cannot.

"Opaque" hotel booking websites (e.g., Hotwire, Priceline), by contrast, offer guestrooms by rate, without identifying the hotel by name until after a guest has chosen and finished the booking. Opaque sites allow hotels to offer deeper discounts without violating rate-parity agreements, which compel hotels to offer consistent pricing across the brand.

Beyond these, there are "metasearch" websites (e.g., Kayak) that provide a "one-stop-shop" listing of hotel room rates, directing guests to either a hotel's website or a third-party website for booking (whichever has the lowest rate or best meets the search criteria).

The graphic below provide some examples of each type of company, as well as some pros and cons of each from the perspective of hoteliers regarding third-party sites as a whole.

An HVS Guide to Hotel Revenue Management | By Justin Kaminski and Breanna Smith Photo by HVS

Direct Bookings:

Direct bookings through brand-managed websites have become increasingly popular at hotels, which offer special rates and conveniences to guests who book directly. Common offers include complimentary wireless Internet, a percentage discount, a complimentary room upgrade, late checkout, or other incentives. Direct bookings and associated rewards also help increase brand loyalty, as well as freeing the hotel from commissionable payments to third parties and the reduced risk of rate parity.

Hotel companies have continued to promote direct bookings with advertisements and appeals to frequent traveler members. Major hotel brands including Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Wyndham, and Choice have begun to aggressively encourage direct bookings at company hotels. The discounts offered by the brands are now a direct challenge to the OTAs and provide owners with the ability to increase the average rates they would receive from the OTAs.

Inventory Management

In addition to determining pricing strategies for transient guests, revenue management involves management of the hotel's physical inventory of guestrooms. Revenue managers maintain inventory through "straight-line availability," that is, a process of ensuring that all guestroom types are available at all times. This allows guests to continue booking specific room types, as well as long-term stays, by ensuring a certain number of each type of room is available each day. Revenue managers must also recognize when certain room types should not be made available, such as on high-occupancy days. This allows higher-rated rooms to sell, maximizing revenue.

Some hotel companies now have revenue-management systems that help manage inventory, as well as pricing, by forecasting demand by room type and occupancy. Inventory management is especially crucial and complex during a property renovation, when a selection of the hotel's rooms is out of inventory.

Forecasting

Hotel management relies on accurate occupancy forecasts for the basis of hotel operation, including all staffing, supplies, and food and beverage needs. These forecasts influence minor and major decisions aimed at running a hotel as efficiently as possible. Similar to pricing, a hotel's occupancy forecasts are made continually and based on reviews of historical data and current trends.

The newest sophisticated revenue-management systems forecast by market segment so that rates per different channels and sources can be adjusted to maximize revenue. For example, revenue managers will compare the hotel's year-over-year occupancy levels to gauge where bookings stand for specific timeframes. Management will also evaluate the more recent trends, such as the current guest-booking window and the 90-day room-night trends.

While historical information helps guide the process of pricing and inventory management, a view on current trends is essential to gauge changes in the market (such as new supply and economic factors), as well as guest preferences and buying behaviors.

MEETING AND GROUP BUSINESS

Meeting and group demand capture forms the second half of a hotel's revenue-management strategy. Groups normally need a block of at least ten guestrooms over a defined timeframe and may require meeting space, as well. These groups can include commercial or leisure guests and can book anywhere from 30 days to several years prior to their dates of stay, depending on the size and scale of the group and/or meeting.

The following presents some considerations for an effective meeting and group revenue-management strategy.

Group Ceiling

A hotel's "group ceiling" refers to the maximum number of rooms dedicated to group blocks for any given day of the week. This ceiling is defined, essentially, by how many rooms need to remain in inventory to maximize full revenue potential with transient segments. This can vary by season, market, and type of hotel. Hotels with fewer guestrooms relative to those in their competitive set should be more selective with their group bookings and careful not to displace more higher-rated business, while larger hotels have more flexibility.

Meeting Space

Revenue managers need to evaluate if and how much meeting space is needed when booking groups. Considerations for evaluating a group's meeting space needs include:

An HVS Guide to Hotel Revenue Management | By Justin Kaminski and Breanna Smith Photo by HVS

These considerations help determine whether and to what extent group bookings align with the overall revenue-management strategy at a hotel. They also apply to determining whether a hotel can maximize revenue.

Displacement

Displacement refers to the amount of business being displaced by booking meetings and groups at a hotel. Managers begin to gauge displacement based on an evaluation of demand from this segment in the current year versus the one prior, including which groups have been confirmed, which are tentative, and which are prospective. This is then compared against projected transient room-night demand and rates over the same timeframe, as well as local events that may produce spikes in demand.

Hotel managers use a series of questions to evaluate the positive and negative impacts of group bookings, including how and to what extent meeting and group business may result in displacement. These include:

How much revenue will a meeting or group booking create for the hotel in the form of room nights, food and beverage, and/or meeting space rental?

Does the meeting or group booking threaten to displace higher-rated transient business?

Could taking smaller groups at a higher rate sell out the hotel in other segments?

Is the group a rooming list or a call-in?

Will the group sign a contract with attrition for rooms not occupied?

Does the group have a history at the hotel (or at another hotel) from which data can be drawn and evaluated?

The range of such questions will depend on a hotel's size, service level, and attributes of its market. However, focused inquiries of this type are essential to maximizing revenues when bidding for group business.

Citywide Events

In metro markets with large, dedicated convention facilities, demand capture from "citywide" conventions becomes a central component to maximizing hotel revenue. The biggest citywide events, such as the Super Bowl or the Global Consumer Electronics Tradeshow in Las Vegas, can create enough demand to saturate local hotels and even expand to surrounding markets. The influx of demand from these kinds of events also allows hotels to command much higher room rates and capture definite lengths of stay.

Smaller-scale, lower-rated citywide conventions and events can also generate significant demand; moreover, hotels can command higher rates through guests booking outside of a prearranged citywide group block or through transient guests booking at the same time as but not affiliated with the convention/event.

Because they have so much to do with a hotel's profits and operational efficiency, revenue-management strategies ultimately play into a hotel's value. Although a valuation does not include an explicit assessment of a hotel's revenue-management strategy, some knowledge of a hotel's successes and challenges in this regard is inherent to a comprehensive appraisal.

The following chart examines how two revenue-management strategies, one extensive and the other more limited, give an appraiser a more thorough understanding of a hotel's operation.

An HVS Guide to Hotel Revenue Management | By Justin Kaminski and Breanna Smith Photo by HVS

Conclusion

Over the course of its evolution since the 1970s, revenue management has continued to challenge and reward hoteliers. Effective revenue-management strategies have become more complex in the age of fast-moving technological innovations, and software-based strategies that gather and draw from wide-ranging datasets have become the norm for hotel brands.

The importance of an experienced management team, however, cannot be displaced when it comes to using data to hone a revenue-management strategy focused on transient versus meeting and group business at a hotel. Overall, efficient hotel operations depend on revenue managers keyed in to all elements of a hotel's dynamics, including rates, occupancy, demand, and competition. The right blend of smart technology, experienced managers, and well-honed strategies, in the end, forms the basis of successful revenue management for any hotel.

Justin Kaminski

HVS

(312) 256-1057

HVS

View source
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (EAHM), one of the world's leading hospitality management schools and part of Jumeirah Group, recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Hospitality Asset Managers Association of Middle East and Africa (HAMA MEA).

HAMA is the pre-eminent organization of professionals responsible for proactively increasing asset values on behalf of hotel owners worldwide with more than 400 professionals worldwide representing an estimated 5,000 hotels. The MEA affiliate is based out of Dubai within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), covering the Middle East and Africa, with members reaching as far as South Africa. HAMA MEA will seek to support the evolution of the hotel asset management profession across the region while furthering the Association's global footprint, which currently has established affiliates in the USA, Asia Pacific, Japan, China and Europe.

This agreement with EAHM serves to educate students on the possibility of Asset Management as a career path and further helps to bridge the gap between an increasingly complex industry and education. In a region where maximisation of value for hotel owners and investors is key, it is critical to educate future hoteliers so that they enter the industry with an investor ready mind-set.

Commenting on the new partnership between EAHM and HAMA MEA, Judy Hou, Managing Director of The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, said: "We are proud of this partnership as this collaboration will give our students the invaluable experience needed before they enter the industry."

"We are delighted with this collaboration agreement which is in line with our mission of the enhancement of Hospitality Asset Management through education, advancement of the profession, and highlighting the viability of Asset Management as a professional career path" says Rene Beil, President of HAMA MEA & Managing Director of Beaufort Global Partners.

About The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management:

The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (EAHM) in Dubai is one of the world's leading hospitality business management schools and an integral part of the global luxury hotel company, Jumeirah Group. It is a leading provider of University-level hospitality business education and offers both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees designed to develop the hospitality leaders of the future. EAHM works in academic association with Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne and all programmes of study are fully accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the United Arab Emirates, the Institute of Hospitality in the United Kingdom and THE-ICE (International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education) in Australia. It is also a higher education member of the Council of International Schools (CIS). For further information and enrolment requirements, please visit The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management online:www.emiratesacademy.edu

About Jumeirah Group

Jumeirah Group, the global luxury hotel company and a member of Dubai Holding, operates a world-class portfolio of hotels and resorts including the flagship Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts manages properties in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Kuwait in the Middle East; Baku, Bodrum, Frankfurt, Istanbul, London, Mallorca (Spain) and Rome in Europe; the Maldives and Shanghai in Asia. Jumeirah Group also runs the luxury serviced residences brand Jumeirah LivingTM with properties in London and Dubai; the new contemporary lifestyle hotel brand VenuTM; the wellness brand TaliseTM; Jumeirah Restaurant Group DubaiTM; Wild Wadi WaterparkTM; The Emirates Academy of Hospitality ManagementTM; and SiriusTM, its global loyalty programme. Future openings include luxury and lifestyle hotels in China, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Oman, Russia and the UAE. www.jumeirah.com

About Hospitality Asset Managers Association Middle Ease East & Africa

Established in 1992, the Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA) has a global footprint with affiliates in USA, Europe, Asia Pacific, China, Japan & MEA. HAMA MEA aims to deliver both the stability and the invaluable experience necessary in order to ensure sustainability and maximize value for hotel owners and investors. HAMA members are directly involved in hotel asset management, acquisitions, development support, financing and disposition of hotels and resorts and are immediately responsible for making decisions concerning capital investments, renovations, asset repositioning, operational policies and brand as well as management selection. Through its members presence at HAMA meetings and industry events as well as having established a strong networking and educational foundation the organization continues to further advance its stated purpose to promote the enhancement of hotel asset values. www.hamamea.org

John Fong

Director of Marketing / Associate Professor

+971 4 315 5134

Emirates Academy
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I don't like Donald Trump but I absolutely loathe Hillary Clinton. She should be made to pay for her crimes but she's getting off scott free because she's rich and powerful. The justice system sucks.

Also, when Hillary was asked why she would be a good President, she replied "Because I'm a woman." If I was running for President and said that I would be a good President because I'm a man, feminists would have a field day. They would call me sexist and then tar and feather me. A person's gender does not qualify him/her to be President and I know that every American knows that.

I'm not asking you to vote for Trump. You have the right to vote for whoever you want. That's the American way. But I want to remind people that I think Hillary would be a terrible President. Thanks for taking the time to read what I've written.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League was formed in 2003 when Rook and Colione, two established producers in their mid-twenties, teamed up with Kenny Barto, a young Full Sail University student in Tampa, Florida. Their discography hides the years of hard work each put in perfecting their craft. You wont find obscure local artists or years of mixtape instrumentals among their early production credits. The first 3 entries in their discography on Wikipedia are Young Jeezy, Mary J. Blige, and Juelz Santana. Since then the Florida trio has carved out their own lane, using their impressive sample-recreation and versatility to produce beats for artists like Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, Drake, Lil Wayne, and more. Go behind the beat with the veteran production trio.



Hip hop utilizes sampling as a core part of its musical identity. Sampling is inextricably linked to the genre; the first hip hop records produced were made up 100% of overlapping samples and looped records. Sample-based music rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, now known as the Golden Era of hip hop, further cementing the connection between hip hop production and samples. However, artists and record labels began suing people who used their samples in reaction to the newfound popularity of hip hop. Sample clearances became the norm, and since then sampling has been subjected to increasing levels of scrutiny as the RIAA and the rest of the music industry watch their profit margins crumble in the face of digital distribution. Its easy to allow smaller artists to sample your music when youre selling hundreds of thousands of records per year, but when sales numbers dip and the artist who sampled you is selling twice as many records as you, record companies change their policies quickly. Sampling quickly went from the cheapest way to make a beat to the most expensive.

Its difficult to say whether hip hops sonic evolution is due to the industrys crackdown on sampling, but J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League finds itself uniquely positioned within that dynamic. Simultaneously bastions of the Golden Era sample-driven sound and at the forefront of the fight for better artist payment industry-wide, they see both sides of the music industrys lack of coin problem. Rook, who runs the groups Twitter account, is vocal about artist compensation and the health of the genre.

https://twitter.com/_/status/744625381374894080

https://twitter.com/_/status/744287009590681600

https://twitter.com/_/status/186956793140871169



In the end, the argument for or against sampling in hip hop is about the type and quality of music being made. Sample-driven music has a distinct sonic timbre, both because of the use of live instrumentation and the influences of the super-producers who defined the genre (DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Lord Finesse, to name a few). That same title  distinct  can easily be applied to any production created by the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. Few tracks from the Florida trio sound alike, but they are connected by a fullness and lushness that is difficult to find among the digitally rendered productions populating todays charts. Listening to a song produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League encapsulates what made the 1980s and 90s sound so compelling, yet their most prominent hallmark is that they dont ever use samples. In order to understand J.U.S.T.I.C.E. Leagues unsampling practice, we spoke with the group and dove into how they construct instrumentals. It goes deep.

The practice of re-creating samples is not new. Sugar Hill Gangs Rappers Delight, a song often credited as the first popular hip hop song, used session players to recreate a sample that was looped into the beat. However, recording a cover of a song is one thing. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League takes things a step further, purposefully changing the instruments used, the key, and other elements to avoid too much similarity. Theyll often go through multiple iterations of each beat in order to avoid the sample clearance issues, but the work is worth it to avoid those fees.

The members of J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League classify themselves as nerds. Specifically, theyre into nerdy musical shit, as Rook puts it. What that means is that each member has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of sounds, instruments and effects they can apply. Rook is the self-proclaimed collector of the bunch, but when it comes to making music they all chip in. Having three voices in the studio at once can be difficult as everyone tries to exert creative influence over the music. Originally, the group solved this by having each person work on the parts of the song that matched up with their different musical strengths. Over time, osmosis took effect and their skills have all overlapped as they learned from each other.

Now anyone can construct any part of the beat. That intra-group collaboration allows the best ideas to bubble up to the surface. Sometimes, the group lets a single member take the reigns on a song. An example of this is on Rick Ross 2010 album Teflon Don. We had three songs on that album, says Rook. It really showcases who we are as producers, individually. We had Im Not A Star, Maybach Music 3, and Aston Martin Music. Each one of those was produced by one of us.

Much like their namesake, theyll never reveal who did each. Instead, this tidbit will act as a easter egg for superfans to try and identify whose musical guiding hand was behind each instrumental. Their refrain when it comes to this is, no matter who makes the music, its all J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League.

So how exactly does J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League go about unsampling? Usually, the group models beats based on a sample or sound, with the goal of either re-creating it exactly or making something that sounds similar without being a copy. After the group or the artist picks the sound, the first step is research  something few other beatmakers count as a regular part of their production process. The research isnt cookie cutter; this is some musical private detective-level digging. [Its] about deconstructing the sample, and deconstructing really what went into recording those original instruments, they explain. Ok, we have a guitar  what kind of guitar was it? What was the pre-amp? What was the amp? What was the board that it was being recorded to? What kind of tape was it being recorded to? What kind of room was it in?

Just like an artisanal restaurant might serve a deconstructed dish that has all the ingredients separated, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League breaks down a sample to its raw musical elements and pieces it back together. Unfortunately, information on what went into a song is less readily available than recipes to your favorite dish. To get that information, the producers track down which studio recorded the sample in question, and then request session reports from that recording session. A session report contains, the guitar, the amps, the microphones, the tape, the board, the room. And usually back then certain record labels would use certain rooms or certain whatever whatever, so you try to emulate that.

Once J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League has all the information available about the original sample, they begin the most cumbersome part of the process: recreating every aspect of the original sample, down to the kind of room it was recorded in. This was especially difficult when the group got their start in the mid-2000s, as they had to manually track down very obscure (and often expensive) instruments. Rook is usually the one who puts his foot down, making sure the group gets as close the sound as possible, even if it means extra hours of labor for a difference 90% of listeners probably wont notice. In recent years, this part of the process has been simplified thanks to the rise of musical emulators. Instead of traveling to different boutique music shops, specific instruments can be recreated via a few clicks on the computer without any loss in quality.

Only once all of these preparations are complete does the group begin making music. They use Logic as their digital audio workstation, mostly because of its suitability for tracking live instrumentation. Melody usually comes first, but thats more of a habit than a rule. The producers do their best to recreate the original sample, but they change specific elements so that the instrumental can be considered its own music, legally. They might subtly change the type of keyboard used, or even switch to a xylophone instead of a piano. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League somehow manages to make business logic and music logic work together in harmony, a rare feat indeed.

The whole process used to take J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League a week. These days, theyve got it down to a science, usually only taking a day or two to complete a beat. Its a stark contrast to producers who can churn out 10 beats in a few days, but the group values the time they put into their music, and firmly believe it leads to a more soulful, musical product. The artists who receive the beats, often agree via their utter disbelief that the trio are able to achieve what they do. Mixed By Ali, TDEs in-house engineer, couldnt believe the production on Hood Gone love It was a recreation of the original. As Rook retells, he hit me up like, Yo, Ive never heard anyone replay anything exactly how the shit sounds. Are you sure this is not the sample? These kinds of stories are legion for J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. The producers had another song with Mary J. Blige that was created for her Grammy-winning album The Breakthrough, but according to the group the beat they created was too-perfect a rendition of the sample. It seemed too good to be true. They didnt believe us, so it didnt make the album, they scoff. We have a copy, but its never been released. Winning a Grammy probably helped soften the bitterness from that incident.

According to the group, their most challenging record to produce was also one of their earliest: Maybach Music, off of Rick Ross sophomore effort Trilla. Ross wanted to use a sample from a Beatles cover, but owners of the The Beatles discography are notoriously difficult (read: impossible) to get clearances from. We had to do like five versions of it. This was really like our first time into re-creating something, Rook recalls. We had to not make it sound like the sample, but have the same vibe. They went back and forth with Sony, swapping out instruments, re-recording small parts of the instrumental. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League created those five versions in under 3 days, sleeping at the studio (or not at all). It was our first song with Jay-Z on it. We were like fuck that, we gonna work.

The reason for J.U.S.T.I.C.E. Leagues approach to music can be traced back to how they learned their craft. Colione started with the keys, learning on a Triton keyboard controller. Rook was a sample guru, obsessively collecting obscure sounds on floppy disks for use on his ASR-10 rack mount keyboard. Kenny was formally trained in the saxophone and music theory, but also grew up playing the keys in church. Music was never far from their families, and the musical pedigree combined with constant exposure gifted each of them with an impressive intuition and appreciation for warm, full sound that live instrumentation gives. As Rook explains about the various tools they learned on, heres a keyboard with no sounds. You make your own sounds and make your own music. Its like oh shit, okay. Damn, I gotta make my own sounds and make my own music? Thats where a lot of our creativity comes from.

Their strong opinions about how music should be made originally put them at odds with the newer DAWs that were purely digital. Rook used to diss programs like Fruity Loops (pre-FL Studio) and Ableton, but has changed his tune as the programs evolved and gained more production capabilities. Besides, its producing monster shit, he says, so I cant hate on it.

While J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League has gotten over the new sound thats dominating hip hop, they havent gotten over what they perceive to be seriously unfair treatment of producers and hip hop artists in general. This criticism can be broken down into two complaints: 1) hip hop artists are treated as disposable by record labels industry-wide and 2) artists do not properly value the work that producers do. These two problems are closely related; the industrys lack of investment in hip hop artists leads the artists and their labels to find ways to cut corners financially. The first expense that goes out the window? Production costs. You pay for the lights in the studio, you pay for the engineer, but you dont wanna pay for the producer? Rook asks. Rhetorical question aside, no one seems ready to answer him.

Theres an embedded racial element as well. They dont respect the hip hop producer because most of us are just  I dunno  they wanna give it away for free. We come from the hood, live in our mamas house.

https://twitter.com/_/status/748563754581954560

https://twitter.com/_/status/743534442212364289

https://twitter.com/_/status/743535069550231552



Chance the Rapper was recently caught up in the middle of this debate, but J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League stresses that he was just caught in a crossfire of a lot of shit thats going on in the industry between producers and the music industry, period. Chance has spoken personally with the producers more than once since the issue was first reported, and everything is cool with them interpersonally. Its just a matter of royalties, something J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League refuses to be shorted on. They theorize that, the valuation comes from what [producers] are willing to settle for. If theyre making ten tracks, do they see those ten tracks as $20,000,000 a piece? Or do they see those tracks as $5000 for all of them? Once you start giving tracks or producer credits away for free, people will take that as the norm and continue to ask for free stuff. Of course, this is easier for producers to do when they downloaded their music software for free, because they have no investment to recoup.

https://twitter.com/_/status/742947232689852417



So what does J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League do now? Theyve worked with quite literally the biggest names in hip hop, from Jay Z to Andre 3000 to Lil Wayne. Theyre musicians at heart, but with labels increasingly unwilling to pay their rates, theyve found new ways to share their sounds. They recently put out an album of loosies that were cut from artists records for various reasons, Justice For All. The album further demonstrates their ubiquity and versatility, as it includes everything from a Lupe Fiasco and Future collaboration that was supposed to appear on Tetsuo & Youth (It took a long time for Futures people to get the clearance. At the end of the day, it didnt make sense for that album.) to Kevin Gates. They also have begun packaging some of their hand-crafted sounds so that other producers can benefit from their hard work, and offering live tutoring sessions for budding producers. Theyll continue to put out music, but when asked about their dream collaborations, rappers are not at the top of the list. Instead, they name two music legends: Paul McCartney and Nigel Goddard (of Radiohead). Weve done songs with Andre 3000, Jay-Z, all these guys, they explain. Lets aim for the stars. Paul McCartney is a fucking juggernaut.

JusticeLeague-BTB
Sting, Aphex Twin, Justice, Blanck Mass & The Stranglers are also on the menu

When not slathering on the Factor 30 this week  dont want to be spoiling our peaches n cream complexion  Free Music Friday has been gathering together another red hot collection of downloads, links, streams, vids and trailers which you could fry an egg on in this weather.

On tour recently with Lucius, New York fuzzbox merchant Margaret Glaspy provides a compelling three-song introduction to her Emotions And Math album.

Also new and tasty from our Noise Trade pals are offerings from Athens, Georgia quirk-popper Ruby The Rabbit Foot, and Matthew Mayfield, an Edie Vedder-loving Alabaman who bashes out a mean Welcome To The Jungle on his acoustic.

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To the streams now and NPR has exclusive first dibs on the new records from Nashville stunner Lori McKenna and hotshot Seattle rappers Sango and Dave B.

There's also a compilation of Los Angeles alt. Latino acts, which one imagines would be very much to Morrissey's liking.

Sean Penn has directed the video accompaniment to I Forgive It All, the new single from Tom Petty whos reconvened with his pre-Heartbreakers band, Mudcrutch.

And, yes, that is Anthony Hopkins walking the mean streets.

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Ace Hawaiian rapper Mr. Carmack is giving away a whopping 54 tunes, so go fill your digital boots.

Royal Trux, Siler Jews, The Frogs, Pavement, Beck, Guided By Voices and Neil Hamburger are among the diverse range of acts featuring on the [link]mixcloud.com/GalaxyMyDear/galaxy-my-dear-56-july-19-2016-w-animal-collective-guest-mix[/link] mix that Animal Collective assembled for a Portland radio station. The dexterous fader-play starts 30 minutes in.

Sting has issued a teaser trailer for 57th & 9th, his self-styled first rock album in 13 years, which drops on November 11.

The 1994 collaboration between Ziq and Aphex Twin, who were operating as Mike & Rich at the time, is to get a Planet Mu re-issue this summer. To whet appetites, theyre sharing 11 Vodka (Mix 2) which was left off the original Expert Knob Twiddlers album. For those old enough to remember them theres a limited-edition cassette version.

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Adult Swims 25 Weeks Of Free Music continues with an absolute stormer from Blanck Mass. AKA Fuck Buttons moonlighting Benjamin John Power. Bag yourself a copy at [link]adultswim.com/music/singles-2016[/link]

Also gifting adultswim.com/music/singles-2016 us new tuneage are French duo Justice whose Safe And Sound single is yours for the [link]justice.church[/link] taking.

Sweet sounding San Franciscans The Saxophones are letting you name your price for the digital version of their If Youre On The Water EP, which is also available as an extremely limited-edition lathe-cut vinyl 8.

If You're on the Water EP by The Saxophones

From further down the Californian coast comes Jeff Rosenstock whose lively Festival Song sounds like a Wurlitzer Weezer.

Festival Song by Jeff Rosenstock

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The Avalanches fabulous, if extremely overdue, Wildflower album is previewing in 30-second chunks at [link]amazon.fr/WildflowerExplicitAvalanches/dp/B01GIBSU6A/ref=sr_1_1/277-4169057-9966524?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1465344563&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=the%20avalanches%20-%20wildflower[/link]

Foy Vance is on 170,000  and rising!  views of his Coco single, which is doing especially well in the States.

Quickly hitting a million views is Go Off, the new promo from MIA who was replaced by Grace Jones as the Afropunk London headliner this week after making controversial Black Lives Matter remarks.

We are loving the new tune and vid from Mathman and The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, which positively screams summer!

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The first taster has emerged of the collaboration between punk poet John Cooper Clarke and former Stranglers man Hugh Cornwell. Its a Salford-ian take on MacArthur Park.

It seems appropriate then that our RetroVid of the Week comes from the aforementioned Men In Black whose blissed-out Always The Sun always puts a smile on our faces.

The always top notch Denis McCalmont Band are letting you try their new album, The Joys Of Modern Life, before you buy.

The Joys Of Modern Life by The Dennis McCalmont Band

Its not music, but seeing as their product goes up so many rock n roll noses, heres the Netflix trailer for Season 2 of Narcos.

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Which is where the Free Music Friday hook is slung for another week. Keep those links coming to @stuartclark66 and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts
Tidy away the eye-liner fans, the emo kings are not coming back.

Yesterday, the clocks wound back to 2006 and emos throughout the world started blasting My Chemical Romance.

What inspired this trip down memory lane? The emo rock band hinted that they might be reuniting when they cryptically tweeted a teaser trailer that ended with the date 9.23.16 (September 23, 2016).

But today, the band broke emo hearts by taking to twitter to dismiss rumours of a reunion. However, they will be reissuing their album The Black Parade in celebration of its 10 year anniversary.

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QPAGOS (OTCMKTS:QPAG, QPAG message board), F.K.A. Asiya Pearls Inc finally emerged from illiquid obscurity and made some headway when its latest announcement hit the web - but it is already losing altitude.

QPAG barely saw any activity at all for months and months on end  but lo and behold, last Tuesday it announced the roll-out of its self-service payment solutions for a multi-state micro lender. The announcement itself was used boastful and profusely optimistic, but once you take a good long look at it, it quickly becomes apparent that in spite of its length, it didn't really say much about the actual event, and what little it did reveal was insubstantial or inconsequential.

With this in mind, it is really no wonder that the news attracted some attention but didn't afford the ticker a prolonged climb.

Another reason why QPAG is currently failing can be found in its unconvincing financials:

Cash - $252 thousand

Total Current Assets - $1.7 thousand

Total Current Liabilities  $355 thousand

Quarterly Net Revenue - $887 thousand

Quarterly Net Loss - $2.7 MILLION

Those numbers hardly look like they can justify the company's market cap of over $61 MILLION  and this is what QPAG is worth after it crashed. Suffice it to say that it needs to have made a lot of progress since it last reported to have earned such a high place on the charts  and currently, there is nothing besides its own words to suggest that this is actually the case.

One thing is certain though  even if QPAG has made progress with respect to its business ventures, there's an elephant in its living room that needs to be addressed. We are talking, naturally, about its over-fondness for stock-related shenanigans. Suffice it to say that as of about two weeks ago, the company had 55 million shares outstanding. Thirteen months ago, that number was 5.5 times lower.

Those are not encouraging details  and when combined with the fact that QPAG is currently on the receiving end of a Profitable Trading LLC pump, they make for a rather grim picture. Still, investors are advised to take all of this into account, because to trade QPAG stock without doing so could prove disastrous.
Yeah this is a perfect example that the progressives are more about how America should be. Also this is perfect evidence that there is no need for law and order. I mean you can see from the videos everyone is content, as long as they get their way
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Southwest Airlines, which dominates traffic at Houston's Hobby Airport, was still reeling on Friday from a technology outage that caused the airline to cancel some 2,000 flights and delay many others.

The Dallas-based airline did not provide local numbers, but flight tracking company FlightAware reports that it has delayed more than 200 flights and canceled more than 80 at Hobby Airport since the outage on Wednesday.

"For an airline, which is highly dependent on technology, that is pretty poor," Brett Snyder, author of the airline industry blog crankyflier.com, said about the system-wide technology outage.

CEO Gary Kelly discussed the glitch during the company's second-quarter earnings call on Thursday. "There was a network equipment failure, and the planned redundancy or backup failed as well, and this hindered the recovery efforts, and especially with some of our older legacy systems," he said.

It took 12 hours for the network to be fully recovered and restored, and then came a backlog of waiting customers and their "bags-fly-free" luggage.

"This is absolutely not the kind of service that our customers expect or what we expect of ourselves," Kelly said. Adding later, "Hopefully after a day of recovery, things will be back to normal tomorrow morning."

But they weren't. On Friday morning, the airline said it had canceled more than 250 flights for the day. The main reason was displaced flight crews.

"This is what results from not investing in technology," said Henry Harteveldt, founder of San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry research company.

For decades, Southwest hasn't made necessary investments in its technology, Harteveldt said, and this has caused problems before. It's among the factors causing Southwest to be slower than other airlines at recovering from such glitches, he said.

On the earnings call, Mike Van de Ven, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Southwest, said the airline is making investments to bring its infrastructure and platform to more up-to-date technologies.

Kelly said the outage would have a financial impact on the company. With the system down Wednesday, Southwest couldn't take bookings, and that could cost $5 million to $10 million in lost business, he said.

For the airline's image as a fun carrier that excels in customer services, experts don't foresee long-term consequences.

"I don't think it will have any affect," said Jack Stelzer, a retired Houston-based airline consultant and senior airline executive.

Business traveler Richard Reed of Bedford, N.H., was delayed 3 1/2 hours during his journey to Houston on Thursday because his plane was missing a crewmember. He said it wouldn't alter his perception of the airline. "Things happen," he said. "It's travel."

Hobby is Southwest's seventh-busiest airport by daily departures. As of May 6, it had up to 161 departures a day.

Houstonian Tomekia Larkins was at Hobby trying to catch a rescheduled flight on Friday. Her original flight to Las Vegas for a bachelorette party was booked for Wednesday.

"It was frustrating, but I was being patient," she said. Luckily, the bachelorette festivities didn't begin until Saturday.

More fortunate travelers breathed a sigh of relief as their flights on Friday were slated for on-time departures.

Sue Kuntzendorf, fearing the airport would be overly crowded, arrived four hours before her flight home to Orlando. It was on time and the airport wasn't chaotic. "I feel lucky," she said.

The technical outage occurred during the height of summer travel, when families have planned vacations and don't have the flexibility to change flights. Planes are fuller, too, which means fewer displaced travelers can be reassigned to them, Snyder said.

Saturday tends to be a slower day for travel, so that may help Southwest recover, experts said.

Customers who booked travel between Wednesday and this upcoming Tuesday have two weeks from their original departure date to re-book travel at the original fare, with no additional cost, Southwest said in a statement.

Southwest has a loyal base of customers, said Houston-based airline consultant Pete Garcia. They enjoy flying with the carrier and like its culture.

"The people that fly Southwest love Southwest," Garcia said. "And I think people that fly other airlines are probably less tolerant."
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian researchers said Thursday they have found Zika in Culex mosquitoes in the northeastern city of Recife in what could prove to be an important discovery. But they cautioned that more study was needed.

Until now, Zika was believed to be carried mainly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is much less numerous, lives in clean water and is more likely to bite during the day. Aedes aegypti thrives in tropical and subtropical climates - it is found in Southern U.S. states such as Florida, but is absent in large parts of the United States. The virus is also carried by the Aedes albopictus mosquito, which lives in more rural environments.

Culex mosquitoes are much more widespread. They breed in dirty water and bite at night. Public health officials have feared that Culex mosquitoes could be involved in Zika transmission, something that would necessitate new strategies to combat the disease - which is blamed for an outbreak of the birth defect microcephaly. Brazil has confirmed around 1,700 cases of the birth defect, which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and can cause cognitive and learning difficulties.

"It means that we have a second species of vector involved in transmission. And with this vector having totally different habits from Aedes aegypti, we will have to create new strategies to combat Culex as well," said Constancia Ayres, a researcher from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a leading government-led research institute in Recife, who led the study.

Researchers from the foundation collected 5,000 mosquitoes from houses in Recife where suspected Zika transmission had taken place. They found 86 percent of these mosquitoes were Culex.

"Culex is a much more abundant species," Ayres told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, where she presented the results.

The researchers analyzed 456 female Culex mosquitoes, which they divided into 80 "pools" or sample groups of between one and 10 mosquitoes each. They found Zika-infected insects in three of these pools.

Ayres said the research proved that Culex can transmit Zika and that it could have played a role in the rapid spread of the disease in Brazil.

"It can transmit Zika. What we need to know now is which species is the most important - if Culex is the primary vector or the secondary vector. We need to do more research," she said.

Paulo Gadelha, president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, expressed some caution during Thursday's news conference. He said that a study at the institution in Rio by researcher Ricardo Lourenco-de-Oliveira had so far failed to find Zika in around 750 Culex mosquitoes.

"It could be that mosquitoes circulating in the Northeast [of Brazil] have more interaction," he said, stressing that more research was needed.

Gadilha said the discovery did not change the low risk of Zika during Brazil's Olympics, which open in Rio on Aug. 5 during the country's cooler winter season. "The risk you have of Zika during this period is very, very remote," he said.

Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas said that if researchers have found Zika in Culex mosquitoes only a handful of times, "it's hard to know what that means; it may not be a finding of great biological significance." But if they are detecting the virus in Culex mosquitoes in large numbers and on a consistent basis, "That would be a game changer."

Hotez was skeptical that Culex mosquitoes are going to start spreading Zika in a significant way. "So far, every place we've seen Zika has been a place where you have Aedes aegypti mosquitoes," he said. "There no reason why one would have to speculate that another mosquito vector is involved."

The Washington Post's Brady Dennis in Washington contributed to this report.
A U.S. citizen who the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas says was "deeply traumatized" by a series of body cavity searches at a Texas hospital - a hospital that later billed her more than $5,000 - reached a settlement with the federal government this week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has agreed to pay her $475,000 and provide additional training to its officers and supervisors as part of the settlement, which the ACLU announced Thursday.

The woman, a resident of New Mexico who was not named in the ACLU's lawsuit against the federal government, was taken to University Medical Center of El Paso in December 2012 after a drug sniffing dog alerted that she may have contraband as she crossed the border, according to court records.

She was held for six hours at the hospital, strip searched, X-rayed and subjected to a body cavity search, according to the lawsuit. After agents found no evidence of drugs, she was billed for $5,488.51.

"Doctors and law enforcement officers are entrusted with the sacred responsibility of looking after our health and safety, and Ms. Doe's unspeakable ordeal represents an unforgivable violation of that trust," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. "These atrocities were committed with our money and in our name, and it's not enough to hold those who committed them to account. We must also ensure that every law enforcement officer and every hospital staff member understands the consequences of so intimately and egregiously violating someone's rights."

CBP did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.

University Medical Center of El Paso last year agreed to pay the woman $1.1 million, according to a press release from the ACLU.

ACLU chapters along the border also sent letters Thursday to 110 hospitals and doctors' offices warning them that body cavity searches generally require a warrant, and that medical personnel are bound by the constitutional limits on unlawful searches as law enforcement officers.

The letter also alerted them to a provision in the CBP handbook that requires officers to defer to medical personnel.

"Your staff should know that CBP agents have no authority to compel healthcare professionals to assist in law enforcement searches," the letter states. "CBP policy absolutely forbids CBP officers from pressuring, cajoling, or otherwise requesting medical personnel to conduct medical examinations of individuals under their custody."
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RIO DE JANEIRO - Ten Brazilians who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group were arrested Thursday, authorities announced, describing them as "amateurs" who discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next month's Olympics.

Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said in the capital, Brasilia, that the 10 were being held on two terrorism-related charges and that two more people were being sought.

Authorities said any attack plan would have had little chance of success, citing the group's lack of resources and skills.

Completely 'ill-prepared'

But officials and security experts argued that police were justified in being aggressive in light of "lone wolf" attacks staged in the U.S. and Europe by men with little or no training.

Moraes said police acted because the group discussed using weapons and guerrilla tactics to potentially launch an attack during the Olympics, which begin in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5. They will remain in police custody for at least 30 days.

"They were complete amateurs and ill-prepared" to actually launch an attack, Moraes said. "A few days ago, they said they should start practicing martial arts, for example."

He said that there were no specific targets for an attack, but that even disorganized groups have to be taken seriously.

The possibility of an attack is not so "far-fetched" even though Brazil has never been a target for terrorism, said Alex Kassirer, a counterterrorism analyst at Flashpoint, a New York-based intelligence group.

"The Olympics is a really unique opportunity to be able to target a concentration of all of the enemies in one area," she said.

Kassirer pointed out the Islamic State group launched a channel in May on the messaging app Telegram to disseminate jihadi propaganda specifically in Portuguese. On Sunday, another channel vowed allegiance to ISIS, although its authenticity has not been determined, she said.

The arrests were made in 10 different states, including Sao Paulo and Parana in the southern part of the country, and it was not clear whether the suspects knew each other beyond their online contacts.

Moraes said authorities seized computers, cellphones and other equipment, but no weapons.

Not one was of Arab descent

Authorities said the investigation that began in April showed the suspects had all been "baptized" as Islamic State sympathizers online but none had actually traveled to Syria or Iraq, the group's stronghold, or received any training. Several were allegedly trying to secure financing from the group.

Investigators said none of the suspects was of Arab descent, but released no details on their religion. They were described as being between the ages of 20 and 40, except for one minor.

The justice minister said one of the suspects communicated with a store in Paraguay via email in an alleged attempt to buy an AK-47 assault rifle, apparently the most concrete action taken toward a possible attack. The email communication was intercepted by police.

Brazilians are allowed to possess small firearms but must have a license and training to do so. Only members of the military may possess assault weapons like the AK-47.
A former Piney Township official who pled guilty to stealing was ordered this week to pay back about $41,562 to taxpayers.

Circuit Judge John Beger ordered Roger L. Martin to pay back the money that was taken through a scheme he admitted involved the use of a township credit card.

Under the sentence, Martin received five years of probation and a sentence of 60 days in the county jail. Martin, who is barred from seeking any elected public office or holding a position on any not-for-profit corporation or church board, will pay the money back at a rate of at least $1,000 monthly. If Martin successfully completes the probationary period, hell be eligible to have the conviction erased from the public record.

The Missouri attorney generals office prosecuted the case, which was originally filed in January 2013. Martin was charged with multiple counts of fraudulently use of a credit or debit device.

Martin entered the guilty plea in May.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation alleged Martin used a fuel credit card without the knowledge of his fellow township members. Martin resigned his elected post in July 2012 after questions surfaced about the cards use.

Earlier, a second former township official, Jackie Cooper, was sentenced after authorities alleged he had participated in the scheme. In 2014, total restitution of almost $25,000 was ordered by a judge.
Cory Offutt always imagined that he would go into the medical field. Raised in Lebanon, his strong suits in school were math and science.

I had some personal healthcare issues that gave me the opportunity to experience the medical field, Offutt said about his interest in a career in medicine.

Offutt graduated with honors from Missouri State University. His undergraduate degree was in cell and molecular biology with minors in chemistry and healthcare management.

While a student at MSU, Offutt met the requirements to be in the Bryant Scholars Pre-Admissions program. As a Bryant scholar, Offutt met certain academic achievement requirements, and he was a Missouri resident and an undergraduate at a Missouri university that participated in the Bryant Scholars program.

Offutt knew early on that he was pre-admitted to the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. Before heading to MU, Offutt married his college sweetheart, Samantha.

The Offutts settled for four years in Columbia. Cory Offutt did rotations through rural hospitals and clinics in the Ozarks as part of his training.

My first family medicine rotation in medical school was not a good one, Offutt said. But I was really interested in pediatrics and obstetrics.

Offutt liked the idea of providing care to a woman before pregnancy, during pregnancy, after pregnancy, and also caring for the newborn and other family members.

Theres great continuity of care in taking care of pregnant women, Offutt said.

Offutt originally thought he would pursue an obstetrics/gynecology residency after medical school, but he didnt find an OB/GYN residency with a good fit. The family medicine residency at the University of Missouri in Kansas City was a good fit, and Offutt had the opportunity to do a lot of obstetrical care, including surgical obstetrics to do Cesarean sections.

The UMKC program offers a fellowship in surgical obstetrics with an additional year of residency. Offutt pushed himself to gain extra, additional experience during his three-year residency stint, so a fellowship in OB wasnt necessary at the end of three years.

I didnt want to wait another year to do the surgical OB fellowship, Offutt said.

After all, undergraduate school, medical school and a traditional family medicine residency requires 10 years of training.

In his three years of residency, Offutt delivered 330 babies  150 of done by C-section. Offutt delivered about 20 percent of the babies his class of 14 residents delivered total in their three years at UMKC.

There was a lot of OB opportunity available to me, Offutt said, And I took advantage of it.

Offutts training includes an additional American Academy of Family Physicians certification in womens health.

When it came time to find a place to live and work after residency, Offutt knew it would be difficult to practice OB and do C-sections in a large hospital or town.

Samantha and I were definitely open to a smaller town, Offutt said.

Samantha Offutt grew up in Northwest Arkansas, so she enjoyed small town feel as well.

The Offutts first visited TCMH in January 2015 during Cory Offutts second year of residency.

Offutt said he wanted to figure out where he was headed after residency as early as possible. He wanted to take advantage of any stipends that might be available for residents signing early and student loan repayment opportunities for healthcare providers.

Houston was the first opportunity we looked at, and it had a feel that was different from the other places we looked at, Offutt said.

Offutt described TCMH staff as extremely welcoming. Cory and Samantha appreciated that during their TCMH interview both of them were included in all talks about the job position and the way of life in Texas County.

I looked at other jobs, and I found that working here is the closest I can come to actually having a private practice without the headaches of managing my own private practice, Offutt said. He also liked the security available to a hospital-employed physician.

The Offutts thought Texas County was a nice location between Corys family in the Lebanon-area and Samanthas family in Northwest Arkansas. In February 2015, Cory Offutt signed an agreement to practice family medicine and obstetrics with Texas County Memorial Hospital.

The extra time between signing a contract with TCMH and finishing residency gave the Offutts plenty of time to hunt for and purchase a house in Texas County. While Cory finished up his residency program, Samantha obtained an associates degree in graphic design to go along with her bachelors degree in marketing. They also did minor repairs and fixed up their home in Lees Summit to sell it prior to moving to Texas County.

The TCMH Medical Complex in Houston is the primary base for Cory Offutts practice. He is working there four days a week. He also sees patients  primarily kids and obstetrics patients  at the TCMH Mountain Grove Clinic on Mondays. While hes building his practice in Houston, Offutt is taking some patients that come into the TCMH Walk In Clinic.

Offutt will deliver babies at TCMH and will admit and see inpatients at the hospital.

As a family medicine physician, Offutt will see patients of all ages from newborn to elderly. He hopes to eventually have a large practice of families with lots of babies and kids.

I like being able to watch families and kids grow, providing for all of the familys healthcare needs, Offutt said.

Offutt plans to squeeze kids into his practice schedule whenever they are sick, and established adult patients that are sick will have priority in his daily schedule, too. Offutts office practice will include dermatological procedures, joint injections, and other minor procedures.

I enjoy doing anything with my hands, so I really like doing procedures, Offutt said.

Offutt plans to add stress testing to his medical repertoire once he is settled in to his new practice. He also does some physician moonlighting in the hospital emergency department.

When Offutt is not working, he enjoys spending time with Samantha. Currently, the Offutts are busy unpacking and settling into their new home and the acreage they purchased in Texas County. Their only child is Parker, a Yorkshire terrier, but they hope to add some human kids to their family soon.

Samantha and I enjoy concerts and plays, Offutt said. We like going to St. Louis Cardinals games when we can.

Offutt thanked the hospital staff for being extremely helpful in helping him get started at TCMH. He said community members he has encountered are very welcoming, too.

We couldnt have asked to be part of a better community, Offutt said. We love living and working here.

Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH, said he is grateful that the Offutts chose TCMH.

Our hospital and the community are fortunate to have Dr. Offutt and Samantha here, Murray said.

Murray said Cory Offutts training will be an asset to the hospital.

Dr. Offutt already knows a lot about the Ozarks because he grew up here, Murray said. We are dedicated to helping him grow a practice here that can last for years to come.

Dr. Offutt already knows a lot about the Ozarks because he grew up here. We are dedicated to helping him grow a practice here that can last for years to come.

-WES MURRAY

Appointments are available for Offutt at the TCMH Medical Complex in Houston at 417-967-5435 or at the TCMH Mountain Grove Clinic at 417-926-1770.
At the beginning of July 2016, Germany has taken over responsibility for the intelligence unit in Mali, previously operated by Dutch forces. The Dutch unit operated the smaller and lighter Boeing/Insitu Scan Eagle Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for such missions. As part of the intelligence operations, drones are often used to secure the perimeter of the UN MINUSMA mission. The German forces will be able to cover much larger areas and conduct missions for more than 24 hours, using Heron 1 drones. The UN attention is focused mainly on the North-Eastern Gao region.

The area of operation  north of Mali  is more than twice the size of Germany, what requires the deployment of effective means of surveillance, with long endurance and high area capacity. Based on the extremely positive experience made in Afghanistan, the German forces opted to deploy Heron 1 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to Mali. Airbus Defense and Space announced yesterday it had signed a contract with the German Defence Procurement Agency (BAAInBw) to provide such surveillance drones in support of the Bundeswehr mission in Mali.

The detachment to Mali will consist of three Heron 1 UAVs equipped with satellite datalink and electro-optical and infrared sensors. Two containerized ground control units will support the operation, providing mission planning, remote control during takeoff, mission flight and landing. The GCS will also provide the facility for sensor control and data exploitation, in support of local peacekeeping forces.

The UAS will be leased from Israeli manufacturer IAI for 18 months, and operated by Airbus in a similar operations concept practices in Afghanistan in 2010. Military missions will also be in future flown solely by military personnel. The operations in Mali will start in November 2016 and are initially planned until February 2018.

A major success factor for this new assignment is our experience gained in more than 2,300 missions over Afghanistan,  said Thomas Reinartz, Head of Sales for unmanned aerial systems at Airbus. There we have proven our reliability to the full satisfaction of our customer  with a fleet availability higher than 95 percent.

The United Nations (UN) Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) mission was established by the UN Security Council resolution 2100 of 25 April 2013 to support political processes in Mali, as the Central African country was torn by rebel forces strengthened by extremists fleeing from Libya. MINUSMA was assigned with security and stabilization related tasks, protecting civilians and support the transitional authorities of Mali in the stabilization of the country and implementation of the transitional roadmap.

By leasing more Herons, rather than committing its drones, the Bundeswehr maintains the high availability and operational flexibility of its drone fleet, regarding contract duration. Moreover, the leased units are fully compatible and interoperable within NATO. Other Heron I systems are already in use by the French Air Force, operating in Mali since the beginning of Operation Serval in January 2013.

The extension of the Heron 1 operational model is paving the way also for the next drone generation  Heron TP  already selected by the Germans as their future Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial system. Heron TP will succeed the Heron 1 and bridge the timeframe until a European drone development will be available.
As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to.

After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.
Team-Tailored BizTech Tools: Team First, Or Tool? Heres a question every entrepreneur faces during initial growth phases  Do I choose the best software my money can buy, and train my team to work according to its needs? Or would it be better to let my team dictate the kind of software which would work well with them, even if that costs me a few top-of-the-line features found in some other tools? Over 70% of entrepreneurs base their infrastructural software decisions on the advice of their peers in the startup world  but, more often than not, thats a mistake, well-researched though said mistake may be. What may work well for Company A may be disastrous for Company B. Unfortunately, mistakes in software choices rarely ever directly damage the bottom line, and so are harder to spot. Instead, business software (biztech) tools incompatible with your organization slowly reduce productivity, bleeding profits without highlighting the source of damage. Tools which are less user-friendly may kill efficiency, reduce employee engagement, and increase discontent with leadership decisions  thus influencing higher employee turnover rates. And you further end up losing more time and money swapping them out of your infrastructure, once you comprehend the negative fallout. So, to clarify, were not going to present you with a list of best HR tools of all time guaranteed to bring you succes...
HR professionals will have thought theyd ever learn something from Donald Trump but it seems the billionaires recent response to the plagiarised speech scandal could actually teach us a thing or two.Californian native Meredith McIver took full responsibility for the political gaffe  which saw Melania Trump replicate significant sections of Michelle Obamas 2008 convention speech.In working with Melania Trump on her recent First Lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people, explained McIver.Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obamas speech as examples. I wrote them down and later include some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech.McIver, a self-described admirer of the Trump family offered to resign immediately but Trump rejected her proposal, apparently telling her: people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences.Its a sentiment that scores of top business leaders and HR professionals live by  noting that being too hard on employees when they make mistakes will only stifle creativity and confidence.When employees are afraid of repercussions from mistakes, they become paralysed  and when they become paralysed, it stunts growth for both the employee and the company, said Joe Schumacher, CEO of Goddard Systems, in a 2015 interview with Business Insider.A mistake is still a mistake and should be avoided when possible, he added. But I aim to create a culture and a work environment where employees are empowered to make educated decisions in their roles, he continued.The real point is that I would rather have an employee use good judgment and ultimately screw up than to do nothing for fear of making a mistake. This is conducive to both the employees growth and the growth of the company.Dominque Jones is the chief people officer at Halogen Software  she told HRM that forgiving mistakes was an important part of the companys award-winning culture.We describe our culture in behavioural terms so for example we say that our culture is supportive of mistakes but not a pattern of mistakes, she stressed.People need to feel free to experiment and if it goes wrong, it goes wrong but we want you to learn from that and we dont want you to make the same mistake 17 times.For all the latest HR news and info straight to your inbox, subscribe here
People often think of New York and San Francisco when they talk of expensive places to do business in North America  but they'd also be right on the money if they considered Toronto or Vancouver.

Both Canadian cities rank among the 10 most expensive places to set up an office in the continent, according to a report by commercial real estate firm CBRE.

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Vancouver came in third, with annual gross asking rent of $39.93 per sq. ft. in the first quarter of 2016. Toronto placed seventh with asking rent of $36.06 per sq. ft.

New York and the San Francisco Bay Area had costs of $75.35 and $59.59, respectively.

The report looked at the best cities for tech talent, ranking cities according to several factors, such as local wages and the cost of leasing an office.

By that measure, Vancouver actually ranked lowest out of 50 cities, at a total annual cost of just over $29 million. Toronto's total cost was about $31 million.

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Here are the 10 most expensive cities in which to rent an office in North America:

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $32.22

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $32.65

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $33.21

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $34.11

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $35.98

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Asking rent per sq. ft.: $36.06

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $36.50

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $39.93

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $59.59

Asking rent per sq. ft.: $75.35

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Also on HuffPost:
A recent ruling from a federal appeals court could be viewed as a rare legal victory for former Gov. John Kitzhaber.

But the ruling also had a very clear message to public officials: Even if you're using a private email account to handle government business, emails regarding public business are public documents.

A bit of background first: Kitzhaber was appealing a lower court's decision allowing emails from his private accounts  some of which contain government business  to be subpoenaed. In a ruling issued July 13, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the subpoena was "unreasonably overbroad" and should have been quashed.

The subpoena, as you might remember, came as part of an investigation into the influence-peddling allegations that eventually forced Kitzhaber to resign. (And in case you need more of a refresher, here we go: The resignation came amid charges that Kitzhaber's fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, used her relationship with him to earn consulting contracts. The couple has denied wrongdoing.)

The Ninth Circuit ruling notes that during his final term as governor, Kitzhaber declined to use an official email address and instead established a Gmail address and requested that those emails be archived. He also used a private Gmail account and one hosted at att.net, and he commonly used those "to communicate with senior staff for both personal and state business," the appeals court said. Emails from the personal accounts, which were handled by the same device, were also archived on state computers, apparently without Kitzhaber's knowledge.

Kitzhaber's attorneys argued that government officials were seeking many emails that contained nothing but personal matters. The appeals court agreed, noting that the emails include "many private details unrelated to his official duties regarding him and his family, as well as private communications with his personal attorneys."

But the court was clear: Regardless of whether the accounts were private or public, emails dealing with government business are public documents. (The court suggested having a neutral party sort through the emails in question, a task that likely will take that neutral party quite a long time, considering the sheer number of emails in question.)

Wrote Judge Marsha Berzon in her opinion: "Kitzhaber's privacy claim lacks force, however, with respect to any emails transmitted through his personal email accounts but concerning official business. ... Consequently, whether or not Kitzhaber had a subjective expectation of privacy as to emails on his private accounts relating to official business, any such expectation is not a reasonable one."

Kitzhaber, of course, isn't the only public servant who's in trouble over email issues: Hillary Clinton is still dealing with the fallout over her decision to use a private email account to conduct official business as secretary of state. Clinton endured an unprecedented tongue-lashing from the director of the FBI over her email carelessness, but won't face criminal prosecution. Voters will render the final verdict on Clinton this November.

In the meantime, your guess is probably better than ours as to what will happen with the investigation into Kitzhaber and Hayes, which now has been dragging on for more than a year. The only comment from the U.S. attorney's office last week was this: "The investigation continues."

But out of this continuing mess should come a strong warning to public officials, and the court's ruling last week offers a timely reminder: The public's business remains open to public scrutiny, as it should  and it cannot be hidden in the depths of a private email account. (mm)
mlharing via Getty Images a pair of Grizzly siblings fight near Jasper National park, Alberta

In the span of two days, two Albertans have been attacked by bears. One woman was having a picnic with her boyfriend, the other riding a bike.

Both victims are recovering, but the incidents are an important reminder to be prepared when you head out into the wilderness  even if it's just a day trip or picnic.

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Here's what you need to know if you run into a bear this summer .

Bears are majestic creatures, but you probably never want to observe one up close.

Steer clear of berries

Summer is a great season for buffaloberries  which means many bears are out looking for a snack. Bears are omnivores, and berries are one of their favourite foods.

Human-wildlife conflict biologist Jay Honeyman told the Calgary Herald it's important for hikers to recognize what berries are in season, and if they see a big crop, steer clear.

A black bear chows down on some wild berries. (Photo: Getty)

Stay alert

Berries aren't the only sign worth watching out for. Fresh dung, footprints, carcasses and scrape marks are all signs that a bear might be in the area. If you see signs of a bear, scram.

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Be loud

If there's one thing these North American omnivores hate, it's surprises. Shouting or singing is more effective than bells, according to Alberta Parks. Instead of wearing headphones in your ears  which might prevent you from being alert  play some music to keep the furry predators at bay.

Take precautions

If you're camping, make sure to store your food and garbage properly so ursine visitors don't come looking for a snack.

Carry bear spray

If a bear shows up, bear spray is a great deterrent.

"We've done a lot of research on the efficacy of bear spray going on 20 years now and all the studies point to positive results," Stephen Herrero, a bear expert and professor at the University of Calgary, told CBC News. Herrero said bear spray is actually more effective than a firearm.

Bear spray is a type of pepper spray, made at a concentration that will ward off a 200 kilogram attacker (don't point it at a person!)

If you carry bear spray make sure you know how to use it. If the bear is near, take direction of the wind strength and direction and aim for the bear's face.

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The government has this helpful instructional video you might want to watch (even if just for the cheesy intro):

Keep an eye on kids and pets

Keep your dogs on a leash and your kids close. Staying in a group is a great deterrent for bears.

Children can be unpredictable, so if youre hiking with children what you want to tell them is any time you see any animal  you want to come right up close and tuck yourself behind mom, dad or whichever adult youre hiking with," University of Calgary outdoor centre instructor and guide Rachel Oggy said in an interview with Global News.

First things first: stay calm. Don't run, face the mammal and speak to it in a calm firm voice. Don't make any sudden movements or scream. If it rears up, don't panic  it might just be sniffing the air to figure out what or who you are.

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A grizzly stands up and shows its paws. (Photo: Mathieu Belanger/Reuters)

According to Alberta Parks, it's important to establish if a bear is defensive or predatory. Also, it's important to note the difference between a black bear and a grizzly. If you're dealing with a black bear, skip the defensive step and jump right ahead to predatory.

If a bear is attacking defensively

A grizzly bear might attack if it thinks it is in danger or a mom might attack to protect her cubs. These are the most common type of bear attacks, and they usually last under two minutes.

If it's a defensive attack, follow these three steps:

Use your bear spray. Play dead. Cross your arms behind your head and lay on your stomach with your legs spread. Stay still until the bear has left.

If a bear is predatory

Predatory attacks happen if a bear stalks a human or if it's attacking at night looking for food. Here's what to do:

Try to escape. Head for a car or building if possible. Don't play dead. Fight back. Makes lots of noise and try to hit the animal with anything you have on hand.

Also on HuffPost:
Canadians were very excited when the Liberal government announced the rebirth of the mandatory census.

Data-gathering tickled their fancies, apparently, and legions of census-hungry Canadians even posted photos of themselves with their paperwork on social media.

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Loving, hip parents smile as their daughter tries to repeatedly fill out the census' online questionnaire. That's not how a census works, Stock Image Amanda. (Photo: Getty Images)

Statistics Canada has taken an early look at the census' response rates, and it seems like Canadians filled the living s*** out of it.

Although the agency is still calculating exact response rates, early indications show the short-form census had an overall response rate "approaching 98 per cent," Marc Hamel, director general of the census program, told The Huffington Post Canada in an email.

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Late filings could change rates

Response rates for the long-form census were about 96 per cent, Hamel added, which is higher than those of the last two surveys in 2011 and 2006.

StatsCan's chief statistician Wayne Smith told The Globe and Mail that this is probably the most successful census since 1666"  as in, the very first one.

The calculations are still early, though, and the response rate could rise or fall slightly when, for example, late filings come in.

This is probably how most Canadians celebrated after providing the federal government with information about their households. (Photo: Getty Images)

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Despite its apparent success, the massive data-wrangling project had a few bumps along the way.

StatsCan had to suspend collection in Fort McMurray, Alta. when the gargantuan wildfires ravaged the city in May. Around 90,000 people were forced to evacuate the city.

Hamel said StatsCan is working with local and provincial authorities in Alberta to determine when census operations can resume.

Design flaws

The agency's online system also crashed briefly when the collection process launched. The initial thought was that Canadians' enthusiasm for the survey brought the site down, but according to CBC News, design flaws caused the issue.

Many Canadians also complained about how the agency's employees kept nagging them to fill out the survey when they had already done so, Global News reported. One Calgarian told the broadcaster she felt "hunted" after getting so many calls reminding her about the census.
Its not surprising that Canadas cottage life is so popular thanks to our countrys gorgeous landscapes. In fact, one of Canadas hot spots, Muskoka, Ont., has actually been deemed the Malibu of the North by The New York Times and The New Hamptons by CottageCountry.com.
We've winced at 100 coats of lipstick, cowered in horror at 100 coats of foundation, but now, just maybe, the 100 coats trend will finally die thanks to Youtube vlogger Jenna Marbles.

In a recent video, Marbles decided to make the ultimate weird beauty challenge, by applying 100 layers of foundation, lipstick, nail polish, spray tan and hairspray, as well as 50 pairs of fake eyelashes. The entire process takes her seven hours and 30 minutes.

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Warning: it gets gross, real fast.

If for some reason you wish to try this, you can follow along with Marbles' 100 coats of everything beauty routine. She uses Nyx Suede Liquid Lipstick for her lips, Smashbox Studio Skin 15 Hour Wear for her foundation (and a Beauty Blender to apply it), and St. Tropez Self-Tan Bronzing Spray for her arm.

Doing so might impair your vision. At one point, Marbles' eyelashes are so heavy they almost hide her eyes completely.

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"A lot of my soul is dead," Marbles says.

Midway through, she realizes that her new look bore a striking resemblance to Janice the Muppet.

@hitRECordJoe There's Janice also! She's the lead guitar player in the Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show. pic.twitter.com/vikC8A4tvf  Kaylyn Nicole Weeks (@KaylynNiicole) February 1, 2015

The end result?

At the end of her face journey, Marbles decided that she learned something.

"I don't think I would wish this experience on anyone ever," Marbles says. "I don't know why I did this to myself, it just feels so wrong. I'm not sure if I could ever feel clean again."

Twitter agreed.

@Jenna_Marbles i was DYING whem i watched yesterday. Your face looked so lifeless after all that foundation   goodthingstaketime (@MelissaTartte) July 22, 2016

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@Jenna_Marbles I really need an update on how is you skin girl  youtube addict. (@xristinaaax) July 22, 2016

@Jenna_Marbles I wont be able to sleep until you post a photo of your face and hair without foundation or hairspray im so uncomfortable  Eliza (@GrumpyEliza) July 22, 2016

Had a moment of silence for @Jenna_Marbles hair when I sprayed my own with hair spray this morning. GURRRRRRRRL   Allison H. (@allihend) July 22, 2016

In a way, Marbles' cakey accomplishment is bringing the trend full circle, which originated from a 365 layers of a full face of makeup done by Dutch makeup artists in 2011.

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This isn't Marbles' first foray into weird beauty challenges. She's previously applied 100 layers of highlighters to her face.

Whatever you do, don't steal her look.

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The Duchess Of Cambridge's little sister will soon get a title of her very own, all thanks to her new fiance.

The 32-year-old party planner and author confirmed her engagement to hedge fund manager James Matthews on July 19 and has been spotted flashing her art deco-style engagement ring ever since.

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Close-up of Pippa Middleton's engagement ring taken outside of her home in London on July 21.

Matthews is the son of David Matthews, the Laird of Glen Affric and owner of a 10,000 acre Scottish estate near Loch Ness, which features a historic castle once visited by Queen Mary, Hello magazine reports.

The stunning property, which came with the Laird of Glen Affric title, was purchased by the elder Matthews in 2008.

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As the eldest son of the Laird, 40-year-old James Matthews will one day inherit his father's title, though he may not choose to use it. As a courtesy, Middleton will be given the title of Mrs Matthews of Glen Affric the younger following her nuptials. Upon her father-in-law's passing her title will change to Lady Glen Affric.

The Glen Affric Estate is used as a second home by the Matthews family and can be rented out by the public for upwards of $1550 CDN a night with a minimum stay of three nights.

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Victoria's Secret has finally revealed its secrets. (And no, it's not that there is no Victoria and the lingerie chain was actually started by a man. Although all of that is true.)

Victoria's Secret is notorious for taking photo manipulation to a controversial level, sometimes to ridiculous and obviously bad lengths. And now, one former Victoria's Secret employee is spilled the brand's retouching secrets.

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The anonymous woman, who manipulated photos for Victoria's Secret and other brands, decided to come clean after dealing with years of shame over how her work has impacted society.

A photo posted by Victoria's Secret (@victoriassecret) on Jul 7, 2016 at 9:01am PDT

"I know what I'm doing is wrong and thats a huge part of why I'm not doing it full-time anymore," she told Refinery29.

For the anonymous insider, these retouching tricks were essential in the beauty trade:

A photo posted by Victoria's Secret (@victoriassecret) on May 25, 2016 at 11:20am PDT

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"I dont think I ever was on a shoot with a model that had real hair."

A photo posted by Victoria's Secret (@victoriassecret) on Jul 22, 2016 at 6:00am PDT

The gravity-defying bosoms in swimsuit editorials aren't so mysterious anymore.

The retouch artist noticed that even before the editing, studios would make enhancements and models on set would wear push-up bras underneath their swimming suits and strapless bras. Any visible sign of the push-up bra would be erased in post-production.

"When you're wearing a strapless bikini, in no way, shape, or form [can] you have cleavage," she said to Refinery29. "Its physically impossible with the way gravity works.

Inserts were stuffed into bras, to give the illusion of bigger breasts for the models, who are usually A-cups.

Once in the editing suite, nothing was off-limits. Retouching would routinely make boobs bigger, higher, nipple-less, and symmetrical.

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A video posted by Victoria's Secret (@victoriassecret) on May 28, 2016 at 5:06am PDT

Everyone's armpits are grey wrinkly crevices, but for some reason models' armpits always seem to be flawlessly smooth. The anonymous insider says that those pits are far from the truth. Armpits and pubic hair are always retouched. Because of this, many models don't even bother shaving away unruly arm beards and pubes.

The insider blames this on society's expectations for advertising.

"If someone saw a picture of stubbly pubes, they probably wouldnt buy the thing," the retouch artist told Refinery29. "They'd be like, 'This is like a really weird picture. Why would I buy this?'"

It's not just for Frankenstein's monster; models also have body parts that don't belong to them.

Often times, retouch artists swap different body parts for the sake of avoiding awkward stances. For example, the retouch artist had been asked to swap one model's arm out because it looked like she was picking her butt.

A photo posted by Victoria's Secret (@victoriassecret) on Jul 18, 2016 at 9:21am PDT

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It does seem like Victoria's Secret is keen on hacking away at their model's assets, hollowing out their thighs and leaving them with a single boob or a solitary butt cheek.

But contrary to belief, retouch artists often get marching to add more "meat on the bones."

"Models are thinner than you actually think they are, and we retouch them to look rounder," the anonymous source said to Refinery29, who remembers routinely using her editing skills to make butts bulge, protruding ribs soften, and angular limbs curvy.

It's a puzzling paradox, since curvier models are desired but are not hired.

The anonymous source said that the low demand for diverse body types from customers means that campaigns are less likely to gamble on them.

Still, there are exceptions to the rule. Take Aerie's "Get Real" advertising campaign, which was lauded for busting supermodel standards with unretouched ads.

A photo posted by aerie (@aerie) on Jul 14, 2016 at 6:19am PDT

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The American Eagle spin-off store was rewarded for its efforts. Aerie has seen spikes in sales since its ban on Photoshop two years ago. Sales rose by 32 per cent in the first quarter of fiscal 2016.

Although the Victoria's Secret insider liked Aerie's body-positive strategy, she made sure to pop the bubble on Aerie's seemingly altruistic motives and encourage consumers vote with their wallets.

"They didnt do it to make people feel good. They wanted to do it to see if it would sell, and it did. So then they kept doing it," she said. "When you see things like that pop up, you should vote your money towards it, because then they see it as a money-making thing and theyll continue to do it."

Even she's fallen prey to the power of advertising.

"I ordered a Victoria's Secret swimsuit this summer. And then I got it and, of course, it wasnt as cute as in the photo," she said. "I'm the one retouching this stuff and I'm still not immune to marketing. It's incredible."

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CP

On July 27 I will be attending the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) Ministerial Panel Public Open House in Langley. If I get a chance this is what I intend to say:

I am here today not to speak directly in support of the TMX but rather to clear up some misconceptions and talking points you have heard, and will hear, at this open house.

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Let's start with the elephant in the room: climate change. Let's be frank, climate change is real, it is dangerous and we, as a country, have to do more to fight climate change. That being said climate change is a red herring in this discussion. Why? Because up to 80 per cent of the emissions associated with fossil fuels are generated in their combustion. Pipelines represent a negligible part of that equation and the upstream numbers for Canadian producers are entirely comparable to our American counterparts.

Carbon emissions are the result of the demand side of the ledger, the burning of fossil fuels, not their generation/transportation. The world is awash in oil. If it is not supplied from Alberta, it will be supplied by Algeria or Nigeria. If you want to fight climate change, don't fight pipelines -- fight for market-based mechanisms like carbon pricing. History has shown that the only way to reduce fossil fuel use (and resultant carbon emissions) is to address the demand side of the ledger.

Only by making fossil fuels more expensive will we have the incentive to develop the technologies necessary to get our transportation systems off fossil fuels.

Alternatives to fossil fuels do not exist for our planes, trains, ferries and transport trucks and electrical vehicles for personal transportation are just becoming practical. Even with a herculean effort we are not going to eliminate fossil fuels from our transportation system for decades. Only by making fossil fuels more expensive will we have the incentive to develop the technologies necessary to get our transportation systems off fossil fuels.

Moreover, even if we were to somehow convert our transportation systems to electric power, we would not come close to having the electrical generating capacity needed to meet the demand. In British Columbia transportation uses the equivalent of nine to 15 Site C Dams worth of energy per year. We do not have that kind of electricity oversupply just lying around.

Renewables will certainly help but ramping up our renewable energy capacity represents another multi-decade long struggle and our existing electrical grid is not compatible with large-scale renewable energy. Going to renewables will mean completely re-designing our electrical grid which will also take time and money.

What this means is that we are going to have a continuing demand for fossil fuels for decades. The question we have to ask ourselves is how are we going to get access to that fuel?

In most of B.C. we get our liquid fuels from Alberta (by truck, rail and pipeline) and the Puget Sound (by barge and tanker). That supply network is stretched extremely thin and as the folks in the interior know, a short shut-down in Edmonton can mean empty gas stations in Kamloops and Kelowna.

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I want to leave my kids a world where fossil fuels are not used for transportation or energy, but we are not there yet.

The Puget Sound has historically received the majority of its crude oil from Alaska via tanker. You know that West Coast Tanker ban? Well, Americans have been shipping up to 600,000 barrel/day of crude from Alaska to the Puget Sound through the Salish Sea for the last 20 years. That Alaskan oil is drying up, and besides Canadian oil (via the existing Trans Mountain) the Puget Sound is going to be getting its future oil by rail.

How will they do that? Well the infrastructure is almost in place to supply up to 725,000 barrels/day to the U.S. West Coast by rail. Much of that oil will travel along the headwaters of the Kootenay River and alongside the Columbia River to the Puget Sound.

So today's discussion is not about climate change nor is it about renewable energy, it is about how we are going to get liquid hydrocarbons to market in the decades it takes to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. The only debate, today, is how do we transport that oil as safely as possible?

Well, the answer to that question is definitive: pipelines. Pipelines have 4.5 times fewer accidents/spills than oil-by-rail and while every oil spills represents a catastrophe; spills from pipelines do not hold a candle to the apocalyptic aftermath of rail accidents. People like me can clean up the Kalamazoo River, but we can't do anything to restore all those lives lost in Lac Megantic.

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I am a pragmatist. I want to leave my kids a world where fossil fuels are not used for transportation or energy, but we are not there yet. Until we reach that point, we will need to move fossil fuels, and the safest and most environmentally sensitive way to move those fuels over land is via pipeline and not oil-by-rail. Because let's be honest, here: the alternative to TMX is not some fossil fuel-free Shangri-La, it is oil-by-rail.

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Over the past few months, I have been introducing you to some trailblazing professionals in my ongoing effort to change the perception of the word "millennial." These six adventurers, ground breakers and revolutionaries are changing their industries with their unique views as young professionals. Earlier this year, you met Mitchell Cushman, a Director destined for theatrical greatness, and for my last profile in this series, I have the pleasure to introduce someone I have been very lucky to know for almost two decades....

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Meet Yolande Gooderham

Portfolio Manager and Shareholder at Coerente Capital Management

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/yolandegooderham

To say that Yolande (or simply "Yo") is in a high stress job is an understatement; she's part of a team that's making million dollar investment decisions before most of us have had our first coffee. But I've never seen anyone wear long hours and extreme pressure better. And in a world that can be dominated by arrogance and chest thumping, there is no ego on Yo. Her clients love her down-to-earth, straight shooting style and so do her peers. That's why when her boss (veteran money manager Len Racioppo) left the firm he'd been at for 25 years to start his own investment counselling firm, Yo was one of the first to join him.

Caitie Drewery: Let's pretend I know very little about the financial industry (not a far stretch). What does an investment counselling firm do?

Yolande Gooderham: Very broadly, they manage discretionary investment portfolios for their clients. At our firm, we offer segregated investment portfolios for high net worth (HNW) clients, private foundations and endowments, and we invest in three asset classes: stocks, bonds and money market securities. In layman's terms, we manage individual client investment accounts where we have the authority to select specific stocks, bonds and money market securities and to determine when to buy and sell those investments.

My job is primarily to ensure client accounts are being invested according to their investment policies, to trade accounts when appropriate, and to keep an open communication with clients. Coerente isn't a big firm though, so I'm also involved in securities research and analysis, compliance, operations and strategy.

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CD: So you're basically a financial superhero. What drew you to the financial world?

YG: I'm a practical person and I like numbers so I did a degree in commerce with a major in finance. Between my third and fourth year I got a summer job with a firm called MD Financial Management which provides wealth management services for physicians in Canada. That was my introduction to the wealth management industry and it opened my eyes to the possibility of working on the buy-side (buy-side being firms that buy securities for money-management purposes).

And about a week after I wrote my last university exam, I started working at Jarislowsky, Fraser assisting Len who was the President of the firm at the time and a Portfolio Manager.

CD: And when that President, Len Racioppo, left to start his own firm, it caused quite the stir in the financial world. How did you end up joining him?

YG: I had been at JF for four and a half years when Len and one of the other top executives, Marc Trottier, announced they were leaving to start their own investment management firm. At that time, I'd started exploring what might be next in my career but I hadn't found anything that was the right fit. When Len asked if I would be interested in going with him to help start the new firm I jumped at the opportunity. Since then I've finished the CFA program and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, I've been made a shareholder at the firm, and I've been promoted to the role of Portfolio Manager. It's been an incredibly exciting and rewarding three and a half years!

CD: What sort of challenges did you face in those first couple of years?

YG: Finance remains a male-dominated industry and there's definitely a perception that it's not an equal playing field and not an industry geared to seeing women excel. I'll be the first person to qualify myself as a tomboy and I have pretty thick skin, but even for me, there were moments of doubt. Ultimately, I'm so glad I overcame those doubts. My actual experience has been overwhelmingly positive and I've come to learn that there are a lot of amazing people and organizations putting incredible effort in to supporting women in finance.

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CD: How do you think being a millennial gives you an advantage in your industry?

YG: We are seeing some pretty dramatic changes taking place as new products and new investment platforms coupled with changing investor wants/needs are reshaping our industry. I think experience and a track record of success will continue to be of paramount importance, but I also think that as the number of younger HNW individuals grow and technology continues to advance, wealth management firms are going to be forced to make some changes in how they operate. As a member of that next generation of investors who are going to be responsible for driving a lot of that change, I think I'm in a unique position to help ensure our firm adapts successfully.

We represent the next generation of people who will shape the world around us. We're educated, connected, and open to change. We seem to have earned ourselves a bad rap in the minds of some as "lazy, entitled and self-absorbed", but when I look around at some of the incredible things Millennials have accomplished I'd argue that we're actually pretty determined and entrepreneurial. We also value respect and genuinely want to make a difference.

CD: You've seen some great success in an industry that can be tough on young people. Any advice on how to get there?

YG: Be persistent, be open-minded and don't sell yourself short.

Be Persistent - No matter what challenge you're trying to overcome, if you're unwilling to work at it (and to keep at it) you'll almost certainly be unsuccessful.

Be open-minded - The ability to creatively approach problems and a receptiveness to new or different ideas/experiences are critical.

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Don't sell yourself short - I can't tell you how many times I've heard somebody talking about a great opportunity, only to have them immediately go on to explain why they aren't a good fit. What?! This is crazy! If an opportunity sounds appealing and you think it's something you could excel at - have confidence in yourself! Don't be your own worst enemy, be your own #1 cheerleader.

And finally, don't be afraid to strike out. As you get your career started you're going to encounter failure. In fact, you're probably going to encounter lots of failure. As long as you learn from it, early failure is a far better teacher than early success.

CD: Bonus question - what show are you binge watching right now?

YG: I'm not really a binge TV watcher but Deadliest Catch seems to be featuring pretty regularly these days. What they go through gives a whole new meaning to a "tough day at the office."

My Top Takeaways
Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press

At this week's meeting of premiers in Whitehorse, the need for a national carbon price may once again be the subject of controversy and division. For casual observers this may be surprising, given the near unanimity among economists, climate change experts, and leaders in government and industry that putting a price on carbon is an essential tool to fight climate change. A price on carbon -- via a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system -- is widely agreed to be among the most efficient ways to tackle carbon emissions that create climate change.

Just four months ago, at a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Vancouver the premiers committed to a "[t]ransition to a low carbon economy by adopting a broad range of domestic measures, including carbon pricing mechanisms."

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Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna has described carbon taxes as the "most efficient mechanisms" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Royal Bank of Canada has vocalized support for a stringent and rising price on carbon. And a number of CEOs from major oil companies operating in Canada supported Alberta's decision to apply an economy-wide carbon tax.

So why the fights at the provincial level over something that everyone else seems to agree on? There are a number of reasons but none should prevent Canada from moving forward with a national carbon price.

First, there are some premiers -- OK maybe just one -- who refuse to acknowledge that climate change is happening. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, in his Speech from the Throne in May, characterized the struggle to reduce carbon emissions as "misguided dogma that has no basis in reality." If one doesn't believe a problem exists, every solution seems unnecessary.

Carbon pricing can and should be designed so that nobody and no province is left behind.

However, Saskatchewan has possibly the highest carbon emissions per capita in the world and that needs to change. As the world gets serious about climate action, the province will have to diversify its economy and energy sources and address its over-reliance on fossil fuels, regardless of the premier's opinion on the science of climate change.

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Second, there are premiers with legitimate concerns that their provinces will be disproportionately impacted by a carbon price. Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski, the host of this week's meeting, has argued that the cost of living in the North is already too high, and that a carbon price would add to that cost. However, people and ecosystems in the North -- due to melting permafrost, melting sea ice, and warming that is happening twice as fast as the rest of the world -- are getting hammered by climate change. The costs of not addressing climate change are too high, so solutions are needed.

Carbon pricing can and should be designed so that nobody and no province is left behind. For example, revenue from the carbon price should be used to help low-income families who spend a higher portion of their income on energy costs. Funds should also be spent to help support clean technology companies and the adoption of renewable energy. Revenue should be used to assist remote and Northern communities to replace dirty and expensive diesel generators with cleaner sources of energy. This will reduce their carbon emissions and costs, as well as improve quality of life.

Finally, there are some premiers, like Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Quebec Premier Philip Couillard, who like carbon pricing so much that they have already implemented a system to price carbon emissions. They don't want their system disrupted. But a national policy can work with provincial systems already in place.

And a national price is coming. The prime minister promised as much this week, because the case for action is much stronger than the reasons for inaction. And the need is urgent. For 10 years Canada did nothing on climate change and we don't have any more time to waste.

Burning fossil fuels imposes costs on everyone. The cost of food is going up because climate change impacts our agricultural crops. Insurance costs more because of more extreme weather, such as the recent floods in Toronto and Calgary and the wildfires in Fort McMurray. Air pollution affects the health of Canadians and imposes costs on our health-care system. Every time that it has been studied, the same conclusion is reached: inaction is far more costly than action. And the longer we wait, the more costly it becomes.

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Canada has a tremendous opportunity now. We have a federal government that wants to move forward on climate action and many willing premiers. It's time all our elected officials come together to create a safe climate future by offering incentives for innovation, more efficient use of energy, and greater investment in clean energy.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2009 file photo smoke billows from a chimney of the cooling towers of a coal-fired power plant in Dadong, Shanxi province, China. The International Energy Agency says the world's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2012 to a record high of 31.6 gigatons, even as the U.S. posted its lowest emissions since the mid-1990s. In a report released Monday June 10, 2013, the IEA says China saw the largest emissions growth last year, but the increase was among the lowest seen in a decade amid investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

By Jason Potts

At last year's Paris climate change agreement, all countries committed to help adapt to climate change and reduce emissions. Canada's official development assistance (ODA) now needs to focus on realizing these commitments. Ensuring maximum impact will require attending to areas where need is greatest and where Canada has particular expertise.

A core focus should be on supporting fragile states where climate change is rapidly eroding prospects for peace and development. A decade of work by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has demonstrated the links between climate events such as severe drought or flooding, and the cornerstones of development such as food security and human health, as well as migration, and conflict. Proportionately, fragile states are the most vulnerable. These countries tend to be dependent on rain-fed agriculture, while poverty and weak governance undermine their ability to respond to climate stresses.

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There is therefore a pressing need to better prepare fragile states for climate change. Here the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has established a process for assisting developing countries, known as National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). In addition to providing targeted support for climate-responsive growth across vulnerable sectors like farming, the NAP process provides a foundation to improve governance, which is so critical in fragile states and a key component of Canada's international development strategy.

In March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and United States President Barack Obama announced support for the National Adaptation Plan Global Network, created to promote peer learning among developing nations, improve co-ordination between bilateral donors, and support on-the-ground development and implementation of adaptation plans. Having pledged its support, Canada should take advantage of this network (whose secretariat is hosted by the IISD) to help make sure our support for adaptation planning in developing countries can be as effective as possible.

Climate-resilient technologies in agriculture will be particularly important for developing countries facing an increasingly volatile environment. Canada should be a leader in supporting resilience-based innovation by, for example, bringing global climate impact mapping to scale, working with farmers to pinpoint vulnerable storage facilities, and supporting climate-resilient seed development.

In addition to assisting countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change, the Paris agreement demands that all countries curb carbon emissions over time. Heading into the Paris conference, 188 countries outlined the actions they intend to take to do that; now they face a significant challenge in not only realizing those substantial emission reductions, but increasing the ambition in the years ahead.

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Here again, a focus on agriculture is needed. The sector is responsible for one third of global emissions, and two thirds of global mitigation potential from agriculture is located in the developing world. Climate-smart agriculture can both reduce emissions and stimulate economic growth through improved infrastructure and more efficient practices.

Growing markets for certified sustainable products (such as organics, fair trade, and other eco-labels) represents an opportunity for facilitating this transition; however, this will require targeted investment from ODA sources to ensure that more marginalized producers can access these markets as they expand.

More broadly, the Paris objectives require a rapid scaling up of financing from both public and private sources for the large-scale investments needed in areas like clean energy and infrastructure. There are a growing number of options available, ranging from the use of innovative instruments, such as voluntary offsets and green bonds, to improved co-ordination and transparency among actors committed to providing green finance through initiatives like the Global Impact Investing Network and Montreal's own Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade. For Canada there is an opportunity to engage its world-class financial service sector to stimulate new and innovative climate finance approaches.

Finally, there is the question of Canada's own contribution to assisting developing countries in the transition to lower-carbon, more resilient economies. Since 1970, developed economies have repeatedly committed to providing 0.7 per cent of their gross national income to official development assistance. But, as of 2015 only six members of an OECD donors club met the 0.7 ODA target (Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom). The United Kingdom is the most recent, and the first G7 country, to formally commit to meeting this target. Canada has an opportunity to turn the U.K.'s bold move into a trend among G7 countries by making a similar commitment.

Today we know so much more; we know just how monumental the challenges are, and that it is now entirely untenable to consider ODA at anything below these 1970 targets as meaningful. The world is ready for change, but it will not be possible without significant investment.

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This blog was first published on July 20 in the Hill Times.

Jason Potts is a senior associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

The views expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CCIC or its members.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) chamber tank used for specialised medical treatment for injuries in hospital clinic.

To amputate or not to amputate? Some decisions are easier than others.

Canadians rarely want to consider amputation as the best solution to treat a condition, but for Canadians living with diabetes, this can be a reality. Of the 2.3 million Canadians living with diabetes, it is estimated that 15 per cent will develop a diabetic foot ulcer in their lifetime, which can lead to amputation. Not only are diabetic foot ulcers accompanied by a long and painful recovery period, the Canadian Association of Wound Care estimates they cost our health-care system over $150 million annually.

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In some cases, even severe ones, the amputation can be prevented, shielding the patient from a long and painful recovery period.

Meet Karen

Karen Trace was managing a severe foot wound at the time she was diagnosed with diabetes. "The wound refused to heal and my doctor believed my only option was to amputate. Understandably, I was scared," she said.

Though anxious, Karen's family was determined to find a solution other than amputation. After extensive research into possible alternatives, Karen's daughter discovered hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) at a medical centre in Scarborough, Ontario.

"My doctor was aware of the treatment but cautious about how it would work for me. After consultations and several treatments, the wound completely healed and my foot was saved!"

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What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Similar to Karen's physician, many have heard of HBOT but few understand what it is and how it can help treat medical conditions. So, what is it? HBOT is the medical use of 100 per cent oxygen at an increased atmospheric pressure to reach compromised tissues. This promotes the overall healing process of wounds. Initially HBOT was used to treat scuba divers suffering from the bends, but now Health Canada has approved HBOT for the treatment of 13 specific indications, including:

 Bone infection requiring antibiotic therapy;

 Delayed radiation injury after cancer treatment;

 Skin grafts and flaps that are failing to heal;

 Sudden hearing loss;

 Thermal burns; and

 Healing of wounds, such as the one Karen was managing.

How do I start?

There is a need for HBOT and doctors are working to increase awareness of its benefits amongst health-care professionals and patients. Patients across Canada may be the right fit for HBOT treatments, but it's important for you to do your homework first!

Referrals:

Once you have found the nearest HBOT treatment facility to you, speak with your doctor to see if you're an appropriate candidate. All patients referred to a hyperbaric medical centre or those who self-refer should undergo an initial consultation by a hyperbaric physician to determine if they are a fit.

Consultation:

No need to fear! The consultation consists of an assessment for an appropriate indication for hyperbaric treatment. A thorough medical history, physical examination and review of results of tests and imaging (if needed) will be performed to determine eligibility before you start.

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Treatment:

Eligible patients for HBOT will have a treatment plan tailored to their needs, including the length of each treatment session and number of treatments. A typical treatment session lasts approximately two hours, while the number of treatments ranges from 20 to 60 in total.

Assessment:

Before and after each treatment session, your condition should be assessed to monitor the progress.

Chambers:

Hyperbaric chambers let you rest in a reclined or angled position. This means you can watch movies, listen to music or just relax during the treatment. Just breathe in and let the oxygen do the work.

Oxygen really is more than just a breath of fresh air.

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stevecoleimages via Getty Images Pharmacist

By Melisa Foster, Global Public Affairs

An estimated one in 10 Canadians cannot afford their prescriptions -- that's one in four if uninsured.

You may be thinking, I have benefits, why should I care? Unfortunately, Canada's current economic and fiscal environments mean things are changing. The consequent unemployment and underemployment rates have resulted in an increasing number of Canadians who have lost, or have been forced to go without, prescription drug coverage.

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One in 10 Canadians can't afford their prescriptions.

Currently, millennials (those aged 18-34) who more regularly take low to middle-income jobs, or work part-time, are most likely to be underinsured, or to have no insurance at all. Low incomes, job insecurity, high cost of living, record level debt and insufficient savings are all barriers many millennials face when accessing necessary prescription drugs.

Is a pan-Canadian, or universal prescription drug strategy the solution to help address these gaps in coverage?

Your postal code and your socioeconomic status continue to dictate your ability to access the medication you need.

This week, Canada's premiers are attending the summer meeting of the Council of the Federation (CoF). With increased engagement from Ottawa, this meeting provides provinces with an opportunity to address complex intergovernmental policy issues facing Canadians. Despite the inclusion of health care on this year's agenda, few Canadians will be paying attention. This is a problem.

Pharmacare, a subject commonly bypassed by government and misunderstood by Canadians, even by those directly affected, is back on the agenda and people from coast-to-coast are not participating in a conversation that could change the course of their lives.

Understandably, prescription drug coverage only becomes a concern for many individuals when they can't access the drugs they need because of cost. If you haven't personally experienced problems with drug coverage, there is a high probability that your child, friend or loved one has.

These obstacles are further compounded by our nation's patchwork pharmacare system. Provinces, territories and the federal government each fund drug therapy for a distinct portion of the population. Your postal code and your socioeconomic status continue to dictate your ability to access the medication you need.

Like many recent graduates, it wasn't long ago that I was without comprehensive drug coverage. While I was lucky to have access to the medication I needed through other means, not everyone can. Today, securing a job is only a small part of the greater challenge young Canadians face in accessing coverage, because the increased prevalence of precarious employment means decreased economic and social benefits for employees.

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Almost half of millennials have issues accessing employee drug plans.

According to a recent Statistics Canada labour force survey, approximately 39 percent of workers 15 to 29 are precariously employed. That means that almost half of millennials between 15 and 29 are part-time, temporary or self-employed workers, and likely don't have access to employer-run private health insurance plans. Too many are forced to pay out of pocket for prescription drugs they can't afford to go without.

Health professionals, patients, governments and other key organizations have participated in debates to increase access to prescription drug coverage since the 1960s. Like many previous health policy changes, a call for change is often slow and underwhelming, but that's no excuse for why Canada has failed to provide its youth with the necessary means to reach their full potential.

With premiers meeting to discuss pharmacare this week, its time Canadians educate themselves on this issue and even more important that Millennials start paying attention.

Melisa is a Consultant, Health and Life Sciences, with Global Public Affairs in Toronto. She has extensive knowledge in public affairs, strategic communications and public policy. Melisa is also a Communication's, Media and Marketing Lead on Toronto's Emerging Health Leaders (EHL) Executive and is involved with Sunnybrook Next Generation. She holds a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management from Carleton University and a Master in International Public Policy from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Sir. Wilfrid Laurier University.

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For more information on the pharmacare debate in Canada read our latest paper: Pharmacare: Lost in Translation

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The last couple weeks has caused quite a stir in British politics. Theresa May's baffling decision to dissolve the Department of Energy and Climate Change has driven environmental groups into a state of panic as they ponder what on earth is going to happen to Britain's beautiful landscape and fresh clean air.

Last year fracking was a hot topic after the introduction of a new planning guidance that not only sped up the fracking planning process, but enabled Government to overrule local councils that decide against it. This alone was a testament to David Cameron's stance on the issue, who has repeatedly suggested that EU fracking regulations are too restrictive.

At present EU law protects 73 environmental areas that impose limits on fracking; rules that are intended to prevent water contamination, air pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals (among other protections). When Brexit is finally implemented, these laws are unlikely to be entirely withdrawn; however, they could be significantly diluted. Greenpeace energy campaigner Hannah Martin expressed her concerns long before the referendum, stating ""Weak and patchy as they are, the UK's fracking regulations could be even worse without the bedrock provided by over a dozen separate EU directives." Even with strict controls, many believe that the Government isn't doing enough to tackle the issue, and worry that things are only going to get worse.

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Although Britain's exit from the EU is a concern, it's important to remember that even without EU protections operators must still gain various competitive licenses, including landowner permission, planning permission, and permits from either the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales or the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, in order to drill. Hopefully we can all take some solace knowing that it won't simply be a free-for-all.

Instead of utilising shale gas, green campaigners argue that the Government should invest in renewable energy. However, as we're currently in a serious state of economic uncertainty, economics must be factored into the equation. Of course, any reasonable person would agree that sustainable, environmentally solutions are a much better option than burning fossil fuels. And while it's easy to simply say "Stop Fracking," there's no denying that the entire industry is good for economic growth. And the offset of growth is that there will be more money to invest in eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives. Fundamentally, fracking could work alongside green solutions rather than take over them.

According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), there is an estimated 1300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in northern England. Harnessing it would significantly ease the economical burden of relying on fuel importation. But from an environmental standpoint, the use of shale gas simply cannot be just justified, as every cubic metre will still contribute towards climate change. And that's not to mention the sheer amount of water that's required during the extraction process. According to Vicky Baily of Electric Radiators Direct - a subsidiary of Eco Stores Direct Ltd - "an average of eight million gallons is required to frack just one well once." During a time where we are being encouraged to conserve water at home, this hardly seems justified either.

That said, in today's modern world fracking technology is advancing at a rapid rate, and if Britain decided to take the same direction as some of the larger American companies, at least the process itself (not taking the burning of shale gas into account) wouldn't be so harmful. For example, American company, GasFrac, have recently developed new waterless fracking technology that uses a gel-based propane instead. Not only is it based on a hydrocarbon that's already found underground, it uses chemical treatments that are relatively harmless, such as magnesium oxide and ferric sulfate - both of which are used in water treatment plants. This process eliminates the need to drain waste water and haul it away. Fundamentally, the process of today's fracking cannot be compared with the process of yesterday's fracking.

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I recently had the incredible privilege of seeing the penultimate performance of the original cast of Hamilton in Manhattan. The closing sequence moved me to tears when Eliza Hamilton asked poignantly, "When my time is up... have I done enough?", and I couldn't help but think about the reason why I was in New York.

I travelled to the United Nations last week in partnership with Unicef and the WePROTECT Global Alliance to unite in a mission to eradicate all forms of violence against children, including a crime that challenges our very humanity - the sexual exploitation of children online.

There are over three billion people around the world with internet access and there are enormous benefits to an ever more connected society. But we must do more to ensure that the internet remains safe for young people to explore, create, dream and achieve their true potential.

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The crime of online child sexual exploitation is one that most people find difficult to even talk about. But every day vulnerable children are living an unthinkable horror. We must do something and the solutions are within our grasp. Technology empowers equally, and criminals with a sexual interest in children are joining forces with other offenders to abuse vulnerable children on a mass scale in all corners of the world. This has to stop.

We in Britain are determined to do all we can. Technology might be the platform for abuse and exploitation but it's often also at the heart of the solution. The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation, using a technology developed by Microsoft called Photo DNA, has shared 19,000 digital identifiers of child abuse images with global technology companies, including Google, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, to enable them to delete corresponding images from their platforms. And efforts led by Google are beginning to tackle the problem of child sexual abuse material, working diligently to eliminate it from search results, YouTube and other platforms.

But no one company, or country, can solve these problems alone. By working together we can help countries around the world develop the skills they need to ensure an effective national response to protect our children.

Three years ago, with the support of former Prime Minister David Cameron, I founded an organisation called WePROTECT. Our mission is to eradicate online child sexual exploitation. We leverage the power of technology to rescue victims, thwart criminals and bring perpetrators to justice. In 2014 the UK held the WePROTECT Summit to bring partners from around the world together to end online child sexual exploitation. In 2015, the United Arab Emirates carried our mission forward and extended our reach by hosting the second WePROTECT global summit in Abu Dhabi.

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This year we joined forces with the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online, which was started by the United States and the EU in 2012. Together we have grown from strength to strength and we now form a movement of 70 countries, plus international and civil society organisations and major companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and TENCENT. Last week we published the WePROTECT Global Alliance strategy to set out our plan of action.

At the WePROTECT summit the UK pledged 50million over five years to stop child sexual exploitation. Last year's 10million partnership with Unicef has already supported significant programmes in 17 countries to rescue young people from unthinkable abuse and to bring perpetrators to justice, plus a global communications campaign #REPLYFORALL.

The next 40million will do even more. Also launched last week was the Global Partnership and Fund to End Violence Against Children at the UN, in partnership with Unicef and the World Health Organisation.

The Global Partnership will bring countries and organisations from around the world together to end violence against children. It is supported by the multi-donor Fund, through which the UK contribution will help tackle online child sexual exploitation.

The launch of the Global Partnership and Fund and the WePROTECT Global Alliance strategy are the latest steps to stamp out this crime. We are making great progress but will never stop until every child is safe from harm online.

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Delivering a speech to the nation from a lectern embossed with the presidential stamp, perfectly placed between two bold red Turkish flags, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked stronger and more formidable than ever just five days after rebel military jets had his plane within their sight. From his stage on Wednesday night he informed the Turkish nation that a state of emergency was being enforced for ninety days in the name of freedom and democracy.

The morning after his speech Turkish citizens received a personal text message on their phones, an almost daily occurrence now, reassuring them that the move was to protect their freedoms. Signed by R.T Erdogan the message reads, 'The streets do not belong to tanks, but belong to the people.' A message he has repeated since appearing on the popular private news channel CNN via Facetime not long after jets flew low over Istanbul on Friday night. To some these messages will be music to their ears, an attentive personal approach from their dear president, but to others it is a menacing interference into their personal privacy.

The speech was a remarkable come back from a man who was almost ousted from power on July 16th by a group of rogue soldiers attempting to overthrow his government. In his speech Erdogan justified the state of emergency by referencing 'other countries have used such measures in the fight against terrorists'. He wasn't specific but one can only imagine he was pointing to France since Paris has implemented a state of emergency since the Paris attacks, but the comparison was far from equal.

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Turkey's state of emergency is unlike the French application. Since the failed coup Turkey has dismissed thousands of judges, teachers, banned over two million civil servants from international travel and published humiliating images of beaten soldiers stripped down to their underwear while being herded onto buses and detained. The kind of crackdown the country is experiencing is far from European. The images of bruised soldiers paraded on TV legitimise torture which is a crime and is triggering a very deep and real trauma in those who have lived through military coups in the past.

A thirty-five year old product designer who lives in Istanbul told me that his sixty-year old father spent Saturday at home crying because of these images. Then, after witnessing his father break down for the first time in his life, the day got progressively worse, he had a fistfight with his uncle who was pleased about Erdogan's tightening grip on power.

What happened last weekend is tearing families apart because it reminds them of a time when the military could intervene in politics. Later on Saturday afternoon in the same Istanbul apartment block residents began removing their names from their doorbells because they live in a secular neighbourhood and are afraid of what might happen next. With the state of emergency these fears are compounded because the president will have greater powers to arrest.

While a part of Turkey mourns the traumas of the past, hoping the rule of law will protect their affection for a dearly beloved European styled secular democratic lifestyle, Erdogan's supporters are on the street every night rallying around their president chanting 'God is Great.' But who could blame them? They are after all following their dear leader. Erdogan himself described the attempted coup as 'a gift from God' moments after his plane landed in Istanbul on Friday night.

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So what can he do in his largely ceremonial role as president? Under the state of emergency, he can together with his cabinet enact laws bypassing parliament thereby securing more powers to arrest as the purge of state institutions continue. Although he has no executive power as president under the constitution this new state of play will put him at the helm of government, which is terrifying for anyone who opposes him.

In his speech to the nation Erdogan warned those who criticise him to 'stay out of our way' sending a clear message that there is zero tolerance for descent in the new Turkey while further empowering his supporters to do what ever they deem necessary to quash the opposition. A foreign tourist said he'd see a man wielding a machete in an Eastern city, a man who had heeded Erdogan's calls to take to the streets.

The president blames Fetullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in self-imposed exile in the US, for the coup attempt. Ironically, the pair were once allies in the fight to curb the military's powers in political life. Turkey's generals have long been viewed as the protectors of the secular state. Gulen has an extensive network of businessmen and wields influence in the police and security services, hence the purge of these institutions this week, a follow on from a previous campaign. Even still, whether Gulen was directly involved in Friday's military action is impossible to know. Could those responsible have been inspired by him? Yes.

Gulen also wields major influence in Turkish life through a network of schools. Another reason for Erdogan to crackdown on his network. Since Friday over six hundred private Gulen schools have been closed while tens of thousands of teachers have been suspended from the secular state school system. Does this mean he's going for the jugular? The education system? To imprint his version of what it means to be Turkish on the young and impressionable? Not unlike what Ataturk did when he steered Turks towards Europe as the great Islamic Ottoman empire collapsed.
As chalices go, the one passed by Mrs May to Boris Johnson and David Davis gets five stars in the Borgia international poison league. As they sit together at Chevening, the country house which they will together share with fellow Brexiteer Liam Fox, they must be reflecting on the predictions made in the referendum campaign. Membership of the single market, or something very like it, without the free movement of workers? That is what the Leavers told us would be available and that is the promise on which they must now make good. Deliver it and all is well and good: fail and the cream could curdle in the silver jugs as each of them tries to deflect blame onto someone else.

Mrs May caught both the commentators and the international community on the hop with her cabinet appointments. Ministers from other countries believe that Johnson has behaved disgracefully, wrecking Britain's future and then failing to follow through by dropping out of the leadership race. They wonder why in forming her new cabinet Mrs May decided to include anyone quite so irresponsible. Surely it is a moment for 'safe hands'? Surely it is a moment for experienced ministers to take the tiller and make sure we get as good a bargain as possible?

All this ignores domestic politics and it is in the pressures of domestic politics that Mrs May's strategy is rooted. In effect she has made a two-way bet. Suppose that her government manages to achieve participation in the market whilst keeping control of the borders, that in a changing international climate the negotiations are carried out successfully. Why then, Mrs May as prime minister will get the credit for it and people will praise her wisdom in choosing such effective negotiators.

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Suppose, however, that it doesn't work. Suppose that eighteen months or so from now we are faced with a choice of being outside the single market altogether or accepting the free movement of people. It is then that Mrs May's choice of ministers will come into its own. Not only will the government be seen to have used all its efforts to achieve the goals of the Brexit supporters but the leaders of the "Leave" camp, unable to negotiate anything better, will have to put their names to whatever compromise Mrs May decides to make. Once they have done that, the sting of further resistance from the Leavers is drawn and Mrs May can hope for fairly united support from the country.

Addicts of "Game of Thrones" will be shaking their heads by now. It isn't enough just to look at domestic policies, you have to keep an eye out for twists and turns in the bigger picture. Although no new dynasty of Dragon Kings has yet emerged to upset Mrs May's calculations, it is not just Britain but the world which is in turmoil. The importance of Brexit pales when rated against the upheaval in Turkey, the continuing crisis in the Mediterranean, the possible rise of the National Front in France, the prospect of a Trump presidency, and the general breakdown of popular respect for the political classes.

Any of these factors could throw the negotiations between Britain and the EU into uncharted waters but it is worth focusing on the last of them for a moment. Why is it that electorates, at least in the West, have ceased to respect their political leaders? Why did the British public vote against the recommendation of all three major parties? Why have the Republicans selected Trump to the obvious dismay of the Washington establishment? In both cases large parts of the electorate feel that their concerns are not being listened to. In the US it is poor whites. Here it is almost everyone outside the M25. Instead of worrying about the changes which free movement was making to their lives and neighbourhoods, the British political cognoscenti took the lazier course of describing their perfectly sensible concern as racist. No wonder that they finally turned. If Brexit turns out to be a disaster it will be a disaster with the words "made in Westminster" written firmly across the lid.

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It is not just that, of course. Changes in technology have meant that the public have access to information on a far greater scale than was previously the case. That has happened before. The publication of English translations of the Bible in the sixteenth century by men like William Tyndale allowed the public to read the Word of God for themselves in their own language. That cut the priests out of their historic role as the exclusive intermediaries between God and Man and in England led to the replacement of Roman Catholicism by the Anglican Church. There are still priests but their role has been diminished.

The same may now be happening to politicians. The electorate no longer take what they say as given but want to look at the facts for themselves. That is changing the nature of political leadership, and power will go to those who are the first to understand and to embrace that change. This throws another shaft of light across Mrs May's appointment of Boris Johnson. Historically, the leaders of the EU have suffered from a presentation deficit. Many of them, and the current President of the Commission Mr Juncker falls into this category, believe strongly in a much closer union. The trouble is that they have failed to sell a coherent vision of how it will eventually look to the European public. Indeed their failure to do so is probably one of the things which fuels the concerns of the far right. Instead of being clear about their master plan they have gone for an approach of creeping centralisation on the basis that incremental movement is unlikely to precipitate public outrage.

Boris is quite different from the other EU foreign ministers. He is a populist, dangerously charming, funny and a highly persuasive speaker. What is more, as an Englishman he has the advantage that his first language is spoken throughout the European Union. He will be saying a lot about the UK's concerns with the EU project over the next few months and the way in which he presents himself means that his comments will be heard not just by the European politicians but by the European public. Who knows what that will release, but I think that if I was a European leader anxious to limit the effects of Brexit across the Union I would be working hard on my oratorical skills to bring them up to the Johnson standard.

The steel of Mrs May; the presentational skills of Mr Johnson. That could be quite a combination.
Neil Hall / Reuters

One of the lesser discussed but sizeable danger facing Britain at the moment is that, in the face of the enormous nation changing project that is Brexit, all other policy agendas and commitments will fall by the wayside and all Government functions outside Brexit will grind to a halt.

It is our duty as Her Majesty's Opposition to make sure this does not happen.

Yesterday I wrote to Theresa May to ask her to affirm her continued commitment for one particular policy area: anti-corruption.

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Corruption is a scourge that affects the whole world. It is estimated that Africa, one of the poorest parts of the globe, has lost in excess of $1trillion over the last 50 years in illicit financial flows - an amount roughly equivalent to all of the development assistance received by Africa over that time. The World Economic Forum has shown that corruption increases the cost of doing business by up to 10%, and by cutting corruption by just 10% we could boost the global economy by nearly $400 billion each year.

Although the 'fantastically corrupt' nations David Cameron so famously referred to in May are far from Britain's shores, we as a country are heavily implicated in global corruption. According to the World Bank the most popular place in the world for the corrupt to incorporate a company is the UK's Overseas Territories. Of the 214,000 corporate entities that were exposed in the Panama Papers over half were registered in the British Virgin Islands.

If Theresa May is serious about her promise of the UK remaining an "outward-looking and globally-minded and big-thinking country", it is vital that we continue to play a leading role in fighting corruption across the world.

But we've had early warning signs that the Government's previous commitment to tackling corruption might be on the wane.

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When I asked Theresa May if Eric Pickles would remain in his current role as the Government's Anti-Corruption Champion the response was "The Prime Minister will consider all such appointments, including that of the anti-corruption champion, in due course." It is unthinkable that at a time when the Panama Papers has just revealed the extent of global corruption and Britain's particular role in the problem, that the UK Prime Minister could be considering scrapping the role tasked with leading the fight against corruption.

A secondary threat to the resources currently dedicated to anti-corruption are the demands of the new Brexit and International Trade departments which will need officials, resources and money that will inevitably diverted from the rest of government. It is vital we do not allow staff to be sucked from other important projects such as fighting corruption - particularly as these officials may be some of the few with experience of negotiating international transparency, trade and information exchange deals. It was the Tory government who called the referendum and presided over the Leave vote and it is this new Tory government that must put up the money and resources to make sure the rest of Government is able to continue while new resources and staff are brought in to oversee Brexit.

In addition to ensuring that the anti-corruption teams are properly resourced, the Prime Minister must make sure not to spend her first few months in office u-turning on pledges made by the last Government, of which she was a crucial part.

We were promised a new Anti-Corruption Strategy by the end of 2016. Will that still happen? We were promised a new public register of foreign companies owning property in the UK to make sure houses in places like London aren't being bought by the corrupt to hide their dirty money. Will that still go ahead? Particularly salient given the decision the IOC is about to take regarding Russia this week, will the Government's pledge to work to develop an International Sport Integrity Partnership be honoured?

Theresa May has said before that "Britain's world leading financial system is at risk of being undermined by money laundering, illicit finance and the funding of terrorism. The laundering of proceeds of crime through UK institutions is not only a financial crime, it fuels political instability around the world, supports terrorists and extremism and poses a direct and immediate threat to our domestic security and our overseas interests."

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As Britain enters into negotiations to reshape our relationship with Europe and the rest of the world we will be more vulnerable than ever to corruption slipping through the gaps in the new order. As we seek new investment and trade partnerships around the world we will have to be vigilant that it is only legitimate investment we welcome, and not the proceeds of criminality and extremism. Only the full commitment of the Prime Minister and her Government to the aim of fighting corruption here and around the world and embedding that aim in her new departments will enable us to achieve this.

I sincerely hope that as we begin to exit the European Union, the Government's commitment to fighting corruption does not take its leave as well.
Many people have a mid-life crisis. The United Kingdom looks to be in the throes of its own right now. As students across the world approach the end of their schooling this summer, a sizeable number will be pondering their next choice in life. Just as the middle aged have the mid-life crisis, I want students to understand the value of the pre-life crisis.

The pre-life crisis means that, before you really have any major financial or familial responsibilities, you are thrown into a den of confusion about what to do for the rest of your life - or at least, how to make the best start to your professional life. "What do I want to be", is the refrain rolling around the more or less drunken/drug addled mind of many a university student. Apprentices, I imagine, are a bit more certain of what's next.

Whilst a few will soon be embarking on a journey to become the next Mark Zuckerberg, most of us are not gifted with preternatural skills. We are good, some of us excellent, but most span a scale of general competence without being the stuff of the next GQ or WIRED cover. The first stage in the pre-life crisis is this very realisation - that is, shock.

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Your parents are wrong. You are not super gifted. You might be just above average but chances are you are just what it says on the tin - average (most of us have got to be). In stage one of the pre-life crisis, this hits us like a bat out of hell. Once you put down your latest impulse buy (C+ for Beginners), it's time to face facts and look at your other options.

Stage two - confusion - is equally disconcerting. All those careers fares, and all those summers spent interning at whatever slick outfit offered the most money, come flooding back. Do I really want to be a banker/lawyer/accountant, one asks. Even if you don't, you think you'll do it for a couple years to earn a little money before funding that dream. You WILL be the next Zuck.

Forget it big shot. It's not going to happen for the vast majority of people reading this blog. That sort of mind-set will see you mired in misery, well on the way to a mid-life crisis.

Once you accept this - stage three - then your choice narrows down to two things. Either choose something wacky that you love to do or find a way to be happy being an average worker in a white collar job. That all hinges on stage four.

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Random crap. Random crap is that thing(s), whether evident or not, that you really want to try your hand at. It could be anything from politics to crochet to craft brewing. Without focusing too hard, think about a few things that capture your interest and give it a go. If it works out, great! If not, at least you tried it and it might develop into a fulfilling hobby. In either case, you won't be filing into the office in a few months with a cloud hanging over your head because you regret never taking a punt on something random.

Take me as an example. I'm smart without being the next Stephen Hawking. I'm in ok shape but no Abercrombie and Fitch model. I can be entertaining but you won't see me with my own YouTube channel making millions wet their pants with laughter.

I always thought I would become a lawyer. That was 'that plan'. Well the plan sucked. Shuffle paper all my life? No thanks - f*** you system! Oh wait, I need a job... So I left university in 2010 without a job lined up, moved in with my parents and started selling mobile phones. Great way to put that university degree from Scotland's best university to use, right?

After dawdling around for a bit longer, I alighted on training for the British Army. It sounded like a challenge. So, I thought, what the hell. I had leapt through the stages to random crap. Long story short, I found myself driving through the gates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2012.

It never really suited me. Within 4 months, with blisters heavily infected and nauseating to look at, I was given a few weeks off to get a grip, recover, and get back to the training. So I joined Twitter. Why not? Another long story short, I saw a tweet for a gay marriage campaign, volunteered to get involved, found myself representing that campaign live on Sky News in a matter of weeks before then being hired onto a UK parliamentary campaign to do the hard work of making a shouty campaign actually translate into a law. In July 2013, the legislation passed and I was out of a job (again).

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I'm now happily employed in the field of political communications. Looking back, I've joined the dots between my interests - my love of politics and my penchant of shooting my mouth off. Thank God for the pre-life crisis! If I hadn't taken a flamethrower to the plan and indulged in some random crap, I would be very unhappy.

It's then the final stage of the pre-life crisis kicks in. Wisdom. Yes, the world lionises the likes of Zuck, Jobs and Gates. But the world is filled with average people. When average people come together, united by a passion to do something, they can achieve great and lasting change. In a world full of depressing hurt and pain, it's important to remember that. One average person doing random crap can spark a multitude of people to make positive change a reality. In my own small way, that's what I did on the gay marriage campaign.
New director brings Nova, the controversial magazine of the 60's to the cinema.

Credit Film Still  Kes Glozier & Nate Camponi

Kez Glozier. Creative polymath. Londoner.

Some say that our names can contribute to shaping who we are. Testament to that is Kez, named after Ken Loach's 1969 film, this photographer, illustrator, magazine editor has found his calling; as a film director.

Age 12, Kez's first published work was a written introduction for Jim Shelly's book 'Interference'. Just 4 years later he contributed to Dazed, L'Officiel and Another Magazine, and honed his illustrating skills designing the logo for Amy Winehouse's record label 'Lioness'. In 2012 he explored contemporary culture, alongside Art Director Neville Brody, with the launch of their magazine The New British. TNB hit digital media publishing with a cover story shot by iconic photographer Nick Knight, with an unambiguous offering of what to expect from the content - energetic, raw images, that told the story of what's really going on in underground culture in the UK. In 2013 he was commissioned to produce a collection of shorts for the V&A, where he collaborated with Chris Steele-Perkins (Magnum) and Seamus Murphy.

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If his Instagram feed is anything to go by, the documentary is ripe with insights into THE magazine of the 60's and 70's. There will be in-depth interviews with Nova's contributor's, presented through Kez's compassionate eye to cinematographic detail.

Credit Film Still Nova Art Director Harri Peccinotti with Director Kes Glozier  Kes Glozier & Nate Camponi

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LM Tell me about your work, including your magazine The New British (TNB), and how that lead to film-making?

KG Well, The New British is a documentary magazine that takes an unflinching look at Britain today. Seems like the name has more relevance right now more than ever. But right now I'm shifting over my focus into film making. I first realised how powerful film was when I was commissioned by the V&A to produce a series of short documentaries - which led to directing my first short documentary on underground British dance subculture, entitled 'Release'. The film was selected and screened twice at Raindance Film Festival - from that point, I found my new direction.

LM How did you choose Nova as the right subject for now?

It was the first magazine to push women's rights. It was the first magazine to shoot and publish black models. In my eyes, it was simply - the first magazine. It's importance resonates to this day - and mirrors the political landscape right now.

KG It was one of my biggest inspirations - from the ethos, art direction, honest and politically-charged storytelling that was as much about the words as it was about the big powerful spreads.

The film follows my journey as I meet and work with the people behind the ground-breaking magazine that was around in the 60's through to the 70's. It was essentially a generational magazine, lasting 10 years and really pushing out forward-thinking ideas and a platform for many iconic artists.

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LM Who is working with you on the film?

KG I'm directing the NOVA Documentary with Nate as Co-director and DP James Watson.

LM You have interviewed some of Nova's contributor's, from the Editor Caroline Baker, to Sir Peter Blake, Irma Kurtz, Molly Parkin and Art Dir. Harri Peccionotti. What have you taken from your time with them that has helped you in the process of creating the film?

KG They are all very lovely people and I've enjoyed the time I spend with them. One of the things I've realised is nothing really changes. All of the people I've met still have such power in what they do, still working hard and still teaching, their energy never ceases, so that's inspiring. I've worked on several cool new shoots with Harri Peccinotti and Caroline Baker which has been an honour.

LM There's a sense of inclusivity and authenticity that comes from your work on TNB, that's often lacking in modern publishing. A similar energy resonated from Nova, a feeling that they were united in communicating politically courageous features alongside radical design. I'm sure instinct and courage play an important role in who you approach to work with, but on a practical level, what's your criteria for choosing creative content?

I think you just feel it in your gut, whether it makes you laugh or cry; it has to make you feel something, that's good content.

LM What stage are you at with production and how easy have you found it securing funding and a distributor?

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KG It's been very guerrilla style, like most of my films - it's been an act on urgency - we just had to jump on it and start filming before thinking about all of the fundamental things (that they teach you in film school, haha) perhaps a downfall, but it can't let you stop telling a story you feel like you gotta get out. However, if urgent film making didn't exist I think the world of film would be a very monotonous place.

We've filmed about 30%. Our next interview is with iconic illustrator Ralph Steadman which I'm personally really looking forward to as he was a childhood hero. We're looking into completion funding and distribution now, but at this point, its all about forging the film into a nice shape and then building upon that.

LM When can we see the film?

KG 2017.

Instagram @kesglozier
On the day Theresa May became Prime Minister, she made a landmark statement that shifted the agenda. Instead of repeating the familiar mantra of using austerity to balance the books, she focused instead on reducing the disillusion, deprivation and divide in our country. She will know that her new cabinet has the chance to do both: come closer to balancing the books and increase life-chances for all people, young and old - the two are not mutually exclusive; even if for far too long it might have seemed that way.

But whatever shape this new government agenda takes, and the signs are positive, it must include a radical re-think, long-term planning and bold execution in our education system.

For too long the narrow academic 'exam factory' approach in our educational establishments has been seen as the way forward, even though it is so backward looking in its design and origins. It had zero chance of addressing our current problems; it was never going to deliver the practical solutions we so desperately need.

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But if it wasn't going to deliver the solutions, what are the problems? The key challenges are the same as they were five years ago: the skills gap; the gender gap; the productivity gap; the STEM gap; the literacy and numeracy gap; social immobility and of course continued high youth unemployment - at 14% still far too high, nearly triple the headline rate (5%). It is a depressing list.

Sticking plaster solutions such as putting financial education onto the curriculum, but only for secondary state schools, will not deliver any significant change. Like all these short-termist solutions, financial education will only work if it is properly embedded in the curriculum for all schools (including primary) and teachers are given the training, resources and curriculum space to teach them properly.

But above all, to have a chance of tackling the underlying issues, we need to have structural change to the design and management of education. We need an education system that is joined up, geared up and supportive of the jobs market and employers' needs. A system that recognises young people's work related skills (i.e. character skills), even if they are not strong academically. A system that recognises that every single young person has potential. Surely, in the 12 years that they are in the education system, we should be able to discover and develop their strengths? Currently all we do is mark and manage them based on their academic capabilities.

We need to take a new, long-term approach; an energetic, inclusive, cross-party approach that's set for decades to come. We cannot chop and change the system each time a new Secretary of State for Education is appointed - that is not strategic nor is it responsible. From our work in the education system over the last 53 years, Young Enterprise knows that our students, their parents, their teachers and our 6,000 business mentors want real change and a real strategic long-term approach. It's what we need, our children and young people need and, above all, it's what our country must have post-Brexit.

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Umit Bektas / Reuters

I'm beginning to think that democracy may not be such a great idea.

Not just because I'm a whinging Remainian, still sore about losing the referendum, but also because of what is happening many thousands of miles away: in Turkey to our east, and in the US to our west.

Turkey is a member of NATO, and boasts the alliance's second largest army after the US. After last weekend's attempted military coup - which would have been the country's fifth since 1960 if it had succeeded -- its ever more autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has begun a purge of supposedly suspect state employees. So far, 60,000 people are reported to have been either arrested or dismissed, clearly as part of a programme that had been planned long before the events of last weekend.

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In the US, Donald Trump has made clear that he is prepared to tear up NATO's most fundamental principle, mutual self-defence. Asked if the Baltic states could be confident that under his presidency the US would come to their assistance if they were threatened by Russia, he replied in the conditional: 'If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes.' As the New York Times commented drily: 'Mr. Trump's statement appeared to be the first time that a major candidate for president had suggested conditioning the United States' defense of its major allies.'

His proposal to ban all Muslims from visiting the US has now been subtly reworded -- in his speech on Thursday night accepting the Republican party's presidential nomination, he promised to 'suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.' The words may have been more carefully chosen, but the underlying idea remains exactly the same: people who come from Muslim countries are our enemies until they are proved otherwise.

Trump's appeal precisely echoes Erdogan's: both portray themselves as national saviours, uniquely placed to rescue their countries from both internal and external enemies. As populists always do, they offer simple answers to complex problems: strength, single-mindedness, and confrontation with entrenched interests that are threatening the national fabric.

Three of the world's most powerful democracies - the US, Turkey and India - either are, or may soon be, ruled by democratically-elected populist demagogues. Add Vladimir Putin's Russia, which is often called a 'managed democracy', and you can make it four. (If a democracy is defined as a political system in which governments organise elections, a managed democracy is one in which they organise both the elections and the results.)

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And it just so happens that these four countries are all in the top 10 of the world's biggest military powers. (The others, if you include paramilitaries and reservists, are China, North Korea, Pakistan, South Korea, Iran and Vietnam.) It's all a bit worrying. More than a bit, in fact.

There is nothing in the rule book that says democracies always produce good governments, even if non-democracies invariably produce bad governments. And if one of the principal tasks of any government is to help create conditions in which its citizens feel secure, both financially and physically, then over the past decade, the democratically elected governments in the world's most developed economies have patently failed.

According to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, real incomes in 25 of the world's most advanced economies were either flat or fell for more than two-thirds of households between 2005 and 2014. The highest proportion of households in which incomes failed to rise were in Italy, the US, the UK, the Netherlands and France.

And guess what? Those just happen to be five of the countries in which anti-elite, populist politics are making most headway. As Martin Wolf pointed out in the Financial Times this week, people will accept far-reaching social and economic change (high levels of immigration, for example, or globalisation) if they believe that the changes are making them better off. If, on the other hand, the changes do not result in greater prosperity for the majority of people, they will be far less likely to be accepted.

In the words of the McKinsey report, 'A significant number of those whose incomes have not been advancing are losing faith in aspects of the global economic system. Nearly one-third of those who are not advancing ... expressed negative opinions about free trade and immigration.'

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In a piece I wrote last May, I quoted the British-born American commentator Andrew Sullivan: 'Late-stage capitalism is creating a righteous, revolutionary anger that late-stage democracy has precious little ability to moderate or constrain.' Since then, we've had the EU referendum, the Erdogan crackdown in Turkey, and the nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican party's presidential candidate.

It's not exactly democracy's finest hour. President Erdogan once described democracy as like a train: you get off when you reach your destination. (Erdogan and his Justice and Development party, by the way, have won four successive elections in the past 15 years.) So what happens when democracies elect demagogues? Or when a referendum produces a result that is regarded by a clear majority of MPs as damaging to national prosperity? What use is representative democracy if elected representatives can be over-ruled by a plebiscite?

Come to that, what happens when the members of a political party elect a leader who does not command the confidence of the party's own MPs? Yes, Mr Corbyn, I'm looking at you.
Labour party members in West London hoping to show their support for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership contest have been prevented from meeting by a number of venues.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had been due to address a meeting of Labour members at Ealing Town Hall, but after Ealing Council pulled the plug on the meeting, the venue was switched to a nearby church. However the booking at the church was also cancelled a few hours before the meeting, with officials citing a range of contradictory reasons. Instead, over 200 Corbyn supporters braved the hottest day of the British summer to attend a rally on Ealing Common on Tuesday 19th July.

Raj Gill, an Interim Chair of Ealing Momentum and Labour Party member, said: "In the last few weeks abuse and smears have been hurled at us by our own MPs and tabloid journalists. As a result our ability to organise for a new and fairer kind of politics has been curtailed on tenuous and worrying grounds. These political moves will only make us even more determined to organise for Jeremy Corbyn.

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In Hounslow, Momentum members had also been due to hold a discussion in support of Jeremy Corbyn at a local church, but again the church pulled out.

Instead, they found sanctuary in an Indian restaurant. The event will now include a curry and will be held at Kingsway Banqueting restaurant on Sunday 24th July from 5pm.

Secretary of Momentum - Hounslow Crispin Flintoff said: "I had to find an alternative venue at short notice. The Kingsway Banqueting restaurant has promised that no political pressure will prevent the booking going ahead. But what swung it is that they have fantastic veggie and meat curry."
Danny Lawson/PA Archive

The new Prime Minister spent six years as Home Secretary but Theresa May's legacy at the Home Office is not one to be proud of. She cut front line police services relentlessly and her record on civil liberties was appalling.

Two years ago, at the height of summer, she rushed through legislation that gave GCHQ the power to force companies to hand over their customers' personal data, including phone records and information about emails and browsing history.

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She used the spectre of terrorism to justify the legislation, called the Data Retention and Investigator Powers Act (DRIPA), but it was poorly drafted and deeply flawed. Among other things, it effectively gave the Government the right to monitor mobile phone data and internet browsing history without the approval of a judge. That's why I took the unusual step of joining forces with my Conservative party adversary David Davis to sue the Government in the High Court.

We won our case last summer, but the Government appealed to the European Court of Justice. In the meantime, May bought forward new legislation, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which is as similar to the last legislation as it sounds. It is currently going through Parliament, where it is being debated in the House of Lords. Labour won a series of valuable concessions, including an independent review of all bulk powers, increased judicial oversight, improved thresholds for access and an undertaking that a far smaller number of public bodies would be able to access that data. But it still places too much power in the hands of state agencies, with too few protections for the public.

Thankfully that could still change. On Tuesday the advocate general of the European Court of Justice issued a legal opinion that is broadly supportive of the case we set out in the UK's highest court. His opinion is not the last word on the subject, but it is highly unusual for the European court to take a different view. The legal opinion is hugely significant because it supports our case that domestic governments shouldn't be allowed to demand access to reams of digital and electronic information, without independent authorisation. It also makes it clear they should exhaust all other less intrusive options before doing so. Significantly, the initial finding concludes the collection of bulk data is only legal if the information is used by law enforcement agencies to tackle serious crimes.

David Davis, who was promoted to the cabinet last week, when he was handed responsibility for negotiating the UK's exit from the EU, will no doubt appreciate the irony that the European court has stepped in to protect the UK from legislation passed by his own Government - particularly as he campaigned so vociferously for Brexit.

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The collection and retention of personal data by corporations and governments makes many of us feel instinctively uneasy. We are happy for Netflix to use our past purchases to recommend films we might enjoy or for Google to use similar technology to bring up the most relevant search results. But many of us don't want our mobile phone data or internet browsing history to be used for commercial gain and the idea that it can be monitored by the state without good reason is deeply disturbing.

The security services have an important job to do keeping us safe and they carry it out with distinction but many of us question whether mass surveillance and state snooping is a price worth paying. Judicial oversight is essential if we are to maintain the right balance between civil liberties and state power. I hope the new Prime Minister will reflect on this. Strong leaders are capable of recognising they made mistakes in the past and taking steps to rectify them.

Tom Watson is deputy leader of the Labour Party, and the Labour MP for West Bromwich East


The 400-node open-access, wireless, radio grid testbed at Rutgers University.

The ability to communicate through the air without wires was first discovered in light-based form in 1880 by Alexander Graham Bell, and via electromagnetic radio waves by Heinrich Hertz in the late 1880s.

Over the last century and a half, wireless communication has continued to evolve, enabling mobile phones, widespread sensors, global positioning systems and the development of a digitally-connected world.

Though independent inventors made early strides in the field, in more recent times it was a combination of academic and industry researchers who enabled the innovations that have transformed our world.

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Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) -- the independent federal agency that promotes the progress of science -- announced the latest effort to spur new innovations: the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, a public-private partnerships that commits more than $400 million over seven years to support the research and infrastructure needed to create wireless communication systems far faster, smarter and more responsive than today's.



Rice University's Argos Network uses base stations with more than 100 antennas to share spectrum.

This is far from NSF's first foray into wireless research. From fundamental mathematics to engineered devices to leading telecommunications companies, NSF support for fundamental wireless communication research led to the advances that enabled 3G, 4G, LTE and Wi-Fi and helped make the wireless world what it is today.

Here are six pivotal advances in wireless communications enabled by NSF:

Nurturing an industry leader

In 1987, Andrew Viterbi, the co-founder of Qualcomm, Inc., received the first of two NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards to advance Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), a technology used in wireless communication throughout the world.

CDMA allows multiple users to communicate with cell phones, satellites and radios on the same physical channel through the sharing of bandwidth.

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Wireless communications have transformed how we live and work.

The award -- granted two years after Qualcomm was founded and at a time when the company had only 35 employees -- was a major step in Qualcomm's growth, and in the wireless industry's eventual acceptance of digital CDMA technology as the commercial standard for cellular telephones.

Qualcomm now has more than 33,000 employees in 224 locations worldwide and generated $25 billion in revenue in 2015. The company remains one of the industry leaders in wireless network development.

The birth of the spectrum auction

As wireless communication blossomed in the early 1990s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received an increase in requests to use the limited commercial frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. The upsurge rendered the FCC's lottery-based licensing method inadequate, but economists Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson of Stanford University together with collaborator Preston McAfee had a solution: an auction system based on their research in game theory and experimental economics.



Since their inception in 1994, FCC "spectrum auctions" have netted over $120 billion in revenue for the federal government.

The team's NSF-funded studies had already documented conditions under which the proposed spectrum auction was expected to perform well, and experiments in NSF-supported labs run during the FCC's decision-making process provided additional evidence that the new system surpassed the proposed alternatives.

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The U.S. system of partitioning airwaves is now emulated in several other countries around the world. Since their inception in 1994, FCC "spectrum auctions" have netted over $120 billion in revenue for the federal government.

Pioneering Wi-Fi

With NSF support, Chris Heegard of Cornell University pioneered forward error correction, in which a transmitter sends redundant data and the receiver recognizes only the portion of the data that contains no apparent errors. The technology is vital in high-speed wireless networking, cable modems and digital television.



Graphical representation of Wi-Fi channels in the 2.4 GHz band

In 1997, Heegard founded Alantro, a Santa Rosa-based startup that ultimately developed the underlying technology for Wi-Fi, an all-pervasive mode of high-speed wireless networking that is used by millions of people worldwide. Alantro was acquired by Texas Instruments in 2000 for $300 million in stock, helping to make wireless Internet access widely available.

Boosting wireless capacity

Arogyaswami Paulraj of Stanford University was supported by NSF to perform the fundamental research that developed the electronics and smart antenna technology essential to Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO).

MIMO is a method for multiplying the capacity of a radio link by using multiple transmit and receive antennas to allow radio signals to reach a receiving antenna by two or more paths.

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MIMO increases wireless capacity by a factor of eight in current systems, but is expected to increase capacity by more than 100 in coming years.



Arogyaswami Paulraj shows off a Beceem Communications device.

In 1999, Paulraj founded Iospan Wireless, Inc - the first company to incorporate MIMO technology in a commercial system. Iospan was acquired in by Intel Corporation in 2003. In 2004, Paulraj co-founded Beceem Communications, Inc., which became the market leader in 4G-WiMAX semiconductors and was acquired by Broadcom Corp. in 2010.

The economic and societal impact of Paulraj's foundational work has been enormous: MIMO is the de facto requirement in every current wireless standard, whether LTE, Wi-Fi or beyond.

Improve communication security and tracking capabilities

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a radio technology pioneered by Robert A. Scholtz from the University of Southern California with NSF support. This technology can transmit short-range, high-bandwidth communications over a large portion of the radio spectrum using very low energy pulses.



Students Joon Yong Lee and Jean-Marc Cramer observing properties of a UWB signal on NSF-purchased equipment.

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UWB communications have traditionally been used in defense applications like radar imaging. But more recently UWB has been applied to sensor data collection, precision location applications and high-speed local area and wide area networks.

UWB transmits simultaneously over many parts of the radio spectrum that may be used by other narrowband radio systems, but with so little energy within each narrow band that UWB signals tend to not interfere with their operation. One advantage is UWB's ability to achieve data rates of more than 1 gigabit-per-second.

Scholtz is also recognized for his contributions to spread-spectrum techniques in which a signal generated with a particular bandwidth is deliberately spread in the frequency domain, resulting in a signal with a wider bandwidth. This results in improvements in security, as resistance to natural interference, noise and jamming is increased and detection prevention improved.

New spectrum frontiers

Millimeter-length waves (mmWave) operate in the band of radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum from 30 to 300 gigahertz (GHz). In the past, they have commonly been used in space communications, radio astronomy and remote sensing -- but not in telecommunications because they are prone to deterioration in crowded settings.



To speed the development of 5G, NYU WIRELESS researchers are making key software free and open to all.

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Recent NSF-supported research by Theodore (Ted) S. Rappaport, founding director of NYU WIRELESS, showed that mmWave can be made to travel long distances and can also transmit effectively in cities and other crowded locations.

Rappaport and his colleagues have made all of their mmWave data measurement and channel simulator software open source, accelerating developments in this promising area of wireless research.

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I was scared watching Trump's speech last night. Not by his words, but by the reaction of the crowd of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The energy in the room was terrifying. The floor burst in cheers and applause after every euphemism to the actual Trump campaign slogan, "Make America Pure Again." We heard the most authoritarian and racist speech by a nominee to the presidency of the United States last night. But we also heard Republican party elites, one-by-one, endorsing these ideas. Beating Trump in November won't save America from this new fascist type of racist candidate. We need to find a way to beat the ideas.

The most surprising moment for me in yesterday's speech was when Trump implicitly reintroduced the immigration ban on Muslims. After mentioning Syrian refugees, Trump said, "Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and never will be." A policy that will lead to the deportation of Trump who is consistently endorsing violence, hatred, and oppression. But how would the crowd of the RNC react to this policy? A year ago when Trump originally suggested the ban on Muslims, Chris Christie responded, "This is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don't know what they are talking about. We do not need to resort to that type of activity nor should we." The chairman of the RNC, Reince Priebus, said in December when asked about Trump's suggestion to ban Muslims, "We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values." But neither Christie nor Priebus stood in protest during Trump's speech (like brave Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK did). They were both on the floor, after praising Trump in their speeches, after applauding as the crowd chanted "send them home."

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On Twitter last night, a lot of people mentioned that Trump's speech echoed Adolf Hitler. I was one of them. With chants of "send them home" and signs reading America First (the name of the anti-war and anti-semitic committee during WWII) all the was missing was "Sieg Heil." But we also didn't see a young Hitler, speaking at a Munich beer basement. We saw an adult Hitler with a following that is electrified by his every word. A following that includes former governors, representatives, senators, and the chair of the RNC. The hypothetical question "what would I have done if I was German in 1933?" came to life for me last night.

Beating Trump in November is not enough. Just like beating Hitler's National Socialist party in elections wouldn't have been enough. The seed of fascism (that might have been planted a long time ago) in the GOP has showed his first branches last night. A Hillary victory in November does not solve the problem, but only gives a four-year delay to the next time that America plays Russian Roulette while pointing the gun on its immigrants, Muslim citizens, and non-white communities. Talking about wining an election is business as usual. These times call for shaking everything up and genuinely pondering on the ability of the American experiment to sustain itself under these type of conditions.

Now comes the anti-climactic part: I don't have a plan. I do have an idea. It's small but maybe change can begin. I believe it is time to be divisive. As divisive as possible. I believe that one of the conditions that allowed extremism to grow in the American right was an attempt to avoid confrontations in our day-to-day lives. We don't want to ruin Thanksgiving dinner by mentioning Trump to our conservative family members that we see only once a year. When we meet coworkers, we don't want to be "that person" who ruins a nice outing by mentioning politics. We want to keep our Facebook clean and balanced, and we are afraid of what a future employer might see that we tweeted. But if you genuinely believe that you are seeing the rise of the American Hitler, none of these excuses are valid. In the hypothetical game, "what would you do to stop Hitler?" many times people hope they would have done extreme acts of bravery. Now it's the time for each and every one of us to be brave. Socially brave. To do everything we can to shut down the ideas, the support, the trend, and also the presidential campaign.
By Malcolm Cox, Grapeshot, Marketing Director

Its remarkable how much brands and consumers are alike in terms of their approaches to social media. They both are prone to self-exaggeration insofar as their lives and businesses shine in ways that may not actually tell the truth or at least the whole story. It is a form of self-protection to put ones best face forward especially in the often rough-n-tumble world of Facebook and Twitter where trolls often are on the lookout for weakness and are quick to shame or humiliate. Just ask Leslie Jones, the African-American actress and one of the stars of the new Ghostbusters cinema reboot, who has been the target of some hateful racist abuse on Twitter of late, resulting in her deleting her account the same week her movie was released.

Despite the potential to be on the unwelcome receiving end of such undeserved vitriol, brands and people alike are better served if they commit themselves to portraying themselves in a more authentic light. Honesty is the ladder to trust, and in the case of advertisers, trust is arguably the most valuable commodity a brand can have with its consumer base. Consumers know that brands arent perfect in the same way that they recognize flaws in their loved ones and friends as well as themselves. They are more apt to develop affinity for a brand that isnt afraid to present themselves in an honest manner, warts and all. By admitting to mistakes or even frailties, brands humanize themselves and consumers will respond in kind with warmth and honesty. This is what leads to engagement and ultimately transactions.

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Allow me to give an example from my own companys experiences that reflect this idea. Recently, in our London office, we interviewed a management candidate, who we will call Lizzie, a young lady with impressive agency experience, superior academic qualifications and glowing client references. While she looked great on paper and was quite endearing in person, we got the sense that she was hiding her true essence. She claimed to lead a boring, quiet life in the suburbs. So we investigated and her Twitter feed revealed something different. On weekends, Lizzie transformed herself with the help of face paint into an alter ego, Catface, a feline rave denizen.

Did this revelation diminish our strong assessment of Lizzies worth as a potential Grapeshot manager? Hardly. We offered her a job on the spot, and she is off to a roaring start, no pun intended.

Its quite understandable why Lizzie held back this colorful part of her personality. Many companies arent as open-minded and might count it as a strike against her. Those entities are likely the same ones who sanitize every single facet of their online personas across FB, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, et. al. to create these gleaming, flawless, and wholly unbelievable versions of themselves.

By the way, there is a big difference between authenticity and stupidity. Certainly, everyone on social media would be badly served by being a total open book. Life and the marketplace are too complex for everyone to allow himself or herself full transparency and that goes for social media. There are certainly aspects of ourselves that we all should keep private while at the same time, on the whole, being a straightforward, honest person who people like and trust. So untag those pics of you bleary-eyed with a traffic cone on your head during that college bender. Whereas, Catface on the nightclub podium indicates an authentic, interesting individuality that suggests a creative, broad thinker.

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New tariffs are hoped to protect domestic steel producers.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will impose tariffs on steel billets and steel bars imported by Vietnam from a number of countries and territories, including China, the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea.

Developing countries like India, Thailand and Latin American countries, and under-developed ones in Africa who account for less than 3 percent of Vietnam's total steel imports, will be exempt from the tariff.

The ministry will maintain a tariff of 23.3 percent on steel billet while the fee on steel product will be increased from 14.2 percent to 15.4 percent. The decision will take effect from August 2 and last for four years.

The new tariffs will kick in on August 2. Photo from vca.gov.vn

The rate imposed on steel billet will be reduced to 21.3 percent, 19.3 percent and 17.3 percent over the following three years. Similarly, long steel product tariffs will be reduced to 13.9 percent, 12.4 percent and 10.9 percent over the same period.

The move comes after excessive steel imports have harmed the domestic industry, according to an investigation by Vietnam Competition Authority. Previously, local producers Hoa Phat Steel JSC, Southern Steel Co Ltd, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel JSC and Viet Nam-Italy Steel JSC had submitted complaints on this matter.

From 2012 to 2015, steel billet and long steel bar imports trippled to 1.5 million tons and 1.2 million tons respectively, according to Vietnam Steel Association.

Related news:

> Trade remedies offer Vietnamese firms little protection in international playground

> Vietnam imposes safeguard tariffs on steel imports to block Chinese products

> Anti-dumping measures could turn into a double-edged steel sword
By Anna Ondaatje, Strategist, Giant Spoon

Perhaps you have noticed a recent proliferation of slash usage among young professionals describing what they do. In response to this phenomenon, the term slashies has arisen in the marketing zeitgeist to represent these individuals who choose not to title themselves by their day jobs alone. Slashies, who are generally members of the millennial demographic, choose to include various side hustles in their professional titlesindependent projects and loftier but perhaps less lucrative pursuits to which they devote their timein addition to their nine-to-five.

Granted, including a slash in ones job title is not a new occurrence. Los Angeles, for one, has been teeming with slash-users for at least the last half-century: the writer/director, the actor/waitress, the producer/comedian, etc. But where the use of the slash in these Hollywood titles is for descriptive purposes, a slashie employs it slightly differently. The additional qualifiers in slashies titles allow them to define themselves as much by passions, ambitions, or pastimes as by the way they are making ends meet. Slashies add qualifiers out of a desire to be defined by what activities they think make them seem more interesting than their day jobs alone do.

So when asked at a party, What do you do? the slashie answers, Im an advertising strategist/guitarist/startup co-founder, rather than what she perceives as the less intriguing but more straightforward, I work in advertising. Shes also giving the questioner additional conversational leads to latch onto, in a hope that shell be able to talk about something other than what she does for workand thus, shortcutting her way to being perceived as a more interesting, multifaceted individual.

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Millennials, as we have seen, want to define their own identities: to select and control how they are perceived. As this generation has matured and begun careers, they have applied to their professional descriptions the same meticulous self-curation they perfected on their Instagram accountscarefully crafting a more idealized, outward-facing identity in an attempt to appear cooler, more fun, more creatively-driven.

But on a more macro level, this behavior is just as indicative of millennials life stage as it is of their generational values. As they leave college and move through their twenties, young people today enter into an uncertain job market, where they encounter seemingly insurmountable roadblocks that challenge their aspirations. They discover quickly upon beginning their professional lives that many entry-level jobsparticularly those in creative fieldsare harder to come by than they were led to believe they would be. Many are reluctant to define themselves by the job for which theyve had to settleoften their second, third, or fifteenth choice. The dream job has increasingly become just that for many young professionals: a dream.

Even for the millennials who do love their jobs, as many do, their generational values of individuality, innovation, and risk-taking can often be at odds with their steady, safe nine-to-fives. Their parents and grandparents values of reliability and loyalty bred a culture of lifelong careers at a single company where one gradually worked ones way up the corporate ladder. This approach is no longer as appealing to the younger generation. Millennials are inclined instead to hop around, both to fast track their ascent and to taste-test different companies and roles in search of the perfect one, whether it exists or not.

In marketing to this millennial demographic, it is important to recognize why the slashie trend has arisen and what it means for brand communications:

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1. Millennials (to generalize, admittedly) do not want to be spoken to as one-dimensional archetypes of specific jobs or familial roles. Stereotypes, particularly, are an immediate bete noire: the overused trope of the eager house mom and the tired working father ring false and feel outdated at best and at worst are offensive to a generation of ambitious, working women and fathers willingly assuming domestic roles.

2. When targeting professionals within the millennial age range, think of them as more than just the positions they hold. That means, consider what their behaviors and concerns are out of habitat (non-work) as much as you do their behaviors and concerns in-habitat (at work). Keep in mind that work is not necessarily their only, if even their primary, interest.

3. Empower them. Celebrate them for their side gigs, elevate their hobbies, and arm them with the tools to make their aspirations a reality. Slashies are choosing to use their free time to invent, to create, and to learnand that deserves recognition.

Understanding the way millennials view themselves, and in turn, speaking to them as complex adults with an array of interests and aspirations will allow for the building of more meaningful connections and deeper brand affinity.
With massive corporations dominating the market, thousands of retailers clamoring for attention, and a less than favorable economy to contend with, being an independent retailer can feel like being a little fish in a big pond. When we founded Rebel Nell, we learned very quickly that the list of challenges can be long. There are no sick days, no vacation days, and no applause when you show up rain-or-shine.

However, the challenges are counterbalanced by great payoff. By focusing on what we have to offer the community, I've come to realize that small business is big business. The success of an independent retailer has huge benefits. Every dollar spent at an independent retailer circulates 6 to 15 times before it leaves the community, generating $5-14 in value, according to the South Dakota Rural Enterprise, Inc (via IndieRetailerMonth.com). When you shop at locally-owned businesses, that money will stay in the community 3 times longer, creating a multiplier effect. Shopping with an independent retailer supports local traders and suppliers they depend on to run their businesses. Detroit has a bustling independent retailer scene with local gems like Peacock Room, City Bird, and Artisan's Bench, who have proved to be pillars of the Detroit community.

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A post shared by Rebel Nell (@rebelnell) on Jul 19, 2016 at 9:28am PDT

This July as we celebrate the 6th annual Independent Retailer Month, I've taken some time to reflect on the important lessons every independent retailer should know:

Know What You Stand For

Before Rebel Nell began, I had a goal to help the disadvantaged women living in Detroit shelters get out of their current living situation and back on their feet. Today, our brand has grown into a movement that's empowering women and helping them find their voice. Knowing that you're creating a product and serving a purpose that you and your employees can be proud of is key. When the challenges come--and they will--knowing your brand and what you stand for will keep you going.

Embrace and Encourage Evolution

If you're doing it right, your brand is going to grow. I've watched as our goals, jewelry, and the women who make our work possible have evolved and changed. Recognizing and rolling with this change has been vital to our success. Recently, we carved out some time to regroup and re-brand with Gyro Creative Group. Like a yoga retreat for our brand, this breathed fresh life and clear vision into Rebel Nell. If you can't remember the last time you considered how your business and its story have evolved, it is time to hit the pause button, reset, and embrace your brand's evolution.

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Make Yourself Heard

One of the biggest challenges for an independent retailer is finding a way to stand out in the crowd. There's so much noise and clutter from competitive brands that it's easy to get drowned out or overlooked. When you don't have a big marketing budget, the key is using what you've got to get what you want. One of the most effective low-cost marketing tools is right at our fingertips: social media. Not only is it affordable and accessible, it breaks down the barrier between you and your customers. At Rebel Nell, we take the people-centered approach of our brand into our marketing as well. Recently, we launched a digital campaign called #IAmRebelNell, where we ask our customers to post a photo on social media captioning why they are a Rebel Nell, and what they're doing to make their lives and the lives of others feel more empowered.

A post shared by Rebel Nell (@rebelnell) on Jun 8, 2016 at 9:23am PDT

Recognize the People Who Count

Rebel Nell wouldn't exist without the women behind it. No brand, big or small, functions without the employees who keep it running or the customers who support it. At Rebel Nell, I've made it a point to give these people my ear and value their input. When our customers talk, we listen. Every year, we poll our designers to give them a voice in how our business works. Always remember to appreciate and acknowledge the people that have allowed you to bring your dream into reality.

Play Your Role

If I could change anything about the way we ran our business in the early stages, I'd hire an accountant much sooner. Like a lot of business owners, I was reluctant to delegate, but you're better off handing certain responsibilities to a pro so you can free your mind to focus on the things that made you start your business in the first place. It may seem like a hassle to have to walk employees through their mistakes, but for the sake of their growth and your own sanity, learn to trust the people you employ.

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Before defaulting to a big-box retailer, I urge you to visit your local boutiques. Remember, your dollar goes a long way to support the community where you work and raise your family. In Rebel Nell's case, every dollar is directly supporting our programs that help our designers take the necessary steps to becoming financially independent. Even if that means just getting their driver's license renewed, or paying for the children to go to summer camp.

Sure, big-box retailers make a larger footprint in the global economy, but we should celebrate the deep impact that we independent retailers have in the local community. Let's celebrate not just this month but every month, the work we do and the difference we make every day.
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 19: Delegates hold signs in support of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during roll call on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Be afraid. That was the clear message of the GOP nominating convention this week. Far from Reagan's morning in America, we're now living in night of the Purge. And GOP nominee Donald Trump, giving the longest acceptance speech in history, focused on the need for more "law and order." In his world, dangerous immigrants are waiting around every corner.

There are of course real dangers in the world, but are we worried about the right things? Yes and no. We're worried about a very many things these days. Gallup polls show that half of Americans say they are "very" or "somewhat" worried that "you or someone in your family will become a victim of terrorism." But at the same time, Gallup says, 64% of us are worried a "great deal" or "fair amount" about global warming.

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But if you listened to this week's convention, we should only focus on terrorism, immigration, and home invasions. This general level of fear has seeped into the mainstream. A couple of days ago, a DJ on the popular New York radio station WPLJ (95.5) said that it seems anyone can get shot at any time. That's technically true, but random shootings are incredibly rare. Yes, it could happen to anyone, but you could also get hit by lightning, win the lottery, or die in a commercial plane crash (yes, I can get nervous when a plane bounces around...but I know it's irrational since the drive to the airport was much more dangerous).

There are well-documented reasons that we humans are fearful of the wrong things (from an odds perspective). One of the best known of the cognitive biases is something called the "availability heuristic." We reach into our brains to find readily available examples, and we consider those much more common than they are. So when the news covers basically every plane crash and every mass shooting in the world, we can easily picture how we'd be next.

Politicians have taken advantage of this natural bias forever. They give us vivid personal examples of a situation, even if they demonstrate a rare phenomenon. Presidents always bring citizens with compelling stories to their state of the union speeches. Look at that single mom over there that started a successful business because of my policies. Trump is no slouch on this front. Taking advantage of our biases, last night he talked the tragic story of a young woman killed by an illegal immigrant. He just left out the part about it not a violent crime, but a drunk driving accident.

But let's go back to our general fear of terrorism. It's a classic case of innumeracy - the lack of numbers sense where small, but emotionally vivid examples, well, trump reality. That Gallup poll is amazing - for 50% of us to think that terrorism will personally touch our families is truly bizarre.

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The number of people killed by violent jihadists in the US since 2001 is roughly 100. But let's triple that if we think it's too low. Those 300 are roughly 0.0001% of more than 300 million Americans. But we are really not good with numbers so we inflate the scary extremes in our minds.

Of course terrorism and national security have some unique aspects as risks go. The risks can jump quickly if, say, unstable people get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction. That's also a remote possibility, but it is possible. So obviously we do have to be very vigilant.

But if we go off of emotions only, and not include numbers and risk, we will pursue bad policies and ignore other massive and much more likely risks. I'm no security expert, so perhaps my whole view on this is moot. But how about listening to General Colin Powell on the topic? A few months ago, I spoke at an energy conference that Powell keynoted as well. He spoke clearly about not "overreacting" to threats. A few hundred people have died from terrorism in 15 years, Powell said, while 30,000 people die annually from gun violence.

But clear-eyed, balanced voices seem to be on the wane, and fear is of course a powerful motivator. When you're afraid, the higher functions of your brain take a back seat turn off and you don't think rationally. That's good on some level if you need to fight a saber-tooth tiger by charging it against all reason. It sucks when electing a leader of the free world.

We need our leaders to focus on all the big and real that can impact many, many more people, such as: the economic repercussions from Brexit; tens of millions of refugees moving around the world; deep changes in technology that could eliminate millions of jobs; lack of water in many regions; and of course the existential threat of our time, climate change.

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What are your odds of being impacted by climate change? Since it's already happening, how about 100%? Of course the impacts any individual faces can be hard to see clearly. When we pay higher prices for food as droughts affect agriculture, do we know it's climate change hitting our wallets? When diseases like malaria and Zika move north, do we register that it's a warming planet that make mosquitoes more comfortable where we live? When extreme weather swamps a coastline or riverbanks overflow into a town, destroying homes, does that register as a climate issue? Or do we shrug and say it's an "act of God."

Or, more to the point of the Trump fear tour, do we see how climate change has helped destabilize regions, leading to refugee crises and, yes, terrorism? The National Academy of Sciences, among others, has linked the Syrian unrest directly to drought and climate change. And the Pentagon has repeatedly tied climate change to national security.

But even without that "law and order" reason to worry, the impacts of a dangerously shifting climate are orders of magnitude more likely than a terrorist attack or random home invasion. I know we're fighting our lizard brains to get a handle on that reality, but we have to.

Oh, and by the way, building a cleaner economy is not only a risk-reduction strategy. It brings prosperity, resilience, and a healthier and safer world. The pursuit of a low-carbon world creates jobs in vast quantities also.

I've heard so little optimism this week. I only hope we can choose leaders who understand all the threats - and grasp the vast opportunities - that sit in front of us.
Some time ago, I wrote about Lamar Smith (R-Texas and chairman of the House Science Committee) and his efforts to intimidate climate scientists. In that post, I noted that Smith had issued:

...a Congressional subpoena--the King Kong of information requests--for all emails and correspondence between the paper's authors and NOAA officials. You might say that as taxpayers we have a right to see everything that government employees and government-funded scientists write to each other...but when the only correspondence that is sought is that concerning a scientific finding that pisses off a politician, society's collective you-know-what detector really ought to go off.

I'm happy to report that neither the paper's authors nor NOAA complied with the subpoena, the issuance of which was met with severe criticism from the scientific community, including a fierce letter from the American Meteorological Society.

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I'm sorry to say, though, that Rep. Smith has not given up. But now he's turned his attention from government scientists to a non-profit advocacy group, in this case, the Union of Concerned Scientists. UCS has been around since 1969, when a group of scientists got together to make the case that scientific research should be focused on solving environmental and social problems, not developing new military technologies. And climate change is among those problems. As explained on its blog, "UCS has been working for years, publicly, to expose activities by the fossil fuel industry and their allies that undermine climate science, mislead the public, and shield oil companies from accountability."

Wielding the same weapon he wielded against climate scientists, Rep. Smith recently issued a subpoena to UCS. In an op-ed published recently in The New York Times, UCS president Ken Kimmel explained:

The subpoena orders me to hand over correspondence between my staff members and state attorneys general, and between my staff members and environmental organizations and funders.

Why go after UCS? The background to Rep. Smith's demand is that UCS has been uncovering evidence that scientists at ExxonMobil had informed company executives decades ago that the combustion of fossil fuels was contributing to global warning and posed a significant danger. Despite these warnings, ExxonMobil was apparently contributing to misinformation campaigns denying the reality of global warming and, even more significantly from a legal point of view, failing to warn their investors that the company's main product was causing serious real-world problems. State attorneys general in New York and Massachusetts are now investigating these claims (and have received subpoenas of their own from Rep. Smith's committee).

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In an interpretation of the First Amendment that gives new meaning to the term "Orwellian," Rep. Smith says that suggesting that Exxon Mobil might have been lying to the public and its shareholders is an attack on the corporation's right to free speech. Meanwhile, apparently, UCS has no free speech right to share its evidence with state attorneys general. This makes my head hurt.
Boy (9yrs) about to eat white sugar from a spoon

For a while now, I've been thinking about how terms like "white privilege," "inclusion" and "unconscious bias" all sound just... too nice. Don't they seem a little on the pleasant side for words used to address a system of racist oppression? It reminds me of how, in Minnesota in January, the meteorologists will say it's going to be a "cool evening" as they stand in front of a map showing temperatures that will literally freeze your nostrils together when you take a breath.

Something's definitely up.

I'm reminded of how, in the novel 1984, the creepy futuristic government acts as if it's "Opposite Day" all the time, using the Ministries of Love, Peace, Plenty and Truth to handle fear, war, rationing, and propaganda. The deliberate distortion of words is called doublespeak and we actually see it frequently in real-life politics (for example, the Clear Skies Act makes it easier to pollute the air and "enhanced interrogation" means old-fashioned torture). Words are powerful.

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The language we use to talk about racism is obviously distorted, a big clue that something is being hidden. It's pretty easy to pinpoint the source: most White people can't handle talking about racism. We flail. We don't understand the subject, we get really uncomfortable, and we either clam up because we don't want to say the wrong thing, or we bust out the whitesplaining (FYI, this is a best-case scenario. It can be much worse).

To mitigate our shortcomings, we surround ourselves with comforting words. Words that feel neutral. Words that don't point fingers (at us). Words that center Whiteness, while erasing the harshness of discrimination and segregation. We reject words that we feel are too direct, that might reveal complicity on our part.

Let's be clear that these linguistic gymnastics are only fooling White people. People of color have been aware that corporate pushes for "diversity" are often flimsy CYA efforts to mask sustained homogeneity, and "inclusion" is often code for tokenism. Scholars of color have been writing about the nuances of privilege and oppression for a long, long time while watching White people invent different ways to either wriggle out of, dominate, or shut down the conversation. These same scholars have also been watching White writers and educators whisper the same exact thing they've been shouting, and magically draw a crowd.

I am writing this piece with the understanding that some White people will be more likely to listen to me because I am White. This is part of the underlying problem of White Fragility. White Fragility is the thing that restricts our knowledge, shuts down conversations before they start, and invites us to lie to ourselves. I'll get into it more in the next section.

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Finally, while I do want to nerd out a little dissecting some of the words we use, this piece is not about proposing new language. Our language is just a symptom. The underlying White Fragility is the problem we need to fix.

White Fragility: Living in a Bubble and Also Being in Everyone's Business

Dr. Robin DiAngelo, a White critical racial and social justice educator who created the term "White Fragility," breaks it down like this:

White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.

Here is a list of things that cause White people racial stress, and why:

As an illustration of the above, let's look at Donald Trump. Trump is known for speaking in vague generalities and declaring simplistic solutions for complex problems. He avoids policy and fact-based conversations, and gets angry and disgusted at the drop of a hat. Now imagine that when it comes to conversations on race, White people in America act a lot like Donald Trump. We generally lack knowledge, but we always have an opinion. We lack the skill set for nuanced conversations, so we pretend they aren't necessary. When we can't avoid, we deflect, or we get upset. We're thin-skinned.

There are a lot of reasons White people have such a low threshold for discomfort. For one, we tend to lead segregated lives, and we think of ourselves as individuals as opposed to members of a group. We receive constant messages that Whiteness is valuable, and we're used to feeling a sense of belonging in most spaces. All of this leads to a huge sense of entitlement to being not only comfortable, but correct, at all times. And even once we get exposed to the existence of these dynamics, we are often at a loss as to how to talk about it. We do everything to avoid talking about race in any real way, including saying nonsense like "Mohammad Ali transcended race" when we really mean "was retroactively deemed safe by fragile white people."

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Linguistic Tricks to Outsmart Racial Stress Triggers

Terms like "inclusion" and "white privilege" are designed to sneak past the racial stress triggers of White Fragility. They center Whiteness in a way that makes White people comfortable, while deflecting from the stressful realities of the racist harm that Whiteness causes. Imagine how many racial stress trigger alarm bells would go off if we were using words like "discrimination awareness" and "white undeserved advantages" instead.

Our overly-pleasant terms are the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down. When you're sick, do you still need a spoonful of sugar? Probably not, because you understand how medicine works. You'll expect some bitterness, and be fine with it, because you want to get better.

The person who needs a spoonful of sugar doesn't even know they need it. They have not developed an understanding of why they feel bad or what will fix it. If the medicine doesn't taste good, they'll spit it out. They'll wonder, "why are you punishing me with this terrible tasting thing?" And then the next time, you better be really slick with the sugar, because if they suspect you're trying to hide bitterness, even if they really, really want to feel better, they'll clamp their teeth shut. Once they're on to you, oops, it's time to be more creative.

I'm going to run through a few terms and briefly outline some thoughts on the relative "sweetness" of the terminology, and the degree to which White audiences have caught on to the sleight of hand. While I might throw out some examples of alternate terms for the purpose of contrast, I'm not seriously trying to propose new terms here. White Fragility has to shift before the language can shift. To start effecting that shift, we can think more critically about what words we're using now, and why.

Diversity

The word "diversity" is really common when people are talking about hiring. It started out as a neutral word meaning "variety" that's supposed to describe a group, but somewhere along the way people started referring to individual people as "diverse", like "we're looking for a diverse candidate for this role." So "diverse" is now code for "person of color" or "woman." It's been really distorted and linked to a destructive binary related to ability: "diversity" is associated with "lowering the bar." So "diverse = person of color/woman = low ability" and "not diverse = White man = high ability."

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This word is really a mess. Ava Duvernay was just talking about how much she hates it because it's a "medicinal word with no emotional resonance." It's interesting that she uses the word "medicinal" because this word has been around long enough that there's not enough sweetness to fool anybody anymore.

White supremacy

It has bothered me for years that linguistically, white supremacy sounds kind of great. Almost holy. It would sound more appropriately scary if it were called something actively negative, like "White domination" or "White oppressorship." Once again, imagine the White stress level skyrocketing.

Some disambiguation is necessary with this term. "White supremacy" is a system that prioritizes whiteness regardless of the presence or absence of racial hatred, but a "white supremacist" is a person who embraces overt racial hatred. It's like a spectrum. By default, all White people are on the spectrum of complicity in upholding a system of White supremacy, but we only give the negative label of "White supremacists" to the really hateful people at the far end. This allows the rest of us to say "we're not them."

White privilege

White privilege is a term popularized by Peggy McIntosh, a White women's studies professor at Wellesley in the late 1980s. While "white privilege" is the term that stuck, many scholars and feminists of color - bell hooks, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins - had been discussing the same ideas, particularly in the context of intersectionality. The discussion also goes back to Sojourner Truth and Anna Julia Cooper, who were discussing racism and sexism as two separate kinds of oppression in the late 1800s. When we ask ourselves why "white privilege" was so catchy among White people, it's pretty obvious. As Ta-Nehisi Coates said in a recent interview, it's "a word that we have created to make white people comfortable."

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Hua Hsu, Vassar College professor of English, has a great way of describing this: "Like the robot in a movie slowly discovering that it is, indeed, a robot, it feels as though we are living in the moment when white people, on a generational scale, have become self-aware." The term "white privilege" is an extremely gentle way of easing White people into awareness. The use of the word "privilege" conjures up images of wealth, something Americans typically associate with merit. As I mentioned earlier, the term easily could have been something like "White undeserved advantages" but that would only serve to shut down conversation if the listener is a fragile White person.

Inclusion

As attorney, educator, and nationally recognized expert Verna Meyers says, "diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance." So "diversity" is the hiring part, and "inclusion" is the "making sure your employees don't find themselves in a hostile environment and leave" part (companies are now pairing "inclusion" with "diversity" and calling it "D&I"). The thing that bugs me about "inclusion" is that it sounds like a neutral word but it's not. It begs the question: "Who is including who? Who does this space belong to?" It sounds like an act of welcoming instead of everyone being on equal footing. And I guess that is what's happening: predominantly White spaces are trying to be more welcoming, without having to relinquish White ownership of the space. "Inclusion" sounds a lot like a cousin of "All Lives Matter."

Unconscious or implicit bias

"Unconscious bias" and "implicit bias" trainings are very popular now, and it's easy to see why. When we frame the problem as one where White people are participating in a system of oppression unconsciously, without malice, it absolves all blame and affirms a state of racial innocence: "We're not bad people, we're just powerfully-socialized good people." Articles and podcasts around the invisible psychological forces that shape our behavior are all the rage, so it makes sense that this term speaks to us in a really sweetened-up way. "Unconscious bias" says "you are good. It is not the conscious part of you that is to blame."

White Fragility

"White Fragility" is the newest of these terms, and I chose to frame this piece around it because while it's new and flashy, it's not so sweet. It positions whiteness as weak and lacking instead of "privileged" or "supreme" while acknowledging the damage and violence this "fragility" has the power to cause.

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To explain why she came up with this new term, Dr. DiAngelo said:

I think we get tired of certain terms. What I do used to be called "diversity training," then "cultural competency" and now, "anti-racism." These terms are really useful for periods of time, but then they get coopted, and people build all this baggage around them, and you have to come up with new terms or else people won't engage. And I think "white privilege" has reached that point. It rocked my world when I first really got it, when I came across Peggy McIntosh. It's a really powerful start for people. But unfortunately it's been played so much now that it turns people off.

This so perfectly describes the "we see the medicine coming, so the sweetness loses its power" phenomenon. But while I think the term "White Fragility" is less sweet than some of the former terms, I'm not letting it off the hook. It is still a term invented by a White person for other White people, and it has quite a hefty dose of innocence built into it. What things are fragile? Newborn babies, fine china, snowflakes. Fragile things are usually valuable, and they need protection. Here we go again.

The good thing about the word "fragility" is that it pisses people off to be called "fragile" instead of "strong" or "resilient." It pokes at insecurity, revealing something that has real destructive power to be built on a house of cards. As we've seen with the concept of "fragile masculinity," the act of calling out something as weak can put some serious cracks in the foundation and lead to productive conversations.

The Lie at the Root of White Fragility

Imagine that people of color start learning about race and racism from childhood, and go on to earn the equivalent of advanced degrees in the subject just to get through everyday life. But most White people are given a pat on the head in 2nd grade, a fake diploma, and told we can skip all the other classes, because this subject doesn't really apply to us. What's written on our diploma? "Racists are bad people. But you are good."

The "diploma" language is important because our brains just love a nice crisp binary. There's something so satisfying and certain about good/bad, right/wrong, up/down.

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When I was talking about White supremacy earlier, I mentioned that we can think about our participation as part of a spectrum. This can be very uncomfortable. When you're on a spectrum, there's always some ambiguity. A spectrum forces you to deal with the ways in which you are participating in a racist system. It doesn't let you just opt out. But a binary lets you! A binary says, "Don't worry about it, you are a Good Person. Nothing bad is associated with you, definitely not racism. End of conversation!" No wonder we love binaries so much.

When we learn that "racists are bad people", we automatically put ourselves into the opposite category: non-racists who are well-meaning, good people. Here's how it organizes our world view:

This good/bad binary is designed to prevent conversations. It keeps us focused on racism as an individual problem that "bad" people have, as opposed to a system of social control that implicates us. And it sets in place a hair trigger by which we experience any challenge to our racial worldview as a challenge to very our identities as good, moral people. Our lizard brains cannot handle contradictions to our goodness as people.

Because these racist things don't rise to the level of overt malice, they don't trigger the good/bad binary. We can fall back on "good intentions" or "well-meaning" and presto: we've killed all potential for productive conversations about racism, and we've given ourselves permission to keep doing and saying a wide range of racist things without feeling bad about it.

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Dr. DiAngelo asserts that "the most effective adaptation of racism over time is the idea that racism is conscious bias held by mean people." Key word here is "adaptation." Racism today doesn't look the way it did in 1865, 1965, or 2000. It stays alive by shape-shifting over time, and the good/bad binary is just part of its insidious current form. The only way forward is to step outside of it.

If the occasional college workshop or workplace diversity training were enough to address all the insidious ways racism persists, white supremacy would already be over. And it's not. As Assata Shakur said, "No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them."

To that, I would like to add "the education White people need will make us uncomfortable." Our choices are to stick with the binary, or to leave it behind and pursue knowledge that will challenge our worldview and bring discomfort. We have to build up our ability to feel uncomfortable without allowing the Chicken Little of our self-identity to squawk that the sky is falling.

We're a long way away from that right now. The words we use to talk about race are very revealing of our investment in our own comfort, even when we're trying to learn and to do better.

We Already Have Everything We Need

We've had all the basic ideas we've needed to understand racism for a long time. The only reason to pay attention to the packaging is to observe that it's pointing to the real problem: the idea that we as White people are entitled to be lazy. We expect to be served knowledge about race and racism in palatable doses. We expect to rest in our fragility.

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The solution: Put in work. We are not newborn babies or fancy teacups. We have the ability to actively seek knowledge and understanding.

As Verna Meyers says, "not enough White people have done their work":

After all the resources spent and goodwill extended, many white people, in exasperation, ask me why we haven't gotten further in racial understanding or increasing the diversity in our workplaces and lives. Sometimes, they don't like my response. I tell them what I have come to believe. Not enough white people have done their work: the work of seeing the barriers to true meritocracy, the work of putting themselves in the shoes of black people to learn more about their experiences and perceptions, the work of understanding how being white has shaped their worldview and self-perceptions, and the work of gaining the skills of deciphering and managing cross-racial and cultural dynamics. That's a lot of work, but without it you cannot create fundamental change in your sphere of influence.

She leaves us with this: "Stop trying to be good people. And start trying to be real people."
Flags of the Turkey and the European Union. Turkey Flag and EU Flag. World flag concept.

The failure of the recent coup d'etat in Turkey will transform the country in ways that present significant opportunities and challenges to neighboring Greece. Responding to them requires first a clear understanding of the new Turkey that is emerging.

Without any doubt, seeing a putsch defeated by people in the streets and military forces loyal to the concept of civilian control is a welcome outcome. However, the scope and depth of President Erdogan's reaction has been breathtaking: thousands of military officers, educators and civil servants have been summarily arrested or fired. A three month state of emergency means the suspension of basic human rights while the death penalty may be re-imposed. The wrath of the victors is such that there have been reports that deceased coup participants have even been denied Islamic burial rites.

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The conclusion is inescapable: Turkey will become more autocratic and less secular, the paradigmatic example of an Islamic illiberal democracy; and it will remain a deeply divided society. As a result, the country's soft power and international image will take a beating. Turkey's regional allure based on a model of economic success and political liberalization within a framework of supposedly mild Islam is no longer tenable. Tourism and possibly Foreign Direct Investing will suffer. Furthermore, Turkey's chances of European Union accession, already slim, are effectively finished. European leaders may find the charade that one day they might be welcoming Turkey as an equal member useful. But Brexit, the immigration crisis and the rise of Erdogan's authoritarianism mean that it is far likelier that the EU will first meet its demise before Turkey joins in.

At the same time, Turkey's relations with the United States might become strained. Demands for the extradition of the cleric Fethullah Gulen's and wild statements implying that America might have been complicit in the coup will certainly not be conducive to stellar bilateral relations. Also, Turkey's role in NATO will be somewhat downgraded. For example, some experts have already began to question the wisdom of keeping NATO nuclear weapons in Incirlik base. However, there is no denying that Turkey possesses one of the largest NATO militaries, a key geographic position and is indispensable in certain issues, such as combating ISIS.

The failure of the coup d'etat also means that there will be no rapprochement between Cairo and Ankara. A different outcome would have paved the way for an understanding among the two countries military leaders. This will now not be the case. In addition, relations with Israel will probably not accelerate or deepen. Simply put, it is doubtful that Israel will truly trust Turkey so long as Erdogan is in charge; and for those prone to conspiracy theories, it is worth noting that Jerusalem's timing to normalize relations with Ankara was not opportune, since post-coup much better terms could have been exacted from a weakened Turkey. So much for those who instinctively consider that Israel might have somehow been linked to the coup.

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Before turning to how Athens should respond to all these developments, a word of caution to the many Greeks this author has encountered who appear to have supported the coup plotters. First, Greece's history of military rule and coups has been dreadful and hence they ought to know better. Second, according to a Greek official at the highest levels of power, Erdogan's Turkey refused to take advantage of Greece's economic weakness in a specific manner that would have wreaked havoc in the country's banking sector. Most importantly, though, and despite his authoritarian instincts, there has been no significant military episode between Greece and Turkey during Erdogan's tenure. This is not necessarily because of his statesmanlike qualities but probably because he did not want to empower the military (Greek officials suspect that the tension evinced in the Aegean at around Easter 2016 might have been due to semi-autonomous military decisions). But it remains a fact that the most important crises that occurred in 1955, 1963, 1964, 1974, 1976, 1987 and 1996 (the list is long), were perpetrated by Kemalist secular nationalists--not Islamists. Whether this pattern holds in the future remains to be seen, but from a Greek, democratic and national interest perspective, support for the coup is unjustified.

Greece now has a neighbor that is more divided, isolated and weak. The last thing that Athens should do is provide an excuse to Ankara to turn its domestic challenges into a dispute with Greece. There are of course eight coup plotters who have requested from Greece political asylum. The only way to deal with them is to strictly follow a rule of law approach devoid of political interventions, as befits a European country. But Greece must not become a haven for coup plotters and their entering the country should be actively discouraged. Remember, these are not some kind of "freedom fighters" but participants in an effort to subvert democracy that ended up killing scores of innocent civilians.

A new reality is now crystallizing in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece, Cyprus (and Israel) are the last bastions of the West as we understand it. For example, Greece is a member of NATO, the EU, the eurozone, fully respects human rights and holds free democratic elections and referendums on an all too regular basis. In this part of the world, the West ends with Hellenism and Judaism. Turkey is a crucial NATO ally but the country's pro-Western secular (and nationalist) forces have suffered a historic defeat from which they might never recover.

Greece has an opportunity to finally delineate its Exclusive Economic Zone with Egypt, the timing being perfect. Relations with Israel can continue to deepen and solidify. At the same time, the forces of Hellenism have a moral imperative to point out that part of Cyprus is still under Turkish military occupation. This is the same military that just organized a coup. Can it be trusted? Is this situation in accordance with Western norms and principles? Militaries should be in their barracks and as a Cypriot politician recently told his European counterparts, the same should apply to the occupying forces--except that their proper place of residence is in Turkey.

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - China's grand plans to become a high-speed rail power in Southeast Asia is on track as a part of its "One Belt One Road" initiative. Although there are some obstacles, its ambition sounds quite feasible. We could say that its dream of becoming a high-speed rail power could begin in Southeast Asia.

[China's high-speed trains seemingly show the country's efforts to complete the basic blueprint of its One Belt One Road initiative by becoming a high-speed rail power in Asia./ Source: Xinhua News Agency]

Such judgment is not an exaggeration considering the recent movement of the Chinese traffic authorities. Most of all, China Railway Group Limited (CREC), one of China's largest state-owned companies, is making every effort to win the construction of the high-speed rail project signed between Malaysia and Singapore on Tuesday. Considering the July 21st reports of Xinhua News and other state-owned media outlets, it is almost certain that China will win the project. This is because China has been making great efforts for the last three years, and the country is confident it can beat other 98 competitors from several countries including Japan and Korea. In fact, CREC is likely to win the bid, considering the atmosphere on site.

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The recent construction commencement of the 417-kim high-speed railway project which will link China's Yunnan province and the Lao capital of Vientiane is another example that shows that China's ambition to become a high-speed rail power in Southeast Asia is not just a dream. The railway is expected to open after five years. Besides, the China-Thailand railway project that hit a bump recently, is likely to be on track again after being aggressively courted by China. This means that China's high-speed rail network that would stretch more than 3,000 kilometers starting from Yunnan province to Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore is feasible. If this is the case, China could become a high-speed rail power in Southeast Asia, and even complete the basic blueprint of its One Belt One Road initiative. Ultimately, China's railway could be connected to Europe.
New York could have become a more humane state for cats had two bills to ban declawing passed. The bills, introduced in New York's Assembly and Senate, sought to prohibit declawing unless medically necessary to treat injured or diseased paws. It would have made New York the first state to ban this veterinary surgery.

Sadly, veterinary lobbyists blocked the measure in June, ensuring that both bills failed to advance prior to New York legislature's summer adjournment.



Move over New York. New Jersey now hopes to become the first state to ban declawing.

But here's the reality. Declawing involves ten amputations - 20 if the back claws are included. The surgeon guillotines the last bone of each toe and severs each paw's tendons, nerves, and ligaments.

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The mutilation has serious side-effects, including possible hemorrhaging, paw pad lacerations, swelling, radial nerve damage, lameness, infections, the reopening of wounds, chronic pain, and biting and urinating outside the litter box. Yet, many veterinarians bite their tongues when it comes to declawing's dangers.

Thankfully not all. "Declawing fits the dictionary definition of mutilation to a tee. Words such as deform, disfigure, disjoint, and dismember all apply to this surgery," says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, and founder of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine.

He's not alone. Declawing is verboten in nearly 30 countries and eight California cities. It's also opposed by several American veterinary colleges and scores of U.S. veterinarians and animal protection groups.

One group, The Paw Project, founded by veterinarian Jennifer Conrad, educates the public about the painful, crippling effects of declawing and actively works to abolish it. The organization championed the New York anti-declawing bills, along with forty-four other organizations and 133 state veterinarians.

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The bills' opposition came from surprising sources. The New York State Veterinary Medical Society and New York State Association of Veterinary Technicians fought hard against the bills, claiming declawing keeps cats out of shelters. But the facts don't support it. Biting and litter box avoidance--often the results of declawing--are the top reasons cats are surrendered, not claws.

Conrad has her own theory why some veterinary organizations oppose a ban. Declawing is lucrative. Clients can pay up to $900 to declaw both paws. Clinics often include declawing in a packaged deal with spaying/neutering, thus catapulting the price.

But the fight is not over yet. On June 16th, New Jersey Assemblyman Troy Singleton introduced a bill that would add declawing to his state's criminal animal cruelty offenses.

Under Singleton's bill, New Jersey individuals who perform declawing and people who seek it out will face fines up to $1,000 or spend six months in jail. Violators will also face $500 to $2,000 in civil penalties. An identical bill was introduced in the New Jersey senate. Both bills have been referred to their appropriate committees and we anticipate both committees will hold hearings about them in the fall.

Education is key, says the American Association of Feline Practitioners. Scratching is a natural behavior that communicates joy, excitement, or stress. It's also how cats exercise and play. Dozens of alternatives to declawing exist, including nail trimming, scratching posts, claw caps and deterrents. Veterinarians need to discuss humane alternatives with their clients.

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I first saw Dirty Harry when I was like 12 years old while staying with one of my parent's friend from college in Kansas City. I was watching it alone at like midnight and thought I was a real bad ass not only because I was staying up when everyone else was asleep, but also because I was watching one of my first R-rated movies -- strictly forbidden in the Boeding house at my age. I was about 2 feet away from the screen -- I needed the sound on damn near mute to keep people from waking up -- and didn't really capture what I was watching.

In fact, I remember it terrifying me. That's not necessarily the point of the movie, but a psycho murderer running around the city executing civilians via sniper is a very frightening thing for a 12 year old to take on. I'm pretty sure I was also just coming out of the phase where I stopped being scared of Jurassic Park, so Dirty Harry would have been a big leap for me.

With the coming of the month of July also came the addition of Clint Eastwood's influential version of a hard-nosed detective to HBO's movie selection. Thus, I finally got the opportunity to watch the dark crime film that enthralled me as a pre-teen.

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It's the movie that brought you the line,

"I know what you're thinking, punk. 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk"

It's the movie that was one of the first to depict such a sadistically, psychotic killer -- having been based off the real life Zodiac killer. It's the movie that arguably cemented Eastwood as the bad-ass anti hero who wields a pistol with the precision of a surgeon. Probably, most importantly, it's the movie that brought you the blunt, loose cannon cop who takes what appear to be unnecessary risks -- like basically playing Russian Roulette with other people -- that would come to influence the likes of Bruce Willis' John McClane and Mel Gibson's Martin Riggs.

Stay with me, people of my generation. I understand that this movie was made in 1971 and is thus considered...like...really old. Just because it has that distinctive look and feel of the 1970s -- when a fifth Seagrams was apparently 5.69, what a time!!-- does not mean that it doesn't have the same attributes of movies that you see now-a-days or doesn't play well in modern times.

In fact, its the distinct style and look of the film that is one of its most appealing qualities. Taking place in San Francisco, at a time where urban crime was a problem in real life, the film captures a city among dark days. Nevertheless, on any screen, the sprawling shots of the San Francisco city-scape are beautiful and give you a context of how expansive the area that the police are having to comb through to find one man really is. All shot in Technicolor, every bright red of blood or cool blue of the cars or popping yellow of buildings jumps off the screen at you and looks like a picturesque painting of the city and its inhabitants.

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This beauty, however, is in direct contrast to the action taking place on the screen. We are shown staring down the scope of the sniper at the potential victims. Often given extreme close ups not of just the killer, but also of what he is seeing, places us in this subjective point of view that forces us into considering the prospect of how one actually goes through killing someone. When we are in first-person point of view, we feel as if we are in the killers body and wonder what must be going through his mind and body to be going through that as we are being put figuratively into his shoes. It's unnerving and was something that psychologically effects the way you watch the movie.

The killer isn't the only one who is blurring the moral lines, however. Throughout the entire film, there is a conversation being had that is discussing just why they call Homicide Inspector Harry Callahan, "Dirty Harry". At points, it is said that he gained this moniker because he is the only cop that is willing to do what needs to be done. This is the obvious and easy reason -- especially watching it in our age with speculation over cops constantly -- for him to be called "dirty" but we learn that it's not necessarily truly correct

He's "Dirty Harry" because, yes, he's blunt and aggressive. He's unorthodox and toes the line a lot -- basically the whole movie. Yet, he's also dirty because he's the only one willing to do what no one else will step up to do. In times when someone needs to put their life on the line, he's the only one willing to jump down from the safety of the police station and get his hands in the dirt to catch the bad guy.

This balance is what influenced movies to come and gave Dirty Harry its legacy. Before, there were detectives who played hard ball and couldn't necessarily be considered "straight cops". But there were rarely, if ever, cop characters who toed the line so effectively between being brash and unhinged, while remaining true to the focus of the case. Hard-boiled detectives of old would play dirty, but they were often self-serving and in the end would choose themselves over others. Harry, on the other hand, may be dirty, but he's dirty because he's there to protect people. If no one else is going to do what it takes to help the people of his city, then he will.

Within the first couple of scenes of Dirty Harry your not entirely sure if the film is going to have the same pitfalls as films like Breakfast at Tiffanys, where there is a contextual racism that was looked over at the time. But then you realize that Harry doesn't care about people's background, race, ethnicity, etc. and at one point they even verbally mention this as one of his co-workers says that it doesn't matter because he "doesn't play favorites. Harry hates everybody". This narrative fits well in our modern society where everyone is vying for equality. While they may say its out of hatred, everyone is still equal in Harry's eyes and he's going to protect you all the same. His job is to get things done and to protect the city, not make judgements about people.

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And there is no doubt that Harry is the kind of cop that gets shit done. It's this mentality and his overall depth that played into the roles of a character like John McClane who is the only one willing to go into the Nakatomi building and definitely cross the line to save the lives of many. Eastwood took detectives to a whole other level that changed how people looked at cops and how cops were played. Harry is the kind of detective we would all imagine ourselves as, except, he's the one who actually does the things we just picture in our heads.

Not surprisingly, I didn't grasp any of this until I watched it far after my first viewing. Which is why it's great that it's available for us once again on a platform that is easily accessible and popular. Make your day.

For more articles of mine follow https://medium.com/@benboeding
US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas speaks on the third day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 20, 2016. / AFP / Timothy A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

The media pundits are all atwitter about the impact and consequences of Senator Ted Cruz's vague, noncommittal speech at last night's GOP convention in Cleveland.

And they should be. It was significant.

Not for the political future of Donald Trump in his quixotic and highly contested journey for the American presidency, no not at all. Cruz will have zero effect on that.

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But most importantly, Cruz's speech will significantly impact only one politician's quest for political success: Ted Cruz's.

Cruz, the Tea Party darling who rose to Conservative Republican prominence circa 2012, faced a brutal political journey to be sure, but a bright one as a leading Conservative senator and possible future President.

That's all gone now.

One 23-minute speech and his future was self-immolated, trashed, thoroughly destroyed, FUBAR.

If one wanted to retire from politics in a flaming ball of hotly contested moral degradation, one could not have selected a better speech or startling breech of character to do so.

Cruz signed a pledge that he would support the eventual Republican nominee, as did all the other candidates, that was specially designed, to prevent Donald Trump from running as a third-party candidate when he lost the Republican race. It was an insidious political strategy to counteract and work against Trump.

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And unsurprisingly, it failed as most Republican "strategies" do. Trump beat them at their own, rigged game.

Political strategists are roundly questioning Donald Trump's decision to let Cruz go up onstage and try to show up Trump in his moment; to try and undermine Trump at his righteous coronation.

We now understand that Trump saw the speech a couple of hours in advance and also knew with a certain degree of certainty that Cruz was not going to endorse him but let him go on anyway. This was not an oversight.

Cruz thought he was taking advantage of Trump's magnanimousness; that Trump was making a stupid error allowing Cruz to publicly crucify Trump. But Trump had an ace-in-the-hole: he knew that his wildly vociferous supporters would boo Cruz off the stage, and worse.

His people then rose to the occasion, unprompted and without bridling.

So this is the crafty mind of Donald Trump that not only opened the door for Cruz to absolutely hang himself, but to provide the most comfortable environment for him to explode himself and his political career with a suicide vest Trump measured him for brilliantly.

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Cruz's queen was taken and his king surrounded as Trump simply watched and waited. The 'Trump Train' faithful quickly caught on, surmising that Cruz was going to do a little tap-dance around any possible Trump endorsement and thereby sealing his "Boos Cruz" departure. Cruz and his wife departed the convention center hurriedly and to a chorus of epithets.

Trump is amazing in how he dispatches competitors and any threats to his candidacy, He never gives up and always wins. Hillary Clinton will have her hands full.

Cruz meanwhile, is navigating a well-deserved sea of hostility this morning and not looking as if he can hold up. I think he's done.

It was said Cruz was priming himself to do what Reagan did in 1976 when he lost the nomination, but was invited up on stage by nominee, incumbent Gerald Ford, and gave to thunderous applause a short speech, conceding to, and complimenting the victor, Ford.

Had Cruz done that, simply acted like a good sport, a strong man elegant in defeat, he would've had a chance for a strong future run at the US presidency. But he just couldn't.

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Instead, Cruz acted like a petulant child, devoid of sportsmanship, snidely exhorting voters to "vote your conscience" and completely blew away any support he might've had coming.

Not only is he out as a future president, but I would say his Senate seat in 2018 is now in severe jeopardy. I cannot imagine any voters getting excited about or behind a man who doesn't live up to a solemn, public pledge during a Presidential debate.
'Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.'

Photo on Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) report compiled by the U.K.-based New Economics Foundation has been announced for 2016 with Costa Rica coming out on top and Vietnam named the fifth happiest country in the world.

Vietnam is officially the happiest country in Asia, with the rest of the top five made up of Mexico, Colombia and Vanuatu.

The HPI focuses on the four elements that contribute to a happy life in 140 countries: wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality of outcomes and ecological footprint.

Vietnam scored 40.3 on the HPI, falling into a group of countries with a score of 37.7 to 40.6 in the third band from the top down. Only Costa Rica with 44.7 fell into the top category with a score of over 44.6.

The element that contributed the most to Vietnams position was life expectancy, in which Vietnam registered an impressive average of 75.5 years.

The country's ecological footprint, which measures each residents impact on the environment, was 1.7 global hectares per capita. Vietnam was also one of only three countries with a score low enough to be considered environmentally sustainable.

Although falling back in the inequality of outcomes category, Vietnams score was still better than Costa Rica's due to robust provision of public services and increased quantity and quality of education facilities.

Related news:

> Vietnamese confirmed as world's oldest woman dead at 123
If you just beamed onto planet earth, you probably were shocked to learn that New Yorker Donald Trump, a celebrity entrepreneur, is the Republican presidential nominee. Here's what you need to know about him.

Trump is an ultra-nationalist. To a degree not seen since GOP candidate Barry Goldwater, Trump touts nationalism. One of his campaign themes is "America First," last used by isolationists in the run-up to WWII.

Trump's nationalism has five parts. First, he lauds the military and claims Obama has weakened it -- he hasn't; Trump plans to spend an unspecified amount to strengthen it. Second, Trump claims that Obama and Hillary Clinton have humiliated America -- he touts Benghazi as one example of this. Third, Trump preaches a form of economic isolationism, where the US would leave trade partnerships such as NAFTA, and impose tariffs on goods made in China and Mexico. (Trump has also mused about leaving defense partnerships, such as NATO).

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Fourth, Trump is against immigration. He plans "to build a great, great wall on our southern border" and "have Mexico pay for the wall." Further, Trump has called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Fifth, coupled with his anti-immigration stance, Trump has flirted with overt racism. He's routinely re-tweeted tweets of white supremacists and suggested that President Obama has Muslim sympathies.

Another of Trump's campaign themes is "Law and Order;" resurrected from Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. Trump acknowledged this connection: "I think what Nixon understood is that when the world is falling apart, people want a strong leader whose highest priority is protecting America first. The '60s were bad, really bad. And it's really bad now. Americans feel like it's chaos again." "I am the Law and Order candidate."

Trump is an independent running as a Republican. For the GOP, Trump is the ultimate alien invader. As recently as 2009, Trump was a Democrat. In 2012 he reregistered as a Republican and, beginning in 2015, managed to convince GOP primary voters that he was one of them. Trump accomplished this by campaigning as the ultimate outsider, promising to self-finance his campaign -- a promise that he dropped, once he secured the GOP nomination. Trump has tacitly accepted the social conservative bias of the Republican base -- he was once pro-choice but now, like most Republicans, is pro-life.

Trump has adopted many mainstream GOP policies. He promises to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a "marketplace alternative." He also promises to cut taxes, reduce the Federal deficit, and protect Social Security. (These claims are contradictory.) He promises to "renegotiate" the Iran agreement signed with China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States -- even though this would require agreement with our allies.

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Nonetheless, Trump has not secured the endorsement of many prominent Republicans such as Senator Ted Cruz, Governor John Kasich, and the Bush family.

Trump is a loose cannon. Writing in the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik proclaimed: "Trump is unstable, a liar, narcissistic, contemptuous of the basic norms of political life, and deeply embedded among the most paranoid and irrational of conspiracy theorists."

Trump will say and do anything to win. The non-partisan website, Poltifact, rated him as the least truthful of all the 2016 presidential candidates; more than half of all his statements are false. Almost every news cycle features Trump uttering a blatant falsehood; on the convention's first day he told Fox News that Black Lives Matter of "calling death to the police." His convention speech was dotted with lies: "[Obama] has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color." "[Hillary Clinton] wants to essentially abolish the 2nd amendment." "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world." (More fact checking from the Washington Post.)

It's not only that Trump lies with shocking regularity but also that many of his sources of information are questionable: for example, white supremacist and conspiracy theory websites -- Alternet had counted 58 Trump conspiracy theories.

It's well known in New York business circles that Trump will carry a grudge indefinitely. And when caught in a mistake, Trump will not back down; he will instead change the subject. Famously, he never apologizes.

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Trump is a threat to democracy. It's one thing to be a political outsider; electing an outsider might be good if it meant injecting fresh ideas into US politics.
That Trump Veterans Advisor and New Hampshire state representative Al Baldasaro would today issue a second call (see 22:22 in broadcast) for the execution of presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is hardly a surprise given that he had already called for her execution on Tuesday.

What's surprising is the venue on which Baldasaro made his second call for Clinton to be executed by a firing squad, for alleged treason : a white nationalist radio show that is currently broadcasting from inside the Republican National Convention.

It's a show on which Donald Trump, Jr. appeared last March 1st for an extended interview with hosts Sam Bushman and guest co-host James Edwards (link to Southern Poverty Law Center report on Edwards) who previously the Trump campaign had granted VIP press credentials to broadcast his Political Cesspool radio show from inside a Memphis Trump rally.

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Edwards is a close personal friend and protege of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and calls League of the South founder and president Michael Hill, who has appeared numerous times on Edwards' radio show, "one of my favorite people".

At a recent League of the South meeting Hill issued a call for white Southerners to unite and drive their enemies "into the sea".

This Wednesday, live from inside the RNC in Cleveland, for the third day running, Liberty Roundtable radio has broadcast. Liberty Roundtable is a nationally syndicated far-right white nationalist radio show that goes out via the Liberty Radio News Network.

One of the frequent guests and co-hosts on the Liberty Roundtable, who appeared Tuesday on the show as it was broadcast live from inside the RNC, has been Political Cesspool radio show host James Edwards, whose radio show is one of three shows broadcast on the Liberty Radio News Network run by Liberty Roundtable host Sam Bushman.

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In a November 2015 post at the Liberty Roundtable website, Edwards described a vast conspiracy involving Jews that had "the stated and apparent agenda to reduce not only the influence of White Christians, but also the numbers of White Christians -- via our genocide."

Edwards is arguably one of the rising stars among a new generation of young public relations-savvy white supremacist leaders in America, and his Political Cesspool radio show is, according to the SPLC "tailored for a Southern, neo-Confederate, white nationalist audience".

In 2008, writing for the New Republic, journalist Jamie Kirchick labeled Edwards' Political Cesspool a "neo-Nazi radio show".

The show's mission statement supports the right of secession and includes, "Since family is the foundation of any strong society, we reject abortion, feminism, and homosexuality" and declares,

"America would not be a prosperous land of opportunity if the founding stock were not Europeans. Therefore, we advocate for an America First immigration policy."

Among his leadership roles, James Edwards is one of six directors of the virulently racist American Freedom Party, which in 2016 broadcast in several US states automated robocalls warning citizens of an ongoing "genocide" being perpetrated against white Americans and urging them to vote for Donald Trump.

Edwards is also a board member of the crudely racist Council of Conservative Citizens, whose website material has been widely credited with inspiring Dylann Roof, who is accused of having during the summer of 2015 executed nine members of a Charleston, South Carolina church prayer group.

The regular host of the Liberty Roundtable radio show, which has now broadcast for three successive days from inside the RNC, is Sam Bushman, who has been an active leader in the anti-government sheriffs group The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA).

CSPOA head and founder Richard Mack has been one of Bushman's most frequent guests on the Liberty Roundtable, and Bushman has served on the CSPOA board.

CSPOA promotes nullification, the idea that citizens or local public officials (such as county sheriffs) can selectively "nullify", or disregard, federal and state laws and regulations they disagree with or regard as unconstitutional.

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Nullification and related "Sovereign Citizen" ideas have been linked to acts of domestic violence and terrorism.

According to sociologist, former Army intelligence analyst, and authority on the far-right and the Tea Party Dr. James Scaminaci, groups such as CSPOA are part of an elaborate network created to implement far-right strategist William S. Lind's theory of "Fourth Generation Warfare" by which non-state actors can challenge, delegitimate, and even overthrow established state power.

Behind the meteoric political rise of Trump, Scaminaci told Salon.com in a recent interview, have been decades of continuous 4th Generation Warfare waged by the U.S. religious right.

In early Spring, in concert with Donald Trump, Jr.'s his Liberty Roundtable radio show appearance with Sam Bushman and James Edwards, Donald Trump himself personally met William S. Lind, a longtime working associate of key religious right architect Paul Weyrich and the leading theorist of Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW).

Lind has repeatedly suggested that his 4GW theory helped inspire al-Qaeda's devastating 2001 terrorist attacks on America.

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Lind has also been the chief promoter of the recently minted and fast-spreading conspiracy theory referred to a "cultural Marxism" (and also "political correctness") that posits a vast plot, hatched by Jewish Marxist intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s, to destroy America, Christianity, and Western Civilization itself.

Lind's theory has especial appeal and traction on the racist, neo-Nazi, neo-Fascist, and authoritarian traditionalist right, and has quickly spread from America to the U.K., Europe, Russia, and even Latin America.

In his 2014 novel Victoria - A Novel of Fourth Generation Warfare, William Lind describes how white Christian militia insurgents who oppose "political correctness" use 4GW tactics to topple the federal government, carry out ethnic cleansing (including driving black families out of cities into the countryside, into forced sharecropping on white lands), stop a black nationalist uprising by vaporizing the center of Atlanta with a stolen tactical nuclear weapon, and launch a 10th Crusade to invade and conquer Islamic nations.

During their Spring 2016 meeting, William S. Lind gave Donald Trump a 2009 book he co-authored with the late Paul Weyrich, The Next Conservatism. The book advances most of the Paleo-Conservative ideas that Donald Trump has campaigned on in his successful bid to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Atop a website post by Lind describing the meeting is a photo of Lind alongside Trump, who holds the 2009 book.
American manufacturing is seeing a growing resurgence. While some retail companies like American Apparel have long produced products on U.S. soil, a new breed of companies are seeking to take advantage of American ingenuity and manufacturing prowess to produce high quality products locally. From Detroit based watchmaker Shinola, to San Francisco headquartered accessory company Edward Field, more and more American companies are foregoing outsourced foreign operations to assemble, build or produce their products in the United States.

Undoubtedly, manufacturing in the United States is a key driver of economic growth. Manufacturers employ 12.33 million Americans and it is estimated the sector contributes $2.17 trillion to the U.S. economy. Somewhat astoundingly, American manufacturing is large enough that its size alone it would represent the ninth largest economy in the world. Equally astounding is the fact that since 2010 the U.S. manufacturing sector has added over 900,000 new jobs.

Local manufacturing has been an important component of manufacturing growth. Cities from San Francisco to New York have begun to see the emergence of local manufacturers across various industries producing products including motorcycles, consumer products, clothing, and beer. The rapid pace of technological advances in manufacturing has even led for some to speculate that the days of a "factory in every garage" are just around the corner.

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San Francisco based Edward Field, is one American company who has made the business decision to produce their products in the United States. Founded by entrepreneur, Teddy Winthrop, Edward Field has opted not only to manufacture its products locally but also take control of distribution channels and sell directly to the consumer. As part of the team that helped build U.S. based American Giant and market its best-selling 'Greatest Hoodie Ever Made", Winthrop is no stranger to marketing, local manufacturing, or e-commerce.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Edward Field Founder and CEO Teddy Winthrop to discuss his business, the resurgence of American manufacturing, and his perspective on entrepreneurship. Hope you enjoy!

Edward Field Founder and CEO Teddy Winthrop

CG: Tell me about Edward Field. How did you conceive the idea and what is your business?

TW: Edward Field is an American accessories company. We are based in San Francisco and sell directly to the consumer. The idea was conceived when I was working for my brother at a company called American Giant. They are responsible for building "the best hoodie ever made." He had a very methodical way of building a company; focusing on one product at a time and building it to the best of his ability. I figured this could be done for any number of products, but especially for the wallet, since it's a staple that hadn't really been "rethought" for today's modern world.

I learned so much from my brother when I worked for him and decided to take that experience and apply it to a product of my own.

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The idea to make a phone wallet instead of just a standard wallet was also a forcing function in my own life. It was a way to help me remember my most valuable items, my phone and wallet. I was always forgetting one or another (like most people) and figured it would be easier to keep track of just one item rather than two. Plus, if I combined both items and ever lost my wallet, it would now have a GPS (find my iPhone) attached to it. Before combining the two, I had no hope of getting my wallet back.

After talking with a lot of people, I realized losing a wallet or phone is a big problem for many. It became clear to me that there was a real need in the market for simple, high-quality phone wallet.

CG: Edward Field is focused on producing American made products and creating jobs in the United States. Can you tell me more about this mission?

TW: It was an operational decision from the beginning because I had learned it was actually possible from my experience at American Giant. This focus was less of patriotism and more of sensibility.

We make great things here so why not keep the process close to home. Logistically, it just made more sense.

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By making the products in the U.S., and by selling directly to the consumer, we eliminate distribution costs, language barriers, and big marketing budgets that usually go into overseas manufacturing. We direct resources that would usually be spent on soft costs and focus them on the quality of the product.

CG: Your products can be described as modern takes on classic staples. What role do new technologies play in your designs and production?

TW: I recently saw a segment on 60 minutes about all of the "Financial Tech" apps available today; Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Stripe, and Venmo to name a few. These are all examples of applications that are revolutionizing the banking industry and making it easier for the digital generation to avoid walking into a bank. We are slowly getting rid of these antiquated payment systems like credit cards and cash by moving them onto our smartphones. However, we're not there just yet.

We believe that a wallet customized for today's modern digital world, is a product that people have yet to focus on making properly. We've made carrier items like the traditional briefcase, backpack or wallet in so many different designs and materials, but yet no one has effectively redesigned the wallet, until now. If you walk into an Apple Store, you'll see many people are building their version of a wallet that includes your smartphone. Yet we believe no one is doing it as well as we are.

Most are not focusing on the quality of the product, its construction, or its utility. Even fewer are building them in the U.S. This is a product that can help bridge the gap between newer applications and traditional payment systems, to make life easier. It doesn't make sense to carry so many cards when we can take a picture of them, hide them at home or store them in a digital app.

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CG: In recent years, we've seen the resurgence of American manufacturing. Why do you think that is?

TW: The obvious answer is that it's easier than ever to shop online. By selling directly to the consumer online, we eliminate distribution costs and our customers save time and money with the click of a mouse.

Moreover, I think with all of this noise on the Internet, people have more exposure to smaller brands with really interesting stories. People naturally want to support these types of companies. Part of the story we are telling is one of quality rather than a cheap price. Building locally allows for clearer communication and tighter quality control, resulting in a better product.

I believe the reason there's a resurgence in American Manufacturing right now is that we are prioritizing high quality, plus more and more businesses are "opening up shop" online making this possible.

CG: You are based in San Francisco and produce and manufacture your products in the area. What are the benefits and challenges of manufacturing your goods locally?

TW: By manufacturing our goods locally, particularly in San Francisco, we have interesting insight as to where technology is going. Our turn around times are quicker than they would be overseas therefore we are able to adapt in a much faster to the ever changing technology. Manufacturing our goods locally makes complete sense for our product.

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Another point to make is that we have clearer communication with our manufacturing facility than if it we were overseas. If there is something wrong with the way the product is being built we can just drive down to the facility and have a conversation. Quality control is huge for us and manufacturing our goods locally allows us to have a tight grip on what is released from our cut and sew lines.

CG: Entrepreneurship is rife with challenges. What words of wisdom would you give to someone interested in launching their own startup?

TW: The day after I graduated I remember meeting my brother at a Burger King and he asked me what I was going to do with my life. I told him I had no idea. He said figure out what you're passionate about and dream big. It sounds so corny but it really stuck with me. I certainly never thought I would be passionate about building a wallet. When I described the product to my friends and family and told them why a product like this should exist it didn't resonate with them at first. In todays digital economy we are at a place where combining your wallet and your smartphone makes sense. Proving this point is something I have become especially passionate about. My advice to others would be to figure out what you are passionate about and have the courage of your conviction to follow it.

CG: Any parting words?
Ventilation regulations aren't what the average person associates with a safe and healthy workplace. But for nail salon workers, who are breathing in a toxic cocktail of chemicals every day on the job, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's recent executive order requiring ventilation in nail salons is a life saver.

After the Governor's historic nail salon legislation passed last year advocates immediately received a flood of inquiries from workers about health and safety in their salons. The standout was a young immigrant woman from Mexico who shared her worries over her first born son's health, who was born with birth deficiencies. She had worked in the salon during her pregnancy and was pregnant again, afraid of the impact that the toxins in her salon would have on her unborn son. Each nail salon worker has her own stories of labored breathing, lingering coughs, or knows coworkers who experienced severe health issues due to prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals. Conscientious nail salon owners and consumers have realized this is about their health too.

Most nail salons expose workers, owners, and clients to toxins that include carcinogens like formaldehyde, or chemicals like toluene, dibutyl phthalate, and methacrylates. Nail products contain an estimated 10,000 chemicals, and nearly 90 percent of these products have not been independently tested for safety. Breathing in these chemicals every day can cause asthma, reproductive harm, or even cancer.

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The most effective way to protect workers and consumers from these chemicals would be for the federal government to ensure that they cannot be used at all--to rigorously test and eliminate unsafe products and remove all toxic products from nail salons. Consumers are already starting to make this demand, and the European Union has banned chemicals known to cause birth defects or cancer since 1976.

A close second to a total ban on toxins in salons is a strong ventilation regulation to prevent workers from breathing in toxic air, which New York has now made a reality in the state's 5,000+ nail salons. The regulations will be implemented in new salons as of October 3, 2016; and all existing salons will need to become compliant within five years.

These new regulations are positive for consumers and workers alike, but they are critical for nail salon workers, primarily Asian and Latina women, many of whom are undocumented and uninsured. For these workers, medical attention is expensive and often requires long waits at medical clinics to speak with doctors who sometimes don't even speak their language. Ventilation regulations will help prevent workers from getting sick in the first place.
How many miles would you travel to live the dream of running a winery? Anne (nee Bousquet) and Labid Al Ameri met twenty years ago while studying in Minnesota. She came from France and ended up working as an economist in the paper packaging industry. He arrived from Iraq, by way of Spain, and became a financial trader. But her father's love of wine - which they came to share - eventually brought them both to the vineyards in a farflung, mountainous corner of Argentina.

Jean Bousquet ran a vineyard in Carcassonne, in the Languedoc region famous for its Corbieres wines. In 1998, he moved to Argentina to plant grapes in the high-altitude pastures of Gualtallary, a village of Tupungato in Mendoza's Uco Valley. "He was impacted by the climate, the altitude, and the soil," Anne says. According to her, he was the first to go so high up the walls of the valley - up to 4,000 feet above sea level.

At that time, a hectare in Lujan de Cuyo, a wine region well established for over a century, cost around $30,000. But unfancied Gualtallary - now the terroir shared by grapes for Alejandro Vigil and the Michelini brothers, among other star winemakers - was just $1,000.

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The land was unspoiled then, and the family wanted to keep it that way. For them, it was an easy choice to have Domaine Bousquet make organic wine.

"It's not something we tried to do to sell more," Anne says. "It's something we believe in. The climate was allowing for it due to its dryness. We understood that the climate would allow us to do organic. There was no pollution. We are the first ones, why should we pollute?"

The care they take with the grapes continues into the winemaking process. They use gravity to move the wine and barrels with a maximum capacity of 500 liters. The same barrels pass through five or six vintages in order to promote gentle integration of wine and wood.

"We try to preserve the purity of the fruit," says Labid, "and not to expose the wine too much to barrels, too much extraction, or maneuvers that winemakers do to change the wine - so people can taste fully the fruit."

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As more people began to plant grapes in Gualtallary, Domaine Bousquet's demand for grapes increased as well. So they helped to convert several nearby growers to organic farming.

Anne and Labid moved to Tupungato in 2009, and her father retired in 2011. They spent five years cultivating export markets in Europe alongside the vines, returning to the United States last year. Now based in Miami - one of the epicenters for imports of Argentine wine, thanks to the large expatriate community - they're trying to make inroads in the American market.

And they certainly have a promising product - in fact, some of the most attractive organic wines to come out of Mendoza. The wines from the reserve level up are made exclusively with grapes from the Domaine Bousquet estate, starting with the Reserve Malbec. It spends 10 months in French oak with 15% merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and syrah in the mix. The nose is very forward, full of cloves and prunes, and the wine brings a pleasant sweetness to the palate without much bitterness in the finish.

A more unusual selection is the Gaia blend, made from 50% malbec, 45% syrah, and 5% cabernet sauvignon. In the past, malbec-syrah blends were more common in San Juan, where some of the most intensely flavored syrahs originate, and they could be quite hot and bold. But this one offers more floral notes and a smooth texture.

Crowning the line is the Malbec Grande Reserve, cloaked in a gorgeous regal purple and carrying subtle aromas that belie a much brighter flavor: citrus, tree fruit, sweet spices, pink peppercorn, and a hint of baba au rhum. Its grapes macerate three weeks in wheeled 400- to 500-liter barrels to integrate with the oak, then ferment for a month, then undergo a second maceration, then age.

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"What we are trying to achieve is to move the grapes the least amount possible," Labid says. "The grapes are always in contact with the oak, and there's always micro-oxygenation. There's less extraction, more concentration."
Allen West

I'm neither walking with nor recording LeBron James, but fans of my interviewee rush to us -- interrupting his every sentence -- as if he were James. They shake his hands generously. They beg for selfies. I am in a different world in which Allen West wears the fame of LeBron James on the streets of Cleveland.

We are en route to the Quicken Loans Arena for another night of Republican drama. Delegates, police officers, sign holders, and flag wavers flood our path. So many of them-- even Iowa Senator Joni Ernst--stop us. Or really him. A hug or a pose, please. Just as I asked West about the treatment of black men by police--"Have you ever been stopped by police officer?"-- a white on-duty officer rushes up to us.

"Hey man, you want to know what he just asked me," West says to the officer. "He asked 'if I have ever been stopped by police,' and I said 'Yeah to shake their hands."

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"Goddamn right," the officer responds.

"Can I get a photo with you," the officer asks.

"Of course you can," West responds.

"This is going to go to all my friends in Hartford," the officer responds.

The timing is a gift to Allen West, a former black Republican congressman. Need he say anything more about police and African Americans? Not now. Not here. This pocket of Cleveland feels immune to harsh realities, especially when it comes to race. This is a space where someone might look you in the eye and say, "Donald Trump is likely to shock the country and win over a majority of black voters" -- without laughing. When asked about Trump's challenges with black voters, West offers some of Mama's wisdom. "My mom used to say there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. So we got a long time till November and we've got the opportunity to make a case and all across this country to talk about how do we restore the families, how do we restore small business entrepreneurship, how do we have better education opportunities for families, so that's the message that Trump's campaign has to take out there."

Sounds like familiar rhetoric. Perhaps in this space, you can regurgitate anybody else's words without any consequences.

A high school teacher sees West and interrupts us. The teacher has a bus of high school students who are all conservatives. They thought they would have credentials to get into the hall.

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"Can you help us."

"Yes, I'll try" West says.

He takes the teacher's information and promises to pass it on. The teacher's smile is wide and West is ready for another question until he hears my words. West looks at me as if I have lost my mind when I mention Melania Trump's plagiarism? "I really don't give a damn about it. Okay, I have got friends of mine in the military that are on 6, 7, 8 combat tours of duty to include relatives. We have problems with Islamic terrorism. We have problems with the rise of Iran, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia."
"Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation."

Those words came from Donald Trump last night framing his sense of American doom. His vision imagines a dying America that only he can save. "I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

What? That is one of the single most preposterous Trumpisms. He clearly out-did himself with that one. Read those words again: "which is why I alone can fix it." Does he think he is Superman--creating a perception of gloom and doom that is just ripe for 'The Donald's" rescue?

In his speech, Trump also noted "Nearly Four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58% of African American youth are not employed."

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Here's the question: Whether you are young or old, what is the value of having a job, if you can't execute your responsibilities without getting shot by police? Exit the Cleveland bubble and enter the world of Charles Kinsey in Miami. He was the behavioral therapist who tried to lure an autistic patient back into his facility but was shot by a police officer in the process.

In his law and order rant of his speech, Trump's sense of lawlessness, as expected, ignored the frightening cases of police shootings of unarmed black men. Contrast his speech to the message of President Obama in Dallas ten days ago at the funeral of slain police officers:

"I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we've witnessed over the past week. First, the shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, and the protests, then the targeting of police by the shooter here -- an act not just of demented violence but of racial hatred. All of it has left us wounded, and angry, and hurt. It's as if the deepest fault lines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened. And although we know that such divisions are not new -- though they have surely been worse in even the recent past -- that offers us little comfort.

Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African-American community that feels unfairly targeted by police, and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other's experience. We turn on the TV or surf the Internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn, and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it's hard not to think sometimes that the center won't hold and that things might get worse.

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I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But, Dallas, I'm here to say we must reject such despair. I'm here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we've come against impossible odds. I know we'll make it because of what I've experienced in my own life, what I've seen of this country and its people -- their goodness and decency --as President of the United States. And I know it because of what we've seen here in Dallas -- how all of you, out of great suffering, have shown us the meaning of perseverance and character, and hope.
HFC phase-down talks in Vienna are moving forward rapidly this week as countries engage on the specifics of freeze and reduction targets and funding needs. Negotiators have delved into key issues all week, and ministers are arriving for high-level talks over the next two days. Expectations are high for more progress this weekend and for completing the deal in Kigali, Rwanda, this October.

Talks this week have continued in the problem-solving spirit displayed last weekend, when parties resolved a list of key challenges. Having made huge progress on difficult issues, countries are now focused on the core questions: the pace of phase-down schedules for developed and developing countries, and the scope and scale of funding to help developing countries adopt climate-friendly alternatives, through the donor country-supported Multilateral Fund (MLF).

Theres growing support for an ambition linkage that pairs early action by developing countries with early and sufficient donor funding. Many developing countries, especially the African Group and various Latin American countries, are offering to move quickly provided they have sufficient MLF support.

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Donor countries are on the same wavelength. The logic is compelling  early action best protects the climate by avoiding unnecessary HFC growth, and early financial support actually benefits both sides: It helps developing countries gain earlier access to climate-friendly and energy-efficient products and manufacturing methods, and it saves donors money by avoiding larger transition costs that would be incurred later if developing nations built up larger HFC-dependent industries.

Among the most notable contributions this week, China offered its own proposed schedule for freezing and reducing HFCs. As the worlds largest HFC producer, China has supported moving forward with an amendment for several years, but it had yet to offer a specific proposal. Chinas proposed timetable is slower than schedules offered by the North American countries and Island States, but more aggressive than Indias (see comparison chart). None of these countries have drawn lines in the sand; all are emphasizing flexibility.

A number of countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and Pakistan are still more cautious, but they too are ready to negotiate.

The engagement by ministers Friday and Saturday  including Secretary of State John Kerry and EPA Administrator McCarthy for the U.S.  will add political visibility and momentum. Ministers from countries in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition today called for completing an ambitious HFC deal this year. Tomorrow, an expanded list of countries will join a high ambition group, like the one that scored a key breakthrough at the Paris climate talks.

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As the ministers meet, their negotiators will keep working  no doubt once again into the wee hours Sunday morning  towards a condensed negotiating text that will set things up for striking the final deal in Kigali.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) marks the beginning of a new era in Europe, with rules and regulations fit for the digital age. With the new legislation intended not only to strengthen EU citizens' rights but also to simplify rules for businesses in EU Member States, every EU citizen is a vital stakeholder in the process.

Data flows are increasingly at the heart of modern economies, as demonstrated not only by the adoption of the GDPR but also the completion of the EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement, covering data flows between the EU and its largest trading partner. These sweeping changes regarding citizens' data reflect the growing importance of personal data; as the Former Vice-President of the European Commission Viviane Reding put it back in 2012, "Data is at the center of the digital world. It is the currency of this new market". In this context, there are three issues that both documents cover which I would like to highlight here.

Firstly, the new legislation is broad-based covering 28 Member States, replacing the patchwork of individual legislation that was previously in place. This has given rise to concerns regarding the interpretation and its consequent implementation. A key feature of the GDPR is the vague nature of certain sections, allowing space for interpretation. Although a minimal amount of divergence at a local level is impossible to avoid due to the differences between Member States, it is important to reach a standard on common areas across the EU. If there is too much divergence between the Member States' applications, the full potential to unlock the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market will not be attained.

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One example of differing interpretations is the concept of "legitimate interest pursued by a controller" in Article 6 (1f), which is one of six possible grounds for lawfulness of data processing. The definition of what constitutes a "legitimate interest" could vary considerably in different Member States. In this way, the GDPR could be likened to casting a dragnet covering a wide area but it means collecting a lot of unwanted material alongside the coveted targets.

The second issue is the importance of consumers trust, tied to the fundamental right to privacy. Citizens must trust in both businesses and governments, that valuable personal data will not be used for any purpose other than that which the data subject intended. The fundamental right to privacy yet presents an opportunity for businesses to ensure that the concept of "privacy by design" is embedded into any new product that enters the market. There is much to gain for businesses that manage to do this, as they can both demonstrate compliance with the regulation and create a competitive advantage at the same time. Microsoft for example, has understood this, with Vice President John Frank explaining that "our business is built on trust". The companies that provide the clearest proof of this stand to benefit the most.

Third and finally, these regulations unlock the benefits of a harmonized EU Digital Single Market. European Commission President Juncker declared to the European Parliament in 2014 that "if we are successful in implementing a real digital single market we, can generate 250 billion Euro of additional growth in Europe". The adoption of the GDPR is an important step in accelerating the trend for future e-commerce here in Europe. With the new rules in place, consumers and smaller companies will no longer face the complex and frequently conflicting rules that applied to cross-border transactions. In 2015, only 7% of SMEs in the EU participated in cross-border trade; we hope that the application of the GDPR will go some way towards raising this figure. Consequently, we will see trusting consumers flocking to purchase digital goods and services which will in turn see business flourish and States poised to reap the benefits in terms of growth.

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However, the process will not be a ride in the park. The European Commission has perhaps been optimistic when it underpinned the proposal of the GDPR in 2012, with the explanation that the reforms would lead to administrative savings of 2.3bn Euro across Member States. According to the British Government's Impact Assessment, there would be a cost of compliance with the new regulation in the UK of between 100m and 360m GBP every year.
Over the years, political columnist and social critic George Will has had moments where balanced thinking and rational erudition ruled the day.

But the position Will laid out in a recent column in The Washington Post was surely not one of those moments.

In the commentary, The Sobering Evidence of Social Science, Will revisited a 1966 report on public school outcomes called Equality of Educational Opportunity, and its author James Coleman. He held the report up next to another study, this one from 1965 about Black families in America, called The Moynihan Report - a dangerous diatribe about African-American "pathologies" and "inadequately socialized males."

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"Coleman documented how schools are reflections of, rather than cures for, the failure of families to function as the primary transmitter of social capital," Will wrote in his July 6 column, adding that the study - which compared data from more than 3,000 schools and 600,000 primary and secondary school students - "is pertinent to today's political debates about class and social mobility."

Will wrote that Coleman "found that the best predictor of a school's outcomes is the quality of the children's families. And students' achievements are influenced by the social capital - [emphasis mine] - (habits, mores, educational ambitions) their classmates bring to school."

His bottom line assessments: Early childhood education produces only "small and evanescent" effects; school integration is not as beneficial to student outcomes as correcting the failures of families to transmit social capital; and that, essentially, better funding for public schools is throwing good money after bad.

If only those who call themselves liberals, progressives, etc., would embrace the social science that supports Will's notions, he contends, we would work harder on the "cultural" rather than the "financial" variables that affect educational outcomes.

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In other words, don't waste time and energy better funding broken systems; instead fix the broken people and their bad values and social mores.

Will's column is many things. "Hooey" comes to mind. But mostly it is pure manipulation of the facts.

The axiom that data serves both sides of the proverbial political coin rings true in this case.



We know from follow-up to his report's release that Coleman, the author of Equality of Educational Opportunity, actually argued for integration in the schools. We know now for certain that he was right. Students of color, when working in desegregated schools, perform better. Expectations improve. Teaching is focused on higher levels of achievement.

Will, bright man that he is, surely knows that. He simply chooses to ignore it.

Additionally, there is a veritable avalanche of data that suggests more money does help schools improve outcomes for students.

There's no debate that poor neighborhoods have the least experienced teachers, less funding for programs and supports, and often lack the supplies, equipment and up-to-date facilities of wealthier peers. So poor students' educational outcomes are linked as much to their family background as to the quality - or lack thereof - of their schools.



One can look back at school data from the late 1960s and early 1970s - prior to backsliding brought on by President Richard Nixon's policies - and see the dramatic gains of Black children in schools. Those gains are a direct result of increased attention to, better support for and an influx of funding to schools that educated African-American students.

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And Will directs his daggers at liberals and progressives - educators, mostly - while ignoring the fact that many polls indicate that the public believes schools should be better funded. All across the United States, if you ask people who are not sitting behind a desk pontificating about "family disintegration" and "chaotic neighborhoods," they believe we could and should be spending more on our kids.

In February, for example, nearly seven out of 10 Alabama residents said they don't believe education is adequately funded in that red state - and a majority of Republicans and Democrats agreed. "Most of those surveyed, transcending certain affiliations or demographics," an article in AL.com read, "say [funding] education is this state's top priority."

If we don't spend more money on struggling schools, then what? Is Will saying then that schools can do no better than take children whose outcomes are already predetermined - and herd them through a hopeless system?

The Pedagogy of Confidence - the cornerstone of the work we do here at NUA - is based on science that tells us that, while young people come to schools with many challenges, schools can do much to meet them where they are in order to support their health, emotional and academic needs.

Unfortunately, too many schools and educators still approach these students from a deficit model - they see the Black and Brown children who come to them from the "chaotic neighborhoods" Will mentions as damaged, instead of as bringing real strengths on which the educators can build.

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Will's commentary seems to drive home that deficit model, emphasizing as it does Coleman's perspective that "schools bring little influence to bear on a child's achievement that is independent of his background and general social context."

Here's the thing: Contrary to Will's assertions, liberals, progressives, unions and education advocates have always argued that family support and community health is critical to improving student outcomes. Leaving aside for a moment the pernicious effects of racism and poverty in many disadvantaged communities (which should be obvious to a man with a pedigree such as Will) we also know that, as with any intervention, quality matters. That's precisely why we fight so hard for high-quality schools - from pre K through graduation - and understand that better quality often starts with better funding. In other words, it's not just social capital that matters, but actual capital.



Will's argument is a tired rehash of an old narrative steeped in conservative values of individualism: If only you (parent) would do better, then your children would do better - and there'd be no need for the privileged to offer up any help to those on "the lowest rungs on the ladder of upward mobility."
An Indian warship on a visit to Vietnam in May, 2016. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc

The committee said India is also a victim of Chinas unilateralism.

The India-Vietnam Solidarity Committee, an India-based non-governmental panel, has urged China to obey the final ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague on July 12, the Vietnam News Agency reported on July 21, citing panel President Greetesh Sharma.

The committee supported the judgment, which rejected Chinas groundless claim of historic rights over the waters within the nine-dash line, in Vietnams East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea.

In a statement released on July 20, the committee said China is damaging its international image by trying to bully smaller claimants in the dispute.

India also has border disputes with China and is a victim of Chinas unilateralism. India, however, will not exchange its sovereignty for friendship with China, the statement said.

The statement has been sent to more than 100 diplomatic offices, government agencies and research organizations in New Delhi and West Bengal.

In a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on July 12, India asserted that all parties should respect the ruling. India supports freedom of navigation and over flight and unimpeded commerce based on the principles of international law as reflected notably in the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS), The IndianExpress reported last week, quoting the MEA.

Vietnam welcomed the ruling after it was announced and said it will issue a statement in detail on the content of the judgment at a later date.

Related news:

> India plans expanded missile export drive, with China on its mind

> U.S.,Japan, India to hold major naval drill in Western Pacific

> India set to sell super sonic anti-ship cruise missile to Vietnam: U.S. press
By Natalie Himmel, University of Iowa

Britain's vote to leave the European Union has electrified the interest of policy makers, leaders, and investors as the consequences of the vote unfold. As a result of the vote, many internal and external implications may arise, including environmental concerns that put Britain at risk for weakened environmental standards and a stifled voice in international environmental law.

Britain's history with the environment is strung with failures and triumphs. Although the study of animal and plant species in Britain has had centuries of established academic research, "conservation" as we know it today did not become a public or political concern until after the Second World War. In 1950 Britain's production of coal was at a peak, and so was its pollution. This unchecked production provoked environmental and human health disasters, such as The Great Smog of 1952 and the proliferation of poor water quality, particularly of Britain's drinking and beach waters.



The critical turning point for Britain and the environment took place when it became part of the European Union in 1972. By the 1980s, Britain's domestic policies reflected pollution limits and regulations set by the EU, and the environment became an essential component of Britain's legislative sphere. The European Union has been championed for its environmental policies and has had significant influence on international environmental law. As a result of the EU's influence, Britain has cleaner air, water, and oceans and has pioneered green market systems. Because transnational environmental policy often has greater funding and accountability than national policy, EU policies tend to be long-lasting with a greater sense of security. Additionally, green markets in Britain were less subject to economic risk as part of an economic union because its system discourages lowering environmental standards in order to undercut competition for short-term gains.

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Britain in turn has held much influence on the EU in strengthening climate and energy policies. Its leaders have pushed other EU members to be more ambitious on international climate mitigation objectives, and have long encouraged fuel-efficiency research and implementation. In 2002, Britain established the mechanics for the world's first carbon trading scheme and recently organized an advisory body on government carbon budgets called the Committee on Climate Change. British environmentalists have sparked healthy criticism of EU agricultural and fishery policies in favor of more progressive and sustainable regulation. Essentially, Britain has both helped and been helped by the European Union in terms of environmental policy, but this vital reciprocity is likely to experience changes due to the referendum.

On July 13th Theresa May took office as the country's new Prime Minister and thus is now responsible for invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, officially beginning Britain's separation from the EU. Until Article 50 is invoked, and agreements for the arrangement of Britain's withdrawal are concluded, it is important to note the uncertainty in making definitive statements about the environmental consequences of Britain leaving the EU. This is partially due to the choice Britain has in either remaining in the European Economic Area (EEA), as Norway and Iceland do, or positioning itself completely outside the EU and its primary agreements.

If Britain chooses to stay in the EEA, European Union environmental laws will continue to apply--excluding those protecting wildlife and bathing waters. However, Britain will no longer hold influence, formal negotiations, nor a vote for the amendment of an existing EU environmental policy or creation of a new one. It seems unlikely that Great Britain, as a powerhouse of Europe, would well accept compliance with legislation in which they have neither voice nor vote.

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If Britain severs its adherence to EU policies, no environmental legislation from the EU would hold Britain to anything but export standards. Britain then would have the initiative to weaken environmental laws, strengthen them, or maintain existing laws and policies, making new judgment calls on environmental standards across Britain. This would undoubtedly be a lengthy and laborious process, and Britain risks entering a vacuum in which it discards existing environmental laws and regulations before new ones can be planned and implemented. In addition, past attempts by political conservatives to weaken environmental policies puts Britain at risk for regression in domestic environmental protection and standards more than ever--especially in the case of an economic dip as a result of the referendum.

In light of the Brexit, Britain plays an important role in the environmental future of Europe. Without the European Union, however, Britain's environmental consciousness is clouded by either frustration and lack of participation, or risk and uncertainty. Without the European Union, Britain may cease to see growth and investment for greener businesses, and consistent standards for the protection of their wildlife and public areas may be watered down. Without the European Union, Britain cannot push for better Agricultural and Fishery policies for Europe nor influence international rules and regulations protecting the environment at the same level.
brexit and eu flag on a pc keyboard

China's so-called historic rights in the South China Sea are bogus (see here, and here.) Since the 1990s, Chinese leaders and politicians have consciously been spreading false historic evidence about purported ancient Chinese possessions in the disputed waters, not only to rally domestic support for China's maritime expansion, but also to justify the seizure of territories occupied by other neighboring states.

Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and the majority of politicians campaigning for the United Kingdom to quit the European Union have consciously been feeding the British public untruths in the run up to last month's Brexit vote. The most blatant example being the Leave campaign's promise to spend the () 350 million Great Britain purportedly sends to the EU every week on the National Health Service. (The UK Statistic Authority repeatedly exposed the number as false.)

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In the two instances cited above, both Chinese and British politicians are liars. However, they appear to lie for two different reasons. Whereas the former are telling strategic lies--falsehoods in the service of the national interest or raison d'etat--the latter have spread selfish lies-untruths spread to protect their own selfish interests--during the Brexit campaign. (Simon Kuper recently classified the referendum as an Oxford Union election gone awry.)

Of course this classification is a subjective assessment. Nevertheless, one thing is objectively true: Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and former London Mayor Boris Johnson have primarily lied to their people rather than lying to leaders of other countries, which unfortunately for the two, however, may have a greater negative net effect than inter-state lying on their respective countries' institutions and population, as John J. Mearsheimer points out in his 2011 book Why Leaders Lie:



[T]he most dangerous kinds of international lies are those that leaders tell their own citizens. They are more likely to backfire and damage a state's strategic position than the lies leaders tell other states. Moreover, they are more likely to corrupt political and social life at home, which can have many harmful consequences for daily life.

In the case of both China and Great Britain, Mearsheimer appears to have been proven right.

Enforcing dubious historical rights through so-called gray zone coercion in the South China Sea--justified by an obvious historic untruth akin to the Donation of Constantine--China has isolated itself internationally and helped cement a burgeoning anti-China coalition in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States, while not always prone to speak the truth on the South China Sea either, only had to sit back and bear witness to China containing itself in the murky waters of the Western Pacific.

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The lies of Boris Johnson and his cohorts threaten the very existence of Great Britain with a Scottish referendum on the country's independence again on the table. Northern Ireland might follow suit. Great Britain might turn into the Little England of the 15th and 16th centuries "with trouble at home and an uneasy relationship with the continent, at once needing trade with it yet fearing its influence," as the historian Margaret MacMillan recently wrote in FT Weekend.

It would be, however, too easy to just blame the leaders and politicians of the countries for spreading lies in one form or the other. Lying about a historical record is often tied to the presumed necessity of creating nationalist myths in order to build and maintain a state. China's "historical rights" in the South China Sea are partially predicated on this assumption that national myths are essential in the country's rise to power, and that they are, even if not true, needed to hold the country together.

Brexit supporters in the United Kingdom have also tried to invoke English nationalism by recalling an idyllic but simultaneously glorious past, when Great Britain was sovereign over its destiny; Britannia was ruling the waves, and--most importantly--foreigners and immigrants were confined to their proper place (presumably not England). However, English national myth making (unsurprisingly) appears to have had a centrifugal effect on the United Kingdom that has divided rather than united the country so far.

Ere yet another frontal assault on the Elite, it is worthwhile to point out that Mearsheimer asseses that the people, not just a country's leaders, are complicit in creating national myths, or, put more bluntly, national lies:



The creation of national myths, however, is not simply a case of elites concocting false stories and transmitting them to their publics. In fact, the common people invariably hunger for these myths; they want to be told stories about the past in which they are portrayed as the white hats and opposing nations as the black hats. In effect nationalist mythmaking is driven from below as well as from above.

Nevertheless, this observation should not be taken as an excuse by leaders and politicians to whitewash their dishonesty. While a good case can be made about the necessity for inter-state lying on occasion, a case for leaders to lie to the public is much harder to make, and one does not even need to recall Kipling's chilling epitaph on the British dead of the First World War: "If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied."

The principle issue with leaders and politicians consciously lying to their constituents is that it prohibits people from making informed and rational choices. In the case of China, this is specifically the reason why they are being lied to, since an informed and rational Chinese public, in all likelihood, would not support Xi Jinping's brinkmanship over a few rocks in the Western Pacific ("Mourir Pour Scarborough Shoal?" Anyone?).

In the case of the United Kingdom, a Western democracy, the fact that Boris Johnson's acolytes got away with lying to the public without serious repercussions not only spreads mistrust between those who govern and the governed, but more importantly, and alas more troublesome to a democracy, it is poised to undermine the rule of law--the lifeblood of the democratic experiment--since trust in elected leaders and the law is the sinew that holds any democratic system together.

Ultimately, lying in any form, whether in domestic or international politics, more often than not increases the chances of unintended consequences--Brexit is happening, and the anti-China coalition in Southeast Asia is consolidating.

"If we've been telling lies, you've been telling half-lies. A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it," a British civil servant tells a disgusted T.E. Lawrence in the film Lawrence of Arabia highlighting an additional danger in lying. Liars sooner or later will have difficulties separating facts from falsehood. In that sense, both Boris Johnson and Xi Jinping may simply also have forgotten where they put the truth.

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The pilots who were involved in shooting down a Russian aircraft in November that briefly intruded on Turkish airspace have been arrested by Turkish authorities. A Turkish official said the arrests were in connection with the failed coup. One of the main outcomes of the coup attempt is now becoming obvious. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to repair relations with Russia and is using the attempted coup to demonstrate to the Russians that he was not involved in ordering the downing of the aircraft, but that his political enemies were responsible. There are some problems with this version of events. The intercept of the Russian fighter jet took place after a number of incursions into Turkish airspace. According to multiple sources, including Turkish ones, the Russian plane that was shot down was over Turkish territory for a very short time. The tactical air defense controllers did not have time to query the national command authority (their bosses) for permission to shoot. The decision to shoot down a Russian plane entering Turkish airspace had to have been made before the incident. The alternative is that the tactical controllers on the ground, not the pilots, acted without authority. That would mean that the command to shoot came from at most a colonel in tactical ground control. The Turkish government, including Erdogan, reacted immediately and without hesitation charging that the incursion was not the first. They vigorously condemned the Russians. There was never any official or unofficial leak indicating anything was amiss with the shoot down, no one in the air or on the ground was relieved of their duties and there was no indication of an investigation. The politics also don't make sense. The Russian intervention in Syria was designed to bolster the Bashar al-Assad regime. The Erdogan government opposed the Assads for the killing of Turkmens in Syria. This had been a blood feud for years. The Turks were furious at the Russian intervention, which made Turkey look weak at the same time questions were being raised about possible Turkish support for the Islamic State. The Russian intervention put Erdogan in a difficult political situation and its penetration of Turkish airspace without response would have made him look even weaker. He was under pressure to respond somehow. Shooting down the Russian plane made political sense and it is extremely unlikely that a general order had not been issued authorizing rapid interdiction of any intruding aircraft. Anyone issuing that order without clearance from the highest echelons -- this would go to Erdogan himself -- would have been court-martialed in any air force. Nothing Erdogan did after the incident indicated that he did not authorize the attack and did not approve of it. The idea, months after the incident, that it had been part of a coup is hard to fathom. It, however, makes sense to make this claim in the context of current Turkish strategy. The Turks are claiming that Fethullah Gulen was behind the attempted coup. He lives in the United States and Erdogan demanded that the U.S. hand him over. The U.S. can't simply hand him over, given extradition treaties with Turkey and U.S. law. But embedded in the demand is the hint that the U.S. helped engineer the attempted coup. Middle Eastern newspapers have been filled with the charge. While many are now questioning whether it was actually a coup attempt, another claim is emerging that the U.S. was behind it. When the plane was shot down and Turkish-Russian relations collapsed, it forced Turkey into a closer relationship with the United States. Turkey was not strong enough to be hostile to Russia and the U.S. But Turkey was not comfortable with having closer ties with the United States. First, it did not want to take a major military role in Syria, particularly when it comes to IS. The Americans wanted the Turks to play a stronger role but the Turks believed it would become an endless occupation that they were not ready to undertake. Second, IS terror attacks mounted in Turkey as the Turks shifted into the American desired posture. Erdogan did not want to become the American pawn in a conflict he didn't want to fight. In addition, he did not want to be pulled into an American engineered, anti-Russian alliance involving Poland and Romania. Erdogan didn't want to become the junior partner of the U.S. and the downing of the jet led Turkey in that direction. He made a sudden move to normalize relations with Israel and almost simultaneously issued an apology to Russia over the shoot down. The move toward Israel was intended to placate the U.S. The second move indicated that he wanted to end the confrontation with Russia and, therefore, wouldn't be drawn into any American defensive plan against the Russians. Erdogan was never satisfied with having to make an apology. The coup attempt gave him an opportunity to redefine the apology. The attack on the Russian aircraft was not authorized by him but instead was authorized by the people carrying out the attempted coup. Erdogan was as much a victim of the downing of the plane as Russia. By punishing the coup plotters, he is repairing any harm done to the Russians. And by withdrawing from the confrontation with Russia, he recovers his room to maneuver and frees Turkey from American pressure. The attempted coup, or whatever it was, had to do with a great deal more than this of course. But its aftermath is in part about regaining Turkey's space, lost as Turkey became dependent on the United States following the downing of the jet. The discovery that the people who planned the coup also planned the shoot down of the plane neatly creates the opening and makes it appear that Erdogan was not at fault. Some people will buy this, particularly in Turkey, which is the intended audience. In the meantime, Erdogan is pushing hard on the United States and shifting his weight toward Russia, a classic balance of power move.
The ideological divisions afflicting the U.S. right now are so deep that it is difficult to imagine how we will ever have a functioning democracy. We cannot seem to agree on even the most basic values. Some people are trying to raise awareness about police brutality in the black community with the most uncontroversial slogan conceivable, "black lives matter." And yet they are roundly and belligerently misunderstood by otherwise intelligent people who insist on tacking an imaginary "only" onto the beginning of the phrase. (I don't know how else to interpret the retort of "all lives matter"). On the other end of the spectrum, after every high-profile mass shooting, liberals and progressives act like the problem of gun violence can be solved with background checks and bans on certain weapons (not that I'm against such measures). On these and so many other issues, it seems that the two sides are living in parallel universes.

In this atmosphere where partisanship is so extreme that our political representatives can barely keep the government functioning, we should hardly expect any sort of rapprochement between even more divergent perspectives. But we should always be ready to be surprised.

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It is arguable that no one exemplifies right-wing hysteria more definitively than Infowars.com. Boasting headlines like "Obama/BLM Plan to Overthrow America Leaked," they represent an unrepentant anti-government paranoia, the appeal of which has been escalating ever since Obama was elected in 2008. Meanwhile, from the perspective of the far right, few people are perceived as more dangerous than Van Jones. He represented such a threat to the right, that when President Obama named him Special Advisor for Green Jobs in 2009, former Fox News personality Glenn Beck and his allies went on the attack, mounting a smear campaign that ultimately led to Jones' resignation. Of course, this is precisely why Carl the Cuck Slayer and his Infowars crew jumped at the chance to ambush Mr. Jones when they spotted him walking on the RNC convention grounds. What happened next, though, was that Van Jones taught us all a crucial lesson in bridging what would seem to be an unbreachable ideological divide.
Could we have a race war in the United States?

That isn't a frivolous question. As President Obama said after the black-on-white assassination of police in Dallas, "it's hard not to think sometimes that the center won't hold and that things might get worse."

Five days later, things did get worse when a man associated with black separatists assassinated three police officers in Baton Rouge. We'll know the center has given way, if whites respond with targeted killings of blacks.



The rhetorical groundwork for this escalation is already in place. White nationalists believe our first black president has been "openly and aggressively inciting violence against Whites," according a website for these views, The Daily Stormer.

What might tip the balance, from mere rhetoric to actual violence? In a word, Trump.

The Republican nominee for president recently called out Black Lives Matter as "a fuse-lighter in the assassinations of these police officers," prompting The Daily Stormer to write approvingly of the candidate's "agenda to protect White people from Blacks."

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Trump had previously limited his incendiary racial remarks to Hispanics -- rapists and killers -- and Muslims, who he branded as terrorists. With Trump egging on whites to scapegoat these populations, it seemed any Trump-inspired white backlash would target these groups alone.

That was the prediction I made in President Trump, my short novel about the first years of a Trump administration. Now, less than a week after finishing that book, its dystopian predictions seem incomplete for not presaging wider violence between blacks and whites.

Major changes in society can start in slow motion. In hindsight, the summer of 2016 might look like a clear turning point. In the midst of it now, that's harder to see. Likewise, it wasn't obvious on the day in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus that a social upheaval had begun, much less that cities would go up in flames 13 years later, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the bus boycott Parks set in motion.

Trump's candidacy, however incendiary, won't set off a race war. But his presidency might.

White nationalists, and those who sympathize with some of their views, will become emboldened, should Trump win in November. After his election, Trump's rhetoric will become policy. The new Deportation Force he promised will start to sweep 11 million illegal immigrants off the streets, wreaking havoc in Hispanic communities and demonizing Latinos in the eyes of many Trump supporters. Those who look like they might be from south of the border will be targeted with insults and worse.

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Surveillance of Muslims in the U.S. and a ban on Muslims entering the country will similarly stigmatize millions of peaceful Americans as terrorists. Muslim-owned stores will be burned, Mosques attacked and violence against women in headscarves will become common.
Some people on the streets of New York City recently appeared to be overdosing on opioid painkillers after their breathing slowed and they became lethargic.

Others appeared to be overdosing on crack cocaine, exhibiting agitated and violent behavior.

Experts at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), however, say those zombielike streetwalkers were on the same drug: K2, or synthetic marijuana.

In all, the NIDA reported that 130 New Yorkers were hospitalized after smoking the drug that can be purchased over-the-counter at less-than-reputable bodegas.

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The next day, NYPD officers inspected five retail establishments on the suspicion they were selling K2, but none was found on the premises.

Representatives of the Doe Fund -- a nonprofit that helps people with histories of homelessness, incarceration, and substance abuse -- held a demonstration around a deli suspected of being a primary source of K2 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area in Brooklyn.

"What we are seeing now with K2 is exactly what we saw with the crack epidemic in the 1980s," George McDonald, the Doe Fund's founder and president, said in a statement.

These cases were only a handful of the estimated 8,000 K2-related emergency room visits in New York City since 2015. It's been illegal in the nation's largest city since 2012.

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K2's a hell of a drug

Unlike marijuana derived from plants, K2 has been linked to a few deaths.

According to a study of 456 synthetic marijuana hospitalizations from 2010 to 2015 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), three deaths were recorded during that period.

The first death was a 17-year-old boy who died of a heart attack reportedly after a single hit of K2.

The second was a man who died of "respiratory depression, agitation, and delirium/toxic psychosis" after mixing synthetic cannabinoids and oxycodone.

The third man died of kidney failure after mixing a synthetic cannabinoid, bath salts, and LSD.

The drug causing these medical problems -- called K2, Spice, and a variety of different names -- are synthetic cannabinoids. The most notable cannabinoid in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which gives the plant its "high."

Dr. Jordan Tishler, a Harvard-educated physician who specializes in cannabis medicine, says K2 and similar drugs are also not just one chemical but a series of similar chemicals that can be made in a lab.

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"The danger stems from two issues. First, the synthetic versions are over 100 times more potent than the natural THC. This means they stimulate the brain both much more and much longer than cannabis does," Tishler, the physician in chief at Inhale MD Medical Consulting, told Healthline. "Second, these synthetic cannabinoids are not from the plant so they contain no balancing cannabinoids like CBD that moderate the effects of natural THC."

What K2 users can experience is the overstimulation of the brain's endocannabinoid system, which is involved in many basic functions throughout our bodies.

Users are likely to experience "wild hallucinations, extreme paranoia that often leads to self-harm, and physiologic derangement such as low blood pressure and racing heart," Tishler said.

"The short story here is that K2 is not cannabis and should not be mistaken for anything to do with natural cannabis use," he said. "Cannabis is a safe and effective medicine for many, whereas these synthetic chemicals are extraordinarily dangerous."

Looks can be deceiving

While synthetic marijuana may look like real marijuana, the type of cannabinoids used in K2 varies depending on its manufacturer, according to Sam Williamson of Realised Recovery addiction counseling in the United Kingdom.

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"For me, the main danger with K2 is that many addicts that I've met seem to consider it as a lesser drug than marijuana," he told Healthline. "This is often the fault of the manufacturers, who often market K2 as a 'safe' alternative to marijuana. But it is just as addictive and just as harmful."

Dr. Joseph Lee, medical director of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Youth Continuum, said while experts have known about synthetic drugs for some time, they continue to find new and different variations of the chemicals used in them.

For that reason, they're attractive to different people for different reasons. Some don't want their drug use showing up on drug screens while others want a bigger and better high.

"Some are in more rural areas where other more commonly used substances are not as readily available, and some users are definitely younger and cannot access other substances," he told Healthline. "So the use of synthetic drugs is rather common."

Lawmakers work to keep up

On July 17, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced legislation to ban the chemicals used to make this so-called synthetic marijuana.

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"We need a federal hammer to nail these toxic concoctions of synthetic drugs before things get worse," Schumer said in a statement.

This would include adding 22 synthetic substances to Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act where, ironically, authentic marijuana currently resides.

There are currently 15 synthetic cannabinoids categorized as Schedule 1, but enforcement is difficult as new chemical compounds are introduced, according to the NIDA.

"Banning these drugs quickly will help the feds step up their game of whack-a-mole so that we can help stem the tide of synthetic drug use here in New York City and across the country," Schumer said.

Others, however, aren't sold on that plan.

Even legalizing traditional marijuana -- as some would argue would be a just response in the face of the synthetic poisonings -- wouldn't solve the problem because people always want a bigger and better high, Lee argues.

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"I think synthetic drugs are here to stay regardless of what happens to real marijuana. Synthetic marijuana is just one kind of synthetic drug. There are so many forms and classes of compounds that can be hard to keep up-to-date even for scientists and physicians," he said.

Legislation and drug policy, Lee says, aren't enough to keep people safe. That comes with prevention, education, and the right messaging.

"Drug dialogues are incredibly complicated because so many people have different experiences and opinions about them," he said. "In our polarized social arena, it's become very difficult to have the kind of important nuanced conversations we need to have."

By Brian Krans
Red light flasher atop of a police car. City lights on the background.

The growing problem of police violence and public mistrust in law enforcement isn't a breakdown of policing but of democracy.

The secrecy and immunity that shield police officers from scrutiny and liability are products of democratic policymaking. They haven't been imposed extra-legally; they were enacted through state legislatures and embedded in state law. It is state law that sets the terms of transparency and accountability, mandating what information the public may have about police officers and establishing the extent to which the police may be held accountable for misuse of the immense powers the public grants them.

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Some might pinpoint the breakdown in terms of the majority's disregard for the rights and interests of others and specifically people of color. On this view, the policies that have been enacted and the abuses that have resulted from them - the racial disparities in stops, detentions, searches, arrests and uses of force; the failure to indict and convict officers for breaking the law; and the failure to use special prosecutors in cases of police misconduct; etc. - reflect precisely what the electorate, or at least a majority of it, wants to see.

This view makes the critical assumption that public opinion translates necessarily and directly into public policy. But how true is that assumption? It certainly doesn't hold true when it comes to gun control - the public overwhelmingly supports universal background checks for all gun buyers and solidly supports a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons - nor does it work with respect to policing.

Consider what policing reforms California voters want and what their elected representatives provide them.

Last year, the ACLU of California released the results of statewide polling on policing reforms. Those results amply demonstrated that California voters want transparency regarding police misconduct:

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84% favored requiring police officers to wear body cameras, and 74% endorsed public access to video captured by those cameras when an officer stands accused of misconduct.

79% said that if police officers have been found to have engaged in misconduct, the public should have access to information from the investigations, with nearly two-thirds (64%) supporting public access whenever an officer is accused of misconduct.

The level of consensus shown by these results is significant and should not be glossed over. While polls consistently find stark disparities in how people of different races and ethnicities view police and assess police violence, and although politics has become highly polarized and fiercely partisan, the strong support for increased transparency carried across racial, ethnic and political party lines. For instance, full public disclosure of police misconduct investigations garnered support from more than nine in ten African American voters (91%), five out of six Latino and Asian voters (84%), and over three-quarters of white voters (76%), as well as nearly nine in ten Democrats (87%), almost four out of five independents (78%) and two-thirds of Republicans (67%).

Yet, despite enjoying such widespread and overwhelming support, these reforms have not been enacted, and this isn't likely to change any time soon. Last year the bills relating to body cam video by and large attempted to prohibit rather that permit public access - those bills fortunately were defeated, but that left police departments, like the LAPD, free to adopt policies that seek to ensure the public never sees video from body cams. And this year a bill with a bipartisan list of authors (SB 1286) - which would have given the public some access to police discipline records - failed to make it out of the appropriations committee, or even get a hearing in appropriations.

So why isn't public opinion enough - why are California politicians doing or attempting to do the exact opposite of what the public wants? It's because the police lobby wields an inordinate amount of power, and too few politicians are willing to challenge it. The efforts to make body cam video and investigations into police misconduct accessible to the public - and seemingly all major police reforms - have been vehemently opposed by police unions and law enforcement organizations, which work excessively to promote secrecy and avoid scrutiny and criticism. So long as politicians are unwilling to legislate in the public interest and risk the criticism and reprisals of the police lobby, the state legislature will remain captured by and captive to the very agencies it should be regulating on behalf of the public. There's been so much talk this election season about rigged our political system is, but this has received no attention.

What can be done? We have to forget what we were taught as children on Schoolhouse Rock about how a bill becomes law - it takes much more than a good idea and a call to your elected official. We must recognize that law enforcement is one of the most aggressive special interests in politics, and we must be just as organized, focused, and assertive, pulling on every lever of influence and power at our disposal to neutralize if not overcome the outsized power of the police lobby to block the reform we all know we need.
Early in my career as a Pan Am stewardess, I transferred in 1968 from the Miami base to San Francisco. I wanted to experience the incredible Pacific flying that the base had to offer. Never having been to Asia before, I remember my first trip to Hong Kong.



As was typical of the Pan Am family, my colleagues were eager to share with me some of the amazing adventures and experiences passed down among previous crew members over the generations. One of these was a trip deep into the bowels of Hong Kong, miles away from the teeming tourists and visiting U.S. soldiers on R&R from the Vietnam War. It wasn't even accessible to taxis.

This day we were on a journey to meet a famous Chinese fortune teller who was well known to Pan Am crews. As we walked miles away from the center of Hong Kong, we encountered no other white people. Soon the local Chinese people began to point out the way, because there would be no other reason for us to be there than to see this fortune teller. Not knowing what to expect, I was nevertheless very excited because this felt like nothing I had experienced before.

When we arrived at our destination, this gracious elderly Chinese man invited us to sit in his living room, and one-by-one, we sat with him at his desk while he asked us about our birthdays and spent about  hour with each of us measuring the lines in our hands. I went first, feeling curious but anxious at the same time. What in the world was he going to tell me? Did I even want to know what he might say?

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His opening sentence stunned me: "the first major trauma in your life happened when your father died when you were eight years old." In fact, I remember very little else about what he said, because my mind couldn't take in the fact that my hand was somehow marked with the event that had forever changed my life.

My father's death when I was eight years old had marked every part of me on the inside, but I was astounded that somehow it showed on the outside. Readers who have experienced the loss of a parent at a young age will know exactly what I'm talking about.

James Abram Garfield Davey -- my Daddy -- was the idealized center of my family. Born in 1887, he was named after President James Abram Garfield, the assassinated friend of my grandfather's. Old enough to be my grandfather, my father was a man of his time. He, like all his brothers, were Teddy Roosevelt type of men -- strong-willed, expansive, and exuberant -- the product of a strict patriarchal system.

Growing up, I knew that none of my friends had a father like mine. But then, that wasn't really about his age. He was the undisputed head of our household, providing a sense of protection and stability through the strength of his personality and character. We all adored him: he was like the sun and the moon and the stars -- the light of our lives. And most of all, he was hilarious, possessing a sense of irony and comic timing that was part Mark Twain, part Will Rogers.

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When I write about my father, I suspect there's a temptation for readers to wonder if I'm just viewing him through the idealized fog of a heartbroken eight-year-old's memory. And while I acknowledge this as a real possibility, the facts of who he was and what he accomplished in his remarkable life are beyond dispute. As he himself always said, "when it comes time for me to croak, I'll have no complaints because I've lived enough life for three men."

As a way of introducing my father, I will quote his brother Martin Davey's unpublished autobiography (1941):

Jim was the one with the rich sense of humor. It was Jim who always kept things lively around our home. He was an exceedingly generous person... and was intensely loyal to the family interests... He was so full of roguish good nature that when he laughed his face would light up with a great radiance... and his laughter was so hearty that it was contagious.

This particular passage always brings tears to my eyes because it captures perfectly the essence of the father I remember so fondly. I can still "hear" that incredible laugh. My father, like his own father, was unique in that he seemed to posses an ability to bend the world to meet his wishes. However, he did it with great good humor and an abiding love for his fellow man. His basic values were those same simple beliefs of his father before him, yet he lived an entirely different kind of life.

Creative by nature, my father never seemed to doubt that an idea would succeed. He possessed the ability to put original ideas into action, make a lot of money almost as an afterthought, and thoroughly enjoy himself while doing it. However, like his father, he was inept at handling finances. Money was not very important to him, except when he ran out of it, and then he would create a new idea.

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My entire life I have been searching for clues as to just who my father was. It's as if I'm trying to fit together pieces of the giant puzzle that represents the mature relationship between father and daughter that we never got to enjoy. As a child, after my father's death, I would go over and over my memories of him at night before sleep, cataloguing them as well as I could, intuiting that memories fade. Ken Burns, the brilliant documentary film maker, lost his mother to cancer at the age of 9, and claims he has "devoted his life to bringing dead people alive." I've always loved doing the same thing.

My brother, sister, and I have always been stymied about what to say when people ask what our father did for a living. I'm always tempted to say, "Do you have a few hours?" I feel that my response sounds preposterous, like an exaggeration or even a downright lie. Usually I don't even try to explain.

Now, in this book, I have the opportunity to tell his stories, to bring his remarkable life alive again through photographs and newspaper clippings. I'll tell you about his unbelievably extensive world travels in search of never-before-seen trees, which he called "big tree hunting," in the 1920's; about his first ever automated safari from Capetown to Cairo; how, using the knowledge he learned from my grandfather, he saved all the trees in Central Park in 1928; how he invented the world's first luxury RV; how he was in the circle of the world's most famous explorers; how he witnessed the decision between his brother-in-law at that time, George Putnam and Dorothy Binney Putnam, to divorce because of George's relationship with Amelia Earhart; and so many more.

I can see how this catalogue of achievements can seem to be an idealized recreation of a man's life. But let me tell you some of the stories and you can decide for yourself.
Remaining in the political character he has had for at least five years, Donald Trump's acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention reiterated his determination to walk away from America's current policy of free trade. The relevant sections are below:

"Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. Our trade deficit in goods -- think of this -- our trade deficit reached nearly $800 billion last year alone. We're going to fix that...

"Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders - he never had a chance. But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest single issue: trade deals that strip our country of our jobs and strip us of our wealth as a country...

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"I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat of which there are many.

It's been a signature message of my campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the moment I take the oath of office.

I have made billions of dollars in business making deals - now I'm going to make our country rich again. Using the richest people in the world, which our country has, I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great trade agreements. America has lost nearly-one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Remember, it was Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country -- or, frankly, any other country. Never again. I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York and Michigan and all of America - and I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences. Not going to happen anymore.

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My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA, and she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organization - another one of her husband's colossal mistakes and disasters. She supported the job- killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make America subject to the rulings of foreign governments and it's not going to happen.

I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence. I will never, ever sign bad trade deals. America fist, again! America first! Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries. No longer will we enter into these massive transactions, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long - and which no one from our country even reads or understands.

We are going to enforce all trade violations against any country that cheats. This includes stopping China's outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. They are the greatest that ever came about; they are the greatest currency manipulators ever! Our horrible trade agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America - and we'll walk away if we don't get that kind of a deal. We are going to start building and making things again.
A recent mural by Street Artist and fine artist Borondo in the neighborhood of Tegel in Berlin has drawn some attention because of its potentially uncomfortable associations and imagery. Sponsored by Urban Nation as part of their "One Wall" initiative of bringing many large murals to neighborhoods across the city, this one has engaged the ire of at least a portion of the community it appears in.

Borondo for Urban Nation this spring (UN) in the Tegel section of Berlin. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

A so-called "controversy" is on media (print, online, and social) radar thanks largely in part to the efforts of one aspiring community leader and candidate for town hall on the center-right CDU ticket, who has rallied neighbors and reached out to the press to protest imagery they say is depressing and frightening because there is red paint that appears to be blood coming from the figure of the girl. The second figure tied to a tree also is a big concern. A new campaign to gather signatures on a petition has begun and accounts in the press say the group would like to find an alternate solution to this mural.

Borondo (photo  Jaime Rojo)

Works of art, of course, will have fans and enemies - as well as people in the middle who have no interest or opinion. This may be a similar situation with the many advertisements on the streets of Berlin featuring images of bare bottoms and breasts that are exalted salaciously from every angle, bearded leather men in carnal embraces, and various action-warriors and criminals and brandishing bloody swords and weaponry.

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Berlin, by and large, appears to withstand the thousands of advertising images that undoubtedly challenge the various tastes of its populace. Last year, for example, 200 large Berlin billboards even featured a sex toy by Amorelie with the text "Multiple Orgasmen", which for you kids and English speakers is translated as "multiple orgasms". Naturally some racy or violent images, messages, or themes will possibly offend older folks, children, conservative Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and immigrants arriving from new countries.

In his personal Facebook page the artist Borondo wrote a lengthy description of his surreal and metaphorical mural called, "Willkommen Refugees" (Welcome Refugees), which he created as Urban Nation's program PM/9 this spring, curated by Justkids and StreetArtNews. In it he appears to describe the piece as a cautionary tale of looking before leaping, something we always encourage children to do. One of the figures is based on the iconic figure of Saint Sebastian, an early Christian saint and martyr venerated by both Catholic and Orthodox Churches; an interesting figure who is said to have been persecuted for his religious beliefs in Rome in 288 AD and who was comforted by Irene of Rome.

Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by Il Sodoma, c. 1525

Saint Sebastian has been depicted in paintings, sculpture, icons, and tattoos as tied to a tree or column, shot full of arrows.

The same image has proven powerful to hundreds of artists through the centuries and has been seen publicly by varied audiences of adults and children in churches, museums, galleries, - and reprised as an archetype for fashion and editorial features in magazines and websites - including a famous one of the boxer Muhammed Ali as a martyr figure similar to Saint Sebastian on the cover of Esquire magazine, which was sold publicly on newsstands.

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Photographer Carl Fischer's magazine cover image of Muhammad Ali was directly influenced by Andrea Mantegna's c.288 painting of Saint Sebastian - with inspiration from art director George Lois, according to High Snobriety.

Borondo says he doesn't like to impose his own interpretation on his work, which he clarifies is not meant to be just a decoration, and he indicates that he did a fair amount of research into the community, its history, even its weather, when choosing the images and the color palette. But for the sake of continued dialogue, he does break it down for viewers.

"If I explain the work my meaning seems to suggest that there is only one interpretation that is right and all others would be wrong. But sometimes the viewer's interpretations are more interesting and completely different from the ones I had and I don't want to close this discourse or exchange.

For me it is a poem composed by images and colors instead of words. I believe that in an art piece it is important to get not an immediate reaction but to promote critical thinking, a research of meanings and different levels of communication.In this case I wanted to flow on the surface using different image and references to create a sort of big collage realized directly on the 14th floors high wall.

Borondo (photo  Jaime Rojo)

The wall is divided in two sides with a gap of windows in the centre so I used this gap to represent a wall that creates a double dimension. On the left side there's a figure looking through a hole, while the right side depicts St. Sebastian inspired by Renaissance paintings inserted in a snow forest with a cloud accumulation on top. The "wall" represents a division, a frontier and in this case creates a distance: outside the drama and inside an empty room with a small hole from which one can see the reality. A reality that we may pretend to not see but we need to be curious about - as the child depicted here - to know and understand."

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Not everyone is convinced by Borondo's description of his work, and some are particularly sure that children and emotionally scarred adults who go to a nearby therapy center will be very negatively impacted. Additionally there is a sentiment that the artwork is an imposition on daily life. A user on Facebook named Katrin Balcou responds on Borondo's posting,

"You forgot to mention, that there is a daycare for children between 1 to 6 years old next to this building and on the other side a house, which is known as the suicidehouse.

I understand what you want to tell us, but it won't help me or other parents to explain this to our little children every day, we have to walk there. And for the Refugees, who will come there to the end of the year ... I don't know, but if I would have seen what they have seen, I would want to see something different at a place, which will be my new home in safety ... no reminder every day of a horrible past.

The real Problem I see here, even if I know the picture by now, I have no chance, not to look at it every morning and evening, when I cross the Street there. Art is good and needed, but I want to decide by myself, if I want to see it or not and here you force me to look at it and that is -- for me -- no art anymore."

Online and on TV, Felix Schonebeck has been at the front of the protest against the mural and he is also running as one of the youngest candidates for the CDU this September. Mr. Schonebeck is not quoted mentioning Saint Sebastian or Borondo much when he is standing before the cameras of various news stations that come to Tegel to see him and the mural. Similarly, many of the media reports don't mention the artist or his explanation of his work. It does appear that Schonebeck has analyzed the art and has concluded that the artist has created an affront to the community.

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This Borondo wall is 4th in a series of murals begun last year for the residents by some pretty famous Street Art names that include a duo named The London Police, the German twin brothers How & Nosm, and a collaboration with Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A. Until this new Borondo mural went up this spring, Schonebeck and the community have given the other murals good marks. What is a little unclear is why these other murals have escaped criticism and threats of public petitions and media campaigns. That is perhaps one of the ironies of art - it can be very subjective.

Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A created this mural just to the right of Borondo's for Urban Nation this spring (UN) in Tegel. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

The English Art critic Clive Bell was an advocate of formalism but his intellect also clearly recognized that our experience of art is often skewed through that other less measured and quantified quality, our emotions. In an essay from his book entitled "Art" just over a hundred years ago, Bell wrote, "The starting-point for all systems of aesthetics must be the personal experience of a peculiar emotion. The objects that provoke this emotion we call works of art. All sensitive people agree that there is a peculiar emotion provoked by works of art."

With this in mind, it may be that the emotional response to these artists painting styles has revealed how different audiences are affected by them, because at least two of the three other murals here contain elements, that is "content" in modern Internet parlance, that could prove equally objectionable to certain viewers. However political candidates and community residents have given some paintings high marks possibly because of the artist's particular aesthetics.

German twins How & Nosm created this mural in the same housing complex Borondo's for Urban Nation last summer (UN) in Tegel. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

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Installed for a year, the How & Nosm piece "On Tip Toes" has gone without negative comment from politicians or community members, despite what may appear to some as a composition showing a figure cut in half, bisected. There is a heavy use of the color red in their work that also could be seen as dripping or gushing blood in the various symbolic scenes that play out across the wall. Perhaps it is a matter of personal taste that this wall has been embraced to some degree - as the brother's work contains more clearly defined, energetic geometric shapes and rhythms, emulating styles more often associated with comics, cartoons, or graphic novels.

German twins How & Nosm created this mural in the same housing complex Borondo's for Urban Nation last summer (UN) in Tegel. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

The themes inside the illustrative forms and figures are less obvious than Borondo's mural but How & Nosm's work has been described in the past as including complex motifs that often address topics such as drug abuse, fraud or oppression and they personally have described many dark themes that draw from their own challenging biography in interviews.

The London Police created this mural in the same housing complex on the opposite end of Borondo's building for Urban Nation (UN) in Tegel. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

There has also been a surprising lack of commentary regarding the otherworldly scenario depicted 42 meters high by The London Police in the housing complex - at the exact end of the building that Borondo's mural is on. Enormous sperm-like smiley faces float in the toxic green sky, gently delivering dead or nearly unconscious robot figures down on top of a Berlin cityscape. This imagery also could prove nightmarishly scary to children who can see it very clearly from the nearby playground, yet, no public campaign has arisen to protest it.

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We exaggerated the description of that mural, but for illustrative purposes. One can see, as most people do, that art is purely subjective and has always been. Contemplating the inexact and sometimes murky quality of an artists' expression may be frightening to some viewers, reassuring and encouraging to others.

Saint Sebastian is flanked by angelic looking young figures over the doorway at Kath. Kirchengemeinde St. Sebastian Church in Berlin's Wedding neighborhood, about 12 kilometers from the Borondo mural in Tegel. The church's website says that Children's services are held at 10 am on Sundays.

On the day we went to see this contested mural we saw perhaps of handful of people on a typical weekday walking by it, including an older couple who stopped to snap a photo of the mural as well as the Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A collaboration next to it of a multi-hued bird. Neither seemed particularly unnerved but were pleasantly pointing to areas of it and discussing it - which rather seems to be to point of public art. They walked further up the sidewalk, albeit slowly. We also saw a few kids riding bicycles past, and a family of father, mother and two kids get into a car parked across the street from it. It was not evident superficially that the mural had impacted them, but of course we are not social scientists. We did notice that the sky was grey and cloudy, and the atmospheric quality of Borondo's piece rather blended directly into it.

Full disclosure, we have worked with Urban Nation as curators of art and artists, most recently for our "Persons of Interest" show in the nascent UN museum space for a show the Spring of 2015, so we are familiar with at least that part of the organization and it's director, Yasha Young. From an intellectual perspective on how our show was handled by UN, we can say that our 12 Brooklyn-based artists delved deeply into the cultural and social history of Berlin as well as Brooklyn, and UN stood behind some of the more challenging themes addressed directly or indirectly by artists such as religious freedom, the wearing of headscarves, feminist empowerment, immigration, African-German identity, GLBT issues, racism, corruption, the damaging effect of drugs and alcohol, celebrity culture, and depression.

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As ever, one can also see the value of seeking and finding a balance with art and the community. Naturally, dialogue can be intrinsic to the success of large-scale mural projects. It will be interesting to see how the future of Borondo's "Willkommen Refugees" plays out but we're guessing that more discussion about the piece, its authors intentions, and the community's opinion will be better than less.

I Love Tegel site http://ilovetegel.de/category/allgemein/

Schonebeck's FB page https://www.facebook.com/felix.schoenebeck

_____________________________________________________________

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This article is also posted on Brooklyn Street Art.

Read all posts by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo on The Huffington Post HERE.

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Vietnam Airlines profit rockets to $71 mln in first half

The national flag carrier nearly tripled its gross profit thanks to a jump in passengers.

Rising passenger numbers have helped drive Vietnam Airlines' profits skywards in the first six months of this year, according to a company report.

Vietnam Airlines transported 9.65 million passengers in the period, an increase of 15.5 percent on-year, with foreign passengers up 6.9 percent and domestic passengers up 21.1 percent, the national flag carrier said in the report.

As a result, the airliner's gross profit in the first six months jumped to VND1.598 trillion ($70.7 million), a massive 272 percent spike on-year.

However, it also reported more threats to aviation safety and security in the first six months, according to the report.

The company had to deal with 65 aviation safety and security incidents, an increase of nine from the same period last year, the report said.

The airline conducted around 70,000 flights in H1, up 10.7 percent on-year.

Related news:

> Vietnam Airlines share sales to Japans ANA complete

> Circus group responsible for targeting plane with laser: Vietnam police
As the nation takes stock of the bizarre fever dream that took place in Cleveland this past week, it's easy to forget that the GOP actually unveiled its platform that translates the rhetoric - from "lock her up" to "kill the deal" - into actual policy proposals.

On the Iran deal, the party attempted to cobble together a constitutional case for why the next President should undo U.S. commitments - attempting to cast killing the deal as a matter of real principle rather than just another transparent act of political sabotage against Obama or a doubling down on the neocon dream of Iraq-style regime change in Iran. But as much as the platform tries to dress it up, it is still a pledge to "tear the deal to shreds":

We consider the Administration's deal with Iran, to lift international sanctions and make hundreds of billions of dollars available to the Mullahs, a personal agreement between the President and his negotiating partners and non-binding on the next president. Without a two-thirds endorsement by the Senate, it does not have treaty status. ... A Republican president will not be bound by it.

The platform puts the Iran deal at the centerpiece of a pledge to demand treaties for ALL international agreements:

[Obama's] media admirers portray his personal commitments -- whether on climate change, Iranian weapons, or other matters -- as done deals. They are not, and a new Republican executive will work with the Congress to reestablish constitutional order in America's foreign relations. All international executive agreements and political arrangements entered into by the current Administration must be deemed null and void as mere expressions of the current president's preferences.

Keep in mind, the Republican-controlled Congress has barely been able to pass a budget, let alone approve even the most benign of treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. And, considering that Donald Trump has now repeatedly said he would not consider himself bound to America's NATO obligations - obligations that were indeed ratified by the Senate in simpler times (ahem, NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - this supposedly principled fealty to treaties comes off as a little less than sincere.

To be fair, the platform is technically accurate on this point (something that can't be said about much of the document's characterizations of the Iran deal itself). The next President is not legally bound to uphold the Iran deal. There are, in fact, a lot of things the President isn't legally bound to do but which would be really reckless - and violating the Iran deal is at the top of the list. This is not a bilateral agreement negotiated exclusively with Iran, it was an agreement entered with the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany. If the U.S. violates the deal, Iran would not just be completely freed from its nuclear constraints, but we would seriously discredit ourselves and antagonize our allies - who would be unwilling to "snap back" sanctions or follow our lead again on such matters after being so badly burned. Iran's nuclear program could once again advance unfettered while the U.S. would be badly isolated on the issue, leaving Trump and the Republicans with little recourse to reverse Iran's progress towards breakout capability other than to start a war.

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But if Donald Trump is willing to shred a NATO treaty that could be all that separates us from World War III, what should his party care about shredding the Iran deal based on its fictional hysterics and starting just one more military adventure in the Middle East?

The platform's treaty argument is a familiar one - the Senate's own self-styled Constitutional expert and renegade diplomat Tom Cotton (R-AK) led the charge in making this argument with considerable bravado last year. He corralled 46 of his Republican colleagues to sign onto a letter to Iran's leaders, behind the backs of the President and American negotiators, informing Tehran that he and his esteemed friends would blow up any agreement negotiated by Obama because it's not a treaty. Many who signed the letter acknowledged it was a mistake (John McCain even said he was trying to get out of town to avoid a snowstorm and was apparently just signing onto letters at random as part of his exit strategy). The whole episode was a major embarrassment, but apparently there is no ceiling to the levels of embarrassment some are willing to provoke when it comes to the long game against the Iran deal. Cotton is now even being talked about as a 2020 candidate. Seriously.

Meanwhile, the whole debate ignores the fact that Congress did get a vote on the agreement. Several Democrats, led by Senator Tim Kaine, broke with the White House and demanded bipartisan legislation to give the Senate and the House 60 days to review the deal and vote on it. Those like Kaine voted for it while opponents of the deal, almost exclusively Republicans, failed to secure enough votes to block the nuclear agreement and so the deal went through. In some parallel universe where Congress is a functioning branch of government, that would be the end of the story.

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Here in the dystopian political reality of 2016, opponents of the Iran deal continue to relentlessly work to unravel it - and they really need to take a deep breath. The Iran deal is not the first of its kind. Some of the most consequential international agreements negotiated by the U.S. - from the Atlantic Charter to the Helsinki Accords - have not been negotiated as treaties. That did not mean that as soon as the Administration who negotiated those deals left office, their successor treated the agreements as a mere "preference" of the former President. Incoming presidents don't swap out their predecessors international agreements as casually as the White House drapes and china (though I am sure Trump's decisions on the interior design of the White House would be pretty reckless in their own right).
Today on social media, the greatest dispenser of seeming truth since Lucifer tempted Eve, arose a meme that, in paraphrase, reasons thus: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, in his artful speech on freedom before the Quicken Loans Arena faithful Wednesday night in Cleveland, delivered a "courageous," principled and much-needed rebuke of the GOP nominee for President, Donald J. Trump.

The argument behind the shibboleth goes like this. First, Mr. Trump deserved this payback when he insulted the looks of Mr. Cruz's wife Heidi during the GOP primary and subsequently accused Cruz's Cuban father, Rafael Cruz, of a tangential association to the JFK assassination. In both cases, Trump largely re-tweeted tweets that made these egregious points. Is the injury any less injurious because it was not directly delivered? I leave that to Mr. Cruz's conclave of dwindling backers to ascertain.

But statements by a former political consultant to Mr. Cruz, Amanda Carpenter, last night on CNN suggested that Cruz' major beef was not with Trump's numerous ad hominems, but, rather, that Cruz felt in his heart of preachy hearts that Trump was not a "true conservative." Read this way, Cruz's persuasive elucidation of conservative principles of freedom on taxes, regulations, and myriad other areas he thought best left to states or individual conscience was a protest against the ideological premise of Mr. Trump's candidacy and the convention convened to nominate the New York real estate tycoon as the party's standard-bearer.

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Except for one small problem: compared to the binary anti-conservative choice of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, Donald J. Trump - who has adopted almost every conservative principle and policy position that Cruz spoke of so eloquently Wednesday night - is almost to the right of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. As former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, said to wild applause on the Quicken Loans stage after Cruz's surreal act of political suicide, "So to paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you want to protect the Constitution this fall, there's only one possible way and that's to vote the Trump-Pence ticket."

This is not a new blind spot for Mr. Cruz. Long detested in Congress for his sanctimonious rhetoric and indomitable unwillingness to compromise on his "principles," he has often failed to embrace an ally when he has one. The holier-than-thou Cruz thus personifies that time-honored DC mantra: "Don't Make the Perfect the Enemy of the Good."

Mind you, Mr. Trump is hardly the Platonic form of Republican goodness. His boorish rhetoric, incurious mindset, and gross ignorance of policy specifics, let alone the Constitution, is a genuine cause for concern for which I have castigated Mr. Trump in the past.

However, these indecorous aspects of Mr. Trump were not breaking news to Mr. Cruz, who frequently lobbed ad hominems at the GOP nominee during the primary campaign that trumped those of Trump himself. Cruz directly called Trump a "pathological liar," a "narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen," "a serial philanderer," a "sniveling coward," and "utterly amoral." Those are mostly diagnosticl portrayals that Mr. Cruz, a lawyer by training, should have left to professional counselors to ascertain. Yet, on balance, they are no less egregious than the ad hominems that Trump directly or indirectly hurled at the man he deemed "Lyin' Ted."

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Moreover, as lowbrow and unfitting as these statements were, they were by no means the worst epithets ever uttered in a U.S. primary campaign. A quick step back in history shows that the rhetoric deployed in countless previous elections was far more base than anything hurled by Cruz or Trump.

Yet, in almost all cases of intense primary strife, the losing candidate found a way to rise above the personal fray, and, like far-seeing adults have done for millennia, speak to a more elevated purpose. Sausage-making, as the expression goes, is ugly business. And political sausage-making is uglier still. It is indeed the great irony of republican governance that out of ugly, messy, and vicious campaigns arises noble leadership. Mr. Cruz, not only a student of political history but a champion debater (albeit in a less rigorous form than the gold standard of policy debate) should know this better than most.

The proper, moral, and adult thing to do, whenever a campaign's second place finisher is asked to speak at the winner's convention, is to bring the party together in unity. This is what happened in almost every single American campaign in history. It is best exemplified by Cruz icon, Ronald Reagan, in his 1976 speech endorsing GOP primary winner Gerald Ford.

Had he followed Reagan's script, Mr. Cruz would still be seen as an "outsider," and true to his "conscience," but with the side benefit of being the leading GOP contender come 2020 or 2024. It's now unclear whether Cruz, after being publicly dressed down by his own Texas state delegation on Thursday morning, will even be reelected.

Yet knowing these risks, Mr. Cruz - showing a vindictive, infantile pettiness unbecoming of his age and political stature - decided to rhetorically rain on the victor's parade. I chalk this stunt up to a fundamental flaw in the fundamentalist firmament of Ted Cruz, who shortly after delivering his pompous non-endorsement, showed his true character by running for succor and approval to billionaire campaign contributor, Sheldon Adelson. In a surprising act of Kantian virtue likely to endear the Las Vegas casino tycoon to Trumpian hearts, Adelson summarily denied the disgraced Cruz entrance to his convention suite.

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Suddenly friendless in a hall filled with former friends (many of whom joined with the New York Republican delegation in vociferously booing this wannabe Marc Antony off the Quicken Loans Arena stage), Mr. Cruz no doubt sought out his chief defender, the aggrieved and formerly sympathetic Mrs. Cruz. However, Heidi Cruz - now seen as an accomplice in this act of hideous treason - was being escorted out of Quicken Loans to a chorus of "Goldman Sachs! Goldman Sachs!" Heidi Cruz is an employee of the investment banking concern.

It was a Bernie-Sanders-like admonition that reveals the cross-party populist appeal of Mr. Trump. An appeal, seen now in jealous retrospect, that must have grated on the self-enamored Mr. Cruz, a child of a first-generation Cuban-American preacher man, who obviously instilled in his son a love of country, but failed miserably in imparting a sense of place, decorum, and good sportsmanship.

There are some who unwisely think that Cruz's small-minded performance will endear him to Republican hearts come 2020, should Mr. Trump fail at the ballot box come November. Such calculation was no doubt an unspoken undercurrent to Mr. Cruz's unbridled hubris.

If so, then Ted Cruz, who is by upbringing as much Canadian and Cuban as he is American, fails, like Mr. Obama (who spent large swaths of his childhood off the U.S. mainland) before him, in grasping time-honored values that longstanding Americans of all stripes hold dear. First, be a man of your word. Last night, before millions of Americans, Cruz broke his campaign pledge to support the GOP nominee. Secondly, if graciously asked to speak at a convention, then publicly back the nominee, however briefly, despite one's differences. Third, loyalty is a virtue greater than all others, especially among rivals seeking the greater good.

Ted Cruz violated these tenets. His behavior, in running right to the money, right after his speech, shows that he, not the largely self-financed Mr. Trump, is the true imposter to conservatism. In fact, Mr. Cruz just validated Mr. Trump's conservative outsider bona fides.

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Many pundits - most of them Democrats and thus fans of Hillary-style hyper-controlling message management - admonished Trump for the Cruz debacle. Having known what the Junior Senator was to say two hours before, Mr. Trump, argue the micro-meddlers, should not have let Mr. Cruz speak at all or should have demanded a quid pro quo endorsement in exchange for Cruz's prime-time speaking slot. While a good argument can be made that Trump is at times slipshod in his governance, in this case he did the right and conservative thing.

As Mr. Cruz intoned on the Quicken Loans stage, conservatism is about freedom from excessive intrusions into one's rights, including the right to free speech. Moreover, as Mr. Cruz artfully noted, conservatism is about ascertaining the good on one's own, in accord with eternal principles, free of government edicts and nanny-state regulations. We should aim, if Mr. Cruz is to be believed, to become proud, strong, self-created individuals, living in diverse states that govern in accordance with the needs and values of their respective localities, but always pointing, despite these differences, to the greater good.
Without broadband connectivity to the last miles of America, neither the nation's health citizens (taxpayers, all) won't fully benefit from the promise of digital health technology.

U.S. taxpayers have already underwritten $35 billion on the HITECH Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Stimulus Bill). HITECH provided economic incentives to hospitals and physicians to purchase and implement electronic health records systems (EHRs). As health care has nearly universally adopted EHRs over the past several years, venture capitalists and other financiers have funded investments in hundreds of digital health ventures. Most of those that have survived the start-up phase haven't yet moved the needle on improving health care or lowering costs.

One key ingredient missing from digital health nirvana is the deployment of broadband connectivity in every community in America.

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Most of my work as a health economist and advisor to the health industry in the past twenty-five years has been largely focused on the coasts, between Boston and Washington, DC, and in Northern California. But over the past several years, I've had the opportunity to extensively travel throughout the U.S., meeting with health providers in the heartland, from Alabama to Wisconsin, Arizona to Georgia, and states in-between. I've been spreading the word about new health care consumers in the new health economy, brainstorming the challenges and opportunities with hospitals about patients now paying more for health care out-of-pocket in high-deductible health plans, newly-insured health citizens, and Millennials seeking healthcare served up in I-want-it-now retail-style environments like they find in Amazon (especially Prime) and Uber.

As I listen to hospital administrators in rural and exurban areas, I'm humbled by what I'm hearing: rural hospitals are under threat of closure. In the meantime, rural Americans need care across the continuum: prevention, primary care, acute care, and chronic care for health citizens diagnosed with conditions they can manage at home.

Rural and exurban health care providers are diligently working to reinvent themselves, re-imagining new ways to deliver care and innovate under dramatically economically constrained environments. The one infrastructure investment that will be a lifeline to these organizations and for the patients and people they serve is broadband, which underpins a health provider's ability to deliver care virtually and scale care at a distance in geographic areas with sparse population concentrations.

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My realization, listening to CXOs leading rural hospitals, is that broadband is now a social determinant of health. Without connectivity to Internet clouds, data platforms, and telemedicine channels to specialists, rural health care providers and others in under-served communities will not be able to provide evidence-based care in ways that can scale in economically sustainable ways using 21st century digital and telehealth technologies.

Healthcare costs in the U.S. reached $3.4 trillion in 2015, we learned from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this month. There is a growing evidence base for connected health's role in helping expand health care services and lower per capita health care costs in America. But among the limiting factors to adopting telehealth in the U.S. are huge gaps in broadband access, noted by the FCC in a recent report on the state of connectivity in the nation.

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's platform on technology for the nation features a recommendation for growing broadband in America to 100% - that is, to the proverbial "last mile. " This week, Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced a bill to help cut the costs of health information technology in rural areas, calling out the importance of broadband services in connectivity-underserved areas of the U.S. Maggie Elehwany, vice president of government affairs and policy for the National Rural Care Association, said, "Not only do you need the appropriate internet connection, you need the appropriate bandwidth to do various types of telehealth."
For the second time in less than a month, Presidents Pena Nieto and Obama are meeting to explore how to deepen collaboration in issues ranging from security to climate change and our commercial relationship. The timing of this meeting on Friday--between the two presidential conventions--could just be chalked up to a coincidental schedule alignment. But it also sends a powerful signal of how critical the relationship is just as parts of the nation are transfixed by rhetoric blaming Mexico for problems that it didn't create.

The US-Mexico partnership is unlike any other foreign relationship. It's not just about cooperation between two capitals. The ties stretch from state capitals to city halls and then right up Main Street. From Phoenix, where Mayor Greg Stanton has called for increased US-Mexico trade, to Dallas, where Mayor Mike Rawlings traveled to Mexico City last month with his Fort Worth counterpart on a mission to boost the $1.3 billion in trade between their cities and Mexico.

City leaders get it. They don't have time for political grandstanding or conjuring up fears of a steadfast ally. Mayors need to create jobs. And they need small businesses to do it. The nearly 28 million small businesses in our country are responsible for half of private-sector employment. Without small businesses, approximately 12 of the 19 million net new jobs created since NAFTA was signed into law would be at risk.

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It is true that major corporations gain from the strong economic ties our countries share; but less recognized is the tremendous benefits reaped by American small businesses. With over a billion dollars crossing the US-Mexico border every day, it's important to remember that small mom-and-pop shops across America count on the continued flow of goods and commerce to keep their operations running. And at a time of manufacturing uncertainty, small firms have actually increased their share of manufacturing employment by 10 percent since NAFTA was passed.

These small businesses are the bread and butter of small towns and large cities. From Peoria to Houston, more than 38,000 small businesses - supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs -- across our country depend on their exports to Mexico. Over 20 percent of all US businesses exporting globally can be identified as small businesses. Without Mexico, over $52 billion in these small business' sales would be at risk. Put another way, the value of small business exports to Mexico is greater than the total gross domestic product of four states.

Clearly, for our nation's small businesses, the future of our south-bound exports is critical to their survival. For them and their employees, leaving the future of the commercial relationship to political grandstanding will only bring uncertainty and shuttered windows. We cannot let this happen. This is the moment to get the facts on why Mexico is a critical partner for the United States.

Jobs are precious in our rapidly changing economy. We are the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, a technological revolution changing how we work and live. The labor market will fundamentally alter as a result. This means we cannot squander the 6 million American jobs that depend on trade with Mexico.

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Which is what makes the current isolationist rhetoric so concerning. Decrying the evils of trade and threatening to slap massive tariffs on Mexican imports, the conversation surrounding commercial policy has become steeped in controversy. A lack of understanding of the true impact of our economic relationship with Mexico is dangerous, allowing people to embrace protectionist policies without considering the serious ramifications for their neighbors.

Putting up barriers to one of the world's most dynamic commercial relationships will cause undo and unnecessary harm to the millions of Americans that depend on trade with Mexico. And it will pummel the tens of thousands of small businesses that depend on exports to Mexico for their survival.

So let's take this moment, with the two presidents again meeting, to turn the tide, to launch a new effort that broadens the North American commercial relationship so we can best compete globally. The unprecedented levels of economic integration we share with Mexico should be deepened, not threatened, in order to support American prosperity at all levels.
At ColorComm 2016, the largest gathering for women and women of color in the communications industry, I sat down with my colleague and friend Jean-Rene Zetrenne, Chief Talent Officer at Ogilvy & Mather to hear his views on promoting diversity at Ogilvy, our industry and beyond. Jean-Rene leads Ogilvy & Mather's Human Resources practice and people-focused strategy.

In 1968 David Ogilvy said "in recruitment and promotion, we are fanatical in our hatred for all forms of prejudice." The fact this does not sound revolutionary in 2016 is a mark of how far we have come as an industry. But the continued importance of dedicated Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, shows how far we have to go.



JEN: What are the latest trends on improving diversity in the workplace?

JR: There is certainly more attention on diversity and inclusion, and events like ColorComm are a great way to share ideas and advance the agenda together. But having worked in Talent Management across both brands and agencies for over 20 years I have seen another pattern emerge. There has been increasing commitment to the issue amongst executives and leadership, but despite our apparent success, the changing statistics mask an apathy in the middle and entry levels of companies across the marketing communications industry.

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JEN: In your opinion, why don't more employees champion diversity in the workplace?

JR: We have inadvertently limited diversity to being a Talent or HR issue - rather than a priority that needs to be embedded enough throughout an agency as a whole. There is often an underlying and unspoken belief that as individuals, managers are not personally responsible for advancing this agenda. There is a sense that it's "someone else's problem to deal with" or "outside my remit." There are a host of reasons and we've heard them all before: "My client is in crisis and we need talent who can hit the ground running." "There is just not enough 'qualified' diverse talent in our industry." "It's too risky to hire someone without transferable skills."



JEN: How does diversity make brands matter?

JR: Homogenous thinking is not conducive to creativity. We exist to make work that connects with an increasingly diverse marketplace, and we will fail to do so if those behind the work do not reflect the audiences we are supposed to reach. On this basis, diversity and inclusion is a competitive and business imperative, as well as a social one.



JEN: How can diversity impact creativity?
My first reactions to hearing the news about the shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida were ones of shock and horror, then grief and profound sadness. In the days that followed I found myself thinking a lot about my mother and sister and father, all whom have passed within the last seven years.

It brought back emotions of loss and mourning. Even though I did not personally know any of the 49 victims killed, as a gay woman I feel as though they were family too.

I told a Facebook friend that I was shaken to my core. The predictable political battle lines were waged as they are after every mass shooting. Blame terrorism, blame mental illness, blame gun laws, blame politicians, blame the president, blame the past president, blame religion, blame the candidates for exploiting a tragedy, blame the gays for bringing this on themselves, and Pat Robertson went so far as to say God did this and blamed the Supreme Court and the American public for accepting gay marriage. Yes, there is plenty of blame to go around. We have been doing this since Columbine in the 90s.

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But I noticed something different this time that I don't recall hearing in the past: the word "LOVE." My sister brought it up in her Facebook Post right after the shooting and of course it was shot down by a friend who said "Love is naive." (Guess he is in the blaming terrorists camp.) I responded by quoting from First Corinthians 13: 4-8:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Nowhere does it say Love is naive, I pointed out to him.

But this is not the only place the word "Love" has come up. Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda recited the word many times in his acceptance speech for the Tony award he won for writing "Hamilton." It moved the audience and myself in an inspiring way.

Just saying the word brings forth positive emotions and strength and empowerment. I always remember my mother when I think about Love. She was the first human being that loved me from birth to now (she is still with me even in death). She knew Love as a verb and she lived it every day. That love and acceptance and warmth and comfort she gave me as a child growing up and as an adult later will be with me my whole life. I try to tap into that well whenever I'm down or need compassion to understand the hatred that so many have fallen victim to.

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Her love taught me to love myself, even as a gay person. Perhaps the shooter was a closet gay. Perhaps he had self hatred and he could not reconcile his sexual longings with his Muslim religion. He grew up in the US after his parents migrated from Afghanistan in the 1980s. One would think he would be assimilated into American culture by the time he reached his 20s. Maybe he had a mental illness from birth. Maybe that is why the ISIS ideology appealed to him. We may never know the answers to all of these questions.

But as a gay person growing up in America, I know the shame and fear of coming out. I was raised in the 1950s and I never could have imagined we would ever achieve gay marriage or be able to openly serve in the military or adopt children. These are exciting times for us. But I can relate to the teen suicides and the gay conversion therapies forced on us of the past.

When I was a teen member of a Baptist Church I was given a pamphlet that talked about how sinful it was to be a homosexual and that it was against God's laws. They likened it to alcoholism and drug addiction. It scared me enough to stay in the closet until I was 29.

Yes, we have come a long way just in the last few years. But this massacre is a stark reminder that the hatred and fear is still out there. That is why this outpouring of Love for our community cannot be understated.

Both Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon gave stirring commentaries on their late night talk shows and both talked about Love and Hope. It was extraordinarily moving.

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Hillary Clinton spoke of the way America came together and mobilized on September 12, 2001 after 9/11. I remember that as a time when we all got enlightened in seeing something greater than material goods and getting ahead and that something was LOVE for our family and friends and country.

Right after Orlando I had a strong desire to go visit my lifelong friend who is recovering from a serious car accident she had last Labor Day. She is in a nursing home and has made progress after breaking her neck and enduring many surgeries and having partial paralysis in her arms and legs. She is now off the respirator and breathing on her own as well as eating on her own. All huge steps.

She is an hour and a half away and I hadn't been to see her in over a month but I knew I had to go. I knew she would comfort me and she did. She had seen the news and the aftermath of the shooting on TV and gave me a big hug and condolences and pointed out that the world is supporting the LGBT community with the Eiffel tower in rainbow colors and vigils in nations around the globe. That was so inspiring to see.

My visit was fruitful. She helped me immensely. I admire her courage and optimism. She told me she has plans to play viola again. Our mutual love lifted me up. I felt if she could be positive in her condition, I have no reason to despair.

When I think of how we gays often feel left out like a round peg trying to fit in a square hole, I sometimes think that is how it must be to come from another culture or religion or race. This guy was fighting against many stereotypes his whole life. This is in no way condoning what he did. It has hateful and horrible and there is no excuse for his actions. He was either mentally ill or possessed by evil.

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But it seems his two possible phobias cross sectioned in a destructive way. Recently deceased icon Muhammad Ali chose a different path. He was a Muslim that believed in non-violence and peace. He had all kinds of prejudice dumped on him but he used the challenges to make himself stronger and more compassionate and loving and stayed true to his convictions.

Jesus states in the Scriptures: "The Greatest Commandment is Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul. And the second is like unto it: Love your neighbor as yourself." The fact that these are commandments means Love is a verb that requires action.

The Quran also teaches love, tolerance, and freedom of religion.

Yes, I believe Love is making a comeback. Not that it ever went away. At times like these we all need to go to that well and recall the times we have been loved and give love back to our fellow human beings, be they gay or straight, black or white or red, Christian or Muslim, male or female or transgendered, Republican or Democrat or Independent, young or old. We are one.
CLEVELAND, USA - JULY 21: Donald Trump accepts the Republican nomination for President at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, USA on July 21, 2016. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

"I am your voice," Republican nominee Donald J. Trump told convention delegates in Cleveland as he accepted his party's nomination in a speech filled with anger but lacking soaring rhetoric. His delivery was not presidential, rather it was harsh and indignant. It resonated with resentful Trump supporters who feel they are the victims of an America that has left them behind.

Trump railed against a rigged system. "No one knows the system better than me," he said pausing to smile, "which is why I alone can fix it." Declaring that he is the "law and order candidate," he said, "Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and terrorism in our cities, threaten our way of life." He promised, "the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, very soon, come to an end. Beginning on January 20 (Inauguration Day), safety will be restored."

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Trump said, "The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year." He then played on fear, "Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens." He promised to build a wall along the Mexican border, but didn't mention that Mexico would pay for it. By the way, under President Barack Obama immigration is down, killings of police officers is down, and illegal immigration is down compared to previous presidents.

In his one-hour and fourteen minute speech he listed a series of domestic initiatives. He promised to renegotiate trade deals, reduce taxes, invest in infrastructure, reduce government regulations, lift restrictions on American energy, and "repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare!" He said he would address the student debt problem and appoint justices "who will uphold our laws and constitution."

Trump failed to recognize members of the American military, including those serving overseas. But he said he would "rebuild our depleted military." "Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect." He spoke of NATO, and said, "Countries we are protecting at a massive cost to us will be asked to pay their fair share."

Trump attacked Hillary Clinton's record as Secretary of State. "Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West." He continued, "After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before." He concluded, "This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness." Trump said, "We are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS and we are going to defeat them fast."

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He took time to thank the evangelicals who supported him, noting, "I am not totally sure I deserve it." And he thanked his wife Melania, and his children for their support. The Trump children were impressive, especially Ivanka, who introduced her father.

Trump concluded, "I'm with you, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you!" He continued, "We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America Safe again. We will make America great again!"

Trump's speech was not about optimism, hope, the American spirit, or President Ronald Reagan's "Bright shining light on a hill." Instead, it was filled with the same themes that secured him the Republican Party's nomination. It wasn't a typical Republican speech, especially his attacks against business and free trade, and it was short on specifics. It will not appeal to Democrats who support Hillary Clinton, and it may not play well with independents.
Follow the money. That is my advice to anyone seeking support for livable and age-friendly communities -- great places to grow up and grow old.

Age-friendly, livable, lifelong communities have much to offer. Walkability. Good transit and transportation. Affordable, accessible housing. Employment and volunteer opportunities at every age. Well-coordinated health and social services. More ability to age in place. More inclusion and intergenerational connection. People of almost any age value these things, which is one reason the movement is gaining momentum around the world.



How can we leverage that momentum and find significant, sustainable support for lifelong communities? When I speak about this on behalf of Grantmakers In Aging, I pose this hypothetical question:

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Imagine you're the mayor of a small town. The economy is slow, and you need to do something to improve the quality of life in your town. Luckily, you have an opportunity to bring in 1,000 new residents of your choosing. You can choose 1,000 40-year-olds, or 1,000 60-year-olds. Who will do more for your economy?

Ninety-nine mayors out of a hundred would say the 40-year-olds. Unfortunately for them (and their towns' economies), it's the wrong answer.

It's wrong because, as a group, older people bring unmatched economic benefits to their communities. This might surprise many people, not just mayors. Again and again, the powers that be -- urban planners, transit system directors, zoning boards, real estate developers, chambers of commerce, politicians, and others charged with making big decisions about our communities -- vote for the 40-year-olds. Every time they do, they're leaving money on the table.

Age-friendly communities are "economic engines" and older adults can provide fuel

If we are going to get anywhere building lifelong communities that work for everyone, we must be able to show that older people, far from being the economic drain they are sometimes painted to be, are an economic boon.

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Older adults are consumers. They may have more disposable income than when they were younger, and their spending is a good driver for their local economy. Even older people in poor health, much of whose spending goes toward health care, are adding those dollars to the local economy.

Older adults often work -- and that's good news. Whether they stay in traditional paid work, launch "encore careers," or contribute as volunteers and mentors, older adults provide a boost to the local labor force that is often badly needed.

In Arizona, for instance, the older adult workforce (aged 65+) contributed $4.81 billion in personal income to the economy of greater Phoenix in 2012, according to a study by the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Older adults are entrepreneurs, twice as likely as Millennials to start a new business, a Gallup poll found, which helps grow local economies.

They may give support to their extended family. Even older people with low incomes generally have Social Security, which is a vital resource in many communities and is often the most stable source of income for children under age 5.

They may use fewer local services. While most older adults pay taxes, they are much less likely to use certain high-dollar social services, such as public schools.

They help communities maximize resources. Age diversity in neighborhoods means that people may go shopping, drive, park, or ride public transportation, see movies, or eat in restaurants at different times than office workers or young families, equalizing customer and revenue flow for local businesses.

Age-friendly communities are inherently diverse, says Kathryn Lawler, Aging and Health Resources Manager at the Atlanta Regional Commission. "This means that people who have different needs for community resources live side by side, and ensures that local governments under increasing pressure with tightening budgets can realize greater return on their investments."



Some advocates even want to re-orient the concept of age-friendly communities to make their economic benefits a central feature. As Scott Ball, an urban planner in Atlanta and author of The Value Proposition of Age-Friendly Communities puts it, "Age-Friendly communities are places that can support people throughout their lifetimes while growing the economy."

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Never underestimate the power of a reliable source

Understanding that decision makers value a trusted source, some leading age-friendly communities have been working with their regions' official economic forecasters, with impressive results.

"The turning point for us in Kansas City came when our regional economist, who is highly respected in the region on business issues, began talking about the demographic shift and the need for this kind of development and investment," says Cathy Boyer-Shesol, Project Manager for KC Communities for All Ages at the Mid-America Regional Council. "Sometimes the messenger is even more important than the message."

Kansas City's data show the economic value proposition of creating the right conditions so older adults will want to stay in the region, rather than moving away and taking their economic power with them.

Using the REMI economic forecasting model (a regional economic forecasting policy analysis model widely used by governments, consulting firms, and utilities), the Mid-America Regional Council modeled retaining 600 older adults each year, over ten years. The result: a gain of 2,600 jobs, which would raise regional annual income by nearly $500 million dollars and regional GDP by nearly $250 million.

Kansas City's conclusion: "Retaining older adults who might otherwise leave can be an important part of an overall economic development strategy."

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In Atlanta, an analysis by the Research and Analytics Division of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) explored which age groups would boost the region's economy the most. Also using data from the REMI model, ARC examined the impact of adding 1,000 new people per year for 25 years (2015-2040). The new people could be retirees or people ages 18 to 64.

The answer overwhelmingly favored the older adults. The traditional working age people added $4 billion in personal income and $2.6 billion in additional GDP each year. Sounds good ... until you consider that the analysis showed that the retirees would add $40 billion in personal income (ten times more than the younger group) and $7.8 billion in additional GDP (at least three times more).



Make allies, not just presentations

Age-friendly communities can help us re-imagine our cities and towns, improve services, and stimulate economic growth. Framed this way, age-friendly communities become economic engines, not cost centers. So engage your mayor. Crunch some numbers with your regional economist. Befriend an urban planner. Take a real estate developer to lunch. Communities for all ages need allies in every sector. Let's follow the money to a more age-friendly outcome.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
We've witnessed tonight the spectacle of a Republican billionaire presidential nominee running against the social costs and dislocations brought on by forty years of Republican public policy. Most of the applause lines featured the bizarre spectacle of a convention filled with Republicans cheering a leader who attacked their own fiscal, economic, and foreign policies.

Donald Trump criticized the trade policies that hollowed out America's working middle class. But these deals were a long-term Republican project that progressives and labor unions vehemently opposed. "Centrist" Democrats triangulated against the progressive wing of their party and its labor base to support NAFTA, the WTO, and other trade agreements, but it was the GOP, multinational corporations, and the Chamber of Commerce that pushed these trade policies in the first place. (The heavily Republican U.S. Chamber of Commerce still favors these trade deals).

Similarly, the budget deficits Trump criticizes were the result of the reckless high-end tax cutting that have been a Republican fetish since Ronald Reagan. And Trump's promise of more tax cuts and more de-regulation were some of the speech's biggest applause lines.

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Trump talks about the "violence" directed against police without ever mentioning the crisis in law enforcement that has led to the police killings of unarmed black people in cities across the country.

He talked about Latinos and African Americans being special victims of the failed economy and lamented the discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Yet his "birtherism" and delegitimizing the first black president has already shown African Americans he's not their friend. He called Mexicans "rapists" and "drug dealers." And his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ politicians in America (the Republican platform even calls for gay "conversion therapy").

Trump promises an authoritarian future where "everyone" will be "protected" without acknowledging the Constitutional safeguards that he will have to do away with to get us there. (You would think his NRA-loving Constitutional literalists and libertarians among Republicans might wonder about this claim.) "Is this guy running for president or dictator?" Bernie Sanders tweeted during the speech.

This billionaire huckster even appropriated Bernie Sanders' rhetoric when he spoke about the "rigged" economic system, but places the blame for this unfairness on an elaborately constructed Straw Person with the words "Hillary Rodham Clinton" stamped on it.

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On foreign policy Trump attacked President Barack Obama for not enforcing his "red line" and going to war against Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and then went on to trash Hillary Rodham Clinton for advocating regime change in Syria against Bashar al-Assad.

Trump condemns the decrepit state of the nation's infrastructure knowing that his audience will be largely unaware that it was the Republicans who control the Congress who have deliberately held back large infrastructure spending bills as a political tactic to prevent the Obama Administration from benefiting by taking credit for the jobs it would create.

And what does promising to defy "political correctness" really mean? Is it just a retread of the white resentment that courses through American politics? Or is it nostalgia for going back to the "good old days" when white people could openly vent their racism, sexism, and homophobia? Who, exactly, is genuinely aggrieved by "political correctness?"

We've endured forty years of class warfare where Republicans and their Democratic enablers have enacted policies that victimize tens of millions of working people while enriching the billionaire and millionaire class. Then after those policies create suffering on a massive scale and spread economic insecurity and fear among the broad working class in this country, the Republicans turn on a dime and denounce those same policies as if their political party had nothing to do with them. No wonder Gore Vidal used to call the country "The United States of Amnesia."

Trump peppered in the usual boilerplate of Reaganomics railing against "regulations" and "taxes," which has become a kind of balm for the suffering small business sector that is also struggling because consumers have less money in their pockets. He wants to keep the minimum wage at $7.25 -- but he didn't mention that.

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Promise the people security, safety, and prosperity, and provide them with ample avenues to vent their resentment of minorities and foreigners, and with the help of a duplicitous corporate media Trump can count on people forgetting all about who brought us the "neoliberal" order of market fundamentalism in the first place.

Trump pretended that the Republicans (even though they've controlled the House for 18 of the past 22 years and currently hold both the House and the Senate) bear no responsibility for the declining wages of millions of working Americans or any of the other problems confronting the country.
@ Grant Miller Photography

It sounded like a train rolling through a station or a powerful earthquake shaking the historic Central High School of Little Rock as three world leaders looked up with three members of the famous Little Rock Nine and everyone else in the auditorium. Mark Updgrove, President of the LBJ Library who was delivering the final speech of the day quickly closed with, "Good Luck and Godspeed" before giving instructions for everyone to seek shelter from the tornado that had touched down on our graduation ceremony. In many ways, it was a fitting and timely ending for the Presidential Leadership Scholars of 2016's official tenure.

The Presidential Leadership Scholars (PLS) program grew out of a bipartisan desire to prepare the next generation of dedicated leaders of diverse backgrounds who seek to change America for the better. We are Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Democrat, Independent, Republican, African American, Asian, European American, Hispanic, Gay, Straight, and everything in between, representing the true diversity of America. As one of these 61 incredible leaders, this journey has been an incredibly humbling, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reflect on the nature of true leadership. Particularly during a presidential election year that has included tragedies in Dallas, Orlando, Istanbul and with many other places that have touched us personally, this group has bonded in a way that many never thought possible. As Presidents Bush and Clinton reflected to us, these types of genuine friendships modeled on their own bipartisan and vastly different personages is what gives us strength together.

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For the last six months, we have studied the leadership philosophies of Lyndon B. Johnson, George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush. We conducted our program with the living Presidents themselves, their key advisors, and academic scholars, in order to discern and put leadership lessons into perspective. Drawing heavily from these four Administrations and lightly on several others, we have debated and sought to distill the key lessons regarding the requirements of Presidential leadership. Each of these Presidents decisively confronted America's thorny challenges, articulated a compelling positive vision for our future, and built strong bipartisan support to realize that vision.

Gathering for our program's graduation, joined by several members of the Little Rock Nine - America's 1950s school desegregation pioneers - it was hard not to be inspired by the progress that our nation has made. However, recent events show us how much further we have to go to fulfill our founding fathers' dream of a more perfect union. Having experienced the heart-ache of Dallas and Orlando together along with countless other terrorist attacks from Brussels, Istanbul and now Nice, it is clear that we live in an interconnected world where the actions or inactions of America are felt globally.

On the heels of the Brexit vote, we had the privilege of hearing directly from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose emphasis on accountability in leadership is being tested a decade after the Iraq War through the Chilcott report. Watching the friendship and humor between a former British Prime Minister and two American presidents of different political parties further emphasized the need for greater civility in our public discourse and leadership. Blair's call to focus on mission over position struck particularly close to home for a generation of leaders seeking to be the change we want to see in the world. Walking through the very school where the Little Rock Nine's struggle for civil rights 60 years before changed a nation that still struggles with equality, inclusion, and justice served as a powerful reminder that sustained moral courage and bipartisan leadership have always been critical in shaping our nation's destiny.

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Positive change in the 1950s required the determination of the black high schoolers who insisted that separate is never truly equal. However, that change also required the partnership of a unanimous Supreme Court ordering school desegregation. It could not have succeeded in the short-term without the Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, dispatching troops to Little Rock to enforce the order. It would not have achieved longevity without his Democratic successors securing the passage of sweeping Civil Rights legislation with broad Congressional support just a decade later. Yet, as one of the Little Rock Nine asked: while there were a minority of good and bad students, the majority were silent, therefore "Whose side did their silence benefit?" Echoing the lifelong mission of Elie Wiesel who championed taking a stand always, the power of this moment in time and responsibility being placed on us as future leaders was not lost.

The Civil Rights Act is but one of many pieces of landmark legislation over the last 50 years - from the 1990 Clean Air Act to the 1997 Balanced Budget Act to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act - that became law because a President reached across the aisle and did what he thought was in the nation's best interest. These historic successes did not come about easily or without vicious debate. Nonetheless, great Presidents transcended political partisanship by putting the American people first.Having studied the power of communication, partnerships, strategy, and vision that Presidents deploy in their own unique ways at different times, there are powerful lessons we can all learn from including:

1)Unlikely partnerships often lead to the best outcomes - As evidenced by the PLS program itself, in which Presidents Bush and Clinton came together as leaders of opposing political parties who had even run against each other, but who agreed on the need for a new type of bipartisan leadership development program.

2)Learning to disagree without being disagreeable and finding common ground - The civility of the disagreements and warmth of the friendships witnessed between the various Presidents, their centers, and staffs is a testament to what is possible even in a deeply politically polarized environment.

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3)Communication takes more than just words, as intentional actions often speak louder - Whether a handwritten note of appreciation or pat on the back after a job well done, the intentional actions of the free world's leader has impacts far beyond that are captured in different ways throughout the various personal narratives of each president.

4)Vision requires clarity of purpose and effective prioritization - Presidents must make incredibly difficult decisions. Therefore, having a clear order of priorities and a guiding set of principles creates a structure in which a vision can be articulated and shaped.

5)The power of partnerships is exponential in leadership development - Every president relies on a team. Whether they be rivals or friends, they ultimately serve as force multipliers. Dissenting voices often serve as the most constructive.

Having learned all this and so much more from our time as Presidential Leadership Scholars, it is incumbent upon us as next generation leaders to give back in our own ways to the communities and organizations we represent. Americans have always risen to every challenge presented from the original Brexit of the American Revolutionary War to the fight we now lead against the unspeakable evil and savagery of the so-called Islamic State that knows no boundaries.

America will only secure its proper political leadership when all of its citizenry is engaged and possesses the moral courage to lead that previous generations have exhibited. As this program has taught us, our greatest Presidents have always leveraged media and their bully pulpit to amplify their national visions and instigate vigorous debate to ensure progress is achieved. The difference is that spirited debates on seminal issues like civil rights were grounded in a profound realization that the problems were just too widespread and pressing not to find breakthrough solutions collectively. We face equivalently momentous national issues desperately seeking answers today on topics as divergent as immigration to entitlement reform to national security. The time has come for us as the next generation to tackle these challenges.

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Pomu logs are found only 15 meters from a border guard station. Photo by VnExpress/H.T

At least 60 precious pomu trees near the border with Laos have been cut down.

Vietnams Border Guard High Command has suspended three officers allegedly involved in a serious logging incident in the central province of Quang Nam that has prompted Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to step in.

The suspension came after a pomu forest near the border with Laos, which falls under their control, was found logged earlier this month, general Nguyen Tien Thang, a senior official with the Vietnams Border Guard High Command, said Thursday.

A team from the high command has already been sent to Quang Nam to coordinate the investigation, Thang said.

Pomu is the Vietnamese name for Fujian cypress trees (Fokienia hodginsii), known for their precious timber.

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had ordered an investigation into the logging. The Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense and Quang Nam Province were asked to oversee the investigation.

Around 400 pomu logs were discovered by police and locals in the areas under the management of the local border guard station earlier this month. At least 60 pomu trees near the border with Laos have been cut down.

Le Trung Thinh, head of customs unit in Nam Giang Border Gate in Quang Nam, has also been suspended for suspected involvement in the incident.

Related news:

> PM orders closure of natural forests in strategic Central Highlands
Last week's Curios covered the importance of eye contact, Wikipedia in the courts, and a curious debate tactic.

Curio No. 1095 | How long can you look at me?

Look me in the eyes, please. We all know eye contact is a critical element of communication. Research has shown our eyes speak louder than our words when it comes to conveying personality, emotions, and intentions. One reason is that muscles around the eyes reveal the sincerity of smiling, frowning and other facial expressions. Another reason is that our bodies produce elevated levels of oxytocin when we gaze into somebody's eyes--the same hormone that induces labor and helps mothers bond with their babies during breastfeeding. (You may recall in Curio #690 we learned oxytocin is also produced when humans and pets stare into each other's eyes, and may explain how humans domesticated certain species.) Scientists studying infants now believe that our eye's capacity for communication develops before depth and color perception, possibly even at birth... keep reading.

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Curio No. 1094 | Fuzzy space travel

Star Trek Beyond, the 13th movie in the franchise, debuts tonight. But if you want to join Spock and friends on the final frontier, be prepared to sacrifice your vision. 8 of 10 astronauts suffer from visual impairment intracranial pressure syndrome, or VIIP, after prolonged space travel. VIIP was first diagnosed in 2005 when a NASA astronaut discovered his vision had deteriorated from 20/20 to 20/100. Optical tests revealed the backs of his eyes had flattened, and his optic nerves were inflamed. It turns out many other astronauts were suffering silently with similar symptoms. The condition is of major concern to scientists, mostly because they aren't sure of the cause... keep reading.

Curio No. 1093 | Exhibit A: this Wikipedia article I just edited

Facts, schmacts. Wikipedia is giving new meaning to "the people's court." Since its founding in 2001, the online encyclopedia has been cited in over 400 court cases in the US alone. Even though Wikipedia's own article on "Researching with Wikipedia"--which was cited by a judge in a 2006 case--states that "everything on Wikipedia needs to be taken with a grain of salt." Editors, teachers, and librarians have long known that Wikipedia citations are dangerously inaccurate. Still, judges seem to be allowing Wikipedia articles as admissible evidence in a wide range of cases. To be fair, law experts say it's most often used where the court needs to reference "wisdom of the crowd" or "slang definitions." But still, the trend is disturbing... keep reading.

Curio No. 1092 | The toughest lil' animal on Earth

Meet the adorable water bear. Technically named tardigrades, these tiny creatures are .5 mm long, have eight puffy legs, and look sort of like a Pokemon balloon float under a microscope. They are also among the toughest organisms science has ever known. Tardigrades have been found in every habitat imaginable, from tropical rainforests to Antarctica. They can survive near-absolute zero (-458F) and also inside your oven (350+F). Extreme pressure isn't a problem, nor is extreme radiation. A European team launched tardigrades into the harsh extremes of outer space on the outside of a rocket, and they returned to Earth alive! That makes them the only (known) organism capable of surviving in space... keep reading.

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Curio No. 1091 | An original Doig or Doige?

It looks like a pretty average painting to me. But $5 million hangs in the balance of whether Peter Doig or Peter Doige painted a 1976 surreal desert landscape. The owner, a former prison guard named Robert Fletcher, claims he bought the painting directly from the now super famous Scottish painter Peter Doig for $100--when Doig was an inmate at Thunder Bay Correctional Facility in Canada. But Doig says he has never been incarcerated and has never been to Thunder Bay. But he does admit to heavy LSD use in 1976, and can't account for his whereabouts then--just that he was "probably in Toronto, working on oil rigs in western Canada, or traveling outside the country." Doig and his lawyers claim the painting is by another artist with the amazingly similar name of Peter Doige... keep reading.

Curio No. 1090 | What's in a (hurricane) name?

Happy hurricane season (not really). This year people with the common names Alex, Julia, Karl, and Nicole are at risk of forever being associated with a deadly natural disaster. Why do we name hurricanes, anyway? According to the National Hurricane Center, it's about minimizing errors and facilitating communication. Otherwise, meteorologists and government officials would have to call it "Tropical Storm 6, 2016, North Atlantic." "Hurricane Alex" is much easier for communication between weather stations and naval ships; plus, research has shown people take threats more seriously from named storms. The practice of naming hurricanes began in the 19th century when Caribbean storms were named after the saint's day on which they occurred... keep reading.

Curio No. 1089 | Spreading the debate

It's election season in the US, which means it is also debate season. The often content-free and personally contentious political debates on TV are much more juvenile than competitions between high school debate teams. In fact, the two have almost nothing in common. That's because debate teams are judged on their use of actual facts. The most common high school debate competition is called a cross-examination or CX debate. It pits two teams of two people against each other, on opposing sides of a given topic. Judges are more concerned with content than delivery. And opponents must address each argument in a rebuttal. So the more you say--as long as it's factually accurate--the better your chances are of winning... keep reading.

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Do you believe in God? Many of us grow up believing in God. If you ask young children on the street, they will say, "Yes, I believe there is a God."

If you ask one of them why, she'll say, "Because my parents said so," or "Because my grandmother says so." If you go to the grandmother and ask the same question, she will say, "Of course God exists. How could you even ask such a question?"

But you must ask yourself these questions. Actually, in many ways an atheist is more honest -- he does not believe because he has not had the experience. If you believe in God, what is your proof to back up this belief?

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Have you experienced the Divine Principle?

Can you say with absolute confidence, "I believe because I have experienced God"?

Without the backing of your own experience, this statement remains hollow and a meaningless adage.

There is nothing wrong with blind belief, as it can guide us, but eventually experience must be there to back it up. The belief or the hypothesis must be backed by personal experience. So how can we have this experience, and why do we want to have the experience?

At the very essence, the purpose of all religious and spiritual practices, as well as scientific knowledge for that matter, is to raise our level of consciousness in order to realize the purpose of our existence. Intuitively we know there is something beyond the physical world and our worldly consciousness based on the experience of the five senses. We know it because every day we have glimpses of something beyond. But how do we cultivate that consciousness of what is beyond?

In one of his talks, Swami Vivekananda describes how we only use a fraction of our available consciousness. Scientists agree that even someone as creatively intelligent as Einstein might have used only ten percent. So imagine what heights we could reach if we were able to expand our level of consciousness to even twelve or fourteen percent? It begs the question, what about the other eighty-five percent?

With the help of Heartfulness meditation with Yogic Transmission and the refining of our subtle bodies, we are able to expand our available consciousness to soar higher and higher into the infinite sky of superconsciousness and plunge deep into the ocean of subconsciousness. And in going deeper and deeper within our Self we experience God.

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Take it up as a scientific experiment. Start with the hypothesis that, "There is a Source of Divine Light already present in my heart," and test it. You are the experiment and the experimenter, and your heart is the laboratory. See what you find when you observe and experience.

As human beings, we have the capacity to experience this directly, with a heart to feel and a mind to observe. It is our birthright. Our duty to each other is to offer the experience to whoever is interested. As my Guru, Babuji, once said when asked how much he charged for meditation, "I received this divine knowledge from my Guru for free. Why should I charge anyone for it?"

Our Divinity is to be shared. Do not be fooled by anyone who sells Yoga and God. God is not for sale. And if God were for sale and you could afford to buy God, then why would you need God?
Wednesday night at the Republican National Conventionm Senator Ted Cruz reached a level of political courage which I had never seen him reach before. After being insulted and berated constantly, having his wife called ugly and having his father implicated in the Kennedy assassination by Donald Trump, he finally stood up to the great bully and humiliated him on national television. Cruz dared to ask Republicans to vote their conscience and the crowd booed him. I guess voting your conscience is a radical idea in the Republican Party now. All of the reasonable Republicans who reject Trump like Mitt Romney, the Bush family, George Will and, yes, even Ted Cruz will be remembered well by history. However, the question remains: what are reasonable Republicans to do in the general election? Allow me to suggest a course of action.

If you are a reasonable Republican and are wondering what to do in the face of the choice of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the general election, I present to you a third way: vote for Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president. As a Libertarian Democrat I would be remiss in my duties of promoting the benefits of libertarianism if I did not find a way to recommend to you the option of voting for the governor. While currently polling at an average of 9 percent nationally, Johnson is running second among Millennials at 22 percent (Clinton leads at 47 percent and Trump is third at 21 percent) and first among active duty soldiers. And, if the nation gets a chance to hear more about the governor I am sure his popularity will increase.

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As Johnson put it himself to the Chicago Tribune: "Most people are libertarian. They just don't know it." If you describe yourself politically as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, then you could be one of the people the governor is talking about. In fact, a lot of people fit that mold and my own realization that I did too is what led me to be a libertarian myself. Libertarian concepts have grown to be very popular in the current space of political ideas. Who did Democratic Senator Cory Booker look to partner with when he wanted to tackle mass incarceration? He turned to libertarian favorite Senator Rand Paul. And, who was the other anti-war candidate in the 2008 election who was wildly popular among young people? Libertarian stalwart Congressman Ron Paul.

Gary Johnson served for two terms as governor of New Mexico where he earned a reputation as a problem solver and fiscal conservative -- cutting taxes enough to earn good grades from the Cato Institute. He also favors abortion rights and expanding charter schools. He believes in ending the war on drugs as well as legalizing marijuana. He believes in criminal justice reform. He does not deny climate change. And, he would not have intervened militarily in Iraq, Syria or Libya. These are beliefs that many of us share. So, if Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein do not satiate your political appetite, maybe Gary Johnson will.

Johnson will need to pull his numbers up to an average of 15 percent nationally to make the debates and have a real impact on the race. A swing of reasonable Republicans from Trump and undecided to Johnson would push him over the edge. He can not rely on mainstream media coverage to bump him up in the polls, but like any good trend, Johnson's appeal can be spread via word of mouth. So, reasonable Republicans, start telling your reasonable friends that they should look into Johnson. He is the option in the race that will allow you to avoid pulling the lever for known xenophobe, racist and islamaphobe Donald Trump or compromising your political ideology by voting for a Democrat like Clinton.

The Republican Party no longer exists as it once did. By choosing to nominate Trump, it has abandoned its status as the party of Lincoln and now is the party of off the wall conspiracy theorists. As Johnson pointed out in Politico, the Republican Party "is on its way to becoming like the Whigs" -- divided and fading into obscurity. Reasonable Republicans do not have to march over the cliff like lemmings behind Trump. This year cast your vote for the Libertarian candidate for president and send a clear message to the tin foil hat crowd that their brand of Republicanism will not be tolerated.
Beauty pageants can be controversial. Some women love them. Some women hate them. And some just love to hate them. But for one spectacular night each year women from all three camps come together in my hometown of Berryville, Arkansas to compete in our own version of Miss America. Because after all, philosophical objections aside, everyone love a good party, and everyone wants a chance to be Queen.

That chance comes every September when hopeful women from across the town gather to represent their chosen state and to compete for the title of Miss America - of Berryville. And even for those who don't win the coveted title, the Miss America of Berryville Pageant Party is the ultimate girls' night. Fun! Festive! Glamorous! And just a little bit catty.

Sound like fun? Here's how to host a Miss America (Of Your Town) Party.

Set the date. Miss America Parties can take place any time of year, but I like to have mine the night before the actual televised pageant. It is great fun to compare contestants and results. Our contestants do not tend to be twenty-something and have perfect figures, but what we lack in supermodelness, we more than make up for in style and humor. Check out Miss Vermont 2015. She really nailed it on both counts.

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Determine eligibility. The televised Miss America Pageant requires contestants be unmarried and childless. I just require mine to leave the kids with dad and pay an entry fee ($10-$20). This money is split, with half going to a local charity and half to the winner. Miss America is, after all, a scholarship pageant.

Establish the rules The rules for my pageant party are simple. Each contest must arrive in state costume and be prepared to present a talent - a food or drink representing her state. This year, I am considering adding an interview portion to the evening with hard-hitting, current events questions like, "What is the best strategy for exiting a group text?" Or "What advice would you give to teenage girls aspiring to be as cool as their moms?"

Send invitations. I like to create a Facebook invitation and ask each guest to R.S.V.P. by commenting with the name of the state she would like to represent. State titles are awarded on a first come first served basis.

Having a Facebook page allows all the competitors can see exactly who is competing for each state, but contestants do not have to reveal their costume or talent until the night of the pageant party. In the days leading up to the party, the Facebook page serves as a forum for posting photos, witty pageant banter, and a good deal trash talk. This really helps everyone get into the pageant spirit.

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Prepare your venue. My Miss America venue is my back patio. Atlantic City it ain't, but that really doesn't matter. The contestants in full state regalia are the true center piece of the evening, and the state-themed dishes and drinks are all the table decor that a party could need. Check out Miss New York and Miss New Jersey. They could light up any space.

Make sashes. Did I mention that the Miss America of Berryville Pageant Party has a very low budget? I make my sashes using drywall tape and a Sharpie maker. Here I am in 2013 wearing my Miss Texas Sash. My sash is the same size as everyone else's, but obviously everything else is bigger in Texas.

Party! As the hostess of your Miss America Party, it will be your responsibility to try a sampling of every states' offering. Peach pie from Miss Georgia? Yum! Hurricanes from Miss Louisiana? Yes, please. Chips and salsa from Miss New Mexico? Sounds delicious. Crab cakes from Miss Alaska? Sure. Appletinis from Miss Washington? Okaaay. Yes, it can be a challenge to try everything, but a true beauty queen never shirks her responsibility.

Here I am competing as Miss Pennsylvania, 2016, enjoying a beverage entry from Miss New Mexico.

Crown a winner! I allow each contestant to vote for other ladies (or herself) in each of the required categories. The contestant with the most votes is crowned Miss America of Berryville. There are other ways to choose a winner. Bring in outside judges or just draw a name from a hat. But no matter how you decide who gets the coveted crown, be prepared for an intense and emotional reaction.

Winning Miss America is a really big deal.
Ranger aim at a target of weapons

If asked to identify the world's superpowers today, most people would name the United States, Russia and China. Although many citizens of these countries maintain that this status is based on the superiority of their national way of life, the reality is that it rests upon their nations' enormous capacity for violence.

Certainly none has a peaceful past. The United States, Russia and China have a long history of expansion at the expense of neighboring countries and territories, often through military conquest. Those nations on their borders today, including some that have wrenched themselves free from their imperial control, continue to fear and distrust them. Just ask Latin Americans, East Europeans or Asians what they think of their powerful neighbors.

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Nor has there been any significant reduction of their military might in recent years. Despite their professions of peaceful intentions, all three nations maintain vast armed forces and a clear willingness to use them when it suits their rulers. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, in 2014 the United States had 2.3 million active duty military, reserve military, and paramilitary personnel; Russia had 3.4 million, and China 3.5 million. These figures do not include many other people they kept fully armed, such as China's 3 million-strong People's Liberation Army militia. In 2015, the combined military expenditures of the three superpowers constituted more than half the world total, with 36 percent ($596 billion) spent by the United States, 13 percent ($215 billion) by China, and 4 percent ($64 billion) by Russia.

Lest anyone think that Russia's low military expendituresat least compared to those of the United States and Chinaindicate a collapse of its capacity for mass violence, it should be kept in mind that Russia continues to possess more nuclear weapons than any other nation. With an estimated 7,290 nuclear weapons in its arsenals, Russia is a formidable military power, indeed. The United States, a close runner-up, has some 7,000, giving these two superpowers possession of roughly 93 percent of the world's nuclear weaponsmore than enough to annihilate life on earth. China, by contrast, lags far behind as a nuclear power, with a mere 260. Even so, these Chinese weapons, if carefully directed, could kill about 52 million people.

As might be expected of countries that view themselves as the light of the world, each is dissatisfied with the nuclear status quo and is busy ramping up its nuclear arsenal at enormous cost. In the United States, a program is underway to spend $1 trillion over the next 30 years to build new nuclear weapons factories, new nuclear warheads, and upgraded delivery systems for the warheads via land-based missiles, submarines, and planes. Meanwhile, both Russia and China are building their own new generations of nuclear weapons. According to a recent New York Times report, Russia is developing "big missiles topped by miniaturized warheads," while "the Russian Navy is developing an undersea drone meant to loft a cloud of radioactive contamination from an underwater explosion that would make target cities uninhabitable." For its part, the Chinese military is flight testing a "hypersonic glide vehicle" that is fired into space "on a traditional long-range missile but then maneuvers through the atmosphere, twisting and careening at more than a mile a second," thus rendering missile defenses "all but useless." Americans can take heart, though, for the Obama administration "is flight-testing its own hypersonic weapon."

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Nuclear weapons, of course, have not been used since 1945. But there is nothing to prevent their employment in the future, particularly as the superpowers continue to use their military power recklessly. China, though not currently at war, is alarming its neighbors by building islands in disputed offshore waters and establishing military facilities on them. Russia is absorbing the Ukrainian territory it recently seized by military force and heavily bombing portions of Syria. And the United States is continuing its lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while launching covert military operations in numerous other countries from its 662 military bases around the globe.

Not surprisingly, these are also violent societies at home. Although most nations of the world have abolished capital punishment, both the United States and China still put large numbers of people to death. Indeed, China is the world's most active executioner.

This state-organized violence is often accompanied by citizen violence. In 2015, the use of firearms in the United States resulted in the deaths of 13,286 people and the wounding of another 26,819. These figures include 372 mass shootings, but not the many suicides. In 2012the latest year with comparative statisticsthe number of gun murders per capita in the United States was nearly 30 times that in Britain.Murder rates are also high in the three superpowersthough considerably lower in China than in the United States and Russia. When ranked by the lowest murder rates among the nations of the world, China was No. 28, the United States No. 96, and Russia No. 128.

Overall, then, the three superpowers are unusually violent powers. An extensive study by the Institute for Economics & Peace, released recently, ranked 163 independent nations and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Examining 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators linked to domestic or international conflict, the degree of militarization, and the level of safety and security in society, the study concluded that, when it came to peacefulness, the United States ranked No. 103, China No. 120, and Russia No. 151.

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Is this really the best that these large, economically productive, educationally advanced, and technologically sophisticated nations can do? If so, the world is in big trouble.
JAMES FRANCO LOVES BERLIN!



And the Feeling is Mutual.

The Summer of Love, as it was branded in 1967, ushered Flower Power & the Sexual Revolution into the streets. In 2016, the Summer of Love is a "feel the vibe" People's (R)evolution reflected in Berlin's rich graffiti textures.



On Sunday 24 July, there are two Grand Trines, in Water (with the Sun just into Leo) & Fire. Furthermore, the self-empowering trine between transformational Pluto & the Jupiter/North Node conjunction tiggers the latent power of the September eclipses in Virgo/Pisces.



Might he truly be the New & Ancient Lover disclosed by the Nietzschian Ouroboros in his Berlin "Gay Town"?

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Or too narcissistic for words?

TIME WILL TELL!



...from Babylon in the Holy Land.



...to Babylon in Mitte...



Berlin is a Lover's Wonderland with dark edges.

The ritual bathing is crucial to the 3.0 CONVERSION.

You aren't feeling it? Get detoxed and just ENTER THE COSMIC VIBE!



The passage across the bridge from Friedrichshain to Kreuzberg...





...is a free love zone where those who pass the urine drug tests congregate in VEGANZ-across the street from stoners right out of "Pineapple Express".



Yet, James Franco says he doesn't smoke weed. He gets high on...



The missing face of the Erotix is the perfect James Franco doppelganger image for your new home Improvement to make your embodiment at home!

"MISSING JAMES FRANCO 3.0: Catalyzing the Third in Cyber/Urban Space" will be a traveling exhibition inaugurated at "FACE VALUE: Personification and Identity in a Post-Digital Age" at the Art and Design Academy in Liverpool, on 01 September, 2016.

"Missing James Franco 3.0: Nine Days at the Berlinale" will be published in August, 2016 by Atropos Press. Go to www.missingjamesfranco3.0 to purchase & join the search for the treasure!

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Dr. Lisa Paul Streitfeld is a Kulturindustrie philosopher and critic based in Berlin, returning to New York City in September to extend the Summer of Love vibration.
Illustration of the national flag of Moldova

Once again Eastern Europe is the location of a geo-political struggle that could define Europe's security for a generation.

Moldova, a small country with a long history of foreign meddling, is at the epicenter of Eastern Europe. It is time for policymakers in the West start giving this tiny country more attention.

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Russia is doing all it can to prevent countries like Moldova from joining traditional Euro-Atlantic organizations like NATO or the EU.

As if Russian meddling isn't already enough, Moldova has to deal with a weak economy and rampant corruption. This toxic mix has led to the rise of powerful, corrupt and criminal oligarchs who have privatized both the economy and the state.

At the head of this ensemble of oligarchs is Moldova's richest man, Vladimir Plahotniuc.

Although his only official, title is the vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, his closeness to the current Prime Minister Pavel Filip has raised some eyebrows. As Renato Usatii, a pro-Moscow opposition politician summed up: "He doesn't just control the country, he owns it."

Accusations of corruption and sleaze against Plahotniuc and his associates are commonplace. In their center is the role he may have had in "the world's greatest bank robbery" in 2014 when approximately $1 billion went "missing" from three major banks in Moldova.

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The missing $1 billion dollars from 2014 alone equates to 12% of Moldova's GDP. If a similar incident occurred in the USA this would be equivalent to $2.3 trillion going missing from U.S. banks!

Then-Prime Minister Vladimir Filat and his sidekick the banker Ilan Shor are currently in jail for their connection to the affair, and many suspect Vlad Plahotniuc was involved too. Now, U.S. officials and even the British Parliament are looking into the matter.

The 2014 case is not an isolated incident.

Over the years, corrupt oligarchs have been robbing the country blind and have perfected money laundering to an art. Many senior politicians and officials are directly involved with these reprehensible schemes, others were merely beneficiaries. All are responsible for the country's economic and political plight.

To date, funds from Russia, including the infamous Magnitsky Affair, from Libya, and from Iraq, were laundered through Moldova, says Mihail Gofman, a former Moldovan senior law enforcement officer, who blew the whistle of the oligarchs' global money laundering activities in Washington.

The theft of billions of dollars was simple. The process went like this: After securing a majority control stake in a major commercial bank, by nefarious means, corrupt oligarchs would instruct loans to be made to fake companies owned by people whose identities remain veiled in a maze of offshore corporations.

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The money promptly disappeared offshore to the U.S., EU and the UK. Moldovan judges and prosecutors were involved and bribed. So were senior government officials and politicians.

The National Bank of Moldova then injected hundreds of millions of dollars into the different commercial banks to keep them afloat after so much money "disappeared".

This process is then repeated over and over.

Much of Moldova's National Bank reserves that have been used to prop up commercial banks came from, in part, a $1 billion tranche given to the country from the IMF. Now, in order to fill the hole in the National Bank tax increases or bond issue have been proposed, instead of the culprits repatriating the loot.

In other words, taxpayer's money from the U.S. and the EU, with the possible help from impoverished Moldovans, is used to line the pockets of some of Eastern Europe's wealthiest oligarchs. To return these funds and to stop systemic money laundering, U.S. personal sanctions against Plahotniuc and his cronies, modeled on the Magnitsky List, would be a good start.

Presidential elections are scheduled for October of this year. What Moldova needs is not another power-hungry oligarch wielding unaccountable influence across government and business. Instead it needs a clean politician with integrity, - and with solid western ties.

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There are some bright spots in Moldovan politics. Many people of becoming fed up with the status quo.

Today, the most popular presidential candidate is the Harvard Kennedy School educated former Minister of Education Maia Sandu, a respected economist who recently founded a pro-Western Action and Solidarity Party. Earlier this month she announced a presidential run. Last Thursday, she called for IMF and banking system transparency and opposition unity before any more IMF credits are forthcoming. It remains to be seen how she takes on the oligarchs.

As the West develops its strategy to deal with a resurgent Russia, it must recognize that Eastern Europe is a region just as important today as it was during anytime in Europe's recent history.

If the West wants to help keep Russian influence at bay, it must stays engaged with Chisinau and develop a long-term strategy that helps the country reform, fight corruption and democratize.
The world's innovators are calling for reinvention and transformation of HR departments. Given that the majority of hiring responsibilities fall within HR and it is--in most cases--the entry into companies, reinventing HR must start with transforming the way leaders think about and behave about hiring.

Many innovative leaders and early adopters are already operating highly effective, conscious hiring programs out of pure necessity. While some may advocate for the complete destruction of human resources departments, the proper solution is the complete destruction of old, outdated, unconscious and ineffective hiring techniques. Frankly, while people and business have remained virtually unchanged, human beings' perspectives, outlook, attitudes about work and their ability to manifest what they want--when they want--has spurred a fundamental shift in the way people operate in and around business and work today. With a plethora of newly created job options coupled with a major changing of the guard in the workforce, smart companies must equip themselves to navigate through these new employee/workplace paradigms.

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CEOs, business leaders and managers are acutely aware of the fiscal costs of a mis-hire, but there are some invisible--and potentially insidious--costs that can wreak havoc on your organization. Although it might not be top of mind, when you hire a person who does not fit with your organizational culture and/or operating philosophy the impacts are pervasive throughout your organization. By continuing to operate with outmoded hiring practices, you become susceptible to four specific hidden consequences of a mis-hire.

Fragmented Customer Service

Ensuring your team understands your product and service set and why customers use them is where excellent service begins. You can--and ought to--bridge the knowledge gap for new hires with comprehensive product and service training, however, you cannot train your workers to care about the customer. Behavioral and performance research shows that great service is delivered through a fundamental set of values, attitudes and beliefs that are in alignment with a service philosophy. When people are in a role in customer service for the wrong reasons, no training in the world will compensate for their lack of connection to the work itself.

This is a common experience when expecting one level of affinity from the place we spend our money and receiving service that is counter to that expectation. This leads to feeling disengaged, dissatisfied and even extreme anger. When you hire a person whose heart is not aligned with your mission and your service offerings, or they lack the basic service acumen to execute your customer service objectives, this same level of dissatisfaction is what your customers experience.

Reduction in Innovation

Companies arrive at a sustainable business model through innovation, creativity and a keen awareness of how to bridge a gap in the market place. Once the product set is stable and customers are buying, continual improvement and innovation is required to stay ahead of the copycat curve. When some of your people cannot seem to get it together, miss basic deadlines, or don't find problems until your customers do, innovation is not even an option.

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When an employee is hired because their resumes list the right key words, yet the person behind the resume lacks conceptual thinking ability and theoretical problem solving, they lack the access within themselves to come up with creative and inventive solutions. Often this lack of ability shows up as excuses, finger pointing and roadblocks outside their control. It is important to be aware that a person who lacks these traits is unaware they lack them and that most often these traits and competencies are very difficult to teach. If time is not on your side, hire people for roles that need to innovate with these innovator competencies, behaviors and values.

Workforce Productivity

When you hire in a hurry, you experience unwanted turn over. If you are lucky the turn over happens fast, yet in most cases it is months before the problem surfaces and the impact of the wrong person doing the job wrong has already disseminated throughout the team, if not the department. In high-level roles, specifically for senior leadership, the impact is detrimental not only in the immediate area of influence; it permeates throughout the organization. In sales, for example, if you have 2-3 people continually not achieving quota and approaching the position with a poor attitude, it poisons the well for those who are producing and are aligned with the position requirements and level of activity required for success.

Tolerating people who are not engaged and thriving waters down the engagement and productivity of those who want to win. When any of these morale and engagement busters are happening within your culture good people either leave or move into autopilot until they can. The indirect and costly impacts are higher staffing costs to make up for the lack of employee and team productivity, institutional knowledge loss when good, trained people leave; and increased training costs to continually retrain new blood into the organization.

Time and Energy Losses for the Team and Leadership

We have all heard the old adage that 80% of our time is spent with the bottom 20% of performers. As it happens, this statement may be closer to 30% of the underperformers. As the competition for talent increases and the fear of the empty chair blocks your good senses, you can feel pressured to fill the job with the 1st decent person who surfaces with a cogent resume. Hiring the wrong people because you are "in a rush" to put a butt in a seat leads to more empty seats; or worse: full seats with empty pay offs.

One of the hidden costs of unwanted turnover as reported in recent employee and manager engagement surveys is that 70% of managers surveyed reported that they are coping with burn out and a job misery rating that is detrimental to their overall happiness. When the workplace culture turns into one of micromanagement, correction and reprimand rather than collaboration, creation and mentoring, the manager's job becomes one of parent and babysitter.

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Often we see managers and leaders looking to HR to fix people and situations that could have been avoided by demonstrating more consciousness and awareness before during and after hiring. It seems like; in many companies an admission of making a poor hire is a far worse offense than allowing and tolerating subpar performance. Furthermore, the cost of doing nothing about a bad hire far outweighs the cost of being proactive and creating high-impact hiring solutions. When you think about it in terms of bottom-line profitability and overall success, shifting your philosophy about people and hiring consciously just makes common sense.
This is our basic conclusion: Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal.

Reaction to last summer's disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.

This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution.

To pursue our present course will involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.

The alternative is not blind repression or capitulation to lawlessness. It is the realization of common opportunities for all within a single society.

This alternative will require a commitment to national action--compassionate, massive and sustained, backed by the resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this earth.

From every American it will require new attitudes, new understanding, and, above all, new will.
For the first time in more than two decades, since the dictatorship, Brazil has a government that is widely seen as illegitimate. It is seen this way, not only by its citizens, but in much of the world. Its image is sullied, deteriorating by the week, with mounting scandals engulfing the highest levels of government. In June, the third minister of the interim government resigned amid charges of corruption. Inconveniently, it was the minister of tourism, as the country faced calls by international public health experts for moving the Olympics due to the Zika virus.

And then there is the interim president, Michel Temer (the vice president who is serving during President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment trial), who had the "unifying" political acumen to appoint a cabinet of all rich white men (in a country where half the population identifies as Afro-Brazilian or mixed race). Fifteen out of 23 of these officials are reportedly under investigation. Last month, he was himself directly implicated in a corruption scandal. He had previously been barred from running for office for eight years because of violations of campaign financing laws. These are the people who are trying to depose the elected president, not for corruption, but for an accounting mechanism that previous governments also used.It's true that all major political parties have been implicated in corruption. But President Rousseff, for the first time in Brazil's history, gave prosecutors that authority to go after corrupt officials, letting the chips fall where they may. It has now become clear that her opposition's main purpose in impeaching her is to impede the investigations and prosecutions of themselves and their allies.
Turkey's Failed Coup By: Emily Skarbek

Reflecting on the recent events in Turkey, Dani Rodrik wrote over at Project Syndicate that he never thought he would see such events in a country that has come to hate military coups but still loves its soldiers. Knowing little of detail about the particular dynamics of current Turkish politics, I wondered if there was any way to make sense of this.

My colleague Gabriel Leon does work on riots and coups. In 2014 he published a paper in Public Choice on military spending and coups detat where he shows that coups are more likely when military spending as a share of GDP is relatively low. The paper uses data on successful and failed coups in 153 countries between 1963-1999 to estimate a panel specification looking at whether military spending is correlated with the incidence of coups. The findings suggest that a one standard deviation increase in military spending lowers the probability of a coup in the following years in the average country-period pair from 18% to 8%. Why? Leon argues coups are more likely when military spending is low relative to a countrys average and coups are often staged by militaries that wish to increase their funding.

The recent experiences seem at first blush to be consistent with what this account would suggest. The graph below is Turkeys percentage of GDP on military spending since the 1990s. The vertical axis peaks at 4%.

A single data point, yes, but still curious. I asked Gabriel what he thought of the coup and Rodriks commentary. He wrote back with the following (with permission to print),
We are in the throes of an election season in which divisive issues are at the forefront. One issue that a majority of Americans can agree on is advancing research to combat deadly and debilitating diseases. It would be both refreshing and well-received if candidates for President and Congress were to elevate medical progress in conversations with voters.



Despite a 24-hour news cycle, very few Americans know where the candidates stand on public or private sector research. Just 12% of those surveyed remember hearing a presidential candidate discuss medical research in the last 30-60 days, according to a survey commissioned by Research!America. The results are still lower for congressional candidates - only 9% remember hearing them talk about research. Yet 80% of Americans say it is important for the next President and the next Congress to assign a high priority to putting health research and innovation to work to assure continued medical progress. A majority of respondents say candidates have done a poor job relating to the health concerns and expectations of Americans. This view is shared by African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and non-Hispanic whites alike, with every demographic saying that candidates are not paying attention to the concerns of people like them. It's time to close this empathy gap. Candidates must start emphasizing their detailed plans to combat the many health challenges facing Americans and our global neighbors, from Alzheimer's to Zika.



A strong majority of Americans (81%) agree that medicines available today have improved their quality of life and even more (91%) say it is important to develop better medicines for conditions we currently treat. We can't afford to take continued medical progress for granted, or short-change it as a priority. Support for research and development is evident in the willingness of many Americans, including minority groups, to pay an additional $1 per week in taxes if they knew for sure the money would go towards investments in research. The message is clear: Americans realize medical progress is inextricably linked to better health. But they don't think candidates are upholding their best interests.



Democrats and Republicans recently released their respective party platforms; blueprints that outline their views on what they consider to be national priorities.



The Democratic party platform underscores the need for increased research funding: "We must accelerate the pace of medical progress, ensuring that we invest more in our scientists and give them the resources they need to invigorate our fundamental studies in the life sciences in a growing, stable, and predictable way." The platform also calls for increased investments in public health, and an expanded "community-based treatment for substance abuse disorders and mental health conditions."



The Republican party platform highlights the positive impact research has had on human health, and declares that "federal and private investment in basic and applied biomedical research holds enormous promise." The platform calls for "expanded support for the stem-cell research that now offers the greatest hope for many afflictions -- through adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells -- without the destruction of embryonic human life." The platform ignores or rejects the reality that embryonic stem cell research has led us closer to finding solutions for major health threats such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. More than half of Americans (57%) favor expanding federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells.



As indicated in their platforms, but not as of yet in candidates' speeches, both parties recognize the role of medical research and innovation in helping Americans live longer, productive lives. Now is the time for candidates to articulate their views.



Fleeting references to research will never be enough to convince voters that candidates are committed to fighting for cures. Substantive conversations are necessary to make research for health a higher national priority.
I had the beautiful opportunity to perform in The Laramie Project during my first year of college. The play -- since made into a motion picture and based on true events -- chronicles the aftermath of the torture and death of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. Matthew's death rocked the country as one of the highest-profile hate crimes to have been committed on the basis of sexual orientation.

Crimes committed because of sexual orientation, at the time, were not prosecutable as hate crimes.

The New York-based Tectonic Theater Project made the decision to embed itself in Laramie and chronicle the tales of the neighbors, townspeople, and court proceedings that eventually became central to the fabric of Matthew Shepard's story.

Performing in this play was demanding, troubling, and transformative. Each actor played multiple characters in rotation and had to adapt to the particular types of pain each of them carried. I was a detective, interrogating suspected murderers; I was a lonely, gay man, looking fondly upon a town parade I knew I could never join; I was the state's governor, urging for peace; I was a Catholic priest, trying to deal with faith and fairness. I was, most importantly though, the CEO of the hospital Matthew died in. I spoke to the press. I announced his death to the world.

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I don't claim to know the experiences of the Shepard family and those who were close to Matthew. I do, however, know what it feels like to speak their words and use them to draw the same honesty out of others that you have to demand of yourself.

Here's why it matters now. Here's why we should never forget it.

President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- known simply as the Matthew Shepard Act -- into law in 2009. The loophole about sexual orientation not being prosecutable as a hate crime? It finally eliminated it.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence -- now the Republican Nominee for Vice President of the United States -- voted against the passage of the bill when he was a member of Congress. The legislation was included in a larger defense-spending bill, and this is what Governor Pence had to say about it:

"It is deeply offensive...to pile so-called 'hate crimes' legislation onto a bill that authorizes critical resources for our troops. Hate crimes legislation is antithetical to the First Amendment, unnecessary and will have a chilling effect on religious freedom. The president has used his position as commander in chief to advance a radical social agenda..."

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This response isn't new. For decades, we've had factions of Congress engage, at every turn, in tactics that limit access to equality -- and the Republican Party has now validated some of the most outlandishly bigoted and repressive beliefs about the LGBT community. Governor Pence believes in, and supports, conversion therapy. He has advocated for federal funds that are intended to combat HIV/AIDS to instead fund conversion therapy practices. Matthew Shepard was HIV positive.

Governor Pence believes that the enactment of hate crimes legislation -- which stands to protect social groups targeted by violence -- infringes on our right to free speech. The Matthew Shepard Act deals with violence, not speech. It doesn't infringe on any group's ability to verbally express their opinions about what it may mean to be gay. Governor Pence shouldn't be too worried -- the Westboro Baptist Church is alive and well.

This story -- the story of a young man in such a pivotal time in his life -- is a story that we fear. We fear it because it could happen at any turn to members of our own community. It's a story that makes us question our actions and our judgment; it makes us feel uneasy about the feelings we may harbor inside ourselves.

It's relatable. People understood that this could be their own neighbor; people understood that this could be their own son. I can only imagine the mothers and fathers across this country that took a deeper look inside of themselves about the future of their children and the power of their love for them.

The Matthew Shepard Act is merely one of many laws that have invoked the ire of those opposed to the LGBT community. In that sense, it isn't unique. Governor Pence wasn't the only member of Congress to vote against the bill, either. But, while all pieces of legislation include people and stories that propel them, the story of Matthew Shepard will always remain heartbreaking. I know many Matthews. I know the mothers, the fathers, and the families of young men and women who are struggling with the consequences of being gay in this country.

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Buy the script. Read it for yourself. Speak those words aloud, and see how you feel. Try not to be moved to tears; try not to have a knot in your stomach; try not to see that each and every one of us knows of a young gay man or woman who could have been murdered in 1998, and who could still face unspeakable violence today.

There's a lot to talk about when it comes to Mike Pence. We've already spent thirteen months talking about Donald Trump. What we're forgetting, however, is that there are stories to be told, and that our country is nothing without them. I won't let Matthew Shepard be forgotten. I won't let his senseless murder be forgotten. If I can write every day to do justice to that promise, then I will.

Imagine being the CEO of the hospital that Matthew died in. Leave yourselves with his words that I, myself, spoke on stage:

Um, and then we started to get people sending us e-mails and letters. And most of them were generally very kind. But I did get this one. This guy wrote me and said, "Do you cry like a baby on TV for all of your patients or just the faggots?" And as I told you before, homosexuality is not a lifestyle with which I agree. Um, but having been thrown into this...I guess I didn't understand the magnitude with which some people hate.

Compare that to the words of Governor Pence.
A New Patient Zero

By Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog

New viruses are becoming part of the human experience more often. Who can forget the rise of HIV around the world in the early 1980's? In the 1987 book, "And the Band Played On," the author identified flight attendant Gaetan Dugas as "Patient Zero," the person who introduced HIV into the US. However, a recent genetic analysis reveals that this was wrong.

In June of 1981, the Centers for Disease Control published a report of five previously healthy gay young men in Los Angeles with a rare lung infection with Pneumocystis carnii or PCP. This infection is indicative of a weakened immune system. Little did we know that this was the start of the US AIDS epidemic. In addition, doctors also reported cases of a rare, aggressive form of skin cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma in some gay men. On June 8th, the CDC began to look for risk factors and to create case definitions for this new disease. By the end of 1981, 270 gay men were diagnosed with severe immune deficiency and 121 of them had died. On September 24, 1982, the CDC coined the term AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

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In the 1987 book, the original carrier of HIV who brought AIDS into the US was named as Gaetan Dugas, a Canadian flight attendant. Mr. Gugas died of Kaposi's sarcoma in 1984 at age 31. It was claimed that he was Patient Zero who spread HIV to the gay bath houses in San Francisco and Los Angeles, sparking the AIDS epidemic. Evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey at the University of Arizona has compiled evidence proving that Dugas was not Patient Zero. After the AIDS virus was identified, scientists tested for HIV in stored blood samples taken from gay and bisexual men in the late 1970's in San Francisco and New York. Worobey determined the sequences of the genomes of those HIV viruses.

When HIV replicates its genome, errors are made producing mutations. Using these sequences, it was determined how these HIV's are related. Results indicated that the epidemic most likely started in New York City around 1970. The US HIV resembles older HIV isolates from Caribbean countries and that HIV reached San Francisco in 1975. Although Dugas did visit Haiti in 1977, he does not appear to be the key person in starting the US epidemic. In fact, the virus he carried fell in the middle of the family tree, not at the beginning.
You've tried fewer toilet flushes. You've spent less time watering your lawn. But have you tried guzzling a favorite beer made from your local river? We think you should.

The numbers are staggering. In 2013, private industry was responsible for 65% of all fresh water withdrawals in the United States, compared to only 8% from use in our homes. As our global population continues to surge, and with it the increase in life quality and the high demand for consumer products -- so many of which require water -- the demand for fresh water is increasing as well. To meet that demand, we want you to reimagine the future of water -- by using and reusing our water more efficiently and exploring new ways to put non-conventional water sources to work.

In Boston, we know all about that "Dirty Water", and while the beloved Charles River has made dramatic improvements to its cleanliness in recent years through the work of many dedicated advocates, you still wouldn't want to be tossing back bottles of it at a summer BBQ. So this year, to make some noise about this important issue while doling out pints to Boston's thirsty masses, Desalitech, global leaders in water purification and reuse, is partnering with HUBweek, a weeklong celebration of creativity and innovation in Boston, to create the first ever "Brew the Charles" competition.

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In a few weeks time, we'll be headed to the banks of the Charles to pull out a truckload of Charles River water, purify it through one of our high reliability high efficiency systems that uses the latest technology based on a process known as reverse osmosis, and then deliver it to six of the Bay State's finest brewers who will work over the coming weeks to make the best brew they can out of Charles River water. They'll then compete for the title of the first annual "Brew the Charles" champion - to be crowned on September 30th during HUBweek at an event where the public can declare who brewed the Charles the best. Stepping up to the challenge include Sam Adams from the Boston Beer Company, Harpoon Brewery, Cape Ann Brewing Company, Castle Island Brewing Company, Idle Hands Craft Ales, and Ipswich Ale Brewery.
The potent smell of jet fuel overwhelmed the small cement hangar. The pilot remained strapped tight in his seat, sitting still in the dark all night, waiting for the countdown of his life. The bombing orders felt unexpectedly heavy, weighing down on top of his right thigh -- even though they were just a piece of paper. The ink was still drying on the freshly arrived orders, but he could have sworn that they had been there forever. Taso was used to sitting on top of thousands of pounds of explosives -- but never with that single piece of paper burning into his leg. There were several papers like that one spread all over Greece that fateful night of March 1987. They all pumped raw adrenaline straight to the pounding hearts of their recipients. Taso is my father and that day he was part of the first wave of fighter jets planned to defend Greece from Turkey's invasion of the Aegean.

Just a few hours earlier, the Turkish research vessel Sismik 1 had crossed the Marmara strait heading south. It was scheduled to sail all over the Aegean, right next to Greek islands, conducting hydrocarbon research with complete disregard to Greek sovereignty. The 1987 crisis is one of numerous crises instigated by Turkey the past four decades. Even though the incidents that brought the two countries on the verge of war can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the number of unknown daily provocations is dizzying.

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For the past few years, Turkey has been exploiting the worst crisis in Greece's modern history by increasing its aggression in the Aegean Sea. According to the latest data of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, the past five years alone more than 7000 aircrafts have been increasingly violating Greek sovereignty in the Aegean on a daily basis. These include close to a thousand armed formations, with Turkish jets carrying ammunition flying over the rooftops of Greek islands with thousands of residents. While Turkey shot down a Russian fighter for an alleged seven second air violation, its own jets intrude Greek airspace every day, for up to ten minutes. Greek reaction is swift, with a great deal of resources dedicated to fending off Turkish aggression.

Turkey's unwillingness to cooperate with the Greek authorities responsible for ensuring the safety of commercial aviation has been creating a volatile situation that many refuse to acknowledge. Many of the uncontrolled Turkish flights take place near civilian airports in the Eastern Aegean, inside areas of heavy commercial traffic. In 2016 there have been more than 500 instances of Turkish jets flying inside the Greek Flight Information Region without letting the Greek authorities know where they are headed. More than 100 of those flights crossed paths with commercial airplanes that were in the very delicate phase of landing. Given the enormous number of Greek airspace violations and infringements of Greece's FIR, what we have been witnessing is a fight against probabilities, as the Greek air traffic controllers have been trying to prevent the worst.

Turkey is currently experiencing some of the most tumultuous moments in its modern history. Two forms of authoritarianism, civilian and military, are currently vying for the future of Turkey. The most imminent outcome is a weakened military with rock bottom moral, at the worst time possible given the security threats at Turkey's flank. At the same time, a power gluttonous Erdogan is trying to squeeze every ounce of opportunity out of the failed coup, tightening his grip over Turkey's institutions even further.

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Recent history has exposed Erdogan's megalomania with him instigating perilous crises for his personal benefit. From his toxic handling of the Kurdish issue, to the Russian jet incident, Erdogan's confrontational foreign policy has led Turkey down a very lonely road. His latest uncontrollable tantrums about US involvement and the extradition of his Pennsylvania based foe, Fethullah Gulen, has deepened the cleavage with the US, pulling Turkey further away from the West. His post-coup despotic tactics now even threaten its NATO membership. The pressure has been increasing dramatically.

A scenario where Erdogan figures out a way to export the domestic tensions for his own benefit is highly likely. Unfortunately, the Aegean fits the profile perfectly. The refugee crisis has brought NATO and the EU into the mix, making the Aegean a major humanitarian and security hotspot. All eyes have been on the Eastern Mediterranean migratory route and Erdogan has been exploiting it to the fullest. A crisis in what has become the soft underbelly of Europe will provide multiple gains for Erdogan. It will help boost the bruised moral of the military, improve its tainted image domestically and also provide him with an absolute boom in public support. Given the complexity of the situation and the multitude of high stake actors in the area, he would expect a short lived engagement in the Aegean, without many casualties, before a mediated agreement that would most likely favor Turkey. Greece, on the other hand, has very little hope in this scenario for a favorable outcome, given the immense area of the Aegean theater of operation and its defensive, reactive position.

Turkey has been maintaining the tensions in the Aegean as a long term investment for a time like this. It can now build upon the long history of -- baseless -- crises in order to support its illegitimate, unsubstantiated claims. The West has become desensitized to Turkey's aggression in the Aegean, to the point of legitimizing its arbitrary claims and even enabling it by justifying a double standard when it comes to airspace violations in the Aegean versus Turkish airspace violations by the Russians. This past favoritism has given Erdogan the impression that he can get away with anything, becoming even more reckless.

Erdogan has been proven to be quite eager to play with fire when he think it suits his personal interests. In this case, however, the potential Aegean flashpoint can escalate into a wider conflict in the region that would have incalculable cost to all parties. Erdogan can use any regional development, from the refugee crisis, to the gas developments in Cyprus and future hydrocarbon explorations in the Aegean, as the trigger. He has become a modern day Minotaur demanding sacrifices to maintain peace and he has no shortage of excuses for doing so.

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These all are just the worst case scenario, but they are indicative of what is at stake and a reminder that Erdogan's predictability never fails to amaze. The future of the Aegean may very well determine the future of Greece. For this reason, I will be posting a series of short pieces called Aegean Diaries, that will aim at keeping track of the developments in the region and assessing their implications to the situation in the Aegean. You may follow this series, along with more information and analyses about the Eastern Mediterranean at hellenicleaders.com.
by Emma Baccellieri



Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) campaigning at Lauf Equipment Co. in Jefferson City, Mo. in March -- at the same time Donald Trump was 130 miles away. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt was nowhere to be found at his party's nominating convention in Cleveland this week, despite being vice chair of the Senate Republican conference. That has nothing to do with his feelings about the guy at the top of the ticket, he's said; he's in the middle of a tight re-election race and is using the time to campaign, like a number of other embattled GOP senators.

Despite being in a close contest, though, Blunt may not be making maximum use of one of the tools at his disposal: His leadership PAC. The top expenditure for Rely on Your Beliefs PAC -- which shrinks to the fitting acronym ROYB -- isn't for fundraising or communications or travel. Instead, it's one staffer's salary.

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It isn't particularly uncommon for a candidate or a political committee to direct more than half of its operating expenditures to a single source -- one communications firm or consulting group, for example, which then hires other contractors to perform various tasks. But only a handful send more than half their outlays in an election cycle to a single individual. Topping this short list in 2012, 2014 and now 2016? Blunt's leadership PAC, which has paid its executive director, Keri Ann Hayes, hundreds of thousands of dollars each cycle, making her one of the highest paid individuals to hold such a position.

When Blunt was a member of the House from 1996-2010, his PAC's spending profile was fairly typical. Big recipients included communications groups, strategy firms and resorts that played host to large fundraising events, with various administrative costs making up much of the rest of the group's disbursements. But after Blunt was elected to the Senate in 2010, those patterns shifted.

Hayes, who has worked with the PAC for at least a decade, was paid less than $50,000 per cycle in 2008 and 2010. Then that spiked to nearly $300,000 in 2012 and more than $410,000 in 2014, with her salary making up more than half the committee's operating expenditures every two years. And so far in 2016, she has received more than $160,000, or nearly 70 percent of the PAC's spending.

That's in addition to more than $120,000 she has received directly from Blunt's candidate committee this cycle, paid to her married name of Keri Ann Tatusko rather than her maiden name of Hayes. In total, from 2011 through the end of June 2016, Blunt's PAC and candidate committee have made payments to Hayes totaling $1 million.

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At the listed address for Blunt's leadership PAC, there was only a paper sign taped to the door and nobody inside. And the sign referred to Blunt's campaign committee, not the PAC. (Photo: Emma Baccellieri/OpenSecrets.org)

Reached by phone and provided with the above figures by email, Hayes declined to comment for this story. We received no response to a request for comment from the campaign, either. A visit to the PAC's office -- a single room on the top floor of an office a few blocks from the Capitol, a building boasting the largest private conference space on Capitol Hill -- found nobody home.

It's unclear whether Hayes hires any subcontractors or vendors with the sums she is paid. Her Rely on Your Beliefs payments are listed as "PAC Salary and benefits," while her candidate committee payments have been variously categorized as "wages and withholding," "payroll and withholding," "wages and benefits," and "payroll and benefits."

Rely on Your Beliefs typically raises more than it spends -- pulling in more than $700,000 so far this cycle and $1.2 million and $1.1 million in 2014 and 2012, respectively -- so even with the large payments to Hayes, the group still has plenty of cash on hand. It's funded mainly by the PACs of corporations and trade groups like Altria, Ernst & Young and the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

The PAC still has a communications firm and data services among its vendors, but in a reduced capacity compared to what was seen during Blunt's time in the House -- neither has received more than $40,000 since he was elected to the Senate.

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Many leadership PACs have few or no salary expenses -- individuals may work for both a candidate's campaign committee and leadership PAC, and the PAC often operates as a fundraising vehicle that supports the campaign without making any payments to individual staffers. Senators are limited in how they can use their campaign money, but there are few such rules governing spending by leadership PACs. Like many, Rely on Your Beliefs contributes funds outside of its operating expenditures to other lawmakers and party committees: nearly $560,000 in the 2014 midterm cycle, for instance.

Even ignoring the money that Hayes has received directly from Blunt's candidate committee, the hundreds of thousands in dollars that she has been paid by Rely on Your Beliefs stand out. In 2012 and 2014, she was paid more than any other individual by a leadership PAC; in the 2016 cycle, she is in second place, behind Laura Sequeira and the $215,000 she has received as finance director of Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) leadership PAC.

By comparison, the leadership PAC of Blunt's fellow Missouria senator, Claire McCaskill, hasn't paid any individual more than $1,000 in this election cycle. Several Senate leadership PACs have not made direct payments to any individuals at all.
"Make America Great Again" is popular rhetoric in modern American politics. This phrase begs the question, "When was America ever great?"

"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue." This is my earliest memory of history taught in school--this and what was to follow--the slaughter of men, women and children who had occupied this land from birth.

I have never understood the European sense of entitlement to everything that could be conquered. I have never understood why I was supposed to be proud to be an American. This land was acquired through the terroristic tactics of lies, deceit, betrayal, murder and forced assimilation. Young men and women are sent into foreign lands to ensure "American Values", enforced by the continued white male power, while America leaves its veterans suffering and impoverished at home.

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Slavery is incomprehensible to me. After slavery, lynching, and local and national Jim Crow Laws, as well as the absence of said laws, gave renewed life and power to the terror of white male dominance in America.

Every atrocity in this country has been caused by the system of white supremacy which include, but aren't restricted to genocide, slavery, illiteracy, poverty, decimation of the family, introduction of addictive drugs into communities, mass incarceration, international imperialism, consumerism, and the list goes on and on.

It seems as if the majority calling for America to be great again are white men and women. White women who agree that we should "make America great again" ought to recall the time when terror and subjugation were commonplace for them too. Voting, owning property or being professionals of any sort was denied by white men in power. Laws empowered terrorism in the home, against families, property, in politics and religion. In America's not so distant past of the 20th Century, white men could legally beat, rape and sell their wives and children. Women were denied divorce and when they were granted a divorce they were denied any property, including the children they themselves bore.

Theological ideas shaped by the perspectives of white men of European descent, for the benefit of white men have been presented as spiritual truths. Many of the atrocities suffered--from colonialism to Native genocide to slavery to apartheid have been in the name of the imagined white-male god.

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While a war on poverty is needed, a war on impoverished people has been declared. To be poor and black or brown in this country is a double burden. The personal sentiment of Talented Tenth member W.E.B. DuBois, was that to be a poor man is hard but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. A majority of impoverished whites are so enamored with the hope of the salvation of white supremacy that they do not even recognize how American political and social systems contributes to their demise.

So, when has America ever been great?

To be great is to be exceptional, above ordinary, superior in quality or character.

By definition, America has never been great. In many ways, America is better than most. However, better than the worst does not make a country great. Although some would have us believe that we have come a long way, we must be woke to the fact that it is still legal to terrorize black, brown and impoverished people as well as white women today.

From "broken windows policing" to the modern lynching of black men and women at the hands of police, terror in America reigns. From impoverished Native reservations, many without running water or access to quality health care, education or viable career opportunities, to the assault against the brown immigrants and their legalized families, American terror reigns.

From inadequate and inaccessible health care to contaminated drinking water, American terror reigns. From illiteracy to the mass incarceration of its minority populous, American terror reigns. From no convictions for the state-sanctioned murder of black and brown women and men to the six-month sentence of an affluent white-male rapist, American terror reigns.

As black and brown people are more vocally and forcefully rising up to oppose systemic white supremacy, as even white folks are tiring of white folk's bullsh*t, the rhetoric against the value of black and brown lives grows stronger.

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"Make America Great Again" is a call of action to return to white-male dominated rule, to normalize the terror which already stretches as far as the system will allow, and to empower women through misogynistic falsehoods. "Make America Great Again" is an appeal to the nostalgic feel of superiority that was secured by conquering everyone and everything in their path in order to legitimize and secure white male terror-dominance.

America has never been a great country. We are living on land stolen from the Natives, built on the backs of black and brown people who were stolen from other lands--whose blood yet calls from the soil.



America has never been a great country--it has always exploited the poor and weak for profit. America has never been a great country--it has always started and contributed to wars in order to reinforce and spread the tyranny of white male supremacy.

America has never been a great country--it has always done injustice, hated mercy and walked arrogantly without our God.
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 20: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gesters after Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence delivered his speech on the third day of the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

I tried to watch Donald Trump's speech last night, but every time I switched over I heard language that evoked darkness, distrust and despair. One of the channels was carrying the horror movie Pumpkinhead, which is at least fiction.

This campaign season feels like a horror story because the rhetoric is not about substance but rather about calling names and threatening those who don't agree with you. We are in the middle of a time when politics seems to thrive on hatred of an "other."

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In 2011 I worked with Iliff School of Theolgy's then president Dr. David Trickett, Dr. James Peters, Rabbi Joseph Black, former Governor Bill Ritter, former U.S. Representative David Skaggs, Joy Luhan, Jeremy Shaffer who later was the executive director of the Interfaith Alliance, and a number of others to formulate at vision statement on faith and politics. The program was to foster a discussion of political issues through the lens of faith, ethics and action.

We wanted to look at campaign finance and the use of money in political advertising, attempt to promote truth in advertising and campaigning, deal with the increased scrutiny into the private lives of candidates, and most important to create an atmosphere for civil discourse. As a kick off to such a program, Iliff agreed to convene a dialogue between former Governor Bill Ritter, a Democrat; and the last former Senator Bill Armstrong, a Republican. The meeting was held on November 11, 2011 and moderated by Gloria Neal from the local CBS television affiliate.

We also invited the chairs of the state political parties, some of the major political consulting principals, other elected officials, clergy, staff and students of Iliff and Colorado Christian College. Staff devoted to a Twitter feed sent out to the public who could not attend.

During the discourse one of the political consultants said that the reason campaigns are negative is because negativity works. It certainly has worked for Mr. Trump so far. He has managed to trounce the regular Republican candidates who entered the Presidential race. However, those delegates who are attending the Republican National Convention do not represent the good and thoughtful Republicans I have met and worked with. Many of them are horrified at what is happening in their party. (Of course, it isn't their party right now.)

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Thinking about the vision statement adopted of the Working Group on Faith and Politics in 2011, I am drawn to some of their thoughts:

"Over the past several elections, the intolerance and anger in local and

national political rhetoric have reached dangerous levels. Personal attacks and negative campaigning have become the norm for many candidates and "independent" operatives. As a result, the many troubling issues facing the nation and the State receive too little attention.

Words have power. They can be healing or hurtful. We are concerned about the destructive effect of language in our political life and broader society.

The ability of citizens to engage with each other with mutual respect is essential for our democratic system to serve its purposes of resolving differences without violence and setting shared goals and finding the means to achieve them. The way we honor the civic equality of each person is a key measure of our humanity and communal health.

Despite the raw quality of so much in politics, we believe a hunger for meaning and higher purpose is lurking beneath the hardened exterior of most people in public life and certainly in the aspirations of the wider public for nobler politics. The hunger and aspiration reflect founding principles of the country--that we are created equal and are to be joined in the cause of a more perfect Union. The inevitable differences of our diverse society need to be embraced in robust but respectful debate. Our national motto suggests it may be possible for many to become one, or at least for us to share a civic purposefulness even as we disagree about policies."

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Although the Interfaith Alliance and televison host Aaron Harber sponsored some dialogues, nothing permanent came into place. In 2015-16, a group working with Ghost Ranch formulated a weekend seminar on Democracy Building: Refuse to be Polarized. Unfortunately the retreat was cancelled for lack of enrollment. Questions were raised about hosting such a retreat in the middle of such a divisive campaign season.

The election season of 2016 seems to demonstrate to the highest magnification of what happens with endless money and unrestrained rhetoric that spills over into abuse. And it happened in both major parties.

Yes, America does face enormous challenges. No, Mr. Trump, my experiences and yours have been great because we have had the opportunities for education and the means to live comfortably. It is not a horror story.
In his four-volume series titled Affect. Imagery. Consciousness., Silvan Tomkins laid out his comprehensive "Human Being Theory" which is based on the premise that the affect system comprises the primary motivational system in human beings. Since his death in 1991, the Tomkins Institute has been dedicated to furthering the work of this pioneer in the study of emotion. The Tomkins Institute website contains a variety of engaging ways to learn more about emotion and Tomkins' work. Members of the Tomkins Institute also enjoy being part of a vibrant learning community concerned with theory, research, and applications of affect and script theory. The next annual conference of the Tomkins Institute will be November 4-5, 2016 in Chicago, and will feature a talk by Paul Ekman on micro-expressions. Find out more about the Tomkins Institute at www.tomkins.org.
Classrooms are empty, desks are stacked in the hallways, and Baltimore's students are halfway through a sixty-day layover in which they are expected to sustain their learning until the upcoming school year.

While summer can offer students the chance to learn through camps, family trips, or robust reading lists, access to these opportunities often falls upon socioeconomic lines: wealthier families have more means to discover and utilize summer learning activities, so richer students return to school in September better prepared than their low-income counterparts. One study estimates that 80 percent of the rich/poor achievement gap is attributable to the atrophy of reading skills over summer vacations.

Imagine if public schools left their libraries open during the summer for students to continue reading and exploring hands-on educational content. What would happen if media specialists remained on site so that students could check out books and access materials? Or if a city's informal education and non-profit partners visited the libraries to lead STEM, drama, or environmental stewardship workshops?

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Enter SummerREADS, a Baltimore City initiative, where ten public school libraries are serving hundreds of students in such a fashion.

SummerREADS is a free, drop-in program, managed by the Maryland Out of School Time Network, in which public school libraries renovated by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation's Baltimore Library Project remain open for six weeks during the summer. Hundreds of the city's emerging readers (predominantly in grades K-3) spend summer vacation in their school's library, which is visited by local partners such as The Maryland Zoo, National Aquarium, Young Audiences of Maryland, and Port Discovery.

Supporting library-based activities are volunteers from Americorps VISTA Summer Associates, National Civilian Community Corps, and Foster Grandparents who provide a unique blend of intergenerational mentors working with students every day during the program. Through the support of the USDA's Summer Food Service Program, participants under 18 years of age are also eligible for a free breakfast and lunch in the school's cafeteria.

The Baltimore Library Project and SummerREADS are initiatives born from the idea that zip code, family income, and other social determinants should not preclude youth from high-quality educational experiences. This is especially important in Baltimore City, where 85 percent of school-aged youth are eligible for Free and Reduced Meals (FARMS), and only 11 percent of 4th graders and 9 percent of low income children read at proficiency.

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To step inside a SummerREADS library is not like stepping in a classroom or a summer academic intervention. The heart of the SummerREADS initiative is to provide a safe and fun (and, perhaps most importantly, air conditioned) hub for students to explore a wide variety of content, much of which is not available during the school year. On any given day, students are building circuits with LED lights, learning how classic jazz compositions have influenced modern music, or exploring folktales from around the world. Through this approach, over 90 percent of parent and student participants have indicated a positive experience in the library, and that they feel better prepared for the upcoming school year.

Not only are students having fun, productive summers in the library, but the corresponding academic outcomes are encouraging. An external evaluation completed by the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) following SummerREADS' first summer in 2014 found that the program "had similar positive effects across grades." First and second graders in 2014 made gains, or at least maintained their reading proficiency, as compared to a control group of demographically matched peers. In 2015, an internal pre and post benchmark using the DIBELS literacy test showed that 75 percent of matched assessments demonstrated maintenance or gains in reading fluency and accuracy across K-3 grade levels.

However insurmountable the achievement gap may seem, initiatives like SummerREADS should encourage school districts across the country, where a majority of students continue to lack summer learning opportunities. We have witnessed over the last three years what is possible through the simple act of leaving a school library open during the summer months. When community members, organizations, and philanthropy invest in our students as the Baltimore Library Project and SummerREADS have, we can do more than stop the summer slide. We can finally start to level the educational playing field for all our young people.
Jamal Mohammad al-Badawi is wanted in connection with the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole. He is a Yemeni native, with Saudi Arabian citizenship.



For the attack on the USS Cole and other acts, al-Badawi is charged with murder, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, providing material support for terrorist groups, and other crimes.



The United States is offering up to five million dollars for information leading to al-Badawis arrest. If you have information about this man, contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.



The U.S. guarantees that all reports will be investigated and the identity of all informants will be kept confidential. If appropriate, the U.S. is prepared to protect informants by relocating them.


Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons, Donald Trump in 2015, by Gage Skidmore

Several times this year Donald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler by some people in America, mainly by his political adversaries who disagree with him passionately. Professors, political commentators, irate comedians, Hollywood entertainers, and even and especially some of the leaders from our communities of color have engaged in the purposeful promotion of this comparison.*

Is this fair? Or is this simply a form of hyperbole and political demonizing? Does Donald Trump's immigration views and hatred and fear of Islamic extremism lead to the horrors of Hitler, or is this just overreaction and another misusage of the slippery slope argument? Are using emotionally charged words ("Hitler") a good way of reasoning, or simply an attempt to have a reasoner not use his reasoning abilities to see what actually are the facts? And is this all just oversimplification and manipulative name calling?

This is not a paper arguing that some of Trump's views dealing with race and immigration and religion are always wise and good, but this piece will make the argument that these beliefs that he holds concerning these issues in no way come close to approximating what one would call Hitlerism.

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Why Some People Are Saying Trump Is Another Hitler

He wants a total ban on all Muslims coming into America, but only until our politicians can understand what's going on. He has changed his position to where this ban would be applied to countries with a proven history of terrorism, and he also says this would only be temporary. And he came to this view because of the increase of Muslim extremist attacks in Europe. Many people are appalled by this idea, believing it goes against what America should stand for and would also be against the Constitution. I personally think this would be terrible because of how it would put our Muslim allies in an embarrassing and more risky position in supporting us. The best ally in the Muslim world is the Muslim world. We need them, and this would make it more difficult to many of our Muslim allies in trying to support us.

He hates ISIS. He hates Muslim extremism. So do women. So does Europe. In this sense, he has a lot of American support. And he talks tough against them, saying he will bring back tougher interrogation techniques (waterboarding and even worse) and he says he will even bomb their oil fields. We have bombed damn near everything and this is hardly anything crueler, but this definitely might be counterproductive because our Muslim allies may need such oil fields if they get control of these oil fields, even though I have to admit I am not exactly sure what oil fields he is talking about, but I suspect he is talking about any oil fields ISIS finds themselves coming to control. And war is a monstrous thing, and I find it naive whenever I hear people talk about torture as though it is somehow more horrible than dropping countless bombs on people.

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He wants to build a wall along our southern border and he says Mexico is going to pay for it. A wall is not outrageous (almost all our politicians are against open borders), but it would hardly be a panacea to our immigration problems (but it could bring some real help in the long run), but Mexico is not by any stretch of the imagination going to pay for it. And we are still going to need many immigrants in the near future.

He has said Mexican illegals crossing into America are bringing drugs, crime, and are rapists, but he has also said "and some, I assume are good people." Arguing higher crime crates and drug trafficking by illegal immigrants are legitimate concerns, but saying they are "rapists" and saying "and some, I assume are good people" is a great insult. If you are a Donald Trump supporter and Hispanic even you have to say: "What the hell? You idiot, are you stupid?" This is a statement he should apologize for having ever said. And this is all weird because Trump does not have a history of being a racist to blacks or Mexicans. Before his announcement as a presidential contender, Trump was not publicly known as saying disparaging remarks against blacks and Hispanics. He has been famous and outspoken for many years and racist comments have not been his norm, although like everyone he has said things and taken stands not all blacks or Hispanics have agreed with.

He wants to enforce immigration laws and favors deporting all the millions of illegals now in America, most from Mexico. And we are talking about 11 million people! This is his cruelest and most impractical idea. Yes, you can get tough on immigration. That is not a terrible thing to do. But you definitely want to proceed with some humanity and pragmatism. He has hinted that almost all his views he has are subject to flexible suggestions. He should definitely, definitely change his position on this idea. This is a horrible idea to say and even a worse one to pursue. And good or bad, Trump has change his position on many things through the years. And here he definitely should change his position.

And he has said he wants to repeal birthright citizenship. While this sounds like an extreme position, only around 30 percent of the countries around the world actually allow birthright citizenship. We are so used to this idea it seems wrong to change it. Again, I do not see this as a cure-all to our immigration problems. I suspect this belief in birthright citizenship feels right to us because we have been raised with it. I would not change our acceptance of it because I believe it would cause more problems than it would solve, both for Americans and illegal aliens and their children born here.

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He has gotten the partial support of Ku Klux Klan leader David Dukes. And this is common for anyone running for a major office to get some extreme groups that they share something in common with and then the group to decide to support this candidate. Every major presidential contender has gotten the support from organizations and persons they do not agree with and do not associate themselves with.

He has not agreed with many people of color about what is causing the high crime in minority communities, how it is higher than they like to admit, and how he believes this high crime rate is the principle reason why blacks have more deaths by police. These are very legitimate positions and in no way makes him a racist or unconcerned with the black and Latino communities.

He has been accused of fear mongering and megalomania, and causing ethnic and racial tensions to rise.

While I think many of these accusations are far-fetched (he has shown no more megalomania tendencies than Hilary Clinton; fear mongering is always being done by both political parties and definitely just as much by ethnic and racial groups; and many political organizations and social groups engage in causing ethnic and racial tensions to rise, even many ethnic and racial groups themselves), I am going to focus on the most vile accusations leveled against him and assume they are absolutely true.

And do these beliefs and acts of his (Muslim banning, building a wall between America and Mexico, insulting Hispanic immigrants, deporting illegal immigrants, denying citizenship to even those legally born here, and holding opinions contrary to people of color) warrant the idea that Donald Trump is going to be another Hitler? Is this enough evidence to conclude Donald Trump is taking us down the road that Hitler took us and actually is another Hitler?

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Yet before we make our final decision on whether Trump is another Hitler let us remember what we are talking about.

What Hitlerism Was

Heil Hitler!....the New Order....war mongering....thousands of political opposition opponents thrown in prison and many of them executed....the Nazi Party....Storm Troopers....the Gestapo, the secret police....lebensraum, living space....German's racial superiority....troops going into the Rhineland....the invasion of Austria....the Reichstag fire....the Third Reich....the mass slaughter of the Romany people (the Gypsies)....the purposeful murdering of the mentally retarded....horrifying mass killing of Soviet prisoners of war....force labor camps....Crystal Night....the planned execution of people with physical handicaps....pure Aryan blood....the gas chambers....SS....the Nuremburg laws of 1935....the Final Solution of the Jewish question....Mein Kampf....barbarism and terror....demagoguery....persecution, enslavement, and extermination of European Jewry....the hatred and ruthless mass murdering of the Slavs....The Diary of Anne Frank....the consolidation of power by a gradual and legal process....the invasion of Poland and murderous killing of so many of its people....Auschwitz....the Holocaust....Josef Mengele....extermination centers....Treblinka....death camps....megalomania....appeasement....citizen non-Germans and Jews being denied citizenship....genocide....anti-Semitism....cruel medical experiments....Sudetenland....starving countless children to death....the Second World War....hatred of democracy....totalitarianism....six million Jews killed....Seig Heil!....homosexuals executed....fascism....Buchenwald....the gradual rise to power by democratic means....horrifying torture for sadism and pleasure....Dachau....The most destructive war in world history that cost the lives of tens of millions of human beings!

And this was all planned and purposeful!

Trump Is Not Another Hitler

There is no proof that Trump exists to begin World War III, wants to exterminate Mexicans, has hinted, suggested, or implied he desires the slaughter of millions of people of color in America. He has never displayed a hint of wanting to create a ruthless and totalitarian government. He believes in democracy, free speech, respect for the law, and has no belief in wanting to bring about any atrocities similar to Hitler. He is not a fascist. He has shown nothing comparable in speech or act to what is Adolf Hitlerism. And anyone who says he is another Hitler is embarrassingly ignorant of history, making outlandish comparisons, politically motivated to distorting the truth, and has not studied Adolf Hitler and what his views were and what he actually did.

*Recently, I discovered how in late February of this year Fresno State's student-run newspaper the Collegian ran a front-page editorial comparing Trump to Hitler. Its title was: "Donald Trump is going to get us all killed." It began with the words: "Trump's America is the Fourth Reich." It also had a photo of Trump's head on Hitler as Hitler was giving the Nazi salute. It also said: "Trump represents the rise of a new Hitler and is capable of the same atrocities." This story made national headlines, embarrassing Fresno State, which very quickly and wisely distanced itself from the story by explaining how it has no control over what the Collegian prints and how this publication is not the voice of Fresno State. I took this story very personally, having graduated from Fresno State in the late 1980s with a degree in political science. The only thing almost as embarrassing was when in 2014 it made the national press when a student from Fresno State was arrested for having sex with a sheep in the school's agricultural barn. And this editorial comparing Trump to Hitler showed an extreme lack of journalistic standards. Hopefully, the Collegian will do better in the future, which I believe it will. And to the editor-in-chief who ran this editorial, learn from your mistakes and improve. We all make mistakes and can get better. I should know, I am always still making them and still trying to learn from them.
I stood in line, restlessly shifting from left foot to right as little rivulets of sweat ran down the nape of my neck. The Bangkok heat was not meant for standing. Outdoors. To take a selfie with a tiger. A tiger that's chained to the ground. What was I doing here again?! That thought ran through my mind in spurts but I kept reminding myself, the objective was to spend some time with my cousins, whom I was traveling with on a short Thai holiday, so if we were bonding over tigers, then hey, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

I'm not usually a bus tour sort of traveler. I think early on in my travel life, I recognized my desire for doing things on my own without being carted around like cattle from one sight to another with 50 other tourists oohing and aahing at something. So it was kind of surprising when I found myself evaluating this 12 hour bus tour from Bangkok to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, then to the Bridge on the River Kwai, and finally to some Tiger Temple Sanctuary. Short on time, it just made sense given all of us wanted to see something different that was offered in this all-encompassing tour. My interest was in the story behind the famous Bridge on the River Kwai.



But the real story, I would later come to realize, lay in the Tiger Temple Sanctuary. As we trudged down from the parking lot where the bus dropped us, we walked down into a small canyon-like area, rounded the corner and came upon this open-air courtyard scene, where multiple tigers seemed to be snoozing. There were several lines where people were queuing up, so we randomly shuffled into one where we had to wait our turn to walk into the courtyard, which upon closer inspection was gated. I was slightly apprehensive, now that I was actually here. I would be petting a tiger up close and personal. What if it lunged at me or decided to take a juicy bite off my arm. I watched as the other tourists who had entered the courtyard crouched next to the tigers and posed for the camera and then were led by a bored-looking employee to the next tiger.

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In case you aren't aware, this sanctuary started out as a Buddhist temple in Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province and was founded in 1994. The objective apparently was for it to be a sanctuary for wild animals, mostly comprising of tigers. One of my cousins refused to come inside, opting to wait out in the tour bus. Her reasoning was that she had read that the tigers were being mistreated and drugged, and she believed it because otherwise there was no way tigers would be so docile, letting people pet them without wanting to shred them to pieces.

I didn't think much of this because I figured if this was open to the public, it must be okay. And hey I was after all in a Buddhist temple that was a sanctuary for these animals and I had heard some stories about how the tigers were trained by monks so maybe that explained their meditative state. It all seemed legit and kind of cool.

When it was my turn to walk into the courtyard, an employee came up to me, held me by the wrist and walked me toward the first tiger. I noticed the animal was chained to the ground. It looked really docile as I apprehensively touched its back closer to its tail. The employee snapped multiple pics and then she caught hold of my hand again and walked me to the next tiger. Again I noticed this one was also chained. It finally dawned on me they were all chained and mostly seemed to be sleeping. I think one or two of the tigers seemed to rouse and shake their paws, rather feebly, but for the most part they lay still. Was my cousin right, were they drugged? The question popped into my head reluctantly. I mechanically smiled my way through the last few tiger pics, feeling awkward and stupid and unable to really admire these beautiful animals because I wasn't sure what was going on. I didn't find any satisfaction in petting a tiger and taking a photo or being led by my hand like an errant school kid who might run off at any moment, with tiger in tow.



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Walking out the courtyard I was waiting for my other cousin who was still inside with the tigers, when I spotted an employee standing around talking to the visitors. I approached him and pointedly asked him if these tigers were drugged. He was matter of fact and said no, not at all. He said they are given plenty of exercise during the day and that in fact we could stay and watch the next round of activity where the tigers would be engaged in playful combat. I needed another admission ticket for that and well I couldn't stay because my bus was leaving back for Bangkok.



Fast forward to May, three months after my trip. Back in the United States I had virtually forgotten about this bizarre day trip to the sanctuary, my cousin and I both having decided this had been a boring and disappointing excursion. In May, headlines splattered everywhere in the news about illegal tiger breeding at the sanctuary and how police had found tiger cub corpses as well as numerous body parts from other animals preserved in the freezers. There were reports about wildlife smuggling. I was horrified. I had taken part in this activity, and helped support it by visiting this place.

Which brings me to the question of responsible tourism and the tourist. Being a seasoned traveler, I pride myself in knowing where to go and what to see. What I have to remember, is that just because an activity is open to the public and listed in a guidebook, it doesn't mean that it's ethical and legal. I'm not here to tell you about what's really going on at the temple, but rather to spread awareness that as world travelers we should approach some of these activities responsibly, and do our due diligence as we have a duty toward protecting and preserving our wildlife and natural habitats. For me the valuable lesson I learnt on this trip was that if there is even a frisson of doubt about the ethical nature of an activity, my responsibility as a traveler is to avoid supporting it altogether.

For more on Preethi's travels, check out at her blog at https://theeagertraveler.wordpress.com/ and Instagram.

Follow Preethi Chandrasekhar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eagertravele

Also on HuffPost:
Hillary Clinton --

When America is in Crisis,

When our Planet is in Danger,

"Understanding NATO" is Not the Point

Dear friends, News reports this week said that Ms. Clinton is assessing vice-presidential candidates with two litmus test: that they must be able on a moment's notice to become President; and therefore that they must be experts on foreign policy. And the two she seems to be most attracted to are a colorless senator from Virginia and a retired general who knows and understands NATO inside out.

The first criterion is correct. The second betokens a profound misunderstanding of both the national crisis American society is now facing, and the planetary crisis that all life on Earth is now facing.

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Understanding NATO -- a top-down military organization -- is far less important than understanding the bottom-up paroxysms of our tormented planet, spawning rebellions against the CO2 poured down its throat. Rebellions of droughts and famines, floods and diseases.

From that perspective, there is no "foreign" policy -- California is as vulnerable as France, Miami and New Orleans are as endangered as the Philippines. The collapse of elite-managed Europe before floods of refugees ignores the truth that those refugees came from the drought that ruined Syria and thrust it into civil war.

And understanding NATO is far less important than understanding the British voters who decided to quit the European Union, and their cousins in other EU countries who are furious at its failings and many of whom are resorting to hate and hypernationalism as an answer.

Moreover, understanding NATO is far less important than understanding the millions of Americans who voted to make a fascist the Presidential candidate of one of our two great political parties. Their grievances are real, though the solution that in blind rage and frustration they voted for would annihilate the American future.

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How can all of us empower ourselves to meet our own decent needs without enacting rage into a policy of violence and contempt? If we fail to do that, the rage and the contempt will remain a burning ulcer in our body politic, no matter who wins the next election. For an American president, that - not NATO - is the burning question.

So -- what to do? The first job is to make sure that someone who is a bully in his own persona and who espouses policies that would turn our government with all its power into a racist, sexist, repressive bully must be defeated. Even a mostly (not entirely) conventional politician in extremely unconventional times is far better than that -- because the possibilities for nurturing democracy would grow instead of being choked to death. Voting for the presidential candidate of a third, "purer," party is a dangerous distraction if it allows a fascist and a bully to take power.

AND - we must keep growing from the grass roots a more democratic, more communal, more varied, more sustainable, more joyful society:

More co-ops, especially including wind or solar-energy co-ops, with investment money to get such co-ops going.

More neighborhood cultural festivals to give new life and dignity to ALL the American subcultures.

Credit unions and public banks able and willing to invest in grass-roots enterprises.

Far more jobs renewing and transforming our railroads, our water systems, our renewable-energy transmission systems, our public schools.

Public health efforts focused on preventing illness by making sure air, water, and food are healthy. For those who fall sick anyway, universal health care focused on community health centers.

Shorter work hours at no reduction in pay, with much more free time for family, neighborliness, the arts, grass-roots civic and political action, and the Spirit. As automation and robotization spread into ordinary life and jobs increasingly disappear, a life-sustaining income for everyone.

These aspects of flourishing democracy -- what Martin Luther King called the Beloved Community -- will not all appear overnight. As the ancient Psalm says, If we sow seeds of light and justice in the midst of darkness, joy will flower in the morning light.

If we sow the seeds of new communities with firm commitment and caring nurture, they will grow. If they -- we! -- remain conscious of each other, out of them will grow political movements able to attract the angry into creative action, able to connect our diverse creative energies to resist and dissolve the top-down power of the modern pharaohs. Bullies.

As Gloria Steinem wisely said at The Shalom Center 's "This is What 80 Looks Like" celebration three years ago, our entire country is at a point like that when an abused woman walks out of the house. Both great danger and great promise arise at that moment. If the rebellious woman has a community to welcome and nurture her, she can flourish. If she has no protection from a furious husband, she might be killed.

As a nation and a people, we are certainly at that point now. Many communities have walked out of their repressive houses. Not surprising that frightened and enraged voters who thought of themselves as the true Americans, in charge of our society, have in reaction to these challenges nominated a fascist for President. Pointing the next Administration toward conventional elite foreign policy will not nurture those who are trying to become free, nor those who are seeking to reaffirm their own dignity.
President Barack Obama speaks at the White House Summit on Global Development at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Wednesday, July 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Dear President Obama:

As Senators, you and Joe Biden were leaders in highlighting the threat of America's hazardous chemical plants -- and in calling for solutions that included moving these facilities to inherently safer technologies. In 2006, you bluntly stated "these plants are stationary weapons of mass destruction spread all across the country."

Unfortunately, three years after the West, Texas, ammonium nitrate explosion, after you spoke at a memorial service for the 15 deceased individuals, and after you issued an executive order demanding action, your EPA has released a proposed rule that does too little to require a shift to safer technologies.

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That is outrageous, given the risk of more catastrophes by negligent accident, natural disaster, sabotage, or terrorism. Since the West, Texas tragedy, which federal investigators recently determined was deliberately set, there have been more than 430 chemical incidents and 82 deaths. The EPA has identified 466 U.S. chemical facilities that each put 100,000 or more people at risk.

In 2005, the Homeland Security Council estimated that a major attack on just one of these chemical facilities would kill 17,500 people and injure tens of thousands more. Many of the first victims would be plant workers and people in the low-income communities that often are located near these dangerous plants.

Numerous experts are urging the EPA to issue a rule that focuses on safer technologies, often called materials substitution. They include your former EPA head Lisa Jackson; President Bush's EPA head, Governor Christine Todd Whitman; retired generals like Russel Honore and Randy Manner; the U.S. Chemical Safety Board; and a broad coalition of environmental, community, and labor groups.

You know who the opposition is: avaricious corporate interests like the Koch brothers. They don't want to pay to shift to safer materials and technologies, even though other companies like Clorox, which eliminated the use of chlorine gas in favor of a safer process for making bleach, have already made the switch and are thriving.

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How would our country view a weak EPA rule if one day there was a chemical catastrophe that killed thousands of Americans? More than twenty thousand people died as the result of the 1984 gas leak at a plant in Bhopal, India, in addition to many serious disabling illnesses. A U.S. company, Union Carbide, owned the plant.

If the plant was in the United States, and 20,000 Americans died, would not our country already have responded to this problem? We can't wait for such a tragedy to explode before we take action.

Communities where the most dangerous plants are located -- from Newark to Detroit, Mississippi to California -- cannot wait any longer. For the facilities that have converted, the result is reliable protection for employees and communities against catastrophic disasters, and at low cost. Wherever this can be done, it should be a requirement.

The proposed EPA rule does take an important first step by mandating that certain high-risk chemical plants conduct a safer technology and alternatives analysis (STAA) and feasibility assessment on the use of inherently safer technologies. Perhaps that is one reason why Republican congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas, in whose district Koch Industries is located and who has taken extensive campaign contributions from company officials, is pushing legislation to prohibit the EPA from issuing any rule at all.

But the Administration should not simply resist this industry-backed amendment; it should dramatically improve the rule by:

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Requiring all so-called "Risk Management Plan facilities" -- those that use extremely hazardous substances and thus are required to develop a Risk Management Plan (RMP) -- to assess safer alternatives to existing chemical processes. The inadequate proposed EPA rule exempts 87 percent of the some 12,500 Risk Management Plan chemical facilities from requirements to conduct a safer technology and alternatives analysis. The exempted facilities include, for example, water treatment plants, some of which put major cities at risk of a catastrophic release of chlorine gas.

Require all these especially hazardous RMP facilities to send their safer alternatives analyses (STAA) to the EPA and readily share the information with nearby communities and other interested parties, such as emergency responders, vendors of safer technologies, facility employees and contractors, and safety researchers.

Establish a publicly accessible clearinghouse of safer available alternatives that could encourage and support the adoption of safer alternatives by more facilities as soon as practicable.

Starting with the highest risk facilities, require chemical facilities to actually substitute safer alternatives to their industrial processes, wherever feasible, that will eliminate or significantly reduce the consequences of a catastrophic release. The coalition of community, worker and environmental groups that has engaged the EPA on these issues has recommended that EPA at the very least begin a pilot program to require inherently safer technologies to be implemented in a subset of RMP facility categories, such as waste water and drinking water treatment plants, bleach plants and hydrogen fluoride refineries, and for those facilities among the 2,000 high-risk facilities cited in the EPA's National Enforcement Initiative proposal.

The people must demand your EPA issue a stronger rule that moves industry to proven safer technologies and protects the public in every endangered community.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader

P.S. For a map of RMP facilities across the country, concerned citizens may visit this website.

Citizens interested in contacting the EPA may do so by calling (202) 272-0167 or writing to:
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21: A delegate holds up sign that reads 'Latinos Para Trump' during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

On Wednesday night, Kentucky State Senator Ralph Alvarado became one of the few Latinos to address the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. "To my Hispanic brothers: Our families fled from countries full of corruption and lying politicians," he said in Spanish. "Please do not let that misery also occur in this country." While pointedly mentioning that his parents were legal immigrants, he praised the shared values of Hispanics and Republicans. "There is only one candidate who will protect it for our current and future generations," Alvarado said. "That candidate is Donald Trump."

Although Alvarado was a good speaker, his speech was embarrassing to watch. Here was an otherwise intelligent, accomplished Latino endorsing Trump. He is one of a small but vocal minority of Hispanic Trump supporters. These are people who, instead of standing for their communities, are lining up behind an anti-immigrant candidate. These misguided Latinos are putting their party loyalty before all else - and that's a shame.

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According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 76 percent of Latinos support Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Only 14 percent of Latinos said they back Trump - which brings us to Alvarado.

Alvarado is a physician and the first Hispanic man elected to the Kentucky General Assembly. With such impressive credentials, it was jarring to hear him say, "Today we have a president who has not only failed to end racial tension, he has made us more divided than ever." Apparently, Alvarado missed Trump's characterization of Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, and did not notice when he impugned the integrity of a Mexican-American judge. Or maybe Alvarado does not find Trump's proposal for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, or his questioning the legitimacy of the first African-American president, to be offensive. Either way, Alvarado seems to have a pretty narrow lens for identifying and calling out divisive politicians.

Alvarado is not alone. Earlier this week, a group of Hispanic conservative activists announced their endorsement of Trump as well. In a letter, the coalition of conservatives writes, "We are not enamored with Donald Trump's bombastic rhetoric and personality. But at least we know that Donald Trump won't divide the country and fuel the flames of racial confrontation by accusing the police and the entire criminal justice system of being racist."

Their letter overlooks two key facts. First, Trump's candidacy has been about more than "bombastic rhetoric and personality." It has been about a particularly ugly brand of angry nativism. Trump has called for the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, insulted Latino leaders like Gov. Susana Martinez and Sen. Marco Rubio, and blamed Hispanics (and blacks) for violent crime across the country. Second, there is documented evidence of the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, and Clinton has rightfully called for reform. That these conservatives Latinos would brush aside such realities in their embrace of Trump is both troubling and cynical.

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"We felt that as offensive as Trump had been, Hillary would be much worse," Alfonso Aguilar, the head of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, told The Washington Post. Again, the same pattern of "selective sight" seems to be in evidence. In fact, Clinton has long supported the interests of the Hispanic community, including immigration reform. It is an astonishing leap to judge her as offensive in advance of her doing anything offensive.

Just last year, Aguilar himself called Trump's attacks on Latinos "ludicrous, baseless, and insulting." Since then, Trump has not changed. Unfortunately, what has changed is that some Latinos are now willing to abandon their principles and get on the Trump Train.

True, this election cycle has left many Latino Republicans feeling locked out of the GOP. It's hard to say what the best path forward is for conservative Hispanics. Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has stated that she won't vote for Clinton or Trump, and The Huffington Post reports that "a whole bunch" of other influential GOP Latinos are doing the same thing. While their position is not ideal, it still beats endorsing Trump.

Consider that Trump kicked off his "Make America One Again" night at the RNC Convention with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has been cited for racial profiling of Latinos, and then ended it with an angry, dystopian rant against immigrants. No wonder that 81 percent of Latinos think Trump is a "bully." Latinos who come out for Trump now are likely throwing away whatever credibility they have in our community in the future. Not to mention integrity.

Donald Trump does not deserve the support of Latino voters. The fact that some Latinos are willing to publicly endorse him is a sad, sorry spectacle.
Modern national political conventions are usually public relations promotions where a cavalcade of politicians sing the praises of the party's nominee. Losing candidates thank their supporters and tell them to fight for the nominee just as hard as they fought for them. The July 20 address given by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination, was certainly uncharacteristic. Cruz was booed by supporters of the party's nominee, Donald Trump, for urging voters to "vote their conscience" rather than endorsing Trump. The contest between the two had resulted in a bloodletting, with Trump giving Cruz the moniker "lying Ted."

This is a moment which will go down in the annals of American political history along with other instances of tension and disunity at a party's convention.

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In 1952, the Republican Party had been locked out of the White House for almost 20 years. New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey had been the nominee of the party in the last two elections. He represented the party's moderate bloodline. U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL), who supported his conservative opponent, U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft (R-IL), pointed directly at Dewey, who supported the moderate candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, exclaiming: "we followed you before and you took us down the path to defeat!" The reception in the hall was mixed, with Eisenhower supporters booing and Taft supporters cheering. Eisenhower won the nomination and the Presidency.

In 1964, the Republican Party was set to nominate U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). His main primary opponent was liberal Nelson Rockefeller of New York. Goldwater represented the ultra conservative wing of the party. Rockefeller used the occasion to excoriate the far right elements that supported Goldwater, telling conventioneers: "These extremists feed on fear, hate and terror, [they have] no program for America and the Republican Party. . . [they] operate from dark shadows of secrecy." The Goldwaterites hissed at Rockefeller. Rockefeller did not endorse Goldwater in the General Election. The divide in the GOP, coupled with the fear among voters that Goldwater was too extreme, contributed to a 44-state defeat at the hands of Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1972, the Democratic Party establishment was disconsolate that they were about to nominate the insurrectionist liberal U.S. Senator George McGovern (D-SD). Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter spearheaded a "Stop McGovern" movement. Carter nominated one of McGovern's vanquished rivals for the nomination, U.S. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA). Jackson, a traditional Democrat, had performed poorly in his bid for the nomination, only winning his home state caucuses. However, Jackson did not officially drop out of the race. Carter's effort to promote Jackson failed and McGovern pocketed the nomination. Many Democrats did not attend the Convention for fear of being associated with the nationally unpopular McGovern.

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Also that year, at the Republican National Convention, Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld challenged the party's views on reproductive rights, stating: "I happen to think that individual freedom should extend to a woman's right to choose. I want the government out of your pocketbook and your bedroom." Many in the predominately socially conservative crowd disagreed and booed.
On July 20th, 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took the most expensive selfie in history. As the apex of an 8-year, $130 billion effort they posed in front of a camera and took a shot designed to do one thing -- to show our free enterprise democratic system was better than the rigid, authoritarian system that wanted to destroy us.

Meanwhile, here on Earth we convulsed in racial and political turmoil. Our streets were filled with anger, hatred and violence, and the very institutions of our government faltered. And yet, always moving forward and rising above it all, our quest to put humans in space punctuated the news like a shooting star in the darkness, offering a constant glimmer of hope in the night of Vietnam and the storm of Watergate.

Today we are there again. Now as then, America faces threats both internal and external. Today we are fighting another rigid, authoritarian system that wants to destroy us and sees the very existence of our liberal democratic technological society as an anathema. Internally our political system is a mess, and trust in our system of government at new lows. We are threatened by long unresolved issues between the melting pot of cultures that make up our nation. People are isolated, everyday less united, and every day falling deeper into a new level of cultural despair.

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At the same time our environment is teetering on the edge of a dangerous slide into global disaster, fed by ignorance and lack of appreciation that there are no walls in the sky or oceans, and one country's pollution is necessarily the responsibility of all.

It is time to raise our eyes again. It is time to come together and do something important, if not magnificent. It is time to set a unifying goal that calls out the very best in us and our friends around the world, a goal that is hard to achieve and yet when achieved catapults us to a new level of knowledge and prosperity, time to turn the machines and minds of war outwards and upwards. It is time to begin the opening of the High Frontier. Space.

Timing is everything. And now is the time. After the sad and pathetically low moments in American and world history we have witnessed this year, whichever new leader arises has the chance to lift the nation up to a new level by declaring the frontier open and clearing the way for we the people to exercise our right stuff and our space rights, and to step out and up to the greatest challenge in human history.

This revolution has already started, with wealthy citizens building their own space programs and entrepreneurs building spacecraft on relatively tiny budgets. This new space generation stands on the shoulders of the giants who got us out there the first time and is applying their technology in new ways to create low cost, easy access to space, allowing us to use space resources, and to make it pay. All of them, to a person, share the dream of opening space to human settlement. If a new leader were to bring these citizen pioneers together with the explorers of our government space program, we could launch this nation, and indeed the world, out into the solar system within a decade.

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This time it must be about people, not governments. Rather than a centrally controlled quasi-military government race to space by two superpowers, we must enable the people themselves to go where they want to go, to do there what they want. If governments decide to return to the Moon -- as seems to be the case -- it must be to build villages, not bases, and to do it as rapidly as possible, as it needs to be an immediate challenge, not a distant dream. And if some want to go to Mars or mine asteroids, they need to be seen as part of a new frontier community. Thus, with both public and private players doing what they do best where they want to do it, we can make it happen far faster than many might believe.

After all, wherever we go between here and Mars, the challenge this time is not as daunting as going from the Earth to the Moon was in 1961, when we went from knowing almost nothing about space to walking on the Moon in eight years. Since then we have 50 years of experience operating in space. And while we foundered for many years in the waters just off shore in Earth orbit, we've learned a lot, developed a vast tool kit and honed our ability to get there, keep people alive and get them back. Opening the new worlds of space is not a technological challenge, so much as it is psychological. It is a matter of decision.

The Frontier offers us new ways of living, new ways to save our world and new ways to work together. It is an anathema to the ideologies of ignorance and hate espoused by those who attack us, as it literally rises above such wars. Even as we roll up our sleeves to defeat those who would push us back into the dark ages we can be creating the age of light. We can look at our children and tell them they need not be afraid. Instead we can share with them a new dream of people working together to achieve something incredible.

It was Apollo 8 that first showed us the tiny blue marble of Earth floating in the void of space, one of the great psychological shifts in human history. From out there we can both appreciate and begin to solve the problems of our world in ways unavailable to us otherwise. From all we know by those who have gone so far, the very act of being up there, helps shift your relationship to life down here. And the more minds who have access, who move out there, the more transformation they will enable.

As it eventually became the first time, space will not only be a bridge to the future, but a bridge between people, ideologies and cultures. Ironically, while the human space program started as a tool of a technology and propaganda war, even as cold and hot wars between governments raged below, hands have reached through airlocks in warm embrace, and opponents have literally been able to rise above their differences. We led the way once, we can do it again. Ours is a frontier nation and heritage. It is this psychology that made us who we are, and while we may have lost our way as a nation, we can get back on track -- with the right leadership.

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CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21:Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Republican National Convention on Thursday, July 21, 2016. (Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Gettysburg address, it wasn't. Donald Trump's acceptance speech clocked in at one hour and 15 minutes, and that's not counting the time dilation effect demagoguery can produce in some observers.

Lincoln's speech lasted less than two minutes.

A columnist in the New York Post said that Trump gave "the speech of his life." Actually, he gave several of them. Abe Lincoln's grace and humility were nowhere to be found. But then, the self-effacement of Lincoln's words -- "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here" -- would hardly suit Trump's oversized persona.

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To be fair, this speech needed to be long. Trump needed to present a number of false and contradictory identities to the electorate, and that takes time. He was both a firebrand populist and a rock-ribbed Republican. He was an enemy of big business, and he swore to deregulate industry. He was compassionate toward all people -- but he'll build a wall to keep millions of people out.

Trump also needed time to present an America that's a study in contrasts: a war-torn landscape with a bright future, a desolate wasteland filled with untapped potential, a desperate and dangerous dystopia that will become an Eden as soon as he is sworn into office.

That's Demagoguery 101: Terrify, then reassure. Threaten people with destruction, then reassure them with the warm embrace of your fatherly arms. It's what kidnappers do to instill Stockholm syndrome in their prisoners. And Trump's eerily good at it.

The speech may have seemed self-evidently absurd to liberal listeners. But it's likely to resonate very well among the white, largely male demographic his campaign has targeted. They've been decimated by job loss, wage stagnation, and a related rise in deaths from alcoholism, overdose, and suicide. They are desperate and frightened and looking for answers.

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Trump spoke to their economic injuries in classic authoritarian style:

"I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country ... but they're not going to be forgotten for long. These are the people who work hard but no longer have a voice."

Pause.

"I am your voice!"

It's true that Trump's speech was filled with lies -- sweeping, stunning, audacious lies. (We list some of them below.) But there was truth in it, too. A good con man mixes truth with lies for the same reason an assassin mixes sugar with strychnine: the poison goes down easier that way.

Trump spoke of African-American poverty, of American jobs lost to bad trade deals, of crumbling roads and bridges and "Third World airports." He mentioned "household incomes ... down more than $4,000 since the year 2000" and 43 million Americans on food stamps. His daughter even got Republicans to cheer for "affordable and accessible child care for all," which had to be a first.

Then, suddenly, he pivoted from these real-world complaints to something much more abstract -- and nationalistic:

"Not only have our citizens endured domestic disaster, but they have lived through one international humiliation after another. One after another! We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian captors at gunpoint."

For Trump, the sexualized image of humiliation -- "to their knees" -- is surely no accident. (Remember this?) Weimar Republic comparisons may come too cheaply, but this marriage of economic anxiety and national humiliation is strikingly reminiscent of someone else's rhetoric -- and I think you know who I mean.

The fearful images cascaded out of Trump's mouth, one after the other: a nuclear-armed Iran. "Death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness." Innocent young women whose killers come from far away.

And underlying it all, a jingoistic credo: "... our plan will put America First."

At the mention of this phrase, born of anti-Semitism and unwillingness to fight Hitler's Germany, the crowd erupted in wild cheers: USA! USA!

"Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo," Trump continued. Americanism: a word that can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean.

"As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect -- the respect that we deserve!"

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USA! USA!

And the ultimate strongman's line: "There can be no prosperity without law and order."

Convention-goers loved it. At one point they even chanted, "Yes, you will!" to their leader.

(The space between the "Yes, we can" of Obama's 2008 supporters and the "Yes, you will" of Trump's followers is, arguably, the distance between democracy and authoritarianism.)

Trump wisely saved the Republican hackery to the end of the speech, when even his most devoted followers must have been numb with fatigue. It was there just the same. He promised to deregulate industry, unleash the energy industry (was that worked out in backroom negotiations with the Koch brothers?) and cut taxes for the wealthy.

But Trump also made a powerful argument against his opponent, one she'll need to counter directly:

"The problems we face now -- poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad -- will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is required to change outcomes."

Trump reminded voters that Bill Clinton signed NAFTA, tied Hillary Clinton to "big business" donors who want to keep the system "rigged," and even lampooned her poorly-chosen"#ImWithHer" slogan by saying "I'm with you."

Trump is promising relief -- from the fear he and his allies have instilled, but also from an economic order that has failed millions of Americans. Even though there's no chance he intends to make good on his promises, Clinton's Democrats have their work cut out for them. They'll need to convince voters that they don't represent the "centrist" status quo. That means firm and believable commitments on trade, wages, and other issues where they have tacked right in the past.

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Trump offers no specifics, but he holds out the possibility of change. Even voters who suspect he's lying may be willing to take a chance on him unless Democrats offer concrete alternatives. Strongmen perform best against disorganized opponents with vague messages.

The evening ended on an odd note -- literally. Organizers played "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones as Trump left the stage. Was that a statement? To whom? Their use of "Here Comes the Sun" earlier in the evening had drawn an immediate angry response from George Harrison's estate, but at least that choice made sense in a saccharine sort of way.

This selection, on the other hand, left listeners baffled. "You Can't Always Get What You Want"? Of all the songs the Rolling Stones ever recorded, why pick that one?

Maybe "Under My Thumb" wasn't available.

---------------------------------------------

Fact Check



It would take 50,000 words to debunk all of Trump's deceptions, so we'll stick to a few highlights:

The United States is not "one of the highest-taxed nations in the world." The Tax Policy Center concluded that total US tax revenue came to only 24 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), "well below the 34 percent average for developed countries." And the OECD, an organization of developed nations, found in 2015 that the US ranks 31st out of 34 countries in its level of taxation. (Only South Korea, Chile, and Mexico scored lower.)

While Trump claims that we have "no proven vetting system" in place for Syrian refugees, refugees are screened by several different agencies and the process takes 18 to 24 months. (Here's a helpful -- and lengthy -- infographic.)

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There is no evidence to suggest that regulation "costs" the economy $2 trillion a year. What's more, regulation saves an enormous amount of money -- through the prevention of environmental damage, improvements in public health, increased competition, fraud prevention, and a number of other ways.

We didn't "give" Iran $150 billion as part of the nuclear deal. In fact, we didn't give Iran any money at all. Frozen Iranian assets -- that is, their money, not ours -- was released as part of the agreement.

Law enforcement is primarily handled at the local and state level, so there is no way "safety will be restored" by Trump "on January 20, 2017."
"A convention of hangmen who subscribe to the principle that the executioner has his rights as well," says a famous writer covering the Republican National Convention.

Delegates supporting the victorious candidate boo and hiss a defeated rival.

The nominee talks loosely about using nuclear weapons.

The party's nominee declines to repudiate such extremist organizations as the Ku Klux Klan. White supremacists across the country have rallied to his support.

One of the tiny number of African American delegates at this gathering of what once was the Party of Lincoln says that black delegates were "shoved, pushed, spat upon, and cursed with a liberal sprinkling of racial epithets." "I now believe I know how it felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany," a prominent African American says of his experience at the Republican National Convention.

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The party's nominee speaks of the "abuse of law and order in this country, the total disregard for it, the mounting crime rate."

The convention features abundant fear-mongering and talk of the need to restore "law and order," much of it with unmistakable racist overtones.

The pent-up frustrations and fears of the people who were attracted to this movement center on an elite who, it is argued, are selling out America. The targets of their extreme loathing are those who reached the top of the American political system who appeared in the Right's worldview to be traitors of one sort or another.

The movement that has seized control of the party and its national convention labels itself "conservative," but it isn't. It seeks not to conserve, but to reverse the changes of the modern world and go back in time to an earlier era in America. It is a revolt against the modern world in most of its manifestations. Its adherents have no tolerance for modern (im)morality, for internationalism, for government social programs or government regulation of the market, for racial or religious diversity, or for an understanding of the world based on modern science. They are staunchly opposed to pluralism. They were, in a word, singularists.

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All of this sounds like a perfect description of the party's 2016 Convention, where Rudy Giuliani went wild screaming about President Obama, people chanted "Lock her up!" in reference to Hillary Clinton, Dr. Ben Carson linked Hillary to Lucifer, a Trump adviser said Hillary should be shot by a firing squad for treason, and on and on ...

In fact, though, it is a summary of the party's 1964 Convention, when an insurgency seized control of the Republican Party, cheered "extremism in defense of liberty," booed Nelson Rockefeller off the stage, and mistreated the miniscule number of black delegates. The quote on now knowing what it felt like to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany is from Jackie Robinson. He had integrated the national pastime; now he was witnessing the dis-integration of his national party, whose support for members of his race had quite suddenly become something of a past time.

The quotation about a convention of hangmen is Norman Mailer writing about the 1964 Republican Convention in the November 1964 issue of Esquire.

Fifty-two years ago, the Republican Party made a pact with the devil by adopting a "Southern Strategy" appealing to racists, xenophobes and religious bigots. This week the devil came to Cleveland to collect his due.
CLEVELAND, USA - JULY 21: Donald Trump accepts the Republican nomination for President at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, USA on July 21, 2016. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

I am officially panicking. Last night I heard Michael Moore tell Bill Maher he thinks Donald Trump is going to win in November. From what I've heard around me this week I'm afraid he's right. Normally level-headed, well-adjusted and good-hearted Americans have accepted the most insane, misogynistic, violence-infused propaganda ever to be spewed upon the U.S. public, and they're going to help get this nightmare and his one-heartbeat-away-from-the-presidency VP, LGBT and reproductive rights enemy elected to the highest offices in the land.

I'm not talking about the racist hate-mongers who would never vote for Barack Obama because he's black or Hillary because she's a woman. I'm not talking about the die-hard Republicans that would rather pluck out their eyes one by one than cast a ballot for a candidate from another party. No, I'm talking about smart, moderate, liberal, even progressive Democrats and Independents who've suddenly, unaccountably morphed into red-faced, terrible-two's toddlers, gnashing their teeth and stamping their feet, spouting verbatim the GOP's most vitriolic spin, fiercely announcing that they will never ever vote for Hillary Clinton. Here are some examples:

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A New Age goddess-lover and natural healer who will not be voting at all this year because the Universal Powers have already decided who the winner will be in November. Honey, that is a vote for Trump.

A soft-hearted animal activist who will not be voting either because, though he hates everything The Donald stands for, he can't bring himself to vote for "Shrillary" -- a liar, warmonger, corporatist, a Secretary of State who is responsible for the deaths of Americans in Benghazi. That, my friend, is a vote for Donald Trump.



A brilliant environmentalist and rabid Bernie Sanders supporter who tells me that he and all his friends are casting their votes for Jill Stein, spouting the same aforementioned rationale, crying, "We want to vote Green and start a revolution!" Sadly, that ship sailed when Bernie lost the nomination -- by fair means or foul. My dear, you and your friends will be casting your ballots for Donald Trump.

Okay, let's talk turkey here. Has Hillary Clinton ever lied? Duh. Of course she has. She's a politician. Is Hillary a hawk? Hell yes. She, and 342 fellow congress people voted "yea" on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq. She sat in the Situation Room holding her breath with President Obama and others watching Navy Seals put a bullet in Bin Laden's brain (no doubt cheering about it). Is she responsible for four Americans dying in an attack on our embassy in Benghazi? Who knows? Most assuredly that tragic episode has been extrapolated and criminalized by Republicans into a full-blown scandal with the sole purpose of sinking a Democratic candidate.

More upsetting to me personally is that Clinton supports fracking, Monsanto and frankenfood -- some of the most environmentally suicidal positions conceivable.

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Yet...YET!

Donald Trump cannot under any circumstances be allowed to win this election. I don't have to tell you why. Just remove your thumb from your ass and take a huge dump. It'll make you feel better. It'll clear your head. You can wipe the shit-storm of Republican slander out of your eyes and look at Hillary Clinton objectively. Remember that as First Lady she became the first public figure to fight for Universal Health Care (and got cut off at the knees for doing it). Recall that she was the New York senator who fought tirelessly for women's and children's rights. Recognize that she was the Secretary of State who helped take out the #1 terrorist in the world. Oh, and she's the first female presidential candidate in America's history.

You can take a moment to bless Bernie Sanders for staying in the race long enough to force Hillary to accept for her platform the $15 minimum wage, debt-free student loans and expanded Medicare. Most importantly, she will be appointing at least two Supreme Court justices, she has just pledged to push for a constitutional amendment to end Citizen's United in the first thirty days of her presidency and, by the way, find out what's going on at Area 51. Remember that whether or not you agree with all her principles, she does not deserve to be jailed as we heard chanted at the RNC or -- wait for it -- put in front of a firing squad and shot as a traitor.

She is imperfect. She may be a friend of Wall Street. Her admittedly shrill tone of voice may sound like fingernails on slate. She may in fact be the lesser of two evils. But please, quit your whining and foot-stomping. Go out and vote, and vote for her. If you have friends or family who need convincing, open your mouth and fight with them. Because a ballot not cast, or cast for anyone but Hillary Clinton, is a vote for you-know-who.

I don't think I'm overstating it to say that a Trump presidency would be the end of the world as we know it. Like the Brexit regretters discovered -- there will be no do-overs.

Robin Maxwell is a Los Angeles Times bestselling author of ATLANTOS, Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan and The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. Her first HuffPo Post - "Hillary Boleyn" - was published on the Politics Page in 2007. She voted for Bernie Sanders in the California Primary. Painting: "Anger" by Tom Ellis.
Human rights abuses in North Korea are among the worst in the world. Numerous reports -- by the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, and the United States -- have documented the enormous suffering of the North Korean people as a direct result of their governments widespread and systematic human rights violations.

State Department Spokesperson John Kirby outlined some of those abuses at a press briefing:

Extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced labor, and torture. Many of these abuses are committed in political prison camps where an estimated 80 to 120,000 individuals are detained, including children and the family members of the accused.

As part of U.S. efforts to promote accountability, the State Department recently issued a new report on human rights and censorship in North Korea, also known as the DPRK, which identifies North Korean officials and entities associated with these actions.

In conjunction with the report, the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on eleven North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, and also sanctioned five entities involved in the North Korean peoples horrific repression. Other officials designated include Choe Pu Il, Minister of Public Security; Choe Chang Pong, Director of the Ministry of Public Security Investigations Bureau; and Kang Song Nam, Third Bureau Director in the Ministry of State Security.

It is the first time the U.S. Government has officially named individuals involved in the worst aspects of the regimes repression. The complementary designations mean that if any of the sanctioned individuals have assets in the U.S., they are frozen, and that American citizens are prevented from doing business with them. The action represents the start of an ongoing process to identify and name persons involved in rights violations in North Korea.

State Department Spokesperson Kirby said that sanctions can have real financial costs: they reverberate around the world, and  can have an impact on the way other countries and international bodies consider doing business. There is also a power, he noted, in naming the individuals responsible for such cruelty.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said such efforts send a clear message  not just to the senior leaders, but also prison camp managers, and guards, censors, secret police, interrogators, and persecutors of defectors  the world is documenting your abuses, and they will not be forgotten.
A few years ago, I was at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa, for the Borlaug Dialogues, an annual international conference on food security, agriculture, and food science. Representatives from NGOs, businesses, and national governments offered their solutions to hunger around the world, from encouraging young agri-entrepreneurs to shipping fish heads to Africa. There was no end to creative (and, at times, dubious) solutions to world hunger.

About the only thing most folks seem to agree on is that the answer isn't more relief but more development. Figuring out which path toward development to take, though, is another matter. Even the best routes aren't perfect. Increasing agricultural output doesn't address rampant food waste. Developing more GMO seeds doesn't address lack of clean water or lack of jobs. Microlending can provide huge benefits, but it doesn't work everywhere and doesn't work everywhere in the same way.

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But there is a single step we can take to end hunger for good around the world and in our own communities: listening to one another. Too often, the "solutions" to hunger and poverty come down from the "top," rather than rising up from the ground. Those of us in developed countries are moved by the problems we see in developing nations and bring our own solutions to bear in communities that are not our own. At its worst, this feeds the sort of "savior complex" on prominent display recently in the controversy over Louise Linton's new memoir. At its best, this top-down model proffers solutions that simply don't work.



Fyness Phiri of Chithope Village

The kind of meaningful listening that builds relationships between and within communities helps solutions arise that are effective and sustainable. This model "challenges one-sided, top-down, and donor-recipient approaches...and emphasizes the need for developing mutual relationships in which all are considered teachers and learners," says Rev. Dr. Philip Knutson, the regional representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Southern Africa. Knutson warns that without cultivating relationships through listening, development projects can lose sight of context and "may be short-sighted, benefiting some but excluding others."

When listening is authentic, though, programs can respond to a host of needs, including practical needs for economic empowerment and personal needs like recognition of self-dignity. In Malawi, the Evangelical Lutheran Development Service (ELDS), supported in part by the ELCA through ELCA World Hunger, is working with women and men to build community and overcome the challenges of hunger and poverty. (ELDS is the diaconate arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi, led by Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe.) Fyness Phiri, one of the participants in the "Livelihoods Improvement and Empowerment Project," recalls, "I was one of the poorest people in the village...before ELDS introduced this project." Fyness used to ask her neighbors for money to buy food for herself, her husband, and their four children.

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At a community meeting in 2013, Fyness joined other women to start a village savings and loan group. After some training and community-building meetings with ELDS, the group gave out its first loans. Fyness and the other women were able to start small businesses and purchase seeds and fertilizers for their farms. Eventually, the start-up money helped Fyness produce enough food to feed her family, pay back her loan, and sell some of her surplus at market. "Since I joined the project," she says, "my life has completely changed. I have food in my house, and I'm able to send my children to school. Because of the knowledge [I've gained], I will be able to continue and help others even if the project phases out." Because ELDS invested in the community and the relationships formed among the women, the impact is not only sustainable but replicable.



Extension worker Chesterman Kumwenda demonstrates how to use a treadle pump.

Microlending worked wonders for the women in Fyness' village, but for Charles Chikwatu's community, the problem was not access to funds but lack of water for their fields. Charles and other participants worked together to learn how to use efficient treadle pumps to increase the land they could tend for maize and tomatoes. The benefits of the new method are huge, Charles says: "I easily find money through sale of my crops [and] I have managed using the money from irrigation to send my children to secondary school. I have also started a grocery with the money from this farming."

New irrigation systems wouldn't help Fyness, who didn't even have money for seeds. A village savings and loan wouldn't have helped Charles' community address lack of access to water. But by listening closely, ELDS helped Fyness, Charles, and their communities transform their own situations.

And because of this, the benefits extend far beyond the immediate needs for food, according to Knutson. "[C]ollaboration between individual members in a community has enabled the individuals and the community to gain in knowledge and confidence to leverage other benefits enabling them to start new business and advocate for government support for local clinics and other rural development projects," he says.

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New, creative solutions to hunger and poverty abound, and many offer much promise. When these are employed in the context of relationships where participants become leaders and vision is built from the ground up, effective action can take root and grow. Sometimes, the answer is reducing waste. In some places, the answer is increased production. With some groups, the answer is enterprise. But in every time, place, and case, the best response is to listen.
This week is the third annual Latino Conservation Week, a chance for Latinos all across the country to demonstrate their passion for enjoying and protecting public lands. Few places is that passion more evident than here in California.

The spirit of conservation is woven throughout our state's history. It was here in California that John Muir founded the Sierra Club and led a movement to establish our first national parks, including Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.

That spirit continued in the artwork of Ansel Adams, the California native whose photographs uniquely captured the beauty of our public lands. His prints made nature more accessible for the average person and inspired a new generation of conservationists. Thanks to his photographs, places like Kings Canyon National Park are now protected for all to enjoy.

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And that spirit lives on today.

Since Congress passed the 1994 desert conservation bill, which created Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve, we've tried to build on that legacy by preserving even more of the California desert.

Earlier this year, President Obama created three new national monuments in the desert: the Mojave Trails National Monument, the Sand to Snow National Monument and Castle Mountains National Monuments. These monument designation would have never come to fruition if not for overwhelming public support.

Latino conservation groups played a significant role in building that support. Last October, I held a public meeting in Whitewater Canyon with the U.S. Departments of Interior and Agriculture on the proposed national monuments designations. It was encouraging to see leaders from the Council of Mexican Federations, Hispanic Access Foundation and the Por La Creacion Faith-based Alliance on hand to lend their voice of support. Additionally, over 100 Latino faith leaders from Assemblies of God Southern Pacific District signed a letter to President Obama urging him to take action to protect the California desert.

Members of these groups have also been working to educate Latino communities on the value of preserving the California desert. They have organized hikes, camping trips and other events so more people can experience first-hand the rugged beauty of the desert.

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For many, that first exposure to vast California desert is enough to inspire a lifetime of outdoor stewardship. Such was the case for a city-girl from San Francisco.

I can still remember the first time I saw the shadows of the Joshua trees as they fell across the landscape, the wildflowers blooming in the spring and the brilliant array of stars that lit up the night sky. I remember the feeling of first seeing big-horn sheep playing in the mountains or an 80-year old tortoise crawling along the desert floor.

I realized during those early trips that the California desert is a major part of our cultural heritage -- a tribute to what the American West once was. And I'm proud of our efforts to keep it pristine so future generations can share those same experiences.

But our work is not done.

National monument designation was an important step to preserving more public spaces in the California desert. However, we must continue to look for new opportunities to preserve even more parts of the California desert and expand protections for other public lands.

The Latino community will play a major role in those future efforts. Thanks to events like Latino Conservation Week, more Californian Latinos will be encouraged to experience the outdoors and will be inspired to join the effort to preserve and protect our public lands.

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** FILE ** A member of the Mujahedeen Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group in Iraq, guards the road leading to the group's main training camp, which is watched over by a U.S. Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle, near Baqubah, north central Iraq, in this May 9, 2003 file photo. As soon as the State Department created a list of terror organizations in 1997, it named the MEK, putting it in a club that includes al-Qaida and barring anyone in the U.S. from providing material support. The State Department says the MEK groups were funded by Saddam Hussein, supported the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and are responsible for the deaths of Americans in the 1970s. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley/File)

France has unfortunately been the epicenter for two terrorism-related events in recent weeks. The tragic truck attack in Nice, which received international attention, and a rally recently held in Paris by a notorious Iranian opposition group -- the "Mujahedin-e Khalq," or MEK, which for years has committed acts of terrorism against Iran. While it might not be immediately evident, there is a connection between the events -- the groups behind them have been accused of atrocities and have historical ties to Saudi Arabia.

Both the MEK and the self-proclaimed Islamic State, which claimed the attack in Nice, are groups with a history of terrorism, and both, in some way or another, are influenced by the kingdom.

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People light candles at a makeshift memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on July 19, 2016 in tribute to the victims of the Bastille Day attack. (VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)

MEK's Terrorism in Iran

While the group no longer has the distinction of a terrorist group in the United States and is not related to or as widely destructive as ISIS, in Iran the MEK is still very much a perpetrator of terror.

Since its founding in the late 1960s, the MEK's favored tactic has been terrorism, which for years it directed towards Americans. An MEK leader by the name of Massoud Rajavi stated in 1972 that the group's "main goal" was to "free Iran of U.S. imperialism." As I documented in my 2014 book, "Iran and the United States," the MEK's assassination campaigns in the 1970s claimed the lives of several high-profile Americans. Among the victims were one colonel and one lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Air Force, along with other servicemen.

The MEK's hands are tainted not only with American blood, but also with the blood of countless Iranians, Iraqis and Kurds. Since Iran's 1979 revolution, the MEK has been responsible for the deaths of upwards of 17,000 Iranians, including senior officials and ministers. During the Iran-Iraq War, the MEK also sided with Saddam Hussein, earning the enmity of the vast majority of Iranians. An Iranian NGO, the Habilian Association, has gone so far as to document all the Iranian victims of the MEK in a comprehensive database that includes photos and biographies of each of the victims.

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In the '80s and '90s, the MEK was responsible for several terrorist campaigns within Iran, one of which killed some 70 Iranian officials in 1981, including both the president and prime minister at the time.

While the group no longer has the distinction of a terrorist group in the United States, in Iran the MEK is still very much a perpetrator of terror.

After the Iran-Iraq War, the MEK resided in Iraq and took on the role of Saddam's henchmen. An October 1994 Wall Street Journal report quoted a Clinton administration official as saying, "Saddam looked on the Mujahedeen as more loyal than some of his own army units." After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Massoud Rajavi lambasted the U.N. coalition that pushed Saddam out of Kuwait, stating, "Iranian national movements and their masses strongly denounce the Iranian regime's alliance with U.S. imperialism, world Zionism, and regional reactionaries to launch aggression against Iraq."

In recent years, Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated -- in some cases murdered while driving to work. MEK is thought by many to be involved in these attacks, perhaps with the assistance of Israel. According to a 2012 NBC News report, Israel was "training MEK members" to carry out the killings. The group has also been held responsible for an April 2000 assassination attempt on the leader of the Iranian policy making center for the war in Iraq.

Mourners carry the coffin of an Iranian nuclear scientist on January 13, 2012. Some believe MEK is involved in the deaths of the nuclear scientists. (Atta Kenare/Getty Images)

The Saudi Connection

This year, the annual gathering of the MEK in Paris featured Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former director of Saudi intelligence, as a speaker. The conference typically draws the attendance of politicians of many nations, including the U.S., Egypt, and this year, Saudi Arabia. In his remarks, al-Faisal praised the pseudo-Islamist-Marxist group and emphatically supported its objective of toppling the Iranian government. Al-Faisal's comments, which come at a time when Saudi-Iranian relations are at an all-time low and have even been compared to a "Cold War" state, will have serious consequences for the Tehran-Riyadh relationship going forward.

During my trip to Iran a few weeks ago, I spoke with a senior official about the necessity of improving Iran-Saudi relations. He told me that Iran was willing to engage the Saudis but that Riyadh had devoted itself to a confrontational approach. This official informed me that Iran had detailed intelligence about Riyadh's financial support to the MEK, which he said had increased 800 percent in the past two years. He also noted that Saudi Arabia would cover the cost of this year's MEK conference in Paris and that Prince Turki would be present to publicly declare Saudi Arabia's support.

In the fight against terrorism, European and Saudi leaders should know better than to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' terrorism, or tolerate any form of terrorism in the service of cheap geopolitical gains.

With Prince Turki's speech to the MEK, Saudi Arabia has elected to destroy any chance of de-escalating tensions between the two nations. In pursuing this approach, Saudi leaders should be cognizant that not only are they imperiling regional and global security, but they are also following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein. Saudi Arabia has already separated itself from its traditional regional allies with its hyper-anti-Iranian posture, so much so that only Bahrain-- which is effectively under Saudi occupation -- is standing fully with it. Global powers, on the other hand, are pursuing ways to enhance ties with Iran. It is truly a shame that Prince Turki al-Faisal, a man of significant ability and experience, has committed himself to this doomed cause rather than searching for peace and friendship between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh's now open alliance with the MEK only solidifies its position as the sponsor of yet another extremist group that espouses perverted views of Islam. The barbaric Nice terrorist attack-- later claimed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State -- and Prince Faisal's endorsement of the MEK have a common denominator: a connection to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal looks on during the National Council of Resistance of Iran annual meeting on July 9, 2016. (Alain Jocard/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia and ISIS

It has long been evident to the global community that Saudi Arabia is a benefactors of Islamist militant groups, including likely the group that evolved into ISIS. Many U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged this reality. Even former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated at the Brookings Institution last year that, "Much of the extremism in the world today is the direct result of policies and funding undertaken by the Saudi government and individuals." A recent British parliament report also stated that it is "very likely" that individuals close to the royals of the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf have donated money to ISIS, though it is unclear how directly those funds have been given. Historically, too, the ideology of the group has ties to Saudi Arabia's own identity via Wahhabism.

While ISIS wreaks havoc on the world with its global acts of terror, the MEK ravages Iran. In much the same way ISIS is a twisted offspring of the Sunni world that has ravaged, among others, Sunni-populated areas, the MEK is its counterpart for Iranians in the Shia world. Iranians thus expect the world community to confront the MEK just as it confronts ISIS. At the very least, the group should not be hosted by countries like France and endorsed by Saudi Arabia. In the fight against terrorism, European and Saudi leaders should know better than to distinguish between "good" and "bad" terrorism, or tolerate any form of terrorism in the service of cheap geopolitical gains.

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The Nice truck slaughter -- indeed the slaughtering by ISIS in general -- and the MEK's killing of thousands of Iranians are both worthy of our attention and condemnation.

In light of the Nice terrorist attack, the international community should also view the threat from other groups such as the MEK as an interconnected phenomenon. The scourge of terrorism currently threatening the whole world can only be alleviated if it is addressed in a holistic way. The Nice truck slaughter -- indeed the slaughtering by ISIS in general -- and the MEK's killing of thousands of Iranians are both worthy of our attention and condemnation. The territory the perpetrators of such violence use to plan and launch attacks, as well as the flow of cash, equipment and ideology they draw their support and influence from should all be considered as pieces of the same terrorism "puzzle." The global terrorist threat simply cannot be solved until all these pieces are recognized as being a part of the same puzzle and dealt with in an effective and simultaneous manner. This means not only increasing security to prevent attacks, but also seriously confronting those who aid terrorism in any way -- from the MEK to ISIS.

Earlier on WorldPost:
A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.

Saadi

Towards the end of last year, we published an article titled Americans favour coffee to stock market investing where we demonstrated that an overwhelming majority drink coffee as opposed to investing in the stock market' 61% of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis as opposed to the 48% that invest in the market. On a annual basis, Americans spend about $1200 on coffee. If they put this money into the market and allowed compound interest to do its magic, it could grow into a nice tidy sum over a period of 20 years.

The latest data provides even more attention-grabbing data. Starbucks is one of the most popular places to get a cup of Java from, even though (in our opinion) it does not come close to ranking as the best place to have a cup of coffee. The picture below illustrates just how much people love their daily coffee.

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Individuals are more interested in loading their prepaid Starbucks cards with money as opposed to contributing to their 401K plans. This is a clear illustration of how people today are more concerned with how they look or what image they portray as opposed to building a sustainable nest egg. S&P Global Market Intelligence states that Starbucks has $1.2 billion in unspent funds; these are funds that customers have added to their prepaid cards. In 2014, the same customers added $614 million, so the jump to $1.2 billion is stunning. This is more than the total deposits some banks take in for the year. In the same period, the average contribution to a 401K increased by a measly 4.1%.

From a psychological perspective, it reveals that the majority have still not embraced the markets. According to bankrate.com, a large portion of the population states that they don't have enough money to invest in stocks. Based on the chart below, 53% don't have enough money to purchase stocks, and 21% don't know enough about stocks; this does not bode well for the current generation. However, these chaps seem to have no qualms about purchasing an overpriced cup of coffee that they could easily make at home.

Negative rates

We have spoken at length on this topic and as we have noted previously the tiny miserable rate hike the Fed initiated is not the beginning of a new trend but a desperate effort on its part to convince the masses that this economic recovery is real. Any person with a grain of common sense understands that the only thing driving this economic recovery is hot money; if the supply of hot money is cut, the recovery will end instantly. This is why nation after nation continues to jump onto the negative rate band waggon and it is just a matter of time before the Fed is forced to join the party. When negative rates hit the US, it will propel corporations into taking, even more, risk. We suspect share buybacks will surge to levels that might make the current purchases seem sane in comparison.

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Conclusion

The Fed's strategy all along has been to foster an environment that favours speculators and punishes savers and they have succeeded in achieving their objective. The next stage will be to force these savers to speculate, and that is when we can expect this market to enter into the bubble phase. The Fed's sole purpose since it began interfering with free market forces has been to facilitate boom and bust cycles. This bull market will only end when the masses finally give into it and in doing so set the stage for a bubble. History is replete with examples of how bull markets end. No bull market has ended without mass participation; the crowd has to turn euphoric before the bull kicks the bucket.
After four days in Cleveland during which I have been touched, impressed, and moved in some surprising ways, including by several convention speakers and by the good-heartedness of many Republicans I have met, I feel compelled to write this article.

On Tuesday, I spoke at the Purple Tent, which Stuart Muszynski created as a forum to find unifying common ground between Republicans and Democrats. After that day, I felt more hopeful than ever before that we can bridge our differences and work together to create lasting solutions for a new-and-improved America.

After spending time with Republicans such as Michael Steele, Grover Norquist, and Bill Shireman, I came away feeling that even though our political differences may be substantial, we can meet with civility, respect, and curiosity and make real progress. I have, in recent months, also begun a friendship with Rich Tafel, founder of the Log Cabin Republicans, and just hosted an excellent online dialogue with Michael Ostrolenk, founder of the Liberty Coalition.

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All of that is to say that I have dissolved a lot of residual negativity about Republicans and have felt impressed by the intelligence, principles, and commitment of many that I have met and engaged with recently.

While this bridge-building with Republicans is still in an early phase for me, a transpartisan progressive, I feel a bit nervous to write what I am going to write. I do not want it to cause a rift in the collaborative spirit that is growing. In fact, I hope that it deepens it because it addresses a shared problem.

Each day, I grow more convinced that the path to real greatness for America lies in seeing conservative and progressive values as complementary to each other. Right and left are like the two wings of our cherished American eagle, both required for us to soar.

But that collaboration of left and right is in grave danger because of the lies that are creating a hall of mirrors of attack, misunderstanding, demonization, and fear.

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And the most important lie is that Donald Trump is a truthteller when in fact he has been the biggest liar in recent years on the political stage.

I say that not as a partisan statement but as a result of 50 fact-checked speeches by Politifact that analyzed 20 politicians on the national stage since 2007, which you can see graphically depicted here.

Trump comes through with the lowest rating for "truthiness" of all 20, with a mere 11 percent rating vs. 51 percent for Hillary.

Trump has cast aspersions on others with names such as "Lyin' Ted" and "Crooked Hillary" to distract from his own lying and exaggeration. As Ted Cruz stated, this tendency to blame others for what he is doing himself is "straight out of a psychology textbook."

Recent statements of Trump's ghostwriter Tony Schwartz make it clear that Trump considered lying simply part of getting the best business deals and becoming a success. The New Yorker article that chronicles the details is something everyone should read. Tony concluded, "lying is second nature to him."

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Trump's lack of commitment to telling the truth simply must be addressed not only for the good America, but for the good of the Republican Party, which will otherwise face a real corrosion in the American people's faith in its moral compass.

Trump must be held fully accountable to the truth, just as Hillary (and other Democrats) must be held accountable to the truth.

However, it doesn't serve to say they are equivalent because the truth is that Trump actually has the habit of lying much more often and more egregiously, as the Politifact stats show.

During his final night speech, Trump explicitly promised to convention-goers that "There will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else."

While that sounds good, he later said about Hillary, for example, "They have total control over every single thing she does." Imagine someone saying that in a courtroom and how the cross-examination would address it (or the judge). It is a clear lie in order to paint Hillary in a certain way.

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Earlier in the week, the campaign continued to insist that there was no plagiarism in Melania's speech even though there clearly was. After a staffer at last confessed, there was no apology. Indeed, there is a tendency to double down on exaggerations and lies.

Slowly but surely, we have all begun to accept and perhaps tolerate that this as the state of affairs but it ultimately undermines our trust in ALL politics and particularly in our political parties, which start to put winning ahead of truthtelling to the American people.

So I come away with a big question: will Republicans (and not just the media) hold Trump to be a man of his word and require that he be trustworthy with the truth?

The party built on the noble service of Honest Abe simply cannot afford to ignore the fact that Donald Trump has been rated as the most egregious liar out of 20 major recent politicians by Politifact.

This cannot be an inconvenient truth covered up with more hatred of Hillary and more finger-pointing at her misdeeds. That stance has no integrity.

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To have legitimacy in confronting Hillary over her own lies, there must be moral integrity in the accuser, which requires a deeper level of honesty. Otherwise the accusations are simply attempts to deceive voters rather than a call for us to embody our deepest principles as Americans.

And yes, that is true for the Democrats as well. I fully support the same standards for truthfulness being applied to Hillary.

If Donald Trump's loose relationship with the truth is not addressed internally, it will create long-term damage the Republican Party and also set a dangerous precedent for future political candidates.

I say that even while recognizing that Trump does have many positive qualities that came to the foreground through speeches from his family and friends like Tom Barrack. I did witness and acknowledge the good that people see in him.

To hold Trump accountable to telling the truth is the courageous path, one walked by Abraham Lincoln. It is a path that demonstrates moral righteousness rather than simply preaching it.

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It is not only the job of the media to monitor Donald Trump and ensure that he is telling the truth. It is actually and most fundamentally the job of Republicans who want to ensure the rule of law, the integrity of our system, and the protection of our democracy.

Honesty is the most basic requirement for democracy to be successful. Honesty is not a left or right value. It is an American value and it is at the core of who we are.

If our political leaders put other agendas before speaking honestly with us, it erodes our confidence in the system and undermines our participation. It weakens America like a kind of systemic poison.

It, in fact, contributes to law-breaking and disorder as people who feel deceived are more likely to create chaos. When it comes to the job of President, lies can get us into wars, leading to massive loss of life and resources.

In many ways, a propensity to lie is the single most dangerous trait in a President.

If we are to increase law and order in America, as Trump champions, it has to begin with a fearless, profound, and deep commitment to the full truth and nothing but the truth.

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The exaggerations and distortions need to end and the past lies need to be addressed honestly. We cannot entrust the highest level of American power -- with its capacity to end the human race -- to someone who will lie brazenly and repeatedly to the American people.

Lying by politicians may actually be the single best threat to our liberty because if we cannot trust the truthfulness of what our leaders are telling us, then we cannot make wise decisions about how to vote.

Simply put, we need to now restore the trust of the American voter by making it clear that politicians must speak the truth.

As I thought about all this while in bed after the final night, it occurred to me that what we really need to do is have an Honest Abe Pledge, which can be a tranpartisan rallying call.

Abraham Lincoln makes the short list of most admired Presidents on both the right and left and is considered our most honest politician in history.

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It could go like this:

"Based on my deep respect for our American democracy and the need for wisdom, integrity, and trust to be a bedrock of our political process, I commit to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in a respectful manner when participating in politics. I also agree to hold others who have taken the pledge accountable, including those from my own party."

Getting our candidates, representatives AND fellow citizens to sign and enact that pledge would be a game changer and clean up what has become a toxic stew of lies, distortions, and exaggerations.

That is a reform that BOTH parties should be able to sign onto, a unifying pledge that can help to shift the deep suspicion American have of our political leaders, parties, and process.

Because Trump ranks at the lowest rung of politicians and the Party of Honest Abe has now backed him as its candidate, the Republican Party cannot afford to "lead from behind" on this issue.

It is time to stand up and commit to the honesty that is required for wise decision-making and demonstrate the leadership that calls the Democratic Party to do the same. There is nothing more important for American citizens to know than the full truth in order to preserve our precious democracy.
Corine Woodley, mother of the Baton Rouge police shooter Gavin Eugene Long, in an EXCLUSIVE conversation shares revealing details unknown until now about her troubled son. Namely, that he was diagnosed with PTSD, which the Veterans Affairs department was aware of but refused to treat after his service to the nation in Iraq. Additionally, she shares the pain she feels for the families of the police murdered by her son.
Viewers of Donald Trump's coming out party for his apparent "forced choice" vice presidential running mate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, might rightly wonder why he spent almost as much time holding forth on the evils of something he called the "Johnson Amendment" than he did on the virtues of Mike Pence. What the heck is the Johnson Amendment, and why is it so central to Trump's campaign that it virtually pre-empted the purpose of his Saturday morning Pence pitch? As it happens, it turns out that the two subjects are very much related.

Trump, not heretofore known as a deeply religious or born-again Christian, has nonetheless enjoyed tremendous support from white evangelical Protestants, a core constituency of the Republican Party since Nixon's time and formerly an expected key element of Senator Ted Cruz's campaign strategy to win the GOP presidential nomination.

To Robert Jones, the author of the hot-off-the-press book entitled "The End of White Christian America," the reason for Trump's evangelical support reflects those evangelical voters' sense of loss of social control and prominence amid the demographic and cultural changes in America, particularly since Obama's election as the first African American president, their resulting deep nostalgia for a return to their former cultural sovereignty, and their sense that Trump's brand of bravado offers the best chance to achieve such a restoration.

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This resentment and sense of disempowerment have been further stoked by recent defeats (especially in the courts) on such issues as Obamacare and gay marriage and even abortion, plus judicial, legislative and even executive vetoes of responses to such losses in the form of "religious liberty" legislation at state levels, couched in terms of protecting "First Amendment" rights to deny services to LGBT persons in the name of observing fundamental religious beliefs precluding cooperation with evil.

As Robert Jones pointed out, the conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat complained that, to evangelicals, the rejection of such statutory palliatives essentially means that the US culture will not even allow them a face-saving "surrender."

Trump has successfully positioned himself as the true and powerful defender of religious liberty (never mind how to square that "liberty" with how Jews may feel about Trump's proposal to require department-store employees to wish a merry Christmas to their customers instead of "happy holidays"). This Christian "restoration" notion looks like a "big Government" kind of idea that would ordinarily make GOP voters very uncomfortable. But it fits in with other Trump proposals for deep governmental intrusions into heretofore private activities such as telling businesses where they may or may not locate factories (ironically, he gets around the Constitution on that one by using the federal taxing power that saved Obamacare)!

More importantly, with the guidance of evangelical leaders, Trump has traced the roots of Christian disempowerment to a 1954 statute, backed by then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, which puts the tax-exempt status of churches and other 501(c)(3) charities at risk if they endorse any candidate for office or otherwise engage in political activity.

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On its face, this statute seems quite reasonable and consistent with the fact that contributions to political parties by you or me are clearly not tax deductible. Why should we be able to give to churches as a "pass through" for political campaigning and wind up with a tax deduction for using that route? Moreover, direct personal contributions to political parties are subject to disclosure while those to churches are not, unless you or I are claiming a tax deduction.

Trump, however, has come to the view that evangelical churches' First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom have been trampled and unconstitutionally denied via the Johnson Amendment, and he has vowed to lead an effort to repeal it in Congress. He chose to reiterate this campaign promise very purposely at the same venue where he formally introduced Pence, who was chosen in large part because of his consistent identification with evangelical religion and its causes--including, specifically, a failed effort in Indiana to legislate a religious liberty exemption allowing individuals and businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers.

The infamous Citizens United decision of the US Supreme Court, which ruled unconstitutional any limits on corporate or union expenditures to support or denounce candidates in political campaigns, also opened a loophole for political action committees set up as "social welfare" 501(c)(4) entities to receive unlimited, tax-exempt contributions that wind up supporting political campaigns--so long as such entities are "primarily engaged" in social welfare activities. This is a looser test regarding political activities than is applied under 501(c)(3) entities like charities and churches, where only "insubstantial" non-exempt (i.e., political) activities would be consistent with retaining tax-exempt status.

Indeed, the IRS's efforts to question whether various local chapters of the Tea Party--clearly a primarily "political-purpose" organization if there ever was one--should retain their 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status was what led to the so-called Lois Lerner "scandal" just before the 2014 midterm elections. It would be a fair point to argue that the IRS was only targeting conservative or evangelical entities (and not progressive or liberal groups) trying to get around the ban on tax-exempt donations to essentially political entities. But what was obscured by a lazy media and clever GOP political posturing was that the Tea Party had no business claiming tax-exempt status for its financial backing, any more than Republicans, Democrats, Greens or Libertarian parties do.

Trump now promises to exempt churches fully from any test--either 501(c)(3) or (4)--of whether their political activity is either insubstantial or not their primary purpose in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. This would give evangelical and other churches and charities the benefit of Citizens United to fund church endorsements and other directly political action in unlimited amounts. The effect would no doubt be viewed as Trump's biggest verifiable "charitable contribution" to date!

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If Senate Republicans are true to their word, the next president of the United States will nominate Justice Antonin Scalia's replacement.

Given the age of several other members of the Supreme Court and rumors of others' retirement, it is likely the next president will make as many as four nominations.

This potentially dramatic change in the makeup of the court could transform how our constitution is interpreted, an issue on which the court effectively has the last word. At stake: voting rights, how elections are conducted, requirements for abortion providers, union dues for public employees and claims to religious exemption from anti-discrimination laws, among other issues.

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The court could move dramatically to the left in the event of a Clinton victory in November, disrupting the conservative trend of the last two decades. In a little-reported speech last March in Madison, Wisconsin, Clinton made it clear she would nominate progressive justices. She has also said she would want justices committed to overruling Citizens United, the case that invalidated much of the federal regulations on election spending.

Many voters may vote for Trump solely to prevent that from happening.

A Trump victory would ensure a move further to the right. Donald Trump has said the future of the Supreme Court is at stake in this election, and has released a list of reliably conservative potential nominees.

The Republican platform, approved at the party convention on July 18, says:

"...a new Republican president will restore to the Court a strong conservative majority that will follow the text and original meaning of the Constitution and our laws."

As a constitutional law professor for more than two decades, I have observed the ways in which court doctrine can fluctuate as one constitutional vision or another commands a majority.

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It is no exaggeration to say that the future of the Supreme Court, and of our constitutional system, turns on the outcome of the November election.

Different constitutional visions

Republicans and Democrats have different visions of how our Constitution is best understood. One fundamental disagreement is about whether the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when written or whether it evolves over time. Justice Scalia said the latter view is "idiotic." Justice Stephen Breyer, usually on the liberal side, believes in a "living constitution."

The conservatives have held a fairly reliable if tight majority since 1990. The Supreme Court started to trend in a conservative direction with President Richard Nixon's appointment of William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell in 1972. It was consolidated by President George H. W. Bush's replacement of Thurgood Marshall with Clarence Thomas in 1990. Replacing the archconservative Antonin Scalia with almost any Democratic nominee is anathema to Republicans, as it would shift the balance of power to the liberal bloc.









REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque





Any nominee of a Democratic president will be far more liberal than was Justice Scalia. Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee whom the Republican leadership in the Senate has decided to ignore, is more likely to join the liberal bloc on the court. A Clinton nominee is likely to be even more reliably progressive.

On the other hand, if Donald Trump defers to the Federalist Society when it comes to judicial appointments, as he has said he will, a Trump nominee could be expected to join the conservative bloc and, for now, preserve the ideological status quo.

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Decisions that could go the other way

Many difficult constitutional questions in recent years have been answered by the court in close, usually 5-4, decisions. The conservative bloc, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist before him, has been dominant on many issues for more than two decades.

Affirmative action is illustrative. Conservative textualists claim that any governmental use of race is race discrimination and violates the equal protection clause. Liberals, on the other hand, believe it is the purpose of the equal protection clause to invalidate racial classifications only when they are used to exclude (for example, denying someone service because of their race) and not those used to include (for example, taking a person's race into account in university admissions to achieve diversity).

The court, adopting the conservative view, has held that the Constitution prohibits the government from taking race into account unless correcting its own constitutional wrongs, with the possible exception of the use of race in higher education admissions. In other words, the government may constitutionally do nothing to redress societal discrimination on the basis of race for which it is not responsible.

As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, in which the Supreme Court rejected the consideration of a student's race in making K-12 school assignment decisions, the "way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejects that abstract approach to equality as unrealistic. Dissenting in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, in which the court upheld the decision by Michigan voters to prohibit the consideration of race in public university admissions, she wrote:

the "way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination."

These are two very different views of how the Constitution is best understood: as colorblind, regardless of the realities of the world around us; or as permitting color consciousness, because of the realities of the world around us.

The next president, in nominating, and the Senate, in confirming the next justice, has every right to ask whether the nominee shares the originalist constitutional vision of the late Justice Scalia or the progressive constitutional vision of Justice Breyer. If Justice Scalia were to be replaced by a similar justice, little would change in the short run. But if Justice Scalia's replacement is as different in constitutional vision as Justice Clarence Thomas was different from Thurgood Marshall, much could change.

The court, and so our constitutional doctrine, could be ideologically transformed. This is not because judges are ideologues promoting their own political preferences, but because the constitutional vision of the justices has been vetted and approved through a political process of nomination and confirmation.

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Ahmad Shah Massoud and the young Arab prisoners of the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

Egyptian war correspondent Yehia Ghanem continues his series of stories on the wars he has covered and the people he has met along the way with his account of meeting young Arab fighters captured while fighting in Afghanistan.

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Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan - Autumn 1997

In the autumn of 1997, it was unusually cold in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, 150km north of the capital, Kabul. It felt as though the nearby Hindu Kush mountains were willing gusts of bitter wind upon us.

I was on a small island in the middle of the Panjshir River, to which I'd been taken by the legendary leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, talking to young Arab prisoners of war who had been captured while fighting for the Taliban.

I wanted to know how they had come to be in Afghanistan - both in terms of who had recruited them and how they had got here.

Some of the prisoners spoke freely; others refused to talk at all.

But among those who did speak, there was a recurring theme: they had imagined that they were pursuing a quest for freedom in Afghanistan - something they had been denied in their own countries - only to discover that it was a mirage. What they had thought of as some kind of holy mission had seen them become pawns in a larger game of partisan issues that were entirely foreign to them.

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The traditional route used by Arab fighters heading to Afghanistan during the 1980s typically began either in Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Algeria and then continued through Peshawar in Pakistan. But as I talked to these young Arab prisoners, I was shocked to learn that Turkey had become a hub through which these Arab fighters passed. It came as a surprise because the country was, at the time, controlled by the staunchly secularist military.

'Money and paradise - an irresistible offer'

"Life has become so difficult in Egypt; my family could hardly provide the basics for me and this resulted in me having to drop out of high school," a 19-year-old Egyptian prisoner explained. "Finding work that would let me support myself was very difficult, let alone having to find enough work to support my parents."

"One day someone approached me through a friend and started talking to me about gaining both this life and the one after, meaning getting some money for a better life on earth, and in the event of me dying while fighting, I would be guaranteed to inherit paradise," he continued. "[It was] an irresistible offer and so I ended up as a fighter and, soon after, as a prisoner."

There were many like him. Their main motivation to fight in a foreign land had been the socioeconomic disenfranchisement they had encountered in their own. But the offers made to them had been wrapped in religious terms - the promise of paradise.

There were others, however, whose motivation was purely political.

"We came into this life to see our parents being insulted, repressed and oppressed all the way and all the time," said one of the prisoners, Abdel Rahman, as others gathered round him, signalling their agreement. "We also learned that their parents and grandparents had suffered no less.

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"We decided that we should not be silenced. When we raised our voices we were repressed harshly, humiliated, insulted and some of us served sentences though still legally children," he continued.

"Therefore, we decided to fight our way to freedom away from our home countries ruled by ruthless tyrants. Regardless of captivity, if we ever have to do it again, we will," he concluded, punching the air.

Ismail's plea: 'Do not forget me'

I spent the whole day moving from one group to another - sitting with some young Arab prisoners who would not utter a word and others who seemed unable to stop talking. Many cried like children - most, in fact, were.

They wanted to go home, some said, but were afraid of being returned to prisons in their own countries. Some told stories of the torture they had already endured in those places.

They had come here to fight for justice and to regain their freedom and dignity, some told me.

As I was about to take the boat back to the mainland, Ismail, the 17-year-old Egyptian I had first spoken to on the island ran up to me. Holding my arm, he begged me not to forget about him and pleaded with me to ask Massoud for his freedom.

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To leave him behind felt unbearable, but all I could do was promise him that I would try not only to secure his freedom but the freedom of all those on the island with him.

Our many cages

Massoud had invited me to dinner that evening and it was 8 p.m. when I arrived at his home.

We ate together and then began the conversation that I had been waiting for since the night before, when I had first questioned him about the Iranian prisoners of the Taliban I'd encountered while reporting from that side of the conflict.

"I guess now you know why I didn't answer your questions last night about those Iranian Revolutionary Guards who fell into captivity with the Taliban," he said.

"After meeting your own fellow Arab fighters in captivity, you should know that we, in the Northern Alliance, are not the only party getting outside help," he continued.

"Sir, those Arabs are not much in the way of fighters," I responded. "Legally, they are children and should be treated as such."

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"Whoever carries arms is a fighter, regardless of their age. But because of their young age we are being very considerate to them," he replied, his tone both firm and compassionate.

"Sir, would you allow me to plead for the freedom of those children? Keeping those children in captivity will not serve any purpose and I don't believe that the Taliban will show any interest in releasing any of your POWs in return for the release of those Arab children," I implored him.

"How can I release them when their own governments don't want them back?" he asked. "If I keep them I do so out of mercy because these children, if sent back to their homes, would be sent to their doom. At least you can rest assured that I won't harm them here."

I had seen for myself how those we term "terrorists" are not born, but bred - in these cases by the dictators who ruled their countries.

I thought of these young prisoners often as I sat in my own cage in a Cairo courtroom, and I think of them still, as I sit here in exile. Their stories remind me that we shall all remain caged until freedom is universal.

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By Soraya Shockley

Former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele says that the Republican Party lacks authentic representation of black Americans and the issues they care about. As he exited what's been reported to be the whitest Republican National Convention in decades, Youth Radio's Soraya Shockley asked Steele about the state of race in his Party.

Steele was the first black chairman of the RNC from 2009-11 and during his tenure, he was a voice for inclusion and expanding the demographics of the GOP. However, once out of office, Steele has been critical of the Republican Party's lack of ethnic diversity, especially as this election year has seen divisive racially charged rhetoric and a dwindling number of black delegates at the RNC.

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Steele told Youth Radio he sees the dearth of black delegates on the convention floor as a real problem--one that goes way beyond who showed up in Cleveland this year.

Donald Trump is strikingly unpopular among young black voters, with fewer than 2% saying they'd vote for him if the election were today, according to a national poll from the University of Chicago's Black Youth Project and the AP.

Trump's campaign has alienated communities of color. He's gone after Black Lives Matter protesters, called for bans against Muslims entering the US, and announced plans to build a wall between the US and Mexico. So the presence of speakers of color at the RNC begs the question: are these speakers being tokenized?

Reflecting on what he's heard from the podium so far this week, Steele said, "We acknowledge the history, we love talking about the civil rights act, we love talking about Abraham Lincoln and emancipation. But we're not talking about today...I was thinking about Janet Jackson: 'What have you done for me lately?' That was 1865. That was 1872, that was 1964. What have you done in 2016?" (1:33 to 2:09)

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Among the handful of black speakers who have taken the stage at this year's RNC, Steele says he's yet to hear a single authentic moment from them. "I want to see a black person stand up on that stage and speak authentically about our community and relate our republican ideals to that...When you seem to harangue and chastise the community for its condition... you're losing folks, and you're using [black voices] to do it." (4:38 to 5:22)

Will Steele cast his vote for Trump? "I haven't decided," he told Youth Radio. (6:30 to 6:32)
Hutchinson Zoo confirms avian flu in geese in its bird rehab center

The virus was in geese being treated at the center. One animal was euthanized. The zoo's exhibit birds are being isolated indoors to protect them.
Major EMI Publishing Shareholder Named In $3.5 Billion Scandal

The boss of one of the private equity group that invested in the Sony-led acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2012 is caught up in a major corruption scandal involving the Malaysian governments sovereign wealth fund.

_________________________________________________

American authorities have accused various people linked to Malaysias state-owned investment fund  including the countrys Prime Minister Najib Razak  of siphoning off over $3.5 billion of monies for their own means, including business ventures and lavish purchases like art and jewelery. The US is now seeking to seize assets in the region of $1 billion linked to the alleged fraud.

One of the key executives accused of involvement is Malaysian businessman Taek Jho Low  generally known as Jho Low  who has no formal role at the sovereign wealth fund, but who is allegedly deeply involved in its operations; though thats something he denies.

Lows private equity business Jynwel Capital was one of the vehicles that helped fund Sonys $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2012 and, according to his official biography, his involvement in that deal resulted in him becoming Non-Executive Chairman of the music publisher in Asia. But according to the Americans, the $106 million Low invested in the EMI songs business was misappropriated from Malaysias state fund.

A number of investors joined Sony and its long-term business partner, the Michael Jackson Estate, to acquire the songs side of EMI after Citigroup repossessed the British music major and put it up for sale in 2011. Although EMI Music Publishing technically remains a standalone business, with a different ownership structure, it operates as if it was a unit of Sony/ATV, Sonys Music publisher.

The ownership of Sony/ATV is currently under the spotlight, of course, because Sony is trying to buy the Michael Jackson estate which would give Sony Corp complete ownership of the company, though that wouldnt affect the ownership structure of EMI Music Publishing.

via Celebrity Access

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The US Justice Department has officially filed lawsuits to block the proposed billion-dollar mergers between four major health insurance companies, claiming the deals violate antitrust laws and would harm competition and affordability for consumers.US Attorney General Loretta Lynch explained the decision at a press conference, saying the $37 billion merger between Humana and Aetna and Anthems $54 billion proposed acquisition of Cigna would leave much of the multitrillion-dollar health insurance industry in the hands of three mammoth insurance companies.Competition would be substantially reduced for hundreds of thousands of families and individuals who buy insurance on the public exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act, Lynch said.The lawsuits, filed Thursday morning, challenge the mergers on the grounds that they would lead to higher health insurance prices, reduced benefits, less innovation and worse service for over a million Americans  thus violating US antitrust laws.The Justice Department was joined in the long-anticipated suit with attorneys general in 11 states, including major players like California.The legal actions are unlikely to end the maneuvering in the health insurance industry, and Aetna and Humana said in a joint statement Thursday that they plan to vigorously defend their deal.A combined company is in the best interest of consumers, particularly seniors seeking affordable, high-quality Medicare Advantage plans, the insurers said.Anthem also stressed that it was fully committed to challenging the suit in court, but will remain receptive to any efforts to reach a settlement that would allow it to complete its takeover of Cigna.Cigna, meanwhile, said it was evaluating its option and doesnt believe the deal will close until 2017, if at all.The Justice Department left little room for hope, saying it did not see a way forward to negotiate settlements allowing the mergers to go forward, even if insurers divested assets. The department is particularly concerned over lack of consumer choice, as many areas of the country would be left with just one or two insurers to choose from if the transactions are completed.Consumer advocacy and medical groups greeted the news warmly Tuesday, saying the mergers would have harmed patient interests.Allowing commercial health insurers to become too big and exert control over the delivery of healthcare would be bad for patients and the vitality of the nations healthcare system, said AMA President Andrew Gurman. With existing competition in health insurance markets already at alarmingly low levels, federal officials have a strong obligation to enforce antitrust laws that prohibit harmful mergers and foster a more competitive marketplace that will operate in the patients best interests.
by Sol DolorAlaska Governor Bill Walker vetoed two Senate Bills on Friday, one of which allowed for determining insurance rates based on credit scores.In the governors veto letter, he said that Alaskans, above all low-income citizens, stand to lose if Senate Bill 127 is allowed to take effect.Because the bill relies on notoriously unreliable credit score ratings and would adversely affect consumers, especially low-income consumers, it should not become law, Walker wrote, according to News-Miner.The governor said that credit report errors are common and possibly hard to correct.Missing or incorrect information in a credit report can negatively impact consumers' insurance scores, regardless of a person's driving record, the condition of their home, or whether they pay their bills on time, he wrote.Though people can apply for exceptions, the protection is limited, invasive and uncertain, he said.The burden falls on the consumer to provide, at the insurer's sole discretion, detailed and personal information about divorce, serious illness or injury, the governor wrote.Opposed by the minority Democrats, the bill was not widely publicised as it went through the legislature.Rep. Adam Wool, D-Fairbanks, said in a statement that changing someones insurance fees on the irrelevant factor of credit scores without their consent does not make sense.Your credit history doesnt affect whether or not youre a safe driver or responsible homeowner. Im pleased Governor Walker vetoed this harmful piece of legislation, he said.Senate Bill 125, the other bill vetoed by Walker, provided for non-voting legislators to be added to the board of directors of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.Despite the lack of a vote, the legislators would still be influencing the decisions made by the board and be privy to confidential information held by the corporation, while also having the legislative power to change the corporation's statutes and determine its funding, Walker wrote in his veto letter.The governor questioned whether it is legal for legislators to hold other offices. The majority Republicans argued that the appointment of non-voting legislators to the firms board creates transparency and accountability.
Williams College chemistry professor David Richardson leads a discussion last week at the school's Summer Science Lab. PreviousNext

Williams Science Camp Serves Youngsters, Collegians

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Learning went both ways at Williams College's Summer Science Lab this month.

"One of my interns said this morning, 'The kids were my teachers this week as well,' " lab director Stephen Bechtel said last week.

Bechtel spoke as week one came to an end at the day camp for rising fifth- and sixth-grade students.

The program saw a bump in participation this summer, reaching its capacity of 36 children per week.

Those children explored scientific themes and did experiments under the direction of Williams professors Chip Lovett and David Richardson, who are assisted by 18 college interns from Williams and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

"This is the third summer we've had college students doing instruction at the lab benches, Bechtel said. "Before that, we had elementary teachers from the area. I got involved in the program as a lab teacher.

"Chip and Dave decided they wanted to change the format and give the college students some experience.

Many of the collegians come to the summer program with prior experience working with elementary school age children, but they are not necessarily looking to teach as a career, Bechtel said.

"Some of our interns are science majors, but some are computer science or political science, he said. "Most of them seem to be science people.

The camp, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, includes both lecture and lab time. Each day ends with a demonstration of some scientific phenomenon that the children are asked to think about overnight.

"We say, 'Thank about what you saw and see if you can come up with a story, Bechtel said.

Those stories  or hypotheses  are discussed the next morning, and the professors explain what was going on in the demonstration.

The emphasis on the scientific method and search for explanations dovetails well with the next generation science standards, even though the summer program itself has changed very little over the years, said Becthel, who came on board in 2000.

The summer camp program this summer drew 72 children from 24 towns in and around Berkshire County and Southern Vermont, and a few kids who were in the Berkshires with their families for the summer, according to Jennifer Swoap from the college's Center for Learning in Action.

Bechtel, whose "day job is sixth-grade teacher at Charlemont's Hawlemont Elementary School, had a pleasant surprise last summer.

"Last year for the first time, I had a brother and sister join us who were in my class last year, Bechtel said. "One of them said after finishing the program, 'I want to go to Williams College.' The experience of working in the college lab and being with the professors and the students really inspired her to go further.

"I was proud and happy to see that.
Adams Community Bank Employees Complete New England School for Financial Studies

ADAMS, Mass.  Dawn Canales, assistant vice president/systems analyst, and Patricia Carpenter, retail loan officer, recently graduated from the New England School for Financial Studies in Wellesley.



The New England School for Financial Studies is an intensive two-year program to broaden the skills in the areas of strategic thinking, leadership and decision making.



"The school has given Dawn and Patty a solid education from one of the best schools in the financial services industry as well as the chance to exchange information and ideas with their peers," said Charles P. OBrien, president and CEO of Adams Community Bank.



Since its inception over 3,700 students have graduated from the school, which includes two one-week resident sessions with 135 hours of classroom instruction. Between sessions, students complete five assigned independent study projects that focus on their bank and build on the first week's instruction to prepare them for more advanced training during the second year resident session. The course culminates in a comprehensive computerized simulation which challenges students to assume senior management responsibilities.
Greg Adams, SABIC's regional vice president, announced the gift at the company's Plastics Avenue headquarters on Friday. A large group of SABIC employees and Berkshire United Way officials made the announcement Friday morning. PreviousNext

SABIC Leaves 'Bittersweet' Parting Gift To United Way



Brenda Petell presented the check to Berkshire United Way CEO Kristine Hazard. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  By the end of the year, SABIC may be gone. But not forgotten.

Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp.'s Innovative Plastics is leaving a legacy of philanthropy and community engagement behind with a parting gift of a $1 million endowment for the Berkshire United Way.

The company has made major impacts in the city of Pittsfield over the years with donations to the Berkshire United Way, employees serving on boards and commissions, and volunteer efforts on a number of projects.

The headquarters are being moved to Houston and some 300 employees will be moved there or to Selkirk, N.Y. Greg Adams, the American division's regional vice president, said the company remains on track to vacate the Plastics Avenue building by the end of the year but true to the company's history of community support, it wanted to leave behind a lasting impact.

"Corporate social responsibility is one of the pillars of SABIC's strategy and we want to be a good citizen in all of the communities we operate in. We thought this was a nice tribute to the Berkshires and Berkshire United Way as we go through this change," Adams said.

With tears in her eyes, United Way CEO Kristine Hazzard called the gift "bittersweet." Over the last decade, SABIC has contributed some $2.5 million to the organization as well as thousands of volunteer hours to support an array of projects.

"The employees of SABIC also support so many other organizations and causes in addition to Berkshire United Way and that makes them even more of a vital component of our wonderful community," Hazzard said.

The company ran a grant program for science classes in local schools, which included working hands on at Williams Elementary with an outdoor science lab, employees helped build a pavilion at Canoe Meadows and cleared invasive species. The company gave science teachers $1,000 a year to use however the teacher deemed necessary and the employees found themselves in classrooms serving a role in teaching. The company participates in the downtown Pittsfield cleanup every year and built a learning lab at Hancock Shaker Village. Employees filled backpacks full of school supplies as part of the Newspapers in Education program. And more recently, they built the bookhouses that are now mini-lending libraries scattered throughout Berkshire County.

Those efforts are on top of employee fundraising drives that contributed some $1.7 million in pledges over nine years with the company matching 50 cents to every dollar.

"In our time together we've seen the organization grow; we've seen the organization change. But throughout the years, one thing has remained constant - the Berkshire United Way's relentless focus and passion for improving the quality of life for the residents of Pittsfield and Berkshire County," Adams said.

Right after moving to Pittsfield, the company made a $20,000 donation to the United Way and the two organizations have been partners since then. But, now the company will not have much of a presence - if at all.

"Our loss is [the other cities] gain and that's what makes this so bittersweet," Hazzard said.



Berkshire United Way CEO Kristine Hazard called the gift 'bittersweet' and outlined the support the company has given the organization over the last nine years. Adams said once the decision was made to move the headquarters, the company quickly decided it wanted to do something extra for the Berkshire United Way.

"We have always been involved with the community and Berkshire United Way and it was something that we did decide as a company to move forward with it as an endowment. We are thrilled that we are helping the Berkshire United Way," Adams said.

The loss of the annual giving from employees and the company would leave a hole in the United Way's budget efforts. That was before the announcement of the endowment. The United Way only has one endowment now to draw from on bad years and this builds a stable funding stream while the agency adapts to the change in fundraising.

"With an endowment, you can take a certain amount of dollars out each year and that is going to help fill the void. There are also various SABIC employees who are staying local because they found other jobs or whatever so we will continue to be friends with them and work with them," Hazzard said.

Later adding, "Looking at long-term stability you have to appreciate that there are tough times and good times. We have an endowment to really address those realities. Right now it is a good time getting it but it will also help us over the next couple years as we see what the new reality is for our community."

The organization focuses on a number of projects to improve the quality of life for residents. The largest focus in recent years has been on early childhood literacy. The United Way also has a positive youth development and recently launched a program connecting families with workplace coordinators to help provide financial stability.

"We've got to be on the ground a bit more. We need to out there not only raising money from companies but helping companies and their employees," Hazzard said.
We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
ELKO  Lynn Rubel, soprano and executive director of the Ruby Mountain Symphony, died at her home Sunday morning at the age of 71.

The cause of death was an apparent heart attack according to her husband, Marvin Epstein.

Rubel became the driving force of the symphony after the death of conductor and music partner, George Rosenberg, in 2002. The symphony recently completed its 29th season.

She was in charge of managing the orchestra, contracting musicians as well as fundraising and publicity. Rubel was in the process of arranging the details for the upcoming season when she died.

Jane Brown, conductor of the symphony for the past three years, praised Rubels efforts with the organization that was heading into its 30th year.

I have always been impressed with her fortitude and dedication in bringing educational and musical opportunities to young people and the rural communities of Northern Nevada, Brown said in a statement.

Her dogged persistence in bringing high quality programs to Elko and involving schools and community groups in symphonic programs long ago earned my admiration, love, and respect, Brown continued.

Born June 13, 1945, Rubel began her career in music at the age of nine and studied voice and drama three years later. She majored in opera at the American Conservatory of Music in her hometown of Chicago.

Rubel performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and West Side Story, according to her career biography.

Longtime friends, Mike and Charlotte Polise, remember her ability to sing in German, French, Italian, and Russian.

In 1979, she formed a duo with pianist and conductor, George Rosenberg, and traveled to 14 states holding concerts and teaching master classes in music.

Rubel, Rosenberg and his wife Doris, arrived in Elko in the mid 1980s to present educational programs in the Elko County School District and met the Polises.

I said Elko could use more piano teachers if they were to come here, Mike Polise recalled. We were shocked when they called a couple months later saying they were moving to Elko.

Rubel gave voice lessons and, with Rosenberg, helped found the Northern Nevada Concert Orchestra Association, holding their first concert in 1987. She was appointed manager and featured as a soloist in many concerts with Rosenberg as the conductor.

Changing the name to the Ruby Mountain Symphony in 1996, Rubel and Rosenberg continued to build the concerts around young musicians and soloists who were of advanced skill and eager for the opportunity to perform with a professional orchestra.

After the death of Rosenberg in 2002, Rubel kept the dream alive of having an orchestra concert in Elko even though the financial arrangements were challenging, said Polise.

Polise cited her numerous duties that included fundraising, grant writing, commissioning music for the concert and bringing musicians and performers to Elko.

She really brought in some of the top quality orchestral players, added Polise.

Epstein said that the symphony to Rubel was her baby, that was her life.

Rubel was honored throughout her life with awards for her contributions to music which included the Community Service Award from Great Basin College in 2013 for her work with the symphony and a special recognition by Renos Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity for women in 2012.

Rubel is survived by her husband, Marvin Epstein of Elko, brother Fred Feibel and two nephews Danny and David Duriavich of Chicago.

A memorial for Rubel in the form of a tribute concert is in the planning stages by conductor Jane Brown and symphony board president Amanda Zohar.
ELKO  The Elko County Sheriffs Office is seeing a greater influx of concealed carry weapons permit applications.

Sheriff Jim Pitts told the county commission Wednesday the front office is getting swamped, explaining the administration has implemented new ideas and changed some hours to aid with the influx. Additionally, he sent a letter to Elko Police Chief Ben Reed asking the police department to conduct fingerprints on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The police were asked to take over any fingerprint cards other than ex-felons and sex offender registrations; the latter two are required by statute.

This request is because of the sheer amount of concealed carry permit applications, said Pitts.

Under Nevada Revised Statutes, these permits allow for Nevada residents to apply to the county sheriff for a permit after successful completion of an approved firearm safety class.

These requests can be denied for a variety of reasons, including mental incompetence, if the applicant has been convicted on a felony or is currently on parole or probation.

To date, weve done 468 CCWs to the end of June, last year and the year before  weve doubled that, he said.

Last year we did a little under 468, and the year before that we did 468, for the year.

Weve done in half a year what weve done in the last two years of total CCWs, said Pitts, discussing how on Tuesday and Wednesday the sheriffs department is conducting work only pertaining to concealed carry weapons licenses.

To exemplify the situation, two sheriffs front office employees volunteered to work on a Saturday to catch up with the backlog.

Right now were scheduling CCWs out at least a month, three weeks to a month, said Pitts.

Reed told the Free Press the police department has taken on a small percentage of general fingerprinting. It is normal for the agencies to help each other, even during office closures for an event or in the event of a machine going down.

He said there hasnt been much of an uptick in the numbers.

Weapons permits are not the same as regular fingerprinting, said Pitts. It can take close to 45 minutes to complete.

The sheriffs department front office has documented 45 out-of-state concealed carry weapons licenses, registered eight ex-felons, conducted 145 prints, registered 26 sex offenders and six work cards. There was a total of 317 fingerprints taken last month, said Pitts.

The office averages about 52 customers per day.

The Elko County Sheriffs Office reported 2,760 active concealed carry licenses to the State as of July 1.

Weve done in half a year what weve done in the last two years of total CCWs. Sheriff Jim Pitts
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Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC), as directed by its principal, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, will conduct a safety inspection campaign on the L200 and Strada pick up models, attributable to the yet unsubstantiated failure on the supplied airbag inflators. This proactive measure is meant to ensure the safety of our valued customers on the affected vehicles. To date, there has been no reported failure in the Philippines.

The inspection and/or replacement procedure of the affected airbag inflator may take about one (1) hour at the most and shall be free of charge. Those included in this safety inspection campaign shall be for L200 and Strada model years 2007  2014.

There will be a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) checking/verification procedure for all potentially affected units which will be posted in a press release in MMPCs website. To ensure smooth servicing, customers may call their preferred Mitsubishi Motors dealership for the schedule of servicing appointment. For additional concerns and inquiries, customers can get in touch with MMPC Customer Care at telephone numbers (+632) 250-8888 Monday to Friday from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. All authorized Mitsubishi Motors Service Centers nationwide are also ready to attend to any related customers inquiry and concerns.

MMPC deeply apologizes for any inconvenience. The safety of our valued customers is of greater importance.

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NHHC Surveys Patuxent River in Search of a Lost Fleet

Patuxent River, Maryland - Archaeologists from Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) surveyed several sites on the Patuxent River in Maryland over the past 1 1/2 weeks in search of ships from Commodore Joshua Barney's scuttled flotilla, concluding field work.

During the War of 1812, Barney organized a plan to defend Chesapeake Bay from British raids along its banks. After assembling about 16 vessels comprised of armed barges and gunboats, he met the Royal Navy on the Patuxent. The flotilla was successful in diverting the British for several weeks, but ultimately Barney was ordered by Secretary of the Navy William Jones to scuttle the ships to prevent them from falling into the hands of the British.



Fast forward 202 years. The area has flooded several times, the river channel may have migrated, the banks have eroded, and two centuries of sediment have built up on the river bottom. The historic flotilla rests in a complex riverine system of wide marshes to narrow multi-channel river inlets. Analysis of existing maps and charts indicates the strong likelihood of continued change. Much like the Navy and society itself, the river of today is not the river of yesterday. Up to now, only one ship is believed to have been found -- the sloop Scorpion.



UAB hopes to change that with continued field work, but given the conditions, they understand they can't be sure of what they'll find.



"Archaeological research is a laborious multi-phase process," said George Schwarz, an underwater archaeologist with NHHC's UAB. "Archival research exploring the history of the site, past investigations, environmental information, and logistical planning ultimately led to the field research phase."



The search for the rest of the scuttled flotilla is a continuation of research conducted by NHHC and partners, including the state of Maryland, initiated in 2009 with Scorpion.



With support this year from Maryland's Patuxent River Park and Naval Historical Foundation, this third field season saw UAB investigating targets detected during the previous two summers' remote-sensing work in attempts to find the remainder of the flotilla.



In 2014 and 2015, UAB used marine magnetometer, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and sediment cores to examine areas of interest. Using a hydro-probe, which simply provides a steady flow of water through a pipe to loosen sediment layers, they probed around magnetic anomalies in a gridded pattern this summer.



"[With the hydro-probe], depending on the density of the material the probe runs against, we are often able to tell whether there may be buried wood or metal at the location," said Schwarz. "When we systematically collect data points and plot them on a grid, we can start to determine if a pattern emerges of what is buried below the surface; if we're lucky, we might get the outline of a hull."



However, it will take the UAB some time to thoroughly analyze and interpret the data they collected. If the data indicated the presence of manmade materials, they'll need to determine if they have found something insignificant, like old industry materials, or if they have found parts of a ship. That determination will influence whether it is appropriate and necessary to further excavate the site.



For more on the toughness of the Chesapeake flotilla's Sailors, read how, after abandoning their ships, they defended Washington, D.C. as the British closed in on the capitol http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/peoplematter-as-others-ran-sailors-and-marines-make-a-stand-at-bladensburg/ . They also saw further action as Baltimore's Fort McHenry was bombarded by the British http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/through-rockets-red-glare-flotilla-sailors-stand-strong/ .



The Naval History and Heritage Command, located at the Washington Navy Yard, is responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage. It provides the knowledge foundation for the Navy by maintaining historically relevant resources and products which reflect the Navy's unique and enduring contributions through our nation's history, and supports the fleet by assisting with and delivering professional research, analysis, and interpretive services. NHHC is composed of many activities including the Navy Department Library, the Navy Operational Archives, the Navy art and artifact collections, underwater archeology, Navy histories, nine museums, USS Constitution repair facility and the historic ship Nautilus.
Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments:

Anne Hawley, 51, of Sacramento, has been appointed deputy appointments secretary in the Office of the Governor, where she has served as special assistant to the appointments secretary since 2015. She was a consultant for DeBoo Communications Inc. from 2014 to 2015 and president of the Crocker-Riverside Elementary School Parent Teacher Association from 2011 to 2014. Hawley was principal at Anne Hawley Design from 2006 to 2009 and a designer and librarian at RMW Architecture and Interiors from 1991 to 2001. She was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Labor from 1997 to 1998 and served as director of scheduling at the White House from 1995 to 1997, where she was deputy director of scheduling from 1993 to 1995. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $106,620. Hawley is a Democrat.

Judith Maxwell Greig, 60, of Belmont, has been appointed to the California Student Aid Commission. Greig has been president at Notre Dame de Namur University since 2009, where she has held several positions since 1988, including provost, dean of the School of Education and Leadership and senior advisor to the president. She was adjunct faculty at San Jose State University from 1987 to 1988 and a teacher at the Old Orchard School from 1977 to 1984. Greig is a member of the Council of Independent Colleges Board of Directors and the California Campus Compact Executive Board. She earned a Master of Arts degree in reading education from Santa Clara University and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in philosophy of education and a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from Stanford University. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Greig is registered without party preference.

Christian Rubalcava, 20, of Sylmar, has been appointed to the California Student Aid Commission. Rubalcava has been a student at California State University, Northridge since 2014, where he has been a lower-division senator and attorney general at the Associated Students Inc. since 2015 and a member of the Academic Grievances and Grade Appeals Committee since 2015. He is a member of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Rubalcava is a Republican.

Jorge Reyes Salinas, 23, of Chatsworth, has been appointed to the California State University Board of Trustees. Reyes has been a student at California State University, Northridge since 2010 and an intern in the Office of California State Senator Bob Hertzberg since 2016. Salinas has been president of the California State University, Northridge Associated Students Inc. since 2015, where he was chief of staff from 2014 to 2015. He was an event assistant at the California State University, Northridge University Student Union from 2013 to 2014. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Reyes is a Democrat.

Eman Dalili, 20, of Palos Verdes Estates, has been appointed to the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. Dalili has been a student at El Camino Community College since 2014, where he has been student body president since 2016 and an ambassador in the Office of Outreach and School Relations since 2015. He is a business analyst intern at American Red Cross Blood Donation Services and was a member of the El Camino Community College District Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2016 and an intern in the Office of Congresswoman Janice Hahn from 2014 to 2015 and in the Office of California State Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi in 2014. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Dalili is a Democrat.

Gladys M. Mitchell, 58, of Sacramento, has been appointed to the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. Mitchell served as a staff services manager at the California Department of Health Care Services from 2013 to 2014 and at the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs from 2010 to 2013 and from 2007 to 2009. She was a health program specialist at California Correctional Health Care Services from 2009 to 2010 and a staff mental health specialist at the California Department of Mental Health from 2006 to 2007. Mitchell served as a staff services manager and interim executive officer at the Dental Board of California from 1999 to 2005, where she was a budget officer from 1993 to 1996. She was interim executive officer at the California Board of Occupational Therapy in 2005 and an enforcement coordinator at the California Board of Registered Nursing from 1996 to 1998 and at the Board of Behavioral Science Examiners from 1989 to 1993. She is a member of the St. Hope Public School Board of Directors. Mitchell earned a Master of Social Work degree from California State University, Sacramento. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Mitchell is a Democrat.

Christopher Herren, 43, of Pacific Palisades, has been appointed to the State 9-1-1 Advisory Board. Herren has been a public safety communications administrator at the City of Santa Monica Office of Emergency Management since 2014. He was dispatch services manager at the Placer County Sheriffs Office from 2010 to 2014 and acting dispatch manager at the Elk Grove Police Department from 2008 to 2010, where he was dispatch supervisor from 2006 to 2008. Herren was communications operator at the Vallejo Police Department from 1995 to 2006. He is a member of the California Fire Chiefs Association, National Emergency Number Association and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Herren is registered without party preference.

Michael Miller, 53, of Bakersfield, has been appointed to the State 9-1-1 Advisory Board. Miller has been deputy fire chief at the Kern County Fire Department since 2009, where he has held several positions since 1988, including deputy chief of operations, battalion chief of operations, battalion chief for training and safety, captain of training, recruit academy lead, captain of operations, engineer and firefighter. He was a reserve firefighter at the Bakersfield Fire Department from 1986 to 1988. Miller is a member of the National Emergency Number Association, Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, International Association of Fire Chiefs, California Fire Chiefs Association and Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Miller is a Republican.

Allyson Harris, 40, of Redding, has been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Before and After School Programs. Harris has been director at the Shasta County Office of Education since 2013, where she was area coordinator from 2011 to 2013. She was childrens program coordinator at Shasta Womens Refuge from 2009 to 2010 and a program specialist at the Butte County Office of Education from 2008 to 2009. Harris was an after-school specialist for the Gateway Unified School District from 2004 to 2008. She is a member of the Association of California School Administrators. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Harris is registered without party preference.

Keith Hamm, 47, of McKinleyville, has been appointed to the 9th District Agricultural Association, Redwood Acres Fair Board of Directors. Hamm has been a conservation planning manager at the Green Diamond Resource Company since 2011, where he was a terrestrial wildlife biologist from 1999 to 2011. He was a wildlife biologist at Eel River Sawmills from 1994 to 1998 and a wildlife technician at the Simpson Timber Company from 1989 to 1994. Hamm is a member of the Western Section of the Wildlife Society, California North Coast Chapter of the Wildlife Society, American Motorcyclist Association and the National Rifle Association. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Hamm is a Democrat.

Kevin Shelton, 49, of Mariposa, has been appointed to the 35a District Agricultural Association, Mariposa County Fair and Homecoming Board of Directors. Shelton has been vice president of operations and marketing at the Yosemite Management Group since 1994. He is chairman of the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau, treasurer of the New Life Christian Fellowship and club leader of Mariposa Triangle 4-H. Shelton is a board member of Mariposa Future Farmers of America Boosters Club Board, Mariposa Friends of the Fairgrounds Foundation Board and the Mariposa Junior Livestock Auction Committee Board. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Shelton is a Republican.
Foreign and Defense Ministers of the Expanded Small Group of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL / Daesh

Washington, DC - The Foreign and Defense Ministers of the Counter-ISIL (Daesh) Coalition Small Group, Military Coalition and members that have made major non-military contributions met today in Washington at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to build momentum and accelerate the multi-front campaign to defeat Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

The Coalition Small Group also refined its common approach to Daeshs affiliates in Libya and other regions of the world, reinforcing the shared determination to disrupt its global terrorist ambitions. This is a key moment in the campaign to put Daesh on a lasting, irreversible path to defeat. The attacks in Nice, Baghdad, Dhaka Rukban, Istanbul, Qaa and others before them have only cemented our common resolve to destroy Daesh and the toxic ideology that inspires its followers and sympathizers.

We welcome the steady progress Iraqi forces and moderate opposition forces in Syria have made in denying Daeshs access to territory, supply routes and resources. Backed by Coalition air operations, Iraqi forces have steadily advanced up the Euphrates River Valley, liberating Fallujah and Hiit, and capturing Rutbah to secure the economically important highway between Iraq and Jordan. Iraq has launched simultaneous operations up the Tigris River Valley, recapturing strategically important areas near Qaiyara, putting Daesh on warning that its hold on Mosul will not last. Syrian Arab Coalition forces have made significant advances into and around Manbij and liberated other towns in the area. Clearing the Manbij area of Daesh remains an essential task for the Coalition, requiring sustained assistance to the Syrian Arab Coalition and moderate Syrian opposition forces, including those in the vicinity of Maraa. Moderate Syrian opposition forces have advanced south of Shaddadi, driving a deeper wedge between Daesh strongholds in Raqqa and Mosul. Daesh is also under pressure west and south of Raqqa, struggling to cope with offensives against it from all sides. The momentum necessitates even more military pressure against this strategic target.

To ensure that military victories lead to Daeshs irreversible defeat, we are committed to an integrated, comprehensive approach to the campaign. Training and assistance of Iraqi and Syrian partner forces are essential elements of this approach. We also seek to reduce the impact of military operations on civilians, while preparing for humanitarian challenges and laying the ground work for rapid stabilization of liberated communities. As military operations expand and intensify, we call for redoubling efforts to protect civilians in conflict zones and those who flee conflict zones, securing safe routes, and preventing any abuses during and after hostilities, in full compliance with applicable international humanitarian law and human rights principles. Popular Mobilization Forces and similar groups operating in Iraq should be under the firm control of the Iraqi government. Every effort must be made to prevent arbitrary detention and irregular screening procedures, while holding violators to account. We support Prime Minister Abadis decision to establish a committee to investigate reported crimes against civilians fleeing liberated areas and the governments determination to bring those responsible to justice. In preparation for advances into Mosul, Coalition members stand ready to support an Iraqi-led planning process on military operations, humanitarian assistance, stabilization programs and post-liberation governance that involves key stakeholders from the Iraqi government, local communities and relevant international organizations.

Daesh continues to be degraded in other significant ways. It has lost leaders at a high rate and lost large numbers of fighters. The flow of new recruits has dropped to its lowest level since the conflict began. Its resource base is shrinking, as it loses territory and as Coalition air strikes reduce its oil production and destroy tens of millions of dollars it has stored in bank vaults and other locations. Under increasing financial pressure, Daesh has cut its fighters pay by half in some areas and turned to increasingly arbitrary taxation and extortion, further undermining its credibility and reducing its attractiveness to recruits. Daesh increasingly resorts to conscription to fill its ranks and is constrained in its ability to mount military operations.

We continue to be deeply concerned about the growing humanitarian needs in areas affected by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. We welcome the generous response of host communities in neighboring countries, along with donors at the February 2016 London Conference and three earlier conferences hosted by Kuwait, all of which have helped address the overwhelming humanitarian needs of Syrians. We will continue to demand full and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance to all parts of Syria. The urgent needs of civilians in Iraq, as set out in the United Nations 2016 Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan, also call for principled, life-saving funding and renewed efforts to guarantee protection and humanitarian access. The situation of besieged communities and hard-to-reach areas still demands a concerted international response. We call on all members of the international community to continue addressing Iraqs humanitarian assistance challenges in 2016, in keeping with the extraordinary contributions made at the 20 July 2016 Pledging Conference. We note with concern that military operations to liberate Mosul - Iraqs second largest city - and the possible displacement of up to one million people as a result, could increase humanitarian needs even beyond the recently pledged resources.

We acknowledge the need to stabilize quickly the areas devastated by Daesh. Public safety and immediate stabilization in liberated communities are top priorities for our Coalition. With the recent military advances, the number of people needing help with recovery is growing, particularly in the populated areas of Iraq. Welcoming the vital contributions by many Coalition members at the 20 July Pledging Conference for Iraq, we urge continued support for the UNs Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization and its new Funding Facility for Expanded Stabilization, intended to help local partners improve conditions for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of residents and to promote the economic revival of their communities. We will continue our support for the program to train additional Iraqi police, led by the Government of Italy, recognizing the crucial need to provide for a substantial increase in the number of trainees from its current level. We recognize that clearing war debris in liberated areas, training police forces to secure local communities and understanding the varied needs and roles of local women, men, children, youth and aged are prerequisites for the return of displaced populations and sustainable recovery. Legitimate, inclusive local governance is also essential for stability.

We strongly support Prime Minister Abadi and the Government of Iraq as they work to defeat Daesh and put Iraq on the path to stability and prosperity, including through institutional reforms. We reaffirm our support for Iraqs government as it works to address governance, improve public services, reduce corruption, decentralize certain federal authorities and ensure the rights of all Iraqis irrespective of their religion, sect and ethnicity. As the campaign against Daesh progresses, we will continue our support for the Iraqi governments efforts to accelerate national reconciliation and strengthen the political foundations for the rule of law, security, stability and prosperity of all Iraqis, with full respect for the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq. To ensure Daeshs lasting defeat, we must continue to promote policies of inclusiveness at all levels of the Iraqi government.

We underscore our support for international frameworks  UNSCRs 2178, 2199, 2253  along with institutions such as the Global Counterterrorism Forum and Financial Action Task Force, to block Daesh and foreign-terrorist-fighter travel, financing, trafficking and illicit trade. We will continue to strengthen our cooperation, including with INTERPOL, to detect, monitor and interdict foreign terrorist fighters, including those who return from the conflict area, while disrupting facilitation networks. We are likewise determined to disrupt Daeshs ability to generate, move and use funds, building on the success of our coordinated efforts to reduce its revenues. We are resolved to keep Daesh completely cut off from international financial channels and to eliminate any financial links with its affiliates outside Iraq and Syria. We will continue to utilize UNSCRs 1267, 1989 and 2253 as the basis for sanctions against those who support Daesh. We welcome the innovative communications responses by Coalition partners to challenge Daeshs violent ideology and the propaganda that promotes it. We will continue to work proactively together to undermine the Daeshs violent world-view and build resilience against its attempts to influence global audiences. In this regard, we encourage members to work with private-sector and community-based entities to counter Daesh indoctrination and prevent its exploitation of cyber-space to commit acts of terrorism.

Given the complexity of the threat posed by Daesh, the common desire to seek its lasting defeat, and the growing number of attacks by Daesh or home-grown terrorists inspired by its ideology, our governments must accelerate efforts to enhance coordination and information sharing with one another and internally. Recognizing the need to work more collaboratively against global terrorist networks, the nations here today have been invited to join a discussion among relevant services to improve information-sharing. Our collective aim is to prevent terrorist attacks, with an immediate focus on the threat that Daesh poses to our homelands and way of life. In this context, we welcome the addition of INTERPOL to the Coalition. We note the positive steps governments have taken already, resulting in a 400-percent increase in the number of foreign terrorist fighters profiles shared through INTERPOL during the past two years. We call on all nations to provide INTERPOL data on foreign terrorist fighters, consistent with national laws.

The Coalition stands with the Syrian people and supports a genuine political transition based on the 2012 Geneva Communique and UNSCR 2254, aimed at establishing an inclusive, pluralistic and non-sectarian government that represents the will of all Syrians. A negotiated political resolution to the conflict is essential to bring about the defeat of Daesh. Recalling the timeline established by UNSCR 2254 for moving towards a political transition, we urge all parties  especially the Syrian regime  to respect fully the Cessation of Hostilities, reduce violence and focus on ending the conflict. We condemn the indiscriminate violence targeting civilians, whether by the regime, Daesh, al-Nusra Front or other armed groups. We are united in our demand for an end to the Syrian regimes indiscriminate bombing and obstruction of access for humanitarian assistance, and we call for its full, immediate and unequivocal compliance with UNSCR 2254 and all other relevant UN Security Council resolutions. These actions are contrary to the international consensus in support of the Cessation and prevent the resumption of the UN-sponsored negotiating process. We call on all the parties to commit constructively to the political dialogue under United Nations auspices as the only means to achieve peace and preserve the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. We are ready to step up preparations for stabilization, rehabilitation and recovery efforts in Syria, as well as the return of Syrian refugees and displaced persons, when the parties reach a political settlement.

In Libya, we stand ready to assist the Government of National Accord at its request and will support its efforts to unite security and military forces under its command in order to defeat Da'esh and establish peace, security and the rule of law for the Libyan people in a united, sovereign Libya. We welcome the success of the GNA in fighting Da'esh and limiting its control of Sirte to a small area. We recognize the necessity of enhanced coordination efforts between legitimate Libyan military and security forces in the fight against Daesh and other UN-designated terrorist groups throughout Libyan territory, including Benghazi, Dernah and Sabratha, and we welcome the progress achieved in pushing back Daesh in these areas. We will continue to give our attention to Libya and the threat Da'esh poses to Libya and its neighbors.

Mindful of the many challenges Daesh poses in diverse regions, we remain committed to sustaining momentum of the Global Coalition and look forward to the next meeting of the Small Group Political Directors, planned for Berlin in November 2016.




This Isnt Our Last Love Letter



Dear Don Don,

Way back in 92



I walked into the room and knew



Never felt this way before



I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes



And the feeling grew



As I took a seat I knew



A love that would have my heart



Forever



I knew



Way back in 92





They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true



We were the exception to that rule



Our love had no where to hide



A spark set fire



As if this is how the universe started





I never doubted our love or what we could do



Together we grew



Forming a bond everlasting



That became our glue



My euphoria was YOU



Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared



For how fortunate we were :



to have and to hold

through sickness and in health

Til death do us part



Until we are together again



This isnt our last love letter



I love you with all my heart and soul



Yours forever,



Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow)





Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.









A True American Hero

I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.



I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.



I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.



Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.

I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life.

No one will ever do what he did.

I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO





David Jurist

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!
Zimbabwe Man Who Started 'Pak Bean' Rivalry Had This to Say After Pakistan's Defeat
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In the eternal battle for supremacy between those two great sagas, Star Wars and Star Trek, George Lucas' fantasy vision of laser sword wielding space monks and bun-headed princesses has always seemed to have one over on Gene Roddenberry's primary-coloured paean to Apollo-era optimism. The early Star Trek movies might never have been made if not for 1977's Star Wars ushering in the blockbuster era virtually singlehanded with its strange but irresistible clash of Kurosawan honour codes and pulpy interplanetary romance. While Trek fans would no doubt disagree, its rival series has always seemed to engage with a wider audience. Something about Lucas' simple yet vivid portrayal of conflict between good and evil seems to trump Roddenberry's more down-to-earth vision of a future based essentially on peaceful co-existence for all races, creeds and colours, from here to the Milky Way.

But perhaps it's time to stand up for Star Trek, because not only is the less-successful saga about to give us a third pretty decent movie in a row (something Star Wars hasn't done since 1983), it arrives in cinemas just as the world needs a reminder that a little cosmic positivity goes a very long way.

It was Star Trek that gave us the first interracial kiss on mainstream US TV, Star Trek that dared to imagine that the future might not be led entirely by Anglo-Saxons and Star Trek that has, in new movie Star Trek Beyond, given us our first look at openly gay leading characters in blockbuster science fiction - even if original Sulu George Takei hasn't been able to work out quite how to take it and new Sulu John Cho hints producers could have pushed the dynamic a little further.

Recommended Read more In celebration of Star Trek at 50

In Beyond, Captain Kirk and his crew follow a distress signal to a strange world ruled over by an alien warlord, Krall, who harbours anti-Federation ambitions. It's a storyline that, without giving too much away, presents the crew of the Enterprise as heroes for those who believe that the future will not be based on narrow-minded nationalism, on the view that our differences will always be too great to allow us to come together in collectivist harmony, on the mantra that getting one's country back is more important than the proud goal of peaceful co-existence and the sense that we are essentially all one people.

Kirk himself, Chris Pine, has posited Beyond as a symbol of anti-Brexit sentiment, and it's clear there are no Mexican walls in Star Trek's United Federation of Planets. Hell, even the warlike Klingons were eventually brought on board in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Those who continue to form along cultural lines, like the rogue Romulans of 2009's Star Trek, are outcasts. Violence is only ever used to bring those beyond the pale back into line with the Federation's abiding utopian, pluralistic goal. The Brexiteers and the Trumpians that would seek to divide us are always the enemy.

On the superbly-realised starbase Yorktown, where the crew of the Enterprise arrive for shore leave part way through their five-year mission to explore outer space at the beginning of Beyond, it's not just gay couples who are allowed to live their lives without prejudice. The hive of different species walking the promenades of this topsy-turvy, gravity-defying space metropolis are emblematic of the cosmopolitan nature of our own big cities, from London to New York. When the base comes under attack later on in the movie, the symbolism is clear.

Star Wars has always been more of a cultural touchstone than its rival, and will probably remain so despite the success of the all-action reboot movies and new TV series set to debut on Netflix. But those who think of Star Trek as a repository of bad alien make-up, hokey storylines and homespun, cornball space wisdom - and I am guilty of this view myself - need to be reminded how lucky we are that Roddenberry's liberal utopian vision remains as bold and vital as it ever did, more than 50 years on from the debut of the Original Series.

Star Wars was always, deliberately, imagined as events detached from human history, taking place in a fantasy scenario a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. But Star Trek increasingly looks like a future our descendants would most likely consider themselves very fortunate indeed to end up living in.

Star Trek Beyond arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 22 July
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The 'who will replace Daniel Craig as Bond' discussion may rage on, but one actor - long considered to be in contention - seems to have removed his name from the hat.

Idris Elba was one of the first actors to have his name bandied around when the future of Craig's 007 tenure was thrown into question. The Luther actor isn't convinced, though - he thinks he's too old.

The British actor remained coy in an interview with Good Morning America, branding it "the wildest rumour in the world."

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I keep saying if it were to happen it would be the will of a nation because there hasnt been any talks between me and the studio about any of that. But everywhere I go people want that to happen, so..." he said.

He jokingly continued: But if Im really honest, I think Im too old for that, man; running around in cars and ladies and martinis - who wants to do that? Sounds terrible.

His association with the role led to controversy when Anthony Horowitz - author of recent James Bond novel Trigger Mortis - claimed Elba was "too street" for the role. Other actors reportedly being considered to replace Craig - whose reps say is yet to come to a decision - include Aidan Turner, Jack Huston and Tom Hiddleston.

Elba can next be seen playing villain Krall in Star Trek Beyond which is released in cinemas today (22 July).
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Does the word tequila bring to mind shudder-inducing shots on grotty bar nights? Youre not alone; tequila, unfortunately, still has a bit of an image problem (lets call it a hangover) here in the UK. But when people say they dont like tequila, what they usually mean is that they dont like *cheap* tequila.

In truth, this spirit  distilled from the blue agave plant in Mexicos Jalisco state  is one of the most diverse out there. Taste enough, and youre almost guaranteed to find a tequila youll not just tolerate, but actually love drinking.

Style is your first consideration. While sub-classifications abound, there are three main types of tequila  blanco, reposado and anejo. Blancos, also known as silver, are crystal-clear unaged spirits, akin to vodka or white rum. Anejos are aged in barrel for at least a year, taking on honey-brown, whisky-style characteristics. Reposados, stylistically, tend to hover between the two  shorter barrel ageing gives them some oaky character, but still with the freshness of blanco.

Weve included all the styles in our round up below because theyre good for different things  blanco tequilas for cocktail mixing (hello, margaritas!), and aged ones for meditative sipping. Weve also endeavoured to include a range of price points, while still keeping things affordable. Like with whisky, fine tequilas, especially those that have been aged, can come in at hundreds of pounds per bottle. Weve chosen to cap our inclusions at around 100, because unless youre a real aficionado, thats probably the most you should consider paying.

One thing we were really strict about? Only including tequilas made from 100 per cent pure blue agave  so no tequila mixtos that blend agave with corn or cane sugars.

Read more:

How we tested

Each of the tequilas below was tasted in the same way: sipped straight from a spirit tasting glass, to let the true character shine. Aside from taste, we also took into account sourcing, story, packaging and value for money. And while in many cases we tasted a range of tequilas from the same brand, weve only included a maximum of one from each  the one that we think is most worth your money.

The best tequilas for 2022 are:

Best overall  G4 Blanco: 40.69, Thewhiskyexchange.com

 G4 Blanco: 40.69, Thewhiskyexchange.com Best for whisky lovers  Storywood speyside 14 anejo: 53.99, Storywoodtequila.com

 Storywood speyside 14 anejo: 53.99, Storywoodtequila.com Best bargain  El Jimador blanco: 25.98, Masterofmalt.com

 El Jimador blanco: 25.98, Masterofmalt.com Best sipping blanco  Mijenta Blanco: 49.95, Thewhiskyexchange.com

 Mijenta Blanco: 49.95, Thewhiskyexchange.com Best for richer cocktails  Cazcabel Reposado: 25.98, Masterofmalt.com

 Cazcabel Reposado: 25.98, Masterofmalt.com Best for T&Ts  El Rayo plata: 33.23, Masterofmalt.com

 El Rayo plata: 33.23, Masterofmalt.com Best for tequila sceptics  1800 Cristalino tequila: 52.95, Thewhiskyexchange.com

 1800 Cristalino tequila: 52.95, Thewhiskyexchange.com Best classic reposado  Herradura reposado: 41, Amazon.co.uk

 Herradura reposado: 41, Amazon.co.uk Best traditional blanco  Tapatio blanco: 24.45, Amazon.co.uk

 Tapatio blanco: 24.45, Amazon.co.uk Best for sweet tooths  Padre Azul anejo: 108.95, Masterofmalt.com

 Padre Azul anejo: 108.95, Masterofmalt.com Best for summery drinking  Codigo rosa: 45.75, Masterofmalt.com

 Codigo rosa: 45.75, Masterofmalt.com Best low-key celeb tequila  AquaRiva reposado: 29.95, Thewhiskyexchange.com

 AquaRiva reposado: 29.95, Thewhiskyexchange.com Best for Instagramming  Vivir blanco: 34.50, Masterofmalt.com

G4 Blanco Best: Overall Rating: 10/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 75cl

75cl Type: Blanco With such gorgeous complexity wafting from the glass  floral, fruity top notes mingled in with classic agave, grass and a buttery undertone  we could sit sniffing this premium tequila all day long. You dont make a drink this good by accident, and the mix of experience  owner Felipe J Camarenas family has been producing tequila since the 1930s  and prime terroir, with agave sourced from the Jalisco highlands, have gone into making G4 our winner. Its an artisan tequila through and through. They make it using a blend of spring water and, interestingly, captured rainwater  talk about attention to detail  and employ a rather laborious, old-school method of processing the agave to ensure they have maximum influence over flavour. And as weve said, the care shows in the glass. With an incredibly smooth mouthfeel and a long, minerally, delicate finish, this is a blanco you can definitely drink straight, as well as mix into cocktails; theres no place it wont shine. Unfortunately its currently out of stock but you can sign up to be notified via email when its back. Buy now 40.69 Thewhiskyexchange.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Storywood speyside 14 anejo Best: For whisky lovers Rating: 9/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Anejo With their rich caramel hues and aged oak character, anejo tequilas are often compared to whiskies  and this one really does fulfil the expectation, given its been rested for 14 months in ex-Speyside single malt Scotch casks. Those toasty, roasted and nutty notes from the barrel mingle gorgeously with the deep vegetal richness of agave, creating a smooth, sippable spirit with a rambling, complex and savoury finish. Its good value for an anejo  its not unusual to see these bottles at double this price  and were big fans of the fun, fresh artwork on the bottle. While Storywood is certainly delicious enough to drink on its own (and thats how the creators suggest enjoying it), if youre a cocktail fan wed also give it a go in place of whiskey in a classic Old Fashioned. Buy now 53.99 Storywoodtequila.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

El Jimador blanco Best: Bargain Rating: 7/10 ABV: 38%

38% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Blanco Cheap tequilas are typically cheap for a reason  many are, in fact, tequila mixtos which means that the blue agave base has been blended with other, less-costly fermentable sugars. In contrast, anything that states its 100 per cent blue agave on the label will be the pure, premium stuff  including the impressively affordable, crystal-clear El Jimador. Citrussy, peppery notes lead to a gentle warmth on the palate; theres not huge amounts of complexity, but nor should you expect it at sub-20. A natural pick for when youre mixing up batches of tequila cocktails with plenty of big flavours, for example, a Paloma, made with lime juice and grapefruit soda. Buy now 25.98 Masterofmalt.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Mijenta blanco Best: Sipping blanco Rating: 8/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Blanco Given that this new-to-the-UK tequila brand was founded by a former Bacardi CEO, youd expect the branding to be pretty on-point  and with its cool glass cork and powdery pink colourway, it certainly is that. But we all know that glossy branding only goes so far, so its a good thing that this artisan pour, crafted by meastra tequilera Ana Maria Romero in the Jalisco highlands, is clearly made with skill. Mijenta is incredibly complex on the nose, with a richly savoury backbone of roasted agave intermingled with honey and spice. The creamy, rich and full-flavoured palate suits neat sipping best  a serve most often reserved for barrel-aged tequilas. Buy now 49.95 Thewhiskyexchange.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Cazcabel reposado Best: For richer cocktails Rating: 8/10 ABV: 38%

38% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Reposado Tequilas labelled as reposado  which means, if your Spanish is rusty, rested  get their honeyed hue from time spent aging in oak barrels. The legal minimum is 60 days, but this affordable bottling is aged for much longer than that: a minimum of nine months. The result? Golden, caramel flavours, with a gentle hint of dried fruit and spice  though, in true quality reposado fashion, theres still plenty of enticing agave freshness, too. A great pick for richer tequila cocktails such as a Bloody Maria, the fiesta-ready cousin to our brunch-time favourite, the Bloody Mary. Buy now 25.98 Masterofmalt.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

El Rayo plata Best: For T&Ts Rating: 9/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Blanco Launched out of London by two childhood friends, El Rayo is an interesting prospect: a modern tequila designed to be sipped with tonic, a la G&T styles. And you know what? It works. Tasted straight it was enjoyable, with vegetal, herbaceous notes on the nose and a subtle citrussy sweetness on the palate. But when mixed with tonic (for the record, we used London Essence) the drink really sparkled, with those lemon-lime notes really singing, and the savoury ones bringing in subtle complexity. If youre feeling a bit over gin, weve just found your new summer aperitif  you can thank us later. Buy now 33.23 Masterofmalt.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

1800 Cristalino tequila Best: For tequila sceptics Rating: 7/10 ABV: 35%

35% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Anejos It looks like a blanco, but its not. A relatively new category of tequila, cristalinos are anejos that have subsequently been filtered to remove their amber colour. This process also tends to remove some of that trademark agave character, and while die-hard fans of the spirit might take exception to that, theres a whole lot of people out there who will love it: namely, anyone who isnt a big fan of tequila in the first place. This smooth, easy-to-drink pour from the 1800 brand has sweet vanilla, coconut and almond notes, with some butter and pepper creeping in. Try drinking it over a giant ice cube. Buy now 52.95 Thewhiskyexchange.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Herradura reposado Best: Classic reposado Rating: 8/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Reposado Aged for 11 months in American white oak, this reposado has been flying off shelves since the 1970s  it was the first commercial bottling of the style ever sold  and it remains popular for a reason. An enticing caramel hue; dried fruit and cooked agave nose; a fruit and vanilla palate with hints of butterscotch  it all comes together to make one serious crowd-pleasing pour. And like a good reposado should be, its incredibly versatile. Drink it simply over the rocks, if thats your thing, or try it in place of rum, whisky or even cognac in your favourite brown spirit-based cocktails. Buy now 41 Amazon.co.uk {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Tapatio blanco Best: Traditional blanco Rating: 9/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 50cl

50cl Type: Blanco Theres plenty of spicy, savoury character packed into this flavourful agave tequila  it just goes to show how complex a good blanco can be. Tapatio has been made using the same artisan methods since the 1930s, and that commitment to tradition might have something to do with all that richness. Green pepper, white pepper and sweet fruit on the nose, with a heavily spiced, savoury palate ending in a flash of roasted agave. You will either entirely love its bold intensity in your lime-drenched Margaritas or, if youre tequila-shy, find it a bit too much. And as tequila lovers, we are firmly in the former camp. Buy now 24.45 Amazon.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Padre Azul anejo Best: For sweet tooths Rating: 7/10 ABV: 38%

38% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Anejo The bottle is outrageous: topped with a giant silvery skull, and coddled in a leathery sleeve, its a love-it or hate-it kind of presentation. And when it comes to its liquid profile, this premium sipping tequila is no shrinking violet either. Rich chocolate, toffee and cinnamon spice on the nose are followed up with a syrupy-rich palate of brown sugar, pepper, coffee and vanilla. This is a sweeter, more contemporary style of tequila  it will appeal to bourbon and rum drinkers especially  but its a great (if pricey) gateway tipple if youre still working out if this spirit is for you. Trying pairing it with a dessert for a sweet ending to a meal; a chocolatey coffee cake would be perfection. Buy now 108.95 Masterofmalt.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Codigo rosa Best: For summery drinking Rating: 8/10 ABV: 35%

35% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Blanco Now heres a bit of an oddity: a blanco tequila thats been rested for a month in Napa Valley Cabernet wine barrels, imparting a blushing pink hue and a hint of fruity brightness. Tequila purists might baulk, but actually, its gorgeous to drink, especially in sultry summer; pour it over ice or mix with a splash of tonic and youve got agaves answer to pink gin. Dont expect the ripe, overtly red fruit notes youll find in most pink gins though. The main effect youre getting with Codigo rosa is a rounded mouthfeel, and gentle sweetness to balance out an underlying earthiness. Sublimely sippable. Buy now 45.75 Masterofmalt.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

AquaRiva reposado Best: Low-key celeb tequila Rating: 8/10 ABV: 38%

38% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Reposado Celebrity-endorsed tequilas have become big business  it seems like everyone from George Clooney to Justin Timberlake have launched their own brands. Cleo Rocos, a comedian, is behind this floral, honeyed reposado, made from 100 per cent agave sourced from the Jalisco highlands. A single sniff brings to mind a bouquet of summer blooms; a buttery, smooth but still bright palate is rippled with rose. A natural pick when youre mixing up a round of Palomas or Margaritas, especially given its fairly friendly price point. Buy now 29.95 Thewhiskyexchange.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}

Vivir blanco Best: For Instagramming Rating: 8/10 ABV: 40%

40% Size: 70cl

70cl Type: Blanco With its slick, contemporary bottle and confident messaging  it claims that this is tequila, but not as you know it  this spirit feels as much like a lifestyle brand as it does a drink. But thats not a knock, as the quality is obviously there too. Its made with 100 per cent blue agave, harvested at a fully mature nine years of age, and blended with volcanic spring water. That mature agave brings complexity to your glass, with rounded vegetal and honey notes mingling in with citrus. A clean, fresh palate has a gentle savouriness while ending with a touch of sweetness. Basically, like some other modern tequilas, its crying out to be mixed with tonic in a T&T. Bottoms up! Buy now 34.50 Masterofmalt.com {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}}
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How do you know if someone's smart?

Without administering an impromptu IQ test, there are certain clues you can use to gauge a person's relative intelligence.

Business Insider combed through decades of scientific research and highlighted 13 surprising signs of braininess.

Keep in mind, however, that "intelligence" is often measured through tests that have been widely criticized for putting certain social groups at a disadvantage and for minimizing the importance of creativity. Psychologists are constantly finding newer, more effective ways to measure cognitive ability  meaning the signs are ever evolving.

Additional reporting by Chelsea Harvey

You took music lessons

(Getty)

Research suggests that music helps kids' minds develop in a few ways:

 A 2011 study found that scores on a test of verbal intelligence among 4- to 6-year-olds rose after only a month of music lessons.

 A 2004 study led by Glenn Schellenberg found that 6-year-olds who took nine months of keyboard or voice lessons had an IQ boost compared with kids who took drama lessons or no classes at all.

Meanwhile, a 2013 study, also led by Schellenberg, suggested that high-achieving kids were the ones most likely to take music lessons. In other words, in the real world, musical training may only enhance cognitive differences that already exist.

You're the oldest

(Getty)

Oldest siblings are usually smarter, but it's not because of genetics, one study found.

Norwegian epidemiologists used military records to examine the birth order, health status, and IQ scores of nearly 250,000 18- and 19-year-old men born between 1967 and 1976. Results showed that the average firstborn had an IQ of 103, compared to 100 for second children and 99 for third children.

The New York Times reports: "The new findings, from a landmark study published [in June 2007], showed that eldest children had a slight but significant edge in IQ  an average of three points over the closest sibling. And it found that the difference was not because of biological factors but the psychological interplay of parents and children."

For this and other reasons, firstborns tend to be more successful (but not that much more successful) than their siblings.

You're thin

(Getty)

For a 2006 study, scientists gave roughly 2,200 adults intelligence tests over a five-year period and results suggested that the bigger the waistline, the lower the cognitive ability.

Another study published that same year found that 11-year-olds who scored lower on verbal and nonverbal tests were more likely to be obese in their 40s. The study authors say that smarter kids might have pursued better educational opportunities, landed higher-status and higher-paying jobs, and therefore ended up in a better position to take care of their health than their less intelligent peers.

Meanwhile, a more recent study found that, among preschoolers, a lower IQ was linked to a higher BMI. Those researchers also say environmental factors are at play, since the relationship between BMI and smarts was mediated by socioeconomic status.

You have a cat

(Getty)

A 2014 study of 600 college students found that individuals who identified as "dog people" were more outgoing than those who identified as "cat people," according to a test that measures personality and intelligence.

But guess what? Those same cat people scored higher on the part of the test that measures cognitive ability.

You were breastfed

(Getty)

2007 research suggests that babies who are breastfed might grow up to be smarter kids.

In two studies, the researchers looked at more than 3,000 children in Britain and New Zealand. Those children who had been breastfed scored nearly seven points higher on an IQ test  but only if they had a particular version of the FADS2 gene. (That version of the gene was present in roughly equal numbers among kids who were and weren't breastfed.)

Figuring out the exact mechanism of this relationship between FADS2, breastfeeding, and IQ will require further study, the scientists noted in their paper on the finding.

The top 20 names for smart people Show all 20 1 /20 The top 20 names for smart people The top 20 names for smart people 1. John (male) The top 20 names for smart people 1. Mary (female) The top 20 names for smart people 2. Robert (male) The top 20 names for smart people 2. Elizabeth (female) Getty The top 20 names for smart people 3. William (male) The top 20 names for smart people 3. Maria (female) The top 20 names for smart people 4. Charles (male) The top 20 names for smart people 4. Anne (female) Getty Images The top 20 names for smart people 5. David (male) Getty Images The top 20 names for smart people 5. Margaret (female) The top 20 names for smart people 6. James (male) The top 20 names for smart people 6. Susan (female) Getty Images The top 20 names for smart people 7. Richard (male) Getty Images The top 20 names for smart people 7. Ruth (female) The top 20 names for smart people 8. Johann (male) The top 20 names for smart people 8. Anna (female) Getty Images The top 20 names for smart people 9. George (male) Getty Images The top 20 names for smart people 9. Alice (female) The top 20 names for smart people 10. Paul (male) Getty The top 20 names for smart people 10. Dorothy (female)

You've used recreational drugs

(Getty)

A 2012 study of more than 6,000 Brits born in 1958 found a link between high IQ in childhood and the use of illegal drugs in adulthood.

"In our large population-based cohort study, IQ at 11 years was associated with a greater likelihood of using selected illegal drugs 31 years later," wrote researchers James W. White, Catharine R. Gale, and David Batty.

They conclude that "in contrast to most studies on the association between childhood IQ and later health," their findings suggest "a high childhood IQ may prompt the adoption of behaviors that are potentially harmful to health (i.e., excess alcohol consumption and drug use) in adulthood."

You're left-handed

(Getty)

Left-handedness used to be associated with criminality, and researchers are still unclear as to whether and why there are slightly more lefties among criminal populations.

More recent research associates left-handedness with "divergent thinking," a form of creativity that allows you to come up with novel ideas from a prompt  at least among men.

In her review of a 1995 paper, New Yorker reporter Maria Konnikova writes:

The more marked the left-handed preference in a group of males, the better they were at tests of divergent thought.

Left-handers were more adept, for instance, at combining two common objects in novel ways to form a third  for example, using a pole and a tin can to make a birdhouse. They also excelled at grouping lists of words into as many alternate categories as possible.

 Are you smarter than Ed Balls?

You're tall

(Getty)

A 2008 Princeton study of thousands of people found that taller individuals scored higher on IQ tests as kids and earned more money as adults.

The researchers write: "As early as age 3  before schooling has had a chance to play a role  and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests."

You drink alcohol regularly

(Getty)

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa and colleagues found that, among Brits as well as Americans, adults who had scored higher on IQ tests when they were kids or teens drank more alcohol, more often in adulthood than those who had scored lower.

You're politically liberal

(Getty)

Kanazawa led another study that found the farther left you fall on the political spectrum, the smarter you are.

Among thousands of American adults, those who scored higher on IQ tests as kids and adolescents were more likely to report being politically liberal.

You learned to read early

In 2012, researchers looked at nearly 2,000 pairs of identical twins in the UK and found that the sibling who had learned to read earlier tended to score higher on tests of cognitive ability.

The study authors suggest that reading from an early age increases both verbal and nonverbal (e.g. reasoning) ability, as opposed to the other way around.

You worry a lot

(Getty)

A growing body of research suggests that anxious individuals may be smarter than others in certain ways.

In one recent study, for example, researchers asked 126 undergrads to fill out questionnaires in which they indicated how often they experienced worry. They also indicated how often they engaged in rumination, or thinking continuously about the aspects of situations that upset them.

Results showed that people who tended to worry and ruminate a lot scored higher on measures of verbal intelligence, while people who didn't do much worrying or ruminating scored higher on tests of nonverbal intelligence.

You're funny

(Getty)

In one study, 400 psychology students took intelligence tests that measured abstract reasoning abilities and verbal intelligence.

Then they were asked to come up with captions for several New Yorker cartoons, and those captions were reviewed by independent raters.

As predicted, smarter students were rated as funnier.

Read more:

 The debt deal that almost sunk Portugal's railway

 Lloyds axing 1,000 jobs by replacing humans with automation

 Why the EU referendum doesn't matter

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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ITN has filed an official complaint with press watchdog IPSO over comments by the former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie about the decision to use a Muslim reporter to cover the Nice attacks.

MacKenzie prompted anger after questioning why, as a Muslim woman who wears a hijab, Fatima Manji was chosen to report on the terror attack in Nice.

In the column, the 69-year-old wrote he couldnt believe his eyes after seeing the journalist, who has been at the station for four years, reporting on the terror attacks.

 Kelvin Mackenzie's comments about Muslim news presenter are 'tantamount to religious hatred', says Channel 4

Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there has been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim? he wrote. Was it done to stick one in the eye of the ordinary viewer who looks at the hijab as a sign of slavery by Muslim women by a male-dominated and clearly violent religion? His column on Monday sparked more than 1,700 complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

Ben de Pear, editor of Channel 4 News, said the network could not "stand by" while Ms Manji was the victim of religious discrimination.

People news in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 People news in pictures People news in pictures 7 October 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in an ice hockey match between former NHL stars and officials at the Shayba Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Vladimir Putin spent his 63rd birthday on the ice, playing hockey with NHL stars against Russian officials and tycoons EPA People news in pictures 6 October 2015 German designer Karl Lagerfeld (R) and model Cara Delevingne (C) appear at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear collection for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais which is transformed into a Chanel airport during the Fashion Week in Paris, France Reuters People news in pictures 5 October 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses the Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Chancellor argued that reducing the payments to people in low paid jobs would give them economic security by reducing the Governments spending deficit Getty Images People news in pictures 4 October 2015 Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston takes a moment in the centre of the field with his daughter Frankie Thurston, holding dark-skinned doll, after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The image quickly became the talking point of Australias National Rugby League Final and provoked a strong reaction on social media, with many praising Thurston for giving his child a toy that promotes inclusiveness and diversity Getty Images People news in pictures 3 October 2015 Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up as he greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of a meeting organized by the "Food Bank" at the Paul VI audience hall in Vatican Getty Images People news in pictures 2 October 2015 Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne (L) throws an American football as he meets with former American football players Dan Marino (2nd R) and Curtis Martin (not pictured) at 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of the New York Jets playing against the Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium on 4 October Getty Images People news in pictures 1 October 2015 An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia People news in pictures 30 September 2015 Former Mrs America Lisa Christie, who alleges misconduct by Bill Cosby, holds up photos of her younger self during a news conference at the law office of attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Matt Damon has defended himself against claims that he instructed gay actors to remain in the closet. He had said I think youre a better actor the less people know about you and sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether youre straight or gay, people shouldnt know anything about your sexuality but an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show said, I was just trying to say actors are more effective when theyre a mystery. Right? Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Marion Cotillard has said that there is no place for feminism in Hollywood. Speaking to Porter magazine, she saidFilm-making is not about gender/ You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesnt create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I dont qualify myself as a feminist." Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Paul Walkers daughter, Meadow, is suing Porsche over her fathers death in a lawsuit that claims he was trapped in the burning car because of design flaws and the seat belt. The Fast and Furious star was killed when the Porsche Carrera GT he was a passenger in hit a pole in California in 2013. The driver, his friend Roger Rodas, also died when the vehicle burst into flames. AP People news in pictures 28 September 2015 Robert Mugabe waits to address the United Nations General Assembly. The leader of Zimbabwe reportedly exclaimed 'We are not gay!' as he criticised Western nation's "double standards and attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. In 2013 he described homosexuals as worse than pigs, goats and birds. Reuters People news in pictures 28 September 2015 South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show' since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah during the show as a 'Political father' 2015 Getty Images People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Sir Elton John may have received a phone call from the real Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin's spokesman announced he had made contact weeks after the singer was duped by pranksters pretending to be the Russian President. Getty People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was mistakenly declared as the artist who produced the Mona Lisa by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. It was in fact Leonardo da Vinci. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 A new biography claims Donald Trump expected to be dead by 40 and never marry. The Guardian says the a new book also claims that in 1980, Mr Trump manufactured a fake vice-president of his real estate conglomerate, whom he called John Baron. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 The Dalai Lama has said that Britain's policy towards China is just about 'Money, money, money.' And asked 'Where is morality?' People news in pictures 24 September 2015 Puff Daddy secured the number-one spot on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list, with the publication calculating he made an estimated $60million (39m) between June 2014 and June 2015.

He said: Yesterday Channel 4 News correspondent Fatima Manji made an official complaint to Ipso following Kelvin MacKenzie's column published in The Sun on Monday.

ITN believes the article was in breach of a number of provisions of the Editor's Code, in particular discrimination, harassment by intimidation and inaccuracy.

A further complaint was also made by ITN CEO John Hardie which fully supports and endorses the grounds and reasoning of Fatima's complaint.

ITN accepts and understands that our reporters and presenters are in the public eye and can expect criticism and comment from many quarters, including newspaper columnists. What it cannot accept is an employee being singled out on the basis of her religion.

We are not going to simply stand by when an employee is subject to an act of religious discrimination.

Manji responded in a column for the Liverpool Echo, where she accused Mackenzie of trying to smear Muslims and intimidate them out of public life.
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In an age of social media just one ill-advised tweet, caption or Instagram post from a high-profile individual can result in that all too familiar public apology.

Celebrities should use their peers' gaffes as a learning tool to avoid sparking a backlash. However, it appears Lindsay Lohan did not take note of Mischa Bartons recent Instagram blunder when she essentially repeated it.

On Tuesday, Lohan posted a photo of herself sitting on a bed, wearing silk pyjamas and with her hand to her mouth. While this photo would not normally stand out from among the selfies flooding Instagram, the caption caused followers to glance at it twice.

If history were to be folded, where would we put the crease? the Mean Girls actress wondered. Pray for the ones we lose every day and we appreciate every breath you, we all, take #nice #turkey #turnup and do something (goodnight and sleep with an idea for the future).

Her reflection on the Nice terror attack and recent events in Turkey appeared at odds with the photo, which also bizarrely tagged the lingerie brand Victorias Secret, leading some followers to label it insincere and tone deaf.

SO insincere and such an inappropriate photo! Who are you trying to impress with this picture? The people of France who have had loved ones killed and injured as a result of this terrorist attack? Have some common sense [and] respect! one user wrote.

People news in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 People news in pictures People news in pictures 7 October 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in an ice hockey match between former NHL stars and officials at the Shayba Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Vladimir Putin spent his 63rd birthday on the ice, playing hockey with NHL stars against Russian officials and tycoons EPA People news in pictures 6 October 2015 German designer Karl Lagerfeld (R) and model Cara Delevingne (C) appear at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear collection for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais which is transformed into a Chanel airport during the Fashion Week in Paris, France Reuters People news in pictures 5 October 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses the Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Chancellor argued that reducing the payments to people in low paid jobs would give them economic security by reducing the Governments spending deficit Getty Images People news in pictures 4 October 2015 Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston takes a moment in the centre of the field with his daughter Frankie Thurston, holding dark-skinned doll, after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The image quickly became the talking point of Australias National Rugby League Final and provoked a strong reaction on social media, with many praising Thurston for giving his child a toy that promotes inclusiveness and diversity Getty Images People news in pictures 3 October 2015 Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up as he greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of a meeting organized by the "Food Bank" at the Paul VI audience hall in Vatican Getty Images People news in pictures 2 October 2015 Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne (L) throws an American football as he meets with former American football players Dan Marino (2nd R) and Curtis Martin (not pictured) at 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of the New York Jets playing against the Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium on 4 October Getty Images People news in pictures 1 October 2015 An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia People news in pictures 30 September 2015 Former Mrs America Lisa Christie, who alleges misconduct by Bill Cosby, holds up photos of her younger self during a news conference at the law office of attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Matt Damon has defended himself against claims that he instructed gay actors to remain in the closet. He had said I think youre a better actor the less people know about you and sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether youre straight or gay, people shouldnt know anything about your sexuality but an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show said, I was just trying to say actors are more effective when theyre a mystery. Right? Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Marion Cotillard has said that there is no place for feminism in Hollywood. Speaking to Porter magazine, she saidFilm-making is not about gender/ You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesnt create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I dont qualify myself as a feminist." Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Paul Walkers daughter, Meadow, is suing Porsche over her fathers death in a lawsuit that claims he was trapped in the burning car because of design flaws and the seat belt. The Fast and Furious star was killed when the Porsche Carrera GT he was a passenger in hit a pole in California in 2013. The driver, his friend Roger Rodas, also died when the vehicle burst into flames. AP People news in pictures 28 September 2015 Robert Mugabe waits to address the United Nations General Assembly. The leader of Zimbabwe reportedly exclaimed 'We are not gay!' as he criticised Western nation's "double standards and attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. In 2013 he described homosexuals as worse than pigs, goats and birds. Reuters People news in pictures 28 September 2015 South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show' since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah during the show as a 'Political father' 2015 Getty Images People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Sir Elton John may have received a phone call from the real Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin's spokesman announced he had made contact weeks after the singer was duped by pranksters pretending to be the Russian President. Getty People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was mistakenly declared as the artist who produced the Mona Lisa by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. It was in fact Leonardo da Vinci. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 A new biography claims Donald Trump expected to be dead by 40 and never marry. The Guardian says the a new book also claims that in 1980, Mr Trump manufactured a fake vice-president of his real estate conglomerate, whom he called John Baron. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 The Dalai Lama has said that Britain's policy towards China is just about 'Money, money, money.' And asked 'Where is morality?' People news in pictures 24 September 2015 Puff Daddy secured the number-one spot on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list, with the publication calculating he made an estimated $60million (39m) between June 2014 and June 2015.

Another suggested: Someone here wants to USE what happened in Nice to make some personal advertisement. Otherwise another photo would be used!

You really put Nice, Turkey and turnup hashtags next to each other? one questioned.

Lohans referred to the controversial post in the next picture she shared of her cuddling her new fiancee Egor Tarabasov in the sea.

The perfect silence #love Try to think about the last thing I put on my page The words are stronger than the picture you see, she said.

Recommended Read more Mischa Barton apologises for Instagram post about Alton Sterling

Lohans post comes after the former The OC actress Bartons photo which reflected on the fatal shooting of a black man Alton Sterling by police in the US. The 30-year-olds post was branded out of touch by users highlighting her own privilege after she angrily called for justice and gun control in a caption placed next to a bikini-clad photo of herself on board a yacht, drinking a glass of wine. She swiftly deleted the post and later apologised if it went out of context.

A representative for Lohan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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If anyone needed more proof of the gulf between the royal family and their subjects, they should look no further than the official pictures released to mark the third birthday of Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge - Prince George to you and me.

There are few situations where a boy standing on a swing and sitting with a family pet would form part of an official release of images produced by an esteemed photographer, carefully vetted by a PR team and distributed to media outlets across the world.

These images, taken at the Amner Hall family home in Norfolk, a more domestic setting than the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges opulent London apartment in Kensington Palace, have also been shared by the official Kensington Palace Twitter account - a sure-fire way of sending them viral.

 7 of Prince George's most astounding privileges and powers

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: The Duke and Duchess hope that people will enjoy seeing these new photographs. They would like to thank everyone for all the lovely messages they have received as Prince George celebrates his third birthday.

While he is enjoying the birthday excitement all toddlers do when turning a year older, Prince Georges life is worlds apart from that of your average child.

Prince George's third birthday Show all 4 1 /4 Prince George's third birthday Prince George's third birthday Matt Porteous/PA Wire Prince George's third birthday Matt Porteous/PA Wire Prince George's third birthday Matt Porteous/PA Wire Prince George's third birthday Matt Porteous/PA Wire

His photos were taken by Matt Porteous

The Duchess of Cambridge occasionally likes to defy convention by taking her own photos of her children for official release, but this year invited Porteous, an internationally renowned photographer, to do the honours.

His second birthday was captured in a series of toothy, sun-filled pictures with his royal parents by none other than Mario Testino, the leading fashion photographer celebrated by virtually every supermodel and fashion magazine in the world.

He is balancing on a swing engraved with William and Catherine

Prince William and Kate clearly like to make their mark on their home, to the extent that they felt inscribing their name on a swing enjoyed by their son was necessary.

One of his birthday presents in 2015 was a cottage on wheels

For the princely sum of 18,000. This years extravagant gift will likely top that figure.

He is often photographed in outfits that often evoke a sense of deja vu

And they should. The third in line to the throne is dressed in clothes worn by his father for various occasions which are retrieved from the royal collection. What other three-year-olds sartorial choices are the work of esteemed designers and saved specifically for royal events?

His 'quotes' are already deemed newsworthy

He has only recently acquired language and yet already has an entire piece dedicated to his quotes, which include: Mummy, can I fly the Red Arrow now?
Horrible, ridiculous and an insult are just of few of the epithets that residents of Penaranda de Bracamonte have used to describe their patron saint in recent days.

But its not that a wave of anti-clericalism has swept this tiny community located near the Spanish university city of Salamanca.

Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here

Rather, locals are stunned at the incompetent restoration carried out by one of their number on a 17th-century carving of the archangel Michael inside their church.

The case has prompted comparisons with the damage inadvertently inflicted in 2012 on an Ecce Homo religious painting in Borja, which made world headlines and attracted thousands of tourists to this small town in central Spain.

With this in mind, some residents in Penaranda de Bracamonte have already begun to wonder if their botched restoration might also prompt an influx of curious sightseers and end up putting their village on the map, as well as bringing in much-needed revenue.

English version by Nick Lyne.
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The Democratic National Committee - a supposedly neutral organisation - apparently hatched a plan to try and undermine Bernie Sanders campaign against Hillary Clinton by getting someone to claim he was an atheist.

The Sanders campaign for months complained that people in the DNC were biased in favour of the establishment candidate, Ms Clinton. The campaign even sued the DNC to allow it access to its voter database.

Now, the release of a more than 20,000 internal DNC emails by Wikileaks, suggests that senior DNC officials plotted against Mr Sanders.

An email from May 2016 and sent from DNC CFO Brad Marshall suggested that they should get someone to ask Mr Sanders his views on religion,

It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist, wrote Mr Marshall.

This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.

The email was sent to DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda and Deputy Communications Director Mark Paustenbach. The email did not mention Mr Sanders by name but he was the only Jewish candidate in the Democratic race - apparently something that was considered a weakness by Mr Marshall, and which party thought it could exploit in favour of Ms Clinton.

 'America is Better Than Donald Trump' - Clinton on Trump Becoming Official GOP Candidate

The DNC has always denied the claims from the Sanders campaign that it was biased in favor of Ms Clinton. One member the DNC, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, quit the organisation in order to support Mr Sanders

The emails were hacked by someone calling himself Guccifer 2.0 and released by Wikileaks on Friday, just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where Ms Clinton will officially accept the partys nomination.

Mr Sanders has said of his Jewish heritage: Im very proud of being Jewish. And thats an essential part of who I am as a human being.

Yet in an interview with the New York Times, he downplayed what that Jewish heritage meant on the campaign trail and declined to say whether he believed in God.

Nobody from the DNC was immediately available for comment. Mr Marshall told The Intercept: I do not recall this. I can say it would not have been Sanders. It would probably be about a surrogate.

Mr Sanders eventually announced his endorsement for Ms Clinton after securing a series of undertakings on policy positions for the Democratic party.
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British Muslims have been praised by the Charity Commission for donating vast amounts of money to good causes.

During the holy month of Ramadan, British Muslims as a whole have donated money at a rate of 38 per second during Ramadan, or 371 per individual over the year, the Commission said.

Nick Donaldson, outreach manager at the Commission, blogged in praise of projects in the UK, Syria, Somaliland and elsewhere that had been supported during Ramadan.

"The sheer scale of the work is immediately apparent. One Muslim-led charity  not one of the largest  estimates that its work last Ramadan had helped over one million people," he said.

"Charity may begin at home, but it certainly doesn't end there. Dozens of countries were named as areas of benefit, from Europe to North America, and right around the world."

Other donations this year went to flood-affected areas in Carlisle and honey-bee farms in Palestine and Pakistan, while also funding hygiene kits and food in Haiti and "micro-dams" in Mali, which catch water from flash floods.

Previously the Charity Commission has been criticised for labelling "Islamist abuse" one of three key threats to the charity sector.

In pictures: The first day of Ramadan Show all 6 1 /6 In pictures: The first day of Ramadan In pictures: The first day of Ramadan ramadan1-AfPgt.jpg AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The first day of Ramadan ramadan5-EPA.jpg EPA In pictures: The first day of Ramadan ramadan2-AP.jpg AP In pictures: The first day of Ramadan ramadan4-AfPgt.jpg AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The first day of Ramadan ramadan6-AP.jpg AP In pictures: The first day of Ramadan ramadan3-AP.jpg AP

Critics said last year that William Shawcross, chairman of the Commission, had focussed "disproportionately" on the "threats" posed by Islamic charities in a speech Mr Shawcross gave on the sector.

Muslim leaders welcomed the recognition of their communities' efforts.

Muhammad Abdulbari, former secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, told The Independent: "On this month, because we are hungry, we can empathise with people who are hungry around the world.

"Muslims are not supposed to be just helping themselves. The idea of neighbourhood and reaching out to other communities is important in Islam."

Central to the Islamic concept of charity is zakah, a compulsory duty within the religion to contribute 2.5 per cent of their yearly income to those in need.

Ramadan, which is regarded as a month of selflessness and spirituality, sees this duty paid particular attention.

The Qu'ran also says the Prophet Muhammad answered the question "who is my neighbour?" with "forty houses to your right and forty houses to your left." The implied lesson was that neighbourliness has no limit, said Dr Abdulbari.

Many British Muslims donated single gifts of up to 30,000 each, according to research carried out by ICM in 2013, the Charity Commission added.
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Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson has criticised the "vicarious racism" he says contributed to the UK's vote to leave the European Union.

Writing in the New European newspaper, the former Independent columnist lamented the large increase in racist attacks and hate crimes the country has endured in the wake of the EU referendum result.

He argued that while the warnings issued by the Remain campaign had turned out to be largely accurate, those who wanted the UK to stay within the bloc should be wary of premature vindication - or taking an overly negative view of post-Brexit Britain.

"Even those of us who were sure the spirit of Brexit would make us a less generous society, didn't expect to wake up in a Bosch hell the very morning after the vote," he writes.

"I don't accuse anyone of lying or massaging statistics; I simply wonder whether it's we who have been too quick to embrace Armageddon."

Jacobson suggested that while the referendum campaign and the aftermath of the vote had given rise to an increase in displays of prejudice, blame could be placed upon those prominent deemed to have legitimised racism.

"We all have a stain of racism in us; in the main we recognise and manage it," he writes.

"As with envy or sexual jealousy, it is only when we become its slave that we are dangerous to others.

"Racism is a blunt and heartless term, too, for the bewildered alienation people can feel when the demographics of their neighbourhoods change, or when the language they hear on their streets is not one they recognise.

"But what the referendum disclosed was something far more disreputable and dangerous than any twitching of net curtains in Tyneside: a vicarious racism practised by cynical rabble-rousers who, though not necessarily bigots themselves, took pleasure in tickling out bigotry in others."

Howard Jacobson's full essay on Brexit can be read in The New European newspaper, on sale in the UK today and available online at www.theneweuropean.co.uk and also at the app stores
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A heartbroken couple spent more than 15 days with their stillborn son, cuddling his dead body and taking photographs for a family album to cope with their grief.

Just after Lynsey Bell had gone into labour having been induced after a difficult pregnancy, doctors told her that her fourth child would not be born alive.

Ms Bell, 32, suffered from pre-eclampsia, a serious high blood pressure condition which severely affects two in every 100 pregnant women, in her first three pregnancies.

But this time the condition was so serious her placenta had detached from her womb.

Further complications followed: a hemorrhage meant Ms Bell had to be put under general anaesthetic for two days, she underwent an emergency hysterectomy.

The baby, who the couple had named Rory, was removed by caesarian section.

The doctors told us if our situation had happened 10 years ago I wouldnt have made it either, so thank goodness for medical advances, Ms Bell wrote on her public Facebook page created in memory of her son.

Lynsey and Mark Bell (Courtesy of Lynsey Bell)

Stillbirth is defined as when a baby dies after 24 weeks of gestation.

There were more than 3,200 instances of stillbirth in this country in 2013, and more than 10 babies are stillborn every day in the UK, according to miscarriage charity Tommys.

When she came round in hospital after the traumatic incident in August 2014, Ms Bells husband Mark Bell showed her a photograph of her stillborn son lying next to her while she was in a coma.

Ms Bell in a coma with her stillborn son Rory (Courtesy of Lynsey Bell)

We put Rory in your arms and took a photo  We thought it might be the only photo of the two of you together wed ever have, said Mr Bell, according to the Mirror.

While Ms Bell was recovering in hospital, she said the couple would spend around 20 minutes a day bonding with their dead son, who was kept in the hospitals mortuary unit.

Rory was my son. I needed to care for him, I needed to change his nappy and get to know him. I owed him that, she told the Mirror.

How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy Show all 9 1 /9 How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy i.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy mail.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy times.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy the-sun.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy mirror.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy star.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy express.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy telegraph.jpg How the papers reported the news of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy guardian.jpg

The couple from Newcastle spent more than two weeks saying goodbye to their stillborn son.

And before his funeral, they took him home to his grandparents house, where they did everything we would have done during his first year, such as cuddling him in bed, reading him stories and bathing him.

The family say they are open with their other three young children about their stillborn brother.

Ms Bell is also campaigning to raise money for a child named Samuel with cerebral palsy.

While the majority of stillbirths occur in developing countries, among 35 wealthy nations the UK is only ranked 21st for stillbirth prevention, with mothers in Iceland half as likely to experience it.
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A young Muslim woman has described how she befriended a woman too terrified to sit beside her on a plane after she texted the word "Allah".

The encounter, explained in detail on Facebook, touched readers on social media who have shared and commented on its story of reconciliation in the face of fear more than 9,000 times.

Jiva Akbor, a young Muslim Briton from Greater Manchester, said a mother with an 11-year-old son left beside her on the flight to Spain rapidly left her seat, before returning "literally shaking" with two air hostesses.

"She stood there, with a look of fright on her face. I was confused. For a split second I thought she had some health issue or something, and about the have a panic attack," wrote Ms Akbor.

"At that moment she looked at me and said, "I saw you write a text message and you wrote Allah on it.

"My heart stopped."

Ms Akbor said the many incidents involving Muslim passengers who have been asked to leave flights or move seats came "flooding" to her mind, and she was afraid that the two air hostesses with Beverley would leave her in Gatwick Airport.

But in her post she praised the calm air hostesses, one of whom told the frightened woman: "You are free to leave the flight if you wish."

Social media users thought most highly, however, of Ms Akbor herself for being "the chillest girl ever". The young Muslim explained that Allah meant "God" in Arabic and discovered her neighbour was a Roman Catholic. She explained she was "just a regular Muslim girl travelling".

"After about 15 minutes of conversation I could feel her calming down and starting to accept what I was telling her," wrote Ms Akbor.

"Before too long I could see remorse in her tone, I think she was shocked at her own reaction and the realisation of what she had thought of me was setting in.

Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Show all 10 1 /10 Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images Britain's top ten gripes about travelling by aeroplane Getty Images

"In her own words she said its so scary what the media can make us think and I just panicked."

The pair went on to discuss everything from their faiths and families to "the sad state the world seems to be in right now", Brexit, the exchange rate, Pokemon Go, mosques, churches and their parents.

Beverley reportedly kept apologising as the realisation of the situation dawned on her, eventually giving Ms Akbor her favourite perfume bottle with a special star lid.

The story was liked about 9,100 times and shared 8,310 times on Facebook alone, with users praising the wisdom of its teller.

Ms Akbor concluded: "Today I had one of the most interesting and most memorable flights of my life. I made a friend called Beverley who made a mistake and acknowledged it.

 10 secret perks passengers should be taking advantage of on flights

"I met a lady who is deep down inside a wonderful, wonderful human and showed me that the fear-mongering purposely and strategically carried out in this world by the powers-that-be today are very, very real and can make an ordinary person have the most shocking of reactions."
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Labour MP Angela Eagle was advised by counter-terrorism police to cancel her constituency surgeries or hold them in a more secure location because of the level of abuse she received after trying to challenge Jeremy Corbyn for party leader.

She stopped holding walk-in surgeries on security grounds, citing police concerns, but was subsequently accused of exaggerating their advice.

However The Independent can reveal the contents of a personal message from a counter-terrorism expert at Merseyside Police, which supports her account of events.

The expert said it would be "a good idea to, if possible, to cancel or postpone these surgeries".

It went on to say if that were not possible, police "would recommend a different location be used that can offer some form of access control or security on site".

It also recommended contacting local police officers about "possible disorder" by people who disagree with Ms Eagle.

Many supporters of Mr Corbyn, including members of his grassroots organisation Momentum, have been critical of her and colleague Owen Smith's bid to remove him.

One man has been accused of threatening to kill Ms Eagle, although no links to any one group have been confirmed.

It comes amid heightened concern about MPs' security following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox and ongoing threats to numerous MPs during current Labour leadership debate.

The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Show all 11 1 /11 The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He called Hezbollah and Hamas friends True. In a speech made to the Stop the War Coalition in 2009, Mr Corbyn called representatives from both groups friends after inviting them to Parliament. He later told Channel 4 he wanted both groups, who have factions designated as international terror organisations, to be part of the debate for the Middle East peace process. I use (the word friends) in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk, he added. Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. Reuters The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy Partly false. David Cameron used this as a line of attack at the Conservative Party conference but appears to have left out all context from Mr Corbyns original remarks. In an 2011 interview on Iranian television, the then-backbencher said the fact the al-Qaeda leader was not put on trial was the tragedy, continuing: The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is haunted by the legacy of his evil great-great-grandfather False. A Daily Express expose revealed that the Labour leaders ancestor, James Sargent, was the despotic master of a Victorian workhouse. Addressing the report at the Labour conference, Mr Corbyn said he had never heard of him before, adding: I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time and having a chat with him about his appalling behaviour. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about pigeon bombs in Parliament This one is true. On 21 May 2004, Mr Corbyn raised an early day motion entitled pigeon bombs, proposing that the House register being appalled but barely surprised that MI5 reportedly proposed to load pigeons with explosives as a weapon. The motion continued: The House believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again. It was not carried. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He rides a Communist bicycle False. A report in The Times referred to Mr Corbyn, known for his cycling, riding a Chairman Mao-style bicycle earlier this year. Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao, he later joked. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn 'Jeremy Corbyn will appoint a special minister for Jews' False so far. The Sun report in December was allegedly based on a rumour passed to the paper by a Daily Express columnist who has written pieces critical of the Labour leader in the past. The minister did not materialise in his shadow cabinet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn wishes Britain would abolish its Army False. Another gem from The Sun took comments made at a Hiroshima remembrance parade in August 2012 where Mr Corbyn supported Costa Ricas move to abolish it armed forces. Wouldnt it be wonderful if every politician around the worldabolished the army and took pride in the fact that they dont have an army, he added. The caveat that every politician must take the step suggests Mr Corbyn does not support UK disarmament just yet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn stole sandwiches meant for veterans False. The Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the Labour leader took sandwiches meant for veterans at at Battle of Britain memorial service in September but a photo later emerged showing him being handed one by Costa volunteers, who later confirmed they were given to all guests. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He missed the induction into the Queens privy council True. After much speculation about Mr Corbyns republican views and willingness to bow to the monarch, his office confirmed that he did not attend the official induction to the privy council because of a prior engagement, but did not rule out joining the body. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn refuses to sing the national anthem. Partly true. The Labour leader was filmed standing in silence as God Save the Queen was sung at a Battle of Britain remembrance service but will reportedly sing it in future. Mr Corbyn was elusive on the issue in an interview, saying he would show memorials respect in the proper way, but sources said he would sing the anthem at future occasions. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese True. The group lists its purpose as the following: To increase awareness of issues surrounding the dairy industry and focus on economic issues affecting the dairy industry and producers.

Merseyside Police expressed their support for Ms Eagle's decision to cancel the walk-in surgeries, but said media reports that the police themselves "decided" to shut them down were inccurate, as the final decision had been taken by the MP.

Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Kenwright said: "We have given Ms Eagle advice about her surgeries, at her request, but the decision to cancel surgeries is not a police matter and would lie entirely with them [Ms Eagle and her staff]."

Opponents of Ms Eagle jumped on this statement to claim she had misrepresented the threat to her safety.

Some of those who took to social media to claim the 55-year-old was "lying" had "I support Jeremy Corbyn" banners on their profiles.

A meme also began to circulate which implied the brick thrown through a window at Ms Eagle's constituency office in Wallasey near Liverpool had been a set-up.

A spokesperson for Ms Eagle said the messages and memes were further attempts to intimidate and discredit the centrist MP.

They pointed out that a man has been arrested in Paisley in Scotland for threatening to kill Ms Eagle.

Mr Corbyn has said he stands for a "kinder, gentler politics" and has called for calm between members of the Party and his grassroots supporters.
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Holland and May: It sounds less like a free world leading double act than a suburban high street retailer of sensible footwear. Certainly not the sort that would sell the kind of cuban heels popular with the previous French President and, on this evidence, should have remained popular with the current one.

As the British Prime Ministerial jag swept on to the shingle at the Elysee Palace, President Hollande repeated an old trick of his predecessors, and lingered on the step above ground level. It was an act of artifice every bit as convincing as the tip-toe induced levitation of a busking magician on the Champs Elysee. And it didnt last. By the time the two had made it to the top step, posing for the cameras, Ms Mays silver bouffant was towering a whole half a head above her Gallic counterpart.

You only have to have witnessed the orgiastic levels of personal contact that characterised any meeting between Bush and Putin to know that in the complex world of international diplomacy, such small details matter.

Recommended Read more Francois Hollande tells Britain to leave the EU as soon as possible

When, after their bilateral discussions, the two leaders swept into the grandly appointed Salon Napoleon Trois (what is it with the French and short leaders? Its arguable a decent set of raised heels should be passed down with the seals of office), it was clear Mr Hollande had stood up for himself.

He wants the now infamous Article 50 invoked with immediate effect. Ms May is in no rush. Hollande is having none of it.

Its a mutual understanding that triggering this process should happen as soon as possible, Mr Hollande said. The sooner the better is in the common interest.

 Hollande Says UK 'Must Accept EU Conditions' for Market Access

The sooner the better is in the EUs interest. Not in Britains. The EU knows that. Thats why they designed the article in this way.

In the meantime, the fate of the free world appears now to rest on precisely when the UK triggers Article 50, and the David Davis masterplan can be put into action, in which, of course, nothing has been left to chance and nothing will go wrong.

Its more than a month since Bucks Fizz delivered the fatal blow to Nigel Farages Rock for Brexit concert, following 2wo members of 5ive and an Elvis impersonator and becoming roughly the 84th act to withdraw from it. But the spectre of The Fizz is still haunting Europe. On Wednesday Chancellor Merkel told Britain to slow it down. Now Mr Hollande has told us to speed it up.

But Ms May, whose adventurous fashion choices are yet to extend to the rapid action removable hula skirt, has made her mind up. Article 50 will not be invoked before the end of this year.

Of course, the meeting wore all the ancient ritual of old friends. The special bonds between the two countries. Both spoke of the fight against terrorism, a fight that briefly became real when, midway through the French Presidents speech, at the back of the room a cameraman fell off the two foot high gantry with an almighty crash that, in no uncertain terms, scared the living daylights out of everyone present.

But not for many, many years, a century perhaps, have the interests of the two nations been more mutually exclusive. The UK wants access to the single market as well as restrictions on freedom of movement, a concession never given to any EU country, nor Canada, Norway, Switzerland, or anyone else who has brokered a free trade agreement with the European member nations.

The French, with a patisserie industry rather more sophisticated than our own, know very well that once you have manged your gateau, thats that. Its gone.
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Jeremy Corbyn has appealed to Labour MPs to talk politics instead of accusing him of being a bully and a hypocrite.

He has denied an extraordinary allegation that he planned to contact the father of a Labour MP who had criticised him to put pressure on the son to shut up. He has also denied threatening MPs who have opposed him with mass sackings before the next general election.

Mr Corbyn said he stood for a "kinder, gentler politics" when he was elected as Labour leader, but his first ten months in office have brought turmoil to the party, which is now facing what could be a very rancorous leadership contest between Mr Corbyn and the former Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith.

 Theresa May on Corbyn

Conor McGinn was one of the new MPs elected in 2015, rapidly promoted by Mr Corbyn to a place in the Labour whips office. He gave an interview in May to The House Magazine  widely read by MPs  in which he remarked that Islington, in London, where Jeremy Corbyn has been an MP for 33 years, is not like the rest of the country and that the challenge for Jeremyis how he relates to the rest of the country.

Mr McGinn has revealed that while he was on an MPs' visit to Washington, he received a message warning him that the furious Labour leader had considered sacking him, but had decided that he wanted a retraction and apology. Mr McGinn refused to apologise, but asked twice for a face to face meeting with the leader, but received no reply.

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Brexit The big one. Theresa May has spoken publicly three times since declaring her intent to stand in the Tory Leadership race, and each time she has said, Brexit means Brexit. It sounds resolute, but it is helpful to her that Brexit is a made up word with no real meaning. She has said there will be no second referendum and no re-entry in to the EU via the back door. But she, like the Leave campaign of which she was not a member, has pointedly not said with any precision what she thinks Brexit means Reuters The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address General election This is very much one to keep off the to do list. She said last week there would be no general election at this time of great instability. But there have already been calls for one from opposition parties. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2010 makes it far more difficult to call a snap general election, a difficulty she will be in no rush to overcome. In the event of a victory for Leadsom, who was not popular with her own parliamentary colleagues, an election might have been required, but May has the overwhelming backing of the parliamentary party Getty The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address HS2 Macbeth has been quoted far too much in recent weeks, but it will be up to May to decide whether, with regard to the new high speed train link between London, Birmingham, the East Midlands and the north, returning were as tedious as go oer. Billions have already been spent. But the 55bn it will cost, at a bare minimum, must now be considered against the grim reality of significantly diminished public finances in the short to medium term at least. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2033, by which point it is not completely unreasonable to imagine a massive, driverless car-led transport revolution having rendered it redundant EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Heathrow expansion Or indeed Gatwick expansion. Or Boris Island, though that option is seems as finished as the man himself. The decision on where to expand aviation capacity in the south east has been delayed to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. A final decision was due in autumn. Whatever is decided, there will be vast opprobrium PA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Trident renewal David Cameron indicated two days ago that there will be a Commons vote on renewing Britains nuclear deterrent on July 18th, by which point we now know, Ms May will be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is, to put it mildly, divided on the issue. This will be an early opportunity to maximise their embarrassment, and return to Tory business as usual EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Scottish Independence Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are in no doubt that the Brexit vote provides the opportunity for a second independence referendum, in which they can emerge victorious. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has the authority to call a second referendum, but Ms May and the British Parliament are by no means automatically compelled to accept the result. She could argue it was settled in 2014 AFP/Getty

In a statement to the Politics Home website, Mr McGinn added: I was then informed by colleagues in the Whips Office of something that I have not made public until now, frankly because I find it shocking and embarrassing, and almost unbelievable.

It transpired that Jeremy, in deliberations about how to respond to my interview, had said that he intended to ring my father to discuss it with him and ask him to speak to me about it. The Leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his Dad.

Jeremy does not know my father so I can only presume that because of the much-publicised fact that my father was a Sinn Fein councillor, Jeremy felt that they would share a political affinity and was proposing to use that to ask my father to apply pressure on me. Thankfully, others dissuaded Jeremy from taking this course of action. The call was not made, and it would not have been well received.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn denied the story. He said: This is untrue. Jeremy did not make any threat to call Conors dad, nor did he call Conors dad.

Pat McGinn was a Sinn Fein councillor for 13 years in a district straddling county Down and county Armagh, on the border with the republic of Ireland. Conor McGinn once described his father, in an interview with Huffington Post, as much more left wing than I am. Jeremy Corbyn retained links with the leaders Sinn Fein for many years when they were shunned by other Westminster politicians because of the partys historic link with the IRA.

Mr McGinn said he felt driven to speak out after watching Jeremy Corbyn give an interview on BBCs Newsnight programme. He said: I could no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of him talking about a kinder, gentler politics when I knew for a fact that he had proposed using my family against me in an attempt to bully me into submission because he didn't like something I said.

Mr Corbyn told Sky News that he was very surprised and very disappointed that Labour MPs should accuse him of bullying.

He said: I don't do any abuse, I don't do any bullying and I don't allow it to be done.

I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues. I regret the language that has been used by all of them.

Politics has to be about bringing people in. We've done that spectacularly. We are now the largest we've ever had. That's good, that means more and more people being involved in politics, that's good, it is not a threat.

The latest row blew up at a time when Angela Eagle had decided to stop holding walk-in surgeries in her Wallasey constituency after seeking advice from the police. She attracted hostility locally when she threatened to challenge Mr Corbyn for the leadership, before agreeing to stand aside and support Owen Smith.

Launching his leadership campaign this week, Mr Corbyn said that Labour MPs would need to be reselected by constituency parties before they could stand again as Labour candidates in the 2020 election. But his office denied that this indicated an intention to change the rules to remove those suspected of disloyalty.

A spokesman said: Jeremy was referring to the fact that every sitting MP goes through a selection process. It is up to members whether they trigger a contest. With the oncoming boundary changes, which will reduce the number of constituencies, some of those selections will inevitably be contested as there will be more than one sitting MP.
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Ministers have quietly issued reams of corrections to previous ministerial statements in which they claimed that Saudi Arabia is not targeting civilians or committing war crimes

The autocratic petro-state is currently engaged in a bombing campaign in Yemen where it has blown up hospitals, schools, and weddings as part of its intervention against Houthi rebels.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UNs high commissioner for human rights, has said that carnage caused by certain Saudi coalition airstrikes against civilian targets appear to be war crimes.

Britain has been a staunch defender of the dictatorships assault, with UK arms companies supplying billions in weapons and ministers staking their reputation on the conduct of the Saudi Arabian armed forces.

However as MPs went back to their constituencies for recess on Thursday the Foreign Office admitted six ministerial statements from the past year did not fully reflect the real situation.

In many cases ministers had denied war crimes were being committed  statements the FCO now believes went too far. Instead, ministers were meant to only say that they had not actively confirmed that war crimes were being committed.

In February then Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had said we have assessed that there has not been a breach of international humanitarian law by the coalition, the Foreign Office noted.

It added: However, these should have stated  we have not assessed that there has been a breach of IHL by the coalition.

 Thousands of people share cartoon showing how ridiculous Saudi laws are for women

On another occasion, the FCO noted, Mr Hammond, who is now the Chancellor, had said:

The MOD assessment is that the Saudi-led coalition is not targeting civilians; that Saudi processes and procedures have been put in place to ensure respect for the principles of international humanitarian law; and that the Saudis both have been and continue to be genuinely committed to compliance with international humanitarian law.

The correction continued: This should have said, The MOD has not assessed that the Saudi-led coalition is targeting civilians. We have assessed that Saudi processes and procedures have been put in place to ensure respect for the principles of international humanitarian law; and that the Saudis both have been and continue to be genuinely committed to compliance with international humanitarian law.

Phillip Hammond walks into Downing Street after being promoted to Chancellor (Reuters)

The UK has repeatedly refused calls from the European Parliament and House of Commons international development committee to stop selling weapons to the autocratic monarchy.

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty UKs Arms Programme Director, said:

This is jaw-dropping stuff. The government has admitted grossly misleading parliament no fewer than six times on issues as serious as the deaths of civilians in Yemen.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

The government has spent most of this year telling us that assessments had been conducted and it was confident that no breach of international law had occurred - when its now apparent no specific assessment of Saudi operations had been done whatsoever.

It appears that what the UK government is admitting is to only having reviewed general Saudi procedures rather than investigating the many actual reports of unlawful attacks.

Its staggering that such a shameful admission is made at the eleventh hour on the last day of parliament. Its not even doublespeak, its just plain wrong.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade, which has led calls for a boycott, said: This is a stunning piece of back-peddling, and the timing feels very cynical.

The corrections reveal that Philip Hammond's original statements were either totally wrong or outright distortions.

UK arms have been central to the devastation inflicted on Yemen and it's time for the government to come clean about its role.

Official figures reported by The Independent in January this year show sales of British bombs and missiles to the country increased 100 times in the three-month period since the start of the attacks on Yemen. The sales jumped from 9m in the previous three months to 1bn.

Mr Cameron, who stepped down as PM this week following the election of Theresa May to leader of the Conservative party, said in January that Britains relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security.

Last week The Independent reported that the UK government had refused to rule out re-electing Saudi Arabia to a key UN human rights council.
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It is pie in the sky for Theresa May to expect a free trade deal with Europe while also restricting immigration, a French political adviser has warned.

Pascal Lamy, former director general of the World Trade Organisation, said it is absolutely obvious the UK will not have the same easy access to the EU single market outside the EU.

The former chief of staff to Jacques Delors, who spearheaded the EUs move towards deeper political and monetary union, said the notion of Britain having access to the single market in the same way as Norway without free movement of labour and an annual payment to the EU fund was "pie in the sky", the Evening Standard reports.

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

He also suggested there will be tariffs on British goods coming into Europe" following Brexit, while Europe would still have free access to the British market.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, where he emphasised that triggering Article 50 as soon as possible would be in Europes best interest, saying "uncertainty is the greatest danger.

Mr Hollande also told Ms May that there can be no access to the EU single market without allowing free movement of people.

At the first meeting between the two leaders, Mr Hollande could not have been more unambiguous on the single subject that will define the complex negotiations to take place between the UK and the EU over the coming years.

[Free movement] is the most crucial point, he said.

The EU's "four freedoms", on movement of goods, capital, services and people were agreed in 1993. Access to the single market is dependent on accepting all four. Non-EU countries with access to the single market, such as Norway, have to abide by them too.

 Hollande Says UK 'Must Accept EU Conditions' for Market Access

To date, no non-EU member nation has been able to secure a trade agreement with access to the single market that includes financial services.

Mr Lamy, who called Britains Brexit vote a bad day for the European dream, previously emphasised this point while speaking to BBCs Newsnight. He said: You dont get free access free, you get free access for a price.

We have a European economic space with countries like Norway like Switzerland, but this is not free of charge. They pay, and thats something that you cannot hide to the British public."

On Wednesday, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Ms May that Britain should "take your time" over deciding when to invoke Article 50 and formally begin the two year process of leaving European Union.
Spanish real estate company Baraka is planning to buy Madrids Edificio Espana from Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlins Dalian Wanda Group for 272 million.

Wang paid $265 million for the 1950s landmark site in 2014.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on July 12, which is valid until October 15. The Board wishes to emphasize that the MOU may or may not lead to any formal agreement, said the Chinese company in a statement.

Once Spains tallest building, the 117-meter-high tower block built in 1953 sits at the western end of the capital's Gran Via thoroughfare and dominates Madrids Plaza de Espana, but has been vacant since 2005.

Wang has warned Chinese enterprises looking to enter Spain that planning permission should be obtained in advance for every investment

Spains Banco Santander bought Edificio Espana in 2005 for 389 million. In 2007 it presented a project to redesign the interior, but this came to nothing, and it sold the building to Dalian Wanda.

Dalian Wanda was planning to reconvert the 25-story building into a luxury hotel and shopping complex. The deal was Wangs first real estate project in Spain, which he said was aimed at strengthening his groups brand and targeting mainland Chinese tourists.

But Madrid City Hall refused permission to carry out extensive reform work on the listed building. Wanda said on China Central Television earlier this year that he was still negotiating with Madrid City Hall.

If it fails, we would sell the building and never invest in Spain again, Wang said during the interview. He added that it was a lesson for Wanda and other Chinese enterprises aspiring to enter overseas markets, and that planning permission should be obtained for every investment in advance.

Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here

Baraka Global Invest is based in Murcia, and its owner, Trinitario Casanova, has taken advantage of the collapse in real estate prices since 2008 to buy and sell key properties, among them 114,000 square meters of land in the Madrid suburb of Valdebebas, a former bank on the capitals central Gran Via thoroughfare, and the former headquarters of French carmaker Peugeot.

Casanova has been investigated by the Spanish Tax Agency for alleged fraud to avoid paying 6 million in VAT, and in 2008 he was sentenced to a year in jail over a share scandal and was banned from the financial markets for 12 months.

English version by Nick Lyne.
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The largest advocacy group for Muslims in the US is planning to continue handing out its so-called Islamophobin pills at the Democratic convention next week.

After hosting many traditional press conferences, perhaps humour could be a winning strategy at a time when the nation's attention is focused on politics.

The pill promises to treat blind intolerance, unthinking bigotry, irrational fear of Muslims, (and) US presidential election year scapegoating.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) handed out thousands of packs of the pills - sugar-free chewing gum - to attendees and delegates at the Republican convention this week in Cleveland, Ohio, and the organisation plans to continue the campaign in Philadelphia.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told The Independent that the campaign was a great success and the commercial had gained hundreds of thousnands of views on YouTube.

CAIR executive director Nihad Awad urged Republicans instead to court Muslims voters, saying they could be crucial in swing states that decide presidential elections.

Too often over the course of this campaign, Republican presidential candidates have pandered to these inner-core Islamophobic leaders and their supporters with proposals like patrolling so-called Muslim neighbourhoods, surveilling and shutting down mosques, and openly questioning whether a Muslim can serve as president, Mr Awad said, as reported by Reuters.

Mr Awad said the concept first originated in Sweden, which created a similar product.

CAIR sells the a packet of 12 pills for $1.99 on Amazon.com.

The package reads: Take two and call a Muslim in the morning."

But it may not be for all users.

The warning reads: Those who already believe in religious diversity, tolerance and mutual understanding should not use this product."

Stop taking this product if you begin to develop warm feelings toward Muslims, immigrants or refugees.
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Residents of a small farming community in eastern Colorado have been warned to avoid drinking the town's water after THC, the psychoactive agent in cannabis, was found in one of its feeder wells, authorities said on Thursday.

A public works employee in Hugo, a town of about 800 people 90 miles southeast of Denver, detected the chemical and health officials believe it is "marijuana THC-related," the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook posting.

"At this time, investigators are assessing the situation with state and federal authorities," the sheriff's office said. "Bathroom usage is still safe, but until more information is known to us, out of an abundance of caution, avoid drinking Town of Hugo water."

Susan Kelly, the county's public health director, said there were no reports of anyone falling ill or otherwise being affected by the tainted water.

Colorado allows both medical and recreational marijuana use. But it was unclear how THC got into the water, as there are no legal marijuana cultivation sites or dispensaries in the area, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue, which regulates the state's cannabis industry.

Captain Michael Yowell of the sheriff's office said there was evidence that the well was tampered with, and that the FBI and Colorado Bureau of Investigation have joined the probe.

The initial screening was done with a "field testing kit," Yowell told reporters, and the state health department would conduct more through testing. The level of contamination detected was not specified.

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The Lincoln County health department said in an alert that residents should avoid drinking, cooking or bathing with the town's water for at least 48 hours.

"The contaminated well has been identified and shut down and the lines are being flushed," the alert said. "Fresh water will be coming into town for the public as soon as possible."

Peter Perrone, a chemist and owner of the state-licensed cannabis testing facility, Gobi Analytical in suburban Denver, said he was skeptical of the reports.

 Weed-Growing 'Nuns' Hope to Heal the World with Cannabis

"It's virtually impossible to find THC in water in concentrated levels because cannabinoids are not water soluble," Perrone told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Yowell said he understands that some are questioning how THC could be found in the water, but that does not explain why the tests came up positive for the chemical.

"I wouldn't be doing my job for the community if we just wrote this off," he said.

Reuters
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Police in Miami have defended the officer who shot an unarmed behavioural therapist, saying he missed his actual target  a man with learning difficulties.

Charles Kinsey, who was looking after an autistic patient, was filmed lying on the floor with his hands in the air moments before he was shot and injured in the leg by an unidentified police officer.

John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association, said video footage of the incident was being portrayed poorly.

Recommended Read more Unarmed care worker shot by US police while calming autistic patient

This wasn't a mistake in the sense that the officer shot the wrong guy or he thought that Kinsey was the bad guy, Mr Rivera told CNN.

The movement of the white individual [the autistic patient Mr Kinsey was looking after] made it look like he was going to discharge a firearm into Mr Kinsey and the officer discharged trying to strike and stop the white man and unfortunately, he missed the white male and shot Mr Kinsey by accident.

Campaigners have criticised the shooting, saying Mr Kinsey was unarmed and cooperating with police, and pointing out it appeared obvious from the video footage that the patient did not have a gun.

Mr Kinsey did everything right, let's be real clear about that, Mr Rivera said. He added the officer who shot him wishes nothing but the best for Mr Kinsey and the officer is praying for his speedy recovery as are we.

Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Show all 19 1 /19 Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors demand justice for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors lie in an intersection during a demonstration for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors lie in an intersection during a demonstration for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protestors demand justice for Philando Castile on July 7, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters march throughout New York City. Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters march throughout New York City. Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters are arrested by NYPD as they call for justice throughout New York City. Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Protesters are arrested by NYPD as they call for justice throughout New York City. AFP/Getty Images Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Images Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police AFP/Getty Images Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Getty Protests and outrage across the US following killings by police Getty

The officer, identified only as a 30-year-old Hispanic male with four years police experience, has been placed on leave since the shooting. He released a statement about the incident, but stopped short of an apology. He said: I took this job to save lives and help people.

I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that and hate to hear others paint me as something Im not.

At a news conference on Thursday, North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene said the investigation had been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the local state attorney. He called it a very sensitive matter and promised a transparent investigation.

Despite not responding to questions from the media about the incident, he assured journalists: We will get all the answers.

The shooting comes amid a period of extreme tension over shootings by police and shootings of police.

On Sunday, three police officers were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Earlier in July, five officers were killed in Dallas. Both incidents are being treated by investigators as targeted ambushes.

Prior to those attacks, a black man, Alton Sterling, 37, was fatally shot during a scuffle with two white officers at a convenience store.

In Minnesota, Philando Castile, 32, who was also black, was shot to death during a traffic stop. Cellphone videos captured Mr Sterling's killing and the aftermath of Mr Castile's shooting, prompting nationwide protests over the treatment of African-Americans by police.
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Three-quarters of Americans felt "positive" about Donald Trump's nomination acceptance speech, according to a snap poll.

The survey by CNN/ORC, carried out just after Mr Trump accepted the Republican party's nomination for US president, found 57 per cent of people were "very positive" and 18 per cent were "somewhat positive" about his remarks, which focussed on his central message of keeping people safe from perceived threats, such as immigration from South America, Islamist terrorism and violent crime.

The remaining quarter said they thought his speech had a "negative effect".

Accepting his party's nomination in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Mr Trump said he was "the voice" of the American people, and presented himself as "the law and order candidate" at a "moment of crisis for [the] nation".

Highlighting attacks on police and the threat of terrorism, he said "any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country".

Mr Trump launched a fierce attack on Hillary Clinton, describing her as a puppet being propped up by "big business, elite media and major donors".

"They know she will keep our rigged system in place," he said.

trump Show all 4 1 /4 trump trump Reuters trump Reuters trump Reuters trump Reuters

The Republican candidate's speech was the longest nomination acceptance speech since 1988, stretching to some 75 minutes, according to CNN.

While on stage the billionaire was greeted by cheers and chants of his name, and when he finished speaking a cloud of red, white and blue balloons were released into the crowd.

However, in response, Ms Clinton tweeted: We can do better than this.

And Bernie Sanders, her one-time Democratic rival, also wrote in a tweet: Trump: 'I alone can fix this.' Is this guy running for president or dictator?"

But many Americans showed their support for Mr Trump on Twitter, using the #MakeAmericaGreatAgain hashtag to congratulate him and praise him on his speech.

Barack Obama's acceptance speech in 2008 got a 58 per cent positive review, according to a poll by Gallup, with 35 per cent saying it was "excellent" and 23 per cent "good".

The US presidential election will take place in November.
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The former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan has announced he is running for congress.

David Duke, who served one term as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, said in a video that he believes in equal rights for all, and respect for all Americans.

Mr Duke, who founded a KKK chapter in the 1970s, added: However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and the heritage of European Americans.

Mr Duke seeks to take the seat of the outgoing Republican senator David Vitter. He will join more than a dozen other candidates who have entered the race to election.

In the video he also vowed to stop the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America."

"We cannot have free trade without fair trade."

And he said he was overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that [he's] championed for years.

He ran unsuccessfully for senate in 1990 and for the position of Louisiana governor in 1991. He lost to democrat and ex-convict Edwin Edwards, who employed the famous slogan: Vote for the crook, its important," as reported by NBC news.

His announcement comes the same month that Louisiana is dealing with heightened racial tensions following the police killing black man Alton Sterling, and then police officers being shot a week later in Baton Rouge.

The "white supremacist" initially indicated he wanted to run against Republican representative Steve Scalise, who described himself as David Duke without the baggage.

But Mr Duke seems to have given up this quest and run against Mr Vitter instead.

Mr Duke was convicted of withholding money from his supporters and evading taxes. He pleaded guilty in 2002 and is a convicted felon. He spent one year in prison and then denied he had done anything wrong.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said it would not support his candidacy.

Mr Duke could not be immediately reached for comment.

Louisiana voters will be able to choose from several Republican Senate candidates who will have a great impact on the Bayou State and the future of our country. David Duke is not one of them, said the NRSC in a statement.

He will not have the support of the NRSC under any circumstance.

Mr Duke responded on a video, uploaded to Twitter, that he thanked the RNSC for rejecting him, but predicted he would win by a landslide with Louisiana voters, both Democrats and Republicans.
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The mother of the man who shot dead three police officers in Baton Rouge said her son was distressed by police unlawfully shooting black men, and he would pretty much lose it whenever he saw another shooting in the news.

Corine Woodley, the mother of shooter Gavin Long, said in her first interview that she believed he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after he served in the Iraq war.

She showed PBS host Travis Smiley a 2003 letter from the Department of Veteran Affairs which denied her sons request for PTSD treatment.

She said the police shootings were definitely what pushed her son to carry out the killings.

Recommended Read more Baton Rouge suspect called for black people to fight back

Each time there was an unlawful police shooting against a person of colour, Gavin would pretty much just lose it, Ms Woodley said.

He would just lose it. He would have to leave the room[] He was like: 'I dont know if I can handle another one of these.'"

She said her son would get upset and do intense research each time the police killed a black person.

On Sunday 17 July, he armed himself with two rifles, a pistol and a ski mask and he jumped out at police officers near a gas station. He shot three dead and wounded three more.

Shooter Gavin Long speaking as his online persona Cosmo Setepenra on social media (AP/YouTube)

I cant get over the fact that he harmed innocent police officers. On the other hand, Gavin is my son, I love him. Im not making excuses. Im very sorry to the families that are having to go through what Im going through, she added.

Long, 29, from Kansas City in Missouri, was a five-year veteran of the Marine Corps.

He was honorably discharged after serving one term in Iraq. His mother said he never saw combat but there was shooting all around.

Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Show all 21 1 /21 Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Baton Rouge Police officers patrol Airline Hwy Getty Images Police officers shot in Baton Rouge A law enforcement helicopter is seen near the scene where police officers were shot in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge A Baton Rouge Police officers patrol pours water on his head on Airline Hwy Getty Images Police officers shot in Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge Police officers patrol Airline Hwy Getty Images Police officers shot in Baton Rouge President Obama speaks at a press conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington. Obama remarked on the shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in which three officers were killed and three more wounded by armed suspects Getty Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off Airline Highway near the scene of a fatal shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Baton Rouge Police officers patrol Airline Hwy Getty Images Police officers shot in Baton Rouge A police helicopter flies near the scene of a fatal shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge Police officers patrol Airline Hwy Getty Images Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off Airline Highway near the scene of a fatal shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge A law enforcement helicopter is seen near the scene where police officers were shot in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Law enforcement vehicles block access to Airline Highway REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge A police helicopter flies near the scene of a fatal shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off a road near the site of a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off a road near the site of a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers arrive near the site of a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Police officers block off a road after a shooting of police in Baton Rouge REUTERS Police officers shot in Baton Rouge Authorities talk to the driver of a car near an area where several officers were shot while on duty less than a mile from police headquarters AP

His mother said that Long used to rent a car and drive to locations where other black men had been killed by police.

He told her: Somebody has to do something.

Long did not blame Black Lives Matter, but he said the protest was not enough to solve the problem of police officers killing black people.

In one of his two personal diaries that his mother brought to the television interview, one sentence read: If you are not going to let me live, then you are going to have to kill me.

His mother, who works as a nurse, said Long believed the CIA was following him, even when he spent several years in Africa after he left the military.

A man in Ohio whose YouTube videos Long had commented on and who said he did not know Long personally received a letter from him hours before the killings. The letter did not mention the attack.

Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Show all 10 1 /10 Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Gerald Herbert/AP Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Bryn Stole/Twitter Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Bryn Stole/Twitter Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Bryn Stole/Twitter Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Brittany Weiss/Twitter Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Brittany Weiss/Twitter Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Bryn Stole/Twitter Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Alton Sterling/Facebook Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Google Maps Protests after Baton Rouge police fatally shoot Alton Sterling Family Handout

The letter - which has not been verified - read: I know I will be vilified by the media & police.

"I see my actions as a necessary evil that I do not wish to partake in, nor do I enjoy partaking in, but must partake in, in order to create substantial change within America's police force, and judicial system.
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Boris Johnson has said the deadly shooting at a shopping centre in southern Germany proves that terrorism is a global sickness.

Speaking for the first time as UK foreign secretary after what is likely to be named a terrorist attack, Mr Johnson said he had reaffirmed the UKs intention to step up in the fight against extremists.

[UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon] agrees that tackling radicalization and extremism is at the forefront of UN activity, he told the crowd at the United Nations building in Manhattan.

Recommended Read more At least nine dead following shooting at Munich shopping centre

Referring to the UKs role, he said: Clearly, we need to step that up.

Although Mr Johnson has been heavily criticized, even mocked, by voters and politicians for his new position in the UK cabinet, his speech on Friday was his first serious test as foreign secretary.

It seems very likely [Munich is] another terrorist incident and it proves once again that we have a global phenomenon and a global sickness that we have to tackle, he said.

His remarks come the same day that the police are searching for three gunmen who they claim could be responsible for opening fire outside the Olympia shopping centre in the north-west of Munich. The death toll has risen to nine and at least 10 more people are wounded.

Police officers secure the area around the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (GETTY)

Mr Johnson added that the counter-terrorism coalition in the US, which he attended along with 40 other foreign ministers this week in Washington DC, needs to tackle the issue globally and deal with both the symptoms and the process of radicalization.

Pressed on the specifics as to how that would be achieved, he replied that the question was profoundly important but offered little concrete detail.

We have to ask ourselves, what is going on? How is the switch being thrown in the minds of these people? he replied.

I am hearted to hear Mr Ban Ki-moon wants to focus on that work.

He added that terrorism is also prevalent in Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia - all countries, he said, where the UK is playing an important role in diplomacy and peace-keeping.

Mr Ban Ki-moon says the UK should play an even greater role through the UN, said Mr Johnson.

He referred to that several times and I was glad to reaffirm our commitment to do that."
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In a victory for womens rights campaigners, the regressive tampon tax has been repealed in New York.

Tampons, sanitary napkins and panty liners will, from October, be exempt from a four per cent state sales tax and local taxes, which generally amount to five per cent. An estimated $10 million will be saved by women annually in the state.

New York now joins Canada, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Pennsylvania in ending the tax on tampons and other sanitary items.

The move is also likely to give a further boost to campaigners in the UK against the tax, who thought they had won victory in March but are still waiting for changes to come into effect.

"We are taking a monumental step forward in reforming our out-of-touch tax laws and we are sending a strong message to New York's women that they are being heard," said Republican Senator Sue Serino, from Dutchess County in the southeast of the state. "This day is long overdue."

This sentiment was echoed by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who said the sales tax was first imposed decades ago at a time when women had little political power.

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. 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Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

"The tampon tax is regressive," Ms Rosenthal said. "Lifting it will spare all women the extra monthly burden of paying taxes on products that are already unaffordable to many."

New York state governor, Andrew Cuomo, signed the measure into law on Thursday, calling it "a matter of social and economic justice."

Products such as condoms and bandages are already exempt from sales tax, which campaigners said was unfair.

"Sanitary napkins and tampons are simply not a luxury item; they're an everyday need," said Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women, New York City. "It's definitely a step in the right direction. Now what we need to do is look at access to these products."

Ms Ossorio said that while the repeal is a victory, it's symbolic of larger social inequalities that women face every day. When it comes to feminine hygiene products, she said officials around the US should follow the lead of New York City, which recently enacted a new law requiring free tampons at public schools, homeless shelters and jails.
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A peace activist brought Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention to a halt as she urged him to "build bridges, not walls".

Medea Benjamin, founder of women-led peace group Code Pink, forced Mr Trump to stop speaking after making her way into one of the upper stands to protest against his "xenophobia and racism".

Video footage showed Ms Benjamin standing on a platform chanting "Build bridges, not walls" and holding up a banner with the same message.

She was quickly pulled down by two men, but continued to shout the message as she struggled with a police officer.

Mr Trump remained silent on stage during the ordeal, watching the scuffle and sighing while the crowds chanted back: "USA, USA".

After about a minute the police officer escorted Ms Benjamin away.

Mr Trump resumed speaking by saying: "How great are our police!"

Separate footage showed the activist being escorted off the premises by police after the incident, as she called out "Medea Benjamin, Code Pink" and "Donald Trump is a hater".

When a police officer asked her why she did it, she said: "Because Donald Trump is dangerous for this country."

In a statement released after the incident, Ms Benjamin said: I rose to disrupt Trumps victory speech to make sure that no one, whether in the arena or watching in their living room, could overlook the horrifying racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and misogyny that is at the root of Donald Trumps ideology.

"We want to build bridges not walls, and we want peace and love, not hate and war."

People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Show all 8 1 /8 People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Miley Cyrus 'God he thinks he is the f***ing chosen one or some shit!  Honestly f*** this sh*t I am moving if this is my president! I dont say things I dont mean!' Jemal Countess/Getty Images People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Whoopi Goldberg 'I dont think thats America. I dont want it to be America. Maybe its time for me to move you know' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Samuel L. Jackson 'If that mother**er becomes president, Im moving my black ass to South Africa' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Raven Symone 'My confession for this election is, if any Republican gets nominated, Im gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad? I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Cher 'If he were to be elected, I'm moving to Jupiter' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Neve Campbell 'Im terrified. Its really scary. My biggest fear is that Trump will triumph. I cannot believe that he is still in the game ... [I'll] move back to Canada' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Jon Stewart 'I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planets gone bonkers' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Randy Blythe 'He could just be a clown. If he is the president, though, I am leaving America 'till he's gone'

This is not the first time Code Pink has interrupted Mr Trump.

They have already staged several protests during the Republic National Convention and in June the group demonstrated as Mr Trump addressed an evangelical Christian group.

Ms Medea has also heckled Barack Obama and former president George W Bush, as well as disrupting both the Republican and Democratic national conventions to protest about the Iraq War.

Code Pink was in Cleveland to call for reduced military spending, immigration policies that welcome refugees, an end to drone warfare, and severed ties with repressive regimes around the world.
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A US court has ruled it is legal to film up a woman's skirt without consent due to a "gap" in the law surrounding invasion of privacy.

Brandon Lee Gary was prosecuted in 2013 on a single count of "unlawful eavesdropping and surveillance" after he was witnessed several times on CCTV footage taking video recordings with a mobile phone beneath the skirt of a customer while she was shopping.

Gary, who was employed by the supermarket when the filming occurred, admitted to the charge at a trial in Houston County Superior court where he was found guilty.

A spilt ruling at Georgia's Court of Appeal on 15 July reversed the invasion of privacy conviction against a Gary, after he appealed on the basis that he did not violate state law as it is written, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Gary was prosecuted under Georgia's Invasion of Privacy Act, making it illegal to observe, photograph or film the activities of another person without consent when they occur "in any private place and out of public view".

The appeal, in which Gary asked for a new trial, argued that he had not broken the law as he had filmed the woman in a public place.

The court ruled in his favour despite a lower court ruling that Gary's conduct was patently offensive and that a woman walking and shopping in a public place has a reasonable expectation of privacy on the area of her body concealed by her clothing".

In Court of Appeal documents published by US news site Patch, Judge Elizabeth Branch writes: The question before this court, however is not whether the defendants conduct was offensive; it is not whether a person walking in a public place has a reasonable expectation of privacy as to certain areas of her body; and it is not whether the victims privacy was violated.

"Rather, the only issue presented by this appeal is whether the defendant s conduct constitutes a criminal invasion of privacy

"[I]t is regrettable that no law currently exists which criminalizes Garys reprehensible conduct," she writes.

"Unfortunately, there is a gap in Georgias criminal statutory scheme, in that our law does not reach all of the disturbing conduct that has been made possible by ever-advancing technology."

The countries with anti-women laws Show all 5 1 /5 The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws

The ruling goes on to state that responsibility lies with state lawmakers to correct any flaws in the law.

Legal experts and Georgia officials have since condemned the ruling.

State Senator Vincent Fort, told CBS he intends to submit legislation to close the loophole when the Georgia legislature court convenes next year.

Tanya Washington, a professor of law at Georgia State University, lambasted the ruling saying: Youve given people license to continue this kind of behaviour until the next legislative season, which is not till next year.

In a statement reported by WRDW, State Senator Harold Jones said: "The Court of Appeals in my opinion erred. I understand their rationale but the key to me is although this was a public place - the young lady has an expectation of privacy in the area he filmed."
Former NATO chief Javier Solana signed the manifesto. Efe

A group of Spain's leading artists and intellectuals, along with prominent ex-political leaders, have signed an open letter calling on the country's parties to do everything in their power to avoid a third national election in Spain within a year.

The 47 signatories, whose political affinities range from the Socialist Party (PSOE) to the conservative Popular Party (PP) as well the upstart Ciudadanos, include six ex-ministers under Socialist governments and one ex-minister under the PP.

Writer Fernando Savater and former NATO secretary general Javier Solana are also on the list of individuals who are saying that the priority for Spain right now is getting a new government up and running.

They will have to decide whether, through their abstention, they make Mariano Rajoy the prime minister

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias

The time has come to seek agreements and solutions, instead of remaining obsessed with finding culprits to assign unassignable blame to, reads the letter, which is also signed by historian Santos Julia and film director Manuel Gutierrez Aragon.

The document further asks parties to avoid the absurd situation of forcing voters to entrust the solution to the problem to a new election.

All leaders and parties should know that they have already competed against each other at the polls on two occasions, and that they are under the obligation to make all efforts and sacrifices necessary, including the most personal ones, to end this untenable, government-less situation, ends the letter.

No legislative activity

Spain has been under a caretaker government since the original election of December 20, which yielded a hung parliament. Attempts at cross-party negotiations were mostly fruitless, and the only candidate who stepped up for the prime ministers job, the Socialist Pedro Sanchez, was voted down at an investiture vote in Congress. The acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy of the PP, declined to bid for the post as he knew that he lacked congressional support.

Anyone in exchange for a referendum Oriol Junqueras, the Catalan deputy premier and member of the separatist Catalan Republican Left (ERC), said on Thursday that he is willing to support any candidate in his investiture bid as long as, in exchange, Catalonia gets a Scottish-style referendum on independence.

This pushed the country into a fresh election which was held on June 26. The PP conservatives won the most seats again, but fell short of a parliamentary majority once more.

With the countrys legislative activity at a standstill for over half a year, and Brussels pressuring Madrid to meet its deficit reduction commitments, King Felipe VI has given Rajoy one week to produce an agreement that will enable him to form a government.

But so far, leaders seem to have done little to bridge the political divides. The Socialist Party and the anti-austerity Podemos, who once seemed on the verge of forming an alternative leftist coalition that would have made Sanchez the prime minister, are now increasingly distanced from one another.

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Neither party has made the slightest effort to reach out to the other following the June 26 election. Instead, both party leaders are blaming one another for the fact that the PP will very likely hold on to power in La Moncloa if he manages support from Ciudadanos and a few regional parties, and gets the rest to at least abstain from voting against him at the investiture vote that is due to be held in the coming weeks.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said on Tuesday that he thinks the Socialists will help Rajoy into office by abstaining at the run-off of that vote. The decision is up to them. They will have to decide whether, through their abstention, they make Mariano Rajoy the prime minister, he said earlier this week.

In reply, Socialist Senate spokesman Oscar Lopez returned the ball to Iglesias court, stating that all thats left for Pablo Iglesias to do, in view of his behavior these last six months, is to finish the job: to abstain and help Rajoy into government.

The left is coming

Meanwhile, the PP is seeking to convince the reform party Ciudadanos, which had previously reached a deal with the PSOE following the first elections, to support Rajoy in order to avoid a leftist government that, it claims, would be destabilizing for Spain.

But Ciudadanos, which began life as a Catalan non-nationalist party and defends the unity of Spain, is wary of the PPs apparent deals with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the Catalan Convergencia.

English version by Susana Urra.
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An investigation has been launched in Texas after the emergence of video that shows police officers violently arresting a school teacher, slamming her repeatedly to the ground and then telling her that black people have violent tendencies.

The footage shows a large, white police officer pulling the young black woman from her car, throwing her to the floor and pulling her arms behind her back to hand-cuff her.

Another officer who arrives at the scene tells the woman, 26-year-old Breaion King: Ninety-nine percent of the time  it is the black community that is being violent. Thats why a lot of white people are afraid. And I dont blame them.

Ms King wept as she recalled the incident in June 2015 (Austin Police Department)

The video shows the white officer, Bryan Richter, explaining the arrest to his colleagues and claiming he had been forced to throw her to the ground because she had violently resisted arrest  despite the video showing otherwise. The video recording also captures Ms King being driven to the police station and questioning the officers about their attitudes.

I believe that caucasian people have more rights than black people, she tells the officer.

The release this week of the video, that captured the incident, which took place in June 2015 in Austin, has resulted in an apology from the police chief in the city. An investigation into the incident, first reported by the Austin American-Statesman, has also been initiated.

My heart was sickened and saddened when I first learned of this incident, said Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo.

For those that think life is perfect for people of colour, I want you to listen to that conversation and tell me we dont have social issues in this nation. Issues of bias. Issues of racism. Issues of people being looked at different because of their colour.

The footage captures Ms King talking to the officers and asking them whether they believe racism exists. One officer, Patrick Spradlin, who was also white, asked Ms King: Why are so many people afraid of black people?

White police officers told Ms King black people had 'violent tendencies' (Austin Police Department)

She replied: Thats what I want to figure out because Im not a bad black person.

Mr Spradlin added: I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way: violent tendencies.

Prosecutors cleared Ms King, an elementary teacher, of a resisting arrest charge after viewing the video of the arrest. She said she had hired lawyers as she considered whether or not to bring a lawsuit against the police department.

Ive become fearful to live my life, she told the local newspaper. I would rather stay home. Ive become afraid of the people who are supposed to protect me and take care of me.

The case comes as officials in Texas are still confronting the fall-out of the case of Sandra Bland, a young black women who was wrestled to the ground last year by state troopers. She was later found dead in a police cell.

Officials said she had committed suicide in the jail. Her family has denied the claim.

Meanwhile, in Austin, many remember the February shooting of David Joseph, a naked, unarmed 17-year-old shot and killed by former Officer Geoffrey Freeman after police said Mr Joseph charged at the officer. No charges were brought against the officer

Ms King was obliged to pay $165 and court costs after she was convicted of driving 50 mph in a 35 mph zone. The fine was later dropped.
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President Barack Obama has accused Donald Trump and the Republicans of peddling fear and falsehoods and said the American people deserved to make important decisions based on fact.

In his first comments about the Republican National Convention, Mr Obama on Friday said he had not had time to watch the events, but had read reports of what was said and claims that were made about crime and immigration, troubled him.

This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesnt really jibe with the experience of most people, he said. I think most people woke up and the birds were singing and the sun was out.

Donald Trump addresses delegates during the final day session of the Republican National Convention (AP)

Standing alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Mr Obama said that on two key issues, the Republicans had not told the truth.

The violent crime rate has been lower during my presidency than at any time in the last three of four decades, he said. The violence rate today is lower than when Ronald Reagan was on office. And it is lower than when I came into office.

On the issue of immigration, a topic on which Mr Trump has built much of his appeal to the US people, Mr Obama said huge resources had been diverted to the borders.

The rate of illegal immigration to the US is lower by two-thirds then when Ronald Reagan was president, he said. We have far fewer people crossing the border than during the 1980s, the 1990s or when George Bush was president. That is a fact.

Mr Obamas attack came as the Republicans wrapped up their convention, an event that was beset with controversy over plagiarism, dissent and disunity, and as the Democrats prepared for theirs in Philadelphia next week.

 Trump's speech interrupted by protestor

One of controversies to make headlines during the convention was a speech delivered by former presidential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, who took to the stage and urged people to vote with their consciences. The Texas senator, who subsequently said that the New York tycoon had insulted his family, pointedly, declined to endorse Mr Trump.

On Friday, Mr Trump said he would not accept Mr Cruzs support, even if it were to be offered.

If he gives it, I will not accept it, Mr Trump said at a news conference in Cleveland. I dont want his endorsement. Just, Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.

Mr Trump also returned to another controversy, a claim which first appeared in the National Enquirer magazine and which the tycoon repeated, that Mr Cruzs father was somehow linked to the assassin of President John F Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr Cruz had scoffed at the suggestion when Mr Trump raised it in the spring.

I don't know his father. I met him once, Mr Trump said on Friday.

I think he's a lovely guy, a lovely guy. All I did was point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer, there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now Ted never denied that it was his father.

Bloomberg News said that Mr Obama's claim that illegal immigration was at the lowest level in decades was difficult to examine because, by definition, the government was unaware of such border crossings.

But apprehensions by the US Border Patrol occur less frequently than in prior administrations. The Department of Homeland Security said that in 2015, it apprehended 406,595 people at the border  substantially fewer than the 876,000 apprehended during President George Bushs last full year in office
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There are many artists who have told Donald Trump to stop playing their music at presidential rallies and events affiliated with his campaign. Trump typically uses white classic rock bands at his rallies so there is still a large pool of bands left for Trump to be turned down by.

Heres a running list of said artists whove publicly requested that the Republican nominee stops using their work.

Adele

Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning."

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones have never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately."

Twisted Sister

When Donald started running for office, he asked me, he called me. He says, 'Can I use the song?' And he's a buddy. And I said, 'Yeah. Go ahead.' But as the months went on, I heard a litany of his beliefs that I'd never discussed with him, Dee Snider told CNN. "I finally called him and I said, 'Man, you've gotta stop using the song. People think I'm endorsing you here. I can't get behind a lot of what you're saying.' And that night. He has not used it since.

Steven Tyler

"Lawyers for Aerosmith wrote a cease and cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign claiming the Republican did not have our client's permission to use Dream On" or any of Tyler's other songs and that it gives the false impression that he is connected with or endorses Mr. Trump's presidential bid.

R.E.M

Personally, I think the Orange Clown will do anything for attention. I hate giving it to him, Mike Mills wrote on Twitter. The R.E.M. statement will be regarding Trump's use of our song. Nothing more than that!



While we do not authorize or condone the use of our music at this political event, and do ask that these candidates cease and desist from doing so, let us remember that there are things of greater importance at stake here. The media and the American voter should focus on the bigger picture, and not allow grandstanding politicians to distract us from the pressing issues of the day and of the current Presidential campaign.

Elton John

I dont really want my music to be involved in anything to do with an American election campaign. Im British. Ive met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, its nothing personal, his political views are his own, mine are very different, Im not a Republican in a million years. Why not ask Ted fucking Nugent? Or one of those fucking country stars? Theyll do it for you.

Luciano Pavarotti

As members of his immediate family, we would like to recall that the values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout the course of his artistic career are entirely incompatible with the world view offered by the candidate Donald Trump."

Queen

"Sony/ATV Music Publishing has never been asked by Mr. Trump, the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization for permission to use We are the Champions by Queen. On behalf of the band, we are frustrated by the repeated unauthorized use of the song after a previous request to desist, which has obviously been ignored by Mr. Trump and his campaign.

Queen does not want its music associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country. Nor does Queen want We are the Champions to be used as an endorsement of Mr. Trump and the political views of the Republican Party. We trust, hope and expect that Mr. Trump and his campaign will respect these wishes moving forward.

George Harrison

"The unauthorized use of #HereComestheSun at the [Republican National Convention in Cleveland is offensive and against the wishes of the George Harrison estate."
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Accepting his partys nomination, Donald Trump offered a dark and dystopian portrait of the country, presenting himself as a law and order leader who will put America First.

Domestic crime, the continuing threat of terror and failed leadership in Washington are combining to threaten the fabric of the land, Mr Trump suggested, insisting that Hillary Clinton, whom he labeled a puppet of corporations and the elite, is to blame for much of it.

In this race for the White House I am the law and order candidate, Mr Trump proclaimed, in a speech that also evoked familiar themes of restricting immigration and walling off Mexico.

Recommended Read more Ivanka and the Trump children emerge as GOP convention stars

This is a moment of crisis for our nation, the one-time reality TV host railed from the stage of the Quicken Loans Arena. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities, Mr Trump added, delivering surely the most important speech of his short political career, with tens of millions watching at home.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored, he said, vowing to win the race for the White House. Among other pledges he made during the night: I am going to make our country rich again.

Donald Trump is 'colour-blind and gender neutral,' his daughter told the crowd in Cleveland ((Getty Images))

As he strode onto the stage after an introduction by his daughter, Ivanka, he was greeted by sustained cheers and rolling chants of his name, his supporters reveling in a moment that even they, and certainly much of the country and world, surely never thought they would see.When he was done the rafters released a cloudburst of red, white and blue balloons.

It was an address laced with some his familiar boasting of his stunning conquest of the Republican Party. But it was designed also to emphasise the perceived qualities that attracted primary voters to him in the first place: his promise to be a strong leader with a disdain for political correctness.

It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation, the New Yorker said in his oratorical style that is more cloddish than soaring. I will present the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

He depicted a country also weakened by misbegotten adventurism abroad, a criticism that could have been leveled as much at George W. Bush of his own party as at President Barack Obama.

Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the West. After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. He went on: This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.

Choruses of Lock her up!, which erupted on every night of the convention, made their return when Mr Trump recalled how President Obama had chosen to put Ms Clinton in charge of foreign affairs. Rather than acknowledging them, he restricted himself to: Lets defeat her in November.

His America First twist on foreign policy wont calm allies unnerved by remarks made in an interview this week that under his leadership the US wouldnt necessarily help other members of Nato if they were invaded by Russia if they werent pulling their financial weight in the Alliance.

Protestor decrying Trump's comments on Nato (David Usborne)

The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo, Mr Trump asserted.

As long as we are led by politicians who will not put 'America First,' then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect, the respect that we deserve, he boomed. The American people will come first once again.

We are going to defeat the barbarians of Isis and we are going to beat them fast, Mr Trump said touching on international terrorism. Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBT community, no good, we are going to stop it.

Then Mr Trump promised further to do everything in my power to protect the lesbian, gay and transgender community, from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. When the room reacted warmly to a topic not normally emphasized by their party, Mr Trump, veering off script, responded: As a Republican it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said.

On all fronts, including trade and economic policy, Mr Trump cast himself as the champion of the ignored, promising to stand up for "the forgotten men and women of our country, people who work hard but no longer have a voice. Than he said baldly: I am your voice.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens.

Middle-income Americans and businesses will experience profound relief, and taxes will be greatly simplified for everyone. America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world, if he becomes president, he offered. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country.

He repeated his campaign promises to block new free trade deals and possibly renegotiate existing ones, another area of concern for Americas partners. Those treaties, he said, strip this country of its jobs and strips us of our wealth.

Populism was weaved through the address. Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams as any other child America."

There can be no prosperity without law and order, Mr Trump offered. As he broached the issue of immigration, the hall broke into instant chants of Build the wall!

It was the passages on immigration that had been arguably the most eagerly awaited. We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. We dont want them in our country, he said, adding: I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people.

While Mr Trump did not speak specifically of barring Muslims from entering the country - a proposal that caused uproar when he it first - he did reiterate his pledge to build the wall. We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities, he said.

He closed his audition to nation with a message less of doom and disaster and more of hope. .

To every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future,he averred, I say these words to you tonight:Im with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you.
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Hes a super-rich tech investor, a Californian, a gay man  and a Trump supporter. Peter Thiel, the founder of Paypal and the first venture capitalist to invest in Facebook, was perhaps the most high-profile businessman to speak at the Republican National Convention, besides the nominee himself. Yet his endorsement of Donald Trump has the potential to make him a pariah, both in Silicon Valley and in the LGBT community.

I am proud to be gay, Mr Thiel told the audience at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American. Urging the crowd to come out and vote for the Republican nominee in November, he said: I am not a politician, but neither is Donald Trump. He is a builder and it is time to rebuild America.

Recommended Read more Trump to take tough line on crime and terror in acceptance speech

The billionaire investor is the first person ever to acknowledge his or her homosexuality on a Republican convention stage, yet it is a convention that adopted a virulently anti-LGBT policy platform, including opposition to same-sex marriage and new transgender bathroom rules, and support for controversial, so-called conversion therapy.

Mr Thiel, 48, said he did not agree with every plank of the GOP platform, but described the debate over who gets to use which bathroom as a distraction from our real problems, explaining: Fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline and nobody in this race is being honest about it, except Donald Trump.

From wealthy Silicon Valley, Mr Thiel admitted, it is hard to see where America has gone wrong. Calling the US economy broken, he lamented the stagnation of wages and the accumulation of wealth in Wall Street where, he said, bankers inflate everything, from government bonds to Hillary Clintons speaking fees.

Mr Thiel shares a libertarian streak with some other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, harbouring a distaste for government so intense that he once floated the notion of launching vast ships in international waters, where he could operate beyond the reach of regulation. Recently, he was revealed as the secret donor behind Hulk Hogans privacy lawsuit against Gawker, spending millions of dollars in an effort to bankrupt the website that had publicly outed him in 2007.

Most of Silicon Valley tends to lean left, with Barack Obama raising more funds from tech donors in 2008 and 2012 than his Republican opponents, John McCain and Mitt Romney. During the 2016 primary season, Hillary Clinton received more contributions from the tech executive class than any other candidate.

But Mr Thiel broke with that norm, describing Ms Clinton as incompetent and blaming her for the long-term failure of the US intervention in Libya. It is time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country, he said, echoing Mr Trumps own isolationist rhetoric.

The technology industry instinctively approves of immigration and globalisation, the very bugbears that have driven so much of the Trump campaigns success. Tech titans from Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg to Amazons Jeff Bezos have voiced distaste for the Republican nominee or his proposals. Last week, more than 130 tech industry leaders signed an open letter warning that Mr Trump would be a disaster for innovation.

Mr Thiel appeared to disagree. The German-born entrepreneur, whose parents moved to Cleveland from Frnakfurt when he was a one-year-old, harked back to the Cold War space programme as a time when the US government encouraged technological innovation. Today, he asserted, Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets cant fly in the rain. It would be kind to say our governments technology works poorly, because it often doesnt work at all."
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Accepting the Republican Party's presidential nomination Thursday night in Cleveland, Donald J. Trump gave a speech focused on urban violence and criminal justice.

"We will be a country of generosity and warmth, but we will also be a country of law and order," Trump said. "I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon -- and I mean very soon -- come to an end."

Trump went on to blame President Obama for a recent increase in homicide.

"Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this administrations rollback of criminal enforcement," Trump said. "Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in Americas 50 largest cities. Thats the largest increase in 25 years."

Trump was apparently citing data compiled by The Washington Post on killings in major U.S. cities. The data, collected from local police agencies, shows that the number of homicides increased 17 percent. After years of steady improvements in public safety, the data from last year represented the greatest increase in a quarter century.

The increase is profoundly concerning to law enforcement officials and criminologists. Above all, the numbers represent the unimaginable tragedy of lethal violence experienced by the families and friends of more than 5,300 victims in these cities over the course of last year.

Fortunately, despite the recent increase, the rate of homicide in the 50 largest cities remains moderate relative to the recent past. The level of violence last year, about 10.8 homicides per 100,000 people, is less than the rate as of 2008, when there were 11.8 homicides per 100,000 people in this group of cities.

Experts on crime still do not have a good explanation for the increase last year, and theories range widely. For example, one conservative commentator recently pointed to the arrest of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug kingpin, in 2014. El Chapo's arrest, according to this theory, created a vacuum of power in the black market, setting off conflict among the cartels south of the border that reached north into American cities.

Another possible explanation is that media coverage of recent police shootings of unarmed black men has damaged the reputation of police agencies in the black communities where much of the recent violence has been concentrated. On this theory, witnesses and informants have become unwilling to cooperate with detectives in investigations, making it more difficult for them to apprehend dangerous criminals.

This theory has some support in recent public polling on the police, which shows a marked decline in confidence in law enforcement among people of color and especially African Americans.

Other commentators have argued that the recent shootings have made police more hesitant to do their duties. According to this theory, officers are worried that something could go wrong and that they could become the focus of a national controversy. At this point, however, the evidence for this view is limited. Arrest rates in most cities have remained stable, suggesting that police are continuing to enforce the law amid all the turmoil.

It was not immediately clear why Trump attributed the increase to the Obama administration. Policing is mainly the responsibility of local departments, and there have not been any significant changes in federal policy that might explain the recent violence.

Rhetorically, while Obama has acknowledged shortcomings in law enforcement with respect to racial discrimination, he has always spoken favorably of the police in general. In his public remarks on the issue, he has argued that most officers do their jobs well, and that historically, black neighborhoods would have benefited from more law enforcement. His administration has even called for a substantial increase in the number of cops on the street.

Trump has previously suggested that Obama is insufficiently supportive of the police. Asked to explain what he meant in an interview on "Fox & Friends" on Monday, however, the New York businessman declined to elaborate.

"Sometimes the words are okay, but you just look at the body language. There's something going on. Look, there's something going on, and the words are not often okay, by the way," Trump said. "There's just bad feeling, and a lot of bad feeling about him."

Copyright: Washington Post
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A New Mexico woman has reached a $475,000 settlement with the Customs and Border Protection agency after she had claimed she was subjected to six hours of illegal cavity searches.

The ACLU announced the agreement on Friday after suing the CBP for subjecting Jane Doe to the invasive searches without warrants or her consent. The woman settled her case against the University Medical Center of El Paso, who conducted the search on behalf of CBP, for $1.1 million in 2014.

While we are pleased to have obtained justice for our client, this is really a victory for residents of border communities, who shouldnt have to fear interactions with the thousands of border agents in their midst, Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.

Of course, this result could not have been achieved without Ms. Does courage and perseverance. Had she succumbed to the threats of CBP agents and remained silent, who knows how many others might have suffered a similarly despicable experience.

The incident took place in 2012 at the Cordova Port of Entry after a drug-sniffing dog jumped on her.

Still, CBP did not admit any wrongdoing in the case.

CBP has policies, procedures, and training in place to ensure officers and agents treat travelers and those in custody with professionalism and courtesy, the agency said in a statement. While protecting the civil rights, civil liberties, and well-being of every individual with whom we interact, and maintaining the focus of our mission to protect all citizens and visitors to the United States.
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The airstrikes at dawn on Tuesday pulverised entire families, including young children -- families that were fleeing Islamic State militants but were instead mistaken for being those very fighters. Depending on whom you ask, the number of bodies found in the rubble is 56, 85, 160 or 212. Pictures of the mangled bodies, covered in dust, are a testament to the carnage.

People who live near where the bombs fell -- about 10 miles north of Manbij in northern Syria -- said the only planes they'd seen since June were from a U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State. The area is just a few miles north of the front line between the Islamic State and the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). If Tuesday's airstrikes were indeed by coalition jets, and not Russian or Syrian government warplanes, this would easily be the highest civilian toll from any action by the coalition since it formed in 2014.

Faced with the likelihood of a grave error by the coalition, U.S. officials responded cautiously, emphasising the need to verify what had happened.

"If the information supporting the allegation is determined to be credible, we will then determine the next appropriate step," a statement from U.S. Central Command said. The military also said that it had carried out 18 airstrikes on Tuesday around Manbij. That is a small chunk of the 450 strikes near the town since May and the 10,500 total since the campaign began.

"This has been the most precise air campaign in history, and we're going to make sure that it stays that way, but I don't have any further information on this," said Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition. The U.S. military has since announced that it is launching an investigation.

But the probability that it was a coalition airstrike makes this a huge deal, beyond the fact that dozens, if not hundreds, of civilians died. The dead and their kin are the same people whose hearts and minds the coalition hopes to win over. The deaths, and the perception that they were caused by the coalition, mean that that hope is probably lost. Liz Sly, one of The Washington Post's Middle East correspondents, reported that many fighters in the SDF were questioning whether they could remain in the force.

"People are now full of hatred for the SDF. We thought they were coming to finish Isis, but it seems they are finishing us first," said Jassem al-Sayed, a politician from Manbij, speaking with Sly over the phone. Isis is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

From the perspective of a Western onlooker, Tuesday's strikes are easy enough to write off as another grisly chapter in a grinding war. And for the U.S. military, it is probably another internal investigation that will wear on until the public has largely forgotten which airstrikes and which civilians it is talking about. The average time between a strike and the release of a redacted Centcom investigative report is seven months, said Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

But in November, Centcom announced that it would stop publicly releasing the results of each and every investigation. But standards for how much is released had anyway been unclear. Centcom news releases, often published in bulk on Friday afternoons, usually list only a date, a location and an estimate of civilian damage, while the nitty-gritty of the investigation is redacted or simply unreleased.

In other words, it is possible but improbable that we will hear the final word from the U.S. military on what happened Tuesday and whether the coalition bears any culpability.

The U.S. military has no strategic imperative to kill Syrian civilians, so the probability of faulty intelligence being the cause is high. Being so close to the front line, it is entirely possible that civilians there were being used as human shields for the Islamic State, as they have been elsewhere.

But a prolonged investigation resulting in a redacted document would be tantamount to obfuscation. If the coalition isn't to blame, why isn't it rushing to absolve itself?

Is it possible that if the media paid more attention to such atrocities, there might be a greater sense of outrage and urgency? That something like this wouldn't seem so routine? Because it isn't, even if hundreds are being killed in Syria's civil war every day.

The Post has had one staff-written article on the airstrikes, which failed to make it to the top of the home page online. The New York Times and most others "ran a wire." Television stations ran an item in their tickers. But writing more than what has been written is tough. The strikes took place in a war zone. How do you get there to verify people's stories -- and make it out alive? And from below, fighter jets are hard to recognise.

The following video shows coalition forces bombing a location north of Manbij two weeks ago, right next to where Tuesday's bombing occurred. It gives a sense of what an airstrike looks like from the perspective of a pilot, or a drone.

Without an official answer from the coalition, it is almost impossible to verify who dropped the bombs, leaving reporters in a gray zone of speculation. And even if it turns out that the airstrikes were by Russian or Syrian forces, it's not like they would ever own up. Their airstrikes have killed many, many more civilians than those by the coalition. The haziness of the truth only contributes to a larger narrative bubble we see around the war in Syria -- one in which civilians are mostly death tolls or collateral damage.

That haze is probably one reason that, despite the unusually high death toll in this week's airstrikes and the high possibility of U.S. culpability, neither candidate for the American presidency has issued a statement of condolence or concern.

The U.S. military is usually very strict about avoiding civilian casualties. It turns down countless target requests from its partners in Syria and Iraq because it can't verify the situation on the ground. The White House's numbers on civilian deaths from drone strikes in counterterrorism operations are low. But, then again, few agree with those figures. Last year, a London-based group of journalists published a study saying that in the coalition's first 12 months of airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, it killed 459 civilians in 57 incidents. The Pentagon admits only to 26 deaths. And egregious mistakes have led to U.S. drones blowing up wedding processions in both Afghanistan and Yemen.

Each of these is a tragedy, and a setback for American objectives. Syrians and Americans alike deserve to know what happened.



Copyright: Washington Post
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The Indian Air Force says it has lost contact with a transport plane with 29 people on board over the Bay of Bengal.

The Antonov-32 took off from Chennai (Madras) in southern India at 8.30am local time and was scheduled to land in the coastal city of Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, at 11.30am.

The flight, covering 1,375 kilometers (854 miles), was supposed to last three hours but there was no contact for nearly three hours beyond its arrival time.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Indian air force spokeman Anupam Banerjee told reporters that the last communication from the aircraft was about 15 minutes after take-off.

Nitin Wakanker, a spokesman for India's defense ministry, said the Russian-made aircraft could go for four hours without refueling.

The flight was supposed to last three hours but there was no contact for nearly three hours beyond its arrival time.

A massive search by the air force, navy and coast guard has been launched.
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A North Korean plane was forced to make an emergency landing in northeastern China after a fire broke out on board.

A passenger on board told China's Xinhua news agency the Air Koryo flight was en route from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to Beijing on Friday when it had to make a detour to Shenyang.

There were no reports of any injuries as a result of the fire.

Air Koryo is the world's only one-star rated airline, according to the internationally recognised rating system, SKYTRAX. It operates mainly Russian TU-204 and AN-148 planes.

The international destinations to which the state-owned airline flies regularly include Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang and the Russian port of Vladivostok.

Calls to the airline's office rang unanswered while the relevant department at the airport could not immediately be reached.

Air Koryo was banned from flying in the European Union in 2006 over concerns about security and maintenance concerns. It was allowed to resume flying in 2010 but only with its TU-204 planes.

Inside the daily life in North Korea Show all 19 1 /19 Inside the daily life in North Korea Inside the daily life in North Korea People reading a newspaper at the metro station Inside the daily life in North Korea Thoughts of the leaders on the tram. They have about a dozen of these on every tram, all with different thoughts Inside the daily life in North Korea Young people training for a big upcoming festival Inside the daily life in North Korea People at the Pyongyang's annual marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea Many stars on one of the trolleys in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea An intimidating poster in a primary school in North Korea. Inside the daily life in North Korea Solar panels installed on a street lamp. Inside the daily life in North Korea A poster on the window next to one of the venues we visited in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Kids playing football next to the Arch of Triumph. After a while tourists were allowed to join, so some of us did Inside the daily life in North Korea Class in an educational center in Pyongyang (where people over 17 years old can attend any classes they choose after school, for free) Inside the daily life in North Korea People waving at me during the Pyongyang marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea People having a great time dancing at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea A metro driver in a metro station in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Fireworks to mark the birthday of the Eternal President Kim Il Sung on our last night in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea My wonderful tour guide at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea One of the parks in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea A person rowing some boats for the day at a river in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea The National War Museum Inside the daily life in North Korea Public park in Pyongyang

A Singaporean photographer invited on board a flight in 2014 took pictures of the Soviet-era plane with old-fashioned controls, hand-weighed luggage and 50s-style air hostess uniforms, Mail Online reports.

The airline was originally set up as a joint project with the Soviet Union in 1950 and appears to have continued operating in the same way ever since.

Additional reporting by AP
Spain's Audit Office headquarters in Madrid. EFE

Almost 30,000 Spaniards whose deaths have been officially registered continued to receive a state pension in 2014, costing the state some 300 million a year, according to a new report by Spains Audit Office.

The survey, for the year 2014, found a series of holes and deficiencies in the way Spains Social Security system updates deaths of pensioners, and outlines a number of recommendations to prevent money being paid to people who have died.

The Audit Office discovered the problem by cross-checking deaths recorded between 1987 and August 2015 with the list of people receiving a state pension in December 2014.

Researchers at Valencia University estimate a 17.3 billion shortfall in the state pension fund, an increase of 750 million on last year

There was a total of 29,321 retirees receiving pensions amounting to 25.3 million per month whose names were included in the National Statistics Institutes (INE) register of deaths, says the Audit Offices report. It noted that 95% of those names were still in receipt of a pension in October 2015.

But a spokesman for the National Social Security Institute (INSS) denies the Audit Offices claim, saying that after it checked each name of a retiree in receipt of a pension with the INEs register of deaths, it discovered that the only link between the two was the deceaseds identity card number, but not the name. It seems highly likely that there have been errors in entering identification numbers, or that they have been duplicated, he added.

The Audit Office replies that the root of the problem is due to the lack of information about deaths provided to the INSS by the Registry Office and the INE. It also questions the way in which the INSS cross-checks information. The INSS doesnt employ effective controls over who it pays pensions to, and neither do the banks through which pensions are paid, says the Audit Office.

Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here

The INSS looks set to rack up the biggest deficit in its history this year, based on figures for the first half of 2016. Last week, it borrowed 8.7 billion from its reserve fund to cover the traditional summer bonus payment. A few days earlier the Labor Ministry admitted that there was less money in the system than last year. Researchers at Valencia University estimate a 17.3 billion shortfall in the state pension fund, an increase of 750 million on last year.

The Spanish government said it expects the public pension system this year to register a deficit equivalent to 1.1% of GDP.

English version by Nick Lyne.
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Shots have reportedly been fired at a shopping centre in German city Munich, sparking a major police operation.

Police said they expect there will be multiple people dead in the shooting, the German news agency dpa reported.

The Bavarian Interior Ministry confirmed at least one dead and multiple people hurt at Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall.

:: An updated version of this story can be found here

The shopping centre has been evacuated and the surrounding area has been sealed off.

Videos posted on social media by eye witnesses appear to show people fleeing the scene.

Munich police spokesman Thomas Baumann told dpa the attack started at a fast food restaurant in the shopping centre shortly before 6 pm local time. He said police didn't know whether they were dealing with one or multiple shooters - but there may have been more than one.

Police responded in large numbers to the shopping centre in the northern part of Munich, not far from the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital.

Munich police urged people to avoid public places. The situation is still unclear, they said on Twitter.

The area has been on high alert and undergoing increased security following an incident on Monday in which a teenager stabbed a number of people with an axe. Isis claimed responsibility for the Monday attack.

Associated Press contributed to this report

For latest updates, follow our live blog: Munich shooting live
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French President Francois Hollande has announced new help for Iraq's military in fighting Isis trying to show his government is taking action amid criticism that there weren't enough police protecting Nice's Bastille Day celebration when a truck attack killed 84 people.

Mr Hollande also outlined plans for expanded military deployment within France this summer, and defended his interior minister's handling of the Nice police presence. Frustration is mushrooming that French authorities were unable to prevent the 14 July attack despite being in a state of emergency after a string of previous violence.

The latest example of that is local authorities in Nice having initially refused a request by French anti-terror police to destroy CCTV images of last week's lorry attack. Officials in Nice have filed a legal document, arguing the footage could constitute evidence.

An official with the national police told the Associated Press that the request was motivated by concern that the images could leak and be used for jihadi propaganda. The official was not authorised to be publicly named.

As for Mr Hollande, he said he decided at an emergency security meeting Friday to send artillery equipment to Iraq next month as part of increased military help to fight Isis. France has been conducting airstrikes against Isis and providing military training, but Mr Hollande reiterated Friday that France would not send ground troops.

Stressing the international nature of the fight against Isis, Mr Hollande said, "Even if was France that was attacked 14 July, it's the world that was targeted."

He pledged that investigators would find the truth about "the circumstances and the causes of this tragedy, and the eventual networks of the terrorist."

In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Show all 30 1 /30 In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A man reacts near bouquets of flowers near the scene where a truck ran into a crowd at high speed killing scores and injuring more who were celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday in Nice Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A woman arrives with a toy and a bouquet of flowers as people pay tribute near the scene where a truck ran into a crowd in Nice Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A woman reacts as she places flowers in front of the memorial set on the 'Promenade des Anglais' where the truck crashed into the crowd during the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice EPA In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack People gather to view the floral tributes near the site of the truck attack in the French resort city of Nice AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A man reacts near bouquets of flowers as people pay tribute near the scene where a truck ran into a crowd at high speed killing scores and injuring more who were celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday, in Nice Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Floral tributes are laid out near the site of the truck attack in the French resort city of Nice AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A child's toy is placed among the floral tributes laid out near the site of the truck attack in the French resort city of Nice AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Investigators continue at the scene near the heavy truck that ran into a crowd at high speed killing scores who were celebrating the Bastille Day in Nice Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Crime scene investigators work on the 'Promenade des Anglais' after the truck crashed into the crowd during the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice EPA In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A forensic expert examines dead bodies covered with a blue sheet on the Promenade des Anglais seafront in the French Riviera city of Nice Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A forensic expert evacuates a dead body on the Promenade des Anglais seafront in the French Riviera city of Nice, after a gunman smashed a truck into a crowd of revellers celebrating Bastille Day Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A man reacts as he sits near a French flag along the beachfront the day after a truck ran into a crowd at high speed killing scores celebrating the Bastille Day in Nice Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Discarded items are left on the beach, not far from the site of the truck attack in the French resort city of Nice AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Bullet holes in the windscreen of the lorry that was driven into the crowd at high speed Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A man walks through debris on the street in Nice, France, the morning after a lorry ran into a crowd, killing at least 84 and injuring 50 Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Rescue workers help an injured woman to get in a ambulance AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Authorities investigate a truck after it plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Celebrations of Bastille Day were targeted by the lorry driver AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack People cross the street with their hands on thier heads as a French soldier secures the area after at least 84 people were killed along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A paramedic attends one of the dozens of people injured in the Nice Bastille Day attack In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Soldiers march on street where the lorry crashed into the crowd REUTERS In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A man sits next to a body seen on the ground after at least 84 people were killed in Nice, when a truck ran into a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Bodies are seen on the ground after at least 84 people were killed in Nice, when a truck ran into a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Children were among the 84 killed in the atrocity, with around 50 more hospitalised Reuters In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (2nd L) speaks to the media in Nice AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack A man walks with his hands up as police officers carry out checks on people in the centre of French Riviera town of Nice AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack With injured people laying in the street police and onlookers react near to a truck in Nice AP In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Police officers, firefighters and rescue workers are seen at the site of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Police officers speak with a soldier after a truck that ploughed into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bastille Day Nice attack Police shine a light into the cab as they approach the driver's cab of a truck, in Nice AP

The Paris prosecutor says attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five suspects handed preliminary terrorism charges Thursday in the case. Bouhlel was killed by police.

Amid questions about the police presence July 14, authorities in Nice are protesting against the request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of the attack. The cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

Francois Hollande and French Environment Minister Segolene Royal today (GETTY)

The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency, obtained by The Associated Press, saying images of the 14 July attack should be destroyed.

A lawyer for the city submitted a protest letter Friday saying Nice officials would not comply for legal, administrative and technical reasons. But the lawyer also notes that the images are scheduled to be automatically deleted anyway on Sunday, according to Nice City Hall practice of deleting CCTV images after 10 days. Investigators will keep copies of the images.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the Nice beachfront when Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over people. Mr Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

Mr Hollande promised results of an internal police investigation next week.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of 18 nationalities, Mr Hollande said. More than 300 people were wounded, and Hollande said Friday that 12 are "fighting for their lives."

Associated Press
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Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to restructure the military and give it "fresh blood" in the wake of the recent failed coup  suggesting that he intends to make use of the newly-imposed state of emergency to continue his purge of state institutions.

President Erdogan said the government's Supreme Military Council, which is chaired by the prime minister, and includes the defence minister and the chief of staff, would oversee the restructuring of the armed forces.

"They are all working together as to what might be done, and ... within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging. With this new structure, I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood," he said.

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

In an interview with Reuters at his palace in Ankara  which was targeted during the attempted coup  Mr Erdogan said a new putsch was possible but would not be easy because authorities were now more vigilant.

"It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it," he said.

The president also said there was no obstacle to extending the state of emergency beyond three months, a comment likely to spark concern among critics already fearful about the pace of his crackdown, which have seen tens of thousands either detained or pushed out of their jobs. Earlier, President Erdogan said the three-month state of emergency would enable authorities to act quicker and more efficiently against the coup plotters.

Turkey's prime minister warned on Friday of the possibility that not all of those responsible for last week's attempted coup have been apprehended during the ensuing crackdown.

Binali Yildirim said there is a remote chance some madmen might take action, acting out of a sense of revenge and defeat.

Also on Friday, the country's justice minister said Turkey would not bow to pressure from the European Union to rule out restoring the death penalty to execute plotters.

Turkey outlawed capital punishment in 2004 as part of its bid to join the bloc and European officials have said backtracking on the death penalty would effectively put an end to the EU accession process. But crowds at rallies have demanded the coup plotters be executed, and the government says it must at least consider it.

People demand the death penalty and that demand will surely be assessed. We have to assess that demand from the standpoint of law, and not according to what the EU says, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told broadcaster CNN Turk.

Turkey has temporarily suspend the European Convention on Human Rights. Deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Thursday that Turkey would follow the example set by France when it did so following last November's attacks by Isis militants in Paris.

 Turkey failed coup attempt: How it unfolded

Mr Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric, of being behind the plot against him. In a crackdown on Gulen's suspected followers, more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or placed under investigation.

Mr Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for years, has denied any role in the attempted putsch, and accused Erdogan of orchestrating it himself. Turkey wants the United States to extradite him; Washington says Ankara must first provide clear evidence  something that US President Barack Obama reiterated on Friday.

The state of emergency will allow President Erdogan and cabinet to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem necessary.

Recommended Read more Turkey suspends European Convention on Human Rights in wake of coup

Germany called for the measure to end as quickly as possible.

An international lawyers' group warned Turkey against using it to subvert the rule of law and human rights, pointing to allegations of torture and ill-treatment of people held in the mass roundup.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the reaction to the coup must not undermine fundamental rights.

"What we're seeing especially in the fields of universities, media, the judiciary, is unacceptable," she said of detentions and dismissals of judges, academics and journalists.

President Erdogan has declared 15 July a national holiday in Turkey to commemorate the people who gave their lives during the failed coup attempt. The government claims 246 pro-government supporters  security forces and civilians  died while confronting the attempted military coup, and 24 coup plotters also died.

Mr Erdogan said the date would be celebrated every year as martyr remembrance day

"These people have infiltrated the state organisation in this country and they rebelled against the state," he added, calling the coup "inhuman" and "immoral", he said.

"We will continue the fight ... wherever they might be," Mr Erdogan added.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged all Turks to stay on the streets as he continues to purge state institutions following last weeks attempted coup.

Mr Erdogan issued an appeal via text message to 68 million people urging them to not give up on the resistance for your country, land and flag.

He told them: Resistance and the watch of democracy goes on to teach traitors and terrorists a lesson, The Times reports.

Parts of the Turkish army blockaded bridges on the Bosphorus river and took over state media in a bid to oust the president, on Friday night.

But thousands of civilians took to the streets to block the army after a plea from Mr Erdogan during a FaceTime interview broadcast by a private news channel during the coup.

The death toll from the night of violence has now reached more than 200.

Huge rallies have continued to take place on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara every night as the public pledges support for Mr Erdogan.

It comes as Mr Erdogan gave his first interview since declaring a state of emergency in the country.

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

He said he was told about the attempted coup by his brother-in-law while he was holidaying with his family in the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris.

He was initially unable to reach the head of the armed forces or the head of the national intelligence agency before finally getting through to the prime minister.

When he received reports that supporters were responding to his call to take to the streets he decided it was time to attempt to get to Istanbul to restore order.

He said: "It became clear to me that I had to move, it was no longer necessary for me to stay put".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he will 'reorganise' the military in response to the coup (AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

Eventually Mr Erdogan was able to land in Istanbul but it was later revealed his plane had been in danger of being shot down by rebels before the pilot disguised it as a civilian aircraft to hide it from the radar.

Following the coup Mr Erdogan said the military would be reorganised and a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS), the body which oversees the armed forces, is likely to be brought forward a week to oversee the restructuring.

He said: "They are all working together as to what might be done, and ... within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging. With this new structure, I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood.

"After all that has come to pass, I think they must now have drawn very important lessons. This is an ongoing process, we will never stop, we will continue very actively, we have plans."

Mr Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible but it would not be easy for plotters because they were "more vigilant" now.

The president, who has run the country since 2002, has vowed to rid state institutions of supporters of a US-based cleric, Fethullah Gullen - who Mr Erdogan blames for the attempted coup - saying the movement will be treated as another separatist terrorist organisation.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Israel's treatment of Palestinians is a "major cause" of the rise of Islamist terrorism and Isis, a Liberal Democrat peer has claimed.

Speaking in a House of Lords debate on the living conditions of Palestinian children, Baroness Tonge said Israel was "creating a generation of terrorists who will have a justified grudge against Israel and the countries who support her".

The Campaign Against Antisemtism called for her to be expelled from the Lib Dems, accusing her of "effectively justifying" terrorism.

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After discussing the alleged shooting of Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers, Baroness Tonge said: "I assure noble Lords that the great danger for Israel is that by treating children in this way, she is creating a generation of terrorists who will have a justified grudge against Israel and the countries who support her  beware. This cannot be allowed to go on.

"The treatment of the Palestinians by Israel is a major cause of the rise of extreme Islamism and Daesh [Isis]."

Earlier in her speech, she rejected claims the children are told to throw sticks and stones by the Palestinian Authority.

"The children of Palestine do not need to be told to react against what is happening to them," she said.

"All around them they see cruel and humiliating treatment of their parents at the checkpoints. They experience poverty and a shortage of food.

"Settler violence occurs on a daily basis, damaging crops and fields, homes and water supplies.

"Added to this are house demolitions, families being made homeless, incursions into schools, and damage to playgrounds and open spaces  and I have not even mentioned Gaza yet."

 Gaza residents still wary of remnants of Israel war

Her comments led to calls for her to be expelled from the Lib Dems and parliament by Jonathan Sacerdoti, of the Campaign Against Antisemtism.

"Baroness Tonge has yet again offended Jewish Britons," he said.

"Having previously suggested an investigation into supposed Israeli organ harvesting which is the modern-day incarnation of the mediaeval antisemitic blood libel, she is now suggesting that British Jews are the ones with unacceptable opinions on Israel.

"Dictating to Jews what their relationship should be with the Jewish state of Israel is unacceptable.

"By suggesting there would be Palestinian terrorists 'with a justified grudge' against Israel, she is effectively justifying the terrorism that is aimed at Jewish people in Israel and around the world by Hamas and other terrorist organisations.

"We cannot expect her to apologise, as she means it, and has a long history of antisemitism which has seen her forced to resign from the Parliamentary Liberal Democrat Party.

"It is now time for her to be expelled from the Liberal Democrat Party entirely, and from the House of Lords."

A Lib Dem spokesman told The Independent: Jenny Tonge is not a member of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords and does not speak for the party on these matters."

When asked whether the peer would be expelled from the party they declined to comment further.
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The UKs vote to leave the EU has already had a number of worrying effects. The strength of the pound is in question, and the leadership of the Labour Party and Ukip are still in disarray. For those in the Remain camp, this was all utterly predictable; it is the canary in the coal mine. Those who sided with the Leave campaign, however, are more sanguine.

The current political and economic turmoil will subside, they say, and with time the UK will bounce back with an even stronger economy and greater political autonomy  just some of the many positive by-products of reasserting the national power that had been lost to the much-maligned bureaucrats in Brussels. The logic is simple: although the UK was already in command of its foreign and military policy, by cutting the institutional ties that bound it to Europe it will regain freedom of action over that other major element of great power status  the economy. It will become sovereign once more, and thus able to chart its own course.

But the idea that the UK will gain power by removing itself from the EU is based on a profoundly mistaken understanding of where the UKs great power status comes from. While it is tempting to reduce state power to military capabilities and economic power, such a calculation fails to appreciate the other forms of power that states can accrue. But while harder to measure, less-tangible sources of power have been the foundation of the UKs great power status for much of the last 70 years.

In recent years, the maintenance of these sources of power was strongly dependent on the UK being in the driving seat of a continental political entity. So severely will these foundations of power be eroded by Brexit that their loss will far outweigh any putative economic benefits the UK may achieve by leaving. To put it another way, even if the UKs economy grew as a result of its decision to leave  an outcome few predict  Brexit would still mean the end of the UK as a major power.

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

It has long been acknowledged that the UK has been punching above its weight on the global stage, but people are less clear as to why this is. Since Anthony Edens failed attempt at asserting neocolonialist control over the Suez Canal in 1956, the UK has commanded a declining share of the worlds economy and a declining military budget, especially relative to other great powers. Yet, despite this material decline, it has retained an outsized influence on global affairs.

There are several reasons for this, such as the remnants of imperial relationships including a shared history and culture with the hegemonic US. But, we contend, a major reason has been due to its position as a key player, along with France and Germany, in the EU, a polity that could jostle with the US and China at the top of the global hierarchy. This position generated at least three different forms of political influence that it will now lose.

First, the most obvious benefit of being a senior partner in the EU was that the UK could help to navigate the shape of the European project in a way that met its particular foreign and economic policies. Leavers were certainly right that Britain sometimes had to take deals that did not suit it, but the reality was that the UK was able to set the terms of the EUs institutional structure. The UKs presence in the EU helped to steer the project towards being more market-friendly than it otherwise might have been.

UK membership also acted as a brake on the integrating tendencies of the EU, preventing the centralisation of too much power on the continent. Membership thus allowed Britain to help meet two of its longstanding strategic goals since the time of Napoleon: the promotion of European free-trade and the prevention of the emergence of a continental hegemon. Outside the EU, it can no longer meet these goals through institutional design and management. Instead, it must rely on its traditional power capabilities which, when arrayed against the market fortress that is the EU, will have far less impact.

 UK's May pledges close ties with Germany in Merkel meeting

Second, as a consequence of being the 'sceptical' member of the EU's leadership triumvirate, the UK also gained a number of followers inside Europe. Britains suspicion of Brussels authority and its preference for a more market-oriented union are shared by many other states in the EU, most notably the post-communist Eastern European members who acceded in the last 15 years. As the strongest representative of these shared interests, the UK could credibly act as spokesperson on their behalf. The ability to speak on behalf of many other states (either implicitly or explicitly) meant that the UK had to be listened to and courted by other states. Now that it is headed out of the EU, Britain cannot claim to represent a broader constituency of states.

Of which state is this post-EU UK representative, except itself? Eurosceptic states inside the EU will have to form a new bloc to meet their interests while Eurosceptic states outside the EU will bypass the UK entirely in having their concerns addressed.

This last point illustrates the final element of British power that has been shattered by Brexit  its position on the global stage. The UKs privileged position inside the EU meant that it was an important plug socket into the EU for outside states. Consider the much-vaunted "special relationship" between the US and the UK. The quid pro quo for this was reasonably clear: in return for American support of British interests, such as in Kosovo in 1999 and in Libya in 2011, the UK would act as an advocate for US ideas and policies inside Europe.

But this relationship was dependent on Britains access to, and positions within, the decision-making apparatus of the EU. With its new found freedom. the UK is a political outsider, with less political intelligence, fewer British personnel in key positions and less good-will with European officials. Thus it is less able to promote US interests in Europe.

Indeed, Washington is already moving its focus from London to Berlin. This is a dynamic we should expect to repeat itself in every international political relationship the UK has. Its important role as seasoned broker in the UN Security Council will be reduced (most likely in favour of France) when other diplomats realise that Britain will have a harder time bringing the other Europeans along. The same will be true in the G7, the G20, the WTO, the IMF, and of course, the EU itself.

Recommended Read more Why Britain could end up rejoining the EU after a decade of Brexit

Brexiteers claimed that by leaving the EU they would finally cut the ropes that tied the UK down and prevented it from achieving its potential. But they failed to realise that the UK had already far exceeded the political potential that its GDP and military capabilities suggested it deserved. Rather than binding its political power, the UKs close ties to the EU helped it to have an outsized influence on the continental and global stage.

Now the ropes have been cut, in this  and far too late  those ropes have been found to be the UKs political lifelines. For the first time since 1973, the UK will truly be on its own, forced to rely far more on its raw economic and military power than it has for a generation. This does not augur well. In the modern interconnected world naked power is an inefficient tool of statecraft and states more often meet their interests through subtler forms of influence.

Yes, Britain is free of one of the most complicated institutional structures in history. But political freedom can also mean political isolation. Just ask Russia.

David Banks is a professorial lecturer specialising in political history at the American University in Washington DC. Joseph O'Mahoney is a Stanton junior faculty fellow in the Security Studies Program at MIT and an assistant professor in the school of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University
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I dont like the phrase post-truth politics. It implies that there was a time in the recent past when politicians debated like university professors and election campaigns were conducted with footnotes giving sources.

But something strange has happened to politics in America, and something alarmingly similar seems to be washing over the foothills of power here too.

We have long run out of superlatives to describe the arrival of Donald Trump as the least intellectually serious major-party nominee for the presidency of my lifetime. This is someone who deliberately adopted the Barack Obama birth certificate conspiracy theory to draw attention to his presidential ambitions in 2011. This was, just to remind ourselves, three years after Obama had published the certificate during his campaign for the presidency in 2008.

This week, Trump responded to the humiliation of Ted Cruzs failure to endorse him at the Republican National Convention in the only ways he knows: by distraction and doubling down. Trump tried to draw the cameras from Cruzs speech by making an unscheduled entrance to the convention hall in Cleveland. Then, after Cruz explained that he wasnt going to be a servile puppy to someone who had been rude about his wife and father, Trump repeated the attack on his rivals father.

All I did was point out that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast, Trump said. The conspiracy theory is that an old photograph of Oswald, who killed John F Kennedy, shows him with Rafael Cruz handing out leaflets in New Orleans in 1963. Yesterday Trump went into classic conspiracy theorist mode: Ted never denied that it was his father... Im not saying anything This had nothing to do with me. Except I might have pointed it out Nobody ever denied  did anyone ever deny that it was his father? Its a little hard to do, because it looks like him.

I have had a bit of experience of conspiracy theorists over the years, and they are always just asking questions, not actually saying David Kelly was murdered or that we are ruled by lizards from the lower levels of the fourth dimension.

So far, so harmless or at least, in the case of Trump, so far away.

Recommended Read more Top 10 conspiracy theories

But recently conspiracy theories feel as if they are becoming more mainstream in British politics. Scottish National Party supporters in the 2014 referendum campaign accused MI5 of hiding the discovery of new North Sea oil fields, and of trolling JK Rowling on Twitter to try to discredit them. It was they who started the original campaign to persuade people to take pens to the polling stations, to prevent MI5 from rubbing out pencil votes  a campaign taken up by Leave campaigners in last months EU referendum.

Until now, these have been the obsessions of people outside positions of responsibility. Backbench MPs have taken up some of the causes of conspiracy theorists, such as Tam Dalyell, who took up a Belgrano-related theory about the murder of Hilda Murrell.

But now we have the general secretary of the countrys largest trade union to thank for legitimising some of the silliest ideas in modern politics. Here is Len McCluskey, heir to a monumental tradition of leadership of organised labour, including such giants as Frank Cousins, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, who was appointed a member of the Cabinet by Harold Wilson.

Someone elected to the leadership of Unite, successor union to the TGWU, by hard-left cliques exploiting a 15 per cent turnout; someone who would until recently have held equivalent status to a cabinet minister, now reduced to the paranoid delusions of the small-hours frequenters of internet forums.

Recommended Read more Donald Trump has destroyed the GOP

Three weeks ago he accused Portland, the PR company set up by Tim Allan, one of Tony Blairs early advisers, of orchestrating the challenge to Jeremy Corbyns leadership of the Labour Party. McCluskey said that left-wing MPs such as Angela Eagle had been seduced by sinister forces and urged the BBC to investigate Portland.

Yesterday, he proved this wasnt a one-off malfunction. He said, echoing the Scottish nationalist JK Rowling conspiracy theory, that MI5 was behind online abuse of Corbyns opponents in an attempt to discredit the Labour leader. Only he didnt assert it, of course, he was just asking a question. Do people believe for one second that the security forces are not involved in dark practices?

And he went on: I tell you what, anybody who thinks that that isnt happening doesnt live in the same world that I live in.

He can say that again.
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In most respects, Ivanka Trump embodies everything that most socialists would be wary of: wealth, power, inheritance.

Yet there is something incredibly alluring about the 34-year-old mother-of-three, who has arguably become one of the most, if not the most, important person within the Donald Trump campaign.

It would take the most hardened left-winger to not be moved by her apparent warmth and voice of reason, and all delivered with a white smile.

Recommended Read more Trump to take tough line on crime and terror in acceptance speech

The daughter and Trump executive, who walked on stage just 10 days after giving birth to her third child to introduce her father at a New York rally, is almost like the Queen  she has never missed a step.

While members of her family are making inflammatory statements and plagiarising speeches  although Donald Jr's speech at the Republican convention got good reviews  her record remains unblemished.

While her father is known for his almost hypnotic ramblings, Ivanka, the former best friend of Hillary Clintons daughter, is collected, focused and articulate.

And while her brothers seem to align more closely with their fathers ideology, regularly re-tweeting supportive quotes and touting the same anti-immigrant, pro-isnt-America-great rhetoric, Ivanka neatly steps aside.

He means what he says, and he says what he means, is a classic Ivanka statement. She manages to stay supportive of her family, yet does not pander to journalists probing questions or engage in dirty Twitter spats.

Her father has low ratings among women voters. Ivanka skilfully navigates this area, too. She has repeatedly praised her fathers promotion of women in the construction industry, adding that his criticism is never gender specific. He might never have been there for family dinners but, she says, when she was 10 years old and in school, she used to call the Trump Organisation at recess and he would always take her call.

Her constant state of elevation above us mere mortals also comes from the aspirational lifestyle that she so skillfully promotes on social media.

The top tips, motivational quotes and healthy recipes are expertly set up to make people try and fail to meditate at dawn, listen to an informational podcast and make a home-made blueberry smoothie all before a hard day in the office.

In a word, she seems perfect.

But perfect is never as it seems. Much like her social media profile, Ivanka is choosing to present only certain aspects of her life to the public.

While her father has been described by Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders as a pathological liar and a narcissist, his daughter could well be suffering from flat-out and absolute denial, perhaps the only way to protect herself and her family from the unstoppable force of insanity that would be her father as president.

Despite financial security, Ivanka will not have had it easy. Her mother, Ivana Trump, reportedly accused her father of rape in the 1990s  she recently disputed the claims  and was cheated on with Marla Maples. It was reportedly in 10-year-old Ivanka's bedroom that her father was accused of sexually assaulting his former business partner, Jill Harth, who has recently broken her two-decade silence to reveal she is sticking by those claims. Trump denied the allegations in both cases.

But his daughter's coping mechanisms will not save any of us. If Daddy is voted into the White House, even her pleading eyes will not stop Trump from abandoning Nato allies, building walls or deporting millions of Muslims.

The ultimate reason Americans may hate to love Ivanka is the most worrying of all.

She has emerged the poised, credible ballast of her fathers campaign, and she might just be its saving grace.
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Robert F Kennedy once said that a countrys GDP, or Gross Domestic Product measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile. With Britain voting to leave the European Union on June 23rd, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what the young US presidential hopeful was referring to.

The question of GDP and its usefulness has vexed policymakers for over half a century. Many argue that it is a flawed concept. It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do. By most recent measures, the UKs GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record unemployment and high growth figures. So if everything was going so well, why did over 17 million people vote to leave the EU, despite the warnings about what it could do to their countrys economic prospects?

Our recent annual study of countries and their ability to convert growth into wellbeing (making the most of your money for the benefit of your citizens) sheds some light on that question. While the UK does indeed enjoy high economic growth, it currently ranks in the bottom 20 per cent of converting growth to wellbeing.

Across the 163 countries we measured in the world, the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens. Rather than just focusing on GDP, we have measured over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement, to try and get a more rounded assessment of how countries are performing.

Why does this matter? Because connecting people to the benefits of economic growth is now more important than ever. We are currently seeing a backlash against globalisation as a reaction against vast growing inequality, and the consequences go far beyond Brexit. All across Europe, the far right (and in Southern Europes case, the far left) have caused a dramatic shift in the political landscape by promising to roll back globalisation.

While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes that come across in our research. Yes there has been a nascent economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education, major economies have continued to decline.

This isnt the case with all countries however. In some Central and Eastern European countries that have recently joined, or are next in line to join the EU, have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, governance, income equality and the environment. These gains should be praised, given these countries recent histories, and the EU has played a fundamental part in promoting what are wellbeing boosters.

 Angela Merkel insists Article 50 must be triggered before Brexit talks

One thing we do know is that when we stop focusing solely on GDP as a measure of a countrys success, the world looks very different. It is a lesson that rich countries can learn and to do so is good for the economy and good for social cohesion too.

These findings provide food for thought for Finance Ministers and central bank governors as they gather in China for the G20 Summit to discuss the global economic malaise.

What I believe Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough. It does not encompass important factors such environmental quality, free speech, or education outcomes  all things that contribute to a person's sense of well-being.

I believe the sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth  education and employment are two such examples. But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving wellbeing rather than simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the forecasted doom and may even see progress.

Enrique Rueda-Sabater is a a senior adviser to Boston Consulting Group, a former World Bank director and co-author of the The Private Sector Opportunity to Improve Wellbeing
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There is a deafening silence about torture in the international response to the attempted Turkish coup. This will suit President Erdogan.

Even before the events of the last seven days, torture was a regular feature of the governments approach to managing political dissent. Now more than ever, Erdogan needs to be reminded of his international human rights obligations and the damage he will inflict on Turkeys future if his crackdown looks like that of his Syrian neighbour Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey is a country with a deeply chequered reputation on human rights  a reputation that is, sadly, not unjustified. Unlike its Middle Eastern neighbours, Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and is bound by the European Convention of Human Rights. It is also a longstanding signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture. So it would be fair to assume that it has been valiantly working to end torture practices. But this is not the case.

The European Court of Human Rights has frequently found Turkey to be in breach of the absolute ban on torture and our clients at Freedom from Torture are living proof that it continues to take place under Erdogans government.

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

Despite Turkeys announcement that it will suspend the ECHR, it is not off the hook. It is not possible, even in a state of emergency, for a party to the convention to opt out of the absolute ban on torture  no matter how much President Erdogan wishes differently.

Our specialist clinicians provide therapy and forensically document torture of people who have sought refuge in the UK. Turkey has consistently been one of our top 10 countries of origin for referrals and last year moved up this ignominious league table to number five.

Two months ago, our clinicians raised their concerns with me about the horrific torture they were hearing about and forensically documenting for Turkish survivors this year. Over the last 25 years we have heard and documented harrowing cases of repeated beatings and electrocutions; of the horrific rape and sexual torture endured by men and women in Turkey. All while being interrogated, often about political activity.

These types of torture are well known to have devastating consequences for mental and physical health. Our clients struggle with flashbacks, nightmares and suicidal thoughts.

Recommended Read more Erdogan will use force to solidify his power in Turkey

Many report experiencing torture because of a real or perceived link to Kurdish causes, viewed by elements of the Turkish government as an intense threat to national security. Given the current security crisis we can expect a similarly brutal response. The removal of thousands of judges from their posts is particularly worrying in its potential to remove the opportunity for implementation of already weak protections against torture or guarantees of due process.

In light of this, it is shocking that the joint statement by John Kerry and Francesca Mogherini at this months EU Foreign Affairs Council, reminding Turkey of its EU aspirations and Nato commitments, failed to specifically mention the very severe risk of torture and ill treatment of those who are being rounded up. It is also alarming that there has been no action to rescind the highly controversial EU-Turkey refugee deal.

How the government acts in the coming months to bring the coup plotters to justice will be a litmus test of President Erdogans commitment to human rights. Of course the government needs to investigate the attempted coup and hold those responsible accountable. But it needs to do so while respecting the rule of law and due process. There is a clear role for the international community in restraining Turkey from repressive acts. As the crisis in Syria demonstrates, torture is a violation of the most basic principles of international law, it is also a disastrous way to try and secure long-term political stability.

Ann Hannah is an International Advocate at Freedom from Torture
Mexican Education Secretary Aurelio Nuno at the presentation. Sashenka Gutierrez (EFE)

If deadlines are met, Mexican students will begin the 2017/2018 academic year with a new education plan that terminates a 70-year-old model and seeks to raise the countrys historically low student achievement levels.

The reform was one of the star proposals of President Enrique Pena Nieto, and met with significant opposition from teacher unions before and after its parliamentary approval in 2013.

The new model includes greater school autonomy, periodic tests for teachers, and English classes for children from elementary through high school education.

Mexico is one of the OECD members that invests the most in education yet it consistently ranks at the bottom of international student achievement charts

Pena Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has secured support for his reform from the main teacher union SNTE, which represents 1.5 million education workers. But it is still being rejected by a dissident faction of the CNTE, with around 120,000 members. These protesters have been clashing with government forces, organizing strikes and setting up road blocks to express their discontent at the sweeping changes.

Government officials presented the model on Wednesday at a public event that was not devoid of tension. The night before, government representatives and dissident teachers had met for six hours. The meeting ended with the teachers walking out and demanding that the presentation be cancelled.

Far from doing so, the government sent the secretary of education, a governor and the head of the majority teacher union to an event that was heavy with pomp and ceremony, as though to underscore the importance of this turning point for Mexicos education system.

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Our proposal is for Pena Nietos six-year term to end with a radically different education system, said government sources.

The public event served as a governmental reaffirmation in the face of dissident teachers who have been routinely blocking access roads into cities. A day before the presentation, three buses were set on fire in Guerrero, and a police officer was forced to walk barefoot and shirtless with a CNTE flag in his hand.

Officials on Wednesday made it clear that the new plan will not eliminate the teacher evaluations that have been at the heart of protests in southern states. But Education Secretary Aurelio Nuno also made a point of insisting that the model is unfinished and that the government will revise the controversial examination depending on the different regions of the country.

That is as many concessions as the protesting teachers have secured after weeks of frustrated negotiations. Protesters fear being expelled if they fail an evaluation that few of them are prepared for.

At the event, Juan Diaz, the head of the majority union SNTE, criticized his colleagues from the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacan, saying that nobody has the right to turn education into a political and ideological battleground.

Our proposal is for Pena Nietos six-year term to end with a radically different education system

Mexican government official

But even he had words against the evaluation, which he described as being based on 1970s standardized models. We will analyze its labor and professional impact, and if necessary demand respect for the rights of education workers, said Diaz.

The new education model will be assessed by schools, experts, parents, academics and chambers of commerce during the month of August. Their input will help develop a final model in December, which will then be implemented in the new schoolbooks for gradual introduction beginning in the fall of 2017, said Nuno.

Mexico is one of the OECD members that invests the most in education  nearly five percent of GDP  yet it consistently ranks at the bottom of international student achievement charts. Domestically, Oaxaca and Chiapas come in last.

English version by Susana Urra.
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The failed military coup is a disaster for Turkey, but its success would have been a far greater calamity. If the plotters had killed or captured President Recep Tayyip Erdogan then other parts of the armed forces might have joined them, but a civil war would have been inevitable as the security forces split and Erdogans supporters fought back.

The disaster is that it will now be much more difficult for Turks to resist Erdogan establishing a monopoly of power. By resisting the coup as the leader of a democratically-elected government, he has enhanced his legitimacy. Moreover, all opposition to his rule can be labelled as support for terrorism and punished as such.

Human rights and democracy will be weaker and they were already in a bad way before the coup, says a critic of Erdogan, who does not want his name published, adding that it is difficult for him to criticise Erdogan today while he is under threat from military conspirators. He has no doubt that the attempted putsch was carried out by the followers of Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the US since 1999. Leaving aside the confessions of the plotters, which may have been forced, only the Gulenists had a network of adherents capable of staging an uprising in so many units of the security forces.

Fethullah did not help us, he killed us, says the Turkish commentator bitterly. He left us totally in the hands of Erdogan.

He says that the Gulenists operate in two different ways: they have a moderate public face with schools, universities, media and business associations, but they also have always had a secret organisation devoted to taking positions of power within the military, police and security services. As long ago as 1987, the movement was being investigated for infiltrating military colleges. It is now being compared to the Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, notorious for its links to Franco and other right wing governments, though a better analogy might be a secretive cult with a charismatic leader.

In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters

The coup went off half-cock. It was staged prematurely because of fear of an imminent purge of Gulenists in the military. Analysts have been explaining how badly organised the attempt was and how it could never have succeeded.

But the initial response of the government to the putsch was equally cack-handed, with Erdogan saying that he first heard something was amiss from his brother-in-law who phoned him between 4 and 4.30pm on 15 July to say that soldiers were stopping cars next to the Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul.

Erdogans account of what happened next is worth quoting in order to convey the atmosphere of confusion in the first hours of the abortive takeover.

He says that his brother-in-law was telling me that soldiers were actually cutting off streets, and they were not allowing cars to proceed to take to the bridge. When I got the news, initially I did not believe that this was happening and I called the head of national security, the head of national intelligence, I could not reach him. I called the chief of staff of the armed forces, I could not reach him, they were not in a position to be able to answer their phones... Then I tried to contact the prime minister, and although with some difficulty, we were able to get into contact.

It was only almost four hours later, at 8 pm, that Erdogan made plans to act by contacting the media  quite long enough for the pro-coup forces to have eliminated him. If victory goes to the side that makes the least mistakes, then it was a close run thing.

Aside from their organisational failings, the plotters made a miscalculation in imagining that, because Turks are deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Erdogan, the latter night side with anybody trying to get rid of him by physical force.

In the event, the plotters found no support because people felt, as one Kurdish activist was quoted as saying, that the worst politician is better than the best general.

Much now depends on the extent to which Erdogan sees the failure of the coup as a heaven-sent excuse to remove all who do not obey him. The temptation is clearly there: some 60,000 soldiers, judges, prosecutors, civil servants and teachers have been detained, arrested or sacked.

All 3.3m civil servants in Turkey have been told to stay in their jobs, presumably so they can be investigated. The crackdown under the State of Emergency appears to be spreading well beyond the circle of those implicated in the coup or connected to the Gulenists.

Overreaction by the state may be deliberately contrived in order to benefit from the crisis, but there is also real fear mixed with paranoia that the coup is not entirely over.

Supporters of the Government tweeted yesterday that there might be a second attempt and some military units have been confined to their bases. Meanwhile the coup is being presented as a symbol of evil as was Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in English political tradition. Public demonstrations of anti-coup feeling are being demanded by the state, with people asked to attend daily demonstrations and actors in Istanbul being asked to produce an anti-coup video.

The next few weeks will tell if Erdogan is going target all dissent and further divide a deeply divided country. He may have a difficulty in pursuing the war against Kurdish guerrillas in south-east Turkey and, at the same time, purging the Second Army that is meant to be fighting them and whose commanding general is under arrest. It might be sensible to conciliate the Kurds, with whom Erdogan was negotiating not so long ago, but his combative political instincts are more likely to lead him to opt for continuing confrontation.

 Turkey failed coup attempt: How it unfolded

Islamic State will benefit from the new political landscape because security forces will be tracking Gulenist sleepers rather than Isis cells. Isis will gain from the anti-American mood in Turkey post-coup because the Government and much of the population are convinced that the US was implicated in the attempt. Whatever happens to the Turkish demand that the US hand over Gulen, Turks are convinced of a US role, citing as evidence Mr Gulens long presence outside Philadelphia. Isis will seek the support of a widening anti-US constituency in Turkey. Relations between Ankara and Washington were not good before; they are about to get worse.

Erdogan emerges politically stronger from the crisis, but he rules a weakened Turkish state. The army and state institutions are being hollowed out by purges and loyalty, not competence, becomes the test for advancement. Turkish involvement in Syria has produced only failure: sectarian and ethnic warfare between Sunni and Shia, Kurd and non-Kurd is infecting Turkey.

Erdogan could use the coup to unite Turks or, alternatively, exploit it in a way that will further divide them. It is difficult to feel optimistic.
Traffic is currently allowed to cross freely over the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

A post-Brexit "hard" border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland must not be allowed to happen, political leaders from both countries have warned.

People and goods going between the two nations have been able to move freely thanks to the Common Travel Area (CTA).

The open borders agreement, set up in the 1920s, has been strengthened by both Britain and Ireland's European Union membership.

However, questions and concerns have been raised about what this means for the CTA and for both economies in the wake of the UK's Leave referendum result.

The issue was one of the hot topics discussed at an emergency meeting of the British-Irish Council (BIC) in Cardiff, which was called by Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones.

Among heads of government attending the talks were Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as well as Northern Ireland political heavyweights Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness.

Mr Kenny said it was vital there would not be a return to the days of "checkpoints, towers and customs".

He said: "There are modern ways of not having hard borders.

"I can tell you that hard borders would not be accepted in the south or the north.

"The best possible outcome for everyone is a UK that's prosperous and has the closest possible links with the European Union.

"For us in Ireland, that means access to the single market.

"And it's been made perfectly clear by the EU Council that if that is to happen, then the respect has to be there for the freedom of (movement of) people.

"We have difficulties but I expect us to retain the Common Travel Area.

"It's a fundamental part of who we are."

Leaders and ministers from eight BIC members - the UK and Irish governments, devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man - met in the Welsh Government's Cathays Park headquarters on Friday.

Welsh Labour leader Mr Jones said he called an extraordinary meeting of the council at short notice because of the "tumultuous" political landscape after the EU referendum.

He said: "The council plays a unique and important role in developing positive relationships between its members.

"It is more important than ever to maintain the strength of this relationship and work together to map out a successful way forward."

Also heralding the talks as the council's most vital to date was Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister and Sinn Fein MLA Mr McGuinness.

The 66-year-old said he had "no faith" in a Tory Government in Westminster replacing any money lost by being out of the European Union.

He also said he remained concerned by British Prime Minister Theresa May's comments last month about the possibility of a new border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

In June, during a Remain vote campaign, the then home secretary said it would be "inconceivable" for there not to be border controls when going between the two countries.

Mr McGuinness added: "I have since spoken to (Northern Ireland Secretary) James Brokenshire, who appears to have a different position. But it will be important to find out the British Prime Minister's view, because if her position is still the same it represents a very serious issue."

Northern Ireland First Minister Mrs Foster argued that the establishment of checkpoints in the 1970s had been due to terrorist threats - but said she believed a Common Travel Area would still be possible even with the UK out of the EU.

She said: "It's not only vital to Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, but also (other home nations such as) Wales too."
Enterprise Ireland has beefed up the number of international trade missions for the remainder of its year in the wake of Brexit, with 26 ministerial-led trips set to take place.

The full programme of events - 68 in total - includes ministerial-led trade missions, inward buyer visits, market study visits, international trade fairs, embassy events and knowledge seminars. They are all aimed at linking Irish companies with international buyers.

In total there will be 36 ministerial-led trade missions and associated activities this year - almost double the number in 2015.

Julie Sinnamon, Enterprise Ireland chief executive, said a key element of Enterprise Ireland's plan to support Irish exporters is around market expansion and diversification.

"We recently announced record export results of 20.6bn which demonstrates that our strategy of helping clients expand into new markets in recent years is working," Ms Sinnamon said.

"We will now intensify that approach in order to increase the opportunities for Irish exporters to scale their businesses into other global markets continuing to reduce our overall dependence on the UK market."

Ms Sinnamon said the agency's focusing on opportunities in Northern Europe, the US, Canada and other high-growth markets including the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Missions include a life sciences trade visit to the US, a financial services trade mission to China, a software and education trade mission to India, and a food-manufacturing mission to the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor said delivering a programme of ministerial-led trade missions is a key commitment in the Government's Action Plan for Jobs.

"This new programme of trade missions and events is a key element of our plan to support Irish companies from counties around Ireland to grow their businesses internationally to generate more exports and create jobs in Ireland," she said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said a key element of the Department's strategy is to use embassies, consulates and other missions to maximise opportunities for Irish companies.

"As announced earlier this week after the Export Trade Council meeting, I have recently created new commercial attache posts in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Romania. This is a key part of my Department's new economic diplomacy strategy," the Minister said.
French president Francois Hollande and Taoiseach Enda Kenny during a press conference at Government Buildings in Dublin

French President Francois Hollande has broken ranks to publicly back Ireland's 'special case' for a place at the centre of Brexit negotiations.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown a clear reluctance to admit Ireland will need concessions, Mr Hollande said France "understands" our position is unique.

"I do recognise that there is a special situation for Ireland. It's a special situation that has to be found a place in the negotiations," he said, after a meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

His remarks are a major boost for the Taoiseach after his plea for recognition of the relationship between Ireland and the UK was effectively shunned by Ms Merkel just 10 days ago. She insisted Ireland's "voice" will be equal to that of all other 27 EU Member States.

In contrast, Mr Hollande came to Dublin to declare that he wanted to be an ally during the forthcoming talks. He also acknowledged that while the two countries are the UK's closest neighbours, Ireland is "more of a neighbour than France".

After his brief visit to Dublin, Mr Hollande flew back to Paris where he met with new British Prime Minister Theresa May.

The pair clashed over the timeframe in which the UK should officially request to leave the EU, with Mr Hollande saying "the sooner the better".

Ms May indicated that she will not seek to start formal negotiations until next year.

The French President now intends to "swap views" with Ms Merkel in light of yesterday's meetings.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and fellow European leaders are pressing the new British government to trigger divorce proceedings with the European Union as soon as possible. But behind the scenes, senior German officials fear a swift move by London to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty risks creating an impossibly short window for negotiating Britain's departure.

Further complicating the task, EU leaders have rejected the possibility of any negotiations before Britain moves on Article 50, a step which would start a two-year countdown to Brexit.

Behind their stance - and complicating Ireland's position in negotiations - is a desire to send a message to Britain that it cannot hold the EU hostage by horse trading on the terms of its EU exit before it commits to leave. But six top officials in Berlin and Brussels described this position as problematic, with one dismissing it as "absurd".

"It was not wrong to send a tough message after the Brexit vote but I don't think the current stance is sustainable," said one official. "You need to start some sort of process as soon as possible, whether you call it negotiations or not." A second senior official said: "It's absurd to think that we won't negotiate on anything before Article 50 is invoked."

But today's statements by Francois Hollande may give hope that the French position is also softening.

Behind the concern of the German officials is a creeping realisation that the two-year window for negotiating a Brexit, as set out in Article 50, is far too short. An extension of the period is possible, but it would require the unanimous agreement of the remaining 27 EU member states, and is therefore seen as unlikely, or at best unsure. Berlin is also sceptical about the possibility of Britain revoking Article 50 once it has been triggered. This means that something will have to give, German officials say. They spell out two possible scenarios.

Under the first, the EU would revise its position and agree to a prolonged period of negotiations before Article 50 is invoked.

That would win both sides extra time before the clock starts ticking, but it would represent a climbdown and probably provoke outrage in some EU capitals, notably Paris.

The second option, in the event Theresa May triggers Article 50 early next year, would be for Britain to settle for a very basic framework for its future ties with the EU, based on an existing model similar to that of Switzerland.

Even then, the deadline of two years is widely viewed as a stretch.

One senior official estimated that the EU and Britain, because of the complexity of their relationship, needed at least twice that time - six years - to seal their separation, describing two years as "mission impossible".

Adding to the muddle is the heavy election calendar in Europe next year, which officials fear could lead to paralysis. Even if formal negotiations do not start for half a year or more, the official said it was important Britain and the EU converge on a "corridor of principles" for Brexit talks soon.

One of the big worries in Berlin and other capitals is that London has unrealistic expectations about what it can secure from the Brexit negotiations, particularly on the tradeoff between access to the EU's single market and respect for the bloc's core principle of free movement.

While the British team that will negotiate Brexit is viewed in Berlin as starry-eyed when it comes to expectations of concessions, it remains unclear who will take the European lead in negotiations.

Berlin is reluctant to hand over responsibility to the executive European Commission, its president, Jean-Claude Juncker out of fear he could take an overly confrontational stance.

From the outset, agreeing a common negotiating strategy between the remaining 27 EU countries is becoming a huge challenge, especially because, on the surface at least, Berlin and Paris have different views about how to treat Britain - and Ireland - during the process.
French President Francois Hollande has broken ranks to publicly back Ireland's 'special case' for a place at the centre of Brexit negotiations.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown a clear reluctance to admit that Ireland will need concessions, Mr Hollande said France "understands" our position is unique.

"I do recognise that there is a special situation for Ireland. It's a special situation that has to be found a place in the negotiations," he said after an hour-long meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

His remarks are a major boost for the Taoiseach after his plea for recognition of the relationship between Ireland and the UK was effectively shunned by Ms Merkel in Berlin just 10 days ago.

She insisted that Ireland's "voice" would be treated equally with those of other member states and twice declined to acknowledge a 'special case' status.

In contrast, Mr Hollande came to Dublin to declare that he wanted to be an ally during the forthcoming talks. He even went so far as to point out that while the two countries are the UK's closest neighbours, Ireland is "even more of a neighbour than France".

Mr Kenny said the President was "fully acquainted with Europe's involvement in the Good Friday Agreement over the years".

"That is a unique perspective that we bring to these negotiations... Europe has contributed greatly to the support of the Good Friday Agreement and keeping that peace together."

He added: "I'm very glad that President Hollande has referred to that."

After his brief visit to Dublin, Mr Hollande flew back to Paris where he met new British Prime Minister Theresa May.

The pair disagreed over the timeframe in which the UK should formally request to leave the EU, with Mr Hollande saying "the sooner the better".

He said any delay would "cause damaging doubt". However, the prime minister indicated she will not trigger Article 50 for at least six months.

In another positive development for Ireland yesterday, Mr Hollande also offered reassurance that tax harmonisation will not be brought into the Brexit negotiations under any circumstances as had been speculated by some politicians.

French governments have frequently objected to Ireland's controversial 12.5pc corporation tax rate.

But speaking at a press conference in Government Buildings, Mr Hollande said: "In terms of taxation or tax harmonisation, that has nothing to do with Brexit."

The French President is taking a particularly hard line on the UK, saying: "It's the British that will have to bear the consequences."

However, in relation to Ireland, Mr Hollande said: "I'm also very aware that Brexit can have consequences for Ireland... You, of course, have land and a shared border.

"And that's why you are so attached to the idea that the Good Friday Agreement can be preserved. France understands this position because it's very important for peace.

"We believe the free movement of workers should be preserved. But the access to the single market cannot be guaranteed unless they [the UK] say the free movement of workers will be respected."

The president added that he hoped his visit would help "intensify" the relationship between France and Ireland.

"I will come back again because I had to cut short my visit given the drama we experienced on the Promenade des Anglais".

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was quick to condemn the terror attack in Nice, saying that Ireland "stands by France".

Kenny said Ireland will co-operate "where we can" in terms of EU defence - while maintaining our neutrality.

"France is a great nation. The birthplace of republicanism and human rights. These values are more valuable than ever in a turbulent and dangerous world. We must protect them," he said.

Foreign media have touted plans by French President Francois Hollande to visit a number of EU capitals in the coming weeks as an attempt to get support for an EU army.

However, he said that Ireland was playing its part without engaging in military activity.

"Defence, protection and security and protection of our borders, that's what people expect of the EU.

"Not to close in on themselves but to... open up with conditions of security," Mr Hollande said.
The online review marketplace has continued to grow worldwide in recent years, with TripAdvisor, Google, and Open Table surging in popularity. Stock image

Online customer reviews are driving change in the hotel and leisure industry, forcing businesses to improve their service offering to consumers, new research reveals.

According to the Barclays Feedback Economy report, almost four-fifths of Irish companies in the area said online customer reviews was a major driver for increases in turnover.

Barclays Bank Ireland head of client coverage Helen Kelly said it was "encouraging" that businesses are benefiting from customers' opinions.

"The use of feedback by customers is not only a growing trend, but a potentially incredibly valuable source of information for the business community.

"With 92pc of businesses across Ireland anticipating that not only will feedback become more important in its own right, but that it will also become more important to manage that feedback, businesses would do well to consider their options and capability now," the Barclays head said.

The feedback is being used as an effective way to reduce the problems that lie within a business.

The research points out that 70pc of Irish companies in the hotel and leisure business used feedback to eliminate problems in their product, with a further 86pc saying it bumps their reputation.

However, despite the benefits of reviews the vast majority in the industry believe that review sites are limited to the "supremely pleased or displeased" consumers.

The online review marketplace has continued to grow worldwide in recent years, with TripAdvisor, Google, and Open Table surging in popularity.

Recent figures show that over 200 new contributions are made to TripAdvisor every month with restaurant-review website OpenTable receiving 450,000 new submissions every month.

Meanwhile review website Yelp is boasting 104 million posts.

"The rise of feedback has been a disruptive force within the hospitality industry over the past decade," Ms Kelly said.

"Businesses that do not adequately respond to this trend are in danger of missing a vital opportunity to both grow their business and stay ahead of the competition," she added.

The research was conducted prior to June 23, when Britain decided it would leave the European Union.

In the pre-Brexit research almost three-quarters of hospitality and leisure businesses in Ireland were tipping increases in their revenue over the next year and a half.

That tune seems to have changed after the Irish Hotels Foundation (IHF) published its own research pointing to fear in the industry about the effects Brexit may have on its revenue.

Britain remains Ireland's number one source of incoming tourists, accounting for over 40pc of the country's overseas guests.

Research from the IHF showed that the vast majority of Irish hoteliers (95pc) expressed concern in regards to the implications of Brexit.

Like most sectors, the Federation agrees it is too soon to put a value on the effect the Britain's decision could have.

"While it is too early to predict the full effect that the decision will have on Irish tourism, there can be no room for complacency, particularly given the potential impact on visitor numbers from the UK and business levels within the domestic market," IHF president Joe Dolan said earlier in the month.
Tourists on the Skellig Islands, off the coast of Co Kerry. Photo: @storytravelers

Tourists spent 6bn visiting Ireland last year - a rise of 16pc on 2014, latest figures reveal.

And tourist visits to Ireland grew by 13.1pc to eight million, according to the latest data from Failte Ireland.

It said that the 6bn spend included the price travellers paid to Irish airlines and ferry carriers.

Ireland's dependency on British visitors was highlighted by the fact that the UK contributed the largest amount of tourists coming here, accounting for 42pc of overall arrivals.

In total, 3.3 million people came here from Britain last year.

Inbound traffic from North America was up by 12.9pc on the 2014 figure, while other long haul arrivals were up by 11.7pc.

Tourists from mainland Europe were the biggest spenders, totalling 1.6bn over the course of their trips.

This represented 36pc of the overall amount spent by foreign tourists.

There were over 600,000 German visitors, 471,000 from France and 322,000 from Spain.

North American tourists accounted for 1.1 million of the overall total.

Failte Ireland said that 205,000 people are employed in the tourism sector, which the organisation says takes into account part-time and seasonal work. But this figure is significantly higher than the CSO estimate, which states that 139,900 people are employed in the sector.
It can be one of the hardest decisions a family will ever have to make. The decision that a parent or spouse can no longer care for themselves is never made lightly and the options - many of which can seem quite unpalatable - need to be carefully examined.

Many families start looking for help at home. The HSE provides home care packages, but criteria are strict. The packages include a range of services, including home help, nursing and therapy. On the plus side, they are not means-tested and will take into account the level of family support available, but there is no automatic right to hours.

A GP letter can often be supportive in an application for a package. Currently, the State provides 15,450 home care packages, across 10.4m hours.

Many families, if they can afford it, supplement the hours that the HSE provides with private home help from service providers like Home Instead, Senior Care or Bluebird. A case worker will visit your home, assess your needs and try to match one-on-one with the patient. Prices are graded depending on the level of care (for example 'companionship' up to full mobility needs).

However, these services do not come cheap: most have rates of between 20 and 30 an hour; more for overnight care. There is full tax relief available on the fees.

In many cases, however, a full-time nursing home is the only option. Homes can be either public or private, but all are assessed and inspected by HIQA.

With 75pc of nursing homes in the private sector, their fees can be eye-watering, climbing to 6,000 or more per month, especially in Dublin.

It's a big ask of any family, even with the full tax relief that is available. To help tackle the costs, in 2009 the Fair Deal scheme was introduced by then health minister Mary Harney.

It works a little like a pooled insurance scheme where the State pays for all the care, and the resident contributes according to their income/assets. Although not means tested (i.e. anyone can apply), there are two methods of assessment:

Medical: Based on need for long-term care for activities of daily living (washing, dressing), family/community support and possibly a physical examination.

Financial: Income and assets, including the family home. The first 36,000 of savings is excluded and if the patient's spouse is still living in the family home, only half income/assets are taken into account.

Once accepted, patients pay 80pc of their total income (e.g. pension) plus 7.5pc p.a. of their assets as a yearly contribution. The family home asset is capped at three years, i.e. 22.5pc, and can be deferred until after they/their spouse pass away, under a loan arrangement.

The patient keeps 20pc of their pension and the remainder of assets. Extra services such as hair-dressing, newspapers, incontinence wear etc., are not covered.

Tadhg Daly is CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, which has 440 members. He says that although private nursing homes must negotiate and disclose their fees under the scheme, which are updated monthly, the same is not true of public nursing homes.

"Theirs haven't been updated since 2011. Is it 800 a week, or 2,000 a week? We simply don't know. Under Fair Deal you're never supposed to pay more than the cost of the care, but in a public nursing home, how are you supposed to know?".

Politics aside, we have an elder care time-bomb. The CSO shows that the over-80s population will rise from 128,000 in 2011 to between 470,000 and 484,000 in 2046 with more older people than children in the country. The national deficit for long-term beds, and lack of funding for them, will only increase.

The Government recently provided an additional 500m in funding - but is it enough?

How to choose a nursing home

1. Check the HIQA-approved nursing homes close to where you live (hiqa.ie). Price is not an indicator of quality as the home may receive subvention from other sources, but is generally based on location, as with all property. The latest inspection report is under each listing, but some may be out of date.

2. Visit potential homes and bear in mind any specific requirements your loved one has, e.g. dementia, physical disability etc. Some cater more specially for certain conditions, so its worth getting a recommendation.

3. Look for space, light and a good ratio of care staff. Is there space to exercise and move freely? What kind of activities take place? Are residents kept busy? Are therapists available on staff or to visit? How is health and safety handled? Ask for daily menus, and a tour of all the public areas. Most of all  did you get a good feel about the place; after all, this is a home from home and should be warm, friendly and caring.

Helpful websites: www.nhi.ie (Nursing Homes Ireland) www.hiqa.ie (Health Insurance Quality Authority) www.hse.ie (Health Service Executive)
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

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Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

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This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

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Motorists have been hit by a new insurance crisis after another insurer regulated outside the country collapsed.

Enterprise Insurance, which is regulated in Gibraltar, is being wound up.

The insurer has 14,000 policyholders here, selling its insurance through brokers.

It is not known what the cost of the collapse will be for motorists here, but it is expected to run into the millions of euro.

Malta-regulated Setanta failed in 2014 leading to a legal dispute over who should pick up the cost for the 1,700 claims that could cost 95.2m to settle.

But ultimately the collapse of Setanta will be paid for by motorists here.

Now there are fears that another collapse of an insurer will end up putting new pressure on premiums.

Across all insurers premiums shot up by almost 40pc last year as the industry struggles with a number of issues.

The failure of Enterprise Insurance is likely to add to the pressure on premium rates.

The Central Bank of Ireland said it did not regulate Enterprise Insurance but was informed by officials in Gibraltar that the firm was being wound up.

Enterprise Insurance also had operations in other European countries.

The Central Bank said: Motor insurance policyholders in Ireland, who bought insurance through the broker network, may be affected. Any policy holder who has concerns about their policy should contact their broker in the first instance.

Policyholders with questions should contact the Gibraltar Financial Services Authority Commission on 00 350 200 40284, or email enterprisepolicyholders@fsc.gi.

Motorists affected also contact Enterprise on telephone number 00 350 200 50150.
Britain's vote to leave the European Union has made it harder to attract new business lenders into Ireland, according to the head of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI).

The State-owned lender was set up during the financial crash to provide a flow of financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), at a time when the main banks were unwilling or unable to lend.

The SBCI doesn't lend directly, but does provide finance to AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank, as well as to four niche non-bank lenders at low costs, that must be loaned on to businesses.

Financial results yesterday show SBCI has provided 347m to date to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Lending is up from 172m at the start of the year, but well below SBCI's total current lending capacity of 850m.

SBCI chief executive Nick Ashmore said the agency, established in September 2014, had hoped that as much as 800m of loans would be drawn down by the end of this year. That is now unlikely, he said.

"The first year of operation was very focused on setting the foundations for driving choice and competition with five lenders on board by the end of 2015. In addition, a key focus has been growing awareness amongst SMEs of the availability of this lower cost finance," he said.

However, the appetite among Irish businesses for new debt is now rising, he said. Borrowing from SBCI-linked funds means a saving of 1.5pc on borrowing costs for SMEs compared to the market average, he said.

To date the bulk of lending - 85pc by number of loans and 75pc in value - has been borrowed outside Dublin, he said.

The bulk of funds available (675m) from the SBCI is accessible through the three main banks. The SBCI lends to the banks at a low rate, and that rate is passed on to customers.

A further 171m has been committed to four more specialist finance houses - including leasing and fleet finance providers and an invoice finance provider.

A fifth non-bank lender has just been approved to participate in the scheme, with more new entrants in the pipeline, Mr Ashmore said.

Encouraging new entrants into the Irish market is one of the SBCI's main objectives. That remains challenging, especially in relation to traditional term lending, Mr Ashmore said. Term lending to SMEs remains dominated by the main banks and is a high risk area to get into for new entrants, he said.

"I don't think we're seeing competition at the level we'd like to see, we'd like to get a new term lender in here," he said.

UK banks which had been looking at expanding operations in Ireland are now "up to their necks in Brexit", and unlikely to launch new initiatives here, he said. Non-banks lenders are more flexible, he said.

In the meantime, SBCI said its mid-year update showed good progress across key metrics:

 Drawn lending has doubled to 347m, with the money gone to 8,619 Irish SMEs

 The number of jobs supported by SBCI lending is 43,349

 Average loan size is now 40,000, from 37,000 last December.

 The largest loan was 5m.
In Budget 2016, a reduced capital gains tax rate of 20pc was introduced on the sale of all or part of a business with an overall limit of 1m in chargeable gains

Ireland's Knowledge Development Box is proving attractive to home-grown Irish businesses, the Department of Finance has revealed.

The Department has also revealed that plans to slash the rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for new startups to 10pc from next year, bringing the environment more in line with the UK, would cost 65m in a full year.

The details were unveiled at a briefing on the publication of papers from the Tax Strategy Group, a high level, interdepartmental group chaired by Finance which prepares options and costings for the Budget.

For the first time, the Department released its costing of various options for the Budget in October, including costings for phasing out the Universal Social Charge, for cutting income tax and capital gains tax, and introducing a sugar tax.

The Knowledge Development Box came into effect at the start of the year, and provides for a corporate tax rate of 6.25pc - half the headline rate of 12.5pc - for companies that derive their profits from patents.

The Department said that anecdotally, Irish indigenous firms in particular have expressed interest in the scheme.

"What we're finding in terms of take-up, its that it seems to be something that is proving attractive to small and medium-sized businesses," the Department said. "What we're finding, which is interesting, is that a lot of Irish indigenous industry is seeing this as a way of getting into the R&D space."

The Department said all sectors are represented in the take-up, although there are as yet no figures for the specific number of firms availing of the scheme.

Small and medium-sized businesses that don't have the resources to patent intellectual property may still be able to benefit from the Knowledge Development Box (KDP).

A bill is before the Dail which, if brought into law, would allow SMEs with patentable assets, but without the resources to get them patented, to tap into the tax break scheme.

The scheme was first announced in Budget 2015, and given effect in Budget 2016.

The Department has said that this will be available to companies with annual income from intellectual property that is less than 7.5m, and annual global turnover of 50m. Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced the KDB last year in the context of the phasing out, up to 2020, of the so-called Double Irish tax avoidance loophole used by multinationals.

Mr Noonan said it is the first so-called patent box that will comply with new international rules ensuring that intellectual property is generated in the jurisdiction where the tax rate will be applied.

The Strategy Group papers also show that cutting the rate of capital gains tax to 10pc for new startups, to be held for five years and subject to a 10m cap on gains, would cost 65m in a full year.

In Budget 2016, a reduced capital gains tax rate of 20pc was introduced on the sale of all or part of a business with an overall limit of 1m in chargeable gains.

The Department of Finance is also looking at the possibility of introducing a tax-advantaged share options scheme for small and medium-sized businesses.

In the papers, the Department states that possible changes could include allowing existing Revenue-approved schemes to have an element targeted at key employees.

One change would mean taxes wouldn't have to be paid on share awards until the stock is actually sold.
Leaving cert students in Dublin have been warned about a scam festival which is being advertised on social media.

The bogus festival is being advertised on Facebook as a celebration on Leaving Cert results night, August 17.

Some 2,700 students have already registered that theyre going.

However, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council issued a warning today that no such event has been given a licence.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has become aware of some social media sites advertising Leaving Cert festivals in Dublin.

One such festival was being arranged for Marlay Park. The council has not given, nor will be giving, any authorisation or licence for such events in any of its parks.

Senator Neale Richmond said the scam is all the more believeable because students already know Marlay Park as a music festival venue.

Its a complete scam, there is definitely no event taking place and everyone should be wary if they hear of someone going.

But because Marlay Park is now associated with festivals like Longitude, its quite convincing.

Ive asked a few younger siblings of friends and they havent been duped because theyre wise to it.

Senator Richmond added that once students register for the event they will receive correspondence from the scam artists asking them for payment details.

"Its a complete scam. Theyve been putting up a series of event pages and taking them down.

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It just puts up a generic link that takes you through to Ticketmaster and youve to register that you are going and then they contact you and ask you for payment.
The Star Trek Beyond premiere at San Diego Comic-Con was both a spectacularly exciting event yet also incredibly sad.

While it marked the first time a film has been screened outdoors on an IMAX and the first time a premiere was accompanied by a ninety-piece orchestra, the event was missing one person in particular: Anton Yelchin.

The actor tragically died passed away last month at the age of 27, much to everyones shock; the cast and crew paying their respects at the premiere.

As wonderful as this is to be here with all of you, and to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, there is something wrong tonight, producer J.J. Abrams told the crowd, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "There is something missing tonight, there is someone missing tonight."

"Anton Yelchin should be here. Antons parents are here, Irina and Victor. We love their son and if I could ask everyone to have a moment of silence for our dear friend, Anton.

Following the moments silence, fireworks were set off as the Star Trek theme was blasted out by the orchestra. Later on, Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the rebooted series, paid tribute to the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy.

"I Just want to take a moment to honour him, to acknowledge him, to celebrate him and to love him. We all carry him with us in our heart, tonight, he said.

Abrams recently confirmed that they will not recast Yelchin's character in the films. Star Trek Beyond is in UK cinemas now.
A 32-year-old Dublin man, who was shot last month, has lost a 60,000 claim in the Circuit Civil Court for personal injuries he suffered in a road traffic accident.

Judge Jaqueline Linnane said she had no option but to dismiss a claim by Jonathan Kenny, of Monasterboice Road, Crumlin, against taxi driver Michael McGuinness, of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, and the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland.

Judge Linnane said the MIBI made an application for the case to be dismissed in its entirety on the basis that the bureau had been joined as a co-defendant in the proceedings.

Barrister Elaine Morgan, for the MIBI, said a mandatory provision in the regulation stated that the bureau must be sued separately when a claim also involved an insured driver.

Ms Morgan said in this case, Mr McGuinness, driver of the taxi in which Mr Kenny was a passenger, was insured when an accident with an untraced driver happened in January 2014 at a roundabout between Clonard Road and Kildare Road in Crumlin.

The court heard that the untraced driver fled the scene and gardai had witnessed the accident.

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Mr Kennys legal team had opposed Mr Morgans application and argued that the court had jurisdiction to split the case into two separate proceedings.

Judge Linnane said that although she accepted that from a practical point of view this could be done, as the parties and witnesses were in court today, she had no option but to dismiss the claim in its entirety as the law was clear and the MIBI had raised the point in its defence.

The judge said Mr Kenny had still time to re-issue separate proceedings against Mr McGuiness and against the MIBI. She made no order as to legal costs.

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Mr Kenny, who was in court today, was shot last month in Crumlin and had undergone emergency surgery. He is a brother of Ian Kenny, who was shot in 2007. Ian Kenny died in 2009 after having spent two years in a coma following the shooting.

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Mr Kennys lawyer said his client suffered soft tissue injuries in the accident.

He told Independent.ie that he intends to appeal the decision.

Outside court, Mr Kenny said he was unhappy with the outcome of the claim.

Its disgraceful, he said.
A man who admitted killing a 42-year-old man on Christmas Eve two years ago is living with the deceased's widow and child, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

David Shanley (47), of Courtown Harbour, Gorey, Co Wexford pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of John Lawlor on December 24 or 25, 2014 at Ballinatray Lower, Courtown Harbour.

Last month counsel for the prosecution John O'Kelly SC said the plea of guilty to manslaughter was accepted by the State.

Counsel for Shanley Patrick Gageby SC added at the time that there was a "complex inter-family relationship at play" in the case.

When Shanley pleaded guilty six weeks ago it was agreed that he would be allowed remain on continuing bail until Friday, when a probation report would be produced. However, the court heard today that the probation officer had not finished his report and so sentencing was deferred.

Today the prosecution called Detective Sergeant Murt Whelan from Enniscorthy Garda Station to give evidence.

Det Sgt Whelan told the court that Shanley has been on bail from the High Court since he was initially charged with the offence in December 2014.

"Mr Shanley was previously found to be in breach of his bail conditions which were issued by the High Court. The terms of bail was that he would reside at his parent's address but I became aware that he was residing at the address of his partner which was outside Gorey in Co Wexford," he said.

The court heard that Shanley's current partner is the deceased's widow. Also residing in the house is the deceased's daughter.

Det Sgt Whelan said the matter was "complicated" as Shanley's partner is receiving ongoing treatment in hospital.

Shanley is a carer for his partner who has "serious health problems."

Det Sgt Whelan told the court that the case was then re-listed in the High Court and Shanley's bail terms were varied.

"Mr Shanley was allowed reside at his partner's to facilitate treatment but when she was an inpatient at the hospital he was to reside at his parent's address. There was also sign-on conditions," he said.

The court heard that Shanley is also living in close proximity to the deceased's family which "causes difficulties."

Mr Gageby explained that his client had no previous convictions and he accepted that this was a case which "had to go one way as there had been a loss of life."

Prosecuting counsel told the court that the deceased's family were "anxious" that the matter would be dealt with as the accused was living in the same village in Co Wexford as them.

Mr Justice Paul Butler said that Shanley had been convicted of the unlawful killing of another human being and it seemed to him that he was entitled to the benefit of a probation report.

"Obviously his bail conditions are open to question but that has been set by a judge of this court. I have to put it back to allow him to get this probation report but in the meantime it seems there should be an application to vary the bail conditions," he said.

The judge said he was not happy about Shanley's bail conditions but he did not want to interfere with the bail judge who dealt with this.

"It would be highly desirable if the prosecution and defence got together and sorted out the best scheme to determine the bail conditions," he added.

The matter was adjourned until next Thursday morning.
Rose Kennys brother Paul and daughter Jamie speak to the media outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday. Photo: Collins Courts

A man who launched a "vicious" knife attack on his ex partner is wanted in Thailand for the murder of a prostitute who was knifed to death.

Denis Leahy (50), of Queen Street, Dublin 7, was charged with attempting to murder Rose Kenny at School Street Flats, Dublin 8, on September 23, 2014.

Leahy pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Rose Kenny after the case opened at the Central Criminal Court on June 22. He had previously pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Ms Kenny at the same address on the same date.

Yesterday Mr Justice Paul Butler jailed Leahy for 14 years at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

There was no mention made during the case about Leahy's suspected involvement in the frenzied knife murder of Bupha Tanchiangpin (24) in south east Thailand in 2006.

Her hands were tied behind her back and she had stab wounds to her back, chest and neck whose when she was found in his apartment in Pattaya.

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Leahy was arrested after he was stopped by Thailand police on his way to the Cambodian border.

Speaking from his prison cell at the time Leahy reportedly told the Irish Star "I killed her".

"I had a fight with my girlfriend that morning and I wanted to make her jealous."

Despite this, Leahy never faced charges over the murder and later turned up in Dublin.

He will not be extradited to Thailand as no treaty exists between the two countries.

His ex-partner Kenny (51) was walking from her home at School Street Flats when she was savagely attacked and stabbed multiple times in the body, neck and throat.

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Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced Leahy to 14 years imprisonment and backdated it to September 23, 2014.

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"The lowest sentence I can impose on this case is 14 years. I considered a suspension but there is no basis on which to do so," he said.

He said the victim impact statement given by Ms Kenny last week was "so moving" that he had to adjourn sentencing until today to consider all the matters carefully.

He said the aggravating factors included the ferociousness of the attack and the injuries sustained to Ms Kenny.

"It was only thanks to the highly skillful medical intervention that Ms Kenny survived," he said.

The judge said the attack by Leahy was premeditated and had been planned "for at least a day." He also said there was a "lack of remorse" shown by the accused and the court considered the offence to be at the higher end of the scale.

The judge said the mitigating factors included the fact that the accused had "no relevant previous convictions".

"From an early stage, he admitted the facts and at a late stage he entered a plea to count one," he said.

The brother of Rose Kenny spoke on behalf of his sister outside court yesterday regarding the sentence handed down.

Paul Kenny said: "On behalf of Rose, we would like to thank our friends, family and the investigating team. Although we think no sentence would have been harsh enough, we are very pleased with the outcome and we now hope that Rose can get on with the rest of her life. It's a fairly stiff sentence but it's a terrible crime and we are glad the judge saw through everything."

Last week, Ms Kenny delivered an emotional victim impact statement to the court.

Afterwards speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice, the 51-year-old woman said the attack had "changed her completely".

"I've had to leave the area I grew up and worked in. I tried to go back to work but I just wasn't able for it. It has just completely changed my life and I don't trust the world the way I used to," she said.

The dedicated mother said she would forever have to live with the guilt that she had brought Leahy into her and her family's lives.

Ms Kenny said she sustained "multiple injuries" and "lacerations" to her neck, abdomen, back, shoulder and arm and is still recovering from her physical and mental scars.

She had been in a relationship with the accused for approximately five years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

They had parted on reasonable terms but she had had no contact with Leahy for six years prior to the offence on September 23, 2014.
The lawyer for a woman accused of murdering her colleague by driving him into a harbour, where he drowned, has said that if she had done so deliberately she would be "committing suicide".

Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC also said that the deceased was probably the one who had pulled the handbrake, but that this wasn't proof of guilt.

He was giving his closing speech to a jury in the Central Criminal Court trial yesterday.

Marta Herda, of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, Co Wicklow, is charged with the murder of 31-year-old Csaba Orsos on March 26, 2013.

The 29-year-old Polish waitress has pleaded not guilty to murdering the Hungarian at South Quay, Arklow.

Both had been in Ms Herda's car when it went into the water that morning. Ms Herda escaped but Mr Orsos couldn't swim and his body was found on a nearby beach later that day.

The trial heard that they had worked together, he was in love with her, but she didn't feel the same way. She told gardai he had spent two years following her.

Mr O Lideadha said that the prosecution case was completely unsustainable and didn't make any sense. He noted that the State had asked why Ms Herda had kept a Valentine's card that Mr Orsos had sent if he was harassing her.

"She doesn't concede this but other people seem to see what's going on," he said. "She actually gets something positive out of this as well, someone saying: 'I love you. You're the most amazing person.' Is that a criminal offence now?"

He suggested that this was also the reason she rang him on the morning of the incident.

"The suggestion she rang him at 5am to kill him is totally bizarre," he said.

He explained that a murder conviction could be brought in only where there was intent to kill or seriously injure.

He said that if the jurors decided that she may not have intended it, but was reckless about it and thought about the risk to life, a verdict of manslaughter would be open to them. "I would submit there's no evidence to support that conclusion," he said. He said it appeared she wanted a friendly relationship with the deceased. "She knows she should have just blanked him and she knows she shouldn't have got into a car with him," he said.

Mr O Lideadha said that much had been made of the fact that the deceased couldn't swim and that Ms Herda was a strong swimmer. He said that she had saved her own life, which was in great peril and, that as soon as she could, she got the message across that there was a man in the water who couldn't swim.

He said it was ludicrous to suggest that his client had driven into the water deliberately. "Just think of the terror," he said. "It's incredible that she would do it intentionally."

He asked for a verdict of not guilty. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy will begin charging the jury of eight men and four women this morning.
The Dail Public Accounts Committee accepts no responsibility for a suicide attempt by former Rehab Group chief executive Angela Kerins, the High Court has been told.

Ms Kerins revealed last week she felt forced to take her own life following "harassment and bullying" she alleges was led by members of the high-profile committee.

However, counsel for the PAC has rejected her allegation that the committee's behaviour triggered the suicidal episode.

Paul Gallagher SC said that while the committee was conscious of, and sympathetic to, the "serious difficulties" experienced by Ms Kerins, it did not accept any responsibility.

He was speaking as the PAC began its defence of a High Court action being taken by Ms Kerins. She is suing the committee, the State and the Attorney General, and is seeking damages after suffering a collapse in health and losing her job in the aftermath of an appearance before the PAC in 2014.

The court heard Ms Kerins is also seeking to have references to herself and her employment by Rehab removed from transcripts of committee hearings.

Mr Gallagher said Ms Kerins was seeking "unprecedented" powers to alter Dail records.

The relief sought was "entirely novel" and had "never been asked for before", he said.

The three-judge court has previously heard claims by Ms Kerins that PAC members engaged in "a vendetta" against her, displayed bias and sought to destroy her reputation.

Mr Gallagher said counsel for Ms Kerins had "made one suggestion after another" that comments made by PAC members were "untrue or misleading".

The barrister said the committee entirely rejected these claims. He also said that while distasteful remarks were sometimes made in parliament, the right to absolute privilege trumped any right the courts may have to intervene.

The court was told Article 15.13 of the Constitution stated that members of the Oireachtas shall not, in respect of anything they say in either the Dail or Seanad, be amenable to any court or authority other than the House itself.

Mr Gallagher said that what the court was being asked to do was to "make them amenable".

The barrister said free debate in the Oireachtas was protected by absolute privilege and that the PAC enjoyed the same protections.

He said this sometimes meant there may be comment in the Dail which impugns a person's character or that may be uncomfortable.

However, Mr Gallagher said privilege meant people had to "put up with the aspects that are distasteful".

Parliament, he said, was designed so that issues of concern to TDs and their constituents can be aired, debated and discussed. There was an international acceptance of the right to free speech in a parliament, counsel said.

High Court President Mr Justice Peter Kelly observed that the case being made by Mr Gallagher was that "the most monstrous things" may be said which may be untrue or damaging to a person's reputation, but because of absolute privilege it was not a matter for the courts.

Mr Gallagher said the former Rehab chief executive's case was that the courts have some sort of oversight function over Dail debates and could intervene to edit the record if someone's good name is impugned.

He said that if Ms Kerins's complaints were upheld, it would mean free speech would not be free anymore.

Earlier, judges viewing a video extract of a hearing on April 10, 2014, which Ms Kerins did not attend due to ill health.

They also heard a recording of a radio interview with then committee member Shane Ross in which he said the PAC had received legal advice that it could not compel Ms Kerins or another former Rehab chief executive, Frank Flannery, to attend hearings.
A man who stole almost 54,000 from the shop he worked in by awarding himself fake Lotto wins has been given a chance to repay the money to avoid going to prison.

Paul Kavanagh (25) spent the money on take-aways, taxis and cannabis his counsel said.

Judge Melanie Greally agreed to adjourn the case at Dublin Circuit Criminal court until January 13 next year in order to allow him repay 1,000 a month to the owner of the Londis shop in Dublin.

Counsel for Kavanagh, Tom Neville BL said that his client has nothing to show for the money, some of which was used to pay for his cannabis habit.

Kavanagh, of Belgard Square, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty to theft from Ray Sheehan, owner of the Londis Store on Park Gate Street between 2014 and 2015. Prosecuting counsel Marie Torrens BL said Kavanagh, a father of two, began working in the shop in 2014 and started having money troubles.

She said that he would process lottery wins through the system and then pocket the money.

The thefts came to light when the owner noticed three 150 lottery pay-outs on a day when the Lotto machine was broken.
Disgraced former Console chief Paul Kelly managed a brief smile as he visited his solicitors' office in Dublin accompanied by his wife Patricia.

But for the most part the couple looked sombre and preoccupied as they were photographed yesterday walking along Ormonde Quay - away from their parked and compact Toyota Yaris. The mode of transport is in contrast to the Mercedes and Audi cars they previously drove before they were handed over and sold following revelations that the Kellys had spent charity funds on their personal lifestyles.

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Dressed in a blue shirt and jeans, a tanned Mr Kelly appeared to have shaved off his trademark moustache.

The couple are now in receipt of a supplementary welfare allowance of 300.

The High Court was told Paul Kelly cannot afford to pay the mortgages of 5,200-a-month on his four-bedroom family home in Clane or the former Console headquarters in Celbridge in Kildare.

He needs to get access to documentation in Console's main computer to generate a P45 to claim unemployment benefit.

A liquidator is attempting to sort out debts of almost 300,000 which have been left following the closure of Console.

Pieta House has taken over the helpline and suicide bereavement counselling services which had been provided by Console.
Dr Oisin OConnell, vice-president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, with secretary general Martin Varley, president Dr Tom Ryan and vice-president Dr Roy Browne at Leinster House

Struggling hospitals are being forced to treat patients with "antique" medical equipment which can break down in the middle of procedures, leading doctors warned yesterday.

Cutbacks have left Sligo Regional Hospital relying on a fluoroscopy unit - used for X-ray exams - which is 15 years old. It can be maintained only by using parts from a decommissioned version imported from Japan, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) revealed.

Launching the IHCA's pre-Budget submission, IHCA President Dr Tom Ryan, an anaesthetist at St James's Hospital, Dublin, said in his own hospital there was not enough funding to replace endoscopes, which are used to examine the inside of the body.

"If you do not have enough endoscopes, you have to wait until the endoscopes get cleaned between patients and, so consequently, the efficiency of your unit gradually drops and you can process fewer and fewer patients. You should have more endoscopes than patients," he said.

Dr Oisin O'Connell, specialist in heart and lung transplantation in the Mater Hospital, revealed that overcrowding means cancer and transplant patients can be reduced to competing for the same bed.

"If a cancer patient needs to be admitted in these circumstances, their operation can be cancelled," he said.

"A transplant patient who gets sick with pneumonia or rejection may need the same bed.

"My patients don't have time to wait."

Some patients must be referred to the hospital's emergency department in a bid to secure a bed through that route rather than direct admission.

He returned to Ireland after training in top hospitals abroad but he said he was still without an office.

Doctors ended up "begging" for supports and facilities, making business cases which were deemed unaffordable by the HSE, he added.

The Mater has just seven ringfenced beds for transplant patients even though the numbers undergoing these vital operations have risen by 360pc in the past five years.

"The Mater is well run but not being supported," he added.

The IHCA is calling for a "realistic health budget" for acute hospitals and mental health services.

Secretary-general Martin Varley said the difficulties in recruiting hospital consultants here appeared to be worsening and last year one in four of these jobs which were advertised had no applicant.

Some 65pc of posts for psychiatrists could not be filled last year. In some hospitals, one-third of consultants are temporary.

Dr Roy Browne, a psychiatrist, pointed out that interviews for consultant posts used to attract "queues" of doctors but the conditions they face mean it is increasingly difficult to encourage medics to work here in a competitive global market. Pay cuts for new entrants mean there is still a salary gap between doctors working in the same specialities.
IRELAND will co-operate "where we can" in terms of EU defence - while maintaining our neutrality, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

In a strong condemnation of the recent terror attacks in Nice, Mr Kenny said Ireland "stands by France".

"France is a great nation. The birthplace of republicanism and human rights. These values are more valuable than ever in a turbulent and dangerous world. We must protect them," he said.

Foreign media have touted plans by French President Francois Hollande to visit a number of EU capitals in the coming weeks as an attempt to get support for an EU army.

However, he said that Ireland was playing its part without engaging in military activity.

"Defence, protection and security and protection of our borders, that's what people expect of the EU.

"Not to close in on themselves but to... open up with conditions of security," Mr Hollande said.

Addressing the Irish situation, he added: "When France was struck in November and in January and in 2015, I turned to my European partners. I asked them to support France and to have even stronger protection of our territory.

"Ireland responded with a positive answer respecting its neutral status. Even though Ireland is not a member of Nato they wanted to be in solidarity with France and I'll never forget that," he said.

The French leader also noted that a number of Irish soldiers were redeployed to Mali to replace French officers on a peace-keeping mission after they came under threat.

"I hope defence can be strengthened in the years ahead. Ireland because of its principles and neutrality is not a member of Nato but is aware of the risks in the world and that Europe has to get rid of this threat.

"Attacks on our liberty are indiscriminate. They attack everywhere that they think freedom is the vital rule.

"That is why Ireland has already associated itself with certain initiatives in Africa," he said.

Mr Kenny said Ireland would actively help prevent terrorism.

He noted that officials from the Department of Justice are in discussions with the UK authorities about the sharing of information contained on internet servers.
The country will be saddled with an increased bill of around 280m every year for the foreseeable future, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has indicated.

As a result of the astonishing 26.3pc growth rate recorded by the Central Statistics Office for 2015, Ireland's base for contributions to the European Union has been reset.

However, Mr Noonan has said that Ireland can afford the payments which could amount to billions over the coming years.

"We will have extra corporation tax, certainly sufficient to meet 280m," he said. "We got nearly 1bn extra last year.

"It's moving Irish GDP up to a new plateau. But it's a once off.

"If we are on a new plateau, what it means in effect is that the corporations, who pay the corporation tax last year, should be equally profitable this year.

"And they should be paying in and around the same amount of corporation tax."

Meanwhile, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has said that Ireland's distorted gross domestic product (GDP) figures have made them less useful to potential investors looking at Irish debt.

Figures released from the Central Statistics Office last week pointed to an enormous 26pc increase in Ireland's GDP. Ireland's growth was distorted by tax inversion deals by pharmaceutical and aircraft leasing companies.

As a result debt investors now must look at other aspects of the Irish economy to determine its attractiveness, NTMA chief executive Conor O'Kelly has said.

"There was the market impact from the surprise of the statistics - we fed a lot of calls from investors. There was a lot of explaining to do. Investors we've been speaking to are looking to other factors of our economic health for our ability to repay as opposed to GDP to debt ratio," Mr O'Kelly said.

The NTMA boss was speaking at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, where he said Ireland remained very much an "indebted nation".
New politics, old holidays and few new laws. That is a not very encouraging thumbnail sketch of the first term of Ireland's strangest Dail as TDs clocked out last night until September 27, nine-and-half weeks from now.

Elected on February 26 last, it struggled from its first sitting day, on March 10, to make sense of the crazy political mosaic that makes up this 32nd Dail. After 70 tortuous days, the hybrid minority Coalition, led by Fine Gael and including diverse Independent ministers, but orchestrated in the background by Fianna Fail, literally stumbled into office on Friday, May 6 last.

What we have had since is termed "new politics". We are to have a score of committees, there will be pre-legislative scrutiny and post-legislative scrutiny.

The elected parliament will no longer be a rubberstamp for matters driven by senior officials and decided by government ministers. But many veterans of Leinster House believe we have gone from one extreme to the other.

Tough decisions on third-level education funding, on health funding and organisation and local taxation are unlikely to be faced. We have the spectacle of three Independent ministers rejecting the Attorney General's advice and voting against their Fine Gael Cabinet colleagues.

We have had Fianna Fail flexing its muscles and issuing veiled warnings. We have seen Fine Gael members being decidedly unhappy, with doubts about the timing of the Taoiseach's departure and the timing of the next election. In sum, this Government often seems to have far too many things working against it.

Meanwhile, the Dail completed just eight pieces of legislation. Most of them were hangovers from the previous Dail. One of them was a decision to formalise the fudge by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to postpone water charges for nine months. In essence it is a decision to put a decision on hold.

Three pieces of legislation were cleared yesterday, two of which are important to citizens' everyday lives. One aims to curb the abuse of drugs mainly available on prescription, and another aims to scrutinise lower-level criminals' ill-gotten assets.

There has also been a quiet reversion to "old holidays". The return date is over nine weeks hence. There is some political cover as the builders move in next week to do works on a very venerable building.

Nor will the TDs and senators take nine weeks off. If they did, they would be political toast before long.

In fact, after a very grinding year, our politicians need a break, and the nation could do with a scaling back of full-on politics. Let's hope the time off is used to reflect on "better politics" in place of "new politics".
Karo Yeghnukyan did not support armed group members - lawyer (video)

The arrest of Karo Yeghnukyan, a member of the New Armenia movement, was ungrounded, his lawyer Tigran Hayrapetyan said on July 22. The lawyer says the National Security Agency tapped Yeghnukyan phone calls in the recent days and knew that he was in touch with the members of the Sasna Dzrer armed group occupying a police building in Yerevans Erebuni district since July 17. They also heard his telephone conversation with Variujan Avetisyan who said the gunmen did not have enough food and access to information. They discussed a possible solution to these problems. Judging by the conversation, the NSS concluded that Yeghnukyan supported the group. The lawyer says the desire to support the group is not sufficient ground for arrest. Yeghnukyan was taken into custody on the night of July 19, after NSS employees searched his house for five hours. The lawyer said after later when Yeghnukyan asked why he was being held, his captors said that he had supported the Sasna Dzrer group during the past two days and had been in telephone contact with them.
A lost cat has been reunited with his owner after turning up in England 18 months after disappearing from his Irish home.

Julie Blair thought her beloved pet was gone for ever when he vanished from Belfast last year.

But she was stunned to receive a phone call from an animal rescue charity this week telling her that the cat was alive and well - and in Liverpool.

She travelled over yesterday to be reunited with him.

Exactly how the cat, named Danny Boy by his rescuers, arrived on Merseyside is unclear.

"We've absolutely no idea how he got to Liverpool," Julie said.

The dark grey and white cat was spotted near a busy road last week trying to get left-over food from a takeaway. Locals said he had been there for several weeks.

Rachel Foster, a volunteer with Garston Animal Rescue, a charity which looks after abandoned animals, picked the stray cat up.

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Bizarrely, even though they did not know he was from Northern Ireland, staff nicknamed him Danny Boy.

After checking his microchip, they were astonished to learn his owner was from Belfast.

Despite being missing for 18 months, the cat was very healthy.

"I've had him since he was a kitten, but he disappeared about 18 months ago and I assumed the worst," Julie said.

"Then a few days ago I got this lovely phone call out of the blue to say the cat had been found.

"I think they presumed I had moved to Liverpool.

"I had noticed the caller had a bit of an accent, so I asked where she was from, and she said Liverpool - I couldn't believe it."

Julie got the ferry over yesterday to collect the cat and bring him back to Belfast.

She said she wanted him back immediately, no matter what it would cost.

"To get a call to say he had turned up in Liverpool was just brilliant," she added.

"I wouldn't allow the charity to re-home him. I wanted him home, absolutely - whatever it costs. I got the boat over yesterday to collect the cat and am coming straight back."

Julie is a big animal lover and is involved with a charity in Belfast that rescues Cavalier King Charles spaniels. She even used her unexpected trip to Liverpool to bring over two dogs, Bella and Jasmine, to meet up with their new owners.

"I do rescues, and I know that anything is possible," she explained. "I've another cat who I call Lagmore Larry because he was found in Lagmore and he disappears from time to time. A while ago he disappeared for six months and turned up at Crumlin Road Gaol."

She is mystified as to how her other cat ended up in Liverpool.

"He's a big, fat boy - as fat as when he left us," Julie said.

"I'm presuming that he went missing in Belfast and some nice family rescued him and didn't think to check his chip.

"Perhaps they moved to Liverpool and took him with them - I really haven't a clue."

Nancy Lindsay, the trustee and founder of Garston Animal Rescue, said it was possible the cat had sneaked onto a lorry bound for England.

"We got a call to say that there was a stray cat hanging around on the busy Speke Hall Road trying to get left-over food from a nearby takeaway, and that he'd been there for some weeks," she explained.

"So one of our volunteers, Rachel Foster, picked him up for us and got him to safety.

"We got him settled in, fed him and gave him a comfy bed for the night.

"We called him Danny Boy and thought no more about it. We were just glad that he was safe and away from the traffic.

"We then checked him to see if he had a microchip, so then we'd be able to reunite him with his owner.

"To our astonishment we found that his owner lived in Belfast. Julie was just as shocked as we were to find that he was safe and well, and somehow he'd got himself to Liverpool."

Nancy added that staff were looking forward to reuniting owner and cat.

"We keep telling him that his mum is coming for him, just as soon as she can get a boat over," she explained.

"But how he got here - and when - is something that only Danny Boy knows. And so far, he's not telling us.

"We're happy and glad to be able to get him back to his home, safe and sound. Everyone here has fallen in love with him. He's such a gorgeous, friendly cat."
An Irishman was left red-faced after he was caught on camera engaged in a public sex act on Thai television.

A woman, who claimed to be from the US, was filmed performing the lewd act on the Irishman on the party island of Phi Phi .

The pair are understood to have been outside the The Hussin House Hotel when a local man became angry with them.

The Irishman responds, I apologise while putting his hands together.

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The locals then threaten to call the police and tell the couple to stay where they are.

They are asked where they are from and the man replies that he is from Ireland while the woman says she is American.

The clip first appeared on Pattayaone.net and it has sparked a huge reaction online.
A 36-year-old man who had just returned to Ireland after working abroad has been reported missing.

Michael Sheridan, who is missing from the Ferefad area of Longford, had been working in England.

He had just returned to Ireland on the day he was last seen, on July 21.

Michael is described as being 510 to 511, with an average build and with short greying hair.

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When last seen, he was wearing grey/green jeans, navy/blue top and "Adidas runners.

Anyone who has seen Michael or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Longford Garda Station on 0433350570, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station
Regional development minister Heather Humphries said today the Government has a national plan for rural development in the country, admitting that many communities feel isolated and forgotten.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties in Co Donegal the politician also hit out at self perpetuating negativity of those criticising rural communities.

Ireland is a small country, but it is easy to feel isolated or forgotten when you live in an area which has often been overlooked in terms of investment, both domestic and foreign, she said.

As someone who lives on a farm in rural Ireland just a few miles from the border, I know that feeling.

She said he welcomed having the debate in Co Donegal.

Too often these conversations take place in the cosy confines of Dublin 2, she said.

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Announcing an Action Plan for Rural Ireland, he said: The Action Plan format, developed so successfully through the Action Plan for Jobs, takes a strategic approach based on implementation.

Government Departments are given key objectives which they must meet in the context of regional and local priorities.

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A regular and structured reporting mechanism will be initiated and progress reports will be delivered to the Cabinet Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs chaired by an Taoiseach.

Included in this process will be the consideration of regional and rural issues in the design of the National Planning Framework.

This framework is the follow up to the National Spatial Strategy and its development will be lead by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

The Minister said the Government wants to ensure that as the economy continues to recover, people living in rural areas are given a fair crack of the whip.

We want to build a more evenly spread recovery, which in turn will help build a fairer and more just society. Much of the rhetoric bandied about in relation to rural Ireland is inaccurate and has a self perpetuating negativity, he said.

Despite much talk of rural Ireland being in decline, we know that the official statistics show that the fastest jobs growth has been outside the capital. Unemployment has fallen in every region since the crash.

The minister admitted that the lack of broadband in rural areas remained one of the most serious issue affecting those communities.

In my view, the single most important factor in the sustainability and continued rejuvenation of rural Ireland and the regions is the roll out of rural broadband, she said.

High speed broadband has the potential to be a game changer for rural Ireland, and its development and investment opportunities.

It will quite literally plug rural communities into a world of opportunities which are currently out of reach.

Delivering the National Broadband Plan is a top priority for Government and the allocation of new responsibilities at Cabinet level also signals the Governments firm intention to address broadband and other telecoms challenges in rural Ireland.

The Minister said she met local authority managers yesterday to discuss her plans.

The aim is to deliver high speed broadband to every home, school and business by 2020 through a combination of commercial investment and State intervention.

Essentially, the State will intervene where commercial providers are failing to reach.

The Department of Communications is continuing to manage the procurement process for the State contract, which is expected to be awarded in Summer 2017.

In the meantime, my new Department is working with local authorities to eliminate any roadblocks, so we can ensure that towns and villages and rural areas are broadband ready when the contract is signed. Its about getting the runway ready now, so the plane can land smoothly next summer.

It is difficult to overestimate the challenge we are facing.

The broadband blackspots in need of State intervention account for 750,000 addresses, and cover 96% of our land mass. Were talking about 100,000km of road network, traversing areas which are home to 1.8 million people.

Put simply; its a very big job - it's akin to rural electrification. But it will be worth the effort, and it will have a transformative effective on rural Ireland.
Dean Johnson was shot dead near his home in Clondalkin, West Dublin, in August 2013 in a case of mistaken identity

The rate of gun homicide in Ireland is nearly six times higher than in England and Wales.

More than 200 people have been shot dead in Ireland in the past decade, around half the number of those killed in England and Wales despite their vastly larger population.

CSO figures show that 201 people were shot dead in the State between 2005 and 2015. A further 262 people were shot and injured.

In England and Wales, where there is more than 10 times the population (56 million), Office of National Statistics figures reveal that there were just 420 gun murders in the same 10-year period.

This works out at an average of 0.44 gun homicides per 100,000 of population in Ireland per annum, but just 0.075 in England and Wales - almost six times higher.

The family of one victim here have called for stricter firearm control and greater resources for gardai investigating serious crimes.

Dean Johnson (21) was shot dead near his home in Clondalkin, West Dublin, in August 2013 in a case of mistaken identity.

His brother Andrew said the statistics were "crazy". "Gun crime is out of control in this country. When someone close to you is killed, you have to deal with it every day," he said.
A 17-year-old has been charged with causing the death of Valerie Armstrong by dangerous driving.

The mother-of-three, from Poleglass, Belfast, died on Wednesday after she was hit by a scrambler bike while out walking her dog in Colin Glen Forest Park.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, received a second charge of driving without insurance at Belfast Magistrates Court.

Asked by district judge Neil Rafferty if he understood the charges, the tearful teenager nodded.

While standing outside the dock in a grey polo shirt and black trousers, he could be seen struggling as the charges were read.

When asked for his age the teenager replied he would be 18 next month.

The court heard that the teenager had waited with the woman at the scene of the crash in Colin Glen Forest Park until the ambulance arrived.

A Detective Constable told the court he had also been extremely remorseful in custody.

Charges have been remanded until August 18, where the youth will appear by video link from Hydebank prison where he will remain in custody.

As he was led from the court the boy's mother called out to him.
An Irish woman who carried on with her pregnancy after doctors told her child was incompatible with life has opened up about her experience and said her daughter Grace deserved a chance despite the bleak statistics.

Sixteen weeks into her pregnancy, Sinead McBreen was told by doctors that her baby would not survive and her pregnancy would not go to term. The mum-of-five revealed that scans showed that there was a large swelling (cystic hygroma) on the babys neck and fluid was placing pressure on its heart.

Speaking to The Ray Darcy Show on RTE Radio One Sinead said: The pregnancy was normal. We had an early scan at seven weeks which showed a heartbeat. Everything was perfect as it should be. We had another at twelve weeks and at sixteen weeks we went for a third scan in our local hospital, where the doctor could see something wrong.

He explained that there was a large swelling in the neck. He said Look its probably going to be a chromosomal abnormality. He mentioned Down Syndrome. We were devastated obviously. Luckily we had an appointment the following day to head to Dublin to see what was going to happen there. We were worried. Although I had seen the scan and I was very, very big.

I looked six months pregnant. We went to Dublin and it went downhill within a few hours. When they were scanning they said I dont know why youre even here today, this should have been a very early miscarriage.

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Sinead, from Cavan, underwent a CVS (chorionic villus sampling) test to determine if her baby has a chromosomal abnormality, and the results suggested that the child Sinead was expecting had Down Syndrome. Although Down Syndrome is compatible with life, doctors believed the other medical hurdles facing Sineads child meant that the chances of it surviving were minuscule and they suggested she should consider a termination.

She was devalued straight away. It was like Theres an abnormality here. It doesnt really matter, said Sinead.

Fatal foetal abnormality isnt a medical term so that is never used. We were told the baby was not compatible with life they said Its not going to survive.

This is what my issue was. There was a pressure. There was an expectation that you should terminate. There was never any support where they said Well work through this with you.

They said Why do you want to continue with a pregnancy thats going nowhere?

I said Every day was going to be a bonus. If she lives for a few hours, her sisters and brothers will get to hold her.

I felt like they were looking at me like I was a silly woman.

It wasnt that. I believed them. I knew the statistics werent great. I didnt see that as being an option, said Sinead.

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The part-time nurse said despite the stacked odds against her daughter, she believed she deserved a chance at life, although she had researched what a termination would involve.

I felt like it wasnt for me to make the decision. When I looked into what an abortion was going to entail at that late stage I thought Oh no, I cant. Until youre in that position its very easy to say what you would or wouldnt do.

If the baby is not going to survive why terminate. Can we not let nature takes its course. I thought if we could get to 24 weeks, shed get a birth cert, wouldnt that be lovely. We named her at this stage, Grace, said Sinead.

Although Sinead was not expected to reach term she said she felt very supported when she went into labour.

I had Grace in our local hospital and it was an amazing experience. Everyone was so supportive at that stage and they were all ready for what was going to happen. I was prepared.

Grace was born pink and screaming and perfect. Shes 20 months old and tearing the place apart. Shes walking and saying words and is adored by her family, she said.

The mum of five, who is affiliated with One More Day- a support group for parents who receive poor pre-natal prognoses, said that she does not blame doctors for their diagnosis ahead of Graces birth.

Was it a misdiagnosis? They dont know. They cant explain. Nobody can say why she survived. The scary part for me is that if I had gone ahead with a termination, I wouldnt know any different today.

Being a nurse, I know that doctors are human. They only go on what theyve seen. I was so grateful when Grace was born. I would just like to move on and get one about it.

I was told she was one in a million. I remember one of the doctors said Im coming up to see this miracle child that wasnt supposed to be.

She survived, one in a million. Was she worth one in a million? In my opinion she was. We do the lotto for worse chances, said Sinead.

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The mum believes that nobody knows how long a child will live, and said that women who decide to continue on with their pregnancies should be more supported.

Nobody can say how long a child will survive and this is what it comes back to. When we talk about so called fatal foetal abnormalities... I cant talk about other cases, only my own.

Grace is worth it.

Its a horrific situation to be put in. I can only talk about my situation.

I think to offer a woman a termination is depriving them of a chance of a few minutes with their baby. I think we need to sit down and think about this for a minute.

I knew Grace wasnt suffering and all I wanted to do was give her a chance, and if its only one in a million is it not worth that one?

The HSE have been contacted but declined to comment on Sineads case.
A friend remarked to me during the week that "there is more chance of time travel than there is of a united Ireland".

He was reacting to Enda Kenny's flagging of the possibility of a poll aimed at joining together the two parts of Ireland if the North decides it would prefer to be part of the EU than the UK.

Kenny raised the possibility of a North/South poll in remarks to journalists following a speech he delivered at the Glenties summer school in Donegal a few days ago.

As we know, a majority of people who voted in the North during the recent UK Brexit referendum wanted to stay in the EU. Realistically, the only way they are going to able to stay in the EU is by becoming part of a united Ireland. So which do they want more, to be part of the EU or part of the UK? They can't have both, not if the UK goes ahead and leaves the EU.

Scotland is obviously in the same position. Come to think of it, maybe Scotland should also become part of a united Ireland, or rather a 'United States of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland', a bit like the current 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' only without the kingdom.

Is such a possibility even less likely than time travel? Almost certainly, but we live in a strange new world, and over the course of history all kinds of very unexpected things have happened. Very few predicted the collapse of the Iron Curtain as soon as 1989, for example, and the map of Europe has changed in countless ways and countless times over the centuries. It would be ridiculous to say this won't happen countless more times in the future and in all kinds of ways we can't even begin to contemplate now.

But how badly do those of us living in the Republic actually want a united Ireland? In theory, we probably do. How we would vote once we began to think about it a bit might be a whole different matter, however. Let's test out a few scenarios and see what we think.

Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that one possible way to entice some unionists to vote for a united Ireland would be for people in the South to give up an elected Head of State and agree to accept the British monarch as our Head of State, a la Australia or Canada?

I doubt if many people down here would wear that apart from a few Fine Gaelers. We would hear a lot of nonsense about how a republic is morally superior in and of itself to a constitutional monarchy as though Ireland is therefore automatically superior to a Sweden or a Denmark, a Belgium or a Netherlands. Or a Britain, Canada or Australia for that matter.

But I just don't think we'd wear it anyway, no matter what the argument. It would seem like too much of a step back even though we'd be asking unionists to give up everything they have ever stood for in return for us giving up only a bit.

Would we join the Commonwealth as part of a compromise? Maybe. Only 16 out of the 53 Commonwealth countries have the queen as their Head of State.

How would a united Ireland affect the make-up of Leinster House? Unless Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour could gain a decent toe-hold in the North, their share of the national vote would diminish. Sinn Fein's share of the national vote would increase. But for the first time in decades, Leinster House would have to put up with a genuinely socially conservative party in the shape of the Democratic Unionist Party (or whatever it would call itself post-unity).

It would have roughly 10pc of the national vote based on its election performances in the North, but actually it would have a decent shot at making inroads in the South because we no longer have a socially conservative party here and therefore there are lots of essentially disenfranchised voters they could make a pitch for. This could increase their share of the national vote to 15pc or more.

In a (say) 200-seat Dail, that would give them 30 or so seats and they would find themselves part of a coalition government a lot of the time. How would the great erstwhile unionist paper, 'The Irish Times', cope with that?

The fantasy used to be that a united Ireland would be more liberal than the Republic because Protestants are supposedly more liberal than Catholics. But a united Ireland would see a genuinely conservative party in the Dail of the sort that would have 'Irish Times' readers reaching for the smelling salts. Would that give them second thoughts about a united Ireland?

Who would a revamped, renamed DUP coalesce with? The most likely candidate would be Fine Gael, which has always been the more sympathetic by far of the two main Southern parties towards unionism. But how would Fine Gael, more liberal by the day, cope with the DUP's social conservatism?

Third thoughts on the part of a big majority of the electorate would be prompted by the certainty that Sinn Fein would become a lot stronger. Even if it does not manage to grow its share of the vote in the South, the fact it is the second-biggest party in the North, only a few percentage points behind the DUP, would be a huge boost for it. It would become almost impossible to keep it out of power when coalition governments have become totally unavoidable and the make-up of those coalitions more unpredictable.

Finally, there would be the economic effect of a united Ireland. When Germany reunited, the German economy felt the strain.

The economy of Northern Ireland is hugely propped up by England. Very large numbers of people work in the public sector. According to Fine Gael MEP, Brian Hayes, about 40pc of workers in the North are employed in the public sector. The private sector is very weak.

Unless the EU agreed to heavily subsidise Irish unity, a united Ireland would economically damage both the North and the South. In fact, there would be absolutely no chance of a united Ireland unless the EU did agree to subsidise the venture. After all, why would a unionist agree to give up the tie with the UK in order to keep the tie with the EU unless it was economically beneficial?

But most unionists voted to quit the EU in the recent referendum so clearly the EU is not that appealing to them. It must also be remembered that unionists are nationalists. They are not especially enamoured of a post-national project like the EU.

In other words, the chance of a united Ireland happening any time in the foreseeable future is absolutely negligible. My friend is right - time travel is more likely.
Finally a degree of normality has descended on the UK. While the Labour party remains in chaos, there is at least a functioning government in place. With Theresa May as prime minister, there is relief that a grown-up is in charge after the bedlam of the last few weeks in UK politics.

Her first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel was upbeat, sensible and devoid of hyperbole. These are two pragmatic operational politicians, clear-thinking and competent. People have had their fill of egocentric celebrity politicians at this stage and Europe needs resolute leadership.

Right across Europe, disillusioned voters are flocking to anti-establishment far-right politics. There are now over 100 Eurosceptic far-right MEPs. Freedom and self-determination is their mantra. These groups celebrated the Brexit outcome as a victory for the far-right. Emboldened by the Leave vote, they view Nigel Farage as an inspiration. Despite resigning as Ukip leader, there are suggestions that Farage will work with other movements campaigning for Leave referendums in their own country.

Meanwhile in the United States, the same nationalistic and illiberal impulses which emerged in the Brexit campaign are fuelling the Trump campaign. It is a credo that appeals to voters anxious to take their nation back and look after Americans rather than embrace global problems. It's about going it alone, making their country great again; a rejection of traditional political elites and the embrace of a new anti-intellectual arrogance.

As if to prove the commonality between the two campaigns, Farage fetched up at the Republican convention in Cleveland. His message to delegates was to engage ordinary people ignored by the political establishment and allow them to speak to their true feelings and fears about immigration and sovereignty. His rhetoric, like Trump's, is politically incorrect and emotive, appealing to the disaffected and those nostalgic for a less complicated past.

While former rival Ted Cruz was booed off the Convention stage and the demonisation of Hillary Clinton continued unabated, vox pops with delegates exposed fervent adulation for Trump. They believe that a Trump presidency will be their salvation, "making America great again and keeping Americans safe".

The American press corps are not shy; it was instructive to see Boris Johnson being chided for his "thesaurus of insults" by journalists repeating verbatim what he had said about Hillary Clinton and others in his colourful journalistic career. Although tidied up for the joint press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry, he blundered comically through the event like a student debater batting off hecklers. His is a questionable appointment, one which the prime minister may regret.

There are so many serious challenges on the international stage in which the UK has a stake, such as the ongoing war in Syria, instability in Turkey and the worsening security situation in Europe, that the prime minister has to galvanise her best talent to attend to the various fronts of immediate concern. That she succeeds in brokering a pragmatic deal for the UK's departure from the EU is in Ireland's interests. Any economic disadvantage to the UK economy will be ours too.

Which makes me gasp at the timing of the Taoiseach's musings about a border poll on Irish unity as part of the Irish Brexit discussions. Thinking out loud about a poll on Irish reunification at this juncture is not helpful to Anglo-Irish relations. True, a united Ireland remains a legitimate aspiration in our Constitution on the basis of consent. Article 2 Annex A of the Good Friday Agreement states that the Northern Secretary can trigger a poll on the matter "if at any time it appears likely to him/her that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the UK and form part of a united Ireland".

The Taoiseach accepts the conditions for the holding of such a border poll are not in place or even proximate. So why poison the well of goodwill needed with unionists and the British government by bringing this up? We should not take political stability and peace for granted. It is not so long ago that removing the Union flag from Belfast City Hall prompted loyalist riots and sustained street protests. Overreaching by nationalists on issues which touch on sovereignty or allegiance is ill judged. The Government should focus on practical trade and travel issues and a soft border which are essential factors in Anglo-Irish relations post-Brexit and leave constitutional issues alone for now.

It is wrong and provocative to conflate a Remain vote in Northern Ireland with a contingent support for Irish unity. The two issues are totally separate.

Constitutional issues need diplomacy and long lead-in times. Central to the peace process has been a respectful partnership between the two governments as custodians. The new prime minister has stressed her desire to preserve the Union and will not be impressed with a poll on Irish unity being so casually and prematurely thrown into the mix. Touting it was bound to aggravate unionists, particularly after their earlier rejection of an all-island forum on Brexit issues. We know from long experience that unionists are deeply suspicious of creeping cross-border initiatives, however benign.

The northern executive, led by Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness, needs to work together with the two governments for pragmatic solutions to Brexit challenges and not be distracted by hypothetical and needlessly divisive propositions. Let sleeping dogs lie.
"Who gave you the right to cede territories? Did you son die in Karabakh?" say angered citizens (video)

It seems the authorities in Armenia do not conceal the fact that the issue of transfer of the table there are five liberated regions. Representatives of the ruling party [Republican Patty of Armenia -HHK] do not avoid using the word compromise on various occasions while our fellow citizens exclude any type of compromise. You cannot cede something that you have taken with bloodshed. Our 18-year-old boys sacrificed their lives for these lands in the April war. That can never happen after shedding so much blood, they say. Citizens say they are ready to take to the streets if the government starts handing over territories. We will join everyone else to fight for those lands because the death of our young soldiers lies on our conscience, said a woman. Our generation that witnessed the four-day war in Karabakh will never allow this to happen, added a girl. Our citizens say of the authorities decide to surrender the liberated territories that will be the greatest treason. Who gave you the right to sign or cede even an inch of land? Did you son die there? It is the sons of our poor compatriots that died for these lands, people say. Many of our respondents think the seizure of a police station in Yerevan is linked to the talks over Nagorno Karabakh. The freedom fighters were forced to take such a step for the sake of Artsakh. The people who stormed the building are Karabakh war veterans who I do not think fought for Artsakh to be called rebels or terrorists today, said resident.
Merci, Francois. The French president came to Dublin yesterday making all the right noises.

In contrast to the dour realism of Angela Merkel a couple of weeks back, Francois Hollande told us what we desperately wanted, and needed, to hear: Ireland was entitled to "a special place" in the negotiations on the UK's departure from the EU.

The German Chancellor had played down the idea of specific guarantees around trade and the common travel area - and seemed to suggest that Ireland's relationship with the UK was little different to that of Germany or many other EU countries.

Hollande, though, graciously acknowledged that Ireland is "even more of a neighbour [to the UK] than France".

So that's good, right?

Well, yes, and certainly Enda Kenny must have been relieved that, after what happened with Merkel, one of the two key players in the EU was on message.

It certainly wouldn't have augured well if Hollande had been as coldly non-committal as Merkel was.

But there's a danger of reading too much into Monsieur Le President's benevolence, just as some of us - yes, hands up, this writer included - may have been overly despondent at what the German chancellor had to say.

The caveats surrounding Hollande's soothing noises are pretty obvious.

He is talking the talk but there are no guarantees that he will walk the walk on the issue. The French government hasn't always been our biggest ally at European level in recent years.

To be fair to Hollande, he has been very consistent on Ireland's corporation tax rate - unlike his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, who consistently expressed opposition to it.

But it would be naive to ignore the realpolitik that the French President is, very understandably, currently on a charm offensive to win support for beefed-up EU security measures.

And the French government is also far more hostile to Britain's position, post-Brexit, than Chancellor Merkel is.

It would be wise to view Hollande's comments in that wider context - and, in relation to both Hollande and Merkel, in the context of the elections that are due to take place in both France and Germany next year.

Both Hollande and Merkel are facing re-election long before the actual talks on Brexit are likely to really come to a head.

So even though Merkel's seeming pooh-poohing of Ireland's special requirements was depressing, it may have been a case of political and electoral expediency.

Plus, Merkel doesn't really do charm offensives - even with Enda Kenny, who apparently she genuinely likes and respects. The pragmatist in her would prefer not to give hostages to fortune well in advance of any negotiations actually beginning.

And with elections around the corner, of course she's going to talk up the German car sector's dependence on the British market, as opposed to Ireland's needs.

The hope - and belief within Government circles - is that the Germans know the reality of Ireland's unique relationship with the UK (though it would have been nice if she had been a little more nuanced in her comments).

While the odds favour Merkel still being Chancellor after 2017, the same cannot be said of Hollande, who is struggling domestically.

You can get 7-1 on him being re-elected next May, fourth in the betting behind Alain Juppe, Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen. If that proves an accurate reflection of what'll happen, then what Hollande said the previous July in Dublin will matter little.

And that's the point about Brexit negotiations: it's the long game that the Government - or perhaps more accurately, the Irish State - needs to play. Enda Kenny almost certainly won't be Taoiseach by the time the negotiations get to the meat of the matter. It could even be Micheal Martin in situ by the time that happens.

Whoever it is, it's vital that we know exactly what we want by the time those talks begin in earnest. Not the obvious stuff - the common travel area, the absence of a hard border, etc - but the micro detail, sector by sector.

And that means getting everybody involved, all the parties, State agencies, NGOs and large corporations.

And that includes the North. Arlene Foster blew the Taoiseach's proposal for an All-Ireland forum on Brexit out of the water.

But, while it was mishandled by Kenny, Foster may yet regret her instinctive and kneejerk opposition (which undoubtedly it was) to the proposal.

There's a possibility that Brexit could result in a hard border between Northern Ireland and Britain, rather than between north and south of this island.

Certainly nobody can say for certain that won't happen. And that's the point about Brexit, nobody has a clue how it'll play out. There are far more questions than answers.

If Britain goes into recession next year, as some are predicting, could that seriously change sentiment there?

Theresa May may say now that "Brexit means Brexit". She has little choice but to. She might be saying something different in a year's time, however.

And, scary though Brexit undoubtedly is for Ireland, there are grounds for cautious optimism. The history of the EU proves that European politics is the art of the possible. The union has a habit of muddling through and finding solutions - imperfect ones, but solutions nonetheless.

So while EU law may rule out Ireland striking a bilateral deal with Britain, the best guess is some means will be found to get around that. Where there's an EU will, there's an EU way.
A pair of jeans donated by Emma Watson which have been painted and treated by fashion designer and artist Johny Dar in aid of Jeans for Refugees (Catawiki/PA)

A fashion designer is offering fans the chance to own jeans from the personal wardrobes of A-list celebrities such as Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Ryan Gosling and Emma Watson.

One hundred pairs of celebrity denims have been given an eye- catching makeover by designer and artist Johny Dar and will be auctioned for his Jeans For Refugees project, which raises money for the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The first 15 pairs - donated by Sharon Stone, Pink, Elle Macpherson, Lily Allen, Eva Longoria, Heather Graham, Joan Smalls, Alicia Vikander, Sofia Coppola, Rachel McAdams, Zoe Saldana, Tal, Jessica Hart, plus Watson and Moss - open for bidding on online auction site Catawiki on Friday.

More trousers that have graced the legs of stars from Sir Elton John to Claudia Schiffer will be released for sale over the next 100 days, giving fans the chance to add a unique piece of celebrity memorabilia to their wardrobe.

Dar said: "The refugee crisis has had an impact on everyone - it moves us all, it concerns us all.

"The concept behind Jeans For Refugees is to spread a message through art, to create positive change and empower people to collaborate for a common goal, painting a new paradigm and inspiring a brighter world."

If the skinny jeans or their price tags prove too much of a stretch, the lots will be viewable at a week-long exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

In addition, Dar will be painting a number of jeans in a non-stop live art performance over 10 days at a refugee camp to highlight the endurance and determination of the refugees as they make their journey to safety.

:: Visit catawiki.com/jeansforrefugees for more information.
Emily Ratajkowski has made a name for herself as one of the most beautiful women in the world, but her advice on body confidence is pretty simple.

The 25-year-old actress has just launched her first swimwear campaign with Australian brand Amore & Sorvete, which shows her flaunting her figure for the brand.

While many celebrities endorse strict clean eating and training regimens in order to become bikini ready, Emilys advice is far less complicated.

When asked by InStyle what her advice on being confident in swimwear is, she simply responded: Do you have a body? Then youre swimsuit ready.

We like the sound of that.

The actress and model shot to fame in Robin Thickes Blurred Lines video in 2013 and starred in 2014 thriller Gone Girl.

Emily often speaks about her Irish roots, as both of her grandmothers are from the Emerald Isle, and even spent every summer in Bantry, Cork as a child.
BROOKLYN, NY - JULY 21: Actresses Rachel Bilson and Jenna Dewan Tatum attend Target Cat & Jack Launch Celebration at Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 21, 2016 in Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Target)

Actress Rachel Bilson attends Target Cat & Jack Launch Celebration at Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 21, 2016 in Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Target)

Rachel Bilson still looks like a fresh-faced teenager nine years after The OC.

Bilson has kept a low profile since the birth of her daughter Briar Rose in October 2014 but she made a rare red carpet appearance on Thursday, looking as fresh-faced as ever.

At 34, the actress could still be mistaken for a teenager, nine years on from playing one in The OC.

She was photographed at a fashion event in New York for American store Target, alongside best friend and wife of Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan.

Expand Close BROOKLYN, NY - JULY 21: Actresses Rachel Bilson and Jenna Dewan Tatum attend Target Cat & Jack Launch Celebration at Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 21, 2016 in Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Target) / Facebook

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Whatsapp BROOKLYN, NY - JULY 21: Actresses Rachel Bilson and Jenna Dewan Tatum attend Target Cat & Jack Launch Celebration at Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 21, 2016 in Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Target)

The sartorial-savvy star rocked her trademark bohemian style but kept it modern with clashing paisley and leopard prints and with a natural make-up look.

She recently revealed to Allure magazine that her make-up priorities have changed since the birth of her daughter.

Expand Close Actress Rachel Bilson attends Target Cat & Jack Launch Celebration at Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 21, 2016 in Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Target) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Actress Rachel Bilson attends Target Cat & Jack Launch Celebration at Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 21, 2016 in Brooklyn Borough of New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Target)

In my own life, its a little bit of mascara, a little Chapstick, and Im ready to go, Bilson said. Maybe Ill add a little eyeliner in there to spice things up. Maybe a little bronzer.

She said she doesn't an emphasis on her looks, and instead focuses on taking care of her skin as best she can. If I ever have anything on  like if I have mascara on  my daughter just stares at me for, like, five minutes: Who are you? Bilson said.

Because [make-up] has become so nonexistent, the easy things that you can do, like hydrating your lips, makes me feel a little better."

Maybe that's the key to looking so young?

Expand Close Rachel Bilson in The OC / Facebook

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That and keen eye for fashion?

Bilson was a style icon for a generation of mid-noughties girls (us included) in the years since her breakout role as Summer Roberts in The OC,regularly topping best dressed lists and even launching her own clothing line in 2008 with DKNY.

Expand Close Rachel Bilson with husband Hayden Christensen (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Torch) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Rachel Bilson with husband Hayden Christensen (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Torch)

But she's been noticeably absent from the spotlight, appearing less and less on the red carpet as she focuses on her family instead.

She continued to act in movies and landed the lead role in the American drama series Hart of Dixie (which we have yet to watch) but since the show was cancelled in 2015, she's stayed away from the spotlight.

Okay....okay, it's grover's song! A photo posted by @rachelbilson on Jun 12, 2015 at 7:53pm PDT

The California-born actress has been married to Hayden Christensen for nine years, which is a pretty long time by Hollywood standards, so avoiding the high-profile celebrity events is probably paying off relationship-wise.

But if you're looking for your Bilson fix, the actress offers fans insights into her personal life through her Instagram account with posts that are pretty down-to-earth, showing the real side of her life and not the celebrity brand.
Pippa Middleton and James Matthews attend day nine of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at Wimbledon on July 06, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Pippa Middleton is set to become a Lady following her marriage to fiancee James Matthews.

Her sister holds the title of Duchess of Cambridge but it looks like Pippa will soon have a title of her own.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, Matthews is heir to a vast 10,000 acre property Scotland. that features a historic castle and deer park.

Her future father-in-law is David Matthews, the Laird of Glen Affric.

Expand Close Pippa Middleton and James Matthews attend day nine of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at Wimbledon on July 06, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Pippa Middleton and James Matthews attend day nine of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at Wimbledon on July 06, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

The estate, which is located 15 miles from Loch Ness in the Socttish highlands, is used by the Matthews family regularly as a retreat from their London home.

Members of the public can also enjoy a stay as the lavish property for hunting parties. A three-night stay costs 11,880 (14,163) for up to eight people.

The Queen's grandmother stayed at the estate in the late 19th century.

Australian art historian Michael Reed explained to the Daily Mail: "In coming years and particularly as the future Lady Glenaffric, Pippa Middleton will be able to entertain lavishly on her husband's grand Scottish Glen Affric Estate .

Expand Close Pippa Middleton with Spencer Matthews in St Barts. Picture: Splash News / Facebook

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"This is because Pippa herself comes from a family who is familiar with vast landed estates - her great grandmother Olive Middleton grew up at her family's Potternewton Hall Estate, near Leeds - leaving trust funds behind for her descendants."

David, a former mechanic, received his title when he purchased the estate in 2008 but he doesn't use the title as a form of address. His son James will inherit the title upon his father's death but he may not choose to formally use his title.

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In the future Pippa, as James' wife, would be able to use the courtesy title of Mrs Matthews of Glen Affric the younger, anywhere within the Commonwealth.

When David passes away she would then be known as Lady Glen Affric.
Trump tries a handshake with VP nominee Mike Pence only for it to turn into an awkward kiss at the convention Picture: Reuters

Never hire the Trump Organization to run your political convention. They'll screw it up.

One thing we expected of the Trump nomination was that it would be beautifully choreographed. Trump is the TV candidate - he is where he is because he manipulated the media so well. And he's running for the presidency on the claim that he can build anything - towers, walls, great Americas - so, again, we assumed that he'd build a fine convention. Instead, it's been a disaster. Starting with the stage. It makes the whole damn thing look like a Scientology awards ceremony.

Day one brought Melaniagate: the scandal over whether Miss Cleveland stole her speech from Michelle Obama. When that broke I was still sufficiently in awe of The Donald to think that maybe this was a gaffe committed on purpose, to keep us talking about it. But this was followed by Tuesday's floor fight over the nomination, in which the narrowness of Trump's primary "triumph" was revealed for all to see. And then, on Wednesday, Ted Cruz offered a devastating non-endorsement that just might cripple Trump's entire candidacy.

Things were going badly before Cruz showed up. Trump's primetime acts are a succession of D-list celebrities who appear never to have spoken in public before. Phil Ruffin - a businessman who looks like a character who gets whacked very early on in 'Scarface' - growled that we should vote for Trump because "he always pays his bills promptly".

Businesswoman Michelle Van Etten, who wore a cape, told us that her dream as a child "was to be a circus performer" and suggested that Trump would make a mighty fine ringleader.

Thing is, it's all very well to have a convention full of ordinary people. But these aren't ordinary people. They're strange people that Trump once met in an elevator.

He once met a guy called Marco Rubio when running for the nomination - "little Marco", he called him - and so Rubio was asked to give an endorsement, too. He did so via a video. So tawdry was Marco's humiliation, so abject, that he decided it was best to deliver it as far away from the convention as possible.

The role of Daniel among the lions was left to Ted Cruz - and, like any good evangelical, he jumped at the chance to be martyred.

Trump's team saw Cruz's speech hours before he delivered it. Yet they let him go ahead. Why? I'm starting to suspect it's because they're idiots. Cruz certainly knew what he was doing when his lengthy, intellectually watertight and highly legalistic non-endorsement started to trigger boos in the crowd.

He acknowledged the New York delegation's displeasure with an evil chuckle. "Endorse Trump!" they cried, "Endorse Trump!" Chuckle. Cackle. Cruz would say only that each man should vote according to his conscience. By implication, a conservative with a conscience cannot vote Trump. Things turned nasty; his speech was drowned out with fury. Cruz's wife apparently had to be ushered away by security. Rep Pete King called Ted a fraud. Chris Christie called the speech "awful" and "selfish".

Maybe it was a bit egotistical. But it was also a moral test of the Republican Party. Ask yourself this: why is there more dissent at Donald Trump's convention than any Republican convention since 1976? And would Cruz (below) have pulled this stunt if Jeb Bush or John Kasich were the nominee? Of course not.

It's about Trump - and not just his personality. His philosophy is what really divides this convention because Republicans really care about philosophy. When Ted Cruz spoke about the importance of upholding the Constitution, the Trumpite delegates got angry because they know that's a dig at Trump. Because they know that Trump is a fan of order but not necessarily of law. Because they know that Trump hardly ever talks about the Constitution, that it's not a big part of his intellectual hinterland. Because what he's about is building things - whatever it takes. Although, like I say, I'm beginning to doubt his ability even to do that.

Trump tried to recapture his convention by walking into the hall at the end of Cruz's speech. But his delegates were too busy shouting at the stage to notice the candidate enter in the room. Cruz scuttled away. Eric Trump came on. And then the video behind him failed, flashing on and off - as if Evil Ted had found the switch and was flicking it up and down. By the time Mike Pence had delivered his VP acceptance speech - designed to reconcile conservatives to Trump - the day had been squandered. The convention was lost.

Why does it matter? Because he has so little time. Trump had four days at this convention both to showcase his conservative credentials and unify the party. Cruz has shattered both illusions. As a result, the week was dominated not by talk about Trump's speech but about stories of bitter infighting.

Meanwhile, Hillary has let it be known that she'll choose an experienced moderate as her running mate and the Democratic convention next week is set to be a well-ordered display of unity and centrism. One of the headliner acts is Lady Gaga, which is a lot better than actor Scott Baio and one of those astronauts who didn't go to the moon. Heck, even Mitt Romney got Clint Eastwood in 2012.

This convention contains almost no talk about policy. Its hits on Hillary, although ringing with truth, are starting to look scarily like a lynch party. The big names aren't big. The most important speech thus far was implicitly attacking the candidate. And, to cap it all, the protests are far bigger inside the convention than outside it.

Would you hire the architect of this convention to build you a wall? ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Senator Ted Cruz gestures as he walks on stage to deliver a speech on the third day of the Republican National Convention Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Ted Cruz struck at the heart of the Republican Party yesterday as he refused to back its nominee Donald Trump, threatening to divide the party for years to come.

As Mr Trump was last night due to accept the presidential nomination, Mr Cruz was solidifying his support ahead of a possible run in 2020. A senior Republican official said it was now expected that, even if Mr Trump wins the presidency in 2016, Mr Cruz would try to unseat him in four years time.

The senator launched a blistering assault on Mr Trump as he defended his decision not to endorse him in his prominent speech at the convention on Wednesday. Mr Cruz refused to say whether he would even vote for the nominee, adding that Mr Trump's "maligning" of his family forced him to take a stand.

"I'm not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father," Mr Cruz said, angrily declaring that he was not some "servile puppy dog" at Mr Trump's feet. His instruction to his supporters to "vote your conscience" could see a crucial contingent of grassroots Republicans desert Mr Trump.

Irate at what some were calling a betrayal of the party, Mr Trump's inner circle rounded on Mr Cruz yesterday.

"No one likes him. He's so unlikeable," Donald Trump Jr told CNN of Mr Cruz. "Literally no friends. No friends."

"I think it was awful, and quite frankly I think it was selfish," Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor and Trump confidante, said.

"Ted Cruz talks about the Constitution but doesn't say that if the Democrats win the Presidency, the new justices appointed will destroy us all," Mr Trump himself pronounced.

Mr Cruz, the runner-up for the nomination, was given a prime speaking slot on Wednesday in the hope he would help heal the wounds from the bitter campaign.

Instead, he undermined the Trump campaign's plans, exiting to jeers but with a wry smile on his face. (Daily Telegraph, London)
Allies of the United States reacted with alarm yesterday as Donald Trump threatened to undermine the post-Second World War global order by not honouring US obligations to Nato if he becomes president.

Mr Trump was accused of recklessness and making Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, a "very happy man" after indicating he would not guarantee to unconditionally protect fellow members of the military alliance.

His latest foreign policy bombshell came as the billionaire last night accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president.

Mr Trump set out a vision called "America First" in which he would view the world through a "clear lens of American interest".

The White House was forced to reassure allies that the US commitment to Nato was "ironclad", while the head of the alliance called for "solidarity".

Mr Trump's comments were made in an interview with 'The New York Times'.

Asked whether the US, under his leadership, would assist the Baltic countries if they were threatened by Russia, he said it would "if they fulfil their obligations to us". Mr Trump also said the US was not being "properly reimbursed for the tremendous cost" of protecting allies around the world, many of which were "extremely rich".

He said if that did not change then "I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries 'Congratulations, you will be defending yourselves'".

Cooperation

Nato was created after the Second World War to strengthen international cooperation as a counterbalance to the rise of the Soviet Union.

The US was a founding member and, under Article 5 of the treaty, its 28 members are obliged to come to the help of any fellow member attacked. Two years ago Nato created a rapid-reaction force to protect its most vulnerable members against Russia.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: "Solidarity among allies is a key value for Nato. We defend one another."

Ojars Kalnins, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Latvia's parliament, called Mr Trump's reluctance to guarantee protection of the Baltic states "dangerous and irresponsible".

Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, said: "Nato is the basis for our security." He said he hoped that "whoever wins the presidential election, I hope the United States will remain a solid Nato partner". In Washington, Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said: "There should be no mistake or miscalculation made about this country's commitment toward the trans-Atlantic alliance."

Mr Trump's comments were in line with his views questioning the traditional US global role.

The billionaire has vowed to make Nato allies not spending the required 2pc of gross domestic product on defence "pay their fair share" and swiftly call a summit if he is elected.

However, Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana and Mr Trump's running mate, said: "I have every confidence that Donald Trump will see to it that the United States of America stands by our allies and lives up to our treaty obligations."

Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton's policy adviser, said: "The president is supposed to be the leader of the free world. Donald Trump apparently doesn't even believe in the free world. Ronald Reagan would be ashamed."

Mr Sullivan said the Kremlin would be "rooting" for Mr Trump to reach the White House. Putin has previously called Mr Trump an "absolute leader", which the Republican nominee said was a "great honour".

(Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Donald Trump's chances of becoming US president could take a knock because he reminds Harry Potter fans of evil wizard Lord Voldemort, a study suggests.

Reading Harry Potter books leads Americans to have a lower opinion of Republican hopeful Mr Trump, the findings show.

The more of JK Rowling's stories about the boy wizard they read, the more anti-Trump they become, say researchers.

They believe the reason for the "Harry Potter effect" is that Mr Trump's political messages are at odds with the values of Potter and his friends, which include tolerance, respect for difference, opposition to violence, and anti-authoritarianism.

Mr Trump is seen as having more in common with Harry Potter's arch enemy Lord Voldemort.

The study, which involved two polls of more than 1,000 US citizens, found that each Harry Potter book read lowered participants' evaluations of Donald Trump by roughly 2-3 points on a 100-point scale.

Lead researcher Professor Diana Mutz, from the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "This may seem small, but for someone who has read all seven books, the total impact could lower their estimation of Trump by 18 points out of 100.

"The size of this effect is on par with the impact of party identification on attitudes toward gays and Muslims."

Harry Potter is enormously popular among Americans. JK Rowling's seventh and last book in the series, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, broke all publishing records in the US, selling 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours after its launch.

The study is published in the latest issue of the quarterly journal PS: Political Science and Politics under the title "Harry Potter And The Deathly Donald?"

Prof Mutz's team surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,142 Americans in 2014 and again in 2016. Participants were asked about their exposure to Harry Potter stories, as well as their opinions about issues such as waterboarding, the death penalty, and the treatment of Muslims and gays.

In the 2016 poll, they were also questioned about their feelings towards Donald Trump.

Party affiliation did not affect the likelihood that a person had read the Harry Potter books, the study found. People with Democrat, Republican or Independent leanings had all read JK Rowling's books in roughly equal numbers.

Examples that illustrate how distant Mr Trump is from Harry Potter, and how much closer he is to Voldemort, can be found throughout the stories, according to Prof Mutz.

For instance, Harry and his friends oppose Lord Voldemort's quest for blood purity among wizards.

Mr Trump, in contrast, has called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration and spoken offensively about various "outgroups" including women, Mexicans, Asians, and those with disabilities, said the professor.

While Voldemort is willing to kill and inflict pain without compunction, the books' heroes and heroines consistently avoid unnecessary curses for killing, torture or controlling others.

Harry even saves the life of his Voldemort-groomed nemesis, Draco Malfoy.

Mr Trump supports waterboarding and has made statements - later retracted - in which he advocated killing the family members of terrorists who threaten the US.

Prof Mutz wrote: " As does Voldemort,Trump portrays himself as a strongman who can bend others to his will, be they the Chinese government or terrorists."

She added: "Harry Potter's popularity worldwide stands to make a difference not just in the US election, but in elections across Europe that involve aggressive and domineering candidates worldwide."

The study found that watching Harry Potter movies, rather than reading the books, did not predict Trump opposition.

Part of the reason for this may be that reading requires higher levels of attention and movies tend to emphasise action over character portrayal, said Prof Mutz.
The coffin of Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald is carried out of the Healing Place Church during his funeral (Bill Feig/Baton Rouge Advocate via AP)

A Baton Rouge police officer has been remembered as a hero by the city's mayor, who urged people to respect the police and avoid the "us vs them" mentality that can encourage violence.

More than 2,000 people packed into the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders paid tribute to Matthew Gerald, the first of three officers killed by a lone gunman to be laid to rest.

"The men and women who put on those uniforms, they respect you. Respect them," the mayor said.

Baton Rouge police chief Carl Dabadie Jr.'s voice cracked as he strayed from his prepared remarks to respond to the criticism police across the country have received over a steady stream of videotaped killings of black people by police.

"The media has blasted us for what we do and how we do it, basically portraying law enforcement as these band of bullies who go around and beat people up," he said.

"We're not bullies. We are protecting our communities. And they throw us under the bus for it. And that's wrong."

Two of Mr Gerald's uniforms hung next to his flag-draped casket as photos on a big screen showed moments from his 11 years in the military, his fledging police career and his family life.

Dechia Gerald, now a widow with two young girls, called him "my blue-eyed rock" in a written tribute, expressing hope that his legacy will "bridge the gap and foster peace in the country he lived, loved and died for".

Funerals for sheriff's deputy Brad Garafola and police officer Montrell Jackson are set for Saturday and Monday. They too were killed by Gavin Long, an Army veteran who urged violence in response to what he saw as the oppression of black people.

After killing three officers and wounding three more on Sunday, Long was killed with a long-distance shot by a Swat team officer.

Police said the attack shattered days without significant violence in Baton Rouge, even as thousands protested amid heightened racial tension following the police shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man whose death was recorded and posted online.

The two officers involved in Sterling's death were put on administrative leave and the US Justice Department is investigating, but the streets have been busy with people demanding an end to police shootings of black men.

The funeral speakers included Mr Gerald's childhood friend Dave Mulkey, who described sending him a text message during the protests over Sterling's death.

"I told him to be careful, and to keep a cool head," Mr Mulkey recalled.

He said Mr Gerald's response was: "I'm going to do what I got to do to keep you all safe, old boy."

Mr Gerald joined the Baton Rouge Police Department less than a year ago, an enthusiastic rookie at age 41, after serving four years in the Marines and seven years in the Army, where he did three tours in Iraq and ran a Blackhawk helicopter crew.

He was partnered with Corporal Lester Mitchell, an 11-year police veteran. The two officers, black and white, began riding together on July 1, days before Sterling's death.

"We talked about the madness, how much it was putting a strain on the community, police relations," Mr Mitchell said on Friday.

Mr Gerald, he said, "was a protector, it was just in his DNA".

He said they were writing reports at police headquarters on Sunday when Mr Gerald said he was going for an energy drink at the B-Quick convenience store a few blocks away.

Someone at the store approached Mr Gerald, saying an armed man was walking through the area, Mr Mitchell said.

Mr Gerald radioed for help, and Mr Mitchell was among the officers who raced to the scene, hearing gunfire as they arrived.

"We were right in the middle of the firestorm," he said. "He had already been shot when we got there."

The many mourners on Friday included Sheriff's Captain Tom Cox from Knox County, Tennessee.

He said he attended all five funerals for the officers killed by a sniper in Dallas this month, and planned to attend all three of the funerals in Louisiana.

"It's numbing, with this many in such a short period of time," Mr Cox said. "We hope this isn't some trend."

AP
We have bred rats and now we should get rid of them - opinion (video)

Heads of creative unions in Armenia call on the authorities and the members of the Sasna Dzrer armed groups to do everything to prevent bloodshed. Today, they spoke about the consequences of the groups actions, clashes between riot police and citizens and discussed possible ways out of the situation. Karen Aghamyan, President of the Artists Union of Armenia, wonders why the police should decide to use violence against citizens last night. At the same time he cannot understand how people could throw stones at the police. It provokes passions. Obviously, some forces wanted this to happen, he said. Mkrtich Minasyan, President of the Union of Architects, says the authorities should learn lessons from the past to exclude similar occurrences. Things cannot continue this way. A fair solution should be found for the guys who are there [in the police building]. There should be no more bloodshed but something must be changed after it. Last year people went to the street to protest against a planned rise in electricity tariffs. Problems are not solved in the country, our state agencies do not do their job, authorities do not talk to people, and all this creates an atmosphere. How can they treat people in such a cynical way? This disrespectful behaviour accumulates hatred inside people and causes a great wave of discontent. Now these guys have shouldered the responsibility because they know the smell of blood, Mr Minasyan said. President of the Union of Composers Aram Satyan agrees that the authorities should have drawn corresponding conclusions long ago. Anyway, he does not think that Sasna Dzrer took the right step in order to solve the problems in the country. President of Journalists' Union Astghik Gevorgyan the guys who seized the police coupund in Erebuni district are glorious freedom fighters, but today they are in a state of euphoria. I urge them to sober up and understand what they are doing and why they are labeled hostage takers. They are all our brothers in both camps, she said. Ruben Gevorgyants, President of the Union of Cinematographers, says the mechanisms to prevent future bloodshed are in the hands of relevant agencies. He says the standoff could have been resolved if the authorities had met the first demand of the gunmen and released their leader Jirayr Sefilyan. Likewise, Nairi Hunanyan said [during the 1999 parliamentary carnage] that they had stormed the parliament building to restore justice and neglected rights of people. But what was the outcome? Murder! After the inclident the country appeared in a different place where we did not want it to appear. These methods do not produce the desired results, he said. Speaking about the anti-government gunmen, Ruben Gevorgyants, said, They are honest guys. I am sure that they did not kill the police officer deliberately. The guys had to go to this step, because it is impossible to tolerate the existence of so many rats in the country. we can no longer go in the same way that we have done in the past 25 years. We have been breading rats for 25 years, it is time to get rid of them.
The UN says there are nearly half a million people living in besieged areas in Syria

Sporadic clashes erupted between Islamic State militants and US-backed fighters on Friday in a northern, IS-held Syrian town, after the extremists ignored an offer to leave without a fight.

The fighting is forcing many civilians to flee, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about 200 civilians fled the town of Manbij in the morning.

A 20-year-old woman who was among those fleeing died when she stepped on a land mine while trying to escape with her children, the Observatory said.

A Facebook page that covers Manbij posted two photographs of a few dozen people, mostly women and children, saying they "risked their lives" to flee the town's southern district of Hazawneh.

Members of the predominantly Kurdish US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) have been on the offensive in Manbij for weeks, backed by US-led coalition air strikes.

On Thursday, the Manbij Military Council - part of the SDF - said IS fighters were given 48 hours to leave the town with their "individual weapons," saying this was their last opportunity to leave alive.

Sherfan Darwish of the SDF said the extremists did not respond to the offer and that fresh clashes erupted on Friday. The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said the US-led coalition carried out about 20 air strikes on the centre of Manbij on Friday.

Manbij is an IS hub and lies on a key supply route to the group's de facto capital of Raqqa. If Manbij is captured by the US-backed fighters, it will be the biggest strategic defeat for IS in Syria since July 2015, when the extremist group lost the border town of Tal Abyad.

In Geneva, spokesman Jens Laerke of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a convoy carrying assistance for 32,000 people had arrived in the hard-to-reach town of Halat al-Madeh in the central province of Hama.

"This is the first inter-agency convoy to Hama in 2016," said Mr Laerke, although he added the Syrian government had removed some "surgical and certain medical items" from the cargo.

The UN said there are nearly half a million people in besieged areas in Syria and an estimated 4.5 million Syrians in so-called hard-to-reach areas.

In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said US Secretary of State John Kerry had reiterated the West's stance that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power, during a recent visit to Russia.

Moscow, a major Assad ally, disagrees with that, fearing worse turmoil if the Syrian president were to go.

Mr Lavrov said: "Kerry... said we need to agree first that Assad goes. Who can guarantee that what happened to Libya won't happen to Syria?"

AP
French President Francois Hollande has warned that the Brexit negotiations should not be allowed to "drag on".

Mr Hollande, who has previously said that withdrawal talks under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty "cannot be delayed or cancelled", said: "The sooner the negotiations are open the better, and the shorter the better."

His comments came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Britain should "take a moment" to prepare for withdrawal from the European Union and Ms May indicated that she was unlikely to start the two-year process before the end of 2016.

Negotiations

Mr Hollande had his first meeting with Theresa May as UK prime minister yesterday. She travelled to Paris for a working dinner at the Elysee Palace to discuss Britain's plans to quit the EU following last month's referendum.

After talks in Dublin with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the French president said: "Should the negotiations be shorter? The most important thing is that they should not drag on.

"The sooner the negotiations are open the better, and the shorter the better."

Mr Hollande said that Brexit was "a decision that was taken by the British people" and it was the British people who "will have to bear the consequences".

"Europe will try its best to give its best relationship with the UK," he said.

"But there's a time the politicians have to accept this vote. They have to accept the consequences."

Responding to his comments, Ms May's official spokeswoman said that the Elysee meeting would provide an opportunity for the leaders to "sit down and talk about these issues face to face" and for the PM to set out what her approach will be.

"They have already had a good phone call last week, when she said it was going to take some time to prepare for these negotiations," said the spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman said that Ms May stressed that France is "one of our oldest and most important partners, where the depth of our relationship - particularly on security and defence - is very important for both of us".

She added: "It will be an opportunity to talk about the whole range of important aspects to our bilateral relationship. The PM's clear message will be the importance we attach to that relationship.

"We don't think it should be defined by us both being members of the EU. We can have a strong relationship with the UK outside the EU and France inside."

The working dinner came a day after Mrs May's first meeting as PM with German counterpart Mrs Merkel.

At discussions in Berlin, the Chancellor said Britain should "take a moment" over its plans to sever its ties with Brussels but warned against leaving the negotiations "up in the air".

Mrs May insisted that Germany would "remain a vital partner and a special friend for us" after Brexit.

She added: "All of us will need time to prepare for these negotiations and the United Kingdom will not invoke Article 50 until our objectives are clear.

"That is why I have said already that this will not happen before the end of this year.

"I understand this timescale will not please everyone but I think it is important to provide clarity on that now."

Mr Hollande also said that British people living and working in France could stay "as long as they like", adding that he expected a reciprocal agreement to be reached for French citizens in the UK.

There will also be greater cooperation between the nations on security and anti-terror measures, the two leaders agreed, as they met in the wake of the attacks in Nice.

Stark

However, the French President also signalled that the UK faces a stark choice over access to the single market.

He said the UK currently had access because it respected the full freedoms of the EU but if it wanted to remain it would have to abide by the full freedoms.They could not be separated.

There is now a choice, he added, to remain in the single market and take free movement or have another status that will be subject to negotiation.

He said there was no doubt the UK would leave the EU but uncertainty triggered by a dragging out of the process would be bad for the whole of the EU and its economy.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks with with a delegate before the start of the "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson looks up during the "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

The new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has been accused of putting lives in danger after he published an article suggesting a former colleague was a spy "for a laugh".

While editor of The Spectator in 2001, Mr Johnson released an article naming a secret service agent using the pseudonym Smallbrow as the Daily Mail journalist, Dominic Lawson.

The article was based on allegations made in a book by a former spy, Richard Tomlinson. Mr Tomlinson claimed Mr Lawson, who was then editor of the Daily Telegraph, used to provide cover for British secret agents.

Mr Johnson published the claim Mr Lawson used to give letters to spies so they could pretend to be foreign correspondents on assignment.

Mr Lawson, who said he has never worked for the Secret Service, responded to the allegations by telling Mr Johnson's biographer, Sonia Purnell, how he had put the lives of his staff in jeopardy.

"He knew me, we were friendly. It was intensely annoying, Mr Lawson said.

Expand Close British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks with with a delegate before the start of the "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts / Facebook

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Whatsapp British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks with with a delegate before the start of the "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

And apart from anything else, if you're running a newspaper with foreign correspondents in strange parts of the world, as I was then, it's potentially a physical threat to them if it's believed that they're working for British intelligence.

You can imagine how angry I was.

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"I rang him up, but there was just this sense of Never mind, Dommers, I just did it for a laugh," Mr Lawson said.

He added: And the thing about Boris is that because in some strange way he is adorable, one forgives him. It's not just women; men too fall for that charm."

Expand Close British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yawns during the "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY / Facebook

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Whatsapp British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yawns during the "Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL: Joint Plenary Session" at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

The revelations have surfaced following a conference on the ongoing war in Syria, in which Mr Johnson accidentally referred to Turkey as Egypt on two occasions.

There have been claims that the Foreign Secretary will no longer oversee MI6 following Mr Johnsons appointment.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Adam Boulton said the Foreign and Commonwealth office is now left with an unspecified role as it reels at the appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary.

The Government has strongly denied Mr Johnson will no longer be responsible for the Secret Service. A spokesperson told Politics.co.uk: "As has been long standing practice, responsibility for SIS and GCHQ lies with the Foreign Secretary. This has not changed and will not change."
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial in France over a 2008 arbitration ruling that handed 400m to a politically connected business magnate, France's top court has ruled.

Ms Lagarde, who was French finance minister at the time of the deal in favour of tycoon Bernard Tapie, is accused of negligence in the case.

She has denied wrongdoing.

A special court ruled in December that Ms Lagarde should stand trial, but she appealed. France's Court of Cassation has rejected the appeal.

Ms Lagarde's lawyers did not immediately respond to the decision.

Ms Lagarde, who was in China on Friday at a G20 summit, has said she had acted "in the best interest of the French state and in full compliance with the law".

The unusually generous 2008 arbitration deal, paid from public funds, prompted years of legal disputes that remain unresolved.

The investigation began in 2011, soon before Ms Lagarde was named to head the IMF in the wake of sexual assault allegations against her predecessor, French economist Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The executive board of the IMF has expressed confidence in Ms Lagarde despite the investigation.

The decision last year to send her to trial came as a surprise because a prosecutor had earlier argued that the case against her should be dropped.

Negligence by a person invested with public authority carries a risk of up to a year in prison and a 15,000 euro (12,600) fine.

She will be tried at the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special body that tries government ministers for alleged wrongdoing while in office. A date has not been set for the trial.

The case is part of a larger legal saga centering on Mr Tapie, a flamboyant magnate and TV star who had sued French bank Credit Lyonnais for its handling of the sale of his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas in the mid-1990s.

With Ms Lagarde's approval, a private arbitration panel ruled that he should get 400 million euros (336 million) in compensation, including interest.

The deal was seen by critics as a sign of a too-close relationship between magnates and the French political elite.

Mr Tapie was close to then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, Ms Lagarde's superior.
Armed policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

Police cars and fire trucks stand near a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

A screen grab taken from video footage shows plain clothes police officers running towards car park of the Olympia shopping mall during shooting rampage in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. dedinac/Marc Mueller/ handout via REUTERS NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS.

A screen grab taken from video footage shows plain clothes police officers at the scene of a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. dedinac/Marc Mueller/ handout via REUTERS NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS.

A screen grab taken from video footage shows a woman leaving the Olympia shopping mall during a shooting rampage in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. dedinac/Marc Mueller/ handout via REUTERS NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS.

Police secure a street near to the scene of a shooting in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. REUTERS/Michael Dalder TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A screen grab taken from video footage shows plain clothes police officers attending the scene of a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. dedinac/Marc Mueller/ handout via REUTERS NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS.

Policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

Emergency services respond to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, Friday July 22, 2016. Munich police confirm shots have been fired at Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center but say they don't have any details about casualties. Police are responding in large numbers. (Associated Press Television via AP)

Heavily armed police forces walk through the underground station Karlsplatz (Stachus) after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A police officer walks outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Police escort people who leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

Police escort people who leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after shots were fired. Police said that at least six people have been killed. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A screen grab taken from video footage shows people being evacuated onto a bus following a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. REUTERS/Reuters TV

Special police forces prepare to search a neighbouring shopping centre outside the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (AP Photo/Sebastian Widmann)

A special force police officer stand guard near the Olympia shopping mall, following a shooting rampage at the mall in Munich, Germany. Photo: Reuters

A car with a broken window is being towed in front of the Olympia mall where a shooting took place in Munich, southern Germany. Photo: AP

Masked police stand at a bus stop in front of the Olympia mall where a shooting took place in Munich, southern Germany. Photo: AP

Masked police stand at a bus stop in front of the Olympia mall where a shooting took place in Munich. Photo: AP

A screen grab taken from video footage shows police officers near the Olympia shopping mall following a shooting rampage in Munich. Photo: Reuters

Special forces police officers stand guard at an entrance of the main train station, following a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany. Photo: Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said her country is in "deep and profound mourning" after nine people were killed by a lone gunman on a rampage in Munich.

The 18-year-old German-Iranian attacker, named as Ali Sonboly, went on a solo shooting spree at the Olympia shopping centre and a McDonald's restaurant in the Bavarian capital on Friday.

Expand Close Ali Sonboly / Facebook

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Born and raised in the German city, he murdered nine people and injured 27 others - 10 of whom are in a critical condition, including a 13-year-old boy.

Mrs Merkel said the events are "difficult to bear for everyone" and pledged to "find out the background" of what happened.

Expand Close People leave the Olympia mall hours after a shooting took place in Munich, southern Germany. Photo: AP / Facebook

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Whatsapp People leave the Olympia mall hours after a shooting took place in Munich, southern Germany. Photo: AP

She added: "What lies behind the people of Munich is a night of horror - we are still shocked by the pictures and reports of the witnesses.

"Nine people who were going shopping on the Friday evening, or wanted to eat something, they are now dead - it seems according to the investigations, hit and killed by the bullets of one single perpetrator."

The Chancellor said the operation between the agencies and security forces on Friday night was "seamless" and thanked them for their "phenomenal" effort.

She added: "We are in deep and profound mourning for those who will never return to their families. The families, siblings, friends to whom everything will be void and empty today.

+++ACHTUNG+++ Meiden Sie die Umgebung um das #OEZ - Bleiben Sie in Ihren Wohnungen. Verlassen Sie die Strae!+++  Polizei Munchen (@PolizeiMuenchen) July 22, 2016

"I would like to tell them, in the name of many, many people in Germany, we share in your grief, we think of you and we are suffering with you.

"Our thoughts also go out to the numerous injured people - may they recover quickly and completely - they will receive all the support they need.

"Such an evening and such a night are difficult to bear for every one of us. They are even more difficult to bear because we have had so many different and difficult reports of horrors in the past few days."

Officials said the killer used a 9mm pistol and had 300 rounds of ammunition in his rucksack when he went on what they called a "classic shooting rampage".

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Masked police stand at a bus stop in front of the Olympia mall where a shooting took place in Munich. Photo: AP A screen grab taken from video footage shows a woman leaving the Olympia shopping mall during a shooting rampage in Munich, Germany July 22, 2016. dedinac/Marc Mueller/ handout via REUTERS NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. Emergency services respond to a shooting at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, Friday July 22, 2016. Munich police confirm shots have been fired at Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center but say they don't have any details about casualties. Police are responding in large numbers. (Associated Press Television via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Masked police stand at a bus stop in front of the Olympia mall where a shooting took place in Munich. Photo: AP

Police said the weapon was a Glock 17 handgun which had had its serial number illegally filed off, and there were indications the gunman had been in psychiatric care and treated for depression.

They confirmed his room in the flat he was living in had been searched, and that documents of "frenzied attacks" had been discovered, but no evidence he had links to Islamic State.

Expand Close Armed policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Armed policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. Situation after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre in Munich is unclear. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

According to reports the killer had an "obvious" link to Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik - who, five years to the day of the Munich attack, slaughtered 77 people.

Police investigator Robert Heimberger told a police press conference in Munich that it appeared the gunman had hacked a Facebook account and lured people to the shopping centre with an offer of free food.

The posting, sent from a young woman's account, urged people to go to the centre at 4pm, saying: "I'll give you something if you want, but not too expensive."

Mr Heimberger said they are investigating as "it appears it was prepared by the suspect and then sent out".

Officials said the attacker was not known to them and had no criminal record. He had been in psychiatric care and was treated for depression. He later killed himself.

Three of the victims are believed to be from Kosovo, three from Turkey and one from Greece - seven of the dead are understood to be teenagers.

Police gave a "cautious all clear" early on Saturday morning, more than seven hours after the attack began, and brought much of the city to a standstill as all public transit systems were shut down amid a massive manhunt.

They said a body found near the scene was that of the shooter and he appeared to have acted alone.

Read More

Investigators are also probing claims he may have set up a fake Facebook account which he used to post an advert offering free food in a bid to lure children to their deaths.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told a news conference the suspect was a dual citizen from Munich and his motive was still "fully unclear".

Mr Andrae said the suspect's body was found about 2 1/2 hours after the attack and was identified to be the shooter based on witness statements and closed circuit television footage of the attack. He was not previously known to police and there was no evidence of any links to terrorist organisations, Mr Andrae said.

Read More

Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall. However, the police chief said two people who fled the area quickly were investigated but had "nothing to do with the incident".

Mr Andrae said the nine fatalities included young people and children were among the 16 wounded, three of whom were in critical condition.

Mr Andrae said the suspect's body was found about 2 1/2 hours after the attack and was identified to be the shooter based on witness statements and closed circuit television footage of the attack. He was not previously known to police and there was no evidence of any links to terrorist organisations, Mr Andrae said.

Read More

Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall. However, the police chief said two people who fled the area quickly were investigated but had "nothing to do with the incident".

Mr Andrae said the nine fatalities included young people and children were among the 16 wounded, three of whom were in critical condition.

Neighbours of the attacker told German media that he was a "quiet guy."

"He lived right next to me," German newspaper Bild quoted a neighbour as saying.

Read More

"A friend of mine went to school with him and said he was rather a quiet guy. He recognised him from the videos from the scene."

Police commandos, armed with night vision equipment and dogs, raided an apartment in the Munich neighbourhood of Maxvorstadt early on Saturday where Bild said the gunman lived with his parents.

Friday was also the fifth anniversary of the massacre in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people. Breivik is a hero for far-right militants in Europe and America.

Thousands of people had been crowding the streets and squares in Munich's city centre on Friday for a beer festival.

"There were a few people who came running towards us who were screaming and in panic. But mostly it was surprisingly calm," said Elena Hakes, wearing a blue traditional dress, who had been with a friend in the Odeonsplatz square.

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing 84. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

The Munich assault was also reminiscent of militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2013, and in Mumbai, India, in 2008.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said on Twitter: "Horrible killings in Munich. Taking place on the same day as we mourn & remember the appalling terror that hit Norway so hard five years ago."
The disclosures came as the row deepened over alleged security failings in Nice ahead of last weeks attack in which Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck through barriers and into crowds on the promenade, Photo: Kapitalis via AP

The Nice Bastille Day killer had probably been preparing for his crime for up to a year with the help of several accomplices, the Paris prosecutor said yesterday.

Francois Molins also said one of five suspects - four men and a woman - facing charges for complicity returned to the scene minutes after the attack to video emergency services tending victims and filmed himself doing so.

The disclosures came as the row deepened over alleged security failings in Nice ahead of last week's attack in which Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, pictured inset, drove a truck through barriers and into crowds on the promenade, killing 84 and injuring more than 300. Some 15 people are still in a critical condition.

Officials had previously suggested that Bouhlel, who until recently drank alcohol, ate pork, danced salsa and had an "unbridled sex life" with men and women, had been radicalised in a matter of days or weeks.

But Mr Molins said evidence from the killer's phone and computer suggested he had probably planned the attack "several months in advance".

It included a photograph on his phone dated May 25, 2015, of an article on a drug known to be taken by Isil combatants to reduce fear and fatigue. Bouhlel's phone also contained a photograph of Bastille Day fireworks from last year and another zooming in on crowds at a concert three days later.

One of the five suspected accomplices, Choukri C, sent Bouhlel a text message on April 4 this year, saying: "Fill up the truck with 2,000 tons of iron and screw [them], cut the brakes and my friend I'll watch."

Mr Molins said that the inquiry had "progressed and not only confirmed the murderous premeditated nature of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel's act but also established that he benefited from support and complicity".

Bouhlel had photographed two of the suspects, Mohamed Walid G and Choukri C, in the cabin of the truck used for the attack. In Nice, investigators found a Kalashnikov rifle and a bag of ammunition in the basement of 22-year-old suspect Ramzi A, who is among the five being held.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve yesterday faced calls from the right-wing opposition to resign after a report in 'Liberation' newspaper claimed that only one municipal police car was guarding the spot where Bouhlel began his run into the crowd.

'Liberation' said Mr Cazeneuve lied about the whereabouts of the national police officers and cars in Nice that day and accused authorities of lacking transparency. Using witness statements and photos, 'Liberation' showed that only one local police car was stationed at the entrance to the Nice boulevard on July 14.

The paper quoted Nice police officer Yves Bergerat, who said local police forces' guns and bullets aren't even equipped "to puncture the tires", let alone shatter the windshield of a truck that size.

Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and said several "heroic" national police officers - who killed the attacker after an exchange of fire - were stationed further down the promenade.

French president Francois Hollande promised "truth and transparency" from an inquiry by a police watchdog into allegations of poor security.

Intelligence agents and armed police acting on a tip-off yesterday arrested 20 suspects in two raids on homes in Argenteuil, north-west of Paris.

Isil has claimed responsibility for the attack, though authorities have said they had not found signs that the extremist group directed it.

The criticism comes as the National Assembly extended France's state of emergency for six months. The security measure had been in place since the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 victims and were claimed by Isil. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
Heavily armed police forces walk through the underground station Karlsplatz (Stachus) after a shooting in the Olympia shopping centre was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Refuge is being offered to people stranded near Munich through social media.

Several people are feared dead and many are thought to have been injured in a gun attack near the Olympia shopping centre, prompting the closure of transport links across the city. Munich Police have urged people to avoid public places.

In response, hundreds of people have taken to Twitter using the hashtag #OffeneTur - or #OpenDoor - inviting people to stay if they are unable to get home.

Facebook's Safety Check feature has also been activated so that people can let friends and family know that they are safe.

It was most recently used in the wake of the Nice attack earlier in this month.

People also opened their homes under the hashtag #PorteOuverte during the Nice attack and Paris attacks in November to help people find safety.
We should learn lessons from this: The armed group must lay down their weapons - Serzh Sargsyan (video)

On July 22. Serzh Sargsyan convened a consultation with the participation of the leaders of the National Security Service, the Police, the Prosecutor Generals Office and the investigative bodies. The President was briefed on the details of the July 17 armed assault on the Police station and the following events as well as results of ongoing operations, press service of the Presidential administration informed. The President was also briefed that active negotiations are underway for achieving the release of the hostages from the Police station, laying down the weapons and surrender of the armed group to the authorities, other necessary operations are being conducted taking into account the existing situation. The Armenian President emphasized that all possible measures must be taken for peacefully solving the existing situation, he stressed the importance of the comprehensive and impartial investigation of all possible violations of the law, as well as ensuring the inevitability of punishment of the culprits. Based on the consultation results, the necessary instructions were given to the leaders of the law enforcement agencies. Before starting our regular consultation let us once again state that these days our country faces difficult and responsible days. Of course, at this moment I will not refer to the causes. Now is not the time for it. I will only say we should learn lessons from this. I once again express my condolences to killed Colonel Artur Vanoyans family and relatives. We all owe him. We must do everything to solve this difficult situation and such tragedy no longer must be repeated. The most dangerous mindset of our reality is in the source of this situation  solving issues with violence and use of force. The further development of this concern is fraught with very serious consequences for our country and the statehood. No issues through violence, attack and taking hostages will be solved in Armenia. And we will never allow it. The resolution of this situation must be an important test of maturity of Armenia and our society, the state. I urge the gunmen to show restraint and not endanger others life through their provocative actions. The hostages must be released. The armed group must lay down their weapons. Further outcome will take place in accordance with the Constitution and Laws of the Republic of Armenia. All attempts of personal revenge will be suppressed by the force of law. Yes, many are dissatisfied in Armenia. However let no one be mistaken and think that they can exploit any opportunity or reason to destroy the foundation of our statehood. I urge all representatives of our society to exercises their political and civil rights exclusively peaceful and within the frameworks of the law. I also urge no to be attracted to proposals and ideas of people who instigate extreme measures and provocations. It is fraught with serious dangers of new casualties. I urge everyone to realize the real dangers arising from these provocations and extreme steps. I instruct you  heads of law enforcement agencies  to continue your activities with strict restraint, within the framework of the law. We continue taking all possible measures for the final peaceful outcome of the situation. Once again I urge the armed group to lay down the weapons. We act patiently and will continue acting patiently. The lives and health of every citizen of our country is very precious to us. We didnt take the path which is considered standard in these kinds of situations. By this we have given the armed group a chance to take a step backwards. I hope they will sober up. But we dont have the right to allow our entire society to be held hostage by this tension. I think this situation is already taking place longer than we can afford. Much time hasnt passed since April for the society to afford forgetting what happened. Once again I urge everyone to restraint and vigilance, for the sake of Armenias and the Armenian peoples future, Serzh Sargsyan said.
Dolls and teddy bears are placed at a memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice (AP)

President Francois Hollande has announced France will send artillery equipment to Iraq as part of increased military aid to fight Islamic State extremists, after the deadly Bastille Day lorry attack in Nice.

Mr Hollande said the equipment will be in place next month, as part of French efforts to boost its participation in the US-led fight against IS, which claimed responsibility for the Nice attack.

France has been conducting air strikes against IS and providing military training, but Mr Hollande reiterated that he would not send ground troops.

He spoke after an emergency security meeting in Paris, his fourth such meeting since Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel rammed through a Bastille Day event, killing 84 people.

Mr Hollande said 12 people wounded in the attack are still fighting for their lives.

Earlier, authorities in Nice refused a request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of last week's deadly attack, amid growing questions over the scale of the police presence at the time.

The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency saying images of the July 14 attack should be destroyed, an official at Nice City Hall said.

The city is filing a legal complaint instead, arguing that the images could constitute evidence in the case, said the official.

The letter did not provide a reason for the request, the city official said, but Le Figaro newspaper said national police are concerned that the images would leak out and be used for jihadi propaganda.

The request comes as the government faces growing criticism over security measures the night of the attack, and the cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

Top regional official Christian Estrosi, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, had argued for tougher security for Nice's Bastille Day fireworks celebrations.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged on Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the beachfront promenade in Nice when Bouhlel sped past a barricade. Mr Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched.

Five people were charged with terrorism offences late on Thursday night in connection with the attack. The Paris prosecutor says Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of the suspects.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of several nationalities, as were the more than 300 people wounded in the attack.

AP
A Turkish girl wearing a headband bearing the name of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves her national flag during a pro-government demonstration in front of the old parliament building, in Ankara, Turkey. Photo: Hussein Malla/AP

Turkey has suspended the European Convention on Human Rights after declaring a three-month state of emergency, prompting fears of a further crackdown on freedoms in the wake of the failed coup.

The White House warned Ankara that the international community "will be watching" as it took the decision, which came as parliament approved President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's announcement of extraordinary rule, granting him decree powers.

While some rights in the Convention - such as the right to life, and the ban on retroactive punishment and torture - cannot be suspended, Turkey's European neighbours fear a continued erosion of democracy and freedoms.

Eight states have taken suspensions from the ECHR, including the UK during the Troubles in the North and after the US 9/11 terrorist attacks. France opted out of some of the convention's aspects during an emergency state implemented in November 2015, after terrorist attacks in Paris killed 130 people.

The president's widespread post-coup purge has raised serious concerns in the West about the regression of democracy in Turkey.

The latest decision could move the country further away from being granted membership of the European Union, which has already warned the president against veering from the democratic rule of law.

Yesterday, Austria became the first country to take diplomatic action over the purge, saying it would summon the Turkish ambassador to discuss Ankara's "increasingly authoritarian" behaviour and allegations it had been behind recent Turkish protests in Vienna.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, urged Turkey to end the state of emergency as swiftly as possible, warning that extraordinary rule lasting longer than three months would "exacerbate tensions inside Turkey and harm Turkey itself".

The UK's Foreign Affairs Committee said it would begin an inquiry into Britain's relationship with Turkey and the impact of the post-coup crackdown, in which thousands of people have been arrested and close to 50,000 suspended from their jobs.

Mehmet Simsek, Turkey's deputy prime minister, yesterday tried to dispel fears that the country would return to the deep repression seen the last time it was under similar measures.

While parliament can vote down government decrees, it is firmly in the hands of Mr Erdogan's ruling AKP. "The state of emergency in Turkey won't include restrictions on movement, gatherings and free press etc. It isn't martial law of the 1990s," he said. "I'm confident Turkey will come out of this with much stronger democracy, better functioning market economy and enhanced investment climate."

Markets were less than confident. The Turkish lira was near a new record low yesterday, while the main stock index fell 4.4pc.

Simsek tried to play down the losses. "In circumstances like this, there is a knee-jerk reaction, it's typical. I know that because I come from that business," he said. "I need markets to understand that we are going to survive this shock."

But as he spoke, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a leading newspaper columnist and lawyer, was arrested at the airport as he tried to leave the country and police raided the printing house of the satirical magazine Leman.

So far, about 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or put under investigation since the failed coup.

Dozens of families waited at the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul yesterday for a glimpse of their fathers, sons and brothers detained on suspicion of involvement. One woman said that three of her soldier sons had been arrested. "I don't know how they are being treated, I have heard nothing from them. I have heard about torture," she said.

Pictures published in pro-government newspapers showed the supposed mastermind of the coup attempt, Akin Ozturk, a former Air Force commanders with a heavily bruised face and a bandaged ear.

Lt Col Levent Turkkan, the aide to Turkey's army chief, was pictured with a black eye and his torso and right hand bandaged.

Amnesty International said they were investigating reports that detained soldiers faced ill-treatment in custody and were being denied access to lawyers.

Meanwhile, eight Turkish suspected plotters who fled to Greece after the attempted putsch were yesterday given a two-month suspended sentence for illegally entering the country.

For some Turks, the move raised fears of a return to the days of martial law after a 1980 coup, or the height of a Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s when much of the southeast was under a state of emergency.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the state of emergency was aimed at averting a possible second coup.

The Geneva-based jurists' group, ICJ, weighed in, with its secretary-general, Wilder Tayler, saying: "There are human rights that can never be restricted even in a state of emergency. The current allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees and arbitrary arrests already point to serious violations of human rights," he said ( Daily Telegraph, London)
A new storm has erupted after a police video shows a white officer throwing a black woman to the ground during a traffic stop, followed by another white officer telling her black people have violent tendencies.

The shocking clip was shot in Austin, Texas in June 2015 but only emerged on Thursday after the Austin American-Statesman obtained a copy.

The video shows the traffic stop escalating rapidly in the seven seconds from when officer Bryan Richter first gives a command to 26-year-old Breaion King to close her car door to when he forcibly removes her from the drivers seat, pulls her across a vacant parking space and hurls her to the asphalt.

Later king was filmed as she was being driven to jail. The camera recorded a conversation between King and officer Patrick Spradlin in which he said whites may be concerned about interacting with blacks because they can appear intimidating.

On Thursday Austin, Texas Police Chief Art Acevedo apologised to Ms King during a news conference and pledged a series of administrative investigations and increased training. He said his "heart was sickened and saddened" by the arrest.

"I'm sorry that on the day that you were stopped for going 15 miles per hour," Acevedo said in a public apology.

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"You were approached in a manner and treated in a manner that is not consistent with the expectations of this police chief, of most of the officers of this police department, and most importantly I think of all of us as human beings."

Acevedo said he didn't learn of the videos until Tuesday, when a prosecutor called him after receiving inquiries from the Austin American-Statesman.
A total of 77 people were killed in the bomb and gun rampage in 2011

Norway has paid tribute to the 77 people killed in a bombing and shooting rampage five years ago.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the day of the massacre - July 22 2011 - as "one of the darkest days in Norwegian history" that will always be remembered.

She told a memorial ceremony: "We still see traces of the terrorist acts.

"The missed ones will always be there. Time does not heal all wounds.

"The biggest impact is felt inside us as human beings."

Ms Solberg, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit laid wreaths at the government quarters in Oslo, where Anders Behring Breivik exploded a car bomb that killed eight people before driving to the island of Utoya where he gunned down 69 people - mostly teenagers - at a youth summer camp.

Later, they attended a memorial service at Oslo Cathedral, which also included victims' families and friends and representatives of a left-wing youth group that hosted the camp on Utoya.

In 2012, Breivik was convicted of mass murder and terrorism and given a 21-year prison sentence that can be extended for as long as he is deemed dangerous to society.

His attacks in the nation of five million traumatised the country, with about one in four people affected through connections with family, friends or acquaintances of the victims.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister at the time of the twin attacks in 2011, said he had painful memories of that day.

"It hurts to hear all the names read out," Mr Stoltenberg said. "But it's also good to be with other people who were affected that day, and we give each other support and comfort."

In the afternoon, a ceremony was to be held on Utoya, a small island situated on a lake surrounded by wooded hills, 25 miles north-west of Oslo.

It reopened to the public a year ago, when 1,000 youth organisation students enrolled for a camp held in memory of the victims.

AP
UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler condemned the killings as a 'war crime' (AP)

The United Nations envoy to Libya has expressed shock after the bodies of 14 people, apparently victims of extra-judicial killings, were found dumped in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Martin Kobler called on authorities to investigate.

He posted on his Twitter account that he is "utterly shocked and dismayed by the summary execution," which he called a "war crime".

Libya's al Wasat newspaper said the bodies were found in a rubbish dump in Benghazi on Thursday.

For the past two years, Benghazi has been rocked by fighting between forces led by General Khalifa Hifter and a coalition of Islamic militias.

Libya has slid into chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and has become bitterly divided between rival factions and competing governments.

AP
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The Upstate Marine Corps League Detachment 1106 recently donated several fans to answer the need of the community. The Salvation Army made a plea for fans needed by citizens of Anderson County. Monies raised by the several fundraisers of the detachment are used to go back in the community when the need arises. Shown from left are Warren Lutz, Lt. Heather Dolby, Chaplin Jeremiah Palmer and Richard Williams.
By Nikie Mayo of the Independent Mail

A magistrate has decided not to issue a warrant in the case of the Rhody Farm Road petition that was taken from a Starr convenience store.

Former Anderson County Councilman Eddie Moore returned the petition to the Redi-Mart Convenience Store earlier this week, according to his attorney, Bob Waldrep.

Moore did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

He served on the council from 2009 to the end of 2014, and made an unsuccessful bid to reclaim his seat this year.

Sheriff John Skipper said the magistrate who declined to issue a warrant is Judge Mary Frances Cole.

"My officer has video evidence that clearly shows a crime being committed," Skipper said. "We believe that shows enough probable cause to issue a warrant. Obviously, the judge sees it a little differently."

Cole said she could not comment on a specific case.

The petition's purpose is to keep Moore from closing Rhody Farm Road, a connector that joins Agnew Road and S.C. 81 South in Starr. The road is especially used when drivers are seeking to avoid bus traffic from nearby Starr Elementary School.

According to an incident report from the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, the petition was taken Saturday by a heavyset white man in a Dodge Ram pickup. Video recorded the man picking up the petition, placing it inside a folded newspaper, then buying the newspaper and leaving the store.

The case initially went to a different judge, who required the deputy on the case to gather more information before returning to seek a warrant, Skipper said.

When the case was brought back to the magistrate's office, Cole was on the bench.

Cole, an attorney, became a county magistrate in October. She is the same judge who decided not to file charges against the owner of Amara, a dog that was shot by its owner, blinded and left for dead.

Skipper said there are multiple instances in which his officers present cases to judges, but no warrants are signed.

"We've done our job, and then we relay it to the judge and it's up to them what happens from there," Skipper said. "I can see why our citizens get frustrated when they think things should go a certain way and they don't."

It's not clear whether this case will have any effect on what happens to Rhody Farm Road.

Moore, who owns property on both sides of the road, petitioned the South Carolina Department of Transportation to have the road transferred to him. After that permission was granted, signs were erected to indicate the road was closed to traffic. According to officials from the transportation department, Moore cannot close the road without permission from South Carolina courts. The road remains passable.

Ray Graham, who created the petition, said he remains focused on keeping the road available to the community.

Graham defeated incumbent J. Mitchell Cole in a Republican primary and Moore in a runoff, and is expected to take the Anderson County Council District 3 seat in January.

"We're obviously disappointed in the judge's decision, and we absolutely believe that the Sheriff's Office did its job as far as the petition is concerned," said Graham, a former deputy. "The fight that we are fighting is to keep the road open, not to put Eddie Moore in jail."
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

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This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

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Julie Clinkscale has been able to rely on Big Brothers Big Sisters to help care for her granddaughters. Four of her five granddaughters currently have Big Sisters working with them, with officials working to find a match for the fifth.

Clinkscales granddaughters and their Bigs include:

Serenity Clinkscale, 6, whose Big Sister is Victoria Sanders.

Janell Neal, 7 whose Big is Tiffany Williams

Vanessa Neal, 7 whose Big is Desiree Choiniere.

Natalie Neal, 8 whose Big is Sonja Allison.

Kalys Clinkscale, 10 currently doesnt have a match and Big Brothers Big Sisters is working to find her a Big Sister.

By Michael Knox

704-789-9133

CONCORD When Julie Clinkscales daughter was struggling to raise her five children, Clinkscale knew she needed to step in, and now is raising the children on her own.

It was just too much and it was this or foster care and foster care wasnt an option, Clinkscale said.

But raising five granddaughters can be overwhelming, especially with Clinkscale working as an infant toddler specialist with Child Care Resources in Salisbury.

Clinkscale was able to get support from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cabarrus County who have provided Big Sisters for four of Clinkscales granddaughters and working to find a match for the fifth.

The Bigs take out their little Sisters to various events, such as movies and other outings, but are also involved in their personal lives.

To provide that extra nurturance and at the same time I wanted them to have Big Sisters that were going to take a real interest in them, Clinkscale said. Not just do the fun stuff, but I wanted them to take an interest in their academics. Because I knew it was going to be difficult t do things, like go volunteer at school, because I was tied up. I use a lot of personal time just going to doctors appointments and dental appointments and parent teacher conferences.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is not only helping Clinkscale with her grandchildren, but helping them with a new home. Big Brothers Big Sisters partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Cabarrus County and worked together to build a new home for Clinkscale.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cabarrus County and Habitat for Humanity Cabarrus County will hold a dedication ceremony at 6 p.m. Monday at the home at 672 Magnolia Crossing Circle, Concord.

Officials raised about $80,000 to build the home for Clinkscale and her family. But dont think she is getting the home for free.

Clinkscale, like all Habitat participants had to invest 250 hours of sweat equity. Also, Clinkscale will have a zero interest mortgage over 30 years, like other Habitat participants.

The home was constructed by volunteers in the community, including members of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Sonja Allison, 45, is the Big Sister to one Clinkscales granddaughters  8-year-old Natalie Neal  and was among the Big Sister volunteers who worked on the home. Allison had previously worked on other Habitat for Humanity homes.

I havent been connected to the people for the houses Ive worked on, Allison said. This one is a little different and special because I actually know the family who will be benefitting from the house.

Finding the right match

Allison helped build the home for the family, but she almost never knew Clinkscale and her granddaughters.

Allison has been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters since about 2003 and had three Littles prior to Natalie. Those Littles either left the program or aged out of the program.

I wasnt sure if I wanted to get involved and make that emotional connection again, Allison said. Because it is an emotional connection.

That changed when a match support specialist with Big Brothers Big Sisters reached out to Allison. The specialist  who tries to match the personalities of the adults with those that best match a child  explained Natalie was a bit shy and thought itd be a good match. The two met about three years ago when Natalie was 5.

When I first met her, she just opened up, Allison said. It was kind of one of those connections.

The two have gone to the movies together, gone shopping, been to Carowinds and Great Wolf Lodge and had sleepovers at Allisons home. The other Bigs have had similar outings with their Littles and even gone out as entire groups. Even if a Big just takes out one or two of the Littles it is a huge help to Clinkscale, allowing her to focus on her relationship with her grandchildren.

Even if they are not all going out at the same time, taking one or two out of the house, that kind of frees me up to have some time to have individual time, Clinkscale said. Because its difficult to have one on one time.

A new home

Having that one on one time has also been difficult, just because of the living arrangements of Clinkscale and the grandchildren. But that will soon change, thanks to the Habitat for Humanity home.

Clinkscales family is going from a two bedroom duplex with one and a half bathrooms for six people, moving into a four bedroom home with two full bathrooms.

It will be a huge relief for the family who are on top of each other and find it difficult to get away from one another in such a small space.

Do you know where my alone time is? My bathroom in my bedroom, Clinkscale said with a laugh. Its the only place I have to go for peace, because I can shut the bedroom door, come into the bathroom, shut the door, cut the fan on and then I cant hear anything out there.

The tight confines make it difficult to do homework with each granddaughter, since the other children might be playing and be a distraction. Now, there will be a room with a desk Clinkscale can go to in order to focus on homework with a child.

The new home will make a big difference, Clinkscale said. A lot of what weve had to deal with we can put that behind us.

And it will be a large home that will mean the place wont be as cramped when the Bigs arrive as well. Something important to Clinkscale, commenting on her friendships with the Bigs, including Allison.

She has been a rock, Clinkscale said. I dont care whats on my mind about any of the girls  she will be there to help.

That help that Allison and the others provide includes talking to the girls about problems they may have in school and any other things on their mind.

Having them has been a blessing and it has helped me because they provide needless support, Clinkscale said. And its evolved into they are more a part of the family. They are not just Bigs who came from Big Brothers Big Sisters  they have integrated themselves into the family.
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www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.
This article isnt just for the spirit seekers  it doesnt matter if you are a wine connoisseur, beer fanatic, shooters guy or a teetotaller - youll find some fantastic places on this list that you can enjoy with all your friends. Whether you want to partake in some downright debauchery or just enjoy the decor, whether you order only the appetisers and not the aperitifs, it matters not. For these are some of the best bars in the country and you must visit them to enjoy the experience - more than the alcohol.

1. Asilo, Mumbai

Zomato.com

If youve ever wanted to witness a birds eye view of Mumbai, head straight to Asilo. Located on the 38th floor of the St. Regis Hotel (Palladium Hotel), this is currently the highest bar in Mumbai. Make sure to order the signature cocktails and the grilled items from the menu while you are sitting on top of the world and looking down on the creation that is Mumbai.

2. Tamasha, Delhi

Zomato.com

When in the capital, make it a point to head to the newest and most happening bar in the city  Tamasha. It is spread over 16,000 square feet and its three floors are sectioned off into 5 separate areas that serve as a bar, hookah lounge, courtyard seating and so on. The funky interiors are very pleasing and the truck that has been fashioned into a bar is interestingly innovative to say the least.

3. The Flying Elephant, Chennai

Dineout.com

Many have deemed The Flying Elephant a theatrical experience of sorts. The vertical dining concept has 5 different kitchens placed at different open levels, spanning a total of 7 stories. Whether you are in the mood for Middle Eastern, Asian, Indian, Italian or Western cuisine, you can find it all here while enjoying the arresting atmosphere and the foot tapping music.

4. Quote Bar, Delhi

quotebar.in

If you are someone who thrives on intellectual conversations and inspiring surroundings, this is the place for you. The interiors are plastered with symbols, words and quotes that are enough to spark off some interesting discussions after youve had a drink or two. Sample their European menu that pairs perfectly with a couple of beers from their premium collection.

5. Pebble, Bangalore

Zomato.com

If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city without spending too much on a vacation, a quick trip to Pebble in Bangalore can do just the trick. Its a beach-themed bar, decorated like a shack and surrounded by lush greenery. It serves Persian cuisine, plays some great music and no weekend is boring at Pebble as the events happening here draw in crowds from all over the city. Besides this, the drinks are deadly and the music will put you in a daze in no time.

6. 21 Fahrenheit, Mumbai

Tripadvisor.in

This place takes chilling with friends to a whole new level. In the middle of Mumbais sweltering heat, 21 Fahrenheit offers an ambience of sub zero temperature. Drinks are served in ice cube glasses and even the decor of the bar seems like a set out of Frozen, with tables, walls and even curtains made of ice. Dont worry about the attire though  you are provided with boots and jackets so you can heat up the dance floor while you keep your cool all night long, literally.

7. Bar Palladio, Jaipur

thisisglamorous.com

Its one thing to live like the Maharajas, but to celebrate like the royals is a whole new experience. The Narain Niwas Palace has recently become home to one of the most opulent bars in the country  the Bar Palladio. The rich blue and white decor reminds you of a royal time in India, but with a slightly European influence. It doesnt exactly qualify as affordable; the vast list of cocktails, wines and spirits will leave you feeling spoilt for choice while you sit back and take in the grandeur of it all.

8. Black Sheep Bistro, Goa

whatsupgoa

For those who like to sip and savour wines, Black Sheep Bistro in Goa offers you a selection of spirits that can rival most speciality wine bars. It is a fusion restaurant that combines global inspirations with local tastes. You can sit at the bar, the lounge, the formal dining area or the patio gallery and enjoy your evening with some lip smacking food and invigorating alcohol.

9. Aer, Mumbai

zomato

Until recently, Aer was the highest bar in Mumbai before Asilo knocked it out of that place. But nevertheless, this bar is nothing short of spectacular. The open-air rooftop overlooks the expanse of the city making you feel like a spectator sitting high above all the action. The pulsing purple glow from the lights, along with the heady combination of strong cocktails and the view of the sea are enough to give you a night to remember.

10. The Sahib Room and Kipling Bar, Mumbai

timescitycontent

The Sahib Room and Kipling Bar has done a fantastic job of recreating the era of gentlemens clubs during the British Raj. Youll step into a time where it will seem like a hearty conversation with Rudyard Kipling is next on the agenda while you drench your throat with the amazing and amusing cocktail creations inspired by his work.

11. PCO, Delhi

vanityvial.files.wordpress

During the American Prohibition era, a number of illicit alcohol joints popped up all around the city which could be accessed only if you were in the know. This trend is coming back and catching on in India too, with PCO in Delhi being an exciting example. The entrance to the bar lies behind a black phone booth among the shop fronts of Vasant Vihar market, and one can enter only if they know the password that needs to be punched in on the telephone dial. On the inside, mismatched furniture, vintage keepsakes and classic cocktails perfectly fit the bill of the retro theme this speakeasy style pub is going for.

12. The Single Malt And Co, Pune

Aalok/Zomato.com

If soothing jazz music, smooth whiskey and woodsy cigars make up your idea of a perfect evening, then this is the place for you. Located at the Hyatt Regency in Pune, The Single Malt and Co. is perfect for all those who love that old-school charm. True to the name, this bar offers a collection of 28 single malts along with multiple other sumptuous wines and scotches. What makes this place even more special is the selection of 6 variety cigars offered to each guest at the time of their visit.

13. Amoda Spa Bar, Kolkata

jointhebusride.com

If you want to spend a whole day soaking up comforts and luxury, head to the Amoda Spa Bar. What operates as a high end spa during the day, transforms into a buzzing bar at night. After soaking in Jacuzzis and enjoying relaxing massages during the day, you can spend your evening under the glare of LED lights, drinking and eating to the limits of gluttony.

14. Harbour Bar, Mumbai

taj.tajhotels.com

Do you know about the first licensed bar in India? Apparently, its this one! Located in the Taj Mahal hotel, the Harbour Bar first opened its door in 1933 and is one of the oldest bars in the country; so naturally, vintage is the best way to describe it. Offering guests a direct view of the Gateway of India, its plush and luxurious interiors make it an ideal place for some peace and pampering.

15. Someplace Else, Kolkata

Zomato.com

Someplace Else is a haven for music and beer aficionados. It is most recognised for its 9-hour long live music sessions that take place every day. Many prominent bands, both Indian and international, have played here at some point. The food and drink promise to be good, but the rock-and-roll experience is hard to find elsewhere.

Cover image courtesy gtspirit.com
Agneya Singh was all of 22 and fresh out of filmmaking school in the US, when he decided to explore and transalate the confusion of the present day urban young into a film. He sought to get under the skin of this new generation, which he belongs to as well, and reflect upon the growing disillusionment and discontentment in them. This experimental narrative of his shaped well into a road film called M Cream and cut across generation who found it relatable to their youth. It was first released in 2014.

What took so long to release the film to a mass audience?

The film was first released in 2014 and we consciously decided to first take it to the festival circuit  showing it at International Film festivals and through special screenings. There were several reasons for that. One, we did not have the budgets and two, this was planned to be the incubation period for the film. We sought genuine feedback and reactions from our audiences. Thankfully for us, the film was critically acclaimed and widely appreciated.

The International audiences found this film to be different from the dream-machine films or those stereotyping the country as exotic and poor. M Cream shows the Urban side to India  one that is unique, young and charged.

Talk about cliches, but when one thinks M Cream, Malana and the quest of hash in the Himalayas is what comes to the mind.

Yes, it does take a lot of cliches, but it also shows there is much more to it than that. So if you have mythic hash growing in the Himalayas, an Indian student studying in the US or living in a commune, there is also the re-emergence of the youth from the 60s and 70s, one that is simmering with rebellion, confused and yet rational and seeking. And there is a lot of relatability and connect.

Is it true that the film is autobiographical in parts?

Yes. In the sense, I did not go to DU and a lot of characters are modeled after my friends and real people around me. But then you have to understand, I grew up in the 90s when we were surrounded by the bubble of commercialism, and drugs and escapism played a role in shaping the youth. So you saw a brigade driven by forced rebellion and activism. They had in them the spirit to revolutionise. True, we (this generation) come across as confused but that is because we are not ideologically driven. Not in that true sense of word. But there is definitely that innate sense to be true to the self and free.

The story of M Cream reflects that. And then there is also this village that is lost in time. A village that has been cultivating hash for over 1000 years, and they know not any other crop to grow. It is hypocritical on the part of the government to expect them to change their ways. Especially, when they mean no harm. The film speaks for change  within and outside in the system.

To deem this film as a call for change, would it be correct?

Oh yes. M cream is far more relevant today. There exists the culture of escapism and there is very little difference between the far left and far right. Automatically, a lot of young people are gravitating towards humanism. They want the change and are proactively discussing things. Its a no violent revolution of sorts. And this (film and media) is one medium by which we can express ourselves and create a positive world around us.

What awards and accolades has the film garnered so far?

www.agneyasingh.com

M Cream has been screened at over 30 International Film Festivals in the US (New York, Los Angeles, Colorado, Chicago, Seattle, Arizona, Houston, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Boston, etc.) and Europe (UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain. And it is the winner of 10 International Film Awards including: Best Feature Film, Rhode Island International Film Festival; Best Foreign Feature, Indie Spirit Film Festival; Best Foreign Film, World Fest-Houston; Cult Feature, Queen City Film Festival; Best Cinematography, Madrid Film Festival; Best Actor (Imaad Shah), St Tropez Film Festival; Best of Show, IndieFest Film Awards and Best Upcoming Film, Jaipur Film Festival.

Where is the film being officially released now?

www.mcreamfilm.com

Though the film has travelled all over the country in the last two years, officially, the film is being released in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh, Pune, Dehradun, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. We were planning a release in Bangalore and Chennai as well, but Kabali rooted us out. We are hopeful to get the next Friday spot.
2016 has seen the rise of the chatbots on social media, especially on Facebook. It might not have been officially launched in India but people abroad have already started using them to order themselves an Uber or shop online. What people haven't done is use them to give what perhaps could be termed as the most entertaining and interactive history lesson ever.

News Corp Australia put the chatbots to good use and launched a bot on Facebook Messenger that allows users to have a conversation with a World War I veteran - Archie Barwick. Created by AnzacLive, the objective of the project is to educate people about the personal experiences of Australians fighting in the war. But in a more generic sense of things, we think it's just a great way to tell people about history.

Archie Barwick was a Tasmanian soldier who fought the first World War. Barwick apparently kept a total of 16 diaries which were used to document his experience of the war. He used to keep a daily account of what was going on there in France back in 1916 and is known to have written about 400,000 words on the subject. Which is what the bot uses to answer our queries about him and the war. You could practically ask Archie anything. Although, as we learnt from the first-hand experience, it is not guaranteed that he'll answer every question.

To get a grip of the things Archie knew, I ended up having a rather long conversation with Archie about him, his life, the horrific thing that is war and of course, Modiji.

I thought of taking things a little personal...

And warn him about the future

I had to ask this. Had to.

He wasn't too kind towards the Germans though.

Also tried fighting with logic...

But he kept on running away...

I also tried bumming him out a bit. It's a bot after all.

Fighting with logic rarely yields the perfect response.



Then realised it was best to avoid.

Also asked him to get a grip of things.

Like Archie? Talk to him here or go check out his Facebook page.
He drove into apartment complexes in luxury sedans such as Audi or Mercedes, and left in greater style and a more expensive car. His career pickings include around 100 high-end automobiles, all stolen with characteristic elan.

However, the crime run came to an end on Wednesday when police nabbed super car-lifter Robin from his hideout in Devli, southeast Delhi, where he had been living with his girlfriend.

ANI

Following his hero

Police said Robin was so inspired by 'superchor' Bunty that he kept his photo in the wallet. He had watched the movie Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! based on Bunty's life, 25 times and imitated his modus operandi.

The anti-auto theft squad of west Delhi police nabbed Robin after getting a tip-off about his hideout. A BMW and a Toyota Fortuner were recovered from him. He had recently driven to sector 17A, Noida, in a stolen Audi A-7 and driven off in a more expensive BMW.

Twitter/Audi Top News

Police said Robin has been into crime for 14 years but moved into car-lifting recently, after meeting master carjacker Manoj Bakkarwala in jail. Robin has confessed he sold his stolen cars to one 'Nawab', a resident of Udham Singh Nagar. "He targeted only posh colonies and house owners who were out on a morning walk.

TOI

He entered their homes, stole car keys and drove away without blinking twice. He operated in Delhi, Haryana, UP, Chandigarh and Punjab," said Pushpendra, DCP (west).
Soon after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi landed in Rajkot, a Dalit victim, who was one of the seven victim beaten by Gau Rakshaks for skinning a dead cow on July 11, was re-admitted to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (PDU) General Hospital in Rajkot on Thursday.

BCCL

Ramesh Sarvaiya, 23, was discharged from Junagarh Civil Hosptal on July 18, but re-admitted to General Hospital in Rajkot under alleged political pressure, so that Congress Scion Rahul Gandhi could meet him.

The increasing incidents of violence against Dalits in BJP-ruled states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have given the opposition, especially Congress, an effortless opportunity to corner PM Narendra Modi once again after BJP's Rohith Vemula faux pass last year.

Despite being ridiculed for naivete, Rahul Gandhi knows the importance of the caste card, which is why he is visiting Rajkot to meet Dalits beaten for recently skinning a dead cow.

inidianexpress

Ramesh Sarvaiya, along with six other members of his family, were allegedly beaten by Gau Rakshaks while skinning a dead cow in Mota Samadhiyala village of Una taluka in Gir Somnath district on July 11.

After the video of Dalits being severely beaten went viral on social media, followed by other incidents of violence against Dalits in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, and fueled by the obscene comments of BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh against BSP Supremo Mayawati, the political battle over atrocities on Dalits has once against acquired the centre stage.

According to reports, Ramesh was admitted to the Community Health Centre in Una on July 11 soon after the incident. But the doctors there suspected a fracture and referred him to Junagarh Civil Hospital, from where he was discharged from on July 18, with his father Balu Sarvaiya, 46, who had sustained head injury.

They had recovered from their injuries and, therefore, they were discharged, Dr Alpesh Vaishnani, in-charge resident medical officer of Junagadh Civil Hospital told The Indian Express.

BCCL

As per reports, the father-son duo and Ramesh's mother, Kunvar (42), were admitted to the Junagadh hospital on the night of July 11. But, curiously, Kunvar left the hospital on the afternoon of July 12.

Ramesh, however, was spotted in the surgical ward of PDU hospital on Wednesday, when CM Anandiben visited him. But the hospital documents show he was admitted to the same ward at 7.38 am on Thursday, around 7 hours before the Congress vice-president visited.

On July 18, the CM had announced that the Gujarat government would cover all costs of their treatment. Dr Dharmendra Vatsraj, medical superintendent of PDU General hospital, said, He had abrasions and bruises and came to us for treatment. As a matter of policy, we cannot deny treatment to any patient. Therefore, he was admitted this morning.

Besides Ramesh and his elder brother, Vashram (26), two other victims  Bechar Sarvaiya (30) and Ashok Sarvaiya (20)  are also undergoing treatment at the PDU General Hospital.

After inquiring about the health of Vashram, Bechar and Ashok on Wednesday, the CM said that none of them had fractures and that all of them were normal. Ramesh was on the bedside of his brother on Wednesday and Dr Vatsraj said he could have accompanied the patients in the hospital.

Vashram, Bechar and Ashok were first admitted to the Una hospital and had received treatment there till the evening of July 16. Doctors had told The Indian Express on July 12 that the trio were merely under observation.

BCCL

But, later on, they were referred to Rajkot. They had complaints of headache, giddiness and abdominal pain. Therefore, we referred them to Rajkot, Dr Tariq Baloch, medical superintendent of the Una hospital told Express. But doctors at the the Rajkot and Una hospitals have other claims, saying they are under pressure to let the Una victims stay in the hospitals.

The four patients from Una are completely normal. They are fit to be discharged any time. Other 11 who have attempted suicide by consuming poison are also fine and can be allowed to go home. But there is a lot of political pressure on us to let them stay in the hospital. The leaders of various political parties are coming to us and telling us that they are very serious and that they should continue to get medical treatment, a senior doctor of the government hospital in Rajkot told The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity.

BCCL

When contacted, Ramesh said, My thighs have swollen again and the pain has recurred. Black spots have developed there due to the beating. When I told doctors about this, they advised me to get admitted and I agreed, he said.

Ramesh said that he had been in the PDU General Hospital with his elder brother since July 18 after he was discharged from the Junagadh hospital. However, he denied that any politician or community leader persuaded him to get admitted again.
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune which had been in the news throughout the past year for the wrong reasons has put a 'gag order' on new students.

PTI

Following the mass student protest against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the director of India's premier film and TV institute, it has asked new students to sign "general conduct" declaration promising to maintain "decorum and decency" on campus.

BCCL

The affidavit, one of the five which the students have to submit also specifies that they won't "insult" faculty members.

"I agree to maintain decorum and decency on the campus, including in hostel and staff residential areas, and in any circumstances would not be insulting to the faculty, staff members and elders, it reads.

FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola said that this was not the first time students were being asked to sign the affidavits.

"All these declarations and affidavits are not new as these documents were signed by 2014 television batch as well."

Calling it a move to intimidate the new students, some from the senior batches said they were never asked to give such an undertaking.

This year, new students will the first batch FTII will be having after two 'zero batch' years.

BCCL

Last year students of FTII had gone on a 139-day long protest against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan, whom they accused, "was not qualified enough to lead the institute" as its director. Many eminent filmmakers had also accused the government of "saffronising" the institute.

Also read: From IIT-M To JNU, Here Is The List Of Government Vs Students Stand-Offs In Recent Years
It seems like dogs are becoming the favorite punching bag for some sick-minded people in this country.

Recently the shocking visuals of a dog being flung from a roof-top by a medical student in Chennai shocked our consciousness.

screengrab

Then, just a couple of days ago, two different videos from Hyderabad had emerged on social media, one showing three puppies being burnt alive, while the second one showed a dog being shot dead.

Now another sickening story is being reported from Bengaluru, where animal activists came across a mass grave of street dogs in the city.

BCCL/ Representative Image

According to a report in Bangalore Mirror, People for Animals (PFA) activists were alerted by a liquor manufacturer about the grave in their farmhouse. They also informed about hearing a dog yelping and squealing.

Once the PFA activists reached the spot, they found the mass grave of over 30 dogs, and another one alive.

Bangalore Mirror

The rescued dog, believed to be around 18-months old, is now being taken care of by the activists and is recovering.

Bangalore Mirror

It still remains a mystery who is behind the mass murder of these many dogs. While some have pointed fingers at the BBMP which in the past have resorted to mass killing to check the street dog menses.

However activists said the killed dogs seemed healthy and don't appear to be street dogs.

"Most of the dogs buried in the pit seem very healthy. They might have been killed. No NGO or person can resort to such a massacre," said Naveen Kumar.
An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane with 29 people on board has gone missing over the Bay of Bengal amid inclement weather.

The IAF's AN-32 plane took off from Tambaram in Chennai for Port Blair in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands when it lost radar contact around 8:45 am. Its estimated time of arrival in Port Blair was 11.30 am.

The Navy, the Coast Guard and the IAF have launched a joint search and rescue operation. Of the 29 people on board, six are crew members. Click here to read more

1. 4,000 Years After It Was 'Lost' River Saraswati Could Be Brought Back To Life As Early As This Month

Somewhere close to 4,000 years ago, Saraswati dried up and was forgotten, till earlier this year when its route was traced and a board set up to bring it back to life.

Now it turns out, the river (or some part of it could start flowing as early as this month) after Haryana government appointed a team to search for the traces of the river in its original route struck water.

As many as 80 people who were digging the course of the Saraswati in Mugalwali village of Yamunanagar district when they noticed water coming out at a shallow depth of just eight feet. Click here to read more

2. Family Of BJP Leader Daya Shankar, Who Made Sexist Remarks About Mayawati, Allege Abuse From BSP Workers

On the day BSP workers laid siege to Lucknow, the family of the man they were targeting was holed up at an undisclosed location out of fear. BSP workers were protesting against the foul language used by Dayashankar about Mayawati.

But some of their own slogans directly targeting his daughter and family left a deep scar on the family's psyche. Dayashanker's wife and minor kids, especially his daughter, a class 7 student at a prestigious school, said they were pained and anguished by reactions against them on social media and TV. Click here to read more

3. Dalit Victim Re-Admitted To Hospital Under Alleged Political Pressure Hours Before Rahul Gandhi's Rajkot Visit

Soon after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi landed in Rajkot, a Dalit victim, who was one of the seven victim beaten by Gau Rakshaks for skinning a dead cow on July 11, was re-admitted to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (PDU) General Hospital in Rajkot on Thursday.

Ramesh Sarvaiya, 23, was discharged from Junagarh Civil Hosptal on July 18, but re-admitted to General Hospital in Rajkot under alleged political pressure, so that Congress Scion Rahul Gandhi could meet him. Click here to read more

4. Mass Grave Of Over 30 Dogs Unearthed In Bengaluru, One Miraculously Survives

A sickening story is being reported from Bengaluru, where animal activists came across a mass grave of street dogs in the city.

According to a report in Bangalore Mirror, People for Animals (PFA) activists were alerted by a liquor manufacturer about the grave in their farmhouse. They also informed about hearing a dog yelping and squealing.

Once the PFA activists reached the spot, they found the mass grave of over 30 dogs, and another one alive. Click here to read more

5. Syrian Kids Are Posing With Pokemons In The Hope That The World Would Pay Some Attention To Them

The world is going crazy hunting Pokemons - there are no two ways about it. Just tell someone that there is some Pokemon around in some place, and it will be flooded with enthusiastic 'hunters'. But meanwhile, some children from war ravaged Syria are using Pokemons to attract the world's attention.

A number of images have been posted on Twitter and Facebook which show Syrian children holding images of Pokemons, in an appeal to the world to save them.

The pictures were shared by an online news service, the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office. It is said to be children from across the country and the posters in their hand specify their location. Click here to read more
With each passing hour, the mystery of missing AN-32, an Indian Air Force Plane carrying 29 people, mostly military personnel, is getting deeper, although the Coast Guard and Navy have massive search operations with more than 12 navy and coast guard ships looking for the aircraft in the Bay of Bengal.

Air Force

A submarine has also been diverted to look out for the plane in deep sea in case there was any crash. The plane went missing after it took off for Port Blair from Chennai this morning.

According to sources, the plane which had six crew members and eight civilians or family members of the military personnel may have plunged from an altitude of 23,000 feet.

The plane left the Tambaram air base near Chennai at 8.30 am for Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar chain of islands. It was to land around 11.45 am.

"It was found missing. As of now, we will term it as overdue," said Navy spokesperson DK Sharma, in the afternoon. The last call from the aircraft was around 16 minutes after take-off, when the pilot reported that "everything is normal." A massive search has been launched by Indian Authorities after the plane fell off the radar at 9.12 am, 280 km east of Chennai. There were 11 air force personnel, two army and one navy personnel and a Coast Guard member on board.

Indiandefence.wiki

The plane has an emergency beacon locator, which usually gets activated if there is a crash, and a navy submarine has been sent to track any underwater transmission from the locator.

The Navy has also sent five surveillance aircraft including a Dornier, and 13 ships - Sahyadri, Rajput, Ranvijay, Kamorta, Kirch, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, Shakti, Jyoti, Ghariyal and Sukanya.
Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets.

Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials.

If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details.
In the second reported honor killing in Pakistan in just under a month, a man has been stabbed to death.

Allah Ditta was stabbed to death by five men who chopped off his arms and legs.

He was killed for alleging having an affair and the incident comes just a few days after Social media celebrity, Qandeel Baloch was killed by her brother.

Honor killings are common in Pakistan where a strict moral and religious code makes people kill relatives who bring shame to their family.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are celebrating their little boy, Prince George, as he turn 3 today, July 22.

In celebrating the royal toddler, his proud parents released new photos taken by photographer Matt Porteous at their home in Norfolk earlier this month.
Former Chairman of House Appropriation Committee, Hon Abdulmumuni Jibrin yesterday alleged that Speaker Yakubu Dogara, tried to pad N30 billion into budget.

He went ahead to call him a coward and a hypocrite. However, the speaker in a statement by the spokesperson for the house, Abdulrazak Namdas, dismissed Mr. Jibrins claims. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from his statement.

1.The speaker said most of the allegations on the 2016 budget process and his opposition to immunity of Presiding officers are non-issues and mere afterthought manufactured simply because the House relieved him of his position.

2.He said if Jibrin had all these facts before, why didnt he make them public? Why is he doing that now?

3.Dogara said Jubril was not removed because of his support or otherwise on immunity bill. After all he is not the only one who opposed the bill.

4.He added that Jubril should not distract the House from giving legislative support on important issues facing the government concerning the revival of the economy, insecurity in the country, pursuit of anti-corruption measures, poverty alleviation, infrastructural development etc.

5.Lastly, he noted that the Nigerian people are simply not ready to waste their time on personal issues and personal egos of our leaders. We should face the urgent tasks before us for which we were elected.
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC Plc) was established to distribute quality electric power to its customers, using modern technology and tools. The company desires to build a team of professionals who will manage its operations under global best practices.

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, (AEDC) the electric distribution company for the FCT, Niger, Kogi and Nassarawa States, is inviting applications from suitably qualified candidates for the position below:

Job Title: Head, Dispute Resolution

Job Description

Job Role involves using alternative dispute resolution procedures in addition to traditional processes of litigation and arbitration to minimize AEDCs exposure to risk;

Ensure the provision of solutions that are practical, competitive and commercially focused.

Key Roles / Responsibilities

Formulate strategy, provide legal advice, guidance and practical solutions on a broad range of legal issues and disputes including those pertaining to customer relations, staff, revenue protection, investigations, contractual disputes etc.

Develop appropriate framework for the effective engagement, supervision and monitoring of anti-graft and other security agencies handling matters assigned by the company.

Develop appropriate framework for the engagement of external counsel and debt collection agents through appropriate engagements with Procurement.

Conduct, facilitate and properly document investigations assigned to Legal Services and participate in incident / committee investigations.

Develop and implement the framework for efficient case management

Coordinate the prompt documentation, processing and referral of energy theft, meter bypass and other cases/lawsuits referred to or received by Legal Services.

Facilitate publication of successful prosecutions in the media to deter new and repeat offenders.

Facilitate the representation of and where permissible represent AEDC in litigation, administrative proceedings, external investigations and reviews, and alternative dispute resolution proceedings.

Prompt resolution of lawsuits initiated against the company through lawful and practical methods including but not limited to ADR techniques.

Provide advice and guidance on internal complaint proceedings and internal investigations.

Develop work plans, databases, policies and standard operating manual for the Function.

Training subordinates.

Handle all other issues assigned by the Company Secretary and Director Legal Services.

Requirements

Bachelors Degree in Law (LLB, BL)

Masters degree and other post graduate qualifications preferred.

Minimum of 15 years legal experience.

Tenacity to manage a large work load.

Broad knowledge of Company and Commercial Law.

Excellent organizational skills.

Broad knowledge of ADR policies, procedures and processes.

Litigation experience and experience working with Security agencies.

Excellent written, oral communication and interpersonal skills.

Awareness of the sensitivity and confidentiality involved in the function.

IT proficiency.

Method of Application

Applicants should send their Curriculum Vitae and a cover letter to: [email protected] The subject of your email should be the position you are applying for, i.e. Head, Dispute Resolution.

The cover letter should be addressed to:

The MD/CEO,

Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc,

1 Ziquinchor Street, Off IBB Way

Wuse Zone 4,

Abuja, FCT,

Nigeria

Attention: The Executive Director, Human Resources and Corporate Services.

Note: Only applications sent directly to the above email address and follow the above instructions will be considered and only suitably qualified candidates will be contacted.
It was pandemonium on Thursday at the legislative chambers of the Ughelli South local government council when gunmen stormed the legislative session of the lawmakers, with about nine persons sustaining various forms of injuries.

The hoodlums, brandished guns, cutlasses, battle axes and other dangerous weapons, with which they used in attacking their victims injuring five Councillors, three staff of the council and the Clerk of the House who was stabbed on the head.

Military personnel, however, came to the rescue of the lawmakers, arresting 18 of the hoodlums and handed them over to the police at the Ughelli Area Command for prosecution.

The Leader of the House, December Saromare, in an interview with newsmen said the gunmen took off with the mace of the House, smashed windows, destroyed furniture and other items within the chambers.

A senior police officer at the Ughelli Area Command who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident and the arrests, adding that the suspects have confessed of a top political office holder in the Ughelli South executive and three lawmakers in the council as the brains behind their attack on the lawmakers.

A blue and white coloured 12-seater bus with registration number JRT 455 XA and other dangerous weapons were recovered from the hoodlums, the source explained.
Popular award-winning actor, Idris Elba, appears to have dissapointed fans by ruling himself out as the next James Bond.

The British actor has long been rumored to be one of the top candidates to replace Daniel Craig as the Englands top big screen superspy.

Craig has said hes done with the role even though he is contractually obligated to do one more movie.

Elba on Thursday told Good Morning America that the idea of playing Bond seems like a stretch.

It is the wildest rumor in the world, He said. I keep saying if it were to happen it would be the will of a nation because there hasnt been any talks between me and the studio about any of that. But everywhere I go people want that to happen.

The Beast of No Nation star added:

If Im really honest man, I think Im too old for that, he said. Running around in cars, and ladies and martinis, who wants to do that? Sounds terrible.

Oh yeah  awful. Doesnt get much worse than that.
The Lagos State Ministry of Education on Thursday announced that the 2016/2017 placement test into Public Junior Secondary Schools would hold on July 23 in 255 designated centres across the state.

Mr Adesina Odeyemi, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, announced the conduct of the examination in a statement by Mr Adesegun Ogundeji, Assistant Director, Public Affairs.

The Director, Lagos State Examinations Board, Mr Olufemi Hassan, is quoted in the statement as saying that over 140,000 pupils registered from both public and registered private schools.

It added that candidates were expected to sit for the Pencil Paper Test at designated centres nearest to their homes

The pupils are going to be tested in both English and Mathematics only; Pupils are therefore, enjoined to study hard for the examination.

We urge parents to prepare their children and wards for the examination by making available all writing materials such as pencil, eraser and sharpener for the examination.

Parents should ensure that their children and wards get to their respective designated centres at 8 a.m., an hour before the test commences, the statement said.

The statement however, warned against examination malpractice and urged parents to obey regulations as no one would be allowed near the examination halls, adding that successful candidates would be placed into the 349 public junior secondary schools across the state.
An elderly man said to be on his late 50s almost lost his life for stealing a power bank in one of the shops at Computer Village Jos.

It was gathered that the man whose name was not disclosed went into one Mrs Amaka shop while her husband was away. Due to much customers in the shop, he tried to move away with a power bank, but was not lucky enough and he got caught.

He received the beating of his life and almost killed before a military officer came to his rescue. Watch graphic video below:

Source: Jtown Connect
A British Airways flight carrying passengers yesterday morning from London to Crete was forced to turn back and make an emergency landing when passengers complained of a nasty smell after the plane took off.

The foul odour which was reportedly compared to the smell of marijuana filled the cabin.

The plane landed 90 minutes after take off.

The pilot turned back as a precaution and the flight was met by fire crews and other emergency personnels.

40 year-old Stuart Barnes who was a passenger on the plane told The Sun:

We were four rows from the back and the whole area stank. Everyone was saying it was cannabis.

We were told the air con would clear it, but it got even stronger.

Passengers were later put on a rescheduled flight to the Greek island during midday.

A spokeswoman of British Airways said no evidence of cannabis or anybody smoking cannabis was found on board.

She later appologised to the affected customers for the delay.
Business journalist and presenter Didi Akinyelure has been awarded this years BBC World News Komla Dumor Award which aims to celebrate African journalism and reward exceptional talent. Ms Akinyelure comes from Nigeria and has been working for CNBC Africa in Lagos since 2013. She will join BBC news team in September for a 3-month placement.

Source: BBC World Service
The News Agency of Nigeria has reported that the kidnappers of Lagos monarch, Oba Yushau Goriola Oseni, have demanded a N500m ransom.

He was kidnapped on Saturday.

During the attack, his wife was shot and his guard killed.

SEE ALSO: Well Rescue Oniba From His Abductors  Gov Ambode

Just two days ago, a Plateau first class monarch was killed after being abducted by unknown gunmen.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, has commended the maturity of the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in his handling of the illegal entry of Ife locals and residents into the Shasha forest in the state to avert crisis.

This was even as the Governor noted that his government will do everything possible to avoid being confrontational with monarchs in the state, but seek amicable ways of resolving issues that will affect the peace in the state.

Aregbesola and the Monarch stated this at an interactive meeting called by the Governor preceding the issuance of a white paper by the state government over the illegal entry, demarcation, allocation and farming at the Shasha Forest Reserve in Ile-Ife.

The meeting had in attendance the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori; the Chief of Staff to Aregbesola, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola; Osun Head of Service, Sunday Owoeye; security Chiefs from the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Department of State Services; professionals; technocrats; traditional rulers; and members of the public.

Aregbesola had earlier set up a Committee in order to foster the peaceful atmosphere that is needed for the development of the state in accordance with the six-point integral action plan of his administration

The Ooni of Ife lauded Aregbesola for always adopting dialogue to engender peace in the state since assumption of office, adding that the Governor had been consciously prioritizing public opinions and views in conflicts and disputes resolution.

According to Oba Ogunwusi: What we are witnessing here today is a challenge to other leaders. We should develop Government-community relationship, if we do that, there will be peace across Nigeria.

This does not apply to Osun alone. It must go far as the Niger-Delta and the North. Whatever decision governments want to make, they must carry the locals along.

Governor Aregbesola has all the executive rights based on the Land U Act of 1978, so far the land is meant for public use. But in the good spirit of Government-community relationship, for us to avert security issues, that is why we are having this interactive session on Shasha Forest Reserve.

He could just sign off the land and damn all the consequences and we that are living within that community, the spill over of such a thing will first of all affect us either positively or negatively and we dont even know where it can lead to. We dont pray for a bad situation.

Mr. Governor has displayed good leadership by engaging us, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to put our own position across.

Oba Ogunwusi said no efforts would be spared in supporting the states efforts at ensuring peaceful resolutions over the disputed Forest Reserve, which, according to him, has been illegally encroached on over the years.

He attributed the importance of forest reservation to human existence as un-quantifiable, saying no nation can survive without proper maintenance of her natural environmental endowments.

He said it is very important for any ideal society to have some reserves kept not only for socio-economic advantages but for environmental protection.

I have been a proponent of replacing nature of tree being fell at this reserve because with my various researches on this, I came to realize that it is very important for government and the community to be on the same page because people have been very lawless as regards the forest.

Earlier, the Governor called for continued peace and harmony among the citizens saying his government adopted dialogue as the only panacea to promote sustainable peace and harmony.

He described wide consultation and dialogue as veritable ingredients to peaceful cohabitation among the citizenry, noting that his government is being cautious not to have any friction with the Ooni of Ife and other monarchs in the state.

Aregbesola frowned at what he described as illegal exploitation of government treasury at the Forest Reserve which according to him has caused a lot of setback over the years.

Governor Aregbesola urged residents and citizens to support his government in championing peace and harmony,warning against any move to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere currently enjoyed in the state.

The Governor reassured that no stone would be left unturned by his government at ensuring peaceful cohabitation of the citizenry especially on the need to ensure proper and adequate protection of her natural habitation and forests.

He said: Everything in life is relative and subjective. Absolutism is almost impossible in human affairs and relationship and it is on that purpose and reason that I deemed it very necessary to have Ooni here, so that we can have his first-hand knowledge of steps that are necessary for the conservation of our forest reserve and the management of all relationships associated with the reserve.

Before the public hearing and forum, I sought Oonis opinion and we both agreed on the need for it. When the recommendations of the panel that coordinated the public hearing came out, I refused to make it public because I realized that if justice will be done to this matter, there is the need to get Oonis opinion. That was the reason for todays meeting.
These women rent out their babies to two women who beg for alms on a daily basis in the Oyingbo area of Lagos. The women will in turn pay the mothers between N1000 or N1,500 after the days job. When interrogated, the mums said they do not know where the women take their babies to. They all blamed their action on poverty. All of them have been arrested by the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development Monitoring Team.

Source:LIB
Three men who claim to be pastors have been brought before the Igbosere Magistrate Court, sitting in Lagos, yesterday over allegedly collecting N26,000 from a woman on the false pretext of performing miracles for her.

The accused persons, Ekpo Michael, 55, Charles Michael, 54 and Napoleon Ohaegbu, 52, are facing trial three-count charges of conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and stealing.

The prosecutor, Sergeant Kingsley Jackson, told the court that the accused conspired and committed the offences on July 19, at about 2p.m., at Ikate in Lekki Phase 1, at Eti-Osa, Lagos.

Sergeant Jackson accused the suspects of presenting themselves to one Chioma Okorie as pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God pastors.

He also accused the suspects of falsely telling the victim (Okorie) that there was a cowry in her womb, saying, The accused brought out an egg and performed a magic, broke the egg, and a cowry appeared.

The accused, however, collected N26,000 from her.

The prosecutor said the offences contravened Sections 409, 312 (1) and 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The suspects in their defence, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The magistrate, Mr. P. A. Adekomaya granted them N50,000 bail each, with one surety each in like sum and adjourned till August 8.
As part of efforts to deliver quality financial solutions to its wide customer base across Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria, Plc. extended its transformation activities to Anambra State with the launch of 2 newly upgraded branches and a Smarter Banking Centre.

The Bank launched a brand new Smarter Banking Centre at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko as well as two upgraded branches located at No. 1, Bright Street, Onitsha and No. 41, Uga Street, Onitsha, Anambra State.

The one-of-a-kind Smarter Banking Centre is designed to offer innovative services to Union Banks mobile customers. With its all-in-one standalone 24 hour boutique for self-service banking, customers can open their accounts, deposit and withdraw cash via the ATMs.

The centre also has interactive projector screens which enables 24 hour live video chat with a customer care representative. The user friendliness of the Smarter Banking Centre ensures that the staff, students and all customers within and around the Federal Polytechnic Oko can enjoy quick, convenient and hassle free banking.



At Union Bank, quality is our watchword, from our customer experience to our state-of-the-art banking platforms, we want to ensure that banking is indeed seamless for our customers. Previously, each branch operated as a standalone but now we have installed a core centralized banking platform that ensures our customers can carry out their transactions conveniently in real time from any location. said Joe Mbulu, Transformation Director, Union Bank while addressing the students and special guests at the Oko branch launch.

Expressing the Polytechnics gratitude towards Union Bank, Lecturer, Department of Architectural Technology, Federal Polytechnic Oko, Chika Eni (Arc. Dr.) said We are grateful to Union Bank for putting Federal Polytechnic Oko on the banking map with this innovative branch. They could have come to just put an ATM system here but instead they decided to equip our campus with the best of banking technologies.



With almost 100years of experience in Nigerias banking space, it is no surprise that we are highly committed to our customers. We have installed new technologies, revamped our processes and upgraded the core banking infrastructure, all just to ensure that they receive the best services. We now employ banking mechanisms that do not waste time so that our customers can focus on things that matter, empowering them to be efficient at their businesses. said Emeka Okonkwo, Executive Director of Corporate Banking, Union Bank of Nigeria at the launch of the Niger Bridge branch on Uga Street.

With over 300 sales and service centres across Nigeria, Union Bank continues to leverage on its heritage and wealth of experience to deliver simpler and smarter banking services to its esteemed customers in this rapidly changing social and economic space.

###

About Union Bank Plc.

Established in 1917 and listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1971, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. is a household name and one of Nigerias long-standing and most respected financial institutions. The Bank is a trusted and recognizable brand, with an extensive network of over 300 branches across Nigeria. In late 2012, a new Board of Directors and Executive Management team were appointed to Union Bank and in 2014 the Bank began executing a transformation programme to re-establish it as a highly respected provider of quality financial services. The Bank currently offers a variety of banking services to both individual and corporate clients including current, savings and deposit account services, funds transfer, foreign currency domiciliation, loans, overdrafts, equipment leasing and trade finance. The Bank also offers its

customers convenient electronic banking channels and products including Online Banking, Mobile Banking, Debit Cards, ATMs and POS Systems. More information can be found at: www.unionbankng.com

About Red Media Africa

Red Media Africa (www.redmediaafrica.com) is the PR & Empowerment Marketing division under the parent brand, RED.

It focuses on using inspiration, empowerment and action to help brands and organisations connect with their audiences, enhance their bottom-lines and lead in their industries.

It has 6 major practice areas: Corporate Practice, Technology Practice, SME Practice, Governance Practice, Faith Practice and the International Practice  with work for brands across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

RED owns the continents largest portfolio of youth media brands. Its Content Division holds brands across TV, radio, online and events including Y! Magazine,YNaija.com, Rubbin Minds, #YTech100 and the The RED Summit. It also anchors a development firm, The Future Project, which projects include Africas leading youth platform, The Future Awards Africa, HowCanIGetInvolved.com and Aiki.ng, which is run in conjunction with Microsoft.
A woman from Tennessee, Brittney McCoy, has appeared in court after she was accused of stealing the wallet of a crash victim.

Greenbrier Police Department said the crash victim, Ronald Clinard, who was a US Air Force veteran died in a car crash outside the womans home.

McCoy consoled the victims daughter upon her arrival at the scene and even offered to buy her a drink.

McCoy returned to the scene with cigarettes, beer and other items which police say were purchased with the dead victims credit card.

She stood there like shes done nothing, Robin Hawkins, the victims daughter, explained: She said she was sorry for everything and told me he died in her arms.

When she noticed her fathers credit card was missing, Hawkins called the bank and discovered the charges.

She doesnt understand what she has done to our family and I dont think she cares, she added.

Greenbrier Police Chief K. D. Smith called it a completely disrespectful and heartless act.

We see a lot of disgusting things as police officers, but this is absolutely one of the most disgusting crimes I have ever seen, he said.

He said McCoy actually asked the daughter of the victim if she needed anything from the store.

I was standing there talking to the victims daughter and [McCoy] gave her the soft drink that she had just purchased with her dead fathers credit card. It was pretty cold-hearted, he added.

She is charged with burglary, tampering with evidence, theft and credit card fraud.
Republicans unveiled a platform in Cleveland this week with a tech agenda often at odds with the pronouncements of its own presidential candidate, reflecting an effort by party leaders to mend fences with an industry vital to the nation's economy.

On the handful of tech issues that he has mentioned to date, Donald Trump has been overwhelmingly antagonistic toward the industry -- and the internet itself. From advocating shutting down the internet to fight terrorism, to proclaiming that "the internet and the whole computer age is really a mixed bag," Trump seems to have little use for the web (unless it can make him money, hence his calls to legalize internet gambling).

On the campaign trail, he slammed Apple and urged a boycott of the company for refusing to develop a backdoor for the FBI. For good measure he said he would force Apple to manufacture its products in the United States.

When the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post drew his ire, he revoked the newspaper's campaign credentials (along with those of many other media outlets) and threatened the CEO of Amazon with an antitrust investigation.

Trump has flipped and flopped on the subject of H-1B visas, and has ignored altogether issues of importance to the tech industry, such as STEM education, the gig economy, and patent reform. His lack of a tech agenda sends the message that he doesn't appear to care about those issues, said Robert Atkinson, president of the tech-focused think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

But Trump's anti-immigration policies have drawn the biggest public rebuke from tech leaders. An open letter penned last week by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors -- with more than 150 signatories, including the founders and co-founders of such companies as Twitter, Apple, Slack, Expedia, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, eBay, and Sun Microsystems -- states:

Progressive immigration policies help us attract and retain some of the brightest minds on earth -- scientists, entrepreneurs, and creators. In fact, 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Donald Trump, meanwhile, traffics in ethnic and racial stereotypes, repeatedly insults women, and is openly hostile to immigration.

Declaring that "Trump would be a disaster for innovation," the letter concludes:

We stand against Donald Trump's divisive candidacy and want a candidate who embraces the ideals that built America's technology industry: freedom of expression, openness to newcomers, equality of opportunity, public investments in research and infrastructure, and respect for the rule of law. We embrace an optimistic vision for a more inclusive country, where American innovation continues to fuel opportunity, prosperity and leadership.

It's safe to say Trump has a huge problem with the tech industry.

Mason Harrison, a Republican who has worked for several presidential campaigns, including Mitt Romney's and John McCain's, told the New York Times: "Where Trump has stood on immigration reform, or how he called for a boycott of Apple, or on a number of other issues, it almost seems like he's gone out of his way to smite Silicon Valley leaders on the issues they care about."

The GOP platform attempts to extend an olive branch, stating that Republicans "envision government at all levels as a partner with individuals and industries in technological progress, not a meddlesome monitor." The platform goes on to state that the party "wants to create a business climate that rewards risk and promotes innovation" (willfully ignoring in-your-face evidence that the prevailing business climate has been rewarding innovation and risk just fine).

The platform even goes out on a limb on the contentious subject of encryption. Despite Trump's denunciation of encryption, the section on "The Fourth Amendment: Liberty and Privacy" applauds "technology companies [that] have responded to market demand for products and services that protect the privacy of customers through increasingly sophisticated encryption technology. These increased privacy protections have become crucial to the digital economy."

The declaration grows somewhat ambiguous when acknowledging that "such innovations have brought new dangers, especially from criminals and terrorists who seek to use encryption technology to harm us," but avers that "no matter the medium, citizens must retain the right to communicate with one another free from unlawful government intrusion."

In another tightrope-walking act, the platform's section on "Confronting Internet Tyranny" calls out authoritarian governments like China, Cuba, and Iran that "restrict free press and isolate their people limiting political, cultural, and religious freedom." It apparently sees no contradiction in simultaneously calling for the establishment of a national religion in the United States, or in championing "an open and free internet" on behalf of a candidate who called for parts of the internet to be shut down and blustered: "Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people."

Party and candidate stand united, however, in denouncing net neutrality. "The current occupant [of the White House] has launched a campaign, both at home and internationally, to subjugate [the internet] to agents of government ... [and] turn over the Information Freedom Highway to regulators and tyrants," the GOP platform declares. This stance echoes a Trump tweet that thundered "Obama's attack on the internet is another top down power grab." (That same tweet went on to display Trump's ignorance about the issue by equating net neutrality with the Fairness Doctrine, an FCC policy that was eliminated in 1987 and has nothing to do with net neutrality.)

The platform turns its back on the 85 percent of Republicans who supported net neutrality regulation, and claims "the only way to safeguard or improve [the internet] is through the private sector." It fails to explain how ISPs wouldn't be guilty of picking winners and losers if allowed to turn the internet into a pay-to-play arena with fast-lane tolls.

In another statement replete with irony, Republican leaders feel the pain of rural America, "where farmers, ranchers, and small business people need connectivity." This ignores the party's history of repeatedly fighting local efforts to extend broadband and passing state laws that stamp out broadband competition and protect the very monopolies that have repeatedly broken their promises to build out a high-speed internet.

The platform omits altogether any mention of reforming immigration policies related to high-skilled workers. "The issue was off the table for a platform that calls for a wall along the Mexican border," Politico writes.

In the final analysis, however, the Republican platform -- written by party insiders, not the Trump campaign -- is unlikely to be a blueprint for what Trump would do as president, Ed Black, president and CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, told the IDG News Service.

"The reality seems to be that there is little reason to believe that the Republican presidential candidate and the platform of the Republican Party are mutually trustworthy as guides to what might actually unfold in a Republican-controlled federal government," Black said.
In 2014, Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, made an official visit to Equatorial New Guinea to take part in the countrys Prize for Research in Life Sciences ceremony. During her speech she said, There can be no development and no sustainable development without science and science research.

But for years, the continents scientific community has been plagued by problems ranging from the lack of funding interest from all sectors to scientists and researchers being woefully underpaid. These problems and many others often contributed to African scientists leaving their native countries in search of work elsewhere in the world, a damaging brain drain at the highest level.

Over the past decade or so, Africas scientific landscape began to evolve and around 2010, it appeared as though Africa was on the verge of a scientific renaissance. This resurgence wasnt equal across all countries of course, but it was significant enough for the international scientific community at large to take notice, including big science-minded nonprofits like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Wellcome Trust.

With some $18 billion in assets, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a behemoth in the world of science philanthropy. Its investments in U.S. biomedical research totaled $660 million in 2015 alone. Wellcome Trust is no slouch either with a 16 billion to 18 billion investment portfolio.

Now they've joined together to boost science in Africa.

Wellcome Trust and HHMI recently embarked on an $83 million joint venture to launch the South Africa-based Africa Health Research Institute. Described by HHMI as a ground breaking new interdisciplinary institute to fight tuberculosis, HIV, and related diseases, the institute combines data from the Africa Centre for Population Health with basic science and experimental medicine at the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Research institute.

One of the main goals of the work here is to work toward the elimination of HIV and TB by taking a population to laboratory and back to population approach to addressing the TB and HIV co-epidemic. HHMIs press release states that this collaborative effort comes at a critical moment as TB is one of the leading causes of death in South Africa and KZN is among African nations with the highest HIV burdens.

HHMI has been growing its presence in international science for a while now. In 2012, it launched its Early Career Scientist Program which awarded five-year, $650,000 grants to 28 young scientists across 12 countries establish independent research programs. While its international science investments took a dip in 2014 to $8 million, down from $25 million the previous year, it appears to be on upward trend with the institute contributing $11 million toward the support of international sciences in 2015.

Wellcome Trust on the other hand, has had its eye on supporting international scientists for some time. As that funding to Africa, the trust has been pretty keen on bolstering scientific autonomy as of late.

In 2015, Wellcome Trust, along with UK Department of International Development (DFID) and the Gates Foundation contributed a collective $4.5 million to establish the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), which will allow scientists in Africa decide how and where their research dollars from global funders will be spent. That investment was aimed at solving the problem with African scientists lack of autonomy for research funded by foreign dollars, which often times, reflects the priorities of the donors and overlooks major health concerns in Africa.

Related: Whats Behind This Ambitious Push to Boost Biomedical Research Worldwide?

Upon establishing AESA was established, the Wellcome Trust had a plan in place for its own related initiativeDeveloping Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science initiative or DELTAS. The five-year program focuses on the African-led development of world-class researchers and research leaders in Africa.

The trust initially committed $60 million over that five-year period to support the initiative and earlier this year made good on part of that commitment by putting up an additional 21 million toward DELTAS.

Related: The Latest in the Growing Push to Bolster Autonomous Scientific Research in Africa

HHMI and Wellcome Trust are key actors in the global science community at large, but in the matter of scientific research in Africa, they are just two of the very few players in the field. Thats not to say that other like-minded funders are contributing to building Africas scientific capacity by funding programs related science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. But funding for scientific research in Africa remains a relatively uncrowded funding field.

Its a good thing that the continent has these two powerhouses in its corner.

Related:
The latest prize to solve a specific environmental problem is a $1 million pot to rein in the destruction of peatlands. How bad a problem can peat be? Oh man, so bad.

As weve seen the rise of the grand challenge, high-dollar philanthropic competitions across many fields, certain funders have embraced this prize approach to find potential fixes to environmental problems.

Related:The Perils of All These Prizes

Two of the biggest examples are Richard Bransons $25 million challenge to remove carbon from the atmosphere (that ones still chugging along nearly 10 years later), and Wendy Schmidts Ocean Health XPrize.

But were also seeing the prize model being tapped to solve some more specific impediments that are lacking solutions, but have disproportionate negative impacts. The latest such initiative is funded by the Packard Foundation and offers a $1 million prize to take on the destruction of peatlands in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Peat Prize is maybe the narrowest such challenge weve seen, but the environmental impact at stake is truly staggering. Were talking just peat. Just Indonesia.

Peat is partially decayed plant material thats accumulated for thousands of years, typically in a boggy form, soaked with water and not going anywhere. Its also a massive carbon sink, actually a precursor to coal, and storing about a third of the worlds soil carbon. Release the carbon held by global peatlands, and it would be like burning all the oil reserves in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada, Russia, and the U.S. combined.

OK, so lets just leave that goop alone. Who needs peat, right? I mean, except for maybe making fancy scotch. Well, the problem is that big agriculture companies, mainly palm oil producers, are wiping out this land, clearing it and burning it, or just draining it and making it a tinderbox.

The resulting decomposition of just Indonesias peat is one of the biggest contributors of GHG emissions in the world. Greenpeace calls it a virtual carbon bomb. Its sort of like burning a huge reserve of coal just to get it out of the way. Of course, the peat fires are also a massive public health problem, and disrupting important habitats.

Fortunately, the Indonesian president has been working with companies to crack down and stop this madness. Only theres another problemwe dont know exactly where or how deep the peat is in Indonesia. The current maps arent that great, and they dont accurately measure thickness, which is crucial for preservation efforts.

Enter the Peat Prize, which rewards the team that can come up with a credible and fast way to measure the countrys peatlands, so the government can get the situation under control. The competition recently announced 11 approved applicants from all over the world, and the winner will be announced in October 2017.

Im generally skeptical about the premise that technological fixes can rescue us from environmental problems like climate change and ocean pollution, or that the competition model is the way to take on such systemic problems. The Gates Foundations Grand Challenges yield clever tech, but have yet to make significant impacts in global health, for example.

But the Peat Prize is something different, in that its a very specific need. It also has a channel for how the resulting tech is put to use, by partnering with the Indonesian government.

Its not unlike a challenge we recently wrote about out of the Everglades, that seeks a better way to remove excess phosphorous pollution from freshwaters. This causes algae blooms all over the country, but right now its particularly bad in Florida. Even thats a pretty unwieldy problem, but still a focused target.

Such prizes may be less exciting or grand, but could actually be a much better use of a philanthropic competition. Let's hope it works in Indonesia.

Related:
Update 12/15/16  The city council has approved the Tri-Village Self Storage project on Village Park Drive, despite some lingering concerns about the size of the building. The final development plan calls for an 88,000-square-foot structure on 3 acres, whereas earlier reports indicated 86,000 square feet on 2 acres.

Resident Leif Carlson spoke against the project during the Dec. 6 meeting, arguing the size of the facility continued a bad precedent in the city. "It's another three-story building," he told the council. "It's changing the landscape with all the three-story buildings going up in Powell."

Wollenberg countered that the structure would fit in with the community aesthetically and be a very quiet use. She also said a market study indicated strong local demand for more self-storage, according to the source.

Brendan Newcomb was the lone councilmember to vote against the development plan.

9/23/16  Tri-Village received approval from the planning and zoning commission last week despite lingering concerns from some panel members about the facilitys size. The commission unanimously voted on Sept. 14 to approve the preliminary development plan. Boysko recused himself from the discussion and vote, according to the source.

Prior to voting, several board members reiterated their concerns about the height and size of the facility footprint. "I think you've done a lot with it. I still think it's an awfully large building, Jester said.

The building size is in line with its neighbors, which include an apartment complex and another self-storage facility, said Melanie Wollenberg, an executive vice president with Brexton. "We're really not out of scale with this neighborhood," she said.

Although Emerick noted he still had concerns about the overall massing of the building, commission members Richard Fusch and Trent Hartranft said they were fine with the current development plan. Commission member Bill Little asked Brexton for more information on the proposed lighting and signage for the property before the panel votes on the final plans.

Real estate developer Brexton LLC intends to build an 86,000-square-foot self-storage facility in Powell, Ohio, on behalf of Tri-Village Self Storage. Brexton has proposed a three-story building on a 2-acre lot on Village Park Drive. The planning and zoning commission discussed the project last week and postponed a vote pending an opinion on the size of the facility from the citys law director, according to the source.

City regulations limit retail and wholesale businesses from being more than 65,000 square feet, but the legislation doesnt specifically mention self-storage, development director Dave Betz said during the meeting.

Chris Meyers, the citys architectural adviser, supports the project. "I think it's an appropriate use for its location," he said. "It's kind of nestled back deep into the property and across the railroad tracks [near] another storage building."

Although Powell Village Self Storage is across the street from the proposed site, commissioners appeared to be more concerned with the size of the facility than its proximity to a competing business. "I'll be very blunt; I think the building is too big, [and] I think it's too tall," commissioner Joe Jester said during the meeting. "Three stories is too much."

Commission chair Donald Emerick said his main issue with the project also is the size of the facility and encouraged other commissioners to think about the proposal while waiting for an opinion from the city law director, the source reported.

The proposed site, between Clairedan Drive and Penny Lane, is owned by Rood Family Limited Partnership.

Commissioner Shawn Boysko, the architect who designed the facility, has recused himself from the boards discussion and vote, according to the source.

Tri-Village operates two self-storage facilities in Columbus, Ohio, with two other projects under development.

Founded in Columbus in 2001, Brexton specializes in commercial real estate development and construction with a focus on manufacturing, medical, office, warehouse and other building types, including self-storage.
Self-storage properties are constantly changing hands, and Inside Self-Storage is regularly notified of these market transactions. Many are covered in detail on the ISS website and available for viewing on the Real Estate topics page. Following are additional acquisitions and sales that werent covered independently due to missing information such as buyer, seller, sale price or other relevant details.

In a joint venture with an institutional-equity partner, Barker Pacific Group Inc. acquired a facility in San Marcos, Calif., that had been owned by a family partnership for more than 20 years. The 84,000-square-foot property will be rebranded as Storage Solutions. The seller was represented by Greg Wells, director of broker services, and Jim Lewis, senior director, for the Self Storage Practice Group of Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate advisor.

Georgia Self Storage in Valdosta, Ga., was sold for about $60 per rental square foot to a regional buyer who formed a limited-liability company to make the purchase. The facility at 5535 Bemiss Road comprises 61,000 square feet of storage space in more than 500 drive-up and climate-controlled units. The 6-acre site also has room for expansion, and the buyer is considering adding a new climate-controlled building, according to a press release from Midcoast Properties Inc., the real estate company that brokered the transaction. Midcoast President Dale C. Eisenman represented the seller.

Iron Gate Self Storage in Hamburg, Pa., was sold for $340,000 to a private investor who owns a nearby storage facility. The buyer plans to use the site as a satellite property, according to a press release from Investment Real Estate LLC (IRE), the firm that represented the seller in the transaction. Sitting on less than an acre, the facility at 395 Woodland Road is about 20 miles north of Reading, Pa. It opened in 1992 and consists of three single-story buildings with more than 70 drive-up units. Prior to the sale, it was managed by appointment via a remote location.

Iron Vault Storage in Lake Charles, La., was sold for $1.9 million. The property 2859 Ernest St. feature 323 storage units. The seller, a partnership, was represented in the transaction by Dave Knobler, senior associate, and Logan Miller, associate, in the Marcus & Millichap Houston office. They were assisted by William Hoffpauir, a senior associate in the companys Louisiana office.

While Lake Charles is best known regionally as a tourism and gaming destination, there was a great deal of interest in the asset due to the petroleum refining and petrochemical activity in the area, Miller said.

The two-property Mini Storage for Less portfolio in Anderson, S.C., was sold to a limited-liability company for $2.2 million. The facilities at 752 Simpson Road and 4013 Highway 81 S. comprise 47,352 net rentable square feet of storage space.

The seller, also a limited-liability company, was represented in the transaction by Brett R. Hatcher and Gabriel Coe, investment specialists in the Marcus & Millichap Columbus, Ohio, office. The buyer was represented by Mike MacManus and Stacey Gorman, investment specialists in the Marcus & Millichap Atlanta office. Broker Raj Ravi assisted in the closing.

New Boston Storage in Texarkana, Texas, was sold to a regional operator that owns several facilities in the area. The newly built property comprises 50,100 rentable square feet of storage space. The seller was represented by Lewis and Wells.

Founded in 1983, Barker Pacific Group Inc. specializes in the acquisition and development of institutional-quality industrial, office and residential projects in select U.S. cities.

Founded in 1917, Cushman & Wakefield offers a complete range of services for all property types including consulting and appraisal, corporate services, debt and equity financing, investment banking, leasing, and sales and acquisitions. Its Self Storage Practice Group is dedicated to the self-storage asset class. The group offers consulting, data services, feasibility, investment advisory and valuation in major markets.

Since its inception in 1998, IRE has provided brokerage, construction, development and management services to self-storage owners and investors.

Midcoast Properties offers brokerage services to self-storage owners and investors in the Carolinas and Georgia.
Trico Capital Investments Inc., a real estate investment company operating self-storage facilities as Lighthouse Self Storage and other brands, intends to build a 204,135-square-foot facility in Palm Beach County, Fla., near the communities of Greenacres and Palm Springs. Mathews Mini Storage would be built in two phases on a 3.94-acre parcel at 2927 S. Military Trail, according to the source.

The Palm Beach County Commission is scheduled to vote on the developers rezoning application and site plan on July 28. Trico is under contract with property owners Doree and Howell Garolsky, who acquired the vacant land in 2002.

The first phase of the project would include a three-story building with 160,477 square feet of self-storage and a 1,500-square-foot office. The second phase would add 42,606 square feet of storage, the source reported.

Based on population trends and lack of storage facilities in the area, a need exists for high-quality, climate-controlled self-service storage facilities, Trico officials said in the application. The nearest storage facility is less than a mile away on Military Trail, the company indicated.

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Trico is a real estate fund manager specializing in the acquisition and development of self-storage properties. The company and its affiliates have designed, developed or owned more than 100 storage facilities across the United States and managed more than 20,000 storage units in California and Florida.

Lighthouse Self Storage provides self-storage for personal and business customers as well as boat and RV storage. It has 13 locations in California and three in Florida.
@CARSTARCanada @sswracing Halifax, NS  (July 21, 2016) Scotia Speedworld is thrilled to announce CARSTAR Collision & Glass Service as the new title sponsor of the Weekly Racing Series through the 2018 season. Scotia Speedworlds Weekly Racing Series will celebrate its 30th anniversary season in 2017 and is one of the longest consecutive running weekly racing series in Canada.

CARSTAR has a long and established history in the Canadian collision repair industry, tracing back over two decades. In 1995 they began franchising with the vision of building a nationwide network of high quality auto body repair centres aimed at providing consistent service and integrity across all locations. CARSTAR has since evolved and has over 250 locations across the country and over 400 throughout North America to serve you  wherever your journey may take you.

We are looking forward to our partnership with Scotia Speedworlds Weekly Racing Series. This is one of the longest running Weekly Racing Series in the country and we are proud to be the new Series sponsor. Commented Dave Meery, CARSTAR Regional Director for Atlantic Canada. We cant wait to see some great racing action during the remainder of this 2016 season.

We are thrilled to have CARSTAR as the presenter of Scotia Speedworlds Weekly Racing Series, said Ken Cunning, General Manager of Scotia Speedworld. CARSTAR is a well-known national company with a network of high quality collision repair centres and we would like to welcome them to our team

The CARSTAR Weekly Racing Series takes place every Friday night at 7:00pm at Scotia Speedworld and features six different divisions of race cars. Adult ticket prices are $14; youth (8-15yrs) are $4 and children seven and under are admitted for free to the CARSTAR Weekly Racing Series.

We encourage everyone to welcome CARSTAR via twitter @CARSTARCanada. You can also like their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CARSTARautomotivecanada

About Scotia Speedworld: Scotia Speedworld (SSW) is a 3/10-mile asphalt oval racing facility. SSW is the only track in Nova Scotia to host a weekly racing series, which runs May through September and features six different classes of racecars. SSW also hosts special events, including Monster Jam, Nitro Circus and the Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour. SSW is located at Exit 6 on Highway 102, across from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. For more information please click on www.ScotiaSpeedworld.ca or call our Event Hotline at (902) 873-2277 or our office at (902) 481-2514. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sswracing and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/sswracing

Media Contact: Tara Foster

902.429.4069 office

902.488.0809 mobile

media@scotiaspeedworld.ca
@RetteJones30 @DominiqueRacing @NASCARHomeTrack @NHMS  MOORESVILLE, North Carolina  Seven days following her incident at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, NASCAR K&N Pro Series East driver Dominique Van Wieringen is talking about the scariest racing crash of her career.

Just 32 laps into last Fridays United Site Services 70 at NHMS, a mechanical failure sent a trail of oil underneath her No. 30 Durobyte / NTI-UTI Ford Fusion leaving the driver a passenger as her car careened out of control and towards the inside wall.

Upon impact, she was hit by fellow driver Reid Wilson who also slid in the oil. While dazed after the impact, Van Wieringen dropped her window net to let the safety vehicles at the track know she was conscious and alert.

For safety precautions, the Amherstburg, Ontario native was extricated from her car by safety personnel where she made the mandatory trip to the infield care center where after a thorough examination, she was treated and released shortly after the event.

Van Wieringen took to social media after returning to the hotel Friday night informing fans that she was OK and would follow-up with her personal doctors this week to make sure she was completely healed and medically cleared to return to competition.

By far that was the biggest impact of my racing career, said Van Wieringen. We had such a strong race going, but without any warning, we had a mechanical failure and I was headed to the wall. Im not going to lie, I was shaken up a little bit, but without the hard and dedicated work of my Rette Jones Racing team and NASCAR, I was able to walk away without any serious injury.

Van Wieringen stated that her decision to follow-up with her physicians was not only her personal choice, but included emphasis from NASCAR as well.

NASCAR wants us to be safe, especially after a wreck like that, she said. Its amazing I can take a hit like I did and be able to walk away from the track later that night. They do such a great job making sure these race cars are safe and its because of their endless effort in doing so, Ill hopefully be able to compete at Iowa Speedway next weekend.

The car we brought to New Hampshire was a brand new car and we had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, theres nothing left and were forced to start all over. Its a real bummer, because its put the team in a tough place. Hopefully, all the dots will connect and well be able to get back on our feet, but losing that car definitely hurt.

Mark Rette, co-owner and crew chief for Rette Jones Racing echoes his drivers sentiments on NASCAR safety, but also applauds his driver for having the wherewithal to take her health in full control.

Sometimes in racing, we gripe about costs and the nitpicking NASCAR does with the team and then you have an incident like we had at New Hampshire and it puts things all into perspective, offered Rette. I cant thank NASCAR enough for not only making sure we bring incredible safe car to the track, but also for attending to Dominique quickly and appropriately. NASCARs medical staff is second-to-none and I greatly appreciate all they do for the teams and drivers.

I also have to thank Steve Leavitt and Leavitt Performance for building us a safe race car. While NASCAR mandates rules to keep the drivers safe, Steve and Leavitt Performance are the foundation for building us safe race cars and we never take that for granted.

As far as Dominique, she is incredibly smart. She has always been very open to how she is feeling in the past and after New Hampshire she is taking that to a new level to make sure shes at 100 percent next weekend at Iowa. Shes asking all the right questions and making the necessary calls and making appointments herself to get her clearance to drive. Were very encouraged by what weve been told this week and hope it continues to go that direction and shell be cleared to return to racing quickly.

Van Wieringen was seen by a board certified neurologist this week for treatment of a possible concussion and is expected to be cleared early next week by that neurologist to return to competition in next Friday nights Caseys General Stores 150 presented by Vatterott College at Iowa Speedway.

Follow Dominique Van Wieringen on Twitter @DominiqueRacing or visit Dominiqueracing.com and like her on Facebook.com.

Follow Rette Jones Racing on Twitter @RetteJones30.

Contact: Mark Rette/ mrette@rettejonesracing.com
To view a PDF of the full report, click here.



By Eric Johnson

It may be too simplistic to use the bull and bear analogy to describe the complex international sentiments toward the main channels through which non-Chinese institutions are accessing Chinas US$6.5 trillion equities market.

And yet recent investor activity points to opposite approaches to the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) and Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) programs, which as of July 1 gave hundreds of firms a way to put into play a combined US$157 billion.

Each approach  one cautious, the other brimming with enthusiasm  reflects a mutual confirmation of the intrinsic value of Chinese equities, fixed-income products and, increasingly, bonds in a huge investment arena thats still labeled emerging and yet is very much in the global market forefront, given Chinas clout as the worlds second-largest economy with a securities market boasting the worlds second-largest market capitalization.

No doubt most of the programs participating investors would agree with Rodney Comegys, Asia Pacific head of investments for Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd., who attributes his firms recent decision to join RQFII for the first time to the importance of China as one of the worlds key emerging economies. Regulators awarded the firm a US$4.5 billion investment quota in January.

Our participation in this program is supported by the belief that A shares can provide the diversification benefit of spreading risk among a greater number of companies, and will thus offer significant value to investors, including individuals, over the long term, Comegys told Institutional Investor.

The foreign investment inflow programs were at the heart of a series of financial market reform measures announced between February and June, including a five-fold raising of the investment ceiling for QFII participants to US$5 billion from the previous US$1 billion, and the June granting of a roughly US$38 billion RQFII quota to U.S. firms that hold Chinese currency.

Bearish Tone

What could be called a bear-like investor response to RQFII and QFII is in fact a bow to the yellow lights flashing as Chinas economy continues a seven-year-old, government-managed deceleration, the market digests a recent decision by stock indexer MSCI to delay inclusion of Chinas A shares in the firms Emerging Markets Index, and the investment community recovers from sell-offs that rocked the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in June and August, 2015, as well as last January.

Investors in the cautious camp also appear to be giving the Chinese government more time to advance a financial markets liberalization campaign that, according to some analysts, eventually may fully open Chinas equity and bond environment to overseas investors.

The liberalization effort is working hand-in-glove with internationalization of the yuan, also called the renminbi, which last year was accepted into the elite club of Special Drawing Right currencies alongside the U.S. dollar, euro, yen and pound maintained by the International Monetary Fund.

One of the most telling indicators of this caution has been a significant slowdown in investment firm applications and awards of new RQFII quotas, from the QFII and RQFII supervisor, the State Foreign Exchange Administration (SAFE). Only 14 new quotas were awarded in the first half of 2016, compared to 61 in full-year 2015, which brought the total quota level to US$76 billion as of July 1.

Among the most recent qualifiers were PIMCO Asia Pte Ltd., which secured a quota of US$270 million; CF Financial Markets (UK) Ltd., which got permission to invest up to US$150 million; and AXA Investment Managers Paris, awarded a US$510 million quota.

Meanwhile on the QFII side, the 36 new quotas announced during the first six months of 2016 reflected a brisker pace for program participation than in 2015, when SAFE approved quotas for 65 firms. Total quotas have now topped US$81 billion, up from US$50 billion in early 2014.

But an increase in quota awards is nothing new, as the field has been growing wider every year, jumping to last years level from 56 in 2014 and 36 quotas in 2013. Moreover, many of the latest quotas were new awards for long-time participants such as divisions of UBS, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Hong Kong-domiciled mainland asset managers such as E Fund Management (Hong Kong), China Asset Management (Hong Kong) and Bosera Asset Management (International) Co. Ltd. also upped their quotas.

Ten of this years first-half quotas were handed out on the last day of the second quarter, including a US$1.29 billion award for UBS AG, a US$338 million quota for Morgan Stanley Investment, a US$650 million investment level for Merrill Lynch International and a US$350 million quota for KB Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Somewhat bearish sentiment also reflect the wider opening of Chinese financial markets. Since 2013, as part of the government financial markets liberalization campaign, the QFII and RQFII programs have been complemented by another door to mainland equities called Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme, which lets non-Chinese trade A shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and mainlanders play the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The connect programs net buy daily limit for A-share investments is US$1.95 billion  money that theoretically might have made its way into China through QFII or RQFII if not for the connect program. Qualified mainlanders are allowed to invest a combined US$1.58 billion in Hong Kong stocks every day.

Bull Side

So whos bullish about QFII and RQFII? Included in this camp are asset managers whove been participating in the programs for years, many of whom loyally stuck with China A shares through the worst downturns for the Chinese stock markets in 2007 and 2015-2016. QFII launched in 2003 and RQFII in 2011.

Of the 168 quotas granted as of June 29 through RQFII, only one  CIFM Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., with permission to invest US$120 million  has been around since the programs inception. But firms with 20 of the 273 quotas have participated in QFII since before 2010.

Daiwa Securities Capital Markets and Power Corporation of Canada have each had a US$50 million quota since 2004, while since 2006 the firms Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. and Goldman, Sachs & Co., have been allowed to invest up to US$350 million and US$300 million, respectively.

The two-thumbs-up for QFII-RQFII crowd also includes many asset managers whove applauded the governments gradual relaxing of foreign investor access restrictions. Their patience was rewarded with several major reform steps in the first half of this year.

There have been meaningful adjustments of the QFII-RQFII program in the past few months that have made the programs more convenient and attractive, says Fred (Jiachun) Chen, executive director and head of QFII/RQFII Business at CITIC Securities Co. Ltd., which through a subsidiary holds a US$210 million RQFII quota. The firm also has a US$300 million QFII quota through a Hong Kong affiliate.

I personally expect the government to continue to reform and improve the QFII-RQFII scheme as an important part of Chinas capital market opening process, Chen says.

QFII was initially crafted as a foreigner-friendly way to enhance the A shares market without forsaking the Chinese governments tight foreign currency exchange controls. Participants include asset managers, insurance companies, banks and pension funds. Each participant designates a Chinese custodian bank to handle its securities business and works with Chinese brokers as well as foreign and-or Chinese advisers.

The role of RQFII, which is nicknamed little QFII, has been limited to repatriating offshore yuan back to the mainland and into investment targets, which for the most part have been equities. The program initially offered a way home for yuan parked in Hong Kong and Macau, and later expanded to other countries with yuan clearing such as Singapore, South Korea, France, Germany and Britain.

The United States joined the yuan clearing club in June and was subsequently granted a 250 billion yuan (roughly US$38 billion) RQFII quota, thus giving U.S. firms a means to invest Chinese currency on the mainland. Under the agreement signed by Chinas central bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, the United States will become the second-largest RQFII base after Hong Kong. China also agreed to designate yuan clearing banks in the United States.

The U.S.-China agreement came on the heels of deep adjustments to the QFII-RQFII schemes in order to facilitate the gradual, now 12-year-old process of opening Chinas financial markets, as well as the Beijing governments ongoing push to elevate the yuan to the status of a truly global currency.

Addressing an often-repeated foreign investor complaint about money-flow restrictions in China, regulators at SAFE in February slashed to three months a mandatory lock-up period for QFII participants who want to move cash in to or out of China. The previous period was one year.

SAFE also announced that it would no longer define a unified upper limit on the investment quota of a single institution and assign an investment quota (basic quota) to the institution in proportion to the size of its assets or assets under management.

Ongoing Reform

But most asset managers want more from Chinas reforms. Institutions such as MSCI are also indirectly encouraging China to speed up liberalization. Indeed, what MSCI considers an unacceptably restrictive investor environment was the key reason for Chinas failure to win a place on the Emerging Markets Index, frustrating government officials whove been lobbying the indexer for firms.

Many foreign asset managers cant wait for the day when regulators ease a rule that prevents a QFII participant from moving more than 20 percent of its assets out of China in a single month. SAFEs February announcement emphasized that this rule, as well as a requirement that all money be moved in batches or installments, remains in force.

Neil Flynn, an analyst for the Shanghai-based China market consultancy Z-Ben Advisors, says he expects Chinese regulators to continue making adjustments to push forward MSCI inclusion and encourage FX (foreign exchange) inflows...going forward.

If you look at recent inbound access reforms, China is moving towards a quota-less, restriction-light environment, says Flynn, citing the examples of a recent reform to the interbank bond market and the expected launch of a Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect program to build on the success of the Shanghai-Hong Kong program. The government has said it plans to launch Shenzhen-Hong Kong Connect this year, probably late in the third quarter. Future connect programs could link the Singapore stock market to mainland exchanges.

In February, the central bank announced the lifting of all investment limits by foreign central banks and similar institutions participating in the Chinese interbank foreign exchange and bond markets, thus offering no-quota access to interbank bonds. The only stipulation is that foreign banks and institutions register every investment; interbank foreign exchange market deals are registered with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, and bond investments are tallied by the central bank.

China encouraged institutional investors to invest in its interbank bond market as a means of financial opening up, according to a Shenzhen Stock Exchange statement. The central bank PBOC will introduce more QFII (participants) to the interbank bond market with streamlined regulations and no quota restrictions.

While large-cap, A share equities are currently the chief target for most QFII and RQFII investors, government reforms could generate more interest in the bond market in the months and years to come.

Chinese companies have stepped up bond issues in recent years as a way to manage debt without resorting to fundraising on the volatile stock market. Bonds are also popular among local governments that in recent years, due to the nations weakened property market, have sought to diversify away from raising money by selling land to developers.

At the same time, though, the widening of access channels such as the Shanghai- and Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock market schemes, together with the lingering gap between what foreign investors want and regulators are willing to give has raised questions among bulls and bears alike.

Flynn says his questions center on the long-term viability of QFII and RQFII in their current state, adding that in his opinion they need to adapt or die.

Nevertheless, future adjustments by Chinese regulators toward a restriction-light environment will be more step-by-step than immediate, Flynn says. Our long-term view is that the choice between QFII and RQFII will not matter to institutional investors in the future, as which program to play will become a technicality that the back office handles, leaving portfolio managers free to trade China, unrestricted by quotas.

Vanguards Comegys noted that for China and all emerging markets, trading access can change over time. Currently, we can also access A shares through other programs such as (the Shanghai-Hong Kong) Stock Connect.

Clearly, theres no definitive consensus about a future path for QFII and RQFII. Market forecasting in emerging China has never been an exact science, of course, as even the most reasonable predictions can be blown away by a flash of volatility  a fact underscored by dramatic stock market selloffs over the past year.

But unlike other major economies, every China market forecaster starts from the same reference point. Thats because every prediction must in some way revolve around the directives and official comments expressed by the nations financial system gatekeepers at SAFE, the central bank, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and similar agencies.

Eliciting one of the latest commentaries that attracted forecaster attention was SAFE Administrator Pan Gongsheng, who doubles as the central banks deputy governor, while meeting in March with Blackstone Group LP President Hamilton Tony James and Euromoney Institutional Investor CEO Andrew Rashbass.

According to an official summary of Pans comments, China will not resort to capital controls as it did before but will focus on risk prevention and vigorously promoting trade and investment facilitation.

Going forward, Pan says, China will focus on advancing structural reform, especially supply-side structural reform, to better balance economic growth, structural adjustment and risk prevention. The goal will thus be sustainable and stable economic development.

Although Pan did not mention investment inflow, his superior Prime Minister Li Keqiang told an economic forum June 27 that the government would provide more investment opportunities to foreign businesses and foster a fairer, more transparent and predictable investment environment.

Speaking at the annual Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin, Li promised to deepen the reform of the financial system, accelerate the improvement of the modern financial regulatory regime and increase the efficiency of financial services in supporting the real economy. The premier also called on the worlds major economies to steadfastly advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation with China to build a fairer, more just and open international economic system.

I personally expect the government to continue to reform and improve the QFII-RQFII scheme as an important part of Chinas capital market opening process.

Fred (Jiachun) Chen, executive director and head of QFII/RQFII Business, CITIC Securities Co. Ltd.
In an address before world policymakers gathered for this weekends G20 meeting in Beijing, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent a stark message about his nations role in the global economy. While many G20 leaders discussed the need for international coordination, Li explicitly warned that China cannot shoulder the burden of global growth alone and urged other nations to pursue proactive economic policies. Li noted that significant yuan devaluation would not be a tool deployed by China as it grapples with sluggish global demand. After six consecutive weeks of declines, the onshore yuan finished the week higher against the dollar after two increases in daily fixing levels by Chinas central bank, the Peoples Bank of China. The rebound came after a period of increased capital outflows, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. The firm estimated that nearly $50 billion left the mainland in June, roughly double the level in May.

Trump argues only he can save America. In a speech that painted a dark vision of a U.S. facing economic catastrophe and vulnerability to terorist attack, Republican candidate Donald Trump argued that only he is uniquely equipped to lead the nation out of the crisis. Addressing the GOP convention on the final evening, Trump assailed the record and character of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, casting blame on the former Secretary of State for a wide range of national security threats.

DOJ moves to block insurance megamergers. On Thursday, the Department of Justice filed lawsuits in federal court to block the mergers of Anthem and Cigna Corp. as well as Aetna and Humana. The suits allege that the mergers would hurt consumers by reducing competition among providers. Initial responses by the companies named in the suit indicate that they intend to contest the litigation.

GE beats earnings estimates. Second- quarter financial results released by General Electric exceeded consensus analysts estimates with earnings of $0.51 per share versus an average Wall Street forecast of $0.46. The financial results included proceeds of the sale of the conglomerates appliance division, which was completed last month. A 31 percent year-over-year increase in revenues from the power-generation division also contributed to the strong performance.

European PMI signals growth. Preliminary Markit purchasing manager index levels for the Eurozone indicated growth continued within the European Union despite concerns over the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. While activity cooled for the month, according to the measure, both headline manufacturing and services indices for the common currency zone, at 51.9 and 52.7 respectively, remained positive. Secretly, Markits headline readings for both manufacturing and services for the U.K. contracted for the month.

Portfolio Perspective: ECB Hints at Further Easing in September

As widely expected, the European Central Bank left its policy rates and its asset-purchase program unchanged at Thursdays Governing Council meeting.

Euro area growth is seen as having moderated during the second quarter and, in line with our expectations, the recovery is seen as proceeding at a moderate pace. Although financial markets weathered the spike in uncertainty that was spared by the U.K. Brexit referendum with encouraging resilience, the ECB deems the risks to the growth outlook as tilted to the downside, citing  besides Brexit-related spillovers geopolitical uncertainties, subdued growth prospects in the emerging markets, insufficient structural reforms and the need for further balance-sheet adjustments.

Euro area inflation remains subdued, as headline inflation edged up to 0.1 percent year-over year, in June. While inflation is seen rising during the latter part of the year, base effects from energy prices are seen as the main driver of these increases, rather than underlying demand strength. Against this background, we expect headline inflation rates to eventually close the gap with core inflation rates and both likely to come in around 1 percent year-over-year by year end, only half of the ECBs de facto 2 percent target.

The ECB confirmed the need to preserve an appropriate degree of monetary accommodation in order to secure a return of inflation rates towards levels that are below, but close to, 2 percent without undue delay. Just as the IMF has revised down its growth forecasts for Europe in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, the ECB is likely to revise down its growth forecasts in September; it currently projects a further acceleration growth to 1.7 percent in 2017. On the heels of such a revision, it is quite likely that it will also revise down moderately its inflation forecasts for 2017 and 2018, currently at 1.3 percent and 1.6 percent.

A downward revision to the ECBs inflation forecasts would likely open the door to further policy easing in September. We expect a six to 12-month extension of the asset-purchase program that is currently scheduled to end in March 2017, with the monthly speed of the purchases likely to remain unchanged at 80 billion euros. The parameters governing these purchases, however, would likely be eased to ensure that there are sufficient securities available for the ECB to execute its commitments. In particular, the ECB may consider extending its purchases to include bank bonds.

Jurgen Odenius is head of Macroeconomic Research for Prudential Fixed Income in Newark.
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The year is shaping up to be one of the best ever for the master of macro mayhem.
The Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) is casting the net wide in the search for a new strategic underwriting partner after Vero Insurance decided to end their partnership.UACs constitution deems a limit of three strategic underwriting partners, with Lloyds and Hollard Insurance representing the other two.A Vero spokesperson told Insurance Business that the company has had a productive five year sponsorship with UAC but, they said: Following a review, we will continue to have a relationship, however we saw this as an opportunity for UAC to look for a new sponsor.UAC chairman Lyndon Turner said the Council was now seeking expressions of interest and formal applications to replace Vero Insurance.We are disappointed to see Vero leave us, he said. However, we respect their decision.Our staff and board have worked very hard to support Veros underwriting agency marketing position.There are many UAC members who have partnered with them, and indeed are still partners with them, he said.However, this departure creates an opening and, due to the regular enquiries we receive from the market, the board feels it only best to open a formal process of discussions with the wider market to ensure we select the best new partner to join us.Turner said UAC offered access to more than 100 corporate voting members, all of which were professional underwriting agencies writing in a majority of classes across the Australian and New Zealand market.Underwriting agencies have undergone fantastic growth and remain the most dynamic decision-making insurance providers in the region, Turner said.They need insurer partners to support their growth, and we offer strategic underwriting partner insurers great access and opportunities to invest profitably in this sector.UAC general manager William Legge said UAC voting members totalled 106, and employed more than 3,000 staff, writing more than AU$3 billion in annual GWP across the region.We look forward to working with the market to explain further how we can help a new strategic underwriting partner enjoy the benefits a partnership with us can offer.Legge was accepting expressions of interest by phone or email until close of business on Thursday 28 July, when he would then provide details of the formal process around the consideration.RELATED ARTICLES
Japanese insurance powerhouse MS&AD is reportedly mulling a deal alongside another major Japanese firm for the wealth management arm of ANZ Bank.The report in The Australian states that MS&AD could be joined by Meijei Yasuda, a Tokyo-based life insurance company, in a deal that could be worth close to $6 billion.In an earlier interview with Insurance Business Deviana Chuo, head of FIG sector at Mergermarket, said that buyers from the Far East will continue to look at outside investments in the future.China and Japan are the countries with strong interest to out bond investment, in almost all sectors, Chuo said.The trend may still continue in the future, and the two countries may still look at more opportunities to acquire beyond Asia, including Australia, USA or Europe.Founded in 2004 following the merger of Meiji Life and Yasuda Life, Meiji Yasuda ranks as one of the oldest insurers in Japan and is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.MS&AD is part of the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group and holds the largest share of non-life insurance premiums in Japan.
Vale Training, an independent division of Cunningham Lindsey, has announced the launch of Vale Consulting Services (VCS) to provide seasoned executives as claims consultants to advise on best practices and processes in the insurance claims industry.VCS currently specializes in providing leakage analysis for property, casualty, workers compensation, and litigation management. The analysis is made by seasoned executives averaging 30 years in claims management experience.VCS does more than the average file audit, it provides an analysis that identifies root causes of variance and leakage, as well as a strategic plan with constructive recommendations to ensure fair indemnification, and minimize variance and leakage.John Fleming, VCS VP and director, commented: Over the last several years, we have continued to see data indicating that carriers are experiencing a significant rise in indemnity payments for reasons that we have found ultimately lead back to a need for an evolving best practice philosophy across the claims process.Just as the claims industry is ever-changing, so are we, and providing consulting services isnt new for us. Weve just expanded, created a dedicated practice to provide consulting services with a team of seasoned professionals who can navigate these modern day challenges of an evolving claims world.More than 40 groups of policyholders affected by flood and storm damage from last months East Coast Low have attended an insurance forum hosted by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) in Latrobe Memorial Hall this week.ICA CEO Rob Whelan said policyholders at the Latrobe forum greatly appreciated the opportunity to consult with insurers and other experts on the recovery process.The forum was attended by the ICA and representatives from insurance companies, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), and North West Community Legal Service.Though the claims process is well advanced for most policyholders, and hundreds of claims have already been finalised, the ICA recognised some claimants had unresolved questions or concerns, Whelan said.The forum allowed policyholders to ask their insurer about the progress of their claim, including the repair and rebuilding process. Several groups also received guidance on formal dispute resolution processes from the ICA, FOS, and Legal Aid.Less than 1 per cent of household claims and less than 2 per cent of business claims from the ICA-declared catastrophe have been denied in northern Tasmania, usually because the policyholder did not buy insurance that covered flood damage.Whelan revealed that 43,244 claims were received by insurers from across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania; with overall insured losses estimated at $377 million. Northern Tasmania accounted for 2,640 of these claims for estimated insured losses of $30.5 million.Insurers recognise the emotional and financial trauma these disasters cause, and how important it is for policyholders to get back into their homes and businesses quickly, said Whelan.That is why each insurance company is working as fast as it can to finish processing claims and completing repairs.
The city of Providence, Rhode Island has agreed to pay $210,000 to settle a police brutality lawsuit filed by a Central Falls man who was beaten in 2009 while in handcuffs and left in a coma.

WPRI-TV reported that the City Council Committee on Claims and Pending Suits met briefly before approving the payout to Luis Mendonca. It was publicized Tuesday.

The beating by former Providence police Det. Robert DeCarlo was caught on video. The lawsuit singles out DeCarlo for allegedly violating Mendoncas civil rights and assault and battery.

DeCarlo was convicted in 2011 of assault but that was later overturned. He ultimately pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and resigned.

Two public safety officers at the Rhode Island School of Design were also named in the suit. RISD will pay $45,000.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law Enforcement
Trial began Tuesday in a lawsuit brought against Brown University by a student who was suspended after a sexual encounter that he says was consensual but that a fellow student reported as an assault.

U.S. District Judge William Smith said both sides in the lawsuit agreed to a bench trial in order to get a quicker resolution. The male student, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe, was found responsible for sexually assaulting the female student and suspended in April 2016 for two years.

In the lawsuit, John Doe seeks to be reinstated and to stop Brown from handling complaints using the current process. Brown says the procedure was fair and the hearing panel had a rational basis for its finding.

Universities around the country have faced similar lawsuits from dozens of men who say they were falsely accused amid a push by federal authorities aimed at getting schools to better address sexual assaults on campus.

The encounter happened in November 2014 when John Doe was a sophomore and the female student was a freshman. They knew each other through a campus activity and had met in a campus building to watch a movie together after exchanging often sexually charged texts over a period of days.

John Doe maintains the encounter was consensual, but the woman filed a complaint in October 2015 saying it was not.

She said in her complaint that he tried to kiss her, she turned away and said she did not want to kiss him, then he forcibly penetrated her with his fingers. She said she froze, said she did not want to have sexual intercourse and then said she finally submitted to oral sex out of fear after what she called coercive badgering.

I knew I wasnt going to be able to leave unless it happened, she said in her complaint. I felt I had no choice to avoid being raped.

In court filings, John Does lawyer disputed that he forced her and said the woman could have easily left because she was got up twice to turn the lights off next to the door but chose to stay.

The complaint triggered a disciplinary process under Title IX, the federal anti-discrimination law.

The school found in the female students favor and suspended John Doe on the basis that he sexually assaulted her.

John Does lawyer, J. Richard Ratcliffe, said Tuesday that Brown did not play by its own rules and used a different definition of consent than the one that was the policy at the time the encounter happened.

Browns lawyer, Steven Richard, said during his opening statement that the case is about the process, the procedure and the role of the university.

Were not here to determine which of these students is telling the truth, Richard added. Were here to determine whether Brown breached a contractual obligation.

Richard said there was no breach.

The trial is expected to last several days.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Education Universities
Lloyds of Londons Beazley Plc is working to get European insurance licenses for its Irish reinsurance business to allow it to operate throughout the European Union, even if Lloyds loses access to the bloc.

Insurers are making contingency plans after Britains vote last month to leave the EU left them facing the risk they could lose passporting rights that enable them to sell their products throughout Europe.

Were looking at getting the licenses for our EU reinsurance company in Dublin and have an EU insurance company, which will give us some protection for growing in Europe into the future, if there are problems with the Lloyds licenses, Chief Executive Andrew Horton told Reuters.

Britains insurance and banking industries  the biggest in Europe  are seen as some of the sectors with the most to lose following the Brexit vote, due to their reliance on the passporting system.

Dublin is the favored alternative hub to London for insurers due to its geographical proximity and similar regulatory regime, as well as Ireland being an English-speaking country, industry specialists say. It is already considered an insurance center, with giant insurer Zurich having its European HQ there.

Ahead of the referendum, Lloyds, which groups more than 80 insurance syndicates in the City of London, warned that the specialist insurance market would be less appealing to investors outside Britain after a Brexit vote.

Beazleys Horton said the firms main aim is to lobby with Lloyds to ensure that the Lloyds market manages to maintain the insurance licenses that allow it access to the EU bloc.

The company is keen to do all it can to ensure continued access to Europe as it hopes to replicate there the success of its U.S. speciality lines business  which covers professional and management liability.

Beazley, which provides marine, casualty and property insurance and reinsurance, reported a 3 percent fall in first-half pretax profit as premium rates declined for much of the large risk business the company underwrites in London.

Gross written premiums, however, rose about 2 percent to $1.12 billion over the period, buoyed by strong growth of the firms speciality lines business in the United States, which accounts for about 85 percent to 90 percent of its specialty lines business.

Horton said Beazley expected its U.S. and UK speciality lines business to compensate for fewer premiums written in marine and property accounts in the second half.

Over the six months ended June 30, pretax profit fell to $150.2 million due to fewer catastrophes, against a record $154.5 mln in the first half of last year. The Canadian wildfire was the only significant catastrophe over the period, Horton said.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish; additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Rachel Armstrong and Susan Fenton)

Topics USA Excess Surplus Europe Reinsurance Lloyd's London
A.M. Best has revised the outlooks to stable from positive of Lloyds and Lloyds Insurance Co. (China) Ltd., while at the same time affirming their financial strength rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of a+.

In addition, A.M. Best has revised the outlook to stable from positive and affirmed the ICR of a of the Society of Lloyds.

The revision of the outlooks to stable from positive reflects A.M. Bests view that an upgrade of the ratings in the short term is unlikely as a result of pressure on Lloyds competitive position and financial performance in an increasingly difficult operating environment.

A.M. Best said the rating affirmations reflect Lloyds strong and stable risk-adjusted capitalization, strong position in the global insurance and reinsurance markets and strong underwriting performance.

Risk Adjusted Capitalization

Lloyds benefits from strong and stable risk-adjusted capitalization, supported by a robust risk-based approach to setting member level capital, A.M. Best said.

The exposure of central resources to insolvent members has fallen significantly over the past 10 years and is now at a very low level, said the ratings agency, noting that Lloyds financial flexibility continues to be enhanced by the diversity of capital providers, which include corporate and non-corporate investors.

Position in Global Re/Insurance Market

With an excellent position in the global insurance and reinsurance markets, Lloyds benefits from the collective size of the market as well as its unique capital structure, which enables syndicates to compete effectively with large international insurance groups under the well-recognized Lloyds brand.

Underwriting Performance

A.M. Best affirmed that Lloyds operating performance has been good in recent years, supported by strong technical performance as demonstrated by an average five-year combined ratio of 91 percent (2011-2015).

The combined ratio of 89 percent for 2015 benefited from benign catastrophe experience and another year of material reserve releases, said the ratings agency, noting that future performance likely will be weaker than in the recent past due to deterioration in premium rates, a return to average catastrophe claims and a lower level of reserve releases.

Difficult Operating Environment

A.M. Best warned that an increasingly difficult business environment could challenge to Lloyds competitive position.

In particular, the growth of regional re/insurance hubs combined with the comparatively high cost of placing business at Lloyds is reducing the flow of business into the London market, A.M. Best said.

However, Lloyds has taken a proactive response to these threats. Improved access to international business is being supported by the Vision 2025 strategy and the establishment of regional platforms, and Lloyds continues to implement initiatives to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs, A.M. Best continued.

Following the ratings outlook change for Lloyds, the outlooks have been revised to stable from positive and the FSR of A (Excellent) and the ICRs of a+ have been affirmed for each of the following Lloyds syndicates:

Lloyds Syndicate 33 , managed by Hiscox Syndicates Ltd.

, managed by Hiscox Syndicates Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 2623 , managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd.

, managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 623 , managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd.

, managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 3623 , managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd.

, managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 3622 , managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd.

, managed by Beazley Furlonge Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 2010 , managed by Cathedral Underwriting Ltd.

, managed by Cathedral Underwriting Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 1225 , managed by AEGIS Managing Agency Ltd.

, managed by AEGIS Managing Agency Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 510 ,managed by Tokio Marine Kiln Syndicates Ltd.

,managed by Tokio Marine Kiln Syndicates Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 2003 ,managed by Catlin Underwriting Agencies Ltd.

,managed by Catlin Underwriting Agencies Ltd. Lloyds Syndicate 3000, managed by Markel Syndicate Management Ltd.

The ratings of Lloyds Syndicate 2001, managed by MS Amlin Underwriting Ltd., are not affected, as this syndicate is currently rated above the Lloyds market level. Lloyds Syndicate 2001s FSR of A+ (Superior) and ICR of aa- remain under review with developing implications.

Source: A.M. Best

Topics Trends Excess Surplus Reinsurance Lloyd's AM Best
The South Dakota Supreme Court says a Quinn family should collect insurance for cattle that drowned during the autumn 2013 blizzard that devastated western South Dakota ranchers.

The high court in an opinion released July 21 ruled that Richard and Lorayna Papouseks insurance covers 93 yearling heifers that died in the October 2013 storm under a drowning provision.

Family attorney Sarah Baron Houy says justice has been done.

A lower court had sided with their insurance company, De Smet Farm Mutual Insurance Company of South Dakota, which argued that none of the cattle were discovered submerged in water.

A veterinarian for the family said that the cattle inhaled rain and snow, which led to their death.

An attorney for the company didnt immediately return a telephone message requesting comment.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Carriers Windstorm
Patients who filed medical malpractice claims against Detroit-area oncologist Farid Fata and three Michigan hospitals will receive settlements totaling $8 million.

The settlements were approved July 20 in Oakland County Circuit Court. They will be distributed by an arbitrator later this year to about 40 people.

Fata is serving a 45-year federal prison sentence for intentionally misdiagnosing or mistreating patients. Many patients were told they had cancer and went through excessive chemotherapy. He was paid millions of dollars by insurance companies.

Fata pleaded guilty in 2014 to fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. His assets were to be liquidated.

McKeen & Associates represented some of the people filing claims. Managing Partner Brian McKeen says Fata carried low insurance limits per claim, meaning victims were never going to receive fair levels of compensation.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Michigan Medical Professional Liability
EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants (EPIC), a retail property/casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, has added Will Ogilvie in the firms southwest regional office. He will be based in Houston and report to Brett Haugh, managing principal, Southwest Region.

Ogilvie brings nearly 15 total years of experience to EPIC. Prior to joining the firm, he was a director for DirectPath LLC, a privately-held leader in strategic employee engagement and health care compliance for Fortune 1000 companies. Ogilvie also served as regional vice president for RS Investments, where he managed over 3,500 financial advisors and delivered educational presentations, seminars and other public speaking engagements as an industry thought leader for the company.

As a business development manager for EPICs Employee Benefits practice, Ogilvie will identify opportunities to improve employee programs and/or administrative services, as well as help companies better manage costs and optimize their return on investment in human capital.

EPIC is headquaratered in San Francisco.

Source: EPIC
The parents of a toddler killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World said Wednesday that they dont plan to sue the Florida theme park resort over the death.

Matt and Melissa Graves of Omaha, Nebraska, said in a statement that they want to focus on their familys future health. A family spokeswoman, Sara Brady, said she couldnt say whether a financial settlement had been reached with Disney World.

The family is really focused on just moving forward and healing, Brady said.

In their statement, the parents described themselves as broken by the death of their 2-year-old son, Lane.

We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane, they said. As each day passes, the pain gets worse, but we truly appreciate the outpouring of sympathy and warm sentiments we have received from around the world.

Disney World president George Kalogridis said in a statement the company continues to provide support for the family. A spokeswoman, Jacquee Wahler, wouldnt elaborate further.

Authorities say an alligator pulled Lane Graves into the water June 14. His father said a second alligator attacked him as he tried to save his son.

Lanes body was recovered the next day, and an autopsy showed he died from drowning and traumatic injuries.

After Lanes death, Disney World made changes to limit possible visitor contact with alligators on the property.

Rope fences with netting were installed around some waterfront areas, and No Fishing signs were installed. Fishing at Disney World was changed to be limited only to excursions.

Related:

Topics Lawsuits
Mosquito abatement teams in Salt Lake City are stepping up efforts to trap and test mosquitoes and kill larvae following the discovery of a unique Zika case that has health investigators trying to figure how the man got the virus.

The types of mosquitoes that are responsible for large outbreaks in dozens of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are not typically found in Utah, but experts say they have not ruled out the possibility that the new Utah case came from a mosquito.

The man who contracted the new case of Zika was caring for his ailing father who died with Zika after traveling to an affected country. The man, who survived, had not traveled to a Zika outbreak country, raising new questions about the way the disease spreads.

Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District teams have been setting mosquito traps in hot spot areas and near where the father and son lived since they jumped into action last weekend to help staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who are in Utah, said district manager Ary Faraji. They are focusing putting traps in areas with lots of artificial containers such as tire yards, junkyards and automotive salvage yards, he said.

Test results about the mosquitoes trapped since the amped-up effort was launched are expected back later this week, he said.

The districts teams are also putting tiny fish that eat mosquito larvae in ponds and other standing water in places like abandoned pools. Employees on bikes ride through neighborhoods dropping tiny packets in drains or gutters in waters that contain a bacterial product that kills mosquito larvae. Another team focuses on searching for mosquitoes in tree holes.

The main type of mosquito that spreads the disease was spotted once near the southern Utah city of St. George in 2013, but it was eradicated and have not been detected since, Faraji said. A secondary carrier of the virus, a mosquito known as the Asian tiger, was found in 2001 in the Salt Lake City area and Faraji said theyre likely to come back sooner or later.

Our best option is to try find these mosquitoes quickly so that way we can eliminate them prior to their establishment, Faraji said. Once they become established, it is extremely difficult to get rid of those species.

In Florida, health officials are investigating what could be the first Zika infection from a mosquito bite in the continental United States, involving a resident of the Miami area.

Lab tests confirmed the Zika infection, according to statements from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Floridas Department of Health.

Health officials said the person has no apparent links to recent travel outside the country.

Health officials predicted the virus would reach U.S. mosquitoes this summer and have mobilized to keep Zika from spreading beyond isolated clusters of cases.

More than 1,300 Zika illnesses have been reported in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, including eight in Utah, according to health officials. Almost all were people who had traveled to Zika outbreak countries and caught the virus there.

On Wednesday, a mosquito abatement crew checked on a decorative pond in the front yard at Miyoung Kims Salt Lake City house as they made their rounds through a 111-square mile area where they keep tabs on some 700 ponds, 4,000 tree holes and 17,000 drains.

Kim said the crew comes twice a year to stock her decorative pond with the mosquito-eating fish. A native of Korea, Kim said shes well aware of the dangers of Zika and is keeping an extra close eye on her pond.

We make sure theres always mosquito fishes here, Kim said. And were checking. My husband cleans up the pond once in a while and checks in the reeds.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA
Utahs governor has signed into law a measure that makes the state the first to let authorities jam drone signals and crash the devices specifically for flying too close to wildfires.

Republican Gov. Gary Herberts office announced this week that he signed the law over the weekend, just days after lawmakers met in a special session to pass it and a handful of other bills.

State Sen. Evan Vickers, who co-sponsored the law, says it technically allows firefighters and law enforcement to shoot down drones, but they probably wont do that because its too difficult.

Instead, authorities are expected to use technology that jams signals and crashes drones.

Utah passed the law after a drone recently was sighted five times over one wildfire, causing firefighters to ground their aircraft and slow their work.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
New and Notable On May 17, 2022, Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management (WIM) announced the addition of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)-focused portfolios to its product offering. In addition, Investors can now access the robo-advisory platform with only a minimum $500 investment.

The banking giant Wells Fargo and Company operates the Intuitive Investor program as part of its subsidiary Wells Fargo Advisors. Wells Fargo Intuitive Investor provides automated management of professionally curated portfolios that lean heavily on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) principles. Financial Advisors are available by phone, Monday through Friday, 8 am to 8 pm ET, to answer questions and provide guidance. The service is designed for current Wells Fargo clients seeking investment advice who are willing to engage digitally while also having access by phone to a financial advisor.



Key Takeaways Wells Fargo Intuitive Investor is convenient for existing Wells Fargo banking customers.

Tax-loss harvesting is available.

The signup process gets personal very quickly.

Pros Can speak with financial advisors.

Classic methodology.

Top-tier financial institution. Cons No performance data.

Relatively high account minimum.

Must give social security number to view recommendations.

Account Setup

4.3

You can access the Intuitive Investor program through the Wells Fargo Advisors site. On the site, there is an informative breakdown that compares fees and service levels between automated and fully human advisories. However, the setup process gets personal quickly, requiring you to log in to an existing account or open a new one before you answer any other questions. If you're already a Wells Fargo client, this won't be a problem, but it's clear that Intuitive Advisor is not designed to bring new customers onto the stagecoach.

This roadblock, requiring personal data so quickly, contradicts Wells Fargo Intuitive Investors claim that there is no commitment required to view the questionnaire and portfolio recommendations. That should be reworded to say there is no financial commitment. It also marks a major negative because applicants should demand a closer look under the hood before handing out personal data, especially to a commercial bank that is still facing legal fallout from a 2016 account fraud scandal that affected millions of customers.

Once you have created or logged into a Wells Fargo account, you fill out a short questionnaire about investment goals, time frame, and risk tolerance. Once that's done, the system recommends one of nine model portfolios spread across conservative, balanced, and aggressive risk themes.

Wells Fargo Intuitive Investor risk/return graph.

You cannot make changes or trade directly, but securities transferred from another account may be retained if they replace one or more ETF allocations. Your risk profile can be changed at any time, potentially triggering a different portfolio allocation.

A $5,000 minimum is required to fund your portfolio, which can be established as an individual or joint taxable account, traditional individual retirement account (IRA), Roth IRA, SEP IRA or trust account. Accounts that fall below $4,000 will receive a notification, after which you will have 30 days to bring the balance above that amount in order to be eligible for the digital advisory services. Otherwise, your funds will be transferred into standard brokerage accounts. If your balance drops below $500, Wells Fargo will automatically sell your account holdings.

New clients can also directly roll over a 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) or other plan held with a former employer. Once a deposit or transfer is made, it can take three to five business days for the funds to appear in your account.

Goal Setting

4

Intuitive Investors goal-oriented resources are divided into life planning and investment commentary sections, providing a wealth of useful information. This is offset by the fact that it is poorly organized, forcing you to drill through a lot of content to find relevant topics. These sections would greatly benefit from centralization, a search box, a table of contents, and a listing of hot topics.

A financial advisor is available to you by phone between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday. There is a support line open 24/7 for technical issues with the app or website. You can fill out an online form to have a financial advisor contact you to walk you through Wells Fargo's Envision process, which can help you and your Financial Advisor clarify and prioritize your goals to create a tailored investment plan. This is not a feature that you can access independently, however.

Account Services

2.8

The robo-advisor is well integrated with other Wells Fargo offerings, making it an attractive investment vehicle for existing clients. You can make deposits, set up recurring deposits, and initiate withdrawals through the account interface. Margin is not available, nor can clients borrow against their accounts.

Cash Management

Intuitive Investor also includes Cash Services, providing money transfer to and from other Wells Fargo accounts. This service lets customers make deposits at any Wells Fargo branch as well as through the mobile app, and send and receive money through the Zelle transfer service. A Wells Fargo checking account lets you use bill paying services on the web or through the mobile app.

Interest is earned on unallocated cash through an overnight bank sweep into FDIC-insured accounts and non-FDIC-insured money market mutual funds. Wells Fargo Advisors may receive fees and other financial benefits through the different sweep vehicles.

Portfolio Construction

1.8

Wells Fargo Intuitive Investor offers you a classic portfolio approach with a bit of a weighting twist. Portfolio contents follow the categorization scheme found at most rivals, subdividing into nine portfolios that span very conservative to very aggressive risk objectives. Between eight and 14 ETFs are used to populate each portfolio. In addition to low-cost ETFs that track market-weighted indexes, the Intuitive Investor platform also buys ETFs that track the performance of equally-weighted, fundamentally-weighted, and volatility-weighted indexes in an effort to achieve higher returns and better long-term diversification. The site states that the ETFs are selected by humans at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, but there wasnt a readily available listing of providers and typical funds for review.

Portfolio Management

3.8

Intuitive Investor offers you the basic portfolio management that can be found at most robo-advisors. The platform maintains a broadly diversified portfolio that includes investments from a variety of market sectors and asset classes. The methodology follows traditional MPT principles, emphasizing the benefits of low-cost securities, diversification, and indexing to achieve long-term financial goals. As with rivals, algorithms dont base decisions on market timing or short-term performance.

Intuitive Investor rebalances your portfolio as often as necessary to maintain allocations. The portfolio is checked daily at a minimum to ensure that allocations are within thresholds. You can also engage in tax-loss harvesting on your individual or joint taxable account through a free opt-in program. If you enable tax-loss harvesting, Intuitive Investor will substitute similar ETFs to offset capital gains while maintaining your portfolios asset allocation.

You can get to your account management functions through Well Fargos single unified log-on. The interface is highly functional, with account services, performance breakdowns, long-term projections, and tools to evaluate the potency of the current market approach. It also supports customized portfolio views, detailed research, and technical charting, as well as real-time market updates. You can also send secure messages to advisors and access account documents through this portal.

User Experience

4.4

Mobile Experience

The website is mobile-ready and easy to read. Wells Fargo provides the same full-featured iOS and Android apps for all types of accounts, with two-factor authentication and nearly all account functions that are accessible through the desktop management interface.

Desktop Experience

Intuitive Investor is part of the Wells Fargo Advisors site, but finding the program can take a few clicks because it comprises just one of multiple offerings. A full-featured FAQ complements a professional marketing presentation, providing most of the information needed to open an account. Information on methodology and portfolio construction has been written for the layperson, avoiding fine print, and an account preview highlights major features.

Our review found no SEC-mandated wrap fee brochures on the public website. Disclosures at the SEC site were limited to an omnibus wrap fee brochure that includes Intuitive Investor on a laundry list of advisory programs. However, that document doesnt outline or disclose specific fees, market activities, objectives, or conflicts of interest. As with some other robo-advisors, this marks a major omission by Wells Fargo as many seasoned investors consider the ADV-2A the quickest way to assess an offering.

Customer Service

3.3

Telephone service hours vary by department, with 24/7 coverage for general questions about online services. As mentioned, financial advisors are available to you between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday. Contact attempts produced a variety of unacceptable waiting times averaging a hefty four minutes and 25 seconds, while one call reached a representative who wasnt knowledgeable about basic program details.

Theres no live chat, and a warning message indicates that Wells Fargo wont handle financial functions like transfers and withdrawals through email due to its inherent insecurity. That said, a full-featured and well-written FAQ covers the Intuitive Investor program in detail, reducing the need to slog through dense legalese disclosures, agreements, and other fine print.

Education & Security

3.8

The Wells Fargo website provides you ample goal planning resources through its Investment Insights and Planning for Life sections, which are dedicated to basic and advanced investment topics as well as high-level market commentary by Wells Fargo staff. Sections also feature dozens of checklists, how-to articles and calculators for a wide range of goals that include marriage, divorce, retirement, and estate planning.

Overall, the educational resources are useful but not well-organized, lacking a search function and table of contents.

Security is up to industry standards, with Intuitive Investor using 256-bit SSL encryption as well as two-factor authentication for both desktop and mobile functions. Wells Fargo also guarantees fund replacement if the site or account is hacked. The wholly-owned Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network holds client funds, providing access to Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and excess insurance.

Commissions & Fees

4

The program is marketed primarily to existing Wells Fargo customers seeking to leverage relationships by discounting fees to enrollees of Portfolio by Wells Fargo (PWF). Intuitive Investor charges a 0.35% wrap fee that includes transaction costs, but PWF customers who have an account linked to a Wells Fargo Bank Portfolio by Wells Fargo pay just 0.30%. The account minimum of $5,000 is similar to other robo-advisors, though higher than those aimed at millennials. The ETFs average between 0.11% and 0.17% expense ratios. Wells Fargo charges a steep $95 fee to terminate an IRA account or to transfer the account to another broker.

Monthly cost to manage a $5,000 portfolio: $1.46 ($1.25 with PWF)

Monthly cost to manage a $25,000 portfolio: $7.29 ($6.25 with PWF)

Monthly cost to manage a $100,000 portfolio: $29.17 ($25.00 with PWF)

Is Intuitive Investor a Good Fit For You?

Intuitive Advisors offers excellent resources and automatically managed investments to existing Wells Fargo customers at a moderate cost. Like some of the other robo-advisors tied to financial majors, it appears that Wells Fargo is looking to prevent clients from leaving to explore robo-advisors at other financial firms rather than attract new clients into the fold. This impression is compounded by the fact that the account minimum is beyond the reach of most beginner investors. More to the point, many new applicants may walk away after looking at the setup process, which requires a social security number before viewing the questions or portfolio. This roadblock could work at other top-tier institutions, but Wells Fargo doesnt have that luxury after undermining client trust in the 2016 scandal.

If you are already part of the Wells Fargo product universe, however, Intuitive Investor is cost-competitive for the automated management services it brings to your portfolio. The tweaked approach to MPT with the different weighting approaches is also an interesting departure, but it would be nice to see robust performance metrics backing up the approach. That said, the high minimum to open an account and the lack of an upfront preview suggest that investors unaffiliated with the Wells Fargo universe may find a better fit with more nimble competitors.

Investopedia Robo-Advisor Rating Methodology

Investopedia is dedicated to providing investors with unbiased, comprehensive reviews and ratings of robo-advisors. Our 2020 reviews are the result of in-depth evaluations of over 20 robo-advisor platforms, including the user experience, goal-setting capabilities, portfolio construction, costs and fees, security, mobile experience, and customer service. You can read our full robo-advisor rating methodology for a much more in-depth explanation than the summary below.

Overall Star Rating Explained

With the individual investor in mind, we took a critical look at the services and technology provided by robo-advisors. We organized our methodology into nine categories, scoring each advisor across multiple variables to rate performance in every applicable category. The score for the overall award is a weighted average of the categories.
Mary Holt Moore, who served as the second ever female grand marshal of the New York City St. Patricks Day parade in 1991, passed away last week. She was 88 years old, and a resident of Pearl River, New York.

Born in the Bronx, Holt Moore was a graduate of Hunter College, where she founded its Gaelic Society. An unrepentant Irish Republican and devout Catholic, she dedicated her life to the cause of Irish freedom. Her parents were natives of Leitrim and Wicklow.

She shared her love of Irish history and language as president of the Bronx Gaelic League and Council of Gaelic Societies. She was an active participant in New Yorks Irish American community.

Though she loved the United States, her love for Ireland, its language Gaeilge, culture and history was boundless. When we first met in the early seventies, the fact that I was a native Irish speaker cemented a friendship that would last forever, Maurice Brick, an official in the Kerrymens Association of New York, said.

I remember how she fought and cajoled whom ever she could to get the Prayers of the Faithful in Irish included in the St. Patrick's Day Mass in the Cathedral and her sheer joy when she succeeded.

No one was her match and it was my delight, on many occasions to witness her acute attention to detail when extolling the virtues of the land of her forefathers.

Moores husband Thomas, a former deputy chief of the FDNY, predeceased her. She is survived by eight children and 21 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

A funeral Mass was held last Saturday at St. Margarets in Pearl River. Moore was laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne.

Read more community news here
Long Island congressman Peter King was the most prominent activist Irish American Congressional Republican politician at the just concluded GOP convention in Cleveland.

Come to think of it, he was the only one.

Others with Irish names, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, dont cut it when it comes to activist.

King has been active on Irish issues since long before he arrived on Capitol Hill.

He was in Dublin earlier this year as part of a congressional delegation taking part in the 1916 centenary commemoration.

He was named the Irish Echos Irish American of the Year.

These days, Kings attention is mostly fixed on the global terror threat, and the security of the American homeland.

As such, he is often to be seen in media interviews dealing with national security, threats to it, or delivering reaction to the latest terrorist attack overseas.

Being close to New York City, Americas media capital, ensures that King is often included in the reaction lineup.

Being an elected congressional Republican in New York helps too.

He doesnt have many GOP counterparts competing for airtime.

Always quick with a line, or a strongly worded opinion, King spent the past week delivering online reports from the convention floor.

He was standing with the New York delegation when it put Donald Trump over the top in the national delegate count.

But how does he feel about Donald Trump, now his partys anointed presidential candidate?

Thats not quite as clear as Kings feelings about Senator Ted Cruz, who would get three thumbs down from King if he had a third thumb.

And while King is lining up behind the Trump candidacy, and has endorsed him, it should be remembered that back in the thick of the primary fight he endorsed Floridas Senator Marco Rubio over his fellow New Yorker.

But that was then and this is now.

King sent this from the convention floor on Tuesday evening: "Dramatic night as Donald Trump goes over the top to receive the Republican Presidential nomination on the first ballot.

I have had differences with Donald Trump on several issues but I have endorsed him not only because he won 37 states and the overwhelming majority of delegate votes, but because I agree with him on key issues such as: national defense, homeland security, Supreme Court appointments and support for our police.

Most importantly, Donald Trump will provide leadership to America after the failed administration of President Obama.

Back at the hotel after the convention, I saw Suffolk GOP Chairman John Jay Lavalle who was talking on the phone with Donald Trump.

John handed me the phone and I congratulated Donald who was in great spirits. He said he is particularly looking forward to the first Presidential Debate which, was announced yesterday, will be held at Hofstra University on Long Island on September 26th. So Donald Trump is already thinking beyond today and looking toward tomorrow. Fasten your seat belts!"

That endorsement aside, Kings passions as his party gathers for the battle against the Democrats seem to be defined at least as much by his antipathy towards Ted Cruz than his support for Donald Trump.

After Wednesday nights proceedings, which included the Ted Cruz speech that ended with no endorsement for Trump from the Texas senator, King opined thus: "Last night's session of the convention demonstrated the very worst and the best of the Republican Party.

The worst was Ted Cruz who showed America that he is a fraud and self-centered liar who disqualified himself from ever again being considered as a Presidential nominee.

This is a man who signed a pledge to support the nominee of his party and was given the opportunity by Donald Trump to address the National Convention and then refused to honor his pledge.

This is just the latest in Ted Cruz's career of narcissism and shameless self-promotion. Ted Cruz is the worst. Eric Trump and Mike Pence represent the best.

.@tedcruz can't tell truth. Says he fights 4 cops & firefighters. Not true. Didnt cosponsor or vote 4 Zadroga 9/11 health bill. What a fraud  Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) January 16, 2016

Eric Trump described his father in real and meaningful terms showing why Donald Trump should be the leader of our country.

My good friend Mike Pence gave a truly outstanding speech accepting the nomination for Vice-President and made us all proud to be Republicans.

King is certainly keen on fellow Irish American Pence, who is seen as the tickets conservative bulwark.

Wrote King: "Donald Trump's choice of Mike Pence as his Vice-Presidential running mate was a wise and thoughtful decision.

I worked with Mike during the 12 years he represented Indiana in the United States Congress and saw firsthand how hardworking and conscientious he was.

Mike was always a thoroughly decent guy who studied and examined issues very carefully and deliberately. Though we were from different regions of the country, Mike and I agreed on many issues--particularly on national defense, foreign affairs and combatting Islamist terrorism.

After his time in Congress, Mike went on to be a very successful Governor of Indiana. Mike will be a terrific campaigner and an outstanding Vice-President. I am proud to endorse Mike Pence.

So now it was on the final night and the Trump acceptance speech.

Kings report: "Terrific finale last night to 2016 Convention.

Highlight, of course, was Donald Trump's acceptance speech which was a success.

Almost as impressive was his daughter Ivanka's speech introducing her father.

Even Trump enemies have to admit this guy has raised wonderful kids -- and that has to mean something.

The Trump acceptance speech honestly addressed our country's severe issues: Islamist terrorism, shootings and murders of our police officers, stagnant wages and decline of American leadership in the world.

At the same time, Donald Trump provided hope and confidence that through his leadership and the spirit and ingenuity of the American people America would be great again.

Next week it is the Democrats holding their Convention and then the real campaign begins. Trump vs. Clinton - which is shaping up to be perhaps the fiercest campaign in more than a century!"

Pete King is up for re-election in New Yorks Second District in Novembers climax to this fiercest campaign.

Despite his staunch conservatism King has, over the years, consistently attracted votes from independents and even Democrats in his district which covers parts of both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Party affiliation aside, he is a hard working nuts and bolts congressman.

King supports Trump, but if past patterns on Long Island repeat themselves, he doesnt necessarily need The Donalds coattails on election day.

Indeed, those very coattails could well be two edged in more ways than one in this most extraordinary general election year.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has further distanced himself from talk of a post-Brexit united Ireland poll after Northern Ireland's First Minister told him to concentrate on "reality" instead of "summer school" comments that cause "instability" in the province, writes Fiachra O Cionnaith, Political Reporter.

However, despite the clear u-turn, the Fine Gael leader has stressed the country is still not "going back to the days of check points and towers" amid heightened talk of a hard border between north and south developing.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the British-Irish Council to discuss member states' individual concerns in Wales yesterday, Mr Kenny admitted a possible united Ireland vote "is not going to be the case now or in the medium term, or perhaps ever".

At the MacGill summer school in the Glenties, Co Donegal, on Monday, Mr Kenny said a vote on re-uniting the Republic and Northern Ireland was now a possibility in light of the Brexit vote.

The Taoiseach said this was because Northern Ireland had voted to remain in the EU, and that the clear break by Britain from the common market means the border issue is now back on the agenda.

Senior Government sources have indicated Mr Kenny's comments were directed at Germany in a bid to convince it Ireland is a special case in the post-Brexit negotiations.

However, despite the intention the remarks have led to a short-lived controversy on both sides of the border, with Mr Kenny forced to step back significantly from the position yesterday after meeting with Northern Ireland's first minister Arlene Foster and others in Cardiff.

"Maybe he should stay away from Donegal on the weeks in the summer and give some thought to other things," Ms Foster told reporters yesterday.

"But seriously, I think it [talk of a united Ireland vote] has been unhelpful maybe in the way which it has come over.

"That's all very well at summer schools and what have you, but I have to deal with reality and they have to be prepared for the people of Northern Ireland moving forward in this new era," she said.

Despite taking a clear step away from talk of a border vote in the near future due to the Brexit fallout, Mr Kenny re-iterated his position yesterday that no hard border will return regardless of Britain's decision to leave the EU.

Due to last month's historic Brexit vote, the line between the Republic and Northern Ireland will soon be the only part of the common market which touches a non-member state but does not have hard border.

The issue has raised legitimate security questions for other EU nations, most notably Germany, whose chancellor Angela Merkel last week ruled out any "special case" deal for Ireland in light of the emotive nature of the border.

In addition, during yesterday's meeting of the British-Irish Council - which consists of the Republic, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England and the channel islands - Northern Ireland's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness said there are "huge concerns about the prospect of a hard border" developing.

However,responding to the concerns yesterday, Mr Kenny insisted no hard border will emerge, saying Ireland is not "going back to the days of check points and towers" and that there will be no hard border.

New Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire said "I do not want to see a return to the borders of the past".
Options for reducing the USC, which currently raises a huge 4bn a year, is one of a number of Government pledges costed for the first time in papers released yesterday by the Department of Finance.

Civil servants say it is the first time that such tax documents have been released to the Oireachtas and the public before budget day.

The documents also cost options for other potential tax changes, including the sugar tax, introducing a reduced Vat rate of 9% for home builders and retaining some sort mortgage interest relief beyond its planned expiry date at the end of 2017.

The Tax Strategy Group Papers and the Income Tax Reform Plan also examine commitments made in the Programme for Government, including pledges to reduce taxes on work and to increase the home-carer credit.

During the election campaign, Fine Gael had proposed abolishing the USC.

The documents show that including income taxes and the USC, personal taxes will raise 19.2bn for the exchequer this year. And at 4bn, the USC accounts for a significant part of all income taxes.

Since the banking crisis income tax and USC therefore now comprise the single largest source of tax revenue to the exchequer, having surpassed the proportion contributed by Vat in 2009, according to the documents.

Increasing the USC bands or raising the exemption threshold of 13,000 would cost the exchequer around 296m next year. Over a full four years, the cumulative cost would rise to as much as 1.86bn.

A third option of reducing USC rates would cost the exchequer 331m in 2017, and 1.78bn over four years.

The documents examine the commitment to retain mortgage interest relief  MIR  on a tapered basis. The Income Tax Reform paper says existing recipients of the relief face a cliff in 2018 when their monthly mortgage payments may increase.

The option of extending the expiry date of MIR by reducing the rate of relief may, however, be unpopular with home buyers who bought after 2012, says the assesment.

Tapering the expiry of MIR would cost the exchequer 123m in 2018, 72m in 2019, and 32m in 2020.

Raising the Vat tax rate on tourism from 9% back to 13.5% would generate 626m in revenues.

Since its introduction in 2011, the papers say that the reduced rate has cost 2.1bn to the end of 2015.

The tax papers assess constraints in a proposal to reduce to 9% the rate of Vat for builders constructing new homes. The measure is estimated to cost around 190m.

Assessing the amount of revenue that could be raised by levying a sugar tax, the documents say the exchequer would raise over 10m if a 1c tax was imposed on a 330ml can of sugared-sweetened drink. Almost 203m would be raised if the sweet tax rose to 20c a can.

The papers warn that the UK is likely to push ahead to cut its corporate tax levels amid its preparations to leave the EU.

The European Commission will also likely launch its latest proposal to bring in a so-called Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base  CCCTB  later this year, according to the tax papers.

Unanimity will be required before any proposal on CCCTB is adopted, the papers say.
The companies received approval on Wednesday from US antitrust regulators, after they agreed to sell assets and preserve competition from independent craft brewers. The companies are now waiting for Chinas approval.

However, the drop in sterling since the UK voted to leave the EU has reduced the relative appeal of the all-cash offer aimed at most of SABs shareholders.

Shareholders also voiced concerns about a stock-and-cash alternative structure, created as part of the takeover and designed for SABs biggest investors, cigarette maker Altria and Colombias Santo Domingo family.

At the companys AGM, chairman Jan du Plessis said the board would consider AB InBevs offer after it had received preconditions from Chinese regulators.

The board would also take into account sterlings fall.

We continue to listen to shareholders, du Plessis said, when asked if he would reconsider the terms of AB InBevs offer in light of the changed market environment. The board will take into consideration all relevant facts and circumstances that we think should be considered.

The firm would then write to shareholders, he said. A spokesman for SABMiller declined to elaborate.

A source told Reuters on Wednesday the companys board was weighing the terms of AB InBevs offer, amid rising shareholder disquiet.

Du Plessis described the pending takeover by AB InBev as a significant distraction, but said the deal was right for the company and its shareholders. Australia, Europe and South Africa have already cleared the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year.

Du Plessis defended the deals partial share alternative structure, saying it had been vital for securing approval of the takeover from the two major shareholders.

In response to a shareholder question he said he would make a point of asking AB InBev to issue shares as part of a share swap, in order for SABMiller shareholders to have a holding in the newly-merged company.
The Irish Courts Service confirmed an animal control expert had to use an air pellet gun to shoot the bird when it became distressed, after spending several hours trapped in the dome area inside the citys main courthouse building on Washington St.

John Carmody, of the Animal Rights Action Network, described it as a very sad situation which could have been prevented.

I think it was a lazy, cruel thing to do, to shoot this animal down, he told The Opinion Line on Corks 96FM.

There are always other options. There was no way that poor bird had to be blasted out of it. Pigeons are clean, highly sociable animals, they are complex and intelligent animals.

Its understood the bird became trapped in the building late one evening last week, and was discovered by courts staff the following morning.

A spokesman for the courts service said the pigeon positioned itself around the dome of the building, over the courts main public area, for the entire day.

The pigeon was suffering from being trapped indoors, and was not responding to any attempt to lure it down and out of the building, he said.

As the courthouse dome is approximately 60ft from the ground floor, it was impossible to catch the bird.

The bird became distressed and an animal control specialist team were sent for. They had no option but to humanely use an air pellet to put the bird out of its misery.

A spokesman for the CSPCA said:

We dont endorse the shooting of any animal but in the case, shooting the bird was probably their last resort.

It would have been quick and relatively painless.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said the need to replace obsolete and faulty equipment had become a pressing issue in most hospitals.

We have equipment in hospitals that the manufacturers will not stand over  the guarantee no longer applies, said IHCA secretary general Martin Varley.

The IHCA pre-budget submission, published yesterday, points out Sligo Regional Hospital has to use parts from a decommissioned unit imported from Japan to repair ageing radiology equipment.

We are actually using extremely old obsolete equipment which is not good, said Mr Varley. He said the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin was experiencing a major problem in replacing obsolete equipment.

The maternity hospital got around 150,000 to replace equipment last year, but it was less than 25% of what was really needed.

Mr Varley said a list of hospitals using obsolete equipment would run to several pages.

ICHA president Dr Tom Ryan, a consultant anaesthetist at St Jamess Hospital in Dublin, said the hospital had a very active endoscopy unit, but there were not enough endoscopes.

If you do not have enough endoscopes, you have to wait for the endoscopes to get cleaned between patients and so, consequently, the efficiency of your unit gradually drops, said Dr Ryan.

This is the case in St Jamess where the throughput from the endoscopy unit is compromised by the number of scopes available.

He said the availability of ultrasound machines at the hospital was also a problem  they were continuously in use and had become degraded and faulty.

So you end up sharing out machines, and it just slows everything down, and it makes for inefficient care. This runs the whole way through the system, he said.

Dr Ryan said there was a 400bn capital budget shortfall over eight years.

You cant keep running a hospital system where productivity goes up by two to three percent a year and not replace your equipment.

IHCA vice-president Dr Oisin OConnell, a consultant respiratory physician at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said transplant and cancer patients were competing for bed access in the hospital.

The Mater Hospital is phenomenally well-run but it is not being supported at national level, he said.

You are always fighting for your patient to get into hospital and that is also resulting in some patients getting sent down to the emergency department when all they need is a bed in the ward.
Jamie Saunders, of 17 Glentrasna, The Glen, was refused bail at Cork District Court last week after Detective Garda Jim Kearney objected.

Det Garda Kearney said it was alleged that Jamie Saunders rang his uncle, Michael Saunders, and threatened him on July 14. It was further alleged that Jamie Saunders later went to his uncles house at Father Dominic Rd armed with a knife, that he knocked on the door, and assaulted Michael Saunders with a car jack, causing a wound to his head that required him to be hospitalised for treatment.
A motion tabled by Cllr Mary Roche (Ind) and a similar joint proposal by Fianna Fail councillors Jason Murphy and Adam Wyse raised the measure at Julys plenary meeting.

Ms Roche said: Effectively he is suggesting that instead of Nama selling off huge tracts of property at low market value to vulture funds, the State could purchase them at similar prices for social housing.

If we can CPO properties for roads, then why not for housing?

Ms Roche said CPOs offer a faster solution than building houses, with just 33 houses going to tender in Waterford City this year, while the county has a housing list exceeding 2,000.

There are almost 8,000 vacant properties in Waterford  15% of all properties. Ms Roche said many were in areas well serviced by social and transport systems.

Mr Murphy said purchasing derelict properties held extended advantages such as removing eyesores, curbing antisocial behaviour, and rejuvenating town centres, as well as being environmentally efficient by bringing families nearer to places of work. Restoration would not be subject to lengthy planning delays either.

Director of services for housing, Ivan Grimes, said the council is already progressing a purchase policy with negotiations on acquiring an abandoned city apartment complex. We are also talking with estate agents and developers across the city and county with a view to converting properties into social housing, he said.

Mr Grimes said he would need to seek legal advice as to whether a full CPO course could be pursued but believed national action would have to pre-empt it.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it will demand the move in a formal letter to Mr Noonan over the coming days as part of ongoing attempts to address unanswered questions involving the organisation.

Speaking during a lengthy meeting yesterday as the controversy surrounding Namas multi-billion euro Project Eagle Northern Ireland property portfolio deal continued to dominate the Dail, the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy said he expects to conclude a report into the issue by the middle of next week.

Mr McCarthy  who regularly sits in on PAC meetings due to the state financial issues involved  said he is not at liberty to publish the report and that once it is presented to Mr Noonan, it is up to the finance minister to decide when it will be released.

The Comptroller and Auditor General added that under existing laws, Mr Noonan has three months to present the report to the Dail and in previous cases it has gone to the 90th day, Ive seen it happen.

Responding to the confirmation yesterday, PAC chair and Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming said the quite considerable amount of time means the committee must write to Mr Noonan to demand the report be published immediately after it is received.

Speculation continued to circulate over a potential separate State investigation into Nama.

Reports on Wednesday strongly suggested that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had asked to meet Independents4 Change TD Mick Wallace over his call for a commission of inquiry to be set up into the multi-billion euro Project Eagle deal and related allegations.

Speaking at an event on Wednesday evening, Mr Kenny flatly rejected the claims, saying they are utterly speculative and that there is no investigation taking place.

However, Mr Wallace told the Irish Examiner hours later he is in discussions with groups  believed to be Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein counterpart Gerry Adams, and solicitor Aidan Eames  about setting up such an investigation.
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said Childline staff were reporting that children are being sexualised at younger ages due to easy access to pornography online.

In its annual report for 2015, the charity said children as young as six are viewing pornographic material which can leave them feeling confused and scared. It also pointed out that children are engaging in sexual activity at younger ages and using sexualised language which they often dont understand.

Texting and sharing nude images of themselves to a boyfriend or girlfriend was also a trend increasingly seen by the ISPCC. Other issues include children talking about hating the way they look and aspiring to look like pop stars and celebrities.

Childline staff also said children are calling with increasingly complex psycho social and mental health issues. This continues to be an ongoing issue for teenagers in particular, with many contacts relating to self-harm and suicidal ideation. There is a decrease in the contacts in which this is categorised as the primary profile, but it remains a key issue in many contacts, read the report.

According to the report, Childline answered some 421,672 calls to the phone service and 18,304 conversations to its Childline Online service options. Around 80% of calls were universal in nature with no identified risk or additional needs . However, 6.5% of calls were from children at risk. Of these, a total of 9,428 calls were in relation to abuse and welfare and a further 1,458 calls were in relation to psychosocial mental health.

Katherine Zappone

Speaking at the launch of the report, Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone, said the fact Irish children are becoming sexualised at younger and younger ages is exceptionally worrying. She said it is alarming the service receives so many calls from at-risk children, adding the Government has now made a commitment to end the use of hotels as emergency accommodation for families by next year.

She said extra support workers and new accommodation for vulnerable teenagers will be some of the measures included in the action plan on housing.
Giollaiosa O Lideadha, in his closing speech to a jury in the Central Criminal Court trial yesterday, also said the deceased was probably the one who had pulled the handbrake, but that this was not proof of guilt.

Marta Herda, aged 29, of Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Rd, Arklow, Co Wicklow, is charged with the murder of Csaba Orsos, aged 31, on March 26, 2013. The Polish waitress has pleaded not guilty.

Mr O Lideadha said the prosecution case was unsustainable and did not make any sense. He said something amazing had happened in the States closing speech by Brendan Grehan.

He said to you that some of you might find it fanciful or farfetched that Marta Herda deliberately drove into that water because she had the window open and could swim, he said.

Mr O Lideadha said it was a true and important concession. Im happy to allow you to apply your gut here. It just doesnt make sense, he said, adding the prosecution said she may have wanted to take her life.

I find this a truly amazing proposition because thats the defence case, that how could she have done this because it would be committing suicide, he said. He said the evidence contradicted any proposition she was suicidal.

He explained a murder conviction could be brought in only where there was intent to kill or seriously injure.

He said if the jurors decided she may not have intended it, but was reckless and thought about the risk to life, a verdict of manslaughter would be open to them. However, he added: I would submit theres no evidence to support that conclusion.

Today, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy will begin charging the jury .
I was on the phone to my husband as the name was being announced, not thinking it would be me and I was saying, What time are you taking her [their daughter] to the Gaeltacht? And then next thing somebody said, Its you. So I just dont know where my phone is right now, I think I dropped it, Claire, from Tralee, tells the Irish Examiner.

She wore an apple green and cream outfit, championing the creativity of the kingdom in Killorglin designer Tina Griffins dress and local milliner Carol Kennellys headpiece.

A couple of months ago I saw the apple green head piece and I just worked the outfit around that then. I went to Tina then and she designed the dress to go with it, says Claire.

Claire Murphy celebrates being named best dressed lady at the RDS Horse Show, winning a 10,000 voucher for Dundrum Town Centre. Pictures: Gareth Chaney

Usually I start with the dress but this time, I saw the headpiece and I started up there and moved down.

I try to go Kerry [with her clothing], says Claire, who travelled up to Dublin for the event with a group of friends.

I arrived up with a group of Kerry ladies on the train. I came up casual, and then checked into the hotel and changed and got a taxi here for about 1 oclock.

Claire won a 10,000 voucher for Dundrum Town Centre and intends to capitalise on her win by heading to the Galway Races. I have something else in mind for Galway, she says.

Both judges, blogger Louise OReilly and fashion editor Bairbre Power, were firmly united in their decision to declare Claire as the best-dressed lady on the day.

In the end, the actual winner we both saw her in the crowd and went wow, and couldnt wait for her to come up and tell her story, says Bairbre, adding that the elegance and sophistication were the common threads throughout the entrants.

It was something that really struck us but at the same time it was incredibly difficult because there was just so many outfits that just blew us away, said Louise.

In total, more than 400 people entered into the competition, from mothers and children to men and couples.

The Conor McGregor sartorial effect rippled through the RDS yesterday with most of the male entrants clad in tweed three-piece suits.

Best dressed man, Raymond Gilbourne, who lives in Millstreet, said he is known as tweed man among his colleagues.

Im known as the tweed man where I work because I like wearing tweed, I dont wear dark colours, I like wearing bright colours. Ive orange trousers, red trousers, yellow trousers, he told the Irish Examiner.

Mr Gilbourne will have a pure wool suit made for him by Louis Copeland & Sons as his prize.

BOSS IS BACK

Bruce Springsteen attends the Dublin Horse Show 2016 at The RDS. Picture: Cathal Burke/VIPIRELAND.COM

Hidden away in the confines of the VIP area of the showjumping arena, rock star Bruce Springsteen cut a low-key figure as he watched his daughter Jessica competing in the event.

He casually walked towards a small gathering of journalists, who had discreetly made their way into the VIP section.

Oh it was wonderful, its a great audience here for us, he told the Irish Examiner about his recent gigs in Croke Park.

Its wonderful to be back here in Dublin.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled Sebastain Bobrecki was unfairly dismissed by Carlow engineering firm, Autolaunch Ltd, in October 2014. Mr Bobrecki was sacked after a co-worker reported that he was wearing gloves in close proximity to a metal milling machine.

The Polish man wearing the gloves was in contravention of a strict company ban on the wearing of gloves by any workers near moving machinery parts.

A year prior, a colleague, in a serious accident, lost the top of his finger when a rotating part of one of the machines caught on his glove and pulled his hand into the machine.

After hearing evidence in the case over three days in Carlow, the tribunal stated that it acknowledged that the need to obey the glove ban was heightened and intensified by the serious nature of the October 2013 finger injury.

Autolaunch employs 300 people and Mr Bobrecki worked for the firm for six years before his dismissal.

The worker who witnessed Mr Bobrecki wearing the gloves told the hearing that he observed Mr Bobrecki wearing gloves and wiping an area of the panel close to the moving spindle.

The worker told the hearing that what he saw was extremely dangerous and totally contrary to all training, notification, and instruction heretofore given to Mr Bobrecki and all the workforce.

Mr Bobrecki, who had a good record, was suspended and subsequently dismissed.

Mr Bobrecki explained that he wore gloves as he was changing the oil container as it is odorous and unpleasant.

The tribunal found such a fundamentally flawed process of investigation and discipline that the claimant must succeed under the Unfair Dismissals Acts and awarded Mr Bobrecki 32,000.
Cllr John Gilligan said he was targeted after he went on RTE news and welcomed heavy sentences imposed on Brian and Kieran Collopy.

The two leaders of the Collopy outfit were given eight-year jail sentences at Limerick Circuit Court on Wednesday.

Mr Gilligan said three men wearing balaclavas were sent to do a contract job on him hours after he appeared on television. Last night he said: People can make up their own minds on what three men wearing balaclavas were doing near my house before a neighbour alerted me. I have no doubt they were on a sinister and serious mission.

Mr Gilligan, who lives in Lee Estate, a short distance from the Collopys stronghold of St Itas Street in St Marys Park, said: The Collopys wont silence me. My house has been attacked before and last night three fellas wearing balaclavas came into Lee Estate just a few hundred yards from the Collopys. They tried to disarm the CCTV recently erected in the estate and when a neighbour saw them, he ran to my house. I have no doubt that shutting down the CCTV was part of their plan to attack me, my family and my house. This happened at around 11pm after I gave an interview on RTE praising the guards and welcoming the sentences handed down by Judge [Tom] ODonnell.

Kieran Collopy, left, who appeared at Limerick Circuit Court with his brother Brian, right.

Theres a lot of people here who are afraid to speak out but as a public representative I wont pull back.

He confirmed that he has given a statement to gardai.

Mr Gilligan led a red jersey protest through Limerick against the McCarthy- Dundon gang after they murdered rugby player Shane Geoghegan.

He was subjected to serious threats at that time and has refused to leave Lee Estate despite repeated garda advice.

Mr Gilligan said: The regeneration programme have been putting up CCTV cameras in the entire Kings Island area and a camera was placed on a pole near my house. The location had nothing to do with my house, but the fellas in the balaclavas last night knew that it would film any movement near my house.
Mr Hollande also stressed France understood the importance of the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process, a point which is likely to favour Ireland when Brexit talks begin.

But the French president also pushed for Britain to strike a deal sooner rather than later to leave the EU, a position contrary to Irelands hopes of a drawn-out process.

The president of the Republic met with Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday as part of a visit that was curtailed in the wake of the Bastille Day massacre last week.

It was the first bilateral visit by a French head of state here in almost three decades.

President Francois Hollande says France believes the sooner Brexit negotiations begin, the better. https://t.co/xzCYQkcKkj  RTE News (@rtenews) July 21, 2016

Both leaders discussed ties between the two countries, trade, security following the Nice atrocity as well as the next steps after the Brexit vote.

The French president, ahead of an EU summit in September, wants stronger defence and security co-operation.

Mr Hollande described how Ireland had stood by France when Paris came under terrorist attack last November, support which he would never forget.

He thanked Ireland for its solidarity after the killing of 84 people in Nice, adding: Terrorists wanted to attack France because it is a country of freedom but it struck the world because terrorism makes no distinction between confessions, convictions and nationalities. And thats why we should all be united against terrorism.

But a key part of yesterdays meeting focussed on Brexit and, in particular, Irelands position relating to the North and trade with Britain.

French president Francois Hollande and Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Government Buildings yesterday. The politics of terrorism and Brexit took centre stage at the meeting. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The Taoiseach wants EU leaders to understand Irelands unique position, being the only country with a border to Britain and within the context of the peace process.

Mr Kenny mentioned specific concerns the two leaders discussed, which include a desire to keep the common travel area between Ireland and Britain.

He added: We do not favour a hard border. We do not want to see a European border from Dundalk to Derry, that would not be acceptable.

He reiterated that the common travel area between Ireland and Britain existed long before the two countries joined the EU.

Mr Hollande responded, saying he wanted Brexit negotiations to begin sooner rather than later. He said he would tell this to British prime minister Theresa May at a meeting in Paris last night.

However, the French president backed Mr Kennys push for Ireland to be considered a unique case when Brexit talks begin.

He said, due to the border, Ireland was very attached to the Good Friday Agreement.

Ireland "stands by France", says Enda Kenny after talks in Dublin with French President Francois Hollande. https://t.co/9Qxh3eGoBG  RTE News (@rtenews) July 21, 2016

France understands this position, because it is very important for peace. said Mr Hollande.

Nonetheless, access to the free market for Britain could not be guaranteed, he said, unless they have free movement of workers.

The sooner those [Brexit] negotiations start, the better, the clearer it will be. I do recognise there is a special situation for Ireland. A special situation has to find a place in the negotiations.

His comments were viewed in government circles as supporting Irelands position when Brexit talks begin.
Grace McFadden, it was claimed, suffered a brain injury and had cerebral palsy, and died on Mothers Day 2009.

Her mum and dad, brother, and sisters were in the High Court yesterday as their case against the HSE over her care was settled on confidential terms.

As part of the settlement, an apology was read in court by HSE counsel Emily Egan.

The staff of Sligo University Hospital wish to offer their sincere and heartfelt apology to the family of the late Grace McFadden, said Ms Egan.

To her parents Bartley and Mary and her siblings Luke, Nina, Stacey, Tara, and Leah for any failings in care at the time of Graces birth. The hospital deeply regrets the trauma and distress suffered by Graces family.

Mary and Bartley McFadden, of Stonepark, Ballymote, Co Sligo, had sued the HSE over Graces care at the time of her birth in the Sligo hospital.

The McFaddens also sued for nervous shock, claiming Grace suffered a brain injury at birth and cerebral palsy and died at just 16 months.

It was claimed that on November 25, 2007, Mrs McFadden was admitted to Sligo General Hospital and the CTG trace was at first normal. It was claimed that after 2am the foetal heart rate on the CTG fell and remained that way for about six minutes before there was a brief recovery and then another decline.

Mrs McFadden was scheduled for theatre but it was claimed there was an alleged delay and an anaesthetic was not started until after 3am. Grace was delivered by caesarian section four minutes later, at 3.08am, on November 26, 2007. Grace was in very poor condition at birth and, it was claimed, suffered severe brain damage due to a lack of oxygen. The McFaddens were advised to have her christened.

She was transferred to a Dublin hospital and the family were advised Grace was seriously brain- damaged and quadriplegic.

Grace remained very ill during her short life and required 24-hour care and was tube-fed. She died on March 23, 2009. It was claimed her death was as a direct result of her condition.

There was, claimed the McFaddens, a failure to immediately declare an emergency at 2.15am and a failure to deliver Grace at the earliest possible opportunity. There was, it was further claimed, a failure to ensure delivery by 2.38am at the latest.

Counsel Des ONeill told the court Graces death had devastated her family.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said he hoped the apology would give some consolation to the family, but he knew nothing would compensate them for the grief and suffering over the death of Grace.

Outside court, solicitor Roger Murray said the McFaddens believed it was a meaningful apology and they sincerely hoped the HSE has learned from what happened to Grace. He said no money would compensate for the loss of Grace but the apology was priceless.
Denis Leahy, of Queen St, Dublin 7, was charged with attempting to murder Rose Kenny at School Street Flats, Dublin 8, on September 23, 2014.

Leahy pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Rose Kenny after the case had opened to the jury at the Central Criminal Court on June 22.

He had previously pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Ms Kenny at the same address on the same date.

Rose Kenny was attacked on the stairwell of her apartment complex on her way to work in a local creche. Her injuries included three stab wounds to her neck and three stab wounds to her chest. One of the stab wounds to her neck went through the front of her larynx.

Yesterday Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced Leahy to 14 years imprisonment and backdated it to September 23, 2014.

He said the victim impact statement given by Ms Kenny last week was so moving that he had to adjourn sentencing until today to consider all the matters carefully.

Mr Justice Butler also said that Ms Kenny was obviously very popular with the presence of all her peers in court.

He said the aggravating factors included the ferociousness of the attack and the injuries sustained to Ms Kenny.

It was only thanks to the highly skillful medical intervention that Ms Kenny survived, he said.

Mr Justice Butler said the attack was premeditated and had been planned for at least a day. He said there was a lack of remorse shown by Leahy and that the court considered the offence to be at the higher end of the scale.

The judge said the mitigating factors included the fact Leahy had no relevant previous convictions.

From an early stage he admitted the facts and at a late stage he entered a plea to count 1, he said.

Upon handing down sentence, Mr Justice Butler said: The lowest sentence I can impose on this case is 14 years to date from September 23, 2014. I considered a suspension but there is no basis on which to do so.

Ms Kennys brother spoke on behalf of his sister outside court yesterday regarding the sentence which was handed down.

Paul Kenny said: On behalf of Rose we would like to thank our friends, family, and the investigating team. Although we think no sentence would have been harsh enough, we are very pleased with the outcome and we now hope that Rose can get on with the rest of her life. Its a fairly stiff sentence but its a terrible crime and we are glad the judge saw through everything.

Last week Ms Kenny delivered an emotional victim impact statement to the court.

Afterwards, speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice, the 51-year-old woman said the attack had changed her completely.

Ive had to leave the area I grew up and worked in. I tried to go back to work but I just wasnt able for it. It has just completely changed my life and I dont trust the world the way I used to, she said.

I dont look anyone in the eye and say hello anymore, I look at their hands to see if they are carrying a weapon. I just dont think its a nice world, she said.

The court previously heard that on the morning of the attack, Ms Kenny was going to work in a local family resource centre where she worked in a creche. She left her flat at 7.50am and came down the stairs to make the 40-second journey to her place of employment when she saw a man reading a newspaper at the end of the stairs.

I remember saying good morning and he just jumped up and attacked me but I never saw his face after that, she said.

Ms Kenny never lost consciousness throughout the attack until she got to the hospital.

My eyes were closed through the whole attack but I opened my eyes then and I never let them close again because if I closed my eyes then I would have died and I did not want to die, she said.

Ms Kenny said she sustained multiple injuries and lacerations to her neck, abdomen, back, shoulder, and arm.

Her horrendous injuries included three stab wounds to her neck and three stab wounds to her chest.

She said she was heavily medicated at the time so it was weeks before she realised how seriously she was hurt.

After the vicious attack, her sister, Jeanette, and daughter, Jamie, were at the scene. Ms Kenny said she would never forget their screams.

Ms Kenny did not recognise Leahy throughout the assault even though she had shared many years with him as her partner. When I was told it was him it was like being attacked all over again, she said.
Sean Rausch, aged 18, was also sentenced for seven other offences including muggings, attempted robberies and numerous driving offences arising out of a high-speed garda chase.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he drove the stolen car on three wheels while leading eight patrol cars and a garda helicopter on a high-speed chase. He was unlawfully at large at the time having previously been arrested for his part in the mugging and attempted mugging of two groups of schoolboys. The serious assault on another schoolboy occurred the same day as the robberies.

The 17-year-old victim of the attack suffered a brain bleed after falling to the ground after a thump to his face and a kick to his head. He also had a broken jaw, broken eye socket, broken teeth and was missing skin from his chin.

The assault, which was carried out by both Rausch and another teenager, occurred a month before the victims Leaving Certificate but he managed to sit his exams with assistance. His jaw was wired shut for eight weeks and he still doesnt have full use of his mouth.

Rausch, of Cushlawn Park, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two attempted robberies in Old Bawn, Tallaght, on April 22, 2015, two robberies at The Square shopping centre, Tallaght, on April 29, 2015; taking possession of a Hyundai Santa Fe knowing it was stolen, handling stolen car keys, endangerment and dangerous driving in the Tallaght area on May 26, 2015.

He also pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to the schoolboy, on the same day of the robberies, in the Old Bawn area. He initially denied this charge and elected for trial.

He has 42 previous convictions which were all dealt with in the District Court and include 14 for robbery, burglary, sexual assault, and assault.

Judge Melanie Greally had previously sentenced Rausch to two and half years for the robberies.

Yesterday she sentenced him to a consecutive term of three years on an endangerment charge arising out of the car chase, increasing the term to five and half years. She also sentenced him to five years for the assault which will run alongside the other term.

Judge Greally suspended the final 12 months of the jail term on strict conditions.
Yesterdays grim discovery was made less than 24 hours after the Naval Service celebrated rescuing the 10,000th migrant since it started its humanitarian operations in the Mediterranean Sea last year.

People smugglers are increasingly cramming migrants into totally unseaworthy barges and dinghies. It is usually the poorest and most vulnerable who lose their lives amid the chronic overcrowding.

Gangs charge more for travelling on upper decks of barges rather than the holds, which are sometimes locked.

LE James Joyce, captained by Lieutenant Commander Neil Manning, was tasked by the Italian authorities shortly after 6am yesterday to go the metal barge, which was spotted nearly 47km north-west of Tripoli.

Within moments of boarding the barge, navy personnel realised there were a number of dead people among the migrants.

In total they saved 453 migrants and it took several hours to transfer them all to LE James Joyce where they were given water, food, and, in some cases, medical attention.

The bodies of the dead migrants were taken onboard the naval vessel.

The ship was subsequently asked to rendezvous with an aid ship in the area, from which it took a further 152 migrants who had been picked up in the area earlier.

LE James Joyce was last night on her way to an Italian port to drop off the living and the dead. Counselling services will be provided to the crew following the discovery of the bodies.

Yesterdays operation brings to 678 the total number of persons rescued by LE James Joyce since July 19.
Although he believed in a united Ireland in his lifetime, he has cautioned against holding such a referendum in the short term.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School yesterday, the Minister for Social Protection also disagreed strongly with the Government Chief Whips comments which suggested that Fianna Fail now wield more power than they would have in a minority government.

Regina Doherty had told reporters at the summer school in Glenties, Co Donegal, the main opposition party had been given considerable power in the Dail.

They have power right now and maybe more power right now than they would have if they were in a minority government, she said.

But yesterday Mr Varadkar denied this was the case.

I dont think it is correct to say that they have more power than they would have in government.

He added that the new minority government had been slow to get started.

Mr Varadkar said this was down to the fact it took so long to form a government. We have actually got some legislation through over the last week or two. The ball is rolling now. The Housing Action plan was very much the governments plan; it didnt have the pre-authorisation of Fianna Fail.

On the issue of a border poll, raised by Taoiseach Enda Kenny this week, Mr Varadkar said: I would like to see a united Ireland and I do believe there will be a united Ireland in my lifetime although I dont know at what point in my lifetime.

Fine Gael is a united Ireland party that remains an objective. However, I dont feel a border poll would be a good idea at this time.

I think it would be unsuccessful and divisive and could undermine relations between the two communities there and undermine relations with the unionist parties in particular. So I dont think it is a good idea at this time. We need to achieve a unity of purpose before that time.

Speaking in Glenties on Monday last, Mr Kenny opened the possibility of reunification and said it would have to be considered in the context of Britains exit from the EU. But he later softened this line when he told the Dail there would be no border poll now. There is no evidence of a majority wanting to join the Republic, he said.

The head of Europol, Rob Wainwright also weighed into the issue of a border poll while attending Glenties this week when he said he does not believe a united Ireland would spark acts of terrorism in Northern Ireland.

Mr Wainwright said he was rather optimistic that a border poll of reunification wouldnt mean a return of violence as we have come a long way since the Troubles.
Paul Kavanagh, aged 25, spent the money on take-aways, taxis, and cannabis, said his counsel.

Judge Melanie Greally agreed to adjourn the case at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court until January 13 to allow him repay 1,000 a month to the owner of the Londis shop. He also agreed to pay over, within three days, a sum of 3,600 he has saved up.

Tom Neville, defending, said Kavanagh has nothing to show for the money, some of which was used to pay for his cannabis habit.

Kavanagh, of Belgard Square, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to theft from Ray Sheehan, owner of Londis on Park Gate St, between 2014 and 2015.

Marie Torrens, prosecuting, said he would process lottery wins through the system and pocket the money.

The thefts came to light when the owner noticed three 150 lottery payouts on a day when the lottery machine was broken. Kavanagh was arrested and made admissions. He said he was experiencing personal and family problems and thought he could take the money without anyone noticing.
Weve made huge progress in relation to the voids issue in the last two years, in Dublin, Cork and Galway, Minister Coveney said.

Last year there were 3,600 voids brought back into use and the Government put a special fund in place for Cork City Council and the Dublin councils to actually make sure that that happened. So the percentage of voids in terms of council houses has reduced dramatically, and to be fair to the management and the councillors in Cork City Council, theyve done a good job on that, he told Cork 96FMs Opinion Line.

That doesnt mean we should relax about it  we need to get even better. What we would like to agree with Councils is a set timeframe whereby houses would be unoccupied, between two tenants, moving from one tenancy to another, he said.

He added there should be no house unnecessarily vacant for a period of time beyond a number of weeks, as far as Im concerned.

Minister Coveney said it is not his style to be beating Councils with a stick to ensure a faster turnover of empty houses, but that he wants to work with local authorities to make it happen: I need to make sure that they have the resources to be able to deal with it, and then we need to have an agreement at very senior management level to have a sense of urgency to get voids back into use faster. To be fair, that sense of urgency is there in Cork at the moment, but thats only been the case for the last 18 months or so, and I think were making good progress. But we need to continue to do that.

Simon Coveney

Minister Coveney said he also believes councils should only sell houses on a very limited basis given the pressing need for social housing.

Minister Coveney made the comment following the revelation that Cork County Council sold houses that were bought by the public under joint ownership schemes, but subsequently repossessed. The local authority claimed it had no choice but to sell the repossessed houses due to instructions from the Department of Local Government.

However, the Department later told the Irish Examiner it never issued such an order.

Any sale of social housing needs to happen on a very limited basis until we get the stock up. We have about 140,000 social houses in Ireland, that figure needs to be closer to 200,000, Minister Coveney said when asked about the Irish Examiner story.
Derek Gallagher, aged 51, of 20 Church St, Drogheda, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to handling or transferring money contrary to money-laundering legislation.

He was paid 200 for the run from Drogheda to Limerick in his taxi van.

Detective Garda David Boland said he and Detective Garda Martin McCarthy stopped a VW van on the M7 near Limerick on November 7, 2013.

Gallagher was driving and, on searching a glove compartment, they found a brown envelope with 14,000 in cash and a black sock with 13,950 in cash.

Gallagher said he had been asked by a man in Drogheda to do a run to Limerick to pick up two packages for a fee of 200.

He said this was the first and last time he was asked to do something of this nature.

Anthony Sammon, defending, said Gallagher was a humble taximan who had never been in trouble in his life and was ashamed and embarrassed over what he got involved in.

Gallagher, he said, was used by cunning criminals.

Judge Tom ODonnell said Gallagher had got involved in a bizarre enterprise collecting large amounts of money in an envelope and a sock. He said gardai were satisfied that Gallagher acted more out of naivety than criminal intent.

A comprehensive probation report stated Gallagher was extremely remorseful and embarrassed.

He imposed a two-year suspended sentence.
The Irish National Flood Forum, which represents communities devastated by recent flooding incidents, said it is essential that communities living in the upper and lower reaches of the Shannon examine the maps which were published for public consultation last week, and have their say on future flood defence projects.

We need your feedback. This is your chance to have your say. We need to capture your local knowledge, forum spokesman Jer Buckley said.

He said local knowledge ensured the inclusion of a tributary in the flood-prone area of Blackpool, in Cork City, which had been omitted from draft flood maps.

But he said once the error was brought to the attention of the OPW, the tributary was added, and extra computer modelling was done before Blackpools flood defence project was finalised.

The consultation period for the first round of maps, where local knowledge can be included in this study by the OPW, finishes on September 23, he said.

I would urge people living in Cavan, Clare, Galway, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Mayo, Meath, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Westmeath, to consult the maps, and work together to help combat flooding in their community, he said.

Sean Canney, the Minister of State at the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief, announced details last week of the first round of public consultation on Draft Flood Risk Management Plans, starting with the Shannon and South Western River Basin Districts.

It is one of the final stages in the largest ever state-wide study of flood risk around the country.

In 2011, 300 areas were identified as being at potentially significant risk from flooding from all flooding sources; 90 of those are coastal areas.

Extensive and detailed engineering modelling has been completed for each of these areas and detailed flood risk maps are now ready for public consultation.

The Government is providing 430m for flood risk management measures up to 2021  a 59% increase on the sum for the previous five years.

Work has started on the Claregalway, Bandon, and Skibbereen schemes this year, with works expected to start on projects at Foynes, Limerick, Northlands, Co Meath, and on the Dunkellin River in Co Galway before the end of the year.

Work is due to start next year on the first phase of the states largest flood relief scheme in Cork City.
The state body ploughed over 200,000 into the Meath business in a variety of employment grants and rent subsidy.

Clearplas, based in Gaeltacht area Gibbstown, is currently the subject of an Udaras investigation into possible breaches of the waste permit it obtained from Meath County Council, as well as possible breaches of the lease and grant agreement entered into with Udaras.

Sean Kyne, the junior minister with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, recently revealed that Clearplas has been leasing a building from Udaras since October 2014.

To date, a total of 170,000 in employment grants and 41,631 in rent subsidy grants has been paid to the company by Udaras.

It had 23 full-time employees but from November to the end of February, the figure was gradually reduced to zero. It now reportedly has no full-time employees.

It is also believed Udaras is aware that the company is not trading, there is no electricity in the building, and the sorting machinery for its operations has been removed.

When contacted, Udaras stated: We first became aware that the number of employees had fallen on December 2, 2015, management accounts for the company have been provided to us, and our executives have had a number of meetings with the company directors of late.

These are in regard to possible breaches of the waste permit Clearplas received from Meath County Council as well as the lease and grant agreements it has with Udaras.

In April this year, Udaras officially complained to the Health and Safety Authority, the HSE (Environmental Office), and Meath County Council fire and environmental officers.

It would not be unusual for us to look for our money back from companies, said a spokesperson.

When Clearplas was launched, Mr Kenny was pictured with its directors, Kells businessman Padraig Shine and Englishman Indrajit Singh Kapur.

However, a local TD is set to ensure the dramatic and unexplained collapse of the business will be investigated further.

Meath Easts Thomas Byrne (FF) put forward a parliamentary question about the current situation at Clearplas which elicited Mr Kynes response.

Mr Byrne said yesterday: As a result of what I have been told, I am forwarding that information to the public accounts committee and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Mr Shine claims he is determined to get things back on an even keel sooner rather than later.

Look, if I was to sum my experience up in two words, they would be tough going, he said.

I lost 300,000 and my business partner lost more than twice that. I am aware Udaras na Gaeltachta lost over 200,000 and, as they told you, we are actively negotiating with them to resolve matters.

As of yet, they have not asked for any of that money back but, at some stage, they will  I am sure of that much, said Mr Shine.

Ill tell you something that may surprise a few people, I never even took a weekly wage out of the place; over two years I may have paid myself 15,000 and I always had to wait until all the staff cheques cleared before I could cash my own.

Im not looking for sympathy, Im a businessman and sometimes things can go wrong  thats the nature of the beast. However, I did not go into the business to lose money, and part of the talks I have been involved in with Udaras centre on the possibility of reopening the place.

My ambition, and I am a fairly determined man when I set my mind to it, is that in some shape or form we will be up and running again before the end of 2017.
"THE ashtray was full up and I was smoking his cigarettes. By half four the light was failing and I thought, damn it, its not going to happen, but at a quarter to five he said, Do you want to take a photograph?. He didnt have to ask me twice.

West Cork-based photographer John Minihan has told the story of how he took his iconic portrait of fellow Irishman Samuel Beckett many times, and yet he still lights up as he relays the tale, sitting forward in excitement and switching to the present tense to recount a moment he captured in a cafe in Paris in 1985. His eyes leave me and his hands go to the ashtray, and I know I have it.

The resulting image has been called the photograph of the century. Becketts gaze averted, introspective, his head slightly tilted, throwing the symmetry of the frame, and the lines of perspective formed by the cafes awnings, lights and windows all converging on his face, noble and defeated in equal measure.

Minihan had photographed Beckett before, off-guard during rehearsals in the Riverside Studio in London in 1984, and a few snaps in a hotel room in 1980, but really, the way he tells it, that moment with Beckett in Le Petit Cafe in the PLM Hotel on Boulevard St Jacques just before the playwrights 80th birthday was the consummation of a courtship that began years earlier.

It was necessary for me to photograph Beckett, he says. I was in work in 1969 and the news editor said, Some obscure avant-garde Irish writer has just won the Nobel Prize for literature. Does anyone have any photos of Samuel Beckett?

The iconic picture of Beckett.  UCC

LONG CAREER

Minihans lifetime has been spent behind the lens, and his encounter with Beckett was one defining moment in a career of defining moments as a Fleet Street photographer. His conversation is peppered with references to gargantuan figures in literature and visual art: WH Audens filthy hands and odour of tobacco, Alan Ginsberg dressed like a Louisiana hillbilly, Frances Bacon posing outside the Tate Gallery.

Born in Dublin in 1946, Minihan was the son of a father who died before he was born. His mother left him in the care of his aunt and uncle in Athy, Co Kildare, until he was able to follow her to London in his early teens. Joining the Daily Mail as an apprentice photographer at 16, by the time he was 21, he was the youngest staff photographer on the London Evening Standard.

He doesnt describe himself as an artist, and his tenacity and compulsive desire to document are informed by the sensibilities of a press photographer; he describes his photographs as though they are series of conquests or acquisitions.

Emile Zola said you cant claim to have seen anything until youve photographed it, he says, and, Nobody in the world has the photographs I have of Beckett and Bacon in Paris and London.

And he photographed them all, in an era when images were the preserve of the professional and celebrities werent as media-savvy and PR-shepherded as they are today, before the explosion of cheap digital cameras whose images he describes as like cremation. He formed a lasting relationship with Francis Bacon, photographing the painter on numerous occasions.

Through his lens he has captured a snarling young Al Pacino, William Burroughs looming apologetic and wraithlike towards the camera, and for the London Evening Standard, Lady Diana Spencer on the day of her engagement to Charles, famously positioning her without her knowledge so that the light shone through her flimsy summer skirt, exposing the outline of her legs.

He beat off the competition, arriving at the kindergarten where she worked before any other member of the press. She was just this vivacious, bubbly, drop dead gorgeous young woman and I got her in this kind of Madonna-esque pose. Im looking through the camera and seeing those long legs and I know I have it: thats it, beautiful.

John Minihane

GOING HOME

In stark contrast to his press work, as an antidote to the world of celebrity, Minihan returned to his birthplace of Athy every year for 34 years to document the daily life of its inhabitants, producing an expansive, ethnographical body of work that he began exhibiting to critical acclaim in Londons Royal Court Theatre in 1971. The photographs, like most of Minihans work, are in black and white; stark images including a series taken at the wake of a local woman named Katie Tyrrell.

As a photographer it was important to me to document the tradition that I came from, he says. How reverentially the Irish dressed the dead and prayed; that sharpened my vision quite a lot. In that rather funereal time that I was born in, what was prevalent in Athy was the smell of the hops.

Im the kind of guy with a camera who wants to tell stories and to extract something, he says. A film photographer through and through, hes never transitioned to digital, remaining faithful to the organic world of buying a roll of film, loading the camera.

Youre peeling away layers and all of a sudden, it might be something you say, but all of a sudden its there. I know when theres a latent image in my camera and I love that.

It was with his Athy collection that he wooed Samuel Beckett, bringing the photos to Becketts hotel room in London in 1980. Beckett, upon seeing Katie Tyrrell in repose, announced, These are important photographs, and so, in a circular fashion, Minihans hunger to document Irishness fed itself and gave rise to the image hes best known for, although he says hes proudest of his Athy series: Athy will have its place long after Im dead and gone.

John Minihan will present an illustrated talk of his encounters with Samuel Beckett next Tuesday as part of Skibbereen Arts Festival. See www.skibbereenartsfestival.com

Skibb highlights

A Stroll With Shakespeare

Five extracts from five plays by the Bard performed at five locations on a walking tour around Skibbereen by Savage Cabbage Productions.

Monday at 2pm, beginning at the ODonovan Rossa Memorial Park

Vieux Farka Toure

The son of legendary Malian Bluesman Ali Farka Toure brings his own distinct high-energy guitar virtuosity to Skibbereen for the first time.

Tuesday at 8pm in the Town Hall

Instruments of Ice

A pairing of Karen Powers experimental composition Instruments of Ice, which fuses field recordings made in the Arctic with live instrumentation from the Quiet Music Ensemble, and John Kellys Antarctic paintings.

Next Friday at 3pm at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre

An Audience with Gerard Barrett

The 28-year-old IFTA and Sundance awardee has just directed his third film, Brain on Fire, starring Chloe Grace Moretz and produced by Charlize Theron. He will be interviewed after a screening of his 2013 debut, Pilgrim Hill.

July 30 at 6pm at the Town Hall

Sail On - DogTailSoup

Glen Hansard, above, is among the guests at a concert tribute to two West Cork-based musicians who passed away earlier this year: Fergus OFarrell and Colin Vearncombe.
Some weeks back The New York Times published an article entitled Mom Hair: It Exists. Now what to do about it. The introduction to the article explains how Mom Hair is inescapably frumpy. It describes the short bobs of women in suburban malls and the styles of city-dwelling moms who, its assumed, should know better just by virtue of being urbanites, but who nonetheless persist in wearing short of flattering hair styles.

One hairstylist suggests mothers plan their hair colour while still pregnant (because theyre not busy enough with pelvic floor exercises, buying nursery furniture, and attending antenatal classes). Another recommends opting for a shorter than usual fringe to enhance the teenage feeling of irresponsibility and youthfulness (because we all feel like reckless teenagers when elbow-deep in dirty nappies).

Not only was there an urban/suburban kind of superiority akin to the scrunchy scene in Sex and the City, but the question arises whether the term Mom Hair should even exist and, if so, why is it synonymous with frumpy when a quick search on Instagram for #momhair or a quick look at the mothers around us reveal women of all types with a vast variety of hairstyles and types?

What about women who dont have enough (or dont want, or are not able to grow) long hair to hide behind? Is Mom Hair a question of the beauty industry and the media putting more pressure on women to look a certain way? Does it undermine mothers? And why should a woman who has just given birth even give a damn about what her hair looks like?

Ruth OConnor with her son Rohan.

Ive been there. After I had my first son, I saw clumps of my hair fall out in the shower and my hair was regularly scraped back in a bun (another classic #momhair style by the way). Splashing out 100 or more for a haircut seemed like a terrible waste of nappy funds and its not that easy to breastfeed in a black cape and towel in an open-plan salon.

Having seen my hair tied back for his whole life, my toddler was intrigued when I collected him from playschool. You look lovely. Is it a helmet? was the response to my chopped, coloured bob. I dont know if I had Mom Hair then but, in hindsight, I was a mom and I did have hair and it was cut in a bob. Despite working in fashion journalism and being coiffured by one of the best precision haircutters in Dublin, had I unwittingly become a frump with Mom Hair? Did I fit into the not all mom bobs deserve a bad rap category or had my crowning glory become the hirsute equivalent of Mom Jeans?

TOO SHATTERED TO CARE

Author Cathy Kelly is a mother of twin boys and says brushing her hair was hardly an option, never mind worrying about having Mom Hair.

I lived in a haze for six months, am not sure if I went to the hairdresser to get my roots done, but I must have, and didnt go for any short cut to get my pre-mom groove back because I had had damn all groove in the first place, she says. I was too shattered by being a new mom to care about how I looked. Having babies is amazing and hard and messy and leaves you with mastitis, like a cow, a belly weirdly like a sponge and a pale face with bags under the eyes.

Cathy Kelly

For Kelly, it was more a case of trying not to mess up taking care of these incredible, miraculous beings who came without a manual than worrying about her looks or whether she had the right haircut. She says its essential that if women are getting their hair done when theyve had babies that they do it for themselves, not because of any pressure to fit in.

If you feel crappy with your hair falling out then get your hair done, she says. Get whatever. But do it for you. Do it so you feel good and strong so you can be a good enough, happy and content mother to those kids.

Dont do it so you fit societal expectations of what a new mother should look like because the way things are going, by 2030 the good enough new mother is going to have to look like Barbie, have a PhD in physics, cook like Nigella, and be able to perform brain surgery in her spare time  oh yeah, and mind the baby. All by day three after the birth.

BADGE OF HONOUR

Lili Forberg, a photographer and mother of Leon, is co-founder of online childrens fashion and interiors magazine Mutiny Kids. Its safe to say Forberg could never be described as frumpy, and yet she has hair and is a mum so does that mean she has Mom Hair? Luckily Forberg says she avoided the dreaded mom hair bob by virtue of never having time to go to the hairdressers. Instead she took out her hair extensions and settled for the messy hair, dont care look.

New moms are busy, very, very busy, says Forberg. Every waking moment and pretty much every sleeping moment, is completely dedicated to the new little person theyve just brought into the world. Obviously our personal appearance has to take a back seat and anything that can make our lives easier can only be a good thing. Mom hair should be seen as a badge of honour because, lets face it, anyone who gives birth and manages to look after a tiny human deserves a medal.

Forberg believes the term Mom Hair should be turned on its head and perceived in a more positive light.

Fair play to any new mom who actually manages to get a haircut, she says. I was so caught up with feeding, the baby sleeping and me not sleeping, that going to a hairdresser didnt even enter my mind.

ITS HER PREROGATIVE

Entrepreneur Niamh Hogan recently appeared on RTEs Dragons Den and had her daughter, 11-year-old Bella, 13 weeks premature. Hogan believes that the idea of Mom Hair is an insult to the experience of motherhood and to women in general. She runs the natural skincare company Holos and says the overwhelmingly male-run beauty industry is intent on plundering womens insecurities for profit.

Niamh Hogan with her daughter Bella

I spent three days at a conference in January with some of the worlds biggest skincare brands, she says. Most of the people at the top of these companies are men. The way some of them spoke about women and how we spend on beauty products was sickening. I went away fed up with the knowledge that, yes, indeed it is men deciding what next product women need to feel beautiful will be.

Hogan says the notion of Mom Hair is demeaning to women because it paints them as uncool, insecure fools.

If a woman decides to tie her hair back, leave it long or shave it off its her prerogative and we dont need anyone telling us our decisions are uncool because were suddenly mums, she says.

If anything, becoming a mother gave me the confidence to be brave and try new things in all aspects of life from buying a home to launching a business to having some crazy fun hairstyles. If we can decide to squeeze a human being out of our vaginas, I think we can decide on what hairstyle we want and feel comfortable with.
WHEN Hillary Clinton failed to win the Democratic nomination in the last US presidential election, she said: this time, we did not succeed in breaking the highest, hardest glass ceiling, but ... we have put about 18m cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before. It looks more likely she will succeed this time (she is the presumptive nominee), but would her victory open new horizons for other women, just because she, with her extraordinary advantages, has succeeded?

In the UK, Theresa May has followed Margaret Thatcher and has become the second female Conservative prime minister. There is no evidence that Thatcher would have seen her personal achievement as a watershed for women, or that May would. Likewise, Angela Merkel, who heads Germany, the most powerful country in the EU, would be unlikely to talk about shattering glass ceilings for others to follow.

For the millions of women who struggle with families and jobs, this rhetoric is more irritating condescension than encouragement. There were women prime ministers long before feminism, even in countries where the concept would be alien. These women, Indira Gandhi of India, Golda Meir of Israel, and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, attained the heights of office through the privilege of family and a gold standard education that took them, like Thatcher, May and Clinton, to Ivy League colleges, where gender has, for a long time now, mattered less than brains and influence.

Not all of these women were equally privileged, but they all had an abundance of family support and educational opportunity to smooth the path of ambition. Furthermore, they married well. Thatcher was the daughter of a well-read grocer and local politician, who affirmed and encouraged her. She married a wealthy husband. The birth of her twins, just as parliamentary opportunities were opening up for her, did not put a brake on her career. She could afford a live-in nanny, along with other domestic help.

Merkel and May are the daughters of church ministers and while parsonages are not usually thought of as places of exceptional privilege, they are places that value learning. Jane Austin and the Brontes had broken the literary glass ceiling in their fathers parsonages in previous centuries. Like Clinton and Thatcher, both Merkel and May also married into success. Such is the interplay of talent and privilege in the rarified world of the most fortunate.

Merkel and May have no children and Thatcher and Clinton have three between them. However, in the real world, it is not just the ties of children that limit career advancement, but the other obligations of family life, whenever the challenges of illness, disability, and age arise.

American poet, Maya Angelou, summed up womens work wryly in the lines,

Children to tend,

clothes to mend,

floors to mop,

food to shop.

Such chores have not gone away. In fact, domestic life has become more complicated. If she was writing her poem today, Angelou would need to add school runs, swimming lessons, school meetings and more. It might take, as Clinton famously opined, a village to raise a child, but it takes a demanding and exhausting system of family logistics to cater for the needs of a 21st century growing family, while the rest of the village, family by family, is doing pretty much the same thing.

How do you delegate all of this on typical incomes of 28,000 and pursue a career, when creche care for two children can touch almost the limits of that income?

Adding to the stress of life in modern Ireland is the horrendous cost of housing, which puts the dream of owning a home out of the reach of perhaps the majority. Being told by people like Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook, to lean in, is the very opposite of motivational talk. Sure, you can have it all, if, like her, your income is stratospheric and the father of your children is the CEO of another digital behemoth.

Sheryl Sandberg

What is our government doing for struggling young couples who want to keep a sane work-life balance? Not surprisingly, perhaps, our government prioritises people like themselves. Public servants get handsome, tax-free lump sums on retirement. Public money is liberally dispensed on politicians expenses.

New recruits to the teaching profession take a cut, while trade unions defend increments for longstanding members. Top-level pay in the public sector is excessive by the norms of other, wealthier countries. Public money flows as freely to a plethora of quangos. A telling example was the HSE allocation of 70,000 a month to Console. All the while, too, the Charities Regulation Authority was being funded by the taxpayer.

The same hard-pressed taxpayer will somehow find the money to pay for follow-up, independent enquiries, just as there never seems to be a shortage of money for commissions and tribunals that hold the questions until they can be answered in the super-qualified, super costly language of lawyers, often after public interest has cooled.

Small wonder, then, that struggling families are disillusioned with established politics. We already see signs of an anarchic, Brexit-style protest vote here.

Mainline parties need to reach out to Middle Ireland, to families, and not to vested interests or elites, if we are to avoid further social alienation.

Another woman emerging to the fore in British politics is Angela Eagle, who was challenging for the Labour leadership, but withdrew. The daughter of ambitious, working-class parents, she says her success is due to the commitment to the needs of poorer families by a Labour government that allowed her sister and herself to advance in both academia and politics. Family-orientated policies and educational opportunity facilitate the social mobility that leads to sustainable equality.

For now, however, the glass ceiling remains intact, though, for the privileged few, it may dissolve into a silver mist, like Alices looking glass, allowing them to pass through with stately ease.

But, then, having it all can be a big ask, even for the powerful. Margaret Thatcher said, in a sad interview towards the end of her life: it has been the greatest privilege being prime minister of my country.. . but I wish I saw more of my children.
The French president, in a brief but crucial visit to Dublin, also bolstered Irelands position in backing consideration of our special status in any negotiations on Brexit.

The politics of terrorism and Brexit took centre stage during a meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Government Buildings yesterday. This was the first bilateral visit by a French head of state here in almost three decades, since president Francois Mitterrand visited in 1988.

While security and trade formed part of the talks, all eyes here were on what the presidents response was to Irelands attempt to carve out a unique position in the Brexit talks.

President Francois Hollande says France believes the sooner Brexit negotiations begin, the better. https://t.co/xzCYQkcKkj  RTE News (@rtenews) July 21, 2016

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has argued Britains exit from the EU cannot result in a hard border from Dundalk to Derry. The Government also wants to sustain the 1bn weekly trade with Britain and the common travel area between the two countries.

Mr Hollande simply backed Mr Kennys argument that the Brexit talks must consider the historic peace process and, in particular, our border with the North.

Ireland was very attached to the Good Friday Agreement, said Mr Hollande.

France understands this position, because it is very important for peace.

But he went further: I do recognise there is a special situation for Ireland. A special situation has to find a place in the negotiations.

But what reason would France have to back Irelands position in the Brexit talks, especially after a cold reception from Angela Merkel last week where the German chancellor refrained from saying Ireland had a special case to make?

Mr Hollandes visit here was curtailed in the wake of the Nice attack where 84 people were killed along the seafront of the southern French city.

He is under pressure to seek stronger security co-operation in Europe in the wake of the massacre. Furthermore, France will hold a presidential election next year and needs clarity around Brexit sooner rather than later.

France was extremely grateful for Irelands solidarity though, Mr Hollande said, and detailed cultural, trade and linguistic links between the two nations.

President Hollande reiterated his gratitude for Mr Kennys support in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris last November. While Ireland is a neutral country, it expressed its support in the aftermath and even committed Irish troops to a peace mission in Mali in order to allow French troops return home. Ireland responded with a positive answer. In spite of its status, Ireland is not a member of Nato, Ireland wanted to be in solidarity with France and Ill never forget that, the president told a press conference yesterday.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny then detailed how Ireland was willing to share sensitive security files on terrorism suspects in order to help protect other countries. He said ongoing efforts on this were being pursued by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald.

The admission that Ireland could indirectly support Frances own war on terror can only have helped Mr Hollandes decision yesterday to back Ireland in the Brexit negotiations.

This common bond was emphasised when Mr Hollande, later in a speech at Dublin Castle, also pointed out that the terrorist attacks on France were attacks on Europe, on liberty and a way of life, similar to Irelands. In the speech to French communities living here, he recounted sacrifices Irish soldiers made at the Battle of the Somme, defending France in World War I.

He said that terrorists still wanted to attack France because, just like Bastille Day, the country was a symbol of freedom.

Not surprisingly, the French president also said he was conscious of other victims of terrorism, including in Iraq, Syria, Belgium and Turkey.

It was not for commercial reasons that France wanted to fight terrorism, the crowd at Dublin Castle was told.

We want to maintain peace around the world in order to protect our way of life.

That way of life involved freedom of thought, stressed the French leader, like Irish people had and a desire to remain independent. Terrorism wanted to destroy this way of life and thats why attacks had taken place at restaurants, music halls and at public events, the crowd was told.

France represents what fanatics hate the most.

The attacks must not let people give way to suspicion, he warned.

The president told his people not to give up on their unity and, when coming home to holiday over the summer, to attend concerts, festivals and public events.

Ireland "stands by France", says Enda Kenny after talks in Dublin with French President Francois Hollande. https://t.co/9Qxh3eGoBG  RTE News (@rtenews) July 21, 2016

Resources, including the army, would be deployed during the holidays as the countrys state of emergency continues for another six months, it was added.

The president called on the French people not to lose their calm and to avoid being driven into a spirit of revenge

Those who hated Europe the most, he declared, were those who were not in it.

You love Europe, it is part of your life, the president told the French citizens.

It was a defiant speech, that cut through bureaucracy and declared why the attacks could not just damage France, but Europe as a whole.

Closing it before the two national anthems were played to a crowd of several hundred, the president declared: Long live the friendship between France and Ireland.
Amid the despair of the last few weeks as to how society can possibly prevent acts of terrorism by lone attackers came some glimmer of light from the MacGill Summer School in Donegal.

A security expert at University College London said research he conducted had found that, in 60% of such cases, the individual had shared information about what he was going to do.

Paul Gill, senior lecturer in crime and security, took part in a five-year study, examining 160 cases of lone actor (lone wolf) terrorists.

The Wicklow academic said they were surprised that so many attackers had told other people that they planned to carry out a bombing or a shooting.

Generally, somebody knows something, he told the summer school, which held a session on international terrorism on Wednesday evening.

A senior security source, speaking separately to the Irish Examiner, made the same point.

Rapid radicalisation is an issue, but some people will know, like close family members, he said.

The scene on the night of the Nice Attack

The hope within security circles here and abroad is that these individuals are willing to contact the authorities.

We would hope people would come forward beforehand, said the source. They have already done so in relation to foreign travel [sons or siblings intending to fly to Syria to fight].

This is a key challenge facing security and police agencies: having those structures, and a culture of trust, in place with the Muslim community.

Mr Gill said their research found there is no profile of a lone attacker and that they come from all ages and educational and family backgrounds.

He said most suffer from a great number of risk factors and that an extremist ideology gives them a sense of black and white at a time when their lives are unravelling.

Mr Gill said 40% had a mental health diagnosis, compared to 25% for the wider population. But he said the types of disorders were very different: with significantly higher cases of delusional disorders and schizophrenia.

But, he said mental health combined with other issues, including a breakdown in the family, loss of a job and other personal grievances.

He said some of the individuals are violent people and use the banner of IS as an excuse. He said many are pretty much illiterate about IS, which is often just a cool brand to them.

Mr Gill said they are often looking for fame and to be remembered.

Rob Wainwright, director of the EU police agency Europol, who also spoke at the event, said many lone wolves see themselves as military heroes.

He said some are radicalised very quickly, sometimes in weeks, through peer pressure and social media.

A briefing paper by Europol highlighted the operational difficulties in detecting and disrupting lone actor attacks, as seen in four recent incidents: Orlando, USA; Magnaville, France; Nice, France; and Wurzburg, Germany.

It pointed out that while IS had claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, none seemed to have been planned by it. It said the allegiance pledged by the perpetrators of Orlando, Magnaville, and Wurzburg, indicated they were IS supporters.

It said there was no definite link yet with the Nice attacker, but pointed out he had been reportedly radicalised in a very short time frame and to have consumed jihadist propaganda in the days preceding the attack.

Echoing Mr Gill, Europol said that 35% of lone actor attackers between 2000 and 2015 had some sort of mental health disorder, and noted that the Nice attacker reportedly suffered from a serious psychiatric disorder.

Even though ideology may be used by terrorist perpetrators to cast a shadow over the deeply individual/ psychological motives of their acts, one should not disregard the motivating power of the jihadist discourse to certain audiences, it said.

It added: In cases where the perpetrator has a mental health disorder, ideology might have an aggravating effect, leading to different target choices and scaling of the attack.

Touching on the same issues at the MacGill school, assistant Garda commissioner John OMahony said what was particularly challenging for police and security services was the identification of lone actors who may have self-radicalised and pose a threat, but who are not physically interacting with like-minded persons.

Key to this is better understanding how volatile individuals are motivated by terrorist propaganda. To assist them, he said they are engaging with leading academics.

He also said measures have to be taken to ensure our intervention and investigative specialist units are trained and equipped, and said there are significant intelligence gaps arising from advances in communication technologies, such as encryption.

Mr Wainwright backed plans in Ireland to modernise surveillance powers to include lawful access to emails, web data, and encrypted communications.

He pointed out that good intelligence is crucial as it is physically impossible to monitor thousands of potential suspects on a 24-hour basis: It is about triaging and following the intelligence, but sometimes, people will come out of nowhere and hit us.
Enda Kenny looks tired. The bags under the eyes have grown more pronounced; his legendary energy and enthusiasm have visibly waned in recent weeks.

The end of the Dail term could not have come any sooner for a man who has had a year to forget, but yet clings on to power as head of a Government which has as much potency and power as a eunuch.

On RTE radio on Wednesday, the spirited junior minister Michael Ring was speaking about the delays in setting up a Government earlier this year, but concluded: At least we now have a Government.

Ring, one of the Dails genuine characters, is never afraid to speak his mind or make life difficult for Kenny, his party leader and constituency colleague.

But, as the Dail rises for an extended summer break, it has to be asked: What good is a Government that cant get anything done? And how long can this farce actually last, given how little is getting done?

The collective sigh of relief from departing TDs and senators from Leinster House yesterday was palpable.

It has been a gruelling and frustrating term since the Government was finally formed after the general election, and the toll of the year has been visible in the wrinkles and furrowed brows.

The Government, which is reliant on Fianna Fail to survive, has achieved very little since forming and has been engulfed in nasty and often very personalised squabbles between Fine Gael ministers and their Independent colleagues.

This Do Nothing Dail, as described to me by Labour leader Brendan Howlin, has not passed a single piece of new legislation since it formed on May 6.

BrendanHowlin

President Michael D Higgins has not had to get his pen out once to sign any bills into law.

Just nine new bills have been commenced in that time, with the most noticeable one the Water Services Bill which brought about the suspension of water charges.

According to the party whips, that figure of nine is a fraction of what would normally go through the Dail in a term.

In addition to the failure to bring forward new laws, which is the primary function of the parliament, what this term has shown us is that many of the tough issues facing the Government have been kicked to touch, long-fingered, or simply dropped altogether.

I mentioned water charges, which was a condition of Fianna Fails support  they have been suspended for at least nine months.

I say at least because a Dail vote is required to reintroduce the charges and the current make-up of the Oireachtas means that it cannot and will not happen anytime soon.

While the EU is willing to hold its nose at the current situation, sooner or later, Ireland stands to be fined should those water charges remain suspended.

That is simply the tip of the iceberg and a host of crucial issues have been long-fingered to avoid the chances of the Government falling.

Under pressure, Housing Minister Simon Coveney was forced to freeze bin charges for at least 12 months, after it emerged homeowners were facing major increases in their bills in a proposed move to a pay-by-weight system.

Coveney said that while the freeze is in place for at least 12 months, if he feels the public is not ready for the system come June 2017, then the freeze will continue beyond that.

This week, Kenny was pressed about the failure to adequately fund the third-level sector, which has been the subject of the recent Cassells report.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin asked Kenny whether he accepted Cassells recommendations and whether he would commit to increasing the funding for our universities, as called for in the report.

Kenny stopped well short of accepting the report and informed the Dail that the matter is to be debated and explored by the Oireachtas education committee, which is likely to take at least 12 months to conclude its work.

But the most obvious issue which has been put on the long finger is the hot topic of abortion.

Fine Gael, before the election, committed to holding a citizens assembly to discuss a referendum on repealing the 1983 Eighth Amendment.

That was all grand until Independent TD Mick Wallaces bill, to allow abortions in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, rape, and incest, was selected for debate two weeks ago.

Mick Wallace

Two weeks of embittered wrangling between Fine Gael and the Independents brought the fragile coalition to the brink of collapse. It brought Attorney General Maire Whelan into a political row over the standing of her advice and left her embarrassed and weakened. It ultimately forced the Taoiseach to back down and grant a free vote to the Independents of the minority Government  Shane Ross, John Halligan, and Finian McGrath  which left his authority greatly diminished.

For many, the delaying tactic of the citizens assembly is a bridge too far and it called into question Kennys ability to lead and the ability of his Government to get anything done.

Of course anything contentious is being kicked down the road, Kenny needs breathing room after a bruising year. The election wounded him and he has neither the stomach nor the energy for the fight now, said one minister.

Kennys future came into sharp focus two weeks ago as a small but vocal minority of his own TDs openly called on him to outline his timeline for stepping down. He didnt and is insisting he will remain in place right up until the next election.

This is simply not going to happen and yesterday we saw Minister Leo Varadkar effectively launch his bid to become Kennys successor with his radical plan to link social welfare payments to the consumer price index.

This, done without any discussions with his Cabinet colleagues, is just the latest example of Varadkars willingness to shoot from the hip. Such a trait is lauded by his fanclub of young Fine Gael TDs, but will it be enough to secure him the top job? That is less clear.

While it has been a bad term for Enda Kenny, it has been a good term for Brendan Howlin. Installed as Labour leader, in somewhat messy circumstances given Alan Kellys unhappiness at the lack of a contest, Howlin and Labour have begun the road back from the edge of despair.

With Fianna Fail essentially in Government and Sinn Fein and the other hard-left groups in total oppositionist mode, Howlin and Labour have struck a credible tone in holding the Government to account.

Howlin, as a senior minister in the previous government, speaks with authority on most matters and his party will surely recover some of the lost ground as we look to the next election.
A study of existing research has found strong evidence of a direct, harmful effect of drinking, but scientists are unsure why.

Writing in the journal, Addiction, Jennie Connor, from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, said alcohol is estimated to have caused about half a million deaths from cancer in 2012, or 5.8% of the total.

Even people who drink at low levels are at risk. The review linked alcohol to cancer of the mouth and throat, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, bowel and breast.

Connor said: There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites, and probably others. Confirmation of specific biological mechanisms, by which alcohol increases the incidence of each type of cancer, is not required to infer that alcohol is a cause.

She said there is no safe level of drinking with respect to cancer, though the risks are reduced for some cancers when people stop drinking.

The supposed health benefits of drinking  such as red wine being good for the heart  were seen, increasingly, as disingenuous or irrelevant, in comparison to the increase in risk of a range of cancers, she said.

In January, the UKs chief medical officers said no level of regular drinking was without risks to health.

Publishing a raft of recommendations, they said men should consume no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, down from the previous 21 units, bringing them into line with the recommendation for women.

Compared with non-drinkers, women who regularly drink two units a day have a 16% increased risk of developing breast cancer and of dying from it. Those who regularly consume five units a day have a 40% increased risk.

For every 1,000 women who do not drink, 109 will develop breast cancer. This rises to 126 women of those who drink 14 units or less per week, and 153 women of those who drink 14 to 35 units a week.

Scientists are still researching how alcohol can lead to cancer.

One theory is that alcohol damages DNA.

Susannah Brown, the science programme manager for the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), said of the new findings: Many people believe that alcohol consumption is only linked to liver cancer, but this review confirms the findings of our Continuous Update Project that alcohol is strongly linked to an increased risk of a number of different cancers, including two of the most common  bowel and breast cancer.
Trump said he would decide whether to protect the Baltic republics against Russian aggression, based on whether those countries have fulfilled their obligations to us.

He made the comments in an interview with The New York Times, before he was to formally accept the Republican nomination for president.

Trumps remarks about US obligations, under Nato, to come to the aid of other members of the 28-nation alliance, are in line with his questioning of the United States global role.

In 2014, the 28-member alliance created a rapid-reaction force to protect the most vulnerable Nato members from a confrontation with Russia.

Trump also said in the Times interview that he would not criticise Turkey for cracking down on political opponents and restricting civil liberties, following last weeks attempted coup.

Of Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said: I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around. ... Some people say that it was staged, you know that. I dont think so.

The US has no right to lecture Turkey, and other countries, when people are shooting policemen in cold blood, Trump said.

With decades in business and no prior political experience, Trump cast the projection of American military might abroad in economic terms.

For example, he said it might not be necessary to station American troops abroad, though he agreed that it would be preferable.

If we decide we have to defend the United States, we can always deploy troops from the US, Trump told the newspaper, and it will be a lot less expensive.
Flight MH370 disappeared in March, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

Searchers, led by engineering group, Fugro, have been combing an area the size of Greece.

That search, over 120,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean, off Western Australia, is expected to end in three months and could be called off after that, following a meeting today of key countries, Malaysia, China, and Australia.

The three agreed in April, 2015 that should the aircraft not be located within the search area, and in the absence of new, credible evidence, the search area would not be extended. So far, nothing has been found.

If its not there, it means its somewhere else, Fugro project director, Paul Kennedy, told Reuters.

If the plane glided down  meaning it was manned  it would have made it beyond the area marked out by calculations from satellite images.
Police said they had no reason to believe it was a terrorist attack or that the man, in his 60s, was connected to any terrorist organisation.

Media reported the mans car contained gas canisters while New South Wales state assistant police commissioner Dennis Clifford said there appeared to have been some kind of fire accelerant in it.

Until we do some background investigation, were just uncertain about the motive, Clifford told reporters.

Theres nothing to indicate this is in any way related to terrorism.

A staunch US ally, Australia has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown militants since 2014, having suffered several lone wolf assaults, including a cafe siege in Sydney in which two hostages and the gunman were killed.

Clifford said officers spotted the man sitting in his car outside the station, and when they approached him he set the inside of the car alight.

The man then tried to drive into the front of the police station before driving it into a roller door under the station. Police put out the fire, and the man was taken to hospital with severe burns, Clifford said.

Media reported that the man was known to police and was believed to have a mental illness.

Clifford declined to comment on those reports but said the man was in a critical condition in hospital.

Police earlier cordoned off the station in Merrylands, in Sydneys west, while officers from the Rescue and Bomb Disposal Unit searched the vehicle.

No members of the public or police officers were injured during the incident, police said.

Police are on high alert, and weve been that way for some time due to events here and overseas, Clifford said.

Its a situation police are well aware of... its just a miracle that no-one else was seriously injured.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel killed 84 people when he drove his truck through crowds gathered to watch a fireworks display on the Promenade des Anglais last week.

Bouhlel was shot dead by police at the scene, but five suspects have since been arrested and are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping the driver.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said his office has information from Bouhlels phone which shows searches and photos indicating he had been studying an attack since 2015.

Molins said the four men and a women were involved in the preparation of the attack, which had been planned months in advance.

More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the July 14 attack in which Bouhlel rammed a truck into crowds on the promenade, leaving 84 dead and over 300 injured.

Molins said that one of the suspects had filmed the scene of the crime after the carnage, as it crawled with police and journalists.

The suspects were to be presented to anti-terrorism judges last night and Molins said prosecutors had requested they be charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, among other crimes.

Meanwhile, Frances interior minister acknowledged there were no national police stationed at the entrance to the pedestrianised walkway in Nice during the Bastille Day attack.

Bernard Cazeneuves clarification came as a newspaper accused authorities of lacking transparency over their handling of the massacre.

In what represents backtracking from previous claims, Cazeneuve said only local police, who are more lightly armed, were guarding the entrance when Bouhlel attacked.

Cazeneuve initially said national police were present and very present on the Promenade des Anglais and suggested their cars were blocking the walkway entrance, in a speech two days after the attack.

Cazeneuve launched an internal police investigation into the handling of the attack shortly after yesterdays backtrack, in a move aimed to diffuse criticism.

French newspaper Liberation said Cazeneuve lied about the whereabouts of the national police officers and cars, and accused authorities of lacking transparency.

Liberation said only one local police car was stationed at the walkway entrance.
Speaking to an incensed Texas delegation, Cruz recalled an answer he gave at a Republican debate this year, when he enthusiastically said he would support the partys official nominee.

The day that was abdicated was the day this became personal, Cruz said. Im not going to get into criticising or attacking Donald Trump, but Ill give you this response: I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.

And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, Im going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and my father, he added.

Cruz tried to link arms with Republicans at the partys national convention on Wednesday but was booed loudly by delegates when he ended his speech without offering Trump his endorsement or even saying he would vote for the New York billionaire.

The blatant sign of disunity in prime time angered the Trump campaign, with top adviser Paul Manafort saying Cruz used very bad judgment and was not respectful to the invitation by the convention to come and speak.

Manafort told NBCs Today that Cruz understood what the responsibilities are, someone in his position.

Trump repeatedly mocked Cruz throughout the campaign as Lyin Ted.

Trump also took jabs at the appearance of Cruzs wife, Goldman Sachs executive Heidi Cruz, and the Texas senator responded that Trump is a sniveling coward.

Trump also made suggestions that Cruzs father had indirect links to John F Kennedys assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

As he appeared on stage on Wednesday night, Cruz basked in a minute-long standing ovation. Cruz finished second to Trump in the crowded Republican primary campaign and congratulated the Republican nominee on his victory.

But the closest Cruz came to saying he wanted Trump to win the White House was when he said: I want to see the principles that our party believes in prevail in November.

Cruz didnt tell the convention crowd that he plans to vote for Trump. Nor did he ask his supporters, hundreds of whom encouraged him to run for president in four years at an event on Wednesday afternoon, to vote for the newly minted Republican nominee.

Interrupted by chants of Trump, Trump, Trump, Cruz paused and said with a smile, I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation.

But as Cruz ended his remarks, and as the crowd of more than 2,000 delegates at the Quicken Loans Arena waited for Cruz to say something  anything  kind about Trump, he demurred.

And to those listening, please, dont stay home in November, Cruz said. Stand and speak, and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, in a tweet, quickly echoed Cruz, saying, Vote your conscience.

The delegates responded with angry boos, and Cruz backer and former Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli escorted Heidi Cruz off the convention floor as she was heckled by Trump delegates.

But Trump said later on Twitter that Cruzs lack of an endorsement was no big deal! But he said Cruz didnt honour the pledge that Republican primary candidates had made to support the eventual nominee.

To those listening, please don't stay home in November. If you love our country, stand and speak and vote your conscience #RNCinCLE  Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 21, 2016

Hes a chicken, said Eugene Delgaudio, a delegate from Sterling, Virginia, who clucked like a chicken when asked about Cruzs decision.

He needed to toughen up like every other Republican loser of any nomination battle in the last 100 years since Abraham Lincoln and just suck it up, be a man and back the nominee that he was beaten by, fair and square.

If were not going to do that, why do we have elections? Because Ted Cruz has decided that he knows better? Than all of the people who voted in the elections? he said.

One of Trumps key goals going into this weeks convention was to unite the party after a roughly 18-month primary season that was marked by personal attacks on candidates, sometimes violent rallies, and deep disagreement over what it means to be a Republican.

In public and in private the Trump campaign tried to win over sceptics who feel the New York businessman and celebrity TV star does not represent the partys values.

It took a harder stance against opponents, for example shutting down a desperate last-minute bid on the convention floor early in the week to stop his nomination.

Whether Trumps eagerly awaited speech later last night allays those concerns remains to be seen.

Wall-to-wall Trump

On the day Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination for the US presidency, a miniature wall was built around the former reality TV hosts star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tourists stopped to photograph the six-inch grey wall.

It was topped with razor wire and plastered with keep out signs.

It was the work of an artist, Plastic Jesus, known for posting No Trump Anytime signs on street corners.

During his campaign, Trump drew cheers by vowing to build a wall along the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
Burma Burma Army Defends Soldier Against Myitkyina Murder Accusation

At a Rangoon press conference, the Burma Army insists that a soldier who shot dead ethnic Kachin student Gum Seng Awng was acting in self-defense.

RANGOON  At a press conference in Rangoon on Wednesday, the Burma Army re-stated their defense of a low-ranking soldier accused by locals of murdering an unarmed ethnic Kachin student, aged 19 years old, in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina on June 20.

At the same press conference, the Burma Army accepted responsibility for the murder of five civilians in a rural area of Lashio Township in northern Shan State at the end of June, and promised to take unspecified action against the soldiers involved.

Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo repeated the armys earlier claim of self-defense regarding the Myitkyina incident: that the shot that killed the university student Gum Seng Awng was a misfire from the soldier who, along with one other soldier on duty, was trying to fend off a physical assault from the student and seven other youths, and protect his gun from being seized.

The student was punching the soldier in the face and going after his gun, said Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo. The two soldiers were guarding the Bala Min Thin Bridge in the city.

We have strong evidence, Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo said, adding that, We have suspicions that those eight youths were using illegal drugs, because normally people are afraid of guns but they werent. He said the army would be investigating the incident further.

Hkawn Nawng, the lawyer hired by the family of the victim, is currently gathering evidence in preparation to file a case against the accused soldier, Private Maung Maung. He told The Irrawaddy that only four youth were involved in the fracas with the two soldiers, rather than eight as claimed by the Burma Army.

The lawyer denied that any of the youth were attempting to seize the gun from the soldier, and said the four were stopped while trying to cross the bridge on motorbikes, before being shot by the soldier. He said he had three witnesses prepared to confirm this.

Although a case has yet to be filed against the soldier, the lawyer said that Lt Gen Mya Tun Oos comments at the Rangoon press conference show disrespect to the judicial system, and betray an attempt by the Burma Army to position themselves above the law, since only a court has the right to decide whether or not the soldier is innocent [of murder].

Meanwhile, police in Myitkyina have charged three local youths who survived the incidentnamed Joseph Brang Nan, Htwal San Awng and Sut Jatfor allegedly attempting to seize the gun from the soldier who committed the fatal shooting. All three are currently released on bail.
Burma National Ethnic Youth Conference to be Held in Panglong

Over 600 representatives from 26 ethnicities are slated to attend an ethnic youth conference in southern Shan State in late July.

RANGOON  A national youth conference will be held in southern Shan States Panglong in late July, aiming to build unity among young people representing ethnic groups from across Burma.

Over 600 representatives from 26 ethnicitiesincluding Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Chin, Mon, Arakanese, Shan, Dawei, Naga, Palaung (Taang), Lahu, Intha, PaO, Danu, Burman, Taung Yoe, Akha, Wa, Kokang, Myaung Zee, Kadu, Kanan and Yawwill gather in the town from July 27-31.

Youth from the countrys ethnic areas started the Coordination Committee for National Ethnic Youth Conference (CCNEYC) four years ago in June 2012. Before implementing the national level summit, they held an ethnic youth conference in northern Shan State in 2014.

Sai Aung Myint Oo, one of the 40 organizers with CCNEYC, told The Irrawaddy that the conferences purpose is to form a collective youth voice, which could support policy development that would address pressing issues in the ethnic areas.

Participating ethnic youth organizations expect that their five-day-long gathering will yield more unified support in building a federal union in Burma.

Sai Aung Myint Oo explained that Panglong was selected as the venue because the town once hosted the historic 1947 Panglong Agreement, signed between Gen Aung Sana Burman independence leader against British colonialismand leaders from ethnic nationalities. The Panglong pact promised equal rights across ethnic lines and greater self-determination for ethnic groups in an independent Burma.

Mai Myo Aung, another organizer who is an ethnic Taang (Palaung), representing the Taang Student and Youth Organization, said that building unity and better relationships between ethnic youththrough the building of a networkis key to the conferences success.

Representatives who will be attending the conference have experience working for youth and regional development, added Mai Mai, an ethnic Kachin woman also helping to organize the event.

The conference will host panel discussions on federalism and peacebuilding with input from stakeholders and experts. Representatives from each ethnic group present will prepare and deliver papers highlighting regional issues including drug abuse, human rights violations and social concerns.
Burma Patriotic Monks Union Interrogates Shwedagon Vendor Over Origin of Goods

Buddhist monks single out a Shwedagon Pagoda vendor for allegedly selling religious goods from a non-Buddhist wholesaleran act which does not violate existing rules.

RANGOON  The Board of Trustees for Rangoons Shwedagon Pagoda told The Irrawaddy on Friday that they received a complaint from a group of Buddhist monks claiming that an on-site vendor was selling religious goods supplied by a non-Buddhist wholesaler, an act which does not violate any existing regulations.

The complaint was filed following an incident on Wednesday, in which eight monksidentifying themselves as belonging to the Patriotic Buddhist Monks Unioninterrogated the shop owner, named Sandar, and inspected her stall to see whether she was selling religious goods purchased from a non-Buddhist distributor, according to a report by local newspaper The Voice.

Htun Aung Ngwe, chief of the office for the Board of Trustees, told The Irrawaddy that Shwedagon Pagoda has no restrictions regarding from whom vendors can purchase their wholesale religious goods to sell on-site.

Central Ma Ba Tha Online Media, which claims to be a mouthpiece of the ultranationalist Association for the Protection of Race and Religionbetter known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Thapublished a statement on Thursday saying that Ma Ba Tha had no connection to the incident.

Last April, monks from the Patriotic Buddhist Monks Union threatened Muslim vendors, ordering them not to sell items near the Shwedagon Pagoda. The monks seized their goods and demanded they send letters to the police and local authorities stating that they would close their shops around the pagoda in the future.

Shwedagon Pagoda is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Burma. It has received nearly 30,000 foreign visitors in June alone, according to figures on the pagodas official website.
Business Securities Commission Issued Warning Against Illegal Share Sales

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar warns it will take action against public companies that sell shares without its approval.

RANGOONThe Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) warned public companies this week that it would take action against those that sell shares without the SECMs approval, according to a commission member.

To protect investors, the SECM said it will ensure that companies are in compliance with the Securities Exchange Law and will take action against those that are not.

Recently, some companies have announced that they have shares available to sell. But if they do not have approval from the SECM, they can be punished under the law, said commission member Tin May Oo.

According to the law, public companieswhich are jointly owned by numerous private shareholdersare required to submit a prospectus to the SECM before selling shares. After submission, the approval process takes about 60 days, according to the commission.

According to Article 66 of the Securities Exchange Law, public companies that violate the law can be imprisoned for up to a year or fined. The law was approved by Parliament in 2013, but some companies still lack information regarding the details.

That is why we are announcing the rules again and our intention to take action, said Tin May Oo. Some companies have advertised shares in the state-owned newspaper. Weve asked them to stop. If they continue, they will be charged, she added.

No public company has been sued yet under the law.

This is the second time weve issued a warning regarding this. We will also announce it on DICAs [Directorate of Investment and Companies Administration] website soon, Tin May Oo said.

According to DICA, more than 200 businesses in Burma are registered as public companies. Only six are expected to list their shares this year on the countrys stock exchange, which opened in March.

Thet Tun Oo, a senior official from the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), said many companies do not have a proper understanding of the Securities Exchange Law.

Businesses need to gain knowledge and follow the rules. The YSX will check that any companies listed in the future are compliant with the law, he said.

The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar cautioned that action would be taken by the SECM against those selling stocks through illegal or non-transparent means, including over social media sites.
There is no need to wait a little bit further. Speculations of when the series would be aired had brought raving fans to extreme suspense of waiting. But now, the big news is here.

A seemingly outright answer to these questions is provided via Tweet by animator Yusuke Murata. Based on his Tweet, he said, "will work hard to make it possible!" This has proven to be true as the animator pushes himself to finish the animations as they are targeting an October release date as reported by Asia Stars.

Though the creators are yet to disclose the whole story arc, what is verified is that this season Saitama will be facing three new villains. The website had further provided the name of these villains. Posing to seek revenge, Lord Boros will be back for this season. Another bad character on the series would be Amai Mask.

Covering under the facade of being a fan of Saitama, Amai Mask wanted to figure out how the former's powers came to be. Apart from that, Mask's assault to the Heroes Association which consequently led to a fight with Saitama is an episode to look forward to in this season.

The third villain is a student of Bang, Garou. Dubbed as the human monster, Garou will be the featured villain as the primary adversary of Saitama.

Given the set of villains this season, it is expected that this next installment will stray from the original manga counterpart. Having that said, Saitama is rumored to be beaten this upcoming season since he will lose his powers.

Another new thing will be welcomed this season as the English- dubbed version will be released. The former season only featured episodes with English subtitles. This is great news for those fans who do not speak Japanese. Truly, there is a lot to look forward to the next season of "One Punch Man".
Users of iOS will soon have access to the new iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak tool that will be launched by Pangu most probably in the first week of August.

The rumors about the new Pangu iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak tools have been circulating on the Internet for a long time already. Some fans have even wondered whether or not the tool is still releasing or not.

According to Neurogadget, the iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak tools will definitely be released. The publication based its report on all the rumors and speculations that are circulating on the internet.

The Bit Bag reports that at the end of last month is was speculated that Pangu will launch its iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak tools on July 1, in Shanghai, China, during the Mobile Security Conference (MOSEC). During the conference, the Pangu team had just demonstrated its jailbreak process but did not actually release the highly-anticipated iOS 9.3.2 jailbreak. However, they hinted to the possibility of releasing the tool soon.

Since the Black Hat 2016 is the a perfect time to release it, reports claim that the Pangu team might release the jailbreak tools for iOS 9.3.2 during that event taking place in Las Vegas from July 30 to August 4. MobiPicker reports that the Pangu team may take part in the upcoming Black Hat USA 2016 security conference, where they will release a jailbreak for both iOS 9.3.2 and iOS 9.3.3.

Other reports have speculated that iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak tools will be released ahead of iOS 9.3.2. A report published by ValueWalk suggests that Pangu has already shifted its focus from iOS 9.3.3 and might have decided to directly release a jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3. One of the reasons for this decision could be the fact that the iOS 9.3.2 contains some critical vulnerabilities and bugs that may pose as security threats to users in case that the firmware would be jailbroken.

The decision to release a jailbreak for iOS 9.3.2 is up to Pangu and nothing is certain for now. However, we hope that they will finally release the highly-anticipated jailbreak tools for iOS 9.3.2 at the upcoming Black Hat USA 2016 event.
There is a new software that specifically addresses the need scientists have to identify signs of life on the Red Planet. Featuring the innovation and technology that is in NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, the Journey to Mars could just be made easier.

Currently, Curiosity is almost always used for selecting targets every week for a laser and a telescopic camera. These are the components utilized in the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument.

Targets that are taken from the ChemCam are being chosen by scientists wherein rocks or soil viewed in the images are being discussed. However, a new capability had been installed to upgrade the accuracy of these images.

As reported by NASA, during the duration of Curiosity's stay on Mars, ChemCam has scrutinized several points on more 1,400 targets by identifying the plasmas' color spectrum that is made when laser pulses zap a target.

NASA's 2011 Software of the Year Award, the upgrading of the AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) software had brought about numerous opportunities of getting evidence on how life is on the Red Planet. Usually, it is used as software to examine images from a wide-angle camera. This is then used to independently choose rocks to take a picture of using a narrower-angle camera.

Usage of AEGIS helps the team go forward with planning on operations on the following days as per assessment done on the rover's surroundings. This is made possible by using the onboard computer analysis of images from Navcam short for Navigation Camera which is Curiosity's stereo.

ChemCam Science Operation Lead Olivier Gasnault, at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP), of France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Toulouse, France said, "AEGIS brings an extra opportunity to use ChemCam, to do more, when the interaction with scientists is limited. It does not replace an existing mode, but complements it. It does not replace an existing mode, but complements it.

The convenience brought about by this software has aided in getting things done for the exploration on Mars.
Verizon has threatened its subscribers who are still under the 4G LTE unlimited data plan. The affected customers have until August 31 to switch to a tiered plan or face disconnection.

However, the notice will not be given to all its 4G LTE unlimited data subscribers. The phone company said that it started sending notices on July 21 to users who use "extraordinary" large amount of data, according to Droid Life. The affected subscribers will start receiving notices both through phone texts and mail.

Verizon later said that subscribers using more than 100GB of data are considered "extraordinary" users. For customers who need big data, they can avail of the company's 100GB data plan. However the monthly payment will cost the subscriber $450.

The company issued a statement justifying the seemingly harsh ultimatum issued to its customers who still wanted to remain with the unlimited data plan. The statement said that their 100GB plan can be used by several users and devices. Verizon virtually accused its "extraordinary" users of hogging big amounts of data. Those receiving the notices are usually subscribers using a single device for the data transfer.

Subscribers who could not afford the $450 monthly payment for the 100GB data plan will have no choice but scale down their internet usage. Verizon also offers various data plans that are much cheaper but with much lower data allocated. Verizon currently offers at least 11 data plans to its customers. The cheapest one known as the S plan costs $35 a month for 2GB while the most expensive is the 100GB.

Disconnected subscribers will be given the chance to reactivate their accounts up to 50 days after the disconnection. However, they can only reactivate to the existing data plans offered by Verizon. The company also said that the "extraordinary" high data users only formed a small amount of its subscriber base.
Facebook has announced that the first test of its Aquila internet drone has been successfully completed at dawn, on June 28.

According to the online publication Fast Company, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a future vision of providing mobile broadband Internet connectivity for 1.6 billion people via the project Aquila.

The Facebook internet drone is a giant unmanned aircraft named Aquila that has the wingspan of a Boeing 737. On June 28, as part of the first test, the drone lifted off from an airfield in Yuma, Arizona.

The boomerang-shaped, propeller-driven aircraft has been tested during a half-hour demo flight. Everything worked so well that Facebook's Connectivity Lab has decided to extend the duration of the flight to a total of 96 minutes.

The 737-sized Aquila will fly at altitudes of 60,000 feet or more using solar power. The drone will be able to stay in the air and deliver wireless Internet for three months at a time.

Facebook's Aquila internet drone is named for an eagle in Greek mythology. The unmanned aircraft is part of company's plan to bring connectivity to parts of the developing world where internet is not available yet.

The drone has been designed by Facebook's engineers to use millimeter wave systems and laser communications in order to beam connectivity directly to people on the ground. Facebook has announced the project a year ago.

The Aquila drones weigh about 880 pounds. They use a free-space optics laser system to connect to each other. Each drone will be able to cruise while consuming just 5,000 watts and cover a diameter of about 60 miles.

The Verge reports that the first functional test flight of the Aquila internet drone has the goal to evaluate stabilizing in the air, taking off safely and flying for at least 30 minutes before landing. After the test Zuckerberg said that he had to be present because this is "an important milestone for the company, and for connecting the world."
If you use Salesforce1 on your Android or iOS phone, make sure it is one that the company will support as its Winter 17 release, scheduled for October, will not support a range of Apple and Android handsets.

Salesforce has issued a support document titled Salesforce1 on select iOS and Android devices  here are the devices it will support (the models are the earliest  all later models supported).

iOS: iPhone 6, iPad Air/Pro, iPad Mini 4

Android: Samsung Galaxy S5 and Note 4, and Google Nexus 5X. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and Tab A 9.7.

It says that while Salesforce1 may work on other devices, it is not supported. Why is a US$55 billion company doing this?

Salesforce would not be drawn on its rationale, but its forums have been rife with speculation.

In Apples case, it is purely about horsepower and memory  at a minimum the A9 processor, 2GB RAM, and iOS 9.x are the minimum needed to run the Salesforce app properly. That does not portend well for older devices running iOS 10.x, so maybe it is time to trade up anyway.

In Androids case, it is all about fragmentation. Samsung and Google Nexus have made commitments to maintaining at least one version prior to the latest of these phones. There are no issues on horsepower as these use faster Qualcomm or Exynos processors and more RAM.

If you are using an older device it will still run Salesforce1, but there is no technical support, no bug or security patches, and it makes no promise that version updates after Winter 17 will work at all.

Comment

I loved what Oculus chief technology officer John Carmack said in September 2014, Samsung let us bypass Android development hell. Ive got a lot of negative things to say about the Android development experience Some of them are fundamental. He was referring to Samsungs commitment to keeping its Galaxy Class handsets up-to-date and also to adhere to certain standards that would allow developers to take advantage of Androids latest features.

To be fair there are other manufacturers that provide some models with pure Android  Lenovos Moto, OPPO, and I am noticing more user Interfaces being lightened and designed as overlay apps rather than complete Android rewrites.

Google is even strongly rumoured to be developing its range of handsets to address fragmentation and security and that may be a game changer.

I dont blame Salesforce at all  Android has too many legacy issues, and it cannot guarantee either the security or how it will perform on older devices. And I am sure we will see a lot of outrage as older iOS devices have version 10.x forced on them.
Apples AppleCare+ provides up to two years telephone support and two accidental damage incidents. It costs $129 and is in addition to its statutory warranty obligations.

The lawsuit alleges Apple did not hold true to the AppleCare+ contract, which states that devices replaced under the programme are the equivalent to new in performance and reliability. The lawsuit was initiated by Vicky Maldonado and Joanne McRight.

Maldonado and McRight allege that their damaged devices were replaced with refurbished ones. They state they were not told of this when they signed up for AppleCare+. Maldonado also noted that her replacement device did not perform as expected, thus making it not equivalent to new in performance and reliability".

While it may be an argument about semantics, the plaintiffs argue that the word refurbished is synonymous with reconditioned, implying that it is a second-hand unit that has been modified to be new for all purposes relevant to this litigation". They maintain a new unit should not have been previously sold, modified and should consist of all new parts.

AppleCare+ customers are given the option of waiting for a repair to take place on their original device or to be given a replacement device.

The suit accuses Apple of breach of both contract and warranty, the concealment of information from the public as well as fraud, false advertising, and the violation of second-hand merchandise-labelling laws. The plaintiffs are seeking an award of attorneys fees, costs, pre- and post-judgement interest on any amounts awarded, and any other relief deemed just and appropriate by the ruling.

If successful it will open the floodgates  as it did with the Error 53 issue where common sense prevailed over Apple's intransigent policy!

Comment

While it may be seen as petty and an abuse of the law in a very litigious country, the lawsuit has legs at least in Australia. Here Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is very specific about replacements, especially where these are for optional paid extended warranties  and that is essentially what AppleCare+ is.
There has been a considerable amount of triumphalism evident in US government statements following the arrest of Artem Vaulin, the alleged head of the Kickass Torrents website, and the subsequent shutdown of seven domains it was using.

In some circles, this may be cause for rejoicing. But for those who have been around the block, this is only the latest indication of the lack of understanding by the powers-that-be of the phenomenon of unauthorised sharing of copyrighted material, and the unwillingness of content owners to create a business model to minimise it.

Vaulin's site was the 69th most frequently visited website, according to the US Justice Department, which also claimed that it received more than 50 million unique visitors a month. That may sound impressive, but in the overall scheme of things, it is a drop in the ocean.

The problem in estimating the extent of unauthorised file-sharing of copyrighted material is that those who advocate a muscular approach to stopping the practice tend to exaggerate the figures to advance their case. In turn, those who condone the practice either play it down or make it appear as a fundamental right.

Neither side looks at it from a sensible angle as a problem that very definitely has a solution.

That films leak onto the Internet, often in advance of their release, is not a secret. That many people who download these films would prefer to buy them at a reasonable price if they were available is also no secret. But then the catch is in the term "reasonable".

That term often ends in defeat for the rights holders.

This was in evidence in Australia over the last two years when the company than owned the rights to the film Dallas Buyers Club tried their level best to obtain the identities of 4726 iiNet customers who had downloaded it. The case finally petered out in February.

In previous cases, the company had indulged in speculative invoicing to intimidate those who had downloaded the film into paying sizeable fines in order to avoid being sued. But in Australia, that tactic failed.

The judge in charge, Justice Nye Perram, refused to release details until the Americans had made clear how they would contact the 4726, and also promised that they would not make unjust demands. In the end, they had to agree to pursue each of the downloaders for $20 (the cost of the film), a single licence fee for upload, and damages for court costs.

But even with this clearly outlined, the Americans were unable to convince Judge Perram of what would be a "reasonable" licence fee. They were given a deadline of 11 February and when that passed the matter was confined to the pages of history.

Rights holders and ISPs could not agree on a "reasonable" sharing of costs to implement a government sanctioned three strikes policy either.

The whole thing was put on hold with both parties fighting over who should pay what in the process of enforcement. Rights owners, mostly big American film studios, wanted ISPs to bear the costs of enforcement, while ISPs were rightly not willing to do so and become pawns in this game.

As far as consumers are concerned, they want to watch what they want, and they want to watch it at the same time as the rest of the world. For a while, Australian film addicts were feeding their habit through the US Netflix streaming service by using virtual private networks. But once Netflix opened locally, the company decided to try the muscular approach and block Australians from accessing the US site.

That, of course, did not go down well, and sites like Kickass were once again back in fashion.

But even if a streaming service were to offer all that a particular individual wanted, there is still a hurdle to be overcome: the lack of bandwidth. At least for the next four years, until the national broadband network is completed, there will be corners of this great brown land where bits and bytes continue to flow at rates that are reminiscent of the years when 56k modems were in vogue.

Torrent sites are a godsend for those who are stuck in this kind of situation; the solution is to tether a mobile  Australia has some of the fastest mobile services in the world  and download whatever one wants and then watch it at leisure. On one of the free data days offered by Telstra to compensate its customers for an outage, one customer downloaded almost a terabyte. He lives near a 4GX mobile tower, and with a laptop connected to his mobile he averaged out at 180Mbps. Despite listing his downloads, all of which were copyrighted, he did not pay a cent in fines!

Despite the struggle that has gone on since the 1990s to put a cap on the download genie, copyright holders, for the most part American film studios, still insist on the equivalent of the invasion of Iraq in tackling the problem of unauthorised downloads.

Websites like Kickass Torrents will go out of business when content is made available on reasonable terms to all and sundry. Stupid tactics like geoblocking, region coding for DVDS and the like, will never work.

The US Justice Department can crow all it likes about one arrest. It is similar to a tree falling in the forest.
It turns out that a couple of purchases on iTunes helped to bring down the mastermind behind KickassTorrents, one of the most popular websites for illegal file sharing.

Apple and Facebook were among the companies that handed over data to the U.S. in its investigation of 30-year-old Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of the torrent directory service. Vaulin was arrested in Poland on Wednesday, and U.S. authorities seized seven of the sites domains, all of which are now offline.

KickassTorrents was accused of enabling digital piracy for years, and investigators said it was the 69th most visited website on the entire Internet. It offered a list of torrent files for downloading bootleg movies, music, computer games and more, even as governments across the world tried to shut it down.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initially uncovered information about Vaulin by tracing the IP addresses used to host the KickassTorrents domains, according to a 48-page criminal complaint.

That led investigators to a Canadian ISP, which turned over server data that revealed numerous files, including emails and user information about KickassTorrents' operators.

At some point, investigators noticed that Vaulin had been using an Apple email account, at tirm@me.com." The account was used to make iTunes purchases from two IP addresses -- both of which also accessed a Facebook account promoting KickassTorrents.

Vaulins Apple email account contained dozens of messages mentioning the file-sharing site, including about its operations and maintenance.

Although investigators tracked Vaulin to addresses in Ukraine, the complaint doesn't mention how they finally apprehended him. He was arrested in Poland, and its unclear why Vaulin was there.

The U.S. is seeking his extradition and has charged him with copyright infringement and money laundering.

According to the complaint, KickassTorrents was generating quite a bit of revenue from online advertising. One bank account it used to accept advertising fees received $31 million in deposits over a 6-month period.

To secretly run KickassTorrents, Vaulin established a front company in Ukraine called Cryptoneat. Employees that worked there also operated the file-sharing site, the complaint alleges.

U.S. investigators have identified other individuals associated with KickassTorrents, but none of them were named in the complaint. It's possible Facebook and Apple could be helping in those investigations as well. Both companies have said they will turn over user data to law enforcement as long as the requests comply with the law.

Neither KickassTorrents or Cryptoneat have responded to requests for comment. But in the meantime, a clone of the file-sharing site has already appeared and is calling for Vaulin to be released.

The clone site links to a petition on Change.org, which claims that the arrest of Vaulin is an attack on users' Internet rights. "Our freedom to share is the human right which Artem Vaulin has been providing to millions of users," it adds.

The petition so far has 812 supporters.
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What is a Jew? Israeli museum attempts an answer

JERUSALEMI was on a short visit to Israel and spent time with a friend with whom I have been engaged in a 30-year argument. Elli...

When anti-Semitism rears its head, we must be ready to fight it

Anti-Semitism is a force that is persistent as well as pernicious. When it occurs, it must be fought both by being confronted in real time...
Massive delays from Southwest Airlines have been reported. The root cause of the delay was a widespread computer outage that affected major flights everywhere and almost all flights out of its Chicago site were already grounded.

Across the United States, flights from Southwest Airlines were held up starting Wednesday as the ground crew continued to fix issues behind the company's technology section. Brad Hawkins, the spokeperson for Southwest Airlines, explained that the company has been having intermittent problems that has affected several systems after it experienced a major outage.

"We are now managing flight delays across our system, with a temporary ground stop in place for those flights that have not left the gate," Hawkins explained. Because of this issue, the company has issued a nationwide ground stop for all departing flights. This means major flights that were to depart on Wednesday were grounded and cancelled. Future flights are still pending further announcement.

But some Southwest hubs are coming back online but are not fully functional. Even the check-in and baggage systems were down and passengers needed to manually check in with paper tickets. The Airline might need more time before normal operations can resume.

"We are now managing flight delays across our system, with a temporary ground stop in place for those flights that have not left the gate. We apologize to our Customers whose travel plans are impacted", announced the company on their official Twitter page.

Anxious customers are waiting for their flights to resume and take off. Some are still waiting to be serviced for check in. While others are still trying to get into Southwest Airline's website.

There is no estimated time as to when Southwest Airlines will start to operate normally but the aviation company is trying its best to service its customers and resume operations in a careful manner.
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Over the past six months, the capital youth has carried out youth activities and movements effectively. Movements such as youth participating in capital socio-economic development, and having love for Hanoi were done through five solutions, including green Hanoi, safe Hanoi, civilized Hanoi, gratitude Hanoi and young Hanoi.

The overview of the conference (Photo by HM)

Nearly 37,000 young people from different levels were admitted to Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union. Youth unions introduced 7,318 outstanding members to the Communist Party of Vietnam and 3,145 of them were admitted.

In addition, the youth union participated in activities to disseminate the election of deputies to the 14th NA and Peoples Council at all levels for the 2016 - 2021 tenure; and coordinated with the fatherland front at all levels to conduct negotiations and introduce youth representatives to Peoples Council at all levels.

Secretary of Hanoi city Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Nguyen Van Thang (Photo by HM)

Addressing the conference, Secretary of Hanoi city Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Nguyen Van Thang asked youth cadres to continue promoting the success of the past period and be active in youth activities and movements in the near future. He asked youth unions to review volunteer activities.

In the remaining months of the year, youth unions at all levels will continue implementing practical activities, contributing to completing tasks and objectives proposed in 2016./.
Markable Inc. raises $1.9 million in equity funding Markable Inc., a Madison fashion technology company, has raised $1.9 million of a proposed $2.8 million equity funding round, according to a filing with federal securities regulators. Markable has an app that helps users instantly buy fashion items they see online or on the street. The app analyzes a photo and finds instantly a shopping site and best matches for the item. The company was co-founded in 2014 by Joy Tang and Fiona Wang. Tang, chief executive officer, has an undergraduate degree in math and economice from MIT and was a 2002 China Math Olympic Gold Medalist. Wang, a vice president, has a graduate degree in finance from Illinois Institute of Technology. Both executives work in Chicago and Madison.

Gearbox Express raises $1.5 million Gearbox Express LLC, a Mukwonago wind turbine service company, has raised $1.5 million to fund future growth, the company said Thursday. Privately-held Gearbox Express was founded in 2011 to remanufacture wind energy gearboxes and have them ready for utilities to install when their wind turbine gearboxes wear out or fail. The money raised was all equity, according to a filing with federal securities regulators. "Our growth is exceeding our expectations and the additional capital will fund more inventory and new products so we can better serve our customers," said Bruce Neumiller, chief executive officer.

FluGen begins clinical trial on universal influenza vaccine FluGen Inc., a Madison biotechnology company that is developing flu vaccines, said Wednesday it has begun a clinical trial of its RedeeFlu universal influenza vaccine. The trial involves 96 healthy adult subjects between the ages of 18 and 49. It will evaluate the safety of the vaccine and the antibody and T-cell responses it prompts. The vaccine has in animals induced robust antibody and cellular immune responses without producing any infectious virus particles, the company says. "We believe that Redeeflu could be the first influenza vaccine to show robust protection from drifted or mismatched flu strains," said Paul Radspinner, the company's president and chief executive officer.

Simple gizmos come from complex journeys The thing looks simple  a gadget that holds small items tightly to a bicycle frame using industrial-grade rubber bands. But behind the "SuperBand," the latest product from a little Mequon firm called BiKASE, stands a complex mix of inspiration, doubt, sweat and trial-and-error. "These products, even though they don't look like much, they can be quite costly to develop," BiKASE owner Chad Buchanan said.

Madison pharmaceutical company raises $3 million from investors Madison pharmaceutical technology company Invenra has raised another $3 million from 27 investors, according to a filing with securities regulators Wednesday. Invenra has a proprietary platform that allows for rapid screening of potential new drug candidates without using living cells. The new money will be used for "research and development and general corporate purposes," the company said in the filing.

Chamber launches HealthTech Capitol website to promote Madison area The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce announced Friday the launch of the HealthTech Capitol website healthtechcapitol.com as part of an initiative dedicated to establishing Madison as a leader for health innovation by allowing companies to leverage talent, capital and mentoring. "With a robust ecosystem of world-class research, the market leader in electronic medical records, entrepreneurs and a strong network of payers and providers, Greater Madison is already a leader in health innovation," said Chamber President Zach Brandon. "HealthTech Capitol will help build on these strengths by supporting companies and talent in our region and building an infrastructure that will amplify our health discoveries to the world." HealthTech Capitol represents efforts begun in 2012 by entrepreneurs to make greater Madison the best place to start and grow a health technology company. The effort brought together a group of emerging health tech companies and providers from the Madison area, including HealthX Ventures, Moxe, Healthfinch, Forward Health Group and Wellbe. HealthTech Capitol is sponsored by the Godfrey and Kahn law firm, with support from UW Health and CUNA Mutual Group.

Xemex attracts attention from angel investors Xemex, a soon-to-be company that has developed an adhesive mixing nozzle with no moving parts, has attracted interest from four angel investing groups, a University of Wisconsin-Madison official said Tuesday. Xemex is one of seven projects that recently emerged from a program aimed at turning university research into commercial endeavors, said John Biondi, director of Discovery to Product, or D2P. D2P was formed as a partnership between UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in 2014. It has produced 12 start-ups so far, Biondi said.

Neenah entrepreneur to appear on West Texas Investors Club James Oliver, a Neenah entrepreneur, will appear Tuesday night on CNBC's "West Texas Investors Club." In the episode, Oliver pitches his company, WeMontage Inc., to Rooster McConaughey and Butch Gilliam. The self-made Texas multimillionaires invest in those they view as promising entrepreneurs, but only on their turf and their terms. WeMontage has an online service that turns photos into large, removable wallpaper panels. The company raised $310,000 from angel investors in 2013.

Madison chamber leader touts Wisconsins high-tech Third Wave Starting with his very first interview for the job of president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Zach Brandon made it clear: His was not a traditional plan. Rather than focus solely on established businesses, Brandon wanted to embrace start-ups, the "scalable and salable" companies, as he called them. Some called it a flash-in-the-pan strategy. They criticized how he never even mentioned major local employer Oscar Mayer in his vision statement.

Wisconsin got more venture capital deals in 2015, but amount invested fell At least 128 state companies raised more than $209 million of angel and venture capital in 2015, with the results indicating what the president of the Wisconsin Technology Council described as a generally improving picture for early-stage financing. "I think most of the trends here are quite good," said Tom Still of the council, which puts together the annual accounting. Angel and venture financing marks an important measure of how well a state is doing at growing high-potential companies, and Wisconsin's record has been mediocre at best.

WMC launches contest to find 'coolest thing' made in Wisconsin To drum up interest in manufacturing and engage young people, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is holding a contest to determine the "coolest thing" made in the state. The Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin contest will accept nominations through Aug. 31, organizers said. "We want manufacturers and Wisconsin residents to start nominating products on our website, and we want people, especially young people, to start a conversation about manufacturing and participate in voting in September," said Kurt R. Bauer, president and CEO of WMC, a major business lobbying organization that says it represents 3,800 employers in the state.

Jendusa donates $1 million to UWM for entrepreneur-in-residence program Jerry Jendusa, co-founder of aerospace products maker Emteq LLC, has donated $1 million to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to fund an entrepreneur-in-residence program, the school said Wednesday. The Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship , which was establishged in 2015 with a $10 million gift from Marianne and Sheldon Lubar, is constructing a new building on UWM's campus. "I am proud to support entrepreneurs in residence, who will bring real-world experience to the classroom and introduce students to innovators who are shaping Milwaukee and our region," Jendusa said. "Big entrepreneurial ideas start as a dream, and I want to encourage students to chase their dreams."

WISC Partners raises $8.2 million WISC Partners LP, a venture capital fund with an unusual, consulting-driven business model, has raised $8.2 million, according to a filing with federal securities regulators. The fund raised the money from 29 investors, the filing said. This brings to $9.2 million the total amount the fund has raised, according to www.formds.com. WISC Partners in April said it had, with Capital Midwest Fund of Mequon, led a $1.2 million funding of Pegasus Sustainability Solutions, a Fitchburg company that is building an online marketplace for buyers and sellers in markets such as hazardous waste, medical waste and environmental remediation.

IDAvatars merges with Colorado company IDAvatars, a Mequon start-up that develops health care apps featuring an avatar, or animated character, has merged with CodeBaby, a company based in Colorado Springs, Colo., that develops so-called virtual assistants. The two companies, which combined will employ about 35 people and 10 contractors, have complementary technologies, said Norrie Daroga, the founder and chief executive officer of iDAvatars. CodeBaby, which also has an office in Edmonton, Canada, has focused on developing products for websites, while iDAvatars has focused on developing mobile applications.
Photo: kinhtedothi.vn

She made the statement during a meeting on July 21with Cecilia Piccioni, Italian Ambassador to Vietnam.

According to Ms Hang, Hanoi is one of the cities with many heritages. The city has issued plans to promote the value of these heritages and attract greater number of domestic and foreign tourists, she said.

She said she hoped that Italy would share experience with Vietnam in preserving heritages and developing the tourism sector.

Showing her gratitude with Hanoi assistance during the celebration of the National Day of Italy recently, Ambassador Cecilia Piccioni said that the assistance was proof of the good relationship between Vietnam and Italy, saying that she hoped the relationship between Hanoi and Rome, as well as the relationship between Vietnam and Italy, would be raised to a new height./.
Local musician Evan Christian is opening his own live music venue, Gibraltar, in Walkers Point. Credit: Courtesy of Evan Christian

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By of the

For 16 years, local jazz musician Evan Christian has performed in scores of venues all around town.

Now, he's opening one of his own in Walker's Point.

Dubbed Gibraltar  named for the British-controlled region on the southern coast of Spain, about 9 miles from Africa  the club will have a decor that partially reflects the area's "cultural melting pot," Christian said, and serve drinks popular in Morocco, Spain and Italy.

Christian will curate the music, which he says will be a diverse range of national and international jazz acts, acoustic artists and "real flamenco musicians." Christian specializes in flamenco, among other styles, and will use contacts made when he lived in Spain to book shows.

The roughly 1,600-square-foot club at 538 W. National Ave. had been home to Felipe's Place, a bar. The building was purchased about nine months ago by Christian's friend, developer Dieter Wegner.

"He told me he had a space and asked if I was interested in doing something," Christian said. "I've always dreamed about having my own place, and this happened to be the right time."

Gibraltar will join other jazz venues in town including Caroline's and the soon-to-be-reopened Jazz Estate. Transfer Pizzeria Cafe, Mason Street Grill and Company Brewing also host live jazz.

"With Milwaukee being the size that it is, and with the growth that is there, I think there's enough space for a few more music venues and to bring some good stuff to the neighborhood," Christian said.

According to a business license plan of operation filed with the city, Christian anticipates having 50 to 150 customers a day, with plans to be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The application also seeks permission for a food truck on site.

The general manager, Ryan Casey, comes from the Belmont Tavern, and the bar manager, Aric Weston, is formerly from the Iron Horse Hotel.

Renovations are ongoing, and a meeting is set for the first week of September for liquor license approval. "If everything goes well, we'll open the second week of September," Christian said.

As for Christian's own music career, "I'm not going to stop playing other places, but I am going to cut back," he said. "I plan on being (at Gibraltar) every day to some capacity. I'd like to make it so the majority of the time I'm playing at my own place. That's the dream."

Earlier this week, Christian was one of nine acts announced for the eco-friendly music festival Rock the Green, which is returning after a three-year hiatus Sept. 17.
Infants born with microcephaly are held by mothers and family members as they listen to a speaker at a meeting for mothers of children with special needs in Recife, Brazil. Credit: Getty Images

SHARE Health workers fumigate in an attempt to eradicate the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus on Jan. 28 in Recife, Brazil. The Zika virus can be traced back at least to 1947, and it is overshadowing the Summer Olympics set to start in Rio de Janeiro next month. Getty Images

By of the

Epidemics start in mundane ways.

A child might play with a pet. An air-conditioning unit might break down. A pool of water might collect in an empty flowerpot.

Any one of those actions is all it takes for a virus to find a host and infect its first case.

From there, the virus can spread exponentially  across cities, regions, countries. Millions of people might be exposed from that single event, and thousands might die.

This year, the Western Hemisphere is reeling from an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to unusually small heads and brain damage in newborns.

It prompted the World Health Organization to advise Brazilians to consider delaying pregnancy. And it is overshadowing the Summer Olympics set to start in Rio de Janeiro next month.

On July 8, the first death in the continental United States from the virus was confirmed.

But Zika is just the latest of many.

Since 1980, the global number of viral outbreaks per year has more than tripled. In the last three years alone, health officials have confirmed outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, measles, enterovirus, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, and Ebola  and those are just the ones that have reached the United States.

Then there are the viruses that haven't emerged yet. The World Health Organization has listed Nipah, a virus similar to the fictional subject of the movie "Contagion"; the MERS and SARS coronaviruses; and several hemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola, as the viruses most likely to cause a major epidemic in the near future.

But predicting potential outbreaks is challenging because so many factors are involved.

"How do you figure out what's coming next?" said David O'Connor, professor at UW-Madison and chair of the Global Infectious Disease Division at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. "That's the million-dollar question."

What we do know is that epidemics can affect virtually anyone.

Anatomy of an outbreak

The goal of a virus is to infect a host, replicate, and spread to a new host.

Transmission is more efficient when a sick person is active, meaning it's actually better for the survival of a pathogen if you don't die.

The biggest threat is when a virus that normally infects animals jumps to humans. There are two problems: The virus wasn't designed to live in humans, and humans don't have protective immunity to it.

Ebola from bats, MERS from camels, and avian flu from birds  all of them had a higher mortality rate, at least at first. Zika was first seen in monkeys.

Part of the reason it has spread so quickly, O'Connor said, is because it jumped into a population that had not been exposed.

In general, once the number of susceptible people in a population decreases, an epidemic begins to fade.

This leads to a cycle in which viruses emerge or move into a new region, spread quickly, then run out of vulnerable hosts and disappear.

As long as the source or reservoir for the virus is still around, there's always a risk that the disease could return.

Population density also plays a role. With 2.8 billion more humans on Earth in 2015 than in 1980, population density has increased from 78 people per square mile of land to 127 people per square mile.

The level of urbanization in Africa alone has soared from 15% to 40% over the last 50 years.

When towns or villages become overcrowded, people move into less habitable areas such as flood plains or marshes, and clear forests for farmland.

Viruses that were once carried by animals or mosquitoes in the unmolested interiors of jungles for millennia, suddenly encounter an entire population of vulnerable hosts.

"This intensified contact between animals and humans facilitates spillover and opens pathways for transmission," said Sarah Paige, executive director for the Ebola Survivors Corps, an organization that provides support for Ebola victims and equips survivors to help communities respond to future outbreaks.

At the same time, the entire world has been linked by air travel. Commercial airlines fly an estimated 3 billion people a year, according to a 2014 report.

Each passenger is transported in a confined space and released into a terminal with connections touching every city on the globe.

An airborne virus from just one sick passenger could cover continents in a matter of hours.

Events such as natural disasters, political unrest and mass gatherings like the Olympics also can drive new interactions between humans while disrupting medical care.

For example, outbreaks of polio, measles and hepatitis A have appeared in Syria as the civil war there drags on.

In a connected world, diseases can leak over borders and into transportation hubs.

According to Paige, humanitarian efforts that provide basic resources like disease prevention information, sanitation, bed nets and clean water are necessary to stop outbreaks before they start. "It's important for people to reflect on the impacts of epidemics throughout the world  seeing Zika and Ebola affecting people and communities in a real way."

Pushing people away

The fear associated with outbreaks has the power to hurt entire communities. During the SARS outbreak in 2003, Asians were taunted in the streets of Toronto. In 2015, Senegalese boys in a New York schoolyard were beaten to chants of "Ebola!"

"In the U.S., things like Zika and Ebola make us very xenophobic. We want to close borders and push people away  anyone not 'us,'" Paige explained. "We have a hard time realizing that people are suffering with real diseases and medical needs."

Fear also has the power to exacerbate outbreaks.

Charlatans feed on the hysteria to peddle false cures. Runs on basic medication and food can create new emergencies. Strain on local economies can lead to riots that layer violence on top of suffering.

"The next time something pops up," Paige said, "learn about it from a trusted source like the CDC or health department websites  not social media.

Understanding how a disease is transmitted can reduce that feeling of helplessness."

For mosquito-borne viruses, simple actions like making sure there aren't pools of stagnant water around and wearing DEET outdoors can prevent infection.

And as simple as it sounds, hand washing with soap and water remains the No. 1 tip to avoid spreading a disease.

Advances in tracking

Many viruses have lingered for decades, even centuries, before emerging as major medical crises.

The Zika virus can be traced back at least to 1947; Chikungunya  which hit Puerto Rico and reached Florida two years ago  was first described in 1955. The earliest likely case of Dengue fever dates to 265 A.D.

But some emerge seemingly out of nowhere.

In 2003, the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, which scours the internet for any clues of the start of an outbreak, was searching for avian flu in China when it detected a spate of individuals suffering from an unidentified respiratory disease. That disease was SARS.

The network collected the data that provided the World Health Organization with specific and up-to-date information that suggested where the disease might spread.

Subsequent contact tracing, the process of identifying anyone who might have been exposed by an infected person, allowed officials to identify susceptible individuals and quarantine them before they could infect others.

This immediate response was able to put a stop to the highly contagious epidemic within 100 days.

Surveillance systems like this prepare health officials for potential cases and establish a timeline for outbreaks. Additionally, advances in data analysis capabilities now allow better modeling of disease progression.

And it seems to be working. In that same period since 1980, when the number of outbreaks tripled, the per-capita infection rate during an outbreak actually plummeted.

In other words, even as the world gets more crowded and the outbreaks more prevalent, fewer people are infected with each new epidemic.
Frankie Hunter shows his photo ID to poll workers while casting his vote in February at Lincoln Court Apartments in Milwaukee. Credit: Rick Wood

Wisconsin's voter ID law was a mistake from the start; a political talking point dressed up as policy, aiming to fix a problem that doesn't exist. And although the law isn't particularly onerous for most people, there are some for whom obtaining the necessary ID is substantially difficult. So difficult that some won't  or won't be able to  go through the hassle of getting one.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman threw those people a lifeline, or "safety net," as he called it. Adelman issued a preliminary ruling allowing Wisconsin voters without photo identification to cast ballots by swearing to their identity. Good for Adelman; allowing people to use affidavits to vote opens the ballot door to those who otherwise might not cast a ballot.

Attorney General Brad Schimel said the ruling was disappointing but did not say whether the state would appeal it. It shouldn't. Government should be encouraging more people to vote, not placing limits on those who legitimately can.

As Sean Young, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented those bringing the legal challenge, put it: "This ruling is a strong rebuke of the state's efforts to limit access to the ballot box. It means that a fail-safe will be in place in November for voters who have had difficulty obtaining ID."

Yes, November, not the August 9 primary: Adelman wanted to make sure election officials had enough time to implement the ruling, and Aug. 9 is coming up fast. The judge was right to put off implementation to November.

Critics may say this guts the law because it may be too easy for someone to claim difficulty and sign an affidavit. But it's not that simple. The ruling applies only to those who have a tough time getting IDs. The system is to be available to anyone who, to get an ID, "would have to do more than retrieve a birth certificate and related documents from his or her desk drawer and make a single trip to the (Division of Motor Vehicles)," Adelman wrote.

And that would include people who don't have birth certificates, or have birth certificates with mistakes or have health problems that prevent them from visiting the nearest DMV center.

The judge provided several examples of cases in which getting the documents necessary to get an ID was onerous: "One person was directed by DMV officials to track down adoption papers and court papers from Tennessee. Another was told to request a name change through the federal Social Security Administration. A third voter over three months had to speak with a DMV investigator nine times, make two trips to a DMV center and call other agencies to locate documents," the Journal Sentinel reported.

The state did create a new system in spring that provides temporary documents to people who have the most difficulty in getting the proper ID. But Adelman said the system did not go far enough, arguing that bureaucratic mistakes were inevitable and that they would disenfranchise some eligible voters.

And disenfranchising eligible voters is something government should never do. Thanks to Adelman for providing that safety net.
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By of the

The operator of a Sherman Park gas station that was vandalized by youths in June was charged with disorderly conduct Thursday for allegedly firing a gun outside the station this week to scare away another unruly group.

Bhupinder S. Sidhu, 34, told police he feared for his safety and that of an employee Tuesday when a large group of juveniles entered the station at 3114 N. Sherman Blvd. shortly after the business closed at 10 p.m., according to a criminal complaint.

Sidhu said when one of the youths prevented the employee from closing the door to the business, Sidhu grabbed a loaded handgun and left from another door.

Sidhu then fired two rounds into the air to get the youths to leave and the group scattered, according to the complaint.

On June 29, several dozen young people hurled rocks and bottles during a disturbance outside the station, damaging a window of the business and a Milwaukee County Transit System bus.

Milwaukee police and Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies dispersed the crowd; no arrests were made.

A group of protesters Wednesday called for a boycott of the business and for Sidhu to face criminal charges, WITI-TV (Channel 6) reported.
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Madison  Wisconsin's U.S. senators have called on the Social Security Administration to quickly investigate issues at its Madison office, including that a federal judge used racist and sexual shorthand such as "gorilla-like" and "buxom" in his case notes to describe disability claimants.

Calling Administrative Law Judge John H. Pleuss' hearing notes "abhorrent," Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin sent a letter Wednesday to SSA Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin in Baltimore requesting a comprehensive review of all of Pleuss' previous cases "to ensure that his biases did not lead to adverse decisions against claimants."

Baldwin also confirmed what had already become clear in Madison: that Pleuss is under scrutiny from his agency's Office of the Inspector General.

"If these allegations are true, he should be fired," Baldwin said in a statement. "I have asked the inspector general to investigate these allegations and ensure that the public has a full understanding of what transpired and that those responsible are held accountable. I understand that the investigation is ongoing and I am pressing for quick action here."

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and his Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee have already been digging into the judge's conduct.

But Pleuss remains employed at the SSA's Madison Office of Adjudication and Review, regional spokesman Doug Nguyen said.

Pleuss has not received any apparent discipline for his comments besides being asked not to hold hearings or sign decisions for a two-week period in June after his notes were first reported, according to union officials and Machelle Keller, a lead case technician at the SSA's Madison office, who has filed a formal complaint about Pleuss and what she alleges is subsequent retaliation from SSA management.

On June 14, Johnson sent a letter to Colvin, the SSA commissioner, on the whistle-blowers' behalf requesting information and documents related to alleged retaliation against them at SSA offices.

The agency has not met Johnson's June 28 deadline to respond, though Nguyen said the administration has had several calls with Johnson's staff and is "cooperating fully" to answer the request.

"I will continue to demand information from the SSA and to work with the inspector general to address the problems," Johnson said in a statement Thursday, calling the allegations of whistle-blower retaliation and employee harassment "unacceptable."

In her letter, Baldwin said the SSA's lack of disciplinary action taken against Pleuss is "troubling."

"I believe it is time for you to intervene and ensure that the Madison ODAR office is a safe work environment, free from inappropriate behavior, that provides the highest-quality service to my constituents," Baldwin wrote to Colvin.

Russ Feingold, a former Democratic senator who is challenging Johnson for his seat, said he is glad to see Baldwin demanding a review, noting "the allegations are disturbing and certainly require full transparency and immediate answers."

Some of the case notes in question from Pleuss were obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They include descriptions such as "very black, African looking woman (actually a gorilla-like appearance)" and "young, white, female; ... attractive; looks innocent."

Other comments Pleuss has written in his case notes about applicants and their attorneys include observations that an "obese, young" white female was wearing a "skimpy black top," another white, female claimant "looks like a man," and a "young, black female" was "obese" and "buxom."

Pleuss has not responded to requests for comment.

Marilyn Zahm, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges  a union that has defended Pleuss  was involved in hearings Thursday and unavailable for comment.

Keller said SSA management continues to retaliate against her for speaking out about issues within the administration's Madison office.

She has talked to the news media and Johnson's Senate committee about the "toxic" work environment in the Madison office, and also testified in a whistle-blower complaint about Pleuss' conduct and whistle-blower retaliation by Laura Hodorowicz, the Madison office director.

SSA employees have been ordered not to speak to the media and to direct questions to the administration's regional headquarters in Chicago since the allegations surfaced.

Keller met with representatives from the SSA's Office of Inspector General for three hours last week to discuss the investigation  a "huge relief" after months of seeking help, she said. But Keller says she believes the only way Pleuss will face discipline is if the SSA's oversight office imposes it.

A spokesman for the inspector general said the office can't comment on its investigations.
SHARE Gov. Scott Walker Friday named Waukesha attorney Daniel Kelly to the state Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice David Prosser.

By of the

Madison  Gov. Scott Walker on Friday named a little-known Waukesha lawyer with no judicial experience to the state Supreme Court, putting Daniel Kelly on the bench and keeping in place the high court's 5-2 conservative majority.

Kelly  who in his application called affirmative action and slavery the same morally  will replace retiring Justice David Prosser on Aug. 1, the start of the court's new term.

Kelly, 52, initially applied for the appointment in secret, but his name became public in June, when Walker's team narrowed the field of candidates from 11 to five.

Kelly took just one question from reporters after Walker announced the appointment in the state Capitol, but he declined to discuss his writings opposing affirmative action and gay marriage.

"The primary and only job of a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is to apply the law as it is written and the oath that I will take will guarantee to you that my personal political beliefs and political philosophy will have no impact on that whatsoever," Kelly said. "Those things simply have no place inside the courtroom."

In his application, Kelly included a 2014 book chapter in which he wrote same-sex marriage would rob marriage of any meaning and likened affirmative action to slavery.

"Affirmative action and slavery differ, obviously, in significant ways," Kelly wrote. "But it's more a question of degree than principle, for they both spring from the same taproot. Neither can exist without the foundational principle that it is acceptable to force someone into an unwanted economic relationship. Morally, and as a matter of law, they are the same."

Asked to discuss what he meant, Kelly remained in the background and Walker answered on his behalf, saying Kelly would not inject his personal beliefs into his work for the court. Walker declined to yield the podium to Kelly when reporters asked him to specifically answer their questions.

Kelly also did not say whether he would run for a full 10-year term in 2020, but Walker said he expected that he would. Walker said he had not asked him that question when he interviewed him for the job.

In his prepared remarks, Kelly said he's had a lifelong love of the law and was humbled by the appointment.

"To this day, I cannot walk into a courtroom without my heart skipping a beat," he said. "I trust that will never change. I trust that I will always stand humbly before the law."

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack appeared with Walker and Kelly and said she had known Kelly for a long time and was impressed with his scholarship.

"I am very, very pleased with the governor's appointment," she said.

Kelly was with the large Milwaukee law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren for 15 years, but left it in 2013. He spent a year as the vice president and general counsel for the Kern Family Foundation, which was established by the founders of Generac Power Systems. In 2014, Kelly formed a small law firm in Waukesha with attorney Rod Rogahn.

Kelly has been closely involved with conservative legal groups. The president of the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, he also sits on an advisory panel to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

Throughout his application, he praised two of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices  Antonin Scalia, who died in February, and Clarence Thomas.

Kelly was an adviser to state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's campaign this year and served as an attorney on Prosser's campaign during a recount after he narrowly won re-election in 2011.

He also was on the legal team that defended legislative and congressional maps that Republican lawmakers redrew in 2011.

In that litigation, a panel of federal judges made changes to the districts for two Assembly districts on Milwaukee's south side after it found those maps violated the voting rights of Latinos. The other maps  which greatly favor Republicans  were left in place. (A separate challenge to the maps is pending in federal court in Madison; Kelly is not involved in that litigation.)

The appointment to the Supreme Court is the second one Walker has made since he was first elected in 2011. Last year, the GOP governor put Bradley on the bench, six months before she was elected to a full 10-year term.

Walker has the sole say on the appointment. Kelly does not need the confirmation of the state Senate or any other body.

The governor acknowledged Kelly did not have judicial experience, but noted two other members of the high court  Prosser and Justice Shirley Abrahamson  had not served as a judge before they became justices.

To get on the Supreme Court, Kelly beat out 10 others.

He was the only applicant who kept his name secret in the early going, but his name was released once he made the first cut.

The field was later cut from five to three and Kelly beat out the other two finalists, Appeals Court Judges Mark Gundrum and Thomas Hruz.

Gundrum, who served alongside Walker in the Assembly, was the early favorite among observers.

Walker appointed Gundrum to the District 2 Court of Appeals in Waukesha in 2011  passing over Kelly for that spot.

Under state law, appointees to the state Supreme Court stand for election at the first year in which a Supreme Court election isn't already scheduled, and in this case contests are already planned for 2017, '18 and '19. That means that  should he choose to run  Kelly would be on the ballot in 2020.
By of the

Madison With the presidential election only four months away, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is seeking to fast-track his appeal of a federal-court decision that scaled back the state's voter ID law.

On Friday, Schimel, a Republican, asked a federal judge to stay his decision made earlier this week, saying the court had acted improperly and that its ruling threatened to confuse voters in the run-up to an election.

The state says it will appeal the ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee ruled that Wisconsin voters without photo identification can cast ballots by swearing to their identity. The decision creates a pathway for voters with difficulties getting IDs who have been unable to cast ballots under the state's 2011 voter ID law.

"Although most voters in Wisconsin either possess qualifying ID or can easily obtain one, a safety net is needed for those voters who cannot obtain qualifying ID with reasonable effort," Adelman wrote in his decision.

The judge issued his preliminary order because he found that those arguing for a pathway for some voters without IDs were "very likely" to succeed.

The ruling will allow voters to use affidavits instead of IDs to vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election. But this new system will not be in place for the Aug. 9 primary for congressional and state legislative races because Adelman determined election officials needed more time to implement it.

Adelman, a former Democratic state senator, was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton.
By of the

Cleveland  At the end of a nasty primary fight and a politically messy convention, Donald Trump  the defiant figure at the center of it all  accepted the Republican nomination Thursday and vowed to resurrect a nation he said is mired in crisis and decline.

"I am your voice," Trump proclaimed to the "forgotten men and women of our country," offering a credo of "Americanism, not globalism."

Trump described a nation humiliated abroad, impoverished at home and menaced by crime, terrorism and "roaming" illegal immigrants.

He promised a swift end to crime and violence in America.

"Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored," Trump said, pointing to the date of the next presidential inauguration.

He promised to smash a political and economic system "rigged" for special interests.

"Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it," Trump declared.

He vilified opponent Hillary Clinton as a puppet of "big business, elite media and major donors;" accused her of being criminal and corrupt; and portrayed her as a failed diplomat with a legacy of "death, destruction and weakness."

After alluding to the recent attacks on police, he asserted, "I am the law and order candidate." And he accused President Barack Obama of "irresponsible rhetoric," saying he had "made America a more dangerous environment than, frankly, I have ever seen and anybody in this room has ever watched or seen!"

Cheering delegates punctuated the speech with chants of "U.S.A.," "We Want Trump," and "Build That Wall."

An acceptance address is a high-stakes affair.

But the sense of anticipation over Trump's in the media and in the political world was almost boundless, fueled by his unpredictability, flair for spectacle, divisiveness, disdain for decorum, and the political urgency for his underdog and embattled campaign.

Would he "tone it down" and "pivot" to being "presidential?"

Or would America see the provocative persona and fighting words that consumed the national media and overwhelmed an army of GOP rivals?

The answer appeared to be the latter.

"By traditional standards, they ruined every single night of this convention (with controversy) and yet, in a way, none of it matters. Tonight is what matters," a Democratic observer, pollster Paul Maslin, said in the hours before Trump spoke, an assessment shared by some GOP insiders.

What Americans got Thursday was a scripted speech, delivered  with the aid of a teleprompter  mostly as written, not the wildly improvisational Trump of the stump.

But the words and tone  blunt, biting, dire and grandiose  had a familiar ring. So did the slashing hand gestures, the stern shouting and emotion, the signature issues (trade, immigration, law and order), and the almost apocalyptic portrayal of state of the nation.

Among the political bets Trump is making this year: that at a time when outgoing Obama's approval ratings have crept back over 50%, enough voters share Trump's dark view of current conditions that they hunger for an utterly unorthodox candidate.

"We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore," Trump said to big cheers.

Asked Thursday morning if Trump needed to strike a different tone in this speech to reach voters who have qualms about his style and rhetoric, GOP Gov. Scott Walker said, "I think that would be good."

While people "find it refreshing to have someone run for the highest office in the land who's willing to speak his mind," they "also want comfort this person can be the president," said Walker.

A GOP delegate from Wisconsin, Crystal Berg, said Thursday, "I know he's smart. I know he's a good businessman. I know he can make lots of money. And he's obviously powerful ... and persuasive. But I want to know that he's going to stick it out for long haul and he's going to stay focused on America."

Trump could have been speaking to her when he said a few hours later, "I have had a truly great life in business. But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country  to go to work for you!"

The GOP nominee sought to assure Americans of his empathy.

"We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order," he said.

Citing the Orlando, Fla., massacre, he vowed to protect LGBT citizens from a "hateful foreign ideology," and thanked his Republican audience for cheering that sentiment.

He argued that policies such as cracking down on illegal immigration would benefit African-Americans and Latinos  two groups that overwhelmingly oppose him in the polls  because they would boost wages and employment.

He predicted that fixing trade would win over Bernie Sanders' supporters.

"Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans," said Trump, who is yet to make serious inroads among voters in the other party.

Trump's daughter, Ivanka, introduced him as a doer and a builder who is colorblind and gender-neutral. Other politicians say, "I feel for you," she said. "My father says, 'I'll fight for you.'"

GOP delegates relished Trump's heavy broadsides against Clinton Thursday, which capped a four-day gathering marked by unrelenting animus toward the Democrats' presumptive nominee.

"She has spent the last 16 months looking into the eyes of the American people and lying about how she recklessly jeopardized the American people (and) national security with her secret email server," said Wisconsin's Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaking ahead of Trump. "She lied. And she lied over and over and over and over. She lied! She lied!"

The party's internal feuds are still raw: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was booed by angry delegates Wednesday for accepting a prime speaking slot without delivering a Trump endorsement. But nothing brings Republicans together right now as much Clinton, who inspired periodic chants of "Lock her up!" in the convention hall this week. (In Wisconsin, 98% of GOP voters viewed her unfavorably in one recent poll).

"When a secretary of state illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can't see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence  I know that corruption has reached a level like never ever before in our country," Trump said. "Her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it."

Trump ripped Clinton on trade and immigration, vowing once more to "build a great border wall."

He ended his speech with a slogan, and more vows.

"I make this promise: We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again."

Trump's acceptance speech contained this rebuke to his skeptics:

"Remember: all of the people telling you that you can't have the country you want, are the same people ... (who) said Trump wouldn't have a chance of being here tonight  not a chance! Oh, we love defeating those people, don't we?"
'This is the right time to exhale': David Stearns ends seven-year run

The 37-year-old cited a desire to spend more time with family in stepping back to an advisory role, but the New York Mets are sure to be interested.
Newly retired French teacher Rebecca Zelent (third from left) and her students from Wausau East High School pose in Versailles days before the attack in Nice, France. Credit: Courtesy of Rebecca Zelent

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By ,

Wausau Students who were at the scene of the July 14 Bastille Day terror attack in France are home and safe but still struggling to cope with the horrific experience of that night.

The group of 13 from the Wausau area were blocks away from the scene as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, plowed through crowds on the Promenade de Anglais in Nice, killing 84 people and leaving 200 more injured. Though none of the local students came into contact with the truck or the gruesome scene it left behind, the wounds it left are still fresh a week later.

Rebecca Zelent, the Wausau East French teacher who led the trip, agreed to share her story of what happened that night in Nice with a USA TODAY NETWORK- Wisconsin reporter. The students made the decision not to speak with the press before returning from their trip to France because of the shock the attack put them through. Zelent said that at least two students have sought out counseling since returning to Wausau.

The group was celebrating its last night in France after a weeklong trip that took them to Paris, Avignon, Versailles and Nimes.

As the fireworks drew near, after dinner and dancing to live bands along the Promenade des Anglais, nine soon-to-be seniors from Wausau East High School, two school chaperones and two other adults were enjoying the celebratory atmosphere that surrounded Bastille Day, which is similar to Fourth of July in America.

When the fireworks were over and the lights returned to the Promenade, the students and adults started making their way back toward their hotel.

"We started moving right away. We wanted to get a jump on the crowd," Zelent said. "The kids, they formed a conga line, so we're conga-ing to get through. And having fun. Every time there was an open spot, they'd run ahead and then we'd go again."

As the group danced its way through the crowd, people moved aside, and even joined in. Then the night turned, almost instantly, as the attack unfolded.

"That's when people started screaming and running," Zelent said. "And that's when it started."

Chaos consumed the group, breaking up the conga line as people scattered in all directions.

"It was immediate panic. It was not 'Hey, what's going on?'" said Zelent. "It did not take you five seconds to realize what was going on. I don't remember if I heard shots. I think I did. But I mostly saw people running and heard what they were screaming. There are people yelling, and then there are people screaming because they're terrified. It has a different sound."

Eight members of the Wausau group were able to find their way back to the statue. Three more, two students and a parent, had already made it to the hotel, but that left two students unaccounted for.

"We waited, heaven only knows how long," Zelent said. "We don't know how long because time was so bizarre, but we felt the safest thing was to get back to the hotel."

Zelent and the other chaperone, her 40-year-old son, hoped that the other two had made it back to the hotel as well. Their tour guide led the group back. They stayed off the main avenue. When they arrived inside the doors of the hotel, Zelent experienced a hard moment: The two missing students weren't there.

"Finally the text came in that said they had hidden in a hotel, and they came out but the police had barricaded all the roads," Zelent said.

In the confusion immediately after the attack, the two students had gotten turned around and were running toward the truck that was plowing through crowds farther down the Promenade. The two took shelter in a closet inside of a hotel without getting near enough to the truck to actually witness the carnage.

When their tour guide went back out into the chaos to find the students, the group learned the full extent of what had happened  that a truck had been plowing through the crowd, and that the shots they had heard had come from police as they tried to stop the attack. But it wasn't until the next day that the group fully understood how bad the attack had been.

The group was already scheduled to fly home the next morning, which was the plan that they stuck to after the attack. They had packed their bags before the fireworks, anticipating a late night and an early morning. But for Zelent, the trip wasn't quite over.

"One of our students, her mom was supposed to join us for dinner that night, and then (the student) was going to continue traveling," Zelent said. "The mom that we were waiting for got delayed, and we couldn't leave (the student) there, but her mom was already in France and we couldn't reach her."

So Zelent made the difficult decision to remain in Nice until the mother arrived, and then fly back alone the next day.

Though coping with the tragedy and fear is going to be tough for the entire group, Zelent said that she hopes it doesn't hold them back from experiencing the world again. In fact, she said she plans to travel to France again.

"The answer is absolutely," she said. "Because then the terrorists win if we don't. But it isn't just that. This is how we will mend fences, this how we will get to know each other and understand each other and see the best in each other. As horrific as that night was, I'm telling you, the love and the care that come from the French people toward my kids, our students and to me was just tremendous."

The Wausau School District agrees with Zelent's belief that travel is important and it is not suspending its foreign educational trips.

"We live in a world that's changing rapidly," said Jody Kreig, the head of the foreign languages department at Wausau East. "For these kids, this is what they know. For anyone to say 'I'm not going anywhere' is not the point."

Tom Hahn, director of secondary education for the Wausau schools, said that with any trip there is a risk, but that can't stop students from exploring the world.

"What happened in Nice could have happened in Madison or Milwaukee for that matter," Hahn said. "They had an emergency plan and they followed it. They were safe and acted with maturity."

"They're fantastic kids and their character came out and the character of our school district, " Zelent said. "You have to know these are great human beings. And I couldn't be more proud."


At the meeting

He made the remark at a meeting with Pham Minh Chinh, Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee (PCC) and Head of the PCC Commission for Organization in Hanoi on July 21st.



Chinh hailed the Japanese guests constructive contributions to the friendship between the two countries, parliaments and people.

He recognised the guests efforts in speeding up the implementation of cooperative projects between the two countries over culture and education, in particular the Vietnam-Japan University and the Japan-Vietnam Culture Festival.

He stated that training high-quality human resources has been defined as one of the three strategic breakthroughs pursued by Vietnam in its development strategy.

He hoped that the close and productive collaboration between relevant agencies will put the Vietnam-Japan University into operation shortly, thus promoting the bilateral friendship.

Tsutomo Takebe briefed his host of the tempo of the Vietnam-Japan University project and the organisation of the Japan-Vietnam Culture Festival in the coming time.

He expressed his hope to continue receiving efficient assistance and cooperation from Vietnamese sectors and agencies.

He pledged to do his utmost to foster the friendship between Japan and Vietnam./.
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By of the

People in Madison were being warned to stay off the roads Thursday night after flash flooding caused by storms that swept through southern Wisconsin, WKOW-TV in Madison reported.

High winds and heavy rains from the storms knocked out power to thousands, downed trees and caused flash flooding throughout the region, officials said.

By 9 p.m. Thursday in Madison, 2.79 inches of rain fell, most of which came down between 6 and 8 p.m., and wind gusts as high as 63 mph were also recorded, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan.

There were multiple reports of vehicles stalled at intersections because of standing water, and many intersections on the city's west and southwest sides were impassible, according to the weather service.

More than 17,000 Madison Gas & Electric and Alliant Energy customers were without power Thursday night as the area experienced severe heat, WKOW-TV in Madison reported.

In Oregon, 3.2 inches of rain were recorded, and 1-inch hail was reported in Mount Horeb, where 2.5 inches of rain fell within 60 minutes, according to the weather service.

Flash flooding was reported in Janesville and Beloit, where multiple roads were also impassible, according to the weather service.

People attending the Waukesha County Fair were urged asked to seek shelter after tornado sirens were activated Thursday evening, according to a report from WTMJ radio (620 AM) in Milwaukee.

A statement from the weather service posted at 7 p.m. urged people attending the Country Thunder music festival in Twin Lakes to seek safe shelter as a severe thunderstorm with wind gusts of 65 mph moved through the area.

About 8,000 We Energies customers in southeastern Wisconsin were without power from high winds that knocked trees into power lines, We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey said.

More than 20,000 We Energies customers had their power restored throughout the day after outages caused by a storm Thursday morning, Manthey said.
07/22/2016



A young fruit bat. (Getty Images)

Jacksonville State University is going batty for bats!

In conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network (SBDN), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, JSU is excited to host part of the annual SBDN Bat Blitz event.

The location of the Bat Blitz varies from year to year. This year it will be hosted at the Talladega National Forest, but a one-day event will take place at JSU.

Bring the family out to JSUs Theron Montgomery Building Auditorium on Sunday, July 24 from 2:30-5:00 p.m. for a fun afternoon filled with activities about everyones favorite flying mammal: the bat! Guests will get to meet regional biologists, enjoy live bat demonstrations, take pictures with Smokey the Bear, win door prizes and listen to bat conservation talks. This event will kick-off the study of bats in the Talladega National Forest.

We hope to promote bat appreciation and awareness through Sundays public educational event and then to obtain data and further the research about bat range, ecology and habitat use in the Talladega National Forest, Little River Canyon and surrounding areas, said Ryan Shurette, a JSU alumnus and the wildlife, fish and rare plants program manager for Alabamas national forests. Shurette and other conservationists will begin capturing bats in the area in an effort to better understand where the bats are living and what could be contributing to their population decline. The bats will be studied and tagged before being re-released into their environment.

There are currently 77 endangered bat species worldwide and eight endangered species in North America, according to Bat Conservation International. Two of these species, the Gray bat and the Indiana bat, make their homes in Alabama.

Bat populations suffer from habitat destruction and vandalism, pesticide pollution and human disturbance during hibernation. Once awakened, bats begin to metabolize their stored fat. If they are disturbed before spring, they often cannot find enough food and die from starvation or exposure.

The Bat Blitz program at JSU is free and open to the public and provides an exciting and educational for people of all ages.

For more information on the Bat Blitz, contact the Shoal Creek Ranger District at (256) 463-2272. Or for more information on conservation and education opportunities, visit the USDA Forest Service - Alabama, Outdoor Alabama - the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources website, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Alabama Ecological Services Field Office, or the Southern Bat Diversity Network.


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By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) |  

As news of the attempted military coup in Turkey unfolded, I was in Pennsylvania. Travelling in the US, I had coincidentally found myself in the home state of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has singled out as the mastermind of the uprising. Gulen, once a close Erdogan associate until he fell out with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has lived in exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.

In what Erdogan calls a parallel state, the Gulen movement is said to have infiltrated state institutions, most notoriously the judiciary and the police. The Turkish government reacted to the coup attempt by arresting tens of thousands of state officials including judges, civil servants, soldiers, and teachers.

In rhetoric reminiscent of the Stalinist purges, Erdogan promised to cleanse all state institutions, rid Turkeys judiciary of cancer cells and purge state bodies of the virus that has spread throughout Turkish state structures.

The numbers of those arrested is on a truly shocking scale. More than 7,000 soldiers have been detained, 8,000 police have been removed from their posts, 3,000 members of the judiciary suspended, and thousands of civil servants in diverse ministries dismissed, including over 15,000 in the education ministry alone. All levels of education have been affected: 21,000 teachers have their licences withdrawn and more than 1,500 university deans have been told to quit their jobs.

These numbers make it hard to believe that the crackdown is not operating according to lists that had been ready already before the attempted coup.

On July 20, a three-month state of emergency was declared. Academics currently on study missions abroad have been told to return home while those in Turkey are banned from travelling abroad until further notice.

Sustained attacks on academic freedom

Turkish academics have been targeted before, most recently after a petition of the Academicians for Peace Initiative was circulated that spoke out against the governments attacks in Kurdish provinces. The official state reaction was to sack and persecute academics for spreading terrorist propaganda.

The Turkish Higher Education Board (YOK) and public prosecutors in several Turkish university cities subsequently launched investigations against academics who signed the petition. Signatories of peace petitions were accused by the government of undermining national security and of supporting Kurdish propaganda.

The preemptive obedience on the part of university managements was a grim indicator of the state of freedom of speech in Turkey and the erosion of the independence of the higher education sector. Universities started to self-censor, reacting with disciplinary measures including forced resignations, suspensions, and the launch of formal investigations.

Crackdown on schools and students

The arrest wave following the July 15 coup will only aggravate this clampdown on higher education. Gulens movement, also called Hizmet, operates a network of private schools and universities, both in Turkey and abroad. What worries Erdogan is Hizmets objective of educating its followers for the common good and to build schools instead of mosques. Hizmet marries its emphasis on education with a moderate and pragmatic approach to Islam. It is accused of working to infiltrate Turkish state institutions and the AKP itself by taking up influential positions and undermining, in an almost Trotskyist analogy, state structures from within.

It is this paranoia that explains the Turkish governments obsession with cracking down on student protests and anti-government rallies at universities. Repression followed the 2013 Gezi Park protests and subsequent demonstrations at the Middle East Technical University in 2014.

Erdogans message is unequivocal, lumping student protesters together as atheists, leftists, terrorists. Passing bills to shut down private prep-schools, many of which are run by the Hizmet movement, serves the same purpose of cleansing Turkish schools of unhealthy elements.

The world must speak up

State pressure on students to remain depoliticised is matched by the Higher Education Boards work to rein in the activities of academics and teachers. Following the coup attempt, the board asked university rectors to urgently examine the situation of all academic and administrative personnel with links to what it calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation.

The recent clampdown on teachers and education ministry officials in the wake of the coup attempt adds to a depressing list of continued attempts to staunch dissent in Turkish society. Turkey must respect the freedom of speech to which it officially subscribed as a member of the Council of Europe and as signatory of UN conventions that enshrine such fundamental democratic rights as the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Academic freedom of thought is at the heart of a healthy civil society. Restricting the free movement of academics and curtailing the independence of universities defeats the purpose of scholarship. The exceptional proportions of the recent arrests should be met with a resolute response worldwide.

Moritz Pieper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Salford

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.



AFP: Erdogan declares 3-month state of emergency in Turkey
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

APs Fact Check found that as usual Donald Trumps statistics in his GOP acceptance speech are way beyond the damned lies level. So here are some illustrative graphs to suggest the level of his duplicity:

Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in Americas 50 largest cities. Thats the largest increase in 25 years.



h/t Statistica

Actually violent crime including murder has fallen precipitously in the US since 1990. The murder rate is historically low, which means that year to year statistical fluctuations can easily be exaggerated. (Note that when you say things like in the 50 largest cities it is a sign you are tinkering with the sample).

With regard to Mexican immigration, actually more Mexicans leave the US annually than come. A Pew Charitable Trust poll found some corroborating evidence that the wave of Mexican immigration in the 1980s and 1990s has long declined fewer and fewer Mexicans say they have friends or family in the US:



h/t Pew

Trumps fixation on Mexican immigrants focuses on something that was an maybe an issue decades ago, when he still had normal hair.

Trump said, The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year.

This is simply not true. The number is up to 67 from 62. Every life is precious, and no police should be dying on the job, but the number of officers felled annually is quite low in a country of 320 million, and Trump is just making stuff up again. AP points out, the 109 law enforcement fatalities in 2013 were the lowest since 1956.



h/t AEI (Yes.)

Trump said My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian (refugees).  She proposes this despite the fact that theres no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will support our values and love our people.

The percentage increase sounds so big because the US has been taking almost no Syrian refugees. The US has taken a iittle over 13,000, while Turkey has taken 2.5 million. The US Congress passed a Syria Accountability Act in the Bush era to destroy the Syrian economy and the US has armed and funded hard line Salafi rebel groups, so maybe we owe something to the 11 million Syrians we helped make homeless.

This was the situation until last November, 2015:



h/t Vox.com

Refugees are intensively vetted in a process that takes 18 months to two years. Trumps allegation that these people are not being vetted is a lie. Of some 750,000 refugees let into the US since 2001, only 10 have been found to have been involved in anything like terrorism, and that was usually a matter of sending money to the wrong group overseas.



h/t Arab-American Institute
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By Shalom Goldman | ( Patheos )

The Republican Party platform, posted last week, gives the American-Israeli relationship considerable space. Pundits in the U.S. and Israel have duly noted the absence in the platform of any reference to a two-state solutiona phrase that appeared in the 2012 Republican platform but has now become identified with the Democratic Party and the State Department tenures of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Republicans are by inference rejecting the elusive two-state solution, though both the Israeli and Palestinian governments endorse the conceptthough not, it seems, its implementation.

To students of the intersection of religion and politics what is most striking in the Republican platform is the strong religious language describing Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state to which the U.S. embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv. This phrase, with its direct echoes of Benjamin Netanyahus pronouncements, was missing from the 2012 platform.

Democrats too, despite many challenges from the Left at party meetings, have spun a positive view of Israeli Jerusalem, though in less theological language. Jerusalem, the Democratic platform claims, is the capital of Israel, an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.

Equally significant in the Republican platform is the thus far unremarked upon assertion that support for Israel is an expression of Americanism. Like the platforms language about Jerusalem, this elevates the relationship with Israel from the realm of the political and diplomatic to the realm of eternal verities and, one may say, to the realm of theology.

One would be hard pressed to find a better representative of that eternal and biblical approach to Israel and to other burning American issues now dividing the country than Governor Pence of Indiana. Seen from a religious studies perspective, Pences elevation to the rank of vice-presidential candidate seems much more serious and weighty than a last-minute choice that Trump allegedly tried to undo at the last minute. As Trumps choice of Mike Pence came only three weeks after Trumps 21 June meeting with nearly one thousand conservative Christians in New York City, the decision and its wider implications call for careful analysis.

At that June meeting in New York, Israeland Americas commitment to itwas the subject of much speechifying, theologizing, and evangelizing. Accompanying that pro-Israel rhetoric was its current corollary, the fear of Islam. Rev. Jerry Falwell, Jr., son of the founder of the Moral Majority and president of Liberty University, told the assembled faithful that Mr. Trump is a bold and fearless leader who will take the fight to our enemies and to the radical Islamic terrorists. Trump, in turn, let the assembled worthies know where he stood on Israel. Vowing to restore faith to its proper mantle in American society (yet another odd Trumpism), Trump said, Im 100 percent for Israel. But the candidate couldnt let it rest at that. The implication that the current president wasnt for Israel needed to be made explicit. To hammer the point home, Trump said, I cant imagine Bibi likes Obama too much. Hes totally forsaken Israel.

At the 21 June meeting, the organizers announced the formation of two working groups: the Evangelical Executive Advisory Board and the Faith and Cultural Advisory Committee. As the Washington Post reported, the meeting was a display of many old-guard conservative Christian leaders. In attendance, and on the podium, were James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Ralph Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition; and Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University. In his welcome to Trump, former Arkansas governor and former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee told the candidate, I dont think anyone here expects you to be theological today. I want to put you at ease. I dont think anyone here thinks that we are interviewing you to be our next pastor. Youre off the hook on the deep theological questions.

Governor Pence, in contrast, is much more at home among Christian conservatives and no doubt more conversant with the deep theological questions. And if he becomes vice president and lives a heartbeat away from the presidency, the votersboth those who opposed Trump and those who voted for himwill quickly become aware of Pences deeply conservative ideas and intentions. Not that any of this is secret. A look at his voting record in the House and his record as Indiana governor tell the story. Against gay rights, reproductive rights, and environmental activism, Pence is also highly critical of any opposition to the American wars in the Middle East. According to the New York Times, Pence, who has made numerous trips to Iraq, denied assertions made in 2005 that the intelligence used to back the U.S. invasion was questionable. There was no manipulation, he told reporters. The war in Iraq was just, is just, and the freedom of the teeming millions who established a constitutional republic one week ago supports that conclusion.

In December 2014, Pence spent nine days in Israel on a Christmas pilgrimage sponsored by John Hagees Christians United For Israel. Katie Glueck, Politicos astute correspondent, noted at the time that Israel has become a routine stop for politicians with national ambitions, and that the Indiana governors long sojourn in Israel was a move sure to stoke speculation about his presidential ambitions. While in Israel, Pence was invited to address a meeting of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce. And here too he invoked the heartland image. As governor from the heart of the heartland I say with conviction: Israel is not merely our strongest ally in the Middle East. Israel is our most cherished ally and a beacon of hope in a troubled region of the world.

At the conclusion of that 2014 visit Pence recorded a video message to Netanyahu in which he promised to continue the partnership with Israel. I would pledge to you from my vantage point in the heart of the heartland  that not just during this very special time of the year for people who share my tradition, but all throughout the year, that an appreciation for the state of Israel and the partnership between the state of Israel and America has never been stronger, Pence told Netanyahu.

And on his return to Indiana, Pence issued a proclamation stating that Hoosiers have cherished our relationship with the people of Israel for generations. With remarkable consistency Pence, throughout his political career (twelve years in the House of Representatives before he was elected governor), has described himself as a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.

Mike Pences conversion story bears telling here: raised in a Catholic family he found the Catholic Church of the 1980s too liberal and sought a more rigorous theology and practice. Christian Reconstruction provided the structure he sought, and the supporters of that ultra-conservative ideology helped propel Pence into Indiana politics.

As religion scholar Julie Ingersoll noted in her 2015 book Building Gods Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction, this branch of evangelical thought advocates dominion theology, a biblical worldview that points to the ways in which humanity is to exercise dominion over creation, and especially over people for whom they deem themselves responsible. Under the intellectual and organizational leadership of Rousas John Rushdoony (1916-2001), Reconstructionists, in Professor Ingersolls words, laid an intellectual foundation that would shape the twenty-first century Christian subculture, developing what would become the religious rights critique of the American social order, and plotting strategies to bring about change. Rushdoony advocated the institution of Biblical Law in the U.S. You can have two kinds of law, he told an interviewer. TheonomyGods law. Or autonomyself-law. Thats what it boils down to. And autonomy leads to anarchy, which is what we are getting increasingly. To counter this anarchy, Rushdoony advocated a very long-term plan, one that promoted Christian home schooling as an alternative to Godless public school education. Though his ideas might sound very abstract to those not theologically oriented, they take on a greater reality and urgency when we look at the support currently given this movement by the Koch brothers and other funders of the Christian right.

Denominational labels seldom transfer well across religious boundaries. The Reformed churches, for example, have little in common with Reform Judaism, and the Jewish Reconstructionist movement is in many ways the diametrical opposite of Christian Reconstructionism. The Jewish movement, with its emphasis on Jewish peoplehood and the progressive and pragmatic ideas of Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, is the most liberal of American Jewish denominations. Christian Reconstructionism, on the other hand, is the most conservative of evangelical movements.

But at the current strange political moment these radically different movements, one Christian, the other Jewish, both profess loyalty to Israel and its government. And that profession of loyalty, often expressed as love of Israel, has become the most powerful cross-denominational factor in contemporary Jewish life.

To move from the abstractions of religious thought to the political arena: CNNs Dana Bash has reported that Trump was so unsure about Mike Pence that at midnight on Friday he asked top aides if he could get out of it. But I think that this is a bluff: from the standpoint of appeal to evangelicals, Pence is a brilliant choice. And I would make a similar claim about the joint appearance of Trump and Pence on 60 Minutes on Sunday night. Pence may have acted like the silent and meek partner, but in the larger scheme of things he is the important player.

So, while Donald Trump plays the clownor the arrogant aspirant to the monarchyMike Pence and his supporters, energized by a deeply conservative theological-political agenda, are now a step closer to the corridors of power. And for many who share Pences political agenda, professions of loyalty to the State of Israel and its eternal and indivisible capital seem to have talismanic power.

Shalom Goldman is Professor of Religion at Middlebury College. His most recent book is Jewish -Christian Difference and Modern Jewish Identity: Seven Twentieth-Century Converts (Lexington Books, 2015). It is currently featured in the Patheos Book Club.

Reprinted from Patheos with authors permission
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By Mustafa Gurbuz | (Informed Comment) |  

The ax attack on a train in Wurzburg, Germany, sparked the latest controversy on lone wolf radicalization in the West. Recently, just days before the attack in Nice, two prominent French academics on terrorism, Olivier Roy and Gilles Kepel, were covered in the New York Times storynot for quoting their opinions but featuring their offensive slurs to each other. For Roy, Kepels claim that we face emergence of third generation jihadism is baseless. The problem, instead, is the Islamization of radicalism-referring to alienated petty criminals allure to violence in an Islamic discoursewhich seems to be a powerful explanation of the Nice truck driver who truly had a secular lifestyle. Kepel, on the other hand, finds Roys explanation too simplistic. He argues that failure of Western integration policies and increasing frustration among Muslim youth are main driving the factors.

The two perspectives, indeed, are not mutually exclusive. Some 120 years ago, yet another French thinker, Emile Durkheim, coined the term anomie to refer the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the larger society, claiming that being lost and alienated in modern urban context lead suicidal acts. But Durkheim was just too busy with modern urbanization problems and did not explore his theorys implications in a postmodern condition in a fast globalized world. Durkheim believed that someone could take steps toward altruistic suicidethe term he would use for suicide attacksonly if there is too strong social bond that destroy individuals own autonomy.

Postmodern condition proved Durkheim wrong. Feelings of alienation and search for identity have become increasingly relevant under the forces of rapid globalization. Fractured social bonds have triggered a plethora of insecuritieseconomic, psychic, theological, and ethno-familial. Postmodern motto anything goes has found its symbiotic reactionary twin that calls for re-assertion of ethnic, religious, local, and tribal identities. Searching for a belonging, however, did not eradicate ones individual autonomy because postmodern condition allowed individuals experiencing global complex in the case of Orlando shooter, being a frequent to a gay club and pledging the cause of ISIS simultaneously.

What is peculiar about globalization and feelings of insecurity? Is it sheer coincidence to witness global rise of populism and autocrats as well as global revival of identity havens and religion? Conventional wisdom may suggest that autocrats fuel mass grievances, and thus, led to reactionary violence. What if, however, a third factor is at play, shaping both populist tendencies that support autocratsor far right politicians in the Westand fringe impulses that nurture violent extremism. That, I believe, is globalization-insecurity complex.

Thomas Piketty brilliantly articulated the new slavery under neo-liberalism. Distribution of wealth in the Middle East and North Africa is strikingly troubling, the most unequal on the planet, writes Pikettydespite the fact that the region has abundant natural resources. Almost a third of the population is aged between 15 and 29representing over 108 million, the largest number of young people to transition to adulthood in the regions history. Unemployment rate is skyrocketing under urbanization that generates more slums. Having a grim future, economic deprivation, and constant conflicts, the region is sitting on a powder keg for extremism.

Hard economic conditions, however, need to be translated into a religious discourse in a meaningful way. Enter radical entrepreneurs. What distinguish ordinary Muslims from radicals are interpretations of such hard economic realities, which has complex roots and evolution. For moderates, there is no intentional oppression that target Muslims exclusively. Yet, when right wing populist European politicians, for example, present headscarves as a national security issue, the radical narrative gains prominence: Muslims are under attack and a self-defense is religious obligation as well as a survival strategy. Thats where hard economic factors in Pikettys analysis meet with increasingly populist Western political culture, which is also fed by global insecurities.

Muslim radicalization, in this sense, is a phenomenon of Islamization of radicalism. Islamism has filled the vacuum of the social space that left by socialism and anarchism in the 20th century. A search for belonging and identity is especially rewarding for youngsters suffering under the forces of alienation, exclusion, and discrimination. Religious zeal in a nationalist tone, whether from Arab Marxism to populist Islamism or from secular Zionist movement to religious nationalism in Israel, invites us to rethink the future of identity politics among millennials. Growing psychological insecurity is less about ancient hatred, but rather it is where global and local negotiate. Psycho-analytic analysis of Frantz Fanonwho praised violence as repair for stigmatized selfremains relevant as long as violence will be sanctioned by a legitimate authorityperhaps by a Sheikh Fanon instead of an African communist Fanon.

No theological school other than Islamic Puritanism would better fit to a psychology of a millennial. Millennial values of self-dignity and self-made authority may be seen reincarnation of what Samuel Huntington calls anti-power ethic that radically questions moral religious authority. Thus, global mobilization of Salafism cannot solely be attributed to the translations of Qurans distributed by the Saudi elite. Millennial youth rejects their parents immigrant psychology that prioritizes economic well-being over an identity search. Not only those unemployed in a ghetto but also the rich who seek a commanding belonging are now vulnerable to the radical message. They all feel lostbut not in Durkheimian sense, rather in a postmodern wild.

Mustafa Gurbuz teaches Middle East politics at American University in Washington, DC, and author of Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict

Follow him @Mustafa__Gurbuz



Related video added by Juan Cole:

NYU Florence  OLIVIER ROY: THE STRATEGIC LIMITS OF ISIS
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 22, 2016) - Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) is pleased to announce recent initial drill results from the Bellas Gate and Above Rocks Joint Ventures in Jamaica. The 2016 exploration programs at both JVs are being operated by OZ Minerals Limited, a $1.9B Australian copper producer.

Highlights of recent drilling:

Drilling at Bellas Gate is presently focused on the Provost Prospect where initial drilling yielded:

Hole PVT-16-002  339m of 0.34% CuEq , including 10m of 1.79% CuEq

, including Hole PVT-16-001  82m of 0.46% CuEq, including 29m of 0.63% CuEq

Drilling at Above Rocks is presently focused on the Job's Hill Prospect, where high grade copper oxide had previously been identified over a 45 metre by 600 metre surface area; initial drilling yielded:

Hole JBH-16-001  5m of 0.87% CuEq and 3m of 0.48% CuEq

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO of Carube Copper stated: "Results from the new discovery at Provost are extremely encouraging as they show near surface to end of hole copper and gold mineralization situated within the five-kilometre long Porphyry Alley trend from Camel Hill, to Provost and on to Hendley. I believe that we have identified a large and significant copper-gold porphyry system with this discovery."



Figure 1: Location of the Provost Prospect and Lucky Valley Prospect within the NW Trending Alteration Zones at the Bellas Gate Joint Venture.

Bellas Gate Drilling

At the Provost Prospect, a total of 728 metres in 3 holes has been completed with another hole in progress. Provost is a copper-gold porphyry target, located on the five kilometer long prospective Southern Alteration Zone and Porphyry Alley trend hosting numerous coppergold porphyry systems. Soil geochemistry has defined a 400m by 400m copper in soil anomaly where strong to intense density of stockwork veining in volcanic rocks including quartz "A-veins" in malachite-mineralized outcrop are present. A recent ground Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey is also coincident with the mapped alteration and copper in soil anomaly.

There has been no historic drilling on this prospect, but Hole PVT-16-001 intersected copper mineralization from 29m downhole to the end of the hole at 111m. It was stopped in mineralization and abandoned due to drilling difficulties. Hole PVT-16-002 intersected copper mineralization from 29m downhole to the end of the hole at 368.15m with anomalous copper values to the end of the hole.

At the Lucky Valley Prospect one hole was drilled where an intrusive complex has been interpreted to be analogous to the Connors porphyry complex. Multiple phases of intrusions, including quartz-feldspar porphyry with strongly sheeted quartz +/- magnetite veining, have been identified in field mapping; individual rock samples yielded up to 0.44% Cu and 0.67g/t Au. A zone of anomalous Cu in soil measuring 200m by 400m has been identified in an area of poor outcrop. Assays are pending for hole LKV-16-001.

At the Provost Southeast Prospect at least one drill hole is planned. Soil sample data outlines an anomalous copper zone 600m long by 100 to 200m wide. Provost Southeast is some 800m southeast of Provost.

The Calabash Ridge Prospect is new and has been identified by surface mapping and sampling and has been upgraded in priority with the completion of the IP survey. It has been brought to the drill-ready stage and will be drilled later this quarter. Calabash Ridge is situated between the Connors Porphyry Complex and the new discovery at Provost.

Table 1: Summary of Most Recent Drilling Intersections from the Bellas Gate and Above Rocks Joint Ventures.

Joint Venture Prospect Hole Name From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (g/t) CuEq (%) Bellas Gate Provost PVT-16-001* 29 111.1 (EOH) 82.1 0.37 0.16 0.46 including 61 111.1 50.1 0.4 0.19 0.51 and including 82 111.1 29.1 0.49 0.24 0.63 Provost PVT-16-002 29 368.15(EOH) 339.15 0.28 0.12 0.34 including 80 93 13 0.41 0.16 0.50 including 138 148 10 1.28 0.90 1.79 including 189 204 15 0.38 0.24 0.52 Provost PVT-16-003 Drilling in progress Lucky Valley LVY-16-001 Assays awaited Above Rocks Jobs Hill JBH-16-001 160 163 3 0.48 0 0.48 and 179 184 5 0.87 0 0.87 Jobs Hill JBH-16-002 Assays awaited

*Note: Hole was abandoned before target depth due to technical issues. EOH  End of Hole.

The intervals do not necessarily indicate true width of mineralization, as its geometry is not known. Copper equivalents are calculated using a US $3.00/lb. copper and a US$1200 per ounce gold price assuming unlimited internal dilution and 100% recovery of both metals.

Above Rocks Drilling

At the Jobs Hill Prospect one hole has been drilled for 237 metres while a second is currently being completed. The results of the first hole are reported in Table 1. Jobs Hill has extensive copper oxide showings and numerous exposures of malachite with good gold credits. It is hosted in a northeast trending structural zone, is at least 600m long and 45m wide and is open to the southwest. Drilling has indicated an intensely sheared contact zone between fine-grained volcanic flows and coarse-grained volcaniclastic rocks. Mineralization is comprised of chalcocite with occasional chalcopyrite and bornite. Two narrow zones of copper mineralization were encountered at depth. The second hole (results pending) was drilled beneath surface trench with visible chalcopyrite, bornite, azurite and malachite.

At the Bellas Gate JV the drilling is being fully funded by OZ Minerals under Phase 5 of the JV, which includes all work to the completion of a feasibility study. At the Above Rocks JV, this drilling campaign is part of the ARJV's Phase One exploration program, which will enable OZ Minerals to earn 40% of the project by sole funding $500,000 in exploration expenses.

Sample Preparation, Analysis and Quality Control: For a description of these items as pertaining to drill core and soil samples please see disclosure in press releases of January 14, 2015 and October 2, 2014. OZ Minerals, Carube Copper and Activation Laboratories all have robust sample security and quality control programs in place for samples collected in Jamaica.

Contacts

Jeff Ackert, President and CEO  1-613-839-3258  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Vern Rampton, Executive VP of Corporate Development  1-613-839-3258  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alar Soever, Chairman  1-705-682-9297  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.carubecopper.com

This press release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Vern Rampton, P. Eng., in his capacity as a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101. All references to "$" herein are to Canadian dollars unless stated otherwise.

 END PRESS RELEASE 

Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC:) is a Canadian exploration company focused on the exploration and development of copper and gold projects in Jamaica and Canada. In Jamaica, two projects, totalling 188 square kilometres in area, are the subject of separate joint venture agreements with OZ Minerals Limited, an Australian copper-gold producer with a market capitalization of approximately $1.9B. Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in two other nearby projects, totalling 80 square kilometres. In Canada, Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in three porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum properties, totalling 593 square kilometres within the Tertiary-aged Cascade Magmatic Arc in southwestern British Columbia. Exploration continues on these properties with the goal of joint-venturing them to larger exploration and mining companies. Carube Copper continues to seek opportunities in Canada and the Caribbean for acquisition and development.

DISCLAIMER & FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, and by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on currently available information, Carube Copper Corp. provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Factors that can cause results to differ materially are set out in the Company's documents filed on the SEDAR website. Undue reliance should not be placed on "forward looking statements".

IMPORTANT NOTICE: By reference herewith, Carube Copper incorporates into this release the entire disclaimer set forth on our website at http://carubecopper.com/disclaimer.htm

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 22, 2016) -

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR THROUGH U.S. NEWSWIRES

Copper North Mining Corp. ("Copper North" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: COL) announces the completion of the non-brokered private placements, most recently announced on June 30, 2016 (the "Private Placements") and the appointment of Rebecca Moriarty, CPA, CA as Chief Financial Officer.

PRIVATE PLACEMENTS

On July 21, 2016, the Company issued 1.73 million units (the "Units") at a price of $0.15 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $259,500. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one non-transferable warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company (a "Share") at a price of $0.25 until July 21, 2018.

The same day, Copper North also issued 325,882 flow-through shares (the "FT Shares") at a price of $0.17 per FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $55,400.

All Shares, including FT Shares, and any Shares issued upon exercise of Warrants are subject to a hold period and as such may not be traded until November 22, 2016.

Including the first portion completed on June 30, 2016, the Company has issued a total of 3,456,666 Units and 1,305,882 FT Shares for aggregate gross proceeds of $740,500 as part of the Private Placements.

The Company intends to use the proceeds from the sale of FT Shares for exploration at the Thor property and plans to use the proceeds from the sale of Units toward completion of an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Carmacks Project, as well as working capital and general corporate purposes.

MANAGEMENT CHANGES

The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Rebecca Moriarty, CPA, CA as Chief Financial Officer, effective today. Mrs. Moriarty is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 16 years of experience related to the mining industry. She previously spent 11 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP working with public resource companies. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Geology from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario and later returned to obtain her accounting credentials.

Copper North also announces the resignation of Julien Francois as Chief Financial Officer effective today. The Company thanks Mr. Francois for his service as Chief Financial Officer since Copper North's inception in 2011, and wishes him success in his future endeavours.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Dr. Harlan Meade

President, CEO and Director

About Copper North

Copper North is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company. Copper North's assets include the Carmacks Project located in the Yukon, the Redstone property located in the Northwest Territories, and the Thor property in British Columbia. Copper North trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol COL.

This news release includes certain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements for the purposes of applicable securities laws. These statements include, among others, statements with respect to the completion of the proposed Private Placements; use of proceeds from the Private Placements; and proposed exploration and development activities and their timing. These 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 differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include, among others, the timeliness and success of regulatory approvals, the timing and success of future exploration and development activities, exploration and development risks, market prices, exploitation and exploration results, availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and other exploration risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. In making the forward-looking statements, the Company has applied several material assumptions including, but not limited to, the assumptions that the proposed exploration and development of the mineral projects will proceed as planned, market fundamentals will result in sustained metals and mineral prices, and any additional financing needed will be available on reasonable terms. 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 except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

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.
JURIST Guest Columnist Stephen Cooper, a former DC public defender, addresses prosecutor Michele Hanisees remarks concerning the death penalty in California

Speaking in favor of Proposition 66, the ballot initiative that seeks to speed up executions in California to Texas-like levels of lethality, Los Angeles deputy district attorney Michele Hanisee told legislators during testimony before the Public Safety Committee in May:

The suggestion that civilized societies dont support the death penalty is inaccurate. Many countries such as Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore have the death penalty.

Ms. Hanisee is President of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys. She is being sued for lying in a declaration she made under oath during a murder prosecution and, just recently, her claims of absolute immunity for that egregious conduct were rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. While this alone clouds Hanisees credibility on the death penalty debate in California (whether the punishment should end forever or be speeded up), the countries whose justice systems Hanisee extols are even more troubling. Perhaps, in addition to remedial ethics courses on an attorneys duty of candor to the court, Ms. Hanisee should also take a closer look at the countries she is suggesting Californians emulate with their vote on the death penalty this fall.

For example, it has been documented that death sentences in Japan areimplemented with disregard for international law, including denying the right of prisoners to seek appeal. The condemned are subjected to degrading and inhuman treatment, which includes prolonged solitary confinement. Japan even executed an 89-year-old man last year who spent 46 years on death row protesting his innocenceall the way to his long-awaited, abominable end.

In Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore, death sentences can be meted out for drug crimes alone. Furthermore, in Thailand, allegations of the torture of suspects charged with capital offenses have been substantiated by the Thai National Human Rights Commission. Taiwan, which is moving toward abolishing the death penalty, has a record of executing psychologically or mentally impaired prisoners, and failing to have a clear and complete procedure for appeals for clemency. Last fall, in an article for Slate titled, Singapores harsh death penalty: Inside the fight to save one man from the city-states death row, Kirsten Han wrote about, Singapores mandatory death penalty regime where, under Singapore law, anyone convicted of murder must be sentenced to death, with no chance for mitigating factors to be taken into account. (In Singapore, prisoners convicted of low-level property crimes can even be caned, a punishment Berkeley Law Professor Jerome H. Skolnick called brutal, describing how a martial artist strikes the offenders with a half-inch rattan cane moistened to break the skin and inflict severe pain often causing significant loss of blood and shock.)

Like Ms. Hanisee, Ms. Bethany Webb, who lost her sister in the 2011 mass shooting at a hair salon in Seal Beach, also got a chance to address the Public Safety Committee this past May. In her courageous testimony, Ms. Webb explained her support for Proposition 62 (which would, among other things, replace the death penalty in California with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole). In voicing her opposition to the countervailing initiative, Proposition 66, Ms. Webb told lawmakers:

We could be more like Texas. We could start mass producing murder. Well, Im sorry, California is better than Texas . . . Were better than Texas.

Ms. Webb is right. When it comes to respecting human rights, California is better than Texas, where the lust for speedy executions has led to the execution of a panoply of potentially innocent men. And, despite what Ms. Hanisee thinks, we are also better than Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. Or, at least, we will beas soon as we vote for Proposition 62 and against Proposition 66ending capital punishment forever in California.

Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and overseas. He writes full-time and lives in Woodland Hills, California.

Suggested citation: Stephen Cooper, Human Rights: California is Better than Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, and Texas!, JURIST  Professional Commentary, July 22, 2016, http://jurist.org/professional/2016/07/Stephen-Cooper-Human-Rights.php.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) [official website] filed a complaint [complaint, PDF] today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] challenging the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) [act, PDF]. The complaint alleges that the act infringes on the rights of citizens of the United States to tinker with lawfully purchased machinery or software or to conduct research that could expose security and operation flaws in cars and medical devices.

Copyright issues have become especially prevalent in the digital age, especially as users of technology have become more adept at modifying and customizing their devices. The tech giant Google has been embroiled in copyright litigation for the past several years against multiple companies [JURIST reports]. In 2015, a judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California [offical website] invalidated [opinion] the copyright claim to the lyrics of the song Happy Birthday. [JURIST report] Earlier that year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against [opinion] Universal Music Group [website] in a lawsuit also brought by EFF concerning fair use after Universal demanded YouTube take down the video of a child dancing to Princes song Lets go crazy. The case, Lenz v. Universal Music Corp , also revolved around the First Amendment and the DMCA. The previous July, a Belgian court found [JURIST report] that the founders of the file-sharing website Pirate Bay were not guilty of copyright infringement.
Vice State President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh speaks at a high-level segment of ECOSOC (Photo: VNA)

She was speaking at the opening session of a high-level segment on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and coping with climate change of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York on July 19th.

The Vietnamese official referred to impacts caused by climate change, including prolonged El Nino phenomenon, on the realisation of SDGs and the peoples enjoyment of their rights.

She informed participants of recent drought and saline intrusion in Vietnam - the worst hitting the country over the last nine decades, and their impacts of severe water shortages that seriously damaged crops and directly affected daily activities.

While highlighting efforts made by the Vietnamese Government in assisting the people, Thinh expressed her hope that the international community will provide more assistance for Vietnam, especially financial aid, technology and specific initiatives to cope with the situations.

Meeting with President of the UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft, the Vietnamese official thanked and appreciated effective cooperation and support of the UN for Vietnam in recent years, affirming that Vietnam will continue upholding its responsible membership of the international community and the UN.

She suggested the UN effectively promote its role in maintaining peace, stability, cooperation and development in the world on the basis of respecting international law in the context of increasing complicated developments worldwide.

The UN General Assembly should pay proper attention to performing the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development and climate change adaptation, particularly in developing countries, she said.

Regarding to the East Sea issue, the Vice President asserted Vietnams consistent stance of the settlement of relevant disputes by peaceful measures, including diplomatic and legal processes, in line with the UN Charter and international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

For his part, Mogens Lykketoft spoke highly of Vietnams contributions to the region, affirming that the UN will support Vietnam in responding to climate change and realising SDGs.

The UN backs the handling of disputes in a peaceful manner with respect to international law, he stated. UN Under-Secretary General and Director of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Helen Clark said the UNDP will enhance links with and assist Vietnam in improving the institutional capacity, green growth and climate change response in 2017-2021.

Meanwhile, Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Babatunde Osotimehin committed to supporting Vietnam in dealing with new population challenges such as gender imbalance at birth, reproductive health, population aging, and population quality improvement./.
[JURIST] According to a 56-page report [report] by Human Rights Watch [official website] and Amnesty International [official website], Ukrainian government officials and Russia-backed separatists in the Ukraine have subjected citizen to prolonged, arbitrary detention, torture, or other forms of inhumane treatment, including refusing necessary medical attention. The report examined nine instances of arbitrary, prolonged detention of citizens by both Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kiev Russia-backed separatists over the course of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. Ukrainian forces initially detain the citizens and turn the citizens over to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), where they are eventually put into the normal criminal justice system. While in SBU incommunicado detention, however, these citizens have been faced with beatings, electric shocks, threats of rape, execution and retaliation against family members. Likewise, those captured by Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) or Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR), pro-Kiev security forces, faced incommunicado detainment and were subjected to inhumane treatment. The report urges both groups to end the forced, arbitrary detainments, ill-treatment, and torture, and to investigate and take appropriate actions against those responsible for these practices.

Russia and Ukraine have been in conflict since the annexation of Crimea [JURIST backgrounder] in March 2014. In June the OHCHR reported that the human rights situation in Ukraine remains troublesome [JURIST report] following two years of conflict with Russia. In February Russia filed suit [JURIST report] against Ukraine over Ukraines default on $3 billion in bonds. A Ukrainian official said in January that the nation plans to sue Russia [JURIST report] in the International Court of Justice [official website] on claims of financing terrorism. In August a Russian military court sentenced [JURIST report] two Ukrainian activists to substantial jail time for the charge of conspiring to commit terror attacks. In March of last year the EU committed to stand by its policy of refusing to recognize Crimeas annexation [JURIST report]. In February 2015 Russian liberal political activist Boris Nemtsov was shot in the back four times [BBC report] in the middle of busy downtown Moscow. Nemtsov was openly politically opposed to Russias annexation of Crimea and its role in Ukraine.
[JURIST] Today the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [official website] Managing Director Christine Lagarde [BBC profile] was ordered [decision, PDF, in French] by a French court to face criminal trial for her negligence in facilitating a $400 million government payout to French businessman, and Nicolas Sarkozy supporter, Bernard Tapie. Lagarde is accused of allowing Tapies case to be decided upon by an arbitration panel, as opposed to the courts, during her time as Frances Finance Minister under then president Nicolas Sarkozy. Following this decision, Lagarde is expected to stand trial [Bloomberg report] before the Cour de Justice [official website, in French], which specializes in trying government officials accused of crimes related to their government positions. Lagardes lawyer stated he was convinced that the court will find the allegations of negligence to be without merit and the IMF executive board voiced its utmost confidence in Lagardes ability to perform her duties as Managing Director.

In 2011 a French court had ordered [JURIST report] a formal investigation into Lagardes involvement in Tapies arbitration agreement [BBC backgrounder]. Tapie had initially sued France for compensation after he claims a state-owned bank, Credit Lyonnais [official website], defrauded him and sold his stock in Adidas at a much higher value. While Tapie had initially won a $400 million settlement through the arbitration, that decision was overturned and he has since been ordered to reimburse the state. Tapie has appealed the decision and the case is still pending.
[JURIST] On Thursday, Michigan Attorney General spokesman John Sellek said that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson plan to appeal [Michigan Live article] an injunction [decision, PDF] on the states law [law, PDF] eliminating straight-ticket voting. In his 37-page decision, Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division [official website] Judge Gershwin A. Drain enjoined enforcement of the law, stating that the ban on straight-ticket voting, which violates Equal Protection and the Voting Rights Act [law, PDF], is caused by or linked to social and historical conditions that have produced or currently produce discrimination against African Americans. The decision relied upon a report which links straight-ticket voting, generally for Democrats, to higher populations of African Americans within a community. Many Michigan Republicans believe the injunction reflects the corrupt era of party bosses that hasnt existed for one hundred years and leaves the states citizens with an outdated ballot system. Michigan House Speaker Kevin Cotter stated that [a]n objective evaluation of the constitutionality of the more modern ballot, already adopted by 40 other states, would have resulted in a very different outcome.

Voting rights remain a controversial legal issue in the US. Yesterday, a judge blocked [JURIST report] a ballot measure proposing to amend the Illinois Constitution to eliminate the General Assemblys power to draw legislative districts. Earlier this week, courts in Wisconsin and Texas [JURIST reports] invalidated state voter ID laws. Last month, a three-judge panel upheld [JURIST report] North Carolinas newly drawn congressional districts. In April the US Supreme Court [official website] upheld [JURIST report] a redistricting decision in Arizona as not discriminatory. Earlier that same month a panel of federal judges rejected a motion [order, PDF] by Representative Corrine Brown [official profile] challenging the current congressional district boundaries in Florida [JURIST report]. In March the Supreme Court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] regarding an election district plan for Virginias Third Congressional District. This district was altered in 2012 in a manner that increased the already majority-African American population, and the district court found the plan unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. In November the court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in a challenge to the Three Judge Court Act, which requires the convening of a three-judge district court to decide certain important lawsuits such as those concerning voter redistricting. Last June the court ruled [JURIST report] that the Elections Clause of the US Constitution permits the state of Arizona to adopt a commission to draw congressional districts. In April of last year the court threw out [JURIST report] a North Carolina court ruling that upheld Republican-drawn electoral districts for state and congressional lawmakers.
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The delegation laid a wreath at Son My massacre memorial (Photo: traihevietnam.vn)



The delegation offered incense and laid a wreath to commemorate the 504 victims of the Son My massacre conducted by US troops on March 16th, 1968, and visited the remnants area.

Do Xuan Dai, an overseas Vietnamese youth from Russia, shared that this is the first time he has visited the Son My remnants area and Quang Ngai province. He was moved to witness the devastating images of the massacre that year. Through the visit, he expressed his deep gratitude and pride for preceding generations who sacrificed their lives for independence and national unity.

Ms. Pham Ngoc Huyen from Cambodia said that before returning to the homeland, she didnt know much about the cultural heritages of the country. The trip has helped her understand more about heritages and relics, thereby better understand the country and people of beloved Vietnam. When returning to Cambodia to study, she will tell her friends about the culture, history, country and people of Vietnam.

After leaving Quang Ngai, the delegation continues activities of the Vietnam Summer Camp 2016./.
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Presents given to AO victims in Trieu Trung commune, Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province (Photo: VNA)

According to Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Van Rinh, VAVA President, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to AO, with over three being AO victims, including many child victims of the second and third generations. Hundreds of thousands of AO victims are living with dangerous diseases.

Since 2005, the State has issued diverse policies to care for AO victims health and to recover the ecological environment. Over 200,000 resistance war participants and their children infected by AO receive preferential policies set for revolutionary contributors; and over 50% of families with disabled members and AO victims are provided with free medical check-ups and treatment.

However, statistics by VAVA show that some 100,000 resistance war participants have not enjoyed policies for AO victims because of lacking legal papers or adequate medical profiles. Therefore, VAVA will continue to ask authorised agencies to tackle with these problem to help the victims access preferential policies, said Mr Rinh.

Over the past years, VAVA has bettered the dissemination of AO information to mobilise communities assistance for the victims, notably, the operation of the Da Lat city Association of Victims of Agent Orange in Lam Dong province. According to Le Ngoc Son, President of the city Association of Victims of Agent Orange, to mobilise donations for AO victims, the association placed boxes to collect humanitarian money in tourism sites and public places, collecting VND15-20 million each month. So far over VND910 million has been collected by this way, said Mr. Son.

The money has been spent on caring for AO victims, especially those living in disadvantaged circumstances and with serious illness. Over the past 5 years, the association have assisted 1,400 members using VND560 million, Mr. Son went on to say.

The VAVA calling on assistance for AO victims has brought in over VND911 billion in donations from organizations and individuals over the past five years.

The capital has been used to build 24 rehabilitation centres for AO victims; provide employment assistance for 500 victims; construct and repair 1,582 houses; grant 3,337 scholarships; and give presents, free medical check-ups and medicine to 78,000 victims./.
Photo for illustration

According to the Department, Taiwan (China) is the market receiving the largest number of Vietnamese laborers (over 29,200 laborers), followed by Japan (over 15,600), the Republic of Korea (over 4,000), Malaysia (over 1,600), Saudi Arabia (over 1,700 laborers), and others.

The first half of the year saw positive signals in labor export to new markets such as Thailand and Australia. The Government of Australia has announced to grant 200 visas for Vietnamese citizens to go to the country for tourism, but also allowing work for up to 12 months. Meanwhile, Vietnam and Thailand are working together to recruit Vietnamese laborers to work in Thailand in the construction and fishing sectors.

In particular, the signing of a memorandum of understanding on sending Vietnamese laborers to the Republic of Korea has also opened up opportunities for Vietnamese laborers./.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
The coup failed, but democracy did not win.

The attempted coup on the night of Friday, 15 July, was a surprise for both Turkey and the international community at large. Despite the history replete with coups over the course of the twentieth century, no one foresaw a further  albeit weak  attempt to take power this century.

A faction within the Turkish army, allegedly linked to Fettulah Gulen  an Islamic cleric residing in Pennsylvania for decades in a self-imposed exile  attempted to take control of the Turkish state in a rather clumsy manner, hardly even closing bridges or sending tanks to the major airports, while the main target, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was able to quietly call a halt to his holiday on the southern coast of Turkey, to connect with the media on his mobile phone.

As soon as he had landed safely at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport, Erdogan appealed to the people to take to the streets. His call was immediately followed by thousands of supporters and echoed by numerous mosques which began the call to prayer, to support the government and fight against the army rebels.

And at first light on Saturday the 16th, Erdogan announced that the democratically elected Prime Minister and Government are in charge of the situation and all will end well. Within a few hours, large rebel factions of the army began to give themselves up to the police, who remained loyal to Erdogan throughout.

In this fierce struggle for absolute power between two Islamist factions, Erdogan has definitely won over one of them.

The failed attempt led to more than 200 dead, over 1,400 injured, nearly 8,000 police agents suspended from duty, and about 7,500 members of the judicial and military authorities arrested, including several generals. In this fierce struggle for absolute power between two Islamist factions, Erdogan has definitely come out on top.

However, the hasty reading some analysts and international media have made of all this is a mistake. Democracy has not won. The attempted coup will enable the current government to justify its curbing of freedoms and greater Islamisation of the country.

The ultimate, undisguised goal of Erdogan is to increase his constitutional powers, transforming the system of parliamentary democracy into an authoritarian presidential system, where no dissenting voices may be heard without suffering reprisals from Erdogans allies.

For years, the AKP government, ruled as a movement run by one man, Erdogan himself, has aligned the general public with his autocratic model, polarising society to an alarming extent. The model of secular republic promoted by Kemal Ataturk is now being replaced by a populist nationalism that seeks to create a new Ottoman Empire anchored in the fundamental principles of Islam.

Freedom of expression is being brutally suppressed and a war against Kurdish rebels has been reinitiated, the consequences of which are making themselves felt across the entire country. The ultimate, undisguised goal of Erdogan is to increase his constitutional powers, transforming the system of parliamentary democracy into an authoritarian presidential system, where no dissenting voices may be heard without suffering reprisals from Erdogans allies.

The general public in its entirety is already suffering this restriction of freedoms first hand. According to the Reporters without Borders 2016 world ranking for freedom of the press, Turkey comes 151 out of 180 countries. Repression ranges from the case of a 16-year-old student who was arrested for insulting the Prime Minister to reprisals taken against the former Miss Turkey for sharing a poem critical of the Prime Minister on the social networks.

Since 2002, several news agencies have been expropriated by the government, to then be handed over to companies close to the AKP. Tax inspections and tax penalties have been used to intimidate other media, who have been forced to censor themselves to avoid offending Erdogan. Any journalist who is critical of the Government is fired and, in some cases, imprisoned. Currently, more than a dozen journalists are still in prison and several foreign journalists are under threat of deportation.

The social networks have also been suffering a great deal of repression, and several networks have been blocked in times of crisis so that the Turkish public have no access to other news sources. In 2015, Twitter made it public that more than 70% of requests for content removal in the first half of the year came from the Turkish authorities.

Islamist reforms

Freedom of expression has not been the only freedom which has suffered under the AKP government. With the new legislation passed in 2013, it is illegal to sell alcohol any location less than 100 metres from any educational institution or mosque. This has meant the prohibition of the sale of alcohol in most of the restaurants around the country.

Imposing a new, increasingly hostile and strict Islamist lifestyle, Erdogan did not hesitate to make public his ideas that women and men, by nature, cannot be considered equal, and that a woman who is not a mother, is incomplete as a woman; hence, his proposal that all women give birth to at least three children or more, and give up their professional life to be housewives.

If limits to [Erdogans] power are allowed to disappear, and an Islamist authoritarian regime is left to consolidate its position, the darkest days for Turkey will not be far away.

A military coup can certainly never be an answer to these cutbacks on freedoms, or a solution to any problem of lack of democracy and not just because of the dramatic consequences of the violence it involves. It is a mistake not to realise that Erdogan is far from being a hero of democracy, but rather a serious threat to consolidating this, in the absence of any checks and balances. If these limits to power are allowed to disappear, and an Islamist authoritarian regime is left to consolidate its position, the darkest days for Turkey will not be far away.

Governments and civil societies within the international community must understand that this coup attempt which has failed will merely help to further tighten the authoritarian control and cruelty of Erdogans government and his mafia of followers, to appropriate religion and the State to the point of seizing absolute power and stamping out the merest shadow of opposition.

An old Turkish saying goes that when you have to choose between two terrible scenarios you must choose between death and malaria. A successful coup would have been death. An even more authoritarian, self-absorbed Erdogan, and holder of absolute power, as will be the result of this failed attempt, will be malaria  or even death too. Only time will tell.

Deniz Torcu is an economist with a Masters degree in EU Studies from the University of Istanbul and in International Relations from the IE Business School, Madrid.

This article has been originally published in Spanish under the title Turquia: entre la muerte y la malaria by Fundacion para el Analisis y los Estudios Sociales.
KEARNEY - Accused of dragging a bloodied body from his motor home, Kearneyite Mike Muldoon will return to Colorado to face charges in connection to the death of a homeless man.

Muldoon, 64, waived extradition back to Colorado Wednesday in Buffalo County Court. He faces a charge of accessory to a felony in Adams County, Colo., in the Sept. 8 stabbing of a homeless Commerce City, Colo., man.

If convicted, Muldoon faces one to six years in prison.

Muldoon is accused of pulling a bloodied man out of his recreational vehicle, dragging him across a parking lot, leaving him near a tree, then fleeing the area.

Around 9 p.m. on Sept. 8 Commerce City police responded to a report of a man bleeding. When police arrived court records say the victim, Robert Leyba, 62, a homeless man from the Denver metro area, was conscious and told police that "Herman" approached him at Los Valientes Park asking for money or alcohol.

When Leyba said he had neither an argument ensued and Herman Revello, 53, of Commerce City allegedly stabbed Leyba several times in the chest. Leyba was transported to a hospital where he later died.

Revello was initially arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, but was released from custody earlier this week. However, Lt. Chuck Saunier of the Commerce City Police Department said Revello remains a person of interest, and the investigation is continuing.

At the scene, according to records, police found a bloody trail leading from a motor home licensed to Muldoon and numerous empty beer cans and a liquor bottle. When police contacted Revello he had numerous blood stains on his shirt, including what ap-peared to be a chunk of flesh.

A knife was also allegedly recovered from Revello's belongings.

Police contacted a Commerce City woman who had been drinking with the men earlier in the night. The woman had been inside Muldoon's motor home with Leyba, Revello, Muldoon and another man known as Geronimo.

Records say the men got into a scuffle in the back of the RV, and after it broke up Muldoon allegedly put a knife to her throat tell-ing her to be quiet. The woman moved to the front of the RV and saw Leyba slumped over in the passenger seat, while Revello climbed out of the RV.

The woman first believed Leyba was only passed out, and it wasn't until she touched his chest that she realized he had been stabbed. Records say Revello opened Leyba's door and Leyba fell out.

The woman then ran to a nearby bar and summoned emergency personnel. When she returned records say she saw Muldoon drag-ging Revello's body across the parking lot.

After the stabbing the woman was interviewed by police and released. Muldoon left the scene before being contacted by police.

Around midnight the woman saw Muldoon at a convenience store where he allegedly tried to persuade her to tell police a different story from what had actually happened. The woman got away from Muldoon and never saw him again.

Records say an autopsy revealed Leyba had been stabbed twice in the chest and died of stab wounds to the heart.

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Mahabir Pun laughs that, at age 33, he was a non-traditional student when he arrived at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1989. He had trekked halfway around the globe from the mountains of Nepal to Nebraskas flat Platte River valley.

Puns dream was to get an education and then open a school for children of his village, Nangi, population 800, elevation 7,300 feet.

Today, 23 years after entering UNK, Pun is back to thank the Nebraskans who supported his dream for the Himanchal High School  enrollment 350  and to tell about the next steps in his remarkable journey.

Next year he plans to launch a three-year health training program, and in 2015, well start a college. I dont know how, but we will.

Arguably one of UNKs most famous graduates, Pun will be the featured guest from 5-7 p.m. Sunday for the Journey to the Top of the World Nepali cultural night. Authentic dishes will be served at the event in UNKs Nebraskan Student Union Office of Multicultural Affairs.

In 2007, Pun received the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. The notoriety has opened many doors, but the rugged climb continues.

Puns mother is illiterate. His informal education is from his father, who as a young man sought opportunity as a mercenary in Malaysia fighting for the British government. Today, because they lack decent jobs at home, many young Nepalese ship off as laborers to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.

Pun believes education can change that. Sharing his belief are the 100 or so Nebraskans who have supported the Himanchal Educational Foundation that funnels money and manpower to Nepal.

Retired UNK Dean of Education Leonard Skov became Puns mentor and has seen the improvements made possible by the foundation, including Internet at Puns school.

Pun carried back to Nepal some computer knowledge, but it was David Mead of Kearney and Jerry Jameson of Amherst who in 1995 installed a generator turbine in a small mountain stream to power the computers. The 1-kilowatt output was so small that power was switched from computers, to students huts, to the carpentry shed, depending upon the hour of the day.

Later, in 1998, a 2-kilowatt generator was added. Now Pun hopes to raise money for a 25-kilowatt setup. The larger generator could power his school around the clock  a good thing, he believes, because the Nepalese power grid is down about 14 hours each day.

Pun said Nepal could be rich if it harnessed its hydroelectric potential and sold power to neighbors such as India.

After Nangi, Pun brought the Internet to nearby villages, but progress was slow because the government didnt sanction his work. That changed with the Magsaysay Award. Today 125 Nepalese villages are connected in the least populated regions of the country.

Some people regard Pun as an Internet pioneer, but he sees himself more as an educator. Add fundraiser to the title. From his pocket on Friday, Pun pulled a business card seeking donations of $1 per month from donors at www.nepalwireless.net.

The college we will open in 2015 will be a money consumer, but were opening it because people cannot afford to send their children to college in the city, he said. The building were not worried about. We have wood and rocks. What were trying to find is money for the teachers. They each earn $500 per month.

Mike Konz is the Hubs managing editor.

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TORRINGTON  Court documents reveal details about the crash that killed two Scottsbluff women and led to charges against the driver.

Ethan Kaufman, 22, of Cheyenne, Wyo., appeared Tuesday in a Goshen County Circuit Court on two counts of aggravated homicide by vehicle and two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and causing serious bodily injury. He was the driver involved in the Jan. 9 crash near the Wyoming-Nebraska state line.

Kaufman faces charges in the deaths of 19-year-old Hallie Anderson and 18-year-old Alexis Wheeler, both of Scottsbluff. Both women died Jan. 10 of injuries suffered in the crash near the Wyoming-Nebraska state line.

One passenger, Tyler Hill, 19, of Lyman, remains hospitalized and listed in serious condition as a result of injuries in the accident. According to court documents, Hill suffered serious head and brain injuries in the accident and continues to have limited responsiveness and physical abilities.

Court documents list one of the drunken driving counts as referring to injuries suffered by Hill and to serious injuries caused to a fourth passenger, Stetson Allen, 23, of Morrill. Kaufman and James Burford, 20, from Morrill, were also hospitalized after the accident.

According to the Wyoming State Patrol, Kaufman had been driving westbound on Highway 92 and failed to negotiate a slight left turn near Lyman. Kaufman drifted off the right side of the roadway, going into a ditch, and the vehicle collided with a private driveway approach. Townsend said the vehicle vaulted over the approach and crashed into a drainage ditch. The vehicle flipped end over end, coming to rest on its side.

Excessive speed and alcohol usage had been cited by the Wyoming State Patrol as contributing causes to the accident. Court documents outline that a Wyoming State Patrol officer dispatched to the scene of the accident found beer bottles and a cooler in the immediate area of the crash and an EMS personnel said everyone he had contact with from the vehicle reeked with alcohol.

A crash data retrieval system on the vehicle revealed that Kaufman had been driving at speeds of 99 miles per hour in the five seconds immediately prior to the crash. The posted speed limit in the area of the crash is 65 miles per hour.

At the scene of the accident, Kaufman allegedly told the Wyoming State Patrol officer that he did not know what had happened and did not know who was driving. He allegedly told the officer that he had been sitting in the backseat at the time of the crash. He also allegedly tried to leave the scene of the crash.

However, one of the passengers in the vehicle identified Kaufman as the driver in the crash and Kaufman allegedly told an EMS responder that he had been driving at the time of the crash. One passenger in the vehicle said he believed Kaufman had been texting at the time of the crash

At the time of the crash, the six people in the vehicle were en route to a party in Yoder, Wyo., after having left another party.

Bond for Kaufman has been set at $50,000 cash or surety bond. If Kaufman bonds out of jail, he will be required to participate in alcohol and drug testing twice daily.

If convicted on the aggravated homicide charge, Kaufman faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. If convicted on the DUI charges, he faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of $2,000 to $5,000.

Ag Editor Sandy Hansen contributed to this report.
Colleagues and others gather at the coffin of Pavel Sheremet to pay their respects at his memorial ceremony in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, July 22, 2016. Hundreds of local residents and journalists have come to pay their respects to a prominent journalist who died in a car bombing in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev earlier this week. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
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Our patient was a 15-year-old girl who came to the emergency room of our hospital saying she wanted to commit suicide after being raped several weeks ago at a classmates party. In the emergency room, a urine pregnancy test was positive. On admission to the hospital, she was very clear that her thoughts of killing herself came from her rape and current pregnancy. She was clear that she wished to end the pregnancy.

Her mother, who was by her side throughout the hospitalization, supported her daughters right to seek an abortion. Our supervising doctor (who is also an abortion provider at an outside clinic) informed me that our hospital, despite its lack of religious affiliation, had a policy of performing no abortions under any circumstance. Angry and distressed at the patients story, she informed me that the hospital had made this policy decision years ago to avoid conflict.

The patient was eventually discharged to the only available inpatient pediatric psychiatry bed in the state which was at a Catholic hospital. She stayed there for several weeks and was unable to have her desired abortion. She now has a young child, has dropped out of school, and has had repeated admissions since then for multiple suicide attempts that she attributes to her undesired pregnancy and home situation.

Nearly half of all pregnancies in this country are unintended, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be affected. Although abortion has been legal since 1973, 87 percent of all counties in the U.S. lacked an abortion provider in 2008. In the few counties where patients can access a legal abortion, there are often significant barriers to access. These may include gestational age limits, restriction of public funding, mandatory waiting periods, and state-mandated counseling (which is often medically inaccurate). In addition to these barriers, women from underserved backgrounds already face many barriers to accessing health care (linguistic, financial, legal) that are further exacerbated by abortion laws. With the recent civil terrorist attacks on Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, women now more than ever risk physical violence to seek out a desired legal abortion.

Our other patient was 19 years old. She had had one sexual partner in her lifetime, her current boyfriend. They never used condoms. Before coming in, she took a home pregnancy test, and it was positive.

These are the details we had before walking into the exam room: The story of why she came to our clinic. However, we soon found out that her story had so much more to it. She was a child of immigrants, a first-generation college student, and hoped to become the first in her family to attend graduate school. She had never received any kind of education or information regarding her reproductive health. She had never used condoms because her boyfriend disliked them and told her that it was safe to not use them. She had come to our clinic because she desired an abortion.

We were able to see her again a few weeks later, after shed had her abortion in a safe and respectful environment. After counseling and discussion, she asked for a hormone implant for birth control. Through education, she became empowered and in control of her body. Her story would not end with her as a teen mother who had dropped out of college.

While abortion is a controversial political topic, it is a common medical intervention. About one in three women in the United States will have an abortion in her lifetime. Anecdotal evidence often claims that abortion is physically and psychologically damaging. In truth, undergoing an abortion carries far fewer physical health risks than those posed by continuing a pregnancy to term. Studies also show that having an abortion does not lead to an increased risk of developing a mental health disorder. The women most likely to feel emotional effects are those who had mental health concerns preceding their abortion, and it should be noted that they would be at increased risk for post-partum depression had they carried their pregnancy to term. Abortion is a common, safe, medical procedure and restricting abortion access leads to unsafe procedures and emotional distress.

In our experience as primary care providers, we have seen a wide range of patient experiences related to abortion. As these two examples illustrate, patient access to abortion varies widely and tends to disproportionately affect those with poorer access to health care and other social services. Furthermore, unintended and undesired pregnancy continues to serve as a major driver for the perpetuation of socioeconomic inequality. Although abortion access has been protected by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt, it is constantly threatened by restrictive legislation. We believe that primary care physicians should strongly advocate for preservation of an even less restrictive take on womens choices.

Joshua St. Louis and Dana Desmond are family medicine residents.

Image credit: Susan Montgomery / Shutterstock.com
The 11 contestants for the upcoming I'm Not a Celebrity, Keep Me in Here challenge are enjoying their final few days of comfort before they enter the 'jungle'.

In exactly one week (Wednesday), they will arrive at the village hall in Kilmoganny, where they will be searched to ensure they only have the bare essentials allowed in their bags. No contraband will be allowed.

Then, they will make their way to the woods and will stop off in Dunphys Bar for one drink. After that, they'll make the short hilly journey to Camp Sparrowhawk.

Organisers are calling on as many people as possible to be there at the camp to welcome the brave group, and cheer the contestants on as they embark on this adventure.

The event will take on much the same format as last year. The contestants will enter the wood at 8pm on Wednesday, July 27 and the the king or queen will be crowned on Sunday ataround 6.30pm.

There will be trials and challenges over the four days, with voting open in the woods between all events, to allow people to keep in their favourite candidate.

Everyone is encouraged vto come and experience the atmosphere in the jungle  especially when the trial and challenges are taking place. The smell, the feel , and the look of the trials are part of the thrill for spectators.

The contestants will take part in gruelling and gruesome activities while in the jungle, and will do all this for your vote. Each vote costs 1 and can be cast at the camp once the contest begins.

All proceeds will go towards the development of the new Juvenille Pitch in Kilmoganny and also St Eoghan's National School.

If you cannot make it to the wood and would like to Vote for your favourite each contestant have pre voting sponsorship cards and you can record your vote on any of those. If anyone would like to vote for any of the contestants they can Lodge in any Bank of Ireland with the account details 905942 81071027 or through online banking IBAN IE46BOFI90594281071027 BIC BOFIIE2D.

Make sure to put the contestant's name that you are voting for as a reference on the lodgement.

The committee of Lorraine Moore, Ciaran Moore, Pete Dunne, William Kearney, Helena Kearney and Ciara McCormack would like to thank everyone for their generous support. Thanks also to Coillte for the use the wood, and to Kilkenny local authority for the grant of 1000 toward the costs of running the event.
Investors have been flocking to the relative safety and tax-free income of muni bonds, pouring nearly $40 billion in net new money into muni bond funds in the 12 months ending May 31. But such demand has pushed prices up and yields down: The average national intermediate-term municipal bond fund now yields less than 2.3%, according to investment-research firm Morningstar (opens in new tab), down from about 2.5% in mid 2015.

Muni closed-end funds, however, offer a more tempting distribution rateabout 4.7%, on average. (The distribution rate is the annualized distribution divided by the share price.)

That juicier income comes with some unique advantages provided by the closed-end fund structurebut also some significant risks. A closed-end fund has a fixed number of shares that trade all day long on an exchange. That means their share prices can drift far from the value of their underlying holdings, whereas traditional mutual funds trade at the value of their portfolio holdings. And most muni closed-end funds use leverage, or borrowed money. Thats going to boost returns when things are going well and can cause more severe drawdowns when things arent, says Jason Kephart, an analyst at Morningstar.

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Like their traditional fund peers, muni closed-end funds have been popular lately. The average muni closed-end fund traded late last year at a more than 7% discount to the value of its underlying holdings; by June, that discount had narrowed to less than 0.1%, making it tougher to find bargains in this space.

And the ride for investors got a little rocky recently. In late May, fears of rising rates drove down muni closed-end fund share prices. In June, many muni closed-end funds cut distributions as longer-term rates fell and managers saw higher-yielding bonds called away.

Kiplinger's Retirement Report - August 2016 (Image credit: Thinkstock)

Yet these vehicles still offer good opportunities for long-term investors who can stomach the risks, money managers and analysts say, and there are some attractive funds still trading at wide discounts.

The closed-end fund structure can be a particular advantage in the world of tax-free bonds because municipals tend to be less liquidin other words, it can be costly to buy and sell them, especially in times of market turmoil. Unlike traditional fund managers, who have to deal with investor money flowing in and out of the fund every day, closed-end fund managers arent forced to buy or sell bonds based on fund flows.

Look Under the Funds Hood

To keep a lid on volatility, avoid those funds that are using much more leverage than their peers. Enter the funds name or ticker symbol in the quote box at Morningstar.com (opens in new tab) and look at the total leverage ratio. A 30% leverage ratio, for example, shows that for every $1 of investable capital, 30 cents is borrowed money.

Check out a funds ability to sustain steady payouts by clicking the distribution tab on the funds page at Morningstar.com or CEFconnnect.com (opens in new tab). If recent payouts consist largely of return of capital, that means the fund is simply handing back your original investment in the form of a distributiona big red flag.

Jim Robinson, manager of Robinson Tax Advantaged Income (opens in new tab), a mutual fund that invests in muni closed-end funds, likes Nuveen Enhanced Municipal Credit Opportunities and Nuveen Enhanced AMT-Free Municipal Credit Opportunities. Both funds are still trading at wide discounts. Earlier this year, Nuveen merged six other muni closed-end funds into these two funds. That move benefits shareholders by reducing costs and by creating larger funds, which tend to be easier to trade and have narrower discounts, Robinson says.

Another large, liquid option is Nuveen Municipal Value, which gets a positive rating from Morningstar analysts. This Nuveen fund trades at a slight premium, but it uses very little leverage, making the fund a relatively stable option for conservative investors.
Burkina Faso - which means land of honest people - is a 105,900 square mile sized landlocked country in West Africa with a very stormy recent history. In late October, 2014 then President Blaise Compaore decided to amend the constitution so that he may extend his already lengthy 27-year rule. After the people began to riot over this dictatorial decision, Compaore decided to resign. Michael Kafondo proceeded to lead the country through a transitional period before a planned 2015 presidential election. After a failed coup attempt in September 2015, there was a general election held on November 29, 2015 with M.C. Kabore receiving 53.5% of the vote against 29.7% for the second place candidate, Zephirin Diabre.

While this political upheaval was taking place, the vicious miner bear market, which began in 2011, was into the final throes of its capitulation phase as the sector was making what I believe has become a solid six-month bottom. Since political order has now been restored, there has been much activity in the M&A space along with the announcement of another large gold mine start up.

In February, 2015 mid-cap producer Semafo (SMF.TO) took over Australian explorer Orbis Gold in a A$.713 all share deal.

In March, 2016 mid-cap producer Endeavor (EDV.TO) buys out developer True Gold in an all share deal at C$.057.

In June, 2016 mid-cap producer Teranga (TGZ.TO) enters into an Implementation Agreement to acquire Australian explorer Gryphon Minerals for C$0.169. This all share deal has yet to close.

In April, 2016 Endeavor (EDV.TO) announces the start-up construction of the C$328 million capex Hounde gold mine which will initially produce 235,000 for 10 years.

Modern mineral exploration started just 15 years ago and has made Burkina Faso one of the fastest rising gold producing countries in the world. They are currently the fifth largest African gold producer and in 2014, The Fraser Institute placed Burkina Faso fourth in sub-Saharan Africa for mineral potential and sixth for mining investment. Since 2007, nine gold mines have been fully permitted and put into production while more than 20% of Burkinas GDP comes from the mining industry of this tiny mineral rich nation. The country also has a low 20% corporate tax rate for mining companies and the government is entitled to a 10% free carried interest and a very competitive 3-5% sliding royalty on gold production.

Here is a list of my favorite Burkina Faso miners that I have now finished accumulating positions in:

Semafo (SMF.TO) This is one of the lowest cost mid-tier miners in the sector. Their flagship open pit Mana mine will produce 225-245,000 oz this year with AISC of C$720-760 per oz. at a head grade of 3.25 g/t. They also have the fully financed C$219M capex Natougou project with maiden open pit mineral reserves of 9.6 million tonnes at a grade of 4.15 g/t Au for 1,276,000 ounces of gold. This project is currently awaiting the Enviromental Social Impact Agreement (ESIA) due in Q4 of this year. Production should begin in the first half of 2018. Semafo also has an C$18M exploration budget this year to expand both of these open pit mine reserves along with their 3rd high grade deposit in Burkina, the Nabanga project.

Endeavor Mining (EDV.TO) I believe this mid-tier miner to be fast approaching major miner status by the next decade. When the aforementioned Hounde mine is completed in 2018, they will be producing over 900,000 oz of gold with AISC of C$800 per oz from 5 mines in West Africa. Two of these mines, Karma and Hounde, are in Burkina and both have large unexplored land positions with the Hounde mine positioned to be Endeavors flagship, low cost mine.

Orezone (ORE.V) This developer has a very good understanding of how to do business in Burkina as CEO Ron Little and his team have previously discovered and sold the largest gold mine in the country to Iamgold (IAG) in December 2008. Just this week they closed a C$26.5M bought deal offering and now have around C$30M cash and no debt, streams, or royalty (the aforementioned in country royalty and taxes do apply) impingements on their M&I 4.56 Moz Bombore deposit. They just received the ESIA permit and are now waiting for the mining permit which is due in Q3 of this year. This deposit is still open at depth and likely to get much bigger.

Sarama Resources (SWA.V) This Canadian listed, Australian gold explorer and developer is busy with three advanced projects in the Hounde gold belt and a fourth exploration play in the Banfora belt. They currently control a 2.1 Moz inferred gold resource at the South Hounde Project plus a 0.7 Moz inferred gold resource at the neighboring Karankasso deposit which also has a JV with another Canadian Jr. explorer, Savory Gold (SCA.V). Sarama just announced a deal with Orezone to purchase the 0.4 Moz Bondi deposit and they also have a deal with Acacia Mining (US:ABGLF), formerly African Barrick, earning into the South Hounde project via a C$15M deal. The management team is responsible for the discovery of the 22 Moz Moto Gold deposit in the DRC which was sold to Randgold (GOLD) & AngloGold (AU) for $578M in October 2009 and now produces +600k/oz au per year.

Teranga Gold (TGZ.TO) This mid-tier producer owns the only mine and mill in Senegal which will produce +200k/oz per year until 2024 with avg. AISC below $900 per oz. However, they just entered into an agreement to purchase Australian explorer Gryphon Minerals (ASX:GRY) in an all share deal worth C$63M which would give Gryphon shareholders 15% ownership of Teranga. If the deal closes, this mid-tier will have control of the P&P 1.05 Moz Banfora deposit located in Burkina Faso that is still being explored along with highly prospective land positions at Gorma and Golden Hill, also in Burkina.

I believe Burkina Faso will continue to attract major mining companies and M&A in the region should continue as this new precious metal bull cycle heats up again. Major miners need to replace rapidly depreciating ounces and Burkina Faso, with its vast amount of untapped exploration gold belts, has the potential to be a major player in the global mining industry as this new bull market matures.

By David Erfle Contributor to Kitco News

newsfeedback@kitco.com

Follow @KitcoNewsNOW

David Erfle is a 52 year old self-taught mining sector investor. He stumbled upon the mining sector in 2003 as he was looking to invest into a growing sector of the market. After researching the gains made from the 2001 bottom in the tiny gold and silver sector he became fascinated with this niche market. So much so that in 2005 he decided to sell his home and invest the entire proceeds from the sale into junior mining companies. When his account had tripled by September, 2007, he decided to quit his job as the Telecommunications Equipment Buyer at UCLA and make investing in this sector his full time job. He personally survived two bear markets, witnessed incredible sector changes and had to alter his investment philosophy numerous times in order to adapt to changing market conditions."
Supporters of Black Lives Matter gather Thursday evening in front of the Bremerton Police Department.

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By Andrew Binion of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON  Supporters of Black Lives Matter gathered Thursday in front of the Bremerton Police Department, complete with an inflatable elephant with a banner that said "Racism," to show solidarity with a national day of action for the civil rights group.

Jo Walter, of Bremerton, said the group Showing Up for Racial Justice, or SURJ, helped organize the event as a way for white people to participate.

Demonstrators said the department assisted with parking and allowing demonstrators to erect the inflatable elephant in front of one of the department's vehicle gates.

"We know the department is doing their best, but we also know that (people of color) are nervous because of the true violence all over," Walter said.

The demonstrators held signs and waved to passing cars, some of which honked in support. Chief Steve Strachan visited with demonstrators. Children played around the base of the flagpole in front of the department, which is raised to half-staff after the recent shooting deaths of police officers in Texas and Louisiana.

Jacqueline Wilridge, of Poulsbo, who is white, said the group was not protesting the Bremerton police and said it was important to show support for the group because of how racism affects her personally.

"I have five children of color and am married to a black man and their lives matter," she said. "It's kind of that simple."
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Amber Skye Hunter

of Bremerton

Jan. 24, 1980

to July 9, 2016

Amber Skye (Bascom) Hunter passed away unexpectedly on July 9, 2016. A memorial service will be held at Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bremerton on Saturday, July 30th at 4 p.m.

Please visit www.tuellmckeebremerton.com for full obituary and online guestbook.
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Three years ago I was invited to speak to students at Central Kitsap High School about my book, "Breakfast at Sally's," and the growing population of homeless people. My book is part of the curriculum at that school and about 100 students came to the library to hear my talk that day.

At the beginning of my speech, I asked a young girl in the front row, "What do you believe we all can do to help homeless people?"

She did not hesitate: "Give them a home," she said.

I was impressed with the young girl's response. I asked her name. "I'm Katie" she replied. "From out of the mouth of babes" is the old saying. The young student had the answer to end homelessness. Four words; 'Give them a home."

But, nobody was listening.

A coalition of organizations in Kitsap County brought in an "expert" from Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago to speak about "housing first." Lloyd Pendleton is the 74-year-old head of that state's successful program, offered a simple answer: "Give them a home."

Pendleton told the Kitsap audience to "find the 20 homeless people with the greatest needs the most complex challenges the ones using the most public resources the ones familiar to law enforcement and emergency department workers. Come up with a plan to put them in housing. Set a six month deadline and get it done."

At the top of that list in Kitsap would undoubtedly be the same people who have often been labeled "vagrants" by some in our county. Perhaps that approach could be balanced by keeping track of the families being forced into foreclosure, or those who are undergoing an expensive health crisis or business failure. Catching those on a downhill slide into devastating forms of familial homelessness could help prevent the ever-growing numbers of hidden homeless families, who may still have access to job prospects or other life-affirming activities, before they reach rock bottom.

Pendleton makes it sound so simple. His "housing first" program has been heralded for reducing homelessness in Utah by 91 percent. But, to be fair, he has the backing of the powerful Mormon church.

For example  if you are Mormon and you lose your job, home well, everything  you go to your bishop and you will be given housing, money, a job, food, no questions asked. The only requirement is that you "dedicate your life to the service of Jesus Christ."

Six years ago I was invited to speak in Idaho Falls, another town with a high Mormon population (73 percent). The mayor, a Mormon; and the city public relations manager, an Episcopalian, picked me up at the airport, and on the way to a hotel, urged me "We would like you to tell the people tonight how it feels to be homeless. Then tell us what to do about the new numbers of homeless people showing up in our streets."

Utah's program is, in essence, for the state's non-Mormon homeless population. And the church loaned the state a million dollars just to begin the program.

When was the last time any church loaned a million dollars to Washington state?

Housing first worked well in Utah because of faith-based support.

The simple concept is actually not new. It was first introduced in Los Angeles in 1988, where it took years for homeless advocates to show city and county executives that it was far cheaper to put a homeless person into a home than to leave them on the streets, where they would repeatedly need ambulance, hospital and police services. It is in a home that the problems of those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol can be addressed. Without a home, these problems only get worse.

The same approach was also very successful in Seattle, as part of King County's 10-year plan to end homelessness, headed up to Bill Block. In six years the program provided housing to 22,000 homeless people. The program purchased the old Alhoa Hotel on Highway 99, and filled it with chronically homeless people.

But then came the recession, which cost jobs, drove people from their homes, and produced more and more homeless families. People who had never been homeless before were now living in their cars. And the ten-year program was declared a failure by some.

But not for those 22,000 people who were no longer homeless.

Block retired. But he had come to know that there is a transformative power in giving someone a home. You take someone who feels like an outcast, and help them to feel like a member of the community.

I know these feelings well, because I went from being a homeless outcast to being a motivated community member because of the actions of others in Bremerton a few years ago. I can never repay the many people who helped me. But, at age 73, I have dedicated the rest of my life to encouraging others to help the homeless.

So, these questions keep bouncing around in my head:

Can we build or find housing for all 500 or more people in Kitsap County?

Is there enough money? I happen to know that there is; in fact, there's more than enough.

Are there enough people who care about feeding, clothing and sheltering the homeless each day? Yes! There are thousands of people in this area with big hearts; that's for sure.

But, do we have the political will to do it?

There are so many people in our county who still believe in the old stereotypes of the "lazy, drunken, dope fiends, who are worthless vagrants, that only get in the way of real steps to end homelessness." I know this is still a widespread idea, because I ask, and I get around. The other day, a life-long resident of Kitsap told me "You know, most of the homeless don't want help."

Despite all the information and education about the successful steps taken in the housing first program and the empathy of many people in Kitsap, I have to say that I don't yet believe there is the political will to give the homeless a home  a place where they can, and will, take the other necessary next steps to walk towards having meaningful lives again.

Please, be part of an outpouring of support and advocacy to prove me wrong or, even better, to prove Katie right.
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By Rob Woutat

Suppose you're in Japan on business, you don't know how long you'll be there, you speak English only, and you're lonely. You're also married and faithful to your spouse. What do you do?

You simply call Client Partners, or another company like it, and request an English-speaking "friend" for however long you like. Maybe you just want company for coffee, or help in shopping for your spouse, or learning what sights you should see. Maybe you want a leisurely dinner, or a companion for a day tour of the city. At Client Partners, you can request a man or a woman for however long you're willing to pay. (Sex is not part of the deal.) Two hours costs about $115. Part of your payment goes to the agency that set up the arrangement.

If this sounds odd, consider that it's much less odd than having a "friend" in Facebook Land, where there is no limit to the number of "friends" you can have, "friends" you've never met or ever will meet, but with whom you can exchange maybe scores of messages or photos, all at no out-of-pocket expense.

Today we don't commonly distinguish between friends and acquaintances, or acquaintances and complete strangers. In Facebook Land, everyone on earth is a potential "friend," so long as he has a computer. What has become important now is the number of "friends"  as in, "I have 860 friends."

Or in the case of William Scott Goldberg, who had 6,223 "friends" in 2014, and Michael Hibbert, who had 8,942 "friends" two years before that, according to a site called Recordsetter. (Of course new records are set every second.) It was only a matter of time before making "friends" became a competitive activity, like collecting saltshakers. So did the number of status updates. By some point Dawar Kazi and a friend had sent each other these updates 274,456 times.

Here is some free advice: Before accepting a "friend" invitation from a stranger, check to see how many "friends" he has. If he has a really large number, suspect that he collects "friends" as a hobby and likes to brag about the size of his collection.

Somewhere below "friends" on the intimacy scale are "pokes," which as I understand the idea are little electronic jabs to a "friend" to announce, without the bother of using words, that you're thinking of him. This too has become a competitive event. Kamran F. announced that he had poked 10 friends in 6.27 seconds.

Manish S. has 4,984 Facebook "friend requests," and Billy S. admits to having 112,142 unread Facebook messages. (You can "friend" Billy if you like, but don't expect a rewarding conversation.)

(Actually, don't expect a rewarding conversation on Facebook at all. An invention that could allow meaningful, thoughtful exchanges of ideas among thousands of people is used instead to announce that you're enjoying a Slurpee at the beach or to show you romping with your dog, who, like your grandchildren, is simply the cutest ever.)

Facebook has wondrous potential but we haven't begun to recognize it yet. Someone looking for a research project might calculate the average number of words in a post in Facebook Land. Many are just one word: "Cute." "Awesome." "Beautiful." A long post might be just 10 to 12 words. Apparently that's all our "friends" are worth.

Actually, a researcher named Jeff Bullas has looked into the efficacy of messages in Facebook Land and reports that the ideal length is less than 40 characters, at least for commercial purposes. Forty-character posts received 86 percent higher engagement than others.

If Martin Luther were alive today, had a thousand "friends," and posted his 95 theses in Facebook Land, he could ignite the Reformation in a comparative jiffy. A Facebook post could have saved Paul Revere and his horse a long midnight ride to raise the alarm to every Middlesex village and farm.

Be honest, reader: Have you ever written a post in Facebook Land that was as long as two sentences. Or even one? Ever proposed an idea or a complete thought? How often did you respond with nothing more than a "like," which doesn't even require us to type the word? (Facebook Land is a universe of bland niceties.)

Unless you're the subject of a missing-person report, how many of your "friends" really care that you're enjoying a Slurpee at the beach or gamboling with your dog?
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By Tom Philpott

Many military commanders might have been surprised June 30 when Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that, effective immediately, transgender service members could be open about their preferred gender without fear of involuntary dismissal or denial of enlistment or continued service "just for being transgender," as Carter explained it.

He went farther than that, however, pleasing up to 11,000 transgender personnel estimated to be serving on active duty or in reserve components, but alarming some line commanders still puzzled by medical issues alone associated with service members desiring to switch genders.

Carter gave his department and service branches 90 days, until Sept. 1, to write and issue commander guidebooks on handling of issues raised by the new transgender policy. Also by Sept. 1, the military medical community is to be given guidance to begin providing transgender personnel with whatever medical care they require, from counseling to hormone treatments and, for some members, gender reassignment surgery.

By September, Carter wants transgender personnel who experience significant gender-related distress, called gender dysphoria, to be able to begin the process of changing genders. In consultation with medical providers, commanders are to begin approving needed treatments, accommodating periods of transition and minimizing readiness impacts.

During transition, individuals will begin living socially consistent with their preferred gender. That means dressing in the new gender and using preferred gender berthing, bathroom and shower facilities. Medical providers will determine when transition is complete. At a time approved by the commander, in consultation with the member, the member's gender marker will be changed in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System and the member will be recognized in their preferred gender.

On open recruitment of transgender personnel, Carter said it should be allowed no later than July next year. The military no longer classifies gender nonconformity as a mental illness. But transgender recruits who otherwise qualify for service will need statements from their doctors certifying that they have been "stable" in their new gender identity at least 18 months.

There is policy flexibility, however, for recruits who don't declare or are unsure of their desire to change genders as they enter service. Those who complete 180 days' honorable service before deciding they want to change genders still will be provided with whatever transition care they need.

Transgender experts and advocates expressed confidence that the U.S. military, like armed forces of 18 other nations, will adapt swiftly to open service of transgender members and shifting gender identities. They predict little disruption to unit operations and no significant increase in overall medical costs given that the transgender population is so small.

But advocates and experts also acknowledged the steep learning curve ahead for leaders at all levels to understand transgender members, the stages of transition ahead for them, and the fact that level of medical treatment will vary significantly based on individual needs.

"One person's transition doesn't look like the next person's," said Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. That's hard for private sector employers to understand and will be more difficult for the military, he said.

"There's an expected course when somebody has their gall bladder out. I can tell you as a physician what their recovery time is expected to be, when we think they'll be deployable again. I can't necessarily tell you that for a transgender person because transition is unique and specific to any one person [T]hat's one of the harder reasons why it's been challenging for people to wrap their minds around what the impact of all this is."

Ehrenfeld, a Navy Reserve commander, is credited with sparking Carter's interest in the issue six days into his stint as defense chief. With press in tow, Carter held a town hall visit with troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where Ehrenfeld was deployed. He asked Carter his thoughts on transgender members serving in austere environments like Afghanistan.

Ehrenfeld said he was sitting beside a transgender airman who risked dismissal if his status were known. So the doctor asked a question for him. Carter said he wanted to make service attractive to all "our best people."

Four months later, Carter barred the services from forcing out or denying re-enlistment based on gender identity unless personally approved by the undersecretary of defense for personnel, who also would chair a working group of senior defense and service staffs to study the issue. Carter told the group to presume transgender personnel can serve openly without adverse impact to readiness, unless they could identify impediments.

Ehrenfeld, who treats transgender patients and co-authored a book on LGBT clinical health, said Carter's June 30 decision favorable for transgender members is more important than his deadlines because "the real work is just starting. There is so much education that needs to be done, about what this means, what integration looks like  Although policies will be written, changes implemented, guidance given, I think the hard work is on changing our conversation and understanding at the command level [to] foster an environment across the services that's inclusive and open to all."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, promised a hearing on the new policy, focusing on the added cost for military medicine and the potential impact on readiness.

At the department's request, think tank Rand Corp., has studied both questions and predicted no significant impact. Health coverage of gender transition would cost between $2.4 million to $8.4 million annually, a range "exceedingly small" against $6 billion spent annually on active duty care.

Rand also estimated that less than a tenth of one percent of the force would have transition-related care disrupt their deployment.

Physician and retired Rear Adm. Alan Steinman served as the Coast Guard's top medical officer and later co-authored a 2014 study that found no medically sound reason to continue the ban on transgender personnel. It recommended the military provide all the medical care they need.

"If there are psychiatric issues as a result of being transgender that prevent you from doing your job, then that's going to be disqualifying," Steinman said. But "there is nothing inherently disqualifying about being transgender." The previous policy assumed all transgender people were psychiatrically impaired and clearly "that's not the case," Steinman said.
left to right: Cousins Lexi and Ashley Freund enjoy time spent at the Cass County Fair in Atlantic. Both have projects heading to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. As you can see from the KMA microphone, they also did a great job with a fair promotional video you can check out at KMAland.com.
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Visit with federal, state and Blount County elected officials at the Blount Partnership's fifth annual Pigs & Politics Legislative Day sponsored by Paine Bickers Attorneys at Law on Tuesday 4:30-7:30 p.m. at Alumni Gym on the Maryville College campus. Tickets cost $25 for the public, $20 for Blount County Chamber members and $10 for children under 18. They are available by calling 865-983-2241 or click on the Pigs and Politics button at blountchamber.com.

Farmers will battle hunger during the Milan No-Till Field Day on Thursday in the West Tennessee Agricultural Museum 9 a.m.-2 p.m. The event will teach farmers how to combat weeds, insects and diseases through new management practices. The day will include "Farmers vs. Hunger," when volunteers can package thousands of meals to be distributed to local food banks. Registration begins at 6 a.m. Visit www.milan.tennessee.edu/MNTFD/ or call 731-686-7362 for more information.

The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce and the Tennessee Small Business Development Center will host a free workshop for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want a better understanding of starting a new business. The seminar will be held Aug. 17, 9-11 a.m. at the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce office. The discussion includes the forms of business organization, tax requirements, business licenses and financing options. Register by calling 865-457-2559 or email accc@andersoncountychamber.org.
SHARE Alicia Verlinde Katie Larsen Dr. Mary Palmer

By Ali James of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Crystal Cromwell's son, Nathan, has shared a room with his parents since he was brought home from the hospital. He was born premature at 30 weeks and was released eight weeks later.

Cromwell is a professor in Early Childhood Development at Roane State Community College and a certified SIDS/Safe Sleep trainer. She wanted to keep her young son close by, and chose to room share  not bed-share.

Bed-sharing, also called the "family bed," is a sleep arrangement where the family members sleep on the same surface. Co-sleeping, also known as room-sharing, refers to sleeping in "close proximity" on a separate sleep surface.

"He slept in a bassinet next to my bed, then in a crib within arm's reach of my bed," said Cromwell. "We followed all of the rules for safe sleeping: nothing in the bed, no blankets." She also made sure there were no bumpers, no dangling mobile or soft toys.

In her work at Roane State, Cromwell and her department train childcare providers. "They have to follow safe sleep practices: nothing in the crib, no cord attached to a pacifier," she said. "We encourage them to share those practices with parents as well."

A 10-day-old Oliver Springs baby died earlier this year while sleeping with his parents. The baby, Nathaniel Johnson Jr., died after his mother rolled on top of him as she slept, according to police reports and jail records. The parents were charged earlier this week with misdemeanor reckless endangerment.

"From a child development standpoint I think it's beneficial for children to have their own space to sleep and their own bed where they feel comfortable," said Cromwell. "I'm not saying (leave them until they cry themselves out), but I would encourage room sharing over bed sharing."

"There are other countries that co-sleep or bed-share; it's just a very controversial topic here (in the U.S.)," she said. "Parents just want what is best for their kids. If my son slept in our bed we wouldn't sleep. It works for us that he is in our room."

Smoking in the home is another high-risk behavior for children, said Cromwell. Other safety precautions include ensuring proper air circulation, keeping the temperature comfortable, avoiding heavy blankets and ensuring that they put their child on their back to sleep.

Knox County Health Department employees Katie Larsen, a program manager in the community health division, and Alicia Verlinde, an epidemiologist, also advocate room-sharing and safe sleep practices.

"We follow the Tennessee Health Department's ABCs  A for alone, B for on their back and C for in a crib or bassinet," said Verlinde.

Verlinde said those guidelines are based on data. She is part of the local Child Fatality Review team. "There is a state mandate that the death of children 17 years and under must be reviewed," she explained. "We review infant cases to prevent future deaths, if possible. Deaths do occur due to co-sleeping and bed-sharing."

"I've been doing this for nine years, and a lot of people didn't know this was happening," said Verlinde. "It was classified as a SIDS death but these were accidental deaths where the infant was sharing a bed with an adult, another child, a pet or in an adult-sized bed surrounded by blankets and pillows by themselves."

Verlinde said that 18% of infant deaths are sleep-related. "Bed-sharing is not a risk I would ever be willing to take," said the mom of one.

"They've made good headway in decreasing this," said Verlinde. She pointed to the findings of a 2016 Child Fatality annual report. In 2014, 99 infants died from suffocation, strangulation, or other causes in the sleep environment. This represents a 15% decrease from the 117 infants who died in 2013. In 2014, all birthing hospitals in Tennessee created a safe sleep policy to include education for all new mothers and may have contributed to this decrease.

In the report they found four main contributing factors that are consistently present in sleep-related infant deaths: infants not sleeping in a crib or bassinette (79% of cases); unsafe bedding or toys in sleeping area (71% of cases); infant not sleeping alone (66% of cases); and infant not sleeping on his or her back (40% of cases).

"Even something as simple as throwing a pillow or blanket, or an arm or a leg over a small infant can affect breathing immediately," said Verlinde. "Other risk factors include drug, alcohol and tobacco use," said Verlinde. "There are also guidelines that say if you are exhausted (it is a risk factor)  but every parent of a newborn or infant is exhausted."

"Developmental delays are another risk factor," according to Verlinde. "With a two-week-old just released from a NICU they may have developmental delays for up to eight months, or they might be eight to 10 months old and they can't lift their heads."

Larsen encourages tummy time to encourage neck strength. "If you have a tiny baby that rolls into that situation, they don't have the strength to get out of that."

She adds that the benefits cited for bed-sharing don't go away if families choose to co-sleep instead. "If the child is close to the bed in the same space and breastfeeding, those benefits don't go away if you don't bed-share."

"We recommend pack-and-plays (portable cribs) that are much less expensive as a good option," said Verlinde. "That allows them to pack up and take that sleeping area for children staying with grandparents or friends."

Educating older caregivers, such as grandparents, is also important. Safe sleep guidelines have changed since they had children, according to Verlinde.

Larsen recommends the Local Cribs for Kids program. It is a home-visiting program that provides education on safe sleep and allows home visitors to do an in-home assessment before parents bring an infant home. "It's not just the health department," she added. "We have multiple home-visiting programs, and if there is an incident where a child falls out of a bed and breaks his arm, the hospital may arrange to send them home with a crib."

"I think room-sharing is a good compromise for some families," said Verlinde. "I did it for four months myself. You want that baby close by and not have a monitor in the way, you don't have to walk down the hall to breastfeed. And if there is a situation such as RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) or some kind of illness, you don't have to sleep on the floor next to the crib."

Dr. Mary Palmer is a pediatric ER physician at East Tennessee Children's Hospital and said around 30 years ago experts recommended infants placed on their backs to sleep were at less risk than those who slept on their belly.

"Information collected over the past 10 years pointed to the importance of the entire sleeping environment. That means the temperature of the room, where the baby sleeps and their bedding.

"We discourage bed-sharing for children less than the age of three, and we educate repeatedly that we do not allow bed sharing under the age of one," said Palmer.

"Some say they would never roll onto a baby, but it doesn't have to be a complete roll over," explained Palmer. "An adult arm or leg across a baby's chest can cause slow suffocation, where the baby just doesn't get enough air. If it is intermittent they can suffer brain damage. It's just overall safer not to be in the same bed with your baby."

Other factors that provide a safer sleep environment is avoiding pacifiers until after breastfeeding is established, getting babies immunized, breastfeeding, not smoking even after the baby is born and not using drugs.

"All of our nursing staff are advocates for safe sleep," said Palmer. "If they encounter families that are tired or sleeping with a child in a recliner or using fluffy blankets they work with them to make a safe environment," said Palmer.

She said that the risky period for an infant is the first six months. "Many parents say that a child just doesn't sleep well on their own, that they sleep better with them," said Palmer. "This is a stressful, but short period of time, and it will pass."
Photos by SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL People of different faiths and backgrounds gather in West Knox County on June 9 to talk about their diversity of faiths and culture during an program called A Seat At The Table. The event, organized by Religions for Peace USA's Our Muslim Neighbor, is designed to improve understanding of Islam and other faiths through discussion and fellowship.

SHARE A moment of silence is observed before guests begin dining during A Seat At The Table on June 9. From left, Zaynab Amsari, Naheed Ahmed, Anne Dungan, and Zohreh Sharghi share a meal and conversation during A Seat A The Table.

By Lesli Bales-Sherrod of the Knoxville News Sentinel

With plates piled high with falafel, hummus and baba ghanoush, the strangers made their way into a sparsely decorated sitting room.

With only a few chairs arranged around a fireplace, an interesting thing happened: folks started scooting over, making room for others to share their seats, while others dragged in chairs from the dining room and squeezed them into the circle.

Still others stood around, dinner in hand, and the conversation continued; soon after, people who had met each other only a few hours earlier were leaving the evening as friends.

This is A Seat at the Table, an informal interfaith conversation at which participants share with others to learn about neighbors of differing faiths.

"I expected that people would eat throughout the house, but everyone packed into the smallest, most dimly lit room," said Emily Baird-Chrisohon, of the dinner held June 9 at a home in West Knoxville. Baird-Chrisohon is regional organizer for Religions for Peace USA. "I loved that. I could hear the conversation throughout the house."

Knoxville is the second Tennessee city to start A Seat at the Table, Baird-Chrisohon said. The program, part of Religion for Peace USA's Our Muslim Neighbor Initiative, began in Nashville three years ago after the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Center for American Progress identified Middle Tennessee as one of the most Islamophobic places in the United States, she explained.

What makes Knoxville different, Baird-Chrisohon noted, is that community members reached out to Religions for Peace USA wanting to start A Seat at the Table locally.

"They said, 'We need this program here,'" she explained. "We do our work out of broad-based community organizing, meaning the answers come from within a community instead of outside it."

"There are good people who are frustrated by what is going on in the world and want to do something," said Nadeem Siddiqi of the Muslim Community of Knoxville. "A Seat at the Table is one small thing we can do."

Baird-Chrisohon held a dinner for local faith leaders in January to train them on how to facilitate A Seat at the Table discussions. A core team with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and spiritual representatives was formed to plan and host the monthly dinners, inviting different people each time, and A Seat at the Table launched in Knoxville in February.

Thus far, more than 100 people have participated in the program, enough to facilitate a reunion the core team has planned for 7-9 p.m. Thursday, July 28, at Temple Beth El.

"The core team initially invited about 12 people to each dinner, but there was so much interest here that they have doubled their monthly invitations," Baird-Chrisohon noted.

"A lot of people who have participated already have shown interest in inviting their family and friends," added core team member Naheed Farzana Ahmed, a Muslim who moved from Bangladesh to the United States in 2010.

The challenge going forward, however, will be thinking of ways to invite people who may not be inclined to get to know those from other faith traditions, Baird-Chrisohon said.

"We always meet with people who are willing to spread love, but what about the others?" agreed Farzana Ahmed. "I always wondered, 'How do we reach out to them?' I think it is very important for us to reach out to them so that they will see we are all the same. There is no such difference that should make us fear each other or hate each other."

n

Typically, A Seat at the Table starts with a dinner, then splits participants into two groups for intentional discussions facilitated by Baird-Chrisohon and one member of the core team.

The first question centers on what experiences participants have faced that have made them want to be at A Seat at the Table. Follow-up questions may include 'What in your faith tradition inspires you to do this work?' and 'What gives you hope?'.

"We try to keep the questions intentionally broad and based on personal narrative so that responses become more about sharing one's story and less about proving a point on behalf of your faith tradition," Baird-Chrisohon explained. "We intentionally leave time for people to talk after the discussion because A Seat at the Table is all about relationships. It's very casual."

The format was reversed June 9 because Muslim participants were fasting until sunset for Ramadan, but it still worked well. By the time the two groups, which were meeting in different parts of the yard, came back together to eat, folks were so engaged in conversation that they squeezed into the smallest room of the house to continue their discussions.

"There is no right or wrong format; we're still learning," Baird-Chrisohon said. "Each A Seat at the Table has a different feel. It's never the same each time."

What is the same is the goal: that participants walk away from A Seat at the Table having met people from different faiths and cultural backgrounds and will feel equipped to be a positive voice for acceptance in their own communities.

"We need more positive messages of hope and acceptance and community and love to be louder than the narrative of fear," Baird-Chrisohon said.

Farzana Ahmed agreed.

"All of us are minding our own business, very busy taking care of our families, but what has happened recently has interrupted our regular lives, where we go and what we do," she said of being Muslim in the United States. "I realize that most are responding out of ignorance, that they don't know exactly our morals or our ethics, but they see us as a symbol of terrorism."

A Seat at the Table aims to change that, and core team member Tony Richie, Ph.D., senior pastor of New Harvest Church of God, said he's already seeing positive changes from the program.

"People who would have never met, and who had all kinds of muddled and mistaken ideas about each other are sitting down for a meal and a conversation and getting up friends," said Richie, who also serves as the facilitator for a pastoral focus group that is working on perceptions of Muslims in Christian congregations. "The more of that we can have, the better!"

He added that A Seat at the Table already has exceeded his expectations.

"It's been amazing," Richie said. "For example, after attending a dinner, our local Sunday School superintendent got up in church and, totally unplanned, spoke about how much it impacted him. That day Muslims became human beings to him."

n

Clearing up misconceptions about Muslims is one of the reasons Siddiqi wanted to be involved with A Seat at the Table.

"But it goes beyond information and misinformation; it's about relationships," he said. "A Seat at the Table is important because it gives people the opportunity to interact on a more personal level and creates more of a sense of community across all world views. We need positive projects like this that can counter all the anxiety, negativity and fear."

Bita Rahmanian, a Baha'i who immigrated from Iran in 1978, was invited to A Seat at the Table on June 9 and said afterward that she particularly enjoyed the diversity of the participants she met at the dinner.

"Getting to know each other reduces our prejudices," said Rahmanian, noting she was a minority in Iran because of her religion and is a minority in the United States because of her nationality. "Regardless of our clothing or our skin color or our backgrounds, when we started talking it became clear that we are more alike than we are different, honestly.

"I felt close to people I would not have known otherwise, and that setting made me very comfortable to talk to all of them and get to know them," she added.

That's another plus of the program, Siddiqi said.

"A Seat at the Table helps us to create a network of people who would otherwise not know each other so that when something happens, we can rely on each other," he said. "As human beings we tend to live in silos of very narrow fields of opinion and experience, and this helps to reduce those gaps. Now the Muslim community has points of contact within various Christian denominations and Jewish communities so that when something happens, we can get in touch with each other and mobilize together if necessary. We need to stick together."

The core team has committed to holding monthly A Seat at the Table dinners for the rest of 2016, and they hope the initiative will have enough interest to continue and to grow beyond that, Baird-Chrisohon said.

"There is talk of what else we can do in the community to harness the positive energy we've found here," she said. "This work can be exhausting anyway, so one of the goals we have is to connect people who are doing this work so that we can see how we can build together."

Richie agreed.

"I see A Seat at the Table as sort of a pebble in the pond process," he said. "I'd like to see it gently and steadily spread throughout our city and county."

For more information on A Seat at the Table or to join future dinners, contact Baird-Chrisohon at emily@rfpusa.org or the core team atknoxville@rfpusa.org. You also can find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rfpusaknoxville/
Julian Dennison, left, and Sam Neill in "Hunt for the Wilderpeople."

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By Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Add this to your list of movies to see this summer. Actually, make it first on the lineup.

"Hunt for the Wilderpeople" is the kind of adorable, coming-of-age dramedy that Pixar would proudly create if it made live-action movies and not cartoons. It's a well-told adventure spoof with a delinquent kid played by newcomer Julian Dennison and a gruff codger played by veteran Sam Neill, on the run from the cops.

It's crammed with remarkable jokes and great performances, heart-twanging moments of pathos, awesome cinematography and an overall sense of rambunctious creative joy. This is the kind of independently produced delight that studios have entirely abandoned, touching sweetness without saccharine schmaltz.

Dennison's Ricky is a preteen headache for the New Zealand child welfare services and the foster families where bureaucrats assign him. He's in trouble for "breaking stuff, stealing stuff, hitting stuff, kicking stuff and setting stuff on fire."

Never nasty but usually naughty, he's a troublemaker largely because he's troubled himself, a chubby baby pretending to be a gangsta.

As an 11th-hour effort to keep him out of juvenile prison, the authorities give him a last-ditch placement with two backwoods guardians. Warm Aunt Bella (Rima Te Wiata) loves him like a new pet in their shabby cabin; her dismissive husband, Uncle Hec (Neill), regards Ricky as if he's not housebroken.

The creator of this charmer is Taiki Waititi, a half-Maori New Zealander who is not yet much recognized elsewhere. If you weren't lucky enough to see his offbeat writing-directing work in 2014's hilarious vampire mockumentary "What We Do in the Shadows" or HBO's comedy series "Flight of the Conchords" about the Kiwis' fourth most popular folk duo, you might have missed him.

That won't last.

He's directing Marvel's third Thor movie, "Ragnarok," and scripted Disney's upcoming animated feature "Moana," which are about the most convincing seals of mainstream approval a moviemaker can receive. An excellent actor himself, he visits the story as a remarkably awkward pastor turning a funeral service into a nitwit farce.

None of the story's excellent twists and surprises will be spoiled here. Just know that Hec and Ricky go AWOL together in the vast forest, and the boy's social worker, Paula (Rachel House), assumes it is a molester's child abduction requiring a national manhunt. Paula, a cocky idiot who acts like a hotshot and gets everything wrong, is wrong again. The pair's push-pull relationship leads to some scares, but largely draws them wonderfully close together, even as they deal with some uproariously funny perversion jokes.

Digging herself ever deeper into absurdity, Paula launches a pursuit with battalions of police that descends into classic 1970s chase-movie car-flipping. That's one of several sly pop-culture nods in a film full of amazements. Waititi creates a panoramic 720-degree camera turn across a large collection of characters outdoors to advance the story by weeks without dull old-school exposition.

"Jurassic Park's" Neill, a dramatic major leaguer, offers a master class on how to be sidesplitting on-screen without cracking a single smile.

You may have seen unlikely interracial and cross-generational buddy comedies before, but nothing as hip and engaging as this goofy comedy of errors. It is entirely good in every way a family movie can be.
ben pounds/special to go knoxville At the Townsend Wye, cold water is perfect for East Tennessee's hot days.

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By Ben Pounds of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Between the Great Smoky Mountains foothills with tall summer trees on either side rolls the Little River, around smooth rocks, over rapids, into pools and past vacationing families splashing around at the Townsend Wye.

Upon first hearing about swimming spot at the Townsend Wye, I assumed it was a fitness club, as many people possibly do. In reality, it is an intersection in the Smokies of two roads, Lamar Alexander Parkway, which heads through Maryville and Townsend before coming to the junction, and Little River Road which heads on to Cades Cove. It's named for its Y-shape. However, the intersection of the roads isn't the attraction here. The Little River's water is.

It's freezing cold at first. After all, it came down here from the Great Smoky Mountains. Kicking about in it or treading water though quickly made it feel right, especially when fighting the current.

And current there is, especially in the deeper areas. It's a workout for swimming against, although not difficult to swim across. There's a small industry in the nearby town of Townsend, providing rental tubes and occasionally kayaks for people who want to ride current and the small rapids here. I will probably enjoy the Little River in those ways on a later trip and review them in later columns. For now though, I was content to swim amid the cold flowing current, stopping in shallow areas to let fish nibble toothlessly at my legs.

Given the sheer heat of hiking up a mountain this time of the year, Townsend Wye may be a great choice to end or begin a day of hiking the Smokies. For other people, the brief roadside stop to the Little River's easily picnic-able shores may be a trip in itself. You can indeed get yourself clean and have a good meal, provided you bring the food yourself.

The Wye area has two shores for swimming. One of them is shaded and rocky. It sits across from a slanting gray crag and a sign warning people not to jump off of it. Naturally, people do anyway, although I can't recommend it. The rocks here, of many different sizes and colors, are smooth, worn down by the Little River.

The second swimming area, just upstream and separated by rapids from the other, is within sight of the road and reachable from the first shore by walking through some trees. It sits below a grassy bank, which on sunny days is a great spot for laying out a towel or unfolding a lawn chair and absorbing some rays. Provided you avoid the lines of fly fishers here, you can swim across the river here to an opposite sediment-covered bank from which you can watch the river as it flows under a stone bridge.

Both areas have shallow areas for children and deeper areas for people who want to swim short laps across the river.

To reach Townsend Wye from Knoxville, merge onto Interstate 40 West, then take Exit 386B for U.S. 129/Alcoa Highway. Follow US-129 South, then, after 12.6 miles, keep left to continue on North Hall Road. After 2.4 miles, keep going onto North Washington Street. After 0.6 miles, turn left onto US-321 N/E Lamar Alexander Parkway. Parking for the swimming area will be surrounded by trees. Coming from this direction, you will reach it before reaching the Wye itself.
9 mm semiautomatic pistol in canvas holster found July 4 discarded in Third Creek at Tyson Park.

SHARE 9 mm semiautomatic pistol found July 4 in holster in Third Creek in Tyson Park. Kevin Thomas

By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel

KNOXVILLE  Kevin Thomas was surprised to find a discarded 9 mm semi-automatic pistol in Third Creek as he jogged through Tyson Park.

The 51-year-old college professor was even more surprised when he surrendered the loaded firearm in a canvas holster to a Knoxville police officer.

"He hardly said two words to me," Thomas said of his July 4 meeting with the officer.

"He didn't ask my name, who I was, where I found it, nothing," Thomas said. "He never said I'm finished with you or thank you. He got back in his car and was done.

"It just didn't pass the smell test. It didn't seem right."

Thomas was correct.

Knoxville Police Department Officer Wallace Armstrong failed to follow policy regarding property management and did not activate his in-cruiser camera or audio recording equipment when meeting Thomas. Those were the findings of investigations by Police Advisory and Review Committee Executive Director Clarence L. Vaughn III and Armstrong's supervisor, according to the PARC file.

Armstrong logged the chrome pistol with a black grip into the property unit, but the accompanying form contained no information about who found the gun. Armstrong failed to provide Thomas with a receipt for the Jennings 9 mm pistol with 10 rounds in the magazine.

"Officer Armstrong had ample time to activate his in-car video system but failed to do so," Police Department Lt. Rob Taylor wrote when he reviewed the incident. Taylor is Armstrong's supervisor.

"Officer Armstrong said that he believed he had activated it prior to his contact with the complainant."

Taylor also noted for the PARC probe that Armstrong admitted he failed to get Thomas' personal information for his report and "he could have been more informative regarding the steps and procedures we take as a department with regard to evidence."

Armstrong, according to Taylor, did request an evidence technician to process the weapon and a firearms instructor to assure the pistol was clear of live rounds.

Armstrong's infractions did not activate an internal affairs investigation by the Police Department. His supervisor conducted an administrative review of the incident and provided Vaughn with the findings.

Officials at the Police Department decided Armstrong be disciplined with a written counseling form and undergo a 90-day review to assure he does not violate the property management policy during that time, Vaughn said.

Armstrong's supervisors also will conduct spot checks on Armstrong's in-cruiser recording equipment to confirm he is activating the device during contacts with the public, as required by policy, Vaughn said.

"The proper disciplinary action was used in regards to the violation," Vaughn wrote in the closed PARC file.

Vaughn said further violations of the property management policy by Armstrong in the next 90 days could result in a written reprimand or suspension.

Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk has not responded to requests for information about how long Armstrong has been with the department and if the officer has had previous instances of failing to activate his recording equipment during public contacts.

DeBusk also has not addressed if the firearm Thomas discovered was reported stolen or if ballistic testing revealed it had been used in a crime.

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Thomas, an associate professor of education at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., could not be reached for comment on the probe's findings.

"He was thankful that we followed up on it and that maybe it won't happen again," Vaughn said of his conversation with Thomas about the results of the investigation.

Thomas is a Knoxville native who returned during the Independence Day holiday to visit family. Thomas taught English at Karns and Central high schools from 1994 to 2008.

Thomas told the News Sentinel on July 4 he found the firearm while jogging through Tyson Park about 10:30 a.m. He was crossing the bridge over Third Creek alongside Concord Road when his eye caught an unusual object in the shallow, clear water.

"I looked down and thought I saw a turtle and turned around and looked down and saw a handgun," he said.

Thomas fished the gun and holster from the few inches of water in the creek and called 911.

"I picked it up, a little bit in shock," he said.

He made a second 911 call after waiting about 15 minutes. Then he saw an officer driving through Tyson Park and waved him down.

Thomas said the officer rolled down his cruiser window and greeted him with, "What is your problem?" The officer said he had not been assigned the call about the gun discovery.

Thomas explained his discovery and retrieved the weapon from a box he had set it in so he was not holding a gun when an officer arrived. Thomas said the officer wordlessly brushed mud and dirt from the firearm and got back into his cruiser.

Thomas said he waited about five minutes and left after it appeared the officer was finished with him. The encounter left him befuddled about the Police Department's policy regarding recovered firearms.

"A gun in a creek in a public park is a public safety issue and begs the question how did it get there," Thomas wrote in his July 6 complaint to PARC.

"Guns are expensive and for someone to throw one in a creek means it was probably used for something it should not. What if a child had found it?"
SHARE Six people have been indicted in a heroin conspiracy. Top row, from left: Abraham James Owens, Daton Darrell Matthews and Bernard D. Malone. Bottom row, from left: Jaidarius Deshawn Prigmore, Deshawn Marques Matthews and Jeanesha Marie Chandler. (KNOX COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE) Knoxville Police Department Chief David Rausch makes a statement regarding the indictment of several alleged members of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords criminal street gang for heroin distribution conspiracy and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, Friday, July 22, 2016. The arrests follow a joint investigation conducted by the District Attorney General's Office, the Knoxville Police Department, the Knox County Sheriff's Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. This prosecution will mark the first time the state RICO Act has been charged in Knox County. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen makes a statement Friday regarding the indictment of several alleged members of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords criminal street gang on charges of heroin distribution conspiracy and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. The arrests follow a joint investigation conducted by the District Attorney General's Office, the Knoxville Police Department, the Knox County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Allen is joined by Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch, Joe Reece of Appalachia HIDTA and Mike Sarhatt, DEA resident agent in charge.

By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Faced with two deadly epidemics  gang violence and opiate addiction  Knox County's law enforcers and prosecutors unveiled Friday a new tool and a new case targeting both.

For the first time in Knox County history, authorities are employing the state's Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO, in the prosecution of alleged members of a street gang also accused of peddling heroin.

Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen announced the indictment of six people accused as heroin dealers, five of whom the state alleges are also members of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords, a sect of the Vice Lords gang that originated decades ago in Chicago. The sixth defendant is charged with plotting to sell heroin, too, but is not listed under the gang enhancement section of the 30-count indictment.

RICO cases are rare, generally used by federal prosecutors and typically involve mob activity, such as loansharking and forcing business owners to pay protection money. But the state RICO law includes a definition of racketeering involving the sale of illegal drugs so long as the quantities involved are large enough to rate top-tier felony charges and so long as the dealers acted as an "enterprise," made money, had a "meeting of the minds" and committed an "overt act" the government can prove.

Prosecutor Sean McDermott insisted Friday the Mafia Insane Vice Lords  and this particular group of five men  qualify for RICO action because, unlike drug dealers who also happen to be in a gang, this sect is highly organized and works together.

"They pay dues," he said. "They have oaths. They have a mission statement. They are very organized."

Charged in the indictment are Abraham James Owens, alias "Brickz," 34; Daton Darrell Matthews, alias "D," 21; Deshawn Marques Matthews, alias "Shawn Doe," 19; Bernard D. Malone, alias "Fish Bone," 26; Jaidarius Deshawn Prigmore, 20; and Jeanesha Marie Chandler, 21.

All are accused of conspiracy to deal heroin within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, recreational center or public park. Each are charged with racketeering. The five men also face a gang enhancement count. Chandler, the sole woman in the group, does not. Other charges against individual members include going armed while dealing drugs, being felons in possession of guns and various acts of drug possession and dealing.

The conspiracy charges carry penalties tougher than those under RICO. Federal prosecutors in the early 2000s specifically rejected RICO as too complicated to prove and unnecessary when tackling another street gang as an organization  the Imperial Insane Vice Lords in East Knoxville. Instead, the feds looked to garden-variety drug conspiracy charges and sent more than two dozen Vice Lords to federal prison  some, including the leader, for life.

"Our morgue is full of children and adults who have fallen prey to the heroin epidemic," Allen said. "So many families in our county have been affected by this drug epidemic. This particular charge should be a message to these families  we hear you. I hear you."

Noting his pledge to tackle violence by street gangs in the wake of the deaths of two innocents  Zaevion Dobson, 15, and his cousin, JaJuan Latham, 12,  in two separate shootings earlier this year, Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch called the RICO case proof of his commitment.

"You can either get out of the gang or you can go to prison for the rest of your life," Rausch said. "It's your choice."

The indictment alleges a heroin conspiracy that spanned from January 2015 to last month. Knoxville police spearheaded the probe, which involved traditional drug-fighting techniques such as using informants, setting up buys, conducting surveillance and executing search warrants. Also mentioned at the news conference was help from the Knox County Sheriff's Office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and members of the federally-designated Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area team. Daniel Salter, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Knoxville office, also attended Friday's news conference.

Asked why the case was being prosecuted in state court instead of federal, where penalties are often tougher and prosecutions more streamlined, Rausch said he believed state charges were more appropriate. He did not say whether the case had been offered for federal prosecution.

The U.S. attorney's office serves as gatekeeper on which drug cases are prosecuted federally.

"You weigh out the pros and cons," Rausch said. "We felt most comfortable with where we are in this case."

According to Allen, 140 Knox County residents have died from opiate overdoses this year so far, compared to half that number in all of 2015. Although the opiate epidemic remains rooted in prescription painkillers, such as oxycodone, heroin has surfaced as a popular substitute because it is cheaper, more potent and easier to obtain. It's also more deadly, particularly when mixed with fentanyl, a morphine-based synthetic drug easily and cheaply available on what authorities call the "dark web," the underground portion of the Internet.

In the case announced Friday, McDermott, who heads the prosecution with Assistant District Attorney General Phil Morton, said members of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords made heroin their business, and use of the RICO statute recognizes that distinction.

"It charges the organization as a whole," he said.
An Aedes (Ochlerotatus) mosquito is pictured on human skin. (USDA/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Knox County has its first confirmed case of mosquito-borne Zika.

The person recently returned to the U.S. from an area overseas where Zika is prevalent, reported the Knox County Health Department, which received lab confirmation of the case from the state Department of Health on Friday. The person, who is not being identified, is expected to recover fully, health officials said.

Officials did not give other details about the person who was infected.

"We've been expecting a travel-associated case of Zika virus and believe more are likely as people travel to and from areas with active Zika transmission," said health department director Dr. Martha Buchanan. "It's important for the public to know that we still have not seen local transmission in the continental U.S. However, it's also crucial for the public to know that they play a major role in preventing local transmission by taking precautions to prevent mosquito bites and by eliminating mosquito habitats on their properties and at their businesses" by dumping out standing water and using repellent.

As of July 20, 1,404 cases of Zika have been reported in the continental U.S. and Hawaii  98 more than the previous week. That includes 14 cases in Tennessee, none of which were the result of local spread by mosquitoes.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Florida public health officials are investigating whether an infected woman near Miami might have been bitten by an infected mosquito in the U.S., but health officials said Thursday they haven't ruled out sexual transmission through someone who had recently traveled outside the country. Mosquitoes tested as part of this investigation have so far tested negative for Zika, health officials said.

Zika is spread primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito but can be transmitted through sexual contact also. Most people infected with Zika do not become ill, and those who do have mild symptoms like fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis.

No vaccine or medications are yet available to prevent or treat Zika. Symptoms are treated with plenty of rest, fluids and medicine to relieve fever and pain. Severe illness requiring hospitalization is uncommon, and deaths are rare.

But the virus is dangerous to pregnant women because it's been linked to microcephaly and other fetal brain defects.

The CDC recommends pregnant women consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

As of July 14, 400 pregnant women in the U.S. have been infected  54 more than the previous week.
SHARE Delegate Susan Richardson Williams of Knoxville celebrates the nomination process of Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The former University of Tennessee trustee and member of the TVA board of directors has attended nine conventions. (VICTOR ASHE / Special to the News Sentinel)

By Victor Ashe

Victor Ashe, former Knoxville mayor and U.S. ambassador to Poland, has been writing a "Delegate Diary" for the News Sentinel from the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, which ends Thursday. Ashe was elected to attend as a delegate for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

CLEVELAND  One take from the 2016 Republican National Convention is clearly the role that GOP presidential nominee Trump children have on their father.

All have been showcased in prime time  and all have performed well. The breakfast meeting with Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday was outstanding if you were a Trump advocate or a Republican seeking reassurance.

It is clear that they advise their father on the campaign as they assist him in running his business. The issue to which there is not an answer yet is what role would they play in a Trump White House.

Federal law does not permit their employment by a President Trump. A few years after President John F. Kennedy named Robert Kennedy as attorney general, Congress changed the law to prohibit presidents from appointing close relatives to federal positions.

However, they are excellent ambassadors for Trump in this current campaign.

Hot Topics

The Atlantic magazine has been sponsoring breakfasts and some lunches during convention week at the Blue Pointe Grill in Cleveland, with in-depth analysis of various topics.

On Thursday morning the conversation generally ranged from a tough and uphill climb for Trump to reach the White House to the future of the GOP. Most felt U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who came up short in his nomination run, used his time Wednesday night not endorsing trump "for his benefit."

Some felt if Trump wins without him, Cruz will be finished in politics, while others felt if Trump fails in November then Cruz has positioned himself well for 2020.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has of this writing not endorsed Trump either. He urged Trump to give a positive speech Thursday night but never stated if Trump meets the threshold for support. Trump delegates at the convention are very disappointed with Haslam.

Susan Richardson Williams, longtime GOP activist and close friend of Haslam, keeps saying the Tovernor will back Trump yet.

Other comments on the panel:

"Lots of folks want to vote for Trump but want reassurance that it is a responsible vote."

"Both Trump and Clinton have bad favorability numbers."

"How does Trump get white women to vote for him at the Romney level in 2012?"

"Trump has been handing Hillary the biggest political gifts of her life with his behavior."

"Trump needs to help (Libertarian candidate Gary) Johnson get off the bench to take votes from Hillary."

"There is enough anger you can see a record turnout in November and a closet vote for Trump."

"30 percent of the voters are saying they do not like either one of the two candidates."

Table Talk

The Tennessee delegation had breakfast at their Thursday morning and U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma was the featured speaker. Also attending was state Sens. Mark Green of Clarksville and Mark Norris of Collierville, who talked about Tennessee's gubernatorial race in 201.

Knoxville's Randy Boyd, Tennessee's commissioner of economic and community development, and Secretary of State Tre Hargett were also working the delegation.

Then the delegation moved to the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar for an afternoon luncheon party sponsored by Boyd, who repeated his endorsement of Trump in a talk to the 200 gathered on Cleveland's waterfront. Also mingling in the crowd was Republican National Committeeman John Ryder, who is mentioned as a possible RNC chair in 2017, as well as Tennessee state Sens. Mae Beavers of Mt. Juliet and Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro.
Tennessee native Isaac Wright is executive director of Correct the Record, a Washington-based rapid research team that defends Hillary Clinton against political attacks. (MICHAEL COLLINS/USA TODAY)

By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  Before most of the speakers trash-talking Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention had even left the stage, Isaac Wright and his small army of fact-checkers were already blasting out real-time rebuttals in Clinton's defense.

"Lyin' Ted Lies And Fear Mongers About Syrian Refugees," screamed the all-caps headline on a take-down of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"Pence Lies About Hillary's Comments About The Benghazi Tragedy," trumpeted a critique of the prime-time address by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the GOP vice presidential nominee.

In its biggest coup, the group got its hands on an advance copy of Donald Trump's acceptance speech and then compiled and distributed a report on what it called "Trump's lies"  hours before the GOP nominee for president delivered the address to the convention's delegates and the nation Thursday night.

"It's important to stop false narratives and untrue things before they become accepted," said Wright, the West Tennessee native who runs the pro-Clinton group, Correct the Record.

Wright, a bearded father of two who cut his teeth on political races in Tennessee and other southeastern states, has been the super PAC's executive director since 2013.

In an era when untruths can spread with lightning speed across the globe, Correct the Record exists to provide a rapid-response defense of Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, against what it calls baseless right-wing attacks.

The group's operations center, or "war room," is located on the sixth floor of a modern, glass-front high-rise office building in one of Washington's up-and-coming neighborhoods.

Virtually around the clock, the group's researchers, communications experts and digital gurus monitor live news feeds from the major television networks, cable channels and even local television markets. They search newspapers and keep watch on social media sites for any disparaging or misleading remarks about Clinton and her record.

Whenever they spot what they believe is a distortion or outright lie, they fight back  with point-by-point fact-checks quickly disseminated to the news media, with slick videos that often use the offenders' own words against them, and with a cascade of social media posts on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

"People in our war room are brilliant  they are some of the brightest minds in Washington," Wright said earlier this week from the cubbyhole of an office where he oversees the group's operations.

Directly behind Wright's desk, on a mint-green wall, hangs the sparsely decorated office's most prominent feature  a huge whiteboard that, on this particular day, has been wiped clean to keep a reporter from seeing what projects the group has in the works. Tacked to an adjacent wall are posters of Clinton's campaign logo.

Wright, who grew up in Martin, Tennessee, nearly three hours northwest of Nashville, has been an admirer of Clinton for years. He served as the South Carolina communications director on her first presidential campaign back in 2008.

Probably no one in history has been more qualified to be president than Clinton, Wright says. Polls show that a majority of Americans believe she is not honest or trustworthy, but Wright attributes her high negatives to a long-term attack "from the right-wing spin machine that goes back years."

"They realize she is somebody with not just a vision, but with the leadership and capability to implement that vision and move America forward," he said. "And effective leadership scares partisan politicians on the other side."

Wright, a graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, was working on political campaigns and as a public affairs consultant in Little Rock, Arkansas, when he got a call in fall 2013 telling him about a new group being founded by conservative-turned-liberal author David Brock to defend Clinton against such attacks.

The group was Correct the Record, and Wright quickly signed on.

Before the organization was fully staffed, Wright penned some of its first defenses of Clinton. His role today is more like a chief operating officer. He handles budget and personnel matters, oversees a staff of nearly 40 and helps with communications and messaging, said Brad Woodhouse, the group's president.

"He has a calm and steady demeanor, which is not typical of people in this business," Woodhouse said. "He's a great strategist. He really understands the convergence of communications strategy, social media strategy, good solid messaging to voters, to the press. And he's incredibly organized."

Wright's first exposure to a campaign war room was as a young staffer on then-Vice President Al Gore's campaign for president in 2000. During political debates that year, he was given the task of making sure that rapid-response materials that needed vetting were seen by the right people before they were sent out. Once they were approved, he clicked the "send" button.

His stint with Gore's campaign was followed by other jobs in politics and government. He worked on the congressional staff of then-Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Memphis, and on Ford's unsuccessful campaign for Senate. He also served as a campaign adviser and communications director to Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and later helped Jay Nixon get elected governor of Missouri.

During his time in Arkansas, Wright, 36, said he developed an even deeper appreciation for what Clinton accomplished during her time as the state's first lady and in her later roles on the national stage.

Clinton listens to people  really listens, he said, something he witnessed when he worked on her first presidential campaign.

Wright recalls traveling with Clinton's entourage on one of her campaign swings through South Carolina in January 2008. As they were leaving one event, he mentioned in passing that he needed to call his mother, Jenna, and wish her happy birthday. Clinton asked his mother's name.

When they got to the next campaign stop, Clinton's aide, Huma Abedin, handed him Clinton's note card containing her campaign schedule for the day. On the back, in Clinton's handwriting, was a message to his mom: "Happy Birthday, Jenna," it said.

Wright's older sister died before he was born, so he grew up as an only child who was especially close to his parents. Clinton's thoughtfulness touched him and his parents in ways she could never have imagined, he said.

"She had no way to know what an impact that would have," he said. "But she cared enough that, in the middle of a campaign for the most important position probably in the world, she stopped and was concerned that my mom hear from her son on her birthday.

"Somebody with that kind of heart and care is who I want to lead the free world."
President Barack Obama addresses the overnight shooting of police officers in Dallas, Texas, before attending the NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, July 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In this bruising summer of black and blue tension, credit Mayor Madeline Rogero for proactively preaching peace in the aftermath of yet another ambush of police officers by a black man. Gavin Long killed three cops in Baton Rouge and wounded others after raging online against police.

"I am concerned about some heightened rhetoric among some small groups against our police officers and government, and there's heightened rhetoric I've read against the protestors," Rogero said at the opening of a City Council meeting this week. "Both of those, in my opinion, are irresponsible."

If she really wants to tamp down the "heightened rhetoric among some small groups against our police officers," perhaps she should give her friend in Washington a call, the one who bullies from his pulpit, the one who, based a study by a black Harvard economist, spreads false narratives.

"These are not isolated incidents," said President Barack Obama from Poland after Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were killed by police officers. "They're symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system. And I just want to give people a few statistics to try to put in context why emotions are so raw around these issues."

Obama said blacks are more likely to be pulled over and more likely to be searched by police officers. Then, Obama resorted to the "heightened rhetoric" that fuels guys like Long to kill cops: "Last year African-Americans were shot by police at more than twice the rate of whites."

This narrative is so pervasive the New York Times seemed shocked when reporting on a study by Roland G. Fryer Jr., a black professor of economics at Harvard. "Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings" the Times cringed, exposing the untruth of Obama.

Fryer and his team looked at 1,332 police reports of police shootings between 2010 and 2015 (which would include Obama's "last year," by the way) in Houston; Austin, Texas; Dallas; Los Angeles; Orlando, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and four other counties in Florida.

"In shootings in these 10 cities involving officers, officers were more likely to fire their weapons without having first been attacked when the suspects were white," the Times reported, the exact opposite of the core construct of Obama and Black Lives Matter. "Black and white civilians involved in police shootings were equally likely to have been carrying a weapon. Both results undercut the idea of racial bias in police use of lethal force."

Heather MacDonald, author of "The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe," explains Obama's other distorted reality in the City Journal: "Missing from Obama's (Poland) address was any mention of the massive racial differences in criminal offending and criminal records that fully account for arrest rates and sentence lengths."

So, yes, let's tamp down the rhetoric. More importantly, let's get the rhetoric right. Especially the heightened, irresponsible rhetoric emanating from the Oval Office.
Sunrise grazes rocks at Myrtle Point on Mount LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014. (NEWS SENTINEL PHOTO)

Next month will mark the official 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, but the celebration in our own Great Smoky Mountains National Park and elsewhere began months ago and will continue throughout the year.

As land protected by the federal government, the park system began long before President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service on Aug. 25, 1916. Congress, in 1872, had established the Yellowstone National Park in parts of Wyoming and Montana, both territories at the time.

Entering the park system on the eve of World War II, the Smokies has a couple of decades to go before reaching its centennial anniversary. Yet, it is the most visited of the national parks in the United States, and it likely will remain at the top of that list during this celebratory year.

For Cassius Cash, the superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the centennial assignment is proving to be a labor of love  if it's a labor at all.

Cash, appointed in 2014, is the 22nd Smokies superintendent and the first black person to hold the position. His race, however, is not the important factor: "What matters is my journey," he said, a sojourn that led from Memphis to a love of the outdoors and a role as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

Cash recently participated with a group of middle-schoolers as part of the Junior Naturalists program hosted by the Smoky Mountain Field School, joining the youths on the park's Porter's Creek Trail about 6 miles east of Gatlinburg.

One eighth-grader was impressed by having hiked with the superintendent. "He's an important figure and he's decided to hang out with us," he said. "I think that's pretty awesome."

Explaining his job and perhaps his philosophy, Cash said: "I believe there is a whole generation out there waiting to be ushered into the outdoors." He was speaking not only about the natural beauty of the national parks. "I'm talking about how they can become sanctuaries for the soul," he continued. "This is a leadership moment, not just for me but for the entire park service."

The national park movement, which was strong in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, benefited mightily from the influence of Theodore Roosevelt, both as president (1901-1909) and as a private citizen. Years later, it was another Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who helped provide the final funding and dedicated the Smokies as a national park.

In a year of political discord and social unrest, the national parks' centennial birthday is truly something that should bring Americans together, since so many citizens have visited at least one national park. Indeed, the parks are one of our strongest institutions supported by enlightened government for the welfare and happiness of its citizens and for the study and protection of our natural environment.

The current celebration, the park service says, is as much about the future as the past. It is easy to tout the treasures of what is in our midst. Yet, the education for stewardship of our natural resources is ongoing. As previous generations gave us the parks, it is up to all of us to ensure their existence for generations to come.
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Suppose we imagine the actions of two cultures reversed. Would Muslims react the same as Americans if groups of Christian terrorists were killing and beheading innocent Muslims worldwide? Would Muslims accept the right of Christians to slaughter Muslims? Would Muslims believe the terror was only because of overexuberant Christians? Would the Muslim world passively accept such actions by Christian terrorists? Would the Muslim world resort to armed conflict? History records some Christians in centuries past putting non-believers to death. Maybe they weren't labeled terrorists, but then as now, innocents being targeted for death had few ways to protect themselves.

Eddie Madden, Oak Ridge
Tennessee representative Marsha Blackburn speaks during the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena.

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By Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

CLEVELAND  For U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn on the final night of the Republican National Convention, unity meant slamming Hillary Clinton and finding true leadership.

The Brentwood Republican used her prime time speech to bash Clinton, following the general theme of the entire convention, before evoking Abraham Lincoln to outline why Donald Trump should become that leader.

We are in desperate need of true leadership and unity. The last eight years have been a challenge, to our national and household budgets, our Constitution, to the men and women who give their lives and their sacred honor to protect that constitution and to protect us," Blackburn said.

"We know that Donald Trump is a leader who has seen challenges, he's learned lessons, solved problems, he has delivered results. Some of our nation's greatest leaders have been people who have worked in the real world, who know firsthand how cumbersome rules and unnecessary regulations get in the way of greatness. I want a president who knows that leadership is not as it appears, but is as it performs.

Blackburn shouted out to the Tennessee delegation to begin the speech. There were a few seats empty, but the delegation's area was far more crowded than in days past. Some delegates also stood for the entirety of the speech, something that didn't happen any other time during the week.

Members waved signs that played on a theme from the Clinton campaign, displaying "I'm with her," a red line through her and "Marsha" written below it.

Trying to rev up the crowd, Blackburn shouted out for chants and cheers and made a reference to comedian "Larry the Cable Guy": "There is someone who can get the job done. Or as Larry the Cable guy would say, lets Git er done!'"

The joke didn't go over so well through the entirety of Quicken Loans Arena, but Tennessee delegate David Riden still thought Blackburn held her own on the main stage.

"She did a fantastic job. She knows her stuff. Shes one woman who can whoop any man in Congress when it comes to a debate," said Riden, a Riceville native and Trump delegate.

Blackburn also seemingly took another jab at Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who refused to endorse Trump in his speech last night. In the prepared version of her speech, Blackburn said, "gender, race, zip code, pedigree, lineage arent qualifiers" for leadership.

On stage, she added "hurt feelings" to that list.

"She gave Cruz one upside the head too. At the end of the day what shes saying is true: weve got to unify our party," said Terry Roland, a Tennessee Trump delegate.

Earlier in the day Blackburn channeled Taylor Swift, telling a panel Cruz needs to "shake it off" and endorse Trump.

Mick Wright, a Cruz delegate from Bartlett already upset with the convention, ridiculed Blackburn's speech.

"Rep. Blackburn said Americans are "ready for change" and referred to "everyday people." These two phrases were made famous by President Obama and Secretary Clinton. I'm honestly not sure which party's convention is taking place. This is not the Republican Party," Wright said.

It was the third time Blackburn has spoken at a national convention. Tennessee GOP Delegation Chairman Mae Beavers said Blackburn's gave "the best speech Ive ever heard her make."

Reporters Joel Ebert and Thomas Novelly contributed to this story.
Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Paint, Sculpt Way to Recovery

By Shannon Collins, DOD

JULY 22, 2016 at 9:49 a.m.





Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Tony Mannino deployed for eight months total to Iraq in 2007 and 2008. For four months, he was in Diyala province in the city of Ashraf on the border of Iran,

and then he went to Ramadi.





Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Anthony Mannino performs art therapy with guidance from art therapy intern Adrienne Stamper as part of his traumatic brain injury treatment and recovery at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, Md., March 1, 2016. DoD photo by Marvin Lynchard



WASHINGTON  As the brushes touch the canvas, the service members pour their thoughts and emotions onto the page, expressing what they havent been able to talk about through art.



Like the elements of a painting, doctors from each specialty at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a directorate of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, come together to help service members with traumatic brain injuries in an intensive four-week therapy program.



Specialties such as neurology use art to assist with sleep and migraines. family care physicians can use it to assist with physical ailments. Psychiatrists and nutritionists can assist with medications and vitamins, and art therapists can provide emotional support.





The Masks



Melissa Walker, a registered art therapist and healing arts program coordinator at NICoE, said the patients begin their group art therapy session by making masks.



Its in this session that I have to explain to them that Im giving them the means to express and symbolize whatever they would like to about their identities and things theyve been through, she said. I tell them not to worry about the product, but what they would like to express -- what story they want to tell -- and usually that resonates with them.



She said the patients usually dive in. Even if they were skeptical in the beginning, she added, at the end of the first session, many of them say, That was really relaxing. I cant believe I was able to open up about that specific element of my personality.



Walker said the masks give the patients a visual voice to their invisible pain or their invisible wounds. They create the masks in a two-hour group art therapy session and will see them again throughout the four weeks they are at NICoE.



For one sailor, Walker said, the mask project held a special meaning. He had flashbacks for seven years about a bloody face from when he had been injured in a bunker during a mortar attack. He told Walker he had seen the face staring back at him and that it haunted him. He called it BFIB for short: bloody face in bunker.



Some patients leave their masks behind to inspire other patients, he said, and when he saw them on the wall, he immediately thought of making a BFIB mask.



He made BFIB in that session, and instead of thinking of him as something psychologically inside of him, it took on a form of an actual product, Walker said. So when he thought about [BFIB], he thought of him sitting in the art therapy studios safe and contained, because he would leave him every day behind, Walker said. Eventually, we placed it in a box and [thus] contained the mask, and he said after the entire process [that] he rarely saw the flashback, and it didnt make him feel anxious, because he knew he was here in this space, safe and contained.





Other Art Forms



Walker said the patients can use water colors, acrylics, Keva blocks and in some cases, oil. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Tony Mannino, a former NICoE patient, preferred water colors.



I chose to work with water colors because it makes it very hard to get the fine details perfect for someone who has struggled with perfectionism and has always been in control of any situation, the former administrator and machine gunner said. It really helped me to release and relinquish the reins, to let the colors do what they were going to do on their own.



He said painting helped bring up different issues about what was going on in his mind, both recently and from his deployment to Iraq in 2007 and 2008.



I spoke to the art therapist about things that I didnt even talk to my psychologist about, so its really interesting what happens in the art room, Mannino said. He said the art therapy, as well as his treatment at NICoE, was one of the best things Ive done so far. They care a great deal, and they really want you to get better.





Evolution of Patients



Walker said she enjoys seeing the evolution of the progress of the patients as they become more and more comfortable. As their sleep and pain start to stabilize and as theyre able to start to open up about some difficult things, they start doing the same in their artwork, she said.



One Marine was frustrated, Walker said. He wasnt initially able to depict anything because he used to love art, she explained.



He said, I used to love art. I was very engaged in high school, and its just not coming to me. Ive got too much going through my mind. By his second or third week, he entered the art room and said, I know what I want to do now, she said.



Walker said he recreated a moment he had been grappling with: a time he made a difficult decision in combat. He ended up spending every spare moment working on this project.



He was really invested in this product, because he was able to take what was for him a traumatic moment and take control of it and begin to really understand it, Walker said. At the end, he invited the entire treatment team into the art therapy space, and he shared that story with them, which was a huge step -- to be able to open up to the group that had been caring for him.



She said he went on to continue to take sculpture classes. Walker said seeing the evolution in patients like the Marine is why she continues performing her mission.



It is so neat for us, the clinicians, to see the service members change from the first week to the fourth week, she said. They walk in here a little uncertain and kind of skeptical initially. You can see that theyre really starting to trust the others. Theyve perhaps been isolated, because theyve been dealing with these symptoms for so long, and then by that fourth week, its amazing watching them walk through the door -- how much brighter they become and how much more comfortable they seem.



Walker said they seem to really engage with each other, socializing and laughing, and she sees the difference in the artwork as well.



We see improvement -- that theyre symbolically showing this bright future, perhaps the contrast between how they felt before and how theyre feeling moving forward, Walker said. And Id love to see that next canvas. I hope they continue to explore that.





Part 3 of a five-part series.



 Part 1 - National Intrepid Center Zeroes In on Traumatic Brain Injury

 Part 2 - Art Therapy Helps Marine Heal from From Traumatic Brain Injury

 Part 3 - Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Paint, Sculpt Way to Recovery Published July 22, 2016
/ Korea Times file



Login records between Jan. 2013 and Aug. 2014 unable to retrieve

By Park Si-soo, Lee Han-soo



Asiana Airlines' website server for the FAQ section has been left unsecured since January 2013, Korea Communications Commission (KCC) investigators said.

Previously, the nation's second-largest airline claimed only customer data entered since May 2015 had been vulnerable. Asiana issued the statement with that date following a report by The Korea Times on its compromised web security, which revealed an estimated 47,000 private documents of customers were improperly protected from unauthorized web access.

In line with its internal rules, the company had been deleting login records on the server between January 2013 and August 2014, making it impossible to trace server activity during the period.

Asiana and investigators from the KCC and the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) said there were only two IP addresses -- one from The Korea Times and the other from a computer expert living overseas who informed the newspaper of the breach -- that extensively accessed the exposed data saved on the server during the retrievable period.












By Yoon Ja-young



While the government is preparing revisions of the tax law next year, debate is heating up regarding where it should raise more taxes. Experts say society should come to a consensus on the issue as the country will need more taxes to fund the increasing demand for social welfare.



Some lawmakers of the opposition parties submitted tax code revision bills aimed at raising the corporate tax rate from the current 22 percent to 25 percent. The corporate tax rate was slashed from 25 percent during former President Lee Myung-bak's administration and the opposition bloc wants it returned to the previous level. Pointing out that the tax cut hasn't had the desired effect on the economy, they explain that the hike would increase the government's tax income by around 3 trillion won, which would help with funding the snowballing welfare costs.



However, President Park Geun-hye recently said she is against a tax hike. Regarding demands that corporate taxes should be raised, the President said, "I think a tax hike should be the last resort. The best way would be to vitalize the economy, which would prompt businesses to make more investments and thereby increase the taxable income for the government."



The government and the ruling Saenuri Party decided not to include a corporate tax hike in the tax code revision that will be announced next week. They fear that a corporate tax hike can lead to an exodus of businesses out of the country. "There is global competition going on to cut corporate taxes. The economy will be vitalized only when the corporate competitive edge is enhanced," said Hyun Jin-kwon, director of the Center for Free Enterprise.



Also at the center of the debate is who should shoulder the income tax. It stems from the fact that too many workers are exempt from taxes. According to statistics, 48 percent of the workers aren't paying any income taxes here. The ratio, which stood at 32 percent in 2012, soared to above 48 percent following the tax revision aimed at lessening the burden on the working class. The ratio of those exempt from paying taxes is much higher than Japan's 15.8 percent or Germany's 19.8 percent.



Kim Jae-jin, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute of Public Finance, said the ratio of those exempt is too high.



"In other words, it means that the rest are shouldering excessive tax burdens. As the constitution says it is the duty of the people to pay taxes, it is right to decrease the number of people who are exempt from paying taxes thus making more people shoulder the burden," he said.



Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho also said at a parliamentary hearing in January that the number of workers exempt from paying taxes should be slashed. The view was echoed by the National Assembly's special committee on budget and accounts, which reported that "the surging ratio of workers exempt from paying taxes is hurting the sources of taxation and thus negatively affecting the government's tax income."



However, the government fears it will face strong resistance from the public. Experts advise that broadening sources of taxes should be accompanied by a tax hike on those who have high incomes.



"Korea's tax policy is very weak in lessening income disparity. It is time those in charge should discuss raising the tax rate on high incomes," said Park Jong-kyu, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute of Finance.



Currently, Korea applies a 38 percent tax rate on those making more than 150 million won in annual income.



While conservatives are stressing that there should be no exception in taxes and progressives demand the wealthy shoulder more taxes, experts agree on one thing, that the government should raise more taxes from somewhere.



"Unless the government prepares measure to raise more taxes, it is doubtful whether it can sustain the increasing welfare demand," said Kim Sang-kyum, a professor at Dankook University.



"The government has been raising taxes passively, such as by decreasing tax exemptions or tax deductions or by raising cigarette consumption taxes. However, more aggressive tax expansion will be inevitable," he said.



Kim at the Korea Institute of Public Finance said that society should make a consensus through continuous discussions.



"There are diverse ways to increase taxes, but everybody has a different idea. There is no tax policy supported by all people. The decision should be based on the will of the people," he said.




Cover of "The Accidental Citizen-Soldier" by Young Chun



By Sam Paterson

In 2002 Young Chun, a Korean-American who had grown up in Seattle and Chicago, came to Korea to teach English. He planned to stay for only a year, but as he neared the end of his teaching contract, the Korean government told him he must complete his mandatory military service or face prison. Chun was born in America, holds an American passport, and at the time, spoke almost no Korean, having spent almost his entire life in America. The Korean government insisted, so he went.

"The Accidental Citizen-Soldier," Chun's memoir of his two years in the Korean Army was released last year, and is available at Kyobo Books in Gwanghwamun and as a Kindle ebook.

"I still don't really believe in luck," Chun told me in a cafe near Seoul National University, where he now teaches English. But it was outright misfortune, at least in part, that landed him in the Korean Army, along with a hefty series of bizarre coincidences and other inexplicable events.

On a routine visit to Korean Immigration in mid-2002, he was surprised to be told that he was a Korean citizen. Although he had only spent two years in Korea in total  at an elementary school for foreign students  somebody had added his name to the "hojeok," the patriarchal Korean family registry system that was eventually abolished by the government in 2008. The register listed his birthplace as a Seoul suburb he had never visited, rather than his real birthplace in Champaign, Ill.

Chun assembled a stack of documents showing he had spent the vast majority of his life to that point  22 years  in America. He was told that the family register showed he had been living in Korea since 1988.

Chun went back to work at his hagwon, still largely unaware that his dubious status as a Korean citizen meant he was eligible for mandatory military service. He knew the draft existed, but as a non-Korean-speaking American citizen, with neither parent holding a Korean passport, he assumed the law would not apply to him.

During a visit home to Seattle in late 2002, he visited the Korean consulate and attempted to revoke his newly-discovered Korean citizenship, but was told it was impossible because he had passed the age limit where such a decision could be made. The consulate suggested he apply for an exemption from military service, and he obliged, filling out the form and flying back to Seoul a few days later to finish the remaining months of his hagwon contract, intending to leave Korea immediately afterwards.

He now believes it was this request for exemption that alerted the Korean government to his presence in the country.

Two weeks after returning to Seoul, he received a set of draft papers in the mail, and a Notice of Suspension of Departure that meant he was legally unable to leave Korea. His calls to various officials fell on deaf ears. Even the U.S. embassy to Korea was unable to help.

In a state of what he now describes as total desperation, Chun tried another means of escape: through a work contact, he arranged to meet with a recruiter at the U.S. Army base in Yongsan. If he had to be a soldier, he reasoned, he would rather be an American soldier. The Korean-American recruiter told him the Korean government's travel ban would have no effect since Chun would be leaving the country for training in the United States with orders and a military ID, not a passport. Chun agreed and was sworn into the U.S. Army, fully aware of the high probability he would be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan after training. Escape  of a sort  seemed guaranteed.

But his name was flagged in a government database and he was not permitted to board a plane leaving the Osan Air Base. He was forced to remain in Korea, having spent only one day as an American soldier.

"The Accidental Citizen-Soldier" tells the story of Chun's time in the Korean army. In basic training, he was often subjected to sleep deprivation, punitive physical exercise and the constant humiliation of being a non-Korean speaker.

He took part in live-fire exercises, including deliberate exposure to CS gas, despite understanding very little of the language being spoken around him.

Despite the subject matter, the book has a lighthearted tone: instead of complaining incessantly, Chun finds plenty to laugh at, describing the absurdity of the situations he finds himself in. But after basic training, what frustrated him more was the culture and social mores of the army.

He says that much of Korean work and office culture, often bemoaned as highly inefficient and too focused on the intricacies of hierarchy, derives directly from the work culture of the army.

The Army has changed too, Chun says. His monthly wage for much of his time in the army was around 30,000 won a month, a rate which he says has increased dramatically  170,000 won for a private, and more than 200,000 won for a sergeant.

"I've heard it's easier now," he says, citing the accounts of students in his classes who had recently completed their services.

While in the army, Chun won a Korea Times-organized award for his translation of a Korean novel, Cho Chang-in's "The Lighthouse-Keeper."

He has lived in Seoul for the last 10 years, and says he has no plans to leave. Still an American passport holder, he is settled and happy, in a way he says he wouldn't be in America. Not such bad luck after all? "Maybe," he says, laughing, "it's just about perspective."

Sam Paterson is a resident of Seoul.
Lee Jin-wook, left, and Ban Seo-jin



By Ko Dong-hwan

Model Ban Seo-jin has denied rumors she is the woman who accused actor Lee Jin-wook of rape earlier this month.

The rumors came amid increasing public scrutiny over the identity of the 30-something woman whose apartment Lee visited and allegedly committed the crime.

Ban, 27, denied the rumor on Instagram , Thursday, saying she had never met him.

"I first learned about the rumor from my friends' phone calls and KakaoTalk messages," said Ban, the host of online beauty show "Miracle Beauty" on Naver TV Cast. "People left malicious messages on my SNS and I deleted them all. I am not interested in drawing people's attention and it is hard to deal with the situation now."













/ Courtesy of Instagram



The rape allegation surfaced on July 14 when the woman sued Lee for sexually harassing her after drinking together at her apartment. The woman submitted to police underwear she claimed she was wearing when she was raped. Police sent it to the National Forensic Service for analysis.

Three days later, the actor visited Suseo Police Station in Seoul for questioning. He denied the charge and counter-sued the accuser for a false charge. He argued the intercourse was "consensual."

"Rumors about Lee's rape now spread on the Internet are strongly biased to the accuser's stance," said C&CO ENS, Lee's agency, Wednesday. "A little lie leads to a bigger lie until the person will catch herself in a trap."
By Choi Sung-jin



"As soon as we sat down, she began to ask the size of my real property and rent income, my debt to financial firms and the exact amount of my worth. It was little short of financial interrogation." A shopping mall owner, 58, living in Seoul's Banpo area said so after meeting a prospective remarriage partner recently.



"From the day we first met, he pried into what my former husband was like, why I divorced him and what were the problems in my first marriage. I had sweat on my back." That was part of the recollections of a teacher, 45, after attending a blind date for remarriage.



Divorced single men want to know most the "causes of divorce" of their prospective remarriage partners while their female counterparts are most curious about the "wealth" of their potential spouses, a survey shows.



In actual meetings, however, men mostly ask about the woman's "purposes for remarriage" while women focus their questions on the man's "financial state."



Two marriage information providers, Only You and Bien Aller, surveyed 496 divorced singles on questions they wanted to ask most at first encounters. The largest share of male respondents (23 percent) cited the causes of divorce while a similar portion of women (22.2 percent) pointed to "assets."



"Both men and women were most curious about reasons for divorce, former spouses and the financial condition of each other," said Sohn Dong-kyu, CEO of Only You. "By grasping the grounds of divorce, they can presume the prospective partner's character and their previous life. As life expectancy rises, they also show a high interest in the potential spouse's net worth as part of preparations for old age."



When they meet, however, men most frequently ask about the woman's "purposes of remarriage." On the other hand, there were no differences between curiosity and their actual questions in the case of women.



Men mostly asked about the woman's purposes of remarriage (22.6 percent), followed by their personal inclinations (19 percent), children (15.3 percent) and sexual preference (14.5 percent). Women most frequently asked about the man's wealth (21.4 percent), followed by causes of divorce (16.1 percent), personal disposition (16.1 percent) and religion (13.7 percent), the survey said.



"Men usually refrain from asking questions they want on the first day but women tend not to suppress their curiosity, embarrassing the other side," said Lee Kyung from Bien Aller. "It is desirable to avoid sensitive questions on the first encounter."




A Korean man, 49, who was wanted for fraud, has committed suicide at a Philippines airport. / Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Jin-a

A Korean man wanted for fraud has hanged himself at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the Philippines, a Korean news outlet said Friday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the man, surnamed Ahn, was found dead about 7:30 p.m. Thursday (local time) in the restroom of the immigration office at the airport.

Ahn was awaiting deportation after being caught secretly entering into the Philippines from Taiwan.

The Philippines Transportation Ministry said the man, 49, was wanted by Korean police and Interpol for investment fraud.

The Korean Embassy in the Philippines is verifying details of the incident through local police.
The source of gas odor in Busan on Friday is still unknown. / Courtesy of Naver Post



By Yeo Ye-rim

Mystery surrounds the source of a gas odor in Busan that has prompted a flood of complaints.

More than 160 have been filed since Thursday afternoon from around Haeundae-gu and Nam-gu areas. But the cause of the strange odor has not yet been identified.

"We could not detect any gas leaks in and out of the city," Busan's main gas distributor, Busan City Gas, said. "Neither could we identify the cause of the smell."

But the odor has raised fears among residents. Some suspect it is a sign of a coming earthquake. This is based on the rumor that a strange gas smell prevailed in Taiwan before a massive earthquake struck several years ago.

News channel YTN speculated that the smell came from a vehicle that was carrying a harmful chemical or oil.

There was a similar case in July 2015 in Busan, around Yeonsan-dong, Myeongjang-dong and Allak-dong. But Busan City Gas quickly identified the problem as a small leak from an odorizer at a Korean Environment Corporation sewage treatment plant.

Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, Busan Metropolitan City Council, Busan City Gas and Busan Metropolitan City Fire Safety Headquarters will hold an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the matter.
By Jun Ji-hye



A U.S. Patriot missile battery in Japan has been brought to South Korea for a joint exercise amid growing concerns about additional provocations from North Korea, an official of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said, Friday.



The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 interceptor unit of the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ), stationed at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, arrived in Busan on July 13 and is now participating in a drill with South Korean military in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.



The Patriot unit is made up of 120 troops, with a launch vehicle and radar.



It is the first time a Japan-based U.S. Patriot battery has been sent to South Korea.



"The PAC-3 unit is currently training with South Korean troops," the USFK official told reporters. "The unit will return to Japan after completing the training scheduled to last two weeks."



The training was to exercise dispatching the USFJ's air defense weapons as quickly as possible in the event of an incident on the Korean Peninsula.



The detachment comes as North has been ratcheting up military tension by claiming that it carried out a drill "under the simulated conditions of making preemptive strikes at ports and airfields in the operational theater in South Korea where the U.S. imperialists' nuclear war hardware is to be hurled."



The North made the remark Wednesday, a day after firing three short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea.



In photos released by the North on its state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, the impact areas of the missiles were waters around the port cities of Busan and Ulsan, indicating that the regime exercised striking those cities.



The missile launch came amid increasing signs that Pyongyang may conduct a fifth nuclear test soon  increased activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear site has been detected by the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States.



Officials here noted that the North is likely to make provocations in the coming weeks in an apparent show of protest against the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery on Korean soil.



Allies announced July 13 that the advanced anti-missile system will be deployed in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, next year.



At the time of the announcement, officials said the Patriot air defense system will make up for the weak points of the THAAD whose range is not enough to protect Seoul.



The THAAD interceptor has an effective range of 200 kilometers, while Seongju is 210 kilometers southeast of Seoul.



Seoul is working to upgrade its PAC-2 systems deployed at units in the capital and its surrounding area to the PAC-3 version by 2022, officials said.



The combat-proven PAC-3 missile is a high-velocity hit-to-kill interceptor that destroys incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, and hostile aircraft by direct impact. The PAC-2 uses a blast-fragmentation proximity warhead that sends debris from an exploded missile into the target.




By Jun Ji-hye



The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs is moving to propose a law that will allow foreigners who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War to be buried at Korean national cemeteries, officials said Friday.



The ministry will make a pre-announcement of legislation on July 27, the anniversary of the Korean War armistice, to allow veterans, who fought under the U.N. flag and were awarded the Order of Military Merit by the Korean government, to be buried there if they or the families of the deceased want.



A pre-announcement of legislation is part of the procedure in government legislation that requires ministries to tell the public of the content of a law through the media and government publications for more than 40 days to listen to opinions from the people, before proposing a law.



Under the standing law, those who do not have Korean citizenship can be buried in the national cemeteries if they meet criteria set by a presidential decree, but this mostly applies to those who lost their Korean citizenship for unavoidable reasons, according to officials.



Only two ethnic Chinese, who took part in the war in the South Korean armed forces, were buried at the Seoul National Cemetery, while most of the fallen U.N. soldiers were laid to rest at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, according to the ministry.



The ministry noted that 40,670 servicemen of the 21 U.N. allied nations were killed during the conflict, with 104,280 wounded and 4,116 missing.



The ministry has held various programs to express the nation's gratitude for the service of the war veterans, which includes revisit events that began in 1975, and have invited some 30,000 veterans and their families to the country they fought for.



"Preparing a law is also part of the ministry's efforts to express the nation's gratitude for their service," said a ministry official. "Once the law is created, it would be much easier for the ministry to secure the relevant budget or seek cooperation from related institutes.



"Placing the bodies in the national cemeteries would be the highest level of respectful treatment for war veterans, and there have been some who have expressed their willingness to be buried there."




By Kim Hyo-jin



Cheong Wa Dae denied speculation Friday that President Park Geun-hye defended Woo Byung-woo, her scandal-plagued senior secretary for civil affairs, the previous day.



In Thursday's National Security Council (NSC) meeting, Park urged her cabinet and secretariat not to be swayed by criticism with their conviction as long as they do the right thing.



Her remarks were widely viewed as indications that she would not dismiss him despite snowballing allegations surrounding him.



"The President's remarks were not meant to defend Woo," presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk told reporters.



"An NSC is a serious meeting discussing North Korea's military activities and the nation security. The conviction was applied to those who protect the security of the nation and the people, not the civil affairs secretary."



Woo, a former senior prosecutor, is facing multiple allegations, including asking online gaming company Nexon Korea to buy real estate owned by his in-laws, helping his son get special treatment during military service and providing secret legal counsel for a jailed businessman.



Despite the presidential office's denial of the speculation, opposition parties denounced Park for the alleged defense of Woo despite their calls for his resignation.



"The President's remarks mean declaring a confrontation against the people by stepping up the defense of Woo," said Rep. Woo Sang-ho, the floor leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea.



"This could define the Park government as self-righteousness and arrogant."

People's Party floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won urged Park to replace Woo, saying it is difficult for Woo to carry out his duty while involved in corruption allegations.



"The NSC is not a meeting to guarantee Woo's job security," Park said during a party meeting. "The public, opposition parties, and even some Saenuri Party members demand that Woo step down: it seems the President is the only one who does not understand the situation."



In the face of worsening public sentiment, the ruling Saenuri Party shifted from its defensive stance against the opposition's criticism.



Floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk said the party plans to ask Woo to appear at the National Assembly House Steering Committee, if necessary.



"This time, it will be hard to exclude Woo from the list of participants from the government's side as many lawmakers want to listen to his explanation," Chung said.



It has been customary that the senior secretary for civil affairs is allowed to not appear at the house steering committee which inspects the presidential office.

Park will be on summer holiday from Monday to Friday at the presidential residence, according to the presidential spokesman.



During her vacation, Park is expected to ponder how to press ahead with her reform agendas and deal with a series of pending issues, including her plan to offer special pardons to those serving prison terms in time for the Aug. 15 Liberation Day.




By Doug Bandow



Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled Turkey for more than a decade. He should be enjoying his time of triumph.



Yet his country almost crashed and burned last week. Elements of the army and air force attempted a coup d'etat, leading to street battles and air attacks.



At last count some 3000 members of the military have been arrested, and that number is likely to rise. Erdogan promised revenge against those involved, who will "pay a heavy price for their treason."



No doubt they will, since the thin-skinned Erdogan long has been making even mild critics suffer for their alleged sins. To tame the military his government previously tried hundreds of military officers and others in mass trials involving improbably fantastic conspiracies.



Turkey is one of the least friendly nations for independent journalists. Around 2000 people, including students and even a beauty queen, have been prosecuted for criticizing Erdogan. His government periodically targets internet freedom.



There were at least a few Turkish citizens as well as foreign observers who privately hoped the putsch would end a political experiment gone awry. The briefly constituted junta announced that it had seized power "to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for last and order to be reinstated." Worthy objectives for an increasingly desperate Turkey today.



Unfortunately, irrespective of its claimed purpose, a coup may be the least likely vehicle for moving Turkey into a genuine liberal, democratic future. Those who look back nostalgically on earlier military seizures of power ignore the ugly reality.



For instance, the 1960 coup led to the execution of the popularly elected prime minister and other officials and imprisonment of thousands. Ankara participated in NATO because it opposed the Soviet Union, not because it shared Western values.



Even if the latest coup attempt was well-intentioned, it is hard to see how it could have accomplished its professed ends. Today the public is well-organized and committed to democracy. Having provided Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a half dozen election victories since 2002, the Turkish people were never likely to quietly accept his ouster and the imposition of a hostile military regime.



Unfortunately, the botched coup is likely to act like the infamous Reichstag fire under the Nazis and accelerate the Erdogan government's race to the dictatorial bottom. He is likely to become more vindictive and paranoid  understandably so, because he does have enemies everywhere. Never mind that he bears responsibility for the authoritarian policies and corrupt practices which have energized his most fervent opponents.



Politics almost certainly will grow more polarized. Anger against those who struck at his rule may intensify Erdogan's extra-legal campaigns against other political parties. His supporters could practice private revenge and vigilante justice against their opponents.



In fact, Erdogan might reap political advantage from the coup. His reemergence in Istanbul surrounded by crowds brought to mind Boris Yeltsin in 1991 facing down tanks in the old Soviet Union.



Other parties might feel greater pressure to work with him to deliver the super-majority which he needs to change the Constitution to expand his presidential powers. He also could call a snap election in hopes of winning that majority on his own.



Turkey's security is likely to suffer in the coup's aftermath. The Erdogan government originally played footsie with the Islamic State, but several terrorist attacks in Turkey forced a crackdown. Moreover, he reignited the long fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and targeted Syrian Kurds to enlist nationalism as his electoral ally. Now, however, the military is badly damaged and faces internal disarray for an extended period of time.



Ankara is a difficult ally for America, but the Obama administration took the right approach, immediately backing Turkey's elected government.



Democracy is yielding ever more illiberal outcomes, with Erdogan seemingly determined to accrue Putinesque powers. Yet military rule could succeed only by killing and imprisoning on a large scale. And a successful junta was likely to produce a society with even less liberty and respect for human rights.



Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an increasingly undemocratic president elected democratically. He should use the failed coup to address the substantial portion of the population which has come to loath and even fear him. He isn't likely to, however. He should be removed and his government should be ousted  but by Turkey's voters, not its soldiers.



Someday Turkey will be truly free. Hopefully a military coup will not be necessary to make it so.



Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He also is a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and author of Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire.




Chairman Cho Tae-kwon of Kwangjuyo Group / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Kim Ji-soo



Kwangjuyo's products  its fine ceramics, delicious Korean cuisine and premium Hwayo soju  are often cited for their quality. But things took a more positive turn recently. For instance, Hwayo sales have surged for the first time in years.

"I would say that it is a revitalization of the food culture itself, not only of Hwayo," said Cho Tae-kwon, 68, chairman of the Kwangjuyo Group, in an interview with The Korea Times. Since it was launched in 2005, Hwayo sales increased slowly but steadily. The brand experienced a breakthrough last year, however, when its sales reached 10.9 billion won, a 32 percent increase over the previous year, according to the company.

The chairman said he believes his pursuit of creating a total value has helped the company succeed. By "total value," he refers to his work of introducing Korean ceramics, food (hansik) and alcoholic beverages, as well as restaurants in a value-added way. Cho said that the fine traditions of Korean culinary culture were downgraded in particular during the period of Japanese colonialization (1910-1945), when home brewing was banned and liquor taxes were imposed, prompting licensed brewers to make only such beverages as "takju," or "makgeolli"; "yakju," a medicinal drink; and diluted soju.

Hwayo's recent success carries significant meaning business-wise for Cho, who speaks with rapid-fire confidence and sales ability.

Cho learned that it is hard to succeed in the high-end ceramics, food and alcoholic beverage markets, but especially in the high-end traditional Korean liquor market because of the nation's taxation system and perceptions.

"People said it would be hard to succeed because of fixed public perception, but we were able to do so because we did it combining the culture, the food, the ceramics, the liquor and the restaurant," Cho said.

Also the liquor tax law of Korea has been a stumbling block for such premium liquor as Hwayo. The Korean government levies taxes on all of the cost from package to sales management as well as manufacturing cost, so-called an ad valorem duty. It makes Korean liquor industry hard to improve quality and diversity products, he said. Most OECD countries calculate liquor taxes based on a company's production capacity and proof alcohol.

Hwayo's breakthrough last year is a good sign in the challenging alcoholic beverage industry.

Cho said the company's breakthrough came when he met with then former Defense Minister Kim Tae-young in 2009, to whom he proposed supplying Korean food and soju to the Defense Ministry's restaurants (at the time, the restaurants did not offer Korean food and beverages). Cho's proposal was officially approved by Kim's successor, the former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, and Cho's company began supplying these provisions to the military in 2011.

"I told them that the military protects the Korean people and land, so why didn't they promote Korean culture with the servicemen?" Cho said.

There are several Hwayo products according to alcohol content  Hwayo with 17 percent alcohol for the sake and wine markets; Hwayo with 25 percent for the Japanese "shochu"; Hwayo 41 vying with vodka; Hwayo XP also known as "single rice" vying with Scotch whisky; and Hwayo with 53 percent alcohol vying with the Chinese Kaoliang liquor.

When asked if producing a variety of Hwayo products contradicts the company's initial purpose of bringing back traditional premium soju, Cho disagreed.

"If you think about it, all creation comes from tradition. Times have changed. Why not imbue modern sensibilities into our traditions, so as to make our beverages part of the mainstream in the world?" Cho said. "Traditions must change with the times and must innovate. This is the new tradition," he said.

His words ring even truer when one considers his career.

After graduating from the University of Missouri where he studied industrial business management, Cho worked at Tokyo Maruichi International for a year and then for more than a decade at Daewoo Group in various areas but mostly in the new business section. He started his own business in the defense industry, but when his father passed away, he inherited his father's ceramics business, Kwangjuyo, in 1988. His immediate and most challenging task at the time was the absence of a market for high-end ceramics in Korea.

Thus, Cho studied countries that were famous for their ceramics, he realized a number of things. He noticed that nations that were strong in ceramics were also strong in food, and that culture streams downward from the wealthy. He thus concentrated on that segment of the population for his ceramics, food and soju businesses.

Along the way he underwent many trial and error, and his most significant learning experience happened with Gaon, which opened in 2005.

"I was too hasty; I rushed with the decision to go overseas, especially to China with Gaon in 2006," Cho said. "I had my eye on the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics," he said.

He said he learned the hard way that he should have solidified Gaon's position in the local market first before going overseas. "I learned the value of money, I woke up and smelled the coffee, and I began to listen to other people's advice before making a decision," he said. He said he learned to draft thorough plans and learned to bide his time. Gaon temporarily closed its restaurant in Gangnam afterward, only to reopen this year.

"Culture needs a symbolic trigger and needs to give manufacturers hope so they will continue making products that can compete with others in the world," Cho said. His daughter, Lucia Cho, has been running the restaurant Bicena in Itaewon, Seoul, since 2012. Bicena is also part of the Kwangjuyo Group.

As a CEO, Cho likes to engage with employees, sending them messages via KakaoTalk or email to "make sure that the employees stay updated" with cultural news, such as recently published books.

"But only once a day," Cho said, regarding the KakaoTalk messages and emails.

Cho envisioned another cultural wave, like hallyu, that will further popularize hansik, once the Michelin Guide publishes a Korean edition in November.

"There will be a big change ahead when the guide is published," Cho said.
By Kim Yoo-chul



SK Innovation, the country's top oil refiner, has reported better-than-expected operating profit and sales for the second quarter, partly due to healthy sales of its petrochemical products.



The SK Group affiliate said Friday operating profit for the three months to June 30 reached 1.11 trillion won. Quarterly sales were 10.28 trillion won.



Quarterly operating profit was up 12 percent year-on-year, while sales were up 20.9 percent during the period, according to the company.



Combined operating profit for the first six months of this year was a historically high 1.96 trillion won. SK said its second-quarter operating profit was the second-largest since it generated 1.35 trillion won in the first quarter of 2011.



SK Innovation's shares rose 3.81 percent to end at 150,000 won on the Seoul bourse, Friday, according to Korea Exchange data.



"The rising oil price strengthened the company bottom line," a company spokesman said. "Our lubricant and refining business performed well. Efforts to cut fixed costs also paid off."



By business division, the company's refining business reported operating income of 705 billion won from quarterly sales of 7.44 trillion won.



"The margin level, a barometer to gauge the profitability of a refining business, remained weak during the April-June period due to an increased supply of chemical products on improved production yields," the spokesman said. "But that situation didn't hurt us much."



Its refining business reported operating income of 705 billion won on sales of 7.44 trillion won during the latest quarter, while its chemicals unit reported record operating income of 303 billion won. The company's lubricant business had record operating income of 133 billion won.



"The oil price remained strong during the latest period thanks to output disruption in Canada and Nigeria, with lower oil inventory in North America," the company said. "SK expects the third quarter to be even better than the second quarter because of the tight supply."



More investment on batteries



In a conference call about its second-quarter earnings, SK Innovation said the company plans to invest more in lithium-ion battery separators to meet rising battery demand.



"All of SK Innovation's nine lithium-ion battery separator-producing facilities have been operational," the company told institutional investors and analysts during the call. "The annual capacity of SK's lithium-ion battery separators was 210 million square meters."



SK Innovation said demand for lithium-ion batteries will remain solid this year given the growing push for battery-embedded solutions and products such as electric vehicles, smartphones and other energy-saving solutions.



"Our facilities in Singapore will soon be operational," the company said.



SK Innovation has identified the lithium-ion battery separator business as one of its new revenue streams. The separator is considered a critical part of a rechargeable battery. SK aims to beat Japan's Asahi-Kasei by 2020 to become the top business in this market globally.



"The global demand for lithium-ion battery separators will rise 16 percent on average throughout 2020, mostly powered by moves of major automakers to introduce more electric vehicles," the company said during the call.



"The completion of two additional production lines will be done by 2018. After the completion, annual capacity will rise to 330 million square meters."



During the second quarter of this year, SK reported 61.4 billion won in sales from the lithium-ion battery separator business.



SK Innovation started producing lithium-ion battery separators at its Line 1 in the provincial city of Cheongju in January 2005.



Asked if the global refining industry might suffer from an increased oversupply due to Chinese output expansion, SK Innovation said it is not worried.



"Chinese companies are ramping up the production of refinery products, however, most of them will be consumed in China," it said.




By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung Electronics said Friday that it sued Huawei Technologies over the latter's alleged involvement in infringing on Samsung's wireless technology patents in China.



This is the latest chapter in the rivalry between Samsung Electronics and the Chinese handset vendor after Samsung was sued by Huawei over patent infringement in May.



"Samsung Electronics filed a lawsuit in an intellectual property court in Beijing against Huawei and a distributor for selling mobile devices," said Samsung.



The Korean company is seeking 25 billion won in compensation from the lawsuit, said officials.



In the lawsuit, Samsung Electronics claimed Huawei infringed on patents for control information in a mobile communications system, as well as information and image storage and digital camera technology, all owned by Samsung, without paying royalties.



"The local distributor has been selling Huawei devices infringing on Samsung intellectual property," said Samsung.



Samsung Electronics didn't specify its next move, while Huawei representatives in Korea were unavailable for comment.



Analysts and patent experts predict the ongoing legal battle between the two smartphone leaders will escalate further.



Huawei earlier said Samsung Electronics' 16 mobile products  from Galaxy S7 and S7 edge to a budget model of Galaxy J5  infringed on its patents for wireless technology.



According to data from World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Huawei was the world's top patent holder with 3,898 by last year, followed by the U.S.-based chipset giant Qualcomm with 2,442. Samsung Electronics ranked fourth in terms of patent numbers.



Cross-licensing



Even though Huawei claimed that its patents were intentionally infringed by Samsung, the Chinese company didn't seek a sales ban on Samsung products.



"By taking Samsung to the international court, Huawei wants to move away from its copycat image. The patent battle between Samsung and Apple benefited Samsung Electronics to lift the reputation of Samsung brands and Samsung products, and Huawei wants to benefit similarly by launching some marketing noise," said Chung Dong-joon, a local attorney, adding that Huawei will expand its legal battle with Samsung in China in hopes of raising the profile of its domestic patents.



In 2015 Huawei became the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones in a year when a 44 percent jump in its shipments defied the market slowdown. It is the world's biggest telecom equipment firm, reporting about 71 trillion won in sales last year.



Huawei is positioned to access patents by Apple, Ericsson and Qualcomm, as the Chinese company has struck cross-licensing agreements with each of them.



By last year, Huawei agreed with Apple to give the iPhone designer the rights to its 769 patents, while Apple decided to grant Huawei the rights to its 98 patents.



Samsung Electronics has signed cross-licensing agreements with IBM, Toshiba and Microsoft. Samsung declined to reveal what type of patents it is licensed to use.




Makeup artist Jill Harth sued Donald Trump over an alleged sexual assault.

/ Courtesy of The Guardian



By Yeo Ye-rim

A woman has accused U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of "attempted rape" almost 20 years ago.

According to makeup artist Jill Harth in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, she met Trump in 1992 at his office when she and her partner went to discuss a pageant business called American Dream Calendar Girls. But Trump started asking her unrelated, personal questions, she said. He groped her legs under the table at a dinner once and even pushed her to a bedroom, she said.

"He sexually assaulted me from the first day we met," Harth said.

She accused Trump of "attempted rape" in 1997, but Trump said in May her claims were "meritless."

Branded as a liar, Harth decided to speak out about the details of how Trump allegedly sexually assaulted her.

She said she is expecting an apology from him.
The price of LITRO gas cylinders would be further reduced in the first week of November in accordance with the

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The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

Read more
Wall Street Journal Middle East reporter Maria Abi-Habib says on Facebook that when she arrived last week at LAX from Beirut, a Department of Homeland Security agent approached her, knew who she was, and escorted her to a "special section of LAX" with another agent. They questioned her for an hour about the years she lived in the U.S. and Lebanon, the names of people at the wedding she was here to attend, and other personal information. Abi-Habib says "I answered jovially, because I've had enough high-level security experiences to know that being annoyed or hostile will work against you."

But then the agents demanded that the reporter turn over her two cellphones. "We want to collect information," the female agent said, according to Abi-Habib. When she declined, the agents gave her a document that informed her Homeland Security agents can seize any cellphone at any port of entry, and 100 miles inland from the border. This applies even to journalists.

From her Facebook post:

So I called their bluff.

"You'll have to call The Wall Street Journal's lawyers, as those phones are the property of WSJ," I told her, calmly. She accused me of hindering the investigation - a dangerous accusation as at that point, they can use force. I put my hands up and said I'd done nothing but be cooperative, but when it comes to my phones, she would have to call WSJ's lawyers. She said she had to speak to her supervisor about my lack of cooperation and would return. I was left with the second DHS officer who'd been there since we left the baggage claim area. The female officer returned 30 minutes later and said I was free to go. I have no idea why they wanted my phones -- it could have been a way for them to download my contacts. Or maybe they expect me of terrorism or sympathizing with terrorists -- although my profile wouldn't fit, considering I am named Maria Teresa, and for a variety of other reasons including my small child.



CNN confirmed with the Department of Homeland Security that agents had questioned the reporter. Wall Street Journal editor in chief Gerard Baker said that the paper is "disturbed by the serious incident involving Abi-Habib."

"We have been working to learn more about these events, but the notion that Customs and Border Protection agents would stop and question one of our journalists in connection with her reporting and seek to search her cell phones is unacceptable."

The CNN story says "this journalist's encounter last week highlights a little-known federal policy: Border patrol agents have sweeping powers to search a person -- even without 'reasonable suspicion' of any crime."
In Tallahassee in the mid-1990s I once tried to save a huge snapping turtle before a car could hit it  in the middle of a raging thunderstorm  only to wind up desperately hanging onto its shell for dear life so I wouldnt get bit while people slowly drove past looking at me like I was crazy. Then there was the time when, as a kid, my mom asked me to go retrieve a colorful buoy out on some mud flats in the Florida Keys and I sunk into the goo to my waist and had to be hauled out with a rope. And all too recently I opened my car trunk to an eruption of fungi after a thunderstorm and was so unnerved I drove off with my pant leg caught in the door and in the middle of driving started screaming because I thought some animal was in the car with me.

More than once, seemingly without warning, I have been transformed into what today has been popularized as #FloridaMan, the hashtag on social media that seems inextricably connected to the Darwin Awards. Because the sad truth is, anyone who lives in this state can become #FloridaMan. Some just try harder than others.

* * *

Recent presidential contenders with ties to Florida include Marco Rubio, third from left; Jeb Bush, far right; and Republican nominee Donald Trump, center. (Rainier Ehrhardt / AP Photo )

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Reporter Craig Pittman has written an extraordinary catalog of weird Florida, Oh, Florida! How Americas Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, that attempts to make sense of our state  although some might consider Florida less an influencer and more a predictor or an eclectic outlier. Like California, Florida looms large in the national imagination: sunny weather, great beaches, and stunning natural landscape along with attractions like Disney World have made it a tourist destination and retirement utopia. But it is also a place rife with corruption, fraudulent schemes and unchecked development. Not to mention the newsmaking crazy stories behind #FloridaMan.

Pittman addresses the stereotypes inherent in a state so full of contradiction upfront, in a prologue titled The Punchline State, then gets on with showing just how complex Florida can be. In 18 fact- and anecdote-packed chapters Pittman goes well beyond the absurdities to explore the tension between urban and rural Florida, between the plastic Disney World aspects and parts of the state that do not appear on any tourist brochure and never will.

One of the many tragic things about the recent Pulse nightclub shootings is that the state has become a home to people from so many diverse cultures and ways of life, an aspect of Florida that will only become a more evident in decades to come. This even though  yet another Florida contradiction  state government is dominated by politicians from the right, who often do their level best to emulate the do-nothing Republican U.S. Congress.

Novelist Laura van den Berg, whose short stories about the state strike me as the truest sort of new journalism, grew up in Orlando. I called to ask her about the state, which she accurate describes as all these little countries of strange huddled under a larger banner. A few years ago, I spent the summer in the Keys, a part of the state I hadnt spent much time in, and that is a whole different kind of strange than Orlando. Florida takes a certain pride in its strangeness, even if its a grudging pride, so the peculiar is more visible.

Having lived in Florida since I was 9, Ive had experience of that visible strangeness. You can imagine, for example, a boys bewilderment on the monorail to Epcot, looking down to see a Disney employee placing seashells on the fake beaches of one of their hotel resorts so tourists could have a more authentic experience!

As that rarest of things, a native Floridian, Pittman is well positioned to write the definitive guide to all these different Floridas, including the contradictions and controversies. His ancestors came to Florida in 1850, and he grew up hunting in Floridas forests, fishing in its lakes, canoeing its rivers. I have battled its sandspurs and no-see-ums. I have savored the sweet scent of a grove full of orange blossoms and gagged at the stench from a paper mill.

Pittman has also been one of the states foremost environmental reporters since 1989, for the Tampa Bay Times. Hes often been a thorn in the side of our current inept and nature- and tourism-averse governor, Rick Scott (the ultimate #FloridaMan).

See the most-read stories in Life & Style this hour >> 

Alligators are caught in the clash between Floridas wilderness and development. (Rhona Wise / AFP/Getty Images )

Perhaps because Pittman has a reporters eye, the thoroughness and voluminous nature of Oh, Florida! can be overwhelming (much like the state he describes!), and readers will get best results by dipping in and reading a chapter or two at a time. But the book does a good job with the impossible task of documenting the bewildering variety of a place with vast resources, eccentric small towns juxtaposed with sprawling strip-mall cities like Jacksonville or Tampa, that has experienced population growth from 11 million 30 years ago to 20 million now. And given that, as Pittman, notes, Florida fielded the most candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination  five, including part-timer Donald Trump  what happens in Florida definitely doesnt stay in Florida.

Any chapter at random also reaffirms Pittmans love for Florida and at least part of his reason for writing. In chapters like The Gunshine State and The Tower of Power, Pittman might affect a light tone on serious topics  hes absolutely right that the Capitol building here in Tallahassee looks like a huge phallus with testicles to either side  but hes actually making an impassioned plea for better governance and better stewardship of Floridas natural treasures.

Other chapters, like Flirting with Disaster, label Florida the most dangerous state because of the chance of real-life Sharknados due to the deadly mixture of shark attacks and, exacerbated by global warming, Our hurricanes. And our tornadoes. And our lightning strikes. Not to mention sinkholes exacerbated by terrible development decisions and oil spills or, as were seeing this year, toxic algae caused in part by Scott ignoring scientists recommendations about run-off from large-scale agriculture. Meanwhile, Miami Beach is being reclaimed by the sea.

For most Floridians, though, disaster-flirting comes at a smaller, quieter scale  sudden plagues of frogs, grasshoppers, or invasions of walking catfish. Often the distinction between inside and outside doesnt much matter. No matter how you try to keep nature at bay, its going to manifest in your house.

Van den Berg remembers that when she was in college I came into my apartment to find a toad the size of a dinner plate sitting, stone cold dead, in the fruit bowl.

Once, for a business trip, I stayed in a hotel in the central Florida town of Sebring during the off-season with hallways that had ceilings much lower than those in the hotel rooms themselves, a missing floor, broken screens that meant an army of birds flew down the corridors, and in the room itself a wall that was moist with some kind of ectoplasm  no doubt symptomatic of something gone awry with Florida humidity. That night was a strange melange of nonsleep punctuated by too-near bird song, unexpected pale pink geckos, and the sense that the gooey walls were closing in.

Only in Florida!

* * *

This summer, Florida beaches have been troubled by a massive algae bloom. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images )

Sometimes, as is only natural, Pittmans obsession with cataloging so much means the most potent weirdness receives only cursory mention, like the improbable Coral Castle south of Miami. The walled structure was built by a proto-#FloridaMan from Latvia as a monument to his love for a girl in his homeland who probably saw him as a stalker and the place is almost uncannily aligned with certain celestial bodies. When I visited several years ago, a psychic was taking readings as was a physicist  the genesis for the cult-like Seance & Science Brigade in my Southern Reach novels. It may be a tourist attraction, but the Coral Castle has yet to give up all of its mysteries. Slowing down long enough to give further detail on some of the truly weird things in Florida might have served Pittman well.

Yet his fast-roving narrative has a rollicking pace that readers will enjoy. Who can resist the essential elements of Florida Weird in Pittmans chapter The Sinshine State: nudity, the presence of an exotic animal, and some act gone terribly wrong. (Given that measure, encounters like mine with the snapping turtle dont rate; there was no nudity except on the part of the turtle).

If nature and culture can clash even inside a Florida hotel room, then its no wonder that Pittmans book again and again returns to the subject, be it whimsically with the Giant Penguin of Clearwater (seen in the area up until 1958), or seriously with Trading Gators for Beer.

Alligators will be forever identified with Florida even if our relationship with them has often been fraught  hunted almost to extinction for their hides, then reborn as a selling point for tourism as their numbers rebounded. They are now in the vanguard of the clash between wilderness and development, as shown by the tragic death of an infant on a Disneys Grand Floridian Resort in June. Simple precautions make attacks unlikely, but more and more alligators are being killed. How can we coexist?

* * *

The Coral Castle, one of Floridas odd attractions. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images )

Florida has several unique, irreplaceable habitats. Paynes Prairie in Gainesville contains grasslands rare in the U.S. that resemble the pampas of Argentina. The Forgotten Coast of North Florida, inspiration for my fiction and the site of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge, is the epicenter of a series of transitional landscapes, from pines to swamp and mud flats and beach, a place distinctly Floridian in the summers, but in winter possessed of a stillness, backed up by thistles and other hardy plants that make the place more akin to a sparse stretch of Scottish coastline. Not to mention the Everglades, which have been mutilated by the actions of Big Sugar.

The Everglades may be the posterchild for both the richness of Floridas wilderness and its despoilment, but its hard to find any part of the state that hasnt suffered from agriculture or development. Even Wakulla Springs, only a half-hour drive from Tallahassee, suffers from algae because of human activities. Ive known the springs since the 1990s, and the change is startling. Once, you could see right to the bottom at any depth, and fish were abundant. The manatees still swim there, sometimes with difficulty, but the springs are murky and dull now, driving off some wildlife. If restoration were started today, a boat tour guide told me last year, it would take 20 years to see clear water again.

Former Floridian and fiction writer Joy Williams recently reissued essay collection on the environment, Ill Nature, comes right out and says what Pittman, through accretion of anecdotes often only says indirectly: After [Florida] was tamed and drained, entrepreneurs could make her appear to be any number of things. Florida could be anywhere and serve the fantasies of anyone. Everything from coconuts to cypress knees to coral became a souvenir.

In this context, its harder to dismiss Pittmans portrayal of Florida politicians and developers as caricatures too broad even for a Hollywood adaptation, because that is part of the #FloridaMan MO: What seems extravagant, bizarre, unlikely is fairly typical in Florida. Our primary fallacy in reading about these exploits is to remain incredulous.

What is most tragic about the weirdness Florida generates is how unnecessary and counterproductive most of it is. The tension between development and natural environments is a false opposition. As Pittmans tales help demonstrate, modern colonization of Florida has been so inefficient, so cost-ineffective, so without proper thought or planning, and so antithetical to long-term quality of life that it can in no sense be thought of as representing best business practices. There is no real reason why Florida needs to resign itself to a future of pollution, unregulated development, and despoilment except for greed and selfishness.

Yet despite the many ways in which Florida has been attacked by its own inhabitants, betrayed by its own government, Pittmans book shows there is hope. Florida retains a dangerous beauty, he writes, is awful and awesome, so starkly weird and wonderful. Without that wilderness, Florida will become what Williams accuses it of being: a cotton-candy county-fair fantasy, the same sideshow attraction suggested by the most eccentric and venal of characters in Pittmans stories.

At present, despite the despoilment and misuse of resources, theres still a vibrant landscape to explore and to cherish. Hopefully, no matter what the rest of the nation thinks of #FloridaMan, there will still be something here worth preserving for a long time to come  and people like Pittman willing to defend it. Weird or not.

VanderMeer is a bestselling novelist who lives in Tallahassee, Fla. He once created a fake Florida freshwater squid that got him in trouble with fishermen, cephalopod experts, a Sebring newspaper, and a BBC wildlife show. But he still claims he is not #FloridaMan.

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Of all the dishonest, dissembling lawyers at large in our country, one must tip ones hat to the porno-trolling bullies who once operated as Prenda Law.

Remember Prenda? Its scheme was to collect Internet addresses of computers that might have been used to download pornographic movies for free. Then the firm contacted owners of those Internet accounts, accusing them of piracy and offering to make the case go away for a few thousand dollars, or to go public with a lawsuit. Prendas expectation was that many people, terrified of being identified publicly as porn fiends, would simply pay up.

The Prenda saga is uplifting, in its way. While it shows what mischief bad, dishonest lawyers can get up to when they put their minds to it, the story also shows the limits of sleazy behavior.

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We gave [Prenda] some friendly advice: stop digging. Apparently they did not realize that we meant what we said.  U.S. Appellate Judge Diane Wood

During a federal appeals court hearing in May, Judge Harry Pregerson called this an ingenious, crooked, extortionate operation. Pregerson was 91 then, so we can assume he knew extortion when he saw it. Another judge called the Prenda lawyers a porno-trolling collective.

The Prenda lawyers  John Steele, Paul Hansmeier and Paul Duffy  were riding high until they ran into a buzzsaw in the hands of Los Angeles Federal Judge Otis D. Wright, who started lowering the boom on them. Judges in courts nationwide, where Prenda had plied its trade, followed suit. Hansmeier was driven into bankruptcy and has agreed to give up his law license for at least four years. Duffy died (curiously, on the very day of an adverse court ruling). Steele is still practicing law in Chicago, but judges tempers are getting short.

The latest are three judges of the 7th Circuit U.S. Appeals Court in Chicago, who were asked to rule on contempt sanctions imposed on the trio by a lower court. This week they became the latest to throw the book at the Prenda gang. (H/T to Joe Mullin of Ars Technica, who has stuck to these characters like glue.)

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Observing that the court already had ruled once against the lawyers, Chief Judge Diane Wood, writing for a unanimous panel, wrote that the first time around we gave them some friendly advice: stop digging. Apparently they did not realize that we meant what we said. Instead, she wrote, they lied to the lower court and engaged in discovery shenanigans. They upheld most of the sanctions and sent one contempt sanction against Steele back to the lower court, where the smart money says it may be refashioned, but probably not eliminated. We tried to reach Hansmeier, who did not answer at the numbers we tried, and Steele, who hasnt responded to a phone message.

The shenanigans Wood mentioned would be farcical if they hadnt wasted so many peoples time. They began with a court-ordered sanction of $260,000 against the attorneys, who claimed they had no money or assets to pay it. Lawyers for defendants who had sued the Prenda trio to stop their bullying, and who were due legal fees, went trawling among their bank accounts with subpoenas.

At one point, Duffy sent JPMorgan a copy of his motion to quash the subpoenas, somehow failing to mention that the motion had been denied. Steele and Hansmeier withdrew a total of more than $680,000 from their bank accounts while claiming they were essentially broke. Steeles approach, Wood wrote, has little but chutzpaha quality that Steele and his compatriots have long demonstrated going for it. She called it an entire pattern of vexatious and obstructive conduct that makes the sanctions easy to justify.

Audacity on Prendas scale can be hard to stamp out, but the latest appellate ruling hints that the endgame is nigh. The activities of Steele and Hansmeier are now so well-known and transparent that no judges are fooled any more. The shame is that they carried on so long and cost so many innocent people so much before they were stopped.

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.

UPDATES:

10:58 a.m.: This post has been updated with details of the court ruling against Steele.
To hear Starbucks tell it, the companys introduction this week of expanded insurance choices for workers represents a major advance in health coverage.

Providing industry-leading benefits for eligible full- and part-time partners is a cornerstone of who we are as a company, Ron Crawford, Starbucks vice president of global benefits, said in a statement. Much like a travel site, our partners will be able to navigate an easy-to-use online platform to choose between more insurance carriers and coverage levels at more competitive prices to help them find the right plan for their own needs.

By switching to a plan that better meets their individual needs, the company said, employees could save as much as $800 a year. The savings for those with family plans could reach $2,600 annually, it said.

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As I wrote last week, such savings typically come in the form of lower premiums and higher deductibles and co-pays  an option that will be especially attractive to younger, healthier people who see no need for more-comprehensive insurance.

The danger for the U.S. healthcare system is that this can result in higher costs for people desiring, or requiring, stronger coverage. This is known in insurance circles as adverse selection, or higher costs for the sick because theyre no longer pooling risk with the healthy.

Last week we could only speculate on some aspects of Starbucks planned changes. Now that the company has released details of its revamped health benefit, its fair to say that adverse selection remains a concern. First, though, lets give Starbucks some credit.

The coffee giant is providing workers with greater choice, and thats almost always a good thing when it comes to consumer products and services. Starbucks says its new health-benefit plan, administered by the risk-management firm Aon, will allow employees working at least 20 hours a week to choose from five different coverage levels provided by half a dozen national and regional insurers.

The company also is taking a leadership position in a new trend in U.S. healthcare: private insurance exchanges. Like the public exchanges under Obamacare, a private corporate exchange offers a variety of choices designed for employees different healthcare needs.

One danger with private exchanges is that a company could give workers a fixed-amount voucher for health coverage, and it would be up to the worker to make up the difference if more comprehensive insurance is desired. This can create a financial incentive for people to gravitate toward cheaper, less-comprehensive plans.

Jaime Riley, a Starbucks spokeswoman, told me the company is committed to paying 70% of a plans cost, regardless of the scope of coverage. This is significant because it ensures that people seeking more comprehensive coverage wont be stuck paying a greater percentage of the cost (even though their routine out-of-pocket costs will be more than for people with higher-deductible plans).

We have gone beyond conventional plan design to make sure partners have options with respect to the plan and level of coverage, as well as price points, Riley said.

Now on Starbucks menu: Less health coverage 

The question remains, however: Are private exchanges an improvement for the U.S. healthcare system? Or are companies like Starbucks exacerbating current insurance problems by helping wall off the healthy from the sick?

Its too early to say, said Paul Fronstin, director of health research and education at the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. A lot of employees will like having more choice. But you definitely face a possibility of diffusing the risk pool, which can create adverse selection.

Howard Forman, a health economist at Yale University, said private exchanges are a natural response to growing consolidation among health insurers. It increases buying power in the face of greater selling power, he said.

On Thursday, the Justice Department sued to block the latest mergers among insurers, Anthems $48-billion acquisition of Cigna and Aetnas $34-billion takeover of Humana. Federal officials said the deals would result in higher prices for consumers.

Industry trends notwithstanding, Forman said that it makes no sense for a single company to limit a corporate exchange to its own workers. Higher premiums for less-healthy workers are a real concern in such a situation, he said.

What you want instead is for large employers to join together in shared exchanges, and then have smaller employers get involved, Forman said. That way youre in a position to really make use of buying power.

On the other hand, Gerald Friedman, a health economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said boosting coverage choices for workers inevitably leads Americans down the road of a less-cost-effective, less-egalitarian healthcare system.

When I buy slippers, I want choice, he said. I want companies to compete to win my business. But choice is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to health insurance. It creates adverse selection, which undermines the function of insurance.

Friedman said employers and workers are being shortsighted in believing that tailoring coverage to peoples individual needs is in the best interest of society.

Everyone will eventually die, and theyll be sick before they die, he said. Insurance isnt about addressing the needs of the sick. Its about addressing the risk that we all face.

Take the example of home insurance. Friedman said if you never submit a claim after paying premiums for decades, you might feel like you wasted your money. But youd have been foolish to forgo coverage when you bought your house on the off-chance that nothing would ever go wrong.

Insurance is about preparing for the worst, he said. With health coverage, you cant know what will happen, so you want the most egalitarian form of distribution possible.

A Medicare-for-all approach would be such a system, spreading risk evenly throughout society and thus lowering costs for everyone. But America has chosen not to follow nearly all other developed countries in going this way. As a result, our healthcare spending per person is about twice what similar nations pay.

Most experts I spoke with termed private exchanges an experiment  one that well see more employers trying.

Is that a good thing? said Yales Forman. We wont be able to answer that until we have more experience with private exchanges. At this point, we just dont know.

David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.

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Verizon is reportedly nearing a deal to purchase Yahoo for close to $5 billion, bringing to an end a months-long bidding process for a now-ailing company that was once an Internet trailblazer.

The sale of Yahoos core business is still being deliberated but could be announced early next week, according to Bloomberg.

Verizon has reportedly emerged as the leading bidder ahead of AT&T, Quicken Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert and private equity firms TPG and Vector Capital.

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Founded as a guide to the Internet in 1994, Yahoo quickly grew from a Silicon Valley start-up to a tech giant. Its properties still attract more than 1 billion visitors a month, but the company has struggled to keep up with competitors Google and Facebook in search and advertising revenue and has lagged far behind as the industry moved to mobile.

A turnaround plan implemented by Chief Executive Marissa Mayer has failed to win over investors.

Verizon, the nations largest wireless carrier, has been building itself into an online content business. Last year, it acquired AOL  one of Yahoos longstanding rivals  for $4.4 billion (Mayer rejected a deal to merge with AOL in 2015).

A purchase could open the doors for Verizon to generate additional revenue through Yahoos editorial properties, video services and advertising technology.

If the deal goes through, Verizon plans to combine Yahoos Internet assets with AOL, according to Recode.

Verizon is perceived as a favorite because it sees the most value in Yahoo, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group.

Although Yahoo brings in revenue, its costs are too high. By joining forces with AOL, Yahoos costs would come down, he said.

It also would bolster Verizons stable of proven editorial properties  sites around which it can sell advertising.

They are going for content, he said. One end goal is if youve got the content, youve got the ads.

Thanks to its AOL purchase, Verizon is now the owner of sites including the Huffington Post, Engadget and TechCrunch. With Yahoo, it would gain highly visited properties such as Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports, among others.

Selling ads around these outlets, as well as Yahoo and AOL email products, could help Verizon carve out a spot as a leader in online advertising.

Verizon is not the only telecommunications company to expand into media. Comcast owns NBCUniversal and has made small investments in online news companies Vox Media and BuzzFeed.

Verizon clearly wants to build a media center to rival Comcasts positioning as being both a telco and a media company, said Andrew Frank, an analyst with research firm Gartner, who isnt surprised Verizon is emerging as the leading bidder. Verizon understands that with Yahoo and AOL, it will have a portfolio approach to media and achieve greater scale.

Yahoo began its march toward a sale after the company failed to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce provider Alibaba, reportedly worth more than $32 billion, because of the possibility of incurring a capital gains tax.

UPDATES:

2:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reporting and context.

This article was originally published at 11:10 a.m.
The area around Echo Park Lake is known for its iconic sites. There is the lake itself, its exuberant fountain and the Art Deco statue on the north end thats informally known as The Lady of the Lake. Now there is a new work of distinction: A monumental installation evoking a brutalist pergola by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles that pays tribute to the Angelenos killed in violent crimes over the course of 18 months.

The piece, titled La Sombra (The Shade), is part of the ongoing public art biennial, Current: LA Water. Its as much an imposing piece of sculpture as it is something more ethereal.

The piece is the shadow, says Margolles, who was on-site at Echo Park Lake Thursday afternoon to oversee the etching of a text onto the side of her monument. I made shade in an ardent summer.

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Teresa Margolles stands before the concrete monument she has erected in Echo Park. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times )

The installation is the result of a series of tasks the artist and a crew of helpers have undertaken in Los Angeles over the course of a year.

During that period, the team has visited sites around L.A. where individuals have been killed in violent crimes. And, in a sort of ritual cleansing, they poured water over these locations. That water was then retrieved and stored in a bottle that contained the name of the person who had been killed and the date and site of their death.

When you collect about 100 of these, says Margolles of the bottles, you really start to feel the weight of it.

When it came time to build the monument, this water was used to make the concrete.

Margolles keeps a binder that shows the bottles of water she gathered from sites of violent crimes around Los Angeles. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times )

Sadly, the works intent  to draw attention to violence  couldnt have been more timely. On that Thursday evening, a Latino man in his 20s was stabbed and killed nearby, according to a report in the Eastsider. The slaying took place near the park restrooms, a sergeant for the Rampart Division told the website.

Margolles, who lives in the border city of Juarez in the state of Chihuahua, has long created large-scale, minimalist works that deal with the issue of violence.

For her 2006 installation 32 Years: the Lifting and Removal Where the Murdered Body of the Artist Luis Miguel Suro Fell, she cut out the piece of floor where a close friend was found murdered. She later presented the cut-out at the Artesmundi biennial in Wales, illuminated by an almost divine light.

Sign up for our free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter by Carolina Miranda 

In 2009, at the Venice Biennale, she displayed a flag on the exterior of the Palazzo Rota-Ivancich that had been dyed with blood collected at narco-execution sites. The piece served as a memento mori to the tens of thousands of lives lost to the drug trade.

For Los Angeles, she wanted to look at the question of violent crime  compiling a list of the 975 homicides that took place between Jan. 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016. Of these, she and her team went to roughly 100 sites, from El Sereno to Torrance to Venice, washing them and gathering their residue of death.

We make monuments to generals, but not to ordinary citizens.  Teresa Margolles, artist

Margolles says that the art in the piece is the creation of shadow  a respite from the heat of summer. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times )

The data were something she harvested from Crime LA, the Los Angeles Times crime mapping project  something she describes as very generous since no one can tell you it didnt happen.

As part of the piece, Margolles made videos of each of the cleanings and is screening those videos in businesses around the neighborhood  including Elya Hair Salon on Alvarado and El Clasico Tattoo and Los Lavaderos Laundromat, both located on Sunset. (Somewhat inexplicably, the Current: LA website doesnt feature the participating businesses  which means most viewers will simply stumble into them during the course of their day.)

I wanted the piece to spill over into the neighborhood, explains Margolles.

At nearly 20 feet tall, the artists piece in Echo Park has a powerful profile  drawing curious onlookers from around the park, with cellphones in hand. I wanted it to be on the scale of what has happened, says Margolles. I wanted it to have presence.

A view from the shadows in Teresa Margolless La Sombra (The Shade). (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times )

Margolles says she has already been moved by the ways in which The Shade has been used by people who visit the park  from a pair of children who took advantage of the echo generated by the concrete for an elaborate sound game to the ice cream vendor who asked her if he could set up his cart in the shade cast by the form.

For the artist, these mundane actions couldnt be more poignant. You are sheltering yourself with the dead, she says.

La Sombra, ultimately, is a work that was created by and for Los Angeles  one that pays tribute to the everyday fallen, individuals whose deaths often generate little more than a bit of data on a digital crime map.

We make monuments to generals, but not to ordinary citizens, says Margolles. I wanted to put the city in the piece.

Margolles monument La Sombra (The Shadow) as seen in Echo Park. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times )

------------

Current: LA Water

When: Through Aug. 14

Where: Sites around Los Angeles; Teresa Margolles, La Sombra (The Shade), at Echo Park Lake, 1698 Park Ave., Los Angeles

Info: currentla.org.

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.

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UPDATES:

6:10 p.m. July 25: This article was updated with information about a homicide at Echo Park Lake. It was originally published at 12:25 p.m. July 22.
I really disagreed with it: What changed John Chos mind about playing Star Treks Sulu as gay

For 50 years, Gene Roddenberrys Star Trek has taken to the cosmos to show how that future is possible only through diversity.

As has been made clear over the course of six television series and 12 movies  the 13th, Star Trek Beyond, hits theaters Thursday night  Starfleet and its captains (most notably James T. Kirk) would be nowhere without women and people of color leading the way. Beyond advances that inclusion further with the revelation that helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu  played by George Takei in the classic series and by John Cho in the new cycle of movies that began with J.J. Abrams 2009 film  is gay.

We sat down with Cho, Zoe Saldana (who plays Lt. Nyota Uhura) and director Justin Lin for a frank roundtable discussion about the legacy of Star Trek, representation and optimism. In this excerpt, Cho discusses how he overcame his initial reluctance about revealing Sulus sexual orientation and Lin talks about what happened when Takei first brought up the idea to Roddenberry years ago.

When did the conversations about revealing Sulus sexual orientation begin?

Lin: Simon [Pegg, actor and co-screenwriter, with Doug Jung] came up with the idea. Then we expanded it. We talked to John. John talked to George. I talked to George. It shouldnt be a big deal  its not in this Star Trek world, and to me its not a big deal. It was something that I felt like, after talking and thinking about, was a no-brainer.

Cho: I first heard about it from Justin. I had concerns. I was concerned that George not feel like we were negating his value as an actor. He was a gay actor who played a straight character; we werent lifting from him. I also had concerns about how Asians would view it. I really disagreed with it; I was afraid it would be seen as some kind of feminization of Asian men. Lastly, I didnt want it to seem like we were setting up sexual orientation as a choice  because it was the same genetic Sulu in two different timelines. But I think all those were concerns about how it would be perceived, not about the thing itself.

The thing itself I felt very confident about because it was true and honest, and it set up a great story. Now, because of the way it was handled, in this very nonchalant way, all my worries about the way it would be perceived have essentially been nullified.

Roddenberry said, We just had an interracial kiss and got shut down in some stations in the South. Theres no way I can do that.  Justin Lin on Gene Roddenberrys answer when George Takei asked to play Sulu as gay

 John Cho discusses Star Trek character Sulu and his sexuality in Star Trek Beyond.

Lin: I had a lengthy conversation with George. A lot of it Ill keep between me and him. One thing that he did say was that he approached Roddenberry and said, Id like to be able to play Sulu gay. Roddenberry said, We just had an interracial kiss and got shut down in some stations in the South. Theres no way I can do that. The show will go down. I went back and watched all those episodes. It was interesting.

For me, as a kid watching George Takei portray Sulu, he was a human being. Whenever he was onscreen, I was like, Oh, hes someone. Hes a human being on the Enterprise. Thats the best thing about the portrayal of Sulu. As an Asian American, especially, seeing him, that was a big moment in my life. At the end of the day, thats the whole point. Theres a bunch of human beings together on this journey.

READ the full roundtable discussion>>
Like their Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris (2010), Phantom Boy by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gangol is a modest, engaging film that reminds viewers of the intimate pleasures of drawn animation in an era of CG blockbusters.

While in the hospital, 11-year-old Leo (Gaspard Gagnol) discovers he can leave his physical body to explore his surroundings. He quietly assists other patients and dreams of using his supernatural power to fight crime. Outside the hospital, police Lt. Alex Tanner nearly captures the Face (Jean-Pierre Marielle), a gangster with a grotesquely marred visage whos threatening to launch a devastating cyber-attack on New York City unless hes paid a $1-billion ransom. During the chase, Alex breaks his leg and winds up in the hospital with Leo.

The Commissioner (Yves Barbout), Alexs boss, refuses to believe his reports about the criminals whereabouts. But Alexs journalist girlfriend, Mary (Audrey Tautou), goes in search of a scoop in the best Lois Lane tradition. Although initially skeptical of Leos powers, Alex enlists his aid to fight the Faces scheme and assist Mary.

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Gangol and Felicioli suggest a film noir-inflected New York using a simple drawing style reminiscent of the illustrations of Seymour Chwast. The limited, stylized movements feel appropriate for the minimal designs: Leos walk is slow and a bit unsteady, but as Phantom Boy, he loops and curls effortlessly through the urban sky.

Like other recent modestly budgeted animated films from Europe, Phantom Boy offers a welcome change of pace for viewers weary of the homogenized chases, poop jokes and one-liners in many American CG features.

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Phantom Boy

Shown in both English and French (with English subtitles) versions

Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes

MPAA rating: PG for thematic elements, violence and a suggestive situation

Playing: Landmark Nuart, West Los Angeles
Omar comin. Omar here. Omar everywhere.

Well, not really. It just seems that way.

As aficionados of the landmark HBO series The Wire know, Omar Little was the lethal stick-up man operating in the projects of Baltimore. Toting a shotgun and whistling A-Hunting We Will Go, Little was so feared by thugs and civilians alike that just walking down the block would prompt children to cry out a warning, Omar comin!, that would instantly clear the streets.

As played by Michael Kenneth Williams, Little became a signature figure of the drama  a gay antihero with a craving for Honey Nut Cheerios and a Robin Hood-like moral code. The role was a breakthrough for the Brooklyn-born actor who could identify with much of Littles hard life  a long scar near his eye is a souvenir from a barroom fight in which he was slashed with a razor.

Little came to a predictably deadly end in The Wire, but Williams blend of dark-toned dynamics and simmering charisma has won him featured roles in several projects, including HBOs Boardwalk Empire and the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave.

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But lately, the actor has been in overdrive, landing in more than a dozen films and TV series. That trajectory includes biopics (HBOs Bessie), buddy comedy-drama (Sundances Hap & Leonard), comedy (IFCs The Spoils Before Dying) and guerilla journalism (his current hosting gig on Vicelands docuseries Black Market With Michael K. Williams ). He even shows up in the new Ghostbusters.

On Sunday, Williams returns to his frequent home as his character Freddy is introduced in the third episode of HBOs acclaimed new drama The Night Of. It chronicles the story of young Pakistani American, Nasir Naz Khan (Riz Ahmed), who is plunged into a nightmare when he is accused of killing the beautiful girl he had sex with after picking her up in his fathers cab. Williams plays a power broker who takes a liking to the imprisoned Naz and wants to protect him as he awaits trial.

The eight-episode series, costarring John Turturro and based on the BBCs Criminal Justice, offered Williams, 49, a chance to model a character on one of his nephews who is serving time. He is literally a model prisoner. He inspires me. He does service, hes got a degree, he said.

Black Market With Michael K. Williams, which he hosts and executive produces and which currently airs on Viceland at 10 p.m. Tuesdays, zeroes in on the practice of illicit trade. Its six episodes include interviews and interactions with New Jersey carjackers and poachers of abalone off the coast of South Africa.

God, Buddha, Allah, whatever  I believe that a higher power has spared my life because theres a bigger purpose for me.  Michael Kenneth Williams

Starring in two projects at the same time has given the actor a palpable uplift.

I am blessed  I feel blessed today, Williams declared, attired in a stylish green suit and nursing an iced coffee on the rooftop of a West Hollywood hotel. He appeared relaxed after just flying in from Vancouver following the wrap of When We Rise, an upcoming ABC miniseries about the early days of LGBT activism.

Like many of his endeavors, Williams can identify with some of the participants featured in Black Market. When he was growing up, his family, including his mother, a first-generation Bahamian, was struggling: The things my parents had to do just to get by, to make ends meet. It wasnt sex, drugs, trafficking and creepy stuff. It was about people trying to survive.

Survival, rather than building up his resume, is the main motivator for the deluge of projects Williams has undertaken. Hes on a mission  a relentless quest for salvation after years of wrestling with low self-esteem and self-destructive choices, including recklessness and rampant drug use.

When I got bitten by the bug of show business, I was so broken and so shattered, said Williams. Ive been spared so many times in my life. Whatever you want to call the higher power  God, Buddha, Allah, whatever  I believe that a higher power has spared my life because theres a bigger purpose for me.

Off-camera, Williams is a combination of soft-spoken cool and calm, a far cry from his edgy personas on The Wire and The Night Of. He interrupted a photo session to retrieve his cellphone and provide his own personal soundtrack for the shoot, courtesy of Swedish songstress Snoh Aalegra. (I just love this, he said with a wide smile of the catchy R&B-flavored groove.)

Before The Wire, Williams was a professional dancer, appearing in videos and on concert tours for such artists as Madonna and George Michael. He was discovered by Tupac Shakur and made his feature debut in the late rappers 1996 film Bullet.

Omar was everything I couldnt be in my hood.  Michael Kenneth Williams

The Wire, which debuted in 2002, was a life-changer for Williams, both professionally and personally. He felt he understood the outlaw life.

He was an alter ego for me in a sense, Williams said. Omar was everything I couldnt be in my hood  me coming up with low self-esteem and a deep need to be accepted. When people were telling me they loved Omar, more than likely, nine out of 10 of those people would be the same ones that called me soft-ass, punk-ass Mike when I was growing up.

The role bought him fame and stature, but it also plunged him into a bleak tailspin.

That job was the most money I made in my life, said Williams. But the darkness of the character weighed on my psyche so much that when the show ended, I was completely unequipped [to cope with that darkness]. I was hurting myself in every possible way you could imagine.

He continued, And it wasnt always about doing drugs. It was negative company, negative places. I was dark-minded, bad decisions one after another. But someone was looking out for me because I never stopped working. I stay blessed to be continuously working. Otherwise I would have had no place to escape from the (negativity). I would have slit my throat. The ability to put all of this into characters was a lifesaver.

I can work on myself  like free therapy, he said with a chuckle.

Theres a sense of gravitas about him. Theres a power about him that says everything without words.  Screenwriter Steven Zaillian on Michael Kenneth Williams

Steven Zaillian, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Schindlers List who wrote The Night Of with Richard Price (Clockers) and directed several episodes, was not previously familiar with Williams work but was impressed.

Michael has a very quiet intelligence, Zaillian said. Theres a sense of gravitas about him. Theres a power about him that says everything without words.

Matt Piedmont, the co-creator of The Spoils Before Dying, IFCs noiri-sh spoof, featuring Williams as a pianist-turned-detective investigating a murder in the 1950s, said he had a gut feeling that he could hold his own against seasoned comics like Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell.

Its very difficult for a dramatic character to come into a comedy situation and try to be funny, said Piedmont. But Michael stepped right up to the plate. It was out of his comfort zone, but he was right in there.

Of the cavalcade of characters Williams has portrayed in the last few years, none has touched him more deeply than gay activist Ken Jones in When We Rise. Jones was a Vietnam vet who joined the gay liberation movement in San Francisco only to discover and confront racism within the gay community. Jones, who is HIV positive, organized services for homeless youth as he faced the devastation of the AIDS epidemic.

When We Rise is the first thing Ive done where I dont know if Ill be able to watch it, said Williams. I went so dark. I pulled things out of myself I didnt know were in me. This will be a milestone of my life.

He worked closely with Jones in creating the character, who praised Williams for his dedication.

It was very important for Michael K. to tell the story accurately. He is a man of integrity and compassion. He lost about 35 pounds to portray me when I was very, very sick, added Jones, who has regained his health.

Williams said he is still learning how to take better care of himself, becoming more involved with religion and taking advice from mentors such as Louis Gossett Jr. and Wendell Pierce. He is optimistic about his future.

Im in the process of transformation. As far as me being at peace with myself, its coming. Im less concerned about what people think about Michael. Im aiming for a better Michael, a more secure and comfortable Michael. Its within reach.

greg.braxton@latimes.com

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The system is rigged; Bernie Sanders never had a chance.

No, that wasnt a Bernie bro protesting outside the Democratic National Convention, it was Donald Trump finally officially accepting his partys nomination on the final night of the Republican National Convention.

Veering from chant-prompting visions of a law-and-order America striding like a gun-slinging sheriff through a smoldering world run amok to a call to end the assault against the LGBTQ community, Trump cast a very wide net.

So wide that it took him almost 30 minutes of the longest acceptance speech on record to get back to his greatest hits: America comes first, Hillary Clinton is a disaster, NAFTA has to go, illegal immigrants are dangerous.

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Then the crowd, which didnt know quite what to do with the Sanders references, went wild.

Not only did the thematically hop-scotching speech provide the first glimpse of a presidential Trump, it offered the perfect end to the most bizarre race in Republican history and certainly one of the more unconventional conventions in recent memory.

As in the Republican race, nothing at the convention went as planned. All the talk of blocking Trumps nomination came to naught, as, mercifully, did fears of violent protest. Melania Trumps much anticipated speech went from triumph to plagiarism controversy in a matter of minutes. Anti-Trump House leader Paul Ryan caved but Ted Cruz didnt. And though no one talked to an empty chair, the string of reality stars, minor-league celebrities and little-known motivational speakers brought its own sense of the bizarre.

Even before a self-described billionaire called himself the voice of the forgotten man, the fourth and final night doubled down on the conventions commitment to expectation defiance.

Jerry Falwell Jr. got the ball rolling by recalling a dream his father had. No, not of a united America, but of Chelsea Clinton asking him to name the three greatest threats to this country. Osama, Obama and yo mama, he apparently answered. In this dream.

Congressman (as she prefers to be called) Marsha Blackburn explained that it was time for a citizen-politician president because: Hurt feelings are not qualifiers for leadership; leadership is a record of performance. She and Oklahomas first female governor Mary Fallin deepened the conventions general air of national paranoia and Americas apparent near-suicidal depression. Our spirits are nearly broken, Fallin assured us.

Even Peter Thiels appearance was billed as one thing and became another.

1 / 85 Balloons drop at the end of the the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 85 With their families behind them, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence are cheered on by delegates at the close of the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 85 Delegates celebrate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 85 Donald Trump and his wife Melania at the close of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 85 Donald Trump looks out across the crowd of delegates during the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last summer. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 85 Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 85 Donald Trump speaks during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 85 Donald Trump address on the final night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 85 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage after being introduced by his daughter Ivanka Trump during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 85 Ivanka Trump speaks during the final night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 85 Ivanka Trump takes the stage during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 85 Tom Barrack, former Deputy Interior Undersecretary in the Reagan administration, and CEO of Colony Capital, delivers a speech on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 85 California delegates cheer during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 85 On the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, members of the Texas delegation enjoy the music. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 85 Former NFL star Fran Tarkington speaks during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 85 On the final night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the view from up high as the singing of the national anthem is completed. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 85 Six-year-old Heavenly Joy sings America the Beautiful in the Quicken Loans Arena on the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 85 Indiana delegate William Springer sports a GOP elephant hat on the convention floor during the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 85 Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump appears on stage with his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 85 Mike Pence and family at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 85 Indiana Gov. Mike Pence speaks at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 85 Vice presidential hopeful Mike Pence delivers a speech on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 85 Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich addresses delagates during third day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 85 Eric Trump talks about his father, Donald, at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 85 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday night. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 85 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 85 A woman yells at Sen. Ted Cruz, asking him to endorse Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 85 Sen. Ted Cruz addresses the Republican National Convention on Wednesday in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 85 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on stage. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 85 Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 85 Darrell Scott, senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries, speaks to the convention crowd. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 85 Kentucky state Sen. Ralph Alvarado Jr. during his address. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 85 Eileen Collins, retired astronaut, greets the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 85 Alabama and Oklahoma delegates enjoy the music during the opening of the third day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 85 A news anchor reports from the floor of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 85 Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks on the third day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 85 Laura Ingraham, radio host, takes the stage at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 85 Delegates watch a video titled, The Donald I Know, during the third day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 85 West Virginia delegates during the Pledge of Allegiance during the third day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 85 Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, flies into Cleveland for a rally at the Great Lakes Science Center. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 85 Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, who arrived by Helicopter at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland Wednesday morning, greets supports for a rally with his family and Vice Presidential Nominee Mike Pence and his family. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 85 Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, arrive at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 85 Donald Trump Jr. on stage in Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 85 Delegates shout Guilty in response to Governor Chris Christis indictment of Hillary Clinton. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 85 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie delivers his remarks. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 85 A protester is surrounded and silenced by Trump supporters inside the convention. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 85 Kim Davis and the California delegation celebrate Donald Trumps nomination. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 85 Donald Trump Jr.'s image appears on screens above Quicken Loans Arena as he addresses the convention. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 85 Ben Carson speaks at the Republican National Convention. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 85 Tiffany Trump speaks. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 85 House Speaker Paul D. Ryan acknowledges his home state of Wisconsin on stage in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 52 / 85 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield addresses fellow Republicans in the convention hall. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 53 / 85 California delegate Kim Davis cheers. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 54 / 85 Donald Trump Jr., left, celebrates with Eric Trump and other family members during the roll call that made their father the Republican presidential nominee. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 55 / 85 From left, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump on the convention floor. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 56 / 85 Delegates from Washington state. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) 57 / 85 A delegate celebrates. (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images) 58 / 85 House Speaker Paul D. Ryan recognizes the delegation from his home state of Wisconsin. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 59 / 85 Pennsylvania delegate Marianne Stearns with a Donald Trump doll. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 60 / 85 On Tuesday, the second day of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trumps children bow their heads during the evening prayer. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 61 / 85 Harmeet Dhillon, a California Sikh and a Republican national committee member, delivers the opening invocation on day two of the GOP convention. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 62 / 85 On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump introduced his wife, Melania Trump, before she addressed the delegates. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 63 / 85 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with his wife, Melania Trump, at the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 64 / 85 On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump enters the stage before speaking. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 65 / 85 On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump introduced his wife, Melania Trump, before she addressed the delegates. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 66 / 85 On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump asks for the delegates to pay tribule to former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 67 / 85 Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks at the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 68 / 85 Duck Dynastys Willie Robertson speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 69 / 85 On the first night of the Republican National Convention, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry addresses delegates. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 70 / 85 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enters the arena. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 71 / 85 Delegates from Texas wave their hats in response to veterans. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 72 / 85 Delegates stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 73 / 85 Newt Gingrich during the Pledge of Allegiance. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 74 / 85 Former Sen. Bob Dole attends the convention. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 75 / 85 On the floor of the arena. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 76 / 85 Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) listens to a voice vote on the adoption of the rules. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press) 77 / 85 California delegate Luis Buhler, center, joins delegates in singing the national anthem during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 78 / 85 A Florida delegate holds a sign on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images) 79 / 85 California delegate Shari Clark of Stanton sports Converse high tops with a Trump theme on the floor Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 80 / 85 Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette speaks during the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (John Moore / Getty Images) 81 / 85 Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus directs delegates to conferences during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 82 / 85 Barbara Finger from Oconto, Wis., wears a cheesehead hat during first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (John Locher / AP) 83 / 85 Delegates bow their heads in prayer as the Republican National Convention gets underway in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 84 / 85 An agent guards the stairs up to the stage during the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (DAVID MAXWELL / EPA) 85 / 85 Henry Allen, a Florida delegate to Republican National Convention walks around the convention floor with a sign at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The Paypal founders intention to become the first openly gay speaker at an RNC convention led many to believe that he would chastise the party for its poor record on gay rights and this years extremely conservative platform. Instead, he prefaced his announcement  Im proud to be gay, Im proud to be a Republican but most of all, Im proud to be an American  by dismissing the recent transgender bathroom controversy as a fake culture war.

But the evenings Up Is Down Award went, in a split decision, to Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Ivanka Trump. In a masterful example of silk-purse manufacturing, Priebus turned Trumps controversial and party-dividing win into a grassroots victory for the party that listens to the voters.

Ivanka, meanwhile, more than earned her walk-on music  Here Comes the Sun  by stirring Republican delegates to the point that they actually cheered for the notion of affordable childcare and gender-parity in the workplace.

But when she appeared to compare her father to Princess Diana, when she called him the peoples champion and the peoples nominee, well, in terms of spin and sheer rhetorical brilliance, thats a perfect 10.

MORE ON THE GOP CONVENTION

Trumps hop-scotching speech offers the perfect end to a bizarre race

Bernie Sanders slams Trump as he watches the Republican convention from home

Trump paints a grim portrait of the U.S. and casts himself as savior
What is there to know about rose wines? Grape juice, bled or blended or vinified pink, liberally applied on hot sunny days, made to chill, glug, repeat? Well, yes, thats about it. Except that the market for rose, once a trickle, is now a flood so massive its practically biblical. And just like the other wine categories, the offerings fall into subsets of quality, style and accessibility. How do you navigate this new pink torrent?

Lets get a few ground rules out of the way: The first is that roses should be very, very dry. If not, then theyre not doing their job, which is to refresh, quench thirst and stimulate the palate. Beyond this, its helpful to break them all down into three subsets: roses for beginners (fail-safe bottles to pick up and guzzle down, generous, delicious, soothing); roses for experts, (a bit more challenging, elusive and serious); and roses for weirdos (iconoclastic, experimental, odd, delightful  some traditional, some not).

This spring I asked a group of Los Angeles independent wine retailers to suggest wines in each of these categories. As buyers, its their daily task not only to navigate the influx of ros but to convey the right wine to the right imbiber. I hit up Lou Amdur (Lou Wine Shop), Jill Bernheimer (Domaine LA), Samantha Dugan (Wine Country), Randy Clement (Everson Royce, Silverlake Wine) and Dan Perrelli (Wine Hotel). Heres what we came up with.

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It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Beginners:

While dry rose is made all over the world, its ancestral home is the south of France, and this is where beginners ought to begin. This is warm, Mediterranean France, where the sun is hot, the air is dry, the dining is alfresco and the thirst is nonstop. The warmth of these places  Provence, Corbieres, Lirac, Tavel, Nimes, Ventoux  tends to guarantee a generous fruit profile. Best of all, many are affordable; all of these hover around $15.

Dugan recommends a delicious, accessible wine called Cote Mas Aurore, blending mostly Cinsault and Grenache. Thats a liter, for about $10.

Perrelli selects a Ventoux from Domaine de Fenouillet that blends direct press and saignee Cinsault and Grenache juice for a crunchy, lip-smacking pink (about $12).

Clement suggests a Costieres de Nimes Rose from Chateau Mourgues du Gres called Fleur dEglantine, a blend of Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah and Carignane thats dry, affordable and thirst-quenching (about $12).

Bernheimer recommends a wine from Domaine de Sulauze in Aix-en-Provence called Pomponette, an organically grown Grenache blend thats warm, refreshing and mildly floral (about $16).

Amdur recommends the Domaine Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris, which differs slightly from these others in that its made with the Grenache Gris variety, which is sort of grayish pink on the vine, and can be made via direct pressing, as opposed to juice thats been bled off (saignee) of red grapes (about $15).

Roses should be very, very dry. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Experts:

Now it gets interesting. In this category we can find better made, more sophisticated, more serious wines, wines that are drier and more mineral, and oftentimes paler (though not always).

While we wont altogether depart from France, we welcome wines from other parts of the world, from, say, Germany, not known for pink wines (thank you, global warming!), and the U.S., where often the more interesting pinks come from unusual, late ripening varieties and are nearly always direct-press.

In France, a subtler shade comes to us by way of the Loire, where the climate is cooler and the wines can be much more herbal, mineral and soft-spoken, such as the Rose de Loire that Perrelli recommends from Anjou producer Thibaud Boudignon (about $25). Boudignon makes this herby, zippy rose of cabernet franc possessing what Perrelli calls a soulful precision.

Dugan suggests a Mourvedre-based Bandol, from the serious side of Provence pinks. This one comes from Chateau Val DArenc, a wine she calls powerfully graceful, despite its delicate salmon color, and the first vintage by winemaker Gerald Damidot imported to California (about $24).

Bernheimer recommends a German pink from Schafer Frohlich, a rose of Spatburgunder (what the Germans call Pinot Noir) from the up-and-coming winemaker Tim Frohlich, in the Nahe. Bernheimer describes this blanc des noirs wine as very pale and delicate, possessing what she calls polished acids, delivering a mouth-feel thats suave and invigorating (about $23).

Clement recommends Arnot-Roberts Lake County rose. This light, orange-scented wine is made from the Portuguese variety Touriga Nacional, grown at a warm site in Lake County and has, Clement says, a funky and fresh personality (about $25).

Amdur recommends a Corsican rose from Domaine de Marquiliani called Le Rose de Pauline, which he calls delicate, ephemeral, and nearly paper white, composed of the secret weapon sciaccarellu, also known as mammolo, a lesser variety grown in Tuscany (about $26).

A rose should refresh, quench thirst and stimulate the palate. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Weirdos:

The only thing that links the wines in the weirdo category is, roughly, the shade in the glass. Scents, flavors, textures and body all differ, and unlike most of the rest of these selections, you may want to linger with these wines a bit  their complexity and eccentricity may merit a bit of contemplation.

Though having said this, youd be hard-pressed to linger with a Basque Txakolina (choc-o-LEEN-a) Rosado from Finca Jakue, recommended by Dugan, blended from white and red grape musts, this is the winerys first attempt at rose, irrepressibly bright, strawberry-fruited, tangy and effervescent (about $17).

Amdur recommends La Clarine Farms 2014 Alors, a Counoise-heavy rose blend from the Sierra Foothills with a spicy, herbal flavor and the benefit of a year in the bottle to develop a little composure and headiness (about $25).

Clement nominates Nomine Amoris, a fermented-on-skins Pinot Gris from Escondido-based J. Brix, texturally gripping and subtly spiced (about $26).

And lets leave you with the exotic Provencal pink Clos Cibonne (about $27), made from an obscure variety Tibouren and aged in barrels that expose the wine to a veil of lees (known as fleurette) on the surface of the wine, which wears a hint of nutty oxidative note, just a hint of umami, says Bernheimer.

Rose wines are essentially grape juice that is bled or blended or vinified pink, liberally applied on hot sunny days, made to chill. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Unless otherwise noted, all wines are from the 2015 vintage.

Beginners:

Cote Mas Aurore Sud de France, at Wine Country, K&L Wine Merchants, about $10.

Domaine de Fenouillet Ventoux, at Wine Hotel, Domaine LA, John & Petes, about $12.

Chateau Mourgues du Gres Costieres de Nimes Fleur dEglantine, at Hi-Time, Woodland Hills Wine Co. and Wine Exchange, about $12.

Domaine de Sulauze Aix-en-Provence Pomponette, at Domaine LA and Lincoln Fine Wines, about $16.

Domaine Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris at Lou Wine Shop, Du Vin, Eno and Hi-Time, about $15.

The market for rose has been increasing. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Experts:

Thibaud Boudignon Anjou Rose, at the Wine Hotel, about $25.

Chateau Val DArenc Bandol, at Wine Country, Wine House and K&L, about $24).

Schafer Frohlich Blanc des Noirs Trocken at Domaine LA, Woodland Hills Wine Co., K&L and Wine Country, about $23.

Arnot-Roberts Lake County Rose of Touriga Nacional at Everson Royce, Silverlake Wine and Domaine LA, about $25.

Domaine de Marquiliani Le Rose de Pauline vin de Corse, at Lou Wine Shop and the Wine House, about $26.

Weirdos:

Finca Jakue Getariako Txakolina Rosado at Wine Country (about $17).

La Clarine Farm 2014 Sierra Foothills Alors, at Lou Wine Shop and Domaine LA, about $22.

J. Brix Santa Maria Valley Nomine Amoris, Pinot Gris, about $26.

Clos Cibonne Tibouren Rose, at Domaine LA, Wine House, and K&L, (about $25).

food@latimes.com
Stand in a field of wheat  amid the undulating stalks of grain, the blue dome of the sky overhead  and its hard not to be moved by the landscape, like youve stumbled into a patriotic song, which of course you have. When youre the farmer, the stanza runs a little differently. You still have the beauty and the mountains, but the equation is also the very basic one of bread and water. And if that sounds more like a survivalists manual than the national anthem, it probably should.

At Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, Alex Weiser is harvesting his fields of Sonora and Red Fife wheat, as well as those of Abruzzi rye and French Black oats, as part of what he and others have named the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project. The farm, which Weiser owns with his parents, brother and sister, is a mainstay at Los Angeles-area farmers markets, where Weiser is often manning the tables of fingerling potatoes, French melons and Bloomsdale spinach  until three years ago, grain was just a cover crop. Since then, Weiser and a small collective of farmers and friends have been working to bring back landrace grains, a traditional, drought-tolerant crop, as a way of meeting the resurgent interests of local bakers and brewers, as well as a recalibrated climate. If you spend time in Los Angeles dining culture, youve likely heard of the grain project through a restaurant fundraiser, a bakery class or one of the loaves of bread that have traveled around the city like breadcrumbs embedded in a narrative.

Were trying to create our own non-GMO grain belt, Weiser said recently on the 83-acre farm his family has owned and worked since 1982, in a bowl valley surrounded by the Tehachapi Mountains. Weiser is in his third year of growing heritage grains that he was seeded, literally, by Glenn Roberts, the founder of South Carolina-based Anson Mills, who gave four tons of seeds to local farmers to start a Southern California grain hub. The first year Weiser grew two acres, the second 20; this year, hes got about 35 acres. Were getting some momentum, said Weiser, gesturing from his vantage point in a field of rye to another of Atlas barley.

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1 / 9 The sun rises above a field of Abruzzi rye at Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 9 Alex Weiser stands in a field of Abruzzi rye at Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi. Weiser is co-founder of the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 9 Alex Weiser, left, Kim Durham and her boyfriend Jon Hammond in a field of Sonora wheat at Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 9 The sun sets above a field of Sonora wheat at Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 9 Jon Hammond shows Sonora wheat berries grown in Tehachapi that are part of the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times ) 6 / 9 Alex Weiser, left, Jon Hammond and his girlfriend Kim Durham walk through a field of Sonora wheat at Weiser Family Farms, with the Tehachapi Mountains behind them. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 9 Alex Weiser co-founded the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project with Jon Hammond. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 9 Carrots are harvested at Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 9 Alex Weiser is photographed in front of an old freight car on the grounds of Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

That momentum, however, depends a lot on that equation of bread and water. What will next years crop look like, given the ongoing drought? What kind of market is there for small batches of heritage grain, the flour thats milled from it, and the bread thats baked from it, given the economics of, well, everything? When you kick the dirt on the ground in triple-digit July heat, a bakery filled with boules of whole wheat bread may seem an unlikely dream.

Weiser and Jon Hammond, a fourth-generation farmer whose Linda Vista Ranch is adjacent to Weiser Family Farms, have been working with other nearby farmers, including Nate Siemens of Fat Uncle Farm, not only to grow and harvest successive seasons of grain, but to build an infrastructure for it. Its a jigsaw puzzle with various pieces, if you consider that the road from grain to table includes a combine and a thresher, as well as a mill, then a bakery  and a knowledgeable, hungry public. And those are just the obvious parts of the equation.

While Weisers farm has been in the family only since his father Sid, a former East L.A. high school teacher, bought an apple farm for a second career, Hammonds grandfather came to Tehachapi in 1898  as a shepherd. Linda Vista Ranch still looks as much like a Smithsonian art installation as it does a working farm. Theres a blacksmith shop and an old Ford tractor with metal wheels. The pigs and sheep doze in a barn thats a century old. And outside the grainery, theres a 75-year-old Montgomery Ward antique hammer mill.

Jon Hammond shows Sonora wheat berries grown in Tehachapi that are part of the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times )

All the arable land here was once grain, said Hammond of the area, which was covered by thousands of acres of wheat, when California was one of the major grain producers in the country at the end of the 1800s. For centuries, theyd cut it by hand, hit it with a stick to thresh it. Then came mechanization and gradually grain production shifted from human to animal production, then in many places stopped completely. And then came the drought. But, said Hammond, it never stopped being a great place to grow grain.

There is a certain irony to the Tehachapi grain project, and the wider project that is a natural extension of it. Twenty-first century farmers are planting wild rye and heritage Sonora  a type of white wheat that grew in Sonora, Mexico, hundreds of years ago and was once the main commercial wheat crop in Californias Central Valley  and raising money to buy basic farm equipment. (Weiser and Hammond are renting a combine for harvesting.) The reverse engineering is because farmers are adopting old methods  farming without chemicals, using landrace seeds, thinking about issues of sustainability and seed security  and trying to either dry-farm or farm with very little irrigation.

If a lot of this sounds like going backward, it is. What Weiser and Hammond, as well as the other farmers growing heritage grain and similar crops are doing, is not unlike what farmers three generations ago were doing, in some cases almost exactly.

When you try and take modern parameters and apply them to any of this, it just blows up in your face, said Glenn Roberts recently by phone from Decorah, Iowa, where hed gone to visit the Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit seed bank dedicated to saving and sharing seeds. Youre re-creating something, Roberts said of the gap between the new cycle of grain farmers and the farmers who came two generations before them. Having to implement this is extremely difficult; its counterintuitive. Roberts, who says hes helped establish 15 grain hubs over about as many years, found Weiser through Sonoko Sakai, a local Japanese American food writer with her own grain project, Common Grains.

Theres a certain kind of universality in cereals that doesnt apply to any other crop sector, said Roberts. Alex knows how to marry all that highfalutin talk with getting people fed, and thats really rare.

 The group of local farmersincluding Alex Weiser from Weiser Family Farms  are starting to plant and harvest heirloom grains in and around Tehachapi, a little more than 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

Weiser and Hammond arent, of course, the only ones doing this. On about 150 acres in San Luis Obispo County, John DeRosier grows between 20 and 40 acres of oats, heirloom wheat, barley and rye, depending on the rainfall  or lack thereof. And on fields in Hollister and Imperial, Andrea Crawford and her husband Robert Dedlow of Kenter Canyon Farms recently harvested about 75 acres of emmer and wheat that also traces back to the original grant of seeds from Roberts. These and other farmers are part of a patchwork quilt of individual fields knitted together  a kind of cereal mosaic that connects them to other fields, in Northern California and Arizona, where other farmers have been growing heritage grains.

The country near Weisers fields in Tehachapi can look like the landscape of the moon. But theres a symmetry to jump-starting a grain hub there, amid the wind farms, apple orchards and desert chapels, like walking backward to get where youre going.

amy.scattergood@latimes.com

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University of California senior managers will face tougher scrutiny on whether moonlighting activities pose real or perceived conflicts of interest under new rules approved Thursday by the Board of Regents.

The rules add another level of approval for paid outside activities and create a new independent review committee to assess conflicts of interest and potential damage to the universitys reputation. The rules also decrease the number of for-profit boards senior managers can join from three to two and require a statement describing the benefits to UC from the outside activities.

The changes...would be among the most careful and restrictive in the nation today, said Regent Bonnie Reiss, who presented the item during a board meeting in San Francisco. I am confident that our president, our board and our chancellors are fully committed to UC, to ensuring our reputation and maintaining our public trust.

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The stricter rules were passed after disclosures that UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi had taken paid board positions with the DeVry Education Group, which is under federal investigation for allegedly defrauding students, and John Wiley & Sons, a college textbook publisher. Katehi had received permission from the former and current UC presidents for the textbook company position but not the DeVry board seat.

Reiss said the disclosures, first reported by the Sacramento Bee, reflected poorly on UC. The revelations prompted both a state legislative hearing on UC moonlighting and a directive in the state budget bill passed this year to review and adjust policies on outside activities.

She said a national review conducted by UC found that no university entirely banned senior managers from paid outside activities and very few limited the number of board positions they could accept.

We agree that an outright ban is an overreach; it could hurt UCs ability to attract talent and it would deprive UC of the benefits some of these affiliations bring, Reiss said.

Moonlighting was not a rampant problem at UC, Reiss said, adding that only three of 10 chancellors serve in paid board seats.

UC policy encourages its senior managers to serve on scientific boards, foundations and corporations as a way to share their expertise and learn about other administrative and educational practices.

In 2014, 49 of UCs 180 senior managers reported income from outside activities, receiving a total $1.77 million. That represented a decrease from the $2.2 million reported by 52 managers the previous year. Senior managers include the president, chancellors, medical center chief executives officers, laboratory directors, some deans and other top administrators.

The highest-paid senior manager was Mark Laret, chief executive officer of the UCSF Medical Center, who reported $589,820 in total compensation for serving on the boards of two for-profit firms, Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto and Nuance Communications, a Massachusetts software company. Laret is one of the UC systems highest-paid employees, earning $1.6 million in 2014.

Other top earners in 2014 were David Feinberg, who stepped down last year as head of UCLAs health and hospital systems and reported $201,500 from OSI Systems Inc., Steward & Lynda Resnick Revocable Trust and Douglas Emmett Inc.

Paul Alivisatos, who resigned this year as director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, reported $140,000 for work as a consultant for Nanosys, an advisor to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a speaker for Exxon Mobil and editorial positions for two nonprofits. Alivisatos was recently awarded the National Medal of Science by President Obama for his work on nanoscience.

In a discussion, Regent John Perez cautioned against creating overbureaucratic impediments for people wishing to participate in unpaid outside activities on their own time. Reiss said the new rules would apply to paid time, although unpaid positions are also reviewed to make sure they dont overly impinge on a managers UC duties.

Regent Sherry Lansing said the rules would help prevent managers from making unintentional errors of judgment. She cited her own experience relying on conflict-of-interest rules to help guide her as chairwoman of major film studios.

Only Regent Richard Blum voted against the proposal, without comment.

The regents also approved a 3% raise for 19 senior managers, including all chancellors except Katehi. Katehi is under investigation for alleged nepotism, misuse of student fees and lying about her role in social media contracts. She denied any wrongdoing and has filed a grievance against the university.

With the pay hike, chancellor salaries will range from $394,655 at UC Riverside, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz to $795,675 at UC San Francisco.

Regents also approved the final design and financing for UC Merceds $1.3-billion campus expansion. The expansion will nearly double the campus physical capacity by 2020, enabling it to accommodate 10,000 students from the current enrollment of 6,700.

Several students spoke at the meeting, urging regents to continue supporting those in need of food and shelter. Regents discussed a major new study showing that 4 of 10 UC students do not have a consistent source of high-quality, nutritious food.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

Twitter: @teresawatanabe
The Republican National Convention is over. Donald Trump has had his say  at record length  and now we get to watch the polls.

Will the convention generate a bump?

Good afternoon, Im David Lauter, Washington bureau chief. Welcome to the Friday edition of our Essential Politics newsletter, in which we look at the events of the week in the presidential campaign and highlight some particularly insightful stories.

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THE CONVENTION BUMP

So far, our USC Dornsife/L.A. Times Daybreak tracking poll of the election shows no improvement for Trump from the first couple of days of his convention. Trump had a three-point lead over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton last week. That edge disappeared by the time the convention started, and the two have remained tied in the survey since.

But because the poll is a seven-day rolling average, we shouldnt expect to see anything significant in reaction to Trumps speech until Sunday or Monday. The poll gets updated every day, shortly after midnight Pacific time, so keep checking back.

Why do conventions generate a bump at all?

Through most of a campaign, news coverage of both candidates tends to be roughly even  partisans of each side always think the other is getting more and softer coverage, but repeated studies have shown thats generally not so. As a result, both sides get their messages across to voters. That tends to work against big shifts either way.

But during convention week, the party holding the convention dominates the news. Its the one point in the campaign when a party can reasonably hope to get voters to focus almost solely on its message. That doesnt have much impact on hard-core partisans on either side, but it does sway voters who have only weak  or no partisan leanings.

Usually, one party gets a bump and, then, when the other party has its week, it gets a bump. When all is over, both sides usually have improved their standing, and the number of undecided voters has gone down.

Sometimes, however, the bumps do not cancel out each other. The most striking example came in 1992, when Bill Clinton received a bump from his convention of as much as 14 points in some surveys. Thats by far the record, and it came in unusual circumstances: Ross Perot, the third-party candidate, dropped out of the race just as the Democratic gathering got underway and implied support for Clinton (he later rejoined the race); the convention itself was superbly orchestrated; and Clinton went into the convention week below where he probably should have been given the underlying mood of the country.

The trend since has been for convention bumps to be smaller and smaller, probably because the country has fewer and fewer swing voters who can be influenced.

WRAPPING UP THE CONVENTION

Here are a few highlights of what our Campaign team has produced in the last week:

First, check out David Horseys wonderful caricatures.

As Cathy Decker wrote, Trumps speech represented a big gamble on his part. His bet is that he doesnt need to reach beyond the arguments  and the voters  that have gotten him this far. The nations hunger for change will carry him the rest of the way, Trump and his advisers argue.

But many Republicans leaders worry that Trump is headed down a cul-de-sac. For every blue-collar former Democrat that he pulls into the party, they fear, he seems to be driving away an equal number of college-educated voters.

Are we adding, or just adding and subtracting, asked House Speaker Paul Ryan.

As Michael Finnegan reported ahead of the speech, Trumps law and order approach consciously drew heavily on Richard Nixons campaign from 1968. But the country is very different now, making that approach a risky one. If you want to review the speech, heres an annotated guide.

While the official convention took place, a parallel convention was underway featuring the Republicans who hope to be the nominee in 2020, Lisa Mascaro and Seema Mehta wrote. Among the most prominent was the home-state governor, John Kasich, who, as Noah Bierman described, was everywhere to be seen, except by Trumps side.

Trumps statements about NATO, Russia and Ukraine drew outraged reactions from some U.S. allies and from parts of the GOP foreign policy establishment, Laura King and Tracy Wilkinson reported.

In the midst of the convention, Trumps latest campaign finance disclosure report became public. As Melanie Mason and Mascaro reported, he raised a lot more money in June than he had in May, and now has $20 million in his campaign account. But thats still less than half the cash Clinton has on hand.

Dont miss our teams detailed fact-checks and annotations of Trumps acceptance speech, which you can watch in full here.

And among the most notable stories from Cleveland is what didnt happen: No riots, no serious injuries, not even that many arrests. James Queally and Matt Pearce looked at what went right.

Theres more, much more. Check out our Politics page for full coverage of the GOP convention or catch up quick with our convention video in less than four minutes. Join us starting Monday for complete coverage of the Democratic National Convention, including video of key moments, analysis of the major speeches and our assessment of how its all unfolding.

THE VEEP COMETH

By the time you read this, Clinton may already have announced her running mate. The unveiling is expected either late Friday afternoon or Saturday in Florida.

Clintons campaign has vetted several candidates, and late in the week, campaign officials were insisting to reporters that at least a few were still in the running. But all signs have been pointing to Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia as the clear front-runner.

Like many voters, you may not know much about Kaine. Check out this excellent profile by Mike Memoli.

If Kaine is the pick, it would represent the opposite strategy from the one Trump opted for. He picked Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana in part to assuage conservative voters who doubt his commitment to their cause. A Kaine pick would indicate that Clinton and her advisers are less concerned about restiveness on the left, where activists have campaigned for her to choose Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts or Labor Secretary Tom Perez.

The Clinton camp thinks restive liberals will come to like Kaine when they learn more about his history  he spent years as a civil rights lawyer fighting housing discrimination, campaigned against the National Rifle Association in Virginia and served as a missionary in Honduras. At the same time, they also believe he could help her appeal to white voters in places like his home state and the Midwest, where he grew up.

Kaine, then the governor of Virginia, was high on then-Sen. Barack Obamas short list eight years ago but lost out to Sen. Joe Biden, whose ideological leanings he closely resembles. Will he make the cut this time? Well know soon.

DONT FORGET THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

The popular vote is all very well  just ask Al Gore  but gaining the presidency requires winning enough states to get 270 electoral votes. How to get there? Play political strategist for yourself, and try out as many scenarios as you like on our electoral map.

QUESTIONS ABOUT TRUMP, CLINTON? WEVE GOT ANSWERS

Where they stand on issues, what theyve done in their lives, their successes, their failures, what their presidencies might look like: Weve been writing about Clinton and Trump for years, and weve pulled the best of that content together to make finding what you want to know easier. So check out All Things Trump and All Things Clinton.

LOGISTICS

If you like this newsletter, tell your friends to sign up.

That wraps up this week. My colleague Christina Bellantoni will be back Monday with the weekday edition of Essential Politics. Until then, keep track of all the developments in the 2016 campaign with our Trail Guide, at our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics.

Send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Miss yesterdays newsletter? Here you go. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox daily.
Aug. 25, 2016, 10:40 a.m. Reporting from imperial beach, Calif.

We made it, Oregon to Mexico, along an 1,100-mile beach The drive began at the Oregon border. It ended five weeks later at the Mexican border. Where I almost got arrested. OK, thats an exaggeration. When photographer Allen Schaben and I got to the border of Tijuana and Imperial Beach, the party was much better on the Mexican side. Families were in the water and on the sand, a Mariachi band played, and the whole scene was rather festive compared with two people strolling quietly on the Imperial Beach side. I thought briefly about defecting. One man stood at the fence on the Tijuana side, so I walked up to say hello. I asked why he wasnt swimming and he said he didnt have a bathing suit, then he stuck his hand through the fence to shake my hand. A Border Patrol agent sped toward me in an SUV and yelled for me to stand back from the fence. I hesitated, because what was the big deal? But then I noticed a sign warning against contact or the passing of narcotics through the fence, etc. So I stepped back from the fence because I didnt know if Id be able to write my last road trip columns from a jail cell. Im going to wrap up the series on Sunday, but that wont be the end of my coverage of the California Coastal Commission on the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Act. Theres lots to keep an eye on. Legislation to ban private meetings between commissioners and developers could move forward later today. A vote has been delayed on the controversial proposal for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, a project that doesnt make a lot of sense in my opinion but has big money backing it. The ever-controversial Newport Banning Ranch project -- a massive hotel/housing development on the last undeveloped plot of privately owned coastal property in Southern California -- will be up for a vote in early September. And the City Council election in Pismo Beach has gotten very interesting because Erik Howell, a councilman and coastal commissioner who ticked off Pismo residents by supporting a development that will block ocean views, now has challengers in his reelection campaign. Howell, if youve forgotten, accepted a $1,000 campaign donation from the domestic partner and business colleague of the lobbyist who represents the Pismo development. If he loses his council seat, he loses his Coastal Commission seat too. So stay tuned. The Coastal Commission will have a new director soon, a new chair and at least two new commissioners, and we need to watch closely because whats at stake is the greatest 1,100-mile coast in the world.



10:25 A.M. reporting from san diego

Lawmaker who led 72 coastal preservation bike ride from San Francisco to San Diego still has Schwinn that delivered win Former senator James Mills, 89, stands with the bike he rode from Sacramento to San Diego in 1972 to promote Prop 20, which created the Coastal Commission and led to the Coastal Act. The photo was taken overlooking the San Diego skyline from Mills Coronado apartment Wednesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The bike. I wanted to see the bike, and meet its owner. Arriving in San Diego meant our coastal trek from Oregon to Mexico was coming to an end, and it meant that it was finally time to pay a visit to Jim Mills. Mills, a state legislator from 1962 to 1981, was Senate president pro tempore in 1972 when he decided to support Proposition 20, the coastal preservation act. Without it, conservationists feared, coastal development would run amok, Highway 1 would be widened, and a string of nuclear power plants would spring up on some of the greatest beach fronts in the world. But there wasnt much money to fight Prop. 20s foes, said Mills, who had grown up wading in La Jolla Cove and has a deep appreciation of the states greatest natural resource. So in September 1972, he hopped aboard his canary yellow Schwinn Super Sport and led a bike rally from San Francisco to San Diego. The number of riders swelled at times, Mills said, and bikers were greeted each evening by locals serving plenty of carbs. We ate a lot of weenies and beans, and spaghetti too, he said. He recalled PG&E executives following the cyclists in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac, doing their own spin on Prop. 20. The bike rally drew lots of publicity, Mills said, and whether it made the difference is anyones guess. But Prop. 20 won 55% of the vote and led in 1976 to the Coastal Act that to this day protects the coast for the benefit of fragile marine and land habitats and the enjoyment of everyone. Mills was 45 when he rode down the coast, and 89 now. He greeted me and photographer Allen Schaben at his Coronado condo and said he hasnt done any riding lately, but hes doing a lot of writing. Mills has written several books and is working on another. He leads us down to the basement, and there it is. The dusty, canary yellow Schwinn that Mills rode in 1972, and for many years after the Prop. 20 campaign. He was an avid cyclist. Mills also kept the helmet he wore in 1972. We took the bike upstairs, where Mills put on his helmet and posed next to the bike that is a piece of California history. The Coastal Act has done a great deal of good over the years, Mills said, and the cause is no less important now than it was when he rode south from San Francisco. We need to preserve the coast for the benefit of future generations, he said, and I thank him for his contribution.



Aug. 21, 2016, 10:50 p.m. Reporting from the Mexican border

Steve Lopez reflects back on his 1,100 mile trek down the California coast

6:57 P.M. Sometimes the sausage is good enough to eat Two things will happen soon. The last column from my 1,100 mile road trip down the California coast will be done. And the reform bill banning private communications between California Coastal Commissioners and developers, as well as others, could finally emerge from the factory. As Ive been saying, Hannah-Beth Jacksons bill sailed through the Senate and should have done the same in the Assembly, but it got pushed off into a dark corner after a very fishy report claimed that reform costs money. The thing has come back to life, though, with amendments that arent as bad as the original amendments. I dont see why we need the amendments at all, or why the wrangling has to take place behind closed doors and out of public view. While I was thinking about that, a reader emailed me a clever idea about how to keep coastal commissioners honest -- make them strap on body cameras, like cops. I like it, and why not do the same with legislators, so we can all see whats going on? Having said all this, though, Im hearing from supporters of Jacksons bill that they think theres actually a chance the legislation is going to be OK, once all the cooks are done tweaking the recipe. Sausage is full of awful stuff, but just about all of it is good on the grill. So as much fun as Ive had telling you to ping Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, @Rendon63rd, and Appropriations Chair Lorena Gonzalez, @LorenaAD80, and ask what gives, maybe we should try another approach. Im told that Rendon, Gonzalez and other Assembly leaders have done some decent work rescuing this much-needed bill from the trash. So go ahead and tweet them again, and tell them youre encouraged, and still watching -- to the extent thats possible -- and counting on them to do whats necessary to get the bill to Gov. Jerry Brown, which is when the real fun will begin.

8:46 A.M. When it comes to coastal protection, why does state Assembly have such a problem with transparency? The need to clean up the way the California Coastal Commission operates was obvious. Commissioners meet privately with developers more than with any other group, by far. They have repeatedly failed to fully explain the nature of those meetings, and have even failed to report them on occasion. State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) penned a bill to ban such meetings. It cleared the Senate and bounced over to the Assembly, which nearly killed it, but finally decided this week to merely beat it to a pulp. The toothless mess that emerged from the Assembly Appropriations Committee this week would allow private meetings to continue under certain circumstances, and now Sen. Jackson has the task of trying to put some punch back into her bill. And heres the irony: We dont know which Assembly members, or higher powers, conspired to water down Jacksons bill because there is no transparency in the process. You cant peer through a window into the sausage factory. These amendments were hammered out privately. One can guess that the development lobby and labor groups did not like Jacksons reform bill because it would get in the way of a process that gives an advantage to those who want to build on the coast. One can even guess that the Brown administration shares their view. But we dont know, because a bill to shine a light on important decision-making got pummeled in a dark room, and the perps left no fingerprints. See Dan Weikels story at latimes.com. Ive sent in a request for an explanation to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). He has appointing authority for four coastal commissioners and itd be nice to hear what he thinks about the handiwork by his Appropriations Committee. If youd like to ping him or Appropriations Chair Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) to ask what happened, try @Rendon63rd and @LorenaAD80. Or you can drop a line to The Silent One @JerryBrownGov, but Ive tried, and despite months of turmoil and controversy on the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Act he signed into law, the governor doesnt want to be disturbed.



7:36 A.M. Summer is in the rear-view mirror, end of journey just down the road The tide splashes up on the beach at sunset on a warm summer evening at Windansea Beach in La Jolla. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Carlsbad. Leucadia. Encinitas. Cardiff. Solana. Del Mar. Summer is disappearing in my rear-view mirror. Week Five of my trip from Oregon to Mexico will be over in just a few days, 1,100 miles after it began. Photographer Allen Schaben is farther down the road, waiting for me in San Diego. Soon well stand at the Mexican border and reflect on a deeper love of the California coast, a greater appreciation of the Coastal Act on the 40-year anniversary of protections that became law. Ill wish Id had a week to spend in places where I only had an hour or two. Ill thank the people we met along the way, and tell others well take up their offer the next time through. Californians are passionate about their coast. Theyre closely watching those in public office whose job is to protect fisheries and dunes, to limit development and maximize access. Ive got one eye on Sacramento myself. On legislative reforms that would serve all Californians. On coastal commissioners, some of whom seem to have forgotten their purpose. Im pulling into San Diego, where the air is warm, the water blue, Mexico in the near distance.



4:14 P.M. La Jolla The palm fronds of a palapa reveal a surfer, a couple and children taking in a warm summer sunset at Windansea Beach in La Jolla. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)



1:07 P.M. newport beach

Watts in a name? Find Amp-le answers in Newport Beach On Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. (Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times) Im driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway and spot the sign. The boat name of the week, it says, is Watt A Man. Thats not a mistake. This is the headquarters for Duffy, which makes the electric boats that are part of the culture in the Newport harbor. Many years ago, I wrote a column about a day of hobnobbing and bar-hopping, by boat, with local residents. I also wrote, at the time, about boat owners trying to out-do each other with clever names for the battery-powered boats. One of my favorites was Salt n Battery. So what are some of the newer ones? I walk into the office, and salesman Jim Drayton says one of the best ones this summer was Amp-ly Endowed. Not bad. Tyler Duffield, of the Duffy family, shows me a list with a few more recent winners. Your name here. (Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times) Its a Ohm Run. Watt the Hey. Watta Yacht. Going back through the years, some of the better names include: Current Affair. Carry Us Ohm Watts the Hurry. Shock Cousteau. Ohmer Simpson. Knots and Volts. I could go on, but why dont you, instead? Send me your best names. Its not as easy as it looks, Duffield said. Its usually the hardest part, he says. Someone comes in and orders a boat, and they get the colors and everything figured out, and the last thing to do is come up with a name before the boat leaves the factory. Yeah, Its a Duff Life out here, where people are Ohm on the Watter, but It Is Watt It Is.



9:13 A.M. Going under in Laguna Beach A snorkeler looks for fish at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Garibaldi swim and feed on rocks at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

2:41 P.M. Catching waves in Huntington Beach



10:53 A.M. On our way toward Mexico A view of the beach through a telescope at Pacific City, a new 31-acre mixed-use development in Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City U.S.A. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The site of the proposed Banning Ranch development now before the California Coastal Commission. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The tide rolls in at twilight at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station located on the border of San Diego County and San Clemente. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

4:52 P.M. Laguna Beach

4:45 P.M. Laguna Beach



12:51 P.M. Dana Point A pod of dolphins leaps out of the water with a view of south Laguna Beach in the background on Aug. 12, 2016. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

10:37 P.M. sacramento

Profiles in courage: Legislators soften Coastal Commission reform, leave no fingerprints A perfectly sensible bill to clean up the way California coastal commissioners do business has been getting the waterboard treatment. First, Santa Barbara Sen. Hannah-Beth Jacksons SB 1190 was submerged by a ludicrous report claiming it would cost too much money to prohibit private conversations between developers and commissioners. Then it was tossed overboard and dragged like chum. Then on Thursday, legislators pulled SB 1190 back into the boat so badly decomposed its barely recognizable. As my colleague Dan Weikel reports at latimes.com, five amendments gutted the good intentions. The most egregious one allows commissioners to meet privately with developers during on-site visits. This comes just weeks after reports that Coastal Commission Chairman Steve Kinsey met twice with developers of the massive Newport Banning Ranch development and failed to properly report those confabs. Environmental groups, however, would not be able to have such meetings in the bills current form. On my best day, I could not have come up with a more Alice in Wonderland outcome. Details were still emerging, and it wasnt clear which legislators were responsible for the hatchet job, or whether they caved in to political, development or union pressure, or all three. No fingerprints on the body, in other words. Three environmentalists I checked with were livid, and understandably so. Stay tuned for updates on the autopsy, and dont stop letting @JerryBrownGov know how you feel about whats happening to coastal preservation on his watch. #SaveYourCoast



7:46 A.M. Sunset at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages Children run along the beach at twilight near the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The sun sets over the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Isabella, 9, and Holden, 7, roast marshmallows over a beach fire with their parents, Steve and Amy Knuff, of Aliso Viejo at twilight at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Incoming tide rolls onto the beach at twilight at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)



1:29 P.M. Column: Fighting for the California coast from a tiny office in her kitchen nook Susan Jordan, who created and runs the California Coastal Protection Network, is seen in her Santa Barbara office. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) If you were a coastal conservation activist in California, with 1,100 miles of shoreline to look after, how would you even decide where to begin? Theres always a battle somewhere, and let me give you just a couple of examples from one tiny section of the coast. Moss Landing is in the news again this week as the Surfrider Foundation and other activists try to stop Cemex, an international sand mining company, from trucking away the beach as it has done for decades, causing erosion that has begun to set off lots of alarms. Read more



8:49 A.M. Hermosa Beach

Remember when you could spend a night at a California beach motel for less than a weeks pay? A third-generation motel owner in this seaside town tells me he gets an offer, about every other day, from someone who wants to buy his property, bulldoze it and rebuild. But hes hanging on because three generations of families have been staying at his low-budget, no-frills motel since the 1960s, and he doesnt want to end those summer vacation traditions. Elsewhere on the California coast, motels and hotels have been bought out by chains and developers, driving up the cost of affordable family vacations. Look for my column on the Hermosa Beach motel in the coming days. And if you know of good low-budget beach lodging, or if youve seen your motel go from cheap to chic, drop me a line at steve.lopez@latimes.com Over the next two days, photographer Allen Schaben and I will be in Hermosa and Huntington Beach, reporting on the proposed desalination plant there. And, by the way, we should find out in the next day or two whether legislation banning private meetings between coastal commissioners and developers is released from legislative prison and put up for a vote in the state Assembly. Theres still time to weigh in at #SaveYourCoast and be sure to give a poke to @JerryBrownGov and Assemblywoman, Lorena Gonzalez @LorenaAD80. Read more
The Los Angeles Police Departments decision to flood the citys deadliest neighborhoods with more officers has managed to slow the pace of killings and shootings in recent months.

But the department still faces a continuing rise in assaults, robberies and property offenses, marking the citys second straight midyear increase in overall crime.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and Mayor Eric Garcetti acknowledged the problem at a news conference Friday, saying they are making progress in high-crime areas but cant indefinitely focus on only those neighborhoods.

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It robs too many resources from too much of our city, Beck said. My job is very much about triage.

The jump in overall crime comes at a crucial moment. Residents across the city are both frustrated and alarmed by the uptick. Police and others are keeping a wary eye on the weeks ahead, worried that August will be as bloody as it was last year.

The difficulty driving down crime presents a potential political challenge to Garcetti as well, coming as the mayor seeks another term in office and continues his rise on the national stage. Next week, he is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

Public safety is the No. 1 issue for cities and mayors, said Fernando Guerra, who heads the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. Still, he said, surveys conducted by Guerras research center show that public perceptions of safety have remained positive over the past three years, which bodes well for Garcettis re-election campaign next year.

Through July 16, overall crime rose 6.3% across the city compared with the same period last year, LAPD records show. Property crime was up 3.8% and violent offenses climbed by 15.9%.

Violent crime was led by a 19.2% jump in aggravated assaults and a 16.8% increase in robberies. Police reported the same number of homicides as last year  142. Across the city, 586 people have been shot  one fewer than during the same period in 2015.

Officials have pointed to a variety of factors they say have contributed to the jump in crime: more gang violence, a rising homeless population and Proposition 47, the 2014 law that reduced some drug possession and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

The local rise continues last years trend across California. Statewide, violent offenses jumped 10% and property offenses 8% compared with 2014, according to the attorney generals office.

 LADP Chief Charlie Beck talks about how his department has had to adjust to deal with climbing crime statistics.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department also reported increases this year, with an 8.4% rise in violent crimes and a 6.8% increase in property crime through the end of June. LAPD officials have stressed that despite the rise in crime in recent years, Los Angeles is still a safer city than it was decades ago.

LAPD brass have spent more than a year trying to drive the numbers down, doubling the number of specially trained Metropolitan Division officers to suppress crime in hot spots and increasing intervention efforts to prevent gang violence. Garcetti said he felt increased urgency in late March, when a daily crime report showed a 32.7% rise in killings across the city.

We saw things spiraling out of control, he said. I said, Look, we are doing things that I believe will pay off over time, but weve got to do something more radical right now.

The LAPD created a command center focused on the four South L.A. divisions that accounted for nearly half of the citys killings and shootings: 77th Street, Southeast, Southwest and Newton. The command center, staffed around-the-clock by LAPD brass, allowed police to more quickly move officers and other resources across the divisions to prevent retaliatory attacks and try to stop other crimes before they occurred.

More Metro officers were moved in. The divisions officers pulled nearly 300 guns off the streets in recent months, Beck said. Motorcycle cops also flooded the streets, helping investigators track down vehicles used in robberies or other crimes.

Those efforts started to have an effect, Beck said.

Shootings, which had spiked earlier this year, started to drop. Killings steadily fell. In early June, the city went a weekend without a homicide and no one was shot in two LAPD bureaus. It was, Beck told police commissioners, the first time in my memory that this has occurred.

But crime continued to climb in other areas, such as the LAPDs Hollenbeck Division, which covers Eastside communities like Boyle Heights and El Sereno. Fifty-seven people have been shot there this year, more than double the number during the same period in 2015.

There, the violence is driven by smaller, younger offshoots of gangs trying to carve out territory or make a name for themselves, said Deputy Chief Robert Arcos. With key resources  such as Metro officers  primarily going toward South L.A., Arcos said hes had to find other ways to address the crime surge on the Eastside. Hes said hes had to be creative in pulling cops from other areas in his bureau to help out.

I have to look wherever I can to peel away from the other divisions to send to Hollenbeck, he said.

Arcos said hes heard tough questions from some residents alarmed by the crime in their neighborhoods. What about us? they ask.

Terry Cano, 43, who lives in Boyle Heights, said the increasing violence in her neighborhood has made her afraid for her family, including her 11-year-old boy.

Before I was comfortable walking to the store with my son. Now I dont feel safe doing that anymore, Cano said. There are too many shootings going on. I cant take that risk with my sons life.

Other neighborhoods have seen more progress.

LAPDs Central Division  which includes parts of downtown, skid row and Chinatown  led the city in both violent and property crime increases in 2015.

So far this year, the division performed best among the departments 21 divisions on violent crime, reporting a 2% drop while posting a small uptick in property crime. It was the only division with a drop in violent crime.

Howard Leslie, a Central Division captain, said his command staff closely tracks daily crime updates, which has helped to deploy officers to areas most in need of policing. He has also tripled the number of foot patrols in high-crime areas downtown since he arrived at the division in March.

Leslies goal is for officers to walk the same routes each day, which he says leads to more tips about criminals. The approach, he said, has contributed to the division making 9% more arrests for serious crimes this year than during the same period in 2015. Those foot patrols also improve downtown residents perceptions about crime.

I can statistically tell you that youre safer, but if you dont feel safer it doesnt make a difference, Leslie said. People who see officers walking down the street every day can feel safer.

But the coming weeks will be a key test for the LAPD as police work to prevent the same bloodshed that plagued the city last year. Thirty-nine people were killed in homicides last August, the most during that month since 2007.

Last years August was horrendous, Beck said. Thats Chicago numbers, thats not L.A. numbers. I dont want those kind of numbers to be replicated.

Click here for a Spanish version of this story

ben.poston@latimes.com

kate.mather@latimes.com

For more crime news, follow us on Twitter: @bposton and @katemather

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UPDATES:

11:25 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck at their press conference.

This article was originally published at 5 a.m.
An Orange County judge who is deciding whether to halt a controversial Laguna Beach housing project has raised questions about private communications that the developers representatives held with members of the California Coastal Commission, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

During a trial in a lawsuit challenging the commissions approval of the project, Superior Court Judge Kim G. Dunning said that six of 10 commissioners did not publicly disclose their so-called ex parte communications as required by state law.

Their reports, the judge said, were incomplete, unsigned, undated and lacked official time stamps to show when they were turned into the commission.

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Four commissioners, Dunning noted, apparently disclosed their private confabs weeks after the required deadline.

The judge made the remarks earlier this month in a pending case brought by Friends of the Canyon, an environmental group. The organization has asked the judge to throw out a January 2015 decision by the Coastal Commission to approve 30 residential units for artists in scenic Laguna Canyon.

The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Commissioners Greg Cox, Martha McClure, Effie Turnbull-Sanders, Mark Vargas, Erik Howell and Steve Kinsey, the panels chairman, failed to properly disclose private communications they had in December 2014 with the developers consultants.

Most of the behind-the-scenes discussions about the project occurred at the upscale Portola Hotel and Spa in Monterey, where commissioners held their monthly meeting.

The California attorney generals office, which represents the commission, contends that technical deficiencies and untimely disclosures do not justify overturning the projects approval because there is no indication the contacts swayed decision-makers.

After presiding over a one-day trial on July 12, Dunning took the matter under submission. The Times obtained a copy of the trial transcript.

The Friends of the Canyon case is one of at least four lawsuits that contend, among other things, that improper contacts and disclosures are grounds to overturn project approvals by the commission.

The cases are part of an ongoing controversy about ex parte communications that began with the Coastal Commissions firing of Executive Director Charles Lester in February.

Ex partes are private written or spoken communications between one or more commissioners and interested parties that could influence decisions by the powerful land use agency, which oversees development along 1,100 miles of California coastline.

By law, commissioners must publicly disclose in writing any ex parte contact within seven days. Private communications that occur within seven days of the subject being considered at a commission meeting must be reported orally at the hearing.

Ex parte contacts can include telephone calls, meetings, emails, or other written communications.

Those who fail to meet the deadlines and other reporting requirements face fines of up to $7,500 and may be prohibited from voting on the matter that was discussed.

The required disclosures are designed to let the public and interested parties know about the private communications that take place with commissioners about a pending decision.

During the trial, Dunning said he was concerned that improper disclosures of ex parte communications might interfere with the fairness of the commissions decision-making process.

The judge said that Commissioner Turnbull-Sanders written disclosure form did not have an official time stamp and was not filed in the commissions administrative record of the Laguna Beach project, which is public.

The official time stamp also was missing from Commissioner Vargas disclosure form, which, Dunning noted, had the exact same wording as the disclosure form of another commissioner.

The text in the body was absolutely identical, Dunning said. It looked like they were printed off and the names were changed. Mr. Vargas doesnt have the file stamp, so that wouldnt appear to work.

According to the transcripts, the judge pointed out that Commissioner Cox did not report his ex parte communications with developer representatives within the required seven days.

The court also said McClure and Kinsey should have filed written disclosures instead of reporting their December ex parte contacts orally at the January 2015 hearing. Dunning said no disclosure forms from them were in the commissions file.

Those records turned up two days after the trial, but they were incomplete and there is no indication they were filed on time.

Finally, the judge said, Commissioner Howell had an ex parte contact with the developers consultants on Dec. 10, 2014. But, according to the official time stamp, his disclosure form was not received by the commission until Jan. 26, 2015, more than a month later and two weeks after the hearing.

The judge noted that Howell did not sign or date the form.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Jennifer Rosenfeld defended the commissioners ex parte disclosures. All were eventually reported, either orally or in writing, she said, and were made part of the administrative record for the project.

But the judge fired back, saying, If theyre not file stamped and theyre not signed and dated, youve been a lawyer long enough to know thats a problem.

Dunning later chided Rosenfeld for downplaying the significance of failing to meet disclosure deadlines, which she called technical and unsubstantial violations of the requirements.

The judge said the dates of the ex parte communications in question required written disclosures, not oral reports at the hearing.

Frankly, the more you are arguing, the judge told her, the deeper the courts concern is getting that you seem to be taking the position that you basically throw what the statute says out the window as long as you say at the hearing, sure, I had a communication six weeks ago ...

Rosenfeld contended that the decision-making process was fair because project opponents were aware at the time of the vote of at least one ex parte contact as well as the arguments in favor of the development raised by proponents.

She later argued that Friends of the Canyon must show that the failures to properly disclose ex partes may have affected the decision to approve the project. Extensive public hearings were held on the project, she said, and the commissions vote was unanimous.

It is well supported by the evidence in the record that says no, this decision was not affected by these lack of disclosures, Rosenfeld said

Two days after the trial, she filed court papers stating that the written disclosure forms for Kinsey and McClure had been found.

Rosenfeld stated that the forms had been misplaced or lost by the commission and now should be admitted as evidence. In January 2015, when the project was approved, both McClure and Kinsey said during the hearing that their forms were on file. She added, however, that the disclosures never made it into commission files.

Copies of the forms show they are unsigned, undated, do not have commission time stamps and contain identical language.

Consultants have said that they sometimes prepare these statements for commissioners.

Christopher Pederson, the commissions chief counsel, confirmed that the agency had misplaced the two disclosure forms, but declined to say whether they were filed on time.

Julie Hamilton, the attorney for Friends of the Canyon, lodged a response in court that questioned the sudden appearance of the written disclosures. She contends there is no indication the forms were filed within the required time period.

Hamilton also opposes admitting the forms as evidence because they were not accompanied by sworn statements from Kinsey and McClure.

dan.weikel@latimes.com

Follow @LADeadline16 on Twitter for Coastal Commission news

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A man who shot his friend of more than three decades in the back of his head in an industrial area of east Anaheim is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder, an Orange County jury found Thursday.

Beong Kwun Cho, 56, admitted to police that he shot his friend, Yeon Woo Lee, and left him abandoned on the side of a road near a basin along Miraloma Avenue. But Cho insisted it was at the request of Lee, who wanted to die but didnt want to burden his family with the social stigma and trauma associated with suicide.

Lee, who was visiting from South Korea, was found prone by his rental car with muddy footprints on his back, next to a flat tire in January, 2011.

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Cho initially lied but soon began recounting to an Anaheim homicide detective a tortuous tale that he said ended with Lee asking his best friend to shoot him in the head. Lee orchestrated the plot, buying a gun, taking Cho to a shooting range and purchasing props  over-sized shoes and black knit gloves  to make his death look like a robbery gone wrong, Cho said.

During the two-week trial in downtown Santa Ana, Cho testified in his own defense and said he had no intention of going along with Lees plan until the moment he fired the shot. He claimed Lee said upsetting things about his wife and daughter.

In their verdict Thursday, jurors accepted Chos account that he only pulled the trigger in the heat of passion of the moment. Prosecutors had contended Cho should be found guilty of first-degree murder, saying it was clear Cho arrived at the scene that night with the intention of killing his friend.

Chos attorney had argued to jurors Wednesday that Cho was only guilty of voluntary manslaughter because it was Lee who had done all the planning leading up to his death.

This isnt Mr. Chos plan to kill Mr. Lee, its Mr. Lees plan, deputy public defender Robert Kohler said. The law recognizes that people are people. We are flawed, and people can be overcome by emotion.

Kohler had told jurors that Korean cultural context was important for them to understand the case. He called to the stand a professor who testified that in Korea, suicide stigmatizes ones entire family.

This case is about shame, shame in Korean culture, Kohler said. In this case, theres shame for every single person involved.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Simmons said Cho should be found guilty of first-degree murder no matter whether Lee had asked him to kill him. Simmons argued that Chos claim that he didnt mean to kill Lee until the very last minute was a lie.

Thats baloney. You dont put on size 13 shoes, wear black gloves  you dont engage in that kind of activity if you dont intend to kill.

Cho is scheduled to be sentenced Sept 23. He faces up to 21 years in prison.

victoria.kim@latimes.com

For more California news, follow me on Twitter @vicjkim

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When an Oscar-winning screenwriter interviewed Army Sgt. Robert Bowe Bergdahl, he intended to tell the story of the man who disappeared from his post in eastern Afghanistan in 2009 and spent nearly five years in captivity.

But in a twist, Mark Boal is now part of the story  with Army prosecutors threatening to subpoena his extensive recorded interviews with Bergdahl.

Boal, a longtime journalist, filed a complaint Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court to block the subpoena of his interviews with Bergdahl, who has been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after disappearing from his post. Bergdahs trial is set for early 2017.

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Prosecutors had intended to issue the subpoena on Friday for 25 hours of recorded conversations, according to court filings.

I support the Army, but this particular military prosecutors tactics contradict and undermine the stated principles and policies of the commander-in-chief and the attorney general to protect 1st Amendment rights, Boal said in a statement. Its Orwellian, and bizarre.

U.S. Army Forces Command spokesman Paul Boyce said in a statement: We continue to maintain careful respect for the military-judicial process, the rights of the accused, and ensuring the cases fairness and impartiality during this ongoing legal case.

Army Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl before his capture by the Taliban in 2009. (AFP/Getty Images )

Boal won Academy Awards for screenwriting and producing for The Hurt Locker, which drew upon his experiences as a reporter during the war in Iraq. He also was nominated as screenwriter and producer of Zero Dark Thirty.

He interviewed Bergdahl starting in 2014, with the intention of developing a story that could be told in multiple mediums, Boal said in a court filing.

Bergdahl allegedly walked away from his unit after expressing misgivings about the role the military played in Afghanistan. He was then captured by the Taliban and held by members of the militant Haqqani network based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In a controversial prisoner exchange in 2014, President Obama agreed to release five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

In May 2015, Boal teamed up with reporters at the Serial podcast to co-produce a 10-hour podcast exploring the case. The podcast included excerpts of his interviews with Bergdahl.

When Boal interviewed Bergdahl he made promises of confidentiality in connection with portions of the interviews, according to court documents.

In a court filing, Boals lead attorney, Jean-Paul Jassy, suggested that Army Maj. Justin Oshana, a prosecutor on the case, was seeking the recordings because they could reveal inconsistencies in Bergdahls story.

For example, Oshana mentioned that in the Serial podcast Bergdahl compared himself to the fictional movie character Jason Bourne, Jassy said. Oshana suggested that Bergdahl had not used the Bourne analogy previously when he was interviewed by other investigators or government officials, according to court documents.

Jassy said prosecutors were going on a fishing expedition.

Its very important that Mark be able to talk to his interview subjects and sources and if he promises confidentiality to be able to maintain that confidentiality in order to gather the facts necessary to tell an accurate story to the public, Jassy said. Its important in the course of doing that that a military prosecutor, or any kind of government official, cant come in and take that material away from Mark.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition, said Boal was likely to prevail in getting the subpoena quashed. In the U.S. 9th Circuit, which covers California, the law is fairly favorable to the press, Scheer said.

I think a federal district judge, feeling bound by the current 9th Circuit precedent, will or should grant the motions to quash and spare Boal from having to turn over these materials to the government, Scheer said. But I would be concerned if the government wanted to challenge that outcome on appeal.

Scheer said it would set a dangerous precedent if Boal were compelled to turn over the interviews, or if he were forced instead to go to jail because of his principled refusal to turn them over.

For more California news, follow @brittny_mejia on Twitter.

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Commerce Councilwoman Tina Baca Del Rio will pay a $55,000 fine and admit to multiple violations of the states political ethics law under a possible deal reached Thursday with state election regulators.

The development comes as the Fair Political Practices Commission was scheduled to vote on a $104,000 penalty against Baca Del Rio for 24 counts of violating the Political Reform Act.

They included allegations that she spent campaign funds on a kitchen remodel and improperly transferred more than $8,000 from her campaign into her personal bank account.

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Baca Del Rio was in Sacramento for Thursdays commission meeting to plead her case, but went into private negotiations with FPPC officials while the commission deliberated other business.

More than an hour later, an FPPC attorney told the commission that a tentative understanding had been reached.

Under the proposed terms Baca Del Rio would admit to only half of the 24 counts. All but four of the charges were related to allegations that she filed campaign finance disclosures late, or failed to file them at all. Only one count of misusing campaign funds would be dropped.

In response to the proposed six-figure penalty, Baca Del Rio wrote a letter to the commission saying that she didnt fully understand the process that led to action against her. According to FPPC documents, she missed deadlines to respond to the agencys communications and settle the matter.

In her July 18 letter, Baca Del Rio acknowledged that some of the allegations in the original 24 counts were true, but that there were also inaccuracies.

She read the documents the FPPC had sent to her, but she missed the part about the deadline to respond because it was hidden away behind exhibits she thought she had seen previously, her letter said. After rereading the documents and discovering the deadline, she asked FPPC Chief of Enforcement Galena West for an extension but was refused, she wrote.

Baca Del Rio also denied that she misappropriated campaign funds and said that she was merely paying herself back for money she had loaned to her campaign. FPPC investigators had concluded that Baca Del Rio had never made the loans she recorded on paper.

Based on the circumstances above, I beg that you give me the opportunity for a hearing, the councilwoman wrote.

Commissioners agreed to take up the matter in 30 days but made it clear that Baca Del Rio would need to submit a check for $55,000 by then, and that the commissioners could still approve the $104,000 penalty or increase the $55,000 fine if they read the settlement and conclude it is too light.

Part of that penalty can be paid from campaign funds, but the portion that is related to misusing campaign funds must come from her own pocket.

We still have 100% authority to reject the stipulation, said FPPC Chairwoman Jodi Remke.

The largest penalty levied against a sitting local elected official before the Baca Del Rio case was $50,000, said FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga. In 1988, the watchdog agency fined a Sacramento County supervisor $290,000 after he left office, Wierenga added.

In a previous case against Baca Del Rio, the commission fined her $26,000 in 2011 for not filing campaign disclosures by state deadlines.

Click here for a Spanish version of this story

Adam.Elmahrek@latimes.com

Twitter: @adamelmahrek

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Seven ancient Mayan artifacts that were in the possession of a California collector were returned to Guatemala on Friday, decades after the hieroglyph carvings are believed to have been looted from the Central American country.

The pre-Columbian artifacts are four large tablets and three small limestone fragments with carvings of Mayan hieroglyphics and iconography.

The FBI turned over the items, displayed on a long blue table, to the Guatemalan government at a morning news conference at the bureaus offices in Westwood.

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The pieces  are more than a thousand years old and have a cultural significance to the Guatemalan people, which is invaluable, said Deirdre Fike, FBI assistant director in charge. The case was handled by the agencys art crime team.

Federal authorities said the stone pieces were in the possession of a collector who purchased them in the 1970s from a man who was known to deal in looted antiquities. The buyer didnt know they were stolen, authorities believe.

When the collector died earlier this year, a representative managing the art collection could not determine the date the pieces were brought to the United States or their provenance and contacted the FBI.

The FBI declined to identify the collector.

The U.S., along with dozens of other countries, are party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which prohibits and prevents the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property.

Under a bilateral agreement with Guatemala, which restricts the importation of archaeology artifacts into the U.S., the FBI decided to return the Mayan pieces to the government.

Roberto Archila, the Los Angeles consul general of Guatemala, said the artifacts would be shipped to a Guatemalan museum for eventual display.

The return of these pieces, which speak to our country, culture and our people, is very important to us, said Archila, who described the artifacts as priceless.

This is our heritage, he said.

In June, Archila said, the government of Germany turned over three ancient Mayan artifacts.

In general, all of the pieces that are from Guatemala are very important, he said. All of them describe a part of our history.

Art historians who assisted the FBI in the case believe the three stone fragments were discovered outside a ruined temple in the Petexbatun region of Guatemala. They said the inscriptions are part of a text that  like a calendar  recorded the passage of time.

The four tablets likely originated from the area of El Peru, experts believe. The carvings are of a mountain monster representing Earths connection with the underworld.

Looting surged in the 1970s when it became illegal in Guatemala to dig up artifacts and sell them or import them out of the country, said Mark Van Stone, an art historian who the FBI consulted with in the case.

The illegal removal of antiquities remains a challenge for the Guatemalan government given that there are about 1,000 ancient Mayan sites in the country, he said.

It needs to protect its heritage, Van Stone said. Things are not that safe out there in the jungle.

Van Stone said hes happy the pieces will be returning home.

Its the kind of thing that should be displayed in a museum.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

For more Southern California news, follow me on Twitter: @LATvives
John Noguez, then Los Angeles County assessor, was walked out of his Huntington Park home in handcuffs one October day in 2012, accused of taking $185,000 in bribes from a tax consultant in exchange for orchestrating decreased property valuations that would mean lower tax bills for the consultants clients.

The tax agent, Ramin Salari, was also arrested and charged, along with Mark McNeil, an executive in the assessors office. It was one of the highest-profile public corruption cases in recent county history.

Nearly four years later, the case has not made it to trial, or even to a preliminary hearing that would determine whether it goes to trial. The preliminary hearing has been postponed more than a dozen times and is now set for October.

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The lengthy delay has left some puzzled and others speculating that the case is going nowhere.

I think the decision has been made that theyre just going to let him go, said John Wong, a former member of the countys assessment appeals board who ran against Noguez in 2010 and ran unsuccessfully to replace him in 2014. I dont see him being prosecuted at all. Its just the way politics go in this county.

L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who was the most vocal critic of Noguez in the months leading up to his arrest, blamed a bogged-down court system for the delays.

Its a miscarriage of justice, he said in an emailed statement.

I dont see him being prosecuted at all. Its just the way politics go in this county.  John Wong, former member of countyas assessment appeals board

Officials with the district attorneys office said they are committed to prosecuting the case and blamed the delays on the massive amount of evidence that had to be turned over to defense attorneys to review, and on the fact that both Noguez and Salari switched lawyers midway through the proceedings. That meant the new attorneys had to start over in reviewing the evidence.

Prosecutor Craig Hum said the district attorneys office had turned over more than 45,000 pages of evidence to the defense attorneys, along with recordings of interviews and thousands of pages of testimony before an investigative grand jury.

We have been in court  we have been moving forward with the case, he said. Its just taking a little longer than usual, even for these types of cases.

The charges against Noguez and the others have also been amended several times. Noguez initially faced 24 counts of accepting bribes, misappropriation of public funds, conspiracy and perjury. In later complaints, the number of charges against him swelled to 36, but in the most recent amended complaint, filed earlier this month, it was reduced to 25.

Hum said some of the charges were consolidated and others were dropped because, after interviewing witnesses in preparation for the preliminary hearing, prosecutors decided those charges might be more problematic to prove than they had originally thought.

As to the remaining counts, he said, I think that the evidence is certainly more than sufficient, or we wouldnt have filed the charges.

Noguezs attorney, Charles Frisco, who took over the case 10 months ago when Noguez requested to switch from a private attorney to court-appointed counsel, pointed to the four complaints and large amount of evidence turned over at the request of the defense.

Based upon what I have reviewed, as well as our own investigation, Mr. Noguez will be cleared of any wrongdoing, he said in an emailed statement.

Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and former federal prosecutor, said the lengthy delays could affect the outcome of the case.

If the case is made on paper, it may not make much of a difference at all, she said. It does become more difficult if youre going to rely on witness memories.

Hum said he does not believe the prosecution will be harmed by the amount of time that has lapsed.

In a case like this, its really not eyewitnesses describing what corner someone was standing on or something, he said. Its almost all the documents.

After his arrest, Noguez  whose birth name is Juan Renaldo Rodriguez  spent several months in jail before he was able to post bail with the help of supporters.

He remained on paid leave from the assessors office for two years, while the case was pending, until his term in office expired. In December 2014, he was replaced by the current assessor, Jeff Prang, a former West Hollywood city councilman who had worked as a special assistant in the assessors office.

County supervisors said at the time that they couldnt cut off Noguezs paycheck. Elected officials in California generally cant be removed from office unless they are convicted of a job-related crime or voted out in a recall.

Gregg Rademacher, chief executive of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn., said Noguez has withdrawn the money he had contributed to the county retirement system, meaning he will not be eligible to collect the money contributed by the county, but also will not be subject to forfeiture proceedings if convicted of a felony.

If convicted of all the charges against him, Noguez faces a potential 30-year prison sentence.

Regardless of the eventual outcome of the case, Levenson said: From the defendants perspective, every day youre not convicted is a good day.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

Twitter: @sewella

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A man barricaded himself inside a home in the Kern County town of Oildale on Friday after killing a man and critically wounding another, sheriffs deputies said.

The suspect, described as a man in his 30s, ran into a home in in the 500 block of El Tejon Avenue after deputies found the first victim, Kern County Sheriffs Deputy Victor Keesey told The Times.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol, the Bakersfield Police Department and Kern County Sheriffs SWAT members have surrounded the home and crisis negotiators are trying to talk to the man, he said.

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This is a very fluid situation, Keesey said.

A woman who lives at the home told KERO-TV that the suspect shot a father and son.

Deputies were called to the neighborhood about 8 a.m. after witnesses reported hearing five to six shots, he said.

When deputies arrived, they found a man lying in the street suffering from a gunshot wound. The suspect was seen fleeing into a nearby home, Keesey said.

During the investigation, deputies discovered a second victim was struck by gunfire. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition, Keesey said.

Homes in the neighborhood have been evacuated, and deputies are asking residents to remain indoors during the standoff.

The sheriffs office bomb squad was also called to the scene, although Keesey said there was no indication the man had a bomb.

No deputies have been injured during the standoff, Keesey said.

By 3 p.m. some residents were being allowed back in their homes.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Times staff writers Hailey Branson-Potts and Sarah Parvini contributed to this report.

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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An Orange County videographer was arrested on suspicion of secretly filming his daughters caregivers while they used the bathroom or changed their clothes, police said.

David Lowe, 54, was taken into custody on Tuesday after a yearlong investigation that began when a caregiver spotted images of herself on Lowes computer, Brea Police Lt. Darrin Devereux said in a statement.

Lowe is accused of filming 10 caregivers who were responsible for overseeing his mentally disabled adult daughter, police said.

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His ruse involved a request to help his daughter: to teach her how to fasten a bra by demonstrating the process themselves. While the partly nude caregivers gave instructions to Lowes daughter, he had a hidden camera recording, police said.

During a search of computers at Lowes home, located in the 900 block of East Almond Avenue in Brea, police found child pornography as well as numerous videos of caregivers.

He faces one felony count of child pornography possession and 10 misdemeanor counts of invading a persons privacy by using a camera or device.

Lowe is being held at the Central Mens Jail.

Anyone who worked in Lowes home as a caregiver is asked to contact Det. Irene Crews at irenec@cityofbrea.net.

For more news in California, follow @MattHjourno.

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A massive search was underway Friday for a Redlands man who disappeared after attempting to scale the popular Mountaineers Route on the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, authorities said.

Bum John Lee, 68, has been missing since Tuesday when he was last seen climbing the steep route above Iceberg Lake in Mount Whitney, according to the Inyo County Sheriffs Office.

On Thursday, the California Air National Guard and a helicopter from the California Highway Patrol in Apple Valley searched the mountainside but couldnt find Lee.

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Search and rescue teams from Southern California and Inyo, Placer and Marin counties on Friday scaled rugged terrain in the Mt. Russell area, Iceberg Lake and Arctic Lakes basin for any signs of Lee.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the trail is usually snow-free by July but still has many natural hazards, including high altitude, steep terrain and high winds. On a warm day, an experienced hiker could scale the Mountaineers Route in a day, according to the climbing website SummitPost.

Anyone with information about Lees whereabouts is urged to call the sheriffs office at (760) 878-0383.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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The Placer County district attorneys office has recused itself from handling the case of a boy accused of killing his sister because of a strong emotional connection to one of its prosecutors  the father of the 13-year-old girl found dead this week inside his family home.

Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Woods daughter, Ashley Wood, was found dead by her mother Tuesday in her bedroom at their home in Rocklin, 22 miles from Sacramento. Police said the girl was killed by her 14-year-old brother, who was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Because the district attorneys office has close ties to the Wood family, the Attorney Generals Office will prosecute the case. Police have not named Ashleys brother because of his age.

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Given our strong emotional connection to Mr. Wood and his family it is legally impossible for us to prosecute this case.  Placer County district attorneyas office

Given our strong emotional connection to Mr. Wood and his family it is legally impossible for us to prosecute this case, the district attorneys office said in a statement. With the Attorney General handling the criminal case, it will allow our office to focus on giving Mr. Wood and his family the same love and support that he has given to crime victims during his 18 years of service to our county.

Prosecuting the case, they said, would be a conflict of interest.

Ashley was found at 10:47 a.m., dead from blunt force trauma to the head in the Monument Springs Drive home, Rocklin Police Capt. Lon Milka told KXTV. With the help of the California Highway Patrol and Roseville police, detectives found the boy in a field about a mile from the home.

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He was immediately taken into custody and taken to the Placer County Probation Juvenile Detention Facility.

Police declined to say what weapon was used in the attack, and a motive for the killing has not been determined.

The U.S. Department of Justice is assisting Rocklin police with the investigation. Police said multiple crime scenes were found in the home.

Ashley was described as a talented gymnast, who competed around the country.

The young athlete enjoyed the sport so much that she said in her elementary school yearbook she would be in the Olympics doing gymnastics in 10 years, KOVR-TV reported.

The district attorneys office has received condolences from members of the law enforcement and legal communities as well as community leaders, they said.

Words cannot express our appreciation for the kind and caring words offered in support of our friend and colleague as he and his family attempt to cope with this tragedy.

The district attorneys office asked for privacy for the Wood family, who they said was suffering immense emotional pain.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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A San Diego man has been detained by Iranian authorities, according to friends and family members who have not heard from him in more than one week.

The man, Gholamrez Reza Shahini, who goes by Robin, traveled to Iran to visit family this month. He had been staying at his mothers house in his native Gorgan, a city about 250 miles northeast of Tehran and near the Caspian Sea, according to Mohammad Shahini, a second cousin.

Robin Shahini, a U.S. citizen and a May graduate of San Diego State, might have been detained because of his online comments criticizing Irans human rights record, said Denera Ragoonanan, a friend of Robin Shahini.

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Robin has been known for his advocacy of human rights on social media. This advocacy, unfortunately, has not sat well with the Iranian government, Ragoonanan wrote on her Facebook page, accompanied by a photo of Shahini and other friends.

Ragoonanan said Shahini isnt a mainstream activist or an extremist but is vocal on human rights issues in conversations with friends and on social media. She believes it was enough to get him noticed by the Iranian government.

He just disappeared off the face of the planet. No one knows if hes alive or dead, she said in a phone interview from New York. Iran does not recognize Iranian-Americans. They believe theyre Iranians and are subject to Iranian law.

The U.S. State Department said Thursday it is looking into the reports, but spokesman John Kirby declined further comment. At a news conference Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry declined to comment on the detention.

Ragoonanan said Shahini was visited by Iranian intelligence July 11 and taken from his mothers home. The family remains under surveillance by the government, she said. She said she lost contact with Shahinis sister, who notified her of his detainment a few days ago.

Mohammad Shahini, who lives in the Bay Area, said Iranian authorities warned Robin Shahinis mother and other relatives not to speak to the media.

When he went to Iran, everything was fine until the time they came to Robins mothers house and captured him, he said.

Public records show that Shahini, 46, owned a couple of businesses in San Diego, Arya Food and Pappa Cheese Pizza, but declared bankruptcy in 2008.

His Facebook page, which became inaccessible Thursday evening, had pictures of Shahini in a cap and gown, and said he studied international security and conflict resolution at San Diego State. Shahini maintained a second Facebook account in Farsi, which remains accessible.

Ragoonanan said she met Shahini while the two were taking courses at a university in Istanbul, where Shahini was participating in an exchange program with San Diego State. He left Iran as a refugee and lived in Germany before moving to the United States in the early 2000s, according to Ragoonanan.

Though he loves living in America, Shahini has hopes of bettering his native country, Ragoonanan said.

He would always tell us that he wanted to get his PhD and wanted to work with the Iranian government to bring peace to that country, she said.

He was set to start a masters program in homeland security at San Diego State this fall.

Rowe and Sanchez are reporters for the San Diego Union Tribune. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A 16-year-old boy was shot and seriously injured on Thursday night while on the grounds of a San Bernardino County high school.

Ontario police were called about 9:30 p.m. to Chaffey High School on the report of a shooting, Ontario police Cpl. Fred Alvarez said.

Officers found the teen and he was taken to a hospital, where he is listed in serious condition, Alvarez said.

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At the time of the gunfire, the school did not have a scheduled activity, and the boy is not a student at the school.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Ontario police at (909) 395-2001.

Ontario Police are investigating a shooting at Chaffey High School. 1 victim was shot in the head and transported. pic.twitter.com/ND1sebOZKP  INLANDNEWS (@INLANDNEWS) July 22, 2016

For more news in California, follow @MattHjourno.

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A mother has died nearly two months after she was injured and her 5-year-old son was killed in a fire intentionally set in Vallejo by his father, police said.

Lametricias Seilflood, 45, died Wednesday while receiving treatment for burn injuries in Sacramento, according to the Vallejo Police Department.

Seilflood, her son Dayleon Seil-Shuemake and his 13-year-old half-brother were sleeping about 9:54 a.m. on May 22 inside the family home in the 800 block of Stella Avenue when the blaze broke out.

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Several neighbors tried to rescue the younger boy, according to the Vallejo Fire Department. But it was too late.

Firefighters found Dayleon in a rear bedroom that was fully engulfed. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

After the fire, an arrest warrant for the boys father, Darrylone Shuemake Sr., 53, was issued, accusing him of murder, attempted murder and arson, police said.

He later called the Richmond Police Department, saying he wanted to turn himself in, Vallejo police Capt. John Whitney said in a statement. Richmond police went to the location and arrested him.

Authorities said Shuemake purposely set fire to his family home, trapping his son inside.

He likely used an accelerant to set the fire in the master bedroom, police said.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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Every time Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was asked this week about the calmer-than-expected protests outside of the Republican National Convention, he responded with a muted, steady-as-she-goes response.

On Friday, the citys top cop finally exhaled.

Good morning  Cleveland rocks! he said to reporters.

After weeks of concern that protests outside the convention would turn dangerous in the midst of a vitriolic campaign season, culminating in the nomination Thursday of Donald Trump, and increased tensions over violence abroad and at home, Cleveland leaders took a victory lap after their public safety success story, completing the week with few arrests or reports of violence.

We planned for this for a year and a half, Williams said. We worked it up and down for a year and a half.

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Please ignore the man with the bullhorn: A reporters diary from outside the GOP convention 

During five days of mostly tame demonstrations, police made just 23 arrests, surprisingly few compared with conventions in recent years in New York, Minnesota and Florida, all where arrest totals numbered in the hundreds. Aside from a fracas Wednesday over a groups attempt to burn a U.S. flag, the drama in Cleveland this week was confined to the convention hall itself.

Many credited an overwhelming police presence of more than 3,000 officers from around the country and the departments use of bicycles to create mobile blockades with keeping tense protests from growing violent. The city also seemed to take a hands-off approach to marchers who took to downtowns streets without permits. Officers declared unlawful assemblies just twice, even backing off when protesters attempted to run around, or at times through, one of the departments bicycle blockades.

1 / 72 Cleveland Police Officers stand guard at the entrance to the Quick Loans Arena for the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 72 Protesters from Stand Together Against Trump make their voices heard at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 72 Protesters from the Revolutionary Communist Party march around the downtown area during the last night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 72 Protesters from the Revolutionary Communist Party march around the downtown area during the last night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 72 Men open-carrying rifles watches Donald Trump give his acceptance speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 72 A bystander films the protesters from Stand Together Against Trump at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 72 A woman covers her ears as protesters march by during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 72 Police officers sit together as protests have calmed down at the Public Square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 72 Protesters get into a heated argument at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 72 Tony McConaghy, from left, Basheer Jones, Randy Grass, pray together at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 72 A Trump supporter watches protesters standing in the fountain area of the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 72 Protesters stand in the fountain area of the Public Square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 72 A protesters lays on the ground to rest in front of a line of police officers standing guard at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 72 Police officers stand guard at the public square during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 72 Protesters get into a shouting match with counter-protesters during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 72 A protesters, who declined to give his name, sports a flower during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 72 Father Jose S. Landaverde, 45, a priest with the Diocese of Quincy in Chicago, with Stand Together Against Trump March, during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 72 Protesters from the Stand Together Against Trump March walk within shouting distance of the Quicken Loans arena during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 72 Protesters supporting socialism get into a shouting match with protesters supporting capitalism, during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 72 Protesters from the Stand Together Against Trump March make their way through an underpass, which is on the permitted parade route during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 72 Police officers move in to arrest protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party attempting to burn an American flag during a demonstration. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 72 Police officers arrest protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party before they could burn a U.S. flag at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 72 Chaos broke out Wednesday near the entrance to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland when a group of protesters tried to burn two U.S. flags. Riot police moved in to arrest at least eight people believed to be anarchists. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 72 A police officer on Wednesday tells the crowd outside Clevelands Quicken Loans Arena to back up. The officer is holding a flag confiscated from the Revolutionary Community Party before members of the group could burn it during a demonstration at the site of the Republican National Convention. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 72 Police officers arrest protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party before they could burn a flag during a demonstration at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 72 Riot police try to take control of the situation when chaos breaks out near the entrance to Clevelands Quicken Loans Arena after a group of protesters tried to burn two U.S. flags. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 72 At least eight people were arrested after a group of protesters tried to burn two U.S. flags at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 72 A police officer can be seen bleeding after protesters from the Revolutionary Community Party were arrested Wednesday at the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 72 Police officers arrest members of the Revolutionary Community Party outside the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 72 A protester smiles for her mug shot while being processed near the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 72 Police officers from Georgia form a human barrier during a protest by the Revolutionary Community Party outside the site of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 72 Protesters from the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance hold hands to keep photographers from stepping closer to their long Wall off Trump banner outside the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 72 Protesters from the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance march with a Wall off Trump banner. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 72 Protesters hold an anti-Trump banner outside the convention site in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 72 A protester gets into an argument with Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams outside the 2016 Republican National Convention on July 19. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 72 Protesters sprint down a back alley to get ahead of the police as they try heading into the convention area during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 72 Police officers use their bicycles to push back protesters and photographers during a confrontation on the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 72 A Michigan state police officer pushes back photographers at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 72 Pro-Trump supporters exchange words with anti-Trump protesters at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 72 A protester shouts at a Trump supporter in downtown Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 72 Protesters yell, Black lives matter! during a demonstration outside the convention hall in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 72 Police officers separate rival groups of demonstrators. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 72 A flower is held up as a protesters are escorted away in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 72 Members of Bikers for Trump scold a protestor for allowing the American flag to touch the ground. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 72 Demonstrators and law enforcement officers mingle on a public square. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 72 Tevor Leis, exercising his Ohio open carry rights, stands armed in Public Square in Cleveland, during the second day of the Republican convention. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 72 West Ohio Minutemen, an armed militia, march through the Public Square during the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 72 Police officers stand guard with assault rifles at the Public Square during the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 72 Lou Pumphrey, a U.S. Army E4 is attending the convention and brought along his peace flag. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 72 Stevedore Crawford, Jr. of Delaware, Ohio, shouts at police officers during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 72 Protesters from the End Poverty Now, March for Economic Justice, make their way downtown on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 52 / 72 Protesters from the End Poverty Now, March for Economic Justice, make their way downtown on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 53 / 72 Protesters from the End Poverty Now, March for Economic Justice, make their way downtown on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 54 / 72 Anti-Trump protesters cross a barricade as march in downtown Cleveland, a block away from where the Republican National Convention is being held. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 55 / 72 Anti-Trump protesters march in downtown Cleveland near the Quicken Loans Arena where the Republican National Convention is being held. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 56 / 72 Randy Grant from Los Angeles say the pledge of allegiance at the start of the America First Unity Rally at Settlers Landing Park during the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 57 / 72 Joshua Glaspie, from Chicago is relishing the opportunity to open carry his weapon, a Kimber Ultra Carry 2 9mm handgun, at the America First Unity Rally in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 58 / 72 Elan Stoltzfuz, holds his rifle up for photographers at Settlers Landing Park for the America First Unity Rally in Cleveland. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 59 / 72 Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Cleveland prior to a Stop Trump march to Quicken Loans Arena for Mondays opening of the Republican National Convention. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 60 / 72 Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Cleveland prior to a Stop Trump march to Quicken Loans Arena for Mondays opening of the Republican National Convention. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 61 / 72 Anti-Trump protesters gather in downtown Cleveland prior to a Stop Trump march to Quicken Loans Arena for Mondays opening of the Republican National Convention. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 62 / 72 Security personnel greet protesters during an anti-Donald Trump march toward downtown Cleveland on the eve of the Republican National Convention on July 17, 2016. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 63 / 72 Anti-Trump protesters. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 64 / 72 Members of the antiwar group Code Pink stand in front of the police guarding the anti-Trump protesters. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 65 / 72 Police officers in protective gear. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times ) 66 / 72 About 200 anti-Trump and Black Lives Matter protesters, including Henry Edward of Detroit, march through downtown Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 67 / 72 Protesters and police. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 68 / 72 Protesters in Cleveland. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 69 / 72 Cleveland police wait for a 2nd Amendment rally, but few people showed up for the event at Public Square in downtown. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 70 / 72 Steve Thacker, 57, center, a retired Marine, is interviewed by numerous journalists in downtown Cleveland, where a 2nd Amendment rally was scheduled. Two participants showed up for the rally. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 71 / 72 Brian Lange, a Trump supporter from Lima, Ohio, buys a flag in Cleveland to show his support for the 2nd Amendment. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 72 / 72 Spencer Tunick photographs a group of nude women holding large round mirrors near Clevelands Quicken Loans Arena, where the 2016 Republican National Convention will start Monday. The photo shoot, on the eve of the convention, is part of Tunicks large-scale art installation Everything She Says Means Everything. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Most of that activity, we knew, would not be at the designated parade route, Mayor Frank Jackson said, referring to the area zoned for protests, a path many activists called a bridge to nowhere as it routed demonstrators far from the convention site.

We knew that they would go in the street when they didnt have a permit, and we knew that we would allow them to do it, Jackson said.

The successful week could also serve to help heal the image of a police department that became part of the divisive national conversation on law enforcement and race after the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 and a federal report that found officers routinely misused force against black residents. Williams said he hoped a week that largely saw people posing for pictures with officers rather than fighting with them will underscore an improved relationship between city officers and the people they police.

People kind of pigeonhole the city of Cleveland with things that happen around the country, he said. I think people underestimate the support people have for this division of police.

Civil rights advocates were less enthusiastic about the departments long-term gains. The agency performed well during the week but also benefited from the underwhelming number of protesters who traveled to Cleveland, said Christine Link, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio.

There were three police and two photojournalists for every protester, Link said.

She also warned that the departments ability to handle out-of-town protests while under the watchful lens of a ubiquitous media presence said little about its ability to interact with residents.

It remains to be seen. I dont think that this is an all new Cleveland Police Department, she said, adding that the citys powerful police union has still been largely resistant to reforms outlined in a 2014 federal consent decree.

The posture of the union leadership  is still hostile to the consent decree [and] often uncooperative, she said. So this, to me, is a one-off.

Whatever the long-term effects, the friendly vibe between cops and citizens was still present in downtown Cleveland on Friday. As vendors packed political memorabilia into box trucks and others enjoyed the newfound space to breathe in the absence of police marching the pavement, 23-year-old Cleveland resident D.J. Matthews nodded his head in approval when asked about the chaotic week that wasnt.

They did good. They did their job and there wasnt that much drama, he said, pausing to wave to an officer riding past on a bicycle. Yall did good. Yall did real good.

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

Trump paints a grim portrait of the U.S. and casts himself as its only savior in GOP acceptance speech

Analysis: Trump aims at voters he already has, betting they will give him a November win

Donald Trumps complete convention speech, annotated
The video shot from a police squad car captures a white police officer throwing a black woman to the ground during a routine traffic stop in Austin, Texas.

Later, another officer explains to the woman that black people tend to have violent tendencies.

On Thursday, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo apologized to the woman, a 26-year-old elementary school teacher named Breaion King, and condemned both officers actions, calling the comments disturbing.

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For those that think life is perfect for people of color, I want you to listen to that conversation and tell me we dont have social issues in this nation, said Acevedo, who is Latino. Issues of bias. Issues of racism. Issues of people being looked at different because of their color.

The traffic stop happened in June 2015, but the video posted Thursday by the Austin American-Statesman triggered protests and the chiefs blunt assessment of the incident.

The release of the video comes as cities across the U.S. are on edge following high-profile police shootings of black men by police in Baton Rouge, La., and Minneapolis and fatal ambushes of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

Also on Thursday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner  who is black  released police body camera video of a fatal officer-involved shooting in his city to counter social media rumors and substantiate that 38-year-old Alva Braziel was armed when confronted by police.

Turner said he released the video because of what is happening around the country and the tension that is in the atmosphere and the high emotions.

In Austin, Acevedo said a criminal investigation has been opened into the actions of Officer Bryan Richter, who arrested King for driving 15 mph over the speed limit. He said the Travis County district attorney is considering whether to present the case to a grand jury.

Both Richter and the other officer involved in the arrest, Patrick Spradlin, have been placed on desk duty pending internal investigations. Richter has been a police officer for six years, Spradlin for 15, Austin police said.

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The first video captures Richter telling King to stop resisting as he orders her out of her car, then repeatedly throws her to the ground as he tries to place her under arrest in a Wendys parking lot. Richter then orders King to put her hands behind her back while the two struggle.

In the second video, shot inside a squad car as King is being transported to jail, Spradlin can be heard talking to King about race.

Why are so many people afraid of black people? he said.

King said she was also trying to understand.

I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way, Spradlin said. Violent tendencies.

The officer can be heard saying he does not blame white people for being afraid because of violence in the black community.

Some of them, because of their appearance and whatnot, some of them are very intimidating, he said.

Acevedo said he was concerned that King did not file a complaint after the arrest and that he did not know about the traffic stop until this week.

It makes you wonder if theres something else out there. Acevedo said.

The police chief said he has requested additional Justice Department training for his officers to avoid bias and profiling among the ranks. He said officials also plan to review cases involving charges of resisting arrest, public intoxication and other arrests we think could be used improperly by police. He said the department is already reviewing officers use of force.

The chief said he reviewed the video Wednesday with African-American activists  whom he has supported in the past  as well as clergy and officials from the police union, and said they hope to bridge the divide.

He asked officers to consider: Am I treating somebody whos speeding to lunch like they just robbed a bank?

We all have biases, Acevedo said, and anyone who thinks otherwise, is lying to themselves.

The Austin police union released a statement condemning the officer who made racial comments, but not the one who made the traffic stop.

We view these two incidents as separate situations, wrote Anthony Nelson, vice president of the Austin Police Assn. We understand the publics reaction to Officer Richters response to resistance. Officer Spradlins comments were wrong and not reflective of the values and beliefs of the men and women who serve this community.

He also noted that, We recognize how incidents such as these can divide our city and cause mistrust. We have met with community stakeholders and begun a dialogue. We hope that the conversation will lead to substantive changes that will help bridge that divide.

Fatima Mann, co-founder of the Austin Justice Coalition, was among the activists who met with the chief and union officials to review the video.

Theres a climate in America: Because the officers are afraid of uprisings, they want to make sure the activists are telling the community were doing real work, she said.

Mann said it was frustrating and aggravating to see an officer swinging around a small black woman as if shes a rag doll and disturbing that supervisors failed to report the incident.

How many people with a badge think like that? How many commanders see videos like that every day and just put it on the pile? Mann said.

King has hired an attorney, but neither returned calls Friday.

Ive become fearful to live my life, King told the Statesman. I would rather stay home. Ive become afraid of the people who are supposed to protect me and take care of me.

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A former student at West Chester University in Pennsylvania was sentenced to at least six years in prison this week after he was convicted of raping a female student in her dorm room.

The school expelled 20-year-old Kyle Vo this year following his conviction on charges that included rape of an unconscious person.

The case has invited comparisons to the much-publicized case of Brock Turner, a former Stanford University student who was convicted of three charges of felony sexual assault when witnesses found him on top of an unconscious woman outside a campus fraternity last year.

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But Turner was sentenced to six months in prison and three years of probation, a punishment that was widely seen as too lenient and led to a petition to remove Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed it.

Critics said that Turner received a light sentence because he was a wealthy, white athlete at a prestigious university.

Brock Turner is a lucky guy. From a sentencing standpoint, I think what he did was egregious.  Martin Mullaney, attorney

Vo, an Asian American, was a 19-year-old freshman at the time of his crime last year. With good behavior, he will serve six years, then five years of probation. Like Turner, he will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Vos attorney, Martin Mullaney, noted the differences in the sentences.

Brock Turner is a lucky guy, he said. From a sentencing standpoint, I think what he did was egregious.

The Brock Turner case is much more severe than what happened in this case, he said.

According to the police report in the Vo case, the victim said she was with friends in her dorm room when Vo showed up with a water bottle filled with vodka. She took several shots. As the night went on, Vo became touchy and then raped her.

The victim stated when she told Vo to stop, he replied, No, baby, its OK,  the police report said.

After Vo left, the victim told a friend and they contacted dorm supervisors and together reported the incident to police.

The victim said she was drifting in and out of consciousness during the rape. But the defense said she was cognizant of what was happening and that the sex was consensual.

Pennsylvanias got a tough standard for unconsciousness, Mullaney said in an interview.

In his telling, his client and the woman, also a freshman, had sex while two other people were in the room. At one point, one woke up and asked the woman whether she was OK, to which she replied that she was.

The victims attorney, Andrea Cardamone, said in a memo reported by the Daily Local News that on the night of the rape, while Vo was present, the victim talked about her desire to refrain from having sex until she was married.

Her virginity mattered to her, Cardamone wrote. The defendant saw an opportunity to gratify his sexual desire and he took it.

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Trump aims at voters he already has, betting they will give him a November win
Donald Trump accepted his partys presidential nomination Thursday night. In and around the convention hall, delegates and others reflected on the nominee. the campaign ahead and what it will take to unite a divided America:

Emily Redditt, 66, retired Harris County voter registration worker from Houston:

Emily Redditt (Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times )

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Hes rather crass and he seems unprincipled, but hes the best hope weve got in America. If hes the best hope weve got, were in trouble. Thats just the way it is. We dont always get what we want in life.

Bonnie Wharton, 69, longtime GOP activist from Hawaii:

SIGN UP for our free Essential Politics newsletter 

Bonnie Wharton (Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times )

I told my granddaughter, shes 12, I said, Honey, I want you to watch this convention. Someday youre going to read about this in the history books.  [This] was the convention where the world changed.

Belinda Lindros, 57, a clerk at the Brooklyn, N.Y., Board of Elections:

We turned our backs on [U.S. Sen. Ted] Cruz because he defied the party, and thats not right. Is he a sore loser?

Jeff Ferraro, 46, asset manager from Stamford, Conn.:

Jeff Ferraro (Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times )

Why did it take a maverick like Mr. Trump to call everybody out on the carpet? We all knew what the issues were.

Vermin Supreme, performance artist, activist and perennial political candidate:

Love is on our side. Love will see us through.

Joel Pritchett, retired accountant from Searcy, Ark.:

Joel Pritchett (Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times )

He brought it home. He closed it out on a bang. He laid it out on the line  all the big differences. He will make a decision. He will negotiate. He will close the deal.

Mark Sipos, 56, Cleveland construction worker:

Mark Sipos (Matt Pearce / Los Angeles Times )

Full convention coverage 

I truly believe when he says hes going to make America great, that thats whats in his heart and thats what he wants to do. Im amazed at how bombastic he is. I wonder if hes overselling it. Not being a politician, maybe Trump doesnt know what hes going to deal with when he becomes a politician.

James Dombroski, 31, Ohio family physician:

James Dombroski (Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times )

Its been an ugly campaign on all sides. Its an ugly campaign because of the ugly situation our politicians have put us in. Im excited to see what an amateur can do after all the professionals.
A more restrained tone and an appeal to populism: 5 takeaways from Donald Trumps acceptance speech

The balloons have dropped, the smiling family members have embraced, and Donald J. Trump has accepted the Republican nomination for the presidency. Here are our first impressions from Trumps 75-minute address.

A tempered tone

Trumps improbable run has been propelled by the aura of unpredictability; his seemingly improvised, and often outlandish, riffs at campaign rallies turned them into cable news staples.

But Thursday night, Trump stuck largely to the teleprompter and deliberately veered away from potentially inflammatory moments. When audience members at one point began to protest Hillary Clinton by chanting the conventions most popular refrain  Lock her up!  he waved them off.

Trump offered a milder alternative: Lets defeat her in November.

But signature policies remain

Trump revisited themes he has hit on for over a year, including building a wall on the Mexican border and pursuing populist trade policy.

The unifying thread was America first  the core theme of Trumps candidacy that calls for a rejection of globalization and a turning inward to prioritize Americas needs. The phrase was popularized by pre-World War II isolationists, notably Charles Lindbergh, and Trump has revived it, though he appears to have been unaware of its history when he first embraced it.

Man of the people

Trumps gilded lifestyle makes him an unlikely avatar for the everyman. But thats exactly how Trump positioned himself to viewers.

He aligned himself with laid-off factory workers and residents of hollowed-out manufacturing towns  the forgotten men and women of our country ... people who work hard but no longer have a voice.

I am your voice! he declared more than once.

This is one of the more remarkable aspects of the Trump phenomenon: In an election season defined by voters antipathy towards the elite, a billionaire with no qualms of flaunting his wealth has effectively channeled their alienation.

Its bleak out there, America

For four nights, convention speakers portrayed the U.S. as a grim dystopia: impoverished and ridden with violence. Trump doubled down on that desolate outlook, portraying himself as the only savior from continued hardship.

Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation, Trump said at the outset of his remarks, mentioning recent upticks in crime rates and high-profile killings by immigrants in the country illegally.

It all adds up to a country on the brink. Trump, billing himself as the law-and-order candidate, says he will save it. Such phrasing  evocative of Richard Nixons 1968 presidential campaign  is relatively new for Trump, as he seeks to capitalize on Americans anxieties over racial tensions and violence.

A rebuke not just of Democrats, but also the GOP

The villains of Trumps speech were unambiguous: Clinton and President Obama. But the address also contained an implicit rejection of President George W. Bush and the modern Republican Party.

Trump bemoaned 15 years of wars in the Middle East started under Bush and supported by Trumps own running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a congressman during the Bush years. Trump slammed trade deals championed by the partys business wing, which Pence also backed.

And he made practically no mention of the social issues that galvanize the partys conservative base, such as opposition to abortion.

On LGBT issues, he positioned himself to the left of the partys conservative base, making a point to mourn gay and lesbian victims of terrorist violence.

As a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said, he ad-libbed at the crowds positive response.

He did thank evangelicals for their support, but his address contained little of the overt courting of social conservatives that have defined GOP presidential candidates in recent elections.
Boryspil airport could see triple rise in profit in H1 2016

Boryspil International Airport (Kyiv) could triple its net profit in January-June 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that acting Director Yevhen Dykhne gave the information at a press conference at the airport on Thursday.

"According to the preliminary calculations we expect that we will see a triple rise in profit in H1 2016 compared to H1 2015," he said.

Dykhne said that the final results will be announced after July 25.

According to a financial report of the airport for Q1 2015, net profit under Ukrainian accounting standards was UAH 214.47 million. Thus, net profit of the airport in H1 2016 would be almost UAH 650 million.

Earlier Dykhne said that the airport seeks to have UAH 1 billion of net profit in 2016, according to the optimistic scenario.

Boryspil International Airport is the main airport of Ukraine. The airport has two runways: one with a length of 4,000 meters and a width of 60 meters, and the second with a length of 3,500 meters and a width of 63 meters. Four passenger terminals, postal and cargo complexes are located on the territory of the airport.
Progressive groups have already warned they arent ready for Tim Kaine

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

Some progressives and former backers of Bernie Sanders presidential candidacy signaled their dissatisfaction with the choice of Sen. Tim Kaine as Hillary Clintons running mate before it was even announced.

Kaine supported legislation in the Senate that was key to advancing a 12-nation trade agreement that has been a priority of the Obama administration, but which both Sanders and Clinton have said they opposed.

This week, liberal groups targeted Kaine for signing on to two letters to the Obama administration seeking modifications to banking regulations that would benefit smaller and community banks. Democracy for America, a group that endorsed Sanders, cast the changes sought by Kaine and other senators as a lobbyist-driven effort to help banks dodge consumer protection standards and regulations designed to prevent banks from destroying our economy.

With his vote for fast track authority for the job-killing Trans Pacific Partnership and this newly uncovered push for bank deregulation, making Sen. Tim Kaine our vice presidential candidate could be potentially disastrous for our efforts to defeat Donald Trump, the group said.

A person within Democracy for America said that the vice presidential selection alone would not threaten party unity heading into the convention and the fall, a concern for Democrats as they work to bring Sanders backers into the fold after a long primary. They are anxious to avoid depressing enthusiasm among key activists, which could hurt fundraising and voter turnout efforts.

Its coming from a place of deep concern, the group official said. We ... desperately need to defeat Donald Trump and we want to make sure the base of the party is as fired up about doing so as they possibly can be.

Adam Green, founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which was neutral in the primary but has ties to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, questioned the choice of a running mate who supports the Trans Pacific Partnership.

It will be very ironic if voters go into election day thinking Donald Trump is better on the TPP issues than the Democratic Party, he said.

Green had championed Warren as a possible running mate for Clinton.

There is a difference between a checklist liberal and a bold progressive. Elizabeth Warren has been at the high-water mark of what changing the entire national conversation looks like, he said.

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One of the last big fights of the legislative session is over housing construction, and the fallout could be significantly fewer new homes for low-income Californians.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed streamlining approvals for some urban housing developments. Under his bill, projects that meet local zoning requirements and reserve some portion of their units for low-income residents would be exempted from any additional environmental or local government review. The governors concern is that NIMBYism and parochial interests have blocked much-needed housing construction, and the goal of the bill is to limit the power of cities and counties to impose pointless barriers and expensive delays that drive up costs for developers and consumers.



For the record: A previous version of this editorial stated that the New York City Independent Budget Office had estimated that paying prevailing wages would increase the cost of affordable housing by 13%. In fact, the office later changed its estimate to 23%.

But state labor groups representing ironworkers, roofers, electricians and other construction trades are trying to block the bill unless the governor adds a requirement: that home builders who take advantage of the faster approvals pay their construction workers at the local markets prevailing rates, which typically match union wages. While the governors administration initially said that was a deal breaker, the director of Housing and Community Development, Ben Metcalf, later said that pay mandates, in some form, are still on the table.

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Brown and his fellow Democratic lawmakers are under intense pressure from labor groups, which carry enormous sway in Sacramento. But the governors administration was right the first time. Brown ought to stand firm and oppose a prevailing wage requirement.

First, its inappropriate for the government to step into the private housing construction market and set wages. California typically requires that people hired to work on public or publicly subsidized projects be paid prevailing wages, which are set by the state based on rates established by union contracts. For the private sector, lawmakers set the minimum wage, but above that level, employers using private dollars are allowed pay whatever they can or need to pay to attract workers.

The prevailing wage requirement could [mean] California loses the potential for hundreds, even thousands, of new dwellings for low-income residents.

The projects covered by Browns bill fall into the latter category, where there are no public dollars involved. The only benefit for developers would be the prohibition on local governments imposing additional burdens beyond existing land-use and zoning laws. And it would apply only to certain housing projects that include low-income units. Developers and some housing advocates worry that requiring these projects to pay prevailing wages could set a precedent for all kinds of privately funded housing developments in California, which would increase the cost of housing or, worse, discourage the construction of new units.

Second, the whole point of Browns bill is to make it easier to build housing and, in so doing, lower its cost. Imposing wage requirements would do the opposite, although how much cost it would add is unclear. A decade ago, UC Berkeley researchers found that paying prevailing wages increased the cost of building subsidized low-income housing by as much as 37%. In New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to build or preserve 200,000 affordable housing units, the citys Independent Budget Office estimated that a prevailing wage requirement could increase costs by 23%.

Labor groups argue that Browns bill could be a win-win: higher wages for construction workers and more housing. But the proposal is offering developers a benefit  streamlined approvals  in exchange for the inclusion of low-income units. There is a very real risk that the prevailing wage requirement could cancel out the financial incentive of faster approvals, and developers may decide the voluntary program is not worth it. That means California loses the potential for hundreds, even thousands, of new dwellings for low-income residents. Also, Brown has paired the development reform bill with $400 million in grants to help build more subsidized housing for low-income Californians. If the bill fails, that money disappears.

Its worth noting that labor groups, along with some environmental organizations, have been the most outspoken opponents of Browns bill. Thats because the proposal would exempt projects from additional review under the California Environmental Quality Act, a dramatic step that deserves more debate apart from the prevailing-wage issue. Brown has complained that labor uses CEQA as a bargaining chip, threatening lawsuits under the environmental law to get developers to hire union labor. But housing policy shouldnt be a bargaining chip, not now, when California is in the midst of a housing crisis in which Californias major cities are increasingly unaffordable for most of their residents.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Donald J. Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday evening with a speech that was frightening in more ways than one.

Trumps overarching intention was to sow fear in Americas voters: Fear of uncontrolled crime and terrorism that threaten our very way of life. Fear of immigrants, including refugees from the civil war in Syria. Fear of Muslims, although instead of the total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States he proposed last year, Trump said he would suspend immigration from countries that have been compromised by terrorism. Fear of foreign trading partners that, thanks to disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton, have destroyed American manufacturing.

Finally, Trump warned that Americans should fear Hillary Clinton, whom he described as a corrupt politician whose legacy as secretary of State amounted to death, destruction and weakness.

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But Trumps speech was frightening in a second sense: By softening his strident rhetoric, by (selectively) citing statistics, by couching cruel policies in the language of compassion, Trump managed to make an extreme agenda sound not only plausible but necessary.

This seemingly more restrained Trump said that he wakes up every day determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored and abandoned. He spoke with feeling about victims of crime, impoverished Latinos and African-Americans, and the LGBTQ community, which was victimized by the recent attack on a nightclub in Orlando, Fla. All Americans, he suggested, would benefit from a Trump administration that would restore law and order and add millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America.

Even in his attacks on Clinton, he moderated his tone and elevated his vocabulary. He dropped the reference to Crooked Hillary, and when some in the crowd shouted Lock her up, he countered: Lets defeat her in November. The underlying slander, however, was the same. Notwithstanding the FBIs conclusion that Clintons use of a private email server to transmit classified material was extremely careless and negligent but not worthy of criminal prosecution, Trump claimed to know better: These terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

Trumps speech was frightening in a second sense: He managed to make an extreme agenda sound not only plausible but necessary.

In the hours and days ahead, fact-checkers will dissect Trumps speech and call attention to omissions, oversimplifications and distortions. For example, although the murder rate has jumped in some cities in the last year, long-term trends show that homicide in urban areas has been declining. And the loss of manufacturing jobs in this country is the result of myriad factors (including automation), not just free-trade agreements.

If Trumps dire diagnosis of the countrys problems was deceptive, so were his proposed solutions. For example, he promised that the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end, adding, Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored. But how? Trump said he would work with, and appoint, the best and brightest prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job done. But most prosecutors and law enforcement officers are local, and the federal government plays little or no role in their daily work.

When Trump fleetingly addressed foreign policy in his speech, he said he would replace globalism with Americanism  whatever that means. One interpretation, suggested by Trumps recent interview with the New York Times, is that a Trump administration would be willing abandon NATO allies if they didnt spend enough on their own defense. In his speech, Trump warned that the countries that we protect, at a massive loss, will pay their fair share.

Other assertions in Trumps speech will be subjected to similar scrutiny, but many of those who watched it on television will never catch up with the corrections. They will remember that they saw a nominee who spoke in somber tones and seemed resolute about rescuing America from a nightmare of crime, terrorism and economic stagnation. Never mind that Trump still lacks an elementary grasp of domestic and foreign affairs, that he still wants to build a wall on the Mexican border and withdraw the U.S. from engagement with the world, and that he still has no words of comfort for victims of police brutality.

The challenge for Hillary Clinton is to rescue reality from the illusion Trump created in this perversely powerful speech.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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The recent coup attempt in Turkey came as a complete surprise to most observers. But a decade ago, the only surprise would have been the fact that it didnt succeed. After all, in the last 60 years Turkey has had four coups led by a military famously committed to secularism. When the Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was elected in 2002, another coup seemed all too likely.

Having survived, the AKPs authority now appears unchallenged; President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking no risks as he purges the military of any potentially disloyal officers who remain. How did Erdogan and his party escape the fate of their predecessors?

To be clear, the AKP did encounter real opposition as it consolidated control. High-ranking military officers discussed plans for ousting the party during its first two years in power. In 2007, the chief of the general staff issued a memorandum on the militarys website reminding the AKP of the militarys ongoing commitment to secularism. Subsequently, the countrys head prosecutor began proceedings to formally disband the party for anti-secular activities. The case was heard in Turkeys supreme court, where it was defeated by a single vote.

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But all these efforts only make it more curious that the military did not take decisive action to overthrow the AKP. Indeed, when the AKP put a number of military officers on trial for a fictitious coup plot called the Ergenekon conspiracy, the military brass never went further in their protests than staging a mass resignation.

Perhaps the most obvious reason for military leaders otherwise surprising passivity is that they realized they would get no support from the Turkish population. In 1980, many citizens welcomed a military coup as an escape from growing political anarchy. In 1997, the military mobilized civil society organizations and the bureaucracy in support of its effort, which ultimately compelled the governments resignation without an explicit show of force.

In 2003, when high-ranking military officers were first debating how to handle the AKPs victory, they were acutely aware that, unlike in the past, they did not have the public on their side. Indeed, leaked documents suggest that the military considered waging a public-relations campaign against the government  with large-scale rallies and critical websites  instead of putting tanks on the street.

The publics opposition to military meddling stemmed from their experience of the past and their hopes for the future.

The AKP government has now declared a state of emergency, a measure previously imposed by the military in the wake of successful coups.

For many of Erdogans pious supporters, rejecting the heavy-handed form of secularism the military had imposed after the 1997 coup was a motivation in itself. But the trauma of past coups also lived on among many of Erdogans critics, leaving its mark on Turkeys opposition parties as well. After the 1980 coup, the military had arrested, tortured and sometimes executed individuals from across Turkeys ideological spectrum, including leftists associated with the Republican Peoples Party, ultranationalists associated with the Nationalist Action Party and Kurds associated with the Peoples Democratic Party.

Whats more, in the early 2000s, European Union membership still seemed like a real possibility, and to many in the country and abroad Turkey appeared poised to make the leap from a democratizing and developing country to a democratic and developed one. Turkeys generals and its population realized that another coup would make this transformation impossible.

As a result, at every stage in the AKPs rise to power, the militarys tentative efforts to influence politics backfired, providing a rallying point for Erdogan to expand his base of support. In 2007, the militarys memorandum about secularism preceded, and many believe prompted, the AKPs resounding victory at the polls several months later. And even as it became more clear that the evidence presented against the military in the Ergenekon trials was fraudulent, the trials remained popular among both liberals and Islamists, for whom defanging the military by any means was the priority.

Before the most recent coup attempt, the government was already quick to suggest that all of its domestic enemies, including secular journalists, Kurdish politicians and followers of the preacher Fethullah Gulen, were acting together in a vast conspiracy against it. The uprising proved that a conspiracy did exist, but that it was less extensive than Erdogan feared. Opposition parties and opposition media that had borne the brunt of Erdogans authoritarianism nonetheless stood with him against the plotters.

The AKP government has now declared a state of emergency, a measure the military had imposed after previous coups. Over the last several decades, the Turkish militarys behavior has discredited coups in the eyes of the Turkish people.

The risk now is that, in the coming years, Erdogans behavior will discredit the idea of civilian rule as well.

Nick Danforth is a senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

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Kyiv regional authorities to present project to build big orbital road around Kyiv to investors by late July

Kyiv Regional Administration intends to present a project to build a big orbital road around Kyiv to investors by late July 2016, Kyiv region governor Maksym Melnychuk has said.

"One of the largest strategic projects [for Kyiv region] for this year is the bid ring road around Kyiv I think that by late July Kyiv Regional Administration would have a chance to personally present the project to investors," he said at a meeting with the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) in Kyiv on Thursday.

He said that the length of this road will be around 193 kilometers. Investment could reach some $2 billion.

"We are discussing it with some countries, for example, with France and China. They are ready to join the project," he said.

He said that the condition that the road is left in ownership of Kyiv Regional Administration after its completion is important. This would open opportunities for investors to build hotels, filling stations and other facilities near it.

"The road would not be a toll road. Then we will be able to speak about this project as social project, but with large investment and business opportunities," he said.
Twitter recently suspended the account of Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative media celebrity and Donald Trump mega-fan, over allegations that he had coordinated the sexist and racist harassment of Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Yiannopoulos has emerged as a leader of the alt-right, the social media-driven insurgent conservative movement that has challenged the Republican old guard and drawn fierce criticism for its vulgarity as well as its embrace of anti-Semitism. Yiannopoulos fans, predictably, have responded to his suspension with an outburst of invective and anger, accusing Twitter of pandering to liberal sensitivities. Twitter is just one social media service, albeit an influential one. But the bigger dynamic at play here  the necessity of fighting harassment while maintaining robust defenses of free expression  pertains to the world of contemporary politics writ large.

Of course Twitter is under no obligation to maintain a forum for Yiannopoulos or anyone else whom they feel is violating their standards. Twitter is a private company; it can kick off anyone for any reason it wants. Previously, Twitter nixed Yiannopoulos status as a verified user (his blue checkmark), and on more than one occasion temporarily suspended his account. Yiannopoulos has built his career on provocation; its no surprise that, eventually, he provoked Twitters corporate leaders sufficiently to earn a substantial response.

But Twitters maddening inconsistency in enforcing its policies makes the issue more complicated. For years, Twitter has ignored appalling behavior on the service, shrugging off reports of racial slurs, sexist insults and even threats. For example, extremist groups such as the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab have used the service to publicly discuss targets for violence, and yet their accounts often remain open for long periods, even after theyve been flagged by other users. Meanwhile, Twitter has suspended low-profile accounts for relatively petty violations or, sometimes, for no stated reason at all. (Twitter does not always provide justifications for its suspensions.) If there are objective criteria for what constitutes harassment on Twitter, or for what actions warrant suspension, theyre not apparent.

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It wasnt pure paranoia, then, that made Yiannopoulosand his supporters suspect liberal biasa possibility most left-wing commentators shrugged off. They were only too glad to see him go, and were characteristically uninterested in defending an ideological opponents right to speak.

What happens when anti-harassment complaints arent made against people like Yanniapoulos, but against controversial progressive figures?

I was glad to see him go, too, yet I find it troubling that progressives in recent years have become fond of insisting that censorship applies only to government action, and that no one has a right to free speech in a private setting. Student activists at Scripps College in California, for instance, successfully lobbied school administrators to rescind an invitation to conservative columnist George Will to speak on campus; the CEO of the Web company Mozilla, Brendan Eich, resigned under intense public criticism for his prior support for Californias anti-gay marriage bill, Proposition 8; and the public relations executive Justine Sacco was fired from her job for making an off-color, racially charged joke on Twitter. In each case, many progressives argued that since the government had not taken these actions, no ones free speech rights were abridged.

In a limited sense, its true that the 1st Amendment protects us only from government incursion. But in terms of the broader ideals that shape an open society, this attitude is unworkable. Such a narrowly defined right to expression could be devastating  including to progressives. Should an employer feel free to fire an at-will employee because he put a Democratic campaign sign on his front lawn? Or a Planned Parenthood sticker on his car?

In most places around the country, there is no law to prohibit employers from doing so. What defends the average worker is merely a norm of free political expression. Its precisely that norm that progressives seek to undermine when they insist that only government actions can constitute an unfair infringement of free speech. This is a particularly strange position for them to take, as it has long been progressives who have highlighted the perils of private coercion, such as coercion in the workplace, while conservatives have tended to argue that only the state can meaningfully coerce a citizen.

Odder still, progressives seem to assume that they will always benefit from restricting speech in this way. But what happens when anti-harassment complaints arent made against people like Yiannopoulos, but against controversial progressive figures, such as Palestinian rights activists?

Ultimately, the question of how to prevent harassment, while maintaining a robust respect for free expression, will have to be negotiated socially, with everyone muddling together to find the proper balance. Twitter and other institutions must communicate the nature of that balance transparently, then enforce it consistently and objectively, or risk opening themselves up to opportunistic charges of bias.

Fredrik DeBoer is a writer and academic. He lives in Indiana.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
There wasnt much subtlety in Donald Trumps acceptance speech  or much innovation, either. Beforehand, some Republicans ventured that this was their nominees biggest opportunity to retool his agenda for the general election  to present a softer, more inclusive, more thoughtful Trump. That wasnt the Trump who showed up in Cleveland.

Instead, his acceptance speech was a medley of greatest hits from his primary season: illegal immigration as a source of violent crime, bad trade deals as the cause of income stagnation, and rampant corruption in Washington as the cause of every other ill.

That, plus the new theme Trump has emphasized since five police officers were killed in Dallas: law and order.

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He announced his intention upfront: I am the law-and-order candidate.

But what, exactly, did that mean? He wasnt specific, beyond appointing the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country.

Nor did Trump offer any new details about his plans for the economy, which might logically have been the centerpiece of a speech launching the general election campaign. Instead, he provided the same broad assertions that carried him through the primary campaign: that with a combination of big tax cuts and new trade deals, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country. Its nice to think so, but it would be even nicer to see a few details.

Trump did make a few rhetorical concessions to the fact that hes now seeking the votes of all Americans, not just the conservative minority who vote in Republican primaries. He made a point of saying his law-and-order crusade is meant to be inclusive  to ensure that young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson [have] the same right to live out their dreams as any other child in America.

And he completed the gradual evolution of his noxious proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States; now, instead, he wants to ban travelers from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism. Thats better, but confusing: Does he mean France as well as Syria?

The general election Trump is no clearer, and no more disciplined in his thinking, than the Trump of the primaries was. What you saw then is what youll get  in both the general election campaign and in the White House, if Trump should win.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
Earlier this year, the city of Los Angeles stopped letting illegal medical marijuana dispensaries sign up to pay businesses taxes because, well, theyre unlawful and, as City Councilwoman Nury Martinez explained, We shouldnt be making money off of illegal businesses.

This week, however, the city announced a deal with Airbnb in which the company will collect and turn over hotel taxes from short-term rentals booked through its website, even though the vast majority are illegal.

So why is tax revenue from illegal short-term rentals OK, but not tax revenue from illegal pot shops? One possible answer is politics. Another is pragmatism.

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Pot shops are very unpopular in some neighborhoods, and the city has been criticized for failing to stop the proliferation of illegal dispensaries. When City Council members learned that the city was registering and issuing business tax certificates to illegal dispensaries, which made it appear that the operations were legal, they decided to halt the practice. Council members said the city shouldnt register or collect taxes from illegal businesses  even if it means losing money. Councilman Mike Bonin compared it to registering businesses that sold heroin or shark fins.

The act of renting out a room for a few nights on Airbnb isnt as bad as peddling heroin or killing sharks for their fins. But, it is illegal in Los Angeles. Critics worry that the agreement with Airbnb legitimizes the practice and sends a message to hosts and travelers that short-term rentals are legal in the city. Airbnb wants legitimacy and thats why the company has pushed city leaders to make a tax-remittance agreement.

Mayor Eric Garcetti seemed to be on board with the tech companys plan. He announced in his 2015 State of the City address that L.A. would start collecting hotel taxes from Airbnb, and use $5 million of the tax revenue for affordable housing. But City Council members refused to negotiate the tax agreement; Councilman Paul Koretz said he didnt want to legitimize illegal short-term rentals before regulations were in place. So, Garcettis promised $5 million for low-income housing never materialized. This year, Garcetti again banked on the Airbnb deal in his budget for homeless spending.

But short-term rentals are still illegal because the city still doesnt have regulations in place. Yet, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and the Department of Finance went ahead and negotiated an agreement in which Airbnb would levy the citys 14% Transient Occupancy Tax on rentals booked through its site and remit the money to the city. Officials estimate the tax will bring in nearly $6 million this year, although Airbnb has suggested it will be much more.

Why not wait for short-term rental rules? Well, the city could be waiting a long time. Last month, the Planning Commission backed a proposal that would legalize short-term rentals in peoples primary residences for no more than 180 days a year. In an attempt to put some teeth in the rules, the proposal would also penalize Airbnb and other websites for advertising rentals that fail to register with the city, or which refuse to turn over the addresses of hosts who fail to register. Airbnb filed a lawsuit against San Francisco last month after the city passed rules seeking to hold Airbnb responsible for advertising unlawful rentals. The company is seeking an injunction to block that city from enforcing its regulations. If Airbnb is successful in San Francisco, the city of Los Angeles may need to go back to the drawing board, which could further delay regulations.

So, even though city leaders arent consistent on collecting taxes from illegal businesses, theyre at least practical. If L.A. cant properly regulate short-term rentals, the city might as well start making money off the roughly 12,000 Airbnb hosts renting out their homes illegally.

For more opinions, follow me @kerrycavan
The possibility that Hillary Clinton might choose Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) as her running mate has sent liberals into paroxysms, and not in a good way.

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Which makes me wonder which election they think Clinton is running in.

The primaries are over. Clinton doesnt have to pander to the left any longer. She has to win in the Electoral College, which she cant do unless she wins at least a few big states not dominated by pro-tax, anti-gun voters who care more about redistributing income than generating it.

Besides, as The Times senior editorial writer Michael McGough is fond of pointing out, vice presidential choices havent made much of a difference in years past, at least in terms of election results. Researchers have found little support for any of the treasured nuggets of conventional wisdom, i.e., that its important to pick someone from a swing state, or someone who balances the ticket, or someone who appeals to (pick one) youthful or female or minority or disaffected voters.

Nevertheless, theres a lingering belief, well articulated by my colleague Melissa Batchelor Warnke, that Clinton needs a VP who will excite voters, especially those newly engaged in the whole democratic process thingy. This race isnt about policy details, she argues; its more like a high-concept Hollywood movie.

Rather than picking a running mate to shore up her left flank, Clinton has to worry about protecting herself from the full frontal assault to come from Trump.

But what excited liberals about their newly-engaged-in-the-Democratic-Party candidate, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, was the policies he detailed. It wasnt just that he was a white knight taking on the corrupt Washington establishment; if that were true, those voters would have been just as happy with Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. Instead, Sanders appealed to them because he promised to fulfill liberals wish list: providing free healthcare and a free college education, taxing the bejeebers out of the wealthy, mandating a living wage, capping prescription drug costs, increasing Social Security benefits. ... I could go on and on.

His campaign was strong enough to force Clinton to embrace some of his ideas, but not strong enough to beat her. So why do Sanders followers think she owes it to them to pick a running mate like him, and not like her?

Sure, liberals could stay home in November, persuaded somehow that theres no real difference between Clinton and Trump, or unable to rally behind a Democrat theyve been told repeatedly is more corrupt than Boss Tweed. But there are fewer liberal Democrats than political moderates up for grabs in November. The polls have consistently told that story; despite the enthusiasm generated by Sanders, liberals remain a smaller bloc than moderates or conservatives in the United States.

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Rather than picking a running mate to shore up her left flank, Clinton has to worry about protecting herself from the full frontal assault to come from Trump and the GOP. And no amount of VP charisma is going to be able to deflect that. So she should pick someone who tells voters, to the extent any of them are listening, that she can be trusted with the reins of government.

That is the real issue in this election, after all. Trump, like Sanders, isnt campaigning on a realistic set of achievable goals; hes offering the equivalent of the moon, at least from the point of view of Americans frustrated by a slow economy, racial tensions and a global surge in terrorism. And even though many, if not most, Trump voters recognize that hes pandering to them, they still like the idea of having a bull in the White House china shop  someone who will break things that, frankly, need to be broken.

Clinton cant outdo Trumps anti-establishment appeal. Instead, she has to persuade people to support, if not the establishment, then the grown-up in the room. Thats like selling vegetables to a kid who wants ice cream. She cant hide the fact that theyre vegetables or make them seem more delectable than Moose Tracks. Instead, she has to sell safety over risk.

Tim Kaine screams safety. He has a long resume in the relevant branch of government (as a former mayor and governor). And. at a time of seemingly intractable global threats, hes had the Senate committee assignments (Armed Services and Foreign Relations) needed to bring him up to speed on issues such as Islamic State, Iran and Turkey. He's been a mainstream figure in a big state thats fairly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

Yeah, I know. Even Kaine admits that he seems like a boring choice. But picking him instead of, say, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) sends a message to the millions of uncommitted voters in the middle (should any of them actually care about the vice presidential nominee) that Clinton isnt moving any further to the left. If she hasnt moved far enough in that direction already to satisfy her liberal critics, well, that was an issue for the last round. Were in a new one now.

jon.healey@latimes.com

Twitter: @jcahealey

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Trump to allies: Pay up or we might not defend you

Tim Kaine for vice president, yall? Snooze.

Remember the good old days when 'Trump for president' was a darkly ironic joke between friends?
To the editor: James Kirchicks piece weighing the chances of the military overthrowing President Donald Trump is one of the most grotesque op-ed articles Ive read. (If Trump wins, a coup isnt impossible here in the U.S., Opinion, July 19)

A writer who has never served a day in the military  an organization that in its DNA is meant to protect American democracy  arguing that the same organization would launch a coup against a legitimately elected president is a completely reprehensible claim. Kirchick is blithely ignorant of basic civics, and the constitutional structure of our nation speaks to the paucity of his argument.

This is an affront to all military members who swore an oath to protect the Constitution. While Kirchick has a right to say what he did, he should still be responsible for his words.

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John Badertscher, Pittsburgh

..

To the editor: It is always wrong to cry fire in a crowded theater. In this hour, it is equally wrong to increase the tension in our nation right now. Kirchicks rhetoric is allowed under the Constitutions 1st Amendment, but it is still unwise.

I truly hope the U.S. never comes to the scenario Kirchick lays out. Suggesting that a coup is an option if Trump were to give an illegal order devalues the rule of law by which the U.S. has survived for more than two centuries.

The United States has endured more than one Trump as president and would survive another one by following the Constitution and utilizing the rule of law. Kirchick should use his power as a commentator to suggest change through the processes that we have here in the Untied States and not lower us into third-world thinking.

Kathleen McCallister, Omaha

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As the roll call vote to award Donald Trump the GOP presidential nomination began this week, Ryan Davenport slipped out of the convention hall here to a nearby restaurant where a group of Republicans were brainstorming how to find a new candidate before Novembers election.

Davenport, a 25-year-old high school teacher, wasnt the only convention-goer to take a pass on the big moment. Images showed a partially empty arena as the night dragged on. Speeches by Trumps children, a manager of his winery and a soap-opera-star-turned-avocado-grower topped that nights prime-time lineup.

Trump may be a highly rated former reality TV star, especially adept at generating media attention, but he struggled this week to hold onto the audience with his takeover of the Republican Party.

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While theyre striking matches and lighting fire to the place, I didnt want to be in there, said Davenport, an alternate delegate from Texas, who has been video-chatting with his teenage government-class students back home in Dallas.

I cant make the case for Donald Trump. And I wont. Im going to hang on to whatever last shred of hope I have that someones going to ride in.

Disunity was evident beyond the arena. Ratings showed TV audiences also shrank from opening night, as viewers apparently lost interest in the B-list celebrities and Trump-backing members of Congress on the convention stage.

Veteran GOP operatives say the problem wasnt just the conventions disorganized schedule and lack of top-notch political rock stars  the two living former Republican presidents did not participate  that caused burnout. Its reflective of the broader struggle within the Republican Party that just cant quite fully embrace Trump.

The party is not yet unified, said one Republican strategist who has been attending conventions since 1996 and was granted anonymity to speak frankly.

Nobody cares about Trumps kids. If it was Nikki Haley or Marco Rubio or Joni Ernst in a reasonable hour thered be a lot more interest, he said about the up-and-coming Republican leaders.

But by the third night, it was almost impossible to ignore the stage as Trumps chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, was booed for his refusal to back the nominee in a remarkable moment.

Arena was packed, totally electric! Trump marveled afterward in a tweet.

And when he accepted the party nomination Thursday, the energy in the arena showed the strength of the Trump train. His address was interrupted repeatedly with cheers and chants of U-S-A! U-S-A! and Build the wall! from the crowd, a reference to his vow to secure the U.S.-Mexico border with a wall.

Trump has brought many new voters to the party, including those who have sat out past primaries and now passionately support the businessman as an outsider alternative to stale politicians.

Among those who are all-in for Trump, the mood was decisively more upbeat, another example of how the party remains so divided that even its reviews of the convention were split.

Don Halle, a building contractor from Gulfport, Miss., and his wife, Linda, said the convention floor felt much more alive than it did just four years ago, when Republicans gave a lackluster nomination to Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan.

This was a lot more enthusiastic, said Don Halle, a Trump supporter from Day 1. In 2012, I left there not feeling very good about Mitt Romney. We feel already so good about this.

The couple particularly enjoyed seeing Trumps family on the stage, a portrait of the nominee beyond his sometimes crass rhetoric that has captured voters attention and broken the conventional rules of political decorum.

Little Don Jr. He knocked it out of the park, Halle said about the candidates son. The couple also were wowed by Melania Trumps speech, even though it has been roundly criticized for plagiarizing from an earlier address by First Lady Michelle Obama.

We were overwhelmed with not just her beauty but her poise, Halle said of Trumps Slovenian-born third wife. This is not even her language. Where those words came from are not as important as what she said, and how she said it.

Aimee Winder Newton wasnt sure what to expect at her first convention, but she definitely noticed the emptying hall those first nights as she watched the proceedings from seats high in the stands.

The Utah mother of four wondered whether folks were leaving because of the lineup or if they were just tired after the long day. Certainly, delegates could have opted to hob-nob at the many off-site parties.

She stuck around, even though she had little interest in the parade of actors and Trump backers  and said many of her Utah colleagues were moving through the stages of grief, as she put it, that Trump is the nominee.

Once we move past his messaging and some of his rude comments, we want to know who Donald Trump is, so we can feel better about him, she said.

She was heartened to hear from Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr., with his upbeat tone. Im looking for those things that can help me feel comfortable about the nominee, she said.

Longtime Republican strategist Kevin Madden, a former top Romney aide, said he understood delegates dilemma. He, too, stayed away from the Quicken Loans Arena on that historic night when delegates gave Trump the nomination.

Its not a happy occasion inside, so theyre looking at ways to get outside, he said. There is a bit of an Irish wake quality to it.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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Its like a petting zoo for six-legged creatures with wings.

Butterfly wrangler John Dailey spent Wednesday afternoon freeing new butterflies from a chrysalis house and feeding them with nectar-soaked cotton swabs.

The enclosure he works in, SkyRiver Butterflies, is at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa after making its way from the Philadelphia Flower Show in March and other events.

The past five years, San Francisco-based SkyRiver Butterflies has taken its traveling exhibits to fairs in San Diego, New York state and elsewhere.

Close to 1,000 of the fluttering creatures are in the enclosure at the OC Fair, along with flowers and pictures showing the stages of a butterflys life  being born a caterpillar, the forming of the chrysalis  the hard case that protects the developing pupa  then emerging as a butterfly.

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Whittier resident Jessica Davis and her 3-year-old daughter Jordyn, who wore a butterfly-pattern dress to the exhibit, fed monarch and white peacock butterflies Wednesday afternoon.

Theyre obviously beautiful creatures, Davis said. You dont normally see so many of them out and about like this. [My daughter] loves them.

Before Dailey got out his drill to open the Plexiglas chrysalis house Wednesday, the newly hatched butterflies inside shook free from their hardened cases, which hung from different levels in the house.

Today is their birthday, Dailey told children visiting the exhibit.

After he took off the front wall of the house, Dailey used the feeding sticks  the nectar-soaked swabs  to lure the creatures out one by one.

Their sense of taste is through their feet, Dailey said.

Butterflies stuck their legs onto the sticks Dailey held, and some uncurled their proboscis, a thin straw-like body part attached to the head, to drink the nectar off the swabs.

As the butterfly wrangler ventured to different corners of the enclosure to feed more insects with the sticks, he approached two monarch butterflies stuck together on a wall.

But then he quickly turned around.

Nope, they are honeymooning, he said while walking away.

According to Dailey, 15 species of butterflies, all from the United States, are in the fairgrounds exhibit, including the malachite butterfly, with green and black wings, and the zebra longwing butterfly, with white stripes.

Some people arent familiar with the anatomy of a butterfly, but this gives them the chance to study them, SkyRiver employee Baileigh Trotter said.

Brooke Lacey, 16, of Westminster took her 4-year-old nephew to the enclosure. Monarchs flew to Brooke and landed on her hands, shoulders and hair.

I learned about butterflies in school, but its different when you get to hold them, she said.

As guests left the exhibit, Trotter checked for any stray butterflies, or hitchhikers, stuck to clothes or hair.

A sign outside the enclosure reads: We close when the butterflies sleep.

--

Alex Chan, alexandra.chan@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
Citing Californias stringent gun regulations and high cost of living, owners of a shotgun accessory and gear company have moved their operation from Costa Mesa to Nevada.

Mesa Tactical finished vacating its Mesa del Mar office July 15.

In a phone interview this week from the new headquarters in Reno, Chief Executive Mitch Barrie said moving to the Biggest Little City in the World was the right decision for the small company.

As calls for tighter gun control have intensified with recent mass shootings in Orlando, Fla., and Dallas, Mesa Tactical is looking for lighter restrictions than those already in California.

California has the most difficult, oppressive gun control, Barrie said. Weve been living with that for a long, long time. Certainly its been difficult.

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Gun owners in California, he said, have to jump through all kinds of hoops ... and frankly, we dont think it helps anything.

As an example, Barrie noted a shotgun accessory that Mesa Tactical sells. It isnt illegal to have the shotgun or the accessory separately, but when the piece is attached to the gun, its illegal.

Thus, to show customers how the accessory looks on the gun, Mesa Tactical had to send both to Oregon, where they could be photographed together.

I think thats preposterous that we have to do that kind of thing, Barrie said. Thats the kind of thing that makes these laws a little bit weird.

Barrie and Lucy Espinoza, Mesa Tacticals chief operating officer and general manager, said the company wants to expand its offerings to rifle accessories and that doing so would be too difficult in California.

Nevertheless, they said, Mesa Tactical will continue using many Orange County-based companies that help manufacture its gear and accessories.

Mesa Tactical started in 2003 in Costa Mesa, which, as the company proudly notes, was once the location of Armalite, developer of the M16 rifle.

Gradually, Mesa Tactical got bigger and moved to different locations before ending up in a roughly 10,000-square-foot space at 1135 Baker St.

At its peak, Mesa Tactical had about 15 employees; now it has about half of that who made the move to Reno. The company is looking to expand that figure.

Espinoza said Mesa Tacticals new space, near the Truckee River about a mile east of the Reno Arch, is about the same size as the location in Costa Mesa.

She called the move bittersweet, but its one of those things thats for the better of the company.

Reno has less traffic than Orange County and is more affordable, Espinoza said.

There are a lot of positive things to look forward to, she added. Its just like anything. Well get adjusted to the new town.

Barrie said he has spoken with members of the gun manufacturing community in Nevada, some of whom also left the Golden State for the Silver State.

California lawmakers, Barrie said, are driving those businesses out of the state.

And I dont think theyre crying about it, he added. I think well probably be seeing more.

--

Bradley Zint, bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
They are one of Orange Countys longest running and most loyal charitable support groups. The Women of Chapman are proud of a 45-year association with the university, a tenure during which they have raised and contributed some $7 million. Now boasting a roster of 250 prominent local women, the ladies have pledged three major grants in support of Chapman University advancement.

Currently, the fulfillment of a $1-million pledge to the Marybelle and Sebastian Paul Musco Center for the Arts is in its final fundraising stages and two new endeavors are being launched.

The first is a $500,000 pledge in support of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Digital Media Arts. Second is another $1-million grant in support of Chapmans Center for Science and Technology, due to open in 2017.

Recently, the dedicated women converged for a summer gathering over lunch in a bayside dining room at the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach. Their purpose was to provide an annual thank you for the serious dedication of their members, to welcome some 20 new Women of Chapman donors and, most importantly, give a sentimental send-off for retiring Chapman President Jim Doti and his professor wife, Lynne Pierson Doti. Additionally, the event was staged to introduce the community to an incoming board of directors.

President Doti will officially retire Aug. 31 after 25 years serving as Chapmans president. His tenure has seen the small local school transform into a major private American university listed in the top 10 rankings among multiple surveys and national statistics of higher educational excellence. Dotis unwavering pursuit of said excellence has inspired O.C. donors of note to pledge tens of millions toward supporting a world-class campus institution that attracts a faculty of serious pedigree, including Pulitzer, Nobel and other distinguished, prize-winning teachers of international reputation.

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Doti will retire and return to his former life as a professor of economics. He joined his wife Lynne as she was presented a bouquet of red roses by event co-chairs Donna Bunce and Donna Calvert for her 45 years of service to Women of Chapman, as well as her impressive tenure at the university teaching economics.

A major highlight of the luncheon was the presentation by Women of Chapman President Barbara Eidson of a check for $224,500 as part of the groups 2015-16 contribution. Donor Adrienne Brandes, responsible for a personal $1-million pledge to Chapman, was called upon to introduce students from Dodge College who received grants designed to support their student film projects, which are required for graduation.

The 2015 recipients were Wyatt Lake ($3,500), Andrew Primavera ($3,500), Robert Bracker ($10,000), Kendall Goldberg ($12,000) and Lane Lyle ($16,000). The funds will enable the students to finance their work.

Bob Bassett, dean of Dodge College, was in attendance explaining to the crowd the importance of the student film as an entry point into the difficult professional arena of Hollywood. Brandes hosted the students who showed video clips of their works in progress to the luncheon crowd. This is where some of your money is going, she told the women, applauding the young creative talent. The next generation of filmmakers is getting their start here.

President-elect of Women of Chapman will be social standout Anne Manassero taking the realm from Eidson. Loyal devotees on her team include Mona Lee Nesseth, Andi Doddridge, Susan Villeneuve, Donna Di Bari, Sue Hook, Donna Bianci, Kathy Hamilton and Jacqui Penner.

--

B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
During our last visit to Balboa Island in November 2015, I found out from my American AFS (American Field Service) brother Jeff Herdman that he would be entering the campaign for a seat on the Newport Beach City Council in 2016.

Since that two-week visit with Jeff and his wife, Sally, my wife, Heide, and I have been asking ourselves what we could do to support this fabulous man.

Living in Germany, we are not aware of political and city issues, but we are able to give you a glimpse of Jeff as a person: a man with high moral standards, as well as the ability to maintain a close brotherly friendship over a distance of thousands of miles, and across the pond for 52 years!

It all began in l962, when I came to California from Offenburg, Germany, as an American Field Service exchange student. Upon arrival at LAX in August of that year, I felt galaxies away from home. The Herdmans were my host family for the year, and Jeff not only became my AFS brother, but over time, became my real brother.

It was a wonderful, warm-hearted family,, and in Jeffs typical style, immediately began the process of helping me find my way in a new and foreign culture. He made me feel safe and accepted despite my halting English, and my heavy German accent.

Some adjustments were difficult for me, but it was very easy to fall in love with Southern California, Balboa Island and the beach life he introduced me to!

My year with the Herdman family was full of highlights, rich cultural experiences, travel and the activities and events that go along with being a high school senior in the 1960s!

After my return to Germany in August of 1963, our brotherhood stayed as it was; we did our studies, married, had our young families, but always stayed in close contact with each other.

Jeff became the person I could seek advice from, as well as confide in despite the distance that separated us. Until the advent of personal computers, our communications were always written. Jeff was and still is like an ombudsman to our family.

The women in our family love Jeff for his gentlemanly qualities, and the men because he is a good sport. We have had the pleasure of hosting Jeff and his wife, Sally, several times over the years in Germany. These times together always are occasions for us to learn about the present conditions in the U.S, the problems of the day, but also times of fun and a great deal of laughter.

We wish so much that Jeff will be successful in his campaign for City Council. We believe that he will contribute so much to the city of Newport Beach, just as he has to our immediate and extended family here in Germany. His German family gives 100% support to his candidacy because we know and love him as a truly quality man.

--

JOACHIM ZEITZ lives with his wife, HEIDI, in Bad Homburg, Germany.
The reform of labor legislation in France received its final approval without parliament voting on Thursday, as the country's government used special constitutional powers to avoid prolonged confrontation with MPs and trade unions.

According to the French press, it was for the third time when French Prime Minister Manuel Valls used Article 49 Part 3 of the French Constitution in the reform discussion according to which the bill is adopted under the government's responsibility, if none of the parliamentary forces nominates no-confidence vote to the Cabinet of Ministers during the next 24 hours.

The ruling Socialist Party of France spoke against the measures and the need to resort to Article 49 Part 3 says of the extremely strained relations between the French President Francois Hollande with his party members.

Labor legislation reform, worked out by Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri, has already led to violent protests in Paris and other French cities as well as large-scale strikes. The participants of street actions were smashing shop windows and parked cars at the side-paths, throwing bottles at police officers while law enforcement officers used tear gas in return. The president's approval rating has fallen to record lows in recent months at a time when the bill was discussed.

The main provisions of the labor law reform included the preservation of the 35-hours working week. However, the companies will be able to make arrangements with the local trade unions about the possibility of increasing or reducing the working week. In each particular case the working week should not exceed 46 hours, except for "exceptional circumstances" where its increase is allowed to 60 hours.

The law facilitates the procedure of wage cuts and dismissals, which are now strictly regulated in France. The government hopes that companies will hire more people in such a way, knowing that it will be easier to fire them in case of an economic downturn.

The employers will be able to come to an agreement on leaves, including maternity leaves and workers' days off. At present these issues are controlled by the central government.

In addition, the law deprives the French trade unions of some powers, allowing non-compliance by companies of industrial agreements with trade union organizations in the case of a collective agreement with a specific company.
Police on Wednesday nabbed a 28-year-old Glendale man suspected of grabbing the buttocks of two Glendale High School students last week before fleeing in a car, police said.

Jose Paolo Baroma was booked on suspicion of sexual battery hours after investigators released surveillance photographs seeking the publics help identifying him, said Glendale Police Sgt. Robert William.

Two separate callers reportedly pointed Glendale detectives to the same man.

Campus security footage shows Baroma sneaking up behind the girls, grabbing their buttocks and running into an white four-door BMW, William said.

While police initially thought he had a getaway driver, after interviewing Baroma, they believe he acted alone, getting into his car through the passengers side and climbing into the drivers seat before fleeing, William said.

The incidents occurred on July 12 and last Friday, both before 8 a.m.

Anyone with information about the case can call Glendale police at (818) 548-4911.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
It started with a triple shooting at a North Hollywood body shop in April 2014.

Two brothers, Robert and Akop Jack Torosian, the latter of which owns Papillon International Bakery in Glendale, had gotten into a business dispute with the shops owner, Hrach Gasparyan, and another man, Hrut Fitilchyan, which resulted in a shootout that left three of them hospitalized, according to Los Angeles police and the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

Both Torosian brothers were arrested, but just one, Akop, was charged in connection with the crime.

To this day, there are conflicting accounts about who the aggressor was in the shooting, according to someone with knowledge of the case.

Akop Torosian, whose bakery was honored in June by Assemblyman Mike Gatto as small business of the year, was  and still is  facing two counts each of attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic firearm. These charges carry a sentence of up to life in state prison.

But last November, Armen Tashjian, the Glendale attorney representing two of the men who were shot, allegedly made an offer to Robert Torosian.

For $2 million, the criminal case against his brother could go away.

With that money, Tashjians clients  Gasparyan and Fitilchyan  would either leave the country or keep quiet on the stand.

(Gasparyan) will take the stand and say  I dont remember, I didnt see anything, I dont know who shot who, Tashjian allegedly told Robert Torosian last November, court records show.

Investigators were privy to the alleged shakedown, though the Los Angeles County district attorneys office declined to discuss its investigation techniques.

Three months later, Tashjian reportedly emailed the bribe offer to Akop Torosians defense attorney Daniel Behesnilian, who when reached Thursday declined to comment on the case.

This week, Tashjian was charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit the crime of offering to receive a bribe, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy to commit an act injurious to the public, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint.

When reached by phone Thursday, the body shop owner said he was shot once in the arm the day of the shooting, but could not remember additional details. He added that investigators recently served a search warrant at his home and business.

Fitilchyan, the other man involved in the shooting, meanwhile, could not be immediately reached for comment.

According to the district attorneys office, neither Gasparyan nor Fitilchyan have been charged with any crimes, nor are they under investigation.

Tashjian is slated to be arraigned next month.

When reached via email, the attorney said he had not yet seen the allegations against him and was therefore unable to comment.

Please know I will defend myself to the fullest, he added.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
As summer vacation moves steadily closer to the early August start of school  now just over two weeks away  both students and their parents are likely feeling the mix of anxiety and anticipation that comes with new academic years.

But as I reflect on the concerns of this years school-goers, Im struck by the never-failing supply of education issues. Theres always something for parents to worry about, something for the PTA to discuss. Locally and statewide, challenges that were satisfactorily addressed one decade reappear with new twists the next, like new strains of the flu. With public schools evolving as communities evolve, it can feel like nothing is ever solved.

But such feelings obscure the progress made and relationships built through years of solution-seeking by parents and educators working together for the benefit of students. So, in hopes that a look at past concerns might somehow help alleviate a few current anxieties, I offer an incomplete and unranked account of three decades of worry, culled from my experience and that of other graduate parents.

Population growth was the issue that first grabbed my attention as a parent. Ive previously described the enormous jump in school enrollment between 1987 and 1994, when immigration increased and new apartments replaced single-family homes in south Glendale.

By the early 1990s, nine of the districts 20 elementary schools had transitioned to year-round education, and working parents had to scramble for off track child care. Planning vacations was an art for families with older children who remained on traditional schedules.

Two decades later, as housing prices increased and student population in Glendale and across California dropped, year-round schools gradually reverted to a traditional calendar.

Instruction for English-language learners was an issue that grew along with the immigrant population. As reflected in the emotion-filled crusades for and against Proposition 227, California grappled with demands for English only instruction. Communities worried about changing demographics, and some families turned to private schools.

Years later, with the advent of the Foreign Language Academies of Glendale, or FLAG, dual-language immersion programs turned the language acquisition problem on its head. Native foreign language-speaking students began modeling authentic accents for their English-speaking classmates, and families began clamoring for spots in the districts FLAG schools.

Class size, as distinct from school size, is another issue with a roller-coaster history. For many years, California vied for the distinction of having the highest average class size in the country (and the lowest per-pupil funding), at 29 students.

Then, in 1996, California enacted Class Size Reduction. Gov. Pete Wilson surprised and delighted parents and teachers when he signed Class Size Reduction into law right here in Glendale. In the brief span of that summer, bungalows appeared on playgrounds, new teachers were hired and schools opened with primary class sizes of 20.

Many parents who had left public schools returned. But then came the Great Recession, followed by budget cuts, and California discontinued Class Size Reduction funding. The mood of parents and teachers changed again, and the issue simmers on.

Health and safety have been ever-present concerns, with targets of worry that have included drug and alcohol abuse, sex education, gangs and violence, bullying, teenage depression, stress and suicide.

The main issue of my Council PTA presidency was AIDS education, wrote Susan Hunt, executive director of the Glendale Educational Foundation, in an email. "[It was] very much a controversial topic because it required people to actually talk about sex. We finally managed to show Secrets, a film produced by Kaiser, after school at the high schools. Students had to have parental permission to see it. Glad weve come a long way since then.

In an email from another past Council PTA President Lynn Miyamoto wrote, The educational issues that took most of my time were arts in the classroom, the lack of career and college counseling, and parent engagement so they would learn the importance of parents being involved and being the first teachers.

Her advice to parents is to be visible in their childrens education "so your child knows you are there for them when the time is needed. She also thinks parents "make lifelong friends if you become involved in PTA by sharing and working together.

Hunts advice now, as it was when her children were in school, is to trust public education.Our students are better served in an environment that has ethnic and economic diversity, choices about classes to take and activities to join.

Public education may have its ups and downs, but theres great company to be found along the way.

--

JOYLENE WAGNER works in support of college and career education for the Verdugo Workforce Development Board and is a past member of the Glendale Unified School Board. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.
A former Wells Fargo branch manager from Burbank was arrested for allegedly allowing two Glendale men to launder $1.29 million in fraud proceeds through the bank over the course of two years, federal officials said this week.

Albert Yagubyan, 36, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to four counts of concealment money laundering, along with one count each of conspiracy to commit money laundering, false bank entries and witness tampering, according to the U.S. attorneys office.

Yagubyan, who managed a Wells Fargo branch located at 535 N. Brand Blvd. in Glendale until October 2015, reportedly allowed Artashes Darbinyan, 36, and Orbel Hakobyan, 41, to open bogus bank accounts to launder proceeds from a mass mailing scam targeting U.S. trademark holders.

In exchange, Yagubyan allegedly pocketed a cut of the earnings.

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In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker said Yagubyan allegedly used his position of trust at a large financial institution to further a scheme that bilked trademark holders.

The scam stretches back to September 2013, when Darbinyan, through mailers formatted to look like official invoices from bogus companies called the Trademark Compliance Office and the Trademark Compliance Center, offered trademark registration and monitoring services to trademark holders who recently registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, records show.

Once a trademark is registered, the mark, along with the assigned serial number, the holders name and the holders address are publicly available online.

For a $385 fee, the mailers offered to monitor trademarks for possible infringement and send regular reports to the holder, court records show. Envelopes pre-addressed to Darbinyans bogus companies were included in the mailer.

But officials said Darbinyan never intended to provide the promised services.

According to court records, Darbinyan used other peoples identities to open bogus accounts, in which he and Hakobyan deposited or cashed checks sent by the trademark holders. Some of the proceeds were reportedly used to purchase gold.

Yagubyan reportedly told one bank employee to open an account for Darbinyan with someone elses name, and others to approve the pairs withdrawals from accounts for which they werent signatories. The witness tampering charge stems from Yagubyan allegedly later telling a bank employee to lie to federal investigators.

To hide his role in the scheme, Darbinyan regularly changed phone numbers, used multiple email addresses, and set up websites and phone lines for the bogus companies, records show.

Both Darbinyan and Hakobyan were previously charged in the scam.

A trial in the case was scheduled for September, officials said.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
A workshop that begins next week at Glendale Community College will have renowned British orchestra conductor Neil Thomson mentor other conductors during a five-day event that will end with a concert in Arcadia.

The workshop, which begins Monday and ends on July 30, is a partnership between the Los Angeles Conducting Institute and Glendale Community Colleges music department.

The 20 conductors will initially work with a string quartet then finish the week with a full orchestra, said Peter Green, a music professor at Glendale Community College, where he chairs the visual and performing arts division.

I look forward to this truly inspirational event, he said in an email.

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Thomson has served as head of the conducting program at Londons Royal College of Music and is a well-regarded mentor.

Among the orchestras hes conducted are the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

During the upcoming workshop, professional musicians will focus on Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3, Ludwig van Beethovens Symphony No. 4" and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 5.

The end of the workshop will be marked with a concert that will begin at 7:30 p.m. on July 30 at Church of the Good Shepherd, 400 W. Duarte Road in Arcadia.

The cost to attend the concert is $25 for general admission and $20 for seniors and students.

--

Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
I was nearly featured in a News-Press article this week. Not because I saved a puppy or wrote a best seller, but because I was almost the victim of a driver who confused North Verdugo Road with the 2 Freeway.

As I waited for a clearing in oncoming traffic for a left turn, in the rearview mirror I watched a car speeding directly toward me in my lane. At the last second, it swerved into the right lane, sparing me a ride to the ICU or morgue, sparing my wife and family a personal tragedy, and sparing any innocent bystanders and motorists nearby.

Sadly, this scenario is not unique. Every day, I witness freeway speeds and near tragedies on this stretch of residential roadway, while walking the dog.

Because stories about spectacular crashes often get a few column inches in this paper, Ive decided to put my almost inches to better use. Im asking our city to direct more Proposition N funds (that Glendale citizens recently voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm) to send a consistent punishing message to those who endanger lives with their vehicles on our streets. Reckless drivers should be the ONLY ones who pay  not the men, women, children and pets who happen to get in their way.

Does anyone whos ever made a left turn disagree?

Richard Lippman

Glendale

..

Thoughts on gun control issue

I would like to respond to Problem is access to guns, by Henry D. Schlinger, Jr., Ph. D., July 9. Mr. Schlingers comments in support of Adam Schiffs op-ed of June 25, Congress must stand up the NRA, are hollow points. California has the strictest gun law in the nation and the worst crime attributed to guns. In 2016, we will lead the country in gun crimes. The news media always fail to inform us whether the guns used were legal or illegal. Enough said.

Background checks are another hollow point. The perpetrators of the San Bernardino massacre got the weapons by having a neighbor next door purchase them. Enough said! Lets face it, Adam Schiff is just a politician.

Mr. Schlinger is a behavioral scientist. He confesses that you cannot change human behavior. A foregone conclusion.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it.

Answer: Listen to Robert Winthrop, speaker of the House of Representatives (1847-1849), Men in a word must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them, either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or by the bayonet. Enough said!

I am very much against having guns within cities. Im a peaceable man. However, suppose all honest citizens gave up their weapons. What is left? If you recall the movie, The Magnificent Seven. Calvera (the outlaw) said, If God didnt want them (thats us) sheered, he wouldnt have made them sheep!

So, then, the question remains. Are you a sheep or a sheepdog? Enough said!

Roy M. Lopez, D.D.

Glendale

..

Working together would be positive step

I am so glad that Im not black. I couldnt stand looking forward to each new day during which I might be reviled, or worse yet, killed just because of my appearance.

I am so glad that Im not a police officer. I couldnt stand looking forward to each new day during which I might be reviled, or worse yet, killed just because of my appearance.

Of course, in both cases there are some individuals who deserve our revulsion and fear but the vast majority are simply trying to live their day-to-day lives just like you and me. Recognizing this truth, it is clear that we all must work together to find solutions for the discord that can so dramatically and painfully divide us and causes needless trauma for so many.

Robert Morrison

Glendale
This trip to Washington, D.C. for the Sister Cities International Youth Leadership Summit was by far one of the greatest experiences of my life.

I applied to represent the city of La Canada because it is such a great city that I have been fortunate enough to grow up in for the past seven years, and I feel that it is my duty to give back to the city whenever possible.

On the trip, I experienced so many amazing encounters. We were able to sit in on Senate meetings, and visited the Capitol building, the Washington National Monument and the White House. The most memorable events from this trip for me were the simulation game we took part in, where we all were mock diplomats and got to represent our respective countries. We attempted to solve the tension and problems that were ailing the world, and we were able to resolve it.

Along with that, another great experience was being at the Japanese embassy and getting to meet the Japanese ambassador. We were able to experience a little bit of Japanese culture while we were there, and it was truly amazing to be able to shake hands and get a photo with the man who represents the whole country of Japan.

Another memorable event was when we sat in on a Senate meeting. We were able to see how the government actually functions, and I found that to be very mind blowing. We were also lucky, as we got to see former presidential candidate Marco Rubio walk in on the Senate meeting while we were there. It was very interesting to experience that.

In addition to the places we visited, the people I was able to meet there were amazing. I became very close to these people in a mere five days, having not known anything about them prior to this. One of my close friends from the trip, Matt Rodriguez, is visiting Los Angeles from Florida this coming week, and it will be great to see him again. Other close friends were Cameron Gallagher from Utah and Davis Holcombe from South Carolina, both of whom invited me to stay with them if I ever visit their states.

They all have left a positive impact on my life and I am truly grateful for La Canada Flintridge and Sister Cities in giving me this chance to experience this. I plan to stay involved in any possible events to represent La Canada, and to be able to hopefully articulate in this trip in the future.

AMR EISSA attends St. Francis High School.
When I first heard about the Sister Cities International Youth Leadership Summit, I was interested in the opportunity to learn more about international relations. I have been interested in a career in foreign relations and the United Nations, and this experience furthered my desire to pursue this path.

We participated in a diplomatic simulation where we came to a compromise regarding a fictional situation, in which a country was violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. We were first given a brief lesson on the history of nuclear nonproliferation before being divided into groups for the simulation. We each represented different stakeholders in the situation and discussed possible solutions to come to an agreement. One of the most interesting parts of the simulation was being able to find a compromise when working with people from different countries. Seven of the people in our group were from Russia and learning how to communicate through a translator to work through the language barrier made it seem more realistic.

Throughout the week, I was able to connect with students from across the country and the world. I enjoyed learning about different cultures and seeing stereotypes being broken. One girl in my room was from Italy. She described how being here caused her to change her perception of Americans. I was also able to see people break down stereotypes they typically held regarding people from different areas of our country. I was able to learn more about different cultures from within the U.S.

It was also interesting to learn about the cultures of other countries where students had done exchanges. I talked with students who had traveled to Japan, Germany and China, and they described their experiences with the language barrier and shared about those cultures. It also inspired me to help further establish the Sister Cities program within La Canada so students from our city would be able to travel to other countries to have similar experiences.

The summit also allowed me to further learn about leadership in politics. After the classes we attended on Saturday, I was able to talk with some of the speakers who inspired us. I learned more about how to be involved with diplomacy and how to succeed as a woman in a male-dominated field. Overall, I am grateful that I was able to go to Washington, D.C., and learn from this amazing experience.

NAOMI STEPHEN attends La Canada High School.
We are very likely the only city in the United States that allows 18 very large noise polluting and air polluting waste-hauling trucks to go past your home every pickup day. They also cause considerable wear on our streets. Safety is also a major concern. When they are stopped to pick up waste, these large trucks obstruct our vision of other vehicles as we walk or bike or drive around them.

An exclusive franchise agreement system will reduce the above negative impacts by 66% and likely reduce our monthly waste hauler fees.

Our new mayor will be bringing this issue to the City Council.

If you agree with me, please contact our City Council members at: jcurtis@lcf.ca.gov, dspence@lcf.ca.gov, mdavitt@lcf.ca.gov, lpieroni@lcf.ca.gov and twalker@lcf.ca.gov.

Charles J. Gelhaar

La Canada Flintridge

Chair, Public Works & Traffic Commission

--

On the loss of a good friend

Remembering my great friend Betty Hurn who passed July 3, Im so thankful I got to hold her hand in the final days. In the words of Dr. Seuss: To the world you may be just one person; but to one person, you may be the world!

When it comes to friendships, none are quite so rare as the special bond Betty and I shared. I first met her at the gym; she wanted a trainer. When it came to exercise, she was a bit of a complainer.

Then, I started to just drop by to see her. Wed always laugh and have a good time. Wed watch TV, talk about the news, have coffee, lunch, high tea or dinner and drink wine.

Betty was gorgeous, feisty, intelligent, kind, charming, hilarious and witty. I loved hanging out with her; she was entertaining and made me feel like family. Her home was always immaculate before the cleaning lady even came. Shed talk about her sisters and the neighbors. Wed talk about how she trapped the skunk family in her backyard, the problems shed had with coyotes, bears, birds and bees. Wed also talk about the best, most loved dog ever  Daisy!

Betty was always an officer on the Verdugo Hills Hospital Womens Council and a pillar of the community. Id go with her to Christmas events, luncheons, bingo, fashion shows. She was the life of the party.

I will never drive past Lauderdale Avenue and not think of her. She was on my way to and from work for 20 years. It is said that a life that matters is one that has significance. Betty lived a very significant life.

I am grateful I knew her and I am going to miss her so much.

Jodie Kendall

La Canada Flintridge

--

Students deserve equal protection

The July 6 In Theory asked if religious colleges receiving federal funds should be allowed an exemption from Title IX regulations barring discrimination against LGBT students and faculty.

Readers might assume that LGBT students would not attend a school whose tenets condemn them for who they are. That misconception could lead to the belief that this legislation is unnecessary because few, if any, students need this protection. But look at the issue from the perspective a 16- or 17-year-old selecting a college. At that age many teens are still uncertain about their sexual orientation or are not ready to disclose to their parents.

The more religious a parent, the more pressure he or she may place on a student to attend a religious college. And the more strongly the parents believe in a religion that considers LGBT conduct sinful, the harder it will be for a student to discuss sexuality with his or her parents. Its easy to see how an LGBT student can end up in a school such as Biola University or in a Catholic school.

As they become more confident in their sexuality, many students may seek to transfer to schools where they will not be condemned for who they are. But the student may still need parental financial support, financial aid may be less for a transferring student, and a student may already be so close to graduation that transferring would require a longer time in college to meet the new schools graduation requirements.

Protecting young people from discrimination that may short circuit their college careers is crucial. The state Assembly should pass SB 1146 without any amendments that dilute its force. Then schools such as Biola can decide which is more important  adhering to the strictures of their religion or keeping the federal money. Any predictions?

Mary-Lynne Fisher

La Crescenta
Its hard to forget your first taste of Filipino food and all the intensely distinct sweet, sour, savory, fishy and fatty flavors that can come in one meal.

For me, I was in third grade, hanging with my best friend at the time, a Filipina whose parents opened up their home after school to this latch-key kid as if I were their own (my Catholic upbringing probably helped seal the approval of our friendship).

Most days, I went home before dinner, never actually tasting the home cooking that after years had left a permeating herbaceous smell throughout her place. Then, one night I stayed, and a bowl of soup that tasted like too-tangy orange juice was plopped in front of me along with a bowl of rice.

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I admit that as a kid raised on Top Ramen and Kraft macaroni and cheese, the flavors in the fishy vegetable soup were completely foreign to me. A few slurps of the pungent broth was too much for my weak palate (I probably made some horrible grimace  sorry Marys nanay!), so instead I ate only the long green vegetables, pulled out the chunks of fish and downed enough steamed rice to last me until morning.

Earlier this month  after years of growing into my love for other popular Filipino dishes  I was given a second chance to appreciate sinigang, the citrus-based soup that celebrates the strength of sour in a way that only Filipino cooking can.

This time I was not at Marys house, but at Irenia, a pop-up dinner series cum Orange Countys first modern Filipino restaurant, where chef Ryan Garlitos cooks dishes inspired by his grandmother (the restaurants namesake) that are indelibly influenced by the natural bounty of California and the innovations happening in Mexican and American cuisine.

Instead of the hearty dinner portion once served at a pop-up Irenia event last year, the sinigang served at its downtown Santa Ana brick-and-mortar now comes as a meatless starter, a palate cleanser of tamarind dashi, braised daikon and Chinese sitaw.

The remainder of Irenias menu is a similar hodgepodge of unexpected flavors and textures (fried anchovies with spicy vinegar dipping sauce, roasted catfish with bok choy and shrimp paste, Jidori chicken thighs), all testaments to the fascinating cuisine of the Philippines, which was undeniably the original Asian fusion  way before the term became a cool-hunting buzzword.

Filipino food today evolved out of centuries of indigenous traditions marrying with the dishes and ingredients brought by Chinese, Indian, Spanish and American immigrants on the island. Its herbed rice dishes have roots in Indonesia and Malaysia. Noodles for the prawn-laden pancit are a holdover from China. Beef and sausage came from the Spaniards. And the dashi method that Garlitos uses to prepare the sinigang broth (along with an alternative miso-based version of the soup) was introduced by Japanese farm workers in the early 1900s.

Like other new-wave modern Filipino concepts in nearby Los Angeles (see: LASA, Rice Bar, Belly & Snout), Irenia is a place where citrus and spice go hand in hand, where the battle between sweet and salty reflect the dualities present in everyday life, where fish and pork can be both front and center and also lurking subtly in the background, and where  perhaps not surprisingly given Spains 300-year rule over the Philippines  the food often feels like youre in an alternate-universe Mexican restaurant.

A recent dinner special at Irenia included ginataang corn, aka ginataang mais (corn in Spanish is maiz), which the waiter even described as Filipino elotes. Cooked in coconut milk, the dish is usually watery and eaten as a dessert, but Garlitos (who cut his teeth in the kitchen at Costa Mesas modern Mexican marvel Taco Maria) drained the coconut milk out, tossed the whole kernels with fresh mussels and placed the whole sweet-briny pile atop a silky vinegar-corn puree. Each dig felt like an excavation, each bite a different experience.

In the hands of Garlitos, a classic pork adobo  which might as well be the national dish of the Philippines  becomes more like a mole, fatty pork belly tossed in a thick and rich dark gravy made from combining the meats jus with spices and herbs. Even the rice bowl portion of adobo served during Irenias lunch hours is filled with the kind of saucy depth only achieved by keeping a portion of the mixture from the day before and feeding it with fresh additions as needed, like a sourdough breads mother dough (or the mole madre at Enrique Olveras Pujol).

For dessert, pastry chef Ashley Guzman makes a rotating menu of affordable sweets like lumpias matamis, calamansi merengue tarts and maiz con hielo that could easily go toe-to-toe with anything youre currently being overcharged for at a fine-dining American restaurant.

Across all its seasonal menu changes, nightly specials, expertly made rum cocktails and comforting desserts, Irenias Latino tinges are so organic and make so much sense, its amazing that a Filipino restaurant hadnt opened in Santa Ana sooner.

They might not be serving exact replicas of the food my friend Mary grew up eating, or the recipe-driven dishes Garlitos own grandmother used to cook, but like Filipino cuisine itself, its a natural evolution, folding one chefs Orange County experience into an already fusion tradition.

And whether your first experience with Filipino food is at a friends house or at Irenia itself, its sure to be one meal thats hard to forget.

--

SARAH BENNETT is a freelance journalist covering food, drink, music, culture and more. She is the former food editor at L.A. Weekly and a founding editor of Beer Paper L.A. Follow her on Twitter @thesarahbennett.
The technical mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends Ukraine's National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market to set requirements and responsibility for disclosure of information by issuers, including banks and state-run enterprises.

According to a report of the IMF posted on its website, the commission to find a final decision on regulation of various types of issuers and consult with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and other authorities, including the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine, as it is essential before proceeding with the legislative proposals.

The mission also recommended that draft amendments regarding disclosure of information by issuers in one document, as well as responsibility of persons linked to the disclosure of information.

"To be effective, the new legislation will have to work in a coherent manner with the other pending initiatives," the mission said.

The mission also recommended continuing support of the creation of an effective independent audit supervision agency and draw up legislative proposals to introduce multilateral trading facilities in Ukraine (MTF). The latter amendments are to be made to the bill amending some Ukrainian laws (on the regulated markets and derivatives).

"It is therefore important that the schedule and order of submitting the laws to the Parliament will be carefully planned to avoid gaps and inconsistencies in the new framework," the mission said.
If youre heading to Las Vegas for the weekend, Google Maps has a treat for you: a free tank of gas. You read that right, free.

To promote its app, Google Maps is offering a series of freebies along Interstate 15 between L.A. and Vegas from noon to 8 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

To get up to 10 gallons of gas per vehicle for free, go to the Shell gas station at Exit 272 on Cima Road in Nipton, Calif., about 25 miles southwest of the California-Nevada state line.

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Two pumps will be set aside for those seeking free fuel, a Google representative said. Drivers dont have to show that theyre using the app, but expect long lines as word of the freebie spreads.

(As of Thursday afternoon, Google Maps showed unleaded regular at the Cima Road Shell station selling for $4 a gallon.)

But wait, theres more!

Free hamburgers  one per guest  will be offered at Peggy Sues Diner in Yermo, Calif. Its website says its an original roadside diner, built in 1954 with just nine counter stools and three booths. The restaurant is located at Exit 191 east of Barstow.

For a free cup of iced coffee, chilled using liquid nitrogen, head another 55 miles east to Baker, Calif., home of the worlds tallest thermometer.

Beneath the towering landmark, look for the pop-up coffee shop shaped like an igloo. Baker is reached by Exits 246 and 248.

By the way, expect roasting hot temperatures on that tower in Baker. Weather.com predicts highs of 115 degrees on Friday and Saturday.

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If you want to find the most adventurous town in the West, head to Park City, Utah. And if you crave a quality food escape, Portland, Ore., is the place to go.

These most recent recommendations come from Sunset Travel Awards 2016, which were announced Wednesday. The magazines editors consider categories like best cities, lodging, dining, outdoor town, etc. Each entrant pays a fee, and only those who enter are considered for awards, according to the magazines website.

The awards cover 13 Western states in the U.S. plus British Columbia and Alberta in Canada.

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Here are some other notable rankings:

 Best beach town goes to Tofino, British Columbia, where, the magazine says, visitors can choose from surfing, storm- and bear-watching, tidepooling, or even seaweed foraging.

Hmm, what about sunbathing and walking on the boardwalk? Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Ventura were finalists in those categories.

Park City, Utah, was selected as the best outdoor town in the West. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )

 Best wine country town goes to Paso Robles in Central California, a sleepy spot compared to more popular wine-country destinations farther north.

Highway 46 is a bucolic drive with more than a dozen wineries that pour in barns, cafes, underground caves, and cattle ranches, the magazine says on its website.

McMinnville, Ore., and Carmel Valley and Solvang, both in California, ranked as finalists.

Sunset magazine chose the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage in California as 2016s best desert hotel-resort. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times )

 The oceanfront Surfsand Resort in Cannon Beach, Ore., scores best for pets, and the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage (near Palm Springs) ranked as the best desert hotel-resort.

The San Diego Bay is seen from the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa, which was rated best spa resort. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times )

 Other favorites include Catamaran Resort and Spa in San Diego as best spa destination (or best destination for a girls getaway).

Check out the whole list of Sunset Travel Awards 2016 online or in the magazines August 2016 edition.

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A large Tibetan Buddhist academy tucked in a remote valley of Sichuan province is under threat of large-scale destruction by Chinese authorities for the second time in 15 years, international human rights groups and scholars say.

Larung Gar, a picturesque settlement of red log-cabin dwellings set amid alpine hills, was founded in 1980 by a teacher named Khenpo Jigme Phutsok, a living Buddha who played a key role in reviving Tibetan Buddhism after the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when religious traditions were forced underground.

Despite its remote location  the journey by car takes 20 hours over rough roads from the metropolis of Chengdu  the learning center has attracted adherents from Tibet and many other parts of China, as well as overseas.

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In 2001, government officials forced thousands of monks and nuns to leave Larung Gar, sending in demolition crews to tear down their simple wooden structures. At the time, authorities at the provincial religious affairs bureau told Reuters and other media outlets that concerns about social stability from central authorities had prompted the evacuations and said that the settlement would be limited to 1,400 students.

Despite Khenpo Jigme Phutsoks death in 2004, Larung Gar has rebounded, growing bigger than ever. In recent months, though, a notice from local officials began circulating saying that Larung Gars population needed to be reduced to no more than 5,000 residents by Sept. 30, 2017.

The document did not spell out a clear rationale for the downsizing, though it did cite two major government meetings during which President Xi Jinping stressed national unity and the necessity for religious groups to support the Communist Party and merge their religious doctrines with Chinese culture. Communist Party authorities have in recent years stepped up political education in monasteries as well as mosques.

The current population of Larung Gar remains unclear. Jesse Rockwell, a Santa Barbara resident who visited last month, estimated that 20,000 people were living there. Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University, said it is many times larger than it was in 2001.

How big is it? No one will say, Barnett said. Officials in the area dont want to say because that will get them in trouble [with higher-ups], and the leaders of encampment wont say because that would cause problems with the officials who tolerated the growth for the last 10 to 15 years. But he said the demolition orders likely came from authorities outside the local area. These places provide huge income, tourism and trade to the local government, he said. Theres not normally animosity at that level.

Larung Gar was able to survive  and thrive  in part because of its unusual designation as an institute, rather than as a monastery. After the Cultural Revolution, monasteries generally were allowed to be rebuilt only at sites where monasteries previously existed. But Larung Gar began as sort of temporary encampment  Gar means tent  erected by students of the itinerant teacher.

As such, it remained outside the formal administrative structure that covers monasteries, Barnett said.

This May, word began surfacing in Sichuan newspapers that the demolition would soon get underway. The document said 2,200 people had to leave in 2016, including 1,200 monks and nuns who must be out by Oct. 20. The list of 5,000 people who will be permitted to remain should be finalized by Aug. 30, and no more than 1,000 may be from outside the province, it added. If the 5,000 number is not reached by 2017, the statement said, the number of those to be expelled will be increased.

Buddhist nuns of the monastery at Larung Gar. (Fred Dufour/Getty Images )

Human Rights Watch and Tibetan exile groups have called for the government to suspend the order. Chinas authorities should not be determining the size of monasteries or any other religious institution, but should accept that religious freedom means letting people decide for themselves their religious practices, the Human Rights Watchs China director, Sophie Richardson, said in a statement.

Larung Gar residents reported that removal of some structures got underway this week, though Barnett said those buildings were technically outside the designated perimeter of the settlement and their removal was not particularly controversial. A woman who answered the phone at the Sichuan Province Religious Affairs Bureau on Friday said she could not provide any information.

But the next stage  which Barnett said could start Monday  may be more controversial, with demolition of nuns homes within the perimeter.

Rockwell said that there was a bit of uneasiness in Larung Gar when he visited, and he was stopped by police who demanded to see his passport. He was denied permission to stay in Larung Gar and had to go to a town about 20 miles away.

He said construction crews with earth movers, bulldozers and backhoes were busy building a new road and some facilities at the entrance to the valley. Another overseas traveler who recently tried to visit Larung Gar said she was turned away by police who told her there was construction and renovation work going on that was dangerous to foreigners  though Chinese tourists were allowed to proceed.

Larung Gar is known as a progressive Buddhist community that extols equality between the sexes and ethnic groups; community decisions are made through voting. Although Khenpo Jigme Phutsok once met with the Dalai Lama in India, Larung Gar is not seen as being directly affiliated with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, whom the Communist Party regards as a separatist, Barnett said.

Human Rights Watch noted that some online reports had suggested a public safety rationale for the demolitions at Larung Gar, such as promoting better sanitation and minimizing fire risks. But the group said such concerns cannot be a pretext to adopt discriminatory measures against specific religious groups.

Barnett said administrators of the academy had been making their own efforts to improve infrastructure, such as building new dormitories for nuns. Some senior leaders had tried to persuade the community to voluntarily downsize to head off such a confrontation with officials, he said, but they were outvoted. Now they are trying to advise community members to stay calm.

The lamas  are asking people to be calm and not to protest. But its not like 2001. Weve had  what is it?  five years of self-immolations, massive protests in 2008 and so on. The language of resistance is rife throughout China and Tibet, Barnett said. Lamas are trying to keep things calm and say if we downsize now, we may have a chance to negotiate things in a years time. But it may be difficult for them to persuade people thats going to happen.

Nicole Liu and Yingzhi Yang in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

julie.makinen@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @JulieMakLAT.
Two men in China died of rabies after receiving kidney transplants from an infected donor, according to Chinese medical researchers.

Last summer, a 55-year-old man from Hebei province near Beijing and a 43-year-old man from Liaoning province in the countrys far northeast died after receiving organs from the cadaver of a 6-year-old boy who had suffered from undiagnosed encephalitis, the researchers reported in the most recent issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Rabies transmission through organ transplantation has also occurred in the United States, but it is extremely rare.

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I think, personally, this case just highlighted some of the fractures in the system, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the UC San Francisco School of Medicine.

When I looked at the report, my first reaction was, This is really rare, and also kind of unfortunate, he said. My second was, Well, would we actually be comfortable with transplanting, in this particular case, if it happened here in the U.S.? And Id probably be nervous about that particular donor.

I think, personally, this case just highlighted some of the fractures in the system.  Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco School of Medicine

My third was, Wow, if I was gonna take organs from this donor, and I was worried about it, Id probably give them to somebody who would immediately die without these organs, he said, adding that with kidneys, theres rarely a need for immediate transplantation.

The boy, who lived in the impoverished, mostly rural southwestern Guangxi province, contracted a fever on May 13, 2015, according to the article. Two days later, with the fever still raging, he showed additional symptoms of extreme irritability, screaming, and slurred speech. By Day 3, he was foaming at the mouth.

The boy was moved to another hospital, where he entered a coma. He died 10 days later.

The body tested negative for HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis, so doctors determined that his organs were adequately safe for transplantation, and collected his kidneys and corneas. No autopsy was performed.

The man from Hebei received a kidney on May 27, 2015, in Beijing. That July, a fever and mild abdominal distention quickly developed into something worse  he began to lose his hearing, and speak incoherently. He had difficulty swallowing. Doctors suspected rabies, and later, confirmed the diagnosis. He died Aug. 23.

The second recipient, from Liaoning, showed many of the same symptoms. He died on Aug. 17. Realizing that the boy may have had rabies, medical authorities alerted two people in southern China who had received the boys corneas. Neither had developed symptoms of rabies, but both were treated for the virus as a precaution.

Rabies in the two kidney transplant recipients probably resulted from rabies virus transmitted from the common organ donor, concluded the researchers, who are affiliated with the Fudan University School of Public Health, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other prominent Chinese institutions.

They could not definitively confirm the diseases source, as the donor was cremated after his organs were collected.

Chinas organ transplantation system is highly controversial. Human rights groups and activists from the banned spiritual group Falun Gong have accused authorities of killing political prisoners to sell their organs. A documentary released in April  Human Harvest: Chinas Organ Trafficking  claims that the countrys illegal organ trade is worth $1 billion a year.

Authorities pledged to stop harvesting executed prisoners organs in December 2014, after admitting to the practice a few years earlier.

The country has one of the worlds lowest organ donation rates  the U.S. rate is more than 40 times higher.

I think its hard to know whats going on in China, with medicine and health, Chin-Hong said. The country is so big, and there are so many layers, you can never penetrate those deeper areas. People are motivated by unknown causes. Whats the narrative of the families in this organ transplantation case? This kid, in this rural area? You can only wonder.

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

Twitter: @JRKaiman

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An outbreak of avian influenza virus in Cameroon is raising concerns that the disease, already entrenched in parts of West and Central Africa, might advance southward and ravish the poultry industry.

The risk is real, Eran Raizman of the Food and Agriculture Organization said in an email. Raizman is the Rome-based head of the emergency prevention system for the animal division at the FAO, a United Nations agency.

According to the FAO, the virus  primarily found in poultry, waterfowl and migratory birds, and commonly called bird flu  was recently confirmed on chicken farms in Cameroon.

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The H5N1 strain of the virus found in Cameroon also can infect and kill humans. It is the first time the disease has been found in Central Africa since 2006, the U.N. agency said.

Were looking at a quickly spreading disease that has devastating effects on livelihoods in communities, Abebe Haile Gabriel, the FAOs deputy regional representative for Africa, said in recent written remarks.

H5N1 causes major losses of nutritious food and threatens farmers livelihoods, particularly in resource-poor environments where governments have difficulty providing financial compensation for losses, Gabriel said.

Birds infected with H5N1 virus are slaughtered in Telangana, India, in 2015. (Barcroft Media / Barcroft Media via Getty Images )

Global outbreaks of the virus since 2013 have caused the death of tens of millions of poultry and the loss of tens of billions of dollars worldwide, according to the FAO.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported three deadly avian flu strains in commercial and backyard poultry flocks totaling more than 43 million birds in 15 states. In Iowa alone, the nations top egg-producing state, nearly 30 million chickens died or had to be euthanized as a result of the virus. The outbreak sent the average wholesale price of a dozen large eggs from the hard-hit Midwest skyrocketing to $2.62, a record high.

A sign warns visitors to stay away from an infected turkey farm in 2015 in Melrose, Minn. (Kirsti Marohn / Associated Press )

In addition to Cameroon, five other countries in West and Central Africa have also been hit since 2014 by bird flu  Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria.

In Nigeria avian influenza has become so entrenched in poultry production and marketing systems it will be difficult to eliminate, according to the FAO.

Nigeria has had more than 750 outbreaks of bird flu, with nearly 3.5 million birds dead or culled, the agency said.

Raizman said this recent outbreak of the disease in Nigeria was detected in December 2014, the first instance in seven years.

It reached Cameroon in May of this year.

According to WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib, H5N1 was first detected in domestic poultry in China in 1996. In 1997, it caused outbreaks of disease in poultry in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as 18 cases of human infections with the virus.

Although transmission of the virus to humans is rare, once the virus is present in an area in birds, there is a risk of human infection, Chaib said in an email.

The majority of human cases have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry. There is no evidence the disease can be spread to people through properly cooked food, according to WHO.

In a 2008 photo, Egyptian workers prepare chickens for the market at a slaughter house in Cairo. Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam have reported the largest numbers of human cases of avian influenza virus infection, according to the WHO. (KHALED ELFIQI / EPA )

Chaib said that of the 851 human cases reported to WHO since 2003, 450 were fatal. And overall, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam have reported the largest numbers of human cases of avian influenza virus infection to the health agency.

So far, there have been no human cases of illness or death associated with the recent outbreak of avian flu in West Africa, according to Raizman.

What has been ailing is the regions poultry economy. Although the recent outbreaks in Cameroon have so far been contained, the economic impact has already taken its toll.

Cameroon losses have totaled an estimated $20 million, the FAO said, citing local media reports. This is a huge blow to this country of around 23 million people, where in rural areas, the percentage of the poor rose from 52% in 2001 to 56.8% in 2014, according to World Bank data.

The FAO said it had joined forces with WHO and the World Organization for Animal Health to provide assistance to affected countries, such as risk assessments, contingency planning, technical advice and laboratory material.

Dozens of chickens sit in cages at a chicken processing plant in Dallas, Texas in February 2004. A highly contagious strain of avian influenza was discovered that year in south Texas. (Paul Buck / EPA )

Raizman said the FAO was also putting a lot of effort in convincing governments and the private sector to enhance their surveillance of the disease and to report it to the authorities as soon a possible.

Affected countries were also being urged to strengthen bio-security measures such as prohibiting non-authorized people, like traders, from entering infected farms, Raizman said.

Meanwhile, Chaib of WHO, said the agency was focusing on public health and preventing human infections by helping to ensure that local laboratories have the capacity to detect the virus, provide clinical treatment and manage any incidents, among other measures.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

For more on global development news follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter
A gunman opened fire at a busy shopping mall in Munich on Friday evening, killing nine people and injuring 20 others in what police were investigating as a possible act of terrorism.

Police sealed off parts of the city, Germanys third-largest, for hours and pleaded with its 1.4 million residents to remain indoors as they attempted to determine who was responsible for the attack.

The transit system was shut down, sirens wailed and helicopters clattered overhead as local authorities declared a state of emergency.

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Witnesses reported seeing as many as three shooters in and around the Olympia shopping center. But police said they had found the body of the assailant about half a mile away, and he appeared to have acted alone.

The Munich police chief, Hubertus Andrae, told reporters that the suspect was an 18-year-old German-Iranian living in the city. He said the suspect was not previously known to the authorities and had no known links to terrorist groups.

The motive or explanation for this crime is completely unclear, he said.

Early Saturday, police issued a cautious all-clear.

It was the latest in a series of incidents of mass violence in Europe, and the second in Germany this week.

The attack in Munich started shortly before 6 p.m. Friday at a McDonalds restaurant across from the mall , police and witnesses said.

A witness told CNN that her young son saw a man loading a gun in a restroom inside the fast-food outlet before he started shooting at diners.

He was killing the children, said the woman, who was not identified. There was blood everywhere, she said.

Another woman described the chaos inside the restaurant.

Wed just sat down and started eating, she told Germanys Bayerische Rundfunk TV. The workers bolted out; the children started crying and ran around in panic.

The gunman then ran into the street, witnesses said.

Shooting in #Munich shopping mall #OEZ!! People running away to seek shelter!! pic.twitter.com/PB189s6RQy  Thamina Stoll (@thaminastoll) July 22, 2016

A video shared on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black shooting at people outside the restaurant with a handgun. Another video showed a gunman firing from the roof of a nearby parking structure. There were also reports of shooting inside the mall.

At least 10 people were killed, including the gunman, police said.

In the initial confusion, there were reports of shootings at other locations in the city, but police said they appeared to be false alarms.

Residents described a ghostly silence in the normally bustling city center on Friday night, a time when pubs and restaurants are usually filled with people ringing in the start of the weekend.

In Washington, President Obama said the U.S. was ready to offer any assistance needed to investigate the attack.

Germany is one of our closest allies, he told reporters.

The incident was sure to provide fresh ammunition for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps claims that the world is facing a substantially greater risk of terrorism demanding an aggressive response.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in a tweet: We stand with our friends in Germany as they work to bring those responsible to justice.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and though authorities said they were investigating it as a terrorist attack, analysts pointed out that the bloodshed could have been an act of domestic violence inspired by anti-immigrant sentiment.

The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced a strong backlash for offering asylum to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Germany, many of them from war-torn Syria.

The latest wave of Islamist violence across Europe has provided ammunition to those who claim it is impossible to safely assimilate so many newcomers.

On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan man attacked passengers on a train with an ax and a knife near the German city of Wuerzburg before being shot and killed by police. No one died in that attack, though one passenger remains in critical condition.

The extremist group Islamic State group claimed responsibility, releasing a video in which the purported assailant describes himself as a soldier of the caliphate. But authorities have said the teen likely acted alone.

On July 14, 84 people were killed and more than 300 others injured when a 19-ton cargo truck was driven into a crowd along the waterfront in the southern France resort town of Nice.

Islamic State said one of its soldiers also carried out that attack. The driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was killed by police at the scene.

Merkels chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said authorities werent ruling out any possible motives for Fridays attack.

Theres no clarity so far. Id urge us all to wait for the investigation, Altmaier told the German public broadcaster, ARD. It was a despicable attack.

In the video showing a gunman on the roof of the parking garage, the assailant can be heard saying in flawless German: Im a German, just like you.

Youre a jerk, a voice is heard shouting at the gunman.

I"m fed up with it all, the gunman replies.

That led terrorism analyst Georg Mascolo to suggest that the attack may have been the work of a right-wing extremist. The shootings occurred on the fourth anniversary of the attack in Norway by Anders Behring Brevik that killed 77 people.

Brevik distributed a series of texts titled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, which among other things expressed opposition to Islam.

The mall is located near Munichs Olympic Stadium, in the citys northern Moosach district. The Olympic village was the scene of a terrorist attack during the 1972 games, when the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them.

Kirschbaum is a special correspondent who reported from Berlin. Zavis, a Times staff writer, reported from Los Angeles.

ALSO

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Brazilian police arrest 10 suspected of planning for terrorist attack around Olympics

French prosecutor says killer of 84 in Nice had accomplices and planned attack for months

UPDATES:

6:20 p.m.: The article was updated with police releasing additional details about the gunman.

4:45 p.m.: The article was updated with police saying the lone attacker appeared to have killed himself.

4:30 p.m.: The article was updated with additional details of the attack and with comments from President Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

2:50 p.m.: The article was updated throughout with staff reporting.

1:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with news of an increase in the death toll to eight and the discovery of another body that could be one of the attackers.

1:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with news about the anti-terror police arriving.

12:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

12:10 p.m.: This article has been updated with news that police are calling the attack suspected terrorism.

11:55 a.m.: This article has been updated with new details.

11:25 a.m.: This article has been updated with reports that six people were killed.

11 a.m.: This article has been updated with more information throughout.

10:45 a.m.: This article has been updated with news that police are looking for the shooter or shooters.

10:30 a.m.: This article has been updated with police urging people to avoid public places.

10:20 a.m.: This article has been updated with reports of deaths expected.

10 a.m.: This article was updated with reports that multiple people are injured.

This article was originally published at 9:45 a.m.
Column One Mother waits in vain to hear from detained son in Syria Opposition member Abdullah Suood had said he would rather die than return to government detention and torture. He has not been heard from in more than a year. By Raja Abdulrahim Reporting from Kafr Nabl, Syria

On the windowsill next to a photo of her four sons, Ahlam Suood kept her cellphone in the same spot, where the reception was best.

Throughout the day she would run to the phone, thinking she had heard it ring, worried she had missed a call.

"You can't even leave the phone, you keep checking it, maybe someone called," Suood said. "Any unknown number that rings, I call it back  maybe it's Abdullah."

She last saw her son Abdullah more than a year ago, when the 24-year-old university student was taken away by security forces.

The family was forced to flee their city of Maarat Numan in northern Syria's Idlib province late last year, and Suood stayed awake at night worrying that Abdullah would be released and then be unable to find her if he returned to the family home.

She refuses to even think about joining the growing exodus of Syrians who are leaving the war-torn country. Here, even in a town not her own, she feels closer to her son.

"I won't leave before Abdullah gets out," she said. "I'm not worth more than my children; I'm not worth more than Abdullah."

The Syrian civil war, now in its third year, has left more than 100,000 people dead, according to the most recent United Nations figures. About twice that number have disappeared inside government prisons or other security detention facilities where they languish in inhumane conditions, according to the opposition Syrian Network for Human Rights.

About 70,000 have not been heard from since they were taken, said the group's spokesman, Sami Ibrahim.

For families, the lack of information can foster hope that the detainee will eventually be released. On the other hand, the relatives may wait forever for closure.

Mothers like Suood live from one bit of news to the next.

Almost a year ago, a man was freed from prison and sent word to the family that Abdullah was alive and was expected to be released soon. Then, nothing. No release and no further news.

Syrians detained for taking part in antigovernment protests sit in a Damascus courtroom before their release last summer. (Bassem Tellawi, Associated Press)

Whenever Suood heard of a newly freed detainee in Idlib province, she would make the trip to congratulate the man and his family and inquire about her son. It is a largely futile practice repeated by other families desperate for any word of a loved one.

In late May, a rebel fighter contacted the Suood family and told them he had been with Abdullah in a Damascus intelligence compound known as the Palestine branch.

The fighter, released as part of a prisoner swap for government soldiers, said Abdullah was in relatively good health despite the difficult conditions. But even that bit of good news was laced with the ominous.

In the Palestine compound, the freed fighter said, prisoner executions had become regular occurrences. At times, he told them, the hallways flowed with blood.

But Suood's hope persists.

"You dream every day that tomorrow he's going to be released," she said, wringing her hands. "When my [other] sons come, I dream that it's going to be him ringing the doorbell."

When you first fall into the hands of the security forces, you don't know what your fate is or where your destiny lies. You know you can die in any way."  Abdulrahman Suood

Abdulrahman Suood can't remember his experience in government detention without thinking about his older brother Abdullah.

"When you first fall into the hands of the security forces, you don't know what your fate is or where your destiny lies," the 22-year-old said. "You know you can die in any way."

The brothers were crammed into 13-square-foot cells that held dozens of men. They were regularly beaten, but nothing was worse than the degradation, he said.

Once when Abdulrahman was undergoing a strip search and interrogation, a guard asked him where he was studying.

He said he was a mechanical engineering sophomore at Aleppo University, a public university.

"You're studying with us and you're coming out in protest against us," the guard said, and then spit on him.

Their days were filled with interrogations and waiting in rooms so crowded with detainees that they had to take turns sleeping.

"The wait is very hard. Every night I would pray that the next morning I would hear my name and I would be released," he said.

In April, Human Rights Watch visited state security and military intelligence facilities in Raqqah province, now under opposition control, where they found documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms and devices consistent with the torture former detainees have described.

A photo released by Human Rights Watch shows a torture device on the floor of a government security building in Raqqah, Syria. Rights activists visiting abandoned government prisons there say they have found evidence of detainee abuse. (Bryan Denton, Associated Press) (Bryan Denton / AP)

Since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011, the rights group has documented the systematic patterns of abuse and torture, which it says amount to crimes against humanity. The group has urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

The last time Abdulrahman saw his brother was on April 20, 2012, when they were taken out of their cells in Damascus to be interrogated.

When he was released after three months, Abdulrahman at first couldn't believe it. He still doesn't understand why he was let go and Abdullah wasn't.

"I can't forget what happened. I try not to think about it, but there are some things that you keep remembering," he said. "Abdullah doesn't leave my mind at all."

When Abdullah Suood was released after his first detainment, he vowed never to be taken alive again.

"Let them kill me rather than detain me," he would say.

Before the uprising began, Abdullah was one of many online activists trying to organize protests to emulate the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. He went to Aleppo three times in February 2011 for planned protests that never materialized.

On his fourth trip, just before demonstrations broke out across the country, Abdullah was arrested and held for two months, enduring what he described as regular beatings and electric shocks.

A Syrian man in Aleppo, released after being held by government forces, shows the marks of torture on his back. ((James Lawler Duggan, AFP/Getty Images) )

It was Abdullah who inspired his family to join the uprising. His father, a doctor, volunteers in the field hospital and two of his brothers work in Maarat Numan's media office. Ahlam Suood knits scarves and sweaters in the colors of the opposition flag.

"He wasn't afraid," Suood said of her son.

But his time in prison changed him.

He began carrying a handgun wherever he went in case he was caught again. He didn't plan to use it against the security forces, but to make them kill him once he brandished the gun.

But a twist of fate robbed him of the gun in February 2012.

Abdullah and Abdulrahman were on their way from their hometown to Aleppo to attend upcoming protests. They were halted on the highway by Bedouin thieves who took the gun, their money and their cellphones.

After the robbery, the brothers continued to Aleppo. At a gas station there, they were stopped by security officers.

In his pocket, Abdullah had a list of activists and the phone number for Col. Riad Assad, then head of the rebel Free Syrian Army. Abdullah was accused of being an opposition coordinator, a media activist and a source for Al Jazeera news channel, viewed as pro-opposition.

From there he disappeared into the labyrinth that frightened him more than death.

Contact the reporter

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The court-martial of an Israeli soldier charged with manslaughter in the death of a Palestinian assailant in March has transfixed much of the nation, fueling a wider debate on how to handle a recent wave of violence.

Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Elor Azaria is on trial for the March 24 fatal shooting of Abdel Fattah Sharif in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Sharif had participated in a stabbing attack on Israeli troops and was wounded when troops shot at him and another assailant, who was killed, according to officials. Video published by an Israeli human rights watchdog shows Azaria cocking his gun, walking toward Sharif, who was lying on the ground alive, and shooting him in the head.

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Azaria told military police he thought Sharif could reach the knife he had used earlier. He also said he thought Sharif could have been carrying an explosive, Azarias lawyers said.

The military prosecutor, Nadav Weisman, has called a series of military commanders who have testified in recent weeks that there was no justification for Azaria to open fire.

Palestinians and human rights groups have said Azaria carried out a summary execution.

At Sharifs funeral in May, his father, Yusri, said that he didnt believe the trial would do justice for his son and that the court-martial was aimed at mollifying international public opinion, according to Palestinian and Israeli reports. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat asked the United Nations for a formal investigation into the killing.

BTselem, the Israeli rights group that published the video, alleged in a June statement that there is a shoot to kill policy among the Israeli military and police in responding to the attacks.

These cases are hardly ever investigated, the organization said. The case of Sgt. Azaria is the one exception.

But the case has also resulted in a rare rift between the military  the countrys most trusted public institution  and large parts of the Israeli public who sympathize with Azaria. The fallout has shaken up Israeli politics by undermining support for former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who backed the army top brass and criticized Azaria before being dismissed from the post in May.

The trial reflects an ongoing challenge for authorities about how to respond to a wave of knife attacks, shootings and car rammings that have left dozens of Israelis dead as well as hundreds of Palestinians, many of them suspected of carrying out attacks.

Some Israelis have said attackers should be killed rather than arrested as a means of deterrence, but the army chief of staff has stressed that lethal force should only be used in life-threatening situations. Many Israelis side with Azaria even though they think he was wrong to shoot.

Some Israelis say: at the end of the day, he killed a terrorist, said Mitchell Barak, an Israeli American public opinion expert. Maybe he shouldnt have [shot at Sharif]  but we shouldnt throw him in jail.

Signs of the trials incendiary fallout came with the first witnesses for the prosecution in mid-June, when Azarias company commander testified that the medic told him shortly after he opened fire that Sharif deserved to die. The officer was subsequently inundated with threats over social media, prompting the court to enforce a press gag order on the identities of junior ranking prosecution witnesses during the trial to protect them from harassment.

While Azaria, who is expected to testify Sunday and Monday, has remained silent during the trial, his family has made some emotional appeals on his behalf. In an impromptu conversation with courtroom reporters this month caught on video, Azarias father, Charlie Azaria, lashed out at the military prosecution.

They want to throw him into jail, the father said during a break in the trial proceedings. For this we sent our son to serve?

A few days later, in a video appeal on a crowdfunding website, Azarias parents made a public appeal for assistance with financing the trial.

Today its my son. Tomorrow it could be your son, or grandson or your great-grandchild, the father said.

Within hours, the crowdfunding effort raised $150,000 in pledges, exceeding its goal by 50%.

Kobi Sudri, a private defense attorney and a former military police investigator, said the defense strategy is to demonstrate that  even though Azarias commanders testified that there was no threat posed by Sharif  that it was possible for Azaria to honestly perceive a threat that justified opening fire.

The most important evidence in the trial will be Azarias testimony. The question is whether the judges will believe him, Sudri said.

There is a feeling among some Israelis that the militarys top brass and the former defense minister rushed to accuse Azaria, and prejudiced the trial, said Ben Dror Yemini, a columnist for Israelis Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Yemini said that while many Israeli liberals have decried the support Azaria has gotten from the public as a sign of eroding democratic values, the trial signals the opposite.

Israel is becoming much better [because] we have such a scandal, he said. Twenty years ago, no one would have taken him to court.

Mitnick is a special correspondent.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
Proposals to impose martial law in Ukraine have come too late, Ukrainian parliamentarian (Batkivschyna Party) Nadiia Savchenko said.

"It is too late to impose martial law now, this should have been done in 2014, in Crimea," she said on the Channel 5 television on Thursday.

She expressed her surprise at the fact that people only now started talking of a possible imposition of martial law. "Why now? For two years no martial law was introduced, there was simply the war, blood was shed. Why do we want to introduce martial law now? For what? For everything in the country to stop simultaneously? For no more political activity? For people not to be able to take to Maidan? For the press to stop working? Because martial law prohibits everything," Savchenko said.

On July 19, National Security and Defense Council Secretary (NSDC) Oleksandr Turchynov said the NSDC would consider imposing martial law if the situation in the country's east continues to aggravate.

That is a possibility due to "systemic suffocation" of the situation in eastern Ukraine, he said.
According to a new Cedatos-Gallup poll released on 21 July two-thirds (66%) of Ecuadoreans think that the country is on the wrong path, while three-quarters (75%) want economic policy changes.

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Donbas militants conducted 66 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters has said in a report posted on Facebook.

Thirty shelling incidents were observed in the Donetsk sector. The town of Avdiyivka came under attack of 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers, large-caliber machine-guns, and small arms. Novoselivka Druha was bombarded by 120mm and 82mm mortars. Ukrainian army positions near Mayorsk, Verkhniotoretske, Opytne and Pisky were attacked by 82mm mortars, and grenade launchers, large-caliber machine-guns and small arms were used in Luhanske and Nevelske. Also, large-caliber machine-guns were fired near Troyitske, the report said.

The militants mounted 26 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in the Mariupol sector, it said. A stronghold in Maryinka was attacked by a group of ten saboteurs. The village of Shyrokyne, which is close to the Ukrainian-controlled strategic port city of Mariupol came under fire of 120mm mortars, 82mm mortars and grenade launchers were used in Krasnohorivka and Maryinka, large-caliber machine-guns were fired in Vodiane and Novohryhorivka, and an infantry combat vehicle was engaged near Talakivka.

Ten attacks on Ukrainian army positions were observed in the Luhansk region; Stanytsia Luhanska was shelled by 82mm mortars, grenade launchers and large-caliber machine-guns, small arms were used near Syze and chaotic gunfire was reported from Novozvanivka, Novo-Oleksandrivka and Popasna, the report said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree in accordance with which a military parade will be held in central Kyiv to mark the 25th anniversary of Independence Day.

"I decree holding a military parade on Khreschatytk Street and the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv on August 24, 2016, to mark the 25th anniversary of Ukrainian Independence Day," the document said.

Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has been tasked with preparations for the event.

Further, the president instructed the government to allocate funds for the preparation of the parade.

The State TV and Radio Broadcasting Committee will be in charge of broadcasting the event.

The order is due to become effective on the day of its publication.

As Interfax-Ukraine learnt from its sources, military hardware from the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine will not be engaged in the parade. Only military equipment located in Kyiv region and in nearby areas will take part in the event.

In 2014, on its 23rd independence, Ukraine staged a military parade in Kyiv with the participation of Ukrainian servicemen and military hardware. Koguar armored personnel carriers (APCs) of Kremenchuk KrAZ Automobile Plant, Ukrainian BTR 3E, BTR 4E APCs designed by Kharkiv-based Malyshev plant, prototypes of Igla MANPADs, anti-tank guns, Smerch rocket-propelled multiple rocket launchers, Osa anti-aircraft missile systems were showcased during that year's parade. After which, the equipment was sent to the ATO zone.

In 2015, Kyiv's Independence Square was the stage for a march of 2,300 ATO military personnel, officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military and law enforcement units, cadets of military universities from different regions of the country. No military equipment was displayed. The country's leaders said all military equipment was engaged in the ATO zone in Donbas.
The farewell ceremony for slain journalist Pavel Sheremet ended in the Ukrainian House in central Kyiv, an Interfax-Ukraine) correspondent reported.

The journalist will be buried in Minsk's Northern Cemetery on Saturday, July 23.

The ceremony was attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, presidential administration chief Borys Lozhkin, government officials, and parliamentarians.

Pavel Sheremet died as a car he was driving was blown up in central Kyiv at 07:45 a.m. on July 20, when the journalist was on his way to work. According to media reports, the car belonged to Olena Prytula, the founding editor of the Ukrainska Pravda online publication, but she was not in the car at the time of the explosion.
President's Special Envoy on children's rights Mykola Kuleba has taken part in the roundtable meeting, entitled "Human Rights Dialogue," in the framework of cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union, which purpose was to discuss the current state of human rights in Ukraine, including children's rights observance in conditions of military conflict in Donbas.

"Consequences of the armed conflict include the loss of parents for many children, psychological trauma, stress, divorce, relocation and broken relationships with friends. Now every third child needs psychological help. At the same time, about 600,000 children continue residing on the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Unfortunately, quite often these children are victims of manipulation, drawn into military actions that is contrary to the laws and moral principles," the press service of the Ukrainian president quotes Kuleba.

According to the report, Kuleba informed his companions that there is no aggregate picture of children's rights violations on the temporarily occupied territories, but the media and independent experts give some examples of the use of children as "human shields," creation of camps where children are trained to handle weapons, the use of children for intelligence gathering or checkpoint protection.

The envoy also noted that Ukraine is a party to the UN Convention on the chidren's rights and the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on children's rights in the armed conflict. In accordance with Article 4 of the above mentioned Optional Protocol, the recruitment or usage of persons under the age of 18 in hostilities is strictly prohibited. This rule is also implemented in the national legislation of Ukraine. In particular, the Law of Ukraine "On Protection of Childhood" stipulates that the participation of children in hostilities and armed conflicts, children's involvement or military entanglement or war propaganda are banned.

At the same time, there are no real mechanisms for bringing to justice decision-makers that involve juveniles into participation of illegal military formations, the statement of Ukrainian president press service reads.

The situation with the "open" borders in Ukraine through which undocumented children are exported to the Russian Federation is of particular concern. "We are talking about children who are taken outside Ukraine by one of the parents (a mother or a father) without the knowledge and consent of the other parent. Such acts are qualified as the international kidnapping of children. It is very difficult in Ukraine to find and return such children," Kuleba said.

Kuleba also drew attention to the illegality of the decision of self-proclaimed authorities of temporarily occupied territories on the adoption of children, taking them away from their parents, giving up children to be raised under the foster care, custody by other persons, deprivation of parental rights, etc.

As emphasized in the report, on the temporarily occupied territories there have been instances of major violations of Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of children's rights protection and the basic principles of the UN Convention on the children's rights, in particular, the child's right to life, health and free development, Kuleba summerized.

The prospects of Ukraine's accession to the Rome Statute as a mechanism to bring to justice perpetrators of war crimes in eastern Ukraine including against children and women were discussed at the meeting..

Representatives of the European Union delegation noted that international organizations will continue contributing to Ukraine in complex issues settlement of the humanitarian mission.
A Bethlehem man is accused of pointing a gun after a fight early Friday on the city's South Side and threatening to shoot the other combatant, according to court records.

Bethlehem police say they arrested a 38-year-old city man early Friday, July 22, 2016, on South Side on multiple charges, including two felonies related to firearms. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Jamie Centeno Jr., 38, of the 500 block of East Fourth Street, allegedly then drove off as city police approached his car, and is also charged with drunken driving.

Centeno is prohibited from possessing a firearm due to a 1999 conviction for escape in Lehigh County, records say. While being held at the Bethlehem Police Department, he allegedly damaged a $40 set of handcuffs.

He was arraigned before on-call District Judge Douglas Schlegel and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail.

An officer on patrol about 2 a.m. in the area of Molly's Bar, 4 E. Fourth St., was approached by a 33-year-old man who said he'd been fighting with Centeno before Centeno brandished a firearm, aimed it and threatened to shoot him, according to police.

Police followed the direction the gunman was said to have fled and saw two males getting into a green 2002 Toyota Corolla that quickly left a parking lot, records say.

The driver ran a stop sign onto East Fourth Street then turned south into an alley in the 500 block of East Fourth Street, where police stopped the car, records say.

Police said they found a loaded Springfield 9mm handgun in the waistband of the passenger, who had a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm. In the glove box of Centeno's car, police found a second loaded 9mm handgun, a Hi Point.

Centeno, whose license was suspended, submitted to a breath test that showed he'd been drinking alcohol, police said.

He was found to have been drinking a 16-ounce Miller Lite, and plainly visible in the car were a marijuana joint and device used to grind up marijuana, police said.

He is charged with two felonies, prohibited possession of a firearm and carrying a firearm without a license; in addition to misdemeanor terroristic threats, simple assault, disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment, drunken driving, possession of a small amount of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia; and summary counts for an alcohol violation, driving under suspension and criminal mischief.

He faces a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled Aug. 4 before District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez.

No one else was immediately charged in the incident.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Liquor store burglary nets $4,200, Lower Saucon police say

The Pennsylvania Wine & Spirts store at 1848 Leithsville Road (Route 412) is open for business Feb. 26, 2016, after the theft of more than $4,200 was discovered Feb. 22. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com)

The manager of a Pennsylvania Wine & Spirits store in Lower Saucon Township is headed for trial for allegedly stealing more than $4,200 from the state-owned business.

Leon W. Lafevre, 53, of Easton, waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday, sending charges of theft and receiving stolen property to Northampton County Court. He'll face trial unless a plea is entered or the case is disposed of in another way.

Township police say Lafevre admitted to them to stealing the money to support his heroin addiction, according to pennlive.com, citing reporting by The Morning Call.

Lafevre is representing himself in the case. He could not be reached for comment because no phone number could be found for him.

Township police said an investigation into an apparent burglary revealed Lafevre stole the money from the 1848 Leithsville Road store he managed between closing time Saturday, Feb. 20, and the reopening for business Monday, Feb. 22.

The next step in the case is a formal arraignment scheduled Sept. 29 in county court in Easton.

Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board officials were said to be evaluating Lafevre's job status at the time of his arrest last month.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he regrets a decision taken by the Polish Sejm to designate the killing of Poles in Volyn in 1943 as genocide and warns against further political speculations about this.

"I regret the Polish Sejm's decision. I know many would like to use it for political speculation," he wrote on Facebook on Friday.

He also called on Poland for mutual forgiveness and joint evaluation of the tragic events.

"We should go back to the commandment of John Paul II  let us forgive and ask forgiveness! Only by tanking joint steps, we can achieve Christian reconciliation and unity. Only together we can find out all the facts of the tragic pages of the common history," he wrote.

Poroshenko also says he is confident Ukraine and Poland will continue to "move along this path."

On July 22 the Polish Sejm adopted a resolution to make July 11 as National Day of Remembrance for the victims of the genocide committed against the citizens of the 2nd Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during World War II.

The Volyn tragedy was the mutual ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians and Poles, committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Polish Army with the participation of a Polish Schutzmannschaft battalion and Soviet partisans in Volyn in 1943 during WWII.
Four law enforcement officers testified Friday about four occasions when Quadir Taylor discussed his participation in the murder of Carrie Smith.

The 29-year-old Easton man discussed it in the car after he was picked up, in a recorded interview in the Somerset County Jail, in the car on the way to Northampton County and in a recorded interview in Northampton County Prison, the officers said.

The 76-year-old Wilson Borough woman died after a robbery at her home.

"She was old. She was going to die anyway," Taylor is alleged to have told New Jersey State Police Detective Justin Blackwell after he was picked up for the murder on Sept. 18, 2015.

"We didn't mean to kill her," he's alleged to have said, adding the robbers tied her up to scare her, not kill her.

Taylor denies making any incriminating statements to Blackwell after his arrest or during the car ride to Northampton County. He claimed Friday he was tricked into making the recorded statements without talking to an attorney.

Smith's home was robbed Jan. 15, 2012, and she died about two months later as a result of complications due to the heart attack.

Smith's granddaughter, Rebecca Johnson, recruited Taylor and Rogel "Roger" Suero, her ex-boyfriend, to rob Smith, authorities said. Johnson and Suero were each convicted of murder and each is serving life in prison.

The getaway driver, David Bechtold, was sentenced to one to two years in prison.

Taylor evaded charges until Johnson told police in 2014 about his participation. Police said the group planned to use the $35,000 in cash and $18,000 worth of jewelry they took to finance a massive marijuana purchase in Colorado.

Northampton County Detective Robert Righi testified Friday Taylor told him in Northampton County Prison he used his cut of the robbery proceeds to buy boots and coats for his children and to pay his rent.

During the recorded interviews, police explained point by point that Taylor had no obligation to speak and that his words could be used against him in court. Taylor claimed he went along with the first interview because Northampton County Detective John Casciano told him he didn't need a lawyer before he turned on the recording device.

Casciano said he spoke to Taylor for 30 seconds to a minute before the recording started, just to introduce himself. Everything else he said was on the recording, he said.

Taylor claimed he agreed to the second recorded interview because he was told Assistant District Attorney Patricia Fuentes Mulqueen was "the only person who could help him." He said he made a statement because he was scared and in fact wanted to talk to a lawyer.

He said he muttered to himself during the car rides, but that was it.

"I didn't make no statement in no car," he said.

Blackwell described Taylor as "jovial," and said he kept talking during his car rides even when police insisted that he keep quiet.

Northampton County Judge Paula Roscioli will decide whether Taylor's statements can be used against him at his trial.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Police work is an inherently dangerous job.

From cruiser car crashes to domestic disputes gone wrong, officers are often put at risk.

A year ago, there was great concern over the "militarization" of police.

But after the murders in Dallas and Baton Rouge, where men with military training targeted and gunned down officers, the sight of a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle on the streets of Louisiana didn't create a huge outcry.

Easton police Capt. Scott Casterline says proper equipment can protect both police and the public. (Tim Wynkoop | lehighvalleylive.com contributor)

Because, Easton police Capt. Scott Casterline said, it is a police vehicle designed for police work.

Is it armored? Yes. The same type of vehicle in February 2015 allowed Easton police to get close enough to a barricaded man in Palmer Township to both contain the situation and allow for constant communication, police said.

And when a woman across the street needed to get out of her home and to a doctor's office, the vehicle was used to protect her while she was in the man's line of fire, police said.

"The things we're seeing take place we know have always been a threat," Casterline said earlier this week. "It's why we always asked for equipment."

The equipment is protective, he said. And as Allentown police Capt. Bill Lake points out, his department is not buying from the Army.

"The gear that we have here is not military," Lake said. "We get it purposed through police vendors.

"This equipment we do utilize in light of recent events is of value to the police and the public."

Properly trained police "with proper police guidelines" can use a vehicle such as a BeatCat to keep police and the public safe, Casterline said.

The value has played out in recent months, Casterline said.

They provide "hard cover" against "great weapons," he said.

When the attacks on police and Texas are broken down, it's not just that the shooters had assault weapons, but that they had military training to use them, Casterline said.

"Any tool out there to keep officers safe, it should merit use," Casterline said. "I felt strongly about it year ago, and I feel strongly about it today."

The effort must always be balanced with the public's needs and concerns, Casterline said. And regular training is a must to ensure tools and tactics are used in the ways intended.

"We have simple tools available," he said. "It would be foolish not to use them effectively."

But, in the wake of the killings of law enforcement officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, will police need to do things differently to avoid ambush?

"Do we have to look at tactics and how we respond, sure we do," Casterline said, not wanting to go into specifics.

"It's impossible to take all the danger out of police work," he added. "There are certain inherent risks in the job."

Phony 911 calls -- as likely used in Louisiana -- are known distractions, Casterline said. They've been used as a "distraction to divert police when crime is taking place somewhere else."

"Police officers are human beings," Casterline said. "They see things like this. It does heighten senses when going on certain calls."

Sometimes preparation is as simple as spending a few minutes with officers before they hit the streets.

"After the incident in Dallas, we had officers waking up 4, 4:30 in morning and they were just seeing news," he said. "They had no time to digest it, just putting on a uniform and going out on street at 6 a.m. We talked to them, reminded them we have a lot of support out there.

"Be safe, be vigilant, but be mindful, the vast majority do support us."

The killings of officers -- as well as the deaths of unarmed people in custody -- gives the impression of a society out of control.

But we're not there yet, Casterline said.

"A total breakdown of respect for authority -- when things have degraded to that point -- the bigger danger is that we've gotten to that level in general," he said.

A "tremendous overreaction" must be avoided by police, Casterline said, repeating that most people support officers in their efforts to keep a community safe.

Anything that threatens officers will remain on the training agenda and evolve as necessary, Casterline said.

"We always discuss upcoming training as we prepare the lesson plan," he said. "We will be addressing this type of situation" where responding officers find themselves ambushed.

"We're going to give our supervisors the ability to make certain decisions as we go, safety-wise," Casterline said.

As with any time the landscape changes in police work, Easton's police leaders are considering what changes must be made to keep officers and the public safe.

"I don't think anyone in police work doesn't have concerns about what they're seeing out there," Casterline said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Federal charges involve lucrative Pennsylvania treasury fees

Then-Pennsylvania State Treasurer, Republican Barbara Hafer waves as she addresses a campaign rally for then-Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell in Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, 2002. (AP file photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Federal prosecutors announced charges Thursday against former Pennsylvania Treasurer Barbara Hafer and a businessman in cases that revolved around lucrative contracts state officials award to invest billions of taxpayer dollars.

The U.S. attorney's office in Harrisburg said the charges against Hafer and Richard W. Ireland, a man who shared in millions of dollars in fees from the Treasury Department, stemmed from pay-to-play investigations. The office already nabbed another former state treasurer, Rob McCord, who resigned from office and pleaded guilty last year.

Hafer, 72, a two-term elected state treasurer, was charged with two counts of making false statements to federal agents in a May interview to conceal payments of $500,000 from a businessman's firm, prosecutors said.

Former State Treasurer Barbara Hafer Charged with Concealing Receipt of Over $500,000 in Consulting Fee Payments:... https://t.co/I7YyL3cvpt  FBI Philadelphia (@FBIPhiladelphia) July 22, 2016

The businessman shared in fees charged by private asset managers contracted by the Treasury Department while Hafer was in office. Prosecutors said the payments began within weeks of Hafer leaving office in 2005, when she was working as a consultant, and did not require her to achieve any particular result.

The nine-page indictment does not say, however, whether Hafer did anything wrong while in office. Hafer also served two terms as Pennsylvania's elected auditor general and was the failed Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1990.

Prosecutors declined to say whether the unidentified businessman is Ireland. However, Ireland had contributed previously to Hafer's campaign, and his firm's clients had received bigger sums to manage under her.

The U.S. attorney's office separately announced Thursday it had charged Ireland with 79 counts, including money laundering-related charges, in what it described as an effort to bribe McCord with over $500,000 in secret campaign contributions between 2009 and 2014.

"These secret campaign contributions were given in exchange for McCord's official decisions to continue to invest in businesses affiliated with Ireland," prosecutors said in a statement.

Hafer's lawyers declined comment Thursday. A lawyer for McCord did not return a call seeking comment.

The specifics of what McCord actually did in exchange, if anything, were unclear.

Prosecutors said Ireland and "unindicted coconspirators" sought to enrich themselves through asset management contracts at the treasury and the State Employees Retirement System, a massive pension fund on whose board McCord sat.

McCord, a Democrat, resigned from the treasurer's office last year before pleading guilty to two counts of attempted extortion, admitting he tried to use his position to strong-arm state contractors into donating money to his failed gubernatorial campaign in 2014.

The indictment said Ireland, 79, operated a bribery and kickback scheme by funneling campaign contributions through relatives, employees and charities to help McCord get elected treasurer, win re-election and run for governor.

As one example, Ireland allegedly gave $20,000 bonuses in October 2009 to three family members and two employees. That same month, they each donated $20,000 to a single charity, and Ireland then directed an official with the unnamed charity to give McCord's campaign committee $100,000, prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutors say Ireland and his related firms earned over $10 million in fees during the period of the alleged scheme.

Ireland's lawyer, Joshua Lock, said the charges are based on half-truths, distortions and innuendoes, and predicted that Ireland would be vindicated.

Even before 2009, Ireland and his partner in VFIM Corp., Brian G. McElwee, were generous campaign donors. The two businessmen gave more than $1 million combined to Democratic and Republican groups, PACs and candidates in the decade prior, according to state and federal records.

Hotel ventures in which they were involved donated more than $30,000 to McCord in 2008.

Ireland and McElwee showered Hafer with more than $475,000 in campaign contributions, making her their largest single beneficiary, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Assets under management by clients of Ireland's Valley Forge-based firm rose under Hafer, before peaking at above $2.5 billion at the beginning of 2008, according to treasury data.

Between 2001 and 2008, those firms had collected nearly $50 million in fees from the state, according to the Treasury Department.

In 2008, then-Treasurer Robin Wiessmann slashed those holdings to under $400 million. At the time, she called it a broader reallocation driven by financial considerations, not politics, to move money into lower-cost, more liquid investment vehicles.

Wiessmann is now Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's secretary of the Department of Banking and Securities.

In a statement, Treasurer Tim Reese, who was nominated by Wolf to replace McCord, said the indictments did not allege the improper use or mismanagement treasury funds.

All proposals by investment managers undergo an independent analysis and due diligence review "with no regard to political considerations," Reese said.
$2,300 record player? Legal claims follow electrical damage in home

Charles Hentz, of Upper Mount Bethel Township, holds damaged electrical components Friday, July 22, 2016, outside Senior District Judge Sherwood Grigg's office in Bangor, following a hearing on claims for damages Hertz blames on a Met-Ed malfunction. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com)

A Northampton County district judge will decide how much money, if any, Met-Ed owes to a resident who claims an electrical malfunction damaged his property in April.

A hearing Friday morning delved into how the Upper Mount Bethel Township resident, Charles Hentz, arrived at the $6,754 figure he seeks from Met-Ed.

Senior District Judge Sherwood Grigg took only brief testimony on how the problem occurred, but said he would render his decision after receiving written closing arguments due to him by July 29.

Hentz says Met-Ed had offered $4,754 to settle his civil complaint, with a contract saying the FirstEnergy utility subsidiary was not admitting liability. Hentz rejected the settlement, electing for a hearing in the bid for the full value of the damages he claims.

Hentz's electrician, Craig Newton, testified Friday that what Hentz experienced about 9 p.m. on April 29 was an over-voltage, caused by the loss of a neutral line between a transmission line and the home's circuit breaker.

Met-Ed responded that night, Hentz testified, and had power restored within minutes. But when Hentz turned his breaker back on, he found damage to the controls for his heating systems and hot-water heater, along with numerous appliances and electronics.

Grigg on Friday repeatedly stated time was limited for the hearing, which lasted about 90 minutes, as parties in other cases began to fill the lobby of his Bangor courtroom.

John Muir, attorney for Met-Ed, questioned the values Hentz attached to some items, including a $2,289 Technics SL-1210Mk5 turntable for playing records. Muir produced an eBay listing showing a Technics record player for $99, and noted Hentz was attaching 2016 prices to appliances, such as the turntable, that were at least a decade old.

Grigg wasn't having the objection.

"We're not going to go through every place on the Internet were you can buy these things," the 47-year judge said.

Hentz, a retired Northampton County sheriff's officer now working as a firearms instructor, said outside of court he fears that had he not been home that April evening, his Ridge Road home built in 2005 may have burned to the ground. The incident unfolded as he and his wife sat talking at his kitchen counter about church business, when the power went off for a few seconds.

"The electricity came on, only it came on like crazy," Hentz testified.

Light bulbs glowed blue, and a haze and burning odor filled the room that houses the home's circuit breaker and heating units, according to Hentz. Circuit boards in the heaters' control panels were "fried," he said.

"They looked like hamburger that had been left on the grill until it became crispy," Hentz testified.

Charles Hentz points to damage to a circuit board from a pellet stove control panel on Friday, July 22, 2016, outside Senior District Judge Sherwood Grigg's office in Bangor, following a hearing on claims for property damage Hertz blames on a Met-Ed malfunction. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Newton, Hentz's electrician, testified he charged Hentz $678 for labor to repair damage, including installing new control panels and other equipment Hentz purchased on his own. Hentz also seeks $275 for his time and fuel spent finding and purchasing the replacement parts purchased to date.

He has yet to buy the turntable and a Sony seven-channel, surround-sound and video receiver valued at $800, he testified.

Hentz is represented in the case by attorney Jill Mancini, who asked Grigg to delay Friday's hearing, saying she was unaware it would be held due to a miscommunication. Grigg pressed on, given that Muir and an assistant had driven to Bangor from Reading and that Hentz and Newton were ready to proceed.

Hentz said he also filed a complaint over the damage with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and that a hearing is scheduled.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Hackettstown police are seeking information on a man they say broke into Hatchery Hill School between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The man had dark hair and was wearing glasses, a red shirt and blue jeans, police said. He was carrying a backpack and riding a bicycle, police said.

He entered the school at 398 Fifth Ave. through a hatch on the roof, police said. A motion alarm was activated and the man left through the rear door, police said.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious or who has other information can call police at 908-852-3302 or text TIP HACKPD followed by the message to 888-777, police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Laois-born journalist has won a national award for an investigation into jury service in courts.

Sean Dunne, a news reporter with the Irish Daily Mail, won the Law Society of Ireland Justice Media Award.

Sean, is a son of Edward and Elizabeth Dunne, and brother of Edward from Clonaghadoo. He is a former pupil of Clonaghadoo NS and Clonaslee Vocational School.

Sean's report led to a tightening on the rules of jury service after he discovered that 10,000 had avoided serving as jurors in court cases in a single year. New rules mean that no-show jurors will be passed along to gardai.

The award citation said that the story revealed an impressive use of the Freedom of Information laws.

This article outlined in a clear and concise way the laws and rules governing this element of civic duty, the impact of failing to fulfil that important duty, and the measures to be taken to address the problem. This article has very broad public interest and the journalist is to be commended for examining the issue so thoroughly and appropriately.

Sean has a masters in Journalism from NUI Galway and a degree in new media from the University of Limerick.
You drive over them every day without even noticing or considering their legacy.

They are absolutely vital to the economic well being of the county and its inhabitants, and yet they are entirely taken for granted, until one of them fails.

Kildare has two of Irelands major rivers (Liffey and Barrow), both of its canal systems, three major motorways and two rail lines running through it. Occasionally two or more of these can be side by side, or in close proximity, especially in the urban areas they were built to serve.

All of these are barriers cannot be intersected. You must either go over or under them, and they leave the county looking like a badly sliced up pizza, challenging town planners, developers and road builders alike.

Without our bridges, Kildare doesnt work.

Back in August of last year a wall on what is known as the oldest bridge over the Liffey was damaged, leaving the village of Caragh cut off from Naas and the motorway, both of which were only five minutes away.

If you dont think that bridges matter, then consider the effect it has had on Caragh, one of many urban centres in the county which exist precisely because of their proximity to an important bridge.

Businesses in the village are wondering about their ability to survive without passing traffic.

On the flip side, parents say it is a safer place for their children. Some children are now walking to school, where before they were never permitted to do so.

A friend who lives there tells me that with the road being less of a rat run and more like a local cul de sac, the atmosphere in the village has changed with people walking more, using their cars less and generally being more relaxed and less stressed.

Not only was the bridge useful, it also defined the nature of the place. Caragh used to be a place you go through on to the way to somewhere, and now its somewhere you go around unless you want to specifically visit the place.

Newbridge, for instance, is effectively a peninsula, and defined by that. Unless you enter the town from the Curragh on the western end, you must cross either the railway on the northern side, the Liffey to the east or the M7 motorway to the south.

A shortage of bridges over the river and to a lesser extent the motorway and railway have conspired to keep traffic unnaturally clogged in the town.

Newbridge is particularly significant because it is a name that can be dated to the construction of a bridge in a relatively modern time - there was a wooden bridge (over the Liffey) built there in the late 17th century and a stone one in the late 18th century, said the Leinster Leaders historian Liam Kenny.

Its a direct co-relation between bridge and placename; there would be no Newbridge had not one or the other of those bridges been built.

Monasterevin isnt much different, with the railway, the Barrow, the canal and the motorway all conspiring to squeeze the town into a small corner.

Monasterevin folk say that there is a point in the town where you can see twelve different bridges at the same time - rail over Barrow, rail over canal, rail over road, lifting road bridge over canal, aqueduct canal over Barrow, "blind bridge" - once carried road over canal but long filled in, road over Barrow, and a handful of road over canal bridges, Liam noted.

While a broken bridge might cause inconvenience in some places, if anything happened to the canal bridge in the village of Ticknevin near Derrinturn, the entire community would be cut off, forced to choose between a barely passable dirt track on their side of the canal bank, or striking out on foot across farm and bog land to Lullymore.

Of course, its only when something goes wrong that we are forced to consider how much we depend on the bridges - more to the point, how much we depend on stone structures that were built before concrete was invented.

The bridge in Caragh was built in the 1600s, although obviously works has been carried out on it since then.

Last Friday, at a municipal district meeting, former TD and county councillor Sean Power asked council staff who had responsibility for the integrity of the structures and how often surveys are carried out to determine same.

Waterways Ireland looks after canal bridges, Irish Rail looks after the railway ones and the river, road and motorway bridges are taken care of by a mixture of the council and the National Roads Authority.

The canal bridges were all built, along with the rest of the canal, across the mid to late 1700s, for horses and carts, and as is the case in Ardclough, only just about wide enough for a cart.

I used always marvel too at the idea of a canal bridge built at the time when the heaviest traffic was a horse drawn cart load of hay being now able, two centuries later, to withstand gigantic loads such as a ready-mix concrete truck, said Liam Kenny.

That said, he noted that well built arch bridges built by the Romans in parts of continental Europe in 500BC are still intact.

Also, not to get too technical but it is probably fair to say that the multi-wheeled pneumatic tire vehicle probably distributes the weight better across the structure than the narrow iron rimmed wheels of a cart, but their longevity is still bloody impressive.

In a discussion I had once with a senior council official, he admitted that should all the canal bridges reach their sell by date in the coming decade and start to fall, the cost of replacing them would easily exceed a billion euro.

It was a vista, he admitted, hed prefer not to think about.

Not only are they a lasting legacy, those bridges are a vital one
Some heavy weapons have yet to be withdrawn from Donbas conflict zone

Conflicting sides in eastern Ukraine have yet to withdraw some of their heavy weapons from the contact line, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Alexander Hug said.

He told a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday the monitors saw eight Grad rocket launchers in Kyiv-held territories and eleven weapons of the kind in militant-held territories on Tuesday.

The situation in the conflict zone remains complicated, and the number of ceasefire violations has grown, Hug said.

He regretted that violence escalated in the region over the past week. The number of ceasefire violations grew by 25% this week, and the OSCE SMM stated that most gunfire exchanges happened during the night, he said.

Hug also said that the activity of monitors was still being impeded.

The freedom of their movement is much more limited in militant-held territories than in areas controlled by Ukraine, Hug said, adding that the monitors were recording every case of this type in their reports.

He also said that the present-day OSCE SMM consisted of 700 monitors, including 592 working in eastern Ukraine.
One of the great things that Liberal Democrats ensured was that children would no longer be detained for immigration purposes. Instead, a pre-departure facility for families, Cedars, was set up with advice and support from Barnardos.

When we left Government, I feared it would be a matter of time before this excellent facility was closed.

And so, amid the flurry of announcements put out by the Government on the last day before the Summer recess, the news came yesterday. Cedars was being closed and families with children will once again be held in a detention centre Tinsley House.

Unsurprisngly, Liberal Democrats have reacted with horror.

Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said:

Cedars was a civilised way of dealing with some of the most vulnerable young people in our care. Ending the detention of children in lock-down institutions was something that the Liberal Democrats forced Theresa May as Home Secretary to do against her will. Now there are no restraints on her, she will indulge the more callous instincts of her party. Having Tories in government is a bit like sharing your home with a cat. You may think that you have a domestic pet but the feral animal is never far beneath the surface.

He also sought assurances that families in Scotland would not be held in the Dungavel facility:

One of the first things that Lib Dems in government forced the then Home Secretary Theresa May to do was end the detention of children for immigration purposes. Days after coming to power she has thrown away years of progress. What this decision means in practice is a return to situation where young children will find themselves in detention centres surrounded by razor wire and guards. This is a huge step backwards. Previously, we had seen some children locked up at Dungavel for more than a year and there were damning reports on the level of educational support provided to children at the site. The last thing we need is a return to a situation where young people in the immigration system are treated like cattle, not children. The Prime Minister needs to scrap her plans to close Cedars and we need urgent assurances that this inhumane decision will not open the door to a return to child detention at Dungavel.

Liberal Democrat Seekers of Sanctuary Chair, Suzanne Fletcher, who visited Cedars as part of an Independent Monitoring Board during the Coalition years, talked about how it provided calm for children at a really stressful time:

Cedars provided an oasis with care and calm at a very traumatic time for those families with children who very sadly were being sent against their will back to their country of origin. Children should never have to be behind the locked doors of a detention centre, and our Government should be ashamed of such a backward step.

Dr Gemma Stockford, an LD4SOS member who is chair of the Gatwick Detainees Visitors Group added:

It is inhumane to incarcerate children and damages them in the long and short term. This is not the way to create harmony between nations and is totally unjustified on practicality or any other grounds. It shows that this government will treat anyone in any way in order to prove how tough they are.

LD4SOS have a series of detailed questions about how exactly the new system will work and how these children will be supported which you can read here.

Barnardos oppose the closure of the facility:

In the five years we have worked with the Home Office to support children and families through the removals process in Cedars, we are pleased that it has been described as an exceptional facility and an example of best practice in caring for some of the most vulnerable people subject to immigration control. However we do not feel that the new proposed accommodation is in the best interests of the children and have told ministers we cannot support the move. We will continue to work with the Home Office until Cedars closes.

The Refugee Council had even stronger words:

The Governments current practice of detaining children  the majority of who are later released  is harmful, largely ineffective and inexcusable. The transfer of children and their families from Cedars to Tinsley House, a place even less equipped to care for them adequately, is a troubling retrograde step. Instead of looking for ways to save money at childrens expense, Ministers must urgently live up to the Governments promise to end child detention once and for all. Childrens welfare must always come first, regardless of their immigration status.

Im not a fan of detention for immigration purposes for anyone, but to keep children in a detention centre is utterly unforgivable. I dont care if it was under-used. Treating people properly costs money and we should have no hesitation about paying whatever it takes to spare children the trauma of being detained.

On page 52 of this international report on the effects of child detention, there is a harrowing account of what happened to one ten year old girl held at Yarls Wood and Tinsley House:

JP was assessed again a few days later by an expert psychologist who concluded she was suffering from depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Another expert found the traumatic incidents JP had experienced, created a range of

impacts including changes in her self-identity, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, mood disturbances, overdeveloped avoidance responses, and disassociation as a way to try and push difficult feelings from her mind. This expert observed difficulties in the progress of development, stating that whilst JP seems to be on the cusp of childhood and pre-adolescence she functions psychologically as a much younger child.

Sadly, we appear to be going back to these days. How any government can ever justify children being treated like this is beyond me.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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THE organisers of Sundays air show in Foynes estimate that between 15,000 and 17,000 people turned up to watch some of Britain and Irelands top aerobatic acts perform in the skies above the West Limerick village.

Low lying cloud delayed the start of the show and meant that some of the acts were not able to perform but, according to organiser Margaret OShaughnessy, this didnt dampen the crowds enthusiasm and when the aerial spectacular did get underway, the performers got a rousing reception.

It was a lovely family day out in that there were lots of things to do; we had a carnival, face painting, discovery dome, drumming circle and music all day, Ms OShaughnessy said.

Among the highlights of the day were the spectacular Team Yakovlev in their Russian training jets.

Five-time Irish aerobatic champion, Eddie Goggins, impressed the crowd in his RV7, while David Bruton took to the skies in his unique Stampe byplace.

Also making an appearance were Lauren Richardson, one of the UKs top female aerobatic pilots, and The Wildcats, a duo from Norfolk in a pair of Pitts Special biplanes.

The event was overseen by air show director Gerry Humphreys, with many of the planes using his air field near Murroe as a base. Mr Humphreys thanked all the sponsors, especially Limerick City and County Council and the Irish Aviation Authority, for their support.

Events on the day kicked off with a performance by the Band of An Garda Siochana on the main stage. This was the first of several musical performances throughout the day. The crowd was also treated to a cliff rescue display by the Ballybunion Search and Rescue.

A park and ride system was put in place to transport spectators from a temporary carpark to the village and back after the show.

Over 300 people were employed on the day to ensure that everything ran smoothly, along with a host of food stalls and other associated services.

Ms OShaughnessy said they have already started planning for next years air show.

We will sit down this week and go through every iota of the day to see what we can improve upon for next year, she said.

Sundays airshow was the third to take place in Foynes since the inaugural event which took place in 2014 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first transatlantic commercial passenger flight across the North Atlantic to Foynes.

It was one of only two air shows taking place in the Republic of Ireland this year  the other will take place in Bray, Co Wicklow this weekend.
Gardai are investigating reports that a CCTV camera was damaged near the home of former Mayor John Gilligan earlier this week.

The incident is alleged to have happened at Lee Estate on the northside of Limerick city on Wednesday night with Cllr Gilligan describing it as sinister.

According to a report in the Irish Examiner, three men wearing balaclavas were seen in the area at around 11pm.

It is understood the men fled the area after they were disturbed by a neighbour of the independent councillor.

It is understood the camera, which was installed as part of the regeneration programme, is owned by Limerick City and County Council.

Gardai have not commented on reports the incident was connected with an appearance by Cllr Gilligan on RTE television following the sentencing of brothers Brian and Kieran Collopy for drugs offences on Wednesday afternoon.

Cllr Gilligan has not been contactable this Friday morning.

A spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council said the local authority would not be making any comment.
THE recently established Irish Youth Guitar Orchestra will kick off its inaugural summer tour in Limericks St Marys Cathedral next weekend with a concert featuring the world renowned Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and the Dublin Guitar Quartet.

The series of three concerts - in Limerick, Cork and Dublin - will be the culmination of the very first summer course run by the orchestra which was set up last year by Limerick School of Music (LSOM) teacher John OShea.

Running from next Monday in the School of Musics Mulgrave Street campus, the course has attracted 34 guitar students from all over the country. They range in age from 14 to 23 and were all selected by audition.

The organisation is completely volunteer-run and not-for profit. Students are not charged tuition fees and we provide expenses scholarships for those who can't afford the cost of travel, John explained.

Some of Irelands top guitarists and musicians are involved in the course including teachers from the Limerick School of Music, The Royal Irish Academy and Waterford Institute of Technology.

John himself did his Masters in music with two members of the LA Guitar Quartet and was delighted when they agreed to travel to Limerick to perform with the orchestra. The quartet have only performed once before in Ireland.

The LAGQ are the most successful and well-respected classical guitar ensemble in history and this is a once-in a lifetime guitar event, he said.

The concert will also feature the Dublin Guitar Quartet, who will be playing a piece with the orchestra.

David Brophy of the RTE Concert Orchestra will be conducting.

As well as performing pieces from their own back catalogue, the LAGQ will be joining the orchestra in a performance of Shiki by Japanese composer Shingo Fujii.

The summer tour kicks off with a concert in Limericks St Marys Cathedral on Friday, July 29. Tickets are 15 and available from www.eventbrite.ie and FSV Limerick. This will be followed by concerts in CIT Cork School of Music on July 30 and the National Concert Hall on July 31.
Russian security services plan to use a sacred procession to Kyiv of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to organize provocations, a representative of Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry, Vadym Skibitsky has said.

"The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry confirms the information about the attempt of Russian intelligence to use the religious procession to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. According to our information, the purpose of such actions is radicalization of interconfessional hatred and deepening the split of society on the religious basis," Skibitsky said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

Skibitsky said that Russian security services intend to organize provocations against the participants of the religious march "with the involvement of criminal groups."

"It is planned to organize collisions with their help near the houses of worship and crowded places of believers. Special attention will be focused on information and psychological influence on the Ukrainian population due to negative coverage of events in the pro-Russian media," Skibitsky said.

Skibitsky stressed that these actions are aimed at destabilizing the internal situation in the country, while "the army restrains the aggressor burst into our state in the east of Ukraine."

"In light of continuing aggression, we appeal to all citizens, including journalists, with an appeal to prevent opening of the second Russian information front against our country and our people."

It was reported that an All-Ukrainian religious procession of peace, love and prayer, organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate), began on July 3. On July 27, on the eve of the celebration of the Baptism of Rus-Ukraine, participants of the two columns intend to meet in Kyiv, on the Volodymyrska Hirka (St. Volodymyr Hill) and walk together towards the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra where a prayer ceremony is due to take place.
Jul 22, 2016, 9 AM

A postal strike was going on the day that Great Britain changed to a decimal currency, Feb. 15, 1971, also known as Decimal Day, or D Day. This Decimal Day first-day cover was prepared by a private courier service. Several such services operated during th

February 29, 1972, was the end of an era with the demonetization of all pre-decimal postage.

These first three decimal Machins were issued June 17, 1970, to help familiarize mailers with the new decimal currency that would be introduced in February 1971.

The mixed franking of pre-decimal and decimal postage could tax the math skills of the postal patron. At the time this recorded-delivery cover was mailed in 1971, the 4-penny Christmas stamp of 1970 was worth 1p. It was used in combination with 5p of dec

This privately prepared Feb. 15, 1971, Decimal Day first-day cover bears a posting delayed by the post office strike 1971 handstamp at the lower left of the envelope.

By Lawrence D. Haber

Finally. It had taken more than a century of discussion to have reached this point, but following many studies and committee reports, the announcement from the British chancellor of the exchequer came in March 1966 that the United Kingdom would decimalize the pound.

The change would occur in five years time, on Feb. 15, 1971, soon to be known as Decimal Day, or D Day.

Since ancient times, Britains pound had been comprised of 20 shillings, each shilling being equal to 12 pence. A total of 240 pence made the British pound sterling. But, as of Feb. 15, 1971, the pound would be comprised of 100 new pence.

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For a time before calculators, the old system was a logical one: half a shilling is 6d, a quarter of a shilling is 3d, and a third is 4d.

After the announcement to decimalize, the first notable change that the stamp collector would see was the withdrawal and demonetization of the d stamp on July 31, 1969.

In decimal terms, d would be equivalent to less than a quarter of a new penny. There was no future for the old halfpenny, and both the coin and the stamps were withdrawn.

On June 17, 1970, the Post Office issued the first British decimal-currency postage stamps: three large-format Machins in denominations of 10p, 20p and 50p (Scott MH165-MH167).

These denominations could be used interchangeably with pre-decimal currency, because they were directly equivalent to 2sh, 4sh and 10sh. This would serve as an easy transitional step.

Today, we may have difficulty considering a 10p stamp a high value. But, in 1970, 2sh (10p) would have bought you a pint of beer in a London pub.

With the basic domestic first-class letter rate at 5d, there were limited uses for these stamps. Even overseas airmail rates would have fallen short; the rate to Australia, for example, was only 1sh9d.

Most of the pre-Decimal Day uses of these decimal stamps are seen on double-rated airmail letters sent overseas, or paying special services, such as registry, special delivery, or rates for heavy parcels.

As 1971 approached, all was ready for the full conversion to decimal. Up to this point, pre-decimal rates had prevailed. With Decimal Day on Feb. 15, a full set of new decimal Machins would be issued, and all the postage rates would shift to the new decimal rates.

The domestic price adjustment was dramatic. The basic first-class rate went from 5d (2p) to 3p, an effective increase of almost 50 percent. The second-class rate saw a similar increase. Both registry fees and express fees were increased by a third, from 3sh (15p) to 20p.

Internationally, the rate changes were minimal.

Taken altogether, there was much change and a great deal of potential confusion because the currency, rates, and stamps were all changing. It was critical for the Post Office to be performing at its best.

However, a complication occurred. On Jan. 20, 1971, a national postal strike was called. Postal workers walked off their jobs, and the postal system was brought to a virtual standstill. Less than a month to Decimal Day, and the Post Office was closed.

In an effort to keep the economy moving, the crown did not enforce its postal monopoly, the first time this happened since before the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Private carrier services sprung up across the nation.

Shown nearby is a Randall Postal Service Feb. 15, 1971, decimalization first-day cover.

Despite the strike, some small sub-offices, usually connected to a retail shop, remained open, and some of these processed mail to the extent that they could. From these, we can find FDCs with genuine Post Office cancels.

The strike was settled on Sunday, March 7, 1971, and postal workers returned to their jobs the next day, March 8.

When the system came back to life, the stacks of FDCs that had been prepared prior to the strike being settled were processed, but with the addition of a special handstamp explaining the delay.

Following the strike, the postal system quickly returned to normal, but with new decimal rates and stamps that, for the near term, would coexist with the old pre-decimals.

Rates could be met entirely with new decimal stamps or with sufficient pre-decimal stamps or a combination of the two.

Occasionally, the math associated with calculating the full rate on a cover could be a bit of a challenge.

One such example is the domestic recorded-delivery cover shown nearby. The recorded delivery fee was 4p, and the letter was sent second class at 2p for a total of 6p. The cover is franked with the 4d Christmas stamp issued in 1970 (Scott 645) now worth 1p, plus two p Machins and a new 4p Machin bringing the franking to the 6p total required.

What is remarkable is that overall there appears to have been little confusion with this change. The British public seems to have made the transition with little difficulty, though, of course, there were bound to be some issues.

The decimal transition came to a close on Feb. 29, 1972, 12 and one-half months after Decimal Day. Thereafter, all pre-decimal stamps were demonetized and would no longer be honored.

However, on occasion they did pop up, some shortly after demonetization and some not so soon afterwards.

Even today, the occasional pre-decimal stamp might pass through the mail, but all considered, the transition was remarkably smooth. The United Kingdom had cast off an ancient system for its currency and has yet to look back in regret.
Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has issued an order to arrest two former employees of the prosecutor's office in Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea, posting bail at UAH 826,000,600 for each. .

The press service of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (PGO) said the decision was taken on July 21 based on testimony from agents from the special PGO office investigating economic crimes.

"The individuals are suspected of seeking illegal gains from a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine," the statement says.

As earlier reported, on July 15, 2016 employees of Ukraine's State Security Agency (SBU) together with PGO agents detained in Kyiv and Bakhmut (Donetsk region) two prosecutors who demanded money from former Crimean deputy Vasyl Hanysh. The prosecutors handling the case demanded $45,000 for lightening the charges against the former deputy. After haggling, the bribe was reduced to $15,000.

The PGO on March 15 filed treason cases against 76 former deputies of the Crimean parliament. One suspect, Hanysh, was detained on April 28 leaving Crimea. On April 29, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court ordered his arrest.

At the start of August the PGO investigation of Hanysh was completed and sent to the Kyiv City Court of Appeals to determine pretrial confinement. Kyiv's Dniprovsky District Court remanded Hanysh to house arrest On January 14, 2016 because of his poor health.
Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, based on evidence provided by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO), has ordered the confiscation of art works collected by former PGO chief Viktor Pshonka, which are currently stored in Ukraine's National Art Museum in 2014.

The July 21, 2016 ruling to fulfill the request from the PGO's special investigations bureau has been entered in the unified registrar of court decisions.

The court ruling lists a number of historical, cultural and valuable artifacts currently stored in Ukraine's National Art Museum. Among them are icons from the XIX-XXI century, paintings, decorative vases, watches, souvenirs and books.

Serhiy Horbatiuk, who heads the PGO's special investigations bureau, told Interfax-Ukraine that the property belongs to former PGO head Viktor Pshonka.
Kyiv medical institutions by the beginning of 2016 have saved UAH 25.6 million, or 20.77%, on trades conducted through the ProZorro e-procurement system, according to a press release of Transparency International Ukraine.

According to the organization, since the beginning of 2016 the Kyiv medical institutions have conducted 4,109 tenders, the total amount of contracts signed was UAH 53.8 million. The average number of proposals per procedure is 2.74.

At the same time, activists point out that the Kyiv medical institutions conduct non-transparent procurement and find ways to circumvent the system of ProZorro electronic procurement.

According to non-governmental organizations cited in the press release, 13.8% of procurements made by hospitals in Kyiv are non-transparent. According to data that can be explored through the bi.prozorro internal system, 79% of purchases have low quality ads, and 72.5% low competitive activity.

According to Head of the Eidos Anti-Corruption Center Hlib Kanevsky, hospital procurements often contain a vague description of the purchase items, documents required at the time of filing the bid are missing, as well as the terms of suppliers. .
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On Monday, July 25, at 11.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference by lawyer Ihor Cherezov, who defends chairman of the supervisory board of public joint-stock company Odesa Port-Side Chemical Plant Serhiy Pereloma, concerning the appeal of Ukrainian lawyers to diplomats of foreign embassies and to the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine about the alleged falsification of the so-called 'Odesa Port-Side Plant case' by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and judges of Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv (8/5a Reitarska Street). Admission requires press accreditation. For more details, please call: (067) 474 7640.
On Monday, July 25, at 14.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference entitled "Ukraine's Only Producer of Baby Food in Danger. Who Is Behind the Illegal Seizure of Khorol Dairy Canning Plant?" The participants will include Chairman of the Board of PJSC Khorol Dairy Canning Plant of Baby Food Volodymyr Pochep; shareholder of PJSC Khorol Dairy Canning Plant of Baby Food Heorhiy Sazhynov; Chairman of the Board of Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine Vadym Chaharovsky and representatives of the plant employees (8/5a Reitarska Street). Admission requires press accreditation. For more details, please call: (067) 234 0291, vv@communications.com.ua
BEIJING, July 22 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its growth forecast for China in 2016 due to the country's "determined and decisive" implementation of reforms and the "steady" support for the economy, said managing director Christine Lagarde here on Friday.

Lagarde made her remarks when she met the press together with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and other five chiefs of international financial institutions after a round-table meeting at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

She said the IMF had increased the growth forecast for China in 2016 by 0.1 percentage point to 6.6 percent for two reasons; "First of all, we have witnessed the determined and decisive implementation of reforms; and second, there was also support given to the economy in order to encourage growth to go forward."

"On the latter point, it did not take the form of vast fiscal stimulus but simply some solid and steady support in order to make sure that growth was indeed sustainable," she added.

The IMF on Tuesday revised down its forecast for global growth in 2016 and 2017, due to the uncertainty surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union (Brexit).

The IMF expects the global economy to grow 3.1 percent in 2016 and 3.4 percent in 2017, both 0.1 percentage points lower than its forecasts in April, according to its updated World Economic Outlook report.

Meanwhile, the IMF revised China's economic growth forecast this year to 6.6 percent from its April's forecast of 6.5 percent, saying that the near-term outlook has improved due to recent policy support.

Lagarde said the IMF's new forecast was now within the government's range of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent.

"This is clearly an achievement and I'm very pleased to acknowledge this," she said.

Lagarde said she would have revised upward the forecast for global growth for the first time in six years as China, Japan and the Euro area were doing better than expected. However, she failed to do so due to Brexit.

"What is even more disappointing is that we have conducted some scenarios. Under our severe scenarios, the global growth for next year would be reduced by 0.5 percentage point," she said.

This is the first time a "1+6" round-table meeting has been held in China. The theme of the meeting was "promoting strong, sustainable, and balanced growth of the Chinese and global economy."

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim; World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevedo; International Labor Organization Director General Guy Ryder; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-general Angel Gurria; and Financial Stability Board Chairman Mark Carney also attended the meeting.

According to a joint press release issued after the meeting, the participants of the meeting agreed that the round-table should become a regular mechanism to strengthen ties between China and international organizations, deepen communication and cooperation in the international economic and financial arena and jointly explore responses to global economic challenges.
DUISBURG, July 22, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Cargos are piled at Intermodal Terminal DIT in Duiburg, Germany, July 13, 2016. As many as 8 cargo trains from China arrive at this terminal every week, carrying Chinese products to Europe. Cargo trains were a logical development, opening a new channel for the transfer of goods to and from China's central and western regions to compete with the traditional maritime route from the east coast. A total of 16 cities now have regular cargo trains to Europe. (Xinhua/Yan Feng)
Physicists found the family of tetraquarks by colliding proton beams into each other at near light-speed, inside the circular Large Hadron Collider.

A family of related, exotic particles, each made up of four quarks, has been discovered. The finding could hold clues about the evolution of the universe, the researchers said.

The four newfound tetraquarks, now called X(4140), X(4274), X(4500) and X(4700), each are composed of two quarks and two antiquarks (the antimatter partners of quarks). Yet each of the newfound particles has a different mass and different subatomic properties. They are considered a family of tetraquark siblings because of having the same quark composition and arrangement.

Quarks are elementary particles, the building blocks of protons and neutrons. Until the recent discoveries of tetra and even pentaquarks, physicists thought quarks grouped only into pairs or triplets. The newfound tetraquark family is even more distinct because the family members are made up of heavy, exotic types of quarks  known as charm quarks and strange quarks  which are not found in everyday materials.[7 Strange Facts About Quarks]

Finding tetraquarks

Tomasz Skwarnicki, a physicist at Syracuse University in New York, and Thomas Britton, a Syracuse University doctoral student, discovered these tetraquarks by analyzing data from CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator. The experiment, called LHCb experiment, is one of seven particle-physics detector experiments in the atom smasher. The LHC brought hundreds of scientists together from around the world to collaboratively study data from the particle accelerator in an effort to understand what happened after the Big Bang that allowed matter to survive and build the universe.

In the LHCb experiment, scientists sent two proton beams zipping at near light-speed around the circular accelerator. When they collided, various exotic particles formed, including the newfound tetraquark family.

The tetraquarks systems are transient, Skwarnicki explained. After their creation, they begin to decay within 10^-24 of a second, a near unmeasurably small amount of time. Tetraquarks are produced in the decay of another known particle, B mesons, which have longer life spans. It is from these decay products that physicists could reconstruct that the tetraquarks existed. Signatures of the B mesons' tetraquarks are applied to the selection criteria when the researchers analyzed data from the LHCb collisions, allowing them to discover the family's existence.

This newfound particles exist in different excited states, which is what gives the tetraquarks different masses.

"When you have a bound system of quarks [in this case, a tetraquark], they also come in these different excitations. Each excitation level will have its own properties," Skwarnicki said. "A whole spectrum of excitations is possible for the same bound system."

While this family could also be thought of as one particle at four different excitation levels, particle physics has historically identified such groupings as "families," the researchers said.

Why care about tetraquarks?

The discovery of these particles could help add to scientists' understanding of the death of stars and the aftermath of the Big Bang, Skwarnicki said.

For example, scientists currently understand that a neutron star, once it burns through its nuclear fuel, will begin a gravitational collapse that squeezes all the atoms in the star into a very tight object that is like one huge nucleus. Skwarnicki said it is possible that some fraction of the matter in a neutron star consists not only of neutrons, but also of tetraquarks.

"Tetraquarks could also play some role in evolution of the universe after the Big Bang," Skwarnicki told Live Science. "Conditions in the early universe were very different than now, and these systems [of particles] could have played some role in early phases of the universe."

Skwarnicki and Britton detailed their discoveries in the June issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

Original article on Live Science.
A notice posted on the bulletin board in the lobby of Guangxi Film Group Company has been photographed, uploaded and widely reposted by netizens, ever since the name Zhang Yimou was spotted on it.

The notice explains that Zhang, a famous Chinese director, applied to buy a fund-raising house, purporting to be a worker who does not own a home. However, in reality, Zhang owns several sumptuous villas.

Huang Jian, who manages project development at Guangxi Film Group Company, claims that it was legal for Zhang to do this. He explained that Zhang joined Guangxi Filmmaking Factory as a photographer in 1982, and not long after he was allocated a house. In 2000, Guangxi Filmmaking Factory finally finished raising funds to build the houses. Any workers who did not have a house could participate in the program, and those who had older houses could give up their old houses in exchange for a new one. Zhang Yimou belonged to the latter group, Huang said.

Most of the house owners received their keys in 2000, but did not get formal property owner certificates until 2015. Due to incomplete paperwork, Zhangs house was delayed until this year, and the information has only now become public.

According to the deputy director of the Guangxi Housing Reform Office, applicants for the house allocation program were eligible as long as they either didnt own a house, or didnt own a house in a standard housing area. Thus, Zhang did not apply for the house under false pretences. Rather, he is just now getting around to enjoying a benefit to which he was entitled long ago.
Drinking alcohol may cause seven different types of cancer, according to a new opinion article.

Previous studies have found an association between drinking alcohol and a higher risk of developing certain cancers, according to the article. However, it was not clear from the studies if drinking alcohol directly caused cancer.

In the new piece, published today (July 21) in the journal Addiction, Dr. Jennie Connor, a preventive-medicine doctor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, looked at the major review studies done over the last decade on alcohol and cancer, including reviews from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. [7 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health]

"There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites [in the body], and probably others," Connor wrote.

The evidence supports "a causal association of alcohol consumption" with cancer in the oropharynx (a part of the throat), the larynx, the esophagus, the liver, the colon, the rectum and the female breast, Connor wrote.

There is also growing evidence suggesting a strong link between alcohol and other cancers, such as prostate, pancreatic and melanoma. However, that evidence is not enough at this point to allow researchers to conclude that there is cause-and-effect relationship for these cancers, according to the article.

Moreover, for each of the seven cancers that are directly linked, previous studies have found that there is a "dose-response relationship," meaning that the more alcohol a person drinks, the more likely the person is to develop those cancers.

In addition, previous studies have also found that for some cancers, a person's risk of developing cancer goes down when a person stops drinking, according to the article.

The link between alcohol and cancers of the mouth and throat were stronger than the link between alcohol and other cancers, Connor wrote. For example, drinking more than 50 grams of alcohol a day is was associated with a four to seven times greater risk of developing mouth, throat or esophagus cancer compared with not drinking at all. (The number of grams of alcohol in 1 ounce of a drink can vary. For example, there are 2.4 to 2.8 grams of alcohol in an ounce of wine, but there are 1 to 1.2 grams of alcohol per ounce of beer.)

But drinking that same amount was associated with an approximately 1.5 times greater risk of colorectal, liver or breast cancer, compared with not drinking, according to the article.

Connor noted that the exact mechanism for how alcohol causes cancer is not well-understood, and indeed, it may be different depending on where in the body the cancer occurs. [6 Foods That May Affect Breast Cancer Risk]

For example, scientists believe that a compound that forms when alcohol breaks down is responsible for the development of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus and liver. The compound, acetaldehyde, is formed when alcohol is digested by saliva or by molecules in the liver. Acetaldehyde comes in direct contact with the tissues of the mouth, throat, esophagus and liver, and can damage the DNA in the cells of these tissues, which can lead to cancer.

But for breast cancer, alcohol may cause cancer by increasing levels of estrogen in the body; the hormone has been linked to the disease, according to the article.

Connor noted that there are limitations to the research. In particular, many of the studies included in the analysis relied on people self-reporting how much alcohol they had drank. It is not uncommon for people to say they drank less alcohol than they actually drank, Connor wrote.

Editor's Note: This story was updated on July 25. The original story referred to the Connor's article as a "meta-analysis," the story was corrected to state that the article was a review, and an opinion article.

Originally published on Live Science.
About one in 10 American adults has a persistent ringing or roaring in the ears or head, a condition called chronic tinnitus, a new study suggests.

The study also found that the rates of tinnitus are higher among Americans who are regularly exposed to noisy environments, either at work or during their free time. The findings were published today (July 21) in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

The analysis showed that approximately 10 percent of people in the U.S. ages 18 and older had experienced ringing or the sensation of noise  such as roaring, buzzing, beating, whooshing or whistling  in their ears or head in the past 12 months.

But the study's estimated prevalence of tinnitus may be on the low side because "other similar studies have reported even higher rates of tinnitus," said lead author Dr. Harrison Lin, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the University of California, Irvine. Those studies have found that 8 to 25.3 percent of people in the U.S. have tinnitus. [5 Surprising Facts About Pain]

An episode of tinnitus can not only be annoying but also wreak havoc on a person's quality of life by interfering with thought processing, emotions, hearing, sleep and concentration, the researchers said.

To estimate the number of people affected by tinnitus, the researchers analyzed data collected as part of the 2007 Integrated Health Interview Series, a project meant to supplement the information gathered from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's yearly National Health Interview Survey. The only year in which a question about symptoms of tinnitus has been included in the survey was 2007.

People who reported that they had these symptoms were then asked additional questions about the symptoms' frequency, duration and severity, as well as whether they told their doctors about the problem and any treatments they may have tried in an attempt to relieve their symptoms.

Quieting tinnitus

The data showed that 36 percent of the people affected by tinnitus reported having nearly constant symptoms. What's more, about 56 percent of the men and women who had ringing in their ears had experienced the problem for longer than five years, and 27 percent of the people with tinnitus had experienced this symptom for more than 15 years.

People who were regularly exposed to loud noise at their workplace or in their personal pursuits  such as attending concerts, riding motorcycles or using workshop tools  had higher rates of tinnitus, according to the findings.

In addition, nearly 40 percent of the adults surveyed who experienced tinnitus said they tended to notice the problem at bedtime. The quiet of bedtime may bring the sound of tinnitus to the forefront of someone's attention, which can lead to anxiety, insomnia and aggravation, Lin told Live Science. [7 Strange Facts About Insomnia]

Some possible remedies for tinnitus at bedtime include using a white-noise machine (a device that can play nature sounds, such as a waterfall, ocean waves or birds) or even turning on a fan. Taking one of these steps can help to push the perception of tinnitus to the background so that a person can relax and fall asleep, Lin noted.

The data also revealed that only half of the people affected by tinnitus had discussed it with their doctor, and most people (85 percent) had never tried any treatment for it.

Because tinnitus is such a common problem, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation released its first set of treatment guidelines in 2014 to help doctors treat their patients.

Based on these guidelines, there are two treatments that doctors should recommended to people with persistent, bothersome tinnitus, Lin said.

One is the routine use of hearing aids because the large majority of people with chronic tinnitus have some degree of hearing loss, Lin said. A hearing aid will not only alleviate the hearing impairment but also may improve tinnitus symptoms, he noted.

The second recommended treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a form of psychotherapy that research has shown can improve a person's tolerance of persistent tinnitus, Lin said. CBT can convert negative or destructive trains of thought associated with tinnitus into more positive and constructive emotions, he said.

Whether tinnitus is a frequent annoyance or an occasional complaint, people who have it should make every effort to minimize their exposures to loud noises at work and at home to optimize their ear health and hearing, Lin suggested. People who are regularly bothered by it should obtain a hearing test from an audiologist and then seek further care from an ear, nose and throat specialist, he advised.

Originally published on Live Science.
Several 2000-year-old personal hygiene sticks with remains of cloth, excavated from the latrine at Xuanquanzhi.

Silk, tea and spices weren't the only things that travelers carried on China's legendary Silk Road: Ancient poop shows that infectious diseases were also transported along this network of trade routes, according to a new study.

Researchers excavated 2,000-year-old feces from a latrine along the Silk Road in northwestern China, and found that it contained eggs from the Chinese liver fluke, a parasitic worm that is typically found at least 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) away, according to the study.

The researchers suggested that the traveler infected with this parasite must have journeyed a great distance. "This is the earliest evidence for the spread of infectious diseases along the Silk Road, and the first to find evidence at an archaeological site along the Silk Road itself," Piers Mitchell, a paleopathologist at the University of Cambridge and the senior author of the study, told Live Science. [7 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

One of the personal hygiene sticks found at the Xuanquanzhi site. The stick is wrapped with cloth at one end and there are traces of brown material, human feces. (Image credit: Reproduced from the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.)

The researchers found the feces on "personal hygiene sticks"  wood or bamboo rods with cloth wrapped around one end that people used to wipe excrement off bottoms. Under a microscope, the researchers examined the feces from seven of such sticks to look for signs of ancient parasites.

They found eggs from four different species of parasitic intestinal worms in this excrement. These included eggs from the Chinese liver fluke, a parasite which can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, jaundice and can even lead to liver cancer.

However, the Chinese liver fluke requires wet, marshy areas to complete its life cycle, and the researchers found the eggs on the eastern margins of the arid Tamrin Basin, a region that contains the fearsome Taklamakan desert. The researchers noted there was no way the Chinese liver fluke could have come from this region. Indeed, the species is most common in Guangdong Province, which is about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) from the site.

"When I first saw the Chinese liver fluke egg down the microscope, I knew that we had made a momentous discovery," study lead author Hui-Yuan Yeh at the University of Cambridge said in a statement.

Aerial photograph of excavation of the Xuanquanzhi relay station on the Silk Road. (Image credit: Reproduced from the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.)

While previous research has suggested that ancient travelers on the Silk Road carried diseases such as bubonic plague, anthrax and leprosy, there was little concrete evidence to prove that this occurred. For example, both China and Europe possess similar strains of the bubonic plague, but the disease could have spread between China and Europe via India to the south, or via Mongolia and Russia to the north, the researchers said. In other words, there was no proof that it was spread along the Silk Road.

The parasitic eggs were excavated at a site named Xuanquanzhi, which was a large relay station in Gansu Province in northwestern China from 111 B.C. to A.D. 109. The researchers said this 2,000-year-old stop was apparently a popular one on the Silk Road, with travelers staying there and government officials using it to change their horses and deliver letters. [The 10 Most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites]

Other parasites found in the excrement from this ancient latrine  specifically, roundworms, whipworms and tapeworms  suggest that visitors to the relay station had eaten food contaminated by human feces, perhaps in fertilizer, and may also have dined on undercooked pork.

The scientists detailed their findings online today (July 21) in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Original article on Live Science.
People who use cocaine or methamphetamine on a regular basis may have differences in those brain regions that are involved in choosing between right and wrong, compared to people who don't use these drugs, according to a new study of prison inmates.

Researchers found that, during a task that tested prison inmates' moral decision making, inmates who had regularly used cocaine or methamphetamine showed less activity in the amygdala, a region in the brain that helps a person to regulate and understand emotions, compared to inmates who had never regularly used either of the two drugs.

Moreover, the longer that a person used either of the two stimulant drugs, the less activity they had in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that coordinates mental skills involved in decision making that involved moral issues. [10 Things You Didn't Know About You]

"This is the first study to suggest impairments in the neural systems of moral processing in both cocaine and methamphetamine users," lead study author Samantha Fede, a graduate student in the department of psychology at the University of New Mexico, said in a statement.

However, while the study showed an association between drug use and differences in the brain regions involved in moral cognition, it does not prove that drug use causes these changes, the researchers noted. It is possible, for example, that people whose brains already have differences in these regions are prone to start using these drugs.

And so although more research on this topic is needed, the study provides a better understanding of brain differences in stimulant users, she said.

In the study, the researchers asked more than 200 men incarcerated in New Mexico and Wisconsin prisons whether they had ever used cocaine or methamphetamine on a regular basis, which the researchers defined as at least three times a week. The study group contained 131 stimulant drug users and 80 nonusers, the researchers said. The users in the study had regularly used cocaine or methamphetamine for about nine years, on average.

The researchers then scanned the brains of all the inmates while they completed a task in which they evaluated whether or not certain phrases were morally objectionable.

The researchers did not find significant differences in the responses of the drug users and nonusers when they performed this task  the members of both groups were equally likely to say a certain phrase was indeed objectionable.

However, the researchers discovered differences between the groups when it came to the amount of activity in certain brain regions that are related to moral processing. [10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain]

The new findings are in line with previous research, which has suggested that the volumes of these same brain regions may be decreased in stimulant drug users, compared with nonusers, the researchers said.

The men in the new study were in minimum- to medium-security prisons, which means that many of them had been imprisoned for drug crimes, as opposed to violent crimes, Fede told Live Science. This means that the drug users in the study can be expected to share more similarities with drug users in general, including those who are not incarcerated, than they might share with violent offenders.

However, more research is needed to confirm that the results of the new study would hold true in drug users who are not in prison, she said.

The new study was published July 12 in the journal Psychopharmacology.

Originally published on Live Science.
DNA has confirmed that the blood staining these tree leaves, bought at an auction, came from King Albert I.

Using DNA tests, scientists have confirmed the authenticity of a morbid souvenir: bloodstained leaves that were taken from the death site of Belgium's King Albert I more than 80 years ago.

The results of the new study might help put to bed some conspiracy theories that claim Albert was the victim of murder, not a climbing accident.

Albert, who ruled from 1909 until his death, was celebrated for his role in World War I, as he refused to let German troops through Belgium to attack France. An avid mountaineer, he died on Feb. 17, 1934, when he was climbing alone near the village of Marche-les-Dames, southeast of Brussels. His body was found on a rock at the foot of a cliff. [Photos: Squash Contains Louis XVI's Blood]

Deadly spectacle

King Albert I of Belgium was an avid mountaineer. (Image credit: Public domain, courtesy of Wikicommons)

The king's death, at age 58, came as a shock for the public. People flocked to Marche-les-Dames to pay their respects and to take part in the spectacle, according to news reports. An Associated Press report from Feb. 26, 1934, said the rock where Albert fell to his death had to be surrounded by barbed wire to protect it from "the depredations of thousands of curious visitors." The site had become such an attraction that it was being "plucked bare of stones, leaves, branches and everything else removable by souvenir hunters."

A journalist bought one of those supposed relics, a set of bloodstained tree leaves, at auction in 2013. That journalist then teamed up with scientists for an investigation. The researchers were able to find two of Albert's living relatives who agreed to help confirm the authenticity of the bloody leaves: King Simeon II, the last tsar and former prime minister of Bulgaria, and a German baroness named Anna Maria Freifrau von Haxthausen.

"They gave up DNA samples that we compared with the DNA of the trails of blood," the leader of the study, forensic geneticist Maarten Larmuseau of the University of Leuven in Belgium, said in a statement. "We found that the blood is indeed that of Albert I."

End of conspiracy theories?

Rumors had cropped up about the circumstances surrounding King Albert's death, suggesting that the king had committed suicide or was the victim of a politically motivated murder.

Even some public figures advanced these conspiracy theories: among them, British military officer Graham Seton Hutchison, an avowed fascist who came to sympathize with the Germans after World War I and to praise Adolf Hitler. Seton Hutchison, as quoted by The New York Times in May of 1934, claimed the story of Albert's death was "the biggest piece of spoof put over on the world," implying that the king was murdered because he actually wanted no part in the "devilry of France in conspiring for war against the defenseless Germans."

Since there were no eyewitnesses to the king's death, many of the conspiracy theories hinged on the idea that Albert's body was never even at Marche-les-Dames, or that someone placed the body there after the king was killed by a blow to the head. So the positive identification of blood on leaves from the site helps add credence to the official account of Albert's death.

"Eighty years after the fact, everyone involved has passed away, and most material is gone. We will probably never be able to dismiss all speculations concerning this 'cold case,'"Larmuseau said in the statement. "The story that the dead body of the king has never been in Marche-les-Dames or was only placed there at night has now become very improbable. Furthermore, the results show that conducting a perfect legal investigation at the time was impossible right from the start, because souvenir hunters had disturbed the scene."

The researchers said they wanted to protect the privacy of everyone involved in the study. Therefore, they had independent experts check the genetic profiles, but did not publish any of that sensitive personal DNA information.

Strangely enough, this isn't the first time DNA tests have confirmed a death relic of a monarch. Three years ago, scientists found that a decorative gourd really did contain the dried blood of France's King Louis XVI.

The new findings will be published in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics.

Original article on Live Science.
The green, foam-like substance coming out of a roadway drain was due to nearby moss treatment.

This month has brought flora troubles to Utah, with a green foam bubbling through a street vent and a poop-fueled algae bloom covering the state's third-largest lake.

Residents in Bluffdale, Utah, located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, were shocked to find a green, foam-like substance coming out of a roadway drain on Thursday (July 21).

Bluffdale city officials were concerned that the mysterious green blob was related to the toxic algae bloom currently affecting the Utah Lake area, and called the Salt Lake County Health Department to investigate. [Stunning Photos: The Clearest Lake on Earth]

Though results of samples taken from the drain are pending, Nicholas Rupp from the Salt Lake County Health Department told KSL-TV that the foam most likely came from a nearby canal's recent moss treatment  and isn't related to the lake's slimy bloom. The chemicals used to clear canals of moss also foam up, Rupp said.

See more

Donna Spangler, communications director for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (Utah DEQ), told Live Science that the foam "has nothing to do with algae. ... It had something to do with an irrigation cleaning, and it was basically soapy moss."

The canal is connected to the Jordan River, which is connected to the recently algae-covered Utah Lake. The massive algae growth has, at its peak, covered 90 percent of Utah Lake and crept into surrounding tributaries, Spangler said.

Public officials have closed the lake due to concerns about cyanobacteria algae, which can release toxins that affect the brain, nervous system and liver function of people exposed to it, Dr. Joseph Miner, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, said in a statement.

The massive algae growth has, at its peak, covered 90 percent of Utah Lake and crept into surrounding tributaries. (Image credit: Utah Department of Environmental Quality)

The bloom's growth is due to a combination of high temperatures, low lake levels and a higher concentration of phosphorus, which helps algae grow, officials said. Nearly 80 percent of the phosphorus in Utah Lake comes from discharge by nearby wastewater treatment plants, according to the Utah DEQ.

"It's coming from our waste, human waste  using the bathroom," Spangler said.

Though algae blooms occur naturally, human activity increases their intensity, frequency and scope, said Walt Baker, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Qualitys Division of Water Quality.

"Scientific evidence suggests that people cause increasing intensity of algae blooms by modifying hydrology and increasing nutrient inputs to our waters," Baker wrote in an Op-Ed for Desert News.

Both Baker and Spangler noted that in order to limit the concentration of phosphorus, wastewater treatment plants must be upgraded  an expensive task. But with consistently warmer temperatures worldwide, Spangler said there is concern that the algae bloom will become a more common occurrence, as the algae grow faster in warmer conditions.

Original article on Live Science.
A rare drawing by the Italian 17th century sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini sold for 1.9 million euros ($2.3 million) in France on Saturday, the highest price ever paid for a drawing by the artist, the auction house said.

The original estimate price for the sanguine, or red chalk drawing of a male nude dating from somewhere between 1630 and 1640, had been set at 30,000-50,000 euros by the Acteon auction house in Compiegne, northern France.

But an anonymous, probably Anglo-Saxon, buyer secured it for 1.3 million euros, which including fees and commission represented a final purchase price of 1.9 million euros, auctioneer Dominique Le Coent told AFP.

The previous world record price paid for a Bernini drawing was 139,000 euros in 2014.

Bernini (1598-1680) designed statues for many of Romes landmarks such as the Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona.

The Academie dHomme drawing, which belongs to an extremely small body of academic drawings known to be by Bernini, Le Coent said.

Art historians know of only seven others, all preserved in museums and institutions, including one at the Uffizi Museum in Florence.

The auction, broadcast live on the internet, attracted the interest of many collectors, mostly international, and there were nine telephone bidders.

Discovered in Compiegne, the drawing was first mistakenly attributed to the French Baroque sculptor Pierre Puget (1620-1694) before being authenticated as a work by Bernini.
The "business class" carriage in Shenzhen metro line 11

Photo shows the almost empty "business class" carriage of metro line 11 in south China's Shenzhen city. The less well-equipped yet cheaper "economy class" is at the same time fully occupied. Price of the former is three times of the price of the latter, and thus the dramatic difference.

The "Economy class" in Shenzhen metro line 11

Citizens complain that having "business class" in subway is totally unnecessary.

Shenzhen metro line 11 was opened less than a month ago.
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A gigantic cave-in emerged on road in central Chinas Zhengzhou city on July 21, swallowing part of a restaurant after heavy downpour fell on the city.

The cave-in measured 6-meter-wide and 3.5-meter-deep. It devoured the restaurant entrance right after a customer went through it, according to the restaurant owner. The Zhengzhou city government has sent personnel to inspect the area and repair work in underway.
Local News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

The NYS DMV today announced 60 weekend arrests during the latest round of Operation Prevent sweeps, which are designed to deter underage drinking.

Albany, NY - July 20, 2016 - The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) today announced 60 weekend arrests during the latest round of Operation Prevent sweeps, which are designed to deter underage drinking in local communities and keep New Yorks roadways safe. From Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17, investigators from DMVs Division of Field Investigation teamed up with the New York State Park Police and law enforcement agencies to conduct sweeps at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Genesee County, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Nikon at Jones Beach Theater (Jones Beach State Park), and in New York City, during which 64 fake IDs were confiscated.

Governor Cuomo announced in June that the state would continue its push to ensure that the public, and especially New Yorks youth, remain safe and well-protected during the summer concert season.

We announced last month that we would be at concert venues all summer long to double down on preventing underage drinking, so this weekends sweeps should come as no surprise. While we obviously want New Yorkers to have a great summer, we also want them to do it safely and be responsible for their actions, said DMV Executive Deputy Commissioner Terri Egan. Underage drinking has real consequences, and sometimes it is a matter of life and death. Leave the fake IDs at home and avoid the possibility of lifelong consequences due to one bad decision.



Operation Prevent is a DMV initiative conducted year-round that targets not only concerts, but bars and drinking establishments, events, and other underage hot spots. During an Operation Prevent sweep, state investigators work with a number of different entities to check identification documents. Patrons under the age of 21 found to be using fake IDs or false documents with the intent of purchasing alcohol can be arrested and have their license revoked for a minimum of 90 days or up to one year.
Family & Parenting, Local News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

Governor Cuomo signed "Peter Falk's Law," legislation that requires guidelines for end of life notices and visitation rights regarding incapacitated individuals subject of legal guardianship proceedings.

Albany, NY - July 21, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed "Peter Falk's Law," legislation that requires guidelines for end of life notices and visitation rights regarding incapacitated individuals subject of legal guardianship proceedings.



The bill (A.3461-C/S.5154-C), requires the court order appointing a guardian to oversee the care of an incapacitated person to identify all individuals who are entitled to notice of a person's death, funeral and burial arrangements.



"Losing a loved one is always hard, but not being given the chance to say goodbye is perhaps even harder," Governor Cuomo said. "This measure will help ensure an individual's friends and family will have an opportunity to express their love and pay their respects at this critical and trying time."



In some circumstances under the current law, legally-appointed guardians have failed to notify family members or close friends of the individual when they become sick, are admitted to the hospital, or pass away. By requiring the identification and notification of other family and friends, this law will help ensure legal guardians will no longer be able to improperly isolate an incapacitated person at the end of their lives.



Senator John A. DeFrancisco said, "I am very pleased that Governor Cuomo has signed my bill to become Peter Falk's law. For every wrong, there should be a remedy. This law will help to protect the sick and dying from isolation from their family, while ensuring that next of kin are informed of the person's condition and ultimately notified of the persons death, funeral and burial arrangements."



Assemblyman William B. Magnarelli said, "I want to thank the Governor for signing this important bill into law. The bill is named in honor of the legendary actor, Peter Falk. Peter Falk was a native of New York and a graduate of Syracuse University. This law will protect the rights of adult children and relatives when a person is placed under the care of a guardian. It will protect their right to be notified of the persons passing and if they have been admitted to the hospital. It also allows the appointing court to identify those entitled to visitation in the guardianship order. The issue was brought to my attention by Catherine Falk, Peters daughter. When her father became ill, she was prevented from visiting him and was not notified of major changes in his condition. This inspired her to become an advocate for other families facing the improper isolation of a relative by a guardian. I want to thank Catherine for her tireless advocacy in getting this important bill passed."



"Peter Falk's Law" was sparked by the end-of-life treatment of the late actor and "Columbo" star Peter Falk. Mr. Falk's daughter had alleged the actor's second wife obtained conservatorship of him and blocked all contact with other family members at the end of his life.
Pets & Animal, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases, Seasonal & Current Events

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

Kent Animal Shelter today announced that it has teamed up with NBC 4 New York / WNBC and Telemundo 47 / WNJU host NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations Clear the Shelters second annual nationwide pet adoption ...

Calverton, NY - July 21, 2016 - Kent Animal Shelter today announced that it has teamed up with NBC 4 New York / WNBC and Telemundo 47 / WNJU host NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations Clear the Shelters second annual nationwide pet adoption drive. Kent Animal Shelter will offer the public no-cost adoptions on dogs and cats 4 years and up on Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24th as part of the nationwide Clear the Shelters initiative that seeks to find new homes for homeless pets.



If you are wild about puppies, just remember that a good deal of time, effort and patience must go into training, housebreaking etc. Its a window when your four-legged companion will be readied for adulthood in a well-mannered or problematic way. Too many times people overlook that fact and are compelled to return their pet to a shelter because they have developed bad habits due to lack of training and supervision, said Pam Green, Director of Kent Animal Shelter.

An alternative to puppy and kitten adoption is to take an adult pet into your home having a clear picture of what the personality actually is and having the benefit of prior history and training. And as you know, puppies and kittens are adults in no time at all they are a product of their caretakers and environment.



This years Clear the Shelters event comes after last years highly successful inaugural effort, which resulted in nearly 20,000 pets finding new homes through an unprecedented partnership between the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations and hundreds of animal shelters located all across the country and in Puerto Rico. The nationwide day of action literally emptied dozens of animal shelters across the country and inspired local communities to take action and open their homes to animals in need.



What: Kent Animal Shelter to participate as an official Clear the Shelters partner alongside NBC 4 New York / WNBC and Telemundo 47 / WNJU. Kent Animal Shelter to offer no-cost fee adoptions.



When: Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24th, 10 am until 4 pm.



Where: 2259 River Rd., Calverton, N.Y.



Info: Viewers can visit NBCNewYork.com and Telemundo47.com to access more information about Clear the Shelters, including the full list of local participating animal shelters
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Home & Garden, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a new grant initiative to address the growing statewide problem of so-called zombie homes.

Schneiderman: This Office will continue to help communities emerge from the foreclosure crisis and its enduring legacy of zombie homes.

Syracuse, NY - July 21, 2016 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a new grant initiative to address the growing statewide problem of so-called zombie homes  vacant and abandoned homes that are not maintained during a prolonged foreclosure proceeding.

The Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative will provide $13 million in grants to local governments throughout the state through a competitive application process. The 100 communities with the greatest problem of zombies and vacancy have been invited to apply for the funds. The money will address housing vacancy and blight by bolstering municipalities capacity for housing code enforcement, for tracking and monitoring vacant properties, and for legal enforcement capacity to ensure banks and mortgage companies comply with local and state law.

The grants also require communities to develop innovative programs and policies and connect at-risk homeowners to services so they can avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. The initiative coincides with the recent passage of the Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act, a bill that was authored by Attorney General Schneiderman, championed by Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) and Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein (D-Brooklyn), and signed into law by Governor Cuomo on June 23rd.

Too many communities across this state have been hit hard by the proliferation of zombie properties, said Attorney General Schneiderman. This new grant initiative puts tools directly in the hands of towns and cities across the state to reverse course, rebuild from the foreclosure crisis, and put zombie homes in the rear-view mirror.

Funding for the initiative will be drawn from the $3.2 billion settlement agreement with Morgan Stanley that Schneiderman, as co-chair of the federal-state working group on residential-mortgage-based securities, negotiated in February. That settlement generated $550 million in cash and consumer relief for New Yorkers.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is running the grant program. LISC is a national community development intermediary that specializes in affordable housing, economic development, and community revitalization. LISC selected the grantees for this program based on the number of abandoned properties within the municipality; the proportion of such properties compared to the overall size of the municipality; and its level of general economic distress. All invitees must have populations of at least 5,000 residents and at least 100 vacant and abandoned properties.

Applications are due on Tuesday, August 16th, by 5 p.m. and award notifications will be made by early September 2016.

LISC expects to award grants in amounts ranging from $75,000 to $350,000, depending on the size of the municipality, the scope of its zombie problem, and its track record and capacity for addressing such issues. Each municipality must also include a prevention component in its application, to connect families to services that help families avoid foreclosure, including programs supported by the Attorney General, describe in more detail below.

There are at least 16,000 zombie homes across the state, based on data released by Realty Trac in 2015. Zombie homes invite crime, threaten public safety, and drive down the value of surrounding homes. Studies have shown that each zombie property reduces the value of all homes within 750 feet by one percent.

The Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative is but one component of Attorney General Schneidermans broad strategy to help New York families and communities recover from the housing crash. He has led the fight for strong bank settlements that hold the banks accountable for their recklessness and responsible for mitigating the damage they caused. He has obtained settlements that brought more than $70 billion to communities across the country.

More than $5 billion of that settlement money has flowed into New York. It allowed the Office of the Attorney General to establish the Homeowners Protection Program, HOPP, in 2012, which currently funds 90 agencies across the state to provide legal services and counseling to help families stay in their homes. More than 62,000 families have been served to date; and nearly a third of them have mortgage modifications pending or approved. In Central New York, HOPP has served 3,600 families.

That settlement money also established the New York State Mortgage Assistance Program (MAP) in 2014. Since it began, MAP has provided $18 million in small loans to homeowners to clear other debts and qualify for mortgage modifications; it has prevented more than 650 foreclosures; and it has preserved $153 million in property value for nearby homeowners.

The Office of the Attorney General has allocated some $30 million from settlement monies toward land bankslocal, nonprofit entities that purchase and rehabilitate abandoned properties that are a blight on communities across the state. Already, 16 land banks in communities from Erie to Suffolk County are working to return vacant properties to productive use, including the Syracuse Land Bank, which has obtained 1,000 properties, razed 100 of the most dilapidated, unsafe structures, and restored 270 to the market.

The initiative coincides with the recent passage of the Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act, a bill that the Attorney General wrote, the Legislation passed and the Governor signed. Among other provisions, that law requires banks to register any properties abandoned by their owners with the Department of Financial Services and to maintain those properties during the foreclosure process, and not just once the process has been completed. Banks face significant fines for non-compliance. The state will share the registry with localities and will run a toll-free hotline for individuals to report such properties.

Rehabilitating blighted properties and putting them back into productive use improves the quality of life in our neighborhoods and generates more property tax revenue for municipalities, said Mayor Stephanie A. Miner, City of Syracuse. This grant program will support cities like Syracuse as we continue to deal with ongoing issues presented by zombie properties. I thank Attorney General Schneiderman for his ongoing commitment to housing issues faced across the State of New York.

The financial crisis might seem like a distant memory to some, but the vacant properties left in its wake are continuing to destroy the quality of life in many of our communities, said Denise Scott, executive vice president with LISC. Local leaders now have a strong policy framework, and LISC is helping deliver targeted resources and housing expertise, so neighborhoods can recover. We are gratified to be working closely with Attorney General Schneidermans office to help municipal leaders across the state take effective action against zombies.

Foreclosed and abandoned properties are a serious problem in our neighborhoods, affecting quality of life for residents and forcing localities to spend precious resources on monitoring them, said Senator David J. Valesky. I commend Attorney General Schneiderman for taking steps to address this issue. I am confident these grants will make a difference here in Syracuse and across the state.

Zombie properties have devastating impacts on our communities, said Assemblywoman Pamela J. Hunter. When they fall into disrepair at the hand of absentee banks, they attract crime and lower the property values of the surrounding homes. We need to invest in programs, like the one announced today, that will help our local municipalities and homeowners come together and fight against the blight caused by these zombie properties.

I commend Attorney General Schneiderman for his leadership in combatting zombie properties and blight in our communities, said Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli. As chair of the Assembly Local Governments Committee, I know firsthand the difference he has made in combatting this issue. His previous efforts provided our new Land Banks with significant capital investment to address abandoned and blighted properties. This new initiative will continue that work and provide our municipalities with the resources they need to end the scourge of zombie properties in New York.

The Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative will provide much-needed aid to communities across Central New York to help families stay in their homes, said Assemblyman Al Stirpe. I look forward to continuing to work with the Attorney General and with my colleagues in the Assembly to tackle the issue of zombie properties and strengthen our neighborhoods.

This funding finally gives local municipalities the ability to react and address the consistently problematic blighted properties in our communities that detract from our neighborhoods and property values, said Mayor Billy Barlow, City of Oswego. In Oswego, neighborhood revitalization and encouraging residential investment is taking place all over our community. Thanks to Governor Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, we now have an additional resource to expedite the entire revitalization process and combat homes that detract from our efforts.

As the Mayor of Auburn, Im pleased to hear about the invitation to apply for funding to combat the plaguing issue of vacant and abandoned homes in our communities, said Mayor Michael Quill, City of Auburn. I applaud Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman for his continuing effort to address and improve the housing troubles of many New Yorkers.

As Mayor for the City of Cortland, I hear frequently from constituents and I see on a regular basis the negative impact that a zombie property can have on an entire neighborhood, said Mayor Brian Tobin, City of Cortland. The Attorney General has heard the concerns of municipal officials throughout the great State of New York, and has consistently acted to help us with our zombie properties. I am grateful that the AG is offering funding opportunities to help us be more active in supporting our neighborhoods, and addressing this blight on all communities in New York.

"On behalf of the City of Fulton, I appreciate Attorney General Schneiderman's continued effort in recognizing the problem communities face with the increase in zombie properties and the damaging effect it has on neighborhoods, said Mayor Ronald L. Woodward, Sr., City of Fulton. These vacant properties that have been allowed to stagnate for years help to devalue their worth as they are allowed to deteriorate. These properties become a nuisance, attract criminal activity and aid in bringing down the quality of life for the residents in the area. I am thrilled to hear about the funding, and thank the Attorney General for his commitment to helping New York State communities.

Abandoned properties negatively affect the quality of life and the market value of surrounding homes, said Kerry Quaglia, executive director of Home HeadQuarters. Addressing zombie properties will help restore Upstate New Yorks neighborhoods and create an opportunity to improve the present and future needs of vacant buildings and the surrounding communities. We are grateful to NYS Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman for providing another funding opportunity to revitalize communities.

Given the disproportionate impact of the foreclosure crisis on communities of color, we are excited to hear about the Attorney General's initiative to address the problem of zombie properties, said Sally Santangelo, executive director of CNY Fair Housing. Our cities have suffered too long with issues of vacancy and blight and we are encouraged to see the commitment of additional resources to improve our neighborhoods.

Years after the first wave of the mortgage foreclosure crisis, communities like Syracuse continue to struggle with zombie properties in our neighborhoods, said Katelyn E. Wright, executive director of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank. We're grateful for Attorney General Schneiderman's continued support for local governments tackling this problem. These resources will complement the recently passed zombie law and give us more tools at our disposal to take control of problem properties and turn them into opportunities.
Family & Parenting, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases, Seasonal & Current Events

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

The Long Island Against Trafficking Coalition (LIAT) will host its 6th annual FreedomFit at the Holtsville Park & Ecology Center on Saturday August 13th, 2016, from 9am-12pm.

Holtsville, NY - July 22, 2016 - The Long Island Against Trafficking Coalition (LIAT) will host its 6th annual FreedomFit at the Holtsville Park & Ecology Center on Saturday August 13th, 2016, from 9am-12pm. The event is being held to raise funds for the newly formed LIAT Coalition as well as to shed a light on human trafficking on Long Island. Since Human Trafficking Intervention Courts were both opened in Nassau and Suffolk County in 2013, it has become apparent that there is a need to provide support and bring awareness to the domestic issue here in the states and on Long Island as well as the international issue.

FreedomFit is an awareness event featuring a 5K Run/Walk and bike paths guided by the Suffolk County Bike Riders Association (options include 5, 10, 25 and 50-mile rides). Other activities include yoga, zumba, and live music throughout the day. A free breakfast from Always Bagels and Starbucks coffee will be provided as well.

Tickets for adults are $25 prior to the event and $35 for day-of event registration. Children tickets (12 and under) are $10. Participants can select their 5K and/or bike ride times at the time of registration.

For more information and to register, please visit www.freedomfitli.org. Like Long Island Against Trafficking on Facebook, and follow @endlitraffick on Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

About LIAT

Long Island Against Trafficking was founded when a group of individuals were awakened to the realities of human sex trafficking while attending a lecture. The words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" resonated in our hearts and minds. We were compelled to join in the fight for those sex trafficked on Long Island and abroad. Long Island Against Trafficking was established to raise funds for those victimized and raise public awareness of this modern-day form of slavery. We accomplish this by speaking at public and private events as well as lobbying at the local, state, and federal levels. We plan and host fundraisers to aid in financially supporting the victims. We also partner with other human rights organizations to create a powerful collective voice.

We are a completely volunteer based organization of passionate individuals who want to see change in our communities. Please join us in our goal to abolish sex trafficking. You can follow updates on Twitter and Instagram: @EndLITraffick. The group is always looking for new members. If you are interested in volunteering to be a voice for the voiceless or you would like a member to do some guest speaking, email us.
Nature & Weather, Local News, Home & Garden, Press Releases

By Zimmerman/Edelson Published: July 22 2016

Residents are encouraged to conserve water during hot, dry weather.

Residents are advised to set their irrigation systems to run between 5:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. to avoid peak demand times.

Long Island, NY - July 22, 2016 - The Long Island Water Conference (LIWC) is calling on residents to voluntarily reduce water usage and observe their municipalitys odd/even watering ordinances. As Long Island and most of the Northeast region enters a heat dome this weekend, w will rise to 10 degrees above normal for a period of six days. During this time, residents are advised to set their irrigation systems to run between 5:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. to avoid peak demand times.

We encourage residents to water their lawns on alternate days and reduce water usage to ensure Long Island water suppliers are able to supply high-pressure water for fire protection and other essential services, said LIWC Chairman Ralph Pugliese. Utilizing such methods as taking shorter showers and changing the time of day residents water their lawns will help conserve our most precious resource. Our members will continue to work diligently to meet the needs of our residents.

Nassau Countys odd-even sprinkler regulation requires residences with a house number that is evenor is not numberedto water their lawn on even-numbered days. Conversely, residences with a house number that is odd should water their lawn on odd-numbered days. Some of the driest conditions to date have occurred during this July with only eight total days of precipitation accumulating a mere 2.93 inches of rain. The July monthly average is 4.5 inches of rain. Temperatures have also been above average, including 16 days with temperatures reaching a minimum of 85 degrees.

In addition to adhering to all irrigation regulations in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, homeowners are urged to be conscious of water usage inside their homes. LIWC members suggest making the following small changes to conserve water during this dry, hot season:

Be sure to check for and repair any leaks throughout household plumbing

Never flush trash down your toilet

Shorten showers

Only use the dishwasher and washing machine when it is fully loaded

Minimize the use of sink garbage disposals

Dont let the faucet run unnecessarily while performing tasks at the sink

About the Long Island Water Conference

The LIWC has been committed to providing pure and plentiful water for the Long Island community since 1951. The LIWC aims to provide and maintain an adequate and safe water supply today, while anticipating the water concerns of future generations. LIWC members provide more than 375 million gallons of clean water daily. For more information, visit www.liwc.org.
Local News, Crime, National & World News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

The Nassau County Police Department is taking all steps necessary to ensure the safety of the public and its Police Officers.

Nassau County, NY - July 22, 2016 - Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano and Acting Commissioner of Police Thomas C. Krumpter express their heartfelt prayers and condolences to the victims and families of the recent shooting in Munich, Germany.



The Nassau County Police Department is taking all steps necessary to ensure the safety of the public and its Police Officers. In light of recent attacks, the Department has intensified patrols in all shopping malls, areas of mass transit, public gatherings and near critical infrastructure. Social Media outlets will be intensely monitored and we request the publics assistance in any way possible to stop threats to public safety.



The NCPD is coordinating with other federal and local authorities and are assessing national and local threat levels. For the safety of our police officers, the Nassau County Police Department will continue to double the officers in each of their patrol vehicles while this assessment continues.



If you see something, say something. If you hear something, say something.



Immediate threats should be called into 911 and tips can be called into Crime Stoppers at 1-800- 244-TIPS.
Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

The founder of a Suffolk County veterans organization today pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny for his theft of nearly $90,000 from a 71 year old former veteran.

John J. Lynch, 76, of Wantagh, is the founder and former executive director of Suffolk County United Veterans which operates the "John J. Lynch Veterans Men's Shelter."

Suffolk County, NY - July 21, 2016 - The founder of a Suffolk County veterans organization today pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny for his theft of nearly $90,000 from a 71 year old former veteran who suffers from post- traumatic stress and dementia, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho told the defendant, John J. Lynch of Wantagh that if Lynch is to avoid jail time, he must pay the victim back and forfeit a Porsche he registered and titled to himself but purchased with the victims money.

The 76 year old defendant is the founder and former executive director of Suffolk County United Veterans which operates the John J. Lynch Veterans Men's Shelter in Yaphank.

The defendants crimes were unconscionable, District Attorney Spota said. Our investigation found that he exploited a vulnerable fellow veteran who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and trying to cope with severe memory and confusion issues. From February of 2013 through February of 2014, Mr. Lynch had the victim write checks payable to him or to his business, J. Lynch Staffing, and we also found evidence that the defendant also had the victim pay his American Express bills. The total amount of money stolen is $87,260 dollars, said Spota.

Lynch will be formally sentenced by Justice Camacho in early October on a date convenient for the victims family to attend.
CHINAS civil aviation authority has grounded all aircraft belonging to Joy General Aviation yesterday after one of its seaplanes crashed in the waters in Jinshan District in Shanghai on Wednesday, killing five people.

The planes in-flight recorder, or the black box, has been found and is being analyzed, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said yesterday.

The CAAC has ordered an investigation into the crash.

The East China Regional Administration under the CAAC has sent teams of experts to investigate the crash. They will probe flying safety, flight operation, aircraft maintenance, airport operation and public security, it said in a statement.

Joy General Aviation, which is based in the Zhoushan Archipelago, is also being probed for its operation, personnel, flying licenses, airworthiness and security, the statement said.

A customer service manager of Joy General Aviation said they had not received any notice to suspend flights but the company had already stopped selling tickets.

The administration had issued the commercial operation certificate to the carrier only last April.

Five people, including the copilot, were killed after the seaplane, a US Cessna 208B, crashed into the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway No. 7835 Bridge at 12:20pm on Wednesday as it was taking off from the sea near Jinshan City Beach.

Five other people onboard the craft were injured and recovering, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission said yesterday.

The planes captain Zhang Fuquan had a surgery on his right leg but his condition remains serious, said Shen Jie, a doctor at Jinshan Hospital. Zhang remains in intensive care unit.

The other injured passengers are also in the ICU.

Song Wanjun, who had the presence of mind to help passengers get out of the craft after the crash, is suffering from severe celiac hematoma, Shen said.

The other injured passengers are also suffering from short-term amnesia due to injuries on their head.

A reporter and a cameraman with Shanghai Television Station, who were on the ill-fated seaplane, have been moved to Ruijin Hospital in downtown.

The cameraman, Wu Liangliang, suffered multiple fractures on his arms, ribs and legs.

Joy General Aviation was established by Joy Air in May 2014. It describes itself as Chinas first and biggest seaplane carrier and operated sightseeing routes among islands in the archipelago. It owns a fleet of 14 Cessna 208B seaplanes, including the one that crashed.

The carrier had previously said that it plans to expand its fleet to 100 within five years. Tickets costs from 700 yuan to 1,600 yuan.

The Joy Seaplane Airport near Jinshan Beach was closed yesterday. A Cessna 208B seaplane which completed a return flight between Jinshan and Zhoushans Shengsi County was berthed at the airport.
Nature & Weather, Local News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 22 2016

US EPA has identified two chemicals known as PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) as emerging contaminants.

Westhampton Beach, NY - July 22, 2016 - The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has identified two chemicals known as PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) as emerging contaminants. These chemicals are part of a class of chemicals known as perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), which are currently unregulated by the federal government. PFCs have been used in a number of industrial and commercial products such firefighting foam, as well as coatings that repel water, oil, stains and grease. Thus, people may be exposed to PFOS and PFOA through air, water, or soil from industrial sources and from consumer products. In 2013, major water supply companies began testing their wells for PFOS and PFOA. Results of that monitoring have recently become available.



In the absence of federal regulation, New York State took aggressive action and became the first state in nation to regulate PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances, which enables the State to use the legal authority and financial resources of the State Superfund Program to clean up contaminated sites.



Through monitoring conducted under a US EPA program known as the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, PFOS was detected in public supply wells in the vicinity of the New York State Air National Guard Base at Gabreski Airport located at Old Riverhead Road in Westhampton Beach.

The results of this sampling have already been reported to residents in the annual water quality report and to the US EPA. Measures have been taken to address the public water supply. Currently, the public drinking water supply in the area is below the current EPA lifetime health advisory level of 0.07 ppb. EPAs health advisory levels are established to protect even the most sensitive populations, including fetuses during pregnancy and breastfed babies, against adverse health effects. See US EPA fact sheet on perfluorinated compounds for more information here.



To assess the drinking water quality of properties served with private wells, the Suffolk County Department of Health Service (SCDHS) will be conducting a private well survey in the vicinity of the Airport property. Once these wells are identified, they will be sampled for these contaminants and the State has offered to provide laboratory analysis support. If your property is served with a private well, and your residence is located south of the LIRR tracks, and East of Beaverdam Creek, Westhampton, and West of Quantuck Creek in Westhampton, and you would like to have your drinking water tested, please contact the SCDHS Office of Water Resources at (631) 852-5810. Again, this notice does not affect residences which utilize public water.



As part of the ongoing efforts of the Governors Water Quality Rapid Response Team, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has informed Suffolk County and the Air National Guard that NYSDEC is investigating Gabreski Airport, as a potential inactive hazardous waste disposal site, also referred to as a State Superfund site. This action is being taken because firefighting foam, which may contain PFOS, was, or is currently being used, at the base. The Air National Guard has committed to conducting a site investigation and NYSDEC is working to expedite their submission of a draft work plan. NYSDEC has commenced a complementary site characterization and will be mobilizing contractors to the site in an effort to pinpoint the potential sources of contamination.



Out of an abundance of caution, if you are using a private well as your water supply, you may want to consider using bottled water for drinking, cooking and preparing infant formula until your well is tested and the quality of your supply can be assured. This sampling effort applies only to private wells, as the public water supply has already been addressed and sampled to ensure water quality meets health criteria.



Suffolk County will offer bottled water to residents in this area with private wells at:



Village of Westhampton Beach City Hall, located at 165 Mill Road, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978

This weekends hours: Friday, July 22nd, 3pm-8pm ; Saturday, July 23rd, 10am-3pm; and Sunday, July 24th, 10am-3pm

Weekday hours: Monday, July 25th through Friday July 29th , 7:30am-7:30pm

Residents with additional questions are advised to call the New York State Water Quality Hotline: 800-801-8092 (Monday - Friday: 9 am - 8 pm; Saturday: 9 am - 3 pm).
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
XIGAZE, Tibet, July 21 -- The first Kalachakra instructions delivered by the 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu have formally begun, with some 40 monks beginning a closed-door observance Thursday morning.

The monks, from Labrang Lamasery in northwest China's Gansu Province and Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery in Xigaze, Tibet Autonomous Region, will perform the ritual every morning during the four-day event.

The Kalachakra (the wheel of time) ritual includes a series of teachings and initiations that are given by gurus to help Buddhists through the cycle of life.

This is the first time in 50 years that the ritual has been performed in Tibet.

To embrace the grand event, Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery, the home temple of Panchen Lamas, started preparations one month ago. In Zhaxi Lhunbo last December, the 11th Panchen Lama celebrated the20th anniversary of his enthronement.

Currently serving as vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, the 11th Panchen Lama has received some 1,000 initiations and performed head-touching blessings for about 1.5 million Buddhists.

Latest statistics showed more than 100,000 people have attended the ritual held in the New Palace of Panchen Lama near Zhaxi Lhunbo, including 5,000 monks and nuns and 100 lamas.

After overnight rainfall and intermittent drizzling, the meadow in the New Palace of Panchen Lama turned muddy and slippery. Still, people swarmed into the venue at noon to hear the public instruction and initiations scheduled each afternoon.

Before the afternoon session started, monks in crimson-colored robes carried dozens of huge kettles to pour hot tea for participants to help them dispel the cold. Barley biscuits were also distributed by monks to the excited crowd.

A volunteer put cypress branches and barley powder brought by devotees into a yellow stove and burned them to pray for an auspicious ritual.

After the 11th Panchen Lama ascended to his silk-covered throne in the afternoon, senior monks from the Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamasery presented traditional Tibetan offerings to him.

The 11th Panchen Lama then led the chanting of scripture, with100 senior monks kowtowing in front of the throne.

The crowd of pilgrims started to throw hada, a silk cloth, toward the 11th Panchen Lama as a greeting. Quickly, hadas piled up in front of the crowd.

In his opening remarks, the 11th Panchen Lama called the rainfall "an auspicious sign," mentioning that it also rained once when the 10th Panchen Lama held a ritual.

At that time, the 10th Panchen Lama explained that the rain indicated purification, said the 11th Panchen Lama, reminding the elderly to keep warm on the rainy day.

Sitting on the ground and with prayer beads in hand, Tsering Wangla from Geding Township of Sagya County, Xigaze, said that the cold and drizzle were "not hardships at all," and he rejoiced at the event "from the bottom of his heart."

The 41-year-old farmer woke up at half past five on Thursday morning to prepare for the excursion. It was also his first time to participate in such a ritual.

Tsering, 20, a driver from Namling County, Xigaze sat in the back. He took two days off so he could attend the ritual, which lasts until July 24.

Hearing the Kalachakra first from his parents when he was small, Tsering said he had wished to hear the precious teaching for a long time and was very happy to join in the ritual.

"I didn't expect there to be so many people, and I have to watch from the distance," he said.

Aga, a 51-year-old herder from Nagqu in northern Tibet, listened attentively to the instructions of the 11th Panchen Lama.

"Receiving the Kalachakra initiation from Panchen Lama is really a hard-won blessing," he said.

Monk Shera Phuntsog from Hao Lamasery in Xigaze also treasured the instructions of the 11th Panchen Lama.

He said that the first-day instruction was very important as it addressed the proper motivations followers must have when seeking dharma from teachers as well as the commandments they must keep.

To ensure the smooth operation of the grand event and offer convenience for participants, a dozen temporary water stations and toilets have been built.

Some 50 doctors and nurses from local hospitals have been assembled in 11 medical squads to provide emergency aid when necessary and manage sanitation control.

No major emergency treatment was performed on the first day, according to Sogdoi from the Xigaze Health Bureau.
(Global Times) 08:48, July 22, 2016

The rise of Donald Trump as the US Republican Party's presidential candidate has made Chinese experts wonder how a businessman, who was often ridiculed, could have bested politicians and is now just one step away from the presidency.

While Chinese netizens remain skeptical about Trump and the US political system, scholars are surprised with the strength of the anti-establishment sentiment.

"At the very beginning, we didn't expect American disgust with Washington and Wall Street to have such a powerful impact on the US general election," Jin Canrong, deputy director of the Center of American Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Jin said he believes the growing wealth gap and the slowing economy in the US has led to Trump's growing support, not to mention Trump's brashness which separates him from traditional politicians.

In December 2014, MSNBC posted an article on its official website, "What would a Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton matchup in 2016 look like?" Many other mainstream media also published similar articles.

At that time, the mainstream still believed that the election would pit members of two of the US' elite political families.

Even Chinese government officials had downplayed Trump's role, though he has repeatedly made unfriendly remarks about China.

In September 2015, at a regular press briefing in Beijing, Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesperson, responded to Trump's criticisms of China, saying "it is the policies toward China adopted by the US government and the mainstream opinion of the US people that we value more."

Rise of populism

Jin admitted that most scholars, whether from China or the US, were wrong about Trump, and they also ignored the strength of populism to some extent.

He said that observers thought Trump's base revolved around undereducated, lower-class and radical white people.

"But now we discovered Trump could also attract many voters from the silent majority," who found his outspoken style and negativity make him look very different from traditional politicians, Jin said.

Globalization paradox

Wang Yiwei, a senior fellow of international relations at the Renmin University of China, said experts didn't expect globalization to have an effect on Western countries' middle class political views.

Wang said globalization used to benefit the middle class, who played an important role in society. However, globalization is facing a difficult time, and globalization is causing problems for the middle class in the West, such as the immigrant crisis, terrorist attacks and racial tensions.

Experts believed that the middle class played a role in stabilizing society, but now the middle class prefers change. This could be the reason why experts had not expected Trump to go this far.

Chinese netizens still consider Trump's rise a comedy show.

On guancha.cn, a Chinese website which focuses on politics and social issues, Trump-related news stories are popular. On the website's feedback area, many claim to support Trump because they believe Trump "will mess up the US and allow China to overtake the US as soon as possible."

Nevertheless, Wang noted that the American people hold a very different view, because they created something different in the political system.

The "Trump Phenomenon" shows that the US political system is not controlled by traditional elites, and a person like Trump, who has no political background, could also have a chance to compete against a person like Hillary Clinton, Wang said.

Song Luzheng, a research fellow at the China Institute of Fudan University, said it is the democratic system, not Trump, that should be blamed for the current mess in the election.

"Maybe Trump's contribution in US history lies in his very existence, which has made people realize the problem of the current political system and this will eventually push through a change," Song said on guancha.cn.
Japanese military authorities are trying to play up the China threat theory as an excuse for the country's military expansion, Chinese experts said after a media report on Japan's forthcoming defense white paper.

The white paper, to be submitted to the Japanese Cabinet for approval early next month, is expected to say that Beijing's activities in the South China Seaare making its territorial claims a fait accompli, according to Kyodo News, which said it had obtained an outline of the paper.

"We have noticed the report, and the situation still needsto be verified and considered," the Ministry of National Defense told China Daily on Wednesday.

The outline, according to the report, says China's activities are intensifying near the Diaoyu Islandsin the East China Sea.

A Chinese navy ship last month sailed in a "contiguous zone" just outside territorial waters around the Diaoyu Islands, Kyodo quoted the outline as saying.

The outline also says that the number of times that Japan has scrambled fighter jets against Chinese aircraft approaching its airspace has risen sharply, according to Kyodo.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that Japanese military authorities have been trying to play up China's threat in recent years, and the white paper "is telling the same lies" as before.

China's military drill in the South China Sea, lasting from Tuesday to Thursday, took place on China's own maritimeterritory and is done for self-defense purposes, he said.

"The recent Japan-Philippine military exercise took place in the South China Sea, quite far from Japanese homeland, so who on Earth is flexing muscles?" he said, adding that most of Japan's military drills targeted China as a potential enemy.

The Japanese Navy carried out a joint military exercise with the Philippines on July 13, the day after the announcement of the ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal of The Hague.

Jin Yong, a professor of international relations studies at Communication University of China, said that through exaggerating China's military threat, Japan is "playing the trick of a thief crying 'Stop, thief'!"
(Global Times) 09:42, July 22, 2016

The era of 5th generation wireless is on the way. The biggest names in telecommunications, as well as their home countries, are investing heavily in 5G to ensure they have the biggest voice in setting the still-unformulated technological standard. The winners will reap billions of dollars in patent fees as well as a dominant position in the market for their own 5G technologies. China is well-positioned to have a greater voice this time thanks to its huge investment in telecommunications enterprises and their advanced technology.

The US has made substantial inroads into 5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems (5G).

US President Barack Obama announced on July 14 that the US government will grant $400 million to support the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, according to the White House website.

The website described some of the technology's potential benefits for mobile users, such as downloading full-length, high-definition movies in five seconds - 100 times faster than on a 4G connection.

It also told of how the technology could provide first responders and emergency room doctors with real-time videos and sensor data from police vehicles, including patient vitals and medical records, well before the patient arrives at the hospital.

"There can be little doubt that the US's big budget is meant to help the country control the next generation of mobile technology," said Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the Mobile China Alliance.

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler said as much at a congressional subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, according to a report in the newspaper USA Today.

"5G can put this country, its manufacturers, its entrepreneurs and innovators on  a home-field advantage," he said.

The US shares this ambition with just about every other country - China included - with a high-powered telecommunications sector. Setting a 5G standard is about a lot more than just coming up with a set of criteria for a new technology. It's also about money.

Those with a bigger say in formulating the international standard for 5G will reap quite a few benefits, Wang said.

"The standard is made up of numerous patents," he said. "Enterprises with a voice can collect a large number of patent fees. In addition, they can obtain greater market share due to their advanced technology and early entry into the market."

"Along with the patent fees, the companies who influence the standard can earn profits by selling their products," said Chen Wei, a senior consultant at the Beijing-based investment consultancy China Venture.

The promise of 5G

The world's major powers and major global communications companies have all been working on 5G technologies in recent years. The standard promises big things for users.

So far, most of the public attention has focused on 5G's speed. And rightly so. 5G will provide users with data transfer speeds that are 10 to 100 times faster than 4G, according to the FCC.

However, the technology's ability to connect with all manner of devices might be far more important, Wang said.

"4G mainly applies to mobile communications, but the application of 5G will be far broader. It will expand mobile data connections to cars and the Internet of Things," he told the Global Times on Tuesday.

There is a huge market for the Internet of Things, China Mobile Vice President Li Huidi said on June 29 at an industry summit in Shanghai.

By the end of 2020, there will be 50 billion devices connected to the Internet around the world, 10 billion of which will be in China, Li noted.

Everyone wants a say

There has been a lot of hype about 5G, but there is still no international standard for the emerging technology, though the big players are working on it.

Consequently, the argument has intensified of late about who will get how much of a say in the technology's formulation.

Some think that countries and companies with a bigger say in formulating the standard will become the dominant players in the 5G era.

Consider Qualcomm Inc. The telecommunications giant owns a number of core patents for 3G and 4G mobile technologies. Any company that wants to use the standard has to either buy Qualcommm's equipment or pay it licensing fees for its patents.

China Mobile experienced this first-hand.

"It is estimated that in 2014 China Mobile would pay at least 5 billion yuan in additional patent fees to Qualcomm for using Qualcomm's 3G patent technology in its TD-LTE terminal equipment," the Chinese telecom's former chairman was quoted as saying by the National Business Daily in July 2014.

Japanese companies are also in on the act. The telecom giant NTT DOCOMO Inc long ago began researching 5G and has already started testing its technology, aiming to become a leader in creating the 5G standard.

China has also taken numerous steps in advancing its own ambitions in this area. In February 2013, the Chinese government established a team to advance research into 5G.

The government has released five white papers about its vision for 5G and its framework for the technology.

Furthermore, China officially started testing its 5G technology in January.

The world's telecom heavyweights are well on their way toward creating their own 5G technology. US-based AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc have both begun 5G testing.

France's Alcatel-Lucent has been making large-scale investments in 5G since 2010, and its research and development (R&D) arm has participated in nearly all 5G development projects organized by the EU.

South Korea-based Samsung and Sweden-based Ericsson have also dipped their toes into 5G R&D.

China's efforts

The situation is similar in China. "All major telecom operators and telecommunications equipment manufacturers will join the competition to formulate the 5G standard," Wang said.

China Mobile announced on June 29 that it is working to realize commercial uses of 5G by the end of 2020.

China's telecommunications equipment makers ZTE Corp and Datang Telecom Technology have each issued white papers on 5G.

In the past, Western companies have controlled the formulation of the 2G, 3G and 4G technology standards, but experts said China has an opportunity to break the trend in the era of 5G.

"China is expected to have a much greater voice in formulating the international standards for 5G," Wang said.

Chen, the senior consultant, noted that because China's telecom operators, such as China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, and telecommunications equipment makers including Huawei and ZTE, have greatly expanded their global market shares in recent years, China is bound to have a greater voice in the formulation of the 5G standard.

For example, if all three of China's major telecom operators boycott some of the technology in the 5G standard, it will be difficult for the technology to take off in China, Chen noted.
A helicopter carrying three French soldiers crashed near Benghazi, Libya earlier this week. The French government subsequently confirmed that all three soldiers, along with their Libyan counterparts, were killed. The circumstances surrounding the crash remain murky, but jihadists and Islamists inside Libya have been rattling their sabres ever since the presence of French special forces was confirmed.

A new front calling itself the Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB) quickly claimed credit for downing the helicopter. On July 17, the BDBs propaganda arm posted an infographic (seen above) indicating that the chopper was downed with a shoulder-fired missile. The infographic was published on the BDBs official web site and Twitter feed.

The BDB subsequently produced four photos (seen below) purportedly showing the wreckage of the helo, which it identified as a Russian-made Mi-35. (The Long War Journal cannot independently verify the type of helicopter shown.)

Two anonymous officials quickly confirmed to the Associated Press that the helicopter had been shot down. The AP described the officials as an air force officer who knew of the helicopters passengers and an official working for Western missions in Libya.

The French government initially declined to comment on the incident, given the clandestine nature of Frances role in Libya. The Western nation has special forces embedded alongside fighters loyal to General Khalifa Haftar, who has been waging a fierce campaign against jihadists in Benghazi and elsewhere. However, the French have not advertised the relationship, which generated controversy as soon as it was revealed.

During a speech on July 20, French President Francois Hollande blamed the deaths on an accident.

At this moment we are carrying out dangerous intelligence operations [in Libya], Hollande said, according to Reuters. Three of our soldiers, who were involved in these operations, have been killed in a helicopter accident.

Ahmed Masmari, a spokesman for Haftar, echoed Hollandes statement. Masmari said it was probably a technical problem that caused the crash. He also claimed that the French were gathering intelligence on fighters from Boko Haram who had relocated to the area. Boko Haram swore allegiance to the Islamic State last year and was rebranded as the Islamic States province in West Africa.

The BDB rejected Hollandes claim. And within hours of his speech, the group threatened France. Libya will turn into a graveyard for you as it was for your three soldiers and just as it was for Italy before, a July 20 statement from the BDB read. One of the BDBs threats can be seen on the right.

According to two unnamed Libyan officials and a militia member cited by the Associated Press, a French warplane retaliated by bombing an area outside of Benghazi on Jul. 20.

Then, earlier today, the BDB tweeted a photo allegedly showing one of the dead French soldiers, reiterating its claim to have shot down the helicopter carrying them.

The Islamic State isnt the only jihadist, or Islamist group in town

The Islamic States presence in Sirte and elsewhere has garnered much of the international medias coverage of jihadists inside Libya. But other jihadist and Islamist organizations are also prolific actors.

While the BDB may cooperate with fighters in Benghazi who are loyal to the so-called caliphate, it is not part of the Islamic States international network. The BDB appears to draw from other Islamist groups. And it is likely allied with the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council (BRSC) and Ansar al Sharia, both of which have known ties to al Qaeda.

For example, one post on the BDBs official website features a short article praising BRSC commander Wissam Ben Hamid, who has fought alongside Ansar al Sharia for years. Ben Hamid earned international infamy after he was linked to the security failures surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, which left four Americans dead. Ansar al Sharia Libya, which is affiliated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has trumpeted its close relationship with Ben Hamid in its propaganda.

An August 2012 report published by the Library of Congress, in conjunction with a Defense Department shop named the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Offices Irregular Warfare Support Program, connected Ben Hamid to al Qaedas network inside Libya. [See LWJ reports: Al Qaedas plan for Libya highlighted in congressional report and Ansar al Sharia ally a key figure in Benghazi security failures.]

Beginning in June, Ben Hamids BRSC stopped posting propaganda for one month. The group has been under heavy fire and has probably sustained significant losses as Haftars forces closed in. But this past week the BRSC began disseminating photos from the battles once again. The images and accompanying messages indicate that the BRSC and the BDB are fighting against Haftars men in the same areas of Benghazi and its outskirts.

Al Qaeda officials have sought to rally the troops in Benghazi in recent weeks. Both an AQIM official and Sheikh Abdullah Muhammad al Muhaysini, who is based in Syria, released messages trying to boost morale. Muhaysini is, at a minimum, a pro-al Qaeda ideologue and closely allied with al Qaeda in Syria. Muhaysini portrays himself as an independent figure, but The Long War Journal assesses that he is likely a senior al Qaeda sharia official. Jihadists on Twitter who are affiliated with al Qaeda have also launched a hashtag campaign denouncing Frances confirmed presence inside Libya and threatening retaliation.

Other prominent Islamist figures in Libya have also spoken out against Frances involvement in the multi-sided conflict. Sheikh Sadiq Al Gharyani, a senior religious figure who is sometimes described as Libyas Mufti, said that the confirmation of Frances presence this week amounted to a declaration of war, according to The Libya Observer. It appears that the BDB is aligned with Al Gharyani.

Libyans must unite to fight the foreign attack, the issue is crystal clear now, our country is being attacked by a foreign country  the French are fighting the revolutionaries in Benghazi, Al Gharyani said during a televised interview on Jul. 20.

The Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB) posted these photos allegedly depicting the downed helicopter that carried three French soldiers:

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

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Distinctive Dog Program Offered at Enchante Boutique Hotel Silicon Valley

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(Global Times) 09:58, July 22, 2016

The story of human evolution may have to be revised after a series of finds across China have led experts to believe that human life may have independently evolved in Asia, as well as in Africa, challenging conventional scientific thought.

Zhao Lingxia, a research fellow at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences led a team of researchers who discovered three teeth that have similarities to those of modern humans in a limestone cave in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou Province. The results were published earlier this year in Chinese journal Acta Anthropologica Sinica.

Dating the sediments where the teeth were found indicates that they were buried 112,000 to 178,000 years ago, some 75,000 years earlier than when the first modern humans walked out of Africa, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on July 11.

However, more needs to be done to attempt to date the teeth, as geologic upheaval can affect the surroundings in which fossils are found, so the dates could be misleading.

It is the latest discovery made by Chinese paleoanthropologists that questions Africa's status as the cradle of humanity.

Zhao's colleagues, Liu Wu and Wu Xiujie, also found 47 tooth fossils in Daoxian county, Central China's Hunan Province in October 2015. The fossils date from 80,000 to 120,000 years and are believed to be the oldest remains of a completely modern form scientists have found in the East Asian region, the Xinhua News Agency reported previously.

Previous studies indicated that humans with modern features appeared in western Asia and Europe around 50,000 years ago.

"There is overwhelming evidence from the fossil records that China was populated with humans before the arrival of African settlers," Liu was quoted by the SCMP as saying.

In November 2015, Chinese scientists discovered the fossilized skull of a Homo erectus in Dongzhi county, East China's Anhui Province, according to Xinhua.

The skull, which shows the face of a Homo erectus, dates back around 150,000 to 412,000 years or even earlier, Liu said.

This is another important site for Homo erectus after findings were made in Zhoukoudian, where Peking Men lived, and Lantian in Shaanxi Province, Hexian county in Anhui Province and Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, said Liu.

Human fossils have been discovered across much of southern China in the last decade, many of which date back 100,000 years or more, but which share similar anatomical features with the Chinese people living today.

Celebrated paleoanthropologist Wu Xinzhi from the IVPP wrote in the same issue of Acta Anthropologica Sinica that a thorough examination of the stone tools made by ancient people in China from 130,000 to 8,000 years ago demonstrates that manufacturing techniques had been passed down with consistency generation after generation. Their features are distinct from the stone tools made by early African migrants.

The stone tool cultures and the large amount of ancient human fossils uncovered in China suggested a "seamless evolution" toward the present-day Chinese people. Even if the arrival of African migrants might have introduced certain new genes, no replacement or mass extinction had happened, Wu was quoted by the SCMP as saying.

Shift from Africa

"Many Western scientists tend to see Asian fossils and artifacts through the prism of what was happening in Africa and Europe," Wu told Nature magazine on July 12.

Those other continents have historically attracted more attention due to the antiquity of fossil finds there and because they are located nearer to major paleoanthropology research institutions, Wu noted, stressing that "it's increasingly clear that many Asian materials cannot fit into the traditional narrative of human evolution."

Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, said Asia has been a forgotten continent. "Its role in human evolution may have been largely under-appreciated," he was quoted by Nature as saying.

There is a consensus that the evolutionary story in Asia is much more interesting than previously considered.

In 2003, a discovery in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores turned up the world's earliest humans, Homo floresiensis, which were dubbed "hobbits."

They lived some 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, 10,000 years before Homo sapiens arrived, Science reported in March, 2016. This means they are not a "diseased Home sapien," but a separate species, researchers said.
File photo: South China Sea

By now its a well-known fact that the South China Sea arbitration was unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, and that it focused on the dispute between China and the Philippines about territorial sovereignty and sea delimitations. The Foreign Ministry of the Philippines made a statement to the effect that it filed the case to safeguard its territory. China has consistently maintained its position of not accepting or getting involved in the proceedings.

First of all, territorial issues are not subject to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China made a declaration of optional exception back in 2006 in accordance with Article 298 of the Convention, which excludes from the Conventions settlement procedures disputes relating to sea delimitations, those involving historic bays or titles, and those related to military and law enforcement activities.

Secondly, Article 280 of Part XV holds that nothing in this part impairs the right of signatory parties to agree at any time to settle a dispute between them concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention by any peaceful means of their own choice. Article 281 holds that, if the signatory states which are parties to a dispute concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention have agreed to seek settlement of the dispute by a peaceful means of their own choice, the procedures provided for in this part apply only where no settlement has been reached by such means and agreement between the parties does not exclude any further procedure. Because China and the Philippines agreed to settle their dispute through negotiation, the compulsory arbitration procedures detailed in the Convention are not applicable.

The tribunal nevertheless disregarded Chinas objections and proceeded to overstep its own jurisdiction. It referenced Article 288 and Annex VII to justify moving forward with the arbitration. Article 288 of the Convention provides that, in the event of a dispute as to whether a court or tribunal has jurisdiction, the matter shall be settled by the decision of that court or tribunal. Annex VII to the Convention provides that the absence of a party or failure of a party to defend its case shall not constitute a barrier to the proceedings.

Common sense tells us that individual parts of a law will not contradict each other. Since China made the optional exception in accordance with Articles 280, 281 and 298, its not a convincing argument that the tribunal based its decision on Article 288.

Can the tribunal define its own jurisdiction according to Annex VII? Mi Chenxi, associate fellow at the Institute for Ocean Development Strategy Studies at Chinas State Oceanic Administration (SOA), explained that both the main body and annexes are components of the Convention. However, the annexes are only responsible for procedural matters, and in practice should comply with the main body. Part XV of Settlement of Disputes says that signatory parties shall settle any dispute between them concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention by peaceful means. It also imposes many conditions and restrictions on the application of Annex VII.

Mi said the Convention is the result of time consuming negotiations in which every partys interests were fairly considered. The restrictions and exceptions in Section 3 of Part XV provide legal protection for signatory states to choose peaceful means to address disputes concerning their vital national interests. The preamble says that the establishment of the Convention sets a legal order for the seas and oceans with due regard for the sovereignty of all states. Issues that dont stem from the Convention and are not regulated by the Convention should be dealt with based on the rules and principles of general international law. The arbitration procedures set in accordance with Annex VII should be initiated out of good faith. Jia Yu, deputy director of SOAs Institute for Ocean Development Strategy Studies, said that the tribunals choice to acknowledge only the parts it favors while turning a blind eye to the rest will ultimately undermine the integrity of the Convention. Therefore, the tribunals decision is unfair, unjust, biased and lacking in any legal binding force.

Many legal authorities outside China have criticized the tribunal for exceeding the limits of its power. Dalveer Bhandari, former judge on the International Court of Justice, emphasized that the purview of international law doesnt include dispute settlement, which depends on the consent of all involved parties. Zheng Yongnian, a professor and director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, pointed out that the South China Sea disputes, in essence, are a political issue rather than a legal one. Since arbitration requires the consent of all parties, the legal approach is inapplicable if either party fails to consent.

Many legal professionals in the West have also expressed concern over the tribunals abuse of arbitration procedures. If other countries follow Manilas example, disguising the true nature of territorial and sea delimitation claims, then the optional exceptions written into the Convention will become empty words. This would hurt the credibility of the Conventions dispute settlement methods and also pose a threat to the existing international order. Antonios Tzanakopoulos, associate professor of public international law at the University of Oxford, and Chris Whomersley, a former deputy legal adviser to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, worried that the events of this tribunal may cause the Convention to be perceived as an evil law, which could damage the overall stability of international relations.

The five arbitrators are experienced legal practitioners. This begs the question: Why are they so ignorant when it comes to basic matters of the law? The answer is obvious. They allowed themselves to be manipulated as puppets in this political farce, and now they have no choice but to play dumb. These legal practitioners lack basic respect for the law, and we cannot look on and do nothing.

As a founder, advocate, and builder of the international rule of law, China opposes the selective use of international law. The actions of the tribunal will not affect China's resolute stance on sovereignty, territory and the importance of maintaining peace and stability through the rule of law.
Like on Facebook Follow on Twitter Share on Instagram George Elliott Clarke is an Africadian poet, with books in Chinese, Italian, and Romanian translation. Formerly the poet laureate of Toronto, he is Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate from 2016 to 2017. His latest book of poetry is Gold. Lara Martina, a seventh-generation Canadian of Mi'kmaq French, Italian-American heritage, is a doctoral candidate in Philosophy Art and Social Thought at the European Graduate School. She lives in Bear River, N.S. Paul Watkins is Professor of English at Vancouver Island University. He's published a number of reviews and articles on multiculturalism, Canadian poetry, jazz and improvisation, and is currently working on a manuscript on African Canadian poetry, as well as a paper on music and sound in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. A George Elliott Clarke Reader What better way to start the summer than with some serious fun? Open The Malahat Review's Summer 2016 issue and read "Othello: By Donatien Alphonse Francois, Marquis de Sade," a new long poem by George Elliott Clarke, drawn from his opus-in-progress, Canticles. This stirring and disturbing romp of a poem is also illustrated by one of a series of works by the Nova Scotia-based artist, Lara Martina, that respond to George's take on Shakespeare's tragic hero, as channeled through Sade. Lara is one of Clarke's long time collaborators. To celebrate George's most recent appearance in the Malahat, we've assembled a "reader" composed of separate interviews with the poet and with his illustrator, starting with and departing from "Othello:.."; a video-clip of George in performance at a club in Nanaimo; and the first-time, web-exclusive publication of "The Testament of Ulysses X," another poem from Canticles. You may read the full text of this poem or listen to George's performance of it, recorded while he was the 2015 Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. George Elliott Clarke has been an invigorating force in Canadian writing for almost three decades. His second book, Whyllah Falls (1990), a book-length "blues spiritual" about life and love inspired by the history and culture of Africadian community of Nova Scotia, brought his writing to immediate national attention, where it has stayed ever since, with the rest of the world increasingly turning an attentive ear. The author and editor of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction, critical studies, and anthologies of Africadian literature, he won the Governor General's Award for Poetry for Execution Poems in 2001. His most recent book, Gold, was published by Gaspereau in 2016. His interests are global and his energy unflagging. Harmonious Dissonances: Paul Watkins in Conversation with George Elliott Clarke Paul Watkins: I really admire your unique ability to signify, to riff, to echo, to mimic, to use ironic compromise, to bolster, and engage with multiple canons and writers, often within a single poem. In "Othello: By Donatien Alphonse Francois, Marquis de Sade" we have Othello as if written by Marquis de Sade. Marquis de Sade and Othello (and Shakespeare) appear in other poems of yours, and so I'm curious how this poem fits in your larger body of work, particularly the upcoming collection Canticles. George Elliott Clarke: I've always been intrigued by "extreme" works and/or writers, and the Marquis de Sade ranks as one of the most repugnantand yet influentialof the Occidental canon. Not only that, his scatological and sacrilegious writings do unfurl a coherent philosophyrepublican, libertine, libertarian. To me, Sade is the logical extension of Ayn Rand: their utopias are palimpsests of each other, only that Sade is truly radical, allowing for Crimetheft, robbery, rape, murderas corrective tactics that the intelligent poor can and should wield against the debauched plutocracy. Read the rest of this interview on the Malahat website. My Muse States: John Barton in Conversation with Lara Martina John Barton: How long have you been working with George Elliott Clarke? Lara Martina: I cold-called Dr. Clarke in the fall of 2009, asking his permission to use his words, "We are the Coloured Christians of the Guysborough Road Church" for the title of a painting. When the Nova Scotia Art Bank bought it, I sent GEC a letter to let him know. He wrote back, sending a poem, "Letter to the (African Baptist) Messiah." As soon as I read the second line, "Blunt Black Being from Beyond," a very strong image came to mind. Read the rest of this interview on the Malahat website. "The Testament of Ulysses X" Decayed is Troy, crumbled

into smoke, ash, stink.

Debilitated are her gods;

all em drab corpses now,

and reek from every field,

every temple.

Their armourextraordinarily

is worthless as a chopped-off arm.

Their bronze, their brass, is ludicrous

as sunflowers on a grave.

No Beauty alleviates this Disaster

whelped by Helens hellish beauty,

her unmistakable beauty. Read the rest of this poem on the Malahat website. Listen to George read "The Testament of Ulysses X." George Elliott Clarke at the Corner Lounge Watch George as a spoken-word poet, reading with a jazz ensemble in Nanaimo, B.C. in October 2015.
Our Back Pages

Issue 91

Issue Date: Summer 1990

Editor: Constance Rooke

Assistant Editor: Marlene Cookshaw

Pages: 111

Number of contributors: 23

Buy Issue 91: Print Edition

This issue begins with "Flight," a not-so-short story by Holley Rubinsky (d. 2015). At thirty-five pages long, this is a bold choice; the story makes up nearly a third of the issue's length. At the time, Rubinsky had recently won the first ever Journey Prize, and her short story collection Rapid Transits and Other Stories was a few months away from publication. "Flight" is a tightly controlled, powerful piece, and despite its length it would be difficult to suggest any areas where cutting wouldn't damage the story. We accompany the protagonist, owner of a local hardware store, mother of a passionate, stubborn teenager, prey of a calculating young man, daughter of a man who has now "slimed off" after doing her terrible wrong, as she works through the effects of earlier trauma. Her daughter's boyfriend's father inadvertently sets off a chain of events that sends her "on a roller-coaster moving backwards through time," travelling physically and psychologically as she wonders whether "there ever was an end to parents doing wrong by their children." The story ends with the hope suggested by new life, but the leaden sense of patterns laid down in childhood, and cycles that are simply too hard to break, remains as we move into the rest of the issue.

Poetry comes next, including Roo Borson's lovely "Starting the Tape" (one of six of her poems in this issue) and two poems by Toni Sammons that encourage slowing down and reflection on their phrasing and imagery: "soft edges interfere with organization / hard edges interfere with observation." Mavor Moore (d. 2006) contributes two pieces, and selections from Libby Scheier's (d. 2000) Sky: a poem in four pieces, which was also published in 1990, appear here. The issue closes with Patrick Kavanagh's atmospheric piece "Incense," excerpted from his first novel Gaff Topsails, though this book was not to be completed until 1995.

Notable in the reviews section are two reviews of Thomson Highway's plays  one of The Rez Sisters and another of Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. These two plays, which Highway would later go on to translate and stage in Cree versions in 2010, are perhaps his best-known work. He won Dora Mavor Moore awards for each of them, marking a subtle connection to one of the poets named above  Mavor Moore, son of Dora, the Canadian theatre pioneer. Poetry by Al Purdy (d. 2000) and Marlene Cookshaw, assistant editor of this issue, is also reviewed here, as is Jane Urquhart's second novel Changing Heaven, which is called "a profound pleasure."

Micaela Maftei

About Our Back Pages
CAFT members and CAFT founder David Wang Tian (third from left). Photo: Courtesy of David Wang Tian

As the 2016 Republican National Convention draws to a close, a Chinese-American organization has vowed to keep fighting for the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps vision. Part of the motivation of the group, which calls itself Chinese Americans for Trump (CAFT), is to set an example for overseas Chinese to be more active in politics.

We will fight for America in the upcoming election and beyond. We will fight indefinitely for the Chinese-American core values and the conservative values of the GOP. We will fight for Mr. Trumps vision for America: to bring back a time when Americans were able to dream big and do great things, said David Wang Tian, founder of CAFT, at the Asian Pacific American National Forum on the sidelines of the RNC in Cleveland, Ohio. The forum took place on July 21 local time.

Wang told People's Daily Online that discrimination is still widespread, and there are many Chinese-American watchdog groups drawing attention to that discrimination. One such case involves the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, whose hosts comments allegedly discriminated against Chinese Americans and made light of the manslaughter conviction handed down to NYPD officer Peter Liang.

Sun Chenghao, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told Peoples Daily Online that Chinese Americans are increasingly aware of the need to speak out and advocate for themselves in the U.S., where there are many legal channels available to do just that. Included in those channels is participation in the upcoming election.

Chinese Americans used to play a less influential role in politics than other Asian Americans, possibly because Chinese people are less inclined to express themselves. But with the growing number of Chinese Americans in the country, where ethnic conflicts are increasingly obvious, it is necessary to protect their interests, Sun said.

However, Chinese Americans are still overall a weak presence in political elections, said Cliff Li Zhonggang, a director with the National Committee of Asian American Republicans, China News Service reported.

Wang said that he is not aware of any Chinese Americans currently involved with the Hillary Clinton campaign.

We believe that Hillary Clinton represents the old, broken Washington, plagued with corruption and gridlock, Wang said at the July 21 forum. A vote for Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a vote for real change that can bring back the core values of America, which made our nation the most powerful and prosperous country in the world.

Founded in 2015, CAFT is a group of over 5,000 Chinese Americans. It is the biggest and most active Asian support organization for Trump. The organization has held voter outreach programs and planning rallies and fundraising activities for Trumps campaign in more than 28 states, according to Wang.

He said some CAFT representatives were even invited to a meeting with Trump at Trump's home in California several months ago. Trump, who Wang described as amiable, issued the invitation in order to express his appreciation for CAFTs contributions to his campaign.

Donald Trump takes photo with CAFT members. Photo: Courtesy of David Wang Tian

Donald Trump shakes hand with CAFT founder David Wang Tian. Photo: Courtesy of David Wang Tian
Ten Hag always demanding more

Article

The boss provides his analysis of the win over Sheriff and our hopes of reaching top spot in Group E.
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Why getting a 'Desmond' is not the end of the world

I got a 2.2.

I was at home when I found out. Someone posted a picture in our course Facebook group of the degree results. I'd known it was coming, but regardless, I wasn't pleased. A few months earlier I'd got through to the final round of interviews for a top London ad agency. The date clashed with a presentation I was supposed to be giving for my course. I asked permission to go, they said no, a lengthy argument ensued, eventually I decided that it was more important to go to the interview, so I did. And I failed the presentation, dragging my grades down past the 60 mark I needed to get a 2.1. To a 59.333 (recurring.) Yes. I'm still a little bit bitter about it.

I still stand my decision, but I can't deny it was hard. I'd always been a high achiever - I'd got three As at A-Level. And then this. It was the first time I'd ever done less than brilliantly at something. When that happens it leaves you questioning yourself. While all my friends celebrated, I felt miserable, and supportive as they were, my parents weren't exactly thrilled. So no, getting a 2.2 wasn't easy. But it was also really good for me. The earlier in life that you realise things don't always go your way, the easier that lesson is to learn.

I thought my 2.2 meant that I was less clever than people on my course who'd done better. That wasn't true. I thought I was a failure, and that wasn't true either. I really believed that my career was over before it had begun. That certainly wasn't true. So if you have got a 2.2, particularly if you've recently found out about it, please know that it is in absolutely no way going to affect your ability to have an incredible career.

Rory Sutherland, Executive Creative Director at leading agency Ogilvy, wrote in the Spectator in 2013 that he wanted to start hiring grads who'd missed out on the coveted 2.1s. 'I have asked around, and nobody has any evidence to suggest that, for any given university, recruits with first-class degrees turn into better employees than those with thirds (if anything the correlation operates in reverse).' At the time, I emailed Rory telling him he should give me a job. He didn't hire me, but he did give me some great advice. And getting in touch with him made me realise that because I didn't have a great degree, I was going to have to make myself appealing in a different way.

That's the thing about getting a 2.2. It is by no means the end of the world, but you do have to get a bit more creative. Instead of applying for a slew of grad programmes with a mandatory 2.1 minimum, I co-founded an online sex magazine which lead to a column in The Telegraph, which lead to a career in journalism. Which, ironically, is what I'd always wanted to do in the first place but was too scared to try.

It's not just non-traditional careers that are open to you with a 2.2. Big corporate companies have started to realise that candidates with a lower degree grade might have a whole raft of other skills to contribute and have been changing their minimum grade boundaries to accommodate that realisation. The four most famous finance companies, Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG will all consider candidates with a 2.2, depending on their UCAS points. Other major companies who are happy to look at you with a 2.2 include Jaguar, Land Rover, the NHS, HMRC and Nationwide.

There's no point in sugar coating it: if you've got a lower degree than another candidate, you're going to have to make yourself seem more appealing in other ways. But work experience, outside interests, volunteering and impressive interview skills are all important aspects that go into the mix. Most HR departments are much more interested in hiring someone who's going to work hard and be a great fit than an academic superstar, so if you've got a killer CV and an enthusiastic attitude, you're still in with a great chance.

If you're struggling to get a foot in the door with a big company then you might want to consider applying to a smaller company where the hiring process is more personal, or potentially looking outside of London.

Lying on your C.V might seem tempting, not least because you're unlikely to ever be asked to prove your grades. But honestly? It's just not worth it. If you get found out you can get fired, and there's just no point in running that risk. Your best bet is to be honest on you C.V or, if you prefer, to put the name and date of your University without a degree class (though some recruiters suggest that this tends to make it look like you've got a third.)

Your 2.2. doesn't need to be something you're ashamed of. Whether the work was too much, you suffered from health issues, you didn't like your course or you felt partying and Netflix was more fun than work: you had your reasons. And it might be that if someone asks you, you'll need to explain why. But on the face of it? It just sounds like you spent those three years having a hell of a lot of fun.

And if you still don't feel any better about it? You're in good company. JK Rowling, Hugh Laurie, David Dimbleby, Carol Vorderman and Prince Charles all got a 'Desmond'. And it's not just famous people who've kicked ass since getting a 2.2. Adele, 28, told me how brilliantly things have gone since uni: 'I got my 2:2 in Fine Art in 2010, and it made no difference to the way I pursued my career. I now work for my best friend, who I met on the course, at her successful PR company. Life is good, and I was so proud that I made it through the gruelling course with the grades I got. Life isn't all about the numbers, grades, whatever. It's how you apply what you learned along the way.'

PR consultant Claire Sheils, who graduated in 1996, says that her degree result never held her back. 'To the best of my knowledge, no prospective employer has ever turned me down due to my grade not being high enough, so my advice to students is enjoy your time at university whilst keeping an eye on the future. Its the knowledge that you will gain, rather than the end grade, that is most likely to have a significant impact on your future career.'

And if you're still feeling down about your degree? I've been out of uni for three years now, and I've been asked what my degree grade is exactly once. So the chances are, no-one is even going to need to know.
SHENYANG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- An Air Koryo passenger plane, the national carrier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was forced to land in Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday.

The JS151 flight, which was en route from Pyongyang to Beijing, made the landing safely at the airport at 8:50 a.m.. No one on board was injured, according to the airport authority.

Smoke was seen from a compartment when the plane landed. There were 60 passengers and 15 crew on board.

The airport authority immediately despatched a team to help check the plane.

The passengers were transferred to another flight to Beijing. The plane remains at the airport.

No details on the cause of the incident have been released yet.
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has been awarded the Offshore Balance of Plant contract by Vattenfall for the construction of Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, also known as the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.

Following the announcement on 29 June stating that Boskalis was the preferred contractor, the contract has now been formally awarded. The project will consist of eleven wind turbines with a capacity of 92.4 MW. The contract includes all offshore elements of the wind farm, with the exception of the wind turbine supply. The contract carries a value for Boskalis of well in excess of EUR 100 million.



Aberdeen Offshore Windfarm is located approximately 3 kilometers off the coast of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. The scope of the activities for Boskalis includes the design, procurement, fabrication, supply, transportation and installation of eleven suction bucket jacket foundations and scour protection, the procurement, supply, transportation and installation of 66kV inter array and export cables by Boskalis subsidiary VBMS and the provision of the wind turbine transportation and installation vessel.



The use of suction bucket jacket foundations in conjunction with the large wind turbines and the use of high capacity 66kV power cables makes this project unique.



The offshore project execution is scheduled to commence in September 2017. The foundations and cables will be transported and installed with own assets including a fallpipe vessel, transport barges, a large floating sheerleg crane and a cable laying vessel. The installation of the wind turbines will be carried out with an installation vessel supplied by Boskalis. Completion of the project is expected in the second quarter of 2018.



Boskalis' strategy is aimed at benefitting from key macro-economic factors which drive worldwide demand in our markets: expansion of the global economy, increase in energy consumption, global population growth and the challenges that go hand in hand with climate change. This project is related to the development of generating renewable energy due to climate change and increasing energy consumption.


Three State-owned enterprises from the shipping, tourism and construction sectors will cooperate to equip up to eight cruise liners and offer diversified sightseeing services to tap the travel market in the South China Sea, says China Daily.

Sanya International Cruise Development Co Ltd, a joint venture by COSCO Shipping, China National Travel Service (HK) Group Corp and China Communications Construction Co Ltd, will buy between five and eight ships.

Sanya International already operates one cruise ship in the region, dubbed "Dream of the South China Sea."

In addition to buying between five and eight ships, the plan calls for the construction of new docks in the resort city of Sanya.

Liu Junli, chairman of Sanya International, said the ships may also "cruise around the South China Sea at the appropriate time," according to China Daily. The ships will travel to the Crescent group of islands, part of the Paracel.

The cruises will be managed by Dalian-based COSCO Shipping Ferry Co Ltd. Dream of the South China Sea will travel from Sanya to the Yongle Island, part of the Xisha Islands in Hainan province within this month.

It is not clear if foreigners will be allowed on these cruises or if they will be allowed to visit China's holdings in the South China Sea.

China claims 90 percent of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan lay claim to parts of the sea, through which passes about $5 trillion of trade a year
Arbitrage opens after ANS discount widen on ample supplies.



Unipec, the trading arm of top Asian refiner Sinopec, has bought two U.S. crude cargoes, including a rare purchase of Alaskan North Slope (ANS) for its refineries in China, trade sources said on Friday.



China, along with Japan, have shipped crude from the United States to Asia, since the U.S. lifted a 40-year-old ban on crude exports and opened up arbitrage opportunities.



In a sign demand for ANS has increased, BP Plc recently chartered a foreign-flagged vessel to ship the crude to Asia. ANS is mostly transported to the U.S. West Coast on U.S.-flagged vessels.



Supply of the Alaskan crude rose in July and widened its discount to Brent, opening the arbitrage window for the oil to head east.



"Refinery issues in the U.S. West Coast and maintenance for ANS (oilfield) ended earlier than expected," a trader said, adding that the two factors combined led to a rise in ANS supplies available for other markets.



In addition, close to 5 million barrels of Oman crude and Russian ESPO oil arrived at the U.S. West Coast in July, data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed, replacing some of the demand for ANS.



ANS crude loading in July traded as low as $3.50 a barrel below benchmark grade Brent, equivalent to about parity to Middle East benchmark Dubai quotes, Reuters data showed.



In Asia, comparable grade Russian ESPO traded at premiums of $2 to $3 a barrel to Dubai quotes for July.



Unipec bought an ANS crude cargo which will load this month, the sources said. Chinaoil, the trading arm of PetroChina, has also enquired about ANS prices, they said, although it was not immediately clear if they bought a cargo.



The companies do not comment on commercial matters.



Separately, Unipec has also purchased a cargo of U.S. heavy crude with a quality similar to a cargo it loaded in March, one of the sources said.



Reporting by Florence Tan
A new ferry being built at the Cemre shipyard in Turkey for UK operator Wightlink will feature a comprehensive range of modern Wartsila equipment and systems to ensure a high level of environmental efficiency.

In addition to conventional fuel, the new vessel will be the first ferry to utilzse Wartsila hybrid battery technology to improve efficiency, reduce the exhaust emissions and lower the noise level.



The scope includes four 6-cylinder Wartsila 20 generating sets, electrical and automation (E&A) systems, and a sanitary discharge system. Among the E&A systems to be supplied are an integrated automation system (IAS), a power and energy management system (PMS/EMS), and a 690 volt main switchboard. The specification for the order was agreed in September 2015, and a contract signed with Cemre shipyard in June 2016.



The ferry will serve the crossing between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland, and the Wartsila solutions will make it the most environmentally sustainable vessel ever on this route. A notable contributor to this is the Wartsila hybrid management system. This enables a significant energy improvement over conventional systems by running the engines at optimal load and absorbing many of the load fluctuations using batteries.



"This new Wightlink ferry is designed to be energy efficient and environmentally sustainable using the latest Wartsila technologies. In particular, the use of Wartsila's hybrid system represents a state-of-the-art solution for propulsion efficiency, which in turn has a beneficial effect on exhaust emissions," says Stephan Kuhn, Vice President, Electrical & Automation at Wartsila.



"Wightlink carries more than four and a half million passengers each year and is the leading cross-Solent ferry company connecting the south coast of England with the Isle of Wight. Our new vessel will be Wightlink's flagship, and we thank Wartsila for their close cooperation in this project. We are confident that the Wartsila equipment and systems are exactly the right choice for this modern ferry," says Wightlink Operations Director Elwyn Dop.



Delivery of the Wartsila equipment is scheduled to commence in spring 2017, and the vessel will enter service in 2018.The vessel will feature two fixed vehicle decks to hold the equivalent of 178 cars, and will have space for more than 1000 passengers. In addition to the propulsion machinery, E&A systems, and sewage treatment, Wartsila is also supplying technical and project management, and solution integration engineering services.



Wartsila Hybrid Technology:

Wartsila has been an active proponent of environmentally sustainable propulsion solutions for shipping, notably through introducing engines capable of running on LNG, ethylene and bio-fuels, and then supporting the technology with the appropriate storage, supply and control systems. The company is also a leader in developing battery powered propulsion solutions for shipping. The company's hybrid system involves the use of both conventional marine engines and batteries. The solution offers environmental benefits since exhaust emissions are considerably reduced.


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"Pure" chartering market with little disruption. Rates to hold around W45 for Middle East; W48 for West Africa.



Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are likely to hold steady around existing levels as new vessel deliveries and a reduction in port delays weigh on a ample cargo market, ship brokers said.



"The market will not be majorly different next week. VLCC rates have been limping along," a Singapore-based supertanker broker said on Friday.



New tanker deliveries, vessels returning to service from repair yards, minimal scrapping of older ships and little port congestion have all contributed to swell the number of ships available for charter, brokers said.



"It's a pure market from the point there is virtually no disruption," the Singapore broker said.



Delays for supertankers to unload crude at ports in China such as Qingdao, have fallen to three or four days compared with up to 30 days in April, brokers said.



Tankers are waiting about eight or nine days to load crude at Iraq's Basra oil terminal compared with three weeks in April, shipping data on the Reuters Eikon terminal showed.



"There are no real bottlenecks, no disruption," the Singapore broker said.



Rates from the Middle East to Asia are likely to hold around 43-45 on the Worldscale measure next week, while rates from West Africa to Asia will be around W48, a second Singapore supertanker broker said.



"Owners need to be more disciplined to resist fixing at current levels for freight rates to bump up," the second broker said.



That came as charterers this week began to release VLCC cargoes for loading in the Middle East in mid-August after concluding 29 fixtures for loading in the first 10 days of August.



The slow volume of cargoes from West Africa, the Caribbean and the North Sea have weighed on the VLCC and Suezmax markets, adding to the number of ships available for charter and dampening rates, brokers said.



"The Suezmax market has taken a right dive, although I think we have seen the bottom," the first Singapore broker said.



VLCC rates from the Middle East to Japan were around W43.75 on Thursday against W44 last week. Rates hit W44.75 on July 20, the highest since July 1.



Charter rates for VLCCs from West Africa to China were near W48.75 on Thursday, up from W48 a week earlier.



"The cargo programmes available show that August will not be a particularly heavy month. It is time to buckle up and hold on tight as the market is looking very soft going forward," Norwegian ship broker Fearnley said in a note on Wednesday.



Rates for an 80,000 deadweight tonne Aframax tanker from Southeast Asia to East Coast Australia slipped to about W86.25 on Thursday from W89 the same day last week on smaller cargo volumes, brokers said.





Reporting by Keith Wallis
Singapores position as Asias leading maritime services hub is likely to be enhanced in a post-Brexit environment, according to Singapore-based Ince Law Alliance, comprising Ince & Co Singapore LLP and Incisive Law LLC.



The UKs decision to leave the European Union has seen Sterling fall to $1.30 against the US dollar, with many commentators predicting a recession that could negatively impact the countrys maritime sector, which contributes 4.4 billion to the UK economy.



Like Singapore, the UKs economy is servicesfocused, with London the centre of UK and European maritime services. However, according to Bill Ricquier, Managing Director at Incisive Law, if London suffers from a UK-wide downturn, or indeed gains from new free trade deals and greater autonomy, Singapore is well placed under either scenario to benefit both from its historic relationship with the UK, as well as newly developed ties.



Bill Ricquier, Managing Director at Incisive Law, commented, It can be argued that Brexit means good news for Singapore regardless of the permutations ahead, which remain largely unknown. Looking at Brexit with the glass half-empty from a UK perspective, Singapore is well-positioned to benefit from any decline in Londons status as a maritime centre, given the low barriers to doing business in Singapore, its legal, cultural and services-focused synergies with the UK, particularly when it comes to meeting the needs of shipping interests, as well as its vital geo-strategic position in the worlds fastest growing maritime region.



There may be a further Brexit dividend for Singapore, given that the complexities resulting from the impact of EU law on English commercial law will no longer be a consideration. In addition, although it is likely that the UK would seek to maximise the convergence and harmony between the UK and EU in terms of compliance, any additional burden that might result from divergence between the two systems may serve to make Singapore more attractive.



Conversely, a glass half-full sentiment may also benefit Singapore if the UK can deliver a relatively swift exit in favour of alternative trading relationships with the EU and other nations. Under the UKs treaty obligations, the UK can negotiate trade agreements with non-EU states but cannot conclude them until it ceases to be an EU member. The UK Government has indicated this week that it will not invoke Article 50 before the end of 2016, but we await further clarity on the timing. Nevertheless, with the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement still awaiting ratification, timely progress towards agreements with the UKs major trading partners, including Singapore, would certainly help to mitigate uncertainty.



Commenting on the uncertainty surrounding the implications of Brexit, John Simpson, Managing Partner at Ince & Co Singapore, added, Once again, Brexit underlines the impact of Global events on shipping. Whilst I do not consider that this should have any impact on the position of English law at the forefront of maritime dispute resolution, more shipping interests may seek to include Singapore as a venue for arbitration following the takeover of the Baltic Exchange. For those who can move quickly, and in particular Singapore-based shipping interests, there may also be other opportunities. The Ince Law Alliance is well-positioned to manage both international and domestic issues arising for our clients here in Singapore, providing a genuine understanding of the local legal and business culture, combined with international levels of service and expertise.



According to Ricquier, early trade talks could play an important role in bolstering confidence in the future of the UK-Singapore relationship, It would be encouraging to see Singapore near the front of the queue when bilateral trade negotiations open, particularly given the historic ties between the two nations and the status of both as key global financial centres. Indeed, increased ties between London and Singapore, as illustrated by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) proposed acquisition of the Baltic Exchange, appear to be inevitable and sensible, whatever the long-term consequences of Brexit for London and the UK as a maritime hub.



Clearly the path to Brexit will be complex, turbulent and not without some cost, at least in the short-term, but given the synergy and shared interests of these two great financial and shipping centres, there is a strong case for arguing that Brexit can be win-win for Singapore.
Investments - If You Cant Touch it, You Dont Own it

The pending Brexit has, not surprisingly, caused a shakeup in the investment world, particularly in the UK. Of particular note is that, recently, asset management firms in Britain began refusing their clients the right to cash out of their mutual funds. Of the 35 billion invested in such funds, just under 20 billion has been affected.

For those readers who live in the UK, or are invested in UK mutual funds, this is reason to tremble at the knees.

So, why have these investors been refused the right to exit the funds? Well, its pretty simple. The trouble is that quite a few of them made the request at about the same time. Of course the management firms dont keep enough money on hand to pay them all off, so, rather than spend all their money paying off as many clients as possible, then going out of business due to a lack of liquidity, they simply announce a freeze on redemptions.

Those who are outraged may read the fine print of their contracts and find that the fund managers have every right to halt redemptions, should extraordinary circumstances occur. Who defines extraordinary circumstances? The fund managers.

Across the pond in the US, investors are reassured by the existence of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has the power to refuse this power to investment firmsor not, should they feel that a possible run on redemptions might be destructive to the economy.

Countries differ as to the level of freedom they will allow mutual fund and hedge fund management firms to have on their own, but all of them are likely to err on the side of the protection of the firms rather than the rights of the investor, as the firms will undoubtedly make a good case that a run on funds is unhealthy to the economy.

The Brexit news has created a downward spike in investor confidence in the UK  one that it will recover from, but, nevertheless, one that has caused investors to have their investment locked up. They cant get out, no matter how badly they may need the money for other purposes. This fact bears pondering.

Presently, the UK, EU, US, et al, have created a level of debt that exceeds anything the world has ever seen. Historically, extreme debt always ends in an economic collapse. The odiferous effluvium hasnt yet hit the fan, but were not far off from that eventuality. Therefore, wherever you live and invest, a spike such as the one presently occurring in the UK could result in you being refused redemption. Should there then be a concurrent drop in the market that serves to gut the funds investments, you can expect to sit by and watch as the fund heads south, but be unable to exit the fund.

As stated above, excessive debt results in an economic collapse, which results in a market crash. Its a time-tested scenario and the last really big one began in 1929, but the present level of debt is far higher than in 1929, so we can anticipate a far bigger crash this time around.

But the wise investor will, of course diversify, assuring him that, if one investment fails, another will save him. Lets look at some of the most prominent ones and consider how they might fare, at a time when the economy is teetering in the edge.

Stocks and Bonds

Presently, the stock market is in an unprecedented bubble. The market has been artificially propped up by banks and governments and grows shakier by the day. Bonds are in a worse state  the greatest bubble they have ever been in. This bubble is just awaiting a pin. We cant know when it will arrive, but we can be confident that its coming. Rosy today, crisis tomorrow.

Cash on Deposit

Cyprus taught us in 2013 that a country can allow its banks to simply confiscate (steal) depositors funds, should they decide that there is an emergency situation  i.e., the bank is in trouble. Unfortunately, the US (in 2010), Canada (in 2013) and the EU (in 2014) have all passed laws allowing banks to decide if theyre in trouble. If they so decide, they have a free rein in confiscating your deposit.

Safe Deposit Boxes

Banks in North America and Europe have begun advising their clients that they cannot store money or jewelry in safe deposit boxes. Some governments have passed legislation requiring those who rent safe deposit boxes to register the location of the box, its number and its contents with the government.

Each year, the storage of valuables in a safe deposit box is becoming more dubious.

Pensions

Pension plans tend to be heavily invested in stocks and bonds, making them increasingly at risk in a downturn. To make matters worse, some governments have begun to attack pensions. Others, such as the US, have announced plans to force pensions to invest in US Government Treasuries  which, in a major economic downturn could go to zero.

These are amongst the most preferred stores of wealth and are all very much at risk. In addition, there are two choices that, if invested correctly, promise greater safety.

Real Estate

The Mutual funds in the UK that are presently in trouble are heavily invested in real estate. But real estate that you invest in directlydoes not face the same risk. However, any real estate thats located in a country thats presently preparing for an economic crisis, such as those mentioned above, will be at risk. Real estate in offshore jurisdictions that are not inclined to be at risk is a far better bet. (An additional advantage is that real estate in offshore locations is not even reportable for tax purposes in most countries, because it cannot be expatriated to another country.

Precious Metals

Precious metals are a highly liquid form of investment. They can be bought and sold quickly and can be shipped anywhere in the world, or traded for metals in another location. Of course, storage facilities in at-risk countries may find themselves at the mercy of their governments. However, private storage facilities exist in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and other locations that do not come under the control of the EU or US. Precious metals ownership provides greater protection against rapacious governments, but storage must be outside such countries.

The lesson to take away here is that, if you cant touch it, you dont own it. Banks and fund management firms can freeze your wealth, so that you cant access it. Governments and banks can confiscate your wealth. If you dont have the power to put your hands on your wealth on demand, you dont own it.

This evening, take account of all your deposits and investments and determine what percentage of them you do truly own. If you decide that that percentage is too low for you to accept, you may wish to implement some changesbefore others do it for you.



Jeff Thomas - Strategic Wealth Preservation

www.SWPcayman.com

jeff.thomas1066@gmail.com

By Jeff Thomas, Feature Writer for Doug Caseys International Man and Strategic Wealth Preservation

 2016 Copyright Jeff Thomas - All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




A community Bible celebration, Believe: All Things Are Possible With Jesus will be held from 5-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, July 29, at the Horsepasture Fire Department Building.

Programs will include: Do You Believe?, Build Your Faith, Bible Time Marketplace and a prayer wall. Crafts will have a Bible-time theme, and free meals will be served to children.

The event is sponsored by Greater Love Ministries Christian Education Ministry.

102nd Session of Smith River Missionary Baptist Association will convene, beginning with a program at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with the Laymen League and the Mass Choir.

On Thursday, registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., and the session will begin at 9:30, featuring youth and workshops. The Rev. Eric Ross, associate minister of Trinity Church of the Living God, will speak. Thursday will be Moderators Night, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The session Friday, July 30, will start at 9:30 a.m. The Rev. Ray Arrington, pastor of High Ridge Baptist Church, will speak. Deacon and Deaconess and United Ushers Night will begin at 6:30 p.m. The Rev. Dwight Steele and the congregation of Pilgrim Baptist Church of Roanoke will be the guests. It is hosted by President Betty Shelton.

Saturday morning, July 31, the Womens Missionary and Education Auxiliary will be in session at 9:30 a.m. After lunch, the closing session will feature the Rev. Antonio Logan and congregation of New Light Baptist Church.

Abundant Grace Church, 1549 Daniels Creek Road, Collinsville, will have homecoming on Sunday. Sunday school will be held at 10 a.m., and worship at 11. The Hylton Family of Floyd will sing. Lunch will be served afterward. Frank Newman Jr. is the pastor.

Antioch Baptist Church will celebrate the fifth pastoral anniversary of Pastor Kenneth and First Lady Annette Hairston at 3 p.m. Sunday. The Rev. James Linville and congregation of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C. will be the guests. Lunch will be served when they arrive.

Bassett Memorial United Methodist Churchy, 2805 Riverside Drive, Bassett, will have The Harvesters Quartet in concert at 7 p.m. Saturday. An offering will be taken.

Bassett Worship Center, 7301 Fairystone Park Highway, Bassett, will have a gospel sing from 3-8 p.m. Saturday. Performers will include the Bassett Worship Center praise team, Tony and Heather Mabe Ministries, Rocky Mount Church of God drama team, Live Ministries choir and Redeemers Trio. There will be music, drama, cornhole and a play area for children. A hot dog meal (two hot dogs, chips and a drink for $5), carry-out plates and baked goods will be sold.

Camp Meeting Ministries, Critz, will have speaker Art Thomas at 7 tonight, with refreshments afterward, and at 7 p.m. Saturday, with dinner served an hour before. Thomas, a missionary-evangelist, is the president and CEO of Wildfire Ministries International. He is the director and producer of Paid in Full and author of books including The Word of Knowledge in Action. He and his family live in Plymouth, Michigan.

Christ Episcopal Church will have adult Sunday school at 9 a.m. Sunday in the Parish House, followed by worship service there at 10 a.m.

Christs Temple Holy Church, Axton, will not have regular service Sunday because of the District Convention in Greensboro.

Christian View Missionary Baptist Church and High Ridge Baptist Church will hold vacation Bible school at 7 tonight and at 8:15 a.m. Saturday at Christian View. The theme is Joy in Jesus. Deacon Walter Robinson is the chair.

Divine Faith Holiness Church will have speaker Pastor Zeb Talley Jr. of United Holiness Worship Center at 3 p.m. Sunday. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Elder Alan Preston of Refuge Temple Ministries will speak. The services are in honor of the 13th pastoral anniversary of Elder Marshall L. Wells Jr. and First Lady Brenda Wells.

Faith Fellowship, Elf Trail, Bassett, will have vacation Bible school Come Find Your Treasure in Jesus Sunday through Wednesday. The kickoff will be from 4-6 p.m. Sunday with food, face-painting and games. From 7-8:15 weeknights, sessions will have lessons, games and music. There will be a dolphin slide (clothes will get wet), hot dogs, show cones, cotton candy, a dunking booth and bouncy houses.

Forest Hills Presbyterian Church will have a piano concert by Dr. Charles Hulin IV at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Hulin is the chair of the music department at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, and on the board of directors of Da Capo Virginia. The concert is free, but donations of $20 are requested.

Fuller Memorial Baptist Church, 1204 Askin St., Martinsville, will hold Journey Off The Map vacation Bible school from 6-8:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. It will have Bible study, missions, music, crafts, recreation and refreshments for children ages 3-12. For more information, call 632-4613.

Gethsemane Pentecostal Holiness Church, 2380 Blackberry Road, Bassett, will celebrate the anniversary of the youth choir at 3 p.m. Sunday. Minister Greg Perkins will be the guest speaker.

Gospel Light United Holy Church, 85 Gospel Light Road, Axton, will have the Education Committees annual fellowship service at 3 p.m. Sunday. The speaker will be Mother Bettress Hampton.

Greater Love Ministries will host a Community Bible Celebration from 5-9 p.m. Thursday, July 29 and Friday, July 29, at the Horsepasture Fire Department building. The event will bring Bible stories to life for the entire family.

Helen King is starting a new Bible study group which will meet at 2 p.m. Mondays at Hugos, starting this week, and she invites anyone interested to join her.

High Ridge Baptist Church will celebrate the 18th pastoral anniversary of Dr. Ray T. Arrington on Sunday. At 11 a.m., the Rev. Gary Alexander of Wirtz will speak. A meal will be served, and then at 3 p.m. the Rev. Thomas Harper of Pine Street Baptist Church in Covington will speak.

Hillcrest Baptist Church, 18075 A.L. Philpott Highway, Ridgeway, will have vacation Bible school from 6:20-8:45 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 29, for children ages 3 years old to in fifth grade. The theme is Submerged. It will include Bible stories, crafts, game time and snacks. The closing program will be at 6 p.m. Sunday, July 31.

Lift Up Jesus Community Ministry, which meets from 4-6 p.m. at Horsepasture Ruritan Building, will have guest speaker Minister Dewey Newman talking about addiction on Sunday. On Wednesday, Evangelist Sarah Taylor, Minister Roy Jamison and Sandra W. Hairston will speak. On Thursday, Ministers Tim Prillaman and Roy Jamison and Sandra W. Hairston will speak.

Mayo Baptist Church, 85 Penn Store Road, Spencer, will have its 172nd annual homecoming and revival at 11 a.m. Sunday. Lunch will follow. Annual revival will be held at 7 nightly Monday through Wednesday. The guest speaker will be Pastor Larry Cheek.

Mt. Olive Holiness Church, 246 Cabell St., Martinsville, will have the 48th anniversary of the Faithful Travelers at 5 p.m. Saturday. The event will feature guest groups from Java, Danville, Martinsville, Bassett and surrounding areas. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Bishop Boyce White of Mt. Pisgah Joyland Temple will speak, accompanied by his choir and congregation.

Mt. Zion United Holy Church will have a service at 3 p.m. Sunday with guest speaker Pastor Alan Preston and the choir of Refuge Temple Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Mountain Valley Missionary Baptist Church, 8893 Mountain Valley Road, Axton, will have a fundraising fish fry by the Culinary Department from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the home of Irene Jamison, 21 Landover Drive, Martinsville. Plates ($8) will have two pieces of fish, the choice of two side dishes (coleslaw, green beans, baked beans or potato salad), cake, drink and a roll. Fish sandwiches ($4) and hot dogs ($1) also will be served.

New Millennium Healing and Deliverance Ministry has cancelled the event which had been scheduled for Saturday.

New Sharon Grove Baptist Church will celebrate Ladies Day at 3 p.m. Sunday. The speaker will be Minister Eileen T. Williamson of Tarpleys Chapel Baptist Church. Geneva Davis and The Voices of Faith will sing.

Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Churchs Ushers Ministry will celebrate its anniversary at 3 p.m. Sunday. The Rev. JeSie Morris and the congregation of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Eden, North Carolina, will be the guests.

Rich Acres Baptist Church, 78 Stuart Ridge Road, Martinsville, will have vacation Bible school from 6:30-8 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday. The theme is Under the Sea, and children ages 4 through in sixth grade are invited. For transportation or more information, call 252-4514.

Ridgeway Church of God is having Pets Unleashed vacation Bible school from 6-8 p.m. Sundays in July. The VBS Celebration will be held at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at the church, which is located at 352 Lee Ford Camp Road, Ridgeway.

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, Fieldale, will have homecoming and observe its anniversary at 3 p.m. Sunday. The speaker will be the Rev. H.D. Scales, accompanied by his choir, ushers and congregation. Lunch will be served when they arrive.

Smith River Missionary Baptist Associations music council will rehearse at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Moral Hill Baptist Church. Shirley Harrell is the president. The 102nd Session of Smith River Missionary Baptist Association will convene Wednesday through Saturday, July 31; see details in a separate article.

Spring Street Baptist Church, 200 Spring St., Martinsville, will have vacation Bible school from 10:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday for children ages 4-14. The theme is Fruit of the Spirit. Each session will include a Bible story, music, crafts, game, skit and light lunch. For more information, call Pastor McCorquodale at 618-1614.

Stone Memorial Christian Church will have a pancake breakfast from 7-10 a.m. Saturday. All proceeds will go toward Ms. Wheelchair Virginia.

Temple of Christ Church, 1018 Fisher Farm Road, Martinsville, will have homecoming at noon Sunday. The speaker will be Elder William Terry of New Mt. Olive Church in Halifax.

T.R.A.S.H. Ministry, 4355 Virginia Avenue, Collinsville, will have guest speaker Pastor C.J. Martin of House of Purpose at 7:30 tonight.

Trinity Friends Church, 5 Summit St., Martinsville, will host the Redemption Trio of Kentucky Mountain Bible College at 10:45 a.m. Sunday. An offering will be taken.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is urging local businesses to seek aid from his office if they are targeted by patent trolls.

Patent trolls are entities that claim that a company has violated a patent that the troll claims to own, Herring said Friday during an early morning public forum hosted by the Roanoke Regional Chamber at Virginia Western Community College.

Patent trolls often send letters to businesses in mass quantities, hoping that most businesses will pay a licensing fee to avoid court costs, he said.

Its really a 21st-century shakedown, he said. While the medical community and technology businesses are the main recipient of those threats, it really can happen to mainstream businesses, too.

Many businesses targeted by patent trolls are unable to pay the court costs necessary to fight the lawsuit, Herring said. One business owner told Herring that he was able to secure a lawyer to fight his patent troll case. If the lawyer hadnt agreed to work for free, Herring said, the business would have owed $200,000 in legal fees.

In 2014, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation authorizing the Office of the Attorney General to investigate instances of patent trolling. Herrings office can also seek civil penalties.

Even if the patent troll is outside Virginia, weve got the authority to go after them, Herring said. So we have sent letters out to all the chambers in the state to let them know that we have these tools now.

Herring also discussed several initiatives his office is undertaking to improve law enforcement in the state.

His office is working with police departments in Martinsville and Danville to increase diversity among new hires. The office is researching why police departments in similar cities are not receiving more applications from members of minority groups.

These are cities with large African-American populations, about 50-50, Herring said. And yet the number of minority officers is very small.

The office also plans to work with state police academies to modernize training programs and standardize law enforcement curricula.
Christopher Maxwell will learn how much time hell spend in prison next month. He pled guilty

Wednesday in Patrick County Circuit Court to two counts of selling or distributing LSD and one count each of possession of dimethyltryptamine, possession of amphetamine and possession of Clonazepam.

Judge Martin F. Clark Jr. scheduled Maxwells sentencing for Aug. 15 at 11:30 a.m. Court records list Maxwells address as St. Augustine, Florida, but one court record indicates he had moved to Virginia.

Maxwell, 31, is charged in connection with an incident on July 24, 2015.

The commonwealth nolle prossed (discontinued prosecution of) one charge of sale of schedule 1 or 2 controlled substance, according to court records.

Also in Circuit Court on Wednesday, Harold Lee Alison, whose last name also is spelled Allison in court records, who was indicted on a charge of statutory burglary, pled guilty to an amended charge of misdemeanor trespass. Clark sentenced Alison to 12 months of incarceration, all suspended except for six months active, as well as two years of good behavior, and payment of a $500 fine and costs.

Alison, 46, of Mount Airy, North Carolina, was accused in the indictment charging him with statutory burglary of breaking and entering and concealing himself in the home of Destiny Shuff with intent to commit larceny, assault and battery or any felony rather than murder, rape, robbery or arson on March 18, 2010.

In a related case, Alison, who was indicted on a charge of felony grand larceny, pled guilty to an amended charge of petit larceny and was sentenced to 12 months of active incarceration, a $500 fine and costs, according to court records.

The indictment that charged him with felony grand larceny alleged that on March 18, 2010, he stole property valued at $200 or more belonging to Destiny Shuff.
MARTINSVILLE- School board members want more data from Martinsville classrooms.

Several members brought that up in their work session Tuesday night, arguing that more information is needed to make sure classes show constant growth and improvement during the year.

The idea, board members said, was to look at student progress from a business perspective. By viewing monthly data reports from every school in the district, they argued, the board would have a better idea of where the issues are.

I am a businessman and in my business I look at data every day, school board member Eric Hruza said. Hruza serves as CEO of A2Speed, a local automotive performance parts company.

We need to have a no excuses policy this year, explained Hruza. We need to make sure the students are getting what they need to succeed.

Hruzas fellow board member Victor Correa agreed, pointing out that this wasnt the first time such a report was requested.

I asked for the same report last year and was told that it couldnt be done because sometimes the data may not really change within one month, Correa said.

Generating a monthly report is complicated, district superintendent Zeb Talley explained. District teachers use PowerSchool to enter grades, but he wasnt sure if the program actually recorded the kind of data board members wanted to see. Theres also a question about what board members would be allowed to see. For example, they couldnt track progress from individual students, as that information stays between parents and teachers. There was also a question about what kind of data would be on the monthly reports. Would that mean all grades or just test scores?

Talley suggested another possibility, sending a nine week report to the board from each school. That data already is developed, making it easier for schools to provide. Correa and Hruza stuck to their idea however, saying they would like to see monthly reports.

Part of the thinking behind the report is holding the schools accountable. School board chairperson Joan Montgomery advocated sitting down with the schools, if needed, and figuring out what the problem was.

The idea for this report dawned after SOL test scores were so low in the last few years. The board members want to see the ratio between actual class grades and SOL scores.

Some students can get an A in the class, but be really bad and nervous test takers, said Hruza.

Last years numbers were a mixed bag for city schools. From 2013-14 to the 2014-15 school year, writing and math scores increased. A total of 65 percent of students passed the Standards of Learning writing test in 2014-15, as opposed to 61 the year before. In math, 59 percent of students passed, as opposed to 52 percent the year before. In reading, the numbers remained the same, with 69 percent passing. In history and social studies, the numbers dropped, with just 67 percent passing, as opposed to 72 percent the year before. Science scores also saw a slight decline, with only 58 percent passing, as opposed to 59 percent in 2013-14. The SOL scores come out in the second week of August each year, so itll be three weeks before data gets released from the school year that ended in June.

No decision was reached during Tuesday nights work session, but board members agreed to continue discussions on the issue.
China not to give up hope after suspension of MH370 search operation

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China will not give up hope in finding the whereabouts of Flight MH370 once a multinational operation covering the current search area in the Indian Ocean is completed, said a Chinese official on Friday.

Minister of Transportation Yang Chuantang made the remarks here at a press conference where he and his counterparts from Malaysia and Australia announced the joint decision to suspend the search operation if the remaining less than 10,000 sq kilometers is scoured and no new evidence emerges.

"Suspension does not mean a termination of the search work. In the future, should key information leading to the location of the aircraft emerges, it will be assessed to determine our next steps," said Yang.

Yang said China is willing to extend the operation time of the sonar ship Dong Hai Jiu 101 after it offered 20 million Australian dollars last year to help maintain the search. "Currently, the crew of Dong Hai Jiu 101 is still on the search mission in the Indian Ocean."

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of them being Chinese nationals.

China, Australia and Malaysia had previously agreed to comb a search area of 120,000 square kilometer, which has the highest possibility finding debris belonging to the plane.
The recent NATO summit in Warsaw was full of contradiction and tensions between members of the alliance. The fragility of NATOs power and the instability of world relations were on display for all to see.

[Note: this article was written before Donald Trumps recent statement on NATO and the crisis erupting between NATO and Turkey. These events however, merely serve to underline the general process described in the article.]

The headline decision taken at the summit was the stationing of a four battalion multinational force rotating between Poland and the Baltic states. This was agreed two years ago at the NATO summit in Wales but it has taken two years for NATO members to cobble together 4,000 troops, whose main task it is to deter a Russian aggression in the region.

But idea that such a small force could deter the powerful Russian army is laughable and NATO has already admitted that it is not a serious fighting force. Before the new deployments, the Pentagon and the RAND corporation - an important think tank - who ran a series of war games, found that the Russian army could overrun the Baltic states within 60 hours. The RAND corporation suggests a deployment of a minimum of seven Brigades (i.e. between 30-40,0000 troops!) along with significant air and logistical support to stave off such an invasion. Even then, they write, this force will not [be] sufficient to mount a sustained defense of the region.

Instead of such a force, however, the summit concluded that the deployment of four battalions of up to 1,000 troops each, is a sign of NATOs support for its eastern European members and a tripwire which, they say, will trigger large-scale NATO intervention against Russia in the event of aggression. Since NATO itself admits that these troops in and of themselves cannot mount much resistance to any Russian offensive, they are essentially deployed as cannon fodder whose deaths can legally force their home countries to mobilise a larger force.

Of course, the military strength of NATO and US imperialism, is unmatched on a world scale. They have, however, been weakened by the effects of the crisis of world capitalism. Thus in many instances they stand unable to act and their real ability to defend their spheres of influence has been weakened.

Eastern Europe

The military crisis of NATO that was on display at the summit is a product of the domestic weakness of the alliances member states. But this is also linked to tensions and divisions between NATO members themselves.

The Ukraine crisis and Russias annexation of Crimea was a cruel wake-up call for NATO. In particular Eastern European nations like Poland and the Baltic states who feel intimidated by Russia. They are keen for a show of force against Putin. The US ruling class is not opposed to this in principle. The deployment of 4,000 troops in itself is an aggressive move. But NATO is wary of going too far. The political and economic implications of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq still haunt the political establishment and the US is anxious not to provoke the Russians into any further conflict in eastern Europe. The symbolic 4,000 troop are therefore an attempt by the USA to appease its eastern European allies but without provoking Russia too much.

Since the Ukrainian crisis Russia has adopted a firmer stance towards NATO. This is a response to NATOs constant encroachment on and provocation towards eastern Europe, which used to be a Russian sphere of influence and which geo-politically is the countrys soft underbelly. Russia has deployed sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-ship defenses, bombers and missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad which is located between Poland and Lithuania. These A2AD systems are intended to deny enemy forces access to these regions. Essentially this amounts to neutralising many NATO military options. Furthermore, the Iskander missiles deployed in Kaliningrad have the capacity to be converted into tactical nuclear weapons.

This is very worrying for the eastern European ruling classes. One analyst from the European Council on Foreign Relations, explained the concerns of eastern European countries: Theyre saying we cant count on either Washington or Berlin and thats making them doubly nervous. An eastern European diplomat anonymously said, "We're vulnerable to bullshit thrown in the fan, I'm more nervous about Russia than Islamist information warfare."

The deployment of 4,000 NATO troops will not do much to appease these countries. Seeing the (lack of) response of NATO and US imperialism to the annexation of Crimea and the lacklustre result of the summit, which was supposed to prevent another similar incident, the eastern European leaders are worried about the future. They could not help but see the pathetic status of Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, who was pacing around the summit reminding those present of the urgency of taking steps against Russia in Crimea. Besides uneasy smiles and a pat on the back, however, no action was taken to calm the Ukrainians. Poland and other eastern European countries have also been hysterically calling for a forceful NATO response to Russia, but nothing has come of it.

As Russia asserts itself in the region, the internal divisions and the vacillations of NATO itself is enough for Russia's influence in eastern Europe to grow as the ruling classes realise they need Russia's goodwill. The countries in the region will be increasingly inclined to adopt stances which are independent of the interests of US imperialism. This will lead to more instability in the future.

EU and NATO

The main aim of the summit, from the point of view of US imperialism, was to assure and defend its sphere of influence in eastern Europe, to further isolate Russia and, most importantly, to push the EU - and in particular Germany and France - to assume a bigger role in these measures. To this end an EU-NATO declaration was signed to further integrate the EU into the alliance. In spite of the pleasantries and formalities of the summit, however, there was a huge void between the the ruling classes of the US and the European states.

Western European governments are wavering in their opposition to Russia. The Prime Minister of Italy recently participated in the St Petersburg forum, a conference similar to Davos hosted by Putin which had been ignored by most other European leaders. In fact, immediately before the NATO summit, Hollande and Merkel participated in a conference call with Putin to discuss the business coming up at the summit.

Arriving at the summit, Hollande cemented his position saying, "NATO has no role at all to be saying what Europe's relations with Russia should be; for France, Russia is not an adversary, nor a threat." He then went on to qualify his statement slightly, but the position was clear: France wants to improve ties with Russia.

In the run up to the summit a major military exercise, operation Anakonda, was organised in Poland with the participation of 30,000 troops from 24 different countries. This was the biggest ever western military exercise in eastern Europe and was aimed at showing Russia the strength and unity of NATO. In spite of big pressure from Poland and the US, however, it never materialised into an official NATO exercise due to resistance from the EU and Germany in particular.

Germanys foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, attacked the exercise as loud saber-rattling and war cries. saying that NATO should not deliver up any excuses for a new, old confrontation.

An article in the New York Times, Does NATO Still Exist? explained the meaning of this:

"Sure, it was only a drill. But when Poland called on its NATO allies last month to help fight off hypothetical invaders who poured into the country from the east, Germany was, well, annoyed. The exercise, called Anakonda  with 25,000 troops from more than 20 countries, the biggest since the end of the Cold War  was intended as a message to Moscow, a show of force ahead of the alliances summit this week in Warsaw. Berlin sent a message of its own to Poland, contributing a total of 400 soldiers, none of them combat troops."

What was was supposed to be a posture towards Russia and to reassure Poland and the Baltic countries, instead only exposed the weaknesses of NATO and the divisions within the EU.

As much as the US and Poland wish for France and Germany to stand up to Russia, there is little will in Germany where big business are eager to have the sanctions on Russia removed. Russia is not particularly interested in dialogue at the moment but we should shower it with offers, Wolfgang Ischinger, head of the Munich Security Conference and former German ambassador to Washington, wrote in an op-ed for Spiegel Online.

Many major German companies have invested heavily in Russia and wish to clear the path for exploiting those investments. Western Europe is also highly reliable on Russian natural gas. Far from reducing this dependence, however, Berlin is pursuing plans to build a second gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea linking Russia and Germany. The pipeline would circumvent Central European countries which make billions in transit fees from Russian gas headed for western Europe. This would also leave western Europe unharmed in case Russia were to close off the gas in a conflict similar to the ones it has had with the Ukraine.

Furthermore, the German public are strongly opposed to a standoff with Russia. Some 81 percent of Germans favour closer ties with Russia, second only to France, according to an April poll by the Korber Foundation. Steinmeier himself, who is a Social-Democrat and softer on Russia than Merkel, is the most popular German politician - his stance on Russia being one of the factors in his popularity.

The effects of Brexit

Traditionally Britain has been the main mouthpiece of the US within the EU and a counterweight to France and Germany who were more independent from US interests. Britain was, for instance, instrumental in pushing for and upholding sanctions against Russia.

Although Britain will remain a member of NATO, its exit from the EU will have the effect of pushing the scales in the opposite direction within the European Union. Germany, France and Italy are interested in re-engaging with Russia after the hard-line stance they adopted after annexation of Crimea. With Britain weakened they now face less resistance. This will likely lead a softening of relations between the EU and Russia in the coming period.

Due to a relative decline in its powers, US imperialism is pushing Europe to play a bigger role, but having witnessed and experienced the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Europeans, who have plenty of problems of their own, have no intention of engaging in new economically and politically costly adventures. Far from the pipedream of a powerful European military power, the EU is engulfed in a deep crisis which it has no intention of exacerbating further by embarking on new conflicts.

The populist and nationalist trends which are gaining ground in countries like Germany, France, the Benelux and the Scandinavian countries, not only put a question mark on the future of the EU but will also lead to a more isolationist foreign policy. With less appetite for confrontation on the part of western European ruling classes and with their eastern European counterparts feeling exposed, EU-Russia relations could become another source of conflict and crisis within the EU itself. Something, needless to say, Putin is very capable of using for his own benefit.

United States

The biggest factor in the decline of NATO is the crisis of US imperialism. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan exposed the limits of US imperialism. At the summit, Angela Merkel explained after the meeting that negotiations with the Taliban must now be part of any solution to the problems in the region. This is a far cry from the position of the US just a decade ago, which was bullish about wiping the Taliban out entirely. Seeing its inability to defeat these primitive fighters, it is forced to make a compromise with a section of them. In Iraq the situation is not much better as the US has been forced to rest on Iranian troops and proxies to fight the Islamic state.

US imperialism has since entered a social, economic and political crisis which limits its ability to intervene militarily on a world scale. Putin exploited this weakness when Russia annexed Crimea at a time when the US could do nothing but scream and shout.

The probabilities of a change in these circumstances are slim. The class and political polarisation in the US is leading to the rise of leaders such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders both of whom have isolationist foreign policies. Donald Trump, who could win the US presidency, has called NATO obsolete and has called the European countries freeloaders, and has threatened to withdraw US troops if the EU doesnt pay more towards the alliance. Isolationism as a political trend is spreading within the US establishment and even Barack Obama has made statements similar to those of Trump. If it comes to it, the Europeans have no choice but to call Trumps bluff, as the state coffers are empty in Europe.

Even in Europe the US is finding a hard time gaining an echo. The US is willing to deploy a few thousand troops, but they want the EU to provide the bulk of the necessary troops against Russia. France and Germany, however, are not that interested. In fact they are annoyed by the stand-off with Russia, which they see as a political and economic nuisance.

Russia

NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries in 1973 - Photo: Alphathon CC BY-SA 3.0After the collapse of the Soviet Union, US imperialism emerged as the sole superpower in the world. Although on many occasions it promised Russian leaders that it would not encroach on its traditional spheres of influence, it was too easy a prey to let go. NATO expanded far into the old Russian dominated areas, basically surrounding Russia with NATO bases. In fact, the summits working dinner was arrogantly organised at Warsaws presidential palace, where the Warsaw Pact was originally signed in 1955.

NATO today Photo: Donarreiskoffer CC BY-SA 3.0NATO also laid plans for a missile shield aimed at Russia and went on to intervene in Yugoslavia, breaking up the country and setting up permanent NATO bases.

For Russia, these were aggressive provocations which left it exposed militarily. Being too weak in the aftermath of Soviet collapse, however, it could not do much but look on as NATO aggressively encroached on it borders.

The turning point came in Georgia in 2008 where Russian troops crushed a CIA backed attempt to draw the country into NATO. Four years later, Russia reacted to another CIA backed provocation in Ukraine by annexing the Crimean peninsula. In both cases, western imperialism was left humiliated and unable to act.

Syria

In Syria as well, the US and its Turkish and Saudi allies were aggressively moving against a Russian ally which hosted an important Russian naval base. The intervention of Russia in Syria completely changed the balance of forces in the civil war, leaving the fate of the warring parties in Putins hands. The intervention revealed the limits of US imperialism.

Turkey objected to the Russian intervention, but the west and the US in particular had no interest in Turkeys agenda. Turkey attempted to call on NATO to step in and save their imperialist intervention - which they originally had embarked on along with the US and Saudi Arabia. That was the reason behind its shooting down of the Russian jet in October last year. In fact, since the start of the Syrian civil war Turkey has invoked article 4 of the NATO Treaty twice, and threatened to invoke it again in July 2015 after the Suruc massacre. Erdogan has been trying to pull the full force of NATO into a war, but the original plans of western ruling classes did not even make it past their parliaments. There was no appetite within the alliance to go to war after Russia had stepped in.

For all those who thought Putins entrance into the Syrian civil war would lead to the end of the US, Saudi and Turkish supported groups in the last few months this has been a wake-up call.

With minimal resources Russia used its weight to become the life jacket, not only for the Assad regime, but also for US imperialism which was facing serious problems. The Russian de-escalation in March this year was designed to keep the balance of forces on a knife's edge giving him the leverage against all parties.

In the end, seeing little support from NATO and EU countries, and feeling the effects of Russian imposed sanctions, Russian threats to cut the much needed natural gas deals and increased pressure on Turkish supported proxies in Syria, Erdogan had to back down. This is the reason for his sudden turn, with his government calling for a normalisation of ties with the Assad regime and Russia, to whom he has apologised for the downing of a Russian military jet last October. In return, of course, it seems that the Russian and Assad regimes are signalling readiness to unite with Turkey to crush the Kurdish enclave of Rojava at a later stage.

Far from the initial hue and cry over Russias intervention, the US, seeing its designs completely collapse in Syria, has agreed to a close cooperation with Russia to end the war. The level of humiliation for Erdogan and Obama in Syria is entirely in the hands of Vladimir Putin. No doubt they were reminded of this as they read news of the besieging of the city of Aleppo during the NATO summit.

By creating a de facto frozen conflict involving all Middle Eastern powers, Putin has turned himself into a major force in the whole region. For the past year a stream of Middle Eastern foreign ministers have been flying in and out of Moscow vying for Putins favour. Putins relationship with Netanyahu appears even warmer than Netanyahus relationship with Obama.

Seeing the crisis of US imperialism, Russia is stepping in where a vacuum opens up and where the country has some prior infrastructure. In Libya for instance, Putin has started engaging with General Hifter who leads the strongest single faction in the country and whom the western supported (Islamist) factions desperately need to form a unity government. Although Russia does not have any major interests in Libya, Putin knows that the west and in particular the EU is eager to settle the conflict there. This gives Putin leverage on other matters.

In Europe, there is a fear of Russian meddling. Seeing the fracturing of the European Union, Putin could gain influence in eastern European countries and use that leverage within the EU as a whole. The mere threat of this scenario is enough to have an influence on German and French decision making today. While economically weak, Russia has used its military power, partially a remnant from Soviet times, to become a global power which western nations must take into consideration when making big decisions.

NATO and crisis of Capitalism

NATO was formed in 1949. The impact of the cold war and the post-war economic boom created the conditions for a converging of interests. Tension between the west and the Soviet block was extremely high, while the boom softened the internal competition between NATO members. That was the basis for the unity between the member nations, which is the foundation of NATO and which is formalised in NATOs article 5 musketeer oath.

Today, however, the crisis of capitalism and its effects on a world scale has drastically changed the context. The US has a historically high sovereign debt, a social crisis and rising class polarisation all of which has led to a deep political crisis. This limits its ability to intervene on a world scale as it used to in the past. But Europe is no better off. The European Union is cracking and the British Brexit vote has set in motion a chain of crises which had been prepared over the last period.

The Italian banking crisis is only one of these, but it is huge and it is in turn affecting the German financial system which is at the heart of European capitalism. All of these are in turn feeding back into the global crisis. This summit demonstrated that the power of NATO is suffering from the same crisis which is affecting all levels of society.

In spite of attempts to act as if nothing has happened, The Guardian reports of a different mood behind the scenes:

However, a Nato official said the issue was driving anxious conversations behind the scenes ahead of the summit.

How can it not affect western cohesion? How can trillions being wiped out in market value not affect perceptions of western strength?

Another commentator, Krzysztof Blusz, said:

Regardless [of] how and when Brexit happens, it will create a situation where Nato member states are more inward looking, more preoccupied with their nationalist tendencies. The impulse is already there, but this will add to the distraction and the Kremlin will not miss the chance to use the situation for its advantage.

As well as pitting national capitalist classes against each other, the economic crisis has also paved the way for a rise in class struggle and through that political turmoil in the west. The political stability which was based on the post-war economic boom is at an end. In one European country after another, the established parties of the ruling class are losing legitimacy and new left- and right-wing parties are gaining influence. The attitude towards foreign interventions is extremely critical and parties are increasingly reluctant to risk their political future on imperialist adventures with little chance of success.

Of course NATO is still an important tool of the western ruling classes used to subjugate and exploit nations throughout the world. But it is clear that the conditions which brought NATO into being no longer exist. In fact as a recent article in the New York Times put it, it is hard to imagine that Europe and the United States would, if they had the chance in 2016, write another Article 5 at all.

The result is a NATO entering into a period of crisis erupting from the contradiction between the present underlying objective situation and the treaty of a past period. The most intelligent bourgeois see this and are worried about the repercussions of major incident on the cohesiveness of NATO:

"Its easy to imagine how the scenario would play out: Poland and the Baltic countries would call for a strong response to pre-empt another annexation like that of Crimea. The Germans and French would call for negotiations with Moscow, doubting that Article 5 would be invoked. The Greeks, Italians and Spanish would make clear that their economies had already suffered enough from the sanctions on Russia after the annexation of Crimea. And much of the public across Europe, manipulated by Russian propaganda, would ask if the Russians werent somehow right in trying to support their fellows in the Baltic States. Wasnt it actually the imperial United States who set all this up, some would argue, just like Washingtons agents were behind the coup in Kiev?" - Does NATO Still Exist?

In this context Russia could play a larger role on a global scale by exploiting the crisis of western imperialism. Western European ruling classes are wary of provoking Russia to meddle in EU affairs and the eastern European ones fear Russia intervening in their countries politically and militarily. This fear in itself will be enough to strengthen Russias influence in the region.

The crisis and decline of western imperialism - the most reactionary force on the planet - is a part of the general crisis of capitalism. In the next period this will increase instability and tension between the nations, but it will also be an impulse for more intense class struggle. The only alternative to the barbarism spread in the wake of imperialism is an international revolutionary working class movement. As the contradictions come to the fore and the narrow minded corrupt nature of the ruling classes are exposed, the basis for building such a movement will also grow.
SHIJIAZHUANG/TAIYUAN, July 22 -- Water supply in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, has been disrupted after flooding was found to have contaminated the city's drinking water.

Shijiazhuang's water supply firm said on Friday that supply would be back to normal in about five days.

Torrential rain in Hebei since Wednesday morning has left 35 people dead and 77 missing, the provincial civil affairs department said on Friday. About 211,642 people have been evacuated over safety concerns.

The supply issue was caused by floods unsettling sediment in two reservoirs that supply water to six districts in Shijiazhuang.

The water company said it was limiting supply to industrial users, pumping out underground water and dispatching tankers to provide drinking water for residential use.

From Friday, water will be available to residents in three two-hour windows each day.

The city has been among the worst-hit in the province during the recent bad weather. Relief supplies including tents, quilts and clothing have been distributed to those in need.

Neighboring Shanxi Province has also been badly affected. The heavy rain has left seven people dead since Monday, according to the provincial civil affairs department.
Brits R Us (1).jpg

Brits R U.S., a British and Irish food store, is coming to Northampton in August. This is a photo of its store in Pittsfield, which opened five years ago.

(Courtesy Brits R U.S.)

NORTHAMPTON -- Come August, Northampton will be a little bit more like the town of the same name in England.

Brits R U.S., a British and Irish specialty food store, is opening at 16 Armory St. in Northampton. The shop will offer meats, baked goods, candies, condiments and a variety of other edibles you can usually only find across the pond, according to business owner Alan Greaves.

Greaves opened his first store in Pittsfield five years ago. Having moved to the states from Sheffield, England in 1999, he missed the comfort foods from home. And like many others, he didn't enjoy driving 200 miles for pork pies and Marmite.

Marmite, a British salty spread, at the Brits R U.S. store in Pittsfield.

Northampton has a market for these specialty items, Greaves said. Many of his Pittsfield customers travel from the Pioneer Valley.

Greaves said Northampton's pedestrian traffic and its proximity to the Five Colleges should make it a viable business there.

"Our stores do tend to attract young people," Greaves said in an interview with MassLive Friday. "The world's a much smaller place now, and people read about things on the Internet, want to try new stuff."

The Brits R U.S. store in Albany closed this summer after three years of business. Greaves said that the shop wasn't as busy as he would've liked it to be, which he ties to a lack of foot traffic.

"I think Northampton is a much better fit," he said.

Along with dry and frozen foods, the store will also sell British sci-fi memorabilia, especially catering to Dr. Who, Sherlock and Harry Potter fans.

Greaves said the Northampton shop will open the first week in August. Brits R U.S. will be taking over the former location of Theory Skateshop, which is moving to 32 Main St.

Check out the products Brits R U.S. has to offer on its website.
SPRINGFIELD -- Citizens Bank and cable channel NECN have named Springfield's Tech Foundry a 2016 Champion in Action in the category of collective impact.

Tech Foundry will receive $35,000 in unrestricted funding and promotional and volunteer support, Citizens Bank said in a news release.

Founded by area computer entrepreneur Delcie Bean, Tech Foundry is a computer training program that aims to prep students for in-demand careers.

Jerry Sargent, President, Citizens Bank, Massachusetts, said:

"Tech Foundry has made an enormous impact in our state and in the lives of students, taking young adults with minimal IT experience and giving them the specific skills and training they need to succeed in an entry level position. By making a commitment to a passionate, results-focused group like Tech Foundry as our next Champion in Action, we are making an unequivocal investment in the next generation of Massachusetts thinkers and workers."

Jonathan Edwards, director of strategic partnerships, Tech Foundry, said:

"We are grateful to Citizens and necn for their partnership and generous support of our mission. Their Champions in Action award is a critical endorsement of our work and we thank them for their partnership which will foster economic growth and workforce development by putting Springfield's youth and others into a sustainable career path in IT."

As a Champion in Action, Tech Foundry will:
As you climb west over Provin Mountain along Route 57 from Feeding Hills, there is a sign welcoming you to the town of Southwick, a "recreational community," it reads.

From there, you dip down through acres of verdant, fertile farmland, planted for generations by members of the same families, some of whom have worked to keep it preserved for agricultural use. A good bit of Southwick's history is intrinsically wrapped up in the raising of tobacco for cigars which earned the region its moniker as Tobacco Valley back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.



Turn south and you approach the Congamond Lakes where it wasn't uncommon back in the day to see thousands of people flock here to enjoy the waters each summer weekend. Beaches like Babb's and Miller's would be filled with young and old, and big bands - the likes of Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James - would delight audiences of their time. The lakes remain a constant in life in Southwick, still a place for boaters and fishermen to savor their pursuits.

Southwick is where John Whalley's family migrated decades ago from the opposite side of the Connecticut River where both his father and grandfather had labored at the Springfield Armory.

It's the community where Whalley, some of his siblings and their families raised their families and built businesses. Whalley Computer Associates is the business he began nearly 40 years ago at his kitchen table and parlayed into a leader in the IT industry and the second largest technology sales and service business in the state of Massachusetts.

Today, Whalley could be content as a gentleman farmer on his 16-acre spread where he has 20 head of cattle, barns in need of attention and a backyard deck with plenty of shade in which to relax.

In this file photo, John H. Whalley III, of Southwick, is shown at Whalley Park, 70 acres of land adjacent to the Southwick Recreation Center that he and his wife donated to the town years ago. Whalley is now involved in efforts to help preserve 150 acres of land around North Pond at the Congamond Lakes.

As it is, he jokes that he's a "full-time employee of Whalley Park," the 70 acres of parkland off Powder Mill Road that he and his wife, Kathy, donated to the town several years ago in memory of their late son, John Whalley IV. Whalley spends many an hour tending the playing fields and keeping the park in tip-top shape for a new generation of Southwick residents. Press him to talk about why he does it, and you'll learn just what a labor of love it is as the man with a big, brash personality goes silent, if only for a moment.

It's the coming generations he's concerned about, Whalley says, as he now undertakes a new role in a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to keep Southwick as the rural and recreational community he and others have come to know and love.

Next week, the newly-organized Save North Pond group will launch a public drive to raise more than $1 million in the coming year to help purchase and preserve close to 150 undeveloped acres around the northernmost - and most pristine - of the three bodies of water which make up the Congamond Lakes. The property, with frontage on South Longyard Road, is situated above an aquifer that provides drinking water for the town of West Springfield; nearby farmlands are already under state preservation restrictions to remain agricultural.

"Every inch is developed around North Pond except for this land," Whalley explains. "Together, we can save this land and preserve the beautiful character of North Pond for everyone to enjoy."

The two parcels, currently owned by Denise LeClair-Robbins, abut the state-owned Southwick Wildlife Management Area and carry an appraised price-tag of $5 million. The group holds an agreement with the owner for the land purchase, and, with the help of the Franklin Land Trust, has been working for many months to get its ducks in the row to help the dream come true. (You can learn more online at franklinlandtrust.org/northpond.)

There's a $1 million commitment in place from the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, there is an application by the town's Conservation Commission for a $400,000 grant, and there will be a request to the town's Community Preservation Committee for an amount to be determined, possibly as much as $1.6 million in funds. (The committee, for which Whalley serves as chair, already has a considerable track record in using its funds for land preservation efforts.)

Whalley isn't alone in the North Pond pursuit.

It includes people like Dennis Clark, the town's conservation officer, Ellen Miles, a 39-year resident whose late husband is often credited with helping focus the town on the need for land preservation, and David Gunn, a relative newcomer who moved here, in part, because of Southwick's rural landscape.

Miles carries on the legacy of her late husband, Jim Miles, who served on the Conservation Commission for many years before his death in 2002. The Sofinowski Land Preserve, 120 acres located off Mort Vining Road, was dedicated in his honor when it opened in 2003 as a site for passive recreation.

"I remember (my husband) talking about development and how crazy things had become," Miles recalls. "He would tell me, 'Before we know it, we're going to become part of Springfield,'" she said, recalling how the town witnessed development after development of new subdivisions come its way, even one of high-end homes that's knocking on the shore of North Pond. "This is special for me."

For Gunn, who's become active in the community in the five short years he's lived here, the North Pond effort is integral to maintaining the town's rural character. "I like open space, and this property, abutting and being part of the wildlife lands, all adds to Southwick being a recreational community."

To understand why Clark's so dedicated to the effort, you need only spend a short time with him along the northwest shoreline of North Pond.

On a bright, sun-filled summer morning, the surface shimmers like glass. It's clear enough to see the fish that swim about its cold, spring-fed waters. Even the docks of the homes on southern and eastern shores of the pond are at rest.

For the most part, it's quiet and peaceful, despite the occasional muffled noise of motorboats from down the way on Middle Pond, the vibrant center of activities on Congamond. Clark and the others in the group want to ensure that level of activity stays where it is, leaving the North Pond property as a place focused for more passive recreation, hiking, picnicking, kayaking and fishing from the shore.

"We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we would be able to succeed," "Clark says. He knows there are many people in town who are "just waiting" for the official kick-off to contribute to the cause.

Kick-off time is here, and Whalley is leading by example in this cause.

An office, due to open on Aug. 6, will be located in a storefront at 491 College Highway at a property he owns near the Southwick Inn. The inn, another of the businesses Whalley owns, is committed to donating $50,000, part of a concept he's initiating to encourage 19 other businesses to do the same by matching 5 percent of every donation from individuals over the course of the year. Monthly advertisements in area newspapers, including The Republican, will list the donors to pay tribute to the community effort; the campaign will also be chronicled on the group's Facebook page where you can watch a virtual tour of the waterfront. (Facebook.com/savenorthpond).

"I'm in it for at least $50,000," John Whalley says. "The citizens of the area respect me for wanting to preserve this land. A lot of people can't afford $50,000, but every single donation will help. There's no doubt in my mind we'll make it."

Cynthia G. Simison is managing editor of The Republican; she may be reached by email to csimison@repub.com.
SPRINGFIELD -- The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted Thursday to approve West Springfield's request for $247,500 in casino mitigation funds to help with increased design costs for the Memorial Avenue reconstruction project.

While those funds were approved by a unanimous vote, the commission postponed consideration of mitigation funds sought separately by the Hampden County Sheriff's Department and the Caring Health Center in the South End. Those requests are expected to be considered at a special meeting next week, officials said.

The commission's mitigation review committee recommended approval of the funds for West Springfield, saying the cost of design was significantly higher than expected due in part to new, stricter design requirements for pedestrian and bicyclist safety that West Springfield adopted at the state's behest.

Under the Complete Streets policy, approved by the town and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in 2015, the major road projects accommodate all modes of transportation and users of all ages and abilities, Mayor William Reichelt said in a letter to the Gaming Commission.

That policy took effect after the Gaming Commission approved a 2014 arbitrated agreement for an upfront payment of $665,000 from MGM Springfield to West Springfield to cover the design cost of the Memorial Avenue project. West Springfield's contract with Greenman-Pedersen Inc. to do the design work is valued at $945,000, and was the low bid for the Memorial Avenue project, officials said.

John Ziemba, ombudsman for the Gaming Commission, said the town's request for mitigation funds was reasonable given the unanticipated rise in the design cost. In addition, by incorporating those design improvements, it will enhance West Springfield's ability to compete for future construction funds for the Memorial Avenue project, he said.

The mitigation fund is financed by revenues from the gaming licenses in Massachusetts, including MGM Springfield.

The Hampden County Sheriff's Department, meanwhile, is seeking $2 million from the state Gaming Commission to offset costs of related to the relocation of the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center in Springfield to a new site, which was in the path of the casino.

The Caring Health Center, which is a community health center in the South End, across from the MGM Springfield project, is seeking $257,075, to help confront parking difficulties for patients and employees. The solutions include a plan to provide valet parking for patients.

The date of next week's meeting is not yet scheduled.

MGM Springfield plans to open the casino in September of 2018, on a three-block area in the South End.

The city submitted a request for mitigation funds on behalf of the Caring Health Center, and the request received strong letters of support from city officials, state legislators, center employees, hundreds of center patients and MGM Springfield President Mike Mathis.

The health center, in requesting the mitigation funds, said the MGM Springfield project has triggered serious challenges for the center, including loss of on-street parking for patients and visitors, increased cost of off-street parking, disrupted phone and communication services and blocked sidewalks impeding safe pedestrian access.

The Gaming Commission began its meeting at 10 a.m., and adjourned at nearly 5 p.m., deciding to postpone action on the final mitigation requests related to Western Massachusetts due to the late hour and the plans for a special meeting next week on a different matter.

Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby and members Bruce Stebbins, Enrique Zuniga and Lloyd Macdonald voted in favor of the West Springfield mitigation funds.
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC), a special needs day and residential school in Canton, has been widely criticized for its use of electric shocks on students.

In April, the FDA proposed banning "electrical stimulation devices used to treat self-injurious or aggressive behavior." The ban is specially aimed at JRC, the only facility left in the country using electric shock devices known as Graduated Electronic Decelerators, or GEDs.

Reports have ranged from students being shocked 10 times in a row due to an equipment malfunction to 31 times in a seven-hour period for breaking JRC rules. In 2008, JRC told Boston Magazine students were typically shocked just once a week. Then in 2010, Linda Doherty told ABC News her son was shocked 40 times one week and 18 times the next week.

Due to the wide range of reports, it's unknown how often students are shocked. JRC did not respond to requests for information on its practices.

As a hypothetical example, let's say a student is typically shocked an average of two times a week. From the FDA hearing in April 2014 to when the FDA proposed banning the devices, that student would've been shocked approximately 208 times.

After the proposed ban, there was a comment period until May 25. That's 10 more shocks.

The comment period was extended and will be available until July 25. Totalling approximately 234 shocks since the FDA had a hearing about the devices.

So why is the FDA taking so long to decide what course to take?

One reason is that this would only be the second time the FDA has passed a ban on a medical device. The first time was in 1983 for prosthetic hair fibers, which were scalp implantation devices to simulate natural hair. The FDA, however, found the devices did not work and could cause serious injury or illness.

They have also recently placed a proposed ban on Powdered Surgeon's Gloves, Powdered Patient Examination Gloves, and Absorbable Powder for Lubricating a Surgeon's Glove. Comments closed for this ban June 20, 2016.

Nancy Weiss, National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities director, said another reason might be the topic's complex nature.

On one hand, there are parents of children with severe disabilities who were taken in by JRC. Those parents are challenged greatly by keeping their children safe, be it from accidentally hurting themselves or others, balancing medication or finding a place in the public school system. JRC's method, they contend, is the last hope for their children.

On the other hand, there are advocates, former students and staff members and the families of students who say JRC's methods are harmful.

Weiss emphasized the importance of parents finding other methods and that the students at JRC aren't the only people "in this country that have significant behavioral issues."

"There are people in every state who have severely dangerous behaviors," she said, "and they're being treated effectively and humanely."

Weiss said she's worried because even though more people are sharing their personal experiences with JRC, "there's a lot we don't know."

If the ban doesn't pass, advocates say they aren't giving up. But many are also worried that JRC isn't planning ahead for if the ban does happen. Even if the FDA does decide to pass its ban on GEDs, advocates say their fight isn't over.

"JRC, as far as any of us are aware or could possibly suspect, are not preparing any transition," said Lydia Brown, chairperson of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council.

Some students might leave JRC if the ban passes, Brown said, but others might stay, and what kind of therapy they'll be subjected to is unknown.

"For those remaining at the JRC, it's an open question," Brown said. "The JRC has been able to successfully evade oversight and monitoring for decades."
Medical marijuana dispensary opens in Northampton

New England Treatment Access has opened the first Western Massachusetts medical marijuana dispensary in Northampton. This is a strain called "domnesia". (Don Treeger / The Republican)

((Don Treeger / The Republican) )

Update, July 25: Second round of tests find no THC in water supply.

A small town in Colorado's water supply has been contaminated with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, local health officials said Thursday.

According to the Denver Post, multiple field tests of the water in Hugo, Colo. came back positive for THC, with others showing negative results. Authorities, seeking to weed out possible explanations for the results, have narrowed the cause to a single well in the town. When investigators examined the site they found evidence of forced entry.

"We are checking to make sure this isn't because of the field test kit -- that it isn't a false positive," Capt. Michael Yowell of Lincoln County Sheriff's Office told the Denver Post.

Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2014, but neither Hugo nor Lincoln County contain any commercial marijuana operations, the Post reported.

No health effects have been reported, and authorities plan on doing more sophisticated testing to confirm the results. The reports have drawn attention from state-wide health and law enforcement agencies, with the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the local District Attorney's Office making a joint effort to investigate the case.

But experts interviewed by the Post were blunt in their conclusions that such contamination is extremely unlikely. THC is not soluble in water, making it difficult to imagine how it could show up in water testing, according to Joseph Evans, a former EPA scientist who now works at a marijuana testing lab.

"The one thing that bothers me about this story from a scientific perspective is that THC is so insoluble in water," Evans told the Post. "I can't imagine, I can't even fathom the idea that THC would be in water at any type of solubility to create any kind of health hazard."

For now, authorities are warning residents not to use tap water until further testing is completed. The Lincoln County's public health office posted note on Facebook downplaying fears of possible health consequences, while saying it would be reasonable to avoid drinking or cooking with the water.
Four children were brought to University of California in Los Angeles to be studied because they were "utterly withdrawn children whose minds are sealed against all human contact and whose uncontrolled madness had turned their homes into hells," according to the 1965 Life magazine article.

The children were studied by Dr. Ivar Lovaas. Pamela, 9, began making progress and was learning to read during the study. But, according to the article, suddenly she stopped progressing and began drifting off during lessons. Scoldings did nothing.

"Like many autistic children, Pamela simply did not have enough anxiety to be frightened," the article said. "To give her something to be anxious about, she was taken to the shock room, where the floor is laced with metallic strips."

Pamela never attended the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in Canton but the findings in the study she was part of continue to influence treatment there.

In 1971, Matthew Israel founded Behavior Research Institute in Providence, Rhode Island with two students. The school, known as Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC), later moved to Canton, Massachusetts, where it is today.

The school didn't believe in using massive amounts of drugs to help students with severe disabilities. Instead they used a method known as aversive therapies, which are therapies that use painful or unpleasant stimulus to change an unwanted behavior.

"Teachers pinched students, spanked them with spatulas, stuck ammonia pellets beneath their nostrils, put them in white-noise helmets," a Boston Magazine article said.

Eight years later, the school was quickly becoming known for being controversial. According to Boston Magazine, at the time the state of New York issued two reports saying it was the "singular most depressing experience that team members have had." The state had 15 students attending it.

Controversy continued when the school had at least three deaths between 1981-1990. The school either settled or was not found liable in all three cases.

After the second death, the Office for Children issued an order to close the Behavior Research Institute, according to Boston Magazine. Israel brought a few of the students to the hearing with Judge Ernest Rotenberg at a hearing at the Bristol County Probate Court. Rotenberg ruled in favor of the facility and its use of aversives.

The school eventually changed its name from Behavior Research Institute to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center to honor the judge.

By 1990, some students at JRC had been placed on the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED). And two years later, the GEDs had been modified to shocks, Israel himself has called "very painful," according to Boston Magazine.

As Israel was introducing more extreme versions of GEDs to students at his school, saying they are the only way to save their lives, the rest of the country was moving away from aversive therapies altogether.

The center was doing new research and found that through "40-hour weeks of one-to-one therapy, autistic preschoolers could attain 'normal functioning,'" according to Boston Magazine. And by 1993, Lovaas condemned his 1960s self, saying shock therapy produced no long-term gains.

Despite pleas from disability advocates and decades of attempted bills to ban their use of shocks, JRC hasn't budged on its stance over the years. Now, the FDA is attempting to change the school's ways, proposing banning electric shock devices.

But, according to Boston Magazine, JRC has a strong set of lawyers, parents and history on their side. And while the disability advocates are hopeful the FDA ban will pass, they aren't overly confident, saying the fight isn't over yet.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (C) poses for group photos with other financial figures from international financial institutions at the 1+6 Roundtable in Beijing, on July 22, 2016. The theme of the meeting is promoting strong, sustainable, and balanced growth of the Chinese and global economy. [Photo: Xinhua]
SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Charlie Baker's proposed $7.7 million budget cut for arts funding in Massachusetts could seriously harm cultural programming and education in Springfield, local arts organizations said this week.

Baker reduced the Massachusetts Cultural Council's 2017 funding to $6.5 million -- a 54 percent cut from last year. The administration has described the cut as a necessary facet of $412 million in total cuts designed to compensate for declining tax revenues.

Arts groups and over 100 legislators have urged the legislature to override Baker's vetoes, saying the MCC's grants support needed programs, education efforts and facilities improvements for cultural institutions across the state.



And in interviews with MassLive, Springfield cultural organizations said the cuts could hit them hard if not reversed, endangering literacy, arts and music programs that serve the city's schoolchildren.

"The impact to creative youth development in Springfield would be devastating with these cuts," said Community Music School of Springfield executive director Eileen McCaffrey, whose school's programs are heavily funded by the MCC. "There are just thousands of children whose lives are weekly impacted by the kind of programming that the MCC is funding."

Garrett Quinn, a spokesman for the Baker administration's Executive Office of Administration and Finance, described the level of arts funding as fiscally responsible in a statement.

"Despite lower-than-anticipated revenue growth over the past few months, the administration was pleased to work with the Legislature to support funding for public arts programming, local infrastructure in our communities and increases for the Department of Children and Families, all while ensuring state government lives within its means," Quinn said.

The MCC awarded $930,700 in grants to Hampden County organizations in 2016, funding a range of initatives including public school field trips and educational programs, music festivals, local theaters, libraries and museums.

And Springfield was the chief beneficiary of those grants, taking in more than $571,000 from the MCC.

The Community Music School, which for decades has provided music programs to Springfield residents and music classes to grade school students, received $96,800 of that funding. Some went to supporting the school's overall funding, but the majority -- $60,000 -- funded the educational initiative that McCaffrey credits with bringing string and band programs back to Springfield public schools.

That program, Sonido Musica, serves hundreds of Springfield students each year and was the recipient of a Yale Distinguished Music Education Partnership Award in 2015. And it would be impossible to sustain without funding from the MCC, according to McCaffrey.

"I can't even imagine," McCaffrey said. "That's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids. It isn't like there's money out there and we can just go and find more money."

Another major recipient of MCC grants is the Springfield City Library, which took in $100,000 to make accessibility improvements and facility repairs this year, plus another $11,500 to support its arts, culture, music and literacy programming.

"We're hoping that the money is restored. We're optimistic," said library director Molly Fogarty. "Any reduction in funding for the cultural council will certainly impact our ability provide all the programs that we do."

The council's funding made up about a third of the library's programming spending last year, Fogarty said, supporting programs which drew over 63,000 people, including 45,000 children.

The library has been lobbying legislators to reverse the cuts, Fogarty said.

The Springfield Museums also received $100,000 for facilities improvements and $45,000 to make its collections more accessible to the public. In a statement, Springfield Museums President Kay Simpson described the MCC funding as important to its overall mission.

"The Massachusetts Cultural Council supports the Springfield Museums with critical ongoing funding that enables us to provide meaningful educational activities offered on the weekends, afterschool and during school vacation weeks for children and families from Springfield and the surrounding cities and towns," Simpson said. "As studies have shown, arts programming drives the economy and generates tourism dollars. The Museums rely on funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to maintain our relevance as the region's premier cultural attraction and educational resource."

The Springfield Symphony Orchestera, who also receives grants from the cultural council, does not plan on cutting programs because of the cuts, executive director Peter Salerno said. The orchestra's annual Education Connection Youth Concerts, which bring over 4,000 area school children to Symphony Hall for a free performance, will go on, but the orchestra will have to seek outside donors to cover the costs.

"We will have to work doubly hard," Salerno said. "It's like anything else we do. If we give up at the first program that we run into, we're really not worth our salt."

Salerno described the cuts as "significant." Though a Baker voter himself, Salerno questioned the governor's judgment and said he hoped Baker would reconsider.

"My view is there's a difference between a good manager and a good leader. A good manager does things right and a good leader does the right thing," Salerno said. "I don't mean that to be negative, but he's got to look at it differently."
BELCHERTOWN -- Lots of new housing could be coming to town, according to state documents that discuss development at the former state school here.

Potential development at the former Belchertown State School will be guided by a document called a Final Environmental Impact Report, which is nearing completion, and state officials will accept public comment on it until Aug. 5. The FEIR discusses the impact of the additional housing.

The town's Conservation Commission is scheduled to discuss the FEIR at its meeting Monday at 7 p.m. in room 101 of Town Hall.

An official Draft Environmental Impact Report that was published last year described potential impacts to Belchertown and discussed development options that have been considered at the 93-acre site off of Route 202.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs website says: "The draft and final EIRs shall present a complete and definitive description and analysis of the project and its alternatives, and assessment of its potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures sufficient to allow a participating agency to fulfill its obligations in accordance with" applicable regulations and laws.

According to the "current proposed conceptual site build-out" in the FEIR, development is planned as follows: an 83-unit assisted living facility on 55,000 square feet, 144 units of senior independent living on 148,800 square feet and 114 units of multifamily residential dwellings on 150,000 square feet.

The FEIR lists this as the "preferred alternative."

Also mentioned as preferred are 18,000 square feet of live-work units, 75,000 square feet of mixed commercial/retail units, light industrial units to encompass 120,000 square feet and 15,000 square feet of "office/cultural/flex space."

The traffic increase that would result is extensively discussed in the FEIR.

"Full-build occupancy of the development project is expected to generate an additional 3,979 vehicle-trips to and from the site during an average weekday, including 333 vehicle-trips during the weekday morning peak hour, 541 vehicle trips during the weekday afternoon peak hour and 357 vehicle-trips during the Saturday peak hour. In the absence of mitigating improvements, project-related traffic would be expected to have generally moderate operational and safety impacts," the FEIR says.

The 470-page FEIR was submitted by Belchertown Economic Development Industrial Corp. to Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act regulators for review on June 30.

The BEDIC is appointed by the Board of Selectmen and officially owns the former state school property. The BEDIC is using as its agent the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency. Maynard-based Epsilon Associates Inc. prepared the FEIR on its behalf.

Comments can be sent via email to Alexander Strysky, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act analyst for the BEDIC proposal, at alexander.strysky@state.ma.us, or via U.S. mail to Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), Attn: MEPA Office, Alexander Strysky, EEA No. 15198, 100 Cambridge St., Suite 900, Boston MA 02114.
State Police sex offender fugitives.JPG

Det. Lt. Michael Farley with Col. Richard McKeon add six fugitives to the most wanted sex offenders list.

(Lindsay Corcoran | MassLive.com)

FRAMINGHAM - The Massachusetts State Police are asking for the public's help to find six sex offenders added Friday to the most wanted list.

"We're asking the public to call. Any tip, no matter how insignificant you think it is, we're asking the public to reach out and we'll act on it," said Det. Lt. Michael Farley.

These six men were added to the list for a variety of reasons, noted Farley.

"If you listen to the facts of these cases, these were brutal assaults, many of them against children," Farley said.

He also noted several of the men on the list have refused to register as sex offenders. One man, Scott Halle, has three prior convictions for not registering. Another, Pedro Munoz, is on the list for the second time.

"Many of them have aliases. Many of them have been homeless in the past. They bounce around from place to place using different names and staying wherever," said Farley of why it is so hard to catch these men. "We just want to catch them as quickly as we can."

State Police added the following men to the most wanted list:

Caled M. Donatiu, 32, is wanted for failing to register as a sex offender and failing to provide a DNA sample. He was convicted in 2008 for an indecent assault of an 11-year-old girl in Salem. He grabbed her and forced her into an alley where he assaulted her. Police note he has previous ties to Everett, Peabody, Lynn and Boston.

Reggie C. Ellenwood, 58, is wanted for failing to register as a sex offender. In 1992, Ellenwood was convicted on eight counts of rape of a child. The victims were two pre-teen girls who he tried to keep quiet by telling them he killed another young girl he assaulted. Police said he has tied to Haverhill, Lynn, Boston, and Lawrence.

Scott A. Halle, 45, is wanted for failing to register as a sex offender. In 2000, Halle was convicted for rape and indecent assault for a sexual assault in Marshfield. He is believed to be homeless, police said.

Pedro Munoz, 57, is wanted for failing to register as a sex offender and failing to provide a DNA sample. In 1982, Munoz was convicted in Worcester County for raping a 13-year-old. He was also convicted in Pennsylvania on corruption of a minor, a 16-year-old, in 2000. He is on the list for the second time.

Lenny E. Santiago, 35, is wanted to failing to register as a sex offender. He was convicted in 2002 after allegedly attacking three women, two who were jogging and a third pushing a baby stroller, in Methuen. He has a previous conviction for failing to register, police said.

Miguel Villegas, 48, is wanted for two counts of failing to register as a sex offender. He was convicted in Worcester County in 2003 of two counts of rape of a child. The victim was 6 years old. He has extensive ties to Worcester and New Jersey. He has also been homeless in the past.

Police encourage anyone with tips to call the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section at 1-800-KAPTURE (1-800-527-8873).
VIENTIANE, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A former Lao diplomat said on Friday that the South China Sea issue would not impede the further development of relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"The South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is just an episode of the ASEAN-China cooperation," Soukthavy Keola, a former counselor at the Lao Embassy in China, told Xinhua ahead of an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting set to open on Sunday.

An ad hoc tribunal handling the South China Sea arbitration issued an award on July 12, sweepingly siding with Manila's cunningly packaged claims. China has dismissed the biased ruling as "null and void with no binding force."

China insists that the South China Sea issue should be solved through bilateral negotiations by relevant parties on the basis of historical facts and in accordance with international law, as well as the Declaration on the Conduct of Parities in the South China Sea (DOC).

China and ASEAN share greater common interests and have a brighter future for development compared with their differences, and the arbitration case is also against the interests of both Chinese and ASEAN people, Soukthavy said.

"If the (South China Sea) issue impacts the ASEAN-China economic cooperation, it will harm the mechanism and role of ASEAN as a regional bloc," said the former diplomat.

Maintaining peace and stability in the region serves the interests of all, and nobody wants turbulence which Soukthavy said will surely make people suffer the most.

If countries directly concerned can discuss the South China Sea issue earnestly with goodwill, they will find a mutually acceptable solution, he said, believing that leaders of the countries have the wisdom to properly handle the problem.

As the rotating ASEAN chairman this year, Laos is striving to play its role of coordination and communication between ASEAN members and China, with a view to enhancing mutual understanding and trust, he said.
A footage of of the video. (Photo from Wechat)

Recently, a video lasting only six seconds went viral online. The video shows a young man removing bricks from the Great Wall using moves that imitate Chinese kung-fu. During the video, a voice says: "It wasn't easy for Emperor Qinshihuang to build the Great Wall, but he [the subject of the video] is destroying it."

The video has angered netizens all across the country. Many have strongly condemned the mans behavior. Others have pointed out that section of the Great Wall where the video was filmed is Dapanying in Hebei's Huailai County.

The State Bureau of Cultural Relics ordered the Hebei Cultural Relics Bureau to investigate the case and punish the man.

A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned from the Public Security Bureau of Huailai County that Mr. Zhu, the man in the video, has already turned himself in. Zhu, 49, is from Ningjin County in Hebei province. On July 17, Zhu and his friends visited the Dapangying section of the Great Wall. Zhu removed two bricks from the wall while his friends recorded a video, because Zhu wanted to flaunt the accomplishment to those in his WeChat friends circle. Zhu was sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention and given a 500-yuan fine.

He has written an apology letter to netizens and the Cultural Relics Bureaus confessing his misconduct and begging for forgiveness.
As evidenced by the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program, the Tory Burch Foundations Fellows Competition, and the Vital Voices VV Grow Fellowship, among other initiatives, there is increasing private sector investment in womens entrepreneurship training. And its about time more organizations and governments follow suit.

We already know that advancing the status of women has a resounding impact on the global development agenda. Countries with greater gender equality see improved health and educational outcomes, as well as more peaceful societies. The connection between women?s economic participation and growth in particular is compelling: a recent McKinsey Global Institute report found that minimizing the gender gap in labor force participation holds the potential to add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025.

Guest Blogger for Rachel Vogelstein

http://blogs.cfr.org/women-around-the-world/2016/07/20/hacking-the-gender-gap-why-the-tech-industry-needs-more-women/?utm_content=buffer8a330&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Air Mauritius held an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, at the Holiday Inn hotel, Plaine Magnien, under the chairmanship of Mr Yoosuf Muhammad Salemohamed.

Three resolutions were voted to enable:

1) The acquisition of 20% shares (200,000 shares) in Mauritius Duty Free Paradise Co Ltd (MDFP) from Airports of Mauritius Limited (AML). To complete the transaction, Air Mauritius will provide a total consideration of Rs 405 million, representing the transfer of 27 million ordinary shares of Air Mauritius Ltd to AML.

2) The sale of 50 million non-voting convertible and redeemable preference shares to AML for Rs 500 million. This will increase the Share Capital of Air Mauritius from Rs 2 billion to Rs 2.5 billion.

3) The sale of 342,732 shares held by Air Mauritius Ltd in Pointe Coton Resort Hotel Co Ltd (PCH) to AML for a consideration of Rs 111,336,458.

As advised the company is engaged in a major fleet renewal plan and requires strengthening of its capital structure and cash flow. These resolutions are the first steps taken to restructure the airline and ensure its long term sustainability.

The actions also support a more equitable integration of the National airline of Mauritius within the countrys aviation eco-system, taking into consideration the important contributions it makes to the national economy.

Reasonable time was allocated for shareholder questions and clarifications about the resolutions.

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BCC School, Pailles has celebrated Eid Day on the 16th July 2019 at Municipal Council hall, Guibies, Pailles. Kids of different age groups took part in different cultural programs.

The program started by the message of the founder and director of the school Mr. Muhammad S.U. SARDAR. Afterwards there was the speech of the students of grade 6. The students of Tweet Tweety (Day care section) gave an Eid message to the audience

Cute Nemo 1 (Pre-primary section) performed an Eid song, giving details of Eid and how it is celebrated. Cute Nemo 2 performed a poem to wish everyone Eid Mubarak. Students of Smart Dora (Last year of pre-primary section) performed a drama on importance of helping the needy and poor, an eid song on happiness on the day of Eid and recited Surah Al- Aadiyaat from the Holy Quran.

Happiness and information were shared with the kids and staff of other communities. T-shirts and wall clocks were given as gifts to one and all irrespective of religious background. Also to give students a proper taste of the eid celebration, lunch was served to all the students and staff of the school.

Madrassah Classes have performed the followings-

1. Madrassah Abu Bakr Surah Al Quraish

2. Madrassah Umar 1 Surah Az-Zalzallah

3. Madrassah Umar 2 Song La priere pour les petits 

4. Madrassah Uthmaan Song A is for Allah

5. Madrassah Ali

Hadith on Politeness of speech by AULLYAR Najihah

Hadith on Muslims must love each other by LUTTOO Eiliyah & Surah Al Maarij

Afterwards there were the performances of primary sections.

Grade 1 Song Happy Eid, Happy Eid

Grade 2  Drama on Islam, a complete way of life .

Grade 3 Poem- The Holy Month of Ramadan

Grade 6-

Girls- Islamic Song- Amantu Billah

Grade 4- Arabic Song on Eid

Grade 5- Drama on Hadiths on the day of Eid.

Grade 6- Islamic Fashion Show

We have celebrated this day with the objectives to teach our kids how to live in peace and harmony by sharing our happiness, Said the founder and director of the school Mr. SARDAR. A special Eid poem which was written and shared by BCC School this year was-

Eid Mubarak, Eid Mubarak, the Eid has come

We say bye, we say bye, we say bye Ramadan

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Les membres du Cabinet ont pris note de la lindroduction au Parlement du Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022, que la STC va vendre de lhuile comestoble en logement dun litre a Rs 75.00, que les foires/salons seront de retour avec certyaines conditions, dun National Action Plan sur le Breastfeeding 2022-2027, de la promulgation de lInformation and Communication Technologies (Licensing and Fees) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2022 entre autres.

1. Cabinet has agreed to the introduction of the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 into the National Assembly. The object of the Bill is to provide for the implementation of measures announced in Budget Speech 2022-2023.

2. Cabinet has agreed to the promulgation of the Information and Communication Technologies (Licensing and Fees) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2022. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority would review the fees payable by International Long Distance licensees as from 01 July 2022 as follows:

(a) the Initial Fee would be Rs100,000; and

(b) the Annual Fee would be Rs100,000 or 0.8% of audited gross turnover, whichever is higher, but not exceeding Rs2M.

3. Cabinet has agreed to the State Trading Corporation (STC) commercialising its own branded one-litre edible oil, as announced in Budget 2022-2023. It would be sold at a subsidised price of Rs75 per one-litre.

4. Cabinet has agreed to amendments being made to the Consumer Protection (Control of Fairs) Regulations 2016 by reinstating Regulation 3(3), in order to allow the Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Protection to resume consideration and approve applications for the organisation of trade fairs on the same basis as it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trade Fairs would be allowed subject to certain conditions.

5. Cabinet has agreed to the General Economic Cooperation Chapter and the Automatic Trigger Safeguard Mechanism under the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) between Mauritius and India. The modalities to incorporate these issues in the CECPA would be discussed at the first meeting of the High Powered Joint Trade Committee scheduled from 01 to 03 August 2022, in New Delhi.

The Chapter on Economic Cooperation covers some 25 sectors whereby both Parties have agreed to enhance their collaboration in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, agro-industry, SMEs, manufacturing, ocean economy, ICT and financial services. The Economic Cooperation Chapter also has a regional dimension as it provides a framework for Indian investors to use Mauritius as a gateway for production and subsequent export to the SADC and COMESA markets to which Mauritius is a party.

6. Cabinet has agreed to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Agence de Regulation des Postes et des Communications Electroniques (ARPCE) of the Republic of Congo with a view to strengthening cooperation between the two regulatory bodies.

The objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding are mainly to promote collaboration between the two regulatory bodies, more specifically activities relating to electronic transactions, the fight against fraud and cybercrime, development of universal services, determination of tariffs, quality of services provided by operators and monitoring of the spectrum, among others. Collaboration between the ICTA and the ARPCE would be primarily through the organisation of seminars and capacity building for the personnel as well as sharing of information and expertise in specific sectors mutually beneficial to both agencies.

7. Cabinet has taken note of the status regarding the implementation of the project for the construction of 12,000 residential units by the New Social Living Development Ltd particularly, land issues, geotechnical investigations of the sites and launching of tenders for contracts for works.

8. Cabinet has taken note that a Regional Workshop would be held by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in collaboration with the Regional Bureau of the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), from 01 to 05 August 2022 in Mauritius. The objective of the workshop is to assess the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking in the SADC Region. The workshop would also consist of a course on forensic drug analysis which would be dispensed by experts from the Drugs Unit of the Forensic Science Laboratory.

9. Cabinet has agreed to Mauritius hosting the African Economic Conference 2022, which is being jointly organised by the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Programme from 09 to 11 December 2022.

The African Economic Conference is Africas leading forum for discussions and knowledge exchange on a wide range of themes and emerging challenges confronted by countries in Africa. The theme for the 2022 Conference is Supporting Climate-Smart Development in Africa to lay focus on Africa as being the most exposed region to climate risks. Around 300 participants are expected at this event which would be conducted in a hybrid format.

10. Cabinet has agreed to the Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage signing an Executive Programme under the Cultural Agreement between the Republic of Mauritius and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the period 2022-2025. A Cultural Agreement between Mauritius and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was signed on 13 May 1975 to develop relations between the two States and exchanges in educational, cultural and scientific fields.

11. Cabinet has taken note that the Kite Foil African and Middle East Championships would be held in Mauritius at Mahebourg, from 26 to 31 August 2022. Some 70 elite surfers from 32 countries would compete in the different events of the Championships.

12. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the resumed session of the 59th meeting of the Standing Committee of Contracting Parties (COP) on the Convention of Wetlands held recently in Switzerland. The Mauritian delegation stressed on the fact that:

(a) Chagos Archipelago is and has always been part of the Territory of Mauritius, as authoritatively determined by the International Court of Justice and confirmed by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 73/295 and the Judgement of the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS); and

(b) Mauritius is the only State lawfully entitled to exercise sovereignty and sovereign rights over the Chagos Archipelago and its maritime zones.

Mauritius requested that:

(a) the Contracting Parties should formally acknowledge that for the purpose of the Ramsar Convention, the Chagos Archipelago forms an integral part of the territory of the Republic of Mauritius and that the purported extension by the United Kingdom of the Ramsar Convention to the so-called British Indian Ocean Territory is invalid; and

(b) the Secretariat should ensure that no reference is made to the so-called British Indian Ocean Territory in any documentation relating to the Convention.

13. Cabinet has taken note that the Ministry of Health and Wellness has elaborated a National Action Plan on Breastfeeding 2022-2027, to improve the current breastfeeding rate and enhance health outcomes for both mothers and children in Mauritius and Rodrigues. The main strategies of the Action Plan have been formulated, based on the six major action areas advocated by the WHO, as follows:

(a) building healthy public policies to enhance breastfeeding supportive environments;

(b) developing policies to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitutes;

(c) reviewing breastfeeding legislation;

(d) mobilising community action and participation in breastfeeding initiatives through the development of strategies for the promotion and support of breastfeeding at community level;

(e) building capacity through training of all health professionals in breastfeeding; and

(f) monitoring and education of the policies.

The Action Plan would be officially launched on 01 August 2022 in the context of the World Breastfeeding Week 2022. The theme for this year is Step up for Breastfeeding: Educate and Support. A workshop on Breastfeeding would be organised as well as a sensitisation campaign on the benefits of breastfeeding.

14. Cabinet has taken note of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world. Some 571.8 million cases have been reported globally, of which 541.9 million persons have been successfully treated. With regard to Mauritius, as at 21 July 2022, there were 400 active cases of COVID-19, out of which 39 were admitted at the New ENT Hospital. Over the period 14 to 20 July 2022, one death was attributed to COVID-19.

15. Cabinet has taken note that the official unveiling of the Mascot and the launching of a new hymn for the Commisison de la Jeunesse et des Sports de lOcean Indien (CJSOI) Games was held on 20 July 2022 at the Cote dOr National Sports Complex. The Mascot known as Joy, which represents an interactive cat was created by Ms Sarah Theveneau. The chanson des Jeux entitled Cest la fete produced by Mr Gerard Louis and performed by the Teen e Diese group was made public.

16. Cabinet has taken note that the Ministry of Health and Wellness would commemorate World Hepatitis Day 2022 on 28 July 2022 at Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital. On this occasion, a few patients who have successfully completed treatment for Hepatitis C would be invited to share their experience.

17. Cabinet has taken note the outcome of the recent visit of the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation to Estonia and Greece which was organised by the Northern Ireland Cooperation Overseas, Belfast, under its European Union funded project, namely Cyber Resilience for Development (Cyber4Dev). The aim of the visit was to get acquainted to a detailed state-of-play on cybersecurity in the EU by having an in-depth study on cybersecurity in a digitally advanced country such as Estonia, which could greatly help Mauritius strengthen its position to become a Cyber4Dev hub in the African region.

During his visit, the Minister had a meeting with the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology and acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia and discussions mainly centered around potential collaboration in the field of digital services and cybersecurity. He also had meetings with representatives of several major Estonian companies in the ICT sector and the e-Governance Academy of Estonia.

In Athens, he visited the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and had a meeting with the Executive Director. ENISA is the EU agency dedicated to achieving a high level of cybersecurity across Europe. ENISA could assist CERT-MU in the conceptualisation of future cyber drill scenarios.

18. Cabinet has taken note that five Directors nominated by Government on the Board of Mauritius Telecom have tendered their resignation and they have consequently been replaced by the following five new Members with effect from 21 July 2022:

(a) Mr Philippe Epaminondas Gaston Maxime Sauzier;

(b) Mr Anandsing Acharuz;

(c) Mr Kritananda Naghee Reddy;

(d) Mr Mario Alain Chung Chin Ah-Sue; and

(e) Mr Neermul Saddul.

19. Cabinet has taken note of the reconstitution of the following Board and Committees under the Mental Health Care Act:

(a) the Mental Health Board with Dr Paramasiven Motay as Chairperson;

(b) the Mental Health Commission with Ms Diya Beesoondoyal as Chairperson;

(c) the Mental Health Care Accounts Committee with Mr Latanraj Ghoorah as Chairperson; and

(d) the Managerial Committee with Dr Rishi Bundhun as Chairperson.

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A training center in Xi'an was recently profiled for promising to cultivate "extra-sensory abilities" in children.

According to local media, the children at the institution are able to identify colors, words, poker cards and even numbers on ID cards while their eyes are covered. Many parents have raised doubts about such training, but others have embraced it.

During a demonstration class, employees at the institution told the students to cover their eyes and identify the color of the cards in front of them. Most of the children answered correctly. One teenage student described her training process, which lasted about two months. The student's father then suggested to all the other parents present that they sign their kids up for the classes, too. The discounted price for training is 12,800 yuan ($1,919).

A man surnamed Liu said that he believes the institution is cheating, though he hadn't yet been able to discern how. He also expressed concern that the kids' views of the world and science could be affected by the training. Several of the enrolled children explained that they were trained to "see" by activating an ability in their pineal glands.

According to Zhang Yongdong, a senior doctor at Xi'an Red Cross Hospital, the pineal gland reacts to light and transmits the brain's signals to the body. There has been no evidence that the development of this gland will generate so-called super power, he added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

Armenian armed forces have 10 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry July 22.

Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the Berkaber village of Armenias Ijevan district, on nameless heights and in the Mosesgekh village of the Berd district opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located in the Gizilhajili village of Azerbaijans Gazakh district, Munjuglu and Alibayli villages of the Tovuz district.

Azerbaijani troops also underwent fire from the positions located near the Seyidahmadli village of the Fizuli district and on nameless heights of the Goygol and Goranboy districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

Azerbaijans armed forces are fully adhering to ceasefire and are complying with humanitarian norms and principles of international law, they do not target Armenian civilians and facilities, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry told Trend July 22.

In order to divert the attention of its population and international community from the ongoing clashes in Armenia, that countrys authorities have once again spread false information saying that allegedly Azerbaijani armed forces broke the ceasefire and fired at the Armenian civilians, said the ministry.

Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said that by spreading such information, Armenian authorities aim to exacerbate the situation along the line of contact and justify their planned provocations beforehand.

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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

By Seba Aghayeva, Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

During the negotiations in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, the sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict achieved certain results, Matthew Bryza, former US assistant secretary for South Caucasus and former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, told reporters July 22 in Baku.

The talks not only reduced tension on the contact line of troops, but also led to the beginning of discussions on the conflicts political points, said Bryza.

Azerbaijani foreign ministers statement after negotiations in Vienna and Saint Petersburg also demonstrates that some progress has been achieved during the negotiations, he added.

A presidential meeting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, was held on May 15 in Vienna, Austria.

Another presidential meeting was held June 20 in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the mediation of Russias President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking about Russias role in solving the conflict, Bryza said President Putin is really concerned that the April crisis was very serious and poses a great threat to the outbreak of a war, which is unfavorable for Russia.

The diplomat also noted that Putin can play a role of a peacemaker in this conflict.

Commenting on statements of some political analysts that the five Armenia-occupied districts may be returned to Azerbaijan until late 2016, Bryza said he did not think it could happen so quickly.

Such statements are a pressure on the process, said Bryza, adding he thinks it is not real to realize this step within several months.

Bryza also shares the views of some political analysts that the recent events in Armenia are aimed at disrupting the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

An armed group seized the headquarters of the police and interior troops in Erebuni, Yerevan, July 17, demanding the release of the participant of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, coordinator of the oppositional Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan. He was arrested for illegally purchasing and storing weapons. The government officials are holding talks with the armed groups members.

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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

The meeting of the Constitutional Court for adopting a decision on the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan will be held July 25, said the message from the Constitutional Court.

The meeting of the Constitutional Court will start at 10:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours), July 25.

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree July 18 on submitting the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments to the Constitution of Azerbaijan to the Constitutional Court.

It is proposed to establish first vice-president and vice-president positions in Azerbaijan. First vice-president and vice-presidents are appointed and dismissed by Azerbaijans president.

Also, it is proposed to remove not younger than 35 in Article 100 on requirements to candidates to the post of the president of Azerbaijan: Citizen of the Azerbaijan Republic not younger than 35, permanently living on the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic longer than 10 years, possessing voting right, without previous conviction, having no liabilities in other states, with university degree, not having double citizenship may be elected the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Moreover, it is proposed to make amendments to the part 1 of Article 101 on procedure of elections of the president of Azerbaijan, according to which it is planned to extend the office term of the president from 5 years to 7 years.

At the same time, it is proposed to add the following words to the part 1 of the Article 101: Azerbaijans president can declare extraordinary election of Azerbaijans president.

Moreover, the following amendments have been proposed:

To replace within three months with during the period of 60 days  in Article 105 on implementation of powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic on his resignation: Whenever the President of the Azerbaijan Republic resigns from his post ahead of time, extraordinary elections of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic are held within three months.

To replace prime minister with first vice-president in the following sentence: In such case, until new President of the Azerbaijan Republic is elected, the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic will carry out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.

To replace prime minister with first vice-president in the second part of this article: If during the said term the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic carrying out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic resigns, becomes incapable of carrying out his powers due to illness, Chairman of Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan Republic will carry out powers of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.

At the same time, according to the amendments to this article, if the first vice-president resigns, becomes incapable of carrying out his powers due to illness, vice-president of Azerbaijan gets the status of the first vice-president and carries out duties of the president.

Additionally, according to the proposed amendments, persons who have the right to participate in the elections (at the age of 18) can be elected to Milli Majlis. Previously, persons no younger than 25, had the right to be elected to the parliament.

It is also proposed to add an article on dissolution of parliament, rights to conclude interstate and intergovernmental international agreements, responsibilities of municipalities and others.
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 22

Trend:

Azerbaijani journalism praises President Ilham Aliyevs merits and supports his calls in practice, Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani presidents aide for public and political affairs, said July 22.

The top official made the remarks during an event dedicated to the 141st anniversary of Azerbaijans National Press July 22.

Hasanov congratulated all media representatives and journalists on the 141st anniversary of Azerbaijans national press and noted that the important role of the national press, which has come a difficult, but an honorable development path, in enlightening the people, popularizing the national values, its irreplaceable contribution to the development of Azerbaijani statehood, gives grounds to talk about its glorious history with a sense of pride.

After returning to power, Azerbaijans National Leader Heydar Aliyev was constantly giving consideration to the development of media, said Hasanov, adding that namely Heydar Aliyev declared July 22, the date of the start of Ekinchi newspapers publishing, the National Press Day in Azerbaijan.

Heydar Aliyev turned the freedom of expression and press, as well as the pluralism of opinions into a constitution norm in Azerbaijan. In 1998, he cancelled the censorship which was established in 1992 and was a serious obstacle to the development of the national press, said Hasanov.

The Ministry of Press and Information was liquidated in 2000 and Azerbaijan abandoned the state control over media, he added. Thanks to the political will of the national leader and his great efforts, a democratic legislative framework regulating the activities of media outlets was created in Azerbaijan and there was established a basis of progressive traditions in relations between the state and media.

Hasanov pointed out that currently, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev successfully continues the media policy and traditions, the foundation of which was laid by Heydar Aliyev.

Creating and developing independent, powerful media outlets which provide objective information and adhere to the principles of statehood and national interests and are able to protect Azerbaijans fair position in the global information space, is the philosophy of President Aliyevs media policy, according to the top official.

It should be taken into account that under the conditions of expanding global network, disappearing borders of national information spaces, strengthening monopoly of transnational resources over the flow of information, the fulfillment of these tasks is essential for every state and people who try to preserve their independence, identity, national and spiritual values and historical traditions, he added.

Hasanov pointed out that Azerbaijani journalism praises President Ilham Aliyevs merits and supports his actions.

It is not accidental that the countrys journalists named Ilham Aliyev The Friend of Journalists in 2010 and 2013, said the top official.
by Aaron Baar , July 22, 2016

Longtime sponsor of the Olympic games Samsung wants to make the competition less about who wins and more about bringing people and countries together in the name of sport.

"Samsung is a company that started from humble origins that grew and thrived from taking risks and fighting against challenges, Sophia Kim, global PR director for Samsung, tells Marketing Daily. We are using the Olympic Games as a platform to talk about Samsungs brand value system and showcase to the world Samsungs story from a much more human standpoint, aligned with our brand value of progress coming from defying barriers.

In an overarching spot highlighting this theme, the Korean electronics company ties together various nations anthems into one coherent song. The spot begins with a girl singing the Botswana national anthem into her Galaxy smartphone. That phone travels all over the world, capturing the voices of athletes (including U.K. Diver Tom Daley, U.S. track & field competitor Alysia Montano, French Paralympian Arnaud Assoumani and South Sudan track and field athlete Margret Rumat Rumat) and fans singing lines of their own national anthems, blending them all into one song.

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[The spot] attempts to break down barriers of geographic borders and strives to unite the world through one anthem made from many, brought to life by athletes and fans around the world, Kim says. Each excerpt from the anthems chosen were carefully selected so when combined together, this new unifying anthem represents global unity and celebrates collective progress, which is integral to the spirit of the Olympic Games.

The spot continues the themes laid out in Samsungs previously released Olympic marketing efforts, which have included a short documentary film chronicling the lives of Olympic hopefuls, and a spot showcasing how Samsung devices help athletes stay connected as they train far from home.

Our ads and content focus on people/athletes who in one way or another have chosen to defy barriers, whether economic, social or geographic, Kim says. They focus on athletes who have faced barriers and defied perceptions of what an athlete should or shouldnt be.

Included among those efforts will be digital and social content featuring the athletes spotlighted in the television commercial, telling their personal stories of defying barriers and overcoming obstacles, according to the company.

In addition to the advertising campaign, Samsung has agreed to provide more than 12,500 Galaxy smartphones to Olympic athletes to help them capture, communicate and share information more easily and conveniently, Kim says. The company will also have an installation within the Olympic Park in Rio and an app that will provide Olympic and Paralympic news and updates.

Samsung will also have a social presence as the Olympic Games unfold, which will continue the defying barriers thematic, Kim says.
by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 22, 2016

"Hi, my name is [fill in the blank], and I now work at Verizon," said a Yahoo executive at an industry event earlier this year. This person was only kidding, of course, when he said this in a room full of people during an advertising industry event. Was it a premonition or just some good old-fashioned analytical deduction? Perhaps just a best guess.



Apparently, the world should know soon just how true that statement rings. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo is nearing a deal with Verizon, the announcement expected within the next few days. While Verizon put in a low bid early on, the price the company is now willing to pay nears close to $5 billion for Yahoo's core business, which includes search. Reports suggest there are still five bidders, a variety of companies and investment firms.

The deal will end one of the longest bid processes ever, according to some, but Verizon won't have an easy go of it. Even with partnerships with Apple, Bing, Google, Mozilla and Oracle, Yahoo is struggling through the turnaround. While Yahoo reported that second-quarter 2016 revenue rose 5% to $1.3 billion, display revenue and search revenue fell overall. The impact related to its Microsoft search partnership added $252 million to revenue, otherwise GAAP revenue would have been $1,055 million, down 15% from Q2 2015.

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Bloomberg also reports that Verizon is not interested in Excalibur, Yahoo's IP portfolio, which Seattle-based TurboPatent deems mostly "invalid" and "unenforceable."

Innography, which has uncovered details to better understand the stakes and value of the Excalibur portfolio, estimates that search patents in Excalibur comprise the majority of the portfolio, with online advertising between 15% and 20%, and mobile between 10% and 20%.

This will not be the last acquisition Verizon makes to build out its advertising business. Bloomberg the company plans to build an advertising empire, all rolled up into CEO Tim Armstrong's AOL business, from native, display and video, to search.

Verizon reports earnings on Tuesday.
by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, July 22, 2016

As heated and unbelievably nasty as the presidential race has been, it is surprising the campaigns havent been victims or perpetrators of some ugly, live streamed video.

But it is still early in the campaign season.

Donald Trump hammered 16 other GOP candidates through the primaries, but videos of the sort that campaigns dont want to see really didn't surface. At least nothing that caused a ruckus.

Worst--and it was pretty bad--were videos from Trump campaign events at which dissenting spectators, or just ones who looked suspicious (because they were black or Hispanic) were roughed up or ridiculed.

But what we havent seen--or have I missed?--is video of candidates with their public-image masks off, saying or doing things their handlers wouldnt want out there. We should have expected it by now. Periscope and Facebook Live and Snapchat are all things that didnt even exist, (or barely did), during the last presidential season. Where are the early maladjusted adopters?

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As Ive mentioned before, had Periscope or Meerkat been around and live streamed Mitt Romneys campaign-sinking 47 percent speech to wealthy donors, that explosion of bad press would have happened sooner than it did. (Or not at all. If it had been streamed live, a Romney partisan could have quickly hi-signed Romney to ixnay his speech in which he contended that 47% of voters feel they are dependent on the government to get by.)

Every campaign assigns staffers to follow around the opposition candidate looking for the stupid misstatement--or unintentionally spilled honest opinion--to be blurted out. It is so everywhere that two Democratic primary candidates for Congress visiting my township (pop. 4,804) for a meet and greet, had to warn the crowd a Republican spy was planted in the crowd. When I heard that, I almost did a spit-take with the stick of hay I was chewing.

Maybe well still see the fruits of that video opposition research as the campaign moves forward. And maybe we would have seen live, ugly video of protesters clashing with police and each other in Cleveland, but protesters and the police did the unthinkable and were respectful (enough) to each other. The live video by one newspaper reporter in the midst of a protest was hard to watch, but only because he was walking as he shot it, and nothing was happening.

Yes, shoes were stepped on.

Inside the hall, the few angry delegates didn't seem to be in any big rush to record.

Theres still the whole rest of the race waiting to unfold, and of course, the Democrats, coming this week to Philadelphia.

The Democratic National Committee is using Internet technology to seamlessly connect backers with causes, reports Philadelphia Magazine. A Philly start-up, Curalate, will connect users of a curated-feed of convention photos under #demsinphilly on Instagram to information about an issue related to what or who is in the photo.

The magazine reports that, as an example, when a user clicks on a photo of Planned Parenthoods Cecile Richards speaking, theyll be taken to a site where they can sign a petition arguing for reproduction rights. To me, that sounds like several steps and a lot of effort that frankly, I cant believe many will take advantage of. But maybe Im missing that vision thing.

Im working more in the gutter, frankly, where the campaigns already are firmly entrenched and no doubt bound to be getting dirtier. Thats not a good place to be without any filters on your video but that's what this election will be all about, eventually.

pj@mediapost.com
Practice setting, political leanings influence how doctors go about rationing treatment options.

More than half of US physicians included in a national survey have withheld certain medical interventions with small benefits from their patients because of the cost-implications these hold. These include deciding whether to prescribe certain drugs, ordering a scan to be performed or repeating a laboratory test. According to study leader Robert Sheeler of the Mayo Clinic in the US, such rationing behavior is more prevalent among physicians in solo practice, and less so among doctors with liberal leanings. The findings of the survey are presented in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer.

The survey is the first to focus on the actual behavior and not just the attitudes of US physicians when it comes to rationing medical services. It highlights the challenging nature of being a physician in the United States with regard to resource utilization.

A survey was mailed to physicians in all spheres of the US health sector in 2012 to evaluate their self-reported rationing behavior and factors that influence it. Responses were received on 65.6 percent of the 3,872 surveys sent out.

Of these, 1,348 respondents (53.1 percent) reported having personally refrained, in the past six months, from using specific clinical services that would have provided the best patient care because of health system cost. Prescription drugs and the ordering of magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) were most often rationed - by 48.3 percent and 44.5 percent of respondents respectively.

Specialty, practice setting, and political leanings had an influence on the results. Physicians with more liberal leanings were significantly less likely to ration the treatment options available to their patients. The same holds for surgical and procedural specialists compared with primary care physicians.

Physicians in medical school settings were least likely to report rationing. Somewhat surprisingly, physicians in small or solo practices were more likely to do so than those in supposedly more cost-conscious settings such as group or health maintenance organizations or governmental programs.

Sheeler says the finding about physicians in solo practice could be explained by the "rationing by proxy" phenomenon. "Physicians become rationing agents of insurance companies because of the paperwork burden and excessive hoops of prior authorizations or excessive out-of-pocket costs that are set up by payers and pharmacy benefit managers," he explains. "Solo practitioners have fewer resources to deal with the paperwork and other barriers; it may be easier not to make the effort in the first place when they know that their efforts will likely be in vain or will not be compensated."

Sheeler believes that an understanding of what drives physicians' attitudes and behaviors around rationing contributes to a more accurate and much-needed professional discourse on this controversial topic.

An editorial accompanying the article has also been published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Article: Self-Reported Rationing Behavior Among US Physicians: A National Survey, Sheeler, R.D. et al.,Journal of General Internal Medicine, doi: 10.1007/s11606-016-3756-5, published online 19 July 2016.

Editorial: Rationing of Care: Conceptual Ambiguity and Transparency in Data Collection and Synthesis, Walker, R.J., Egede, L.E., Journal of General Internal Medicine, doi: 10.1007/s11606-016-3801-4, published online19 July 2016.
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Until now, there have been hundreds of cases of Zika virus in Florida but all involved people who were infected while traveling to areas where the mosquito-borne virus is spreading.If confirmed, the Florida infections would mark the arrival of the homegrown virus on the US continent for the first time."The Florida Department of Health announced that it is conducting an epidemiological investigation into a possible non-travel related case of Zika virus in Broward County," said a statement, referring to the county just north of Miami, which includes Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood."Health officials are working with mosquito control to ensure trapping, reduction and prevention activities are conducted in the area of investigation," the department added.The department urged people living in the area and visiting to respond to requests for blood and urine samples. "These results will help the department determine the number of people affected," it said.Regarding the possible non-travel case of Zika in Miami-Dade county, a health department spokeswoman told AFP the investigation is ongoing, and that sexual transmission "related to travel has not been ruled out".Few other details have been released about that possible case, which was first announced Tuesday, July 19, 2016. The Zika infection has been confirmed, but the mode of transmission has not.As of Thursday, July 21, 2016, mosquitoes in the Miami area have tested negative for Zika, the spokeswoman added.As of mid-July, there have been 1,306 cases of Zika in the continental United States, nearly all involving people who had traveled to areas in Latin America and the Caribbean basin that are affected by the current outbreak.Fourteen of the cases were transmitted by sexual contact between those who had traveled and their US-based partners.Earlier this week, a case emerged in Utah in which a caregiver appeared to have been infected by an elderly patient, though the exact route of transmission remains unknown.President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Florida Governor Rick Scott on Wednesday and said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be sending another $5.6 million to Florida for Zika funding, in addition to $2 million in federal funds the southern state has already received.Source: AFP
This study recruited 386 seronegative MSM who had at least one sexual relation with another man in the three months preceding the study. Participants were offered six-month follow-up involving an appointment every quarter for screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, plus advice on prevention, and provision of condoms. In the event of HIV infection, the volunteers could access suitable medical management including antiretroviral therapy.During follow-up, eight participants were infected by HIV, so the annual incidence rate was 4.8% (4.8 infected individuals out of 100 in one year). The authors note that onsidering the incidence of HIV infection observed in this study, MSM in these West African countries are eligible for PrEP, in line with WHO criteria. Since 2015, the WHO has recommended giving populations with a 3% annual incidence of infection access to PrEP including the antiretroviral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, on top of conventional means of prevention.Another striking result from this study is that 82% of the participants went to the first appointment, and 69% returned for the second and last. Christian Laurent considers that these results confirm that there is a demand from these men for access to suitable follow-up and to screening. This is proof that they are fully aware of being exposed to a higher risk of infection.To see whether a longer term follow-up program would be equally acceptable, the CohMSM study will continue for three years, under the aegis of ANRS and Expertise France.Source: Eurekalert
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From these restarted periods, the researchers have been able to collect and fertilise eggs which the women have released, raising the possibility that they could be implanted in their uterus and the women could subsequently have children. However, the team have yet to implant any eggs to test the theory.Trials claim to havewomen's ovaries using a blood treatment normally used to help wounds heal faster and have reversed menstrual cessation in multiple women. One woman who had undergone menopause five years ago, now 40 years old, wanted a baby, responded well to the treatment. Six months after the treatment, the woman had her first periods. Scientists collected three eggs from the woman and two of them have been successfully fertilized with her husband's sperm. Once there are three, they will be implanted into her uterus.The technique can be manipulated in other ways too. After injecting the PRP into the uteruses of six women who have had multiple miscarriages and failed IVF, three have now become pregnant via IVF. The fertility rate for women who are 40 years and above, have risen with 15.2 live births per 1,000 women, compared with women under 20 years.Konstantinos Sfakianoudis a gynecologist at the Genesis Athens Hospital's Center for Human Reproduction told, "It offers a window of hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material. It seems to work in about two-thirds of cases. We see changes in biochemical patterns, a restoration of menses, and egg recruitment and fertilisation." He said he has treated the ovaries of around 30 menopausal women age 46 to 49 with PRP and was able to retrieve and fertilize eggs from most of them. He added, "We need larger studies before we can know for sure how effective the treatment is."Source: Medindia
The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to [email protected] with "Membership" in the subject line.)

Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to [email protected]. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.

EXCLUSIVE: Before Attack In Nice, ISIS Fighter Calls To Carry Out Lone-Wolf Attacks In France: Go Get A Truck

A Message to France and to My Brothers

ISIS Fighter: "Now, my brother, let us be honest with one another. Let me tell you the truth: There aren't many of us here, but there are enough of us for the infidels. Allah be praised, we are facing the beast. We are breaking its teeth, and we hope to chop off its head. But you are in the belly of the beast, my brother. So if you want Islam to be victorious, why would you want to come out of the beast and face its fangs, when you could tear out its heart and its liver? That is what I am asking you. Sheikh Adnani gave you a very clear (message). He said 'If they close the door on your hijra, open the doors of Jihad on them, and make them regret it.'"

JTTM subscribers click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV

EXCLUSIVE: ISIS Video Celebrates Nice Attack, Threatens Further Attacks Across France, Including In Paris, Marseille, And Nice

On July 20, 2016, the Ninawa province of the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video featuring two French-speaking ISIS fighters who praise last week's attack in Nice and threaten further ISIS retaliation in more French cities.

EXCLUSIVE: AQAP Releases Special Issue Of 'Inspire' Magazine Praising Nice Attack, Offering Suggestions To Improve Future Operations

On June 21, 2016, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a special issue of its English-language Magazine Inspire praising the July 14 attack in Nice, France and offering suggestions to lone wolves to make future attacks deadlier and more destructive. This is the second special issue AQAP has issued after attacks claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS). The first was released on June 23, 2016 and was dedicated to the June 12, 2016 shooting in Orlando, Florida.

EXCLUSIVE: ISIS Releases Will Of Brussels Suicide Bomber Khalid El Bakraoui

On July 17, 2016, the Islamic State (ISIS), through its media branch Furat, released the five-page will and testimony of Khalid El Bakraoui, aka Abu Walid Al-Beljiki, who carried out the March 22, 2016 suicide bombing at the Maelbeek metro station in Brussels as part of simultaneous ISIS attacks in Belgium.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Islamic State Poet' Mocks France And Its Lack Of Security In New Poem

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.

On July 17, 2016, the Al-Sumud Foundation media group published a qasida (a type of Arabic poem) titled "Security in Paris has Become Meaningless."

EXCLUSIVE: Pro-Al-Qaeda Jihadi In Syria Fundraises On Behalf Of Media Group To Fund School For Muslims

A pro-Al-Qaeda jihadi fighter in Syria, posted a Facebook status announcing that his media group was raising funds to finance an educational program in a new Muslim school. In his post, he included a contact on Telegram for further inquiries.

EXCLUSIVE: In Letter, Al-Qaeda Condemns Pakistani Government's Imprisonment Of Widows Of Its Figures - Including Leader Al-Zawahiri's Daughters

On July 18, 2016, Al-Qaeda issued a letter condemning Pakistan's continued imprisonment of several Muslim women and their families, specifying three widows of Al-Qaeda figures.

EXCLUSIVE: Australian Jabhat Al-Nusra Cleric - And U.S.-Designated Global Terrorist - Active On Facebook, Twitter, Telegram

An Australian national, who since May 19, 2016 has been a U.S. Treasury Department specially designated global terrorist, is a leading Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) cleric and a member of the organization's shura council.

EXCLUSIVE: Muqtada Al-Sadr Responds To U.S. Secretary Of Defense Statement On Dispatching 560 Additional Troops To Iraq: 'They Will Become Targets For Us'

On July 17, 2016, the official website for senior Iraqi Shi'ite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, Jawabna.com, published a query by one of his followers, who asked for a comment on U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter's statement that the U.S. would send an additional 560 troops to Iraq to assist in recapturing the city of Mosul.

AQAP Claims Responsibility For Two Suicide Attacks At Military Checkpoints In Al-Mukalla, Yemen

On July 18, 2016, Twitter accounts affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) posted a statement issued by the group claiming responsibility for two suicide attacks targeting government soldiers at two checkpoints in the city of Mukalla.

Pro-AQAP Telegram Channel Provides Instructions For Lone Wolf Attacks At Rio Summer Olympics; American, French, Israeli, British Athletes Singled Out

On July 19, 2016, a pro-Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Telegram channel titled "Inspire the Believers!" posted a list of 17 suggestions for lone wolf attacks during the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The post included an English-language schedule of events for the Olympic Games as well. The Telegram post encourages lone wolves by claiming that travel to Brazil is relatively cheap and easy: "Lone wolf [sic.] from anywhere in the world can move to Brazil now. Visas and tickets and travel to Brazil will be very easy to get inshaAllah." Suggestions for attacks include attaching small explosives to toy drones, perpetrating a knife attack against Americans and Israelis, and entering bars and pubs in the area to attack, kidnap, or rob drunk patrons.

Swedish ISIS Fighter Shares Experiences On Tumblr Blog In English, Launches Pro-ISIS Telegram Channel In Swedish

A Swedish ISIS fighter is active on numerous social media platforms. In the past he used Twitter to post messages and photos, but appears to have wearied of having his account repeatedly suspended.

Pro-ISIS Engineers And Scientists Collaborate On Military Projects In Telegram Channel: Part Two

On February 20, 2016, a Telegram channel called Islamic State Scientists & Engineers was created. Its administrator stressed that members of the group must have a BSc in a scientific or mathematical field such as chemistry, or aeronautics.

Following Terror Attack In Nice ISIS Supporters Post Banners Depicting Threats To France, U.S. Capitol, And Gloating Over France Tragedy

Since the Nice truck attack on July 15, 2016, Islamic State (ISIS) supporters have posted dozens of banners on various Telegram channels gloating over the French tragedy. The banners threaten that ISIS will continue striking France until it conquers the country, raises its flag over the Eiffel Tower and on the roofs of Paris' most notable landmarks. One banner mocks provocatively that up to now the French were frightened by the sight of a bearded Muslim or a person dressed in Muslim attire whereas henceforth they have been hallucinating about trucks, i.e. they have begun suspecting every truck due to the terror attack.

ISIS Claims Responsibility For Nice Attack, Says Attacker Responded To Its Call To Target Citizens Of Coalition Countries

On July 16, 2016, Amaq, a media agency affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS), reported that the attacker who used a truck to run over civilians celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, killing more than 80 people, was a "soldier of the Islamic State."

ISIS Claims Responsibility For Attack On Train In Germany

On July 19, 2016, the Islamic State's A'maq Agency published, via its official Telegram channel, a claim of responsibility for the ax attack on the train in Wurzburg, Germany.

ISIS News Agency Releases Video Of Germany Train Attacker Who Vows 'I Will Make You Forget The Horror Of France's Operation'

On July 19, 2016, the ISIS news agency A'maq released a video featuring a message by the perpetrator of the train attack in Wurzburg, Germany on July 18. ISIS claimed responsivity for the attack, which was carried out by a 17-year-old Afghan refugee. The video identifies the attacker as Muhammad Riyad, who notes how he planned to attack the "unbelievers" while living on German soil, and vows to perpetrate an attack greater in magnitude than that in France.

JTTM subscribers click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV

ISIS Weekly Paper Documents Omar Al-Shishani's Jihad Journey From Fighter To Top Military Commander

In its 39th issue, published July 19, 2016, Al-Naba', a weekly newspaper affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS), published a lengthy article documenting the story of Omar Al-Shishani, a senior military commander who was recently killed in Iraq.

Pro-ISIS Hacking Group Releases Kill List With 2,461 NYC Residents' Personal Details

On July 20, 2016, the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) hacking group United Cyber Caliphate (UCC) released a kill list directed at lone wolves, via its Telegram channel; the list included the names of 2,461 NYC residents.

Following Publication Of MEMRI Report About Pro-ISIS French Media Entity, Telegram Shuts Down Entity's Account - But It Is Relaunched Hours Later

On July 15 and July 18, 2016 MEMRI published a two-part report on the French media operation "Ansar At-Tawhid" (AT). Active on multiple online platforms including Telegram, Facebook and Twitter, AT spreads the ideology of the Islamic State (ISIS) and provides logistical and financial support to ISIS supporters wanting to join the organization or carry out attacks in its name.

Pro-ISIS Hacking Group Releases Kill Lists Of U.S. Gov't Employees In Chicago, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, And Russia- And Images of U.S., Russian Military Bases

On July 16 and 17, 2016 the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) hacking group United Cyber Caliphate (UCC) released multiple kill lists of what it said were government employees based in Chicago, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Massachusetts, including personal details. The group also published Google Earth images of U.S. and Russian military bases and airports.

Pro-ISIS Hacking Group Releases Kill List With Details Of Over 2,000 Officers And Soldiers On U.S. Military Bases

On July 20, 2016, the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) hacking group United Cyber Caliphate (UCC) posted a list with the alleged names and personal details of over 2,000 officers and soldiers serving in U.S. military bases on its Telegram channel. The image attached to the post reads, "Officers and soldiers serving in the US military bases. We want them #dead. #Revenge for Muslims."

Pro-ISIS Hacking Group Releases Kill List Of 289 U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers Personnel

On July 19, 2016 the pro-Islamic State (ISIS) hacking group United Cyber Caliphate (UCC) released a kill list on its Telegram channel containing what it said was personal details of 289 members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Most of the personnel listed are from Oklahoma; however, there are dozens of names of a handful of other states. The message accompanying the information stated: "Wanted to kill. KILL THEM ALL. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. #HACKED."

ISIS Radio Launches New Website

On July 19, 2016, a number of pro-Islamic State (ISIS) channels on Telegram announced the launch of a new domain for ISIS's Al-Bayan radio. The new website is identical to previous Al-Bayan websites, delivering live broadcasts of ISIS content to user devices, as well as providing links to download Al-Bayan's mobile app.

ISIS Shows Wreckage Of Downed Syrian MiG, Displays Pilot's Body In Public

On July 14, 2016, the ISIS-affiliated news agency A'maq announced that ISIS had shot down a Syrian MiG aircraft in the Deir Al-Zour area and distributed a video showing the flaming wreckage of the jet as well as the pilot's body.

Report: Large Numbers Of Fighters Returning From Jihad Fronts Cause Heightened Tension In Tunisia

According to the London-based Saudi daily Al-Hayat, Tunisians have become increasingly worried with the large number of fighters returning from jihad fronts in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, amid fears that they might establish terrorist cells inside the country and carry out attacks there as well.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

Destabilization, civil strives, social disaster and other negative cases in various countries have already turned into todays reality, Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani presidents aide for public and political affairs, said.

The top official made the remarks during an event dedicated to the 141st anniversary of Azerbaijans National Press July 22.

The tendencies of control over global information space are strengthening, said Hasanov, adding that various external circles try to instill their views to the whole world through transnational media resources, to direct people within certain interests, and regrettably, they achieve this to some extent.

Currently, we see that intolerance towards representatives of various races, peoples and religions has increased in the countries that present themselves as a sample of democracy and we see that they are drawing back from multicultural values and tolerance, said the top official.

The transnational media support the clash of interests of various circles and encourage interference into various states internal affairs, coups and civil strives, he added.

But we can say with sense of pride that the Azerbaijani society, in which tolerance has predominated for centuries, rejects these negative tendencies, said Hasanov. As distinct from many countries, Azerbaijan is a place where not mutual tolerance, but mutual respect for various peoples, ethnic groups and religions is protected.

By promoting the multicultural values in the world, Azerbaijan is once again showing that all people, regardless of religion and national identity, can live on the same land in a prosperous, friendly and brotherly atmosphere, Hasanov said.

Naturally, here the role of Azerbaijani media, as well as its contribution to strengthening the harmony in the society should be mentioned, he said.

I believe this is the Azerbaijani medias response to the Azerbaijani presidents call and adherence to Ekinchi traditions, he added.

Hasanov pointed out that currently, the success of Azerbaijani media in the global information space is also the success of Azerbaijani people.

Today, the signature of a journalist who presents Azerbaijan to the world with its entire grandiosity, modernity and tolerance atmosphere, is also the signature of Azerbaijani people, said the top official.

Every journalist should speak conscientiously, taking into account their state, should be able to protect our national interests, promote and protect the Azerbaijani state for which we have fought for centuries and where today we live proudly, said Hasanov.

The Ekinchi newspaper and our subsequent media, Hasan bey Zardabi and his numerous followers lived with this purpose and dedicated their meaningful lives to Azerbaijanism, idea of independence and the well-being of their people, said the top official. I believe the Azerbaijani media should always follow this path and adhere to its traditions and history.

You can be sure that the Azerbaijani state will always stand by your side and will meet your needs, said Hasanov.
Last year, a young Hyderabad couple made headlines when they planned their wedding in the most unconventional way. They donated Rs 20,000 each to the families of 10 farmers, and also gave away books worth Rs 52,000 to libraries. When India's first bachelor to adopt a special child, Aditya Tiwari, got married, his ceremony was a noble affair, with 10,000 orphan children and homeless in attendance. It got us thinking. Why the big fat Indian wedding?

 Twitter

We Indians are famous for our big fat weddings. They are super fun, yes. Food and chatter all around, excitement in the air, a hundred different delicacies to gorge on, distant relatives running around in the house, chachis and mamis gossiping like there's no tomorrow. It's like Diwali and Christmas together. The wedding week is a maddening roller coaster in everyone's life.

But beneath all the glitter and merriment, are a few fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters running on panic mode. From bargaining with the tentwallas to finalizing the menu to making arrangements for guests to stay, the family members go through a grilling ordeal when there's a wedding in the house, more so when they are from the bride's side. Gifts, cash and jewellery are exchanged. Endless hours spent roaming around in markets in the hot Indian afternoons. An average middle-class Indian wedding easily costs many lakhs today.

I personally know a guy who was in the 11th standard preparing for IIT entrance exams when his sister got married, and being the only boy in the house, he spent most of his time (that he wanted to spend studying) running errands for the wedding. Our traditional families lay great importance to studies, but greater to weddings and rishtas being sealed.

 YouTube

Everything's grand; everything's a dream. But have you ever paused to think: do we really need all that? Does everybody want that or does everybody just comply to the norm? It has to be had even if the parties involved are short on funds. A lehnga worth lakhs; an aerial doli; the list is long. It's a surprise that banks don't provide wedding loans as yet.

We are a generation comprising people who fend for themselves. We live away from our parents, we pay our own rent, we pay for our meals. We split bills at dinner. We save to travel. Do we really want a big extravaganza attended by people we haven't even heard from in 10 years? That neighbourhood aunty who taunted you when you didn't get a 90% unlike her son, or didn't get through a good college; that relative who pestered your mother with sugar-coated taunts about why you were not getting married. Do you really want to spend your hard-earned money on humouring people you don't care about and who have never cared about you either.

 Viacom Motion Pictures

We share our life's milestones on Facebook with a friend list that has people we have never even met once in our lives, people who are complete strangers to you and there are chances you might not recognize each other if you were to cross paths on the street. But the real celebration is with close friends and family, ain't it?

 YouTube

Why do we make such a happy occasion of life into this crazy nerve-wrecking thing where everyone is on panic mode. Whether you are a boy getting married or whether it's your sister, the madness of a wedding is enough to give even the toughest of people a nervous breakdown. It's a universal truth that the bride and the groom are the last ones to enjoy their wedding. Blinded by the cameras constantly clicking them, with every guest trying to get a shot to register their attendance, and cheeks hurting from having to smile at everyone and anyone. By the time you are done, you are thankful that it's all over. It's like a dreaded exam, only much longer and tougher. But a wedding doesn't have to be like an exam; it's your happy occasion.

 YouTube

I am not a skeptic, believe me I am as thrilled at weddings as everyone else, which is why the idea of making a wedding a battleground hurts me even more. It becomes a rally ground for comparisons and gossips. Is the groom tall enough? How much does he earn? Oh he is a catch! Oh the kulfi is not nice. Look, the bride is fat! Are these really the 'blessings' you want on your wedding? Is this why you and your parents are spending their hard-earned money? You can't please everybody, so stop trying.

 Quack Quack

Don't worry about the fact that it's your parent's dream. It's your life. Just like you have the freedom to choose your life partner, you should have the freedom to choose how you want to tie the knot. Our parents bother too much about Log kya kahenge. You need to explain to them that it's okay if the whole world is not pleased.

We are earning good money. And we are spending it where we feel like. The intention behind writing this is to not shame the big fat Indian wedding or to make anyone celebrating their big day feel guilty. To each his own. If you have the resources and the will, it's great. But if you don't, and yet you are going ahead with it succumbing to social pressure, then there's a red flag right there. It's the same as getting married early just because everyone else around you is. Do things the way you like them, not the way society likes them.

 UTV Motion Pictures

You want to get married on a hill, do that. You want to get married in a court and save all the money for a world tour for your honeymoon, effing do that! You want to have a big fat Indian wedding with all the beautiful little ceremonies of haldi, sangeet and roka, do that! It's fine till the time YOU want to do it. Wed the way YOU like.

If you are spending money anyway, how wonderful would it be to spend on something noble or something that gives you happiness. Not telling anyone how to celebrate or preaching them about social responsibility. At the end of the day, it's your occasion and you should be able to celebrate it how you like. Let's change the way we celebrate our special moments and give importance to the self over the society. Let's change the way we start a new life. Let's make this world a little better.

If you agree with this even a little bit, say To new beginnings! in the comments box below. I will know there are others who think like me.
MIAMI  A Florida police officer shot and wounded an autistic mans black caretaker, authorities said, in an incident purportedly captured on cellphone video that shows the caretaker lying down with his arms raised before being shot.

North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald (http://goo.gl/rhHVyt) that officers responded to the scene Monday following reports of a man threatening to shoot himself. Officers arrived to find 47-year-old Charles Kinsey, a therapist who works with people with disabilities, according to WSVN-TV (http://bit.ly/2ac7zm1), trying to get his 27-year-old patient back to a facility from where he had wandered.

Cuevas says police ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground. The video shows Kinsey lying down and putting his hands up while trying to get his patient to comply.

An officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said. No weapon was found.

The latest shooting comes amid weeks of violence involving police. Three law enforcement officers were fatally shot and three others wounded Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by a shooter whom police also gunned down. Two weeks earlier, two white officers in Baton Rouge killed a black man, Alton Sterling, 37, on July 5 during a scuffle at a convenience store. That shooting, captured on cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community.

On July 6, another black man, 32-year-old Philando Castile, was killed in Minnesota when a police officer pulled him over. The next day, a sniper killed five Dallas police officers as they guarded a peaceful protest.

In Florida, Kinseys attorney, Hilton Napoleon, provided a cellphone video to the Herald on Wednesday taken moments before the shooting. It shows Kinsey lying in the middle of the street with his hands up, asking the officers not to shoot him, while the autistic man sits next to him, yelling at him to shut up.

Sir, theres no need for firearms, Kinsey said he told police before he was shot, according to WSVN. It was so surprising. It was like a mosquito bite.

Police havent released the name or race of the officer who shot Kinsey but said hes been placed on administrative leave, which is standard.

The investigation has been turned over to the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office, Cuevas said.

In an interview with the TV station, Kinsey said he was more worried about his patient than himself during the incident.

As long as Ive got my hands up, theyre not going to shoot me. This is what Im thinking. Theyre not going to shoot me, he said. Wow, was I wrong.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The licenses of DekaBank, KredoBank, Parabank and Zaminbank have been cancelled in Azerbaijan, head the Board of Directors of the countrys Financial Market Supervisory Body, Rufat Aslanli said during a press conference July 22.

The relevant decision was made by the Financial Market Supervisory Body dated July 21, 2016.

The licenses of those banks have been revoked, as their assets havent been classified in line with the law, they havent created adequate reserves and the aggregate capital of these banks doesnt meet the minimum requirements [50 million manats], said Aslanli. In general, they havent fulfilled the regulators instructions.

The purpose of closing down these banks is to reduce the risks in the banking sector, strengthen the financial stability, increase the confidence and ensure the development of the financial sector, he added.

Aslanli pointed out that all these banks are members of the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund, therefore, their clients will be able to get payments for insured deposits.

Currently, the total volume of insured deposits in these banks is around 140.3 million manats (40,700 bank accounts).

Aslanli noted that the deposit payments will start seven days after determining the liquidators of these banks.

The Financial Market Supervisory Body and the Deposit Insurance Fund have carried out serious preparatory work for giving compensations to depositors of those banks, he said. The Fund has enough resources to give compensations to the depositors. But in the case of necessity, it also can appeal to the Central Bank for getting additional funds.

Temporary administrators were appointed to these banks July 22.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 22

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov discussed the development of a number of projects with the CEO of Turkeys Calik Holding S.A. Ahmet Calik, the Turkmen government said in a message July 22.

In particular, the sides discussed the construction process of carbamide plant in Garabogaz city of Balkan region and combined heat and power plant in Turkmenistans Mary region, according to the message.

Berdimuhamedov noted that high quality of construction works, immutable requirement of putting into use the facilities within the period envisaged by contracts are prerequisites of the Turkmen side.

The Turkish businessman, in turn, said that his company will have the most serious and responsible approach to fulfill its partnership commitments.

The construction of the carbamide plant with a capacity of 1.155 million tons started in July 2015 in Turkmenistan. Calik Holding is building this industrial facility together with Japans Mitsubishi Corporation.

The construction of combined plant with a capacity of 1,574 megawatts started in 2015 in Turkmenistan. The Turkish holding is implementing this project together with General Electric. It will be possible to additionally supply three billion kilowatt/hours of electricity to foreign countries by putting the plant into operation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

By Aygun Badalova  Trend:

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development's (EBRD) Board of Directors has postponed the pending decision on raising the banks stake in the equity capital of Holcim in Azerbaijan OJSC up to 20 percent but retains plans to double its participation, according to the bank's message.

The issue is scheduled to be discussed by the EBRD's Board of Directors on September 7, 2016.

Earlier EBRD reported that the bank is considering an additional investment in Holcim to increase the bank's stake in the company with a view to extend its participation in the business.

Holcim Azerbaijan OJSC is one of the largest cement and clinker producers in Azerbaijan.

LafargeHolcim, the world's most advanced group in the building materials industry, acquired a controlling stake in Holcim Azerbaijan, formerly Garadagh OJSC, during a privatization process in 1999.

Today, LafargeHolcim owns more than 80 percent of the companys share capital and provides managerial, technical and commercial resources.

Around 40 percent of the cement market in Azerbaijan accounts for Holcim Azerbaijans products.

Holcim Azerbaijans shareholders are LafargeHolcim (66 percent), EBRD (10 percent), Holcim Auslandbeteiligungs GmbH (10 percent), and individuals (14 percent).
I. KASOULIDES: It is a great pleasure to be in Athens again. Our talks today with Foreign Minister Kotzias were a working meeting, because together we worked on the ideas that will have to be submitted in the negotiations on the issue of Security. We are talking about the need for a system that will make all Cypriots  Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots  feel equally secure. Certainly, in such a system there is no room for treaties of guarantee or the presence of Turkish troops. We had a productive meeting. We based our work on a document prepared by Mr. Kotzias himself a short time ago, we developed various working hypotheses, and I think we are now ready to be able to promote these positions. At the same time, we looked at the developments in Turkey. These developments and their repercussions are of direct interest to both Cyprus and Greece. And, finally, we exchanged some views on our region and our neighbours in the context of the trilateral cooperation configurations we have with various countries.



N. KOTZIAS: It is a great pleasure today to be hosting the Cypriot Delegation, headed by my respected and good friend Mr. Kasoulides, so that we can discuss an issue which is also a personal concern of mine: the prospects and fortunes of the Cyprus issue. We had the opportunity to express, once again, our support in the negotiations for the finding of a just solution to the Cyprus issue, towards which I think we have taken serious steps. We had the opportunity to talk about how this issue will be productive and democratically correct; that is, will include the elimination of the anachronistic system of guarantees and the removal of Turkish occupation forces.



Naturally, we discussed the changes that have come to the region of late, particularly following the developments with the failed coup attempt in Turkey. Finally, as the Minister said, we talked about our cooperation in the region, the trilateral configurations, as well as the International Rhodes Conference, on 8-9 September, which will be attended by seven European and seven Arab countries, with the aim of creating a larger stability and security structure in the Eastern Mediterranean. Again, I thank Mr. Kasoulides for accepting my invitation, I thank him very, very much for the creative discussions we have always had, that we have and, I hope, we will also have in the future.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran is eyeing to export power to Europe through two routes, Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian told Fars July 22.

He said one of the routes is the Azerbaijan-Russia corridor and the other one is the Armenia-Georgia-Russia corridor.

Falahatian said the infrastructure for the Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Europe route has been completed and its section inside Iran is ready.

As for the Armenia-Georgia-Russia corridor, Iran has started construction of infrastructure inside the country and the project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

The project will increase the electricity deliveries to the Armenia-Georgia-Russia-Europe route from the current 350 megawatts (MW) to 1,200 MW, he said.

Irans nominal power generation capacity stands at 75,000 MW, but it is preparing to increase this volume to 101,000 MW by 2021, putting $15 billion investment in new power plants construction and $5 billion for construction of power transmission and distribution grid.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 22

By Demir Azizov Trend:

VimpelCom Ltd announced about the extension of the main license of its subsidiary in Uzbekistan - Unitel, operating under Beeline brand, for rendering communications services, VimpelCom said in a message July 22.

The official exchange rate is 2958.87 Uzbek soums /$1 July 22.

According to the message, VimpelCom renders 2G, 3G and LTE services in Uzbekistan.

The company serves around 9.5 million subscribers, the message said.

According to the message, the company's investments in this market amounted to about $1 billion since 2006.

According to VimpelCom, the application for extending the license for the design, construction, operation and rendering of mobile services was submitted to the Ministry for Development of Information and Communication Technologies in Uzbekistan in May 2016, the message said.

In 2006, VimpelCom acquired Unitel, the second largest mobile communication operator in Uzbekistan, from the international consortium headed by the Germanos S.A.

VimpelCom also acquired Uzbek GSM operator Buztel, and then merged Unitel's and Buztel's networks.

Following a restructuring Buztel became a part of Unitel.

In March 2009, Unitel and the fixed network operator Buzton (Golden Telecom's subsidiary) started rendering commercial services under a unified brand of Beeline.

Currently, Unitel is a leading telecom operator in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan currently has five mobile operators.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran has shut down some stores in Tehran selling products of Apple, California-based multinational technology company.

The closure of the stores has led to an increase in the Apple products prices, especially in the prices for iPhones, said Gholam-Hossein Karimi, head of Irans Union of Communications Systems, Mehr reported July 22.

He said Apple hasnt its own official stores in Iran, but two Iranian companies had licenses to import iPhones from Hong Kong and Dubai.

The licenses have expired recently, so the stores have been shut down, said Karimi.

He also criticized the removal of the smuggled iPhones from market by the police and said this would lead to chaos.

About 10 million cell phones are smuggled into Iran annually, Karimi told IRNA in March.
Bahrain said it had dismantled an Iranian-linked cell plotting attacks on its territory, arresting five suspects after finding bomb-making materials, guns and knives in their houses, Reuters reported July 22.

The Gulf Arab kingdom has been beset by a growing rift between its Shi'ite Muslim majority and its Sunni rulers.

Police said the five men had received military training in Iran and Iraq, according to a statement by Bahrain's interior ministry. There was no immediate comment from Tehran or Baghdad.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, frequently accuses Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, of being behind bomb attacks targeting security services and fomenting Shi'ite protests.

Iran denies interfering in Bahrain, although it acknowledges support for opposition groups seeking greater rights for Bahrain's Shi'ites.

The Shi'ite community led Arab Spring protests in 2011 that were put down by the government with help from neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Since June, Bahrain has taken a series of steps that activists describe as a renewed opposition crackdown, including arresting prominent activist Nabeel Rajab and stripping top Shi'ite cleric Isa Qassim of his citizenship.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that Bahrain's recent decision to dissolve the main opposition group, al-Wefaq, risked escalating tensions.
The Record newspaper reports Adele Dunlap became the country's oldest person earlier this month following the death of a Worcester, Massachusetts, woman. Dunlap lives at the Country Arch Care Center in Pittstown.

The Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which tracks supercentenarians, or people 110 and older, says Dunlap is also the 10th oldest person in the world.

Dunlap didn't give an explanation for her longevity and her 86-year-old son, Earl, was also at a loss for words to describe her long life.

The care center's activities director says Dunlap is a passive participant in daily activities and socializes minimally but looks forward to Girl Scouts' coming to sing Christmas carols.
The lawsuit against former Panera executive Michael Nettles and Louisville, Kentucky-based Papa John's International says Nettles worked for four years as a vice president in Panera's information technology department, with access to highly sensitive confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets. He began work for Papa John's on Monday, and suburban St. Louis-based Panera says Nettles' new position violates a confidentiality and non-compete agreement.

"Allowing Nettles to use this confidential information for the benefit of Papa John's provides Papa John's with an unfair competitive advantage, and would allow Nettles to unlawfully compete with Panera," the suit says.

Papa John's noted that Nettles is a 27-year veteran of the hospitality and retail industries and has worked at several companies with numerous concepts.

"We are disappointed by Panera's actions, as we do not consider them a competitive business," Papa John's said in a written statement. "We have no need or desire to access Panera's confidential or proprietary information."

Panera, with more than 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, is known for its soups, salads, sandwiches and bakery items. Papa John's is one of the world's largest pizza chains, with more than 4,900 locations in 37 countries.

But the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, says Panera and Papa John's compete in small order delivery and catering.

"Panera's very right to compete fairly in the market place is threatened," the lawsuit states.

A message seeking comment from Panera was not immediately returned.

In addition to damages, the lawsuit asks the court to prohibit Nettles from working for Papa John's for at least a year, to prohibit him from disclosing Panera's confidential information, and seeks other relief.
WZZM-TV reports 24-year-old Samantha Rose Gentz learned her punishment on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. She pleaded guilty in March to a charge of unlawfully opening mail from the route she worked in Muskegon County.

She also was ordered to serve 18 months of probation and pay $250 in restitution. Her lawyer says she's extremely remorseful.

Court records say Gentz came under scrutiny after postal officials began getting complaints about missing packages. Court records say she admitted opening about 15 letters in 2015. As part of a plea agreement, she won't face charges in the reported theft of a pain medication from the mail.
HURON COUNTY  The potential merger between Chemical Financial Corp. and Talmer Bancorp has moved one step closer to becoming a reality.

This week, shareholders of Chemical Financial Corp. approved the deal, which followed an approval from Talmer Bancorp shareholders the week before. The two sides announced the intention of the merger on Jan. 26.

The merger transaction is currently valued at about $1.4 billion, up from the $1.1 billion at the time of the announcement in January. The next step in the process will be getting approval from federal regulators, with a decision expected in the next month or so.

Were now waiting for approval from the Federal Reserve, as we continue working on integration activities, said John Hatfield, first vice president and director of marketing for Chemical Bank.

Chemical Financial is the holding company for Chemical Bank, and Talmer Bancorp is the holding company for Talmer Bank and Trust.

If approved, Chemical Financial intends to consolidate Talmer Bank and Trust into Chemical Bank, and operate under the Chemical Bank name. The merger will make Chemical Bank the largest bank headquartered in Michigan, with more than $16 billion in assets and 266 locations across the state.

Hatfield stated that it is still too early to tell how the proposed merger will affect branches and employees in Huron County. Chemical Bank currently has two locations in Huron County (Bad Axe and Harbor Beach), while Talmer Bank has four (Bad Axe, Harbor Beach, Port Hope and Sebewaing).
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

Armenias President Serzh Sargsyan urged the members of the armed group, seized the building of the police station in Yerevan, to lay arms down, RIA Novosti reported July 22.

Sargsyan made the remarks during a meeting July 22 with the heads of law enforcement agencies in Yerevan.

Hostages should be released, the armed group should lay down arms, said Sargsyan. The situation will further be solved exclusively within the laws and the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.

He added that many people in Armenia are dissatisfied with their life.

An armed group seized the headquarters of the police and interior troops in Erebuni, Yerevan, July 17, demanding the release of the participant of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, coordinator of the oppositional Armenian civil initiative Founding Parliament Zhirayr Sefilyan. He was arrested for illegally purchasing and storing weapons. The government officials are holding talks with the armed groups members.
BAD AXE  The Huron County Board of Commissioners has voted to fund a $20,000 Probate Courtroom renovation.

Close quarters and antiquated facilities call for the first major renovation of the courtroom since the County Building was constructed in 1967, Commissioner Ron Wruble told the Tribune.

Some members of the Huron County Bar Association feel somewhat apprehensive due to the highly emotional nature of the proceedings, according to a letter from bar association President Dallas Rooney to David B. Herrington, chief judge of Huron County.

Rooney also mentioned the close proximity of the adverse parties to the attorneys, in the letter, which was provided in the boards packet for Tuesdays meeting.

The way they have things planned is going to alleviate that situation somewhat, Wruble told the board.

The bench will be smaller and the new plan will create more space, he said.

The current judges bench/desk belongs to Probate Court Judge David L. Clabuesch, Commissioner Sami Khoury told the Tribune.

Kanaby Builders submitted a bid for $15,493 for the job, and the finance committee requested an additional $4,507 for paint, carpet and other items, for a cost not to exceed $20,000.

It is a lot cheaper than the proposal that they had (previously submitted), Khoury said.

District court fees will reimburse the general fund for the cost of the renovation.

The board also recently approved a $21,666 project to upgrade computers and software in the Sheriffs Office.

The board approved a contract with Sanilac Appraisers Inc., effective Jan. 1, 2017, for equalization services for $39,000 annually.

By the end of the year, the state will no longer allow the county to share equalization services with Tuscola County.
PORTSMOUTH, Va.  The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle arrived in Norfolk Friday. The Eagle's crew moored the tall ship at Otter Berth at Town Point Park on Waterside Drive at about 11 a.m.

The Eagle will be open for free public tours Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Otter Berth.

At 295 feet in length, the Eagle is the largest tall ship flying the stars and stripes and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.

Constructed in 1936 by the Blohm and Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, and originally commissioned as the Horst Wessel by the German Navy, the Eagle was taken by the United States as a war reparation following World War II.
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.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday blasted Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for what he said was a failed tenure as secretary of state while pledging to "defeat the barbarians of ISIS" if elected president.

In his speech accepting the nomination on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the real estate mogul and reality television star criticized President Barack Obama's record in the Middle East and Africa when Clinton was a cabinet secretary from 2009 to 2013.

"America is far less safe -- and the world is far less stable -- than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy," he said.

"I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets," he added. "Her bad instincts and her bad judgment -- something pointed out by Bernie Sanders -- are what caused the disasters unfolding today. Let's review the record: In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map."

That was one of three references to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the al-Qaida-inspired terrorist group that took over territory in both countries following the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2011, in Trump's more than hour-long speech.

Obama later reversed course and sent American troops and commandos back into Iraq -- and into Syria -- to combat the militants. To date, the president has approved a force level of more than 4,600 service members in Iraq -- and Army Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of Central Command, this week signaled that number may still increase.

Trump made repeated reference to combating Islamic extremists, but also warned against overextending the military and "nation building."

"We must have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world," he said. "We must abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror. This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel."

In a line that seemed to rebuke the policies of not just Obama and Clinton but also fellow Republican and former President George W. Bush, Trump said, "After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before."

Trump also referenced the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi -- a repeated topic throughout the convention -- in which four Americans were killed, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. "Our ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers," he said.

Earlier in the week, Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, the U.S. foreign service information management officer who was among those killed in the Benghazi attacks, blamed Clinton for the tragedy. "I blame Hillary Clinton personally," she said. "She lied to me and then called me a liar," she added amid loud boos from the crowd.

Clinton has defended her response to the incident. "You know, look, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi. And I certainly can't even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son," Clinton said during a debate in March, referring to Smith. "But she's wrong. She's absolutely wrong."

Also this week, the co-chair of Trump's national veterans coalition, Al Baldasaro, a state representative in New Hampshire and delegate for Trump, said Clinton "should be shot for treason." The Secret Service later said he was under investigation.

Meanwhile, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who also spoke at the convention, called Clinton an "Obama clone" who would put the interests of other nations above those of the U.S. "The destructive pattern of putting the interests of other nations ahead of our own will end when Donald Trump is president," said Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. "We do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law."

During his acceptance speech, Trump defended recent remarks in which he questioned the automatic U.S. defense of NATO states unless they contribute more funding to collective defense. The comments caused a stir on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially among Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- the three Baltic states in Eastern Europe.

"Recently, I have said that NATO was obsolete because it did not properly cover terror, and also, that many of the member countries were not paying their fair share," Trump said. "As usual, the United States has been picking up the cost. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that NATO will be setting up a new program in order to combat terrorism -- a true step in the right direction."

It was not immediately clear to which program Trump was referring, but Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Thursday pressed the anti-ISIS coalition, which includes all 28 NATO members, to do a better job of coordinating and sharing intelligence to counter the increasing attacks directed or inspired by ISIS worldwide.

At a meeting of defense and foreign ministers at the State Department, Kerry suggested that Interpol would have a part in the information sharing, noting that the International Criminal Police Organization based in Lyon, France, had agreed to become the 67th member of the anti-ISIS coalition.

Kerry also said that Director of National intelligence James Clapper led a session at the defense and foreign ministers meetings on the necessity of eliminating the "stovepipes" between countries on intelligence sharing. He stressed "the importance of real-time communication between countries, information sharing so that our police and our border guards and airport security officials know when they are coming into contact with suspected terrorists."

Trump also veered from his prepared remarks to talk about expanding health care options for veterans. "We will guarantee they will be able to visit the doctor or hospital of their choice without waiting in line or dying," he said.

He was referring to the recent scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs in which veterans were put on secret wait lists to mask the high numbers of patients seeking care. While the department's inspector general initially said it couldn't conclusively determine whether veterans died because of a lack of "timely quality care," CNN in 2014 reported that as many as 40 veterans died awaiting care at the Phoenix medical center alone.

"We will take care of our great veterans like they have never been taken care of before," Trump said. "My opponent dismissed the VA scandal as being not widespread  one more sign of how out of touch she really is."

-- Richard Sisk contributed to this report.

-- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry.
Power was restored Friday to the base in Turkey used by U.S. and coalition forces for airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, American officials said.

Incirlik Air Base in the southern part of the country had been without power since July 16 and relying on generators to conduct the strikes following the attempted military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We will retain this capability should the power be interrupted again," officials from U.S. European Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, said in a release. "Meanwhile there is a steady flow of hot food, water, and fuel to support our service members and civilians in Turkey."

The statement continued, "The U.S., in close coordination with the Turkish Military, will continue to work towards ensuring our facility, the U.S. service members who live and work on it, and the operations occurring there remain fully prepared to take on a myriad of missions as we work together to defeat terrorism."

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook this week said more than 3,000 military personnel live and work in Turkey, mostly with the 39th Air Base Wing at Incirlik. They are joined by about 100 military dependents in the country after voluntary evacuations last September of about 600 military families following the terror attacks on the Brussels airport and metro.

The U.S. Air Force has deployed F-15, F-16 and other aircraft to the installation to carry out airstrikes against ISIS.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday sought to minimize the impact of the failed coup and the ensuingpurge of military officers on the NATO alliance and the campaign against ISIS.

Despite the recent anti-U.S. rhetoric from Erdogan's government, which has demanded the extradition of a Muslim cleric in Pennsylvania, Carter said, "We support the democratically elected government."

The secretary added, "I don't have any indication" that the failed coup and Erdogan's tough response would affect Turkey's continuing membership in NATO. "The alliance is very strong, our relationship is very strong," he said.

Despite calls to do otherwise from arms control advocates, the Pentagon will probably keep its nuclear weapons stored at Incirlik.

Cook suggested as much during this week's press conference when he said steps had been taken to boost security for "special weapons" at the base shared with the Turkish air force to "keep everything safe, and we're going to continue to do that. As a matter of policy, we don't discuss strategic assets."

Incirlik is the largest U.S. nuclear weapons storage site in Europe with 25 underground vaults, each of which can hold up to four bombs for a maximum total base capacity of 100 bombs, according to the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., which opposes the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

There are an estimated 50 B61 thermonuclear bombs stored there, amounting to a quarter of the U.S. stockpile of the weapon, which can be carried by F-16s and other aircraft, the group has said.

The Defense Department is working on upgrading its nuclear weapon storage facilities with new fencing, lighting and sensors at Incirlik and Aviano Air Base in Italy.

-- Richard Sisk contributed to this report.

-- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry.
President Barack Obama fiercely rejected Donald Trump's depiction of an America in crisis, arguing that violent crime and illegal immigration have plunged under his leadership to their lowest rates in decades, AP reported.

Looking toward November's election, Obama said: "We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact."

At a news conference Friday alongside Mexico's president, Obama sought to undermine two pillars of Trump's Thursday night acceptance speech of the Republican presidential nomination.
German police have evacuated a shopping centre in Munich after an armed man went on a shooting spree in the building, police have said, the Guardian reported.

Several people were injured and there were unconfirmed reports of deaths, local media said.

An emergency call was received at 6pm local time after the man opened fire in a pharmacy at the Olympia shopping centre in the Moosach district of the Bavarian city.

We believe this is a big incident, a police spokeswoman told German media.

Police and ambulance crews were on site within minutes of the call. The man is believed to have fled the shopping centre and headed for a nearby U-Bahn (underground) station.

There was no indication as to the motive for the attack.

Germany has been on high alert after a man wielding an axe and knife attacked train passengers near the southern city of Wurzburg earlier this week.

The Olympia shopping centre is a two-tiered glass-covered mall that was built on the site of the 1972 Olympics. The Munich Games were overshadowed by a terrorist attack in which 11 Israeli sportsmen and a German policeman were killed after being taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists.
The Royals are among the clubs that have taken a look at Braves right fielder Nick Markakis, writes MLB.coms Mark Bowman. The presence of two other cost-controlled left-handed-hitting outfielders with limited power (Ender Inciarte and Mallex Smith) has clouded the future of Markakis in Atlanta, he notes.

Given Markakis age, performance and salary, hes a logical candidate to be moved, though his $11MM annual salary figures to pose a problem in trade talks. While Markakis is walking at a 10 percent clip for the second straight season and has shown a bit more pop in 2016 than he did in 2015 (.105 ISO vs. .080 ISO), hes still a far cry from the 15- to 20-homer on-base machine that he was in his peak days with the Orioles. Markakis .296/.370/.376 batting line last season actually checked in above league average despite a lack of home runs, per OPS+ and wRC+, but hes at a diminished .260/.337/.366 this season.

Optimists could look at Markakis, however, and note that his 33.1 percent hard-contact rate is the second-highest of his career, and his 22.4 percent line-drive rate is a marked improvement over his 2015 pace. Markakis is also popping up at the lowest rate of his career (four percent), and defensive metrics look favorably upon his work in 2016 (+3 DRS, +1.3 UZR/150). Silver linings aside, it seems quite likely that the Braves would have to absorb some of the salary owed to Markakis, especially if talks with the Royals gain any kind of traction. The Boston Globes Nick Cafardo linked the Royals to Markakis back in May but noted that his salary is an issue for Kansas City.

The Braves, Bowman writes, will be looking to add some power to their outfield over the winter. And with Inciarte and Smith set to line up in two of the three spots, adding a corner outfield bat with some home run pop would only be feasible in the absence of Markakis. One player who could also factor into the outfield again in a limited capacity, Bowman notes, is Jeff Francoeur. The Braves love Francoeurs leadership and dont plan on trading him barring a surprising offer and may even attempt to re-sign the 32-year-old. While needing to be overwhelmed for Francoeur at this stage of his career certainly sounds strange, one has to imagine that the offers would be fairly light in nature, and the Braves may prefer simply hanging onto him rather than picking up some cash or a low-level prospect of little note.

From the Royals side of the equation, adding Markakis would probably shift Jarrod Dyson into a true fourth outfield role and allow him to bounce around between all three positions as needed. Dyson has shared time with Paulo Orlando in right field this year, but Orlandos unsustainable production through the first two months has quickly begun to fade. Hes hitting just .267/.293/.326 since June 1. The Royals appear to be open to adding a right field alternative of some nature, as Kansas City has also recently been linked to Josh Reddick.

Bowmans column also discusses the Braves rotation, with GM John Coppolella once again stating that he will not trade his No. 1 starter, Julio Teheran. Coppolella says hes turned away about a dozen general managers that have come calling on Teheran, and it doesnt sound as if the team has any intentions of changing its stance as the Aug.1 non-waiver deadline gets closer. Per Bowman, the Braves have fielded calls from three clubs on right-hander Lucas Harrell, although the return on him would be minimal, as Harrell has made four starts with very mixed results for the Braves  23 1/3 innings, 4.24 ERA, 17-to-9 K/BB ratio  and has a limited big league track record. Most clubs would probably look at him as a depth piece rather than a genuine option to upgrade their starting pitching.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

Media reported about another shooting incident in Munich - Marienplatz subway station, RIA Novosti reported.

Several people have been shot dead in a shooting at a shopping centre in the German city of Munich, police say, BBC reported.

A big operation is under way. Police are telling people to stay at home and avoid the streets.

Several people have also been injured at the shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.

Reports speak of one or more attackers. Some shopworkers are reportedly unable to leave the building.
Train stations were evacuated across Munich and authorities have halted all bus, train, and tram lines due to concern that additional acts of terror may be plotted, Sputnik News reported.

Officials caution that they have not determined who was behind Friday's deadly mall shooting in Munich that has left at least six dead and several others wounded. Officials are scouring the city of Munich looking for potential terror suspects who may have been involved in Friday's attack.

The attack comes in the same week as the Daesh-inspired strike on a train in Wuerzberg, Germany that left several injured. That attack was carried out by a 17-year-old Afghan refugee who yelled "Allahu Akbar" while swinging the axe at unsuspecting passengers.

Germany has accepted over 2 million refugees since the Syrian crisis began, a position that has led to a resurgence of far-right nationalist groups that have called for bans and violence against Muslims. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's approval ratings have also plummeted to historic lows amid the societal culture shock resulting from this policy.
Police in the German city of Munich say the perpetrators of a shooting attack are still on the run, and they advise people to avoid public places, BBC reported.

There are reports of at least six people killed, but police have not confirmed that figure.

A big security operation is under way at the Olympia shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.

Shop workers have been unable to leave the building. There is no information about a possible motive for the attack.

The police Facebook page quoted eyewitnesses as saying they had seen three attackers carrying guns.

Police are now describing it as "an acute terror situation". They say the first reports of a shooting came in just before 18:00 (16:00 GMT).

Public transport has been suspended as the extensive security operation continues. The city's central railway station has been evacuated.



Police helicopters are flying over the city and special forces are involved in the massive police deployment.

Bavarian public radio reports that an elite border security unit, GSG9, is heading for Munich with several helicopters.

Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer is holding a crisis meeting with security advisers.

The security forces have been on alert after a teenage migrant stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State.

The authorities had warned of the danger of further incidents.

A man working at a petrol station in Munich told the BBC: "We see just ambulances and it's like firemen and police but all this area is evacuated, all the streets.

"Now [there] are no cars just on the side of the streets. All of the streets are blocked. I see that the people are scared. Everybody are running around."

Munich police said they did not know where "the perpetrators" were. "Look after yourselves and avoid public places".
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday assured Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that America "would work" together with Turkey on the extradition of alleged coup leader, Fetullah Gulen.

Biden acknowledged Turkeys expectation regarding the extradition request during a telephone call to Yildirim and said the U.S. would continue to support its ally, according to prime ministry sources.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media, the sources told Anadolu Agency that Biden said the ultimate decision rests with U.S. courts.

Biden also praised the courage of Turks in the face of the coup attempt, once again condemning the July 15 overthrow attempt.

Yildirim in turn said Turkey had long warned the U.S. administration about harmful activities of Fetullah Gulen as well as his terrorist organization, and expected the U.S., an ally, to extradite him.

At least 246 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred in Istanbul and Ankara, and more than 1,500 others were wounded as they protested the coup attempt.

Turkey's government said the attempted coup was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming the so-called parallel state.

Turkey submitted a formal extradition request for Gulen earlier this week.

The U.S. is currently reviewing the documents, according to the State Department.
This Account has been suspended.
Accustomed to cash, Myanmars small group of debit-card users is growing only slowly, according to bank officials, who say that bank cards are becoming more popular, but are mostly used to withdraw cash once a month, on payday.





Kinks inherent in the system are preventing a rapid growth in the number of users, which has hovered at around 1.8 million, says U Zaw Lin Htut, CEO of Myanmar Payment Union (MPU).

People are starting to use cards issued by banks and brands, and are finding it increasingly convenient as the number of stores that take cards increases, he said.

But while international customers use their cards when they need to buy something and leave the rest of their money in their account, Myanmar users typically use cards to withdraw their entire salary at an ATM every payday, he said, adding, We would like to encourage them to refrain.

He believes card use could rise by 30 percent over the next year, if people can be persuaded to make the switch.

Communications are improving, more companies are paying salaries directly into employee accounts, more shops take card payments, and customers are growing more familiar with the concept and practical uses of credit, he said.

Debit cards have been used in Myanmar since 2011, but initially only as a means of rapidly accessing large volumes of cash. The system began to develop in 2013 with the introduction of MPU.

Voxpop: Do you use a bank card or prefer to hold cash?





Last year, card use for big-ticket purchases in malls became routine. As many as 6000 shops now accept credit card payments, said U Zay Yar Aung, manager of CB Bank card and ATM services, although most are concentrated in Yangon downtown shopping centres.

To expand this service beyond Yangon and other major cities, banks need more investment, he said.

Developing the card system takes time, and money. More people are using cards, but we are uncertain about our expansion prospects, he said.

It took Thailand nearly 15 years to develop the credit card industry, and Myanmar only introduced bank cards five years ago. In most parts of the country you cant pay for anything with a card.

People do understand the advantages, so usage will increase as banks offer more services and ATMs become more widely available, he said.

The government could also help, the incentive being increased tax receipts.

In many countries, governments deduct tax direct from credit card purchases. Its a reliable way of ensuring tax payment. Our government could even offer a tax reduction for card users, which would benefit both parties, said U Zay Yar Aung.

Some are not convinced that bank cards are convenient.

Tarmwe township resident Daw Moh Moh said, Cards would be useful if we didnt have to go to the bank. But if the local ATM has run out of cash, you have to go to the bank anyway.

Last year my husband was using an ATM that stopped working, and the bank told him his card was damaged. He had to wait two weeks for a new one. It would be nice if they could address that sort of problem.

MPUs U Zaw Lin Htut said as long as people use their cards to take huge amounts of cash out of ATMs that are designed for small withdrawals, these problems will continue.

The banks have to make sure the machines are regularly resupplied, and to encourage people to make card purchases directly, he said.

Of Myanmars 24 private banks, CB Bank, AYA Bank and Myanmar Oriental Bank have started offering credit cards with interest-free loans repayable within six weeks and KBZ Bank is also preparing a credit card service.

To promote card use, CB Bank is planning to establish up to 200,000 point-of-sale locations across the country, said the banks deputy chair, executive voice chairman and CEO, U Kyaw Lynn.

For U Zay Yar Aung, the prevailing attitude still needs to change before bank cards become the norm.

In Myanmar, its still widely thought that cash is better than cards, and not enough places accept cards. More people will use cards if they see the advantages over cash, but that wont happen overnight.

Translation by Emoon and Kyawt Darly Lin

This article has been corrected to state that CB Bank is planning to set up 200,000 point of sale locations, not ATM's, as well as to reflect the correct spelling of bank deputy chair U Kyaw Lynn's name. The Myanmar Times regrets the errors.
Thai firm Siamgas and Petrochemicals Public Company is investing almost US$50 million in a gas-fired power plant in Mawlamyine township, it said yesterday in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.





The company has set up a wholly owned Singaporean subsidiary Siam Gas Power, which signed a sales and purchase agreement on July 18 to invest $48 million (1.68 billion baht) in the 230-megawatt project.

The plant joined the national grid system earlier this year, and is operated by Myanmar Lighting under the governments independent power producer (IPP) system. Myanmar Lighting contracted Singaporean firm Asiatech Energy to build the plant.

The Myanmar government rolled out its IPP system in 2011 to encourage private investment in electricity production, especially in areas off the national grid, hoping to produce more power and alleviate shortages.

SPWs $48 million investment covers the purchase of shares in three separate entities involved in operating the plant and will be paid in cash.

The firm is buying 30 percent of Asiatech Energys shares, 30pc of Myanmar Lighting and 30pc of Malaysian energy service provider MSN International, which provides technical services to Myanmar Lighting, according to documents published on the Thai stock exchange.

Asiatech Energy which, following the transaction, will be 70pc owned by company chair Tang Weng Fei and 30pc by SPW, also provides loans to Myanmar Lighting, according to the same documents.

SPW is spending $24 million on the shares in MSN and Asiatech, and expects to finish this purchase by the end of July. The other $24 million will be spent on shares in Myanmar Lighting, with that transaction expected to finish in November.
Tin Yadanar Tun takes to the streets of Yangon to find out whether Myanmars famous cash-based economy is becoming a thing of the past.





Ko Mo Lwin

Managing director of Peak Point Travel and Tours

I have used an ATM card for the last three years. I like it because I can withdraw money when I am on holiday, or after my bank has closed, and I dont need to go to my branch, but can withdraw money from the nearest machine.

Although ATM cards have been available for more than five years in Myanmar, banks have not yet managed to offer a good service, and even now there are not many ATM machines in the streets. Sometimes my card is swallowed, or machines run out of money or do not accept the card because it is issued by another bank.

Ma Nang Pyae

Lecturer, National Management College

Most employees use ATM cards now, as private and state-owned companies have started paying salaries directly into bank accounts. This is good for workers, who can take out the money they plan to use and keep the rest in a savings account to get interest.

However, many people in Myanmar do not know how to use an ATM card, and in many places they cannot be used. Sometimes I still worry that I wont be able to withdraw money, even when I have it in my account. Whenever I use an ATM service, I pray for a good connection, but that does not happen often enough.

Ma Myat Moh Moh Oo

Social media executive, IMA Company

I started using an ATM card because my office transferred my salary directly into a bank account. At first, we used a small bank, which did not have many ATM machines, and I faced so many problems that I still find it hard to trust the card system.





Using a card is good in some ways, because I can withdraw as much money as I need, but ATMs often run out of money. I have faced this problem many times when trying to use the machines downtown, on Bogyoke Aung San Road, and my money also sometimes gets stuck in the machine.

Ma Su Wai Yee

CEO, Ci Ci Clothing

For around the last two years I have used a bank card. I like it more than cash, but most shops wont let me use it. Card users would be much happier if more shops took card payments, and even in shops with card machines I find the connection often fails. So I cannot rely 100 percent on this payment method for now.
Twelve developers ordered by the government to reduce the scale of their high-rise residential projects in Yangon said yesterday that the review  which includes a total of 222 projects  could cause up to US$6 billion in losses and force many companies out of business.





The developers held a joint press conference in Yangon yesterday to outline the impact the ruling will have on their projects and warned of serious consequences if the government demands arbitrary changes to major long-term investments.

In May, authorities suspended all projects in Yangon with nine floors or more, pending an inspection to ensure they were all compatible with draft urban plans. In the first round of results published last week, 12 developers were told to cut the number of floors or change their designs.

A total of 222 projects were suspended  64 of which were already under construction. Developers said yesterday that if more companies were also told to dramatically alter their blueprints, they stood to lose a combined $5 to $6 billion. The 12 companies alone would lose $340 million, they said.

We have stopped work on our construction sites for around two months, and if we have to demolish floors that have already been built there will be consequences, said U Myo Myint of MKT Construction. We will have to break our commitments to buyers, subcontractors, foreign partners and banks. If we have to follow these orders, we will repay our debts as much as we can, but some of us will not be able to, and will go bankrupt.

Many developers felt the government had broken its own commitment, by rescinding the original building permits. They also accused it of lacking transparency, because it did not make the review criteria public.

The [high-rise inspection] committee said it wants to save Yangon and the character of Yangon, said U Myo Myint. These are very good words to use, but they should focus on checking whether high-rise projects are following policies set out by the former government or not. They shouldnt inspect according to new policies, said U Myo Myint.

U Ye Min Oo, a spokesperson for the high-rise inspection committee, told The Myanmar Times earlier this week that the review is simply to check that projects comply with draft urban plans, which are already in the public domain. However, he said the committee was also considering the impact of projects on the city, including on local residents, traffic congestion and the environment.





We are inspecting the technical standards of buildings and their impact on the city, he said. If a project seems to present a danger to the citys character or to residential areas, even if the construction is sound, we will tell the company to make changes.

Developers yesterday said they want to continue building under their original permits and do not want to knock down floors. They said they will try to meet with MPs in the Yangon Region government in the hope of reaching a compromise.

They also noted that each construction site hires around 500 workers, meaning the suspension of more than 100 projects has put more than 50,000 labourers out of work.

We are not privileged people and we are not saving our city, but we are people who want to develop the city as well as we can, U Myo Myint said.

When this country transitioned to a civilian government we believed that we, the developers, could help to move this country forward. We were enthusiastic about democracy, but it seems that our second civilian government only wants to return to the ways of the past.

This article has been corrected to reflect that the number of high-rise projects subject to the Yangon Regional government's review as 222. The figure was initially reported the figure as 185. The Myanmar Times regrets the error.
The winners of the first annual Magnum Photography Awards were announced last week, recognising 44 photographers from around the world, including Myanmar.





The winning images were selected by an international jury, which received submissions from photographers in 127 countries.

It was an incredibly hard competition to judge  but also a pleasure. We came across brilliant storytelling from all corners of the world, powerful documentation of important issues, and memorable single images, said David Kogan, executive director of Magnum Photos.

Myanmar photographer Minzayar Oo was selected as a finalist for his story The Price of Jade, which documents the jade trade in Hpakant, Kachin State.

Its really an honour for me to be chosen as a finalist along with many other great photographers. Im very glad especially for the great exposure it gives to this very important issue, said Minzayar Oo, whose work has been featured in several international publications including Time magazines website.

The accolade is the latest in a string of awards for the jade series, including a China International Press Photo Award, a Days Japan International Photojournalism Award and the World Press Photo Foundation Award at the 2016 Yangon Photo Festival.

I only started the project because I was so surprised and interested by the whole mining town of Hpakant and its story  how [people] live there. I didnt expect this [success] at first but I am very happy that this story has been getting the exposure it deserves, Minzayer said.

Among the winners of the Magnum Photography Awards was German photographer Sandra Hoyn, whose intimate series The Longing of the Others documents the lives of sex workers living in Bangladeshs Kandapara brothel  the oldest and second-largest in the country.





To be a winner means the series is getting a lot of international attention. Getting this problem out in the open will hopefully bring change  public awareness is important, said Hoyn. Recognising the existence of sex workers is the first step to ensure that they have a right to live a normal life as any other human being, she added.

Hoyn spent several weeks visiting the brothel, getting to know the women working there. Her photo series features several of the women she met, such as Pakhi, a 15-year-old girl who was sold to the brothel by a man after she ran away from home.

Sometimes I felt very bad to be taking pictures, but I always had to remind myself that I am a photojournalist. Sometimes it is difficult to keep the journalistic distance, said Hoyn. Taking portraits of Pakhi together with a customer she didnt like at all was a bad experience. She is like a friend to me  it felt like I was abusing her when I took those pictures. But  it wouldnt be real if I didnt show it. Her customer came in a group of five men who all wanted to have sex with her one after another. It was horrible.

The Magnum Photography Awards winning photographs can be viewed online at www.lensculture.com
Buffalo is a byword for stupidity in Thai culture and an insult often doled out by city dwellers to denigrate their rural compatriots.





But one photographer is taking on the stereotype  and Thailands ulcerous social divide  by elevating the beast to art.

Buffalo are the symbol of our countrys labour class, they should be respected, says Maitree Siriboon, the 33-year-old who has been layering colourful coats of paint on dozens of buffaloes in his rice-farming village.

Photos of the lumbering animals, many bearing references to famous works of art, are now on display at the YenakArt Villa gallery in Bangkok.

The exhibit is loaded with symbolism in a country wracked by a political struggle between the urban elite and a rural majority hungry for a greater slice of the economic pie.

Bangkok residents have long used buffalo as a pejorative term to put down farmers and rural migrants who have flocked to the capital for low-paid work.

We still use the word buffalo with a rude and negative connotation that means uneducated person, Maitree said, sporting a traditional sarong from a poor northeast region known as Isaan.





This is the second time Maitrees work has been exhibited at YenakArt: He was one of the first artists to feature in the gallery when it opened last year.

Maitree is for sure one of the most promising Thai artists, said Jeremy Opritesco, YenakArt Villa owner and curator. His art questions the relationship between big cities and rurality, between east and west, between past and present. These subjects have a special meaning in Thailand, where Isaan is not well considered, despite its great assets in food, music and crafts.

Maitree is hoping to encourage fellow Isaan people to take pride in their distinct dialect and culture, which has closer links with neighbouring Laos.

From my own experiences, I used to be mocked and looked down on because of my face and flat nose, he said of his time in Bangkok.

But people have to understand that Thais come from different ethnicities ... we should build our own pride so that the society will accept us.

Maitree Siriboons exhibition, Save Thai Buffalo, is on display at the YenakArt Villa, 69 Soi Prasat Suk, Yen Akat Road, Bangkok until August 15.
Almost one in 10 maternal deaths in Myanmar is the result of unsafe abortion, according to health NGO Ipas.





In a country where the procedure is illegal in nearly all cases, some have turned to traditional birth attendants for massages, potentially dangerous drugs and even sticks to induce abortion  and the results can be deadly.

With Myanmars abortion laws unlikely to change anytime soon, experts say its crucial to provide knowledge on contraception, which can help reduce unwelcome pregnancies.

Having access to information, [contraceptive] commodities and accompanying services  would really bring down the number of unwanted pregnancies, no doubt about it, said Marie Stopes Myanmar (MSI) director Dr Sid Naing.

But myths about birth control still run rampant in Myanmar, with some circulated as scare tactics and others the result of gaps in information.

Women worry birth control will cause infertility, affect their weight or move around in their bodies  but many of these myths are unfounded, or proven true only in rare cases.

Meanwhile, less than one-third of reproductive-age women in Myanmar were using a modern method of contraception last year, according to a Family Planning 2020 document published last November.

Injectables





The most popular method of birth control in Myanmar is injectables, sometimes called the birth-control shot or contraceptive injection.

They are widely available, inexpensive, effective for three months of protection and can be kept relatively private, said one Yangon-based expert for an international family planning organisation.

However, she said that women have reached out to her organisation over side effects of the shot, which can stop a womans period for three months or longer.

[That] doesnt mean youre infertile, she said. But it will take longer for a couple to conceive past that period.

To be effective, this form of birth control must be injected every three months, with about one week of wiggle room between courses.

But while the family planning expert said many places in Myanmar have clinic days where women will go together to get injections, not every woman can return every quarter.

The pill

Missing birth control windows can put women at risk of unwanted pregnancy and could be an issue for those who take oral contraception daily.

As with other hormonal methods, women worry about the effects the pill will have on their body, according to MSIs Dr Naing.

[For] both pills and injectables there are concerns ranging from effect on skin colour to changes in body weight, he said. In those cases there are some technicalities behind it. But even basic health care providers can advise users for appropriate methods.

Though the pill is widely available, at least once emergency contraception (EC) was proffered when the daily pill was asked for. One international aid worker based in Myanmar reported that, upon asking three pharmacies for more of her specific daily pill packet, they all brought her a months worth of EC.

Emergency contraception

Some women are depending on EC as their primary form of birth control despite expert cautions against this practice.

The emergency contraceptive pill is favoured for its low cost and the private nature of its use, said the family planning expert.

Though EC has been rumoured to affect fertility, experts say it wont hurt users  but it may not be the most effective method.

Emergency contraception and daily oral contraception differ in dosage, said Dr Naing, adding the amount of hormones in an EC pill is around four times that of a daily contraceptive pill  which will be taken by a woman more than two hundred times in a year.

Somehow the myths [are] there that  it will dry your uterus up [and] when you want to have babies you wont be able to. It might be coming out of scare tactics that people in the role of guardians might have used with all good intentions so that kids are afraid of using it, he said.

EC is safe. Its not having [a] long-lasting impact on the human body in any way. The only thing is it has to be taken properly otherwise it will not be effective, meaning it will not be able to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

EC has to be taken within a certain amount of time after intercourse to do its job. Dr Naing also cautions that it doesnt stop diseases from spreading, and says that doctors recommend it shouldnt be used more than twice a month to maintain effectiveness.

IUDs

In contrast to short-term methods like EC or injectables, intrauterine devices (IUDs) can prevent pregnancy for years.

A small plastic device that is wrapped in copper or contains hormones, an IUD is inserted into the uterus by a doctor.

But, while IUDs are very cheap and safe, Ipas Myanmar country director Dr Ni Ni said women shied away from putting something inside".

A common concern is that the device might move or impact intercourse, according to experts.

When you insert a device ... theyre worried either its too shallow and it will disturb with sex, or that it goes too deep. Sometimes theyve heard rumours about it getting to the tummy, back or even head, causing headaches, said MSIs Dr Naing, adding that the risk of an IUD moving beyond the uterus was extremely small.

Other myths include the belief that unmarried women cant get IUDs, and that they cause abortions, said the Yangon-based family planning expert.

Neither is true, and other risks are small. IUDs could lead to heavier cramping and bleeding, but this does not represent an induced abortion. Copper toxicity is also less of a problem than believed, and the same goes for uterine perforation, she said.

An option for everyone

Despite advantages of IUDs, Dr Naing said the devices may be outpaced in Myanmar by contraceptive implants  a small flexible tube thats inserted under the skin of the upper arm  though experts say implants are currently considered a luxury method and havent been widely available in the past.

Condoms, in the meantime, arent widely used in Myanmar, as some associate their use with prostitution, according to the aid worker based in Myanmar. In addition, the police have been known to arrest women found in possession of condoms on suspicion of being sex workers, as previously reported by The Myanmar Times. That hasnt stopped a market from growing above the line, though.

Accessibility of condoms has actually increased, at least since 2010, because its not just NGOs distributing free products anymore, said the family planning expert. Its now a commodity that companies are selling.

Choosing birth control is a personal decision, and what suits one woman may not be right for another.

Despite cultural and logistics challenges  from embarrassment to keeping pharmacies stocked  many women are making modern contraceptive choices.

Meanwhile, deaths from unsafe abortion are unlikely to stop, a cause Ipas calls entirely preventable.
If you liked Vintage Girls, youll love Pop Cities. Yangoods has launched its second season in a blaze of retro magnificence, blending ancient scenes with modern panache.





At the July 15 launch at Yangon Gallery, Yangoods built on the success of last years Vintage Girls of Myanmar collection, featuring souvenirs and handbags, and offering scenes of Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inle Lake on leather bags, books, cushions, magnets and handmade elephants.

This years bags, set to be a hit with women like last years classic images, feature bright colours and reproductions of old newspaper advertisements.

Creative director and interior designer Delphine de Lorme said beautiful, unique and magical heritage designs could be found everywhere in Myanmar. But in the Pop Cities theme, Yangoods is doing its bit for development.

Our team visited four cities to get inspiration through iconic versions in dark and light, mixing scenes of development and bright colours with vintage reproductions of the old-fashioned, she said.

After three years in-country, she and her team still get excited over new creations, she said.

Myanmar ladies like expensive brands like Hello Kitty. So I was eager to know how they would appreciate precious designs from their own heritage that reflected their remarkable traditions and

Marketing director Clara Baik said most design team members who go out looking for antiques to combine with the modern look were foreigners like herself, and were always on the lookout for possible cultural misunderstandings.





When we combine old photos and art works with something more modern, we always worry about making a mistake. We want to introduce Myanmar icons to the world, but we have to consider the meaning of some of the designs, she said.

Yangoods adds new items every three or four months. The designs draw upon the rich current of local handicraft to be found in all states and regions of the country. Yangoods introduced the traditional paper elephants of Upper Myanmar this season.

Though Yangoods is aimed at the international market, we value our local customers too, because unless you appreciate the value in the countrys own vintage images, they cannot become classic brands worldwide, said Baik.

Yangoods products can be found at its showroom and workshop at 62 Shan Gone Street, Sanchaung township; Bogyoke Market shop 64, the main building in Bogyoke Market; and Le Planteur, at 80 New University Road in Bahan township. The products can also be viewed on www.yangoods.com, www.facebook.com/yangoods or [email protected].
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

The European Parliament is expected to vote against granting a visa-free regime to Turkey in September due to the reaction of the countrys authorities to the military coup attempt, a source in the European Parliament told RIA Novosti July 22.

On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.

However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. More than 200 people have been killed as a result of the coup attempt.

The European Parliament will likely vote against granting a visa-free regime to Turkey, said the source.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, European commissioner for migration, home affairs, and citizenship, said earlier that Turkey still should fulfill five conditions necessary for the EU to abolish the visa regime for short trips of its citizens to the Schengen countries.

To cancel visas Turkey must fulfill 72 conditions for visa liberalization.

The European Commission proposed the European Parliament and the EU Council to lift visa restrictions for Turkish citizens in May if Ankara fulfills the remaining conditions for the visa abolition until the end of June.

Among them were the measures to prevent corruption, hold negotiations on an operating agreement with the European Police Office (Europol), judicial cooperation with all EU member-states, and the revision of legislation on the fight against terrorism.
A project in Taungoo is helping landmine victims get back on their feet.





Min Min San was 12 years old when she lost her leg. She was outside fetching water when she stepped on an unexploded landmine, setting it off.

I could no longer walk or help my family on the farm, and going out was difficult, said Daw Min Min San, now 42.

But she is now able to walk again, after being fitted with a new prosthetic leg. She is one of many people living with a disability who have received help through an ongoing prosthesis project run by Leprosy Mission Myanmar (LMM).

In 2003, Myanmar announced to the World Health Organization (WHO) that leprosy had been eliminated as a public health problem. Since then, attention toward the highly stigmatised disease has dramatically receded. But the issue continues to prevail with about 3000 new cases emerging each year.

LMM works toward transforming and empowering the lives of people affected by leprosy. The organisation started in 2003 by focusing on those affected by the condition. Its projects now provide rehabilitation services to many different people, including survivors of landmine incidents and those with a general disability.

LMM currently has 14 disability resource centres spread across seven states and regions, including Yangon, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady regions.





Based in Taungoo, eastern Bago Region, one project sponsored by the organisation and partnered with a Danish church group is producing and fitting those who have lost their legs with prostheses. Via a mobile truck, workshops are set up in monasteries and schools where electricity is reliable.

The truck can go to places where people need it. Otherwise, services are located [mainly] in Yangon, which is not so easy to reach, said Dr Zaw Moe Aung, country director of LMM.

The Taungoo project expects to reach 180 communities around the region. With each set of prosthetic legs costing approximately $US200 (K240,000), the project team has the capacity to produce about 20 prosthetic legs a month. However, these costs do not account for labour inputs.

Dr Zaw Moe Aung told The Myanmar Times that there is a severe shortage of trained prosthetic technicians in the country.

There are probably only 10 people qualified as Grade 2 technicians in the whole of Myanmar, he said.

To become a qualified Grade 2 prosthesis technician, one must undergo three years of training. LLM has trained four of their physiotherapists in a particular type of prosthesis making, but some have gone abroad for training.

Jason Bender, a certified prosthetist from the United States, currently serves as volunteer technical adviser for the Taungoo project. Dr Zaw Moe Aung says most of the workers involved in the project are Myanmar, so Jason is a rarity.

Practically speaking, Im half-student, half-teacher, said Bender. Part of my work has been getting familiar with the unique features and challenges of working locally.

Fitting a prosthesis requires a strong support system. The process itself takes around two to three weeks. Patients then have to learn how to walk with their new legs, as well as basic care techniques such as massaging and bandaging.

Ive come to appreciate the group approach. Clients from all over the country, from all walks of life, come together and go through the fitting and training process together, which helps to create a unique sense of community, he said.

The 2014 census revealed that there are about 2.3 million people in Myanmar living with a disability, 4.6 percent of the population. Many disabled persons do not have adequate care, and providing assistance remains low on the governments agenda.

The rehabilitation services in Myanmar are very much lagging behind, and many people dont understand the connection between poverty and disability, he said.

Like Daw Min Min San, hundreds of people fall victim to landmines every year alone. As The Myanmar Times reported earlier this year, Myanmar is the third-worst country in the world for annual landmine casualties, according to Landmine Monitor. There were at least 3745 reported casualties between 1999 and the end of 2014, though it is thought the real figure could be much higher.

But mobility isnt the only problem facing disabled people in Myanmar. Dr Zaw Moe Aung says that one in four people with disabilities in Myanmar do not have a national identity card, which basically means they dont exist.

A forgotten and neglected part of society, people with disabilities tend to be worse off in terms of educational attainment, employment and social status compared to those without a disability.

Theres a big opportunity to work on changing the perception surround disability itself, said Jason. In a way, having a prosthesis can be a way for a person to escape the perception of having a disability.
It is home to myriad rare creatures and even, legend says, a dragon. Pilgrims believe that gold in the surrounding hills is one of nine Buddhist miracles to grace the region.





But the precious metal in the ground around Indawgyi Lake in Kachin State is proving to be more of a curse than a blessing: Now scientists are estimating that damage caused by pollution from gold mining in the area could cause what is currently Myanmars largest lake to shrink by one-third within 10 years.

Debris from illicit mines in the surrounding reserve combines with pollution from mines further away to fill the water and threaten rare wildlife. Studies show that since 2007 more than 170 acres of water have thickened into a muddy delta  and conservationists fear the rate of shrinkage will increase (click below to compare aerial views of Indawgyi).

If nothing happens, the southern part of the lake could disappear and fisheries collapse within a decade, says Frank Momberg, the Myanmar director for Flora and Flora International, an environmental organisation that has been monitoring the reserve. Although he cautioned further research is needed, Momberg postulated that as much as 33 percent of the lakes water could disappear by 2026.

The prospect of such a dramatic decline and other mining-related damage threatens the future of the few elephants, leopards, bears, and other endangered or at-risk animals that have survived in the remote reserve while most of the rest of their species have been wiped out.

But it also threatens the livelihoods of local fishermen who have relied on the lakes vast 100 square miles (260 square kilometres) of water for generations, as well as the nascent eco-tourism industry, which could support traditional communities amid sweeping national modernisation.

If the lake disappears, what happens to us? says a young volunteer at the lakes signature Shwe Myitzu Pagoda, which appears to float mystically above its waters.

It is a question on the mind of many of the more than 35,000 people who live in Indawgyi Wildlife Sanctuary, the 300-square-mile reserve that encircles the lake, located about five hours west of Myitkyina.





One of the largest lakes in Southeast Asia, Indawgyi and its environs supports more than 650 species of animals, including many considered endangered or vulnerable. It also provides a home to thousands of migratory birds from as far away as Siberia each winter. These birds are now under threat, as heavy metals exposed by mining practices have entered the food chain.

Also at risk are at least three endemic species of fish found nowhere else in the world. Momberg says FFI surveys have found other new species in small streams that feed into the lake.

If gold mining would spread to these streams it would lead to extinction, he says. There is still a chance to discover new species to science.

A false hope

Tourists who flock to Myanmars smaller but more famous lake, Inle in Shan State, can see the grim consequence of decades of unchecked environmental degradation there. Commercial floating fish farms have polluted the water with chemical pesticides and fertilisers, while uncontrolled tourism development has been blamed for deforestation around the area, leading to predictions that the lake could be gone within a century.

But Indawgyi should have been different. The Myanmar government designated the region for ecological conservation in 1999, and submitted a proposal with UNESCO to register the reserve as an ecological World Heritage Site in 2014.

Its been named an official community-based eco-tourism site by the Myanmar government, and the entire wetland was declared a protected site of international importance in February by the Ramsar Convention, an agreement by 179 governments to preserve wetlands across the world.

Read more: One mans fight to save the lake

But in reality, little protection is on offer. According to At What Price? Gold Mining in Kachin State, Burma, a report published in 2004 by the Pan Kachin Development Society, mining in the area started increasing in the 1990s, at the same time that the military junta was supposedly enacting conservation measures.

Residents say mining has risen again sharply in the past few years, despite the reserves ongoing application for UNESCO recognition as a place of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

At Inn Chit Thu, an eco-tourism outfit fostered by the FFI in Lonton village, guides have begun distributing handy maps to travellers with the lakes most famous features highlighted  alongside the sites of several mines. Marked with a golden arrow, nearby Maing Naung village is recommended because the gold diggers are also here.

A tough life

Maing Naung, one of 39 villages inside the reserve, is about 7 kilometres south of Lonton at the southwestern corner of the lake. In an earthen-floor teashop near the centre of town, gem trader U Zaw Min gestures over his shoulder toward the forest west of the shop.

Up there, he indicates, in those hills  thats where youll find the gold mines.

He says the mines lure men from across the country  Sagaing Region, Mandalay and as far away as Yangon, digging and sifting along creek beds for around K5000 (US$4.50), or a percentage of what they find, per day.

The miners pretend they are not miners, U Zaw Min says, nodding at a couple of hard-eyed excavators sitting at a table nearby. They know its illegal. But its their livelihood.

Its a tough life. Like those working in the notorious jade mines of Hpakant, just 60km away, many are addicted to heroin or methamphetamines.

Drugs are as common as vegetables around here, U Zaw Min says.

Residents say attempts to limit the impact made by illegal mining are made more difficult by the fact that many excavations lie in territory controlled by the non-state armed group, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Miners claim the organisation levies taxes on them, an allegation echoed by local campaigners but denied by a representative of the group.

Gem trader U Zaw Min explains the situation.

The gold near the village has been mostly mined, so they go about 20 minutes west into KIA territory. The boss of the gold mine pays a tax to be allowed in.

Ma Su Hla Phyu, an Inn Chit Thu volunteer, says the government officers have little hope in interfering in the KIAs affairs. Most villagers in the area are loyal to the armed group, which has been engaged in a decades-long civil war with the Tatmadaw over demands for autonomy and rights to natural resources in Kachin State, she says.

But Ma Su Hla Phyu also complains that some government inspectors charged with protecting the reserve are more interested in taking bribes than safeguarding the lake.

The gold miners pay KIA protection money and also government inspector bribes. Its not a tax  they are paying for access, she says.

She added that even higher-ranking authorities show little inclination to enforce a proper clampdown.

When the head of government shows up, they [the miners] all stop and pretend they dont mine.

But there is no pretending the damage caused by mining does not exist. Research by the FFI conducted in May 2015 shows that invasive plant life is growing on a newly formed delta that spreads out from the shore near Maing Naung.

The development of a new delta due to the sedimentation and the reduction of the lake size is only part of the problem, Momberg says. A more widespread impact is caused by suspended sediments.

Digging deep for solutions

The principal problem, according to the FFI, is that sediment, dislodged by small- and large-scale excavators, blocks oxygen and sunlight from penetrating the water, in the process killing delicate the plant life that feeds fish and bird populations.

More than 5500 acres of the sanctuary have been damaged, including the 170 acres of water now filled with sediment. Local fishermen say nets are showing low yields, and farmers have seen their paddies begin to drown in mud.

The mining also leads to deforestation. Overhead photos of the area west of Maing Naung reveal a spattering of brown pits sprinkled around the hills  pits where evergreen and deciduous forests used to be (click to see detail below).

The scale of the destruction is remarkable, and yet authorities from the state level down seem reluctant to take real action  despite ambitions at the Union level to gain UNESCO recognition and increase eco-tourism.

U Kyaw Zaw, director of the Ministry of Resource and Environmental Conservation, told The Myanmar Times the ministry had previously spoken with the Kachin State government asking them to enforce the ban on mining within the reserve to strengthen their chances of a UNESCO listing.

We got the reply from the Kachin State government that they already told miners they must cease work, he said.

We need cooperation from the Kachin State government as well as regional people if we are to gain UNESCO recognition for this as a wildlife sanctuary. It is not something the Union ministry can implement, he said.

But the Kachin government remained elusive when it came to discussing what measures it is taking to protect the lake, or addressing allegations that its inspectors are taking bribes. The Myanmar Times was unable to get a response on these issues from anyone at the relevant state-level department.

As for the KIA,U Daung Khar, conflict negotiator for the armed groups political wing, the Kachin Independence Organisation, declined to comment on whether the KIA controls gold mines in the reserve and denied any taxes are collected.

But the issue of who will have ultimate control of such mines, he said, is a key aspect of Myanmars wider peace

This issue [land management] is a big issue in the whole of Kachin State, he said. We want to have some shared power in the administrative process of the national resources. This is part of our

Peace, federal resource-sharing, stamping out corruption  these are all long-term goals for Myanmars new government and unlikely to happen in the immediate future.

In the meantime, locals and migrants continue to hunt for gold around Indawgyi. The mud continues to pile up, and the lake continues to shrink.

Momberg believes the best conservation solution might be to involve all mine operators in a dialogue on how to mitigate sedimentation and subsequently legalise the operations by issuing licences valid for clearly defined but limited time periods.

Such action might mitigate further damage, but for the worst-affected areas, it might be too little, too late.

Even with legalising the mining operations, Momberg said, its unlikely that the mining area will be rehabilitated any time soon.

Changing Indawgyi

Gold mines have stripped the land southwest of Maing Naung village, as shown below by the yellow areas along Hkaung Tung creek (left). The sediment and exposed heavy metals are working their way downstream, creating a delta and destroying the shoreline. A plume of sediment can be seen extending hundreds of metres into the lake (upper-right corner). Source: Flora and Fauna International

Click to return to top, or to return to "digging deep"
Better late than never, residents of Rakhine State might well be saying after the state government reveals its 100-day initiatives today, having postponed the public disclosure three times previously.





According to the state governments information department, drafting the program has involved nearly 10 government departments, including rural development, social welfare and urban development, which will all be working to explain the plans to the public in the coming days.

U Min Aung, the Rakhine State minister for urban development, said the departments have implemented many initiatives within their first 100 days in power, such as improving clean water supplies to areas facing water shortages and constructing cyclone shelters in areas prone to storms.

We did as much as we could in terms of things that we have implemented within 100 days. We admit that we need to do more. Implementation is a long process, U Min Aung said.

He said the state governments thrice-delayed disclosure of the 100-day initiatives was due to major flooding in some parts of Rakhine State that had kept the government preoccupied in recent weeks assisting thousands of residents displaced by rising waters.

The state government, which like its Union-level counterpart had promised to makes its first 100 days in office noteworthy, has faced criticism for a lack of substantive improvements for constituents in the impoverished western state.

The Sittwe-based Arakan National Party has been reliably critical of the Rakhine State government headed by Chief Minister U Nyi Pu of the National League for Democracy. The ANP and the NLD have had an at-times acrimonious relationship, over issues ranging from leadership appointments to approaches on the contentious issue of citizenship for Muslims in Rakhine State.





U Tun Aung Kyaw, secretary of the ANP, which holds the most seats in the state parliament, said the state government had failed to take a leading role and was losing the faith of the public.

Rakhine State needs development but the state government has been unable to do very basic, necessary things  likely [improving] transportation  within the 100 days, he said.

U Nyi Pu has pushed back against such criticism, pointing to his governments provision of humanitarian aid and resettlement assistance to people affected by the recent flooding.

He has also counted an ongoing National Verification Card program aimed at addressing citizenship issues  which has seen at least 1919 cards given to Muslim residents of Myebon and Kyaukphyu townships  as among the successes of his administration in its first four months.

Yesterday in Nay Pyi Taw, Union Minister for Labour, Immigration and Population U Thein Swe told reporters the government had no plan to amend the 1982 Citizenship Law that has formed the basis for the verification program. The controversial legislation has been criticised by rights groups due to its three-tiered codification of citizenship and stipulations on who qualifies for citizenship that can be difficult for some to meet despite generations of ancestors having lived in the country.

We have no plan to amend the law and please dont worry about doing that, U Thein Swe said. We cannot amend it quietly. If we need to amend it, we need to submit [proposed changes] to parliament first.

U Aung Kyaw Htwee, a Rakhine State MP, said evaluating the state governments early days in office was difficult in part due to its failure to effectively communicate its plans to constituents.

They have no transparency about the 100-day plans. We dont know clearly what this is and what is included in the plan. Therefore, how can one say what has improved and what has not improved? said the state lawmaker representing Pauktaw township.

He said representatives from the executive did not appear before the state legislature to answer for the 100-day plans despite MPs having submitted questions on the matter.

Last week, the Rakhine State Peace, Stability and Development Committee held its second meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, establishing a 142-point agenda for Rakhine State aimed at addressing its needs.

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the committee, has faced international pressure over conditions faced by the largely stateless self-identifying Muslim Rohingya, who have seen little change to their circumstance in the first four months of the new administration. More than 100,000 Muslims remain confined to squalid camps where healthcare and education access is restricted, some four years after they were displaced by violence between Buddhists and Muslims that tore through the state.

Criticised abroad and assailed by some at home over matters as seemingly innocuous as terminology for the beleaguered Muslim minority, early-going scrutiny was perhaps an inevitability for Daw Aung San Suu Kyis administration and its counterpart in Rakhine State, where the interfaith dynamics are among the NLDs thorniest challenges.

Prior to his appointment as chief minister, when he was a lawmaker in the Rakhine State legislature tipped for the post, U Nyi Pu sought to manage expectations, particularly on the ability of the then-incoming administrations ability to tackle deep-seated mistrust and divisions between the states Buddhist and Muslim communities.

It is impossible to unite them at once. We will have to do it step by step, U Nyi Pu told The Myanmar Times in an interview from the state capital Sittwe in February.

So we need to give the process a lot of time. Therefore we cannot say it can be accomplished in our five-year term, he said.

Additional reporting by Ye Mon
Eleven former slaves who recently escaped a fishing village in Tanintharyi Regions Yephyu township have asked government officials to save the rest of the human-trafficking victims in the area.





The Confederation of Trade Union Myanmar (CTUM), along with the 11 fishermen they saved earlier this month, held a press conference yesterday at Summit Parkview Hotel to allow the victims to retell the experiences of their slavery.

We were always beaten and cursed at by the helmsperson every day because we are not skillful at fishing, said Ko Maung San, 28, from Kyun Nyo village in Bago Regions Monyo township.

Sometimes we were attacked with knives and slingshots. After one month of working on the boat, I knew that we had been sold by the broker.

His friend, also from his home village, went to Yephyu township for a job in April because floods had wiped out farming jobs in their area. The son of one of their mutual friends, Bo Bo, got them work on a fishing boat called Zaw Naing, which was one of several Asin village fishing ships owned by Daw Shwe Lone.

The escaped fishers said they were forced to work for 19 hours a day, except when they had sentry work, which involved watching out for authorities who might stop them from fishing in the prohibited parts of the sea. During those times they worked 21 hours.

They wore only one outfit all the time, they said, because all of their clothes were thrown into the sea by the helmsperson and his assistants.





I arrived in Mawlamyine township in Mon State for a job but I was sent to that boat on a cycle taxi, said Ko Min Min, 37, from Hinthada township, Ayeyarwady Region. I was also beaten on the boat. The brokers took a fee of K500,000 from boat owner Daw Shwe Lone.

Escaped victims said they spent three months on the boat and were never paid. One of the fishers jumped into the sea before the other 11 were saved by the CTUM and human-trafficking police.

I would estimate that 90 percent of the fishers we asked were being treated like us, said U Arkar from Ayeyarwady Region. I saw some kill themselves. We all wanted to jump into the sea to escape. We saw some dead bodies with no hands, and some with no head, floating on the water.

For a year, he worked for a salary at sea before being sold into slavery.

I would like to appeal to the CTUM and the human-trafficking police force to save the rest of the victims from the fishing boats, he added. They were all being treated inhumanely by the helmspeople and the leaders of the ships.

CTUM officials said they initially saved Saw Jorni, who had called the CTUM for help on a phone on July 8. On July 12, the CTUM and traffic police saved the other 10 victims from the Zaw Naing after the victims sent an SOS letter.

Trafficking police arrested the helmspersons wife and assistants. They also arrested four brokers and brought charges against them on July 18, according to a press statement.

CTUMs chair U Maung Maung said Myanmar needs to deal with human-trafficking issues. The United States released a study in 2015 ranking Myanmar in the worst category for human trafficking, he said.

Last year, fish products out of Thailand and Indonesia were sanctioned by Western countries because of human-trafficking issues, U Maung Maung said.

Now there is a human-trafficking case in a local fishery. We need to prepare for those cases. Every fishery businessperson must check for these issues at their fishery, he said.

Although these cases have been happening in a particular region, it can impact the whole country. If we do not deal with the issue fast enough, the fishery products across the whole country will be sanctioned by Western countries.
With the deadline to register for temporary work permits swiftly approaching, migrant workers in Thailand say they are being subjected to a rash of police raids.





Undocumented workers from Myanmar  as well as Laos and Cambodia  have been told they must register for the work permits by July 29, or face deportation. The pink cards allow the workers a two-year reprieve, a window during which their home countries are tasked with verifying nationality and providing longer-term documents, such as passports.

The scheme has been favoured by Thailands military junta, and was first rolled out in 2014 in a stated effort to curb human trafficking. But the current iteration differs by requiring Myanmar nationals with temporary passports set to expire to also register.

Workers dislike the program as it leaves them vulnerable to arrest or, more frequently, police round-ups where they are forced to pay a bribe.

Ko Kyaw Zay Win, a worker at the World Knitting dye factory in Mahachai, also known colloquially as little Myanmar, said the police round-ups are targeting workers who have switched factories and are now working for a different employer than pegged on the permit.

This is the effect of the registration deadline, he said. Thai authorities always do that kind of arrest when the registration deadline is nearby.

According to Thai-based migrant affairs organisations, part of the problem lies with restriction related to the permit  it ties the workers to a single employer written on the card. Changing the designated employer requires returning to one-stop service centres and furbishing permission from the initial employer as well as proof of a job with the new one. The maze-like process serves as such a hindrance to workers and employers that most do not attempt it.

In a July 11 statement, Thai labour officials urged workers who have not yet registered for their pink cards to quickly enroll, or they would face harsh repercussions, as the deadline will not be extended again.





Thai authorities said that just 100,000 Myanmar migrant workers have so far registered for the pink cards, far short of the 300,000 target.

U Sein Htay, chair of the Mahachai-based Migrant Workers Rights Network, said fresh raids are also likely after the deadline in order to crack down on workers who switch factories without updating their documents.

The Thai employment department warned earlier this month that after the deadline, authorities will be conducting factory-floor scrutiny to ensure all foreign labourers are properly registered. Rights workers accuse the process of functioning like a scam, where workers are faced with ever-changing deadlines, and document requirements, but are kept poorly informed of the changes. Then authorities conduct raids and ping workers and employers with fines.

Even though some factory owners are willing to help workers with employer name changes, the process is quite complicated, said U Sein Htay. So that means when the police do raids, there are many vulnerable to arrest.

Ko Aung Kyaw, a worker from Nga Mae Lone freeze factory, estimates nearly 300 Myanmar workers in southern Thai are facing problems with the inscrutable system, and feel they have to hide when Thai authorities come by.

In such cases, it is luckier to be sent back to the homeland than to be sent to jail, he said.
The 8888 memorial hall  commemorating the 1988 student uprising  may soon become a more permanent fixture, the Union minister for religion and culture said.





Minister Thura U Aung Ko visited the temporary memorial on July 20, where he discussed preliminary plans to update the site.

When I came here and visited, I decided for myself that we definitely need a [permanent] memorial hall for the 8888 uprising, he said.

The student-led uprisings, with a major strike on August 8, 1988, ended in a bloody coup, but also led to the prominence of national icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the founding of the National League for Democracy.

Ko Ko Gyi, a committee member of the temporary 8888 memorial hall, told The Myanmar Times that the 8888 uprising has previously been framed as demonstrations led by criminals. Now, he said, it is recognised as a historic movement.

We had to work very hard, he said of the memorial hall. It was very difficult to afford the rent and overcome financial problems and to collect the documents.

Thura U Aung Ko told the hall organisers to submit a draft bill to the Union Attorney Generals Office, and then submit the draft to parliament in order to formalise the memorial.





He thanked the 8888 organisation members, including Ko Ko Gyi and U Mya Aye, for keeping the historical memorial documents and photos.

As the freedom in the country grows, I hope we can have a better display, Ko Ko Gyi said.

For now, the memorial hall will remain at its current location on Thu Mingalar Road in Thingangyun township, the committee members said. Any relocation plans will be developed once permission is granted for a permanent memorial hall.

Although we have some financial problems now, I believe that there will be more cooperation and donations, Ko Ko Gyi said. I hope so.

The temporary 8888 memorial hall was established on the 27th anniversary of the uprising, August 8, 2015.
They seek it here. They seek it there. They seek the elusive Dhammazedi Bell everywhere.





In January 2015, a team led by former navy officer U Kyaw Win was looking for it in waters near the Thanlyin oil refinery, at the confluence of Yangon River, Bago River and Pazundaung Creek. No luck.

A 2014 search in the same location, organised by U San Linn, U Soe Thein and U Win Myint, raised more than K150 million from donations. The undertaking drew large, captivated crowds to the dive sight  even though there was nothing to see from shore  and involved not only local monks but also vegetarianism, a communion with a golden underwater dragon and divers brought in from Kawthoung, Tanintharyi Region. No dice.

Now, according to the buzz on Facebook, the place to look is not in the waters off Yangon at all, but in the Chindwin River, near Maukkataw village, Mingin township, Sagaing Region. But if it is there, the government isnt telling.

Both the transport and communications and the culture and religious affairs ministries were saying yesterday that nobody had approached them to apply for the permit that would be required for a search.

Nobody has sought permission to salvage the bell, said U Zaw Zaw Tun, director of the culture ministrys Archaeological and National Museum Department. The same answer came from U Arkar Kyaw, deputy director of the information ministry. And a transport ministry spokesperson said, Any operation to salvage from the river requires permission from the Ministry of Transport and Communications. No such permission has been issued.

Local staff at the regional Water Resources and Rivers and Streams Development Department were no wiser.

Cast in the 15th century, the bell is reputed to be the worlds largest, at about 270 tonnes. It is thought to have lain at the bottom of the Yangon River since a failed attempt by the Portuguese in 1608 to take it from Shwedagon Pagoda to Thanlyin, where it was to be melted down and made into cannons.





No one knows exactly where it rests, however.

Translation by Khine Thazin Han
Long-awaited census data on religion, kept hushed for nearly two years for fear it would shatter stability, was finally released yesterday. The numbers were met with relief, scepticism and, mostly, confusion, as the data reflected notably miniscule changes in balance since the previous counts despite the lapse of decades.





The tally of religious communities ran counter to fears invoked by nationalists that the majority Buddhist country is under siege by an influx of Muslims.

In fact, the enumerated Muslim community makes up just 2.3 percent of the population, a drop from 3.9pc in the 1973 census, as well as the 1983 census, which is widely believed to have undercounted Muslim citizens. Assuming the entirety of the more than 1 million non-enumerated residents of Rakhine State is Muslim, the national percentage would be 4.3pc, and not double or triple the 1983 figure as the widely broadcast concern suggested.

Nationwide, the percentage of Buddhists also barely fluctuated. At 87.9pc of the 2014 population, Buddhists made up 1.5 percentage points less of the population than in 1983, and 0.9 percent percentage points less than in 1973.

The most dramatic shift among the slight ripples in otherwise nearly static countrywide demographics was in the growth of the Christian population. Christians made up 4.6pc of the country in 1973, but grew to encompass 6.2pc of the total in 2014, a 1.6pc increase.

Muslim leaders yesterday expressed relief that the demographic shifts were not nearly as tectonic as anticipated.

If our Muslim community had increased by a large number, it could have fuelled religious extremism and people would have been hostile toward us. But now, we are free from such fear, said U Aye Lwin, a Muslim leader from the Islamic Centre of Myanmar.





Prior to yesterdays release, the extent of the incendiary rhetoric around the religious census data was so drastic that rights groups had appealed to the government to postpone the count. Burma Campaign UK called the census not worth dying for.

In a thinly veiled threat, U Maung Maung, a central executive committee member of the anti-Muslim lobby group Ma Ba Tha, told The Myanmar Times before the religion data was released that if many more Muslim people were in the country than previously enumerated there would be problems.

The government did nothing to assuage the concerns or the inflammatory anti-propaganda falsely based around the premise of a Muslim population explosion. Instead, the government released the census, scrubbed of religious and ethnicity information, in May 2015 and left the sensitive numbers as a sealed secret for the next government to unlock.

The Thein Sein government delayed releasing these figures because they said it was sensitive and could cause conflict. In fact, these figures provide evidence that nationalists were exaggerating about growing numbers of Muslims in the country. Releasing them earlier could have helped calm things down rather than cause problems, said Mark Farmaner, of Burma Campaign UK.

Chair of the Arakan National Party U Aye Maung yesterday refused to believe the Muslim population has not spiralled since the last count more than 30 years ago.

I think the government should conduct strict scrutiny on the fast-growing rural Muslim population because not doing so makes us concerned, he said.

We dont know how the government has conducted its census. What calculation resulted in the Muslim population counted as 4.3pc of the whole country? We have to ask these questions at the immigration and population ministry, he added.

During yesterdays launch ceremony however, Immigration and Population Minister U Thein Swe attempted to assure the public that the results were true and as exact as they could be.

He did note that the non-enumerated population in Rakhine  largely self-identifying Rohingya tens of thousands of whom live in IDP camps  represented a sizeable portion of the restive state, enough to significantly shift the religious dynamics.

They [the non-enumerated group] were not allowed to self-identify using a name not recognised by the government, he said. But it can be presumed that the non-enumerated population in Rakhine is mainly affiliated with the Islamic faith.

Based on this conclusion, Rakhine State is estimated to have Myanmars largest share of Muslims, who make up a 35pc share of the states total population, while Buddhists constitute 63pc. Based on the partial 1973 census, Muslims are calculated to have made up 29pc of the state, with the proportion declining to just over 24pc in 1983.

Mon State has the second-largest share of Muslim residents, who make up 5.8pc of its 2,054,393 residents.

Chin State was the only area of the country that did not have a Buddhist majority. Christians accounted for 85.4pc of the total, while Buddhists tallied as 13pc.

While the religious data provoked more of an exasperated stir than abject outrage yesterday, Daw Khun Jar, coordinator of the Kachin Peace Network, was one of the few to speak out against the numbers.

She criticised the results as fabricated, at least in Kachin State, where she said the Buddhist majority reflected in the count cannot be true. According to the census, Christians represent a minority in Kachin, or 33.8pc of the total.

In Shwegu township most people are Buddhist, but otherwise it is a controversial report and the government should release the real information, she said.

Members of the Hindu minority also rejected the findings yesterday, suggesting that the results were skewed by a climate of fear and religious discrimination, which encouraged false responses.

Most Hindu people told the census team that they are Buddhist, said U Aung Naing, a Hindu member of the Interfaith Dialogue Group.

Actually, the Hindu population would reflect an increase if many hadnt reported themselves as Buddhist. But they were afraid, he said.

In the previous three census results, Hindus maintained a steady 0.5pc of the population.

Animism has shown a steady decline, from 2.2pc to 1.2pc to 0.8pc over the past three official tallies.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which assisted in carrying out the 2014 census and collating the results, said the limited fluctuations in the religious communities over time should promote a more inclusive society.

It is time to replace speculation with fact, Janet E Jackson, UNFPA representative for Myanmar, said in a statement. The peoples of Myanmar form a vibrant socio-cultural fabric with the power to forge hope of sustainable peace and respectful co-existence.

Additional reporting by Lun Min Mang
The extraordinary Tatmadaw admission this week that soldiers within its ranks were responsible for the deaths of five civilians last month in Shan State may bring a degree of closure to the victims loved ones, but for the families of Naw Tint and Sai Hla, the mea culpa did not  and may never  apply.





At a July 20 press conference in Yangon, Lieutenant General Mya Tun Oo promised that those responsible for the five civilians deaths would face a military tribunal. Less certain was how two other civilians deaths in the same village, Mong Yaw, would be handled.

They drove their motorbike into the fighting zone, Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo said of the two men, asserting that they had entered an area of active conflict between the Tatmadaw and an unspecified ethnic armed group.

We dont know whose bullets they were shot by. We found their dead bodies. And also found them [in possession] of drugs. We still dont know who they are. We will certainly investigate.

Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo pledged that the Tatmadaw would fully disclose the outcome of the military tribunal and its separate probe into the deaths of the men on the motorcycle, including any punishment meted out, and would offer the victims families assistance.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation, however, has already conducted its own investigation into the incidents, identifying the two victims on the motorbike as brothers Naw Tint and Sai Hla, fathers of two and three children, respectively.

Their badly decomposed bodies were found in a ditch beside the road on which they were shot on June 29, four days after the incident, according to SHRFs report, which cited testimony from the two mens uncle.





The shooting occurred on June 25, the report said, when Tatmadaw Light Infantry Battalion 362 set up a blockade of the road linking Mong Yaw village to Lashio town. Based on testimonies from other motorists pulled over, the SHRF said Tatmadaw troops ordered the men to stop but they did not heed those calls, prompting gunfire from soldiers in the battalion first into the air and then at the men, killing them both.

I heard the military tried to stop them, but they didnt stop. There are witnesses that say the military shot them, Nan Shwe Yone, said a resident of Mong Yaw, corroborating SHRFs report.

Regarding the five other civilians, the Tatmadaw this week appeared to offer a full reversal of the position it took in the days after June 25: A report on July 3 in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said, Army men are looking for wanted murderers in connection with the man slaughter of seven persons whose dead bodies were found near Mong Yaw, implying at the time that the perpetrators were from outside its ranks.

In the case of Naw Tint and Sai Hla, however, Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo would concede this week only the possibility that it was Tatmadaw bullets that felled the men, indicating an equal likelihood that an ethnic armed group was responsible. He added that drugs had been found on the two people killed. The same allegation of drug possession was also included in the July 3 state media report, in which the men were described as two enemy corpses.

According to the SHRF, the brothers uncle, along with other relatives, on July 5 went with their local MP, their village head and several respected elders from their village to the police station. They met with the deputy police chief of the station, who accepted the case, but gave no clear reply about how it would be dealt with.
An imprisoned reporter for the BBCs Myanmar-language service was released yesterday after a judge in Mandalay Region commuted the three-month sentence. Ko Nay Myo Lin was imprisoned following an altercation with a police officer last year during student protests.





The BBC reporter had been charged by the Chan Mya Tharsi Township Court under section 332 of the penal code for causing hurt to deter [a] public servant from his duty, for what prosecutors said was an assault on a police officer at a protest in Mandalay.

He was found guilty of the charge on June 6 and sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour. At the time of the sentencing, the judge said he felt obligated to convict the journalist in order to deter violence against police officers.

Ko Nay Myo Lin, who is also called Ko Nay Lin, had insisted his innocence in the case, and his lawyer had called on the testimonies of more than a dozen witnesses.

Ruling on an appeal, Mandalay District Court judge U Phyo Phyo halved the sentence yesterday, allowing Ko Nay Myo Lin to walk free on time served. The district-level magistrate said he accepted the argument of the appellants lawyer, who argued that there was no enmity between the plaintiff and his client, and that a reduced sentence could improve police-press relations.

Ko Nay Myo Lin, 40, was covering a solidarity protest in March 2015 for students and activists detained at Letpadan, Bago Region, earlier that month when a scuffle broke out. Video footage shows a police officer knocking at least one motorcyclist to the ground. The reporter was said to have punched a police officer in the face as protesters and police clashed.

Most people saw that the police pushed over the students motorcycles at the protest. But the court ignored the evidence ... It is not fair, Ko Nay Myo Lin said last month following the verdict.





Chan Mya Tharsi township police official Baw Maw served as plaintiff in the original case, which dragged on for more than a year.

Ko Nay Myo Lin faced up to three years in prison.

Translation by San Layy
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22

Trend:

After the military coup attempt, Turkey informed the fraternal and friendly countries about the coup organizers, TRT quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying July 22.

In this regard, Azerbaijan has taken the necessary actions, Cavusoglu said.

He added that the organizations associated with Fethullah Gulens movement, which were involved in the military coup attempt in Turkey, were shut down in Somalia.

The FM also said that Turkey expects the similar actions from other friendly countries.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a three-month state of emergency in his country after the July 15 military coup attempt.

On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country.

Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.

However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

More than 200 people have been killed as a result of the coup attempt.
The death of womens rights activist Qandeel Baloch at the hands of her brother in Pakistan this week made international headlines  and rightly so.





Countless women across the world suffer so-called honour crimes that go ignored and unpunished.

And while the vast majority of murders counted as such happen in Islamic communities, terrible injustices in the name of honour are also inflicted by those of other faiths, including here in Myanmar.

Practices such as forcing a woman to marry her rapist in the name of family dignity (goun thei ka)  effectively sentencing her to a lifetime of marital rape  are all-too-common occurrences.

Ms Baloch, dubbed Pakistans first social media celebrity, rose to fame with suggestive selfies and raunchy videos that would be the antithesis of many peoples ideas of feminism.

But if her sexually provocative imagery drew comparisons with US televisions morally vacuous Kim Kardashian, the wrath, misogyny and violence those images provoked saw Ms Baloch become a campaigner, and eventually a martyr, for womens rights.

It may be challenging to recognise that skimpy outfits and cliche symbols that commodify female sexuality for popular consumption in the West could be turned into a campaign for gender equality by an Asian woman, but that is what Ms Baloch did with dramatic effect.

Also known as Fauzia Azeem, the 26-year-olds activism came not from the fact that she showed off her body in a sexual way, but from the fact that by doing so, she called out the misogynists and hypocrites of the society in which she lived, exposed them for what they were and invited others in Pakistan to challenge them.





When prominent cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi appeared in one of her recent videos engaging in what appeared to be flirty behaviour with the activist, the double standards of what is often preached about women were unavoidable. She made her point effectively.

It is horrific that the point she made probably led to her murder.

Ms Baloch was very aware of the risks she was taking.

As a woman we must stand up for ourselves  As a woman we must stand up for each other  As a women we must stand, she had been quoted as saying.

She had received numerous death threats from members of the public prior to being strangled to death by her own brother, Waseem Baloch, who has remained unrepentant, saying he did it because girls were born to stay at home.

His sister had no intention of staying home.

Writing about womens rights, Ms Baloch had said, I will fight for it. I will not give up. I will reach my goal and absolutely nothing will stop me.

Her brother did ultimately stop her, but the message she stood for continues to resonate.

And however terrible this case is, it has also highlighted moves within Pakistan to address the scourge of such crimes.

Islamic law in Pakistan generally allows families to forgive their relatives killer  a common get-out clause in so-called honour killings, which are often arranged by more than one family member. But in Waseem Balochs case, the state has stepped in, bringing charges under a provision that means he must be tried for murder.

The announcement that Mr Baloch would not be allowed to escape justice over his confessed killing of his sister was mentioned on the Facebook page of the chief minister for Punjabs core reform team.

We mean business  No Leniency for murderers, the post reads. It is a welcome sign of a determination by authorities in Pakistan to end such crimes.

But Ms Balochs death is just one of far too many. More than 1000 victims of so-called honour crimes were recorded last year in Pakistan, according to an annual report by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). The vast majority of victims were women.

But the Punjab government is moving to tackle the issue with a ground-breaking prevention-of-violence-against-women bill  despite powerful opposition from hardline Islamists, including Pakistans leading government advisory body on faith issues.

Approaches taken under the bill include a dedicated centre in which all relevant actors  police, prosecutors, medical, legal and forensics professionals, psychologists, and shelter providers  involved in tackling such crimes could be housed in the same place to ensure the bills aims are put into practice and to help secure more convictions.

In a May interview on the website of the Council on Foreign Relations Women Around the World website, Salman Sufi, a senior member of the Special Monitoring Unit, Law and Order, in Punjab, described the thinking behind the centre.

When we were drafting this act, we were questioning why the conviction rate for violence against women in Punjab is only 1 to 2 percent, he said.

One issue was disconnect between departments. So we came up with a mechanism that effectively brings the services of all departments under one roof and connects them with a specialised software  Now we have it in the Violence Against Women Center, and the next aim is to bring it to all police stations. Imagine the impact when all these departments can connect and talk to each other. The criminal prosecution will skyrocket.

It is early days, but the Punjab bill, which also includes measures to provide shelters for victims and a free phone helpline, is remarkable in that it not only provides legal protection but also includes practical methods to ensure women have ways to access that protection.

Myanmars bill to prevent violence against women continues to progress incredibly slowly, but as it does so, it is important for the government here to ensure that the formal legislation is supported by practical measures allowing those affected to access the justice and support they need.

When society and the legal system fail to uphold womens rights and to punish those who abuse them, it is not the womens honour that is damaged, but the honour of those from the government down to the family level who refuse to stand up for equality.
Legend of highlife music, Abrantie Amakye Dede, has expressed worry over recent discussions in the media linking him to partisan politics.

I woke up in the morning and all the newspaper reviews are saying I have declared my support for the New Patriotic Party simply because I performed on stage during the party's rally at Agogo.

If my singing for the NPP during their campaign means I am declaring my support for them, then it means the person who rented the stage for the party, the journalist who covered the campaign and reported, the owner of the bus that drove the people there are all NPP. I am a professional and perform for all parties that can pay for my services but it does not mean I am a politician, Amakye Dede told NEWS-ONE.

The musician reiterated that the recent incident was not the first time he is being linked to a political party after his public appearance with a politician.

There was a time I took photos with former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and when the photos went public, some people started saying I was campaigning for the NDC. This time, some other people are saying I am NPP.

I have not and I would not declare for any political party as long as I remain in active music business. I have seen parties come and go but my career is still growing because I do not do politics so I don't have political enemies, Amakye Dede added.

He belongs to a category of musicians gradually becoming extinct in Ghana. His style of performing with a live highlife band is fading out, as most contemporary musicians lazily opt for instrumentation engineered from studios and laced with digital voice effects.

Key players in the Ghanaian music industry have been bending over backwards to salvage the Abrantie Amakye Dede type of music, but that efforts seem to have been an exercise in futility.

Amakye Dede started singing in 1973 with the Kumapim Royals, led by the late Akwasi Ampofo Agyei. Interestingly, he is still doing new songs.

In 2010, Amakye Dede became headline news when he performed non-stop for a little over six hours at the 'Abrantie Amakye Dede Live In Concert', a show he said was his best that year.

In 1980, Amakye Dede formed the Apollo High Kings and has over 25 all-time hit albums to his credit. He is best known for some of his best hits, including 'Daba Dabi Ebe Ye Yie', 'Sokoo Na Mmaa Pe', 'Iron Boy', 'Seniwa', 'Brebrebe Yi', among others.

He has some 20 albums to his credit.
The 'who will replace Daniel Craig as Bond' discussion may rage on, but one actor - long considered to be in contention - seems to have removed his name from the hat.

Idris Elba was one of the first actors to have his name bandied around when the future of Craig's 007 tenure was thrown into question. The Luther actor isn't convinced, though - he thinks he's too old.

The British actor remained coy in an interview with Good Morning America , branding it "the wildest rumour in the world."

I keep saying if it were to happen it would be the will of a nation because there hasnt been any talks between me and the studio about any of that. But everywhere I go people want that to happen, so..." he said.

He jokingly continued: But if Im really honest, I think Im too old for that, man; running around in cars and ladies and martinis - who wants to do that? Sounds terrible.

His association with the role led to controversy when Anthony Horowitz - author of recent James Bond novel Trigger Mortis - claimed Elba was "too street" for the role. Other actors reportedly being considered to replace Craig - whose reps say is yet to come to a decision - include Aidan Turner, Jack Huston and Tom Hiddleston.

Elba can next be seen playing villain Krall in Star Trek Beyond which is released in cinemas today (22 July).
We inform the Council of Europe that Turkey will temporarily suspend or derogate from the implementation of its obligations emanating from Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), in line with the declaration of a state of emergency. A declaration of state of emergency is not against the ECHR. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said.

Kurtulmus made the following remarks to Anadolu Agency correspondent to correct public misunderstanding regarding the state of emergency and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Noting that the state of emergency marked the beginning of a new period in Turkey and that Turkey was going through a significant period in its political history, Kurtulmus emphasized that the state of emergency had been declared in Turkey several times before but almost all of them were against the nation.

I would first of all like to make it clear that the objective of this state of emergency in Turkey is to increase the mobility of the state to better protect the state and the nation against the coup attempt of July 15. Kurtulmus said and continued:

Normal daily life will not be affected by this state of emergency. We will not reverse fundamental rights and freedoms. We wont retreat from our democratic gains. Turkeys economic activities will not be disrupted; the economic system continues to function normally. There will not be an intervention in the functioning of the rules of free market.

State of Emergency not Against the European Convention on Human Rights

Reminding that Turkey is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Kurtulmus underlined the fact that the declaration of state of emergency was not against the European Convention on Human Rights.

Kurtulmus also noted the following:

A declaration of the state of emergency is not against the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights stipulates that contracting parties may declare a state of emergency and derogate from -or suspend in legal terms- its obligations under this Convention in cases that require the declaration of state of emergency. This is what we are doing. Many countries like us, France for instance have also recently proclaimed a state of emergency and they suspended the ECHR, based on Article 15 of the convention. We are also now stating that we will announce our decision to use our rights based on Article 15 of the convention that is to say that Turkey will temporarily suspend the implementation of its obligations emanating from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), in line with the declaration of a state of emergency. This is all the matter is about. A declaration of a state of emergency is not against the ECHR.

The European Convention on Human Rights stipulates that in time of war or other public emergencies threatening the life of the Turkish Republic, any members and high contracting parties may take measures derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law. Furthermore, not only the European Human Rights Convention but Article 4 of the UN Convention on Political and Legal Rights allow Turkey or any country to declare a State of Emergency in accordance with its legal system legislations. As I see great benefit in explaining this I would like to repeat again. A declaration of a state of emergency is not against the ECHR.

Kurtulmus expressed that a state of emergency has been declared in Turkey for a period of three months and stated the following:

Hopefully, the situation that requires the state of emergency will be removed in the shortest time possible and Turkey will return to normal. We aim to take steps, do what we should do and we wish to finish our jobs and lift the state of emergency in Turkey as soon as possible, one or one and a half months later, I cannot say for certain. Our aim is not to have a state of emergency for many months. We are declaring a state of emergency by taking the necessary steps in our government in order to establish a system where there will never be such a high profile extraordinary threat of coup that the Turkish republic faced and on behalf of the nation call to account those responsible. The speculations made in this regard are groundless. We will not reverse fundamental rights and freedoms in the slightest, as a party to the European Convention on Human Rights we will only use our rights emanating from the convention.
Many businesses, including the poultry industry, face challenges of ready market in the face of high operational cost.

To avoid total collapse, some business owners have deployed technology and other innovative ways to enhance productivity.

Dressing poultry for the table is tedious work which requires some amount of skill.

After the bird is slaughtered, the very difficult part is getting rid of the feathers.

Common methods include plucking the feathers, dry off the body of the bird and dipping it in hot water to soften the base for easy drop-off.

In some cases, two or more people join hands to work on a bird for faster delivery.

For 38-year old Yakubu Idris, the hustle of manual plucking of chicken feathers is over as he spends less time delivering to the consumer.

A year ago he bought a feather- removing machine.

A round aluminium jar of the size of a mini barrel sits on a knee-high metal stand.

With bullet-shaped rubber fittings around the inside surface, its powered by electricity.

A slaughtered bird is dropped inside the fast -turning machine and hot water poured at regulated pace and quantity.

The rubber fillings caress the body of the bird to get rid of the feathers, giving a clean look within two minutes.

The feathers drop through holes at the bottom of the cylindrical container. Call it dressing of chicken birds made easy.

With it he is able to process up to three fowls in a matter of five minutes.

The birds go in at the top of the round cylindrical machine; the feathers come out at the bottom.

Yakubu delivers on-time ultimately; volumes have improved from the period before he introduced the machine.

His business in Mamobi has become very popular with time-conscious customers.

Because the machine is faster than the hand people like the machine more than the hand...Assuming now if we kill like hundred fowls, if you want use your hands to do it, before you do twenty, i have finished the hundred with the machine. That is why i am using the machine, he happily explained.

A big order of thirty dressed birds is being placed for a restaurant at nearby Nima.

Businessman Abdel Basit buys and stocks chicken in bulk every day. He used to have the feathers removed by hand, but now prefers the machine.

For a businessman like him, time is money. Basit explains that, With the hand, I spend more than 15 minutes. But with the machine, within 5 minutes then you are done. So time is very important, I dont waste my time when i come and it is neat than when they use their hands that is why i like the machine.

After the feathers have been removed, Yakubu Idris chops the bird into to pieces, according to specification of the customer.

While it costs customers three Ghana Cedis for a hand-dressed bird, one has to pay 10 Ghana Cedis if its done with the machine.

Nonetheless, many customers go for the more expensive option even though there are competing farms within the enclave.

Yakubu Idris says the machine has improved his business.

Its helping my business....Plenty people are coming. In a day I will get the fowls more than two hundred or three hundred.

Customers keep lining up for Yakubu Idris business.

The willingness to pay more for its services means Obama Farms makes a lot more money, thanks to technology.

It is running so well that he thinks of expanding.

Maybe then, the people of Accra can buy machine-dressed fowls not only in Maamobi, but all over the city.
Staff of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) on Thursday abandoned work and took to the streets to protest actions of the board of directors which they say hurt effective running of the state broadcaster.

The workers have accused the board of micromanaging the affairs of GBC and misappropriating the Corporations internally generated funds by employing directors without recourse to due process.

They have vowed to continue protesting until their demands for the dissolution of the Board of the Corporation are met.

They had earlier threatened to strike on Monday July 25, 2016.

The agitating staff have vowed to continue protesting until their demands for the dissolution of the Board of the Corporation are met.

Reports indicate the workers on Thursday set up a checkpoint at the entrance of the Corporation to prevent board member from getting onto the premises after picking up intelligence of an impending board meeting.

Meanwhile, the National Media Commission (NMC) has cleared the governing board of GBC of any wrongdoing after a petition was sent to them by the Corporation's workers union.

The Executive Secretary of NMC, George Sarpong, debunked the claims against the GBC board saying their investigations proved that the board was innocent of the allegations that had been levelled against it.

The GBC union made a number of allegations to the commission. The commission established a committee to independently investigate the claims and the committee took each of the claims one by one and gave the union the opportunity to prove the case against the people. They could not substantiate any of the claims they made, he said

They took time to investigate this matter thoroughly beyond the claim that the GBC union made. The commission went out of its ways and investigate further into the matter and found that those allegations were unsustainable, Mr. Sarpong added.

The workers accused the NMC of betraying them by lodging a complaint with the Police because of their decision to prohibit GBC board members from entering the premises.

A worker at the GBC who spoke to Citi News on condition of anonymity said: The NMC has refused to objectively consider the issues in question, when they came out with their fictitious reports earlier to clear the board, they were popping champagne and celebrating.

Management of the GBC has said it will crack down on the protesting workers.

Management has indicated in a memo that any person who was a signatory to a document declaring the GBC board persona non grata will be punished.

GBC management considers the whole write up as misconduct on the part of the signatories to the notice and appropriate procedures will be invoked to ensure sanity within the corporations governance structure, the memo said.

The memo also noted that, the the union does not have the mandate to declare the board persona non grata. Constitutionally, the National Media Commission (NMC), is the statutory body mandated to appoint and dissolve the GBC board.

The Commission has urged the staff to report any grievance about the work or conduct of the board for redress.

Story by Myjoyonline.com | GN | Additional information from Citifmonline.com
22.07.2016 LISTEN

Folks, the inability of Parliament to confirm November 7 as the effective Election Date for Ghana isn't anything to lose any sleep over. The history behind it is clear, which means that the mere date for the elections doesn't matter.

If those talking about "brilliant and intelligent people" (Sam Okudjeto at focus here) can help Ghana put in place the effective mechanism for sustaining our democracy, we shouldn't worry that much. Will they do so by going beyond mere technicalities, one of which is the date for the polls, which they are thumping their chests over now for winning the day at its rejection by Parliament?

What matters most is how the politicking for the polls is done so nobody destabilizes the country. After all, the electorate will want to put in office those whom they trust to solve their existential problems and not those who are short on mounting rooftops to condemn political opponents without proving their own worth as problem solvers.

December 7 has been used for that purpose since Election 1996 even after what happened at Election 1992 when the Presidential Elections and the Parliamentary ones were held on separate dates in November and December, respectively.

Thereafter, the consensus was reached that both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections should be held at the same time on the same day; and December 7 was settled on. It has been so to date.

Clearly, in the first attempt at free and fair general elections, the Presidential elections preceded the Parliamentary one. And once Rawlings won, his opponents (then, the NPP) decided to boycott the Parliamentary version. They wrote a trite and farcical _Stolen Verdict_ that didn't save any useful purpose except to sustain their own politics of grief and doom.

Later happenings led us to December 7 as the Election Date; but the rumpus that occasioned the transition from one administration to the other, beginning with the Rawlings-led one to the in-coming Kufuor one that had won Election 2000, showed that something drastic had to be done to smooth the rough edges.

Those of us monitoring the transition process saw CHAOS all over the place, including the ceremony leading to the swearing in of Kufuor. There was chaos everywhere.

Then, when Atta Mills was to take over from Kufuor, a lot more chaos occurred, reinforcing the atmosphere of mistrust and distrust. In truth, the handing over process was horrific.

Some analysts quickly traced the problem to the short span between December 7 (when elections were held) and January 7 (when the handing over was to take place). What could be done in a month to ensure a smooth transition, they questioned?

To avoid such hiccups, the suggestion came up that the elections should be held earlier than December 7; hence, the shift toward settling on November 7 so the appropriate homework could be done and necessary efforts made to smooth the path for the transition on January 7.

We have been following the politics surrounding this attempt at making November 7 the effective date for the polls. In truth, everything coming from the NPP camp (supported by allies in the other mushroom parties) has been hinged on doubts about the readiness of the EC to conduct the elections, given their bitter complaints about the voters register or just anything that they can cite to damn the EC. Within that context, isn't strange for the NPP to torpedo the November 7 initiative.

It has happened and should be pushed aside so the proper groundwork can be done to re-introduce it before the next general elections. Democracy cannot be nourished through anarchy. That is why it is important for all those involved in the process to rise above partisan political interests to solve problems, not to compound them or create news ones!!

I won't bat an eyelid over the rejection of November 7. I will only wait to see how the situation is handled at the end of the polls when a winner emerges to be in power. When John Mahama wins, no problem as far as transition is concerned.

If Akufo-Addo wins, absolute chaos in the transition process. Don't ask me why. In the long run, though, it will be a test for our democracy.

In the final analysis, Parliament has to know that whether the general elections should be held on November 7 or December 7, there is much to warrant its being accused as lethargic and irresponsible. Whether its inability to approve November 7 as the substantive date should be factored into the broad public concerns about its failure is another issue; but it must be clear by now that the kind of Parliament that we have is damn useless.

The nub here is that little serious thinking is being done to separate national issues from petty partisan political interests. Setting a specific date for national elections should not be seen through the narrow and blurred lenses of either the NDC or NPP. It is a national issues and should be tackled as such. After all, it doesn't really matter how long a political party campaigns for votes. if it is unattractive on day one, it will remain so till voted down!! So, why the fuss?

Our Parliament is a flop. It doesn't solve problems because it is made up of those who don't even know what the country's problems are. if they knew, they would behave better than they have done so far. If those NDC MPs in the Majority arm of parliament really knew the value of the issue laid before Parliament for voting, they would have been there to add their weight.

They failed to attend the session and eroded support. Some in the NPP camp also failed to turn up. What were they pursuing that they considered to be more important than what was at stake in the day's proceedings? A responsible Parliament won't behave this way.

We know that our Parliament has a huge stake in our democracy, but we are disappointed at the performance of the MPs. What sort of characters are these that don't do as expected? Setting a date for general elections is not limited to the political interests of the NDC or the NPP (or any other political party). It is a national exigency that should have been approached with the maximum respect, decency, and conscientiousness. The MPs who didn't show up for the day's proceedings are irresponsible and should be taken to task.

Folks, I think that the inability of Parliament to make the change for the polls so as to smooth the transition process is a disgrace to our Parliament itself. No political camp should boast of sabotaging efforts. None should also point gossipping fingers, which is why i don't agree with the NDC's Kofi Adams (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Election-date-rejection-NPP-anti-Ghana-NDC-457174).

Reasonable public officials who know what they are in office to do will act responsibly to grow our democracy. Do we have such people in positions of trust?

I shall return
The Mens Ministry wing of the City Temple International Church in Accra, has organised a free health screening exercise for residents at the Center for National Culture in Accra (Art Center), and its environs as part of the men's ministry celebration.

The exercise which took place at art center, attracted over five hundred people.

Some of the health services included hepatitis B and C screening, blood group checks, weight and blood pressure checks, sugar level checks among others.

Speaking to Citi News, the treasurer of the Accra chapter of City Temple International, Steven Pedandam said the exercise formed part of the church's quest to ensure a healthy society

He added that the church has taken upon itself educate the public on issues related to good health and some health challenges.

We want to help the society in any way we can to ensure a healthy society. As part of our men's ministry celebration we decided to bring some doctors from Korle bu and 37 military hospitals to do health screening.

He gave the assurance that the church will continue to offer such services to improve the quality of life of people.

Some beneficiaries of the exercise expressed their appreciation to the church and requested them to regularly visit the area with more social support services.



By: Philip Nii Lartey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Agaaaain the news from Baltimore was not encouraging. How do folks insist on so-called law and order plus peace when the system is complicit in the structural normalizing of injustice? The claims within the American mainstream media and some politicians that recent actions by African American insurgents are Senseless is absurd and only seeks to avoid addressing the real issues associated with the resistance. One of the truths we all need to acknowledge is that there are Methods to the so-called madness.

Sadly, some of the victims within our various communities do not have the moral and ethical high grounds to rebuke the revolt because we know that the killings of innocent folks by law enforcement and peace officers have continued unabated with no accountability. My brother that arrived from Nigeria few weeks ago, upon watching the daylight murder of Alton Sterling in Louisiana, stated that even in Naija police don't just execute a man after subduing him in front of the public.

The world is actually watching the US and people are realizing that we need to remove the specs in our eyes before identifying the logs in the eyes of others. Reality is that crime rates have gone down in the past 15-20 years across the US but the police remains in a war footing against minorities in the US and poor people in general. African American women and men are killed without regard by officers who would definitely get into more trouble and elicit more independent investigations if their victims were dogs and cats.

Poverty is now criminalized and police stops are used as tax collection tools that disproportionately affect African American, Native Americans, Latinos, and Poor Caucasians. In Nigeria police officers take laws into their hands by taxing commuters for bribes because official state funds are often diverted into individual pockets. As a result when encounters between the public and police happen, at times innocent individuals get killed when they don't have the funds or don't release them fast enough.

In the US the rich feel like it is a crime for them to pay their fair share of taxes whereas the poor folks are compelled to unnecessary traffic stops and searches by police. As a result fines and tickets are issued to fill-up the coffers of the state to supplement the revenues that should be gotten from the 1%. Those that are slow to accept their so-called place or resist these inhumane levies/taxes are harassed, arrested, jailed, or killed without adequate justice.

But folks are realizing that there seems to be enough money for wars, drones, and the bailing out of the most wealthy individuals and organizations. Few months ago I received a ticket from a cop while taking my children to -the bring your child to work day.

He was in front of me on the opposite side, behind other cars, and was able to make up a reason to give me a $90 citation for no just reason on the day my kids were scheduled to listen to a Washington MPD officer and 2 FBI agents. My children were left traumatized by the actions of the first law enforcement officer we came across that morning. Our calls are for better application of laws and just treatments; sure we have heard these before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJFRgE4Ywk

#BlackLivesMatter

Nnamdi F. Akwada, LGSW is a Social Justice Activist

www.facebook.com/AfricanDiasporatv
There are a number of lists, besides the Voters Register, from which information is required to be entered onto the modified version of the Statement of Poll, otherwise known as Pink Sheet. These are Absentee Voters List, Transfer Voters List and the Proxy Voters List.

As described in C.I. 94, the Absentee Voters List contains the names of all those who are not allowed to vote at a particular polling station on the day of the elections, either because they voted during the Special Voting (those on Special Voters List) or they have transferred their votes to other constituencies (those on the Transfer Voters List).

The above appears very clear until you find out that the Pink Sheet also requires the entry of number of names on the Transfer Voters List, which one would have thought is a subset of the Absentee Voters List. This is where the confusion resides. Reading the CI provisions, however, there are actually two types of Transfer Voters List: those transferring out and those transferring in. It appears the number to be entered on the Pink Sheet (besides those captured in the Absentee Voters List) relates to those who have transferred in. The CI does not present this clear distinction, posing an inherent risk of Presiding officers entering the wrong figures.

Another list to be compiled is the Proxy Voters List. This is to contain the names of those who will not be able to vote on Polling Day, either due to ill-health or some other reason. These individuals are expected to apply to use a proxy 42 days before the elections. Even though the CI provides for political parties to be given this list, the time within which the EC is to supply this list to the parties is not specified.

On the face of the Pink Sheet, no reason is given why the information from the lists mentioned above is required. There is also no indication of their relationship to the Voters Register. Thus if the intention of entering the number of voters on each list onto the Pink Sheet is to detect fraud, there is no guidance on how to use it to make any determination.

The confusion mounts even further when it comes to accounting for number of ballots issued. The form asks for the number of ballots issued to those on the Register and those on the Proxy List to be recorded. Does this mean that proxy voters are listed outside the final Register or they are also a subset of the Register? The last source of confusion is due to the fact that the Pink Sheet also asks for the number of spoilt ballots to be recorded. On its own, this constitutes no problem, but considering that spoilt ballots are originally issued to voters, and are returned for replacement only upon making a mistake, the risk exists that their numbers could also be erroneously recorded within the number of ballots issued to those on the Register.

Reviewing the provisions in the CI regarding the Voters Register, it appears that even as it progresses towards a certified final copy, other changes (via the lists) may still be ongoing. This will make it difficult for any interested party to track the changes and to know the finalised figures for the polling stations. Even if they do know, it would be very late with a few days left to Polling Day. To prevent anyone seeing this as an opportunity to perpetrate fraud, the EC should:

Clarify the relationship between the Register and the other lists; Indicate whether the names on the various lists are also contained in the Register or outside it; and Indicate the formula by which to compute the number against which over-voting, of the two types (i.e. against numbers of registered voters and issued ballots), is to be determined.

Parliamentarians, as the peoples representatives, should endeavour to scrutinise this Constitutional Instrument (CI) carefully before it matures. This will forestall the repeat of the issues that attended the 2012 elections. We cannot run our Republic effectively whilst ignoring problems that keep reoccurring.

Dr Yaw Ohemeng
22.07.2016 LISTEN

The contempt case involving Montie FM at the Ghana Supreme Court has received massive attention because of its political undertones. The court has found the culprits guilty of contempt and is scheduled to pronounce sentence verdicts on them soon.

The culprits have expressed remorse and rendered numerous apologies for the unfortunate and condemnable threats which they issued against the Supreme Court Judges handling the Abu Ramadans voters registration case.

The circumstances and timing of the case requires that the Judges deliver sentence verdicts that are firm but take into serious consideration the political temperature currently prevailing in Ghana. The circumstances relate to the fact that the case has assumed huge political dimensions considering the entrenched positions that have been taken by the major political parties in Ghana on it. The timing of the case relates to the fact that Ghana is due for general elections just about four months from now with rising political tensions which should be carefully managed by all institutions and political stakeholders in Ghana including the Judiciary.

The Supreme Court should therefore render a verdict that calms the political waters in Ghana in the national interest. It has already sent a strong message on the issue by roping in owners of Montie FM and a radio station host on the programme to serve as a caution to owners of all radio stations in Ghana on the need to engage in serious self-regulation of programmes aired on their stations.

The Supreme Court should also render a verdict that strongly emphasizes its fairness to all parties in cases that come before it by taking into consideration similar contempt cases that have been handled by the Court in the past. A contempt case involving NPPs Sir John previously before the Supreme Court in which he was alleged to have threatened the family of a Judge of the Supreme Court to prepare for his funeral in the event the case did not go his preferred way, and the sentence verdict issued to him is very relevant for consideration by the Supreme Court in this current context.

The lessons for the media especially owners of radio stations in all of this, is to engage in self-regulation to avoid the pitfalls that surround the operation of media establishments. Ghanas vibrant media front has won the country huge accolades and positioned the country as a beacon of democracy in Africa. This commendation however comes with responsibility on the part of media operators and requires the preservation of the delicate balance between media freedom and media responsibility by all stakeholders including the Judiciary. The Supreme Courts sentence verdict should therefore positively enhance media freedom while cautioning for media responsibility in the exercise of press freedom as enshrined in Ghanas constitution.

God Bless our Homeland Ghana.

Mensah Dekportor (Germany)

Email: [email protected]
The humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, Somalia and countries in the Lake Chad basin is worsening due to the effects of El Nino and conflict in the region.

Today I announce that the Australian Government will provide a further $17.5 million to support people suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition, and those displaced from their homes and in need of protection from conflict.

Australia will provide $8 million to the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. This funding will help deliver food, shelter, security, and other vital assistance including to South Sudanese who have fled to neighbouring countries. This brings Australias total contribution to South Sudan to more than $50 million since December 2013.

In Somalia, 1.1 million people have been displaced by terrorist activity and conflict. Australia will provide $4.5 million to Somalia, including $2.5 million to World Vision to help build the resilience of Somali communities and $2 million to the Somalia Humanitarian Fund for immediate life-saving assistance, including food, healthcare and water.

Australia will also provide $5 million through the World Food Programme for immediate food supplies, livelihood training and nutrition in the Lake Chad basin region. Over 2.1 million people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency and 7.5 million people are in need of urgent food assistance.

This assistance comes from humanitarian funding within the existing Australian Aid budget.
NEW YORK  July 21, 2016  Bloomberg Philanthropies will convene 125 road safety experts from 15 countries, including government officials, law enforcement, and others, to address one of the worlds leading causes of preventable death. Road crashes kill more than 1.25 million people a year worldwide and injure more than 50 million, with deaths disproportionately taking place in low- to middle-income countries.

The 10 cities and five countries partnering with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety will convene in Bangkok, Thailand July 27-29, 2016 to address strategies to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries. More than 125 representatives from the 10 cities, five countries, and nine global road safety organizations will participate in the two-day meeting.

The United Nations has recognized the critical and dangerous situation that exists on roads all over the world by addressing it as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, said Dr. Kelly Henning, Director of the Public Health program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Its up to those of us already working on this problem to build on the lessons learned and our successes, collaborate with our partners, and identify and encourage new stakeholders to participate  thats why this meeting is critical.

The five countries working to review and strengthen road safety legislation include China, India, Philippines, Thailand and Tanzania. The 10 cities implementing evidence-based road safety strategies include:

Accra, Ghana; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Bandung, Indonesia; Bangkok, Thailand; Bogota, Colombia; Fortaleza, Brazil; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Mumbai, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Shanghai, China.

Since announcing the current five-year commitment in 2015, Bloomberg Philanthropies and global road safety partners have actively engaged municipal and national leaders to implement road safety strategies that will save lives and reduce injuries. These road safety strategies include strengthened legislation, improved infrastructure and safer sustainable urban transportation, as well as increased seat-belt and helmet use, and reduced drinking and speeding.

Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide a host of workshops designed to establish and promote prevention strategies. Training sessions will focus on law enforcement, communications to inform the public on safety, safer mobility and safer streets, as well as case studies on cities and countries that have implemented successful strategies.

The Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety supports nine leading global road safety organizations to work with the cities and countries to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries. Partners include:

Global Health Advocacy Incubator

Global New Car Assessment Program

Global Road Safety Partnership

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

National Association of City Transportation Officials

Vital Strategies

World Bank Global Road Safety Facility

World Health Organization

World Resources Institute

Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed more than $259 million to work in low- and middle-income cities and countries with a high burden of road-related fatalities. The Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety focuses on implementing key interventions proven to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries.

Since Bloomberg Philanthropies began funding proven road safety interventions in 2007:

Nearly two billion people have been covered by strengthened road safety laws;

65 million people have been exposed to hard-hitting media campaigns promoting road safety;

Close to 30,000 professionals have been trained on road safety tactics;

Governments have committed $225 million towards infrastructure improvements that will make roads safer; and

Approximately 125,000 lives will be saved through Bloomberg-supported road safety activities.

On July 26th, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, in concert with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Vital Strategies and World Resources Institute, will host a press conference launching a new mass media campaign on motorcycle helmet use, a critical factor for road safety in Bangkok, as well as a panel discussion by experts on designing safer cities. To RSVP for the press conference, please email Jon Steed at [email protected] . The road safety conference on July 27th-July 29th will be closed to press but following the convening, Bloomberg Philanthropies will share key lessons learned and highlights from the conference.

About Bloomberg Philanthropies:

Bloomberg Philanthropies works in over 120 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloombergs charitable activities, including his foundation and his personal giving. In 2015, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed over half a billion dollars. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook , Instagram , Snapchat , and Twitter @BloombergDotOrg .

Contact: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Rebecca Carriero, 212-205-0182, [email protected]
Rebuilding confidence between Turkey and Russia depends mostly on the cooperation over the Syria crisis, Moscow's foreign minister said Friday, Anadolu reported.

Speaking at a youth forum in Vladimir in western Russia, Sergey Lavrov said: "It is not only about bilateral relations, or how we carry out the trade, investment, and the mutual projects; it is also about the cooperation over solutions to the Syrian crisis."

Relations between the two countries had been suspended until June 29, when a letter from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and subsequent telephone calls between the leaders quashed tensions.

On June 30, Russia lifted a ban on tourist flights to Turkey following a telephone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart.

Turkish and Russian foreign ministers later met in the Russian city of Sochi on July 1 in an effort to boost the process of normalizing relations.

Putin also gave his support to Turkey in the July 15 coup attempt and said he stood by Turkeys elected government and offered his condolences to the victims of the failed coup.

Russia has so far called for Assad to be part of a transition process while Turkey - which has taken in a large number of Syrian refugees - is deeply opposed to Assad remaining in power and finding his regime responsible for the deaths of thousands of Syrians.

Moscow launched its military intervention in Syria in late September 2015 allegedly after a formal request by the Bashar al-Assad regime for military help.

Since then, it has been staging airstrikes against positions held by Assads opponents.

The U.S. and Turkey have criticized Russia's presence in Syria on the grounds that Russian airstrikes have killed mostly civilians.
22.07.2016 LISTEN

Dedication - To a colleague blogger who authored the above quote, Emmanuel Mensah a.k.a Archimedes.

The above quote has always been one of my favourite unorthodox philosophies. And I definitely know my critics and sceptics will brand me as obstinately cocky after reading this article. Well, I am fond of unconventional facts, and Article 305 is just one of them. Okay, I am only 19 years old without a first degree, but I am a start-up writing entrepreneur.

Do I feel technically incompetent because I do not have higher academic qualifications? No! In fact, I do not and will never need them -- they are simply worthless to me. Sorry, this is me -- a maverick -- speaking. Look, I have had contractual writing offers over the years as a creative writer, and none of the offerors assessed me based on my academic level or background. Why? My writing skills are unparalleled though I lack the corresponding qualifications.

Moreover, Dr. Rob Yeung, a famous business psychologist, who wrote 'Rules of Entrepreneurship' stated emphatically in it that, "Qualifications are overrated. Someone graduated top of their class at university or secretarial college, a culinary academy, or a top business school, but what does that really tell you? All it tells you is that this person is good at exams." Yes, people with superb academic qualifications usually do not possess unsurpassed skills to match their excellent certificates.

Mark Zuckerberg's programme mates at Harvard University gained their first degree in Computer Science, probably with higher classes, but the world is yet to recognise a computer oriented innovation created by any of them. Mark, a software wizard, dropped out but later emerged as one of the greatest technology innovators ever, having established Facebook which is the largest social media platform worldwide.

Also, you need to appreciate the hard truth that this 21st Century overwhelmingly rewards skills, priceless ones, and not ordinary academic qualifications. That is why most individuals with all the impressive qualifications are not really successful as they wish. Qualifications are cheap to say the least; skills are far more than valuable, to tell the truth. For example, Abraham Attah, a teenage Ghanaian boy, was the main character in his first movie "Beasts of No Nation" and is now on set of "Spiderman Homecoming" film. The producers chose "Agu" to star in their heroic movies, mainly because he is an extremely skilled actor with no certificate, diploma or degree in Film Studies or Theatre Arts. Wow, that is the supremacy of skill over qualification!

I therefore challenge fellow youths, especially students, to place a premium on skills and not only academic qualifications. If you are dying to acquire better grades which you believe will enable you get a nice job, then you should modify your mentality to suit internationally competitive standards. Qualifications can get you a terrific job as an employee, yet your innate skills will bring you lots of money to your surprise. Hey, you cannot gamble with your future by purposely seeking certificates at the expense of your natural skills. Wise up today, and acknowledge these unapologetic assertions, for they are deep truths which only successful folks abide by.

Source: sirarticle.blogspot.com
22.07.2016 LISTEN

You might not endorse Madam Akua Donkohs presidential ambitions even so her conviction on import duties in Ghana is worthy of economic thesis at any reputable research institution. Youth unemployment has gathered a great deal of momentum over the years. Many youth including graduates are hovering between hope and apprehension as they wake up every day trusting their maker for non-existing jobs. Necessity, they say is the mother of invention.

Thus some of these youths embarked on a very dangerous expedition to Europe through the desert. Most of us are familiar with the horrifying tales of the Saharan carnage, by kind courtesy of the survivors of this aforesaid dangerous journey. They go through these ordeals to Europe only for their assets to be confiscated at the Tema harbor by the very government who heretofore failed to provide them with jobs. The aim of this article is to look at the origin and implications of high import duties on citizens of Ghana especially those in diaspora.

Customs tariffs originated from an economic philosophy known as mercantilism which dominated Europe in 16th and the 18th centuries. The philosophical underpinning of mercantilism was high export as against less import. Mercantilists opined that increasing net exports is the smoothest path to national prosperity. To put into perspective, the notion that the only true measure of a countrys wealth and success was/is the amount of gold that it had accumulated in its treasury.

For example, if Ghana has more gold than Nigeria, it means that the former is in her height of economic glory and better off than the latter per the aforementioned economic philosophy. This idea had important consequences for economic policy. The best way of ensuring a countrys economic might was to make few imports and many exports, thereby generating a net inflow of foreign exchange and increasing the countrys gold stocks. Thus the mercantilists embarked on protectionist policy to save their local industries from foreign competitions by putting custom duties on imported manufactured goods.

Throughout history, several measures were put in place before adopting mercantilism by putting high taxes on imported goods. Britain in the 1830s had embarked on railway building. The revolution in transport which accompanied the railroads motivated the demands for coal and iron, and stimulated a counterpart revolution in the heavy industries, especially in mining and metallurgy (Thomson, 1957). Britains coal production, only some 16 million tons in 1815, rose to 30 million by 1835 and 50 million by 1848 and the same could be said on her output on iron. The railroads also led to the rise of big contractors, and offered employment to thousands (Thomson, 1957). Thus, a country like Britain under this period of study could put high tariffs on foreign goods to protect her factories from competition by expatriate companies.

As a country, the railways built under colonial governments have not only been abandoned but devoid of regular maintenance. We need several measures in place, such as industrialization, better transport systems like rail transport before we can think of putting high tariffs on imported goods. It only make sense to put high taxes on imported cocoa beans because we are cocoa producing country. Ghana is not an automobile producing country so why high tariffs on imported cars while every now and then lives are being claimed through road accidents which, are partly caused by the moving coffins that plied our roads.

I will have to agree with American politician, Mario. M. Cuomo (1932-2015) who said that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Are Ghanaian governments governing in prose relative to import duties? Are high import duties remnant of European imperialism or a deliberate attempt by governments to subject with impunity their fellow countrymen into servitude? Are things just not working in the country? No wonder, we live in a society where the sick goes to hospital in a trotro bus while the dead goes to necropolis (cemetery) with ambulance.

The western imperialists introduced capitalist greed to Africa; but without capitalist discipline. They brought to us the profit motive, but not entrepreneurial persistence and risk-taking. Western materialism was transferred to Africa without western rationalism (Mazrui, 1986). Absolutely, we cannot built our economy by imposing high tariffs on imported goods while we dont produce those goods. In a video entitled: Underworld Inc season 2, episode 2,car jackers, circulating on the youtube.com, one car jacker asserted that a brand new car from garage cost $20,000.00 in USA while the import duties at Tema ports is $30,000.00 which does not make sense. This almost invariably motivated him to engage in such a nefarious act.

I understand the contributions of import duties to Ghanas economic development. However, instead of preventing high engine capacity cars from entering Ghana for the fear of fuel consumption, government must encourage those vehicles and rather remove fuel subsidy on those vehicles. More fuel consumptions means more jobs for the youth. Private oil investors must be encouraged to invest in importation of crude oils.

Government cannot manage oil business single handedly. For the purpose of employment benefits for the youth, import duties must be decreased. The reduction of import duties will attract other neighboring land-locked countries such as Burke Faso and Mali to use our port. This can generate funds to construct more ports at places such as Cape Coast, Keta. The Keta Sea defence project could be converted into a harbor to create employment in that catchment area. We will receive more patronage on our port from the neighboring countries if the reduction of customs duties on goods is factored into policies and programs. Local industries will also grow.

Ghanaians in diaspora are contributing enormously to the economy of Ghana. Why do we rob them of their monies at the port through import duties? Where must they get resources to create jobs in the country? What is particularly lamentable is that substantial portions of import duties go to wrong hands not to the government. The fate of our times characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and above all, by the disenchantment of the world are the words of Max Weber. Indeed, imports duty in Ghana remains one of the disenchantments of the world evidenced by the video at the youtube.com mentioned above.

Why must fellow countrymen make profit from other Ghanaians as if they created the ocean? Import duty must be one of the main issues of Ghanas economic policies as we approach November polls. Presidential candidates must be tasked to present alternative tariffs plan to ameliorate the customs tax systems. Only if an ocean could speak: high import duty, confiscation of luxury cars on the ground of inability to pay high tariffs, the use of seized cars by government officials and political party stalwarts and aficionados depict not only insensitivity but wanton disdain for Ghanaians happiness.

Reference

Mazrui, A. A (1986). The Africans, a triple heritage, Boston, Toronto, Little, Brown and Company.

Thomson, D (1957). Europe since Napoleon, New York, Alfred A Knope

I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing (Socrates). I humbly stand for Corrections. Feedbacks must be emailed to

[email protected]

Nana Yaw Osei (Padigo), PhD Candidate, Psychology

College of Doctoral Studies

Grand Canyon University, Arizona, USA
22.07.2016 LISTEN

Three years after former Tunisian President Ben Ali was ousted from office, Tunisians voted for their constitution. The country saw thousands of dead bodies during the Arab Spring. Egypt saw the trial against President Mubarak broadcasted on National TV with a Democratic elected Government under President Morsi from Muslim Brotherhood only to stand trial in the same courtroom as his predecessor in the Presidents Office.

Burkina Faso saw two weeks of violent clashes during which the former President escaped to finally become a Citizen of Ivory Coast leaving a new Government in his former State House. Burundi sees death in numbers on the street of Bujumbura due to the desire of the President to run for a third term in office contrary to the Constitution of the country.

The current President of Togo is in Office for a third term even the Constitution does not mandate him for an extension to stay in power. Aging President Robert Mugabe uses his power to install his wife as the strong woman to follow him once new elections are due to be hold in Zimbabwe in 2018. (The powerful Veteran Association has withdrawn its support for Robert Mugabe and the rebellious Pastor is in self-decided Exile in South Africabe mindful)

Democracy comes in this world in various shapes, sizes and forms. It so far is the best form of Governance for matured minds that are required to draft, implement and run it for the lasting benefit of ALL citizen of a country. Small boys should stay away from it unless ready to improve on their performance to become big boys and matured minds.

A country is not the power house of a Family or a small group in a society but a participation of many for the welfare of ALL.

It has been a long debate among Political Scientist whether in a Democracy Revolution and Civil Unrest is legal and morally allowed and advice as the Citizens have the chance to vote each 4 or 5 years for an alternative to the existing Parties and People in power. When a Democratic Constitution is weak, drafted with short falls or no longer benefitting the Citizen as a society is moving on in its historic setting in combination with a political, social and economic elite taking the citizen hostage by serving themselves with national assets and glorification, its becomes the mandate of the citizen to take their faith into their own hands. They have to take their brains to the streets and leave their emotions, frustration and anger behind.

History has proven that in most cases such developments take a bloody path with great uncertainties and disturbances in various sectors of the society. Only very few cases can be taught to University Students of dynamic and peaceful transition to lift up a society to a higher level such like November 9th 1989, the night the Berlin Wall was falling after 40 years of separation of Germany West and Germany East with no footage reported of any injuries and political vacuum created.

Unlike the Arab Spring and other observations in Africa, Germans were well prepared for this special and historic moment that was the end of Communism in Europe and Russia. Years of internal debate created ready minds of what people desired for. The Arabs knew in their hearts what they did not want without knowing in details the life they wanted to live. No new Constitution, as an alternative to the existing one, was in place or ready to be discussed among many; no potential new Government was ready to take over responsibilities from one to the next moment leaving a deadly and dangerous vacuum for power hungry people on the battle field to conquer the future development of a Nation.

The British Constitution (does not exist in formal form in one book) mandates the Opposition to form a Shadow Cabinet presenting itself to the Voters as a better and well prepared alternative to the existing Government ready to take over the Responsibilities of the country and move on with the job. The UK Referendum of leaving the EU was a decision taken on paper in Polling Stations, nevertheless a drastic change in the direction UK wants to go in future even only backed by small winning margin. The transition from one Prime Minister to the new current one and the discussions inside Labour Party shows and gives a Text Book example of Civil Unrest and a certain form of Revolution in a Democratic Framework when the underlining principles are met, readiness and preparedness leaving emotions and head on collisions behind. Magna Charta of 1215 (No Taxation without Representation) was setting the tone for what we can observe today on the big island, the fifth riches nation on earth.

African Societies should carefully study recent and current European developments to understand, even during the given mandate to a President and Party, the process can and sometimes has to be stopped by taking over of a better alternative not having to waste precious time for the next election. Everyday humans are born and others die. Life is not endless on earth but precious to GOD for which reason it is not a playground for anybody wanting power and money into their own hands.

The Coup in Turkey on July 14th/ 15th this year is another dramatic event demonstrating clearly the immaturity of a large number of people about political processes to make them successful to engage in radical but peaceful at the same time strategies to benefit all in a country.

It must be hoped for that in Africa there will be enough intellectual capacity to come (most African Political Scientist do not understand even these basic issuessad) to turn around the faith of its people and stop living under a bubble hub filled with hot air and the same nonsense year in and year out. Africans deserve better!

Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono Estate, Block D10, Aprt. 9, Tema West, Ghana, [email protected] , phone +233(0)265078287, 21.07.2016
Thousands of people continue to flee uncertainty and fighting in South Sudan. Since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Kiir and First Vice President Machar, 26,468 people have crossed into Ugandas northern region, including 24,321 in the previous six days alone. The influx continues to be characterised by a high proportion of women and children (more than 90%).

Yesterday, an estimated 8,337 refugees crossed in to Uganda from South Sudan, a new record high since the influx began and in 2016. An estimated 6,500 crossed in Elegu, 659 in Moyo, 156 in Lamwo and 642 in Oraba while 380 arrived in Kiryandongo Reception Centre.

The influx is severely stretching the capacity of collection points, transit centres and reception centres. Elegu collection point is full to the extent that it is not possible conduct a head count. New arrivals figures in Elegu are based on an analysis of trends throughout the day. On Wednesday night, more than 7,000 people slept at Elegu collection point, significantly beyond its 1,000-person capacity. Similarly, Kuluba collection point is hosting 1,099 refugees, compared to its 300-person capacity. Torrential rains are further hampering registration efforts.

New arrivals in Adjumani report continued fighting between forces loyal to President Kiir and those loyal to First Vice-President Machar. There are reports that armed gunmen continue to loot properties, forcibly recruit boys and young men, and murder civilians in Magwi.

Another Uganda Peoples Defense Force convoy evacuating Ugandan nationals from South Sudan is expected today. On previous occasions, a large number of refugees have taken the opportunity to flee the country by accompanying the convoy.
Obuasi (Ashanti), July 20 - As part of its commitment to improve the health of people living in and around its operational area, AngloGold Ashanti Ghana Limited (AGA) has supported the Obuasi Government Hospital with a range of medical equipment.

The medical equipment donated included suction machines, general surgery packs and supplies, surgical instruments and dental supplies estimated at a value of approximately 1.3 million.

This donation was a partnership with Project Cure, a health delivery NGO in the USA whose main aim is to bring about improvement in healthcare delivery in developing countries.

Presenting the items, Mr Eric Asubonteng, General Manager and Managing Director of AGA Obuasi Mine remarked that the kind gesture was a demonstration of AngloGolds commitment to supporting the development of Obuasi and its surrounding communities.

He said the company has over the years supported the hospital in various ways, including the provision of Doctors bungalows, generators and the construction of some wards. We intend to continue to support the people of Obuasi as long as it is within our means to do so.

According to him, the management of AGA is currently considering replicating this gesture in other health facilities in and around Obuasi.

He was optimistic that the medical facilities would significantly benefit the hospital as they were specifically selected based on the recommendations of the team which was tasked to assess the needs of the hospital prior to the selection process.

It is the expectation of both the Management of AGA and Project Cure that these items will be put to the utmost judicious use and also that a very coherent maintenance regime is adopted as far as the equipment are concerned, he added.

He reiterated AGAs commitment to its social interventions, including the Malaria Control program, the AGA Community Trust Fund, and the provision of water in some stakeholder communities among others.

Receiving the items on behalf of the hospital, Mr John Alexander Ackon, Ashanti Regional Minister assured AGA and its partners that the facilities will be put to maximum use to improve on the lives of the people.

Also present at the function were Hon Richard Ofori Agyemang, Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive, Dr. Amankwaa, Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service, Sheick Gibril, and head of the Muslim Community, A representative of the Catholic Bishop of the Obuasi Diocese and Krontihene of Kwapia, who represented the Adansihene.
The immediate past National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary nominee for the Akyem Abuakwa North constituency in the Eastern Region, Anthony Osei Gyimah, has blamed the leadership of the NDC for his resignation as the partys parliamentary nominee.

He claims the party leadership's failure to address divisions within the party in the constituency forced his resignation.

Mr. Gyimah resigned as parliamentary nominee for the NDC in the Akyem Abwakwa North Constituency last Monday, fueling claims he stepped down to allow Ghana's High Commissioner to the UK, Victor Smith, to take over the position.

But, Mr. Gyimah in an interview with Citi News claimed that the party leadership's failure to address petitions about divisions in the constituency forced him to resign.

It all stems from the fact that after the declaration of the primary results, last year in November, I started getting some negative sentiments whereby they were creating some divisions in the constituency within the NDC, he explained.

As much as I tried to bring the party together, the divisions were getting deeper and deeper. We've got only four months to the election, andt with this division, it was difficult for me to even start my campaign. I have tried, I have brought in elders, everybody to help but still it was not working, he lamented.

It is however unclear what sort of division Mr. Gyimah is referring to since there had not been any public awareness of internal wrangling in the constituency.

There are suggestions he may have simply reached a deal with Mr. Victor Smith, hence his decision to step aside.



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Bhutan's eRegulations information portal and Cameroon's MyBusiness.cm single window received a Global Enterprise Registration (GER.co) award from UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi and Ambassador Kurt Tong of the Department of State of the United States of America on Monday during the opening reception of the 2016 World Investment Forum in Nairobi.

Launched in October 2014, GER.co is an initiative of UNCTAD, the Kauffman Foundation Global Entrepreneurship Research Network and the United States Department of State. It envisions a world where Governments make it easy and attractive for entrepreneurs to register their businesses and comply with laws and regulations. And its mission is to simplify administrative processes on a global scale, starting with business registration.

Transparent and simple procedures are key to investment facilitation. We encourage all countries to put their business processes online by 2019 and list them on GER.co., said the Director of the Division on Investment and Enterprise James Zhan.

eRegulations Bhutan describes the business creation process step-by-step, for both domestic and foreign investors. Thanks to this new service, Bhutan gets the top rating for information portals on GER.co.

Cameroon is the first of the 17 members of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa to allow companies to register online simultaneously with various agencies through one single form and one single payment. MyBusiness.cm is one of the highest ranked single windows on GER.co.

GER.co lists official sites that either allow entrepreneurs and investors to register their business online (single window) or to show the process (information portal). So far, only 29 countries have a single window, and 130 countries have information portals.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has reacted swiftly to threats by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) not to reopen schools for the 2016-2017 academic year unless government settles outstanding debts owed them (schools).

Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, Jacob Kor, Director General of GES, said CHASS does not have the authority not to reopen schools for the next academic year.

According to him, the authority to close down schools lies solely with the Minister of Education, Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, stating, GES management wants to remind all heads of second cycle schools that the authority to reopen and close down any public school lies only with the Minister of Education.

CHASS Problems

CHASS President, Cecilia Kwakye Coffie, catalogued a myriad problems affecting teaching and learning in second cycle schools in the country to the media in Accra on Wednesday.

She said that the government had failed to live up to its responsibilities.

According to CHASS, the heads of the senior high schools had reached a breaking point where if nothing is done as a matter of urgency, education in the second cycle schools in Ghana will suffer greatly.

Chief among the challenges, she said, was the issue of unpaid absorbed fees and feeding grants for the second and third terms of the 2015/2016 academic year at the time the NDC government was planning to introduce free SHS for boarders.

GES Shifts Blame

Responding to the claims by CHASS, Mr. Kor

said the untimely release of subsidies and grants were partly due to the lackadaisical attitude of some heads of SHSs regarding the submission of data on students.

I have the list of schools that have not submitted data we are processing now. How do we process some and leave others? I will query all those heads who as at now have not submitted the data for the processing of the subsidy, Mr. Kor said.

If heads have not submitted information that was requested for long ago, and others did so as late as July 14, how do they expect the accounts section to perform magic and just send out the money all of a sudden.

CHASS Issues

Addressing the issues raised by CHASS, Mr. Kor said the GES management had received a request from CHASS to increase the feeding fee from GH3.30 per student per day to a higher figure, and that the GES had taken a decision on that request which would be taken care of at the beginning of the new academic year.

In the 2015/2016 academic year, only one term of SHS/TVET subsidy and Progressively Free SHS is outstanding and are currently being processed for payment.

He said government was committed under the Social Intervention Programme (SIP) to pay basic schools Capitation Grants, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) subsidies, as well as SHS/TVET subsidies.

On the capitation grant, he said, GH16.5 million has been paid for the third term of the 2014/2015 academic year, and the first term of the 2015/2016 academic year, adding that the arrears were being processed for payment.

The GES head said GH17.2 million had been paid for the second term of the 2015/2016 academic year, and that only the third term is currently outstanding and is being processed for payment before the end of the term.

For the SHS subsidy, he said GH23.5 million had been paid for the first term of the 2015/2016 academic year.

As of the time CHASS went to present their press release without consultation with management, an amount of GH23.4 million meant for the payment of subsidy for the second term was ready for disbursement to the schools.

Touching on the feeding grant, he indicated that GH2.0 million had been paid while payment of Special Schools feeding grant for the third term was being processed for payment by the end of the term.

As of July 14, 2016, the government had released GH45,088,380, $2,808,758.04 and 283,608.00 Euros for the outstanding scholarship claims. These are second-year claims for third term of the 2015/2016 academic year  air tickets for special language students, bilateral awards/year abroad and bilateral awards tenable in Germany, he said.

Mr. Kor stated: In this world everybody owes or is indebted and as such, the government should not be seen as the only one which owes. Government is not the only panacea to all educational problems.

[email protected]

By Cephas Larbi
22.07.2016 LISTEN

(Based on an exclusive interview given by Nqobile Zungu, and her doctor Dr Samele Madela to CNS  Citizen News Service)

I met 37 years old Nqobile Zungu, at the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) that is being held in Durban. And yes, her looks were deceptive in the sense that one could never guess that her outwardly healthy body and cheerful attitude masked not one but three diseases. Now a mother of two kids, aged 12 and 8 years, Nqobile suffered from asthma from early childhood. In 2002, when she was 23 years old, she was diagnosed with diabetes. She went to a clinic and reported her symptom of itching in her private parts, but did not think it important enough to tell that she was also urinating frequently. The medication she got did not improve her condition.

Two weeks later I went to a family planning clinic where I came across a pamphlet with signs and symptoms of diabetes. When I read that, I said this is myself. I went to the healthcare worker to check me for diabetes. My blood glucose levels were very high and could not be controlled with oral medication. I was admitted in a hospital for two weeks. There I was given insulin and that made me feel better. Since then, I have been taking insulin twice daily.

But this was not the end of Nqobiles woes. In 2004, at the time of her first pregnancy, she tested positive for HIV. This was a devastating blow to her. She had contracted the virus from her partner who continued to remain in a state of denial. She delivered a baby boy through a C-section as the baby was too big because of her diabetes.

Fortunately my baby was negative. My partner was positive but he had hid that fact from me. I did not know his status at that time. When I told him about my status he lied to me that he had gone to the clinic and tested negative. It was only later that I found he was positive. Things did not work out well between us and we parted ways. I later found another partner who was HIV positive but he was honest with me and we are happy with each other.

Nqobile started on anti retroviral treatment (ART) in 2012 on the insistence of her doctor. Her CD4 cell count was 586 at that time and she was not feeling sick at all. But Dr Samele Madela did not want to take any chance, as she also had diabetes, and put her on ART right away. She was tested for TB also but thankfully did not have it.

I am on medication for three chronic diseases. My asthma, diabetes and HIV treatment are all free under the government programmeI get the drugs for them on the same date at the same health facility which is at walking distance from my place. I am fine now, as you can see.

(Yes, indeed! When CNS (Citizen News Service) met Nqobile, she looked fit as a fiddle and her smiling face radiated joy and self confidence).

Nqobile has passed grade 12 and is a professional health worker. When she could not get the job of an HIV/AIDS counsellor, she started doing voluntary work as a community health worker. Her partner is working but does not have a permanent job.

There is still a lot of stigma around HIV/AIDS in the community and families, rued Nqobile. There is more gender bias and stigma in women living with HIV in the communities here as patriarchy issues still exist. She was lucky to have a strong family support, which she thinks is so very important for people living HIV (PLHIV). Yet, when she goes out in the community talking about HIV, many of the PLHIV do not want to disclose their status, especially the women.

We need to tell people that HIV is a chronic disease and not a death sentence. Being HIV positive is not the end of the world. My partner and I never have unprotected sex. We use the condom every time. Female condoms are available locally, but their uptake is very less, said Nqobile.

Nqobile confided that this conference has been a great learning experience for her and has reinforced her belief that she is going to live more than ever with the treatment her government is giving her. She was especially grateful to her doctor who had done a wonderful job. If he had not insisted she would not have begun on ART soon enough, which might have proved disastrous later on.

Nqobiles treating physician Dr Samele Madela, who was trained in Cuba, practises in Dundee in Umzinyathi district of Kwazulu Natal. He is very passionate about his noble profession. He firmly believes that doctors cannot separate themselves from the community they serve. One becomes a doctor not for ones own self, but for the benefit of the community.

He said, It has been over 5 years since I started practicing as a doctor. According to me, a doctor obviously has to have good clinical skills, but our success is measured in terms of on how many peoples face we can put a smile on. I always want to have a good relationship with my patients. That has been my approach from the beginning and that is how I have gained the confidence of my patients over the years. I do care how they look like when they come back after 6 months or 1 year and that is what makes me feel happy. I strongly believe that a bio-psycho-social approach is the most important approach when it comes to practicing medicine, because then you put into context everything that is linked to the patients, apart from their medical complaints. 

While innovative approaches in healthcare delivery are essential to tackle the double-disease burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), existing platforms for HIV and TB detection, care and management can be leveraged effectively for NCD services to address populations needs holistically. At the same time, effective counselling by a doctor can work wonders.

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service)

(Shobha Shukla is the Managing Editor of CNS (Citizen News Service) who is leading CNS onsite Correspondents Team at XXI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) and International TB Conference (TB 2016) in Durban, South Africa, with kind support from Lilly MDR TB Partnership. Follow her on Twitter: @shobha1shukla)
22.07.2016 LISTEN

"He's turned Ghana into a colony," Mr Yao Graham reportedly said. "He is like a comet which we all looked up to for extra light only to be engulfed in darkness."

Yaos comments appear somewhat prophetic when held against the backdrop of an unending cycle of dumsor and gross incompetence, which is fast becoming the hallmark of President Mahama, 2nd heir to Rawlings legacy.

The Rawlings led Governments of the AFRC and the PNDC killed and destroyed lives, as many Ghanaians cheered on, some fuelled by envy, mistrust and sheer wickedness. Others, possibly out of naivety or more likely borne out of desperation arising from perceptions, whether actual or real, of corruption. Some of whom may have had a genuine belief that Rawlings was a kind of saviour who has been brought down to earth to usher Ghana into its pre-ordained destiny of prosperity, but assumed that he had to do what was necessary but painful in order to ensure that the desired end would be achieved. Being half white-scot only enhanced his credibility.

However some never trusted him. Like many others who had come before him, whether an impecunious soldier or a palm wine tapper, whether by preaching socialism or sheer pontificating, they have used this as a path to power, glory and sheer personal opulence. The worry is that this risible pantomime is still playing out on the platforms of Ogyakrom, my motherland.

99% of humanity suffer from one form of superstition or the other. It is ones ability to place things in some perspective, against the background of either overwhelming empirical evidence or its absence that enables us to maintain our rationality.

The problem with Ghana is however not as elusive as we think it is. We have simply not thought hard enough. To paraphrase Hilary Clinton for the umpteenth time, she said in her book Hard Choices that our choices determine who we become.

How could Ghanaians, even in the face of the brutality of Rawlings actions, have celebrated Rawlings coups and indeed seem to vote for those inheriting his Legacy? Some 33 years after the murder of our 3 High Court Judges, folks or heirs of the AFRC/PNDC tradition still dont seem to have regretted those happenings. Despite the mind numbing levels of corruption practised by the NDC government, a significant number of Ghanaians may have voted in sufficient numbers to hand them the opportunity to steal the will of Ghanaians in 2012. And you would have thought that the good citizens of Talensi could have used the opportunity of a bye-election some months ago, to whip the NDC into order. No they didnt!

The evidence is clear, without the need for an express admission or confession. Even Rawlings seems to have regretted the error of his ways and appears to be quietly telling some truths. Nana Addo is not corrupt. Then, was his recent admission that he took $2 million from Abacha, having previously denied it flatly since 1998. Although he did so under circumstances which suggest that, it might have been in anticipation of a damning report to be published by the Nigerian Government, the pressure and/or evidence gathered could not have been that overwhelming and he would perhaps have been entitled to challenge it when ultimately put to him or was it. Rawlings may be partly, truly remorseful or simply playing safe and irrespective, it unveils the cloak of probity and accountability the man has donned over the years. The former Head of State, credited with responsibility for annihilating 3 former Heads of State and 3 High Court Judges, may appear to be eerily full of contradictions but this time, he may well be on the path to repentance and salvation. He has called Ghanaians by so many names and boomed about those who succeeded him for so long that its a pity Ghanaians do not seem that incensed at his recent confession. When the Courts set Woyome free he yelled: Do you think we are stupid? He however almost went on a hunger strike when Tsatsu Tsikata was jailed for causing financial loss to the Country and went hand in hand with his wife to Court when she was prosecuted for the pretend sale of one of Ghanas factories. Yet he had the temerity to call President Kufuor by the name of a convicted villain.

Rawlings wife has set up her own party, NDP , to contest with his own brainchild, the NDC, whilst his daughter, Zanetor, has just been exonerated by the Supreme Court of the Land on very technical grounds to maintain her approval as an NDC parliamentary candidate in the impending elections in November/December 2016. It is symptomatic of the depth of confusion that his home has been plunged into and/or his profound inability to keep his family in check, even though they may well be adults.

Late in 1981, this man overthrew our legitimately elected Government and oppressed us for years thereafter. In the end, he and his Military Junta could not even account to the people about a mere $100,000 or so that they extorted from hardworking Ghanaians. He transmogrified himself into a Civilian Government and dumped on us a party machinery skilled at taking over power but incapable of neither running a Country nor willing to do so.

Rawlings legacy may be cursed for his gross and wanton hypocrisy. His contradictions are only a manifestation of something pathologically wrong. Our inability to bring him to account is also symptomatic of the pathological hold he has on our Country.

With a measure of trepidation, I can predict that nothing born out of Rawlings Legacy will yield anything that can bail Ghana out of her woes. Worst still, his legacy may have left a curse on the motherland from which we ought as a matter of necessity, be delivered. Whether an empiricist or other, it will be almost foolhardy for Ghanaians to wait another 4 years to establish the truth of this proposition in the face of the historical antecedent and in the face of a clear choice.

In our quest for development, Ghanaians should not have touched anything born out of the man with a long barge pole. You dont have to be superstitious to believe this. You just have to lend yourself to the belief that seems to guide voters in more advanced countries round the world; that anything that has a propensity, consistently, without fail, to produce undesirable outcomes, is not worth your investment in time, money or effort, with or without physical evidence of a link between the relevant cause and effect.

Arthur Mills failure was almost catastrophic if not fatal! Mahama is plodding on. It appears his NDC legacy has placed an irresistible charm on the Country but they are incapable of doing any good for the Country.

Compelled by a prospective business partner to explain what motivated his interest in politics, a friend found himself pointing to retired Flight Lieutenant Rawlings. Shocked by the apparent revelation, given my friends unhidden passionate dislike for the NDC party and its founder, the man interrogated further. Rawlings is your mentor?

Ludicrous He contended as follows:

A village boy from Akim Manso, my dad managed to gain a scholarship to Achimota. He worked hard for another scholarship to Scotland for a Degree in Forestry. A similar scholarship took him to Oxford for a post graduate in Forestry. He returned to Ghana in 1963, full of bright ideas on how to help Ghana out of the doldrums by preserving as much timber as possible whilst felling only when absolutely certain that it will be beneficial. He rose to become Chief Executive of a prosperous Timber Firm, owned then by way of a Public and Private partnership involving English and Scots. Many years latter, import licences were so badly restricted that his firm could no longer import essential equipment to carry out its trade. It caused growing disaffection amongst workers. However, a minister of State under Rawlings, desirous of passing the CEO role to another, got some CDRs or PDCs together and engineered a mutiny blaming the firms predicament solely at the doorsteps of the Management. PDCs took over the management of the firm without any serious top level management experience, believing their holier than thou posture will propel the firm into greater liquidity. The firm was obviously run to the ground after a few months. That was my motivation. I believed it was so wrong! I hated socialism with a passion and lamented all the dictatorships it had created around the world talk less of the hypocrites who found it as a very fast and effective vehicle for achieving political success, paying no regard to the lives ruined in the process, only to acquire power to oppress the poor and the powerless. My father at a very productive age in his life was compelled to retire to his little village. He was extremely lucky that there was not a jot of impropriety in his management of the finances of the firm which was wrestled away from him. He was promptly released from house arrest.

Many serious and ambitious lives were cut short in their prime by Rawlings revolution. Soldiers took the law into their own hands seized valuable properties belonging to individuals without recourse to Law and even when they sought to rely on Law their victims were taken through their Kangaroo courts in the form of Tribunals. They even killed Ghanaians as and when it pleased them. Market women were sometimes stripped naked and whipped in public in revolutionary times.

Memories of the 1979 executions of three of Ghana's former heads of state and some top military officers also come alive when I recall Rawlings regime. Rawlings and his cohorts executed General Kutu Acheampong, General Akuffo, General Roger Felli, Air vice Marshal Yaw Boakye, Rear Admiral Amedume, General Afrifa, and General Utuka by firing squad. Rear Admiral Amedume and General Felli were alleged to have used their positions to obtain bank loans. This formed the basis of their charge! Oh dear!

After so many years trusting a Government with such a sordid past that no civilized community of people could in good conscience have handed power to, the beloved country, an oil producing economy, is now tethering on the brink of Bankruptcy. Whether in November or December 2016, Ghanaians will be asked again, to entrust the reins of power into the hands of Mahama, heir to Rawlings legacy. It is an obvious choice between a cursed legacy and an opportunity to make meaningful progress. Have all these Ghanaians died in vain for Rawlings to enrich his wife and himself & for power to be entrusted perpetually in the hands of a cabal born out of Rawlings own mischief?

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones........

: Shakespeares Julius Caesar.

My Countrymen, on 7th December 2016, when you take any demands and supplications about your motherland to the Lord in prayer, please remember that our destiny is not that complicated, it lies in your own hands, whether by a tick or by the pressing of your thumb in the right places.
Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach met with President Rodrigo Duterte to talk about plans of the Philippines hosting the next pageant. (Photo : Getty Images/Thearon W. Henderson)

Reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach paid Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte a courtesy visit at Malacanang Palace earlier this week. Wurtzbach was with Miss Universe executives to discuss with Duterte the possibility of holding the next pageant in the country.



Accompanying Pia were her manager, Esther Swan, as well as Miss Universe President Paula Shugart and Miss Universe Vice President for Marketing and Business Development Shawn McClain, according to The Rappler. Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Wanda Teo and DOT Undersecretary Kat de Castro were also present at the meeting.



Advertisement

Teo said in a statement that Duterte has already "approved in principle" the Miss Universe organization's proposal to hold the next pageant in the Philippines and that he has agreed that sponsoring it would be a tourism marketing coup, with Wurtzbach at the helm. Teo noted that Wurtzbach, who represented the country in last year's pageant and won the crown, will be coming back to talk more about the details of the proposal.



Teo revealed that commercial sponsors have already made offers and that the private sector has pledged to shoulder the production costs for the pageant, emphasizing that hosting the event would entail no expense on the government's part. She also pointed out that sponsoring the event, along with planning and sourcing funds, is the Tourism Department's current focus. She said they are "ready to seize the moment."



Teo is positive that once Wurtzbach makes the announcement that the Philippines is hosting Miss Universe this year, people from other parts of the globe will start looking at the map and look the country up.



Wurtzbach also said in the same DOT statement that it is her personal dream to see the pageant held in the country. The last time the Philippines hosted Miss Universe was in 1994, with Miss India Sushmita Sen winning the crown. Before that was in 1974, when the Philippines' Margie Moran relinquished her crown to Miss Spain, Amparo Munoz.



According to a press release from the President's office, Duterte and Wurtzbach also talked about their similarities, with both being from Mindanao, which is one of the country's three main island groups. Wurtzbach described Duterte and herself as the "First Mindanaon President" and the "First Mindanaon Miss Universe."



See how Wurtzbach and Duterte's first meeting went in this news clip below:






By Pascal Kafu Abotsi

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) yesterday, took the Tema Community Four and Seven areas by storm, as part of its effort to clamp down on activities of illegal power consumers.

Within a spate of an hour, ECG officials had located about six illegalities, out of some 10 residences searched. A popular Chicken and Tilapia joint at Community Seven -Adongos Chicken & Dems  was one of the unlucky ones. It came to light that it was even not the first time the center had been fished out.

This was followed by another second-time offender, Trish World Catering Services at Community Four, and then the Agricultural Express Ltd, found at Suit 20 on the Kristal Plaza building at Community Four. There, the meter read 0.00 and that had been the case for a long time.

In most of these cases, the power thieves bypassed the meters to the extent that they didnt read. There were others who had several gadgets but made the decision as to which of them should read on the meter. They were thus disconnected and served notices to appear at the ECG offices.

It was drama at a residence at Community Four, near the Chemu Senior High School. Two young men with unkempt hair and beard, occupying a self-contained house, had fixed an air conditioner, in addition to other high power-consuming electric gadgets, for which they were paying nothing.

Not only was illegal connection the problem, but also, their rooms served as Indian hemp smoking joints, where they sat in the comfort of the air conditioners to plan their nefarious acts.

When arrested by the police accompanying the ECG officials, they took to their heels, but they were apprehended. The police found some dangerous weapons in their rooms, which deepened the perception of criminality against them.

According to the Manager of Revenue Protection of the ECG, Mrs. Edna Owusu Nyampong, who led the team of ECG officials, the power distributor had been faced with the challenge of illegalities for some time.

She said in spite of efforts being made to cause their reduction, the rate kept soaring. What we are doing now is to tell the people that the law will soon catch up with them since we are on the fore, she pointed out.

In the Tema region, she stated that her team, within two weeks, had visited 2,900 residences and located as much 65 illegalities, amounting to GHC 156,000. Even though the perpetrators of the crime were surcharged, 10 of them had been prosecuted, Mrs Nyampong indicated.

Mrs. Nyampong stated that in the first and second quarters of this year, the Electricity Company of Ghana identified 5,000 illegalities across the country. In all these, GHC 10 million was recovered, out of which GHC 8 million had been paid to the ECG.

Wednesdays exercise ran head-on with what transpired in Tema North, specifically Community Eight, about a month ago where 22 houses were found to have enjoyed free electricity through illegal connections, when the searchlight of the ECG was thrown there.

Surprisingly, the figure was inclusive of the Community Eight Police Barracks. Over there, although prepaid meters had been fixed, they had not recharged their cards for some three years.

At the time of the visit, with credit balance of 42 pesewas on one meter and 68 pesewas on another, the police officers continued to benefit from uninterrupted power supply, even as they used washing machines, electric co

okers, refrigerators, among other gadgets on a daily basis.

The ECG team then moved to the Spintex area two weeks later, where plush residences were the worst hit.
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For almost a week the students of Felix Houphouet-Boigny University in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire clashed violently with the police on their campus. The students were protesting against their living condition, the arrest of their leaders and the presence of police at their university.

We learnt with regret the decision of the Government to interdict any student activity and ban all student organizations in that fine country. AASU would like to register its displeasure at these measures and call for their immediate lifting. AASU calls for a peaceful resolution of the crisis through dialogue.

While urging the students to restrain from the use of violence in their quest to satisfy their demands, we call on the Government to take the necessary measures to create conducive study environment in order to footstall any such unfortunate occurrences in the future.

Yours in-students solidarity!

Awaah Fred

(Secretary General)

[email protected]/[email protected] , +233(0)243101626


There was an in-house peaceful protest by workers of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in Accra yesterday following news that board members of the corporation were going to have a meeting at the premises.

The tension at Ghana's premier broadcasting house does not appear to subside since the workers turned the heat on the board, chaired by Richard Kwame Asante, with a claim that they had lost confidence in the National Media Commission (NMC) to dissolve the board.

The staff appeared to have abandoned work and gathered at the entrance of the corporation, ostensibly to deny the board members entry to the premises.

The situation persisted for about two hours before they returned to their respective offices; but the protest could not disrupt transmission of news from both the national radio and television networks.

A member of the workers' union told DAILY GUIDE, The staff marched in their numbers to the main gate because they heard that the board members were to converge here for their usual meeting. It was a very peaceful protest and some of our members were determined to stop them from gaining access to the facility.

The workers have accused the board of micromanaging the affairs of GBC and allegedly misappropriating GBC's internally generated funds by illegally employing directors without recourse to due process.

They vowed to continue the protest until their demand for the dissolution of the board had been met.

NMC Report

Interestingly, the NMC recently cleared the governing board of GBC of any wrongdoing after deliberating on a petition from the workers' union.

The Executive Secretary of NMC, George Sarpong, his outfit's investigations proved that the board was 'innocent' of the allegations leveled against it by the workers.

The GBC union made a number of allegations to the commission. The commission established a committee to independently investigate the claims and the committee took each of the claims one by one and gave the union the opportunity to prove the case against the people. They could not substantiate any of the claims they made, he said.

They took time to investigate this matter thoroughly beyond the claim that the GBC union made. The commission went out of its way and investigated further the matter and found that those allegations were unsustainable, Mr. Sarpong added.

NMC vs Workers

The workers on the other hand, accused the NMC of betrayal, saying the commission lodged a complaint with the police following the workers' decision to prevent the GBC board members from entering the premises.

A worker said, The NMC has refused to objectively consider the issues in question. When they came out with their fictitious reports earlier to clear the board, they were popping champagne and celebrating.

Management Memo

The Management of GBC has said it would crack down on the protesting workers.

A memo indicated that any person who is a signatory to a document declaring the GBC board persona non grata would be punished.

GBC management considers the whole write-up as misconduct on the part of the signatories to the notice and appropriate procedures will be invoked to ensure sanity within the corporation's governance structure, the memo stated among other things.

By William Yaw Owusu
A pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) group, the Truth Forum, says President John Mahama, has no legacy in the three Northern regions of Ghana except the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) scandal in which some National Democratic Congress (NDC) gurus allegedly stole huge amounts of money from state coffers.

Spokesperson of Truth Forum, Anthony Abayifa Karbo, who made this known at a press conference in Wa, Upper East region, indicated that clearly, the President's unwillingness to touch the SADA subject these days is an admission of his failure and the legacy he is leaving with regards to northern development and the many promises he made to the people of the North, especially in 2012 when he led the onslaught to tell northerners that with a northern president, the north would see the deserved commitment and attention for development.

He said perhaps the area where the President has shown a total lack of commitment to the issues of the North and SADA is with regards to retrieving the monies pilfered in the name of SADA.

In 2008, there was a general consensus nationally that the north with high poverty rate was underdeveloped as compared to other parts of the country.

NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo had proposed the establishment of the Northern Development Programme in a bid to help alleviate the poverty in the North when elected as President of Ghana.

But the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by the former President John Evans Atta Mills and John Mahama at the time, rubbished Nana Akufo-Addo's idea which many described as noble.

The NDC later bought into the idea and eventually promised to set up a similar programme which led to the establishment of SADA.

However, Karbo, who is the NPP parliamentary candidate for Lawra, said the SADA funds which were released to ostensibly help the Northern poor and uplift them from suffocating poverty was virtually pilfered into private accounts and pockets and into buildings and cars for the President, his friends and family while the ordinary man and woman of the North have been left poorer and more deprived.

He said, Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, the record is even worse when John Mahama government from 2012 is isolated, the record is even pathetic! Not only has the government of John Mahama per their own records allocated only GH40 million out of a promised GH400 million, they should have allocated per their own manifesto promise in 2008, but they have also supervised and led the wanton thievery of these resources which were allocated in the name of Northern development.

According to Karbo, What John Mahama and his NDC government have achieved is ensuring that cronies of the government enrich themselves obscenely in the name of Northern Development and the destruction of the Northern Brand and even environment. And there appears no end in sight to this legacy of shame and the nightmare the people of the North are seeing today.

The Truth Forum spokesperson said that various audit reports had revealed amazing levels and shameless schemes with which these resources were stolen by men close to the 'Northern President'.

Some officials of SADA were involved in corrupt deals, notably the use of over GH250,000 on unapproved and wasteful trips to Birmingham, Berlin and Istanbul.

Then there was the payment of GH620,000 for the services of consultants. Indeed, the initial Audit Report put this amount at over GH1 million.

The four beneficiaries were named as Dr. Charles Jebuni, Chief Technical Advisor, who took a total of GH437,206.00 in a period of 22 months (GH19,873.00 monthly), Salifu Mahama, Engineer for Housing, who took a total of GH96,000.00 for 16 months (GH6,000.00 monthly) and Kennedy S. Mohammed, Resource Mobilization, who collected a total of GH75,000.00 for 10 months (GH7,500.00 monthly).

In the 2012 farming season, SADA accordingly supplied 714 bags of hybrid seeds to two service providers at a time the farming season was over. Because of this, SADA lost over GH320,000.

Mr Karbo argued that the biggest of all these wastages was the sinking of GH48 million into Guinea Fowl Rearing and Tree Planting projects.

Per the 2008 Manifesto promise of the NDC, the statement said, SADA should have had at least GH1 billion allocated to it in addition to other funds that was to be sourced from development partners and the private sector.

The 2012 Manifesto of the ruling government had indicated that GH260 million had been allocated to SADA by 2012 instead of a promised GH600 million

The 2013, 2014 Budget statements indicated that GH20 million was allocated to SADA per year while there was virtually no mention of SADA in the 2015 and 2016 budgets.

'70% Target Missed'

That means that a total of GH300 million has been allocated to the SADA Programme as compared to a promised GH 1 billion.

This means that the NDC government has only delivered at most 30 percent of what it promised the people of the North but ladies and gentlemen, the critical question to ask is, how have even these meagre amounts compared to what was promised been utilized.

By Melvin Tarlue
22.07.2016 LISTEN

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House

Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday voted to reject the Bill seeking to amend the constitution to make way for general elections to be held on November 7 of every election year.

The proposal for the change of date was to allow for successful transition from a ruling government to a new one.

The Electoral Commission (EC), through the Attorney General (AG), pointed out in the bill that the time allocated for the transition was inadequate, especially when there was a runoff which took place 21 days after the main elections.

Currently, there is a 30-day interval between the date for elections and the swearing in. Instances where there is runoff, which needs 21 days out of the allotted 30 to the swearing in, means only nine days would be left for a transition.

This becomes difficult, should there be a change of government, where the sitting government has to handover within the nine days, the AG indicated.

In March, this year, a bill was presented to Parliament to amend the constitution for election dates to be brought a month before December 7.

The bill went through all the necessary procedures and it was time for the legislators to debate and vote secretly on the bill, after the AG, Mrs. Marietta Brew Oppong had moved a motion yesterday for a second reading as part of the process.

The two sides of the House appeared to have towed the path of their political leaders in the two thirds majority vote. MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu supported the motion and said if approved, it would give enough time after the election, for the transition to take place.

However, Osei Bonsu Amoah, MP for Akwapim South, argued that it was not enough to change the election date because of the transition, citing that: The date alone cant ensure smooth transition. There should be a legal framework to back the transition.

After both sides had given reasons why the date should be changed and vice versa, the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, in accordance with Article 104 (4) of the constitution and Order 110 (A) of the Standing Orders of Parliament, directed that there should be a secret voting on the Bill.

Article 104 (4) states that, where Parliament is considering a bill to amend the Constitution, or where the voting is in relation to the election or removal of any person under this Constitution or under any other law, voting shall be in secret.

Order 110, also states that, there shall be secret voting in the House in respect of; (a) a Bill for an Act of Parliament to amend any provision of the Constitution.

In accordance with the above, voting took place secretly, where members were called one after the other into a box to cast their votes. But at that time, 55 MPs from both sides of the divide were not available to vote.

At the end of ballot, while 125 members voted FOR the bill, 95 of them voted AGAINST it. The total number of Parliamentarians currently stands at 275, out of which the constitution demands a two-third vote as far as voting for a bill of this nature is concerned.

According to Article 291 (3), where Parliament approves the bill, it may only be presented to the President for his assent if it was approved at the second and third reading of it in Parliament by the votes of at least two-thirds of all members of Parliament.

By simple mathematics, two-thirds of 275 is about184. Unfortunately, the votes for the motion was only 125. This made the Speaker, in accordance with Article 291 (3) to declare that, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is rejected at the second reading.

His declaration means that, until there is another move to amend the constitution, with it gaining the required votes, Ghana will still go to the polls on December 7, in every election year.
22.07.2016 LISTEN

By Mohammed Awal [[email protected]]

The Executive Secretary of Rwanda Media Commission, Emmanuel Mugisha has called on Ghanaians to unanimously speak against hate speeches in the Ghanaian media.

Speaking at a Media Foundation for West Africa [MFWA] forum on Wednesday in Accra dubbed: 'Hate Speech and Peaceful Elections,' he said those utterances if not checked have the potency to devastatingly unleash mayhem on Ghana.

Mugisha, as a result, warned that: Hate speech is not and shall not ever be freemedia hate is dangerous and should not be given any foothold.

He thus called on the National Media Commission and all other relevant stakeholders to be up and doing to ensure that Ghanaian media practitioners conduct themselves professionally, before during and after the November 7 elections.

Addressing the forum on: 'Media, Hate Speech and Electoral Violence, The case of East Africa,' Henry Mania, Director, Article 19, East Africa Office, Kenya said there aren't clear definitional structure of what hate speeches are and that conceptualizing what they are was a struggle.

But, according to him, utterances considered as hateful in nature always manifest in three or four main ways -including alarming sensational newspaper headlines, offensive and inflammatory language on social media, political campaigning and in creative art and music industry.

The cause of these sad statements on the Ghanaian media airwaves, according to Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere is attributable to the ownership of the media outlets by political actors.

First of all there is no transparency so they just allocate the frequencies and most of them are political owners who set up the radio station for a single purpose, he said.

If you look at some of the people who have been given frequencies, you will wonder when they saw the press as a medium for business. So, this is where we are today. Political ownership is the cause of most of the problems.

The situation, he added, gets murkier due to the NMC's lack of policy guidelines to regulate the activities of Ghanaian media practitioners.

Kwasi Gyan Appenteng, NMC's Chairman earlier this year during a news conference expressed worry over the commission's inability to implement the Content Standards Regulations 2015 [LI 2224], which requires electronic media owners to seek content approval from the NMC before any publication.

It is a necessary mechanism for sanitising our airwaves, Gyan Appenteng told the news conference stating that the threats to good order and public safety comes not from the law but from the absence of the law.

As a result, Ambassador Blay-Amihere observed that without a policy, how can you talk sense urging that some regime of sanctions are needed to regulate the excesses of the media.

So, the NCA does its part and it cannot control content  when you come to the NMC to control content, they have no powers to do that. That has been the problem, he added.

According to the MFWA's Election Communication Guide [2016], edited by Dr. Gilbert Tietaah, elections in Ghana and much of the developing countries of Africa for that matter are not just about the competition of ideas and they are about the appropriation and allocation of resources.

This collateral consequence of controlling the disbursement of public resources has made electoral contests particularly feisty; even sometimes flagrantly abusive and contrary to the ethos of decorum that are expected to characterize traditional social and political discourse in Ghana and Africa, the booklet's page six read.
22.07.2016 LISTEN

From Inusa Musah, Tema

Madam Sherry Aryittey, Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, has said that plans are far advanced to construct a modern cold store at the Tema Fishing Harbour to save the fishermen from losses.

Ground breaking ceremony for the commencement of the huge project, she indicated, would be in October when her Ministry would be in the area to perform the same ceremony for the construction of a slipway for the fishermen.

The government, she explained, had gotten funding from the United States for the projects, which would enhance the operations of the indigenes and their industry.

Madam Sherry Aryittey said: the government is again rolling roll out education scholarships to fisher folks across the country, and very soon, you will hear the official announcement of that intervention to our fisher folks and their families.

This, she said, was to ensure that all fisher folks were duly rewarded for their risks in ensuring that Ghana always got fish catches to grow its economy.

The Minister outlined the government's vision for the fishing communities at Tema Manhean where she commissioned a refurbished fish smoking yard, popularly known in the Ghanaian parlance as 'Chorkor Smoker'.

The huge structure, which was constructed during the era of Robert Kempes Ofosuware, as the Chief Executive of Tema, was ripped off outright and with most of the hearths destroyed, following a strong wind that swept the canoe beach.

The Minister, who commended the Tema Chief Executive, Isaac Ashai Odamtten, for working hard to ensure that the fishmongers were put back into their vibrant trade, said a second consignment of outboard motors the government sold to the fishermen at highly subsidised prices, were ready for delivery to the landing beaches.

An outboard motor, she indicated, would be sold to the beneficiaries at GHC6,000 instead of GHC12,000. Madam Sherry Aryittey later presented a Fishing Regulation handout of Legislative Instrument (LI) 1968 to the Chief Fishermen of the area.

The LI was written in Ga, Fante and Ewe, and educating the gathering, she said the regulations would inure to the benefits of the fisher folks by ensuring that the fish stocks in the Ghanaian waters were protected against illegal fishing practices.

She explained: It is not in the interest of any government to prevent anybody from workingbut in every business one engages in, there must be best practices and so the LI spells out those best practices so that all of us in the industry will have to learn and adhere to.

The Chief Executive for Tema, Isaac Ashai Odamtten, on his part, educated people who did business at the canoe basin and fishing harbour to observe healthy sanitation practices. The health of the consumers, he noted, should be paramount to the traders.

He pledged the assembly's continuous support to the fisher folks. The leadership of the fishmongers, Madam Naomi Korkor Ago thanked the governing party for its immense assistance offered the fishing communities, especially to the women.

In addition to some aluminium basins and smoking materials, the Minister presented a brand new tricycle that would convey the wares of the fishmongers to the market for sale.
It was sunday. I woke up to the welcoming window-type penetrating rays of the morning sun,a blend of nextdoor parents shouting at their wards to do one thing or the other, and sunday school children of a nearby church singing multiple action songs to complement the offbeat rythm produced by their unskilled band boysi knew i was late for church;late for church for the fact that church commences at exactly 7:00 am, and the fact choresters are to report even earlier.

I was disapppinted in me for disappointing my strong desire to be at church -to sing and worship the Being up high. I was disappointed in me because am no Boss but i overslept. little did i know that it was a blessing in disguise.

Some minutes after, while i laid in the comfort of my room, their adult service would continue from where the children service left off. They sung i sung along,they danced i danced along, they worshiped i worshiped along, they gave offering and i stayed indoor. Shame on me right?? chaley, then i broke!..

And oh, i wont forget the blessing in disguise; the message in their preachermans sermon-so relative, so impacting and some part sad. He themed his sermon the tongue, memory verses he gave a few, sorry i did not write them down, for i was listening with earsHe preached on, caught the attention of his congregation and outsiders alike, alluded to the Rwandan genocide and it was all silence because he managed through the hearts of many. He narrated the genocide with such unparallel skill, and reminded All about the staggering number of death roll. He pointed to the sorry refugees most Rwandans had become, the resulting humanitarian crisis that plagued the world and the fact that all these were triggered by ill utterances made by some elite Hutu Rwandan Nationalists. His message was day-clear; the tongue, and he guided it perfectly in all regards, pointed to the adversity of war and cautioned his members and all Ghanaians to be very mindful of their utterances especially as we head towards november elections.

Back in my room i was touched and impacted, so i reflected till i was reminded about the fact i was going to write an article on peace; to be consumed by the youth and the general public.  that i was going to prompt the citizenry not to render themselves objects of political manipulation. Well, not to say we will wake up one day to see bullets sweep the length and breadth of this country, but we must be reminded that peace is not guaranteed unless through conscious and collective efforts towards justice, tolerance and security. Bonar Law once said There is no such thing as inevitable war. If war comes, it will be from the failure of human wisdom. Clearly theres no guarantee of peace where wisdom is not applied on all fronts, neither is there war which could never have been prevented.

It takes a high sense of tolerance to rise above our political and religious affiliations and divisions. It must not be overemphasized that we belong to one another. -that we are one people with a common destiny -that we are a special group of people with the sole stake in the past, present and future of this countryAnd that we have no room for distortion of our democratic dispensation through unwarranted vilification and utterances.Our role as electorates are simple: Tolerate, Vote, Be vigilant, and be patient for your leaders.

One would ask if tolerance is the only means of getting the work done in our quest to safeguard our peace. Obviously no!.All stakeholders must come into play. Justice and Security they say are the prerequisite for peace and stability. It must not be over emphasized that injustice and poor security are the bane of election related distruction across the African continent. In light of this, the electoral commision,EC, and National security service agencies must be fully equipped and skilled to listen to genuine call for fairness and security, and to be able to handle well election related developments without prejudice and sense of belonging.

The present existence of Ghana i must say is that of diaspora. Some Ashantis in Ga lands, Some Gas in Eve lands, it goes on and on. Some Northeners married to Fantes, some Fantes to Hauses, it goes on and onAnd considering that Ghana has crossed the modern democracy threashold and is examplar to many countries across the globe, we cannot be driven down the scary lanes of pre/post election arnachy, haven failed to exercise wisdom in tolerance, security and justice.

LONG LIVE GHANA, LONG LIVE ALL.

 PRINCE KWAME BOAKYE
Political Parties have pledged to prioritize the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) in their manifestos, policies and messages for the 2016 general elections.

At a public forum organized by Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) in collaboration with Star-Ghana, six political parties including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC) and Great Consolidation Peoples Party (GCPP) set their policy agenda to address the SDGs.

Dr. William Ahiadzi, Director of Research, NDC, said the fact that President John Dramani Mahama is the co-chairman to the United Nations SDGs is a clear indication that the NDC government has made several progress in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets which ended last year.

He indicated that the NDC government has expanded infrastructure to schools with the planned construction of the 200 day secondary schools, elimination of schools under trees and expanding access to the school feeding programme.

Dr. Ahiadzi added that several hospitals across the country if not completed, are at their completion stages to expand access to quality health care delivery to all.

In the energy sector, he noted that government has taken steps to encourage more Independent Power Producers to come out with more alternative sources of energy to address our power challenges.

Mr. Ato Dadzi, representing GCPP believes that Ghana can meet the SDGs target only when we form a grassroot participation in all our decision making processes.

According to him, GCPP has lined up several policy interventions in its manifesto that seeks to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) when given the mandate.

Ato Larbi, representing CPP noted that the only way to tackle poverty which is the key determinants of the SDGs targets is mechanized agriculture to attract more people into the sector.

He indicated that his party has outlined programs and policies in its manifesto that seeks to invest largely into agriculture to increase the requirements for food production to feed the nation, to revive and feed our industries and process for export to earn foreign exchange into the country.

Bernard Monah, the National Chairman for PNC said key sectors of this economy depend on cheap but constant supply of energy to expand and grow for that matter, his party has outlined policies and programs that seek to solve the energy crisis in the country.

He emphasized that PNC will tap into other renewable sources of energy such as the solar energy, wind energy and clean coal to provide reliable and cheap power.

Kojo Afari, representing the NPP said his party has come out with the 10 points plan which seeks to provide incentives and opportunities for individuals to create wealth.

He noted that the cocoa industry is one of the critical sectors that contribute a lot to GDP however, the huge taxation on the income of cocoa farmers is gradually fading out these farmers leading to low outputs.

Professor Kwame Kakari, who was the moderator of the forum said the ISODEC project of ensuring that political parties adopt the SDGs into their manifestos has some implications for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to a more logical manner have an influence in the manifestos of these political parties.

He added that Ghanas progress in the MDGs targets was missed because of our failure to integrate the political partys manifestos into the MGDs.

These SDGs are not alien. They exit already and therefore we are encouraging the political parties to come out with programs and policies that addresses the SDGs, he stated.

Mr. Bernard Anaba, Policy Analyst at the Integrated Social Development Centre [ISODEC] noted that the objective of this forum is to interrogate the extent to which political partys manifestos, policies and messages are linked to the SDGs towards issue based 2016 elections.

He noted that the SDGs are global commitments that would characterize most international development decision-making which Ghana must not be left behind.

Mr. Anaba said as a result, ISODEC and its partners have mobilized citizens for participation in the coming general elections with the SDGs and political party manifestos as a window of opportunity for participation and debate.

We consider this as an opportunity for political parties to inform citizens about their party policies, manifestos and messages for national development. This, we believe would steer the elections away from personal attacks and non-issues, he intimated.
A Chinese girl walks past a skull said to be that of a villager killed by Japanese troops in the Second World War during a visit to a WWII museum on Sept. 1, 2015 in Beijing, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

A team of contractors in Denmark has discovered a mysterious skull with huge eye sockets and unusual fanged teeth. The team believes that this skull may have belonged to an alien that existed on Earth millions of years ago.



The strange skeleton was discovered by a team of Danish contractors in 2007 who were replacing old sewage pipes on Sealand Island, according to the Express. The skeleton is about 50 percent larger than a normal human skull and has unusually large eye sockets.



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Allegedly, the skull has been recovered while digging out 100-year-old underground building that, many years ago, belonged to a butcher. According to a group of experts from Veterinary College in Copenhagen, even though the skull resembles that of a mammal, "certain features make it impossible to fit the animal into Linnaean taxonomy."



Since the discovery of the mysterious skull, the scientists have not been able to link it to any of the species of mammals present on Earth. A carbon dating of the skull revealed that it is around 800 years old. The age of the sample is particularly strange, especially considering the fact that it was discovered in a pipe just 100 years old.



After examining the skull for the first time in 2010, the researchers decided to get the area excavated further to find any clues related to the skull. However, apart from a few stone axes, equipment and animal bones, the team did not find anything that could directly relate to the weird and mysterious skull.



A group of experts claims that the area of Sealand was once home to a mysterious section of writers and poets who had one mission in life - to protect unbreakable alien artifacts. The skull recovered by the Danish contractors was a part of these artifacts, which was left behind by extraterrestrial creatures who once visited Earth all the way from constellation Pegasus.



Meanwhile, editor of ufosightingsdaily.com, Scott C Waring is certain that the skull belongs to an alien-human hybrid.



"The enlarged eyes, the teeth are mind-blowing. It doesn't fit into any known species and is 50 percent larger than a human skull. Perhaps a half human, half alien hybrid," Waring told the publication.



Meanwhile, a UFO was spotted flying above New York City, according to Metro. The appearance of large, black object in the sky baffled a group of motorists who captured the weirdest moment in a video. People even claimed having felt vibrations and hearing a loud noise before the appearance of the object.



Here is the video that captured the UFO over New York City:






Acknowledging the huge untapped economic potentials in the relations between Russia and Africa, Ekaterina Dyachenko, the Founder of the B2B Export Group of Companies said in an interview Thursday that her company would collaborate with the authorities of the Republic of Ghana in organizing the next Russian-African Forum (RAF) in February 2017 in Accra, capital of Ghana.

This year, the RAF was held in May in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in July as part of the INNOPROM-2016 international industrial trade fair in Yekaterinburg (Urals), and both gatherings have outlined diversified ways and reviewed prospects for strengthening economic cooperation between Russia and Africa.

According to the organizing committee, the Yekaterinburg forum attracted African delegates from different countries including Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Burundi, South Africa, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Cameroon, Mozambique, Chad, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt.

In Moscow, Ghanas Ambassador to the Russian Federation, His Excellency, Dr. Kodzo Alabo, while discussing specifically various efforts and ways of strengthening relations between Russia and Ghana, has also expressed the desire of his country to host the Russian-African Forum (RAF) that would focus at promoting Russias economic partnerships and cooperation with countries of the ECOWAS region.

Besides, it would offer the country a unique opportunity to raise its profile as an investment destination and a gateway to west African market, Dr Alabo said, adding "I am highly confident that the forthcoming business event, thats the Russian-African Forum, will undoubtedly promote the development and enhance business partnership between the countries in the region and the Russian Federation,"

Ghana has developed a stable political environment during the last three decades, leading to economic growth. The reasons why foreign investors are attracted to Ghana can be attributed to the favorable investment climate and incentives, rapidly developing infrastructure and a skilled labor force.

It has often been said that Russia and African countries have had a long history of business relations, including infrastructure development, human resource training and healthcare projects, as well as a wide range of other areas.

Kenya-based Dyachenko has 10 years of tremendous experience working and facilitating Russian business issues in Africa. After the previous RAF that was successfully organized in South Africa and East Africa, the B2B Group of Companies has received positive responses from African business community that indicated enormous interest in goods and services Russian companies can offer and export to Africa.

As a new host for our next event in West Africa we are looking for a country which is most open to efficient cooperation with Russian Federation. At the moment we are looking first of all at Ghana, Nigeria and Guinea. RAF already started negotiations with the governments of the above mentioned countries and we are awaiting positive responses, Dyachenko said.

The economies of West Africa are one of the fastest growing in the world. The key focus of the region is to meet the ever growing demand for housing, power, infrastructure, skills development and pharmaceuticals. Russian companies have developed a vast expertise in those areas and ready to participate in infrastructure, energy, mining, agriculture and other projects in Africa.

It is worth mentioning that there are only four Russian trade missions on African continent which are located in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and South Africa at the moment. That is obviously not enough for efficient business consulting in the region. Therefore, the Russian-African Forum (RAF) is, in fact, one of the effective platforms for building an efficient business-to-business dialogue between Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

As an addition, in order to tighten Russia-African business ties we organize business visits to Russia for African companies. The delegates can see a real manufacturing process, hold negotiations with Russian companies, financial institutions and government authorities, and get a better understanding of the way we do business in Russia, Antonina Bondareva, RAF Director, said.

The B2B Export Group of Companies are the Russian-African Forum, Export Club project (business community of Russian exporters), some educational programs for Russian exporters and online trading platform - the easy and efficient way to source from Russia. It represents the next logical stage in the development of the electronic platform, in its activities as an international agency matching foreign buyers with sellers in Russia.

During the first 18 months of the initial phase of the companys operations, it has facilitated more than 50 transactions.

Currently, the turnover of trade between Russia and Africa is estimated at $2.5 billion, while imports of non-primary goods to the African continent already aggregate to $430 billion and are growing at 10-15 % a year. Nearly, in all economic sectors in Africa, Russias major competitors are from foreign countries especially Asia, western Europe and European Union.

West Africa is popularly referred to as the ECOWAS region. The Economic Community of West African States is made up of fifteen member countries that are located in the region. These countries have both cultural and geopolitical ties and shared common economic interest.
I want to be Dr. Raymond Atuguba for today. That doesn't make me a lawyer! Please, the article is too long but be patient to read in between the lines. I don't intent to be political. I need to present the facts as they are. The facts and nothing but the facts!

The Chambers Dictionary gives six definitions for "politics".

1. Politics is the art or science of government.

2. Politics refers to the management of a political party.

3. Politics talks about the political affairs or opinions of people in a society.

4. Politics refers to the manoeuvring and intriguing in society.

5. Politics refers to policy-making, as opposed to administration

6. Politics captures the civil rather than the military aspects of government.

I check and cross-check these six definitions very well and what surprises me is the way and manner people see politics to be in today's world. I have a reason why I support a particular political party. The only way out is to find out that (my reason) and then take steps possible to convince me to vote for your party. If I like and live with violence, then you have to prove to me that I can work with you (of course, I don't belong to this school of thought) . If I cherish peace, you have to prove to me that I can work with you (where I belong) . This in one way or the order distinguishes one political party from the other.

Let's come back to the definitions of "politics" by The Chambers Dictionary of English. If it were be examination Condition I will prefer the combination of the six definitions to get a superb modelled, awarding and acceptable definition. When you do that you will get a better practical society for your people and country.

Good! None of the definitions talks about violence. Hence violence is not part and parcel of politics. Let's stay away from violence and then push forward our preferred party's plans for our people.

Once again, my objective is not to be political about this piece. I intent to let people reason for themselves, not any other reasoning, but logical reasoning.

Dr. Edward Mahama is a seasoned politician. I love him for not playing political cards in the field of politics. No group ever gatecrashed since he started politicking. His politics has always been policies, policies and nothing but policies. And that is it! If you admire and cherish his policies then you vote for him and if you don't then you look for another candidate and vote for.

The most dramatic part of this piece is that Dr Bawumia was alive and kicking when Dr. Edward Mahama was voted as the Presidential Candidate of the PNC. Did Dr. Bawumia campaign for Dr. Edward Mahama? Your guess is as good as mind. Did we fight because Dr. Edward Mahama was "eyeing" the Presidency? Master, most of us are educated and are very much aware of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. How then should Dr. Bawumia want us to campaign and vote for him? I hope the people of Mamprugu deserve better.

Dr. Bawumia was chosen by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, I expected him to move in that tangent of Dr. Edward Mahama. On the contrary, he started playing the tribal and religious cards. "I am one of you vote for me." "Your son has come to you to enskin him. " I will never turn my back on my own people." "... I will swear by the Quran and enter the Flagstaff House and Nana Addo will swear by the Bible and enter the Flagstaff House. " This is the kind of politics I am talking about.

Some people are staying far-away from their traditional homes and therefore I appreciate their stance.

Today, some of us are called traitors and wicked people who don't want Mamprugu to grow because we don't support or throw our weight behind Dr. Bawumia. Today, we are vilified and called all manner of names by some NPP acclaimed communicators because we don't support their line of political arguments. How can these political masturbations convince me to join and vote for the NPP?

Master, sing the songs of your party and stop the unnecessary noise. I have made my mind to be positive about Mamprugu , you have made your mind in similar vein, then why condemn me? Let me have my religion and you have your religion so says the Quran.

Alhaji Baba Seidu Issifu is more than a parliamentary candidate. I am not a soothsayer but I have seen him in the Presidency. What is not clear to me is whether he will be the Vice or the President! The bottom line is that Alhaji Baba Seidu Issifu will one day be in the presidency.

"One factory one district"! If this is anything to go by then Alhaji Baba Seidu Issifu has satisfied the condition. A fuel station and a Pure Water Factory are both credits to Alhaji Baba Seidu Issifu. These two business projects have provided job opportunities for the good people of Nalerigu-Gambaga Constituency. Empowerment has also cropped out as a result of the efforts of the man of the people. Others refer to him as the Peoples man. I will like to call him the man of the people. Grammatically, both mean the same.

I will never run away from political comparisons. It is through that, that the floating voters will choose and vote for the best candidate.

Every political party has its own "arsenals". This will make political comparisons relatively very easy.

As I indicated, I didn't intent to be political with my write up but to convey a spirit of Community "unism" despite belonging to different political parties in Mamprugu.

Belonging to different political parties at a point in time helps! That's Atindow Musah's take! What is your take?

The former president of the Republic of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta Fiifi Mills once said that "history is a window to the future" . The people of Mamprugu should watch out! History will definitely be a window to the future. Ladies and gentlemen, my brothers and sisters, the aged, women and children in Mamprugu I wish you well in your political decision. I will still love you if you reject my candidate. When Brutus was asked why he killed Caesar, this was his answer; "Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more."

Hon. Abdallah Abubakari, the Minister for Northern Region is a credit to Mamprugu. A seasoned politician, teacher, social agent, changed agent and community developer! He is my former Economics teacher from Nalerigu Senior Secondary school. He was a teacher everybody loved. No wonder, he had been transmogrified into a political figure. In fact, he is a plus for progress of Mamprugu. We love him, we appreciate his efforts in maintaining and bringing peace in Northern Region. The people of Mamprugu particularly Walewale and its environs will never disappoint you. The evidence are there for everyone to see and appreciate.

Long live Mamprugu!

Long live Ghana!

ATINDOW MUSAH.

MATHEMATICS TEACHER IN NALERIGU SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

TEL:+233208532470
Hundreds of fans, many of them Glo subscribers, thronged selected Gloworld shops in Accra and Kumasi to meet Glo brand ambassadors.

Fans and admirers of the ambassadors from all walks of life trooped into the shops to meet and interact with their idols.

In a new move intended to bring the networks brand icons closer to subscribers and customers, Glo ambassadors took turns to attend to visitors at three selected Gloworld shops in Accra.

They also chatted and took photos with as many subscribers who wished to record memories of their encounters with the stars.

Yvnonne Nelson, the velvety-voiced actress was at the Osu Gloworld shop on Monday and had many fans trooping in to meet her.

Van Vicker received fans and customers at the Ring Road Gloworld on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a shocker for the sultry actress, Jackie Appiah, as she was practically mobbed by fans who had been waiting for her arrival at the Ring Road Gloworld shop.

At the Accra Central Gloworld shop, Nadia Buari had the same experience with streams of fans and visitors who came to meet her.

Among the subscribers who came to meet Jackie at the Ring Road, Accra Gloworld shop were Mr Emery Junior and his lovely wife, Chimene both nationals of Central African Republic (CAR) but resident in Ghana.

By some stroke of luck, Wednesday 29th happened to be the birthday of the wife, Chimene and they just took advantage of the presence of Jackie to meet their screen diva and have photos with her to mark the day. Both husband and wife admitted that it was a unique opportunity for them to meet Jackie Appiah on such a memorable day.

From Nigeria, Franklin Okechukwu flew into Ghana just to meet Jackie, because she is a screen goddess I adore so much and I had been dying to meet her. Glo just provided the opportunity for this to happen.

In Kumasi last Tuesday and Wednesday, fans thronged the Gloworld shop at Adum to catch a glimpse of Jackie Appiah, update their SIM records or purchase new SIMs and recharge cards.

Some of them went home with mouth-watering gifts and freebies just for being at the shop at the right time to meet Jackie.

In all, it was an opportunity to create a bond with fans of the ambassadors. Many of the fans who are already on the Glo network took time to update their SIM records.

While others picked up Glo SIMs in order to enjoy the benefits the network delivers through its star products, Three Minutes to Free and Twin Bash.

Glo Three Minutes To Free is a new product which allows a subscriber to make a minute call to any network and thereafter make free calls on the network throughout the day.

With Twin Bash, a subscriber gets six times the benefit when he/she recharges data on the line and gets both 200% data and 400 % airtime to call friends on any network in Ghana.

A statement from Glo expressed satisfaction with the exercise and the resolve of the company to create a bigger bond between the Glo ambassadors and their fans.

It promised that similar initiatives will continue to find expression in the company's consumer engagement activities.
Juba (AFP) - South Sudan's vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar has no plans for an immediate return to Juba, his supporters said Friday, accusing his rival President Salva Kiir of trying to oust or even kill him.

Machar has not been seen in public since he left the capital after days of intense fighting this month between rival troops that left over 300 people dead and threatened to torpedo an already shaky 2015 peace deal.

Kiir had appealed on Thursday for Machar to return to Juba and work together towards rebuilding peace, pledging to guarantee his safety.

"There is no point to come back to be assassinated," Machar's spokesman Goi Jooyul Yol told AFP, speaking from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

"Dr Machar is still being hunted around Juba," he said, adding that "we don't trust" Kiir's security pledge.

"He has killed the peace agreement. The only way forward is a neutral force," the spokesman insisted.

- 'Devastating blow' -

Kiir has rejected a proposal by the African Union to deploy a robust protection force in South Sudan and is also against beefing up the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission UNMISS.

But Machar's movement, known as the SPLM/A (IO), is in favour of a independent force.

"This is because South Sudan has no national armed forces, no national security agency. The existing armies are all partisan and ethnic in character," it said in a statement.

The SPLM/A (IO) statement reaffirmed the group's support for Machar's leadership and denouncing what it said were government efforts to replace him with Taban Deng Gai, who was the chief negotiator for the former rebels during the peace talks.

Any attempt to change Machar's role as chairman and commander in chief of the SPLM/A (IO) "is totally rejected," the statement said.

"It will deal a devastating blow" to the government of national unity and the August 2015 peace accord which aimed to end a near two-year civil war in the world's youngest nation.

The statement called on the government "to cease with immediate effect their ongoing military attempts to hunt down and kill (Machar) in their vain hope of installing Taban Deng Gai as the first vice president".

"Salava Kiir can appoint him (Taban Deng Gai) first VP. That up to him. But he cannot (make him) chairman of the SPLA/IO," said Goi Jooyul Yol.

Juba was rocked by days of heavy fighting in early July between government forces and fighters loyal to Machar which erupted as he was meeting Kiir in the presidential palace.

More than 300 people were killed and tens of thousands of people fled, escalating fears of a return to the brutal civil war that erupted just over two years after independence in 2011.

The latest violence in the capital echoed the fighting that first triggered the civil war in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.
Good day, His deferential Rt. Reverend Prof. Emmanuel Asante of the National Peace Council. I have been compelled, a lowly man that I am, to write this humble letter to your very high office, whose location now is not of much relevance to me, (I heard you say that you are perching) on matters of interest to me and I believe to so many others nationwide. That is the matter of PEACE for this nation. We all need it badly.

I must state however that this nation is becoming notorious for creating Peace Industries only during election periods as if we are about to cut our heads. As soon as elections are over, all other human rights abuses particularly those against the poor and the vulnerable are treated as if they do not exist. I am personally not so happy about this attitude towards ensuring peace in our society. Sir, lasting peace for any society is based primarily on respect for individual rights and dignity, equality before the law and justice.

This letter to you personally is precipitated by a statement you made at a National Peace Forum held recently in Accra, to which all flag bearers of the various political parties were supposed to deliver speeches to the audience and by extension, to Ghanaians. I did not have the opportunity of attending because I live in a certain village far away in the Western Region. I only had the privilege of listening to some of the speakers including you on Joy News (T.V). In all honesty, I was very disappointed in some of the statements you made.

Straight to the point, Sir, you were talking about peace and justice and went on to say or better still admonish those who preach or ask for justice in society to know that there must be peace before justice can be discussed or attained. You cited nations which are at war or have gone through civil strife and the effects of those wars on the people. You made reference to what you see on Al Jazeera, which seems to be your favourite T.V channel and the gruesome atrocities meted out to fellow human beings as well as the horrible conditions of even the survivors of those wars or civil strife.

Surely, I also sometimes shed tears when I see some of these human disasters and do not wish them for our country or any other countries as it were. But have you bothered to find out the causes of these wars? Do the wars just begin out of the blues? Do we care about the injustices that are meted out by one group of people towards another group of people all of whom live in the same country and must and are entitled to equal treatment that dignifies human existence? When people, no matter how insignificant their numbers might be, are subjected consistently to such degrading physical, emotional and psychological tortures, Sir, you do not expect them to forever remain silent in the name of PEACE.

Now you may listen to Nelson Mandela: Defiance was a step of great political significance. It released strong social forces which affected thousands of our countrymen. It was an effective way of getting the masses to function politically; a powerful method of voicing our indignation against the reactionary policies of the government.

Sir, I am sure when our brothers and sisters in South Africa in their days of struggling for equality, justice and respect as human beings, others were preaching peace in the midst of such pungent injustice. I will love to know your views on these matters as related to South Africa. Did you preach peace to the black South African at the time? If the South Africans had resorted to your kind of peace to address the injustice they went through, would they have been free? I was amazed when you went on to refer to a certain young man in Kumasi who phoned in to say whatever and that he was only able to do that because of the peaceful environment he has.

Sir, there seems to be a narrow definition of peace in your view and many others in this country. Peace is not the absence of war, when young men well trained in schools of higher learning do not have jobs and have to depend on their poor parents many of whom might have lost their jobs, for the basic necessities of life, do you think they are at peace? There can never be a more harrowing experience in life than to be pushed down the poverty ladder by a reckless group of leaders when you have all the abilities, capabilities and capacities to live a decent life to the glory of God and humanity.

That young man you made reference to may be unemployed, has no decent accommodation, can't properly care for his children if he has any, he is not respected by society. If he dies today, he has nothing to lose. Yes, I agree with you that it is easy to destroy than to build, but why do you create the avenue that will engender destruction?

Sir, you and your Council are very much aware that every respected Civil Society Organisation in this country is talking about the unreasonableness of the electoral register for the 2016 general elections. The Supreme Court has said so too, the EC is so adamant and wants to do things according to its own dictates, damning the consequences. Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante and his Peace Council have expressed deafening silence on this disrespectful and premeditated attitude of the EC with an unwritten intention to favour a particular political party in the coming elections.

While generally the EC is being asked to create a fair playing field for the elections, President Mahama keeps on asking Ghanaians to allow the EC to do its work simply because the way the EC is operating will favour him. I believe you and your office have not heard about the President's support for the EC in spite of the clarion call for openness of the process. All you are interested in is peace even if others are being treated unfairly and justice is being turned upside down.

The security agencies are selective when it comes to punishing offenders and breakers of the law. NDC activists vandalize public property and inflict bodily pains and injuries to others, the security agencies turn a blind eye, if the same lawlessness is from the other side of the political divide, matters that can be dealt with by the Police are taken over by the BNI for obvious reasons. Injustices by a section of the security agencies towards a certain group of people have become part of our daily lives. Your Council is silent for the sake of peace, I believe. And the affected must keep quiet for the sake of peace, according to you.

The open insults on the airwaves against certain particular political individuals with huge following go on every day, but the Council does not hear any of these let alone admonish the perpetrators of these evil. Let the affected threaten response, and the Peace Council will all of a sudden surface to take us through biblical injunctions.

Sir, it is worthy to note that governance in modern times is different from the governance of the biblical era. We are not in the era where 'if you are slapped, turn the other cheek to be slapped as well' pertains, we are not in the era when a wrong must be forgiven 777 times. We are in an era of law and order, a period when offenders and breakers of the law must be dealt with according to prescribed laws and punishments. Even Churches are seeking justice in the courts of law from among themselves when they could have 'given their matter to God'.

If your understanding of peace is that sufferers of injustice must whine and pine as they are mistreated and disrespected for the sake of peace, then in my view, there must not be peace. No Ghanaian, no matter how highly placed, is better than the other. JUSTICE BEGETS PEACE.

Thank you for reading this my humble letter. Good Day, Sir.

Yours truly,

Kwesi Biney.

[email protected]
The Ghana Nurse Midwife Trainees Association (GNMTA) has denied reports that it is urging student nurses and midwives to reject the GHa150 monthly allowance promised by the Mahama-led-government.

A statement signed by the President of GNMTA, Akazee Godwin Asabire described the report as untrue and has urged Ghanaians to be wary of such claims as the nation marches into the 2016 election.

GNMTA, therefore, wants to distance itself from such a political statement and admonish all Trainee Nurses and Midwives to stay calm and Resolute as GNMTA negotiates with the Ministry and Relevant stakeholders to get our issues resolved, he said.

Social media especially Facebook on Friday was flooded with news of Trainee Nurses and Midwives rejecting an offer of GHa150 given by the government for their monthly allowance.

The message comes barely 24 hours after the Health Ministry announced on Thursday that it plans to pay at least over 34,000 trainee nurses and midwives in the country Gha150 a month after months of delayed payments.

Read the statement below:

Read full statement below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

21/07/2016.

DISCLAIMER FROM GNMTA

The National Executive Board (NEB) of Ghana Nurse _Midwife Trainees' Association (GNMTA) writes to immediately clear the air regarding a circular going viral on social media asking students Nurses and Midwives to Reject "MAHAMA FICTITIOUS 150GHC ALLOWANCE".

GNMTA, therefore, wants to distance itself from such a political statement and admonish all Trainee Nurses and Midwives to stay calm and Resolute as GNMTA negotiates with the Ministry and Relevant stakeholders to get our issues resolved.

We cautioned people with political interests to stop tagging GNMTA into political issues and any person found culpable will be made to face the full rigors of the Law.

The Association remains the only Authentic and Registered mouth piece for Trainee Nurses and Midwives across the country.

GNMTA will at all time Continue to "Do All for the Health of All" as we emancipate Students Through Dialogue and Philosophy of non-violence.

*********signed**********

AKAZEE GODWIN ASABIRE

GNMTA NATIONAL PRESIDENT.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected]
Sao Tome (AFP) - Election officials in the small African state of Sao Tome and Principe have revised weekend presidential poll results that handed a slim winning majority to the ruling party's candidate, opening the way to a second round.

The Independent Democratic Action party had celebrated on Sunday night after the election commission said its candidate, Evaristo Carvalho, had crossed the threshold for an outright victory by winning 50.1 percent of votes cast earlier that day.

But on Friday the commission said it had to "modify these provisional results" -- which gave incumbent President Manuel Pinto da Costa 24.8 percent of the vote -- to take into account tallies of ballots cast by voters in the diaspora and because voting had been delayed in one district.

"No candidate managed to win more than half of valid votes cast," the commission said, adding that this opened the door to a second round of voting.

It is the constitutional court in small islands nation -- located 300 kilometres (190 miles) off the coast of Gabon -- rather than the election commission, that issues definitive results.

No date for a second round has been set.

After the first results gave former prime minister Maria das Neves 16 percent of the vote, his campaign manager said the election "was neither free, nor fair or transparent" and that "results had been manipulated... in favour of the ruling party."

President Pinto da Costa also challenged the initial results.

Executive power in Sao Tome and Principe is shared between the president and the prime minister and has led to turf wars in the past.
Police in the German city of Munich say the perpetrators of a shooting attack are still on the run, and they advise people to avoid public places.

There are reports of at least six people killed, but police have not confirmed that figure.

A big security operation is under way at the Olympia shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.

Shop workers have been unable to leave the building. There is no information about a possible motive for the attack.

The police Facebook page quoted eyewitnesses as saying they had seen three attackers carrying guns.

Police are now describing it as an acute terror situation.

Public transport has been suspended as the extensive security operation continues. The citys central railway station has been evacuated.

People stranded by the emergency and unable to get home are being offered shelter by locals. The initiative was launched with the Twitter hashtag #Offenetur(open door).

Police helicopters are flying over the city and special forces are involved in the massive police deployment.

The security forces have been on alert after a teenage migrant stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State.

The authorities had warned of the danger of further incidents.

Police have been deployed in large numbers

A man working at a petrol station in Munich told the BBC: We see just ambulances and its like firemen and police but all this area is evacuated, all the streets.

Now [there] are no cars just on the side of the streets. All of the streets are blocked. I see that the people are scared. Everybody are running around.

Munich police said they did not know where the perpetrators were. Look after yourselves and avoid public places.



By: BBC
The 1988 Year group of Prempeh College in the Ashanti region have gone to the rescue of their alma mater to provide students with a water pumping system, a move hailed as a great relief to their juniors.

The 31,000 water pumping system saves students a half kilometer walk to fetch bucket full of water from the school field. Water supply to the school had become so erratic.

Under the leading role of the Team Leader and 1988 Year Group Coordinator Snr. Kwame Attrams  Team and the Group Secretary Snr. Gabriel Engmann who is also a Consultant Hydrogeologist, the students who completed 25 years ago have made a significant contribution.

Members were then asked to contribute a minimum of GHS 500 each towards the project which began in November 2013 and ended March 2016.

A parent of the school, who works at the Electricity Company of Ghana Mr. Agbenyega, also facilitated the process of connecting the Pump House to the National Grid for power. The construction and installation phase of the project came to an end on April 11, 2016.

A pump test gave the yield as 150litres per minute. It takes about 6- 8 hours to fill the Central Water Reservoir and serves the whole school for about 2 days.

For the past two months, the water situation in the school has considerably improved with regular supply of water from the borehole project - Project Sound Mind Restoration.

Staff and students alike attest to this. The bathhouses are neater and smelling fresher, students worry less about fetching water from distant places to bath, and quality of water used for their activities is also very good.

Official handing over of the project to the school is set to be done Saturday July 23, 2016.

Full report by the Amanfoo 1988 Year Group is as follows

A REPORT ON THE WA TER PROJECT - PROJECT SOUND MIND RESTORATION UNDERTAKEN BY THE 1988 YEAR GROUP OF THE PREMPEH COLLEGE OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (AMANFOO 88) FROM NOVEMBER 2013  APRIL 2016.

On the 25th Year after completion of the Olevel examination, every year group in Prempeh College is tasked to undertake a social intervention project at the school and to assist in the organization of the Speech and Prize Giving Day for that year. Year 2013 marked the turn of the 1988 Year Group.

In March 2013, Snr. Kwabena Kesse, the National Coordinator of the National Executives Council of the Prempeh College Old Students Association (Amanfoo) contacted Snr. Kwame Attrams and Snr. Gabriel Engmann of the 1988 Year Group to take up this assignment, after having consulted with Snr. (Dr.) Joseph Ofori Kuragu (1988) and Snr. LeBenee Tagboto (1990). The two were invited to the General Assemblys meetings at the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) Club House in Accra to receive a proper briefing on the task and their expectations of the group in 2013. Snrs. Attrams and Engmann thus became De facto Group Leaders and have played the roles of Group Leader / Coordinator and Group Secretary respectively to date.

Two projects were proposed for consideration as being critical to the needs of the school from the General Assembly in Accra. They were the provision of water and upgrading of the schools Computer Laboratory. Snr. Alec Wobil, who is a member of the year group and an IT Consultant was tasked to get in touch with the school to do an assessment of their ICT needs while Snr. (Dr.) Ofori-Kuragu also contacted the Headmaster, Mr. Yeboah, to inform him of the year groups agenda to assist in the organisation of the 2013 Speech Day.

Meantime, a Group Facebook page  88 Year Group, and an Email Account had been set up to discuss the two projects proposed and a Draft Constitution of the Group. A group bank account was also opened at the Agricultural Development Bank, (Labone branch) for members to pay in their contributions and donations. As many of our year mates that could be contacted for the assignment, were then linked up and the discussions began in earnest. The Accra Chapter held its first meeting on April 20, 2013 at Afrikiko Restaurant, Accra, while the Kumasi Chapter met on Prempeh Campus, same day. Both meetings started off small with less than 10 people in attendance at both places. Much later, a Whatsapp account was also set up and all these improved participation and contributions towards the project over time.

After much discussions and visits to the school, it was decided that the water project was more critical and would serve a greater need in order to restore the dignity of the student at Prempeh College. Water is life, and a sound mind in a sound body performs exploits well beyond what anyone can imagine. How then would the Prempeh College student be able to live out his utmost potential possible if he was compelled by circumstances to hold his excreta within and be economical with a good bath each day?

Water supply to the school had become so erratic and far between that, students were forced to fetch buckets of water from the school field, which was about half a kilometre from the nearest house to bath and flush toilets. Barrels had thus been placed in each of the bathhouses to flush the water closets whose bowls were almost constantly overflowing with solid matter. Many students were driven to survive by doing free range instead of SOS* thereby degrading the environment all around. The school field was the worst victim of this sad state of affairs, and the surrounding vegetation cried for redemption. Our team that was selected to assess the situation just could not stand the stench emanating from the bathrooms. Indeed, the schools administration had been forced to seal off the entrances of the Bathhouses that opened onto the corridors close to the Administration Block, further worsening air circulation in the bathhouses and plight of the students.

Hydrogeological and geophysical investigations were commissioned at two different sites; the school field and behind the Katanga Classroom Block. Water supply at the School Field was estimated to be better in terms of yield but would cost about GHS 50,000 whereas siting the project at the Katanga Block would cost about GHS 36,000. This entailed drilling a borehole and connecting it to the Central Reservoir, at the School Bell up the Apian Way. The water would then be supplied to all houses everywhere from there. We opted for the Katanga Block site.

Members were then asked to contribute a minimum of GHS 500 each towards the project. Sponsorship letters were also sent round to some institutions and other individuals. Only one institution responded favourably to our request and that was Ash Cell Gh. Ltd  agents of MTN in Kumasi. They supported the project with cash and 3 MiFis capable of signing on 25 users each at a time and loaded with Credits for the Staff Common Room and the Computer Lab. The rest of the funding was from within. Members contributed handsomely.

The project finally got underway in November 2013. Messrs Jabus Construction Ltd was awarded the contract to drill the borehole and connect to the Central Reservoir, while a crew from Ghana Water Company in Kumasi were commissioned to detect and fix some blocked channels and choked pipes connecting the Central Reservoir to the rest of the School. Two key challenges were realised during the implementation phase of the project  funding contributions came in slowly and connection of the pumping system to the national grid took a while but through dint of perseverance the group overcame and came through. Mr. Agbenyega, a parent of the school, who works at the Electricity Company of Ghana, also facilitated the process of connecting the Pump House to the National Grid for power. The construction and installation phase of the project came to an end on April 11, 2016.

The Total Project Cost was GHS 31,000. A pump test gave the yield as 150litres per minute. It takes about 6- 8 hours to fill the Central Water Reservoir and serves the whole school for about 2 days.

For the past two months, the water situation in the school has considerably improved with regular supply of water from the borehole project - Project Sound Mind Restoration. Staff and students alike attest to this. The bathhouses are neater and smelling fresher, students worry less about fetching water from distant places to bath, and quality of water used for their activities is also very good. Official handing over of the project to the school will be done on July 23, 2016.

At this point we wish to acknowledge the project team that did most of the groundwork for their relentless efforts at seeing the project through. They are:

Snr. Kwame Attrams  Team Leader / 1988 Year Group Coordinator Snr. Gabriel Engmann - Group Secretary / Consultant Hydrogeologist Snr. Michael Brobbey - Member Snr. (Dr.) Joseph Ofori Kuragu - Member Snr. Alec Wobil - Member Snr. Yaw Asotia Boakye  Member Snr. Ohene Kwame - Member

Special mention is also made of members who actually drove the campaign to a success. They are:

Snr. Justin Addo Snr. Frederick Tawiah Peprah Snr. Emmanuel Asamoah Snr. Richmond Kyei-Fordjour Snr. (Dr.) Evans Kyei-Nimako Snr. Stanley Adom Yeboah Snr. Opambour Agyeman Snr. Reuben Tortoh Snr. Isaac K. Maafo Snr. Yaw Agyeman Atwereboanda

Others worth mentioning are:

Ash Cell Ltd, agents of MTN, Kumasi Mr. Jerry Otchi  GM, Ash Cell Ltd, Kumasi The Prempeh College Administration and Staff Mr. Yeboah  the immediate past Headmaster Mr. Abu  the School Plumber Mr. Agbenyega  ECG, Kumasi Snr. Kwabena Kesse  the National Coordinator, Amanfoo National Exec Committee The National Executive Committee of the Prempeh Old Boys Association. Mr Adarkwa and Mr Ibrahim, Ghana Water Company Ltd

All credit finally, goes to all members of the Year Group for their unflinching support; networking and contributions that helped us see this Project through. Proverbs 13:19a "A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul'

Kwame A. Attrams Gabriel Engmann

Group Leader / Coordinator Group Secretary

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah
Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, July 22, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama has urged ECOWAS member states to take advantage of innovations and technologies to develop inclusive business models that would harness the sub-region's natural resources optimally for rapid socio-economic development.

He said this would serve as key inputs to the sub-region's industrialisation process, powered by its endowments of clean sources of renewable energy, especially solar.

'It is important for West African countries to identify clear, consistent and coherent policies and interventions involving all key stakeholders to build partnerships and bridges,' President Mahama said in a speech read on his behalf by Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Minister of Trade and Industry, at the maiden ECOWAS Industrial Summit in Accra on Thursday.

'We can leverage on our limited public resources to mobilise investments from the private sector and from various sources in line with national priorities,' President Mahama said.

The summit was set in the context of the West Africa Common Industrial Policy with its main vision as maintaining a solid industrial structure which is globally competitive, environmentally-friendly and capable of significantly improving the living standards of the people by 2030.

Its objective is to accelerate the industrialisation and private sector development of West Africa.

President Mahama said the summit, on the theme: 'Promoting Investment to Accelerate the Industrialisation of ECOWAS,' was appropriately linked with the Government's transformation agenda which had its heart in improving livelihoods.

'Indeed, an accelerated and profound economic structural transformation, through reallocating economic activities from less productive to more productive sectors for sustainable and inclusive development, is the sure pathway to stem sub-regional poverty,' he said.

'For us to achieve real transformation, policy shifts and strategic changes in programme implementation patterns will be required across the sub-region.

'A focused approach in supporting key areas, such as the provision of electricity to impel industrialisation, curbing hunger and malnutrition, improvements in rural life, ensuring food self-sufficiency, as well as the expansion of basic social services, should be our current trail,' he said.

President Mahama said in that strive; ECOWAS should seek also to change the financing mechanisms that impeded the sub-regions industrial development.

'We need to convert some of our financial institutions from short term lenders for commercial transactions to long term financiers of industrial projects, especially those which add value to our natural resources,' he said.

President Mahama explained that in sync with this, an aggressive pursuit of industrialisation had become more compelling in shoring up and sustaining the sub-region's growth trajectory.

'It is my belief that with carefully developed backward and forward linkages; our industrialisation effort has the potential to diversify Africa's sub-regional economies.

'This will reduce the exposure of our economies to external shocks while providing decent jobs for our people,' he said.

Dr Spio-Garbrah, on his part, said the West Africa Common Industrial Policy demanded that countries responded to the specific and dynamic needs expressed by their manufacturing sectors with appropriately designed and targeted policies.

He said in order to reach such policy coherence, West African governments required strong industrial policy management capabilities in their endeavour to eliminate poverty.

Mr Marcel Alain de Souza, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, in a speech read on his behalf, said in order to ensure a vibrant sub-regional economy, there was the need for industrial co-operation among member states.

He said the West African Industrial Common Policy objective was to diversify and broaden the region's industrial production base by progressively raising the local raw material processing rates from 15 to 20 per cent to an average of 30 per cent by 2030.

GNA
Chinese police escort a fugitive who was transported back to China from Canada. (Photo : Reuters)

After eight years of negotiations, China has successfully extradited a criminal suspect from Latin America, an alleged crude soybean oil smuggler who has been hiding in Peru for 18 years, China's customs bureau announced on Sunday, July 17.



Citing a release from the website of the General Administration of Customs, the South China Morning Post reported that Huang Haiyong was finally sent back to the mainland to answer the charges against him.



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Huang was accused by government of smuggling and selling about 107,000 tons of crude soybean oil. He also evaded payment of more than 700 million yuan (HK$810 million) in taxes between 1996 and 1998.



According to the customs bureau, Huang, together with his two associates, fled to the United States in 1998. In 2001, at the request of the Chinese government, a global arrest warrant was issued by the Interpol for Huang.



China and Peru began negotiations for Huang's extradition after his capture in Peru in 2008. Huang however, requested against his repatriation, citing China's death penalty and the fear of alleged torture.



The customs bureau website and state media showed photographs of Huang as he was escorted by anti-smuggling authorities after being informed of his rights.



"This case again reflects the customs bureau's attitude to fugitives, to 'chase them until the end', to crackdown on any determination to smuggle. No matter where suspects flee to, they will be severely punished by law," the statement on the website said.



According to the report, more than 600 officials involved in graft cases have been repatriated to China, with the help of an international team, as part of the government's wider crackdown on graft in a campaign called "Operation Fox Hunt."



Although China has signed extradition treaties with several countries, some Western countries are hesitant to cooperate as human rights groups are wary of the way suspects are treated in the country, the report said.


22.07.2016 LISTEN

Accra, July 22, GNA  Prophet Samuel Osaako Attah General Overseer of the Holy Church Ministry International has appealed to Ghanaians to help ensure that this year's election are free, fair and peaceful.

He said the 2012 election, which was eventually decided by the Supreme Court, brought about undue tension and fear in the country and must be avoided this year.

Prophet Attah was speaking during the launch of a campaign dubbed ''Peaceful election through Music and Prayer' at Madina in Accra.

The campaign by the church is aimed at sentizising the public on the need to make the election peaceful and also for the citizenry to guard against complacency as another election gradually draws closer.

He charged Ghanaians, especially the major stakeholders in the elections to do a thorough work to avoid the unnecessary tension in the country during elections.

The General Overseer appealed to the Electoral Commission to put in place the necessary mechanisms and processes that will enable it to win the support of the masses, adding that, such a measure will go a long way to help make the polls a peaceful one.

Prophet Attah admonished the electorate to vote for a leader who has the capability to implement better programmes and policies to create jobs.

He urged the youth to desist from being used by disgruntled politicians to cause chaos during the elections.

Prophet Attah said the church was in the process of putting up a school and a hospital to cater for the poor and the needy.

GNA
By Kwamina Tandoh / William Fiabu, GNA

Accra, July 22, GNA - The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) has urged political parties to commit to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to fight poverty, inequality and climate change when elected into office.

A forum organised by ISODEC with support from STAR-Ghana in Accra brought together stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations and the media to interrogate the extent to which political party manifestoes, policies and messages are linked to the SDGs towards issue-based 2016 election.

The SDGs are 17 inter-governmental aspirations and goals set after the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They focus on the people, the planet, peace, prosperity and partnership.

As a result of these, governments all over the world have pledged their support and commitment by putting in place the necessary measures to ensure the development of the people and by 2030, it is envisaged that people would be living in a better world that is more prosperous and equal, greener and cleaner.

Political Parties present reiterated their commitment towards the attainment of the goals incorporated into their manifestos ahead of the general election.

Dr William Ahadzi, the Director of Research of the National Democratic Congress, reiterated government's commitment to developing the nation, saying 'primarily, our own developmental challenges are incorporated in our programme for the next 10 years, so yes; the sustainable development goals are consistent with the things we ourselves think are the developmental challenges we have to resolve. But we also have priorities as a political party and as a government''.

Mr Kofi Afari, a member of the New Patriotic Party, said opportunities must be given to people to develop their skills and incentives to create wealth for themselves.

He said taxes on products, raw materials, and machineries were disincentives to the development of the people but the reduction of taxes would go a long way to help the progress of the people which is the NPPs focus embedded in the 10-point plan by Dr Bawumia.

Mr Bernard Mornah, the National Chairman of the PNC, said the country needed to 'own' the SDGs by localising them in order to get the people involved in addressing the problems.

'It is good to have global goals but it is also good to localise these goals so that we can own them. So out of the 17 SDGs we should develop the Ghana development goals. You can see that nowhere in the goals is job creation an issue and yet in Ghana we have unemployment as a major obstacle,' he said.

Participants urged the parties to engage the people in decision making so as to draft policies to address their challenges.

GNA
By George-Ramsey Benamba, GNA

Accra, July 22, GNA - His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife, Nigeria, on Friday called on African leaders to take their destinies into their own hands to achieve the needed growth and development.

"It is we Africans that can help ourselves and we can only do this by uniting to preach peace, love and harmony among our people," he said.

Oba Ojaja II made the call when he paid a courtesy call on President John Dramani Mahama at the Flagstaff House, Kanda.

The Nigerian King is in the country to hold meetings with some Ga chiefs in the Greater Accra Region and the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

King Ojaja said before the partitioning of Africa, Africans considered themselves as one people and worked in peace and unity to achieve their goals adding that it was unfortunate such ideals had been thrown into the galleries of history.

"Before 1894, there were no boundaries in Africa, but after the Berlin Conference in 1894, the scramble for Africa by European countries broke down our moral and traditional values," he said.

King Ojaja said there was the need to revive the sense of Africanism and challenged the traditional leaders, the custodians of African culture, to spearhead the search that would re-invent the wheel of Africanism and development.

King Ojaja said in bringing back the good values that bonded Africans together, there was the need to ensure perpetual peace and harmony which would be used as the foundation for the re-invention.

"We as traditional rulers need to demonstrate to our people that in unity lies strength on which we can build our continent," he said.

President Mahama, in response, said the role of traditional rulers in Ghana was critical and that was why there were Houses of Chiefs in every region to play complementary roles to the political governance of the country.

He said Ghana would continue to step up the existing partnership between political leadership and traditional rulers as they could both help in raising the bar of discipline in all aspects of the economy and development.

President Mahama said although political boundaries were existent on the continent, relations between Ghana and Nigeria had not been affected as they had co-operated in all spheres of their development.

GNA
22.07.2016 LISTEN

By Kwabia Owusu-Mensah, GNA

Adansi-Asokwa, (Ash), July 22, GNA - Cocoa farmers have been urged to unite behind the fight to end child labour in the cocoa production and supply chain.

Mr. Kofi Opoku Mensah, Managing Director of Cocoa Merchants - Ghana, a licensed buying company, said they should actively support the effort by the government and other stakeholders to give adequate protection to children.

He said it was in the interest of everybody in the cocoa industry to work together to tackle the child labour menace to guarantee continued demand for Ghana's cocoa beans on the international market.

He was speaking at a farmers' durbar at Asokwa in the Adansi North District. The occasion was also used to pay premium to the company's farmer-based groups in the area.

Mr. Mensah indicated that international concerns over child labour issues in the cocoa supply chain was growing and that it was important they combined their efforts to address it.

He said his company in partnership with Transmar, an international cocoa buying company and Nestle Ghana, had initiated a Child Labour Monitoring and Remedial System (CLMRS) to track and stamp-out the use of children as labourers in cocoa growing communities.

He asked that farmers engaged adults on their farms and to make sure that their children enrolled in school.

He encouraged them to see cocoa farming as business and adopt best management practices to increase crop yield and returns.

Mr. Alexander Gyedu, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of Transmar, said as part of the premium payment, his company and Nestle Ghana, through the Cocoa Merchant, was providing 94 pruners to all the 94 societies alongside 21 mist blower machines to 21 selected societies.

This was meant to assist the farmers prune and spray their farms regularly against diseases.

It was also offering a premium of GHE12.00 per bag of certified cocoa delivered to the company by members of the societies.

Mr. Gyedu said his organization would continue to offer incentives that would boost the incomes of the farmers to enable them support the education of their children and fight poverty. GNA
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business Revised terms of merger a significant sweetener: experts Prakash Diwan, Market Expert, said this is a significant sweetener of sorts. Cairn India shares have had some stellar performance but there is nothing great about Vedanta currently, he said.
Woman Attempting Suicide In Hanjiang River Saved By Swimmers (Photo : Getty Images)

A fortune teller in Sichuan Province has a similar style with that of a fake feng shui master who used his craft to sexually abuse women.



In late June, a 43-year-old man, who passed himself as a feng shui practitioner, faced charges filed by a 25-year-old woman in Hong Kong who accused him of fooling her into having sex four times to save the shaky relationship with her boyfriend. His style did not differ much from a male fortune teller who convinced a Sichuan grandmother that the only cure for the illness of the 13-year-old granddaughter is for him to have sex with the teen.



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The superstitious grandmother, who took care of her granddaughter because the girls parents are migrant workers in the city, consented to the fortune tellers order. On May 30, the two went to his home, she left her granddaughter with the fortune teller who brought the teen into the woods where he raped her, reported China.org.



As a result of the sexual abuse, the teen became depressed and wrote four suicide notes and made two recordings from July 6 to 11. On Tuesday, July 12, she ended her misery by jumping off a building.



The fortune teller and the grandmother have been arrested and are undergoing investigation.



With almost 250,000 Chinese taking their own lives yearly, suicide is the top cause of death among Chinese youth, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of China. Another 2 million attempt, usually over school stress. Like the 13-year-old Sichuan teen who jumped from a building, majority jump from an open window, reported The Week.






July 22, 2016

Turkey - Erdogan Bashing Will Not Stop Foreign Policy Changes

There is currently a lot of Erdogan bashing in the U.S. and European media. It seems that the authors of the hostile pieces would have liked the coup to proceed. Why is a state of emergency and some restriction on human rights in Turkey of concern when the same measures, with less justification, were implemented in France without any protests? The French President Hollande just pushed a new labor law, which the population rejects, through parliament. This without any vote and by using some very murky constitutional provision that are only intended for emergency uses. Where is the protest in "western" media and governments against such undermining of democracy?

The coup in Turkey failed - so far. How that came to be - who planned it, how was it betrayed, why was it botched so very amateurishly - will continue to be puzzling. Some answers seem plausible but there remain many open questions.

But this is of mere historic interest. The Turkish public perceives it as a military coup against the people that thankfully failed. Erdogan (as much as I dislike him) rescued their democracy. That the Gulen movement, under the watch of the CIA, was involved is plausible enough to be taken as truth. Unlike "western" liberals assume, Gulen and his elitist, expensive schools are not liked in Turkey. The secularist see him as a dangerous conservative Islamist, the AKP followers as a deceitful, treacherous competition to their creed, ideals and heroes.

The Turkish public is in shock. That the military would bomb the parliament and gun down civilians in such random ways is unprecedented. That some creepy preacher in the always suspect U.S. was probably behind this is taken as evident. This allows the government to take extraordinary countermeasures. But considering the size of the event and the trauma its has caused Erdogan's response (so far) is rather mild.

The Turkish government has suspended or fired some 40,000 people. Nearly 10,000 were detained, most of which are military rank and file somehow involved in the coup. They will soon be free again. The people suspended and fired are only one percent of the 3,000,000 strong public workforce. An additional 27,000 private teachers had their licenses revoked. These are staff of Gulen's charter schools which are now closed.

After the 1980 military coup in Turkey, (in a population half today's size), the number of detained, fired, convicted and executed were on a much, much higher scale:

650,000 people were under arrest.

1,683,000 people were blacklisted.

230,000 people were tried in 210,000 lawsuits.

7,000 people were recommended for the death penalty.

517 persons were sentenced to death.

The military in 1980 brutally revolutionize the society and pressed it into a strict Kemalist, secular frame. One can see the current counter coup as an attempt to correct, or even undo that revolution.

Compared to the military coup of 1980 the current action by the Erdogan government is very tame. People in Turkey know this and have little concern. "Western" liberal writers, influenced by Gulen elements in high regard in their own societies, ignore that fact. I do not expect Erdogan to go after the secular or nationalist opposition parties as long as these are not under foreign influence. He has a comfortable majority in parliament and no need to shun the democratic mantle. That would only harm his plans for an Islamist, Ottoman Turkey and the further steps towards that.

Of interest now is the future development of Turkey's foreign policy. Electricity to the U.S./NATO base in Incirlik has today been restored after it was stopped for a week without any sound reason. The warning that this was is by now understood. If the U.S., or NATO, make too much trouble they will be kicked out of Turkey. Before the coup Turkey already renewed relations with Russia and Israel. Iran spoke out against the coup while it was still ongoing and the plotters seemed to win. That will give it some bonus points. Turkey pulled back the troops that were illegally stationed in Iraq. All this points to some redirection fo Turkish foreign policy from a solely "western" to a more Eurasian view.

The big question is Syria on which Russia demands that Turkey changes its position. What will Erdogan do with regard to it?

There are signs that he will change his policies there too. There are already reports that Turkish intelligence agents in Syria are in retreat. Turkey may well completely stop the support for the Jihadis and close its borders. The Turkish point man on Syria so far was the intelligence chief Hakan Fide. He was recruiting, supplying and controlling the Jihadis and running the whole show. There are now signs that he will soon get fired. He will be made the fall guy for not detecting the coup early enough:

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Friday that deep-rooted changes will be made to the National Intelligence Agency of Turkey (MIT).

...

"It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it. I told it to the head of national intelligence," President Erdogan told Reuters in an interview at the presidential palace in Ankara.

Turkey's biggest concern now are the Kurds who seem to have U.S. military support to unite and to organize into an independent state with huge petroleum reserves (pdf).

I expect Turkey to make nice with the governments in Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus (with Russia as the grand power behind) to defeat the common threat of an independent Kurdish state. The plan will be to divide the Kurds into various factions and to instigate these to fight each other. That is usually not difficult. It has worked "well" for hundreds of years and always kept the Kurds from asserting a united national state.

Neither Iran, nor Russia, nor Syria or Iraq will trust Turkey. They will look for any small sign that it might fall back into a hostile position and will be prepared for treason. It will take years for Erdogan to regain good standing with any of them. But he has to start somewhere. The foreign policy of the last years has brought nothing but huge problems for Turkey. The botched coup gives Erdogan the chance to completely change direction and to it fast The U.S., NATO, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will attempt to undermine those changes. The current Erdogan bashing is part of that. It will fail as it has no echo within Turkey.

Following Iranian advice Erdogan is keeping his people in the streets and plazas. The first attempt of the 1953 CIA coup in Iran on August 15 failed. Four days later another attempt succeeded. The danger for the Turkish democracy is not over.

Posted by b on July 22, 2016 at 16:35 UTC | Permalink

Comments
Will the Brexit benefit or worsen the Chinese economy? Analysts shared varying opinions. (Photo : Getty Images)

Finance ministers and central bank officials met again last weekend at Chengdu to discuss the stabilizing economy of China and the exit of Britain from the EU.



The meeting was led by the People's Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Finance Minister Lou Jiwei. Experts speculate that the two Chinese leaders will not have difficulties their counterparts.



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"Chinese officials could get through this meeting without having to stand up to reassure the rest of the world that everything is OK in Beijing and China," said Tim Condon, Head of Research at ING Singapore.



A major highlight in the discussions was the report of the International Monetary Fund. This report showed that China's economic performance was doing well despite the global turmoil.



The IMF report stated that China had a 6.7 percent growth in the second quarter. Forecasts are down for United States, Britain and Japan.



However, China fears that the Brexit will affect the country's performance. Scott Kennedy, project director at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.



The meeting in Chegdu is the first after the Brexit vote. Since EU is China's biggest trading partner, many feared that the Brexit would affect trading relationships.



However, Stephen Li Jen, managing partner of SLJ Macro Partners, said that the Brexit can be made an "excuse to be more aggressive on fiscal stimulus."



He is skeptical of the actual results that will be produced by the G20. Even if the situation is good the G20 is terrible with coordination, he said.



"The membership is simply too big and broad for genuine policy coordination," Jen added.



There are some who believe that the G20 is a good venue to talk about issues on policy.



Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong, said "[Policymakers] still find it worth to actually attending such meetings because talking helps - even it doesn't lead to anything concrete."


A KFC store in China during the Beijing Olympics. (Photo : Getty Images)

American fast food chain KFC declared a boost in sales despite of the ongoing call to consumers to ban it.



The residents of Hebei Province called on customers to steer away from eating at KFC last weekend. However, local suppliers claim that the chain is helping the economy.



An unnamed businessman claimed that his company started supplying potato chips to western fast food outlets in 2013. Since then, he has expanded to other stores like McDonald's and Pizza Hut.



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He said, "Every year, we produce 50,000 tons of potato chips for nearly 70 Western fast-food brands including KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut." This amount will increase to 100,000 tons by 2018 because KFC will be taking up 10 percent of the market share.



He claimed that because of the large demand, they are providing livelihood to 400 employees and about 10,000 potato farmers. An average of 15 million yuan, or about $2 million, is paid to the local government in taxes.



According to the KFC website, other suppliers are Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co in East China's Jiangsu Province, Jiangxi Sunner Foods Co in East China's Jiangxi Province and Shanghai Hormel Foods Co in East China's Shanghai Municipality.



Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant, said that western fast food chains contribute significantly to the local catering market because it encourages healthy competition.



In the last 27 years, KFC has employed over 300,000 personnel. McDonald's, since its establishment in 1990, built 2,200 restaurants with an employee base of 100,000.



The menu has also expanded for these outlets. KFC has added their selection and now has 60 dishes, from only 9 when they started.



Ma believes that the boycott in Hebei will unlikely ruin KFC's reputation as people will still look for food that is quickly available to them.


A significant proportion of the active money managed in the technology sector is under the stewardship of a relatively small number of established teams.

3 Biggest Tech Funds

Henderson Horizon Global Technology is managed as a primarily large-cap, benchmark-aware offering by Stuart OGorman. Mr. OGorman is a highly experienced technology investor whose approach has delivered attractive absolute and relative performance over the past ten years.

We have high conviction in his thematic approach, combined with his risk awareness at the portfolio construction stage of the process. This has led to significant level of investment into the fund, which is the largest fund in the sector, but the manager is able to cope with the funds scale due to the greater focus on giant- and large-cap stocks than many of its peers. The fund is rated Silver by Morningstar.

Franklin Technology is managed by John Scandalios, who is based in California, US. The fund employs a bottom-up, fundamental research approach to investment, and seeks to invest in growth companies. Company characteristics sought include strong market positions, high or increasing profit margins, strong returns on capital investment, and quality management teams. The fund will invest lower down the market-cap scale as well as in larger, established technology companies. Polar Capital Global Technology stands out due to the high quality of its investment team. Nick Evans and Ben Rogoff are seasoned investors with a keen understanding of technology markets and strong expertise in combining company research with their short- and longer-term expectations for the industrys development. Their approach is characterised by the belief they can add value by investing in companies offering new and disruptive technologies. This results in a process that combines thematic analysis to identify the growth areas of the industry with rigorous bottom-up company analysis. The investment philosophy leads to a bias towards companies lower down the market-cap scale with strong growth prospects. The fund is rated Bronze by Morningstar. Strong Performers over Three Years The funds listed here are amongst the top performers in the technology sector over the last three years. HyunHo Sohn became the sole manager of the Fidelity Global Technology fund at the end of October 2013. He had been co-manager since March 2013 and his involvement with the strategy dates back to 2011, when he was conducting research on global technology stocks. He has also managed an internal global technology fund since May 2011. Value-chain analysis is the cornerstone of the managers investment process, in which he buys companies that he believes are best able to profit from a particular products life cycle, from those producing component parts right through to those selling the finished product. The DNB Technology fund is run by a team headed by Anders Tandberg-Johansen. The team looks for the long-term trends affecting the sector in order to identify the companies that are best positioned to benefit from these trends. Evaluation of a companys management and its track record is a key part of the investment process, and other company attributes sought by the team include barriers to entry, scale and product demand. The JPM Europe Technology fund is managed by the Dynamic team at JPMorgan led by Jonathan Ingram. The approach focuses on three primary factors: momentum both price and earnings, value, and quality. The process also draws on JPMorgans behavioural finance model with the intention of capitalising on investors behavioural biases.
Morningstar's "Perspectives" series features investment insights from third-party contributors. Here, Michael Lindsell, manager of the Lindsell Train Japanese Equity Fund, discusses what the impact of the recent launch of Pokemon GO means to gaming stock Nintendo.

We look to identify exceptional companies whose businesses are able to survive throughout many different economic and social conditions. Once invested in such a company, we look to hold on to it for as long as possible  allowing time, patience and compounding to do its job.

In order to survive, these companies need to offer something unique and often irreplaceable - such as a consumer brand, ownership of unique intellectual property (IP) or apparently impregnable business franchise.

What we have always liked about Nintendo (NTO) is, firstly, its proprietary ownership of many of the video game industrys most iconic and durable franchises  Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokemon and Zelda and, next, its dedication to innovation, which has repeatedly allowed it to bring new and entertaining devices to consumers.

Competitive Environment

However, over the last five years Nintendo has singularly failed to monetise this IP successfully. During this time, the advent of the smartphone and the ability to play games on such devices has diminished the importance of dedicated game platforms but at the same time engaged many more people with the concept of playing games generally. Also the distribution of game software has changed from cartridges and CDs to digital downloads.

With digital distribution, the scope for piracy has lessened considerably, a big concern in the past, which potentially opens up the market to jurisdictions such as emerging markets where the protection of IP rights has historically been poor. Thus over the past five years the potential gaming population, especially casual ones who Nintendo targets, has expanded exponentially, from say 200 million or so console owners to more than 2 billion smartphone owners.

Pokeon GO

The huge initial success of Pokemon GO is a vivid demonstration of the value of Nintendos IP. And remember Nintendo owns many more franchises, some with even greater heritage. Over the last 25-30 years Nintendo has sold more than 4 billon software units which dwarfs the cumulative sales of any other gaming company.

Nintendo has not however solved the problem of monetising its IP. Pokemon GO is licenced to a Google affiliate Niantic and anyway Nintendo only has approximately 30% ownership of Pokemon itself. Pokemon GO is free to play and only monetisable from add-ons and perhaps from its ability to draw gamers to specific locations.

The companys proposed smartphone game launches in the Autumn will involve two relatively new Nintendo franchises, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, both 100% owned properties but to be launched in joint venture with DENA. Nintendo sees these free to play smartphone games as a way of showcasing its IP using the huge scope of the smartphone platform rather than necessarily earning huge profits.

From this perspective Pokemon GO has worked magnificently: the value of Pokemons IP  already high before the launch of Pokemon GO - has increased even more. Nintendo still thinks that to monetise its IP properly gamers need to be persuaded to buy its own dedicated platforms which host more immersive games, for which gamers will pay hard dollars - hence its project to launch the Nintendo NX platform in Spring next year.

Nintendos current enterprise value is 2.4T, 4.8x depressed sales of c.500bn. We think Nintendo should be able to generate around 20% operating margins - average margins over the last 20 years were 16% - and on the basis of that should be able to sustain the current valuation.

But this does not account for any incremental success in monetising its IP, which should be possible given the popularity of its titles. It wasnt that long ago in 2009 that, with the success of the 3DS and the Wii, the companys sales were 1.8T and its net profits were 290bn, 8x its current enterprise value. Its dividend that year was 1,440 per share which equates to a 5.2% yield on todays price.

So in our view if Nintendo succeeds in embracing the digitalisation of video games, using the vast scope of the smartphone platform to further boost the value of its IP and then to monetise that IP on new innovative platforms, the shares still have much more potential to reward investors in the future.

Disclaimer

The views contained herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of Morningstar. If you are interested in Morningstar featuring your content on our website, please email submissions to UKEditorial@morningstar.com
Didi, Uber's main Chinese competitor, reportedly wants to make an IPO to challenge the American ride-sharing giant in China. (Photo : Twitter)

Backers of Uber Techologies Inc. are urging management to sign a deal with transport giant Didi as the negotiations are getting too costly.



Uber has put in billions of dollars to expand in the Chinese market. The ride-booking company has been trying to get a bigger share of customers.



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One Uber investor who declined to be identified said that he had several meetings with Didi. However, the discussions still didn't secure a partnership. He refused to release other details.



Didi was also showing signs of interest to move forwards. Recently, Jean Liu, the president of Didi, had talks with Bill Gurley in California. She also met with Emil Michael, Uber's vice president for business.



In spite of efforts from both companies, it appears that both companies are more interested in expanding independently.



Didi is still the major market shareholder in the transport-booking market. A product of a merger between Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, Didi's current worth is valued at $28 billion.



Didi is backed by China's internet giants Tencent Technologies and Alibaba. The company's headquarters is in Beijing. The company has already 14 million drivers located in 400 cities in China.



Uber is an American transport network company and is already available in 449 cities worldwide. It is valued at $68 billion and is based in California.



Other investors think that Uber and Didi couldn't agree on how profits would be split between the two. Both companies refuse to give up their share.



When asked to comment, Didi did not send a response.



Many companies refuse to merge but eventually pursued it because of pressure from investors. This was true in the case of Didi and Hangzhou Kuaidi Technology Co., the largest taxi operator in China.


Mexico City locals will be able to get acquainted with Chinese culture and history through the newly opened Chinese Library. (Photo : Getty Images)

The Shanghai Library now has an Indian section, thanks to a donation from the Indian consulate that multiplied the library's collection from 15 books to 377.



India's Consul General Prakash Gupta delivered 133 books in English, 129 in Hindi, and 100 exclusively on Indian poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the state-owned Global Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.



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Gupta said the Indian consulate has had a long-standing relationship with the Shanghai Library, and both sides agreeing that a section on Indian literature would be a good opportunity to showcase quality publications from India for Chinese readers.



"We do hope that book lovers from Shanghai will get to develop a better appreciation of Indian ideas, Indian values, Indian culture and the Indian way of life," Gupta told the Global Times.



"Even though India and China are neighbors, there is a considerable information gap between our two countries, in particular at the common people's level. We do hope that through this attempt of ours, book readers from Shanghai will get to know more about India and its diversity".



The books cover a wide variety of topics, including Indian art forms, culture, philosophy, history and music as well as biographical profiles. Some of the books explore Indian architectural icons like the Taj Mahal and Indian cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.



"In that sense, the criteria for selection was basically aimed to provide readers from Shanghai an overall and comprehensive understanding of India's democracy, its culture and history," Gupta said, adding that several of the books are not commonly available in bookshops or other libraries in China.



The books can now be found in the Foreign Language Books area on the fourth floor of the library.



Zhou Qing, the International Cooperation Division officer of the Shanghai Library and coordinator of the donation, emphasized the significance of the section in enriching the library's resources and fostering multiculturalism.



"I believe readers can make good use of these books to an extent that goes beyond our imagination. However, because we only have a single copy of each so far, we have to limit it to in-library reading instead of borrowing," Zhou said.


Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
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As an industrial designer, one might wonder what took Hugo Eccles so long to blend his profession with his love for motorcycles. Then again, in his 20-year career servicing clients like Ford Motor Company, American Express, TAG Heuer, LG, Olympus, Nike and many more, its understandable that maybe he was a wee bit busy with his day job to worry about his hobby.

Now the founder of the custom motorcycle studio Untitled Motorcycles in San Francisco (with a sister shop in London), when Eccles learned about the Ducati Custom Rumble challenge  a worldwide competition for Ducati dealers to customize a Ducati Scrambler  the proverbial lightbulb switched on. The result, as you can see above and throughout the next 10 pages, is this, the Hyper Scrambler, designed and built by Eccles in collaboration with Marin Speed Shop. I caught up with Eccles at Ducati Island during the World Superbike weekend at Laguna Seca, where he opened up about this very wild machine.
Ye Guanfe (3rd from left) is among six potential astronauts chosen to undergo training in Sardinia under the European Space Agency (ESA). (Photo : Twitter)

Chinese astronaut Ye Guanfu made his first appearance in public on Wednesday after successfully completing an underground training mission deep in a cave in Italy.



The 36-year-old Ye is the first of China's five male second-generation taikonauts--the Chinese equivalent to astronaut and cosmonaut--to meet the press.



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Ye was among six prospective astronauts from Japan, Russia, Spain, and the United States that spent six nights in caves dotting the Mediterranean island of Sardinia from July 1 to 7 as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) underground training course CAVES (Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behavior and performance Skills).



The course, which simulates a mission to another planet, focused on multi-cultural leadership, teamwork, and decision-making, according to an ESA spokesman.



"The cave is isolated from the outside world and is dark, damp and cold. The six of us were responsible for completing daily tasks such as climbing, exploration and surveying; it was really arduous but worthwhile," Ye told reporters in Beijing.



The team went further than the previous CAVES training missions, including mapping their progress and taking samples of the environment and forms of life they encountered. The group also tested new techniques for making precise 3D models of objects and the environment using standard cameras in the hopes that it can be used in exploring other planets, according to the Xinhua News Agency.



Ye was chosen to join the second batch of Chinese astronauts in 2010. The second batch is comprised of five men and two women, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping.



Liu made the history books in 2012 as China's first woman in space after her successful flight inside the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft in June that year. She was followed by Wang, who gave a lecture to students on Earth from space in 2013 during the Shenzhou-10 mission.


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Premier Li Keqiang sees immediate need to boost private investments in China. (Photo : Getty Images)

Premier Li Keqiang recently urged private as well as semi-public businesses to invest in government's key projects that are part of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016 -2020), China Daily reported.



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Li also ensured that the investors will be protected in terms of their interests and legitimate rights.



On a Monday meeting in Beijing with State Council department and provincial officials, the premier noted that the government should "innovate methods to attract 'social investment' to [their] projects."



Li's statement comes after the slowing growth momentum of China's private investments continues.



Officials claim that this slowdown was greatly affected by the "sluggish world economy, downward domestic pressure and overcapacity in some industries," China Daily wrote.



Data shows that for the first half of 2016, private fixed-asset investment has slowed to record low growth of 2.8 percent coming from a double-digt statistic last year.



This kind of investment accounts to over 60 percent of China's total investment.



Li emphasized that should this trend continue, it may hinder the country from reaching its target range of economic growth for this year--6.5 percent to 7 percent.



As a solution, the premier particularly noted that the public-private partnership financing mode should be enhanced and promoted. He said that this may help secure more social funds for China's education, medical care and infrastructure projects among others.



"While making use of the government funds, which are limited in amount, we must enhance the guidance of the flow of social funds," he said.



Li also pointed out that the concerted effort of the public and private sectors is needed to prevent funds from flowing into sectors that pollute the environment or that are already experiencing overcapacity.



Commenting on the private sector's access to some sectors, Li shared that market entrance barriers must also be removed and discrimination must be eliminated.



The premier further encouraged governments to repay their debts to private firms to establish good rapport.


Summer gave its traditional seasonal boost to Midlands unemployment as the end of school and students seeking jobs increased the rate.

The Texas Workforce Commission reported a June unemployment rate of 4.6 percent for its Midland metropolitan statistical area, up from 4.3 percent in May and the 3.8 percent reported last June.

Odessa saw its unemployment rate rise to 6.7 percent from 6.1 percent and from 5 percent a year ago.

We saw some of that seasonal bump, said Willie Taylor, chief executive officer of Workforce Solutions Permian Basin.

Looking at Midlands workforce population, he said it has remained relatively stable, especially compared to other MSAs in the state.

Lubbock lost 1,000 jobs just this month, he said.

The workforce population inched slightly higher from May to June but is down about 900 from last June.

Taylor said offices in the 17 Permian Basin counties he oversees continues to see first-time unemployment claims filed and have seen an influx of residents moving here from El Paso.

Despite the stability of the labor market, Taylor said there is no doubt the oil industry downturn that began in 2014 has been devastating to the area.

Anytime you see people lose their jobs, you dont want that. That tells you that you need to continue trying to diversify the economy, he said.

He said that the areas three dominant industrial sectors -- mining, logging and construction; manufacturing, and trade, transportation and utilities -- comprise more than half of Midlands industry competition. The three have also recorded the largest job loss during the last year.

You need to shore up the other sectors, like leisure and hospitality, and education and health services, Taylor said.

He said there remains demand for workers with skills as truck drivers, in auto mechanics and diesel mechanics and medical services.

At the Region 18 Service Center, their classes are full with people getting their teaching certification, he said.

Thats why it is important to keep working hard to educate the public on the importance of education and training, he said.

Education and skill sets are the key to any communitys success, Taylor said.

Midland added 300 jobs from May to June, led by the addition of 200 jobs in the mining, logging and construction sector and 100 new jobs each in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, financial activities sector, leisure and hospitality sector and other services. Those job gains were offset by the loss of 300 jobs in the government sector.

For the 12 months from June 2015 to June 2016, Midland lost 1,700 jobs, led by 1,400 jobs lost in mining, logging and construction and 700 jobs in trade, transportation and utilities.

Odessa was even harder hit, shedding 2,500 jobs over the last year, led by 1,300 jobs in the mining, logging and construction sector, 1,000 jobs in the trade, transportation and utilities sector and 700 jobs in the manufacturing sector.

Statewide, the unemployment rate inched up to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent in May. The Workforce Commission reports Texas has added an estimated 171,100 seasonally adjusted jobs over the last year, including 7,200 jobs in June. The state has added jobs in 14 of the last 15 months.

Amarillo and Austin-Round Rock reported the lowest unemployment at 3.3 percent each. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission reported the highest at 8.2 percent.

Midland unemployment

January 2016 3.8 percent

January 2015 2.8 percent

---

February 2016 4 percent

February 2015 3 percent

---

March 2016 4.3 percent

March 2015 3.1 percent

---

April 2016 4.3 percent

April 2015 3.1 percent

---

May 2016 4.3 percent

May 2015 3.5 percent

---

June 2016 4.6 percent

June 2015 3.8 percent

**

Preliminary numbers for June with May numbers in parentheses:

Amarillo: 3.3 (2.8)

Austin-Round Rock: 3.3 (2.9)

Dallas-Plano-Irving: 3.9 (3.4)

Lubbock: 3.9 (3.1)

Sherman-Denison: 3.9 (3.5)

San Antonio-New Braunfels: 4.04 (3.4)

College Station-Bryan: 4.1 (3.3)

Abilene: 4.2 (3.6)

Fort Worth-Arlington: 4.2 (3.7)

Waco: 4.4 (3.6)

Texarkana: 4.5 (4.0)

Midland: 4.6 (4.3)

San Angelo: 4.6 (4.2)

Wichita Falls: 4.6 (4.1)

Killeen-Temple: 4.8 (4.1)

Tyler: 4.8 (4.1)

El Paso: 5.2 (4.5)

Laredo: 5.3 (4.6)

Victoria 5.4 (4.8)

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land: 5.5 (4.8)

Corpus Christi: 6.0 (5.3)

Longview: 6.5 (5.5)

Odessa: 6.7 (6.12)

Beaumont-Port Arthur: 6.9 (6.1)

Brownsville-Harlingen: 7.6 (6.6)

McAllen-Edinburg-Mission: 8.2 (7.0)
Lee High School graduate Mark Marquez has known that he wanted to be a priest since he was a high school freshman.

Throughout his youth, Marquez was very active in his church, San Miguel Arcangel Catholic Church, where he was an altar server.

However, it wasnt until he began studying civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin that he received the calling that many priests speak of.

It kind of came out of nowhere, Marquez said Monday sitting in a pew at San Miguel. God just kind of put that idea in my head.

Like many other young men who want to become priests, Marquez will follow a specific path that includes joining the Noviate of Dominican Preachers in Cincinnati for a year before going to Washington, D.C., for six years of study at Dominican House of Studies and Catholic University of America. The first two years he will work toward a bachelors degree in philosophy. The final four years will be devoted to obtaining a masters degree in theology and priestly formation, Marquez said.

Although he will not have a career as a civil engineer as he originally planned, Marquez said that he is happy with the decision he has made.

Through a lot of prayer, I was able to see the things available for me, he said. I just felt a draw away from the life that I was living and an attraction toward this way of life.

During his time at seminary, Marquez will take several vows on his journey to becoming a priest.

Throughout the years, we progress to the vows that we take indefinitely for the rest of our lives, kind of like marriage, Marquez said.

The vows, which include poverty, chastity and obedience, are mandatory for those looking to become priests. Of all of the vows that he must take, Marquez anticipates that the vow of obedience to be the most difficult vow to embrace.

A lot of people think that chastity and celibacy are the most difficult, but (other) people say that obedience is the most difficult because if you are asked to go somewhere, then you have to follow that order, he said.

During his first year at the seminary, Marquez, the son of Midlanders Robert and Delia Marquez, will essentially become disconnected from the outside world, and will not be able to return home until August of next year.

Marquez, who is leaving Midland on Monday for the seminary in Cincinnati, is optimistic about this new chapter of his life.

[S]haring that brotherhood, most times in prayer and in the study of theology and Scripture, will we probably the most exciting part, he said. For most guys joining and for me, it is a true joy.

Someone who can understand some of what Marquez will be experiencing as he prepares for the priesthood is Mike LaMonica, a deacon at San Miguel.

Ive watched him grow up from a little boy (when he was) an altar server, LaMonica said.

His focus was on the priesthood from a young age. Mark is incredibly intelligent, patient, faith-filled, compassionate -- all of the gifts of the Spirit necessary to lead people to Christ.

Managing Editor Mary Dearen contributed to this report.
Mount Moriah plans community event for children and officers

Mount Moriah Disciples of Christ annually hosts a back-to-school bash for the children of the congregation. This year, in response to current events, the church will host Cop, Kids and Barbecue 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 6 at 701 S. Calhoun Road.

These are critical times so were doing it different this year, said the pastor, Dennis Hodge Sr. I want the kids in our neighborhood to build relationships with the police here and learn they dont have to fear them but also learn to respect them.

Hodge will open the event to local law enforcement officers and firefighters.

We would like to use this as a time to show real love and support to those who protect and serve us by risking their lives, he said.

The event is open to the public.

To help the church purchase food and drink, call the church at 432-247-5615 or 432-553-7745.

Rainbow Room hosts school supply drive

Odessa-based the Rainbow Room -- which serves children waiting for placement in foster care -- is working to stuff backpacks with school supplies. The goal is to provide for up to 450 children in Midland, Ector, Andrews and Ward counties.

The third-grade school supply list costs approximately $125, which does not include the backpack or lunch box, so add another $50, Sara Yarbrough of the Rainbow Room said.

Imagine covering this cost for your own children and more foster children as well.

Donated items can be dropped off at any branch of First Basin Credit Union, West Texas State Bank or Security Bank. The drive ends Aug. 1.

Stuff the Truck Event benefits Salvation Army

Precision Frac, 407 Walker St., will host Stuff the Truck for the benefit of Salvation Army of Midland 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

New or gently used items such as cookware, toys, furniture and clothing may be donated to the local nonprofit, which announced on Wednesday that it had surpassed the fundraising goal for its new building.

The agency had an $8 million goal and raised $8.3 million for its new faciilty that will be located at Terrell and Wall streets.

The facility will have 36 beds for men, two flex rooms for men with children, 10 beds for women and children, rooms for families, two day rooms for bad weather use, a 50-seat dining room, commercial kitchen, showers, laundry and administrative offices.

Funds are still being raised for furnishings and equipment for the new building. For those interested in making a donation, visit salvationarmytexas.org or call 683-3614.

United Supermarkets 100 Days of Giving donates to Rays of Hope

Rays of Hope Grief Centre, which provides services for children coping with loss, has received a $1,000 donation from United Supermarkets as part of the grocery chains 100 Days of Giving campaign.

In honor of Uniteds centennial, the grocery store family, which includes Albertsons Market and Market Street, is continuing 100 Days of Giving

The campaign consists of a $1,000 donation to nonprofits in communities where United stores are based including Midland and Odessa.
Telecoms share that it is costly and time-consuming to build infrastructures in islands located far away from land areas. (Photo : Getty Images)

In a bid to improve communication services to the locals of Nansha, China's top telecom carriers have launched 4G services to the islands located in the South China Sea, according to an article by China Daily.



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The expansion is also regarded as a way to secure China's legal claim on the disputed territory.



The move comes after China dismissed the arbitral ruling of The Hague that China does not have a "historic title" over the South China Sea.



China Telecommunications Corp, the third largest telecom carrier in terms of subscribers, has extended its 4G signal to the island's seven reefs to give access among its residents to faster Internet speed.



This speedier connection will enable islanders to make video calls and even conduct and participate in China's growing e-commerce market.



For the past four years, the telecom has already poured in over 70 million yuan to construct infrastructure in the South China Sea.The State-owned firm revealed that it spent nine months to set up eight base stations surrounding the islands.



Meanwhile, China Mobile Communications Corp, China Telecom's larger competitor, also offered similar services.



After its successful 4G launch in nearby Xisha Islands, it has expanded its signal to cover Nansha's Zhubi and Yongshu reefs.



Xiang Ligang, CEO of the industry portal cctime.com and a veteran in the telecom indsutry, shared: "The achievement highlights China's determination to serve local people and passing ships. It also mirrors homegrown telecom companies' cutting-edge technology."



Though nestled in strategic shipping lanes, Nansha Islands are located far away from land areas, making it difficult, costly and time-consuming for telecoms to build infrastructures in the region.



According to Su Xun, an employee at China Mobile who is in charge of telecom equipment maintenance, it takes an average of 60 hours to get to the islands coming from the Hainan Province.



Apart from the travel time concern, telecoms also shared that their equipment are very much vulnerable to seawater corrosion. They also find it hard to secure stable supply of electricity to power its 4G stations and transmit signals.



Nonetheless, Su remarked that all possible problems that may arise have been taken care off, adding that "[their] efforts finally paid off."


Joe Perry will be returning to the Hollywood Vampires tour following a health scare in early June (June 10) during a performance in Brooklyn.

Frontman Alice Cooper revealed that Perry will be returning on Friday, July 22 in California. The tweet further said that Perry will be finishing the tour with the rest of the band.

Perry had walked offstage in the middle of the bands performance at the Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn when the health scare occurred. His bandmate in Aerosmith, Tom Hamilton, later assured fans that Perry was doing better than we all first feared. Fellow bandmate Steven Tyler also said that he was really concerned that it might be part of a bigger problem according to Billboard.

People at the venue had noted that Perry looked thin shortly before he performed that night, but that he looked fine during the meet-and-greet session.

Joe is back! @JoePerry returns to the @hollywoodvamps tour tomorrow, 7/22 & will be with us thru the end! #joeperry pic.twitter.com/ucJDuw7pTb  Alice Cooper (@RealAliceCooper) July 21, 2016

In a video posted at the time, Perry can be seen playing the guitar while he sits near the drum set. But shortly after he began playing he staggered offstage. ABC7NY reported that Perry collapsed backstage and firefighters came to carry him away.

Following his collapse backstage, firefighters came to his aid and reportedly an audience member who also served as an emergency medical technician performed CPR on the rocker onstage. Perry was then brought to Coney Island Hospital for testing and transferred to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. A few hours after be was brought to the hospital, Cooper confirmed that Perrys condition had stabilized and that he was recovering well.

The tour is slated to continue in Rohnert Park, California and will run for three additional dates that are scheduled with one in Oregon and two more in California.

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Investigators checking the wreckage of a tour bus that caught fire and killed 26 people in Taoyuan, Taiwan. (Photo : Getty Images)

Twenty-six people were killed in a fire after a tour bus crashed into a highway guard rail near Taoyuan International Airport.



Among the dead are 24 mainland Chinese tourists. Three of them were children. The incident occurred after lunch, local time. The bus was westbound on the highway and headed for the airport, where the tour group was due to fly back home. The tourism bureau confirmed that the group of tourists was from Dalian City in Liaoning Province, China.



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The front and top portion of the bus were blackened by ash and soot after the intense fire, hot enough to incinerate the passengers and driver.



None of the passengers survived the accident, which also killed the driver and the tour guide from Taiwan, Lu Jui-yao, a highway police chief, said.



A truck driver who tried in vain to help people on the burning bus told the SET cable television channel: I heard some people shouting for help, but I had no idea how many were in the bus. He said that when he saw the bus was on fire, he stopped his truck and tried unsuccessfully to help rescue the passengers.



According to the firefighters, the fire started from the front of the bus, suffocating and burning everyone inside.



Nine bodies were found close together in the rear part of the bus, indicating they might have tried to escape via the emergency exit, said one firefighter.



China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang said that an emergency response mechanism had been activated.



Relations between Taiwan and China have not been good for a while. Chinas One China policy views the island as a province, while in Taiwan, a territory with its own democratically elected government, leading political voices have differing views on the island's status and relations with the mainland.



Most analysts said they did not think the tragedy would provide an opportunity for the two sides to mend fences.


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Victorias Secret Spring Break Fashion Show New Pink Collection In Miami (Photo : Getty Images)

When Basic Instinct actress Sharon Stone was the cover girl on the September 2015 of Harpers Bazaar, there were speculations the images were digitally manipulated because at 60, the actress looked so trim and taut.



The speculation has long been an issue in the fashion industry as anecdotes from industry insiders share the extensive use of Photoshop to make models look better than what they really are. An article on Refinery 29 cited a photo retoucher who claimed that the Victoria's Secret models were the products of extensive Photoshopping.



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Teen Vogue, which also tackled the topic, noted that because retoucher opted to remain anonymous, her narrative would be under a cloud of suspicion and should, as a general rule, be taken with a grain of salt.



Among the industry secrets given away by the retoucher are the breasts of the female models are not that firm and well-shaped as it look on magazines. The models wear push-up bras under their bathing suits, but the bras are digitally removed. That explains why models who wear strapless bikini tops still have cleavages.



If you hold up the bathing suit in your own hand, its so heavy because they have all the shit sewed in, the retoucher said.



The mouse and the Photoshop softwar are all that the retoucher need to give the models fuller bosoms, plumper behinds and to hide protruding bones. The result is skinny-curvy hybrid women who rarely exist in reality. Also erased are pubic hair and hair on the armpits.



While exposing the secret of Victorias Secret, the retoucher cited the company American Eagle as being an exception to the Photoshopping when it launched the Aerie Real campaign in 2014. Jen Foyle, global brand president of Aerie, explained, No retouching is not just a campaign for us anymore. Its become our mindset and the message behind all we do.






Some government officials and politicians are ...
Newly unveiled Android 7.0 is coming - the question is When and in What devices?; Possible Samsung, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo, LG devices listed [RUMOR]

HTC confirms Android N arrival for HTC 10, One M9 and One A9. (Photo : Twitter / HTC)

It has earlier been confirmed that Google has finally welcomed their new sweet baby after Marshmallow, and names it Android 7.0 Nougat. Coming with important upgrades and exciting refined features, everyone is excited to get their hands on the newest Android OS; however, the question now is when.



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Tech analysts and observers are well-aware that new operating systems are not simultaneously given to upcoming new phones. So to get a better timeline on when will consumers will be able to try Android 7.0, below are the possible upcoming devices from diverse mobile vendors that will soon be Nougat-equipped, as reported by Trusted Review.



First up is of course the Menlo Park-based tech giant's very own Nexus phone, made with Huawei. As the new Nougat and the Nexus line are both babies of Google, the upcoming Nexus 6P and Nexus 5x will be powered by that fresh OS. Owners of Nexus 6 released last 2014 can also join the Nougat party.



Google's tablet named Google Pixel C is at the forefront of the update, as it will also be sporting the Android 7.0 soon. Though not confirmed yet, rumors said Nexus 9 may also get the new Nougat operating system.



Also in line for the new Nougat OS is HTC's high-end upcoming phone HTC 10, as well as the one-year old HTC One A9 and HTC One M9; however, the Taiwanese company has promised no dates yet on when will their devices have the new software from Google.



As to Samsung, it has been observed for years now that the Korean mobile giant is not always one of the VIPs when it comes to new Android systems. This year will not be too different, as its upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Samsung Galaxy Note 7 might be the only phones that will have the new OS. The operative word here is "might."



The Illinois-based Motorola, now owned by Lenovo, will reportedly be swifter compared to Samsung in joining the Nougat update spree. The tech company has also affirmed that its Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus released just this year will be both christened with Android 7.0 as soon as it is available. Chances are a year-old Moto X Style, Moto X Play and Moto X Force will also share the same updates soon.



Last but not the least is the South Korea-based firm LG that is also a bit slow when it comes to Android OS updates, just like its neighbor Samsung. It took two months before the firm updated its flagship phones with Marshmallow OS, but we will yet to see if that will be the same timeline with Nougat.



Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Yibada.


Samsung Galaxy S7 Active is the military grade version of the Galaxy S7. (Photo : YouTube/ Pocket Now)

Samsung has now admitted that there was a problem with their Galaxy S7 Active production line after several phones failed a simple water dunk test.



The quality of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active was doubted after Consumer Reports tested not one but two of the smartphones that were marketed as waterproof and it turns out that both of them were not. Even CNET has conducted their own test and they found out that their model was defective as well.



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At first, Samsung issued a statement saying that the models tested were simply defective and that not all of the released Galaxy S7 Active models had the same problems. However, the South Korean tech giant seems to be shifting their stance on the issue.



Samsung told Consumer Reports that there was a problem in the production line of the Galaxy S7 Active and that they were able to fix it, The Verge has learned. The company did not disclose what the problem was regarding the phone but they claimed that they were able to correct it.



Despite admitting that there was a problem in their production line, Samsung said that the currently available Galaxy S7 Active phones will not be recalled or swapped by new ones. What is interesting is that they did say that defective units can still be swapped which means that they are not really telling the public regarding the extend of the waterproof problem.



Samsung said that there was a "tiny" number of Galaxy S7 Active phones that were deemed defective with regards to the waterproof or water resistant feature, Engadget reported. The company did not disclose how many units were really affected.



If a user founds out that their Samsung Galaxy S7 Active is indeed defective and is not waterproof, they can easily swap it with a new one without the defect at their local certified Samsung store. Of course, it would need to be within the warranty period.



Users can test their Samsung Galaxy S7 Active phones whether it is really waterproof or not but it is recommended to make backups of the data just in case things go south. If the phone is not damaged, they will not be able to swap it with a new one.


The committee will present its final report to the UK government

A British committee of five aviation experts concluded its inspection of security procedures at Cairo International Airport on Friday, noting in preliminary comments that they had "no reservations" about the present level of security at the airport.

The committee, which began its work Monday, observed security measures for British Airways flight 154 and EgyptAir flight 777 that fly to Heathrow Airport in London, studying airport terminals to the flights' boarding processes.

The committee noted the improvement of security and the implementation of international standards for baggage supervision and for securing containers and parcels, Ahram Arabic website reported.

The committee did not give any reservations on the security performance at Cairo airport, which will be included in its final report which will be submitted to high-level UK officials, airport officials said in press statements, according to Aswat Masriya.

A report will be issued by the British experts to the UK government, which will also be presented to Egypts foreign and civil aviation ministries.

No date was given for the release of the report.

A number of European airlines have banned flights to Sharm El-Sheikh over security concerns following the crash of a Russian airliner in October in Sinai which killed all 224 people on board.

The UK government has since then deployed experts to assess security procedures in Egyptian airports.



In June, British Airways announced it would indefinitely extended its suspension of flights to Sharm El-Sheikh.

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One of the biggest challenges for Donald Trump will be winning over minority voters.

Racial tension in America is fraying to the point of ripping at the seams. In Cleveland, protests remain relatively peaceful.

In downtown, veteran Gary Winfield, 87, said the Republicans have no inclusiveness. He does not support Donald Trump, but thinks Trump's lack of political correctness is necessary.

I'm not for what he says. I'm for his contribution to diversity, difference of opinion, said Winfield.

Attracting African-American voters to the Republican Party is Michael Barnett's mission. He is the first black chairman of Palm Beach County.

"Before he decided to run for president, I can't think of anyone who ever referred to Donald Trump as a racist. The idea is insane to me, he said.

Barnett is on Trumps National Diversity Coalition. He said Trump is doing far better with African-American voters than Mitt Romney did in 2012. He points to the racial violence in the streets as proof of the current president's failures.

"It's a failure of leadership, Barack Obama deserves the blame. I think Donald Trump is what we need to bring law and order to our streets to make, whether youre black or white, living in the rural communities or inner cities, safe again. We have put the grown-ups back in charge," he said.



Trump certainly has his work cut out for him. A new Pew Research poll shows 91 percent of African American voters support Hillary Clinton. C.J. Jordan is working for Trumps campaign to change that.

"I understand what most think when they see me, they think I'm a Democrat. But I'm not," said Jordan, the RNC's deputy director. "But when I espouse Republican principles more and more as I talk to them, we have a lot in common more than we disagree about.

Winfield said he has no doubt Donald Trump will become president. Whether that will lead to inclusiveness, however, he said is a different story.


Hillary Clinton's pick for vice president is the safe source: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Clinton picked Kaine to be her running mate Friday.



Clinton held a rally in Tampa Friday and is holding a rally in Miami Saturday

Clinton chooses Virginia Sen. Time Kaine to be the running mate



COMPLETE CONVENTION COVERAGE: Latest Election Headlines | RNC Coverage | DNC Coverage | Nightly Chat

Clinton was supposed to announce the pick via text and Twitter this afternoon. Sources close to the campaign said the announcement and also of a joint appearance in Miami were "in flux" because of the Munich attack.

Kaine tweeted that he was honored to join the campaign and would be with Clinton in Miami on Saturday.

I'm thrilled to announce my running mate, @TimKaine, a man who's devoted his life to fighting for others. -H pic.twitter.com/lTVyfztE5Z  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 23, 2016

.@TimKaine is a relentless optimist who believes no problem is unsolvable if you put in the work to solve it.https://t.co/pui1WFEVpS  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 23, 2016

Just got off the phone with Hillary. Im honored to be her running mate. Cant wait to hit the trail tomorrow in Miami!  Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) July 23, 2016

Clinton rallies in Tampa, heads to Miami

Clinton rallied thousands in Tampa Friday and used the campaign stop to criticize Republicans for a Republican National Convention that spent so much time on her.

"I found it perversely flattering," Clinton said.

Clinton said the "dark and divisive" vision of future pushed by Donald Trump and other speakers did not represent real America and offered no solutions.

In the speech she discussed the roundtable she held in Orlando regarding the Pulse attacks at length. She loved the discussions and calls for unity and an end to divisiveness.

Her rally speech did not talk much about policy, other than a need to rein in assault weapons.

Clinton is hosting a rally in Miami on Saturday.

She attended a roundtable meeting in Orlando today.

Clinton said that the Pulse nightclub shooting was an attack on the Latino and LGBT community.

"We have to stand against hate and bigotry," she said.



Clinton hosted the roundtable discussion at the Holden Community Center with community leaders, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Some of the suggestions, according to Clinton, are dealing with the country's gun violence and assault weapons and the dismatling of a global network that influences people to committ terror attacks.

She also visited the Pulse nightclub.

On Saturday Clinton will host a rally in Miami at Florida International University. That rally is expected to begin at noon, with the doors opening at 10 a.m. Those interested in attending can head to the Clinton website.

Tim Kaine in three graphics
NOTE: The Hart Days Celebration is set for July 28-30. The Hart Days Committee has chosen three parade marshals this year, Maria Gomez Quiroz, who is featured this week, Deryl and Joan Clevenger, who were profiled last Sunday.

HART -- Born Jan. 28, 1928, in Edinburg to Juan and Margaret Gomez, Maria (Mary) Gomez Quiroz was raised around farming. Her dad was a foreman for a farmer in the area. He later purchased a piece of land, she recalls.

Mary married Joe Quiroz and they came to Hart in 1955 with their two children, 4-year-old Joe Don and 3-year-old Maria Teresa (Terry). They came to pull cotton bolls, however it rained and there was no work.

Mary said that Joe found some work with Fred Popejoy, a local farmer. They didnt stay in Hart  they found some families in the area from South Texas who were returning home. So they went back. However, Joe wanted to return to Hart and they came back in 1956 and he began working some for Jack Smitherman. She said they ended up staying in a house on the Jim Brooks farm. They then met up with T.C. Ray and lived in a house owned by T.C.s brother-in-law and sister, Perry and Nora Van Vliet.

Joe later began working for Bob Bennett where he stayed for two years. Next, the family moved to a house owned by Verle Crick, who hired Joe. Mary said this was the first house in the Hart area they had lived in that had indoor plumbing. She said Joe worked for Verle 10 to 12 years.

While working for Verle, Joe got sick with appendicitis and had an appendectomy. Mary said she told Joe they needed to buy a lot in Hart, which they did. She began looking for a house to put on the lot and saw one advertised in a newspaper. The house was owned by Johnny B. Lilley. They bought the house and moved it to Hart to 805 Ave. B, where Mary continues to live. She thinks they made the move from the farm to Hart in 1957 or 1958.

After some years, Mary and Joe separated and they ceased as a couple. (He died in 1993). She later married Joe Isabel Avitia, who was shot and killed in May 1980 in front of their house, she recalls.

Mary is no stranger to work. She said to put food on the table she worked for Smith Potato part of the year and then worked in a carrot processing facility in Dimmitt. She also cleaned houses and performed other domestic work for Hart families, including the Loyd and Augusta Farris family and the W.T. and Betty King family. She also recalls that when Marguerite McLain was injured in an automobile accident, she got a call from Marguerites brother, Bob Bennett, who asked Mary to help take care of Marguerite.

Mary also worked at Alfords Cafe and the Green Frog Cafe. She was happy to get to the age where she could collect Social Security, but she continued to work some.

Her children graduated from Hart High School; Joe in 1969 and Maria in 1970. Joe Don lives in Arlington and Maria in Lubbock. Maria has a 33-year-old son, David Daniel, who also lives in Lubbock.

When asked if she has any hobbies, Maria answers, Working. She is a member of St. Johns Catholic Church.
A family with longtime ties to farming and ranching in West Texas and Oklahoma recently established a scholarship to bless students preparing for the pastoral and music ministry at Wayland Baptist University. The Vern and Rosemary Hankins Endowed Scholarship was dedicated by their grandchildren in a brief ceremony held on the Plainview campus on Saturday, July 16.

Vern and Rosemary spent their lives supporting the work of Gods kingdom in every church they attended in every town they lived, so its no surprise that they would want to continue that support after their deaths, said Teresa Young, director of Annual Fund at Wayland, during the dedication. Through this scholarship, Wayland students will be blessed for generations to come and will themselves impact the kingdom, thereby multiplying Vern and Rosies impact and generosity. Thats pretty powerful to imagine.

A small number of family attended the dedication and said they wanted their grandparents estate to continue the work they held so dear during their full lifetimes. Rosemary died June 9, 2013, and Vern died Aug. 12, 2015. In addition to the scholarship, the Hankins family made a contribution to the current IMPACT 2020 capital campaign for infrastructure needs and blessed Waylands Baptist Student Ministries with a generous donation to be used for on-campus ministry to students and off-campus missions projects.

Vern and Rosemary Hankins married Aug. 6, 1949, in Quanah. The couple moved around the country as Vern worked on power lines bringing them to Wellton, Ariz., where he worked for an irrigation district. Wise stewardship led them to invest in land for farming as well as real estate. The couple moved in 1984 to Vigo Park outside Tulia to farm, then purchased land in Comanche, Okla., in 1997, to establish another farm and a ranch. They had three sons and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

According to family, Rosie loved people, was a great cook, crocheter and a lover of games, while Jiggie is remembered for his hard work and love for family and friends. Both were noted for their love for the Lord and desire to make Him known. Vern had a passion for leaving things better than he found them, primarily the land he worked. They were also passionate about furthering the Great Commission, serving in many capacities in various churches they attended and supporting Wayland ministerial students for many years.

At the dedication, the Hankins grandchildren encouraged others to follow the example of their grandparents by using their resources for kingdom work both while they are living and after they have passed.

Endowed scholarships at Wayland are created with a $25,000 gift (payable at one time or in installments), then annual interest is pulled to make scholarship gifts for students in need, with the main corpus of the account remaining intact. The fund is then able to award gifts annually into perpetuity.

For more information on endowed scholarships, contact Amber McCloud, director of development, at 806-291-3430.
Plainview City Council members will have a busy docket come next Tuesday. They reviewed the night's agenda at their monthly work session Thursday.

First will be a motion to authorize Mayor Wendall Dunlap to sign the construction contract for the demolition of elevated water storage tanks around town.

The bid went to Whitaker Lane Contracting for the demolition and removal of the water tanks. The total cost added up to $73,175.

The tanks include the one near 11th Street and Smythe Street, which is painted with a Plainview Bulldog; the tank located near Beech Street, that was painted with a Rustwater Bengal logo for the 1992 film "Leap of Faith" which was shot in Plainview; a water tank near Baltimore Street, north of the Harvest Queen Mill; and a water tank on South Date south of Oak Street.

A ground tank on Yucca Terrace, near Westridge, also will be dismantled.

It is not known when the tanks will be dismantled.

A second highlight for Tuesday's regular board meeting will be to award a bid for a new Emergecny Medical Billing Service for Plainview Fire and EMS.

More than 15 proposals were submitted to a review committee made up of firefighters, finance department members and legal personnel.

Fire Chief Rusty Powers noted the reasons for the change stemmed from their current company's slow and antiqued system of collections. Living in a more digital world, Powers described having to mail large amounts of paperwork to the company's Houston office for processing.

"There is a lot of time before process before it even gets claimed," Powers said at Thursday's work session.

In selecting the new bill collector, criteria companies were rated on included fees, past records of timely and accurate processing, methodology to receive records from PFD/EMS departments and the ability to work with the City's Financial Department.

Powers said the committee unanimously agreed on Amerik Medical Billing. Amerik scored the highest in the review and had the lowest fees. Plainview's current company charges a fee of 7 percent of collections. Amerik charges 5.7 percent.

In other action, the council members will vote to call two public hearings on a proposed amendment to include 14 acres of additional land to the 82.63-acre tract of land purchased by the City of Plainview to build a business park.
The final flight has been postponed on Sunday due to pilot sickness and weather conditions

Solar Impulse 2's final 48-hour flight from Cairo to Abu Dhabi may take off on Sunday at 1:00 AM Cairo time, a provisional time for a trip that will be the most technically challenging of the round-the-world tour, Solar Impulse announced Friday.

The flight was postponed last Saturday due to pilot Bertrand Piccards sickness and worsening conditions in Cairo, as winds were too strong for the solar-powered airplane to be taken out of its tent.

Conditions are tricky with winds challenging Si2s limitations on the runway, Solar Impulse said on Friday. We are therefore getting ready for an attempt, but there is a risk that we will need to postpone the flight at the last minute."

The Control Center has been in discussions over the choice of the time that will allow the plane to overcome high temperatures in Riyadh.

We have never had to deal with temperatures so high before on our round-the-world tour, but a little challenge at the end of our mission is always good, Solar Impulse said on Thursday on their blog.

The temperature at sea level is approximately 15C in the standard atmospheric model, while in Saudi Arabia, the temperature at sea level in 3 times this temperature, Solar Impulse explained.

Heat is bad for Solar Impulse because it makes it less energy-efficient.

Because hot air is less dense, the airplane requires more energy to remain level and climb to higher altitudes. Think of it this way, with lower air density, the propellers have to shovel thinner air, therefore requiring more energy to fly towards its destination, the Solar Impulse team explained.

The groundbreaking aircraft uses solar energy to charge batteries that power propellers. The plane makes it climb to its highest altitude (about 28,000 feet) and is able to produce enough energy for nighttime cruising.

Solar Impulse 2's round-the-world tour started in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi and was aimed at promoting clean technology by founders Betrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg.

The Monaco-based Mission Control Center identified Sunday at 1:00 AM as a time that could allow the airplane to overcome Saudi Arabia's high temperatures during the voyage's final leg.

We are likely to have to adapt timings - so, as always with Solar Impulse, stay on your toes, the statement said.

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Like most grocery stores, Trader Joe's offers free samples. But not every store allows its employees to tear open a bag of kale chips if a customer wants to try them. It's just one of the fun secrets that make the California-based store unique.

RELATED: 17 shopping secrets that save time and money at Trader Joe's
Almost 50,000 people working in state institutions, including police and public schools, have either been detained or lost their jobs as Erdogan reasserts control

Following the failure of a military coup in Turkeywhich saw the death of 246 people and injury of 1,500 in street clashesIslamist president Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a statement that implied that he was not completely angry about it.

They will pay a heavy price for this, stated Erdogan. This uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our army.

But he went far beyond that.

The ruling government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)founded and controlled by Erdoganhas enjoyed the backing of most governments in the world since the coup attempt.

Even the other Turkish political parties, usually not on good terms with Erdogan and the AKP for many reasons, adopted the same position.

The reason behind this situation was simple: they wanted the democratic process to remain in place, especially in a country with a long history of military interventions in political affairs.

But the measuressuch as mass arrests and detentions of people within different state institutionstaken by the government in the aftermath of the coup has put the future of democracy in Turkey in question.

Moreover, according to analysts, the opposition can do little about it.

So far, almost 50,000 people working in state institutionsincluding police and public schoolshave either been detained or lost their jobs, according to figures revealed by CNN Turk and Hurriyet daily newspaper.

On Tuesday, the government issued a suspension order for 15,200 state education employees, in addition to demanding approximately 1,600 deans from private and state universities resign from their positions.

On Wednesday, the Turkish High Board of Education decided to ban all academics from travelling abroad until further notice, state-run TRT broadcaster announced.

The licences of 21,000 teachers working in private institutions were also revoked by the government.

On the military level, around 118 generals and admirals were detained, accused of treason and allegedly planning the coup. Other soldiers, police officers and judges faced the same fate.

Erdogan said that the failed coup attempt was a gift from God. He is using the opportunity to crack down on the dissidents and purge the bureaucracy. The Turkish president sees this as a chance to consolidate his power further and to bolster his one-man rule, Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Ahram Online.

The coup plotters have provided him with a golden opportunity. Erdogan is too smart and too power-hungry to miss this, the ex-parliamentarian for the Republican People's Party (CHP) added.

The Turkish government has accused preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States, of planning the coup. The crackdown campaign is partially linked to removing Gulens supporters from state institutions.

This is not the first such incident related to Gulen. In December 2014, police forces raided Turkey's Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu (STV) channel, detaining dozens of journalists and workers. Those detained were charged with conspiring to overthrow Erdogan.

Gulen used to be a strong backer of Erdogan, providing him with the support of his Hizmet Movement in consecutive electoral races. The Erdogan-Gulen relationship started to sour after a corruption scandal in December 2013 that led to the resignation of three ministers.

A similar crackdown against pro-Gulen elements in state institutions has taken place in the last few years, though to a lesser extent.

In a phone conversation this week, US President Barack Obama told Erdogan that Turkey must provide evidence that Gulen was behind the coup attempt in order for Turkeys extradition demand for the preacher to be considered.

Turkey took its extraordinary measures one step further on Thursday as parliament approved a bill declaring a three-month state of emergency by 346 votes to 115. Members of the CHP and the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party had voted against it.

Ankara also informed the Council of Europe that it will partially withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Amnesty International issued a report on Thursday, stressing the fact that the state of emergency allows the prime minister along with his cabinet the power to rule by decree and bypass the parliament.

The rights organisation pointed that arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly can take place under emergency laws, in addition to denying civil servants the right to appeal their suspensions and dismissals.

Amnesty International fears that the move could be used as a pretext for the authorities to extend the period of pre-charge detention which currently stands at four days. Under the current circumstances such an extension could further undermine protections against ill-treatment as well as the right to a fair trial, the report said.

Erdogan, speaking to Al Jazeera shortly before the announcement of emergency measures, said that the bill aims to tackle the terrorist threat the country is facing.

In light of these conditions will Erdogan face a backlash from the opposition, as happened before with the Taksim protests in 2013?

The answer is no, at least not so far.

Bessma Momani, political science professor at the University of Waterloo, told Ahram Online only supporters of Erdogan would be brave enough to go to Taksim.

The country was already polarised well before the attempted coup d'etat. Half the population of the country are fearful of Erdogan and would likely want to protest his autocratic rule and continued repression of political opponents, but they will be highly fearful of going to the streets at this time, Momani argued.

Erdemir seemingly has a similar viewpoint, believing that Erdogans loyalists seem to have full control of the streets for now.

Erdemir argued that, since there doesnt seem to be law and order on the streets, any dissident protesting AKP's authoritarianism risks lynching and attacks by mobs.

Erdogan, Erdemir said, knows that such chaos and uncertainty allow him to dominate the street and suppress the dissidents, a reason why he has been so keen to invite his supporters to the streets day after day.

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Roger Ailes is out as chief executive at Fox News Channel and Fox Business, his career at the networks he built from scratch and ran with an iron hand for nearly 20 years over with stunning swiftness following allegations that he forced out a former anchor after she spurned his sexual advances.

Hours before the final night of the Republican National Convention, network parent 21st Century Fox announced Thursday that Ailes would resign immediately.

Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, will assume the role of chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network until a replacement is named.

Murdoch and 21st Century Fox did not address the widening scandal in the statement on the resignation but lauded Ailes for his contributions.

"It is always difficult to create a channel or a publication from the ground up and against seemingly entrenched monopolies," Murdoch said in a statement. "(Ailes') grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media."

Fox is heading into a general election campaign in its customary spot at the top of the ratings, but without the man who sets its editorial tone every day.

The blustery, 76-year-old media executive built a network that both transformed the news business and changed the political conversation. Fox News Channel provided a television home to conservatives who had felt left out of the media, and played a part in advancing a rough-and-tumble style of politics that left many concerned that it was impossible to get things done in government.

Ailes' downfall began with the July 6 filing of a lawsuit by Gretchen Carlson, who charged that Ailes sabotaged her career because she refused his suggestions for sex and had complained about a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment at Fox.

Ailes has denied the charges, but 21st Century Fox hired a law firm to investigate.

Several Fox employees jumped to Ailes' defense, but notably not Megyn Kelly, one of Fox's top personalities. In rapid succession, it was reported Kelly was among other women who had told investigators about harassment  again denied by Ailes  and that corporate heads Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, determined that Ailes had to go.

Within two weeks of the court filing, Carlson's lawyers also said more than 20 women had contacted the firm with stories of alleged harassment by Ailes either against themselves or someone they knew. Two of them came forward publicly.

Before the charges, Fox's sheer success had insulated Ailes despite some previous scrapes with the Murdoch sons. Fox News Channel is the parent company's single most important property, said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser, with some estimates that it accounted for nearly a quarter of the company's profits.

Ailes was a prominent Republican media consultant who later ran CNBC before Murdoch asked him to create a cable news network to compete with CNN at the same time MSNBC was starting. Ailes' slogans, "fair and balanced" and "we report, you decide," appealed to an audience that believed mainstream outlets didn't live up to those promises.

"He was ahead of his time in recognizing that dividing, not uniting, an audience would be the key to commercial success in the 21st Century cable news business," said Matt Sienkiewicz, communications professor at Boston College. Ailes blew apart the notion that public affairs programming should target a broad audience with civil debates, he said.

Ailes hired a combative broadcast journeyman in Bill O'Reilly and turned him into the star of an opinionated prime-time lineup. He directed news coverage and emphasized issues like the so-called "war on Christmas" or the Benghazi investigation that otherwise got little attention. Republican politicians considered Fox the first stop for reaching their intended audience, and they learned to talk tough. "We're not going to be defensive about anything," Ailes said at the network's launch.
Washington, D.C.

The U.S. government is suing to stop two major health insurance mergers, a move regulators say is needed to protect Americans from potential cost hikes and lower quality care.

The Department of Justice said Thursday that the combinations of Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna would hurt competition that restrains the price of coverage and reduce benefits, among other drawbacks.

Aetna Inc. proposed last summer to buy Humana Inc. for $34 billion, while Anthem Inc. moved to acquire Cigna Corp. for $48 billion. The companies said Thursday they plan to fight the federal suit. Anthem, the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer, called it "an unfortunate and misguided" step backward for access to affordable care.

Consumers have been dealing with rising health care costs for years, a result of several factors. Prices for prescription drugs and care have risen, and as they have, insurers  who ultimately pay most of the bill  have raised premiums and out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles to shift more costs to consumers and help protect their own bottom lines.

The big insurers argue that by getting larger they will be able to negotiate better prices with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctor groups that also are growing. They also expect to cut expenses and add more customers, which helps them better spread the cost of investing in technology to manage and improve care.

In recent years insurers have invested in more elaborate technology to help customers find the most appropriate doctors and care providers and to help them take their medicines and manage their care, which can improve health and cut costs.

But it's unclear how much the savings from these improvements would filter down to the customer, especially if there are fewer insurers competing for business.

"There's no reason to give those savings to their customers unless someone else is pushing you," said Gary Claxton, a vice president with the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health care issues.

Regulators were worried about how the deals will affect competition in three areas in particular: coverage offered by large employers, insurance sold on the Affordable Care Act's public exchanges and Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the government's Medicare program for older citizens.
Queensbury

Davidson Brothers Brewing Co. will soon sell its $3.5 million Queensbury brewery to Northern Eagle Beverages, Inc., the companies said Friday.

Davidson Brothers will continue to brew in Queensbury, co-owner Rick Davidson said Friday, but Northern Eagle, based in Oneonta, will own the facility and take charge of marketing.

Northern Eagle expects to increase capacity in the facility and purchase new equipment to be able to make different kinds of beer, soft drinks and coffee, President George Allen said. Allen said he hopes to double employment to 14 full-time employees in 18 months.

A high-speed canning line will allow for canned distribution, too, Allen said. Right now, the facility only has capacity for bottling and kegging, he said.

"Canning is huge with craft brands right now," he said.

Talks began between the two companies five months ago, Allen said. But the companies' relationship is longstanding: Northern Eagle has distributed Davidson Brothers beer for several years, and Northern Eagle already brews in Davidson's facility.

Allen said he hopes to capitalize on the Queensbury location to attract tourists who may drive by the Route 9 facility en route to local attractions.

"When we see the Six Flags Great Escape  that is a huge volume of people there that, hopefully  no pun intended  we could tap into," he said.

Davidson Brothers's main Glens Falls pub includes a small brewery, but the bulk of brewing occurs off site, Davidson said.

The Davidson brothers brewed in Portland, Maine, before the company purchased the Queensbury site, which had previously been a multiplex cinema, Davidson said.

"My brother John and I, we're stunned that an outfit this big and with such a brewing legacy, that they would be impressed enough to make this kind of investment in Queensbury," Davidson said.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Allen said he expected the sale to be complete in three weeks.

lellis@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @lindsayaellis
Rensselaer

The Rensselaer Common Council opposed the planned Pilgrim pipeline in a resolution approved Wednesday. The project from Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings, LLC, would link the Port of Albany to northern New Jersey. Residents who opposed the pipeline outnumbered those in favor 21 to 1, according to the resolution.
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Millionaire tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal violated his probation for a domestic violence conviction when he allegedly attacked a girlfriend one year after brutally beating a different woman in the same San Francisco penthouse, a judge ruled Friday.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Tracie Brown ordered Chahal, 34, to surrender his passports to the court by Monday. At a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 12, he could be sent to jail or have his probation extended largely depending on what his probation officer recommends.

Police first arrested the CEO of advertising company Gravity4 after he attacked his former girlfriend Aug. 5, 2013, inside his Rincon Hill penthouse.

Officers seized a surveillance video they said shows him beating and kicking the woman more than 100 times, and prosecutors charged him with 47 felony counts of domestic-violence related offenses. But a judge ruled the video was unlawfully seized and suppressed it from evidence.

With prosecutors barred from using the 30-minute video, Chahal eventually struck a deal and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of battery and domestic violence, and was placed on probation. After the plea, the board of directors of San Francisco advertising company RadiumOne forced out Chahal as CEO.

In a victory for the prosecution, Brown ruled Friday the video could be entered into evidence  and thus the public record  in determining whether Chahal violated his probation for a second alleged attack on Sept. 17, 2014. In that confrontation, prosecutors said Chahal kicked a South Korean woman, whom he was dating, roughly 10 times and later conspired with associates to dissuade her from talking to the police by threatening to report her to immigration authorities, prosecutors said.

The defendant knew he was in trouble and immediately rallied the troops and used the enormous resources at his disposal, Assistant District Attorney OBryan Kenney said in court Friday of Chahal, who by age 25 had sold two advertising companies he had founded for more than $300 million.

Case similarities

Kenney, calling the similarity between the 2013 and 2014 episodes remarkable, argued that the video showed a pattern of abuse. In both cases, prosecutors and police said Chahal was incensed and accused the women of infidelity.

I think its very important you find that video admissible, and you should watch it, Kenney told the judge in remarks that were punctuated by audible sighs and whispers from Chahals entourage of relatives and supporters. In the very room, in the very bed where he did it before ... the pattern here is unmistakable.

The second alleged victim, whom The Chronicle is not naming, stunned prosecutors and Chahals defense team when she returned to South Korea in the midst of the litigation. Both sides said her failure to appear has hurt their cases, with defense attorney James Lassart arguing that Chahal had a constitutional right to confront his accuser in the probation hearing.

Her word isnt very good. ... She refused to come, said Lassart, calling the woman unstable and deceitful.

Without the woman there to testify, Brown had to decide whether her statements to a 911 dispatcher, hospital physicians assistant and police detectives could be admitted into court.

Brown ruled the 911 call and conversation with hospital workers were allowed, but statements made to officers were not because she didnt make them until a month and 19 days after the alleged attack and because she went to police as she was filing a restraining order against Chahal, and as the probation revocation proceedings were starting.

Threat accusations

Prosecutors accused Chahal, his bodyguard and others of threatening to report the girlfriend for purportedly getting a sham marriage in order to obtain a U.S. visa if she went to police about the alleged abuse. Brown said she was troubled by the actions, but didnt think it was their fault the woman failed to come to court.

Chahal, once called one of Americas most eligible bachelors, sat stoically in court as Brown read her ruling. Kenney asked the judge to immediately put Chahal in jail without bail, which she declined.

Chahal and his attorney left the court without speaking to reporters.

Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, who has been closely following the case, saw the Friday ruling as a win for survivors of abuse.

We hope the cycle will be broken here with some accountability and raising his awareness that his behavior is harmful, she said. It appears that when he feels or thinks that there is some kind of infidelity, he cannot manage his response. And it seems to be that he feels its his right to do that.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
Bill Hutchinson / The Chronicle

A 59-year-old man was beaten unconscious on a Muni bus he was riding through San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood after he got into a fight with a passenger, police said Friday.

The incident started around 5:50 p.m. Thursday when the bus driver heard a loud argument going on and pulled over near Market and Fifth Streets, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a San Francisco Police Department spokeswoman.
The United Nations refugee agency reports that 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month.

Andreas Needham, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Friday that thousands of South Sudanese have left their country since fighting erupted on July 7 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Vice President Riek Machar. Although an uneasy peace has been established in South Sudan's capital, Juba, the U.N. official said the flow of people leaving the country has continued.

He said that more than 90 percent of the new refugees are women and children.

The U.N. official said the new refugees report that fighting is continuing in southern South Sudan and that in the Magwi area gunmen are looting properties and recruiting young men and boys.

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With an eccentric Emoji costume party, the self-proclaimed "most famous bar on the planet" celebrated 12 years on the San Antonio River Walk, Thursday evening.

Stilt performers, an aerialist and contortionist added to the high-energy act that powers the Coyote Ugly Saloon. Everyone dressed as Emojis received prizes, with $300 cash going to the best Emoji costume.
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Albany

When Anton Konev and Nathan Lebron would run into each other, they would exchange greetings in each other's non-English tongues.

Lebron, a Colonie man of Hispanic descent, would warmly give the Russian "Moy drug," which translates to "my friend."

"Mi amigo," Konev would respond.

"He reached across all kinds of ethnic, racial and political lines to really be a genuine human being," Konev told the Times Union on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Konev's friend Lebron  a politician who wasn't afraid to break ranks, philanthropist and active member within the area's minority communities  died on Tuesday from complications related to late-onset effects of radiation exposure following childhood cancer. He was 45.

On Thursday, Konev and others kept coming back to the word "genuine" to describe Lebron, who sought to assist those who needed the help that he didn't receive.

A kid who "came from the hood," as one friend put it, to later attend the University at Albany and Harvard, Lebron was born in Harlem and was raised until the age of 10 in Puerto Rico before returning to the Bronx, according to his official biography from the Hispanic Coalition of NY, which he chaired. At 12, his mother fell ill and he went to live with a family where he and his siblings were mistreated. A year later, he was diagnosed with spinal cancer. He was later placed in foster care until he was 18.

Among his various philanthropic ventures, he created in 2002 the Michelle-Lebron Scholarship for disadvantaged children, honoring young Michelle Appelbaum, whom he met while in the hospital in 1984 and who later died of leukemia. Last year, his Colonie-based information technology firm, the Lebron Group LLC, doled out four $500 scholarships to graduating high school seniors.

In the political world, Lebron could be a boat shaker, running for Albany mayor on the Republican line in 2009 (making him the first Hispanic to run for mayor) and in 2011 seeking to run for county executive without the full support of the county GOP organization.

In 2014, he sought the Libertarian line for governor to no avail.

Perhaps Lebron's greatest political role was as plaintiff in the voting rights case brought against Albany County over claims that minority voting power was diluted during redistricting in 2011.

"In all the interactions I had with him, he was incredibly warm and welcoming and genuinely interested in who you were as a person," said Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, a Democrat. "You don't always see that in politics."

Hispanic Coalition President and CEO Monica Arias Miranda said the essence of Lebron was doing what was right, even if it wasn't popular, especially when it came to politics.

"It wasn't very popular for him to (get involved with the minority voting rights lawsuit) because he was a Republican," she said. "But that was the right thing to do."

She added, "The larger picture is his heart was just way too big to fit in his own body."

A memorial service will be held for Lebron at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Hans Funeral Home, 1088 Western Ave., Guilderland.
Gunmen attacked a busy mall in the German city of Munich on Friday evening, killing at least eight people and sending shoppers running for their lives from what police said was a terrorist attack.

Authorities told the public to get off the streets as the city - Germany's third biggest - went into lockdown with transport halted and highways sealed off.

A police spokesman said three gunmen were on the run after the initial shooting subsided. The city was placed under a state of emergency as police hunted for them.

"We are telling the people of Munich there are shooters on the run who are dangerous," he said. "We are urging people to stay indoors."

Munich newspaper TZ said one of the shooters was dead. German news magazine Focus said a gunman had shot himself in the head. Reuters could not immediately confirm either report.

As special forces deployed in the city, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping centre which police said had been evacuated.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall.

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

A police spokesman said there was no immediate indication that it was an Islamist attack.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in which he killed 77 people. Breivik is a hero for far-right militants in Europe and America.

IS supporters celebrate

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated on social media.

"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read one Tweet.

Two witnesses told n-tv television that they saw a man dress as Santa Claus walking away from the scene of the shooting with a crowd of people. One said the man had blonde hair, was not carrying a weapon but had a suitcase.

A video posted online - whose authenticity could not be confirmed - showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

A worker at a shop in the mall, Harun Balta, said: "We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we're waiting for the police to rescue us."

Police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded. Thye were treating it as a terrorist incident.

Witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets, he said.

Munich's main railway station was also evacuated. BR television said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train with an axe. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Munich assault was also reminiscent of Islamist militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 and in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.

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A former priest appeared before a Bee County judge Thursday, more than a month after he was indicted for the sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony.

RELATED: Ex-priest says he's not guilty in death of McAllen teacher

According to the indictment, Stephen Dougherty, 59, "intentionally and knowingly" had intercourse against the will of a girl younger than 14-years-old.

Dougherty's lawyer John Pinckney of San Antonio refused to comment Friday.

RELATED: Ex-priest coming back to Texas to stand trial in the gruesome death of a Valley beauty queen

During Thursday's hearing, Pinckney asked for a list of the grand jury members who indicted the former priest, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported.

After receiving reports of sexual misconduct in In 2011, the Caller-Times reported, the Diocese of Corpus Christi took away Dougherty's duties.

RELATED: Former Baylor star Shawn Oakman indicted on sexual assault charge

The Diocese of Corpus Christi, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity and Dougherty are being sued for allegedly not doing enough to protect the girl involved in Dougherty's case, according to the Caller-Times. The Diocese of Corpus Christi did not immediately respond for comment.

Dougherty's trial is slated for September 12.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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A jury found a San Antonio man guilty of capital murder Thursday in a drug deal that became a robbery and slaying.

Dominique Green, 39, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, the first of four defendants charged in the death of Reynaldo Guerrero Jr., 33, to go to trial. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Guerrero was found Dec. 3, 2014, shot three times in the upper back, with his hands bound by black zip ties, lying face down in the back of his Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Multiple witnesses contradicted each other during the trial, while each denied they saw or knew for sure who pulled the trigger. A special prosecutor said that didnt matter because Green shared details of the crime with his girlfriend.

The defense argued that prosecutors could produce no witness to the shooting, no weapon and no DNA or other physical evidence tying Green to the killing.

In a tearful victim impact statement, Guerrero's cousin, Cindy Martinez, read from her cellphone a message that his sister, Jovita Williams, had written. Martinez said Guerrero was a best friend to his two older sisters.

As a child of God, I know I have a responsibility to forgive you, Martinez read. I'm going to pray for you and your family  You have no idea what you have done to us.

After state District Judge Sid Harle sentenced Green, Martinez said the verdict helped the family and that though her cousin made some bad choices, he was a good guy.

A prosecution witness, Barbara Castillo, had told jurors Wednesday that Green came and went several times from her house in the 300 block of Dorie Street on the East Side the night Guerrero was killed. She lived near another East Side house where, according to witnesses, the robbery took place.

Castillo said Green brought back a cellphone and wallet she understood belonged to the robbery victim, containing a picture she later identified as Guerrero. She said Green borrowed her SUV for about an hour, and returned to tell her the robbery target had been taken to another location and killed  saying someone else did it.

On Thursday, Greens ex-girlfriend, Taniesha Willis, a defense witness, testified that Green, the father of her 2-year-old son, never left Castillos house and that she didnt see Green with the mans wallet or cellphone. She said another state witness, Michael Ramos, burst in and told Green, I've gotten into some trouble, asking Green for help and offering him some marijuana in exchange.

Willis said Green became upset and told Ramos to leave.

Ramos earlier testified he had seen Guerrero being held at gunpoint, a hood over his head, at the nearby house, but that he had left and only found out later Guerrero had been killed. Defense attorney Richard Langlois suggested Ramos was the triggerman.

In closing arguments, special prosecutor Geoff Barr called Ramos unsavory, but after providing a different story early in the investigation because he felt threatened by Green, his later account was corroborated by other witnesses.

Langlois said Ramos lied numerous times, facing a capital murder charge, before he testified to a grand jury and ended up being indicted for aggravated robbery instead.

Hes a liar, a danger to society and a fabricator, Langlois said.

lzavala@express-news.net
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Surrounded by family members, clinic physicians and staff, Maria Gallegos Lopez beamed as the group celebrated a historic milestone  her 109th birthday.

Lopez smiled Thursday afternoon as a staff member wheeled her to the head of a long red table, lined with balloons at the WellMed clinic at 4438 Centerview on the citys Northwest Side.

Awaiting her were vintage photos of her life in the 20th century.

Television cameras and smartphones captured images of the woman who had once lived in homes without electricity, telephones or running water.

A shiny sash adorned the dress of the great-grandmother who paid 5 cents to ride a trolley car when she was much younger. And they posed beside the matriarch, who as a teen, watched rescuers pull the dead and the living from swollen waters caused by the flood of 1921.

Before she blew out the candles on her technicolor cake, her daughter Rosemary Galvan watched as music legend and Grammy winner Flaco Jimenez led the group in singing Happy Birthday.

I really like to see older people that age, said Jimenez, a WellMed patient and spokesman. It really inspires me. Im getting there myself.

Currently, Adele Dunlap, 113, of New Jersey is reported as the oldest person in United States. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of centenarians rose 43.6 percent from 50,281 in 2000 to 72,197 in 2014.

WellMed serves more than 280,000 patients, mostly seniors, in Texas and Florida. Representatives said there is no other WellMed patient older than Lopez in Central and South Texas. There is only one other client older than Lopez in the health care companys network.

Her physician, Dr. Richard Prezas, said his patient is pretty healthy, despite failing hearing and eyesight, and a pelvic fracture from a fall a few years ago.

I think the biggest thing is family support, he said. Her family is a testament to her upbringing. Shes always very happy, no complaints, and shes not hurting.

Prezas has cared for Lopez and her second husband for the past five years.

After her first husband died 21 years ago, she fell in love at the age of 90 with a man16 years younger at a senior center. They lived alone for 15 years before moving in with her daughter. Family members take her to visit him twice a week at an assisted living facility where he now lives.

At the age of 18, Lopez traveled from Monterrey, Mexico, to live in San Antonio, where she made a home with her husband and daughter on Wyoming Street. It was a painful experience when they lost their home, through eminent domain, to make way for the construction of HemisFair 68 and the Tower of the Americas.

Lopez celebrated her actual birthday on July 10 by attending Mass at St. Anthony Mary Claret Roman Catholic Church and dining at a Mexican restaurant with 45 guests. She ate rice, beans and cheese enchiladas doused with hot sauce.

Interpreting for her mother, Galvan gave the crowd her mothers secrets to a long life: honest living, dont waste your days sleeping and put chile (hot sauce) on everything.

Were blessed, Galvan said, sitting beside her mother. We thank God that shes fine. I couldnt ask for anything else.

vtdavis@express-news.net
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SAN ANTONIO  A 40-year-old man was found dead of an apparent suicide Friday at the Bexar County Jail, the fourth suicide at the jail in less than four weeks, according to the officials.

The inmate, identified as Melvin McKinney, was found Friday morning alone in a cell in Special Management Housing, which is used for high-risk violent offenders, and was pronounced dead shortly before 7:30 a.m. McKinney hanged himself, the Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled.

RELATED: 40-year-old inmate who died at the Bexar County Jail hung himself, officials say

McKinney was booked into the Bexar County Jail in September 2013 on numerous charges, including aggravated assault against a public servant, assault bodily injury, violation of parole, felony possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, Keith said.

He allegedly shot a San Antonio Police Officer in the head and then locked himself in a downtown motel room for nine hours before surrendering to police, officials said.

READ MORE: Downtown standoff ends 'peacefully' after nine hours

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which reviews any in-custody death at county facilities it is tasked with overseeing, paid an unexpected visit to the jail last week to collect information on the first two suicides, which occurred in a span of 10 days.

Additionally, the agency met with officials overseeing the jail Wednesday of this week after the third suicide.

"Our preliminary review of the three suicides that had occurred prior to (Friday's) had determined that there were no violations of minimum jail standards," said TCJS Executive Director Brandon Wood.

Sheriff Susan Pamerleau will be holding a press conference at 2:30 p.m. today, which will be live-streamed on our Facebook page.

RELATED: Officials: Suspect in shooting death of 7-year-old Iris Rodriguez found dead in his cell

Victor Casas, 40, died on June 28; Jonathan Campos, 22, died July 9; and Jesus Jose Lopez, 18, died on July 15. All three inmates deaths were ruled suicides. Lopez and Campos faced capital murder charges and Casas was being held on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

All three hanged themselves with bed sheets in their cell.

Another inmate, Demone Satberry, died from natural causes at the jail on July 6. No foul play was suspected, officials said.

There have been at least 924 reported suicide attempts this year so far at the Bexar County jail, which houses about 3,800 inmates at a time, officials said last week. The number of suicide attempts at the jail in 2015 hit 1,300.

BCSO spokesman James Keith explained what the agency considers a suicide attempt in this context:

"An attempt is defined by actions that amount to more than mere preparation. For example, if an inmate tells an officer he is feeling suicidal or expresses suicidal ideations, the incident would be categorized as a Suicidal Inmate. However, if the inmate is found to have actively engaged in suicidal behavior such as trying to hang himself or cutting his wrist, then the incident would be categorized as a Suicide Attempt.

Keith previously said one of the inmates, Campos, was being held in Special Management Housing, which is where high-risk violent offenders will go for incarceration. Two of the other inmates who committed suicide, Lopez and Casas, were being held in general population housing.

RELATED: Third inmate commits suicide at jail in less than a month

After the third suicide last week, Don Finley, spokesman for University Health System, which provides the jail with mental health and medical services, said in an interview with the Express-News: We are obviously concerned about the recent suicides and are evaluating our current practices to determine if any changes should be implemented.

A database produced by The Huffington post tracking inmate deaths lists 815 people who have died while in custody in the United States since the death of Sandra Bland in July of 2015.

Staff writer Quixem Ramirez contributed to this report.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
A man who police say robbed a bank with a note was arrested Thursday after he was spotted getting on a VIA bus.

Kevin Davis, 52, faces a charge of robbery after he handed a note to a bank teller demanding money at an HEB at 6580 FM 78, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
SAN ANTONIO  A man was stabbed four times and then slashed across the chest after two men allegedly tried to rob him on the street on the North Side near downtown.

Police and EMS responded at 12:15 a.m. to TJs Ice House, where the man tried to flee to, in the 400 block of Culebra Road.
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A jury deliberated just 20 minutes Thursday to find Jose Gutierrez, 34, guilty of murder for shooting an acquaintance to death outside his house. After more testimony, it gave him a life sentence.

Gutierrezs trial originally was set for Aug. 25, 2015, but he left the courthouse during jury selection, cut off his ankle monitor and fled. He was rearrested three weeks later.

Authorities said he killed Raul Garcia, 31, and tried to burn his body, stopped only by a passing car. Garcias body was found wrapped in a gasoline-soaked blanket in Gutierrezs truck.

If he had been successful, the family wouldnt even have had a body to bury, prosecutor Mari Janssen told the jury in closing arguments.

Garcia was unarmed, witnesses said, when Gutierrez shot him three times on Aug. 30, 2013, including twice in the chest. Prosecutors did not outline a motive.

Jose Gutierrez murdered Raul Garcia for no legally justifiable reason, prosecutor Joshua Somers said.

Gutierrezs defense lawyer, Juan Aguilera, said the killer was one of the witnesses, Feliciano Rivera, 40, a friend of the defendant. Rivera had testified he saw the shooting and said Gutierrez then forced him at gunpoint to help get rid of the body.

Janssen gestured toward Gutierrez as he yawned during her closing argument, saying it demonstrated his detachment from humanity and disregard for the value of human life.

Anthony Rodriguez, a former gang intelligence officer in the Bexar County Sheriffs Office, testified during the sentencing phase of the trial Thursday that he had identified Gutierrez as a member of the Mexican Mafia when he was incarcerated for previous offenses.

Questioning by Aguilera had brought testimony about a tattoo on Garcia that Rodriguez later said was similar to some he had seen on known gang members.

kcarlson@express-news.net
The state-appointed conservator for the South San Antonio Independent School District reports there has been no progress correcting governance problems in the four months she has been charged with overseeing the districts operations.

The school board president, however, seems to think things are going just great.

Its amazing how two people can look at the same situation from completely opposite viewpoints.

It is easier to understand if you consider that a majority of the school board is up for re-election in November. Spin is key here. Deny all and admit nothing is good political strategy, but it does not paint a true picture.

The reality of the situation can be found in the last line of the conservators June report to the Texas Education Agency. The conservator remains highly concerned about the district, she states.

In her seven-page document, Judy Castleberry notes some of the same problems she listed in earlier reports  governance issues, micromanaging by the board, and a lack of respect for the superintendent.

That the members of this dysfunctional school are unhappy with Castleberrys assessments is an understatement.

They have filed a 78-page rebuttal to her May report, at an estimated cost of $9,000 in legal fees, challenging the conservators findings and questioning whether Castleberry has a full understanding of the term governance. Another rebuttal to address the June report is in the works.

It if werent for the cost involved in drafting these documents, the whole situation would be comical. The most entertaining comment comes at the close of a 12-page letter signed by board President Connie Prado and included in the packet that reads, As a final observation, despite the matters raised in this letter, I am happy to report that matters seem to be going well with South San Independent School District.

Really? We could all benefit from a pair of those rose-colored glasses.

There had been optimism that maybe, just maybe, the board would be able to right itself with a conservator on board, but the situation has gone from bad to worse.

The seven-member board cant even agree to come together for much-needed team building. One member failed to show up for a board workshop scheduled Monday that was aimed at bringing the board together. Two other trustees walked out 10 minutes into the meeting over a disagreement with the board president on a governance issue.

In the midst of all this turmoil, three board members have expressed an interest in a junket to Boston to attend the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Among them is Carlos Longoria, who frequently misses board meetings and failed to show up for the team-building meeting.

Trinidad Mata, an 18-year board veteran and a member of the board minority, is of the opinion the best outcome for the district would be a TEA take over.

The biggest obstacle to the district are the Prados (board President Connie Prado and her husband, former councilman Raul Prado, who was convicted on public corruption charges), Mata said. They want to control and do their shenanigans. It is very frustrating to sit here and watch what they are doing to the district.

He does not expect the November election to bring much change. He is up for re-election and expects an opponent fielded by the Prados to increase their hold on the board. Mata expects Prado to go unchallenged because of the political machine backing her.

I have always had questions about the end game. What is the coveted prize that comes with keeping a tight grip on the board majority?

Mata, 67, said the immediate goal appears to be getting rid of the conservator and Superintendent Abe Saavedra. But those are probably the only good things the district has going for it right now.

I hope voters are paying attention. They have an opportunity to clean up the district this election, but if that fails, a good Plan B would be to have TEA step in and do the clean up.

We cant continue to have more of the same in South San.

gpadilla@express-news.net
Posted on 07/22/2016, 9:00 am, by Farmscape.Ca

The President of the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame says the history of those honored represents the story of agriculture and its a story that continues to unfold.

Last week the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame held its thirty-ninth annual induction ceremony in Portage la Prairie.

Four new members, the late Selma Maendel of the Fairholme Colony at Portage la Prairie, Gordon, McPhee of Dauphin, the late John Parker of Winnipeg and Weldon Newton of Neepawa, were inducted.

Brian Saunderson, the President of the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame, says the Hall of Fame was established in 1976 to honor pioneers and agriculturalists who have made a contribution to agriculture and rural living in Manitoba.

The gallery, we call it the gallery, is in the Keystone Centre in Brandon in a corridor just outside of the Manitoba Room. We are pleased with that site because it is open to the public as long as the Keystone Centre is open, which is a fairly wide spectrum of hours. Thats where our plaques which are encased in cabinets are for viewing to the public. The mission statement is to recognize and honor innovators, leaders and visionaries who have made a contribution to agriculture in Manitoba. Those three criteria are mainly what were looking for, leadership, innovation as well as a vision of the future so we really think that is well represented in our gallery those criteria and well add four more inductees to that group this year. ~ Brian Saunderson, Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame

Saunderson says the gallery represents the story of agriculture and its a story that continues to be told.
Posted on 07/22/2016, 1:53 pm, by mySteinbach

On July 17, 2016, Steinbach RCMP were advised by the general public that there had been a threat conveyed towards police on a local Facebook page. The threat was a subsequent comment made in response to the fatal shooting of three Police Officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

Police investigation led to the arrest of 18-year-old, Kevin Giesbrecht, who was located later that same day at his parents residence where he resides in the RM of Hanover. Giesbrecht was subsequently remanded in custody.

RCMP would like to remind the public that threats of violence towards any person of the general public, or in this case the police, will not be tolerated and are taken seriously. Persons making such threats will be held accountable for their actions.
Residents received the Illinois Valley Times in their mailboxes this week.

Despite its local name, the new publication has no presence here. Its parent organization, which is largely funded by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, is based in Chicago. One of its writers lives in New York.

The newspaper includes no mailing address or phone number and gives readers no information about who runs it, though it provides an email address and Twitter account.

The Illinois Valley Times, which has no ads, is one of at least a dozen sister newspapers around the state that are promoting Republicans, often those from battleground legislative districts.

The local version ran stories critical of state Rep. Andy Skoog, D-La Salle and complimentary of his opponent, Jerry Long, a Streator Republican. The eight-page paper includes four stories involving the candidates in the 76th House District, which consists of all or parts of La Salle, Bureau, Putnam and Livingston counties.

One story says Skoog is "part of the Madigan Machine," referring to House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. Another touts Long's blue-collar credentials. Still another features the Republican Party's assertion Skoog voted for a budget that included higher taxes, which is untrue.

Skoog's side of the story wasn't in these articles.

'A point of view'

In the spring, The Times discovered a series of papers were cropping up around the state that highlighted the troubles of former state Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, who has been under investigation for alleged campaign spending irregularities.

The Times found the publications were the work of the Chicago-based Liberty Principles PAC, which contracts with LocalLabs Inc. to provide content for its publications.

In a March interview, Dan Proft, chairman of Liberty Principles, acknowledged the papers' conservative perspective.

"Every paper has a point of view," he said at the time. "The only difference is that at least we're honest about it. We endorse candidates like the Tribune and the Daily Herald. We have a point of view that is expressed in the stories we decide to pursue. We let the content stand on its own and let readers decide whether the content is valuable or not."

During the last quarter, Liberty Principles received $2.5 million from Rauner and $1.5 million from Wisconsin businessman Richard Uihlein, according to reports filed with the state Board of Elections.

In an interview, Long said the publication took him by surprise, saying he had no idea it was coming out. He said he never spoke with Carol Ostrow, the reporter who wrote three stories about him in the inaugural edition.

'No connection to campaigns'

Ostrow, who lives in upstate New York, said Thursday she is a freelance writer for LocalLabs. Her work also appears in many of the Illinois Valley Times' sister papers. She said she obtained Long's quotes from Facebook and other online sources.

"I have absolutely no connection to the campaigns," she said. "I'm instructed by my editor. They give me sources."

In the March interview, Proft said his papers had no "defined horizon."

"The plan is to continue producing the papers," he said.

Proft and Skoog couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.
(NaturalHealth365) Its difficult to think about any five-year-old child in this country  CDC data shows nearly 1,000 reported adverse events after COVID vax in children 5 and under
Stimulating the desire to drink more alcohol

Caffeine masks the intoxicating effect

Energy drinks are bad news

(NaturalNews) Over the years, mixing energy drinks and alcohol has developed into a trend among the younger generation. While RTD (Ready to Drink) alcohol energy drinks, such as Four Loco, are almost impossible to find these days, their disappearance from the market hasn't stopped many youngsters from chasing the caffeinated alcohol kick.The ban on the once hugely popular pre-mixed energy alcohol drinks simply led to RTD-lovers mixing up their own, such as the famous Jagerbomb or vodka red bull  two favorite party staples at most college parties or nightclubs. A recent study , however, suggests that there may be some hidden dangers lurking in these popular party drinks.Scientists at Northern Kentucky University found that mixing caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol results in a greater desire to consume more alcohol  more so than if you were just drinking alcohol alone or combined with a non-caffeinated mixer.For the study, published in the journal, scientists asked 26 adult social drinkers  13 men and 13 women  to drink alcohol, an energy or soft drink, or a combination of both.Over the course of six days, they were given either: vodka and a decaffeinated soft drink; vodka and a medium energy drink; vodka and a large energy drink; a decaffeinated soft drink; a medium energy drink; or a large energy drink.After each session, the volunteers were asked to rate their desire for another drink, and their breath alcohol concentration was measured.The results revealed that the consumption of alcohol in combination with a high-caffeinated energy drink stimulated the desire to drink more, when compared to consuming the same amount of alcohol alone or combined with a non-caffeinated mixer.According to the researchers, these findings are in line with previous animal studies which also showed an increased craving for alcohol when mixed with an energy drink. They believe that caffeine increases the rewarding and reinforcing properties of alcohol.It is actually not the first time that the consumption of energy drinks and alcohol has been proven to be a dangerous combination. Previous research showed that the caffeine in energy drinks masks the intoxicating effect of alcohol, meaning that people who drink these beverages are prone to drinking too much and often engage in binge drinking. Another study , conducted at Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center, found that teenagers (aged between 15 and 17) who regularly mix energy drinks and alcohol, are four times more likely to develop an alcohol problem later in life.As reported by the, a Brazilian professor, Roseli Boergnen de Lacerda, warns that there is a significantly higher risk of car accidents because these people don't fully realize how drunk they are.Furthermore, researchers note that people who drink these mixers are more likely to show problematic behavior such as drunk driving, alcohol abuse and risky sex. The caffeine rush creates a greater sense of balance, making the drinker believe they are not actually drunk.In addition to increasing risky behavior, energy drinks come with a host of other health risks, especially when combined with alcohol. According to the, energy drinks , shots and other high-caffeine beverages may lead to cardiac events, seizures and death.Furthermore, the consumption of these drinks has been linked to developmental problems, poor sleep and an increased risk of aggressive and self-harming behavior. Finally, excessive consumption of the B vitamins present in energy drinks may result in liver and nerve damage.To help support your liver, try MitoQ liver , a high-quality revolutionary supplement.
Ziopharm stock takes a plunge

The cancer conspiracy

(NaturalNews) Despite the growing body of evidence proving that natural cancer treatments are more effective than those involving dangerous pharmaceuticals , the cancer industry continues killing patients in its reckless pursuit of profits  as evidenced by the latest death which occurred during clinical trials of an experimental drug made by biotech company Ziopharm Oncology Inc.A patient suffering from a recurrent brain tumor died from bleeding in the skull shortly after beginning treatment with the Ziopharm gene therapy drug known as Ad-RTS-hIL-12.The drug is designed to be injected directly into a tumor, theoretically producing a tumor-shrinking autoimmune response, but the patient in question instead suffered from an intracranial hemorrhage 15 days after receiving the Ad-RTS-hIL-12 injection.News of the death became public after a closed-door scientific workshop at which Ziopharm CEO Laurence Cooper first disclosed the fatality during a presentation that was part of a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The death rated only a single bullet point in Cooper's presentation slides, but when the news leaked out, Ziopharm stock took an immediate 16 percent tumble.Two other deaths during Ad-RTS-hIL-12 trials were also reported, but Ziopharm claims they were unrelated to the drug.The Phase 1 study of the drug is being conducted on patients suffering from Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a common but difficult-to-treat form of brain cancer Conventional treatments for GBM have so far proven to be only marginally effective.From"GBM typically results in death in the first 15 months after diagnosis. The mainstay of treatment is surgery, followed by radiation and chemotherapy, and the most effective therapies introduced in recent decades have improved median survival rates by only three months, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons."The news of the Ziopharm deaths comes amid increased scrutiny of the cancer drug industry, triggered by two other recent patient deaths during clinical trials of another experimental cellular therapy drug made by Juno Therapeutics Inc.Despite the health risks associated with conventional cancer drugs and their overall lack of effectiveness, the cancer industry continues trying to push its poisons on desperate patients who will understandably try anything that might save their lives  no matter how dangerous, expensive or ineffective it may be.The cancer industry preys on sick people, while suppressing any information regarding safe and effective natural treatments; it's a multi-billion dollar criminal industry sanctioned by a corrupt federal regulatory system that turns a blind eye to even the most egregious offenses.Ziopharm, for example, keeps on trying to find a use for Ad-RTS-hIL-12, even though the drug has already proven to be ineffective in treating other types of cancer.From"Ziopharm first tried Ad-RTS-hIL-12 in patients with skin cancer, but subpar response rates and competition from other, more effective, cancer immunotherapies led the company to back off that indication. In a study of 12 breast cancer patients treated with Ad-RTS-hIL-12 and veledimex, a single patient had a partial response, according to data presented at a November 2015 cancer immunotherapy meeting."The fact that human trials of these dangerous and useless drugs are allowed to continue while the FDA does its best to outlaw natural therapies and nutritional supplements is a testament to the fact that the entire medical industrythe federal regulatory system have been taken taken over by a gang of ruthless profit-mongering frauds who don't care about people's lives at all.It's time to expose these criminals for who they really are, and it's also high time to get rid of those within the government and medical industry who are doing their bidding.
The state is claiming ownership of children's bodies, trampling on the natural rights and convictions of parents

Parents don't need permission to raise healthy and independent children

(NaturalNews) A growing number of parents across the nation are now going against the recommendations of the CDC vaccine schedule  which currently promotes the injecting of 49 doses of various vaccines before a child turns 6 years old. The number of parents opting out of the onslaught of childhood vaccinations has doubled since 2009. As vaccine use plummets, state legislatures are trying to find new ways to bully parents into the vaccination cycle.A new bill in Ohio (HB 564) seeks to intimidate parents into vaccine compliance by forcing them to be re-educated about the benefits of vaccines. Ohio parents will no longer be allowed to send their children to public schools unless they see a state-licensed medical doctor first to receive such re-education. If the parent objects to a vaccine, and determines it's not worth the risk to their child, they will no longer get to make that choice freely. This law will put parents under the control of the medical system by denying any philosophical exemption the parent may have.Since vaccines are a medical procedure, informed consent should always be required. However, if this law were to pass, the government could make extremely risky medical decisions without parental consent. HB 564 allows school administrators to vaccinate children without parental consent, if officials deem it necessary.If Ohio parents object to a vaccine, they will be required by law to report to and get permission from a state-licensed medical doctor. The doctor is then required by the state to bully the parents with pro-pharmaceutical propaganda that makes vaccines look like perfect medical science. If the parents still object to the vaccine after the doctor has tried to forcibly brainwash them, they can then try to obtain a "religious exemption." At this stage, many parents will just go along to get along because it's easier to comply than argue with a doctor or be investigated, harassed, and/or profiled.Under the pressure of this new medical system dictate, it will be easier for parents to just let go of their natural born rights and throw away their own education, experiences and convictions on vaccines. If parents continue to object, doctors will easily feel threatened and may attempt to call in the CPS to kidnap the child and put them into state custody. This is a growing problem around the country.At the end of day, parents won't be able to obtain a "religious exemption" to the vaccines unless the medical doctor and the state give them permission. In this way, parents are being turned into slaves of the state, and essentially slaves of the pharmaceutical companies which ultimately control the science, the law and the minds of medical professionals.Most disturbingly, the state is essentially claiming ownership over children's bodies. If parents want to use the public school education system (most parents have no choice), they must sign their sovereign, parental rights away to the state, subjecting their children to being pincushions for endless vaccine and pharmaceutical experiments.Why should parents be forced to vaccinate their children endlessly for benign illnesses that the body can build natural, lifelong immunity to?Why should parents be forced to retrain their child's entire immune system (weakening natural first line defenses) with ongoing shots?Why should parents fear diseases that have statistically been overcome in communities with proper hygiene, sanitation and nutrition?How many micrograms of aluminum are in those 49 vaccine doses, and how do they affect children's neurological development?These questions (and many more concerns of parents) will not be answered, or in fact entertained at all in Ohio, because the medical system may soon have the authority of the law to ram pro-vaccine propaganda down parents' throats, intimidating them into vaccine compliance, barring their children from public school attendance, or vaccinating them against a parent's will. Vaccines (singularly or in compounding doses) can damage children subtly or dramatically for life. More people are recognizing this and saying NO. No parent needs permission or an exemption to make a medical decision for their own body or for the bodies of their children.
Children restrained and injected with experimental drug

'Not a truth serum'

(NaturalNews) Reports have emerged that dozens of children at a British psychiatric hospital in the 1960s and 70s were experimented on with a "truth serum" drug, and that many were psychologically or sexually abused.The stories emerged after a group of "urban explorers" posted photos online of the abandoned Aston Hall Hospital, which is slated to be demolished for housing developments. People started posting comments beneath the photos, sharing their stories of being child patients at Aston Hall.Survivors of the abuse at Aston Hall formed a support group, which led to still more former child patients coming forward.Many of the former patients claim they were injected with the drug sodium amytal, colloquially known as "truth serum" for its tendency to lower people's inhibitions. Many of the patients say they were locked in a small room with a mattress on the floor before receiving the shots; some say they had their hands tied with bandages.All the patients report receiving the drug from the same doctor, medical superintendent Kenneth Milner.Medical records viewed by the BBC confirm that many children and adolescents at Aston Hall in the 60s and 70s were indeed regularly prescribed 60 mg of sodium amytal.Sodium amytal is a heavy sedative that was used during World War II to treat traumatized soldiers. It was considered quicker than psychoanalysis, but fell out of favor after the war when doubts were raised about its effectiveness. It was not a preferred treatment for any condition by the 1960s."As far as I knew nobody was using [sodium amytal] with children at that time," said Michael Rutter of King's College London, the United Kingdom's first professor of child psychiatry.Rutter is concerned by the reports of the use of sodium amytal on children, as well as the way it was administered, and says he "would have been concerned even in those days."Other experts interviewed by the BBC said that if Milner was performing experimental therapies, he should have published the results. But the BBC could find no such publications.Many former patients allege that Milner used sodium amytal to psychologically or sexually abuse them. Nearly all said that Milner asked very personal sexual questions while they were under the influence.In some cases, Milner appears to have been trying to uncover repressed memories of prior sexual abuse. Some patients said that he "coerced" them into believing the stories that he fed them about their childhoods.Indeed, part of the reason sodium amytal fell out of favor is that it makes patients highly suggestible, and therefore prone to forming false memories fed to them by a "questioner.""It is not a truth serum ," said memory expert Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California-Irvine. "When it comes to the recovery of pristine, accurate, allegedly repressed memories, it's a danger."One former patient of Milner's, identified as "Sandra," believes that she was fed false memories of abuse. She recalls that after nine or 10 sessions, Milner rejoiced when she said she finally "remembered" being abused by her father."You were a hard nut to crack!" he said.Sandra's accusations against her father tore her family apart. Her sisters said the accusations were implausible, because she had never been alone with her father; it had been her sisters that cared for her."It came to me, that perhaps ... for 51 years I have been accusing my father of maybe doing something he did not do," Sandra said."If it didn't happen, I've got to live the rest of my life knowing that I've told people that he's done this."British authorities have launched an investigation into the allegations surrounding Aston Hall. They cannot question Milner himself however; he died in 1975.Promote a healthy stress response with Adrenal Strength food-based supplements from the Natural News Store.
Parents who do their research say NO to childhood vaccinations

(NaturalNews) It's a tragedy that happens more often than we'd like to admit: a mother, pressured to do what's "right" for her kids by her pediatrician or doctor, agrees to vaccinate her healthy little ones, only to watch their health spiral into a vortex of chronic disease right before her very eyes  these precious children who once radiated vibrant health now just a shell of what they once were in their pre-jab state.Fortunately for health advocate and entrepreneur Brittney Kara, the two of her three children that she agreed to vaccinate under pressure didn't experience a scenario quite this horrific. But her oldest and middle child, Kayla and Kelsie, did suffer some health problems following their vaccinations , which is why Brittney decided to stand her ground and skip all vaccines for her third child, Beau.A longtime advocate of natural and healthy living, Brittney never wanted to vaccinateof her children. But, since she didn't know as much at the time as she does now, she agreed under pressure from both family and health professionals to give it a go. Brittney and her husband agreed to only get the DTap vaccine , along with a vitamin K2 shot, for their oldest, Kayla, who experienced instant reactions. Her first and only ear infection, followed by an aggressive round of antibiotics that would be her last, had Brittney saying no more.Then along came Kelsie, the couple's middle child, and by this point Brittney and her husband were in agreement that vaccines would be a no-go. But, under pressure from the family pediatrician, and because of a personal health crisis in her own life, Brittney decided to once again allow only the DTap and vitamin K2 vaccines for her daughter. Kelsie immediately developed a sleeping disorder that took more than a year to subside, and after switching pediatricians, Brittney realized that the doctors had actually given Kelsey the wrong vaccine, Hib, instead of DTap  and without her knowledge.Infuriated by all the abuse, lies and now more health damage to her second child, Brittney said no to all vaccines for the couple's third child, Beau, who's managed quite well in the health department despite his mother being warned that he might suffer a brain hemorrhage if he wasn't vaccinated. Good thing for Beau that his momma had previously done her research on vaccines and protected him against the chemical onslaught that harmed his two older sisters.Like many other parents of vaccine-injured children , Brittney deeply regrets that she succumbed to the pressure by vaccinating her two daughters. But she's happy to be helping other parents avoid what she experienced, which is why she posted a video to YouTube telling her story. You can watch that video here As Brittney correctly points out, a healthy immune system doesn't come from vaccines; it comes from nutrition, rest, hydration, exposure to natural sunlight and a loving family environment. It comes from allowing the body to do what it naturally does when unencumbered by chemicals like Thimerosal (mercury) , polysorbate 80, aluminum, formaldehyde and the other toxins added to childhood vaccines."Vaccines harm and damage, maim and kill, way more people than they've ever, every helped, if any at all," Brittney warns. "I truly believe that every single person that's ever been vaccinated is, in fact, vaccine-injured on some level because their immune system has been disrupted. And we do know that vaccines alter DNA.""Our bodies are intuitive, they're amazing, they're divine, and for us to think that we can create something pharmaceutically-based that's going to be more protective than what nature has already delivered for us is completely ridiculous."Be sure to watch Brittney tell her full story here
Over the years, there has been growing pile of evidence that animals can also feel grief. In the book "How Animals Grieve" by Barbara King, she describes how elephants, baboons and cats attend to the corpse of their companion as if they are holding a funeral.

While this has been quite evident in terrestrial animals, the extent of this emotion has not been studied in whales. Until recently, a new study in the Journal of Mammalogy said grief is also found in several mammalian species in the ocean.

Melissa Reggente of University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy collected data from unpublished reports of whale behavior and identified seven pieces that showed mourning, including Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris), killer whales (Orcinus orca), Australian humpback dolphins (Sousa sahulensis), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus) and short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus).

The observation was based on 14 events from 3 oceans. All species showed the same gesture toward a deceased companion. Reggente told National Geographic that the only possible explanation for such behavior is "grief."

"They are mourning," Reggente told National Geographic. "They are in pain and stressed. They know something is wrong."

The study also identified several ways whales mourn for their dead ones. For example, some touch their dead companions using their fins, while some circle around their dead as if guarding them so other species would not feed on their dead body.

Whales are highly sociable species. Studies showed that they form actual friendships, even lifelong bonds with their companions. Some researchers have observed that whales, even after years of migrating and breeding, return to meet their companions each year.

Not all whales are endangered, but the preservation of these ancient species is a priority. For the past centuries, their population decline has been attributed to commercial whaling and the degradation of the quality of the waters where they live.
Dark Matter was widely discussed and popularized in the 2007 film directed by Chen Shi-zheng. Despite its popularity, Dark Matter is yet to be discovered. Scientists have yet to get their hands on the elusive and mysterious material.

At the 11th Identification of Dark Matter Conference (IDM2016) held in Sheffield, UK, scientists claim that the search for dark matter continues. Even with studies claiming that the material takes up four-fifths' mass of the universe, a direct observation has not been done, even with the help of a super sensitive dark-matter detector.

"We're sort of proud that it worked so well and also disappointed that we didn't see anything," stated Daniel McKinsey, a physicist of UC Berkeley and also one of two scientific spokesmen of the government-funded project.

Even with the help of LUX, also known as Large Underground Xenon, which is a dark matter detector, scientists have come up empty handed. The search has gone on for more than three years and the LUX projects has cost more than $10 million. LUX is located 1.6 km underground at a South Dakota mine, which is now known as the Sanford Underground Research Facility. The detector is suspended in a titanium tank filled with 272,500 liters of purified water.

"LUX has delivered the world's best search sensitivity since its first run in 2013," said Rick Gaitskell, physicist hailing from Brown University and a co-spokesman for LUX. "With this final result from the 2014 to 2016 search, the scientists of the LUX Collaboration have pushed the sensitivity of the instrument to a final performance level that is four times better than the original project goals."

The search for dark matter still continues as there are three places where scientists continue to look for the material. In fact, for an additional $50 million, a higher version of the LUX set to be 70 times sensitive is in the plans for revamp at the South Dakota site. Operations will begin by 2020.

"Over 80 percent of our matter is in this dark matter form. You and I are the flotsam and jetsam; dark matter is the sea," stated Gaitskell, adding, "That's why one doesn't give up. We've got to figure out what this dark matter component is."
Diabetes treatment should be more gender-specific, a new study suggested.

The international guidelines for the management of diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes) put into consideration factors such as age, social environment, the duration of the illness and associated health complaints.

However, gender is not considered a factor.

According to the researchers from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, gender is becoming an ever-growing issue, as men and women bear different risks and fall victim to or suffer from a different type of diabetes.

For this reason, the researchers put forth that diabetes treatment should be more personalized and more gender-specific.

From a biological aspect, the researchers said that men are principally at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women. Women are "protected" for a while due to increased production of the estrogen hormone, until menopause causes hormonal change and reduces this protection.

Men are most at risk because they have a greater amount of stomach fat and more liver fat, as well as a lower sensitivity to insulin regardless of whether or not they are overweight. But the lack of testosterone in men is also a risk factor, and women with a greater amount of male sexual hormones are at a higher risk.

"In contrast, it was shown that the thigh fat, which is more frequent in women due to genetics and estrogen, can even have a protective effect. On the other hand, the stomach circumference in women has a better diabetes predictive power than in men,"Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, diabetes expert, professor for gender medicine in Austria and study author, said in a press release.

"In women, also psychosocial stress, stress on the job as well as lack of decision-making competency at high performance pressure or lack of sleep more frequently lead to diabetes than in men. This is often also intensified due to weight gain."

Men, on the other hand, are more at risk of developing diabetes at a later point in life, the researchers said.

According to the researchers, there are also gender-specific biomarkers, which helps detect diabetes risks early on. For instance, the protein Fetuin-A formed by the liver as well as Copeptin, and proneurotensin are biomarkers in women but not in men.

"Also endocrine disruptors, meaning hormone-active substances, become increasingly important," Jurgen Harreiter, co-researcher of the study, said.

The researchers found that synthetically manufactured substances such as Bisphenol A or Phatalate - risk factors for diabetes - have different effects in men and women.

According to the researchers, the mentioned gender-specific factors in diabetes should be incorporated in the guidelines.
Sleeping next to a live chicken could be a natural way of avoiding mosquito bites, a new study suggested.

Scientists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia found that Anopheles arabiensis, one of the predominant species transmitting malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, steer clear of chickens when looking for hosts.

According to the researchers, chickens are non-host species for the malaria-transmitting mosquito, and using their sense of smell, they could detect the presence of chickens and avoid them.

"We were surprised to find that malaria mosquitoes are repelled by the odors emitted by chickens," Rickard Ignell, study author, said in a press release.

"This study shows for the first time that malaria mosquitoes actively avoid feeding on certain animal species, and that this behavior is regulated through odor cues."

In the study, which was published in the open-access Malaria Journal, the researchers tested their theory on three Ethiopian villages where people often share their living quarters with their livestock. They also collected blood-fed mosquitoes to trace the blood source.

In each of the houses, the researchers asked a single volunteer aged between 27 and 36 to sleep under an untreated bed net. Traps were set up in the room to get a count of the mosquitoes that flew in. The experiment lasted for 11 days.

The researchers found that significantly fewer mosquitoes were caught in traps baited with chicken odors taken from their feathers compared with traps containing compounds from other host animals.

Moreover, the researchers found that suspending a live chicken in a cage next to a trap had a similar repellant effect.

"People in sub-Saharan Africa have suffered considerably under the burden of malaria over an extended period of time and mosquitoes are becoming increasingly physiologically resistant to pesticides, while also changing their feeding habits for example by moving from indoors to outdoors," Ignell said.

"People in sub-Saharan Africa have suffered considerably under the burden of malaria over an extended period of time and mosquitoes are becoming increasingly physiologically resistant to pesticides, while also changing their feeding habits for example by moving from indoors to outdoors."
Monroe Montessori School in Monroe, Washington was temporary closed by officials of Snohomish Health District to prevent further E.coli outbreak after two of their students were sent to the hospital due to complications from a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) infection.

Both of the hospitalized girls are just under five years old. One of them could potentially suffer from hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can cause the kidneys to shut down and other serious health problems.

Health officials are still uncertain if the girls got their infection in school. However, the school was temporarily closed as a precautionary measure. Additionally, about 60 students and 10 staffs of the school who could have been exposed were asked to be tested for E.coli.

"The exact source of contamination in E. coli can be very difficult to identify, but at this point we believe the children were likely exposed to livestock near their home," Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer and director of the Health District, told Outbreak News Today. "The school has been cooperating fully as we work with the families and improve existing policies and procedures to prevent these incidents from happening in the future."

The school will be temporary closed until July 25 to give way for thorough cleaning and sanitizing of the facility. Officials were also tracking down individuals and other children who might visited the school last July 11.

Young children, along with the elderly, pregnant women and people weakened immune system, are at increased risk of serious illness following STEC infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, E.coli are bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals. Most of E.coli strains are harmless. However, STEC infection can cause severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, bloody stool and vomiting. STEC infections can also cause life-threatening conditions, including hemolytic uremic syndrome.

Hand washing is still the most effective way of preventing E.coli infection. CDC is urging parents to supervise the hand washing of their children, especially after bathroom use.


Hundreds of protesters rallied outside Oakland City Hall on Thursday as part of a nationwide day of action called for by the Movement for Black Lives against police violence.

Protesters started gathering outside Oakland police headquarters at about 3:30 p.m. and later marched toward City Hall. They converged with other groups of demonstrators along the march, finally arriving at City Hall to rally at the amphitheater outside, where a banner was strung across the doors reading, "Honoring Black Lives Stolen by OPD."

Similar protests, calling for #FreedomNow, were being held in more than 80 cities nationwide, organizers said.

The Oakland protesters were a diverse group of people, young and old, of all races and from a variety of organizations. The demonstration was very peaceful, staying on the sidewalk and only briefly blocking streets as the group marched up Broadway from the Oakland police building at 455 Seventh St. to City Hall. Groups of children carried colorful signs, and one woman even brought her pet rabbit along.

Protests have surged in Oakland and throughout the country in recent weeks following the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana, Philando Castile in Wisconsin and Delrawn Small in New York. Recent protests over Sterling and Castile's deaths shut down Interstate 880 in Oakland for hours.

Oakland organizers said of Thursday's action that their demands are the recall of Mayor Libby Schaaf, to investigate and hold accountable the officers implicated in a sexual exploitation scandal, divest half the police budget and reinvest it in educational programs and to establish a civilian police commission, a proposal that's expected to go before voters this November but is opposed by the police officers' union.

"We are taking action in solidarity with Movement for Black Lives organizers who are taking militant action for a future in which they can be free from state-sanctioned violence and oppression. We echo their call for #FreedomNow," Showing Up For Racial Justice organizer Sam Bickle said in a statement.

Oakland resident Sarah Raridon spent most of the day chained to the door of Oakland police headquarters, saying she intended to remain there "until they stop killing black people."

"Specifically as a white person, I see a lot of white people immobilized by guilt and fear," Raridon said. "It will take a lot of us putting our bodies on the line to make change."

She said she wasn't part of some larger organizing group beyond taking up the call to action, but that she had been seeing what was going on in the news and "passion" drove her to affix herself to the door of the police headquarters building with heavy chains and sit on the concrete in the hot sun Thursday.

"This is the most direct way I could think of to physically stop police from murdering black people," she said. "I really do feel that none of us are free until all of us are free."

Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said in a statement, "The Oakland Police Department is aware of the rally that is going on now and will facilitate a peaceful march this evening. We are committed to upholding the constitutional right to free speech and peaceful assembly, while enforcing all laws against violent acts, vandalism, trespassing or other criminal activity."

Thursday's actions follow a lengthy sit-in staged Wednesday afternoon when several protesters chained themselves to the Oakland Police Officers' Association building around the corner from police headquarters.

The protesters were allowed to stay but left voluntarily at about 3 a.m., Anti-Police Terror Project organizer Cat Brooks said Thursday. Similar actions were staged at police union buildings in New York and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
Prosecutors rested their case against PG&E Thursday after the head of the National Transportation Safety Boards San Bruno investigation revealed under cross examination that he wanted the company kicked out of the blast probe for repeated misconduct.

In four incidents, they interviewed people after they were told not to, NTSB lead investigator Ravi Chhatre testified Thursday about his experience with the utility as he ran the boards investigation of the September 2010 gas explosion that left eight dead.

Chhatres testimony is central to the governments allegations that the company misled federal investigators during the blast probe. The charges refer to an April 2011 letter in which PG&E denied having a policy to avoid costly inspections otherwise following over-pressurization events.

In the letter, PG&E asserts that the policy of only inspecting lines after pressure surges above 10 percent of allowed levels was a draft that had never been implemented.

On Wednesday, Chhatre told prosecutors he considered the April 2011 disavowal letter dubious.

During defense cross examination on Thursday, Chhatre acknowledged that he never even asked a question about the companys letter before he finished the NTSB report on the blast in August 2011.

I did not have the time or the luxury to look into it, he maintained. He added later: The issue did not go away from my mind.

Chhatre suggested the letter was only part of a pattern of improper conduct that left him increasingly frustrated. In January 2011, he said, that the companys official liaison, Bob Fassett, secretly interviewed a retired employee in advance of an official NTSB interview.

That was a big surprise and a big breach of protocol, Chhatre told prosecutors on Wednesday.

PG&E defense attorneys asked where it is spelled out in the agreement the company signed that prohibited such interviews. Chhatre stressed that the company had to heed his instructions under that agreement, and he had specifically told the company not to conduct unauthorized interviews.

Still, in May 2011, he said, company officials once again secretly interviewed current and former workers before informing the NTSB about a prior leak on a seam weld of the San Bruno line  a 1988 leak that Chhatre says should have forced the company to check the line for other problems.

That I will never forget in my life, he said Thursday about the companys late disclosure of the leak and backdoor interviews.

He told defense attorney Margaret Tough that he considered the misconduct so bad as to endanger the companys privileged access to information as a party to the investigation.

I asked that PG&E be kicked out as a party, he said, but in the end the company retained that status.

At the time the government rested its case, PG&E had already filed a motion asking the judge to instruct the jury not to consider Chhatres allegations of supposedly meddling conduct as beyond governments specific obstruction charge related to the April 2011 letter.

PG&E summoned its first witness on Thursday, Brian Daubin, an executive who coordinated the effort to give NTSB data after the blast. He said at one point, it was Chhatre who asked him to vet out data to assure that it was relevant to the blast.

The NTSB had a very difficult job, he said. We were providing massive amounts of data to them.

It was in that spirit, he said, that the company sought to pre-interview a retired employee who had contacted PG&E about being involved in constructing the section of the line that exploded. That way, Daubin said, the company would not be providing too much information that was not pertinent to the case.

While Chhatre complained that such pre-interviews could contaminate such a witnesss recollections, Daubin said that was not true for the ex-employee the company interviewed in advance, Frank Maffei.

If you ever met Mr. Maffei, theres no contaminating him  hes one of a kind.

Daubin said separately that in his role of providing requested information, he felt the need to school NTSB investigators on the complexities of pipeline operations.

I think throughout the process, the NTSB didnt have a full understanding of the pipeline industry per se, Daubin said, adding that while the NTSB had extremely competent investigators, they didnt have an understanding of the specific rules.
Grooming company Wahl is offering free facial hair trims in San Francisco Friday to help battle cancer. For every trim performed, Wahl will donate $1 to ZEROThe End of Prostate Cancer, a nonprofit fighting against prostate cancer.

This stop is part of Wahls cross country tour, where they are visiting the top 10 most facial hair friendly cities in America. San Francisco sits at #10 on the list. The tour has been going on annually for about a decade, and last year, about 100 people showed up in San Francisco for the free cuts.

Along with the grooming, the team of barbers is also searching for a guy with the best scruff to represent the city as Wahl Man of San Francisco. The man with the best mustache, beard or goatee will go on to compete for the title of Wahl Man of the Year.

The free cuts will be taking place on Pier 39, located on Beach Street and the Embarcadero, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.

The main goal of the tour is to celebrate guys who celebrate facial hair, Robyn Nowak of Wahl said. We want to support guys who are enthusiastic about their facial hair and use it as a way to express themselves.
Sadness and renewed calls for justice marked Mario Woods Day in San Francisco Friday.

The Justice For Mario Woods Coalition is seeking justice for the man who was fatally shot by police last year in the city's Bayview neighborhood. Members held a vigil in his honor on what would have been his 27th birthday.

Earlier this year, San Francisco supervisors unanimously passed a resolution to mark Friday as Mario Woods Day  a move that drew some criticism.

"On this day, on Mario Woods Day, we are not only talking about Mario Woods, but were talking about all the victims and the need for real police reform," supervisor David Campos said.

Community members met at 5 p.m. at Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church at 6190 Third St., according to organizers. They sang, prayed and ate pizza  the young man's favorite food  at the site where Mario Woods was killed.

Woods' mother, Gwendolyn Woods, was among those at Third Street and Le Conte Avenue, where balloons and a birthday banner were spotted.

"Next time you take our lives, 40 bullets against a wall, 22 to a body  my baby didnt deserve that," she said.

Gwendolyn Woods has been an advocate for police reform since her son died.

"Mario was the best of me," she said. "One thing I say is they never know what they did, they never know what they took from me. Theyll never know. I miss that kid."

An emotional Gwendolyn Woods said she believes "everybody needs a cake for their birthday."

If her son had been alive, she said, they would likely have visited The Shops at Tanforan, bought a "pair of tennis shoes" and CDs, eaten lunch at BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse and enjoyed the waterfront.

"He was a beautiful spirit," Gwendolyn Woods said. "Contrary to what they want you to believe, Mario was a beautiful spirit."

The roughly 80 people who came together Friday displayed a range of emotions, including sadness, joy and frustration. The common thread, however, was a deep need for justice.

"Being a police officer in these streets isnt an easy job, so dont get us wrong  were not anti-police, were anti-haters," said Frank Williams of the Mario Woods Coalition.

As members of the community remembered Mario Woods Friday, police remembered their own.

"It was prompted by the murder of Sgt. Scott Lunger one year ago today, but it was also prompted by the assassination of five Dallas police officers and the assassination of three Baton Rouge police officers," said Martin Halloran, with the San Francisco Police Officers Association. Lunger worked for the Hayward Police Department and was fatally shot during a traffic stop.

Woods was killed on Dec. 2 at after he was shot by five officers during a confrontation with police. Officers encountered Woods, who allegedly had bloody clothes and was holding a knife, after receiving a report that a man armed with a knife had stabbed someone just moments before nearby.

Cellphone video of the incident was taken bystanders was posted online and has generated public outrage.

An autopsy later revealed Woods had been shot 21 times by police, many of the bullet wounds in his back. The autopsy also found Woods had methamphetamine, marijuana, anti-depressants, cough syrup, nicotine and caffeine in his system.

A civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the family of Woods, along with attorney John Burris, against the city in federal court in December. According to the suit, officers used extreme force on Woods and should have used a different protocol because Woods allegedly suffered from mental illness.

In response to the lawsuit, the San Francisco City Attorney's Office said Woods had told officers they would have to shoot him before he would drop the knife. Additionally, the attorney's office said officers first fired beanbags, rubber bullets and pepper spray at Woods, before resorting to guns.

In the wake of the shooting, as well as other highly publicized fatal officer-involved shootings in San Francisco, the city's Police Commission recently approved a new use-of-force policy.

The revision, which is the department's first such revision since the mid 1990s, focuses on using language encouraging de-escalation and using the minimal amount of necessary force, among other changes, according to police commission officials.

On Friday, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and other police unions took out a full-page advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle to honor law enforcement officials. According to the ads last line, "It is they who deserving of special civic remembrance."

Were here simply to honor our public safety officers who put their lives on the line every day, Halloran said.

Meanwhile, Daniel Muhammad, with the Justice for Mario Woods Coalition, took a different stance.

"All lives matter," he said. "This is not our lives vs. law enforcement lives, first responders lives  and if anyone is trying to reduce this conversation in that area, its unfortunate."

To Muhammad, Mario Woods Day represented an important "starting point."

"Its a day of healing," he said. "Its a day of reflection. Its a day for us to renew our vows that were going to seek and fight for justice."

Remembrance events continue Saturday at Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
A 45-year-old woman severely burned in a Vallejo house fire allegedly set by her husband succumbed to her injuries, authorities said late Thursday.

Lametricias Seiflood died Wednesday while being treated at a Sacramento area hospital for her burn injuries. Her 5-year-old son died in the May 22 fire.

After the deadly blaze, the Solano County District Attorney's Office charged Darrylone Shuemake Sr. with the murder of his son and the attempted murder of his wife. Shuemake Sr., 53, is also charged with felony arson.

Vallejo police say 2nd victim of May 22 arson fire has died. 5 yr old's mother died from burn injuries yesterday pic.twitter.com/vM6Z41cP4X  Jodi Hernandez (@JodiHernandezTV) July 22, 2016

The charging documents show that the father has at least 14 known name spellings and aliases, including Darryl Barnett and Kevin Shumake.

Investigators said Shuemake Sr. poured gasoline on the mother of his 5-year-old son and set her on fire as the boy slept in bed nearby. The boy was killed as the fire quickly spread throughout the Vallejo home.
Out of thousands of delegates participating in the Republican National Convention this week, UC Berkeley student Claire Chiara stands apart.

At only 22-years-old, Chiara is the youngest out of 341 delegates and alternates from California -- but her resume looks like it could match up with the best of them.

In addition to doing some reporting for the student newspaper The Daily Californian, Chiara also ran her own campaign for District 15 representative in the California State Assembly. She's also the former president and chairman of UC Berkeley College Republicans and interned for the Republican National Committee last summer.

She told her former paper that she didn't mind losing in her Assembly race, so long as she inspired and prompted discussion about pressing political issues.

"Even if I dont win the election, I truly hope to start a conversation and remind each and every constituent of Assembly District 15 that they can ask questions, and they can decide whether they are being truly represented," Chiara said.

She is lending her vote to Donald Trump at the convention. Unlike many of her peers at UC Berkeley, she has looked past some of his blunders, including comments about women that have since been criticized for being sexist.

Hes a businessman who cares about performance and results, Chiara told UC Berkeley's news service. He has a track record of hiring women. Theres an old quote of his about ... hiring anyone who can get the job done.
Donald Trump touched on a range of hot-button issues, from public safety to the economy, during his speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night.

The Republican nominee for president began by telling the crowd he would present them with facts.

We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore, Trump said. At our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth and nothing else.

So did he live up to that promise?

Trumps math was on point during an attack on President Obama, who Trump says, almost doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing.

When the president entered the White House, the national debt stood at about $10.6 trillion. Nearly eight years later, that number has grown to $19.4 trillion  or almost double.

But Trump missed the mark on some other claims, including those centered around sensitive topics, like the recent wave of police officers gunned down in cities like Dallas and Baton Rouge.

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared with this point last year, he said.

Trump doesnt cite a source, but the FBIs count of officer deaths hasn't been updated for 2016. In fact, even the FBIs 2015 numbers are still preliminary.

However, the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund provides statistics. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit was formed to honor and remember law enforcement. Its website shows 67 police officers were killed through July 2016 compared to 63 deaths for the same time period the year before. That's an increase of 6 percent, not 50.

Trump also spoke about poverty in America.

Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the president took his oath of office less than eight years ago, he said.

According to the U.S. Census, that claim is mostly false.

Hispanics living at or below the poverty line rose from 12.4 million in 2009 to 13.1 million in 2014. The raw total rose by 700,000, but the rate of poverty for the group actually dipped from 25.3 percent to 23.6 percent.
Police said a lone gunman is believed to have carried out a shooting rampage near a shopping center in Munich, Germany, NBC News reported.

The gunman, who killed at least nine people before killing himself, was an 18-year-old German-Iranian from Munich who lived in the city for more than two years, according to police. A motive was not known.

Twenty-one people were hospitalized, three of whom were critically wounded, according to police.

Officials did not identify him, but said he was found dead at 8:30 p.m., and may have killed himself. German police initially said there may have been as many as three gunmen.

The shooting attack at a McDonalds attached to the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall forced a lockdown of the city, the shutdown of public transportation and calls to residents to avoid public places.

The shooting prompted authorities to operate on the premise of a terror attack, but officials later said there were no links to terror established.
More than 2,000 delegates packed the Quicken Loans Arena to rally behind Donald Trump and his campaign for president. Suspense built inside and outside the arena for Trump to accept the party's nomination Thursday night.

The crowd chanted "USA, USA" as Trump stood before the Republican party, formally accepted the nomination and went on to say safety will be restored in America.

Ivanka Trump introduced her father and said he will bring "real change, the kind of change we have not seen in decades."

"When my father says he will make America great again, he will deliver," Ivanka Trump said.

Kathi Creed sat in the rafters and called the speeches electric as she cheered while sitting next to strangers. Her husband is an alternate delegate and sitting elsewhere in the arena.

I didnt know what to expect when we got here, said Creed of Northeast Ohio. "So many things we are frustrated with and (Trumps) just speaking to those frustrations."

Creed said she will help campaign for Trump post-convention. The party unity is apparent, she said.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona spoke to the crowd and said he's supporting Trump because hes a leader. Applause erupted when Pastor Mark Barnes of South Carolina declared that all lives matter under a Trump administration. PayPal founder Peter Thiel stood at the podium, shared he was gay and encouraged America to vote for Trump.

As the lineup of speakers rotated on stage, and the delegates danced in the aisles, Clevelander Cassandra Franklin sat outside at an entranceway in a small blue lawn chair. Dozens of police officers were on guard as protesters argued for and against the police, and preachers expressed opposing views about Jesus.

I love it. I cant get enough of it and I dont want it to end, said Franklin. This is the best show on Earth. Its like 10 circuses going on at once... I thank them for coming.

Franklin chatted with Alysia Tambourides and her mother Leslie Sawyer as they waved a Trump flag and took pictures with others on the street. Tambourides said the duo drove 20 hours from Houston just to stand outside and show their support for Trump.

(Hes) no nonsense, not holding anything back and tough, Tambourides said of Trump.

Democrat Bob Kunst traveled from Miami Beach to show his support for Trump and says he will also travel to the Democratic National Convention next week too. Kunst sat along 4th Street for hours wearing a Hillary Clinton mask and holding a sign suggesting Clinton go to prison.

I know I'm not going to get anything out of Hillary, maybe I will out of Trump, Kunst said.

Ann Marie Villicana stopped to take photos of the Trump buttons on display outside the convention. The Los Angeles native said she admired Trumps children and hoped her own three children grow up to be like them one day.

While the GOP came together to celebrate Trump's nomination in Cleveland, not all Republicans were behind the nominee. Ohio Governor John Kasich did not attend the convention. After Trump's speech, Meghan McCain tweeted, "The party I was a part of is dead."
Rep. Tammy Duckworths campaign confirmed Friday that the congresswoman will speak at next weeks Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Duckworth is tentatively scheduled to speak at the convention next Thursday, the same day that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is expected to accept the partys nomination.

Duckworth is currently locked in a contentious battle for Sen. Mark Kirks seat in the Senate. Clinton endorsed Duckworths candidacy last year. The congresswoman has also scored endorsements from President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is reportedly on Clintons vice presidential shortlist.

Other announced DNC speakers include Warren, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Sens. Corey Booker, Sherrod Brown and Tim Kaine will also speak. All three are reportedly on Clintons VP shortlist.
During a press conference in Chicago Friday, Gov. Bruce Rauner apologized for calling half of Chicago Public School teachers illiterate and half of the districts principals incompetent."

Following a brief interruption by members of the Chicago Teachers Union, Rauner was prompted about his incendiary claims, which were revealed Thursday in e-mails released under court order by Mayor Rahm Emanuels office.

Let me be very clear, I apologize for the statement that i made in that email in 2011, Rauner said. The remarks there were inaccurate and intemperate and I apologize to the teachers and I regret those comments.

The Chicago Tribune uncovered the e-mails between Rauner and other wealthy education activists through a Freedom of Information Act request. Rauner, who was actively involved in Chicago school reform in 2011, pushed for changes to CPS' teacher evaluations in the e-mail in question.

Rauners office released a statement apologizing for the e-mail Thursday, but this was the first time the governor addressed the controversy publicly.

After signing a pair of bills Friday that address teacher training and standardized testing, Rauner was interrupted by members of the CTU. The teachers condemned Rauners comments, chastising the governor for allegedly undermining schools and social services during his first term in office.

We are teachers and we are not illiterate, one CTU member said during the press conference.

Your remarks are inflammatory and Trump-like, he added. "You need to stop this attack on public education.

The CTU member challenged Rauner to a read-off based on books and literature about educational justice and civil rights. Other members of the union outlined ways the governor has harmed education and destroyed the state. The disrupters were eventually escorted out of the press conference.

CTU members interrupt Governor Rauner press conference on education. @nbcchicago pic.twitter.com/f3XYFEDKwW  Lauren Jiggetts (@laurenjiggetts) July 22, 2016

The CTU issued a statement Friday, further condemning the governor for his comments.

Contrary to the governors rude and inflammatory [Donald] Trump-like comments, I dont know any illiterate teachers, CTU President Karen Lewis said in a statement. If he thinks were illiterate and schools are crumbling prisons, imagine what he and his elitist buddies say about our students behind closed doors.

Amid the backlash from the CTU, Rauner claimed he was a champion of Illinois teachers.

I am very supportive of teachers, the governor said during the press conference.

We need to make sure that our system supports all teachers and to make sure our teachers reach their fullest potential and that we have good teachers in every classroom, he added.

Rauner expounded on his commitment to education during the press conference, claiming that "the primary reason he ran for governor was to address schools. Rauner noted that he has increased state school funding and plans to revamp the states controversial school funding formula.

I am very passionate about education, Rauner said. "Education is the most important thing we do together as a community. This is our childrens future and every child in every neighborhood in every community deserves a good education.
A Chicago Police officer was wounded in a shooting Thursday evening, officials confirmed.

The shooting occurred at 18th St and Calumet at approximately 8:13 p.m., authorities said.

Officers on bicycles were near the Battle of Fort Dearborn Park when a concerned citizen told them there was a man nearby acting erratically, Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a news conference.

When the officers approached the man and asked him to talk, Johnson said he reached in his bag and grabbed a gun, shooting an officer in the upper leg.

Officers returned fire, killing the suspect, authorities confirmed.

The officer who was shot made himself a tourniquet and his partner applied pressure to the wound, according to Johnson, who said their actions were instrumental in saving his life.

The 44-year-old officer, a 16-year veteran of the police force, was taken by CPD officers to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, officials said. His injuries were not life-threatening, according to Johnson. He is listed in good condition, according to a statement from CPD.

"Tonight the thoughts and prayers of Chicago are with our brave police officer who was shot answering a call as he worked to keep our streets safe," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

"He is an example the courageous and selfless men and women in the Chicago Police Department who do difficult and dangerous work every day, often with little fanfare. Amy and I are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery, and our thoughts are with the officer's family, friends, and his fellow brave men and women in uniform."

Emanuel visited the hospital Thursday night to check on the officer and talk to his family, Johnson said.

The officers involved in the shooting will be placed

on routine administrative duties for 30 days in accordance with department protocol, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department.

The Independent Police Review Authority continues to investigate the shooting.
Rep. Tammy Duckworth allegedly made false claims about Sen. Mark Kirk last month, accusing the senator of calling for the mass arrest of 18,000 African-Americans and supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps mass deportation policy.

Kirk, who called for the mass arrest of 18,000 African-Americans, was apparently fine w/ Trumps #StillTooRacist call for mass deportation, the congresswoman tweeted in June.

But according to a Politifact report released last week, both claims were unfounded.

After multiple news outlets have called her attacks false, disingenuous and even a cheap shot, Duckworth has doubled-down on her false attacks and lies, Kirk campaign spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. The simple fact is that Duckworth follows the Rod Blagojevich playbook - politics first and dont worry about the truth.

Duckworth should immediately remove these posts and recognize her attacks were lies, Artl added.

Kirks mass arrest statement stems from an interview the senator did in the wake of the shooting of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who was killed by a stray bullet on Chicagos south side.

My top priority is to arrest the Gangster Disciple gang, which is 18,000 people, Kirk said in 2013. I would like to do a mass pickup of them and put them all in the Thomson Correctional Facility. I will be proposing this to the assembled federal law enforcement: ATF, DEA and FBI.

Politifact claimed Duckworth took the comments out of context, implying that Kirk supported the general mass arrest of 18,000 African-Americans. Duckworth also failed to note that Kirk never mentioned race during the interview or used the term African-Americans.

The report also noted that Duckworths tweet ignored the fact that Kirk later walked back his comments, saying the plan was not actually that practical in July of 2013. Kirk faced considerable criticism from black leaders after making the comments.

Additionally, Politifact said Duckworths other claim about Kirk being fine with Trumps call for mass deportation was also false.

Trump has campaigned on a platform that includes a plan to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Kirk has been distancing himself from Trumps immigration policy since the Republican nominee announced his candidacy last year.

When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best, Trump said last June. Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists.

Kirk publicly disavowed these statements, distancing himself from Trumps policy in a conversation with John Gregory last July.

In a typical Chicago way, to my Mexican-American friends, I would say, Donald Trump collate- shut up, Kirk said.

According to Politifact, Duckworths claims dont take into account Kirks congressional voting record.

The senator has supported comprehensive immigration reform aimed at improving border security and developing a tough, but fair pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Additionally, Politifact noted that Kirk was the only Republican senator to vote against legislation that would have withheld funds from sanctuary cities last year.

Kirk pulled his tacit endorsement of Trump last month after the billionaire made a series of inflamatory statements about the heritage of a Hispanic judge presiding over civil fraud lawsuits against his beleaguered Trump University. Kirk called Trump's comments un-American.

On Thursday, Duckworths campaign announced that the congresswoman would not issue an apology for the tweet or remove it from her page.

Were mourning the death of irony today, caused by Mark Kirk, a man who has told at least 10 different falsehoods about his military record and has been lying constantly about Tammy Duckworth in this campaign, holding himself up as a defender of the truth, Duckworth campaign spokesman Matt McGrath said in a statement.

The Duckworth campaign rebuffed Politifacts findings, claiming the tweet was only one component in a series of tweets the congresswoman sent out after Kirk pulled his endorsement of Trump.

The tweet storm was used to promote a campaign video that asked what took Kirk so long to disavow Trump? All of the tweets included the hashtag #stilltooracist.

McGrath also noted that, although Kirk backed off his mass pickup claim, the interview in question remains on his website.

The Kirk campaign responded Thursday evening, claiming that Duckworth had lied about Kirk.

"The bottom line is that Duckworth lied about Mark Kirk," Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. "She got caught lying about Mark Kirk and now is unwilling to right her wrong. Illinois citizens deserve better."
Friday began as another day of frustration for Chicago travelers.

After a night of storms, Midway International Airport was seeing massive backups both inside and outside the airport.

Although when checking the boards, many flights were reporting to be departing on time with minimal cancellations, many Southwest Airlines passengers told NBC5 they had been waiting more than two hours.

One traveler told NBC 5 he had been at the airport since 3 a.m., but still missed his 5:30 a.m. flight.

Some 450 Southwest Airlines flights were been canceled Thursday in the wake of a massive system outage that grounded hundreds of flights across the country.

Southwest began having intermittent problems with several computer systems Wednesday afternoon. Airline CEO Gary Kelly said the main system failed, then the backup failed, then the restoration failed.

It took about 12 hours to restore the system, which was up and running around 2 a.m. Thursday. Southwest officials said they have not yet identified the cause of the outage.
Marc Hamids businesses  a pair of ticket-brokering companies and a Wrigleyville rooftop overlooking the ballparks right field  were a bookkeepers nightmare.

The question for jurors in the Lincolnwood businessmans fraud trial is whether the sloppy accounting was intentional, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Hamids lawyers insist he fell victim to mistakes by unreliable business partners and employees, like a drug-abusing colleague who skimmed cash from customers at his Skybox on Sheffield and an accountant who bilked another client  a cancer patient  out of $358,000.

Federal prosecutors, who have charged Hamid with defrauding the Chicago Cubs out of $1.5 million dollars in royalty payments from 2007 to 2011, say its not surprising that Hamid worked with shady people.

Thats not bad judgment, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Driscoll in closing arguments Thursday at the Dirksen Federal Building. Thats the perfect cast of characters.

Hamid, a former co-owner of Skybox on Sheffield, is charged with 12 counts, including mail fraud and structuring financial transactions to conceal $1.5 million he raked in from the rooftop business, revenue on which he should have paid a 17 percent royalty to the Cubs under terms of a deal the team brokered with the owners of rooftop deck owners.

The underreporting also spared Hamid from state and county amusement taxes.

Hamids lawyer, Chris Gair, battered two key government witnesses who brought their own share of criminal baggage to the stand.

Accountant Joseph Gurdak said he helped Hamid hide the revenue he was holding back from the club, but also admitted to an unrelated swindle in which he embezzled from a cancer patient  illicit income Gurdak also didnt report on his own taxes.

Former Oak Park and Crestwood police officer Richard Zasiebida, who worked with Hamid at both the Skybox and Hamids ticket brokerage company and an illegal sport betting business, testified that he also helped Hamid with the fraud  and also that he smoked marijuana daily and once paid for a class on how to pass a polygraph test so that he could conceal his habit and get a job as a cop. Zasiebida also has pleaded guilty to not paying taxes on $160,000 in income from the ticket business and rooftop.

(Zasiebida) lied to become a police officer, he lied to the grand jury, Gair told jurors. He lied to you to get to get what he wanted. What did he want? He wanted to skate on criminal charges.

Prosecutors pointed to bank statements showing money flowing between Skybox and Hamids ticket companies, Just Great Tickets and Just Great Seats, as well emails between Hamid and his accountants in which he discussed how to finesse reports to hide revenue from the Cubs.

Hamid was no fan of the Cubs organization; in one email, when asked where to send the teams royalty payments and statements, Hamid replied Just write to the resident ahole and they can figure it out.

Hamid was one of two rooftop owners that sued the Cubs last year, in an attempt to stop the team from building a new scoreboard that would block the views from right field. The case was dismissed.

But it wasnt malice or malfeasance that led Hamid to understate payouts to the ballclub, Gair said. Hamid was juggling cash among his different accounts to keep the businesses afloat.

After brief deliberations Thursday, jurors left the courthouse and were scheduled to return Friday.
A Chicago Police officer wounded in a shooting Thursday evening has been released from the hospital, officials confirmed.

The shooting occurred at 18th St and Calumet at approximately 8:13 p.m., authorities said.

Officers on bicycles were near the Battle of Fort Dearborn Park when a concerned citizen told them there was a man nearby acting erratically, Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a news conference.

When the officers approached the man and asked him to talk, Johnson said he reached in his bag and grabbed a gun, shooting an officer in the upper leg.

Officers returned fire, killing the suspect, authorities confirmed.

The officer who was shot made himself a tourniquet and his partner applied pressure to the wound, according to Johnson, who said their actions were instrumental in saving his life.

The 44-year-old officer, a 16-year veteran of the police force, was taken by CPD officers to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, officials said. His injuries were not life-threatening, according to Johnson. He is listed in good condition, according to a statement from CPD.

"Tonight the thoughts and prayers of Chicago are with our brave police officer who was shot answering a call as he worked to keep our streets safe," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

"He is an example the courageous and selfless men and women in the Chicago Police Department who do difficult and dangerous work every day, often with little fanfare. Amy and I are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery, and our thoughts are with the officer's family, friends, and his fellow brave men and women in uniform."

Emanuel visited the hospital Thursday night to check on the officer and talk to his family, Johnson said.

The officers involved in the shooting will be placed

on routine administrative duties for 30 days in accordance with department protocol, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department.

The Independent Police Review Authority continues to investigate the shooting.
Historians of the presidential horse race have plenty of mud to wade through, from Watergate to railroad bribery, and plenty of sex scandals in between.

But this year's election offers something new: Donald Trump appears to be the first nominee of a major political party in modern memory to be the subject of ongoing litigation, according to presidential experts.

"I don't know of any other litigation involving a major candidate for election," Columbia University scholar Henry F. Graff told NBC in an email, when asked about the fraud lawsuits over Trump University.

Graff, who has presented his book "The Presidents: A Reference History" to presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush, is one of over a dozen political scientists and scholars in the field interviewed for this article. Most said the legal and ethical issues that Trump and Hillary Clinton bring to the 2016 election are largely unprecedented as well.

"There is a cloud of legitimacy surrounding them which opens the door for more opposition," said Julian E. Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton.

Trump faces three lawsuits over his now-defunct Trump University; the suits claim he defrauded the people who signed up to learn his real estate secrets, only to be promised better results with more expensive packages. He denies the charge, and some former students have praised the school, though his criticism of the presiding judge in one case, an Indiana native whose parents are from Mexico, fanned accusations Trump discriminates against Hispanics.

The first case is scheduled to be heard shortly after voters cast their ballots for president in November.

"It would probably take a little bit of the gleam off of his election if he were seen as fleecing the same people who he says on the campaign trail he's championing," American University professor Leonard Steinhorn said.

If Trump won the election, losing the Trump University lawsuits wouldn't kick off a constitutional crisis  they are civil cases, not criminal, and wouldn't make him ineligible to serve as president.

And even though the lawsuits are apparently unprecedented, the experts said they may hardly affect his campaign at all.

Traditional politicians might become damaged goods after being dragged through the mud of a lawsuit, but Donald Trump has proven to be the most successful outsider in Americans politics in at least a generation, and he's emerged largely unscathed from many lawsuits already, from discriminatory housing practices to sexual misconduct.

Asked for comment, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks only said Clinton is the first candidate to be interviewed by the FBI in a criminal complaint. (A Clinton representative declined to comment. Special prosecutors did interview Bill Clinton and George W. Bush during their re-election bids.)

FBI Director James Comey didn't recommend bringing charges against Clinton, but he said her team was "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," and revealed findings that contradicted some of Clinton's statements about the extent of her private email use.

"The emails have already hurt Clinton," said Joseph Cummins, whose book "Anything for a Vote" chronicles each presidential election through 2004. "If the attorney general came out and scolded (Trump) I don't think it would hurt him."

TEFLON DONALD?

To longtime Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, now a professor at USC, Trump's legal history is an important proxy for judging his character. Where Clinton can be measured by her years of public service, Trump "has no political history."

"You're taking somebody who's in the rough and tumble of business (so) his business practices are the only thing we have to judge for his candidacy," Shrum said.

Trump's career as a property developer practically demands the occasional visit to court, and his business left a very long legal trail. He's been sued at least 150 times in federal court alone since the early '80s, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

A USA Today investigation published in June found Trump has been involved in 3,500 lawsuits overall, which the report said was "unprecedented for a presidential nominee" and uncommonly frequent for a developer.

Lawsuits are usually deterrents for people seeking office, noted Hoover Institution research fellow Bill Whalen, who called Trump the most litigious candidate for president ever.

So are scandals. Trump's dating life in New York in the 1980s and '90s was tabloid newspaper fodder, sometimes front page news; on the other hand, a White House affair got Bill Clinton impeached in 1998.

"We want our president to build his or her presidency on a strong ethical foundation, on the bonds of trust of who they are with the American people," said Steinhorn, the American University professor.

And yet, none of the presidential experts said they felt Trump University would definitely sink his campaign. Yes, it could be an "anchor," as Cummins, the author, put it, but "it's the type of thing that Trump always survives."

Trump's ready-made defense is that "he was conducting a business," Steinhorn said.

And Trump's supporters have probably already made up their minds about the nominee, and won't be swayed if they learn more about the Trump University allegations, according to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Evidence has indicated new information won't change the minds of decided voters. They will rationalize the information," she said.

In fact, Trump hasn't faced much scrutiny for Trump University. Most of it came soon after he said Judge Gonzalo Curiel had a conflict of interest because Trump's proposed border wall would keep Mexicans from illegally entering the U.S.

Since then, Trump turned the focus from his own legal case to Clinton's email woes, insisting it was criminal so often it's become the dominant political story of the month.

The lack of legal resolution makes for a deeply negative summer to come, with the allegations an important tool for both campaigns, yet potentially very damaging as well.

"Both sides are worried that they won't have high turnout, that this will turn voters off," said Zelizer, the Princeton professor.

Their choice in this election will be between a Republican nominee with civil litigation hanging over his head and a presumptive Democratic nominee reeling from a criminal investigation that won't go away.

'BURN THIS LETTER'

With a candidate dogged by a scandal in one corner and a man with checkered personal life in the other, the election of 1884 might offer the best analogy to 2016's.

It pitted Republican Sen. James Blaine, of Maine, against Democrat New York Gov. Grover Cleveland, who nearly lost despite Blaine being a part of the biggest scandal of the 19th century, according to convention historian Stan M. Haynes.

Blaine had waited two election cycles to become the Republican nominee, ever since a set of letters scuttled his presidential aspirations in 1876 by backing up the claim he was paid $64,000 for bad railroad bonds. It was deeply, damagingly unethical, according Haynes, but not illegal.

He surged again in 1884, and won the nomination, but new letters came out, this time to railroads explaining exactly what to say to exonerate him.

"He wrote 'Burn this letter' at the bottom," Haynes said. "The chant against him was, 'James, James, James G. Blaine, continental liar from the state of Maine.'"

Cleveland might have soared to the White House on Blaine's scandal, but he came crashing down to earth when he was accused of fathering a child out of wedlock some years before (he admitted paying child support). The Republican chant against him was "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"

In the end, Cleveland won by a hair. If just 600 people in New York had voted for Blaine instead, the state and the election would have swung for the Republicans.

There is a fairly recent example of a candidate being sued, according to Cummins, the author. But Ross Perot wasn't in a major party, and he was actually sued for dropping out of the 1992 race, by a campaign worker who "felt that he had an obligation to people that worked for him." The suit was dropped.

Perot rejoined the race and won nearly 20 million votes in the general election, despite being a political independent, making him the most successful outsider in modern politics, at least until 2016.

But Perot also split the conservative vote with George H.W. Bush, helping Bill Clinton take the White House. The Trump campaign will try to stop his wife from winning the presidency in another year of the political outsider, hoping voters believe their case against Clinton and don't heed the legal cases against Trump.

Kate Guarino and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Bloomfield police have issued a silver alert for a missing 24-year-old woman.

Police said that relatives reported Sophia Silva missing Thursday. She was last seen in Hartford on May 24. Silva has developmental disabilities, according to police, and may be with her boyfriend Capri Rogers, 28, in the Henrico County, Virginia area.

Police said they have a arrest warrant out for Rogers on misdemeanor threatening and harassment charges but it is non-extraditable.

Silva is described as female, around 5-foot-4, 295 pounds. Her nose and tongue are pieced, she has a V shaped scar on her back, a scar and mole on her ankle and a large scar on her thigh. Relatives said when she was last seen she was wearing her hair in an afro style.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Silva or Rogers should contact Bloomfield police at (860) 242-5501.
The EPA is forecasting a poor air quality day for most of the state for Friday.

Thursday was the perfect weather day as thousands took to the streets of Willimantic for its third Thursday festival. More than 100 vendors came out cooking up a storm and entertaining the crowds.

"You have to come out and enjoy this beautiful day and the fun festivities. The food is amazing," said North Windham resident Rhema Seale.

For Friday, though, the EPA is warning it may be better to stay inside because it's predicting poor air quality for sensitive populations for almost all of Connecticut. The warning affects all but Litchfield County and will begin at 11am.

Sensitive populations include children and adults with respiratory issues. Experts say elevated ozone level exposure can cause breathing problems and increase the chance of respiratory infection.

"We make sure we stay inside or stay where there's AC," said Willimantic resident Nathaniel Hamilton.

Experts recommend trying to reduce emissions by carpooling or taking public transportation and limiting strenuous outdoor activities. For those sensitive populations that still plan on heading out on Friday, experts suggest doing so in the morning when the ozone is lower.

"We're already planning a beach day because of that. We'll go early and leave early when it's the heat of the day and not be out and exposed," said Brooklyn resident Jennifer Frechette.

Rhema Seale and her 13-month-old baby had a great time at the Willimantic Street Fest and plan to play it safe on Friday.

"Staying indoors as much as possible but still enjoying ourselves even though that's the case," said Seale.
Some Hartford business owners are demanding answers on when construction will wrap up on historic Pratt Street, which has been closed for several months.

And some business owners said it's driving away business and fear the road could stay closed for additional months.

Walk down Pratt Street in Hartford and there appear to be just a few items left in the construction project.

We would have loved for it to go quicker but its moving along, Rory Gale, the owner of Hartford Prints, said.

Bricks now line the street and sidewalk; a dramatic difference from one month ago.

In June, frustrated business owners complained about delays in construction.

After you guys left, the pavers were here the next day and they were fixing the street. But since then, over the past few weeks, there hasnt really been movement on the street, Steven Abbate, the owner of Lenses Only, said.

At Lenses Only, the owner is concerned about a lack of communication from the city about the project and when it will finish.

He said hes counting the months of construction and the loss of profit as customers stay away.

Significantly, were down probably 60 percent from prior to the street closing, said Abbate.

Next door at Hartford Prints, the owner said the destination-type shop has helped them weather this stormy time.

When they reopen Pratt Street, you know, its going to be a big, big deal, Gale said.

And Gale has big hopes.

Shes excited by the idea tossed around by some of closing the street to just pedestrians, which could mean more events like her annual Farm to Street Dinner.

Imagine putting this all out on the street, waking up downtown Hartford, and having a lot of energy going on, Gale said.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the City of Hartford for comment but we have not yet heard back.
State police have identified the second man killed in an apparent murder-suicide involving an off-duty Waterbury police officer.

Police said they responded to a disturbance on Marion Avenue around 5 a.m. Wednesday and found two men dead who had been shot. Police identified one of the men involved as Hallock Yocher, 37, a 10-year veteran of the Waterbury Police Department on Wednesday. On Friday police identified the second man as James T. Stuart, 39, of Waterbury.

Stuarts cause of death has been determined to be multiple gunshots and the manner of death ruled homicide, according to state police. Yochers cause of death was determined to be a single gunshot wound and the manner of death was ruled suicide, police said.

"This is an isolated incident. There is no threat to the public or the community," State Trooper Kelly Grant said during a news conference Wednesday. "The two deceased are acquainted. The extent of their relationship is under investigation."

Connecticut State Police continue to investigate the case. Police ask anyone with information to call (203) 393-4200 or text TIP 711 with the information to 274637.
Police are investigating the thefts of three motor vehicles in East Hampton on Thursday night.

Police said the vehicles were stolen from the Mountain View Road and Waterview Circle neighborhoods. They cars were not locked and the keys were inside .

Police are looking for a 2016 black Hyundai Accent with CT plate 631-YYJ, a 2005 Subaru Forester Wagon with Connecticut plate GAABU6 and a2004 Mazda 6S with Connecticut plate 881-NTN.

Police are urging residents not to leave any keys or valuables inside vehicles and make sure they are locked at all times.

Anyone with information about the break-ins should call the East Hampton Police Department at 860-267-9922.

If you wish to remain anonymous, please call our anonymous tips line at 860-267-9066.
Dozens of passengers who planned to take Southwest flights out of Bradley Airport on Friday morning have not been able to reach their destination after a computer glitch that affected the airline earlier this week.

Michael Carrubba, of North Haven, was supposed to fly to Dallas with a connection in Baltimore yesterday, but the flight was canceled.

All my years of traveling, 25 years of flying, I've never had a problem this elongated, and it looks like there's not going to be any -- not a quick end in sight, he said.

He was rebooked for today, but that flight was canceled as well.

Carrubba said he spent four hours on the phone yesterday and three hours on line at the airport today, but isnt sure when he'll get out.

Officials from Southwest said the computer glitch is fixed and theyve been responding on Twitter, apologizing to passenger who saying they hope to get back on schedule as soon as possible.

A statement from the Connecticut Airport Authority said they had two cancelled arrivals and departures for Southwest and one additional cancelled departure and arrival later today.

Southwest flights to Baltimore and Tampa have been cancelled and long lines gave formed at Bradley.

Bob Dendron, of East Haddam, said hes been at the airport two days in a row.

"Not where we want to be," he said.

Dendron said Southwest offered him a $200 voucher yesterday and he rebooked a flight for this afternoon.
A new brand of blue wine is heading to U.S. shores this year.

Yes  blue wine.

The bright cobalt blue beverage, currently sold in Spain and being launched in Europe this summer, has been given a U.S. release date just in time for Halloween.

As TODAY reports, the "vintners" behind the creation aren't trying to claim any wine-making expertise. The twentysomething entrepreneurs are just having a try at something a bit more eye-catching.

What's it made out of?

Coming in at 11.5 percent alcohol, the wine is a blend of red and white wines from Spanish and French vineyards. The blue color comes from organic pigments found in grape skin and a non-caloric sweetener, according to its website.

"Once having selected the wine industry as our battlefield, we set about creating a radically different product, changing the color to a vibrant blue and making the wine sweeter and easier to drink," the website said.

The wine will sell for $16 a bottle, five dollars more than its comparable European price. It will be available this October.
Two North Texans were killed when a storm rolled through a Boy Scout camp in northern Minnesota.

It happened Thursday morning near Basswood Lake along the Canadian border.

An adult assistant leader and Boy Scout were killed. They have been identified as 39-year-old Nickie Lac, of Carrollton, and 13-year-old Christian Sanchez, of Lewisville.

Prayer vigils for the two victims were held on Thursday evening.

Dozens attended the vigil for Sanchez at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, where his family was longtime members.

Family friends described Sanchez as friendly, energetic and interested in sports.

The Boy Scouts troop was camping near an area called the Northern Tier Adventure Base in northern Minnesota when powerful storms rolled through.

Winds became so strong they snapped some large trees in half.

At this time, the cause of the deaths remains unknown.

The Boy Scouts of America, based in Irving, says two other campers were injured. It's believed one Scout was pinned under a fallen tree.

John Van Deese, general manager for the Northern Tier High Adventure Program, says they received a mayday call from the camp at about 4 a.m.

"They were on their last night of camping and they were scheduled to canoe back here to Moose Lake, he said.

The Boy Scouts of America issued the following statement:

"This is a very difficult time for our Scouting family. During the early morning hours of Thursday, July 21, a severe storm with strong straight-line winds unexpectedly came through Charles L Sommers Canoe Base at Northern Tier. We're extremely saddened to confirm that falling trees resulting from this storm caused the death of two attendees  a youth member and an adult volunteer leader  as well as two injured youth members who sustained non-life threatening injuries. These two youth were transported to the nearest hospital by Canadian emergency crews, out of an abundance of caution."

"The safety and well-being of our participants is our top priority. Immediately following the radio distress call, we contacted the local authorities for support, and began making contact with all crews on-site to offer assistance and assure the safety of all involved."

"Our focus is providing support to our Scouting family in any way that we can. We are mindful of the Scouts present on the outing and the impact the incident had on them, and will be offering grief counseling to our members and volunteers. Please join us in keeping these families in your thoughts."

Funeral arrangements for Sanchez and Lac are pending.
Citizens of Dallas are doing what they can to contribute in the wake of the July 7 ambush on law enforcement, including signing up to help.

The phones at the Dallas Office of Emergency Management have been ringing off the hook during the last two weeks with people wanting to participate in Community Emergency Response Team classes. The free classes are taught by OEM emergency personnel and cover basic emergency response skills.

In the wake of events such as this, we tend to get a lot more interest in programs that focus on community and safety and security, CERT manager Cassandra Wallace said. Obviously, the CERT program lends to that.

Wallace said her office has been forced to cancel classes in the past because too few people signed up for them, but that incidents like the Dallas ambush and the Dec. 27 tornado outbreak often cause a spike in interest.

I absolutely get it, Wallace said about the renewed focus on preparedness. If I were a citizen, I would be reaching out. This is obviously a tragic event that happened a couple weeks ago and I would be reaching out, trying to find out what I can do, how I can help and then how I can help going forward in events like this."

The next round of classes begins Sept. 17 and runs three consecutive Saturdays.
Authorities said firefighters are battling a fire at Traders Village in Grand Prairie Friday morning.

Grand Prairie Fire Chief Robert Fite said they responded to the two-alarm fire after 8 a.m.

"Our main goal is to stop the spread and try to keep our firefighters hydrated," Fite said.

No injuries were reported.

No further details were released.

Check back and refresh this page for the latest update. As this story is developing, elements may change.
Classrooms fall silent during the summer months, but thanks to a nation-wide enrichment program now in its third summer, learning continues.

Dallas City of Learning, a private-public commitment convened by the City of Dallas and Dallas Independent School District along with Big Thought, aims to close the opportunity gap by offering unique educational opportunities to Dallas students.

Research indicates summer is a time of learning loss, and this loss is even more acute for the one in three Dallas students living in poverty.

Big Thought, a non-profit organization that partners with multiple area agencies to provide educational, artistic, and cultural programs for children, recognized the need to connect students to creative learning options.

Jessica Malek, Big Thoughts Vice President of Knowledge and Innovation, said that when Big Thought looked at the technology component of a new learning initiative in Chicago developed in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, they discovered Chicago had developed a powerful vision with a systematic approach to out-of-school learning.

In 2014, Dallas joined with Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. to become a vanguard city of the City of Learning program.

Dallas City of Learning uses technology to leverage Big Thoughts partnerships, change how students access learning opportunities, and help students realize their full potential.

Dallas has a perfect set of criteria and an infinite number of resources in our partners. Its messy, but people are willing to put in the elbow grease. Theres a culture of not being risk-adverse to doing something to benefit the community, Malek said.

Big Thought networks with over 200 partners including Dallas Independent School District, the Dallas Public Library system, cultural institutions, and businesses to develop programs for students to experience their city with digital and in-person activities.

Students discover and develop passions and much of the success of this program is credited to being driven by the students interests.

The city becomes a classroom, Malek said.

Students develop a profile on the programs digital platform, create content to demonstrate what they have learned, and earn digital badges to reflect what they have achieved.

Kristina Dove, Big Thoughts program manager of partner relations, said she watches as students interact with the digital platform. She noted the confidence of students returning to the program.

They are telling friends, Ive got this down. Let me show you! They become ambassadors, Dove said.

The list of activities available through Dallas City of Learning is extensive. The Dallas Holocaust Museum encourages students to research historys upstanders like Anne Frank and then challenges them to become upstanders by volunteering.

The Dallas Operas boot camp offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce an opera and concludes with a performance of The Three Little Pigs. Spark! provides a multi-media exploration of art and challenges students to create a sculpture to earn a Think It/Build It badge.

Spark is participating with Dallas City of Learning for the first time this summer. Lori Carey, the community engagement manager for Spark, is excited about reaching new students through the program.

Dallas City of Learning had their summer kick-off event at Spark! Not only were DISD and Uplift students able to register on-site but the event itself brought great publicity and helped generate a whole new wave of followers on social media. Dallas City of Learnings on-going efforts mixed with that one big push has helped raise awareness of Spark, The online platform also gives people a direct link to our website, so teachers and parents are only a click-away from learning more about our programs.

Carey credits Dallas City of Learning with the ability of Spark to engage with students.

Partnering with Dallas City of Learning has allowed us to extend our program offerings to children from all different backgrounds, Carey said. We even created Digital XPs (online activities) which allow children who cant get here to participate in our program from home.

Reaching students who do not have access to computers has been challenge for Dallas City of Learning.

In the first two years of program, nearly 35,000 students participated and 70 percent of the participants were from economically challenged families. Big Thought works to meet the needs of students who may not have computers in their homes by loaning laptops and deploying a mobile tech bus. Big Thought will also work with parents and book buses to transport students to in-person activities.

Chris Jose, NBC 5 News

Reaching students from all backgrounds, encouraging a lifestyle of learning, and helping students develop skills for school and eventually the workplace is the imperative goal of the program.

Dove sees Dallas City of Learning as an opportunity for the city as a whole to nurture students talents into career options.

If they find their spark, as a society, we should acknowledge it and help them build on it, Dove said.

Dove would like to see the work the students do through Dallas City of Learning count towards school and college credit. Malek hopes the program will become an international initiative. The program is growing nationally. In addition to the vanguard cities, the program is available in West Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego, Kansas City, Central Ohio, Springfield, Rochester and Philadephia.

The vanguard cities mentor cities new to the program, discussing issues and brainstorming solutions to common problems.

Dallas contributed significantly to building fundraising tool-kits and helping new cities talk to funders about the program.

Demonstrating how collaboration works on a national and local level is another responsibility of vanguard cities. In Dallas, Big Thought trains new local partners for the program from January to June, when the program begins.

After the summer concludes, a debriefing session investigates what went well and what could improve for the next summer.

With Dallas City of Learning, businesses and non-profits learn to cooperate to educate the citys youth. Students learn opportunity abounds. In Dallas, summertime is all about learning.
What to Know Physicians have requested testing for more than 2,000 pregnant woman who have traveled to areas of active Zika transmission

There have been more than 300 confirmed cases of Zika in New York City

The species of mosquito most commonly associated with Zika's spread hasn't been found in the tri-state, but a similar species lives here.

A baby with Zika-related microcephaly has been born at a New York City hospital, marking the first such delivery in the five boroughs, according to health officials.



The baby's mother was infected while in an area known to have mosquitoes transmitting the virus, the health department said. She and the baby, who has been diagnosed with a smaller-than-normal head and other brain problems, are being monitored by physicians, authorities said.



The baby did test positive for Zika, and the health department said it is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the case.



According to the CDC, 12 babies have been born in the U.S. with Zika-related birth defects, including one in New Jersey. Some babies with no immediate signs of problems also have been born in the U.S. to Zika-infected mothers.

Herminia Palacia, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, said the city has been preparing for a case for months, "and we stand ready to help families caring for an infant with microcephaly. This is a sad reminder that Zika can have tragic consequences for pregnant women."



Earlier this week, health officials said physicians have requested testing for more than 2,000 pregnant women who have traveled to areas where there is active Zika transmission. Forty-one of them have tested positive.



Pregnant women also continue to be tested for Zika if their sexual partners have traveled to an afflicted area. Virtually all of South and Central America and the Caribbean is considered a hotbed for transmission of the virus.

In addition to sexual contact, the virus is spread through specific species of mosquitoes.

The mosquito species most commonly associated with Zika's spread is not found in the tri-state, but a similar species that scientists think could transmit the disease inhabits the area.

New York City health officials have said they've been monitoring populations of the insect and applying pesticides to keep mosquito-borne diseases at bay.
He was supposed to serve and protect, but a former San Mateo police officer was arrested from his Stockton home around 11:40 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of sexually assaulting women while on duty, officials said.

According to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, the 22 charges against Noah White Winchester  including kidnapping with intent to commit rape, rape, sexual penetration and oral copulation under color of authority, sexual battery, criminal threats, and forcible sex offenses  span five victims.

The alleged crimes occurred while 31-year-old Winchester was on duty between July 2, 2013 and Oct. 19, 2015, Wagstaffe said.

In 2013, Winchester worked as a police officer for the Los Rios Community College District and his victims hail from Sacramento. In 2015, Winchester targeted San Mateo County residents while working as a police officer for the city of San Mateo, Wagstaffe said.

Investigators have not found evidence of any incidents in 2014, Wagstaffe told NBC Bay Area. When asked why Winchester had been arrested so long after the initial alleged crimes, Wagstaffe replied that he was "not reported until [the] end of 2015."

Winchester is being booked into San Joaquin County Jail on $3.1 million bail, Wagstaffe said, and is expected to be arraigned next week. Winchester doesn't yet have a lawyer, the district attorney said.

The San Mateo Police Department said in a statement Thursday that Winchester had been put on "indefinite leave" when the district attorney's office began its investigation, at the behest of San Mateo and Burlingame police, last October. Winchester resigned amid the probe in February, officials said.

"We are horrified by the news of the recent arrest of this former San Mateo and Los Rios Community College District Police Officer, and want to assure our community and our leaders that this neither reflects nor deflects the dedication to duty and selfless service that our men and women commit themselves to every day on every contact," the police department statement said.

San Mateo police said that Winchester joined their department in early 2015, with prior law enforcement experience under his belt.

"He was really a valued member of his patrol beat," San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer said.

He worked there for roughly 10 months, after passing extensive background checks, polygraph tests and more, Manheimer said.

Winchester's career as a law enforcement officer ended Oct. 20 when a local woman came to the San Mateo police headquarters and said he raped her. Her allegations triggered the months-long investigation in which victims were discovered as far as Sacramento County, authorities said.

"While we respect the now former officer's right to due process under the law and the presumption that he is innocent until proven guilty, we as a department cannot help but be appalled by the nature of these allegations," the department statement said.

It continued: "These allegations, if proven true, are a disgrace and wholly disavowed by this department and this city."

San Mateo resident Nahrain Gawronek agreed.

"You expect more, so it is disappointing," she said.
Hospitals and medical centers in four border regions including San Diego are being warned U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have no authority to compel staff to perform body cavity searches on detainees.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sent letters to hospitals following a $475,000 settlement for a New Mexico woman who accused agents of forcing her to undergo body cavity probes and then was charged for the exam.

The woman, a 54-year-old U.S. citizen, was "brutally" searched by agents in December 2012 after a drug-sniffing dog jumped on her at an El Paso checkpoint, according to a 2013 lawsuit. The woman, who was not named, was returning from a visit with a recently deported family friend in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.

Agents strip-searched her and did cavity searches but found no evidence of drugs, court documents said.

The woman was transported in handcuffs to the University Medical Center of El Paso, where she was subjected to an observed bowel movement, a CT scan as well as rectal and vaginal exams without a warrant, the lawsuit said. No drugs were found on the woman despite six hours of intrusive searches, the ACLU said.

Among the recommendations suggested to hospitals in the region, that no CBP employee "compel, cajole, or otherwise pressure" detainees into having any exams or tests done.

Medical staff should demand to see a warrant, the letter states.

In the El Paso case, the hospital charged the woman $5,000 for the tests, her attorney said. University Medical Center settled with the woman for $1.1 million in 2014.

The four ACLU affiliates at the U.S.-Mexico border sent letters Thursday to 40 health care providers that cover 110 facilities detailing the rights and responsibilities of hospital personnel when confronted by federal agents who request body cavity searches. See an example of the letter here.

Local facilities named by the ACLU include four UC San Diego Health Scripps Health facilities, four Sharp HealthCare centers, Kaiser Permanentes Zion Medical Center, two Palomar Health centers, Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside and Paradise Valley Hospital in National City.

CBP officers are expected to "conduct their duties in a professional manner and to treat each traveler with dignity and respect," according to the agency's website. The website says agents "use diverse factors to refer individuals for targeted examinations."

Customs and Border Protection officials were looking over the settlement agreement, spokesman Carlos Diaz said.

"While we are pleased to have obtained justice for our client, this is really a victory for residents of border communities, who shouldn't have to fear interactions with the thousands of border agents in their midst," said Rebecca Robertson, ACLU of Texas legal and policy director.

The settlement in the case, which drew national attention three years ago, also will require new training for hundreds of customs officers, American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Texas and New Mexico said.
Residents and activists in Boyle Heights are worried about rising rents that they say are not only driving people out of their homes, but changing the character of the area.

The neighborhood just east of downtown Los Angeles is supposed to be one of the more affordable parts of the city, but that has changed for residents of the Michigan Heights Apartment Complex. Monthly rent for Joanna Perez is about to go up from $1,100 to $1,600.

"I'm actually scared, I'm actually worried," she said. "I have a 7-year-old who goes to school just down the street. He starts school soon. I'm just really worried about where we're going to go."

Activists say prices are skyrocketing throughout Boyle Heights. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is now $1,450 per month - a 12-percent increase over last year. And they say even those who are protected under rent control are feeling the pressure.

"We're seeing increased harassment, we're seeing threats," said Elizabeth Blaney of Union de Vecinos.

New developments are on the rise. More than 1,000 new units have been proposed at the Sears building.

Boyle Heights' proximity to downtown LA is becomingly increasingly attractive. But activists say chains like Starbucks are driving out the businesses that defined this community.

"Family owned businesses that gave credit to people, that allowed you to run up a tab if you didn't have money," Blaney said. "Starbucks doesn't do that, Walgreens doesn't do that."

The buzzword now: gentrification. Supporters argue many of the changes are improvements. While resident like Noemi Aguero worry the new Boyle Heights is leaving some people out.

"I guess it's good for the people that have money, but not everybody is on the same page like that," she said.

The manager of the Michigan Heights Apartment Complex said units being renovated justify the higher rent. We were unable to reach the corporate parent for comment.
A grass-roots community group hit the streets in Southern California this week with a clear mission  registering 1 million voters by 2018 to help better reflect the state's diverse population.

During a recruiting drive this week, members of the "Million Voters Project" spent time at Glendale Community College to sign people up during one of the most watched presidential elections in years.

Guillermo Delgadillo, the son of two undocumented immigrants, signed up to vote during the visit. He didn't know who he would vote for in the November election pitting Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"Immigration is a really big part my decision of who to vote for. I just want to make sure my parents are safe," he said.

The project, an alliance between six community organizations, is targeting demographics similar to Deljadillo's: immigrants, people of color, working class citizens, and college students. They plan to go into unusual communities, such as county jails and skid row, to get new voters to register.

"We have such a long history of ignoring people who look a different way or live in a different neighborhood," said Karla Zombro, field director of California Calls, the organization heading the project. "It's time to give them a voice."

Latinos such as Delgadillo make up almost half of Los Angeles County's population, but represented only 30 percent of the registered voter population in 2012, the last general election, according to UC Davis' Center for Regional Change, a nonpartisan research initiative for the state of California.

General elections draw the most attention from new and infrequent voters, such as young people and Latinos, said Raphael Sonenshein, the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles.

The Million Votes Project is capitalizing on the excitement of the 2016 election to recruit voters, organizers say.

Zombro said their goal is really getting voters out to local elections.

"The president isn't going to decide what your kid's school's budget is," she said. "The local election is where the change is, you need pay attention to them."

But it's one thing to get people to register to vote, but another to get them to vote.

"People think their vote doesn't count, that there isn't going to be any change. We are trying to change that," Zombro said.
This week's heat wave picked up momentum Thursday, scorching the Southland with triple-digit temperatures in many areas and prompting heat advisories and increased fire danger through the weekend.

National Weather Service forecasters said high pressure building over the area will be in full force by Friday and Saturday, bringing temperatures well above normal.

The system will result "in daytime high temperatures around 10 degrees above what is normally the hottest time of the year," according to the NWS.

"Temperatures between 100 and 108 degrees will be common in the valleys and lower mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties ... with only modest relief at night."

Today's highs reached the 80s at the beaches, the 90s inland and above 100 degrees in the valleys.

An excessive heat watch will be in effect from Friday morning through Saturday night in the Los Angeles County Mountains, Santa Mountain Mountains Recreational Area and the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued a heat alert through Saturday for the Los Angeles Basin, the Pomona area and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. A separate heat alert is in effect today and Friday for the Antelope Valley and San Gabriel Valley.

With humidity expected to be low and gusty winds possible, a red flag warning indicating a heightened risk of wildfire will be in effect for some areas from 3 p.m. Friday through midnight Saturday night.

The red flag warning will be in effect in the Los Angeles County Mountains, Angeles National Forest and Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys.

Forecasters warned that triple-digit heat could present a danger to some residents, and demand for electricity could be high, creating the possibility of outages.

"Never, ever leave people or pets in enclosed vehicles, even for a short period of time," the NWS warned. "Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early

morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear light weight and loose-fitting clothing when possible and drink plenty of water."

NWS officials noted, however, that there's not much chance of any heat records being broken.

"Friday through Sunday mark the 10-year anniversary of one of the hottest events on record for any month -- Woodland Hills hit 119 on July 22, 2006, the all-time high for any of our climate stations," according to the Weather Service.

Inland areas could see higher-than-normal temperatures as late as next Tuesday, although coastal areas should see some cooling beginning Sunday, forecasters said.
Comic-Con International: If you're a big-budget movie-director, an avid creator of cool costumes, a longtime fan of a particular comic book series, an actor on a hot genre TV series, or somebody else who digs reading, watching, and being in the pop culture mix, chances are you're at the San Diego Convention Center. That's where big panels, big signings, and big everything is going down, through July 24, at the world's biggest pop culture convention. (P.S. Your costume is srsly amazing.)

Dapper Day: San Diego won't be the only scene for sartorial strutting, as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art shall welcome Dapper Day, the popular Disneyland Resort tradition, on Friday, July 22. Visitors are invited to dress up in their vintage, or at least fancy-fun, best, and take in the "Reigning Men" fashion exhibit. That requires museum admission, but the jazz outside, and dancing, is free and fabulous. And, yes: Dapper Day returns to Disneyland this November.

Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival: You know this giant crustacean celebration, but you know it from September. It's now taking place in July  the 22nd through 24th, to be specific  and a new-to-this-year update is two lobsters a plate (a guest request). Want to know the band rundown, the yummy sides, and how to arrive/park/get to the USS Iowa-close location? Follow the scent of butter this way.

"Union Station 360": A classic train station offers a wealth of visual and aural treats any day of the year, but our landmark LA station is going a bit further in that field through Sunday, July 24 via an "interactive, 4-D experience." The out-sized art piece, which involves projections and lights and local vistas aplenty, is sparkling nightly through the 24th, from 8 through midnight, at the Alameda Street destination.

OC Fair: The Costa Mesa party heads into weekend #2 with a host of midway-esque, piglet-cute happenings. The Saturday, July 23 schedule includes milking demos, a wine seminar on pinot noir, the Peking Acrobats, and a LEGO Tower Contest. Yep, it'll be a warm one, so find an ice cream treat and a cool bench and watch the lively scene, one that's only around through the middle of August.
A member of the Illinois delegation at this weeks Republican National Convention had her credentials pulled Wednesday after allegedly posting racially charged comments to Facebook earlier this week.

Lori Gayne admitted to party officials that she made the incendiary post during the convention using a different name, the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet reported. The post has since been deleted.

Our brave snipers just waiting for some n- to try something, Gayne posted to Facebook, using an abbreviation for the racial slur. "Love them."

Gayne, who has been posting questionable comments for months under the Twitter handle "whitepride," was elected a Trump delegate in the March Illinois Republican primary.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider condemned Gaynes comments after revoking her credentials Wednesday afternoon.

She had the credentials to be a Trump delegate, Schneider told NBC Chicago. She came to the convention, then we saw that Facebook post. Its repugnant.

Theres no place for that rhetoric or threat of violence in the Illinois Republican Party, Schneider added.

According to the Sun-Times, Gayne issued an apology Wednesday, conceding that her statements were ignorant and intolerant, and they cannot be justified.

The Illinois Republican Party is now facing questions about their vetting process, particularly why they didnt know about Gaynes Twitter account.

Our staff didnt know who she was until she showed up here in Cleveland, Schneider said.

Gayne did not respond to NBC Chicagos request for comment on this story.

Attention now shifts to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps keynote convention speech Thursday, where the billionaire is expected to accept his partys nomination.
Friday is the second full day of events at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International.

After a packed first day at the San Diego Convention Center, here are some of the can't-miss events in store for Friday:

Marvel: Civil War II

10:00am - 11:00am, Room 6DE

Find out what's happening in Marvel's "Civil War II," the universe's latest crossover story line. Hear editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and other creative minds behind the crossover talk about the aftermath of 2006's "Civil War."

Inside "The Big Bang Theory" Writers' Room

10:00am - 11:00am, Ballroom 20

The writers for the acclaimed television comedy will return to San Diego to discuss the show's biggest moments from its ninth season. The show, which has aired more than 200 episodes, will return to CBS this fall for its tenth season.

DC Suicide Squad: Most Wanted

11:15am - 12:15pm, Room 6DE

Join the creative teams behind "Harley Quinn" and "Suicide Squad" as they talk about what makes comic book villainy so captivating. Panelists will include Amanda Conner, Chad Hardin, Jim Lee, Jimmy Palmiotti, Philip Tan and Rob Williams.

"Bones"

11:15am - 12:15pm, Ballroom 20

Fans of FOX's "Bones" can say goodbye to actors Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, TJ Thyne, Michaela Conlin, Tamara Taylor and John Boyd, as well as executive producers Jonathan Collier and Michael Peterson for the cast's final Comic-Con panel. The stars will begin production for the show's 12th and final season.

Resident Evil's 20th Anniversary

11:30am - 12:30pm, Room 6BCF

Celebrate two decades of the "Resident Evil" survival horror series game with members of the development team at Capcom. Learn about what's next for the iconic video game series.

AMC's "Fear the Walking Dead"

12:00pm - 1:00pm, Hall H

Join the cast from AMC's "Fear The Walking Dead" as they discuss what happens next after the series' May finale.

Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

3:00pm - 4:00pm, Ballroom 20

Meet with the cast of ABC's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" as they talk about the making of the show's third season and what's next for season four.

"Game of Thrones" Panel and Q&A Session

2:15pm - 3:15pm, Hall H

You don't want to miss this panel with cast members from the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series "Game of Thrones." The star-studded panel will include John Bradley as Samwell Tarly, Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth, Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei, Conleth Hill as Varys, Faye Marsay as The Waif, Hannah Murray as Gilly, Kristian Nairn as Hodor, Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, and Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark.
Three South Florida men have been arrested in connection with a plan one of them made to travel overseas to join ISIS, authorities said.

Gregory Hubbard, aka Jibreel; Darren Arness Jackson, aka Daoud; and Dayne Atani Christian, aka Shakur, are accused of knowingly conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The men appeared in federal court in Miami Friday, officials said. It's unknown if they've hired attorneys.

Hubbard, 52, and Jackson, 50, are from West Palm Beach. Christian, 31, is from Lake Park.

Officials said the men had been under observation by the FBI and that Hubbard told a confidential FBI informant that he wanted to travel to Syria and join ISIS to engage in violent jihad.

Hubbard had bought an airline ticket to Germany and had planned to board a train to Turkey and head to Syria, authorities said.

He was arrested Thursday at Miami International Airport before he could begin the first leg of his trip, officials said.

Authorities said Christian and Jackson also expressed a desire to join ISIS and provided weapons and firearms training to Hubbard.

Jackson was arrested after driving Hubbard to the airport Thursday, officials said. Christian was arrested at work.

Officials said the men discussed trying to carry out attacks in the U.S. and had practiced at a shooting range, but decided against the attack.

"Individuals seeking to travel and take up arms with ISIL pose a threat to the United States and humanity across the globe, U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said in a statement. "The U.S. Attorneys Office, the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force continue to work proactively in order to stifle and disrupt any potential danger posed by the terrorist organizations and their supporters."

A criminal complaint alleges the suspects would regularly listen to online messages from ISIS, including praise for the Pulse nightclub attack that killed 49 people in Orlando.

"The nightclub was a soft target and regardless if they are gay or not, it was blood for blood and it was an added bonus that they were gay," Christian said, according to the complaint.

The three are scheduled to be arraigned next month.
Between 17 and 20 migrants landed on the shores of Fisher Island in Miami early Friday morning, leading Border Patrol agents to say it might be part of a smuggling operation.

Officials told the Miami Herald that a multi-agency investigation is underway.

Security on the gated island of luxury homes called Miami Police around 7:30 AM to report a possible smuggling operation in effect. The migrants arrived on what Border Patrol called a go-fast type of vessel that landed.

Crews did not disclose the nationality of the migrants at this time. The arrival comes less than one day after nine Cuban migrants were captured by the Coast Guard off of Key Biscayne.
Coast Guard crews rescued a dolphin Thursday after it landed in a boat in Back Bay.

At around 1 a.m. the Coast Guard Station Fort Myers Beach received a call from a man who said he witnessed a 7-foot dolphin jump out of the water and land in the dinghy attached to his sailboat.

The Coast Guard in coordination with a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission marine biologist determined the dolphin should be placed back into the water as quickly as possible to ensure the dolphin's survival.

The Coast Guard launched a response boat crew to the scene and assisted the dolphin into the water.

"I am proud of the close coordination between our crews and the professionals at FWC," said Chief Warrant Officer Robert Gruschow, commanding officer of Station Fort Myers Beach. "Through this coordination we were able to save another life."
What to Know A 25-year-old Fort Myers police officer has resigned after admitting to sending and receiving over 800 text messages with a teen girl.

A police officer in Fort Myers has resigned after admitting to sending and receiving over 800 text messages with a minor  many discussing sex, drugs and drinking.

25-year-old Matthew Vagi was being investigated after a complaint from the teenage girls mother. According to NBC affiliate WBBH-TV, the messages began after Vagi spent time working security at the high school the teen attends.

Vagi, according to an investigation, gave the female rides home in his police car with the audio and video equipment turned off, a violation of department policy. The two began messaging each other, with Vagi asking the teen about her sexual relationship with her current boyfriend.

Fort Myers interim police Chief Dennis Eads said the department found no evidence of Vagi having sex with the teen, but still turned over findings to state officials. Eads said that he had planned to fire the officer before he submitted his resignation.
A University of Florida linebacker helped stop the rape of an unconscious woman behind a trash bin outside a Gainesville, Florida, bar, police said.

The football player, Cristian Garcia, and his co-worker sprang into action after they noticed something that didnt seem right while cleaning up after work at the bar Thursday morning.

The two saw a 19-year-old woman being sexually assaulted by a man along an alleyway behind the dumpster, Garcia and police said. Police later named the suspect as 34-year-old Christopher Shaw.

I approached the man and grabbed him by his shoulders and said hey get off of her, you cant be doing this, Garcia told NBC 6s Melissa Adan.

(The suspect) then said mind your business, mind your business and finally he got off the girl, which was good, and then he started to become violent he started to throw punches.

Garcia said that the man fell and hit his face before fleeing the scene with another person.

Police said they have reason to believe Shaw has raped other women in the area and that video taken of the incident allowed investigators to see that the victim was slumping over and unable to hold her head up as he continued to sexually assault her.

According to the police report, the victim regained consciousness at the hospital where she told police she did not consent to any sexual acts and said she tried to tell him "no." But she was physically helpless due to her level of intoxication, according to the report.

Garcia, a junior at Florida, walked on to the team last season after previously working in the video department. He played in one game last season for the Gators, recording two tackles in Florida's 41-7 loss to Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.

He gave credit to his upbringing in Miami and education at Belen Jesuit, as well as UFs athletic association and his coach, for teaching him morals.

Sexual assault is such an important issue especially across college campuses - and it should be brought to awareness definitely more, Garcia said. I hope what I am able to do is bring awareness to everyone about sexual assault.

Garcia's intervention in the rape came after a recent spate of sexual assault cases nationally involving student-athletes.

On July 15, former Vanderbilt football player Cory Batey was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of taking part in the gang rape of an unconscious female student in June 2013.

Last month, a judge sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail and ordered him to register as a sex offender for life after a jury convicted him of raping a student behind a campus dumpster in January 2015. Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence. The lighter sentence prompted charges that the white judge was lenient with Turner, who is white and from a wealthy family, because the judge also played sports at Stanford.

Florida quarterback Luke Del Rio  the son of Oakland Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio  said in an Instagram post about Garcia: "Hopefully the media will talk about the good and not just the bad. Proud to be a teammate of Cristian Garcia."
A North Miami police commander has been suspended for allegedly fabricating information about the shooting of an unarmed black therapist.

City Manager Larry Spring Jr. said Friday that commander Emile Hollant is suspended without pay. Spring declined to give specifics about how Hollant allegedly fabricated information about Monday's shooting of Charles Kinsey by Officer Jonathan Aledda.

"He totally violated his trust from the public to protect and serve by giving misinformation to this department," North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin said at Friday's news conference. "He not only jeopardized Mr. Kinsey's life and the life of his client but he jeopardized the life of every police officer who serves this city."

Hilton Napoleon, Kinsey's attorney, said he was disturbed by Friday's development.

"The fact that they were trying to cover this up initially is a huge problem," Napoleon said.

Aledda has been placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated. He is a four-year veteran and a member of the city's SWAT team.

Aledda's personnel file shows he has received outstanding annual evaluations from his bosses during his four years with the department and several commendations for his actions in the field, including his arrest of two robbery suspects in September 2014. He was named the city's police officer of the month that October.

Only one complaint is in his file. A shop owner said Aledda shoved him against the wall and arrested him after other officers wrongly identified him as a robbery suspect. Aledda was cleared by internal affairs investigators who said he used reasonable force given the information he had.

Kinsey was trying coax an autistic man back to a group home when he was shot in the middle of an intersection. He says he was on the ground with his hands in the air when he was shot. Cellphone video shows him with his hands raised moments before the shooting.

The man who shot the video called Kinsey a hero Friday.

"He's a hero, if it wasn't for him that autistic kid probably wouldn't be breathing today," Sivano Hernandez said.

Police said officers responded to the scene after they received a 911 call of an armed man threatening suicide.

A union official has said the officer was aiming for the autistic man because he thought he was a threat, but the officer missed and hit the therapist.

The State Attorney's office is investigating.

Hernandez said he thinks it was all a mistake.

"They're a great department and they do their jobs, I just believe what happened was a mistake and due to everything happening in society unfortunately someone wearing a badge who makes a mistake now, it's magnified," Hernandez said.

Kinsey was released from the hospital Thursday. The family of the autistic man, Arnaldo Rios, has hired an attorney and is expected to speak Saturday.

The shooting remains under investigation.
There were tense moments at the North Miami Police Department Thursday evening after demonstrators gathered to protest the shooting of an unarmed black man by an officer.

Protesters shouted in anger over the recent shooting of Charles Kinsey while entering the lobby of the building before they were asked to leave by officers.

The exit was peaceful but tense, as protesters chanted "Whose streets? Our Streets."

Police kept the calm and tried to answer the crowd.

"If you ask any specifics about the case I cannot answer," North Miami Police spokesperson Natalie Buissereth told members of the crowd.

Kinsey, a caregiver at a nearby group home for mentally disabled adults, was left hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his leg after the encounter Monday. He had found one of the residents, who is severely autistic, sitting in the middle of the street, holding a toy truck.

Police said officers responded to the scene after they received a 911 call of an armed man threatening suicide. Cell phone video showed Kinsey had his hands up as officers stood behind light poles nearby. Moments later, Kinsey was shot in the leg. Police confirmed Thursday that no weapon was found at the scene.

"We at least want to be respected enough so that when we do get shot done unjustly by police they're held accountable and not given a paid vacation, they're not protected and hid behind the walls of the police department," protester Dominique Colas said.

Earlier Thursday, Miami-Dade Police Union President John Rivera gave an explanation, saying the officer was trying to protect Kinsey from the autistic man, who appeared to be a threat.

"The movement of the white individual looked like he was getting ready to discharge a firearm into Mr. Kinsey and the officer discharged trying to strike and stop the white male and unfortunately he missed the white male and shot Mr. Kinsey by accident," Rivera said.

"I think it's a bogus explanation, I think it's not acceptable, it's an excuses and excuses of tools of incompetence," protester Ade Abisogun said.

Kinsey left the hospital Thursday evening. The officer has been placed on administrative leave, per department policy.

The office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez released a statement, saying the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the case and would turn over their findings once it was complete.
The stars behind NBC's new comedy "The Good Place" said they fell in love with the script for the series right away, and hope fans will love it as much as they do.

The sitcom's star, Kristen Bell, plays a woman sent to an afterlife intended for good people. The "Frozen" actress quickly realizes she doesn't belong, and with the help of her afterlife mentor, played by TV veteran Ted Danson, she sets off on a quest to shed her old ways and discover her better self.

"I was just impressed," said Bell. "It really combines my two favorite things on the planet, which is comedy and what it means to be a good person."

Creator Michael Schur ("The Office", "Parks and Recreation"), director Drew Goddard ("The Martian") and stars of the show took the stage at this year's San Diego International Comic-Con on Thursday.

Fans were treated to an advanced screening of the pilot in the Hilton Bayfront Hotel's Indigo Ballroom before the panel, where the cast and crew talked about joining the project and shed some light as to what we can expect from the brand new series.

Danson, the former "Cheers" star, said he jumped on the opportunity when he read the script.

Goddard said when he was first approached by Schur, he didn't know he would be pitched a pilot.

"I felt my heart sink because I realized, 'Oh, [expletive], I'm going to do this, this sounds fantastic,'" he said, later joking he tried to get Danson recast.

He said he knew immediately he had to be a part of the show.

Schur said it felt "scary in a good way" to do a show that is a slight departure from his decade-long work in television, creating and executive producing popular comedies such as "The Office", "Parks and Recreation" and "Brooklyn-99."



"I had been writing some version of a collection of lovable goofballs in an office for a dozen years, so this is very different and very exciting, to me at least," he said.

He continued: "Every episode has a huge, twisty cliffhanger at the end of it," Schur said. It takes a lot of forethought and careful planning."

"The Good Place" debuts on NBC Sept. 19 at 8:30 p.m.
What to Know Jerry Maxfield, 18, was trapped in his upstairs bedroom in Irvington, New Jersey when a fire broke out, killing him

The newly graduated honors student from Newark Prep was an ordained minister who recently gave his first sermon

He also recently took the written test to join the Marines, and wanted to become a police chief after that

An 18-year-old ordained minister and police cadet was killed in a New Jersey house fire Thursday morning, leaving his family reeling over the loss of a man with a promising future.

Jeremiah Maxfield was trapped in his bedroom in his family's home on Arverne Terrace in Irvington when the fire broke out.

"Flames shot up, I woke up, tried to get everyone out," said Cornelius Maxfield, Jeremiah's older brother. "But God had other plans."

Jeremiah -- or Jerry, as everyone called him -- was found dead in his upstairs bedroom.

The Essex County prosecutor's office is investigating the cause of the fire, and whether the house had smoke detectors.

"He attracted many youth and was a great encourager and evangelist for the Lord, and he will be missed," said Jerry's uncle, also named Jeremiah Maxfield.

Maxfield spent most of his free time at the Gravel Hill Baptist Church in Newark, where he was an ordained minister and recently gave his first sermon.

"He loved life, he loved God and he had a pure soul and a pure heart," said brother Nehemiah Williams.

Maxfield had just graduated with honors from Newark Prep Charter School, where his classmates voted him most outgoing and most likely to get married to his girlfriend, Tempest. The young man who served as a Newark police cadet and who loved country music was a natural leader, friends said.

"He was very clever and analytic," said David Disu. "The guy you would aspire to be at such a young age."

"He was a really good friend to all of us. Everyone loved him," said Aushalenn Baskerville.

Maxfield had taken the written test to join the military and was planning to enlist in the Marines. From there, his family says his dream ever since he was a little boy, was to become a police chief.
Police in New Jersey warned residents not to approach endangered rattlesnakes turning up in the community.

Manchester Township police shared photos of timber rattlesnakes on Facebook after receiving several confirmed sightings in the Roosevelt City section of the Ocean County town of Whiting.

"Do NOT approach a rattlesnake!" urged police. "The timber rattlesnake is basically a passive animal, but can become defensive when threatened. Because rattlesnakes view humans as predators, your prolonged presence could encourage a defensive strike."

The rattlers, which are venemous, turn up this time of year as the reptiles seek to mate, executive director/president of Herpetological Associates, Inc. Robert Zappalorti told police.

If you spot a rattler  they are normally prevalent in Roosevelt City, Fox Hollow and Timber Green, according to police  you should stay a safe distance away since the snakes "can strike at a distance up to 1/2 their body length."

Police also point out that the rattlers (click here to learn more about the snakes) are protected under the states Endangered Species Act so you shouldnt even get very close.

If you spot a rattler, call 1-877-WARN-DEP to talk to a biologist, said police. If youre bitten, call 911 immediately.
Worn down and banged up, the Baltimore Orioles found the perfect remedy for all their ailments  a well-pitched game.

Chris Tillman tied for the major league lead with his 14th win, throwing four-hit ball for seven innings and helping the depleted Orioles avert a four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium, beating New York 4-1 Thursday.

"You could tell he was trying to give us what we really needed," manager Buck Showalter said.

The Orioles had lost four straight overall, costing them their lead in the AL East.

"We don't look at snapping anything. There's been ups and downs," Showalter said. "You try to get a grip on reality."

Baltimore slugger Chris Davis, shortstop Manny Machado and Showalter returned from a stomach bug that's hit the clubhouse.

"It's bad," Tillman said. "I doesn't look like fun."

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones didn't play because of back spasms, catcher Matt Wieters missed his third consecutive game after being hit by a pitch in the foot and rookie outfielder Joey Rickard sat out with an injured thumb.

Showalter said Wieters and Jones were day to day.

Tillman (14-2) matched White Sox ace Chris Sale for the most victories in the majors. He won his fourth straight start, allowing exactly one run over seven innings in each outing.

The last Orioles pitcher to permit one or fewer runs while going at least seven innings for so long was Jim Palmer, who did it in six straight starts in 1978.

Tillman gave up three hits and two walks to the first eight batters, capped by Starlin Castro's RBI single. The tall right-hander then set down 16 of his final 17 hitters.

"Got in sync," Tillman said.

Brad Brach pitched the eighth and Zach Britton closed for his 30th save in as many chances.

The Yankees had won four in a row.

"I think you have to look at it, you took three of four from a good Baltimore team, and you have to move on," manager Joe Girardi said.

CC Sabathia (5-8) lost on his 36th birthday, leaving him 0-4 in his past six starts. He also stumbled and fell on the mound while trying to throw a pitch in the sixth, with the ball skittering onto the grass and resulting in a balk.

J.J. Hardy grounded a two-out, two-run single off the glove of shortstop Didi Gregorius in the first inning, and Jonathan Schoop sliced a two-out, two-run double in the seventh.

The Orioles began the day 3 for 33 with runners in scoring position since the All-Star break. Mark Trumbo, tied for the big league lead in home runs, threw down his bat after popping up in a key spot in the first, but Hardy soon delivered with the bases loaded.

Julio Borbon singled in the seventh for his first hit in the majors since 2013 with the Cubs, setting up Schoop's double that finished Sabathia.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Orioles: RHP Hunter Harvey, Baltimore's first-round draft pick in 2013, is set for Tommy John surgery. The 21-year-old pitched in the rookie and Class A levels this year, and has been beset by injuries during his pro career. "It's brutal," Showalter said

Yankees: 3B Chase Headley didn't start for the second straight game with an excused absence for personal reasons. He pinch hit in the eighth and grounded out.

TILLMAN TIME

Tillman struck out seven and walked two. He is 7-0 with a 3.23 ERA in 10 starts vs. AL East opponents this year.

UP NEXT

Orioles: RHP Dylan Bundy (2-2, 3.70) faces Cleveland at Camden Yards. The 23-year-old made his first major league start last weekend and gave up three home runs in 3 1/3 innings at Tampa Bay.

Yankees: The NL West-leading Giants visit Yankee Stadium for the first time since 2013. New York RHP Masahiro Tanaka (7-2, 3.15) is 4-0 in his past six starts. He has never pitched vs. San Francisco. Giants ace LHP Madison Bumgarner (10-5, 2.12) gets his first look at the Yankees.
A half-dozen African elephants lay strewn on a riverside plain in Malawi, immobilized by darts fired from a helicopter in a massive project to move 500 elephants, by truck and crane, to a sanctuary for the threatened species.

As development squeezes Africa's wildlife areas, this kind of man-made animal migration is increasingly seen as a conservation strategy in Malawi, one of the continent's most densely populated countries, and beyond.

Conservationists flipped the prostrate elephants' large ears over their eyes to block out light, and propped open the tips of their trunks with twigs to ensure unimpeded breathing. Then the multi-ton elephants, hanging upside down from ankle straps, were loaded by crane onto trucks for a road trip of about 185 miles (300 kilometers) to a safer, more spacious area.

African elephants are in particular peril from human encroachment, while poachers have slaughtered them in the tens of thousands to meet demand for ivory, mostly in Asia.

The Malawi elephant project differs from other wildlife relocations because of its large scale.

"This is very much the way that we'll have to manage things in the future," said Craig Reid, manager of Malawi's Liwonde National Park, which is run by African Parks, a non-profit group based in Johannesburg. Reid described Liwonde as "an ecological island in a sea of humanity."

African Parks is relocating hundreds of what it calls "surplus" elephants from Liwonde and Majete, another park, to Nkhotakota, a third reserve where poachers have virtually wiped out the elephant population.

African Parks, which manages all three Malawian reserves, is moving the 500 elephants this month and next, and again next year when vehicles can maneuver on the rugged terrain during southern Africa's dry winter. The Dutch PostCode Lottery and the Washington-based Wyss Foundation are key funders of the $1.6 million relocation.

An Associated Press team witnessed a day of catching elephants in Liwonde. Dr. Andre Uys, a wildlife veterinarian, rode in a helicopter that flushed elephant families from woods onto a floodplain, where he darted them in their hindquarters. Then capture teams in vehicles raced across the rutted earth toward the prone elephants' dark silhouettes.

The immediate priority was to check the health of the elephants before they were hoisted, trunks dangling, onto flatbed trucks. Monitoring included the intimate act of placing a hand over an elephant's trunk to feel the hot blast of exhaled air every few seconds.

Teams rounded up 24 elephants, including a gargantuan bull, in a day's haul that they described as a record. In one case, an immobilized calf struggled to breathe, and conservationists funneled oxygen up a tube in its trunk and measured vital signs. Uys speculated that the calf had river water in its sinuses.

"Those little guys actually can't walk along the bottom, they have to swim across the channels when we push them out into ground where we can catch them," he said. "In that process, with all the splashing from the mothers and everything, they get a lot of water up the nasal cavity."

The elephants were revived with injections in "wake-up" crates, and cattle prods were used to maneuver the animals onto vehicles bound for their new home.

There is some risk and stress in drugging and moving the animals, though South African conservationists and the commercial wildlife industry have refined and shortened the process over the years. Many animals can adapt to a new habitat if it is roughly the same as the old one.

The Malawi relocation is "a win-win for elephants and people" and an example of wildlife management that "will likely become the new norm in many places in Africa," said Bas Huijbregts, African species expert for the WWF conservation group.

While disease transfer is a concern, species restocking in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park and South Africa's Addo Elephant National Park has been successful, said George Wittemyer, an African elephant expert and associate professor at Colorado State University.

"I see it as something that's here to stay, for better or worse," Wittemyer said.

African Parks hopes elephants in Malawi can eventually serve as a reservoir to restore other African elephant populations. One estimate says Africa has fewer than 500,000 elephants, down from several million a century ago.

A South Africa-based company, Conservation Solutions, is contributing to the Malawi relocation project. Its leader, Kester Vickery, said the key to successful relocations of what he called a "higher-thinking kind of animal" is to keep tightly knit elephant families together.

Unlike many other species, Vickery said, the first thing that a darted mother elephant does on recovering is look for her calf.
Austin, Texas, Police Chief Art Acevedo apologized to Breaion King, 26, during a news conference Thursday after video emerged showing the African-American woman being slammed to the ground by an officer during her arrest following a minor traffic stop last year.

He said his "heart was sickened and saddened" by the arrest and pledged a series of administrative investigations and increased training in implicit bias and fair policing, NBC News reported. The case against King was dismissed in January.

In a second video King, is being driven to jail by officer Patrick Spradlin, who is white. The two have an exchange about race.

"Why are so many people afraid of black people?" Spradlin asks, responding to a question posed by King. "I can give you a really good  a really good idea why it might be that way. Violent tendencies."

Acevedo said he didn't learn of the videos until Tuesday, when a prosecutor called him after receiving inquiries from the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, which published the videos Thursday.
A day after accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump pivoted back to the GOP primaries on Friday, choosing to re-litigate a pair of months-old battles with rival Ted Cruz.

In what should have been a feel-good victory lap the morning after his thundering acceptance speech, Trump instead defended his decision to retweet an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife, Heidi, and returned to wondering about possible links between Cruz's father and President John F. Kennedy's assassin.

He also declared that, two days after Cruz was loudly booed at the Republican National Convention for not endorsing the new nominee, he would never accept the Texas senator's backing.

"He'll come and endorse, it's because he has no choice. But I don't want his endorsement," Trump said. "Ted, stay home. Relax. Enjoy yourself."

The ugly and highly personal feud between the top two finishers in the Republican primaries, dormant since Cruz ended his campaign in early May, reignited in dramatic fashion Wednesday at a convention meant to heal the bruised party.

The Texas senator was given a speaking slot, though he had indicated he wasn't going to offer an endorsement. He drew a standing ovation when he first emerged and was cheered loudly for most of his speech. But as it drew to a close, and it became apparent that Cruz would not offer the nominee a full-throated endorsement or urge his hundreds of delegates to vote for Trump come November, boos echoed across the arena.

Trump then made a surprise appearance in his private box, glaring at the stage as Cruz departed.

The Republican nominee made no mention of his former rival as he read his 75-minute speech from the teleprompters Thursday night, but switched gears the following morning. The invite-only event, billed as a thank you reception for supporters and staff at Trump's Cleveland hotel at first looked like it would simply consist of Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, making perfunctory remarks saluting the convention and pledging to win in November.

But then Trump bore in on Cruz, calling his non-endorsement "dishonorable" before revisiting the hubbub over the celebrity businessman March's retweet of a post that juxtaposed an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz with a glamour shot of Trump's wife Melania, a former model. Cruz criticized Trump for involving his wife; Trump's rebuttal at the time was to accuse a Super PAC affiliated with Cruz of sending a risque photo of Melania Trump to Utah voters.

And then, suddenly, he returned to it Friday.

"I didn't start anything with the wife," Trump said, eliciting a loud gasp from one reporter at the back of the hotel ballroom. "Then when I saw somebody tweeted a picture of Melania and a picture of Heidi, who I think, by the way, is a very nice woman and a very beautiful woman."

"I think (she's) the best thing he's got going and his kids if you want to know the truth." he continued during the nearly 15-minute ramble about Cruz.

Trump then turned to justifying how, on the eve of the Indiana primary that proved to be Cruz's last stand, he touted a story in the National Enquirer tabloid that printed a photo that purported to show Cruz's father, Rafael, with Lee Harvey Oswald.

"All I did was point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast," the GOP nominee said. "Did anybody ever deny that was the father? They're not saying, 'Oh that wasn't really my father.' It was a little hard to do. It looked like him."

Cruz, in May, had denied that his father was in the photo. His spokeswoman Catherine Frazier declined comment on Trump's remarks Friday.
As the presidential election looms, some 41,000 black voters in Philadelphia who used to be registered to vote are off the books now, and leaders in Philadelphias black community are scrambling to get them registered so their voices will be heard come November.



Were concerned that people may think elections may go a certain way, and too often people think that one vote doesnt count, Minister Rodney Muhammad, president of the NAACPs Philadelphia chapter, told NBC10 this week. It certainly does.

Muhammad said he recently met with elections commissioners and discerned the drop in registered voters. He said a larger decrease showed among black voters, who make up 44 percent of the city's population.

Muhammad said the local NAACP is joining forces with several other organizations now to try to get unregistered voters  particularly those who are black and Latino  registered ahead of the election. He said he attributes the hefty decrease in registered voters to people moving or registrations expiring  but he acknowledged apathy may be playing some role, too.



Were not going to let apathy win the day, Muhammad said.



To complicate matters, some activists across the nation involved in the Black Lives Matter movement spoke out recently, saying they plan to abstain from voting for the next president, because they dont believe their voices or votes matter. Asa Khalif, a vocal member of the local Black Lives Matter contingent, said he doesnt plan to abstain from voting, but he knows people who do.



I believe it is a privilege to vote, Khalif said. The right to vote is covered in the blood of our elders. Many of our elders were beaten and killed for that right  I plan to exercise my right.



Khalif said he couldnt put a number to how many activists hes heard wont vote.



Its more than a handful, of people, Khalif said.



By and large, though, more than a dozen people interviewed in Philadelphia neighborhoods on Thursday rejected the notion that their votes don't count and said they plan to exercise their right at the polls in November.

Tyrone Lawrence works the polls and says he votes in every election. "When you don't vote, it seems like you don't care," he said.

Morgan Zalot / NBC10
A gunman targeted a man and his friend out for some late night Chinese food.

The unidentified friends were walking along Bringhurst Street in Philadelphias Germantown neighborhood around 2 a.m. Friday when a gunman approached and demanded money, said Philadelphia Police.

The robber shot the man in the leg then took his money and the food, said police.

The man was recovering at the hospital Friday morning as police searched for the shooter.




A man and woman were found dead in the parking lot of a Delaware Home Depot Thursday evening, state police said.

The discovery was made around 7:35 p.m. in Northtowne Plaza at 601 Naamans Road -- right off of Interstate 95 -- in Claymont, police said.

The woman was found unresponsive in the car and the man was on the ground outside the vehicle, county officials said. They were later pronounced dead at the scene.

Delaware State Police spokesman Cpl. Jeffrey Hale said the investigation is underway, but that foul play is not suspected.

County officials tell NBC10 autopsies will be performed to determine cause of death.
Tours of the Wells Fargo Center. Protesters arriving from out-of-state. Ed Rendell's son getting a contract with the DNC.

All signs point to one thing: The start of the Democratic National Convention is near.

Delegates, lobbyists and politicians begin arriving in Philadelphia throughout Sunday as they get ready to meet for the first time officially at 3 p.m. Monday inside the Wells Fargo Center. Here's details on a need-to-know basis:

Convention dates (official): July 25-28

Convention dates (actual): July 24-29 (Large protest marches and rallies are scheduled for Sunday, the day before delegates officially gather at the Wells Fargo Center. Hillary Clinton is holding what will likely be a massive rally at Independence Mall on Friday, the day after the convention.)

Road closures: Many of you road warriors/commuters have already seen the large electronic signs noting "No Trucks Over 5 Tons on I-95 Between Exits 22 and 13 7/25-7/28." But there is much more to it than that. Really, though, it most affects those who travel in and around South Philly. Here's a map for the extensive road closures around the stadiums.

River closings: Boat traffic will be monitored closely by the U.S. Coast Guard the entire week, particularly when President Barack Obama is in town to speak at the DNC on Wednesday. Recreational boaters on the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers are asked to closely monitor channel 16 on their boat two-way radios.

Popular protest locations: Thomas Paine Plaza, aka the area where the Frank Rizzo statue is in front of the MSB (Municipal Services Building); South Broad Street between City Hall and Pattison Avenue; Independence Mall at Fifth and Market streets; FDR Park.

Open-to-the-public AND delegates' attractions: Here's a list of big exhibits open the week of the DNC, festivals happening and places with some food and drink specials commemorating the big week.
President Barack Obama fiercely rejected Donald Trump's depiction of an America in crisis on Friday, arguing that violent crime and illegal immigration have plunged under his leadership to their lowest rates in decades.

Looking to November's election, Obama said, "We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact."

At a news conference alongside Mexico's president, Obama sought to undermine two pillars of Trump's speech Thursday night in which he accepted the Republican presidential nomination. Trump said that if he is elected, "safety will be restored" at home and abroad.

"This idea that American is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people," Obama told journalists.

The violent crime rate, he said, has been lower during his presidency than any time in the last three or four decades. While he acknowledged an uptick in murders in some U.S. cities this year, Obama said the violent crime rate today is still far lower than when Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s.

Obama used the same marker for immigration, describing today's rate of illegal border crossing as only a third of what it was during the Reagan administration, and lower than at any time since.

Speaking after an evening in which Trump laid out his case to be the next commander in chief, Obama grimaced noticeably when a reporter suggested the billionaire businessman's message appeals to working-class Americans.

"It's not really clear how appealing it was," Obama said.

Obama said he will let the U.S. public decide if the vision of Republicans or Democrats for the nation is more persuasive. Hillary Clinton, Obama's 2008 primary rival and then his secretary of state, will receive the Democratic nomination next week. She is expected to announce her running mate soon.

Still, Obama sought to paint a contrast between Trump's picture of rising crime and uncontrolled borders and the brighter reality he sees.

He said he hopes people walked outside the next day to chirping birds and sunny skies, essentially accusing the Republican candidate of fearmongering and distracting from the "real issues" of jobs, inequality, wage stagnation, education, the budget and the tax system.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, for his part, tried to exercise restraint, saying he is ready to work with whoever prevails in the presidential election. Previously, he had likened Trump's language to that of Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini, though he said such comparisons were taken out of context.

Trump on Thursday repeated his assertion that he would build a wall across the U.S.-Mexican border "to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities." At one point, the crowd chanted, "Build that wall."

Of the U.S. presidential campaign, Pena Nieto said, Mexico "will not give its opinion; it will not get involved."

Instead, he showered Obama with praise, calling him a "very good neighbor" and saying U.S.-Mexican relations are in one of their best ever periods.

Obama said the "heated rhetoric" of the political season shouldn't overshadow the strong cultural and commercial ties between the two North American neighbors.

Some $1.5 billion in cross-border trade and investment occurs daily, he said, supporting 1 million U.S. jobs. Friday's announcement of a new air transport agreement will open more U.S.-Mexican flight routes. Energy talks are planned for later this year. And Mexico and the U.S. will co-host refugee talks at the U.N. in September.

Obama said the two countries both want to see the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement enter force so that it puts workers across the Asia-Pacific region on a level playing field.
A sickly, emaciated puppy was so excited to receive attention when animal control officers came to rescue him that he collapsed from exertion as he furiously wagged his tail, according to his rescuers in New Jersey.

The officers in Paterson were responding to a report of a starved puppy being kept outside in the heat with no food or water, according to animal rescue group Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge.

The puppy "collapsed from the exertion and excitement of greeting a visitor, having been alone for days," the rescue group said in a fundraising page set up for the pup.

One of the officers took him off his chain and brought him into the home, where he staggered over to the toilet and lapped up all the water before she could stop him, all the time wagging his tail and falling over.

"The puppy's tail never stopped wagging -- he was so excited to finally have human contact and kind touch," the rescue group said.

The owners admitted to animal control officers the pup hadn't eaten in days.

The puppy was taken to Oradell Animal Hospital, where rescue group workers met the animal control officers.

"When they arrived and unwrapped him, he began wiggling again," the rescue group said. "He was so happy, his tail wagging furiously -- all the while, the rescuers were in tears as he tipped over and over again from weakness, his skin flaked to the floor and his little heartbeat seemed to shine right through his paper-thin skin."

The puppy -- named Pax by his rescuers, because he seemed to have finally found his peace -- is receiving IV treatment in the hospital for the next several days until he is stabilized.

"We can't wait to give him all of the attention, love and care that he has so desperately been craving," said the rescue group.

A GoFundMe page set up for the puppy had raised over $5,000 by Thursday afternoon.

It's not clear if the owners of the dog are facing charges. A message was left with Paterson police.
Alaska Airlines will soon offer non-stop flights from San Diego to Newark, New Jersey, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority announced on Thursday.

Flights will leave daily from San Diego to Newark at 9:55 a.m. and arrives at 5:55 p.m. eastern time. The daily flight from Newark will leave at 7 p.m. and arrive in San Diego at 10 p.m.

The service was added after the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a request by Alaska Airlines to fly daily flights between the two cities.

We are pleased Alaska Airlines continues its network expansion in San Diego by adding flights to the New York/Newark metropolitan area. Alaska Airlines new service to Newark, New Jersey will provide a much needed nonstop option for accessing the New York City areas west side, said Hampton Brown, San Diego International Airports director of air service development.

This service will be the third East Coast destination from San Diego by Alaska Airlines.

Ticket for the flights will go on sale July 25 and the service will began operating on November 21.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring hobbyists who assemble homemade guns to apply for a serial number and submit to a background check.

The legislation signed Friday is aimed at cracking down on untraceable firearms known as "ghost guns."

"Ghost guns" are plastic guns that can slip through metal detectors and unregistered weapons that can fall into the hands of people who are legally prohibited from owning firearms under state law.

By 2019, people who own or create homemade firearms will have to apply for a serial number from the California Department of Justice and permanently affix it to the weapon.

Gun rights advocates have argued that the law will have little impact on those criminals who build guns to circumvent current gun laws.

One such incident involved William Mayes of Mira Mesa who was shot by San Diego police on an Escondido street corner in 2013. Mayes was heavily armed with homemade firearms and explosives, including several small devices hidden on his body, officials said.

[G] Suspect in Officer-Involved Shooting Had Homemade Firearms

In Santa Monica, John Zawahri assembled his own military-style assault rifle and killed five people in a June 2014 rampage after he was barred from legally buying a gun in California because of mental health issues.

Santa Monica Shooter's Arsenal Revealed

AB857 by Assemblyman Jim Cooper of Elk Grove joins six other gun-control measures that the Democratic governor signed earlier in the month. Those included bills requiring people to turn in high-capacity magazines and background checks for ammunition sales.
A man accused of killing a couple in rural Washington state and burying their remains in a remote forest clearing has been captured in Mexico.

Snohomish County Sheriff's Lt. Doug Jeske says 53-year-old John Blaine Reed was arrested Thursday by Mexican authorities. Reed had been on the run since the April slayings near Oso, a rural community northeast of Seattle.

Jeske says Reed has been booked into Pima County Jail in Arizona, and is expected to have a court hearing next week. It's unclear when he would return to Washington state.

Investigators believe Reed fatally shot Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude in April over a property dispute north of Seattle. He has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Greg Janda

He and his brother Tony Reed, 49, fled to Mexico, but the brother turned himself in and helped detectives locate the couple's remains.

Reed was arrested May 16 at the border.

Tony Reed pleaded guilty last month to two counts of rendering criminal assistance.
Carmel Mountain Ranch resident Jared Shirk told NBC 7 that all he wants is a good nights sleep.

But he said that has been near impossible for the last few months since re-modeling construction began at a nearby Ralphs grocery store. He told NBC 7 that noisy equipment rumbles from 10 p.m. throughout the night.

Almost all night long, I hear generator noise. And then every 10 to 15 minutes, we hear the fork lift and or the cherry pickers, and theyre all night long, Shirk said.

Shirk lives in an apartment on the 11000 block of Stoney Peak Drive. Several of the rooms face the back of the grocery store, where construction equipment is parked.

He said he's called the store and the police. Hes filed complaints on the citys Code Enforcement division website but there has been no results. So he did what most people do these days to draw attention to the problem: he posted video on YouTube.

In one video, it shows a clock inside a car which read 12:32 a.m.

The bottom line, it annoying. And as far as I can tell, its illegal, Shirk said.

Per city municipal code, construction is not allowed between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. A spokesperson with code enforcement says a case file was opened up on July 14. The case has now been sent to the city's Division of Building and Safety which will inspect the site.

If the store isnt following the rules, a citation could be issued and ultimately construction could be halted.

Kroger, Ralphs parent company did not respond immediately to phone calls from NBC 7.

But the company sent a tweet to Shirk that said in part: we are very sorry about this.
A San Diego woman convicted of grand theft while posing as an attorney was described as an "excellent actor" and "quite dangerous" at her sentencing Friday.

Giuliana Bosco Huerta will spend 13 years and 8 months behind bars for defrauding 10 victims out of more than $57,000.

Huerta was convicted on close to two dozen criminal counts including grand theft, forgery of seal and handwriting, using personal identifying information of another, false impersonation and practicing a profession without a license.

Melvin Fredrick, one of Huertas victims, asked the judge to institutionalize the defendant.

The active duty law enforcement officer, told NBC 7 in a previous interview that Huerta stole tens of thousands of dollars by posing as his lawyer.

Her ability to become anyone or anything that she sees fit to meet that moment, its flawless, Fredrick told the court Friday. Shes quite dangerous.

Huertas former spouse told the court she has to file for bankruptcy because of the nightmare the defendant put her through.

We trusted you and this is what you did to us, the defendant's ex said in a written statement.

When given the chance to address the judge, Huerta cried and maintained her innocence. She asked to be allowed to return to Wisconsin where she has relatives.

Huerta's defense attorney said her client has been diagnosed as bipolar and needs to be on medication.

She was ordered to pay restitution to victims including $40,500 to Fredrick.
Authorities have arrested the last remaining suspect in a 1999 cold case, San Diego Police (SDPD) announced Thursday.

The homicide happened on Sept. 18, 1999, when Wilberto Rodriguez was shot and killed in front of his home on the 4300 block of Newtown Avenue, in San Diego's Mountain View neighborhood.

Detectives learned at the time during their investigation that Rodriguez was involved in a physical altercation with two men. Those men pulled out handguns and shot him, police said.

George David Garcia, 22, and Alfredo Yanez-Munoz, 20, were identified as suspects in the homicide during the course of the investigation, authorities said.

Shortly after the crime, Garcia was arrested and charged in Rodriguez's death. But police never arrested Yanez-Munoz and believed he fled to Mexico.

On July 21, authorities in Mexico arrested Yanez-Munoz in Mexico and officials from U.S. Marshals and the San Diego Fugutive Task Force took custody of him.

Yanez-Munoz will be booked into San Diego County Jail and charged in the death of Rodriguez.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it is looking into reports another American has been detained in Iran.

State Department spokesman John Kirby would not comment further Thursday on the detention of Robin Shahini. The girlfriend of the San Diego man said Shahini's sister told her Iranian authorities took him into custody July 11 while he was visiting family in his native Iran and he has not been heard from since.

The girlfriend asked not to be identified because she has family in Iran and fears for their safety. She said she worries Shahini was detained because of his online comments criticizing Iran's human rights record.

At a news conference Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry declined to comment on the detention. The Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force charged with protecting the Islamic Republic, increasingly has targeted those with Western ties since the nuclear deal in which Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

A prisoner swap in January between Iran and the U.S. freed Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans.

Shahini, 46, graduated in May from San Diego State University with a degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution. He had been accepted to SDSU's graduate program in Homeland Security, but he has not registered for classes yet, according to university officials.

His girlfriend said he left for Iran on May 25 to see his mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The girlfriend said she communicated with Shahini on July 10 and was expecting to hear back the next day to help him get his paperwork into the university. She grew concerned after not hearing from him.

She eventually reached his family who told him Iranian intelligence officials came to their home in Gordon, Iran, and took him away. Authorities searched the home and took his personal belongings, she said. The family has not talked or seen him since. He had a plane ticket to return to San Diego on July 25 and had planned to start classes on Aug. 22, the girlfriend said.

"He's majoring in international security, so his passion involves peace and justice, human rights," the girlfriend said. "He's open about being a human rights advocate. But it's not only limited to Iran, he's also posted about other countries too."

Shahini left Iran in 1998 and has lived in San Diego for 16 years.

His close friend, Denera Radoonanan in New York, said he was not politically active in Iran. "I really don't' know what could have caused this," she said.

The day Shahini's family says he was detained on July 11, Iran announced the indictments of a Lebanese man and three dual nationals. The four were arrested in connection with separate cases over the past year. Family members and representatives of the four say they did nothing wrong. All four have ties to Britain, Canada and the United States. The charges they face remain unclear.

Iran's official judiciary news agency Mizan quoted Tehran's prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, as also saying another seven people faced charges related to the unrest that surrounded the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.

It's not known if Shahini is among the seven.
California firefighters battled a blaze at a motel in San Bernardino Thursday night that was sparked by a nearby brush fire in punishing triple-digit heat.

The flames tore through the Super 8 Motel in the 200 block of E. Hospitality Lane near Commerce Center Drive, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Firefighters responded to the blaze around 9:45 p.m., which began as a vegetation fire, firefighters said.

Firefighters evacuated the motel while trying to attack the vegetation fire and the structure fire, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Flames could be seen shooting from the roof as firefighters battled the blaze.

No civilians suffered any injuries. One firefighter suffered minor injuries during overhaul operations.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.
A supply of counterfeit Polo Ralph Lauren shirts worth almost $16,000 was confiscated at Washington Dulles International Airport July 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement.

The shirts arrived from Pakistan June 29, and CBP detained the shipment after learning that the person receiving it was not allowed to import Polo shirts. The shirts were supposed to be delivered somewhere in Northern Virginia, CBP said in the statement.

If the shirts were authentic, they would be worth $15,582, the statement said.

CBP said it seizes $3.7 million of products that violate Intellectual Property Rights each day across the 328 ports in the U.S.
Police in Alexandria, Virginia, believe the man accused in recent shooting of a 23-year-old man committed the murder as revenge for his brother's death.

Dijuan Clark, 30, was arrested Thursday in another state and charged with the murder of Saquan Hall, 23. Dijuan Clark is awaiting extradition to Virginia.

Saquan Hall, 23, was gunned down in the 1000 block of First Street on July 2. Three weeks before Hall's death, Pierre Clark was shot to death in broad daylight.

Hall's mother, Patrice Hall, previously said police told her that her son was a suspect in Pierre Clark's death. And though Saquan Hall 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 have not officially said whether Saquan Hall was a suspect in Pierre Clark's death.
A man forged 16 checks worth over $11,000 in the name of a 95-year-old woman who trusted him as her caregiver, police said.

After taking the money from the woman, 56-year-old Jose Bacon Jr. left her house filthy, police said. There was old food covered in bugs on the womans table, cat feces on the floor and mice and roaches crawling on her bed, court documents said.

He left this 95-year-old victim to essentially rot in her own urine, said Ramon Korionoff, spokesman for the Montgomery County States Attorneys Office.

The woman could have died, investigators said.

Bacon gained the womans trust by doing work and home care for her from January 2012 to October 2013, police said. Video surveillance at a bank shows Bacon withdrawing money from an ATM machine.

Police said he was the womans only caregiver.

The judge at Bacons sentencing described the womans living conditions as the worst possible scenario. She said Bacon still hasnt taken responsibility for what he did.

Bacon was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The woman, now 98, is doing well in an assisted living facility, officials said.

About 300,000 senior citizens will be living in Montgomery by 2020, Korionoff said. The Montgomery County States Attorneys Office said a special task force was created to protect the elderly in Montgomery County.
Dogs in the D.C. area interrupt war veterans' nightmares, boost up people with limited mobility when they are about to fall, and help police track suspects and detect explosives.

News4 loves dogs with jobs. The people the dogs serve told us they are endlessly impressed by the animals' devotion and ability to learn.

A 3-year-old collie named Beam Me Up, Mr. Scott -- or Scotty, for short -- helps Maryland real estate agent Debbie Taylor cope with vertigo and mobility issues.

Scotty opens doors, turns lights on and off, fetches objects, pulls clothes out of the dryer and prevents Taylor from falling.

"If I'm walking and I start to fall, he leans against me and catches me. It amazes me that he knows," she said. "I wouldn't have a life without him. I would be living, but I wouldn't have a life."

NBC Washington

Taylor, 65, spoke Wednesday at a service dog training session at Fidos for Freedom. The nonprofit based in Laurel, Maryland, has trained service and therapy dogs for nearly 30 years.

Here are the heartwarming stories of five more dogs with jobs:

Meet Zara, a Police Dog Who Detects Explosives

Zara is one of seven highly trained dogs in the Alexandria, Virginia, police department's K-9 Unit. The 5-year-old Belgian Malinois works on patrol with Officer Steve Escobar and is trained to detect explosives.

The dogs in her unit help recover evidence, track suspects and sniff bombs.

"They do things a human couldn't. Their ability to detect things eclipses our own, Deputy Chief Chris Wemple III said.

Courtesy of Shelley Castle Photography

He spoke as six officer-and-dog pairs in the K-9 Unit had their photos taken outside the station on a blazing hot afternoon earlier this month.

Sgt. Cindy Scott has worked with the dogs for the past seven years and supervised the unit for four years. The police canines seem to like to be useful, she said.

"All they want to do is please us. They prance. They're like, 'I did good. I'm so proud,'" Scott said.

The dogs work hard and are good at relaxing, too, she said.

"When they're at home, they're the biggest couch potatoes you could find," she said. "Its amazing how theyre able to turn the switch off."

Meet Chauncey, a Service Dog Who Works With a Military Veteran

Chauncey is the service dog of an Army veteran who served in Iraq.

Brian McCrady's face lights up when he talks about his year-old English Labrador.

"I'm out of my shell again. I'm out in the world again," the 35-year-old said.

NBC Washington

Chauncey helps McCrady handle post-traumatic stress disorder and a back injury, he said. He credits the dog with helping him lose 50 pounds and making him feel safer. Chauncey wakes him up if he's having a nightmare and is trained to provide deep pressure therapy, laying his weight on McCrady to soothe him.

"We just call it snuggles," McCrady said at Fidos for Freedom as the big dog climbed into his lap. "We all benefit from hugs, right?"

NBC Washington

His service dog also is trained to lay at McCrady's feet to create additional personal space.

"We've taught him some 'blocking,' so he can create a barrier for me in a non-aggressive way," McCrady said.

Meet Wrigley and Roscoe, Service and Therapy Dogs in Training

As Wrigley and Roscoe turned 8 months old on Wednesday, they were learning to fetch objects of various textures.

"It's all about getting them comfortable with all sorts of things," veterinarian and longtime Fidos for Freedom volunteer Christy Shoup said.

NBC Washington

Wrigley, an empress Labrador adopted from a breeder in Illinois, is living with her.

If the playful puppies progress in their training, they will continue for two-and-a-half years and eventually be paired with a Fidos for Freedom client.

NBC Washington

Meet Ruby, a Service Dog Who Helps With Mobility Issues

Ruby can take off her owner Ann Dunn's shoes and socks, help her dress herself and drag a walker over to her. Dunn has lived with the 8-year-old Labrador for six years.

NBC Washington

The dog sits quietly at her feet as she speaks. When Dunn moves to get up, Ruby stands alongside her so Dunn can brace herself on her back.
The daily life of a stray cat is exhausting and often dangerous. They spend hours hunting mice, or dumpster diving, or -- if they're lucky -- seeking scraps (or kibble) from reliable human neighbors. And for those who aren't spayed or neutered, life is even worse, said Niki Cochran of the Washington Humane Society (WHS).

Their lives are solely focused on survival, which includes a rate of competition that can turn deadly when it comes to males vying for females, or for females who don't have the capacity for a healthy pregnancy. Most kittens born to strays never even make it to adulthood, Cochran said.

But the humble alley cats stand a chance for life-changing social climbing in D.C. if they end up in a simple three-step program: trap, neuter, release (TNR).

TNR is a humane way to transform the lives of strays with proper vaccinations, reducing the number of kittens born in these communities and, in some cases, making pets out of ferals, Cochran said.

Residents Get in the Mix to Help 'Community Cats'

With the help of a fleet of volunteers and homeowners, the Cat Neighborhood Partnership Program (CatNiPP) works to "humanely reduce the population of community cats" with spaying and neutering and by socializing kittens, the program's website says.

D.C. resident Bill Condell became a community cat lover about a decade ago when he moved into a new home in Adams Morgan with his wife, Sue, and noticed strays were out in full force in the area. He discovered the Humane Society's TNR program and got traps for the neighborhood through a local coordinator.

"Once you catch the cats, there's really not a whole lot that you yourself need to do other than drop them off in the morning [at the spay and neuter clinic] and pick them up at closing time to bring them back home," Condell said. "As long as you can get transportation to get to the dropoff point, it's really not that difficult."

Calls from concerned community members are CatNiPP's primary resource for discovering areas in which they should distribute traps.

"We rely on active community engagement," Cochran said.

Getting Strays Proper Medical Care: How It's Done

Residents can get humane cat traps from WHS and set them up with a bit of food inside as bait. CatNiPP employees and volunteers also work in the communities to lure cats to traps with "trails of stinky tuna," Cochran said.

There's also a bit of recon work: Employees talk to those in the area to gather information on the cats' lives to determine the best times for trapping -- sometimes as late as 1 a.m. -- and whether any of them could become housepets, Cochran said.

For example, a cat that was left behind by a family moving out of the neighborhood most likely has not been a stray for long and is well-adjusted to indoor life, making it a good candidate for adoption, Cochran said.

"We look at all the factors when we're picking up the cats," she said.

Once trapped, the cat are brought to a cost-free spay and neuter clinic. They also get standard vaccinations such rabies shots, as well as an "ear-tip" procedure, in which a vet clips a small portion of a cat's ear to signal to community members that it has received its shots.

The cats spend about 18 to 20 hours in recovery after their procedures. Then most are returned to their neighborhoods to carry on with their usual lives, although some become candidates for adoption.

Improving the Lives of Strays

Condell said he and his wife have have trapped, neutered and released about eight cats, and have become particularly attached to a couple over the years.

"There is one [cat] in particular who practically lives in our backyard," he said. "She has been there for over five years and we take care of her as much as we can."

The goal is to improve the cats' quality of life and keep them healthy in communities that want them, she said. And since shelters typically have an influx of cats, the program also reduces the strain on finances and resources, Cochran said.

"These are cats that have identified caregivers," Cochran said of the cats that go through TNR. "People want them to be in the community."

A three-year grant from PetSmart Charities has helped CatNiPP reach its annual goal of trap-neuter-releasing about 2,500 cats every year, Cochran said. The program uses the grant to focus on three particular neighborhoods in Southeast D.C., all of which have seen about a 50-percent reduction in shelter intake for cats since they're having fewer litters, she said.

While the program has been hugely successful in those target areas, Condell said he hopes CatNiPP is working to reach out to others in the city, too. He started researching community cat programs because he noticed the large population of alley cats near his home -- but he fears others may not do the same.

"I imagine a huge percentage of my neighbors don't pay attention that there might be cats, and if they do, it never dawns on them that this is something they can do something about," Condell said.

Some Strays Will Find New Purposes

Cochran said CatNiPP will begin a community outreach campaign in the fall for an upcoming program called Working Cats.

"These are cats that 'work' for businesses, such as horse stables or breweries that need mousers," she said. "The types of cats that qualify for the program are either feral outdoor cats that are living in a dangerous neighborhood or indoor cats with behavior issues. Without this program, these cats would have very limited options as they do not qualify for adoption."

Businesses that choose to take in formerly feral cats are "truly saving a life," Cochran added. She also hopes CatNiPP can continue to transform the lives of alley cats living under the care of community members.

"My hope would be for every cat that's friendly and social to find an indoor home," she said.

To learn more about CatNiPP and TNR and find out how you can help your community's cats, visit the Washington Humane Society's website.
The rarefied sorority of Disney princesses has come a long way since 1937's Snow White set the tone, gradually expanding to add Asian, African-American, Native American and Middle Eastern tiara-wearers. Prepare to curtsy before another fresh face: Elena, the first Latina to take the vaunted throne.

Her realm is "Elena of Avalor," an animated Disney Channel series debuting 7 p.m. EDT Friday with an hour-long special. While Elena isn't a big-screen royal like  and they need no introduction  Anna and Elsa of "Frozen," she and the 26-episode series are getting majestic merchandising and tie-in fanfare from the Walt Disney Co. at large.

Latino advocacy and civil rights groups say their impatience has finally been rewarded.

"It's long overdue for Disney to have a Latino princess," said Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza. "Even if it's not the highest priority for a civil rights organization, it's important for little girls to see themselves on screen."

Indeed, said Alex Nogales, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The group has long been active in seeking Hollywood diversity and, like La Raza, was lobbying Disney to take the step.

Nogales said he was reminded why by his 4-year-old granddaughter, Chloe, after they attended a recent screening of the show. "'She looks like me. She has brown eyes, and look at her skin,'" he recalled her saying of the title character, a spirited, smart teenager who mirrors the new-wave Disney princess, as in empowered.

"Our children are being reflected through the screen and it's affecting them in a very positive way," Nogales said, something that wasn't part of his childhood media exposure.

The series' look, style and sound are shaped by a variety of old and new Latino and Hispanic cultures, but the dialogue is in English save for a sprinkling of Spanish words and phrases, such as the endearment "mija."

Elena, voiced by Aimee Carrero, is an appealing hero for the show's 2-to-11 target audience and beyond, a combination of intelligence, empathy and daring, and with a magic amulet to back it up.

"I look at princesses as superheroes with tiaras for little girls," said series creator and executive producer Craig Gerber (who honed his skills on Disney's "Sofia the First"). "Whenever you write a character that can be looked at as a role model, there's a responsibility to make them a character worth looking up to."

Disney was enthusiastic about his TV pitch for "Elena," about a girl who must content herself with ruling as a princess until she is mature enough to claim her rightful title of queen, he said. Even pre-debut, the company has backed its commitment with products (dolls, accessories, apparel, an upcoming record and DVD) and the inclusion of the Elena character at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort this summer and California's Disneyland Resort this fall.

"It's definitely a show of how important the project is, not just to us at Disney Channel but to the company at large," said Nancy Kanter, executive vice president and general manager, Disney Junior Worldwide.

After its U.S. debut, the series will be rolled out in 163 countries on the Disney Channel and Disney Junior.

"Elena of Avalor" opens with a fast-paced recitation of what dire events brought her to the threshold of power at the age of 16. It also introduces her small, loving family circle including younger sister, Princess Isabel (Jenna Ortega), and doting grandparents Francisco and Luisa (Emiliano Diez, Julia Vera), and the nature of the world in which she dwells (a magical one, no surprise).

Other engaging characters include a Harry Potter-like wizard in training, Mateo (Joseph Haro), and a harbor master's daughter, a spunky blonde named Naomi (Jillian Rose Reed) who befriends Elena.

Head writer Silvia Cardenas Olivas is prepared for scrutiny of this newly minted princess. She's already gotten it from her Latina friends, who include women of Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage. Their question: "How are you going to make us all feel like she could be our princess?"

"I'll be honest, I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility to get her right, so that everyone, whether you're Latino or not, identify with her," Olivas said.

Computer-generated animation is used to create a fairy tale kingdom that, based on consultants' research, reflects varied cultures and influences including from the pre-Colombian and colonial eras, Gerber said. So do the inhabitants of Avalor and its visitors, which include Zuzo, Elena's spirit guide drawn from the beliefs of a Mayan tribe, and shapeshifters inspired by Chilean mythology but with a touch of Disney cuteness.

The music featured in each episode  "Elena plays guitar as well as sings, which is something all Disney princesses must do," Gerber notes, wryly  covers the gamut of Latin styles including mariachi, salsa and banda and extends into R&B, rock and pop.

Should Disney's inaugural Latina ruler have gotten a big-screen kingdom? Kanter said that "Elena of Avalor" was conceived as a TV series, which "could be a really impactful way to tell not just one story but to tell dozens and potentially many dozens of stories over a long period of time."

That shouldn't preclude a theatrical successor, Nogales said.

"I would prefer it. It would go to another level in terms of showcasing a Latina in media," he said.
Gun advocates rallied in front of the Massachusetts State House Thursday, the first full day since the sale of assault-style weapons was banned in Massachusetts.

"I'm a kindergarten teacher. Why did my rights, all of a sudden, get taken away?" asked Jay Lewis. "I haven't done anything wrong, I haven't hurt anybody."

"We're here to protect our Second Amendment," said event organizer Joseph Locke. "We feel as if the attorney general has overstepped her reach and that she's trying to bypass the due process of the law."

Attorney General Maura Healey has told all 300 gun shop owners across the state that they can no longer sell assault weapons, including "copycat" weapons.

Healey says gun manufacturers have been marketing state-compliant versions to Massachusetts gun buyers, skirting the assault weapons ban passed back in the 90s.

Wednesday night, gun shops across the state were packed.

At one in Woburn, people waited in line for more than an hour to by an AR-style rifle, until they were all sold out.

"This was a political stunt so that Maura Healey could go to the DNC next week and tell Hillary Clinton supporters how she stuck it to law abiding residents of Massachusetts," Mark Lombardo said to the crowd.

"I feel railroaded, honestly," said Jonathan Argov. "This was given on eight-hour notice, nobody knew this was coming. If you're a member of any gun shops, gun stores, you got a bunch of emails last night saying 'hey, panic sale time, it's over.'"

Healey says the law won't be retro-active, meaning people who already have an assault style weapon at home, won't be breaking the law. But people who gathered in Boston are fearful that could be next.

"I have three children and a husband," said Denise Arcieri. "We all shoot, we hunt."
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's proposal to sell a sliver of Statehouse lawn to developers is opposed by others who point out that the land in question was once part of John Hancock's estate.

The proposed permanent easement was tacked onto a supplementary budget the Republican governor filed last week.

The developer needs the land to build au pair suites for multimillion-dollar condominiums.

The exact size of the easement is unclear. Some say it could be as large as 300 square feet. The governor's office says it's much smaller.

"What we're talking about here is extremely small and invisible  it's behind a bunch of shrubs and bushes," Baker told necn.

Secretary of State William Galvin, the state's chief overseer of historic preservation, says you don't sell "public land that has such historic significance."
Police in Manchester, New Hampshire, responded to a call for a man who overdosed and passed out in the back of a taxi cab.

According to police, Jack Anderson, a driver for Queen City Taxi, called 911 after his passenger passed out in the back seat of the cab.

Anderson pulled his cab into the parking lot of 2175 Candia Road when he noticed the male passenger was slumped over and unconscious in the back seat.

Officers arrived on scene and treated the man for an apparent heroin overdose.

They administered Narcan and were able to revive the man.

He was transported and treated at a local hospital.

Police arrested Jonathan Bijole, age 34, of Manchester, New Hampshire, for possession of a controlled drug.

Bijole was in possession of a hypodermic needle and small cylinder that tested presumptive positive for heroin.

He will appear in the 9th Circuit Court in Manchester on Friday.
A Massachusetts man remains in jail Thursday night, accused of attacking his neighbor's with a knife.

The attack happened just before noon Wednesday on Ridge Street in Arlington.

Investigators say another neighbor heard the womans screams, ran across the street, and pulled the suspect off the victim.

Its shocking, Leigh Benowitz, who lives nearby, said Thurday.

According to court records, Joseph Dealmeida, 26, lives across the street and over one house from the victim.

Prosecutors allege Dealmeida followed the victim into her garage after she went to retrieve her garbage cans.

They add the suspect was armed with a knife. Another neighbor heard the womans screams and ran across the street to find the victim and the suspect struggling over the weapon. During the struggle the two fell on some stairs leading from the garage into the kitchen.

Investigators say that neighbor grabbed the knife out of Dealmeidas hand, pulled him off the victim and held him until police arrived.

Dealmeida made his first court appearance Thursday. He was ordered held without bond until a dangerousness hearing on August 9th. The judge also ordered a mental evaluation.

It is pretty scary to think that it was this close, Benowitz said.
Three men convicted of child rape are among six fugitives who have been added to the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted Sex Offenders list.

The men added to the list Friday are all actively being sought by state police, and all are listed as Level 3 sex offenders, considered the most likely to re-offend.

They are all wanted for failing to register as a sex offender as required by state law and should all be considered dangerous.

One of the men was convicted of indecent assault and battery and open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior whose victims were two joggers and a woman pushing a baby stroller.

Anyone who knows of their whereabouts can call state police at 1-800-KAPTURE.
Officials returned to the scene of the large condo fire that broke out in Charlestown, Massachusetts, to determine the cause of the fire.

Boston fire official are trying to stabilize the condo. Investigators will be able get into the building once it is stabilized.

Investigators were waiting for a crane to arrive at the scene Friday morning to pick apart the damaged wooden addition to the property.

They might get a crane at the scene Saturday.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Necn spoke with Raymond Burns, one of the residents who ran from the burning building.

He said, "The flames were incredible. All the way up. The whole building next door was engulfed in flames and had come over to our side."

Burns and his family filled the back of their car with what they were able to salvage from their Bunker Hill Street unit.

He is just one of the more than 30 people without a home following the massive 6-alarm fire.

Neighbors watched from the sidewalk as 120 firefighters spent hours fighting the fast moving flames, trying to keep them from spreading further.

Five firefighters were treated at the hospital for heat exhaustion and minor injuries but thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
One woman was taken to the hospital after a fire broke out in East Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday morning.

According to necn-affiliate WJAR, firefighters were on scene at South Blossom Street around 5 a.m. after a fire broke out in the triple-decker building.

The fire was put out around 6:30 a.m.

All occupants were able to escape safely but the woman was transported for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters will continue to remain on scene to monitor hot spots.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
A car crashing into a house in Salem, New Hampshire, led police to what they're calling a marijuana farm inside a house.

Police responded to a motor vehicle crash on North Main Street Wednesday evening. Upon arrival, police learned that the elderly man from Methuen, Massachusetts, backed out of the driveway. He drove 30 feet and crashed into a residence at 64 Main St, striking an exterior bedroom wall.

"The car was in the corner of the house by several feet," said neighbor Dave Topham.

Everyone was OK, but while surveying the structural damage, officials made an unexpected discovery.

"There was a false wall that had been exposed and they found what they believe was a marijuana growing operation," said Salem Police Sgt. Jason Smith.

Smith calls it a hidden and rather sophisticated marijuana farm.

"With its own ventilation, lighting system, duct work, and some plants," he said.

The homeowner wouldn't answer the door on camera, but once necn stopped rolling, the man said he is not a criminal, and that the "false wall" was the beginning stages of a new bathroom, and that the plants were actually flowers he was growing for his garden.

"He's always out doing his lawn and planting his garden, so it was a total surprise for us, said neighbor Kristen Farrah. "We had no idea."

Police are still investigating and have not yet filed any charges.

"If someone was growing marijuana there, it was very bad luck for them," Sgt. Smith said. "It was like getting hit by a meteor."

Neighbors aren't jumping to conclusions.

"I guess we will have to wait and see," Farrah said.

Police say it's likely the 12 plants will be sent to the state lab for testing.
According to a report by the Boston Globe, the driver in the duck boat crash that injured a woman in July has been cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk.

The driver, Peter Sullivan, age 54, was issued a citation for failing to yield to Marylou Clarke, age 57, of New Jersey, as she was crossing the intersection of Newbury Street and Clarendon Street on July 10.

The initial report said Clarke was crossing contrary to the walk signal as the duck boat was making a left turn from Newbury Street.

However, upon further investigation it was determined this was not that case.

Clarke's lawyer, Bryan Gavin, told the Globe, "when the light for Newbury Street turns green, the pedestrian walkway light also signals the right of way."

Dianna Curry, a spokeswoman for Boston Duck Tours said they have not seen the citation yet.

The citation comes just a few days after Boston Duck Tours announced it would be adding a second employee to all tours as a result of the crash that killed a woman back in April.
The top Republican in the Rhode Island House of Representatives is giving up his leadership post next year.

House Minority Leader Brian Newberry says he wants to represent his district without the added responsibility of leadership.

The North Smithfield Republican has led the small GOP caucus in the Democratic-controlled legislature for the past six years. He's an attorney who is running unopposed for re-election in November. He was first elected in 2008.

Newberry is endorsing Rep. Michael Chippendale, a Foster Republican, to succeed him as minority leader. He describes Chippendale as diplomatic and says that's an important trait for the leadership role.

West Warwick Republican Rep. Patricia Morgan, the deputy minority leader, has also expressed interest in leading the House GOP caucus.

WPRI-TV first reported on Newberry's decision.
Sandra Gomes thought it would be just a routine trip to the convenience store up the street from her home in Taunton, Massachusetts. But this time, she felt something wasn't right.

"I said to somebody, 'they're making me nervous,'" said Gomes. "They were gone when I walked out, I looked both ways to make sure they weren't out there."

Gomes, 76, says two men had been watching her when she was inside the B & E convenience store. But she let it go and started to walk home.

A few moments later, she was hit from behind and thrown on the ground.

"At first, I thought it was one of the kids giving me a hug because that's what they do, come up behind me," says Gomes. "But when I fell to the ground and saw him standing there, he grabbed the wallet and cigarettes and my tickets."

She got back up, even throwing an iced coffee at the men, and despite her emphysema, she started to chase them up the block.

"And I turned around and I said 'stop it,' I said, 'give me my money,'" said Gomes. "That was the end of that."

Taunton Police tell necn Hector Melendez has been arrested and warrants are out for a suspected accomplice identified as Jose Figueroa.

Sandra's wallet, with almost $500 in cash inside, had been stolen. She needed the money to pay her bills this month.

"I can't replace that," says Gomes.
Regarded as the father of the U.S. Air Force, William 'Billy' Mitchell was born into a world of endless possibilities. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone was being displayed for the first time, a U.S. Army enlisted men were paid $13.00 per month and airplanes were merely an aspiration of gravity-defiers.

To strengthen his vision, he demonstrated to the world air superiority during the airpower trials on July 21, 1921. On that day, he and the 1st Provisional Air Brigade from Langley Field, Virginia dropped bombs on and sunk the famous, unsinkable, Ostfriesland, a captured German battleship, 60 miles off the Virginia Capes.

To commemorate Mitchell's accomplishment, Langley Air Force Base hosted a reenactment of the bombing of Ostfriesland marking the 95th anniversary of this historical event.

At age 18 and the eldest of 10 children, Mitchell, enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He progressed through the junior officer ranks and held various positons in leadership such as being the youngest general staff officer, becoming the deputy commander of Army Aviation and ultimately an Air Service pilot.

Air Service is where Mitchell got his first taste of flying, his desire for flight grew, so much so that he decided to become a pilot. He did not meet the U.S. Army age requirement for aviation training, so he procured a civilian flying license. Now licensed to fly, he was exposed to the limitless possibilities of airpower and its benefits; he served in Cuba, the Philippines, Alaska and in Europe. He was even allowed to study strategy abroad in France.

"Billy Mitchell is one of the most important pieces of Air Force history, he was extremely passionate, in a time when no one else was, about airpower," said Joshua Lashley, 1st Fighter Wing historian. "So passionate that he fought for the Air Force since the beginning of aviation."

When the U.S. entered World War I, Mitchell was promoted to Brig. Gen. and directly responsible for commanding 1,481 American and allied airplanes. It is then he exercised his vision of air dominance.

"The 1920s and post-World War I was known as the 'Billy Mitchell' era in aviation. He pushed for stronger air defense and claimed that airplanes would replace the U.S. Navy fleets as the future of homeland security, and also strategic warfare using aircraft to take the fight to the enemy," said Lashley.

Convinced that aircraft and bombers should take the place of battleships and there should be a separate command for Air Service, Mitchell educated the public through press. He was later court-martialed for insubordination for his outspoken tactics, found guilty and ultimately demoted to colonel.

"This is a great way to celebrate not only the history of the U.S. Air Force, but the history of Langley as well," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Timothy. "The aircraft that sunk the Ostfriesland 95 years ago took off out of Langley Field".

Seven fighter wings, eight different airframes and 33 aircrews Air Force-wide supported the two-day event by taking off from Langley and flying the same path the 1st Provisional Air Brigade flew to drop eight Mark 83 inert bombs where the sunken, Ostfriesland lies.

Along with the historical reenactment, U.S. Air Force General (ret.) Michael T. Moseley, former 18th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, will discuss the history behind the anniversary.

"The aircraft that sunk the Ostfriesland 95 years ago took off out of Langley Field. This is a great way to celebrate not only the history of the Air Force, but the history of Langley AFB as well," said Timothy.

The U.S. Air Force was created to fly, fight and win. Although Mitchell did not live to witness what his passion for flight created, his vision did. He was posthumously promoted to Maj. Gen. for his outstanding service and foresight in aviation.

Langley celebrated this historical Air Force day in his honor.




Since its maiden flight in 1991, the C-17 Globemaster III has served as the most reliable and maintainable cargo aircraft in the U. S. Air Force arsenal with the ability of rapid and strategic cargo and troop delivery.

During Red Flag 16-3, the 437th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, uses the training provided at Nellis Air Force Base to integrate pilots, crew members and intelligence Airmen with other the other players participating to become more mission ready.

At Red Flag, the mission of the C-17 is to insert either cargo or troops to support follow-on missions, said Capt. John Wendler, 16th Airlift Squadron weapons officer. The C-17 is unique in the ability that it can rapidly deploy anywhere in the world. We have a lot of fuel and capabilities that can make us very lethal when it comes to delivering cargo, equipment and personnel to that combat support.

While the C-17s deadly capabilities make it a threat to adversaries, it also has distinct qualities that set it apart from other aircraft.

Traditionally cargo and equipment is moved via boats, trucks or smaller aircraft, Wendler said. The C-17 is unique because it can do direct delivery. Basically we can go from the states all the way over to the combat zone, like Afghanistan or Iraq directly and accomplish our mission by inserting those forces and combat equipment.

Throughout Red Flag 16-3, the unit from JB Charleston integrates the many cargo capabilities of the C-17 with other airframes and branches of service to accomplish its goals.

What weve been doing here is a little on the smaller or micro scale. We usually take off and fit into the strike-and-Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses portion of the mission, said Wendler. So striker and faster movers push in first, and then we ingress at low altitude where were not going to be exposed by enemy assets, enemy red air or strategic missiles. Once we get into the target area, we either do a strategic landing on a dirt landing zone or a parachute drop where were putting jumpers under canopy at those target locations.

When planning and executing these missions, the ability to coordinate with all of the different players that partake in a multi-branch, large-scale exercise such as Red Flag is what is most valuable for C-17 aircrews.

The biggest thing from a pilots perspective is the integration with all the blue air players, said Wendler. We get to learn about what their capabilities and limitations are and figure out how we fit into this fight because every mission changes from day to day. We may be doing one mission set on Monday, and then on Wednesday its completely different.

Not only does Red Flag offer the opportunity to collaborate with multiple airframes valuable for pilots, but for members of the crew the exercise offers a whole other set lessons.

In the back of the C-17 we deal with users, and for Red Flag weve had a lot of static-line jumpers and weve inserted them into the basic field, said Senior Airman Ashley Igalo, 14th Airlift Squadron loadmaster. Were also capable of rapid on-loads, where well land and pickup vehicles and troops during one period of darkness. Its great training to be able to get experience that.

Not only do they gain experience, but learning to work together to accomplish the mission is a valuable skill that Red Flag provides the air crew.

Red Flag is good crew coordination because were able to work with the pilots and see what we are able to do, said Igalo. As well as being great for crew coordination it serves as great training for us in the back.

With the ability to give pilots and crews influential training, not only within their own squadron but with the rest of the Air Forces airframes, one aspect that is often overlooked is the intelligence angle behind the missions of Red Flag.

Were proud to support one of the only Air Mobility Command units at Red Flag 16-3, said 1st Lt. Robert Wedge, 437th Operations Group intelligence officer. The expeditionary missions that we are serving in, Operation Freedoms Sentinel and Operation Inherent Resolve, largely represent threats from insurgent, non-state actors. What Red Flag does very well is leading us to plan against full spectrum threats typical of major combat operations.

Red Flag grants intelligence personnel here the same valuable tool that it does pilots: the ability to integrate with multiple platforms in order to train to accomplish a larger mission.

Getting to integrate with intelligence Airmen from cyber, space, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance backgrounds sharpens our ability to accomplish our primary mission, to successfully deliver forces on time and on target in high threat environments, said Wedge.

With all of these different aspects, pilots, crew and intelligence, gaining high level training at the same time, it serves as a great chance to study and grow in order to accomplish the mission more effectively.

The opportunity to learn and see how we fit, and then optimize and use those things that weve learned in the fight when were kicking down the door for real is something that we cant do anywhere else, said Wendler.
A medieval Anglican church in a tiny hamlet in South Norfolk has won a national award and a 10,000 boost.

A medieval Anglican church in a tiny hamlet in South Norfolk has won a national award and a 10,000 boost.

Dereham churches help people to help themselves A group of churches in Dereham have launched an ambitious project which aims to meet needs in the town, including the provision of food and skills training. Read more

Executive assistant and nursery manager jobs SOUL Church is a vibrant, welcoming and growing church in Norwich. They are seeking an organised and versatile Executive Assistant to provide key support to the churchs Senior Pastors, as well as a qualified Nursery Manager to head up SOUL Nursery. Read more

Halloween light in Gorleston church On Halloween this year, St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston will be preparing to welcome around 200 families to experience their Light on a Dark Night event. Read more

An opportunity for Norwich to pray for the nation Rev Nigel Fox, who has served as a Methodist Minister for 15 years in Norwich, shares an open invitation to pray for the nation at a crucial moment. Read more

Norwich church seeks musicians Kingdom Ambassadors International Church is appealing for instrumentlists, keyboardists and guitarists to be part of their worship experience. Read more

Please keep Rishi in your prayers Andy Bryant urges us to pray for our political leaders, especially the new Prime Minister, and avoid unhelpful judgementalism. Read more

Emilys art boosts growing Yarmouth foodbank A pupil at a primary school in Bradwell has been selling her pictures in order to raise money for the Yarmouth and Magdalen Foodbank, which is expanding its capacity and is seeking more volunteers. Read more

Patrick Regan helps Norwich to bounce forwards On Saturday St Stephens in Norwich hosted Bouncing Forwards as part of a national tour by the mental health charity Kintsugi Hope. Read more

Painting and biblical feasting in Overstrand There will be opportunities to improve your painting skills and indulge in some biblical feasting next month at the Pleasaunce in Overstrand in North Norfolk. Read more

Latest Norfolk Christian community events Events of interest to the Norwich and Norfolk Christian community happening over the next few weeks are listed. Read more

National award for Dereham Christian bookshop The Green Pastures Christian bookshop in Dereham has won a national award for providing boxes of Christian books to 21 local schools. Read more

Norma's care home jigsaw challenge complete A resident at Norwich-based care home Corton House has completed an incredible 70 jigsaw puzzles in celebration of the homes 70th anniversary this year. Read more

Norwich charity's appeal to support Palestinian students A Norwich educational charity, set up in memory of a Norwich Anglican priest, to support students from a Palestinian refugee camp, is inviting people to support its Christmas appeal  to be launched on November 29. Read more

Norfolk drug and alcohol charity pays tribute to its founder Andy Sexton, CEO of the Matthew Project, introduces a series of tributes from the charity to its founder, Peter Farley. Read more

Cliff look alike at Cromer Church breakfast Cliff Richard tribute performer Will Chandler will be the speaker at a special Mens Breakfast at Cromer Parish Hall next month, and all men are welcome to come along. Read more

Heartsease Lane Methodist church to close As part of a reorganisation of the Norwich Methodist Circuit, Heartsease Lane Methodist Church will be closing towards the end of the year. Read more

Free Julian of Norwich reflection and prayer day The Friends of Julian of Norwich present a free Quiet Half-Day with Robert Fruehwirth, author and former Priest Director of the Julian Centre, on Saturday November 12, 10.30am-2pm. Read more
How far should a leader seek to change public opinion, to get out in front rather than follow? Lincoln famously said, Public sentiment is everything, but the quote concludes with, He who moulds public sentiment makes decisions possible. Its an enduring debate in the hinterland of academia where engineers seldom tread.

But standards can be like that. They often package basic, universal features with more decorative additions that offer transformational improvements but are of minority interest. Theres a risk that the burden of implementing these additional features will deter some vendors, and they may shun the standard altogether. If too many follow this course, the standard will fail in the market.

+ Also on Network World: Is Wi-Fi finally fast enough? +

Its a delicate balance: A simple standard that reflects what product managers want today may be widely adopted but not move the industry forward, while an over-ambitious standard will fail if vendors are not persuaded that the future benefits exceed the costs of implementation.

The Wi-Fi Alliance and the Passpoint certification

The Wi-Fi Alliance has been navigating this minefield with the Passpoint certification. Passpoint is inspired by the cellular roaming system, where a phone that cannot find a signal from its home carrier automatically seeks out alternatives, prioritizes them and connects to the best choice of access point.

To do this in Wi-Fi, access points advertise which carriers they can connect to pre-association, so a device can quickly scan and see what choices are available. They then allow the device to authenticate to its home carrier and get an internet connection, with fully encrypted privacy and security.

The Wi-Fi Alliance took the IEEE 802.11u amendment in 2010, extracted some features and developed Passpoint (release 1), which launched in mid-2012.

Unfortunately, the phone vendors did not show up. One year after the certification launch, you could not buy a certified device anywhere.

Was the standard too complicated to implement? Was no one in the smartphone world was interested in Wi-Fi roaming? Had the Wi-Fi Alliance got the balance wrong?

Many of us were ready to give up on Passpoint, but thenprogress. Apple added support to iOS 7 in late 2013. Overnight the population of Passpoint-capable devices went from zero to 50 percent. (Enterprise APs have been Passpoint-certified from the beginning, it is phone vendors that have lagged.) Then Samsung came out with an implementation on Android.

These breakthroughs got a number of commercial hotspot networks started with Passpoint. But still, it was questionable whether the standard had momentum. Then late in 2015, Google caught up and added support for Passpoint into the base Android load, as of Android M and N.

Today, all iPhones and many Android devices support Passpoint release 1. This isnt quite the whole universe of eligible devices, but others are joining innotably Microsoft with Windows 10. The outlook for Passpoint release 1, cloudy for the first three years, is now bright.

History is repeating with Passpoint release 2

But once again the standards and the market moved at different speeds. The original Passpoint standards work generated intense excitement among many service providers, and directly following release 1 the Wi-Fi Alliance started on a follow-on standard: Passpoint release 2. The new features enable online signup: a way to standardize and automate provisioning from that splash page you see on your phone when entering an airport, showing various subscription options.

The Passpoint release 2 certification launched in late-2014, two years after release 1. And now we see history repeating. In mid-2016, two years following the Passpoint release 2 launch, no release 2-certified devices are available. Possibly it will pick up after a time lag, like release 1. But we must ask whether release 2 contained too many minority-interest features or went too far ahead of the market. It may never catch on.

And amid this uncertainty, the Wi-Fi Alliance made an ambitious move. In early 2016, it withdrew release 1 certification, forcing all new devices to comply with the full release 2 bundle.

The intention was to coerce manufacturers to implement the full set of release 2 features. The actual resultfor nowhas been that they refuse to certify. They say the costs of release 2 outweigh the benefits. While many phones include Passpoint release 1, none has been submitted with release 2 features since the change.

Where does this leave us? Passpointthe release 1 featureshas tipped the scales and will become a required feature for all new phones. This is good news for Wi-Fi service providers and consumers because they can move forward with secure, automatic, standard Wi-Fi roaming.

But Passpoint release 2 may never be adopted, as phone vendors design their own provisioning techniques that are likely to become entrenched.

And there is a risk that none of these devices will display the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint stamp. Whether this should worry us is a question for another day.
Japan Airlines (JAL) has developed new training applications for engine mechanics and flight crew trainees using the Microsoft HoloLens virtual reality headset.

Instead of using videos and printouts of cockpit panel instruments and switches, the flight crews will experience what it is like to be inside the cockpit. And engine mechanics can study and be trained as if they were working on the actual engine or cockpit instead of reading about it in manuals.

This is not JAL's first experience with a visual headset. It employed Google Glass, that much-maligned failed project from Google, at the Honolulu Airport to perform plane inspections and send and receive information to ground crews regarding passengers and baggage.

But this is closer to augmented or mixed reality. It blends 3D holographic content into the physical world, allowing users to interact with both digital content and the world around them. Currently, flight crew trainees studying for promotion use mainly panels that display photos of cockpit instruments and switches to learn operational procedures in the early stages of their training.

Using HoloLens, they will have a detailed hologram in front of their eyes that will display cockpit devices and switches that they can operate themselves, with visual and voice guidance provided through HoloLens.

For mechanics looking for hands-on training, it usually means waiting for an appointment or an available location when a plane is in the hangar for maintenance. The HoloLens, however, makes the engine "look real, in front of you, a JAL representative told Microsoft. "Mechanics can learn an engine structure by extracting important parts with the simulation," learning names of parts and studying the structure of engines and surrounding systems, regardless of location or time of day.

Eventually, JAL said it would like to bring "the whole aircraft into the classroom." The company wants to use HoloLens to help improve the customer experience, not just focus on the internal purposes such as training.
Councillors "misdirected" over decision to slash short-break funding

THE families of two severely disabled children have been successful in a judicial review into West Berkshire Council's decision to slash short-break funding which would have left their children socially isolated.

Today a High Court judge ruled that the councils decision to cut the budget on March 1 was unlawful because members were essentially "misdirected" about their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

The families of a 14-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl from Newbury took on West Berkshire Council over the cuts, which will see the budget for short breaks services provided by voluntary sector organisations slashed by almost 50 per cent.

The decision was made at a meeting of West Berkshire Council on March 1 this year and reaffirmed at another council meeting on May 31.

The High Court declared today (Friday, July 22) that West Berkshire Council did not properly consider its legal duties before deciding to make the cuts, and that the subsequent decision was merely to rubber stamp the first decision without being able to cure the original flaws.

The hearing took place on June 22 and 23 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London with the judge siding with the families, forcing the council to rethink its plans.

The court heard the council was in "an exceptionally difficult financial position" when it decided to cut its short breaks budget by up to 215,000 in March.

However, the presiding judge, Mrs Justice Laing, said the decision was also unlawful because members did not consider other relevant statutory duties before they decided to proceed with the cuts.

She said there was no trace of consideration by members of West Berkshire Council of any of these other legal duties, which are mandatory relevant considerations.

Mrs Justice Laing also ruled that the second decision the council took on May 31 to re-affirm the March 1 decision was legally flawed because the way in which the issue was presented to members on May 31 gave a clear impression that they were expected to apply a rubber stamp to the decision of March 1, 2016, and a clear impression that they could not decide to rescind it.

Both decisions have therefore today been quashed, which means that West Berkshire Council will have to take a new decision about funding for these services, and one that complies with all its legal duties.

Responding to the ruling West Berkshire Councils executive member for Childrens Services, Lynne Doherty, said the decision to cut the funding was made after "prolonged and painful" consideration and that the council were committed to supporting vulnerable families with the resources available.

"This hearing wasnt about the decision itself but about how the decision was made. In the coming days we will consider the implications of this and our next steps," she added.

We will continue to meet our statutory duty to provide short break funding in the ways that the families we support prefer.

"Its also our aim to provide discretionary short break funding to families. This provision remains important to us  as does all the support we provide to our most vulnerable residents."

For the latest on this story pick up a copy of next week's Newbury Weekly News.
A disproportionately large number of senior civil servants are graduates of certain universities and come from certain regions, a lawmaker revealed Monday.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Yong-sup of the National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee analyzed data submitted by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. He said of 1,500 senior government officials, about two-thirds went to high school in Seoul and the Gyeongsang provinces and nearly half are graduates of Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei universities.

As of June, alumni of high schools in Seoul made up a huge proportion of senior government officials with 563 (37.5 percent), while 410, or 27.3 percent, were from the Gyeongsang provinces. They were followed by those from the Jeolla (249), Chungcheong (135) and Gangwon (51) provinces.

Graduates of universities in the Seoul metropolitan region overwhelmed the others. Some 695 graduated from the country's top three universities, taking up almost half or 46.3 percent. SNU graduates topped the list with 441, Korea (132) ranked second and Yonsei (122) third. Sungkyunkwan University came fourth with 89, followed by Hanyang University (71), the Korea Military Academy (63) and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (55).

Altogether 1,206 were graduates of universities in the metropolitan region, accounting for a whopping 80.4 percent of the 1,500 senior officials.

"The serious bias toward graduates from certain schools and regions among senior officials is due in large part to chronic nepotism," Lee said. "We have to conduct a drastic personnel reform, because such bias in the personnel structure can pose a hurdle to achieving social integration and a fairer society."
Division instead of unity is a dominant narrative at the the Republican National Convention, as Texas Senator Ted Cruz's criticisms of presidential nominee Donald Trump spilled over into the final day of the four day event.

Speaking to his home state delegation Thursday at the convention in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Cruz said he will not cast his presidential vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, but declined to say if he will vote for Trump.

"I'm not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and who attack my father," said Cruz, adding he refuses to act like a "servile puppy."

During a grueling campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump launched personal attacks against Cruz's wife, Heidi, and father, Rafael.

Cruz remarks followed his Wednesday convention speech that drew boos when he failed to include a clear endorsement for Trump.

Cruz was one of the last competitors in the contentious race for the nomination, during which Trump nicknamed him "Lying Ted." But like most of the once large Republican field, he appeared at the convention in Cleveland, Ohio, to address party officials and millions of people watching on television.

"To those listening, please, don't stay home in November," Cruz said. "Stand and speak, and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution."

A short time later, those representing the state of New York chanted over Cruz as he spoke, demanding he announce his backing of their nominee.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation," Cruz responded. Boos turned to cheers again as Cruz walked off stage just as Trump appeared elsewhere in the arena.

Trump addressed the situation later on Twitter.
Turkey says it will suspend the European Convention on Human Rights during the three-month state of emergency it declared to purge perpetrators of last week's failed coup.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmas said Turkey would take steps "like France has done under Article 15 of the convention" that allow signatories to abrogate from its obligations during times of war or public emergencies.

"The state of emergency will give the government a good opportunity to fight against coup plotters and clean the state coffers fully of members of the Gulenist organization," Kurtulmas was quotes as saying by the Hurriyet news agency.

Turkish lawmakers are expected to approve President Erdogan's call for a three-month state of emergency in a move that paves the way for further purging of his opponents, following Friday's failed attempt to topple him and his government.

Erdogan announced the state of emergency in a televised address late Wednesday, following meetings with his national security council and Cabinet.

Erdogan said the state of emergency's purpose is "to be able to take the most efficient steps to return to democracy and rule of law." The Turkish leader said the armed forces would not take control of the country during this time.
French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday he wanted Britain to open talks fast on quitting the European Union and would seek explanation from British Prime Minister Theresa May for any foot-dragging.

Hollande, who is due to meet May in Paris later on Thursday, told a news conference during a visit to Ireland: "I will meet Theresa May tonight. That will be the opportunity to hear the arguments. What is the interest of delaying? I would like justifications."
A U.S. naval warship will visit New Zealand later this year, ending a three-decade-old stalemate over the South Pacific nation's nuclear-free policy.

Prime Minister John Key announced Thursday during a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Washington had accepted an invitation to participate in November's celebration of the Royal New Zealand Navy's 75th anniversary.

An American naval vessel has not docked at a New Zealand port since the mid-1980s, when the country's nuclear-free policy went into effect. Since the United States neither confirms nor denies whether its ships are nuclear-powered or carrying nuclear weapons, all its naval vessels have been effectively banned from New Zealand waters.
The U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday found that Samsung and LG dumped washing machines in the American market and slapped them with hefty punitive tariffs.

The department in a preliminary report accused the two companies of selling their washing machines in the U.S. at below manufacturing cost.

It slapped Samsung with a 111 percent tariff because its sales surged significantly, while LG must pay a 49 percent tariff. Samsung makes its washing machines in Suzhou, while LG has a plant in Nanjing.

The two companies have until the end of the year to pay cash deposits on washing machines from their factories in China based on the preliminary rates. The move comes in response to a complaint from Whirlpool, the No. 1 player in the U.S. market.

Whirlpool also filed a complaint against the two rivals with the World Trade Organization in 2011 but it was rejected.

The department plans to reach a final decision in December. Samsung and LG said they will cooperate with U.S. authorities to prove their innocence.


There are 4,120 entry-level positions in central government this year, but 222,650 candidates flocked to test centers nationwide. The test for 11,359 entry-level jobs with provincial governments drew 212,983 applicants.

According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, 39.3 percent or 256,000 of the country's 6.52 million jobseekers between 15 to 29 are preparing to take civil service exams. That is a record and up 35,000 from only a year ago. Only around 140,000 are preparing to apply for jobs in private businesses.

Record numbers of young Koreans are preparing to sit the exam for safe civil-service jobs, and almost twice as many say they hope to work in the public sector as in private enterprise.

The surge is motivated by stark calculation. The Chosun Ilbo asked the Korea Development Institute to tally the lifetime earnings of university graduates who entered the job market between 2008 and 2014, and found that people who pass either entry-level or mid-level public service exams and work for the government until retirement stand to make more money than people who land jobs in a major conglomerate.

Their earnings over 30 years could come to an estimated W1.46 billion including pension (US$1=W1,137). That is less than the potential W1.6 billion 30-year income in a private business including pension, but considerably more than the W1.27 billion they could make working in private employment for just 25 years.

Given that the average retirement age in most private companies is around 55, public servants end up making more than their counterparts in the private sector simply by clinging to their chairs for longer.

The problem is that most applicants do not get a civil-service job. The competition rate has soared to several hundred to one for some positions, and fewer than one in 10 applicants pass the test.

According to the KDI, spending years preparing for the civil service but ending up in the private sector could cost an applicant W400 million in lifetime salary.

Oh Ho-young at the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training said, "People who fail to land a job in the civil service get a late start in their careers in the private sector and often lack the skill sets companies need because they've spent all their time studying for the exam. So they end up with lower-paid jobs and working for a shorter period than those who get an early start."

But for many the dream of safe lifelong employment trumps these concerns. That is particularly evident among students at regional universities or less competitive colleges in Seoul, whose chances with private employers are lower than those of graduates from top universities.

Kim Tae-il at Korea University said, "This phenomenon is the result of a lack of quality jobs offered by private businesses."
Spare Change: Hard-working farmer Louis Escobar was one of a kind

Louie performed the kind of job most try to avoid. And he did it with little, if any, complaint.
Columnist

Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich).
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 38F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 38F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph.
If Dr. Kalipada Pahan's research pans out, the standard advice for failing students might one day be: Study harder and eat your cinnamon!

Pahan a researcher at Rush University and the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago, has found that cinnamon turns poor learners into good ones--among mice, that is. He hopes the same will hold true for people.

His group published their latest findings online June 24, 2016, in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology.

"The increase in learning in poor-learning mice after cinnamon treatment was significant," says Pahan. "For example, poor-learning mice took about 150 seconds to find the right hole in the Barnes maze test. On the other hand, after one month of cinnamon treatment, poor-learning mice were finding the right hole within 60 seconds."

Pahan's research shows that the effect appears to be due mainly to sodium benzoate--a chemical produced as cinnamon is broken down in the body.

If that chemical sounds familiar, you may have noticed it on the ingredient labels of many processed foods. Food makers use a synthetic form of it as a preservative. It is also an FDA-approved drug used to treat hyperammonemia--too much ammonia in the blood.

Though some health concerns exist regarding sodium benzoate, most experts agree it's perfectly safe in the amounts generally consumed. One reassuring point is that it's water-soluble and easily excreted in the urine.

Cinnamon acts as a slow-release form of sodium benzoate, says Pahan. His lab studies show that different compounds within cinnamon--including cinnamaldehyde, which gives the spice is distinctive flavor and aroma--are "metabolized into sodium benzoate in the liver. Sodium benzoate then becomes the active compound, which readily enters the brain and stimulates hippocampal plasticity."

Those changes in the hippocampus--the brain's main memory center--appear to be the mechanism by which cinnamon and sodium benzoate exert their benefits.

In their study, Pahan's group first tested mice in mazes to separate the good and poor learners. Good learners made fewer wrong turns and took less time to find food.

In analyzing baseline disparities between the good and poor learners, Pahan's team found differences in two brain proteins. The gap was all but erased when cinnamon was given.

"Little is known about the changes that occur in the brains of poor learners," says Pahan. "We saw increases in GABRA5 and a decrease in CREB in the hippocampus of poor learners. Interestingly, these particular changes were reversed by one month of cinnamon treatment."

The researchers also examined brain cells taken from the mice. They found that sodium benzoate enhanced the structural integrity of the cells--namely in the dendrites, the tree-like extensions of neurons that enable them to communicate with other brain cells.

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Cinnamon, like many spices, has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. So it could be expected to exert a range of health-boosting actions, and it does have a centuries-long history of medicinal use around the world.

But the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says that "high-quality clinical evidence to support the use of cinnamon for any medical condition is generally lacking." Most of the clinical trials that have taken place have focused on the spice's possible effect on blood sugar for people with diabetes. Little if any clinical research has been done on the spice's possible brain-boosting properties.

Pahan hopes to change that. Based on the promising results from his group's preclinical studies, he believes that "besides general memory improvement, cinnamon may target Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment [a precursor to Alzheimer's], and Parkinson's disease as well." He is now talking with neurologists about planning a clinical trial on Alzheimer's.

Before you start heaping cinnamon on your oatmeal, keep a few caveats in mind.

First, most cinnamon found in the store is the Chinese variety, which contains a compound called coumarin that may be toxic to the liver in high amounts. A person would likely have to eat tons of cinnamon to run into a problem, but just the same, Pahan recommends the Ceylon or Sri Lanka type, which is coumarin-free.

Even then, don't overdo it. "Anything in excess is toxic," says Pahan.

What about simply inhaling the pleasant-smelling spice? Will that benefit the brain?

"Simply smelling the spice may not help because cinnamaldehyde should be metabolized into cinnamic acid and then sodium benzoate," explains Pahan. "For metabolism [to occur], cinnamaldehyde should be within the cell."

As for himself, Pahan isn't waiting for clinical trials. He takes about a teaspoonful--about 3.5 grams--of cinnamon powder mixed with honey as a supplement every night.

Should the research on cinnamon continue to move forward, he envisions a similar remedy being adopted by struggling students worldwide.

"Individual differences in learning and educational performance is a global issue, he says. "In many cases, we find two students of the same background studying in the same class, and one turns out to be a poor learner and does worse than the other academically. Now we need to find a way to test this approach in poor learners. If these results are replicated in poor-learning students, it would be a remarkable advance. At present, we are not using any other spice or natural substance."
Inside the human body, the same drug can interact with multiple molecules. This phenomenon is known as 'polypharmacology' and, according to the interaction, a drug can cure a disease or cause side effects in the patient. It is therefore critical to create a drug that can hit the right molecular target, minimizing the risk of undesired molecular interactions. This selective interaction has been typically achieved through extensive lab experimentation: each new potential drug has to undergo a long series of trials to check its effectiveness and specificity. The process is time consuming and expensive.

A team of scientists, bringing together researchers from different Japanese institutions, has created an on-line resource that has the potential to revolutionize this situation. The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), the System Biology Institute, the University of Tokyo and the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medicine closely collaborated to create 'systemsDock', a free on-line resource that allows the user to virtually check the effectiveness and specificity of a potential drug. OIST IT section provided key technical support for the project. Their work was published in Nucleic Acids Research.

"The process of creating a new drug can easily last for ten years, even when everything goes smoothly," Dr Kun-Yi Hsin, first author and member of the Integrated Open System Unit at OIST, explained. "Once you have a promising compound, it can still interact with multiple biological molecules. As a result, one can have adverse effects, and patients might be killed by side effects or -- because of the side effects -- patients cannot take the drug. A typical problem is cardiotoxicity."

systemsDock has been designed to virtually screen in an efficient and practical way the interactions between potential drugs and biological targets, and thus to identify promising drugs. The on-line resource checks how the potential drug can bind itself with the molecules inside the human body -- a process called 'docking'. In systemsDock, the researchers significantly improved the accuracy of the docking, as this is the critical aspect in the prediction of the interactions between the drug and the biological molecule.

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Improved docking prediction is not the only feature of this new research tool. "There are other on-line resources that provide docking predictions," Hsin said. "But these type of web-sites typically let the user screen a series of drugs against a single biological target. systemsDock allows the users to screen many potential drugs and many biological targets at the same time."

Furthermore, systemsDock let the user explore the interaction between the drug and the biological molecule in the wider context of the biological system in which the interaction happens. "Systems biology is a relatively new field: the main idea behind it is the integration of different biological systems in a single description. So, when everything is put together, it is like a map." Hsin said. systemsDock uses these maps to perform a more comprehensive screening and gain a deeper understanding of the drug interaction with the biological system.

To create one of these maps is a complex enterprise, which can take up to three years if the subject of the map is a new aspect of biology. "All this time and effort should be used, and -- thanks to the collaboration with expert map curators from the System Biology Institute - we provide an exceptional tool to do that," Hsin said. Maps focused on specific diseases, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Influenza, have already been created and can be used in systemsDock.

The results of the screening process are complex, because checking multiple drugs and multiple biological targets generates many interactions. But these interactions are easy to monitor, as systemsDock is capable of navigating the maps, changing the colours of the connections among the different molecules and drugs according to their type of interaction. This feature makes it easy - even for scientists with a limited technical knowledge -- to use the research tool, which is also able to show the 3D structure of the substances involved.

"systemsDock can provide promising compound to the research, reducing the amount of time and resources needed to develop a drug," Hsin said. "It can also reduce the probability of error, and this is beneficial for the whole drug-development process."
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Scripps Clinic have received a grant of nearly $2.4 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support safety and quality tests of a potential stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease.

The new two-year project will be led by Jeanne Loring, professor of developmental neurobiology at TSRI. Loring will be partnering with Melissa Houser, M.D., neurologist and medical director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center at Scripps Clinic.

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"The goal is to restore the quality of life for Parkinson's patients," said Loring. "The methods we're using will raise the bar for quality considerablyfor all kinds of cell therapy."

"What sets our study apart from many others is that it's patient-specific," said Dr. Houser. "Our hope is that this grant will help to begin a new era of long-term treatment for Parkinson's disease."

Parkinson's disease strikes when specialized neurons in the brain begin dying. These neurons produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that maintains normal nerve-firing patterns. Without dopamine, patients suffer from tremors, a lack of balance and even speech difficulties.

For the study, the Loring lab will investigate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are derived from adult subjects and can differentiate into any kind of cell in the body. In this case, iPSCs derived from cells donated by 10 Scripps Clinic Parkinson's patients were developed into dopamine-producing neuronsthe same kind that die during Parkinson's.

The new grant will allow the researchers to advance these cells through U.S. Food and Drug Administration preclinical testing requirements, with the hope of moving closer to clinical trials.
The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) at Georgia State University has received a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the neurochemical mechanisms underlying social stress in males and females.

Elliott Albers from the CBN and Mark Wilson from Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center hope to define the differences in how brain mechanisms promote resilience to social stress in males and females. Specifically, they will investigate how two chemicals in the brain--vasopressin and serotonin--act to alter the responsivity to social stress.

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Using hamsters and rhesus monkeys, the project will test the hypothesis that phenotypes characterized by dominance and active coping strategies are more resilient to stress than those characterized by subordinate status.

"We are excited by the potential of this innovative research to both define the basic brain mechanisms involved in regulating the expression of social behavior and to have a substantial translational impact by defining gender-specific strategies for promoting stress resilience in the development of treatments for psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD," said Albers, CBN director and Regents Professor of Neuroscience. "Our studies have the potential to have an almost immediate clinical impact by guiding different drug treatments for stress reduction in men and women as well as by guiding drug development."

"This project holds the promise of identifying sex differences in mechanisms responsible for resilience to social stressors that have tremendous translational value to identify interventional strategies to reduce the health burden chronic stress causes people," said Wilson, professor of developmental and cognitive neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine."
The international medical community is closely watching Sydneys Sutherland Shire, as one of the worlds newest and most advanced nuclear medicine production facilities, moves forward towards completion.

At the Lucas Heights, Sydney, campus of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), construction of the ANSTO Nuclear Medicine plant is now nearing completion.

ANSTO Nuclear Medicine (ANM) will help ensure supplies of Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), as international demand grows from 40 million doses a year, but the reactors that currently produce a large proportion of this supply will soon shut down.

Mo-99 is the parent isotope used in hospitals and medical centres to supply Technetium-99 (Tc-99m) - the most widely-used nuclear medicine - to diagnose heart, lung and muscular skeletal conditions, as well as a variety of cancers.

Jayne Senior has now been appointed the new General Manager of ANSTO Nuclear Medicine (ANM) Pty Ltd, to oversee the projects movement from the operational readiness phase into full operational status.

This is a very large, interesting and challenging project that can potentially meet up to a quarter of the worlds demand of Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), said Senior.

Senior is a scientist by training, having worked in the research space before moving into the commercial sector. Her most recent previous role was as General Manager of Genetics Australia.

ANM is being jointly delivered by ANSTOs operational readiness team run by Michael Druce, a construction team managed by Andy Garcia, and policy staff developing international and commercial agreements.

We have three different arms of ANSTO working closely together to ensure ANM is delivered as quickly as possible, whilst achieving all the relevant compliance and regulatory milestones, said Senior.

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As construction of the building nears completion, and hot cells are now being installed to handle and manipulate radioactive products from the OPAL nuclear reactor, Senior is ready for the ramp up to begin.

Complex supply chain management will be a key challenge in this space, and Senior said she will be drawing on all of her experience to make the project a commercial success.

When it is up and running, the logistical challenge will be to get Mo-99 from A to point B before it decays too much and stops being radioactive  a complex task when B is in another hemisphere, she said.

Ensuring the product reaches its destination with maximum radioactive activity is crucial to our end users, who need it to conduct life-saving procedures.

With 40 million doses of nuclear medicine used globally each year, 10 million of which are expected to come from ANM by the end of 2017, efficiency in the transport from Sydney to the world will be essential.

When the Canadian supplier of nuclear medicine shuts down from October 2016, supply to the US and elsewhere will be affected. ANM will help meet that global demand.

There is very strong justification for this project, in producing a key component of potentially life-saving medication, said Senior.

The international medical community is counting on this project succeeding, and I have great optimism about the coming months as we hit key milestones, and count down to live production.

Seniors education includes two Masters of Science, in Genetics and Bio-Aeronautics from UK universities.
To support a coordinated, innovative approach to the development of an AIDS vaccine, Texas Biomedical Research Institute scientists, together with a multi-institutional coalition of experts from the United States and Europe, have received a grant for $23 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health. The goal of this program is to establish a vaccine approach that targets a frontline defense at the mucosa, while simultaneously generating backup immune responses in the blood and tissues.

The new Program Project grant is led by Dr. Ruth Ruprecht, Scientist and Director of the Texas Biomed AIDS Research Program, as the principal investigator. She has brought together leaders in the fields of viral pathogenesis, molecular biology, whole body imaging, monoclonal antibody development, immunology, lymph node-targeted vaccine design and animal modeling.

"We are very excited about the potential of this project, which is the largest NIH Program Project grant received by Texas Biomed," said Dr. Robert Gracy, President of Texas Biomed. "Ruth has assembled a quality team to tackle a vaccine approach that is both visionary and sensible in its design and is a great example of the type of research we deliver at Texas Biomed. This project embodies the mission of Texas Biomed, which is to enhance lives through discovery."

The AIDS epidemic has been the worst infectious disease outbreak in modern history, killing 35 million people and continuing to infect 50,000 people in the U.S. each year. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "developing a safe, effective and affordable vaccine to prevent HIV is the best hope for controlling or ending the HIV epidemic."

"The basic idea of the new program project is to induce host defenses against HIV simultaneously at multiple levels, first at mucosal barriers, then in mucosal tissues, and finally in the systemic circulation and the rest of the body," Dr. Ruprecht explained. "The first line of defense consists of mucosal antibodies - mostly IgA and IgG molecules in mucosal fluids - which trap incoming virus particles in a process called immune exclusion. The second line of defense consists of IgG antibodies in mucosal tissues and in blood that can both neutralize the virus and lead to the killing of infected, HIV envelope-producing target cells through antibody-dependent cell killing. The third line of defense involves specific immune T cells that can kill infected target cells expressing various viral proteins; such killer T cells circulate throughout the body."

Ruprecht explained that the inspiration of this approach stems from the military strategy termed defense-in-depth which seeks to prevent a country from being overrun after the frontline has been penetrated by the enemy.

HIV transmission occurs in about 90% of all cases through mucosal exposures, including sexual contact and perinatal transmission. To mobilize and optimize the host defenses in mucosal fluids and tissues against the incoming virus, the scientists will use a highly interactive approach.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

The five-year project, broken into three sub-projects, will begin with the basic analysis of virus movement through mucus, mucosal fluids and penetration through epithelial barriers and how virus-specific antibodies affect these processes. Through fluorescent labeling of virus particles and/or antibodies, scientists will be able to see exactly how and where the virus goes upon entering a mucosal barrier and how it interacts with antibodies. Dr. Thomas Hope, Professor in Cell and Molecular Biology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, will lead these studies.

Dr. Hope will collaborate closely with experts at the Research Imaging Institute (RII) of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), where state-of-the-art imaging will be used to track virus and/or antibody movement across the epithelium and over time throughout the body. These imaging studies will be led by Dr. Peter Fox, Professor and Director of the Research Imaging Institute, and Dr. Beth Goins, Professor at UTHSCSA.

The second part of the Program Project, led by Dr. Ruprecht, will pursue results from previous studies in which her team demonstrated the effectiveness of the process called immune exclusion, in which mucosal antibodies, specifically dimeric IgA1, can act as a trap to capture virus particles and crosslink them, thereby blocking their ability to cross the epithelial barrier. Her team, which includes Texas Biomed scientist Dr. Viraj Kulkarni, an expert in virology and immunology, plans to examine the structural requirements for optimal virus capture at the mucosal frontline in close collaboration with Dr. Antonio Lanzavecchia, Director of the Swiss-based not-for-profit Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), affiliated to the Universita della Svizzera italiana. IRB will construct and produce monoclonal antibodies that can be tested in cell culture and in animal models as a first line of defense.

The third part of the project will be led by Dr. Darrell Irvine, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Biological Engineering, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who will be responsible for vaccine design and lymph node targeting for vaccines. Like Dr. Hope, Dr. Irvine will also work closely with Drs. Fox and Goins at RII/UTHSCSA to target his vaccines to the mucosal areas where the virus first enters the body. The scientists plan to follow vaccine delivery with PET and MRI imaging and analyze immune responses generated in mucosal fluids, tissues and blood.

The nonhuman primate research will be conducted at The Southwest National Primate Research Center at Texas Biomed and overseen by Texas Biomed scientists Drs. Samir Lakhashe and Sandeep Gupta. Work with the SNPRC will enable the team to further test these concepts and candidate vaccines in the appropriate nonhuman primate model. Dr. Sarah Ratcliffe, Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, will provide biostatistical support for the collection and analysis of data on the primate studies.
News18  Blogs  Politics

When We Ignore Disrespect of Women Because We Like Politics More

File image of BSP Supremo Mayawati

Over a billion, Indians witnessed the countrys polity traumatise a 12-year-old girl. And they remained silent. Even the media.



These people sacrificed that childs honour and modesty at the altar of their politics and their perception of what makes news.



The girl is the daughter of former BJP vice-president in Uttar Pradesh, Dayashankar Singh.



Singh exposed his Male Chauvinist Pig mindset when he said of Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party president: "Mayawati gives tickets for Rs one crore and if there is someone who can give Rs 2 crore, then she sells it for Rs 2 crore within an hour. If someone is ready to give Rs 3 crore by the evening, she gives the ticket to him. She is even worse than a sex worker."



He lost his job because his party had no other option. He even got expelled from the party, thus losing a possible chance to become a member of the UP legislature in the 2017 elections. A big price to pay and rightly so.



The FIR lodged against him under sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 504 (intentional insult with intent to breach peace) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act will take its own course.



Dayashankars victim, Mayawati, took a day to judge the public mood before replying to him in the Rajya Sabha. These were her opening remarks in Hindi conveying her bile and rage: "BJP ke upadhyaksh ne jis bhasha ka istemal kiya hai, unhone mujhe nahin bola hai, usne apne behn ke bare mein bola hai, apne beti ke bare mein bola haipoora samaj mujhe apna behen samajhta hai."



The BJP leader's statement also came at an inopportune time for the BJP, when it was trying to control the political damage caused by some misguided right-wing youth beating up Dalits they found skinning a dead cow.



Now, Mayawati calls herself a Dalit and the leader of a Dalit party  at least that is what she told the Rajya Sabha. Mayhem played out in both Gujarat  over the beating of the Dalits  and Uttar Pradesh  over Dayashankars statement.



Both states, incidentally, go to elections in 2017. The BJP has the highest stakes in Uttar Pradesh. So does the BSP.



This curious scenario posed a problem for five elements  the involved politicians, the political parties, their supporter gangs, the trolls, the media  the rest of the country, as usual, being the silent spectator.



The problem itself was simple to define, difficult to analyse: Who was victimized by Dayashankars comment most, Mayawati the woman or Mayawati the Dalit leader?



As a normal person whose commonsense has not left him I concluded that by using the phrase sex worker, Dayashankar abused Mayawati the woman.



It was gender abuse of the worst kind. It insulted the woman more than the Dalit. The abuse could be hurled at only a woman, irrespective of her caste. The abuse, in local parlance, is aimed at a specific gender and not at a specific caste.



Then how did this abuse turn into an abuse of Dalits, Dalit history, Dalit power, and suddenly translate into a political fight between a caste-Hindu BJP and Dalit BSP?



This part is easily explained as the occasion was yet another opportunity for the anti-BJP parties to take political potshots at it.



Overnight, the debate turned into blind support for a pan-Dalit agenda, the debaters crowing over the possibility of BJP biting the dust in Uttar Pradesh because of Dayashankars abuse. Laughable.



The Dalit youth beaten up in Gujarat were forgotten as the media and political pundits aided the politicians in setting the future Uttar Pradesh elections as central agenda.



While the politicians and the media played their mutually beneficial drama, a second, disturbing drama was unfolding.



Dayashankar committed a dangerous crime abusing a woman. And the woman, that is Mayawati, committed an equally dangerous crime by suggesting that he was in effect abusing his own daughter.



Evading arrest and trying to mitigate the antipathy towards him, Dayashankar committed a second dangerous crime of thrusting his wife and his 12-year-old daughter into the abuse cauldron.



He said: "Whatever I said, I did it respectfully (sic). She is a prominent woman leader and has been chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for four times. I have expressed regret for the statement, but what the BSP supremo said about my mother, sister and daughter in Rajya Sabha...she has insulted the women."



His wife Swati Singh promptly issued a statement saying that she and her old daughter were being abused and threatened by BSP activists.



The mother, perhaps in her eagerness to protect her husband via her daughter, said: "They are calling me and my daughter, they are abusing her. My daughter is traumatized. They are dragging my daughter into this and no one is standing by us...She is a minor and she is being mentally harassed.Can a person punished multiple times for a single mistake...If something happens to my children, will Mayawati take responsibility for it?"



Can anyone imagine the trauma of that 12-year-old girl? Her own father hides behind her to lessen the damage he caused, in turn exposing her to verbal abuse by BSP workers.



The woman he abused, Mayawati, indirectly insults the girl in her vituperative address on no less a platform than the countrys parliament. And the media is not bothered; perhaps anything less than rape is no abuse?
News18  Blogs  World

What is the Real Story in Turkey?

Pro-government supporters chant slogans and wave flags as they protest on Istanbul's iconic Bosporus Bridge. (Photo: AP)

I was at Ahmedabad when the attempted or rather failed coup de tat took place in Turkey. I was to speak at a corporate function about Indias national security. However, my hosts requested me to first specifically speak for a few minutes on Turkey because ostensibly most of the audience could not join the dots about what exactly was happening in that country.



I readily obliged because thats a country you cant fail to know if you have any pretensions like me of being a strategic commentator. Yet, one has to be acutely conscious that Turkey is one of the most complex conflict zones, albeit not classical conflict, and people find it difficult comprehending the events there.



The elite love visiting Istanbul, the city divided into the Asian and European segments by the sliver of the Bosphorus. Tourists love to dine by the Bosphorus, step into the Blue Mosque and shop endlessly at the Grand Bazar, one of the largest market places in the world.



Ankara, the capital city is sited inside a bowl with hills all around. The terrain is like Ooty, the picturesque hill station in the Nilgiris in India. All over the hill tops massive Turkish flags flutter in the wind symbolizing the nationalism and spirit infused into a defeated nation by none other Kemal Ata Turk, also known as Kemal Pasha (Mustafa Kemal) one of the iconic personalities of the 20th Century.



I visited Ankara, Istanbul and the beautiful city of Izmir on the Adriatic coast in 2006 on a study tour with access to the higher levels of government and other institutions. What I learnt in my preparations for the tour and during the visit is good enough for a layman understanding of the happenings in Turkey today.



In a nutshell it is once again all about Islamism and it did not start a few years ago but goes back in history almost a hundred years or more.



The Ottoman Empire, founded in 1299 lasted almost seven centuries. It was a trans-continental empire based upon the Anatolian region as the core center. With Constantinople (Istanbul) under its wings, the Ottoman Empire was also a multinational, multilingual empire controlling much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.



That it was Islamic made for its ambitious assumption of the mantel of the longest lasting Caliphate of Islam. It also remained the center of trans-continental dialogue and movement for many centuries.



It was both Asia and European and aligned itself with Germany in the First World War with a mistaken intent and was finally militarily defeated by the Allies in 1918.



From 1918 to 1924 the Ottoman Empire underwent the classic suffering of a defeated power until through the Turkish War of Independence Kemal Pasha emerged. It is sufficient to note that Kemal Pasha was the one who brought order to disorder and created the modern state of Turkey.



The fact that Turkey straddles both continents Asia and Europe and was hugely influenced by Persian culture did not escape Kemal Pasha. His perception for the emergence of Turkey as a truly powerful nation was based upon the belief that it had to acquire a contextual approach to modernism and acquire a European attitude and character to make progress.



To remain steeped in mediaeval thinking as was the practice of the Middle East, the Arab and the Persian culture, would spell doom for Turkey; never permitting it to move away from the shackles of the Middle Ages. Kemal Pasha was probably a man beyond his times and the manner in which he is adulated in Turkey says it all.



The sprawling mausoleum housing the memorial and the nearby museum symbolizes the awe with which he is held in Turkish society; has that awe been diluted? A positive response to that question would reflect the tragedy of Turkey and its inability to convert to the modernism it so aspired for.



In 1923 Kemal Pasha took some hard decisions to break the symbolic linkages with Turkey's past, convinced as he was that the future lay in Europe and western thinking. Perhaps the modernism initiated by the industrial revolution in Europe was considered the vehicle of change. He decided to ban those symbols of Turkish existence which saw it being perceived as a part of the Persian civilization.



Persian was banned overnight and the state language became Latin. Even for road signs and mainstream media only Latin was used. The head scarf, veil and fez (long Turkish cap) were banned to prove the liberal nature of the new Turkish society orientated towards European taste, values and way of life. The making of modern Turkey was based upon a divorce from Asia and a remarriage with Europe.



To safeguard the change he had instituted Kemal Pasha trusted only the Turkish Army; he was a warrior too and an accomplished scholar at that. The Army became the guarantor of the ideology of Kemal Pasha and secular democratic principles enshrined in the Turkish Constitution.



The long march of Turkey from Kemal Pashas enlightened principles to the Islamism associated with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current President and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) is a history of coups.



Opting to stay out of politics but watching over political actions and their effect on the people the Army implemented the mandate of the Founding Father, stepped in with a military coup when needed  but quickly handed power back to the politicians. However, what is not appreciated is the relationship of Turkey with rest of Europe and how that has contributed towards Erdogans rise and dilution of the principles of Kemal Pasha.



With its large Army Turkey was a welcome inclusion into NATO and the virtual vanguard against a potential invasion of Europe, surrounded as it was by the powerful Warsaw Pact nations during the Cold War.



However when it came to the inclusion of Turkey in the European Union (EU), Europe dithered, its racist bent coming full circle. Europe just did not wish for Turkey to be a part of the Union and placed every obstacle in the way.



During my visit to Ankara I met the officials at the EU office set up for the purpose of negotiating Turkeys entry. Just one of the clauses laid down for this was the need for Turkey to clean up its environment to come up to supposed Euro standards; the cost of it was an unaffordable 30 billion US$.



The rise of Islamism in the Arab world and elsewhere along with the dent to Turkish self-esteem at being denied entry to the EU was a heady mix of emotion which helped in the decline of the Kemal Pasha legacy and the rise of what is now popularly termed Erdoganism.



This article is not about the coup per se. It is about the background which eludes most common people. Given the rise of modern day Islamism Turkey as one of the populous nations comprising Muslims made every effort to prevent Islamism embedding itself.



Erdoganism was the counter revolution which has been emerging in Turkey over time. The coup itself, about which more will be eventually written, was just a symptom of the struggle. It is not possible that with strong ideological counter currents Turkey could remain afloat with its aspirations outlined by Kemal Pasha.



Interestingly, in the fight against ISIS (Daesh), Turkey did not display the kind of energy that may have been expected from a nation which is a member of NATO. It was more concerned about the potential empowerment of the separatist Kurdish PKK in its South and East should the Kurds emerge the victors with the assistance of the Allies.



It was also suspected of keeping supply lines open to Daesh and even purchasing some of the oil from the Mosul refinery. It is only after the surge of migration that it truly went in for sealing its border.



Lastly, the temptation to compare the situation in Turkey with that in Egypt is too strong. In Egypt, the Army has similarly been the virtual guarantor of secular values against the radical Islamist philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood. Gamal Abdel Nasser had, in fact, hung to death one of the most radical Islamist thinkers  Syed Qutb.



Mohommad Morsis rise to power on the back of the Arab Spring and his attempts to introduce an Islamist character in Egypt in 2012-13 was strongly resisted by Sisi and the Egyptian Army leading to the counter revolution which sees Egypt under Army rule today.



Awkwardly, it was the US which was against the rise of the Army in Egypt and it supported the Muslim Brotherhood. This was anathema to Saudi Arabia which has always opposed the Brotherhood.



It is natural that the struggle between radicalism and moderate Islam will see many more such events at revolution and counter revolution. This is the proverbial churning which has to take place before reformation of Islam becomes inevitable; that is a scholarly belief, not a belief of the clergy or many who implicitly follow the faith.
German carmaker BMW Group is considering building a new plug-in hybrid vehicle battery factory in Thailand, the country's industry minister said.



Construction was likely to start in the middle of next year with an investment of 2 billion baht ($57 million), Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang said, adding that the factory would make hybrid vehicles more affordable for Thai consumers.



"Hybrid vehicles are still expensive now but once there is a factory established and batteries are available this will make it affordable for consumers," Atchaka told reporters.



A spokesman for BMW in Thailand said the company was not immediately able to comment on the investment but would issue a statement on Monday.



Atchaka said the Thai government was working with BMW to offer tax incentives in order to make the country a centre for plug-in hybrid vehicles.



Thailand is a regional production and export hub for the world's top carmakers, and the sector accounts for around 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has unveiled an ambitious plan to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, car sharing and solar energy systems. In a blog post titled "Master Plan, Part Deux," Musk sketched a vision of an integrated carbon-free energy enterprise offering a wider range of vehicles, products and services beyond electric cars and batteries.The newest elements of the strategy included plans to develop the car and ride sharing programs as well as commercial vehicles  businesses where other companies already compete, and in some cases have ample head starts on Tesla.The new vehicles range from a commercial truck called the Tesla Semi to a public transport bus, a "new kind of pickup truck" and a compact SUV. The vehicles will be unveiled next year alongside Tesla's existing fleet of electric cars. Musk restated his argument that Tesla should acquire solar panel installer SolarCity Corp, where he is a major shareholder, and said he aims to make Teslas Autopilot self-driving system 10 times safer than cars that humans drive manually.The plan did not detail how the new projects would be financed at a time when Both Tesla and SolarCity are burning through cash. Musk summarised the plan saying Tesla aimed to "create stunning solar roofs (for homes) with seamlessly integrated battery storage. Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments. Develop a self-driving capability that is 10 times safer than manual via massive fleet learning. Enable your car to make money for you when you aren't using it."Musk said he envisions Tesla owners allowing others to use their vehicles through a smartphone application. He indicated there will be a "Tesla shared fleet," but did not offer details of how that fleet would be managed.Rival automakers are pursuing some of these goals as well.In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are, he said. Such a service would put Tesla in competition with ride-hailing services such as Uber or Lyft.Musk said all future Tesla products will have a fully self-driving capability, including trucks and buses. He vigorously defended Tesla's decision to offer what he described as a "beta" system to allow partial autonomy in its vehicles, a system called Autopilot. Federal regulators are investigating Autopilot after a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S operating with the system engaged. "When used correctly, it (Autopilot) is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves," he wrote. Musk did not say when fully autonomous Teslas would be ready but indicated it could require roughly five years of additional testing. Most major automakers, as well as internet search company Alphabet Inc, are investing heavily in automated driving technology. Germany's Daimler AG is working on automated heavy trucks and electric commercial vehicles. General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp are among the auto companies working on car sharing and forging alliances with ride-hailing companies.last month, Musk had proposed that Tesla should buy SolarCity. He outlined a combined company that could provide consumers with the tools for a largely carbon-free lifestyle, electric cars recharged with electricity generated by SolarCity solar panel systems, or stored in the home using battery packs produced by Tesla's battery Gigafactory under construction near Reno, Nev.Musk owns 22 per cent of SolarCity's shares and has outlined plans to offer buyers of Tesla electric vehicles a solar power generation and battery storage system.To fund projects Tesla sold about $1.7 billion in new shares, in May. Much of that will be used to accelerate development of its new Model 3 car lineup and reach a production pace of 500,000 vehicles a year by 2018. SolarCity said it raised $345 million to fund projects and increased its debt facility by $110 million.
Pakistani social media sensation Qandeel Baloch 's father said his son Waseem, who killed the model-cum-actress for honour, should be "shot on sight". Baloch was killed on the night of July 14 by Waseem, her younger brother. He confessed to drugging her and then strangling her to death, for family honour.Qandeel Baloch's death has caused a lot of outrage and has given way to hundreds of debates about Pakistan's treatment of women and civil liberties. BBC's Asian Network talked to Qandeel Baloch's parents and they had nothing but disbelief and sadness to offer."I say he should be shot on sight. He suffocated my little one," said Baloch's father Anwar Azeem.Baloch's parents claimed that they had been sedated and thus did not wake to the possible cries of help from the model. Her father expressed his sadness by saying that she was his best friend and his son.Watch their heartbreaking interview right here:
Michelle Obama on Wednesday proved that she can both sing and dance extremely well when she joined 'The Late Late Show' host James Corden for a 'Carpool Karaoke'.Dubbed as 'Carpool Karaoke at the White House', the video begins with the chat show host arriving at the White House entrance for a tour.And just when the comedian is about to get into an argument with the security guard, The First Lady takes a seat in the car and tells a surprised Corden, "I hear youre here for a 1:45 tour, and I had a little time on my hands. Want to go for a spin?"Who wouldn't want the wife of the President of United States to be his tour guide of the White House grounds? So, the two immediately set off for the ride.The First Lady seemed to be absolutely at ease in the passenger seat. And during the drive Mrs Obama grooved to everything from Stevie Wonder's 'Signed Sealed Delivered', which apparently was President's Obama's victory song in 2008, to Beyonce's famous 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)'. She performed Beyonce's iconic moves to the hilt and enjoyed herself thoroughly despite being confined to the passenger seat, seat-belted up.During the performance FLOTUS even revealed a little secret. She admitted that it was the first time in seven and a half years that she sat in the passenger seat and that she rarely gets an opportunity to listen to music.In the video she also reveals President Obama's and her code names used by the Secret Service.But Michelle Obama was not the only one who joined Corden in the White House Karaoke. Rapper Missy Elliott jumped into the backseat and helped the two sing 'This Is For My Girls' - the inspirational track written by Dianna Warren and released by Michelle For Let Girls Learn initiative. And then they broke into Elliotts biggest hit 'Get Your Freak On'.The First Lady was on the show to promote Let Girls Learn, an initiative which helps to raise funds for 62 million girls world wide who do not have access to education.Take a look.Obama isn't the first celebrity to join Corden in the Carpool Karaoke segment of his show. Several celebrities including the likes of Adele, Justin Bieber and Elton John, have featured in Corden's car, but this video with FLOTUS making a full-fledged appearance on the show tops them all.
A demonstration of Search & Rescue ops launched by Indian Navy for Indian Air Force AN-32 plane which went missing pic.twitter.com/ICCvve6wBY  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

UPDATE: Full scale search & rescue operation launched in in Bay of Bengal for IAF aircraft AN-32.  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane (AN-32) flying from Tambaram in Chennai to Port Blair has gone missing for more than one hour.As per early report, 29 IAF officials were reportedly on board and there is no trace of any of them as the flight goes off the radar around 11 am.Captain DK Sharma, Navy PRO, said, "The aircraft took off from Tambaram around 8.30 am and goes off the radar after 16 minutes. It was supposed to land at air station Utkrosh in Port Blair around 11.30 am."Full scale search and rescue operation launched in in Bay of Bengal for IAF aircraft AN-32. All the nearby ATCs and the Eastern Command have been alerted.One P8 I & one Dornier aircraft launched. 4 Indian Navy ships diverted to join in Search and Rescue operations.Meanwhile, officials at the Ministry of Defence and Navy are closely monitoring the case. All the coastal security establishments in Andaman and Nicobar have been put on high alert.Sources said, a team of IAF officials deployed in Car Nicobar were also asked to launch an operations to get some clue about the missing IAF plane.The AN-32 aircraft is mainly used for transporting cargoes over short and medium range air routes.It can be used for carrying military personnel, aerial delivery of paratroopers and palletized and non-palletized cargoes. Its ambulance version can be used in missions of Emergency Ministry.
An AN-32 cargo aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 29 people on board went missing earlier today. Sources said the plane went off the radar at around 9:12 am when it was on its way to Port Blair from the Tambaram Air Base near Chennai.



The IAF currently operates a fleet of 105 AN-32s and the plane forms the backbone of the transport arm of the force. The entire fleet is currently undergoing modernisation, with upgrades including modern avionics, new oxygen systems, etc.



Since the induction of the AN-32 into the Indian Air Force in the mid 1980s, the plane has been involved in a number of accidents.



Here is a quick look at incidents involving the AN-32:





March 22, 1986: The first major air incident; one aircraft crashes in Jammu and Kashmir.



March 25, 1986: Another AN-32, on its way to Jamnagar from Muscat and was lost in the Arabian Sea. The wreckage was never recovered.



1989: AN-32 owned by an intelligence outfit disintegrated mid-air while flying from Delhi to its base in Charbatia, Orissa.



1991-92: Aircraft crashes near Trivandrum. The ill-fated plane had taken off from Tambaram.



March 26, 1992: An AN-32 aircraft was lost in the hills near Jorhat, Assam.



April 1, 1992: In one of the worst accidents involving the aircraft, two AN-32 aircraft collided mid-air while flying in formation over Khanna, Punjab.



March 7, 1999: 21 people, including 18 men from the force were killed when an AN-32 crashed near the Indira Gandhi International Airport. This was the first time so many defence personnel were killed in a single crash. Among the victims were 10 officers, four of them Wing Commanders.



June 9, 2009: An AN-32 crashed in Arunachal Pradesh killing all the 13 defence personnel on board.



January 2012: An AN-32 was damaged during heavy landing in Jorhat.



September 20, 2014: Aircraft with 11 people on board crash-landed at the Chandigarh Airport. The aircraft caught fire as it crashlanded but the blaze was doused by fire tenders inside the airport premises. A few people on board the aircraft suffered minor burn injuries.


New Delhi: A 62-year-old man has been arrested in connection with trafficking of women from Central Asian countries and running a sex racket, sources in the Delhi police department said.



Technology consultant Pritindra Nath Sanyal was arrested on Thursday after a case was registered against him at Safdarjung Enclave police station. A close aid of Sanyal, Ajay Ahalwat - a retired army man  was also arrested.



Investigation revealed that Sanyal - who was under I-T scanner - impersonated Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the suspects used to deal with government departments, Delhi police is now investigating whether the rescued Russian girls were used as a honey trap or not.



The matter came to the fore after Sanyals residences in Safdarjung Enclave, Vasant Kunj and in Lucknow was raided by Income Tax authorities on June 2.



During search, incriminating documents indicating his involvements in illegal activities like human trafficking and impersonation came to light, DCP (south) Ishwar Singh said.



Documentary evidence in the form of WhatsApp messages and SMSes were seized from his residence at Safadarjung Enclave, he said.



The IT officials had rescued a Russian national, aged about 23 years, from his residence in Safdarjung Enclave. The SMSes and WhatsApp data of the woman's mobile phone indicated that she was being kept against her will.



Her travel documents including passport were allegedly taken away by the accused.



In the statement given to the IT officials, the women said she was feeling "very insecure" with the accused and wished to leave the premises immediately and also allegedly attempted suicide by cutting her wrist vein.



The woman came to India on a tourist visa on February 25. She was introduced to accused Sanyal by Colonel Ajay Ahlawat (retd) whose involvement in the case is being probed.



He was previously involved in many cheating cases, Singh said.



The IT raid had also led to recovery of copies of passports of other foreign nationals as well as phone numbers of dozens of women belonging to Central Asian countries from the accused's residence.



"Messages exchanged between accused Sanyal and his associates revealed financial transactions related to foreign women," he said.



Sanyal was yesterday produced in a city court from where he was sent to police custody.



Police is probing Sanyal's phone record, bank accounts, emails and the involvement of his associates in the crime. Investigations so far revealed he has sent messages to government officials and other senior functionaries, posing as a Member of Parliament and top bureaucrat for getting favours in certain business deals, the officer added.



(With PTI inputs)
London: A senior figure of the separatist Khalistani movement based in the UK had "predicted" the killing of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi months before her assassination in October 1984, according to newly declassified British government documents.



Jagjit Singh Chauhan, described by UK officials as a "self-styled president of the Sikh Republic of Khalistan", was among a number of suspect individuals on which the then Margaret Thatcher-led government considered "further action".



"The Indian authorities have repeatedly complained about statements made in the UK by a Sikh, Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan, self-styled 'President' of the Sikh 'Republic of Khalistan'. In June this year he 'predicted' the death of Mrs Gandhi; he has subsequently spoken of Rajiv Gandhi being a 'target'," reads a note prepared by UK foreign and home office officials in 1984.



It goes on to warn that Chauhan's presence on UK soil could harm bilateral relations between India and the UK.



"His remarks have drawn a sharp response from the Indian government and there is a risk of severe damage to our bilateral relations. Other Sikh extremists in the UK, some of whom have sought asylum, constitute a further threat to bilateral relations," it warns.



The documents released on Thursday also mention India's concerns over Hashim Qureshi, then Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader, and his alleged involvement in the murder of Indian diplomat Ravindran Mhatre in Birmingham.


New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday asked the administrative machinery at the Centre, state and district levels to pay due attention towards solving the problems of veterans and families of serving soldiers in a time-bound manner.



Inaugurating the 30th meeting of Kendriya Sainik Board in the national capital, Parrikar said special attention by the central and state governments and support by local administration towards welfare of the families of ex-servicemen and serving soldiers is crucial.



"We want our troops to maintain high morale and perform their duties without worrying about their families," he said.



Underlining some of the welfare measures for ex-servicemen and their dependents, the minister said the government has revised the marriage grant for two daughters of ex-serviceman from Rs 16,000 to Rs 50,000 with effect from April 1.



The Education Grant and Orphan Grant have been revised from Rs 400-600 per month to Rs 1000 per month. The amount of one-time Penury Grant of Rs 30,000 has now been revised to Rs 1000 per month for life.



He said the amount under Prime Minister Scholarship Scheme for boys has been hiked from Rs 15,000 to Rs 24,000 per annum while for girls the same has been revised from Rs 18,000 to Rs 27,000 per annum.



He also pointed out a few issues on ex-servicemen welfare, which require direct engagement with other stakeholders like states and Union Territories, local administration and Rajya Sainik Board.



These include provision of land for polyclinic buildings in non-military stations, augmentation of opportunities for employment of ESM in state/Union Territories, monitoring implementation of reserved seats in government educational institutions for admission of wards of war widows/disabled soldiers and ESM and construction of integrated 'Sainik Sadan' in states for war-widows and ESM and their dependents.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to take over possession and secure the controversial Adarsh society building in Mumbai.



The apex court ordered that the handing over of possession has to be done on or before August 5. The process will be supervised by Registrar General of Bombay High Court or by his nominee Registrar.



The court also directed the Centre to ensure that no demolition takes place while securing the building.



"We will secure the building and there will be no demolition," Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the court.



The court has asked the residents to vacate the flat.



In a strongly-worded message to Adarsh society, the court said, "We will not permit you to deal with it anymore."







The high-rise meant to house families of Kargil martyrs came under the scanner following reports that flats were doled out to politicians, top defence personnel including two former Army chiefs and bureaucrats as well as their relatives.



According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Congress leader Ashok Chavan had approved additional floor space in Adarsh in exchange for flats for his relatives in Adarsh - a society meant for war veterans.



Chavan was among the 13 people chargesheeted by the CBI in the Adarsh scam in July 2012. Chavan was forced to quit in November 2010 after it emerged that three of his relatives had been given apartments in the 30-storey building.
Chennai: With Rajinikanth fans spread across nooks and corners of India, the Kabali fever has taken the nation by storm. Fans are waiting with bated breath to catch a glimpse of the superstar in the movie, a gangster drama releasing on Friday in nearly 5000 screens worldwide.



The Pa. Ranjith directorial, which also stars Radhika Apte, will be opening first in Malaysia and Singapore.



"In the last decade, never have I witnessed such craze over a release. Kabali has sent even non-Thalaivar fans into frenzy because it is said to be the first Rajinikanth-starrer sans any cliches usually associated with his films," trade analyst Trinath told IANS.



Apart from Tamil, Kabali will also release in Telugu and Hindi. It has also been dubbed in Malay, and it's slated to release on July 29.



The Hindi dubbed version alone is slated to release in 1000 screens across the north Indian belt.



"Kabali" has reportedly raked in over Rs 200 crore from its pre-release business.



"According to the makers, it has already done business worth over Rs 200 crore. The brand collaborations are valued at Rs 50 crore, which makes it the highest for a south Indian film. Never before have so many brands partnered with a Tamil project," Trinath said.



From Air Asia's special Kabali airline to lucky superstar silver coins from Muthoot Fincorp and exclusive partnership with Airtel -- brands have unabashedly cashed in on the Rajinikanth phenomenon.



PVR is the official multiplex partner of Kabali.



"Since Rajinikanth has fans across the country and as PVR is known for going an extra mile for its patrons, we've associated with the makers to introduce exclusive Kabali merchandise," Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Cinemas, told IANS.



With unprecedented excitement around the film's release, there are companies that are said to have declared a holiday on Friday and have given free tickets to their employees to watch the film.



"On account of the release of superstar Rajini's Kabali, we have decided to declare holiday on Friday in efforts to avoid piled up leave requests to the HR department. We also take the privilege of going the extra mile to support anti-piracy by providing free tickets to the former Fyndus employees," read a notice from Vinoth Sundaroli, Vice President - India Operations, Fyndus India.



To watch the first day, first show of Kabali fans are travelling from abroad too.



Writer and film critic Naman Ramachandran is coming all the way from London to watch the film on Friday.



"For the premiere, I'm flying down to Mumbai from London and taking part in the early morning pooja and then the procession to the Aurora theatre in Matunga where a bunch of similar die-hards will do the 'pal (milk) abhishekam followed by the first day first show," Naman said.



"My Kabali T-shirts have already arrived and I'll be wearing one of them on the release day," he said.



The craze for the film even outside Tamil Nadu is unbelievable.



Mumbai's Aurora theatre has planned to screen six shows on release day.



The 74-year old, 700-seater Aurora Theatre in King's Circle, will start shows right from 3 a.m. and continue at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and finally the last show at 9 p.m.



Meanwhile, Chennai-based SPI Cinemas has scheduled nearly 100 shows for Kabali across its properties in the opening weekend.



While hardcore Rajinikanth fans feel Kabali can overpower Salman Khan's Sultan at the ticket window, a trade pundit is confident it will emerge as a very successful venture.



"It's tough to say whether Kabali can match the numbers of Sultan. However, the film might easily end up as the highest grossing south Indian film. With such excellent pre-release buzz and business worth Rs 200 crore, it might set new records," distributor and industry tracker Arvind Nambiar told IANS.


A Superstar film release means it's a festival. The sound of firecrackers (Nataraj Theatre, Bangalore) reached me at 5 AM today while I was at home dreaming about Kabali's dialogues and action scenes.



Is the hype around the film worth it? Well, that's another story for another day. Here, I try to wrap my head around Rajini, the actor.



Kamal Haasan can make a Viswaroopam, Uttama Villain, and Papanasam, and walk away with praises. But it's not the same for a Rajinikanth film. People expect lengthy dialogues from the Star. Rajini just needs to fill up the screen with his presence and charisma; that's probably enough for crores of fans to feel satisfied. How then did he agree to star in Kabali which doesn't make use of his stardom? Is he trying to change tracks like Amitabh Bachchan has done? Can we expect a Piku from him soon? The answer might be a negative one since his next film is with Shankar who is known for making larger than life movies. While Sivaji and Endhiran, directed by Shankar, highlight Rajini's magnetic power, Ranjith pulls us back to our seats and shows us how good the star can be as an actor.



The Star smiles gently, fights like a 30-year-old, walks like a tiger eyeing its prey; and yet there's something about his performance that makes us revisit the actor in him. He is not accompanied by Goundamani, Vadivelu, or Santhanam. He is surrounded by supporting actors (most of them were a part of 'Madras', too). Were the cast members nervous about sharing the screen space with Rajini? We'll never know unless we watch the making videos and interviews.



Rajini has made a habit of appearing in various looks in his films. He's even played dual and triple roles in his earlier films. Kabali has a flashback which requires the actor to look young, and he does it with perfection. Of course, you can see that he's much older than Radhika Apte, but the two of them share a chemistry that puts our worries about their age-gap to an end.



Had Rajini starred in at least half of dozen films such as this in the 80s, his stardom would have taken a different route altogether. I'm not saying he's untouchable now. All I'm saying is that he's done a great job, and his mentor K. Balachander would have been really happy if he had seen his protege shine on-screen the way he does in Kabali.
Bengaluru: South Indian superstar Rajinikant's latest blockbuster Kabali has gripped Bengaluru as no other movie ahead of its mega release on Friday in about 80 theatres and multiplexes here.



Though the Tamil magnum opus is dubbed in Hindi and Telugu but not in Kannada, the native language of the city and state, tickets were sold out for all shows till Sunday within 48 hours after advance booking opened on Monday.



As Rajinikath's frenzied fans are eager to watch the movie on first-day, first-show, hundreds of them, who didn't get the tickets till Sunday, flocked to cinema halls on Thursday but left disappointed as they were told to come on early Friday.



"I have decided to go the theatre (Urvashi) on Friday at 6 a.m. to stand in the queue though ticket counters will open at 9 a.m. for seats in front rows at lower fares for the first show at 11 a.m.," Ravi Kiran, 19, a die-hard 'thalaivar Rajini' fan told IANS here.



Many fans have garlanded posters and banners carrying their matinee idol photo, with "Kabali da!" a catch-phrase from the movie, which means "I am Kabali".



Rajinikant, 65, has close connection with Bengaluru, as he spent his early years in the city.



Born to Maharashtrian parents, Rajinikanth's original name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. He worked as a bus conductor in the state-owned Bangalore Transport Service in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he began acting in plays.



In 1973, he went to Chennai and joined the Madras Film Institute for a diploma in acting.



Rajinikanth's elder brother Sathyanarayana Rao Gaekwad still lives in the same house where he stayed at Hanumanthnagar in the city's southern suburb.



According to neighbours, whenever Rajinikanth visits Bengaluru, he goes to the house to meet his brother and other family members. He also catches up with some of his old friends in the city.



Plans to screen the mega film in a few five-star hotels in the city from Friday to Sunday were aborted after Bangalore Deputy Commissioner V. Shankar declined permission, as hotels do not come under the purview of the Karnataka Cinema (Regulation) Act.



The Karnataka State Film Exhibitors' Association and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce had opposed the screening of the movie in star hotels as it was against the provisions of the Act.



"We had planned to screen the film at four star hotels - JW Marriot Lalit Ashok, Royal Orchid and Crown Plaza in the city, with tickets prized from Rs.1,300-1,500," said Lahari Velu, a distributor of the movie.



About 15,000 people booked tickets to watch the film in the star hotels, as tickets for the movie in theatres and multiplexes were unavailable.



Taking cue from Chennai where some companies have declared holiday on Friday for their employees to watch the movie, a start-up firm in the city has given 'off' to all its 40 techies.



With regular holiday on Saturday and Sunday, many employees in IT and biotech firms applied for leave on Friday to watch "Kabali" on the first day itself.



In a related development, the state-run postal department has decided to release a special carrier cover to mark the special aircraft that will fly fans from here to Chennai on Friday to watch the movie.



Budget carrier Air Asia has tied up with the Karnataka postal circle and Chennai postal region for the initiative to fly about 2,000 registered letters in the aircraft to Chennai along with fans.



"The carrier covers will bear the postmarks of the Bangalore and Chennai airport post offices and flown back on the return flights by evening," said general post office assistant superintendent Thimmoji Rao.






Los Angeles Filmmaker JJ Abrams and the team of Star Trek Beyond paid tribute to one of the cast members, Anton Yelchin, who died last month after a freak automobile accident at his home in Studio City.



The film's team was present at the San Diego Comic-Con and after it took to the stage, Abrams said "something was

missing", according to The Hollywood Reporter. "There is something missing tonight. There is someone missing tonight," said producer Abrams, standing alongside stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana.



Yelchin played Chekov in three of the films in the rebooted franchise. "As wonderful as this is to be here with all of you and to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, there is something wrong tonight," said Abrams, who directed Yelchin in the first two Star Trek films, released in 2009 and 2013, and produced Beyond.



On stage the Star Trek alums were joined by newcomers Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella and director Justin Lin, all of whom also honored the late 27-year-old actor.



"Anton Yelchin should be here," Abrams continued. "Anton's parents are here Irina and Victor. We love their son, and if I could ask everyone to have a moment of silence for our dear friend Anton."



Following the moment of silence, the San Diego Symphony began to play a medley of Star Trek theme music. During the performance, a light show appeared above the audience's heads while fireworks exploded over the marina. Quinto, who plays Spock in the series, also said a few words for the late Leonard Nimoy, who died earlier this year.



"I just want to take a moment to honor him, to acknowledge him, to celebrate him and to love him. We all carry him with us in our hearts tonight," Quinto said.



Beyond sees the crew of the USS Enterprise separated following an attack lead by the the dictator Krall (Elba) that leaves them stranded in a hostile, mysterious world. The movie hits the US theatres today,
Politicians are making a beeline to Gujarat's Una district and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met the families of Dalit youth who were thrashed for allegedly skinning a dead cow.



The Aam Aadmi Party Chief claimed that it was not an "isolated" incident and "atrocities" on Dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be "taught a lesson" by members of all communities if it does not end its "oppression".



"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police...it means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is the police silent? Why is it involved? This means there is some direction from the top administration," Kejriwal told reporters after visiting the victims of the July 11 incident at Rajkot civil hospital.



"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, (it) is anti-Dalit," alleged Kejriwal.



The kin of the tannery workers who were beaten up allegedly by self-styled vigilante for skinning a dead cow on July 11.



The AAP national convener said only 17 persons have been arrested when about 40-50 people were allegedly involved in the July 11 incident, and pointed out that no chargesheet has yet been filed in the 2012 killing of Dalits by police at Thangadh in Surendranagar district.



On Thursday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Nationalist Congress Party MP Praful Patel met families of Dalits.







Gujarat continued to simmer as protests against brutal thrashing of Dalit youths flared up with incidents of vandalism and arson being reported from several parts of the state.



Since the time of eruption of protests, 17 dalit youths have tried to commit suicide in separate incidents across state.



A head constable of police was a lone casualty in clash with mob in Amreli town on Tuesday.
Washington: In a case of alleged discrimination in the US, a 40-year-old Muslim man was removed from a plane after a flight attendant publicly announced his name, seat number and said she would be watching him.



The matter came to light on Wednesday when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained to transport authorities that Mohamed Ahmed Radwan was removed from the American Airlines Flight last December because of his "identifiably Arabic and Muslim name."



According to federal law, airlines are prohibited from discriminating against passengers based on religion, ancestry and national origin, among other criteria.



According to federal law, airlines are prohibited from discriminating against passengers based on religion, ancestry and national origin, among other criteria.



CAIR sent a letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday urging an investigation and also called for a thorough examination into prevailing practices of major airlines, The Charlotte Observer reported.



In addition, CAIR said the DOT should develop policy guidelines on objective factors to be looked at while deciding to remove a passenger from a plane.



Radwan, a chemical engineer, said he was flying from Charlotte to Detroit on December 6, 2015, on American Airlines Flight 1821.



As he was taking his allotted seat, Radwan said, a female flight attendant loudly announced, "Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A, I will be watching you."



After a minute, she repeated, "Mohamed Ahmed, that is a very long name, Seat 25-A, I will be watching you." Then a third time, according to Radwan, she said, "25-A: you will be watched."



"I was in total shock. I've been flying for over 30 years, and I've never heard something like that," he said.



The flight attendant did not make such a statement about any other passenger, Radwan said. When he asked about her statements, the attendant said she was going to monitor everyone. When asked why she singled him out, the attendant accused him of being "too sensitive" and walked away, he said.



After a couple of American Airlines employees talked to him, he was told the attendant felt "uncomfortable" and he was escorted off the flight.



"I felt too unsafe to fly with American again," he said. Radwan instead booked a much later flight, which cost him about USD 1,500 and interfered with his travel plans.



Worse than the inconvenience was the humiliation of being treated like a terrorist, Radwan said.



"I've been a US citizen for 13 years, but at that moment I felt my sense of being American taken from me," he said.



In April, a Muslim woman was removed from a Southwest Airlines plane at a Chicago airport after she had asked to switch seats as she was told she had made the flight attendant "uncomfortable".



A Muslim family of five were also escorted off a United Airlines flight in March for "how they looked".
Cleveland: Donald Trump accused Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of a legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness" as US secretary of state and declared himself a friend of the working class in a speech on Thursday accepting the Republican presidential nomination.



Trump's speech was designed to set the tone for the general election campaign against Clinton, an answer to Republicans who say the best way he can unify the divided party is to detail why the Democrat should not be elected on November 8.



As the crowd roared: "Lock her up," Trump waved them off and said: "Let's defeat her in November."



The remarks by Trump, 70, closed out a four-day convention that underscored his struggle to heal fissures in the Republican Party over his anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric and concerns about his temperament. The event was boycotted by many big-name establishment Republicans, such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and members of the Bush family that gave the party its last two presidents.



Illegal immigrants, Trump said, "are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities," where he said they were straining resources, taking jobs away from American citizens and in some cases, committing crimes.



In his speech, Trump offered little in the way of details about his policies but rather portrayed himself as a fresh alternative to traditional politicians, willing to consider new approaches to vexing problems and help working-class people who may feel abandoned.



Laying out his case against Clinton, he denounced nation-building policies that were actually put in place to some extent by George W Bush, without mentioning by name the Republican president who launched wars n Afghanistan and Iraq.



Trump said nation-building pursued by Clinton in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria had made a bad situation worse. He blamed her for the rise of Islamic State militants and blasted her willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees.



"After 15 years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before. This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said.
Cleveland: An Indian-American supporter of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has announced to raise a whooping USD 2 million for the Trump Victory Fund and hold a mega rally with estimated 50,000 people in support of the real estate tycoon from New York.



Chicago-based Shalabh "Shalli" Kumar, who heads the Republican Hindu Council (RCH) told a group of Indian reporters yesterday that he and his family have already donated USD 1.1 million to the Trump Campaign.



With this, he is among the top 14 donors for the Trump campaign.



"The Kumar family in total would contribute USD 2 million for the Trump Campaign and the Republican Party. It is in the best interest of the India US relationship that I have decided to work for the victory of Trump in the November general elections," he said.



Kumar said he is planning to hold a mega rally sometime in September in the Tri-State areaof New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to showcase the support of Indian Americans for Trump.



He met the Republican presidential nominee last week and claimed that Trump's presidency would take India-US relationship to new heights.



"Under a Trump presidency, forget about F-16 to Pakistan," he said.



Next week, Kumar plans to travel to India to invite some of the popular Bollywood stars for the Trump rally.



"I want to invite Amitabh Bachchhan and Priyanka Chopra for the rally," he said as he maintained silence when asked if Trump would be attending the rally. Trump, he said, wants to build a strong relationship with India.



"He and Modi are a natural fit. They would both work together to make the world safe and secure. I am also confident that they would work together to increase bilateral trade between the two countries. We should set our goal to USD 500 billion as India-US bilateral trade," he said.



Kumar first came into limelight a few years ago, when he took a Congressional delegation to meet the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.



The Congressional delegation did meet Modi, but his approach to take along a group of Indian American businessmen by charging money from them generated controversy in both India and the US.



However, Kumar has denied the allegations.



Early this year, with the help of Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, he established the Republican Hindu Coalition, set up on the pattern of Republican Jewish Coalition.
JUST IN: Twitter video shows people running from scene of shooting at German shopping center https://t.co/rI3HVFMiav pic.twitter.com/59Pf70D5cF  CNN (@CNN) July 22, 2016

At least 9 people were dead after multiple shooting was reported from Munich in Germany after shots were fired in a shopping centre on Friday evening, a police spokesperson was quoted as telling CNN.As per local media reports from Germany the toll could rise after gunmen went on rampage in at least two different parts of the city.A major police operation is under way at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in Moosach district.The authorities had warned of the danger of further attacks.Reports had suggested the presence of only one attacker but the Munich police believes the presence of more than one shooter."We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage," a police spokeswoman told Reuters.No one has been taken into custody yet.Helicopters are said to be flying over the scene and workers were unable to leave their shops.Latest reports said the firing has stopped and that the area around the shopping mall has been sealed off.Security forces have been on alert in Germany after a migrant stabbed five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday.Munich police however are telling people to avoid the area.More details are awaited.
We have provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self determination in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions, Sharif said.

The statement also expressed "grave concern" over the law and order situation in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.



: Upping the ante, Pakistan today decided to approach the UN Human Rights Council over the Kashmir situation and request it to send a fact-finding mission there as the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting dominated by the Kashmir issue."The Indian attempts to claim that the deteriorating human rights situation" in Kashmir is an internal affair of India is "factually incorrect, legally untenable and a violation of international law and UNSC resolutions," Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Premier's Office."The meeting resolved that Pakistan will approach the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on its behalf and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif also attended the meeting in which a briefing was made on the situation in Kashmir and Afghanistan by the Foreign Office.The "continuing brutal oppression by the Indian security forces of the innocent Kashmiris who have been peacefully protesting against the Indian violence in the region" was condemned during the meeting, the statement said."Brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people which no civilised society permits," Sharif said.The Premier reiterated that the only solution to the Kashmir issue would be "early implementation of UNSC resolutions -- a fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices".Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Rashad Mahmood, National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz were among those who attended the meeting.
The Central Virginia Continuum of Care is one of a dozen agencies in the state that will receive a portion of more than $14.7 million in Virginia Homeless Solutions Program (VHSP) grants to combat homelessness in Virginia.

The continuum, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, provides funding to nonprofits to support their efforts to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families to minimize the trauma and dislocation. It also helps the homeless access and use mainstream programs and achieve self-sufficiency through special programming and financial supports.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the funding in a news release Wednesday.

McAuliffe also announced that overall homelessness in the Commonwealth had declined 10.5 percent in 2016 based on point in time counts compiled by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. In April the Central Virginia Continuum of Care reported the number of homeless people in the region had decreased by 27 percent in the past year while the number of homeless families had dropped 44 percent.

According to the release since 2010, Virginia has seen a 31 percent drop in overall homelessness.

McAuliffe has established the Governors Coordinating Council, which is charged with implementing strategies identified by the Homeless Outcomes Advisory Committee Report and Recommendations that work to end homelessness among all populations, including the chronically homeless, as well as youth and families. In support of the effort, the Commonwealth allocated $8 million over two years for the Housing Trust Fund in the previous budget, and the new two-year budget increases total funding over two years to $11 million.
A reconstituted SOL Innovation Committee met for the first time Thursday to begin its third year and to continue the work of an inaugural group that took the first steps toward a major transformation of the states educational system.

I invite us to think of ourselves as the continuation of this great committee and to use our great minds, and bring them together, in support of moving the ball forward, Anne Holton, Virginias secretary of education, told the group at the meeting in Richmond.

The SOL Innovation Committee is a nonpartisan group that includes Holton; Steven R. Staples, superintendent of public instruction; legislators; and a range of educational and business leaders.

The full 39-person committee is an advisory group whose job it is to come up with recommendations for instruction, assessment and accountability. Its suggestions are forwarded to the General Assembly.

Holton said the idea this year is for new members and holdovers to build on the success of the previous two years and to help develop policies to improve accountability and performance in schools.

Something the committee will likely focus on is the implementation of a plan to redesign high school graduation requirements.

The Profile of a Graduate was recommended to the General Assembly by the committee last year. Legislators then passed a bill directing the Education Department to identify what skills students need in high school to be better prepared for the workforce and then to change statewide graduation requirements to meet the expectations laid out in the profile.

The state board is currently working on creating the plan, which is to be completed by the fall of 2017 and in place in time for the freshman class of 2018.

Among other recommendations from the committee that have become law was a measure to find more ways for young students to retake tests they have failed.

Where we fit in is as an advisory body at the state level, Holton said, adding We are not decision-makers. And there is a certain freedom to that.
Slain state trooper Junius A. Walkers DNA was found on the car and coveralls of the man charged with killing the officer, as well as on the assault-style rifle the defendant used to fatally shoot Walker four times in a slaying off Interstate 85, state forensic scientists testified Thursday.

Red stains recovered from the hood and passenger-side door of Russell E. Brown IIIs four-door sedan partially included DNA that matched that of the fallen officer, forensic biology scientist Jeremy Boone testified during the ninth day of Browns capital murder trial in Dinwiddie County Circuit Court.

Nine stains on the coveralls that Brown was wearing at the time of the March 7, 2013, attack also matched Walkers DNA, Boone said. Only Walkers DNA was found in the single-source DNA profile that Boone developed from the clothing stains, while Brown was eliminated entirely as a contributor, he added.

Forensic experts also tested genetic material believed to be blood found on Browns legally purchased Russian-made Saiga .308-caliber semi-automatic rifle and concluded with a high degree of probability that Walkers DNA was on the guns shoulder strap.

Expert scientific and medical examiner testimony Thursday concluded the prosecutions case against Brown. The presentation of evidence didnt commence until Tuesday afternoon because of an exhaustive jury selection process that consumed the trials first six days.

After Dinwiddie Commonwealths Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill and Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Nelson H.C. Fisher called their 26th and final witness just before 2 p.m., Circuit Judge Paul W. Cella adjourned the proceeding for the day, instructing jurors to return today at 10 a.m.

Baskervill and Nelson are expected to formally rest their case this morning. Browns defense team will likely then make a motion to strike the prosecutions evidence, which is standard in most criminal trials but rarely granted.

If the judge denies the motion, the trial will proceed and the defense will begin presenting its case. Defense attorneys have subpoenaed as many witnesses as the prosecution, if not more.

It was unclear how much testimony will be heard because Cellas trial procedures call for only a half-day on Fridays to allow jurors time off to take care of personal business.

Four weeks were set aside for the trial. Two of those weeks will have been consumed by the end of Friday.

Brown, 31, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his attorneys are expected to call at least two mental health experts who evaluated Brown and issued opinions that he was legally insane at the time of the offense. Attorneys for Brown have acknowledged in court that he killed Walker.

In other testimony Thursday, firearms trace evidence specialist Douglas DeGaetano said that microscopic gunshot primer residue particles recovered from Walkers hands could be linked to Browns rifle.

Firearms examiner Stephen Atkinson testified that a bullet fragment recovered from the shooting scene had similar rifling characteristics to Browns gun.

In addition, Atkinson said an analysis of 29 .308-caliber cartridge casings recovered from the shooting scene indicated they had been fired from Browns rifle.

Forensic blood-testing expert Caitlin Delaney testified that an analysis of Browns blood drawn from him at Meherrin River Regional Jail showed traces of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. No other drugs were shown to be present in his system.

After his arrest, Brown told trooper Walter L. Craig in unsolicited comments that he had been riding around smoking marijuana with a white guy the day of the shooting, according to testimony.

Dr. Kevin Whaley, a former Virginia assistant chief medical examiner who supervised Walkers autopsy, said the slain trooper suffered gunshot wounds to his head, chest, left arm and right hand.

The head wound likely resulted in instant death. The bullet severed his brain stem. Also deadly but slightly less so was a gunshot to the left side of Walkers chest.

Whaley said he couldnt determine from which direction Walker was shot, but prosecutors believe the trooper suffered the fatal head wound after his cruiser veered into the woods off I-85.

Authorities say Walker, in an account Brown appeared to confirm in statements to police, pulled to the right of Browns disabled vehicle on the shoulder of I-85 to see if he needed assistance.

Brown said as soon as Walker pulled up, he immediately fired into the troopers car while both men were sitting in their vehicles. Evidence indicates Brown shot into the drivers side of Walkers cruiser, which could account for the gunshot wounds he suffered to his left chest and arm.

Police recovered three .308-caliber shell casings outside the left, or drivers side, of Browns vehicle, and two sets of glass fragments on the right, or passenger side. Windows in both Browns and Walkers vehicles were apparently rolled up and shattered during the shooting.

Witnesses testified that after Walkers vehicle rolled into the woods, a man later identified as Brown ran up to Walkers car and fired into the passengers side. Prosecutors say that could account for the shot that entered Walkers right ear and killed him.
A longtime member of the Virginia inspector generals staff and two independent contractors have filed a whistleblower complaint alleging their employer failed to properly investigate the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in a Portsmouth jail cell last year.

The complaint also alleges that State Inspector General June Jennings and one of her deputies have misled members of the General Assembly and violated federal privacy laws and state open-records statutes.

It was filed Wednesday by Cathy Hill, senior project manager and auditor with the Office of the State Inspector General, and consultants Ann White and William Thomas. They asked Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring to investigate their allegations and realign the OSIG with the principles and values under which it was formed, according to a copy of the complaint, which was obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Our concerns have grown to the degree that we feel we can no longer in good faith remain silent, they wrote.

The attorney generals office has not responded to a Times-Dispatch request for information related to the complaint. A spokeswoman for the state inspector general said the office was reviewing the document and declined to comment.

Hill has worked with the inspector generals office and its previous incarnations since 1999. She said she was the first employee hired to the office of the Inspector General for Behavioral Health and Developmental Services after the appointment of the first inspector general, Dr. Anita Everett.

She has worked under five inspectors general.

As for me, I began experiencing a closed communication office where leadership was no longer willing to listen to concerns or issues and became less tolerant of any questions regarding practices or procedures, Hill wrote in a statement to The Times-Dispatch when asked why she took part in filing the complaint.

Efforts to try and problem-solve issues through basic communication was discouraged and in some cases ordered not to occur, Hill said.

Virginia law protects state government employees who witness or have evidence of abuse or wrongdoing from retaliation. Workers who report the information under the Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act may not be discharged, threatened or otherwise discriminated against for alerting authorities to suspected wrongdoing.

The inspector general is Virginias top watchdog, responsible for ferreting waste, fraud and abuse in state government. Its behavioral health and developmental services division, overseen by Priscilla Smith, is charged with investigating complaints of abuse, neglect or inadequate care at facilities for people with mental illness, drug addiction or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The offices investigation into Mitchells death at Hampton Roads Regional Jail was roundly criticized by state lawmakers, mental health advocates and civil rights organizations because it did not answer the cases central questions. The inspector generals office has said its investigation, which was completed in April, was hamstrung by statutes that prevented it from gathering information from the jail.

Hill, White and Thomas said in their complaint that 80 percent of the investigation was completed from behind a desk rather than from site visits and one-on-one interviews with employees of the agencies responsible for Mitchells case.

Mitchell, who was arrested after allegedly stealing $5 in snack food from a convenience store near his home, lost 46 pounds over 101 days at the jail. The mentally ill 24-year-old died of extreme weight loss and heart problems, according to the medical examiner.

The inspector generals office didnt address in its report how Mitchell was allowed to lose so much weight under near-constant supervision and why no one intervened on his behalf sooner.

Mitchell was supposed to be transferred to a state mental hospital for treatment, but he was never added to a waiting list because of clerical errors.

It has been our experience that the vast majority of public employees want to do the best job they can, including doing the right thing by speaking with OSIG reviewers or investigators while we are on-site, Hill, Thomas and White wrote in their complaint. By failing to go to the facilities during the course of the seven-month review/investigation of the Mitchell case, the OSIG missed a critical opportunity to hear from concerned staff that may have wanted desperately to share concerns of inadequate care and possibly abuse and/or neglect.

They continued: Without the benefit of wide exposure to staff and source documents, Ms. Smith and the office were left with only the facility/programs version of what occurred, which in the Mitchell case, both the jail and NaphCare denies doing anything wrong.

NaphCare is the private company that contracted with the jail to provide medical and mental health care at the time Mitchell was housed there. The company no longer holds the contract.

During a hearing on April 19 by the Joint Subcommittee Studying Mental Health Services in the Commonwealth in the 21st Century, lawmakers asked Jennings and Smith whether site visits had taken place. They told committee members that an investigator had visited the jail. While that occurred, Hill, White and Thomas said Jennings and Smith should have disclosed to the committee that site visits and interviews were not conducted at the other agencies that were responsible for handling Mitchells case.

The failure to disclose the use of the desk review approach to the members of the joint subcommittee reflects the disingenuousness of the comments made by Ms. Jennings and Ms. Smith, they wrote. We believe that the lack of detail and specificity in the OSIG report on J. Mitchell is a direct result of this approach and a deliberate attempt to mislead the joint committee and the public of the investigations failings.

Smith initiated the use of desk reviews by investigators in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the letter. Hill, White and Thomas said they know of at least seven complaints about critical incident reviews completed from behind desks between December 2015 and April 2016.

Soon after the inspector generals report on Mitchell was released, The Times-Dispatch submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the dates and locations of any site visits and the names of anyone interviewed by the office as part of the investigation.

The office declined to release the information.

Hill said the whistleblowers also believe the Mitchell report was substandard because the inspector generals office lacked a medical professional to review the quality of medical and mental health care Mitchell received at the jail.

From 1999 to 2014, the inspector generals office for behavioral health and developmental services employed a psychiatrist/internist who had the licensed authority to review medical care in critical incident and death investigations, Hill said.

From 2014 to July 1, the office did not employ anyone in that capacity, she said.

Ms. Smith, as (a registered nurse) and on-site investigator, could not make a professional judgment about the care Mr. Mitchell received by any other professional classification than nursing, which we maintain is the chief reason for the poverty of information in the report, Hill wrote. This risk-averse approach was necessary because the SIG did not fulfill her obligations as outlined in state code to hire the necessary staff/consultants to effectively meet her mandated duties and responsibilities.

Other allegations in the complaint include the mishandling of Freedom of Information Act requests, violations of federal privacy laws and potential conflicts of interest.

In one case, Hill, White and Thomas provide emails showing former Washington Post reporter and prominent mental health blogger Pete Earley was denied information that, by law, should have been provided.

Earley wanted to know why reports from a former inspector general over behavioral health, G. Douglas Bevelacqua, were no longer available online. The reports had been critical of the state during the investigation into the breakdown of emergency psychiatric care for the mentally ill son of state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds.

Earley first was told by the Office of the State Inspector General that the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services removed the reports. But the department told Earley that Jennings, the inspector general, decided to remove them.

He filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Jennings office, attempting to figure out exactly who ordered the reports removal. He asked for correspondence relating to the decision, but was told none existed.

Hill, Thomas and White provide copies of internal emails showing Jennings ordered the reports to be removed and that correspondence related to the decision did, in fact, exist.

The whistleblower complaint also says the office routinely does not comply with federal regulations requiring personal health information to be protected.
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Why Marvel Comics' Daredevil: Born Again may be difficult to adapt to the MCU

Frank Miller's original comic book storyline will likely see significant changes for Marvel Studios Disney Plus version
Mission accomplished

Reminding reporters that immigration was the major matter which prompted Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness to invite him to Jamaica, Rowley said TT was able to demonstrate that the few Jamaican citizens detained in this country were being held in conditions that were legal and physical conditions that were acceptable.

He disclosed that several Jamaicans who overstayed their time in TT have been processed and repatriated.

Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dennis Moses said of 40 Jamaicans who were detained in TT, 15 have been repatriated over the last two weeks. Moses added that 20 other Jamaicans have been processed and are awaiting tickets to return to Jamaica. Indicating this and other matters were causing TT-Jamaica relations to deteriorate and if left unattended, Rowley said, could result in some very undesirable consequences for TT and Jamaica. He said consequences included affecting local manufacturers and resulting in job losses in TT, Rowley said he was pleased to report that, We left Jamaica with the understanding that this matter was now behind us. Saying persons in Jamaica who were raising these concerns are satisfied there was no basis for them.

As new prime ministers in their respective rights, Rowley said the visit was an opportunity for Holness and himself, to discuss these matters from a reset standpoint. A signed joint communique issued by the Office of the Prime Minister before the briefing said Rowley and Holness held bilateral talks on matters such as immigration and consular matters, trade, energy, air services, implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and, importantly, general strengthening of relations between the two countries. The communique said both prime ministers agreed that their discussions over the last four days had been, meaningful and illuminating. Rowley and Holness, promised to engage as often as necessary, to maintain the momentum towards cementing the bonds of friendship and cooperation vital for the advancement of their economies and the well-being of their citizens. On security, Rowley said, Our personnel will work more closely in ensuring that Jamaica knows what is happening in TT and TT knows what is happening in Jamaica.

We share all information that has the interest of securing both countries and anywhere else in the region for that matter. Rowley and Holness supported a review of the Caricom Crime and Security Services (CCSS) as well as other measures to stem criminal activities in relation to transnational organised crimes, such as money laundering, small arms and illegal narcotics.

On Caribbean Airlines (CAL), Rowley recalled that CAL acquired Air Jamaica under certain conditions. Saying on of the expectations of that acquisition was CAL would carry out certain kinds of services out of Jamaica, Rowley said, There is some thinking that we have not capitalised on that aspect of the arrangement. The Prime Minister said TT does not expect that Air Jamaica would be silent, non-participating partner in the business and anything that CAL has to do in terms of expanding its footprint, that additional responsibility will not lie solely on the shoulders of taxpayers of TT. He added opportunities for CAL can benefit TT and Jamaica. Rowley said there seems to be a bit more appetite for a regional airline where CAL becomes the regional carrier of more than one nation. He said in such a scenario, those who are going to come with us are going to carry their responsibilities. On CSME implementation in both countries, Holness indicated Jamaica has amended its legislation regarding the free movement of skilled Caricom nationals to recognise all agreed categories of workers. Rowley said categories of workers not yet provided for in this countrys existing legislation are facilitated administratively.

Hinting at the possibility of increasing the categories of workers who could be accredited under the CSME. the The Prime Minister said a managed movement of such persons would be to the benefit of the countries who desire such persons.
Speed guns in Tobago

The exercise is expected to conclude over the weekend.

Newsday understands that residents of Tobago began clamouring for the use of the speed guns following an accident which claimed the lives of two men on Sunday last.

This prompted senior officers of the Police Highway and Traffic Branch to discuss the matter and a decision was taken to despatch the six officers to the Tobago Division on Wednesday afternoon.

Officers are hoping that their presence there will encourage drivers to adhere to the 50 km per hour limit along the Claude Noel Highway.

Sources revealed that Head of the Tobago Division, Acting Senior Superintendent, Joanne Archie, will be working alongside the six officers to render assistance in terms of additional manpower for the speed exercises to be successful.

Yesterday, Senior Superintendent Baldeo Nanan, Head of the Police Highway Patrol and Traffic Branch, said it was a welcomed initiative and believes it will redound to the benefit of police officers in Tobago who will be exposed to the use of the speed guns. The speed guns were implemented in March and this has resulted in large sums being collected from fines from errant drivers. Newsday understands Government will be purchasing additional speed guns to use throughout Trinidad and Tobago before the end of the year. There are currently six speed guns being used by police officers in Trinidad.
Dead fish may have been dumped

A joint media release issued by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) and Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), confirmed that 99 percent of the dead fish observed were herrings (bait fish) approximately four inches in length and other species included mullet and blinch.

According to the IMA: (The) herrings appeared to have bruises (red marks) along the body. The position of these red marks was variable and in some cases these red marks were accompanied by net impressions / markings. Yesterday representatives of the EMAs Emergency Response and Investigations (ERI) Unit as well as Fisheries Biologist Dr Farahnaz Solomon, of the IMA, conducted a site visit (by boat) to Mosquito Creek, in the Gulf of Paria, and environs to investigate reports of a fish kill.

The highest concentrations (hundreds) were observed off Mosquito Creek and at the mouth of the Godineau River. The release further stated that all specimens were in a moderate to advanced state of decomposition.

No dying fish were observed indicating that this is not an on-going event, it added.

The release stated: Fishermen interviewed indicated that herring/ bait fish was currently being caught in the area.

There were no visible signs of an oil spill or a red tide...

However, water and sediment samples are being collected by the EMA for testing and the results will be made available upon receipt. Hours before the media release was issued, several fishermen and fish vendors at Otaheite told Newsday that trawlers were responsible for the fish kill and there were no reasons for customers to panic.

A boat owner and vendor who asked to remain anonymous on the basis that he has friends in the Sando area explained: What happened is that they hold (sic) plenty fishes because as the rain falls, more herrings come out. But the market was slow and they sold a certain amount. The balance, which they did not ice knowing they will catch more, they threw it away. The boat owner added that there were about ten boats trawlers.

Fish vendor, Vijay Cyril, noted that due to media reports about the fish kill, sales were adversely affected yesterday.

Additionally, he is unsure what will happen to an estimated 1000 pounds of fish he had purchased prior to the reports.

What are we going to do with those fish when they are telling people do not buy from Otaheite? We dont know what caused it. Nobody is buying. Two days now the fish are being iced down and we are not getting any sales for them. We buy fish from all over and we are losing out, Cyril said.

President of the Otaheite Vendors Association, Clement Charles, insisted that were no dead herrings on the beach at Otaheite. He emphasised that fish being sold at Otaheite is purchased from various areas among them Morne Diablo, Erin, Cedros, Moruga and the north-side.

The fish is safe to eat here and we want the general public to know that. The fish is not coming from here.

Otaheite is a shrimping port. The dead herrings are flowing along the sea but it has not reached down at Otaheite presently, Charles said. Though he was unsure as to the cause of the fish kill, Charles suggested that one possibility is some companies may have chemicals in the water.

Fish vendor Alvin John put the blame squarely on trawlers in the San Fernando area saying: Trawlers hold (sic) the fish but were unable to sell them and they let it go in the sea. I got the news this morning.

We want them to clear the air in the right and proper way. 
US: We See

No Signs

Putin Will

Use Dirty Bomb
(Newser)  Smartphones can create a quandary for journalists, humanitarians, and activists in dangerous places where they are closely monitored: The devices are vital in terms of facilitating their workand also exceptional tracking devices. It's not a plight to be taken lightly, as the Intercept makes clear with this example: A lawsuit filed by journalist Marie Colvin's family claims Syrian military intelligence used signal interception technology to trace her via her phone and bomb her makeshift media center, killing her. Whistleblower Edward Snowden, who says he hasn't been able to use a smartphone since leaking those NSA docs in 2013, intends to alter that paradigm. On Thursday he presented research via teleconference from an undisclosed location in Russia on what the Boston Globe has dubbed a "smartphone spy catcher."

As the Intercept explains, a phone's cellular, Bluetooth, wifi, and GPS radios can betray a user, and the easiest way to shut down those radiosswitch to airplane modecan be rendered useless, without the user's knowledge, by malware. Snowden's partner, hardware hacker Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, says it's best to always "assume the phone is compromised," reports Wired, and their goal is to create a device that reveals whether this is the case. Though they say a prototype (for the iPhone 6) is at least a year away, their so-called "introspection engine" will be a tiny open-source computer that looks like an external battery, affixes to a smartphone, and displays radio statuses on a screen. If a status is compromised, the pair suggest an alarm could sound; the device could potentially even then activate a "kill switch." (Read more Edward Snowden stories.)
(Newser)  Lots of things he did were stupid, but in my view, he was a sage or a seer and didnt even understand what came to him. So says wealthy Mormon David Hall about Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. Bloomberg has a fascinating deep dive into Hall's plans to build a high-tech and environmentally sound utopia in Vermont, all based on a vision Smith had in 1833. Hall believes he can use Smith's Plat of the City of Zion to revert Vermont to two-thirds wilderness and one-third occupied farmland while increasing the state's population to 20 million. Vermont is currently home to only 626,000 people.

Hall's foundation, NewVistas, aims to create global environmental balance by building a network of environmentally and socially sustainable villages, communities, and megalopolises. To that end, he's spent nearly $5 million purchasing 1,200 acres of Vermont farmland, where he one day hopes to house 20,000 people through high-tech space-saving solutions like transportation pods and furniture-rearranging robots. He says he has 150 engineers working on the project and plans for 1,000 NewVistas communities around the world. But after his plan was discovered by a part-time librarian, Hall's new neighbors in Vermont have started to organize against him. Were really not that interested in what religious figures 200 years ago thought about urban development, a local professor says. Read the full story here. (Read more Utopias stories.)
(Newser)  The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will be suspended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the ministers of the three countries conducting the operation announced Friday, possibly ending all hopes of solving aviation's greatest mystery. In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia, and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-square-kilometer (46,300-square-mile) search area," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts, the AP reports. He said the current search is being hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, but it will still end by December.

The minister said suspension of the search does not mean an end to it. "Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," he said, reading from a joint statement. But it was clear that the searchers have given up hope of finding the jetliner with less than 3,900 square miles left to be searched. In their statement, the ministers acknowledged that "the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading." As Liow and the other two ministers were addressing the news conference, representatives of the passengers' families stood outside the building holding placards. "Find the plane, ease our pain," read one sign. (The search may have been in the wrong place.)
(Newser)  Ten-year-old Jesse Wilson may have slipped out of his bedroom window sometime after 9:30pm Sunday. It wouldn't be the first time. "My son has either gone out the window, which he has done before," mom Crystal Wilson told Arizona dispatchers when she found his bed empty early Monday morning, per ABC15. "Or gone out the back door." Neighbors say they occasionally saw Jesse walking around Buckeye late at nightbut no one has seen him for four days and he's never been gone so long. "No one is mad at you  I just miss your loving, caring, sweet ways," Wilson tearfully pleaded into a TV camera Thursday after police and volunteers searched nearby desert and parks to no avail, per the Arizona Republic. "Your sister and your brother love you so much. I love you so much," she added, per KPHO.

The circumstances around Jesse's disappearance aren't clear: One volunteer says she "question[s] the whole story," noting Wilson called the local Buckeye Police Department rather than 911 when she found her son was missing, and she initially didn't want a photo of Jesse circulated. Sources say policewho say they aren't ruling out foul playwere spotted removing bags of evidence from the Wilson home on Thursday. Caution tape was also spotted there, reports 12 News, adding Jesse's mom was questioned Wednesday and could be questioned again. Also on Thursday, police called off a volunteer search after several people showed symptoms of heatstroke. Officers say they'll continue searching Friday, with help from a helicopter; drones have also been used in the search. (Read more missing child stories.)
(Newser)  After graduating from San Diego State University in May, Gholamrez "Reza" Shahini, known to most as Robin, headed to Iran to visit his mom and other family. But the 46-year-old San Diego man hasn't been heard from in more than 10 days, and friends and family back in the States fear the US citizen may have been detained by Iranian authorities for his vocal online criticism of his native country's human rights record, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. "He just disappeared off the face of the planet," says friend Denera Ragoonanan. A woman who says she's Shahini's girlfriend, requesting anonymity to protect her own family in Iran, tells the AP Shahini's sister told her intelligence agents came to their mother's home on July 11 and whisked him away.

The last post on the Facebook page he keeps in Farsi was dated July 11; another FB page the Union-Tribune says he maintained in English has since become inaccessible. Shahini left Iran in 1998, lived in Germany for a short time, and then moved to San Diego, which he's called home for 16 years. With a degree in international security and conflict resolution under his belt, he was set to begin an SDSU master's program in homeland security in the fall. "His passion involves peace and justice, human rights," his girlfriend tells the AP, and Ragoonanan notes that's what she and others believe may have got him into trouble overseas. "Robin has been known for his advocacy of human rights on social media," she wrote Tuesday in a Facebook post. "This advocacy, unfortunately, has not sat well with the Iranian government." (Read more Iran stories.)
(Newser)  Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said Friday that he's running for the US Senate in Louisiana, the AP reports. A registered Republican, he will be seeking an open seat being vacated by Republican David Vitter, who has decided not to run for re-election on the Nov. 8 ballot; nearly two dozen candidates have signed up for the race. "I'm proud to announce my candidacy for the United States Senate," Duke said in a video. "I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans. However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans." Duke's announcement came as the state is grappling with deep racial tensions after the shooting death of a black man by white police officers and the killing of three law enforcement officers by a black man.

The white supremacist is a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 2002 to bilking his supporters and cheating on his taxes. Duke spent a year in federal prison. He's a former state representative who represented suburban New Orleans for one term more than two decades ago and was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. His failed bid for governor in 1991 against former Gov. Edwin Edwards was one of Louisiana's most high-profile elections, with Duke opponents proudly showing bumper stickers supporting Edwards that read "Vote for the crook. It's important." On his website, Duke posts he'd been "urged by enormous numbers of people" to run. "With the country coming apart at the seams and no one willing to really speak the truth about what is happening, the majority population in this country needs someone who will actually give voice to their interests." (Read more David Duke stories.)
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United Nations:

The first six months of this year have continued to shatter global heat records, putting 2016 on track to be the Earths hottest year on record, the World Meteorological Organisation said today.

The United Nations-linked body said in a report that June 2016 was the 14th consecutive month of record heat around the planet and the 378th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th Century average.

The organisation said that global warming causing carbon dioxide concentrations, so far this year, have surpassed the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere.

Another month, another record. And another. And another. Decades-long trends of climate change are reaching new climaxes, fuelled by the strong 2015/2016 El Nino, said World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

This underlines more starkly than ever the need to approve and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The report found that heat has resulted in very early onset of seasonal melting of major ice sheets with Arctic Sea ice now covering about 40 per cent less area during the summer melt season than it did in the 1970s.

The heat conditions played havoc with weather conditions with many regions including the United States experiencing drier than normal conditions, while China, central Europe and much of Australia experienced wetter than usual weather.

The increased heat also resulted in widespread bleaching of coral reefs around world, threatening marine ecosystems, the report said.

According to NASA figures cited in the report, the first half of 2016 was on average 2.4 degrees (1.3 C) warmer than in the late 19th Century, prior to industrialization.

The first six months of this year have continued to shatter global heat records, putting 2016 on track to be the Earth's hottest year on record, the World Meteorological Organisation said today. The United Nations-linked body said in a report that June 2016 was the 14th consecutive month of record heat around the planet and the 378th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th Century average. The organisation said that global warming causing carbon dioxide concentrations, so far this year, have surpassed the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere. "Another month, another record. And another. And another. Decades-long trends of climate change are reaching new climaxes, fuelled by the strong 2015/2016 El Nino," said World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. "This underlines more starkly than ever the need to approve and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change." The report found that heat has resulted in very early onset of seasonal melting of major ice sheets with Arctic Sea ice now covering about 40 per cent less area during the summer melt season than it did in the 1970s. The heat conditions played havoc with weather conditions with many regions including the United States experiencing drier than normal conditions, while China, central Europe and much of Australia experienced wetter than usual weather. The increased heat also resulted in widespread bleaching of coral reefs around world, threatening marine ecosystems, the report said. According to NASA figures cited in the report, the first half of 2016 was on average 2.4 degrees (1.3 C) warmer than in the late 19th Century, prior to industrialization.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Rio de Janeiro:

Brazilian police arrested 10 people who allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group on social media and discussed possible attacks during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, officials said. Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said in the capital, Brasilia, that 10 suspects had been detained and two more were being sought. All are Brazilian, and one is a minor. The gender of the people was not given.

Police acted because the group discussed using weapons and guerrilla tactics to potentially launch an attack during the Olympics, which begin August 5, Moraes said.

However they were complete amateurs and ill-prepared to actually launch at attack, Moraes said. A few days ago they said they should start practicing martial arts, for example. Still, Moraes said even disorganised groups should be taken seriously.

The arrests were made in 10 different states, including Sao Paulo and Parana in the southern part of the country, and it was not clear whether the suspects knew each other beyond their online contacts. Moraes said there were no specific targets for an attack.

Moraes said they had all been baptised as Islamic State sympathisers online and that none had actually travelled to Syria or Iraq, the groups stronghold, or received any training. Several were allegedly trying to secure financing from the group, known by the acronym ISIS.

The justice minister added that one of the suspects communicated with a Brazilian store in an alleged attempt to by an AK-47 assault rifle, apparently the most concrete action taken toward a possible attack.

Last week the top military aide for Brazils interim government said concerns over terrorism had reached a higher level after the attack in Nice, France.

Security has emerged as the top concern during the Olympics, including violence possibly spilling over from Rios hundreds of slums. Authorities have said they will be prepared and that some 85,000 police and soldiers will be patrolling during the competitions.
New Delhi :

World population day came and went for all, but not for Quantum Global Campus. The Institute situated in Uttarakhand didnt celebrate the World Population day but a week. Keeping in view the urgency and importance of the issues pleading to be attended, the institute took initiative by organizing different events on 11th and 14thJuly respectively revolving around the theme of Investing In Teenage Girls.

In 1989, the governing council of UNDP recommended that 11th July every year be observed as World Population Day. In 1987, world population turned out to be 5 billion. The theme for 2016 is apt as girls today face enormous problems. Many parents consider them ready for marriage and motherhood; many are forced to give up their pursuit of education thus damaging their future prospects.

Social problems like these should be eliminated from the society, only then India would be able to develop completely, said Ajay Goyal, Chairman of Quantum Global Campus, while addressing the students on the opening of campaign.

The enthusiastic street play performed by the students highlighted a number of problems that work hand in hand with over population. It also showcased the other social evils including corruption, lack of food in family, financial problems, educational rights among others.

The drive let the students go out and talk to the people of nearby villages; informing them about the social menaces and thus, fulfilling the motive of the campaign.
Rajkot :

Terming the BJP government in Gujarat as anti-Dalit, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused the state administration of colluding in the incident of attack on dalit men by cow vigilantes as he met the victims and their families.

The Aam Aadmi Party Chief claimed that it was not an isolated incident and atrocities on dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be taught a lesson by members of all communities if it does not end its oppression.

The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police...it means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is the police silent? Why is it involved? This means there is some direction from the top administration, Kejriwal told reporters after visiting the victims of the July 11 incident at Rajkot civil hospital.

The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, (it) is anti-Dalit, alleged Kejriwal whose visit cames a day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi meet the victims. Two days back, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had also visited the place.

The Delhi Chief Minister also questioned the state governments intent to carry out an unbiased investigation into the matter.

The AAP national convener said only 17 persons have been arrested when about 40-50 people were allegedly involved in the July 11 incident, and pointed out that no charge sheet has yet been filed in the 2012 killing of Dalits by police at Thangadh in Surendranagar district. Three Dalits were killed in the police firing in 2012.

People apprehend that the arrests could be an eyewash and the accused may be allowed to go scot-free later, Kejriwal said. Kejriwal also stoked a controversy when he met Dalit youth Kanti Mulji Vala, arrested for the murder of head constable Pankaj Amrelia, at the Rajkot civil hospital where he is admitted.

Asked why he meet a murder accused, the Delhi CM said he will also meet the family members of the constable at Amreli.

He said those who attempted suicide told him that atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day in Gujarat.

I asked them why they are committing suicide. They said atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day. Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together, he stressed.

He demanded compensation and government jobs for the victims and the youths who had attempted suicide.

Kejriwal also pressed for swift action against all the accused.

I have been told that false cases are being lodged against the (dalit) youths who are agitating by the authorities as they did during the peaceful Patidar quota agitation, Kejriwal claimed.

After meeting the victims of the beating incident and people who attempted suicide during the protest, Kejriwal will also visit the victims families at Mota Samadhiyala village, where the incident of brutal assault on Dalits for skinning a dead cow took place on July 11.

The thrashing incident had sparked a statewide protest by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.

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Srinagar:

The death toll in the unrest in Kashmir rose to 44 with a youth, injured in clashes a few days ago, succumbing today, even as curfew remained in force in all 10 districts of the Valley due to apprehension of law and order problems in view of large gatherings for Friday prayers.

Ishtiyaq Ahmad, injured in clashes at Kokernag area of Anantnag district, died at SKIMS hospital, Soura this morning.

The death toll in the clashes between protesters and security, which erupted following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8, has climbed to 44.

Although no incident of violence was reported yesterday, authorities clamped curfew in all 10 districts of Kashmir as a precautionary measure today, a police official said.

Large gatherings are expected during Friday prayers which usually turn into violent protests, the official said.

Authorities had eased curfew in four districts Baramulla, Bandipora, Budgam and Ganderbalyesterday to facilitate reopening of schools.

However, most of the schools in these districts remained closed as parents chose not to send their wards due to security apprehensions.

Mobile telephony and mobile internet services remained suspended for the 14th day today. Normal life remains paralysed for two weeks now due to curfew and a separatist-sponsored strike.

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New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Friday, booked former CM of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Associated Journal Limited (AJL) officials and publisher.

Sources in the ED said that Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others were booked under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a disproportionate land allotment case.

When Hooda was the CM, he allocated the land to Associated Journal Ltd in Panchkula allegedly by breaking rules.

The vigilance Bureau had registered a case of cheating and corruption against Hooda and four officials who were in HUDA for allegedly re-alloting a plot to AJL in Panchkula in 2005. They said summons will soon be issued to the accused named in the ED FIR.

Hooda termed the action as "political vendetta" and said there was no wrong doing. The vigilance case that was registered under various IPC sections, including criminal breach of trust by a public servant, cheating, criminal conspiracy and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, was registeredagainst Hooda, the then Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) chairman, an ex-officio post held by him as the CM, and four other top officials of HUDA on May 5 this year.

The plot had been initially allotted to AJL in 1982. After the expiry of the lease period in 1996, then Haryana Vikas Party goverment led by Bansi Lal took back its possession.It was re-allotted to AJL after the Congress leader came to power in 2005.

The Vigilance Bureau had alleged that the act by the then HUDA chairman and the officials had caused a huge financial loss to HUDA as the plot should have been sold through open auction instead of being alloted again to AJL.

A separate FIR had been lodged in December last year by the state vigilance bureau against Hooda as the then chairman and chief administrator of HUDA for alleged irregularities in allotment of industrial plots in Panchkula three years ago. Hooda had then said that no rules had been violated in the allotment.

Opposition parties in Haryana had sought registration of a criminal case in the matter for alleged illegal re-allotment of land in Panchkula from the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government.

(with PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

After series of private discussions the first straw poll was held by the UN Security Council for the first time on candidates vying to become the next UN Secretary General.

The UN Security Council held its first straw poll on candidates vying to become the next UN Secretary-General after a series of private discussions with them but made no announcement of the results.

After the secret balloting, Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, which holds the UNSC's presidency for July, yesterday said "each candidate would be informed of the results through his or her country's permanent representative to the UN." He noted that he had informed that the President of the UN General Assembly that the vote had taken place.

He said the straw poll is "an indicative vote to inform the candidates where they stand in the race, and to inform the Council members how the race might go from here." The straw poll followed a series of closed-door meetings in which each of the 12 candidates, who have been nominated by their governments, was introduced to the Council members. The current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, is the eighth occupant of the post in the Organisation's 70-year history.

He took office in January 2007 and will be ending his 10-year tenure on December 31, 2016. Under the UN Charter, the Organisation's top official is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation ofthe Council. The election process for UN Secretary General has been unprecedented this year with the General Assembly taking a more active role in the selection process, aiming to make it more transparent and inclusive.

For the first time in history, the candidates were asked to submit their resumes and to take part in informal briefings with the Assembly. Along with the informal hearings, the UN last Tuesday held its first-ever globally televised and webcast townhall- style debate in the General Assembly Hall, where 10 of the 12 confirmed candidates took questions from diplomats and the public at large.

The two candidates unable to come to New Yorkwere invited to send video messages to be used in the event. Bessho said this is the first time the Council had held such informal meetings with each of the candidates for the next UN chief. The Council met three candidates in June and the rest in July. He has said that the results of the polls would not be made public. "We would like to make sure that the fairness and confidentiality of voting is respected," he said.

As for the date for the second round of the poll, he said no decision has been made. There is no definitive deadline for announcing candidacy, but anyone considering throwing the hat in the ring should come forward as soon as possible, he added. Since 1946, the Council has discussed and voted behind closed doors in straw polls for members to "encourage" or "discourage" a candidate to continue. These straw polls continue until there is a majority candidate without a single veto from a permanent member. That name is then officially transferred to the Assembly, whose membership historically chooses the candidate.

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Srinagar:

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti visited Anantnag to offer condolences to the families of youths, killed during protests in the twin districts of Anantnag and Kulgam. Expressing grief and anguish over the loss of lives, especially youths she assured every possible help to the affected families.

She said it was painful to note that these children, who have become the victims of the senseless violence belong to the poorest of the poor families. Mehbooba interacted with the parents of the deceased youths and said she is pained to see the trauma they are undergoing due to the loss of their near and dear ones.

The Chief Minister said while certain quarters are only interested in playing politics over the dead bodies of the youth, it is the family members of these slain youths who have to live with the pain forever.Ironically, it is only the parents and other immediate family members of these ill-fated youths who will have to live with the life-long trauma of losing their near and dear ones to this senseless violence, she said.

While hundreds and thousands of people may be attending the funerals of the slain youth, tell me how many of these people then bother to visit these anguished families to help them out of difficult circumstances, she said. Mehbooba said the government is, however, alive to the abject condition of such distressed families.

We will try to work out a mechanism to ensure a secure and dignified living for the kith and kin of the victims of violence so that their families dont have to run from pillar to post to live a normal life, she said.

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Jeddah:

Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, under fire for allegedly inspiring one of the terrorists involved in the recent Dhaka attack, has open up about what he feels about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Islamic State.



Naik said that the news that one of the attackers was his follower was first published in a Bangladeshi newspaper on July 3 and then in the Indian media on July 4.



It is totally wrong. The paper later clarified but the Indian media ran a trial against me, he was quoted as saying by the Times of India.



Naik hailed Modi saying he is the only PM of India who has visited so many Muslim countries in just two years. Naik said this will strengthen relations between India and other Muslim countries.



If his (Modi's) intention is to maintain unity between Hindus and Muslims and between India and other Muslim countries, I am totally for him," he told the leading national daily in an interview.



Hinduism is a major religion of the world and India has a high Muslim population. So if the PM reaches out to Muslim countries, it is good. It will help bring investments to India. If all these countries get together, India would become a superpower. India was a superpower in the past and will attain that stature again, he said.

He also shared his views on the Islamic State, saying, Jihad means to strive and struggle to make the society better. It also stands for self-defence. But the Indian media has hyped jihad. Besides non-Muslims, it is misunderstood even by Muslims.



IS is killing innocent people which, according to the Quran, is a sin against humanity. I call them anti-Islam state. They have given a wrong meaning to Islam. If someone killed Muslims in Gujarat that does not justify killing innocent Hindus in Mumbai.

Refuting claims that he forced Hindus to embrace Islam, he said that he was proud to be an Indian and an Indian Muslim.

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New Delhi:

AAP MP Bhagwant Mann was under attack not only for making video of Parliament but also alleged drinking, with the suspended member of his party and MP Harinder Singh Khalsa complaining to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan about it today. Khalsa wrote to the Speaker, requesting her that his seat in the Lok Sabha be changed as Mann, who sits next to him, stinks of alcohol.



Both Mann and Khalsa were elected on AAP tickets but the latter was suspended from the party over a year back. Khalsa, Lok Sabha member from Fatehgarh Sahib, has seat number 495 allotted to him in the House while Manns seat number is 496. He wrote to the Speaker that he gets stink of alcohol everyday from the next seat.



I am a practising Sikh who comes to Parliament after offering prayers and there I get the stink, said the 69-year-old MP. He said the Speaker has assured him that his seat will be changed.



Mahajan, when asked by reporters about the issue, acknowledged receipt of Khalsas letter. Mann has already courted controversy for making a video of his route and entry to Parliament, giving details of the security arrangements. Several parties, including Akali Dal, BJP and Shiv Sena, are demanding stern action against him.

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New Delhi:

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to visit Tambaram air base near Chennai tomorrow after an AN 32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force went missing with 29 personnel on board.



Parrikar, who was briefed by IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, will get a detailed briefing on the search and rescue operations being undertaken by the Navy, Air Force and the Coast Guard, official sources said.



The aircraft went missing over the Bay of Bengal on its way from near Chennai to Port Blair, raising concern over its fate.



The massive search operation has been launched for tracking the upgraded plane which made the last radio contact at 0846 hours, 16 minutes after take off from Tambaram air base.

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Ukrainian linguist keen to translate Chinese books

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-07-22 09:22

Iryna Yaremchuk (left) attends a program in Beijing for young Sinologists organized by the Culture Ministry. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Iryna Yaremchuk is in Beijing on a visiting program for young Sinologists that has been organized by the Culture Ministry and the think tank Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"It's a very good chance to meet Sinologists from different countries. We know our problems and learn from each other during such exchanges," says the 36-year-old Ukrainian linguist.

The program, which began on July 3 and ends on Friday, aims to assist foreign Sinologists with their research work as well as let them experience Chinese culture.

It also includes lectures by well-known Chinese scholars such as Liu Xinwu.

Yaremchuk, who has been studying Chinese culture, history and literature, says she was intrigued by Liu's talk, which focused on the Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions.

"The book is very interesting, and I really like his (Liu's) way of explaining culture," she says, adding that Liu helped her appreciate the traditional culture depicted in the book.

Yaremchuk, who teaches Persian and Ukrainian languages at the Ivan Franko Lviv State University in Ukraine, says her dream is to become a translator of Chinese literary works for readers back home.

She chose translation of Chinese literature as her project for the visiting program, partnering with the Beijing Language and Culture University for research.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

"I am eager to improve my Chinese so that I can translate independently," says Yaremchuk, who developed an interest in translation after working with Chinese students in her university.

She also found that only a few Chinese books had been directly translated into the East Slavic language. Instead, most were translated from Russian.

Yaremchuk says that she liked kung fu movies since a young age but found it hard to get a Chinese teacher in Lviv where she grew up.

In 2013, a teacher was sent from China to teach Chinese in her university by the Chinese Language Council International, a nonprofit affiliated to the Education Ministry. Yaremchuk joined the classes until they were stopped following the teacher's return to China in 2014.

Her university has had a long history of Sinology, Yaremchuk says. Chinese was taught there in the 1950s.

But the teaching of Chinese language stopped for various reasons and wasn't restored until recently.

A breakthrough was made in 2015, when the university started a major with focus on both Ukrainian and Chinese languages. Now that stream has 13 students.

While the university has applied for more Chinese teachers from the language council, Yaremchuk has volunteered to teach Chinese there.

She developed an interest in Chinese calligraphy after she spent a month in Shenyang last year.

Yaremchuk says cultural exchanges between China and Ukraine have increased in recent years. She recalls how local audiences were thrilled by a kung fu performance in Lviv earlier this year. It was staged by a martial arts school from Central China's Henan province and was organized by the Chinese embassy in Kiev and a cultural agency.

She is excited that her university and Beijing Foreign Studies University will be cooperating on research in culture.
Sinologists share their experiences

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-07-22 15:48

Sinologists pose for a photo at the end of the Xidi village tour, July 18, 2016. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

The 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists concluded on July 22, with a closing ceremony attended by Minister of Culture Luo Shugang and deputy dean of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Cai Fang.

During the past 20 days, 31 Sinologists from 26 countries conducted research and studied at several institutes in Beijing and travelled to Anhui province to study local culture and history.

Hosted by the China Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the program aims to provide a platform for young Sinologists to better understand China and meet scholars in the same areas.

Let's hear what some of the Sinologists have to say about what they learnt from the program.

Hannes Dekeyser attends a lecture in Beijing during the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

Hannes Dekeyser (Belgium), programme Coordinator, European Institute for Asian Studies

"During the program, I got access to Tsinghua University. If I go there independently, it won't be very easy for me to knock on the door of famous professors like Hu Angang, and have a personal conversation. Another benefit from the trip for me was that I was able to meet people all around the world working on the similar issue. And it is good that Sinologists from the trip can exchange views and have different perspectives of China. Anhui, for foreign tourists, is less known than other parts of China, but I think it is something that should and could be visited more. I had a short but very positive impression. It's nice in the trip to meet people who have initial focus on Chinese language and culture, because they show to me that it is interesting, important and valuable to master the language."

Lieu Linh Chuyen poses for a photo at the Mount Huangshan scenic spot in East China's Anhui province, July 19, 2016.[Photo by Jiang Wanjuan/Chinaculture.org]

"The program is very well organized. We had lectures, visited museums and tried local food, including Peking Duck. I especially enjoyed the lectures, because they were taught by very high-profile Chinese professors, such as Zhang Bo and Cao Wen. I had read a lot about them in Vietnam, but it was very different experience to listen to their lectures in person. We discussed lexicology, linguistics and Sinology. I think it was their rich experience that made the lessons very clear and interesting. During the lectures, we had Sinologists from different countries attending, so we could also learn from each other and exchange our experiences in studying and teaching Chinese. After English, Chinese is the second language that most college students in Vietnam select. As more Vietnamese learn Chinese, it is also important for us to improve our knowledge of China."

Kanlaya Khaowbanpaew takes notes during a lecture by Professor Hu Angang on China's 13th Five Year Plan, July 4, 2016. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

"The lectures we attended at the beginning were very informative and useful. I especially liked the lectures on China-US relations and China's 13th Five Year Plan. I am a Chinese language teacher. During the class, we not only study the language, but also talk about the latest happenings and policies in China. So I feel that being involved in this program will greatly help my professional life after I go back home. During the trip in Anhui, I climbed the Huang Mountain. Since we don't have such high mountains in Thailand, I was very impressed. It is so beautiful that I felt like I was in heaven. "

Muditha Kumari Karunasinghe visits a museum during the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

"This was really a good opportunity and I had very rich experience in Beijing and Anhui province, about the culture, the people and the food. I am very impressed by the culture in Anhui province. Before the trip, we also had lectures and practical experiences at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It is really an experience to have practical practices and lectures combined in such an intensive trip."

Kalyan Raj Sharma visits the Mount Huangshan scenic spot in East China's Anhui province, July 19, 2016.[Photo by Jiang Wanjuan/Chinaculture.org]

"From the program, I learnt a lot of things that I wasn't aware of and didn't know about before about China. During the trip to Anhui, we visited Xidi village and Hongcun village. The ancient villages are beautiful and the best thing is the offsprings of the owners of the old houses are still living there. So we can say that the history of the villages is still alive, and will be carried on by the young people. On the academic side, it was a good opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with so many sinologists at one time."

Nadia Helmy attends a lecture in Beijing during the 2016 Visiting Program for Young Sinologists. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

"Because I am an academic, the best thing I liked about the trip was that I was able to study at Tsinghua University, and get so close to the Chinese educational system. By October, each of us will need to submit a paper about anything that's related to China, and I chose to write about Chinese Dream. I know the slogan was brought out by Chinese President Xi Jinpingand I saw that all the time from Chinese media. China is now one of the biggest and best countries in economics, and Egypt follows China and supports China."
Obama administration is ignoring evidence that Iran is buying nuclear and missile materials

(NationalSecurity.news) The White House is brushing aside new evidence from German intelligence reports that indicate Iran is speeding up efforts to obtain key nuclear materials, despite the accord signed with the U.S. and other nations last year, a U.S. official told the Washington Free Beacon.

In a recent report Germanys internal intelligence agency concluded that sources have witnessed extensive Iranian attempts to acquire illicit materials, especially goods that can be used in the field of nuclear technology, according to the report.

The report appears to indicate that Iran is not living up to its pledges made in the Obama administration-initiated nuclear agreement signed last summer.

In recent days German Chancellor Angela Merkel was clear hat the intelligence shows Iran continued unabated to develop its rocket program in conflict with the relevant provisions of the UN Security Council, especially a Security Council resolution that bans Iran from pursuing ballistic missile technology.

The intel report and subsequent warnings were greeted with a underwhelming response from the Obama White House, which refused to comment on the report. Instead, the administration told the Free Beacon that it continues to view Iran as being in compliance with the nuclear accord.

The administrations refusal to acknowledge the contents of the German intelligence report is in contrast to comments made by a number of lawmakers who view it as proof that Tehran is violating the international accords.

In comments to the Free Beacon, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the White House is choosing to ignore mounting evidence of Irans alleged cheating.

The Obama Administration cant ignore the sheer weight of evidence showing Iran isnt upholding its side of the bargain, McCarthy said. From illicit procurement for its nuclear program to testing ballistic missiles, Iran is showing that it had no intention of ever following international agreements, even ones that granted them enormous concessions.

The administrations decision to continue implementing the deal and ignore Irans actions isnt just delusional, its dangerous, he went onto to say. Iran must be stopped, which is why we need the sanctions legislation we are voting on this week.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), a member of the House intelligence committee, also said Irans behavior indicates that it is not faithfully abiding by the nuclear deal, the Free Beacon noted.

The latest German intelligence report on Irans efforts to secure nuclear and missile technology and material is extremely troubling, Pompeo told the web site. While the Obama administration deletes public videos and alters transcripts related to the nuclear deal, at least our allies are speaking out on the threat from Irans nuclear program.

The German intelligence reports naming of more than 1,000 associates of Iranian-backed terrorist groups that are living in Germany should serve as a wake-up call to the U.S. and other European countries who are prefer to ignore Tehrans active support for entities like Hezbollah and Hamas, Pompeo said.

Other congressional officials familiar with the Iran deal said that Irans activities have forced the administration to walk back certain previously-made claims.

The administration isnt even sure what to say any more. Sometimes they say that the nuclear deal is so weak Iran cant violate it even if it illegally imports nuclear technology, a senior congressional adviser who works closely on the Iran portfolio told the WFB. Other times they say the nuclear deal is really strong, and they just ignore what even they admit are violations, like when Iran accumulated more heavy water than allowed a few months ago.

Just days ago the Jerusalem Post reported that had sought chemical and biological weapons technology in Germany.

The vast scale of the Islamic Republics network to obtain nuclear and missile technology goes beyond what was disclosed in recent German intelligence reports released recently, the Post reported.

The German state of Saarland wrote in its 2015 intelligence report released last month that so-called danger states, for example, Iran and North Korea, make efforts to obtain technology for atomic, biological or chemical weapons. Iran also seeks missile delivery systems as well as goods and know-how for proliferation.

Also, the Post noted, according to the intelligence report from Rhineland-Palatinate state, which was released in June, Iran was one of the foreign countries that targeted German companies in the state whose equipment could be implemented for atomic, biological and chemical weapons in a war.

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TRUMBULL  For nearly 20 years, Italian dishes at Marisas Ristorante were staples in town. Now, Attilio Marini hopes his thick, flavorful steaks become just as popular.

Recently, Marisas, which opened in Bridgeport in 1988 and moved to Trumbull in 1997, served its final meal. As of two weeks ago, it was transformed into Attilios dream  the Cast Iron Chop House.

Growing up in the restaurant business, Marini developed a passion for steaks and envisioned owning a steakhouse one day. But it wasnt until his mother, Marisas Ristorante owner Marisa Marini, was ready to let her son take over the family business that he was able to make that vision come true.

Shes kind of passed the skillet to me, Marini said.

His younger brother, Mario Marini, who also works in the restaurant, said it was no surprise that Attilio would be the one to take over the family business.

Hes been constantly coming up with dishes, since he was like 17 years old, Mario Marini said. He would experiment at home and the next thing you know it was on the menu.

The brothers said their mother will remain active in the business, continuing to make her homemade desserts and sauces. But Cast Iron Chop House is definitely a reflection of Attilio Marinis tastes, the family says.

Im able to finally express myself with the changes, he said.

Although the inside of the restaurant has only seen a coat of paint and other minor renovations, the menu is now focused on meats cooked in a cast iron skillet, with some popular Italian dishes remaining.

The Italian takes a backseat to the meats, said Attilio Marini. Before, the meats took a backseat to the Italian. Weve just reversed the roles.

He said every meat continues to be cut and prepared on site.

The only thing we dont do here is slaughter the cow, said Dan Solustri, who manages the front of the house. In the kitchen, its Attilio Marini who is in charge.

From the popcorn treat that arrives at every table at the start of the visit, to the meals, most cooked and served on the cast iron skillets, Marini said he hopes his passion for food shines through.

But he said he hopes people dont try to compare the Cast Iron Chop House with Marisas. I think to compare it to Marisas wouldnt be fair, he said, noting that he is trying to create a new kind of experience for customers.

Still, because the business remains in the family, Attilio Marini said customers can expect the same commitment the Marinis have always had for their business.

This business has been a staple in Trumbull for a long time and well continue to see to it that it remains that way, he said.

ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227
Heres the glass-half-full perspective: Connecticuts budget for the fiscal year just ended was not as bad as projected earlier. Instead of coming up short by $316 million, the gap was only $279 million.

Reassured? Were not either. That is still a sizable hole to plug, despite the austerity measures enacted by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, mostly, and the General Assembly.

The glass-half-empty perspective is more realistic. The deficit was less because of an increase in federal grants  these are not gifts to count on getting every year. Meanwhile, revenue to the state is on an alarming downward trend  state income tax was down from projections by $25 million and corporate tax receipts by $30 million.

It doesnt take a math whiz to see that revenues have to start going in the other direction. But it must be done without raising already high taxes or enacting new ones.

Cuts in the new budget that began July 1 are already felt widely, from interpretive services for the deaf to fewer lifeguards and hours at state parks to no money for regional tourism bureaus. Government cannot be all things to all people, as Malloy has said, but the reductions are affecting everyone, whether it is the inconvenience of longer lines at the motor vehicle department or life-altering, such as mental health services.

More drastic cuts to spending will not pull Connecticut out of the quagmire. The states credit rating has been downgraded by three major agencies, inhibiting the cost of bonding  not that borrowing money is the way out, either.

A new paradigm is needed for Connecticuts financial operation. Elected leaders should not wait for the sands to shift in this budget year before addressing the shaky foundation.
Liberals table platitude-laden report to empty House of Commons





TORONTO, July 22, 2016 /CNW/ - United Steelworkers' (USW) National Director Ken Neumann says the Liberals' first Human Rights Impact Assessment Report (HRIA) on Colombia, tabled Wednesday to an empty House of Commons, remains as meaningless as those tabled by the previous government.

"This requirement for a report was the Liberal opposition's excuse for supporting the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCOFTA) back in 2010," said Neumann.

"It does not allow for a full assessment of the state of Human Rights in Colombia and must be tied directly to trade activities under the terms of the CCOFTA. In other words, it is neither a true reflection of human rights in Colombia nor a directive to improving conditions for Colombians. It is, at best, a statement of platitudes."

Neumann said the USW has been working closely with workers and communities in Colombia for many years, through relief, development and mutual aid and continues to observe the conditions and challenges in Colombia through regular exchanges and delegations.

"Our union sponsored a visit to Canada in 2009 by a Colombian human rights lawyer whose union activist father was murdered because of his activities. Yessika Hoyos pleaded with Canadian parliamentarians on the International Trade Committee for an independent, impartial and comprehensive human rights impact assessment before going ahead with any free trade agreement with Colombia," Neumann said.

"However, it was not enough to stop then-trade critic Scott Brison from looking for a way for Liberals to support the Conservative government's deal with a country whose human rights record was one of the worst in the Americas."

The USW participated in consultations leading up to the 2016 report. Those consultations included a call from stakeholders, such as academics, unions and human rights organizations, for a Human Rights Impact Assessment that looks at the real state of human rights in Colombia.

"We know human rights in Colombia are still problematic, with many reports of harassment and intimidation of human rights leaders and threats against local communities," said Neumann. "These are not reflected in a report that relates specifically to an agreement that is a commercial document, devoid of any moral obligation to uphold human rights. Indeed, like all so-called free trade agreements, the CCOFTA enshrines investor rights as the guiding imperative."

Neumann said the only way to make the process honest is to alter the HRIA so that the monitoring of human rights in Colombia is not directly tied to the CCOFTA.

"If this new government is serious about its claims to uphold human rights, then it must do more than continue with meaningless annual reports."

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

For further information: Mark Rowlinson, Assistant to the USW National Director, 416-544-5952, 647-231-5983, [email protected]; Bob Gallagher, USW Communications, 416-544-5966, 416-434-2221, [email protected]
WHITEHORSE, July 22, 2016 /CNW/ - Today, Premiers discussed the significant impact of natural disasters on Canadians and their communities, disaster response and the subsequent recovery process.

Recent events across Canada have underscored the need for strong and coordinated systems for disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Premiers discussed the need for the federal government to recommit to its critical and stabilizing role in these areas. Disaster events do not necessarily occur in equal frequency or severity in each province or territory, and clustered events have the potential to put immense strain an individual jurisdiction's fiscal capacity.

Premiers agreed that the federal government's current approach to disaster response and recovery does not stabilize impacted jurisdictions or address the increasing frequency of extreme weather events related to climate change such as wildland fires and floods. Premiers directed their Ministers responsible for emergency management to collaborate to develop a new model for disaster response and recovery and to work with the federal government to create a modernized Emergency Management Framework for Canada.

In 2015, the previous federal government made changes to their Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements which substantially reduced the federal government's share of disaster-related costs, offloading these onto individuals, provinces and territories. Premiers urged the federal government to:

reinstate funding thresholds back to the levels that existed before 2015;

quickly reimburse the upfront disaster costs that provinces and territories pay for at the time of the event

expand the program coverage of catastrophic events;

work with the insurance industry to expand the availability of and access to insurance products related to disasters; and

improve federal disaster assistance for replacement infrastructure built to a more resilient standard.

Premiers also discussed the National Disaster Mitigation Program and the importance of prevention in avoiding substantive disaster recovery costs down the road. They urged the federal government to increase its financial commitment to preventing disasters, noting that that $40 million a year for five years for the whole country is not adequate to meet major high-priority flood protection needs across Canada. They stressed the need to increase the funding for the program and expand the scope to cover other catastrophic events such as wildland fires, ice storms and landslides.

Premiers also noted that the Council of Forest Ministers recently reaffirmed its commitment to a vision of wildland fire management in Canada that focuses on fostering resilient communities. Premiers support this vision but noted that real progress toward the vision will require enhanced and expanded collaboration and a commitment of resources from all governments. Premiers called on the federal government to bolster its existing disaster mitigation efforts by contributing significant new funding for the implementation of the Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy. This funding could be further leveraged through investments in mitigation measures such as firefighting infrastructure upgrades and enhanced capacity for Indigenous communities and reserves.

SOURCE Canada's Premiers

For further information: Media enquiries may be directed to: Kate Durand, Communications, Executive Council Office, Government of Yukon, (867) 667-8968, Cell: (867) 335-0686, [email protected]
WHITEHORSE, July 21, 2016 /CNW/ -

Infrastructure

Premiers welcome the federal government's commitment to new infrastructure funding. This reinforces the economic growth, productivity and job creating capacity of infrastructure as a key pillar of Premiers' economic vision for Canada.

This funding builds on provincial and territorial investments, which have set the foundation for Canada's economic growth and strong, prosperous communities.

Provinces and territories have identified priority projects and are committed to working with our funding partners in getting projects up and running. Premiers are also looking for flexibility from new federal infrastructure programs to support sound infrastructure planning, and to ensure that funding rolls out within a reasonable timeframe, including this year's funding.

Premiers call on the federal government to work with provinces and territories to provide fair and flexible funding arrangements that reflect the priorities and fiscal plans of provinces and territories. Premiers agreed that federal infrastructure programs should follow a 'base-plus per capita' formula. These arrangements must also leverage the expertise of provinces and territories, and deliver the greatest impact for Canadians.

Economic Productivity

Innovation, productivity and competitiveness are fundamental building blocks of a strong, diversified economy that promotes growth and creates good jobs for Canadians. Canada's Premiers understand the importance of innovation and the role provincial and territorial governments play in fostering a culture of innovation and commercialization that supports thriving businesses and breakthrough research and development, inspires young people to create new ideas and encourages broad collaboration.

Through the Economic Productivity and Innovation Working Group, Canada's Premiers will continue to explore opportunities to enhance productivity and innovation, identify best practices and strive to close the gap between innovation and commercialization in an effort to bolster long-term sustainability and economic prosperity.

Provinces and territories also welcome the federal government's commitment to develop an innovation agenda and look forward to working with them on this important shared priority.

International Trade

Canada's Premiers discussed the importance of international trade to Canada's prosperity. They highlighted the importance of Canada's continued relationship with our largest trading partner the United States (US). Premiers urged both federal governments to move quickly to negotiate a new agreement on softwood lumber that is fair and equitable and will allow stability for our lumber industries and communities that depend upon them. Today, Premiers wrote to Prime Minister Trudeau asking the Government of Canada to refute the unfair and inaccurate allegations of lumber subsidies by American interests and remain firm in its resolve to maximize Canadian access to the United States market as Canada continues to negotiate a new agreement.

Premiers called for the federal government to work with the world's second largest economy, the European Union (EU), to bring the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) into force as soon as possible.

Premiers continue to support our close business and trade relationships in both the United Kingdom and EU. Premiers agreed to undertake a trade mission to Europe in 2017 to demonstrate support for CETA and highlight the importance of Canadian business relationships within Europe.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an important opportunity to improve Canadian access to 40% of the global economy, contributing to job growth and other economic benefits. The federal government must affirm its support for TPP and work with its key TPP partners to ratify the agreement in a timely manner. When the TPP enters into force, it would become the world's largest free trade zone, spanning four continents and 800 million people. TPP countries have a combined GDP of $28 trillion.

Premiers emphasized that government and the private sector can both play a role in ensuring that Canadian industries adapt successfully to changing trade environments. Premiers expect the federal government to deliver on its promises of compensation associated with recent trade agreements.

Asia continues to grow in importance to Canada. Premiers called for more free trade agreements in the Asia Pacific region. They reiterated the need for provincial and territorial participation in international trade negotiations affecting areas under their jurisdiction.

Premiers discussed the need for efficient and effective transportation systems that support market access. They called for more federal infrastructure investment on Canada's trade gateways and corridors. The federal government must work with provinces and territories, and stakeholders, including through the Canada Transportation Act Review, to develop a long-term vision for Canada's transportation systems.

Immigration

Immigration is a key economic driver and an integral part of the fabric of Canadian society.

This is a shared responsibility and provinces and territories are well placed to define and shape Canada's immigration system in partnership with the federal government. Provinces and territories understand best how the needs of their economies and labour markets can be addressed through immigration. Premiers call on the federal government for an increase in overall economic immigration levels including raising the caps on the provincial and territorial nominee programs in order to enable jurisdictions to respond to local labour market needs.

Over the last year, provinces and territories across Canada have welcomed refugees from around the world. In particular, over 25,000 refugees from Syria have arrived into hundreds of communities across the country since November 4, 2015. In order to support a successful transition to life in Canada, Premiers call on the federal government for sufficient funding for key services such as education, language training and workplace training.

Under the Canada-Quebec Accord relating to immigration and temporary admission of immigrants, Quebec fully assumes sole responsibility for establishing immigration levels, and for the selection, francization and integration of immigrants. In areas under its responsibility, Quebec develops its policies and programs, legislates, regulates and sets its own standards. Canada's Premiers call on the federal government to establish an equivalent agreement to the Canada-Quebec Accord with all provinces and territories.

The Francophonie is a fundamental element of the Canadian federation, currently representing 4% of our population outside Quebec. Premiers call upon the federal government to increase the percentage of francophone immigration to Canada outside Quebec to correspond to this level.

Skills

Effective employment and skills training programs are critical to help individuals succeed and enhance Canada's prosperity in the context of a changing economy.

However, there are segments of Canada's unemployed whose needs could be better met. With responsibility for the design and delivery of labour market programming, provinces and territories are committed to finding better ways to meet those needs. Following the consultations that are underway led by the Forum of Labour Market Ministers, provinces and territories expect that the federal government will work with them collaboratively to ensure the necessary funding and flexibility are provided to design and deliver services that address the specific needs of employers and individuals within their jurisdictions, that the permanent nature of existing agreements is preserved, that sufficient administrative funding is provided, and that no province or territory is adversely affected.

Premiers direct their labour market ministers to work with the federal government to consider how the existing labour market agreements could be more flexible, including broadening eligibility under Labour Market Development Agreements. Premiers ask their ministers to develop a new generation of labour market transfers. These should include federal investments that better meet the needs of under-represented groups including Indigenous peoples, youth, recent immigrants, persons with disabilities, and those who are not eligible for Employment Insurance benefits. This reaffirms responsibility and leadership of provinces and territories and avoids duplication with their programming.

SOURCE Canada's Premiers

For further information: Media enquiries may be directed to: Kate Durand, Communications, Executive Council Office, Government of Yukon, (867) 667-8968, Cell: (867) 335-0686, [email protected]
RICHMOND, BC, July 22, 2016 /CNW/ - Join YVR on Monday evening, July 25, for celebrations welcoming Xiamen Airlines service to Vancouver from Xiamen, China. It will be the first time the airline has landed in North America with its distinctive blue and white tail. YVR will provide media with a unique, runway-side photo opportunity to capture the landing, before an image-rich media event with cultural performances, followed by speeches from airport, government, tourism and airline officials.

What:

Rare airfield access for photographers and videographers to capture the aircraft landing,

followed by a media event in the terminal.





Who:

- Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister for Sport and Persons with Disabilities,

Government of Canada



- Mr. Ben Stewart, British Columbia Special Representative in Asia, Province of

British Columbia



- Mr. Weidong Zhou, Vice President, Xiamen Airlines



- Mr. Craig Richmond, President & CEO, Vancouver Airport Authority





When:

Monday, July 25, 2016



5:30 p.m.  Media registration



5:45 p.m.  Media bus departs for security screening and airfield



6:35 p.m.  Airside aircraft arrival photo opportunity



7:40 p.m.  Media event at The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Jade Canoe with a Chinese

cultural performance, speeches and ribbon cutting (This portion of the event is open to all

journalists, including those who haven't registered for the event.)









Timing subject to change based on estimated aircraft arrival. YVR will announce any significant

time change.





Where:

Register at The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Jade Canoe statue, departures level 3, located

near the food court of the International Terminal Building, Vancouver International Airport.





Parking:

Park in the short-term parkade on level 2 or 3. Parking passes will be available at the

media registration table.





RSVP:

The airside component has limited access due to security restrictions. Media wishing to attend

must RSVP with name, outlet and driver's licence number by Monday, July 25 at 1 p.m. to

[email protected].





ID:

All media representatives must bring valid (not expired), government-issued photo ID to

access the airfield.

SOURCE Vancouver Airport Authority

For further information: YVR Media Relations, 604.880.9815, [email protected], Twitter: @yvrairport
OAKVILLE, ON, July 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Restaurant Brands International Inc. (TSX/NYSE: QSR, TSX: QSP) will release its second quarter 2016 financial results on Thursday, August 4, 2016 and will host an investor conference call that morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

The earnings call will be webcast on the company's investor relations website http://investor.rbi.com and a replay will be available for 30 days following the release. Investors may also access the conference call via the following dial-in numbers: (877) 317-6711 for U.S. callers, (866) 450-4696 for Canadian callers, and (412) 317-5475 for callers from other countries.

About Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Restaurant Brands International Inc. ("RBI") is one of the world's largest quick service restaurant companies with more than $23 billion in system-wide sales and over 19,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries and U.S. territories. RBI owns two of the world's most prominent and iconic quick service restaurant brands  TIM HORTONS and BURGER KING. These independently operated brands have been serving their respective guests, franchisees and communities for over 50 years. To learn more about RBI, please visit the company's website at www.rbi.com.

SOURCE Restaurant Brands International

For further information: Investors: Andrea John, Investor Relations, (905) 339-4940; [email protected]; Media: Patrick McGrade, Corporate Affairs, (905) 339-5815; [email protected]
By GMM 22 July 2016 - 14:43





Daniil Kvyat has backed the complaints of two multiple champions as todays face of formula one comes under the microscope.

Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel could not hide their frustration when asked about the latest radio restrictions and the new track surface and kerbs at the Hungaroring ahead of this weekends action.

German Vettel called the radio changes "b------t" and a "joke", while Alonso warned that unless the 2017 regulations change the sport significantly, he will not extend his stay beyond the end of next year.

Spaniard Alonso said there are too many rules in general, joking: "You are allowed to breathe and not much more."

"At the same time I believe McLaren-Honda is slowly coming forward," he added.

"I want to win again and at the same time have fun in F1. At the moment its not possible in these cars."

And Vettel hit out at the new, ultra-smooth track surface and kerbs in Hungary.

"Its a bit sad because the kerbs are part of the character and soul of a track and when theyre the same everywhere, every track feels the same.

"The kerbs before were also a challenge, same with the bumps. Lets see if some of them are still there but it would be a shame if theyre all gone," added Vettel.

The FIA has also installed electronic sensors in some of those new kerbs to strictly police track limits.

Toro Rosso driver Kvyat argued: "If we had normal kerbs then you wouldnt need the electronics. Lets see how it is but in my opinion it is the wrong direction.

"The limits of the track should be obvious because if you cross it, you lose time and your lap is ruined. You cant just tell drivers who attack at the limit Dont go there."

The young Russian also joined the criticism of the further radio clampdown, declaring: "They keep changing the rules every weekend.

"I have ceased to understand them but I think no one really does."

2017 talks not just with Renault - Magnussen

Jul.22 (GMM) Kevin Magnussen has admitted for the first time that he is looking beyond Renault to secure his future in formula one.

But the Dane does welcome news that the French works team has now stopped developing the 2016 car in order to focus completely on the new regulations.

"Yes, because we cant win with this car," Magnussen said in Hungary when asked if he supports the decision.

"I am hoping I will stay with the team, so I want us to focus on the future," he added.

Renault appears happy with Magnussen so far, but the 23-year-old is on only a one-year contract and the team is not yet ready to take up its 2017 option.

"I expect to be here," he said when asked by the Danish newspaper BT about 2017.

"I have told that team that I want to continue and I have not seen or heard anything that indicates I wont be here. But I also sense that the team is in no hurry to decide its drivers for next year," Magnussen admitted.

So when asked what steps he is taking to ensure he keeps racing in 2017, he answered: "Im not only talking with Renault.

"I know enough people in the paddock now to hear about whats going on, but right now I dont feel the need to talk too much with the other teams about 2017," he added.

It seems the biggest threat to his place is coming from team reserve Esteban Ocon, who is driving the yellow car in Friday practice this weekend.

"Esteban is a really good driver, theres no doubt," Magnussen told Ekstra Bladet newspaper. "It wouldnt be good for motor sport in general if a driver like him didnt get a chance in formula one."
Nineteen soldiers and three civilian JTF members were wounded in action in the wee hours of Friday, when Boko Haram insurgents ambushed ...

Nineteen soldiers and three civilian JTF members were wounded in action in the wee hours of Friday, when Boko Haram insurgents ambushed Nigerian troops.Sani Usman, acting director of army public relations, in a statement, said the troops were returning from a clearance patrol at Guro Gongon village and environs when the ambush ensued.According to the army spokesperson, the soldiers had destroyed the terrorists makeshift camps and recovered quite a number of weapons, equipment and foodstuff before they fell into the insurgents ambush.The gallant soldiers basking on the recorded success, returning to their defensive locations, ran into an ambush by a group of Boko Haram terrorists who came to reinforce their fleeing comrades. The troops fought back gallantly killing several of the insurgents.Sadly however, 19 soldiers and 3 civilian JTF members were wounded in action while a few others were missing in action.The wounded have been evacuated and are responding to treatment, while a search and rescue party comprising of Special Forces personnel has since been dispatched to establish contact with the missing in action troops, some of whom, as at the time of filing this report, have started returning to their defensive location.It is pertinent to state that, no stone would be left unturned until every person involved in the operation has been accounted for.
President Muhammadu Buharis claim to be in talks with Niger Delta militants, including the notorious Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), has be...

President Muhammadu Buharis claim to be in talks with Niger Delta militants, including the notorious Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), has been described as a manifestation of the presidents insincerity, as there had been no established contact yet.President Buhari had on Thursday, during a farewell meeting with the outgoing German Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Zinner, said his administration was in talks with the armed insurgents in the Niger Delta, through security agents and oil companies operating in the region.But the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), as well as the most vocal of the insurgent groups in the region, NDA, claimed President Buharis claim was insincere and aimed at deceiving Nigerians and the international community.While the Avengers, in a statement by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, denied being in any talks with the federal government, the IYC, in a statement circulated by its spokesman, Eric Omare, expressed at the presidents claim to using foreigners (oil companies) to negotiate on the nations behalf.The Avengers, in the statement, said it stood by its earlier decision not to be involved in any negotiation with the federal government in any talk that would not involve the international community.Our attention has been drawn to media report that the President is in touch with Niger Delta agitators including the Niger Delta Avengers, but the truth is that we are not aware of any peace talk.If we are to engage in any peace talk we made it clear that the international community must be part of it. The President knows our demands. So they should stop deceiving the international oil companies, the general public and the international community.If there is any such peace talk, it means the President is talking to their mercenaries set to disturb the genuine struggle of the agitators. President Buhari led government is not sincere to the Nigeria people and their foreign allies, it said.IYC, in its statement yesterday, charged the Buhari administration to borrow a leaf from its predecessors and seek an all-encompassing talks with the peoples of the oil-rich region.The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide says that President Buhari and the federal government of Nigeria should stop deceiving Nigerians and the international community about talks with Niger Delta militants on how to stop attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta region.
The Christian Association of Nigeria, Lagos State Friday expressed its displeasure on Thursdays Court of Appeal decision, allowing Muslim...





The Christian Association of Nigeria, Lagos State Friday expressed its displeasure on Thursdays Court of Appeal decision, allowing Muslim female students to wear Hijab in government funded schools.A statement signed by Secretary, Rev. Israel Akinadewo said Lagos State is a cosmopolitan state, in which the development and peace, all have witnessed over the years, have been majorly because of the good relationship between Christian and Muslim leadership, and their cooperation with successive governments.Some of these public schools are missionary schools, bearing Christian names, hence any implementation of this judgement is tantamount to islamizing the state of excellence, he said.According to the statement, Christian and Muslim leaders are both members of Nigeria InterReligious Council (NIREC) in Lagos, and we have worked perfectly well together.We can only appeal to the State government to take all legal steps immediately, in reversing this judgement, before the Mega City vision for Lagos State is destroyed through religious extremism. There should be a standard dress code for all, to be made public for all students who attend public schools in Lagos State.Tax payers monies are used for the establishment and running of these schools, hence religious dress codes should not be allowed under any circumstance. This is even with the fact that religious bodies can establish private schools, and the demands of their religion can then be effectively implemented.
A Chinese national, Zhao Chum, and his Nigerian accomplice, Christian Ohia, have been arrested for allegedly smuggling into Nigeria, unreg...

A Chinese national, Zhao Chum, and his Nigerian accomplice, Christian Ohia, have been arrested for allegedly smuggling into Nigeria, unregistered and controlled chemicals used for manufacturing explosives.Chum, 33, who owns a furniture company in Ogun State, was apprehended by officials of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC on Thursday.The acting Director-General, DG, NAFDAC, Yetunde Oni, who confirmed this in a statement said, NAFDAC impounded 880 bags x 25kg of Urea Formaldehyde Resin  a chemical compound for manufacturing explosives, which was imported by the Chinese man, Zhao Chum.The substance is now in NAFDACs warehouse.The director of the company, Zhao Chum, and his clearing agent, Christian Ohia, have been arrested.The Ports Inspection Directorate of the agency got a tip-off that the substance, identified as Urea Formaldehyde Resin powder, was smuggled in through the Lagos sea port in two containers.The containers were transported to Chums company in Omu Ijebu area of Ogun, from where operatives of the agency impounded and brought them to the agencys office in Oshodi, Lagos State.They are assisting NAFDAC to unravel the supply chain. Investigation is ongoing into the matter, the acting DG added.On his part, Chum was said to have denied being a smuggler.He said the substance was glue meant for his furniture works.He was quoted to have said in his statement to the police that: This glue is from China. Everyone can buy it. I am not an importer. I gave this job to an agent. The agent did not tell me anything.NAFDAC people came to look for the agent. After arresting him, they arrested me too. You can come to my factory and see what I use the substances for. It is to hold furniture together, Chum added.
Hamid Ali, Comptroller General of Customs, was spotted on Tuesday flying first class on British Airways flight from London to Abuja.

Hamid Ali, Comptroller General of Customs, was spotted on Tuesday flying first class on British Airways flight from London to Abuja.Few months ago, President Muhammadu Buhari had issued a directive banning public officials from flying first class.According to an exclusive report by PREMIUM TIMES, the BA flight BA83 which took off from Gate 43 of Heathrow Terminal 5, London, on Tuesday, nearly an hour behind its scheduled 10.43pm departure time, arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Wednesday morning at about 5a.m, with Mr. Ali on board.Several passengers also testified that they saw Mr. Ali seated in the First Class compartment of the aircraft during the flight. However, When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the customs spokesperson, Wale Adeniyi, on Thursday, he confirmed Mr. Ali was on the BA flight, but that he travelled on a business class ticket.Premium Times
New York billionaire Donald Trump has officially accepted the Republican nomination as US presidential candidate, pledging that he will r...

In his acceptance speech in the US city of Cleveland on Thursday, Trump promised to "put America first", while tearing into his presumptive Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, for her legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness"."Let's defeat her in November," Trump thundered, as his supporters repeatedly shouted back, "Lock her up!"From Libya to Syria, Trump said Clinton's foreign policy record made the US less secure, adding that during her time as secretary of state, Clinton allowed the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).Trump also warned of a "moment of crisis" facing the country, from attacks on police and "terrorism in our cities"."The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean soon, come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored," the real estate businessman said."The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead," blaming immigration for what he said is the spread of crime in the country."Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens."He also repeated his promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico."Nobody knows the system better than me. That is why I alone can fix it."Trump's speech, following addresses by his top supporters and fundraisers, as well as by his daughter Ivanka, capped a four-day convention in Cleveland that has exposed anxiety and turmoil within Republican ranks over the party's nominee.In advance of his address, the Trump campaign was roiled after a copy of his speech was leaked to the press, and was published by many news websites hours before he delivered it.Many Americans oppose Trump's ascension in US politics, lambasting his controversial campaign statements, including calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers whom he would deport if elected president.He has also called for a ban on Muslims from entering the US.On Wednesday, former rival Ted Cruz delivered a speech at the convention but refused to endorse Trump, prompting loud boos from the audience.Overseas, US allies are also closely watching Trump's address, which comes the day after his suggestion that he might not defend America's NATO partners as president.In an interview with the New York Times, Trump was quoted as saying that he would decide to come to the aid of states under threat by Russia, only after reviewing if they have "fulfilled their obligations to us".Ian Bremmer, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera before the speech that there are many Americans who believe that the US gets "very little out of American allies", and Trump's statement appeals to them."It is true that the US overall will suffer under a Trump presidency from a foreign policy perspective. But the average American wanting to vote for Trump does not care, because they do not believe that they would gain anything from that system, and they are right."Al Jazeera's Bill Schneider, senior political analyst who reviewed an advance text of Trump's speech, said it was "probably the most breathtakingly angry speech" he had heard from a major party presidential candidate."It's angry and conspiratorial. We have never elected an angry president," he said."There's not a great deal of Donald Trump's speech tonight that looks very aspirational."
The federal government says the Nigerian economy will grow by 3.3 to 3.5 percent by the end of 2016, defying the International Monetary Fu...

The federal government says the Nigerian economy will grow by 3.3 to 3.5 percent by the end of 2016, defying the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast on the economy.This was disclosed by Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning, after the national economic council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Thursday.Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Udoma  like Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance  acknowledged that Nigeria is currently in a recession, while awaiting gross domestic product details from the National Bureau of Statistics.He said the economic council and the federal government as a whole were working assiduously to address the state of the Nigerian economy, which is expected to post a negative second quarter GDP.The meeting, which was chaired by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, came about 48 hours after the IMF said Nigerias economy would shrink by 1.8 percent in 2016.7 STATES YET TO MEET BAILOUT CONDITIONSIn a statement released by Laolu Akande, special assistant to the vice president on media and publicity, it was stated that 27 states had not yet met bailout conditions, while seven were currently being processed due to late submission.Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), told the council that Nigerians could now deposit dollars in their non-export dom accounts subject to the provisions of the money laundering Act.Adeosun, on her part, disclosed that the excess crude account had a balance of $3.93 billion as at June 20, 2016.The council adopted the green alternative initiative put forward by Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture, to operate in partnership with State Governments to meet national production targets and embark on production of export commodities.The council said the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme will support millions of small-holders in rice production, while government would raise rice milling capacity to 10 million paddy rice annually, with current efforts to conclude a China-Exim Bank Credit to support 40,000  100,000 tons per day rice mills for Nigeria.ELIMINATING CASH CALLSIbe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, briefed the council that the current upstream joint venture company (JVC) arrangement in Nigerias oil and gas sector are incorporated JV with NNPC and the IOC partners.He proposed a new self-funded JVC cash calls, which is an incorporated JVCs, with potentials to improves accountability within the governing structure of the JVs.Kachikwu also informed the council that the self-funded JVC will have a self-funding entity outside otherwise cumbersome government budget process with less political interference given that operational control rests with joint teams and ultimately IJVC entities when formed.He said the proposed JV funding will also focuses on commercial decision making.
The House of Representatives yesterday replaced its Appropriation Committee Chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, over the controversial padding ...

Abdulmumin Jibrin

The House of Representatives yesterday replaced its Appropriation Committee Chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, over the controversial padding of the 2016 budget.Jibrin (APC Kano) was replaced with Mustapha Dawaki, also APC Kano, the former House committee chairman on Housing.But Jubrin denied being sacked. According to him, he resigned the position after extensive consultation with his family.During the controversy over the passage of this years budget, Jibrin was accused of allocating 20 projects worth N4.3 billion to his constituency without the consent of his committee members.Projects worth N40 billion were also said to have been surreptitiously allocated to the leadership of the Appropriations Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives and also without the knowledge of other members.The padded budget, which was returned by the Executive was reworked before President Muhammadu Buhari eventually assented to it after a meeting of Presidency officials with principal officers of the Senate and the House.A 15-member harmonisation Committee was raised to sort out the grey areas.When the furore on the padding died down, some members called for Jibrins removal.Jubrin, at a news conference yesterday, attended by some members of the committee, said he did no wrong as far as the committees work was concerned.He described his resignation as a personal decision.Jibrin said his hands were clean and promised to give details of what transpired in the 2016 Appropriations later.Jibrin said his revelations will not be to attack anybody but so that we can also learn collectively and see how we can move the system forward.But whether I like it or not, I was the Chairman of Appropriations and my signature was on all the documents even though I know that I am not at fault.Of course we are all aware of a lot of issues that took place during the process of the 2016 budget. I have always maintained one position, that as the Chairman, Appropriations, I did my very best. Until date, I have said that if anybody has anything that I have done that amounts to an abuse of my office, or amounts to an illegality, that it should be brought forward.The lawmaker went on: Ive said it several times that I can be reported to the authorities or the relevant arm of government or the internal disciplinary measure of the House should take its course. And as it is until date, nobody has raised any issue against me. And that has been the case even while I was Chairman Finance. For four years, I was chairman Finance and I executed my responsibility diligently and I left an unblemished record.He said there were a lot of obstacles here and there during the 2016 budget appropriation.Even if Im not at fault, it is only proper that I take the responsibility. I believe that the best thing I should do under the circumstance is to step aside so that the committee can move forward, Jibrin said.During plenary, Speaker. Yakubus Dogara announced a replacement Mustapha Bala Dawaki (Kudu/Warawa Federal Constituency, Kano) as Jubrins replacement..Dogara said: He ( Jibrin) met me and said he does not think he would continue as the committee chairman due to pressure of the work.The Speaker said the House leadership had taken a decision to replace him as the committee chairman.Jibrin (Bebeji/Kiru Federal Constituency, Kano) was the chairman of the committee on Finance in the Seventh House. He was made Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations after Dogaras emergence as Speaker of the Eighth Assembly.
Immediate Past President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, has for the umpteenth time affirmed that he has forgiven his opponent, Daniel ...

Immediate Past President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, has for the umpteenth time affirmed that he has forgiven his opponent, Daniel Onjeh and all those who conspired against him during the February 20, 2016 rerun election for Benue South Senatorial district.Senator Mark said today in Abuja after the Appeal Court sitting in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, upheld his rerun election. He said the journey was tortuous but he was glad that all avenues were exhausted to affirm his victory.Justice Obande Ogbuinya of the appeal court in the judgment today upheld the decision of the lower tribunal that the petition of Com. Dan Onjeh lacked merit , incompetent and status barred , hence dismissed.The three Justices of the Appeal Court, including justices Oyebisi Omoleye and Ifeoma Jombo were unanimous in their decision.Senator Marks counsel, Ken Ikonne and the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) lawyer Johnson Usman as well as the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) counsel, Chris Alechenu had told the Court that section 285 (5) of the 1999 constitution was clear on the fact the day of declaration of an election result should be included in the days allowed for the filing of a petition before a court, urging the appellate court to dismiss the appeal and award cost against the appellate .It can be recalls that Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had dragged Senator Mark of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) to the Appeal Court after the tribunal struck out the petition for lack of merit and filing behind the stipulated time. Onjeh had approached the Tribunal alleging irregularities in the election after Marks victory at the rerun election.In a statement signed by his Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, Mark said, Im glad that the final Verdict of the Appeal court vindicates me and truly reaffirmed my victory freely given to me by the people of Benue South Senatorial zone. Im happy that the Judiciary stood on the side of justice and respected the wishes of Benue South people.For me, I have forgiven all those especially some of my close friends who conspired against me. For to err is human, to forgive is Divine. I will continue to serve my people honestly and diligently. Whatever makes for the good of my people will always be my guide.I whole heartedly appreciate the support and solidarity of Idoma nation towards me. In spite of the unwarranted provocation and intimidation especially during the rerun election, you came out in large numbers to vote for me. Im truly grateful .He, therefore, called on all sons and daughters of Benue South to come on board and join hands with him in the task of developing and empowering the people.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday expressed readiness for the conduct of outstanding legislative re-run elect...

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday expressed readiness for the conduct of outstanding legislative re-run elections in Kogi and Imo.Mr Nick Dazang, Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity, INEC, said in Abuja that the commission had deployed adequate personnel and materials needed for the exercise.INEC is very prepared for the elections because if we were able to deploy 5,603 personnel as well as all the sensitive and non-sensitive materials, that means we are ready for the exercise.Remember we had already made proper arrangements for the elections before they were postponed, so, the arrangements are not new.The commission will deploy 4,105 personnel to conduct elections in Imo North senatorial district and three state constituencies of Isiala Mbano, Oru East and Owerri West.The area has 390,311 registered voters spread across eight local government areas, with 64 registration areas and 817 polling units.Also, INEC will deploy 1,498 personnel for the Kogi re-run elections, to be conducted to fill vacancies into Kogi East Senatorial District and Ofu and Idah state constituencies, involving eight local government areas.The area has 140,297 registered voters in 45 registration areas and 236 polling units, he added.Dazang said that the polls scheduled to commence from 8 am will have accreditation of eligible voters and voting done simultaneously.According to him, the commission had already put in place some technical personnel on stand-by to intervene in any situation where there were smart card challenges.He added that INEC was committed to ensuring that there was a level playing field for all contestants during the elections.
Ex-President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has called for an improved business relationship between Nigeria and Morocco, saying such wi...

Ex-President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has called for an improved business relationship between Nigeria and Morocco, saying such will create mutual benefits for both countries and advancement of Africas economy.This was even as he described the recent decision of Morocco to return to Africa Union, AU, as a welcome development.He noted that King Hassans decision to return Morocco to the union it helped in founding made him Africas Man of the Decade. Speaking at the business forum organised by the Economic Enterprises and the Centre for Public Policy in Lagos, Obasanjo said: I thank His Majesty, King Hassan, for the decision to return to the AU. That decision, in my consideration, makes him African statesman of the year, in fact, African statesman of the decade.The meeting, which was designed to enhance economic relationship between Nigeria and Morocco, dwelt on the theme, Morocco-Nigeria: Bridging The Synergies. According to the former President, Nigeria has a lot to learn from both the political and economic reforms that have taken place in Morocco in recent time.In the last three years, since I have been visiting Morocco, the transformation that has taken place is quite enormous. Great transformation has taken place in the area of development of infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing. What has made this possible are relative peace, relative security, commitment, proximity to Europe, proximity to the Arab world, Obasanjo said. He noted that that Nigerias most viable component to the relationship with Morocco was its huge population.He, however, stressed that population could turn out to be an assets or liability. Speaking on the role of human capital development in ensuring the realization of the objective of the partnership, Ezekwesili said, Our real assets are the people we have but they are not assets if most of them are not well educated, do not have global skills to be able to compete with the rest of the world.It is this kind of reform in education sector that brings forth the development we are crying for. Today, due to the development of Moroccans educational sector, they have become a case -study that even the immigrants skills are required by the labour market. That is a lesson for Nigeria, she added.
A chieftain of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, said in Lagos on Thursday that appointing a credible person as national chairman of the par...

A chieftain of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, said in Lagos on Thursday that appointing a credible person as national chairman of the party would determine the performance of the party in the 2019 presidential elections.George, who was a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that it was imperative for the national leadership of the party to appoint a credible person as its national chairman. He argued that appointing someone, who had no understanding of the direction and manifesto of the party would be catastrophic for the party in the 2019 general elections. On July 14, the national caucus of the PDP in Abuja agreed that the next national chairman of the party would come from the southern part of the country. The body also agreed that the partys presidential candidate would come from the North in 2019, to square up with President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC. The chairmanship position coming to the South means if the party is serious, the party must look for a credible, responsible and respectable person, who has the network and experience.It has to be a person who has the details of the party and not some bambino. The PDP must avoid going from frying pan to fire and bring an appropriate person. Anybody lower than the level of the chairman of APC will be inappropriate. We have to get somebody that will be at par in political experience and understanding of the tenets of the party. According to George, appointing an inexperienced person will be to the detriment of the party, which was previously in government for 16 years before it was defeated by the APC last year.On the recent fracas between the Segun Adewale and Moshood Salvador factions of the party in Lagos, the PDP chieftain told the police to bring all those involved in the fracas to book. He, however, urged party members to work together for the benefit of the party, saying that the party would not condone indiscipline among its members. George said there was nothing wrong with party members disagreeing over certain issues, noting however, that it was distasteful when people resort to shooting one another in the presence of the police. He described the fracas as an absolute lawlessness and political immaturity, wondering why people in the same party would struggle for the same position within a party.
ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, said Friday, that his family and associates were under siege by security agents...

ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, said Friday, that his family and associates were under siege by security agents, who allegedly treated roughly his 84-year-old father, in Kurutie community, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government, resulting in the amputation of his lower limbs, two weeks ago. Tompolo and Buhari Tompolo, in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, which he indicated might be his last, said the continuous harassment and intimidation was getting out of hand, and he does not deserve it. He said after the military invaded Kurutie and brutalized his father, sympathizers managed to rescue him to Warri, where the hospital admitted him.Sadly, one of his lower limbs was amputated two weeks ago. From the doctors report, it will be a thing of miracle if he survives this incident. Is this 84- year- old man also a member of the Niger Delta Avengers that they brutalized to the point of death? He asked. He said that the harassment and intimidation was by the Nigeria Army, Navy and Department of State Services, DSS, in connivance with two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State, Chief Ayiri Emami and Chief Michael Johnny.The ex-militant leader asked President Buhari: Will Your Excellency accept this in good faith if this was done to your father or someone of this age in your family?
Federal Government, yesterday, said its decision to channel about 80 percent of N247 billion so far released for capital projects in the...

Federal Government, yesterday, said its decision to channel about 80 percent of N247 billion so far released for capital projects in the 2016 budget to the construction industry was informed by the strategic role of the sector in job creation and the reflation of the economy.Speaking through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, government said: As of today, the capital released stand at N247 billion out of which 80 percent has gone to the construction industry. The idea is that government wants to reflate the economy and put money in the hands of the people through these construction companies that have millions of Nigerians in their employ.The Minister, who spoke while receiving the leadership of Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association, CCESSA, in Abuja, urged the construction companies to reciprocate government gesture by mobilising to sites and recalling all workers earlier disengaged, to forestall worsening unemployment index and further aggravate the fragile security situation in the country.According to him, for the little we have done, we want to see you people in action. Another chunk of money is going to be paid as the economy improves and things get better. The budget also has a special provision for settling outstanding debts and for the completion of ongoing projects.Through these, government intends to take away our youths from idleness, fruitfully engage them, and avoid making them easy recruits for insurgents. On the expatriate quota, Ngige said the situation where expatriates took over posi-tions meant for Nigerians, even as low as menial jobs, was unacceptable.
Auner Yobani Brizuela-Garcia (BCPO)

FAIRVIEW - Police arrested a West New York man in connection with the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in a home in the borough, authorities said Friday.

Auner Yobani Brizuela-Garcia, 25, was arrested after Fairveiw police received a report on Tuesday that the girl had been assaulted, according to Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal.

The Fairview Police Department notified the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Special Victims

Unit and a joint investigation ensued, the prosecutor said.

Brizuela-Garcia was charged with sexual assault by sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.

He was held in the Bergen County Jail on $250,000 bail pending a first appearance in court at 9 a.m. on Monday.
HACKENSACK - A man convicted of sexual assault who failed to appear for sentencing six years ago has been arrested in the Dominican Republic, authorities said Friday.

Luis Caraballo was returned to New Jersey on Thursday by the U.S. Marshal's Service, Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino said in a statement.

"Caraballo has been a fugitive since 2010 when he failed to appear for sentencing in Bergen County Superior Court, after having been found guilty to first-degree aggravated sexual assault," the sheriff said.

Authorities credited the arrest to information received through the county's tips line.

Caraballo is being held in the Bergen County Jail without bail.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
AUDUBON- Joseph F. Pauro, serving in the U.S. Navy, was on the S.S. Henry Knox when a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship on March 4, 1943. He was just 17 years old.

The torpedo hit the ammo hold, "blowing the front of the ship right off," he said.

He climbed overboard and proceeded to lift wounded sailors in the water onto tires for floatation. Once on a tire, he held on to another sailor in the water, but was separated due to the large swells in the sea.

"I ended up in the water alone and I thought, 'oh what's going to happen to me now?'" he said.

The next day, he found two other sailors floating nearby and soon after found an empty lifeboat floating in the water.

The three sailors floated in the open ocean for nine days.

He was one of 35 that survived the attack.

Pauro was recognized and honored Wednesday night by an array of commissioners for his service and heroism after his ship was torpedoed in the South Pacific.

Community residents filled the hall at the town meeting, held at the New Covenant Community Church, as well as public officials such as Camden County Freeholder Lou Cappelli, U.S. Representative Donald Norcross, Assemblyman Arthur Barclay and Audubon Mayor John Ward.

"You're a true hero and an example of how all Americans should act throughout the course of their life," Freeholder Capello said to Pauro from the podium. "You set a great example."

To honor Pauro, Capello awarded him a proclamation declaring July 20 "Joseph F. Pauro Day."

After receiving a standing ovation, 90-year-old Pauro came to the podium to tell his story.

After nine days floating at sea, he ended up in the Maldives and was soon after hospitalized and treated for malaria and dysentery.

When he got home, he returned to the Navy just 24 days later.

On another mission thereafter, he was torpedoed again. This time by a Japanese airplane while serving in the Philippine Islands.

"In two years I was sunk twice, and I figured 'I'm not getting sunk again," he said.

For his selflessness and heroism, U.S. Representative Norcross awarded Pauro a congressional record that stated his story and honored his service for "community engagement, astonishing self-sacrifice and exemplary services as a Navy veteran."

Norcross added that it is important for people to hear Pauro's story and recognize the heroism of his acts.

"He is our hometown hero," Norcross said.

Pauro was also awarded the Camden County Veterans Special Recognition Award.

"To listen to the story, you can't imagine what they went through," Pauro's son, Ken Pauro said, "He talks about being on the ships all the time. I'm proud of him."

The veteran said he was nervous leading up to his speech, but appreciated the recognition and awards he was given at the meeting.

"It means a lot to me," Pauro said. "It was so nice."

CJ Fairfield may be reached at cfairfield@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @fairfielc4. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CAMDEN -- One of two men accused of burying a city woman alive in a wooded area in Gloucester County was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Fatima Perez, 41, of East Camden.

Ramon Ortiz, 59, of Camden, pleaded guilty on June 15 to first-degree aggravated manslaughter. His sentence was imposed by Superior Court Judge Gwendolyn Blue.

Ortiz's alleged accomplice, Carlos Alicea-Antonetti, 38, of Camden, is scheduled to go to trial in September.

Authorities say Alicea-Antonetti picked up Fatima Perez, an acquaintance of his who was 41 at the time of her death, in Camden on May 12, 2014 to drive her to buy a car.

Perez's family told authorities that the woman was carrying $8,000 at the time and reported her missing later that day. Alicea-Antonetti then picked up Ortiz, a co-worker at his landscaping business. Authorities say Perez was already tied up and blindfolded in the back of the van at this point.

The duo then stopped at the Home Depot in Cherry Hill to purchase duct tape before driving to a wooded area near Clayton Road, in Monroe Township. According to the prosecutor's office, Ortiz dug a hole and both men buried Perez -- who was bound in duct tape -- alive after covering her in lime.

The duo were arrested two days later at a hotel in Cherry Hill, authorities said Friday, adding that Alicea-Antonetti had $7,000 on him at the time. An autopsy revealed Perez died as a result of asphyxiation.

According to previous reports, Perez was a mother of two who "didn't have any bad inside her," the victim's sister said at a May 15, 2014 vigil. "She didn't see any evil in people and she didn't know how far it could go."

Ortiz must serve approximately 21 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Progresso.jpeg

Vineland's Progresso plant is slated to close, according to General Mills. (File photo)

(File photo)

General Mills announced Thursday its tentative plans to close its Progresso plant in Vineland -- affecting 370 jobs.

The plant dates back to 1942 and was featured in a recent advertising campaign by Progresso. The closing is expected to be complete by 2018, although the decision is pending negotiations with the union.

Cumberland County already has the third-highest unemployment rate in the state, according to 2015 U.S. Census statistics, and 20 percent of its population lives in poverty.

"N.J. is a destination for food manufacturing and we are confident we can fill this state of the art plant," said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. "The state is in the process of working with Cumberland County and will offer support to General Mills employees."

Here's what a few of our readers on NJ.com had to say:

Canned soup sales have been declining, people's tastes change. cant blame the company for merging operations with reduced demand. It is difficult for the people and towns impacted but things change, think about the coal miners whose jobs are gone, etc. not sure there are any good answers but everyone needs to be aware that change happens and its a good idea to always keep learning and developing new skills.

The way businesses are leaving NJ maybe farming will be the number one industry in the state again. Everyone is going to have to fend for themselves.

Oh well. Buh-bye Progresso. Taxpayers shouldn't have to throw subsidies at them to pay them to stay. That's market distorting. Trouble is we've become too accustomed to throwing public money at companies to incentivize them.

What about all of the commercials touting Vineland as the heart of Progresso Soup land?

Important enough to splash all over national television, but not important enough to keep the jobs?

Strange irony. They should redo the commercials to now show how they are abandoning the city

This is the type of job the state can least afford to lose. Good paying union manufacturing jobs. It will be difficult for the displaced workers to find employment with similar wage and benefit packages. It is cost prohibitive to manufacture in NJ. The turnpike tolls paid by trucks to ship ingredients in adds to the cost of manufacturing. Worse, the turnpike tolls incurred to ship out of NJ are egregious and put the state at a competitive disadvantage.

I would bet dollars to donuts that restructuring means replacing workers with robotic arms and other assorted limbs. The natural tendency of people is to point fingers at each other or grouse about taxes rather than see the obvious. The rate at which robotics is affecting China and Brazil and the U.S. is dramatic. Automation is roaring in China and pushing out millions of workers. Why hire a person when you can get the job done more efficiently with a robot? They don't complain, collect a paycheck, gets benefits, or form unions. All that may change in 30 years, however, when entire plants are run by artificially intelligent systems. Thinking bots might decide to slow down production unless certain pro-bot conditions are met.

Feel terrible for those getting laid off. It sucks I've been there. There are literally little to no jobs left in Cumberland County. These types of jobs used to be the norm where you could actually retire from.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The cocktail named for a New Orleans mayor -- or was it?
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.
The tiger, identified as a 10-year-old male, has been prowling residential areas of Cheeral and preying on cows since September 25.
Community

Its now easier than ever to connect and chat with others in your local area. You can connect with your community by asking general questions, give area updates and recommendations and even let your community know about local events that are taking place.


NYCOMED Amersham has confirmed it will be putting forward plans to redevelop part of its site but say the company is determined to keep the workforce in the town.

The health and science group announced the proposals last week and said it will be consulting with neighbours and local councils in the New Year before going ahead with the plan.
Eels back-rower Kenny Edwards is delighted his long-time friend Leivaha Pulu is finally enjoying NRL success  but he still hopes his old high school mate has a quiet game when the pair face off against each other for the first time at NRL level on Sunday.

Earlier this year, Pulu opened up to NRL.com about how close he came to giving away footy after a career that saw him come through the Wests Tigers NYC system and spend time training with the Roosters NRL squad while playing with Wyong in the then-NSW Cup competition as he tried to support a young family.

After being persuaded by his partner not to give up, the rewards came for Pulu with a two-year deal at the Titans which saw him debut in Round 1 this year and play every game since.

Speaking ahead of his team's clash against Pulu's Titans, Eels forward Kenny Edwards had nothing but praise for his fellow Keebra Park High product.

"I went to school with Vaha and to see where he's at now compared to this time last year and even the year before when he was thinking about giving up footy is massive; I'm so proud of him and where he's at at the moment," Edwards said.

"When he told me he got a pre-season with the Titans I was texting him and making sure he was putting his best foot forward. To see him doing as well as he is now is awesome. It's a testament to himself and how hard he's worked off the field, he's got a young family that he can afford to look after now. I'm proud of him.

"I hope doesn't play that well this weekend though!" Edwards added with a laugh.

Draw Widget - Round 20 - Titans vs Eels



Edwards said Pulu was a great schoolboy player when both were back at Keebra Park but struggled being away from his family after moving down to Sydney to take up an opportunity with the Tigers under-20s squad.

"The Tigers sort of let him go and he didn't play for a couple of years. Last year he had a really good year in the NSW Cup up at Wyong. I followed him a bit in NSW Cup and he was killing it," Edwards said.

"I couldn't believe the Roosters didn't give him a go because he was training with them part time but when he told me he got a gig with the Titans I was happy for him and glad all his hard work paid off."

The pair featured in an annual Maoris tournament in Sydney's west every year and it was during one of those catch ups Edwards discovered Pulu was contemplating giving up footy to focus on work and supporting his young family before his partner Lina talked him around.

"If it wasn't for her maybe he might have given up and he wouldn't be able to do the same as me and fulfil a childhood dream [of playing in the NRL]. I dreamed about it all my life and I'm sure he did too. I'm just happy and proud of him," Edwards said.

Both players are 26 and despite debuting three years earlier than Pulu, Edwards himself has only racked up 36 games to date. A combination of disciplinary issues (which saw him moved on from Manly and the Dragons at junior level and delayed his debut) and serious injuries (he missed the entire 2015 season due to a ruptured ACL) means Edwards has a similar perspective to Pulu in terms of how valuable a shot in the NRL can be.

"Yeah we're lucky enough to be playing the sport we love and the sport we grew up watching," Edwards said of his own troubled path to NRL success.

"I take nothing for granted now and I'm sure he's the same we're at the age now where we don't take things for granted."
Former Sen. Evan Bayh returned to the Region on Thursday while campaigning to regain a Senate seat, saying theres too much division and anger in Washington.

Weve had too much divisiveness and too much fighting with each other, he said. Weve got to understand well only make progress together and if we bridge some of these divides. Thats the kind of leader Ive always tried to be. If elected, thats the kind of senator Id be.

Bayh, a former two-term governor and two-term senator, visited Tri-State Automation in Hammond during his first campaign stop back in Northwest Indiana after unexpectedly announcing his Senate bid last month. Accompanied by Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., he gave a brief speech to workers and Region political bigwigs at a factory that makes welding robots for other manufacturers. Hes making a comeback bid to the Senate after deciding not to run for re-election in 2012.

I concluded with all the challenges that face our state, it was just not right to stand on the sidelines, he said. If I could do something to help, it was my obligation to try. Ive got two 20-year-old sons, and I think of their future. And I just know its not going to be what it should be if we keep going down this path.

He recalled campaigning with his father, Sen. Birch Bayh, at the Gary Works steel mill in the 1970s.

Lake County has been part of my family since I was a little boy, he said. I feel right at home.

Bayh told the crowd he wanted to build a better Indiana and a better America, such as by making sure government regulations and the tax code arent burdensome on businesses like Tri-State Automation, which embarked on a $2.5 million expansion this year.

We need to grow the economy, create good jobs and revitalize the American Dream, he said. It breaks my heart that for the first time a majority are saying they dont expect the future to be better than it was for their parents and grandparents.

Bayh said the federal government should invest in more workforce development since people get paid for what they know. He lamented brain-dead politicians in Washington.

Weve put up for too long with division and anger and hatred and violence, he said. Thats not the Indiana we need. Thats not the America we need. We need someone who will bring us together, not exacerbate our differences for short-term gain. It doesnt matter if its a Democratic idea or a Republican idea. All that matters is if its a good idea.

He said he would work to preserve manufacturing jobs, such as by ensuring a level playing field against cheap imports and by eliminating a tax break that gives companies incentives to ship job overseas.

His Senate opponent, U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Bloomington, has been criticizing Bayh, saying hes been an influence-peddling gold-plated superlobbyist who now calls Washington, D.C., home.
A recent production of the classic musical Man of La Mancha is drawing audiences with its modern touches and passionate performances.

Man of La Mancha continues through Aug. 14 at The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. The popular musical is directed by Nick Bowling.

Anyone who has enjoyed productions of the four-decades old musical, will be drawn to this version with its blending of old world and present day scenarios.

The musical tells the story of Don Quixote, man of La Mancha, whos actually an ordinary man gone mad who believes hes a knight in search of the impossible dream. He also goes in quest of righting wrongs and curing the ills of society. The production, based on The Adventures of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, is done as a play-within-a-play which puts Cervantes on trial prior to the Spanish Inquisition and features Quixote, his pal Sancho, and Aldonza, whom Quixote adores.

Messages within the play deal with seeking dreams, dealing with fears, being honest with oneself and upholding whats right in society.

Marriott Theatres rendition of the iconic production stars a stellar cast of actors/vocalists. Nathaniel Stampley as Cervantes/Don Quixote performs the beloved tunes with great passion and strong vocals. His delivery of The Impossible Dream/The Quest is a standout.

Danni Smith as a gritty Aldonza also offers a memorable performance as the prostitute who Quixote sees as a royal lady. Her performances of Its All the Same, and a reprise of The Impossible Dream with Stampley were highlights.

Other strong performances include Richard Ruiz as Sancho and Jonathan Butler-Duplessis as Scorpio/Pedro. Included in the cast are brothers Matt Mueller and Andrew Mueller, Lillian Castillo, James Harms and others.

Highlighted songs include Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote), Dulcinea, Little Bird, Little Bird and Aldonza.

FYI: Man of La Mancha continues to Aug. 14 at The Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. Tickets range from $50 to $55. Call (847) 634-0200 or visit MarriottTheatre.com.
PORTAGE  One of two women claiming to have been assaulted by Lake County Councilman Jamal Washington is now accused of contempt for failing to cooperate with the special prosecutor in the case.

Special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stanley Levco filed a motion Friday accusing the woman of failing to show up July 6 to answer questions, which violates a court order that had granted her immunity in the case.

The womans attorney had notified defense attorney Paul Stracci the night before the hearing that he would not be in attendance because of a family emergency, the motion says. But the attorney did not contact Levco to see if a delay was agreeable or attempt to reschedule the deposition.

In any event, the State does not believe an attorneys stating he is unavailable relieves the deponent from being required to appear for a deposition, in the absence of an agreement by all the parties, the motion reads.

Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Thode, who was called in as special judge in the case, scheduled an Aug. 9 hearing on the contempt motion.

Fridays pretrial hearing also was continued to that date after the judge granted a request from both sides in the case to postpone the Aug. 25-26 trial to a future date, possibly in October.

Thode also agreed to a request by the defense to modify Washingtons no-contact order for court and other legal-related matters.

Levco did not oppose the request so long as the victim is present with Washington voluntarily.

As long as shes not ordered to be in his presence, I have no problem with it, he said.

Washington, 42, is accused of assaulting his wife and the other woman Dec. 3.

He also is accused of violating a court order to stay away from his family in December 2015 and again in April. The charges of strangulation, domestic battery and invasion of privacy carry a maximum penalty of more than two years imprisonment.

Washington has pleaded not guilty.

A judge and prosecutor from outside Lake County were appointed to the case because Washington, who is free on bond, serves on the Lake County Council, which oversees the budgets of the Lake County courts and prosecutors office.

Washington, a Merrillville Democrat, was elected last year as the 3rd District Lake County councilman. He represents Garys Miller and East Side neighborhoods, the town of Merrillville and scattered precincts in Schererville and Griffith.

Washington has declined to comment on the allegations against him, but has apologized to his constituents and political supporters.
VALPARAISO  Formal charges were filed Friday against the Michigan man arrested Wednesday morning inside the Porter County Courthouse, which sustained thousands of dollars worth of damage in an overnight rampage.

Kristopher Newcomb, 26, of Battle Creek, is charged with felony burglary, and misdemeanor counts of theft and criminal mischief.

According to court documents, Newcomb was discovered by a Porter County probation officer about 5:38 a.m. Wednesday on the first floor of the courthouse, sleeping and surrounded by food wrappers and candy.

Officials said Newcomb broke into the courthouse sometime after 10 p.m. Tuesday through a window in the boiler room and proceeded through the building breaking windows and damaging computer equipment. Police said he also broke into several vending machines and ate various food items.

Newcomb tested positive for alcohol consumption, which is believed to be a contributing factor, said Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds.

The courthouse was closed Wednesday, but reopened Thursday.

Valparaiso police estimated the damages at $12,000.
EAST CHICAGO  A 23-year-old man who already has a pending child molesting case was additionally charged this week in a separate case.

Luis A. Mendoza, of East Chicago, was charged this week with three counts of child molesting and two counts of sexual misconduct of a minor. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

Mendoza is accused of molesting from 2011 to 2015 a now teenage boy who lives out of state. East Chicago police began investigating Mendoza after the boy in October told school officials about what happened to him.

Mendoza knows the boy, and the alleged incidents happened at various locations, including homes in East Chicago and Whiting. The boy told detectives that on one occasion Mendoza took photos while he forced the teen to have sex, according to the affidavit.

The last incident happened last August in East Chicago. The boy told police that Mendoza was smoking marijuana and inappropriately touched him, according to court records.

The charges come months after Mendoza was accused of molesting another boy in Whiting. In that case, Mendoza faces three counts of child molesting. He was released in March from Lake County Jail after posting a $2,000 bond, according to court records.

Mendoza also knew the boy who told police that the abuse happened from 2011 to 2012.
MUNSTER  A Gary man who was employed by Lee Enterprises is accused of improperly using a company credit card, according to court records.

Lee A. Sanders, 49, was charged Tuesday with theft, counterfeiting and check fraud. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

Sanders was fired from Lee Enterprises after a member of Lee management discovered he had used a company issued credit card to make personal purchases, according to the affidavit. Lee Enterprises owns The Times of Northwest Indiana.

A Lee official confirmed that Sanders was employed by the company, but declined further comment.

Sanders agreed to pay the company $1,469.93, which was the total amount of personal purchases he had charged to the companys credit card, according to the affidavit. On May 5, Sanders went to The Times of Northwest Indianas office in Munster to give officials a check for $1,470.

The check was later returned unpaid. According to the affidavit, Chase Bank officials determined the check was fake and the account it was written from didnt exist.

When contacted by police, Sanders, who is living in Georgia, said he would make arrangements to pay back the money. The money had not been repaid at the time the affidavit was filed in court, the affidavit stated.
GARY  Police on Friday released a surveillance image of a man accused of looking into vehicles in the city's Miller section.

The man in the photo was seen on multiple occasions looking into vehicles in the 400 block of Lake Street, Lt. Dawn Westerfield said. He is also accused of damaging property and has been seen carrying a handgun, she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Thomas Decanter at (219) 881-1231 or the anonymous crime tip line at (866) CRIME-GP.

Police advised residents not to approach the man because he may have a gun.
HAMMOND  A former Hammond Water Works employee has reached a settlement with the department over a lawsuit in which she claimed she was discriminated against because of her race.

Attorneys for both sides agreed to the cases dismissal with prejudice this week after an undisclosed settlement was reached June 28, according to U.S. District court records.

The initial lawsuit dates to December 2014, when Hazell Ridgell, an African-American, complained she was treated differently than her white co-workers.

Work hours and wage discrimination were among Ridgells claims.

In the lawsuit, she had contended when the building where she and others worked was being rehabilitated, employees were moved to the basement. Later, during this period, Ridgell said all of her white co-workers were given a desk upstairs, while she was left in the basement.

Ridgell eventually resigned.

Ridgells suit initially had sought reinstatement to her position with the department or a comparable position or, in the alternative, pay for such a position for a reasonable time in the future. She also initially had sought lost wages and employment benefits as well as other compensation.
CROWN POINT  A police officer accused in a drunken hit-and-run accident is off the public payroll.

The five Lake County Police Merit Board members voted unanimously Thursday afternoon to relieve Lt. Guy Mikulich of his duties and to continue his suspension without further paying his annual salary of $46,619.

Mikulich, 37, of Merrillville, had been on paid administrative leave since his July 10 arrest for severely injuring an Illinois man while working at the Gary Air Show.

The board scheduled a Sept. 8 hearing to permanently remove Mikulich from the county police force.

The officer faces 13 Lake Criminal Court charges for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury and operating his black unmarked Ford Crown Victoria squad car while intoxicated. He is pleading not guilty. No trial date has been set. Mikulich is next scheduled in criminal court Sept. 8.

Mikulich is free on bond and has been given court permission to live at a residential treatment program in Lakewood, Florida. He wasnt present at Thursdays board meeting, but was represented by attorney Christopher Cooper, who has had a prominent role in litigating police officer misconduct cases in East Chicago, Hobart and St. John.

Cooper argued the decision to cut off Mikulichs income was too important to be done so quickly before providing the board with mitigating circumstances on Mikulichs behalf.

John Bushemi, an attorney for Sheriff John Buncich, told the board, Lake County taxpayers shouldnt be saddled with providing full pay for a police officer who has criminal felony charges pending and is performing no law enforcement duties or any other service to the taxpayers.

Justin Murphy, the merit boards attorney, said they could act Thursday and reconsider any time later during the termination process, which in some cases has taken months to resolve.

State police allege Mikulich struck Derrick Dircks of Frankfort, Illinois, who was arranging items in the back of his legally parked van near Oak Avenue and Pike Street in Gary after the show. Dirks was thrown 20 feet by the impact.

A witness told police Mikulich looked back at the crash before driving away. Gary police stopped Mikulich about a mile and a half from the accident scene.

He is accused of having a blood alcohol content of 0.15, nearly double the legal limit.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Samuel Cappas ordered officials Tuesday not to make any public comments about the criminal allegations.

Cappas also recused himself from the case. Lake Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez previously recused himself, because he is familiar and has had previous contacts with Mikulich, according to court records. Lake Criminal Court Judge Clarence Murray now will preside over the case.

Mikulich previously was demoted from department commander early this year after he was involved in a scuffle with a man on New Years Eve at the Radisson Hotel. Mikulich and the man reportedly had past personal problems because of a woman.

In 2009, the county paid $130,000 to a one-armed man who alleged Mikulich used his authority and police training to severely beat him. The incident happened June 14, 2006, and stemmed from a dispute about a woman.
VALPARAISO  Munster resident Julie Dwyer broke down sobbing and shaking Friday afternoon near the front of the courtroom as security officers placed handcuffs on her and led her off to begin serving a six-year sentence for driving drunk and killing another motorist.

No, please, she said, turning to her attorney Kevin Milner. Please do something.

Her boyfriend, Jeremy Scheeringa, who just a short time before sobbed himself on the witness stand while asking the court for mercy, yelled out twice, Julie, I love you.

Dwyer voiced concern about the welfare of her children if she were sent to prison.

But Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Rebecca Buitendorp told the court that the victim  Timothy Jacobs  also has children who no longer will have a father, and a wife struggling now without a husband.

The fatal crash occurred Oct. 28, 2014, along Ind. 49 on the bridge over the Kankakee River.

A witness said Dwyer was swerving in and out of her southbound lane in a 2013 Honda Pilot before she struck a guardrail on the west side of the highway and then overcorrected and drove into the oncoming northbound lane on the bridge, according to police.

She collided head-on with a Ford F-150 pickup truck driven by Jacobs, who died en route to the hospital.

Dwyer had a blood alcohol content of 0.163, which is more than twice the legal limit, according to court documents. Emergency officials found a case of Blue Moon beer in Dwyers vehicle and one of the beers on the vehicles passenger seat.

She pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of driving drunk causing a death.

Jacobs wife, Laura Jacobs, told the court that she lost her home and vehicles as a result of her husbands death, and has suffered from depression and anxiety while having to go back to school to support her family.

Jacobs said she has forgiven Dwyer, but thought she should receive the maximum six-year sentence. She also asked the court to consider ordering Dwyer to pay her the equivalent of one year of her husbands former salary, which is around $110,000.

Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa told Dwyer before sentencing that her pain will end one day.

Alexa commented on high blood alcohol level in this case and said as a member of the Indiana General Assembly several years ago, he helped spearhead the successful struggle to lower the legal limit to .08.

Scheeringa told the court what a great mother Dwyer is and described how she gave back to the community.

This isnt who Julie is, he said. That one day is not her.

Milner said before sentencing that Dwyer is not a criminal and had no intention to hurt anyone. He asked the judge to sentence her to work release, home detention and probation.

I think this kind of case does scream for mercy, he said.
INDIANAPOLIS  Evan Bayh's name will be back on Hoosier ballots this November for the first time in 12 years.

The 33-member Democratic State Central Committee selected Bayh as the party's U.S. Senate nominee Friday, replacing former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, who decided two weeks ago to quit the race against U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Bloomington.

"Evan Bayh is a great example of what happens when you elect someone with Hoosier common sense to public office," Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said.

"Hoosiers want their elected officials to have a commitment to bipartisanship and a willingness to get things done for Indiana again. That's what Evan is all about and why we look forward to sending him to the Senate again this fall, where he and Joe Donnelly will proudly represent Hoosiers."

Bayh, of Indianapolis, is a former two-term Indiana governor and two-term U.S. senator. He faced only token opposition for the ballot vacancy from perennial candidate Bob Kern of Indianapolis.

After being selected for the nomination Bayh said, "I'm ready to get to work on winning this campaign, but more importantly, getting to work for Hoosiers."

A recent poll of likely Hoosier voters, conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, found 54 percent support Bayh for Senate, 33 percent favor Young and 13 percent are undecided, with a plus-or-minus 4.1 percent margin of error.

The election winner will replace retiring U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, a Republican, who succeeded Bayh in the Senate after the Democrat chose not to run for a third term in 2010.
INDIANAPOLIS  Gov. Mike Pence is seemingly clearing the field for Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb to succeed him on the November ballot as the Republican nominee for Indiana governor.

On Friday, the GOP vice presidential candidate declared in a letter sent to the 22 members of the Republican State Central Committee that there is no better individual to lead our state than Eric Holcomb.

As Karen and I embark on a mission to restore strong Republican leadership to our nation, I do so with optimism about the boundless future of Indiana, and I wholeheartedly endorse Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb to serve as the Republican nominee for governor of Indiana in the upcoming election, Pence said.

The governor promised that Holcomb, who is a former top aide to Gov. Mitch Daniels and U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, and past chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, can put together a robust campaign utilizing decades of valuable experience in all 92 counties.

Ive known Eric Holcomb for more than 20 years, and I believe he is one of the best prepared individuals in recent memory to take on the job of governor, Pence said.

In a statement, Holcomb said hes as honored to receive Pences endorsement as he was in February when Pence chose him to replace Ivy Tech Community College President Sue Ellspermann as lieutenant governor.

Thanks to common sense conservative leadership, Indiana continues to balance budgets, cut taxes, make record investments in education and infrastructure and more, Holcomb said.

As our states next governor, I will strive not only to continue that success, but to lead Indiana to the next level.

Holcomb also was endorsed Friday by Coats; Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne; and GOP National Committeewoman Marcia Coats.

The Republican State Central Committee meets at 9 a.m. Region time Tuesday to pick a replacement for Pence in the governors race against Democrat John Gregg and Libertarian Rex Bell, since state law does not permit Pence to run for governor and vice president simultaneously.

The three other GOP gubernatorial candidates  U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, a Munster native; U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks; and state Sen. Jim Tomes  indicated they will remain in the contest despite Pences endorsement of Holcomb.

This is still a wide open race, Rokita said.

I have spent a lot of time with the vast majority of the committee members. They take their responsibility seriously and truly want to nominate the candidate best suited to defeat John Gregg with Election Day less than four months away.

In any case, should state party leaders ignore Pences prayerfully considered recommendation, the governor said he will respect that decision and support the nominee you deem fit to serve.
A Crown Point man described as being in "terminator mode" carried a handgun into a Schererville church Wednesday looking for his former girlfriend, according to law enforcement officials.

The Lake County prosecutor's office Thursday charged Thomas Clark, 41, with four counts of stalking and one count of resisting law enforcement in connection with the incident.

Schererville police arrested Clark about 10 a.m. Wednesday after he allegedly entered the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, 140 U.S. 30, looking for the woman who was at the church for a meeting, according to documents filed with the prosecutor's office.

Police responding to a 911 call from the church pursued Clark as he drove westbound on U.S. 30 away from the church but Clark didn't stop until he ran into heavy traffic at the intersection of U.S. 30 and Joliet Road and the police squad car blocked his passage.

Officers discovered Clark was wanted on a June warrant for invasion of privacy.

Police recovered a semi-automatic handgun, 152 rounds of ammunition, brass knuckles and a small knife from inside Clark's vehicle, according to the charging documents.

The woman told police she'd been in the church restroom when Clark arrived, and other people in the church yelled for her to stay there.

Witnesses told police they saw Clark enter the church carrying a gun in his waistband.

Clark brushed past them when they attempted to block him from entering the church and getting near the restroom, and he appeared to be in a "terminator mode," the witnesses said.

Clark left when he realized the witnesses were phoning police, they said.

A court order issued in January 2008 in Lake County was intended to protect the woman from Clark after numerous threats against her and her family since the breakup of their relationship, according to charging documents.
STERLING, Virginia  Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as the leading contender to join the Democratic ticket as Hillary Clintons running mate, according to two Democrats, who both cautioned that Clinton has not made a final decision and could yet change directions.

The announcement of Clintons pick could come as early as this afternoon in Florida, a crucial general election battleground state. The timing is aimed at shifting attention away from the end of Donald Trumps Republican convention and generating excitement before the start of Clintons own convention next week in Philadelphia.

Kaine, 58, has been a favorite for the vice presidential slot since the start of Clintons search process. He has been active in the Senate on foreign relations and military affairs and built a reputation for working across the aisle as Virginias governor and as mayor of Richmond.

Im glad the waiting game is nearly over, Kaine told reporters Thursday after an event in northern Virginia, deflecting questions about whether he was about to join the ticket.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a longtime friend of Clintons, is still in the mix, according to one of the two Democrats, who is close to the Clintons. Both Democrats are familiar with the selection process and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Clintons choice will be the culmination of a closely held search for a running mate, run by a small group of longtime advisers and confidantes.

Preparing for a showdown with Trump, Clinton has sought to project an inclusive campaign aimed at breaking down barriers and building bridges to mobilize the diverse coalition of voters who twice elected President Barack Obama.

Clinton has also considered Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of liberals; Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Labor Secretary Tom Perez;and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

Clinton is opening a two-day campaign swing in Florida today. Shes expected to unveil her running mate at either a rally today at the state fairgrounds in Tampa or at a Saturday event at Florida International University in Miami, where two-thirds of the student body is Hispanic.

The two locations give Clintons campaign the flexibility to make the announcement at the most optimal time. The campaign is expected to first inform donors, volunteers and activists by text message and has been encouraging supporters to sign up for such an update.

After the convention, Clinton and her vice presidential choice will depart on a campaign bus tour, reminiscent of Bill Clintons First 1,000 Miles tour with Al Gore after the partys 1992 convention.

Kaine is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and worked as a lawyer on fair housing and civil rights issues. He has been considered a leading vice presidential contender for weeks based on his broad political experience in Virginia, another presidential battleground.

One of the main reasons that Im being considered is because of Virginia, Kaine said. Its not necessarily just because of me. Its because Virginia is really important.

The Virginian is seen as a safe choice against Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Kaine could help Clinton woo moderate voters who have been turned off by Trumps provocative rhetoric.

Kaine campaigned with Clinton last week in northern Virginia, where he spoke briefly in Spanish and argued that Trump was unqualified, untested and untrustworthy.

Do you want a youre fired president or a youre hired president, Kaine said in Annandale, Virginia, as Clinton nodded. Do you want a trash-talking president or a bridge-building president?

Kaine took a year off from law school as a young man to work with Jesuit missionaries at a vocational school in Honduras. His friends have described him as someone steeped in his convictions and his Roman Catholic faith.

He and his wife, Anne Holton, are longtime members of Richmonds St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, a predominantly black congregation in a poor part of town. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Kaine moved to Virginia after meeting Holton at Harvard Law School.

She currently serves as Virginias secretary of education and is the daughter of former Virginia Gov. A. Linwood Holton Jr., a Republican. The couple have three children; their eldest son, Nat, is serving as a Marine.
After months of public comment on the proposed $8 billion railroad that would ring the Chicago metro area, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board has its work cut out for it.

There were more than 3,000 comments from property owners, railroads, elected officials, schools, advocacy groups, opposition groups and communities through which the 278-mile Great Lakes Basin Transportation rail line would run.

Frank Patton, chairman of GLBT, has promised sweeteners to the public, including free electricity to homes along the route and a promise to pick up farmers rail cars of grain, if the farmers build a rail spur. That doesnt seem to have resonated with the public.

Nor has the acknowledgement that with the volume of freight increasing, and the Borman Expressway unable to be expanded, there must be another way to keep that freight moving through the Chicago freight bottleneck.

We have seen before the recalcitrance of major railroads in accepting new routes, including the free tracks skirting the newly expanded Gary/Chicago International Airport runway. Getting that new route to be accepted, at no cost to the railroads, took nearly a decade. And unlike the runway project, Pattons GLBT would change the competitive landscape by, in effect, building a toll road for trains.

To many, this project brings to mind the idea of a third airport for the Chicago area. That concept, put forth by the Federal Aviation Administration, has been talked about for years, with airport plans put forward in Peotone, Gary and elsewhere, but airlines havent committed to serving a third airport.

Which railroads want this new rail line built? Which shippers want it?

And what long-term benefits, after the initial construction, would this railroad bring to Northwest Indiana and the rest of the route?

We have heard of alternate routes, including one that would avoid Porter County with the addition of new track near Wanatah and using existing rail routes south of the county.

What we havent heard much of is support for the rail project.
The Clinton campaign is delaying the announcement of Hillary Clinton's vice president pick because of the attack in Munich, according to CNN.

Clinton will announce the pick via text and Twitter, the campaign says. Those who want the text need to text "VP" to 47246.

The announcement was supposed to happen this afternoon. CNN reports the time line of the announcement and also of a joint appearance in Miami are "in flux."

As for who the nominee will be, insiders still overwhelmingly say it will be Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, although USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker are at the top of the list as well.

Clinton hosted a rally in Tampa this afternoon and is scheduled to hold one in Miami on Saturday.

She attended a roundtable meeting in Orlando on Friday.

Clinton said that the Pulse nightclub shooting was an attack on the Latino and LGBT community.

"We have to stand against hate and bigotry," she said.

Clinton hosted the roundtable discussion at the Holden Community Center with community leaders, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Some of the suggestions, according to Clinton, are dealing with the country's gun violence and assault weapons and the dismantling of a global network that influences people to commit terror attacks.

She also visited the Pulse nightclub.

Saturday, Clinton will host a rally in Miami at Florida International University. That rally is expected to begin at noon, with the doors opening at 10 a.m. Those interested in attending can also head to the Clinton website.

Clinton is expected to announce her vice presidential candidate in the next few days. Those who sign up for text messages from the campaign are supposed to find out first.

Both Kaine and Booker are listed as speakers for the Democratic National Convention next week. Vilsack is not on the list, but it's usually considered unorthodox for a sitting cabinet member to speak at a party's national convention.

However, all of the candidates, and the campaign, are staying mum about their chances.

Kaine told the Associated Press that he was not looking for another job, while Booker would not say if he was even interested.
After lots of pressure to close Rikers Island, Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided to move the 180 youngest inmates out of the correctional facility. But, NY1 Criminal Justice Reporter Dean Meminger tells us that won't be happening anytime soon.

Advocates and the Justice Department have said Rikers Island is no place for 16 and 17 year olds. Now Mayor de Blasio is proposing to remove them from the infamous jail.

"Everything we know about young people and the brain science tells us that we need to have children in a different environment, a nurturing environment where there are programs available," said prison reform advocate Glenn Martin, with Just Leadership USA. "Close to homes and close to families. And this is the first step in the right direction."

The city's plan calls for moving the sixteen and seventeen year-olds to the Horizon Juvenile Center, off 149th street in The Bronx. The mayor's criminal justice coordinator says it will cost $170 million to renovate the site. The city plans to add programs aimed at reducing recidivism.

"Definitely school, certainly all kinds of things with respect to therapy, also vocational training," said Liz Glazer, director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. "Also just activities."

The Administration for Children's Services now houses fourteen and fifteen year-olds in trouble with the law at Horizon. They would be transferred to the agency's Crossroads facility in Brooklyn  $130 million dollars would be spent to rehab that site.

"We have to have a place to put 16 and 17 year-olds and this is something that is best for them and as a result best for our neighborhoods and New York City," Glazer said.

In 2014 U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Rikers was plagued by a culture of violence, and that adolescents shouldn't be among the 10,000 older inmates there.

Prison reform advocate Martin says it is important to remember most of the teens are not convicted criminals.

"Eighty percent of the people of Rikers Island including 80% of these kids are only charged with a crime, they are not convicted of anything," Martin said.

Moving the 16 and 17 year olds into this Bronx facility will take some time to do.

The city predicts four years to get community and political approvals to transfer the site to the Correction Department.
Former New York City correction officers union leader Norman Seabrook pleaded not guilty Friday morning during his arraignment on federal corruption charges. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.



Norman Seabrook says he's doing fine despite the charges.



"I feel great, and we're innocent, and it will be proven," he said.



The outspoken former head of the city's correction union was arraigned in federal court Friday on charges he took $60,000 in bribes in exchange for investing up $20 million in union money in a high-risk hedge fund.

When asked by a judge at the arraignment how he was was pleading, Seabrook responded, "Absolutely not guilty."



But federal prosecutors say they have lots of proof that the high-powered union leader and a hedge fund founder, Murray Huberfeld, were involved in the scheme. Huberfeld also pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. attorney's office says its evidence includes thousands of emails, Correction Department documents and wiretapped conversations from four cellphones. The calls were in English, Spanish and Yiddish.

Seabrook said he's not worried about it, and apparently, he's praying on it.



"No question about it, we will be vindicated. God is a good God. Thank you so much," Seabrook said.



His attorney, Paul Shechtman, appears confident as well.



Q: Any concern? I was pretty shocked when he said thousands of emails, four cell phones, Spanish, Yiddish, English. That's a lot of evidence.

Shechtman: That's a lot of languages. No concern.



Seabrook's case is a part of a broader corruption scandal that has led to charges against several high-ranking NYPD officers for allegedly taking kickbacks from rich and well-connected Hasidic businessmen who also have been arrested. There's also an investigation of how those businessmen are connected to the mayor's fundraising.



Norman Seabrook is scheduled to be back in federal court in November after his lawyers have some time to check out all of those emails and phone calls.


The family of Delrawn Small says they plan to file a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city.



Officials say Small was shot and killed by off-duty police officer Wayne Isaacs after a road rage incident the morning of July 4.

It happened near Atlantic Avenue and Bradford Street in East New York.



Initial reports claimed Small punched Isaacs several times before he was shot, but surveillance video shows Isaacs fire his gun as soon as Small reaches his window.

Police say Small was unarmed at the time.

His widow, Wenona Small, says she wants to prevent an incident like this from happening again.



"No one should have to go through what I'm going through, his children, his family. I want justice for my husband," Wenona Small said. "We want justice so this doesn't happen to anybody else's family."

"This was an unjustified killing, a man walking towards a car and, a second later, shot in the head," said Sanford Rubenstein, Wenona Small's attorney.



Isaacs has been placed on modified duty.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been appointed special prosecutor to investigate Small's death.


The New York City Health Department on Friday confirmed the first baby delivered with Zika-related microcephaly at a hospital in New York City. Erin Billups filed the following report.

City health officials have long feared this day would come: a baby born in New York with ZIka-related microcephaly.



"We are very saddened by this news. However, we are not surprised given the number of travel-related cases we've been seeing here in New York City among women who are pregnant," said Dr. Herminia Palacio, the deputy mayor of health and human services.



More than 1,500 children worldwide have been born microcephaly because of the Zika virus, mostly in Latin America, the epicenter of the outbreak.

In the spring, the city launched a PR campaign about the risks to women who travel to the Zika zone.



Still, the number of pregnant women in the city who have tested positive for the virus has climbed to 41.

Officials hope that news that a child has been born with Zika-related microcephaly will finally hit home.

"I'm hopeful that will make more real to people the risks that they face if they're pregnant and exposed to Zika," said Dr. Mary Bassett, the city's health commissioner.

Microcephaly is a condition marked by an abnormally small head and impaired brain development. Infections caused by Zika usually are especially severe.



"There are other birth defects that have been ascribed with Zika. They can have problems with their vision, they can have problems with their hearing. And we don't know all the potential problems there may be," Bassett said.



The mosquito species that carries Zika does not live in the city. The mother of the microcephaly baby disclosed Friday likely was infected while traveling. Both the mother and her child will continue to be monitored.



As the number of those being tested for the Zika virus continues to rise, officials say they fully expect to see more cases of microcephaly.

The Health Department is launching a second public awareness campaign, again urging women who are pregnant or who are looking to have children not to travel to Zika-affected areas. But this time, the campaign will have a more explicit message about the risks.


When the lost sister, Glykeria, is returned to the family, we hear of her adventures as a 15-year-old conscript in the guerrilla army. Later, she becomes ''the social commentator and general switchboard for our extended family and then for the entire Greek community of Worcester.'' Almost always attached to a long telephone cord, ''Glykeria represents the force of community opinion, the voice of Everyman. She provides the censure and the praise and, if necessary, the ostracism that staves off social anarchy and fills us all with fear of breaking the rules.''

Fotini, the youngest and shyest sister, has the most difficulty assimilating, and no wonder: like Nicholas, she is assigned by the Worcester school system to a class for the retarded because she doesn't speak English.

Kanta, the second sister, becomes an assertive modern woman. Her transformation illustrates how rapidly the traditional structure of the family has changed. While Christos merely informs Olga that he has found a husband for her, and Olga marries her father's choice, Kanta goes back to Greece, at the age of 22, to do her own picking and choosing.

The Greek immigrant community of Worcester provides the chorus for these events. They are a lively and loyal bunch, and Mr. Gage writes about them all, including the bit players, with affection.

A reader cares about the four sisters, the father and the author himself, and the ''calamities, heartaches, and triumphs'' that befall them in America. However, Mr. Gage retells the ''Eleni'' story - several times, in fact. And while the retelling is sometimes justified, it nonetheless creates a problem. Eleni's murder makes all subsequent hardships that the family endured, real though they were, seem minor by comparison. And Mr. Gage's prose too often slips into cliches: ''As the clouds of war gathered over Europe''; ''The torrent of immigrants from Greece slowed to a trickle by the second decade of the century.''

Long passages that describe his high school years fall into the category of ''you had to be there.'' Mr. Gage's courtship of the ''blue-eyed brunette from Minnesota'' whom he meets at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University sounds oddly bloodless, reading more like a job interview than a romance: ''It was too bad that she wasn't Greek, I said with a shrug.''

Yet one pulls for the bright, ambitious Nicholas, whose vision of America as the land of opportunity is shaped by the movies, and for Christos, flawed, vain and, as Mr. Gage comes to realize, as generous-hearted in his own way as the author's mother was in hers. Christos also embodies philotimo, the complicated Greek sense of honor. ''To a Greek,'' Mr. Gage writes, ''protecting one's honor takes top priority, even above staying alive, but it is also important, after you fight for your honor and win, to make sure that the rest of the world knows it.''
Late Thursday afternoon, the Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus was sitting in a fancy bunker suite deep in the intestines of the Quicken Loans Arena. The Trump Room is what the space is called this week. It is part of the decked-out lair where the soon-to-be Republican nominee will hold before delivering his acceptance speech tonight sometime around 10. It resembles a boardroom not dissimilar to the set of The Apprentice  bottles of Trump-brand water, a shiny Formica table and poster-size pictures of the candidate all over the walls.

Priebus, whom I met with periodically in the weeks before the convention for a recent article, wore a dark suit and conspicuous socks  navy blue covered with red squiggles. Nice socks, I said.

Thanks, he said. These are my speak to the convention socks. He will be addressing his fractured assemblage of partisans at 9:15.

Because we spent so much time together this spring, I thought he would surely be at ease with me and would tell me everything straight: no spin, pablum or talking points. Can you be honest? I asked.
Echoes: City, Society, Conflict & Self in Hungarian Photography (through July 30) This exhibition, part of the citywide festival Modernity X Hungary, is a focused complement to the sprawling show Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, at the Guggenheim Museum through Sept. 7. The geometric photographs of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy are on view here, along with photos by contemporary artists whose artworks show his influence well after his death in 1946. Alma Gallery, 625 West 27th Street, Chelsea, 347-237-1428. Additional events at modernityxhungary.com.

The Fence (through Sept. 20) For its fifth year, this outdoor photography show returns with 1,250 feet of fencing displaying works presented by United Photo Industries  the organization behind Photoville, which opens on Sept. 21. The shows roster of photographers, 40 in all, were chosen by a jury, which will also select a grand-prize winner to be exhibited at Photoville. 2 Old Fulton Street, at Furman Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, fence.photoville.com; free.

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum: On the Line: Intrepid and the Vietnam War (continuing) Visitors familiar with this museum are likely to be well aware of its flight deck, perhaps even some of its wartime history. During the Vietnam War, the Intrepid served three tours overseas, between 1966 and 1969. Now, in an exhibition set in the space where crew members lived and worked, the museum tells their stories with artifacts, film clips and photographs. Pier 86, 46th Street and 12th Avenue, Clinton, 877-957-7447, intrepidmuseum.org.

New York Library for the Performing Arts: Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival (through Aug. 27) A second Mozart exhibition has come to Lincoln Center. This one, a companion to Magical Designs for Mozarts Magic Flute (also on view through Aug. 27), celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Mostly Mozart Festival. With memorabilia, archive photos and concert excerpts, we get the story of how a little summer series called Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival in 1966 grew into the beloved annual event it is today, with the composers classics now performed alongside contemporary works. 111 Amsterdam Avenue, at 65th Street, Lincoln Center, 917-275-6975, nypl.org/lpa.

New York Public Library: Alexander Hamilton: Striver, Statesman, Scoundrel (through Dec. 31) Its the New York Public Librarys turn to take advantage of Hamilton-mania. This exhibition, made from the librarys collection, provides some answers to that question posed at the beginning of Lin-Manuel Mirandas hit musical about the founding father without a father, Alexander Hamilton: How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, 917-275-6975, nypl.org/locations/schwarzman.
A critical guide to performances of classical music in the New York City area.

Full reviews of recent classical performances: nytimes.com/classical. A searchable guide to these and other performances is at nytimes.com/events.

Opera

Bang on a Can Festival (all week) As a composers collective, Bang on a Can continues to be one of the most fertile grounds for nurturing composing talent and encouraging a spirit of exploration. This festival, in North Adams, Mass., proves as much with highlights including a tribute by the pianist Vicky Chow to the collectives founders, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, that also includes new music by Christopher Cerrone. On Sunday, there will be a rare performance of John Cages strangely moving Atlas Eclipticalis. Other events showcase premieres by some 30 up-and-coming composers and the music of Martin Bresnick, who will celebrate his 70th birthday this year. Various times, at Mass MoCA, 1040 Mass MoCA Way, massmoca.org. (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim)

Bard Summerscape (Friday and Sunday) This summer, the Bard Music Festival turns attention on Puccini in two August weekends of concerts, recitals and lectures. To help place the composer in the context of his life and times, the festival is also offering a rare staged production of Iris, the 1898 opera by Pietro Mascagni, best known for his one-act melodrama Cavalleria Rusticana, a sensation at its premiere. James Darrah directs; Leon Botstein conducts the American Symphony Orchestra, with the soprano Talise Trevigne in the title role. Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.; Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 845-758-7900, fishercenter.bard.edu. (Anthony Tommasini)

Glimmerglass Festival (Friday through Thursday) Its always worth visiting Cooperstown (a four-hour drive from New York City) to see opera productions at the excitingly intimate 900-seat theater of the adventurous Glimmerglass Festival. This season offers a production of Puccinis La Boheme that gives the work a Belle Epoque setting; Rossinis seldom-seen comedy The Thieving Magpie, directed by Peter Kazaras; the composer Robert Wards Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Arthur Millers The Crucible, directed by Francesca Zambello; and Stephen Sondheims Sweeney Todd, a new production by the inventive director Christopher Alden, conducted by John DeMain. Greer Grimsley sings the title role and Luretta Bybee takes on Mrs. Lovett. Sweeney Todd, Friday at 7:30 p.m.; The Crucible, Saturday at 8 p.m.; La Boheme, Sunday and Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; The Thieving Magpie, Monday at 1:30 p.m.; Glimmerglass Opera, 7300 State Highway 80, eight miles north of Cooperstown, 607-547-2255, glimmerglass.org. (Tommasini)
BoJack Horseman kicks off a new season of absurdist comedy as its fame-hungry star chases after an Oscar. The Campaign sends in the political clowns. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes a case for why his cousin Michael C. Skakel did not kill Martha Moxley.

Whats Streaming

BOJACK HORSEMAN on Netflix. BoJack (Will Arnett), a depressive, substance-abusing, washed-up sitcom actor who happens to be a horse, returns for a third season, this time on the awards-season press tour for the biopic Secretariat, in which he has his dream role. But after he bungled things on the set, the director finished his scenes by using a C.G.I. horse, which ended up playing the role better  and whose performance BoJack has to pretend is his own. Now BoJack realizes that he wants to be good enough to have actually done it. Angela Bassett voices Ana Spanikopita, his Oscar whisperer publicist. Show business is this comedys setting, but its real subject is connection, and the hurdles that people put in the way of it, James Poniewozik wrote in The New York Times. For BoJack Horseman, the race to happiness is not a straightaway; its a steeplechase.
I think its very sad, to be honest. It was tough, but we have a job to do. Its a big night tonight, we had a big night last night. Weve all worked with and for Rupert for a long time, and so in one sense it will be a continuation. But in another sense, it feels bad. And its a bad feeling. Roger was always great to me, and my family, Ive always talked about that, and its tough to see him go.

Its a mixture of dealing with the reality of this news and the sadness of it, and the import and the big job that we have tonight. ... Well deal with how to work in this new atmosphere day-to-day. I dont think its going to change much from my perspective, as what I do every day. I think a lot of what we do on the news side is bottom-up, and its always been that way. Im betting that Rupert is going to continue that exact same process.
SAN DIEGO  It wont be joining New York, London, Milan and Paris on the official fashion month schedule any time soon, but San Diego, perhaps best known for annually hosting over 130,000 comic book fans who descend on the city during Comic-Con International each July, is the unlikely epicenter of a fashion movement that has achieved every supervillains dream of taking over the world. To be specific: wearable pop culture.

There is a lingering assumption that comic convention attire involves one of two things: revealing costumes (for women) or sweat-stained T-shirts (for men). Despite the sprinkling of stardust provided by boldface names like Cara Delevingne and Scarlett Johansson, who were here to promote their latest movies, these gatherings are rarely, if ever, mentioned in the same breath as real fashion.

But it was fashion  and decidedly not costumes  that took center stage on Thursday evening at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel during this years Comic-Con, where the Her Universe Fashion Show, a competitive event reminiscent of Project Runway, involved 27 designers debuting pop-culture-inspired ensembles that would not have looked out of place during John Galliano-era Dior or Lee McQueen-era Alexander McQueen.
How do you explain the visceral and personal pain caused by the killing of a black person you did not even know to people who did not grow up with, as their legacy, the hushed stories of black bodies hung from trees by a lynching mob populated with sheriffs deputies? Or of law enforcement, who often doubled as the Ku Klux Klan, killing black Southerners on lonely roads under the gaze of a silent moon?

To many of us, the almost guaranteed failure in modern times to hold the police responsible for these deaths feels eerily familiar; black Americans add these recent cases to the list of countless black people who died a few generations ago at the hands of persons unknown.

But, of course, this is not just about history and our disparate recollections of it. It is about now, and the way the vast gulf between the collective lived experiences of white Americans and that of black Americans can make true empathy seem impossible.

How do you explain  how can you make those who are not black feel  the consuming sense of dread and despair, when one sees the smiling faces, captured in photos, of Mr. Castile and Mr. Sterling, and knows that but for the grace of God, it could have been your uncle, your brother, your child, you? That if a police officer, his mind having soaked up centuries of racial fears, were to stop your loved one, or you, he may not be able to see a family man or doting mother? Someone who is not a boogeyman, but someone whom, as Ta-Nehisi Coates so piercingly lays out in Between the World and Me, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, spouses, children and community had poured their love, hopes and dreams into. Someone who pushed a daughter on the swing, hugged a fiancee after an argument, told bad jokes.

How do you explain that awful understanding that each of these deaths confirms for black citizens, that if stopped by the police, we may be stripped down to our most basic of elements, that one part of us that is a complete fiction: our race. And that fiction  the American crime of blackness  can turn a broken taillight into a death sentence.

The last thing I wanted to do that day, and on many days, was face people who did not, at a gut level, get this. My friends, also struggling to leave their homes and head out into the world, reached out to me, and I to them. We sent texts and Facebook messages. We grieved together, trying to fill the hollow with love. Many people called into work that day, unable to deal with the mundane in the face of a tragedy.
The police eventually determined that the package, thrown around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, was a hoax device, made from a candle and LED-style lights wrapped in tinfoil and a T-shirt. But the episode was the beginning of a long night for the police, who began searching for the vehicle and the man inside.

Around 2 a.m., the police encountered a vehicle at Columbus Circle that matched the description of the one in Times Square. A six-hour standoff stretched into the morning rush on Thursday as the man, identified as Hector Meneses, 52, of East Elmhurst, Queens, refused to leave his vehicle. Subway trains bypassed the busy area and traffic was shut down during an operation that involved dozens of officers and a counterterrorism robot.

While sitting in his vehicle, Mr. Meneses told the police that he had a bomb strapped to his chest and that he was willing to die, William Aubry, the assistant police chief in charge of the Manhattan South detective squad, said at a news conference. Mr. Meneses wore a vest and a red plastic hat and was acting erratically, Chief Aubry said. The robot allowed the police to communicate with Mr. Meneses and also let them look inside the vehicle, officials said.

Around 7:45 a.m., the police used the robot to smash the cars window and pepper-spray to subdue Mr. Meneses, they said. They found 19 LED-type lights in the car as well a pot with a cover that officials believe was meant to simulate a pressure-cooker bomb. They did not find any explosives, Chief Aubry said.
Into her 80s, Elizabeth McQueen patrolled Queensbridge Park in Long Island City, Queens, wheeling her walker, a grandson or a great-grandchild at her side, eyes sweeping the walks and lawn. If someone was barbecuing, she made sure they had garbage bags, her grandson, Desmen Williams, said. She had a bin of supplies. A rake if you needed to rake up. She made sure the fire barrels were out there, so you put coals in the barrel when you were done.

The park is on the eastern bank of the East River, across from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and Mrs. McQueen lived in the Queensbridge Houses, home to about 7,000 people, the largest public housing development in the country.

We used to take the kids down to the park, Dolores Chauncey, her friend and neighbor, said. Shed say, Were on one side of the river and the millionaires were on the other, but we have the better view. We can lay in the park and watch the boats go by, and wait for the stars and moon to come out. And we did.

Image Elizabeth McQueen leaned on officials to revamp Queensbridge Park, in Long Island City, whose esplanade reopened in summer 2014.

Mrs. Chauncey and Mrs. McQueen met about 40 years ago, another age in New York. The children splashed in a baby pool in the summertime, fished from the rocks when they got older, picnicked at all ages. But along the riverfront, the sea wall, built on a foundation of loose stone called riprap, was falling apart. To keep people away from the hazard, the parks department fenced off the area, including an esplanade. Decay marched on: One of two playgrounds was turned into a parking lot for people working on the Queensboro Bridge. The park house, with its concession stand and changing rooms for the wading pool, was left to the elements. And the pool was drained and filled in, visible only in the minds eye.
Immigrants take some of the most dangerous jobs and are exposed to conditions that can literally kill them, if not destroy their health, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said in a statement. We focused on the nail salon workers who, as a class, have been grossly exploited and exposed to dangerous chemicals without any protection. These new ventilation requirements will make nail salons in New York the safest in the nation.

With each dab of polish, slick of topcoat and swipe of acetone-soaked cotton balls, the manicure process entails a slurry of chemicals that make painted nails shiny, durable and removable. But many of those chemicals are known irritants to airways, eyes and skin, and some are tied to more serious ailments such as miscarriage, harm to a fetus and even cancer.

Nail salons, new and existing, will be required to have ventilation that complies with the 2015 International Mechanical Code, a voluntary standard set by the International Code Council, an organization that devises minimum safety standards for workplaces and other spaces. There are approximately 5,000 salons in New York State. Salons that do not comply risk fines and possible loss of their license. (No data exists for how many salons currently have ventilation.)

When Nail Spa on Downing opened in the West Village in Manhattan last year, the ventilation duct that runs across its ceiling and the vents in the walls were as central an aspect as the pedicure chairs and waxing rooms. Its a must, said Hui Jie Li, the receptionist, who applauded the new mandate. Its good for us; its good for our customers.

In a text message, Donald Yu, the director of the Korean American Nail Salon Association, said that the organization was still finding the facts on the ventilation issue, and that it was too early to reach a conclusion on its impact on the industry. He added that the nail salon association will cooperate with the state to improve nail salon environment, whether its ventilation or any other matter.
1. A gunman opened fire outside a shopping mall in Munich on Friday, killing at least nine people and wounding several others, in what officials described as a terrorist attack.

The shooting rampage was probably the work of a single gunman whose body was found near the mall with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said.
Welcome to a world without rules. (I want you to read this paragraph in your super-scary movie trailer voice.) Welcome to a world in which families are mowed down by illegal immigrants, in which cops die in the streets, in which Muslims rampage the innocents and threaten our very way of life, in which the fear of violent death lurks in every human heart.

Sometimes in that blood-drenched world a dark knight arises. You dont have to admire or like this knight. But you need this knight. He is your muscle and your voice in a dark, corrupt and malevolent world.

Such has been the argument of nearly every demagogue since the dawn of time. Aaron Burr claimed Spain threatened the U.S in 1806. A. Mitchell Palmer exaggerated the Red Scare in 1919 and Joe McCarthy did it in 1950.

And such was Donald Trumps law-and-order argument in Cleveland on Thursday night. This was a compelling text that turned into more than an hour of humorless shouting. It was a dystopian message that found an audience and then pummeled them to exhaustion.
All of this is, or should be, deeply disturbing; what would the news media be saying if major figures in the Democratic Party routinely praised leftist dictators? But what were now seeing from Mr. Trump and his associates goes beyond emulation, and is starting to look like subservience.

First, there was the Ukraine issue  one on which Republican leaders have consistently taken a hard line and criticized Mr. Obama for insufficient action, with John McCain, for example, accusing the president of weakness. And the G.O.P. platform was going to include a statement reaffirming this line, but it was watered down to blandness on the insistence of Trump representatives.

Then came Mr. Trumps interview with The New York Times, in which, among other things, he declared that even if Russia attacked members of NATO he would come to their aid only if those allies  which we are bound by treaty to defend  have fulfilled their obligations to us.

Now, some of this is Mr. Trumps deep ignorance of policy, his apparent inability to understand that you cant run the U.S. government the way he has run his ramshackle business empire. We know from many reports about his stiffing of vendors, his history of profiting from enterprises even as they go bankrupt, that he sees contracts as suggestions, clear-cut financial obligations as starting points for negotiation. And we know that he sees fiscal policy as no different; he has already talked about renegotiating U.S. debt. So why should we be surprised that he sees diplomatic obligations the same way?

But is there more to the story? Is there some specific channel of influence?

We do know that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trumps campaign manager, has worked as a consultant for various dictators, and was for years on the payroll of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and a Putin ally.

And there are reasons to wonder about Mr. Trumps own financial interests. Remember, we know nothing about the true state of his business empire, and he has refused to release his taxes, which might tell us more. We do know that he has substantial if murky involvement with wealthy Russians and Russian businesses. You might say that these are private actors, not the government  but in Mr. Putins crony-capitalist paradise, this is a meaningless distinction.

At some level, Mr. Trumps motives shouldnt matter. We should be horrified at the spectacle of a major-party candidate casually suggesting that he might abandon American allies  just as we should be horrified when that same candidate suggests that he might welsh on American financial obligations. But theres something very strange and disturbing going on here, and it should not be ignored.
Donald Trump ascended the dais on Thursday night as the most improbable of Republican presidential nominees.

What historical shift, what tremors in American culture, yielded up Mr. Trumps moment from the depths of the national id? How did a braggadocious Manhattan billionaire with a history of dodgy business deals convince 13 million people feeling battered by a changing world that he is their solution? Chutzpah, reality TV and a hyperactive Twitter account are part of the answer. But Mr. Trumps nomination is also a referendum on the Republican Party, delivered by working people fed up with leaders who want their votes but dont address their struggles.

Given a chance to replace the empty sloganeering and self-aggrandizement of his primary campaign with solid proposals worthy of Americans trust, Mr. Trump made clear that he instead intends to terrify voters into supporting him, who will protect them from violence, a word that occurs over and over in his remarks.

Asserting that his nomination comes at a moment of national crisis, of poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad, Mr. Trump offered no solutions beyond his messianic portrayal of himself. Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been neglected, ignored, and abandoned, he says in advance excerpts from his speech.
The Texas law is one of the worst examples of voter suppression enacted by Republican statehouses since 2010, all in the guise of combating voter fraud. The appellate court rightly punctured this false claim, noting that there were only two convictions for in-person voter impersonation fraud out of 20 million votes cast in the decade before Texas enacted the law.

A number of restrictive voting laws were enacted or took effect after the Supreme Courts 2013 decision striking down a crucial and still-needed part of the Voting Rights Act, which had required Texas and other states with histories of racial discrimination to obtain pre-clearance from the federal government for any voting changes. Now, voter suppression challenges are underway in several states. On Tuesday, a federal court in Wisconsin, in finding discrimination, ordered that voters be allowed to simply sign eligibility affidavits and not be required to meet the states photo ID requirement.

While the Fifth Circuit ruling found that the Texas law violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in having a discriminatory effect, it did not strike down the law in its entirety. Instead, it ordered the district judge to reweigh evidence that lawmakers acted with intent to discriminate racially. On this question, the appellate majority noted the Legislatures cloak of ballot integrity could be hiding a more invidious purpose. Should the district judge come back with a convincing finding of intent to discriminate, that could once again make Texas subject to federal oversight for any changes in its voting rules.

Clearly, the Texas law was written to impose higher barriers to voting. Student IDs, utility bills and even voter registration cards, which are allowed in other states, are not acceptable. Many of the poor simply dont have the documentation required. While the state offers free election identification certificates, voters would have to go to the trouble and cost of obtaining a valid copy of a birth certificate.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina  The bloody coup attempt in Turkey last week, which cost more than 200 lives, brought the worlds attention to the group that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared responsible: the Islamic community led by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s.

Mr. Gulen strongly denies the charges. Some in the West seem to think that this is yet another of the many bizarre conspiracy theories peddled by Mr. Erdogan. But this is not merely propaganda. There are good reasons to believe the accusation is correct.

The Gulen community is built around one man: Fethullah Gulen. His followers see him not merely as a learned cleric, as they publicly claim, but the awaited one, as I have been told in private. He is the Mahdi, the Islamic version of the Messiah, who will save the Muslim world, and ultimately the world itself. Many of his followers also believe that Mr. Gulen sees the Prophet Muhammad in his dreams and receives orders from him.

Besides Mr. Gulens unquestionable authority, another key feature of the movement is its cultish hierarchy. The Gulen movement is structured like a pyramid: Top-level imams give orders to second-level imams, who give orders to third-level imams, and it goes on like that to the grass roots.
FRONT PAGE

An article on Wednesday about how recent police shootings have highlighted the inner tug of war that black officers experience regarding race relations and law enforcement paraphrased incorrectly from a Facebook post by Officer Montrell Jackson about the way he was seen when he was out of uniform. Officer Jackson, who was killed Sunday in Baton Rouge, wrote that he felt people considered him a threat, not that he felt threatened.



An article on Thursday about a speech by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas at the Republican National Convention referred incorrectly to Gerald R. Fords nomination for president at the 1976 Republican National Convention, at which Ronald Reagan made a memorable speech that set him up for his own nomination four years later. It was Fords first nomination; he was not renominated. (Though Ford was the incumbent, he became president when he succeeded Richard M. Nixon after Nixons resignation in 1974.)

INTERNATIONAL

Because of an editing error, the Memo From Barcelona article on June 24, about collaboration among rival political parties in Spain at the municipal and regional levels despite paralysis at the parliamentary level just before new national elections, omitted the name of one of Spains four main political parties. Besides Podemos, the Popular Party and the Citizens party, the Socialists are also a major party.



An article on June 23 about a declaration by North Korea that its test launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile the day before was a success misspelled the name of the missile at several points, in some editions. As the article correctly noted elsewhere, the missile is the Musudan, not the Musadan. The error was repeating in an accompanying picture caption in some editions.
Florida health officials are investigating a possible second case of the Zika virus that may have been locally transmitted. The announcement of the case, in Broward County, comes two days after the state said it was investigating a possible homegrown case in Miami-Dade County.

If the cases are confirmed, they would be the first times a person has been infected with the virus by a mosquito in the continental United States. There are more than 1,300 confirmed Zika cases in the country, but all of them had been contracted through travel abroad  by a mosquito bite or by sexual intercourse with someone who had traveled to a Zika-infected area.
The only time the public has heard Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl explain in his own voice why he left his base in Afghanistan  to expose problems in his Army unit, he said, and to prove to the world his soldiering skills  was on taped interviews broadcast on the podcast Serial.

Now, Army prosecutors trying to send Sergeant Bergdahl to prison for life apparently want his court-martial jury to hear the tapes as well. Mark Boal, the Hollywood screenwriter and producer who recorded the interviews, said Thursday that prosecutors have told him that they intend to subpoena all of his tapes of Sergeant Bergdahl, even those not used in the podcast.

Mr. Boal, who as a reporter was embedded with the military in Iraq and later wrote The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, taped 25 hours of conversations in the months after Sergeant Bergdahls repatriation in 2014, following five years of Taliban captivity that ended when President Obama approved a controversial swap for five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The two men spoke as Mr. Boal was researching a possible movie, book and other projects, and later provided the tapes to Serial, which used them as the basis for its second season. Only a small fraction of the 25 hours of conversations was broadcast.
These softening measures work better in theory than in practice, said Richard L. Hasen, an election law expert and a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. Voters dont understand what their rights are, poll workers dont always understand, and theres not adequate publicity about the options.

In Indiana, for example, an impoverished person who lacks a proper photo ID can cast a provisional ballot on Election Day, but must visit an elections office within 10 days to make the vote official and sign a statement affirming an exemption is warranted. In Texas, provisional ballots have a dismal track record, and as a result, one idea being discussed among lawyers in the case is having voters who lack the proper ID sign an affidavit and then vote on a regular ballot, not a provisional one.

Many Texas voters who cast provisional ballots because of ID-related problems  some have out-of-state drivers licenses instead of Texas drivers licenses  never return after Election Day with a proper ID. Their votes are never officially counted as a result. In Cameron County, where Brownsville is, 18 voters cast ID-related provisional ballots across three elections in March 2014, November 2014 and November 2015. Only one later had the vote counted, while the other 17 let their ballots expire by leaving their ID issue unresolved. In Bexar County, the location of San Antonio, 38 voters who had an ID problem cast provisional ballots in those elections. Only five returned to show the proper ID. The other 33 never followed through, and their votes did not count.

On Wednesday, the federal appeals court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, ruled that the states voter ID law discriminated against blacks and Hispanics, in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The court ordered a federal judge in Corpus Christi  Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, who oversaw a trial in 2014  to fashion new voter ID procedures in time for the November election.

With that vote fast approaching, the Fifth Circuit majority wrote that it would be untenable to permit a law with a discriminatory effect to remain in operation for that election. Complicating matters, the court did not toss out the law, which is known as Senate Bill 14 or S.B. 14. The appellate judges wrote that Judge Ramos must take into account the Texas Legislatures desire to protect against voter fraud in fixing the problem.
CLEVELAND  Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, and perhaps the most poised and articulate defender of his character and ideas, introduced her father as a fighter who will fight for you.

I ask you to judge my father by his results, Ms. Trump told the rapt crowd in a speech that was equal parts familial praise and a recitation of his accomplishments. He is colorblind and gender-neutral.

She discussed the number of female executives at her fathers company, describing them as treated well even as new mothers, in an attempt to build a bridge to female voters with whom Mr. Trumps ratings are low. She also said that as a young girl, her father told her that if she was going to think at all, she should think big.
CLEVELAND  Donald J. Trumps acceptance speech here was filled with Trump-like hyperbole and the kind of vague political rhetoric that is hard to pin down.

But there were also facts.

In describing the problems that he would seek to fix from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump offered a series of grim facts about crime, the economy, and foreign policy. Here at our convention, there will be no lies, Mr. Trump said.

Many of Mr. Trumps facts appear to be true, though the Republican presidential nominee sometimes failed to offer the entire story, or provide all of the context that might help to explain his numbers.

And in some cases, the facts seemed inflated or misleading, part of a broader ideological message that Mr. Trump was hoping to convey.
The question here is whats cheaper  and whats wiser. To Mr. Trump, keeping American forces at home is part of the America First philosophy: They would be more focused on homeland defense and less likely to get involved in conflicts abroad that drain money, and power, from the American military. But at the Pentagon, most officers and political appointees view that as pre-World War II thinking and argue that forward-deployed troops are crucial to national security.

The freedom of navigation tours that American forces take through the South China Sea are supposed to be a reminder to the Chinese that there could be a price to expanding the area they argue is sovereign Chinese territory and reclaiming reefs to build military installations. It would be hard to do those from home. The United States launches drones  and keeps a store of 50 nuclear weapons  at the American base in Incirlik, Turkey. The naval base in Bahrain runs patrols to keep Iran from choking off oil routes. And troops based in South Korea, Japan, Germany and Africa train with local forces.

When a tsunami hit Indonesia and earthquakes struck China and Pakistan, American forces in the Pacific delivered emergency supplies. And it was Republicans who complained that when the Benghazi attack happened in 2012, American forces were too far from Libya to help.

As for cost, there is some question of which approach would save more money. Japan, for example, pays such a large percentage of the cost of housing troops that the Pentagon has long argued it would be more expensive to bring them home.

On Trade

Mr. Trump doesnt like the North American Free Trade Agreement and never has. His approach to dealing with it, he said, would be to renegotiate it, or I would pull out of Nafta in a split second.

Nafta is deeply unpopular, and in part, economists say, that is because jobs leave the country en masse. (Mr. Trump often refers to the Carrier air-conditioning plant that is shutting down and moving 1,400 jobs out of the country.) But when jobs are created in the United States, it is often hard to say whether that is because of a trade deal or just an improvement in business.

As a practical matter, no one knows what withdrawing from Nafta would mean  just as no one knows what Brexit means for Britain and the rest of Europe. Unwinding a huge trade agreement, and the rules that have governed tariffs, movement across borders and adjudication of disputes, would be enormously complicated. And doing so could be costly: United States businesses would lose easy access to the Mexican and Canadian markets, along with preferential treatment on investments there. But Mr. Trump insists he could negotiate a far better deal.
But displays like those were not the norm this week.

The party is becoming more and more narrow and more and more spiteful, said Christian Berle, an environmental policy analyst and one of the seven gay delegates from the District of Columbia. He added that he was struggling more than ever with why he remained a Republican as many of his friends left the party. I ask myself that question every day, he said.

Mr. Thiels appearance may offer Washingtons delegation a little solace. But the limited history of gay speakers at the Republican convention is probably not comforting.

When Jim Kolbe, a gay congressman from Arizona, addressed the convention in 2000, he spoke about trade policy, making no mention of being gay or of gay rights. But that did not stop delegates from Texas, home of the nominee, Gov. George W. Bush, from removing their hats, bowing their heads and praying in a silent protest.

Rick Perry, the states lieutenant governor at the time, explained their actions by saying, Guess any time is a good time for prayer.

But to those from the nations capital, such rejection is rare, making the events of this week all the more stinging.

Rachel Hoff became the first openly gay person to serve on the partys platform committee. She introduced amendment after amendment that tried to soften some of the harder-line language on homosexuality and gave an emotional speech in which she urged her fellow delegates to include me and people like me.

My standing in the D.C. Republican Party isnt threatened at all by this, she said in an interview. Its actually enhanced.
His evangelical argument for Mr. Trump centered on a plank in the platform to repeal a tax law banning churches from political organizing, as well as a pledge to appoint conservative, pro-life justices to the Supreme Court. And he included perhaps a thinly veiled message to Senator Ted Cruz, who spoke last night and declined to endorse Mr. Trump: If you are a conservative, a decision not to vote or to vote for a third candidate is a de facto vote for Hillary Clinton.

_____

 With the playful tone of a wedding toast, Tom Barrack, a billionaire businessman and longtime friend of Mr. Trump, used most of his speech to share stories and memories. He told the crowd that he had nothing negative to say about Hillary and only amazing things to tell you about Donald. His personal anecdotes revealed a more-or-less unseen side of the Mr. Trump that few other speakers touched on during the convention.

_____

 Joe Arpaios support for Mr. Trump might be boiled down to this: You had me at illegal immigrant. Mr. Arpaio is the Arizona sheriff who became famous for his aggressive, anti-immigrant tactics in that state. And Mr. Trump started his campaign more than a year ago by focusing on the danger that illegal immigrants pose to Americans. On Thursday, Mr. Arpaio said his experience at the border convinced him that we have terrorists coming over our borders, infiltrating our communities and causing massive destruction and mayhem. He said Mr. Trump was the only candidate willing to confront that issue.

_____

 Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee struck a mostly optimistic note amid remarks that focused on problems. She proclaimed that electing Mr. Trump would return the country to greatness and spoke broadly about Mr. Trumps leadership qualities and record as a businessman who has seen challenges and learned his lessons. And with a turn of phrase, linked his real estate successes to the potential of a Trump presidency: Not only can they change a skyline, they can change the world.

_____

 Mary Fallin, the governor of Oklahoma, re-engaged the pattern of pessimism, but she said that Mr. Trump is the one to provide optimism  even if some Republicans might not agree with everything he says. As Ronald Reagan said, the person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally,  she said.

 Reince Preibus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, hammered Mrs. Clinton for a lack of personal and professional ethics. She lied over and over and over and over about her email server, he said. Perhaps worst of all, Hillary Clinton has perfected the art of politics for personal gain. She reads ethics rules as carefully as Americans read their junk mail. He accused Mrs. Clinton of using her position as secretary of state to grease the wheels for Democrat lobbyists, special interests and political insiders connected to the corrupt Clinton machine. With Mr. Trump, he said, help is coming.
[02:09 - 02:29] The choice we make in 1968 will determine not only the future of America but the future of peace and freedom in the world for the last third of the Twentieth Century. ALEX SOT: The conditions in the country are really different than they were in 1968, but where the parallels arise are you have this presidential candidate drumming home these themes about social disorder, of the United States as a country under attack, at home and abroad. [02:30 - 03:04] As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. 9:25 David Clarke Jr. I want to talk with you about something important, indeed, a concept that five law enforcement officers were murdered and nine more were wounded for earlier this month in Dallas, and for which three more were murdered yesterday in Baton Rouge: that is the importance of Making America Safe Again We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home. 9:16PM: MCCAUL: We need to end sanctuary cities...keep dangerous people out of our country...and SECURE our borders. And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish. Did we come all this way for this? ALEX SOT: Part of the reason this is at the forefronts of peoples minds is just whats been in the news lately. That you have seen the killings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, that youve seen violence in a number of cities. What Trump identified at the very beginning of this campaign was this hunger within the Republican base for almost a strongman figure. [05:01 - 05:12] America is in trouble today not because her people have failed but because her leaders have failed. And what America needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people. 9:17PM MCCAUL: This did not happen by accident, it happened by design. It is the work of Barack Obama... and the architect of his failed foreign policy, Hillary Clinton. 9:48 TOM COTTON: Our warriors and their families dont ask for much. But there are a few things wed like. A commander-in-chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars, calls the enemy by its name, and draws red lines carefully, but enforces them ruthlessly. [08:49 - 09:09] For five years hardly a day has gone by when we havent read or heard a report of the American flag being spit on; an embassy being stoned; a library being burned; or an ambassador being insulted some place in the world. And each incident reduced respect for the United States until the ultimate insult inevitably occurred. 9:48 TOM COTTON: Our warriors and their families dont ask for much. But there are a few things wed like. A commander-in-chief who speaks of winning wars and not merely ending wars, calls the enemy by its name, and draws red lines carefully, but enforces them ruthlessly. ALEX SOT: Trump has said in a recent interview that he sees nixon as someone who understood some fundamental things about the country. That people were looking for order in the midst of disorder. 10:10 GUILIANI: In the last seven months, there have been five major Islamic extremist terrorists attacks on us and our allies. We must not be afraid to define our enemy; It is Islamic extremist terrorism. [13:25 - 14:00] We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world. And to those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, there and here is a reply: Our goal is justice for every American. 9:26pm David Clarke Jr. I see this every day, at street level where many Americans increasingly have an uneasiness about the ability of their families to live safely in these troubling times. This transcends race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, and lifestyle. [09:35 - 09:58] America is a great nation. And it is time we started to act like a great nation around the world. MICHAEL FLYNN And, with Donald Trump in the White House, WE...WILL...MAKE...AMERICA... GREAT... AGAIN!
HARARE, Zimbabwe  Veterans of Zimbabwes independence war made a significant break with President Robert Mugabe for the first time on Thursday, calling him dictatorial, manipulative and egocentric.

The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association has been a pillar of support for Mr. Mugabe, 92, for decades, but it issued a statement criticizing the man it had long been quick to defend. The veterans are known for unleashing violence on those opposing the government.

The surprise revolt by Mr. Mugabes aging corps of loyalists comes after nationwide antigovernment protests organized through social media. Many in Zimbabwe are frustrated by a rapidly deteriorating economy, a currency crisis and corruption.

We note, with concern, shock and dismay, the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the president and his cohorts, which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle, the groups statement said after dozens of veterans representatives from around the country met on Thursday.
MEXICO CITY  In an effort to put a scandal that has rocked his presidency behind him, President Enrique Pena Nieto apologized this week for his wifes purchase of a luxury home from a favored contractor.

But the journalist whose team first reported the existence of the house, in November 2014, said Thursday that she was facing a new lawsuit that is intended to send a warning to journalists critical of the Pena Nieto government.

The idea is that we are harassed, intimidated, that we self-censor ourselves, said the journalist, Carmen Aristegui. The origin here is from a place of power.

News of the house, which was built to order in Mexico Citys most exclusive neighborhood, cast a deep shadow over Mr. Pena Nieto, already under fire for his governments response to the disappearance of 43 students in September 2014.
UNITED NATIONS  The race for the next United Nations secretary general has been marked by two things: A clamor for a woman to take the helm after 70 years of male leadership, and a push for more sunlight into the mysterious process by which the Security Council makes its selection.

On Thursday, two things became clear for the six men and six women vying for the post.

First, two men  Antonio Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal, and Danilo Turk, the former president of Slovenia  got the most votes in a secret Security Council straw poll, with a woman, Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian diplomat and the head of the United Nations cultural agency, Unesco, close on their heels.

Second, despite all the agitation for transparency, secrecy continued to prevail in the Council chambers. Diplomats emerged from the nearly two-hour voting session with lips sealed about whom they had given a thumbs up or thumbs down. Even the candidates, who were told the results, were instructed not to reveal them. It was like the diplomatic version of the conclave of cardinals to select a pope.

No matter. Within a couple of hours, news trickled out, which led the General Assembly president, Mogens Lykketoft, a Danish diplomat, to wonder aloud why the Council did not just make the results of the process public.
LONDON  When Theresa May, the new British prime minister, entered Parliament on Monday to support the renewal of Britains submarine-based nuclear deterrent, she was asked whether she was prepared to authorize a nuclear strike that could kill a hundred thousand men, women and children.

Yes, she replied without hesitation. After all, the whole point of a deterrent is that our enemies need to know that we would be prepared to use it.

But who might threaten these shores sufficiently to trigger a response? Well, she said, the threats from countries such as Russia and North Korea remain very real.

For some, Mrs. Mays easy assumption of the Cold Warriors mantle might raise no eyebrows at all. After a six-year stint as home secretary, she said, I am familiar with the threats facing our country, working closely with the security elite including MI5, Britains domestic spy agency.
There were promises of better days  he would make the country rich, save the streets, build the wall  but it was not an upbeat, win-win sort of optimism. It was the optimism that, very soon, you would beat someone instead of them beating you. We love defeating those people, dont we? he said, in an aside about his campaigns naysayers.

The crowd did love it. They engaged with the speech, in one instance to the point of discomfort. When they erupted into Lock her up! Lock her up!  the chant, popular all four nights, demanding that Mrs. Clinton be jailed  Mr. Trump shook his head and waved his hands in a quashing motion. Lets defeat her in November, he said.

It was a rare case of Mr. Trump trying to rein in the fury that his campaign had used as rocket fuel. (On CNN, John King said that Mr. Trumps team had planned for just this situation in speech preparation.)

Mr. Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, who spoke of him as much as a boss as a father. She described him as a beneficent employer for women. She was poised and positive, and focused on issues like making child care accessible and improving working conditions. It was a good-cop-bad-cop routine, with the good cop coming out first.

But if Mr. Trumps speech was not the shining-city-on-a-hill sort, it fit the tone of the program that built to it. This was an angry convention. All week, the crowd in the hall sounded most engaged and excited when it was yelling at or about someone.

On Tuesday night, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey gave a community-theater performance of The Crucible, inciting the crowd to roar Guilty! through a mock trial of Mrs. Clinton. Lock her up! became the new Drill, baby, drill. (Off the floor, it got even uglier, when a New Hampshire state representative said that Mrs. Clinton should be shot for treason.)
Steve Reich turns 80 on Oct. 3, and the party has already started.

Over the last week, he was celebrated by the Lincoln Center Festival in a series called Reich/Reverberations, comprising three concerts that included outstanding performances of two 1970s masterpieces, Drumming and Music for 18 Musicians.

And if more than three decades of centrality to New Yorks culture was not evidence enough that Mr. Reich occupies a position unique among composers, both cultish and canonical, theres plenty of chance to engage with his work in the coming months. Symphony Space, the Miller Theater and Carnegie Hall, where he will hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composers Chair next season, will all present retrospectives.

It was obvious, even by the early 1980s, that Mr. Reichs music had moved uptown, becoming acceptable and necessary to the institutions that now regularly present his work. It is clear, too, from these Lincoln Center festivities, watched over by the composer like a proud father, that a generation of younger musicians and listeners has taken on his music as its own. If, as Mr. Reich said (paraphrasing Ezra Pound) in a typically rambunctious interview with The New York Times 30 years ago, a classic is something that remains news, these players seem to suggest that this music is not just news, but breaking, vital news.
Taking aim at broadcasters and commentators who say they want their country back, Mr. Stewart said: You feel that youre this countrys rightful owners. Theres only one problem with that. This country isnt yours. You dont own it. It never was.

A full transcript of the segment:

Well, the conventions over. I thought Donald Trump was going to speak. Ivanka said that he was going to come out. She said he was really compassionate and generous, but then this angry groundhog came out and he just vomited on everybody for an hour. But the Republicans appear to have a very clear plan for America, and theyve articulated it throughout the convention. One, jail your political opponent. Two, inject Rudy Giuliani with a speedball and Red Bull enema. And then, three, spend the rest of the time scaring the holy bejeezus out of everybody. But Im not interested in that. Im interested in gymnastics. With the Rio Olympics coming up, Im enjoying the gymnastics portion of the program thats about to occur. That would be the contortions that many conservatives will now have to do, to embrace Donald J. Trump, a man who clearly embodies the things that they have, for years, said that they have hated about Barack Obama.

[Montage of Fox News panelists calling Obama divisive, thin-skinned, authoritarian and narcissistic.]

A thin-skinned narcissist with no government experience. Yes. That sounds exactly like  Barack Obama. So now the right-wing medias going to have to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, justifying this choice theyve made. Can they make the turn? They already are. Lets trace their journey through the eyes of one of their most talented gymnasts. [Photograph of Sean Hannity.] Um, uh, his name escapes me. Lets just refer to him as Lumpy. Hey, Lumpy. For instance, heres how Lumpy felt about Barack Obamas divisiveness.

[Montage of Mr. Hannity describing divisions for which he blames Mr. Obama, including black versus white and old versus young.]
Are you all right? a friend asks the angsty video-game designer Patrick (Jonathan Groff) early in Looking: The Movie. Its the guiding question of the film, one that refers to two inquiries, actually: Are Patrick and his friends, 30- and 40-something gay men in the San Francisco Bay Area, all right with the way greater acceptance  symbolized by legal marriage  is changing their lives? And is Patrick, a narcissistic relationship saboteur, all right as his friends start pairing off for life?

The movie, on HBO on Saturday night, is a delayed finale for Looking, which ran for two seasons on the network. Written by the seriess creator, Michael Lannan, and one of its executive producers, Andrew Haigh, who also directed, it has the shows virtues  its loose, casual vibe, the gorgeous San Francisco locations and the excellent performances by Mr. Groff and by Murray Bartlett, as Patricks levelheaded friend Dom.

It also has its faults, including some surprisingly flat acting for an HBO project and a tendency to get dull when the script moves away from the personal and into the larger issues of the gay community. Those glitches are more noticeable in an 85-minute film than they were in half-hour weekly episodes.

The movie belongs to Patrick, to an even greater degree than the series did. Its a bittersweet romantic comedy, with a journey through self-discovery toward love against the backdrop of a wedding. Having fled San Francisco for Denver at the end of the series, following his latest horrible breakup, Patrick returns for the City Hall nuptials of his friends Agustin (Frankie J. Alvarez) and Eddie (Daniel Franzese). The action consists of a series of encounters  with his old boyfriends Richie (Raul Castillo) and Kevin (Russell Tovey); with a 22-year-old pickup; with Dom  that force Patrick to assess his choices and gently, if not all that realistically, push him toward the one we want him to make.
The world of the Black Panther, the Marvel Comics hero who hails from the fictional African country of Wakanda, is about to get bigger. Marvel announced on Friday a companion series, World of Wakanda, which is to premiere in November.

And just like the current Black Panther series, which is written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author and a national correspondent for The Atlantic, the new comic will be written by newcomers to the industry: the feminist writer Roxane Gay and the poet Yona Harvey.

My agent was not thrilled that I was taking on another project, Ms. Gay said. But learning to write comics exercised different creative muscles, which she said she found exciting.

Its the most bizarre thing Ive ever done, and I mean that in the best possible way, she said.

Her story, written with Mr. Coates, will follow Ayo and Aneka, two lovers who are former members of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panthers female security force. The opportunity to write black women and queer black women into the Marvel universe, theres no saying no to that, she said.
William Gaines, an investigative reporter for The Chicago Tribune who shared two Pulitzer Prizes for exposing corruption in Chicago and was a finalist for a third, died on Wednesday in Munster, Ind. He was 82.

The cause was complications of Parkinsons disease, his daughter, Michelle Gaines, said.

Mr. Gaines, who joined The Tribune in 1963 and uncovered malfeasance for most of his tenure, until he retired in 2001, won his first Pulitzer in 1976 for local investigative specialized reporting on a newspaper team that exposed mortgage abuse in federal housing programs and horrific conditions at two private hospitals  including one where, while working undercover as a janitor, he was enlisted to assist during surgery.

The experience was frightening to me; it was depressing, he wrote in a Tribune column in 1975, for I knew that it was not just a fluke that I, a janitor, had been called on to do the work of trained orderlies and nurses aides.

He shared his second Pulitzer in 1988, for investigative reporting, with Dean Baquet, now the executive editor of The New York Times, and Ann Marie Lipinski, now the curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. The prize recognized a series of articles that uncovered waste and self-dealing in the Chicago City Council. The Pulitzer board called the series a model of municipal reporting.
Teslas Autopilot is being developed as customers are using it. The company describes its launch of the technology as only a beta test, and says it is gathering data from vehicles equipped with it to perfect the system.

The fatal Tesla crash, which occurred on May 7 but was first made public by the highway safety agency on June 30, heightens the need for a cooperative test center, Senator Peters said.

The accident killed Joshua Brown, 40, an entrepreneur from Ohio, and has increased concern about the industrys rush to develop self-driving cars. It is the first known fatal crash involving a vehicle driven mainly by itself via computer software and sensors.

Mr. Brown was in his 2015 Tesla Model S, traveling about 65 miles per hour, when it crashed into a tractor-trailer crossing the roadway in Williston, Fla. Tesla, whose vehicles have the ability to send the company data on their operating conditions, has said that the Autopilot was engaged at the time, and that neither Mr. Brown nor the system activated the brakes before impact.

Teslas Autopilot system scans the road with radar and cameras, but it failed to see the white truck against a bright sky, according to the company. The highway safety agency is investigating whether the incident resulted from a flaw in Teslas technology. The National Transportation Safety Board, which more often looks into airplane and train accidents, is also investigating the crash.
Well discuss the human performers anon, but lets begin our look at Classical Theater of Harlems outdoor Macbeth with a nod to the uncredited stars: nature and New York City.

Macbeth, of course, is about one mans descent into a personal hell of his own making, and the 8 oclock starting time most nights at the Marcus Garvey Park amphitheater in Harlem is tailor-made for the story. The last bits of daylight are still evident when the performance begins, but the darker the deeds in the tale grow, the darker the evening grows as well, till by the time madness grips Macbeth, the audience is in blackness.

Coupled with that is the urban soundscape. It doesnt matter when the ominous rumble of traffic or inevitable siren punctuates the performance; in Shakespeares tragedy, the intrusion always seems intentional and perfectly timed.
Light barely seems to penetrate the atmosphere of The Merchant of Venice in the brooding, powerful production from Shakespeares Globe thats being presented through the weekend as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Little illumination filters through the carved wooden walls that dominate the set, and a blanket of smoke often shrouds the stage like a thick fog, as if to hide the iniquity so vividly on display.

The production, which stars a deeply moving Jonathan Pryce as Shylock, does begin on a frolicsome note, with masked actors dancing onstage, as during Venices carnival. But a note of discord, of brutality, brings the merriment to a disturbing close, as two Jewish men passing by are attacked and thrown to the ground.

Throughout the director Jonathan Munbys lucid and strongly acted staging, we will remain aware that while this Shakespearean play is classified as a comedy and is poised ambivalently between light and dark, it will generally be the baser aspects of humanity that prevail. This overriding tone, Im sorry to say, seems eerily attuned to the current troubles that roil the world.

The exception, to a degree, is Mr. Pryces eloquent, beautifully rendered Shylock, whose abuse at the hands of the Christians of Venice is drawn in stark relief. He is treated with an unusually vicious scorn and even violence by the title character, Antonio (Dominic Mafham), to whom he agrees to lend money in exchange for a bond demanding the famous pound of flesh. But he greets this debasement, and more, with a degree of measured calm that suggests that Shylock has known  or fears  far worse, and must temper his reaction to suit what he knows of the world in which he lives and prospers.
Big differences also arise if you examine the racial demographics of Republican and Democratic congressional districts. Nonwhites make up 51 percent of people in Democratic districts. In Republican congressional districts, its half that.

Some of those differences can be chalked up to gerrymandering. Recently the Supreme Court declined to intervene in a bitter dispute in North Carolina in which Democrats argue that a plan to redraw electoral lines would weaken the influence of black voters.

But those are constituents of all ages, young and old. For a clearer idea of whats going on in these pictures, you need to narrow the window to something that approximates the usual age of an intern, 18 to 24.

For the sake of argument, if one were to assume that the diversity of the interns should roughly reflect the demographics of their districts, then it looks as if (according to my eyeball estimates of the demographics in the photo) the specifically Democratic House intern photo is racially more representative than the Paul Ryan one.

The young constituents even in Republican congressional districts are fairly diverse  over a quarter of that population is nonwhite. Mr. Ryans photo doesnt reflect that.

More generally, what the chart makes clear is that young people both in Republican and Democratic districts are disproportionately more nonwhite than the overall American population. And if demographers are right, the pool of 18-to-24-year-olds  and potential interns  will continue to grow more diverse over the coming decade.

At that point, the very notion of #InternsSoWhite will be hard to fathom.
In declaring himself the law and order candidate in his convention speech Thursday night, Donald Trump officially made crime one of his core issues. This emphasis is relatively new, and its strategic.

Mr. Trump rose in the polls by leading a crusade against immigration and free trade, which he fuses in a populist-nationalist appeal that promises to put America first. He has paid far less attention to core Republican issues like taxes, abortion and other social policy questions.
DENVER  There are no marijuana dispensaries or greenhouses in the tiny railroad town of Hugo, where Theodore Roosevelt once ate breakfast with the local cowboys. But this week, Hugos 740 residents were told to stop drinking the water after the towns water supply tested positive for THC, the psychoactive chemical in Colorados most famous cash crop.

The trouble started when a local company trying to calibrate its employee drug tests pulled a positive reading from Hugos tap water. The towns Public Works Department investigated and found signs of tampering and forced entry at one of the wells that supply the towns drinking water, a spokesman for the Lincoln County sheriff told reporters. The town sealed off the well that seemed to be the source of the tainted water.

No one has reported feeling sick or intoxicated from drinking the water, though people around the high-plains town joked on Friday that perhaps they should be drinking more water. On the towns Facebook community page, Hugo Happenings, people joked about Hugos new healing waters, and said that its ice cubes could be the tiny towns answer to marijuana brownies.

What a way to get our town on the news, said Patsie Smith, a former mayor, who on Friday took a shower and made her morning coffee as usual and felt completely normal.
WASHINGTON  Melissa Padilla was doing research on immigration in her university library at Dartmouth College when she noticed the term illegal aliens popping up again and again. The more she saw it, the angrier she became.

This term, and the way people used it to criminalize the choices our parents made in order to provide us with better lives, completely detracts from the brave choices and obstacles we overcame in order to survive, said Ms. Padilla, 26, who was an undocumented immigrant for 15 years after her parents brought her to the United States from Mexico when she was 7. Im not illegal. Im a survivor that continues to work toward a better future.

Ms. Padilla joined with Dartmouth students at the Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and Dreamers, and they have spent more than two years petitioning the Library of Congress to remove illegal alien from its subject headings.

In March, the library said it would make the change, after agreeing with Ms. Padillas argument  bolstered by an American Library Association resolution  that alien and illegal alien are pejorative terms. The library, which is now taking public comments on the change, has said it will replace the term with noncitizens and unauthorized immigration, setting a precedent that may be followed by other libraries on a global scale.
BATON ROUGE, La.  Family, friends and close comrades came Friday to pay their last respects to Matthew Gerald, a 41-year-old rookie police officer and one of three officers slain by a gunman who was targeting the police.

But many of the spots in the 2,500-seat megachurch here were packed with people who never knew Officer Gerald  though they knew, intimately, of the perils he faced. The officers and sheriffs deputies came from around the country in their crisp, formal finery  all aiguillettes and polished shoes, Stetsons and broad-brimmed campaign hats. They came from Los Angeles County; Madison, Wis.; and Mesa, Ariz. An officer came from French Settlement, a Louisiana village of just over a thousand residents near the Amite River. A pair of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers came, almost exotic in their blazing red serge.

It was a measure of the regard for Officer Geralds sacrifice, and a dramatic testament to the wide and unsettling reverberations set off by the killing of the three officers here on Sunday. Officer Gerald was the first to be buried. His funeral at Healing Place, a suburban church he attended with his family, began with an honor guard draping his coffin with an American flag.

I pray for every law enforcement officer, Ken Spivey, a deputy and chaplain with the nearby Ascension Parish sheriffs office, told the crowd  not just the officers in this corner of Louisiana, Deputy Spivey added, but all across the nation. Because theyre under attack.
In a summer marked by racial tensions, the latest debate has surfaced in a Boston suburb, where residents are divided over the mayors refusal to remove a #BlackLivesMatter banner that has hung for nearly a year at the towns city hall.

Tensions rose in the historically blue-collar, majority-white town, Somerville, Mass., this week after Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone denied the police unions request to replace the sign with another banner, one reading, All Lives Matter.

Hanging the banner speaks to all lives, Mr. Curtatone said of the Black Lives Matter banner in an interview on Friday.

In a letter sent to the mayor on Tuesday, Michael McGrath, president of the Somerville Police Employees Association, highlighted the killings of five Dallas police officers by a black veteran who voiced support for the New Black Panther Party and had told the police he was upset about Black Lives Matter.
David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, embarked on a campaign on Friday to seek a United States Senate seat as a Republican in Louisiana, where he will try to capitalize on his history of inflammatory speech and on the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

The decision by Mr. Duke, 66, a former state representative whose unsuccessful campaigns include bids for Congress, governor and president, thrust him into a sprawling field for the Senate seat and intensified what was already poised to be a raucous race.

But before Mr. Duke could even file his qualifying paperwork in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, Republicans there and in Washington were distancing themselves from a campaign they plainly expected to be marked by racism and anti-Semitism.

I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans, Mr. Duke said in a campaign video. However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and the heritage of European-Americans.
WASHINGTON  In the biggest health care fraud case the Justice Department has ever brought, prosecutors charged on Friday that the owner of a network of Florida nursing facilities orchestrated an elaborate scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid of more than $1 billion over the last 14 years.

The case, featuring allegations of bribes to Miami doctors, hush money to witnesses, and laundering of huge profits through shell companies, shone a light on a lucrative Medicare black market that has surfaced in the last decade.

Medicare fraud has infected every facet of our health care system, Wifredo A. Ferrer, the United States attorney in Miami, said Friday in announcing the indictments of the owner of the medical facilities, Philip Esformes, and two others.

Mr. Esformess lawyer said on Friday that the businessman, who runs about 30 health care facilities in Florida and other states, strongly asserts his innocence.
IDs / TIMECODES AUDIO / VIDEO OPEN - FADE UP SOT Protest Montage Hands up! Dont shoot! 2014 V/O Stanley Nelson The stories in the news today remind me of the sentiments of almost 50 years ago, when many young black people felt that policing for them was unfair . 1966 JAMAL JOSEPH BLACK PANTHER PARTY During that time period being Black in America meant that you didnt walk down the street with the same sense of safety and the same sense of privilege as a white person. BILL CALHOUN BLACK PANTHER PARTY There was absolutely no difference in the way the police treated us in .. in Mississippi than they did in California. They may not have called you Nigger every day but they treated you the same way they did in Mississippi . WAYNE PHARR BLACK PANTHER PARTY The police jump on you. Beat you up. Put the gun at your head. This is what we were going through on a daily basis . SOT CONTEMP PROTESTER Im tired of this, Ill stay here as long as I have to! V/O Stanley Nelson Now, as then, the need for change is real. Nearly every black man I know has a story about an encounter with the police. I myself have been stopped, searched, and had a gun put to my head for no rational reason. SOT BLACK PANTHERS MARCHING Left! Left! Left! V/O Stanley Nelson One response to police brutality in 1966 was the founding of The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense . SOT HUEY NEWTON BLACK PANTHER PARTY We use the black panther as our symbol because the nature of a panther. Panther doesnt strike anyone but, when he is assailed upon, hell back up first. But if the aggressor continues then he will strike out. ELBERT BIG MAN HOWARD BLACK PANTHER PARTY When I first met Huey and Bobby, they were in the process of forming an organization for primarily self-defense . // We didnt plan to have a nationwide organization or anything like that. We were organized in dealing with the problem in Oakland . V/O Stanley Nelson In 1966, California law allowed civilians to carry loaded weapons as long as they were not concealed - as do many states today . And the newly-formed Black Panther Party took advantage of the law . SOT HUEY NEWTON BLACK PANTHER PARTY The California Penal Code Section 12020 through 12027 and also the Second Amendment of a Constitution guarantees the citizen the right to bear arms on public property . ELBERT BIG MAN HOWARD BLACK PANTHER PARTY Huey said were gonna carry our guns and were gonna follow the police and if they stop someone were gonna stop, were gonna maintain a legal distance and were gonna observe these so-called law officers in the performance of their duties . SOT Panthers on police patrol Are you there? Were coming around the corner, just stay facing the way you are. SHERWIN FORTE BLACK PANTHER PARTY We would stop. We would get out of the cars. We would walk up to the scene. Those who had rifles, would carry them in the open. Clearly visible . SOT HUEY NEWTON BLACK PANTHER PARTY We would stand at a distance where the police couldnt say they were interfering with their arrest or their detention of the individual and make sure that there was no brutality . V/O Stanley Nelson The police were confronted by citizens who were not just voicing their opinions, but were armed . RAY GAUL OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT They would take the weapon and pass it across like this. And it would sweep right over the officer. SHERWIN FORTE BLACK PANTHER PARTY No one would do anything until a policeman ejected a round in the chamber then we would all eject rounds in the chamber and all up and down the streets you could hear this clackity-clack-clack-clack-clack . RAY GAUL OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT And then when the traffic stop or the incidents over, they bring the weapon down across by you like this and get back in their car and drive off . It was pretty intimidating. V/O Stanley Nelson The Black Panther Party spread quickly, partly because young African Americans across the country had similar experiences with the police . ERICKA HUGGINS BLACK PANTHER PARTY We would get calls from Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh, North Carolina; from Washington, D.C. ; Bridgeport, Connecticut. Every city small or large you could think of wanted a chapter of the Black Panther Party . V/O Stanley Nelson Theres no question that the Panthers were provocative . But theres also no question that law enforcement exaggerated the threat they posed, and overreacted . SOT REPORTER Do you feel the nation is in trouble? SOT J. EDGAR HOOVER FBI I think very definitely it is. SOT REPORTER What is the answer? SOT HOOVER The answer is vigorous law enforcement. SOT REPORTER Thats the only answer? SOT HOOVER Thats the only answer. SOT REPORTER How about justice? You hear a lot about justice with law enforcement. HOOVER Justice is merely incidental to law and order. SOT ANCHOR FBI Director J Edgar Hoover today asserted that the Black Panthers represent the greatest internal threat to the nation . Hoover said the Panthers have perpetrated numerous assaults on police and have engaged in violent confrontations throughout the country . CLAYBORNE CARSON When Hoover identified the Black Panther Party as the Number one threat to the national security of the United States at a time when they are fighting in Vietnam, of course that was crazy, but it was politically very effective. It says to law enforcement at the local level, we can take the gloves off now. We dont have to respect the civil liberties and we can go after them with everything weve got. SOT - REPORTERS Police say there was sniper fire throughout the early morning hours so they moved in cautiously... SOT Police and Black Panthers clashed in Houston, New Orleans and other cities... SOT The Black Panther - police shoot out lasted 30 minutes... SOT In the pre-dawn hours in Chicago today, police and Negroes fought a fixed battle... 2014 V/O Stanley Nelson Obviously, we are nowhere near this today. In fact, we may be at a transformative moment. People of all ages and races are recognizing the problems with policing in black communities and are protesting. SOT - PRESENT DAY PROTESTS Were fired up! Cant take it no more! V/O Stanley Nelson Now, there is a chance for real change. But police departments and political leaders must not over react as they did 50 years ago. They need to listen. SOT - PRESENT DAY PROTESTS When I say No you say violence! No - violence! No - violence! No justice no peace! END
With all the political orthodoxy that Donald J. Trump tore up in his convention speech on Thursday night, he set aside a core tenet of the American narrative on immigration: that the United States is a nation of nations, built on the sweat and initiative of people who came from other countries.

Using even darker language than he had on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump did not include even a boilerplate mention of positive contributions by immigrants. He described foreigners who came to the United States illegally and became killers of American citizens and drug dealers. More forcefully than he had before, Mr. Trump said he would also impose new restrictions on legal immigration to protect American workers from lower-paid competition in the labor market.

Under his presidency, the American dream would be primarily reserved for Americans.

The American people will come first once again, he said.
CLEVELAND  Donald J. Trump and the army of voters he brought into politics, overpowering all attempts at dissent, have pushed through fundamental changes in the Republican Party, many of which seem likely to endure whether or not he wins the White House in November.

After four raucous days and the defiant speech Mr. Trump gave in claiming the partys presidential nomination  as well as the score-settling diatribe he delivered Friday morning  it is hard to imagine the Republican Party returning anytime soon to being the party of free trade, democracy building around the globe and at least modest immigration reform.

And it is almost as hard to imagine establishment Republicans, waiting in the wings in hopes that Mr. Trumps candidacy was a fever waiting to break, finding a welcome among the delegates who made the party theirs in Cleveland, with cheers for Mr. Trump and other speakers who positioned themselves as opponents of the partys status quo.
Ms. King was sitting in the back of a police car driven by Officer Spradlin when they began discussing race, a conversation that was recorded in a separate video:

Ms. King: I believe that Caucasians have more supremacy over black people, just to be honest. They have more rights. Officer Spradlin: I dont think that. Ms. King: I think a lot of people are afraid of black people. Officer Spradlin: Why are so many people afraid of black people? Ms. King: Thats what I want to figure out. Because Im not a bad black person. Officer Spradlin: I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way. Ms. King: Why? Officer Spradlin: Violent tendencies. I want you to think about that. Im not saying anything. Im not saying its true. Im not saying that I can prove it or nothing. But 99 percent of the time when you hear about stuff like that, it is the black community thats being violent. Thats why a lot of the white people are afraid, and I dont blame them.

The American-Statesman of Austin and KVUE-TV originally reported on the videos, which they obtained this week.

In an interview on Friday, Ms. King said that Officer Spradlins comments had saddened her.

I was hurt, she said. It was very disheartening to know that when people see me, they see violence, or when people see me, they see anger.

The Austin police chief, Art Acevedo, said at a news conference on Thursday that he was sickened and saddened by what he saw on the videos. He issued a public apology and said that the way Officer Richter had handled the encounter was inconsistent with the departments expectations.

He said he had ordered an exhaustive review of the officers conduct since the time of Ms. Kings arrest, as well as a criminal investigation to help the district attorneys office determine whether the case should be presented to a grand jury.

Ms. King did not file a complaint at the time. She was charged with resisting arrest, but that was dropped in January.

The chief put the episode in the larger context of a nation divided by race and high-profile instances in which white officers have killed unarmed black people. He also said he was taken aback by the comments Officer Spradlin.
A rape victim who was jailed in Texas for nearly a month because prosecutors feared she would not return to testify after having a mental breakdown on the stand has sued the Harris County district attorneys office, county officials and jail employees.

The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, was held in the general population at the county jail  the same place where the rape suspect, Keith Hendricks, was housed. There, the suit says, she was misclassified as the perpetrator of a sexual assault  not as a victim  attacked by an inmate, denied medication and punched in the face by a guard.

Jane Does treatment amounted to an absolute deprivation of her personal integrity, her lawyer, Sean Buckley, said in an interview Thursday. As a rape victim, the psychological trauma she experienced was an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and helplessness.

And if you take out the sexual violation itself and you look at the underlying psychological trauma, he added, this is exactly what these defendants did to her again while she was still in recovery for her rape.
JUBA, South Sudan  For nearly two weeks, they have hunkered in a schoolyard with nothing to do and nowhere else to go, dozens of people battling hunger, swarms of mosquitoes  and fear.

I just want peace so I can go back to school, said Betty Christian, a chatty 19-year-old who fled her home here in the capital, Juba, when clashes erupted across the city this month. As she ran to find shelter, she passed soldiers who debated whether to shoot her, she said. When they decided not to shoot because she was female, she thanked them.

Eventually, Ms. Christian made her way to this makeshift displacement site with her aunt and several of her cousins. But she has not heard from her mother since the gunfire began, and does not know where to find her.

South Sudans civil war is supposed to be over. In April, after more than two years of conflict that killed tens of thousands of people, the opposition leader, Riek Machar, returned to Juba with nearly 1,400 troops to resume his post as the vice president to his wartime rival, President Salva Kiir.
NEW DELHI  An Indian Air Force plane with 29 people on board is missing over the Indian Ocean, officials said on Friday.

The aircraft, an AN-32, left the southern port city of Chennai at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, said Capt. D. K. Sharma, a spokesman for the Indian Navy in New Delhi.

The plane was expected to land at Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, at 11:30 a.m. but never arrived, Captain Sharma said. It last made contact at 8:46 a.m., a spokesman for the air force said in a televised interview.

There were 29 people on board, mostly service personnel, said Nitin Wakankar, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry in New Delhi.
BANGKOK  A United States Justice Department complaint filed in federal court this week directly contradicts repeated assertions by the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, about the origins and purpose of hundreds of millions of dollars that ended up in his personal bank accounts.

While Mr. Najib and other Malaysian officials have insisted that the money was a gift from an unidentified Saudi donor, the Justice Department said that it was stolen from a Malaysian government investment fund that Mr. Najib oversaw. Mr. Najib has said he never received any money from the fund.

The court filing, one of several complaints filed Wednesday in a federal money-laundering investigation, provides the first official public documentation of transactions that challenge Mr. Najibs version of events in a scandal that has battered his government for the past year.

The revelations could undermine his credibility and give new ammunition to a movement to force him from office. However, he maintains firm control over his governing party and has successfully stifled opposition with the firing of critics from party posts, the closing of online news outlets and the criminal prosecution of social media detractors and political opponents.
Families of the flights crew and passengers have called for the search to continue.

Weve known this is coming, and I thought I was prepared, but I still feel very frustrated, said Dai Shuqin, a Beijing resident whose sister, Dai Shuling, and four other relatives were on the flight.

Suspend the search, to me, means end the search, she said. Theres no difference. There was no convincing and solid evidence in the past 867 days, and thats even with the search. So what can we hope for if they suspend the search now? Nothing, nothing at all. Thats it. This is it.

A majority of the passengers were from China, with most of the rest from Malaysia.

Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur headed north for Beijing early on March 8, 2014. Investigators used radar and information shared between the plane and satellites to determine that it flew back over the Malay Peninsula, then continued south. They tried to gauge where it plunged into the ocean based on estimates of fuel use and a 400-mile arc along which it was believed the final satellite communication was made.

A small amount of debris from the plane has washed ashore thousands of miles to the west. A wing part known as a flaperon was found on Reunion, a French-administered island east of Madagascar, one year ago. French officials determined it came from the missing plane, a Boeing 777-200. An additional four pieces of debris almost certainly came from the aircraft, the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau said. Most recently, a large piece of debris found off the coast of Tanzania, possibly a wing flap, arrived in Australia for examination, the Australian authorities said on Monday.
A spokesman for 10 Downing Street, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of government protocol, confirmed on Friday that Larry had been treated by a veterinarian after being injured. But he declined to elaborate on whether Palmerston was behind it. He has been treated and expected to make a full recovery, the spokesman said.

Larry recently captured headlines when his former owner, Prime Minister David Cameron, was forced to vacate 10 Downing Street in a matter of days after the swift conclusion of the Conservative Partys leadership contest. The cat, on the other hand, was allowed to stay. (The cat belongs to the Civil Service, not the Camerons. Sadly I cant take Larry with me, Mr. Cameron said in his final prime ministers questions, a weekly ritual in Parliament. He belongs to the house, and the staff love him very much, as do I.)

What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process.

An unofficial Twitter account devoted to Larry has more than 83,000 followers and notes that he has held his position longer than the leaders of any of the main U.K. political parties.

Such is the concern over Larrys health that Ann Clwyd, a Welsh lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, raised the issue this week in Parliament, saying that the cat looked in a very sorry situation, and that he had been seen limping with one paw in the air.
I dont even know if my child is alive or dead, he said, as his wife began weeping. Relatives had been sent photos on their phones showing the son lying in a pool of blood, but shielded the parents from the images. The relatives also had a video showing Mr. Daitziks daughter, wearing a red T-shirt, running and screaming, having ducked the gunfire. A few minutes later, the daughter arrived at a hospital in an ambulance, traumatized.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene a meeting of her security cabinet on Saturday. It is terrible and completely unbelievable what has happened in Munich, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said as he cut short a trip to the United States to return to Berlin.

In Washington, President Obama expressed support for Germany. We dont yet know exactly whats happening there, but obviously our hearts go out to those who may have been injured, he said from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Its still an active situation, and Germany is one of our closest allies, and so we are going to pledge all of the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances.

Mr. Obama was briefed on the situation by Lisa O. Monaco, his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism.

The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Friday night: We are following the news from Munich with horror. What is behind this hideous act is not completely clear; we still have conflicting leads. But already this much is clear: We will have to mourn for many fatalities and injured.

The police sent out text messages warning people to stay in their homes and to get off the streets. The mall itself took several hours to evacuate. A square in central Munich, the Karlsplatz, also known as the Stachus, was evacuated after reports of gunfire, which appeared to have been a false alarm.

Passengers who landed at Munich Airport on Friday evening found themselves stranded on the curb outside. The taxi line stretched at least 40 people deep, and airport officials said that the highways leading into the city had either been closed or been subjected to tight police checkpoints.

Manfred Reiter, 47, a taxi driver, said he had received a call from his companys dispatcher telling him to avoid picking up customers from the street because the attackers were on the run and might try to flag a cab. He said, Manfred please go home; its too dangerous,  Mr. Reiter said.

Miriam Arlt, who was in the area, said in an email interview that she was near the McDonalds when the shooting occurred.

I only saw fleeing people and now see police and a helicopter, she said.

Her roommate  who asked to be identified only as Hendrik A. because he felt traumatized by what he had witnessed  said by telephone that he had been riding his bike toward the McDonalds when he came upon the site of the attack.

I was over at the shopping center waiting for the light to get to McDonalds, he said. I didnt even realize the chaos or the panic that was around me. I came to a stop light, and then I first realized that things were not normal. There were three bodies lying on the ground. And my first thought was O.K., theyre just lying on the ground; nothing really happened. Two of them didnt move. One did.

Then he heard gunfire erupt behind him  five to eight shots  coming from inside the shopping center. People started to run, he said. It was not insane panic like you would imagine, a stampede or anything, but people were a little uneasy.
A lone gunman killed nine people and seriously injured 27 others near a shopping mall in Munich late Friday afternoon. The gunman, whose body was found about half a mile from the mall, fatally shot himself, officials said.

What We Know

 The gunman was an 18-year-old native of Munich, with dual German and Iranian citizenship. In keeping with police protocol, he was not identified. He had no criminal record.

 He acted alone, and there is no evidence that he was involved in any terrorist group.

 The gunman used a 9mm Glock  its serial number had been scratched off  and was carrying a backpack with 300 rounds of ammunition.

 The nine people who died were mostly young: three were 14 years old, two were 15, and the others were 17, 19, 20 and 45. Three of the nine were female. All lived in the Munich area. Of the 27 people injured, 10 were in critical condition, including a 13-year-old boy.
CAIRO  Evidence gathered in an investigation into the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 in the Mediterranean Sea in May indicates that the plane most likely broke up in midair after a fire near or inside the cockpit that quickly overwhelmed the crew, according to Egyptian officials involved in the inquiry.

But the officials could not determine whether the fire thought to have caused the crash had been set off by a mechanical malfunction or by a malicious act.

The findings are based on information from the Airbus A320s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder  commonly known as black boxes  along with an analysis of the condition and distribution of recovered debris, including human remains, according to forensic and aviation officials in Cairo. The officials spoke this week on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

The officials said the evidence appeared to be sufficient to rule out at least one early theory: that a pilot had deliberately flown the plane into the water.
ANKARA, Turkey  Night had fallen and the weekend had begun, but the head of Turkeys spy agency remained at work in the main security compound in Ankara, struggling to track reports of strange military activities across the country.

Suddenly, a roar of gunfire erupted as a fleet of choppers blasted the gates of the compound. As guards fired in the air, a helicopter tried to land beside the agency while others dropped ropes to send down commandos, according to a security official who was inside at the time, and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

More than a sudden attack on the government, the attempted coup this month has emerged as a turning point in a yearslong struggle for control of the Turkish state. The battle lines were clear: allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against a collection of adversaries, including members of the military and followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who leads a secretive religious movement from his self-exile in Pennsylvania.

Agents inside the intelligence service had long feared a fifth column was taking shape inside the Turkish state, and they spent years compiling dossiers on tens of thousands of citizens, scrutinizing their pasts for any hints of rebellion or links to Mr. Gulen.
Agreements for Iran to buy more than 200 jetliners from Boeing and Airbus, the most prominent commercial outcomes of the nuclear accord reached a year ago, face delays that could reduce or even unravel them, aviation lawyers and analysts said.

Legislation passed by the House of Representatives on July 7 would essentially block the multibillion-dollar agreements with Boeing and Airbus, despite provisions in the nuclear accord that allowed for such deals. While President Obama is expected to veto that legislation, it has pushed back the clock for the airplane deliveries, much to the annoyance of Iranian officials.

I was not expecting it, but Im not surprised, either, said Farhad R. Alavi, managing partner at the Akrivis law group, a Washington firm that specializes in sanctions compliance. Its very consistent with past efforts by Congress to undermine the nuclear deal.

Boeings chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, speaking this month at the Farnborough International Airshow in Britain, an important annual industry event, may have added to the skepticism. He said that if his company could not sell planes to Iran Air, the state-run airline, under a memorandum of agreement reached in June, then nobody should.
Whats happened in this ladys case is she had two substantial losses within a relatively short period, which is the frequency issue, he said. The insurance company said she represents a risk outside of the acceptable parameters, so they chose not to renew her.

In Ms. Wergeless view, she paid Travelers thousands of dollars in premiums over several decades, and paying a claim, even a large one, is what insurers are supposed to do. She said her agent calculated that she and her husband, Don, had paid over $72,000 in premiums since 2002, and, she said, they are now paying over $6,000 a year for the coverage they still have. But the total amount is probably much larger, she said, because the records dont go back to when the Wergeleses were first covered by Travelers.

Mr. Lynch said adding up years of premiums to defend continued coverage is an absolutely human response. But all those premium dollars were meant to protect the entire group of people for that year, not to accumulate for one individual, he said.

This year, one home out of 1,200 will suffer a fire loss, he said. You hope youre not that one out of the 1,200, but if you are, youre compensated. If youre all those other people, would you want one person making so many claims that youre endangering the others?

He said that when he owned an agency, people would complain that they hadnt filed a claim in years and now their rate was going up for one claim. Id say, Would it make you feel better if I ran into your car or started a small fire in your house? he said. People buy insurance because theyd rather have the known cost of a $500 deductible than the unknown cost of paying for a $300,000 house that burned down.

And to add to the confusion, Travelers has continued to insure the Wergeleses despite larger claims on their homeowners and auto policies. Since 2002, Ms. Wergeles said, the insurer has paid them nearly $22,000 on their homeowners policy, largely for storm-related damage, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012, that wasnt their fault. But it also paid $57,000 in auto claims, the bulk of which covered two cars that Mr. Wergeles wrecked before he stopped driving eight years ago. (He has Parkinsons disease.)

While insurers give people discounts for both the number of policies and the number of years they have with the company, they look at the risk of each policy separately. The premiums for personal property policies are comparatively low compared with homeowners policies, and that is factored into the number of claims companies can pay out. In insurance company thinking, Travelers could not charge a high enough premium to offset the risk of another $19,000 ring loss, Mr. Lynch said.
He was slight and unassuming with a bushy mop of dark hair and deep circles under his eyes hinting at the alcoholic dissipation of a poete maudit. His voice was a suggestive murmur, both musical and raspy from smoking too much. Most people called him Dick. To friends he would announce himself as George, a mannerism dating back to when he and his father addressed each other as George and Lennie, after characters in Steinbecks Depression novel Of Mice and Men.

No one knew why Dick Bellamy nicknamed himself after a loser, but perhaps it was a reminder that he was a child of the Depression who had no fear of losing. In every respect, with his deep connections to the world of the Beat poets, writers and jazz, to the artists of Provincetown and the Lower East Side in Manhattan, Bellamy was a free spirit, a quiet catalyst behind the art of the 60s.
A FLOATING CHINAMAN

Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific

By Hua Hsu

276 pp. Harvard University Press. $29.95.

For critics and scholars, the greatest rewards are to be gained in bestowing attention on authors whose stock is already high. Why, then, should a writer look toward one of the forgotten? And how to select someone to elevate? This is the task that Hua Hsu, an associate professor of English at Vassar, sets for himself in his smart new book, A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific. His chosen subject is the mostly unknown H. T. Tsiang (1899-1971), a Chinese immigrant who created some of the most ambitious and, at times, bizarrely self-aware works of modern American literature.

As Hsu makes painfully, comically evident, Tsiang was condemned mostly to self-publication. This sad sack peddled his books from a suitcase and wrote furiously to anyone who would help his literary cause. Decades after his death, his work at last found an audience through the edgy Kaya Press, which recently released his 1935 novel The Hanging on Union Square and is bringing out his 1937 novel And China Has Hands. But during his lifetime Tsiang suffered the incompatible indignities of being spied on by the F.B.I. while being rejected or dismissed by progressive writers like Theodore Dreiser. And in a situation verging on slapstick, a desperate Tsiang finally found his work recommended to an important publisher, Richard Walsh, who happened to be married to Pearl Buck. Unfortunately, in Tsiangs novel China Red, he had likened Bucks work as Americas favorite China expert to prostitution, and had also attacked Bucks husband. Walsh rejected Tsiangs books.
And Jane has a lot to overcome even before taking her first breath. Whatever love there was between her parents, Ida and Sylvester Chisolm, has been worn, like their bodies, by the work and worry of sustaining their farm, some miles outside Mercury, and by their both being disposed to darkness of spirit. Ida, at 39, has given birth to five children already (only three of whom survived) and does not want another. Given her age and the circumstances on the night of Janes conception, she imagines her pregnancy as an evil joke: Her husband, drunk on the whiskey from his celebrated still and too cheap to go to a two-dollar whore, took his wife while she too had achieved a share of oblivion; she was unconscious from a dose of laudanum, prescribed for her nerves. When the local doctor and family friend Eldred Thompson delivers Jane and discovers the evident anomaly in her makeup, shame and guilt, and often rage, show up as if they were flesh-and-blood creatures compelled to shadow her parents and Janes days.

Illness, Susan Sontag famously said, is the nightside of life, a more onerous citizenship. Jane is not sick, exactly, but as Dr. Thompson later explains it to her: Everything is kind of tucked up inside you. . . . And one thing you do not have is the little muscle that allows you to control yourself; eventually he defines it as urogenital sinus anomaly and persistent cloaca. Impossible to treat then (and rare even now, though fixable with surgery), Janes condition precludes sex and childbearing, which in turn precludes marriage in that time and place. It does not, however, preclude love or romantic and sexual longings and all their attendant transcendence. As early as her sixth year, shes struck hard by the embarrassment of her incontinence when a playmate tells her, You stink. She isolates herself, but because Jane, in defiance of her genes, is not prone to melancholy or the miseries, this isolation offers new ways of seeing and feeling while alone in the fields and woods. Watson conveys Janes relationship to nature as a lovers, with tactile, achingly sensuous prose: A torrential storm, . . . the soft skins of wild mushrooms, the quick and violent death of a chicken, the tight and unopened bud of a flower blossom, . . . the somehow palpable feel of fading light  were in some way sexual for Jane. The mystery and strangeness of nature comfort and embolden her as she investigates these aspects in herself. (Indeed, there are few words in the novel relied on more than strange, because Watson is driving home all its applications, worldly and otherworldly, diminishing and expanding.) When Jane falls for a boy who also falls for her and she opts to attend the dances where she knows he will be, she lets herself see and be seen (as a gaunt, dark-eyed beauty) and measures just how far she can go before real harm is done.

Critically, she is not alone when taking these risks: Her father haunts the doorways of the dances, ready to take her home. Its he who teaches her about dangers to avoid in the woods and the names of trees, shrubs and flowers, and he, however flawed, who is prepared to sacrifice himself to protect Jane. Her sister, whos as flinty as their parents and helps to raise Jane, shows her the allures and perils of willfulness and living outside convention. Her greatest teacher and ally, however, is Dr. Thompson, who from the first reframes Janes limitations as learning opportunities. He asks the questions the novel turns on: Who can say what life will make of a body? And can that body thrive without romantic connection? A widower whose marriage was not perfect, and himself infertile, he offers one answer: In my opinion many Ive known wouldve been better off following their solitary natures. Through the doctor and Janes father, Watson expresses a tenderness that is one of the novels finest achievements and may derive from being a father himself, from the hard-won knowledge that we are each of us limited.

Yet the complexity and drama of Watsons gorgeous work here is lifes as well: Sometimes physical realities expand us, sometimes trap; sometimes heroism lies in combating our helplessness, sometimes in accepting it. A writer of profound emotional depths, Watson does not lie to his reader, so neither does his Jane. She never stops longing for a wholeness she may never know, but she is determined that her citizenship in the world, however onerous, be dragged into the light and there be lived without apology or perfection or pity.
Health officials have warned pregnant women to avoid travel to the more than 45 countries and territories in which the Zika virus is circulating. Infection during pregnancy can lead to birth defects in infants, particularly brain damage and abnormally small heads, called microcephaly.

But with the Olympics nearing and summer tourism in full swing, what about other travelers? What are the risks of visiting a Zika-affected country for a woman who has no plans to get pregnant  or her partner, or her child? Here are some answers to commonly asked questions.

Where is the Zika virus spreading?

Most of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains a list of affected countries. But the tally has been criticized for tarring many nations too broadly: Not every region in every country has seen Zika infections.

In particular, the yellow-fever mosquitoes that carry the virus dont survive at elevations higher than 6,500 feet. So if your plan is to visit Mexico City or go mountain-climbing in Argentina, the odds of being bitten there are close to nil.
I was 21 when I decided to quit university and help my boyfriend create an eco-village community on the island of Palawan. It was truly heartbreaking news for my parents. I grew up in a modest city called Cagayan de Oro, on the island Mindanao in the Philippines. When I was young, every night before bed my father would read to me a chapter of whatever book he was reading, and both my parents taught me to speak English at an early age. My dad used to say that because he didnt have property or wealth to pass on to me, my education was the one thing he and mom could give me. So after I left school, I knew I was on my own.

But soon after having made what seemed like the most difficult decision of my life, finally free of school and family, I was sad: It became clear that cocreating this eco-village was not my calling. I was interested in art. So I traveled around backpacking for a while until I moved on to explore the capital, Manila.

I thought of Manila as a gateway to a whole new world, a place that would expand my mind. I wanted to meet other creatives and see what was happening on the art scene. A friend told me to check out Green Papaya, a contemporary art space in Quezon City, one of the most populated parts of the whole capital region. I was happy to find out about it, but I also felt like the equivalent of a hick: nervous and excited to meet the artists of the big city.

After a long commute through dense traffic by jeepney and motorized tricycle, I finally made it to this place. It was nice and chill, with a good bunch of folk around. There was a comic-book artist, back from a trip abroad, who wanted to celebrate. Drinks were passed around, and finally he pulled out a big chunk of weed and started rolling a joint. I was next to him, and he started smoking and insisting I take a hit. I didnt feel like getting high, especially because I had a long way back to where I was staying, and it was all new and exciting enough to me just the way it was. So I told him, No, thanks, but the guy was already a bit drunk, and he replied emphatically in his American accent, Youre square, youre so square.
After James Schamus was fired in 2013 from his job running Focus Features, where, over the course of nearly a dozen years, he had brought to the screen such indie gems as Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation and Milk, he vowed to take it easy, and more or less failed.

Mr. Schamus is known in Hollywood for being a high-achieving, highbrow go-getter. (He is also known for routinely sporting a bow tie.) He has written and produced dozens of films, many with his longtime friend and collaborator Ang Lee. He was also probably the only Hollywood honcho to earn a Ph.D. (in English, from the University of California, Berkeley) while both running a production company and holding a professorship at an Ivy League graduate school (Columbia University).
One of the trends Ive seen over the past 20 years is the increasing monetization of collections, and viewing them for their monetary values, said Peter J. Wosh, director of the archives and public history program at New York University. Once memorabilia is put up for sale, he added, it is often out of the reach of historical societies and libraries. It is really sad because a collection gets sold off and broken up, and is no longer accessible to people, he said. The Waldorf had a lot of prominent people staying there, so I imagine that the autograph value alone is probably monetarily valuable.

But while a collection may attract buyers, that does not necessarily mean it has the same value to scholars, said Thomas G. Lannon, the New York Public Librarys assistant director for manuscripts, archives and rare books. The library is the custodian of over 600 volumes of archival materials from the first Waldorf Astoria, much of it donated when it relocated to Park Avenue from Fifth Avenue. It is unclear, he said, whether the library would accept the current archive, should the owners decide to discard it. You have companies trying to trade off these New York stories, but much of it is just smoke and mirrors, Mr. Lannon said. How much a hotel is actually part of the folklore of a city is up for debate.

Even if an institution attains historical significance, it is rarely the objects in its archive that are the most noteworthy. Sometimes objects that are exhibitable and tell a certain story dont tell the real story of the hotel, Mr. Lannon said. Materials like employee payrolls, lists of guests and even security logs  documents that most companies are loath to share  can be far more informative than ephemera such as antique doorknobs and silverware.

Ms. Dinnigan, who was born in Grenada and is the mother of four children, moved to New York as a teenager. She has a masters degree in library and information science from the Pratt Institute, as well as a masters degree from N.Y.U. Before working at the Waldorf, she worked at Scholastic and the Brooklyn Historical Society. She first noticed her interest in archives while visiting the National Archives of Grenada. I walked in and asked to see what they had, and they allowed me to view materials from 1813, she said. It was just deteriorating in my hands and I realized then that I wanted to preserve such things, they have so much meaning.

While her prospects at the Waldorf are uncertain, Ms. Dinnigan continues to spend her days cataloging and researching materials, as well as collecting the oral histories of longtime employees, whom she hopes to record before the hotel closes. She is also wading through the bric-a-brac she has received from guests and fans of the hotel.

On a recent day, she was examining two forks featuring the hotels name and an image of an apple engraved on the handle. They had come from a couple in Cleveland, who found them at a garage sale.

Ms. Dinnigan was also busy clarifying discrepancies in the hotels record book. One of the most intriguing is the location of Peacock Alley. The famous corridor, where wealthy guests once paraded in Victorian finery, was long thought to be the passageway that ran between the original Waldorf and Astoria hotels. Most history books tend to regurgitate the same story over and over, almost like a game of telephone, Ms. Dinnigan said. But when I looked at the blueprints of the original hotel, I could find no such pathway between the buildings.

Ms. Dinnigan believes there were once actually two peacock alleys: a smaller, all-female locale in the Waldorf, and later, a second, longer corridor that ran through the Astoria side of the building. She is racing against the clock to confirm her findings, hopeful she will be in her job long enough to confirm her theory.
The photographer Edwin J. Torres first really saw the Bronx when he left it. A child of the Hunts Point neighborhood, he went to Colby College in Maine, and when he rode the train home for spring break in his freshman year, his eyes opened to the incredible human pageant he had been missing. I saw this African lady with her four kids, all in traditional clothing, and I thought, my God, this is so beautiful, he said. Everything was coming to life around me.

Mr. Torres, 26, realized that there was no place he more urgently wanted to document than his home borough. He came back after graduation with a job for an insurance company and a bug for photography. I wanted to pay tribute to all the classical Bronx images of photographers I look up to, he said, naming a group of street photographers who were part of a 2013 exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center, including The Timess Angel Franco and David Gonzalez. Sometimes I wish I was born earlier, because of the moments they captured, he said, but when I hang out, I realize the moments are still there, especially in summer  kids starting a carwash business out of a fire hydrant, $5 a car, or jumping off the pier at Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point, when theres a clean swimming pool just meters away, just because its free from lifeguards and adults.

In looking back over three years of images for the selection on this page, he was struck by how much the neighborhoods had changed in such a short time. It made me realize I had to work a lot harder and hang out a lot more, he said. Its really about being available, and being willing to be around as much as possible.
By most accounts, Coney Islands annual Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, perhaps the worlds most regularly celebrated display of gluttony, traces its origins to a rivalry among immigrants a century ago, which just happened to be the year that Nathan Handwerker opened his frankfurter stand on Stillwell Avenue.

Two books published by members of the familys third generation to coincide with the stands centennial largely debunk that stubborn, if serviceable, legend (although, as interested parties, Nathans two grandsons by feuding fathers  Murray and Sol  may perpetuate several other fables).

Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog (Flatiron Books), by Lloyd Handwerker and Gil Reavill, is the better read and the more well-rounded tale. Nathans Famous: The First 100 years, an Unauthorized View of Americas Favorite Frankfurter Company (Morgan James Publishing), by William Handwerker with Jayne A. Pearl, qualifies as a better business-school study of the consequences of family dysfunction. Too bad the cousins didnt collaborate.

The founder, whose first job at 6 was peddling knishes in what is now Poland, immigrated to New York when he was barely 20. He had no formal education, spoke no English and began his restaurant career as a dishwasher.
Its perhaps no surprise that Mr. Vongerichten has finally come to Fire Island: His longtime business partner, Phil Suarez, a summer resident of Fair Harbor, has owned Le Dock since 1976, leasing it to various chef-operators through the years. When the previous chef departed last year, Mr. Suarez brought in Mr. Vongerichten.

Image Linguine with clams. Credit... Kathy Kmonicek for The New York Times

With the capable Josh Eden (a 14-year veteran of the culinary team) as resident chef, the new menu at Le Dock often feels like a first-class tour of Jean-Georges classics. Theres the warm shrimp salad drizzled with champagne buerre blanc that currently graces the menus at JoJo and Nougatine at Jean-Georges. A salad of beets and goat cheese, and an earthy truffle fontina pizza, both of which originated at the Mercer Kitchen.

But in the disciplined hands of Mr. Eden, the house specialties are less like reruns and more like fresh and flavorful encores, enhanced by local, organic ingredients, fired with Asian and Latin spices and crafted with French technique.

Sweet pea guacamole was a winning starter, creamy and brightened by a squeeze of lime, with a side of warm house-made tortilla chips worth fighting over. So, too, was the chilled gazpacho, sweetened with ripe summer tomatoes and topped with a confetti of cucumber and basil, as well as raspberries.

As befits a beach lunch, many of Le Docks midday offerings are fried, crisp and greaseless. The crunchy calamari with a citrus chili dip was good, but the fish tacos were better. Fried flounder strips were tucked in a warm, soft corn tortilla, sprinkled with diced apples and Napa cabbage vinaigrette, and drizzled with chipotle mayo. They were a crunchy, chewy, sweet and spicy handful.
There are things in there that we thought would be great to use in our vacation home, which we never purchased, he said.

Mr. Cigna said their spacious apartment seemed more and more crowded. A referral from a friend led to Mr. Weston of Paper Moon, who helped them cull their belongings. By doing all of this now, I think well be able to make quick decisions if and when we decide to move, Mr. Pandina said.

Many, however, dont call move managers until the situation is dire. Fran OBrien, 52, found herself in such a jam when her mothers health rapidly deteriorated. By early this year, it was clear that her mother, Astrid OBrien, needed round-the-clock care, and her parents would have to leave their home of 54 years in Riverdale, the Bronx.

It is truly a frightful prospect to suddenly have to determine what you want to keep, said Robert OBrien, Fran OBriens father. I became anxious because I knew I couldnt do this alone.

In early March, Astrid OBrien moved into an assisted living facility in Paramus, N.J., and Ms. Kahn of Judith Moves You was hired to sort through the couples things. The OBriens, both philosophy professors at Fordham College at Lincoln Center for more than 50 years, had over a thousand books, mostly on philosophy, Ms. Kahn said.

Ms. Kahn and Mr. OBrien, 85, pared down the collection to about 300 books. Mr. OBrien said he couldnt believe how quickly Ms. Kahn worked. In a few weeks she managed to get him moved in with his wife, who died four days later at age 82.

Judiths expertise and know-how was simply priceless, he said.

For Fran OBrien, hiring a move manager afforded her precious extra time.

I didnt want to spend the little time I had left with my mom packing boxes in the Bronx, Ms. OBrien said. It was such a relief when I found Judith.
The theory of creative limitation states that by proposing constraints upon a project or an idea, one gains the freedom to become more creative within those constraints. In the case of Kali, a restaurant in the Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles that opened in January, that limit is the border that divides California from the rest of the country. Within that fortunate constraint, the partners Kevin Meehan and Drew Langley have constructed a world as colorful, complex and wild as the Golden State itself.

The two met in 2001 at LOrangerie in Hollywood, where Mr. Meehan cooked in the kitchen under Ludovic Lefebvre; Mr. Langley was the sommelier. Their collaboration, conveyed through a tasting menu with optional pairings, is composed of complements and layering. For instance, one evening, a supple prawn crudo with dehydrated lemon peel and nasturtium was accompanied by a bright, acidic malvasia from Santa Ynez. In the same menu, half of a charred avocado, bathed in sunny olive oil and dusted with ash, was joined with an assyrtiko from Greece, a grape whose growth in volcanic ash mirrored the dishs earthen quality, but whose creaminess also matched the dishs weight.

Much of the food at Kali is built on the pure flavors packed into California ingredients, which Mr. Meehan amplifies with his classically French and modern techniques. I believe every meal should be served with bread, he said. Even Jesus was into bread. The warm, sweet, downy bread at Kali  served in a compact loaf alongside main dishes  is made with honey and buttermilk, a byproduct of the restaurants house-made butter. (The butters base is Straus cream, from a beloved Marin County dairy.)

Ducks, which are seasoned overnight with lavender and salt before being seared and served with vibrant, nearly tropical-tasting carrots, are from Sonoma County Poultry where a fourth-generation duck farmer raises the birds, a Pekin breed called Liberty Ducks, without hormones or commercial feeds.
Leptin is released by fat cells and travels through the blood to the brain. The more fat on a persons body, the more leptin is released. When fat levels are low, leptin levels in the brain are low, and the brain responds by increasing the persons appetite, prompting the person to eat and gain weight. For someone like Ms. Johnson, who has almost no fat cells to signal the brain, the brain gets almost no leptin. To the brain, it seems as if she is starving. As a result, she receives continuous signals to eat.

With leptin treatment, Ms. Johnsons brain was tricked into responding as though she had abundant fat. Her insatiable hunger vanished. Fat disappeared from her liver, her blood glucose became normal, and so did her cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

But why did she and other lipodystrophy patients have these conditions in the first place, and why did they vanish? What was going on?

A couple of studies involving mice produced some clues. Dr. Marc Reitman, the chief of the diabetes, endocrinology and obesity branch at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and his colleague, Dr. Charles Vinson, of the National Cancer Institute, genetically engineered mice to have lipodystrophy. The mice, like Ms. Johnson, had almost no fat tissue. And like her, they developed all of the conditions associated with obesity.

What would happen, the researchers asked, if the mice had a bit more fat tissue?

They transplanted fat tissue into the rodents, and two weeks later, the mice had normal levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides. Their livers and muscles went back to normal, too.

If that worked, the scientists wondered, could a limitless amount of fat tissue prevent the syndrome, even if copious amounts of fat were stored in that tissue?

Philipp E. Scherer, the director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and his colleagues tested the idea. They engineered mice that could make an almost limitless amount of fat tissue. As a result, there was no end to the amount of fat the animals could store. They were, Dr. Scherer said, the fattest mice under the sun, the mouse equivalent of an 800-pound human being.
Too Real: To a certain kind of thriller writer, current events are catnip. Take Daniel Silva, whose novel The Black Widow enters the hardcover fiction list at No. 1. You and I might be duly terrorized by terrorism, but Silva  whose series hero is the art restorer and Israeli spy Gabriel Allon  is tantalized. So The Black Widow opens with ISIS bombings in Paris and Amsterdam that inevitably call to mind actual attacks carried out since last fall in France and northern Europe. Yet any similarities, Silva notes in a foreword, are coincidental. I commenced work on this novel before the Islamic terrorist group known as ISIS carried out a wave of shootings and bombings in Paris and Brussels that left more than 160 people dead, he writes. After briefly considering setting aside the typescript, I chose to complete it as originally conceived. . . . I take no pride in my prescience. I only wish that the murderous, millenarian terrorism of the Islamic State lived solely on the pages of this story.

Silva has criticized the Western response to ISIS  I wrote this book as a warning about what was coming, he told The Dallas Morning News this month  but he has no complaints about the response to his series. I . . . got to throw a first pitch at Yankee Stadium, he said in the same interview. Never would have happened without Gabriel Allon. Im proud to say, by the way, that I threw it from the top of the mound and didnt bounce it. You cant bounce it in Yankee Stadium, because theyll boo you there.

Supervillains: American political thrillers, like American politics, can be awfully jingoistic. In the works of Brad Thor and Brad Taylor and similar writers, a heroic America often comes under existential threat from a bellicose Russia or China or North Korea. So if American thrillers function as a kind of propaganda, demonizing foreign enemies, then do foreign thrillers make America the villain? I put the question to Tom Roberge, a co-owner of the soon-to-open Riffraff, a bookstore and bar in Providence, R.I., who in his career has encountered plenty of international examples of the genre. Im inclined to say no on the jingoism thing, he replied, but I think thats because I tend toward noir instead of straight thrillers, and noir tends to be critical of any and all institutions. That said, Id say le Carre is pretty damn proud of being British, right?
Conflict and joy, confusion and wonder  our differences lead to many things, but after the violence in France and the shootings of and by police in the United States, uplift has been in short supply.

So on July 15, a day after the attacks in Nice, The New York Times hosted a Facebook Live Drawing Series with Yuko Shimizu, an award-winning Japanese illustrator known for her focus on diversity and portraits.

We asked our audience to describe the best elements of themselves both physically and emotionally. Ms. Shimizu then used traditional Japanese inking techniques to bring alive the faces of Facebook.
It was a little over a year ago that Donald J. Trump first proposed barring Muslims from entering the United States.

In subsequent statements during the campaign, Mr. Trump and his staff made several confusing pivots on the issue, at one point tying the ban to countries that had been compromised by terrorism.

What follows is an examination of some of those statements and an analysis of how many people could be blocked from entering the United States each year depending on how a ban would be enforced.

A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

Several days after the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., Mr. Trump called for the United States to bar all Muslims from entering the country until the nations leaders can figure out what is going on.

How would such a ban work? The United States does not screen for religion upon entry, but one way could be to create a list of countries that would be subject to such a ban, perhaps by focusing on those with large shares of Muslims.

If a ban, for example, included immigration by people from majority-Muslim countries, more than one million people from at least 46 countries would be prevented from entering the United States annually as legal permanent residents or temporary immigrants, such as students, guest workers, diplomats or tourists.

Barring immigrants from countries where more than 50 percent of the population is Muslim would keep out about 1 million people each year.

North America Europe Russia Canada Asia Britain Turkey Japan Mexico Cuba France Indonesia Egypt South America Brazil Africa Australia Most Middle Eastern countries would be excluded, as well as Afghanistan.

North America Europe Canada Russia Asia Britain China Germany Japan Turkey Mexico Malaysia Cuba France Saudi Arabia Indonesia Egypt Morocco South America Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa Most Middle Eastern countries would be excluded, as well as Afghanistan.

Finland Norway Europe Canada Russia North America Asia Britain Ireland China Germany Turkey Japan India Mexico Malaysia Cuba France Italy Saudi Arabia Indonesia Spain Philippines Most Middle Eastern countries would be excluded, as well as Afghanistan. Egypt Morocco South America Australia New Zealand Africa Brazil South Africa

Finland Norway Europe Canada Russia Sweden North America Asia Ireland Britain South Korea China Germany Japan Turkey India Mexico Malaysia Israel Cuba Taiwan France Singapore Italy Saudi Arabia Indonesia Greece Spain Philippines Most Middle Eastern countries would be excluded, as well as Afghanistan. Egypt Morocco South America Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa

Squares sized by the average number of immigrants and visitors who entered the United States from that country in the last 10 years.

If Mr. Trumps ban applied to countries with a much larger share of Muslims, like 90 percent, the list would dwindle to 29 countries. But it would still include Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt  countries that are working with the United States to combat jihadist terrorists.

Barring immigrants from countries where more than 90 percent of the population is Muslim would keep out about 675,000 people each year.

North America Europe Russia Canada Asia Britain China Turkey Japan Mexico Cuba France Saudi Arabia Philippines Egypt South America Africa Brazil Australia

North America Europe Russia Canada Asia Britain China Germany Japan Turkey Mexico India Cuba France Saudi Arabia Philippines Egypt Morocco South America New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa Australia

Finland Norway Europe Canada Russia North America Asia Britain Ireland South Korea China Germany Turkey Japan Mexico India Israel Cuba Taiwan France Singapore Saudi Arabia Italy Indonesia Spain Greece Philippines Egypt Morocco South America New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa Australia

Finland Norway Europe Canada Russia Sweden North America Asia Ireland Britain South Korea China Germany Japan Turkey India Mexico Malaysia Israel Cuba Taiwan France Singapore Saudi Arabia Italy Indonesia Greece Spain Philippines Egypt Morocco South America Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa

Under the current immigration system, enforcing a ban on Muslims would prove difficult because it is nearly impossible to determine the religions of people traveling to the United States unless they volunteer that information.

How would you screen Muslims? said Muzaffar Chishti, a director at the Migration Policy Institute. Theres no mention of religion on the passport. If you go by name, clearly a lot of Muslims dont have Muslim-sounding names, and a lot of non-Muslims have Muslim-sounding names.

United States immigration law does not take religion into account in the approval of visas, and current applications do not include questions about religious identity or affiliation, a State Department official said.

Mr. Trumps ban would rely on a law that gives the president authority to prevent the entry of any class of people who would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. By proclamation, he or she can suspend their entry or impose restrictions, according to the law.

In 2011, President Obama used the law to suspend the entry of people who participate in serious human rights and humanitarian law violations. But a ban of a magnitude proposed by Mr. Trump has not happened before, Mr. Chishti said.

Ten months after the ban was proposed, Mike Pence, Mr. Trumps running mate, said a temporary ban on Muslim immigration was no longer Mr. Trumps position.

I will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism.

In a speech after the Orlando massacre, Mr. Trump removed the reference to religion and instead proposed barring people from regions of the world with a proven history of terrorism against the United States and its allies.

Mr. Trump did not say whether the proposal was a replacement for the Muslim ban or an extension of it. He also did not specify what qualified as a proven history of terrorism.

One possible approach would be screening out the home countries of people who have launched jihadist-inspired strikes in the United States, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Barring immigrants from countries where jihadist-inspired attackers against the United States were born would keep out about 5.5 million people each year.

North America Europe Canada Russia Asia Britain China Germany Japan Mexico Cuba France Saudi Arabia Egypt South America Brazil Africa Australia

North America Norway Europe Canada Russia Asia Britain China Germany Japan Mexico India Cuba France Saudi Arabia Italy Spain Philippines Egypt Ethiopia Nigeria South America Brazil South Africa Africa Australia

Finland Norway Europe Canada Russia North America Asia Ireland Britain South Korea China Germany Japan Turkey India Mexico Israel Cuba Taiwan France Singapore Saudi Arabia Italy Indonesia Greece Spain Philippines Egypt South America Ethiopia Nigeria Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa

Finland Norway Europe Canada Russia Sweden North America Asia Ireland Britain South Korea China Germany Turkey Japan India Mexico Malaysia Israel Cuba Taiwan France Singapore Saudi Arabia Italy Indonesia Greece Spain Philippines Egypt South America Ethiopia Nigeria Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa

Such a list would include about 12 countries, but past acts of terrorism suggest that it would not be a blanket solution.

Although the Sept. 11 attackers entered the United States using tourist, business or student visas, half of the attacks since 2001 have been committed by people born in the United States. And one of the attackers  Richard Reid, known as the shoe bomber  was a British citizen, and would not have needed a visa to enter the United States.

The last time the United States did anything close to what Mr. Trump is proposing was when the Bush administration introduced a program after the Sept. 11 attacks that required adult men from 25 countries known to have a Qaeda presence to be fingerprinted, registered and interviewed, Mr. Chishti said.

Even this controversial program did not bar groups of people from entering the country; it only screened them.

We must suspend immigration from regions linked with terrorism until a proven vetting method is in place.

In June, Mr. Trump told Bloomberg News that he would limit specific terrorist countries. He did not offer the names of countries, but said, We know who those terrorist countries are.

If Mr. Trump meant a list including all the countries from which foreign fighters have gone to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State and other extremist groups, there are more than 80 of them, and they include many of United States European allies.

Barring immigrants from countries from which foreign fighters have departed to Iraq and Syria would keep out about 29 million people each year.

North America Europe Germany Asia Russia Canada China Britain Japan Ireland Mexico France Israel India Italy Spain Egypt South America Brazil New Zealand Africa Australia

North America Europe Germany Netherlands Russia Canada Asia Britain Turkey China Ireland Japan Mexico India Cuba Israel Italy France Philippines Spain South America New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa Australia

Finland Norway Europe Netherlands Canada Russia North America Sweden Asia Ireland Britain Turkey China Germany Japan Ukraine India Mexico Cuba France Israel Singapore Italy Spain Greece Philippines Egypt Morocco South America Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa

Finland Norway Europe Netherlands Canada Russia Sweden North America Asia Ireland Britain South Korea China Turkey Germany Japan Ukraine Belgium India Mexico Malaysia Israel Cuba Taiwan France Singapore Italy Saudi Arabia Indonesia Greece Spain Philippines Egypt Morocco South America Australia New Zealand Brazil Africa South Africa

But while in Scotland in June, Mr. Trump said he would not have a problem with a Muslim from a place like Scotland entering the United States.

We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism.

In his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president, Mr. Trump emphasized the need for a proven vetting mechanism and said that he would bar immigrants from countries that have been compromised by terrorism.

We dont want them in our country, he said.

His campaign later said this would include countries like Libya and Syria, and ones that have a history of sending terrorists to the United States.

One way of implementing this would be to bar immigration from countries that the State Department calls terrorist havens or state sponsors of terrorism.

Barring immigrants from countries the State Department calls terrorist havens or state sponsors of terrorism would keep out about 2 million people each year.

In August, Mr. Trump also said that members or sympathizers of terrorist groups as well as anyone with hostile attitudes to our principles would not be admitted into the country, and he called for new screening procedures.

Although its possible for a president to temporarily suspend immigration from certain parts of the world, it would be a slow process and take an ambitious bureaucratic effort.

Any broad ban could incite retaliation against Americans traveling and living abroad, separate families, hinder national security efforts and disrupt business and trade.
The New York Times | Aerial image from Google

Gunman was also seen

Gunman was also seen

Here is a timeline of the attack, according to the police:

1 5:50 p.m. The gunman began shooting near a McDonalds restaurant, where five of the victims were found.

2 He entered the Olympia Shopping Center across the street, and continued firing.

3 He fled the shopping mall.

4 At some point, he was seen on video on the roof of a nearby parking garage. A police officer made visual contact with the gunman and fired at him, but missed. The gunman escaped.

Gunman in front of McDonalds. From video posted on Twitter by Thomas Seymat Man atop parking garage. From video posted on YouTube by Nimo

A video distributed online showed a man dressed in black opening fire in front of a McDonalds restaurant. Another video emerged of a similarly dressed man with a gun on top of a nearby parking garage. The timing of the two videos was unclear.

5 8:28 p.m. Less than a mile from the mall, in front of two police officers, the gunman killed himself with his own gun, the police said.
A Dana Point doctor has been placed on five years probation by the California Medical Board after failing to supervise a physicians assistant who improperly prescribed opiate painkillers to eight patients, including one with a history of drug abuse.

Dr. Richard Berton Mantell reached a settlement with the board that also suspended him from practicing for 15 days, and barred him from supervising physician assistants or from prescribing certain types of controlled substances.

According to the documents, Mantell ran a medical marijuana clinic but was hired to oversee an unidentified physician assistant at another medical office by reviewing and signing his patient charts.

Mantell was accused of gross negligence for his lack of oversight between 2011 and 2013 of the physician assistant. In one instance, the physician assistant prescribed Norco and Xanax to a patient even after he tested positive for methamphetamine at the appointment.

Mantells attorney, Peter Osinoff of Los Angeles, said the license of the physician assistant has been revoked.

Doctors take a major risk in working with a physician assistant because they ultimately are responsible for what the PA does, Osinoff said. Dr. Mantell had worked with other PAs, nurse practitioners and other advanced care practitioners without problems for a lengthy career.
PARIS  Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who killed 84 people in a terrorist attack in Nice, France, last week, planned his assault over several months and got help from at least five people, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday.

However, although Islamic State called the attacker one of its soldiers, there is as yet no evidence that he or the suspected accomplices had any direct contact with the terrorist network, the prosecutor, Francois Molins, who handles terrorism investigations in France, said at a news conference in Paris.

Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who lived in Nice, drove a cargo truck through crowds that had gathered on the citys waterfront promenade to watch the Bastille Day fireworks July 14. He also fired an automatic pistol at police before they shot and killed him.

Authorities initially said they believed that Bouhlel, who had not been particularly religious, had become radicalized over a few weeks before the attack.

But on Thursday, Molins suggested that the attack had been planned for months. Investigators have confirmed not only the premeditated character of the attack but also that Bouhlel benefited from support and complicity in the preparation and carrying out of his criminal act, Molins said.

The five suspects, who were arrested in the days after the attack, were to be charged Thursday. Molins said the charges would include murder, attempted murder, terrorist conspiracy, and the possession and transportation of weapons.

Bouhlels estranged wife also was arrested but was released without charges Sunday, as was a man who had been wrongly identified as a suspect, according to Audrey Delaunay, the mans lawyer.

Molins said investigators also uncovered pictures, text messages and phone calls that showed Bouhlel had been in close contact over the past year with three men who are now suspects.

Authorities identified them as Ramzi A., 21, a native of Nice and a dual French-Tunisian citizen; Chokri C., 37, a Tunisian born in Sousse, Tunisia; and Mohamed Oualid G., 40, a dual French-Tunisian citizen born in La Marsa, Tunisia.

Investigators also found pictures on Bouhlels phone from July 11 and July 13 of Mohamed Oualid G. in the truck used for the attack, Molins said.

On April 4, Chokri C. sent Bouhlel a Facebook message advising him to load the truck and to cut the brakes, my friend, and Ill watch, Molins said.

Chokri C.s fingerprints were found on the trucks passenger door, and he was recorded by a surveillance camera in the truck beside Bouhlel, on the promenade in Nice, less than three hours before the attack, Molins said.

A text message sent by Bouhlel to Ramzi A. minutes before the attack thanked him for an automatic pistol, which he used to shoot at police, and asked for new ones, Molins said.

Like Bouhlel, none of the men were known to French intelligence services, Molins said. Ramzi A. had a criminal record with convictions for theft, violence and drug use between 2013 and 2015.

An Albanian couple  Artan H., 38, and Enkeledja Z., 42, who also holds French citizenship  also face criminal proceedings. They are suspected of having helped Bouhlel get the 7.65mm automatic pistol he used.
SANTA ANA  A homeless man was sentenced Friday to 61 years to life behind bars for stabbing another transient to death over $100.

A jury in April found Lee Roy Castellano, 65, guilty of second-degree murder for the killing of Steven Jolly, 59, who was found dead on Feb.24, 2015 in a van he used for shelter in the parking lot of an Orange automotive business on West Struck Avenue.

Several months before the killing, Castellano had paid Jolly $100 as a down payment for a truck Jolly turned out not to own. He refused to repay the money.

As a third-striker, Castellanos sentence was more than tripled. He has a history of armed-robbery convictions, prosecutors said.

Castellano requested a closed hearing with Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg L. Prickett prior to the sentencing.

Afterward, Prickett indicated that Castellano had been extremely agitated and had claimed his attorney had a drinking problem, a contention the judge saw no evidence of.

Once the courtroom was re-opened, Castellano demanded to leave, saying he was no longer a willing participant to the hearing.

Prickett denied his request, and Castellano leafed through legal paperwork, deputies standing behind him, as the judge handed down his sentence.

Contact the writer: semery@ocregister.com
A 56-year-old Cerritos man was convicted of manslaughter on Thursday for shooting his best friend from South Korea after the friend had asked him to help him commit suicide.

An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Beong Kwun Cho guilty of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter for the death of his childhood friend, Yeon Woo Lee, whose body was found in Anaheim in January 2011. Jurors also had the option of first- and second-degree murder.

Cho, an immigrant from South Korea, sobbed as he listened to the verdict through a Korean interpreter. He faces up to 21 years in prison when he returns to court for sentencing on Sept. 23.

Chos defense attorney, Assistant Public Defender Robert Kohler, said Lee had wanted to die for years but didnt want his death to look like a suicide because suicide brings great shame to families in South Korea.

After his business and marriage in Korea failed, Lee traveled to Orange County in 2010 with plans to make his death look like a botched robbery. When he couldnt hire someone to do it, he bullied and manipulated his friend Cho into pulling the trigger, Kohler said.

The evidence was compelling that this was a heat-of-passion-type killing, Kohler said.

Anaheim police found Lees body in the gutter next to a rental car and initially thought he was killed by accident while trying to change a tire. The case became a murder investigation after an X-ray showed a single bullet in his skull.

Police found Chos cell phone number listed under Lees emergency contact in the rental car papers. The two had attended elementary school in South Korea together and remained close even after Cho moved to California with his wife and two children in 2003.

Cho initially said he didnt know where his friend was, but he later confessed to the killing in an eight-hour police interview that was played for jurors.

Lee wanted to commit suicide but didnt want to bring shame upon his family in Korea, Cho told police. He said Lee also had a life insurance policy that would be canceled in the event of suicide.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons said Lee planned all the details of his killing. Lee bought a gun and the two men practiced at a shooting range. He drove around looking for locations near water because he was superstitious.

In the trial, jurors saw video footage of the two men visiting a Wal-Mart together to buy size-13 shoes, which was part of the plan to make it look like a robbery, Simmons said.

There was no question that the victim absolutely was adamant about committing suicide, Simmons said. This was a bizarre case. I think it was a fair verdict.

The case took an even stranger turn when Cho admitted to police that he hated his friend and wanted him to die for allegedly raping Chos wife, Simmons said.

Lee had allegedly lent Cho $2,000 under an agreement that if Cho did not pay Lee back in a few days, Lee could have sex with his wife, Simmons said, and Cho apparently did not pay him back quick enough.

In the trial, Chos wife, who has filed for divorce, testified that Lee had raped her three times and she had never told anyone.

Cho took the stand over two days, crying as he recalled the details of his friends death. Cho said he did not want his friend to die but went along with his plans with the hopes that he would eventually return to Korea.

But as Lee knelt down in the gutter waiting for Cho to shoot, he allegedly confessed to Cho that he had raped his wife and said he could do it again and would do the same to his daughter, which apparently prompted Cho to pull the trigger, Simmons said.

Up until five minutes before he died I was thinking of ways to save him, Cho testified, his voice shaking. After he died, I realized  I did this. I did this.
Hillary Clinton is poised to unveil her choice of a running mate as soon as Friday via a text message to supporters, according to a person familiar with the plans, as she seeks to recapture the attention of voters following a week in which Donald Trump and the Republican Party dominated the news.

One of the leading contenders for Clintons running mate is said to be Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, according to several other people. Members of the Obama administration have been advocating for Kaine, who was considered for the vice presidential nomination by President Barack Obama in 2008, one of the people said. Hes also gotten the ear of former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clintons husband.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker also are said to be high on Clintons list, two people familiar with the selection process said. Other contenders whove been under consideration include Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO. She also has discussed the vice presidency with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Housing Secretary Julian Castro.

Clinton met with several candidates July 15 at her home in Washington.

The timing for the unveiling of her choice is unclear. All of those who spoke about the planning asked for anonymity because the discussions have been private.

The announcement would come three days before Democrats open their national convention in Philadelphia, a chance for the party to showcase the themes and messages that will be the foundation for Clintons campaign to win the White House in November. Clinton is scheduled to campaign Friday and Saturday in Florida, a key swing state.

The party conventions have served as deadlines for Clinton and Trump to round out their tickets. Trump and his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, were formally nominated by Republicans at their convention in Cleveland on Tuesday.

Trumps choice of Pence, a staunch conservative with a mild-mannered campaign style, may make it easier for Clinton to pick someone like Kaine or Vilsack, who are known for their even demeanor on the stump.

Clinton has declined to discuss individual potential running mates before her decision is announced. She said in an interview Monday with Charlie Rose for CBS News that she has met with a bunch of candidates and said, I am blessed with a broad group of people to choose from. She previously has indicated shes is focused on selecting a candidate who could fulfill the responsibilities of being president. But even on that basis, political considerations will come into play.

Republicans during their convention have focused on national security and domestic unrest, accusing Clinton and the Obama administration of decisions that have weakened the U.S. and allowed its enemies to thrive. Although Clinton served as secretary of state for four years and Trump has no experience in government, recent polls have showed him pulling closer to Clinton on the question of who is better able to handle security and deal with terrorism.
Ashley Eckstein, founder of Her Universe, wears a dress made of Lego bricks at the Her Universe Fashion show at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con. The dress was designed and created by Lego artist Nathan Sawaya and fashion designer Andrew MacLaine. It weighs more than 25 pounds and is made of more than 10,000 Lego bricks.
The Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra returned home July 14 after a successful international concert tour of Spain and Portugal.

The orchestra, which left July 5, performed in Barcelona, Manresa and Madrid, three historic cities not often visited by programs like OCYSO, according to maestro Daniel Alfred Wachs. The young musicians played through an eclectic set that included selections from Bernsteins Candide, Beethovens Fifth and Albeniz Iberia Suite. The 90-minute program, chosen to highlight American and Spanish composers, received standing ovations after every performance.

Spanish audiences are very discriminating, said Wachs. But the kids have never played better.

The trip was the first time out of the country for many of the young musicians, and it was the first trip to Spain for many others. Jet lag was one of the first challenges the players had to overcome, as their first show was on their second night in Spain, nine hours ahead of their Orange County homes.

Another challenge for the orchestra was adjusting to the climate. The first days temperatures hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 70 percent humidity. Many of the venues were ancient cathedrals without air conditioning, and the musicians were, of course, expected to dress in formal attire.

The logistics of transporting some of the larger instruments further complicated matters, meaning that anyone playing double bass, cello or percussion had to rent their instruments in Spain. And the beautiful cathedrals in which they performed reverberated sound differently from the venues they were used to playing in, testing instruments and musicians alike, especially because the tight tour schedule did not leave much time for practice.

Adjusting to the spacing and the fingering was very difficult, but the performances went very well, said cellist Shawn Berry, who played with a rented instrument.

Wachs acknowledged the struggle but also said it helped grow the young players into better musicians.

This is when you become a professional, he said. Because it doesnt matter if youre performing for two people or 2,000. If we touch the heart of one person, thats all that matters.

Temperatures steadily became more comfortable as the trip progressed, and the OCYSO players finally had some time to do a little exploring. They even swam in the Mediterranean almost every morning before heading into the cities.

One trip highlight was seeing Antoni Gaudis Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that has been under construction since 1882. The inside was designed to accentuate light and color, and orchestra members say they were blown away.

Another favorite tourist spot was the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, whose ringing bells left Berry in utter disbelief.

Upon their return to Orange County, the students in the orchestra began preparing for OCYSO auditions in August.

OCYSO never stops, Wachs said, laughing. Theres a little vacation, then we prepare for next season.

This new season will mark OCYSOs first at its new home at the Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2258 or varsityarts@ocregister.com
Visiting Cuba before it completely opens to U.S. travelers  and to McDonalds  was a race against the clock, from what I had read. So, in the spring, when no one I knew could commit to a trip, I decided to go it alone.

Pricey charter flights were the only direct option to the communist country seemingly stuck 50 years in the past  commercial flights from the U.S. will fly soon  so, I booked a trip from LAX to Mexico City. There, at a check-in kiosk for a Cubana de Aviacion flight to Havana, I showed my U.S. passport to a woman who copied down my information on a small slip of paper and asked me for $25. That was my visa to Cuba.

At small Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, I showed an airport official my U.S. passport as well as the visa. He asked if I wanted the visa stamped instead of my passport, but I said both were fine, since I was traveling for one of a dozen permitted reasons (journalism).

Outside the airport, I exchanged $400 for Cuban convertible pesos, or CUC, which tourists use and are different from the lower-value peso that locals use. Though $1 converts to 1 CUC, I only got 348 CUC after service charges. I hopped into a taxi and gave the driver the address of a place I found to stay at in Centro Havana for $25 a night through Airbnb.

I figured knocking on the door and asking for Manolito, the host whom I had booked with, wouldnt be too daunting because Im fluent in Spanish. He was already sitting on the sidewalk waiting for me. Manolito said his house was not available, and walked me to a multiple-story building across from his to meet Frank Martinez, owner of another casa particular, a home with rooms rented to tourists.

Frank, a cook, and his wife, Marilis, a doctor, were extremely warm and welcoming, contrary to stories I had heard of Cubans despising Americans because capitalism allows us to be so well-off. They let me pick a room in their apartment, several stories up, that faced the Malecon, a broad esplanade along the coast.

For the remainder of the day, I wandered around Havana with a paper map and no GPS, since activating a cellphone is complicated and costly. Using street signs, but moreso the waterfront as a reference point, I navigated from Chinatown into the neighborhood of Vedado and walked into the luxurious, historic Hotel Nacional de Cuba, where John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and many others stayed. As the sun began setting, I made my way back to Franks house on the Malecon, which came to life with locals hanging out, talking and drinking.

The excursion confirmed what I heard  that Cuba is very safe, even for females, to walk around solo at any time of the day and night. In the communist country, police come down particularly hard on violent crimes against tourists, so its probably one of the safest places for foreigners in the Caribbean. That night, I headed to El Bodeguita del Medio and tried the mojito  obligatory, according to what Ernest Hemingway may or may not have written: My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita.

Since I planned for only five days in Cuba and wanted to venture outside Havana, I decided to join another visiting guest at Franks house on a day trip to Matanzas, a province east of Havana. We took a small boat across the Havana bay to Casablanca, where we bought tickets for a train that afternoon. In the meantime, we walked up a hill to see a house filled with Che Guevara memorabilia, the towering Christ of Havana statue and an old, cannon-equipped castle.

The train to Matanzas was an adventure from the past, moving slowly through rural parts of the country and breaking down a couple of times. Both times, crew members climbed on top and hammered at the overhead wires until it ran again. From Matanzas, a much smaller city than Havana, we took a bus to Varadero, known for its beaches and resorts. The white sands and colorful hotels along them seemed almost like South Beach Miami, but more quaint. Luckily, we caught the last bus back to Havana.

My third day in Cuba was much simpler  I bought a tour to Vinales Valley, known for its green scenery. An air-conditioned bus picked me and other tourists up outside of a hotel and shuttled us first to a rum factory, where we got a taste of the strong drink. Then we had a traditional pork lunch beside a colorful mural on the prehistoric origins of the region, painted on a mountainside. Afterward, the tour guide brought us to a cigar plant and we watched a worker roll tobacco. The tourist experience ended with a boat ride through the Cueva del Indio cave. Back in Havana, I visited El Floridita for the second obligatory drink  Hemingways daiquiri.

There was no tour for the next two days to Cienfuegos or Trinidad, cities south of Havana, but I was determined to go, so early in the morning, I flagged down a classic American car  a more fun and cheaper ride than a taxi  to take me to the Viazul bus station for cross-country trips.

It turned out I missed the earliest buses, so I took a Brazilian tourists word and joined her on a shared ride in a Cubans car to Cienfuegos that cost about the same as a bus ticket. I was a bit nervous about going on the black market ride, but my new travel buddy, Ludmila Curi, said it was a common alternative for tourists. The driver picked up his wife and daughter and stopped at a few points of interest in Cienfuegos, including the historic Parque Jose Marti.

We got into Trinidad, a colorful colonial town with cobblestone streets, by midafternoon. Ludmila and I ate a fish plate at a nice restaurant and then found a room at a casa particular to share by talking to some locals. The room had a rooftop balcony with a spectacular view, and walking the streets of the hilly town around sunset was breathtaking.

Nightlife in Trinidad was surprisingly contemporary. Comedians joked at some of the changes happening in Cuba, underscored by President Barack Obamas historic visit a couple weeks prior, and a free concert by the Rolling Stones a few days earlier. A drag show was packed to capacity.

I left the next morning on a shared ride with some European tourists back to the capital city, and spent the rest of the day exploring parts of Old Havana. Back at Franks house, I joined him and other guests on the rooftop of his tall building to watch the nightly 9 p.m. cannon blast from across the bay, a tradition harking back to the days when it was a signal that the gates of Havana would be closed to protect the city from invaders.

Since it was my last night in Cuba, I took a shared ride to the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, a museum I was told was popular with locals too. Unlike most of Cuba I experienced, this was like a step into the future, or actually the present in our country. The building looked old from the outside but was very modern inside, with striking artwork.

What most caught my eye was a series of prints called Hotel Habana by Liudmila & Nelson, juxtaposing present-day Havana with what it may look like when its completely open to the U.S. One work, Malecon, had a Welcome to Fabulous La Habana parody of the famous Las Vegas sign, a McDonalds sign, a Revolution sky banner written in Coca-Cola font and the Golden Gate Bridge. It nailed exactly why I was glad I made it to Cuba when I did.

But as Frank walked me down the steps of his building a few hours later to catch my flight back to Mexico and then the U.S., he enlightened me on something I had not thought of as an American tourist  even though I was aware that the government gave everyone, regardless of profession, the same meager monthly income.

I asked Frank if he was looking forward to the changes Americans will presumably bring. Yes, he said in Spanish as he helped me with my duffel bag and put it inside the yellow cab he had called for me.

We are 50 years in the past, Frank said. Its good that people come and see, but its time for change. Theres no way to achieve success here.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7762 or jkwong@ocregister.com or on Twitter: @JessicaGKwong
An oceanfront Laguna Beach home built nearly a century ago to resemble a large boat has taken a $3 million price dip.

Set on a bluff in Woods Cove, the whimsical house now seeks $8.775 million, down from its nearly $12 million price tag last year.

Dubbed The Ark, the house features hand-carved wood and beams and one-of-a-kind stone and rope work. The four-bedroom home has a private stairway to the beach.

The house, designed by architect Jean L. Egasse, is one of the finest Arts and Crafts properties in Southern California, according to listing agents Steve High and Mike Johnson of Villa Real Estate. Built in 1923, the residence was restored to its original form in 2006.

The home was labeled eclectic in a historic inventory of the neighborhood.

The house fits absolutely no traditional architectural style due to the fact that it was designed to resemble a wooden boat, says the document, prepared several decades ago.

The living room has a hefty stone fireplace with a timbered inglenook. Three decks overlook the Pacific ocean, and a studio apartment sits above the garage.

In recent years, the house belonged to Paxson Packy Headley Offield, great-grandson of William Wrigley Jr. of the chewing gum fortune, public records show.

Offield, who had been battling leukemia, died last June at age 63.

A noted preservationist, Offield was the board chairman, president and CEO of the Santa Catalina Island Company for 30 years, according to The Catalina Islander. Wrigley Jr. had acquired the company, which controlled Catalina island, in 1919 for $3.5 million.

Offield, founding chairman of the board of the Catalina Island Conservancy, also had directed the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California and sat on numerous boards of organizations dedicated to preservation.

Did you miss?

Are these O.C. real estate agents Bravo TVs next reality stars?
Q. Dear Honk: I generally bring my own wine to restaurants because I know what I like to drink and I have a large wine cellar. But I want to be well below the limits of a DUI citation, so my wife and I will have one glass each from the bottle and then re-cork it, pushing the cork completely inside the bottle to its original position, flush with the top of the bottle, before we drive with it. I was recently told that I can still be cited for an open container, even when the cork is pushed in like it was from the winery. This doesnt make sense to me. Is it true?

 Jim Barham, Placentia

A. Yep.

Honk talked with Ray Scheidnes, a California Highway Patrol officer and spokesman out of the San Juan Capistrano headquarters, and he went over the law.

No opened container of alcohol can be in the passenger compartment  so put the bottle in the trunk. If you drive a truck, securely place the bottle in the bed.

Minors cant have an opened container anywhere in their vehicles, unless someone 21 years or older is with them, and then the hooch can be in the trunk or in the truck bed.

Now, Jim, if the booze has never been opened, it can sit in the passenger compartment with an adult.

Q. OK, Mr. Honk  a little change of pace: This is about a cars smog-inspection costs. I am paying $8.25 for the smog certificate, but Im also charged $3 for the electronic transmission. Are both of these required to meet state requirements?

 Tim Williams, Lake Forest

A. Actually, Tim, smog-testing outlets arent suppose to charge you a special fee to electronically transmit your report to the state.

Not to further irritate you, but the centers are charged only about $1.10 by a state-contracted firm, SGS Testcom, to deliver that info to Californias database.

Luke Longoria, a supervisor in the California Bureau of Automotive Repairs Irvine office, said smog centers can charge whatever they want  but the fee is to cover everything except the $8.25 the state charges for the certificate.

To lure in customers  focused on comparing fees  a smog business might keep its fee low and then wrongly tack on other charges.

Longoria said the Irvine office, which serves Orange County and Long Beach, will gladly take complaints and contact the offender. To report such violations: bar.ca.gov or 800-952-5210.

Longoria said the agency does see such violations, including charging a hazardous waste fee. We investigate every complaint.

Honk: There isnt hazardous waste out of a smog test  right?

Longoria: There isnt.

Contact the writer: honk@ocregister.com
Those looking for reasonable solutions to the nations fractured immigration system wont find them in the Republican Party. Under the banner of Make America Safe Again, this years Republican National Convention highlighted and gave prominence to a populist, more knee-jerk approach to immigration that is not only harmful but counter to what actually makes America great.

Judging by the rhetoric of many at the GOP convention, the Republican Party, the party of Ronald Reagan, who signed off on a program of amnesty for undocumented immigrants, is not ready for a discussion grounded in fact or reality. Instead, the party wants to advance a message that undocumented immigrants are a criminal and economic threat to Americans and that the way forward is wall-building and immigration restriction.

The first night of the convention prominently featured three speakers the convention program referred to as victims of illegal immigrants. Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden and Jamiel Shaw, parents of people killed by illegal immigrants, understandably vented their outrage at a system that didnt keep out those who ultimately took the lives of their children. Durden and Shaw used the opportunity to call for a border wall, while Mendoza asserted a vote for Hillary is putting all of our childrens lives at risk.

Among the litany of problems with the idea that either a border wall or a restrictive immigration policy is necessary to protect children and limit illegal immigration is the fact that undocumented immigrants, once here, commit crimes at a far lesser rate than Americans.

As noted in a 2015 report by the American Immigration Council, not only are legal and undocumented immigrants less likely to commit serious crimes or be incarcerated than native-born Americans, high rates of immigration are associated with lower rates of violent crime and property crime.

There are several potential reasons for this, including the reality that immigrants who sacrificed a great deal to get here also have a lot to lose by committing crimes and getting deported. Conflating the vast majority of undocumented immigrants with serious criminals is as illogical as condemning all police officers for the misdeeds of a few.

Most undocumented immigrants do, in fact, work  after all, they dont actually qualify for welfare  and are merely seeking a better life for themselves and their families. But even this is seen as a threat by the Republican Party.

Excess immigration floods the labor market, reducing job prospects and wages, declared Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., at the convention. The president has the clear power to suspend immigration to protect America  [and] this election will make it happen. That is why we need Donald Trump.

Sessions, a staunch opponent of immigration reform over the years, presents a worldview in which Americas economic woes are largely attributable to foreigners  be it through trade or immigration.

Its an alluring perspective that doesnt quite comport with reality. As economist Giovanni Peri put it in the Cato Journal, Immigration, like trade and foreign investment, is ultimately a driving force of continued growth and can be used to improve the competitive advantage of American workers and companies.

Alas, the 2016 GOP platform reflects the direction the party of Donald Trump would like to take America. We support building a wall along our southern border and protecting all ports of entry, the platform reads. The border wall must cover the entirety of the southern border and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Will such a wall save our children? Will it ensure Americans get good paying jobs? Probably not. If built, the wall would be little more than a grotesque testament to how far America, a nation of immigrants, has been removed from its foundations.

With millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, most of them working, many of them established here with American-born children and families, it is imperative that our national discourse on immigration be realistic and sensible. A border wall and mass scapegoating of immigrants only undermines that.
A motorcyclist who crashed into a parked car in the early-morning hours of July 16 died days later at a Riverside hospital.

Christopher Hjorth, 33, of Santa Ana was riding his motorcycle in the area of Felspar Street and Limonite Avenue about 1:45 a.m., when he struck a parked car and was critically injured, according to Deputy Mike Vasquez and a statement from the Riverside County Coroners Office.

Hjorth was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Vasquez said the accident was still under investigation on Thursday, and it still isnt clear whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.
Costa Mesa-based Precision Pet Products has been sold to Texas-based Petmate. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The 30-year-old company makes wire crates, chicken coops, puppy pads and more.

Alice Tillett, chief executive of Petmate, said the acquisition would bring a deeper range of products to its customer base.

Precision was founded in 1985 by Dave Link.

The companys Costa Mesa headquarters and Redlands distribution center will be closed. Affected employees will receive a severance package.

Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans
WASHINGTON  Reactions are pouring in from around the world to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump saying the U.S. may revisit NATOs longstanding policy of defending its allies against possible Russian aggression if he becomes president.

Trump told The New York Times he would decide whether to protect the Baltic republics against any incursion by Russia based on whether those countries have fulfilled their obligations to us.

The response from many leaders in the U.S. and abroad, as well as from citizens in Baltic countries:

 I will not interfere in the U.S. election campaign, but what I can do is say what matters for NATO. Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO, he said. This is good for European security and good for U.S. security. We defend one another.  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg

 The phrase about Russia even hypothetically attacking someone is unfortunate wording.  Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin

 Trump on NATO: deeply dangerous will dismay our closest Allies but great cheer in Kremlin: I can hear Vladimir Putin chortling from here.  Tweet by James Stavridis, retired four-star Navy admiral who served as the 16th supreme allied commander of NATO

 His words were irresponsible, and they inspired fear in me. Im worried about the worlds future, about Polands future. There is the threat from Russia, Turkey is restless, the Islamic world threatens us. So I think that we should stick together and refrain from making such unjustified declarations.  Lidia Zagorowska, 39, a school teacher in Warsaw, Poland

 I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Balkan states, must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump. Im 100 percent certain how Russian President Putin feels  hes a very happy man.  Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

 This is a longstanding commitment that has been strengthened under the leadership of President Obama. The cornerstone of that alliance is the pledge that all of the allies have made to mutual self-defense.  The U.S. commitment to that pledge is ironclad.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest

 Ronald Reagan would be ashamed. Harry Truman would be ashamed. Republicans, Democrats and Independents who help build NATO into the most successful military alliance in history would all come to the same conclusion: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our commander in chief. The president is supposed to be the leader of the free world. Donald Trump apparently doesnt even believe in the free world.  Hillary Clintons senior campaign policy adviser Jake Sullivan

 We expect that regardless of who wins the presidential elections, the U.S. will remain a firm and reliable partner within NATO.  Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka

 Trumps comments were clearly meant for a domestic audience.  Acting Estonian Prime Minister Jevgeni Ossinovski

 Regardless of who will be the president of America, we will trust in America. The United States always stood with nations which were under attack and it will continue doing so.  Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite

 Nothing new, nothing deep. Trump would say anything that would suit his electorates interest of America first. One day, he can say whether it pays defending Baltic states and on another day he might say that the U.S. would shoot down Russian jets over Baltic Sea.  Linas Kojala, director of the Vilnius-based Eastern European Studies Center
SEOUL, South Korea  In an era of sophisticated spycraft, North Korea appears to be returning to the days of shortwave radio.

The North broadcast a series of seemingly random numbers on Pyongyang Radio twice recently, an eerie reminder of the days when the North encrypted messages to its spies in South Korea.

In the latest episode last Friday, an announcer read what she described as a mathematics review assignment for investigative agent No. 27, engaged in a distance learning program.

Turn to Page 459, No. 35; Page 913, No. 55; Page 135, No. 86, she said, continuing to cite numbers for 14 minutes.

Decades ago, it was not unusual for late-night radio listeners in the South to hear mysterious numbers arriving on static-filled signals from the North. The South Korean government in Seoul tried to block the signals and barred its citizens from listening.

Kim Dong Sik, a former intelligence officer for North Korea, said he used to listen for such broadcasts at midnight each night to check whether his spymasters had a message for him. Kim was caught by the South in 1995 after a gunbattle with South Korean agents and police officers.

When I arrived in the South, I had five different call signs assigned to me, said Kim, who now works as a senior analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Koreas National Intelligence Service. Each night, I listened for my call signs.

The June 24 and July 15 broadcasts, confirmed by the South Korean government on Wednesday, were the first such coded messages in 16 years, leaving intelligence officials and analysts puzzled by the Norths motives.

The broadcasts come amid concerns about the behavior of the North, which has raised tension with the United States and its allies by conducting a series of missile tests. It has also issued bold claims of advances in its quest for a nuclear-tipped long-range missile, even though Washingtons attention has been focused elsewhere.

North Korea has reacted strongly to a plan by the United States to deploy an advanced missile defense system in the South. This week, it fired three ballistic missiles, saying that they were used in simulated tests to detonate nuclear warheads over seaports and airfields in the South, where U.S. reinforcements are supposed to arrive in the event of a war.

The tests defied a new round of sanctions that the U.N. Security Council imposed against the North after a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February.

Jeong Joon-hee, a government spokesman for South Korea, has called the resumption of the broadcasts seriously regrettable but declined to comment on possible motives. The North should abandon its old ways, he said.

South Korea itself has resorted to old-school propaganda in recent years, resuming loudspeaker and radio broadcasts into the North and juicing them up with synthesized Korean popular music known as K-pop.

Some analysts said the Norths use of a bygone encryption tool was rekindling old fear among South Koreans of an escalation in psychological warfare on the peninsula.

North Korea had stopped sending out such coded messages by shortwave radio after the Koreas held a historic summit meeting in 2000, agreeing to de-escalate the Cold War-era intrigue on the divided peninsula.

Since then, the North is believed to have adopted more sophisticated methods of communication. When the Souths intelligence service announced the capture of a spy ring in 2011, it said that the officers contacted the North through steganography, a technique for encrypting a message into a text, image or video file delivered online.

Kim, the analyst and former spy, said the broadcasts should be taken seriously. He said the North appeared to be bolstering its espionage operations since 2009, when it created the General Bureau of Reconnaissance by merging various party and military agencies in charge of sending spies to the South.

Washington has blacklisted the bureau after North Korean hackers were accused of wreaking havoc on the computer network of Sonys movie studio in 2014.

At a time when the counterintelligence authorities use sophisticated technology to monitor the digital communication of espionage suspects, the old number broadcasts are still a dependable and preferable means of communication for spies, Kim said.

We should assume that the North is using the radio broadcasts to communicate with its agents here or is at least using them to train spies, he added.

He recalled that when he was training in the 1980s, he spent countless hours listening to tape-recorded broadcasts and copying the numbers to master a so-called numbers station technique of encrypted communication.

Kim said he and his handlers in the North used an agreed-upon book  a popular novel in the South entitled Whale Hunt  to decipher each others codes. As in the broadcast on Friday, a typical five-digit combination started with a three-digit page number from the book. The remaining two digits pointed at two Korean characters in the text of the page, he said.

Sometimes, four digits of each five-digit set yielded one single Korean character.

Long after the end of the Cold War, the two Koreas still accuse each other of spying. The North is holding at least four South Koreans, some of them sentenced to a labor camp for life, on charges of espionage.

In recent years, the Souths intelligence service has arrested people it deemed spies as they entered the country disguised as refugees. Last week, prosecutors said they arrested two South Korean men in their 50s on charges of spying for the North. They released closed-circuit video of counterespionage officers overpowering a suspect at an internet cafe.

The men used encrypted emails to contact their handlers in the North, the prosecutors said.

Kim said that during his days as a spy, the radio was a main tool of communication.

If there was a certain song broadcast by Pyongyang Radio at an agreed-upon hour, that meant that there was something wrong and I should immediately abort my mission, he said. If not, it was all clear.
The knock at Carlos David Martin Ojedas home finally came, minutes after sunrise.

Ojeda, a 46-year-old undocumented immigrant and convicted sex offender who spent two years in prison, opened the door of his mobile home in Chino at 6 a.m. Tuesday, and found a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on the porch. As other officers watched with rifles at the ready, Ojeda was handcuffed and placed in a black SUV.

The process of returning Ojeda to Mexico had begun.

I think he knew that at some point hed get caught, said David Marin, deputy Los Angeles field office director for ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations.

The arrest was one of 112 in a four-day period across six Southern California counties, during a special operation in which ICE sought to call attention to its mission by rounding up some of what it considered the most serious offenders. A little more than half of those arrested had felony convictions for serious or violent offenses, such as child sex crimes, weapons violations and assault. The others had convictions for serious or multiple misdemeanors.

Arrests were made in 52 cities, including 19 in Los Angeles, seven in Oxnard, four each in Van Nuys and Lake Forest, and three each in Anaheim, El Monte, Lake Forest, La Puente, North Hills, Riverside and San Bernardino.

Among those arrested were a 64-year-old Mexican man arrested in unincorporated Riverside County near Hemet who was convicted in 1996 of attempting to murder a peace officer; a 46-year-old man from Tonga who has a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and was arrested in Rancho Cucamonga; a 37-year-old Salvadoran gang member in Los Angeles with convictions for burglary, attempted burglary, receiving stolen property and driving under the influence; and a 45-year-old Mexican man in Los Angeles who has convictions for assault to commit rape and failure to register as a sex offender.

For me, what we do, it definitely makes a difference, Marin said.

The arrestees with existing deportation orders or who re-entered the U.S. illegally could be removed immediately, ICE said in a news release. The others are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge.

These fugitives came to ICEs attention in a variety of ways. When someone is arrested by a local police department, his or her information is compared against FBI and federal Department of Justice databases. ICE also receives leads from a national fugitive operations support center clearinghouse and other law enforcement databases, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.

Ojeda was convicted in 2014 of lewd and lascivious acts on a girl under age 14 and served about two years of a four-year sentence. (Inmates in Californias crowded prisons generally serve about half the time theyre sentenced to, if they behave.)

If Ojeda does not object to his deportation when he sees an immigration judge in about 10 days, he could be on a bus from the detention center in Adelanto to Mexico shortly afterward. If he asks for and is granted bail, Ojeda could remain in the U.S. for three to four more years before his case resolved.

My greatest fear, and what keeps me up at night other than keeping these officers safe, is that we will not be able to get to these individuals in time, Marin said. Is that person going to commit some other crime?

Like many aspects of immigration and deportation, its complicated.

IMMIGRATION DEBATE

In November 2014, President Barack Obama, under pressure from critics who said immigration policy was tearing apart mixed families of legal and illegal residents, refocused deportation efforts.

The new stated targets would include undocumented immigrants with convictions for endangering national security, murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, trafficking in drugs or weapons, three or more misdemeanors or one serious misdemeanor such as drunken driving.

Ojeda has one of those mixed families. His wife appeared at the door with him, but agents did not ask about her immigration status, Marin said. Ojeda has three children, ages 21, 19 and 12, who are U.S. citizens. That meant, Marin said, Ojeda had likely been in the U.S. for at least two decades.

One of the tough things we have to do is handcuff Dad because of the impression it leaves on the children, Marin said, noting that officers prefer to arrest suspects outside homes, as was the case with Ojeda.

Luz Gallegos is community programs director for TODEC Legal Center in Perris, which advocates for immigrant communities. Her organization seeks a balance in immigration policy that will protect families.

Were in favor of keeping our country safe, and we understand about people with certain crimes, but what worries us is when (immigration officers) go after certain people when there are family members that are mixed-status family members, Gallegos said. The kids are the ones that get impacted. That is why we keep on advocating for a solution to our immigration system that is long overdue.

Moreno Valley resident Sabine Durden takes a harder line on the issue. Her son, Dominic, was killed in a 2012 traffic collision caused by an undocumented immigrant who was still in the country despite convictions for DUI and robbery. Juan Zacarias Tzun, a Guatemalan national, was eventually deported after being convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in the crash.

Durden said she agrees 1,000 percent with the ICE arrests.

They are saving American lives. But it shouldnt stop there, because being here illegally is still against the law, Durden saidWednesday from Cleveland, where she pressed for stricter enforcement of immigration laws in a speech Monday at the Republican National Convention.

Marin acknowledged that officers are keenly aware of the split opinion on immigration policy but remain focused on their jobs.

Regardless of the larger debate, this office is contributing by getting these people out of these communities, he said.

A TYPICAL ARREST

Arrests happen just about every day, Marin said. Some take place after a day or two of surveillance. For the more serious offenders, such as Ojeda, reconnaissance can last a couple of weeks to determine when the person comes and goes and whether he is likely to be armed.

Ojedas was typical. Officers including Marin staked out his home in unmarked vehicles starting about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Two people who left in separate cars were pulled over and questioned, and it was determined that Ojeda was home. So officers waited in the dark, hoping hed emerge.

When he didnt, an officer knocked on Ojedas door at 6 a.m. Ojeda identified himself, and he was arrested without incident. Officers let him put on shoes and grab a jacket for the ride to the Homeland Security Investigations office in San Bernardino, where Ojeda was fingerprinted and allowed to make phone calls to family or the Mexican consulate.

BARRIERS TO DEPORTATION

Apprehending a person who is already in custody can be difficult.

ICE officers, when their deportation targets were refocused in 2014, were ordered to cease requesting that jails and other detention facilities hold a person for 48 hours after their anticipated release if ICE wants to pick them up. Now, officers ask only to be notified before a person is released.

In San Bernardino County, sheriffs Cpl. Ruben Perez said, no one there actually picks up a phone and dials ICE unless theres a warrant for the persons arrest. Instead, the arrestees fingerprints and the nature of the charges are electronically delivered to federal authorities. Its up to them, then, to anticipate when the person will be released.

In Riverside County, Assistant Sheriff Jerry Gutierrez said, deputies will give ICE about two hours notice by telephone. If ICE cant get there in time, the person is released.

A lot of law enforcement agencies wont event notify us, including the Los Angeles Police Department, Marin added. We cant be at every single jail waiting for someone to be released.

When a suspect is arrested, he or she has the right to deportation and bail hearings and appeals of a judges final decision.

An additional hurdle is that most countries require the deportee to have travel documents. About two dozen nations, which ICE described in congressional testimony as recalcitrant, drag their feet in providing the documents or fail to offer them at all.

In the past three years, according to ICE statistics, more than 87,000 undocumented immigrants in ICE custody have had to be released back into the U.S. because they lacked the proper papers.

Sadly, ICE records indicate a number of these aliens have gone on to commit additional crimes while in the United States, ICE Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this month.
Last week, I sat on a jury for the first time in my life. Ive been called to serve in the past but have never made it out of the holding area, so was surprised to be selected after a three-day process that involved two rounds of jurors and a lot of drama.

The selection process was almost more interesting than the trial itself. The defendant was accused of murder and robbery, and every potential juror was asked to reveal if they or someone they knew had ever been the victim of a similar crime or if they knew someone who had perpetrated a similar crime.

I was amazed by the number of people who knew robbers and murderers and also by the many who had a close friend or family member whod been murdered. Five jurors cried during the interview process as they recalled the people they knew who had been killed. Their tears seemed genuine to me, and they were all dismissed from that particular trial.

Then there were the people who were obviously, and not so obviously, trying to get out of serving. Several people claimed to not speak or understand English. I believed them, but later in the deliberation room, many jurors laughed about how those people had faked their lack of understanding.

Then there was the man who just blatantly said he couldnt be fair. Another said he didnt really understand the questions he was asked about following the law, etc. He was the most obvious in his desire to be excused and I was surprised when he actually was dismissed, though Im certain it was for the best.

Each attorney was able to dismiss a certain number of jurors without explaining why. Some dismissals were obvious choices, and others left me puzzled. Did they think the older retired white woman was too conservative? Did she look untrustworthy? Or was there something else I just couldnt glean about her character?

As I writer, I like observing people and learning about their lives, so the selection process was like an enjoyable movie for me.

The trial, however, was another matter. The lives I got to witness during the trial were troubled and sad and the heft of our collective decision began to weigh on me daily. It was one thing to observe and learn about peoples lives. It was quite another to make a decision about those lives.

As a jury, we decided the defendant was guilty. We determined together that we did not have a reasonable doubt. Many of us admitted to possible doubt, but wed been instructed over and over that mere possible doubt was not enough to declare innocence.

There is always, I suppose, possible doubt. Unless there is a video of a person clearly committing a crime, you can never know with absolute certainty what happened. And even a video can be doctored.

In the end, this case came down to strong DNA evidence and it felt as if we were siding with science when we decided to convict.

Serving on a jury is a lot to ask of our citizens, especially those who are not paid by their companies for their time away. But its also a great privilege, a final check in our system of checks and balances and a safeguard of our democratic system.

Im glad I had the opportunity to serve on a jury and lucky to live in a country that engages its residents in such weighty decisions, but Im also still troubled that I had to help decide a mans fate. The quote With great power comes great responsibility is commonly attributed to Spider-Man, but possibly first appeared in a volume published by the French National Convention in 1793. No matter who first uttered the words, I think its an apt description of being a juror. In our legal system, the people really do have the power, and we shouldnt take that for granted.

Contact the writer: hskyler@ocregister.com
SAN FRANCISCO  A former northern California police officer was charged Thursday with raping five women while on duty.

Police arrested Noah Winchester, 31, near his Stockton home Thursday morning after the local district attorney charged him with 22 counts of kidnapping, rape and related charges.

San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe charged Winchester with raping the women between July 2013 and October 2015 while he served with the San Mateo Police Department and as an officer for the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento.

Winchester quit the police department in February after he was put on leave in October when the criminal investigation was launched. San Mateo is about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

Winchester, who is jailed on $3.1 million bail, is scheduled for an arraignment Monday. Its unclear if hes represented by an attorney.

The Los Rios Community College said Winchester worked for its police department from January 2009 until January 2015, when he accepted a position with the San Mateo police department.

Winchester is accused of raping two women while on duty as a campus police officer and three women while in uniform with San Mateo.

San Mateo police officials didnt immediately return a phone call. In May, Chief Susan Manheimer issued a statement in response to news reports of the investigation

The thought of someone committing criminal acts while wearing an SMPD uniform is deeply troubling and repulsive to this department and its members, Manheimer said. If these allegations are proven true, these acts will tarnish the community partnerships that our officers have worked so hard and long to build and preserve.
Charles Kinsey held his hands in the air and shouted to police that the autistic man sitting on the street next to him wasnt dangerous. A few seconds later, he felt a bullet rip into his leg.

The therapist, who is black and works with people with disabilities, was rounding up a patient who had wandered away from a facility when he was ordered by police officers to lie on the ground. Kinsey imagined that as long as Ive got my hands up, theyre not going to shoot me. This is what Im thinking. Wow, was I wrong, he told a television station.

The shooting in Florida earlier this week illustrates the longstanding fear among black men that almost any encounter with police can go awry with potentially deadly results, even when a person follows every law enforcement command.

Police are known to pull their triggers no matter how you follow their directions, emphasized Isaial Murray, a black 28-year-old construction worker in Detroit.

Some black men question why police seem to avoid using deadly force on dangerous white suspects, like Dylan Roof, who is charged with killing nine African-Americans last year in a church in South Carolina, but are quick to point a gun at blacks.

I see incidents with a white person with a gun on their hip and  they dont pull their gun. They pull their Taser to calm them down, said Travis Haynes, 35, of Orlando, who is black. But when it comes to a black man, the first thing they do is draw their gun.

On Monday in Florida, officers ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground. Kinsey, 47, got down on the pavement and put his hands up while trying to get the patient to comply, North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas told The Miami Herald.

An officer then fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said.

Police were responding to reports of a man with a gun threatening to kill himself, and the officers arrived with that threat in mind, the chief said. No gun was recovered.

The 27-year-old patient was not harmed. Police have not released the name or race of the officer who fired but said hes been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure.

The latest shooting comes after two black men were killed at the hands of police in Louisiana and Minnesota. Alton Sterling died July 5 during a scuffle with two white Baton Rouge police officers at a convenience store where he was selling CDs, as he had done for years. The officers were responding to a call of a man threatening someone with a gun. They have said they found a gun in Sterlings pocket.

That shooting, captured on cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community.

It was soon followed by the death of Philando Castile, who was legally registered to carry a gun and told an officer that he had a weapon during a July 6 traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb. Then the officer fatally shot him. Moments later, in a live Facebook stream, his girlfriend said the officer had asked for Castiles license and shot him when he moved to retrieve it.

Rick Blanding, a black 28-year-old window cleaner in Detroit, said he follows orders whenever confronted by police.

You got to understand youre dealing with two sides, he said, citing people on the right and wrong sides of the law. Whenever police stop me, I follow their instructions. Do I trust them? Some. I fear for my life with some.

Police need to acknowledge this feeling among African-American men and work to find a solution, said Chuck Drago, a white former police chief in Oviedo, Florida.

Perception is reality. If people believe that, then we as the police have to do something to prove that wrong, Drago said. Theres a lot of ways to do that, but we cant ignore it. We cant say: Its not true. Youre mistaken.

Following those two deaths, 10 law enforcement officers were fatally shot in attacks in Dallas, Baton Rouge and in a Michigan courthouse.

Police have historically been used against minority communities to enforce slavery, Jim Crow and segregation laws, said Victor E. Kappeler, the white dean of the College of Justice and Safety at Eastern Kentucky University. The recent deaths of black men have only increased that mistrust.

This is the way its always been, said Bishop T.D. Jakes, speaking at a panel last month in Washington, D.C. For generations, blacks have been reluctant to call authorities for help because we have never felt safe with the police.

The mistrust has led many families to warn their teenage sons about how to act in encounters with the police. But parents worry that even the most polite behavior will not be enough save their childrens lives.

Don A. Brazelton, a black father in Washington, D.C., said he has warned his 18-year-old son, Don, at Howard University about treading carefully with police if hes ever pulled over.

Dont raise your voice. Be respectful. Put your drivers license on the dashboard Hold your hands out the window, Brazelton said. But even in that case  thats not often going guarantee a positive outcome.

There seems to be an overwhelming fear of black men, driven by mass media, that causes police officers to use deadly force, added Rick Anderson, a black retired Boston firefighter with two sons working as deputy sheriffs in in Massachusetts and Alabama.

Police arent shooting because they are evil. They are shooting because they are scared, Anderson said. They see the slightest thing going on, and they are scared to death.



Associated Press writers Paul Holston in Washington, D.C., Terrance Harris in Orlando, Florida, and Corey R. Williams in Detroit contributed to this story.



Jesse J. Holland covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. Contact him at jholland(at)ap.org, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jessejholland . Read more of his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jesse-j-holland .
Lake Forest-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies has been bought by Douglas Acquisitions, a private equity firm in Northern California.

Douglas has a portfolio of automotive investments, including transportation design, engineer and manufacturer KSR International Inc.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Quantum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March.

In April, the company announced it would lay off 110 employees in a filing with the state.

Quantum makes energy-efficient natural gas and hydrogen tanks.

The companys first big project was hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for General Motors. Quantum lost more than three quarters of its revenue in 2009 when General Motors went bankrupt, the company previously told the Register.

Quantums first big project was working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for General Motors. When the automaker went bankrupt in 2009, Quantum lost more than three quarters of its revenue.

Quantum is a co-founder of Anaheim-based Fisker Automotive. The company also went bankrupt.

The company will be remained Quantum Fuel Systems.

Neither company immediately returned requests for comment on how remaining Lake Forest employees would be affected.

 Hannah Madans

Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans
Dinesh DSouza picked a perfect time to release the documentary Hillarys America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, coming out on the heels of the Republican National Convention, just as the GOP should be rallying around the goal of defeating presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

But any conservative voters who check out the latest film from the conservative filmmaker (2016: Obamas America), author and convicted felon will be disappointed by what they find. Incurious to a fault, its too incoherent for serious argument.

DSouza and co-director Bruce Schooley use re-enactments to offer distorted accounts of everything from DSouzas legal troubles to dramatic episodes from American history. DSouza plays himself in an exaggerated scene set in the halfway house where he spent eight months after breaking campaign finance laws; the other convicts are muscle-bound murderers and thieves who provide a straightforward narrative of how ordinary Americans are routinely swindled. DSouza then free-associates, wondering how this narrative might apply to Democrats.

The bulk of Hillarys America looks at the administrations of Andrew Jackson through Franklin Roosevelt. DSouzas main point is that Democrats, not Republicans, are racists, and theyre now trying to steal America.

Although the film has a slippery grasp on truth, any student of history  liberal or conservative  will readily admit that 19th-century Democrats did support slavery. The contours of todays political parties didnt come into focus until after the New Deal and the GOPs infamous Southern strategy of the civil rights era. DSouza conveniently never utters that phrase, flashing back instead to re-creations of scenes featuring Democrats beating slaves and putting on Klan hoods.

The only redeeming parts of Hillarys America are when it veers into unintentional comedy. In one bizarre sequence, Woodrow Wilson screens The Birth of a Nation at the White House, as a ghostly Klansman leaps from the screen and onto the adjacent lawn. DSouzas framing device for his expose of Democratic secrets involves him breaking into DNC headquarters. (Is he even aware of how the Watergate scandal started?)

Theres a laziness about Hillarys America, but its cinematic, not historical. DSouza lets scenes drag, jumping through history in ways that quash any sense of discovery and creating an overall sense of boredom. (The wooden acting doesnt help, nor does the orchestral rendition of God Bless America playing over images of national landmarks.)

By the time he gets around to attacking Clinton  with nothing that will seem new to the average viewer of Fox News  the film is more than half over.

DSouza may wish to tilt the election, but hell be lucky if his fans can make it through his film without falling asleep.
SAN FRANCISCO  Gov. Jerry Browns $15.7 billion plan to build two giant water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has cleared a hurdle after a ruling by the California Supreme Court.

The court said Thursday that state officials do not have to pay landowners rent to access thousands of acres of private property to conduct preliminary tests for the project.

State officials had argued the tests would not significantly interfere with or damage the land, and the state should only be required to compensate landowners for any actual damage or interference.

Property owners said the tests the state planned to conduct on their lands were lengthy and invasive and required fair compensation.
CLEVELAND  Donald Trump, presidential nominee, is now a reality.

The Republican Party, fractured along establishment and insurgent lines through a raucous primary season, settled on its presidential nominee at its convention, and the real estate mogul accepted it Thursday night before a packed arena. He enters the general election season as one of the unlikeliest candidates of a major political party in the modern era.

Trumps speech, the longest acceptance speech since at least 1972, drew cheers from the packed Quicken Loans Arena as he offered an animated, full-throated and relentlessly dark rendition of the topics hes pounded on since launching his candidacy 13 months ago  illegal immigration, fighting terrorism and trade. It was all couched in a mantra that hes branded into a catchphrase:

Make America Great Again.

I have a message for all of you, he said. The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, safety will be restored.

The crowd bathed him in applause and cheers of USA! USA! And when he took the stage after a video introduction from actor Jon Voight and a heartfelt speech from his daughter, Ivanka Trump, he clapped for himself as well.

LOOK INWARD

Trumps speech painted an America under siege from violence in the streets, terrorism abroad, a stagnant economy and illegal immigration.

He rattled off what he insists are a litany of recent American failures  the nuclear deal in Iran, the collapse of Syria that has forced refugees to flee to Europe, Libya in ruins, as well as mass shootings in Orlando and San Bernardino, and police shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

The tone was reminiscent of Barry Goldwaters 1964 nomination acceptance speech, where that GOP candidate said his opponent, President Lyndon Johnson, was responsible for a litany of ills.

Because of this administration, Goldwater said, in 1964, We are, tonight, a world divided.

On Thursday, in Cleveland, Trump offered a longer take:

The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents is that our plan will put America first, Trump said.

Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America first, we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect.

WINNING

At times Thursday, Trump reminded voters that hes been the longest of long shots.

Its a label hes defied repeatedly.

For 13 months of his primary campaign, Trump kept rolling, defying conventional wisdom, defying odds and openly defying the party establishment.

His electoral march started with a loss in the Iowa caucuses, only to rebound with wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina and slowly build from there.

Still, many of Trumps 37 primary victories were plurality wins. His opponents, combined, often got more votes than he did.

By the California primary in June, hed conquered the delegate math; he won the state handily. But the Never Trump movement  an unprecedented insurgency in modern politics, and a fight based on the belief within the GOP that Trump isnt suited to be president  remained a threat until the first afternoon of the convention in Cleveland. Its unclear what Never Trump will do to the vote in November.

Trumps rise has perplexed pundits. He repeatedly said and did things that wouldve sunk other candidates in other campaigns.

Call Mexican immigrants rapists? Check. Say youd ban Muslims from entering the country? Yes. Are you sure? Yes. Create a deportation force to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants? Yes. Imply that America might not fulfill its NATO obligations? Trump did that just Wednesday.

With his opponents, Trump seemed to tap into his experience from reality TV.

He labeled rivals with nicknames  Lyin Ted Cruz and Little Marco Rubio; Crooked Hillary Clinton and Crazy Bernie Sanders  that belittled them even as they reflected voter doubts about their character.

Trump also labeled people. Hes targeted undocumented immigrants in ways unprecedented for a nominee of a major political party. Pundits were baffled, but it got him to the stage Thursday.

As Trump has gathered millions of votes, hes formed a coalition that includes some of the most strident opponents to illegal immigration.

On Thursday, when Trump returned to his signature line about building a wall between the United States and Mexico, he heard the refrain hed heard at rallies around the country:

Build a wall! Build a wall!

Trumps response was four words.

I am your voice.

KEY ISSUE

Its unclear how the immigration issue will play in November, but it was a hit in Cleveland on Thursday.

One of Trumps biggest supporters  Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizonas Maricopa County, previously a pariah because of his often strident anti-immigration statements  got a prime speaking slot on the final night of the convention, telling the crowd that a nation without borders and a nation without laws is no nation at all.

Trump built on that in his speech. After citing the victims of crimes and accidents at the hands of undocumented immigrants, Trump said:

Tonight, this candidate and this whole nation stand in their corner to support them. To send them our love and to pledge their honor that we will save countless more families from suffering the same awful fate.

He attacked Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, but he didnt encourage the crowd when it started chanting Lock her up!

Lets defeat her in November, he said.

The candidate leaves Cleveland with his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, and some members of the party still uncomfortable with the harsh rhetoric hes used  and repeated Thursday.

As the balloons dropped from the ceiling and ticker tape fluttered about, the music started.

It was The Rolling Stones classic:

You Cant Always Get What You Want.
Heading to the beach will be the coolest place, but not by much, through the weekend as temperatures exceeding 100 degrees are expected to blast Orange County.

High pressure will strengthen over Southern California producing hot weather across the region away from the coast, the National Weather Service said.

A heat advisory will remain in effect through 8 p.m. Saturday, with the hottest temperatures ranging from 95 to 102 for inland Orange County and 98 to 108 in the Santa Ana Mountains, the weather service said.

Slightly cooler weather will arrive west of the mountains Sunday and will reach most of Orange County by Monday.

Temperatures next week may remain slightly above average because of a high pressure system, the forecast said.

A chance of showers and thunderstorms appears to increase each day next week, but is still too uncertain for meteorologists to say.

Elderly individuals, children and pets are most at risk during heatwaves. Take precautions by:

 Rescheduling strenuous activities to early morning.

 Wear light-weight and loose-fitting clothing and drink plenty of water.

 Reduce outdoor work.

 Take frequent breaks in shaded or air-conditioned areas.
Local surfers have a home-surf advantage: riding waves they grew up charging, sleeping in their own beds and having local fans cheering them on while watching from the sand and pier.

Among the more than 200 surfers showing up in Huntington Beach to compete at the Vans Vans U.S. Open of Surfing, a handful of competitors call Orange County and California home  with San Clemente boasting an especially strong list of standouts to watch.

The U.S. Open of Surfing is a mens QS10,000 event  one step below a world-tour event  valuable for hungry surfers looking to earn points to boost their rankings.

San Clemente native Patrick Gudauskas is one of them. Hes a former World Tour surfer working hard to earn points on the Qualifying Series to again make the list of the worlds top 34 male surfers. Its not the best of waves, he said, but Huntington Beachs consistency means there will always be some kind of swell showing up.

You know its going to be rip-able, he said. Its literally like a skate park, so we just have fun out there.

Sorry Kelly Slater fans, the 11-time world champion, who won the event in 2011, is a no-show for the third straight year. A few of the other big names that usually show up, such as Hawaii phenom John John Florence and 2014 world champion Gabriel Medina, are also missing. Current mens world champion Adriano de Souza is expected to show.

Its been since 2010 that an Orange County local has clinched a U.S. Open of Surfing title in the main mens division and since 2009 in the womens division  but locals will be fighting hard for a chance to earn the prestigious win in front of a hometown crowd.

Here are a few names to watch:

KOLOHE ANDINO

Andino, of San Clemente, has come close to clinching a U.S. Open of Surfing title, but has come up just short in recent years.

In 2013, he made it to the finals before losing to Brazils Alejo Muniz. Last year, he made it to the quarterfinals.

Andino has a lot of experience at the Huntington Beach Pier, where he clinched several national titles while an amateur. He joined the ranks as one of the worlds best competitive surfers in 2012 when he earned a spot on the World Tour at the young age of 17.

He comes in as the top seed on the mens list for the Open, and is ranked 15th on the World Surf League World Tour.

COURTNEY CONLOGUE

Santa Anas Conlogue comes in as the top-ranked female and is hungry for another U.S. Open title.

She earned a win in 2009, but its been a struggle to win another. Two years ago, she had to miss the event at her home break because of an injury, and last year she made it to the semifinals before being eliminated.

For the women, this event is one of 10 World Tour stops.

Conlogue was runner up in the World Surf League World Title race last year and is a hot contender for this years title  but much of that depends on how she does here.

Following close behind in the world title race is Australias Tyler Wright and the current world champion Carissa Moore of Hawaii.

The plan depends on the swell, but Im going out there and just going to do my best, Conlogue said. Its amazing to be home, to have an event in my backyard. To be able to have my home crowd, family and friends down there, it makes you want to perform so much more, having your home audience makes you feel so welcome.

GUDAUSKAS BROTHERS

Two of three Gudauskas brothers  Pat and Tanner  are eager to do well at the U.S. Open of Surfing.

Both are former World Tour surfers who are scrambling to make it back on the list of top surfers. They started the year with promising results on the World Qualifying Series, the minor leagues of the sport, and are in striking distance of making back on tour.

Brother Dane doesnt do much competing these days, but hell be cheering his brothers on from the commentary booth.

Pat Gudauskas is ranked 10th on the QS, and the top ten make it onto the World Tour. He hopes his experience in Huntington will help him make it to the final day. Hes made it to the quarter- and semifinals in past years.

I feel like a local because weve been coming here so many years, he said. It would be a career highlight to do well here.

His brother Tanner dropped down in rankings after an early exit at a recent QS event in South Africa, but he has high hopes for a strong showing at the U.S. Open of Surfing.

It would be important for the points, but for the prestige  it would be amazing, Tanner said. Growing up in Southern California, weve grown up coming to this event. I just want it so bad  That would be the dream.

KANOA IGARASHI

Huntington Beachs Igarashi has spent his life training on the south side of the pier, and last year made it to the semifinals in the main mens event.

He was doing double duty, also competing in the juniors event where he made it to the finals, but this year he will focus all his energy into the main mens event.

Its Igarashis rookie year on the World Tour, where hes the youngest surfer on the list of top 34. Hes ranked 21st, and needs a good showing at events for the rest of the year if he wants to secure his spot for next year.

BRETT SIMPSON

Hometown hero Simpson has been in hibernation this year, with few sightings since he fell off the World Tour.

He welcomed a son into the world about a month ago, his second child, and has been focusing on family life and taking a break from traveling the world after spending five years on tour since joining in 2010.

Fans will be eager for him to do well at the U.S. Open of Surfing, where he won titles in 2009 and 2010. And it looks like his break has served him well  he earned a spot at the Hurley Pro to be held at Trestles in September during a trial session held this week in San Clemente.

Ive had a good break these past few months, he said in an interview with WSL. We just welcomed a new baby into our family and Ive had time to get healthy and clear my head, so Im heading into the U.S. Open with the hopes of launching a strong QS campaign. I figure Ill have one more good crack at the QS before considering other options.

OTHER CALIFORNIA SURFERS

Nat Young of Santa Cruz is signed up to join the main mens event, as is Conner Coffin of Santa Barbara.

Venturas Sage Erickson will be in womens event, as well as Santa Barbaras Lakey Peterson, who won in 2012.

PRO JUNIORS

Watch out Huntington, San Clemente juniors are taking over Surf City.

The pro junior roster is filled with San Clemente locals, including last years boys junior title winner Griffin Colapinto, who took out Igarashi for the win in 2015. He also has a spot in the main mens event as a WSL wild card.

Fellow San Clemente standout Kei Kobayashi will also be surfing in the boys juniors, as well as Cole Houshmand, Kade Matson and Griffins brother Crosby Colapinto.

The girls side include Malia Osterkamp and Kirra Pinkerton, and last years winner and Florida transplant Caroline Marks.

But other local surfers will also have hometown support, like Tyler Gunter, of Newport Beach, and Meah Collins, of Costa Mesa. Long Beachs Nolan Rapoza is no stranger to the Huntington Pier and will be competing.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
CHICAGO  The Chicago mother thought she knew when it was safe to take her children outside, that she could protect them by sizing up and avoiding the people whom trouble seemed to follow.

Then a bullet fired from a gun that DAntignay Brashear never saw pierced the cheek of her 4-year-old son, Kavan Collins. It fractured the boys jaw and shattered some teeth before it went out his other cheek, all while he held his mothers hand.

He was with his mother, and it wasnt like I was doing something wrong, having him out after hours, said Brashear, a 21-year-old single mother of two, referring to the shooting that happened before sundown June 28 on Chicagos South Side. I thought he was safe.

Kavan is part of a growing roster of children who have been shot in the city this year amid a spike in killings and shootings. More than 330 killings have occurred in the city.

So far, no child has died from the gunfire thats often connected to gangs. Children have been struck while doing normal kid things like playing with sparklers, drawing on the sidewalk or holding a mothers hand.

Statistics that The Associated Press requested from the Police Department show children ages 10 to 17, who make up more than 260 of the victims so far this year, are at greater risk than those younger than 10. But police records through the end of June showed 15 children younger than 10 had been shot, which is seven more young shooting victims than the same span last year.

Four more young children have been shot since the start of July, including a 6-year-old girl who was sitting on a porch Tuesday with her mother and grandmother when a bullet  one of more than 40 fired a block away  struck her in the stomach.

Police are trying to determine if the gunfire that struck Tacarra Morgan in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side was an exchange between people inside a caravan of cars and a group of men on the street. They say another possibility is that someone in one of the vehicles sprayed the area with a high-capacity assault weapon.

Tacarras condition was upgraded from critical to serious, a hospital official said Wednesday.

The shootings, mostly in neighborhoods on the South and West sides, underline what the residents already knew: Its a dangerous time for the citys children as well.

But since the recent shootings of young victims havent been deadly, they have received little attention outside Chicago. The children havent become national symbols of the citys violence like 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, who was lured into an alley last November with the promise of a juice box and shot to death, allegedly by gang members out to punish his father.

Other children besides Kavan have been struck by gunfire while doing nothing other than being kids, leaving their families to wonder if theres anything they can do to protect them. The victims include:

 Six-year-old Jaylene Bermeo, who was drawing with sidewalk chalk on the evening of June 6 in the Logan Square neighborhood on the citys northwest side when she was shot in the back. The bullet punctured her lung and lodged near her heart. Police say a 17-year-old boy accidentally shot the girl when he opened fire on rival gang members as he drove down the block.

 Three-year-old Devon Quinn, who was with his dad on Fathers Day in a car in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side when someone pulled up and fired at least 10 shots at the vehicle. Prosecutors say the gunman was a gang member who opened fire in a rival gangs territory to pay tribute to a dead member of his own gang. At a court hearing, prosecutors said the boy was left paralyzed from the chest down and that he will never be able to move his limbs or even breathe on his own.

 Five-year-old Taniyah Williams and her 8-year-old cousin, Corey Bondurant, who were playing with sparklers on the evening of July 4 in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side when someone sprayed the area with bullets. Taniyah was struck in the leg, as were a 19-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man. After the commotion, relatives discovered that 8-year-old Corey was also shot in the leg.

Since her son Kavan was wounded, Brashear struggles with how to talk to him about the shooting, even as she continues taking him to doctor appointments and trying to determine what can be done about his facial scars.

I dont know how to explain it to him, she said of the boy who has been afraid to fall asleep since the incident and experiences nightmares when he does. How do you tell a kid, Oh, you got shot.
A set of photos labeled the cruelest punishment in history shows employees of a Chinese company forced to eat bitter gourd in front of their coworkers as punishment for not meeting their sales goals.

At Leshang Decorations Corporation, a Chongqing-based company, employees whose weekly performance falls under the expectations of their superiors are forced to eat bitter gourd while their colleagues watch. If any of them spit the gourd during this humiliating experience, they are forced to eat even more of it. Apparently, the company came up with this cruel punishment as a way of motivating unproductive workers to push themselves harder, so they wouldnt have to eat the bitter vegetables in the future.

Its hard to believe that such a way of disciplining employees is practiced in a civilized country, but the horrible event captured in the viral photographs has been confirmed by several of the 40 people who were forced to eat bitter gourds. One anonymous insider told Chinese reporters that this was her first time eating the bitter vegetable and complained that it was exceptionally hard to swallow. I hiccup when Im eating the damn bitter gourd, but I have to stop myself from spitting it out, another one added.

A female employee of Leshang Decorations Corporation revealed that the company had used different forms of punishment in the past, like squats, push-ups and running around the office building two or three times, but at some point managers started complaining that workers were becoming too accustomed to them so they decided to go with something more humiliating. Now, the company orders bitter gourds in bulk at 2.5 yuan per kg, and feeds them to disappointing employees on a weekly basis.

The unusual form of punishment seems to have had a different result than what company bosses were hoping for. Instead of motivating them, the mere thought of having to eat bitter gourd in front of their peers pushed around 50% of employees to quit. According to Shanghaiist, an anonymous female employees gave reporters a list of reasons cited by those who decided to leave the firm: their incapability to meet expectations, high pressure, low income and, most importantly, shame caused by being punished in front of their coworkers.

Although article 88 of Chinas labor law states that If any damage is caused to the employee, the employer shall be held liable for compensation, companies dont seem to bothered by that prospect. In the past few years, we have featured several similar forms of humiliating punishment, like forcing workers to crawl on their hands and knees around a lake, and even in the street, in front of passers-by.

Source: Sina Weibo
James Holt, from Bury, England, has so far spent 21,000 ($27,500) on cosmetic procedures in an effort to copy the most striking features of the Kardashian sisters and achieve a fake look.

22-year-old Holt says he has been planning to alter his body from a very young age, when he became obsessed with looking like the models on Page 3 of English tabloids. At age 17, he booked his first cosmetic procedures at a local salon  a bout of Botox shots to his forehead and some lip injections. He had just one milliliter of liquid injected into his lips, but after that failed to draw the attention of his colleagues when he went to school the next day he decided to go back for more.

I went to college the next day expecting everyone to be amazed and to comment on my lips, but no one said anything, he recalls. I went back the next morning and had another 1.5ml put in, but still no one noticed. By the end of the week I had 6ml and everyone said it looked amazing. I loved my look. It was big and juicy and it was just what I wanted. His joy didnt last very long, as small bubbles soon appeared on his swollen upper lip, and when liquid started to leak out of it, James was rushed to a clinic in Bury to fix his damaged lips.

Photo: James Holt/Facebook

After such a terrible experience, most people wouldnt go near a cosmetic procedure salon again, , but James was undeterred by the horrific results. He kept altering his looks, and the rise of the Kardashians to international fame inspired him even more. I love the Kardashians, especially Kylie and Khloe, but Kim is past it now. I love that big butt and small waist look, he says. Since Kylie started getting big lips a year ago its become really fashionable. Mine are bigger than Kylies now.

In his quest to achieve the ultimate fake look, James Holt says he has spent 10,000 ($13,000) on his lips alone  he fills them up every two months  3,000 ($3,900) on Botox, 2,000 ($2,600) on cheek filler, filler under his eyes, and filler on his jawline. He also wears a corset up two eight hours a day to get a coveted wasp waist, but is considering a more drastic approach to shrinking his waist. I was using it to push the ribs in to make them smaller, but as soon as you take it off it goes back to normal, James said. I want six ribs removed because I think I have too much ribcage. It makes me look bigger than I am.

Photo: James Holt/Facebook

Im going to be really fake looking  thats the look Im going for, the 22-year-old said, adding that he will fly to Poland in August to have a 4,000 ($5,200) nose job and is planning to get a chin implant, his toes straightened and fat transferred to his butt for a fuller look.

But where does a 22-year-old young man get the funds for all these procedures? No, hes not using his own, or his parents money,relying instead on the generosity of three sugar daddies. These three older men live all over England and apparently help fund his expensive obsession.

Photo: James Holt/Facebook

One would think that Holt compensates his sugar daddies in sexual favors, but he describes himself as asexual, citing a lack of interest in a physical relationship. My two main sugar daddies know me and have met me, but Ive not had a sexual relationship with them or any others, he says. I dont know what theyre getting out of it; they dont get much from me. Theyre just making me happy.

He may not be interested in a relationship, but James claims he has plenty of admirers, both male and female, who cant take his eyes off his full lips and bubble butt. Ah, ok

James Holt/Facebook

James Holt isnt the first English man to use plastic surgery to copy the coveted features of the Kardashians. Two years ago, we wrote about Jordan James Parke, a big Kim Kardashian fan who went through several cosmetic procedures in order to look like her.

Source: Manchester Evening News
22/07/2016 - Denmark has long been a generous provider of development aid, especially to the neediest countries, and is known for giving high-quality and flexible support. However, it faces significant challenges from a reduction of its aid budget and fast-rising refugee costs, according to a new OECD report.

The 2016 DAC Peer Review of Denmark notes that with an estimated 2015 aid budget of USD 2.6 billion, equating to 0.85% of its gross national income, Denmark is one of a handful of countries to regularly surpass an international donor commitment to provide at least 0.7% of GNI in official development assistance (ODA). In 2014, Denmark sent the equivalent of 0.26% of its GNI as aid to the poorest countries, well above a UN target of 0.15-0.20%.

Yet Danish ODA is programmed to fall back to 0.7% of GNI from 2016. This budget reduction, along with staff cutbacks, organisational changes and an expected tripling in spending on refugees in Denmark in 2016 to the equivalent of 30% of the countrys gross ODA, will put pressure on development programmes and aid planning.

Denmark has shown a strong commitment to poverty reduction and humanitarian aid over the years, as well as providing guidance on human rights and gender equality for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, said OECD Acting Director of Development Mario Pezzini. The challenge now will be to ensure that a smaller aid budget and fast-rising refugee costs do not derail this excellent record.

A draft for a new development strategy set to be discussed by the Danish parliament later this year strengthens coherence and integration between humanitarian and development aid. However, Denmark does not currently address where new funds for refugees might come from.

The new development strategy should also ensure funding allocations to multilateral bodies are aligned with objectives, the Review says. Denmark is a valued partner to multilateral organisations, yet the share of its core aid contributions going to them has declined from 70% of all multilateral allocations in 2010 to 45% in 2014. This trend is set to continue, as resources allocated to their general budget are shifted to fund specific thematic projects.

The Review also says Denmark could do more to balance its commercial objectives with the poverty focus of its development co-operation. In particular, the monitoring of the leveraging effect and development impact of its aid flows could be improved.

Each DAC member is reviewed every five years in order to monitor its performance, hold it accountable for past commitments and recommend improvements. Reviews use input from officials in the country concerned and a partner country  Ghana for this Review  as well as civil society and the private sector. Read more on DAC Peer Reviews.

Denmark has fully implemented seven and partially implemented six of 15 recommendations made in its last Peer Review in 2011.

Read the review and and here an interactive data visualisation of Denmarks aid versus other donors.

For further information, or to speak to the reports author, journalists are invited to contact Elvira Berrueta-Imaz in the OECD Media Office (+33 1 45 24 97 00).

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While most people would naturally associate the Tullamore Show & AIB National Livestock Show with animals and agriculture, those who have been to the popular annual event know theres a far more glamorous side to proceedings, as well - its extensive fashion programme.

The well-known Catwalk Fashion Agency, based in Dublin and Galway, provides the models and the production of the glamorous fashion show, giving onlookers an insight into upcoming trends and a great chance meet professionals from the industry for those interested.

The best dressed competitions - that are free to enter on the day - draw people from across the country, as well. The top prize is a thousand euro in cash, a hotel stay and dinner in the 4-star Bridge House Hotel, along with a VIP tour of Tullamore in a limousine up for grabs for the Best Dressed Lady; on top of prizes for two runners-up.

There are also a great set of prizes on offer for the Best Dressed Man, Glamorous Granny, Young Mister and Miss Offaly, Traditional Farmer, and even a Bonny Baby competition.

Tullamore native, Carmel Duffy, is over the fashion section of the Show and has been since its inception 25 years ago. The professional image consultant says: The Tullamore Show prides itself on providing things of interest to people from all walks of life to do and see throughout the day, including the more style conscious.

A lot of people love clothes and take great interest in their appearance, so from the outset, I wanted fashion to be an important element of the event. Thankfully, it has gone from strength to strength over the years with brilliant sponsors coming on-board due to its popularity.

"I'd especially like to thank Rose Finlay from Total Health Pharmacy for the new 1,000 cash prize for Best Dressed Lady, which is bound to bring in even more people than usual. Absolutely everyone from across is welcome, the Show is a fantastic day out and the prizes for the best dressed competitions for people of all ages and genders could make it even better, Carmel concluded.
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Princes Estate Is Waging War In Italian Courts Over The Most Beautiful Girl In The World zo Zo is a staff writer at Okayplayer where he covers

While Princes estate sorts out who will be adorned as its heir, it appears theyll also have to handle matters in Italy, where a court ruled that The Most Beautiful Girl In The World was plagiarized from the 1983 song Takin Me To Paradise by songwriters Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino. The Italian songwriters initially filed suit in 1995 following the release of Most Beautiful Girl, but were ruled against.

Winning in their first appeal (2007) and final ruling (arriving in 2015,) Bergonzi and Vicino are looking to finally collect. According to Billboard, that last ruling banned the distribution of Most Beautiful Girl in Italy, mandated that Prince himself pay for the sentence to be published in two Italian dailies and two specialty mags (like Billboard?) and that the songs publishers, Warner Chappell Italy, deliver the verdict to Princes doorstep. Apparently that was attempted at one point, but they were unable to find anyone home upon arrival. And now with the icons passing, the estate itself will have to handle these demands.

It should be noted that Bergonzi and Vicino are now acknowledged as the writers of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, at least in Italy. Whether theyll see the rest of those damages met by the estates is still to be seen. But it appears we now know why Prince wouldnt let the track go to Kevin Smith for Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, a tale that should certainly be revisited if youre unfamiliar.

h/t Billboard
A Lancaster County man in his 30s became the states third case of West Nile virus this year, the state health department reported this week.

The man wasnt hospitalized.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said no cases have been reported this year in Iowa.

West Nile virus is transmitted through a mosquito bite. Mosquitoes contract the virus by feeding on infected birds.

Most people arent sickened by the virus, or suffer only mild symptoms. Some, however, suffer fever, vomiting, fatigue and headache.

Last year 68 West Nile cases and two deaths in Nebraska were officially attributed to the virus. Fourteen cases were reported last year in Iowa, and no deaths.

Nebraskas health department encourages people to use mosquito repellent; wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks; limit outdoor activity at dusk and dawn; and drain standing water near the house.
Catch them all somewhere other than the Nebraska Medical Center.

The hospital has advised staff to ask people playing Pokemon Go to leave or call security, according to a release. It also has requested all Pokestops and Gyms public meeting points in the GPS-based mobile app  be removed from Nebraska Medicine and UNMC property.

The decision is to protect the privacy of patients and keep what it called "people with no official business on campus" out of restricted areas, the release said.

CHI Health made a similar decision late last week, posting signs throughout its hospitals, including Creighton University Medical Center, asking Pokemon Go players not to play inside them. It cited privacy and safety reasons.

CHI is also going through Nintendo to attempt to remove its properties from the game.
A massive computer outage that grounded Southwest Airlines flights Wednesday delayed travelers at Omahas Eppley Airfield into Thursday morning. One Southwest flight was canceled and 11 others scheduled to take off Wednesday afternoon were delayed well into the night and early Thursday, said Chris Martin, director of operations and airline affairs. By Thursday morning, flights had resumed normal schedules at Eppley, but several hundred more flights were canceled or delayed around the country.

Existing-home sales rise to highest level since 2007

Americans bought more homes in June, the fourth straight monthly gain as the sales rate reached its highest level in more than nine years. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of existing homes rose 1.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, the best performance since February 2007. Buyers are quickly making offers amid tight supplies of homes on the market, but continued sales gains appear to be limited this year because of the acute shortage of listings.

Tesla CEO maps out plans for new vehicles

Electric car maker Tesla Motors is working on multiple new vehicles, including heavy trucks and buses that could be unveiled as early as next year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company also plans a compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck to complement its existing fleet. Tesla makes a luxury sedan, the Model S, and a luxury crossover, the Model X. It plans to release a lower-priced car, the Model 3, next year. Musk discussed the products in his much-anticipated master plan for the company, which was posted on Teslas website.

Mortgage rates tick up but are down from last year

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged higher this week, remaining near historically low levels as a continued enticement to prospective homebuyers. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said the average for the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.45 percent from 3.42 percent last week. The average rate is down sharply from 4.04 percent a year ago. The 15-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 2.75 percent from 2.72 percent last week.
U.S. antitrust enforcers roundly rejected a pair of proposed deals that would consolidate the nations five biggest health insurers into three.

The Justice Department on Thursday sued to block two separate tie-ups  Anthems $48 billion takeover of rival health insurer Cigna and Aetnas $37 billion bid for Humana  saying the deals would raise health care costs and reduce choice for consumers.

These mergers would fundamentally reshape the health insurance industry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a press conference in Washington. They would leave much of the multitrillion-dollar health insurance industry in the hands of three mammoth insurance companies and restrict competition in key markets.

Three of the companies said they would fight the lawsuits, which could tie them up in months of litigation, dragging out deals that were announced about a year ago. Cigna said it was reviewing its options under the merger agreement, which contains language that may require it to defend a government challenge. The insurers could also agree to abandon the transactions, potentially sparking a round of new deals.

The lawsuits continue a string of merger challenges by antitrust enforcers looking to stop industry consolidation, dealing a blow to Anthem and Aetnas bids to gain scale by snapping up rivals. The actions underpin wider sentiment within President Barack Obamas administration about the importance of protecting competition among health insurers. By challenging the deals, the administration has seized another opportunity to shape the future of health care  an effort to safeguard choice and affordable options for consumers  after passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Earlier this month Obama wrote an essay for the Journal of the American Medical Association in which he emphasized the need for competition to keep health care affordable for consumers.

Aetna and Humana said in a statement that they will vigorously fight to complete their deal. Cigna, meanwhile, cast doubt on whether its deal can be completed. Anthem said its ready for a court fight, but is also open to a settlement with the Justice Department.

The DOJs action is based on a flawed analysis and misunderstanding of the dynamic, competitive and highly regulated health care landscape and is inconsistent with the way that the DOJ has reviewed past health care transactions, Anthem said.

If Anthems bid for Cigna falls apart under antitrust scrutiny, Cigna is owed $1.85 billion, according to the terms of their agreement. Aetna would owe Humana $1 billion should its takeover fail under a U.S. challenge.

If the Anthem-Cigna merger ultimately fails, smaller insurers could become targets for Cigna, including WellCare Health Plans Inc., Centene Corp. and Molina Healthcare Inc.
Rural economies in the Midwest took a step back this month, the 11th straight decline shown in a survey of nonmetro bankers.

The Rural Mainstreet Index for July was 39.8 on a 100-point scale, with scores below 50 indicating economic decline, Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said Thursday. The index had improved in four of the five previous months but fell from 43.9 in June.

One out of five crop farmers in the region is losing money on grain sales, Goss said, and thats causing declines in farmland prices (for the 32nd straight month), farm equipment sales and retail sales in the 10-state area. He surveyed 174 bank executives in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The bankers said they expect loan defaults, on average, to increase by 5.4 percent over the coming year, Goss said, although many of them said they expect defaults to increase by more than 10 percent.

Thats largely because of commodity prices, which are down 9 percent over the past 12 months, including a 16 percent drop in livestock prices, Goss said.

The bankers view of the economy six months from now also indicates decline, registering 32.3 on the surveys confidence index.

Goss said his analysis of farmland sales in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota showed a 3.2 percent price decline from a year ago, with more sales in Iowa than the three other states. Bank executives in the survey reported a 6.7 percent price decline.

Goss said the difference in the findings may be related to land quality.

The survey indicated home sales were increasing, and hiring was only slightly below neutral.

For Nebraska, the index was 51.5, down from last months 63.2. Goss said jobs in the state have grown by 1.5 percent in rural areas and 1.4 percent in urban areas.

For Iowa, the index was 51.9, down from 59.1 in June. Jobs grew by 1.5 percent in rural areas and 0.9 percent in urban parts of the state.
No parent should have to deal with that, especially when the situation could have been prevented if the laws had been followed and enforced, Root, who is from Council Bluffs, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The attorneys for six people wrongly convicted of a Gage County rape and killing asked a judge on Thursday to approve $1.8 million in fees and costs.

The lawyers  Jeffry Patterson, Maren Lynn Chaloupka, Robert Bartle, Douglas Stratton, Matthew Kosmicki and Herbert Friedman  wrote in a brief filed in U.S. District Court that they collectively worked for 7,210 hours on the Beatrice Six civil case.

A federal court jury this month slammed Gage County with a $28 million verdict for a reckless investigation that sent the wrong people to prison for the 1985 killing of Helen Wilson. DNA testing in 2008 cleared the six, who collectively spent more than 70 years locked up.

In 1989 investigators relied heavily on confessions from three suspects with histories of mental illness, two of whom told authorities that their memories came from dreams and nightmares. And investigators proceeded with the prosecutions even though none of the six perfectly matched the perpetrators blood or could be conclusively tied to his semen.

The jury ordered payments of $7.3 million each to Joseph E. White, Thomas Winslow and Ada JoAnn Taylor. James Dean and Kathy Gonzalez each was awarded $2.19 million, and Debra Shelden was awarded $1.8 million.

White died in 2011, three years after he was freed.

The award exceeds Gage Countys annual budget of $27 million, according to documents filed with the state. The damages amount to nearly $1,300 for each of the countys roughly 21,900 residents.

Contact the writer: 402-444-3106, emerson.clarridge@owh.com
A 24-year-old Omaha man will spend decades in prison for abducting and stabbing his ex-girlfriend.

Sarpy County District Judge David Arterburn sentenced Dylan Doebelin on Friday to 72 to 150 years in prison  a term that is largely cut in half under state sentencing guidelines.

Doebelin will have to serve 36 years before he is eligible for parole; absent parole, he will be released in about 75 years.

He was given credit for 381 days served.

As part of a plea deal, Doebelin pleaded guilty in April to first-degree assault, attempted kidnapping, terroristic threats, two counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony and criminal mischief of $1,500 or more. All of the other charges were dropped.

Before sentencing Doebelin, Arterburn said Doebelin had the support of a loving family and was given opportunities to make changes in his life but did not.

Its fortunate that were not sentencing you on a murder case because we couldve been, Arterburn said.

On July 7, 2015, Doebelin abducted Nicole Cswercko from her job at a residential day care in Sarpy County after making repeated threats to kill her and her boss, according to facts Sarpy County Chief Deputy Attorney Tricia Freeman presented during the hearing.

Doebelin went inside the day care while children were present and grabbed a knife from a block in the kitchen. He threw Cswercko downstairs, grabbed her by the hair, then forced her into his car at knifepoint.

When Cswercko jumped out of Doebelins car near 204th and Q Streets to escape, Doebelin followed her and stabbed her several times.

She was saved when good Samaritans stepped in. Several people tried to distract Doebelin while another man drove Cswercko away. Doebelin followed in his car and rammed it into the car Cswercko was riding in.

Cswercko was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Freeman argued that Doebelins criminal history and violence toward significant others warranted life in prison.

He has been incarcerated twice before. In 2012 he served time for a terroristic threats conviction. In 2013 he served time on a theft by receiving stolen property conviction.

But Doebelins attorney, Glenn Shapiro, said Doebelin was a troubled young man with mental health problems. Shapiro asked that Doebelin not be given a sentence that would guarantee he would die in prison.

Something misfires and continues to upstairs, Shapiro said.

Shapiro said that Doebelins legal troubles began only when he entered adulthood.

For what its worth, I am sorry to the victim and her family. And my family, Doebelin said during the hearing.

Families of Cswercko and Doebelin declined to talk to the media after the hearing.

Shapiro said Friday was a tough day for both families.

Freeman said Cswercko is healing and has a very strong family support system around her.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1192, emily.nitcher@owh.com
LINCOLN  A new IT research institute headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha could get a $1.4 million boost from tax dollars.

The NU Board of Regents on Friday voted 5-0 to approve its two-year request to the Legislature. The proposal will ask the Legislature for about 4 percent more in state appropriations each year in the next two years.

Under the universitys request, the IT institute would be housed in a First Data building near UNOs south campus, now officially the Scott Campus. The NU Foundation in March bought the property at 6902 Pine St. for $30 million.

NU is requesting $900,000 to renovate the First Data building and $500,000 for the applied information technology research institute that would, according to the university, solve challenging and emerging information technology problems for industry and government.

The institute will open opportunities for research in IT and related fields, as well as tech transfer, according to NU spokeswoman Melissa Lee. The university plans to announce more about the institute next week, she said.

NU President Hank Bounds said the request strikes a balance between being prudent and acknowledging Nebraskas economic status, while making investments and priorities that will advance the goals of NU and the state.

Gov. Pete Ricketts this month told state agencies to review all hiring and to limit travel to essential services, among other ways to find efficiencies. The state ended its last fiscal year with $95 million less in tax revenue than expected.

Bounds called the states support critical to meeting NUs needs, while keeping tuition affordable.

NUs request to the Legislature goes toward university operations and strategic initiatives. The universitys day-to-day budget is funded through state general funds and tuition.

Were in a good position today because of the state support the university receives, Bounds said.

Under the request, NU would receive $602 million in 2017-18, up 3.9 percent from the current $580 million the university system receives in state appropriations. NU would receive 4.2 percent more, or $628 million, in 2018-19.

The request does not include $11 million in state funds annually for the next two years for deferred maintenance on NU buildings and $3 million in state funds this year for the University of Nebraska Medical Centers Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning. Those were previously and separately approved by the Legislature.

Regent Howard Hawks thanked lawmakers, saying theyd done all they could to fund building maintenance, but cautioned that over time the lagging amount will be problematic for the university.

Over time, this gets farther and farther behind, so it has to be an increased focus for us each year and each biennium because it isnt going away, Hawks said.

The majority of NUs latest request goes toward personnel. It includes a 2.4 percent increase each year in salaries for faculty and staff, which was recommended by the state as a placeholder, Bounds said. The plan also allows for an 8.2 percent increase in health care premiums in 2017-18 and a 7.2 percent increase the following year.

The salary increases are tentative and will be revised after the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at Kearney faculty complete collective bargaining.

Asked by Regent Jim Pillen whether NUs request would still result in a tuition increase for students, and at what percent, Bounds responded that its early for us to say.

The regents approved a 2.5 percent tuition hike across all campuses as part of NUs 2016-17 budget. NU raised tuition 1.75 percent last year.

New federal overtime rules and changes to Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, rules could create burdens NU will have to address, Bounds said.

If every university employee  roughly 2,000  who qualified under the new federal overtime rules were to work one extra hour per week, that would result in an additional $2 million annually that the university would have to manage, he said.

NUs request now goes to Nebraskas Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education by Aug. 15. It will be presented to the Legislature and governor in September.

Other action taken at the meeting included:

 Approval of Lance Perez as interim dean of the College of Engineering. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green decided not to renew the contract of Timothy Wei, the previous dean.

Perez will receive $325,000 annually. Wei, who will remain at UNL as a faculty member, will make $215,000. Weis salary includes a $20,000 professorship stipend.

 Approval of Deb Thomas as vice chancellor for business and finance at UNMC. She has served as interim vice chancellor since June 2015. She will receive $274,000 annually.

 Approval of Peter Longo as interim dean for UNKs College of Natural and Social Sciences. Longo, a political science professor at UNK, replaces John La Duke, who resigned in June after being the colleges dean for five years. Longo will receive $135,000 annually.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9581, emily.nohr@owh.com
A regular connoisseur of pasta, Shante Smith enjoys quoting movies shes seen one too many times and collecting small objects in her pockets when no one is looking.

Shes got a contagious smile and she isnt afraid to be herself. Shes nothing short of amazing. In fact, in a recent beauty pageant, she was crowned National Miss Amazing Junior Miss Queen.

The National Miss Amazing Pageant, held June 30 through July 3 in Chicago, welcomed women from 30 states to the area where they participated in a number of activities.

Not an ordinary pageant, Miss Amazing  which originated locally  welcomes girls and women with disabilities to experience a typical beauty pageant.

The event included a gala, a dance party and buddy bonding along with the show.

During the show, participants completed an interview with three judges, a stage introduction, presented themselves in evening wear and had the option to perform in a talent showcase.

This isnt like a regular pageant, said Brianne Cox, Nebraska Miss Amazing Pageant state director. We are looking at women and seeing how they grow their confidence and dont let their disabilities hinder them, but rather showcase their abilities.

Cox said that research shows that women with disabilities face a double stereotype with two parts of their identity: being female and having a disability. Miss Amazing aims to change that.

While there, Smith and her sister Allysa Westman  who flew into Omaha and took her on a road trip to the event  spent time out and about. Her first time in the city, they searched for a good bowl of pasta, even attending Medieval Times, which Smith first saw for her Make-A-Wish as a child.

Smith was born with short bowel syndrome, which makes it hard for her body to absorb the proper nutrients. She spent many of her younger years in and out of the hospital, even having surgery to get a new liver, bowel, pancreas and kidneys at age 12.

Now 22, Smith is thriving.

Were really proud of her  shes a survivor, said Cathy Westman, Smiths mother. Shes got a good job, great friends and a really good life.

Smith, who works for Bellevue Public Schools day care program, got involved in the Miss Amazing pageant last fall at the suggestion of a family friend.

My supervisor Kathi [Plato] has 10 special needs kids, Westman said. She had two girls in [Miss Amazing] herself and she convinced us to get Shante involved.

Smith headed to the state competition in Omaha in September, taking first place and landing herself a spot at the national competition.

Its a wonderful experience, Westman said. Every girl wants to be a beauty queen. Its really wonderful for them to be celebrated for what they can do.

Now the proud owner of three sashes, four crowns and four trophies, Smith said she couldnt believe it when they called her named as National Miss Amazing Junior Miss Queen.

Tears started coming out of my eyes, Smith said. I turned to my fellow (contestants) at Miss Amazing with my arms open like How did I win?
NORTH PLATTE, Neb.  Shortly after arriving at the recent O Comic Con in Council Bluffs earlier this month, Misty and Ben Bartholomew handed out their wedding invitations.

Their friends soon learned the ceremony was planned for only a few hours later. And that the North Platte couple would dress as Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Like many romantic pairs, Misty and Ben started as friends. From the beginning, they shared a common love: general nerd-dom, Misty said. They love comics and works such as Star Trek and Star Wars.

So when they decided to marry, a convention celebrating comics, science fiction and the like was a natural choice of venue. But they decided to keep their plans secret.

As with any wedding, they needed to find what to wear. Many attendees at comic conventions cosplay  dressing as and role-playing characters. While this often involves homemade outfits, Misty and Ben shopped on Amazon.com to save time, though Misty made her necklace.

They had already planned to cosplay as the famed Star Wars couple. Leias long white dress was an appropriate fit for the occasion, Misty said.

Han Solos look isnt as dressy, but a handsome look, she said.

They found an officiant and a photographer for the July 8 ceremony. They received permission from the convention director, who knew the couple from the previous year.

The convention was held at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. This meant a separate trip for the couple and their witnesses  required by Iowa law to be present at the marriage license purchase  so that they could have their license in time for the ceremony after a three-day waiting period, Misty said.

Sean Gunn, who acted in Guardians of the Galaxy and Gilmore Girls, was a featured talent at the convention. As Gunn talked to someone else, Misty slipped his publicist an invitation. She knew he was busy, Misty remembers saying. But if he could attend, the couple would be honored. They put it out of their minds, until Gunn walked in just as they were preparing for the wedding. Now, the couple were the ones left stunned.

The couple also invited anyone else who was in a really cool Star Wars costume, Misty said, because itd make such a cool photo op.

Some friends had planned to attend the convention but had other obligations. Ben and Misty broke the secret to one in advance  begging her not to back out. They had 15 close friends at the ceremony, as well as Bens mother, who attended the convention as a writer, and Gunn. A Star Wars costuming group provided a Stormtroopers honor guard.

The rest of the weekend was spent at various panels and having fun. While cosplaying, people emulate the characters theyre portraying as best as possible.

We basically play pretend, Misty said, describing the environment as an intense level of respect.

In the coming year, the couple will host a reception for family and friends who didnt make the surprise ceremony. Maybe theyll bring Han and Leia back for the party.

Or something else, Misty said.
A motorcyclist was critically injured early Friday in a crash just north of Oakland, Iowa, in Pottawattamie County.

The crash occurred around 2:05 a.m. outside Oakland Foods at 21876 U.S. Highway 59.

The woman was taken by medical helicopter to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Oakland is situated about 25 miles east of Council Bluffs.

Oakland Foods produces more than 200 fully cooked and ready to cook custom products, from hot dogs and sausages to home-style meatloaf and fully cooked bacon, according to the companys website.
Hold on, its just one more day.

The excessive heat warning that has been hanging over eastern Nebraska and western Iowa for a few days was extended 24 hours through Saturday night.

The warning, an alert to residents about high heat and humidity combining for dangerously hot conditions, had been set to end Friday night, with a bit of weather relief in sight going into Sunday, forecasters said.

But Saturday's weather is forecast to remain particularly ominous, said Corey Mead, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Valley.

The warning means high temperatures and high humidity Saturday will lead to potentially hazardous conditions for the young, elderly and those with medical conditions.

Temperatures across the region will range from 91 to 97 Saturday, the weather service said, with a heat index, or feel-like condition, possibly reaching 115.

In the Omaha area, Saturday skies will be partly sunny with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10 a.m. and a high near 96. Heat index values may reach 107. Saturday, there is a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a low around 75.

Mead said a dome of hot air over the Midwest that has produced the recent heat wave will move back to the Southwest Saturday night into Sunday, leaving behind lower humidity, a chance of precipitation well into next week and temperatures in the upper 80s.

As far as this upcoming week, he said, well be at normal temperatures for July.

The Omaha area was expected to have a high Sunday of 88, with partly sunny skies, Mead said. Northeast Nebraska can expect highs in the mid-80s Sunday, and southeast Nebraska will still be in the low 90s.

Highs Monday through Thursday in the Omaha area look to be in the mid- to upper 80s. There is a chance of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday through Thursday.

There were no heat-related illnesses reported Friday at Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs or Methodist Womens Hospital in west Omaha, officials said. Methodist Hospital in Omaha treated one patient for dehydration.

CHI Health officials said Friday that:

 Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs and Bergan Mercy Medical Center and Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha have had one heat patient each since Wednesday.

 Creighton University Medical Center had four patients Thursday and a total of eight since Wednesday.

 Midlands Hospital had one patient Thursday and a total of two since Wednesday.

 Lakeside Hospital has had two patients since Wednesday.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1259, jay.withrow@owh.com
Firefighters were called to fires at three separate Omaha locations within a half-hour Friday.

No injuries were reported in any of the fires.

 At 5:10 a.m. a small fire in a building at 17th and Leavenworth Streets was extinguished quickly. Leavenworth Street was blocked while firefighters fought the fire.

 At 5:25 a.m. a small explosion was reported at 16th and Mason Streets. Firefighters found a truck engulfed in flames on a Union Pacific right of way beside railroad tracks under a bridge.

 At 5:35 a.m. a house fire already was out as firefighters arrived at 34th and Franklin Streets. Reports from the scene indicated that the blaze might have begun on the side of the house.

In Bellevue, occupants of three apartment units were displaced Friday morning after a fire at an apartment complex.

The fire at the Gateway Park Apartments, 305 Fort Crook Road South, forced an evacuation of the entire building. The blaze, reported about 5:45 a.m., was brought under control within five minutes of firefighters arriving, said Jack Syphers, a Bellevue Fire Department spokesman.

No one was injured. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Syphers said the fire started on a third-floor balcony and spread to a second-floor balcony and up into the eaves of the building.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1259, jay.withrow@owh.com
A 17-year-old boy apparently drowned Thursday in the Missouri River near NP Dodge Park in north Omaha, and authorities had not found his body.

An emergency call was received about 7 p.m. for a river rescue about a quarter-mile north of the park, which is located north of the Florence neighborhood.

Firefighters found a woman and four children on the Nebraska bank of the river, acting Omaha Fire Department Battalion Chief Chris Langlois said.

The missing teenager had been in their group. The circumstances of his drowning were not clear, Langlois said.

Boats from the Omaha and Council Bluffs Fire Departments and law enforcement agencies across the region entered the river, and an Omaha police helicopter hovered overhead as rescuers scoured the water.

Bystanders lingered in the park as rescuers looked.

As darkness settled, the search for the boy was suspended.

Contact the writer: 402-444-3106, emerson.clarridge@owh.com
LINCOLN  The Nebraska Supreme Court took disciplinary action Friday against two Omaha attorneys, Laird Moore and Maynard Weinberg, for violating their professional ethics code.

Moore was suspended from practicing law for two years, followed by two years of monitored probation. The court acted after Moore agreed not to contest the complaints filed against him by two clients.

According to the Supreme Courts order, the client in the first case said she had hired Moore to represent her in a divorce.

She claimed that Moore had not prepared for trial, had not contacted witnesses and failed to deliver her file to her new attorney despite repeated requests. She also said he failed to provide an accounting of his time sufficient to justify the fee she had paid him.

In the second case a client who had hired Moore to represent her in regard to a traffic accident said he neglected the case and failed to communicate with her.

The court gave Weinberg a public reprimand after he agreed not to contest a complaint against him.

In the complaint a client claimed that Weinberg had refused to release $11,881 of the clients money in an attempt to pressure the client into paying more than the previously negotiated rate for Weinbergs time.

Weinberg paid the client after being contacted by the State Counsel for Discipline about the complaint.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
CLEVELAND  Donald Trump nailed it.

That was the prevailing sense among Iowa and Nebraska delegates cheering Thursday night as Donald Trump accepted the Republican Partys presidential nomination amid a hail of balloons and confetti.

His words inspired Mary Jane Truemper, an Omaha real estate agent and Nebraska delegate.

He addressed issues no one else is talking about like trade issues, jobs and protection for the LGBTQ community, Truemper said. And he is talking about law and order and security, which is the primary responsibility of our government.

Trump served up a point-by-point takedown of Hillary Clintons trustworthiness and her performance on national security, describing her legacy as death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.

It was a critique that impressed Nebraska GOP Chairman Dan Welch.

Donald Trump laid out an argument based on facts that will be very difficult for Hillary Clinton to refute, Welch said. America is starving for true leadership both at home and abroad. Given his strength and his opponent, Donald Trump is the obvious choice to be the next president of the United States.

Trump set aside the signature improvisational delivery of his campaign rallies and instead stuck  mostly  to his teleprompter.

That move to a more scripted approach served him well, said Aimee Melton, Nebraska delegate and Omaha city councilwoman.

Its the most articulate speech Ive heard him give, Melton said.

Trumps speech brought the curtain down on a dramatic and contentious week that revealed tensions lingering in the party after an intense primary battle.

The Iowa delegation, for example, included many enthusiastic supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz., R-Texas, who were still trying to warm up to their nominee.

One Iowa delegate opposed to Trumps candidacy skipped the speech entirely. In fact, Cecil Stinemetz of Urbandale took off following Mondays fight over rules, saying the party has shown it doesnt care about transparency and engages in intimidation tactics.

I was so disgusted that I walked out of the convention and didnt return, Stinemetz wrote on Facebook. And it is the reason after 44 years of being a loyal Republican, the Republican Party now has left me and I will no longer be a Republican come Monday.

Other Cruz supporters in the Iowa delegation said they would support Trump.

Alternate delegate Gregg Cummings of Lamoni said the convention actually had been a good opportunity to hash out internal differences so that everyone can pull together in the battle this fall. But wariness still existed about Trump.

I am going to support and do all I can to make sure he gets elected because hes the nominee, Cummings said. (But) I dont trust him. Once he gets there, I hope he fulfills what he says hes going to do. But not until then will I sing those praises.

The Nebraska and Iowa Republicans showed this week that they are able to shrug off or defend Trumps controversial comments.

Trump sparked a wave of consternation from U.S. senators and others on Thursday when he told the New York Times that he may or may not protect a European ally, depending on whether he believes America is being properly reimbursed for defending that nation. He alluded to the issue in his speech as well.

Some Nebraska and Iowa delegates said they believe Trump will reconsider his comments on this nations long-standing alliance with Europe once he is president. I think hes developing a foreign policy and hes developing ideas, said J.L. Spray, Nebraskas national committeeman.

Others said Trump has a point about the need for America to re-evaluate its NATO alliance.

It makes sense to me, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said. Weve got to quit subsidizing the rest of the world. Weve got to expect them to step up and do their part. Its going to be a new day if he becomes president. And I think weve been played for a sucker too long.

David Baker, a delegate from Iowa City, called Trumps speech original. He noted that Trump is one Republican who rejects trade deals and embraces the gay community.

His forceful embrace of that community is something new for this party, Baker said.

And Cody Hoefert, co-chair of the Iowa Republican Party, said he found it a breath of fresh air that Trump talked about the need to work on issues affecting minorities. He also said he appreciated Trumps focus on safety.

Its a vision of safety where all Americans, wherever they live, whether in the inner cities or rural areas, have equal opportunity to raise families, Hoefert said.

Steve Scheffler, Iowas Republican national committeeman, said Trumps power lies in highlighting the differences between himself and Clinton and that the businessman has given more hope to conservatives than theyve had in a long time.

I understand the whole healing process part of it, but were 100 days out, he said. Its time to get on board and support our nominee because our republic is at a tipping point. Theres just a lot at stake here.

Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann downplayed incidents like the raucous rules fight and the booing of Ted Cruz for his refusal to endorse Trump.

Kaufmann said Trumps big speech ultimately will eclipse all of the weeks petty conflicts.

All these little bits and pieces of drama and Peyton Place  theyre forgotten, Kaufmann said. The thing that persists in the history books is that final speech.

* * *

Voters Voices And viewpoints

In presidential politics, the views of voters are often drowned out by the bluster and fury of national campaigns. The World-Herald would like to give Midlands voters a chance to be heard in this election, whether you support Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or neither of them. Were looking for people who are willing to answer a few questions about what theyre looking for in a candidate and what they have found. If interested, send an email and tell us a little bit about yourself, such as your name, age, occupation and hometown. Send to: Leia.Mendoza@owh.com.
STERLING, Virginia (AP)  Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has emerged as the leading contender to join the Democratic ticket as Hillary Clintons running mate, according to two Democrats, who both cautioned that Clinton has not made a final decision and could yet change direction.

The announcement of Clintons pick could come as early as Friday in Florida, a crucial general election battleground state. The timing is aimed at shifting attention from the end of the Republican National Convention and generating excitement before the start of Clintons own convention next week in Philadelphia.

Kaine, 58, has been a favorite for the vice presidential slot since the start of the search process. He has been active in the Senate on foreign relations and military affairs and has built a reputation for working across the aisle as Virginias governor and mayor of Richmond.

Im glad the waiting game is nearly over, Kaine said Thursday after an event in northern Virginia, deflecting questions about whether he was about to join the ticket.

Agriculture Secretary and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a longtime friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton, is still in the mix, according to one of the two Democrats, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the selection process publicly.

Hillary Clintons campaign declined to comment.

Kaines selection would not be without complication. Liberals have expressed wariness of Kaine for his support of putting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement on a fast track to approval, which both Clinton and primary rival Bernie Sanders opposed. They also note that Kaine signed onto a letter asking for less burdensome regulation of regional banks.

But President Barack Obama has told the campaign that he believes Kaine would be a strong choice, according to a Democrat familiar with the search.

If Kaine is selected for the ticket, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and ally of the Clintons, would choose a temporary replacement, but the race for the remainder of Kaines term would take place in 2017, raising the possibility that Republicans could win the seat. Kaine was scheduled to attend fundraisers Friday and Saturday in Massachusetts.

Vilsack is the longest-serving member of Obamas Cabinet and has known Clinton for years. He first met her through his late brother-in-law, Tom Bell, who worked with Clinton on the Watergate Committee in 1972, and she campaigned for Vilsack during his gubernatorial campaign in 1998.

If he were added to the ticket, Vilsack could help Clinton connect with rural America. He also has a compelling personal story: He was orphaned at birth in Pittsburgh, and his mother struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. He was set to discuss the perils of drug abuse and the opioid epidemic Friday in Missouri.
Britains new prime minister, Theresa May, has said that Brexit means Brexit. Therell be no second referendum. Leaving the European Union, she says, is her mandate.

That much may be clear  but little else is. Britains future relationship with the EU could take many forms. At one extreme is an acrimonious divorce that would leave Britain more separated from Europes economies than many current non-members. At the other is something so close to EU membership that in economic terms Brexit would make little difference. The greatest danger for Britain and Europe lies in letting this uncertainty persist.

As yet, theres no blueprint. Supporters of Brexit never agreed on what they wanted. Opponents  such as Mays predecessor, David Cameron  gave the matter little thought, hoping it would never happen. And Europes treaties offer no guidance: only a two-year deadline to complete the process, wherever it leads, after the now-famous Article 50 has been triggered.

Norway and Switzerland have been discussed as possible models, but theyre of little use. True, both are non-members of the EU with (mostly) unrestricted access to the unions single market  but they accept Europes rules on trade without being able to vote on them and are required to allow free movement of workers into and out of the EU. This last obligation is one May cant agree to, since restoring control over migration was a main plank of the Brexit campaign.

It has been taken for granted up to now that terms like Norways or Switzerlands are the best Britain can expect or even legitimately suggest. But Britain is a far bigger economy, with much more to offer the rest of the union. Theres no reason it shouldnt ask for, and be granted, a new kind of deal.

To be sure, if Britain wants access on the same terms as members to the EUs single market in goods, services and capital, it will have to accept Europes rules on trade. Yet it should also be able to maintain a degree of control on migration.

The EUs leaders insist that free movement of workers is indivisible from the other freedoms it provides. All they really mean is that, up to now, they have decreed it to be indivisible. Nothing is stopping them from lifting that decree and letting Britain remain in the single market for trading purposes while granting it a measure of control over movement of people.

Some argue that this would be unfair  a case of Britain wanting the privileges of EU membership without the obligations (German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls it cherry-picking and says it mustnt be allowed).

This is a puzzling argument. Opting out of free movement carries significant costs in its own right. If Britain is allowed to restrict immigration from the EU, its own citizens will face restrictions on their ability to work and live in Europe.

Thats a tough choice for Britain to make  but theres no reason to deny a non-member the right to make it.

Britains new minister for exit, David Davis, may already be the worlds most overworked politician. He needs to plan not just for the most mutually advantageous settlement, but also for what happens if the talks go badly.

Nonetheless his first job, before Article 50 is triggered, is to float a proposal that minimizes the disruption and makes sense for both sides.

Forget precedent: There isnt one. Forget Norway and Switzerland. Maximum economic integration plus control of migration is the right place to start, and Europes leaders should open their minds to it.
The nation was changing quickly in 1910. Airplanes, radios and vacuum cleaners were new, and the Model T was a hot car. No one had an inkling about big things to come  things like World War I, Prohibition and the Dust Bowl. William Howard Taft was in the White House, and Nebraska still had a two-house Legislature.

It was against that backdrop that Charles McConaughy had his big idea.

McConaughy, a businessman and civic leader in Holdrege, Nebraska, dreamed of damming the Platte River and using the stored water to irrigate farmland.

Two years later, he gained his biggest financial supporter and promoter in George P. Kingsley, a banker in Minden, Nebraska. Together, McConaughy and Kingsley spent decades gathering support, acquiring the legal rights and procuring financing for the dam and lake.

Today that big idea is known as Big Mac, and it has delivered all that McConaughy and Kingsley envisioned  and more. The story of Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy can be told partially in numbers. Big numbers, of course:

 Construction extended from 1936 to 1941 and, at its peak, involved more than 1,000 workers.

 The dam was a quarter-mile wide at its base, stood 162 feet high and stretched 3.1 miles across the Platte River valley.

 It required moving 39 miles of state and federal highways, 33 miles of Union Pacific Railroad track, 22 miles of county roads, 20 miles of oil pipelines and the entire town of Lemoyne.

 It became the worlds second-largest earthen dam when completed.

 These days the reservoir waters 110,000 acres of Nebraska cropland, delivered via 575 miles of canals and pipelines.

 Lake McConaughy draws about 1 million visitations a year that generate more than $44 million in retail sales.

 It supports more than 950 jobs in Ogallala and Keith County, with an economic impact measured at more than $73 million.

 The reservoir is a water source for four of the states largest cities: Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island and Kearney.

 The water also replenishes an aquifer, fuels a hydroelectric plant at the dam, cools a power plant in Sutherland, Nebraska, and supports endangered species habitat.

Federal estimates of the total annual economic benefits from the dam and lake  including irrigation, hydropower generation and recreation  range from $556 million to $806 million.

Not bad work for a big idea born in 1910.
The University of Nebraska system owes a great debt to community titan Walter Scott Jr. The Suzanne and Walter Scott Foundation has given more than $220 million in support of the university and the NU Foundation.

The civic leaders generosity has benefited University of Nebraska at Omahas Pacific Campus, in particular. Renaming the area the Scott Campus, a move being considered today by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, is well deserved.

Scotts contributions have provided scholarships, new residence halls and academic space. Scott was also a significant force behind university initiatives such as the Peter Kiewit Institute for engineering and computer science.

Such community donors provide transformational impact, NU President Hank Bounds says.

As Scott and other private donors take on more financing of NU, it is important for the university to maintain transparency in its dealings with these donors, to protect the public interest and enhance public trust in the institution.

But there can be no doubt of the impact of Scotts generosity, so visible on the Pacific Campus. It is more than fitting it should bear his name.
Donald Trumps warning that, as president, he may not support the automatic defense of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally if it is attacked may well be evidence of the Republican nominees isolationist views.

But more likely, it reflects a belief that rules can be bent when they dont suit him. It has defined the Trump candidacy, and it will define his presidency if he wins.

Trump told the New York Times that if Russia attacks the Baltic states, he would first see if these countries have fulfilled their obligations to us and then decide whether the U.S. should intervene. Technically, of course, nations obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty are not to the U.S. but to all of their allies, but that small error may be forgiven because of the huge disparity in military spending between the U.S. and the other NATO states.

Trumps approach would mean Estonia would be the only Baltic nation to qualify for U.S. intervention in case of an attack: It complies with the treatys requirement that countries spend 2 percent of their economic output on defense. Latvia and Lithuania have pledged to catch up in the next several years, but if they are attacked, say, next January, the day after a President Trump inauguration, Russian President Vladimir Putin can probably have them.

Thats useful for him to know; even if hes not planning an attack, it becomes a tantalizing possibility. Its hard to see Latvia and Lithuania scrambling to draw up new budgets for 2017, especially since a NATO summit this month reaffirmed the alliances commitment to defending them.

Theoretically, since an international treaty is involved, any U.S. president has to continue the line President Barack Obama took at the summit, saying, Here in Warsaw, we havent simply reaffirmed our enduring Article 5 obligations to our common security; were moving forward with the most significant reinforcement of our collective defense any time since the Cold War.

Trump made his remarks in the populist spirit of isolationism. Were going to take care of this country first, Trump said, adding that he doesnt feel Americans have a right to lecture other countries, such as Turkey, now in the midst of a massive purge after a thwarted coup attempt, until the U.S. can present more of a shining example. (Actually, the U.S., as any NATO country, has the right to lecture fellow members about democracy  and Obama did criticize Poland for its governments recent undemocratic leanings  if only because the treaty says the signatories are states founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.)

Trump may have forgotten that the U.S. is the only country for which Article 5 has ever been invoked  after 9/11, when Americas allies stood with it against the terrorist menace. But no matter how much of a political novice Trump is, he must understand that the U.S. cannot just isolate itself: Its been going in the opposite direction for too long, and it has accumulated obligations along the way.

Article 5  the whole reason for the military alliances existence  is worded rather carefully: Countries are obliged to take such action as it deems necessary to help any ally who has been attacked, but military action is not explicitly required. If previous U.S. governments saw this as a binding commitment to use military force and led others to see it that way, too  thats why the Baltics joined NATO in the first place  Trump is saying hes willing to reinterpret Article 5 in his favor, to bend what everyone considers to be a firm rule. In plain language, to renege.

That kind of dissembling shouldnt be a surprise to anyone. Trumps disregard for the facts, and normal political conventions, has been a surprisingly harmless staple during the presidential campaign, though even there it has led to some awkward moments.

Tony Schwarz, who ghostwrote Trumps best-selling book, The Art of the Deal, has been telling anyone who would listen that it was probably filled with inaccuracies. Trumps lawyer recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Schwarz, demanding the writers advance and royalties back.

Its clear that Trump tolerates the same opportunistic attitudes in others. Melania Trumps plagiarized speech at the Republican Convention didnt elicit an apology from Trump or Melania  just from a hapless campaign staffer whose offer to resign was rejected.

His campaign managers, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, have traveled in circles where connections matter more than rules. Trumps approach to business, politics and life in general is based on a belief in the survival of the fittest, which apparently includes cutting corners when the reward is greater than the risk. If he is elected, this modus operandi risks becoming official policy.

The world would be likely to see a different America, whose word is no longer its bond, capable of a stab in the back or a self-serving feint.

I have often heard and read that Trumps danger as a potential president is exaggerated, that the U.S. system runs itself, that checks and balances compensate for leaders character deficiencies.

Any system, however, can be subverted and turned into a travesty of itself by using every possible loophole in agreements and conventions. I have little doubt that Trump can pull it off.
LINCOLN  Attorney General Doug Peterson has settled with a Wymore, Nebraska, company that allegedly was running multiple pyramid schemes.

Peterson announced the settlement agreement Friday.

Under its terms, B & B Communications and its owners, Brian Barnhouse and Steve Borgman, denied the allegations but said they agreed to settle the case to avoid the cost and uncertainty of a trial.

According to the agreement, which was filed in Lancaster County District Court, B & B sold memberships through the websites.

The state alleged that the companys business plan depended on people buying memberships rather than on selling actual products. Members earned financial rewards for getting other people to buy memberships.

The settlement requires Barnhouse and Borgman to not promote or participate in any pyramid schemes and to discontinue any businesses that operate as such.

The two must pay $11,068.32 into a fund to be used to pay back customers. They also must make a $15,000 payment to the state to be used for consumer protection activities.

If the men violate the agreement, they will have to pay another $45,000 to the state.

Customers who qualify for restitution will be notified by the Attorney Generals office.
Kejriwal meets victims in Gujarat, calls BJP govt 'anti-Dalit'

Ahmedabad

oi-PTI

Rajkot, Jul 22: Terming the BJP government in Gujarat as "anti-Dalit", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused the state administration of colluding in the incident of attack on dalit men by cow vigilantes as he met the victims and their families.

The Aam Aadmi Party Chief claimed that it was not an "isolated" incident and "atrocities" on dalits were being committed across Gujarat. He warned that the BJP government will be "taught a lesson" by members of all communities if it does not end its "oppression".

"The beating happened in front of a police station in the presence of police...it means this is happening at the behest of the administration. Why is the police silent? Why is it involved? This means there is some direction from the top administration," Kejriwal told reporters after visiting the victims of the July 11 incident at Rajkot civil hospital.

"The BJP government in Gujarat is inflicting atrocities on Dalits, (it) is anti-Dalit," alleged Kejriwal whose visit cames a day after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi meet the victims.

Two days back, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had also visited the place. The Delhi Chief Minister also questioned the state government's intent to carry out an unbiased investigation into the matter.

The AAP national convener said only 17 persons have been arrested when about 40-50 people were allegedly involved in the July 11 incident, and pointed out that no charge sheet has yet been filed in the 2012 killing of Dalits by police at Thangadh in Surendranagar district. Three Dalits were killed in the police firing in 2012.

"People apprehend that the arrests could be an eyewash and the accused may be allowed to go scot-free later," Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal also stoked a controversy when he met Dalit youth Kanti Mulji Vala, arrested for the murder of head constable Pankaj Amrelia, at the Rajkot civil hospital where he is admitted.

Asked why he meet a murder accused, the Delhi CM said he will also meet the family members of the constable at Amreli. He said those who attempted suicide told him that "atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day in Gujarat".

"I asked them why they are committing suicide. They said atrocities against Dalits are growing day by day. Then I told them that suicide is not the way out, we will have to fight together," he stressed.

He demanded compensation and government jobs for the victims and the youths who had attempted suicide. Kejriwal also pressed for swift action against all the accused.

"I have been told that false cases are being lodged against the (dalit) youths who are agitating by the authorities as they did during the peaceful Patidar quota agitation," Kejriwal claimed.

After meeting the victims of the beating incident and people who attempted suicide during the protest, Kejriwal will also visit the victims' families at Mota Samadhiyala village, where the incident of brutal assault on Dalits for skinning a dead cow took place on July 11.

The thrashing incident had sparked a statewide protest by Dalit community members which continued for three days leading to arson and loss of public property.

PTI
Una Dalits backlash politicised?: Victim re-admitted to hospital!

Ahmedabad

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Una, July 22: In what can be described as an attempt to politicise the case of Dalits thrashing in Una town of Saurashtra region of Gujarat, it emerged that one of the victim was re-admitted to a hospital under alleged political pressure hours before the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited the violence-hit area on Thursday, July 21.

As per a report published in Indian Express, 23-year-old Ramesh Sarvaiya is one of the seven victims who was allegedly beaten by a group of Gau Rakshaks for skinning a dead cow in Mota Samadhiyala village on Monday, July 11.

On Thursday, July 21, Ramesh was again admitted to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (PDU) General Hospital in Rajkot, despite getting discharged from Junagarh Civil Hospital on July 18.

[Poor and weak being crushed in Gujarat, says Rahul Gandhi]

Soon after being flogged, Ramesh was admitted to the Community Health Centre in Una on July 11, from where he was referred to Junagarh Civil Hosptal, along with his 46-year-old father Balu Sarvaiya, who sustained head injury and 42-year-old mother Kunvar.

Due to less injuries, Kunvar was reportedly discharged on July 12 and the father-son duo were discharged on July 18, after their full recovery.

On Wednesday, July 20 Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel visited him and had announced that the Gujarat government would cover all costs of their treatment.

On Thursday at 7.38 pm, Ramesh was admitted again to PDU hospital, where Rahul Gandhi met him.

One of the doctors treating Ramesh was quoted saying as, "He had abrasions and bruises and came to us for treatment. As a matter of policy, we cannot deny treatment to any patient. Therefore, he was admitted this morning."

Ramesh's elder brother- 26-year-old Vashram and two other victims - 20-year-old Ashok Sarvaiya and 30-year-old Bechar Sarvaiya also received treatment at the same hospital, but they had no fractures and had complaints of headache, giddiness and abdominal pain.

The report said that Una and Rajkot hospitals are "under pressure" to let the victims stay in the hospitals.

Eleven persons allegedly tried to attempt suicide by consuming poison, but all of them are fine now.

While denying that any politician pressurised him to get admitted again, Ramesh was quoted saying as, "My thighs have swollen again and the pain has recurred. Black spots have developed there due to the beating. When I told doctors about this, they advised me to get admitted and I agreed."

OneIndia News
1 youth killed in fresh clashes in Kashmir; Rajnath to visit Srinagar on Saturday

India

oi-PTI

Srinagar, Jul 22: Fresh clashes broke out between protestors and security forces in Kashmir today after Friday prayers killing one youth, raising the death toll to 45 in the unrest that erupted two weeks ago, even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit the Valley tomorrow.

As the PDP-BJP government battles the unrest following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter, Singh will be in Kashmir for two days in a bid to calm down tensions and reach out to people in the first high level visit from the Centre after violence broke out on July 8.

After a brief spell of relative calm, reports of stone pelting were received from many places in the curfew-bound Valley, mostly in Baramulla, Kupwara and Pulwama districts, as clashes continued through the evening. Curfew remained in force in all 10 districts of the Valley due to apprehension of law and order problems in view of large gatherings for Friday prayers.

A youth identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat sustained severe injuries in the abdomen after being hit by pellets during protests at Chursoo in Awantipora area of Pulwama this afternoon after Friday prayers, a police official said.

He said Bhat was rushed to SMHS hospital here but succumbed to injuries. This was the first death in fresh clashes in the Valley since Monday when three persons were killed in army firing at Qazigund in Anantnag district.

Two other persons were brought to SMHS hospital today with pellet injuries -- one from Kakapora in Pulwama district and other from Sopore town of north Kashmir Baramulla district, the official said.

He said condition of Asif Ahmad, who was injured during clashes in Kakapora, was critical while Aaqib Ahmad from Sopore was stable.

Earlier in the day, a youth succumbed to injuries sustained in clashes a few days ago. Ishtiyaq Ahmad, injured in clashes at Kokernag area of Anantnag district, died at SKIMS hospital, Soura this morning.

Although no incident of violence was reported yesterday, authorities clamped curfew in all 10 districts of Kashmir as a precautionary measure today, a police official said. "Large gatherings are expected during Friday prayers which usually turn into violent protests," the official said.

Authorities had eased curfew in four districts -- Baramulla, Bandipora, Budgam and Ganderbal -- yesterday to facilitate reopening of schools.

However, most of the schools in these districts remained closed as parents chose not to send their wards due to security apprehensions. Mobile telephony and mobile internet services remained suspended for the 14th day today.

Normal life remains paralysed for two weeks now due to curfew and a separatist-sponsored strike. Singh, who will reach Srinagar around 11 AM, will first interact with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior officials and review the law and order situation.

After that, he will meet representatives of political parties, social organisations and leading citizens to get their feedback about the Kashmir situation as well as future roadmap, official sources said in Delhi. Singh will stay at Nehru guest house in Srinagar, where he will meet the public representatives.

PTI
'They want Congress-mukt Bharat': Kharge in his first address as Cong chief

Nothing will change in Congress: For Gandhis, power stays but the onus shifts

PC's statement on Kashmir are his personal views: Cong

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 22: Congress sought to distance itself from the remarks of former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Kashmir, saying the views expressed by him are his personal.

"I think it is his personal view," Congress Spokesperson Sushmita Dev said at the AICC briefing.

Dev initially refrained from commenting on Chidambaram's remarks saying Kashmir is burning and is a "sensitive issue" and there should be a responsible reaction from her party.

"I would check with the party rather than giving a knee-jerk reaction," she said earlier. Dev reacted only after Chidambaram's comments were read out to her.

We broke our promises made to Kashmiris: Chidambaram

Proposing a radical solution to the situation in Kashmir, Chidambaram who is a senior Congress leader and former Home Minister advocated restoring the "grand bargain" under which Kashmir had acceded to India by granting a large degree of autonomy, warning that otherwise the country will have to pay a "heavy price". "I think their approach is wrong.

We have ignored the grand bargain under which Kashmir acceded to India. I think we broke faith, we broke promises and as a result we have paid a heavy price," he had said yesterday.

PTI
'CPI(M)-Congress alliance to stay in West Bengal'

India

oi-PTI

Kolkata, July 22: CPI(M) Politburo member and West Bengal state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra today said the alliance with Congress will "stay" and party will continue to hold programmes and rallies with the poll ally in the state.

"We will continue our joint (with Congress) programmes and agitations. The alliance is here to stay," Mishra told reporters after holding first round of meetings with party functionaries in the district after the Assembly elections.

Terming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's diatribes against the Centre as mere public posturing, he alleged, "She speaks about a tough stand against the central government, but goes for an understanding behind the curtains with the BJP brass to escape from the clutches of the CBI."

On CPI(M)'s Gazole MLA Dipali Biswas deciding to join the TMC today, Mishra said the MLA has to resign first from her Assembly membership.

"What will happen after her resignation is a different question, but why is the Trinamool Congress supremo (Banerjee) so worried even after bagging 211 seats in the elections? Why is she so greedy that she keeps on poaching on rival party members?" Mishra said.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2016, 18:10 [IST]
ED registers case against Ex-Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 22: Former chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda could be in deep trouble soon as a case has been registered against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Reportedly the Enforcement Directorate on Friday registered a case against Hooda and Associated Journal Limited (AJL) on the charges of disproportionate land allotment case.

According to an ANI report, when Hooda was the Chief Minister of Haryana(2005), he allegedly allocated the land to Associated Journal Ltd in Panchkula under wrong terms.

It is being alleged that Hooda re-allocated land to AJL, the publisher of National Herald newspaper on the 1982 rate, causing Rs. 65 lakh loss to the exchequer.

In May this year, CBI had registered a case for alleged irregularities in allocation of industrial plots at Panchkula when Hooda was the chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority.

According to FIR filed by the CBI, industrial plots were given to 14 people by allegedly manipulating certain provisions of allotment which included allowing them to submit their applications even after the last date of submission ended.

Story of financial bungling

The plot had been initially allotted to AJL in 1982. After the expiry of the lease period in 1996, then Haryana Vikas Party goverment led by Bansi Lal took back its possession.It was re-allotted to AJL after the Congress leader came to power in 2005.

The Vigilance Bureau had alleged that the act by the then HUDA chairman and the officials had caused a huge financial loss to HUDA as the plot should have been sold through open auction instead of being alloted again to AJL.

A separate FIR had been lodged in December last year by the state vigilance bureau against Hooda as the then chairman and chief administrator of HUDA for alleged irregularities in allotment of industrial plots in Panchkula three years ago. Hooda had then said that no rules had been violated in the allotment.

Opposition parties in Haryana had sought registration of a criminal case in the matter for alleged illegal re-allotment of land in Panchkula from the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government.

In a missive to the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition Abhay Chautala had said a plot measuring 3,360 square metres in the prime location of Sector 6 in Panchkula was reallotted to the Associated Journals Ltd on June 29, 2005.

However, soon after Congress was voted to power in 2005, Hooda initiated the process of restoring the plot to AJL on a representation made on its behalf by one of the trustees, Chautala had claimed.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)
Should Kashmir be given to Pakistan: Row erupts after this question appears in MP civil service exam

Editors condemn 'undeclared censorship' on press in Kashmir

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, July 22:The All India Newspaper Editor's Conference (AINEC) has condemned the "undeclared censorship" on press in the Kashmir Valley.

The apex body of editors in a resolution passed on Wednesday, criticised the ruling PDP-BJP alliance in the valley, and added that the ban on publications and raids on the newspaper offices and printing presses is a direct attack on the freedom of the press.

"This new method, of undeclared censorship adopted by the PDP-BJP government has set a new precedent of censorship, and it is totally unacceptable," AINEC said here. It urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to refrain from restrictive and undemocratic methods to gag the press in the Kashmir Valley.

Kashmir newspapers expected to hit stands today as logjam ends

"The newspapers, whether they are in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat or Tamil Nadu, or any other state, must be allowed to carry out their duty to the readers, freely and fairly. No government in the Centre or states can preserve democratic traditions of our great country without supporting the freedom of the press, in spirit and reality," said Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, president, AIENC.

IANS

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2016, 8:49 [IST]
Honour killing attacks: HC slams TN govt for 'administrative lapses'

India

oi-PTI

Chennai, July 22: The Madras High Court pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for 'administrative lapses' in attacks at three villages in Dharmapuri district in November 2012 reportedly by upper castes in connection with an honour killing and said the picture presented to it was not satisfactory.

The court said it wanted an affidavit to be filed with the signatures of the Secretary concerned, explaining the inquiry held to fix these lapses, who were found responsible and what was the nature of punishment given to those persons.

"We are sure that the period of four years would have been more than enough for completing this task," the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan said.

The bench made the observation while disposing of petitions by several persons, seeking relief in connection with the attacks on Dalit colonies at Dharmapuri on November 7, 2012 by uppercaste people, consequent to the death of the father of a girl who married a Dalit boy.

The boy later died mysteriously. "In a democratic country like ours, we are even unwilling to give the major boy and girl the right to determine whom they want to marry. Not only that, life and property are lost in the meaningless fury of one community against the other, reflecting a sorry state of affairs of the society," it said.

Divya, hailing from the Vanniar community, had married a Dalit, Ilavarasan, which was objected to by her father, who committed suicide. The incident triggered violence and 326 houses were burnt in Nathamkottai, Kondampatti and Annanagar villages in Dharmapuri district. Later, Ilavarasan was found dead near a railway track under mysterious circumstances.

In this connection, petitions and PILs were filed in the high court, seeking response from various departments of the central and and state government for suggestions to protect, rehabilitate and provide relief to those affected. Disposing of all petitions, the bench said a mindless frenzy had taken place, resulting in loss of large amount of property - 326 houses were stated to have been burnt down in three villages.

"If we may say, it amounted to complete collapse of administration," it said. The bench said a three pronged endeavour was required -- activation of criminal justice system, rehabiltation measures and pinpointing of responsibility for administrative lapses.

'Discrimination amounted to complete collapse of administration'

"Insofar as the first aspect is concerned, the learned Government Pleader (GP) states the final report will be filed in one month, investigation having been conducted by CB-CID," it said.

It noted the final report was not filed as there were interim directions by it, which, by consent, were now lifted. On rehabilitation, the petitioners' counsel said there are still deficiencies, which they would enlist and inform the GP. The bench referred to an SC order, which said there was nothing honourable in honour killing or other atrocities and in fact it was nothing but barbaric and shameful murder. It posted the matter for September 9 for compliance.

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2016, 8:55 [IST]
Updates: No signs of missing IAF plane; Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar monitors search operation

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Chennai, July 22: An AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 29 people on board went missing over the Bay of Bengal on Friday, Defence Ministry officials said, adding that a full-scale search and rescue mission has been launched.

The aircraft took off from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai at 8.30 a.m., and was expected to land at Port Blair at 11.30 a.m., officials said.

Those on board included personnel from all three services and six crew members, an IAF spokesperson told OneIndia.

Here are the updates of what we know so far about the missing IAF AN-32 aircraft:

As many as 18 navy and coast guard ships including a submarine, and eight aircraft like P 81, C 130 and Dorniers were pressed into search operations to find the AN 32 transport aircraft

"The Defence Minister was appraised of the difficult conditions under which the operations are being carried out during the last 24 hours. The sea is very choppy and there is thick cloud cover in area," the Defence Ministry official said.

"Defence Minister reviewed the situation and utilisation of assets and resources and has directed that if necessary more resources to be diverted to the effort," officials further said.

Parrikar on Saturday reviewed search operation for IAF AN-32 and directed all commanders to be in touch with families.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was briefed onboard the P8I aircraft about the ongoing search operation of mising IAF plane.



Navy sails specialised ship INS Investigator from Port Blair for search operation.



MoD sources say that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar leaves Tambaram for aerial survey of Search ops for IAF AN 32.

8 Telugu passengers from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh are there in missing IAF AN-32 aircraft.

They are Samba Murthy, Prasad Babu, Nagendra Rao, Senapathi, Maharana, Chinna Rao, Srinivas Rao, Chitti babu.

This incident took place 270 kms away from Chennai; families of all who were on board have been informed, says Dr SBhamre on missing IAF plane.

TN Coastal security Group has deployed 12 fast moving interceptors from Chennai to Rameshwaram region for search operations.

Indian Navy launches 1 submarine for underwater detection of any transmission or signal of missing IAF aircraft AN-32.

Missing include 6 crew members,12 IAF personnel, 1 from Navy, 1 coastguard,1 armyman and 8 civilians.

Efforts on to trace IAF AN 32 aircraft and our Service personnel on board, says Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

We will put all assets available with us in search operation for IAF aircraft AN-32, says Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee

The Russian-made AN-32 aircraft was on a "courier flight" with service personnel on board. It is capable of flying continuously for four hours without refuelling.

A major search and rescue operation has been launched by the Indian Navy and IAF in the Bay of Bengal.

Indian Navy spokesperson D.K. Sharma said a P-8I surveillance aircraft, a Dornier and several ships have been deployed in the search and rescue operation.

Ships deployed for the search include Shivalik-class stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, guided-missile destroyers INS Rajput and Ranvijay, corvettes Kamorta, Kirch, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, fleet tankers INS Shakti, and INS Jyoti, amphibious warfare vessel INS Gharial and patrol vessel INS Sukanya, the Indian Navy said.

The incident comes a year after a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft with three crew members on board on a routine surveillance flight went missing. The search team found its black box nearly after a month and later the skeletal remains and personal belongings of the crew members were recovered from the sea bed off Tamil Nadu coast.

The IAF at present has a fleet of over 100 AN-32s in service. [IAF's AN-32 missing: All you need to know about the aircraft]

WATCH: Captain DK Sharma, Navy PRO on IAF AN-32 plane flying from Tambaram (Chennai) to Port Blair gone missinghttps://t.co/tAAEpu8edW  ANI (@ANI_news) July 22, 2016

Wrap of IAF assets used so far in SAR op fr AN 32 - one AN 32&two C 130, Mi-17 V5 with floats on standby, two AN 32 & one C-130 on standby.  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) July 23, 2016

Wrap of IN/ICG assets employed so far in SAR ops for AN 32 - two P8I & two Dornier. One Dornier on standby at Port Blair.  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) July 23, 2016

Wrap of IN surface vessls emplyd in SAR ops for AN 32 - by 22/7 AN 5 ships, by 22/7 evng 8 ships, by this morning 13 ships in search area.  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) July 23, 2016

(Agencies)
Karnataka govt bans 'Chinese manja' used for kite flying

India

oi-PTI

Bengaluru, Jul 22: Karnataka government today banned with immediate effect nylon threads commonly known as 'Chinese dor' or 'Chinese manja' used for kite flying, saying it causes grievous injuries to birds, animals as well as human beings.

"Ban has been imposed on procuring, stocking, sale and use of nylon thread commonly know as Chinese Dor or Chinese Manja or other synthetic (Non bio-degradable) threads coasted with glass or other harmful substances used for kite flying or other purposes likely to cause grievous injury and inconvenience to birds, animals as well as human beings," an official release said.

The ban is with immediate effect in the interest of public, it said. Ecologists and bird watchers have been demanding the ban citing its negative affects on the environment, birds and animals.

Requesting public to cooperate with the government and the law enforcement authorities, the release said the threads also adversely affect soil, water, cattle and damage the environment.

Those violating ban can be booked under various acts like Karnataka forest, wild life (protection) and environment (protection) acts.

PTI
Patna HC rejects Tejashwi Yadav's plea, says he will have to vacate Govt bungalow

Caste census a must, let 50 per cent cap be broken if required: Lalu Prasad

Lalu again hits out at PM for 'silence' on Dalit atrocities

India

oi-PTI

Patna, Jul 22: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for second successive day today on his "continued silence" on atrocities against Dalits and wondered whether "these incidents are taking place at his instigation."

"Auron ki khansi/jukhaam per chichiyate hain, per gareeb/dalit ko maara peeta ja raha hai us per lambi chuppi! Inhi ki to shah nahin? (He shouts at mere cough and cold of others, but keeps mum for long when the poor and Dalits are beaten up... are the incidents taking place at his instigation)," Lalu said in a tweet.

He was replying to a tweet by his son and deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav's tweet goading the Prime Minister to speak at his rally in Gorakhpur on atrocities against Dalits.

"Dear @narendramodi Ji, Hope u wil speak tdy in Gorakhpur on #DalitAtrocity takn place aggressively in ur regime. Plz gv hard msg to ur caders," Tejaswi tweeted.

Slamming Modi yesterday for his "silence" on assault of some Dalit men in Gujarat last week, Lalu had tweeted that the "PM who cries at the drop of a hat or tweets on anything happening even saat samundar paar (seven seas away) won't utter even a single word on unfortunate incidents in Gujarat."

The incident at Una in Gujarat, where Dalit youths were paraded and flogged for allegedly killing a cow, caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral. The victims' contention was that they were skinning a dead cow and had not killed it.

PTI
Solar eclipse to be sighted in Bengaluru for 45 minutes: Report

Odisha to hold investors meet in Bengaluru

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Bhubaneswar, July 22: In order to attract investment to Odisha, the state government on Friday decided to hold an Invest Odisha meet in Bengaluru on August 26.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will attend the event and hold one-to-one meetings with investors.

A high-level preparatory meeting was held on Friday under the chairmanship of Industries Minister Devi Prasad Mishra here.

"We have requested the Chief Minister to grace the occasion. He would have one-to-one meet with top level industry captains. The Ministers and secretaries of concerned departments would also have discussions with the industry players," said Mishra.

He said around 50 large and medium industries have been enlisted basing on their interest for investment in Odisha, and are from sectors like engineering, IT, hardware, aviation, textiles, medical devices, lubricants, aerospace, beverages, telecom, defence, transport and consumer durables, etc.

Besides, a number of events and interactions would be organized on this occasion to attract more investment to Odisha.

It was also decided in the meeting that commemoration of late Chief Minister's Biju Patnaik's birth centenary would be held at a separate event in Bengaluru on August 26.

The event would be organized as another episode with a number of attractive cultural programme, and involve the Odia people living in Bengaluru, Odia Associations and local cultural associations, said the Minister.

The Odia Association of Bengaluru has formed a committee to organize the Biju Patnaik birth centenary at a separate venue.

IANS


PM Modi likely to visit Arunachal on Oct 30 to inaugurate greenfield airport

PM to flag off South India's first 'Vande Bharat Express' on Nov 11

PM Modi bats for farmers in Gorakhpur, says 2nd green revolution from East UP

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Gorakhpur, July 22: In the run up to upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, July 22, visited Gorakhpur distrcit in eastern part of the state.

PM Modi visited Gorakhnath Temple, where he offered prayers in the morning and unveiled the statue of Mahant Avaidyanath in the temple.

In a brief address to the saints in the state, PM Modi said, "It's my privilege that I had the opportunity to unveil the statue of Avaidyanathji who is inspiration to all."

"This land is special. Be it Gautam Budhha, Mahavir or Kabir, they all have had an unbreakable bond with this land in some way or other", he said.

"One's who have had the opportunity to serve this land have always given their best. Mahant Avaidyanath ji contribution to this is immense", he further said.

"Saints, spiritual leaders can play an important role in making India prosper & modern. And many are already doing it", Modi said.

PM also said, "Our saints and seers are very noble and have always been compassionate towards society and the poor."

"I have also come to know about saints who contributed in campaign to build toilets, encourage their followers to do that", he added.

PM Narendra Modi lays foundation stone of Gorakhpur Fertiliser plant and AIIMS.

Gorakhpur (UP): PM Narendra Modi lays foundation stone of Gorakhpur Fertiliser plant and AIIMS. pic.twitter.com/ch267WqSPJ  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 22, 2016

Highlights: PM addresses rally in Gorakhpur

PM Narendra Modi addressed a massive rally in Gorakhpur today, where he said, "It would be wrong to say that work of a factory which was closed for 26 years has been started because of me".

Amid a huge round of applause from the public, Modi said, "If you had not voted for us then this work which was pending since 26 years, still would have been pending."

"Credit goes solely to you as you are the ones who brought us to power & strengthened our hands", he said.

"Debate on rise in inflation is quite common in our nation, but when important decisions are taken by the Government, it's not discussed", he said.

On Farmers

"We decided to give farmers as much urea as they want, but will try to work on shut down factories also", PM said.

"If we have to develop India, the chariot of development needs to run on two wheels- Eastern and Western India", he said.

"Second green revolution is going to happen in eastern India and eastern UP, want eastern side to develop", Modi said.

The grand event as attended by BJP MP Yogi Adityananth, UP BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, senior party ministers Piyush Goyal, Ananth Kumar, JP Nadda and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel.

PM Narendra Modi addressing a rally in Gorakhpur (UP) pic.twitter.com/LHg4UphaRS  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 22, 2016

When PM Modi took over office,his biggest challenge was to provide electricity to villages-Piyush Goyal in Gorakhpur pic.twitter.com/l7H93LphUm  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 22, 2016

OneIndia News
Police rescues Kenyan woman in Delhi

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 22: A Kenyan woman who was confined illegally by two African nationals, has been rescued by the police from Rajpur Khurd in south Delhi's Mehrauli area following a complaint from a Kenyan embassy official, police said today.

A complaint was lodged at Mehrauli police station by Frederick Ndegwa, political counselor from Kenya embassy, on the intervening night of July 17-18, about the illegal confinement of the Kenyan woman Gladys wambui mwangi (26), in Rajpur Extension, said a senior police officer.

The location where the woman was reportedly kept was identified by the police as a house in Rajpur Khurd Extension and rescued her in a raid, said the officer. A case under relevant Sections of IPC was registered and an accused woman Alice Njoki, from Kenya, was arrested.

However, another accused Classidy Jeremiah, from Nigeria, managed to run away during the raid. During investigation police found that Gladys was brought to India on promise of a secretary's job in China. But, she was confined by the accused. Her passport was also snatched away from her as she was forced to join illegal activities by the accused.

PTI
Woman, her two children mowed down by train; Suicide not ruled out

Suspicious bird with rings on its legs caught near India-Pakistan border

Rajasthan Police announce cash rewards for arrest of 5 absconding criminals

India

oi-PTI

Jaipur, Jul 22: Rajasthan Police today announced cash rewards of Rs one lakh each for information leading to the arrest of five wanted accomplices of absconding criminal Anand Pal Singh.

"DG has announced the cash reward on heads of Rupendra Pal Singh, Devendra Pal Singh, Balbeer Singh, Mahipal Singh and Azad Singh who are wanted in the case of escape of Anandpal Singh," ADG ATS Umesh Mishra said.

They are the accomplices of Anand, who escaped from police custody while being taken back to Ajmer central jail from a court in Nagaur last year.

Anand was the head of a gang that is accused in multiple cases of robbery and extortion in Nagaur district and other parts of Rajasthan. Anand carries a cash reward of Rs five lakh on his head.

Initially, the reward on Anand was Rs one lakh which was later increased by the state government to Rs five lakh.

PTI
Man booked for tweets against Maha CM; has a history of such posts against leaders

Zakir Naik's aide arrested, to provide more leads into investigation

India

oi-Vicky

Mumbai, July 22: The arrest of Arshi Qureshi in Navi Mumbai is expected to provide more leads into the functioning of the Islamic Research Foundation founded by the controversial Islamic preacher, Dr Zakir Naik.

In a joint operation the Kerala and Mumbai Police arrested Qureshi from his residence in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.

Youth associated with Zakir Naik's foundation arrested

The case on hand relates to an allegation that Qureshi had radicalised a girl from Kerala who is suspected to have joined the ISIS. The Kerala Police which obtained Qureshi's transit remand will now question him about his alleged role in the case.

A Kerala Police officer informed that his questioning will commence on Friday and this will help us get more leads apart from understanding the functioning of the Islamic Research Foundation.

How the investigation is proceeding

The Kerala Police acted on a complaint given by Ebin Jacob. He is the brother of Mariam, who is one of the 21 people from Kerala who have been reported missing and suspected to have joined the ISIS.

Mariam had moved to Navi Mumbai after getting married to Yahya. It is there that she is suspected to have been radicalised, the police have learnt.

It is alleged that Mariam's husband and Qureshi had taken her to meet Dr Naik. It is there that the radicalisation is alleged to have taken place, the police have learnt.

Further the complainant Jacob also told the police that an attempt to radicalise him too had been made by Yahya and Qureshi. "I too was taken to meet with Zakir Naik," he claimed in the complaint.

Naik is currently not in India and recently said in a media interaction through video conferencing that he is innocent. His name had cropped up after the Bangladesh police alleged that one of the Dhaka attackers had been radicalised by him and a post of his was found on the social media account of the terrorist.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2016, 10:45 [IST]
Taliban releases US engineer Mark Frerichs in prisoner swap

Are you awake?: EAM Jaishankar recalls when he got a call from PM Modi at midnight

When 'Jai Shri Ram' becomes provocative

Several Afghans on Germany's evacuation list have died

13th batch of medical assistance to Afghanistan delivered by India

Afghanistan clash leaves 22 dead; 18 among them were Taliban rebels

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Kabul, July 22: At least 22 persons were killed in a clash in Afghanistan's Kunduz province on Friday.

"Eighteen Taliban rebels were killed as security forces attacked Qala-e-Zal district," Xinhua news agency quoted an army official as saying.

The remaining victims were four security personnel, while six others were injured.

IANS
Video: Why Chinas former president was escorted out from stage

Uyghur Muslims joining IS: China's state media rubbishes US report

International

oi-PTI

Beijing, July 22: The Chinese official media on Friday (July 22) dismissed as "groundless" a US think tank report that claimed China's policies in the northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have driven local Muslims to join the Islamic State (IS).

The Washington DC-based New America Foundation on Wednesday released a report based on leaked registration documents of ISIS fighters provided by a defector from the jihadist organisation, which include 3,500 foreign recruits, among whom 114 came from Muslim-majority Xinjiang province.

The report said Xinjiang has become one of the main sources of IS fighters due to "significant economic disparities between the ethnic-majority Han Chinese" and the local Uyghur Muslim population, who are "subjected to substantial state repression through restrictions on Islamic practices like growing beards or wearing head coverings."

A report in state-run Global Times quoted Pan Zhiping, a research fellow at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, as saying that the report is groundless and illogical since the Chinese government never interferes in normal religious activities in Xinjiang, and both the Han people and Uyghurs enjoy holidays during Ramadan.

Pan said many ISIS fighters were found to have come from Western countries, including the US, the UK and France.

Does it mean "they (the fighters) join the ISIS because of their governments' repression?" Pan asked.

According to the report, 37 fighters were from France, 53 from the UK, 24 from Germany, nine from the US and 194 from Russia.

Li Wei, an expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that people coming to Iraq or Syria to join the ISIS has become a global issue.

The UN has urged all countries to intensify efforts to stem the flow of foreigners looking to fight for ISIS and to prevent and suppress sources of funds for terrorism.

The US's excessive international military intervention is the main reason for the IS's rise, Li said, adding that the US has become a troublemaker rather than a global defender of peace and stability, as it has been inciting disputes in the South China Sea instead of fighting terrorism in the Middle East.

PTI
Fact Check: Did Trump thank Musk for welcoming him back to Twitter

Donald Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka bats for him at convention, calls him "people's nominee"

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Cleveland, July 22: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka Trump took to the stage and said that her father is the "People's nominee" at the Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC) where Donald Trump will accept the Republican nomination. [Trump accepts nomination]

US presidential election 2016 primary results

Ivanka said her father has always fought for country and recognises talent. [Trump vows to "put America first"]

"My father is colour blind and gender neutral. One of the reasons why he is a successful entrepreneur is because he listens to everyone. My father turns vision into reality," she added. [After Melania, Trump's children vouch for him at Republican Convention]

Ivanka, who is expected to introduce her father for speech, said Donald Trump would improve labour laws and childcare. [Ted Cruz booed for not endorsing Trump]

"He would fight for equal pay and I would fight with him," she said.

This week's Republican National Convention has seen drama ranging from the plagiarised speech his wife delivered and the way the campaign prolonged the episode to Ted Cruz's shocking address on Wednesday in which he refused to endorse Trump and encouraged Americans to vote their conscience, CNN reported.

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump's former rival, was booed off the Republican top stage on Wednesday night after he withheld his endorsement of the New York billionaire as the nominee.

"Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution," Ted Cruz said at the party's convention, instead of urging Republicans to rally behind Trump.

The language, which echoed statements from the 'Never Trump' movement, triggered boos and chants of "Trump! Trump!" from the audience.

Cruz left the stage putting on a brave face, wrapping up his remarks and thanking the audience while Trump entered the venue and gave his formal rival a thumbs-up, sarcastically venting his anger.

On the final day of Cruz's campaign in May, he charged Trump with being "a pathological liar", "a narcissist" and "utterly immoral", the Guardian reported.

So far the RNC has been all about heated attacks on Hillary Clinton. Trump has yet to show how he can appeal to the broader general election audience, particularly women, by proving that he would be a reliable president.

IANS
Fact Check: Did Trump thank Musk for welcoming him back to Twitter

Go 'Trump yourself': Clinton camp launches 'Donald insult app'

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Jul 22: If you want to get insulted by Donald Trump, here's your chance with rival Hillary Clinton's campaign launching a 'Trump Yourself' app that superimposes his "memorable quotes" onto your Facebook profile picture.

The Trump-Clinton rivalry reached new levels as the former secretary of state launched a 'Trump Yourself' app on her website on the same day the billionaire business tycoon accepted the Republican party's presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

"Introducing #TrumpYourself: Discover what real Donald Trump thinks about people like you," posted Clinton on her Twitter account, encouraging people to visit the new app.

The app grabs shared photos from your Facebook and superimposes Trump quotes and photos, the Boston Globe reported. For example, a woman might get the words 'Fat pig!' (what Trump called American actress Rosie O'Donnell in the past) overlayed on her photo, whereas others might see Trump's 'Loser!' or 'Goofy' placed on theirs.

The 'Trump Yourself' app lets you plug in a profile picture and "discover what @realDonaldTrump thinks about you." It's hosted through Clinton's website and is available to use with a donation to her campaign.

"Now we know what Trump really thinks about us," Clinton tweeted after the app was released. "Sad!"

PTI
There is no 'one-size-fits-all' to curb poverty

4 held in Assam for suspected links with Bangladesh's terror outfit

Thief calls cops for help after being caught by mob

Cyclone Sitrang heading towards Bangladesh; Heavy rains likely to pound West Bengal, Odisha and NE

India, Bangladesh inaugurate upgraded check post

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Dhaka/New Delhi, July 21: In a bid to facilitate increased cross-border trade, Bangladesh and India on Thursday inaugurated the newly constructed modern Integrated Check Post at the Benapole-Petrapole point on the India-Bangladesh border.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the facility through video conferencing. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also took part through video call.

"Economic development and connectivity are very closely linked to each other," PMO India tweeted. It also thanked Banerjee for helping improve the relation between the two neighbours.

I thank @MamataOfficial ji for joining the programme today & appreciate her role in improving India-Bangladesh ties: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 21, 2016

After the Integrated Check Post along the Akhaura-Agartala point on the India-Bangladesh border, this is the second multi-purpose Integrated Check Post between the two countries.

The Akhaura-Agartala check post was opened in November 2013.

"Petrapole-Benapole is a key land border crossing for India-Bangladesh trade. Over 50% of India-Bangladesh trade passes through Petrapole," PMO India tweeted.

"The check post will boost trade between India and Bangladesh and make available various facilities for passengers and traders," said an official of the foreign ministry.

The check post will have customs and immigration facilities, weigh bridges, security and scanning equipment, currency exchange booths, internet facility, cargo inspection sheds, warehouse and cold storage.

Other facilities include banks, scanners, closed circuit televisions, cafeteria and hotels.

"Petrapole ICP (Integrated Check Post) will serve to foster more economic integration and connectivity between India & Bangladesh," PMO India said.

Trade through the Benapole (On the Bangladesh side) -Petrapole (on Indian side) point amounts to more than Taka 20,000 crore ($2.5 billion) a year.

Modi backs Bangladesh in fight against terror

Modi extended his deepest condolences on the recent terror attacks in Bangladesh and said India is with its neighbouring country in "these trying times".

On July 1 at an upscale cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic Gulshan enclave seven young terrorists killed 20 hostages, including 18 foreigners.

Another terror attack, on July 7, at the country's largest Eid congregation in Sholakia, Kishoreganj, claimed the lives of four people, including two policemen.

IANS
Woman arrested in connection with Dhaka cafe attack

International

oi-Vicky

Dhaka, July 22: A woman has been arrested in Bangladesh after her involvement in the Dhaka cafe attack was suspected. The lady, Ruma Akthar is said to have been picked up for questioning, but police officials in Dhaka have denied any such development.

The police want to be absolutely sure about any involvement before making the detention or arrest public. 22 people were killed in Dhaka after terrorists of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh struck at a cafe earlier this month.

Dhaka attack: Emir of JMB South Muhammad Tanvir arrested in Bangladesh

The hunt for a lady suspect was on after CCTV footage suggested the involvement of a woman in the attack. The CCTV footage of the Dhaka attack which was released by the police shows a lady in traditional attire and a bag slung on her shoulder near the cafe.

There was no trace of the lady later and this led the investigators to get suspicious about the involvement of a woman. Ruma Akthar who is suspected to be the lady in the CCTV footage was picked up by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

According to the local media, Biju Mia, father of Ruma Akhtar, said that detectives took her away from their house saying she was a suspect in the July 1 attack. "We have heard about the detention of one Ruma from (residents)," a local police official said.

OneIndia News
Man booked for tweets against Maha CM; has a history of such posts against leaders

Case filed against filmmaker Kamal Kishor Mishra for hitting wife with his car | VIDEO

Fire breaks out in BEST AC bus, no passenger hurt | VIDEO

Youth associated with Zakir Naik's foundation arrested

Mumbai

oi-PTI

Mumbai, July 22: A joint team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala Police on Thursday arrested a youth allegedly associated with controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's foundation in connection with a case registered in Kochi.

A senior police official said Arshid Qureshi, who was associated with IRF Foundation of Zakir Naik, was nabbed from Navi Mumbai.

A case under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between groups) as well as under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was registered in Kochi.

He was produced before the Belapur court in Navi Mumbai which granted Kerala Police his transit remand till July 25. Kerala Police will now produce him in a court in Kochi.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2016, 9:42 [IST]
No demolition of Adarsh building for now, says SC

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, July 22: The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Adarsh Society building will not be demolished for now. It also directed the Defence Ministry to fully secure the building until the appeals are fully decided.

The Supreme Court is hearing an appeal filed by the residents of the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society, a 31-storey high rise in Colaba Mumbai.

The appeal was filed after the Bombay High Court directed the demolition of the building. The society has been mired in controversy after reports had emerged that the society had been promoted by politicians, bureaucrats and ministers. The society was specifically earmarked as a housing project for the Kargil war widows.

The Bombay High Court in its order passed in April this year, ordered the demolition of the building. The court had directed the Centre to consider initiating criminal proceedings against those involved. The court had however granted a 12-week stay on the demolition.

The residents said that they had committed no wrong. The land was allotted by the Maharashtra government, and the MMRDA gave the permission to construct this building. The MMRDA even filed an affidavit that there has been no unauthorised construction in this case.

The affidavit was part of this hearing as well. "We were even given occupancy certificates in 2010," the residents stated in their petition.

OneIndia News
Explained: Why has a public health emergency been declared in Puducherry's Karaikal

Sivaji Ganesan remembered in Puducherry

Puducherry

oi-PTI

Puducherry, July 21: Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today paid homage at the statue of the veteran stage and film actor Sivaji Ganesan on his 15th death anniversary.

Ministers, legislators and Deputy Speaker V P Sivakolundhu were among those who paid floral tributes at the statue of the iconic figure of Tamil cinema. Delegates of different outfits and functionaries of various associations also paid homage at the statue.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2016, 10:07 [IST]
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A Strong Q2 Rounds out a First Half of Growth for NetEnt

Published July 22, 2016 by Lee R

Figures are up all around for NetEnt.

With Q2 now in the books, President and CEO Per Eriksson is roundly encouraged by NetEnts growth through the first full half year.

More Growth on Tap

Eriksson indicated that the company remains on track for further growth in the second half of this year, looking to add to the year-on-year increases in revenue and operating profit it showed through June 30th.

H1 Revenue Growth

H1 revenues for the year totaled SEK697.4 million (73.7 million/$82.1 million), jumping 31.7% on from last years total of SEK529.5 million.

Growth Breakdown

Operating profits also jumped, showing increases of 43.6% year-on-year to SEK250.5 million. Operating margin jumped to 35.9%.

Profit after tax totals climbed 46.3% to SEK235.2 million, with earnings per share post dilution increasing from SEK0.67 to SEK0.98.

Q2 Boosts

NetEnts momentum actually looks to be picking up now, with the second quarter largely responsible for the growth, most of all through the 29.8% year-on-year increase recorded by NetEnt of SEK352.1 million in Q2, with operating profit up 32.1% to SEK122.4 million, profit after tax up to SEK113.5 million, and earnings per share at SEK0.47.

Strong Demand Apparent

Eriksson emphasized that the increases in revenues 30% and operating profit 32% for Q2 reflected strong demand for our products and strong growth

The Q2 growth was further reflected in the fact that the number of gaming transactions in our systems amounted to a full 8.8 billion in the second quarter, for a year on year jump of 36% compared to last year, and an operating margin of 34.8% improvement in the second quarter.

New Agreement Drivers

Q2 growth was driven by 12 new customer agreements, including with a supplier agreement with UK gaming operator Rank Group to deliver online casino games to Rank casino brands Grosvenor and Mecca.

Hitting US Soil

Important foundational developments taking place in H1 included the company providing online and mobile casino games to Amaya Gamings PokerStars brand serving New Jersey, in a conditioning process which not only set the stage for Q2 growth but further expansion in the US when other states regulate.

Outlook

So far, Eriksons company looks to be adapting to the diverse iGaming market effectively.
The media works with organisations and they together form civil society. Further, reality is often mediated through the media. It is only based on the information provided by the media; people make a choice. If people do not get enough information, their choice will not be an informed one. So the rights of journalists are important to fearlessly report events of diverse nature. For instance, hundreds of journalists have been reported missing and have been killed globally. With the poverty, unemployment and terrorism to establish a social system, journalists are under tremendous pressure. By and large, media has been playing a responsible role.

Media should highlight efforts towards freedom, and development and downplay events that escalate conflict. One may call this advocacy journalism. But that is how journalism has to function in a situation. The anti-media group always accusations of independent journalists being not responsible, and the accusations of journalists siding with the one side would cease if journalists pay more attention towards peace building rather than sensational conflicts, speaking to this scribe, Dr. I Arul Aram, said. We are passing through an important phase. Only development can bring forth an egalitarian society, empower citizens to practise democracy and help integrate into the mainstream. The problems cannot be big if there is a will to solve them. There is an overwhelming public support for democracy and development.

Civil society must continue to pressure the society to start negotiations, Dr. Arul further argued. Dr. Arul has authored the book 'Television in Education' (Orient Longman 1993) and has edited a book on e-governance (AMIC 2002). Globally, the system did not allow scope to address the problems arising out of issues of identity and cultural rights. The development movement through media that believes to uplift the poor.

Democracy is certainly an achievement but people need to be empowered to take advantage of the democratic polity. This is a slow process. Democracy will throw up journalist with more representative character. A negotiation depends on a give and take. Or else, the options are (i) rapid development.

He moderates a vibrant e-group mostly of youngsters, the Indian Online Media Forum further said, "In a developing country, the government has a large share in development. But the government should be committed and be devoid of corruption. Also, tendency of governance to centralize and the lack of focus on development are sustaining conflict. Given the topography, we have to depend on local governments for effective governance. On the other hand, journalist could take up business and economic interest. They could also promote cultural exchanges and educational programmes between the countries to strengthen relationship and promote prosperity. So can they focus more on the social-service sector. "We should not fail to see factors underlying the conflict. Media should try to understand what are the faults in the society? This is easy said than done. We should not waste time in reaching across to poor people living in abject poverty," he said.
Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website

Researchers who have investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for 30 or more years have concluded that he was murdered by a conspiracy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the Secret Service. See for example, JFK And The Unspeakable by James W. Douglass. Shortly before he was murdered, President John F. Kennedy gave an extraordinary speech at American University. In the speech he came out against continuation of the Cold War that risked all life on earth for the benefit of the profits of the military-security complex and the budgets and power of the Pentagon and CIA.

President Kennedy was already marked for assassination. He rejected the Joint Chiefs' belligerence toward the Soviet Union and their belief that nuclear war could be won. He rejected Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lemnitzer's "Operation Northwoods," a plan to carry out false flag terror attacks on Americans and blame Castro in order to create support for a US invasion of Cuba. He rejected US Air Force support for the CIA's Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

He worked outside of channels with Khrushchev to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. The paranoid anti-communists who controlled US military and security forces concluded that President Kennedy did not serve their career interests and was soft on communism and thereby unable to stand up to the Soviet Union. They viewed Kennedy as a threat to US national security that needed to be removed.

A new peace movement, NoWar2016 has utilized part of President Kennedy's speech to build interest in its September 23-25 conference at American University. David Swanson points out the difference between President Kennedy's approach to the Soviet Union and Washington's approach to Russia today. There was hope in Kennedy's approach. There is no hope in the approach today.

Listen to Kennedy's speech and despair that such brilliant and fearless leadership was snuffed out by the military-security complex.

Like almost all Americans at the time, Senator John F. Kennedy regarded the Soviet Union as a threatening adversary. He campaigned for the presidency on "the missile gap," the presumption of which was that the Soviets were gaining military supremacy over the US. But once in the Oval Office, Kennedy witnessed the extreme risks that US military leadership was willing to impose on American lives in behalf of a war than no one needed. He realized that the US military-security complex was as great a threat to life as the Soviets. He understood that tensions between the two nuclear powers had to be defused, not increased.

Once reelected, he intended to cease the US intervention in Vietnam and to discipline the CIA. Kennedy's approach was not acceptable to the military-security complex, and he was eliminated.
If you just beamed onto planet earth, you probably were shocked to learn that New Yorker Donald Trump, a celebrity entrepreneur, is the Republican presidential nominee. Here's what you need to know about him.

Trump is an ultra-nationalist. To a degree not seen since GOP candidate Barry Goldwater, Trump touts nationalism. One of his campaign themes is "America First," last used by isolationists in the run-up to WWII.

Trump's nationalism has five parts. First, he lauds the military and claims Obama has weakened it -- he hasn't; Trump plans to spend an unspecified amount to strengthen it. Second, Trump claims that Obama and Hillary Clinton have humiliated America -- he touts Benghazi as one example of this. Third, Trump preaches a form of economic isolationism, where the US would leave trade partnerships such as NAFTA, and impose tariffs on goods made in China and Mexico. (Trump has also mused about leaving defense partnerships, such as NATO.)

Fourth, Trump is against immigration. He plans "to build a great, great wall on our southern border" and "have Mexico pay for the wall." Further, Trump has called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Fifth, coupled with his anti-immigration stance, Trump has flirted with overt racism. He's routinely re-tweeted tweets of white supremacists and suggested that President Obama has Muslim sympathies.

Another of Trump's campaign themes is "Law and Order;" resurrected from Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. Trump acknowledged this connection: "I think what Nixon understood is that when the world is falling apart, people want a strong leader whose highest priority is protecting America first. The '60s were bad, really bad. And it's really bad now. Americans feel like it's chaos again." "I am the Law and Order candidate."

Trump is an independent running as a Republican. For the GOP, Trump is the ultimate alien invader. As recently as 2009,Trump was a Democrat. In 2012 he reregistered as a Republican and, beginning in 2015, managed to convince GOP primary voters that he was one of them. Trump accomplished this by campaigning as the ultimate outsider, promising to self-finance his campaign -- a promise that he dropped, once he secured the GOP nomination. Trump has tacitly accepted the social conservative bias of the Republican base -- he was once pro-choice but now, like most Republicans, is pro-life.

Trump has adopted many mainstream GOP policies. He promises to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a "marketplace alternative." He also promises to cut taxes, reduce the Federal deficit, and protect Social Security. (These claims are contradictory.) He promises to "renegotiate" the Iran agreement signed with China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States -- even though this would require agreement with our allies.

Nonetheless, Trump has not secured the endorsement of many prominent Republicans such as Senator Ted Cruz, Governor John Kasich, and the Bush family.

Trump is a loose cannon. Writing in the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik proclaimed: "Trump is unstable, a liar, narcissistic, contemptuous of the basic norms of political life, and deeply embedded among the most paranoid and irrational of conspiracy theorists."

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By Stephen P. Pizzo

Liberals and progressives have been basking this week in a false sense of schadenfreude as they revel over the missteps and outright insanity of Trump's convention.

This is a huge mistake.

What we saw at the GOP convention was nothing less than confirmation that the old GOP is dead and has been replaced by something all too familiar; fascist populism.

No, I am not exaggerating. Not even a bit. Stop giggling long enough to let this sink in; we had calls from the podium, by speakers approved by Trump's campaign handlers and Trump himself, who called for the killing of Hillary Clinton, that she should be "hung from a tree," or "shot for treason."

Just stop there and roll that one around in your head for a bit. When was the last time you heard anyone, at any national convention, propose execution for an opponent? There are places where this has happened: Germany in the 30s, and more recently, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Urkraine and Russia.

But not here. Not ever, until Trump and his growing Brownshirt-like followers rose from the ash pit of history.

But wait, there's more evidence for my claim the fascists have arrived in America:

When was the last time you saw an unstable, bellicose nobody take over a leading national political party and movement? That would Germany in the 30s.

When was the last time you saw a national candidate for the top job in the land, propose keeping track of a religious minority? That would again be Germany three quarters of a century ago.

When was the last time you heard a national candidate proposed something akin to ethnic cleansing, in this case the deportation of 12 million ethnically related people, people accused without evidence or trail, of being "criminals" and "rapists" by nature: Same terrifying answer.

When was the last time you saw a political party that encouraged their followers to, not only arm themselves against their own police and government, but to open carry those arms, a warning to anyone not to cross them? (That would be the racist Southern confederates, who cost millions of innocent lives just to protect slavery, and later Jim Crow apartheid)

What kind of leader bans media that refuse to toe their movement's party line?(History is lousy with them. But today, look no further to the neo-fascist leaders of Turkey and Egypt and Russia.)

What kind of leader lies as reflex and, when presented with evidence of those lies, denounces the messenger and then simply goes on repeating the same lies? (Every fascist leader who ever lived, that's what kind. Lies are the stigmata of the alpha fascist.)

I won't tire you with more, and there is more, lots more. But to get back to what I said up top, it's not funny. It's no joke. And, as amusing as much of the antics this week in Cleveland might be, progressives will not have the last laugh. Because Trump and a decrepit GOP have uncorked a bottle that cannot be closed again soon. They freed it -- Fascism. It's always been among us but, until now social convention and the atmospheric pressures of majority public opinion have kept our fascists where they belong"squirming around at the bottom of the national barrel. But no more. They are now empowered, they have found their voice, they have found their fuhrer. They are no longer "alone." They have risen. And they are angry. And they are armed.

That's not hyperbole. They go back to the days of slavery, the days of the KKK and Joe McCarthy. Largely silent for decades, it took a combination of fiscal and demographic changes to energize, to make them break out of their fear-filled closets to declare; "We're here. We're very queer. Get used to it." They are precisely the folks Obama described as being so fearful of change they "cling to their guns and their bibles."

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Of course the United States has been waging one perpetual "war" after another since 1964. Johnson's war on poverty? Poverty is growing.2 Reagan's war on drugs? Drugs are gaining ground. 3 Bush's war on terror? Terror is proliferating.4 So when Trump and Clinton declare yet another war on a social/political/ ideological problem rather than a nation state, a perpetuity of loss is all but guaranteed.

What makes this latest declaration so absurd is that it was made in absence of virtually any pertinent information about the "enemy." It turns out that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was not a practicing jihadist, or even a practicing Muslim, but a violent, mentally ill, drug taking criminal engaged in male prostitution.5, 6 Since there is already a war on drugs, that leaves Trump and Clinton room for a war on violence, mental illness, or whoring.

Sure Bouhlel justified his rage through a last minute salute to ISIS, and ISIS was happy to claim him as one of their own -- never mind that they would have had to "crush him with a wall" for his dalliances with men -- but as president Lincoln once said, "Just because you call a sheep's tail a leg doesn't make it so." 7

The most frightening thing for citizens of an empire after experiencing an act of terror, is the empire's response to that act. Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-six people lost their lives on September eleventh two thousand and one. To date, over a million lives have been lost due to the U.S. response. 8 Trump and Clinton's war rhetoric may serve their present political needs, but at what cost for the rest of humanity?

Sources

1. Clinton, Trump Talk 'War' After Nice Attack: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-15/clinton-trump-talk-war-after-nice-attack

(Article changed on July 22, 2016 at 12:24)

(Article changed on July 22, 2016 at 12:30)
What are the global consequences of Donald Trump's rise to power, or for that matter, Hillary Clinton's? They were created as a result of the psychopathic leadership which came before them.



The U.S. is now the bully of the world. Instead of walking softly and carrying a big stick, the last 16 years -- in particular -- with mental defectives at the helm, have made America the most despised nation on the planet.



Our greed, aggressive violence and hypocrisy has spread hatred and radicalized every individual who has ever experienced, much less witnessed, our worldwide overthrow of democratically-elected governments; while installing mass-murdering [U.S. trained], bloodthirsty maniacs, and outrageously proclaiming the end result to be "democracy."



How many sane, fair-minded and rational people, feel the rage building inside, every time we see/hear our presidential stick figure(s) smile and wave, declaring another victory for "freedom" while leaving a trail of obliterated bodies and razed landscapes in their wake?





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Czech Republic Baby Food Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Baby Food in Czech Republic" to its huge collection of research reports.The market for baby food in the Czech Republic achieved value growth of 17.3% between 2009 and 2015. Sales rose particularly quickly in 2014 and 2015, stimulated by a higher numbers of births, an improving economy, and the reduction of the VAT rate on baby food to 10% in 2015. Consumers in the Czech Republic generally have a positive attitude to industrially prepared baby food, which has been capitalized on by the multinationals who now dominate the market. As a result, per capita consumption of baby food is relatively high and has continued to develop and by 2015 it had increased by 5.2%.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Key FindingsThe market for baby food in the Czech Republic has performed relatively well, and particularly over the last two years, boosted by higher birth numbers. Retail sales in 2015 are up 17.3% on 2009, equivalent to a real increase of 7.8%.Baby meals/juices accounted for 43% of retail sales in 2015, having overtaken milks as the largest spending category in 2014. However, milks are only slightly behind, accounting for 41% of retail sales.Supermarkets/hypermarkets now control the largest share of volume sales, at 69% in 2015, ahead of pharmacies and drugstores with 21%, while the share of other grocery outlets has now slipped to under 10%.The Czech market is dominated by three international companies: Danone (Nutricia), Hero, and Hipp. Together they accounted for 74% of volume sales and 79% of value sales in 2015.SynopsisBaby Food in Czech Republic is an analytical report by Canadean which provides extensive and highly detailed current and future market trends in the Czech Republic market.What else does this report offer?Consumption data based upon a unique combination of industry research, fieldwork, market sizing work and our in-house expertise to offer extensive data about the trends and dynamics affecting the industry.Detailed profile of the companies operating and new companies considering entry in the industry along with their key focus product sectors.Market profile of the various product sectors with the key features & developments, segmentation, per capita trends and the various manufacturers & brands.Overview of baby food retailing with a mention of the major retailers in the country along with the distribution channel.Future projections considering various trends which are likely to affect the industry.Reasons To BuyEvaluate important changes in consumer behavior and identify profitable markets and areas for product innovation.Analyse current and forecast behavior trends in each category to identify the best opportunities to exploit.Detailed understanding of consumption by individual product categories in order to align your sales and marketing efforts with the latest trends in the market.Investigates which categories are performing the best and how this is changing market dynamics.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 @
QYResesearch:Japan Ethiprole Industry Market Research Report 2016

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Report SummaryThe Japan Ethiprole Industry Market Research Report 2016 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Ethiprole industry.The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Ethiprole market analysis is provided for the Japan markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and Bill of Materials cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.The report focuses on Japan major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Ethiprole industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.Key Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry OverviewChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of EthiproleChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants AnalysisChapter Four Sales Analysis of Ethiprole by Regions, Product Type, and ApplicationsChapter Five Sales Revenue Analysis of Ethiprole by Regions,Product Type, and ApplicationsChapter Six Analysis of Ethiprole Production, Supply, Sales and Demand Market Status 2010-2016Chapter Seven Analysis of Ethiprole Industry Key ManufacturersChapter Eight Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of EthiproleChapter Ten Analysis of Ethiprole Production, Supply, Sales and Demand Development Forecast 2016-2020Chapter Eleven Industry Chain Suppliers of Ethiprole with Contact InformationChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of EthiproleChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Japan Ethiprole Industry Report 2016Related Reports:Global Industry Market Research Report 2016China Ethiprole Industry Market Research Report 2016Europe Ethiprole Industry Market Research Report 2016United States Ethiprole Industry Market Research Report 2016India Ethiprole Industry Market Research Report 2016Note:We also offerGermany/Korea/Australia/Brazil/Russia/India/Indonesia/ Malaysia/Saudi Arabia/Middle East/Europe/Asia/Asia-Pacific/Southeast Asia/North America/ Latin America/South America/AMER/EMEA/Africa etc Countries/Regions and Sales/Industry Versions RespectivelyWoul like to place an order or any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Contact : LemonEmail: lemon@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: 001-8883654458 or +86-20-8665 5165Web:About QYResearch LtdQYResearch Focus on Market Survey and ResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. the company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience). Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).If you neContact : LemonApt 1408 1785 Riverside Drive Ottawa, ON, K1G 3T7 CanadaEmail: lemon@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: 001-8883654458 or +86-20-8665 5165Web:
QYResearch: China Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016

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Report SummaryThe China Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Fireworks industry.The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Fireworks market analysis is provided for the China markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and Bill of Materials cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.The report focuses on China major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Fireworks industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:lemon@qyresearchglobal.com or lemon@qyresearch.comKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry OverviewChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of FireworksChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants AnalysisChapter Four Sales Analysis of Fireworks by Regions, Product Type, and ApplicationsChapter Five Sales Revenue Analysis of Fireworks by Regions,Product Type, and ApplicationsChapter Six Analysis of Fireworks Production, Supply, Sales and Demand Market Status 2010-2016Chapter Seven Analysis of Fireworks Industry Key ManufacturersChapter Eight Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of FireworksChapter Ten Analysis of Fireworks Production, Supply, Sales and Demand Development Forecast 2016-2020Chapter Eleven Industry Chain Suppliers of Fireworks with Contact InformationChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of FireworksChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the China Fireworks Industry Report 2016The players list (Partly, Players you are interested in can also be added)Standard (IN)Sri Kaliswari (IN)Ajanta (IN)Coronation (IN)Sony (IN)Diamond Sparkler (US)GROUPE F (FR)Panda (CN)Lidu (CN)Zhongzhou (CN)Liuyang (CN)Guandu (CN)Jeeton (CN)Qingtai (CN)Bull (CN)Hekou (CN)Dahu (CN)Dancing (CN)Shenma (CN)Jinsheng Group (CN)Sanlink Group (CN)Fuxiang (CN)Hefung (CN)Shenghong (CN)Shengding (CN)Meaning (CN)Juntai (CN)Shijihong (CN)Kim TAE (CN)Qianzi (CN)Huaguan (CN)Yongxing Daji (CN)Tianle (CN)Tailin (CN)Oriental Pearl (CN)Fly Eagle (CN)Tanghua (CN)Related Reports:Global Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016United States Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016Europe Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016Japan Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016India Fireworks Industry Market Research Report 2016Woul like to place an order or any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Contact : LemonEmail: lemon@qyresearchglobal.comMoblie No: 8613660469419Web:About QYResearch LtdQYResearch Focus on Market Survey and ResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. the company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience). Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).Contact : LemonApt 1408 1785 Riverside Drive Ottawa, ON, K1G 3T7 CanadaEmail: lemon@qyresearchglobal.comMoblie No: 8613660469419Web:
Global SSL And Fluorescent Lighting Market Forecast To Grow At CAGR of 15.02% Between 2016-2020

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About the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) and Fluorescent Lighting MarketAccess Report:The global SSL and fluorescent lighting market includes lighting applications for residential, commercial, outdoor, industrial, and architectural purposes. The commercial and residential segments are the major drivers of the market. Fluorescent lights are categorized into LFLs and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and SSLs are categorized into LEDs and organic LEDs (OLEDs).Technavios analysts forecast the global SSL and fluorescent lighting market to grow at a CAGR of 15.02% during the period 2016-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global SSL and fluorescent lighting market for 2016-2020. The market size is calculated on the basis of revenue generated from the sale of new and replacement SSL and fluorescent lights. The report does not include analysis of any other type of lighting system, such as high-intensity discharge lamps or incandescent bulbs. It also does not consider any other components of lighting such as control gears, ballasts, fixtures, and luminaires.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Solid-State Lighting (SSL) and Fluorescent Lighting 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.Get Sample Copy Of This Report:Key vendorsGE ElectricOSRAMPanasonicSchneider ElectricOther prominent vendorsAcuity BrandsAdvanced Lighting TechnologyBridgeluxCreeDialightEatonEmerson ElectricEverlight ElectronicsMLS ElectronicsToshiba Lighting and TechnologyToyoda GoseiMarket driverStrong government support in form of subsidiesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeAbsence of global LED standardizationFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEmergence of smart citiesFor 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?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Marketresearchreports.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
GPSengine partners up with Nyitech

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GPSengine a leading hosted platform service provider in GNSS, Telematics, IoT and Tracking announces that Nyitech is now an official Platform Connect partner. With support built into Platform Connect for Nyitech's tracking device range, customers have the opportunity to take advantage of these combined offerings to meet their enterprise fleet tracking solution needs. "The popular use of OBD in vehicles and the valuable data that can be obtained and streamed to our platform makes this alignment a real value add for organisations" said Stewart Campbell (GPSengine). Specialising in OBD devices for modern vehicles, Nyitech, based in ShenZhen, China, has tested their OBD devices on over 1500 vehicle types and continues to see growth in Asian, European, North and South American markets.About Platform ConnectPlatform Connect is a hosted platform service that receives, processes and stores information from GNSS, IoTs, devices, sensors, applications and third party services.About NyitechNyitech Co. Ltd. has a R&D team with over 10 years experience in vehicle electronics and communications. The OBD module developed by Nyitech, supports all series of Japanese vehicles in addition to traditional standard OBDII vehicles. (About GPSengineBased in Brisbane, Australia, GPSengine is a white label IoT platform provider, specialising in vehicle tracking. Recognised globally for innovation and quality, the GPSengine platform is the result of more than 10 years working in the telematics space. Since 2014 their primary focus has been the development and support of an easy-to-skin, customisable white label GPS tracking platform, as well as seamless integration of supporting hardware. This combination means GPSengine delivers a comprehensive M2M technology enabling companies to connect and monitor assets with confidence. (GPSenginePO Box 2454Fortitude Valley, QLD, 4006Australia+61 7 3106 3137info@gpsengine.net
Stretch and Shrink Film Market - Global Industry Analysis, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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Packaging is an important activity carried out for keeping the products safe. It enables easy transportation of products. Various types of packaging techniques are being developed globally as per product specifications. However, when it comes to securing the product from damage and improving its shelf life, the stretch and shrink films play an important role.Stretch films are highly stretchable plastic films that are wrapped around products. The elastic recovery keeps the product tightly bound. Stretch films are made up of polyethylene plastic. Stretch films are available in different ranges. Stretch films are applicable for all kinds of long distance shipping.Shrink films are clear polymer based films, which shrink when heated to conform to the shape of object they are wrapped around. Shrink films form a very tight seal important for safeguarding the product from pests, moisture, contaminants, dust, and insecticides. The shrink films are used on a large scale for food packaging. Stretch films are available in a variety of designs and widths, depending upon end use requirement.Stretch and Shrink Film Market: Drivers & RestraintsRise in developments in the food and beverage industries, especially in terms of packaging, are driving growth of the global stretch and shrink films market currently. The major aim of the suppliers, globally, is to supply and transport the products in the most efficient manner. Rise in industrial developments in developing countries indirectly affects the growth of the packaging industry. Concepts such as SEZ and Smart Factories demand the use of smart packaging systems for contaminants free packaging of finished products, thereby boosting the market growth.Get Free Sample Report Copy at :Increasing healthcare awareness among consumers and rise in environment concerns are making manufacturers more conscious about following proper packaging practices, especially in case of finished goods, thereby fueling growth of the stretch and shrink films market.However, sustainability of the market for stretch and shrink films majorly depends on the price and supply of raw materials, such as crude oil. The fluctuations in crude oil prices could render the value chain of stretch and shrink films. Presence of big and small packaging firms has created a highly competitive environment in the overall packaging market.Stretch and Shrink Film Market: Regional-OutlookThe global stretch and shrink film is segmented into seven key geographical regions, which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the stretch and shrink film market in the coming years. Increase in end use application of the stretch and shrink films in the region is expected to drive growth of the stretch and shrink film market in the region. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to be followed by Western Europe and North America, which are major contributors to the food and beverages industries as well as the consumer products. The Latin America and the Middle East and Africa markets are also expected to be major contributors to the growth of the overall stretch and shrink films market in the coming years. Increasing investments in the food and beverages industry in Latin America and emerging countries in the Middle East and Africa is the major factor anticipated to drive the market growth in these regions.Stretch and Shrink Film Market: Key playersSome of the key players in the global stretch and shrink film market are:Berry Plastics GroupBemis Company IncorporatedFuji Seal InternationalSigma Plastics GroupBollore GroupNovolexCoveris HoldingsParagon Films IncorporatedHood Packaging CorporationSIGNODE Industrial GroupAbout TMRTMR 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.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Takeaway Food Delivery Market: Focus On Online Channel (2014-19)

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Scope of the ReportThe Report titled Takeaway Food Delivery Market: Focus on Online Channel (2014-2019) provides an insight into takeaway Food Delivery market with a special focus on online takeaway food. The report also includes the market value, segmentation and also country-wise market analysis. It also discusses key growth drivers, challenges and upcoming trends of the market. Further, companies like Just Eat, GrubHub, Delivery Hero, and Takeaway.com are profiled in the report.Country CoverageThe UKSpainFranceItalyNetherlandsDenmarkNorwaySwitzerlandThe USCanadaBrazilCompany CoverageGruhHub Holdings Inc.Just Eat Plc.Delivery Hero and HungryhouseTakeaway.comFoodpanda & HelloFoodGet Sample Copy Of This Report:Executive SummaryTakeaway food delivery offers a convenient alternative, providing diners with a wide variety of options. Consumers have many choices for takeaway food, including online takeaway food aggregator portals, restaurant chains offering online ordering services, as well as local restaurants offering telephone-based and walk-in takeaway food services. Growth in takeaway food delivery market is outpacing global GDP growth with online ordering growing much faster, proliferated by the adoption of E-commerce and increased smartphones/tablet penetration.Consumers are shifting from traditional telephone based takeaway ordering to online platform as it offers wide variety of choices, ratings and reviews, including payment by credit or debit card, and a more efficient consumer experience. Companies that offer online food ordering services include Just Eat, GrubHub, Delivery Hero, Takeaway.com etc. Takeaway restaurants (TRs) sign contracts with these companies to join their platform and have their menus made accessible to consumers. These online companies primarily derive their revenue from commissions charged to TRs on order value placed through its platform.The US is the largest market for takeaway food delivery market followed by the UK, Italy, Spain, Canada, France, Brazil and others. The online food ordering industry saw a major consolidation with Delivery Hero acquiring Lieferheld of Germany and hungryhouse of the UK in 2012. In 2013, GrubHub merged with Seamless took making it the largest online takeaway food company. Drivers contributing to the growth include rising usage of internet, urbanization and demand from developing countries.Marketresearchreports.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
Laser Coders Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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Innovation in coding technology continues to become more computerized and integrated into the production line. Laser coding is mostly used to differentiate products and mark them accordingly. Laser coding functions by removal of surface coating from the packaging or product; this results in permanent changes in the surface of the product. Laser coding is a non-contact printing method and ensures quality marking. In laser technology, the galvanometer enables laser coding and making mark on moving or static products. Laser coding can be done on various materials such as glass, paper, foils, plastic, cardboard, coated metals, etc. Laser coding does not contain any inks or chemicals; it is cost-efficient and a low maintenance and eco-friendly method for marking the product. The laser coder software allows users to do barcoding, change and delete text easily, add graphics, etc. The substitutes for laser coders are continuous inkjets and thermal inkjets. In packaging, laser coding is usually used for marking serial or batch number, expiry dates, etc. Laser coding is done in the end after the production process. The laser coder is used for marking various materials in the packaging industry, such as paper, cardboard, and polymers.The major laser coding types are CO2 lasers, fiber lasers, and vanadate lasers. CO2 lasers include carbon dioxide gas mixture, and are mostly applied on non-metallic materials and on most plastics. They are suited for wood, glass, textiles, foils & films, stone, acrylic, paper, plastics and leather. Fiber lasers are solid state lasers; they are used for contrasting plastic marking and metal marking. They are suited for coated metals, metals, and plastics. Vanadate lasers (Crystal laser) can emit 3 different wavelengths and are suited for ceramics (to some extent), metals, plastics, and coated metals. Domino Laser GmbH is the largest international producer of laser coders; the company has presence in the U.S., Europe, North America, and China.Get Free Sample Report Copy at :The global laser coders market is segmented based on product type, application, and geography. By product type, the global laser coder market is segmented into CO2 lasers, fiber lasers, Nd:YAG flash lamp (solid state), Nd:YAG diode pumped, and vanadate lasers. By end user, the global laser coder market is segmented into food and beverages, cosmetics, personal and home care, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, tobacco, automotive and aerospace, building materials, chemicals, commercial printing and addressing, electrical components and electronics, and wire, cable and pipe.The growth opportunities for players in the laser coders market growth lie in bringing innovation in terms of the faster execution of coding and that too on a wider range of products, and in producing products that are cost effective and occupy less space. There is an increasing need for high quality marking with improved traceability being witnessed across the globe, which in turn is expected to drive growth of the laser coder market over the forecast period. However, advances in coding and marking applications are still limited and the capital cost incurred on the same is high, in turn acting as restraints for the market growth. Consumables and maintenance costs are low in case of laser coders, which are among the major factors expected to further drive growth of the laser coder market over the forecast period. Meanwhile, the FDA is increasingly demanding permanent identifying mark solutions from the manufacturers in view of improving the product traceability, thereby creating further growth opportunity for the players operating in the market.By geography, the global laser coder market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. There have been significant new developments being witnessed in the global laser coders market over the last few years in view of the increasing demand for high speed and reliability. Currently, China dominates the global laser coders market due to the presence of an innovative, cost efficient, environment friendly, and high efficient supply chain in the country. Most of the key market players are based out of China. The laser coder market in North America and Europe is also expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period due to increasing demand for laser coders in packaging industries in these regions.Some of the key players in the global laser coding market are Domino Printing Sciences PLC, Linx Printing Technologies, Telesis Technologies, Inc, Matthews Marking Systems, MACSA ID S.A., Markem-Imaje - a Dover Company, Videojet Technologies, Inc., Trotec Laser, Inc., and Liquid Packaging Solutions, Inc.About TMRTMR 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.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Highly Visible Packaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=9326

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Packaging is one of the fastest growing industries that is in continuously changing according to demand from end users and consumers. Packaging not only represents the indent of a brand or company, but doubles as a means of offering consumers information and messages regarding various aspects of a product or brand. Highly visible packaging allows a company to differentiate its products from that of competitors in the market, and also helps to increase visibility owing to features such as attractiveness etc.In the food industry, packaging is required to carry information pertaining to health benefits and ingredients used, method of preparation in order to reinforce the hygiene aspect, besides displaying details such as manufacturing date, shelf-life period etc. These details serve to reinforce purchase decision, and is also supported by offering food products in highly visible packaging, thus enabling contents of the package to be seen before a purchase is made. The reason highly visible packaging is gaining popularity worldwide, is because it allows easy authentication of particular brands and product differentiation. In addition, ability to be produced with certain durable properties such as tamper-proof and highly protective covering makes it a lucrative option for product manufacturers, and indirectly for consumers.Packaging considered as highly visible include blister packaging, skin packaging, clamshell packaging, windowed packaging, shrink wrap packaging, plastic container packaging, glass container, and others.Get Free Sample Report Copy at :The advantages offered by highly visible packaging are the main factors fueling demand for such products. This packaging enables efficient preservation and protection of products, besides offering convenience to customers to be able to make a purchase decision on the basis of what they see. This way, it not only helps customers in being selective, but also enables food production companies to maintain the competitive edge in the market. Conveying the proper information about products and legitimately communicating the brand image are some of the other main features that differentiate highly visible packaging from other types of packaging. These advantageous properties are the main factors expected to fuel growth of the highly visible packaging market in the near future.Innovation in highly visible packaging technology and growing awareness among end-users are factors also significantly driving market growth and this market is expected to account for substantially high revenue growth over the forecast period.However, relatively high capital expenditure of this type of packaging technology currently is resulting in hesitation among manufacturers to invest in setting up this technology. This factor is expected to act as a restraint for growth of the highly visible packaging market over the forecast period.The global highly visible packaging market is segmented on the basis of types and regions. The product type segment is categorized into blister packaging, clamshell packaging, skin packaging, windowed packaging, shrink wrap packaging, plastic container packaging, glass container packaging, and others.Geographically, the global highly visible packaging market is segmented into seven main regions namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa, and Japan. Due to higher consumer awareness, North America is expected to hold largest market share in the global highly visible packaging market, followed by Europe gaining market share by the end of 2016. Asia Pacific region is expected to witness maximum growth in consumption of highly visible packaging during the forecast period, on account of rising awareness, increasing consumption of consumer products, and increasing population.Some key players in the global highly visible packaging market are Amcor, Bemis, MeadWestvaco, Sonoco Products, Mondi Group, Reynolds Group Holdings Limited, Rohrer Corporation, Bayer AG, Anchor Packaging, Imex Packaging, and others.About TMRTMR 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.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Nanoparticles Transforming Future of Novel Drug Delivery Systems in Cancer Therapy Market, says TMR

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=3590

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ndds-in-cancer-therapy-market.html

Novel drug delivery systems (NDDS) in cancer therapy comprises technologies such as liquid embolics, nanoparticles, and embolization devices that offer unique ways to cure cancer. In recent years, there has been increasing incidence of various types of cancer across the globe. Technological advances have led to the growth of new therapies. There have also been many developments in drug delivery systems due to the increasing government funding. All these factors have led to the growth of the global novel drug delivery systems (NDDS) in cancer therapy market.Get Free Sample Report Of This Research:According to the publication, the global NDDS in cancer therapy market is expected to exhibit a whopping 23.70% CAGR from 2014 to 2020. However, strict government regulations and the high cost of new products can hamper the growth of the global market.The reports authors have segmented the global NDDS in cancer therapy market on the basis of technology and region. Based on technology, the global NDDS in cancer therapy market is classified into embolization particles, liquid embolics, and nanoparticles. In 2013, the nanoparticles drug delivery systems segment stood at US$3,307.7 mn and is projected to exhibit a 24.70% CAGR from 2014 to 2020. Nanoparticles such as Megace ES (megestrol acetate) Abraxane (paclitaxel) DepoCyt (liposomal cytarabine), DaunoXome (daunorubicin citrate), Myocet (doxorubicin), and Doxil (doxorubicin) are approved as novel drug delivery systems in cancer therapy. The liquid embolics segment is predicted to record a steady 4.90% CAGR from 2014 to 2020.Based on region, the global NDDS in cancer therapy market is divided into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Rest of the World. In 2013, North America accounted for a massive 46.6% of the global NDDS in cancer therapy market. The increasing number of cancer patients, advanced healthcare infrastructure, and favorable reimbursement policies are the factors that can be held responsible for the growth of the North America NDDS in cancer therapy market. In 2013, Europe held a share of 29.2% in the global NDDS in cancer therapy market. Technical advancements in the development of innovative products and the increasing number of pipeline products are projected to benefit the Europe NDDS in cancer therapy market. The Asia Pacific NDDS in cancer therapy market is projected to expand at a 22.60% CAGR from 2014 to 2020, propelled by the development of economies such as India, China, Japan, and Australia.Advanced Medical Isotope Corporation, Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG, Bind Therapeutics, Polysciences, Inc., Nanobiotix, CeloNova BioSciences, Inc., Covidien, plc, EmboMedics, Inc., Cook Medical, Inc., and Mo-Sci Corporation are some of the prominent companies operating in the global NDDS in cancer therapy market.Browse Full Report@About Us:-Transparency Market Research 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.Contact Us:-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Optimum maintenance thanks to a comprehensive software solution

consistent software solution zedasasset

www.zedas.com

http://railfreightsoftware.zedas.com/

With zedasasset, all procedures involved in the technical asset management process can be provided with EDP support. This ranges from the recording of the condition data directly from the vehicle or the system, the quantitative recording and qualitative defect assessment, the planning and implementation of measures within the framework of technical repairs, through to feedback. The data are available for the entire maintenance and decision-making process, without any additional entries having to be carried out.Besides the consistency of the solution, the analysis, documentation and prognosis are particular performance characteristics. The condition data derived from systems and vehicles in operation are used to determine critical conditions. This makes it possible to derive maintenance data, for example, for steering deadlines. Via the complete recording of component replacements, what used up time and materials, as well as condition information from systems or vehicles, a comprehensive system and vehicle history is created, which involves the required ECM-conforming workshop documentation being illustrated for the area of rail vehicles. History and current data when combined allow the vehicles future condition to be derived, and so make a condition-oriented maintenance possible.Come and see for yourself the consistency of the software solution and find out how you can optimise your maintenance with zedasasset at stand B/201 in the City Cube at InnoTrans 2016.ZEDAS GmbH develops software products for the logistics management of rail transport and for the asset management of vehicle fleets and technical asset management. Standard software products are zedascargo and zedasasset. The introduction and implementation of software developed in-house are our key services. We provide a 24 hour service with our solutions. ZEDAS customers are rail and transport companies and industrial companies. They include the freight transport, mining, oil, gas, chemistry, production engineering and renewable energy sectors.Ulrike GollaschMarketingZEDAS GmbHA.-Hennecke-Str. 3701968 SenftenbergGermanyTel.: +49 (3573) 7075-18E-Mail: ugollasch@zedas.com
Worldwide Image Recognition Market : Information, Figures and Analytical Insights 2020, PMR report

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3210

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3210

Image recognition is a technique for acquiring, processing, scrutinize, and sympathizing images. It gathers high-dimensional data from the real world in order to generate numerical or symbolic information. Image recognition uses disentangling of representational information from image data using replica created with the help of geometry, physics, statistics, and learning theory.Image recognition (biometric-based recognition) technique has emerged as the most promising alternative of card based recognition for identifying individuals in recent past. Image recognition is used for verification (one to one matching) and identification (one to many matching) of individuals.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :Image recognition technologies include identification based on physiological distinctiveness of the people such as facial patterns recognition, fingerprints recognition, hand geometry recognition, hand veins pattern recognition, finger geometry recognition, palm recognition, iris recognition, retina recognition, and voice recognition. Image recognition also identify the behavioral uniqueness of the individuals such as gait, signature and keystroke dynamics.The recognition based on passwords and PINs are trailing in popularity mainly due to the fact that they are hard to remember and cannot be stolen, duplicated by the intruders. Moreover the risk associated with misplacing of cards, tokens, keys and the like is also lend a hand in wide acceptance of image recognition as an alternative of traditional access control systems.On the basis of technology the global image recognition market can be broadly categories in five different market variants namely, optical character recognition (Ocr), pattern and gradient matching, object recognition, barcode/Qr code recognition and facial recognition.On the basis of the different component use in the image recognition equipment the overall market can be broadly categorized in three segments namely, hardware, software, and services.Based on the end user application the image recognition market can be further categories in eight different classes namely, government and defense, banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing or industrial, consumer goods and retail, information technology and telecommunications, transport and logistics and others.The growing use of face recognition technology in smart phones, tablets and personal computer owing to the advancement in size and accuracy is propelling the market for face recognition technology. Moreover increasing governmental budget towards homeland security and defense is further driving the market in developing countries such as India, China, and Russia. Increasing use of facial recognition access system over card based access system in industries and residence is providing new market opportunities for the facial recognition technology.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:North America is the largest market for facial recognition in the world. It is then followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The U.S. is the largest market for facial recognition in the North America. Chinese and Japanese are the major user of image recognition technology in Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is one of the rapid growing markets of image recognition where the market is growing in double digit. High threat prospective from terrorist attack couples with trend towards e-governance is contributing to the high growth rate in this region.Some of the major companies operating in global image recognition market include, Catchoom, Honeywell, LTU Technologies, Panasonic Corporation, Toshiba, Hitachi Ltd, Itraff Technology, NEC Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, and Wikitude GmbhAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Worldwide Dye Sensitized Cell Market : Facts, Figures and Analytical Insights 2015 to 2021, PMR Report

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3833

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3833

A dye sensitized cell, also known as dye sensitized solar cell, is a low-cost solar cell belonging to the group of thin film solar cells. A dye sensitized cell is based on a semiconductor formed between a photo-sensitized anode and an electrolyte, a photoelectrochemical system. Dye sensitized cells are usually used for converting sunlight into electrical energy across a wide intensity range by using a dye, which is absorbed in titanium oxide semiconductor. Dye sensitized cells are becoming increasingly popular as a renewable and cost-effective alternative to conventional solar cells. A dye sensitized cell has several attractive features such as semi-flexibility and semi-transparency, which offers a variety of uses, it is simple to make using conventional roll-printing techniques and majority of materials used are low cost . In the current scenario, dye sensitized cells are the most efficient third generation solar technology available. Dye sensitized cells can be a suitable option as a replacement for existing technologies in low density applications such as rooftop solar collectors, where the mechanical robustness and light weight of the glass result in a less collectors and act as an advantage for dye sensitized cell . However, the use of liquid electrolyte in dye sensitized cell design is a major drawback, as it has temperature stability problems. In the last 5-10 years, solid-state dye sensitized solar cells have been developed. In this case the liquid electrolyte is replaced by one of the several solid hole-conducting materials. During this period, the efficiency of solid state dye sensitized solar cell has increased from 4% to 15%.Based on application, the global dye sensitized cell market is segmented into six categories: building-integrated photovoltaics, indoor application, retail application, emergency power and military application, automotive, and others. Building-integrated photovoltaics are further sub-segmented into BIPV glass and solar roofs. Indoor application is further sub-segmented into three categories: solar chargers, wireless keyboards, and others. Retail application is further sub-segmented into three categories: indoor and outdoor advertising, point-of-purchase displays, and others.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :In terms of geography, North America dominates the global dye sensitized cell market followed by Europe. The U.S. represents the largest market for dye sensitized cell followed by Canada in North America. In Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. hold major share of the dye sensitized cell market. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness high growth rates in the next five years in the global dye sensitized market.Increasing number of retail store, high growth rate of the automotive industry and increasing disposable income are some of the major driving factors of the dye sensitized cell market. Increasing disposable income allows customers to spend more on products like wireless keyboards, which indirectly increase the demand for dye sensitized cell. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, annual per capita disposable income of urban households in China increased from USD 2,271.0 in 2008 to USD 3408.5 in 2012. The overall annual disposable income in India median household income increased from USD 1,366.2 billion in 2010 to USD 1,587.6 billion in 2013.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the major companies operating in the dye sensitized cell market are Dyesol, Ltd., Exeger Sweden AB, 3GSolar Photovoltaics, Ltd., Fujikura, Ltd., Oxford Photovoltaics, Ltd., Solarprint, Ltd., Sony Corporation, Sharp Corporation, Samsung, and Solaronix SA.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Worldwide Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Equipment Market : Analysis, Trends, Forecast 2015 to 2021, PMR report

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3890

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3890

Increasing levels of radiationarecausing harm to human health globally. According to the United States Environment Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), radioactive materials produce ionizing radiation on decaying, which can damage the living tissues in human body. The human body tries to repair the damage but sometimes in cases of high severity it fails to repair them which lead to disease such as cancer .The most common forms of ionizing radiation are alpha, beta, and gamma.Threat of nuclear disasters drives governments and companies prone to the threat of radiation to upgrade their radiation detection and monitoring devices. The nuclear disaster in the Fukushima plant in Japan in 2011 resulted in meltdown of three nuclear reactors, leading to the release of a substantial amount of radioactive materials.Thinking about report: Please observe the beneath the hyperlinks to satisfy your necessities; Request for the Report sample :The use of radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment minimize the effects of harmful radiations. Radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment includes radiation protection equipment and instruments. Based on application, the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market can be segmented into six major categories including nuclear power plants, defense and homeland security, occupational safety, oil and resource exploration,and manufacturing . Nuclear power plants also use radiation safety accessories including full body radiation protection andhand safety accessories.Based on composition, the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market can be segmented into gas filled detectors, scintillators,and semiconductor-based detectors. There are three types of gas-filled detectors, namely Geiger Mueller counters, proportional counters, and ionization counters. Scintillators can be segmented into two categories, namely inorganic scintillators and organic scintillators. Based on product, the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market can be segmented into five categories:personal dosimeters, area process monitors, environment radiation monitors, surface contamination monitors, and radioactive material monitors. Gas-filleddetectors and personal dosimeters dominate the global sales. Scintillators dominate the gas filled detectors market for defense and homeland security due to their ability to detect radiation at micro levels. Personal dosimeters include passive dosimeters and active dosimeters.Increase in the number of nuclear energy industries has been propelling growth of nuclear power plants globally. The use of radioactive compounds in several consumer productsis another source of radiation.Increasing nuclear threats in developed countries and growing concern of governments regarding internal security are propellinggrowth of the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market fordefenseand homeland security.Increasing use of radiation therapy and nuclear medicine in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases is one of the major market drivers. Medical detectors include CT X-ray detectors, PET, and SPECT detectors.North America dominated the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market in 2013 in terms of global sales, followed by Europe. North America is expected to continue with its dominance during the forecast period due to technological advancements andgovernment support to the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market .Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Major players in the radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market include Canberra Industries, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Landauer, Inc., Mirion Technologies, Inc., Bar-Ray Products, Inc., Biodex Medical Systems, Inc., Protech Radiation Safety, ProtecX and Amtek, Inc. Most of the major players in the global radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment market are U.S. based.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.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 Epilator Market 2016 Production, Price, Revenue, Supply, Capacity, Import, Export and Consumption 2025

http://goo.gl/GrZ1XJ

http://goo.gl/5iBKDa

A market study based on the "Epilator Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of QY Market research, is titled Global Epilator Market 2016. The research report analyzes the historical as well as present performance of the global Epilator market, and makes predictions on the future status of Epilator market on the basis of this analysis.The report studies the market for Epilator across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Epilator market & dynamics of demand and supply of Epilator into consideration.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :The 'Epilator'research study covers each and every aspect of the Epilator market globally, which starts from the definition of the Epilator market and develops towards Epilator market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Epilator market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Epilator market. The geographical segmentation of the Epilator market has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Epilator is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Epilator market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Epilator market worldwide.Read More Research with TOC :The global Epilator market 2016 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Epilator production volume, data regarding demand and Epilator 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 Epilator 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
Tips for Creating and Starting an Online Business by AbaxSoft Solution

www.abaxsoft.com

Within this article today on creating and starting an online business, we are going to look at different ways of creating an online business for you.There are many different online businesses that you can start but most of them come down to three broad categories which are: selling products or services to retail customers, selling on eBay, and business-to-business selling. When you are looking at creating and starting an online business, youll want to look at what your specialty is in creative business around one of these three broad categories.If you decide that you want to sell to retail customers, you will have to find a way to sell your products or services in a different manner than many of the other retail websites out there. If you decide that you want to sell on eBay, youll want to find a wholesale distributor of products where you can buy your products at a great discount. If you already work within the business-to-business forum, this will be an easy transition for you.By focusing your efforts on one of these three categories, youll know in which direction to start. If you decide to start with eBay, look for a wholesale distributor where you can buy your products of the great discount. This is most effective for many startups because you do not have to buy the products in you can worry about selling online to people who want your product.If you decide that you want to sell products or services to retail customers, try and find a niche that is undeserved by you and your Internet competitors right now.Finally, if you decide that you want to do business to business selling, figure out how you can provide benefit to the particular market that you want to go after. Many people work online as freelance writers and you are able to do this and potentially differ yourself from the competition if you market to one particular niche. Business-to-business selling is similar to the retail strategy in that you want to focus upon a niche and try and dominate that niche.AbaxSoft Solution is a Fastest Growing IT Company in India. We are Delivering Easier, Flexible, Customizable, Reliable and Economic Web solutions to meet all your corporate needs. For more info visit our siteor call @ + 91 731 4061787, 97139 18111Abaxsoft Solution501,Industry House;Old palasiaIndore (M.P)-452001+ 91 731 4061787, 97139 18111
Experience the Best Accommodation at Panama City Beach, Florida

Panama City Beach is the best location to visit in Florida, if you are planning for a vacation. It not only provides you a chance to immerse yourself in the natural beauty, but also experience the best accommodation. The gulf waters and white beach will make you fall in love with the beauty of the place. Apart from this, you can also indulge in various beach activities and events.If accommodation is your major concern during your stay at Panama City Beach, then you must know that there are many Panama City Beach condos that you can get on rental basis. These condos are equipped with all the features and amenities ranging from the most basic to luxurious. You can enjoy in pools, spas, exercise in the fitness center, dine and relax. The close proximity of the condos makes them liable option for the tourists to spend their vacation there. After spending a fruitful and enjoyable day in the sand and water, you can relax in the comfortable beds and enjoy a delicious meal. You can also choose to converse with your friends or family members over a glass of wine or go out for some swimming or spa.The Panama City Beach Condos are one of the best things that you can get in Panama. You can perform some research work to find out the best condos in Panama City Beach. Searching over the Internet is the best thing you can do to inform and educate yourself about the best accommodation options in the Panama City Beach so that you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Alternatively, you can also talk to your friends or family members to get references and reviews about the various accommodation options in Panama City Beach.Panama City Beach is the best location to visit in Florida, if you are planning for a vacation. It not only provides you a chance to immerse yourself in the natural beauty, but also experience the best accommodation.15625 Front Beach RoadPanama City Beach, Florida 32413Mail us at -: info@aqua-gulf.comCall us at-: (855) 858-6954
Pharmacy Automation Systems Market worth $4,566.2 Million by 2019

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/pharmacy-automation-systems-market-71522890.html

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=71522890

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=71522890

The report Pharmacy Automation Systems Market by product type (Medication Dispensing Systems, Packaging and Labeling Systems, Table-top Counters) by End-user (Inpatient Pharmacy Automation, Outpatient Pharmacy Automation) - Global Forecasts & Trends to 2019 analyzes and studies the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW).Browse 101 market tables and 30 figures spread through 300 pages and in-depth TOC on "Pharmacy Automation Systems Market"Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.This report studies the global pharmacy automation systems market, with forecast to 2019. The pharmacy automation market comprises of automated medication dispensing systems, automated packaging and labeling systems, automated medication compounding systems, storage and retrieval systems, table-top counters, and other systems. The major end users of this market include inpatient pharmacy automation, outpatient pharmacy automation, retail pharmacy chains, and pharmacy benefit management organizations and other mail-order settings. The global pharmacy automation systems market has witnessed substantial growth over the past few years and is further expected to grow in the near future.Ask For PDF Brochure:Factors such as the increasing number of drug prescriptions with the rising aging population and the shift from centralized to decentralized pharmacies driver the growth of this market. Moreover, the need for cost reduction due to the increasing healthcare costs, reduction of medication errors with improved work efficiency within the pharmacies, and awareness regarding the provision of additional time to clinicians and pharmacists for patient care is further expected to boost the demand for pharmacy automation systems.However, stringent regulatory guidelines that delay the product launches, high costs of implementation, and limited budgets of the healthcare organizations that restrict the investment in automation are some of the key factors that inhibit the growth of the global pharmacy automation market.Get The Sample Copy:The North American region will continue to dominate the pharmacy automation systems market, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW. The Asian region is anticipated to grow at a faster pace due to the increasing awareness and adoption of technologies that boost the demand for pharmacy automation systems in this region.Some of the major players in the pharmacy automation market are Baxter International Inc. (U.S.), CareFusion Corporation (U.S.), Cerner Corporation (U.S.), Kirby Lester LLC (U.S.), McKesson Corporation (U.S.), Omnicell Inc. (U.S.), ScriptPro LLC (U.S.), Swisslog Holdings AG (Switzerland), and Talyst Inc. (U.S.).About MarketsandMarkets:MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.M&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.
Global Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry demand, analysis,Share,Research & forecast to 2021 available in new report

Anti-Fatigue Mats

http://goo.gl/Q93BzZ

http://goo.gl/4tcJgK

Global Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry 2016The report provides a basic overview of Anti-Fatigue Mats industry including definitions, applications and industry chain structure. Global market analysis and Chinese domestic market analysis are provided with a focus on history, developments, trends and competitive landscape of the market. A comparison between the international and Chinese situation is also offered.Global Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry Research Report 2016 also focuses on development policies and plans for the industry as well as a consideration of a cost structure analysis. Capacity production, market share analysis, import and export consumption and price cost production value gross margins are discussed.Browse Full Report with TOC @A key feature of this report is it focus on major industry players, providing an overview, product specification, product capacity, production price and contact information for Global Top15 companies. This enables end users to gain a comprehensive insight into the structure of the international and Chinese Anti-Fatigue Mats industry. Development proposals and the feasibility of new investments are also analyzed. Companies and individuals interested in the structure and value of the Anti-Fatigue Mats industry should consult this report for guidance and direction.The report begins with a brief overview of the Global Anti-Fatigue Mats market and then moves on to evaluate the key trends of the market. The key trends shaping the dynamics of the Global Anti-Fatigue Mats market have been scrutinized along with the related current events, which is impacting the market. Drivers, restraints, opportunities, and threats of the Global Anti-Fatigue Mats market have been analyzed in the report. Moreover, the key segments and the sub-segments that constitutes the market is also explained in the report.Get Free Sample @Table of ContentsChapter One Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry Overview1.1 Anti-Fatigue Mats Definition(Product Picture and Specifications)1.2 Anti-Fatigue Mats Classification and Application1.3 Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry Chain Structure1.4 Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry Overview1.5 Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry History1.6 Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry Competitive Landscape1.7 Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry International and China Development ComparisonChapter Two Anti-Fatigue Mats Market Data Analysis2.1 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Price List2.2 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Gross Margin List2.3 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Capacity and Market Share List2.4 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Production and Market Share List2.5 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Production Value and Market Share ListChapter Three Anti-Fatigue Mats Technical Data Analysis3.1 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Product Quality List3.2 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Product Line Capacity and Commercial Production Date3.3 2016 Manufacturing Base(Factory) Global Regional Distribution3.4 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats R&D Status and Technology Sources3.5 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Equipment Investment and Performance3.6 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Anti-Fatigue Mats Raw Materials Sources AnalysisChapter Four Anti-Fatigue Mats Government Policy and News4.1 Government Related Policy Analysis4.2 Industry News Analysis4.3 Anti-Fatigue Mats Industry Development TrendAbout Us:MarketResearchStore.com 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: +1-386-310-3803
Global Switch Panels Industry 2016 Industry Sales, Key Trends, Outlook, Research & Forecast 2021

Switch Panels

http://goo.gl/jKi8jh

http://goo.gl/1pn7jD

Global Switch Panels Industry 2016 Industry Sales, Key Trends, Outlook, Research & Forecast 2021The Global Switch Panels Industry report gives a comprehensive account of the Global Switch Panels market. Details such as the size, key players, segmentation, SWOT analysis, most influential trends, and business environment of the market are mentioned in this report. Furthermore, this report features tables and figures that render a clear perspective of the Switch Panels market. The report features an up-to-date data on key companies product details, revenue figures, and sales. Furthermore, the details also gives the Global Switch Panels market revenue and its forecasts. The business model strategies of the key firms in the Switch Panels market are also included. Key strengths, weaknesses, and threats shaping the leading players in the market have also been included in this research report.The report gives a detailed overview of the key segments in the market. The fastest and slowest growing market segments are covered in this report. The key emerging opportunities of the fastest growing Global Switch Panels market segments are also covered in this report. Each segments and sub-segments market size, share, and forecast are available in this report. Additionally, the region-wise segmentation and the trends driving the leading geographical region and the emerging region has been presented in this report.Get Complete Report with TOC :The study on the Global Switch Panels market also features a history of the tactical mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships activity in the market. Valuable recommendations by senior analysts about investing strategically in research and development can help new entrants or established players penetrate the emerging sectors in the Switch Panels market. Investors will gain a clear insight on the dominant players in this industry and their future forecasts. Furthermore, readers will get a clear perspective on the high demand and the unmet needs of consumers that will enhance the growth of this market.Table of ContentChapter One Switch Panels Industry Overview1.1 Switch Panels Definition1.1.1 Switch Panels Definition1.1.2 Product Specifications1.2 Switch Panels Classification1.3 Switch Panels Application Field1.4 Switch Panels Industry Chain Structure1.5 Switch Panels Industry Regional Overview1.6 Switch Panels Industry Policy Analysis1.7 Switch Panels Industry Related Companies Contact InformationGet Sample Copy of Report @About Us:QYResearch Group is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. QYResearch Group also carries the capability to assist you with your customized market research requirements including in-depth market surveys, primary interviews, competitive landscaping, and company profiles. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics. QYResearch Group is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651
TeamDrive and G DATA announce strategic partnership

Solution partners of the Microsoft Cloud Germany sign cooperation agreement

www.teamdrive.com

https://www.teamdrive.com

German IT security specialist G DATA Software AG and TeamDrive GmbH have concluded a wide-ranging partnership in the areas of data security and virus protection. Both companies will provide services from the Microsoft Cloud Germany. The partnership is aimed at acquiring new business customers, partners and consumers for Microsoft Cloud Germany. Besides market development, the two companies are planning a technology cooperation. TeamDrive and G DATA presented the first insights into their collaboration at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto last week.Data protection, data security and compliance are of critical importance in the era of progressive digitisation of all areas of life and work for private users and businesses. Besides protection against malware attacks, backing up data is immensely important, says Andreas Luning, CTO of G DATA Software AG. With Microsoft Cloud Germany, we can offer our customers a Cloud solution that is firstly aligned with the strict German data protection laws and secondly guarantees high security for the data backup. Initially, integration of the TeamDrive Sync & Share software based on Microsoft Azure into G DATA solutions for private users is planned for the partnership. Additional cooperations in the B2B sector are envisaged.End-to-end encryption and virus protection are indispensableConsistent end-to-end encryption represents the core of the high TeamDrive security. The encryption processes and technologies used by TeamDrive offer secure protection against unauthorised access by third parties. This means that TeamDrive can also be used in very sensitive areas such as healthcare in connection with patient data or by lawyers, explains Volker Oboda, CEO of TeamDrive Systems GmbH. Together with G DATA solutions, security on end devices and during data transfer is significantly increased.Microsoft Cloud Germany: Data stored securely in the German Cloud with German data trusteeMicrosoft will provide the public cloud services Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM in future also from German data centers. The Microsoft Cloud Germany is primarily aimed at organizations in data-sensitive industries, such as the public or the financial sector that are subject to particularly strict compliance guidelines: Data is exchanged between the two data centres in Magdeburg and Frankfurt am Main via a private network isolated from the Internet, guaranteeing retention of the data in Germany. T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is the data trustee that controls access to customers' data. The services will be available in the second half of 2016 to customers in the 28 countries of the European Union and the four members of the European Free Trade Association.About TeamDrive SystemsTeamDrive Systems enables secure, cross-company, as well as cross-platform, collaboration with total privacy, maximum security. TeamDrive offers a combination of cloud computing (private and public) and the free choice of servers, which delivers unlimited cost-effective scalability and independence. TeamDrive runs on Linux, Windows, Mac servers and clients as well as iPhones, iPads and Android Smartphones. TeamDrives dependable, scalable platform and services currently enable millions of business users to sync, share and collaborate beyond company borders. TeamDrive customers include leading global firms, universities, the military and government institutions.Further information: TeamDrive Systems GmbH, Max-Brauer-Allee 50, D-22765 Hamburg, Germany, phone +49(0)40/389044-33, e-mail: info@teamdrive.com, web:or follow on twitter: @TeamDriveFor more information, please visit the TeamDrive website:
Melanoma Treatment Market expected to reach $5.64 billion by 2023 with 15.5% CAGR, Says MarketIntelReports

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/gdhc3214ctidb/melanoma-global-clinical-trials-review-h1-2016

http://www.marketintelreports.com/pdfdownload.php?id=gdhc3214ctidb

www.marketintelreports.com

The global treatment market for melanoma will expand more than fourfold in value from $1.34 billion in 2013 to reach an estimated $5.64 billion by 2023, representing a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.5%, according to MarketIntelReportsMelanoma Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2016" provides an overview of Melanoma clinical trials scenario. This report provides top line data relating to the clinical trials on Melanoma. Report includes an overview of trial numbers and their average enrollment in top countries conducted across the globe.Browse Melanoma Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2016 Research ReportMarketIntelReports latest report states that this impressive growth, which will occur across the eight major markets (8MM) of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Japan, and Australia, will be driven primarily by increasing sales of Bristol-Myers Squibb's blockbuster immunotherapy Yervoy."While Yervoy's sales will be negatively impacted by the first-line uptake of PD-1-targeting monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) Keytruda and Opdivo from 2015 to 2017, the approval of the Yervoy/Opdivo combination will recover the former's market position in the second half of the forecast period."Furthermore, Yervoy's label expansion into the lucrative adjuvant setting will further enhance its sales from 2019 onwards."MarketIntelReports estimates sales of $889 million for Yervoy in the 8MM in 2013, and forecasts this to rise at a CAGR of 8.2% to $1.96 billion by 2023.Some of the prominent players of market:Bristol-Myers Squibb Company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. GlaxoSmithKline Plc Merck & Co., Inc. Novartis AG AstraZeneca Plc Pfizer Inc. Ludwig Institute For Cancer Research Ltd Eisai Co., Ltd. Amgen Inc. and OthersThe BRAF/MEK inhibitor combinations, in particular Novartis' Tafinlar/Mekinist and Roche/Exelixis' Zelboraf/cobimetinib, will replace standard BRAF inhibitor monotherapy of Zelboraf or Tafinlar. In addition, Keytruda and Opdivo will garner rapid growth in both BRAF mutated and wild-type settings."These novel agents and combinations will experience large uptake globally, thanks to their improved overall response rate and overall survival, along with their manageable side effect profiles. Notably, the combination treatments will fetch a higher premium price than monotherapies, which, on top of raising company sales, will also result in greater pushback from payers."MarketIntelReports expects these new, more efficacious entrants to replace generic chemotherapy-only regimens in the first- and second-line settings, therefore driving the growth of the overall melanoma market and extending the lines of treatment available for patients."The launch of these improved agents will ensure that many patients receive one to two lines of treatment with branded premium-priced drugs by 2023 and beyond."Request for Sample Brochure of Report @MarketIntelReports expects these new, more efficacious entrants to replace generic chemotherapy-onlyAbout 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.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur S.2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington,Delaware,19808United Statessales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343
France Publishes New Recommendations for Food Contact Materials

www.sgs.com/en/consumer-goods-retail/hardgoods/home-furnishings-and-houseware/testing/food-contact-tests

www.sgs.com/en/news/2016/07/safeguards-12616-french-dgccrf-published-new-food-contact-material-standards

www.sgs.com/subscribesg

www.sgs.com/hardlines

In June 2016, the French General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) published three new documents relating to food contact materials (FCM). The new regulations compliment the recommendations for FCM made from metals and alloys, previously published in January 2016.Replacing Information Notice No. 2004-64, dated May 6, 2004, these new documents each relate to a different form of FCM: DM/4B/COM/002 - FCM made from inorganic materials, excluding metals DM/4B/COM/003 - FCM made from organic materials made from synthetic fibers DM/4B/COM/004 - FCM made from organic materials made from plant fibersIn the main, these documents contain no technical changes from previous regulations, with the exception of the updating of references. In the case of DM/4B/COM/003, French decree 9/11/1994 is still valid for rubber and European Regulation (EC) No 10/2011 is applicable to plastics and plastic layers in complex materials.Document DM/4B/COM/002 does, however, include new recommendations relating to metal release limits and migration testing conditions for Aluminium, Cobalt and Arsenic. Focusing on ceramics, glass, glass-ceramic and enamel, this document also includes definitions for cooking articles.The new documentation has also removed an exemption for tablecloths, meaning these products are now considered FCM regardless of their materials.Manufacturers are advised to review the new documentation in order to ensure compliance with the new regulations.SGS Food Contact ServicesSGS technical experts have extensive knowledge and testing experience in materials and articles in contact with food. They can help ensure your products meet the appropriate regulations for food contact materials and pave the way for compliance. Learn more about SGSs Food Contact Tests. (SGS SafeGuardS keep you up to date with the latest news and developments in the consumer goods industry. Read the full French DGCCRF Published New Food Contact Material Standards SafeGuardS. (To receive SGS SafeGuardS direct to your inbox, subscribe here:For further information contact:Pascale LAMBERTGlobal Expert Chemical, E&E and Food contactTel: +33 (0)2 35 07 92 66Email: cts.media@sgs.comWebsite:About SGSSGS is the worlds leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 85,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,800 offices and laboratories around the world.Sugarloaf MarketingUnion StreetFlimwellEast SussexTN5 7NY
Eagles Chauffeurs Aiming to Become Greenest Private Hire Fleet

Eagles Chauffeurs

The Government has set a deadline of 2025 for the UK to reduce its CO2 emissions and Eagles Chauffeurs is well on track to becoming Londons greenest and most efficient private hire fleet.After working closely with major clients, Eagles Chauffeurs have managed to reduce their drivers dead mileage by 15% over the last two years, simply because their vehicles rarely have to travel more than one mile to arrive at their next pick-up point. The emissions are lower than those of their competitors, who, owing to their smaller fleet sizes, often need to travel several miles between jobs. This has led to a reduction of greenhouse emissions by 15%, which equates to approximately 4000 tonnes in one year.The company is not stopping there as they are working rapidly to make further cuts in vehicle emissions. Theres currently a three-way plotting system for all their drivers, meaning it will reduce distance to pick-up point by an average of 50%, saving 150 miles per day. With the increase in workflow, Eagles Chauffeurs are now working on the introduction of a four-way plotting system.Two of the main vehicles used by the company include the Mercedes S-Class and the Mercedes E-Class, both of which are considerably greener than any other vehicles in their class. The S-Class was the worlds first car awarded an environmental certificate in recognition of its ISO standard, while the E-Class lowers CO2 emissions to just 109 G/KM.Eagles Chauffeurs aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 60% by 2025.Eagles Chauffeurs is a prestigious, London-based chauffeur hire fleet. With 30 years of experience, the company offers its client-base a tailored service complete with airport transfer solutions, day hire availability and a reliable personal driver.12 Regency Parade, Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage, London, NW3 5EGJames Massoud  Marketing Managerjames@wellingtonholidays.comArdian Zabergja  Founderardian@eagleschauffeurs.com
India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Forecasts to 2021  High Prevalence of Impaired Vision and Increasing Awareness to Fuel Growth

https://www.kenresearch.com/consumer-products-and-retail/cosmetics-and-personal-care/india-plastic-lens-market-report/41128-95.html

India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Forecasts to 2021  High Prevalence of Impaired Vision and Increasing Awareness to Fuel Growth provides a comprehensive analysis of the CR39 eyeglasses market. The report includes the market share contributed by imports and domestic production in India. Further, the market in the study is differentiated by various parameters such as uses which include single vision lenses, bifocal lenses, trifocal lenses, progressive lenses, plastic occupational lenses, and no-line computer lenses. On the basis of type of frame, CR39 eyeglasses market is categorized into full frame, half frame and rimless frames. The market is also segmented by five regions of India  North, South, East, West and Northeast and by three type of cities including Tier I cities, Tier II cities, and Tier III cities. The study also highlights the detailed information about domestic manufacturers in the India CR39 eyeglasses market and their respective shares by revenue in financial year 2016. Investment model for manufacturing plant of CR39 eyeglasses and value chain is also explained in detail to assist new entrants in setting up a new plant in India. Various marketing analysis factors such as drivers and restrains, trends and developments, online trends affecting the market and Porters five forces analysis are also added in the study for clear understanding about the factors responsible for present scenario of the market. The future analysis of overall India CR39 eyeglasses market has also been discussed along with recommendations from analyst view.India CR39 Eyeglasses MarketIndia has the maximum number of people with vision impairment in the world. High population coupled with elevated incidence rate of vision irregularities is the major factor which has resulted in high demand for prescription eyeglasses and consequently CR39 eyeglasses market. Rising awareness about safety healthcare, accelerating problem of age related macular degeneration in old age people, increased per capita income which allow people to buy expensive CR39 eyeglasses over glass material are further expected to fuel the CR39 eyeglasses market in India. The market for CR39 eyeglasses was worth INR ~ million in FY2016, which increased from INR ~ million in FY2011 at a CAGR of ~%. Less awareness among the people is the major factor which has led to the demand gap in India. It has been experienced that in Southeast region demand for CR39 eyeglasses is ~% less than supply in FY2016. However, in metro regions, the supply is approximately ~% more than demand owing to the high presence of market players in these regions leading to saturation of market.Trade Scenario for CR39 Eyeglasses MarketIndia is import driven market for CR39 eyeglasses with ~% of the revenue from the imported products. It has been observed that CR39 eyeglasses of worth INR ~ million were imported from foreign countries in FY2016 owing to their less price and unavailability of CR39 eyeglasses in comparative prices by domestic manufacturers. China is the major import destination for India with contribution of ~% to the total imported value owing to approximately ~% lower cost than domestically manufactured CR39 eyeglasses. Patparganj discharge post based in Delhi received the highest imports of CR39 eyeglasses, in terms of value owing to easy distribution from the location. The domestic manufacturers from India are also actively exporting CR39 eyeglasses to western countries increasing the export value from INR ~ million in FY2015 to INR ~ million in FY2016.CR39 Eyeglasses Market SegmentationBy uses, single vision lenses dominated the CR39 eyeglasses with revenue share of ~% of the total market in FY2016. High prevalence of myopia among youths and children in India is the major factor which has led to the high demand for single vision lenses. Progressive lenses, on other hand, recorded high growth from FY2011 to FY2016 with revenue share increasing from ~% in FY2011 to ~% in FY2016, at a CAGR of ~%. By type of frames, Full frame eyeglasses majorly dominate the market with revenue share of ~% in FY2016. Durability of these frames, capability to hold heavy weight lenses, and low cost of these frames are the major factors which contribute towards its high demand.Competitive ScenarioCR39 eyeglasses market in India is observed to be highly concentrated with the presence of few players capturing major share of the market. GKB Ophthalmics Ltd., Zeiss India, and Techtran Polylenses were observed to operate in the CR39 eyeglasses market and held ~% of the share of domestically produced CR39 eyeglasses market in FY2016. GKB Ophthalmics Ltd. among them is leading CR39 Eyeglasses Market in India majorly due to trust factor associated with the company being domiciled in India. Additionally, the acquisition of GKB Vision Ltd. stake by Essilor also resulted in availability of Essilor brands under GKB Ophthalmics Ltd. In FY2016, GKB Ophthalmics Ltd. accounted for ~% of total revenue share in domestically produced CR39 Eyeglasses Market.Key Topics Covered in the Report: The market size of India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Market segmentation of India CR39 Eyeglasses market on the basis of Imports and Domestic Production, by Uses, by Type of Frame, by Organized and Unorganized Players, by Regions, and by Cities Porters Five Forces Analysis for India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Trends and Developments in India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Strengths and Restrains in India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Investment Model of CR39 Eyeglasses Manufacturing Plant in India Trade Scenario for CR39 Eyeglasses Market in India Purchase Decisions Regarding Eyewear in India Competitive Landscape and Detailed Company Profiles of the Major Market Players Future Outlook and Projections of India CR39 Eyeglasses Market Analyst Recommendations Macro-Economic Factors Impacting the India CR39 Eyeglasses MarketSource:Contact:Ken ResearchAnkur Gupta, Head Marketing & CommunicationsAnkur@kenresearch.com+91-9015378249Ken Research is a Global aggregator and publisher of Market intelligence research reports, equity reports, data base directories and economy reports. The company is engaged in data analytics and aids clients in due-diligence, product expansion, plant setup, acquisition intelligence to all the other gamut of objectives through our research focus.27A, Tower B-2, Spaze I Tech Business Park, Sohna Road, sector 49 Gurgaon, Haryana - 122001, India
United States Airbag Wire Industry Report 2016

Global QY Research

http://globalqyresearch.com/united-states-airbag-wire-sales-market-report-2021

http://globalqyresearch.com/download-sample/76545

http://globalqyresearch.com/checkout-form/0/76545

https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-qy-research

The recently published report titled United States Airbag Wire 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 Airbag Wire market considering all the major industry trends, market dynamics and competitive scenario.The United States Airbag Wire Industry Report 2016 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the United States Airbag Wire 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 Airbag Wire 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 Airbag Wire market also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.View Full Report With Complete TOC, List Of Figure and Table:With 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.Download Sample this Report:5 USA Airbag Wire Manufacturers Analysis5.1 Invista5.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.1.2 Airbag Wire Product Type and Technology5.1.2.1 Type 15.1.2.2 Type 25.1.3 Airbag Wire Sales, Revenue, Price of Invista (2015 and 2016)5.2 PHP5.2.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.2.2 Automotive Product Type and Technology5.2.2.1 Type 15.2.2.2 Type 25.2.3 Automotive Sales, Revenue, Price of PHP (2015 and 2016)5.3 TORAY Group5.3.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.3.2 TORAY Group Product Type and Technology5.3.2.1 Type 15.3.2.2 Type 25.3.3 TORAY Group Sales, Revenue, Price of TORAY Group (2015 and 2016)5.4 TOYOBO5.4.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.4.2 Product Type and Technology5.4.2.1 Type 15.4.2.2 Type 25.4.3 TOYOBO Sales, Revenue, Price of TOYOBO (2015 and 2016)5.5 Asahi Kasei Fibers5.5.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.5.2 Asahi Kasei Fibers Product Type and Technology5.5.2.1 Type 15.5.2.2 Type 25.5.3 Asahi Kasei Fibers Sales, Revenue, Price of Asahi Kasei Fibers (2015 and 2016)5.6 Shenma Industrial5.6.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.6.2 Shenma Industrial Product Type and Technology5.6.2.1 Type 15.6.2.2 Type 25.6.3 Shenma Industrial Sales, Revenue, Price of Shenma Industrial (2015 and 2016)5.7 Zhejiang Hailide New Material5.7.1 Company Basic Information,Manufacturing Base and Competitors5.7.2 Zhejiang Hailide New Material Product Type and Technology5.7.2.1 Type 15.7.2.2 Type 25.7.3 Zhejiang Hailide New Material Sales, Revenue, Price of Zhejiang Hailide New Material (2015 and 2016)To Purchase this Premium Report:About Us:Global 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:Unit1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London, E182AN, United KingdomEmail: sales@globalqyresearch.comFollow us:
Surgical Procedures Volume Market for Neurosurgery, Orthopedic, Ophthalmic, Gynecology - Market Growth Segments Research Analysis

http://www.mrrse.com/sample/1762

http://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/1762

The report analyzes detailed qualitative analysis of the market dynamics that affect the growth of the global surgical procedures volume market. Factors responsible for driving and restraining the growth of the global surgical procedures volume market and future opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. This section of the report also provides comprehensive market comparative analysis and market attractiveness analysis for the global surgical procedures volume market by geography for the base year, Porters Five Forces analysis for the surgical procedures volume market. The report also comprises of the trend analysis on the traditional, minimal invasive and non-invasive surgical techniques, acute care surgery and ambulatory surgery. A future development scenario of modern surgical technologies has also been included in the report.Get a Free Sample Copy of the Report @Rising geriatric population, rising incidences of chronic disorders due to increasing sedentary lifestyle, rising obese population and others are the factors driving the global surgical procedures volume market. With the surge in the road accidents globally, the trauma cases have skyrocketed. According to World Health Organization (WHO) in 2013, 1.25 million deaths occurred worldwide due to road accidents, and millions are injured who require medical attention. India ranks highest in the road accidents due to over populated and poor roads, and lack of traffic security. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010), an estimated 1.7 million people sustain traumatic brain injury in the U.S. each year. The global surgical procedures volume market has been segmented into cardiovascular procedures, orthopedic procedures, neurosurgery procedures, ophthalmic procedures, gynecology procedures and other procedures such as urology procedures and dental procedures. This report analyzes the current scenario as well as future market potential for surgical procedures volume market globally. This report comprises an elaborate executive summary, demonstrating a snapshot on market dynamics of various segments and sub-segments in a precise manner. Moreover, executive summary also comprises a waterfall chart, which reflects the market size of various segments in descending order.Inquiry on this report @The global surgical procedures volume market is categorized by procedures type into cardiovascular procedures, orthopedic procedures, neurosurgery procedures, ophthalmic procedures, gynecology procedures and other procedures such as urology procedures and dental procedures. The cardiovascular segment is further classified into cardiac rhythm management devices implantation, interventional cardiology procedures, heart transplantation. The into cardiac rhythm management devices implantation is further segmented into cardiac pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillators. The cardiac pacemaker is further segmented into dual chambered pacemaker, single chambered pacemaker, biventricular pacemaker. The interventional cardiology procedures are categorized into cardiac catheterization, coronary revascularization and coronary angiography. Coronary revascularization procedures have been categorized into coronary angioplasty and coronary bypass. The neurosurgery procedures have been segmented into craniotomy, aneurysm coil embolization, CSF drainage, and CSF shunt. The orthopedic procedures have been categorized into three segments such as joint replacement surgery, ligament/tendon repair surgery and spine surgery. The joint replacement surgery is further classified into knee replacement surgeries, hip replacement surgeries and shoulder replacement surgeries. The ophthalmic procedures have been categorized into three segments such as cataract surgery, refractive surgery and glaucoma surgery. The gynecology procedures have been categorized into three segments such as hysterectomy surgery, uterine artery embolization and cesarean section surgery. The other procedure segment includes urology procedure and dental procedures. The market for all these segments is estimated for the period 2013  2023 in terms of value (No. of Procedures).Geographies discussed and analyzed in the global blood pressure monitoring devices market include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Rest of the World. In addition the report also comprises the precise and detailed country wise analysis for the global surgical procedures volume market such as North America (U.S. and Canada), Asia Pacific (China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific), Europe (Germany, U.K. and Rest of Europe) Latin America and Rest of the World. The market size and forecast in terms of volume (No. of procedures) for each segment has been provided for the period from 2013 to 2023. The report on the global surgical procedures volume market also provides compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) for each of the market segments mentioned above for the forecast period from 2015 to 2023, considering 2014 as the base year.MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies.Mr.Nachiket GhumareCorporate OfficeState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.com
At A CAGR Of 5.6% Global Air Filter Market Will Grow During The Period 2016-2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Air Filter Market 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.Air filters are used to filter the incoming air by trapping particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, smoke, debris, and bacteria from the air. They find use in in a wide range of applications in which air quality is crucial. Energy, automotive, mining, and cement industries are the major sectors where air filters are extensively used.Technavios analysts forecast the global air filter market to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% 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 air filter market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the demand of air filters from various end-user applications.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEANew report, Global Air Filter 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 vendorsCumminsClarcorDaikinCamfilDonaldsonMann+HummelOther prominent vendorsK&N engineeringFlandersDynaDelta FiltrationFiltration GroupParker HannifinAffinia Group3MSogefiMarket driverRole of air filters in improving IAQFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeLack of awareness of end-users about replacing air filtersFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendGrowing concerns over IAQ in buildingsFor 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 @
Homeland Security Market: Cyber Security Figures as a Priority in Recent Times

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The global homeland security market is mainly driven by the efforts taken by governments across nations to restrict the increasing terrorist threats and cross-border insurgency. Project Cytoon undertaken by South Africa, the Sisfron Program undertaken by Brazil, and the TECS Mod Program undertaken by the U.S. are some of the government initiatives aimed at enhancing homeland security. The global homeland security market was worth US$245.72 bn in 2013. Expanding at a CAGR of 5.6% during the period between 2014 and 2020, the overall market is expected to be valued at US$364.44 bn by 2020.Homeland Security Market Description:-Governments Looking at Managed Security Services to Address Looming Threat of Cyber AttacksIncreasing risk of cyber-attacks on government websites has made cyber security the dominant segment of the global homeland security market. Cyber security accounted for a 39.31% market share in 2013 and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 5.8% during the period from 2014 to 2020. The recent cyber-attack on the U.S. governments Office of Personnel Management led to a security breach, with hackers accessing confidential data. An audit released last month showed that the internal websites used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The audit further mentioned that the department needs to establish a cyber-training program for analysts and investigators.Taking its cue, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has chosen the month of October as the National Cyber Security Awareness Month. With the federal governments push to protect agency data from cyber threats, the DHS is looking at managed security services. The agency announced in September 2015 that it had chosen Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co. to help manage potential cyber threats to government websites and plug the loopholes. The contract, worth US$1 bn, points out that the federal government can no longer support its cyber security infrastructure without the help of private entities.U.S. DHS Awards Contracts to Private Companies for Cyber SecurityThe U.S. federal governments inability to keep up with the ever-increasing cyber threats can be attributed to the lack of cyber security professionals in the DHS office. A recent Government Accountability Office report revealed that one in five positions in the DHS Office of Cybersecurity and Communications remains vacant. This can be traced to long security clearance timelines and lower salary as compared to the private sector.Insights of Homeland Security:Apart from Raytheon Co., the DHS has also awarded contract work for cyber security to Technica, Northrop Grumman, HP, and Knowledge Consulting Group. These companies will provide automated tools and commercially developed sensors to scan agency networks for vulnerabilities. Government agencies are usually apprehensive while leaning on private companies to address their cyber security needs. However, the DHS has shown the path that other departments in the U.S. federal government are expected to follow soon. This will open new opportunities for the homeland security market, especially in North America.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global 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.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
As featured in PAMPANGA: Top 10 Most Awesome Restaurants in Pampanga! (2016)



Ranked as one of the best Carenderias in Angeles City, MILAs has been a household name for many Kapampangans since 1989. They were originally famous for their Tokwat Baboy, but now theyre more known for their unbelievably addicting crispy Sisig!

Sisig is a Kapampangan staple consisting of grilled, diced pork cheeks, ears, liver, onions, and even pig brain. This beloved drinking food is often credited to Lucia Aling Lucing Cunanan of Angeles City, who made the best of the discarded ingredients from Clark Air Base.

Due to the simplicity of the preparation and affordability of the ingredients, Sisig grew in popularity and more establishments, like MILAS, began offering variants.

MILAS TOKWAT BABOY AND SPECIAL SIZZLING SISIG

Brgy. San Angelo, San Andres St, Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines

Phone: +63 45 888 6727

Open: Everyday 10am  10pm

Heres why you should go to Milas on your next Pampanga visit

Milas is spacious with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Due to its non-intimidating, casual ambiance, its a popular place for families to dine and tends to get crowded on weekends and holidays.

This humble eatery began as a sari-sari store owned by Milagros and Reuben Gomez. Because they sold cold drinks, many of its customers would request some kind of Pulutan, or finger food, to pair with their beverages. When they added their Tokwat Baboy and Sisig to the mix, the rest was history!

Check out MILAS MENU.

Tokwat Baboy (P200). Golden fried Tofu with Pig Ears in Home-made Soy Sauce with Celery and Tomato.

This is the dish that started it all. When a family member who had previously worked in restaurants at Hawaii and Hong Kong introduced her Tofu and Soy Sauce dish, Reuben Gomez decided to give it a try. After many attempts to make it more palatable to Filipinos, he struck the jackpot and created the delicious Tokwat Baboy.

The tofu is fried perfectly, crispy on the outside and soft in the center. The richness of the pig ears is balanced with the saltiness of home-made soy sauce and the freshness of celery. A fantastic dish!

Sizzling Sisig (P200). Deep Fried Pork Cheek with Onions and Chili.

What sets Milas Sisig apart from others is their treatment of the most popular Kapampangan speciality. The pigs head is boiled, fried until golden, diced, then seasoned.

Milas take on the classic Sisig, which has a fattier, more gelatinous consistency, is refreshing and a little later on the palate. Highly recommended!

Fun fact: The word Sisig means to snack on something sour. The term was generally used to describe a pregnant womans hunger cravings for sour food. According to Chef Claude Tayag of Bale Dutung, the best Sisigs always have a good balance of sour, salty, and savory. If there is no sourness there, then its not a proper Sisig.



BBQ Tocino (P200). Skewered and grilled House made Tocino

Tocino, pork meat cured with sugar, is a beloved Filipino breakfast favorite. Milas found a new way of enjoying it by grilling it!

The charring caramelizes the outside and at the same time infuses a rich smoky flavorenjoy this with a side of Sukang Pinakurat, or spiced vinegar.

Paco Salad (P150). Fresh baby Fern with tomatoes and onions, topped with salted egg.

Paco (fern), eaten in many SE Asian Countries, is considered a delicacy in the Philipines. The Paco salad at Milas isnt bad. The ferns were fresh and there was just the right amount of salted egg.

Add the vinegar dressing for a dash of tanginess!

Chicharron Bulaklak (P200). Fried Pork Intestine

Chicharong Bulaklak or Flower Chicharron is a popular beer food in the Philippines. Milas version isnt as oily as others, but did lack in flavor. We like our finger food salty.

Milas has served great food in Angeles for almost 30 years, and is quite symbolic of the Kapampangan resilience through its unchanged recipes and interiors. Even if all the dishes are commonly known, the Milas way of preparing them definitely surprised us!

With a budget of 300 per head, order the Paco Salad, then the Tokwat Baboy and the Sizzling Sisig for your main dishes.

Congratulations, Milas! You are our top choice for Sisig in Pampanga!

MILAS TOKWAT BABOY AND SPECIAL SIZZLING SISIG

Brgy. San Angelo, San Andres St, Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines

Phone: +63 45 888 6727

Open: Everyday 10am  10pm

Live an Awesome Life,

Sean & Sheila of Team Our Awesome Planet

Disclosure: Our meal was courtesy of Milas, I wrote this article with my biases, opinions, and insights.

(This article is sponsored by AZURE NORTH, an amazing, tropical-inspired residential project featuring a man-made beach in the heart of San Fernando, Pampanga! Developed by Century Properties who clearly know that Pampanga, with its delightful food and hospitable people, is a place really worth living in. Check it out: www.azurenorth.com.ph)

P.S. Do you know any other Sisig places that can rival Milas?
DETROIT (AP)  General Motors is recalling more than 473,000 trucks and SUVs in the U.S. and Canada because the brake pedals can come loose and fail to work properly.

The recall covers certain 2015 and 2016 Chevrolet Silverado HD, GMC Sierra HD and Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicles.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department.

Wednesday, July 20

1:17 a.m.  A 20-year-old man was arrested on a contempt of court warrant after the vehicle he was riding in was stopped for speeding.

2:05 a.m.  A deputy investigated a third party report of a sexual assault and determined no crime occurred.

9:45 a.m.  Gasoline, valued at $20, was stolen from an Oil City gas station.

11 a.m.  An Indiana man, 20, was arrested in Lee Township for driving without a license.

1:24 p.m.  A motorist was arrested at Isabella Street and Huntley Lane for driving on a suspended license, driving without insurance and improper plates.

3:59 p.m.  Deputies are investigating a report of a sexual assault involving a 4-year-old girl.

8:12 p.m.  A woman, 67, and her grandson, 11, reported seeing two younger males throw a bicycle off a Jerome Township bridge and into the river. The bicycle was retrieved from the water, and taken to the Law Enforcement Center in case someone came to claim it.

8:48 p.m.  Police made arrests for assault, domestic assault, marijuana possession and on a warrant at a Universal Drive address.

9:08 p.m.  A Lee Township man, 25, was arrested for domestic assault.
Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, Marines and Coastguardsmen had the chance to earn some bragging rights as the 647th Security Forces Squadron hosted the EIC, or Excellence in Competition M4 event, July 13-15, at the 647th Security Forces Squadron Combat Arms Firing Range, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.





The event, which was open to service members of all five branches, allowed would-be marksmen to test their abilities while using the Air Force standard-issue M4 carbine rifle. Prior to the beginning of the competition, Combat Arms Instructors provided a lesson in the M4, including lessons in nomenclature and how to safely use the firearm during the EIC.



The competition was comprised of various firing positions, including: standing, kneeling, sitting and prone.



The highest score achievable in this competition was 500, said Staff Sgt. Derrick Koch, NCOIC, 647th Security Forces Squadron Combat Arms. Unlike the last competition, the Air Force did not place first. Army SGT Griffin Wilde won the competition with a score of 457. The top five scores consisted of three Army Soldiers and two Airmen.



Koch said this competition was different than the M9 iteration held in March because the platform is more forgiving and allowed for a much more competitive event.



We notice more people are comfortable shooting the (M4) weapon system, because regardless of branch, they have shot an M4/M16A2 at some point in their career. Furthermore, the average shooter seems to perform better in terms of score with this weapon system compared to that of the M9.



Beyond the platform itself, Koch said the competition was more popular this time due to increased interest from other branches of service. He said many offices like to compete internally to find the best marksman in their respective office.



We are glad we are able to provide more people the ability to come out and get that trigger time to practice their fundamentals  especially those who do not have the opportunity to fire as often as they want, or need to.



Koch said they have more competitions planned for the future, and encourage service members of all ranks and services to consider participating.



The team and I greatly appreciate every individual who shared their time with us, competed and made this event a success, he said. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and didn't leave too disappointed. If you didnt do as well as you hoped, theres always next time.



According to Koch, the CATM range is not expecting to host another event until next year, due to changes in personnel and the demand of real-world requirements. Koch said he was hopeful and said they are hoping to have another competition at the beginning of 2017.



When asked, Koch said the next event will most likely feature the M9 pistol.



For more information about the EIC, or to inquire about participation, contact SSgt. Locke or the USAF Combat Arms Firing Range at (808) 655-5086.
In the chaos of battle, few things bring comfort to American and allied forces like the sound of a circling close air support aircraft.

Service members breathe a sigh of relief as hardened structures and enemy strongpoints disappear in a cloud of dirt and smoke, granting freedom of movement to ground troops in the most desperate of situations. Every second of enemy suppression amplifies the sinking feeling of isolation; a feeling broken by a single radio transmission, "Callsign flight, checking on station."

Though these aircraft arrive with a distinct sound, the force multipliers responsible for bringing their affects to bear do not. They are the "Quiet Professionals" of Air Force Special Operations Command, the combat controllers.

Professionals at calling in air support in hostile, complex environments, combat controllers with the 353rd Special Operations Group and Force Reconnaissance Marines with the III Marine Expeditionary Force were able to showcase their joint terminal attack control skills and enhance partnerships during RIMPAC 2016.

It is the job of these controllers to use the weapons of the sky to shape the battlefield. They are liaisons capable of changing the tide of a battle, only to slip back into the shadows of secrecy from where they came.

"The close integration of air power and ground forces has the potential to quickly turn the battlespace into a deadly three-dimensional environment and is a critical component to any major operation," said Capt. John Rulien, mission commander for the 353rd SOG participation in RIMPAC. "To be able to share our expertise in the field with our joint partners is an opportunity worth investing in."

Over a series of training events, combat controllers synched up with their Force Reconnaissance partners to pursue advanced JTAC qualifications. Instructors pushed controllers through progressive scenarios with increasing levels of complexity to ensure each combat controller and joint terminal air controller is prepared to meet the demands of the ever-changing battlefield. Knowing from experience the humbling responsibility of being charged with survivability of a team of special operators, combat controllers demand the utmost efficiency and accuracy throughout each training iteration. The role of a JTAC is a life or death responsibility.

Observing the training battlefield, the combat controllers and JTACs relayed target locations to the air support with a nine-line report. Once each target was hit, they relayed a battle damage assessment, which assists in collecting information about the enemy's capabilities in the aftermath of a conflict.

For Force Reconnaissance Marines with III MEF, JTAC qualifications are not a primary mission set for a unit which specializes in deep area reconnaissance. However, according to U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Joshua Winters, platoon commander of 2nd Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, III MEF, the opportunity to partner with combat controllers for both integrated CAS training and reconnaissance missions helps develop skills and perspectives they can only obtain from working with the subject matter experts in the field.

"With the information they offer, we can not only hone our own skills as JTACs, but also benefit from direct access to a unit we may support in the future, giving us a better understanding of their reconnaissance needs," Winters said. "Ultimately, this makes us a more effective force and captures the versatility of the conventional and special operations force relationship we are trying to showcase here at RIMPAC."

Twenty-six nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain he cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
Tim Kaine Is the Character Actor from 'Justified' of Vice Presidential Candidates

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 22, 2016 |

Hes not Elizabeth Warren, which is who we on the progressive side would like to see as Hillarys vice-presidential nominee. Hes not charismatic like Cory Booker. Hes another old white dude, unlike Julian Castro or Tom Perez. And hes not really all that liberal.

However, Tim Kaine is probably the right guy for Hillary, even if he does upset some of the Bernie voters.

Why? Because hes boring, and in this election, boring is refreshing. He might be able to siphon a few white guys away from Trump, and white guys are Hillary Clintons kryptonite. Hes got a decent American story  his Dad was a welder, and Kaine bootstrapped his way to Harvard. Hes fluent in Spanish (having spent a year doing missionary work in Honduras). Hes Catholic. He has ties to Minnesota (where he was born) and Missouri (where he was raised and attended college), he has governing experience (as mayor and governor) and most importantly, nobody hates this guy. He may not be beloved, but he may be the only guy on either ticket who isnt unpopular to 60 percent of the electorate.

Hes steady, modest, and a good guy. Hes basically Joe Biden, which is why Obama almost chose him over Joe Biden.

Interestingly, Obama was interested in picking Tim Kaine as his VP in 2008. But they decided not to because Kaine was too much like Obama.  Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) July 22, 2016

Biden wasnt an exciting choice, either (save for the occasional gaffe), but he was a steady guy who has since become hugely popular.

Like a lot of folks, Tim Kaine is pro-choice (he has a 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood) but personally opposed to abortion (which is a fair position). Like Obama, he was opposed to same-sex marriage until around the same time that Obama came around on same-sex marriage. Hes opposed to the death penalty; he passed legislation to make Virginia the first Southern state to ban smoking in public places; and hes very anti-gun, thanks in part to the Virginia Tech tragedy (he receives an F from the NRA).

I have no real enthusiasm for Tim Kaine, but hes not divisive. Hes not polarizing. Hes a fine man who not only managed to win with African-Americans as mayor of Richmond, but with Southerners as Governor and Senator of Virginia. In fact, hes never lost an election in his life. We need that kind of assurance.

His emotional plea for stricter gun legislation ought to also inspire some excitement among Democrats, as well.

Tim Kaine: Hes like a solid character actor who grows on you because he keeps popping up on shows like Justified and Deadwood. Oh yeah, that guy! I liked him in that other thing, too. Thats Tim Kaine. Hes good enough!





Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba.

 'The Walking Dead' Season 7 Trailer: Ezekiel, Shiva, The Kingdom | Kate McKinnon Gets Her Hair Pulled By Nina Hartley 
BLOOMINGTON  Eight Twin City high school students have returned home, two with gold and silver medals, from the NAACP ACT-SO national competition in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The students are part of the Bloomington-Normal Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. ACT-SO is a program for African-American high school students to recognize and encourage their academic, scientific and artistic talents.

More than 600 students attended the national competition. The 32 categories of competition included business, science, technology, culinary arts, entrepreneurship, visual and performing arts and humanities.

Jordyn Blythe, a junior at University High School, earned gold in dramatics for her monologue performance about a doctor who overcomes the personal struggle of caring for a patient who is a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Alexis Starks, a junior at Normal Community High School, won silver in photography for her use of tintype photos.

What sets Alexis photography apart from the other competitors is her unique use of a process called tintype, which is wet plate photography that dates back to the 1800s, said Carol de la Cruz, the local ACT-SO chairperson. Jordyns dramatic portrayal of a depressed womans struggle to show love in the face of racial hatred was quite powerful.

Cruz said the competition builds strong bonds between the students and boosts confidence.

The ACT-SO program encourages students to pursue and fulfill their passions, said Cruz. Volunteers from the community serve as mentors to assist students one-on-one with their projects. We try to give students skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.

Students interested in joining BN ACT-SO can attend an orientation and registration session from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Aug. 28 in room 131 of Illinois State University's State Farm Hall of Business.

Students also can register at www.bnact-so.org.
BLOOMINGTON  Eight 4-H members will vie for the title of McLean County 4-H Fair king and queen during a contest beginning at 7 p.m. Aug. 3 in the Cloverleaf Auditorium at the McLean County Fairgrounds.

Court members Caroline Creager, Katrina Lilienthal, Sydney Monroe, Breanne Penn, Emma Rients, Sarah Widener, Eli Tobin and Jordan Witte were chosen during a preliminary contest July 13. The fair runs Aug. 3-7.

Creager, 18, is the daughter of Rosita Creager and James Creager of Mackinaw. She is a 10-year member of the Dry Grove 4-H Club. Her most meaningful 4-H award was being named a McLean County "Cool Kid. She will be a freshman at Illinois Central College and major in biology/pre-vet or pre-medicine.

Lilienthal, 19, is the daughter of Kevin and Emily Lilienthal of Bloomington. She is an 11-year member of the Ardent Tillers 4-H Club. Her most meaningful 4-H Fair Award was Reserve Best of Show in Floral. She will attend Heartland Community College in the fall.

Monroe, 17, is the daughter of Kathy Woods of Normal. She is a four-year member of the Ardent Tillers 4-H Club. Her most meaningful 4-H Fair award was Reserve Best of Class with her fleece blanket. She will be a senior at Normal Community High School.

Penn, 17, is the daughter of Brendon Penn of Bloomington. She has been a member of the Linden Lead'em and Equus 4-H clubs for three years. Her most meaningful 4-H Fair award was first place with her carbon/chalk/pigment project. She is home schooled and is a senior.

Rients, 17, is the daughter of Howard and Martha Rients of Towanda. She is a 10-year member of the Towanda Busy Bees. Her most meaningful 4-H Fair award was Reserve Best of Class with her cat. She will be a freshman at Southern Illinois University and major in animal science/pre-vet.

Widener, 17, is the daughter of Dean and Staci Widener of Normal. She is a nine-year member of the Homespun and Metal Cow Robotics 4-H clubs. Her most memorable 4-H award received was the I Dare You Award. She is home schooled and also attends Heartland Community College.

Tobin, 17, is the son of Brian and Tracy Tobin of Lexington. He has been a member of the Linden Lead'em 4-H Club for eight years. His most meaningful 4-H Fair award was Best of Show in plant and soil science. He was home schooled and graduated in 2016.

Witte, 17, is the son of Joe Witte and Angela Witte of Waynesville. He is a nine-year member of the Linden Lead'em 4-H Club. His most meaningful 4-H Fair award was Best of Show in entomology. He is a home-schooled senior and also attends Heartland Community College.
CHICAGO  Cyberstalking charges have been dismissed against a Bloomington man based on a recent decision by the First District Appellate Court that ruled the state's cyberstalking law is unconstitutional.

Kevin Simpson, 50, was charged in June 2015 with cyberstalking and telephone harassment involving a Bloomington police Lt. Tim Stanesa. Charges alleged that Simpson used the internet to post derogatory remarks and a photograph of the officer in May 2015.

In a motion to dismiss the felony charges this week, Assistant State's Attorney Brad Rigdon cited the recent court ruling, adding "the state believes there is sufficient evidence to prove the defendant guilty at trial and will re-file if the statute is determined to be constitutional."

In a decision issued June 24, the appellate court held that the state's 2008 law violates free speech and due process rights. The appeal was filed by Walter Relerford, a Cook County man, convicted of harassing a radio station employee in 2012 in Chicago.

He argued his constitutional rights were violated because the law does not require intent on the part of the accused to harass another person.

Whether or not the ruling is the final word is up to the Illinois Supreme Court that will decide to either uphold the ruling, or decline to consider an appeal and issue a mandate that must be followed by all state courts.

McLean County State's Attorney Jason Chambers said his office will monitor the Supreme Court's action.

"We are being mindful of the decision on a case-by-case basis in deciding how to proceed," said Chambers.

If the ruling becomes final, Chambers said his office would dismiss charges without waiting for a defendant to request that charges be dropped.
BLOOMINGTON  A supplemental education center is eyeing Bloomington for its first Illinois location.

Best in Class Education Center wants to open a local site by February. The business offers tutoring and academic programs to students in kindergarten through high school. The franchise, based in Seattle, has 36 centers in seven states.

Best in Class Director of Franchise Sales Sharon Peterson said the business looks at local demographics and community growth when determining a new location.

Bloomington and McLean County are one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in Illinois and thats really impacting the school districts, said Peterson. We also look at the ranking of schools. Whether theyre very far behind or just facing challenges, we have a strong group of individuals who could help make things easier for the districts.

The business offers programs in subject enrichment, private tutoring, test preparation, after-school programs, summer camps, college prep and writing skills assessment.

When students enroll, they are assessed in mathematics and English. Students have a 75-minute session once a week, with six to eight students per teacher.

The curriculum weve developed includes comprehensive plans that prepare students for a lifetime of learning and its complementary to what theyre learning in school today, said Peterson.

Petersen said Best in Class targets communities with a high number of low-income households and students struggling with academic progress.

We can help families of all levels," she said.

Prices start at $120 a month. Once open, the business would hire two to six part-time instructors.

On the Net: www.bestinclasseducation.com.
NORMAL  College students should trust their instincts and parents should talk to their children about sexual consent and alcohol use before they return to campus, police say.

Sexual assault and dating violence occur no matter the gender, but for men, asking consent isnt something really discussed in length prior to college. If somebody has been drinking, its probably not best to have sex with that individual, said Illinois State University Police Chief Aaron Woodruff.

Alcohol tends to be the highest risk factor in many cases of sexual assault, said Woodruff.

Alcohol doesnt cause sexual assault, but it is used to facilitate assault, he said. Keep an eye on your drink and have a trusted partner to accompany you safely home.

He said parents should talk with students about secondary consequences to drinking.

If a student drinks too much they might throw up, miss class, lose sleep, disrupt neighbors or do criminal damage. Those secondary consequences dont often get addressed, said Woodruff.

Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner said students should travel in pairs, travel only with familiar people and only to familiar places.

If youre at a gathering or social event, be cognizant of whats going on around you," he said. "If there is drinking at a party, be the one who prepares your own drink and keep an eye on it.

In the case of a worrisome situation, Bleichner said students should call police.

Trust that instinct, he said. If you have a feeling something isnt right, dont ignore it. If you arent comfortable in a situation, take the steps to avoid it and navigate out of there.

ISU offers Redbird Safe Walk for students and faculty who would like to be escorted to their car, a campus location or nearby apartment. The service is available 24/7. To request an escort, call 309-438-9255. ISU also provides Rape Aggression Defense, a self-defense program for women.

Multiple counseling programs are available at ISU and in the community for victims of sexual violence. YWCAs Stepping Stones is a free and confidential program that provides counseling, legal and medical advocacy for sexual assault victims and their loved ones. Stepping Stones can be reached at 309-662-0461.

Kara Alt, Stepping Stones medical legal advocate and direct services coordinator, has a simple message in regards to sexual consent:

Respect other peoples boundaries and do not assault others, said Alt. Its important to understand the definition of consent and if there is drinking involved, consent cannot be given.
Neither the unanimous decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, nor Chinas rejection of it, was surprising. The timing of it was, however, as serendipitous as Chinas rejection is ominous.

Coming as Republican delegates convened on Lake Eries shore, the tribunals opinion about the South China Sea underscores the current frivolousness of American politics, which is fixated on a fictitious wall that will never exist but silent about realities on and above the waters that now are the worlds most dangerous cockpit of national rivalries.

Chinas nine-dash line aggression  asserting sovereignty over the South China Sea  is being steadily implemented by the manufacture and militarization of artificial islands far from Chinas mainland, and by increasingly reckless air and naval actions in the region. China is attempting to intimidate the six nations (the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia) whose claims conflict with Chinas. China has threatened these nations, and others, freedom on the seas, fishing rights, oil exploration and more.

In 2013, the Philippines took its case to the Court of Arbitration, whose jurisdiction China pre-emptively rejected. The Philippines has now won most of its claims but has achieved nothing unless the United States leads regional powers in enforcing this decision. The Hague has no navy.

International law fulfills important functions but often is most successful when least important: It arbitrates disputes about rights and duties among likeminded nations that acknowledge its underlying norms. When, however, a rising nations interests and aspirations conflict with those norms, trying to restrain this nation with those norms is like lassoing a locomotive with a cobweb.

So, although it was prudent for the Philippines to bring this case, and although the court conscientiously measured Chinas claims and behavior next to the pertinent precedents, the courts correct legal decision makes the world more dangerous: China now knows that only force can achieve its ends. We are, as Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has said with notable understatement, in a long-term competitive situation.

The projection of U.S. power to the far side of the Pacific depends on alliances and cooperation -- including access to bases  with Australia, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and others. Chinas aim of dominance in the region can only be achieved by weakening the U.S. allies confidence  particularly that of the Philippines, which seems susceptible to Chinas promises of development projects  in U.S. resolve. And confidence in U.S. skill at calibrating the pressure requisite for countering Chinas ambitions without provoking a Chinese miscalculation in a region where U.S. military assets, especially naval, still dominate.

Two U.S. carrier groups have visited the region this year. China is developing and deploying a modern nuclear submarine fleet, land-based aircraft and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and other means of pushing back the U.S. presence. Chinese military aircraft have made dangerous approaches to U.S. military aircraft. A Taiwanese naval vessel accidentally sank, with an anti-ship missile, a Taiwanese shrimp boat. Accidents happen. And intentional acts can have unintended consequences. A single assassination loosed the cascade of events that produced the war that was devouring Europe 100 years ago.

At the start of the turn of the 20th century, the worlds most formidable challenge was to integrate into the international system a rising, restless, assertive Germany. This did not go well. Early in the 21st century, China poses a comparable challenge. If this does not go well, the differences might be arbitrated by weapons undreamt of a century ago.

This week, the Republican Party formalized its judgment that the Navy, the nuclear launch codes and other important things should be placed in the hands of someone not known for nuance, patience or interest in allies and collective security. Americans, dismayed by two consecutive commanders in chief  the recklessness of one and the inconstancy of his successor  must now decide whether, and if so how and by whom, they want U.S. power to be projected.

In the South China Sea, says Secretary Carter, America must steel itself for a long campaign of firmness, and gentle but strong pushback. This will require freedom of navigation assertions, involving naval and air operations that challenge, among other things, Chinas expansive claims to sovereignty over islands and waters far from its mainland.

If the next president does not conduct such operations with steady, measured skill, the result could be the collapse of Americas position in the worlds most populous, dynamic and perhaps dangerous region, or war. Was any of this on anyones mind in Cleveland?
This year, Illinois will either continue down the road where the people are ruled by an increasingly unaccountable political class, or it will begin to return the reins of government to the voters.

I'm one of over half a million Illinois voters who signed a petition to place on the Nov. 8 ballot the Independent Map Amendment, to amend the Illinois Constitution by removing the legislative redistricting authority from the General Assembly, which is using it to insulate its members from the voters. You can't "vote the rascals out" when 60 percent of them are unopposed.

The amendment has more than enough signatures to be on the ballot. But one of Madigan's minions filed suit in "Crook" County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the referendum.

Democratic Judge Diane Larsen, who needs party support for retention in office this November, ruled the measure can't go on the ballot. I don't question her integrity, but neither is she likely to appear in any updated edition of "Profiles in Courage."

The Illinois Supreme Court will decide the case and either strike a blow for democratic government or continue government of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians in Illinois for at least another generation.

I don't blame the Democrats for exercising the prerogatives of the majority, but I can and do blame them for rigging the system to keep them in the majority, and defying the will of the people to change that system.

David Stanczak, Bloomington
It has been months since Disney announced it will be bringing "High School Musical 4" and nationwide open casting calls have been done and over with online and in Anaheim, California. Production is reportedly scouting for filming locations as the musical is set to roll the cameras by August. Work on "HSM 4" is definitely ramping up.

'High School Musical 4' August Filming In Vancouver Or L.A.

A post on Twitter indicated that the production crew from "High School Musical 4" is planning to shoot the special in either Vancouver or Los Angeles. Work on the set is supposed to start by August, but no other details were divulged.

High School Musical 4 looking to shoot in either Vancouver or Los Angeles this August @WhatsFilming @olv #yvrshoots  Lindsay B (@lemon_buzz) July 20, 2016

Back in May, Disney Channel Auditions also reported that filming for "High School Musical 4" will begin in August 2016. But Disney has yet to confirm the new set of actors who will be working on these locations. Those who did have a chance to audition have been waiting for a callback from the casting directors.

'High School Musical 4' Callbacks Rolling Since June

A young "High School Musical 4" aspirant, Jianni, shared her experience during the open casting call in Anaheim, California via a video blog on YouTube. She writes that she had fun during the auditions, but also described the experience as "pretty nerve wracking."

Jianni also asked her followers in the comments if anyone who has auditioned for "High School Musical 4" has gotten a callback from the casting directors. Someone replied that callbacks have started happening since June and one confirmed she received a callback on June 28.

On Twitter, hundreds of hopefuls are also wondering if callbacks have been made or if Disney has actually picked the new stars for "High School Musical 4." But the studio has kept things under wraps.

It is also not yet confirmed if the original HSM stars, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, are going to make a cameo despite conflicting reports. Only Ashley Tisdale has so far expressed she won't be part of it anymore, as Parent Herald reported previously.
Following the controversy about the censorship of Connor (Jack Falahee) and Oliver's (Conrad Ricamora) sex scene in Italy, "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3 is ready to make headlines again. As a matter of fact, latest reports about the upcoming season of the hit ABC series are getting more interesting, noting a recurring cast member and the dramatic plotlines.

"How to Get Away with Murder" season 3 has already begun filming and executive producer Pete Nowalk has recently shared a glimpse of what's happening behind the scenes through the photos he posted on Instagram. Based on the series' premiere episode set photos, some of the "HTGAWM" cast appeared to be in the middle of a courtroom battle, Parent Herald previously reported.

'How To Get Away With Murder' Season 3 Hints 'Case-Of-The Week Format'

"How to Get Away with Murder" season 3 will reportedly return to its "case-of-the-week" format while the legal drama plotlines will be lessened. But according to MNR Daily, the upcoming season will create a "balance" in depicting the character's backstories and the courtroom procedural storylines.

Trouble In Paradise For Connor And Oliver In 'How To Get Away With Murder' Season 3

After the controversial censorship of Connor and Oliver's sex scene in Italy, fans are wondering what will happen next in their relationship in "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3. In the upcoming season, there might a messy relationship drama between the couple after Oliver deleted Connor's acceptance letter from Stanford's law school in the second season, iDigital Times reveals.

"HTGAWM" fans, however, knew that Oliver is not the only one living in a lie but also Connor. And Connor's deception is a "whole different level" as he's involved in a murder.

Frank Is Back In 'How To Get Away With Murder' Season 3

Following the disappearance of Frank (Charlie Weber) in the previous season, Christian Times confirmed that he'll be making a comeback in "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3. Unfortunately, Weber won't be having scenes with Viola Davis, who plays the role of Annalise in the series.

Recurring Cast In 'How To Get Away With Murder' Season 3

"Dexter" alum Luna Velez is reportedly joining the cast of "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3 for a recurring role. TVLine exclusively learns that Velez will be playing the role of Annalise's boss or the president of Middleton University. Meanwhile, "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3 air date is scheduled on Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. on ABC.

What do you think will happen in "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
The power couple behind the "19 Kids and Counting" clan, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar are plagued with divorce rumors. According to reports, the older Duggars have already separated but are just keeping it a secret.

The separation was reportedly due to their constant fighting over Josh Duggar's molestation scandal. However, the latest reports about the family reveal that Jim Bob and Michelle are celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary.

Jim Bob And Michelle Duggar Celebrate 32nd Anniversary

Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar are celebrating their over three decades of love and marriage. In their family blog, the "19 Kids and Counting" clan greets their mom and dad for their 32nd wedding anniversary.

"Today Jim Bob and Michelle are celebrating their 32nd year of marriage!" a post on their blog goes. "This past year, Jim Bob and Michelle have gone through what happen with their son Joshua. They watched as their son, Josiah, ended his courtship. They also watched their daughter, Jessa, welcomed her first child in November 2015."

In another blog for Duggar and Bates Families, the family posted a photo of Jim Bob and Michelle on their wedding. Both look amazing and happy 32 years ago when they exchanged their vows.

Jessa Denies Jim Bob And Michelle Duggar's Divorce

Parent Herald previously reported that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have separated. However, they are just keeping their separation a secret.

The rumors pointed out Josh Duggar's molestation scandal to be behind Jim Bob and Michelle's misunderstanding. Michelle doesn't want a harsh punishment for Josh, to which Jim Bob did not comply.

However, per the Hollywood Gossip, Jessa Duggar-Seewald posted a photo of her mom and dad, while greeting Jim Bob for his 51st birthday. While it may seem a plain birthday greeting, the report suggests that it is Jessa's way to debunk the report rumors and let everyone know that everything is fine with Jim Bob and Michelle.

HAPPY 51st BIRTHDAY, DADDY! I love you so much!!! A photo posted by Jessa Seewald (@jessaseewald) on Jul 18, 2016 at 3:31pm PDT

Do you agree that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's marriage is just fine? Should fans blame Josh Duggar if his parent divorce? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Schools in New York City are currently seeing declining discipline reforms including arrests and suspensions among students. Despite that development, a new report found that students of color (blacks and Latinos) and disabled pupils are still being discriminated against.

Decreasing Number Of Arrests

According to the new data released by the New York City Police Department, arrests in city schools have plummeted to over 50 percent last year, with 80 percent fewer summons carried out. More specifically, 3,133 students were arrested in the 2010-11 school year by school safety or patrol officers, but that has decreased to 1,155 pupils last year.

This year, 436 students were arrested between January and March. This matches 2016's discipline reforms rate to last year's. Majority of students' encounters with police officers are due to misdemeanors or noncriminal violations of the administrative code, the New York Civil Liberties Union reported.

The latest data from the NYPD comes with a second set of school discipline reforms released by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. The new reforms will end suspensions of second graders and below, and a new review policy based on NYPD school-level information will determine whether metal detectors should be used for added safety.

In the letter included in the new school discipline reforms, de Blasio said that NYC is not just punishing students; they're also coming up with "proactive" disciplinary approaches to ensure schools' safety and to teach pupils how to recognize the consequences of their behavior. De Blasio stressed that the new set of reforms are part of NYC's current plan to ditch "zero-tolerance" or severe punishments.

Students Of Color Still Receive Majority Of The Arrests And Disciplinary Actions

Despite these notable improvements, almost all disciplinary actions are carried out on NYC's students of color, the NYCLU noted. For years, low-level suspensions have included plenty of black, Latino, and disabled students and are deemed to be discriminatory.

This has been contributing to the School to Prison Pipeline, which is policies and practice that push schoolchildren in the United States into juvenile and criminal justice systems. A nationwide data from the U.S. Department of Education released in June found that African-American K-12 students are 3.8 times more likely to be given one or more out-of-school suspensions than their white counterparts, USA Today reported.

In accordance with NYC's new school safety plan, a $47 million fund will be directed to school climate and mental health initiatives every year, The Village Voice reported. It includes $15 million that will be given to schools that have the highest number of arrests, summons, suspensions, and calls to emergency medical services.
A storm just hit the U.S.-Canadian border and have ravaged northern Minnesota. The aftermath are uprooted trees, entangled power lines, two dead and injured American campers.

The Washington Post reports that Canadian police have found two campers following a huge storm that reached Basswood Lake in Quetico Provincial Park where the Boy Scouts of America were camping. The Ontario Provincial Police identified the fallen bodies as teen boy, Christian James Sanchez, 13, from Lewisville, Texas and female volunteer, Rorth Lac, 39, from Carrollton, Texas.

A tree killed the teen boy and the female volunteer when it fell right on top of their tents. Two other campers had serious injuries and were rushed to the hospital in Ely (via The Washington Post).

According to The Washington Post, none of the campers knew that there was a storm coming. As per The Star Tribune, the campers were sleeping on their tents when at 3 a.m. they heard trees falling down with strong winds and rain. They immediately called for help and a floatplane was sent from St. Louis County Sheriff's Office, as well as response from Lake County rescue squads.

The families of the nine campers, three adults and six boys, are now being notified of the incident. The Boy Scouts will prepare grief counseling sessions for the members and volunteers (via The Washington Post).

As per CBS Minnesota, the storm came with destructive winds that reportedly reached up to 80 miles per hour. It cut power lines in Minnesota where thousands of locals lost electricity from Duluth to the twin cities.

Early on Thursday, Duluth authorities have already advised against travel because of the entangled power lines and loads of debris in the streets. Clearing of debris have started in Beltrami County.

Senior Research Scientist at Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorology Chuck Doswell alerts campers that they should be prepared with every possible thing they can encounter during a campout. Thunderstorms are unavoidable which is why campers should know how to keep safe when it happens.

Some tips include avoiding tall objects especially isolated trees and fence and power lines to minimize risks of being hit by lightning. Driving into water is also unadvisable and even staying out of water crossings or streams to be safe in case a flash flood happens. It is a must to look for caves or whatever place that can shield one from flying debris and the head should be covered with one's hands at all times.

In case you're at home when a thunderstorm strikes or you heard news that one is about to come, watch the video below to learn about the preparations you can do to keep you and your family safe. Comment your thoughts and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
Teresa Palmer is now expecting her second child with husband Mark Webber. The actress' current pregnancy, however, started out rocky and even led to a more serious health diagnosis for Palmer.

In an interview with OK! magazine, the "Lights Out" star recounted how difficult it was for her and Webber to try for a second pregnancy. Palmer described the experience as "stressful, confusing, sad, disappointing and downright unsexy," Daily Mail reported.

Teresa Palmer's Molar Pregnancy

The 30-year-old Palmer recalled that she and her husband was overwhelmed with excitement when they realized that they successfully conceived a second child. Their happiness, however, was cut short when doctors told them during a heartbeat ultrasound that Palmer wasn't carrying a baby, but a molar pregnancy that could become cancer.

According to the National Health Service, a molar pregnancy is unsuccessful because the placenta and fetus don't form properly. This is where a non-viable fertilized egg latches in the uterus but is unable to come to term.

Last month, Palmer wrote on her blog Your Zen Mama that she displayed the symptoms of a pregnancy back then, but it turned out to be a "potentially cancerous tumor" that grows in size. The Australian actress shared she had to be monitored weekly with blood tests to ensure that the tumor won't grow back.

Teresa Palmer's Second Pregnancy

Fortunately, Palmer's HCG levels decreased fast and chemotherapy wasn't required. Now, Palmer is healthy and truly expecting her second child due in November. The couple already has a two-year-old son named Bodhi Rain, while Webber, 36, has an 8-year-old son named Isaac Love from a past relationship.

On July 11, Palmer revealed on Your Zen Mama that she has no plans to stop breastfeeding her son Bodhi Rain as long as he wants to. She said that the child seeks her breast because it gives him a sense of comfort and connection, but he also eats different kinds of food.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advised moms to breastfeed a child for the first six months of its life, though some mothers breastfeed their kid until three or four years old, Us Weekly reported. In her post, Palmer mentioned Dr. Katherine A. Dettwyler, an anthropology professor at the University of Delaware. Dettwyler believes that a child's IQ score and school grades are higher if he/she breastfed longer.

Palmer's "Lights Out" is currently out in theaters. Directed by David Sandberg, the horror flick also stars Gabriel Bateman, Maria Bello, Lotta Losten, Billy Burke, and Alexander DiPersia.
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield have made quite the stir when it was reported last October 2015 that they have decided to end their three-year-relationship. However, the shippers of the two actors, who both starred in the 2012 flick "The Amazing Spider-Man," are buzzing over the new rumors that they are back on again while other reports claimed they never really broke things off.

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield Spotted Together Last June

Reports of reconciliation first started when the "Easy A" actress and "The Social Network" actor were seen on a romantic cruise at the Aegean sea as they reportedly toured around Greece and Turkey. The two were not alone, however, as they had some of their close friends aboard.

It was unclear if there was any PDA between the supposed exes as witnesses only said that they were surrounded by bodyguards during the trip, International Business Times reported.

More Speculations About Emma Stone-Andrew Garfield Relationship

The two reportedly broke things off last October of 2015 after Garfield was not seen with Stone during the Emmy Awards even if it was a big thing for the actress since she was nominated for her role in the hit film "Birdman."

Speculations have then surfaced saying that the two never really broke things off but were just eager to keep the paparazzi off of their backs. In fact, a week after the supposed break-up, Stone was spotted carrying a bag with Garfield's name on it, which is said to be his clothes from a designer that they both go to. Another speculation about the break-up was because of their busy schedules.

Stone and Garfield first met when they shot for the Sony reboot of the "Spider-Man" movie and before he dated the actress, he was romantically linked to Shannon Woodward.

Stone is now linked to her former on-screen partner Ryan Gosling. However, it was said that reports were made about the two for their upcoming flick "La La Land."

Do you think the two are back together? Sound off below.
Miranda Kerr is engaged! She said yes to Evan Spiegel after dating for a year. The Snapchat cofounder and CEO went down on his knees and said "Marry Me."

In an Instagram photo, the 33-year-old supermodel, announced the happy news on Wednesday, July 20. Miranda Kerr added a custom Snapchat filter. "I said yes!!!" she captioned the pic. The picture also displayed her large diamond ring. It had a very cute Bitmoji cartoon depiction of the proposal and the words "Marry Me!"

I said yes!!! A photo posted by Miranda (@mirandakerr) on Jul 20, 2016 at 8:39am PDT

Miranda Kerr and Evan Spiegel started dating in June 2015. The couple decided to take a step ahead in their relationship when they bought a mansion which is worth $12 million. The mansion was in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The Australian beauty revealed that she had met Spiegel at a dinner in Los Angeles for Louis Vuitton. "We were really good friends for a long time before we started dating," she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Rumors were already ablaze that Evan was ready to propose to Miranda. They are both completely smitten, and Evan's starting to look at rings," a source told US Magazine.

There are reports that the couple is all set to marry in style. They are planning a very extravagant affair and it would reflect Evan's style in true sense. This will be one of the things that Miranda won't mind at all.

Miranda Kerr is definitely smitten by Evan Spiegel. "He's 25, but acts like he's 50," she said. "He's not out partying. He goes to work in [L.A.'s] Venice. He comes home. We don't go out. We'd rather be at home and have dinner, go to bed early," the super model gushed.

This would be Miranda Kerr's second marriage. She was formerly married to Orlando Bloom with whom she shares a 5-year-old son, Flynn. They were married from 2010 to 2013, reported US Magazine.

Upon their split, Miranda was very particular and established few relationship rules with Orlando Bloom. It was mutually decided that they have to meet a person and know each other for at least 6 months before introducing them to Flynn.

"Evan met Flynn, so, yeah, things are going well. Orlando thinks he's great. We're just a modern family now!"

A grand wedding is on cards. We wish the couple good luck!
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In a new IDC report on smartwatches for Q2 2016, Apple remains number one with Apple Watch holding a commanding 47% market share. Samsung was a cold distant second with only 16%. Lenovo and LG battled it out for third spot with only 8% of the market.





said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers stated in the report that "Consumers have held off on smartwatch purchases since early 2016 in anticipation of a hardware refresh, and improvements in WatchOS are not expected until later this year, effectively stalling existing Apple Watch sales. Still Apple maintains a significant lead in the market and unfortunately a decline for Apple leads to a decline in the entire market. Every vendor faces similar challenges related to fashion and functionality, and though we expect improvements next year, growth in the remainder of 2016 will likely be muted."

Perhaps one of the biggest omissions in the smartwatch market is the absence of traditional watchmaker brands among the leading vendors. "To date, only a small handful of traditional watchmaker brands have entered the smartwatch market, trailing far behind their technology brand counterparts," said Ramon T. Llamas, research manager for IDC's Wearables team. "This seems to be changing, albeit slowly, as key vendors like Casio, Fossil, and Tag Heuer have launched their own models to the market. Still, participation from traditional watchmaker brands is imperative to deliver some of the most important qualities of a smartwatch sought after by end-users, namely design, fit, and functionality. Combine these with the brand recognition and distribution these brands already have, and it's reasonable to expect the smartwatch market to grow from here.

To date Jean-Claude Biver, head of watch brands (Tag Heuer, Zenith, and Hublot) at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA was the first to state that he was unimpressed with the design of the Apple Watch. In an interview with Germany's Die Welt in 2014, Biver said the wearable device is too feminine and suggested it will not stand the test of time."

And yet despite Jean-Claude Biver's Tag Heuer entering the smartwatch market last year, they didn't even register in the top 5 smartwatch vendors in Q2. Jean-Claude Biver's bravado isn't backed up by sales of any significance.

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After 5 weeks of travelling, staying in equally-many rental apartments, and dealing with jet lag as well, twice earlier this week I woke up at night trying to remember where I was, and it took me a few minutes to realize that I was actually in my own bed. Now the vacations over and were back to real life, a mountain of mail, work projects to settle back into  and the realization that Trump 2016 is unfortunately also a part of real life, not just a bad dream.

And what a miserable convention to return home to  one speaker after then next unable to truly promote Trump for his policies and left with bashing Hillary instead. Though I have to admit I havent watched all too much of the speakers.

But Trumps recent interview with the New York Times? Ugh. Makes it pretty difficult to stick your head in the sand and say, surely he wouldnt be that bad!

Consider that, rather than raising the concerns that everyone else has with Erdogans upping up the authoritarianism in Turkey, he shrugs with an eh, who am I to judge? Not kidding.

SANGER: Erdogan put nearly 50,000 people in jail or suspend them, suspended thousands of teachers, he imprisoned many in the military and the police, he dismissed a lot of the judiciary. Does this worry you? And would you rather deal with a strongman whos also been a strong ally, or with somebody thats got a greater appreciation of civil liberties than Mr. Erdogan has? Would you press him to make sure the rule of law applies? TRUMP: I think right now when it comes to civil liberties, our country has a lot of problems, and I think its very hard for us to get involved in other countries when we dont know what we are doing and we cant see straight in our own country. We have tremendous problems when you have policemen being shot in the streets, when you have riots, when you have Ferguson. When you have Baltimore. When you have all of the things that are happening in this country  we have other problems, and I think we have to focus on those problems. When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I dont think were a very good messenger.

Then he discusses his attitude towards NATO: hed discard longstanding US military commitments based on the claim that that a country under attack hadnt been pulling its own weight by reimbursing the U.S. for our costs in maintaining military bases abroad.

If we cannot be properly reimbursed for the tremendous cost of our military protecting other countries, and in many cases the countries Im talking about are extremely rich. Then if we cannot make a deal, which I believe we will be able to, and which I would prefer being able to, but if we cannot make a deal, I would like you to say, I would prefer being able to, some people, the one thing they took out of your last story, you know, some people, the fools and the haters, they said, Oh, Trump doesnt want to protect you. I would prefer that we be able to continue, but if we are not going to be reasonably reimbursed for the tremendous cost of protecting these massive nations with tremendous wealth . . .

And he rambles on about Korea and seems to suggest that if we hadnt had our military there, then there would have been a unified Korea or  well, to be honest, I cant make much sense out of this rambling:

SANGER: Well, keeping the peace. We didnt have a presence in places like Korea in 1950, or not as great a presence, and you saw what happened. TRUMP: Theres no guarantee that well have peace in Korea. SANGER: Even with our troops, no, theres no guarantee. TRUMP: No, theres no guarantee. We have 28,000 soldiers on the line. SANGER: But weve had them there since 1953 and  TRUMP: Sure, but that doesnt mean that there wouldnt be something going on right now. Maybe you would have had a unified Korea. Who knows what would have happened? In the meantime, what have we done? So weve kept peace, but in the meantime weve let North Korea get stronger and stronger and more nuclear and more nuclear, and you are really saying, Well, how is that a good thing? You understand? North Korea now is almost like a boiler. You say weve had peace, but that part of Korea, North Korea, is getting more and more crazy. And more and more nuclear. And they are testing missiles all the time.

Incidentally, heres data on military spending by NATO countries, where the target is 2%:

and, of key non-NATO countries, per the World Bank, South Korea spends 2.6%, and Japan 1.0%  but, then again, Japans constitution, which the US dictated to them after World War II, prohibits having a military, so they call theirs self-defense forces.

So Trump is nuts. Hes a wild card, hes got no comprehension of foreign policy and just throws out crackpot ideas as if hes been listening to Rush Limbaugh without paying much attention, and maybe that crazy history teacher that spends class time rambling on about conspiracy theories, with a dose of Bernie Sanders in there. The best case scenario is that hes not actually interested, and delegates the whole thing to Pence.

But  I just cant vote for Hillary.

For all that appears to be the grown-up in the room  well, its not as if she has a compelling foreign policy track record. As much as Trump seems to be fond of Putin, it was Hillary who came to Moscow with the infamous Reset Button. And she was part and parcel of the Iraq withdrawal and the failed Arab Spring that gave us todays refugee crisis. As much as Trumps seriousness in immigration enforcement is questionable, Clinton has outright said that she will not take any enforcement actions against anyone, hasnt she? And as far as domestic policy is concerned, its not a selling point to tell me that shell manage to accomplish things that Trump wont, since all of the things that Hillary wants to accomplish are things I disagree with.

Beyond which, the corruption issue matters. The private server shows wanton disregard for national security in order to advantage herself. The Clinton Foundation, and the money flowing into it from all manner of sketchy sources? Sure, the line repeated by Clinton supporters is that if she truly was corrupt, shed have been caught by now, but the world doesnt work that way.

Which leaves me hoping for  well, a miracle isnt really the right word, but some dramatic change between now and November. Itd be wrong to say that one hopes for a sudden heart attack, so maybe instead lets hope that Trump wakes up one morning and realizes that in no way is he ready to be president, nor does he actually want to put in the work that the job requires, and hastily calls a press conference to bow out of the race.

Of course, thats unlikely to happen.

Which leave me with, well, not voting. Or, at least, only voting for the down-ballot races.

And dont tell me that refusing to vote is helping to elect X; its not.

So if youll excuse me, I have a busy night lined up: walk into town to get a treat with the boys, then pull weeds until it gets too dark or buggy, then send my youngest off to bed and read until I finally suck it up and take care of cleaning up the kitchen and running a load of laundry. And, yes, Ill check on the reports in the morning.

UPDATE:

So I read the speech late last night; nothing new or surprising in it. What I wrote pre-speech stands.

Image: from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump; By Michael Vadon [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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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.
Another Iranian-American Detained In Iran, Family Says

07/22/16 Source: RFE/RL

The U.S. State Department said on July 21 that it is looking into reports that another Iranian-American has been detained in Iran. Family members said Iranian authorities took Robin Shahini, 46, of San Diego, California, into custody on July 11 while he was visiting his sick mother in Iran and he has not been heard from since.



Robin Shahini during his International Security and Conflict Resolution San Diego State University graduation ceremony in May 2016 (photo released by a family member)

(Read related story by San Diego Union-Tribune)



That same day, Iran announced the indictments of a Lebanese man and three dual nationals from Britain, Canada, and the United States on unspecified charges.

Shahini was most recently a student at San Diego State University, where he had been accepted into a graduate program in homeland security but had not as yet registered for classes that begin next month.

Family members told the Associated Press that they fear he was detained because of his online comments criticizing Iran's human rights record.

Iranian authorities took his personal belongings when they took Shahini into custody, his family said. He had a plane ticket to return to San Diego on July 25.

Shahini left Iran in 1998 and has lived in San Diego for 16 years.

Based on reporting by AP and CBS 8

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
Iran's Conservatives Lash Out at New Female Fashion Trends

07/22/16

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Irans anti-vice squads, also referred to as the morality police, are particularly busy in the hot summer months when Iranian women wear lighter clothes and are less observant of the mandatory hijab. But this year the squads are focusing on a new threat: women wearing clothes with large English words on them.

On National Hijab and Chastity Day (July 11, 2016), state-sponsored events occurred in ten locations in Tehran and in 400 others throughout the country to defend the sanctity of the family and promote the strict observance of the hijab.

The events, mostly organized by the Basij paramilitary organization (a subsidiary of the Revolutionary Guards) and affiliated groups featured ultra-conservative officials and clerics who touted a common claim: foreign enemies of the Islamic Republic are waging a soft war to encourage women to take off their hijabs.

In the early years of the [1979] revolution people accepted the hijab [becoming mandatory for women] without much force, but this trend did not continue and now we have a situation where we are moving from lax observance of the hijab to no hijab at all, said the Deputy Head of the Judiciary in Charge of Social Affairs Mohammad Bagher Olfat during Judiciary Week (June 21-27).

Controlling Womens Bodies

The focus on the hijab last week brought attention to this new fad among young people in Iran, especially in Tehran, of wearing the manteau-long, form-concealing coats that women were told to wear when in public following the revolution-with large English phrases printed on them, usually with a humorous message.

In response to the negative light being shown on the fashion trend, Iranians light-heartedly shared photos of the latest phrases being featured on the clothing on social media last week. But conservatives were not laughing.

The spread of these kinds of products are against public morality and indicate a lack of attention by the officials in charge of cultural matters, said Minoo Aslani, the female secretary general of the hardline Womens Basij Organization on July 11, 2016.

There are dirty and disdainful phrases printed on the back of these manteaus and so they should be banned from sale and removed from stores as soon as possible, she said in a separate interview that same day.

Some of the phrases include variations of the World War II British slogan, Keep Calm and Carry On, such as Keep Calm, I am Queen or Keep Calm, I am Insured By Abolfazl.

I have seen girls and boys wearing clothes that have the word Queen on them. This is an ugly manifestation of a Western trend that has entered our country with evil intentions devised behind the scenes, said the conservative female former Tehran MP Zohreh Tabibzadeh on July 11, 2016. This is obviously a calculated plan that is spreading because the governments cultural policies leave our countrys gates wide open.

Compulsory Hijab: Not a Life Sentence?

In early July 2016 a senior theologian based in the holy city of Qom issued a fatwa (religious decree) permitting Iranian Muslim women living abroad to remove their hijab under certain circumstances.

Asked how Muslim women should respond if they were required to remove their hijab to continue their education in countries like Turkey, Ayatollah Nasser Makkarem Shirazi said: Given that important posts would be filled by loose women if religious Muslim women are unable to receive higher education, the latter are permitted to remove their hijab if necessary. But in all other cases they should observe it.

Mohammad Oliaei-Fard, an Iranian legal expert, described Makkarem Shirazis fatwa as a historic step that could eventually lead to the end of the compulsory hijab.

The Constitution says that laws must be based on Islam, but Islamic precepts can be interpreted in a way to protect the individual and social rights of citizens, including the right to not wear the hijab. Therefore, this fatwa could be an important step in that direction, said Oliaei-Fard. As the founder of the Islamic Republic [the late Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini] said, preserving the state is most important... therefore the hijab could become voluntary instead of mandatory, if the preservation of the state requires it.

Despite being imposed on all Iranian women after the revolution, the hijab has gradually transformed into many different forms and fashions in Iran. Women have been creatively skirting religious sensitivities, regardless of frequent warnings from the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and his conservative followers about foreign plots to undermine traditional values.

Theres no doubt that this new immoral trend has been orchestrated. Our officials are not prepared to respond to questions about the wide availability of these immoral products in our Islamic society,said Aslani, who regularly preaches hardline policies in the media. It appears that those who are making profits and plotting a cultural invasion are much smarter than our officials in charge of cultural affairs. Its as if they are in deep sleep.
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It turns out that a couple of purchases on iTunes helped to bring down the mastermind behind KickassTorrents, one of the most popular websites for illegal file sharing.

Apple and Facebook were among the companies that handed over data to the U.S. in its investigation of 30-year-old Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of the torrent directory service. Vaulin was arrested in Poland on Wednesday, and U.S. authorities seized seven of the sites domains, all of which are now offline.

KickassTorrents was accused of enabling digital piracy for years, and investigators said it was the 69th most visited website on the entire Internet. It offered a list of torrent files for downloading bootleg movies, music, computer games and more, even as governments across the world tried to shut it down.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initially uncovered information about Vaulin by tracing the IP addresses used to host the KickassTorrents domains, according to a 48-page criminal complaint.

That led investigators to a Canadian ISP, which turned over server data that revealed numerous files, including emails and user information about KickassTorrents operators.

At some point, investigators noticed that Vaulin had been using an Apple email account, at tirm@me.com. The account was used to make iTunes purchases from two IP addresses  both of which also accessed a Facebook account promoting KickassTorrents.

Vaulins Apple email account contained dozens of messages mentioning the file-sharing site, including about its operations and maintenance.

Although investigators tracked Vaulin to addresses in Ukraine, the complaint doesnt mention how they finally apprehended him. He was arrested in Poland, and its unclear why Vaulin was there.

The U.S. is seeking his extradition and has charged him with copyright infringement and money laundering.

According to the complaint, KickassTorrents was generating quite a bit of revenue from online advertising. One bank account it used to accept advertising fees received $31 million in deposits over a 6-month period.

To secretly run KickassTorrents, Vaulin established a front company in Ukraine called Cryptoneat. Employees that worked there also operated the file-sharing site, the complaint alleges.

U.S. investigators have identified other individuals associated with KickassTorrents, but none of them were named in the complaint. Its possible Facebook and Apple could be helping in those investigations as well. Both companies have said they will turn over user data to law enforcement as long as the requests comply with the law.

Neither KickassTorrents or Cryptoneat have responded to requests for comment. But in the meantime, a clone of the file-sharing site has already appeared and is calling for Vaulin to be released.

The clone site links to a petition on Change.org, which claims that the arrest of Vaulin is an attack on users Internet rights. Our freedom to share is the human right which Artem Vaulin has been providing to millions of users, it adds.

The petition so far has 812 supporters.
As the U.S. heads toward an especially contentious national election in November, 15 states are still clinging to outdated electronic voting machines that dont support paper printouts used to audit their internal vote counts.

E-voting machines without attached printers are still being used in a handful of presidential swing states, leading some voting security advocates to worry about the potential of a hacked election.

Some makers of e-voting machines, often called direct-recording electronic machines or DREs, are now focusing on other sorts of voting technology, including optical scanners. They seem reluctant to talk about DREs; three major DRE vendors didnt respond to questions about security.

Here are five things to know about DREs:

1. DREs without paper-trail backups are still used in several states

Five states, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and Lousiana, continue to use DREs without paper-trail printouts statewide, according to election security advocate Verified Voting.

Another 10 states use DREs without paper trails in some voting locations. Among those states: potential presidential swing states Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida, as well as Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee.

Fourteen states use DREs combined with a paper-trail backup, either statewide or in some jurisdictions.

2. Some experts worry about a hacked election

While a hacked election may be unlikely, its not impossible, said Joe Kiniry, a long-time election security researcher. Researchers have found many security holes in DREs, and many states dont conduct comprehensive election audits, said Kiniry, now CEO and chief scientist at Free and Fair, an open-source election technology vendor.

I would say that a determined adversary, with the standard skill that people like me have, would be able to hack an election nationally, he said. With enough money and resources, I dont think thats actually a technical challenge.

Voting results are ripe for manipulation, Kiniry added.

Hacking an election would be more of a social and political challenge than a technical one, he said. Youd have a medium-sized conspiracy in order to achieve such a goal.

While most states have auditable voting systems, only about half the states conduct post-election audits, added Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting.

That leaves a lot of gaps for confirming that election outcomes were correct, she said. In such a contentious election year, well, lets just say its never a good thing to be unable to demonstrate to the publics satisfaction that votes were counted correctly, whether in a small contest or large.

3. The use of DREs without paper trails is in decline

Twenty-three states used DREs without paper trails in the 2008 U.S. election, and 17 used them in 2012, compared to 15 states this year, according to information from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and Verified Voting.

Many states embraced e-voting machines after the disputed 2000 U.S. election, when so-called hanging chads on paper punch ballots in Florida helped to determine the results of the presidential race.

But many DRE models didnt offer a way for election officials to double-check the electronic results. Several fair election advocates called for printers to be installed as a way to audit, and several states listened.

Other states abandoned DREs for electronic scanning technology after several studies found glaring security holes in many DREs and some states reported glitches during the 2004 and 2008 elections.

4. Several issues have driven the decline in DRE use

Many states wanted both reliability and the ability to audit electronic voting results, said Verified Votings Smith.

Ballots counted by scanners give you added reliability, in that if the scanner breaks down, voters can still continue to vote  marking their ballots to be stored in a locked receptacle at the polling place and counted later when the scanner is working again, she said. If you have a DRE polling place, if the DREs break down, voting comes to a halt  unless you have emergency paper ballots for voters to mark.

In addition, some DREs proved expensive to maintain and replace, Smith said. Some DREs had shorter lifespans that some other earlier kinds of equipment, she added. Lever machines lasted for decades; punch-cards, too. So the purchasing cycle became shorter.

States received a 2002 funding boost for election equipment from the federal government, but the money dried up. Jurisdictions found themselves, about a decade-plus on, realizing their systems were wearing out and may need replacement, Smith said.

5. States can take simple and inexpensive steps to improve security

Even though Kinirys company sells voting technology, he tells states they can improve security with better election audits. Many states are extremely resistant to recounts, he said.

States can embrace statistics-based risk-limiting audits and parallel testing audits, which use excess voting machines to test results on Election Day. Both audits are inexpensive; risk-limiting audits are literally something you can learn to do, without being a statistician, in a day, and you can perform the recount in an afternoon, Kiniry said.

States can also hire hackers, even an intern from a computer science department, to probe their voting systems and think like a bad guy, Kiniry said. White hat hackers can help states protect against accidental or malicious behavior.
European Union plans to extend export controls on so-called dual-use technologies to include cyber-surveillance tools could put the brakes on sales of smartphones.

Dual-use technologies are those that can serve civil or military purposes, and some countries impose restrictions on their sale because of fears that they could be used to abuse human rights in the destination country. A draft of new EU export regulations could put smartphones in that category because of their location-tracking capabilities.

The potential for some technologies to be misused has been a concern in the EU since documents leaked following a compromise of Italian company Hacking Team revealed that it had sold its cyber-surveillance tools to repressive regimes.

The person who breached security systems at Hacking Team subsequently wrote that Hacking gives the underdog a chance to fight and win, but European Commission officials were concerned that this EU company, and others like it, were not helping the underdog.

In December 2014 they extended existing export controls to cover intrusion software, but now plans are in hand to require licensing of a much broader range of technologies, according to a draft regulation setting up a regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering, technical assistance, and transit of dual-use items obtained by news website Euractiv.

The draft regulation is intended to update existing rules dating from 2009 and was prepared following a public consultation held during the third quarter of 2015.

The leaked draft  which could be presented in final form as early as September, according to Euractiv  extends the existing definition of dual-use items to also include cyber-surveillance technology which can be used for the commission of serious violations of human rights or international humanitarian law, or can pose a threat to international security or the essential security interests of the Union and its member states.

It also extends the definition of export to include online distribution, not just physical shipments: Yes, military technology can be sold through app stores, too.

The potential difficulty for smart-phone manufacturers and resellers appears on page 20 of the draft, where cyber-surveillance technology is broadly defined as including mobile telecommunication interception equipment, intrusion software, monitoring centers, lawful interception systems and data retention systems, biometrics, digital forensics, location tracking devices, probes and deep package inspection systems.

Smartphones could fall foul of that definition because of their location-tracking capabilities  as could dozens of other GPS gadgets with more innocent purposes, such as keeping tabs on your kids or preventing bicycle theft.

Manufacturers of network filtering software relying on deep packet inspection might be in trouble, too, unless the reports drafters really did intend to include parcel X-ray equipment with their reference to deep package inspection systems.

The draft regulation requires that exporters obtain authorization for all exports of items listed in the annexes, and also, for certain destinations, of items not listed in the annexes.

Unless smartphones are specifically excluded from the scope of the regulation, this could add significant overheads and delays for exporters of items that many people consider not a weapon but an everyday necessity.

The European Parliament is already in favor of extending export controls to include surveillance tools, having voted in December 2012 to ban the export of technology that could be used for mass surveillance, tracking peoples movements, or blocking information.
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution is crucial to liberty because it protects the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. Americas founders had just fought a revolution against a tyrant, King George III, whose troops routinely kicked in doors without warrants.

The digital age is bringing new challenges to the Fourth Amendment. But a key decision last week bolsters this right. At issue are devices such as the StingRay by Harris Corp. that, in the companys description, among other things performs dialed number and registration collection, mobile interrogation and target tracking and location of cell phones.

In the case United States v. Rayomnd Lambis, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration used such a device to collect data from Mr. Lambis cell in its drug trafficking case against him that allowed them to locate where he allegedly was holding illegal narcotics. But William H. Pauley III, a federal district judge for the Southern District of New York, threw out the evidence.

The StingRay device mimicks an actual cell phone tower, allowing government agents to stimulate a signal to a particular cell phone, then locate it. Here, the use of the cell-site simulator to obtain more precise information about the target phones location was not contemplated by the original warrant application, wrote the judge in his decision. If the government had wished to use a cell-site simulator, it could have obtained a warrant. The use of a cell-site simulator constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. Absent a search warrant, the government may not turn a citizens cell phone into a tracking device.

The judge noted that last year, Perhaps recognizing this, the Department of Justice changed its internal policies, and now requires government agents to obtain a warrant before utilizing a cellsite simulator.

For California law enforcement, last year Gov. Jerry Brown already signed into law the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which banned the use of StingRay devices without a warrant.

Unfortunately, the Lambis case still is pending in federal court as Judge Pauleys decision only affected the StingRay evidence. So the case also demonstrates the need to reduce or terminate the war on drugs, especially at the federal level, because it so often is used to curb our liberties.

And the increase of digital technology involves other questions. For example, the International Association of Chiefs of Police warns the pervasive collection of snapshots of auto license plates might violate the First Amendment by recording vehicles parked at addiction-counseling meetings, doctors offices, health clinics, or even staging areas for political protests.

In these controversies over new digital devices, government always should err on the side of protecting our rights.
An Ontario man was arrested Wednesday evening in the West Valley Detention Center parking lot after deputies say they found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia on him.

Wilfrido Sartiaguin, 30, pulled his black Toyota pickup truck onto the jail property and started slowly driving in circles through the visitor parking lot, according to a sheriffs news release.

Sartiaguins driving caught the watchful eye of a deputy who pulled over the pickup.

After a brief conversation with Sartiaguin, the deputy searched him and allegedly found drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine, according to the release.

Sartiaguin was booked for suspicion of bringing controlled substance into a jail. Hes being held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Thursday, July 7 a Hemet man was arrested after deputies stopped him in the parking lot and found marijuana in the car he was driving.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell stood nearby while more than 7,000 confiscated firearms became rebar at a Rancho Cucamonga steel mill Thursday morning.

For the second year in a row, I have the privilege of overseeing our annual gun destruction event, McDonnell said. Today, more than 7,000 firearms will be translated from their potential of destruction into the certainty of construction.

The sheriffs department held its 23rd Annual Gun Melt at Rancho Cucamongas Gerdau Steel Mill, destroying 7,044 firearms seized from criminal investigations as well as guns turned in by LA County residents during buy-back programs.

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The number included weapons confiscated by or turned in to the Beverly Hills and El Monte police departments, as well firearms no longer needed as evidence in Los Angeles Superior Court cases.

Every gun, every rifle, every semi-automatic weapon that you see behind me will not fall into the hands of a mentally unstable person, a criminal on our streets or anyone else who may wish to do us harm, said U.S. Rep. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, who also attended the event.

Thursdays gun melt came less than a month after Gerdau recycled another 2,100 pounds of guns from the Hemet Police Department.

Gerdau Steel Mill donates its furnace, equipment and employees to convert the weapons into steel rebar for use in local highways and bridges.

California has the second highest demand for rebar in the nation, according to Kimberly Selph, a Gerdau spokeswoman.

With this years gun melt, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department and Gerdau will have destroyed more than 180,000 firearms over the past 23 years, according to a sheriffs news release.

PHOTO GALLERY: 7,044 seized, surrendured guns melted down
A challenge to readers: Who can top Hemetian Becki Gomezs overnight ordeal on what was supposed to be four-hour, 15-minute flight from Ontario to Denver to San Antonio to be with grandchildren.

I kept thinking about that movie, with Tom Hanks, you know the one that he was living in an airport, she said, referring to The Terminal, a flick about an immigrant forced to take up residency in JFK airport.

Gomez is a retired Hemet Valley Medical Center nurse well known for helping deliver babies for many years. She also is the woman who bravely spoke to the Hemet City Council about her 2012 mugging. Her speech sparked a citizens movement to support police and reduce crime.

Her 4:10 p.m. Southwest flight Tuesday to Denver, where she would change to San Antonio flight, was delayed 45 minutes by Colorado thunderstorms.

Landing in Denver was not meant to be. Because of the storm, the jet circled above Denver and then was diverted to a place Gomez never had been and could not even pronounce  Amarillo, Texas.

She was not let off the plane to find her way to San Antonio. Instead, the airliner backtracked to Denver, landing around midnight. She had to wait for a 6:30 a.m. flight to Dallas, where she could change to a San Antonio flight.

Airport restaurants were closed. Hotels near the airport were completely filled. She attempted to sleep hungry for the night in an airport chair. Finally, at daybreak, restaurants opened. She ate breakfast, gulped coffee and boarded.

Problems continued. A malfunctioning tail light delayed her flight long enough to miss her San Antonio connection. She was able to take a later flight and finally landed about 19 hours, 20 minutes after she was supposed to leave Ontario.

It was like a nightmare. I was thinking, This cant be happening, she said. You can drive there in 18 hours.

So who can top this? Please let me know all the sad details.

HAT COMES HOME

My wayward red hat is finally back where it belongs, on top of my head, following an odyssey that began in 2012.

Lori Ferro handed it to me on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in the rear dining area at Ferro Italian restaurant in Idyllwild.

The hats journey began when I left it at a Tim Weisberg concert at Cafe Aroma, a fine Idyllwild bistro where Frank and Lori Ferro worked before starting their own restaurant.

I have stacks of hats, but my red Nike cap was my favorite. It was made with a perforated nylon quick-dry material making it light and cool to wear on hot days. I like its sleek design.

When I returned to Valle Vista after Weisberg  a jazz-rock flute player  performed beautifully, I realized I was bareheaded. I was glad when I received a message from Lori that she had my hat and would save it for me.

She placed it in a supply box in her car where she stowed things like packaged food for hungry kids. It traveled everywhere her Volvo roamed. It shifted vehicles when she bought a Subaru. My hat vacationed in Santa Cruz, Malibu, Palm Springs and San Diego.

I finally made an appointment to reunite with my hat. I traveled to Idyllwild to Ferro restaurant when it first opened. There, an embarrassed Lori broke the news. Her daughter, Emily Jimenez, borrowed her car. My hat was in Los Angeles for the night.

To avoid future disappearances, she moved the hat into the restaurants office after it returned from its LA sojourn. She kept it in a filing drawer until her husband, Frank, thinking it spent enough lost-and-found time, asked if he could throw it away.

It was kind of ratty, she said.

She saved the hat by hiding it on top of a safe. Wednesday, when I visited Ferro restaurant for lunch, she handed it to me with a smile.

She likened the hat to a fictional animal in childrens literature known for its wayward travel from Peru to London.

Its like Paddington Bear, she said.

Contact the writer: bpratte@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9078
A mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to 240 days in jail and four years of probation after they pleaded guilty to three charges of child abuse for leaving three young kids in the desert without shoes or water as a punishment.

Mary Francis Bell, 34, and Gary Christopher Cassle, 29, pleaded guilty to three counts of felony child abuse after someone found three shoeless kids  ages 7, 6 and 5  alone in the open desert on July 13.

San Bernardino County Sheriffs deputies were called about 11:30 a.m. to the 74000 block of Samarkand Drive, where they learned that the kids had been left in the 90-degree heat without water as a punishment.

It wasnt clear how long they were left for. Booking records show that Cassle lives in Joshua Tree, about 10 miles from where the kids were and Belle is a transient.

They were arrested about a mile from where the kids were found.

A spokesman for the San Bernardino County District Attorneys Office said in an email on Friday that both Cassle and Bell pleaded guilty the same day they were arrested.
That adage that you cant teach a dog new tricks proved false for Kaylee.

Four years ago, Scott and Joanne Owen introduced their Dalmatian to surfing. Now the pet can hang 20 with the best of them.

Scott Owen said he and his wife stumbled upon pet surfing while visiting a dog beach in Del Mar, where instructor Peter Noll was giving lessons through the organization SoCal Surf Dogs.

Scott Owen said that though Kaylee, 9, often had been somewhat skittish near swimming pools, she fell in love with the ocean right away.

When we got to the beach there was something about the waves, she just responded to that, he said. We got her on the board and she took right to it.

The Temecula residents signed up Kaylee for surfing lessons, with all proceeds benefiting the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe.

Kaylee is a natural for surfing in that she has great balance and can stay on the board, according to the couple.

Scott Owen said the first step involves going into water about knee deep to start and getting the dogs on the board and acclimated to the rocking motion. All dogs get a life jacket because safety is the main concern, he added.

Once acclimated, the canines can be taken out to the waves. Their owners hold the board while the dogs get on. The owners then push the board to catch a wave.

She has caught a good one where she has taken it all the way in, Scott Owen said of Kaylee.

The Owens adopted Kaylee through a Dalmatian rescue in San Diego when she was 2 years old. She is the third of the breed the couple have had.

My husband is into Disney, Joanne Owen said of their penchant for Dalmatians. He loves Disney. His wedding ring is Mickey Mouse. He has a Disney room.

Dalmatians are great family dogs, according to the couple.

Kaylee is going on her fourth season of the sport.

Joanne Owen said they take Kaylee out to surf almost every weekend from May to September, and Scott Owen teaches new dogs how to surf from June through August.

Kaylee typically does three to four competitions a year, but its all for fun and fundraising for charity. She participated in the Purina Pro Plan Incredible Surf Dog Challenge in Huntington Beach in June and auditioned in the spring for the 2017 Rose Bowl Parade Surf Dog Float.

Shes our SurFUR star, Joanne Owen said.

Contact the writer: melaniecj@yahoo.com
Six people have pulled papers for a possible run in the upcoming City Council election in Murrieta, which will find a field of candidates competing for two available seats.

The seats are currently held by Mayor Randon Lane, who was defeated in a bid for a seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in the June 7 election, and Councilman Harry Ramos, who was stripped of the mayoral title last year after a city-funded investigation into his actions as mayor.

Ramos has denied any and all improprieties and he said Thursday he is pursuing legal action against the city.

The other four people who have pulled papers as of July 21 are longtime Planning Commission member Thomas Butler, Marlon Ware, entrepreneur Steve Espinosa of Brushback Inc. and former council member Kelly Seyarto, who was sanctioned by his colleagues in 2006 after he reportedly told a resident to go home and clean (her) house and a different resident to get his (expletive deleted) out of the building.

Seyarto, who was targeted by residents associated with the Rescue Murrieta group, later apologized.

Some members of that group resurfaced last year to call for the investigation into Ramos actions, which included an encounter at a Chamber of Commerce mixer that led to a woman filing a sexual harassment claim against both Ramos and the city.

The deadline to pull papers is August 12.
Since the high-profile attacks that killed police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge this month, many Inland residents have been finding creative ways to show their support for local law enforcement officers.

Riverside police Lt. Christian Dinco said his department has received deliveries of doughnuts, bagels, candy and letters of support. A woman and her daughter held posters of unity as officers exited the office this week.

Weve had a lot of support from folks in our community; its been really nice, the 20-year veteran said. Theres lots of positive support from people passing on their appreciation for law enforcement.

The encouragement couldnt come at a better time. Three officers were killed and three more were injured July 17 in Baton Rouge. That came less than two weeks after a man shot 14 officers  five fatally  in Dallas.

The day after the Dallas shooting, several people brought flowers, baked goods and notes of encouragement to the Hemet police station.

We deal with lots of the negative people out there; we dont run across the people that appreciate us as often, Hemet police Cpl. Derek Maddox said.

The police officer killings came amid heightened tensions nationwide over the fatal shootings of two black men by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Videos of those shootings have been widely distributed online. In Dallas, Police Chief David Brown told media the shooter there, who was black, had been plotting to kill white police officers.

President Barack Obama held a community meeting at the White House last week in an effort to repair trust relations between the citizenry and law enforcement. And though a well-crafted speech can provide a much-needed salve for a shaken police force, Corona police Sgt. Paul Mercado said the cookies, cards and words of encouragement from residents have done wonders to lift officers spirits.

Mercado was at a stoplight Monday afternoon when a man pulled up to his cruiser, rolled down his window and thanked him for his service.

A simple thank you goes a long way, especially right now, with everything thats going on nationally, Mercado said. Theres a heightened sense of awareness in the office, especially when responding to unknown (calls). You never know what youre rolling into.

Not all Inland residents are rallying behind police. Dinco said unrest over the shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, though more than 1,500 miles away, may be contributing to the growing number of people refusing to comply with Riverside police.

Meanwhile, the treats keep rolling in. Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said with all the sweets residents have delivered since the Dallas shootings  along with expressions of concern for officers safety  Were all going to gain 10 pounds.

Corona resident Denise Ortega is recruiting dozens of locals to assemble care packages for all 259 Police Department employees, including custodians and receptionists. On July 30, they plan to distribute the candy gift bags with a notes of encouragement such as Lifesaver: to show you how many times youve been one, and Gum: to help everyone stick together.

Ortega, 43, has family members in several law enforcement agencies including the Orange County Sheriffs Department and Atlanta Police Department. After spotting the gift bag idea on social media, she thought it would be a simple way to maintain local rapport and help avoid similar tragedies close to home.

I dont want to wait until we have a Baton Rouge or a Dallas situation here, Ortega said. Lets show our appreciation now. Lets start now while its peaceful and get that relationship going while its calm and no hot heads are going out making bad decisions.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9644, poneill@pressenterprise.com, @PE_PatrickO
Amid the backdrop of another police shooting inflaming racial tensions across the country, about 40 people gathered in downtown Riverside to denounce violence by law officers against minorities.

The noon rally, organized by the Inland chapter of Black Lives Matter, included speakers, spoken word artists and a voter registration drive. It was held at the Martin Luther King Jr. statue next to City Hall.

Rally organizer Matthew Young said he wanted justice for victims of police brutality.

Were here to have love and unity and uplift the names of the lives we lost, said Young, a 25-year-old Moreno Valley resident.

Participants said they were angered by news that a Florida police officer shot and wounded an autistic mans black caretaker, Charles Kinsey, earlier this week. Kinsey said he had his hands in the air and repeatedly told police no one was armed.

The shooting comes amid weeks of violence involving police, including the killing of five officers in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge, Lousiana. Days before, the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile sparked nationwide protests.

All of it has to stop, said Eli West, a 51-year-old Victorville resident who watched. Tensions are real high on each side. You cant be quick to judge someone because of the color of his skin.

Terrance Stewart, a 35-year-old community activist, said protesters need to make their voices heard or nothing will change.

Its time for us to stand up, the Riverside resident said. Its time to get out here and show that our lives matter.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9292 or swall@pressenterprise.com
A San Bernardio man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of a handful of robberies  at banks and other locations  across Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, including four in Moreno Valley.

Investigators with the Riverside County Sheriffs Department believe Jeffrey Tuli, whom the FBI dubbed the Were Listening Bandit, committed four robberies in Moreno Valley over the course of about eight days this month and a handful of other robberies across the Southland.

Tuli, 33, was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center early Friday morning, jail records show. Charges listed in his booking log include second-degree robbery, being a felon in possession of a firearm and assaulting a parking control officer. His bail is set at $1 million.

A news release from the department details only the robberies Tuli is suspected of committing in Moreno Valley, but says that investigators collaborated with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in linking him to other robberies in Southern California including Riverside, Fontana, Highland and Whittier.

The four robberies he is suspected of committing in Moreno Valley happened between July 12 and 20. According to the release:

On July 12 about 4:45 p.m., a suspect entered a bank inside of a business in the 14000 block of Moreno Beach Drive, gave the teller a note demanding money and threatened the teller with a gun. He left with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The exact same thing happened on July 14 at 4:40 p.m. at a bank inside a business in the 25000 block of Iris Avenue.

A man confronted two people in the 24000 block of Alessandro Boulevard on July 20 and demanded property, threatening the victims with a gun, the release said. The victims escaped and the suspect fled.

A final armed robbery was commited July 20 at 2:50 p.m. at a business in the 12000 block of Perris Boulevard, the release said. At that business, the suspect demanded items.

Tuli was found in a parking lot int he 8900 block of Trautwein Road in Riverside on Thursday. Officers found evidence of the robberies in his car.

Sheriffs officials ask anyone with information that could be helpful in the investigation to call the Moreno Valley sheriffs station at 951-486-6700 or email the station at mvpd@moval.org.
Dan and Dina Romero have been given approval by the City Council to build a metal sculpture downtown.

The sculpture will be installed on the south side of Ed Hales Park, facing State Street. It is expected to cost $40,000, which has come from private donors.

I think this is a wonderful design, said Mayor Paul Foster, who initiated the project during the 2015 State of the Community luncheon. Im anxious to see it come to fruition.

The sculptures design has changed somewhat since the Cultural Arts Commissions approval on July 11. The latest design has three clocks, each reading the time of Redlands three sister cities: Jino, Japan  which will be in Japanese; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and Linli, China  which will be in Chinese. The center clock will have a pendulum, set into motion by balls on a track that are released every half hour or hour. The pendulum will be behind an orange tree-style fencing.

The sculpture will be reminiscent of Redlands historic architecture.

Dan Romero said the city will be getting a work of art unique to Redlands.

A sculpture with a job to do, he said. One that invites people to visit downtown businesses on the half hour to see an event that no other town has. It has a personal connection to our sister cities in a positive way.

Next, the commissioners and city staff will work with the Romeros on the final cost and project details. The City Council is expected to consider an agreement with Romero Metal Sculpture. The sculpture is anticipated to be installed by the first quarter of 2017, according to the city staff report.

Foster asked the community to support a new piece of public art downtown during the 2015 State of the Community luncheon. Since then, the Cultural Arts Commission has been working to raise funds  the project was meant to be privately funded  select an artist and design.

In May, the commission selected the Romeros, of Mentone, who own Romero Metal Sculpture in Pomona.

Dan Romero is a metal artist, whose skills include all forms of welded, shaped, cut and fabricated sculpture.

Dina Romero secures the materials, equipment and tools for each project.

On July 11, the commission approved the sculptures preliminary design after reviewing several drawings from the Romeros.

Expressing concern over the recent vandalism of the Widows and Orphans statue at Jennie Davis Park, Councilwoman Pat Gilbreath urged the importance of protecting public art in the city.

There are surveillance cameras in Ed Hales Park.

I think one thing we do have to be very concerned about is to preserve our art as its put in place, said Gilbreath, who said the clock design was her favorite of the proposed designs.

Contact the writer: sandra.emerson@langnews.com; @TheFactsSandra on Twitter
The California Supreme Court ruled that the state can recover from its insurance carriers part of the cost of cleaning up the Stringfellow acid pits in Jurupa Valley, where 35 million gallons of toxic industrial waste was dumped.

The ruling puts an end to a case that has dragged on for nearly two decades.

Its just gone on forever. Weve gotten one court ruling after another, said Penny Newman, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice in Jurupa Valley. Newman began pushing for a cleanup at the site in the 1970s.

stringfellow.video

From the perspective of taxpayers, this is a good ruling because the insurance companies have to step forward and pay, she said.

The case will now return to the trial court to determine the amount the state will receive. The total of coverage left on the policies is about $60 million, including interest, said Roger Simpson, an attorney representing the state. Another group of 16 insurers, including Lloyds of London, settled in 2005 for $93 million.

The state of California was deemed by a federal court to be negligent in investigating, choosing and designing the site, overseeing its construction, failing to correct conditions and delaying steps to clean up the pollution. The state was held liable for all past and future cleanup costs  already at $250 million.

Pesticides, heavy metals, industrial solvents and cancer-causing chemical waste were dumped into unlined pits at Stringfellow until it closed in 1973. Contamination from the site, which was located in the then-unincorporated community of Glen Avon, seeped into the groundwater and spread several miles through the Jurupa Valley, where many residents used private drinking water wells that have since been shut down.

During heavy flooding in 1978, the state released nearly a million gallons of the waste into a channel in Pyrite Canyon because of fears of a dam break. The runoff mixed with flood water and inundated the local elementary school and homes. Children played in it. Some made beards from the green froth on the water. Later, clothes and shoes the children had worn while playing began to disintegrate.

In 1983, the 17-acre site  in a narrow, rocky canyon in the Jurupa Mountains just north of Highway 60  was placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Superfund list that prioritizes cleanup at the worst toxic waste sites nationwide. Today, the dump sits below a clay cap to keep rain from spreading the contamination.

Water from below the site is pumped and treated, but it will take about 400 years before the process is complete, Simpson said. The total cost is estimated at $700 million.

A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday, Aug. 9, upheld an appellate court ruling and said the insurance companies must pay the full amount for problems that occurred during the policy period. The states insurers were Continental, Yosemite, Stonebridge, Horace Mann and Employers Insurance of Wausau.

Steven Crane, an attorney for three of the companies, did not return telephone calls Friday.

The court also ruled to allow stacking, which means the state gets the full coverage amount from multiple policies over multiple years, rather than just a single year. For example, $10 million in coverage for 10 years would equal $100 million.

Its terrific news for the state, the taxpayers and more so for policyholders in general. Many have long-term claims  and this case makes it clear theyre entitled to the full amount. They get the benefit of all their policies, not just one, Simpson said.

Follow Janet Zimmerman on Twitter: @JanetLZimmerman or online at blog.pressenterprise.com/environment
The cost of cleaning up the Stringfellow acid pits, a Cold War-era dumping place for industrial waste in the hills above Jurupa Valley, continues to grow.

On Thursday, federal, state and local officials gathered to dedicate a $52 million treatment plant to continue the decades-long cleanup of highly toxic chemical pollutants from the site.

It also will cost $8.8 million a year to operate this behemoth network of pumps, pipes, and presses, plus another $1.2 million annually to test water samples, according state officials who provided tours of the facility.

The Pyrite Canyon Treatment Facility is needed to keep water thats laden with volatile organic compounds, pesticides, heavy metals, and other pollutants from flowing with rain runoff into the Glen Avon community just downhill from the site, as well as shrink a plume of groundwater pollution that extends as far as five miles.

Penny Newman praised the efforts of state environmental officials to get the plant built. Her fight as mother and activist to clean up the acid pits dates back to the 1970s when her two sons, Eric and Shawn, attended Glen Avon Elementary School.

You are committed to make sure our families are protected, and it hasnt always been that way, Newman said during Thursdays plant dedication.

The state took over responsibility for cleanup about 20 years ago after a judge found that it was partially responsible for the mess because it had failed to enforce environmental regulations. And litigation is still underway to recoup costs from companies that dumped waste there and from their insurers.

DUMPING GROUNDS

In 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, defense contractors, plating facilities, and other industries dumped truckloads of liquid pollutants into about 20 unlined ponds behind an earthen dam in Pyrite Canyon, in the hills north of the 60 Freeway.

The ponds were not fenced and teens were known to paddle canoes in the toxic stew, Newman said shorty before the dedication. She is now executive director of the Jurupa Valley-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice.

In the 1960s and 1970s, heavy rains forced surges of chemical-laden water into Glen Avon. Some children played in the froth, making fake beards on their faces with the chemical foam, Newman said.

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Every time it rained, there was anxiety in community, she said.

The new plant is now undergoing tests by running clean water through it. Before the end of this year, it is expected to take over from a plant built as a temporary facility by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1996.

GREATER CAPACITY

It will handle greater volumes of water and thus do a better job at preventing spillage from the site even during periods of heavy rain, said Sam V. Martinez Jr., a supervising hazardous substances engineer for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, a division of Cal EPA.

Once treated, the water will be piped to a plant in Fountain Valley near the coast, before it is released into the Pacific Ocean.

Even though the water has been treated on site for 30 years, the cleanup has just begun. State engineers have estimated it will take 400 years to remove the subterranean toxic legacy.

But the pollutants are contained for now.

This positions the state for 30 to 50 years to meet its mandated responsibilities, said Barbara Lee, director of the state toxic substances agency.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9471 or ddanelski@pressenterprise.com
For many months James Stringfellow was probably the most hated

and reviled man in western Riverside County. If he had to leave his

name at a restaurant, he would use String instead of his actual

name, because people glared at him and even insulted him when he

was correctly identified.

In the early 1950s the Stringfellow Quarry Co. cut and dynamited

rocks out of the Jurupa Mountain on Pyrite to extract rock for

jetties and breakwaters along the coast at Long Beach and Los

Angeles harbors.

In 1955, a group of officials with the California state

government went to Stringfellow to propose that he use the quarry

site for a toxic waste dump. But he was not interested. They

returned to the quarry later that year with a larger offer and told

him the canyon where the 17-acre quarry was located was the ideal

spot for the waste dump.

A geologist was hired to make an investigation, and he assured

everyone that solid bedrock would prevent the spread of acids and

toxic materials into the groundwater. All of the dangerous

materials would be contained, the geologist promised.

Later, investigators learned that the geologic survey was done

quickly and cheaply. It cost only $300 and was completed within 40

minutes. No drilling or exploration of underlying rock or earth was

made. Stringfellow agreed to the plan, and the operation came to be

known as the Stringfellow Acid Pits.

Almost from the beginning the dump leaked and polluted the water

table beneath the pits and for an ever-increasing distance down

Pyrite Avenue. An underground lake of polluted water stretched for

at least two miles south of the former quarry.

Residents of the area complained of rashes and other ailments

even when they no longer drank well water from near the acid pits.

Residents could not sell their homes, since everyone had heard

about the pollution stream beneath their homes. The acid pits were

closed in 1972, but the damage had been done.

The Stringfellow Acid Pits were called the Love Canal of the

west after the heavily-polluted area near Niagara Falls, New York.

Years later a toxic cleanup began that has cost $120 million and is

still rising in cost.

Stringfellow and his family were reviled and ridiculed. It was

hard to escape the burden of his distinctive family name. He moved

to Orange County, first to Newport Beach and later to Costa Mesa.

He spent his final years cleaning and painting the hulls of

pleasure boats in Newport Harbor.

Poor Stringfellow was duped.

He believed the geologist whose superficial report promised no

toxic waste spillover into the groundwater. True, he was persuaded

to sell by the amount of money offered, but he had no idea of the

damage that was to follow his sale of the quarry.

Even Penny Newman, leader of the activists determined to clean

up the toxic mess, was quoted as saying, I always thought the

Stringfellow family was as much a victim in this situation as

anyone else.

James B. Stringfellow died in July 1993, at age 66.
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Zimbabwe's war veterans association, which has played a key and sometimes violent role in supporting President Robert Mugabe, has released a statement withdrawing its backing for him.



It accuses Mr Mugabe of dictatorial tendencies, egocentrism and misrule.



It was not immediately clear if all of the war veterans agreed with the text.



Pressure on Mr Mugabe, 92, is growing, with factions in the governing Zanu-PF party openly fighting to succeed him and protests about the failing economy.



But he has said he plans to run for president again in 2018 and rule until he dies.



BBC World Service Africa editor James Copnall says that even in the most difficult moments of his 36 years in power, Mr Mugabe could always rely on the war veterans - his former comrades in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle in the 1970s.



They were loyal supporters who sometimes provided him the muscle for political violence, our correspondent adds, so this development will be quite a blow.



"We note, with concern, shock and dismay, the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the president and his cohorts, which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle," warned the statement released on Thursday after a meeting of representatives from across the country.



Sources told the BBC Zimbabwe analyst Lewis Machipisa that the statement reflected not only the views of some war veterans, but also senior military figures. Mr Mugabe relies heavily on the military to remain in power.



The statement said the veterans would not support Mr Mugabe's re-election campaign, accusing him of abandoning them for the Zanu-PF's youth league.



It also blamed Zimbabwe's economic crisis on "bankrupt leadership". Banks have run short of cash and the government struggles to pay civil servants.



"We are dismayed by the president's tendency to indulge, in his usual vitriol against perceived enemies, including peaceful protesters, as well as war veterans, when the economy is on its knees," the veterans association's statement said. "He has a lot to answer for the serious plight of the national economy."



Mr Mugabe responded to the anti-government protests earlier this week by telling the pastor who organised a nationwide strike, Evan Mawarire, to leave Zimbabwe if he was unhappy with conditions there.



Pastor Mawarire was arrested last week, but was released after a court threw out the charges of subversion against him.



He subsequently left Zimbabwe for South Africa, where he told the BBC on Thursday that he was more scared of his daughters' criticism of inaction than what the state could do to him if he returned.

Source: BBC









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The police in Ho yesterday fired rubber bullets to disperse a group of residents who were carrying out an unlawful demonstration to express their anger at the threat by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. John Kudalor to shut down social media during the general elections if it becomes necessary.



The police who were in combat gear and also armed with fire extinguishers put out the blaze started in the middle of the road by the demonstrators during the violent disturbances in which they pelted the police with stones and water sachets.



At least 20 of the demonstrators were arrested in the mock crowd control exercise staged at the Jubilee Park to demonstrate the readiness of the police to deal with any form of lawlessness during the forthcoming elections.



The IGP who is currently on a duty tour of Ho commended the police personnel for their smart turn out and their preparedness to deal with lawless characters during the elections.



Later, the police marched through the streets of Ho in a show of force led by the IGP.







Source: The Ghanaian Times









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The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association has rejected governments offer to pay them GHc 150 monthly as allowances.



According to them, the amount is woefully inadequate per the memorandum of understanding they signed with the Ministry of Health in 2014.



The Association was responding to a statement released yesterday [Thursday] by the Health Ministry to pay an amount of GHc 150 monthly to trainees as their allowances were reinstated. The allowance is to support 34,500 students who are currently pursing various levels of health professional training across the country.



We wont accept GHc 150  Trainees



But speaking to Citi News, President of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association, Godwin Asabire Akazeem, instead called for an increment in the allowance. As for the 150 Ghana cedis, we dont see it as something we have to accept because per the memorandum of understanding we signed in 2014,



Mr. Akazee stated. He explained further that we were made to understand that if that 40 percent service allowance is going to be expressed in monetary value and given to us, it should be 50 percent the current amount of money they are taking now. Highlighting the important to the nurses, Mr. Akazee cited the trainees expenditure on bills and transportation among others.



There was the need for the government to give them service allowance to help them foot their clinical bills and other things they do the fight for their own accommodation, taking cars, going to the ward and coming back. It definitely has to be increased.



Why govt scrapped allowances in the first place Government announced a scrapping of the allowances in order to remove the restrictions on admission to the various training institutions due to the huge amounts it had to pay in the form of allowances. This was in order to give more students the opportunity to gain admissions into these institutions. However, the scrapping was met with much resistance from some students who rely on the allowances to support themselves in school.



This led to the setting up of a committee to advise on a more favorable resolution for the trainee nurses. Per the committees recommendation, 34,500 students who are currently pursuing various levels of health professional training across the country will receive a payment of GHc 150 a month.

Source: citifmonline.com









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The Ghana Education Service (GES) says they are unaware of actor John Dumelos political activities in some Senior High Schools across the country.



The GES denied strongly receiving any permit from the award winning actor to embark on a Peace Tour in some selected schools.



According to the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Rev Jonathan Bettey, the Education Service wasnt officially informed about Dumelos ongoing tour  he said authorities of already visited schools will be queried.



We are now hearing this Dumelos tour for the first time on your station [NEAT FM]. We have no idea about that, he said.



His comment comes after NPPs National Youth Organiser, Sammy Awuku called on the Education Service to with immediate effect halt the political activities of John Dumelo.



John Dumelo has been engaging in a Peace Tour in some Senior High Schools  but Sammy Awuku claimed the actor is surreptitiously campaigning for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and using the recently launched 'Green Book' by the NDC as testament to campaign for President John Mahama.



Mr Dumelo has strongly denied campaigning for the NDC in schools he has visited  he also denied allegations that President John Dramani Mahama is funding his tour, and insisted the GES is aware of his tour  I am using my own money. No one is supporting me.



But speaking on NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie', Rev Jonathan Bettey described Dumelos move as unfortunate  Ghana Education Service is not a political party. We dont belong to any party. We are autonomous, every person know where he/she belongs but we dont play any politics in our administration.



We have to know why the gentleman is doing that. Our students are not allowed to be used for any political activities and our school premises cant be used as well. We dont belong to a party. We will address this issue with immediate effect, he strongly kicked against Dumelos campaign tour.





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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Ghanas West Africa Neighbor Ivory Coast is going through a form of civil unrest over electricity tariffs. The citizens there are protesting against high electricity prices. Initially peaceful, the protest turned violent in the town of Daloa in the Western part of Central Ivory Coast after protesters ransacked offices of the electricity company and police responded by firing tear gas. Similar protests have taken place in the administrative capital of the country, Yamoussoukro where protesters burned tires and set fire to a car belonging to the national electricity company (CIE) before they were dispersed by the police.



My checks show that the Ivorian Ministry of Energy had announced that the electricity tariffs were expected to rise early in the year to between 6 and 10%, but many consumers have received higher bills.



I am surprised at the turn of events because President Ouattara had announced on May 1, after the price increases, to end the monopoly of CIE to bring the prices down. The Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara had publicly asked CIE to review its tariffs to fight against high prices. However, the bills in the following months had a significant increase in prices.



The reaction of the Ivorian public has been one of anger and anguish with many blaming President Allasane Outtara for the hardships in Cote DIvoire.



The president of the Federal Union of Consumers in the Ivory Coast Jean-Baptiste Koffi, told the Media on Tuesday, The government is responsible for the current social tension and protests in Yamoussoukro [and other parts of the country]. They should stop the increases in pricing to avoid the difficulties faced by consumers,



I thought Ivorians would be happy with President Outtaras achievements because I have sighted a World Bank report which states that electricity coverage in Ivory Coast is high by regional standards at almost 60 percent of the population and the country is a regular exporter to some neighbors. When I checked the records, I realized Ivory Coast already exports electricity to Ghana, Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso.



In his May 1, 2016 address to the Ivorians, President Outtara had boasted saying, We not only have a little more electricity in abundance, but we also have electricity of good quality for the Ivorians and to also export to neighboring countries,



But is President Outtaraon course to win the battle for lower costs of electricity?



Our long-term goal has been to reduce electricity costs. We are not yet there but well get there, Ouattara reassured his country men and women.



The Ivorian government now aims to push the capacity to 4,000 MW by 2020. Exports to its neighbours have been declining in recent years as domestic demand has outpaced new power generation.



As an Energy watcher, I am intrigued by how applicable to their experiences is the insightful statement made by Jeff Immelt, the CEO of the American transnational company, General Electric, in an interview with the African Business Magazine of May, 2016. He said, Without electricity, there will be no prosperity. Its as simple as that.



In the case of Cote dIvoire, available literature I have seen indicate that President Outtara has been working to improve its electricity generation capacity.



Currently, about 60% of the electricity is produced by thermal power stations while 40% is generated by hydropower plants. In its strategic plan 2013-2030 for the development of the electricity sector in Cote dIvoire, the Government identified 66 projects that will require massive investment from the private sector, including through PPPs with Independent Power Producers (IPP), to expand power capacity production and to modernize the transport and distribution of electricity throughout the country. Efforts are underway to increase hydroelectric and thermal electricity generation with construction of new hydroelectric dams (such as a 275-MW hydroelectric plant at Soubre) and thermal power plants as well as expansion projects at the CIRPEL and AZITO thermal power plants.



The Governments efforts have not gone without being noticed by industry players and politicians



[Cote dIvoire] has an outstanding power sector, said Christophe Jacquin, regional head of operations for U.K. power generation group Aggreko, which operates a thermal power plant in Ivory Coast. It is best in class in West Africa.



Luc Aye, Managing Director at Azito Energie, an independent power producer, says a key to success is a defined set of rules for how CIE [Ivorian Electricity Company] has to pay the independent power generators. A waterfall structure gives independent power producers a relatively high place in the payments queue.That allows transparency in the sector and all the operators know that we are going to get paid. It is the basis for everything that has made Cote dIvoire attractive for investment. It has never been called into question, Aye says, adding: There are very few countries that have such a clear organisation and structure.



As Reuters recently reported, Ivory Coasts electricity generation capacity has reached new highs of 2,000 megawatts, following the inauguration of a new thermal power plant. Ivory Coasts electricity generation company, and CIPREL, a subsidiary of Emerging Capital Partners, recently completed a project to increase its total capacity by 234 megawatts (MW) to a total of 556 MW in a bid to meet fast-growing domestic and regional demand. The $382.15 million project, which includes a steam and a heat turbine has taken over two years for completion and makes CIPREL the countrys biggest independent producer of electricity.



Nana Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party has been full of praise of the Ivorians. He has said Cote dIvoire has successfully overcome the effects of its 2011 civil conflict and become an economic powerhouse in Africa due to good leadership.



Because they have a good leader, Cote dIvoire is now the envy of her peers in West Africa. The number one investment destination in Africa now is Cote dIvoire. It has happened because they have a leader who has a vision and courage to move the country forward, he said.



It comes as a surprise that Ivorians will be turning against their own President who is reputedly to be leading their country in the right direction.



I have realised that protests against high prices of electricity are becoming a phenomena in the West African Region as a result of increased investments in oil-based thermal generation of electricity. It is indeed true as the popular saying goes Nowhere cool.



Recently in Ghana, The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other organised labour unions such as the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Ghana Registered Nurses Association peacefully demonstrated in the regional capitals demanding a reduction in utility tariffs and the scrapping of the Energy Sector Levies Act which increased fuel prices by almost 30 per cent.



In Nigeria, Organized labour and its civil society allies on February 1 made good their threat as protests against the new Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO2015) swept across the country, paralysing activities at many electricity distribution companies in many cities.



From Lagos to Abuja, Kaduna, Ibadan, Enugu, Maiduguri, Owerri, Port Harcourt and indeed all major cities in all states of the federation, the protesters were unequivocal in their rejection of the tariff increase.



Elsewhere in Dakar  and in nearly a dozen other West African countries  most protesters have not been quite as restrained. Angered by sharply rising prices of basic foodstuffs, transport, electricity and other essentials, they have poured into the streets to express their frustrations and demand that their governments act quickly to halt the spiraling cost of living. Street barricades, burning tyres, arson and sometimes deadly confrontations with riot police have been common.



So, I wish to ask: Is the electricity pricing issue not peculiar to Ghana? Does it mean, the electricity challenges have nothing to do with the incompetence of President Mahama, as Akuffo Addo wants Ghanaians to believe? There are ongoing bloody demonstrations against Allasane Outtara. Will Nana Akuffo Addo say the Ivorian President is also incompetent?

Source: The Gazette 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 Numo Nmashie Family of Teshie and La last Friday took possession of vast parcels of lands after the Lands Court had given them the right of possession of over 72 villages in the Greater Accra Region.



Led by Ing. Surveyor Samuel Larbi Darko, who is the lawful Attorney of the family, they visited Abokobi, Amanfrom, Frafraha, Ashiyie and Oyarifa to symbolically take possession of the said lands.



Eric Botchwey, a Court Bailiff who read out the Court documents, assisted the family to take over their previously encroached lands amidst jubilation by the enthusiastic family members.



However, there was a near clash at Abokobi, near Madina, where a group from Brekusu who had been defeated in Court by the Numo Mnashie famliy were also on site claiming ownership over the same parcel of land and attempted resisting the takeover. It took the timely intervention of the Police to douse the tension. The Police was on hand to provide security for the smooth possession of the land.



The ringleader of the land guards from Brekusu was arrested and detained by the Police for attempting to obstruct the Court Bailiff from carrying out his lawful mandate.



The granting of right of possession by the Court means that no one apart from the Numo Nmashie family and its lawful Attorney Ing. Darko, can lease a portion of the land to an investor. It brings to closure the long standing litigation over ownership of the said lands.



We are so happy to see this day happen. We have been in court for decades over these lands and since the Court has given us the possession right, I think people would now feel comfortable doing business with us. Fortunately, we have a very honest and hardworking man we have given the Power of Attorney to represent us so we can now heave a sigh of relief an elated family elder told The New Crusading GUIDE.



With the possession of lands granted by the Court, the Numo Nmashie family would in the coming days, or weeks take possession of lands in areas such as: Mempeasem, Ashonman, Ablajei, Sempene, Aboman, Pantang, Akporman, Boi, Kweiman, Otinibi, Ochirenkumfo, Ashale-Botwe, and Agboba.



The other villages are: Aiyim, Bawaleshie, Madina, Mempeasem, Ogbojo, Otele, Bacthona, Agblesia, Danfa, Adoteiman, Berekuso, Ajitamenti, Aiyimensa and Sesemi, Gonteng, Obedibeng, Otanno, Martestsuru, Agyriganor, among others.

Source: New Crusading Guide









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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Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister-designate, Emmanuel Bombande has rebuffed plans by the Inspector General of Police to ban social media on election day. He rather urged the IGP and Ghanaians in general to rather explore the positive sides of social media to the benefit of the nation.

Mr. Bombande responding to a question during his vetting by Parliaments Appointments Committee Friday was emphatic, I will not advise that we shut down social media. The idea of banning social media has been rejected by many including the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas who said such an attempt is aimed at restricting the democratic space which the UN is strongly against. Nonetheless, the IGP Mr. John Kudalor has maintained that the idea has not been shelved as Ghana goes to the polls in December. If people are churning out the type of information which are quite false then why not? The security of this nation is paramount, he told the media.

But Emmanuel Bombande indicated that it would be defeatist if the social media platforms that have been shutdown are reopened after the election. because when you shut it down and later on you open it, you are indirectly saying that continue to be irresponsible but at a certain point we will shut you down and then we will open it up again. I think there is onerous responsibility on all of us that every tool that is available should be used responsibly. The security expert is rather calling on Ghanaians to uphold the value of imbibing in the younger generation the culture of respecting elders and those in leadership.

He is confident by so doing people will not take to social media to cast aspersion on people and inflame passion. Mr. Bombande is a co-founder of the West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP) and was the Executive Director of the organisation. He is a peace-building practitioner, international trainer in conflict mitigation and prevention across Africa and beyond with a strong background in conflict analysis.

Source: tv3network.com









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Digital marketing and communication expert, Kwabena Appianing predicts more jobs in Ghana for in the digital sector for skilled professionals, this he said over the weekend at the digital orientation program organized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) at their premises in Accra Ghana.



He bemoaned the lack of enthusiasm Ghanaians showed towards digital studies and encourage them to develop the capacities in the field. The world is heading towards a digital era where mobile, instant messaging and social media sites are always actively engaged, unlike the traditional media, he said.



Mr. Appianing advised young professionals to pursue careers in digital marketing especially to make them hot cakes on the job market. He believes most serious companies are embracing different aspects digital in their day-to-day operations and this has opened a plethora of opportunities for people with the right digital opportunities.



As a modern day marketer, a program like the Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing is a necessity and several institutions such as Institute of Ireland, which is affiliated to African Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship (AITE) and CIMG, runs such programs in Ghana, he said. He added that social media alone, which is a minute part of digital marketing has employed thousands of professionals in the industry.



Citing a recent research conducted by Moz and Fractl, two renowned technology researchers who sought to find out the most in-demand marketing skills, found Digital Marketing Manager, Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Specialist and Social Media Manager, as some of the most sought after skills by employees after analyzing key word trends via Google analytics and LinkedIn search results. He believes that trend has caught up with employees in Ghana.



Kwabena Okyire Appianing is the Head of Digital Media and Innovations at Global Media Alliance. Prior to his current appointment, he was the Digital Media Coordinator for Groupe Ndoum, Jobberman Ghana, and Web Projects Manager for Techcom Visions. He was recently the guest speaker at the Executive Womens Network seminar on the topic Social media for todays business woman.

Source: Peacefmonline.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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Dr. Anthony Osei Gyimah, the embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Abuakwa North, who stepped down on Monday following pressure mounted on him by the party to pave way for Emmanuel Victor Smith, Ghanas High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), to contest the seat, says he lives in fear.



Gyimah, after his resignation told Daily Guide yesterday that he took the decision to step down following a threat on his life by unknown persons who wanted him dead.



He said I dont drive around anymore because people know my car; so now I pick taxis when I want to go out. Even with the taxi, I dont go out alone; I move about accompanied by someone. Since that guy called me three days ago to talk to me, I dont trust people anymore. Im a private person but I decided to go into politics because whenever I come down to Ghana I see my people suffering and so I decided to sacrifice my job abroad and for the past nine months Ive been in Ghana. I have not earned any money and Im using my life savings to do all these for these people; this is because I think whatever I enjoy in life, others must also enjoy so that is why I came to Ghana to serve my people.



He added if they want me out, I can walk out; I have sacrificed a lot for the past nine months. Since I started working towards the primary till now, Ive never earned any money from anybody but Im surviving. No one can value the sacrifice Ive made. But if they think they can force me out, then Ill walk outthat is me. I want my party to win so I will give the president all the support, Dr Gyimah stated.



Mr. Smith is lacing his boots for the parliamentary race of the Abuakwa North Constituency in the Eastern Region.



Yesterday, he picked nomination forms for the primary of the NDC in the constituency to be organized possibly next week.



Mr. Smiths nomination form was picked by an aide on his behalf at the Koforidua regional office of the party Wednesday afternoon.



The seat became vacant following the murder of Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who walloped him in the 2012 election.



The constituency is a stronghold of the opposition NPP.



GH1m Offer



Dr Gyimah, the presidents in-law, however, denied reports by DAILY GUIDE that he accepted GH1 million offer from Ambassador Victor Smith.



I have no knowledge about that money. Victors guys were chasing me to offer me the money but I didnt accept it. I resigned on personal reasons, he posited.



Shock



Dr Gyimahs decision has shocked many NDC supporters in the Abuakwa North Constituency because they saw him as a viable candidate to capture the seat from the NPP.



DAILY GUIDE earlier published that Dr Gyimah had received a whopping GH1 million from Mr Smith, who was said to be interested in the position.



The paper had stated that Mr Smith was mounting pressure on Dr Gyimah to accept the money and step down for him (Smith).



But Mr Smith and a group  Friends of Victor Smith  that supported him in the 2012 election in the constituency, led by Kwame Owusu Danso, denied the publication.

Source: Daily Guide









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 Electoral Commission has expressed gratitude to Parliament for rejecting the proposed constitutional amendment that would have changed Ghanas election date from December 7 to November.

The legislators on Thursday voted to reject the amendment bill citing what the minority say is the ECs apparent unpreparedness to hold free, fair and credible elections in November. After they failed to reach a consensus, the parliamentarians had to decide through secret balloting. A total of 125 parliamentarians voted in favour (YES) of the bill while 95 voted against (NO).

The votes cast in favour of the bill could however not meet the two-thirds majority required to accept the bill for the change to take effect. A statement issued by the Commission Friday morning thanked the parliamentarians for their time in debating the bill and the subsequent decision they arrived at. We are grateful to the Speaker of Parliament, the Attorney General and all the members of parliament who participated in the debate and voting, the statement signed by its Director of Communication, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu said Despite the demonstration of our preparedness to deliver a credible and world-class election on the proposed November 7 date, Parliament in its wisdom has decided not to pass the Amendment. It added: As the institution mandated to run elections in Ghana, we have been ready for the November 7 elections if the Amendment Bill had been approved by Parliament. Meanwhile, the Commission indicated that the day of Ghanas presidential and parliamentary election is now set for December 7.

It explained that the change of election date to December 7 would not affect our commitment to deliver a free, fair, transparent and credible elections this year.

Source: 3news.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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Ghanaian Actor, John Dumelo has insisted insults will not push him to back track his massive support for the ruling National Democratic Congress(NDC) in the lead up to the December polls.



According to him, he feels proud to be campaigning for one of the best political parties in the sub-region.



Ill make sure I promote government, at least for them to continue the good works from 2016 to 2020, Dumelo told Okay FM Friday.



He said he sees no reason for the baton to be changed to field the opposition New Patriotic Party in government because the incumbent must be retained to continue the myriads of development projects and good governance it has initiated.



His comment follows the call by the National Youth Organiser for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku urging the Ghana Education Service (GES) to immediately halt the political activities of John Dumelo on the campuses of some Senior High Schools across the country.

Commenting on such allegation, the celebrated actor said the basis of his campaign activities is guaranteed under the law as a Ghanaian, thus he has the right to join any political party of his choice.



A lot of people are condemning me for endorsing the NDC but I dont care, because at the end of the day Im voting for one of the best parties in Africa, Dumelo stated.









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
At least eight people have been killed in a shooting massacre in a shopping centre in the German city of Munich, in what local police are saying looks like a terrorist attack.

The incident occurred on Friday, local time, with up to three shooters opening fire on shoppers who were at a McDonalds near the Olympia shopping centre. A state of emergency has been declared in the city.

Munich newspaper TZ are reporting on the discovery of a ninth body in a carpark, and say there are indications it may be one of the suspects. Two or possibly three others remain at large, with a manhunt underway through the city.

Restaurants and other businesses around Munich have been urged to close, with public transit including bus lines and subways shutting down, and residents told to stay at home.

Eyewitness Thamina Stoll, whose grandmother lives a short distance from the popular shopping centre, told CNN:

There were like 50 people running towards our house to seek shelter, and there was a helicopter circling above us for about 20 minutes and sirens. And theres still people walking on the streets, theyre confused, and nobody knows whats really going on.

Europe has been on high alert this week, after Tunisian man Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel killed 84 during Bastille Day celebrations in France, and an incident in Bavaria, in which a teenager attacked train passengers with an axe.

More on this story as it develops.

Source: News Corp / CNN.

Photo: Joerg Koch / Getty.
Well, there it is: the official search for the plane in the biggest aviation mystery of our time will be suspended at the end of the year.

Malaysian, Chinese and Australian representatives today announced that after searching over 110,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean for the ill-fated MH370, their efforts will cease no later than December.

Malaysian minister Liow Tiong Lai said the decision was made in the absence of credible new evidence regarding the planes whereabouts.

However, Liow said this does not mean that we have given up on locating MH370.

If there are any new credible news, or credible new evidence, we will continue to work together to analyse those evidence (sic).

A statement from the ministers suggests that despite there being 10,000 square kilometres of ocean yet to be searched, the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading.

Although several debris fragments have been found in recent months that authorities are almost certain came from the planes wreckage, it seems theyre no closer to finding out what the hell actually happened to that flight back in 2014.

Heres hoping something appears before December.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald / ABC.

Photo: Mohd Samsul Mohd Said / Getty.
Hyper-conservative Queensland MP George Christensen has had some SRS backtracking to do.

Last night, a man drove his car into a roller door of the Merrylands police station in Sydneys west, after setting both the car and himself alight with accelerant. The man was unconscious as the police extinguished the fire and pulled him from the burning car.

After it was initially reported by media, George Christensen decided to align the incident with his usual anti-Islam rhetoric, stating that the incident proved that Australia must take action on radical Islam:

I wonder how quickly some idiot is going to inanely say this has nothing to do with Islam or talk about a religion of peace or blame those who oppose radical Islam or even Australia as a whole for marginalising some disaffected youth. How about for once we talk about the problem at hand: the ideology of radical Islamism and its adherents and what we, as a nation, are going to do about it.

Except, unfortunately for Christensens delightfully xenophobic opinions, the man was not young, nor was he radicalised, nor was he Muslim.

The man who attacked the police station was a 61-year-old Croatian man from NSW, that allegedly suffered from mental health issues.

Christensen has since updated his post, saying,

Every time there is a terror attack (here or overseas) we get the same platitudes from the Left and the political & media elite. I say again: we need to discuss the rise of radical Islam within Australia.

Despite, yknow, this having absolutely no relation to terrorism, or radical Islam? Bizarre.

Police are currently searching the mans home, and have reported that theres lots of junk inside:

UPDATE: New details emerge about man behind attempted car-bombing of Merrylands Police Station. #9News https://t.co/dNS5WDwGKe  Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) July 21, 2016

George, mate  you trippin.





Source: 9 News / Facebook.

Photo: 9 News.
It is the absolute end of an era, people.

Queen of Smize Tyra Banks has officially announced the end of her reign on the back-up-and-running reality show Americas Next Top Model, and shes confirmed her replacement/protege is Rita Ora.

Rita Ora?! you are more than likely crying, in deep emotional pain. But she doesnt even have any goddamn modelling experience, shes a musician!

Yes, shhh, we know, its okay. *pats head comfortingly*

Ora has no doubt dipped her toe into the modelling world, having posed for Calvin Klein, Lui Magazine, and Tezenis, but she definitely doesnt have any kind of icon status like Tyra.

And many would argue that that was one of the fundamental parts about the show  the supermodel could and would hand down decades of experience to girls entering the industry.

BUT FINE I GUESS, WHATEVER.

The new panel of judges includes plus-size model Ashley Graham, stylist Law Roach, and PAPER magazine chief creative officer Drew Elliott (the fella behind Kim Kardashians iconic Break The Internet cover).

Photo: Jean Claude Dhien for VH1.

Tyra, who will stay on as executive producer this season, gave a statement about the new season, saying,

Its no longer just about having the highest cheekbones and best pout and the best hair. My goal is to really get into these girls heads that Im not looking for some successful model and Im not looking for some social-media star. Im looking for both. Im looking for a hybrid, because thats where the world is.

The new season will debut on VH1 in the USA later this year  no word yet if it will air in Australia, but well keep you in the loop.

Source: Entertainment Weekly.

Photo: Don Arnold & Anthony Harvey / Getty.
For sale: Bullion St car park

The Bullion St car park in Umina is for sale.

Expressions of interest have been called for the 0.53 hectares of land between Bullion St and Alfred St.

Described by Wilsons Estate Agency at Woy Woy as: "A landmark opportunity in the Umina CBD", the land is zoned B2 for "mixed use" which means it can be developed for a mix of commercial and residential purposes under the 2014 Gosford Local Environment Plan.

Wilsons selling agent Mr Jim Martin said the council had the community's interests at heart by putting a "positive covenant" on the land to ensure that any new development included 160 public car spaces.

Mr Martin said the impetus behind council's decision to sell the land for development was coming from the NSW Government's vision for the Central Coast over the next 20 years.

"The NSW Department of Planning released a document about the rapid increase in population that is going to occur between Sydney and Newcastle over the next 20 years," Mr Martin said.

"It will be one of the most popular residential corridors in Australia where people will want to live and that will increase the region's population by 80,000 in two decades," he said.

According to Mr Martin, 40 per cent of those new residents will want to live on the Peninsula, in the area between Umina and Woy Woy.

That is one of the reasons why the Gosford Local Environment Plan of 2014 reviewed all zoning, including in town centres and CBDs, to allow mixed use.

In the town centres of Umina, Ettalong and Woy Woy, this could result in in-fill developments that included a ground floor of commercial and retail premises with up to five storeys of residential accommodation above, he said.

According to Mr Martin, the Bullion St car park is one of the only consolidated pieces of land in the Umina CBD that could accommodate a larger mixed-use development.

"When you look around the Umina CBD, just about all of the allotments are the regular 560 square metre blocks so you can't get the height to build anything lofty around that area," he said.

Even though the Bullion St land includes 10 individual titles, Mr Martin said the council's intention was to sell it as one parcel to accommodate a development with the potential to "revitalise the Umina CBD".

"Essentially the developer has the option of doing the whole of the car parking underground and then building three handsome towers on the site," he said.

"Or they may decide to put parking in one area and then build two mixed use towers towards the West St end of the land."

The closing date for expressions of interest is September 16, to give prospective purchasers the opportunity to view the land, work out affordability and work with planning consultants and council representatives to put a proposal forward.

Mr Martin said he was very optimistic about the current attitude of the new Central Coast Council.

"They are displaying a very futuristic attitude that is a 100 degree turn around on what we had five or 10 years ago.

"They are starting to speak the right language.

"The way the council is approaching the future is that we have got to move forward to mobilise all centres on the Peninsula.

"We can't be dogmatic and the council is wanting to see nice developments for the area," he said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture oversees restaurant inspections in the state. Inspection reports are 'snapshots' of the day and time the inspections took place. In many cases, violations are corrected on site prior to the inspector leaving.

READ MORE:

The following restaurants and other establishments in Perry County that handle food were inspected between June 26-July 2 and reported as of July 12.

BUTCHER'S FARM MARKET

590 N. FOURTH ST., NEWPORT

Regular inspection

Splash area of one mixer had old food debris (corrected on site); dust accumulation in ceiling vents in store area.

LONGACRE FARM

6565 CREEK ROAD, NEWPORT

Regular inspection

Dust and some mildew-like growth observed on shelving in the walk-in cooler; can-opener blade had old food debris -- upper section on can opener is beginning to rust; dust accumulation on fan covers of condensing unit in walk-in cooler; observed clean food equipment (silverware) and/or utensils in dining area, stored uncovered or not inverted; a number of fluorescent light bulbs were missing plastic slip covers and end caps in kitchen. Bulbs not shielded or shatterproof.

TONY'S CONCESSIONS

1579 STATE PARK ROAD, NEWPORT

Regular inspection

Wet wiping cloth sitting on counter was not being kept in sanitizer solution in between uses (corrected on site); grease drip observed on metal lip above filters and on light shields in hood system; cobwebs observed in upper parts of hood system.

POPSICKLE PETE No. 2 MFF TYPE 2 (YWV 0281)

21 DEADEND ROAD, MILLERSTOWN

Opening inspection

Food facility is using an approved non-public water system, but does not have current laboratory testing results for water potability.

POPSICLE PETE # 1 MFF TYPE 2 ( ZBC 9964 )

21 DEADEND ROAD, MILLERSTOWN

Regular inspection

Food facility is using an approved non-public water system, but does not have current laboratory testing results for water potability.

NEWPORT LIONS CLUB

PERRY COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, NEWPORT

Regular inspection

No violations.

LEID'S MARKET

3684 SHERMANS VALLEY ROAD, LOYSVILLE

No violations.

WILDWOOD FAMILY CAMPGROUND

7310 HORSE VALLEY RD East Waterford, PA 17021

No violations.
Mark Cuban

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Thursday explained why losing the election could be Donald Trump's dream scenario. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

(John Shearer, Associated Press)

Even if Donald Trump loses, he'll win, according to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

The Pittsburgh native said in a series of tweets Thursday that there's a "more than 50 percent chance" one of the most unpredictable election cycle's in history will end in Trump's favor.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, could have a "dream scenario" if he wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College.

"All the glory. None of the work," Cuban said in a tweet.

If that happens, Trump's net worth would increase tenfold, according to Cuban.

"He would be a former candidate who has a winning and compelling story. He may even get sympathy from people," Cuban told CNNMoney. "His brand would lose the negativity. He could do anything he wanted in business."

Cuban is an outspoken opponent of Trump and previously questioned if he's really a billionaire.

The Mavs owner, a billionaire himself, told CNNMoney he favors Hillary Clinton "far more" than the Republican candidate.

"She is willing to build bridges between people rather than burn them. She understands the fragility of the global community and has the background to try to build coalitions to fight terrorism and build the global economy," he said, according to the report.
Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrates on the final night of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(Evan Vucci)

It certainly wasn't anyone's idea of a traditional, highly scripted and slightly boring convention. Each of the four days of the Republican National Convention brought surprises, unexpected moments, good news for the Republicans and some bad.

Here's a look at five major themes that emerged over the course of the week:

1. The goal was unity -- but difficult to achieve

The #NeverTrump effort never gained much traction, but delegates still hoping to deny Trump the nomination made an effort on the convention's opening day to change the rules, made a try on the convention's opening day with a movement to try to change the rules.

They tried to force a roll call vote on the rules change, which wouldn't have denied Trump the nomination but would have embarrassed him. CNN said the effort was driven by supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz.

But Trump's team quickly began to move among the delegates, and the effort was quickly crushed. No roll call was taken, and #NeverTrump suporters couldn't keep enough state delegations on board to force it.

The aborted rebellion set the stage, however, for Cruz's appearance Wednesday, in which the former presidential candidate congratulated Trump on his win but, despite shouts from the audience, did not endorse Trump. His call for voters to vote their conscience was seen by many as suggesting they not vote for Trump. The calls for him to endorse Trump became boos, and by the end of his speech, Cruz was being shouted down by delegates.

2. Trump's biggest asset is his children

Ivanka Trump takes the stage to give a speech introducing her father, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Melania Trump, who has stayed largely in the background during the primary campaign, was initially congratulated for her speech Monday night and her poise in delivering it. Quickly, however, questions about two passages that appeared to be lifted from a speech Michelle Obama gave eight years ago were raised, tarnishing her evening.

But the Trump children - the eldest four of Trump's five children - each had a chance to speak at the convention and as a group, they impressed delegates with their support of their father, words about Trump as a caring, attentive father, and their own accomplishments and successes.

Ivanka Trump spoke Thursday night, to introduce her father, and her pride in him could not have been more clear:

"When my father says that he will make America great again, he will deliver. We have a chance this year to reclaim our heritage as a country that dreams big and makes the impossible happen."

3. Pennsylvania matters

The Pennsylvania delegation was treated to choice seats. High-profile speakers

appeared at their breakfast, including Paul Ryan, Donald Trump Jr., Sen. Jeff Sessions, Sen. Joni Ernst and, as a late addition, vice presidential nominee Mike Pence.

It all added up to one thing: the GOP thinks Pennsylvania could go Red this year.

That hasn't happened in 28 years, but Republicans point to Trump's performance in the primary, and Hillary Clinton's high negative ratings in Pennsylvania polls.

"The negativity for Hillary Clinton is big in Pennsylvania," said state Republican Party Chairman Rob Gleason. "She has a huge problem. [Trump's] are soft negatives. Hers have been built up over 30 years."

4. A vote for Trump is a vote against Clinton

The focus of policy discussion over the course of the Convention's four days

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks during the second day session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Tuesday, July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

seemed less about Trump's policies than about why Hillary Clinton must be defeated. The tone was set Monday night with a speech by Pat Smith, whose son, Sean, died during the attack on the embassy in Benghazi.

"I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son," she said, adding that she believes Clinton should be in prison.

The attacks continued in speech after speech, with likes of Rudi Giuliani and Chris Christie pounding on the case against Clinton as the crowd chanted "Lock her up. Lock her up."

The ultimate message: love Trump or not, it's a choice between him and Clinton. And Clinton is unacceptable.

Trump summed it up in his speech, saying Clinton's legacy is "death, destruction and weakness."

5. Unified in fear?

For four days, we heard how frightened people are, about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, about killings of police, about the terror threat posed by Muslim immigrants, about how the Democrats want to take away our guns, about the threats posed by ISIS, Libya, Iran, and how the administration is putting other nation's interests ahead of those of the U.S.

That was a central theme of speech after speech, up to and including Donald Trump's acceptance speech, in which he talked about rising murder rates in some U.S. cities and moved straight into a story about a 21-year-old who was killed by an undocumented immigrant.

Then Trump promised to fix it all:

"I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end," he said during his acceptance speech Thursday "Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored."

He gave only a few details on how he would fix such an overwhelming number of security issues, and most of those he provided are well known: building a wall, securing our borders, be tougher in dealing with other nations, such as Iran.
Gloria Merrick addresses council.jpg

Gloria Merrick from the Latino Hispanic American Community Center addressed Harrisburg council members Thursday night during a special council session.

HARRISBURG--Harrisburg council members Thursday night unanimously overrode the mayor's first veto of his administration, clearing the way for the allocation of federal housing money to seven nonprofits.

Council members didn't make any changes to the legislation, which Mayor Eric Papenfuse vetoed on July 14, citing a series of concerns. Council originally passed the bill to allocate $1.8 million in federal housing money on July 5.

Papenfuse had proposed keeping all of the city's allotment of Community Development Block Grant money in-house this year to help mow vacant lots, demolish blighted buildings and hire two police officers for a pilot program in city schools. But his proposal shut out more than a dozen nonprofits, many of which rely on the city's help and provide important services to residents, council members said.

Council members shaved nearly $300,000 from the mayor's proposal to free up money to provide grants to seven nonprofits and one consultant. In doing so, council cut funding for the two new police officers, saying school officials and the community did not support the program.

Although the mayor had complained that the consultant's grant violated U.S. Housing and Urban Development guidelines, council members disagreed and said they were assured that the city would not lose any federal funding.

Council members were still waiting Thursday for details from HUD officials as to whether the contract with The Ferguson Group fit within the category of "public services" allowed by HUD. If it turns out that the $35,000 grant needs to be recategorized to meet guidelines, Councilman Ben Allatt said they could do that in the fall.

Prior to the veto override, representatives from four nonprofits addressed council, including the Latino Hispanic American Community Center, which did not receive any money this year.

Despite pleas by center employees and clients, the center did not receive a grant.

Council President Wanda Williams explained that the city's annual portion of CDBG was smaller this year and additional reduced by $600,000 for required debt payments stemming from previous HUD violations.

"We would like to give everyone what they want," she said. "But we don't have the money to do that."

About 13 nonprofits applied for CDBG grants this year. City officials have said they want to wean the nonprofits off of CDBG grants to be able to keep more of the money in-house since the city is struggling financially.

To that end, Councilman Jeff Baltimore proposed the contract with The Ferguson Group to work with nonprofits to improve their grant writing and ability to win other grants.

The nonprofits receiving grants include:

Habitat for Humanty, which provides housing to low-income families. The organization asked for $278,000, and received an $80,000 grant for housing rehabilitation.

MidPenn Legal Services, which provides free civil legal service. The group asked for $30,000 and received the full amount to provide legal advocacy for renters.

East Shore YMCA, which asked for $60,000 to improve their dormatories. The organization received $30,000.

Christian Recovery Aftercare Ministries, which helps ex-offenders. They asked for $200,000 to renovate a newly acquired building and provide work-based training. They received $25,000 to perform the public service.

Heinz-Menaker Senior Center, which asked for $148,000 to build a new kitchen and buy new doors. The center received $40,000 to go toward the facility projects.

African American Chamber of Commerce, which asked for $91,5000. They received $30,000 to support job creation and retention and develop small businesses.

Fair Housing Council, which asked for $258,000. The council received $25,000 to use toward home-buyer education.
It's been a long road for Libre, the four-month-old Boston Terrier puppy that was found in dire condition at the beginning of July 2016.

The puppy was rescued from a farm in Lancaster by Speranza Animal Rescue in Mechanicsburg. When he was brought to Dillsburg Veterinary Center for treatment, he was emaciated and suffering from sepsis and mange.

But after weeks of treatment, Dillsburg Veterinary Center owner Dr. Ivan Pryor hopes to discharge Libre within 14 days.

Watch the video above to see the pup in action: walking around, inspecting his surroundings and getting cozy with the camera.

To help Libre and animals like him, Dr. Pryor suggests donating to Speranza Animal Rescue (speranzarescue.org) or adopting one of the dogs at the Rescue. Libre is already spoken for, but there are plenty of animals that could use a good home.

Libre is also the catalyst for protests against the Lancaster SPCA. The director for the SPCA branch, Susan Martin, did not bring animal cruelty charges against the original owner of Libre, which has led for calls for her resignation. Martin has said she will not step down from her position.
The owners of a now-closed Chinese restaurant in Lancaster County are facing thousands of dollars in fines, and possible jail time, after the state Game Commission cited them Friday for using illegally-procured deer parts.



The non-criminal accusations come seven months after the start of a joint probe by the commission and the state Department of Agriculture regarding the New China House Restaurant in Lititz.



Game commission investigator Gregory Graham lodged 16 citations for illegally buying or selling game against 54-year-old Shi Eng with District Judge Edward Tobin. Each citation carries a penalty of up to $1,500 in fines and 3 months in prison. An identical citation was filed against Shi Eng's 66-year-old husband, Chun.



Chun Eng also pleaded guilty to an array of Agriculture Department safety violations - relating mostly to cleanliness concerns at the restaurant - and paid $1,200 in fines in February, court records show.



The investigation that led to the citations began after state inspectors, acting on a confidential tip, found several hundred pounds of deer heads, brains and other parts at the restaurant in mid-December.



It is illegal to sell edible parts of harvested game. Venison can only be sold from a restaurant if it comes from a state-approved supplier, such as a deer farm, and the restaurant owner has documentation of the purchase.



Chun Eng told PennLive in December that the restaurant did not sell deer meat. He claimed he and his wife used deer heads and bones they got from a butcher in Elizabethtown to make soup for their personal consumption.



Investigators claimed the Engs actually took discarded deer parts from the trash at butcher shops. LancasterOnline reported that Shi Eng also pleaded guilty and paid more than $2,000 in fines for selling deer parts from a van in the Chinatown section of New York City in December.
Nymi has completed successful pilot projects alongside RBC and TD Bank to test out how its wristband can be used to verify purchases. A Nymi band sits on a table top at the company's Toronto offices in a March 10, 2015, file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young, File
Diana Eves, centre, promotes her product, Steeped Tea, at a home tasting session in Chestermere, Alta., Thursday, July 21, 2016. Multi-level marketing or direct selling is often associated with the heyday of Tupperware parties. It has since ballooned to include folks peddling jewellery, handbags, kitchen gadgets, makeup, leggings and more for companies often touting a profitable side hustle, along with empowerment to mostly female recruits. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Second Hand Drugs shuns mainstream with 'regressive rock'

Michigan band Second Hand Drugs aims to make a splash by doing things its own do-it-yourself, back-to-the-future way  from the regressive rock it creates to the way it markets and distributes its 
Saudi Arabia regains leadership in China crude supply

Reuters/Ali Jarekji



A gas flame is seen in the desert near the Khurais oilfield, about 160 km (99 miles) from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia June 23, 2008.

BEIJING

Petroleumworld.com 07 22 2016

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, regained its position as China's top crude supplier in June, after losing out to Russia in the previous three months, customs data showed on Thursday.

China imported 4.569 million tonnes of crude from Saudi Arabia in June, or 1.112 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the Chinese customs showed. The amount was down 14.2 percent on the year but compared with 961,000 bpd in May, according to the data.

Saudi imports edged up 0.24 percent in the first six months of the year versus a year ago, to average 1.06 million bpd.

Russian exports to China have climbed on demand from independent refiners since late 2015 after the country allowed them to import crude for the first time.

China imported 4.107 million tonnes, or around 999,420 bpd, of crude in June from Russia, down from a record 1.24 million bpd in May.

For the first half, imports from Russia rose 35.3 percent at 26.276 million tonnes, or 1.05 million bpd, just behind Saudi Arabia.

"Beijing is probably quite pleased with the competition for share's of China's crude oil market," said Washington-based China energy expert Erica Downs of the Eurasia Group.

"The government doesn't want to be too dependent on any one supplier, so competition between major suppliers is a welcome development, especially if it results in lower prices."

Nicknamed "teapots" due to their relative smaller scale, the independents contributed to more than half of China's 930,500 bpd incremental crude purchases during the first half of 2016.

Stockpiling to boost government reserves was another driver for imports, as new tanks became available including this month.

A new tank farm in Hainan province, a 17.6 million-barrel site owned by privately-run CEFC China Energy, received its first shipment early in July.

Imports from Iran rose 16.1 percent in June over a year earlier to 780,175 bpd, up from 671,176 bpd in May. Imports for the January-June period gained 2.5 percent.

Shipments have held relatively steady as Tehran has been focusing on recouping lost markets in Europe after sanctions were lifted, Iranian oil sources say.

Sharp gains in Chinese imports also came from smaller OPEC producer Kuwait as well as Venezuela. Kuwait supplied 45 percent more in June at 1.336 million tonnes, or 325,100 bpd.

Supplies from Venezuela shot up 88 percent in June and for the first six months went up 35.5 percent at 9.936 million tonnes, or 398,500 bpd.






#BOK BOK announces rate-setting meeting schedule for next year The Bank of Korea (BOK) will hold its rate-setting meeting a total of eight times in 2023, with the year's first gathering of monetary policymakers set for Jan. 13, the central ban...
Today, Senator Claire McCaskill requested a briefing with the Pentagon's procurement office after a POGO report found that the office had improperly helped out KGL Logistics, a contractor accused of having illegal business ties with Iran.

For several years, Senator McCaskill has pushed the Pentagon for answers about this contractor's performance and alleged improper ties to Iran. See Senator McCaskill's press release below.

Senator Claire McCaskill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 22, 2016

McCaskill Seeks Answers on Allegations that Government Improperly Helped Troubled Contractor

Senator, who has repeatedly investigated governments inadequate oversight of contractor KGL, questions whether Defense Department officials provided non-public information to tip scales in contractors favor

WASHINGTON  Continuing her longstanding efforts to bring accountability to federal government contracting, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is seeking answers on new allegations that Defense Logistics Agency employees provided non-public information to troubled government contractor Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport Company (KGL).

According to court documents, employees within Defense Logistics Agencys General Counsels Office reportedly provided non-public information to an attorney for KGL, including details regarding the governments ongoing investigation into its relationship with Iran, wrote McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, to agency Director Lt. Gen. Andrew Busch. This calls into question the Defense Departments previous assertions that KGL was not in violation of Iran sanctions and was eligible to receive major logistics contracts. It also raises very serious questions regarding the Defense Departments management and oversight of its contracts with KGL.

McCaskills letter follows a report from the Project on Government Oversight that the Defense Logistics Agency actively supported KGLs bid to retain Defense Department contracts by feeding their legal counsel details of a federal law enforcement probe into the companys alleged criminal wrongdoing of sanctions violations surrounding business ties with Iran.

McCaskill has previously expressed concerns about KGLs conduct as a government contractor. In 2009, she chaired a hearing on circumstances surrounding the death of Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Rocky Baragona after he was killed in Iraq when his Humvee was struck by a supply truck driven by an employee of KGL. The parents of LTC Baragona filed a wrongful death suit in 2005, but the Kuwaiti company refused to appear in U.S. courts, claiming that the U.S. court system has no jurisdiction over the company, despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts. In 2011, McCaskill sought information from the Defense Department regarding allegations that KGL had improper ties to Iranian government-owned shipping companies  activities that would make it ineligible for U.S. government contracts. At the time, Defense Department officials assured McCaskill that it had no evidence of wrongdoing.

In a 2011 hearing, citing the KGL case specifically, McCaskill called for the federal government to stop doing business with contractors responsible for past wrongdoing, a recommendation that was also made by her Commission on Wartime Contracting. The governments top watchdog also recommended that federal agencies take specific steps to improve their suspension and debarment programs by assigning dedicated staff, developing guidance, and promoting the referral of cases.

McCaskills letter is available online HERE.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/accountability to learn more.
Somerville, MA, police officers are asking that the citys mayor remove a banner supporting the Black Lives Matter movement from City Hall and replace it with one proclaiming All Lives Matter.

In a Tuesday letter addressed to Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the Somerville Police Employees Association, the bargaining unit for 90-95 patrol officers, called the citys support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the display of the banner deeply troubling.

we strongly object to a public banner sponsored by the City that [implicitly] paints police officers as the killers of innocent citizens of color when there is no evidence whatsoever that the police officers in the City are in anyway using their police power in a discriminatory of unlawful way, the letter said.

The letter didnt sway Mayor Curtatone, who said he doesnt plan to remove the banner.

My unwavering support for our police officers does not and cannot preempt our commitment to addressing systemic racism in our nation, Curtatone said in a statement to Boston.com.

In addition to the Black Lives Matter banner at City Hall, Curtatone said that he also ordered a banner honoring slain law enforcement to hang above the citys police headquarters, and that both will remain in place.
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Thanks to the early leaking of Trumps speech transcript, it was easy for fact checkers to pre-debunk Donald Trumps acceptance speech lies.

The full list of fact checked Trump lies can be found here. Below are few of Trumps biggest lies in Cleveland:

Trump Lie: President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing.

Fact : The total federal debt is at $19 trillion. But most of it was amassed before Obama took office. [PolitiFact, 7/19/16]

Trump Lie: In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map. Libya was cooperating. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was under control.

Fact : The roots of ISIS trace back to 2004, when Bush was president and before Clinton was Obamas secretary of state. [PolitiFact, 7/20/16]

Trump Lie: My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama. She proposes this despite the fact that theres no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they come from.

Fact : PolitiFact rated Donald Trumps claim that there was no system to vet refugees False. [PolitiFact, 6/13/16]

Trump Lie: Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to violence spilling across our border.

Fact: Washington Post Fact Checker: Data on immigrants and crime are incomplete, but a range of studies show there is no evidence immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans. [Washington Post, 7/8/15]



Trump Lie: While Hillary Clinton plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year  Democrat or Republican. Middle-income Americans will experience profound relief, and taxes will be simplified for everyone.

Fact: Moodys Analytics report: Donald Trumps tax plan would mostly benefit those at the very top of the income distribution, and job losses resulting from his economic policies would most affect lower- and middle-income households. [Moodys Analytics report, 6/20/16]

Trump Lie: When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was extremely careless and negligent, in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did.

They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.

In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it  especially when others have paid so dearly.

Fact: FBI Director Comey: Theres all kinds of folks watching this at home or being told, well, lots of other cases are being prosecuted and she wasnt. I want them to know thats not true! [FBI Director James Comey Testimony , 7/7/16]



Trump gave a speech of lies based on Republican conspiracies, conservative media tall tales, and Fox News. Trump played to the angry and frightened base of the Republican Party. His lies are only convincing to those who want to be fooled.

Republicans used their convention to begin their campaign to undermine Hillary Clintons potential presidency. Trump represents the ugliness of the right. Donald Trump has conned the right by telling them what they want to hear.

Facts have no place in the current Republican Party, and GOP voters have rewarded Trumps superior disregard for truth with the partys presidential nomination.
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Just hours before evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr is expected to speak at the RNC, the Clinton campaign reminded people today that evangelical leaders warned that Donald Trump was a scam.

Citing moral duty, the most popular evangelical website in the United States took a brave, prescient stand against Donald Trump back in February, saying they urge our readers to back away from the Republican nominee.

The editors at the Christian Post wrote that they have not previously taken a position on a political candidate, but they are making an exception because Trump is exceptionally bad and claims to speak for and represent the interests of evangelicals.

Here are a few of the very sobering reasons they offered their readers.

Donald Trump doesnt represent evangelicals and would be dangerous:

As the most popular evangelical news website in the United States and the world, we feel compelled by our moral responsibility to our readers to make clear that Donald Trump does not represent the interests of evangelicals and would be a dangerous leader for our country.

Donald Trump claims to be a Christian but:

Trump claims to be a Christian, yet says he has never asked for forgiveness.

Trump doesnt repent, and his words and actions do not demonstrate the fruit of the spirit.'

Trump doesnt ask forgiveness for his sins and continues to demean people:

Trump is a misogynist and philanderer. He demeans women and minorities. His preferred forms of communication are insults, obscenities and untruths. While Christians have been guilty of all of these, we, unlike Trump, acknowledge our sins, ask for forgiveness and seek restitution with the aid of the Holy Spirit and our community of believers.

They called the Klan evil and pointed to Trumps reluctance to disavow David Duke:

On Sunday, Trumps apparent reluctance to disavow David Duke until late in the day was extremely distasteful. The Ku Klux Klan is an evil, unholy movement representing the worst of America. Anyone who will not immediately denounce their support is unfit to be president.

Watch out for Trump:

Trump, an admirer of Vladimir Putin and other dictatorial leaders, may claim to be your friend and protector now, but as his history indicates, without your full support he will turn on you, and use whatever power is within his means to punish you.

What the Christian Post knew back in February has proven to be truer than they could have imagined now that this countrys worst nightmare is coming true.

Their editorial demonstrates is that all Americans must join together to stop Donald Trump. This is not about ideology. This is about Donald Trumps dangerous temperament. This is about Donald Trumps divisive rhetoric, troubling connections to Putin, ignorance, and most of all his narcissistic belief that he is much more capable than he really is.

The idea of Donald Trump with the red button is too distressing to focus on, and there wont be anyone to stop him. Republicans are fooling themselves that Trump wont want to govern so he will be easily controlled by Pence, their puppeteer. But what they dont see is Donald Trump doesnt want to do the work, but he will grab all of the power and more. There wont be anyone who can stop him.
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As Donald Trump prepares to take the stage to deliver his acceptance speech at the RNC, Hillary Clinton is on the brink of coming forward with her VP choice.

According to the latest reporting from the Wall Street Journal, her pick is likely to be Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

The report also said that two other finalists for the job were Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

The story via the Wall Street Journal:

Hillary Clinton is on the verge of announcing her vice-presidential pick, with Democrats familiar with her search believing she will settle on a Spanish-speaking ally from a battleground state: Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.  Mrs. Clinton is likely to announce her selection Friday in the form of a text message to supporters. On Saturday, she is set to campaign in Florida, a potential stage for a joint appearance with her newly minted running mate.  Voters tend to focus on the top of the ticket, but Mr. Kaine could offer a political boost for the Clinton campaign. Though unflashy by his own admission, his Spanish fluency might be able to cement her lead among Hispanic voters, a key general-election constituency. He is considered a loyal figure who would mesh well with Mrs. Clintons leadership style.  Former President Bill Clinton believes that if his wife wins Virginia, the Republican ticket has virtually no realistic path to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win, a person familiar with his thinking said. In presidential elections dating to 2000, the candidate who won Virginia went on to win the White House.

Even if Donald Trump carries Florida and Ohio (which is still questionable), Clinton could still win the White House by simply winning Virginia  where she currently leads by an average of 5 points  and the rest of the swing states Barack Obama won in his two campaigns. Put simply, the presumptive Democratic nominee has many more paths to earning 270 electoral votes than Trump does.

As a moderate Democrat, Kaine could also appeal to undecided voters who are turned off by the unserious and unfit Trump.
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There is someone in America who actually liked Donald Trumps sweaty, raging bitter acceptance speech last night, and his name is David Duke.

Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldn't have said it better!  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 22, 2016

It seems the felon and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan liked it so much, hes happy to officially announce his run for the U.S. Senate.

In his video announcement, David Duke says, I am overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues Ive championed for years.

David Duke announces his candidacy for the Untied States Senate! https://t.co/SDMdrYNVA4 https://t.co/H87ErOPahY  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 22, 2016

Louisiana getting another real winner of a Republican, as Duke will run for Vitters (of the prostitution scandal) seat.

David Duke is also a white nationalist and a Holocaust denier. He has suggested that Donald Trump being compared to Hitler was only helping Hitlers reputation.

For good measure, heres a reminder of the way David Duke sees the world:

We must ask if this racial #diversity is enriching, or damaging to our social fabric. #MakeAmericaFirstAgain #RNC pic.twitter.com/Jg9sXG3g8D  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 21, 2016

Heres a clue about the dog whistle of Western European and Christian and what America First really means:

The basic culture of this country is #European and #Christian and if we lose that, we lose America. #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/Y7Mcm9Un8A  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 21, 2016

Are Americans now ready to ask if this racial diversity is enriching or damaging our social fabric? #WakeUpAmerica pic.twitter.com/j0mGZ02L5W  David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) July 20, 2016

David Duke has been putting out feelers for this run, but formally announced it today, the day after Donald Trumps acceptance speech. Duke must feel the Trump voters will trickle down for him, and no doubt many of them will given Trumps appeal.

This is hardly the first time David Duke and Donald Trump have been politically linked and it wont be the last.

Duke warns, the revolution is coming. Watch out for the white robes.
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Ethnic food markets in Rochester have a checkered history.

Some have popped up, offering favorite spices or sweets imported from overseas, only to disappear shortly after you've discovered them.

Others, like Eav Ngov's Asian Food Store in northwest Rochester, have managed to stick around for 20 years.

The secret of success?

Ngov pointed to the foodstuffs for Japanese cuisine he now carries in his store, as an example. Of the customers for these Japanese groceries, Ngov said, "Surprisingly, they are all Caucasian."

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In other words, Rochester's ethnic grocery stores are no longer just for members of the city's ethnic communities. They can't be if they hope to survive, said Brian Faloon, president of the Rochester International Association.

"The numbers are what's important," he said. "The point is, not only is there a community here to support it, but there has to be a wider community that wants to experience and try different tastes."

For example, he said, Mexican grocers might be able to survive by serving the relatively large Hispanic community in the area. But for them and other ethnic grocers, it is best to appeal to a broader base of shoppers.

"I have customers from everywhere, not just from the Middle East," said Anwar Haq, owner of International Spices and Groceries. Haq had been in business since 1994 in downtown Rochester.

Like other successful ethnic grocers, he has expanded his stock to serve a variety of food interests beyond any single focus. "We have Europe, Asia, Africa, India," said Haq, a native of Pakistan. "It's growing."

Don't think large supermarkets are ignoring the trend. Hy-Vee, which has had a foreign food section in its Barlow Plaza store, now also has a prominent, large, well-stocked section of products imported from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan and elsewhere in the company's new West Circle Drive store.

"We know this is a major growth trend across the country," said Chad Hartogh, store director at West Circle Drive. "That's where we were coming from in putting this in."

Reaction from customers, he said, has been positive. "Obviously, some of these are people who have lived overseas or on the East Coast," Hartogh said. "People are always requesting something. We're getting new stuff in all the time."

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Germany-based Aldi carries dozens of imported items, particularly during special weeks, and shoppers will also find foreign goods on the shelves at German-owned Trader Joe's. In fact, most supermarkets, co-ops and boutique food shops have some imported items these days.

But it's the locally owned, neighborhood, ethnic grocers that carry hard-to-find items, and can anticipate or quickly respond to customer requests.

"We try to provide service that brings them here," said Ngov, at the Asian Food Store. "We have knowledge of the food we sell. The customer can come in and we can help them find what they want."

There's also a personal exchange with customers that takes place at a small store. "We learn a lot through the conversations we have with our customers," Ngov said. "They have questions for us, and we learn from them."

That, in turn, results in new and expanded inventory.

"They always want the new things," said Huq, at International Spice & Groceries. "They want what's good."

When asked what brings customers of all types to his store, Huq said, without hesitation, "Service."
Power dressing may be getting a new bounce thanks to Theresa May, who wore her signature kitten-heel, leopard-print shoes Wednesday, her first day as prime minister of the United Kingdom.

May, the second woman to become Britain's prime minister, is a Conservative Party politician who was formerly home secretary. Her colorful choice of footwear hasn't gone unnoticed  or unphotographed.

CNN reported on its website last Tuesday that Google Trends has seen a "spike" in searches for "Theresa May shoes" and "Theresa May fashion." That same day, after it became clear May was the choice to succeed outgoing P.M. David Cameron, The Sun splashed a photo illustration of what it described as her "famous" leopard shoes across its tabloid front page.

"Heel, boys" was the headline. Catchy, certainly, as were the shoes, which were arranged on the page to look as if they rested on the heads of May's male political rivals.

For fashion-conscious women considering their own powerful footwear, we have some suggestions for where to start.

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A Rochester man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl multiple times has pleaded guilty.

Ekpan Wilfred Amon, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Olmsted County District Court to second-degree criminal sexual conduct-victim under 16 years old. Additional counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and bribery of a witness are expected to be dismissed at sentencing, which is set for Oct. 13. All charges are felonies.

The investigation began with a referral from Olmsted County Child Protection Services about the sexual abuse. According to the criminal complaint, the girl told a social worker that Amon had "raped" her several times during the past several years.

The victim said Amon told her not to tell anyone, especially her mother, because it is "an African thing."
MINNEAPOLIS  A Minnesota police officer and the black motorist he shot to death during a traffic stop may have interacted in a previous stop more than four years earlier, newly released records released show.

Philando Castile, 32, died July 6 after he was pulled over by St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in suburban St. Paul. Yanez's attorney has said the officer was reacting to seeing a gun. Castile's girlfriend, who streamed the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook, said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling the officer he had a gun permit and was armed.

Records released Thursday by the city of St. Anthony in response to a request from The Associated Press also include a report on a July 2 armed robbery at a Super USA convenience store that lists Yanez as one of two officers assigned to investigate. The robbery occurred a few blocks away from where the traffic stop took place four days later.

Yanez's attorney, Thomas Kelly, has said that when Yanez stopped Castile he was approaching someone he thought resembled a suspect in an armed robbery.

Castile's family has questioned that, saying his long history of traffic stops  at least 52 times in recent years  suggested he was racially profiled.

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The traffic stop included in Thursday's release was made in November 2011, with Castile pulled over for a defective brake light. He was arrested on a Hennepin County warrant for driving with a revoked license.

Yanez wasn't the arresting officer, but the arrest report lists an "Officer Yanez" as one of two officers who drove Castile several miles to the county jail. It was just a few weeks after Jeronimo Yanez joined the St. Anthony Police Department.

The department declined to discuss the report, and Yanez's attorney didn't immediately respond to an email from AP.

The city also partially responded to a request for personnel data on Yanez and Officer Joseph Kauser, who also responded to the scene of Castile's shooting. The city said it had no record of complaints against either officer. Yanez joined the department in November 2011, and Kauser in January 2013.

The St. Anthony Police Department currently has 23 police officers and 14 reserve officers.
Bond set at $1M for man charged in Fargo woman's death

FARGO, N.D.  Bond has been set at $1 million for a man charged with murder in the death of a woman whose body was discovered in a Fargo town house in mid-May.

Landon Lauwagie, 22, has made his first court appearance. He's charged with murder and gross sexual imposition in the death of 40-year-old Cory Terlecky on or about May 14.

Lauwagie, of Ponsford, Minnesota, is now being held at the Cass County Jail. He had been custody at a southern Minnesota jail since he was arrested on a probation violation days after the alleged murder.

Authorities say in court documents that Lauwagie sexually assaulted Terlecky and that she died of asphyxiation.

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Lauwagie's court record does not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.  Associated Press

Police: Man crashes boat of hunter who killed lion

MINNEAPOLIS  Police say a man stole and crashed a boat off southwest Florida that belongs to the Minnesota dentist who had killed Cecil the lion while hunting in Africa.

A police report says 26-year-old Andrew Derwin of Marco Island, Fla., was arrested Tuesday on a felony charge of grand theft and remains held. Authorities say Derwin took Walter Palmer's $61,175 boat from his vacation home Sunday and later crashed it. Derwin's passenger, Nicolas Stolinas, was seriously injured, officials say.

The report says detectives contacted Palmer, who lives fulltime in Minnesota, and he told them Derwin lives near his vacation home but didn't have permission to use the boat.

Records didn't indicate whether Derwin has a lawyer.

Palmer caused an international furor after he killed the lion in July 2015 in Zimbabwe.  Associated Press

Competency exam ordered in fatal stabbing

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STILLWATER  A judge in Washington County has ordered a psychological exam for a Stillwater man accused of fatally stabbing his father.

Prosecutors say 31-year-old William Scheel committed a vicious and unprovoked attack on his father and is a significant public threat. Scheel made his first appearance in court Wednesday in Washington County where he's charged with second-degree murder.

Judge John Hoffman ordered that Scheel be evaluated to determine if he's competent to assist with his defense.

Scheel is accused of stabbing his father, William Scheel, in the back of his neck several times on July 8. The defendant, diagnosed as a schizophrenic, was under civil commitment and living in a group home.  Associated Press

Mississippi dredging in Wabasha begins in August

WINONA  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to begin a dredged material unloading project at Crats Island in Wabasha the first week of August.

The Corps' contractor, JF Brennan Marine from La Crosse, mobilized to the site in June and has been preparing for the island unload. The site unloading project should be completed by the end of 2017.

The contractor is hydraulically removing and pumping 900,000 cubic yards of dredged material nearly five miles from Crats Island and permanently placing it at the Corps' Wabasha gravel pit site. The contractor will be working 24 hours per day, six days per week.

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The Corps is asking everyone near the site to exercise caution during the unloading project.  Associated Press
The Rochester League of Women Voters will sponsor two candidate forums in advance of the Aug. 9 primary elections.

The forums will be held at the Rochester Public Library for two contested races  the Rochester City Council Ward 6 race and the Rochester School Board position 3 race. Each race has three candidates running.

Forum schedule:

 School Board  Position 3, at 7 p.m. Monday

Candidates: Bobbie Gallas, John League and Deborah Seelinger

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 City Council  Ward 6, at 7 p.m. Thursday

Candidates: Nick Carter, Patrick "PJ" Day and Annalissa Johnson

Panelists at the forum will include a moderator from the League of Women voters, a Chamber of Commerce representative, a League of Women Voters representative and a Post-Bulletin reporter.

Co-sponsors for the event include: Rochester Post-Bulletin, Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, Rochester Community Education, Rochester Public Library, RNeighbors and RCTC Life.

The forums will also be taped and live-streamed by the Rochester Public Library, and will available for viewing during and after the event via a link on the library's website.

The League of Women Voters asks that campaign literature, buttons and signs must not be visible in the room, which includes the wearing of campaign shirts.
MINNEAPOLIS  Lawyers investigating a Minnesota archbishop in 2014 found compelling and credible allegations from nearly a dozen people that he engaged in sexual misconduct and harassment, then retaliated when his advances were rejected, according to an internal church document made public this week.

Although Archbishop John Nienstedt eventually stepped down under fire as head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he remains a priest in good standing and less than two weeks ago led Masses at a conservative Catholic leadership conference in California.

The July 2014 memo came from the Rev. Daniel Griffith, a key archdiocese leader for ensuring the safety of children. Minnesota prosecutors released it Wednesday as part of an update on civil and criminal cases against the archdiocese over its handling of clergy abuse cases.

Nienstedt became the subject of an investigation into his own conduct in February 2014 as he was under fire for his handling of a priest who would eventually go to prison and be kicked out of the priesthood for molesting three boys.

In his memo, Griffith raised concerns that Nienstedt's "social relationship" with that priest, the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, had clouded his judgment.

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But he also detailed much broader findings by lawyers for a Minneapolis firm the archdiocese hired: 10 sworn statements from people alleging "sexual misconduct; sexual harassment; reprisals in response to the rejection of unwanted advances; and excessive drinking."

Many allegations dated to when Nienstedt served in Detroit. An 11th affidavit came in later. And the lawyers had at least 24 more leads to pursue, he wrote.

Griffith called the findings compelling and said key church leaders felt Nienstedt should resign.

Nienstedt issued a statement through his lawyer saying the "claims regarding alleged misbehavior involving me ... were and still are absolutely and entirely false." He said the allegations are payback for his public opposition to same-sex marriage and to admitting openly gay men to the priesthood, and in retribution for decisions that he made as his accusers' superior.

"I am a heterosexual man who has been celibate my entire life," Nienstedt said. "I have never solicited sex, improperly touched anyone and have not used my authority to cover up, or even try to cover up, any allegation of sexual abuse."

Nienstedt had previously stepped down from public ministry in 2013 after he was accused of improperly touching a boy's buttocks during a public photo session following a 2009 confirmation ceremony. He returned to ministry a few months later after prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence for charges.

Griffith turned down an interview request but said in an email to The Associated Press that he stands by the memo.

Investigative documents released Wednesday detailed some examples of questionable behavior by Nienstedt:

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 One priest recounted a four-year history of Nienstedt building a relationship with him when Nienstedt was bishop of the New Ulm Diocese. In 2004, he said, Nienstedt invited him to spend time at his home near Lake Huron in Michigan. The priest said he went only reluctantly. On his last night there, he said, Nienstedt tried to massage his neck while they drove back to his home from dinner. The priest regarded it as an unwelcome sexual advance.

 A former seminarian who had been part of a delegation of New Ulm Diocese high-schoolers described a 2005 World Youth Day trip to Germany with Nienstedt. He said he and the only other boy in the group got wet running through the rain with Nienstedt to a pub for lunch. Afterward, at Nienstedt's suggestion, they went to Nienstedt's hotel room, where the bishop took off all his clothes and changed into dry ones in the presence of the boys, while the boys took off all their clothes and put on hotel robes.

 An older St. Paul archdiocese priest spoke about concerns over Nienstedt's frequent visits to St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul. The archbishop would stay overnight there even though his official residence was nearby, he said. The investigator's notes said the priest was concerned about those visits "and his rather obvious and awkward relationships" with the young men who were studying to become priests.

Nienstedt resigned as head of the archdiocese in June 2015, 10 days after the archdiocese was criminally charged. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi reiterated Wednesday that he didn't have enough evidence to charge any individual church officials.

Nienstedt's attorney, Jon Hopeman, said the archbishop recently became an outside consultant to the Napa Institute Foundation, which put on the leadership conference where he recently led Masses, to edit documents on religious topics for publication. Hopeman said Nienstedt lives within the Diocese of Santa Rosa in northern California, with the permission of the local bishop who also works on this project.

Griffith's memo accused the Vatican's emissary in Washington of ordering Minnesota church leaders to wrap up the investigation without pursuing additional leads. He also said the emissary, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, ordered the church leaders to destroy copies of a letter they had written disagreeing with his instructions.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, declined comment Thursday.
RED WING  The Goodhue County Homeless Response Team will host an event for homeless individuals from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church of Red Wing.

"We will be serving homeless individuals countywide," said Katherine Cross, a family advocate specialist with Three Rivers Community Action. "The event at the church is to provide them with resources, food and a care package."

The HRT hosts similar events statewide each January, she said, to help educated homeless people and get a snapshot of the number and demographics of homeless at that moment. The upcoming event in Red Wing should get a similar look.

"We collect a snapshot in time of how many unsheltered there are," Cross said. "We talked about it and wanted to see if our numbers would change in the summer versus the winter."

To get the word out, Cross said the organization has put up fliers at points of first contact for homeless people such as the food shelf, clinic, social services and sheriff's office.

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Through the years, the number of homeless seems to hold fairly constant with the counts done each January.

"It remains fairly constant, but that's what we're trying to figure out by doing this," she said.
BROOKINGS, S.D.  Swaths of Midwestern wildflowers planted by well-meaning governments and nonprofits to attract bees may be inadvertently harming them.

That's the surprising finding of a new scientific study that concludes a bee-killing pesticide carried by wind or water from nearby farms are landing on the wildflowers, putting pollinators at risk.

Scientists spent two years examining wildflower plots planted around Brookings. Testing for the presence of clothianidin, a neonicotinoid insecticide commonly used in corn growing, they consistently found the insecticide on the wildflowers  even in those planted on organic farms where no pesticides are used.

"I was actually really surprised because we were using organic sites as control sites. We certainly weren't expecting to see any there," said entomologist Chrissy Mogren. "Organic growers have to have a 30-foot buffer between their field and other conventional fields to help mitigate that. We can only assume that it's probably drifting in."

Bees pollinate most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, so the fragile health of bee colonies has been a major concern. Honey bees have been dying this decade at a rate experts call unsustainable. Last year, Minnesota beekeepers reported losing half of their bee colonies.

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Experts say bees are in trouble for many reasons, including rapidly spreading diseases, not enough flowering plants on the landscape to provide adequate nutrition and increasing use of insecticides on crops, which is why the South Dakota research is important.

Mogren, a Louisiana State University scientist who conducted the bee research while working for the United States Department of Agriculture, also gathered data on the health of the bees feeding on the wildflower strips. She tested the pollen and nectar bees use for food and found very low levels of insecticide.

While it wasn't concentrated enough to kill the bees, researchers found it was potentially damaging to the creatures' nutritional health. The more insecticide in the bee food, the less energy bees stored in the form of glycogen and lipids.

Glycogen provides short-term energy, similar to a candy bar after a workout. Lipids are like body fat, providing long-term energy. Bees need adequate lipids to survive winter.

The work raises questions about efforts to plant more habitat for bees, said study co-author Jonathan Lundgren.

"If those efforts are being compromised by some of these pesticides showing up where they don't belong, that has really important implications for how we can proceed forward," said Lundgren, a former USDA scientist who believes the department retaliated against him for his prior research on pollinators and insecticides.

"It's not just plant it and see the benefits of it anymore," he added. "It's how do we preserve those plantings from potential contamination."

Still, the researchers say the findings do not mean farmers should stop planting pollinator habitat.

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Instead, they should look for ways to protect the wildflowers from insecticide exposure, Mogren said. She also noted the findings that tie insecticide exposure to nutritional health don't necessarily prove insecticides are the cause and that more research is needed.
Much of the violence in many lives today is a symptom of the hopeless trap of systemic, generational poverty.

Without the options for employment, which uphold a person's human dignity, the alternatives  low-wage, part-time jobs, drugs or crime  become the only apparent avenues to sustain life. These dead-end in false promises and illusions of escape. The escape that is needed is support, in education and jobs, for the caring community that exists under the specter of unrelenting poverty.

A high school diploma should translate into meaningful, full-time work at a living wage. Not minimum wage, not just above poverty level, but a living wage.

A living wage in Olmsted County for a single parent with two children is $59,480 a year. A single parent with two children being assisted by the Minnesota Family Investment Program plus working full-time at $9 per hour earns $22,800 per year. MFIP cash assistance has not increased since 1986.

A respected state legislator suggested that $31,140 per year is insufficient as the yearly salary for a state legislator and that has not changed since 1999.

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Help families escape from poverty, support and encourage living-wage employers. Working families deserve a boost beyond scraping by. Support an increase in MFIP cash assistance.

Mary Vlazny

Rochester
Here's my response to the Democrats and the fawning liberal media's feeding frenzy over Melania Trump's use of a few phases from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic Convention: First and foremost, Melania is not running for office, and she gave a wonderful heart-felt speech.

Hilliary Clinton is running for president and she has lied with impunity about her trip to Bosnia in 1996, Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, and her use of her private email server while secretary of state from 2008 to 2012.

While we are at it let's flashback to 1988 when then Sen. Joe Biden's plagiarism on issues in his past forced his withdrawal from the presidential primaries, or February 2008 when presidential candidate Barack Obama made a speech which closely resembled a 2006 speech by his friend Massachusetts' Gov. Deval Patrick. His response was they were "just words."

Let's focus on the real issues facing our country. Ninety-five million people are out of work, there is racial strife, Islamic extremists threatening our world and our healthcare in a shambles due to Obamacare  just to name a few.

Arlen Books

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Rochester
CLEVELAND -- Donald Trump's botched convention made Hillary Clinton's task in Philadelphia easier. Not necessarily easy, but easier.

The Republicans' four days here were marked by disorganization, division and darkness. This was the Ronco of flubbed conventions: But wait, there's more. After the plagiarism debacle, a preventable problem made massively worse, came the Cruz fiasco, the news of his non-endorsement drowning out the vice presidential nominee.

The mood among the GOP political establishment here traced a downhill trajectory from sour to disgusted. To talk to elected officials and political professionals was to encounter shrugged shoulders and shaking heads. No one could remember a convention this thoroughly, unnecessarily bungled.

Trump could have used the convention, and his speech, to reassure doubting voters he possesses the judgment and temperament to be president, to expand beyond the base clamoring for Hillary Clinton's head.

Trump and his children clearly have it in them. Ivanka Trump unsettled the convention audience with her unapologetic assertion that she is no reflexive Republican ("Like many of my fellow millennials, I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat") and previewed a general election message on affordable child care and pay equity.

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Trump himself uttered the phrase "LGBTQ," twice, to cheers -- unthinkable to anyone who heard Pat Buchanan's "take back our culture" speech at the 1992 convention.

But Trump chose, mostly, to rile up rather than reach out. Ronald Reagan spoke in 1975 of bold conservative colors, not "pale pastels." Trump's palette is Rembrandt dark, without the deft brushstrokes. His distorted vision is one of America under assault -- by criminals, by immigrants, by terrorists -- with Trump the only possible savior.

"Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored," Trump proclaimed. And, "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." The authoritarian overtones were neck-prickling.

So what is Clinton to do? Perhaps the country is in such a frenzy of disgust and despair that voters will be receptive to Trumpist fear-mongering, in which case she -- and we -- are in trouble. Not to discount the anger and frustration, yet Reagan succeeded by combining his muscular conservative message with a sunny, uplifting vision.

The American people want to imagine their country as shining city on the hill, not the brutalized landscape of "Blade Runner." They want their anxiety acknowledged but their better angels channeled, away from anger and retribution.

The challenge for Trump going into his convention was an amped-up version of the usual: to unify his party and cast himself in the eyes of voters as a man they can entrust with the presidency. He fell short, on both scores.

Clinton's test is different. There may be lingering grumpiness among Bernie Sanders voters and distrust of the triangulating Clinton duo in the party's progressive wing. Yet nothing concentrates the Democratic mind, or unifies the base, like the prospect of Trump. The party Clinton will address in Philadelphia may not be uniformly ecstatic about her candidacy, but it is far less riven by the notion of her as president than were Republicans in Cleveland.

Similarly, for all the particulars of Chris Christie's indictment of Clinton's supposed foreign policy blunders, voters' doubts do not center on her knowledge, her experience or her competence.

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They concern, as always, her honesty, trustworthiness and fundamental issues of character, not a problem capable of being solved by a boffo acceptance speech or a string of testimonials. If such rehabilitation were ever possible, which is remote, FBI Director James Comey dispensed with that in two damning words: "extremely careless."

So Clinton's path lies in emphasizing the consistency of her biography, anchored in values. Where Trump declared bankruptcies and ripped off everyone from lenders to Trump University suckers, Clinton and her validators can be expected to argue that she devoted a lifetime to fighting for women and children.

But biography means little without it being tied to a compelling picture of the future. Trump has run a campaign that is all slogan and little policy. Clinton, by contrast, has run a tapas campaign, serving up endless small plates of wonky policy. Each may be smart individually but these dishes lack an overarching theme, at least not one that she has succeeded in conveying to voters.

Trump and his convention helped her by adding to the evidence about his own unsuitability. She needs to help herself not only by hammering that home, but by offering an affirmative case for herself and a vision of where she wants to lead the country.

Ruth Marcus is a columnist for the Washington Post.
After Night Two of the GOP convention, I wrote:

During [Chris] Christies speech, the crowd frequently chanted lock her up  her being Hillary Clinton, of course. It was jarring to hear such a rallying cry, however justified, at a major party convention. How did this play to the audience outside the convention hall? Did the delegates sound bloodthirsty? Maybe. But remember that a clear majority of Americans believe Hillary should have been indicted.

Naturally, Clinton supporters have seized on the lock her up chant. The Washington Post editorial board sniffs Democracies dont lock up opponents.

Thats true in general. But if politicians commit crimes, they sometimes get locked up. The Obama Justice Department tried its best to lock up former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell.

Many convention delegates believe that Hillary Clinton has committed crimes. So, apparently, do most Americans. James Comeys presentation showed that Hillary violated the literal terms of at least one criminal statute but, for technical reasons, Comey didnt think she should be prosecuted under it.

Clinton cant be locked up without an indictment and a conviction, of course. But indict her, try her, and then lock her up wont work as a chant. Nor will it fit on a hat.

Are the optics of the lock her up chant damaging the GOP? I dont know. But it seems unlikely that voters are going to be influenced by what folks wearing funny hats are shouting, especially when the sentiment expressed is not entirely inconsistent with what must voters feel.

However, its different, I think, when it comes to the candidates. In my view, Mike Pence was wise last night to ignore, rather than play to, the lock her up chants.

Tonight Donald Trump has a big opportunity. When the chants begin, he should say something like: This isnt about locking Hillary up; its about defeating her in November. Or, better still: This is about making sure Hillary doesnt get to handle classified information ever again.

By taking the high road, Trump could help dispel the fear of many that he has authoritarian tendencies. He could appear unexpectedly presidential.

Will Trump take advantage of this opportunity? I have trouble imagining that he will; when has he taken the high road? But perhaps Trump will at least resist the urge to egg the lock her up chanters on.

That doesnt seem like to much to ask of him.
American liberals trumpet a wage gap between men and women, notwithstanding reams of social science data demonstrating that mens higher average earnings reflect life choices, not discrimination. White House salaries are published, so analysts have shown that Barack Obamas own staff manifests the same pay gap that Obama and Hillary Clinton decry in private industry. Democrats have no response; as usual, they count on voter ignorance.

It is entertaining to see the same drama play out in the United Kingdom: Jeremy Corbyn accused of hypocrisy for refusing to publish gender pay gap of Labour staff.

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of hypocrisy after he demanded small businesses publish details of their gender pay gap but refused to do so for his own team.

Well, yeah, thats hypocritical. Its nice to see the far-left, terrorist-sympathizing Corbyn skewered.

It came as a senior Labour source claimed to have seen documents showing a significant pay gap in the leaders office of 25 to 30 per cent between men and women in equivalent jobs.

If thats true, it would be much larger than a typical gap in private industry, if the jobs are anywhere near equivalent.

Corbyn isnt exactly refusing to release the data on his own staff, he just doesnt plan on doing it any time soon. Like in our lifetimes:

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: Staff salaries will be published by the Labour party under new short money rules. Before that happens, consent has to be sought from staff and trade unions have to be engaged in a process of consultation. However, the spokesman did not commit to a date to publish the information.

Ill bet he didnt.

Politicians love to impose burdens, sometimes impossible burdens, on others, especially business people, but they are much more understanding when it comes to their own conduct. In 1994, Newt Gingrich and his colleagues drafted a Contract With America, a key provision of which was that Congress should live by the same laws it imposes on the rest of us. That proposal was wildly popular, given that Congress had made a regular practice of inserting an exception for itself in legislation.

The basic issue hasnt changed: liberals love to tell the rest of us what to do, but politicians implicitly admit the unreasonableness of their own demands by exempting themselves from them. (If you havent read Peter Schweizers Do As I Say (Not As I Do), you should.) This whole phenomenon is an important reason for the rise of Donald Trump.
South Sudan president, Salva Kiir, has called on the vice president, Riek Machar, to return to Juba to re-establish a peace agreement signed in August.

In a statement by his spokesman, Ateny Wek-Ateny, on Friday in Juba, the president asked Machar to make contact with him in the next 48 hours.

I will be expecting a response from your good self within 48 hours.

I am appealing for your return while reiterating my 100 per cent commitment to ensuring your protection and overall security, he said.

He said the move was part of effort to salvage a peace agreement that was jeopardised by fighting earlier this month between forces loyal to the two long-time rivals.

The statement did not say what would happen if Machar failed to return or make contact.

The statement said the vice president returned to Juba in April to take up the position of first vice president, a move that was part of the peace agreement.

Meanwhile, James GatdetDak, Machars Spokesman, has described Kiirs 48 hours ultimatum as unreasonable.

First of all, President Kiir should be talking of how to restore peace and security to Juba.

This can be done with the expected deployment of a third- party force, he said.

Forces loyal to the two men fought street battles in Juba over a five-day period earlier this month, until a ceasefire was reached on July 11.

The fighting killed at least 272 people.

Machar then left Juba with his troops, although he said he was not preparing for a resumption of the fighting that convulsed South Sudan from December, 2013 and ended early this year.

(Reuters/NAN)
An unknown number of Nigerian soldiers are yet to be accounted for after an ambush by Boko Haram insurgents in a community in Borno State, the army has said.

The army said it was battling to save the lives of 19 other soldiers injured during the clash on Thursday.

Operatives of the Civilian-JTF, embedded with the military squad, were also badly injured in the deadly encounter in a village called Nguro Gongon.

The spokesman of the Nigeria army, Sani Usman, said the injured soldiers have been evacuated to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, while a rescue team was deployed to go searching for the missing soldiers.

He did not say how many soldiers were missing.

Today morning, troops on clearance patrol at Guro Gongon village and environs to rout out remnants of Boko Haram terrorists hibernating therein, destroyed the terrorists makeshift camps and recovered quite a number of weapons, equipment and foodstuff in the process, Mr. Usman, a colonel and acting director of army public relations, said.

The recovered items include 1 Gun truck mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun, a MOWAG Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), 1 Rocket Propelled Grenade Tube, 1 Light Machine Gun, 3 AK-47 rifles and motorcycles.

However, the gallant soldiers basking on the recorded success, returning to their defensive locations, ran into an ambush by a group of Boko Haram terrorists who came to reinforce their fleeing comrades. The troops fought back gallantly killing several of the insurgents.

Sadly however, 19 soldiers and 3 civilian JTF members were wounded in action while a few others were missing in action.

The wounded have been evacuated and are responding to treatment, while a search and rescue party comprising of Special Forces personnel has since been dispatched to establish contact with the missing in action troops, some of whom, as at the time of filing this report, have started returning to their defensive location.

It is pertinent to state that, no stone would be left unturned until every person involved in the operation has been accounted for, he said.
The Comptroller General of Customs, Hamid Ali, a well known ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, was spotted on Tuesday flying first class on British Airways flight from London to Abuja, in clear violation of President Muhammadu Buharis directive banning public officials from flying first class.

The BA flight BA83 which took off from Gate 43 of Heathrow Terminal 5, London, on Tuesday, nearly an hour behind its scheduled 10.43pm departure time, arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Wednesday morning at about 5a.m, with Mr. Ali on board.

The reasons for Mr. Alis travel to London remained unknown as at the time of publishing this report, but customs insiders said the trip was official.

Several passengers on the flight told PREMIUM TIMES they saw Mr. Ali seated in the First Class compartment of the aircraft during the flight.

It was a major talking point among some passengers whether the policy (barring public officials from flying first class) is being implemented with exceptions or whether it is meant for the shelves, one passenger on the flight told this newspaper.

There were notable Nigerians on board and a number of them confirmed to this newspaper that the customs comptroller-general was in the first class cabin of the aircraft during the flight.

A first class ticket to and from London costs $11,423.23 (about N3.4million).

Besides being a close friend of Mr. Buhari, Mr. Ali, a retired army colonel, is a man seen by many Nigerian as frugal and incorruptible.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the customs spokesperson, Wale Adeniyi, on Thursday, he confirmed Mr. Ali was on the BA flight, but that he travelled on a business class ticket.

Mr. Adeniyi was not on the flight, and he responded to our reporters enquiry without checking with Mr. Ali.

But our sources, some of whom travelled business class, said Mr. Adeniyis claim was inaccurate.

That is not true, one passenger said. I was on business class, and I was awake most of the flight. So if you line up those on business class during that flight, I can identify them.

President Buhari had in April caused the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, to issue a circular to all government agencies barring top officials from travelling first class.

The measure was to cut the high cost of travelling by public officials, Mrs. Adeosun said.

The minister said even travels with Business Class tickets remained strictly restricted to only ministers, permanent secretaries, chairmen of Federal Government committees as well as chairmen and chief executives of parastatals and agencies.

That means other categories of government officials, including directors and special assistants, are to travel on economy tickets.

Mrs. Adeosun said the measure was part of the recommendations by the Efficiency Unit of her ministry to cut travel expenditure by about 20 per cent.

The recommendations were as a result of the review of the provisions of some extant government circulars on overhead expenses on official travels, the minister said.

The review was carried out in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF).

Administration insiders said the appointment letter issued to Mr. Ali by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation indicated clearly that he could only fly on business class tickets.

It however remained unclear Friday how the Ministry of Finance is monitoring and enforcing compliance with the circular on travel expenses by officials.
A former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, on Friday returned to the All Progressives Congress.

Mr. Ribadu said in a statement he posted on his Facebook page that he rejoined the party online on Friday, and then hosted officials of the party from his Bako Ward in Yola South Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Then on Friday, he visited the Yola South secretariat of the APC to present himself to the party.

He had left the party for the Peoples Democratic Party in 2014.

Mr. Ribadu, a former presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, explained that his return to the APC was triggered by his belief that all politics were local and that almost everyone around him who started politics with him believed the time had come for them to make sacrifices and concession.

He said, My decision to return to the APC was triggered by my belief that all politics are local. Almost everyone around me, and with whom we started my political journey believed the time had come for us to make sacrifices and make concessions. That is in addition to the unbelievable love that my friends in the APC have showered on me in the past months.

They demonstrated in words and action that they wanted me back home. The intractable crises in the PDP also made it impossible for one to contribute to the necessary task of building a viable opposition platform for our country.

I also did a deep and long reassessment of the circumstances that warranted my exit from the APC in the first place. I left the APC in 2014 owing to fundamental disagreements with the ways the chapter of the party in my state was run after it fell into some hands.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported on Tuesday that the Adamawa State chapter of the APC was wooing Mr. Ribadu back.

The former EFCC boss is one of the founding leaders of the party, but defected to the PDP in 2014, a few months to the 2015 general elections.

He left the APC after the impeachment of former Governor Murtala Nyako by the State House of Assembly in 2014.

He was reportedly disappointed that the APC leadership could not save Mr. Nyako from impeachment.

He became the governorship candidate of the PDP in Adamawa in the April 11, 2015 election but lost to the incumbent, Jubrilla Bindow.

This newspaper also reported on Tuesday that the Adamawa State chapter of the APC wrote Mr. Ribadu, asking him to return to his home party.

The letter, dated, June, 22, 2016, reads in part:

Given your track records and progressives nature, we strongly belief APC is where you belong to.

We are also mindful of the efforts and contributions you made during the merger without which the merger would have been difficult.

To this end we reaffirm our request for you to come home to APC and assist and contribute to the success of the APC government both at state and national level.

It was learnt that at the time the APC was making the request, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party was also pressuring him to serve as national chairman to reorganise the PDP as it readies itself to reclaim power in 2019.

Below is Mr. Ribadus statement announcing his return to the APC

Today I heeded the calls on me to return to the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party of which I was a founding member.

I re-registered as a member of the APC last night through the partys online portal. After that, the leadership of the party in my Bako ward of Yola South Local Government Area visited me in my Yola residence to welcome me back to their fold.

This afternoon, I visited the Yola South secretariat of the party to present myself and submit to the leadership as a loyal party man.

My decision to return to the APC was triggered by my belief that all politics are local. Almost everyone around me, and with whom we started my political journey believed the time had come for us to make sacrifices and make concessions. That is in addition to the unbelievable love that my friends in the APC have showered on me in the past months.

They demonstrated in words and action that they wanted me back home. The intractable crises in the PDP also made it impossible for one to contribute to the necessary task of building a viable opposition platform for our country.

I also did a deep and long reassessment of the circumstances that warranted my exit from the APC in the first place. I left the APC in 2014 owing to fundamental disagreements with the ways the chapter of the party in my state was run after it fell into some hands.

Some colleagues and I tried hard to reposition the fold and save the then APC administration from an orchestrated impeachment plot. We didnt succeed.

Events in the last 15 months have addressed many of the issues and healed some of the wounds. More so, with the genuine and sincere invitations I received since last year to retrace my steps into the party, I decided to return after consulting family and political associates at all levels.

I would like to appreciate all those members of the party who privately and publicly prodded me to return to the party. My appreciation also goes to the leadership of our party, from my ward in Bako to the national leadership, for the enthusiasm they showed in having me back.
A total number of 250 ex-members of the youth vigilante, Civilian-JTF, who had been supporting the Nigerian military in the fight against Boko Haram, have concluded military training and have been fully inducted into the Nigerian Army.

The newly-recruited troopers on Friday stormed the Government House Maiduguri, on a thank you visit to the state governor, Kashim Shettima. They appreciated Mr. Shettima for helping them to be enlisted into the military.

The new soldiers, all clad in their combat fatigues, marched into the government house amidst cheers from their fellow Civilian-JTF members.

Benjamin Solomon, the leader of the team and commander of the parade, addressed the governor at the government house.

We are here to say thank for making us become soldiers of our great country. We thank the president and we thank our father, the Chief of Army Staff, who ensured that we are soldiers today, said Mr. Solomon.

We are very many in the state and we are pleading that others too be given the same opportunity to become soldiers as well. We also have graduates among us who could also be given an opportunity to serve as officers of various military and paramilitary services. To us, it is now time to serve our country by laying down our lives to protect its territorial integrity

The emergence of the Civilian-JTF is a game changer in the fight against Boko Haram, said Governor Shettima.

One major issue that needs to be reported is the once strained relationship that existed between the people of our states and the military. But with the emergence of the Civilian-JTF the relationship became cordial. When the historical epoch of the Boko Haram insurgency is being written, the Civilian-JTF will have a chunk place of recognition.

Today the one time stick-carrying youths have now become a thing of fear to the well armed Boko Haram who fear them more than even the conventional military.

I thank the president of the country, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, for helping us to absorb our gallant youth into the Nigerian Army. We are not going to stop at this; we are not going to get tired in going after all the service chiefs as we are going to keep knocking on their doors until all our Civilian-JTF members are into various military and paramilitary outfits.

He called on the soldiers to be proud ambassadors of Borno State.

Dont bring us shame while you are out there serving the country. We would have preferred all of you to be deployed to Borno state; but since you are the Nigerian Army soldiers and not Borno soldiers, we bid you to go to wherever you are posted and deal with all enemies of the country the way you dealt with Boko Haram terrorists, he said.

Earlier, the state attorney general and commissioner of justice, Kaka Lawan, had said that other batches of the Civilian-JTF would soon be absorbed into the Nigeria Police and other agencies.

He said 30 of the youth vigilante had already been taken by the Department of State Security (DSS) as junior personnel.
The University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, is grappling with how to pay salary to its lecturers, no thanks to the shortfall in federal government funding to federal-owned universities across the country.

UNIUYO lecturers, including non-teaching staff, have been receiving fractions of their salaries since the beginning of this year.

The problem started in February. We were told that it would be over when the (2016) budget is passed. But it has persisted, the universitys director of information, Godfrey Essien, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr. Essien said UNIUYO workers received only 23 per cent of their June salary. Some lecturers who spoke with this newspaper said it was between 21 and 22 per cent.

At 23 per cent, it means a lecturer who earns N200, 000 monthly salary for instance, would be made to receive N46, 000 only. The percentage could get as low as 10, depending on how much the university has to pay for staff salary.

Mr. Essien explained how the payment is done: When money comes in, the university pays the staff the arrears of the previous months, and then whatever fund is left with the school determines the percentage of staff salary that would be paid for the current month.

The backlog isnt more than a month salary, he said.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Aniefiok Essien, said the shortfall in federal funding to the university was about N60 million monthly.

The situation in Uniuyo, Mr. Essien said, wasnt as bad as that of other schools. The vice chancellor said the Ministry of Education was working on resolving the problem.

The Chairman of the Uniuyo branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Aniekan Brown, declined to comment on the issue when PREMIUM TIMES contacted him, saying that the local chapter stands on the position already taken on the issue by the national leadership of the union.

As at the moment, all Nigerian universities are in a state of serious funding crisis, which is becoming worse by the day. Beginning from December 2015, almost all public Universities began to experience a drastic reduction in their personnel cost, the national president of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, had said in a press conference few days ago in Abuja.

For example, the University of Ibadan witnessed a shortfall of N308 million in December 2015, which was reduced to N96 million in January.

Mr. Ogunyemi said the federal government was still yet to disburse N495 billion as at the first quarter of 2016 in respect of Needs Assessment Fund for Revitalization of Public Universities, going by the 2013 MoU it entered into with ASUU.

Although the federal government promised that it would not relent in implementing the MoU and will also gradually work towards the 26% budgetary allocation recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), this promise has not been translated into action. Rather, budgetary allocation to education dropped from 12% to 11% and 8% in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively, Mr. Ogunyemi said, while calling on the government to address the shortfall in salaries in order to douse tension in the universities.

Three Uniuyo lecturers who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they understood that the problem had much to do with the current economic crisis in the country, and not with the university management.

A lecturer in the faculty of Arts said the vice chancellor, Mr. Essien, was transparent and effective in communicating to the staff the challenges associated with the payment of salary.

The bursar sends to us regular notices. The vice chancellor addressed the university congregation last week on the issue, the lecturer said.

Thats why you wont see any well informed lecturer complain; they could complain, not against the school management, but against the federal government.
A former Kaduna State governor and national chairman of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Balarabe Musa, has described the President Muhammadu Buharis government as an anti-people.

He made the assertion at a colloquium held by the National Conscience Party(NCP) held in honour of the partys founder, Gani Fawehinmi, in Akure on Thursday.

Mr. Musa, who chaired the occasion themed, The State of the Nation: If Gani Were to Be Alive, argued that the policies of the federal government, instead of ameliorating the sufferings of the people, have further impoverished and inflicted more pains on the masses.

He extolled the virtues of the late legal icon, whom he said, fought hard in his life time to defend the rights and wellbeing of the masses.

He recalled the efforts of the late NCP founder and the sacrifices he made to sustain democracy, which resulted in his incessant incarceration and humiliation by the military.

Delivering a lecture as the lead speaker at the event, Femi Aborisade, a lawyer, blamed the woes of the country on the greed of politicians and those at the helms of affairs.

Speaking on the topic, Abolition of Poverty Is a Struggle the Masses Wage and an Agenda NCP Must Actualize, Mr. Aborisade also identified personal aggrandizement as the problem of the leaders.

According to him, greed of the politicians is one of the greatest challenge responsible for the numerous economic crises bedevilling the country at the moment.

Mr. Aborisade, who stated that the present economic situation had devalued the lives of the common man, described the situation as very pathetic, saying the hopelessness in the land was as a result of self inflicted greed of the politicians.

The situation in Nigeria today is sad, politicians have devalued our lives and gave us poverty, there is hopelessness and economic crisis in our land but when we remove the greed of the politicians, the pains will be removed, he said.

Mr. Aborisade also pointed at the nations adherence to the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as reasons for the economic challenges facing the country.

While noting that the nation is not broke financially, he urged Nigerian political leaders to allow the masses to develop an alternative economic blueprint.

There is crisis in the land and Nigeria is not broke. If government can recover all these stolen loot and whatever recovered should be used for the benefit of the masses and should not recover the loots to re-loot, he said.

Mr. Aborisade recommended a law that would spell out how all recovered stolen funds would be spent.

We are not interested in only recovering the stolen loots but it must have effect on the lives of masses in terms of economy, education, power and others, he said.

The fight against corruption must commence from the NNPC and CBN. The Federal government should investigate and probe these organisation.

The probe of the past administration should not be limited to former President Jonathan alone, but should be extended to past administrations.

The Halliburton case should be revisited and Obasanjo and Atiku should be made to answer questions and they must be brought to book if found guilty.

Mr. Aborisade also knocked President Buhari for appointing his relatives into sensitive positions.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who spoke at the event, said the solution to the economic crisis in the country was to restructure the country.

He argued that the restructuring would also take into account the need to have a decentralized police force.

How can a unified police structure guarantee security in this nation? We must decentralize the police force so that the local and state can have their police, he said.

Mr. Mimiko also used the opportunity to eulogise Fawehinmi saying if the late activist had survived his cancer of the lungs, he might have fought to ensure that government voted more funds into the health sector, particularly towards fighting cancer.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday said he would not engage his former ally and House member from Kano State, Abdulmumin Jibrin, in political mudslinging.

Mr. Dogara was responding to a deluge of requests from Nigerians online who asked him to respond to allegations of high-level corruption leveled by Mr. Jibrin against him and other principal officers.

Mr. Jibrin was sacked as chairman of House Committee on Appropriation on Wednesday.

In a lengthy statement Thursday, he accused the speaker of attempting to insert questionable projects worth N40 billion into the 2016 budget.

I wont respond to jokes. Im not a mud wrestler, Mr. Dogara said in response to a tweet from a Twitter user, Comrade Abdallah, late Thursday. He said he would no longer comment on the matter in public.

I owe a word on the subject to my friends on this platform. The rest would be dealt with by the Institution.

Mr. Jibrin had on Thursday delivered a blistering attack on Mr. Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, and Minority Whip Leo Ogor, accusing them of treachery, incompetence and corruption.

Mr. Jibrin called on the four to resign their positions immediately, saying he can no longer bear the brunt of abuses and baseless allegations keeping quiet all in the name of confidentiality expected of him.

Mr. Jibrins turbulent outburst came a day after he was dismissed by Mr. Dogara, who said the lawmaker representing Kanos Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency had committed serial betrayal of trust reposed in him by his colleagues.

Mr. Dogara also said Mr. Jibrin was removed because he abused his position as the chair of Appropriation Committee and smuggled line items into the 2016 Appropriation Bill.

In a statement read on the floor of the House Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Dogara said Mr. Jibrin had earlier approached him to intimate him about his decision to step down from the chairmanship position.

He met me and said he does not think he would continue as the committee chairman due to pressure of the work, Mr. Dogara said.

But the notification came too late as the House leadership had already concluded plans to remove him from the position, Mr. Dogara said.

But in a lengthy tirade on Thursday, Mr. Jibrin tore into Mr. Dogara, Mr. Lasun and Mr. Ogor, saying their action was a complete misrepresentation of the facts, false, mischievous, unfair and a calculated attempt to bring my name to disrepute, blackmail, silence and use me as a scapegoat.

Mr. Jibrin said Messrs. Dogara, Lasun and Ogor began plotting against him when he thwarted their attempt to allocate to themselves 40 billion naira out of the 100 billion allocated to the entire National Assembly.

Other allegations raised by Mr. Jibrin included how the House leadership had been victimising him because of his staunch opposition to any immunity clause for lawmakers.

Mr. Jibrin also said Mr. Dogara had been plotting against President Buhari, warning the president to distance himself from the Speaker, saying he wines with Mr. President and dines with Mr. Presidents enemies

In a swift response, the House leadership denied all the wild allegations from Mr. Jibrin in their entirety.

Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the House, said Thursday that Mr. Jibrin manufactured the allegations as a way of protesting and getting back against those responsible for his dismissal, which was carried out in line with rules and conventions of the parliament.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday berated the Department of State Security (DSS) for flouting an order of the court to remand a defendant in prison.

Mr. Dimgba had ordered that a retired Air Commodore, Umar Mohammed, who was arraigned before him on Thursday, be remanded in Kuje Prison pending the hearing of his bail application.

But the SSS failed to produce him in court on Friday while his counsel argued his bail application.

Mr. Dimgba said he took strong exception to the services disregard of the courts order by keeping the defendant in its custody, describing it as an embarrassment to democracy.

I take a strong exception to this type of behaviour; when the court orders that someone be kept in prison custody, the person ought to be kept in prison and not in the office.

If the people at the DSS want to become judge and do their job as well, I am ready to vacate my office for them, but as long as I am still here, I take an exception to them flouting the orders of the court.

Once processes have been filed in court, it is no longer in their hands and the order of the court must be obeyed, Mr. Dimgba said.

He asked the prosecuting counsel, E.A Orji, to convey the grievances of the court to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

The judge adjourned ruling on the bail application until 2 p.m.

Counsel to Mr. Mohammed, Hassan Liman, had told the court that the SSS whisked Mr. Mohammed away immediately after the court proceedings ended on Thursday.

But the prosecuting counsel explained that the defendant was taken to the SSS office for some documentation.

Mr. Mohammed is charged with money laundering, possession of fire arms and violation of provision of Official Secret Act.

The defendant is a retired Air Force officer and was a member of the presidential team investigating the arms deal in the country.

(NAN)
Niger Delta Avengers, the militant group that has claimed responsibility for several attacks on oil and gas installations across Nigerias delta states, on Friday restated its position that it was not in any talks with the Nigerian government.

The Avengers was reacting to President Muhammadu Buharis statement on Thursday that the government was already negotiating with militant groups in the oil producing states. Mr. Buhari, however, did not mention the groups participating in the dialogue.

The president said his government was open to adopting some of the policies put in place by past governments on the amnesty programme as a way of curbing militancy, adding that he understood the plight of the militants.

We are studying the instruments. We have to secure the environment, otherwise investment will not come, Mr. Buhari said. We understand their feelings, we will do our best for the country.

But in a statement by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinibo, and published on its website, the Avengers said it was not aware of any peace talk with the government.

Mr. Agbinibo said Mr. Buharis government had not demonstrated any sign of sincerity to indicate that it was ready to engage the militants.

President Buhari led government is not sincere to the Nigeria people and their foreign allies, the group said.

Mr. Agbinibo repeated that only a peace talk brokered by the international community would be acceptable to the Avengers.

If we are to engage in any peace talk we made it clear that the international community must be part of it. The President knows our demands. So they should stop deceiving the international oil companies, the general public and the international community, the group said.

Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said the Avengers disclaimer was not necessary as Mr. Buhari did not mention specific groups that were in talks with the government.

The president did not name names, Mr. Adesina said.

The Avengers had repeatedly said it welcomed dialogue with the government, but said its terms must be met before such could proceed.

This was after the group had claimed responsibility for devastating attacks on oil installations, forcing major international oil corporations, including Shell, Chevron, Eni Agip and Mobil, to shut down operations and evacuate their workers.
A state High Court in Akwa Ibom has given an interim injunction, restraining the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and the Inspector General of Police from investigating the finances of the Akwa Ibom State government.

PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that the injunction was given on July 13.

The suit was filed on behalf of the state government by the state Attorney General, Uwemedimo Nwoko.

Justice NFN Ntong, the presiding judge of the State High Court, Ikot Ekpene, in granting the injunction, ruled that EFCC, ICPC, and the police should not arrest, detain, or investigate any person or persons whether past or present official in the Akwa Ibom state government without any report of indictment by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, pending the hearing and the determination of the Motion on Notice filed in this suit in order to forestall a breakdown of law and order.

The judge barred the state accountant general, auditor general, and the state House of Assembly, including five banks  Zenith Bank, Keystone Bank, FCMB, Skye Bank, and UBA  from disclosing information on the state finances to investigators from EFCC and other federal agencies.

The court fixed August 5 for hearing of the Motion on Notice.

EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, told PREMIUM TIMES at about on Friday that he was not aware of the restraining order.

The Attorney General of Akwa Ibom state, Mr. Nwoko, in an interview on Friday with PREMIUM TIMES, said the state government went to court because EFCC wrote letters to banks requesting documents on state government transactions.

Mr. Nwoko said Akwa Ibom is a federating unit in the Nigerian federation, and that EFCC being an agency of the federal government isnt empowered by the Nigerian Constitution to investigate the finances of the state.

Its not about whether theres anything wrong with the accounts of the Akwa Ibom state government! Why should the EFCC look into it? Is the state looking into the federal government account?

Mr. Nwoko said other state governments that allowed EFCC and other federal agencies to investigate them may not have had the wisdom and courage to challenge the federal government.

As the attorney general of Akwa Ibom state, I am setting a precedent, he said.
Kabiru Marafa, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has expressed optimism that the changes in the leadership of the senate committees would ensure genuine reconciliation in the senate.

Mr. Marafa, a member of the Unity Forum in the senate, made the statement on Friday in Abuja while fielding questions from State House correspondents, after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said that the re-composition of the Senate standing committees was one of the conditions put forward by members of the Unity Forum for peace to return to the senate.

Mr. Marafa added that the changes in the leadership of the senate committees was part of the ongoing efforts by the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to address fragmentation among its members in the senate.

I think the reshuffling of committees is nothing new in any parliament. Maybe what makes that of yesterday a little new is the circumstances that led to the emergence of the present leadership and what followed.

In the last few days, the party (APC) has been on top of the situation, trying to reconcile its children.

The APC caucus in the senate has been badly fragmented and the party wants to see an end to that.

What (you saw) happened yesterday was as a result of the efforts the party has been putting in the last few days, he said.

Mr. Marafa, who has been an outspoken critic of the Senate President Bukola Saraki, said he was not at loggerhead with the Senates leadership, saying that Mr. Saraki was one of his close associates and senior in the chamber.

The senator described as a huge and heavy joke the recent insinuation that the senate was contemplating the possibility of impeaching President Muhammadu Buhari.

You know in the legislature we crack a lot of jokes, some light; some medium and some very heavy jokes and I think I will only describe that as a very heavy joke.

But, nobody is contemplating that. It is not a possibility, it has never been done and God willing it will not happen in this assembly, he said.

Mr. Marafa, who represent Zamfara Central Senatorial zone, said the state chapter of the APC in Zamfara had waded into the crisis between Gov. Abdulaziz Yari and members of the state house of assembly.

He called on Niger Delta militants to shun their destructive activities and embrace dialogue with government for peace to reign in the region.

(NAN)
The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Leo Ogor, says the budget padding allegation against him and other principal officials including Speaker Yakubu Dogara, are outright lies.

Mr. Ogor said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

A former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, had on Thursday asked Speaker Yakubu Dogara, his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, minority leader, Leo Ogor and Chief Whip, Ado Doguwa, to resign for alleged budget padding.

Mr. Jibrin in a statement issued to journalists, accused Mr. Dogara and the other principal officers of illegally inserting and allocating projects worth over N20 billion to their constituencies in the 2016 budget.

He said that his refusal to inject another N30 billion into the budget for the speaker earned him the replacement.

Mr. Ogor questioned why his accuser had to wait until now to make the allegations.

He said he did not want to go into altercation with anybody and that at the appropriate time, when we resume on the floor we will speak.

I dont want to go into altercation with anybody.

At the appropriate time, when we resume on the floor we will speak.

But I can assure you that they are all bunch of lies and there is nothing to it.

So I am not going to waste my time responding to an issue I consider totally inconsequential.

He said Mr. Jibrin was aggrieved because he lost his place in the House Committee on Appropriation.

You can read the lines; he has actually lost his committee and I believe that is the issue.

Why didnt he make available these allegations all along? This is the question you need to answer.

How come he was the one that addressed the issue of this budget on channels and he accused the Presidency and the executive in respect of issues that bother on the budget.

Today, he is singing a different tune, and I think he is good at singing different tunes anyway.

So like I said, I am not going to go into any altercation with any person.

I am not going to waste my time over that issue and what he has said are all lies and this kind of blackmail doesnt work with the likes of Leo Ogor.

So you see he is just wasting his time. I am expecting him to come and prove what he has said.

(NAN)
Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe is the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank but only a few Nigerians know the contributions of this brilliant mind to the growth of Access Bank and the development of the banking industry in Africa. His impressive pedigree is known to industry watchers, just as his humble lifestyle is not strange to those who are familiar with him.

This business leader, whose deftness and ingenuity are legendary, does not like the spotlight. In his over a decade as the Group Deputy Managing Director of Access Bank, he tactically veiled himself from media attention as he continued to pilot series of revolutionary business initiatives that enhanced the banks industry positioning and boosted its fortunes.

For his size of goldfish, the ability to evade media attention for that long remained a mystery because the impacts of his contributions were too visible to ignore. As a peoples person and team player, Herbert Wigwe likes leading from the crowd, for everyone to win together. His people-centered approach to leadership underscores his admiration and the tremendous followership he enjoys in the banking industry.

In 2013, Herbert Wigwe  the goldfish could no longer shield himself from media highpoint with his appointment by the Board of Directors of Access Bank to lead the bank to greater height as Group Managing Director upon the retirement of Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, his co-pilot on the transformation journey of Access Bank, touted as one of Africas most successful corporate transformation stories.

Since assuming office on January 1, 2014, Wigwe has had to deal with the fact that our society celebrates achievers, and not only their accomplishments as he would have wanted, for him to remain private while his leadership initiatives and contributions to the African continent continue to impact lives.

In one strange instance, he felt the heat of leadership and had to take responsibility in a situation that affirmed him as great manager of men and resources. Like every odd instance in life, the situation faded away, and his good name remains untainted. For everyone familiar with Herbert Wigwes pedigree, personal values and career history, that was an instance of professional hazard, which characterises every trade in life.

The situation presented an opportunity for public valuation of Herbert Wigwe, and the court of public opinion discharged and acquitted him of any wrongdoing or violation because of their uncanny understanding of the situation, and familiarity with his stand on ethical practices and professional integrity.

In just two years of leading a pack of industry-defining banking professionals inspired to consistently create shareholders value, Herbert Wigwes visionary leadership has cemented the exemplary strides of the former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.

Any feat he attains during his regal perch as the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank should not come as a surprise to anyone because he underwent a career development process that could be likened to refining raw gold into the beauty we now behold and covet.

After earning a second class upper degree in Accounting from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Masters degrees in Banking and International Finance from the University College of North Wales and Financial Economics from the University of London, he immersed himself in practical accountancy and management training at Coopers and Lybrand Associates, an international firm of Chartered Accountants, where he began his glittering career.

Subsequently, he joined Guaranty Trust Bank and rose to the position of Executive Director in charge of Corporate and Investment Banking. Herbert is an extremely cerebral individual reputed for his number-crunching aptitude. Credit Analysts who have had the privilege of working with Herbert are filled with glowing testimonies about one of Nigerias finest Bankers and insightful credit writers. His name is decently etched on plagues in offices across the country for his role in execution of some of the complex banking transactions that have positively changed the socio-economic landscape in Nigeria.

In his over a decade in Guaranty Trust Bank where he superintended several portfolios, including financial institutions, Corporates and Multinationals before joining Access Bank in March 2002 as Deputy Managing Director, Wigwe made indelible marks and contributions that signalled that he is responsible and has strong leadership credentials.

Not surprisingly, Access Bank has risen to become one of the top five banks in Nigeria and ranked among the top 500 global banks in the world, in just two years under his watch, according to a-2015 The Banker Magazine report.

A couple of years back, the governing council of the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria could not ignore his exemplary leadership and pro-social behaviours, and consequently conferred upon Herbert Wigwe an honorary doctorate degree in Business Administration. The university reasoned that the best way to encourage a certain type of behaviour is to reward any individual or people behaving in that particular way.

The poster boy for ethical practices and professionalism in the Nigerian banking industry, Herbert Wigwe is striving to expand the rewards grid of the Banks stakeholders, such that the institution becomes synonymous with prosperity predicated on quality service, job security, and prompt payment of decent dividend to investors.

Clearly, Access Banks aspiration of becoming Africas most respected bank is unwavering. As the bank serves over 6.5m individual and corporate account holders, through 350 branches and with more than 1,500 ATMs in major centres across Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK, it still has its eyes on greater goals and every of its steps so profound that it qualifies as achievements.

Little wonder that in the first quarter of 2016, a profit rise of 42% was announced and Wigwe thanked the banks ever-trusting shareholders, formidable board of directors and employees, for the feat. Known for his willingness to inspire and lead by example, Wigwes brilliant mind is an abode of philosophical and inspirational talks that he ceaselessly shares with youths and his colleagues. Chief amongst his rules are these two, which he called rules to success, Never give up on your dreams and do not break rule number one.

During one of his sessions where he shared tips on how to succeed and lead right, Wigwe said, Today I will do what others wont, so tomorrow I can do what others cant. Always learn from the mistakes of other people. Life is too short to learn through your own mistakes. God wont stop the rain; but if you ask Him and believe, He will take you through it. Herbert feels indebted to the younger generation of Nigerians and has earmarked both his time and resources to help them become better than his own generation.
Some communities and civil society organisations have condemned plans by the in Rivers State government to evict 17 more communities, saying that at least 60,000 persons would be rendered homeless and driven into poverty if the plan is carried out.

They said this at a joint press conference in Port Harcourt, the state capital on Tuesday.

The state government had recently announced plans to demolish 17 communities in Port Harcourt within seven days.

The communities include Awgu Waterfront, Elechi Phase 1 Waterfront, Elechi Phase 11 Waterfront, Urualla Waterfront, Ojike Waterfront, Afikpo/Awkuzu Waterfront, Abba Waterfront, Nanka Waterfront, Akokwa Waterfront and Egede Waterfront.

Others are Soku Waterfront, Timber Waterfront, Echue Waterfront, Obiodansor Waterfront and Anozie Waterfront.

The plans to demolish the communities came less than two weeks after thousands of persons at Andoni Village and Redeemed Village, Eagle Island were displaced.

The groups  Justice & Empowerment Initiatives, Social Action, Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation, Stakeholders Democracy Network and Collaborative Media Advocacy Platform  decried the threat to demolish the communities and asked the government to seriously reconsider its plans because it would violate the fundamental human rights of the residents.

Any person that has witnessed the horrors of forced eviction, where persons are thrown out of their homes and have their livelihoods and communities destroyed overnight, cannot believe this is the path to security and development of our society, they said.

Studies have shown the terrible long-term impacts of forced evictions on the incomes, health, and education of evictees.

The groups said though Governor Nyesom Wike had cited the 2015 amendments to the Rivers State Anti-Kidnapping Law to justify the recent spate of demolitions and threatened evictions, the reality was that the demolitions being carried out were not targeted at actual kidnappers.

They said instead they are a pretext for evicting thousands of innocent children, women, men, and elderly persons who are employed in legitimate businesses through which they eke out their modest livings, and from which they pay their childrens school fees and Government taxes and fees.

The group stated that Such persons live in Port Harcourts informal settlements because of the lack of affordable housing in the formal sector and make positive contributions every day to the citys economy.

Stating that the false impression given to the public must be corrected, the groups said the Anti-Kidnapping Law does not authorize mass evictions nor does it allow the demolition of properties before the persons accused of kidnapping offenses under the law are arrested, prosecuted, and found guilty in line with the right to fair hearing protected by Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

They argued that if the government was allowed to so flagrantly evade the rule of law and take the law into its own hands to trample on the rights of thousands of innocent citizens, then all of society would suffer.

They noted that Injustice would not stop with the poor and those living in informal settlements and that the greed for land would render no one safe from eviction and seizure of all that he or she had worked for in his life.

The groups said, We are members of the affected communities. We are members of other communities in Port Harcourt who fear that we will be next should our brothers and sisters fall to the present threat.

We are members of communities from as far away as Lagos who stand in solidarity with those who are under threat today. We are members of civil society who work with the affected communities, visit them on a regular basis, and know their realities.

We know the communities under threat are ready to work with government in any legitimate law enforcement approach to resolving security concerns and rooting out criminals who may be hiding in different corners of the city.

We know the communities under threat are ready to partner with government to improve their infrastructure and quality of life through in situ upgrading.

We also know that no good can come of the present threat of eviction, just as no good has come from the long list of prior forced evictions in Port Harcourt. Is our society safer today? Is poverty lessened? Have we gotten rid of informal settlements or simply pushed them from one place to another? We must all ask ourselves these questions rather than blindly following our fears.

The groups said already, thousands were homeless and destitute from the evictions in Eagle Island two weeks ago and that if 60, 0000 more innocent Nigerians were forced out of their homes and communities, it would amount to a gross violation of these citizens right to fair hearing, right to property, right to adequate shelter, and will equally undermine their right to health and right to education of their children.

The groups stated further, We are deeply concerned that the government would run roughshod over all these rights in the present-day democratic dispensation; we call for a break from the past of such abuses and for Government to partner with us  communities and civil society  to find a better way forward.
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.




Ukraine has requested the European Commission for mediation with Russia over securing gas supplies from Gazprom. Vice-President for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, was asked to lead the talks with Moscow on Ukraines gas purchases, which are also important for securing the transit of Russian gas to the EU. This move seems to be a U-turn in the mutual Ukraine-Russia ties. The European Union is, however, keen to mediate between both parties as it fell prey to the outage in Gazproms deliverables in the winter of 2009.

During summers, Ukraine fills in storage facilities, which are needed both for the countrys own consumption but also for transit to the EU. The replenishment is usually taking place until mid-October. Mr Sefcovic has already met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who replaced Arseny Yatsenyuk, last April. Commissioner Sefcovic added that the Ukrainian partners were keen on continuing the trilateral format with Russia, which had proven to be successful over the last winter.

We have every intention to continue in this format, said the Commission Vice President and added that Ukraine had informed him that the country had sufficient funds to fill in its gas storage. For that, as it was in previous times, not only the addendum to the contracts between Gazprom and Naftogaz should be updated, but also there is strong wish from the Ukrainian side to look at how we can update the protocol we signed last winter, Mr Sefcovic further explained. He added that he would visit both countries in September, hoping that a constructive solution can again be found.
80% of Companies Cite Quality of Applicants as a Challenge in Their Workforce Strategy

HANOVER, Maryland, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Allegis Group, the global leader in talent solutions, announced findings from its Talent Advisory Industry Benchmark study. To best advise clients on optimal talent strategies, Allegis Group's companies regularly gauge the voice of their clients and candidates through surveys, focus groups, and councils to monitor talent management trends. This study from December 2015 explores best practices in talent acquisition and recruitment processes, representing insights from more than 1,400 employers and 13,000 job seekers from North America, EMEA, and APAC regions.

"We believe people are the most critical success factor in any undertaking  and we're passionate about helping our clients win with the absolute best talent to meet their business goals," says Chris Hartman, Global Development Officer. "Our Talent Advisory Industry Benchmark study provides us with quantitative means to evaluate what separates the best talent acquisition strategies from the rest."

Allegis Group's benchmark study accounts for multiple role perspectives in the recruitment process  business leaders, hiring managers, human resources, and job candidates  revealing improvement areas and opportunities, from the job creation to the onboarding stages. Key findings include:

83% of executives believe attracting and retaining talent is an issue for their company

80% of companies cite quality of applicants as a challenge in their current workforce strategy, with 40% reporting it as a significant issue

51% of companies have open positions for which they can't find quality candidates

72% of hiring managers say they provide clear job descriptions, compared to 36% of candidates who say they are provided with clear job descriptions

43% of organizations say they discovered a new hire did not have the skills they claimed over the last 6 months

Companies report the average time before a new hire is productive at 50 days

When hiring managers are completely ready for the new hire's first day, candidate satisfaction increases an average of 38%

85% of candidates rate consistent communication throughout the process as the top driver of satisfaction with the recruitment experience

"Our goal is to work with clients who want to attain the highest levels of excellence in their talent strategies," says Hartman. "We're actively using these findings to deepen our client partnerships and empower their success in getting the right people, at the right place, and time."

About Allegis Group

Allegis Group is the global leader in talent solutions focused on working harder and caring more than any other provider. We'll go further to understand the needs of our people  our clients, our candidates, and our employees  and to consistently deliver on our promise of an unsurpassed quality experience. That's the Allegis Group difference, and it's consistent across every Allegis Group company. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues and over 500 locations across the globe, our network provides businesses with a comprehensive suite of talent solutions  without sacrificing the niche expertise required to ensure a successful partnership. Our specialized group of companies includes: Aerotek, TEKsystems, Allegis Global Solutions, Aston Carter, Major, Lindsey & Africa, Allegis Partners, MarketSource, EASi, and Getting Hired. Visit AllegisGroup.com to learn more.

Contact:

Samantha Breger

sbreger@allegisgroup.com

+1-410-540-7487

Related Links

https://www.allegisgroup.com



SOURCE Allegis Group
VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Global sales of textile floorings is estimated to reach US$ 109.7 Bn by 2016 end, witnessing a y-o-y growth of 4.8% over 2015. Carpets segment is expected to continue to account for major share in the textile floorings in 2016, to account for 90.7 %, up from 90.5 % in 2015.

Demand for tufting technology, which offers lower manufacturing cost, as well as easy installation and ease of use by consumers, is expected to continue to increase over the forecast period (2016-2026). Among material types, synthetic textiles segment is expected to remain dominant, accounting for US$ 93 Bn by 2016 end.

Request a Sample Report: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1629

On the basis of application, residential segment accounted for the largest share in terms of revenues in 2015 and it is estimated to remain the same in 2016. Residential segment is estimated to account for US$ 69.2 Bn in 2016, an increase of 5.1% over 2015.

Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), is the largest market for textile floorings. The market in the region is estimated to be valued at US$ 35.8 Bn by 2016 end. Increasing construction activities and infrastructure development in countries such as China, India, ASEAN countries and MEA, which are few of the most lucrative markets globally, is expected to provide an impetus to the demand for textile floorings. In addition, to being the largest market in terms of revenue and volume consumption, APEJ will continue to remain the fastest growing market globally.

Preview Analysis: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/textile-floorings-market

Growing construction industry in the U.S. and Asia Pacific region is estimated to drive the demand for textile floorings in 2016. Revival of residential construction sector in the U.S. and improving infrastructure facilities in developing regions are expected to boost demand for textile floorings. While the EU economy remains shrouded in uncertainty; steady growth of the construction sector in Western Europe is expected to continue creating growth opportunities for textile floorings manufacturers.

Mohawk Industries Inc., Shaw Industries Group Inc., Tarkett S.A, Beaulieu International Group N.V, and Interface, Inc. are the major players in the global textile floorings market, accounting for 12.0% market revenue share in 2015. Leading players in the market are focusing on increasing acquisitions of regional manufacturers in order to enhance their operations with minimum capital expenditure, thereby strengthening their value chain.

Speak with Analyst for any report related queries: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1629

Long-term Outlook: The long-term outlook on the global textile floorings market remains positive, with the market value expected to increase at a CAGR of 5.7% during the forecast period.

FMI Latest Insights:

Ammonium Sulphate Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/western-european-buyers-eying-asian-suppliers-for-uninterrupted-ammonium-sulphate-supply-market

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/western-european-buyers-eying-asian-suppliers-for-uninterrupted-ammonium-sulphate-supply-market Hot Melt Adhesives Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/hot-melt-adhesives-market

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/hot-melt-adhesives-market Laser Safety Glasses Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/laser-safety-glasses-market

About Us:

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.

Contact Us:

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Press Release: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release



SOURCE Future Market Insights
A comprehensive range of capabilities spanning all parameters is crucial for success, finds Frost & Sullivan Measurement & Instrumentation Team

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Requirements for higher product quality and safety are continuously increasing in North America, fueling the growth of the calibration and repair services market. Quality standards continue to evolve, thus stimulating discussions among manufacturers across industries. Companies are calibrating more items, and the focus on quality has increased as more advanced products penetrate high-risk industries. The result is growing demand for calibration and repair services.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392126LOGO

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Calibration and Repair Services MarketProduct Complexity and Quality Generate Opportunities in North America (http://www.frost.com/K0A2), finds that with higher product quality and safety requirements and growing importance of high-tech products and IoT, the calibration and repair services market in North America is expected to experience sustained growth. The total market was worth $1.31 billion in revenues in 2015 and is anticipated to reach $1.85 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5 percent.

For complimentary access to more information on this research, please visit: http://frost.ly/lw

Currently, the world is being taken over by technology, thus inducing the proliferation of smart products. Their complexity requests greater attention to detail and testing in the design stage and higher demand for more sophisticated and accurate instrumentation. This is driving demand for calibration and repair services by requiring more elaborate calibration routines, procedures and tighter calibration intervals to limit the number and importance of out-of-tolerance issues.

Companies are seeking one-stop shop calibration and repair service providers. However, the wide range of instruments used at customer locations demands that market participants expand their scope of capabilities to satisfy customers. Furthermore, certain types of instruments cannot support shipping costs, which necessitates widespread geographic coverage.

"Customers want to deal with as few suppliers as possible. They are looking for laboratories that can directly address most if not all of their requirements locally, on a national scale but also overseas," said Frost & Sullivan Measurement & Instrumentation Industry Director Jessy Cavazos. "Due to the wide range of equipment used in customer operations, most calibration and repair service providers need to develop their scope and network of laboratories."

Calibration and repair service providers must expand their capabilities to cover all parameters including electrical, mechanical, physical/dimensional and thermodynamic. They must also expand their physical presence by establishing facilities in key locations as well as offer different service delivery mechanisms.

"Taking into consideration their target markets, competitors must develop the optimal recipe for success encompassing scope, strategic locations and mix of service offerings among other factors," noted Cavazos. "Overall, calibration laboratories that will experience the most success are the ones that offer superior services, complemented by rapid turnaround time and affordable prices."

Survive and Thrive in an Unpredictable Future! Schedule a Growth Strategy Dialog to discuss your strategic growth development and discover growth opportunities impacting your business, here: http://frost.ly/pr

Calibration and Repair Services MarketProduct Complexity and Quality Generate Opportunities in North America is part of the Test & Measurement (http://ww2.frost.com/research/industry/measurement-instrumentation/test-measurement) Growth Partnership Service program. Frost & Sullivan's related studies include: Calibration and Repair Services Market in Europe, Electronic Test and Measurement Market in Research and DevelopmentNew Technologies Bring Drastic Change, and 2025 Vision for the Global Test and Measurement Industry. All studies included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.

The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.

provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation. The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Contact Us: Start the discussion

Calibration and Repair Services MarketProduct Complexity and Quality Generate Opportunities in North America

K0A2-30

Contact:

Jaylon Brinkley

Corporate Communications  North America

P: (210) 247.2481

F: (210) 348.1003

E: jaylon.brinkley@frost.com

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
NEW YORK, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

D+H customers honored for their achievements in the corporate treasury space by Treasury Today magazine.

DH Corporation (TSX: DH) ("D+H"), a leading provider of technology solutions to financial institutions globally, would like to congratulate the winners of the Treasury Today Adam Smith Awards, now in their ninth year, honoring excellence and achievement in the corporate treasury space.

Among the 2016 honorees are D+H customers Etihad Airways, Kuehne + Nagel, Coca-Cola HBC AG, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, and Hilton Worldwide.

Etihad Airways received three separate awards, including Top Treasury Team 2016, Best Cash Management Solution, and Best Financing Solution

Kuehne + Nagel was recognized for Best SWIFT Solution

Coca-Cola HBC AG was named Best Liquidity Management Solution

Highly Commended winners included Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc for First Class Relationship Management and Hilton Worldwide for Best Risk Management Solution

"D+H would like to congratulate all of the winners of these prestigious awards," says Per Trifunovic, Global Head of Financial Messaging at D+H. "D+H is honored to provide solutions in support of such forward-thinking corporations in the corporate treasury space."

About D+H

D+H (TSX: DH) is a leading financial technology provider the world's financial institutions rely on every day to help them grow and succeed. Our global transaction banking, lending, payments and integrated core solutions are trusted by nearly 8,000 banks, specialty lenders, community banks, credit unions, governments and corporations. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, D+H has more than 5,500 employees worldwide who are passionate about partnering with clients to create forward-thinking solutions that fit their needs. With annual revenues in excess of CAD$1.5 billion, D+H is recognized as one of the world's top FinTech companies on IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings andAmerican Banker's FinTech Forward rankings. For more information, visit dh.com

Patrick Kilhaney, Public Relations & Analyst Relations Manager, D+H, +1-917-286-1053, patrick.kilhaney@dh.com; Cognito, +1-646-395-6304, dh@cognitomedia.com

SOURCE DH Corporation
SHANGHAI, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Holistic approach: Consistent quality assurance from preliminary product to the EOS laser sintering material

EOS, the global technology and quality leader for high-end Additive Manufacturing (AM) solutions, offers a quality management system that is unrivalled in the industry. It comprises all technological elements from material, system and process that have a direct impact on the quality characteristics of components made with additive manufacturing. Torsten Schlichtholz, Director Global Quality Management at EOS: "By coordinating and controlling all relevant variables, EOS ensures the best possible component characteristics, as such addressing a key concern of our growing industrial customer base, which uses our technology for the series production of plastic components with consistent component quality."

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160708/387555 )



EOS materials: proven quality and traceability

Materials are one of the supporting pillars of component quality. Under a multi-dimensional quality management system, EOS works with its partners to ensure that each material batch has the same reliable and uniform consistency. Quality assurance already starts with the manufacture of the preliminary product for the EOS laser sintering material. The manufacturing process with all qualification steps is continuously documented and verifiable to the point when the EOS material is delivered to our customers.

For the manufacture of the basic product for the most frequently used plastic Polyamide 12, EOS has been working closely with Evonik Industries for many years where the starting material is subjected to extensive and documented quality assurance procedures even before it is delivered to EOS under a certified QMS (ISO 9001:2008). This comprises all relevant inspections of polymer and powder indicators, such as free-flowing properties, powder density, melt and cooling behaviour and process suitability tests.

The refining process for achieving best possible process suitability is performed on EOS equipment at KVS GmbH (part of EOS) after inspection of the acceptance test certificate/an additional incoming goods inspection. KVS is also operating a certified QM system (ISO 9001:2008) and which defined quality assurance activities are carried out during and after the finishing process. If all criteria are met, a test report is prepared pursuant to ISO 10204.

In addition to the testing of the material itself, specimen and tie bars are manufactured on EOS laser sintering systems based on a reference build job, and their characteristics profile is assessed using acceptance criteria. Products are only shipped to the customer once a batch has passed both test instances. The corresponding test report (in accordance with European and international standard EN 10204 3.1) is attached to each delivery, documenting the relevant test results to the customer, as such providing him with a comprehensive documentation for his own quality management system.

EOS system: reliable compliance to production standards

Since 1998, EOS GmbH has had a certified AM system (ISO 9001:2008) for the development, manufacture, distribution and servicing of systems, materials and solutions for AM using laser sintering technology. Besides the materials, EOS systems form another important pillar for reproducible and exacting component quality. They are also subjected to numerous quality assurance measures, which are inspected and documented in line with the EOS machine acceptance process, during which the defined reference build jobs are prepared and subsequently checked for authoritative criteria such as mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy.

EOS process: tested and warranted parameters

The build process using the appropriate EOS parameter set forms another important element for securing uniform component quality. EOS has more than 20 years of experience in the development and improvement of process products. Standardised parameter sets are created during the material development process, which guarantee robust build processes at our customers and lead to the familiar high component qualities. During the development of the most-often used parameter sets, three build jobs are always performed on three laser sintering systems with three powder batches, in order to ensure consistent part quality at the customer in all conditions.

You can find the full press release on our website. Relevant material data base can be found here . For further information please contact Stephanie Cheong, Marketing Manager EOS Singapore Pte. Ltd. (phone +65-6430-0541, e-Mail: Stephanie.cheong@eos.info).

SOURCE EOS Electro Optical Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
LONDON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Facilities Show, organised by UBM EMEA, is pleased to announce another hugely successful year for the leading global event for the facilities management industry, hosted at London's ExCeL from 21-23 June.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130723/629764-a )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160610/377842LOGO )

Facilities Show once again delivered an exceptional experience for FMs and solutions providers, attracting 11,353 attendees, a whopping 18% increase in visitors over the first two days. Fighting nature's severe flooding in London, South West and Essex which severed transport links to the venue, plus the UK's EU Referendum, Facilities Show still managed to deliver a huge 3000 visitors to exhibitor stands on day three.

The event continued to attract visitors from over 40 different countries, with 4181 visitors responsible for a facilities budget of over 1 million. The seniority of those attending Facilities Show also rose, with 4756 visitors in positions where they head up departments and teams within their companies.



Facilities Show was also very pleased to be working again in association with BIFM (The British Institute of Facilities Management), the leading facilities association, who hosted their Careers Zone once again, and delivered 26 seminars across the three days. Heavily involved within the programme were award winners Tanya Horscroft (Rising Talent in FM), Alan Russell (FM of the year) and McFarlane Telfer (Learning and Career Development). Sessions included 'Negotiating Skills for a Pay Rise', 'FM Qualifications', 'Managing Remote Teams' and more.

Providing their support of the event were also leading TFMs; Mitie, who were Official Show Partner, alongside Sodexo as Gold Partner. Key association to FMs, RICS, also joined as Gold Association partner, joining CIBSE as supporting association and official magazine partner, FMJ. Endorsement from such respected organisations is key to the success of the event, allowing Facilities Show to continue to deliver the very best seminars and solutions on the show floor.

Heather Beach, Event Director for Facilities Show said: "Even wild weather and a referendum couldn't keep us down this year, with a significant increase in visitors across the three days and a great deal of fun. I was particularly pleased to see the new conference style content going down well with visitors - thank you to those who spoke - and the new Facilities Societies Fair busy too. Thank you to all those who worked with us to create such a great event - it is always a partnership. See you next year!"

Teresa Higgins, Sales Director, Barbour EFM went on to say: "Barbour EFM hadn't exhibited at Facilities Show for a few years, but we decided to return in 2016 and I must say we were very pleased that we did. We gave 48 really good presentations to clients who were walking by and generated over 100 leads. Our aim was to promote the Barbour brand as the official BIFM information service provider providing a workplace management tool that helps to remain compliant and stay ahead of legislative changes. It was fantastic to speak to so many senior FM professionals and we are really looking forward to next year's show."

This year Facilities Show seminar programmes included more speakers and informative content than ever before with more than 300 suppliers showcasing their products, and over 130 speakers delivering first class, case-study led presentations via three new theatre locations located around the show floor. The three theatres consisted of the Facilities 2020 Strategy Summit, sponsored by Planon, FM Operational Excellence Arena, sponsored by Stannah and FM in the Real World sponsored by Barbour EFM. Key issues within Facilities management were examined by industry experts delivering key insight within FM, aided by real life case studies, including Red Bull, Adobe and more.



With networking at the heart of the Facilities Show community, this year saw the audience of 11,000+ meet with service suppliers, as well as discussing common challenges amongst the FM community with their visiting peers. The Facilities Societies Fair created a core new area of this year's event, where visitors could meet with those organising networking groups for FMs, to ensure that the thought-sharing atmosphere of Facilities Show is continued year round.

The Inspirational Speaker Series continued to attract large crowds this year from across the FM, security, safety, fire and service management industries, filling the 400 capacity theatre each day. Speakers were again of a very high calibre with Colonel Tim Collins OBE, Kate Adie OBE and James Cracknell OBE, sharing key insights on how they have overcome adversity and challenges in their extraordinary careers in order to achieve their goals, from everyday tasks of getting children to school before work, to overcoming traumatic events to ensure a continual strive for progress.

The SHE1000 networking masterclass concluded the show on day three, with hundreds of women involved in protecting and managing premises gathering to take part in the session delivered by expert Heather White, CEO at Smarter Networking Ltd. The audience were split into groups and, using interactive technology from Green Hat People, they were able to make a commitment going forward about the things they would like to do differently in the future. Kizzy Augustin, Senior Associate at Pinsent Masons LLP said: "The SHE1000 event was fantastic - Heather White did a great job of helping the huge group of women (and a few men!) to understand the importance of good networking, but she did it in a fun and interactive way."

Facilities Show also continued to benefit from the co-located fire, health & safety, security, service management and workwear and uniform events, which as a total saw over 45,000 visitors at the ExCeL over the three days, a 4% increase on 2015. Across the series, visitors were able to benefit from meeting their needs for fleet management, fire integration, health & safety legislation, uniforms and more. Core to exhibitors at Facilities Show were the crossovers from these co-located events, FIREX, IFSEC, Safety & Health Expo, Service Management Expo and Professional Clothing Show, leading to higher show-floor visits.



IFSEC International welcomed 27,052 attendees across the three days in line with 2015. A key highlight for IFSEC this year was the Home Automation House on display, a complete home environment was created to demonstrate the latest tech for home safety and security automation.

FIREX International welcomed 16,290 attendees across the three days in line with 2015. A key highlight for FIREX this year was the Passive Protection Zone which offered the opportunity to develop knowledge around passive fire protection and they offered a one stop show with ASFP members surrounding their zone.

Safety and Health Expo welcomed 13,800 attendees across the three days which represents a 9% increase from the previous year.

Facilities Show 2017 takes place from 20th-22th June at ExCeL London. For more information about Facilities Show 2017, visit http://www.facilitiesshow.com. To discuss stand and sponsorship at Facilities Show 2017 contact Charles Oakley, telephone +44 (0) 20 7921 8048 or email Charles.oakley@ubm.com

Notes to editor:

About UBM EMEA:

UBM EMEA connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets. Through premier brands such as Routes, CPhI, IFSEC, Ecobuild, Seatrade, and many others, UBM EMEA exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across seven industry sectors.

About Protection & Management Series:

UBM Live's Protection & Management Series unites business professionals across the fields of security, fire, safety, facilities and service management at IFSEC International, Safety & Health Expo, Facilities Show, FIREX International and Service Management Expo. In 2017 the events will take place at the ExCeL London from 20th - 22nd June.

SOURCE UBM EMEA
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

TSX.V (NEX Board): GBN.H

The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act proposal by Golden Band Resources Inc. ("Golden Band") to its creditors (the "Proposal") was approved by creditors on July 22, 2016.

Subject to court approval, the Proposal contemplates:

a) Procon Resources Inc. or its nominee ("Procon") acquiring the shares of Golden Band under a bid transaction (the "Stalking Horse Credit Bid"); and

b) all existing shares and equity interests in Golden Band (the "Existing Equity Interests") will be retracted, cancelled and extinguished and new equity interests in Golden Band will be issued to Procon.

The purchase price by Procon under the Stalking Horse Credit Bid equals the obligations of Golden Band to Procon under the Credit Agreement (approximately $19.6 million, plus professional fees and costs), all obligations owed by Golden Band pursuant to the DIP Term Sheet and any obligations of Golden Band outstanding as of the closing date that rank in priority to the DIP Obligations. The closing date is expected to be August 12, 2016.

As sales and investment solicitation procedures failed to yield qualified bids for amounts in excess of the Stalking Horse Credit Bid, the Stalking Horse Credit Bid of Procon has been put forward to the Court for approval as the best offer available.

Particulars of the hearing (the "Hearing") at which the Court of Queen's Bench For Saskatchewan will be asked to approve the Proposal are as follows:

Location: Court House, 520 Spadina Crescent East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Date & Time: Friday, August 12, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.

Online Access to Hearing Materials: http://www.bowragroup.com/#!golden-band-resources/edi9w

Sincerely,

Golden Band Resources Inc.,

"Paul Saxton"

Paul Saxton, CEO

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the potential restructuring and financing plans, objectives or expectations of Golden Band Resources Inc. (Company) are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include risks relating to the failure to obtain restructuring proposals acceptable to the Company, necessary regulatory or shareholder approvals, regulatory changes, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company. The Company makes all reasonable efforts to update its corporate information on a timely basis.

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.

Investor Relations: 604-682-6852, Email: info@goldenbandresources.com, http://www.goldenbandresources.com; The Bowra Group, Trustee: Kristin Gray: +1-780-809-1224, Email: kgray@bowragroup.com

SOURCE Golden Band Resources Inc.
Taiwan whiskymaker is double World Whiskies Awards winner

TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan's premier whiskymaker, Kavalan Distillery, is this year raising a glass to two rare achievements, being named the "best single malt" and "best single cask, single malt" whiskies on Earth.

The prestigious World Whiskies Awards (WWA) named the Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique its 2015 "World's Best Single Malt Whisky".

This year, Kavalan's Solist Amontillado Sherry Single Cask Strength won the WWA's "World's Best Single Cask Single Malt Whisky"

Kavalan owner Mr YT Lee says: "We were incredibly humbled by this rare honour of getting two top World Whiskies Awards. Kavalan Whisky is always learning and always improving our whiskies to try to bring our customers the best in the world."

The 2015 WWA judges described Vinho as follows: "Very sweet pruney flavours initially on the palate, with fruit cake and big clove, chilli and dry cinnamon. Walnut and hazelnut on the very dry finish. Immediately and subtly liquor rich. Tiny bit of incense, a thread of spice and smoke.

"Caramel, marzipan, coffee-vanilla, fudge, rich, creamy, dried black fruits. Integrated and surprisingly light. Element of sandalwood. Starts creamy, waters out, almost disappears before rubbing hot brown sugar into the oesophagus. Tiny bitter trace."

Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible wrote: "Amontillado is probably my favourite sherry style. How many times, though, have I discovered its delicate, complex, understated nature perfectly transferred onto a single malt? In some 35 years, this must be only the fourth or fifth time, and I doubt any quite displayed such truth to its style, such panache."

About Kavalan Whisky

The Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan has been dedicated to the art of single malt whisky since 2006. The world's first subtropical whisky distiller, it is a pioneer in making whisky in a hot climate, and has collected more than 180 gold awards.

Aged in American oak bottles in intense humidity and heat, Kavalan also benefits from sea and mountain breezes and the Snow Mountain's spring water, which combine to create Kavalan Whisky's signature creaminess. Kavalan takes its name from the old name for Yilan County and is backed by 30 years of beverage-making thanks to parent company, King Car Group. It is available in 40 countries. Visit www.kavalanwhisky.com/en/.

Media Contact:

Yvonne Chou

886-3922-9000#7162

yvonne@kavalandistillery.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160715/389916

Related Links

http://www.kavalanwhisky.com/en/



SOURCE Kavalan
ISTANBUL, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Airline becomes launch operator for A320neo with CFM engines

Pegasus Airlines, Turkey's leading low-cost airline, took delivery on Tuesday July 19th, its first Airbus A320neo powered by CFM International's LEAP-1A engines, becoming the first airline to do so for the type. Pegasus placed the largest single order by a Turkish carrier for up to 100 A320neo Family aircraft in 2012, making it a new Airbus customer. Pegasus Airlines along with Airbus and CFM top management and employees celebrated the delivery in a private ceremony at Airbus' site in Hamburg.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392090-INFO )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392091 )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392092 )



"This delivery marks the start of Pegasus' fleet renewal with the most fuel efficient aircraft incorporating the latest technologies, aerodynamics, engines and a comfortable cabin," said Mehmet Nane, CEO of Pegasus Airlines. "We have an ambitious expansion strategy and the A320neo will be the backbone of this."

"We are delighted to be delivering our first CFM powered A320neo to Pegasus Airlines." said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus President and CEO. "It fills us with pride that Pegasus Airlines has selected the A320neo Family to achieve its impressive growth plans. We are sure the aircraft will deliver on their expectations."

"Today, Pegasus, Airbus and CFM are making history. Introducing a new engine family in commercial service happens almost once in a lifetime. It's a big deal, so we are very proud to do it with our long-term customer, Pegasus, and with Airbus," said CFM International CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga.

The A320neo Family is the world's best-selling and most fuel efficient single aisle aircraft Family. The A320neo powering with the CFM International's LEAP-1A provides operators with double digits improvements in fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions - with a 15 percent reduction upon entry into service and up to a 20% reduction by 2020.

The A320neo Family incorporates the very latest technologies including new generation engines and Sharklet wing tip devices. With over 4,500 orders received from 83 customers since its launch in 2010, the A320neo Family has captured some 60 percent share of the market. The Airbus' A320neo Family offers thanks to their widest cabin unmatched comfort in all classes and Airbus' 18-inch wide seats in economy as standard.

Connect with Pegasus on Social Media

Official website: http://www.flypgs.com/en

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pegasusairlines

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flymepegasus

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/pegasusairlines

Instagram: http://instagram.com/pegasusairlines

SOURCE Pegasus Airlines
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160721/392034

The education partnership supports the mission of both organizations to expand the delivery of accessible and high-quality healthcare throughout rural areas of New Mexico. It provides all GCRMC employees with a discounted tuition rate for American Sentinel's online nursing and healthcare management degree programs. And, as a military-friendly university, American Sentinel offers an extensive list of military tuition and benefits. TA and VA benefits, military scholarships, federal student aid and other tuition reimbursement programs are available for active and non-active military students and their spouses, as well as veterans.



American Sentinel's flexible online learning platform makes advanced education even more attainable and enables GCRMC healthcare professionals to gain knowledge and skills that immediately impact their career to enhance the delivery of healthcare at GCRMC.



"We are proud to partner with Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center. They face the same public health issues as larger urban facilities but are challenged to bring a level of specialty support that is not commonly found in rural New Mexico. The partnership provides opportunities to GCRMC employees to advance their education," says Judy Burckhardt, Ph.D., MAEd, MSN, RN, Dean, and Professor of Nursing and Healthcare Management programs at American Sentinel University. "Our innovative approach to nursing education provides GCRMC with the capability to advance their workforce. We are pleased that they chose American Sentinel to provide their employees with advanced educational programs and specialized training to meet the needs of their patients and make valuable contributions to healthcare."



"GCRMC is committed to supporting the development of our employees, including their goals to advance their education. We believe that this focus improves the knowledge of our workforce, their engagement in personal development, and ultimately, improves the quality of care delivered to our community," says Robert Middleton, VP Patient Care Services/CNO at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.



GCRMC's employees gain an advantage from American Sentinel's online classrooms and coursework as well as its virtual simulations that create a realistic environment for more efficient and effective instruction. The use of this technology and the online format allow nurses to complete assignments around their busy work schedules wherever they are located and immediately apply these skills in their jobs at GCRMC.



Students benefit from American Sentinel's MySentinel Student Support services, which provide a distinctively personal one-on-one approach to online learning.



These services include new student orientation, dedicated student success advisors, tutoring, student resource center, writing center, and discussion forum to interact with peers. Students also have access to comprehensive online library services, with help from virtual librarians who are available 24-hours a day.



GCRMC's employees can choose from American Sentinel accredited online RN to BSN nursing degree program, an RN to BSN/MSN fast-track program that enables RNs to earn their BSN and MSN degrees, an MSN program with five specializations: case management, infection prevention and control, nursing education, nursing informatics, and nursing management and organizational leadership, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program with two specializations in executive and educational leadership, a Master of Business Administration-Healthcare, and an infection prevention and control certificate program.



Learn more about American Sentinel University's online nursing degree programs at http://www.americansentinel.edu or call 866.922.5690.

About American Sentinel University

American Sentinel University delivers accredited online degree programs in nursing (BSN, MSN, and DNP) and healthcare management (MBA Healthcare, M.S. Information Systems Management, and M.S. Business Intelligence and Analytics). Its affordable, flexible bachelor's and master's nursing degree programs are accredited by the Commission for the Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), of One Dupont Circle, NW Suite 530, Washington, D.C., 20036. The DNP program is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) of 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850, Atlanta, Ga., 30326. The University is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, DEAC, 1101 17th Street NW, Suite 808, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 234-5100, www.deac.org



For required student consumer information, please visit: www.americansentinel.edu/doe

About Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center

Founded in 1949, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is one of two independent, not-for-profit, sole community hospitals in New Mexico. GCRMC serves the state's third largest county, Otero County, and its nearly 66,000 residents providing comprehensive health care services close to home. Today the 99 bed facility and its dedicated staff of nearly a thousand people provide a full range of services including acute surgical and medical inpatient care, OB/GYN services, Interventional Cardiology services, Inpatient Rehabilitative Care, and Behavioral Medicine.

Gerald Champion enjoys close relationships with Holloman Air Force base, University of New Mexico (Teleneurology, general surgery third year residency site rotation), and Hospitals of Providence, El Paso in clinical integration efforts to provide ever more increasingly high tech services to our community. For more information about Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, please contact Lillie Lewis, Marketing Director through Email or by phone at 575-443-7850. You can also check out our website at http://www.gcrmc.org

Contact:

Renee Hewitt

Hewitt PR for American Sentinel University

845.382.9152

Email

SOURCE American Sentinel University

Related Links

http://www.americansentinel.edu


TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Grand Canyon tops the list of most endangered historic places in the U.S. The Grand Canyon is one of the most well-known natural historic attractions. It made the list due to the pressures of further development relating to tourism as well as demands from the mining industry. The National Trust is warning that the canyon and other sites may be "at risk of destruction or irreparable damage."

Little Havana in Miami represents the Cuban-American heritage through its historical buildings and architecture. Today it is at risk due to changes in zoning which will allow more commercial buildings and the lack of protection in place which could significantly change the look and character of the city.

The Factory in West Hollywood is in danger of being torn down to build a 250-room hotel complex along with shops and restaurants. The Factory became famous in LGBT history as the gay disco, Studio One, which led to AIDS awareness. Those hoping to save the building are suggesting alternatives to the new construction which could save the building.

Fort Worth Stockyards, Texas is considered one of Texas' most historic sites and displays the history of the livestock industry and the Texas Stockyards right down to the original brick sidewalks and wood corrals. Its future is at risk due to a proposal by a joint business venture to turn the 70 acres into a residential and shopping district.

Deterioration and neglect threaten the future of The Old U.S. Mint, despite its proud history. It survived the 1906 earthquake and a fire that destroyed nearby buildings, yet the "Granite Lady", a reminder of San Francisco's boomtown legacy, lies in a state of ruin.

Bill Bailey Travel has arranged vacations to thousands of destinations. Bill Bailey's experience in the travel industry makes him able to offer clients valuable information on travel from the U.S. to Europe including cruises, hotels and motels, resorts, activities and special destinations and more.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Bill Bailey Travel

Related Links

http://www.williambaileytravel.net


CHESTNUT RIDGE, N.Y., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BioHiTech Global, Inc. (" BioHiTech ") (OTCQB: BHTG), a green technology company that provides innovative data-driven solutions for food waste disposal announced that its subsidiary, BioHiTech America, LLC, is prepared to offer its disruptive waste management technology to New York City businesses required to comply with new regulations. The initiative is part of the city administration's comprehensive OneNYC Plan to send zero waste to landfills by 2030.

The New York City Business Organics Rules were enacted on July 19, 2016 and require certain New York City businesses to separate their organic waste. Establishments covered by the Business Organics Rules include all food service establishments in hotels with 150 or more rooms, all food service vendors in arenas and stadiums with seating capacity of at least 15,000 people, food manufacturers with a floor area of at least 25,000 square feet, and food wholesalers with a floor area of at least 20,000 square feet. Businesses covered by this proposal are given the option to arrange for collection by a private carter, transport organic waste themselves, or process the material on site. Suitable processing methods include composting and aerobic/anaerobic digestion. A food waste grinder is not permitted.

"With 39 Eco-Safe Digesters already installed primarily in the five boroughs of New York, we have been experiencing strong additional interest as the new regulations come into effect from both current and new potential customers," said Frank E. Celli, CEO of BioHiTech Global. "Our technology driven solution represents the most compelling of the options for these businesses, combining immediate savings on waste disposal costs with data analytics. By year end, we anticipate a significant increase in the number of new Eco-Safe Digesters coming online in the New York metropolitan area. As more cities across the globe adopt zero waste goals, we are confident BioHiTech will continue its growth momentum. Throughout 2016, we anticipate seeing our Eco-Safe Digester footprint expanding across the globe and hope to have approximately 400 total units by the end of 2016."

BioHiTech America's waste management solution was also recently featured in The New York Post, Crain's New York Business and the New York Business Journal discussing New York City's Business Organics Rules. In the articles, BioHiTech Global CEO Frank E. Celli discusses how eliminating food waste creation is significantly more cost effective than having it carted away. "Every time a customer puts food in, we immediately transmit that data back to the cloud. Our customers in real time can see in each one of their digesters how much waste was generated," stated Mr. Celli.

To view a video on how BioHiTech Global is eliminating food waste please click here.

For more information on the New York City Business Organics Rules, please click here.

About BioHiTech Global

BioHiTech Global (OTCQB: BHTG), "The Company" headquartered in Chestnut Ridge NY, develops and deploys innovative and disruptive waste management technologies. The combined offerings of BioHiTech Global offer our customers a full suite of technology based disposal options capable of having a significant impact on waste generation while providing a true zero landfill environment. With options for both on and off site biological treatment of waste, BioHiTech Global is a leader in zero waste solutions for businesses and municipalities. For more information, please visit www.biohitechglobal.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this document contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are based on many assumptions and estimates and are not guarantees of future performance. These statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of BioHiTech Global, Inc. to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. BioHiTech Global, Inc. assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Our actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation those set forth as "Risk Factors" in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). There may be other factors not mentioned above or included in the BioHiTech's SEC filings that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. BioHiTech Global, Inc. assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or developments, except as required by securities laws.

Media Contact:

Rubenstein Public Relations

Contact: Kristie Galvani

Tel: 212-843-9205

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:



MZ North America

Ted Haberfield

President  MZ North America

Direct: 760-755-2716

Mobile: 858-204-5055

[email protected]

www.mzgroup.us

Sales Contact:



BioHiTech Global, Inc.

Lisa Giovannielli

Marketing Director

Direct: 845-262-1081

[email protected]

www.biohitech.com

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160429/361790LOGO

SOURCE BioHiTech Global, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.biohitech.com


Revenue at  1,885 crore ( US$ 282 mn ); up 10% QoQ on improved price realization

( ); up 10% QoQ on improved price realization EBITDA at  794 crore ( US$ 119 mn ); up 48% QoQ on account of higher revenues and reduction in operating cost

( ); up 48% QoQ on account of higher revenues and reduction in operating cost Normalized net profit at  360 crore ( US$ 54 mn ); up 88% QoQ

( ); up 88% QoQ Strong total free cash flow of  1,521 crore ( US$ 226 mn ) generation despite low oil price; robust Cash and Cash Equivalents position of  23,394 crore ( US$ 3.5 bn )

( ) generation despite low oil price; robust Cash and Cash Equivalents position of  ( ) Discount to Brent for Rajasthan (RJ) crude at US$ 8.2 /bbl, reduced from 19.8% to 17.8%

Operational Highlights

World's largest Polymer EOR project contributing ~42 kboepd; up 31% QoQ

Average gross oil and gas production maintained at 206 kboepd

Continuous improvement in RJ water-flood operating cost, reduced by 7% QoQ and 14% from FY16 to US$ 4.4 /boe; polymer injection cost in Mangala also 25% below guidance ~25% reduction in well maintenance expenses from FY16, ~40% work-over optimization ~24% reduction in crude processing charges from FY16, savings on chemical cost and gas compressor rentals

/boe; polymer injection cost in Mangala also 25% below guidance

Development / Exploration Highlights

Ultimate gas recovery potential up by ~25% in RDG post completion of hydro-fraccing in 15 wells. Gross recovery ( gas and condensate ) till 2030 up from 74 mmboe to 86 mmboe

) till 2030 up from 74 mmboe to 86 mmboe Polymer flood in MBA has potential to add ~10-12% recovery, further to 30-35% estimated from water-flooding. Development plan for Aishwariya (15 mmbbls EUR) and Bhagyam (45 mmbbls EUR) EOR till 2030 expected to be submitted in current quarter and 1H CY17, respectively.

Development of Aishwariya Barmer Hill (20-30 mmbbls EUR) envisaged in stages. Production from stage-1 expected in current fiscal year. Exploration potential of 1.4 bnboe of HIIP in Barmer Hill offers a growth opportunity with an estimated ultimate recovery of 8-10%

Seismic data interpretation ongoing to identify new prospects near Raageshwari Deep Gas field and other areas within the block

Corporate and Regulatory Developments

At the Annual General Meeting held earlier in the day, members have voted on all items of the AGM Notice. The results shall be declared within the prescribed time limits and will also be placed at the website of the Company and CDSL.

Mike Wylie joins Cairn India as Head of Tight Oil business. His rich experience on unconventional resources from his earlier tenure at Exxon Mobil and Newfield Exploration, will help strength the focus on the tight oil resources.

joins Cairn India as Head of Tight Oil business. His rich experience on unconventional resources from his earlier tenure at Exxon Mobil and Newfield Exploration, will help strength the focus on the tight oil resources. Cairn India remains committed to the Cairn - Vedanta Limited merger and continue to work towards its completion. The merger would generate value for shareholders delivering stable cash flows through the cycle by providing exposure to a large, resilient and diversified commodity portfolio with significant near term growth potential.

remains committed to the Cairn - Vedanta Limited merger and continue to work towards its completion. The merger would generate value for shareholders delivering stable cash flows through the cycle by providing exposure to a large, resilient and diversified commodity portfolio with significant near term growth potential. The PSC extension and crude export writs are sub judice in the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi . Pursuant to the Delhi High Court's directions, ONGC in the capacity of the Contractor (as per the PSC) communicated its consent to the extension of PSC on the same terms and conditions for a period of 10 years. The Rajasthan JV partners keenly await Government's expeditious decision on PSC extension, to initiate large investment.

in the Hon'ble High Court of . Pursuant to the Delhi High Court's directions, ONGC in the capacity of the Contractor (as per the PSC) communicated its consent to the extension of PSC on the same terms and conditions for a period of 10 years. The Rajasthan JV partners keenly await Government's expeditious decision on PSC extension, to initiate large investment. In May 2016 , the MoPNG launched Discovered Small Fields Bid Round - 2016. This is a significant step towards a more simplified and transparent, administrative and regulatory set-up for the Oil & Gas sector. Cairn India believes this will increase production and investments in the Indian Oil & Gas sector.

Mr. Sudhir Mathur, CFO and Acting CEO of Cairn India commented:

"The Cairn team has delivered a resilient performance, registering 88% increase in profit for the quarter on sequential basis. We have taken significant measures to drive cost efficiency and rationalize capital investment, resulting in free cash generation in a lower-for-longer oil price environment.

We remain committed to our four projects - RDG Gas, Enhance Recovery at Bhagyam & Aishwariya as well as the tight oil projects. Sharp reductions in drilling and fraccing costs coupled with learnings from Mangala EOR give us the confidence that we will be ready to execute in a US$ 50/barrel world within 12 months."

Operational Review

During Q1 FY17, Cairn had a gross production of 17.9 mmboe across all the assets, of which working interest production was 11.4 mmboe. Gross Sales was 17.7 mmboe averaging at 195,003 boepd.

Average Daily Production Units Q1 Q4 FY17 FY16 y-o-y (%) FY16 q-o-q (%) Total Gross operated* Boepd 206,455 217,935 -5% 206,170 0% Gross operated Boepd 196,861 209,738 -6% 197,039 0% Oil Bopd 190,305 203,731 -7% 190,271 0% Gas Mmscfd 39 36 9% 41 -3% Working Interest Boepd 125,391 130,565 -4% 125,775 0%  Rajasthan (Block RJ-ON-90/1) Total Gross operated* Boepd 175,760 179,683 (2%) 176,039 (0%) Gross operated Boepd 166,943 172,224 (3%) 167,650 (0%) Oil Bopd 164,547 170,686 (4%) 164,826 (0%) Gas Mmscfd 14 9 56% 17 (15%) Gross DA 1 Boepd 150,699 149,651 1% 150,918 (0%) Gross DA 2 Boepd 16,244 22,573 (28%) 16,732 (3%) Gross DA 3 Boepd - - - - - Working Interest Boepd 116,860 120,557 (3%) 117,355 (0%)

Ravva (Block PKGM-1) Total Gross operated* Boepd 20,664 29,563 (30%) 20,068 3% Gross operated Boepd 19,637 28,556 (31%) 19,058 3% Oil Bopd 17,014 25,245 (33%) 16,588 3% Gas Mmscfd 16 20 (21%) 15 6% Working Interest Boepd 4,418 6,425 (31%) 4,288 3%

Cambay (Block CB/OS-2) Total Gross operated* Boepd 10,031 8,689 15% 10,063 (0%) Gross operated Boepd 10,281 8,958 15% 10,331 (0%) Oil Bopd 8,744 7,800 12% 8,856 (1%) Gas Mmscfd 9 7 33% 9 4% Working Interest Boepd 4,113 3,583 15% 4,133 (0%)

* Includes internal gas consumption

Operations

Rajasthan (Block RJ-ON-90/1)

The Rajasthan block crossed the cumulative production of 350 mmboe in Q1 FY17, with a total production of ~354 mmboe by the end of the quarter. Gross production was largely stable at 15.2 mmboe at an average of 166,943 boepd, aided by encouraging Mangala EOR volumes and inline performance from Aishwariya. Contribution from Mangala EOR increased by ~31% to an average of 42,000 boepd for the quarter from 32,000 boepd in Q4 FY16, driven by enhanced well productivity and new wells coming online. Production optimization and maximization of liquid handling capacity helped maintain strong performance from Aishwariya. Satellite Field's production increased ~4% QoQ to an average of ~3.5 Kbopd in Q1 FY17. Total oil sales for the quarter was 14.9 mn barrels, at an average rate of 164,169 bopd.

Gas production from RDG remained firm at an average of 28 mmscfd, amounting to 2.6 bcf. Hydro-frac campaign of 15 wells that started in December 2015 to sustain the growth level, was successfully completed Total gas sales was 1.3 bcf, maintaining an average rate of 14.4 mmscfd.

The water-flood operating cost in Rajasthan has been consistently brought down over the past six quarters to US$ 4.4/boe in Q1 FY17 from US$5.2/boe in FY16 through cost reduction in crude processing and work-over optimization activities. Blended operating cost was also reduced to US$ 6.4/boe from US$6.5/boe while maintaining the injection of polymer at the targeted level of 400 kblpd.

Maintaining continued focus of safe operations and asset integrity, the average facility uptime was over 99% in Q1 FY17. Lost Time Incident (LTI) free man-hours for Rajasthan Projects crossed 30 million since last LTI.

A routine operational and statutory maintenance shutdown at the Mangala Processing Terminal is planned in later half of September. While this would have an impact on production, the opportunity will be used to create tie-ins for ongoing new facility enhancements, development projects and future growth projects.

Ravva (Block PKGM-1)

The Ravva block continues to be an excellent example of good reservoir management, having produced more than 278 mmbbls of crude and over 345 bcf of gas with an overall recovery of ~50% since inception in 1994, far greater than the initial resource estimates at the time of the PSC award. In Q1 FY17, Ravva production increased 3% QoQ to 1.8 mmboe at an average rate of 19,637 boepd on account of improvement in well productivity after the well stimulation program was carried out in Q4 FY16. Prudent reservoir management through continuous surveillance, sustained water injection and optimizing the lift gas, has helped offset the natural decline. For Q1 FY17, 1.5 mmbbls of crude and 1.4 bcf of gas were sold, averaging 16,934 bopd of crude oil and 16 mmscfd of gas, respectively.

With a strong focus on asset integrity, Ravva recorded an uptime of 99.9% in Q1 FY17. Maintaining its high safety standards, Ravva asset completed two years of Lost Time Incident (LTI) free operations this quarter and recorded 4.9 million LTI free man-hours since last LTI.

Cambay (Block CB/OS-2)

The Cambay block has been consistently delivering strong performance with a total production of more than 25 mmbbls of crude and over 226 bcf of gas since inception in 2002. For Q1 FY17, the production remained steady at 0.9 mmboe at an average rate of 10,281 boepd. Effective reservoir management practices and production optimization measures helped offsetting the natural decline in the block. During the quarter, 0.7 mmbbls of crude and 0.8 bcf of gas were sold, averaging 7,343 bopd of crude oil and 9.2 mmscfd of gas, respectively.

Facilities maintained excellent uptime of 99.9% in Q1 FY17 and recorded 3.4 million LTI free man-hours.

Development

With an aim to monetize the large base of resources of over one billion boe in Rajasthan, significant development efforts have been undertaken to improve their economics. Following activities were undertaken in this direction in the key projects:

Mangala EOR

The world-class polymer project in Mangala has been successfully implemented and stabilized within the acceptable efficiency range within a span of one year. It continues to perform on expected lines as polymer injection is maintained at the target level of 400 kblpd. EOR contribution increased to an average of about 42,000 boepd in Q1 FY17 from 32,000 boepd in Q4 FY16. Encouraging results from Mangala polymer flood gives the confidence to pursue it in Bhagyam and Aishwariya also.

The specialized technology for produced water treatment has already been partially commissioned and the initial results of the water quality from the skim tanks are as per expectations. Common facilities for all well-pads are in place and injection is ongoing at all the well-pads as per plan.

Gas Development at RDG Field

Based on superior initial well productivity post conclusion of the hydro-frac campaign and better reservoir characterization, the Expected Ultimate gas recovery from RDG has increased by ~25%. The recovery estimates till 2030, including of condensate, increased from 74 mmboe to 86 mmboe. Focus on cutting-edge technology and design improvements has led to over 100% increase in initial well productivity to 8-10 mmscfd compared to wells fracced during the2009-10 campaign. 'Limited Entry Technique' for fracturing and better design in terms of larger numbers of fracs, higher proppant concentration etc increased the pay coverage by ~30%. Introduction of 'Addressable Switch Firing System' perforation technique has halved the number of days per frac to 2.2 days resulting in ~50% reduction in per frac cost to US$ 230k; 35% of this optimization is structural in nature driven by design engineering and operational efficiency savings.

Good progress has been made on phased ramp-up of gas production through return based capital discipline approach while ensuring sustained production growth. As part of Phase 1, fraccing has been completed in all the 15 wells and the wells are being put on production after testing and clean-up. Debottlenecking of existing facilities through low cost augmentation is underway. Completion of Phase 1 is expected to increase the gas production to 40-45 mmscfd by end of 1H CY17. For Phase 2, tendering for new gas processing terminal Long Lead Items, drilling rig and services is progressing as per plan. Tendering activity for the EPC contract for gas evacuation pipeline from Raageshwari to Pali and Pali to Mehsana planned to be constructed by GSPL India Gasnet Limited is also progressing as per schedule. Completion of Phase 2 will increase the gas production to 100 mmscfd.

Polymer flood in Bhagyam and Aishwariya

Continued efforts to reduce the cost through scope optimization have resulted in improving the economics of polymer flood in Bhagyam and Aishwariya. Recovery from MBA is estimated at 10-12% through polymer flood, in addition to 30-35% from water-flood operations. At present incremental production of 45 mmbbls in Bhagyam and 15 mmbbls in Aishwariya are expected through polymer flood till 2030. In-line with the return focused capital investment approach, the initial implementation will take place in a favourable region to reduce drilling and surface facility costs. This has helped reduced the development and operating cost per barrel by 25-30% compared to the cost based on initial plan for full field development. Efforts are underway to further bring down the cost by 10-20% to improve the economics at a low oil price. Multiple options are being evaluated to reduce the cost through design innovations, drilling and completion optimization, and alternate technology and material. Learnings from Mangala EOR in terms of enhanced development through fewer wells, use of standardized skids and optimizing polymer consumption, will also help lower the cost further.

Multi-well polymer injectivity test in Bhagyam to improve injection rate modelling is currently underway. Revised development plan is expected to be submitted to the JV partner in 1H CY17 after incorporating results of the test. Polymer injection is planned begin in Q1 CY19 subject to approval of the plan. For Aishwariya EOR, concept report has been finalized and development plan is expected to be submitted in the current quarter. First polymer injection is expected in 1H CY18.

Barmer Hill

With a large exploration potential of 1.4 bnboe of HIIP, Barmer Hill offers an excellent growth opportunity, with an estimated ultimate recovery of 8-10% till 2030. The focus is to monetize the Barmer Hill formations of Mangala and Aishwariya by leveraging the existing infrastructure. The recently concluded field appraisal program saw an improvement in operating efficiency and technology implementation. Introduction of advanced technologies like 'Microseismic' and 'Chemical Tracer Technology' also helped in improving the recovery. Aishwariya Barmer Hill is also expected to benefit from its reservoir outperformance. With the initial results indicating 30% higher productivity compared to the expectation, ultimate recovery per well is estimated to be double of initial prognosis. Increase in number of fracs per day from one to three has helped reduce the well completion cost for lateral wells by ~20% from the initial estimates. Efforts are ongoing to further reduce it by 20-30% to US$ 4.5-5 million per well, through design improvement in well construction.

Development of Aishwariya Barmer Hill, with total EUR of 20-30 mmbbls, is envisaged in stages to de-risk the capital investment. Stage-1 includes development of the appraisal wells to increase the production at low investment. Technical and commercial discussion with the JV partner is in advanced stage and first oil is expected in the current fiscal year. Future stages shall be developed with improvement in economics driven by enhanced recovery and cost reduction. For Mangala Barmer Hill, internal studies and field pilots are being carried out to optimize and finalize the development plan.

Satellite Field

Production enhancement and cost reduction are key focus areas in Satellite Field. The operating cost optimization initiatives like reducing fuel expense by substituting diesel with produced gas/grid power where possible, optimizing well intervention expense through effective use of low cost alternatives and minimizing trucking costs for produced liquids have yielded good results. Considerable progress on preparing development plans for additional satellite resources at minimal development costs has been achieved. Stage-1 development plan of Guda field is in advanced stages of discussion with the JV partner. These additional resources provide optionality and are expected to be monetized with improvement in their economics.

Exploration

Exploration activities will continue focussing on seismic interpretation while integrating the well information from the previous extensive exploration campaign to build a large portfolio for future growth.

Rajasthan

In-line with the re-phased exploration program, the focus is continued on appraisal of new discoveries and processing of the new 3D seismic data over high priority areas during Q1 FY17. The data obtained during appraisal work for NL and V&V fields is being evaluated, with the objective of progressing these discoveries to development.

The recently acquired 3D seismic data over Raageshwari field and adjoining areas has been processed in pre-stack depth migration mode, which has improved the subsurface imaging. Data interpretation is underway to identify new prospects near Raageshwari deep gas field. Processing of 3D seismic data in other areas of Rajasthan block (DP and Air Field South) is ongoing with a focus upon identifying additional prospects that will act to replenish the exploration prospect inventory.

Other India and International Assets

KG Offshore (Block KG-OSN-2009/3): Cairn continues to engage with the MoPNG for an extension contingent upon full lifecycle clearance from Ministry of Defence. Phase-I was up to 8th March 2016. Interpretation of the new seismic volumes has resulted in identification of four prospects and a number of smaller leads over different play types.

KG Onshore (Block KG-ONN-2003/1): ONGC, the development operator, has submitted the Field Development Plan (FDP) to the Management Committee (MC). The FDP is being reviewed by the MC.

Palar-Pennar (Block PR-OSN-2004/1): Preparation for drilling the commitment wells in 2017-18 is in progress. Process for receiving Coastal Regulatory Zone clearance is also initiated. The JV is engaging with the MoPNG for proportionate revision of work program commitment from three wells to two wells in view of lack of access to the full block area.

Mumbai Offshore (Block MB-DWN-2009/1): Due to lack of prospectivity and high risk, Cairn has submitted an application for relinquishment of the block. The first exploration phase expired on 16th April 2016.

South Africa (Block 1): The prospect inventory for the block has been finalised. Assessment of exploration potential of inboard plays is ongoing to provide other drilling options. A decision on the proposed legislative changes to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 2002 and the consequent applicable fiscal regime for progressing into the second exploration license phase is awaited.

Financial Review

In-line with the requirement of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the financial statements are prepared under Indian Accounting Standards (IndAS). Numbers for FY16 have also been restated as per IndAS. A detailed Annexure, explaining the key changes under IndAS and their impact on the profit and reserves, has also been attached.



Q1 Q4  Crore FY17 FY16 y-o-y (%) FY16 q-o-q (%) Net Revenue 1,885 2,627 (28%) 1,717 10% EBITDA 794 1,353 (41%) 537 48% Margin (%) 42% 51%

31%

Normalized PAT 360 501 (28%) 191 88% Reported PAT 360 501 (28%) (564) NA Margin (%) 19% 19%

(33%)

EPS ()  Diluted 1.92 2.67 (28%) (3.00) NA Cash EPS () 6.73 9.10 (26%) 5.67 19%

Average Price

Realization Units Q1 Q4 FY17 FY16 y-o-y (%) FY16 q-o-q (%) Cairn India US$/boe 38.0 56.0 (32%) 28.2 35% Oil US$/bbl 37.9 56.3 (33%) 27.8 36% Gas US$/mscf 7.1 6.6 8% 7.4 (4%)

In Q1 FY17, net revenue increased 10% QoQ to  1,885 crore on account of a significant rise in Brent prices. Brent prices were up 33% during the quarter, resulting into a 35% QoQ increase in the overall realization to US$ 38.0/boe. Realization for RJ crude also increased by 36% to US$ 37.4/bbl as discount to Brent was at US$ 8.2/bbl, which reduced from 20% to 18% over the quarter. A lower increase in revenue was due to a higher amount of profit petroleum. During the quarter, net profit petroleum more than doubled to  648 crore (US$ 97 million) including  549 crore (US$ 82 million) for Rajasthan block. Net royalty was  366 crore (US$ 55 million) with Rajasthan share of  363 crore (US$ 54 million).

With constant efforts to reduce the cost, the water-flood operating cost in RJ was further reduced to US$ 4.4/boe in Q1 FY17 from US$ 4.8/boe in Q4 FY16 and US$ 5.2/boe in FY16. Reduction in the well maintenance expenses through continuous optimization of work-over activities and lower crude processing charges due to savings on chemical cost and gas compressor rentals resulted into decline in the operating cost. Blended operating cost for RJ was also reduced to US$ 6.4/boe in Q1 FY17 from US$ 6.5/boe in FY16 with polymer injection being maintained at the targeted level of 400 kblpd. Continuous interventions to reduce the polymer cost resulted into a polymer injection cost being ~25% lower than the guidance. Purchase of power from open exchange has also decreased the energy expenses and work on enhancing the captive power generation to reduce the cost further is underway.

EBITDA for the quarter increased 48% QoQ to  794 crore with an EBITDA margin of 42%. Higher revenue, reduction in operating cost and lower Cess charges on ad-valorem basis led to increase in EBITDA. DD&A charges increased 9% QoQ to  810 crore as per IndAS computation, wherein 2P reserves on entitlement interest basis and addition of future capex to current asset base for development of these reserves are considered for DD&A calculation. Other income was stable at  528 crore. Movement in Rupee of 1.4% depreciation versus US Dollar resulted into a forex loss of  125 crore, in accordance with IndAS.

Normalized profit after tax was 88% up QoQ at  360 crore driven by higher EBITDA but was partly offset by higher DD&A charges and forex losses. A higher profit resulted into Earnings per share of  1.9 for Q1 FY17. Cash EPS was also up 19% QoQ to  6.7 due to higher EBITDA.

Cash flow from operations for Q1 FY17 was  735 crore. Net capital investment for the quarter was  70 crore (US$ 11 million), which was distributed between development and exploration activities in the ratio of 82% and 18%, respectively. Total free cash flow was recorded at  1,521 crore. Closing cash and cash equivalent position is strong at  23,394 crore (US$ 3.5 billion), of which 68% is invested in rupee funds and 32% in dollar funds.

Health, Safety, Environment and Sustainability

Cairn India's continued focus on health, safety, environment and sustainability has helped sustain excellent HSES performance over the years. Cambay asset won CII - Western Region HSE Excellence Award 2015-16 in Manufacturing Category. At the 29th Mines Safety Week 2015 Awards organised by the Directorate General of Mines Safety - Ajmer Region, Mangala Processing Terminal secured first prize in overall performance while the other four installations also won prizes in different categories.

Corporate Social Responsibility

In line with the Chairman's vision, construction of two clusters of the modern Anganwadi project "Nandghar" was completed at Barmer. During the quarter, other developments included commencement of operations for the first set of plants under the safe drinking water project, partnerships with Government agencies at the Cairn Centre of Excellence (CCOE) and placement of trainees. The programmes received wide visibility amongst the stakeholders. Cairn established a safe drinking water plant in Sewniwala, one of the largest community drinking water plant in India run by solar power. Over 70 operators were appointed from the local community creating employment and encouraging entrepreneurship; they also included women operators. CCOE has been recognized as the first vocational training centre in Rajasthan to get a 'Gold' Green Building certification. Following the earlier prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Award under Corporate Social Responsibility Domain Excellence, Cairn India also received the BT-CSR Excellence award in this quarter.

FY17 Outlook

Pursuing its goal to create a long term value, Cairn India will remain focused on monetizing its Rajasthan resource base in FY17. An estimated net capex spend of US$ 100 million is proposed, 20% of which is for exploration while balance will be invested primarily to develop RDG Gas and for completion activities of Mangala EOR completion. The aim will be to maintain production from Rajasthan asset at FY16 level.Efforts are underway to further improve the economics of key projects that includes Bhagyam & Aishwariya EOR, Barmer Hill and Satellite fields, at low oil price and invest in their pre-development activities to ensure project readiness for development with grant of extension of PSC. The company maintains its flexibility to raise capital investment as oil prices improve and aims to generate a healthy cash flow post capex so as to retain the ability to pay dividends.

Contact

Media Relations

Arun Arora, Chief Communication Officer

+91 124 4593039; +91 8826999270; [email protected]

Investor Relations

Dheeraj Agarwal

+91 124 4593409; +91 9769732150; [email protected]

Annexure-1

Cairn India Group - Adoption of Ind AS (effective 1 April 2016)

1. Background

On 16 February 2015, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) notified the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015 laying down the roadmap for application of IFRS converged standards (Ind AS) to Indian companies other than banking companies, insurance companies and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). The Government has also notified Ind AS standards (known as Indian Accounting Standards) for application by these companies.

Voluntary Phase: Early adoption of Ind AS was permitted from financial year beginning on or after 1 April 2015 .

Early adoption of Ind AS was permitted from financial year beginning on or after . Mandatory Phase 1: Application of Ind AS is mandatory from the financial year beginning on or after 1 April 2016 , for the following companies: Listed or non-listed companies with net worth of INR 500 crores (INR5 billion) or more Holding, subsidiaries, joint ventures or associates companies of these companies

Application of Ind AS is mandatory from the financial year beginning on or after , for the following companies:

Since Cairn India Limited's ('CIL' or 'Cairn') net worth is above this threshold, CIL is required to prepare its financial statements under Ind AS from 1 April 2016 onwards.

2. Process followed to adopt Ind AS

First time adoption of Ind AS involves the following:

Recognise all assets and liabilities whose recognition is required by Ind-AS;

De - recognise items as assets or liabilities if Ind-AS do not permit such recognition;

Re-classify items that it recognised in accordance with previous GAAP as one type of asset, liability or component of equity, but are a different type of asset, liability or component of equity in accordance with Ind-AS; and

Apply Ind-AS in measuring all recognised assets and liabilities.

Cairn has been publishing its financial statements prepared under Indian GAAP (IGAAP) and also preparing IFRS financials for group reporting purposes. As per Ind AS 101, Ind AS has to apply retrospectively subject to the exemptions specified. Accordingly, the group (CIL including its subsidiaries and joint ventures) has availed the following four exemptions:

In the Standalone financial statements (SFS) and Consolidated financial statements (CFS), share based accounting has been applied for all outstanding and unvested employee stock options from 1 st April 2015 .

. In the SFS and CFS for accounting Ind AS 103 on business combination the date of incorporation of CIL, which is 21 st August 2006 , has been considered as the date of application for the purpose of transition to Ind AS.

, has been considered as the date of application for the purpose of transition to Ind AS. In the SFS, the opening foreign currency translation reserves (FCTR) have been computed retrospectively for Cairn India Ltd. However, in the CFS, exemption has been availed wherein the foreign currency translation reserve has been computed prospectively from the transition date.

In the SFS, CIL's investments in subsidiaries and joint ventures have been measured as per IGAAP carrying amount to the date of transition i.e. 1st April 2015.

3. Key impact areas identified;

Exploration and evaluation assets: IGAAP required charging of the exploration expenditure which cannot be directly attributable to individual well in the period in which it is incurred as per successful efforts method of accounting. Accordingly, costs like seismic activities, interpretation of seismic, planning and general overheads were being expensed as and when incurred. Under Ind-AS the Company has changed its accounting policy to capitalize such costs initially. This will lower routine exploration cost in profit and loss account and increase in carrying value of exploration and evaluation assets in the opening balance sheet.

(Amount INR Crores)

Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015  In Income Statement 42 77 Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In Income Statement 127 231

Discounting of Site restoration / De-commissioning liability: Under the IGAAP, the company recognised the full cost of site restoration as a liability when the obligation to restore environmental damage arises. The site restoration expenses form part of the exploration & development work in progress or cost of producing properties, as the case may be, of the related asset. Under Ind AS, the decommissioning costs are recognised on discounted basis, as an asset, and the unwinding of discount is recognised as finance cost in the income statement.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015  In income Statement (7) (11) Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In Income Statement (29) (49)

Depreciation: For depletion accounting, IGAAP specified use of working interest on proved and developed reserves (or 1P reserves) with current asset base, for calculation of depletion under unit of production methodology. However, under Ind AS (based on international practices) proved and probable reserves (or 2P reserves) on entitlement interest basis are required to be depleted. Similarly, the future capex estimated to develop those undeveloped reserves is required to be added to the current asset base for depletion computation.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial

statements (SFS) Consolidated financial

statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015  In Income Statement 4 10 Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In Income Statement (223) (416)

Business combination of entities under common control: At the time of incorporation of CIL and subsequent to the Cairn's group internal reorganization the shortfall in net assets was recorded as goodwill on consolidation under the IGAAP. However, under Ind AS 103 common control re-organisation needs to be recorded using pooling of interest method. The difference between consideration paid and the net asset transferred has been recorded as reduction to equity in the consolidated financial statement of the CIL.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Reserves as at 31 March 2015 Nil (15,152) Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2015 Nil Nil

Functional Currency: Under IGAAP there was no concept of functional currency and therefore the books of accounts were prepared in Indian Rupee. However, Ind AS 21 requires the assessment of functional currency basis the conditions specified therein. The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) specifies that 'the accounts shall be maintained in US Dollars, which shall be the controlling currency of account for cost recovery, production sharing and participation purposes and for the computation of tax liability", even our revenues are based on US Dollar and most of our joint venture's direct operating spend is denominated in US Dollars. Accordingly, the Group has considered US Dollar as the functional currency for our JV operations and for all of our overseas subsidiaries. For our Indian treasury and corporate operations, which is mostly denominated in Indian Rupee, the group has considered Indian rupee as the functional currency.



Under IGAAP, the currency fluctuation on dollar denominated transactions for our JV operations and overseas subsidiaries dollar assets was accounted for in the profit and loss account. The same will get nullified under Ind AS as US Dollar being the functional currency. However, under Ind AS the impact of currency fluctuation for INR denominated transactions for the same entities will be accounted for in the profit and loss account.



Further, the group reporting currency remains to be Indian Rupee, the impact on account of translation of items for which functional currency is USD would be accounted for in "Other Comprehensive Income (OCI)" as part of Foreign Exchange Translation Reserve (FCTR).

(Amount INR Crores)

Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015  In OCI 143 566 Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In OCI 470 1,804

Fair valuation of investments: Under IGAAP, current investments are measured at lower of cost or market value and accordingly the unrealised increase in the value is not recognised in Income statement, only the unrealised diminution in the value is recognised. Under Ind AS the current investments are categorised as financial assets, and are designated as financial assets held at fair value through OCI for debt securities and fair value through profit and loss for other investments.

(Amount INR Crores) Impact Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended

30 June 2015  In OCI (8) 20

Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015 In Income statement 53 12

Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In OCI 2 (171)

Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In Income Statement 296 437



Employee benefits: Ind AS 19 Employee Benefits requires the impact of re-measurement in net defined benefit liability (asset) to be recognized in other comprehensive income (OCI). Re-measurement of net defined benefit liability (asset) comprises actuarial gains or losses, return on plan assets (excluding interest on net asset/liability). However, under Indian GAAP the re-measurement amount is recognised under profit and loss.

(Amount INR Crores)

Impact as compared to IGAAP Standalone financial statements (SFS) Consolidated financial statements (CFS) Profit / (loss) for the period ended 30 June 2015  OCI (3) (3) Profit / (loss) for the year ended 31 March 2016  In OCI (1) (1)

4. Financials statements prepared under Ind AS

Annexure I - Comparison between Profit and Loss account under IGAAP and Ind AS for the financial year ended 31 March 2016

- Comparison between Profit and Loss account under IGAAP and Ind AS for the financial year ended Annexure II  Profit / (loss) reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015 , 30 September 2015 , 31 December 2015 , 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

Profit / (loss) reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended , , , and year ended Annexure III - Equity Reconciliation (Standalone and consolidated) between IGAAP and Ind AS at 31 March 2015 and 31 March 2016

- Equity Reconciliation (Standalone and consolidated) between IGAAP and Ind AS at and Annexure IV  Consolidated Balance Sheet under Ind AS at 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016

 Consolidated Balance Sheet under Ind AS at and Annexure V Profit & Loss account under Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015 , 30 September 2015 , 31 December 2015 , 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016 .

The financial information in the Annexures below are not audited financials and are being provided only to facilitate early dissemination of comparative historical data.

Annexure I  Comparison between Profit and Loss account under IGAAP and Ind AS for the financial year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore) Particulars IGAAP Ind AS Revenues 8,626 8,626 Profit before Taxes & exceptional item 2,239 1,470 Taxes (94) (411) Profit after Taxes excl exceptional item 2,145 1,059 Exception item (net of tax) (11,577) (755) (Loss) / Profit after Tax (9,432) 304

Annexure II A Consolidated Profit / (loss) reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)

Quarter ended Year ended Particulars 30 Jun 15 30 Sep 15 31 Dec 15 31 Mar 16 31 Mar 16 Net Profit / (Loss) under Previous GAAP 835 673 9 (10,948) (9,432)











Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 10 (37) (119) (269) (416) Effect of change in exploration cost written off due to change in accounting policy 77 59 68 27 231 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 12 297 251 (123) 437 Effect of unwinding of site restoration liability (11) (12) (12) (13) (49) Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation loss (284) (473) (96) (95) (946) Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortization (18) - (24) 14 (28) Effect of reversal of impairment charge due to differences in carrying value of underlying assets - - - 10,647 10,647 Effect of actuarial gain on employee defined benefit funds recognised in other comprehensive income 3 3 (4) (2) 1 Effect of deferred tax charge on above adjustments (122) (185) (33) 198 (142)











Net Profit as per Ind AS 502 326 41 (564) 304 Other Comprehensive Income (including foreign currency translation reserves) 584 854 136 58 1,633 Net Comprehensive Income for the period 1,086 1,180 177 (506) 1,937

Consolidated Profit and Loss reconciliation for FY 2016

To view the information click here

Annexure II B Standalone Profit reconciliation from IGAAP to Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)

Quarter ended Year ended Particulars 30 Jun 15 30 Sep 15 31 Dec 15 31 Mar 16 31 Mar 16 Net Profit / (Loss) under Previous GAAP 322 194 (10) 347 854











Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 4 (8) (63) (156) (223) Effect of change in exploration cost written off due to change in accounting policy 42 34 37 14 127 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 53 183 171 (111) 296 Effect of unwinding of site restoration liability (7) (7) (7) (8) (29) Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation loss (20) (49) (14) (32) (118) Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortization (10) (1) (12) 8 (15) Effect of reversal of impairment charge due to differences in carrying value of underlying assets - - - (503) (503) Effect of actuarial gain on employee defined benefit funds recognised in other comprehensive income 3 3 (4) (2) 1 Effect of deferred tax charge on above adjustments (25) (85) 9 196 95











Net Profit as per Ind AS 362 264 107 (246) 486 Other Comprehensive Income (including foreign currency translation reserves) 133 274 35 30 472 Net Comprehensive Income for the period 495 538 142 (216) 958

Annexure IIIA  Consolidated Equity Reconciliation

(INR Crore) Particulars Year ended

31 March 2015 Year ended

31 March 2016 Shareholders' equity under Previous GAAP 58,870 48,793 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 1,570 2,012 Effect of dividend adjustments 900 677 Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation 28 11 Effect of discounting of site restoration liability 310 341 Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 886 633 Effect of goodwill adjustment (15,152) (3,763) Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation gain 18 22 Effect of deferred tax (charge) on above adjustments (261) (488) Shareholders' equity under Ind AS 47,170 48,238

Annexure IIIB  Standalone Equity Reconciliation

(INR Crore) Particulars Year ended

31 March 2015 Year ended

31 March 2016 Shareholders' equity under Previous GAAP 37,051 37,259 Effect of measuring investments at fair value through profit and loss 1,323 1,622 Effect of dividend adjustments 900 677 Effect of change in Inventory due to change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation 15 5 Effect of discounting of site restoration liability 162 178 Effect of change in depletion, depreciation and amortisation expense due to change in accounting policy 693 439 Effect of change in foreign exchange fluctuation gain 6 6 Effect of deferred tax (charge) on above adjustments (236) (182) Shareholders' equity under Ind AS 39,915 40,004

Annexure IV  Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 1 April 2015

To view the information click here

Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2016

To view the information click here

Annexure V A  Consolidated Profit & Loss account under Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)



Quarter ended Year ended Sr No Particulars 30 Jun 15 30 Sep

15 31 Dec

15 31 Mar

16 31 Mar 16 1 Income from operations











a) Income from operations 2,627 2,242 2,039 1,717 8,626

b) Other operating income - - - - -

Total income from operations (net) 2,627 2,242 2,039 1,717 8,626 2 Expenses











a) Share of expenses in producing oil and gas blocks 487 517 544 546 2,093

b) (Increase)/decrease in inventories of finished goods 9 (22) 1 (9) (21)

c) Employee benefit expenses 29 28 36 6 98

d) Depletion, depreciation and amortization expenses 866 902 1,012 742 3,523

e) Cess on crude oil 691 678 684 552 2,605

f) Exploration costs written off 6 9 5 10 29

g) Other expenses 53 59 64 76 252

Total expenses 2,141 2,171 2,346 1,923 8,579 3 Profit from operations before other income,

exchange fluctuation,

finance costs, tax and exceptional

items (1-2) 486 71 (307) (206) 47 4 a) Other income 394 418 393 527 1,731

b) Foreign exchange fluctuation gain/(loss)-net (102) (94) (46) 6 (237) 5 Profit before finance costs, tax and exceptional items (3+4) 778 395 40 327 1,541 6 Finance costs 13 16 16 26 71 7 Profit before tax and exceptional items (5-6) 765 379 24 301 1,470 8 Exceptional items - - - 1,026 1,026 9 Profit before tax (7-8) 765 379 24 (725) 444 10 Tax expense 263 54 (16) (161) 139 11 Net Profit for the period (9-10) 502 326 41 (564) 304 12 Other comprehensive income 584 854 136 58 1,633 13 Total comprehensive income for the period (11+12) 1,086 1,180 177 (506) 1,937

Annexure V B  Standalone Profit & Loss account under Ind AS for the quarters ended 30 June 2015, 30 September 2015, 31 December 2015, 31 March 2016 and year ended 31 March 2016

(INR Crore)



Quarter ended Year ended Sr No Particulars 30 Jun

15 30 Sep

15 31 Dec

15 31 Mar

16 31 Mar

16 1 Income from operations











a) Income from operations 1,403 1,199 1,125 923 4,649

b) Other operating income - - - - -

Total income from operations (net) 1,403 1,199 1,125 923 4,649 2 Expenses











a) Share of expenses in producing oil and gas blocks 262 279 287 299 1,128

b) (Increase)/decrease in inventories of finished goods 8 (10) 3 (7) (6)

c) Employee benefit expenses 28 27 35 6 96

d) Depletion, depreciation and amortization expenses 448 460 524 380 1,813

e) Cess on crude oil 349 342 344 278 1,313

f) Exploration costs written off 1 5 1 5 13

g) Other expenses 51 53 41 71 216

Total expenses 1,147 1,156 1,235 1,032 4,573 3 Profit from operations before

other income, exchange

fluctuation, finance costs, tax

and exceptional items (1-2) 256 43 (110) (109) 76 4 a) Other income 275 291 255 387 1,209

b) Foreign exchange fluctuation gain/(loss)-net (25) (7) (8) 14 (25) 5 Profit before finance costs, tax and exceptional items (3+4) 506 327 137 292 1,260 6 Finance costs 8 10 10 20 47 7 Profit before tax and exceptional items (5-6) 498 317 127 272 1,213 8 Exceptional items - - - 783 783 9 Profit before tax (7-8) 498 317 127 (511) 430 10 Tax expense 136 53 20 (264) (55) 11 Net Profit for the period (9-10) 362 264 107 (246) 486 12 Other comprehensive income 133 274 35 30 472 13 Total comprehensive income for the period (11+12) 495 538 142 (216) 958

For further details on the Reconciliation of the financial statements from IGAAP to IndAS, please refer to the website www.cairnindia.com

Cairn India Limited Fact Sheet

On 9 January, 2007, Cairn India Limited was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Cairn India is now a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited; part of the Vedanta Group, a globally diversified natural resources group.

Cairn India is headquartered in Gurgaon in the National Capital Region. The Company has operational offices in India including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and International offices in Colombo and Houston.

Cairn India is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in India. Together with its JV partners, Cairn India accounted for ~27% of India's domestic crude oil production for FY16. Average gross operated production was 203,703 boepd for FY16. The Company sells its oil and gas to major PSU and private buyers in India.

The Company has a world-class resource base, with interest in seven blocks in India and one in South Africa. Cairn India's resource base is located in four strategically focused areas namely one block in Rajasthan, two on the west coast of India, four on the east coast of India and one in South Africa.

The blocks are located in the Barmer Basin, Krishna-Godavari Basin, the Palar-Pennar Basin, the Cambay Basin, the Mumbai Offshore Basin and Orange Basin.

Cairn India's focus on India has resulted in a significant number of oil and gas discoveries. Cairn India made a major oil discovery (Mangala) in Rajasthan in the north west of India at the beginning of 2004. To date, thirty eight discoveries have been made in the Rajasthan block RJ-ON-90/1

In Rajasthan, Cairn India operates Block RJ-ON-90/1 under a PSC signed on 15 May, 1995 comprising of three development areas. The main Development Area (DA-1; 1,859 km2), which includes discoveries namely Mangala, Aishwariya, Raageshwari and Saraswati is shared between Cairn India and ONGC. Further Development Areas (DA-2; 430 km2), including the Bhagyam, NI and NE fields and (DA-3; 822 km2) comprising of the Kaameshwari West Development Area, is shared between Cairn India and ONGC, with Cairn India holding 70% and ONGC having exercised their back in right for 30%.

In Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, Cairn India on behalf of its JV partners operates two processing plants, with a production of over 34,000 boepd for FY16.

The farm-in agreement was signed with PetroSA on 16th August, 2012 in the 'Block-1' located in Orange basin, South Africa. The block covers an area of 19,898 sq km. The assignment of 60% interest and operatorship has been granted by the South African regulatory authorities.

For further information on Cairn India Limited, kindly visit www.cairnindia.com

Corporate Glossary



Cairn India Cairn India Limited and/or its subsidiaries as appropriate Company Cairn India Limited Cairn Lanka Refers to Cairn Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India Cash EPS PAT adjusted for DD&A, impact of forex fluctuation, MAT credit and deferred tax CFO Cash Flow from Operations includes PAT (excluding other income and exceptional item) prior to non-cash expenses and exploration costs. CPT Central Processing Terminal CY Calendar Year DoC Declaration of Commerciality E&P Exploration and Production EBITDA Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation includes forex gain/loss earned as part of operations EPS Earnings Per Share FY Financial Year GBA Gas Balancing Agreement GoI Government of India GoR Government of Rajasthan Group The Company and its subsidiaries JV Joint Venture MC Management Committee MoPNG Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas NELP New Exploration Licensing Policy Normalized net profit Net profit before exceptional items NRM National Rural Mission ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited OC Operating Committee PPAC Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell qoq Quarter on Quarter Vedanta Group Vedanta Resources plc and/or its subsidiaries from time to time yoy Year on Year

Technical Glossary



2P Proven plus probable 3P Proven plus probable and possible 2D/3D/4D Two dimensional/three dimensional/ time lapse Blpd Barrel(s) of (polymerized) liquid per day Boe Barrel(s) of oil equivalent Boepd Barrels of oil equivalent per day Bopd Barrels of oil per day Bscf Billion standard cubic feet of gas Tcf Trillion standard cubic feet of gas EOR Enhanced Oil Recovery FDP Field Development Plan LTI Lost Time Incident MDT Modular Dynamic Tester Mmboe million barrels of oil equivalent Mmscfd million standard cubic feet of gas per day Mmt Million Metric Tonne PSU Public Sector Utilities SPM Single Point Mooring PSC Production Sharing Contract





Field Glossary

Barmer Hill Formation Lower permeability reservoir which overlies the Fatehgarh Dharvi Dungar Secondary reservoirs in the Guda field and is the reservoir rock encountered in the recent Kaameshwari West discoveries Fatehgarh Name given to the primary reservoir rock of the Northern Rajasthan fields of Mangala, Aishwariya and Bhagyam MBARS Mangala, Bhagyam, Aishwariya, Raageshwari, Saraswati Thumbli Youngest reservoirs encountered in the basin. The Thumbli is the primary reservoir for the Raageshwari field

Disclaimer

This material contains forward-looking statements regarding Cairn India and its affiliates, our corporate plans, future financial condition, future results of operations, future business plans and strategies. All such forward- looking statements are based on our management's assumptions and beliefs in the light of information available to them at this time. These forward-looking statements are by their nature subject to significant risks and uncertainties; and actual results, performance and achievements may be materially different from those expressed in such statements. Factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ from expectations include, but are not limited to, regulatory changes, future levels of industry product supply, demand and pricing, weather and weather related impacts, wars and acts of terrorism, development and use of technology, acts of competitors and other changes to business conditions. Cairn India undertakes no obligation to revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect any changes in Cairn India's expectations with regard thereto or any change in circumstances or events after the date hereof. Unless otherwise stated the reserves and resource numbers within this document represent the views of Cairn India and do not represent the views of any other party, including the Government of India, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons or any of Cairn India's joint venture partner

About Vedanta Limited (Formerly Sesa Sterlite Ltd.)

Vedanta Limited is a diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves producing oil & gas, zinc - lead - silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium and commercial power. The company has a presence across India, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Ireland, Liberia and Sri Lanka.

Vedanta Limited, formerly Sesa Sterlite Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. Governance and Sustainable Development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information please log on to www.vedantalimited.com

Vedanta Limited

(Formerly known as Sesa Sterlite Limited)

Vedanta, 75, Nehru Road,

Vile Parle (East), Mumbai - 400 099

www.vedantalimited.com

Registered Office:

Sesa Ghor, 20 EDC Complex,

Patto, Panaji (Goa) - 403 001

CIN: L13209GA1965PLC000044

Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking statements"  that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should" or "will." Forwardlooking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different that those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

For further information, please contact:

Communications

Roma Balwani Tel: +91 22 6646 1000 President  Group Communications, Sustainability & CSR [email protected]

Investor Relations

Ashwin Bajaj Tel: +91 22 6646 1531 Director  Investor Relations [email protected] Vishesh Pachnanda

Manager  Investor Relations

Sunila Martis

Manager  Investor Relations



Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150422/740375

SOURCE Vedanta Limited

Related Links

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TAMPA, Fla., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The demand for professional computer coders continues to grow and the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that by 2020 there will be 1.4 million coding jobs available in the American workforce. To enable U.S. veterans to tap into this pipeline of opportunity, LaSalle Computer Learning Center in Tampa is offering full scholarships to its Web Application Development Diploma Program, which teaches how to code.

With a focus on Microsoft C#.net, the program offers a diverse and comprehensive coursework that includes learning introduction to programming concepts, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Visual Studio .NET, SQL Server, among other topics. It is five months in duration starting in September 2016. The deadline to apply for the scholarships is August 31.

This comprehensive program will cover what local area employers are looking for Junior .NET Web Application Developers.

"Military families and veterans have been an important part of the Tampa Bay community's fabric for many decades contributing to its strength, diversity and vibrancy," said LaSalle's Associate Director and Military Liaison, Kasandra Perez. "We want to give back to the many men and women who have served and continue to serve our community and our nation by helping them develop a highly coveted, in demand skill for the current job market."

"Coding" is the new buzz word used in industry to describe what was called computer programming. Individuals can work on web applications, websites or software applications that power up everyday life. Without it, there wouldn't be social media, smartphones, web browsers or blogs. Learning how to code has become imperative for technology professionals in the digital age.

To qualify for LaSalle's scholarship, you must be active duty, a veteran, military spouse or military dependent. No experience is necessary, however, candidates should have a comprehensive understanding of the way the internet works and an eagerness to learn, the commitment to comply with program requirements and a high school diploma. Those applying must to be 18 or older. To receive an application or for additional information, email Kasandra Perez at [email protected] or call 1-888-482-6877.

LaSalle provides its students with a quality learning environment geared toward their success. The school's learning model is backed by adult learning principles that have been thoroughly tested. LaSalle goes beyond students' test-taking abilities to help them build a solid education with skills that can be immediately applied in a business environment. Classes are hands-on and instructor-led.

About LaSalle: LaSalle Computer Learning Center is the premier computer, business skills training and certification preparation center for individuals, corporations, government organizations, information technology (IT), and business professionals in Florida. Based in Tampa Bay, LaSalle offers instructor-led computer and business training courses for a variety of in demand skills. Classes are delivered in a small instructor-led setting in the beautiful Westshore business district.

CONTACT: Maria Sanquirico

Mobile: (850) 420-2922

SOURCE LaSalle

Related Links

http://www.LaSalleComputer.edu


NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Business Intelligence Group today announced that it has named Cybera, the leading provider of secure, software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), a 2016 Stratus Award finalist in their annual contest. The organization sought to identify the companies, products and people that are offering unique solutions that take advantage of cloud technologies.

A pioneer in software-defined security and application-centric networking, Cybera has emerged as the disruptive alternative for easing the burden of data security and compliance and accelerating business agility. The Cybera Secure SD-WAN is widely adopted because of how easily, rapidly and economically it can be rolled out to tens of thousands of locations worldwide, spanning geographies from North America and Europe to Angola and Papua New Guinea.

"Being able to plug in and easily turn on enterprise-grade security and highly reliable connectivity without distracting the existing network is a must for distributed enterprises with remote locations," said Andrew Lev, chief executive officer, Cybera. "We're proud to be recognized for our industry record-setting scale and ability to support companies whose locations are truly remote."

"Congratulations to the entire Cybera team for helping accelerate adoption of the cloud and for working to make all of our lives a little richer," said Russ Fordyce, Managing Director of the Business Intelligence Group. "The cloud is dominating the technology industry, and we do not see any markers for that trend not continuing."

About Cybera

Cybera is a leading provider of secure, software-defined WAN to many of the world's top enterprises. The company provides a simple solution to the growing complexity that distributed enterprises face at remote locations in managing payment networks and other sensitive, complex applications. The Cybera ONE platform reduces customer cost, complexity and time to market by integrating cloud and premise-based security technology into a single, easy-to-use offering. Founded in 2001, Cybera is a privately held company headquartered in the Nashville, Tennessee area with technology installed in over 60,000 business locations in 23 countries. For more information about Cybera, visit www.cybera.com.

About Business Intelligence Group

The Business Intelligence Group was founded with the mission of recognizing true talent and superior performance in the business world. Unlike other industry and business award programs, business executivesthose with experience and knowledgejudge the programs. The organization's proprietary and unique scoring system selectively measures performance across multiple business domains and then rewards those companies whose achievements stand above those of their peers.

Media Contact:

Amy Dalkoff

Hill+Knowlton Strategies

1 312 255 3078

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392280LOGO

SOURCE Cybera

Related Links

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BATON ROUGE, La., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. David Duke officially announces for U.S. Senate race in Louisiana at 12 pm Central Time. Baton Rouge Secretary of State office.

Background/Political History: Dr. David Duke has a Ph.D. in History. Republican Member House of Representatives-LA (1989-1992). Republican Caucus. Passed only bill in any legislative body that outlawed racially discriminatory Affirmative Action.

Won the Vice-Presidential Primary in New Hampshire in 1988. In a rare political feat as a Republican he defeated and unseated Rep. Governor Buddy Roemer. Won election in 1996 as Republican Party Chairman in the largest Rep. district in Louisiana and served until 2000.

Dr. Duke Announcement quotes:

"After the outpouring of overwhelming support I am proud to announce my candidacy for the United States Senate.

Political Platform:

"I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans; however, what makes me different is that I also demand respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans. I passed the only bill in America forbidding Affirmative Action programs that racially discriminate against the best qualified.

"Thousands of special interest groups stand up for African Americans, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans. The fact is that European Americans need at least one man in the U.S. Senate who will defend their rights and heritage.

"Stop the massive immigration and the ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America.

"I was the first major candidate in modern times to promote the term and policy of America First. We cannot have free trade without FAIR TRADE. Protect American jobs and business.

"Total Campaign Reform: Time to end all political PAC money and control of politics by the Oligarchs of finance and media.

"We must enforce anti-trust laws to break up the huge anti-American media conglomerates.

"The NY Times admits that my platform became the GOP mainstream and propelled Republicans to control Congress. They sold us out. I am overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I have championed for years. My slogan remains America First. I always said equal rights for all, special interests for none. I have opposed the wars that lead our nation to disaster. I have supported fair trade.

"The people of Louisiana and America must have at least one man in the Senate who will stand up for us."

DukeForSenate.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ97gEFBH5k

Communications Director: Christian Stanford 561-628-6411

Campaign Coordinator: M. C. "Mike" Lawrence, former La State Auditor, DHH/OPH -985-640-8230

SOURCE Duke Campaign

Related Links

http://www.dukeforsenate.com


NEW YORK, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ego Soleil, an acclaimed international fashion house with headquarters in New York, has today announced its alliance with the distinguished London-based designer, Samantha Warren, for the creation of a custom gift as part of its exhilarating Spring Summer 2017 collection.

Using luxurious handcrafted materials, the Samantha Warren London brand can be found in stores in the prestigious 263-year-old British Museum and the more recent Fashion and Textile Museum founded in 2003. Both of these major attractions are situated in the heart of London.

Samantha Warren's special commission for Ego Soleil was crafted with the fashion label's 2017 collection mood board in mind, which incorporated themes such as; texture, confidence, dreams, architecture, modernity, femininity and masculinity. The London print designer completed an Art Foundation from one of the world's most reputable arts institutions, Camberwell College of Arts. Samantha went on to earn a First Class Honors Degree in Printed Textiles from Middlesex University, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design education.

"The Collaboration with Ego Soleil called for a bespoke design that would appeal to its luxury market," explained, Samantha Warren. "My response to the brief was to design a modern, architectural and ethereal pattern for Ego Soleil's SS17 range. As a London designer, it's been great to work with an exciting American brand on the launch of its new collection."

"Samantha Warren's genius was evident from the start. There has been a growing fascination with London fashion within Ego Soleil. Photini Konnarides, part of our design team, was instrumental in making this collaboration successful," observed, Del Addison, Founder, Ego Soleil. "We will continue to collaborate with talented designers like Samantha and also enjoy many more innovations from the vibrant city of London well into the future."

About:

Ego Soleil was established in 2012 to disrupt the international fashion industry with collections encompassing superior quality and attention to detail at affordable prices. The brand continues to make its mark on the fashion world by attracting Brand Ambassadors in Hollywood and discovering unique ways to support philanthropic projects making a difference in the lives of children. Visit: http://www.egosoleil.com/

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Ego Soleil

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Jones got his start in the automotive industry as a summer employee with Legacy Automotive, which was founded by his father, Emanuel Jones. He began changing oil, sweeping the shop and performing odd jobs with his father in 2005, at just 14 years old. After graduating high school in 2008, Jones went on to earn a bachelor's degree in public health and entrepreneurial studies from The Johns Hopkins University. Soon after graduating, Jones decided to join the family business and returned to Legacy Automotive to hone his management skills.

Jones graduated from the National Automobile Dealer Association (NADA) Academy in 2013 in the top 5 percent of his class. This academy is the nation's leading franchise dealer academy where dealers learn the fundamentals to operate a successful and profitable automotive business. Jones also earned his insurance license and has launched Allstate franchises within his dealerships. He's currently attending Emory University to earn his MBA.

"I was shocked to receive this award, but it is an indicator that there's some weight to our ideas and they're starting to get a foothold and grow recognition. Legacy Automotive has a good foundation after almost 25 years in business, but the most successful long-term dealers have an infrastructure in place that can hit regional and national benchmarks that support growth," said Jones. "The work and education we're putting in right now as a team will hopefully help us all reap rewards and successes, and perhaps inspire other dealers, too. It's one thing to run a dealership, but the key is what can only be learned by experience, like the value of a strong team. I love the people I work with every day."

Cox Automotive is donating $5,000 to a national diversity partner in the winner's honor. Jones chose 100 Black Men of America, a non-profit organization that endeavors to improve the quality of life of African Americans, particularly youth, in the communities it serves and enhance their educational and economic opportunities. Cox Automotive supports the organization's Collegiate 100 (C100) program that engages college students and prepares them for educational and economic success. Jones supports the C100 and attends events that boost connections and business growth.

"On behalf of Cox Automotive, I am proud to partner with NAMAD in recognizing Emanuel for his achievements," said Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer Rock Anderson. "He is the definition of a rising star in our industry, based on his successes with Legacy Automotive dealerships and their contributions to the community in which they work."

Jones accepted the award at the NAMAD annual meeting awards dinner in Miami on July 21. He was chosen from nominees that met select criteria, including being an NAMAD member under the age of 40 who shows proven leadership qualities in the auto industry.

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. is transforming the way the world buys, sells and owns cars with industry-leading digital marketing, software, financial, wholesale and e-commerce solutions for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and the overall automotive ecosystem worldwide. Committed to open choice and dedicated to strong partnerships, the Cox Automotive family includes Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, vAuto, Xtime and a host of other brands. The global company has nearly 30,000 team members in more than 200 locations and is partner to more than 40,000 auto dealers, as well as most major automobile manufacturers, while engaging U.S. consumer car buyers with the most recognized media brands in the industry. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, Inc., an Atlanta-based company with revenues of $18 billion and approximately 55,000 employees. Cox Enterprises' other major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications and Cox Media Group. For more information about Cox Automotive, visit www.coxautoinc.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392147

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150915/266643LOGO



SOURCE Cox Automotive

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Energy Storage Association (ESA) urges Massachusetts House and Senate leaders to include the energy storage provisions of Senate Bill 2400 in their Conference Committee report. Massachusetts is a beacon for the clean technology and energy industries, leading ambitious grid modernization efforts and spurring continued advancements in clean energy technologies that have created nearly 100,000 jobs. With the Commonwealth's goals for clean energy deployment and grid modernization, significant energy storage will be needed in the near future, and the Commonwealth will secure its leadership in the advanced energy economy by including storage in forthcoming legislation.

"We applaud the leadership in the Massachusetts State House for drafting legislation that is an important step forward in the state's clean energy economy  ensuring a more flexible, reliable and efficient electric grid," said Matt Roberts, Executive Director of the ESA. "Including energy storage provisions from the Senate bill will ensure that households and businesses get the greatest benefit from a reliable electric grid that can more easily adapt to the changing needs of our modern economy."

The Energy Storage Association also delivered to House and Senate leaders a letter of support for the energy storage provisions of S. 2400 and defining the value of storage to Massachusetts, co-signed by a coalition of companies representing a diversity of electric sector stakeholders.

Today, Massachusetts is home to a number of innovative energy storage companies and hosts one of only three such industrial clusters in the United States. Energy storage systems create substantial economic benefit, both by allowing utilities to avoid and defer costly investments in infrastructure and capacity and by increasing the ability of utilities to host and integrate more distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar. Storage provides vital backup power to customers and critical facilities during outages, and it helps utilities become more resilient. And when the grid is operational, storage gives households and businesses unique flexibility to choose how and when they use electricity, allowing them to manage energy costs with greater certainty.

"Now is the time to invest in the growing energy storage industry in Massachusetts and make electricity more reliable, affordable, and clean. We urge the legislature to pass a bill that includes energy storage and continues driving innovation and economic development within the Commonwealth and ensures its position as a leader in the advanced energy economy."

About Energy Storage Association

The Energy Storage Association (ESA) is the trade association for the energy storage industry and the leading voice for companies that develop and deploy the energy storage technologies we rely on every day. ESA's mission is to promote, develop and commercialize competitive and reliable energy storage systems for use by electricity suppliers and their customers. With more than 180 member organizations, ESA members represent a diverse group of entities, including electric utilities, energy service companies, independent power producers, technology developers deploying advanced batteries, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, thermal storage, pumped hydropower, supercapacitors, and component suppliers, such as power conversion systems.

More information is available at: www.energystorage.org

CONTACT: Matt Roberts, ESA

(202) 580-6282 // [email protected]

SOURCE Energy Storage Association

Related Links

http://www.energystorage.org


Who: FCA Digital MediaTeam

When: Immediately



Where: media.fcanorthamerica.com or https://youtu.be/Th-leRcxtfU

Other: Websites are welcome to post or embed "FCA Replay."





About FCA US LLC

FCA US LLC is a North American automaker with a new name and a long history. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, FCA US is a member of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) family of companies. FCA US designs, engineers, manufactures and sells vehicles under the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and FIAT brands, as well as the SRT performance vehicle designation. The company also distributes the Alfa Romeo 4C model and Mopar products. FCA US is building upon the historic foundations of Chrysler, the innovative American automaker first established by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925; and Fiat, founded in Italy in 1899 by pioneering entrepreneurs, including Giovanni Agnelli.



FCA, the seventh-largest automaker in the world based on total annual vehicle sales, is an international automotive group. FCA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FCAU" and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario under the symbol "FCA."



Follow FCA US news and video on:

FCA Content On Demand (COD): www.fcacod.com

Company blog: blog.fcanorthamerica.com

Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com

FCA360: 360.fcanorthamerica.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/

Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/chryslergroup/

Media website: media.fcanorthamerica.com

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/fcacorporate

Instagram: www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Streetfire: www.streetfire.net/uploaded/chryslervideo.htm

Twitter: www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter (Spanish): www.twitter.com/fcausespanol

YouTube: www.youtube.com/pentastarvideo

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th-leRcxtfU&feature=youtu.be

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

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ASHBURN, Va., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Online Forex autotrading has been dependent on use of Windows VPS- until the introduction of SkyDesks' cloud automation technology, automated trading required constant connectivity to the broker's server. Sheldon Gardner, CEO of SkyDesks, Inc. https://www.skydesks.com, is among those who recognize the potential of the cloud. He has catalyzed that potential into VPS solutions for Forex traders. SkyDesks is poised to be the cloud automation technology innovation that Forex traders have been waiting for. SkyDesks cloud-based MT4 Forex trading platform autotrades signals, or Expert Advisers.

The SkyDesks platform controls EAs, and copies trades, from a browser connected laptop, iPhone, or Android device. SkyDesks uses a unique dashboard paradigm. Please see the image for a better explanation.



Another key benefit of the SkyDesks' design is its minimization of latency. In a realm where a millisecond of delay can mean the difference between profit and loss, SkyDesks circumvents geographic concerns by allowing users to automatically deploy cloud server Virtual Machines (VMs) in the US, Europe, or Asia. Another interesting feature  especially in consideration of usage trends among Millennials  is that SkyDesks MT4 allows EA remote control from any device with a web browser, including smart phones, tablets, or PCs. Autotrading is built in, with EA and signal trading available after creating a subscription online. Membership is free. SkyDesks runs on Linux instead of Windows- which is an advantage in VPS reliability.

SkyDesks' premiere signals provider monthly subscription is SimonTrader a world-class Forex trader. SimonTrader subscriptions on SkyDesks require a live account with SGTMarkets SGT accounts are not available to US residents- unless ECP exemptions are approved. Gardner states that SkyDesks be viewed as a proof of concept. In the future, other trading platforms will be supported.

Visit the site for more information: https://www.skydesks.com



About Sheldon Gardner

Sheldon Gardner's career in computer research and development has spanned over 50 years. He retired from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. after 24 years, and spent the following year studying FOREX trading and the use of expert systems. He is the founder and CEO of SkyDesks Inc.

For additional information please contact [email protected].

Related Images

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This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE SkyDesks

Related Links

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SHANGHAI, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Last month, Yue Yingchun from China's EdTech unicorn, Hujiang, was interviewed by EL gazette on how an e-learning philosophy is connecting teachers around the world to millions of Chinese students.

Hujiang is an online education company with more than 110 million users, over 20,000 courses and in cooperation with over 500 schools and organizations. It has evolved into a leading professional e-learning platform in China.

From the interview, Hujiang was compared to Chinese giants like Alibaba and Weibo -- which are huge in their home market.

When speaking of this interesting phenomenon, Yue explained that given China's population and growing need for online commercial services, the volume of business has an obvious advantage of becoming a giant if the products and services are of excellent quality and reasonably priced.

Hujiang was not born to become a business. It was born to accomplish a mission: to make education easier, fairer and more enjoyable through the Internet.

Before joining Hujiang, Yue was an ELT professional and she has never thought about working for an online company until she noticed Hujiang.

"The reason I joined Hujiang has a lot to do with my background, my original dream and Hujiang's mission. I am from the countryside and experienced its limitations and lack of educational resources. I selected English as my major. Luckily for me, English is like a magical key, opening a door to an amazing world," Yue said.

Just like all the college students who embrace the dream, Yue opened her own English training school before graduating from university and ran it for over a year in the hope that she could influence more people and open doors for them too.

Unfortunately, she encountered loads of challenges in acquiring excellent teachers and educational resources at the time. Then she had the blessing to work for the world's largest English education company for over six years as a national manager in teacher recruitment and development.

However, Yue still saw limitations in making good education convenient and affordable to the masses who need it and have the potential to better themselves. In terms of this, online education truly breaks the barriers of geography, time, languages, resources and so on.

"It seems like the ultimate solution to make it easier and, Hujiang is helping me to realizing my dream and that of many others," Yue said.

Although there are many advantages of teaching English online, there are challenges for teachers too -- including technology management, Internet stability and classroom management.

When mentioning the main challenges of teaching English online, as a director of Global Teaching Centers in Hujiang, Yue has her own observation.

"My mission is to bring the world's top learning resources onto Hujiang's platform and to introduce teachers with different languages, cultures, education and experience to China's e-learners," Yue explained.

Hujiang has courses in eleven languages including English, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German, Korean, French and Thai, with English being the most popular.

Yue said that company welcomes independent teachers, public school teachers and teacher agencies to teach for their users -- or with Hujiang by providing their own courses.

Hujiang is recruiting more online teachers world wide. Many teachers have been burned teaching online, expected to be online eight hours a day, seven days a week, twelve months a year, or very low pay.

Why should teachers trust Hujiang and what opportunities does Hujiang offer teachers that other online providers do not?

Yue emphasized that at the very least, Hujiang would never want their teachers to get burned. Flexibility, freedom and convenience are the features of Hujiang's online teaching. Teachers can open their schedule or time slots to their own preference.

"Furthermore, what makes Hujiang stand out is the variety -- Hujiang has over 110 million users, including 89 million mobile subscribers with all kinds of learning needs, which is rarely shouldered by any educational company; the technology -- our constantly upgrading teaching tool CC Talk supports one-to-one highly interactive classes as well as lectures that can accommodate over 20,000 students in the same classroom; and the ecosystem -- Hujiang does not walk alone. It builds a strong ecosystem of online-to-offline education. We are partners with the world's top educational organizations such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, McGraw-Hill, Coursera and so on. Our Hujia Project has connected to more than 500 public schools for free courses," Yue said.

Given the variety of learning needs of users, Hujiang is open to all types of teachers. Native speakers are highly welcomed but non-native teachers with the same level of language proficiency, teaching experience or certificates such as Delta, Celta, Tesol, Tefl or TKT are also highly appreciated. Teachers are enabled to teach one to one, one to many or one to massive live classes for different language courses, from K12 to university students and adults.

Yue said that her vision for Hujiang global teaching centers in five years' time would be an eco-educational global society online and offline. All levels of educational professionals can offer their expertise that will be equally valued by net learners and customers.

SOURCE Hujiang
Distinguished guests in attendance at the July 19 th ceremony included Bailin Hu, Hotel Investment Officer of Esong Group; Haiyan Lu, Commercial Counselor of Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles; Judy Hu, U.S. Congresswoman; and Libin Sun, President of ICBC Bank, USA.

"It is gratifying to win the confidence of U.S. OCG on their first hotel acquisition in the U.S. As we operated this hotel previously, our specialized market knowledge and depth of brand experience will allow us to continue providing exceptional results and service," said Don Li, Head of Interstate's Asia Investment Group. "We look forward to a long and strong relationship with this exceptional group."

"As the leading global management company, Interstate Hotels & Resorts has developed a successful operating strategy, deploying resources focused on achieving our investment goals," said Zhouyun Wang, Chairman of Esong Group. "Interstate consistently produces strong results, solidifying our choice for the Company to continue management of the Holiday Inn Los AngelesLAX Airport."

Just 30 minutes from most major Los Angeles attractions and one mile from LAX, the 405-room Holiday Inn Los AngelesLAX Airport hotel is centrally located to many Southern California leading attractions, beaches, universities, corporations and aerospace defense industries. The hotel features a 24-hour, complimentary LAX Airport shuttle; self-service Business Center open 24 hours; 4,066 sq. ft. of meeting space; outdoor heated pool; and Landings Lounge - where guests can enjoy California cuisine in a light and airy atmosphere.

Known as the global leader in the hotel management industry, Interstate's relationships and knowledge  shared among brilliant hospitality partners  result in an expansive management team and advanced talent strength through a 423-hotel portfolio worldwide. Interstate's unsurpassed hospitality professionals translate valuable resources and accumulation of knowledge into a proven track record of hotel success and associate engagement.

For more information about Interstate Hotels & Resorts, visit www.InterstateHotels.com.

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 423 hotels with nearly 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 5,800 rooms under construction or development throughout the world.

For more information, please visit www.interstatehotels.com. Connect with Interstate at www.linkedin.com/company/interstate-hotels-resorts, www.facebook.com/InterstateHotels, and www.interstatehotels.com/careers.

About U.S. OCG

U.S. OCG is a global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, capital markets, credit strategies, and hedge funds. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Esong Group Co. Ltd., with core competencies in market development consultation and implementing progressive capital market solutions for investment projects. Through an integrated approach, the firm works closely with partners to provide access to the company's decades of financial and operational experience, industry expertise, insight into global macro/ geopolitical trends, and a powerful network of worldwide relationships to achieve clients' goals. For more information on U.S. OCG, please visit www.usocg.com.

For More Media Information:

Taylor Newsome

The Zimmerman Agency  850.668.2222

[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392142

SOURCE Interstate Hotels & Resorts

Related Links

http://www.InterstateHotels.com


SALT LAKE CITY, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kneaders Bakery & Cafe is excited to announce its 50th store opening set for today in Phoenix, Ariz. Kneaders is dedicated to the communities it serves; this support has helped drive the company's growth plans over the last 19 years.

The Phoenix store marks the 16th in Arizona and the 50th in the western United States. Salt Lake City-based Kneaders, is known for making substantial and significant contributions to strengthen the health, social, educational and cultural fabric of each community it is located in. Kneaders' 50th store will continue the company's tradition of donating all unsold bread at the end of each day to a local organization to support the community and minimize food waste.

"We are pleased to announce our 50th store opening and even more excited to bring Kneaders to this thriving community," said James Worthington, CEO of Kneaders. "Kneaders is a family-founded and community-focused company and we have worked hard to continue our growth throughout the country in a sustainable way. We look forward to continuing this growth in our 50th store and serving the outstanding families, businesses and community organizations that make each location so special."

By the end of 2016, Kneaders plans to continue to advance its growth strategy by having a total of 55 stores around the country.

"It's important to us to grow at a sustainable level in order to maintain the quality service our customers expect and the level of service we've provided since the opening of our first store in 1997," said Worthington.

Known for creating scratch-made artisanal European hearth breads; fresh, made-to-order sandwiches; and a warm and inviting atmosphere, Kneaders easily distinguishes itself from other cafes. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, it uses only the highest quality ingredients to make a wide variety of menu items. Each location slow-roasts up to 200 pounds of turkey breasts daily, which is hand-pulled and served fresh on Kneaders sandwiches and salads. Bakers create 13 varieties of bread daily, often beginning as early as 2 a.m., along with more than 42 scratch-made pastries, cakes, cookies and desserts.

Like its other locations, the Phoenix store will include a retail shop, which offers custom-made and themed gift baskets, as well as a variety of home decor, online ordering capabilities and drive-thru service. Hours of operation will be Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

About Kneaders Bakery & Cafe

Founded by Gary and Colleen Worthington in 1997, Kneaders Bakery & Cafe is headquartered in Orem, Utah. The award-winning, fast-casual restaurant uses only the highest quality ingredients to create fresh European hearth breads, delicious sandwiches, mouthwatering pastries, hearty soups and refreshing salads, all made in-house each day. All restaurants have a retail section and also offer a variety of custom-made and themed gift baskets in addition to providing catering services. Kneaders Bakery & Cafe currently operates corporate-owned and franchised locations in six western states.

For more information, visit kneaders.com.

SOURCE Kneaders Bakery & Cafe

Related Links

http://www.kneaders.com


Le-Vel charted a new course in the direct selling industry four years ago when Co-Founders, Co-Owners and Co-CEOs Jason Camper and Paul Gravette set out to create a company, a brand and a product line unlike any other in the direct selling space through several marked points of difference. As the direct selling industry's first completely virtual company, Le-Vel operates at a considerably lower overhead than its competitors while also providing its independent sales force with efficient and agile virtual tools and a back office that can fully support an individual's business needs and goals. The significant savings produced by its cloud-based infrastructure and virtual base of operations have been channeled into superior, effective product ingredients and a rich rewards plan  among the most generous in the direct selling industry -- for the company's sales force of 600,000 independent Brand Promoters.

"We credit our success to several factors: our products, which are giving millions of customers a quality of life they've never had before; the powerful testimonials people are sharing about our products; our strong and supportive culture; and the fact that our business opportunity offers a simple, effective route to professional and personal achievement," says Camper. "So many Le-Vel Brand Promoters have been able to make their business their full-time calling, and many others have enjoyed being a part of the experience and community while continuing with their day jobs and full-time commitments. They're living better lives, and they're driven to help others live better lives."

Known for its progressive, tight-knit culture and fiercely loyal customer base, Le-Vel generated an astounding 254 percent growth in 2015, a distinction that earned the company the prestigious Direct Selling News 2016 Bravo Growth Award. In just four years, Le-Vel has attracted a customer base of more than 4 million and an independent sales force exceeding 600,000. The company has customers in the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with additional international expansion on the immediate horizon, and expects to close out 2016 with more than $500 million in global revenues.

"Le-Vel is really representative of a voice we've been hearing throughout the country over the years, and it's getting louder," says Gravette. "People don't want to wait for their ship to come in, so to speak. They want to take their futures into their own hands and create financial, professional and personal success on their own terms, on their own schedules. Our company was built to give millions of people that unprecedented opportunity, along with a community of support and encouragement. People also want to be part of something larger than themselves. With Le-Vel, you only succeed if you're helping others, and we also maintain a strong commitment to working with our Brand Promoters to support philanthropic causes. When you can build a successful business that gives you this kind of personal development and a connection to people throughout the world who are on the same journey, the benefits spill over into all areas of your life. It's not work anymore  it's something that energizes and motivates you."

About Le-Vel

Founded in 2012 by Jason Camper and Paul Gravette, Le-Vel formulates and sells nutritional/health and wellness products and is the only health and wellness company that uses cloud-based technology for its day-to-day operations. Le-Vel's cloud-based infrastructure enables the company to keep overhead to a minimum while increasing commissions to its Promoters and putting more money into the Thrive product line. Le-Vel products include DFT, Thrive Premium Lifestyle Capsules, THRIVE Premium Lifestyle Mix, THRIVE Kids, Activate, Boost, Balance, Black Label, FORM, Move and Rest. Le-Vel has over 4.5 million Customer and Promoter accounts, currently ships within the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and is looking to surpass $500 million in annual revenue in 2016. For more information about Le-Vel, visit le-vel.com.

Media Contact: Drew Hoffman ([email protected])

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160721/392075

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150820/259960LOGO

SOURCE Le-Vel Brands, LLC

Related Links

http://le-vel.com


RESTON, Va., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos Holdings, Inc. (Leidos) (NYSE: LDOS), a national security, health and infrastructure solutions company, today announced it will host an Investor Day on Monday, August 1 at the NYSE in New York City.

The event will provide the investment community with an opportunity to hear from Leidos' senior management team about its strategy, operations, and financial targets, including updates related to the proposed combination with Lockheed Martin's IS&GS business. Speakers will include Roger Krone, chairman and chief executive officer, James Reagan, chief financial officer, and others.

A live webcast of the event and presentation will be accessible to the general public at approximately 12:30 p.m. on August 1 on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, ir.leidos.com. A replay of the webcast and full copy of the presentation will be available later that day following the completion of the event, also accessible on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, ir.leidos.com, and will remain available until May 1, 2017.

In-person attendance at Investor Day requires advance registration. Please email [email protected] for further information.

About Leidos

Leidos is a science and technology solutions leader working to address some of the world's toughest challenges in national security, health and infrastructure. The Company's 18,000 employees support vital missions for government and the commercial sector, develop innovative solutions to drive better outcomes and defend our digital and physical infrastructure from 'new world' threats. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $5.09 billion for the twelve months ended January 1, 2016. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Media contact:

Melissa Koskovich

571.526.6850

[email protected]

Investor Relations:

Kelly P. Hernandez

571.526.6404

[email protected]

SOURCE Leidos Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.Leidos.com


NEW YORK, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Maya Beiser, described as a "cello rock star" (Rolling Stone) and "ferociously adventurous" (San Francisco Chronicle), will release her next album, TranceClassical, worldwide on July 29, 2016 with Innova Recordings. The full album is streaming for one week, beginning on July 22, exclusively on Apple Music. Watch the album trailer now Here. TranceClassical is available for pre-order on iTunes.

Maya Beiser's TranceClassical will be released July 29, 2016. The full album is streaming for one week, beginning on July 22, exclusively on Apple Music. Photo of Maya Beiser by ioulex. Maya Beiser's TranceClassical will be released July 29, 2016. The full album is streaming for one week, beginning on July 22, exclusively on Apple Music.

In TranceClassical, Maya explores music for cello that entrances, and that transforms and transcends boundaries, styles, and centuries. TranceClassical includes selections by a wide array of composers, brought to common ground by Maya's unique artistic vision  from J.S. Bach to Imogen Heap, from Medieval visionary composer Hildegard von Bingen to Wilco drummer and composer Glenn Kotche, from Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz's new Kol Nidrei to David Lang's take on Lou Reed's Heroin, plus world premiere recordings of music by Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David T. Little, and original arrangements by Maya.

Praise for TranceClassical so far:

"The pulsating bass line ticks away, reminding us of the timelessness of [Bach's] music" NPR

"a kickass new record" WNYC

"Maya Beiser's aptly titled new album indeed casts a spell." Blogcritics

"simply one of the most interesting, most stunning albums of contemporary music I have heard in a while" Audiophile Audition

"rockstar glam and personal magnetism  endlessly inventive and a joy to listen to" San Francisco Classical Voice



"Beiser's cello is augmented with all manner of high-tech studio wizardry . . . that yield orchestral-size textures" The Philadelphia Inquirer

Upcoming Concert Dates (details: www.mayabeiser.com/calender-page):

August 13: Breckenridge, CO  Breckenridge Music Festival

August 17: San Francisco, CA  SFJazz

September 13: New York, NY  Le Poisson Rouge

October 27: Iowa City, IA  Hancher Auditorium

November 19: Stockholm, Sweden  Konserthus

February 10: London, England  Kings Place

Maya's performance of J.S. Bach's Air on G, which opens the album, evokes the sound of an old LP, spinning on a distant turntable. Michael Gordon's All Vows takes the Jewish Yom Kippur prayer, the Kol Nidrei (which translates to All Vows) and reimagines it entirely. Maya melds cello and electronically transformed vocals, sung simultaneously while she plays, in Imogen Heap's mesmerizing Hide and Seek. Composer and drummer Glenn Kotche of Wilco contributes Three Parts Wisdom, a rhythmic and multilayered new work for Maya, described as "a soaring, gorgeous tour de force for solo cello" by The Washington Post. In Lou Reed's Heroin, arranged by David Lang, Maya sings the haunting confessional over her cello's arpeggios in a startlingly moving take on the original. Julia Wolfe's Emunah (or "belief") is an ancient-feeling vocal and cello duo expounding on the idea of devotion. Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz's new Kol Nidrei, in which Maya sings the text in Aramaic, also engages echoes of ancient cantorial styles, and has been described as "simply gorgeous" (The New York Times) and "luxuriant" (San Francisco Chronicle). David T. Little's driving Hellhound, written for Maya, is based on legendary bluesman Robert Johnson's 1937 song Hellhound On My Trail, which tells the story of a man pursued by demons. The album closes with Maya's plaintive but ardent arrangement of Medieval visionary Hildegard von Bingen's O Virtus Sapientiae.

Cellist Maya Beiser defies categories. Passionately forging a career path through uncharted territories, she has captivated audiences worldwide with her virtuosity, eclectic repertoire, and relentless quest to redefine her instrument's boundaries. A featured performer on the world's most prestigious stages including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, London's South Bank Centre, Sydney Opera House, Big Ears, and the Barbican's Sound Unbound, she has collaborated with a wide range of artists across many disciplines, including Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Robert Woodruff, Bill Morrison, among many others. Maya Beiser is a 2015 United States Artists Distinguished Fellow. Her 2011 TEDtalk has been watched by close to one million people and translated to 32 languages. www.mayabeiser.com

Press contact: Christina Jensen, Jensen Artists|

646.536.7864 x 1 | Email

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160721/391979

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160721/391978

SOURCE Maya Beiser

Related Links

http://www.mayabeiser.com


DETROIT, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Luther Keith, Executive Director, ARISE Detroit!



I was amused, and maybe a bit perturbed, when I saw in one of Detroit's daily newspapers that a popular televangelist was "bringing hope" to Detroit.

The headline to frame the minister's visit read: "Pastor Joel Osteen Bringing Night of Hope to Detroit."

In response, a newspaper writer opined a column under this headline: "Joel Osteen offers no hope for Detroit. City's poor need jobs, not televangelists."

I, in fact, have no issue with Mr. Osteen's uplifting messages, though some criticize them as being "prosperity preaching."

Mr. Osteen, pastor of a nondenominational church in Houston of more than 50,000 people, bills his evangelical rallies as "A Night of Hope."

While I applaud his visit, we can always use more hope. I submit "Hope" is alive in Detroit, and, in fact, has never left  even under the weight of the crushing problems of crime, population loss, blight and a struggling school system.

The 10th annual ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day, on Saturday, August 6, offers ample evidence that hope is very much alive in Detroit.

Hope can be found in the hundreds of organizations and thousands of volunteers who will spread out all across the city's 143 square miles  in every zip code  to engage in more than 260 community improvement and service projects of all kinds. These hope-filled Detroiters will build houses with Habitat for Humanity of Detroit, remove blight with Life Remodeled and the Denby Neighborhood Alliance, celebrate in arts and music at the Sidewalk Performing Arts Festival and the Grandmont Art Fair, and participate in numerous other festivals across the city.

They will give away thousands of backpacks with school supplies to children. They will paint the homes of senior citizens and give free food to their neighbors in need. They will lift their voices in song; churches and block clubs will work together; people of all faiths and colors will bond around a common goal of creating a better Detroit.

This is not possible in a city without hope.

I see hope in Derek Blackmon of Black Family Development and Rev. Aaron McCarthy and the Detroit chapter SCLC, who are organizing peace walks on Neighborhoods Day. I see hope in Shirley Burch of Community United for Progress who has formed an alliance with suburban businessman Tom Peltzold to improve her northeast Detroit community.

I see hope in the millennials, young people like, Rebecca Willis, an architect, Imani Mchunu, an intern from Harlem at Detroit Future City, and 19-year-old Hakeem Weatherspoon, all passionately working to improve city neighborhoods.

I see it in John George, of Motor City Blight Busters and Carl Zerweck III of Rippling Hope, both of whom have recruited thousands of volunteers to help the city.

I see hope in the work of the Shrine of the Black Madonna, New Bethel Baptist, Sacred Heart Catholic church and scores of other houses of worship that will be part of Neighborhoods Day.

I see hope in the smiles on people's faces, in the handshakes of new friendships and the laughs of old friends.

I see hope in a city that never gives up.

Come to Detroit on Aug. 6 and you will see it, too.

ARISE Detroit! is a nonprofit mobilization coalition of more than 400 organizations, promoting volunteerism, community activism and positive media images to create a better Detroit.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/opinion/wxyz-editorial-arise-detroits-call-to-action-for-detroit-neighborhoods?autoplay=true

SOURCE ARISE Detroit!

Related Links

http://www.arisedetroit.org


LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

"Michael Kiwanuka's second album, "Love & Hate," is a sustained, stylized plunge into despair: plaints of isolation, doubt, lovelessness, racial injustice, longing, hopelessness and a certain resolve despite it all"

- The New York Times

"British singer Michael Kiwanuka did more than just broaden his sound on his second album. He created a whole new musical hybrid: Spaghetti Western Soul."

- Entertainment Weekly

"Kiwanuka's vocals are as tender as ever, yet laced with a heavy dose of attitude. This is full-throated soul with swagger."

- NPR

Michael Kiwanuka is excited to announce that he'll be touring North America this fall in support of his sophomore album Love & Hate (out now via Interscope Records.) The album itself has already accrued critical acclaim, with Associated Press stating, "Most of the album's 10 songs are rooted in Kiwanuka's acoustic guitar and warm, expressive voice. It's a solid foundation for the souped-up arrangements and can even bear with grace the heaviness in the shame, deception, loss and hurt of the lyrics." Kiwanuka's live show only serves to enhance the beautiful and carefully crafted album, and is not to be missed when in your town.

Kiwanuka made waves with his first single off the album 'Black Man in a White World," with Paste Magazine comparing the track to classics like Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' and admitting "Michael Kiwanuka wasn't reaching for subtlety 'Black Man in a White World' is an uptempo hymn set to handclaps, featuring funky guitar licks and a Motown string section."

The album was recorded in Los Angeles and London and produced by Grammy Award winning Brian Joseph Burton, AKA Dangermouse, and young up-and-coming producer Inflo. Check out title track 'Love & Hate' here. Honest, unabashed, and ambitious, this new record is Kiwanuka emerging from the emotional cocoon of his first album, ready to secure his position as one of the most exciting and renowned talents of our time.

Music from Love & Hate will be included in Baz Lurhmann's new musical drama television series "The Get Down" which premieres worldwide on Netflix August 12th. Told through the lives and music of a ragtag crew of South Bronx teens, The Get Down is a mythic saga of the transformation of 1970s New York City.

From Baz Luhrmann;

"Michael Kiwanuka's music came into my life the same time we were evolving the story of The Get Down. While we've worked with many of the great classic artists from hip-hop, soul, and dance, Michael's music was perfect to illuminate our main character of Books, who like Michael himself, is stepping out into the world asking questions: who is he, where is he going, what is life about? The Get Down's musical palette makes use of many classic tracks from hip-hop, soul, disco, and punk but we're also creating new works. What I find remarkable, is while his songs are immediately fresh on first listening, you have a feeling that they're somehow classics that you've been hearing for years. I guess this only speaks to the influence of his heroes Otis Redding, Issac Hayes, Jimi Hendrix, and Marvin Gaye, all iconic music figures performing and recording at the time that our story is set."

Michael Kiwanuka Live:

November 27, Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA

November 28, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.

November 29, Royale Nightclub, Boston, MA

November 30, Webster Hall, New York, NY

December 2, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON

December 3, Park West, Chicago, IL

December 4, Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, MN

December 7, Imperial Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

December 8, The Showbox, Seattle, WA

December 11, The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA

December 12, The Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

Tickets are on sale Friday at 10am local time.

SOURCE Interscope Records
MIAMI, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Next Group Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: NXGH) (the "Company") today announces that it has signed definitive Agreements with Dean Keatin Marketing, LLC ("DKM"), which completes the transaction to acquire a controlling interest (64% of shares) in Accent Intermedia LLC ("AIM"). AIM is a successful Stored Value Program Manager that has generated over $1 Billion of stored value activations through its PCI Compliant system and has been the go to FinTech (Financial Technology vertical) solution for the Internet Retailer 500.

AIM provides the support infrastructure that allows national brands to host Closed Loop (Gift Card) and Open Loop (Prepaid Debit / General Purpose Reload) card programs. AIM has developed its own in-house fraud prevention tool that reduces "card not present" fraud to less than 1%.

AIM currently provides infrastructure and program services to Harley Davidson, AMC Theatres, Super Valu, Applebee's, IHOP and other industry leading companies.

"I am pleased to complete the AIM acquisition. We promised in early January 2016 that we would acquire several strategic companies to make NXGH the leader in the Mobile Banking market. We are proving NXGH to be a unique value proposition in the Mobile Banking space. This acquisition allows NXGH to have two independent banks under our NEXTCALA & AIM agreements, respectively. This gives NXGH the diversity to secure its footprint as a force to be reckoned with, in the global financial market," said Arik Maimon, NXGH's Chairman and CEO.

"NXGH, together with its proprietary financial technology and its next generation HD Video platform AVYDA will revolutionize the customer service experience and our rewards program for our growing Financial services customers. This will change the traditional way companies have been communicating for the past several decades and will improve and modernize the collaborative customer service experience," said Dennis Varghese Principal & Managing Director of DKM. "After AIM being in business for over 10 years, I am proud to see AIM integrate with NXGH, a leader in next generation financial services for the consumers that adapt their banking services with mobile video banking," added Varghese.

"The AIM acquisition is an important cornerstone that strengthens the NXGH foundation now and in the future. AIM's decade strong propriety technology solution will help expedite NXGH's execution as a Program Manager for Stored Value products including Prepaid Gift Cards, General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) card programs and verticals," said Michael De Prado NXGH's President & COO. "AIM's data facility is highly secure and has redundant infrastructure services with a "zero single point of failure infrastructure", multiple power grid supplies, 24/7/365 monitored infrastructure, multi-tiered support, intrusion detection and loss prevention systems. AIM's data facility will help us prepare, and fortify the upcoming 2016 prepaid gift card holiday season and revenues," added De Prado.

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 http://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.
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nearly sixty inflamed leaders from environmental and human rights organizations, including Foundation Earth, called on World Bank President Kim to resign and not seek a second term. They state that the world and the World Bank needs new leadership.

For the past four years of his five-year term President Kim has failed to lead, instead proceeding with problematic large projects that paradoxically will increase poverty rather than reduce or eliminate it. World Bank projects are contributing to the 6th Great Extinction.

NNIMMO BASSEY, Earth Rights International (Nigeria): President Kim has continued with the types of projects that harm people and ruin the environment they depend on for their survival.

Claiming to strengthen social and environmental safeguard policies, Kim is actually leading the way in undermining common sense safety. The World Bank still refuses to enact a gender safeguard. The consequences of Kim's presidency are continued human rights abuse and environmental destruction. Kim's "leadership" is forcibly uprooting people from their ancestral land and homes, swelling the ranks of the ecological refugees.

ROBERTO BISSIO Executive Director, Instituto del Tercero Mundo; Third World Institute (Uruguay): The World Bank pays little attention to small scale solar and wind projects that could truly help the rural poor.

President Kim's program of mega-dams, mining, and coal is making our precious life-giving planet less resilient. Kim's banking practices leads to climate destabilization.

SOURCE Foundation Earth

Related Links

http://www.fdnearth.org


MIAMI, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mi9 Retail, a premier provider of enterprise retail merchandising, business intelligence and customer-centric store solutions announced today that Paris Jewellers, a family-owned Canadian jewelry retailer, has selected the Mi9 Retail end-to-end software suite to support its 28 retail locations.

As part of its strategy to become "Canada's most Customer-Centric retail jewelry brand", Paris Jewellers decided to replace its legacy retail system with a modern, "out-of-the-box" retail store solution. Paris Jewellers selected Mi9 Retail to deliver an integrated, omni-channel customer experience while driving new levels of efficiency in inventory management, store operations, and customer data management.

The Mi9 Retail end-to-end software suite combines Mi9 Mosaic mobile POS, Mi9 Mosaic OMS, Mi9 Mosaic Clienteling, Mi9 Affinity Merchandising, Mi9 Dashboard Reporting and Mi9 CRM, providing Paris Jewellers with a real-time, integrated view of inventory and a complete view of the customer. Mi9 Retail provides advanced data management and retail analytics, delivering actionable analysis at every level of the enterprise. The mobile capabilities further enhance the Paris Jewellers in-store experience by enabling its brand ambassadors to perform transactions and clienteling activities anywhere in the store to personally engage with customers.

"We value Mi9 Retail's advanced technology, and we are also impressed by the depth of knowledge and experience from the Mi9 team," commented Chau Lui, Director of Operations with Paris Jewellers. "We are thrilled to work with Mi9 Retail to transform our operational, sales and clienteling processes as these are the imperative next steps in the evolution of our business and brand."

"Retail jewelers of all sizes are increasingly competing on customer engagement, customer intimacy, and a personalized shopping experience," said Neil Moses, President, Mi9 Retail. "We're committed to delivering integrated solutions that tie store inventory to operations to client-centric apps so that firms like Paris Jewellers can continue to grow their businesses profitably while they delight their customers."

About Paris Jewellers

Established in 1987, Paris Jewellers is a Canadian owned and operated company specializing in beautiful diamond engagement rings, wedding bands, rings, pendants, earrings and watches. Beginning with one store in St. Albert, Alberta, Paris Jewellers has expanded to 28 stores within 4 provinces across Canada. As a customer-centric company, our 230 employees are honored to help celebrate our customers' special life events by focusing on service and selection of the utmost quality. Whether providing repair services for an heirloom piece or helping a customer select a new piece to celebrate a momentous occasion, Paris Jewellers is ready to assist. For more information, please visit www.parisjewellers.ca.

About Mi9 Retail

Mi9 Retail, the premier provider of enterprise retail merchandising, business intelligence and customer-centric software, empowers the world's most successful retailers to build strong personal relationships with their customers, process high volumes of transactions in real time and optimize inventory across all channels utilizing a single, accurate source of the truth. Built using cutting-edge technology, the software minimizes costs of ownership and provides the industry's fastest time to value. The company's global headquarters are located in Miami, FL, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.mi9retail.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385734LOGO

SOURCE Mi9 Retail

Related Links

http://www.mi9retail.com


SUGAR LAND, Texas, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- QuVa Pharma, Inc., a recently formed national platform for sterile compounding pharmacy services, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire an FDA approved biotech pharmaceutical facility in New Jersey. QuVa Pharma currently operates two Texas-based 503B registered manufacturing facilities. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed. In August 2015, the company received a majority equity commitment from Bain Capital Private Equity to support creation and expansion plans.

The 160,000 square-foot pharmaceutical facility will enable QuVa Pharma to significantly extend its production capability and capacity to deliver high-quality, ready-to-use compounded sterile drug preparations to hospitals in key markets in the eastern half of the US. Located near Route 78 in western New Jersey, and in close proximity to the I-95 corridor and Newark Liberty International Airport, the strategically located facility is a gateway to major distribution hubs and opens significant expansion opportunities for QuVa Pharma with access to Pennsylvania and Ohio to the West, New York to the East, New England to the North, in addition to DC and key Southeastern markets.

"When we complete modifications, this facility will be the country's premier outsourced sterile compounding site, purpose-constructed to comply with FDA regulations and meet the most stringent state and regulatory requirements," said Stuart Hinchen, QuVa Pharma's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "By deliberately establishing our presence at the confluence of robust interstate commerce, we are ensuring that major hospitals and health systems have access to a high-quality alternative for compounded drugs. The purchase allows QuVa to continue setting a new standard for safety, in addition to ensuring a reliable supply."

Once the facility is operational, QuVa Pharma expects to hire more than 100 new employees. Comprising two interconnected buildings, QuVa Pharma anticipates the state-of-the-art 503B manufacturing facility will commence operations in mid-2017. The buildings will be modified to meet or exceed the FDA's requirements for sterile manufacturing in the 503B setting. The site will include complete in-house product and environmental testing capabilities, both of which support a major industry quality initiative that QuVa Pharma is leading.

"QuVa leads the industry in only releasing product that is fully tested to USP standards for sterility, potency, and endotoxins," said Peter Jenkins, co-founder and Chief Development Officer of QuVa Pharma. "With the added capability of in-house laboratories, we can ensure timely delivery of product at competitive prices. We believe this will be a significant advantage relative to our competitors."

QuVa Pharma will continue to leverage the healthcare investment experience and deep resources of Bain Capital Private Equity to actively expand its current operations and open additional locations. "This large facility is a key component of the QuVa expansion strategy," said Chris Gordon, a Managing Director of Bain Capital Private Equity. "We are pleased to support the QuVa Pharma management team as they continue to acquire, build and operate quality-focused compounding facilities. We are encouraged by the strong market demand for their innovative, safety-oriented approach and will continue to commit significant resources in backing this industry-pioneering venture."

About QuVa Pharma, Inc.

QuVa Pharma is a recently formed company emerging as the leading industry 503B platform and partner of choice for compliance-oriented healthcare facilities looking to ensure a quality, safe and consistent supply of medications. The company is committed to having a patient-first orientation, as well as a robust product portfolio, leading safety standards, and collaborative, partnership-oriented customer service. For more information, visit www.quvapharma.com.

About Bain Capital Private Equity

Bain Capital, LLC (www.baincapital.com) is one of the world's foremost private investment firms, with more than $75 billion under management across several asset classes including private equity, venture capital, public equity, credit products and absolute return. Founded in 1984, Bain Capital's more than 400 professionals are collectively the single largest investor in all of its funds and are dedicated to investing in and building its portfolio companies. Bain Capital Private Equity has a long history of investing in leading healthcare companies such as HCA, Quintiles, Warner Chilcott, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Bio Products Laboratory, Beacon Health Options, Physio-Control, CRC Health, Grupo Notre Dame Intermedica, Navicure, and Air Medical Group Holdings, and across a broad range of sectors including service providers, facilities, life sciences, devices, and distribution.

SOURCE QuVa Pharma, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.quvapharma.com


And because cat parents have their own set of interests and challenges, in addition to the main blog, the company also launched a secondary blog entitled "Tails from a Cat Lady." Focused exclusively on felines, Nutrish's personal cat expert shares insights from her own experience that are both helpful and humorous.

"While feeding your pet the highest quality nutrition is incredibly important, we understand that being a pet parent is about so much more than the food you choose to feed your furry family member," said Steve Joyce, Vice President of Marketing for Ainsworth Pet Nutrition. "This new blog allows us to be a resource for pet parents when they're looking for inspiration, advice, or if they're just in need of a laugh."

Established in 2008, Rachael Ray Nutrish is a complete line of super premium food and treats for dogs and cats. Inspired by recipes from the kitchen of cook and TV personality Rachael Ray, every Nutrish formula is made with simple, natural ingredients that taste great, and can be found right where consumers shop for the rest of their families' groceries.

To view the full "Fur the Love of Pets" blog, visit http://nutrish.rachaelray.com/blog.

About Ainsworth

Founded in 1933, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition is a fifth generation, primarily family-owned and operated company headquartered in Western Pennsylvania and focused entirely on pets. With a goal of changing the way consumers shop for Super Premium pet food, Ainsworth's mantra is "Pet Store Quality. Supermarket Easy." They achieve this promise by providing consumers with the high-quality pet food where they currently shop for the rest of their families. The company makes multiple brands and types of dog and cat food, including the Rachael Ray Nutrish line, as well as Super Premium retailer specific brands. Ainsworth Pet Nutrition is committed to food safety and prepares all of its dry pet food in the United States using high-quality, natural ingredients with added vitamins and minerals. To learn more, visit www.ainsworthpets.com.

About Rachael's Rescue and Nutrish

In 2008, Rachael Ray partnered with pet nutrition experts from Ainsworth Pet Nutrition to develop a line of super premium food and treats for dogs called Rachael Ray Nutrish. Nutrish is made with simple, natural ingredients and includes full-feeding varieties featuring real meat as the first ingredient. In 2014, Nutrish launched its first ever natural food for cats in both wet and dry varieties, which does not contain any artificial preservatives, flavors or poultry by-product meal. A portion of Ray's personal proceeds from each sale of Nutrish food and treats is donated to organizations that help animals in need through Rachael's Rescue (www.rachaelsrescue.org). So, not only are Nutrish products great for your dog and cat, they're great for countless other dogs and cats, as well.

Contact: Samantha Bridger  724-272-1757

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392216

SOURCE Ainsworth Pet Nutrition

Related Links

http://www.ainsworthpets.com


BRUNSWICK, Ga. and LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Radial announced today its plan to hire an additional 1,250 workers in Brunswick and Lawrenceville, Georgia, to support the 10-fold increase in demand during the upcoming holiday season. Radial helps retailers and brands meet their customers' needs while delivering a seamless shopping experience.

Radial operates a customer call center in Brunswick that is in need of workers to help support its retail clients. Through peak season and everyday interactions, Radial employees will be trained to represent brands and retailers of all sizes, and cultivate a base of loyal, happy customers. This includes:

Leveraging technology that defines the gold standard of customer care, from phone to chat

Handling customer issues that drive sales, as well as satisfaction

Keeping response times short and customer satisfaction scores high

Achieving higher customer satisfaction scores than competitors and industry benchmarks

In Lawrenceville, Radial operates a fulfillment center. There, employees will be trained to leverage Radial's technology, and fulfillment and freight solutions to fulfil orders in the most efficient ways possible, even when demand spikes. This includes:

Making retailers' operations faster and scalable

Handling the operational challenges of post-click commerce

Providing fixed-cost leverage through peak seasons and everyday volume

Delivering orders to customers faster and reducing retailers' costs

Shrinking transit times from the fulfillment center to the customer's door

To learn more about job openings in Georgia, visit www.radial.com/jobs.

"The holidays are a highly anticipated time for families and the busiest time of year for retail. Radial works behind the scenes to ensure our clients are exceeding their customers' expectations year round, and particularly during the holiday season," said Ricardo Layun, General Manager, North American Customer Care, at Radial. "We're adding thousands of workers across our network so consumers get their orders when and where they want, and get the service they expect of a seamless shopping experience. Radial is focused on service and customer convenience, and we're looking for people who are excited about working with some of the world's favorite brands."

In April, eBay Enterprise and Innotrac joined forces to become Radial, the leader in omnichannel commerce technology and operations. Radial leverages a global network of technology professionals to deliver and service cloud-based commerce platforms for leading retailers and brands. It operates 26 distribution centers and six call centers in the United States, Canada and Europe, and employs more than 7,000 people globally. Over the next few months, Radial plans to add more than 20,000 additional workers globally to help retailers this holiday season.

About Radial

Radial is the leader in omnichannel commerce technology and operations, enabling brands and retailers to profitably exceed retail customer expectations. Radial's technical, powerful omnichannel solutions connect supply and demand through efficient fulfillment and transportation options, intelligent fraud, payments, and tax systems and personalized customer care services.

Hundreds of retailers and brands confidently partner with Radial to simplify their post-click commerce and improve their customer experiences. Radial brings flexibility and scalability to their supply chains and optimizes how, when and where orders go from desire to delivery. Learn how we work with you at www.radial.com.

Media Contact

Ned Tadic

Finn Partners for Radial

312-329-3979/[email protected]

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SOURCE Radial

Related Links

http://www.radial.com


SHANGHAI, July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981), one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China, announces that the English Track of Shanghai SMIC Private School has received a 6 year full accreditation, the maximum amount allowed, from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Seven other schools in Shanghai have received WASC accreditation, making SMIC the 8th. The accreditation means the education in the English Track of Shanghai SMIC Private School is further recognized by institutions of basic and higher learning in United States and the vast majority of western countries.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is one of six regional accrediting agencies for public and private schools, colleges and universities, which are authorized by the U.S. Department of State. In addition, WASC is responsible for providing services to top international schools in Asia Pacific regions. The accreditation centers upon student learning and encourages schools to improve through a process of continuing evaluation. Accreditation is integral to a school's perpetual cycle of assessment. It fosters excellence in education and reflects the sound philosophy and direction. It also assures the school's community of the school's quality and integrity.

SMIC Private School started the accreditation process in the 2012-13 school year with an initial visit by a WASC team. Since that time, the school has worked diligently on curriculum development and other important school-wide processes to enhance what we deliver to students. In April 2016 the WASC visiting committee - an international team of 6 experienced administrators (all familiar with Asian international schools) - made a week-long examination of SMIC Private School. They recognized the achievement of the English Track and overall operation of the school, and viewed SMIC as a quality school with many strong features, all of which help provide quality opportunities to students. At the end of June, 2016 WASC formally awarded the 6-year full accreditation to the English Track of SMIC Private School.

Dr. Shukuang Hu, the Chancellor of SMIC School, said: "The entire accreditation process was led by Dr. Kelley Ridings, the English Track K-12 Principal, but the results couldn't have been achieved without the active engagement of our entire school community. On behalf of Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, the CEO of SMIC Company and The SMIC School Board, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to our school community for their dedication and commitment to this accreditation process. Together we have achieved a significant milestone in the history of the SMIC Private School. The full accreditation by WASC, the recognized international authority for school accreditation, is emblematic of the innovative, dynamic, and student-centered nature of the SMIC Private School's high educational standards. Accreditation will encourage us to seek constant improvement pursuant to further establishing the best possible learning environment for our students. Accreditation will buoy the reputation of SMIC Private School in Shanghai, China and even on a worldwide scale. The accreditation will result in even greater opportunities for our students to competitively apply to the most selective overseas universities, and enable us to continue to and retain attract excellent teachers, trained in the state-of-art teaching methods, to join our team.

About SMIC Private School

The SMIC Private School was solely founded in 2001 by Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation (SMIC). The school offers pre-Kindergarten to grade 12 education and comprises both Chinese and English academic tracks. Currently school has more than 2,600 students coming from 28 different countries and regions, among them near 1,200 belong to English Track. The SMIC Private School has more than 100 offshore teachers which is the highest number among private schools in Shanghai. It is also the only SAT testing center amongst private schools in Shanghai.

About SMIC

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China. SMIC provides integrated circuit (IC) foundry and technology services on process nodes from 0.35 micron to the 28 nanometer. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) and a 200mm mega-fab in Shanghai; a 300mm mega-fab and a majority-owned 300mm fab for advanced nodes in Beijing; 200mm fabs in Tianjin and Shenzhen. SMIC also has marketing and customer service offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.smics.com.

Safe Harbor Statements

(Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995)

This press release contains, in addition to historical information, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, including statements under "Second Quarter 2016 Guidance", "CapEx Summary" and the statements contained in the quotes of our CEO regarding our target for sustained profit, our revenue growth, continued demand strength and high utilization and our strategy to capture growth opportunities brought by specific markets and products are based on SMIC's current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. SMIC uses words like "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project," "target" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks, both known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors that may cause SMIC's actual performance, financial condition or results of operations to be materially different from those suggested by the forward-looking statements including, among others, risks associated with the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, changes in demand for our products, competition in our markets, our reliance on a small number of customers, orders or judgments from pending litigation, intensive intellectual property lawsuits in semiconductor industry, financial stability in end markets, general economic conditions and fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

Investors should consider the information contained in SMIC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including its annual report on 20-F filed with the SEC on April 25, 2016, especially the consolidated financial statements, and such other documents that SMIC may file with the SEC or The Hong Kong Stock Exchange Limited ("SEHK") from time to time, including current reports on Form 6-K. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on SMIC's future results, performance or achievements. In light of these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and factors, the forward-looking events discussed in this press release may not occur. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date stated, or if no date is stated, as of the date of this press release. Except as may be required by law, SMIC undertakes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SMIC Media Contact:

Terry Ding

Tel: +86-21-3861-0000 x16812

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation

Related Links

http://www.smics.com


NEW YORK, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following statement is being issued by Levi & Korsinsky, LLP:

To: All Persons or Entities who purchased Golden Enterprises, Inc. ("Golden Enterprises") (NASDAQGM: GLDC) stock prior to July 19, 2016 .

You are hereby notified that Levi & Korsinsky, LLP has commenced an investigation into the fairness of the sale of Golden Enterprises to Utz Quality Foods, Inc. for $12.00 in cash per Golden Enterprises share. To learn more about the action and your rights, go to:

http://zlk.9nl.com/golden-enterprises-gldc

or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. There is no cost or obligation to you.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities lawsuits and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. For more information, please feel free to contact any of the attorneys listed below. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Levi & Korsinsky, LLP

Joseph E. Levi, Esq.

Eduard Korsinsky, Esq.

30 Broad Street - 24th Floor

New York, NY 10004

Tel: (212) 363-7500

Toll Free: (877) 363-5972

Fax: (212) 363-7171

www.zlk.com

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SOURCE Levi & Korsinsky, LLP

Related Links

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PUNE, India, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "SiC Fibers Market by Type (Continious\Long Fibers, Chopped\Short Fibers and Others) by Application (Aerospace, Power Generation, Nuclear Application and Others), by Region - Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is projected to reach USD 510.28 Million by 2021, registering a CAGR of 2.91% from 2016 to 2021.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 120 market data Tables and 42 Figures spread through 176 Pages and in-depth TOC on "SiC Fibers Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/sic-fiber-market-171928034.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

Technological advancement in the aerospace, nuclear, and power generation industries is driving the global SiC fibers market.

Continuous SiC fibers has the major share in the SiC fibers market

The continuous SiC fibers, also known as tow, are used as reinforcement materials for ceramic composites materials (CMC) and plastic composite materials (PMC). These fibers possess high strength, heat resistance, corrosion resistance, even in extreme conditions. Through composite reinforcement, SiC fibers provide improved performance opportunities to ceramic, plastic, and metal (CMC, PMC, and MMC) matrices.

Aerospace represent the bulk of demand for SiC fibers

SiC- and silicon nitride-based ceramic and ceramic composites are promising materials for high-temperature applications in aerospace engines because of their properties such as high strength; excellent creep, oxidation, and corrosion resistance; and low density. SiC ceramics have excellent high-temperature oxidation and creep resistance up to 1,500C. As a result, SiC fibers are becoming increasingly important in aerospace application.

Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=171928034

Asia-Pacific to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period

Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market for SiC fibers, followed by Europe and North America. China, the U.S., and Japan are the largest consumers of SiC fibers. Factors such as evolving environmental & regulatory scenario and pressure from flagship companies to improve environmental performance of their supply chain have led to increasing demand for SiC fibers in Asia-Pacific. In this region, Japan is the major producer and consumer of SiC fibers. Nippon Carbon Co. Ltd. and UBE Industries of Japan are the global leaders in the SiC Fibers Market. The Japanese government is also actively supporting R&D activities on SiC fibers.

Key players in the SiC fibers market

The key players in the market include SGL Group- The Carbon Company (Germany), UBE Industries (Japan), NGS Advanced Fibers Co. Ltd. (Japan), COI Ceramics (U.S.), Specialty Materials (U.S.), Nippon Carbon Co. Ltd. (Japan), Saint-Gobain (France), Volzhsky Abrasive Works (Russia), and Washington Mills (U.S.)

Browse Related Reports:

High Temperature Fiber Market by Fibers Type (Aramid (Para-aramid, Meta-aramid, others), Ceramic (Refractory Ceramic Fibers, Low Bio-persistent and others), and other fibers (Basalt, and others)), by Application (Security & Protection, Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial, Electrical & Electronics, and others) and by Region - Global Trends and Forecasts to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/high-temperature-fibers-market-52310328.html

Ceramic Matrix Composites Market by Type (Oxide/Oxide, Silicon Carbide/Silicon Carbide, Carbon/Carbon and Others), by Application (Aerospace, Defense, Energy & Power, Electrical & Electronics and Others) and by Region - Trends & Forecasts to 2019

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ceramic-matrix-composites-market-60146548.html

Know More About our Knowledge Store @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

Connect with us:

MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical

LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

Contact:

Mr. Rohan

Markets and Markets

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India

Tel: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
NORWALK, Conn., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cocktail trends come and go, but no vodka cocktail is more iconic than the Moscow Mule. Today, cocktail menus across America feature the Moscow Mule and creative variations of the recipebut there's only one original. As the co-creators of the original Moscow Mule in 1941, SMIRNOFF vodka and Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer are celebrating seventy-five years of America's first vodka cocktail.

The original Moscow Mule, created 75 years ago, is made with SMIRNOFF No. 21, Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer and a squeeze of lime. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Smirnoff)

In the late 1930s, John G. Martin was the president of an American alcohol company, Heublein, which owned the rights to SMIRNOFF vodka. One historic day seventy-five years ago, in 1941, Martin sat at the bar of The Cock'n Bull, an iconic pub on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, with owner Jack Morgan. At a time when brown spirits were king, Martin was struggling to market his newly acquired vodka to American palates. Morgan, too, had a dilemma: few people cared for or even knew about his ginger beer. Martin and Morgan made cocktail history when they created a solution to sell both products by combining SMIRNOFF No. 21 vodka with Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer and a spritz of lime in a copper mug. This was the world's first Moscow Mule.

Following the creation of the cocktail at The Cock'n Bull, Martin travelled to bars around the United States encouraging bartenders to make a Moscow Mule, giving each of them an instant photograph of themselves with the final creation. Martin took a copy of the instant photograph on to the next bar, encouraging other bartenders to make the cocktail and eventually sparking a frenzy for the Moscow Mule across the country.

"In only a few short years, the Moscow Mule took America by storm and gained popularity in cocktail culture, paving the way for many other popular mixed vodka drinks including the Screwdriver, the Bloody Mary, the Gimlet and more," said Jay Sethi, Vice President of Marketing, SMIRNOFF. "Today, 75 years later, the Moscow Mule is experiencing a comeback as one of the most popular cocktails in the U.S., and naturally, the makers of SMIRNOFF vodka are celebrating."

To kick off the celebration of this milestone anniversary, SMIRNOFF hosted a series of immersive dinners at the 14th Annual Tales of the Cocktail, one of America's premier spirits festivals that highlighted the Moscow Mule during an annual cocktail competition. Throughout the evening, invited guests of legal drinking age were transported back in time to experience the story of the Moscow Mule in a pop-up restaurant modelled on the historic meeting between John G. Martin and Jack Morgan. Guests responsibly sampled original Moscow Mules, made with SMIRNOFF No. 21 vodka and Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer.

"Any mixologist or bartender can make a Moscow Mule," said Daniel Meyers, President of C-B Beverage Corp., owners of Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer. "But it's not an original Moscow Mule unless it's made with the zesty combination of SMIRNOFF vodka and Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer."

For 150 years, the SMIRNOFF brand has been enjoyed by legal drinking age consumers around the world, but it wasn't until the Moscow Mule was created that vodka became a popular spirit in the United States. The mixability of SMIRNOFF vodka and its quality have inspired other vodka varieties across the globe and served as the basis for popularizing some of the world's most famous cocktails.

No matter when or where you craft an original Moscow Mule to commemorate this tremendous milestone, please remember to always enjoy it in a copper mug and drink responsibly.

About SMIRNOFF

The SMIRNOFF brand, the world's number-one selling vodka, traces its heritage back to 19th century Russia. SMIRNOFF has always been known for quality and is enjoyed responsibly in 130 countries around the world. For more information, log on to www.smirnoff.com.

About Diageo

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.

Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice.

Follow us on Twitter for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA.

Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.

About Cock'n Bull 

Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer's history goes back 75 years to the creation of the popular Moscow Mule cocktail in 1941. Today, Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer can be purchased at retail locations across the country. For more information, visit www.cocknbull.us.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Jim Sias

Diageo

[email protected]

646-223-2305

Courtney Dinkelacker

Taylor

[email protected]

704-644-6929

Stephanie Cotts

Caring Marketing / Cock'n Bull

[email protected]

740-641-3163

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392128

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392127LOGO

SOURCE SMIRNOFF

Related Links

http://www.smirnoff.com


DALLAS, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pilots from the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA) joined mechanics from Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) Local 11 in support of their informational picket near Love Field Airport in Dallas. Along with SWAPA, other AMFA locals and the Transportation Workers Union (TWU) Local 556 which represents the Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants, joined AMFA Local 11 on the picket line.

After more than four years of negotiating, SWAPA and Southwest Airlines continue to meet in mediated sessions through the National Mediation Board. SWAPA has held picketing events three times so far in 2016 and many AMFA Local 11 members showed up to support SWAPA during those pickets. Captain Jon Weaks, president of SWAPA, said it's important for Southwest Airlines' unions to unite.

"We are happy to have pilot representatives supporting our AMFA brothers and sisters on the line," Weaks said. "It's been four years since Southwest Airlines has given either AMFA or SWAPA a well-deserved contract and we believe that uniting shows Southwest management how serious we all are about getting a deserving contract. In these times of incredible profit, the time to get contracts finalized with their frontline employees has since long passed."

On Thursday, Southwest Airlines announced an $820 million profit for the second quarter of 2016, bringing the profit total for the first half of the year to $1.33 billion. Southwest shareholders have been awarded $3.1 billion in stock buybacks with over $2 billion more planned. However, numerous work groups at Southwest Airlines, including both SWAPA and AMFA, continue to work without a contract.

Located in Dallas, Texas, the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA) is a non-profit employee organization representing the more than 8,300 pilots of Southwest Airlines. SWAPA works to provide a secure and rewarding career for Southwest pilots and their families through negotiating contracts, defending contractual rights and actively promoting professionalism and safety. For more information on the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association, visit www.swapa.org.

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association

Related Links

http://www.swapa.org


SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "It's not enough to simply say you want to keep America safe, while marginalizing entire communities in the same breath. To keep America safe first requires that we bring America together. Mr. Trump can pursue building a wall, but he must also build bridges of hope to minority communities."

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is the author of "Be Light" and the President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America's largest Hispanic Christian organization, which represents millions assembled in over 40,000 U.S. Churches and another 500,000 congregations worldwide and spread throughout the Spanish-speaking diaspora.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120912/CL72800LOGO

SOURCE National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Approximately 300 Piedmont Airlines mechanics from Teamsters Locals 210, 355 and 776 have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a five-year contract with the carrier. More than 83 percent of voting mechanics cast their ballots in favor of the agreement.

The agreement was reached on May 26 and contains a 7 percent signing bonus and a 13 percent wage increase over the life of the agreement. Job security and furlough language are also vastly improved.

"I'm pleased that the workers have chosen to ratify this strong contract," said Capt. David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division. "The wage increases within this agreement are outstanding. We want to make sure regional jobs can become long-term careers for Teamsters. With this vote today, the workers have taken an important step forward toward that goal."

"We're happy with today's outcome," said Bob Luciano, lead negotiator for the Piedmont Airlines mechanics. "Turnout was reflective of the investment that these workers have made in themselves and their interest in raising standards for the entire regional industry. I'd like to thank our committees for all of their hard work during the voting period and the rank and file membership for turning out and exercising their right to vote."

The contract will become amendable on July 31, 2021.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit www.teamster.org. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Kara Deniz, (202) 624-6911

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Related Links

http://www.teamster.org


WASHINGTON, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On July 15, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, by majority vote, issued a statement expressing disappointment over the Supreme Court's 4-4 ruling in United States v. Texas, regarding the Administration's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and an expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The full statement can be viewed here:

http://www.usccr.gov/press/2016/PR_StatementDAPADACA-7-21-16.pdf

The Court's ruling relates to the President's 2014 Immigration Accountability Executive Action that would cover more of the immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and who have lived their entire lives as Americans. The Court's decision leaves in place the underlying injunction against DAPA and expanded DACA  a result of suits by 26 states resisting the Executive Action. In November 2014, via official statement, the Commission  by majority vote - expressed its support for the Executive Action.

Commission Chair Martin R. Castro stated, "The Supreme Court's deadlock continues to keep the doors of this country locked to young people and their families who are American in every way, except on paper. It also reminds us of the urgent need to confirm a ninth Supreme Court justice and for Congress to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform. We encourage DACA eligible individuals to continue to apply for the protections of that program while we await a decision from the lower courts on the DAPA and expanded DACA."

The Commission calls for sensible immigration reform, and compassionate pathways to permit millions of unauthorized immigrants to continue their contributions to our country without fear of immediate deportation.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights matters and issuing a federal civil rights enforcement report. For information about the Commission, please visit http://www.usccr.gov and follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/usccrgov

Media Contact: Brian Walch

[email protected]

(202) 376-8371

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110524/DC08224LOGO

SOURCE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Related Links

http://www.usccr.gov


"Today we celebrate 40 years of exceptional care for women and babies," said Ashley McClellan, CEO of The Woman's Hospital of Texas. "We look forward to reinforcing our founding physicians' commitment to excellence every day and that's why more women choose to have their babies at The Woman's Hospital of Texas than at any other hospital in the State of Texas."

Friends of The Woman's Hospital of Texas gathered to celebrate 40 years of caring for generations of women and infants. Hospital Board of Trustees' Chair Dr. Joanie Hare welcomed everyone to the celebration. The Reverend Juanita Rasmus, senior pastor at St. John's Church, Downtown & Northwest Campus, delivered the invocation. Houston Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen extended greetings from the city and shared remembrances of her personal connections to the hospital.

CEO McClellan provided a brief history of the hospital and spotlighted the founding physicians in attendance at the morning celebration. She also recognized her CEO predecessors, Judy Novak and Linda Russell, for their innovative leadership. McClellan thanked the hospital's four employees with 40 continuous years of services Bobbie Hall Brown, Katherine Howard, Carla Tehranchi and Linda Washington  and presented each with a bouquet of red roses and a gift. The celebration guests honored the women and their combined 160 years of service with a standing ovation.

The featured speaker was Lisa M. Woods, J.D., HCA Gulf Coast Division Ethics and Compliance Officer. Ms. Woods was born on the hospital's opening day. With her mother proudly listening in the audience, Woods recalled the flood of that day, her Mom's beloved physician, Dr. Eberhard Lotze, and the events surrounding her birth, which included a missing wheelchair and a missed "birth" day party. Woods was then presented with a Smash Cake to mark that missed party and the audience spontaneously began singing Happy Birthday to her.

The celebration was concluded by Dr. Connie Faro, The Woman's Hospital of Texas Medical Staff President, reminiscing about her choice of medicine as a career just like her father, of her obstetrics rotation with her uncle Dr. Sebastian Faro at The Woman's Hospital of Texas while in medical school, and working with her first cousin, Dr. Jonathan Faro, and her husband Dr. Patrick Duffy, who both practice at The Woman's Hospital of Texas.

Today, The Woman's Hospital of Texas employs more than 1,600 men and women who are dedicated to the hospital's mission of providing compassionate and exceptional care for women, infants, and children. More than 650 board-certified physicians practice at Woman's providing key services in obstetrics and gynecology, general medical and surgical care, neonatal intensive care and well newborn care, and pediatrics.

The Woman's of Hospital Texas is a proud supporter of the Houston-area community through a number of fundraising events and professional support opportunities. Its largest event and fundraiser, The Woman's Hospital of Texas Labor Day Luncheon & Style Show Labor Day which is scheduled for Saturday, August 27, 2016 benefits the March of Dimes, a non-profit organization dedicated to the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Even the tiniest of patients receive care at The Woman's Hospital of Texas  more than 11,000 babies were delivered in 2015, making Woman's the leading choice for expectant mothers.

The Woman's Hospital of Texas is also recognized for its innovations in education. The hospital's education department offers a full array of child birth and parenting classes for expectant parents, siblings, parents and babies, parents of multiples and some classes that can only be found in Houston at The Woman's Hospital.

The Woman's Hospital of Texas still offers one-on-one nursing care in Labor and Delivery, 124-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) levels II and III, board certified Neonatologists in house 24/7, board certified anesthesiology in house 24/7, dedicated operating rooms for Cesarean sections, Maternal/Fetal medicine specialists, Urogynecology specialists, minimally invasive surgical procedures, women centered physical therapy department and hospital suites.

About The Woman's Hospital of Texas

The Woman's Hospital of Texas opened in 1976 and is celebrating its 40th year as the state's premier facility dedicated to the health and well-being of women and newborns.

Our founders chose to name the hospital "Woman's"  not "Women's"  as a way to honor each patient as an individual and as a daily reminder that the care we give is always personalized and patient focused.

Our attention to every detail of the patient experience makes us the top choice for women throughout the greater Houston area and beyond. Our physicians and nurses delivered more than 11,000 babies in 2015  more than any other hospital in the State of Texas.

And with the recent addition of our Pediatric Center, our hospital now offers its high-quality care to children and teenagers.

Located near the Texas Medical Center in the heart of Houston, The Woman's Hospital of Texas has 397 licensed beds, including a 124-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

With more than 650 board-certified physicians, The Woman's Hospital of Texas offers expertise and outstanding care in breast health, imaging, gynecology, obstetrics, high-risk pregnancy, neonatology and minimally-invasive surgery.

In our "40 Years of Caring," we've consistently raised the standards for women's healthcare in Houston and the State of Texas. We were the first hospital in Houston to earn the Baby-Friendly Hospital distinction from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF.) We also were the first hospital in Texas to be named a National Association for Continence Center of Excellence for Continence Care in Women  one of only six in the nation.

The Woman's Hospital of Texas is accredited by The Joint Commission and recognized by the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists as a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology.

About HCA Gulf Coast Division

HCA Gulf Coast Division is a comprehensive network of hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, emergency centers, and diagnostic imaging facilities. It offers a complete continuum of specialized health programs and services that meet the needs of Greater Houston and South Texas' residents and businesses. HCA affiliated facilities in the Gulf Coast Division include: 13 hospitals, 8 ambulatory centers, 7 off-campus emergency centers, and a regional transfer center that provides one-phone-call access and support for patient transfers into and out of the HCA Gulf Coast Division Affiliated Hospitals, as well as access to ground and air transportation within a 150-mile radius. For more information, visit our website at www.HCAGulfCoast.com.

Shannon Buggs

Director of Community and Public Relations

713-790-8668 (office)

281-507-5635 (cell)

[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392303

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392313

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392314

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392315

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121205/DA24802LOGO-b

SOURCE The Woman's Hospital of Texas

Related Links

http://www.HCAGulfCoast.com


ISTANBUL, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Airline becomes launch operator for A320neo with CFM engines

A320neo infographic (PRNewsFoto/Pegasus Airlines) Pegasus Airlines Airbus CFM top management and employees celebrated the delivery (PRNewsFoto/Pegasus Airlines) Pegasus Airlines receives world's first CFM powered Airbus A320neo (PRNewsFoto/Pegasus Airlines)

Pegasus Airlines, Turkey's leading low-cost airline, took delivery on Tuesday July 19th, its first Airbus A320neo powered by CFM International's LEAP-1A engines, becoming the first airline to do so for the type. Pegasus placed the largest single order by a Turkish carrier for up to 100 A320neo Family aircraft in 2012, making it a new Airbus customer. Pegasus Airlines along with Airbus and CFM top management and employees celebrated the delivery in a private ceremony at Airbus' site in Hamburg.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392090-INFO )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392091 )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392092 )



"This delivery marks the start of Pegasus' fleet renewal with the most fuel efficient aircraft incorporating the latest technologies, aerodynamics, engines and a comfortable cabin," said Mehmet Nane, CEO of Pegasus Airlines. "We have an ambitious expansion strategy and the A320neo will be the backbone of this."

"We are delighted to be delivering our first CFM powered A320neo to Pegasus Airlines." said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus President and CEO. "It fills us with pride that Pegasus Airlines has selected the A320neo Family to achieve its impressive growth plans. We are sure the aircraft will deliver on their expectations."

"Today, Pegasus, Airbus and CFM are making history. Introducing a new engine family in commercial service happens almost once in a lifetime. It's a big deal, so we are very proud to do it with our long-term customer, Pegasus, and with Airbus," said CFM International CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga.

The A320neo Family is the world's best-selling and most fuel efficient single aisle aircraft Family. The A320neo powering with the CFM International's LEAP-1A provides operators with double digits improvements in fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions - with a 15 percent reduction upon entry into service and up to a 20% reduction by 2020.

The A320neo Family incorporates the very latest technologies including new generation engines and Sharklet wing tip devices. With over 4,500 orders received from 83 customers since its launch in 2010, the A320neo Family has captured some 60 percent share of the market. The Airbus' A320neo Family offers thanks to their widest cabin unmatched comfort in all classes and Airbus' 18-inch wide seats in economy as standard.

Connect with Pegasus on Social Media

Official website: http://www.flypgs.com/en

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pegasusairlines

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flymepegasus

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/pegasusairlines

Instagram: http://instagram.com/pegasusairlines

SOURCE Pegasus Airlines
FARMINGDALE, N.Y., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Wilho F. Saari of Naselle, Washington, was recently recognized by Strathmore's Who's Who as Professional of the Year 2016 for his outstanding contributions and achievements in the field of the Performing Arts. He will be honored with a Times Square, New York City appearance on Friday, July 22, 2016.

Wilho F. Saari comes from a family of accomplished performers, specifically the kantele, the Finnish psaltery. He earned his B.A. in Sacred Music and his B.A. in Music Education at Northwest College. He was a grade school teacher for 34 years including 3 years in Liberia, Africa in a missions school and 23 years at Naselle Youth Camp School. Mr. Saari is a fifth generation player of the kantele. His great grandmother Kreeta Haapasalo was a well known kantele player in Finland in the 19th century. His father, Wilho Sr. was also a performer who brought the kantele to America in 1915. Mr. Saari has performed in Astoria, Oregon and Naselle, Washington. He participated in the world premiere of a Kantelle Mass composed by Jarkko Yli-Annala where he performed at FinnFest USA '06, an annual national festival. His numerous awards include the Governor's Heritage Award for his work popularizing and teaching the kantele; he is one of ten recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) award of an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Mr. Saari is affiliated with the Finnish American Festival and the Finnish American Historical Society. He has recorded two CDs on the kantele. His latest CD called, "Vilhon Vintilta" is mainly made-up of his own compositions.

The Times Square honor is of particular significance because of the high visibility it offers. This visual celebration of Wilho F. Saari's career will appear at regular intervals on two monitors attached to the landmark skyscraper at 3 Times Square, #1, New York, NY 10036. This structure is situated in what could be considered the busiest area of Manhattan. Strathmore's Who's Who is pleased to honor him.

SOURCE Strathmore's Who's Who

Related Links

https://strathmore-ltd.com


EPPING, England, July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In a 2002 nationwide poll conducted by the BBC, Sir Winston Churchill was voted "The Greatest Briton of All Time." Known for his unshakable resolve and thundering declaration that Britain would "never surrender" to Nazi Germany, Churchill was a leader with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Yet, there was a lighter side to "The British Bulldog" that has come into sharper focus since the 50th anniversary of his passing. Churchill was, in fact, a serious artist who traveled with easel and paints in tow wherever he went.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392100

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160722/392099

On July 27, Boningtons Fine Art Auctioneers will offer two significant oil paintings by Churchill. Both are from a private collection and depict exotic subjects that captured the prime minister's imagination: the Venetian Causeway in Miami Beach, and Egypt's Giza Pyramids.

In January 1946, Churchill and his wife Clementine arrived in Miami for a six-week stay at the home of Canadian industrialist Col. Frank W. Clarke. Sir Winston found sunny Florida and its outdoor attractions much to his liking. He visited the Parrot Jungle, Hialeah racetrack, and the shores of Dilido Isle in Biscayne Bay, where he painted an idyllic waterscape of Miami Beach's Venetian Causeway. Illustrated in the 1967 David Coombs book Churchill: His Paintings, that Miami Beach waterscape is expected to make $200,000-$335,000 at auction.

The larger of the two paintings, which depicts the Giza Pyramids near Cairo, is estimated at $520,000-$780,000. Created circa 1946, it was given by Churchill to his close friend Field Marshall Jan Christian Smuts together with a second painting of the same subject. The surviving work was displayed in Smuts' residence and has been featured in three books. The other pyramid painting was stolen in 1972 and never seen again.

Churchill produced more than 500 paintings in his lifetime. Those appearing at auction have been enthusiastically pursued by collectors. In 2014, a buyer paid nearly $2 million for Churchill's The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell.

The July 27 auction also includes a remarkable American historical memento: an inscribed sterling silver presentation vase given by President Grover Cleveland to a heroic British steamship captain in 1895. The vase is accompanied by a newspaper article recounting the gallant efforts of Captain Amos Hawkett in rescuing the crews of two American schooners. Auction estimate: $3,900-$6,500.

Bid via phone, absentee or live online. Web: www.boningtons.com.

Contact:

Luke Bodalbhai

Tel. 011-44-208-508-4800, Email

SOURCE Boningtons Fine Art Auctioneers

Related Links

http://www.boningtons.com


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
New Delhi, July 18 : The government will soon bring forth a legislation to punish those who pollute the Ganga river, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti said on Monday.

In response to a question on whether the industries polluting Ganga have been punished, the minister informed the Rajya Sabha that: "There are 764 industries on the banks of Ganga which are polluting it. We have taken action against some, and our government is committee to taking most stringent action."

"We will propose an act on this after consulting state governments," the minister said.

She added: "Poor people go to jail even for stealing beedi, but those polluting Ganga do not go to jail."

In response to another question on whether releasing prayer offerings like flowers in the river was also polluting it, the minister said: "Ganga is not polluted because of prayer offerings, it is because of industrial effluents, sewage and plastic which obstructs the flow."

"But yes, when the prayer offerings get stuck in the stagnant water it causes some pollution," she said.

The minister also said that the river is pious, but not chemically pure.

"Ganga is always pious... Sadly, if we test the water in a lab, from the perspective of the chemical content, it is not clean... but from the point of view of respect, it is pious," the minister added
Gurgaon, July 19 : Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and a number of other organisations on Tuesday held a demonstration here to protest against alleged instigation of violence by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir and to express support for the Indian armed forces.

The demonstrators belonging to Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, Gau Raksha Dal, Hindu Kranti Dal and several workers unions shouted slogans against Pakistan and demanded that the government deal with militancy in Kashmir valley with a firm hand.

They said Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism in India and elsewhere should invite revocation of its membership of the United Nations.
New Delhi, July 20 : The government on Wednesday warned Pakistan that it is pursuing a self destructive and "suicidal" policy over Kashmir and said its attempts to push terrorism will harm Islamabad.

"If Pakistan feels that it will keep playing with terrorism and use it as a tool against India, then we can tackle the challenge. But they won't be able to tackle it. You (Pakistan) are committing suicide," Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar said in the Lok Sabha making a brief intervention during the debate on the situation in the Kashmir valley.

"When children were killed in Peshawar terror attack, India had unequivocally condemned it. But Burhan Wani (Hizb-ul Mujahideen leader) was killed, Pakistan is observing 'black day'," Akbar said, adding that it was "unfortunate".

Akbar stressed that while the house debates such a sensitive issue the members should rise above party affiliations and speak in one voice.

Stressing on the importance of a comprehensive policy to resolve the Kashmir problem, the minister said: "Even I have Kashmiri connection as my mother was from that state. So all young people in Kashmir are like our own children."

He said "some of these youngsters have been either spoiled or misguided", adding that the challenge before the nation is to ensure that "we are able to take these young people along with us".

Akbar sought to compare the existing situation in the state as "mausumi hawa (temporary)", but also cautioned "ki yeh toofan bhi ho sakta hae (This may turn into a storm)".

However, he said the challenge can be met by the "Kashmiriyat and insaniyat (humanity) of Kashmir" as there is inherent virtues of basic humanity in the philosophy of Kashmir.

Earlier initiating the discussion, Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress criticised the government's Kashmir policy and claimed that the good work done by the previous UPA government between 2004 and 2014 has been done away with.

"This government is being irresponsible towards Kashmir while during the UPA regime peace, harmony and developmental works were established," he said.

Scindia lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying when Kashmir was on the boil the prime minister was beating drums abroad and "failed to utter even a single word" to condemn the violence.

The Congress member said the Pakistan policy of the Modi government has turned into a "tamasha (spectacle)".

"The foreign policy has totally failed. Earlier BJP leaders used to talk about hard steps towards Pakistan. Now when they are in power, they are using soft words like 'dismayed' on Islamabad's stand justifying the violence in Kashmir," he said.

Anurag Thakur of the BJP cautioned that while Pakistan is trying to play with fire, "we should be careful that domestic politics is not responsible to add fuel to it".

He urged the Union Home Minister to answer specifically as to who really was "behind the present unrest" in the Valley.

"If Pakistan is doing all this, we should also know what is the government going to do about it," Thakur said.

Among others, Muzaffar Hussain Baig of the PDP, Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party, Kalyan Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and Jaiprakash Narain Yadav of the RJD participated in the debate.

Baig's remarks on the history of Kashmir and the role of towering personalities like Sheikh Abdullah provoked strong reactions from the opposition members.

When the opposition members wanted to stop Baig from speaking, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs S.S. Ahluwalia said: "The representative from Kashmir should be allowed to speak his mind in the tallest temple of democracy."

Baig said the central government should immediately chalk out a roadmap for Kashmir "which will have balance, patience, positive approach and dialogue".
Bhubaneswar, July 21 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday hit out at the BJP over the derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati saying that it shows its "anti-Dalit" stand.

He also said such derogatory statement against a national leader is against 'democratic norms'.

"Such derogatory remarks against a national leader is against the democratic norms. Mayawati is the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and a Dalit leader, who is respected on the national level," he said in a statement.

Condemning the remarks, made of BJP leader Dayashankar Singh (who has since been expelled), he said: "The derogatory remarks against Mayawati shows BJP's anti-Dalit stand."

Patnaik's statement comes as his government is under attack from the opposition BJP over the killing of five tribals in crossfire during an anti-Maoist operation by security personnel in Kandhamal on July 8.

Besides, at least 20 children of Juang tribe died due to malnutrition in mineral-rich Jajpur district in last four months, raising questions about the development claims of the state government.
Cleveland, July 22 : Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will soon deliver a speech of his lifetime when he accepts the Republican nomination at the Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC) here.

This week's Republican National Convention has seen drama ranging from the plagiarised speech his wife delivered and the way the campaign prolonged the episode to Ted Cruz's shocking address on Wednesday in which he refused to endorse Trump and encouraged Americans to vote their conscience, CNN reported.

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump's former rival, was booed off the Republican top stage on Wednesday night after he withheld his endorsement of the New York billionaire as the nominee.

"Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution," Ted Cruz said at the party's convention, instead of urging Republicans to rally behind Trump.

The language, which echoed statements from the 'Never Trump' movement, triggered boos and chants of "Trump! Trump!" from the audience.

Cruz left the stage putting on a brave face, wrapping up his remarks and thanking the audience while Trump entered the venue and gave his formal rival a thumbs-up, sarcastically venting his anger.

On the final day of Cruz's campaign in May, he charged Trump with being "a pathological liar", "a narcissist" and "utterly immoral", the Guardian reported.

So far the RNC has been all about heated attacks on Hillary Clinton. Trump has yet to show how he can appeal to the broader general election audience, particularly women, by proving that he would be a reliable president.
Cleveland, July 22 : Donald Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party's nomination, the same way he launched his campaign by slamming immigrants and linking them to crime.

Trump did not budge from his combative stance on immigration as he wrapped up the week's Republican National Convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, NBC News reported.

He officially accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president by telling a pumped-up crowd that the nation's security is under threat from immigrants and illegal immigration.

"Nearly 180,000 people with criminal records ordered deported from our country are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens," NBC News quoted the Manhattan real estate mogul as saying.

Trump's remarks were met with chants of "Build a Wall", which has become one of the slogans of his campaign.

Trump reminded the crowd that on Monday night they heard from three people whose loved ones were victims murdered by immigrants not legally in the country.

"We heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants A They are just three brave representatives of many thousands," Trump said.

The billionaire businessman said nothing has affected him more than the time he spent with mothers and fathers "who have lost their children to violence spilling over the border," NBC News said.

Trump also pointed to immigration as the ill that has perpetuated economic malaise in this country.

"Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African Americans and Latino workers," Trump said.

He also sold himself as the champion of a downtrodden working class, promising to restore "law and order" and casting himself as a change agent against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"I am your voice...Hillary Clinton's message is that things will never change. Never ever." Politico quoted Trump as saying.

"My message is that things have to change and they have to change right now," he added.

He also spoke of spiking crime, "third-world" airports, growing trade deficits, "chaos in our communities," and terrorism on the home front. Abroad, he said the situation was "worse than it has ever been before," Politico reported citing the business magnate.

"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness...My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton," he said.

"Lock her up!" the crowd burst out repeatedly during Trump's speech and throughout the week.

His speech lasted for 75 minutes, beating out former President Bill Clinton's acceptance speech at his party's convention in 1996.

At the end, Trump and his Vice President nominee Mike Pence were joined by their families on state.
Washington, July 22 : Despite living in exile in Russia, former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden is reportedly working with a researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab to build a device which will protect smartphones from government spies.

The device - a plastic case designed to slide over an Apple iPhone 6 - will monitor the phone's antennas to detect any incoming or outgoing signals from the cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, or NFC radio chips.

The sensor-laden case will trigger an alarm if there is an snooping effort.

"Because the device is a separate piece of hardware, it would be secure against any effort to hack the phone's operating system," the Boston Globe reported on Friday.

The device is being created with the help of researcher Andrew Huang and was revealed at an event at the MIT Media Lab in the US.

Touted as a device that will help journalists in the field, it will detect whether a phone is sending or receiving unauthorised radio signals.

According to Snowden, it is possible that spy agencies could infect phones with malware that would leave the radios in operation even when a phone appeared to be in airplane mode.

Smartphone user can deliberately or accidentally switch on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth even in airplane mode and the new device will eliminate these risks.

"Because the device is a separate piece of hardware, it would be secure against any effort to hack the phone's operating system," the report noted.

The case may even be set to shut off an iPhone automatically if it detects unwanted transmissions.

"The technical goal here is to make sure that the radios are really off. Think of the thing we're doing as like a designated driver for the phone," Huang was quoted as saying.

A working prototype device is expected to debut next year and the design and code will be open-sourced.
New Delhi, July 22 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met the Dalit victims at a hospital in Una on Friday and attacked the Gujarat government for not taking appropriate action.

"Those culprits must be punished in such a manner that it should shake their hearts. An example must be set here," Kejriwal said after meeting the four victims of flogging at Civil Hospital, Una.

He further took on Gujarat government stating that the administration did not act at time because it was hinted from "above".

"They were thrashed in full public. If such incident is happening in the presence of administration then it means that those culprits were backed from higher powers. It hints that the government was involved," Kejriwal said.

He added, "Gujarat government is anti-Dalit".

Four Dalit youths were flogged in full public view at Mota Samadhiya village in Una, by a self proclaimed cow protection vigilantes for skinning a dead cow. The video of flogging appeared on July 11, that sparked uproar among the Dalit community in the state.

Prior to his visit, Kejriwal on Thursday said an atmosphere of "oppression" prevailed across the western state and that people of all communities were threatened.

Kejriwal in a video message released here asked the people to "unite" and raise their voice against what he called the oppression of the state.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had also visited Una district to meet the family of victims.
Kolkata, July 22 : Efforts are on by Indian seismologists and geologists to jointly carry out studies with Bangladesh and Myanmar and form a common geodetic network to verify fresh data and sort out discrepancies over earthquake-related research in the region.

In a recent paper in Nature Geoscience, a group of scientists published new evidence of the increasing strain building beneath Bangladesh, where two tectonic plates underlie the vast delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, one of the most densely populated regions in the world.

They estimate that at least 140 million people in the region could be affected if the boundary ruptures.

However, a section of Indian experts has expressed reservations over some of the details discussed in the paper.

"The Indo-Bumese arc, the north-south oriented mountain chain, passes through Bangladesh and a major portion of India and Myanmar. When the countries work in isolation, things fall apart. The idea is to let all the countries join together. There is some discrepancy in some of the numbers. So we feel let's sort it out together," Vineet K. Gahalaut, Director of the National Centre for Seismology under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, told IANS.

"We will design a common network and plan in such a way that we can answer many questions related to the plate margin," said Gahalaut, who is aware of the latest publication.

In the paper, lead author Michael Steckler, a geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the US, claims Bangladesh and its neighbourhood including India may be hit by a huge earthquake -- although not imminent -- that could reach a magnitude of nine on the Richter scale.

Southern Asia is composed of three major plates: the Indian Plate, the Australian Plate and the Sundaland Plate. The Indian and Sundaland plates abut in Myanmar.

Steckler and colleagues claim 10 years of data show that eastern Bangladesh and a bit of eastern India are pushing diagonally into western Myanmar at a rapid rate -- 46 millimetres, or about 1.8 inches, per year.

But Gahalaut and his colleagues were of the view that "the India-Sunderland motion is about 36 mm/year."

This "extra 10 mm/year" is "bothering a section of Indian researchers, including Gahalaut and Bhaskar Kundu of Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela.

Kundu said he "does not completely agree" with the findings.

"Our work says that the plate boundary is predominantly aseismic in the Indo-Burmese Arc region, northeast India and such aseismic motion on the plate boundary fault significantly lowers the seismic hazards," Kundu told IANS, adding it is difficult to justify the findings of the new paper based on the models used.

According to Gahalaut, the 46 mm/year number needs to be further confirmed.

"We need to better constrain it by taking more measurements from Myanmar. This is the reason we are planning a common seismological and geodetic network which will span the entire Indo-Burmese arc," he said.

The idea is that scientists will approach their own governments and get funding, explained Gahalaut, who is spearheading the collaboration on the Indian side.

This would also enhance data-sharing, including the results, he said, stressing that at this point in time, real-time monitoring is not required.

"There is no doubt that a large magnitude earthquake occurred in the coastal regions of (what is now) Myanmar and Bangladesh in 1762, known as Arakan earthquake. So this is true that this region is susceptible to large earthquakes. But how big it could be is a bigger question," contended Gahalaut.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)
Una (Gujarat), July 22 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met Dalits who were thrashed by members of a Hindu "cow protection group" and blamed the Gujarat government for their misery.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader demanded strictest punishment to the guilty.

After meeting the four victims at the Civil Hospital here, Kejriwal told the media: "The culprits must get such punishment that it should shake them to the core. An example must be set."

He said the Gujarat government did not act in time because the attack on the Dalits was blessed by people at the top.

"They were thrashed in full public view. If such an incident is happening in the presence of the administration, it means those culprits were backed by higher powers. It shows the government was involved," Kejriwal said.

He accused the Gujarat government of being "anti-Dalit".

Four Dalit youths were stripped above the waist and beaten mercilessly with iron rods in Mota Samadhiya village by a cow protection group for skinning a dead cow.

The video of the thrashing went viral, sparking outrage nationwide.

Kejriwal separately described the cow protection groups that have sprung up in recent times as "BJP goondas unleashed by the top BJP leadership to polarise society and create fear in the minds of people".

A day earlier, Kejriwal said an atmosphere of "oppression" prevailed across Gujarat and people of all communities were feeling threatened.

In a video message, he asked people to unite and raise their voice against what he called the oppression of the state.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited Una and met the family of the victims on Thursday.
Mumbai, July 22 : Attractive deals for consumers in India's 4G data telecom space are expected to continue, ahead of the commercial launch of Reliance Jio, ranging from better handsets at lower prices and more data limits at existing tariff, according to analysts and top brokerages.

But companies will prefer to incentivise their customers not by lowering tariff, but by offering higher data downloads for the same price, in a bid to protect their average revenue per user, the research papers add.

This apart, the analysts feel, the launch of Reliance Jio cannot be far away, with some even predicting it to be August 15 to coincide with India's Independence Day, with also with companies like Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone having already made their moves to counter the challenge.

Here are some excerpts from what the brokerages have said on current state of play in India's 4G data telecom market:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch: India could see a capacity war and not a price war. In our view, Jio could focus on offering more data at the same price rather than lowering average revenues per user, as such a move would impact their ability to garner a return from its business.

We expect incumbents to match Jio's tariff by also offering more data at the same price.

UBS: We agree that the Reliance Jio launch has the potential to further disrupt mobile data tariffs, we think there is a high likelihood that the entry of Reliance Jio will also expand the size of the market significantly.

We believe that India's mobile data market is likely to grow 8 times (to Rs 2,133 billion) by FY26, driving strong operating leverage.

Citi Research: With Reliance Jio's commercial launch imminent, increase in data allowance to pre-empt the likely aggression by Jio wasn't unexpected. Data network utilization for telcos is currently low and therefore we believe that telcos should be able to handle any spurt in usage.

Morgan Stanley: We expect Reliance Jio launch to be market disruptive leading to a price war. 1.5 million users on Jio's network already account for impressive 20 per cent of data market volumes, though currently uncharged.

Credit Suisse: Our recent research showed Reliance Jio will be hitting the market with the largest network by capacity. The extension of Jio promo offer to Samsung phones is to be seen as a progression of the launch.

CLSA: The company is reportedly extending this further to select Apple and HP handsets and more such announcements are likely as Jio completes testing. We expect higher acceptance of this offer among users of dual-sim 4G handsets. Reliance Jio has also integrated 800MHz spectrum acquired from Reliance Communications in nine of 13 circles and expects to integrate the spectrum in the remaining four circles over the next few weeks, after which commercial launch can be expected.

HSBC Global Research: Data revenue growth has slowed for incumbent telecom companies over the past two quarters and some pricing intervention was very likely. However, instead of cutting tariffs, which, in our view, would have been clearly negative, telcos have increased data limits and attempted to drive both penetration and average revenue per user (ARPU). In our view, recent pricing auctions may have some marginal impact on data revenue growth in the near term, but in the medium term we see them having a positive impact on data revenue growth.

Kotak Institutional Equities: We believe the recent price cuts announced by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular on select data packs have two clear strategic intents -- shift the belly of the data market right by substantially improving the price-value equation of higher usage, higher ARPU packs, and fatten the tail by improving the price-value equation of the entry-level trial/sachet packs.
New Delhi : What is the link between Brexit and the failed coup in Turkey? They ring alarm bells for NATO in the time of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn, Pablo Iglesias, Marine Le Pen and gathering anti-establishment storms elsewhere. The global rightwing establishments are tearing their hair. Donald Trump, Presidential candidate for the Republican Party, once the torch bearer of American Exceptionalism, has broken from the past. America has no right to lecture anyone, he told the New York Times. "We have to fix our own mess."

Formal disengagement of Britain from Europe weakened the Atlantic Alliance in a way that Europe may, in monuments of pressure, be amenable to Russian blandishments. This is anathema to the Deep State in Washington, Trump or no Trump All the hyperactivity of NATO members recently in Warsaw had a supreme purpose: to firm up in the Alliance what Donald Rumsfeld famously called New Europe. Old Europe, France and Germany, have become too effete and independent minded. Also, no one knows what continental Europe will look like after elections next year.

These must be desperate times. In the short run, the only point the West can score over Putin is to blacken the names of Russian athletes for "officially sponsored drug abuse" preparatory to the Rio Olympics. And, wait for the American election results.

Into this chaotic cauldron, toss in Erdogan, a key NATO member and his post coup tantrums.

But why is he throwing such a ginger fit? After all, the post coup scenario could well be placing in his hands power that dictators dream of. This causes some analysts to talk of a "false flag". The Turkish Sufi cleric exiled in the US, Fethullah Gulen, has already made the allegation: the coup may have been staged to arrest Gulen and his supporters. Indeed a list of thousands of teachers, doctors, lawyers, judges cannot have been prepared overnight without extensive planning. But Ankara blames Gulen for plotting the coup.

What is causing gripes in the West after the failed coup is a general sense of relief in Moscow, Tehran, Damascus and southern Lebanon (Hezbullah country). An inference is that the coup's success would have been welcomed by the West.

The rift between Erdogan and Washington is now a yawning gap. There must be deep consternation in all NATO countries at the continuance of a recalcitrant, increasingly Islamist Turkey in the Alliance. Something must give - and soon.

A well connected Indian businessman in Istanbul on the day of the coup endorses a popular narrative. The coup would have succeeded had the coup leader not set the cat among the pigeons. He called on the forces to arrest all ISIS hands convalescing in hospitals or wherever they can be located.

Versions coming out of Ankara are something of a puzzle. These suggest that CIA interests in Turkey were averse to ISIS being wiped out. Considering that a universal war on the ISIS has supposedly been ordered by Washington, why this squeamishness about destroying "all" ISIS targets in Turkey? It is just possible that the ISIS was an amalgam of diverse components and that some of these components needed to be preserved.

The other mistake the coup leaders made was to call back Turkish troops from Iraq without intimating US commanders who were on the drawing boards for an operation in Mosul after the successful operation in Fallujah last month.

If the coup had proceeded on track without harming US interests/assets, Erdogan's goose was more or less cooked. Now that Erdogan has survived, another attempt to do away with him by a bigger, better planned operation must be on the cards. He is filled with anger and rage against Americans. In this mood of his, how reliable a member of NATO is he? Can the Alliance be quite as credible without NATO's largest army and nuclear facility which happens to be at Incirlik. It was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers at the height of the Cold War. It is no longer a military secret that the facility still holds 50 B61 hydrogen bombs, each 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

And just imagine, Erdogan cut off electricity to Incirlik. Why Incirlik? Because he conflated Gulen with Americans? Gulen does have extensive institutional power in Turkey which Americans have had access to for years. Gulen runs his Turkish Empire from his headquarters in Pennsylvania. This explains Erdogan's caustic comment after the coup failed "Turkey cannot be governed from Pennsylvania".

NBC news gave currency to a dramatic story. On hearing of the coup, Erdogan rushed to Istanbul where his plane was not allowed to land. The flight was diverted to Germany apparently in such of exile. It was refused landing rights - this was the pattern elsewhere too. Then, miraculously, Erdogan materializes in Turkey just when coup leaders embark on initiatives which the US is averse to. The story acquires more layers when the two Turkish pilots, who brought down two Russian pilots on 24 November, 2015, are named among those held by forces loyal to Erdogan.

F16 fighters controlled by coup leaders were refueled by facilities at the US base at Incirlik.

Erdogan now is intolerable for NATO; Turkey is indispensable to it. That is the Catch 22.

(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
New Delhi, July 22 : The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to set up a medical board at KEM Hospital in Mumbai to examine the rape victim seeking termination of her 24-week-old pregnancy on grounds of an abnormal foetus and submit a report on Monday.

The bench of Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice Arun Mishra asked the victim to appear before the board at 10 a.m. on Saturday so that she could be examined to ascertain whether the foetus can be terminated or not.

The bench said that the report by the medical board would be placed before it on Monday morning, turning down a suggestion by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to take up the matter on Tuesday as because of intervening Sunday, the report may not reach the court on Monday.

At the outset of the hearing, Ranjit Kumar told the court that the matter could be referred to the AIIMS to be examined by a medical board on Saturday and based on its opinion, a decision can be taken on Monday.

However, the court referred the matter to KEM Hospital in Mumbai as senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, told it that she was in Mumbai and given her condition, it would not be possible for her to travel to Delhi.

The bench then asked the Solicitor General to assist the court on the question of law, saying: "The issue is not as simple as it appears."

The petitioner has sought the court's direction for the termination of her pregnancy as under Section 3(2) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, pregnancy beyond 20 weeks could not be terminated.

She has also challenged the constitutional validity of the section.

The court was given the medical report which says that stomach of the foetus was uncovered and as a result, the intestines were growing outside it. The report further says that the foetus's skull too was not fully developed, and holds chances of its survival were from zero to a few hours.

However, under Section 5 of the MTP Act, pregnancy beyond 20 weeks could be terminated only if there is a threat to the life of the mother. In the instant case there is no threat to the life of the mother but foetus is abnormal and the chances of its survival are remote.

The petitioner has contended that this ceiling of 20 weeks could have been justified when this law was enacted in 1971 but it does not hold ground today given the advancement in technology that allows safe termination of pregnancy even after 20 weeks right up to 26 weeks.

She has further contended that the artificially fixing of upper limit of 20 weeks was arbitrary as women who get the reports of serious foetal abnormality after the 20th week have to suffer excruciating pain and agony on account of the deliveries that they are forced to go through.

The petition says that in conformity with international laws, Albania, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, Slovakia, South Africa, Britain, and the US have not fixed any absolute time limits in their abortion laws.

Instead, the petition says that these countries consider the woman's physical and mental health and doctors' expert opinions in determining whether a medical termination of pregnancy can be performed post 20 weeks.
Tesla gears up for trucks and buses Updated: 2016-07-22 07:21 (Agencies)

Workers add seat belts to a Model S sedan at Telsa's assembly plant in Fremont, California. [Photo/Agencies]

Elon Musk unveiled his master plan for Tesla Motors Inc, delivering a long-term vision that includes making an integrated solar and battery storage system and building a freight truck and a bus.

Musk delivered the long-awaited plan on the company's website partly to explain why the integration of Tesla and SolarCity Corp, of which he is also chairman, is necessary. He wants to use SolarCity, a rooftop solar panel installer, to generate electricity and charge an expanding range of Tesla models that address personal and public transport as well as cargo shipping.

"There are two other types of electric vehicles needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport," the Tesla chief executive officer said in the blog post, released on Wednesday. "Both are in the early stages of development and should be ready for unveiling next year."

Musk reiterated his call for acquiring SolarCity even as he outlined a significant expansion of Tesla's products and ambitions for ride sharing. Musk said the company will continue to pursue self-driving car technology so that Tesla customers will be able to use their cars for ride sharing, "to make money for you when you aren't using it".

Analysts are skeptical about Tesla's ability to add more products to its lineup.

"As is typical, Elon Musk has laid out a grandiose plan for the future with no time frames and few specifics, and no mention of how and when Tesla will be profitable," said Michelle Krebs, an analyst for Autotrader.com Inc. "Tesla's latest Master Plan includes expanding its electric-vehicle product line to cover all major segments, when it hasn't been meeting production targets with the limited product line it has now and in the next couple of years."
Accra, July 22 : India has been commended for its support in improving Ghana's internal security, with the West African nation saying this has been part of the two countries cooperation in international security.

"Ghana and India are cooperating in the area of international security. India has agreed to support Ghana in the field of security," Vice President Amissah-Arthur said when he received outgoing Indian High Commissioner Jeeva Sagar at the Flagstaff House here on Friday.

India's cooperation with Ghana in security and national defence dates back to the 1960s when military officers were sent to India for training. A number of police officers have also benefitted from training in India.

Trade between the two countries has also hiked over the past few years through the deepening of bilateral relations -- to $7 billion from $3 billion over the past two years.

Amissah-Arthur said that with the current expansion of relations between the two countries, "Ghana would continue to cherish its friendship with India," adding that prior to Ghana's independence, India provided tremendous support in various sectors, which led to the shared principles of non-alignment and non-interference in the affairs of other countries.

The vice president said the level of economic cooperation between the two countries had deepened during the Sagar's tour of duty and mentioned, in particular, Indian investments in agriculture and sugar production.

Sagar who has ended his three-year tenure, Indian investments in Ghana have already exceeded $1 billion and attributed this to the belief the two countries have in democracy and the rule of law.

He said geographical locations have not affected the cordial relations between the countries, adding that it was for this reason that India is prepared to support the Kofi Annan ICT Centre with a$1 million grant to enable it add to its current programmes.

He said India is prepared to assist Ghanaian exports with value addition for the country to reap maximum returns.

Sagar said the recent state visit by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has given a further boost to deepen ties between the two countries, which has also improved partnerships between Ghanaian and Indian businesses.

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com)
New Delhi, July 22 : The government is not in favour of compulsory military training to youth in the country, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The Minister was responding to a question by BJP member Ram Charan Bohra, who asked if the government proposed to impart compulsory military training to the youth in the country.

"The government is not in favour of making military training compulsory," the minister said in a written reply.

Asked about details of any proposals that had been made on the issue, the minister listed three private members' bills presented to the house between 2012 and 2015.

The first bill, brought by Rajya Sabha member Avinash Rai Khanna in December 2012, sought to provide military training to youth.

The second private member bill was brought by Lok Sabha MP Bhola Singh in February 2015 for providing military training to all able-bodied citizens.

The third bill, presented in the Lok Sabha by B.C. Khanduri, who also heads the parliamentary panel on defence, sought compulsory military training to gazetted officers of central government.

None of the private members' bills, however, found favour with the respective houses.
Beijing, July 22 : Though China has achieved a number of milestones in healthcare advancement over the past three decades, further reforms are urgently needed, said a new report by WHO, the World Bank and the Chinese government, released in Beijing on Friday.

The study, conducted over the last two years, urges China to push the healthcare reform (that began in 2009) through innovation and, in turn, relying more on a system of basic healthcare and less on hospitals, which are less sustainable from the financial point of view, Efe news reported.

Despite lifting more than 600 million people out of poverty and expanding medical insurance to cover nearly the entire population over the past 30 years, the Asian country also faces a litany of challenges including an aging population and an increasing non-communicable disease burden, said the report.

The aging population and spike in non-contagious diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and heart problems, pose "the greatest health threat to Chinese people", noted the report.

The report states that NCDs are further aggravated by high-risk behaviors and habits, including smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption and environmental factors such as pollution.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, however, lauded China's efforts to tackle pollution and reduce carbon emissions as one of the "the most comprehensive, most ambitious" historically.

Kim acknowledged the rapid shift in priorities in China since 2013, when pollution levels shot up in Beijing, and lauded the government efforts to move quickly to address the problem.

Recommendations to China listed in the report include reforming public hospitals to reward for good results rather than the number of patients attended to.

The WHO and World Bank also recommended the government allow the private sector to compete on equal footing with the public sector.
New Delhi, July 22 : Accusing the government of failure in foreign policy matters, the Congress on Friday questioned its silence on China's comments on the Kashmir issue.

The opposition party said the communist country's comment was "direct interference" in India's internal matters but Prime Minister Narendra Modi or External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were yet to utter a word.

"It is a direct interference in the internal matters of India by China. What is surprising is that the government did not take note of it," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told the media at Parliament House complex here.

A media report said China had expressed concern over the casualties in clashes between protesters and security forces in Kashmir and hoped the situation in the Kashmir Valley will be "handled properly" and relevant parties will address the issue peacefully through dialogue.

"Neither the Prime Minister nor the External Affairs Minister expressed concern over the statement (by China)," he said.

The Congress leader said Modi should have made a public statement on the issue so that it was made known to China that it does not have any business to interfere in India's internal matters.

"This is very serious," he said, adding the situation arose due to "lack of experience" of the Modi government in foreign policy matters.

Recalling the rule of the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, Sibal said: "We kept a fine balance in relations with the United States and China, knowing that both were important for the development of the region."

Sibal also said that "of late China has started mentioning Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as Pakistan's".

"I would request the Prime Minister to stop his light and sound show and start working on issues like these," he said, taking a dig at Modi's public meetings.

The Congress leader said the issue of China commenting on India's internal matters will be taken up in Parliament on Monday.

He also accused Modi of keeping mum on atrocities against Dalits across the country.

Asked what the Congress' stand was on the Goods and Services Tax bill, the Congress leader said that "GST will happen only if MST ('meri suno toh') happens."
New Delhi, July 22 : On a day Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Lok Sabha member Bhagwant Mann apologised to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for live streaming a video of Parliament House complex on his Facebook page, his party on Friday sought to defend him.

"To those making a hue and cry about Mann's video, such videos and information are already available on the Lok Sabha website," Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Punjab incharge Sanjay Singh tweeted.

In a series of tweets, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have united to get the Lok Sabha membership of Mann cancelled.

"The Congress and BJP are scared of the AAP; that is why they have united to get his (Mann's) Lok Sabha membership cancelled. When will they unite to talk about the Dalits and farmers?" the AAP leader asked.

Reacting to AAP rivals' comments that Mann, the party MP from Sangrur in Punjab, was a threat to national security, Singh said: "(BJP parliamentarians) Yogi Adityanath, Sakshi Maharaj and Giriraj Singh are the biggest threat to the national security. Mann will be booked under the National Security Act: is this justice?"

Another AAP leader Alka Lamba sarcastically said that membership of lawmakers was not be cancelled when they were caught watching porn or caught on camera while accepting bribes.

"When is the membership (of parliamentarians) not cancelled? When a member is caught watching porn in the house or accepting cash to raise questions in the house or disrupt its proceedings," she tweeted.

Mann on Thursday shot a video clip of his journey from home to Parliament House, including movement past various security check points, and posted it on the social media, drawing flak from various quarters for putting Parliament complex security in danger.

He apologised to the Lok Sabha Speaker and removed the video from Facebook.
Kathmandu, July 22 : Amid prevailing political uncertainty, Nepal's Parliament on Friday began discussing a no-trust motion against Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli after three Bills related to the annual budget were rejected by majority vote.

The rejection of the budget-related bills came as a major blow to the Oli government, which was relegated to minority after key alliance partner, CPN (Maoist Centre) withdrew support earlier this month.

At a joint meeting ahead of Friday's Parliament sitting, the Nepali Congress, Maoists and Madhesi Morcha decided to reject the Budget-related Bills.

Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel tabled three Budget-related Bills on Friday which were rejected by majority vote, announced Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar.

Following disapproval of the Budget, the Parliament began discussion on the no-trust motion, which has been jointly moved by the Nepali Congress and the Maoists -- the largest and third-largest parties in the House.

Initiating the discussion on the no-trust motion, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' spelled out why the Oli government needed to be replaced.

"We found PM Oli to be self-centred and egoistic. We all are committed to national unity and national interest," said Prachanda, addressing the House.

"He (Oli) tried to use the Maoists in the government, and so we decided to pull out support from the government," he added.

"We will opt for progressive nationalism. Given our geopolitical realities, we have to make fair and balanced relations with our neighbours. So we have to strengthen our internal national unity," he said.

The NC and the Maoists have joined hands to topple the Oli government accusing it of failing to implement the new Constitution, slow pace of post-earthquake reconstruction and other major national issues.

Though the Oli government has been relegated to minority, Prime Minister Oli has refused to resign. He said he will face the no-trust motion in parliament.

The House will discuss the no-trust motion for another three days.

(Anil Giri can be reached at girianil@gmail.com)
New Delhi, July 22 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to put on hold, for now, the demolition of the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society building in Mumbai and told the director of military estates (army) to take the custody of building and secure it.

Asking the army estate branch to take the possession of the building and the land on which it has been constructed, the bench of Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre said an inventory of documents currently kept in the office of the building society would be prepared under supervision of the registrar of the Bombay High Court before being handed over to the society office bearers .

The bench said that the possession of the Adarsh building would pass on to director of military estates or his nominee by August 5 and simultaneously the documents would be handed over to the representatives of the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society.

While issuing notice and refusing to pass any interim order on the plea for the stay of the April 29 judgment of the Bombay High Court ordering the demolition of the controversial building, the bench said that the government would take its possession.

The court gave the custody of the Adarsh building to the director of military estate, after ascertaining that none of the flats in 31-storey building was occupied.

The court also said that the furniture that some of the flat owners had kept in their flats after getting the possession too would be handed over to the representatives of the society. The possession letters were later cancelled.

Initially the bench had said that it will ask the central government to take the possession of the building and maintain and protect it. However, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar urged the court to hand over the possession of the building to Naval command in the area.

The court order came in the course of the hearing of a plea by the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society challenging the April 29 Bombay High Court judgment directing the demolition of the controversial building which it held was illegally constructed.

The high court had also ordered the initiation of criminal proceedings against the politicians and bureaucrats for misusing their positions.

While court asked the director of military estate to take the possession of the building and secure it, senior counsel Shekhar Naphade expressed the apprehension that Mumbai Municipal Corporation may go ahead with the demolition of the building as directed by the High Court.

But the bench sought to dispel the apprehension expressed by Naphade saying that they have directed the director of military estate to take the custody of the building and secure it.

However, the matter was put to rest after the Solicitor General told the court: "We will secure the building and the land and there will be no demolition."
Chennai/New Delhi, July 22 : An AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with 29 people on board went missing on Friday over the Bay of Bengal off the Chennai coast, and remained untraceable till evening despite a full-scale search and rescue mission.

Those on board included six crew members, 15 personnel from the IAF, army, navy and Coast Guard, and eight civilians who were family members of the personnel.

Eight of the passengers were employees of Naval Armament Depot (NAD) in Visakkhapatnam. Their families were worried over the fate of their loved ones and were anxiously waiting for some information from the ongoing search operations.

The aircraft, an upgraded AN-32 belonging to 33 Squadron, took off from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai at 8.30 a.m., and was expected to land at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 11.30 a.m., officials said, describing it as a "routine sortie".

According to a report submitted to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar by Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, according to the recorded transcript of Chennai air traffic radar, last pickup was 151 nautical miles east of Chennai, when the aircraft was observed to have carried out a left turn with rapid loss of height from 23,000 feet.

A massive search and rescue operation involving aircraft, helicopters, ships and a submarine was launched immediately to find the plane that went missing around 300 km off Chennai, and will continue through the night.

The last contact with the aircraft was established roughly around 15-20 minutes after the take-off, sources said.

As the aircraft went missing, a full-scale search and rescue operation was launched immediately.

"Efforts on to trace IAF AN 32 aircraft and our Service personnel on board," Parrikar said in a tweet.

The Eastern Naval Command (ENC) deployed two P8I long-range maritime surveillance aircraft with advanced electro-optics and radars, two Dornier aircraft and 12 ships with integral helicopters to join the search operations.

Four ships of the ENC, deployed in the Bay of Bengal on different missions, were diverted to the search area while eight ships of the Eastern Fleet, which were on return journey from the South China Sea, were also made to proceed to join in the operations.

A submarine at sea was diverted as well for locating transmissions from the emergency locator beacon onboard the aircraft. Emergency locator beacons usually get activated in case a plane crashes.

Ships deployed for the search include Shivalik-class stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, guided-missile destroyers INS Rajput and Ranvijay, corvettes Kamorta, Kirch, Karmuk, Kora, Kuthar, fleet tankers INS Shakti and INS Jyoti, amphibious warfare vessel INS Gharial and patrol vessel INS Sukanya, the Indian Navy said. Four Coast Guard ships are also involved in the operations.

The incident comes a year after a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft with three crew members on board for a routine surveillance flight went missing.

The search team found its black box nearly a month later. The skeletal remains and personal belongings of the crew members were recovered from the sea bed off the Tamil Nadu coast.

India bought 125 AN-32 aircraft in 1984. The IAF at present has a fleet of over 100 AN-32s.

The Russian-origin aircraft is known for its excellent take-off characteristics in hot and high conditions, and is suitable for use as a medium tactical military transport. The twin-engine aircraft is primarily used for transporting cargo and passengers, including skydivers and paratroopers.

After India decided in 2009 to get the aircraft upgraded, 40 were upgraded in Ukraine and the rest in the country.

The final batch of upgraded AN-32RE aircraft was delivered last year, and the modifications have increased the life of these aircraft by 15 years to serve till 2035, according to experts. However, the modernisation programme in India was hit by the situation in Ukraine and shortage of spare parts.
New Delhi, July 22 : The much-awaited new team of BJP President Amit Shah has been delayed apparently due to continuing deliberations within the party and the RSS over the role of its two Rams - Ramlal and Ram Madhav.

Shah is not keen to have them in his new team, but the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has not yet given its green signal to exclude them, informed sources told IANS.

Ramlal has been holding the important post of General Secretary (Organisation) in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2006. This post is held by a RSS representative in the party to work as a bridge between the two.

Sources in the BJP said that Amit Shah is of the view that since Ramlal has been serving in the post for long, a new face should be given an opportunity.

Four names are doing the rounds for the next General Secretary (Organisation).

They are V. Satish, Shiv Prakash, Saudan Singh and B.L. Santosh. They are all joint general secretaries under Ramlal.

Sources said that Amit Shah is in favour of V. Satish while the RSS is keen on Shiv Prakash as the replacement of Ramlal.

Ram Madhav is a RSS man and party General Secretary in Amit Shah's present team.

Sources said that Shah was not happy with Madhav as the latter had managed to create an impression that the party's victory in Assam was due to his strategy.

After the BJP's two-third majority in Assam, it was widely reported in the media that a team of experts headed by an IIT-ian Rajat Sethi, under Madhav, played a key role in the BJP's success.

Even after a series of meetings and deliberations among the BJP and the RSS leadership, the issue of new names in the party has not been sorted out.

According to sources, Shah on Thursday evening discussed the issue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. A meeting was also held on Friday at Home Minister Rajnath Singh's residence, which was attended among others by Shah, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and RSS Joint General Secretary Krishna Gopal.

Sources said it will not be an easy task for Shah to replace both the Rams as both have strong RSS backing.

"RSS will take a final call on this," a BJP insider told IANS.

BJP president Amit Shah is likely to announce his new team next week as the rest of the names have been almost finalised.

According to sources former Union Ministers Ram Shankar Katheria and Prahlad Patel, former Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Laxmikant Vajpayee and former Kerala state unit head Murlidharan may be inducted as new faces in Shah's team. Two other names doing the rounds are of Arjun Munda, former Jharkhand Chief Minister, and D. Purandeswari, former Union Minister.

Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former party leader late Pramod Mahajan, is likely to replace Anurag Thakur as Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president.

(Brajendra Singh can be reached at brajendra.s@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 22 : India and Bangladesh will hold Home Minister level talks here on July 28, it was announced on Friday.

Senior government officials from both side are likely to participate in the talks.

A delegation led by Home Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan will be on a three-day visit to India beginning from July 27, an official statement said.

The two sides held the last such talks in India in December, 2012, and in Bangladesh in January 2013.
Localization helps CCCC to build in Africa Updated: 2016-07-22 08:11 By Yang Ziman(China Daily)

Kenyan workers at the construction site of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway, contracted by China Communications Construction Company Co Ltd. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Incorporating Chinese standards into infrastructure projects in Africa is the key to sustainable development on the continent, said the top executive of China Communications Construction Co Ltd.

"In the globalization process, we need to introduce Chinese standards overseas and integrate them into the local projects. Localization is the prerequisite for real sustainable development," said Sun Ziyu, president of CCCC.

CCCC is a State-owned enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that has businesses designing and building transportation infrastructure plus manufacturing dredging and other heavy machinery. It has more than 200 projects overseas, including railways, roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and harbors.

CCCC began its Africa work in the 1970s in Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania. Now it has projects in more than 50 countries in Africa, including the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway, the Addis Ababa-Adama Expressway in Ethiopia, and Kribideep Sea Port in Cameroon.

One of CCCC's largest projects in Africa is the standard gauge railway from Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The railway will eventually extend to neighboring countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

The annual throughput of the port of Mombasa is 25 million tons.

But, the existing railway has an annual transport capacity of only 1 million metric tons because it is a narrow-gauge, one meter width, track built more than 100 years ago during British colonial rule. The rest of the goods have to be transported by road.

The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR line, which will be the standard 1.435-meter width, will allow a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour for passenger trains and 80 kilometers per hour for freight trains, and will have an annual capacity of 25 million tons.

The biggest infrastructure project in Kenya since independence, it will shorten passenger travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi from more than ten hours to a little more than four hours. Freight trains will complete the journey in less than eight hours.

On May 11, 2014, Kenyan and Chinese leaders signed agreements for the construction of the project, which is now about 65 percent finished. A trial run is expected in early 2017. Construction of the 472-kilometer line began in October 2013 and is scheduled to be completed by early 2018.

The Mombasa-Nairobi phase of the project is estimated to cost 327 billion Kenyan shillings ($3.8 billion).

The Export-Import Bank of China will provide 90 percent of the financing while the remaining 10 percent will be contributed by the Kenyan government.

"The construction of the railway will create 30,000 jobs for the country. It is estimated to boost the GDP growth rate of Kenya by 1.5 percentage points. More than 90 percent of the workers will be local people," said Liu Qitao, chairman of CCCC.

"The rail line is constructed completely under Chinese technological standards. We are introducing Chinese capital and managerial expertise to the continent. It will provide faster, safer and more reliable modern transport in Kenya," he said.

The railway circumvents wildlife habitats as much as possible. In the National Park of Nairobi and Tsavo National Park, pathways for wild animals will be built to guide the animals to cross the railway.

Culverts will also be built for animals such as zebras to get water.
New Delhi, July 22 : The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent a notice to the Madhya Pradesh government over poor healthcare facilities in Damoh district and sought its response in four weeks, officials said.

The human rights body, taking suo motu cognizance of a media report, noted that when even the district collector, the highest administrative official in a district, finds himself helpless, the plight of ordinary people can be imagined, a statement said on Friday.

The commission has issued notice to the Principal Secretary, Public Health and Family Welfare, of Madhya Pradesh government, calling for a report in the matter within four weeks.

According to a media report on July 19, Damoh's district collector allegedly lost his ailing mother on June 11 as the district hospital does not have intensive care facilities and routinely refers patients to Jabalpur Medical College or Sagar.

In this case too, a lot of time was wasted in ferrying the ailing woman to Jabalpur, the report said.

According to the media report, the medical facilities in the district are in such a bad shape that of 68 sanctioned posts of senior doctors in the district hospital, only 16 are filled.
Kolkata, July 22 : The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group owned power utility company CESC Ltd on Friday said it was in talks with a private distribution company to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 150 MW that will take the capacity utilisation of its plant in Chandrapura of Maharashtra to 450 MW.

"We are close to signing a deal for 150 MW with a private distribution company. We have so far tied up almost 300 MW and with this deal our total PPA will be for 450 MW out of 540 MW effective capacity," said group chairman Sanjiv Goenka.

While the project has now an accumulated loss of Rs 600 crore, Goenka said with the new PPA, it was expected to turn revenue positive in the next three months.

About its retail arm Spencer's, Goenka said it was expected to achieve Rs 2,200 crore in the current fiscal.

He also said the retail arm will soon be launching an app offering home delivery of 12,000 grocery items.

"The facility will initially be made available to customers in Kolkata and then will be extended to other cities," added Goenka.
Shillong, July 22 : Meghalaya has asked the Uranium Corp of India Ltd (UCIL) to keep in abeyance the Expression of Interest (EOI) for a mine and processing plant of uranium ore in South West Khasi Hills district, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said on Friday.

Sangma, who held a meeting with anti-uranium mining groups and pro-developmental group, however urged the people to allow the construction of a two-lane 68-km road from Nongstoi, the district headquarters of West Khasi Hills, to Mawthabah village, which has rich uranium deposits.

"I shared at the meeting that UCIL floated the EOI without the knowledge of the state government which is not a correct approach. Therefore, we have asked the UCIL to keep in abeyance the EOI," the Chief Minister told journalists.

Moreover, Sangma said he would also write to the central government to ensure that the UCIL does not resort to any activities in the future without the knowledge of the state government.

"We will not allow UCIL to take up any preliminary activities or pre-mining developmental activities in the uranium deposit areas in South West Khasi Hills district unless it can convince the people of the state on the safety aspects or how it can insulate the people from the ramifications of uranium mining," he said.

On the proposed constriction of the two-lane road from Nongstoi to Mawthabah, Sangma said he would write to the union ministry of road transport and highway to clarify if the objective of the proposed road was to facilitate mining of uranium.

He said the people should not interpret the construction of the proposed two-lane road projects as facilitating uranium mining in the state since the government would not take a decision on the matter unless a consensus was reached with all the stakeholders and people of the state were fully convinced about it.

On the other hand, anti-uranium mining groups vowed that they will not allow any pre-developmental projects, including the proposed two-lane road in uranium-rich deposits areas.

North East Student's Organisation Samuel B Jyrwa told journalists that the two-lane road between Nongstoin and Mawthabah was to facilitate mining of uranium.

However, the pro-developmental lobby welcomed the government's proposal to construct the two-lane road.

Meghalaya is the third uranium-rich state in the country after Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

The state accounts for 16 percent of India's uranium reserves, with deposits estimated to be around 9,500 tonnes and 4,000 tonnes respectively at Domiasiat and Wakhaji, both in South West Khasi hills district.
Kathmandu, July 22 : The Nepal government led by K.P. Sharma Oli lost majority support on Friday as a no-confidence motion was registered in Parliament.

CPN Maoist Centre leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal tabled the motion with the support of 201 members of 13 parties. His proposal has been backed by the Nepali Congress, the largest party in Parliament.

Addressing the house, Dahal came down heavily upon Prime Minister Oli, accusing him of failing to promote national unity owing to his self-centric and egoistic working style.

Stating that Oli tried to breach past agreements, Dahal claimed that the Prime Minister was not serious at all in concluding the peace process.

"The nation is in urgent need of national unity. There is no alternative to unity among us," Dahal said in his nearly hour long speech.

The Nepali Congress also supported the no-confidence motion saying that it was necessary as the government did not pay any heed to the concerns raised by the major opposition party.

Oli become the head of the Nepal government nine months earlier with the support of the CPN Maoist Centre, the then Unified CPN Maoist, under the leadership of Dahal.

However, the CPN Maoist Centre decided to withdraw the support from the government last week expressing dissatisfaction.
Bengaluru, July 22 : As if scripted by Tollywood superstar Rajinikanth, his latest blockbuster "Kabali" took the city by storm on Friday, as thousands of his frenzied fans flocked to theatres and multiplexes to watch it on first day if not in the first show.

Though tickets for upper classes and special enclosures in about 60 cinema halls were sold out for all shows till Sunday, there was a scramble for tickets for lower classes, as hundreds of fans queued up at their counters hours before they opened.

Even as those who were lucky to watch the movie in the first three-four shows stepped out of theatres and multiplexes, cheering and shouting the film's catch-phrase "Kabali da", many more were restive for their turn to watch it in which Rajini plays the role of a Malaysian don.

And those unlucky to get a ticket even in black were unfazed and hanged around to dance and make merry outside theatres and around multiplexes.

Many fans were also seen re-enacting Rajini's famous style of walking, shuffling his hands, combing his hair and repeating his dialogues from "Kabali" and his other films.

As in Chennai and elsewhere, huge cut-outs, posters and banners sporting Rajini were cynosure of all eyes at all theatres and multiplexes. A few fans even climbed up from behind to worship their demi-god by pouring milk on his bearded face, garland it and light incense before it.

While many fans preferred to watch the movie in Tamil for their 'Thalaivar's dialogues in original language, others settled for its versions in Hindi and Telugu but not in Kannada, as local laws do not allow dubbing of other language films into Kannada.

A few Kannada activists, led by former lawmaker Vatal Nagaraj of a regional Kannada Chakluvali Vatal Paksha protested against the hype and euphoria created by Rajini's fans, distributors, theatres, multiplexes, media and corporates by declaring holiday for their employees to watch the movie.

When an effigy of Rajini was burnt outside Nataraja theatre in the city centre, police rushed to the spot to control the situation and prevent the activists from going berserk.

"We are not against showing films of other languages in the state or in Bengaluru, the most cosmopolitan city in the country. But they cannot be shown at the cost of Kannada films, which are seen by the majority of the people across the state, who are Kannidagas and prefer to see Kannada movies," Nagaraj told reporters.
Berlin, July 22 : Several people have died in a shooting spree at a shopping centre in the German city of Munich, BBC reported on Friday.

CNN said three people are dead.

A big operation is underway in Munich. Police have told people to stay at home and avoid the streets.

Several people have also been injured at the shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.

According to reports, there is one attacker.

Some shopworkers are reportedly unable to leave the building.

The security forces have been on alert after an Afghan teen attacked and severely injured five people with an axe on a train in Bavaria on Monday.

The authorities had warned of the danger of further attacks.
Mumbai, July 22 : Superstar Shah Rukh Khan says that he is a struggling writer, who has not taken his calling very seriously, but penned a poem, inspired from "One Direction" star Zayn Malik, for women.

Addressing a gathering at the launch of Gunjan Jain's book, Shah Rukh, just before reading from a letter he had written for Jain, said" "I'm also a struggling writer; I have not been able to take my calling very seriously."

During the course of reading the letter, he said, "There was an amazing quote about girls by Zayn Malik that I read. I'd really tried to be with it because of my daughter. So when I met him in London, inspired by his thoughts and his writing, I penned a poem for tonight or at least some rhyming lines that I felt about girls all around the world.

"So his quote was more or less this, I've tried to rhyme it. I hope it works."

Shah Rukh's poem:

"This is for girls who stay up all night, this is for you who is willing to fight.

For hidden fears, hurt, pain and tears, under the smiles, laughs, and giggles we hear.

Let your hair down, straight or curls, you're beautiful because you fight like a girl.

For girls who wear short skirts, and their heart on their sleeve, for girls who know how difficult it is to believe.

The girls who scream and cry to the pillows and tell them their goals, for girls who have a secret, but can't tell a soul.

Let your eyes be your diamonds, make them your pearls, you're beautiful because you fight like a girl.

For girls who have made mistakes and have regrets galore, for girls that may not win, but always get up from the floor.

The girls who take life as comes, the girl who have broken the code, for the girls who hope, that they'll get better somewhere down the road.

Let your steps be a dance and jump and do the swirl, you're beautiful because you fight like a girl.

For the girls who love with all their heart, although sometimes gets broke, to girls who think it's over, to real girls, all girls, who have tears to soak.

You throw, you pick up and fall. But just tell the world I'm beautiful because I fight like a girl."

Shah Rukh's selfie with Zayn Malik from the Asian Awards in London last year had gone viral with Twitter terming it the most retweeted tweet ever in India at that time. He had also reportedly invited Malik for a screening of his last film "Fan".
Berlin, July 23 : Democratic presidential nominee for the US elections Hillary Clinton condemned the shooting in Munich in which eight people were killed and several injured.

Hillary said that she is "monitoring the horrific situation in Munich".

"We stand with our friends in Germany as they work to bring those responsible to justice," she tweeted.

The President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, said that he was "horrified" by the shooting in Munich.

In a statement, Mr Gauck said: "I am with all the victims in my thoughts and all those who are mourning or fearful for loved ones."

He also offered his "solidarity" to people in the emergency services who are working this evening, trying to "protect people and save lives".

Speaking to German television ARD, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said the possibility of a terrorist attack had to be considered "We don't rule out any possibility. I was in close contact with the Bavarian interior minister all afternoon and evening. The Chancellor is being kept up to date at all times and everything we know and can say so far is that it was an inhuman, cruel attack. Our thoughts are with the victims of this attack. We can't rule out a terrorist connection, we can't confirm this but we investigate in this direction as well," he tweeted.

According to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, GSG9 -- an elite German counter-terrorism unit -- is now involved in the operation in Munich.

However, the police have not confirmed this.

Munich Police are now reporting a ninth death. They said that the police are investigating whether this person was involved in the attack.
There are more home owners moving out London than ever before with more than 280,000 moving away in 2015, an increase of 3% compared to 2014, a new analysis shows.

The exodus is led by young people in their twenties and thirties, suggesting that rising house prices could be behind the decision, according to the research from multi-disciplinary property company Humberts.

The report by ResiAnalytics for Humberts, which analyses the newly released data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), shows that 26% were aged 20 to 29 but this was less than the 30% recorded in 2014, while 23% were aged 30 to 39, up slightly from the 22% recorded in 2014.

The average cost of a London house today is almost double the English average at 470,000 compared to 224,000 and consequently we are seeing more and more people cashing in and moving out, said Jeremy Campbell-Harris from Humberts London Country House Department.

He believes that those in their 20s probably struggle to afford to buy a home in London and those in their 30s who may have young children are looking for a bigger home and more peaceful surroundings.



Birmingham, the UKs second city where average house prices are less than half those in London, tops the list of most popular destinations for London leavers. Brighton and Hove, where house prices are similar to those in London, is also popular choice due to being commutable yet on the coast.

In third place is Thurrock, followed by Epping Forest, Elmbridge, Bristol, Medway, Manchester, Dartford, Hertsmere, Luton, Reigate and Banstead, Slough, Canterbury, Welwyn Hatfield, Leeds, Sevenoaks, Nottingham, Spelthorne and finally Coventry makes up the top 20 destinations.

The research also looked at regions which have grown in popularity over the past five years. The East of England has seen a 4% increase in the number of people moving from London in 2015 compared with 2011. This is in contrast to the South East, which has seen a 3% fall in the number moving to the region.



The price of housing in London and the South East has risen so significantly over the years that Londoners are looking for new areas where their money can go further. Of all the regions in England and Wales, the East of England and the South West are the only two regions that have seen increases in the number of Londoners moving there, said Campbell-Harris.

Better broadband connections, better transport links and great value for money are three main reasons why these areas are proving to be increasingly popular amongst people from the Capital, he added.


Military economy to boom as govt targets integrated development Updated: 2016-07-22 15:26 (chinadaily.com.cn/Xinhua)

An unmanned patrol boat is on display at the Second China Military and Civilian Integration Expo in Beijing on Monday. [Photo by Zhao Lei/chinadaily.com.cn]

China is eyeing more efficient and coordinated integration of military and civilian development, a move which analysts say would boost multiple industries to the tune of trillion-yuan in years to come.

A new document, which was released on Thursday, said the integrated development should rely on the roles of the market, reform and innovation, while boosting the "coordinated, balanced and compatible" development of both economic and defense construction.

The guideline called for building an advanced defense science, technology and industry system. Defense enterprises will be regrouped, and more non-governmental investment will be encouraged in defense industries.

Cooperation between military and civilian science and technology institutions will be strengthened, according to the guideline, which also called for cooperation between military and civilian education institutions.

"The military sector, before anyone else, creates top-notch technologies and game-changing innovations," Lu Guangshan, chairman of AVIC Avionics Systems Company Ltd, was quoted by the Shanghai Securities News as saying.

"For example, the currently red-hot virtual reality technologies were actually first adopted in the helmet sight system of fighter planes," he said.

The military-civilian integration could become a new driver of economic growth, boosting multiple industries from aviation and cyber-security to medical health. Each industry is expected to develop a market of trillions of yuan, he told the newspaper.

"With technological edges, we have made forays into industries including virtual reality, robots, drones, new materials, wearable, medical health," he said.

An insurance system for servicemen will be built, and a sharing system for military and civilian health care resources will be improved. The military's housing system will also be reformed, according to the guideline.

Calling for strong capital input and policy support, the circular encouraged the military and civilian sectors to first collaborate on a series of major projects.

"(Authorities) should build several innovation demonstration zones to explore new and sustainable paths and patterns that can be popularized and replicated," it said.
OnPar Technologies today announced it has been named 2016 US SMB Champions Club Southeast Partner of the Year by Microsofts US Small and Mid-sized Business (SMB) Champions Club. The award recognizes the US SMB Champions Club partner who has demonstrated significant SMB sales and year-over-year SMB revenue growth with Southeast SMB customers. Members of the US SMB Champions Club have shown dedication to arming the small business community with the right technology and services they need to be successful.

OnPar Technologies is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner with competencies in Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, Cloud Platform and Cloud Productivity. As a Direct 1-Tier Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), OnPar specializes in Microsoft Licensing, Office 365 Deployment, SharePoint Development, Skype for Business and Azure Cloud Solutions.

Were honored to be named Microsofts SMB Partner of the Year for the Southeast region. This recognition only reinforces what our clients have been telling us for years: OnPar delivers business solutions that are incredibly impactful and transformative. Receiving this award is further proof that we continue to be a leader in the design, implementation and support of Microsoft technologies. said Jeremy McParlan, CEO of OnPar Technologies.

OnPar Technologies along with winners in six other categories were recognized during the Microsoft SMB Champions Award Reception in Toronto, Canada on July 11, 2016.

Over the past year, our partners have helped to accelerate and deliver Microsofts mobile first, cloud first approach to small businesses across the U.S., said Cindy Bates, vice president of Microsoft US SMB and Distribution. We value the continued commitment OnPar Technologies has demonstrated to delivering products and solutions that increase productivity and help small businesses do more with less time. We congratulate them on this well-deserved award.

The Microsoft Partner Network is designed to equip organizations that deliver products and services through the Microsoft platform with the training, resources and support they need to provide their customers superior experience and outcomes. Microsofts US SMB Champions Club is an exclusive program designed for partners who have a proven track record of delivering Microsoft solutions to businesses in the U.S. small and medium business (SMB) segment and have committed to advancing their cloud business practice. As a member of the SMB Champions Club, partners can further their Cloud growth by utilizing the benefits obtained through their program status.

Founded in 2007, OnPar Technologies is a Microsoft consultancy and leading provider of Information Technology solutions to small and mid-sized businesses throughout the eastern United States. Our Microsoft experts implement custom-fit, transformative technology solutions designed to modernize your business, compete and win in todays rapidly evolving economy.

###

For more information: http://www.onpartech.com
Melanie Klaschka, Switchplace Vice President, Global Sales

Melanie heads up strategic growth, account development and the global sales team as Vice President, Global Sales for Switchplace. She has spent almost two decades growing and developing her career in the hospitality industry. Her extensive experience includes creating global sales strategy, negotiating and implementing Fortune Global 100 serviced apartment programs, running day-to-day operations for multiple markets and aligning global teams for continued success.

Just before joining Switchplace, Melanie took an expatriate assignment overseas to open and expand the Eurozone for a UK-based Serviced Apartment company. Prior to that Melanie spent time as a Regional General Manager for a US-based company, managing the day-to-day operations and sales for the greater New York City area. She also spent 12 years as Director, Global Accounts for a global hospitality company where she was directly responsible for the opening and success of the New York City market in the wake of the obstacles that derived from 9/11. During her time with that company, Melanie received several awards including the Customer Service Team Member award for creating a spousal support system and networking event for her in-house clients. Melanie holds a Global Mobility Specialist designation and a degree in International Business.

Melanie and her husband, Stephan, and their daughter reside in New York.

About Switchplace

Switchplace is a global temporary housing company that provides transitional accommodations and related services to support businesses and their employees during relocation, business travel, temporary assignments and a variety of project-related needs. Founded in 1998, the certified woman-owned business continues to customize and expand its offerings to meet the changing needs of corporations and relocation management companies. Switchplace has locations in the Americas, Singapore (APAC Region), and London (EMEA Region). For more information, visit http://www.switchplace.com.
Technology is increasingly becoming the differentiator between healthy, growing and compliant firms and everyone else. CONCERT's technological expertise really makes their platform stand out in the crowd. --Keith Gregg, Chief Strategy Officer, IAA

Driven by the adoption of its unique proprietary software platform, Omniscient CRM, and regulatory changes, CONCERT was able to attract 14 independent advisors to its CONCERT Wealth Management turnkey RIA platform.

"Studies have shown that advisors spend a significant amount of their time completing back office functions, which undermines their productivity and potential" said Jeff Pietsch, JD, CFA, President of Concert Wealth Management, Inc. "CONCERT is pleased to welcome these new advisors to our network, and looks forward to assisting them to grow and retain client assets through the significant time-savings our automated back office services and affordable portfolio solutions provide."

New technology and back office administration support solutions attracted International Assets Advisory, an Orlando based Broker/Dealer, to hire CONCERT's Omniscient CRM division to power their back office bringing over 110 advisors, 12,700 customer accounts and $ 1.2 billion in assets to be administered by CONCERT's back office services.

"IAA is far ahead of their peer group in embracing the idea of comprehensive AND integrated technology solutions to drive their growing business, " says Felipe Luna, CEO of CONCERT Global Group. "They have concluded that the increasingly rigorous compliance environment facing broker/dealers overseeing advisors, clients, accounts and investment assets held across a multitude of custodians and service providers requires a more sophisticated technology solution like Omniscient CRM. We are pleased to offer a cutting edge solution to our partners."

About CONCERT Global Group, CONCERT Wealth Management, CONCERT Capital Management and Omniscient CRM:

We are an advisor technology and back office services company providing a comprehensive suite of services to Independent Advisor Representatives (IARs), Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and Broker/Dealers (B/Ds). Our fully integrated platform of technology solutions, technology services and administrative support offers increased efficiency and scale allowing our IARs to focus on clients instead of the back office. CONCERT Wealth Management, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor, provides additional efficiencies to our IARs throughout the country by leveraging strong industry relationships, back office and compliance services. CONCERT Capital, a division of CONCERT Wealth Management, also provides investing solutions to help advisors better serve their existing clients while cultivating practice growth. Omniscient CRM delivers best in class, service enabled software to the financial services industry.
Left: Matthew C. DuBon; Right: Clayton Riley Harbin

Crowley Maritime Corp.s Thomas B. Crowley Sr. Memorial Scholarships are helping to further educational opportunities for two students of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy (GLMA). Crowley recently awarded scholarships to Matthew C. DuBon from South Carolina and Clayton Riley Harbin from California, based on their excellent grades, leadership ability and financial need.

DuBon, a sophomore, is seeking a bachelors degree in marine transportation and a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) third mate unlimited license. This summer, he plans to work for a small towing company on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Clayton, N.Y., where he spent 30 seasons boating recreationally. DuBon became intrigued by the challenge of marine towing when he and his father towed a 22-foot Sea Ray with a 13-foot Boston Whaler when he was only eight.

Harbin, an incoming freshmen, is also seeking a bachelors degree in marine transportation and a USCG third mate unlimited license. Upon graduation, he wants to pursue a towing career. Harbins fascination with the towing industry was sparked early in life as he grew up near the Pacific Ocean, often performing routine maintenance and helping replace components on his familys boat. While there, he frequently watched tugs move large barges near the Port of Long Beach.

Since 1984, Crowley has provided more than $3 million dollars in scholarship funding for more than 1,000 students. The company has also donated more than $2 million over the years to support other educational programs. In 1994, Chairman and CEO Tom Crowley Jr. established the Thomas B. Crowley Sr. Memorial Scholarship Program in honor of his father who led the company to extraordinary heights before passing away in 1994. The company continues to give scholarship dollars to deserving students in the U.S., Alaska and Puerto Rico. In 2006, the program was expanded to Central America, and to date has provided financial assistance to more than 20 students in that region. To learn more about the Crowley scholarship program, visit http://www.crowley.com/scholarships.

To learn more about Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime Corp., a 124-year-old privately held company that provides marine solutions, energy and logistics services around the world, please visit: http://www.crowley.com.
ARSRR_Network_UBES 4C Composed Logo.jpg We are honored to be partnering with the talented Weather Crafters team, who share the ARS vision of delivering a best-in-class customer service experience, said Dave Slott, President and Chief Operating Officer of ARS.

American Residential Services (ARS), a Memphis, Tenn. based, a privately-held national provider of air conditioning, heating and plumbing services, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Weather Crafters in Chester, Va. It will be rebranded as ARS of Richmond.

We are honored and privileged to be partnering with the talented Weather Crafters management team and dedicated staff, who share the ARS vision of delivering a best-in-class customer service experience, said Dave Slott, President and Chief Operating Officer of ARS.

Weather Crafters owner, Mark Bartlett, will continue to manage the Richmond-based HVAC business. We are pleased to join the ARS team which shares our belief that exceptional customer service and industry-leading employment practices are vital for continued market leadership. Through this partnership we will take our services in the Richmond area to the next level, said Bartlett.

Don Karnes, Chief Executive Officer of ARS, added, With this acquisition, ARS is increasing its strong presence in Virginia, which includes ARS/ Rescue Rooter Manassas in Manassas, Va., McCarthy Services in Lorton, Va., and R.S. Andrews in Portsmouth, Va. We are thrilled to have Weather Crafters join our family.

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ABOUT AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL SERVICES: Based in Memphis, Tenn., privately-owned ARS operates a network of more than 70 locally-managed service centers in 22 states, with approximately 5,500 employees. The ARS network features industry-leading brands including, A.J. Perri, Aksarben ARS, Allgood, Andys Statewide, ARS, Aspen Air Conditioning, Atlas Trillo, Beutler, Blue Dot, Brothers, Columbus Worthington Air, Conway Services, Efficient Attic Systems (EAS), Florida Home Air Conditioning, Green Star Home Services, McCarthy Services, Rescue Rooter/ Proserv, Rescue Rooter, RighTime Home Services, RS Andrews, The Irish Plumber, Unique Air Services , "Will" Fix It, and Yes! Air Conditioning and Plumbing. United by Exceptional Service, the ARS / Rescue Rooter Network serves both residential and light commercial customers by providing heating, cooling, indoor air quality, plumbing, drain cleaning, sewer line, radiant barrier, insulation and ventilation services. Each location has a knowledgeable team of trained specialists, who have undergone rigorous drug testing and criminal background checks. Providing exceptional service and ensuring the highest standards of quality, ARS has the experience to do any job right  the first time, with all work fully guaranteed.
We have consistently invested to develop a broad portfolio of patents to protect our branded products...which are synonymous with innovation in the building industry.

Specialty products manufacturer Huber Engineered Woods LLC (HEW), announced today that the Charlotte, N.C., company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Georgia-Pacific Wood Products LLC alleging that the ForceField Air and Water Barrier System infringes HEWs patents for its ZIP System sheathing and tape products. HEW filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court of the Western District of North Carolina (Huber Engineered Woods LLC v. Georgia-Pacific Wood Products LLC, Civil Action No. 3:16-cv-399).

For more than two decades, Huber Engineered Woods has provided innovative, premium and branded solutions to its customers and builders, said HEW President Brian Carlson. We have consistently invested to develop a broad portfolio of patents to protect our branded products, including ZIP System sheathing and tape products and AdvanTech flooring and sheathing panels, both of which are synonymous with innovation in the building industry.

Our brands have won multiple national awards and received numerous accolades and recognition in the industry, and we will vigorously defend our patents against infringement. Carlson added.

Since its introduction in 2006, ZIP System sheathing and tape has been widely adopted by many builders as a replacement for traditional sheathing and housewrap. The innovative exterior wall and roof system consists of an enhanced moisture-resistant, engineered wood panel with a built-in, water-resistive, vapor permeable barrier that eliminates the need for housewrap or felt. Completed with taped panel seams using high-performance ZIP System flashing tape, the system helps protect construction timelines by creating quick dry-in status and reducing risk of rework, while providing advanced moisture protection and reduced air leakage. ZIP System sheathing has been named #1 in quality for two consecutive years by Builder magazine readers (1), and ZIP System sheathing and tape was most recently named Best Energy Efficient Product of the International Builders Show (2).

About Huber Engineered Woods

Huber Engineered Woods LLC continually strives to create innovative products that suit customers needs. Specialty products AdvanTech flooring and sheathing, AdvanTech subfloor adhesive, ZIP System wall and ZIP System roof products, ZIP System tape and ZIP System stretch tape each deliver outstanding performance, easy installation and great strength in single family, multifamily and light commercial projects. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Huber Engineered Woods has manufacturing operations in Maine, Georgia, Virginia, and Oklahoma, as well as research and development facilities in Georgia. Huber Engineered Woods also serves industrial markets with products for door manufacturers and the transportation industry. For more information, visit huberwood.com.

About J.M. Huber Corporation

J.M. Huber Corporation, headquartered in Edison, New Jersey (U.S.), operates a portfolio of companies with a focus on its core engineered materials businesses. Founded in 1883, today Huber is one of the largest family-owned companies in the United States. The diversified, multinational company creates products that are used in a broad range of consumer and industrial applications, including oral care, personal care, food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and building materials. For more information, see huber.com.

(1) Builder Magazines annual Brand Use Study, 2015 - 2016; exterior wall sheathing category

(2) 2016 Best of IBS Awards, NAHB
"Carbon dioxide is not a control knob that can fine tune climate" - Judith Curry, Atmospheric Scientist, Georgia Tech If Mr. Carney can be so wrong in his assessment of factual climate data, why should we accept his claim that carbon disclosure will help markets? Past News Releases RSS

Friends of Science Society is responding to the climate change comments of Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, during his recent visit to Canada as reported by CBC News, July 16, 2016 wherein he claimed extreme climate-related events had risen along with insurance rates. Friends of Science says an analysis by Steve Kopits of Princeton Energy Advisors reports Carney's view is a critical failure of analysis based on the publicly available US government data, as detailed in Kopits' blog of Oct. 10, 2015, wherein he critiqued earlier similar comments made by Carney to Lloyds of London.

If Mr. Carney can be so wrong in his assessment of factual climate data, says Michelle Stirling, Communications Manager for Friends of Science, why should we accept his claim that carbon disclosure will help markets?

In the July 16, 2016 CBC report, Carney claimed more corporations should publicly report their carbon footprint, so that investors could assess who is on top of the increasingly critical issue. Friends of Science say corporations reporting their carbon footprint may instead find themselves on an investor black-list, saying their recent report Undue Influence-Markets Skewed follows the money on that issue. A second recent report A Confluence of Carbonbaggers shows how carbon markets have departed from climate science evidence and moved into ideology. In both, the role of foundations funding environmental groups are a factor in skewing energy and resource markets and compromising corporate core business.

Friends of Science notes that many Canadian environmental groups are funded by foreign foundations, creating a kind of green trade war, as reported by Vivian Krause in Alberta Oil Magazine, July 2, 2014 and supported by the July 20, 2014 US Senate Minority report entitled:The Chain of Environmental Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obamas EPA.

In the late 1950s, the Reece Committee examined how large philanthropic foundations and trusts could become a risk to society, says Stirling, referring to the book Foundations: Their Power and Influence by Rene A. Wormser. They found these groups could be dangerous as they have vast sums of money, exceptional powers, are unelected and virtually unaccountable, and can sway public opinion. Their climate crisis claims are not supported by the evidence.

Friends of Science Society hold the view that the sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change. Carbon dioxide from human industry has only a nominal effect on climate.

About

Friends of Science has spent a decade reviewing a broad spectrum of literature on climate change and have concluded the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2). Friends of Science is made up of a growing group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens.

Friends of Science Society

P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O.

Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2S 3B1

Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597

Web: friendsofscience.org

E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org
I have to say that the projectors were flawless, without the slightest hitch

In 1524, the Dominican Order built the Monastery of San Esteban in Salamanca, a building combining Gothic and Baroque styles and a genuinely stunning Plateresque facade. Not far short of its 500th anniversary, this was the facade mapped for the Festival de Luz y Vanguardias held for the first time this year, using the citys most iconic monuments as impromptu screens. Three Christie Boxer 4K30 projectors, managed by the rental and staging company Sono, powered no less than 90,000 lumens to create a spectacular mapping projection on the monastery.

At the helm of the technical production was Jose Luis Iglesias, director of events company Heavents, who brought on board Sono as the events audiovisual supplier. Sono facilitated the rental of the audiovisual equipment, the adjustment of the video projections, the mounting and technical assistance to cover the various spaces employed for the festival.

Daylight by the artist Anna Barriball was projected on the facade of the Monastery of San Esteban. The work showed the shadows of leaves trembling and swaying in real time, coming in and out of focus. The facade of the monastery was completely taken over by nature, transforming its essence and interacting with the exuberant vegetation of the surrounding trees.

The projection surface measured 56 x 72 (1,100-square) feet. Sono chose Christie Boxer because of its light output and the three projectors were mounted on a Layher scaffolding system at a projection distance of 131 feet. Each one covered a part of the facade, which meant edge blending was brought into play.

The playback system used was Watchout, working at a total resolution of 1700 x 2190. I have to say that the projectors were flawless, without the slightest hitch, enthused David Redondo, project manager at Sono. We are really happy with this product. The quality of the image and its features, coupled with the low weight and size, put it at the top of its class, he added.

Sonos technical team discovered Boxer during a trip to the Christie factory in Kitchener, Canada, where they were immediately won over by its functions: No other projector of this quality has a 4096 x 2160 native panel, 30,000 lumens and weighs just 68 kilos (150 pounds), explained Francesc Comabella, technical director at Sono. In addition, it is 360-degree omnidirectional, so it can be used in any position. It also has other interesting features, like the multi-lamp system, low energy consumption, built-in warping and blending and signal processing. And on top of all that, it is really easy to handle.

He went on to add that in the rental market there are not many top quality projectors with these features that can be mounted by two people. You have to bear in mind that if you need four people or a crane during installation, then there is a knock-on effect on the price.

The Christie Boxer 4K30, which comes with 3DLP technology and built-in Christie TruLife image processor to ensure the most realistic and clearest image possible, has won six awards since its launch in January 2015, namely: Live Design Awards (USA), InAVation Awards (UK), Premios Panorama Audiovisual (Brazil), AV Awards (UK), Rental & Staging Systems Award (USA) and PIPA Awards (Germany).

Returning to the festival in Salamanca, the joint input of Christie and Sono went much deeper, with three Christie Roadster HD18K projectors used for another mapping in the Patio de Escuelas at the University of Salamanca, and another two Christie Roadster HD14K-M projectors at Casa de las Conchas.

The festival took place on the streets of Salamanca with a particular emphasis on its many unique buildings which were used by a selection of guest artists, university students, freelance artists and video companies to project their creations, conceived especially for the specific architectural characteristics of the chosen buildings.

Marcos Fernandez, Christie director for Spain and Portugal, concluded: We are proud that our 3DLP projectors, including Boxer, were an instrumental part of such a creative event. Christies 3DLP line has a fantastic range of resolutions and levels of brightness that guarantee reliable performance and uniform brightness when projecting on almost any surface.

About Christie

Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. is a global visual and audio technologies company and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio, Inc., Japan, (JP:6925). Consistently setting the standards by being the first to market some of the worlds most advanced projectors and complete system displays, Christie is recognized as one of the most innovative visual technology companies in the world. From retail displays to Hollywood, mission critical command centers to classrooms and training simulators, Christie display solutions and projectors capture the attention of audiences around the world with dynamic and stunning images. Visit http://www.christiedigital.com for more information.

Follow us:

Twitter.com/christiedigital

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Linkedin.com/company/christie-digital-systems

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#christiedigital

Christie is a registered trademark of Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc., registered in the United States of America and certain other countries.

DLP is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments.
Cruise Ship forum headed to Tianjin Updated: 2016-07-22 19:42 By Zhang Min and Liu Jing(chinadaily.com.cn)

An upcoming cruise ship building forum has been hailed by the China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA) as a "baby step" in filling gaps after 10 years of rapid development in the industry.

The forum will be held for the first time during the 11th China Cruise Shipping Conference & International Cruise Expo in September, focusing on the future plan for "made in China" cruise ships.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China State Shipbuilding Corporation will join the meeting in Tianjin, which the association says shows the government and corporations are in an "advancing mode".

It is estimated that about 1.112 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas via cruise ships in 2015, which increased 5460.5 per cent compared to 2006, the year the first cruise ship docked in China. But for the past ten years, the cruise ship building industry has stagnated.

This year, a company in Shanghai locked down a contract to build cruise ships with Italy, which means China is partnering with a fifth country that can build cruise ships after Germany, France, Italy and Finland.

Zheng Weihang, Vice President of CCYIA, said "Shanghai had made the first step in the industry, and as the northern port of China, Tianjin could make full of use of its advantages and start with cruise maintenance and modifications."

Zheng also welcomed visitors to check out the exhibition showcasing the world's largest private-run hospital ship, which was built by Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co, Ltd. for Mercy Ships, operated by an American charity during the expo.

Tianjin, which is hosting the expo for the fourth time, has Asia's largest homeport. In 2015, Tianjin embraced 96 international cruise ships, an increase of 74.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.

He Zhineng, Vice Director of the Tianjin Tourism Administration, said "Tianjin is aiming to build a cruise city out of our homeport which includes cruise tourism, cruise logistics, talents cultivationand cruise building and maintenance."
AKA Enterprise Solutions, a leading Microsoft Dynamics Consultancy has achieved the prestigious 2016 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank AKA Enterprise Solutions in the top echelon of the Microsoft global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success.

This recognition came during Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2016, the annual premier partner event, which took place July 10-14 in Toronto, Ontario. Each year we recognize and honor Microsoft Dynamics partners from around the world for exemplary business performance, said Frank Holland, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions Sales & Partners. These award-winning partners represent the top 1% of Microsoft Dynamics partners in terms of sales performance, but their critical impact on the success of our shared customers is what truly stands out. Microsoft is honored to recognize AKA Enterprise Solution for their achievements this past year and for their dedication and support of Microsoft Dynamics solutions. 2016 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Summit, taking place in St. Pete Beach, Florida, in October 2016, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.

This recognition follows our June business combination with Green Beacon Solutions and reflects the success and hard work of both organizations during Microsofts fiscal year, said Alan Kahn, CEO of AKA Enterprise Solutions. We are looking forward to even greater alignment with Microsoft and success with our clients, now that the two organizations have come together as one.

About AKA Enterprise Solutions

For over 25 years, AKA Enterprise Solutions is dedicated to the sales, consulting, service and support of Microsoft Dynamics. AKA focuses on integrating and delivering all aspects of a client's business needs specializing in Dynamics ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence, Cloud Services Business Process Consulting and Custom Application Development. AKA's experience, proven methodologies and world- class consultants ensure customer success on every level.
LISI, Inc., a general agent thats served the broker community for more than 30 years, announces a new partnership agreement with Blue Shield of California. The agreement allows LISI to offer a comprehensive portfolio that includes all major medical carriers across the state of California to its broker partners.

Were really excited about this partnership because we know that brokers have been waiting for the opportunity to work with LISI and Blue Shield. This relationship further strengthens our commitment to provide brokers with the resources and solutions they need to successfully navigate their business, said LISI President and CEO Becky Patel.

Blue Shields goal is to attain #1 Small Group Market share in California. Adding a quality statewide distribution partner like LISI is yet another step in our long term strategy. We are looking forward to the additional membership growth LISI will bring with this new partnership! said Tom Marshall  Area Vice President  Blue Shield Small Group Sales.

About Blue Shield of California

Blue Shield of California, an independent member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, is a nonprofit health plan with 4 million members, 6,800 employees and more than $13 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 and headquartered in San Francisco, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare health care service plans in California. The companys mission is to ensure all Californians have access to high-quality care at an affordable price. Blue Shield has contributed more than $325 million over the past ten years to the Blue Shield of California Foundation. Contact your local agent or broker about Blue Shield of California products and services, or visit http://www.blueshieldca.com.

About LISI

LISI has offices in San Mateo, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego and has serviced the needs of health insurance brokers since 1977. One of the states largest general agencies, LISI enables more than 8,000 affiliated brokers to offer Medical, Dental, Vision and Specialty Coverage for large and small employers from over two dozen carriers. For more information on LISI, please visit: http://www.lisibroker.com.
"Paul has the right experience and skills to execute our corporate strategy and guide the region to the next level."

Eccella Corporation, a leading Data Management and Analytics company, announces the hire of Paul Phillips as Director of their UK Practice. Phillips will lead Eccellas accelerated growth in the EMEA market, which will involve scaling up partnerships, innovation, delivery and sales. Paul and the UK team will expand Eccellas ability to help organizations in the region optimize their operations and finetune decision-making by wisely investing in data-based solutions.

"We are so excited to bring Paul on to the team," Eccella CEO Meitav Harpaz said. "Paul has the right experience and skills to execute our corporate strategy and guide the region to the next level. In addition, Paul understands the data lifecycle and how to align it to any business initiative, which is where most organizations need help. He is a great addition to our company and management team."

Paul brings over 22 years of experience in helping organizations maximize the return on their data investment. With expertise in Data Integration, Data Quality and Business Intelligence, Paul is well versed in deploying data management and analytics solutions in organizations of all sizes. Prior to joining Eccella, Paul worked as the Technical Director for Information Builders UK, a business intelligence software provider.

Eccella has an enviable track record when it comes to customer service and has extremely highly rated delivery standards, Phillips said. Eccella's growing team of professionals share a common goal of enabling organizations to become data driven; monetizing their data assets and achieving fast ROI through our value based methodologies. I am proud to lead the UK business and look forward to nurturing old, new and future customer relationships and shared success.

For more information about Eccella and its services, please visit http://www.eccella.com.

About Eccella

Founded in 2010, Eccella Corporation is headquartered in New York City, with additional offices in London and Mumbai. Eccella specializes in Data Management and Analytics and has partnered with the leading software vendors to provide advisory, solutions and implementations services to organizations of all sizes, across multiple industries. Eccellas goal is to help its clients craft the best data strategy for their organization and implement solutions in support of their operational needs and growth goals.
The Swizznet X3 partnership will give customers more choice when it comes to selecting cost effective, innovative, ERP solutions.

Swizznet, the premier online accounting solution provider, today announced that it signed an authorized referral partner agreement for Sage X3 and is expanding its offerings to include hosting for Sage X3. This means that enterprises using Sage X3 can now securely access their application anytime and from any computer or device.

Swizznet brings over nine years of accounting application hosting expertise and provides a complete solution for businesses  including instant deployments and access from their on-demand marketplace. Swizznet focuses on tailoring private cloud solutions for Sage customers utilizing the latest cloud technology and tools. Swizznet provides fast and easy access to accounting applications as well as other business applications and files so that enterprises no longer need their own in-house infrastructure.

We are excited to expand our Sage partnership and cloud offering to include Sage X3. This partnership will take the same X3 product that enterprises rely on today and enhance it with the freedom and power of the cloud, said Mike Callan, CEO at Swizznet. We are pleased to work closely with Sage, the leader in top tier accounting applications, to create a premium, fully managed and supported cloud solution that businesses can depend on.

Sage Partner Program Director, Robert Dempster said The Swizznet X3 partnership will give customers more choice when it comes to selecting cost effective, innovative, ERP solutions.

Businesses choose Swizznets cloud hosted Sage because it empowers them to focus on growing their business instead of managing an in-house network. Swizznets US-based technical support and engineering teams are there for customers every step of the way to ensure that getting started is easy and seamless and that someone is there to help for any need that may arise. Swizznet customers cite the freedom of cloud access to manage their business wherever they are, anytime of the day or night. Transitioning to the cloud can be accomplished with minimal training and expense since Swizznet offers the same desktop applications enterprises already use and are familiar with.

This new agreement further enhances Swizznets partner program for Sage resellers and business partners. The program helps resellers to offer a full end-to-end solution and features an upfront referral bounty and aggressive monthly revenue share.

Swizznet will be giving live demos of the Sage hosting solution and exhibiting at the upcoming Sage Summit, July 25-28 in Chicago, IL at booth #1107.

For more information about Swizznets hosting solutions, please call 1-888-794-9948 or visit http://www.swizznet.com/sage.

About Swizznet

Swizznet was created by bringing together real-world accountants, the best technology experts, and the best technology platforms on the market to create a seamless, enterprise-grade online accounting and business management solution.

Swizznet, a Sage Authorized Partner and an Intuit-Authorized Commercial Hosting provider, offers hosting solutions that empower accountants and businesses to free themselves from in-house infrastructure and IT headaches so that they can connect and collaborate from any computer or device. Swizznet offers an on-demand marketplace and uses the latest cloud computing technology and tools to provide the fastest, most reliable cloud access to Sage and QuickBooks desktop applications. They backup their solution with obsessive support and service, for the ultimate cloud accounting solution. For more information, visit http://www.swizznet.com.
Our team operates on a set of values that shapes everything that we do in our business.

LINET was certified as a great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work. LINET earned this credential based on extensive ratings provided by its employees in anonymous surveys. A summary of these ratings can be found at http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/linet-americas.

The Great Place to Work certification achieved by our team at LINET further solidifies the rich culture that runs through the veins of our organization, said Kelly Corn, Human Resources Manager.

Colin Bain, President and CEO reacted by saying, Our team operates on a set of values that shapes everything that we do in our business. We have a strong sense of purpose to improve the way healthcare is being delivered today. Our team is passionate about our cause, and this is what makes LINET a very special place.

"We applaud LINET for seeking certification and releasing its employees' feedback," said Kim Peters, Vice President of Great Place to Work's Recognition Program. "These ratings measure its capacity to earn its own employees' trust and create a great workplace - critical metrics that anyone considering working for or doing business with LINET should take into account as an indicator of high performance."

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" list and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industry lists.

About LINET

Founded in 1990, LINET is an international leader in healthcare technology with patient beds installed in over 100 countries. LINET offers a new and unique approach to the hospital bed market. LINET manufacturers innovative beds for the ICU and Medical-Surgical environments that promote patient and nurse safety, facilitate early mobilization, assist in better adherence to turning schedules, improve pain management and help reduce infection rates. Our products also come with an unprecedented 5-year warranty. The companys U.S. headquarters is based in Charlotte, NC. Please visit http://www.linetamericas.com for more information.
According to a recent study, 92 percent of consumers now read online reviews before making a purchase versus 88 percent in 2014, which is why representatives with Crescent Harbor Lighting (http://www.crescentharbor.com), the online arm of The Lighthouse, is proud to announce today that the company has added a product review feature to its online store.

Online reviews are increasingly important, both to consumers and businesses, said Tim Fossett, spokesman for The Lighthouse, a family-owned lighting company founded in 1972.

Customers, according to Fossett, can rate products that theyve purchased by choosing the number of stars, from one start to five stars, to provide a rating. Star rating, according to the recent study, is the number one factor used by consumers to judge a business. In fact, 40 percent of consumers form an opinion by reading just one to three reviews versus 29 percent in 2014.

Fossett went on to point out that when it comes to his companys rating, since December 10, 2010, the BBB has determined that Lighthouse Distribution Corporation has an A+ rating and meets BBB accreditation standards, which includes a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. The BBB provides reviews on businesses that include background, licensing, consumer experience and other information such as governmental actions that is known to BBB. These reviews are provided for businesses that are BBB accredited and also for businesses that are not BBB accredited.

The Lighthouse has been in business for 35 years and is in the second generation of ownership. Fossett explained that the company opened Crescent Harbor as a way to share its unique Maine lighting tastes with the rest of the world. With the addition of the review feature, customers can now share their feedback with the world on the products that it sells through its online store.

For more information, please visit crescentharbor.com/about-us and blog.crescentharbor.com

About Crescent Harbor Lighting

Crescent Harbor Lighting is the online arm of The Lighthouse, a family-owned lighting company founded in 1972.

The company specializes in a high-touch customer service approach to retailing lighting fixtures, ceiling fans and other related items.

Contact Details:

Tim Fossett

President

88 York Street

US Route One

Kennebunk, Maine, 04043

Toll Free Phone: 1-888-355-9525

Local Phone: 1-207-985-3535

Fax: 1-207-985-4569

Source: Crescent Harbor Lighting

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TCOM, LP, a global ISR solutions provider of Lighter-Than-Air Persistent Surveillance Tethered Aerostat platforms for Air, Maritime and Land, has announced it will unveil and demonstrate its innovative ISR solutions for Rapid Surveillance Communication Restoration for Urban Defense Operations at the 2016 Thunderstorm Conference to be held at Fort AP Hill in Fredericksburg, VA on July 26-28, 2016.

TCOM will demonstrate how its lighter-than-air tactical aerostat platforms can leverage innovative ISR applications powered by its strategic partners: Logos, L3 Wescam, and Lociva; from providing high-definition wide area imagery (WAMI) to precision geospatial-location sensors for persistent surveillance, to enabling the latest 4G LTE cellular coverage in times of emergency.

For domestic terrorism situations, domestic response units must be prepared to rapidly respond to terrorist threats to establish persistent surveillance swiftly with maximum interoperability and real-time Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance insights for commanders on the ground. First Responders need to assess situations swiftly to determine the scope of what they are dealing with, where they might be located, differentiate who in the area might be a potential threat and evacuate civilians.

For disaster relief situations, the recent fires in Western Canada, as well as annual hurricanes and other natural disasters, are instances where Wide Area Motion Imagery deployed at a high elevation would be extremely useful. Technologies designed for the battlefield are perfectly suited to address threats to the homeland and can be applied to solve and alleviate the duties of domestic first responders.

1. Specifically, TCOMs aerostats will demonstrate the use of Logos Simera Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) technology that can monitor an entire city-sized area at once, detecting vehicles and moving dismounts in real-time. In addition, Simera provides operators with a readily accessible digital video recording of the entire field of view for further analysis.

2. TCOM will also demonstrate L3 Wescams MX-10 Electro-Optic/Infrared Full Motion Video (EO/IR FMV), a Fully Digital, High Definition, Multi-Sensor, Multi-Spectral Imaging System that is engineered with large-aperture, long focal length optics and patented four-axis gimbal technology to deliver outstanding stabilization and GEO-location performance, further enabling superior imagery from digital line of sight and beyond line of sight to be captured. Additionally, the systems superior detection, recognition and identification range performance enables the end user to perform precision engagements from longer standoff ranges.

3. TCOMs Rapid Surveillance Communication Restoration will also demonstrate how it can instantly provide cellular 4G LTE coverage in adverse conditions through LOCIVAs Nokia Networks, which provide Carrier Grade Radios. As a partner to Nokia Networks, LOCIVA is able to offer the latest 4G LTE carrier-grade radio access through the EdgeCentrix Network Core, which offers interoperability and Advanced LTE features; such as calling, Wi-Fi and data.

TCOMs work with L3, Logos, and Nokia comes together to create a perfect platform to keep civilians safe, monitor disaster situations, and aid in the rescue of those in need. By utilizing their technology on TCOMs aerostat platform, first responders are given the very best chance of success.

Empowered by TCOMs Rapid Surveillance Communication Restoration Aerostat platform, urban defense and law enforcement authorities will be better equipped to respond to disaster relief and search and rescue. It will also provide security officials with better situational awareness during incidents of crowd control, and help them track hostile adversaries. TCOMs Aerostats allow local security leadership to efficiently oversee their field of responsibility and allocate the necessary resources quickly, in response to potential problems.

About TCOM, LP:

TCOM, LP is a global leader of Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) solutions of Lighter-Than-Air Persistent Surveillance Tethered Aerostat platforms for Air, Maritime and Land. For over 40 years, the companys pioneering innovations have defined the persistent surveillance and Lighter-than-Air industries. By blending leading edge technology, manufacturing and field operation capabilities, TCOM has provided ISR systems for United States and foreign governments with complete persistent surveillance capabilities. Our systems are in use around the globe including theaters of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. TCOMs delivered systems include fixed-site deployments, fully transportable systems and specialized sea-based deployments. TCOMs headquarters is based in Columbia, MD and the Manufacturing & Flight Test Facility is located near Elizabeth City, NC. TCOM is the only company in the world devoted to cost-effective LTA surveillance solutions with in-house aerostat and airship manufacture, assembly, flight test and training capabilities. Learn more at http://www.tcomlp.com
Cleveland UNCF will be hosting its second annual 5K walk for education benefiting Ohio students on Saturday, July 23, at North Chagrin Reservation-Strawberry Fields at 8:30 a.m. The walk is chaired by Danyll Jones-Lockhart, the director of national programs at Hugh OBrian Youth Leadership. Proceeds from the walk will provide Ohio students with necessary resources to further their education.

The grand marshals for this years signature event will be Rep. Stephanie Howse of Ohios 11th District and a graduate of historical black college and university Florida A&M University (FAMU); Basheer Jones, a graduate of UNCF-member institution Morehouse College; and Stacey Stoudemire, celebrity chef. Sponsors include Cleveland UNCF Inter-Alumni Council and Cleveland Council of Black Colleges Alumni Association. UNCF events such as this have raised over $130,000 per year for students, and this year the Cleveland office hopes to exceed previous totals.

For more information on the Cleveland UNCF office, visit uncf.org/Cleveland or contact vallery.gaines(at)uncf(dot)org at 216.781.8623

Follow this event @uncfcleveland @uncf #laceup4UNCF

UNCF (the United Negro College Fund) is the nations largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students education and development through scholarships and other programs, supports and strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding 21 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Twitter at @UNCF.
Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Attorney Cynthia A. Moore has been selected as a 2016 Women in the Law Honoree by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Ms. Moore is the Practice Department Manager for the firms domestic relations, employee benefits, estate planning, gaming and immigration practices. She is a national expert on fringe benefit plans and is counsel to numerous plan sponsors in the design, administration and qualification of qualified retirement plans, with an emphasis on 401(k) plans. She has counseled numerous clients on the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. She also counsels companies and compensation committees on the tax, ERISA, and securities law aspects of executive compensation programs, such as supplemental executive retirement plans, stock option plans, restricted stock plans, and non-qualified deferred compensation plans, including Code Section 409A compliance.

Ms. Moore is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan, and the Oakland County Bar Association. She regularly speaks at seminars across the state regarding employee benefits and taxation issues. Ms. Moore is listed as a Leader in her Field in Chambers USA for employee benefits & executive compensation in the state of Michigan and is recognized for her expertise by Best Lawyers in America, Michigan Super Lawyers, and Dbusiness Top Lawyers. She received her B.A. from Alma College, her M.S.L. from Western Michigan University, and her J.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Each year, Michigan Lawyers Weekly selects 30 lawyers to honor as Women in the Law. Women in the Law are lawyers who are committed to excellence in the practice of law while inspiring and serving as mentors to other women in the profession. The 2016 Women in the Law will be honored at an annual luncheon and awards celebration on September 15, 2016 at the Detroit Marriott in Troy.

About Dickinson Wright PLLC

Dickinson Wright PLLC is a general practice business law firm with more than 400 attorneys among more than 40 practice areas. Headquartered in Detroit and founded in 1878, the firm has seventeen offices, including six in Michigan (Detroit, Troy, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw) and ten other domestic offices in Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn. (2); Las Vegas, Nev.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Reno, Nev.; and Washington, D.C. The firms Canada office is located in Toronto.

As one of the few law firms with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, the firm offers clients a distinctive combination of superb client service and exceptional quality. Dickinson Wright lawyers are known for delivering commercially-oriented advice on sophisticated transactions and have a remarkable record of wins in high-stakes litigation. Dickinson Wright lawyers are regularly cited by Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and other leading independent firm evaluating organizations.
Serendipity Labs Aventura provides members with nearly 12,000 square feet of vibrant, upscale office space with private offices, open coworking space, meeting rooms and ideation studios. Our upscale workspace has all the amenities that a full-service corporate office provides, with a level of hospitality, service and support that rivals business class hotels, says Brian M. Stolar, co-franchisee, Serendipity Labs Aventura.

The Pinnacle Companies and affiliates of Centrum Partners announced the opening of Serendipity Labs Aventura in the Aventura Corporate Center at 20807 Biscayne Boulevard. Serendipity Labs Aventura provides members with nearly 12,000 square feet of vibrant, upscale office space with private offices, open coworking space, meeting rooms and ideation studios. Members have access to an upscale lounge, guest reception, concierge services, high-speed wireless internet, event space, a lab cafe, outdoor seating areas, a private courtyard patio and garage parking.

This Class A office facility offers an unparalleled opportunity for individual and company users to work in an upscale environment with best-in-class finishes including polished concrete floors, floor-to-ceiling glass, Steelcase-equipped offices and coworking center -- along with state-of-the-art technology and the convenience of being located in dynamic Aventura, says Arthur Slaven, principal, Centrum Partners. Centrum is a development company with decades of experience in office, residential and retail projects, and the co-franchisee of Serendipity Labs Aventura.

"Were offering a full menu of options for todays changing workforce, whether you are an entrepreneur needing office space, a team seeking to collaborate in an ideation studio, or a mobile worker that wants to network with like-minded professionals, says Brian M. Stolar, CEO of The Pinnacle Companies, co-franchisee of the Aventura Serendipity Labs. Pinnacle is an award-winning leader in urban redevelopment with a specialty focus on mixed-use, next generation developments. Our upscale workspace has all the amenities that a full-service corporate office provides, with a level of hospitality, service and support that rivals business class hotels, continues Stolar.

Serendipity Labs is a fast growing coworking network, with a nationwide rollout underway. The company offers a range of membership options including day passes, monthly coworking lounge access, full-time dedicated private offices, and team rooms for companies needing remote offices or project space.

Serendipity Labs supports the way people want to work today. Thirty percent of the U.S. workforce now chooses where and when they work. Companies are supporting this mobility and choice with coworking memberships, says John Arenas, CEO of Serendipity Labs. As an upscale, lifestyle brand, we empower members with access to an enterprise-class, thoughtfully designed work environment that is infused with hospitality and energy.

Serendipity Labs Aventura will manage a full schedule of seminars and networking events tailored for entrepreneurs, mobile workers and corporate executives. Corporate memberships provide access across all Serendipity Labs network locations for mobile and remote workers.

All Serendipity Labs locations are PCI (Payment Card Industry), Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) compliant, and meet the SAS Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 for infrastructure security standards.

For more details, visit: http://serendipitylabs.com/locations/aventura-coworking/

About The Pinnacle Companies

A privately held regional real estate development firm, The Pinnacle Companies is based in Montclair, NJ, The firms most recent project is the Montclair Center Gateway Redevelopment Plan (known as CentroVerde), which includes The MC hotel, a 151-room Marriott Autograph Collection property and the mixed-use Valley & Bloom project with 260 residential rental units, along with 50,000 square feet of office and retail space. Pinnacle also developed The Siena, a 200,000 square foot mixed-use building on the site of the former Hahne & Co. department store in Montclair. Other notable Pinnacle projects in New Jersey include Maxwell Place, a 1,500,000 square foot mixed-use project on the site of the former Maxwell House coffee factory in Hoboken, developed as a joint venture with Toll Brothers, and Crystal Pointe in Jersey City, a 41-story, 269-unit luxury condominium tower in a joint venture with Fisher Development. http://www.pinnaclecompanies.net @ThePinnacleCo

About Centrum Partners

Founded in 2009 by Arthur Slaven and John McLinden, Centrum Partners LLC is in the business of creating extraordinary residential, retail, office, industrial and hospitality developments in Chicagoland and beyond. The firm is renowned for consensus building amongst community partners and bringing a dynamic response to new market opportunities. Centrums ability to maintain an honest relationship with the public, while creating positive change for the people who call these neighborhoods home, is unmatched in the industry. http://centrumpartners.net/

About Serendipity Labs, Inc.

Headquartered in Rye, NY, Serendipity Labs, Inc., was established in 2013 by industry leader John Arenas. (http://www.serendipitylabs.com). Serendipity Labs delivers an upscale experience for mobile professionals, independent workers and project teams. It offers day passes, part-time and full-time coworking memberships, dedicated private offices and team rooms in its exclusive network, with central billing and reporting are available. The Serendipity Labs mobile app for iPhone and Android means making reservations is quick and easy. Its cloud-based, proprietary OASIS technology platform is enterprise-class and meets the highest security standards. Serendipity Labs is growing through owned, managed and franchised locations in office buildings, high-rise residential projects, hotels and retail properties throughout the U.S.
Eurasian entente Updated: 2016-07-22 07:34 By Zhao Huanxin in Ulaanbaatar(China Daily Europe)

Asian and European leaders agree to join forces to resolve common challenges and properly handle any disputes

Few trips made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang have been more sensitively and subtly timed than his first overseas journey of the year.

Li made an official visit to Mongolia from July 13 to 14, and attended the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar from July 15 to 16.

A new Mongolian prime minister was appointed five days before Li's arrival in Ulaanbaatar, and the South China Sea arbitration ruling was issued one day before the premier left for the visit and the summit, whose opening was clouded by a terrorist attack in Nice, France.

What many had thought would be a northern journey full of questions and qualms, however, ended with a commitment from China and Mongolia to synergize development strategies, and a summit chair's statement stressing the need to promote interconnectivity, which means joining things, as in a network.

Analysts were quick to note that neither the statement nor the Ulaanbaatar Declaration, endorsed by Asian and European leaders at the summit's end, contains any words about the South China Sea, but it does strongly address terrorism.

"Leaders ... expressed their determination to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism in all forms," the statement said.

Cui Hongjian, director of the department for European studies at the China Institute of International Studies, says he was not surprised that the statement and declaration excluded the South China Sea.

"The Asia-Europe Meeting is a multilateral platform focused on Eurasian development and cooperation. The summit's discussions should not be distracted by bilateral issues," Cui says.

The country consistently has said the South China Sea issue should not be subject to multilateral discussions, but that disputes should be settled through bilateral dialogue and consultation by countries directly involved, on the basis of historical facts and in line with international law, he says.

Days before the premier's visit, China's Foreign Ministry had said the ASEM Summit was "not an appropriate venue" to discuss the issue.

Japan, however, had intended to bring the issue to the summit, according to a senior Chinese diplomat. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, addressing an informal meeting of the ASEM Summit on July 16, talked about the South China Sea arbitration.

Li refuted Abe's comments and spelled out China's stance, says the diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

Li said China had not participated in the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. Beijing neither accepts nor acknowledges the so-called arbitration award, he added.

The premier had 11 bilateral meetings with other senior leaders during the summit. His effort to promote China's stand on the South China Sea issue received widespread backing and understanding, the diplomat says, adding that except for the Philippines, no other meeting participants echoed Abe's comments at the summit.

Pragmatic cooperation

Twenty years after the creation of the ASEM mechanism, regional leaders attending the 11th summit charted a new course for bicontinental cooperation in the next decade through promotion of interconnectivity.

The Chinese premier called on 53 members of the ASEM to further advance practical cooperation and promote dialogue so as to build a more prosperous and peaceful Eurasia.

"As the ASEM begins its third decade, all members should bear in mind the mission of building a new type of comprehensive partnership" and actively seek new paths to further promote Asia-Europe cooperation, Li said.

The inauguration of the ASEM in 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand, ushered in a new era of equal dialogue, all-around cooperation and joint action against challenges on the two continents, he said.

Now China and Europe are each other's largest trading partner, with two-way trade amounting to nearly $700 billion in 2015, he added, noting that cooperation between Asia and Europe has reached an unprecedented level.

Asia and Europe have great opportunities before them, but also tough challenges, especially the thorny issues of terrorism and the refugee crisis, he said.

The situation calls for ramped-up efforts to push forward all-around cooperation in Eurasia while seeking ways to raise the cooperation levels in a spirit of mutual respect and equal consultation.

In elaborating on his proposal of "renovating the Euro-Asia cooperation concept", Li urged ASEM members to foster an awareness of a community of shared responsibilities and destinies, to effectively counteract challenges besetting Asia and Europe.

Cui at the China Institute of International Studies, says the Nice attack had added to the urgency European and Asian leaders feel to foster a "community of shared destines". "Terrorism can to the greatest extent unite people from various countries, whether they are European or Asian," he says.

At the summit, Li suggested ASEM members engage in dialogue and cooperation, and prevent new sources of tumult from occurring in their own regions so as to safeguard world peace and regional stability.

The global community should advocate unity and coordination, he said, and discard a Cold War mentality and zero-sum game.

The premier said China opposed any country distorting international law and applying a double standard in addressing disparities and disputes.

Instead of arousing confrontation and conflict, all should abide by established rules and seek resolutions in a peaceful way and through political means.

"We've always held that countries, big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, must all abide by laws and rules. We are always committed to peaceful development," he said.

To add impetus to Eurasian partnership, Li proposed guiding Asia-Europe cooperation, especially in economy and trade, by a more pragmatic course.

To this end, the premier said he expected the ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting would resume next year after a decadelong suspension, and called for efforts to speed up the development of an open and inclusive Asia-Europe market.

To promote "partnership for the future through interconnectivity", this year's ASEM summit established an interconnectivity working group on the basis of a consensus secured by China over the past three years.

According to Li, the Eurasian continent, bordering both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, should become a huge passageway from east to west for transportation, telecommunications and energy.

China is expected to host a high-level forum on digital interconnectivity in its further effort to promote Asia-Europe interconnectivity in order to pool driving forces for regional economic growth and innovation cooperation.

The premier also highlighted the need to fortify the human and cultural aspects of the cooperation between Asia and Europe, saying that there should be more dialogue between different civilizations, and more exchanges in education, science, tourism and culture.

Li also touched on China's economic situation, saying that the world's second-largest economy is confident it will reach its growth target.

Zhao Junjie, an expert on European studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the proposals raised by the premier show that "Chinese leaders are considering the strategic direction of Asia-Europe cooperation", as the world situation has changed significantly since ASEM was initiated.

"Europe has been stricken with a refugee crisis and terrorist attacks. It is apparent that the premier paid close attention to the problems facing Europe, and he put forward countermeasures in his first proposal."

'Unity in difficult times'

Speaking at the summit's final news conference, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker set out the priorities for the work ahead.

"We know what the global challenges are. We discussed them: fighting terrorism, pursuing our trade agenda in order to create jobs, moving ahead after the Brexit vote, tackling climate change and the refugee crisis. We know they require global responses. And this is what we will deliver."

Juncker said the summit was bringing Asia and Europe closer together. He has attended 10 out of the 11 ASEM summits, including the first one in 1996. "I can credibly say that this was a very special summit. At the plenary, I was speaking about connectivity. This is exactly what this summit was about: showing unity in difficult times," said Juncker, who served as prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013.

"Nice, Turkey, other events - the ASEM Summit provided the right and flexible framework for us to talk openly and frankly about events unfolding across the world that affect us all. We know what the global challenges are."

Fu Jing in London and Xinhua contributed to this story.

zhaohuanxin@chinadaily.com.cn

Leaders stand for a minute's silence for the victims of the deadly attack in the French city of Nice before the opening session of the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar on July 15. Damir Sagolj / AFP

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page1)
FloDesign Sonics Welcomes Kevin Delbridge to the Board of Directors I have great pride in both my alma mater and in FloDesign Sonics. I am super excited and have rolled up my sleeves.

FloDesign Sonics announced today the addition of Kevin S. Delbridge to their Board of Directors. FloDesign Sonics CEO, Stanley Kowalski III expressed his delight with Kevins role in the companys evolution: Kevin led our Series A1 round and has agreed to join our board, a significant milestone in our corporate history. Kevin has substantial background in providing strategic leadership to some of the worlds most influential boards and venture funds, and I am delighted to have him as a mentor for our team.

Kevins addition to the FloDesign Sonics team strengthens the companys roots in the local Massachusetts community and positions the company to broaden its scope. Delbridge explains: I have known Stan and the founding team for over 10 years now. Having served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Western New England University and witnessed firsthand the birth of groundbreaking technology in Dr. Bart Lipkens campus laboratory, I have great pride in both my alma mater and in FloDesign Sonics. I am super excited and have rolled up my sleeves.

Investors and board members John and Steve Davis from Ventry Industries are just as excited. John said, Kevin was raised in Springfield, MA and shares our vision of bringing high paying jobs back to Western MA. Steve adds, Kevins roots in the region and enthusiasm for both the technology and enormous market opportunity make him a perfect match for us.

In addition to providing guidance, expertise, and funding to FloDesign Sonics, Delbridges new role marks an important transition for the company. Investor and board member Jim Waters elaborates: FloDesign Sonics has transitioned from an R&D company to a product company, and Kevin is uniquely qualified to guide our growth to a billion-dollar valuation. He thinks really, really big!

Co-Founder and CTO of FloDesign Sonics, Dr. Bart Lipkens puts Kevins role in context: We launched our first product for Cell Clarification with Pall Corp at Interphex this past April. Its exciting to see our technology transition from the laboratory at Western New England University to the booth of the worlds largest filter company within a few short years.

FloDesign Sonics closed a $10M Series A round in April of 2014 and has also been awarded grants from both the NSF and NIH totaling over $2M. In March 2016, FloDesign Sonics presented their technology at the White House Water Summit. The company plans to use the funding from the Series A1 to expand their processing solutions to enable cutting-edge cell and gene therapies. FloDesign Sonics plans to launch their first cell and gene therapy product at Interphex next year.

Stan Kowalski thanked Kevin for joining the board and highlighted his teams accomplishments: We continue to do well by doing good. For example, our customers are developing game changing cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and heart diseases. The bottleneck is the cost of these drugs, averaging $100,000-$250,000 USD per patient. FloDesign Sonics will enable pharmaceutical companies to process their delicate cells at substantially lower cost, allowing these lifesaving therapies to reach more people at significantly lower costs.

About Kevin S. Delbridge: Kevin Delbridge has honed his investment strategies and expertise, developed commercial real estate, and tirelessly worked in philanthropic endeavors in the arts and education, all benefitting his New England community. From his leadership roles at Cigna Investments to his founding and leadership of HarbourVest Partners from a $2B fund to a $37B fund. Delbridge has established a track record of sourcing and directing successful investments, both international and domestic. With a BSBA from Western New England University and an MBA from University of Massachusetts, Delbridge demonstrates his commitment to his community by serving as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Western New England University and on the Board of Governors at Tufts Medical Center.

About FloDesign Sonics

FloDesign Sonics is revolutionizing the separation, filtration and diagnostic markets through a novel acoustic technology. By leveraging breakthroughs in the use of multi-dimensional acoustic standing waves, FloDesign Sonics is able to capture, separate and purify mixtures and solutions without using physical membranes, chemicals, or centrifugation. Their proprietary technology has numerous applications in a variety of markets including life sciences, oil and gas, food and beverage and industrial processing. The first commercial application is in bioprocess separations, where FloDesign Sonics is applying acoustic technology to the manufacturing of life saving bio-pharmaceuticals.

Contact:

info(at)fdsonics(dot)com
Website audit https://www.sibername.com/site-audit Staying ahead of your competition online requires regular website audits and adjustments.

Canadian Web design and hosting company SiberName Inc. announces the launch of its website audit services to non-clients and clients alike. This new service is the latest addition to its list of services designed to improve the online productivity of all those who use the Internet for lead generation and website visitor conversions. Those interested simply fill out this form https://www.sibername.com/site-audit/

Website audits are very revealing even though the audit report is generated in just a few minutes. They answer many questions about the popularity and effectiveness of the "all important" central client touch-point: the website. Though, in most cases, website evaluations cannot measure visitor-to-customer conversion rates, they can help increase that rate if necessary onpage or offpage changes are made to a website based on information obtained from the audit. Many website audit tools are available online that you can use for your audit. However, to save time, a basic website analysis from an outside company can start you in the right direction and give you a more objective view of the impact of your online presence.

The website audit will provide you with a summary report of the quantitatively measurable impacts of your current website. A further discussion with a SiberName website developer will focus on the the more subjective qualitative aspects, something which cannot be measured by analytical tools. Furthermore, the developer is also available, via email or online chat, to explain the details and significance of quantitative summary reports.

Quantitative website evaluations may reveal that the content of certain websites is optimal for visitor attraction, retention and conversion. Businesses that own websites that are optimized for search engines and social media sites are usually quite successful. But the visual element is also important and all sites should eventually have a qualitative audit. A websites look and feel should be functional. The visuals should reinforce the content (including company vision and values). It should be be appealing to the eyes, be easy to navigate (2 click rule).

The quantitative and qualitative website audits are both important. Their bottom line is this: Does the website represent a reputable company that fills a common need well, fast, and affordably? If it does then it will have a high conversion rate. Improving conversion ability begin with a website audit, so take a first step and try a basic audit of your website.

SiberName, in operation since 2000, is a leading Canadian website and domain hosting company that has built its reputation on its rapid technical support response. Its main servers are located in Canada. Its mission is to provide affordable online solutions that improve the sustainability and mobility of people and organizations anywhere.
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UK schools adding Chinese math Updated: 2016-07-22 07:34 By Wang Mingjie(China Daily Europe)

More than 8,000 institutions to adopt the 'mastery approach' after tests showed Shanghai students lead the world in subject

The Chinese "mastery approach" to math teaching is set to roll out in more than 8,000 primary schools in the United Kingdom, with funding of up to 41 million pounds ($54.2 million; 48.9 million euros), to bring pupils up to par with their Asian peers.

Children as young as 5 will be required to practice sums and exercises, and they must master each concept before moving on to more difficult material.

Elizabeth Truss, then British parliamentary undersecretary of state for education and childcare, looks on as two students demonstrate math skills at a primary school in Shanghai during an exchange program in 2014. Liu Ying / Xinhua

The move comes after international tests showed that Shanghai students ranked top for math in the Program for International Student Assessment in 2012, and 15-year-olds in China are three years ahead of their English peers in their ability to solve math problems.

Since then, the UK, whose students ranked 26th that year, has welcomed over 120 teachers from Shanghai to share the secrets of their success in the project, which the British media have dubbed "Shanghai maths".

Speaking at the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education, Nick Gibb, the UK schools minister, said the Shanghai style of math should become a standard fixture in England.

"We are seeing a renaissance in maths teaching in this country, with good ideas from around the world helping to enliven our classrooms, he says.

"The significant expansion of the south Asian (including Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong) maths mastery approach can only add to the positive momentum, with thousands more young people having access to specialist teachers and quality textbooks."

Gibb is confident that the efforts will ensure young people are properly prepared for further study and that the too-often heard phrase "can't do math" is consigned to the past.

Lyu Jiexin from Shanghai Normal University, also a senior coordinator of China-UK math exchange programs, says he believes the new policy is not a mere copying of Chinese math teaching, but is instead a part of the British government's overhaul to improve the standards of math education.

With the growing influence of the international test, more countries are learning from the top-performing nations to improve the competitiveness of their education systems, Lyu says.

"The plan reflects the government's full commitment to its math reform and demonstrates the important role that education exchange and collaboration play in that regard," he adds.

However, some critics were skeptical of the program, worrying that the students will not be able to master fundamental ideas merely through drills and repetition.

Charlie Stripp, director at the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, says teaching math mastery is not about rote learning and drilling, although it certainly results in pupils knowing and being able to recall multiplication tables and other key number facts. This represents an important foundation for learning and using math, Stripp says.

"Teaching for mastery focuses on deep conceptual learning, developing secure foundations that pupils can build on throughout their education. When a piece of mathematics has been mastered, it can be used as a foundation for new mathematical learning. Superficial learning in mathematics produces weak foundations, which can result in insecure learning and confusion," he says.

wangmingjie@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page3)
World needs to hear the voice of young people Updated: 2016-07-22 07:35 By Peng Qinxuan(China Daily Europe)

Reaction to open letter on the South China Sea arbitration shows need for professionals to speak up

Just take a look at what happened around the world while I was busying myself in a project to allow the voices of professional young people to be heard on the South China Sea arbitration case at The Hague.

A terrorist attack in Nice, a tranquil city in France; a failed military coup in Turkey; all coming on top of the uncertainties brought by the British vote to leave the European Union and the US presidential election, and the ongoing struggles of African nations and interference in Asian harmony.

What will the world be like in the future?

The answer is in the hands of young people. As a representative of Chinese youths studying in Western society, I have direct experience of how people in the West perceive us, and vice versa.

Having traveled to more than 60 cities in 13 European countries, I have been deeply impressed by the rich culture and history presented through architecture and museum displays. The academic setting with professional training and the international environment with colleagues from diversified backgrounds has widened my horizons and enriched my perspective. For me, the information is overwhelming each and every day.

However, communication is not always mutual. What we know about the West is disproportionately far more than what the West knows of us. Chinese people are often stereotypically seen as reserved and shy, even mysterious and unpredictable. This is mostly attributed to the teaching of Confucius that "a man of integrity acts smart but speaks cautiously".

Teachers for master's programs will find Chinese students good at homework but less impressive during class debates, which are simply not part of our culture.

Indeed, we Chinese find it amusing and innovative when the presidential candidates debate fiercely over political issues and deliver public speeches on their political beliefs. This is not the way to do politics in China. To speak on a platform to attract attention is not always the proper thing to do in the Chinese context, especially when you're not senior enough.

So we kept quiet when we started work on an open letter to the South China Sea arbitration panel three months ago. We polished our wording at least 10 times before it took shape shortly before the tribunal ruling on July 12. We concluded in the 12-page open letter that this was a political drama rather than a being professional arbitration.

To my utmost surprise, I've received much encouragement from senior professors and practitioners, including one professor of law from Cambridge University, after news about the open letter spread domestically and internationally.

Within 24 hours, the full text of the open letter received nearly 10,000 hits on our WeChat (social media) platform. More than 70 other student associations and media, including the Los Angeles Times, publicized the full text. Our websites, established with help from volunteers, attracted more than 20,000 signatures within hours. It was an unexpected hit.

Our team, composed of doctoral candidates and master's students in international law from all over the Netherlands, received instant attention from domestic and international media.

Now the award of the tribunal has been issued, and our understanding of the case has been delivered to the world. Some people have asked, what is the use of your letter when you know the result will not change? Well, I have to say that it's the categorical imperative of a scholar to do research and to let voices be heard, no matter whether it will change things or not.

Undoubtedly, we have made a difference by stirring people's interest in this case, calling attention to international law, spreading our understanding of the situation, and engaging millions of people with this action. It is no longer our open letter - it has become the open letter of millions of people.

This may be the end of the arbitration, but it signified a beginning of professional youths participating in global governance, using our courage and knowledge to think critically about what is considered to be authority, to challenge mainstream thoughts, and to question the judicial expansion in international society.

A truly democratic international society requires the participation of young people with diversified backgrounds, with professional perspectives, and with passion and capabilities. You will witness an increasing number of professional young people stand up beyond their own culture and comfort zone, like we do, to actively participate in the democratization process of the international community, to alleviate the existing stereotypes and bias, and to enhance cross-cultural communication and mutual understanding.

Then you will see a world with less violence and less hatred.

The author is a PhD candidate on international law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page13)
EU must change its China strategy Updated: 2016-07-22 07:35 By Fu Jing(China Daily Europe)

If the bloc cannot guarantee the safety of its citizens, tourists and investors, it should not put pressure on other countries

When foreign ministers from European Union members gathered on July 18 for their monthly meeting in Brussels, they did so against a quickly altered backdrop of change and violence.

One change was the appearance of Boris Johnson. Britain's new foreign secretary, a key supporter of Brexit in the run-up to the nation's EU referendum last month. He was appointed after Theresa May replaced David Cameron as British prime minister.

The violence came in the form of a failed military coup in Turkey, a nation pursuing EU accession, and a terrifying terrorist attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day, normally a day of celebration.

To go with this, The Hague's arbitration tribunal on the South China Sea issued a justice-damaging ruling on July 12, supporting the case brought by the Philippines.

European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker concluded talks with their Chinese counterparts on deepening strategic partnership at the annual summit in Beijing before flying to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to participate in the Asian-Europe Meeting.

The fast-evolving circumstances in Europe led US Secretary of State John Kerry to have breakfast with European ministers in Brussels before getting down to discussing their agenda on July 18.

The foreign ministers concluded a strategy for the EU's policy toward China. (Beijing has consistently criticized Brussels for seeking coordination with Washington when it comes to its China policy, although it's unknown how Kerry may have exerted his influence at the breakfast meeting.) However, Brussels, which unveiled a draft of the strategy weeks ago, must accept that the bloc is undergoing mounting challenges, which are far more daunting than expected.

For example, terrorism attacks have occurred one after another. This year, France has encountered three major tragedies, while Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said the country must now learn to live with terrorism. Such is the reality, but it is a frightening message that will deter investors and tourists. Other European countries are also not safe, with Brussels hit by a deadly attack in March.

Meanwhile, the attempted coup in Turkey indicates once again that other parts of Europe are also in trouble, not to mention the situation in northern Africa, western Asia and Ukraine.

The worsening security situation in and around Europe, coupled with the crises of unemployment, a steady influx of migrants and a likely domino effect from Britain's exit from the EU all add up to difficult times.

So, when EU foreign ministers convene, they must conclude their strategy on policy toward China, instead of paying lip service to claims of safeguarding values. If the union cannot guarantee the safety of its citizens, tourists and investors, it's better not to put pressure on other countries.

At this juncture, what Brussels needs most is a pragmatically ambitious and visionary framework of foreign policy toward Beijing, sending a clear message that could encourage Europeans to trust the union and its leaders' wisdom.

The ministers must carefully review the constructive and friendly messages Beijing has repeated at China-EU summits and at gatherings such as the Asia-Europe Meeting.

So far, Brussels has not signaled it has the courage and sincerity to treat Beijing as a full strategic partner. For example, it still frequently uses murky wording when referring to Beijing.

Regarding its stance on the South China Sea dispute, the EU says it will not take sides on the sovereignty dispute, but it has urged Beijing to obey international rules.

The reality is that leaders in Brussels, preoccupied by domestic headaches, have not really understood the content of the rules related to the dispute.

This year, Brussels has wasted a lot of time fighting Beijing over its market economy status and the global overcapacity in steel. Facing a complex of daunting headaches, which may threaten to tear the EU apart, Brussels leaders must change direction. Now is a critical time to think outside the box when dealing with Beijing.

Such ideas and actions should include a faster pace in granting China market economy status, getting down to talks on free trade, setting up joint funds to support each other's mega projects and encouraging people-to-people exchanges.

The list could be even longer.

The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau. Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page11)
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Dam 'unsung hero' amid floods Updated: 2016-07-22 07:36 By Yuan Zhou and Lyu Chang(China Daily Europe)

Giant Three Gorges project on the mighty Yangtze River ready for its biggest test, as the worst conditions may be yet to come

While downpours continue to threaten Chinese towns and cities, the Three Gorges Dam, widely seen as the solution to frequent flooding along the Yangtze River, is braced for potentially bigger surges this year.

Lu Chun, chairman of China Three Gorges Corp, which operates the dam, says the company is preparing for flooding along the Yangtze that could be exacerbated by freak weather conditions.

Ships pass through the five-tier locks at the Three Gorges Dam. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

Floods have already killed more than 200 people and affected about 60 million in China this year, with the lower reaches of the Yangtze among the hardest hit. Yet the worst could still be to come, according to Lu, who predicted an "extremely high possibility" of basin-wide flooding when he met with officials from the Ministry of Water Resources.

Those in charge of the giant dam believe the project is ready to pass its biggest test since it was completed in 2009, which could occur in the coming weeks, although they have also attempted to manage public expectations about the dam's role in flood control.

Wang Yuhua, deputy chief engineer with the corporation's cascade dispatch and communication center, says the dam is "fully capable" of controlling floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, although he added "within its design standards".

At 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high, the world's most powerful dam reduces the risk of flooding by trapping large amounts of water from the upper reaches of the river and reducing the flow downstream.

While the dam places flood control above its other functions, including power generation, executives say it is intended mainly to ease flooding of the Jingjiang River, a winding branch of the Yangtze in Hubei province that is close to important industrial and agricultural centers with dense populations.

In the event of the worst flooding in 100 years, with a water flow of 83,700 cubic meters a second, for example, the dam would guard the Jingjiang River by cutting the flow to 56,700 cu m a second. In the event of a stronger flood, the dam would need to work with other local flood-diversion measures to reduce the flow to 80,000 cu m a second to protect dams and cities further down the river.

Wang says the most fierce floods this year were on July 1, when water gushed into the dam at a rate of 50,000 cu m a second, which it then pumped out at 31,000 cu m a second.

On July 15, as heavy rain battered the Yangtze, the inflow to the reservoir was recorded at 32,000 cu m a second, with the outflow 18,900 cu m a second.

Wang shrugged off public concern about the dam's ability to cope with severe flooding like that seen in 1998, the worst in recent memory, which left about 1,800 people dead and affected more than 100 million.

"If the dam had been built earlier, the 1998 disaster could have been averted," says Wang, adding that the dam had handled bigger floods in 2010 and 2012, with peak flows of 70,000 and 71,200 cu m a second respectively. Statistics show the peak during the 1998 floods was 66,800 cu m a second.

Flood control officials on the front lines agree the dam is the main reason the situation along the Yangtze has remained under control this year.

Chen Min, director of the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said that on July 8, eight hours after the dam reduced outflows, flood levels ceased to rise near Jianli, a key monitoring post on the Jinjiang River. The pressure also began to ease further downstream at Chenglingji in Hunan.

"The Three Gorges Dam has played the part of an unsung hero," Chen says. "It quietly keeps the water flowing at levels that people on the lower reaches can handle."

Huang Xianlong, an official with the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, has dismissed media reports that claimed the dam is useless and counterproductive. "In fact, the more critical the situation, the more obvious and positive the dam exerts its role," he says.

Contact the writers through lvchang@chinadaily.com.cn

Police officers prepare to patrol the area around the Three Gorges Dam reservoir on July 13 in Yichang, Hubei province. The reservoir can hold 39.3 billion cubic meters. Sun Ronggang / For China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page14)
When President Obama signed ESSA (the Every Student Succeeds Act) into law last December, it was a hailed as big win for librariesafter years of advocacy work by various library groups, the new federal education law includes significant (and long absent) support for school libraries. But with the library community's successful advocacy effort over, the hard work of implementing ESSA has begunand for school librarians hoping to take full advantage of the law's new provisions, the clock is ticking.

That's why library advocacy group EveryLibrarywith substantial support from Rosen Publishingthis week rolled out plans to provide state school library associations and stakeholder groups with "pro-bono advising and consulting on how to lobby their states for a successful ESSA implementation.

The success that the ALA (American Library Assocation) and AASL (American Association of School Librarians) had in Washington getting school library issues into [ESSA] was a singular achievement, said Roger Rosen, President of Rosen Publishing, noting that the new law offers tremendous new opportunities for states to put effective school library programs to work for their students. Indeed, ESSA includes a range of school library-friendly authorizing provisions missing for more than a decade, since the passage of No Child Left Behind.

But the heavy lifting did not end with ESSAs passage, Rosen notes. Each state must now submit an ESSA Implementation Plan to the U.S. Department of Education by April 2017 (for the school year beginning August 2017). And in order for school libraries to gain the full benefit of federal funding available under ESSA, each state will have to modify their existing education laws, administrative codes, and other rules and regulations to make them ESSA-compliant and grant-ready."

That will be no easy feat, explains EveryLibrary executive director John Chrastka, given that many state and Local Education Agencies (LEA) currently lack legislative language pertaining to school library programs or positions, after so many years of getting no federal support. Complicating matters, Chrastka adds, the timelines for each state are incredibly compressed and unusually fast.

With ESSA planning now getting underway in each state, Chrastka says it is absolutely critical that library supporters raise their game, and work to ensure that ESSA Implementation Plans in every state include "the positive changes for school library programs and school librarian positions" that were lobbied hard for and won by ALA and AASLwhether that means getting school library advocates on ESSA state task forces themselves, submitting public comments, or opening effective dialogues with ESSA committees.

In some states, the planning process is already underway and "a tactical discussion" about how to insert library advocates into the process is needed, Chrastka says. In other states, the process is still being developed and library supporters have "a singular opportunity to be at the table at the beginning. (A comprehensive calendar of dates and deadlines for the ESSA Implementation Planning Processes in each state is posted on EveryLibrarys web site).

With significant experience helping library ballot measures succeed at the local level, EveryLibrary (working with a range of library organizations) is uniquely prepared to help with ESSA Implementation, offering state-specific, proven tactics for lobbying successand, Chrastka stresses, the assistance is completely free to library supporters. Because of Rosen Publishings support, we have capacity to help your state, Chrastka statesall library administrators and supporters need to do is get in touch.

But dont delay, Chrastka warns. Action is needed immediately. With ESSA deadlines coming up fast, state administrators will not "pause to wait for [libraries]," nor will they "double back to make sure [libraries] are catching up.
While the use of mind-altering drugs and other substances are prohibited in some religions, other traditions around the world have long celebrated their spiritual and medicinal benefits. Entheogens, or any chemical substance used in a religious or spiritual context, include psychedelics such as peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and ayahuasca, and the substances often supplement practices geared toward achieving transcendence. Further, many believe entheogens can allow communication with the spirit world and help heal addiction, trauma, and depression.

A growing interest in entheogens is evident in several books coming from religion and spirituality publishers from now to next spring. Check out a few titles that explore the intersection of drugs and spiritual development here.

Psychedelic Marine Alex Seymour. Inner Traditions, Aug. After a tour in Afghanistan with the U.K.s Royal Marine Commandos, Seymour turned to ayahuasca to release his fears and traumas associated with the war. Using the psychedelic blend while practicing teachings and rituals led by a shaman on the Amazon River, Seymour was able to find a brighter outlook on his life. Ayahuasca taught me many things, and one of the most important is that we always have a choice, he writes in the book. We have the power to choose our beliefs and our attitudes.

Dreaming Wide Awake: Lucid Dreaming, Shamanic Healing, and Psychedelics David Jay Brown. Park Street Press, Aug. Brown, who holds a masters degree in psychobiology and is a former neuroscience researcher at the University of Southern California, provides a guide to lucid dreamingwhere the dreamer is aware they are dreaming. He explores the relationship between lucid dreaming and shamanic journeying, visionary plants, and psychedelic drugs, detailing the psychical and emotional healing available through lucid dreaming and how supplements, herbs, and drugs can enhance the experience.

The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Jerry B. Brown, Ph. D. and Julie M. Brown, M.A. Park Street Press, Sept. Using dozens of photos of medieval works of art, this book takes a close look at the presence of psychedelic plants surrounding Christianitys origins. Husband and wife anthropologists Brown and Brown take readers through their decade-long search for evidence of entheogens in Christian art, sharing what they call their controversial theory about the role of the substances in the Bible. Our findings do not deny the importance of religious sacraments but suggest that they should encompass all of Gods creations, including psychoactive plants, the pair writes in the book.

Explorations In Awareness: Finding God by Meditating with Entheogens John W. Aiken, M.D. Ronin Publishing, Nov. This update to Aikens 1966 title includes 100 new pages and an introduction by Mike Marinacci, (Mysterious California). Aiken draws on ancient and modern sources, including Christian and Native American beliefs, to illustrate his approach to enlightenment using psychedelics. The book also features a guide to meditating effectively. Meditation or silence (inner as well as outer) is practice in going beyond words and concepts to the Self, which is the reality underlying all thoughts, feelings, and actions, Aiken writes.

The Re-Enchantment: A Shamanic Path to a Life of Wonder Hank Wesselman, Ph. D. Sounds True, Dec. Citing the ever-growing spiritual but not religious population, Wesselman details his view of a new spiritual movement in the Western worldone that has the potential to replace or at least refresh all of our current mainstream religions with new perceptions and new insight, he writes in the book. Using his research as a paleontologist and an evolutionary biologist, Wesselman makes a case for why the ancient path of shamanism, including the use of entheogens, prayer, and ritual, is the perfect fit for modern spiritual seekers.

Encounters with Power: Adventures and Misadventures on the Shamanic Path of Healing Jose Luis Stevens, Ph. D. Sounds True, Jan. Intended for modern shamanic practitioners and those curious about the tradition, shamanic teacher Stevens shares personal stories from his time with indigenous shamans around the world. The memoir features Stevens experiences with ayahuasca and peyote, encounters with powerful spirits and dark shamans, and other details of his life as a Westerner learning the ways of a shaman. Power can destroy us or it can raise us up by teaching and nourishing us, Stevens writes. I may not be a master, but I have learned a few things that you may find helpful on your own quest.

Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety Rachel Harris, Ph. D. New World Library, Feb. Taking the perspective of a cautious researcher and an enthusiastic psychotherapist, Harris looks at how ayahuasca is being used in a Western, psychospiritual contextdespite it being outlawed in the U.S. The book is based on her studythe largest study on ayahuasca in North Americaand demonstrates how the substance has helped those suffering from depression, anxiety, and more. Its not a simple story about healing, Harris writes. The risks [of ayahuasca] are significant but the opportunity is beyond what Western medicine and psychotherapy can offer.
A free talk Sunday about the founder of Universal Studios will coincide with the start of a new Davenport exhibit about that influential filmmaker, Carl Laemmle (1867-1939).

Deborah Blum -- a cousin of Laemmle -- is currently writing, directing and co-producing a documentary on him with her husband, Warren Blum, an attorney and filmmaker. She will give a lecture about his life and importance at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Figge Art Museum Auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport.

The same day, the German American Heritage Center (in partnership with the German-American Heritage Foundation) will open the exhibit, "100 Years of Hollywood: The Laemmle Effect," at 712 W. 2nd St., Davenport. The exhibit features the contributions of German-speaking immigrants in Hollywood and will be open through Oct. 30.

It explores the "fascinating lives of those who risked everything to continue their craft in the face of a systematic, violent oppression," according to a GAHC release. " Their legacies and those of their successors from the German and German-American communities continue to shape the film industry even today."

This exhibition was created by and is on loan from the German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA (gahmusa.org), based in Washington, D.C.

Laemmle was among the German and Eastern European immigrants (or their descendants) who started all the major film studios during Hollywood's Golden Age, and nearly all of them were of Jewish heritage, the center release says.

"Hollywood's story would be very different without the 'Laemmle Effect' -- the vision of a pioneering German immigrant who built the largest film studio in the world at that time on a chicken ranch in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles a century ago," the release says.

Laemmle founded the Independent Motion Picture Company in New York in 1909, which he re-formed as Universal in 1912, in Los Angeles. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, much of Germany's Jewish movie talent was forced into exile, and the majority of them ended up in Hollywood, the GAHC release says.

Laemmle saved 300 Jews from Nazi Germany, helped his own family survive the Holocaust, and gave Deborah Blum's grandfather his first job in the U.S., according to the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities.

Ms. Blum's planned documentary will shed light on Laemmle's accomplishments, tell the story of how he succeeded in saving Jews from Germany, and speak of his lasting influences on the film industry and Ms. Blum's family, a release from the federation says.

The German American Heritage Center is open on Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Sundays from noon -4 p.m., and closed on Mondays. For more information on current exhibitions and connected programing, call 563-322-8844, or visit gahc.org.
COAL VALLEY -- A handful of angry residents confronted village officials Wednesday night, telling them Police Chief Jack Chick harassed shoppers during the community yard sale Saturday, July 16, by giving out traffic tickets and yelling orders through a bull horn.

John Anderson read a letter to trustees written by his wife, Pat Anderson, who has organized the yard sale for several years. He noted many participants began selling early on Friday.

"Because of (Chief Chick's) actions and orders, all of the Coal Valley police officers on duty are getting the blame for what turned out to be an unnecessary travesty and embarrassing two days of activities by our police department.

"(Chief Chick) was arrogant, and wanted everyone to know he was the boss. After the shameful and embarrassing actions of our new police chief, my neighbors are disappointed and embarrassed by his disrespect of the visitors who came to shop in the village."

Mr. Anderson also accused Chief Chick of chasing down motorists to write citations for the purpose of meeting a monthly quota, and of "swaggering about to show off his new power."

Resident Laura Ritchie said one of her yard-sale customers was in tears "over the abuse" from Chief Chick.

"These people are not bank robbers. We are here to have a good time. Many people told me they will never be back. I told the chief, today is a day we should be welcoming people - we should be loving on people."

Chief Chick said his department issued 12 parking violations and five traffic citations: Two for illegal use of a cell phone; one stop sign violation; one felony charge for driving on a revoked license; and one for driving without insurance.

He estimated between 80 to 100 verbal warnings were given by officers for parking violations. Three of the parking tickets already have been dismissed.

Chief Chick said good weather over the weekend brought out a record number of shoppers to the village, resulting in heavy traffic. Illegally parked cars created a dangerous situation if emergency response vehicles had to pass through. Due to diligent work by police officers, no traffic accidents were reported.

He said also that he received complaints from several homeowners about vehicles parked in private driveways or blocking private driveways.

"It was my (mistake) of using the PA (public address system). I thought it would be easier than getting out of my vehicle. I apologize if I offended anybody. There will never be (good parking) simply because of the layout of the valley. I'm sorry, but we'll never be able to happily satisfy everyone."

Trustees Kathy Cornish and David Timmons both held yard sales and said they heard no complaints from any of their customers regarding the police department.

Ms. Cornish said she met privately with Chief Chick, who was open to suggestions on improving the traffic situation and the response from officers next year.
Navy chief makes island pledge Updated: 2016-07-22 07:36 By Zhang Yunbi and Zhao Lei(China Daily Europe)

China has made 'sufficient preparations' for any sovereignty infringement or provocation

China's naval chief told a visiting US Navy officer on July 18 that Beijing "will never give up halfway" the construction of its islands in the South China Sea.

Admiral Wu Shengli, commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy, also told Admiral John Richardson, US chief of naval operations, that the Chinese Navy has made "sufficient preparations" to deal with any sovereignty infringement or provocation.

Researchers aboard the Zhang Qian place a buoy for a maritime meteorological study in the South China Sea on July 18. The vessel, named after an ancient Chinese diplomat, has set out on a two-month voyage to the South Pacific to test its navigation abilities and equipment. Zhang Jiansong / Xinhua

Despite negative factors, Beijing is still willing to peacefully resolve disputes via negotiations and "manage and control crisis through rules and mechanisms", Wu says.

Washington has pressured Beijing this year by sending military ships and planes to approach or intrude on Chinese territorial space in the South China Sea.

Wu says any attempt to intimidate China by flexing military muscle "will only backfire".

Beijing will "advance and complete island and reef construction as planned", no matter which country or individual pressures China to do otherwise, and "the level of our defense on these islands and reefs depends on the threats facing us", Wu says.

Richardson began his first visit to China on July 17 and stayed until July 20. He told Wu in Beijing that he is ready to join hands in boosting trust and friendship to achieve lasting development of ties between the two navies, militaries and countries.

Fan Jishe, a US researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the US "has played a negative role in the South China Sea disputes, and its proactive engagement in the Asia-Pacific region has aggravated conflicts".

Zuo Xiying, an international studies specialist at Renmin University of China, says the South China Sea has become the forefront of China-US competition, and "it would be a good thing if they reinforce strategic communication and formulate more rules accepted by both".

Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, told the World Peace Forum in Beijing that "although cooperation between Beijing and Washington cannot end all the issues in the world, not a single major issue could be resolved if the two sides walk into full-scale confrontation".

On July 18, Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke said the PLA Air Force recently conducted a combat readiness patrol in the South China Sea, including sending its H-6K bombers to patrol around Huangyan Island.

Such combat readiness patrols in the South China Sea "will continue on a regular basis", Shen says.

Meanwhile, a navigation alert issued on July 18 at the website of China's Maritime Safety Administration said military activities were being conducted from July 19 to 21 in designated waters in the sea.

The alert gave coordinates to define the designated area in which entry by other vessels will be prohibited. The area is southeast of Hainan Island.

Contact the writers through zhangyubi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page15)
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!
The works include the replacement of 562,000m of rail, 136,000 wooden sleepers, and more than 100,000m3 of ballast.

The modernisation also includes alignment works, levelling, and bridge reinforcement. The Piedra Sola  Salto Grande line is mainly used for freight traffic.

The project is being financed by the Mercosur Convergence Fund and is due to be completed within two years.
Revenue declines in six traffic groups were a key contributing factor in Union Pacifics second-quarter financials, for which the railroad reported diluted earnings per share of $1.17, a 15% decline from the prior-year quarter; operating income of $1.66 billion, down 15%; and an operating ratio of 65.2%, up 1.1 points.

Operating revenue of $4.77 billion was down 12% in second-quarter 2016 compared to 2015. Business volumes, as measured by total revenue carloads, declined 11%. Volume declines in coal, intermodal, industrial products, chemicals, and automotive more than offset growth in agricultural products. Revenue per carload was down 2%, as a 4% decline in fuel surcharges more than offset a 2% core price increase.

Quarterly freight revenue decreased 13% compared to 2015, as volume declines and lower fuel surcharge revenue more than offset core pricing gains. Agricultural Products dipped 3%; chemicals dropped 5%; Automotive fell 13%; Industrial Products fell 14%; Intermodal dropped 16%; and Coal nosedived 27%.

On the cost side, UPs $1.45 per gallon average quarterly diesel fuel price in second-quarter 2016 was 27% lower than second-quarter 2015. In addition, quarterly train speed, as reported to the Association of American Railroads, was 26.6 mph, 8% faster than 2015, though the velocity increase is almost entirely attributable to fewer trains in operation and, hence, more capacity and improved network fluidity. UP also repurchased 7 million shares in the quarter 2016 at an aggregate cost of $602 million.

While the second quarter was again challenging from a volume perspective, we continued focusing on initiatives that are squarely in our control, such as being productive with our resources, providing our customers with excellent service, and improving our safety performance, said UP Chairman, President and CEO Lance Fritz.

Looking ahead, Fritz said that a soft global economy, the negative impact of the strong U.S. dollar on exports, and relatively weak demand for consumer goods will continue to pressure volumes through the second half of the year. However, we see potential bright spots in certain segments of our business if key economic drivers continue to strengthen as they have in recent weeks. Beyond the impact of the current macro environment, we are implementing a strategy that will make us a stronger company for the future. In the months and years ahead we will continue to create competitive advantages for our customers, enhanced safety and satisfaction for our employees, strength in our communities, and solid returns for our shareholders.

Wall Street responded to UPs financial report with a mildly negative reaction to the results, said Cowen and Company Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl. We view this as a unique buying opportunity, as it appears largely attributable to further moderation in price, which we believe will begin to improve in 2H16. Potential near-term drivers include agricultural products, coal, construction products, and domestic intermodal. Longer term, free cash flow should begin to increase as UPs capex needs moderate.

UPs results were largely in line with Cowen and Wall Street consensus estimated. The 2Q16 EPS of $1.17 topped Cowens $1.15 expectation and met the consensus of $1.17. The 15% operating income decline was fairly close to Cowens and street expectations of $1.67 billion and $1.70 billion, respectively. UPs 12% revenue drop, to $4.77 billion, was largely in line with Cowens and consensus estimates. The ORs deterioration by 110 basis points year-over-year to 65.2% was 50 bps worse than Copens assumption and 80 bps worse than the implied consensus OR.

UPs 2% core pricing result represented a deterioration from 2.5% in 1Q16, which in turn was below the 3.5% achieved in 4Q15, which had a half percentage point of legacy business, Seidl noted. We believe the pricing pressure is attributable to three main factors: 1) Ample capacity across freight modes. 2) Ocean shippers taking advantage of low rates to take freight further on water, with more East Coast-bound freight going directly to Eastern ports. 3) Aggressive pricing by BNSF.

We believe the price moderation was the key culprit behind the mildly negative reaction to the results. We view the stock weakness as a unique buying opportunity for long-term investors as we believe pricing will begin to rebound in 2H16. Indeed, UP noted recent tightening in freight capacity, which is consistent with the takeaways from our private trucking call, in which participants noted improved volumes in June and July and a rise in spot truckload rates.

Other potential bright spots include agricultural products, coal, construction products, and domestic intermodal. On the Ag front, a combination of high levels of grain in storage, a strong expected crop in the U.S. this season, and weak crops in South America could drive the shipment of domestic and export grain. On the coal front, we are modeling for a material sequential rise in traffic, as coal burn in June was outsized vs. May, and much of the coal produced in UP-served regions is now in the money at current natural gas prices. Construction products, according to our channel checks, remain strong and should continue to drive demand for the shipment of lumber and aggregates. Finally, domestic intermodal should benefit from what appears to be a gradual recovery in truckload rates.
The first of 247 massive precast concrete beams (also known as Florida I Beams or FIBs) was lifted into place at MiamiCentral this week, as the 11-acre transportation hub that will host Brightline passenger trains continues to take shape in Downtown Miami. The beams average 73 feet in length, and the largest spans are in excess of 120 feet. Approximately four FIBs will be installed each day over the next eight to ten weeks.

The FIBs, produced in Tampa and trucked to Miami, sit on spring vibration isolators at the top of the rail column capitals, which are approximately 50 feet high. The isolators prevent vibration throughout the structure of the building. The Brightline tracks will be installed on top of a concrete slab which will sit on the FIBs.

The work is being managed by Suffolk Construction, who is overseeing the overall construction of MiamiCentral.

MiamiCentral encompasses nearly three million square feet and includes two sites: a nine-acre transportation hub in downtown Miami just east of the Miami-Dade County Hall, and a two-acre site in Historic Overtown. MiamiCentral will include mixed-use development with residential, office, commercial and a retail concourse, while serving as a connector between Brightlines passengers and Miamis existing public transport systems.

MiamiCentral will also include Central Fare, featuring six restaurants and more than 20 food and retail purveyors. Central Fare will be a unique culinary destination, showcasing the talents of both local and national artisans, tastemakers and chefs, including celebrity chefs Bryan and Michael Voltaggio; Richard Hales of Blackbrick Chinese; and Andres Barrientos and James Bowers of Miami Smokers, among others, facility developers said. Office tenants at Two MiamiCentral include Ernst & Young LLP (EY), Regus, Cisneros and Moss Construction.

The Overtown site, Three MiamiCentral, is also a mixed-use development with retail, commercial and parking to support and enhance the transportation hub.

At MiamiCentral, the Brightline train platform will be elevated to align with existing public transportation systems, with retail spaces located beneath. This bold and innovative design allows through-streets to remain open to traffic and creates an atmosphere of walkability as well as a landmark terminal, the developers noted.

Construction on Brightlines stations and equipment is progressing for a scheduled service launch next summer. At the Siemens facility in Sacramento, the first Brightline locomotive will be tested soon and the first full trainset is scheduled to arrive in West Palm Beach this fall. Vertical construction is well underway on Brightlines train stations in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
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On a green carpet through time Updated: 2016-07-22 07:37 By Liu Zhihua, Paige Sheffield and Sun Ruisheng(China Daily Europe)

One of the first things Chinese are apt to think of when talk turns to Shanxi is coal. That's because the province is full of the stuff, and for many a year its economic prosperity has been intricately intertwined with what comes out of the ground.

However, anyone thinking about visiting Shanxi should quickly disabuse themselves of the idea that what awaits them is a series of bleak coal fields.

Instead, prepare yourself for an adventure that will take you back to several Chinese dynasties even as you lap up the scenery - much of it cloaked in sumptuous green. For those traveling from Beijing, it is a mere three and a half hours away by high-speed train.

The province's name literally translates as west of the mountains, reflecting its proximity to the Taihang Mountains. The province has a population of 36 million in its 156,000 square kilometers, whose diversity takes in its sprawling natural beauty and rich cultural heritage as well as its modernity and industrial firepower, epitomized by the capital, Taiyuan. This city has a special place in Chinese history, having been an important region in northern China during many dynasties.

For those looking for a touch of the old, one place to go is the ancient town of Pingyao, 80 km to the south, listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1997.

With Langzhong in Sichuan province, Lijiang in Yunnan province and Huizhou in Anhui province, Pingyao is one of China's four well-preserved ancient cities. It was built during the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC).

Mercifully, Pingyao has escaped the commercialization that has blighted other ancient Chinese cities, and it is impossible to miss the history that seems to manifest itself along every meter and from every pore of the 6.4-km-long, 12-meter-high city wall, and from the gray bricks and tiles of the many buildings that have survived wars and natural disasters.

The city has more than 300 historical sites and 4,000 historical homes, and strict controls are enforced to ensure that everything is preserved.

In the city center, you can see a complete government office from feudal China in which the county magistrate lived and dealt with government affairs.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Pingyao was a gathering place for merchants from all over the country as well as a distribution center for goods.

Helping to keep the wheels of commerce turning then was the Rishengchang Exchange Shop, regarded as China's first bank to use drafts, paper-based cash, instead of metal currencies.

These days, the Rishengchang shop is the Piaohao Museum, which has a business hall, VIP room, an accounts office and staff living quarters.

During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties, merchants from Shanxi traveled all over China and even into in Siberia to trade.

While Pingyao provides an insight into the lives of merchants who traded tea, salt and other commodities, in Qiao's Grand Courtyard, about 50 km north of Pingyao, you can get a close look at the life of a merchant who became immensely wealthy.

The residence of the famous Qiao merchant family was first built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-95), by its first owner, Qiao Guifa, an orphan who made good by trading in major Chinese cities.

In Qiao's Grand Courtyard there are displays giving visitors an insight into a family's daily life and business empire. In more recent times, Qiao's courtyard was where the film director Zhang Yimou shot his award-winning film Raise the Red Lantern.

Another courtyard nearby, Wang's Grand Courtyard, first built more than 300 years ago, showcases what life was like for a family that emerged as successful merchants and became government officials.

If you want to delve even deeper into history, the place to go to is Xiangfen county in Linfen, about 160 kilometers south of Pingyao, where the Taosi Ruins are located.

These are believed to have been the location of the capital of legendary Emperor Yao.

About 70 km southwest of Pingyao is Mianshan Mountain, about 2,500 meters above sea level, a paradise for those who love nature and ancient temples. In addition to plants and waterfalls, spotting a monkey will underline how far away from big-city living you are.

Not far from Mianshan is Zhangbi village, where visitors can learn about ancient Chinese astrology, and there is a tunnel once used for military defense.

Contact the writers through liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn

Shanxi province boasts rich cultural heritage and natural beauty, including the ancient town of Pingyao, grand residences of famous merchant families and Mianshan Mountain. Li Jin / China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page19)
On July 12, the Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the International Court of Justice issued a long-awaited ruling on a 2013 claim by the Philippines to maritime entitlements in the South China Sea, siding with the Philippines  and against China.

How China reacts could have far-reaching consequences for China, the Philippines, the United States and other nations that depend on a peaceful and integrated Southeast Asia. While China has rejected the court's judgment, the ruling could still lead to a negotiated agreement between China and the Philippines.

The Philippines sought judgment on three main issues: That Chinese claims in the South China Sea must comport with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), rather than historical claims; that maritime features occupied by China in the South China Sea are rocks, low-tide elevations or submerged banks, but not islands; and that the Philippines' right to operate inside of its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf as outlined by UNCLOS should be protected from Chinese harassment.

On the first issue, the Permanent Court of Arbitration noted that, while Chinese navigators and fishermen and those of other states historically made use of the land features of the South China Sea, there was no evidence of China's exercise of exclusive control over the waters or their resources. Further, signatories to UNCLOS, such as China, were bound by its strictures rather than historical claims. Hence the tribunal ruled that there was no legal basis for China to claim rights to maritime resources within the sea areas falling within the nine-dash line.

On the second issue, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that, based on historical evidence, none of the land features in the Spratly Islands were capable of sustaining human habitation or economic life of their own, and hence were not capable of generating an exclusive economic zone. In particular, regarding Mischief Reef, which is part of the Philippines' continental shelf and which has been the site of Chinese reclamation activity, the judgment noted that China's installations and the creation of artificial islands without the authorization of the Philippines violated Philippine sovereignty.

On the third issue, the Permanent Court of Arbitration found that China had interfered with the Philippines rights in the latter's exclusive economic zone by obstructing Philippine fishermen, interfering with petroleum exploration in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, constructing artificial islands and failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from entering the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

In summary, the tribunal supported the claims of the Philippines. China has rejected the judgment, as it said in advance it would. Its official reaction has been that the tribunal's award is null and void and has no binding force. Given that the ruling will not be enforced by the Chinese, what are the chances for a negotiated settlement?

The economic losses China could sustain, primarily through the loss of mineral exploitation rights, are not expected to be significant. China's ability to use the South China Sea for its trade is not likely to be affected by the judgment. Hence, China's economic growth will not likely be harmed by this judgment.

However, while the economic issues are manageable, China's image as a responsible global power may be harder to sustain. The judgment puts China in the difficult position of balancing the reality of an adverse judgment accepted by almost every nation with managing the sentiment of its population, which is outraged by the judgment.

While the influence of Chinese nationalism on this issue is hard to predict, the initial signs are encouraging. Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted that the Chinese people will not accept the result. However, he added that now that the farce is over, it is time to get back to the right track, apparently signaling that Beijing is willing to enter into negotiations with the Philippines. The Philippines' response has been helpfully low-key. It has issued a call for China to exercise restraint and sobriety. The United States has sought to be helpful by urging all claimants to avoid provocative statements or actions and to make efforts to address maritime disputes peacefully.

This is certainly a better start than some had predicted, including those who foresaw the imposition of stiff economic sanctions by China on the Philippines, which could have led the United States to intervene. Still, the best hope for a negotiated outcome, beyond the immediate calming of the waters, is the realization by all sides that a peaceful, prosperous and collaborative region of nations that surround the South China Sea region is vital to China's long-term economic and security interests.

Rafiq Dossani is director of the Center for Asia Pacific Policy at the nonpartisan, nonprofit RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on July 18, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Omans national broadcaster Oman TV has selected Germanys Rohde & Schwarz to supply and install a DVB-T2 network to provide digital terrestrial television (DTT) across the country.





The contract, worth more than OMR10 million (22 million), places Rohde & Schwarz as the prime contractor to set up, on a turnkey basis, a nationwide DVB-T2 digital TV network with 69 sites. The planned implementation will be within 28 months.The contract comprises the DVB-T2 signal processing and transmitter infrastructure, including: headend; transmitters from 50 W to 5 kW for 56 sites; transposer systems for 13 sites (all units in 1+1 standby configuration); programme feed and monitoring equipment including transport stream analysers, satellite receivers and multiviewers for 56 sites; network management systems for 21 sites; and diverse test and measurement instruments.In addition, products from other manufacturers, installed by local subcontractors, will include UHF TV antennas, satellite dish antennas, feeders, mask filters, dummy loads, voltage regulators, power distribution boards, shelters, towers, air conditioners, generators and firefighting equipment.Consultants for the DTT broadcast project, Public Authority for Radio and Television Omani team, have been responsible for the design and the technical specifications for the project.The new network will gradually be rolled out between January 2017 and September 2018, after which Omans analogue TV will cease to broadcast.This is the latest in a string of Middle East DTT successes for Rohde and Schwartz, which has already supplied DVB-T2 network infrastructure in Qatar, Bahrain, Sharjah and Jordan.
Detention of Russian student Karaulova charged with attempting to join ISIS extended

MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  The Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow on Friday extended the detention for Varvara Karaulova (Alexandra Ivanova), a student of the Moscow State University who stands charged with attempting to join the Islamic State militants in Syria, till September 27, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Ivanova said that she made a silly and naive mistake. Ive not committed a crime. I really wish to fix my mistake. All of this is causing great suffering to my family. I wont hide. I dont know if there is any need to keep me here, she told the court.

Earlier it was reported that Ivanova was found sane by the psychiatric evaluation.

As previously reported the second-year student of the Moscow State Universitys Faculty of Philosophy, allegedly decided to join the Islamic State and secretly started off for Istanbul on May 27.

On June 4, she was arrested near Turkey's border with Syria along with 13 other Russian citizens when attempting to cross into the territory occupied by Islamic State militants. On June 11, she returned to Russia under escort of Interpol employees.

In October, Karaulova, who had changed her name to Alexandra Ivanova, was again arrested in Moscow and put in jail.
Investigators seek to extend detention of Vladivostok mayor charged with bribery

MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul)  The Moscow Basmanny District Court is to review a motion of investigators seeking to extend detention of Igor Pushkarev, the Vladivostok Mayor charged with abuse of office and commercial bribery, on July 26, lawyer Alexander Vysotsky told RAPSI on Friday.

Today, the investigator informed me that on 26 July the Basmanny Court is to review a petition to extend the earlier chosen for Igor Pushkarev pretrial restrictions in the form of detention, the lawyer said.

On June 2, the court ordered the detention of Vladivostok Mayor Igor Pushkarev until July 31.

Pushkarev has pleaded not guilty to charges brought against him and expressed his willingness to cooperate with investigators. His brother, Vostokcement company CEO Andrey Pushkarev, stands charged with complicity in commercial bribery and is currently under house arrest.

Earlier, official representative for Russias Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin announced that between 2009 and 2014 Pushkarev from mercenary or other personal motives organized the acquisition by Roads of Vladivostok of a large volume of construction materials from the group of companies Vostokcement allegedly controlled by his relatives. Investigators believe that construction materials have been purchased at inflated prices. Pushkarev has received upwards of 45 million rubles ($700,000) for this.

The damage allegedly caused by Pushkarev has been estimated at more than 158 million rubles ($2.5 million), according to investigation.
Russian court rules to detain man charged with instigating hatred towards police

MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul)  A court in the town of Tver ruled to toughen up pretrial restrictions imposed on Shamil Kazakov standing charged with extremism and placed under house arrest by remanding him into custody, lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina told RAPSI on Friday.

According to the prosecution, the ground to change the pretrial restrictions was the fact that some unknown person reposted his video, which was the subject of allegations on the part of law enforcers, on Youtube, whereas a call aimed to interfere with prosecution witnesses was made from a cellphone of Kozakovs sister, the lawyer said.

Sidorkina, who believes this information is only an inference and not a proof as required by law, is going to appeal against this court ruling.

Kazakov has placed on Youtube a secretly filmed video showing how he had been unofficially denied police enlistment because of his ethnic origin and religious beliefs. The young man was charged with instigating hatred towards a social group comprised of officers of the Russias Interior Ministry Directorate for the Tver Region and with insulting a representative of authority.

According to Sidorkina, Kazakov has dreamed to become a policeman since his childhood and graduated a school of law with honors, but was denied police employment.

The charges are brought not in relation to the fact of the scandalous video publication, according to which no Chechens, Dagestani, Tatars, and Muslims are admitted for service in the regional Tver directorate of the Russias Interior Ministry, but because of extremist and abusive comments the accused allegedly made to it in a fit of temper,  the lawyer said.

The defendant maintains his innocence.
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.
For Chinese, by Chinese, in Spain Updated: 2016-07-22 07:37 By Emma Gonzalez(China Daily Europe)

Young entrepreneurs from the Middle Kingdom are blazing a trail in the European nation's tourism market

Spain is expected to see a surge in Chinese tourists from this year, thanks to three extra direct flights between the two countries and 12 new Spanish visa processing centers opened nationwide.

Already, several entrepreneurs from China have set up tourism startups in Spain to profit from the increasing inflow of their compatriots.

ChineSpain staff at their office in Madrid, Spain. ChineSpain, a tourism-related startup, has joined with more than 350 local tourism providers across 22 cities in Spain, helping them serve independent Chinese travelers. Provided to China Daily

Spain welcomed 300,000 Chinese visitors in 2015, up 15 percent year-on-year. The Spanish government has set an ambitious target of attracting 1 million a year by 2020, boosted by improved flight connections and significantly relaxed visa procedures.

It is as though Zhang Yiming foresaw the boom. In 2013, he went to Madrid to pursue a master's degree, but ended up starting a business to make the most of the opportunities brought by the rise in Chinese tourists.

Last year, he founded ChineSpain with business partners Lorenzo Palomares and Antonella Rodogno. The company provides services to independent Chinese travelers.

According to the China Tourism Academy, about 70 percent of China's 100 million outbound tourists in 2014 preferred independent travel to group tours. This created a lucrative opportunity for independent travel agencies.

"Chinese tourists now want better travel experiences. They want to understand other cultures in depth," Zhang says. "However, in most cases, unique local experiences are very difficult because of the language barrier."

ChineSpain has teamed up with more than 350 tourism providers in 22 Spanish cities, offering them advice on how to serve Chinese better by paying attention to their demands and customs. The company receives 15 percent commission from local operators that join its network.

The most sought-after services include 10-day routes across popular cities, taking in vineyards and famous restaurants.

For travelers seeking a typical Spanish experience, the company has several packages, while couples wanting to get married in the European country and those interested in medical tourism can get help with personalized travel arrangements.

In 10 months, the startup has generated 50,000 euros ($55,000) in revenue. By 2018, Zhang says it expects to reach its target of 3 million euros.

Njoyspain Consulting is another Chinese startup blazing a trail in Spain's tourism market.

Liu Shaowei, who founded the self-funded travel consultancy last year, was born in China's eastern Zhejiang province, but has spent much of his life in Spain. His parents moved there in 1990 to work in the family business.

Like ChineSpain, Njoyspain Consulting advises local tourism players on how to improve services for Chinese visitors.

"I realized that small and medium-sized companies in Spain didn't have the economic resources to exploit the market spawned by Chinese travelers," Liu says.

Njoyspain offers services to Spanish hospitality companies such as translation of food menus, brochures and lessons on Chinese language and etiquette.

The startup, which employs three people and has several partners in Spain and China, is growing fast. Thirty companies have signed up for its packages, and the startup is also working to win government contracts in Spain to develop marketing campaigns for Chinese social media.

Despite the increasing importance of Chinese travelers to Spain, local entrepreneurs are still reluctant to use Njoyspain's services, Liu says. "Our packages cost only a couple of hundred euros, but investors are still conservative toward this new market."

However, attitudes are gradually changing thanks to the large sums of money Chinese spend during their travels.

Global Blue, a market intelligence consultancy, estimates that Chinese shoppers accounted for 31 percent for sales at duty-free outlets in Spain over the past 12 months.

"Taking into account the new flight connections, shopping spends by Chinese travelers in Spain will increase by up to 20 percent this year," predicts Luis Jose Llorca Lizaso, managing director for the Spain market at Global Blue.

Liu adds, "It's been hard to get the business running because many Spanish entrepreneurs don't fully see the benefits of adapting their services to Chinese tourists. However, the scene is changing quickly, and we expect this year to be a turning point for this industry."

emmagonzalez@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/22/2016 page29)